AP Top News at 1:35 a.m. EST

Joe Biden gets blamed by Harris allies for the vice president's resounding loss

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's name wasn't on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harris' resounding defeat as his loss too. As Democrats pick up the pieces following President-elect Donald Trump's decisive victory, some of the vice president's backers are expressing frustration that Biden's decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite longstanding voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party's loss of the White House. "The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden," said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris' unsuccessful run.

Trump receives congratulations and an invitation to the White House as Biden nudges on transition

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump spent his first day as president-elect receiving congratulatory phone calls from his defeated opponent, world leaders and President Joe Biden as he began the process of turning his election victory into a government. Trump was keeping a low profile, staying out of the public eye after addressing supporters in Florida during the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to concede the race and to congratulate him, while Biden invited the man he ousted from the White House four years ago to an Oval Office meeting to prepare to return the keys.

Harris says nation must accept election results while urging supporters to keep fighting

WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with a sweeping rejection by American voters, Kamala Harris conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump on Wednesday and encouraged supporters to continue fighting for their vision of the country. The Democratic vice president said the battle would continue "in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square." "Sometimes the fight takes a while," she said at Howard University, her alma mater, where she had hoped to make a victory speech after the election. "That doesn't mean we won't win." Harris' decisive defeat shattered hopes that she could rescue Democrats' chances after President Joe Biden's reelection effort stalled and she replaced him at the top of the ticket.

Middle East latest: Large airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs as Israel expands northern Gaza operations

Trump's second term could realign US diplomacy toward authoritarian leaders

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's fiery, right-wing leader says Donald Trump's victory will help his own battle against immigration and multiculturalism and restore traditional family values. In Argentina, a president who once bear-hugged Trump at a political conference in Maryland is attacking his critics as rats and parasites, ranting against what he calls a corrupt elite and calling climate change "a socialist lie." Trump's second term could realign U.S. diplomacy away from traditional international alliances and more toward populist, authoritarian politicians, according to both those leaders and outside observers. Two days before Tuesday's election, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made a daring prediction.

China is bracing for fresh tensions with Trump over trade, tech and Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The first time China faced Donald Trump in the White House, there was a trade war, a breach of protocol involving Taiwan's former leader, and a president-to-president bromance that turned sour. As President-elect Trump prepares to start his second term in office, China is bracing for unpredictability in its ties with the United States and renewed tensions over trade, technology and Taiwan. Perhaps the biggest consequence for China — if Trump stays true to his campaign promises — is his threat to slap blanket 60% tariffs on all Chinese exports to the U.S. Tariffs like that would be a blow to China's already unstable economy, which is suffering from high youth unemployment, a lengthy property slump and government debt.

Trump has vowed to shake some of democracy's pillars

WASHINGTON (AP) — American presidential elections are a moment when the nation holds up a mirror to look at itself. They are a reflection of values and dreams, of grievances and scores to be settled. The results say much about a country's character, future and core beliefs. On Tuesday, America looked into that mirror and more voters saw former president Donald Trump, delivering him a far-reaching victory in the most contested states. He won for many reasons. One of them was that a formidable number of Americans, from different angles, said the state of democracy was a prime concern. The candidate they chose had campaigned through a lens of darkness, calling the country "garbage" and his opponent "stupid," a "communist" and "the b-word." The mirror reflected not only a restive nation's discontent but childless cat ladies, false stories of pets devoured by Haitian immigrant neighbors, a sustained emphasis on calling things "weird," and a sudden bout of Democratic "joy" now crushed.

Control of the US House hangs in the balance with enormous implications for Trump's agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House majority hung in the balance Wednesday, teetering between Republican control that would usher in a new era of unified GOP governance in Washington or a flip to Democrats as a last line of resistance to a Trump second-term White House agenda. A few individual seats, or even a single one, will determine the outcome. Final tallies will take a while, likely pushing the decision into next week — or beyond. After Republicans swept into the majority in the U.S. Senate by picking up seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted his chamber would fall in line next.

Cuba left reeling after Category 3 hurricane ravages island and knocks out power grid

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba was left reeling Thursday after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across the island and knocked out the country's power grid. The magnitude of the impact remained unclear through the early hours of the day, but forecasters warned that Hurricane Rafael could bring "life-threatening" storm surges, winds and flash floods to Cuba after ravaging parts of the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. On Wednesday evening, massive waves lashed at Havana's shores as sharp winds and rain whipped at the historic cityscape, leaving trees littered on flooded roads. Much of the city was dark and deserted. As it plowed across Cuba, the storm slowed to a Category 2 hurricane chugging into the Gulf of Mexico near northern Mexico and southern Texas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

European climate agency says this will likely be the hottest year on record - again

CHICAGO (AP) — For the second year in a row, Earth will almost certainly be the hottest it's ever been. And for the first time, the globe this year reached more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming compared to the pre-industrial average, the European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday. "It's this relentless nature of the warming that I think is is worrying," said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus. Buontempo said the data clearly shows the planet would not see such a long sequence of record-breaking temperatures without the constant increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere driving global warming.