NPR Staff

Update at 2 p.m. ET: NPR special audio coverage of the inauguration has ended. Watch the livestream below. Follow updates in our liveblog.

Updated at 12:22 p.m. ET

Joe Biden addressed the nation for the first time as its 46th president on Wednesday. Biden spoke at a scaled-down event before a divided nation still reeling from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and from the coronavirus pandemic that has now killed more than 400,000 Americans.

But his remarks were ones of hope.

Updated at 5:16 p.m. ET

President Trump says an emergency use authorization for Pfizer's promising new COVID-19 vaccine will come "extremely soon," delivering his first public remarks since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election last Saturday.

"Right away, millions of doses will soon be going out the door" after final approval arrives, Trump said, giving an update on his administration's efforts to accelerate coronavirus vaccine development and distribution.

The Associated Press has called North Carolina for President Trump, with its 15 electoral votes, nearly wrapping its state calls for the 2020 election. Joe Biden has already been called as the winner of the presidential race by the AP and others and has started planning his transition.

Between the call for North Carolina on Friday and AP's call on Wednesday that Trump had won Alaska, Trump now has 232 electoral votes, compared with Biden's 290. A total of 270 electoral votes is required to win the presidency.

Updated at 1:34 p.m. ET

President Trump has won the state of Alaska, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, days after President-elect Joe Biden won the general White House race.

As ballots continue to be counted in the week since the election, Trump won Alaska's three electoral votes, as had been expected. The state typically supports Republican presidential candidates, but Trump's lead in polls had been smaller than usual, with the Republican nominee leading by fewer than 10 points in some recent polls.

Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET. on Nov. 4

Here you'll see information about the overall national electorate. This includes demographic measures, views of the main presidential candidates, opinions on various issues and how people cast their ballots.

This Election Day is shaping up to be unlike any other. Americans are shattering early voting records as coronavirus cases climb, and questions loom about the timing and outcome of the actual results.

A voting season unlike any other is coming to an end, but the timeline for results is up in the air. Follow NPR's live election coverage, including voting updates, race calls and analysis.

The 2020 election is going to be different from any election in American history. Experts are anticipating record-high levels of people choosing to cast their ballots by mail because of concerns over the coronavirus.

Vice President Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris are in Salt Lake City for their only debate of the 2020 campaign. The face-off comes at a time of turmoil for the current administration, with President Trump continuing treatment for the coronavirus.

Follow live updates and fact checks throughout the night.

President Trump's medical team held a briefing with reporters at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center again on Sunday.

The doctors said that since testing positive for the coronavirus, Trump has had two episodes of a drop in oxygen — one Friday morning before he went to the hospital and again on Saturday — and began a steroid treatment for that specifically.

Editor's note: President Trump's doctors gave a briefing Saturday morning outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and answered questions from reporters.

In a statement later, Dr. Sean Conley said he misspoke during his news conference. He said he incorrectly used 72 hours instead of "Day 3" for the president's diagnosis. He also said a reference to 48 hours ago should have been "Day 2" for administering Regeneron.

"The fact that the Afghans are sitting across the table for the first time in 42 years is a moment of hope and opportunity," U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad tells NPR. "But this moment is not without its own challenges."

Peace talks began in Doha, Qatar, last month between the Afghan government and the Taliban, even as deadly violence in Afghanistan continues.

President Trump on Tuesday said he had expanded a ban on racial sensitivity training to federal contractors.

His administration had instructed federal agencies to end such training earlier this month.

American policy toward Russia for two decades has struggled under a mistaken belief that presidents or positions can break through with President Vladimir Putin, former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Monday.

And actually, he argued, they probably can't.

McMaster told NPR's Rachel Martin that he sought to help President Trump recognize the need for a tougher suite of policies against Russia after its aggression in Eastern Europe and interference in the 2016 election.

Updated on Oct. 14 at 5:15 PM ET

Voting in the 2020 election will look a lot different from participating in previous elections.

More people than ever before are set to vote by mail because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and laws around mail voting are different in each state.

Republicans pitched the reelection of President Trump and Vice President Pence at the Republican National Convention this week, culminating in an acceptance speech from Trump at the White House.

Listen to special coverage as it aired throughout the week:

Joe Biden formally accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for president on Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in a passionate, 25-minute speech delivered from his home state of Delaware.

Addressing the challenges facing the nation, including the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and economic uncertainty, Biden asked Americans to "entrust me with the presidency," vowing to "draw on the best of us, not the worst."

Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, was indicted along with three others on Thursday in connection to an online fundraising campaign called "We Build the Wall." The campaign was advertised as an effort to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and according to federal prosecutors in New York, "hundreds of thousands of donors" were allegedly defrauded in the scheme. Read the indictment below:

The fourth and final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention was Joe Biden's night. The former vice president officially accepted his party's nomination for president.

The week included speeches by former presidents, rising political stars and activists on a range of pressing issues.

Last month, we asked our audience: What are some of the inventive ways that people are addressing COVID-19 challenges in their community?

What TV are you bingeing these days?

It's a question you've probably been asked a lot — and asked others — five months into the pandemic. Movies are shut. Theater is on hold. So there's not much else to do. I myself can't stop watching Korean dramas (just finished Crash Landing On You) and reruns of Gossip Girl on Netflix.

Cardboard beds. Urban farms. Roving mariachi bands.

These are some of the ways that regular folks are solving problems and spreading happiness during the pandemic.

The solutions aren't perfect — public health experts have some critiques and suggestions. But at the same time, they applaud the ingenuity and positive vibes.

Read the stories of six grassroots change-makers — then nominate your own at the bottom of this story.

Our blog covers the globe. And as we in the U.S. mourn the citizens who died of novel coronavirus, we also wanted to pay tribute to lives lost around the world. Since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of nearly 500,000 people worldwide.

It has been five months since the novel coronavirus started infecting Americans. Since then, the U.S. has lost more than 120,000 people to the sickness it causes — COVID-19.

So many have been touched by the deaths of family and friends. Here we remember just a few of those who continued working during the pandemic because their jobs called for it and who, ultimately, lost their lives.

Senate Republicans are unveiling their proposal on Wednesday to reform law enforcement in the United States in response to the national protest movement that followed the death of George Floyd.

Floyd, a Minneapolis man, was one of a number of black Americans who died at the hands of police in recent weeks and sparked a wave of demonstrations and debate about law enforcement and race.