AP PHOTO/PATRICK SEMANSKY

Trump, on tape, presses Georgia official to 'find' him votes, overturn Biden win; Some Republicans condemn ‘scheme’ to undo election for Trump

Donald Trump pressured Georgia's Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state's presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense" if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by the AP.

The staggering conversation was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by an American president to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost, report Jeff Amy, Darlene Superville and Kate Brumback.

In the phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday, Trump, who has refused to accept his loss to president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.

“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump said. "Because we won the state," he falsely claims.

Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden's win by a 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won."

VIDEO/AUDIO: Trump to Georgia election chief: 'find 11,780 votes.'

AP FACT CHECK: Trump's made-up claims of fake Georgia votes. Trump asserted a dizzying array of fuzzy accounting and outright false claims in the phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state. That's according to an AP Fact Check, which found Trump fabricated a slew of votes that he said should’ve been counted in his favor. Hope Yen, Jeff Amy and Mike Balsamo report.

Electoral College: The unprecedented Republican effort to try to overturn the presidential election is being condemned by current and former GOP officials. They are warning that the effort to sow doubt about Biden’s victory and keep Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy. Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Claire Jalonick report.

EXPLAINER: How Congress will count Electoral College votes.

Defense Secretaries: In an extraordinary rebuke of Trump, all 10 living former U.S. secretaries of defense have joined in cautioning against any attempt to use the military to back overturning November's presidential election. The former Pentagon chiefs, both Republicans and Democrats, put their names to an opinion article that says the time for questioning the results of the election has passed. And they say that attempting to involve the military in resolving election disputes would take the county "into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.” Robert Burns reports.

Washington's Pivotal Week: The first full week of the new year is shaping up to be one of the biggest of Biden’s presidency. And he hasn’t even taken office yet. Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Tuesday may shape his administration. Congress on Wednesday will be tasked with certifying the presidential election's results, which some Republicans say they won’t accept because of Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. That same day, protesters championed by Trump have promised to flood Washington. Biden has largely shrugged off GOP promises to oppose certification of his victory. Will Weissert reports as Washington, and the nation, braces for an intense opening to a critical year.

Trump's Base: Their candidate may have lost the election, but many of Trump’s supporters have no intention of fading away. After spending weeks amplifying Trump’s unfounded claims that the November election was rigged against him, many in his loyal base are eagerly awaiting his next ventures. That includes a potential presidential run four years from now. In the meantime, Trump's loyal fans present a challenge for Biden as he seeks to govern a bitterly divided country. Many of them not only disagree with Biden's policies, but view him as an illegitimate president who won only because of mass election fraud, which did not actually occur. Jill Colvin reports.

EXPLAINER: Here we go again, what to expect as Georgia counts votes.

Georgia Trump Effect: For more than four years, Trump has dominated the Republican Party and American politics. Now Georgia gets to decide what comes next. Twin Senate runoffs, just 15 days before Trump leaves office, will not only determine which party controls the Senate but also offer the first clues about how long Trump can maintain his grip on the nation’s political affairs once he loses the White House megaphone. Democrats are looking to prove Biden's win was more than just a backlash to Trump. Bill Barrow reports. Both Trump and Biden will be in the state today.

Georgia Church: Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historic congregation in the heart of Atlanta where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, sits at the intersection of national politics and the culture war. The church's senior pastor, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, is seeking election to the U.S. Senate, where bitter partisanship has blunted the federal response to the pandemic and calls for criminal justice reform. The runoff election will decide if Democrats get control of Congress. Ebenezer’s members hope their church remains a place where they can always receive spiritual fuel for the challenges ahead, Aaron Morrison reports from Atlanta.

POOL VIA AP PHOTO/STEVE PARSONS

UK first in world to roll out Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine; India greenlights it and locally made COVID-19 vaccine; In Somalia, vaccines are distant as virus spreads

Britain has taken another giant step in the fight against COVID-19, ramping up its immunization program by giving out the first shots in the world from the vaccine created by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

Since Dec. 8, Britain’s National Health Service has been using a vaccine made by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech.

Today, it boosted that medical arsenal with inoculations with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to use, since it does not require the super-cold storage needed for the Pfizer vaccine.

Officials say the U.K. has around 530,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on hand and is moving toward a goal of vaccinating 2 million people a week as soon as possible.

India Vaccines: The world's second-most populous nation has authorized two COVID-19 vaccines, paving the way for a huge inoculation program. India’s drugs regulator gave emergency authorization for the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca as well as another one by the Indian company Bharat Biotech. Aniruddha Ghosal and Sheikh Saaliq report from New Delhi.

India's initial immunization plan aims to vaccinate 300 million people, starting with health care workers, by August. India has confirmed over 10.3 million cases of the virus, though its rate of infection has come down significantly from a mid-September peak.

In the meantime, India will not allow the export of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine for several months, the head of Serum Institute of India, which has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations, told the AP.

Somalia's Hidden Pandemic: As richer countries race to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, Somalia remains the rare place where much of the population hasn't taken the virus seriously. Some fear that’s proven to be deadlier than anyone knows. It is places like Somalia, torn apart by three decades of conflict, that will be last to see vaccines in any significant quantity. With areas held by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, the risk of the virus becoming endemic in some places is strong. That's a fear in other parts of Africa as well, reports Hasan Barise from Mogadishu.

Nigeria Variant: A Nigerian scientist has spent the holiday season in his laboratory doing genetic sequencing to learn more about the country’s COVID-19 variant, as cases increase. The virologist says the information he gathers will help battle the spread of the disease in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 196 million people. With virus variants emerging in Nigeria and South Africa, the World Health Organization said Africa needs to do more genetic sequencing, Lekan Oyekanmi reports from Lagos.

Britain's Lockdown: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that more onerous restrictions in England are likely as the country reels from a new virus variant that has seen infection rates soar to their highest levels. The U.K. is in the midst of an acute outbreak, recording more than 50,000 new infections a day over the past six days. Johnson has laid out the hope that “tens of millions” of people will have been vaccinated against the virus over the coming three months. Pan Pylas reports from London.

Egyptian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the deaths of at least four coronavirus patients at a public hospital. The deaths have stirred controversy after a video of nurses struggling to keep the patients alive was shared on social media.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says vaccine approval is being speeded up and border controls beefed up to curb the spread of the virus, and he promised to consider declaring a state of emergency.

AP PHOTO/MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ

US coronavirus death toll surpasses 350,000; Dr. Fauci says vaccinations are offering a `glimmer of hope'

The death toll in the United States has climbed past 350,000, the most of any country, while more than 20 million people nationwide have been infected. States have reported record numbers of cases over the past few days, and funeral homes in Southern California are being inundated with bodies.

The U.S. has speeded up COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of shots dispensed to about 4 million, health officials said. Gary D. Robertson reports.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, also said that President-elect Joe Biden's pledge to administer 100 million shots of the vaccine within his first 100 days in office is achievable.

And he rejected President Trump's false claim on Twitter that coronavirus deaths and cases in the U.S. have been greatly exaggerated.

“All you need to do...is go into the trenches, go into the hospitals, go into the intensive care units and see what is happening. Those are real numbers, real people and real deaths,” Fauci said.

But Fauci also said he has seen “some little glimmer of hope” after 1.5 million doses were administered in the previous 72 hours, or an average of about 500,000 per day, a marked increase in vaccinations. He said that brings the total to about 4 million.

Remembrance and Recovery

Lives Lost: Families hit by pandemic tragedy find solace in memories, mementos

“She tells me, ‘Mom, stop crying,’” says one mother who lost a daughter. “Every day is a struggle, a lot of ups and downs,” says another woman who lost her sister.

For those whose loved ones have died of COVID-19, the pain and devastation of 2020 will remain for years to come.

Over the last year, AP journalists around the world have profiled dozens of ordinary people who became victims of the pandemic.

As the turbulent year came to a close, the AP revisited some of their families and friends to see how they're coping. Peter Prengaman and Raghuram Vadarevu have this heartbreaking story with illustrations by Peter Hamlin.

In their stories, windows into private grief amid a public calamity, family members are finding comfort in the act of remembering, whether it’s cradling an item their loved one left behind, vowing to fulfill a promise or imagining them in better days.