Duke anthropologist Brian Hare argues that humans evolved in a way that left us more cooperative and friendlier than our now extinct human cousins, like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Millions of dollars are flowing into state legislative races. Redistricting and the coronavirus are expected to be top of the policy agenda in 2021 and party control could mean everything.

A map of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world. The respiratory disease has spread rapidly across six continents and has killed at least 1 million globally.

View NPR's maps and graphics to see where COVID-19 is hitting hardest in the U.S., which state outbreaks are growing and which are leveling off.

The country voted to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill but no to legalizing marijuana. Two separate referendums were held along with the general election won Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Colorado's Proposition 115 could shut down one of the few clinics nationwide that specializes in later abortion.

Drug industry veteran Moncef Slaoui is a key figure in Operation Warp Speed's push to develop COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines. His employment terms raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

In advance of a COVID-19 vaccine being available, a group of independent medical advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weighed Friday who should get the vaccine first and how.

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met virtually Friday to review what's known about potential coronavirus vaccines. The main issue is who should get a vaccine first.

Congress saw its first two members enter self-quarantine on March 8. Later that month, seven members tested positive or were presumed so and dozens more were quarantined. The ranks have since grown.

The judge's order calls for the closure of hair salons, gyms and restaurant dine-in services. The Texas attorney general says the judge has "no authority" to impose the shutdown.

It looked as if polio would be the second human disease to be eliminated — after smallpox. But "2020 has been a terrible year," the head of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative says.

When President Trump comes to Rome on Sunday for one last Georgia rally before Election Day, it will be another example of his partisans’ right to peaceably assemble and let their voices be heard.  

It could also be a COVID-19 super spreading event.

The surge in telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic has leveled off, with more patients seeing their doctors in person again.

But experts say virtual medical appointments will continue, and with more frequency than before COVID struck. Some of the change appears permanent.

In the past week, the U.S. has blown past record levels of infection that were seen in the summer, when new cases topped 77,000 in July.