AP Top News at 10:55 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said late Tuesday there’s no scenario in which he’ll drop his bid to become House speaker despite failing to win multiple rounds of voting, a historic defeat that brought the first day of the new Congress to an abrupt, messy end. McCarthy promised to fight to the finish — encouraged, he said, by a phone call from Donald Trump — despite a highly uncertain path ahead amid opposition from the chamber’s most conservative members. Needing 218 votes in the full House, McCarthy got just 203 votes in two rounds — less even than Democrat Hakeem Jeffries in the GOP-controlled chamber — and fared even worse with in round three, losing 20 Republican colleagues.
With tears beginning to well, Tennessee Titans linebacker Rashad Weaver shook his head and lowered it to his knees, his body swaying as he tried to express what it was like watching friend and former college teammate Damar Hamlin having to be resuscitated back to life on the football field. “I don’t know, man,” Weaver said Tuesday after sobbing uncontrollably at his locker. “I missed exactly what happened but like five seconds later, seeing the first replay of it, just kind of like everybody else sitting there and holding your breath and figure out what happened.” Weaver’s reaction was that of most everyone watching from home and on the field in Cincinnati on Monday night, when Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills safety, collapsed while going into cardiac arrest after making what appeared to be a routine tackle.
SANTOS, Brazil (AP) — Brazil said a final farewell to Pelé on Tuesday, burying the legend who unified the bitterly divided country. Newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid his respects at Vila Belmiro, the stadium where Pelé played for most of his career. Pelé died last week at age 82 and was laid to rest in Santos, the city where he became famous after moving there at age 15 to play for Santos FC. The funeral Mass was held at the team’s Vila Belmiro stadium before his black casket was driven through the streets of the of Santos in a firetruck.
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A criminology graduate student accused of the November slayings of four University of Idaho students agreed Tuesday to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week, to face charges in Idaho. Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University — a short drive from the murder scene across the state border — will be transported to Idaho within 10 days. Students at the University of Idaho and nearby residents lived in fear for weeks as authorities seemed stumped by the mysterious and brutal stabbings on Nov. 13. Idaho police appeared to make a breakthrough, however, after searching for a white sedan seen around the time of the killings and analyzing DNA evidence at the crime scene.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday finalized a rule change that broadens availability of abortion pills to many more pharmacies, including large chains and mail-order companies. The Biden administration partially implemented the change last year, announcing it would no longer enforce a long-standing requirement that women pick up the medicine in person. Tuesday’s action formally updates the drug’s labeling to allow many more retail pharmacies to dispense the pills, so long as they complete a certification process. The change could expand access at both brick-and-mortar stores and online pharmacies. Women can get a prescription via telehealth consultation with a health professional, and then receive the pills through the mail, where permitted by law.
NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform as a judge set a tentative trial date for October. Bankman-Fried, 30, denied charges accusing him of illegally diverting massive sums of customer money from FTX to make lavish real estate purchases, donate money to politicians and make risky trades at Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm. Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Mark Cohen, announced his client’s plea, saying: “He pleads not guilty to all counts.” Afterward, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan set a tentative trial date of Oct.
BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri inmate was put to death Tuesday for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. Amber McLaughlin, 49, was convicted of stalking and killing a former girlfriend, then dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. McLaughlin’s fate was sealed earlier Tuesday when Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined a clemency request. McLaughlin spoke quietly with a spiritual adviser at her side as the fatal dose of pentobarbital was injected. McLaughlin breathed heavily a couple of times, then shut her eyes. She was pronounced dead a few minutes later.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world’s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare. The longer the war lasts, the more likely it becomes that drones will be used to identify, select and attack targets without help from humans, according to military analysts, combatants and artificial intelligence researchers. That would mark a revolution in military technology as profound as the introduction of the machine gun. Ukraine already has semi-autonomous attack drones and counter-drone weapons endowed with AI. Russia also claims to possess AI weaponry, though the claims are unproven.
The NFL pushed ahead Tuesday with a difficult balancing act, navigating players’ emotions after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin’s shocking cardiac arrest with a tight playoff schedule and emphasizing Hamlin’s health was its main focus. The league informed the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals that their game, suspended Monday night, would not be resumed this week while the Week 18 schedule remained unchanged, for now. No decision regarding the possible resumption of the pivotal Bills-Bengals game has been made. The game was suspended in the first quarter when Hamlin suffered the cardiac arrest after making a tackle. The 24-year-old Hamlin remained in critical condition a day after the Bills said his heart stopped following the seemingly routine play.
HOUSTON (AP) — Texas plans to use expired and unsafe drugs to carry out executions early this year in violation of state law, three death row inmates allege in a lawsuit. Prison officials deny the claim and say the state’s supply of execution drugs is safe. The first execution, of Robert Fratta, is set for Jan. 10. The state’s highest criminal court of appeals put the lawsuit from Fratta, Wesley Ruiz and John Balentine on hold Friday while it considers an appeal by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The state wants the case to be decided by a criminal court, not a civil one.