McCarthy makes big gains for speaker, but he's still short
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leader Kevin McCarthy flipped 15 colleagues to support him in dramatic votes for House speaker on Friday, making extraordinary gains on the fourth day and the 12th and 13th ballots of a historic standoff that was testing American democracy and the GOP majority's ability to govern.
The switched votes from conservative holdouts, including the chairman of the chamber's Freedom Caucus, put McCarthy closer to seizing the gavel for the new Congress — but not yet able. Republicans voted to adjourn until 10 p.m. to try again.
“I believe at that time we’ll have the votes to finish this once and for all,” McCarthy told reporters.
The stunning turnaround came after McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors' demands -- including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office.
Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers and constantly under the threat of being booted by his detractors.
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Jan. 6 remembrance led by Dems; GOP wrestles with its rebels
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden conferred high honors Friday on those who stood against the Jan. 6 Capitol mob two years ago and the menacing effort in state after state to upend the election, declaring “America is a land of laws, not chaos,” even as disarray rendered Congress dysfunctional for a fourth straight day.
Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue commemorated the police officers attacked that day and the local election workers and state officials who faced fierce intimidation from supporters of former President Donald Trump, who fought to keep him in office after his defeat.
“Our democracy held,” Biden said in awarding Presidential Citizens Medals to about a dozen recipients from across the country in the White House East Room. "We the people did not flinch."
Yet democracy's vulnerability was equally on display at the Capitol as Republicans struggled to break their stalemate over the next House speaker, leaving that chamber in limbo for what should have been the first week under a GOP majority.
A resolution to the immediate crisis may be near as GOP leadership continued negotiations to appease its hard-right flank. Rep. Kevin McCarthy flipped more than a dozen colleagues to support him in his quest to lead the chamber, finally showing progress but still short of a majority.
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Bills' Hamlin breathing on his own, joins team via video
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — It was uplifting enough for the Buffalo Bills staff and players to see Damar Hamlin appear on the video screen in the team's meeting room Friday — “larger than life," as coach Sean McDermott put it — for the first time since the safety collapsed and had to be resuscitated on the field.
What sent everyone’s emotions over the top was hearing Hamlin, his mouth and throat still raw shortly after having a breathing tube removed, softly say: “ Love you, boys.”
“Amazing. Touching. To see Damar, number one, through my own eyes, I know it’s something I’ve been looking forward to, kind of needing to see,” McDermott said. “And to see the players’ reaction. They stood up right away and clapped for him and yelled some things at him. It was a pretty cool exchange.”
Four days since his heart stopped after making what appeared to be a routine tackle in a game, the 24-year-old Hamlin from his hospital room in Cincinnati and the Bills enjoyed a moment of jubilation in celebrating the next step in what his doctors have termed a remarkable recovery.
“We got our boy, man. It’s all that matters,” left tackle Dion Dawkins said.
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EXPLAINER: How armored vehicles aid Ukraine at critical time
WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking ahead to a likely spring offensive, the U.S. and Germany are sending Ukraine an array of armored vehicles, including 50 tank-killing Bradleys, to expand its ability to move troops to the front lines and beef up its forces against Russia as the war nears its first anniversary.
The vehicles don't fulfill Ukraine's request for combat tanks. But they provide a strategic war-fighting capability as the season change brings muddy terrain and Ukraine launches an aggressive campaign to recoup territory taken by Russia, particularly in the east.
A look at the Bradley and other armored carriers, and what they bring to the fight:
WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW WILL THEY HELP?
No, they are not tanks.
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Orthodox celebrate Christmas in shadow of conflict
MOSCOW (AP) — Orthodox Christians packed churches on Friday evening for Christmas Eve services, a holiday darkened for many by the conflict raging between Orthodox neighbors Russia and Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the world's largest Orthodox denomination, led elaborate services at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, with dozens of priests and officiants arrayed in rich vestments swinging smoking incense censers and chanting the liturgy.
A day earlier, Kirill called for a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin agreed to but that Ukrainian officials scorned as an attempt to allow Russian forces to regroup. Reports of scattered fighting in Ukraine on Friday could not immediately be confirmed.
Kyiv residents ventured out into a light dusting of snow to buy gifts, cakes and groceries for Christmas Eve family celebrations, hours after the cease-fire was to have started.
In a video message, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Ukrainians as “united as never before” and lamented that the conflict has forced many to abandon Christmas folk traditions that prohibit sewing and hunting.
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Mexico gives account of violence after 'Chapo' son nabbed
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The operation to detain Ovidio Guzman, the son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, unleashed firefights that turned the northern city of Culiacan into a war zone, authorities said Friday.
In a blow-by-blow description of the battles Thursday that killed 10 military personnel and 19 suspected members of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said cartel gunmen opened fire on troops with a half-dozen .50-caliber machine guns.
The army responded by calling in Blackhawk helicopter gunships to attack a convoy of 25 cartel vehicles, including truck-mounted cartel gun platforms. The running shootouts killed one Culiacan policeman, and wounded 17 police officers and 35 military personnel.
The cartel then opened fire on the military aircraft, forcing two of them down with “a significant number of impacts” in each of the two aircraft, Sandoval said. The gang then sent hordes of gunmen to attack fixed-wing aircraft, both military and civilian, at the city’s international airport.
One civilian airliner was hit. The gunmen also shot up airport buildings in a bid to prevent authorities from flying the captured cartel boss out of the city. But, Sandoval said, authorities anticipating the resistance had loaded Ovidio Guzman onto a military helicopter to fly him back to Mexico City.
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Prince Harry's book exposes grief, war, drugs, family rifts
LONDON (AP) — Bereaved boy, troubled teen, wartime soldier, unhappy royal — many facets of Prince Harry are revealed in his explosive memoir, often in eyebrow-raising detail.
From accounts of cocaine use and losing his virginity to raw family rifts, “Spare” exposes deeply personal details about Harry and the wider royal family.
The Associated Press purchased a copy of the Spanish-language edition of the book ahead of its publication around the world on Tuesday. Its revelations have electrified the British media — but have been met with silence from Buckingham Palace.
BROTHER AND SON
The book opens with a quote from American writer William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
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NYC hospitals prep for nurse strike amid negotiations
NEW YORK (AP) — Negotiations to keep 10,000 New York City nurses from walking off the job headed into a final weekend as some major hospitals were already preparing Friday for a potential strike by sending ambulances elsewhere and transferring some patients, including vulnerable newborns.
The walkout could start early Monday at several private hospitals, including two of the city's biggest: Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, each of which has more than 1,000 beds.
They and a handful of other hospitals are bargaining with nurses who want raises and an end to what they say are untenable staffing squeezes, nearly three years into the coronavirus pandemic.
“New York City hospitals have violated our trust through years of understaffing, and that understaffing has only gotten worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” nurses' union President Nancy Hagans said at a news briefing Friday. “It’s time they come to the table and deliver the safe staffing standards that nurses and our patients deserve.”
The negotiations follow a number of job actions at other U.S. hospitals as nurses come through a period of shouldering health risks and huge workloads at the peak of the virus crisis. The industry is facing burnout that has since driven many nurses from the profession, or at least from full-time hospital jobs.
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EXPLAINER: What is ChatGPT and why are schools blocking it?
Ask the new artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT to write an essay about the cause of the American Civil War and you can watch it churn out a persuasive term paper in a matter of seconds.
That's one reason why New York City school officials this week started blocking the impressive but controversial writing tool that can generate paragraphs of human-like text.
The decision by the largest U.S. school district to restrict the ChatGPT website on school devices and networks could have ripple effects on other schools, and teachers scrambling to figure out how to prevent cheating. The creators of ChatGPT say they're also looking for ways to detect misuse.
The free tool has been around for just five weeks but is already raising tough questions about the future of AI in education, the tech industry and a host of professions.
WHAT IS CHATGPT?
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Best of CES 2023: Canine communication and a calming pillow
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tech companies are showing off their latest products this week at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show.
The show officially opened Thursday, with crowds of investors, media and tech workers streaming into cavernous Las Vegas venues to see the latest tech from big companies and startups alike.
Here are some highlights:
‘TALKING’ PETS
Have you ever wondered what your dog would say if it could speak to you?
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