AP News in Brief at 11:03 p.m. EDT

Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigns over sexual harassment allegations

NEW YORK (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation Tuesday over a barrage of sexual harassment allegations in a fall from grace a year after he was widely hailed nationally for his detailed daily briefings and leadership during some of the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By turns defiant and chastened, the 63-year-old Democrat emphatically denied intentionally mistreating women and called the pressure for his ouster politically motivated. But he said that fighting back in this “too hot” political climate would subject the state to months of turmoil.

“The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing,” Cuomo said in a televised address.

The third-term governor’s resignation, which will take effect in two weeks, was announced as momentum built in the Legislature to remove him by impeachmentand after nearly the entire Democratic establishment had turned against him, with President Joe Biden joining those calling on him to resign.

The decision came a week after New York’s attorney general released the results ofan investigation that found Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women.

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Big win for $1T infrastructure bill: Dems, GOP come together

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a robust vote after weeks of fits and starts, the Senate approved a $1 trillion infrastructure plan for states coast to coast on Tuesday,as a rare coalition of Democrats and Republicans joined together to overcome skeptics and deliver a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s agenda.

“Today, we proved that democracy can still work,” Biden declared at the White House, noting that the 69-30 vote included even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

“We can still come together to do big things, important things, for the American people,” Biden said.

The overwhelming tally provided fresh momentum for the first phase of Biden’s “Build Back Better” priorities, now heading to the House. A sizable number of lawmakers showed they were willing to set aside partisan pressures, at least for a moment, eager to send billions to their states for rebuilding roads, broadband internet, water pipes and the public works systems that underpin much of American life.

The vote also set the stage for a much more contentious fight over Biden’s bigger $3.5 trillion package that is next up in the Senate — a more liberal undertaking of child care, elder care and other programs that is much more partisan and expected to draw only Democratic support. That debate is expected to extend into the fall.

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Census data spurred GOP’s largest partisan edge in decades

Fresh off sweeping electoral victories a decade ago, Republican politicians used census data to draw voting districts that gave them a greater political advantage in more states than either party had in the past 50 years, according to a new Associated Press analysis.

That advantage, measured by a formula designed to detect potential gerrymandering, allowed Republicans to hold decade-long majorities in some congressional delegations or statehouses even as Democrats in those states won top-of-the-ticket races for president or statewide offices. In short: Republicans won more seats than would have been expected based on the percentage of votes they received.

The GOP’s power will be put to the test starting Thursday, when the U.S. Census Bureau releases 2020 population data that will kick off the next round of the once-a-decade redistricting process. The redrawn districts will take effect in most states starting with the 2022 elections and, if the maps survive expected court challenges, remain in place through the 2030 elections.

Though redistricting can seem wonky, it has big implications for public policy. Republicans who benefited from favorable districts this past decade used their power in state capitols to cut taxes, restrict abortion and curb union bargaining rights.

In Congress, redistricting has resulted in fewer competitive seats for both Republicans and Democrats, leaving less incentive to compromise as politicians appeal further to the right and left. With Republicans needing to gain just five seats to take control of the U.S. House from Democrats, the redistricting getting underway this year ultimately could determine the fate of President Joe Biden’s agenda to create new national voting rights and spend more on social programs.

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Cuomo resigns: What we know, what we don’t and what’s next

NEW YORK (AP) — After months of holding on to power amid sexual harassment allegations, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo abruptly resigned Tuesday.

We take you through what happened and what’s next:

REMIND ME — WHAT WAS CUOMO ACCUSED OF?

Cuomo was under investigation for several things, but the prevailing issue leading to his resignation concerned sexual harassment allegations. An investigative report released last week said he sexually harassed 11 women,many of whom had worked for him or the state. Other issues in play in a state Assembly impeachment probe: how his administration handled data on COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes, his $5 millionpandemic leadership book deal and whether friends and relatives were given special access to COVID-19 tests early in the pandemic.

CUOMO SAID HE WASN’T GOING ANYWHERE. WHY DID HE RESIGN NOW?

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Military display rolls into Brazil capital before tense vote

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s military staged an unusual convoy of troops and armored vehicles through the capital Tuesday — an event that was announced only a day before and that coincided with a scheduled vote in Congress on one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s key proposals.

Hours later, Congress’ lower house did not approve the constitutional reform sought by Bolsonaro to require printed receipts from some electronic ballot boxes that the president alleges are prone to fraud. His allies needed 308 votes and got only 229. The opposition, which had hoped to get an overwhelming majority against the president, fell short, getting 218 votes.

Earlier in the day, dozens of vehicles and hundreds of soldiers paraded past the presidential palace as Bolsonaro looked on, then continued past the congressional building and Defense Ministry.

The navy issued a statement saying the convoy had been planned long before the congressional vote. But it was announced only on Monday and critics said it looked like an attempt to intimidate opponents of a president who has often praised the country’s past military dictatorship.

Military parades in the capital are usually limited to independence day events. Tuesday’s procession was described as a ceremonial invitation for Bolsonaro to attend annual navy exercises that are held in a town outside the capital. The army and air force also are participating for the first time.

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As Senate debates Dems’ $3.5T budget, GOP launches attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed their expansive $3.5 trillion frameworkfor bolstering family services, health, and environment programs toward Senate passage Tuesday, as Republicans unleashed an avalanche of amendments aimed at making their rivals pay a price in next year’s elections.

Congressional approval of the budget resolution, which seems assured, would mark a crucial first step by Democrats toward enacting the heart of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda. It would open the door to a follow-up measure aiming the government’s fiscal might at assisting families, creating jobs and fighting climate change, with higher taxes on the wealthy and big companies footing much of the bill.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., once a progressive voice in Congress’ wilderness and now a national figure with legislative clout, said the measure would help children, families, the elderly and working people — and more.

“It will also, I hope, restore the faith of the American people in the belief that we can have a government that works for all of us, and not just the few,” he said.

Republicans argued that Democrats’ proposals would waste money, raise economy-wounding taxes, fuel inflation and codify far-left dictates that would harm Americans. They were happy to use Sanders, a self-avowed democratic socialist, to try tarring all Democrats backing the measure.

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Hospitals run low on nurses as they get swamped with COVID

The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients and are losing workers to burnout and lucrative out-of-state temporary gigs.

Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oregon all have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic, and nursing staffs are badly strained.

In Florida, virus cases have filled so many hospital beds that ambulance services and fire departments are straining to respond to emergencies. Some patients wait inside ambulances for up to an hour before hospitals in St. Petersburg, Florida, can admit them — a process that usually takes about 15 minutes, Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton said.

One person who suffered a heart attack was bounced from six hospitals before finding an emergency room in New Orleans that could take him in, said Joe Kanter, Louisiana’s chief public health officer.

“It’s a real dire situation,” Kanter said. “There’s just not enough qualified staff in the state right now to care for all these patients.”

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Ethiopia calls “all capable” citizens to fight in Tigray war

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s government on Tuesday summoned all capable citizens to war, urging them to join the country’s military to stop resurgent forces from the embattled Tigray region “once and for all.”

The call to arms is an ominous sign that all of Ethiopia’s 110 million people are being drawn into a conflict that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, once declared would be over within weeks. The deadly fighting has now spread beyond Tigray into neighboring regions, and fracturing in Africa’s second most populous country could destabilize the entire Horn of Africa region.

Tuesday’s announcement effectively ends the unilateral cease-fire the government declared in June as its military retreated from Tigray. It is also almost certain to magnify the toll of a nine-month war that has led to the massacre of thousands, widespread gang rapes and the displacement of entire communities, mostly Tigrayan. Hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray now face famine conditions in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade.

The prime minister’s summons chilled Tigrayans, even those outside Tigray, with the statement calling on all Ethiopians to be “the eyes and ears of the country in order to track down and expose spies and agents” of the Tigray forces. Witnesses and lawyers have said thousands of Tigrayans already have been detained during the conflict for their identity alone.

“The kind of war he’s calling for is on another level, it’s for a total annihilation of Tigray,” said Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel, whose family remains trapped in the Tigray region. “’Once and for all’ means to finish everyone out.”

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Prince Andrew faces no good choice in Epstein accuser case

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prince Andrew is likely to do anything he can to avoid giving evidence in a U.S. lawsuit filed by an American woman who alleges that he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic say.

Andrew may contest the U.S. court’s jurisdiction, or ignore the civil lawsuit altogether, taking a chance the court might find him in default and order him to pay damages.

No matter which way he goes, though, he will face the constant drumbeat of unsavory media coverage.

“There’s no good option,” said Albert D’Aquino, a New York attorney who has defended clients in similar cases. The prince has repeatedly denied the allegations in the lawsuit, brought by one of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accusers, Virginia Giuffre.

“I don’t think he will submit to the court’s authority to order him to give a deposition, or to answer questions on which he wishes to demur,” said D’Aquino, a partner at Goldberg Segalla in Buffalo, New York.

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Space station supplies launched with a pizza delivery for 7

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Northrop Grumman’s latest space station delivery includes pizza for seven.

The company’s Cygnus cargo ship rocketed away from Virginia’s eastern shore Tuesday. It should reach the International Space Station on Thursday.

The 8,200-pound (3,700-kilogram) shipment includes fresh apples, tomatoes and kiwi, along with a pizza kit and cheese smorgasbord for the seven station astronauts.

Also flying: a mounting bracket for new solar wings launching to the orbiting lab next year, a material simulating moon dust and dirt that will be used to create items from the space station’s 3D printer, slime mold for a French educational experiment called Blob and an infrared-detecting device meant as a prototype for future tracking satellites.

It is Northrop Grumman’s 16th supply run for NASA and its biggest load yet. The company’s Antares rocket hoisted the capsule from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.