US Domestic News Roundup: Fight over Texas anti-abortion transport bans reaches biggest battlegrounds yet; US Senator Menendez to be arraigned on foreign agent charge and more

Federal prosecutors on Oct. 12 accused the New Jersey Democrat - until recently the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - of taking actions from 2018 to 2022 on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials. Republican search for new US House leader returns to square one Republicans, whose party infighting has paralyzed the U.S. House of Representatives for three weeks, will begin again on Monday to try to pick a new speaker to lead the chamber and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Fight over Texas anti-abortion transport bans reaches biggest battlegrounds yet

Two Texas jurisdictions will consider measures this week to outlaw the act of transporting another person along their roads for an abortion, part of a strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Commissioners in Lubbock County are slated to vote on the proposal on Monday. A few hours north, the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday will weigh its own such law, which could lead to a future council or city-wide vote.

US Senator Menendez to be arraigned on foreign agent charge

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is set to enter a plea on Monday to a new indictment charging him with conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government. Federal prosecutors on Oct. 12 accused the New Jersey Democrat - until recently the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - of taking actions from 2018 to 2022 on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials.

Republican search for new US House leader returns to square one

Republicans, whose party infighting has paralyzed the U.S. House of Representatives for three weeks, will begin again on Monday to try to pick a new speaker to lead the chamber and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government. Factional strife between right-wing hardliners and more mainstream Republicans led to the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3 and derailed leadership bids by two would-be successors: No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise and prominent conservative Jim Jordan.

Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers avoid challenges to 'cartoon' villain image

Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers have complained that prosecutors at his fraud trial are portraying the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder as a "cartoon of a villain," but have done little to counter unflattering depictions of him offered to the jury by his former colleagues. In cross-examining former members of his inner circle who have pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution, defense lawyers generally has avoided challenging their accounts of Bankman-Fried angrily snapping at colleagues who questioned key company decisions. They also did not challenge testimony by one of the witnesses that his quirky persona was mostly an act.

Biden and Pope Francis discuss Israel and Gaza in a call

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Pope Francis on Sunday and discussed the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the White House and the Vatican said in separate statements. They discussed "the need to prevent escalation in the region and to work toward a durable peace in the Middle East," the White House said.

Slain Detroit synagogue leader mourned at Sunday funeral; police seek motive

A funeral was held on Sunday for the president of a Detroit synagogue who was killed over the weekend as police searched for a motive. Samantha Woll, an adviser to Democratic politicians and president of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, was found stabbed to death outside her home in the Lafayette Park neighborhood of Detroit on Saturday.

Talk by Pulitzer winner who backs Palestinians canceled by NY Jewish institution

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen said on Saturday a Jewish organization in New York City canceled a reading he was due to give on Friday without explanation, a day after he said he signed an open letter condemning Israel's "indiscriminate violence" against Palestinians in Gaza. Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American professor and writer whose novel "The Sympathizer" won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was scheduled to speak at the 92nd Street Y literary center's Christopher Lightfoot Walker Reading Series event in Manhattan at 8 p.m.

Biden administration picks 31 regional tech hubs to spur US innovation

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday it was naming 31 regional tech hubs from 370 applicants, making the areas eligible for $500 million in federal funding to help spur innovation across a variety of sectors. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters the program aimed to diversify the United States away from its traditional tech hubs like Silicon Valley, Seattle and Boston.