US News Roundup: Pelosi re-elected as U.S. House speaker amid political uncertainty; Georgia election guardian Raffensperger faces heat as Trump contests defeat and more

Trump returned the 65-year-old former businessman to the limelight when he called Raffensperger on Saturday to badger him to "find" enough votes to reverse Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state, according to audio of the hour-long call published by the Washington Post on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Pelosi re-elected as U.S. House speaker amid political uncertainty

Nancy Pelosi was narrowly re-elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Sunday, as a new Congress took office amid political uncertainty, with Senate control undecided and a Republican fight looming over presidential election results. The House voted 216-209 to reinstate Pelosi, after Democrats lost 11 seats in the November elections to command a narrower 222-212 majority. Five Democrats chose not to support her - two voted for Democratic lawmakers who were not running, while three others simply voted "present."

Georgia election guardian Raffensperger faces heat as Trump contests defeat

Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, cemented his status as an unlikely hero for U.S. Democrats following a fresh clash in which he rejected President Donald Trump's claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Trump returned the 65-year-old former businessman to the limelight when he called Raffensperger on Saturday to badger him to "find" enough votes to reverse Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state, according to audio of the hour-long call published by the Washington Post on Sunday.

Two shootings in Florida's Miami-Dade County leave 12 wounded

Police in Florida's Miami-Dade County said late on Sunday that they were investigating two separate shootings in which 12 people were wounded. The first shooting occurred in Little River Park at 7:07 p.m. (0007 GMT), according to authorities.

In recorded call, Trump pressures Georgia official to 'find' votes to overturn election

U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's top election official to "find" enough votes to overturn his defeat in the southern state, according to a recording of the hour-long call published by U.S. media on Sunday. The Saturday call was the latest move in Trump's two-month effort insisting that his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election was the result of widespread voter fraud, a claim that has been widely rejected by state and federal election officials and multiple courts.

Nashville bombing suspect may have believed in lizard people, aliens-source

The federal investigation into the bombing in Nashville on Christmas day has uncovered evidence suggesting the suspected bomber believed in aliens and lizard people, according to a senior law enforcement source. Federal, state and local law enforcement officers have been trying to figure out why the 63-year-old suspect, Anthony Q. Warner, who died by suicide in the explosion, detonated the bomb while inside his motor home on Dec. 25 in downtown Nashville, Tennessee's largest city.

Trump, Biden to rally in Georgia ahead of high-stakes Senate races

President Donald Trump travels to Georgia on Monday in a bid to keep the U.S. Senate in the hands of his Republican Party, after his efforts to overturn his own defeat in the state have injected new uncertainty into a pair of races that are seen as too close to call. President-elect Joe Biden also will travel to Georgia for a last-minute rally ahead of the Tuesday runoff elections, which pit a pair of incumbent Republican senators against two Democratic challengers.

Gunman kills pastor at Texas church before being captured by police

A gunman killed a pastor at an East Texas church on Sunday and wounded at least one other person before fleeing the scene and being arrested by police in a nearby county, authorities said. Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith told reporters the pastor of the Starrville Methodist Church in Winona discovered a man hiding in a church bathroom and confronted the man with a gun. The man then grabbed the pastor's pistol and shot the two victims before stealing a car from the church's parking lot, Smith said.

'That's real:' Fauci rejects Trump claim that U.S. coronavirus deaths overcounted

Two top U.S. health officials on Sunday disputed a claim by President Donald Trump that federal data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States is overblown, and both expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinations is picking up. "The deaths are real deaths," Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC News' This Week, adding that jam-packed hospitals and stressed-out healthcare workers are "not fake. That's real."

Former U.S. defense chiefs say no role for military in Trump's efforts to contest defeat

Ten living former U.S. secretaries of defense on Sunday said in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post that the military should play no role in President Donald Trump's efforts to block the transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden. The group, including Mark Esper who was fired by Trump in November as well as another Trump defense chief James Mattis, said the time had come to accept that the Republican president had lost the Nov. 3 election and that Biden would succeed him on Jan. 20.

Kenosha preparing for protests when charging decision comes on Jacob Blake's shooting

The city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is making preparations for demonstrations when a charging decision comes over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, authorities said on Sunday. Kenosha saw civil unrest and large demonstrations against racism and police brutality in August after police shot Blake, an African-American man, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.