US Domestic News Roundup: Biden administration takes abortion pill dispute to US Supreme Court; Nikki Haley's 2024 White House bid charts hazardous path in isolationist Republican Party and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US CDC says existing antibodies can work against new COVID variant

Early research data has shown that antibodies produced by prior infection or existing vaccines against the coronavirus were sufficient to protect against the new BA.2.86 variant, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday. The Food and Drug Administration in the coming days is expected to authorize the updated vaccines that target the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron, and early data provide encouraging signs for the new shots, CDC said.The public health agency added that the new BA.2.86 lineage of coronavirus was not driving the current increases in COVID cases and hospitalizations in the United States, but rather attributed it to other predominantly circulating viruses.

Biden administration takes abortion pill dispute to US Supreme Court

President Joe Biden's administration took its battle to preserve broad access to the abortion pill mifepristone to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday as it appealed a lower court's ruling that would curb how the drug is delivered and distributed. The Justice Department said it filed its appeal of an August decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that would bar telemedicine prescriptions and shipments of mifepristone by mail. The drug's manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, also said it filed its appeal on Friday.

Abortion rights at stake as Florida court weighs DeSantis-backed ban

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' administration urged the state's conservative high court on Friday to reverse decades of precedent and find that the state constitution does not protect abortion rights. State Solicitor General Henry Whitaker asked the Florida Supreme Court to uphold a ban on most abortion after 15 weeks, which went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right to abortion last year. If the state court does so, a more stringent six-week ban - one of the strictest in the nation - would automatically take effect a month later.

Nikki Haley's 2024 White House bid charts hazardous path in isolationist Republican Party

U.S. 2024 Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley wants to send special forces to Mexico to wipe out drug cartels, double down on sending weapons to Ukraine and make sure China understands "there will be hell to pay" if it attacks Taiwan. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is stubbornly bucking traditional political wisdom that foreign policy does not influence American voters in elections.

Georgia grand jury recommended charging Lindsey Graham, other Trump allies

A Georgia grand jury recommended criminal charges against Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and other allies of Donald Trump as part of its investigation into efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 presidential defeat, said a report released on Friday. None were ultimately charged when Georgia prosecutors filed a sweeping criminal case against Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators.

Mark Meadows fails in bid to move Georgia election case to federal court

Charges against Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows involving efforts to reverse the 2020 U.S. election results will not be tried in federal court, a sign that similar bids by the Republican former president and his co-defendants to move the criminal case to a more favorable venue will fail. Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones denying a bid by Meadows to move his case from Georgia state court to federal court gave an early win to Fulton County prosecutors, who in August charged Trump and 18 others with conspiring to undo Trump's election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

A month after deadly Maui fire, 66 people still missing

A month after a ferocious fire razed a town in Maui, 66 people remained unaccounted for as workers continued to remove toxic debris from the burn site, a process that could take almost a year, Hawaii Governor Josh Green said on Friday. The official death toll of the Aug. 8 fire that left the historic town of Lahaina in charred ruins still stands at 115 people, a number unchanged in more than two weeks.

Court eases curbs on Biden administration's contacts with social media firms

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled the White House, the FBI and top health officials may not "coerce or significantly encourage" social-media companies to remove content the Biden administration considers misinformation, including about COVID-19. But the three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed much of an injunction issued by a Louisiana judge that restricted Democratic President Joe Biden's administration from communicating with social-media companies.

US House Republicans set to debate 2024 defense spending next week

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to consider fiscal 2024 defense spending legislation next week, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said on Friday. The Republican-controlled House, which returns to Washington on Tuesday from its August recess, will consider an appropriations bill covering defense spending, according to Scalise's weekly floor schedule.

New York says Trump inflated net worth by up to $3.6 billion; Trump seeks dismissal

New York state's attorney general on Friday said Donald Trump may have fraudulently inflated his fortune by far more than previously thought, her latest salvo in preparation for trial in her civil lawsuit against the former U.S. president and his family business. In a filing with a New York state court in Manhattan, Attorney General Letitia James said her valuation and accounting experts believe Trump falsely boosted his net worth by between $1.9 billion and $3.6 billion a year over a decade.

(With inputs from agencies.)