AP News in Brief at 6:06 a.m. EST

Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell mob

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three days before supporters of President Donald Trump rioted at the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the U.S Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower. And as the mob descended on the building Wednesday, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. The police turned them down both times, according to senior defense officials and two people familiar with the matter.

Despite plenty of warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration.

Still stinging from the uproar over the violent response by law enforcement to protests last June near the White House, officials also were intent on avoiding any appearance that the federal government was deploying active duty or National Guard troops against Americans.

The result is the U.S. Capitol was overrun Wednesday and officers in a law enforcement agency with a large operating budget and experience in high-security events protecting lawmakers were overwhelmed for the world to see. Four protesters died, including one shot inside the building. A Capitol Police officer died Thursday after being injured in the Wednesday melee.

The rioting and loss of control has raised serious questions over security at the Capitol for future events. The actions of the day also raise troubling concerns about the treatment of mainly white Trump supporters, who were allowed to roam through the building for hours, while Black and brown protesters who demonstrated last year over police brutality faced more robust and aggressive policing.

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Police officer's death intensifies Capitol siege questions

WASHINGTON (AP) — A police officer has died from injuries sustained as President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol, a violent siege that is forcing hard questions about the defeated president's remaining days in office and the ability of the Capitol Police to secure the area.

The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Brian D. Sicknick was injured “while physically engaging with protesters" during the Wednesday riot. He is the fifth person to die because of the melee.

The rampage that has shocked the world and left the country on edge forced the resignations of three top Capitol security officials over the failure to stop the breach. It led lawmakers to demand a review of operations and an FBI briefing over what they called a “terrorist attack.” And it is prompting a broader reckoning over Trump’s tenure in office and what comes next for a torn nation.

Protesters were urged by Trump during a rally near the White House earlier Wednesday to head to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers were scheduled to confirm Biden’s presidential victory. The mob swiftly broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding.

One protester, a white woman, was shot to death by Capitol Police, and there were dozens of arrests. Three other people died after “medical emergencies” related to the breach.

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Trump finally faces reality — amid talk of early ouster

WASHINGTON (AP) — With 13 days left in his term, President Donald Trump finally bent to reality Thursday amid growing talk of trying to force him out early, acknowledging he’ll peacefully leave after Congress affirmed his defeat.

Trump led off a video from the White House by condemning the violence carried out in his name a day earlier at the Capitol. Then, for the first time on camera, he admitted his presidency would soon end — though he declined to mention President-elect Joe Biden by name or explicitly state he had lost.

“A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20,” Trump said in the video. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”

The address, which appeared designed to stave off talk of a forced early eviction, came at the end of a day when the cornered president stayed out of sight in the White House. Silenced on some of his favorite internet lines of communication, he watched the resignations of several top aides, including two Cabinet secretaries.

And as officials sifted through the aftermath of the pro-Trump mob’s siege of the U.S. Capitol, there was growing discussion of impeaching him a second time or invoking the 25th Amendment to oust him from the Oval Office.

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Capitol siege raises security concerns for Biden inaugural

WASHINGTON (AP) — The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is intensifying scrutiny over security at an inauguration ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden already reshaped by a pandemic and the prospect that his predecessor may not attend.

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath of office from the Capitol's West Front, one of the very locations where a violent mob overpowered police and stormed the building. They also scaled and occupied the scaffolding and bleachers in place for the ceremonies.

Inauguration plans were already scaled back because of the coronavirus. But the brazen attack raises new questions about preparedness for the event that welcome the new administration after a bitter election.

The congressional leaders responsible for coordinating the inauguration insisted Thursday night that events will move forward.

“Yesterday was a sad and solemn day for our country," said Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “The outrageous attack on the Capitol, however, will not stop us from affirming to Americans — and the world — that our democracy endures.”

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Stay or go? After Trump-fueled riot, aides debate early exit

WASHINGTON (AP) — A steady stream of Trump administration officials are beating an early path to the exits as a protest against the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol this week even as others wrestling with the stay-or-go question conclude that they owe it to the public to see things through to the end.

Some of Trump's critics don't give those in the early-exit caucus much credit for walking away from their jobs with less than two weeks left in the administration, seeing it as little more than a face-saving effort.

“Nobody is fooled by these last-second, come-to-Jesus conversions,” said Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans fiercely critical of Trump.

Trump’s education and transportation secretaries, his acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and deputy national security adviser are among at least nine senior administration officials who have announced their resignations since Wednesday's attack by Trump supporters on the Capitol.

Serving under Trump has been a test for many aides who have abided some of the president's most provocative actions, including his embrace of authoritarians, a habit of coarsely belittling political adversaries and the ease and frequency with which he’s deployed falsehoods for personal benefit.

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US registering highest deaths yet from the coronavirus

The U.S. registered more COVID-19 deaths in a single day than ever before — nearly 3,900 — on the very day the mob attack on the Capitol laid bare some of the same, deep political divisions that have hampered the battle against the pandemic.

The virus is surging in several states, with California hit particularly hard, reporting on Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths. Skyrocketing caseloads there are threatening to force hospitals to ration care and essentially decide who lives and who dies.

“Folks are gasping for breath. Folks look like they’re drowning when they are in bed right in front of us,” said Dr. Jeffrey Chien, an emergency room physician at Santa Clara Valley Regional Medical Center, urging people to do their part to help slow the spread. “I’m begging everyone to help us out because we aren’t the front line. We’re the last line.”

Meanwhile, the number of Americans who have gotten their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine climbed to at least 5.9 million Thursday, a one-day gain of about 600,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hundreds of millions will need to be vaccinated to stop the coronavirus.

About 1.9 million people around the world have died of the virus, more than 360,000 in the U.S. alone. December was by far the nation's deadliest month yet, and health experts are warning that January could be more terrible still because of family gatherings and travel over the holidays.

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Pfizer study suggests vaccine works against virus variant

New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can protect against a mutation found in two highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that erupted in Britain and South Africa.

Those variants are causing global concern. They both share a common mutation called N501Y, a slight alteration on one spot of the spike protein that coats the virus. That change is believed to be the reason they can spread so easily.

Most of the vaccines being rolled out around the world train the body to recognize that spike protein and fight it. Pfizer teamed with researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for laboratory tests to see if the mutation affected its vaccine's ability to do so.

They used blood samples from 20 people who received the vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, during a large study of the shots. Antibodies from those vaccine recipients successfully fended off the virus in lab dishes, according to the study posted late Thursday on an online site for researchers.

The study is preliminary and has not yet been reviewed by experts, a key step for medical research.

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Indonesian cleric who inspired Bali bombings freed from jail

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A firebrand cleric who inspired bombings in Bali and other attacks walked free from an Indonesian prison Friday after completing his sentence for funding the training of Islamic militants.

Police said they will monitor the activities of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is 82 and ailing. His son said Bashir will avoid activities outside his home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The slender, white-bearded Bashir, an Indonesian of Yemeni descent, was the spiritual leader of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network behind the 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians, leaving a deep scar in that country.

Bashir was imprisoned in 2011 for his links to a militant training camp in religiously conservative Aceh province. He was convicted of funding the military-style camp to train Islamic militants and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

He received a total of 55 months of sentence reductions, which are often granted to prisoners on major holidays, said Rika Aprianti, spokesperson for the corrections department at the Justice Ministry.

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Police chief's past sows doubts in wake of Taylor's death

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville city leaders praised the former Atlanta police chief who has been hired to oversee their struggling department in the wake of Breonna Taylor's death, but some critics questioned if she was the right choice after a rocky departure from her previous job.

Erika Shields was introduced this week after winning plaudits from Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and a panel that unanimously selected her after a months-long search process. The panel included two Black city council members who have been instrumental in police reforms since Taylor was fatally shot by city officers in March.

One panelist, city council member Jessica Green, urged Kentucky’s largest city to give Shields "an opportunity to earn your trust.”

Asked Ricky L. Jones, chair of the Pan-African studies department at the University of Louisville: “Why would you make a hire in which you have to beg people to give her a chance?”

Shields stepped down from the top Atlanta post in June after the death of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who was shot in the back by police in a restaurant parking lot after reports that he fell asleep at the wheel in a drive-thru lane. Shields remained with the Atlanta department in a lesser role.

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Biggest Czech crematorium overwhelmed by pandemic deaths

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) — All three cremation chambers are working round the clock, while storage capacity for caskets has been repeatedly boosted.

Despite all the efforts, the Czech Republic's biggest crematorium, in the northeastern city of Ostrava, has been overwhelmed by mounting numbers of pandemic victims.

On Thursday, cars from funeral companies delivered caskets every few minutes, some with “COVID” written on them. These days, the crematorium receives more than 100 coffins daily, about double its maximum cremation capacity.

With new confirmed COVID-19 infections around record highs, the situation looks set to worsen.

Authorities in Ostrava have been speeding up plans to build a fourth furnace but, in the meantime, have sought help from the government’s central crisis committee for pandemic coordination.