GEOFF BENNETT: And we start the day's other headlines in space.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin sent their first rocket into orbit after scrubbing an initial attempt earlier this week.

The successful test flight of the uncrewed New Glenn rocket is a major step in the company's hopes to challenge Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Meantime, astronaut Suni Williams got to venture outside the International Space Station for the first time today to carry out repairs.

She's one of the two astronauts who've been stuck aboard the ISS for about seven months longer than planned.

Williams and Butch Wilmore are now due to return to earth in March or early April.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis today appointed state Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate, setting her up to fill the seat of Senator Marco Rubio, whom president-elect Donald Trump tapped to be secretary of state.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Our attorney general and your next United States Senator, Ashley Moody.

(CHEERING) GEOFF BENNETT: The 49-year-old was first elected as the state's A.G.

In 2018.

She will be only the second woman to ever represent Florida in the U.S. Senate.

Rudy Giuliani has reached a settlement with the two former Georgia election workers he defamed.

The former New York mayor and Trump adviser will get to keep his homes and other personal belongings.

In return, Giuliani will pay an unspecified amount to Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss.

He also promised to never defame them again.

The settlement came on the day Giuliani was due to testify in a trial over his assets.

At issue was whether he would surrender his Florida home and three World Series rings as part of the $148 million judgment against him.

There's news today in the nation's fight against cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, the mortality rate dropped by 34 percent from the early 1990s to 2022, preventing millions of deaths.

But younger adults and women are getting cancer more often, with rates for women under 65 now higher than men.

Racial disparities also persist.

Blacks and Native Americans are dying of some cancers at double the rate of white Americans.

Today's report predicts that more than two million new cancer cases will emerge this year and hundreds of thousands of Americans will die from the disease.

Federal health officials authorized the sale of Zyn nicotine pouches today.

The FDA says it found that the products contain fewer harmful ingredients than cigarettes and other types of chewing tobacco.

As such, they can help smokers cut back or even quit cigarettes.

It's the first time regulators have authorized the sales of such products, which are the fastest growing segment of the tobacco market.

Turning now to South Korea, where a court rejected a petition today to release impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from detention.

Yoon is reportedly refusing to cooperate with authorities as they try to question him over his declaration of martial law last month.

They're trying to determine whether his actions amount to rebellion.

Investigators are expected to move to formally arrest Yoon in the coming days.

Meantime, South Korea's Constitutional Court held a second round of hearings in Yoon's impeachment trial today.

The court will ultimately decide whether he can stay in office.

On Wall Street today, stocks cooled off a bit after yesterday's sharp gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 70 points.

The Nasdaq dropped about 170 points on the day.

The S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

And the man known as Mr.

Baseball, Bob Uecker, has died.

BOB UECKER, Announcer: The Brewers win.

The Brewers are moving on.

GEOFF BENNETT: Uecker was the unmistakable voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers.

Before that, he was a Major Leaguer with underwhelming stats, but undeniable charisma, who won a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964.

BOB UECKER: Vaughn into the windup in his first offering.

Just a bit outside.

He tried the corner and missed.

GEOFF BENNETT: When he wasn't calling games, Uecker's comedic wit landed him in the movies and on late night.

He appeared on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson" more than 100 times.

He earned honors from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 for his lasting impact on the game.

Bob Uecker had battled lung cancer since 2023.

He was 90 years old.

Also, David Lynch, a visionary filmmaker who found mainstream success, has died.

His work was known for its dark and surreal sensibility.

ACTOR: You will want to turn away from him.

GEOFF BENNETT: Filmmaker and director David Lynch startled audiences by marrying mundane, everyday life with unsettling dreams, fantasy and horror.

ACTOR: She's dead.

GEOFF BENNETT: Perhaps his most famous work was the 1990 TV series "Twin Peaks," which he co-created with Mark Frost.

The mystery horror drama follows an FBI agent who travels to a seemingly normal logging town to solve a murder.

He quickly realizes nothing is as it seems.

"Twin Peaks" was a groundbreaking drama that was influential for years to come, winning three Golden Globes, two Emmys and even a Grammy for its theme music.

Lynch revived it decades later with a follow-up series on Showtime in 2017.

Lynch rose to fame in the 1970s with his film "Eraserhead," a cult classic horror about a deranged father and his mutant reptilian baby.

ACTRESS: One name that keeps coming up is this woman singer.

GEOFF BENNETT: Other hits included the crime mystery "Blue Velvet," that featured Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and revitalized the career of Dennis Hopper.

It earned Lynch an Oscar nomination for directing.

He was nominated as well for "The Elephant Man" and "Mulholland Drive."

NAOMI WATTS, Actress: What's wrong?

LAURA HARRING, Actress: I don't know who I am.

DAVID LYNCH, Director: When the lights go down and the curtain opens, we get to go into another world, and it's very beautiful.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lynch famously never discussed the meaning of his films, but he described in a 2007 interview what inspired the surrealist style that made him so famous.

DAVID LYNCH: I love a story that holds abstractions and gets a thing that cinema can do, saying abstractions.

So those things are -- they're kind of like the same feeling we have when we have a powerful dream.

GEOFF BENNETT: In all, Lynch directed 10 feature films.

He was also a prolific artist and painter, and created some of the attention-grabbing sound design and music in his work.

His cause of death has not been disclosed.

David Lynch was 78 years old.

Still to come on the "News Hour": TikTok prepares to be banned in the U.S.; and the outgoing U.S. ambassador to China discusses the future of the bilateral relationship.