WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday tried and failed to kill a bipartisan effort to change House rules so that lawmakers would temporarily be allowed to vote remotely after the birth of a child, suffering an embarrassing defeat that paralyzed the chamber and signaled that the proposal could soon be adopted.

Using strong-arm tactics in a bid to block the measure, Johnson tried an extraordinary use of the speaker’s power to prevent the House from even considering a measure backed by half its members. But nine Republicans refused to go along, instead dealing him a public rebuke that left him without a strategy for moving ahead.

After the vote, Johnson canceled votes for the rest of the week, sending members home and leaving legislative business unsettled. Under House rules, Republican leaders are required to bring the proxy voting resolution to a vote within two legislative days. But they appeared to be refusing to do anything else until the holdouts in their party cave, which they have shown no sign of doing.

The showdown on the House floor was a capstone of a long-running fight over the rights of new parents in Congress.

It began over a year ago, when Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., began agitating for a change to House rules that would allow new mothers to designate a colleague to vote by proxy on their behalf for up to six weeks after giving birth. Luna landed on the idea after her own child was born.

There is no maternity or paternity leave for lawmakers, who can take time away from office without sacrificing their pay but cannot vote if they are not physically in the Capitol. Proponents of the change have called it a common-sense fix to modernize Congress, where more women and more younger members serve now than did 200 years ago.

Democrats, including Reps. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, who gave birth this year to her second child, and Sara Jacobs of California, joined Luna’s effort, expanding the resolution to include new fathers and up to 12 weeks of proxy voting during a parental leave.

Johnson has opposed the group at every turn, arguing that proxy voting is unacceptable and unconstitutional, even though the Supreme Court refused to take up a Republican- led lawsuit challenging pandemic-era proxy voting rules in the House.

On Tuesday, he used an unprecedented parliamentary maneuver to close off the only path that members of the House have for steering around their leaders and forcing a vote on a measure that has majority support.

But that measure failed on the floor by a 222-206 vote, keeping alive the proxy voting proposal. Eight Republicans joined Luna and all Democrats in voting no.

Chinese military drills near Taiwan: The Chinese military announced large-scale drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan on Tuesday that include an aircraft carrier battle group, as it again warned the self-ruled island democracy against seeking formal independence.

The joint exercises involve navy, air, ground and rocket forces and are meant to be a “severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence,” according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command. No operational name for the drills was announced nor previous notice given.

China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de-facto independence and democratic status. Any conflict could bring in the U.S., which maintains a series of alliances in the region and is legally bound to treat threats to Taiwan as a matter of “grave concern.”

Netanyahu drops pick: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed away from his nominee for the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service Tuesday after conservative allies attacked him for criticizing President Donald Trump and Israeli media reported that he had protested judicial overhauls pushed by the government.

Netanyahu had backed Eli Sharvit, a former commander of Israel’s navy, to lead the Shin Bet intelligence agency after he dismissed his predecessor, Ronen Bar. But the Israeli leader dropped Sharvit a day after the Monday announcement amid a backlash from the right, partly because he had written a column two months ago criticizing Trump for rolling back policies to fight climate change.

Houthi claims on US drone: Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Tuesday that they shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone, as the U.S. kept up its intense airstrikes targeting the group. The reported downing came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa, the country’s rebel-held capital, and Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

The U.S. military said it was aware of the report, but it declined to comment further.

President Donald Trump issued a new warning to the Houthis and their main benefactor, Iran, describing the group as being “decimated” by the campaign of strikes that began March 15.

The Houthis claim they’ve shot down 20 MQ-9s over the country over the years. The U.S. military hasn’t acknowledged the total number of drones it has lost there.

Last of 4 US soldiers: The final U.S. soldier who went missing in Lithuania has been found dead, bringing to an end a massive weeklong search for the four service members whose armored vehicle was pulled from a swampy training area, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The bodies of the three others were recovered Monday after U.S., Polish and Lithuanian armed forces and authorities dug the M88 Hercules vehicle out of a peat bog at the Gen. Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in the town of Pabrade.

The Army released the identities of the three soldiers recovered Monday, but the fourth soldier’s name has not been made public as family notifications continue. They were Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.

Protester leaves US: A Cornell University student facing deportation after his visa was revoked because of his campus activism said he decided to leave the United States.

Momodou Taal, 31, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, had asked a federal court to halt his detention. But he posted on X late Monday that he didn’t believe a legal ruling in his favor would guarantee his safety or ability to speak out. In his post, Taal didn’t say where he was writing from or where he intended to live next.

Taal, a doctoral student in Africana studies at the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York, was suspended last fall after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted a campus career fair. He had been continuing his studies remotely this semester.