Good morning.
The Republican-led US House of Representatives yesterday adopted a package of internal rules that give rightwing hardliners more leverage over the chamber’s newly elected Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
Lawmakers voted 220-213 for the legislation, with only one Republican voting against. All 212 Democrats voted against the package, saying it was full of concessions to the right wing of the Republican party.
The rules package, which will govern House operations over the next two years, represented an early test of McCarthy’s ability to keep his caucus together, after he suffered the humiliation of 14 failed ballots last week at the hands of 20 hardliners before finally being elected speaker on Saturday.
The legislation includes key concessions that hardliners sought and McCarthy agreed to in his quest for the speaker’s gavel. The changes include allowing a single lawmaker to call for his removal at any time. Other changes would place new restrictions on federal spending, potentially limiting McCarthy’s ability to negotiate government funding packages with the president, Joe Biden, whose fellow Democrats control the Senate.
What do the Democrats say is wrong with the package of rules? Democrats denounced the legislation as a rules package for “Maga extremists” that would favor wealthy corporations over workers, undermine congressional ethics standards and lead to further restrictions on abortion services.
What else is going on? The rapper Dr Dre has spoken out against the use of his song Still DRE in a self-promotional video by the Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to celebrate her role in electing fellow GOP lawmaker Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. “I don’t license my music to politicians, especially someone as divisive and hateful as this one,” he said.
DoJ seeks to question Trump team that found more classified documents
The US Department of Justice is intensifying its investigation of Donald Trump’s unauthorized retention of national security materials at Mar-a-Lago as it prepares to question the people who searched the former president’s Florida properties at the end of last year and found more documents with classified markings.
The department was given a general explanation from Trump’s lawyers at the time about who conducted the search – a company known to Trump with experience handling classified records cases – when the new documents marked as classified were returned to the government around Thanksgiving last year.
But the department, unsatisfied with that accounting, last week convinced a federal judge in a sealed hearing to force Trump’s lawyers to give the names of the people who retrieved the documents with an intent to question them directly, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The move by prosecutors to ask a federal judge to compel the information marks the latest escalating twist in the criminal investigation into Trump’s potential unauthorized retention of highly sensitive government documents as well as obstruction of justice.
Why is Biden in the news regarding classified documents? The US justice department is investigating a number of documents bearing highly sensitive classified markings stored at Joe Biden’s former institute in Washington DC from his time as vice-president in the Obama administration, the White House acknowledged in a statement yesterday.
Brazil envoy decries ‘grotesque and failed assault’ on democracy
The far-right storming of Brazil’s supreme court, congress and presidential palace was a “grotesque and failed assault” on its institutions, the country’s ambassador to the UK has said, as troops moved in to break up protest camps set up by supporters of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
A day after the would-be insurrectionists attacked all three branches of government in a brazen effort to topple the democratically elected government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Fred Arruda, Brazil’s ambassador in London, said: “What happened in Brasília yesterday was a grotesque and failed assault on our institutions. As President Lula put it, democracy requires people to respect the institutions.”
He warned that members of the mob would feel the full force of the law, adding: “And they will witness an unintended consequence of their actions: Brazilian democracy emerging even stronger from those dark episodes,” he said.
The justice minister, Flávio Dino, said that about 1,500 people had been arrested during and after the unrest, and police had started tracking those who paid for dozens of buses that transported protesters. Forensic evidence including fingerprints and photographs would be used to hold people to account, he said.
What did Dino say? “They will not succeed in destroying Brazilian democracy. We need to say that fully, with all firmness and conviction,” Dino said. “We will not accept criminal methods to carry out political fights in Brazil.”
How did Bolsonaro’s war on nature help lead to the Brasília violence? The unrest came after President Lula unveiled ambitious environmental plans that threaten interest groups who rely on exploiting the Amazon.
In other news …
Emergency measures are required to avert a catastrophe in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which has been drying up due to excessive water use, a report warns. Within years, the lake’s ecosystems could collapse and millions will be exposed to toxic dust contained within the drying lakebed, unless drastic steps are taken to cut water use.
At least 17 people have been killed in fresh clashes between protesters and security forces in Peru as rolling anti-government protests turned deadly again, pushing the overall death toll to nearly 40 in the nationwide unrest after the ousting and arrest of former president Pedro Castillo a month ago.
The shooting of a Virginia teacher by a six-year-old boy in her classroom last week happened without warning, and with no fight or physical struggle, authorities have said. “He displayed a firearm, he pointed it and he fired one round,” said the Newport News police chief, Steve Drew.
Former US secretary of state George Shultz was besotted by Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, a new book says. His support for Holmes and her fraudulent blood testing company, which devastated his family and caused a bitter feud with his grandson, receives fresh scrutiny in a biography published today.
Don’t miss this: Why is Spotify full of faster versions of pop hits? Let’s bring you up to speed
I’m listening to the accelerated, chipmunk voice of the British singer Raye on Escapism, a rebound-sex anthem that’s climbing the UK pop charts. Raye actually has a low, brassy singing voice, but I’m not listening to her official version. This one is paced 150% faster than the original song, making it sound like Raye has just inhaled helium. Who wants to listen to a song that sounds like a triple shot of espresso? Perhaps more people than you might think. The Escapism remix can be found on Sped Up Songs, a Spotify-produced playlist liked by more than 975,000 people and it runs over four hours.
Climate check: Study finds climate crisis worsened extreme weather
Relentless drought in California, extreme rainfall in the UK, record heat in China – some of the most severe weather events that have occurred around the world in the past few years were made far more likely due to the climate crisis, research has found. The analysis of extreme events in 2021 and 2022 found that many of these extremes were worsened by global heating, and in some cases would have been almost impossible in terms of their severity if humans had not altered the climate through the burning of fossil fuels.
Last Thing: ‘Truly a renaissance period of social media’ – how US state agencies got funny
“If you encounter a cougar, never approach or offer it food. You are not a Disney princess.”
“Most grandma/reindeer collisions are entirely preventable. Please give wildlife plenty of space.”
“Please be responsible with hot takes this Thanksgiving if your turkey is as dry as our forests.”
These are just a few salient pieces of advice provided over the holidays by officials at the Washington state department of natural resources (DNR). The agency’s social media team, which has more than 120,000 followers on Twitter, has become a go-to source for useful advice on the outdoors, often in the guise of good humor. And it’s not alone.
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