Good morning.
Despite House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy entering the third day of voting for House speaker with fresh momentum for his candidacy, the 118th Congress made history again yesterday, as he failed to win for the 11th time after eight hours of voting.
The protracted stalemate marks the first time since 1859 that the House has required more than nine ballots to determine a new speaker. The failure came amid reports that he had made significant concessions to his roughly 20 detractors within the Republican conference.
But the ongoing negotiations did not sway McCarthy’s critics, who continued to oppose him across three votes yesterday. McCarthy won 200 votes on the ninth ballot, leaving him 18 votes short of the 218 needed for a victory.
Yesterday’s votes included a couple of surprises. Far-right congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican of Florida, twice cast a ballot for Donald Trump. As the US constitution does not specify that the House speaker must be a member of the chamber, lawmakers are not required to support one of their colleagues. Trump received no other votes.
Who are the hardline House members voting against McCarthy? A group of about 20 hardline Republicans have brought Washington to a standstill. They include Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry, who is the chair of the caucus, Florida’s Byron Donalds, Texas Republican Chip Roy and Lauren Boebert, who has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.
‘All I did was testify’: Republican who defied Trump will get presidential medal
Rusty Bowers, the former top Republican in Arizona’s house of representatives who stood up to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and was punished for it by being unseated by his own party, is to receive America’s second-highest civilian honor today.
Bowers will be among 12 people who will be awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by Joe Biden at the White House at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. It will be the first time that the president has presented the honor, which is reserved for those who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens”.
All 12 took exceptional personal risks to protect US democracy against Trump’s onslaught. Many are law enforcement officers who confronted the Capitol rioters, others are election workers and officials in key battleground states who refused to be bullied into subverting the outcome of the presidential race.
Several of the recipients paid a huge personal price for their actions. Brian Sicknick will receive the presidential medal posthumously – he died the day after the insurrection having suffered a stroke; a medical examiner later found he died from natural causes, while noting that the events of January 6 had “played a role in his condition”.
What did Bowers Bowers tell the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection? He said that shortly after the November 2020 election he had received a phone call personally from Trump, who asked him to take the state’s 11 electoral college votes away from Biden and hand them to him. Bowers replied: “Look, you’re asking me to do something that is counter to my oath … I will not do it.”
Prince Harry saw ‘red mist’ in William during brother’s alleged attack
Prince Harry has said he saw “the red mist” in his brother, Prince William, when his older sibling allegedly attacked him during a confrontation over the younger duke’s relationship with Meghan Markle.
In a newly released clip from ITV’s forthcoming interview with Harry, the Duke of Sussex said his brother, William, was so frustrated during the 2019 incident he saw “the red mist in him”.
“He wanted me to hit him back, but I chose not to,” he says of his brother, who he earlier claimed in his book had physically attacked him – as was first reported by the Guardian.
The book’s revelations are spread across front pages of almost every national newspaper in the UK and are likely to reduce the possibility of a reconciliation between the Sussexes and the rest of the British royal family. In the clip, released early on Friday morning, Harry tells the interviewer, Tom Bradby: “What was different here was the level of frustration, and I talk about the red mist that I had for so many years, and I saw this red mist in him.”
How has the royal family responded? Kensington Palace, which represents Prince William and Buckingham Palace, which represents King Charles, have both declined to comment on the allegations.
When is Harry’s book out? Although it was mistakenly released early in Spain, it’s actually out next Tuesday.
In other news …
A spate of deaths among celebrities and public figures across China has sparked concerns that the actual death toll from Covid-19 may be far higher than authorities are reporting. The World Health Organization earlier this week criticised China’s “very narrow” definition of Covid deaths, warning that official statistics were not showing the true impact of the outbreak.
At least two deaths have been reported in connection with a ‘bomb cyclone’, bringing hurricane-force winds and torrents of rain to California, including a child whose home was hit by a falling tree in Sonoma county. More than 163,500 people were without power, with little reprieve in sight yesterday.
The suspect accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in their beds was linked to the slayings after authorities tested his family’s household trash for DNA and found a match on a knife sheath at the scene, according to court documents released yesterday.
A Utah man killed his five children, his mother-in-law and his wife and then killed himself two weeks after the woman had filed for divorce, according to authorities and public records. Officials believe Michael Haight killed his children ranged in age from four to 17 and the women by shooting them.
Stat of the day: Hackers reportedly leak email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users
Hackers stole the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and posted them on an online hacking forum, a security researcher said Wednesday. The breach “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing”, Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity monitoring firm Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn. He called it “one of the most significant leaks I’ve seen”. Twitter has not commented on the report, which Gal first posted about on social media on 24 December, nor responded to inquiries about the breach since that date.
Don’t miss this: Take more breaks at work, put your head in the freezer … an expert’s eight simple tips for better sleep
“Sleep is one of the most powerful things you can do for your body. It’s just critical to make that a priority,” says Aric Prather, author of The Seven-Day Sleep Prescription. In his book, the psychologist shares his strategy for “unlocking your best rest”. He says: “Life is hard, there is always stress, sleep is disrupted, but there are things we can do.” Better yet, the effort pays dividends. “The more work you put into it, the better you’ll sleep,” says Prather. His tips include keeping a sleep diary, waking up at the same time each day and taking five “microbreaks” of five to 15 minutes every day, preferably without reaching for a caffeine boost every time. Read more here.
… or this: The company purging meetings from calendars
A new year often brings about purges – closet clean-outs, Dry Januarys – and one company is urging its employees to ditch work meetings, too. Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce company, announced this week that it will conduct a “calendar purge” in 2023, requiring staff to scrap recurring meetings with more than three people in attendance. Meetings of any sort held on Wednesdays are out, too. “Uninterrupted time is the most precious resource of a craftsperson, and we are giving our people a ‘no judgment zone’ to subtract, reject meetings, and focus on what is most valuable,” Kaz Nejatian of Shopify said.
Climate check: Half of glaciers will be gone by 2100 even under Paris 1.5C accord, study finds
Half the planet’s glaciers will have melted by 2100 even if humanity sticks to goals set out in the Paris climate agreement, according to research that finds the scale and impacts of glacial loss are greater than previously thought. At least half of that loss will happen in the next 30 years. Researchers found 49% of glaciers would disappear under the most optimistic scenario of 1.5C of warming. However, if global heating continued under the current scenario of 2.7C of warming, losses would be more significant. This will significantly contribute to sea level rise, threaten the supply of water of up to 2 billion people, and increase the risk of flooding.
Last Thing: Edward Norton is direct descendant of Pocahontas, records confirm
Genealogical records reviewed on the show Finding Your Roots reveal that Pocahontas, the mythologized 17th-century Native American woman, is the 12th great-grandmother of actor Edward Norton. The PBS history show confirmed Norton’s longstanding family lore on a recent episode, with host Henry Louis Gates Jr telling the American actor: “You have a direct paper trail, no doubt about it, connection to your 12th great-grandmother and great-grandfather, John Rolfe and Pocahontas.” Norton, the star of Fight Club and American History X, said the revelation “just makes you realize what a small … piece of the whole human story you are”.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
