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The congressman Matt Gaetz, a hard-right Republican of Florida, introduced a motion to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker on Monday, expressing outrage over the Republican leader’s successful efforts to avoid a government shutdown this weekend.
“I have enough Republicans where at this point next week one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy won’t be the speaker of the House, or he’ll be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats,” Gaetz told reporters after he filed the motion. “I’m at peace with either result because the American people deserve to know who governs them.”
McCarthy responded minutes later on social media: “Bring it on.”
The announcement comes two days after the House passed a stopgap spending bill to extend government funding through 17 November, averting a shutdown that could have forced hundreds of thousands of federal workers to go without pay. Both the House and the Senate passed the bill, known as a continuing resolution, with overwhelming bipartisan majorities before Joe Biden signed the bill late on Saturday evening.
Is the motion likely to fail? Gaetz acknowledged that his effort might fail – at least on the first try. But because of House Republicans’ narrow majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose five votes within his conference and still hold the speakership, assuming every House member participates in the vote. Despite that tricky math, McCarthy has struck a defiant tone in recent days, insisting he has the votes to keep his gavel.
‘Only a matter of time’ before Ukraine joins EU, Zelenskiy says after ‘historic’ meeting
Kyiv has been told it is “absolutely possible” that EU membership talks could begin this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said after a surprise meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Ukrainian capital.
“Our key integration goal is to hammer out a decision this year to start membership negotiations,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “And today I heard once again at the meetings and negotiations that this is absolutely possible.”
The president said it was “only a matter of time” before Ukraine joined the bloc and that it would “definitely fulfil” its part of the prerequisite work.
He said the talks had also included Russia’s attempt to circumvent international sanctions, security in the Black Sea and the operation of Ukrainian ports and the bolstering of Ukrainian air defences.
What else did Zelenskiy say? He said: “Our country is a leader in protecting the very foundations on which European unity rests. The unity of modern Europe, which values human freedom and equality of nations, values international law.”
Trial of former cryptocurrency star Sam Bankman-Fried to start in Manhattan
A federal court in Manhattan will start hearing the case against erstwhile crypto star Sam Bankman-Fried, with jury selection beginning today.
Bankman-Fried, who founded cryptocurrency exchange FTX and associated hedge fund Alameda Research, is facing trial on finance crimes stemming from the shocking collapse of FTX.
Bankman-Fried faces seven conspiracy and fraud counts for allegedly siphoning investors’ money into risky trades and other unlawful purposes.
The Manhattan US attorney’s office, which is pursuing the case, has also accused Bankman-Fried of using FTX customer funds to foot the bill for swelling loan expenses at Alameda. Authorities have also contended that he snapped up fancy real estate and made extensive political donations with their money.
Federal prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried and several co-conspirators – among them his sometimes girlfriend, the Alameda chief executive Caroline Ellison – diverted billions for his personal use. Ellison, who in December pleaded guilty to her role in the alleged conspiracy, is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness at Bankman-Fried’s made-for-tabloid trial. The proceedings are also poised to provide bombshell details not only on FTX’s crash but also the murky inner-workings of crypto trading.
In other news …
Humanitarian officials say the widening conflict in Sudan has left them trying to “plan for the apocalypse” as aid supply lines are disrupted and more people are displaced both internally and across the country’s borders. At least 5.4 million people have already been displaced.
Donald Trump attacked the judge and New York prosecutors who have charged him with orchestrating a years-long fraud yesterday as state prosecutors accused the former president of using the scam to inflate his wealth by as much as $2.2bn.
Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality before a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda.
A nine-year-old girl who went missing during a family camping trip in upstate New York was found safe yesterday after a two-day search, authorities said. Charlotte Sena was located “in good health” and a suspect was in custody in connection with her disappearance Saturday evening.
Louisiana’s far-right attorney general Jeff Landry faces accusations of targeted retaliation and conflict of interest after he pushed to remove an independent counsel representing the state’s pardon board as it prepared to hear clemency petitions from dozens of death row inmates.
Stat of the day: ‘It was wonderful up there’ – 104-year-old aims for world’s oldest skydiver record
A 104-year-old Chicago woman is hoping to be certified as the oldest person to ever skydive after leaving her walker on the ground and making a tandem jump in northern Illinois. “Age is just a number,” Dorothy Hoffner told a cheering crowd moments after touching the ground Sunday at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, about 85 miles (140km) south-west of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune has reported.
The Guinness World Record for the oldest skydiver was set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson from Sweden. But Skydive Chicago is working to have Guinness World Records certify Hoffner’s jump as a record, WLS-TV reported.
Don’t miss this: More and more people are having ‘tweakments’. But what about the long-term effects?
The market for non-surgical cosmetic treatments is booming: the desire for plump, youthful-looking skin or the perfect “Instagram face” apparently trumping any fears of bad results or medical complications. Injections of botulinum toxin and dermal fillers are now the most common non-surgical cosmetic procedures worldwide, and the market for such “tweakments” is anticipated to grow a further 15.4% by 2030. Advocates say it is possible to get work done safely with beautiful results. But recent research is prompting some doctors to question how much we really know about the long-term effects of such injectable enhancements, and as their popularity continues to grow, regulators are weighing how best to keep people safe. And what about the wider implications? Are fillers and Botox changing our idea of beauty?
Climate check: type of storm that drenched New York is up to 20% wetter because of climate crisis
The unmistakable influence of the climate crisis helped cause New York City to be inundated by a month’s worth of rain within just a few hours on Friday, scientists have warned, amid concerns over how well the city is prepared for severe climate shocks. A rapid attribution study, released by scientists in Europe, has found that the type of storm seen on Friday is now 10-20% wetter than it would have been in the previous century, because of climate change.
Flash flooding soaked large parts of the US’s largest city, turning roads into rivers, after intense rainfall that broke records. Climate scientists have stressed that such pounding rainfall is a symptom of a warming planet, with a hotter atmosphere able to hold more moisture that is unleashed in torrential downpours.
Last Thing: Trump says he would prefer to die by electrocution in bizarre campaign rant
Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Iowa that he would prefer to die by electrocution rather than be eaten by a shark if he ever found himself on a rapidly sinking, electrically powered boat. The former president was pontificating over batteries for electric powered boats while recounting a conversation he claimed to have had with a boat manufacturer in South Carolina.
“If I’m sitting down and that boat is going down and I’m on top of a battery and the water starts flooding in, I’m getting concerned, but then I look 10 yards to my left and there’s a shark over there, so I have a choice of electrocution and a shark, you know what I’m going to take? Electrocution,” Trump said. “I will take electrocution every single time, do we agree?”
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