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Kevin McCarthy Scores Big For US House Speakership, But Still Falls Short

(CTN NEWS) – WASHINGTON – In a dramatic vote for House speaker on Friday, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy converted 15 opponents to supporters.
Making extraordinary gains on the fourth day and the 12th and 13th ballots in a historic impasse that has put American democracy and the GOP majority’s capacity to rule to the test.
McCarthy came closer to taking the gavel for the new Congress thanks to the switched votes from conservative holdouts, including the leader of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus.
But he wasn’t yet able to do so. Republicans decided to break the session up into two 10-hour sessions.
Kevin McCarthy told reporters, “I think at that point we’ll have the votes to finish this once and for all.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stands as he is nominated for a twelfth time in the House chamber as the House meets for the fourth day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
After conceding to many of his critics’ requests, including the restoration of a long-standing House rule allowing any individual member to convene a vote to remove him from office, McCarthy underwent a startling turnabout.
Kevin McCarthy will emerge as a weakened speaker after ceding some authority and continuously being threatened with removal by his critics, even if he is able to collect the votes he requires.
However, as a survivor of one of the bloodiest battles for the gavel in American history, he might also feel more confident. The number of voting rounds for a speaker’s vote has not been this high since the Civil War era.
The standoff that has paralyzed the new Congress occurred on January 6, 2021.
The second anniversary of the attack on the Capitol shook the nation when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters attempted to prevent Congress from certifying the Republican’s loss to Democrats Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Rep. James Comer Jr., R-Ky., shakes hands with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as he nominates him for speaker ahead of the 13th round of voting in the House chamber as the House meets for the fourth day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
A few politicians, largely Democrats, spent a minute of grief and thanked the law enforcement personnel who assisted in protecting Congress that day at a Capitol event on Friday.
Additionally, Biden awarded medals to police officers and others who repelled the terrorists at the White House.
“America is a country of laws, not anarchy,” he declared.
During the speaker’s vote in the afternoon, some Republicans who had grown weary of the show briefly left the room when one of McCarthy’s fiercest rivals criticized the GOP leader.
Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida stated, “We do not trust Mr. McCarthy with authority,” as colleagues left the room in protest of his comments.
After three miserable days and 11 unsuccessful votes in an intraparty standoff unheard of in modern times, an agreement with conservative holdouts impeding Kevin McCarthy’s ascent emerged.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reacts during the 12th round of voting for speaker in the House chamber as the House meets for the fourth day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
We’re going to make progress, McCarthy said to reporters as he arrived at the Capitol. We’re about to surprise you.
We’re at a tipping point, Republican Scott Perry, head of the conservative Freedom Caucus and a key figure in Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election, tweeted after switching his vote to McCarthy.
A second Republican holdout, Florida’s Byron Donalds, who had regularly been suggested as a substitute speaker candidate, also changed his vote on Friday and supported Kevin McCarthy.
Trump might have had some influence on the holdouts. Donalds claimed to have spoken with the former president, who the day before had urged Republicans to put an end to their heated public debate.
McCarthy received the most votes on the 12th ballot for the first time, 213. McCarthy quickly launched a 13th, this time with the Democratic leader just behind him, and gained another detractor, bringing his total to 214.
McCarthy still fell short of a majority despite the spectacular return of Democrat David Trone, who had been absent due to surgery, with 432 members voting at this point. Six Republicans voted in favor of a fellow Republican.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, votes for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., during the twelfth round of voting in the House chamber as the House meets for the fourth day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Kevin McCarthy’s supporters expected the presence of two absent colleagues to help him win the majority in the late-night voting.
Rep. Mike Garcia nominated McCarthy on Friday and honored the U.S. Capitol Police, who received a standing ovation for defending legislators and the democratically-elected congressional chamber on Jan. 6.
However, Democratic Jim Clyburn recalled the horror of that day and reminded his colleagues that “the eyes of the country are on us today” as he nominated Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Without a speaker, the house cannot swear in new members or kick off the 2023–24 legislative session, a sign of the challenges the new Republican majority would face in trying to rule.
Choosing a speaker for a party that has just won majority control is typically a simple and enjoyable affair.
But not this time: Twenty far-right colleagues who claimed he wasn’t conservative enough stymied over 200 Republicans.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, from left, Rep. Dan Bishop, D-N.C., Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., meet with reporters in Statuary Hall to talk about their opposition to voting for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to be speaker of the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
With Republicans now in charge of the House, issues are likely to arise. This is similar to how some previous Republican speakers, such as John Boehner, struggled to tame a dissident right flank.
As a result, conservatives vowed to remove Boehner from office, which led to government shutdowns, standoffs, and his early retirement.
The Freedom Caucus holdouts and others were provided with a deal by Kevin McCarthy that focused on the rule changes they have been requesting for months.
By making those adjustments, the speaker’s office would have less authority, and lower-ranking legislators would have more say in the creation and passage of legislation.

Rep. John James, R-Mich., nominates Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for a speaker for the seventh round of voting in the House chamber as the House meets for the third day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The reintroduction of a House rule that would permit a single legislator to introduce a resolution to “vacate the chair,” effectively calling a vote to remove the speaker, is the cornerstone of the emerging agreement.
Because it had been enforced over the head of former Republican Speaker Boehner, McCarthy had fought to allow the reinstatement to the long-standing regulation that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had abolished.
Kevin McCarthy seemed to have had no other alternative, though.
Other victories for the holdouts are less obvious and include provisions in the proposed agreement to increase the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee to require that bills be posted 72 hours before votes`.

Photographers are seen behind the sculpture of Clio as they wait for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to exit the House chamber as the House meets for the third day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
And to promise to attempt to amend the Constitution to impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.
First time since 1923 that a nominee had not received the gavel on the first vote, what began as a political novelty has turned into a sour Republican Party quarrel and a growing potential crisis.
The Democratic leader Jeffries of New York, had received the most votes before Friday’s votes but fell short of a majority. McCarthy finished second and made little progress.
Every day increases pressure on Kevin McCarthy to find the votes he needs or resign.
The new Republican leaders of the House’s foreign affairs, armed services, and intelligence committees all claimed that national security was in jeopardy, and staff members ran the possibility of not getting paid.
During debates about slavery in the lead-up to the Civil War, which lasted for two months and involved 133 ballots, the longest battle for the gavel began in late 1855.
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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.
According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.
Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.
Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.
Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.
To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.
Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.
Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.
TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.
When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.
And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.
Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.
A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.
Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.
But today, it feels more like reality.
Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.
SOURCE | CNN
News
2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Washington — Trump Media, The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.
The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.
The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.
The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.
Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.
Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.
The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.
SOURCE | AP
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.
The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.
Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.
This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.
In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.
The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.
This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.
The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.
In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.
According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.
Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.
The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.
For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.
Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.
As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.
As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.
The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.
SOURCE: AP
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