El Máster Edwin

A dominant mother bear nicknamed Grazer was crowned queen of corpulence at Katmai National Park and Preserve's annual Fat Bear Week. A dominant mother bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve has been crowned Fat Bear Week's queen of corpulence. Bear 128, nicknamed Grazer, got 108,321 votes in the final bracket of Fat Bear Week, an annual competition that draws hundreds of thousands of internet users to decide who in Katmai is the fattest of the fat. This year, 1.4 million votes were cast from 100 countries, staff members at Katmai said. Grazer, an adult who stayed single this season, beat Chunk by 85,187 votes, proving 2023 is the year of the sow. “The gutsy girl grounded the guy with a gut. 32 Chunk, proved his prominent posterior was worthy of a whopping win. But in the end, Chunk got Grazered,” Katmai National Park wrote on X. "Let’s crown our Queen that’s thicker than a bowl of oatmeal, 128 Grazer!" Bear 128, nicknamed Grazer, on Sept. 14. Grazer, an 18-year-old with blond ears and light brown fur, is renowned for her dominance, so much so that even the most alpha male bears on the river give her a wide berth. “Grazer is best known on the river as a very protective and defensive mother bear,” said Naomi Boak, a media ranger at Katmai. “When Grazer has cubs, watch out. She will attack the largest, most dominant bears on the river.” Grazer raised two litters and is one of the best salmon fishers on the river, the park's website says. She was introduced to Brooks River as a cub in 2005 and spends her days fishing in the pools of Brooks Falls, a 6-foot waterfall. The river is po[CENSORED]ted by rainbow trout, arctic char and salmon. Boak, who photographs and livestreams the bears during the competition, estimates that Grazer is well over 700 or 800 pounds. The biggest boars, like runner-up Chunk, are well over 1,200 pounds. Chunk, 18, is one of the three most dominant bears on the river, Boak said. Fat is essential for female bears: More weight means more cubs, she said. But when female bears aren’t caring for cubs, they can dedicate themselves to self-care and feeding, she said. “How great is it that when you’re single, you can just get fat and succeed? Is there anything better?” Boak said. She thinks Grazer succeeded this year because stories about the challenges of mother bears have resonated with people. The bears of Katmai are preparing to hibernate from late October until March or April. Their bodies go into a state of hyperphasia, which means the hormone that tells them they are full stops working, Boak said. Fat Bear Week started when Mike Fitz, the resident naturalist for explore.org, decided that there should be a Fat Bear Tuesday to celebrate the bears at Katmai as they gain weight, Boak said. It was so successful that Fitz decided to turn the day into a weeklong bracketed competition the next year, in 2015. Although Brooks Camp, the bears' habitat, is remote and inaccessible by road, 10 million people tuned in to the "bear cams" on explore.org last year, she said. The bear cams livestream from seven locations around Brooks Falls. A 2019 survey of viewers of the Katmai bear cams revealed that those who could identify individual bears were much more likely to support conservation programs. "When you watch the bear cams, you're watching five soap operas a day," Boak said. "Will Grazer come back with cubs? Will the big boars have to keep an eye out for her?" To enter the Fat Bear Week bracket, bears need to show up in the spring while they are skinny, then come back in the fall when they are fattening up, she said. "The females look smaller and skinnier at the beginning of the season than the male bears do," said Boak, who thinks the contrast is one of the reasons Grazer won this year. Link

Ultra lux car maker hits up day and night in one fell swoop Rolls Royce has launched a new limited edition of its Black Badge Ghost model. Taking inspiration from the moon aligning with the sun, the Ghost Ekleipsis is a rather striking all-black chariot. Ready to launch in time for the actual total eclipse taking place on 14 October 2023 in the Western hemisphere, this limited edition Black Badge Ghost has all manner of bright orange accents to create that distinctive corona outline. Referred to more creatively as ‘Golden Darkness’ (great name for a band, btw), Rolls has even gone so far as to animate its infamous starlight headliner with some 940 ‘stars’ recreating the eclipse with LED lights over a seven-and-a-half-minute window – apparently the longest possible duration of an eclipse. After the spectacle, another 192 lights create the night sky in the headliner. There’s also 1,846 laser-etched stars in the fancy illuminated fascia. Rolls says it took over 100 hours to complete that dashboard work for this first example. For those that are into their watches, the dash also features a bespoke timepiece. But of course. The thing is a part of the cabin drama, incorporating a 0.5-carat brilliant cut diamond which has been positioned to reflect light at specific time in the animation of the dash. Naturally the cushy leather seats in the back and the front are two-tone, black and ‘mandarin’ orange and feature unique artwork with over 200,000 individual perforations. Of course, these are all merely styling cues. The 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 engine, producing 563bhp, remains. What doesn't remain is... the actual car itself. All 25 examples have already been accounted for. Better look to the sky for your next eclipse. Just don't forget your shades. Link

On a Zoom call, Biden spoke with family members of 14 Americans who are unaccounted for in the Israel-Hamas war, including some believed to be held hostage by Hamas. WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with the family members of some Americans believed to be held hostage in the Gaza Strip. On a Zoom call, Biden spoke with family members of 14 Americans who are unaccounted for in the Israel-Hamas war, the White House said, including some believed to be held hostage by Hamas. "They're going through agony, not knowing what the status of their sons and daughters, husbands wives, children," Biden said during remarks at an event in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon. Biden said the call lasted for more than an hour. "You know, it's gut-wrenching." The Zoom call was on-camera for participants, two people familiar with the conversation told NBC News. "It's my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible to return every missing American to their families," said Biden, who said the U.S. is working "around the clock" to try to secure the release of any Americans held hostage in Gaza. Other participants on the call included national security adviser Jake Sullivan; Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs; Undersecretary of State for Management John Bass; and Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East, according to the White House. Israel has estimated that 150 people were taken to Gaza to be held hostage during Hamas’ terrorist attack last Saturday. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that the number of American hostages is believed to be less than a handful. "I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about them, deeply. We have to communicate to the world this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It’s pure barbarism, and we’re going to do everything in our power to get them home — if we can find them," Biden said prior to the call, in a clip of an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" that's airing Sunday. Following the call, the president traveled to Philadelphia in the early afternoon to tour a marine terminal and deliver a speech about his administration's economic plan. Biden and top U.S. officials have stressed that they will do everything they can to get American hostages released. "We’re doing everything we can to secure the release of the hostages working closely with our Israeli partners," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his trip to Israel on Thursday, noting that he brought with him the State Department's deputy special representative for hostage affairs, Steve Gillen. Blinken said Gillen joined his meetings with hostages' families "and will stay on the ground here to support the efforts to free their loved ones." During a brief visit to Israel on Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked how Israel can defeat Hamas without killing civilians and hostages. Austin said he would leave it to Israel to talk about their operations and approach, but reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself and praised the Israel Defense Force for their leadership and professionalism. “I have every expectation that it will be disciplined,” he said. While Kirby has declined to speak about any intelligence that might reveal the location of the hostages, he said that it's "a common tactic in the Hamas playbook to break up hostages and move them around in, sometimes, small groups." Kirby also said that the U.S. has not ruled out any option to get Americans released. "We obviously take seriously our responsibilities to get Americans held overseas back with their families. We have, in the past, entered into negotiations to do exactly that. And we have not foreclosed any option right now in terms of these particular hostages," he said. Link

Acclaimed American poet and Nobel laureate in literature Louise Glück has died at the age of 80. She received a Nobel in 2020, becoming the first American poet to win the honour since TS Eliot more than 70 years earlier. Her poems often spoke of trauma and disillusion, with her most famous poem, "Mock Orange", questioning the value of love and sex. Glück's death was confirmed by her publishers on Friday. "Louise Gluck's poetry gives voice to our untrusting but unstillable need for knowledge and connection in an often unreliable world," her longtime editor Jonathan Galassi said in a statement. "Her work is immortal." A friend told the New York Times that she died of cancer at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Glück was the US poet laureate from 2003 to 2004 and most recently worked as a professor of English at Yale University and a professor of poetry at Stanford University. She was awarded almost every prize an American poet might hope for. The Nobel judges in 2020 praised her for "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her collection The Wild Iris, a book of poems which dealt with themes of suffering, death and rebirth. Her other honours include the 2001 Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, given in 2008, the National Book Award in 2014, and a National Humanities Medal, awarded in 2015 by Barack Obama. Glück, whose name is pronounced "Glick", was born in 1943 in New York, and published more than a dozen books of poetry over her lifetime. Her works were short, often less than one page, and focused on the painful reality of being human, dealing with themes such as death, childhood, and family life. She also took inspiration from Greek mythology and its characters, such as Persephone and Eurydice, who are often the victims of betrayal. Her debut book, released in 1968, was titled Firstborn and was published after she dropped out of college and had her first of two divorces. Her father, who helped invent the X-Acto Knife, encouraged her writing. But she had a difficult childhood, which included hospital treatment for anorexia. "My interactions with the world as a social being were unnatural, forced, performances, and I was happiest reading," she said of her childhood in one 2006 interview. For a sample of her work, look to the final line of her poem Nostos, named for a Greek term meaning "homecoming". We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory. Link

Nick movie: Toy Story 2 Time: November 13, 1999 Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: 92 M Trailer:

It’s the first time the public gets to witness a safety test betwixt two electric cars Mercedes-Benz performs three crash tests every single day, and up to 900 each year. The most recent one has now, for the first time, been made available for public consumption: a crash test involving a big, heavy car and a small, still quite heavy car. It’s a test to prove the strength of Merc’s new generation of electric cars, leaning on the brand’s well-earned history in safety (we haven’t got the internet space to list all of Benz’s pioneering moments here, but you’ll know of them) and adapting it for the EV age. It’s also Mercedes showing how it went above and beyond to build cars stronger than required. For this test, for example, Euro NCAP requires a frontal impact using a 1,400kg ‘trolley’ fitted with an aluminium honeycomb barrier to replicate the front of another car. Merc used a three-tonne EQS SUV and slammed it at 56kmh – faster than Euro NCAP’s required 50kmh – at a 2.2-tonne EQA also doing 56kmh. So it’s a proper ‘live’ test in a real-life scenario: a common type of smash, according to Mercedes’s data and proper field research of real accidents, involving a failed overtake and thus a crash with a 50 per cent ‘frontal overlap’. The result? “The car will look like hell, but the occupants will be safe,” Merc’s director of vehicle safety Paul Dick told TopGear.com. And it’s an alarming thing to witness: much louder than you’d expect, debris showering the controlled air and environment, coolant fluid everywhere, shattered wheel rims and completely deformed car bodies. It’s quite grim. And yet, Merc’s data from the cars and the dummies (each dummy carrying 150 sensors) showed the doors could still be opened after the crash, which means the passenger ‘safety cell’ worked as intended. The four dummies – three females and one male – returned data to suggest a “low risk of serious to fatal injury”. The airbags and belt tensioners all worked as designed. And the eight-stage high voltage safety net incorporating a battery protection zone, better stiffness for housings, reinforced cables and even self-monitoring, also did what it was supposed to. The HV system was automatically switched off and made safe the instant both cars made contact. “Protecting human lives is not a question of drive system,” said Merc’s technology boss Markus Schäfer. “The recent crash test involving two fully electric vehicles demonstrates this. It proves that all our vehicles have an equally high level of safety, no matter what technology drives them.” Link

The superseding indictment alleges Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.Y., speaks during a press conference Sept. 25 in Union City, N.J. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was hit with new charges Thursday accusing him of accepting bribes from a foreign government and acting as a foreign agent, according to a superseding indictment. The new indictment, filed by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, alleged that he “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.” Menendez faces up to two years in prison for failing as a public official to register as an agent of a foreign power, according to a law cited in the superseding indictment. In a statement Thursday, Menendez dismissed the new allegations. "The government’s latest charge flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President [Abdel-Fattah] El-Sisi on these issues," Menendez said. "Piling new charge upon new charge does not make the allegations true. The facts haven’t changed, only a new charge," he added. "I again ask people who know me and my record to give me the chance to present my defense and show my innocence." Menendez and his wife, Nadine, last month pleaded not guilty to corruption charges alleging that they used his influence to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Three other defendants — New Jersey businessmen Jose Uribe, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana — also pleaded not guilty to the corruption charges last month. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who was the first Senate Democrat to call for Menendez to resign after the initial criminal charges, said Thursday that senators should hold a vote to expel him. "We cannot have an alleged foreign agent in the United States Senate," Fetterman said in a statement. “It is time for every one of my colleagues in the Senate to join me in expelling Senator Menendez." Expulsion would require two-thirds of the full Senate to vote in favor of removing Menendez. Fetterman's call was backed by Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who announced after last month's charges against Menendez that he was running for the senator's seat. "Given the severity of these charges, the US Senate should vote on expulsion,” Kim wrote in a post on X. In the indictment Thursday, federal prosecutors alleged that Menendez's wife and Hana “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to Menendez for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement.” In this agreement, Hana, with assistance from Daibes and Uribe, “provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to Menendez and Nadine Menendez, in exchange for Menendez’s acts and breaches of duty to benefit the Government of Egypt, Hana, and others, including with respect to foreign military sales and foreign military financing," prosecutors said. The indictment accused Menendez of acting as an unregistered "agent of foreign principle" for the government of Egypt from around January 2018 to about June 2022. An alleged meeting in Menendez’s office with his wife, Hana, an Egyptian military official and other officials during which the discussion involved foreign military financing to Egypt, among other topics, the indictment says. While additional details about Menendez’s alleged conduct on behalf of the government of Egypt are included in Thursday’s filing, prosecutors did not allege that the senator or his wife accepted any additional cash or gifts that weren’t already included in the charges issued last month. The superseding indictment noted that Menendez had sent two letters to the Justice Department in May 2022, including one letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking that they request an unnamed former member of Congress to be investigated as a foreign agent. Prosecutors said the letters, which were posted on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee website and/or Menendez’s website, included the specific statutes that prohibit Americans from working on behalf of a foreign government without registering with the Justice Department. The indictment alleged that Menendez’s wife was the one who advised Hana that she was dating the senator and that allegedly happened when Hana’s outreach, in part to advance Egypt’s interests, began. An alleged meeting at a Washington, D.C., steakhouse during which Menendez, his wife, Hana, and “Egyptian Official-3” allegedly requested the senator’s assistance to counter USDA’s objections to IS EG Halal’s monopoly (company Hana owns). The new charges against Menendez come weeks after he and his wife were accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in return for the use of the senator’s influence to enrich the three New Jersey businessmen and benefit the Egyptian government. During his time as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez helped oversee billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Egypt. He stepped down as chair of the panel shortly after he was indicted last month. The charges in the indictment from last month included conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. In that indictment, prosecutors alleged that the couple received bribes, including in the form of “cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value." In addition to the federal corruption case, the FBI is investigating whether Egypt’s intelligence services might have been involved in the alleged bribery scheme described in the September indictment of Menendez and his wife, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News last month. Menendez rejected calls for his resignation from dozens of his Democratic colleagues after he was indicted on bribery charges last month. Amid those calls, Menendez had met with his fellow Senate Democrats in a closed-door meeting. After the meeting, he told reporters: “I will continue to cast votes on behalf of the people of New Jersey as I have for 18 years. And I am sure when they need those votes, they’ll be looking for it, for me to catch those votes.” Menendez has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the case and predicted that he would ultimately be exonerated. Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement after the charges last month that she “denies any wrongdoing and will defend vigorously against these allegations in court.” In his first public comments on the charges, Menendez insisted all of the cash found in his Englewood Cliffs home was his. “For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” he said. “These were moneys drawn from my personal savings account based on the income I have lawfully derived over those 30 years.” The federal indictment had marked the second Menendez has faced since he entered office as a senator in 2006. He was charged in 2015 with illegally accepting favors from a Florida eye doctor. The case ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors decided against retrying him. Menendez is the first sitting U.S. senator to face indictments on two unrelated criminal allegations, according to data compiled by the Senate Historical Office. Link

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in central Paris soon after the ban had been announced France's interior minister has banned all pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country. In a statement, Gérald Darmanin ordered foreign nationals who break the rules to be "systematically" deported. The move comes as European governments fear a rise in antisemitism triggered by the Israel-Hamas war. Later a large crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators defied the ban in Paris. Police put the total at 3,000, and said they made 10 arrests. A water cannon was used to disperse the rally at Place de la République, where demonstrators chanted "Israel murderer" and "Palestine will win" and waved Palestinian flags. Earlier German police broke up a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin. In a video address, President Emmanuel Macron urged the French people to stay united, saying "let's not add national divisions to international divisions". He said 13 French citizens had died in the massive Hamas attack on Israelis on Saturday, and of the 17 others missing four were children. He called Hamas "a terrorist organisation that wants the death of the people of Israel". France has a Jewish community of almost 500,000, the biggest in Europe. France's Muslim community is also among Europe's largest - an estimated five million. Mr Darmanin told regional prefects that Jewish schools and synagogues should be protected by a visible police presence. He told French radio that 100 antisemitic acts had been recorded since Saturday. Most involved graffiti showing "swastikas, 'death to Jews,' calls to intifadas against Israel". However, some incidents included people being arrested attempting to carry knives into schools and synagogues, he added. French police are already guarding the homes of leading MPs. National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet and MP Meyer Habib have been offered further protection. In a separate move, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared "zero tolerance" for antisemitism. He told parliament a pro-Palestinian group that had celebrated the murders of Israeli civilians on Saturday would be banned. Berlin police have also banned planned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, citing the risk of antisemitic statements and glorification of violence. Authorities said around 60 demonstrators complied with an order to leave Berlin's Potsdamer Platz on Thursday. President Macron said some of the 17 French citizens missing were probably among the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and "France is doing everything it can alongside Israel and our partners to bring them home". Israel, he said, has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorists, but "has to preserve civilian lives because it's the duty of democracies". "The only response to terrorism is one that is strong but fair," he said. It has also emerged that French Assembly President Braun-Pivet has received death threats. A member of Mr Macron's Renaissance party, she had parliament lit this week in the colours of the Israeli flag in response to the Hamas attack, and called a minute's silence before an Assembly session on Tuesday. Ms Braun-Pivet also announced that Maryam Abu Daqqa, a member of the Po[CENSORED]r Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), would be banned from attending a documentary screening in parliament next month. The militant organisation is recognised as a terrorist organisation by the EU. Meyer Habib has also been given protection. He represents a constituency for overseas French citizens which includes Israel and the Palestinian Territories and is a vocal supporter of Israel. After the Hamas attack he said "we are witnessing the return of pogroms". Most political parties in France have condemned what they called Hamas's "terrorist attack" French politics has been riven by the Hamas attack and its aftermath. While most parties have condemned Saturday's "terrorist attack" and expressed support for Israel's right to respond, the initial response from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party was more equivocal. A statement by the party referred to the Hamas attack as "an armed offensive of Palestinian forces", prompting fierce criticism from other parties, including left-wing allies such as the Socialist and Communist parties. In Germany, Chancellor Scholz told MPs in the Bundestag that Israel's security was German state policy. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is due to travel to Israel on Friday in a gesture of solidarity. Mr Scholz also announced that pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which was pictured handing out sweets in the Neukölln area of Berlin to celebrate the Hamas attack, would be banned. "We do not tolerate antisemitism," he added. According to German authorities, in several towns across the country including Mainz, Braunschweig and Heilbronn, Israeli flags raised in solidarity with the country were torn down and destroyed, sometimes in just a few hours. Link

PRO! I honestly think you need a little more daily activity. But you follow the rules and are friendly to others. and you are constant on the server GL.

voted

Nick movie: Toy Story Time: November 19, 1995 Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: 82 M Trailer:

F-Type ‘ZP Edition’ is the last ever limited edition, marking the end of Jag’s ICE sportscars The Jaguar F-Type will die in 2024 to make way for the brand’s shiny new all-electric future. To send it off in style comes the new limited edition F-Type ZP Edition. Just 150 versions of this particular F-Type will be built, and even then only 10 will be allocated to the UK. As you’d expect of a car marking the end of Jaguar’s internal combustion engined sportscars able to trace a line back to the 1960s, they’re all the massive V8 versions. Massively supercharged V8 versions. Each ZP Edition will be spun off the range-topping 567bhp petrol V8 F-Type, whose sound has of course been immortalised by the British Library. Performance is unchanged: 0-60mph takes 3.5s, and it’ll go 186mph (where applicable) flat out. Both the coupe and convertible F-Type ZP Editions will then take inspiration from two “iconic” racing E-Types from the Sixties for its decorative affectations. There are two ‘colourways’ available celebrating the race-winning Project ZP E-Types raced after the sportscar launched in 1961. You get the choice of either a blue car with a red and ebony leather interior, or a grey car with a blue and ebony leather interior. Because it celebrates a racing E-Type, there are massive roundels hand-painted in white gloss on the doors and grille surrounds, which unconfirmed reports suggest add at least another 100bhp. The colours are matched to new diamond-turned 20in forged alloys, new tread plates, and a ‘1 of 150’ commissioning plaque. “As Jaguar embarks on the boldest transformation in its history, to become a modern luxury all-electric brand from 2025, this is an unrepeatable celebration of Jaguar’s internal combustion sports car provenance,” said Jag’s MD Rawdon Glover. “F-Type has captivated sports car drivers for more than a decade, just as the E-Type did five decades before it. The ZP Edition is the ultimate celebration of that lineage, joining an illustrious roster of heritage-inspired collector’s editions including the 2015 Project 7 and 2020 Heritage 60 Edition.” Prices for the F-Type ZP coupe start from £134,925, and £138,390 for the convertible. Link

Many Republicans are banking on Scalise adopting strategies similar to his predecessor if he’s elected House speaker — but without the personality clashes that befell McCarthy. Reps. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., left, and Steve Scalise, R-La., at the Capitol on Dec. 14, 2022 WASHINGTON — Steve Scalise secured the Republican nomination for speaker and quickly won over some of the eight rebels who voted last week to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., but many GOP lawmakers say the Louisiana congressman would largely be a continuation of his predecessor. Scalise shares McCarthy's vision, most Republican House members say, on the policy fights like spending and on strategy like the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. “The personalities involved are different,” Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., said in an interview Wednesday, referring to Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led the effort to oust McCarthy and had been his chief antagonist for months. Scalise, if elected speaker, will inherit the same narrow Republican majority that must deal with a Senate and White House controlled by Democrats. While Scalise has served as McCarthy's No. 2 since 2019, and while the two have acted in concert on dozens of legislative battles, the relationship grew chilly and rocky at times. Garcia said the approach Scalise pitched to the conference on government funding, the biggest task facing Congress, resembles the path the House has already been on. “What he outlined is similar to what we were in the midst of doing, which is: Bring the single-subject appropriation bills to the floor and then force the Senate to engage,” Garcia said. “So I think it’s a similar strategy.” He added, “This isn’t a McCarthy-Gaetz issue anymore. So I think Scalise has better odds of being successful.” 'Renewed excitement' When asked to name the ways Scalise would be an upgrade over McCarthy, Gaetz offered no specifics. “All of them,” he said. “There’s a renewed excitement,” Gaetz added, expressing his support for Scalise. “We’ve got the legend from Louisiana who’s gonna lead us. And I think that he’ll be invigorating to our activists. I think he’ll be a great communicator to the country. And I think he’ll do a great job uniting the Republican conference.” After Republicans voted to nominate him, Scalise said his “first order of business” would be to pass a bipartisan resolution supporting Israel in the wake of the terrorist attack by Hamas, which McCarthy said earlier this week he’d have put to a vote if he were speaker. He said he’ll “be calling on President Biden to sit down and talk about the crisis at the border,” a topic that was a high priority for McCarthy during his time as speaker. And multiple GOP lawmakers said the House’s impeachment inquiry into Biden will continue under Scalise, with Jordan remaining as one of the top investigators. “Under Scalise I don’t think — from a platform or paradigm perspective — any of that changes,” Garcia said of the inquiry. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said she wants to defund special counsel Jack Smith, who has secured federal indictments of former President Donald Trump, and hold impeachment votes on the floor. She said she discussed her goals with Scalise and came away “confident” that she will be able to “aggressively do my job” if he becomes speaker, without discussing any specific commitments he may have made. The continuity is natural in a majority where 96% of members voted last week to preserve McCarthy’s speakership. Eight defections were enough to evict him, due to paper-thin margins and Democrats rallying behind Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for the job. It’s unclear when the House will vote on a new speaker after it adjourned Wednesday without setting a time. Scalise will need at least 217 of the 221 Republicans to secure the position unless absences shift the threshold. “There’s a lot of busy work to do a lot of important work to do on behalf of people who are struggling,” Scalise told reporters. “We’re going to provide that vision.” Some Republicans say Scalise would be a continuation of McCarthy’s approach — and they don’t mean that as a compliment. “I think the conference had a chance to give the country hope that we were going to bring much-needed change and instead the conference voted for status quo,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who wasn’t ready to support Scalise. “Mr. Scalise has obviously been part of our leadership team for many years. So it’s hard to envision that he will be a change agent.” 'Steve is somebody that can unify' Behind closed doors Tuesday night, Scalise told Republicans he wants to pass 85% of the appropriations bills through the House within his first two weeks as speaker, two lawmakers in the room said. That would continue the approach of McCarthy, who has been steering funding bills through the House that violate a two-year bipartisan budget deal struck in May and advance a host of conservative priorities, but have no chance of passing the Senate. “I do think Steve is somebody that can unify. And that’s been his trademark. And so I’m willing to give him the benefit to pull it together,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said Scalise and McCarthy have much in common, as do Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the candidate who narrowly lost the nomination for speaker. “Even with Jim — I mean, the differences between Jim and Steve ideologically, you’re splitting hairs at that point. There’s not a lot of daylight, if any, between them,” Fallon said. “I heard their arguments when they gave their five minutes and then 90 minutes of questions. I didn’t hear a lot of policy differences, quite frankly… They both want to get the approps bills passed. They both want regular order with a lot of member input.” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who voted to evict McCarthy, declined to compare him and Scalise when asked how the two are different. “I don’t know,” Burchett said, before pivoting to praising Scalise and saying he’ll support the Louisiana Republican for speaker. “I’ll just say the positives about Steve. He understands fiscal conservativism. He has a track record of handling tough legislation in the past. And I think that’s going to serve him very well in the trenches.” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a conservative who initially opposed McCarthy but came around after winning concessions, called it a “mistake” for Scalise to oppose his new rule to require the caucus to get 217 votes for a speaker before casting any votes on the floor. “That was a mistake,” Roy told reporters. “We shouldn’t have walked away from that process, which was bringing us together, to figure out how we were going to get united before we went to the floor. So we did. And so, now we’ve got to go figure it out.” Link

Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Benny Gantz (R) are among the members of a new temporary "war cabinet" Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said every Hamas member was "a dead man" after the first meeting of his country's emergency government. Alongside him, opposition figure Benny Gantz said it was "a time for war". But US President Joe Biden said he had spoken to Mr Netanyahu and made it clear that Israel must "operate by the rules of war". The death toll in Israel has reached 1,200. More than 1,100 people have been killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza. Mr Biden said he understood the anger and frustration of the Israeli people but urged Israel to adhere to the principles of the Geneva conventions. He also warned Iran - which has welcomed the Hamas attack - to "be careful". Earlier on Wednesday Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz agreed to put aside a bitter political rivalry that had escalated into widespread protests. Mr Gantz told Israeli citizens that the newly-formed government was "united" and ready to "wipe this thing called Hamas off the face of the Earth". Alongside Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz, the centrist National Unity Party leader and a former defence minister, the new temporary cabinet would also include Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The country's main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has not joined the alliance. However, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz said in a joint statement that a seat would be reserved for him in the war cabinet. "During the war period, no bills or government decisions will be promoted that do not concern the conduct of the war," said a statement. "All senior appointments will be automatically extended during the war period." The emergency government will give broader national consensus to military action. It also brings to the war cabinet two voices who are experts in military strategy. Both Mr Gantz and also Gadi Eisenkot, who joins as an observer, are former Israeli military chiefs of staff. The announcement of the new cabinet came in the wake of savage attacks by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip. More than 1,200 people have died in Israel since the surprise Hamas attack on Saturday. Hamas is also known to have taken up to 150 people hostage, including elderly people and children. On Wednesday Israel's military saying thousands of troops were ready near the border with Gaza for a potential land invasion. As well as attacks by Hamas, Israel has also exchanged fire with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and forces in Syria. Earlier this week, Mr Gallant announced a retaliatory siege of the Palestinian territory - meaning all energy, water and food supplies have stopped. More than 1,000 people have died there in air strikes so far. The formation of a unity government in Israel has been welcomed by ministers including Itamar Ben Gvir, who handles national security. "Congratulations on the unity, now we have to win," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The announcement that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz would work together comes after months of protests against attempts by the prime minister and his government to push through controversial judicial reforms. The demonstrators were supported by Mr Netanyahu's political rivals, as well as former top officials in Israel's military, intelligence and security services, former chief justices, and prominent legal figures and business leaders among others. Hundreds of military reservists, including air force pilots crucial to Israel's defence, had threatened to refuse to report for service - leading to warnings that it could impair Israel's military capabilities. Last month, Israel's Supreme Court convened to hear petitions against one of the government's legal amendments, which would limit their own powers. Link