 Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to win enough votes to become House speaker in two consecutive voting rounds. The House speaker vote went to a second ballot for the first time in a century after McCarthy failed to gain enough support from conservative GOP lawmakers. More: - McCarthy won 203 votes in the first round after 19 GOP lawmakers voted in support of others, including Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
- McCarthy also won 203 in the second round of voting on Tuesday afternoon.
- McCarthy needed at least 218 votes but since Republicans control 222 seats, he could only afford a handful of defections.
- GOP lawmakers who voted against McCarthy belong to the conservative Freedom Caucus and are staunch supporters of Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda.
- They oppose McCarthy's bid because they don't consider him conservative enough and want McCarthy to reinstate a rule that would allow a single lawmaker to introduce a motion to remove the speaker from office.
- The new Congress can't be seated until the House of Representatives elects a speaker.
Zoom Out: - In an effort to win support from right-wing Republicans, McCarthy promised to restore committee assignments to Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-NC) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ).
- Taylor Greene and Gosar both lost their committee assignments after they shared or liked social media content promoting violence against Democratic politicians.
- The Senate was sworn in on Tuesday afternoon after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was elected by the Democratic Senate majority.
| |
The Canadian government has banned foreigners from buying homes for two years. The government announced some exemptions to the ban last month, allowing refugee claimants, people with temporary work permits, and international students who've been in Canada for more than five years to buy homes. More: - The ban, which came into effect on Jan. 1, aims to alleviate a major housing crisis.
- The average home price in Canada was C$777,200 ($568,000) last summer - more than 11x the median household income after taxes.
- Housing prices in Canada rose by 48% from 2013 to 2022.
- For comparison, the median after-tax income grew by 9.8% from 2015 to 2020.
Zoom Out: - It is unclear how much of an effect the ban will have on housing costs.
- Non-Canadian residents make up less than 6% of homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia.
- New Zealand passed a similar ban in 2018, but housing costs have continued to rise in the country.
| |
 A message from BIGID You can’t protect what you don’t know. Shine a light on dark data with SmallID: designed to do cloud data security, but better. Get up and running in minutes - and automatically scan, classify, and inventory the data that matters most to you across the cloud: - Find and identify data by type, sensitivity, policy, and more
- Uncover dark data across AWS S3, Azure, Google, Salesforce, dev environments, and more
- Reduce risk and accelerate compliance
- Jumpstart DSPM and improve your security posture
- Find and lock down your sensitive data before the bad guys do
“SmallID gave us everything we needed: from out of the box classifiers to being able to build our own based on our own data. I can easily find what I need with confidence - whether that’s searching for date of birth, gender, or other personal information (PI) and personally identifiable information (PII) - and automatically maintain my data inventory to improve our security posture while flagging potential issues.” - Walter Burge, Data Engineer, Lumosity Try SmallID free for 14 days, and get the most advanced data discovery & classification on-demand. Claim your free trial
| |
 A proposed map of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline from 2013 Bulgaria has signed a 13-year deal to import natural gas from Turkey. Bulgaria had previously imported much of its energy from Russia, but Moscow stopped exporting natural to Bulgaria last April amid a fallout following the invasion of Ukraine. More: - The deal will allow Bulgaria to unload Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) purchased from international producers in Turkey's LNG terminals. The gas will then be exported to Bulgaria through a network controlled by Botas, a Turkish state-run company.
- After Russia cut off supplies, Bulgaria connected its gas network to the Greek energy grid and joined the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline that transports energy supplies from Azerbaijan.
- Azerbaijani gas exports currently cover a third of Bulgaria's needs, while energy from the Greek grid covers the remaining two-thirds.
Zoom Out: - Turkey imports LNG from Russia.
- The Bulgarian energy minister said that the country cannot control where the Turkish-supplied LNG will come from, but that his government will sign deals for LNG sourced from outside of Russia.
| |
 GOOD NEWS: When people in Oklahoma turn 100, their lives are celebrated by an all-volunteer group called The Centenarians of Oklahoma. The organization has honored more than 2,700 centenarians since it was founded in 1991. More: - A standard tribute ceremony includes a brief biographical sketch of the new centenarian.
- The group also gives centenarians a "Golden Okie" pin.
- Members of the group also document the lives of new "Golden Okies" for the Edmon Low Library at Oklahoma State University, which compiles information on centenarians for researchers and the Oklahoma Historical Society.
| |
 A message from ARRIVED Unbelievable: a must-see real estate investing hack. We know real estate has outperformed the S&P500 over the past 20 years as an asset class. Plus, it's tangible. But most don’t do it. You need massive upfront capital, it takes a ton of setup & expertise, and then you have to manage it. Exhausting. Here's that secret hack: Arrived. Arrived is an easy-to-use real estate investment platform offering SEC-qualified investments, and it’s backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff. In a few clicks, you can: - Browse properties (<1% make it through vetting): AirBnBs, long-term rentals, and more coming soon.
- Pick your favorites: invest anywhere between $100 to $50K per property.
- Boom: you're officially earning income and appreciation while Arrived manages your properties.
Both first-time investors and long-time real estate millionaires are flocking to Arrived, funding over 200 properties and $75M of property value since last year. Demand is high. What’s holding you back? Launch My Real Estate Empire
| |
 RMT leader Mick Lynch with workers on a picket line British rail workers began a five-day strike over pay on Tuesday, shutting down most train services across the country. The strike includes some 40,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT), as well as train drivers who are part of a separate union. More: - Workers want higher wages and argue that the hike offered by the British government is not keeping pace with the sky-high inflation Britain experienced last year.
- YoY price inflation in the U.K. hit 10.7% in November.
- RMT head Mick Lynch said that the rolling strikes could continue through May if the government doesn't negotiate seriously with his union.
Zoom Out: - Ambulance paramedics and nurses will go on strike for the second time in months, and bus drivers are also planning a walk-out.
- The British government has threatened to pass laws that would limit the ability of workers to go on strike.
| |
According to a human rights group in Burkina Faso, government-linked volunteer militias killed nearly 30 civilians belonging to the Fulani ethnic group last week. Burkina Faso's western regions have been plagued by ethnic violence, with the military and associated militias launching attacks on the primarily Muslim Fulani people as retaliation for terror attacks by extremist Islamist groups. More: - al-Qaida and Islamic State-linked extremist groups have killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million people in Burkina Faso over the past seven years.
- Capt. Ibrahim Traore seized power in Burkina Faso after a September coup.
- The new government has recruited tens of thousands of civilians to join militias in the fight against Islamic extremist groups, and these militias have been accused of perpetrating attacks on civilians.
- The civic group Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities said that attacks on Fulani civilians have escalated since Traore took control of the country.
- The group documented nearly 250 instances of extrajudicial killings between October and January, compared to 95 instances in the preceding four months.
Zoom Out: - Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, said that "there is an imminent risk of further mass atrocities in the near future" in Burkina Faso as the violence continues to escalate.
| |
QUICK HITS - This year, try a resolution that sticks - going to therapy with BetterHelp. Save 25% off your first month.*
- The University of California will invest $4B in Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT). The move comes after investors submitted redemption requests equivalent to 5% of the trust's overall capital in December.
- The British government announced that millions of low-income households in the U.K. will receive cost-of-living payments of up to £900 ($1,084) over the next year to help them cope with inflation.
- Fred White, the drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire, died at the age of 67.
- Germany recorded an annual inflation rate of 8.6% in December, down from 10% in November. In 2022, consumer prices in Germany rose by 7.9%, the highest annual inflation rate since 1990.
* This is a sponsored post.
| |
 Still Life - French novels and rose by Vincent van Gogh. 1888
| |
UPCOMING EVENTS - January 05 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand)
- January 06 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand)
- January 10 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 17 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 31 - Growth Summit 2023 (Register Here)
| |
 |  | Daniel Smith is an Inside Analyst who currently resides in Miami, Florida. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Daniel spent the last four years as a PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He is fascinated by tech, business, politics, venture capital, and everything in between. When he’s not writing for Inside he can be found kicking a ball on the nearest rugby pitch. Follow him on Twitter @DanSmithInside. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
Automatically find, classify, and protect the cloud data that matters most to you with SmallID. | |
| |
Comments
Post a Comment