A little-known patriotic group that supports the widows of Russian soldiers has called on President Vladimir Putin to order a large-scale mobilisation of millions of men and close the borders to ensure victory in Ukraine.
A Russian missile attack destroyed an ice arena in Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine’s ice hockey federation said, following earlier reports of a missile hitting the town and injuring two people.
Diplomacy
Protesters in Germany have called on Berlin to reconsider its support for Ukraine, reflecting the legacy of Soviet ties to Communist East Germany and decades of German dependency on Russian gas.
French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that Ukraine “needs our support more than ever”. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also said Ukraine can count on long-term support. Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.
Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on February 3 to discuss financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement.
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By Kayla Epstein
BBC News
On a day of high political drama, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy repeatedly failed in his bid to be elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The House adjourned without a speaker on Tuesday night - the first time since 1923 they had failed to choose a leader after a first round vote.
The start of a new Congress was supposed to be a victory lap for the Republican Party as it took control of the lower chamber following November's elections. Instead, Mr McCarthy faced a rebellion from within his own ranks and made history for all the wrong reasons.
The California congressman has lost three consecutive votes for Speaker so far, and it's unclear what his path to victory could be when the House returns on Wednesday to try all over again. They will keep voting until someone wins a majority.
And even if Mr McCarthy finds a way, analysts warn, the turmoil on the floor of the House foreshadows a tumultuous two years of moderate and right-wing Republicans at war with each other.
A Republican party unable to effectively run the lower chamber of Congress could hamper its ability to carry out some of its core functions like passing spending bills or raising the debt ceiling.
'Negotiations made him look weak'
Republicans narrowly won control of the House in November, so Mr McCarthy only had a few votes to spare in his bid to become Speaker. That allowed a group of hardline conservatives to band together to oppose his nomination.
The rift was a long time coming, according to Republican observers.
"Kevin McCarthy has not made friends with certain segments of the caucus for a while, he's made a lot of enemies," said one Republican lobbyist, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about Tuesday's vote. "There's people who don't like him for political reasons, for personal reasons."
Mr McCarthy entered into negotiations with his detractors - who see him as too mainstream and power hungry - offering concessions to try to win their vote. At one point, he reportedly agreed to change the House rules to make it easier to oust a sitting Speaker, handing his opponents an enormous check on his power.
"The fact he was negotiating with the Republicans at all made him look very, very weak to the point of being desperate," the Republican lobbyist said.
His opponents feel emboldened
The futility of that approach became clear on Tuesday.
In three consecutive votes, Mr McCarthy failed to reach the required 218 vote threshold. Though Republicans hold 222 seats, a bloc of 19 hard-right Republicans had solidified in opposition to him. They oppose Mr McCarthy on ideological and personal grounds, but also see an opportunity to exploit Republicans' narrow majority to force further concessions from him.
They would "never back down" Representative Bob Good, a Virginia Republican, told reporters on Tuesday.
Getty Images
In one of the day's most dramatic moments, they even nominated Representative Jim Jordan to challenge him, just moments after Mr Jordan himself nominated Mr McCarthy for Speaker.
Even after Mr Jordan - who is a leading figure in the hard-right Freedom Caucus - urged Republicans to "rally around" Mr McCarthy in the third round of voting, 20 Republicans voted for Mr Jordan, again denying victory to Mr McCarthy.
Meanwhile, Democrats remained unified behind their party's new leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
A few could not help publicly teasing their Republican counterparts about their party's difficult afternoon. One congressman, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, tweeted that Democrats were "breaking the popcorn out," and as evidence included a photo of the snack.
What are McCarthy's options now?
Political observers in Washington have begun spinning out various theories about how this all could end. Their predictions to the BBC ranged from the feasible (Mr McCarthy holds out and wins, but walks away seriously weakened) to the entirely possible (he bows out and backs his second in command, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana). One suggestion verged on fantasy (five Republicans decide to vote for Mr Jeffries, a Democrat, and deliver him control of the House).
As it stands, Mr McCarthy is "essentially hostage to one side of his party," said Ruth Bloch Rubin, a political scientist at the University of Chicago who studies partisanship.
Mr McCarthy has pledged not to make any more concessions, but may not have a choice. He could try to win over obstinate lawmakers with plum committee assignments or new leadership roles.
"He's got to give the people who are against him something to hang their hat on," said Aaron Cutler, a lobbyist who once worked for former congressman Eric Cantor, another politician who was ousted by conservative opposition. The other Republican lobbyist, however, believed there was "no path to victory, at all, period."
Members will reconvene for a fourth time on Wednesday, though it's unclear if the stalemate will break.
"We haven't heard anything new from McCarthy," one of the conservative holdouts, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, told reporters. "So I guess we'll just keep doing this."
Russia has said a new year missile attack that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers happened because troops were using their mobile phones.
Ukraine hit a college for conscripts in Makiivka, in the occupied Donetsk area, shortly after midnight on 1 January.
Soldiers' use of banned phones allowed the enemy to locate its target, the Russian military has now said.
While the number of people killed is unverified, it is the largest death toll acknowledged by Russia in the war.
Ukraine claims the figure is far higher, saying 400 soldiers were killed in the attack and a further 300 wounded.
Russia said that at 00:01 local time on New Year's Day, six rockets were fired from a US-made Himars rocket system at a vocational college, two of which were shot down.
The deputy commander of the regiment, Lt Col Bachurin, was among those killed, the military of defence said in a statement on Telegram in the early hours of Wednesday.
A commission is investigating the circumstances of the incident, the statement said.
But it is "already obvious" that the main cause of the attack was the presence and "mass use" of mobile phones by troops in range of Ukrainian weapons, despite this being banned, he added.
"This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel for a missile strike."
Officials found guilty in the investigation will be brought to justice, the statement added, and steps are being taken to prevent similar events in future.
Russia also raised the number of Russian soldiers killed in the attack to 89 - up from 63 - although there is no way of verifying how many soldiers were killed. It is extremely rare for Moscow to confirm any battlefield casualties.
The vocational college was packed with conscripts at the time - men who were among the 300,000 called up in President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilisation in September. Ammunition was also being stored close to the site, which was reduced to rubble.
Reuters
Some Russian commentators and politicians have accused the military of incompetence, saying the troops should never have been given such vulnerable accommodation.
Pavel Gubarev, a former leading official in Russia's proxy authority in Donetsk, said the decision to house a large number of soldiers in one building was "criminal negligence".
"If no-one is punished for this, then it will only get worse," he warned.
The deputy speaker of Moscow's local parliament, Andrei Medvedev, said it was predictable that the soldiers would be blamed rather than the commander who made the original decision to put so many of them in one place.
President Putin signed a decree on Tuesday for families of National Guard soldiers killed in service to be paid 5m roubles (£57,000; $69,000).
The House of Representatives has adjourned after failing to elect a new Speaker, leaving Kevin McCarthy’s political future hanging by a thread after Republican party infighting threatened to halt lawmaking in Washington.
On Tuesday, McCarthy became the first majority party leader in a century to falter in the first ballot, before he went on to lose two subsequent rounds of voting.
McCarthy secured 203 votes in the first round, 15 short of the 218 required to seize the Speaker’s gavel, after 19 Republicans voted against him. He did not improve his numbers in the second round, with his 19 opponents coming together to support Jim Jordan, the Republican congressman from Ohio who had formally nominated McCarthy for Speaker.
McCarthy lost a third round of voting after Byron Donalds, a congressman from Florida, switched allegiance to Jordan, bringing the votes against McCarthy to 20.
Voting was expected to resume on Wednesday afternoon. It remained unclear whether McCarthy would be able to build support and achieve the simple majority required to become Speaker. The House is constitutionally required to elect a Speaker and cannot start governing until one is selected.
The once-in-a-century gridlock underscored the unprecedented levels of dysfunction in Washington, especially among Republicans. The party is grappling with how to move forward after a disappointing performance in last year’s midterm elections, and whether it should back Donald Trump as its presidential nominee in 2024.
McCarthy, a 57-year-old congressman from California, is the House’s top-ranking Republican, and had long been touted as the most likely successor to Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House who is ceding the gavel after her party lost its majority in the midterms.
But while the GOP won enough seats to take back control of the lower chamber of Congress, the “red wave” McCarthy predicted did not materialise. At the same time, Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, after flipping a seat in Pennsylvania.
All 435 members of the House of Representatives participate in the vote for Speaker, the first order of business for a new Congress. A Speaker needs a simple majority, or at least 218 votes if the entire House is in attendance, to be elected.
Given the razor-thin size of Republicans’ new majority in the House and the outsized influence of a handful of vocal critics, McCarthy has for months struggled to shore up support amid opposition from various factions within the Republican caucus, including ultraconservatives and lawmakers such as Florida’s Matt Gaetz, who are unflinchingly loyal to Trump.
McCarthy’s relationship with Trump has over the years oscillated between unabashed public displays of loyalty — Trump has frequently referred to the congressman as “my Kevin” — and acrimony. McCarthy reportedly said “I’ve had it with this guy” after the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol, before smiling in photos with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort just weeks later. Trump last year endorsed McCarthy’s bid for Speaker.
In recent weeks, McCarthy has sought to bolster his standing within the party by brokering deals intended to satisfy the demands of various dissenters.
At the weekend, he rolled out a package of proposed rules to change House procedure. But several Republicans have said the changes do not go far enough. They want further concessions that would make it easier to call a no-confidence vote in any future Speaker.
Many on Capitol Hill are braced for the possibility that the process could drag on for days, until McCarthy is able to build enough support or ultimately step aside in favour of another candidate. While his deputy, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has supported his boss’s bid, he is seen as the most likely alternative to secure 218 votes if McCarthy fails.
Democratic House leaders have rejected any suggestion that they would move to help McCarthy, or throw their support behind an alternative Republican candidate. Many Democratic lawmakers appeared to revel in their party’s relative unity on Tuesday, with some openly mocking the Republicans’ discord. Ted Lieu, the congressman from California, posted an image on Twitter in which he was holding a bag of popcorn.
Kevin McCarthy was in the fight of his political life on Tuesday after he looked set to lose an initial vote to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, putting him on course to become the first majority party leader to falter in the early ballot in a century.
With the ballots still being tallied on Tuesday afternoon, at least 15 Republicans had voted against McCarthy’s speakership bid, making it mathematically impossible for him to clinch the 218 votes required to seize the Speaker’s gavel unless lawmakers switch sides.
Subsequent ballots were expected on Tuesday afternoon, though it remained unclear whether McCarthy would be able to improve his numbers and achieve the simple majority required to become Speaker. The House is constitutionally required to elect a Speaker and cannot start governing until one is selected.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill ahead of the vote after what he described as an “intense” meeting on Tuesday morning, McCarthy lashed out at Republican lawmakers who have so far refused to endorse his bid to become the Speaker of the House, accusing them of putting personal interests ahead of their party and the country.
“There [are] times that we are going to have to argue with our own members, if they are looking at positions only for themselves, not for the country,” McCarthy said just an hour before the House was due hold a vote to elect a new Speaker. “We are not empowering certain members over others.”
McCarthy, a 57-year-old congressman from California, is the House’s top-ranking Republican, and had long been touted as the most likely successor to Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House who is ceding the gavel after her party lost its majority in last year’s midterm elections.
While the vast majority of House Republicans have supported McCarthy’s bid, a vocal minority have threatened to his scupper his ambitions by voting against him after a relatively disappointing performance in November’s midterm elections.
While the GOP eked out enough wins to take back control of the lower chamber of Congress, the “red wave” McCarthy predicted did not materialise. At the same time, Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, after flipping a seat in Pennsylvania.
All 435 members of the House of Representatives participate in the vote for Speaker, the first order of business for a new Congress. A Speaker needs a simple majority, or at least 218 votes if the entire House is in attendance, to be elected.
McCarthy has for months struggled to shore up support amid opposition from various factions within the Republican caucus, including ultraconservatives and lawmakers who are unflinchingly loyal to former president Donald Trump.
McCarthy’s relationship with Trump has over the years oscillated between unabashed public displays of loyalty — Trump has frequently referred to the congressman as “my Kevin” — and acrimony. McCarthy reportedly said “I’ve had it with this guy” after the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol, before posing for smiling photos with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort just weeks later. Trump last year endorsed McCarthy’s bid for Speaker.
In recent weeks, McCarthy has sought to bolster his standing within the party by brokering deals intended to satisfy the demands of various dissenters.
At the weekend, he rolled out a package of proposed rules to change House procedure. But on Sunday night, a group of nine Republican lawmakers published an open letter saying the changes did not go far enough. They want further concessions that would make it easier to call a no-confidence vote in any future Speaker.
Many on Capitol Hill are braced for the possibility that the process could drag on for days, until McCarthy is able to build enough support or ultimately steps aside in favour of another candidate. While his deputy, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has supported his boss’s bid, he is seen as the most likely alternative to secure 218 votes if McCarthy fails.
Democratic House leaders have so far rejected any suggestion that they would move to help McCarthy, or coalesce their support around an alternative Republican candidate. Many Democratic lawmakers appeared to revel in their party’s relative unity on Tuesday, with some openly mocking the Republicans’ discord. Ted Lieu, the congressman from California, posted an image on Twitter in which he was holding a bag of popcorn.
American motorsport legend and YouTube star Ken Block has died in a snowmobile accident in Utah at the age of 55.
A competitive rally driver in series such as Rally America and Global Rallycross, he earned wide renown later in life for his "Gymkhana" video series on YouTube.
The 10-part series, in which he performed daring racing feats, earned him nearly two million subscribers.
Block also co-founded the skate-wear clothing brand DC Shoes.
Hoonigan Industries, another clothing company he owned, confirmed its founder's passing in a statement on Instagram on Monday.
"Ken was a visionary, a pioneer and an icon. And most importantly, a father and husband. He will be incredibly missed."
Block was riding a snowmobile up a steep slope in Wasatch County, Utah, when the vehicle upended, landing on top of him, the local sheriff's office wrote on Facebook.
He was pronounced dead at the scene from the injuries he sustained.
The news of his death emerged a day after US actor Jeremy Renner sustained serious injuries while using a snow plough to clear snow outside his home in Nevada.
The sheriff's office in Utah said that Block had been riding with a group but was alone when the crash occurred.
A competitive rally driver since 2005, Block was Rally America's Rookie of the Year in his first season and went on to win rallycross medals at the X Games and podium finishes at the World Rallycross Championship.
He also competed in other actions sports, including motocross, skateboarding and snowboarding.
But Block found a second wind on YouTube, where millions watched him navigate dangerous tracks and obstacle courses in a range of vehicles.
He was featured twice on the BBC's Top Gear programme, as well as in four EA Sports racing video games.
The BBC apologised after Block and Top Gear host Matt LeBlanc performed doughnuts that created black tyre marks near the Cenotaph during a 2016 episode. The footage was never aired.
The American Rally Association said it was "gutted" at the news of Block's passing.
"He was a massive influence on everything he touched, including the global world of rallying," it said in a statement on Facebook.
Fellow racers also paid tribute to Block, with former British Formula One world champion Jenson Button calling him "a talent that did so much for our sport".
Nascar Xfinity Series driver Ryan Vargas said watching Block's videos "shaped my personality and interest in cars".
Block is survived by his wife, Lucy, and three children.
The EU has offered free Covid-19 vaccines to China to help Beijing contain a mass outbreak of the illness following its decision to end strict nationwide pandemic-related restrictions.
The offer was made in recent days ahead of a meeting of EU health ministry officials on Tuesday, said European Commission officials, speaking under the condition of anonymity. The initiative is part of efforts by health commissioner Stella Kyriakides to arrange a European response to the prospect of a wave of infections after Beijing ditched its so-called “zero Covid” policy.
“Commissioner Kyriakides has reached out to her Chinese counterparts to offer solidarity and support, including public health expertise as well as through variant-adapted EU vaccine donations,” said one official. Beijing has yet to respond to the offer, the person added.
China has relied on its domestically produced Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines and has yet to deploy western vaccines using mRNA technology at large scale. The World Health Organization on December 21 said China’s current vaccination coverage was insufficient.
Its domestic vaccines require three doses to prevent severe illness in vulnerable people.
Two doses only provided 50 per cent protection for people over 60, Dr Mike Ryan, WHO head of health emergencies, told a press conference.
“That’s just not adequate protection in a population as large as the population of China. In such a large population, with so many people in a vulnerable setting, with that coverage, we really have to focus on vaccination.”
Only 40 per cent of over-80s have had three doses, according to WHO data.
By contrast, in the EU, 83 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated and more than 1.7bn doses have been delivered. Contracts have been concluded with eight vaccine developers, providing as many as 4.2bn doses.
However EU member states have surplus stocks due to large orders of vaccines under long-term contracts with manufacturers. These could be shipped to China, the EU officials said.
Kyriakides is seeking a meeting with pharmaceutical companies to adjust the contracts within the next few weeks after complaints from member states that they are spending money on drugs that are destroyed.
Meanwhile some EU countries have insisted that travellers arriving from China after January 8, when restrictions are lifted, must provide evidence of a negative Covid test or of their vaccination status.
France, Spain and Italy have all said they would bring in controls as they fear the spread of as yet unidentified new variants. However, Kyriakides has called for co-ordinated action. Member state officials last week opted not to call for China-specific measures since coronavirus is now endemic in the EU. They meet again on Tuesday and there is a meeting of the Integrated Political Crisis Response emergency mechanism on Wednesday.
China’s mission to the EU insisted on Sunday that the country had good vaccination coverage. “More than 3.4bn Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered on the Chinese mainland, with over 90 per cent of the population fully vaccinated and over 92 per cent of the population received at least one dose,” it said.
It said Chinese tourists did not pose any threat, pointing out that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control considered Covid-19 screenings and other measures on travellers from China “unjustified”.
“Tourist destinations across the world can’t wait to welcome Chinese tourists as cross-border travel searches soar in China,” China’s mission to the EU added.
