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U.S. House Republicans face showdown over House speaker.

Views expressed in this geopolitical news summary are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 04 January 2023, 1303 UTC.  Content supplied by email subscription to "Reuters Daily Briefing."

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Russ Roberts (https://www.hawaiigeopoliticalnews.com).

Hello! Hardliner Jim Jordan emerges as a Republican alternative for U.S. House speaker, Russia blames its soldiers' mobile phone use for a deadly missile strike, and China pledges a 'final victory' over COVID   by Linda Noakes

U.S. News

Kevin McCarthy is surrounded by reporters after a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol, January 3, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Republican Kevin McCarthy's bruising quest to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will enter a second day, with the party's new majority fractured by a revolt among hardline conservatives who oppose his candidacy. McCarthy's opponents selected conservative Representative Jim Jordan as their candidate, despite the fact that Jordan backs McCarthy. President Joe Biden and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will make a rare joint appearance today at a bridge in Kentucky in a display of bipartisanship that offers a guide to how the White House hopes to govern in months to come. The Food and Drug Administration will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills in the United States for the first time, the agency said, even as more states seek to ban medication abortion. A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission. The case was triggered by a 2016-2018 Reuters investigative series. The architect of the largest U.S. college admissions fraud scheme ever uncovered will be sentenced today for helping wealthy parents secure the admission of their children to elite universities through cheating and bribery. The first major U.S. winter storm system of the year dumped a frosty mix of snow, freezing rain and sleet from the Northern Plains to the Upper Great Lakes region while posing a tornado and flood threat to a large swath of the South.

World News

Workers remove debris of a destroyed building purported to be used as temporary accommodation for Russian soldiers in Makiivka, Russian-controlled Ukraine, January 3, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Russia's defense ministry blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly. A patriotic group which supports the widows of Russian soldiers has called on President Vladimir Putin to order a large-scale mobilization of millions of men and to close the borders to ensure victory in Ukraine. In Germany some are clamoring for a change in course on Ukraine. Key figures in the campaign have links to the Russian state or far right, a Reuters investigation has found. Global health officials tried to determine the facts of China's raging COVID-19 outbreak and how to prevent a further spread as the Communist Party's mouthpiece newspaper rallied citizens for a "final victory" over the virus. Myanmar's military government will release 7,012 prisoners under an amnesty to mark the country's independence day, state broadcaster MRTV reported, as the junta chief praised some countries for maintaining support for his nation. Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets calling for peace, a day before fresh protests are expected following clashes caused by the ouster of former President Pedro Castillo left almost two dozen dead in December. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will set out his priorities for 2023 today, using his first speech of the year to try to reassure his restive Conservative Party that he has what it takes to lead them into the next national election.

Business & Markets

A waitress arranges napkins on the terrace of a coffee shop in Ronda, southern Spain, January 3, 2023. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

Euro zone business activity contracted less than initially thought at the end of last year as price pressures eased, according to a survey which suggested the bloc's recession may not be as deep as expected. The Federal Reserve ended 2022 with a firm promise at its December policy meeting that interest rates would continue rising this year, but at a slower pace and perhaps only by another three-quarters of a percentage point. That session's readout, due to be released at 2 p.m. EST today, may provide further insight into just how the endgame of the current tightening cycle will play out. Foreign investors withdrew more money from emerging Asian equities in 2022 than they had done in any year since the global financial crisis in 2008, as rising U.S. interest rates pulled funds towards dollar assets. Tesla shares plunged more than 12% on growing worries about weakening demand and logistical problems that have hampered deliveries for the world's most valuable automaker.  Apple's stock market value shrank sharply following its steep drop last year, leaving it below $2 trillion for the first time since March 2021. The sell-off came a year after the iPhone maker became the first company to reach the $3 trillion market capitalization milestone. Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he cheated investors in his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange and caused billions of dollars in losses, in what prosecutors have called an "epic" fraud.

And Finally

Ukrainian Veronika Nepomniashcha performs during the Yaskrava Arena Dnipro International Children's Circus Festival in Budapest, Hungary, January 2, 2023. REUTERS/Marton Monus

Ukraine's young circus artists wow Budapest after training in bomb shelters at home Jeremy Renner, Marvel's Hawkeye, posts first selfie after snow plow accident Video: A look inside a Saudi hotel for camels

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