What happened
House Republicans yesterday elected Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as minority leader in the coming Congress. Jordan, a hardline conservative, beat Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) 106-72 in a secret ballot. The GOP’s “catastrophic losses” in last week’s midterms prompted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to “stand down from leadership,” Politico said, and “sparked introspection in the GOP ranks about how to rebuild the party.” Senate Republicans yesterday reelected Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) as their leader.

Who said what
House Republicans are “handing the reins” of their “battered” conference to one of their “most prominent conservative firebrands,” said Axios. Jordan “understands what we are up against,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) told Fox News. His communication skills are “really kind of unrivaled by anybody else in the House right now.” But Jordan’s role in a “longstanding coverup of sexual abuse of student athletes” at Ohio State, said Talking Points Memo, could complicate GOP efforts to move past President Donald Trump’s “main character status in the Epstein files.”

What next?
Opting for Jordan over Scalise “signals Republicans are ready for all-out battle against Democrats” as the party “seeks relevance in the next two years,” CNN said. And Jordan’s history as one of “Trump’s most stalwart defenders” indicates that the president “remains the party’s future, at least for now.” 

What happened
Britain’s Metropolitan Police yesterday announced the arrest of a U.S. Army officer on suspicion of espionage for Russia. Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command, described the unidentified 41-year-old officer as a “senior soldier entrusted with sensitive information.” The suspect, assigned to a NATO unit, was arrested near Gloucester in a joint operation involving British and U.S. counterterrorism police, MI5 and the FBI. 

Who said what
The officer worked at the Gloucestershire headquarters of NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a multinational unit that “exists largely to mobilize troops to defend NATO members against any potential Russian incursion,” The Washington Post said. Senior officers at the base would “probably have access to classified mobilization plans and other details that would be of interest to Russian intelligence services,” but officials said “no sensitive information was passed to Russia” by the suspect. Several European countries have “recently warned of the rising threat from Russian covert activity,” The Associated Press said, “including sabotage, espionage,” drone operations and “cyberattacks on critical European infrastructure.” 

What next?
“The allegations are serious and our investigation is very much ongoing," Met official Vicki Evans said yesterday. British authorities can hold the suspect for 14 days before filing charges.

A powerful avian flu strain has made its way through a Utah mink farm, and it could potentially spread to and between humans next. Many experts are concerned about the U.S. government’s lack of action to prevent the spread.

This strain of bird flu is “so virulent that if a single chicken tests positive, the U.S. government requires farmers to kill the whole flock,” said ProPublica. The virus, however, has spread uncontrolled through the mink farm for more than two months.

The outbreak is particularly concerning because “mink have lungs and airways that on a cellular level are remarkably similar to those of people,” said ProPublica. The mammals have previously contracted Covid-19 and spread it to humans, and bird flu could follow the same trajectory. 

Despite the risk of a major public health crisis, there’s “just not a lot of options out there other than kind of sitting and waiting and seeing what happens,” said Utah State Veterinarian Amanda Price to ProPublica. Mink are “bred in captivity and raised on farms, occupying a regulatory gray area between wildlife and agriculture,” said The Salt Lake Tribune.

There’s no acute pandemic threat at the moment. The risk is “greatest among people who have exposure to sick animals,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiology professor at Brown University, to The Guardian. “If that’s not you, I think you can take this off your worry list,” but that “does not abdicate the government of its responsibility to try to prevent a pandemic.”