What to know about Mike Johnson, the new House speaker

Lewiston City Councilor, Robert McCarthy, told “CNN” last night that dozens of people were injured.

UAW President Shawn Fain addressed members yesterday, saying the proposed contract is a big win.

There's one small country in the Persian Gulf playing an outsized role in these talks over releasing hostages. “Bloomberg” writes about how Qatar became the go-to geopolitical fixer - in this conflict, and others around the world.

Qatar has decades-old diplomatic channels open across the Middle East, including with Islamist militant groups like Hamas. In fact, a Hamas political office was created in Doha, Qatar's capital, in 2012. A Qatari official tells “Bloomberg,” that office has been used in mediation efforts across multiple U.S. administrations to talk about the situation in Gaza and Israel. Now, these relationships are giving Qatari mediators an advantage in dealing with current hostage negotiations.

Mediators in Qatar have also been working to prevent the war from expanding across the region, talking to Iran and the militant group Hezbollah to prevent a second front from opening in the north of Israel, along the border with Lebanon. Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have grown more intense there in recent days.

This marks the third time in the past two months that Qatar has played a mediating role between adversaries. Last month, Qatari mediators helped to secure the release of five Americans detained in Iran. And they worked with Russia to negotiate the release and reunification of four Ukrainian children separated from their families by Russia's invasion.

“The Washington Post” also has a good write-up on why Qatar has chosen to get involved in so many international conflicts, the geopolitical risks, and benefits. You can find that article in the Apple News app.

Johnson was elected to Congress in 2016. He's a Trump supporter and he voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, telling Trump at the time to keep "fighting." He led an effort involving more than 100 Republican lawmakers asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results, which ultimately failed. And Johnson served on Trump's legal defense team during his first impeachment.

On social issues, he opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. Before he was elected to Congress, he was a constitutional lawyer who successfully defended Louisiana's ban on same sex marriage. He opposes gender-affirming care for minors. And last year he introduced federal legislation similar to Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, that would have banned speech about sexual orientation, gender identity and more at all federally funded institutions.

On fiscal policy, Johnson has called for more oversight on spending, particularly aid to Ukraine. And he says he supports a temporary spending plan to keep the government funded past the November 17th deadline. If you want a window into the new speaker's stance on a number of other issues, like climate change, immigration, and trade with China, check out that full “Politico” article.

Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, took the stand over the last few days. It's the first time he and Trump have shared a room in five years. Cohen testified that he felt pressured by Trump to inflate assets and reverse-engineer financial statements to match valuations that Trump quote "arbitrarily selected," comparing the former president to a mob boss.

Trump also briefly took the stand and was given a $10,000 fine by the judge for violating a gag order. This judge had issued the order earlier in the trial, barring Trump from making disparaging comments in public about court staffers. This is Trump's second violation of that gag order in two weeks, and the judge warned Trump that future transgressions could bring "more severe" sanctions, including jail time.

Now, to Georgia, where the election interference case involving Trump is picking up steam. Remember, this case has a lot of co-defendants; it started out with 18 plus Trump. Right now, the district attorney is applying pressure by offering plea deals to his co-defendants in exchange for their testimony against him in the trial.

Over the last seven days, three co-defendants - all lawyers, chose to take a deal. First, Sidney Powell, then Kenneth Chesebro, and most recently, Jenna Ellis. Legal analyst, Elie Honig, spoke on “CNN” about how these plea deals might affect the case. He said, while it strengthens the prosecution's stance to lock in guilty pleas, he's eager to see the details of what's in these pleas, because they've given these defendants a lot of leniency.