First Thing: US House impeaches homeland security secretary

In a historic move the US House of Representatives voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas on explicitly political charges related to conditions at the southern border. Plus, the rise of romance novel bookstores

Good morning.

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, on explicitly political charges related to conditions at the southern border. Mayorkas is the first to face such punishment in more than 150 years.

The tight 214-213 vote comes amid an unprecedented situation at the US-Mexico border: there has been a surge of encounters, with arrivals coming in record numbers despite more perilous journeys.

Last week, Republicans in the Senate sank an immigration and border deal – proposed after extensive negotiations with Democrats – after Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, made his opposition clear.

How did Mayorkas respond? He told NBC that Republicans’ allegations against him were “baseless”, which was why he was not distracted by them. “I’m focused on the work of the Department of Homeland Security. I’m inspired every single day by the remarkable work that 216,000 men and women in our department perform on behalf of the American public.”

And Joe Biden? “History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” the US president said.

Hamas delegation heads to Cairo as Israeli negotiators leave

A delegation led by the Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea left Cairo on Tuesday just as a Hamas source told the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) that its own delegation was heading there to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war, was also due in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Barnea met the CIA director, William Burns, in the Egyptian capital for talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to temporarily halt fighting in Gaza, but departed the Egyptian capital without closing any of the major gaps in the negotiations.

In other news …

The Democrat Tom Suozzi won the New York congressional seat vacated by the disgraced Republican George Santos on Tuesday night, in a victory that narrows the slim Republican majority in the House.

An elderly man has died from Alaskapox, the first known fatality from the recently discovered virus that is related to smallpox, cowpox and mpox.

The EU is proposing to place sanctions on companies in mainland China for the first time for aiding Russia in its war in Ukraine.

Ukraine claims to have severely damaged and sunk a Russian landing ship in its latest drone attack against Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.

Scientists have discovered a jab that could prevent rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a development experts say could offer hope to millions at risk of the disease.

Stat of the day: 1.6% of Greenland’s total ice cover has melted

Over the past three decades, an estimated 11,000 sq miles of Greenland’s ice sheet and glaciers have melted, an area equivalent to the size of Albania. Areas of Greenland’s melted ice sheet are now producing vegetation, risking increased greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels and instability of the landscape.

Don’t miss this: The US military is embedding in the gaming world

Amid a recruitment struggle, the US military is using hits such as Fortnite as marketing tools, with uniformed personnel playing video games in hopes of inspiring the young gamers on the other end of their headsets and screens. Some veterans see the practice as unethical, especially given the age of the gaming audience.

“I can’t tell someone that they can’t join, especially if you’re in a precarious financial situation. But people need to be able to understand what they’re getting into,” said Kaitlynn Considine, a former marines linguist and member of Gamers for Peace. “No matter what your job is, you are supposed to help the military kill. You might not ever pull a trigger, but you’re still part of that mission.”

… or this: The rise of romance novel bookstores

Just in time for Valentine’s Day: romance novel bookstores have opened across the US and North America, in a quiet but rapidly growing trend. Six years ago, there was only one romance bookstore in the US, but at least eight others have opened since, from Wichita, Kansas, to Belfast, Maine, and another is planned in Portland, Oregon.

“Gen Z, they’re more open, they’re bolder, they’re more willing to be vulnerable. I think it’s giving us millennials, and also the baby boomers that love romance, more permission to love those things out loud,” said Jonlyn Scrogham, who opened A Novel Romance in Louisville, Kentucky last year. “I think we’re undoing generations of guilt and shame.”

Climate check: The ancient Italian tradition facing extinction

A tonnara is Italy’s version of an ancient Mediterrranean fishing custom, which traps and harvests bluefin tuna in an intimate, gruesome struggle known in Italian as the mattanza. Italy’s tonnare is facing extinction, but surprisingly not due to a lack of fish. EU regulations have helped tuna numbers recover over the past decade after the practice was threatened in the early 2000s by a collapse in tuna populations due to commercial overfishing – but now those same EU regulations are harming small fishing companies, with quota distributions going instead to larger companies, making it illegal for many small fishers in Italy to catch tuna.

Last Thing: Checking in at the Heartbreak Hotel

Now for the flip side of Valentine’s Day: Guardian writers have put together a round-up of their favorite breakup songs. The list has everything from Fleetwood Mac and Guns N’ Roses to Arctic Monkeys. “It’s pathetic, petulant, pleading,” writes Michael Sun of his favorite breakup song, by Third Eye Blind. “In other words: exactly how a breakup feels.”

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