First Thing: Trump easily wins in Iowa as Republican contest kicks off 2024 presidential race

Former president a step closer to Joe Biden rematch, as Ron DeSantis edges out Nikki Haley for distant second place finish. Plus, who won at the delayed 2023 Emmy awards

Good morning.

Donald Trump has won an overwhelming victory in the US’s first election contest of 2024, easily fending off a winnowed field of Republicans in the Iowa caucuses.

The Associated Press called the race for Trump rapidly, while caucusgoers in much of the state were still casting ballots, a sign of the wide lead the former president had in the race.

“We were a great nation three years ago and now we’re a nation in decline,” he said, speaking to fans after the results confirmed his victory. He then made a litany of promises of what he would do in a second term, including rampant drilling and giving police officers full immunity.

The heated battle for second place took much longer, with Ron DeSantis edging out Nikki Haley in an upset.

How much did Trump win by? With an estimated 99% of the vote counted, Trump was on 51%, DeSantis 21.2%, and Haley 19.1%. The former president smashed the previous record margin of victory in a competitive Republican presidential race in the state, which stood at 12 percentage points.

What’s next? The New Hampshire primaries are next and Trump will be more confident than ever about capturing the Republican nomination following last night’s success.

US condemns ‘reckless’ Iranian attack in northern Iraq

The US has condemned an Iranian attack near Iraq’s northern city of Erbil yesterday, saying it would “undermine Iraq’s stability”.

“We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes,” said Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, adding that the US supported “the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people”.

Iran claimed that Monday’s attacks targeted the “espionage headquarters” of Israel. At least four civilians were killed and six injured in the strikes, the Kurdistan government’s security council said in a statement, describing the attack as a “crime”.

The multimillionaire Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and several members of his family were among the dead, killed when at least one rocket crashed into their home, Iraqi security and medical sources said.

What’s happening in Gaza? The Israeli military said on Tuesday its troops killed dozens of Palestinian militants around the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and also uncovered about 100 rocket launchers.

What else is happening? Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said today that the country’s intense military operation in southern Gaza was nearing its end. However, Gallant noted that Hamas would not agree to release any more hostages without continued military pressure.

Succession, Beef and The Bear triumph at delayed 2023 Emmy awards

The final season of Succession reigned supreme at the delayed 2023 Emmy awards as Jesse Armstrong’s hit HBO drama picked up six awards, including for actors Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen and the night’s biggest award for best drama series.

“This wasn’t necessarily an easy show to commission in the beginning,” Armstrong said, thanking HBO for believing in him and the series. “This is a show about family but it’s also about when partisan news coverage gets intertwined with divisive rightwing politics.” He then joked that in the real world that’s a problem that has now been “fixed”.

Snook devoted her lead actress in a drama award to her child, whom she carried through the final season of the show. “It’s very easy to act when you’re pregnant because you have hormones raging,” she joked. Macfadyen, winning for supporting actor, paid tribute to his on-screen wife, Snook, and his “other” on-screen wife, Nicholas Braun. “Acting with you has been one of the most wonderful things in my career,” he added.

Who else won? The first seasons of Beef and The Bear were also big hits with voters – the latter also won six awards, including for comedy series and lead actor Jeremy Allen White, with Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach picking up supporting awards.

In other news …

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has called for a change to the constitution to identify South Korea as the “number one hostile state”, ending the regime’s commitment to unifying the Korean peninsula. In a speech to the supreme people’s assembly, Kim said he no longer believed unification was possible.

Major human rights violations are being committed at a vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya where there have been numerous deaths and violence, according to the conclusions of an unpublished report. The findings, seen by the Guardian, are highly critical of Del Monte Kenya.

Ukraine’s military has shot down two of Russia’s command planes, in one of the most disastrous days for the Kremlin’s air power since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander in chief, said his air force had destroyed an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an Il-22 control centre plane.

The White House yesterday became the latest victim of a growing US problem of “swatting”: the summoning of large numbers of law enforcement personnel and other first responders to a hoax emergency incident. The call was determined to be false a little more than 15 minutes after it was received.

Stat of the day: record-low temperatures hit tens of millions of people across the US

Dangerous freezing air from the Arctic continued sweeping across the US on Monday, prolonging a bitter cold blast that has set record-low temperatures and disrupted daily life across a broad swathe of America, including an NFL playoff game and the presidential nominating contest in Iowa. From Oregon on the west coast to New York state on the east coast and all the way down to Florida, the US grappled with the effects of a weather system that hit tens of millions of people. The icy weather is set to continue. Subzero wind chills will grip much of the country, plunging to -50F (-45C) in Montana and the Dakotas.

Don’t miss this: I tried some hacks to make my phone less appealing. It got existential

The digital wellness queen Catherine Price is devastating my sense of self, writes Rhik Samadder. “How much work would you miss if you weren’t on top of your email every hour?” asks the author of How to Break Up With Your Phone and the coach of the Guardian’s newsletter Reclaim your brain. Before I can ask if she knows who I am, she asks me the same question. “Who are you, without distraction? Giving up your phone gets existential quickly.” I’m not sure I’m ready to find out. It’s been a hard year, on top of an impossibly hard couple of years.

She switches to some practical tips on how to make my phone less appealing. How would it feel to delete WhatsApp? she asks. I’m not going to do that, I tell her flatly. I sound like a junkie.

Climate check: Azerbaijan appoints no women to 28-member Cop29 climate committee

The organising committee for the Cop29 global climate change summit in Azerbaijan in December comprises 28 men and no women, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has announced. The decision was called “regressive” by the She Changes Climate campaign group, which said “climate change affects the whole world, not half of it”. In contrast, 63% of the members of the organising committee for the Cop28 climate summit, held in the United Arab Emirates last month, were women. Almost all members of the Cop29 committee are government ministers or officials. The head of Azerbaijan’s state gas distribution network is also on the committee.

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