Death comes for the border bill

Plus King Charles III has cancer and hurricanes are dialing it up [View this email in your browser]( [Brand Logo]( Border bill blow, king's cancer and hurricane inflation   Good morning, Buckingham Palace said Monday that King Charles III has some form of cancer. Exactly 72 years ago, when Charles was 3, his grandfather George VI died from complications of lung cancer. The British public — and possibly "the king himself" — hadn't been told beforehand he was terminally ill, The Associated Press reports. The royal family's new health transparency shows that even the most calcified of institutions can change unhealthy patterns. Congress should take note. Peter Weber The Week Digital     Today's POLITICS story Republicans look primed to kill bipartisan border deal What happened? After a tense Monday night meeting, Senate Republicans signaled the bipartisan border bill released Sunday night is "already close to failure," Politico said. The "likely defeat" of the bill, which Republicans insisted be linked to foreign security assistance, would leave "no clear path to approve wartime aid for Ukraine," The Associated Press added. Who said what? "I think the proposal is dead," said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said he was "just gobsmacked" that Republicans "literally demanded specific policy, got it and then killed it." The bill is a "work in progress," lead GOP negotiator Sen. James Lankford (Okla.) said. "So I'm not willing to do a funeral on it." The commentary The bill has "tons of items on conservatives' border-policy bucket list," but instead of "pinching themselves in disbelief," House Republicans won't even put it up for a vote, Catherine Rampell said at The Washington Post. The deal is a "bitter pill" most Democrats seem willing to swallow, but these "major immigration agreements" always "fall apart just before the finish line after Republicans condemn them as too weak," Annie Karni said at The New York Times. Republicans should heed the Border Patrol union and pass this "most restrictive migrant legislation in decades," The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial. They may never get a better deal. What next? The Senate is scheduled to take a test vote Wednesday.     Today's INTERNATIONAL story Britain's King Charles has cancer, will scale back public role What happened?Britain's King Charles III has been diagnosed with "a form of cancer" and will suspend public duties during his treatment, Buckingham Palace said Monday. Who said what? The king "remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible," the palace said. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wished him a "full and speedy recovery." President Joe Biden did, too, adding, "Navigating a cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship takes hope and absolute courage." What next? King Charles, 75, has started outpatient treatment and "will continue to undertake state business and official paperwork as usual," according to Buckingham Palace. His public absence will strain the shrinking number of "working royals," The Wall Street Journal said. With Prince William just returning from caring for his children as Princess Catherine recovers from abdominal surgery, and Prince Harry retired from royal duties since 2020, "Queen Camilla, 76, is expected to shoulder an increased amount of work."   Advertisement by Lifebook [Share Your Story with Future Generations](   Today's SCIENCE Story Should hurricanes get a Category 6? What happened? The five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength should get a new level, Category 6, for storms with sustained winds of more than 192 miles per hour, climate scientists Michael Wehner and James Kossin said in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Who said what? "Climate change is making the worst storms worse," said Wehner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. A "hypothetical Category 6 would raise awareness of that." The commentary Wehner and Kossin "make a strong case for changing the scale," but it probably won't go anywhere because most hurricane damage comes from water, not wind, said MIT hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel. It's "hard for me to envision the need to convey a threat" greater than Category 5's "catastrophic," said NOAA's Michael Fischer. What next? Five Pacific typhoons since 2013 would have been classified as Category 6, Wehner and Kossin said, and the odds of more hitting that level are rising sharply as ocean and atmospheric temperatures increase.     On this day February 6, 1952 King George VI of the United Kingdom dies and his daughter succeeds him as Queen Elizabeth II. Becoming queen at age 25, Elizabeth would sit on the throne for 70 years and 214 days. This makes her the U.K.’s longest-reigning monarch and the second-longest-reigning monarch of any nation in history, after King Louis XIV of France.   Advertisement by Betterment [Betterment is the automated investing app that puts your money to work](   TODAY’S newspaperS ['We'd all like to look past Bibi']( As Secretary of State Antony Blinken is touring the Middle East, trying to broker a respite in the Gaza war, many Israelis are wondering when they can vote out their "historically unpopular" prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, The New York Times says on Tuesday's front page. "We'd all like to look past Bibi," said Anshel Pfeffer at the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz. "But there is no way to force him to resign." ► [See the newspaper front pages](     It's not all bad A new artificial intelligence model can flag patients at risk of developing pancreatic cancer nearly 18 months before diagnosis, The Harvard Gazette reported. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used electronic health records from 55 U.S. medical organizations to train the model. The breadth of the data means the model could be used in any clinic. Pancreatic cancer often isn't caught until its later stages, when there's only an 11% five-year relative survival rate.     Under the radar [The political-media complex is dying]( The relationship between news outlets and politicians, commonly referred to as the political-media complex, seems to be on the brink of collapse. Television traffic ratings for the Iowa caucuses were "terrible," said Semafor. Figures cited by Deadline show that Fox News led prime-time coverage with 2.83 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 1.15 million. These figures are both significantly lower than 2020, when Fox brought in 4.4 million viewers and MSNBC generated 2.5 million. The worst ratings of the major cable networks belonged to CNN, which averaged just 688,000 viewers during the caucuses. And away from television, "traffic to political coverage on digital news sites is down compared to the 2020 and 2016 presidential primaries," Semafor said. The shift largely has to do with the evolution of news media in an increasingly polarized political system. "Fewer reporters are paying attention to their local lawmakers and the more mundane but really important things they do," reporter Michael McAuliff told the Columbia Journalism Review. National media networks also tend to "frame politics in America through the lens of the major conflicts between the two parties," Syracuse University professor Johanna Dunaway said to PBS. This combination becomes "corrosive to democracy in many ways, some more obvious than others" and makes polarization worse, the CJR said. Without dedicated political reporters, most Americans get their information about politicians "from campaign ads or when they're on national news talking about partisan issues."     Tall tale Plow shares … In Minnesota, Clark W. Blizzwald, Taylor Drift and Dolly Plowton are doing their part to keep the roads clear. Last week, the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced the winners of its annual Name a Snowplow contest, which started in 2020 as a lighthearted competition during the early days of Covid-19. This year, eight plows were christened with new names, including You're Killing Me Squalls, Fast and Flurrious, Barbie's Dream Plow, Beyonsleigh and Waipahinte (Dakota for "snowplow").     Later today This morning's news isn't particularly cheerful. But there's beauty and wonder in the world, even in endings and transitions. Today's Evening Review celebrates the career and generational talent of Chita Rivera, who passed away last week. If you need a smile, watch her shine. Thanks for reading, Peter     Morning Report was written and edited by Catherine Garcia, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek. Image credits, from top: Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Max Mumby / Indigo / Getty Images; NASA via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images   © Future US, Inc • [theweek.com]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Privacy Policy]( The Week is published by Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036.