Kevin McCarthy. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has defeated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), 159 to 43, in the election to lead the Republican minority.
What's next: McCarthy, who played a key role as chief deputy whip in flipping the House in 2010, will replace Paul Ryan as House Republican leader in January. McCarthy was widely expected to win.
Photo: Aaron P. Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images
The House voted 410-4 on Wednesday to pass legislation to designate lynching as a federal hate crime.
Why it matters: Congress has tried and failed for over 100 years to pass measures to make lynching a federal crime.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Community leaders are concerned that historically hard-to-count residents will be even harder to count in this year's census, thanks to technological hurdles and increased distrust in government.
Why it matters: The census — which will count more than 330 million people this year — determines how $1.5 trillion in federal funding gets allocated across state and local governments. Inaccurate counts mean that communities don't get their fair share of those dollars.
Brazil confirmed the first novel coronavirus case in Latin America Wednesday — a 61-year-old that tested positive after returning from a visit to northern Italy, the epicenter of Europe's outbreak.
The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,700 people and infected over 81,000 others. By Wednesday morning, South Korea had the most cases outside China, with 1,261 infections. Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy, where 374 cases have been confirmed.