AROUND THE WORLD:
From the Washington Post:
The sudden decision Thursday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) to withdraw from the speaker's race thrust congressional Republicans into chaos and left the contest wide open, with a crowd of lesser-known players jockeying for power and rank-and-file members fretting that the political unrest on the hard right that drove McCarthy and House Speaker John A. Boehner away from the position has left the party unmanageable in the lower chamber.
Conservatives seized the moment as McCarthy made his exodus, celebrating the departure of one of the GOP's moderates and fastest-rising stars -- and pledging to push for one of their own, a hard-liner on fiscal and social issues, to step forward in the coming weeks before the leadership elections are rescheduled. McCarthy's associates, many hailing from mainstream Republican districts, urged caution and began efforts to draft another centrist Republican to succeed Boehner (Ohio).
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