If it's Monday, Washington braces for a series of dramatic showdowns and standoffs,

potentially beginning tonight, as Kevin McCarthy takes the reins as Speaker of the House

after granting sweeping new powers to the most conservative wing of his caucus.

Plus, trade disputes, drug trafficking, and a growing humanitarian crisis.

President Biden set to meet with the president of Mexico after witnessing the emergency

at the U.S. southern border firsthand for the first time as president.

And insurrection in Brazil with echoes of January 6th.

Thousands of rioters storm Brazil's Congress, its Supreme Court,

and the presidential offices there after Brazil's former president

pushed baseless claims of a rigged election.

... Hello to you and welcome to meet the press now.

I'm Peter Alexander.

After 15 ballots, four days of drama and wheeling and dealing, California's Kevin McCarthy is now getting ready to gavel in the House

for the first time since becoming Speaker. And roughly an hour from right now, McCarthy and the

rest of the House Republican Conference will have to deal with the cost of that deal making.

The House will soon gather to vote on the rules package for this, the 118th Congress.

It'll essentially codify the deal that McCarthy made to get the speakership that seeds

huge swaths of power to the House Freedom Caucus and to other ultra-conservatives within

the party.

The concessions McCarthy made include the following, that any one Republican senator

will be able to call for a vote to try to oust him as Speaker at any time.

A new select committee will be established with power to probe the Justice Department's active investigations.

...