In the coming week, a new U.S. Congress embarks on its first full week.

North America's leaders meet in Mexico City and China reopens its borders.

It's January 5, 2023, and time for the world next week. I'm Bob McMahon.

And I'm Jim Lindsay.

Jim, let's start here in the nation's capital.

This past Tuesday, lawmakers convened for the first day of the 118th Congress, and an important

step for a new Congress is to elect a Speaker of the House,

but that has become historically difficult for House Republicans who hold the majority.

They failed multiple times, and as we're taping this podcast, other attempts were being made.

But with such a bumpy start, Jim, how do you think this first full week will go for the new

Congress?

Expect more bumps, Bob. I expect that's what we're going to be seeing both next week and

over the next two years of this Congress. I should note that this is a fluid situation.

We're sitting down before the House reconvenes to begin another set of votes on selecting a

speaker. It's touch and go as to whether there'll be a

breakthrough or not. But again, I think the big takeaway from this is that the next two years are

going to be fairly turbulent and chaotic. For history buffs, this is the 15th time in U.S.

history, and the first time in 100 years that the election of the Speaker has gone

to multiple ballots. My guess is that the 118th House will not touch the record set back by

the 34th House, which took 133 ballots in 1855 before selecting Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts as speaker.

Could maybe get asked about that in your next trivia quiz.

People need to keep in mind that selecting the speaker is the first order of business for

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