NEW YORK — No, the public has not tired of hearing about Prince Harry. Sales for “Spare” have placed the Duke of Sussex in some rarefied company.

Penguin Random House announced Wednesday that first day sales for the Harry’s tell-all memoir topped 1.4 million copies, a record pace for non-fiction from a company that also publishes Barack and Michelle Obama, whose “Becoming” needed a week to reach 1.4 million when it was released in 2018.

Read More: Spare Might Be the Biggest Bombshell Royal Memoir Ever. But It’s Not the Only One

The sales figures for “Spare” include hardcover, audiobook and e-book editions sold in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

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“‘Spare’ is the story of someone we may have thought we already knew, but now we can truly come to understand Prince Harry through his own words,” Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of the Random House Group, said in a statement.

“Looking at these extraordinary first day sales, readers clearly agree, ‘Spare’ is a book that demands to be read, and it is a book we are proud to publish.”

Read More: Why the Royal Family Hasn’t Responded to Prince Harry’s Memoir

One of the most highly anticipated memoirs in recent times, “Spare” is Harry’s highly personal and intimate account of his life in the royal family and his relationship with the American actor Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.

Michelle Obama’s memoir has since sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, its sales holding up over time in part because of highly favorable reviews. The verdict is mixed so far for “Spare.”

Read More: ‘Spare’ Is Surprisingly Well Written—Despite the Drama Around It

New York Times critic Alexandra Jacob called the book, and its author, “all over the map — emotionally as well as physically,” at times “frank and funny” and at other times consumed by Harry’s anger at the British press. In The Washington Post, Louis Bayard found “Spare” to be “good-natured, rancorous, humorous, self-righteous, self-deprecating, long-winded. And every so often, bewildering.”

The breakdown of a key computer system, which resulted in the suspension of U.S. flight departures on Wednesday, is not the first such issue to hinder Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operations, and happened amid efforts to upgrade technology.

The 90-minute halt, which was caused by a problem with an alerting system that sends safety messages for pilots and others, occurred less than two weeks after a different critical air-traffic control system caused flight delays at major airports in Florida. The latest glitch disrupted more than 11,000 flights on Wednesday.

The FAA has struggled to modernize some long-standing parts of air traffic control. A 2021 Transportation Department Office of Inspection General (OIG) report repeatedly cited challenges in the FAA’s multi-billion dollar Next Generation Air Transportation System (Next) infrastructure project.

The OIG said its work “has shown that FAA has struggled to integrate key NextGen technologies and capabilities due to extended program delays that caused ripple effect delays

with other programs.”

In October, for example, the FAA said it was working to end a long-ridiculed, decades-old practice of air traffic controllers using paper flight strips to keep track of aircraft. But adopting the change at 49 major airports will take the FAA until late 2029.

The FAA has also been trying to modernize the Notices to Air Missions (NOTAM) system “to improve the delivery of safety critical information to aviation stakeholders,” according to its website. The system provides pilots, flight crews, and other users of U.S. airspace with relevant, timely and accurate safety notices.

Last April, the FAA began investing $1 billion, out of $5 billion set aside in the infrastructure package signed into law in 2022, in repairing and replacing key equipment in the air traffic control system, including power systems, navigation and weather equipment, and radar and surveillance systems across the country.

“There’s a great deal of work needed to reduce the backlog of sustainment work, upgrades and replacement of buildings and equipment needed to operate our nation’s airspace safely,” FAA Deputy Administrator Bradley Mims said at the time.

In Florida, a system known as the En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) used to control air traffic prompted the FAA on Jan. 2 to issue a ground stop order, slowing traffic into airports and snarling hundreds of flights.

The problem with the ERAM system at a major regional air traffic control center in Miami was behind dozens of flight delays at the Miami International Airport and flights into other airports in the southern U.S. state.

ERAM in 2015 replaced the 40-year-old En Route Host computer and backup system used at 20 FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers nationwide.

House Transportation Committee chair Sam Graves, a Republican, labeled as “inexcusable” FAA’s failure to properly maintain and operate the air traffic control system.

The FAA said in 2020 it was more difficult “for the FAA to hire technical talent as quickly and effectively than in

the past”.

The Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, has struggled with information technology. In 2019, a Government Accountability Office report on federal government IT planning found the DOT was one of three major agencies without a modernization plan.

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A buck-toothed cartoon version of Mexico’s president constitutes an “electoral violation,” the country’s electoral tribunal ruled Wednesday, arguing use of the popular caricature in official propaganda gave party candidates an unfair advantage.

The tribunal said it was sanctioning President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s ruling Morena party for “using the caricature of the President of the Republic in its propaganda, which violates the constitutional principles of neutrality and fair contest.”

Designed by Mexican caricaturist Jose Hernandez, the image of the 69-year-old head of state with tousled gray hair, two large, protruding front teeth and an affable childlike grin giving a thumbs-up gesture, was popularized during Lopez Obrador’s first presidential bid ahead of the 2006 elections.

Affectionately known as “Amlito” – a diminutive reference to the president’s initials, AMLO – the cartoon has since been reproduced on dolls, key chains, baked goods, banners and, crucially, a May 2022 post on Morena’s Twitter account promoting six party candidates for local gubernatorial elections.

The tribunal’s upper chamber ruled there was “constitutional and legal basis” to sanction the message, arguing the image of the popular head of state should not have been used as propaganda for a contest in which he was not a candidate.

It argued “capitalizing on the image” of the president, whose approval rating hovers around 60%, gave his party’s candidates an undue advantage.

The chamber called on “political-electoral propaganda campaigns” to limit themselves to candidates, their proposals, party ideology and platforms. Morena had earlier appealed, arguing there was no legal ban in force on using the caricature.

“Now the (electoral tribunal) has confirmed the action was illegal and sanctioned them,” Jorge Alvarez, an opposition party organizer who filed the complaint, said in a tweet. “We will continue the fight through legal channels.”

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People in China worried on Thursday about spreading COVID-19 to aged relatives as they planned returns to their home towns for holidays that the World Health Organization warns could inflame a raging outbreak.

The Lunar New Year holiday, which officially starts from Jan. 21, comes after China last month abandoned a strict anti-virus regime of mass lockdowns that prompted widespread frustration that boiled over into historic protests.

That abrupt U-turn unleashed COVID on a 1.4 billion population which has been shielded from the virus since it first erupted in China’s Wuhan city in 2019.

The outbreak is now overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums as it rips through the population, where many elderly are still not fully vaccinated.

With scant official data from China, the WHO on Wednesday said it will be challenging to manage the virus over a holiday period considered the world’s largest annual migration of people.

Other warnings from top Chinese health experts for people not to visit aged relatives during the holidays, which are expected to see millions travel from mega-cities to rural villages, shot to the most-read item on China’s Twitter-like Weibo on Thursday.

“This is a very pertinent suggestion, return to the home town…or put the health of the elderly first,” wrote one user. Another user said they dare not visit their grandmother and would leave gifts for her on the doorstep.

“This is almost the New Year and I’m afraid that she will be lonely,” the user wrote.

The WHO and foreign governments have criticised China for not being forthright about the scale and severity of its outbreak, which has led several countries to impose restrictions on Chinese travellers.

China has been reporting five or fewer deaths a day over the past month, numbers that are inconsistent with the long queues seen at funeral homes. The country did not report COVID fatalities data on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Liang Wannian, the head of a COVID expert panel under the national health authority, told reporters that deaths could only be accurately counted after the pandemic was over.

Although international health experts have predicted at least 1 million COVID-related deaths this year, China has reported just over 5,000 since the pandemic began, a fraction of what other countries have reported as they removed restrictions.

Looking beyond the death toll, investors are betting that China’s reopening will reinvigorate a $17 trillion economy suffering its lowest growth in nearly half a century.

That has lifted its currency and Asian stocks to multi-month highs in recent trading sessions, and on Thursday was seen bolstering global oil prices on hopes of fresh demand from the world’s top importer.

After three years of isolation from the outside world, China on Sunday dropped quarantine mandates for inbound visitors in a move expected to eventually also stimulate outbound travel.

But concerns about China’s outbreak has prompted more than a dozen countries to demand negative COVID test results from people arriving from China.

Among them, South Korea and Japan have also limited flights and require tests on arrival, with passengers showing up as positive being sent to quarantine.

In a deepening spat between the regional rivals, China has in turn stopped issuing short-term visas and suspended transit visa exemptions for South Korean and Japanese nationals.

Despite Beijing’s lifting of travel curbs, outbound flight bookings from China were at only 15% of pre-pandemic levels in the week after the country announced it would reopen its borders, travel data firm ForwardKeys said on Thursday.

Low airline capacity, high air fares, new pre-flight COVID-19 testing requirements by many countries and a backlog of passport and visa applications pose challenges as the industry looks to recovery, ForwardKeys Vice President Insights Olivier Ponti said in a statement.

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Satellite imagery in Bakhmut shows the magnitude and intensity of the ongoing fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces over the eastern Ukrainian towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.

Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

• New satellite imagery illustrates the Russian campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian towns of Bakhmut and Soledar.
• The photos show thousands of artillery craters and dilapidated, burned down buildings and schools.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the area is where Russia is focusing its “greatest efforts.”

Stunning new satellite imagery shows the extent of destruction in eastern Ukraine, as fighting between the Ukrainian army and Russian paramilitary forces has ramped up in recent weeks.

Ukrainian forces have upped the ante in the region that encompasses Bakhmut and Soledar, resisting a Russian attempt to capture the resource-rich area. Russian forces have been supported on the frontlines by prisoners recruited by the Wagner Group, a mercenary organization whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has close ties to the Kremlin.

Since the start of January, the fighting in the area has become “savage,” a senior US military official said on Monday, adding that many of the 73,000 residents of Bakhmut have been evacuated. 

Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

“You’re talking about thousands upon thousands of artillery rounds that have been delivered between both sides,” the official said. 

The images from Maxar Technologies were taken between January 3-10.

Satellite imagery showing the ongoing fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces over the eastern Ukrainian towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.

Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

The fighting has reduced the remaining schools and buildings in Bakhmut to rubble, and Russian forces have been able to make it to Soledar located just south of Bakhmut. The above image shows buildings and artillery craters in Soledar.

Satellite imagery showing the ongoing fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces over the eastern Ukrainian towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.

Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

The above image shows rows of crushed apartments in Soledar. The British Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that their intelligence shows that Russian forces are now prioritizing Soledar. 

In a speech on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the destruction in Soledar.

“And what did Russia want to gain there? Everything is completely destroyed, there is almost no life left. And thousands of their people were lost,” he said. “The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes. This is what madness looks like.”

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Texas Senator Ted Cruz

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images // Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• Lawmakers appeared to be very passionate about their gas stoves after talks of a ban were floated this week.
• “COME AND TAKE IT!!” Rep. Ronny Jackson wrote, saying he’d “NEVER give up” his gas stove.
• Critics of gas stoves point to research that shows they could pose a health hazard.

As the first full week of the 118th Congress kicked off and the new GOP House majority started passing legislation, lawmakers online were wrapped up in a heated debate — not over immigration or inflation, but over… stoves.

The gas vs. electric stove debate seemed to rile up lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but especially Republicans, who appeared extremely protective of their gas-fueled appliances.

“I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!” Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

It was the kind of exclamation that would feel entirely normal if only “gas stove” was replaced with another object of the culture wars.

But after Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, told Bloomberg on Monday that a gas stove ban was being considered, the gas stovetop was getting the same sort of protective treatment that is usually reserved for things like firearms or meat consumption.

“This is a recipe for disaster. The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner,” Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, said in a tweet. “I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”

The CPSC followed up on Wednesday, with Alex Hoehn-Saric, the chair of the commission, saying that an all-out ban was not actually on the table, but that the agency was looking for ways to reduce health risks associated with gas burners.

Proponents of the gas stove argue it is a superior cooking appliance compared to its electric counterparts, offering more temperature control and different cooking options. Critics of gas stoves say that, actually, some electric burners allow for more precise cooking temperatures and that they can be easier to clean.

Aside from cooking, studies have suggested that gas stoves pose a hazard to human health. Burning gas releases chemicals that can be toxic to the human respiratory system, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. A peer-reviewed study published in December linked 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the US to air pollutants released by gas stoves. Some researchers have also found gas stoves have a greater impact on climate change by releasing more greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to Texas representative Jackson’s “COME AND TAKE IT” tweet, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez waded into the uproar, pointing out the potential health impacts of using gas burners.

“Did you know that ongoing exposure to NO2 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance,” she wrote.

Perhaps the biggest sign the issue had veered into culture war territory was that it was shared on the popular right-wing Twitter account Libs of TikTok, run by Chaya Raichik. The account posted photos of several prominent Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Ocasio-Cortez, appearing to cook on gas burners.

“Gas stoves for me but not for thee,” the tweet said alongside the photos.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas responded to the tweet with fire emojis.

Rep-elect George Santos speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 19, 2022.

David Becker/Washington Post via Getty Images

• Republican Rep. George Santos admitted to lying about his accolades during his campaign.
• He’s facing calls to resign and potential legal trouble.
• Insider annotated a copy of his resume obtained by The New York Times.

Rep. George Santos admitted that he started his political career by fabricating details of his education, life, and experiences.

The New York Times obtained a copy of his error-riddled resume which he sent to the Nassau County Republican Committee in 2020 after showing interest in running for office.

“He answered the questions — obviously not truthfully — but at that time we trusted him,” Joseph G. Cairo Jr., the chairman of the Nassau committee, said according to The Times. Cairo said it was critical to set up a better process to check the credibility of potential candidates: “We were duped here.”

The Republican congressman now faces calls to resign and looming legal trouble.

“I was elected to serve the people of #NY03 not the party & politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living. I will NOT resign!” Santos wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

His resume offers a window into his previously unchecked deception that led to his candidacy and inauguration.