If you haven’t already I want to encourage you to read today’s Morning Memo and the personal note from David at the head of it. It’s only for David to share these things. But I confess I felt a sense of unexpected relief when I saw that he did. I don’t want to and am not at liberty to say any more. The best way I can convey it is that a lot of stuff has happened in this organization over the last two years, difficult stuff. These are things happening in individual people’s and families’ lives. But speaking just for myself, I have sometimes felt a gulf between us or at least me and our TPM community in the wake of these different events, much as you might feel some estrangement from family or friends if you’re dealing with things you can’t discuss with them.

I should add just generally that most of these challenges have ended up better than we or members of our team could have anticipated. I am so immensely grateful for that. I am so proud of and nourished by the resilience and solidarity of this whole crew, this tiny but close-knit battalion of newsers.

There were a lot of press reports that Jim Jordan had the momentum in the House GOP fight for the Speakership. But they held the caucus vote today and Steve Scalise won 113 to 99. Importantly, these caucus votes are secret ballots. So those reports might have been accurate as a measure of what members were telling reporters. But a secret ballot is another matter.

Normally, this would mean that Scalise will now become Speaker. But of course we’re not in the world of normal. This is the House GOP caucus. My understanding is that Jim Jordan still hasn’t officially responded to his defeat. I also hear there’s a move to push the floor vote up to this afternoon rather than waiting for tomorrow. Presumably that’s to get the vote done before anyone gets any ideas about making trouble.

We could have a new Speaker of the House by the end of the day.

On the margins of the unfolding Israel-Hamas war have been a series of reports that Egyptian intelligence gave the Israelis some kind of warning of an impending attack or eruption in Gaza. Those reports have been met by fierce denials from the Prime Minister’s office. Just where this whole question stood after the back and forth of the last 36 hours was unclear, at least to me. But this morning House Foreign Relations Chair Mike McCaul (R-TX) said this: “We know that Egypt had warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen…I don’t want to get too much in the classified but a warning was given. I think the question was at what level.”

News just broke that Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu have formed an emergency national unity government in Israel. This has been expected for the last day or so. What’s not clear yet is the precise details of that government. Gantz had demanded a war cabinet made up of Netanyahu and his Defense Minister joined to Gantz and his deputy, Gadi Eizenkot. Both of the latter two are former IDF Chiefs of Staff. That would essentially sidestep the entire existing cabinet structure and run the management of the war through those four men.