National and international media news & headlines compiled by CLG

Trump projected winner of Iowa GOP caucuses, cementing front-runner status | 15 Jan 2024 | Former President Trump was declared the projected winner of the Iowa caucuses on Monday evening, cementing his status as the front runner in the GOP presidential primary election. Multiple news outlets, including The Associated Press and CNN, made the projection with less than 1% of the vote in after the polls closed. “Not a surprise but still, this is the earliest I can remember ever calling such a thing,” said CNN anchor Jake Tapper live on-air. Tapper said the projection was based on Trump’s “overwhelming lead” in the outlet’s entrance poll and “some initial votes” that came in on Monday. Voters in the state braved cold temperatures and snowy conditions to take part in the election.

Ramaswamy suspends 2024 bid, endorses Trump | 15 Jan 2024 | Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday night announced he’s dropping out of the 2024 GOP presidential race following a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses and endorsing former President, the latest announcement to winnow down the primary field as Trump dominates. “As of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign,” Ramaswamy told supporters in Iowa on Monday night. “As I’ve said since the beginning, there are two America First candidates in this race. And earlier tonight I called Donald Trump to tell him that I – congratulate him on his victory, and now going forward, you will have my full endorsement for the presidency,” Ramaswamy said later… Ramaswamy, the first GOP millennial to seek the Republican presidential nomination, was initially seen as a long-shot candidate with little name recognition when he launched in February 2023.  

DeSantis poised for second, Haley third in Iowa GOP caucuses | 15 Jan 2024 | Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is poised to finish second in the Iowa GOP caucuses, while former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is poised for third place, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ. DeSantis’s second-place finish comes after the Florida governor invested heavily in the Hawkeye State. His performance in Iowa was seen as make-or-break, and recent polling had shown Haley edging past him. Both candidates were eclipsed, however, by former President Trump, who as of this publication had just over 50 percent of the vote.  

Trump stuns pundits by ‘defying political gravity’ after Iowa win: ‘He’s the nominee, get over it’ | 15 Jan 2024 | Former President Trump stunned the American political scene Monday with what could shape up to be a near-record margin of victory in the Iowa caucuses. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who once represented the now-key swing state of Georgia, said Trump’s victory comes in spite of all of the mainstream media’s efforts and foreshadowing of a resounding defeat. “[D]espite every lawsuit, despite every effort to destroy Trump, the people of Iowa have stood up and said, ‘No, he is our candidate,'” Gingrich added on Hannity. “He’s the nominee. Get over it – He is the nominee. He’s going to win the nomination. The news media doesn’t want to say that because they need to somehow hype ‘please watch us while we go through this charade.'” The former speaker, who served as the top House Republican from 1995 to 1999, claimed there is no longer a viable path for a “number two” candidate.

UK to send 20,000 troops to NATO war games –The British military will send a large contingent to one of the bloc’s biggest drills since the end of the Cold War | 15 Jan 2024 | The UK is set to deploy around 20,000 service members – as well as modern warships and fighter jets – to take part in major NATO war games amid rising tensions with Russia, the Defence Ministry in London has announced. In a statement on Monday, the ministry, citing excerpts from a speech to be delivered by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, said that some 16,000 army troops – along with tanks, artillery, and helicopters – will join other bloc members on the continent to participate in Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, scheduled to take place in the first half of this year. The effort will be supported by eight warships and submarines, as well as 2,000 Royal Navy sailors. The UK will also deploy a number of aircraft, including F35B Lightning fighters and Poseidon P8 surveillance aircraft, the ministry said.

Iran fires missiles at ‘terrorists and spies’ near U.S. consulate | 15 Jan 2024 | The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had used ballistic missiles against an ISIS base in Syria and a stronghold of the Israeli spy service Mossad in Iraq on Monday, in retaliation for the recent terrorist bombings in Iran. Two explosions killed almost 100 people in Kerman on January 3, as pilgrims gathered to honor the late General Qassem Soleimani, killed by the U.S. in 2021. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS [but still I-CIA-SIS]) claimed responsibility. Last month, another suicide bombing in the town of Rask killed 11 Iranian police. It was blamed on the Pakistan-based group Jaish Al-Adl. “In response to the recent crimes of the terrorist groups that unjustly martyred a group of our dear compatriots in Kerman and Rask, we have identified gathering places of commanders and elements of ISIS related to recent terrorist operations in the occupied territories of Syria and destroyed them by firing a number of ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement.

Houthis hit U.S. ship with missile | 15 Jan 2024 | Yemen’s Houthi militants struck an American container ship with a ballistic missile on Monday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The militants have vowed to target merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden in response to Israel’s war on Hamas. On Monday afternoon, “Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned and operated container ship,” Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement. “The ship has reported no injuries or significant damage and is continuing its journey,” the statement continued. Earlier on Monday, U.S. forces detected the launch of an anti-ship ballistic missile from Yemen, Central Command added, noting that this earlier launch “failed in flight and impacted on land in Yemen.”

Kiev restates goal of retaking Crimea | 15 Jan 2024 | Kiev still plans to retake all of the territory it has lost to Russia over the past decade, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umarov has insisted. His comments come after admissions that the country’s much-touted counteroffensive last year failed to overcome Russian defenses. Speaking alongside several other senior Ukrainian officials at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos on Sunday, Umarov was asked to comment on reports that the U.S. is disappointed with Kiev’s military strategy for 2024. The defense minister would neither confirm nor deny the allegation… Umerov also noted that Kiev’s “strategic objective is…to get to the 1991 borders.” This would entail retaking the Crimean Peninsula, which voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014 after the leaders of a Western-backed coup in Kiev scrapped local language rights. It would also involve wresting control of four other regions which voted to become part of Russia in the autumn of 2022.

German Farmers Protest at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin | 15 Jan 2024 | On Monday, thousands of Germans gathered in the center of Berlin to protest against the agricultural subsidy cuts implemented by the government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The German Farmers’ Association (DBV) pointed out that over 30,000 people and 6,000 vehicles were protesting around the Brandenburg Gate at noon on Monday. This is a signal “to the politicians in Berlin that things cannot continue like this,” said DBV President Joachim Rückwied, who claimed that the farmers’ mobilization is the largest protest since German reunification.  

The EU Wants to Spy on Europeans’ Internet Use | 11 Jan 2024 | The European Commission is an EU legislative body with regulatory authority over digital technology. The EC’s eIDAS Article 45, a proposed regulation, would deliberately weaken areas of internet security that the industry has carefully evolved and hardened for over 25 years. The Article would effectively grant the 27 EU governments vastly expanded surveillance powers over internet use. The rule would require all internet browsers to trust an additional root certificate from an agency (or a regulated entity) from each of the national governments of each one of the EU member states… This proposed regulation requires all browsers to trust a basket of certificates from CAs designated by the EU. Twenty-seven to be exact: one for each member nation. These certificates are to be called Qualified Website Authentication Certificates…The QWACs would be issued either by either government agencies, or what [CLG News founder] Michael Rectenwald calls governmentalities: “corporations and companies and other adjuncts of the state who are otherwise called ‘private,’ but really are operating as state apparatuses, in that they’re enforcing state narratives and dictates.”  

FAA launches recruitment campaign for workers with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric problems and physical issues to hit woke DEI targets –The FAA is recruiting people with specific disabilities under a new diversity drive –The initiative is part of the broader “Diversity and Inclusion” plan by the agency –Critics were concerned about safety, while the FAA noted diversity’s importance | 14 Jan 2024 | The Federal Aviation Administration is looking for recruits with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities as it tries to hit woke DEI targets. The agency is hunting people with psychiatric issues and other mental and physical conditions in its latest diversity drive. The FAA, which includes jobs such as air traffic controllers, are keen to employ those with hearing and vision impairments, missing limbs, partial and complete paralysis. Such a broad recruitment is all part of what the FAA term its “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan. The FAA states on its website how individuals with “severe” mental and physical disabilities represent an under-represented segment of the federal workforce.

‘I Googled It’: Air Traffic Controller Dragged for Telling Veteran Pilot How to Land | 11 Jan 2024 | An air traffic controller has been harshly criticized for telling a veteran pilot that she knew better than he did about how to land the plane because she “Googled it.” Brenda Mooney, an air traffic controller at Denton Enterprise Airport in Texas, was reportedly caught on a recording advising the pilot, who said he had been flying for 15 years, with her Google-derived information… A petition was launched to get Mooney removed from her position. One commenter on the YouTube video of the incident stated, “Been flying for 25 years, 3000 hrs. Never had a controller expect a short approach to mean ‘turn base at the numbers.’ That’s absurd.”

House Republicans re-subpoena Hunter Biden to lockdown his promise to give close-door testimony | 15 Jan 2024 | The chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees sent a letter earlier this weekend to Hunter Biden’s legal team saying they will re-file subpoenas for Biden to give closed-door testimony but made clear they consider their original request to be adequate. They sent the letter Sunday after Biden attorney Abbe Lowell argued earlier this months the subpoenas were legally invalid. “As an accommodation to Mr. Biden and at your request, we are prepared to issue subpoenas compelling Mr. Biden’s appearance at a deposition on a new date in the coming weeks,” Oversight Chairman James Comer and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan wrote in a letter to Lowell. “The issuance of these subpoenas does not in any way suggest or imply that the Committees believe the assertions in your January 12 letter to have any merit.”

Biden approval rating plummets to 31%, a 15-year low, poll finds | 15 Jan 2024 | Joe Biden’s approval rating plummeted to the lowest on record for a U.S. president in the last 15 years, according to a new poll by ABC News. Biden’s approval rating sits at just 31%, according to a national survey produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, with fieldwork by Ipsos Public Affairs via its online, probability-based KnowledgePanel. The poll found 58% of respondents disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president. It also marks the lowest since former George W. Bush’s administration in the mid-2000s. Just 18% approve of how Biden is handling immigration at the southern border.