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Tuesday, January 16, 2024

1/16 WAKE-UP CALL: 1 Trump 2 DeSantis, 3 Haley, 4 Ramaswamy



Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses Monday night with the largest margin in the history of the first Republican presidential nominating contest, cementing an early victory in his defiant bid to return to the White House. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner roughly a half-hour after the caucuses convened. The call came so quickly that at some caucus locations, attendees hadn’t even finished making speeches of support for the various candidates. With 97% of the vote reported, the AP said Trump had 51%. He was followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 21%, who was called the second-place finisher. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was at 19%.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his 2024 campaign and announced he is endorsing former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary following a disappointing showing in Monday’s Iowa caucuses.  “As of this moment, we are going to suspend his presidential campaign,” Ramaswamy said. “There is no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country.”  Ramaswamy, who came in fourth on Monday, has long been supportive of the former president and campaigned on a platform that included pardoning Trump for any future federal convictions. He ran a campaign focused primarily, however, on dismantling the administrative state. 

➤TRUMP DECLARES TIME FOR AMERICA TO UNITE: Former President Trump declared it is "time" for America to "come together" after winning big at the 2024 Iowa Caucus. Trump made the declaration during his Monday remarks after winning the famous Iowa Caucus, with the former president saying he believes that "this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together" whether a person is "a Republican or a Democrat or liberal or conservative."

"If it would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world and straighten out the problems and straighten out all of the death and destruction that we're witnessing, that's practically never been like this," Trump said on Monday. V"It's just so important. And I want to make that a very big part of our message," the former president continued. "We're going to come together. It's going to happen soon too."

President Biden on Monday called former President Donald Trump the "clear front runner" on the Republican side, after Trump won the Iowa caucuses. "Looks like Donald Trump just won Iowa," Biden said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "He’s the clear front runner on the other side at this point. But here’s the thing: this election was always going to be you and me vs. extreme MAGA Republicans. It was true yesterday and it’ll be true tomorrow," he said. The post then included in link to donate to his re-election campaign.

➤HAMAS PROPAGANDA SHOWS BODIES: Hamas appeared to show the dead bodies of two Israeli hostages on Monday after warning Israel they might be killed if it did not stop its bombardment of Gaza. A new video released by the Palestinian militant group purportedly showed the bodies of Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, who had appeared in an initial video on Sunday. It also showed a third Israeli hostage, university student Noa Argamani, 26, seemingly reading a script in front of a blank white wall, saying the two were killed by Israeli strikes.

Israel's military spokesperson said there was serious concern regarding the fate of the hostages purported to be dead in the video, while specifying that one of them, whom he identified as Svirsky, was not killed by Israeli fire. "Itai was not shot by our forces. That is a Hamas lie. The building in which they were held was not a target and it was not attacked by our forces," said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, who did not give the name or any details about the second person as per the family's request.

➤IRAN CLAIMS RESPONSBILITY FOR RAID IN IRAQ: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they attacked the "spy headquarters" of Israel in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, state media reported late on Monday, while the elite force said they also struck in Syria against the Islamic State. The strikes come amid concerns about the escalation of a conflict that has spread through the Middle East since the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas began on Oct. 7, with Iran's allies also entering the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.


➤'CATASTROPHIC' ARIZONA HOT AIR BALLOON CRASH LEAVES 4 DEAD: A group of skydivers jumped from a hot air balloon floating over the Arizona desert just moments before it crash-landed Sunday, leaving four of its remaining passengers dead and another person critically injured, police announced. The “devastating incident” happened around 7:50 a.m. in Eloy, a city about 65 miles south of Phoenix. The aircraft was carrying 13 adults – a balloon operator, four passengers and eight skydivers, according to Eloy Mayor Micah Powell.

➤TAIWAN LOSES DIPLOMATIC ALLY TO CHINA DAYS AFTER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Taiwan has lost another diplomatic ally to China, with Nauru announcing the severance of diplomatic relations and establishing ties with China. Taiwan views this as a deliberate move by Beijing to suppress its "democratic achievements." This comes shortly after Taiwan's presidential election, where voters elected a new president despite threats from China. The loss of diplomatic allies is an ongoing challenge for Taiwan.

➤MASK POLICIES RETURN IN U.S: Cases and hospitalizations for respiratory viruses, including Covid, flu, and RSV, are increasing in the United States. Some health systems are reintroducing mask and limited-visitation policies due to concerns about potential strain on hospital capacity. Vaccination rates for these illnesses remain low, despite the availability of updated flu and Covid boosters, as well as new RSV vaccines for older and pregnant individuals. Health officials are expressing concern about the rising numbers and urging the public to get vaccinated to help curb the spread of these respiratory viruses.

➤AMERICA'S LARGEST STORE ISN'T: The last-standing Sears in the New York area is shutting down, bringing the 138-year-old department store’s US footprint down to a measly dozen locations. At its peak as the world’s biggest retailer in 2011, Sears boasted roughly 4,000 locations worldwide, according to Statista Now, the Illinois-based company has just 12 outposts nationwide, plus one in Puerto Rico.

🏈NFL BUCS 32 EAGLES 9: Baker Mayfield passed for 337 yards and three touchdowns and the host Tampa Bay Buccaneers drubbed the sinking Philadelphia Eagles 32-9 in an NFC wild-card game on Monday night. David Moore, Trey Palmer and Chris Godwin each caught a touchdown pass for fourth-seeded Tampa Bay. Mayfield completed 22 of 36 passes and Cade Otton caught eight passes for 89 yards for the Buccaneers, who will visit the third-seeded Detroit Lions on Sunday in the divisional round. "We worked extremely hard to get a chance to be in the playoffs," Mayfield said. "We just wanted an opportunity and our guys came out and played really, really well. ... We're happy but we still got more to go."

\Fifth-seeded Philadelphia lost for the sixth time in seven games after opening the season 10-1. The Eagles fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in last season's Super Bowl. "We were in a big slide and any time that's the case, I always look at myself first and I didn't do a good enough job," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. "Obviously, we lost five of the last six (in the regular season) and lost today. It was like we couldn't get out of the rut we were in. That's all of us. We'll all have to look in the mirrors and accept that."

🏈NFL BILLS 31 STEELERS 17: Josh Allen passed for three touchdowns and rushed for another to lead the Buffalo Bills to a 31-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC wild-card game on Monday at Orchard Park, N.Y. Khalil Shakir had a pivotal touchdown catch in the fourth quarter to help the second-seeded Bills win a playoff game for the fourth straight season. Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid also had touchdown catches for Buffalo. Allen completed 21 of 30 passes for 203 yards and rushed for 74 yards on eight carries. James Cook had 79 yards on 18 rushes and Kaiir Elam snatched a key interception as the Bills recorded their sixth straight victory.

The Bills will host the third-seeded Kansas City Chiefs in next weekend's divisional round. Mason Rudolph completed 22 of 39 passes for 229 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for the seventh-seeded Steelers. Diontae Johnson and Calvin Austin III had scoring catches for Pittsburgh.

➤ARCTIC AIR GRIPS U-S: A massive wave of arctic air sweeping down on the jet stream gripped a wide swath of the nation Monday as temperatures plummeted 20 to 40 degrees below normal, fueled by howling winds that placed almost half of all Americans under wind chill watches and warnings. The weather was blamed for four deaths in Oregon, where more than 80,000 people remained without power after being slammed by high winds, ice and snow. A snowmobiler also died Sunday night when hit by a semitrailer in Utah, where the mountains got nearly 4 feet of snow in a day. In Wyoming, a backcountry skier was killed after triggering a 50-foot-wide avalanche. And in Milwaukee, officials were investigating three deaths of homeless people believed to have been caused by hypothermia.

Montana saw wind chills surpass minus 40. Texas called for energy conservation because of unrelenting freezing temperatures, and parts of Florida braced for the freeze. About 150 million Americans − 45% of the nation's population − were under a wind chill warning or advisory for dangerous cold and wind, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Zack Taylor.




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