Trump trolls Canada again, shares map with country as part of US: ‘Oh Canada!’
President-elect Trump on Tuesday again suggested that Canada should be added as the U.S.’s 51st state, sharing maps showing Canada as part of the U.S. Trump shared a pair of posts to his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday night — one with a map of the U.S. and Canada with “United States” written across the two countries and another post with the U.S. and Canada covered in an American Flag. “Oh Canada!” he wrote in one post. The incoming president has been pushing recently for Canada to be added to the U.S., including earlier on Tuesday. TRUMP TROLLING CANADA AS 51ST STATE COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS WITH ‘BLUE-STATE BEHEMOTH’ “Canada and the United States. That would really be something,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “They should be a state.” On Monday, the president-elect argued in a social media post that “many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State.” WHAT TRUMP IS SAYING ABOUT CANADA BECOMING THE 51ST STATE “The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them,” he added. “Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!” Trudeau, who announced Monday that he will resign as Canadian prime minister once a replacement is chosen, said Tuesday there is no way Canada would join the U.S. “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau wrote on the social media platform X. “Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.” Trump has been trolling Canada in recent weeks, floating the idea of it becoming the 51st state and posting a doctored photo of him standing beside a Canadian flag on top of a mountain. The president-elect has also mocked Trudeau, repeatedly referring to him as “governor.” Additionally, Trump has threatened to impose massive tariffs on Canada. Trump has also been pushing for Denmark to sell the North Atlantic island of Greenland to the U.S.
After almost five decades, Congress to bid adieu to 24 Akbar Road: Know its history, political significance and more
24 Akbar Road is a renowned name in the political landscape of the country, for it has been long associated with the Congress – the oldest political party in India.
Meet V Narayanan, rocket scientist who is set to succeed S Somanath as new ISRO chief
Having joined ISRO in 1984, Narayanan has significantly contributed to various projects. He is currently responsible for developing liquid, semi-cryogenic, and cryogenic propulsion systems for launch vehicles and overseeing control systems.
PM Modi set to flag off Pravasi Bharatiya Express: Know everything about the special tourist train
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, i.e., January 8, is set to flag off the Pravasi Bharatiya Express, a special tourist train designed for the Indian diaspora, from New Delhi’s Safdarjung railway station.
School Holiday January 2025: Schools to remain closed due to cold wave condition, check state-wise list here
The extreme cold, coupled with thick fog in many regions, has led authorities to focus on ensuring the safety and well-being of students.
What Virginia’s special elections tell us about the bigger ballot box battles to come in 2025, 2026
Democrats held onto their narrow majorities in Virginia’s legislature as they won two of three special elections on Tuesday in the first ballot box showdowns of 2025. The closely-watched contests were seen by the political world as the first gauge of the mood of voters since President-elect Trump’s convincing victory in November, in elections that also saw Republicans win control of the U.S. Senate and hold their fragile House majority. They’re also viewed as an early barometer for high-profile gubernatorial showdowns later this year in Virginia and New Jersey and next year’s battle for Congress in the midterm elections. The Associated Press projected that the Democrats would win both special elections in Loudon County, in northern Virginia. HEAD HERE TO CHECK OUT FOX NEWS’ ELECTION PAGE In a special state Senate election, Democrat Kannan Srinivasan, currently a member of the state House, defeated Republican Tumay Harding. The seat became vacant after Democratic state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam was elected to Congress in November. And in a special state House race to fill Srinivasan’s vacant seat, Democrat JJ Singh, a small business owner and former congressional aide, topped Republican Ram Venkatachalam. THIS REPUBLICAN WOMAN MAY BECOME THE NATION’S FIRST BLACK FEMALE GOVERNOR Loudon County, on the outer edges of the metropolitan area that surrounds the nation’s capital, in recent years has been an epicenter in the national debate over bathroom policy for transgender students and allowing them to play female sports. The one-time Republican-dominated county has trended for the Democrats over the past decade as Loudon’s population has continued to soar. Vice President Kamala Harris easily carried the county in November’s White House election, although Trump improved his showing compared to four years ago. The third special election on Tuesday took place in a state Senate district in the central part of the state, where Republican Luther Cifers defeated Democrat Jack Trammell. The seat became vacant when state Sen. John McGuire, who with the support of Trump, narrowly edged U.S. Rep. Bob Good in a contentious GOP primary last June before winning election to Congress in November. WHAT’S NEXT FOR THIS POPULAR REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR WHEN HE LEAVES OFFICE IN A YEAR Democrats will retain their 21-19 majority in the Virginia Senate and their 51-49 control of the state House of Delegates, during Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s final year in office. Youngkin energized Republicans nationwide three years ago, as the first-time candidate who hailed from the party’s business wing edged out former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2021 to become the first GOP candidate in a dozen years to win a gubernatorial election in the one-time swing state that had trended towards the Democrats over the previous decade. Virginia is unique due to its state law preventing governors from serving two consecutive four-year terms, so Youngkin cannot run for re-election next year. Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states in the nation to hold gubernatorial elections in the year after a presidential election. Because of that, both contests receive outsized national attention, and Virginia in particular is often seen as a bellwether of the national political climate and how Americans feel about the party in the White House.
Greg Abbott directs DPS to bolster anti-terrorism efforts after New Orleans attack
The governor is calling for an expansion of in-state anti-terrorism programs and an increase in federal partnerships.
Biden admin appeals plea agreements with Guantánamo detainees, including 9/11 mastermind
The Biden administration is asking a federal appeals court for an injunction to temporarily block a plea deal agreement with three detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, which would see the defendants avoid the death penalty. The three prisoners were set to enter their pleas as early as Friday at the military prison. On New Year’s Eve, a military appeals court shot down Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin‘s effort to block the deal between military prosecutors and defense lawyers, saying Austin did not have the power to cancel plea agreements. Specifically, the court opinion said the plea deals reached by military prosecutors and defense attorneys were valid and enforceable and that Austin exceeded his authority when he later tried to nullify them. MILITARY APPEALS COURT RULES DEFENSE SEC AUSTIN CANNOT RESCIND 9/11 PLEA DEALS In its appeal this week, the government says, “Respondents are charged with perpetrating the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history—the 9/11 terrorist attacks.” “The military commission judge intends to enforce pretrial plea agreements that will deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense has lawfully withdrawn those agreements,” the appeal read. “The harm to the government and the public will be irreparable once the judge accepts the pleas, which he is scheduled to do in hearings beginning on January 10, 2025.” The appeal also noted that once the military commission accepts the guilty pleas, there is likely no way to return to the status quo. BIDEN ADMIN SENDS 11 GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES TO OMAN FOR RESETTLEMENT “The government and the public will lose the opportunity for a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and to seek capital punishment against three men charged with a heinous act of mass murder that caused the death of thousands of people and shocked the nation and the world,” it continued. “The government is likely to prevail on the merits of its petition for a writ of mandamus and prohibition, but it will be a pyrrhic victory unless this Court first issues a stay of the military commission’s proceedings, at least as they relate to enforcing the withdrawn pretrial agreements and accepting the respondents’ pleas, until this Court can decide the merits of the government’s petition.” The plea deal in the long-running case against the terrorists was struck over the summer and approved by the top official of the Guantánamo military commission. A number of 9/11 victims and U.S. politicians have condemned the plea deals. BIDEN WHITE HOUSE TO SEND $1.25 BILLION IN WEAPON AID TO UKRAINE BEFORE TRUMP TRANSITION: REPORT “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris have weaponized the Department of Justice to go after their political opponents, but they’re cutting a sweetheart deal with 9/11 terrorists,” now-Vice President-elect JD Vance said at the time. The Pentagon revoked the deals in July. “Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024,” a letter from Austin states. On Monday, the Biden administration announced the transfer of 11 Yemeni detainees, including two former bodyguards for Osama bin Laden, who were being held at Guantánamo Bay, to Cuba. JUDGE RESTORES CONTROVERSIAL 9/11 TERRORIST PLEA DEALS INVOLVING KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED: REPORT All the men were captured in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and were held for more than two decades without being charged or put on trial. The transfer was carried out as part of an early morning secret operation on Monday, days before Mohammed, Guantánamo’s most notorious prisoner, was scheduled to plead guilty to plotting the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in exchange for a life sentence rather than face a death-penalty trial, the New York Times reported. The move had been in the works for about three years after an initial plan to conduct the transfer in October 2023 faced opposition from congressional lawmakers. Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
Fact-checking firm staffed by CNN alums takes Meta axing hard: ‘surprised and disappointed’
A prominent fact-checking organization used by Facebook to moderate political content reacted to news that it will revamp its fact-checking to better avoid bias with an article outlining its disappointment and disagreement with the move. “Lead Stories was surprised and disappointed to first learn through media reports and a press release about the end of the Meta Third-Party Fact-Checking Partnership of which Lead Stories has been a part since 2019,” Lead Stories editor Maarten Schenk wrote on Tuesday in response to an announcement from Meta that it would be significantly altering its fact-checking process to “restore free expression.” Lead Stories, a Facebook fact checker employing several former CNN alumni including Alan Duke and Ed Payne, has become one of the more prominent fact checkers used by Facebook in recent years. Fox News Digital first reported on Tuesday that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to “restore free expression” across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have “gone too far.” CONSERVATIVES REJOICE OVER ‘JAW DROPPING’ META CENSORSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT: ‘HUGE WIN FOR FREE SPEECH’ “After Trump first got elected in 2016 the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video message on Tuesday. “We tried in good faith to address these concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created, especially in the U.S..” “What political bias?” the article from Lead Stories asks before explaining that it is “disappointing to hear Mark Zuckerberg accuse the organizations in Meta’s U.S. third-party fact checking program of being “too politically biased.’” “Especially since one of the requirements Meta imposed for being part of a partnership included being a verified signatory of the IFCN’s Code of Principles, which explicitly requires a “commitment to non-partisanship and fairness,’” the article states. “In all the years we have been part of the partnership, we or the IFCN never received any complaints from Meta about any political bias, so we were quite surprised by this statement.” Meta said in its announcement that it will move toward a system of moderation that is more in line with Community Notes at X, which Lead Stories seemed to take issue with. “However, In our experience and that of others, Community Notes on X are often slow to appear, sometimes downright inaccurate and unlikely to appear on controversial posts because of an inability to reach agrement [sic] or consensus among users,” Lead Stories wrote. “Ultimately, the truth doesn’t care about consensus or agreement: the shape of the Earth stays the same even if social media users can’t agree on it.” JONATHAN TURLEY: META’S ZUCKERBERG MAKES A FREE SPEECH MOVE THAT COULD BE TRULY TRANSFORMATIONAL Lead Stories added that Community Notes is “entirely non-transparent about its contributors: readers are left guessing about their bias, funding, allegiance, sources or expertise and there is no way for appeals or corrections” while “fact-checkers, on the other hand, are required by the IFCN to be fully transparent about who they are, who funds them and what methodology and sources they use to come to their conclusions.” Schenk added, “Fact-checking is about adding verified and sourced information so people can make up their mind about what to believe. It is an essential part of free speech.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, Duke said that Lead Stories plans to press on. “Lead Stories will continue, although we have to reduce our output with no support from Meta,” Duke said. “We are global, with most of our business now outside the USA. We publish in eight languages other than English, which is what will be affected.” Some conservatives took to social media to blast Lead Stories over their article lamenting the change at Meta after years of conservative pushback to Facebook’s fact checkers as a whole on key news stories, including the suppression of the bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. “Of all the fact-checking companies, Lead Stories is the worst,” British American conservative writer Ian Haworth posted on X. “Couldn’t be happier that they’ll soon be circling the drain.” TRUMP SAYS META HAS ‘COME A LONG WAY’ AFTER ZUCKERBERG ENDS FACT-CHECKING ON PLATFORMS The executive director of Politifact, a fact checker also used by Facebook, issued a strong rebuke of Zuckerberg following Tuesday’s announcement. “If Meta is upset it created a tool to censor, it should look in the mirror,” Aaron Sharockman said in a statement he posted on X following Zuckerberg’s announcement. Sharockman fumed, “The decision to remove independent journalists from Facebook’s content moderation program in the United States has nothing to do with free speech or censorship. Mark Zuckerberg’s decision could not be less subtle.” He threw back Zuckerberg’s accusation of political bias, stating that Meta’s platforms, not the fact-checkers, were the entities that actually censored posts. “Let me be clear: the decision to remove or penalize a post or account is made by Meta and Facebook, not fact-checkers. They created the rules,” Sharockman said. At the conclusion of his Lead Stories post, Schenk wrote, “Even though we are obviously disappointed by this news, Lead Stories wishes to thank the many people at Meta we have worked with over the past years and we will continue our fact checking mission. To paraphrase the slogan on our main page: ‘Just because it’s now trending without a fact-checking label still won’t make it true.’” Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Will Austria’s Freedom Party form a coalition and create stable government?
Herbert Kickle first far-right leader since World War II to be invited to form a government. Austria could soon join a growing number of European Union countries led by the far right. Months of negotiation led by the conservative Austrian People’s Party ended with no coalition and the president, a left-wing former Greens leader, has been left with little choice but to look even further to the right. The Freedom Party (FPO) is anti-immigration and pro-Russian. Its leader, Herbert Kickle, is due to begin negotiations with the conservatives and is hoping to emerge as chancellor. Will he succeed? And if he does, what does the future look like for Austria’s ailing economy and its significant immigrant population? Presenter: Cyril Vanier Guests: Michael Bonvalot – Journalist Aurelien Mondon – Senior lecturer at the University of Bath Florian Hartleb – Political consultant Adblock test (Why?)