Georgia GOP Rep. Drew Ferguson to depart Congress in 2024, opting out of reelection bid
Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson said Thursday he won’t seek reelection to his Georgia seat in 2024. “Julie and I look forward to spending more time with our children and grandchildren while continuing to work to keep Georgia the best state in America to live and do business,” Ferguson said in a statement. He said he plans to serve the remainder of his fourth term representing western Georgia’s 3rd District, which expires at the end of next year. GEORGIA PLAINTIFFS CRITICIZE PROPOSED VOTING DISTRICT MAPS AS ‘MOCKERY’ OF FEDERAL LAW The announcement comes two months after Ferguson said his family had received death threats amid the inner turmoil Republicans faced in electing a new House speaker following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. The threats came after Ferguson publicly withdrew his support for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a favorite of hard-right conservatives. Ferguson said he refused to support “a bully” for speaker and that the threats were “unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated.” A former mayor of West Point, Ferguson was elected to Congress in 2016 in a district west of Atlanta that hugs the Georgia-Alabama state line. He served in the House GOP leadership as the chief deputy whip from 2018 through 2022 and holds a seat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. GEORGIA REPUBLICANS DUNK ON VOTING LAW CRITICS AFTER MLB ALL-STAR GAME RETURNS TO ATLANTA Ferguson’s 3rd District seat leans solidly Republican. He easily fended off a GOP primary challenger last year before winning reelection to a fourth-term with 69% of the vote. State lawmakers in recent weeks redrew Georgia’s congressional map under a federal judge’s order to add a majority-Black district. But the Legislature’s Republican majority produced a map, now pending the court approval, that would maintain the GOP’s 9-5 hold on the state U.S. House delegation and protect Republican incumbents.
Stringent security arrangements in place for Delhi Assembly session after Parliament security breach
Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel told PTI that checking of visitors will be stricter than earlier. Goel said that a meeting of the security guards at the Vidhan Sabha is held routinely by the officials before every session.
Year after year, most Texas police departments report zero hate crimes. Here’s why.
A Texas Tribune analysis of hate crime data found that 82% of Texas law enforcement agencies that report to the FBI tracked no hate crimes last year. However, one suburban North Texas police agency is creating a new model of collecting hate crime data.
Critics demolish liberal DC mayor for forgetting where her own city’s Metro lines go: ‘Absolute embarrassment’
Democrat Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser was lambasted by critics this week for forgetting where her own city’s Metro lines run. The flub came during a Wednesday press conference as Bowser took a swipe at Virginia traffic amid her efforts to keep the Washington Wizards and Capitals, the city’s professional basketball and hockey teams, from relocating to the state. “I’m the D.C. mayor. I’m not an expert on their crime, but that traffic is notorious. So people know about it. And, I think—which lines go to that station?” Bower said, referencing the new Potomac Yards Metro station in Alexandria, Virginia, near the site of the proposed arena for the teams. HUNTER BIDEN CLAIMED HE DIDN’T ‘STAND TO GAIN ANYTHING’ IN CONTROVERSIAL BURISMA ROLE DESPITE MAKING MILLIONS “Blue and yellow,” someone answered. Bowser repeated “blue and yellow,” before attempting to name the Metro lines that run to Gallery Place, the Metro station that serves Capitol One Arena, where the teams currently play in D.C. “So, every line goes to Gallery Place, right? Red, blue, orange and yellow. Yellow? And green. Is that right? I think that’s right,” Bowser said, appearing confused. WATCH: WHITE HOUSE SAYS BIDEN ‘PROUD’ OF HUNTER DESPITE MOUNTING LEGAL ISSUES, SUBPOENA DEFIANCE The red, green and yellow lines are the only lines that run through D.C.’s Gallery Place station, and the yellow and blue lines are the only lines that run through Alexandria’s Potomac Yards station. Critics, notably from both sides of the aisle, quickly took to social media to blast Bowser, with some calling her comments “embarrassing,” and others questioning whether she ever rode the Metro. “You gotta be kidding me…” Republican strategist John Burke wrote, while Jason Johnson, communications director for Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., wrote, “Our city leadership is an absolute embarrassment.” Thomas Falcigno, communications director for Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., questioned the last time Bowser rode the Metro, and Doug Stafford, the chief strategist for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., described city leadership as a “clownshow.” SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY GROWS WITH A NOTABLE LEVEL OF DEMOCRAT BACKING: POLL “Of course she doesn’t. . . . She rides around in black cars with private security while the city burns,” Daily Caller reporter Henry Rodgers wrote, while Politico’s Anthony Adragna called Bowser’s comments “astounding.” “This is so embarrassing,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman added. Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday that both teams would be moving out of D.C. and into a new $2 billion “world-class” entertainment complex in Alexandria. The move comes as rising crime continues to grip D.C., but USA Today reported that a $36 million mortgage-type payment on the site has been weighing on the teams’ owner, Ted Leonsis. Fox News Digital has reached out to Bowser’s office for comment. Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.
Dem, GOP senators team up to fortify domestic green energy, defense supplies dominated by China
FIRST ON FOX: Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., are introducing legislation to fortify the domestic production of supplies vital for green energy, defense and consumer technologies. The Rare Earth Magnet Production Tax Credit Act would particularly aim to shore up the domestic supply chain for rare-earth magnets, a key component for electric vehicles (EV), defense technology, computers and cell phones. While roughly 14% of the world’s rare earths were mined in the U.S. last year, according to federal data, 70% were mined in China which controls 90% of global magnet production. “We can’t keep relying on China for components we need to power our defense systems and drive our clean-energy economy,” Cortez Masto said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “Over 600 Nevadans already work in the rare-earth mining industry, and my commonsense legislation will help build a domestic supply chain for the recycling and manufacturing of rare-earth magnets, protecting our national security and creating thousands more jobs right here in the U.S.,” she continued. BIDEN ADMIN ECO RULE CURBING OIL DRILLING, MINING FACES WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION Under the legislation, the federal government would provide a $20 per kilogram production tax credit for magnets that are manufactured in the U.S. and a larger $30 a kilogram credit for magnets manufactured in the U.S. and which contain components domestically produced, recycled or reclaimed. Republican Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler, R-Penn., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., introduced companion legislation in the House. NEVADA GOVERNOR BLASTS BIDEN FOR LOCKING UP MINERAL-RICH LAND: ‘A HISTORIC MISTAKE’ The bill comes as the U.S. continues to aggressively push for greater production of EVs to achieve the Biden administration’s aggressive green energy goals. President Biden is pursuing an objective of ensuring 50% of all vehicle sales are electric by 2030, while several states, including California, have finalized regulations mandating only EVs are available for purchase by 2035. According to the International Energy Agency, while traditional gas-powered cars require around 40 kilograms of minerals, mainly copper and manganese, EVs require more than 200 kilograms of minerals, including copper, lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, graphite and rare earths. But, despite large reserves across the U.S., environmental regulations have largely prevented American producers from mining and producing such minerals. Cortez Masto and fellow Democratic Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen have called for greater mineral production and were critical of a Biden administration report in September recommending regulations that they said would make it harder to bring new mining projects online. “Mining and processing rare earths domestically is important, but that alone still leaves our supply chain vulnerable,” James Litinsky, the chairman and CEO of MP Materials, said in a statement Thursday. “American industry must convert these essential materials into the permanent magnets that are utilized in components across our economy, including for national security applications.” “This bipartisan legislation is a crucial step towards leveling the competitive playing field,” Litinsky added. “It will catalyze private investment to address the very critical gap in our supply chain that previous policies have overlooked.” MP Materials operates Mountain Pass, the nation’s only rare-earth mine, which is located 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas. Since there is a nonexistent manufacturing capacity for the minerals produced at the site, the company is forced to export its minerals. Cortez Masto’s legislation seeks to support MP Materials and other firms engaged in the mining business.
GOP lawmakers skeptical about voting on border deal before Christmas as Dems threaten to delay break
A group of bipartisan negotiators are trying to strike a deal of adding stronger border security provisions to the billion-dollar national security supplemental request from the White House. However, even if a deal is reached, it is unlikely Congress will give it the stamp of approval before January. “I don’t know that we got enough time to process if the deal came together,” Sen. Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday. “You still got to write it… these are all concepts right now.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted to X, saying that lawmakers still need to determine whether the bill will actually solve problems at the border, and whether it will have any momentum in the House. “The small group negotiating a ‘deal’ in secret may reach agreement among themselves, but then we will need time to review it and determine whether it will actually solve the problem and has any chance of passing in the House,” Rubio wrote Thursday morning. “Anyone who thinks we can do all that before the end of the year is delusional,” he said. REPUBLICANS SEE PROGRESS IN BORDER TALKS, BUT UNCLEAR IF DEAL WITHIN REACH AS CRISIS RAGES Talks have been ongoing with senators and Biden administration officials this week, as Republicans have refused to pass some $60 billion in additional aid to Ukraine unless it is tied to strict border security measures, such as immediate screenings for asylum processing and quicker expulsions for illegal entrants. The total amount of supplemental aid the White House first requested in October amounts to roughly $106 billion and includes $14 billion to assist Israel. Lawmakers in the upper chamber were expected to recess Thursday, but Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture votes on several judicial nominees late Wednesday night to keep the Senate in session at least until Friday. An extra day is crucial for GOP lawmakers to continue negotiations if they want a chance to pass significant border reforms, as the crisis rages at the southern border. However, Schumer indicated that negotiations could continue even into next week. “To my Republican colleagues who have said action on the board was urgent, let’s keep working to find a solution instead of rushing for the exits,” Schumer said on the floor Thursday morning. “If Republicans are serious about getting something done, they should not be so eager to go home. This may be our last best chance to get this legislation done.” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla, one of the lead negotiators for the GOP, said Thursday they are “making progress,” but the White House still has not made an official offer in writing. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AGAIN TOP 10K IN SINGLE DAY AS LAWMAKERS EYE NEW BORDER LIMITS Lankford said earlier in the week to reporters that “there’s no paper at all, so that’s what we’ve been trying to move to, how we get some paper and other things finalized.” Meanwhile, progressives are urging the lead Democrat negotiator, Sen. Chris Murphy, not to agree to any Republican terms in the package. “It should be no surprise to anybody that there are a lot of Democrats who are not going to be happy about some things that are being discussed,” Murphy told reporters Wednesday. “We’re not there yet, but we continue to head in the right direction,” he said. “And I think it’s more reason for everybody to stay in town, get this done.” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also told reporters Thursday she was “hopeful” for a deal to be reached, and that some lawmakers are “looking to be back here next week to permit that.” The administration was reportedly open to a nationwide expansion of expedited removal, which allows for recently entered migrants to be quickly removed if they do not meet the initial asylum standard. Rapid expulsions are currently only being used near the border. CBS reported this week that the White House was willing to mandate the detention of certain migrants as their claims are considered, as well as a new Title 42-style authority. Title 42 was the COVID-era order that allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border until the Biden administration ended the policy in May. Even if a deal is reached, however, it is unclear if congressional leaders will have time to pass it before Christmas, especially if it does not include hardline conservative demands that would gain approval in the GOP-led House and put a serious halt on migrants entering the U.S. 5,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED EVERY DAY INTO US, ADMIN OFFICIALS PRIVATELY TELL LAWMAKERS Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday “the last thing that we can do is allow Schumer in the White House to pass a bipartisan deal with the Senate that never becomes law.” “That’s what they want,” he said. “So their strategy is to pass something in the Senate that never becomes law, that hangs us out to dry, it hangs Speaker Johnson and my friends in the House out to dry. We as Republicans cannot move forward on a secure the border bill, unless it gets a majority of the majority of the Republican senators.” “I think from a negotiating standpoint, it’s time to tell them to go to hell and walk out,” he added. Meanwhile, Fox News reported that Tuesday saw another day in which overwhelmed officials at the border encountered more than 10,000 migrants in a single day. Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Photos: South Korea island is a field of dreams for young baseball hopefuls
Dreaming of making it big in baseball, teenage brothers An Seung-han and An Seung-young travelled hundreds of kilometres away from home to remote Deokjeok Island, where the sport and their team are now the closest thing they have to a family. The boys are among a few dozen teenagers who have left the bright lights of some of South Korea’s biggest cities to join a specialised sports academy set up by Kim Hak-yong, former manager of the elite Dongguk University team, which has produced scores of players in the national KBO major league. “If I work hard here, I can be a main player, so I’m working even harder. If I keep doing well, I can also become a professional baseball player,” 16-year-old Seung-young, the younger brother, said during a training session. In addition to helping the boys achieve their dreams, the sports academy has breathed life into Deokjeok, which was struggling to retain and attract youngsters like many other rural areas in the world’s most rapidly ageing society. The island has a population of 1,800, the majority of them elderly. Last year, it was on the brink of losing its last school under a nationwide school board guideline that stipulates closures if the number of students falls below 60. That has now changed, thanks to Kim and his friend Chang Kwang-ho, manager of the Deokjeok High School baseball team. “The players who come here come with an amazing mindset. You don’t come here unless you’re willing to give up everything,” Chang said. Although the island is less than two hours away by ferry from the city of Incheon, it remains quite isolated from the mainland and is much less developed. Adblock test (Why?)
What’s an impeachment inquiry and what’s next for President Joe Biden?
The Republican-led United States House of Representatives has voted to formally authorise its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Up until this point, the House had not had enough votes to legitimise the ongoing inquiry, but on Wednesday, lawmakers voted 221-212 in favour, with every Republican voting for it and every member of Biden’s Democratic Party against. The decision to hold a vote came as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and his team faced growing pressure to demonstrate progress in what has become a nearly yearlong probe into the business dealings of Biden’s family members. The vote took place hours after his son Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena by failing to appear for a private deposition at the House of Representatives. He refused to testify behind closed doors, saying he would testify only in public because he feared his words would otherwise be misrepresented. Here is what you need to know: What is an impeachment inquiry? An impeachment inquiry is a formal investigation into possible wrongdoing by a federal official, such as the president, cabinet officials or judges. The process is written into the US Constitution and is the most powerful check that Congress has on the executive branch. It is a first step towards a potential impeachment, which means essentially that charges are brought against an official. The US founders included impeachment in the constitution as an option for the removal of presidents, vice presidents and civil officers. Under the constitution, they can be removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”. While the House of Representatives wields the power to impeach an official, only the Senate has the ability to convict and remove an individual from office. This played out recently when former President Donald Trump was impeached twice by the House but acquitted in the Senate. To date, no president has ever been forced out of the White House through impeachment, but Joe Biden is the eighth president to face an impeachment inquiry. Only three other presidents have been impeached after an inquiry: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump. From left, former US Presidents Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson [File: AP] Why is this happening now? The House of Representatives started an impeachment inquiry in September, but the process has now been formalised. In November, a top White House attorney claimed the investigation was illegitimate because the House had not yet formalised the impeachment inquiry through a vote. The White House questioned the legal and constitutional basis for the Republican lawmakers’ requests for information. The constitution does not require a vote to start an impeachment inquiry, and neither do the rules governing the House, but authorising resolutions have been passed in previous presidential impeachments. Most of the Republicans who were initially reluctant to back the impeachment push due to the lack of concrete evidence against the president have also been swayed by their leadership’s more recent argument that authorising the inquiry will give them better legal standing and would convince the White House to cooperate fully in the investigation by providing more information. “This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden,” Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday. “This is a vote to continue the inquiry of impeachment. … I believe we’ll get every vote that we have.” Congressional investigators have already obtained nearly 40,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records and dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including from several high-ranking Department of Justice officials currently tasked with investigating Hunter Biden. Is there enough evidence against Joe Biden? Republicans have accused the president and his family of profiting from his time as vice president from 2009 to 2017 and have zeroed in on his son’s business activities. Conservatives accuse Hunter Biden of “influence peddling”, effectively trading on the family name in “pay-to-play” schemes in his business dealings in Ukraine and China. They have pointed to an FBI document from 2020 in which an informant claims the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm that included Hunter Biden on its board of directors, said: “It cost 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden.” This bribery claim relates to the Republican allegation that President Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor to stop an investigation into Burisma. Democrats have reiterated that the Justice Department investigated the Burisma claim when Trump was president and closed the matter after eight months, finding “insufficient evidence” to pursue it further. The head of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, has said nobody from the company had any contact with Joe Biden or his staff and that the elder Biden “did not help the firm”. Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, speaks at a news conference outside the US Capitol on December 13, 2023 [Reuters] Devon Archer, a business associate of Hunter Biden, told the House Oversight Committee in July that the younger Biden had sought to create “an illusion of access to his father” and put his father on the phone with foreign associates “maybe 20 times” over the course of about 10 years. Archer said those conversations did not involve any business dealings, however, and he was not aware of any wrongdoing by President Biden. Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, arrives for a deposition before the House Oversight Committee in Washington [File: Kevin Wurm/Reuters] Hunter Biden faces an array of legal woes. In September, prosecutors with US Special Counsel David Weiss’s office charged him with making false statements about illegal drug use while buying a firearm. And last week, a grand jury indicted Hunter Biden for tax offences. He has pleaded not guilty to the three federal gun charges, and his lawyer says he has paid his taxes in full. “There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen,” Hunter Biden told reporters outside the US Capitol on Wednesday. After he defied their subpoena, members of the House Oversight
Analysis: Russia’s tiny, Pyrrhic advances in Ukraine’s east
Kyiv, Ukraine – Russian forces are close to rolling into a Ukrainian stronghold of immense strategic and symbolic importance. Troops have almost surrounded Avdiivka, a southeastern town which has been nearly razed to the ground after almost a decade of assaults by pro-Moscow separatist fighters. The town is strewn with craters from explosions, burned-out armoured vehicles and the uncollected bodies of Russian soldiers and separatists who doubled their efforts in October. Avdiivka is just 20km (12 miles) north of the separatist capital of Donetsk and is crucial to the Kremlin’s objective of seizing the entire southeastern Donbas region that has been partly controlled by rebels since 2014. The Kremlin shifted to this strategy a year ago after its blitzkrieg to conquer all of Ukraine failed and its forces withdrew from around Kyiv and most of Ukraine’s north. But Kyiv’s long-awaited summer counteroffensive to regain areas lost to Russia last year hasn’t yielded tangible results. Ukrainian forces lack air support and medium-range missiles to disrupt Russian supply lines and break through heavily fortified Russian defence installations along the crescent-shaped, 1,000km-long front line. Counterattacking Ukrainian forces largely consist of recently trained servicemen who replaced dead and wounded veterans. They lack battlefield cohesion and, because of their inexperience, had not expected to encounter thousands of kilometres of newly built Russian trenches and tunnels, some of which lie 30 metres (33 yards) underground. Moscow has also deployed hundreds of thousands of newly mobilised servicemen to man the defence lines and plant up to five landmines per single square metre of no-man’s land. As a result, Ukrainian forces have failed to achieve their goal of reaching the Sea of Azov and cutting off Russia’s “land bridge” to the annexed Crimean peninsula amid heavy, debilitating losses of manpower and weaponry, including Western-supplied armoured vehicles. Ukraine’s top military analyst warned that in the freezing winter months, the nation’s military will have to circle the wagons and focus on defence as they re-evaluate next year’s offence strategy with Western allies, increase domestic production of weaponry and mobilise tens of thousands more men. “These days, we are focusing on switching to defence, and, to boost its effectiveness, to equipping and mining the most threatening [front-line] areas and use this time to amass resources,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera. He and other analysts blame Ukraine’s failures on delays in supplies of Western weaponry as well as Russia’s prowess in the large-scale use of unmanned aerial vehicles, especially the FPV (first-person view) kamikaze drones. These inexpensive camera-equipped drones carry tiny explosives and can get into manholes or open hatches of armoured vehicles – all while their pilots operate them from safe hideouts. This year, Russia began the massive industrial production of FPV drones, while Ukraine still largely relies on the output of makeshift workshops, the numbers of which have mushroomed around the nation and where volunteers retrofit Chinese-made models. “This year, [Russians] managed to catch up with us and go ahead of us, and to produce large quantities of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Romanenko said. However, some analysts claim the advantages of FPV drones are somewhat exaggerated. “They’re cheaper and more simple, but also less effective in comparison with high-precision means of destruction, including advanced kinds of loitering munitions,” Pavel Luzin, a visiting scholar at Boston’s Tufts University, told Al Jazeera. Ukrainian soldiers walk through the crater-ridden town of Avdiivka, which is now almost surrounded by Russian forces, on December 7, 2023 [Kostya Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images] Taking The Chemist To take over Avdiivka, Russian forces have to seize The Chemist, a district named after a nearby plant, according to Rybar, a pro-Russian Telegram channel. “This will let them bisect the Ukrainian grouping in Avdiivka, to break the unified system of defence and to significantly simplify the storming of the entire defence site,” Rybar, a primary source of news on the Russian offensive, posted on Monday. Moscow needs to take Avdiivka for publicity purposes. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he will run in the 2024 election and needs a victory that the Kremlin-controlled media can trumpet. “Putin needs such a victory ahead of the vote considering that the situation on the front lines is in a limbo for both sides,” Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevich told Al Jazeera. The Kremlin and its top brass largely ignore the plight of their servicemen who reach the front lines after no or next-to-no training and have been dying in droves. “To trudge two kilometres across the forest only to jump a machine gun and die within two seconds is the real-life story of a Russian stormtrooper,” a Ukrainian serviceman wrote on Telegram in August. This has led to catastrophic losses. Some 315,000 Russian servicemen have been killed or wounded since the war began in February 2022, amounting to 87 percent of Moscow’s active-duty ground troops, according to a declassified US military assessment released on Tuesday. Apart from the incessant storming of Avdiivka, Russian forces also intend to advance on other key areas of the eastern front – the towns of Kupiansk, Lyman and Bakhmut. The latter was taken over in May, mostly by Wagner mercenaries leading thousands of Russian prisoners who signed up for military service in exchange for a presidential pardon in what became known as “meat marches”. Over the following months, Ukraine retook key positions around Bakhmut – and Russians are dying in a bid to take them back. But real military triumphs are just not on the cards for Moscow, another analyst said. “One should not expect any breakthroughs for Russian forces. They hit in various directions, just a little. Spend the ammo they amassed, as well as contract soldiers and [recruited] inmates,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University told Al Jazeera. Russian forces may manage to seize Avdiivka, are likely to restore their positions around Bakhmut and improve their logistics by crossing the Zherebets river near Lyman, he said. “Russia will consider [these steps] the winter campaign’s
Ramaswamy to unveil trucking policy at Iowa 80, the ‘World’s Largest Truckstop’
FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will be unveiling his trucking policy next week at Iowa 80, famously dubbed the “World’s Largest Truckstop.” “Truckers are a crucial link in the American supply chain that power America’s economy. They’re not just haulers of goods — they’re the guardians of freedom on our highways. Last year, we watched as the ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada unmasked the perils of government overreach – speech was censored, peaceful protesters were arrested, and big banks froze personal funds,” Ramaswamy said in a press release first obtained by Fox News Digital. “Those Canadian truckers taught the world a valuable lesson about the power of civil protest against an out-of-control totalitarian government.” “On Thursday, Dec. 21, join me at Iowa 80, the World’s Largest Truckstop, where I will lay out my detailed plan for how we support our truckers and ensure freedom for all,” he said. RAMASWAMY SWIPES ‘GOP ESTABLISHMENT’ IN IOWA FOR SUPPORTING CO2 PIPELINES AS PART OF CLIMATE ‘HOAX’ Ramaswamy will be joined by officials from CDL (commercial driver’s license) Drivers Unlimited, the group representing roughly 4.7 million CDL drivers in the U.S., according to the campaign. In an outline of his trucking policy, Ramaswamy says he will direct his Department of Transportation (DOT) and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to focus on “promoting driver retention” rather than driver recruitment for “economic efficency,” citing a 2019 study showing a whopping 91% turnover rate among CDL drivers including changes between carriers. Ramaswamy vows his administration will “promote driver safety through comprehensive mental health policies, truck parking safety, and common-sense hours of service regulation.” He also intends to combat efforts on a state level to “limit the freedom of CDL drivers as independent contractors and use investigatory power to crack down on broker fraud.” RAMASWAMY LAUNCHES $1 MILLION AD BUY IN EARLY PRIMARY STATES BLASTING POLITICIANS ‘LEADING US INTO WORLD WAR III’ Ramaswamy is hoping to defy expectations at the Iowa Caucus next month as he vies for the GOP nomination. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows the biotech entrepreneur trailing at 5.3% behind former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 15.7%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 19.7% and former President Trump, who continues to dominate the field with a whopping 50% support among primary voters. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.