January 16 top stories

It is January 16. Here are today’s top stories.

Trump wins Iowa

Donald Trump easily won the Iowa Republican caucuses last night, winning 98 out of 99 counties. He had 51% of the vote.

Ron DeSantis came in second place with 21% of the vote and Nikki Haley was very close to him with 19% of the vote.

Vivek Ramaswamy earned only 7% of the vote and announced he is dropping out and endorsing Trump.

Trump’s victory shows that his supporters are not bothered by his criminal charges. AP News said about 75% of Iowa voters said Trump’s charges are just political attempts to hurt him.

The next Republican contest will be the New Hampshire primary exactly a week from now. A day after, South Carolina is voting.

Hot air balloon crash

On Sunday, four people were killed in a hot air balloon crash in Eloy, Arizona. The balloon was carrying 13 adults: an operator, four passengers, and eight skydivers. After the skydivers jumped, there was something happened with the balloon that caused it to fall to the ground. One person survived but has critical injuries. The mayor of Eloy said the city is popular with skydivers. The NTSB is investigating the incident.

Three migrants drown trying to enter the U.S.

Three migrants, a woman and two children, drowned in the Rio Grande as they tried to enter the U.S. from Mexico on Friday night. It happened in an area where Texas National Guard soldiers were preventing federal Border Patrol agents from having access. Now the Biden administration is accusing Texas of making it impossible for federal agents to monitor the area and possibly do a rescue.

Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar said Texas bears responsibility for this tragedy. But Texas officials said it’s not true that they prevented federal agents from rescuing migrants. There is a dispute between Texas and the Biden administration on who has authority over a specific park in Eagle Pass, Texas, where migrants use to illegally cross the river.

———

Sponsored video by Sorenson: www.sorenson.com

———

Iceland volcano lava burns homes

On Sunday, a volcano in Iceland sent a flow of lava that burned three homes near the town of Grindavik. Nobody was injured. There were concerns that there would be more homes and structures damaged, but there are now no signs of new lava. Scientists warned that there could be new cracks opened without warning because magma continues to flow underground. There are 4,000 people who live in Grindavik and all are under evacuation orders. The town is home to the famous Blue Lagoon attraction.

Emmy Awards

The 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony took place last night. The HBO show “Succession” had 27 nominations for its fourth and final season and won six Emmys, including the award of outstanding drama series for a third time.

FX’s “The Bear” won six Emmys, including the award for best comedy series.

Netflix’s “Beef” won five Emmys, including the award for outstanding limited or anthology series.

Ancient cities uncovered in Amazon

Archaeologists said they’ve discovered a network of cities in the Amazon rainforest that dates back 2,500 years. There are long, straight roads, plazas, and clusters of monumental platforms. The structures are covered by thick vegetation but they were detected by a technology called lidar, which uses laser light. A lead archaeologist said it’s changed how he understands the Amazon region because it shows that there was advanced engineering at the time and that Indigenous people lived in an urbanistic system.

That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-iowa-caucus-haley-desantis-cold-voting-begins-0af10f1ba21d488af54776b2c8d4028c

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/14/us/hot-air-balloon-crash-eloy-arizona-deaths/index.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-migrants-drown-near-shelby-park-eagle-pass-texas-soldiers-denied-entry-federal-border-agents/

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/icelandic-volcano-calms-down-risk-remains-2024-01-16/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmys-winners-2024-list/

https://www.fox17online.com/news/huge-network-of-ancient-cities-uncovered-in-the-amazon-rainforest

TOP STORIESPaul Hovan