Politics

Just one day after international sanctions against Iran were lifted, the United States has imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals over a recent ballistic missile test. U.S. officials said that the Treasury planned to announce the penalties in late December, but held off after the Iranian foreign minister said they could have derailed the prisoner exchange that took place over weekend. The BBC reports: The new sanctions prevent 11 entities and individuals linked to the missile programme from using the US banking system.

Vienna has cancelled the Schengen agreement with Europe (which allows for the free movement of European’s within the borderless Schengen Area) amid an escalating migrant and refugee crisis.  Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has said that the whole notion of Europe “is in question” and announced that the country would be taking immigration matters into its own hands after Europe’s failure to deal with the crisis. “All refugees must be controlled, economic migrants must be sent to the countries of their origin,” Faymann said in an interview with Austria’s Oesterreich newspaper.

Angela Merkel could find herself in a Federal Constitutional Court, after one of her allies has threatened to take her government to court over its unconstitutional open door refugee policy.  Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer has said he will send the government a request within the next 2 weeks to restore “orderly conditions” at Germany’s borders, before taking the matter to court. Reuters.com reports: “If it doesn’t follow, the state government will have no other choice but to file a suit at the Federal Constitutional Court,” Seehofer told Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday.

U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy has confirmed that orders were given to military aid in Benghazi to “stand down”, implicating President Obama in the scandal.  The U.S. had rescue teams ready during the 2012 Benghazi attacks, but the President prevented them from acting.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

“She’s not doing the big rallies because she can’t get the big crowds,” said the Iowa Clinton ally. “Maybe people are too anxious over this, and that anxiety is spilling over into cautiousness and overthinking decisions. Everyone’s on edge given how much we’ve invested in Iowa.”