💬On the ground in Gaza: exhausted residents seek semblance of normalcy as ceasefire starts

“I want to find a house, get some sleep, take a rest from the explosions, the strikes, and the difficulties. Sleep is a gift when you know what has happened over the past year and longer,” Rafah resident Samir al Nahhal told Sputnik.

“My family consists of 35 people. Only five of them lost their lives, thank God,” Atiyah, another resident, said, highlighting the devastating toll the war has taken on the Strip’s population. Before the war, Atiyah and his family had five homes, a shop and a vegetable storage facility. “Everything was destroyed.”

Nafin Sarhan said her granddaughter was “the only one who survived” from her family of 15 people. “We’ve returned to our house. This is all that’s left of it,” she said, sitting against the backdrop of ruins.

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❗️Biden, in the final hours of his presidency, preemptively pardoned a number of his family members.

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🍌 DOGE to face lawsuit after Trump’s inauguration

Legal action is set to be filed against Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moments after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Washington Post reports.

🔍Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came under fire for allegedly violating federal regulations. Critics (National Security Counselors, the public interest law firm) argue that embedding private advisors in government agencies blurs lines between public and private sectors, raising ethical concerns and potential conflicts of interest.

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Trump becomes the 47th president of the United States upon taking the oath of office.

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❗️First wave of Trump executive orders rolled out

🔸 Sending troops to the southern border with Mexico to stop the illegal immigrant “invasion.”

🔸 Formally declaring drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

🔸 Announcing plans to declare a state of emergency in the energy sector to stimulate energy production.

🔸 The US will henceforth refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

🔸 Making a commitment to return freedom of speech with an executive order to end state censorship.

🔸 From this day forward, official US policy will be to recognize only two genders – male and female.

🔸 Trump has vowed to "take back" the Panama Canal.

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Priority Putin call, end to Ukraine conflict and turbo deportations: Trump’s blockbuster to-do list for Day 1

Donald Trump is teeing up for an executive order signing spree the moment he’s back in office. What may be on his list?

1️⃣Get on the phone to Vladimir Putin fast

A phone call with the Russian President could take place "in the coming days or weeks," according to Trump's national security advisor. An in-person meeting is expected "very quickly."

2️⃣ Withdraw funding for Ukraine

“I will end the war in Ukraine […] and I will prevent World War III from happening,” Trump told D.C. victory rally. Ukraine conflict is just “dying to be settled,” he said earlier, and insisted that “Biden and Kamala got us into that war.”

3️⃣ Stop “border invasion”

“Close the border. Day 1” to all illegal aliens, declare a national border emergency, enlist the help of the US military to launch “the largest deportation program in American history,” Trump said.

4️⃣ Spill truth about ‘Laptop from Hell’

Trump may suspend security clearances for the 51 national security officials who “lied” about Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election

5️⃣ Put an end to DEI

Trump vowed to dismantle the “destructive and divisive” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices “across both government and the private sector."

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US has lost ground to China in south-east Asia - Malaysia’s Prime Minister

The US has been so consumed by the proxy war in Ukraine that it has allowed its attention towards Asia to slip, Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s prime minister, told the Financial Times.

This neglect of its relationship with ASEAN has led to the US losing ground to China in south-east Asia, he said.

“We engage well with the US but it does not engage the region as actively as it did in the past. China in that sense takes a more positive attitude,” said the PM.

He defended the decision of middle powers such as Malaysia to engage increasingly constructively with China and welcomed increased Chinese investment in infrastructure, saying: “It’s better for smaller economies such as Malaysia to extend its [ties] with China.”

The PM also played down concerns over Donald Trump’s planned trade tariffs, convinced that “reason will probably prevail,” noting that there are too many US conglomerates and companies that have so much interest in and dependence on foreign trade and investments.

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💀 Neocon skeletons in Team Trump’s closet

Although millions of Americans are breathing a collective sigh of relief that the Biden administration and its policies have finally come to an end, some of Trump’s top picks send worrying signals for the future.

👉 Marco Rubio: State

🔊 Outspoken hawk on China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia, and firm supporter of Israel, no matter what it does.

🔊 Called Ukraine an “important” US national security interest in 2023, but changed tune in 2024 in favor of talks, presumably to get into Trump’s good graces.

👉 Pete Hegseth: DoD

🔊 Another Ukraine flip-flopper who categorically rejected peace talks in 2022 but gradually came around to the MAGA camp’s perspective of the conflict.

🔊 Hounded by sexual misconduct claims (veracity unknown) which may complicate his confirmation.

👉 Mike Waltz: NSA

🔊 One more China and Iran hawk.

🔊 Charged with profiteering to the tune of $25 million off the war in Afghanistan. Opposed US pullout.

👉 Keith Kellogg: Special Ukraine Advisor

🔊 A former Pence aide praised by John Bolton, firm Israel supporter and Trump loyalist.

🔊 Author of frontline freeze-based plan to ending Ukraine crisis, and conditioning aid on peace talks.

👉 Elise Stefanik: UN

🔊 Another anti-China, pro-Israel hawk, once employed by Bill Kristol’s neocon Foreign Policy Initiative. Called Biden “weak” on Ukraine in 2022.

👉 John Ratcliffe: CIA

🔊 Called China America’s greatest geopolitical foe, Russia, Iran and North Korea national security “challenges” at confirmation hearings.

❓Is there hope?

🔸 Trump’s White House isn’t entirely filled with neocons, with picks like Kash Patel (FBI) and Tulsi Gabbard (DNI) offering slim hopes of some balance.

🔸 Trump has also let slip his ‘good cop, bad cop’ approach to foreign policy, saying he only picked Bolton in 2018 because “everybody thought he was crazy” and might start a war, giving him (Trump) leverage in negotiations.

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Really Mr. President? Trump claims US won WWII

Americans “won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism,” Donald Trump said during his inaugural address.

No offense, Donald, but that’s not the case. The Soviet Army inflicted the 80% of the German Wehrmacht’s casualties. But don’t take our word for it:

“Let’s be blunt: the German army lost World War II on the Eastern Front. For most of the war, 75-80 percent of the Wehrmacht had to be deployed in the East, a preponderance dictated by the sheer size of the front, and 80 percent of German war dead perished there: about four million of the five million German soldiers killed in World War II,” says the official website of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

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Trump didn't place his hand on the Bible while swearing in.

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👀 During the inauguration ceremony, Mark Zuckerberg cast a timid glance at Bezos's bride's neckline.

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Trump MOCKS Hillary Clinton

“We took on Hillary [in 2016]. She didn’t look too happy today. We defeated Hillary and we did much better the second time in 2020.”

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Migrants on US southern border burst into tears after Trump shuts down CBP, an app that allowed migrants to enter at certain points of entry

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Trump SLAMS Biden for pardoning his former US top general Mark Milley and former congresspeople Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger JUST HOURS before the inauguration

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Trump explains why Nancy Pelosi is 'guilty as hell'

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🚫 El Paso border crossing closed as Trump assumes office - reports

Moments before President Trump's swearing-in ceremony, police forces announced the closure of the crossing, KFOX14 News reported.

Trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the border, reinstating the "Remain in Mexico" policy and ending "catch and release."

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Exodus from Israeli cabinet: Could it trigger elections, topple Netanyahu?

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s exit from Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is linked “to the possibility of Hamas staying power in Gaza for some period of time,” Bar-Ilan University politics Prof. Zeev Hanin told Sputnik, commenting on Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich’s resignation/ break from the PM’s government.

The coalition’s right wing is furious because the stated goal was “to free the hostages and destroy” Hamas, with dissident ministers also opposed to the ceasefire in general, “at least at this stage,” according to Hanin.

At the same time, “at least two thirds of Israelis, judging by the polls, will be satisfied at this stage” with the return of the hostages, and consider it “a victory in this war,” the observer said.

The attitude is, “return them, and deal with Hamas in the future,” Hanin added.

Springtime elections for Netanyahu?

Netanyahu’s coalition has 63 mandates in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, meaning the far-right ministers’ actions not enough to topple him outright.

Elections are likely this year, but “no earlier than the spring,” Hanin believes.

“They will take place when Netanyahu decides it’s convenient for him to dissolve the Knesset and stage the vote, if the deal brings him political dividends, shall we say. Most importantly, if there are some agreements with Trump behind the deal, any concessions in Gaza will seem reasonable and moderate,” he summed up.

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