The United States is increasing airdrops of weapons, ammunition and other supplies to foreign-backed militants in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The weapons are intended for opposition forces to “fight ISIS” as they close in on the groups self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa in Syria, according to US media reports citing the country’s military. Gen.
Having listened stoically for the past two months to accusations without evidence that Moscow "hacked the US election", and that Hillary's loss was indirectly due to Putin's alleged meddling, which resulted in Obama's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, on Wednesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov finally snapped, and lashed out at the ongoing US election scapegoating fiasco, saying that leaders and top officials from the UK, Germany, and France have “grossly interfered” in US internal affairs, “campaigned” for Hillary Clinton, and openly “demonized” Donald Trump.
Taiwan initiated defense preparation exercises in response to provocation by China, vowing to “enhance training 365 days a year.” On Wednesday, China sent its sole aircraft carrier into the Strait of Taiwan, raising the tension between Beijing and the self-ruled island. Sputnik reports: Taipei simulated a scenario in which China’s sole aircraft carrier, the Lioaning, crossed the dividing line of the Taiwan Strait in a simulated attack on the island, home to some 23 million people.
Trump is not planning to waste any time.
According to the spokesman Sean Spicer, cited by Reuters, president-elect Donald Trump may take four or five executive actions on Friday, the day he is sworn into office.
"He's got a few of them probably in the area of four or five that we're looking at for Friday," some of them logistical, Spicer said Wednesday at a news briefing. "Then there are some other ones that I expect him to sign with respect to a couple of issues that have been high on his priority list."
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Joe Biden took aim at president-elect Trump and Russian president Putin in what is likely his final public appearance as US vice-president.
The speech was long on scaremongery and war rhetoric and short on 'fact', as The Wall Street Journal reports, Mr. Biden said cooperation between the U.S. and Europe formed “the bedrock of the success the world enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century."