United States

There is a reason Vladimir Putin and the Russian top political echelon has been avoiding the media following the onslaught of allegations lobbed at the Kremlin, and Trump: as AP writes, careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Putin and other Russian officials "have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday." In short, the "Kremlin is counting the days to his inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama's outgoing administration, no holds barred."

The U.S. has imposed new sanctions against the Syrian military, 18 government officials and a tech company, just days before the President-elect Donald Trump is due to take office. The reason cited was “in response to the use of chemical weapons” by the Syrian government, despite no solid evidence being provided.

A University of California student has vowed to publicly remove his sexual organ in a bizarre DIY ‘sex change’ if Donald Trump begins work on building a US-Mexican border wall.  In an extreme form of protest, freshman Seth Greenberg promised to cut off his penis the minute Trump begins work on the wall. “I’m so confident that Trump is full of sh*t, that I will cut my d*ck off, publicly if he adds even a mile of new wall” Greenberg said in an interview. Everyjoe.com reports: “I will really do this,” Greenberg reaffirmed.

France are threatening President-elect Donald Trump with “serious consequences” if he moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned Trump against the embassy move, saying that it would threaten peace in the region. Yahoo News reports: Speaking as 70 countries gather in Paris to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, Ayrault told French TV he believed Trump would find it “impossible” to fulfil the pledge he made during his campaign to transfer the embassy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the US intelligence services of performing a massive cyberattack against Russia.  According to a senior security official, Russia is facing “increased cyber attacks” originating in the U.S. Reuters reports: U.S. intelligence agencies say Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber campaign aimed at boosting Donald Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign. Russia has dismissed the accusations as a “witch-hunt”.