U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on the promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours once he took office, called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, stating that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kyiv would “like to make a deal and stop the madness.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already taken a victory lap after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and said it could not have happened without the IDF’s thrashing of Hezbollah and Iran, as his forces took positions in a once-demilitarized part of the Golan Heights, which has been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made it clear last week that the Biden administration wants Ukraine to lower its conscription age so it can pull together the manpower to try and take on the advancing Russians.
The IDF announced in a statement Sunday that it seized more territory inside Syria with the swift fall of Bashar al-Assad after his 50-year rule.
Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, fled to Moscow on Sunday after a lightning fast offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Turkish-Israeli-U.S. backed group that invaded Syria’s Aleppo last week that continued on to Damascus and easily took control of the city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week warned that Moscow has escalation capabilities in Ukraine and its next targets could be a wide range of military facilities and decision-making centers in Kyiv that Moscow could “turn to dust.”
The Biden administration announced last week that it approved $385 million in weapons for Taiwan, which will include spare parts for F-16s and radar systems, prompting China to promise “countermeasures.”
Chad announced last week that it will end its defense agreement with France, its former colonial power, which was seen as the latest blow for Paris in Africa.
The fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main Turkish-backed group invading Syria’s Aleppo, are receiving intelligence from Ankara as their fighters try to maintain their grip on the city and advance south, the AFP reported last week.