Russia may face more sanctions

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (AFP): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday indicated he may impose fresh sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
"Sounds like it," Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked if the United States would apply additional sanctions on Moscow if the Russian president did not come to the table.
Prior to his inauguration on Monday, Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war immediately upon taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make concessions to Russia, which invaded in February 2022.
In unusually critical remarks of Putin, Trump said on Monday that the Russian president "should make a deal."
"I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal."
Trump added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told him that he wanted a peace agreement to end the war.

Trump pardons 'Silk
Road' drug kingpin
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the "Silk Road" online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.
In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of masterminding the "dark web" platform, on which some $200 million in narcotics were sold to customers across the world.
Ulbricht, who ran Silk Road under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts" and who had also been accused of commissioning five murders, was sentenced to two life sentences for narcotics distribution and criminal enterprise.

Targets opponents,
faces criticism
Donald Trump targeted opponents and touted a huge AI project Tuesday in a shock-and-awe start to his second presidency-but faced defiance including a rare public dressing down from a bishop.
The Republican also defended his sweeping pardons of US Capitol rioters, including key figures from the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups who were released from jail on Tuesday.
Trump has vowed a "new golden age" for America, signing a slew of executive orders in his first 24 hours on immigration, gender and climate that overturn many of Democrat Joe Biden's policies.
Flanked at the White House by the chiefs of Japanese giant Softbank, Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Trump announced a venture called "Stargate" which will "invest $500 billion, at least," in AI infrastructure in the United States.