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🇲🇽 Sheinbaum moves fast to snuff out invasion rumors. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico received written assurance that no American military flights crossed Mexican territory. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) still issued a caution advisory, feeding speculation before facts caught up. Mexican Senator Clemente Castañeda said the public deserved clarity, not geopolitical fan fiction. Mexico confirmed an American military plane landed at Toluca airport outside Mexico City, tied to a training operation. Sheinbaum framed it as coordination and urged calm over clicks. The episode became a reminder that panic travels faster than radar.

🇵🇸 Illegal Israeli settlements expand in the West Bank. Another outpost in the occupied West Bank was upgraded by Israel's government as officially recognized. The new site, Yatziv, sits near the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour and immediately drew backlash. The plan began with 21 households and 77 residents, then mapped growth toward roughly 900 residents. Organizers touted a synagogue, mikveh, and pool, selling permanence through plumbing and prayer. The settlements are condemned as illegal under international law. Rights advocates cite the settlement projects further entrench apartheid conditions against Palestinians and worsen longstanding ethnic cleansing. The message from the hilltop was blunt: the paperwork is catching up to the bulldozers.

🧾 Walz gets subpoenaed as Washington turns the heat on Minnesota. The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued grand jury subpoenas tied to an obstruction investigation over immigration enforcement. Subpoenas went to offices linked to Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt. Investigators are weighing whether local leaders crossed the line from resistance into interference. The legal hook is a federal conspiracy statute used when officials allegedly impede enforcement actions. A grand jury proceeding is scheduled for February 3rd, tightening the calendar and the stakes. Walz’s team called it political intimidation and distraction from Epstein, while the feds framed it as accountability. Either way, the courthouse is now part of the protest map.

🎭 President Trump marks first year back with presser as performance. President Donald Trump used his first-year recap to mix policy claims with crowd-work theatrics. At one point, he tossed paper like confetti, literally littering his own message. He joked about winning the Nobel Peace Prize, then blamed Norway for denying him the crown. He revived talk of renaming the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of Trump, daring reality to argue back. The remarks ricocheted across tariffs, immigration, and grievances, stitched together by impressions and asides. Critics heard instability, supporters heard stamina, and everyone heard volume in the dizzying year of 2025.

❄️ Winter Storm Fern threatens ice chaos from Texas to the Carolinas. Forecasters warned the system could be “potentially catastrophic,” with ice posing the nastiest risk. Snow has already battered parts of the Midwest, where whiteouts turned roads into roulette. The southern edge looks worse, with freezing rain threatening power lines, trees, and traction. Emergency managers urged people to prep early, because iced roads do not negotiate. The storm’s footprint spans multiple climate identities at once, blizzard here, glaze there. It is weather as infrastructure stress test, graded in outages and ER visits. Fern is less a storm than a moving audit of preparedness.

⚓ American forces seize a seventh tanker tied to Venezuela’s oil trade. American forces in the Caribbean intercepted another sanctioned tanker linked to Venezuela, marking the seventh such seizure. The action fits President Donald Trump’s stated drive to squeeze control points around Venezuelan crude. Officials described the vessel as part of a sanctions-dodging network moving oil despite restrictions. The seizure escalates an already sharp contest over energy, leverage, and who gets paid. Venezuela’s government has long called such actions theft, while Washington frames them as enforcement. Either way, the maritime chessboard is getting crowded with consequences. In the realm of petroleum politics, the ocean is often the courtroom.

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