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AVDIYIVKA, Ukraine -- Residents of this front-line flashpoint city awoke to relative calm on February 4 after a week of heavy artillery bombardments that shattered lives, killed dozens, and caused President Petro Poroshenko to declare a state of emergency.

The lull came before a phone call that was scheduled to take place between Poroshenko and U.S. President Donald Trump around 11:45 p.m. Kyiv time. Ukraine has looked for support from Trump, who has said he wants to improve relations with Russia.

Pavlo Malykhin, the citys head of civilian and military affairs, told RFE/RL he believed the welcomed lull was due to a local cease-fire brokered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes special monitoring mission to Ukraine and the Joint Center for Control and Coordination, which includes Ukrainian and Russian military officers.

At a makeshift humanitarian center beside the citys soccer stadium, there were almost as many emergencies services workers as residents. It was a marked change from every other day this week, when thousands poured in to receive rations and warm themselves.

An employee inspects a hole left in the roof of an Avdiyivka auto parts store after an artillery shell came crashing through.

Two buses available for people wanting to evacuate the city sat empty and idling in the parking lot. At the citys main hospital, medics said no casualties were reported overnight and that the relative calm had allowed them to get some sleep.

But the shelling did not completely cease. A late-morning attack on one Avdiyivka neighborhood damaged three houses and a car. Malykhin said that 114 residential homes, including eight multicomplex apartment blocks and 22 individual apartments, have been damaged by shelling since January 29.

An RFE/RL correspondent heard sporadic booms of outgoing and incoming heavy artillery, but there were noticeably fewer of them before midday on February 4. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said in a statement that it had no information about casualties.

Dozens of people have been killed, including civilians, and scores injured in renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine since January 29. The UN and EU have issued urgent pleas for talks to prevent a "catastrophe" in a conflict that has killed more than 9,750 people since April 2014.

In Donetsk, the stronghold of the Russia-backed separatists fighting against Ukrainian government forces, several buildings, including a kindergarten, were reportedly damaged.

A Ukrainian tank rumbles through the outskirts of Avdiyivka en route to a battlefield position.

Yet Malykhin described the situation here on the morning of February 4 as "relatively calm" and "stabilized" compared to previous days.

Emergencies services workers around the city utilized the quiet time to work on restoring electricity and patching up damaged facades and broken windows, Malykhin said.

He added that he hoped the railway station, which he said had also sustained some damage from shelling, would also be repaired.

In old Avdiyivka village on the eastern edge of town, which has borne the brunt of the recent surge in hostilities, Valentyna Stetskova and Borya, who did not give his last name, were cooking buckwheat porridge in a field kitchen beside a church damaged by a mortar overnight.

Through thick steam swirling around them, they said they get their rations and other products from volunteers and humanitarian organizations upon whom they rely because fighting has caused food shortages in the city.

Life has been hard these past three years, they said, but especially in the past week. The heavy shelling had forced them to retreat to their basements.

"We are surviving," Stetskova said. "Surviving and nothing more."

More here:
After Weeklong Bombardment, Devastated Ukrainian City Awakens To 'Relative Calm' - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Former president BarackObama rejected the idea Monday that President Trump based his immigration executive order on a policy adopted by his own administration, and he endorsed the protests that have been taking place across the country in response to the new restrictions.

Trump has said that his move to ban the entry of citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries into the United States, and to suspend temporarily the admission of refugees, was based in part on a decision in 2011 by then-President Obama to ban the admission of Iraqis to the country after evidence surfaced that two Iraqis seekingresettlement had been linked to terrorist activity in their homeland. The Obama and Trump administrations also identified the same seven countries as harboring terrorism threats.

Former Obama administration officials have denied that there was ever a halt to the awarding of visas to Iraqis, though the processing of these applications slowed after they were subject to more intense scrutiny.

[Trumps facile claim that his refugee policy is similar to Obamas in 2011]

Obama, who has remained publicly silent about his successor since leaving office 10 days ago, pledged before leaving office to only speak about Trump's policy moves where I think our core values may be at stake. On Monday, his spokesman, Kevin Lewis, said in a statement, With regard to comparisons to President Obamas foreign policy decisions, as weve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.

Alluding to the widespread protests taking place in major airports and cities in response to the new immigration policy, Lewis said that Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the arrivals gate of Washington Dulles International Airport to push back against President Trump's executive order that targeted citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. A federal judge in New York blocked deportations nationwide late Saturday of those detained on entry to the United States. (McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post)

In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy not just during an election but every day, Lewis said. Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

Read more from Politics:

Unnamed White House official on implementing travel ban: It really is a massive success story.

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Trump says all is going well on immigration order amid questions and confusion

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Obama rejects comparison between Trumps immigration policy ...

Former President Barack Obama released a statement on Monday expressing solidarity with those protesting his successors ban on travelers and refugees entering the United States from certain Muslim-majority countries.

The statement, issued under the name of Obamas spokesman Kevin Lewis, was the first time that Obama has weighed in on Donald Trumps presidency. And though it did not mention Trump by name or directly criticize the executive order that he signed on Friday, the implication was one of disapproval.

President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizens and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy not just during an election but every day.

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

With regard to comparisons to President Obamas foreign policy decisions, as weve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith.

Obama studiously kept his criticism of Trump muted during the transition and pledged to give Trump space after he assumed office. But nine days into the presidency, a host of executive orders have brought protestors to the streets and the nations airports. And theyve compelled Obama to speak out as well.

Part of what may have compelled the former president was Trumps insistence that the executive order mirrored what the Obama administration did when it stopped refugees from coming into the U.S. from Iraq for six months.

The fact-checkers have sided with Obama on this dispute, noting that Obama was vocally critical of any ban on refugees that prioritized one religion over another, as Trumps does.

After some Republicans called for only Syrian Christians to be allowed into the U.S. in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, Obama called such potential policiesshameful.

Thats not American. Thats not who we are. We dont have religious tests to our compassion, he said at the time.

Asked about Obamas statement in support of protesters Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer again defended the executive order.

It is a shame that people were inconvenienced obviously, he said. But at the end of the day we are talking about a couple of hours.

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Obama Weighs In On President Trump For The First Time

Some Democrats may think former President Barack Obama has been too quiet since leaving office on Jan. 20 particularly on the subject of his controversial successor, Donald Trump.

The same cannot be said of the people who worked for him.

In the days since Trump assumed the presidency, an increasingly ardent and even aggressive army of formerly buttoned-up Obama administration alumni aides, advisers, speechwriters, spokespeople have taken to their own social media platforms to rail, loudly and publicly, against pretty much every move Trump has made, undaunted by his 23.5 million followers and determined to tweet fire with fire.

This is a new development in American politics.

Colin Kahl, then-U.S. deputy assistant defense secretary for the Middle East, participates in a panel discussion about Irans nuclear program on Feb. 21, 2012. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

There are more than a few of us who believe deeply in holding this administrations feet to the fire especially when they offer falsehoods to the American people and distort our record, a former senior administration official tells Yahoo News. We have an email chain going where we share impressions, etc.

The latest to enter the fray is Colin Kahl, a Georgetown University professor who served as a national security official under Obama. Angered by the current administrations attempts to blame Obama for the first counterterrorism misstep to occur on Trumps watch a botched Jan. 29 raid in Yemen that left one American commando dead Kahl on Thursday fired off a flurry of tweets explaining that Obama neither planned nor approved the mission and that any reports saying otherwise were totally false.

Trump and his team owns the process and the ultimate decision and the consequences, Kahl snapped.

Kahl isnt alone. Former senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, speechwriting directors Jon Favreau and Cody Keenan, speechwriter Jon Lovett, longtime Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and many othersare flaming and fact-checking the new president up to a dozen times a day.

Former White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, left, and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. (Photos: Carolyn Kaster/AP, Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Its not that previous White House graduates refrained from countering or criticizing their bosses successors. They didnt, of course. But the current go-round is different faster and more furious for several reasons.

First, theres Trump himself, who has never been shy about picking fights (and who has shown no sign of backing off as president). His incessant Twitter spats with enemies, with allies, even with Arnold Schwarzenegger have set a coarser and more combative tone for presidential discourse and given his opponents little choice but to turn their own volume knobs up to 11.At the same time, his immediate blitzkrieg of provocative executive orders has invited an equally rapid response.

Then theres the sour mood of the country to consider. Previous presidents enjoyed honeymoons with the public. Not Trump. A popular-vote loser who refused during his transition to reach out to the nearly 73 million Americans who cast ballots for other candidates and who has catered exclusively to his base as president, inspiring worldwide protests Trump has seen his job-approval rating crater much faster than any of his predecessors. According to Gallup, Obamas disapproval rating didnt surpass 50 percent until 936 days after his inauguration. For George W. Bush, 1,205 days. Before him, Bill Clinton, 573; George H.W. Bush, 1,336; and Ronald Reagan, 727. Trump, however, crossed the same unfortunate threshold just eight days into his White House tenure. Its not just Obama alumni. More people oppose the new president, period and theyre spoiling for a fight.

From left, former Obama speechwriters Jon Favreau, Cody Keenan and Jon Lovett (Photos: Evan Agostini, AP, WH Gov, Marvin Joseph/Getty Images)

But perhaps the most important factor here is technology.

The last White House exodus took place in 2009. Social media existed, but it was hardly dominant. Twitter had about 2 million active users; today it has more than 300 million. Facebook had 150 million; now it has 1.86 billion. Instagram wouldnt launch for another year and a half. If Obama was the first social-media president, the alumni of his administration represent the first generation of White House staffers to learn the ropes of social engagement while on the job, then emerge into the wider world fully immersed in the new media environment and prepared to harness its power and reach for their own political ends.

This is really the first time in history where you have a huge cadre of former staff who can all broadcast their thoughts whenever they have them and fact check the current administration in real time, says former Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller, who frequently rebukes the Trump administration over law enforcement issues on Twitter.

By way of comparison, George W. Bushs chief strategist, Karl Rove, didnt join Twitter until Jan. 8, 2009, a few days before Bush left office; between then and early February 2009, he didnt tweet a single direct criticism of Obama. Dana Perino, Bushs last press secretary, didnt sign up until May 2009; her feed was similarly muted. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, meanwhile, tweeted only four times that entire year none of his tweets were political while former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted only once. Savoring the Dolphins great win last night, Fleischer wrote on Oct. 13, 2009. Go fins.

When the Bush folks did tweet, it was mostly to promote their work for establishment media outlets: a Wall Street Journal column, a National Review blog post, a hit on Fox News.

I was at DOJ at the time, says Miller, and I dont remember anyone no former Bush administration official pushing back at us on social media.

Thats not the case anymore.

On Feb. 3, alone, Tommy Vietor (87,900 followers) implied on Twitter that Trump is a lunatic; questioned the legality of Trumps doctor talking to the New York Times; and referred to the presidents tweet about putting Iran on notice as chest-thumping bulls***.

Dan Pfeiffer (154,000 followers) retweeted a story about Trump rolling back financial regulations and sarcastically asked readers to remember when Trumps working class base flocked to his rallies to demand fewer rules and bigger pay days for Wall Street. Ben Rhodes reminded his 29,600 followers that revoking 100,000 visas, as Trump has done with his travel ban, is not keeping out the bad; hours earlier he linked to an Instagram post by former White House photographer Pete Souza showing Obama laughing last September with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a close ally whom Trump had just blasted over the phone. For his part, Souza has all but transformed his Instagram feed (740,000 followers) into animplicit critique of the new president, posting archival images of Obama talking with young refugees and hanging out in the Oval Office with Merrick Garland, his stymied Supreme Court nominee a kind of alternate Democratic reality where every Trump outrage is met with an image of Obama doing the exact opposite.

Then-National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor at the White House on Feb. 3, 2011. (Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP)

Not all of these ex-Obamians are new to the so-called resistance: Vietor, Favreau and Lovett hosted a 2016 campaign podcast for the Ringer called Keepin It 1600, which laughed off the possibility of a Trump presidency until the bitter end. Distraught by the outcome, they recently launched anotherpodcast Pod Save America under the banner of their own company, the pointedly titledCrooked Media. Their goal? To stop being analysts and start being activists.

I woke up feeling like sitting on the sidelines wasnt an option anymore, Vietor told the Daily Beast. I wanted to be part of whatever is going to happen over the next four years to preserve the things we fought for at the White House.

Other members of the Obama administration, however, are just getting started mainly because, up until a few weeks ago, they were still working for the president (who was, in turn, urging a gracious transition).

What all these former White House staffers share is a strong desire to use the sizable media platforms they built while serving the leader of the free world and the authority they accrued as people who actually know how the U.S. government works to repudiate policies they disagree with and set the record straight when necessary.

When there are specific issues we need to take on, well consult with the relevant experts, says the former Obama administration official. For example, [former Homeland Security Adviser] Lisa [Monaco] provided a detailed tick-tock of what actually went down with regard to Yemen. Everyone is interested in batting down some of this nonsense, and those weve reached out to have been more than happy to help (even those who were in career posts).

Just about every Democrat in the country feels incredibly motivated to speak out right now, says Miller. But while a lot of Dems are motivated, people who worked for the Obama administration people who have a little bit of a voice feel something else: a deep sense of obligation to use those voices for good.

And as Trump himself has demonstrated, political combatants no longer need to rely on, say, CNN to be heard. I think the lesson from Trump is if youre filtering every message and idea you have through traditional media, he will swamp you with a tweet, Vietor recently told Politico. So we need to build up infrastructure that allows people to communicate directly with young people across the country.

This means, says Miller, that Americans should expect more Obama-era staffers to start speaking out against Trump in the weeks and months ahead, creating an unprecedented sense of direct conflict between one administration and the next.

I imagine this is going to break down agency by agency, eventually, he predicts. What youre going to see is someone from Obamas Environmental Protection Agency pushing back on something that Trump has done or said that is wrong or not true. Youre going to see someone from Labor, and so on. Nobody knew who Colin Kahl was before this week. But now they will.

With Olivier Knox

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Obamas White House alumni fight Trump tweet for tweet ...

Forbes

Sauce For The Goose? Judge Cites Anti-Obama Ruling To Block Trump's Immigration Order Forbes Supporters of Obama's Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals ridiculed the economic theory behind the lawsuits by attorneys general of Texas and more than 20 other Republican-leaning states. Texas argued it had standing to challenge the Obama order ... and more »

The rest is here:
Sauce For The Goose? Judge Cites Anti-Obama Ruling To Block Trump's Immigration Order - Forbes