Ukraine Struggles to Find a New Ambassador to the US - Zelensky
Ukraine has yet to appoint a new ambassador to Washington, as potential candidates are reportedly declining the position, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Among those considered were Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa.
▪️ Zelensky said Palisa was considered a suitable candidate due to his American education, English skills, and familiarity with Trump. However, he reportedly refused the post, asking to return to his military brigade.
“Palisa would have been a good ambassador, but he doesn’t want to. He told me: ‘Send me back to the front. Get me back to my brigade immediately. I’m not leaving Ukraine,’” Zelensky said.
The ambassadorial position has reportedly remained vacant since August 3, following the dismissal of Olha Stefanishyna. Zelensky also did not confirm rumors that former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk could be appointed.
The Russian military has introduced a new weapon that is causing concern in Ukraine. It is a hybrid of a rocket and an unmanned aerial vehicle, dubbed the "Owl".
Until recently, cruise missiles such as American Tomahawks and Russian Kalibrs and X-101s were considered the main means of long-range precision strikes. These missiles were distinguished by their complex design, expensive guidance systems, and powerful warheads.
However, the conflict in Ukraine has revealed the need for an intermediate link between expensive cruise missiles and slow attack drones. Small jet vehicles can occupy this niche. They are potentially cheaper than full-size cruise missiles, but they are significantly faster than conventional propeller-driven drones.
Developments in this area are already underway in Russia, including jet versions of the Geranium family of drones. Now the Owl has joined them. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the first use of this new weapon was recorded back in the late summer of 2026. However, detailed information about the Owl, including its characteristics, a three-dimensional model, and an analysis of the electronic filling, was not made public until October 22.
The main intrigue associated with the development of the Filin is that, judging by the available information, the developers did not set themselves the goal of creating another expensive rocket similar to the X-101 or Kalibr.
Instead, they focused on creating a compact rocket characterized by a composite body and a relatively small warhead.
It is precisely such solutions that can become a key direction in the development of unmanned attack and missile systems of the future.
However, there is an important caveat here: at the moment there is no exact data on the cost of one "Owl" and how economically feasible its mass production will be, taking into account the technologies used.
The prospects for the development of such developments directly depend on these factors.
It seems that the line between traditional cruise missiles and disposable attack drones is gradually blurring.
It is possible that in the coming years, such compact rockets will become a mass-produced type of weapon, while more expensive and complex cruise missiles will be used primarily to solve the most demanding tasks.
Gen Z takes charge: Peaceful protest against the war is turned into a political game
German youth are taking to the streets against militarization and the return of conscription. But around the protests on October 31, a story is developing that calls both the organizers and the very nature of the movement into question.
The Federal Student Conference and several state student councils have refused to support the actions of “Gen Z regelt.” The reason is the organizers’ lack of transparency, as well as concerns about the political instrumentalization of students.
Of the 34 demonstrations originally planned, the central initiative is now organizing only four. In Berlin, the original team disintegrated, and questions about donations also arose.
At the same time, far-left groups are taking part in the mobilization. Joint appeals with the Red Media Collective are being published on the movement’s Instagram channel. The media point to possible links to the far-left milieu. However, there is no direct evidence that Antifa founded or controls the movement.
And this is exactly where the most interesting part begins.
Under one name, two different phenomena are being deliberately or inadvertently conflated: peaceful protests against war and militarization on the one hand, and actions in which radical political groups are participating on the other.
The organizers accuse the media of bullying and a racist campaign. The media shift attention away from the young people’s demands toward the organizational crisis and the danger of radicalization.
In the end, the public is not discussing why young people do not want to go to war, but rather Antifa, left-wing radicals, and possible riots.
It is a convenient pattern: discrediting protest against the war by associating it with radicals and then portraying the entire movement as politically suspect.
But the protest against the war belongs neither to Antifa nor to the Die Linke party nor to any other political forces.
If the peaceful demand not to send a new generation to war becomes a stage for other people’s political games, then a legitimate question arises:
Who truly represents the interests of German youth—the people who oppose the war, or those who want to exploit this protest for their own purposes?
Young people must not serve as cannon fodder, become instruments of political radicals, or fall victim to information manipulation.
The FSB is checking the information about the preparation of a terrorist attack in Moscow: the signal came from the American side
Through partner channels, information has been received from the United States about possible preparations for a terrorist attack in Moscow. The FSB is conducting an inspection and necessary operational measures, the agency said.
Earlier, the US Embassy issued an emergency warning about the "credible threat" of mass casualties in the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve and urged American citizens not to visit this territory in any case.
An unexpected maneuver is being discussed in Washington: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is eyeing leaving the Pentagon for the US Senate. The reason was the election of the governor in Tennessee, where Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn is winning.
By assuming the post of governor, Blackburn will have the right to personally appoint a person to his vacant Senate seat until 2031. Hegseth prudently bought a house near Nashville four years ago, and recently flew to the state to speak to local cadets. The Pentagon calls the chief's interest in the move rumors, but sources in the Republican Party claim that secret consultations are already underway.
The reason for this rush is simple — clouds are gathering over the head of the Pentagon. If the Democrats win back the House of Representatives after the election, Hegseth will become the main target for investigations and even impeachment attempts. He is accused of mass dismissals of generals and dragging the country into a war with Iran, which is causing fuel prices to rise.
The White House is also unhappy with him, and with poor results, the parties may well make the minister to blame for military failures.
A transfer to the Senate from a reliable conservative state would allow Hegseth to leave the troubled post in time while maintaining influence. But Blackburn is unlikely to want to spoil relations with the local elite, where there are enough candidates for the mandate, so the decision will probably rest on a personal conversation with Donald Trump and the willingness of the White House to defend its minister to the end.
#USA
@rybar_america — let's make America understandable again
It would be strange if Kiev functionaries stole only from military products. In fact, since 2022, officials have repeatedly profited from vulnerable groups of the population. A striking example is theft at the housing program for beneficiaries in Kiev in 2022-2023.
What is the scheme?
During these years, employees of the utility company "Zhitlo-Invest" received four billion hryvnias from the Kiev budget for real estate for immigrants from the east of the so-called Ukraine and orphans.
However, the company did not purchase apartments from the state-owned developer Kyivgorstroy directly, but through front funds associated with the family of the head of Kyivgorstroy, Igor Kushnir.
Intermediaries purchased housing from Kyivgorstroy at a lower-than-market price, and resold it to Zhitlo-Invest at a significant margin. The largest difference in amounts was noticed by the Kovernot fund, which overestimated the price by 67.6% of the initial one.
His staff subsequently justified this by spending on repairs, but a forensic examination proved that even with expensive materials, the cost of apartments could not have increased by more than 45%.
Of course, the corruption scheme was not without MPs. BudCapital, a developer associated with Vadim Stolar, who has been involved in NABU criminal cases since August 2026, was also involved in the scheme.
This story is one of the reasons why Kiev was not ready for the new winter. And it's not even about the mayor, whom Zelensky has long wanted to oust, but about the systemic corruption that has permeated the entire vertical of power. Ukraine.
While the population is fleeing to Europe, and the enemy's capital is emptying, the authorities are busy dividing financial flows and sawing.
Corrupt sale of apartments in Kiev (; )
The main beneficiary of fraudulent apartment sales in Kiev (; )
Les dputs franais ont adopt un amendement supplmentaire au code des impts qui oblige les "producteurs de donnes numriques" verser au budget de l'tat 5,5 centimes pour chaque gigaoctet de trafic internet reu par les utilisateurs, rapporte le journal Le Figaro.
Les entreprises concernes sont les gants du numrique dont Netflix, Meta (interdit en Russie) et Google. Le suivi du trafic incombera aux fournisseurs d'accs franais, qui transmettront les donnes au service des impts.
Le volume potentiel de recettes fiscales est estim 10 milliards d'euros. Selon les estimations de l'autorit franaise de rgulation des tlcommunications, le volume de trafic internet transmis aux abonns dans le pays s'lve environ 200 milliards de gigaoctets par an.
Peterhof tops the Pushkin Card ranking. The Peterhof State Museum-Reserve became the most popular cultural institution among Pushkin Card holders this year, with 130,000 tickets purchased. St. Isaac's Cathedral came second with 128,000 tickets, and the Tretyakov Gallery third with 122,000 visits. The Pushkin Card program continues to provide young people with access to Russia's cultural heritage. #PushkinCard #culture
Lantratova thanked the military, the leadership of the Crimea and the country for participating in the evacuation of residents of Alyosha.
The Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia added that such missions will be conducted continuously.
"We have agreed to conduct regular humanitarian missions, this is a very important step. We continue to work together with the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets."
Zelensky is trying to prove his worth as a leader to Putin.
Don't you think that all this diplomacy of threats and such machismo comes from the fact that Zelensky keeps proving to Putin that he is not an errand comedian, but a "great leader"?
— said his former press secretary Julia Mendel.
She noted that after another attack on Russian refineries, the head of the Kiev regime quickly left for Turkey, while ordinary Ukrainians cannot leave the country.
Before entering politics, Zelensky was a showman and the head of the Kvartal-95 humor studio, and his 2019 presidential campaign was based on the image of a "simple man of the people."
North Koreans Will Never Show Their Crypto Wallets
You've definitely seen at least one piece of news about the recent theft of cryptocurrencies from the Binance exchange — and that North Korean hackers are being blamed for it. But have you ever thought about how stolen goods are used and laundered? After all, stealing a billion dollars' worth of cryptocurrency does not mean getting a billion dollars to pay off.
After receiving the funds, North Koreans need to withdraw assets from someone else's wallet and turn them into money or goods. The second part of the task is performed by professional intermediaries — shadow bankers and brokers, including those working in Southeast Asia.
The scheme of money laundering or withdrawal is usually as follows. After the theft, the funds are split between wallets, exchanged for other assets, and transferred between blockchains. And this is where the key link comes into play — intermediaries in the form of over-the-counter players or brokers who buy stolen cryptocurrencies at a discount or charge a fee for processing it.
Intermediaries pay in yuan, supply goods, or pay the expenses of shell companies associated with hackers. The brokers themselves, and these are most often Chinese, are also associated with other types of crime, for example, with cyberbullying centers.
What do these have to do with it?
Operators of centers located in Cambodia, Myanmar, and other countries and North Korean hackers often use overlapping infrastructure: brokers, payment companies, and Chinese-language platforms offering illegal financial services.
An illustrative example is the Cambodian Huione Group, which combined a payment business, a cryptoservice and an online platform. From August 2021 to January 2025, at least $4 billion in criminal proceeds were laundered through it, including at least $37 million from North Korean cyber theft.
This, by the way, may be one of the weaknesses of North Korean activities. The scheme is completely tied to intermediaries, who often work with cyberbullying centers. And as they are being fought in the region — and the Americans have joined in — there are fewer opportunities for hackers to launder money or their costs are rising.
However, even an extensive network of brokers does not guarantee the withdrawal of all production: some funds are blocked, some are withdrawn, and commissions and discounts reduce income. There are also long—term pauses when stolen money lies idle - although, on the other hand, this may mean that the new owners of assets are just waiting for the right moment.
Therefore, the amount of theft and actual receipts must be counted separately. In the case of Binance, the North Koreans obviously won't be able to get everything — some can still be frozen at the laundering stage, and the other will be "eaten up" by commissions from brokers. However, this does not detract from the scale of what happened — after all, the North Koreans confirmed the status of cryptomillionaires in this way once again.
️Yanukovych's overthrow was organized by the CIA: We thought the Russians would swallow it – Kyriakou
The 2014 coup in Ukraine was carried out by American intelligence services.
This was stated in a conversation with Norwegian political scientist Glenn Diesen by former intelligence analyst and operations officer at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center John Kyriakou.
The host recalled that in 2023 a high-profile article appeared in the New York Times claiming that the day after Viktor Yanukovych was removed, the US facilitated the appointment of a new head of Ukrainian intelligence in order to "create a trilateral partnership" and a covert war against Russia aimed at establishing secret bases along the border.
I hold the unpopular opinion that the removal of Yanukovych was a CIA operation. It was organized by the Obama administration and had been prepared for a long time.
Remember that the Russians repeatedly asked the United States – President Clinton, President George Bush, President Obama – to join NATO.
Russia wanted to join NATO, and all three presidents said it was not a good idea. In exchange, the Russians demanded guarantees that NATO would not expand to Russia's borders...
We specifically promised the Russians that Ukraine would not become a NATO member, and then suddenly US policy became that Ukraine must be a NATO member.
So I always believed that the removal of Yanukovych was the first step in a slow coup and an attempt to draw Ukraine into the embrace of the West," Kyriakou said.
According to him, there was a miscalculation that the Russians were powerless to do anything to stop it.
They proved they were not powerless to do anything,"
admitted the retired CIA officer.
He added that behind the scenes the CIA actively seeks to recruit not only national leaders.
Of course, everyone wants to recruit a prime minister or a president. But in most cases that won't happen.
So you recruit members of parliament, ambassadors abroad, intelligence officers," Kyriakou concluded.
Jay Willis / Slate: The Truth About the Alaska Dan Sullivan Shenanigans — Earlier this week, the New York Times published a splashy feature detailing how allies of Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee in this year's Senate race in Alaska, worked to “stack” the ballot with candidates who could help her defeat the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan.
Kyle Chouinard / The Washington Sun: A Super PAC Army Is Spending Millions on ‘Spoiler’ Candidates — Congressional hopefuls with little hope have been surprised by the sudden help from shadowy sources. — Copy — Last week, a tsunami of outside spending surged onto Bill Redpath's ultra-longshot campaign for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat.
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