Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and his delegation safely reached Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast on 30 October, with the local truce at 80 hours and holding. He said he was talking with residents to learn what help they need most.

Russia has kept Oleshky, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, cut off for months, leaving residents starving. Now the test is where the buses take people. The White House promised residents who wish to leave transport to their “preferred destination.” Lubinets said on 27 October that everyone who wants to go to Ukraine will be able to. Under agreement pages published by Fox News, his own delegation and the residents who choose Ukraine travel together via Anapa in Russia. From there, a Russian military transport plane to Homiel in Belarus is expected on 31 October.

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Russia may use the Oleshky truce to rebuild its forces, ISW warns, as evacuees face a route through Russia and Belarus

Buses on standby, aid for those who stay

On the morning of 30 October, before reaching the town, Lubinets wrote from Armiansk in occupied Crimea that he was coordinating the mission with Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner. He said 25 buses with 750 seats had been prepared, plus ambulances for people with limited mobility. Anyone who wants to leave will get a safe way out, and those who stay will receive aid, he added. In delivering that aid, special attention goes to elderly residents and people with disabilities, he said.

The evening before, he said people who want to leave could do so until 14:00, with aid distribution after 14:30, without naming a date. Speaking to journalists, he called it the first truce since 2022 to hold this long on such a large stretch of front.

How the truce came about

The White House announced the truce on 23 October, crediting First Lady Melania Trump. It took effect at 03:00 Kyiv time on 27 October. Its zone was later widened. By 29 October, the convoy was ready, Lubinets said. The truce is due to end at 22:59 Kyiv time on 1 November.

Japan-South Korea ties are on the upswing. After a recent decade of some of the tensest relations since normalization, Seoul and Tokyo appear to be setting aside their differences as they enter a new phase of closer cooperation and active diplomatic initiatives. Under Kishida Fumio and Yoon Suk-yeol, the countries signed a pact with the […]

The post Is Japan-South Korea rapprochement finally built to last? appeared first on Asia Times.

In November 2023, three engineers left a South Korean semiconductor testing-components company for a Chinese employer offering twice their previous salaries. According to South Korea’s Intellectual Property Office, they allegedly took proprietary probe-card designs, arranged for a Korean design firm to modify them, and used the technology to develop products in China. By December 2025, […]

The post What Taiwan can teach South Korea about China’s chip tech theft appeared first on Asia Times.

Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in what analysts say is the biggest crypto hack ever, an attack that could prompt investors to rethink the risks of owning digital assets.

The hackers behind the raid were from North Korea, according to US blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis. The attackers targeted Binance wallets on 10 blockchains and shifted most of the funds in about 20 minutes, TRM Labs said in a statement.

Binance said it worked with partners to freeze the affected assets with about $3 billion located so far. It did not mention the status of the remaining $3.3 billion, and its co-founder Yi He said the exchange would cover “all hacking losses”.

Binance said its deposits were unaffected and it expects to resume withdrawal services in the next 48 hours.

TRM said several features of the attack matched earlier heists linked to North Korea, including a 2025 hack of crypto exchange Bybit that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had attributed to Pyongyang.

“We make this judgment with high confidence,” it said in a statement.

North Korea’s mission in Geneva and its embassy in China did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The incident could be the world’s biggest crypto heist, according to analytics firm Chainalysis and other industry experts.

“It’s the biggest hack in history,” said Aravind Srinivasan, head of large crypto market maker GSR’s systematic OTC business.

Bitcoin tumbles as crypto markets react

Bitcoin BTC= dropped more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368 and ether ETH= fell more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178. BNB BNB=CCCL, a token originally launched as Binance Coin that can be used to pay Binance fees, was down 5% over the past 24 hours at $709.70, according to market aggregator CoinGecko.

Shares in crypto exchange Coinbase Global COIN.O slid 4.8% while those of bitcoin buyer Strategy MSTR.O fell nearly 6% in extended US trading.

Hacked laptop may have triggered breach

An initial investigation suggested the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers, which let an attacker gain access to one of its systems and make unauthorized withdrawals, Binance said.

“The incident stems from multiple factors. Our security team is tracing the full attack path through the compromised computer which may be the entry point of the incident,” Binance said.

Beyond the potential loss of assets, the security breach was likely to have wider ramifications for crypto, which had already been under pressure due to higher US interest rates and softer demand from exchange-traded fund buyers, analysts said.

“It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralized exchanges, as well as counterparty, solvency and liquidity risks,” said Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, based in Hong Kong.

Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, has 335 million registered users globally and had about $162.8 billion in assets under custody as of the exchange’s 2025 annual report.

“User funds remain safe,” Binance said in a statement.

Binance moves to protect customer funds

Binance runs a secure asset fund for users, which is a reserve held entirely in bitcoin that is intended to protect user assets in cases of security breaches, according to its website.

“It’s becoming very hard to counter hacks as AI can find vulnerabilities faster than you can fix them,” said Bernardo Brites, CEO of Trace Finance, a payments and stablecoin infrastructure company.

“My view is that users will move away from smaller and medium-sized exchanges, (it is) becoming too risky to park your money somewhere that couldn’t cover a hack of meaningful size.”

Crypto firms freeze billions in stolen assets

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen nearly $1.57 billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze more than $800 million.

World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to US President Donald Trump and his family, said on Thursday it had worked with cryptocurrency custodian BitGo to freeze funds stolen in what it described as a Binance hack. Binance’s Yi said $27 million in stablecoins and about $2 million worth of World Liberty tokens had been frozen.

Crypto firm Ripple also froze roughly $200 million in funds, Yi said. Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, said the company was closely monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance and was freezing affected funds and coordinating with relevant parties.

Record theft adds to growing crypto security fears

Miguel Morel, CEO of blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, said data indicated that billions of dollars appeared to have been hacked from Binance by an unknown actor.

The incident adds to a string of crypto thefts. Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs. In September, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget said roughly $350 million in crypto had been stolen from its platform, underscoring the industry’s vulnerability to hackers.

Authorities have warned that organised crime groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to move funds across borders outside the traditional financial system.

Binance.US, a separate cryptocurrency exchange, said it was not affected by the security incident.

Coinbase COIN.O said it was unaffected and was monitoring the situation.

In an unrelated incident earlier on Thursday, prediction market operator Polymarket temporarily halted trading after a security incident involving a third-party provider. It later resumed trading and said it would fully reimburse affected traders.

Where Binance’s $6.3 billion breach ranks in crypto’s biggest hacks and heists

Manila, 30 oct (Prensa Latina) Filipinas busca hoy fortalecer sus vínculos de defensa con India y Corea del Sur mediante proyectos de modernización militar, seguridad marítima, capacitación e intercambios entre sus fuerzas armadas, informó el Departamento de Defensa Nacional.

The post Filipinas amplía cooperación militar con India y Corea del Sur first appeared on Noticias Prensa Latina.

A Christine Lagarde (París, 70 años, de soltera Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette) le gusta enviar mensajes con su atuendo. Elige cuidadosamente sus pañuelos (hay quien cree adivinar en ellos sus intenciones) y, en momentos especialmente delicados, comparece en la rueda de prensa del BCE con un broche característico: un búho. En un mundo, el de la política monetaria, habitualmente dividido entre halcones, banqueros con poca tolerancia por la inflación y gatillo fácil a la hora de subir tipos, y palomas, más sensibles al efecto del dinero caro sobre la economía, Lagarde se desmarcaba con esta otra ave.

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Los letones no se fían de sus “simpáticos vecinos”. Tal es así que usan con cierto hábito este atajo lingüístico, lleno de retintín, antes que hablar a las claras de rusos y bielorrusos. Con estos dos viejos aliados de la vasta llanura, Letonia ― con 1,8 millones de habitantes― comparte más de 450 kilómetros de su frontera este. Es por esto que su linde forma parte de lo que, entre la tropa, se denomina flanco oriental de la OTAN y la Unión Europea. Consecuencia: está en la diana del enemigo número uno, esto es, de Rusia. En mayo, la colisión de tres drones que volaban desde el frente de batalla ucranio hizo saltar por los aires la coalición del Gobierno letón. En solo cinco meses, el país báltico se ha blindado defensivamente gracias, en parte, al empuje de la producción local de vanguardia de armas autónomas. Pero el temor continúa.

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Los contornos de la batalla política europea en su superaño electoral van dilucidándose. El ciclo arrancará con las elecciones generales en España en noviembre de 2026 y se cerrará, previsiblemente, con las italianas en diciembre de 2027, si Giorgia Meloni no las anticipa. Entre tanto, habrá votado la mitad de la población europea en sus principales estados miembros salvo Alemania, si Friedrich Merz resiste. La discusión sobre la idea de Europa se estructurará en torno a, por un lado, las fuerzas políticas de centro europeísta y, por el otro, a los partidos de la contestación patriótica, cuyo proyecto para el futuro de la UE es la repatriación de poderes hacia las capitales nacionales.

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Pyongyang, 30 oct (Prensa Latina) La exposición Desarrollo de Aeronáutica Sin Piloto-2026 exhibió en la República Popular Democrática de Corea (RPDC) los más recientes avances en drones estratégicos, tácticos y sistemas de combate no tripulados, destacó hoy una fuente oficial.

The post RPDC exhibe poderío con drones en exposición militar 2026 first appeared on Noticias Prensa Latina.

As many as 8 million people have been affected by food shortages, electricity blackouts and health clinic closures

Extreme drought driven by an historic El Niño is affecting as many as 8 million people in Papua New Guinea, causing a cascade of issues from shortages of food and water, to electricity scarcity and schooling disruption.

An influential coalition that includes churches, trade unions and business groups has said the Pacific nation is in the midst of a “national crisis”, but there appears to be “no coordinated plan to protect vulnerable communities from the worsening impacts of El Niño.”

South Korean Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk on Thursday demanded the death penalty for former president Yeon Suk-yeol, who touched off a national crisis by declaring martial law in December 2024.

The post South Korean Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty for Conservative Ex-President appeared first on Breitbart.

Cryptocurrency exchange scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far

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The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by an industry-record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit.

Binance has scrambled to freeze the affected assets, with about $3bn located so far. The company gave no update on the other $3.3bn as Binance’s co-founder Yi He said the company would cover “all hacking losses”.

Al menos cuatro personas han muerto y otras 11 han resultado heridas este jueves al estrellarse un helicóptero del ejército de Italia en Bosnia y Herzegovina, ha informado el Ministerio de Defensa italiano.

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For more than half a century, federal officials have classified drugs into legal categories that determine who can manufacture, prescribe, or study them, and who goes to prison for possessing or selling them. Those classifications carry enormous consequences. They also reflect decades of political pressure, moralization, myth, and stigma.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D–Tenn.) proposes to change that. His Public Health and Research Reforms in Controlled Substances Act of 2026 would substantially overhaul federal drug scheduling, shift key decisions from law enforcement to health officials, ease research restrictions, deschedule marijuana, and reduce mandatory prison penalties.

While the proposal preserves too much of the drug prohibition infrastructure, it represents a major step toward a more rational, evidence-based, and humane drug policy.

The Controlled Substances Act currently combines judgments about a drug's potential for abuse with judgments about its medical usefulness. Congress vested scheduling authority in the attorney general, who generally exercises it through the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) evaluates the scientific and medical evidence, but the DEA makes the ultimate legal determination of whether a drug has a "currently accepted medical use" for scheduling purposes, as the Justice Department explained in a 2024 legal opinion. Schedule I, the most restrictive category, includes substances deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use. These restrictions impede research, while officials cite insufficient evidence of medical usefulness to justify continued restrictions.

Cohen's bill would transfer authority to assess medical usefulness and drug-related risks—and to make scheduling decisions—from law enforcement to HHS, where those judgments more rationally belong. Under the new system, controlled substances would receive two classifications: a Roman numeral, I through IV, reflecting risks associated with misuse, substance use disorder, and threats to public health; and a letter, A through E, reflecting therapeutic value.

A substance could therefore be classified as high risk while still recognized for substantial medical benefits. That reflects an everyday reality of medical practice. Fentanyl, for example, can cause fatal respiratory depression and remains an indispensable anesthetic and analgesic. A drug's dangers do not erase its benefits.

The bill would also replace the vague "potential for abuse" standard for adding substances to the schedules with a standard based on the potential to develop a substance use disorder, expressly excluding isolated or occasional nontherapeutic use. Taking a substance for pleasure would no longer, by itself, satisfy that threshold.

Among the proposal's most consequential provisions is a requirement that officials consider whether scheduling a substance would itself threaten public health, including by encouraging people to substitute other drugs. They must also consider whether people use a substance to help control problematic use of another scheduled drug, as well as the harms associated with that other drug.

That would force federal officials to confront consequences that drug warriors routinely ignore. Banning a substance does not eliminate demand. Consumers may turn to underground suppliers, face uncertain potency and contamination, or switch to more dangerous products. Making a particular drug harder to obtain can leave its users worse off.

These requirements could be critical in disputes over kratom and its alkaloids, such as 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), which some consumers report using for pain or to reduce their use of other opioids. Such reports should be part of an honest assessment of what consumers stand to lose when the government closes a legal supply channel.

An expert committee would evaluate each substance and publish its evidence and reasoning, making scheduling decisions more transparent and easier to challenge.

HHS would also assume from the DEA responsibility for registering researchers who study controlled substances. Qualifying researchers would gain an expedited registration pathway, with faster decisions for eligible small preclinical pilot studies. Federal officials currently demand evidence that these drugs have medical benefits while imposing restrictions that make it harder for researchers to obtain the drugs and conduct the studies needed to generate that evidence.

Cohen would require officials to reconsider existing classifications, setting a two-year deadline for 32 named substances and an eight-year deadline for most others. If officials miss those deadlines, statutory fallback classifications would apply.

The bill would also repeal the legal obligation of the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the "drug czar," to oppose specified legalization efforts—a remarkable requirement for an office supposedly focused on evaluating drug policy.

Marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinols (THCs) would come off the controlled substance schedules altogether. The bill expressly makes that change retroactive, extending it to past offenses, pending cases, convictions, and juvenile adjudications.

Its sentencing reforms also merit praise. The proposal would remove the quantity-based trafficking provisions that impose five- and 10-year mandatory minimums and eliminate specified mandatory penalties when death or serious injury results. The bill would also limit certain repeat-offender sentencing enhancements to prior convictions that meet the narrower definition of a "serious drug felony." Among other requirements, the person must have served more than a year in prison and been released within 15 years of the new offense. Eligible prisoners could receive reduced sentences, and the Bureau of Prisons would be required to identify them, notify them, and file motions on their behalf.

These changes could spare people years of imprisonment. They deserve support even from those of us who would go much further.

The shortcomings remain significant.

First, the bill preserves criminal penalties for peaceful conduct involving drugs that remain controlled. It leaves the general federal simple-possession statute intact, including mandatory minimum jail terms for repeat offenses. Congress would continue to authorize imprisonment for possessing a substance without government permission.

Second, transferring power to HHS offers no guarantee against political interference. The secretary would appoint the expert committee in consultation with the drug czar. Its required membership emphasizes addiction medicine, toxicology, and substance-use services, without expressly reserving seats for pain patients, ordinary consumers, or civil liberties advocates.

The bill would allow emergency scheduling to bypass the new expert committee's review. It would also retain features of the current system: Temporary restrictions could last two years, with a possible one-year extension, and the statute would expressly exclude those orders from judicial review.

The bill would also transfer production quotas to HHS rather than abolish them. As I have argued before, presuming to know how much of each opioid more than 320 million Americans will need in the coming year exemplifies what economist Friedrich Hayek called the "fatal conceit." These quotas have contributed to shortages of injectable opioids in hospitals, jeopardizing care for surgical patients and those on ventilators. Transferring that power to a health agency does not solve the underlying knowledge problem. Congress should abolish the quotas.

The proposal substantially increases many maximum fines even as it reduces mandatory prison penalties. For an individual convicted of Schedule I or II trafficking without a qualifying prior conviction, the fine ceiling would rise from $1 million to $10 million. Congress should question this punitive expansion.

Finally, marijuana descheduling would leave Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority intact. The bill expressly preserves the agency's powers under federal food and drug law, allowing it to regulate cannabis products that qualify as drugs, foods, or other products within its jurisdiction. It provides no explicit protection for a recreational cannabis market from FDA restrictions.

Those weaknesses warrant amendments. Scientific evidence can help people understand risks, but it cannot, by itself, justify depriving competent adults of the freedom to decide which risks they will accept. Autonomous adults should remain free to make informed choices about what they put into their bodies.

Cohen, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, is unlikely to see this sweeping reform pass during the brief post-election lame duck session. But his proposal can serve as a benchmark for reforming the Controlled Substances Act in the next Congress. Providing his successors with a framework that places greater weight on scientific evidence, recognizes the harms of prohibition, and reduces unjust punishment would leave Cohen with a substantial drug policy reform legacy.

The post Rep. Steve Cohen Thinks the DEA Shouldn't Be Practicing Medicine appeared first on Reason Magazine.

This is the Oct. 29, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

“These are not serious people. They don’t have solutions to actual problems, so they’d rather have the media and you talking about the Cheesecake Factory. That’s the game they’ve been playing for the last two years.”

— Former President Barack Obama, criticizing the Trump administration at a rally outside Atlanta yesterday

Modern political history offers few closing arguments as out of touch, self-defeating, or downright bizarre as the one President Donald Trump has made on the behalf of his fellow Republicans ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

As I write in my latest piece for The Atlantic:

Trump’s primary rationale for why voters should support the GOP, as best I can tell, is that the affordability crisis is a “hoax,” Bill Maher is a “loser,” and Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio has a nice physique.

That easy-to-mock message has been accompanied by a staggering number of missteps. Just for starters, he’s belittled the impact of his stalled war with Iran, sided with Russia as it continues to pummel Ukrainian cities, defended an attack ad from the GOP candidate for Ohio governor that repulsed other top Republicans, downplayed high energy prices while boasting that U.S. oil and gas companies are “making a freaking fortune,” embraced AI as the nation turns against it, obsessed over White House construction projects, and spent a lot of time talking about handsome men, Husted being just one.

I took a look at some of Trump’s recent rallies, and very few of the arguments he makes are actually helpful — or even relevant — to Republican candidates.

He’s broken key promises to drive down costs, deport only “the worst of the worst,” and stay out of foreign wars.

He’s on the wrong side of many of the day’s top issues.

And he now lives, even some Republicans privately think, in a gilded bubble, palling around with billionaires, oblivious to — and, even worse, uncaring about — the problems facing so many voters.

His approval rating has slipped to the low 30s, and he’s become so politically toxic that some Republicans in tight races don’t want him anywhere near their state or congressional district, fearing his rallies will do more harm than good.

Yet the president plans to spend much of his time on the campaign trail in the coming days, largely in deep red states now suddenly in play.

Read more in The Atlantic.

CHARTS OF THE DAY

Source: Gallup poll of 1,200 U.S. adults, conducted Oct. 1-19, 2026. Margin of error: ±4 percentage points

A CONVERSATION WITH ANNE APPLEBAUM

A new investigation in The Atlantic documents the suffering of civilians in Russian-occupied Oleshky, Ukraine — and warns of a Kremlin propaganda spectacle as American journalists prepare to visit under a humanitarian ceasefire credited to Melania Trump.

Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and staff writer at The Atlantic, joined “Morning Joe” today to discuss the upcoming media visit, the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine, and her recent reporting from Venezuela.

JS: Your colleague Zarina Zabrisky has written about the horrors of Russian occupation in Oleshky. What happens to Ukrainians living under Russian control?

AA: When the Russians go into a piece of Ukraine and take it over, they murder the leaders. They arrest people who have Ukrainian flags or symbols. They set up concentration camps — they call them filtration camps — to interrogate people and sometimes torture them. They remove the Ukrainian language and change the school curriculums.

And they shoot dogs. Why? Because the dogs make noise and might attack soldiers, and the Russians want control. And of course, they also kidnap children.

JS: Ukraine has repeatedly sought a humanitarian ceasefire. Why is Russia agreeing now, just days before the midterms?

AA: Oleshky is a town that’s been deprived of food and outside medical supplies since December, so people have been starving. The Russians have finally agreed to a ceasefire, and they’ve credited Melania Trump. It seems to have been negotiated by her PR guy who did her documentary. They’re allowing in some reporters from Newsmax, and maybe Fox News.

JS: And what do you expect those American journalists will see?

AA: The belief is that there’s going to be a kind of propaganda show where people say, “Oh, we’ve always been well treated by the Russians.” These are all Ukrainians, and the concern is that they’ll be taken to Russia rather than allowed to cross the river to Kherson, which is under Ukrainian control.

It’s a real test of the integrity of those journalists. Will they help cover up what’s happened in places like Oleshky, or will they tell the real story?

WG: Can Ukraine survive with President Trump effectively throwing his lot in with Putin?

AA: This war is over when the Russians decide to stop fighting. What the Trump administration has done for the last year and a half is give the Russians the feeling that it’s worth continuing. In other words, the Kushner and Witkoff negotiations have prolonged the war. Having said that, the Ukrainian front line is holding. They are not about to collapse, and there’s no indication that they will stop fighting.

JS: And what about the pressure on Ukraine to give up territory?

AA: This is not a real estate deal. It’s not like, “Oh, we’ll give you this block for that block, and you can build your building.” When you give up territory, it means giving up people to this totalitarian regime. If surrender means the Russians come in, kill your leaders, kidnap your children, and destroy your culture, why would you stop fighting?

JL: You recently traveled to Venezuela. How does what you saw compare with the Trump administration’s account?

AA: What we’ve created is a coalition of two kleptocracies. You have the Trump administration doing very opaque oil deals with what was the Maduro regime. Now Venezuela is run by Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president.

But opposition leader María Corina Machado has just returned, and the scenes of joy show Venezuelans’ desire for democracy. They want to make their own decisions and have their oil benefit them.

Katty Kay: And what has changed in daily life for ordinary Venezuelans since Maduro’s departure?

AA: Not much. There’s still very high inflation. I went to a market in Caracas where the prices were written on a whiteboard because they have to be changed every day. People talk about the difficulties of paying for education for their kids. Everybody still thinks about emigration. The feeling is that they’re trapped and waiting for a change.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.

The post In the closing days, few of Trump’s arguments are actually helpful — or even relevant — to Republican candidates appeared first on MS NOW.

Three maritime drones struck a container ship sailing in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria on Wednesday, the country's defense minister said, the latest in a string of such incidents on NATO's eastern flank

The post Drone Attack Hits Container Ship Off Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast appeared first on Breitbart.