🤔 Supply or no supply - Storm Shadow dispute in UK
 
The issue of supplying Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles is being actively discussed in the UK, according to Western media.
 
What arguments are put forth:
 
🗣"Defence sources have suggested that Labour’s reluctance to do so is likely to stem from the fact that UK stockpiles have reached a level below which military chiefs are not prepared to go because a certain number must be kept in reserve to protect the UK’s own interests," The Times report says.
 
🗣"Others believe that the MoD is concerned that handing Ukraine further Storm Shadow supplies now, before a decision has been reached on permission for their use in Russia, could mean they are not used as effectively as they could be in a few months’ time," according to the report.
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cautioned NATO members to be cognizant of the consequences of permitting Kiev to target locations deep inside Russia using missile systems supplied by the West. Additionally, Moscow has suggested it may consider supplying long-range missiles to nations classified as adversaries by the West.

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🇷🇺 🪖Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the situation in Russia’s Kursk region:

🔸 Russian Strikes of operational-tactical and army aviation, artillery fire targeted the enemy's manpower and equipment in the Sumy region.

🔸 Ukraine's losses amounted to 320 militants, a German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicle, four armored combat vehicles, three cars, a 152 mm D-20 gun and an electronic warfare station "Anklav-N". Five militants surrendered.

🔸 In total, during the fighting in the Kursk region, the enemy lost more than 33250 militants.

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💥 Russia’s massed strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure: what we know

The Russian military carried out large-scale strikes across Ukraine using long-range air and sea-launched weapons and drones Sunday morning, targeting critical infrastructure facilities providing for the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

“All planned targets have been hit,” the MoD said in a post-strike after action report.

🔸 Russian tactical aviation, drones, missile forces and artillery also struck military airfields, gas production facilities, energy facilities feeding the Ukrainian MIC, a warehouse producing drones, and troop concentrations across 144 separate areas, the MoD said.

🔸 Air raid alerts were activated across Ukraine during the strikes, with explosions reported in Kharkov, Kiev, Nikolaev, Poltava, Vinnitsa, Volyn, Dnepropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lvov, Khmelnytsky, Rovne, Zakarpattia, Cherkassy, Odessa and areas of Zaporozhye which remain occupied by Ukraine.

🔸 Local authorities confirmed extensive damage to critical infrastructure, and Ukrainian energy holding DTEK announced “serious damage” to a number of its thermal power plants. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry announced emergency power cuts.

🔸 The Ukrainian underground confirmed that the power supply was disrupted in Ivano-Frankovsk region after Sunday’s strikes, and that a number of factories were also hit. In Krivoy Rog, a warehouse with military equipment was targeted, and a train carrying fuel said to have caught fire. A coordinator for the underground counted some 63 objects being hit.

🔸 Ukraine’s foreign minister characterized Sunday’s strikes as “one of the largest air attacks.”

🔸 Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev said US investments in Ukraine would meet the same fate as the infrastructure subjected to massive Russian strikes Sunday morning.

Russian strikes on the Ukrainian infrastructure began on October 10, 2022 - two days after the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, which, according to the Russian authorities, was backed by Ukrainian special services. Strikes are being carried out on energy, defense industry, military administration and communications facilities throughout the country. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia doesn't strike residential buildings.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin "important and detailed" during a press conference at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Scholz added that he intends to stay in contact with Putin and plans to speak to him again "soon".

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⚡️Hezbollah's media relations chief Mohammed Afif killed in an Israeli strike.

The strike targeted the headquarters of the Lebanese branch of the Baath Party in the Ras al-Nabaa district of central Beirut, Sputnik correspondent reported from the spot.

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Constructive cooperation with Russia essential for European countries - German analyst
 
Constructive cooperation with Russia is essential for European countries, Alexander von Bismarck, founder of Bismarck Dialog, a Russian-German public project, told Sputnik.

“We [Europe] need cooperation with Russia. We need to talk together. And when Brussels and the EU can't do this, the countries of the EU have to do this, such as France or Germany,” noted the businessman and public figure.

Bismarck was a guest speaker on "The role of public institutions in smoothing out geopolitical tensions in the modern world" at the symposium on cooperation between BRICS and the EU hosted by Russia’s Sirius Federal Territory.

“We [Germany] are in the best position to talk to the Russians because we have been friends for so many years,” he underscored. He added that “we had many conversations together, and we need this for the BRICS future.”

“When Germany and Russia come together, it will serve to help Europe,” stressed Bismarck.

Within the framework of the Russian presidency of BRICS, the city of Sochi played host to the symposium under the motto "The Role of the State, Science and Society in the Development of Socioeconomic Cooperation between BRICS+ and European Countries and Organizations".

Members of the European Parliament from Greece, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, as well as lawmakers from the national legislative bodies of Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and other countries, were among the invited guests.

The organizers touted it as “an icebreaker event that opens the way to restoring a full-fledged inter-parliamentary and public dialogue between the East and West of Europe, and through it between the political West and the Global South."

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💶Trump not even in power yet, already wreaking havoc on European markets

European markets are trending downward and the euro has slid to its worst dip against the US dollar since the 2022 energy crisis in anticipation of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The cause? Fears that Trump will make good on his campaign promises to level cross-the-board 10-20% tariffs on all foreign imports, including those coming from Europe.

Barclays analysts cited by the Financial Times dubbed the Stoxx Europe 600’s poor performance compared to US markets – which soared on news of Trump’s reelection last week, a “Trump premium.”

ING global markets head Chris Turner explained the situation in no uncertain terms: “Investors fear that Europe will be in the front line of the coming trade war.”

“Trump’s not messing around,” Markus Hansen, portfolio manager at Vontobel, a Zurich-based investment management firm, said. “His administration wants to get going on tariffs from day one” and the Europeans “will find themselves in the crossfire.”

The president-elect appeared to confirm as much last week with his reported plans to rehire noted trade hawk Robert Lighthizer as his trade czar. During Trump’s first term, Lighthizer kicked off a trade war with China, strongarmed Canada and Mexico into renegotiating NAFTA, and slapped tariffs of up to 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum imports from much of the world, including Europe.

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Turkiye refused to let the Israeli president's plane enter its airspace. Yitzhak Herzog had to cancel his visit to the climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Turkish media reported, quoting diplomatic sources.

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❗️The Russian Sever battlegroup surrounded Ukrainian troops in the area of Olgovskaya grove in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian formations attempted to break out of the resulting cauldron in groups of 15-20 militants. More than 80 nationalists were killed by Russian fire and about 40 wounded, some of whom were abandoned by their own troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 24 Ukrainian soldiers were taken prisoner, adding that the area is currently being cleaned up and the remaining enemy troops are being eliminated.

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💰 Week-and-a-half after blowout defeat, Kamala Harris campaign still soliciting donors for more money

Despite raking in over $2.3 bln in cash for her campaign and billions more in indirect support through the PAC-based campaign financing loophole, Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign surrogates are reportedly still prodding disheartened donors for more money after her blowout election loss.

👉 The reason?

The campaign reportedly spent more than it raised on an array of election-related content, from TV, internet and mail ads to lavish payments to social media influencers, concerts and rallies, and want supporters to help it climb out of the financial hole it has dug for itself.

Small-time supporters subscribed to Harris’s email donor list are reportedly facing a deluge of almost-daily donation appeals, while personal calls are being made to bigger donors (whose generosity measures beyond hundreds of dollars).

👉 The sweetener?

Democrats say that despite losing the war, there’s still a battle to be fought over Donald Trump’s cabinet – many of whom will have to undergo grueling confirmation hearings in the Senate, and point to outstanding seats in the House of Representatives, the election results for which have yet to be called.

NYT reported last week that the Harris campaign had landed itself $20 mln in debt after the election. The outlet hinted at the source of the debts, pointing to last-minute concerts in seven swing states featuring big name (and big bucks) artists like Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

Harris’s dramatic loss left supporters stunned and dismayed, with Republicans taking not only the presidency, but the House and Senate too.

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Slovakia: Europe still thirsty for Russian gas
 
Slovak state-owned firm SPP said it is still receiving gas from Russia after Gazprom turned off the tap on gas heading to Austria early Saturday. The country’s largest energy supplier added that others were buying even more.

"The situation when a large consumer stopped taking gas from the east, but the same volume flows through the territory of Ukraine, shows that there is still great interest in this gas in Europe," SPP said in a statement.

Russian gas giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies starting November 16 to Austrian energy company OMV.

Earlier, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico repeatedly spoke about the importance of maintaining economic relations with Russia.

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🤡 Woke and Woker: Geology is racist, British university professor claims

Geological science is based on "systematic racism" and linked to white supremacy, according to professor Kathryn Yusoff at Queen Mary University of London in her book Geologic Life.

Yusoff insists that geology began as a “colonial practice” of extracting resources from land that led to "geotrauma" and contributed to establishment of economic hierarchies, which are – of course – dominated by white men.

"Geology continues to function within a white supremacist praxis", she writes, adding that "black, brown, and indigenous subjects... have an intimacy with the earth that is unknown to the structural position of whiteness."

"Geology is no more racist than ‘fish ’n’ chips’!" retorted Campaign for Real Education Chairman Chris McGovan. "It is an entirely neutral term. Those seeking to decolonize the curriculum are, in fact, building their own sinister empire of thought-control and intolerance."

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Zelensky promises to legalize same-sex marriage* in Ukraine

"Yes," Volodymyr Zelensky responded when asked by a student about ratifying a law that would allow same-sex couples to form "family unions."

The bill has not yet been debated in the Verkhovna Rada parliament, despite being introduced more than a year ago.

*banned in Russia

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⚡️Biden for the first time reportedly authorized Ukraine's use of long-range ATACMS missiles on Russian territory - NYT quoting sources

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🇬🇪 Opposition supporters who refuse to recognize the results of the recent elections in Georgia are holding another rally in front of the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi.

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❗️Biden reportedly authorized first-ever Ukrainian use of long-range ATACMS missiles on Russian territory

Unnamed sources told the New York Times that the decision has divided US President Joe Biden's advisers and comes just two months before president-elect Donald Trump takes office – having pledged to reduce further support for Ukraine.

Some Pentagon officers opposed sending the missiles to Ukraine as the US Army has limited supplies. Some White House staff have also expressed concerns that Russia might escalate the war in response.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously warned that the use of such weapons on Russian soil would mean the US and other NATO states were directly at war with Russia. He not that Ukrainian forces cannot independently operate long-range weapons without intelligence and targetting data from the West, along with direct support from NATO military personnel.

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Ukraine is preparing to carry out its first long-range attacks on Russia in the coming days, the Reuters news agency reported – quoting sources who withheld specific details for operational security reasons.

The White House did not comment on the report.

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