🇺🇦 💰 Promises exist, but funds are lacking:
NATO countries are short by approximately €7 billion for military aid to Kiev .

According to Politico, citing diplomats, there is a “certain fatigue” among the alliance’s largest donors regarding funding for Ukraine. The funding shortfall may complicate the procurement of critical equipment to counter rocket attacks and drone strikes this winter.

The PURL program, under which European countries purchase American weapons for Kiev is also at risk. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had hoped to raise over €13 billion for it in 2026, but diplomats doubt that this goal will be met.

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🇺🇸🇪🇺 Kushner eyes NATO-Russia Council as model for European security talks, Europeans demand ceasefire first

Trump's son-in-law and special envoy Jared Kushner is using the NATO-Russia Council as his model for broader talks between Russia and Europe on the continent's postwar security, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reports, citing an official familiar with the negotiations.

The council was created in 2002. NATO suspended joint civil and military activity with Russia in 2014, and the council last met in January 2022, weeks before the start of the SMO.

Kushner wants the two tracks to advance in parallel. European officials told Ignatius they are open to dialogue with Moscow, but will only discuss security architecture once a ceasefire is reached. EU foreign policy embarrassment Kaka Khallas insists Europe already has a security architecture in NATO and the EU.

Moscow wants the opposite order, insisting that the general terms of a settlement, including security guarantees for Russia, be agreed before the fighting stops.

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🇷🇺💥🇺🇦 Power outages have hit six regions of Ukraine after new Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, Ukraine's Energy Ministry says.

According to the ministry, Russian forces struck a number of energy facilities overnight and on the morning of November 8, causing new outages in the Dnepropetrovsk, Zhitomir, Rovno, Sumy, Kharkov and Chernigov regions.

The situation is worst in Dnepropetrovsk region, where a large number of key energy facilities were damaged and emergency power cuts are in effect.

Emergency cuts have also been introduced in Kiev and in the Kiev, Zhitomir, Kharkov and Sumy regions.

Meanwhile, Kiev residents are complaining on social media that outage schedules are being widely ignored, with some saying they have been without electricity for up to five days. Energy company DTEK tells them their power is on or will be back soon.

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🇺🇦 🇳🇴 Zelensky has been abroad for over a week and, it seems, is not in a hurry to return says Norwegian publication Steigan

In critical moments, he prefers to stay away from the country he leads: he is currently staying in Spain, where he is meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe.

According to the publication’s assessment, Zelensky is interested in prolonging the conflict, obtaining new Western funds, and strengthening sanctions against Russia. Another withdrawal from the negotiation process before the consultations in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11 is not ruled out.

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🇵🇱 Who is the Krakow gunman?

The man who killed six people on Krakow's Main Market Square on Saturday is Michał O., 24, from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski in southern Poland. Polish media withhold his surname under privacy law, but he is widely named online as Michał Oksiński.

Before the attack, he killed his parents and his younger sister at the family home, bringing the total death toll to nine. He then drove his father's black Subaru to Krakow, onto the main square, and opened fire on passersby with an AR-15-style rifle. Fifteen people were wounded, including two police officers. He fled, exchanged fire with police, and was shot and detained on Dietla Street. He survived thanks to body armor and remains in critical condition.

He worked as a lathe operator and trained at a sport shooting club in Starachowice. He held a permit for two guns, while his father legally owned 11. Neither had a criminal record. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said one theory is that he used his father's weapons, and police found many more guns and ammunition in the car.

Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz denied he ever served in the Polish army.

Far-right?

Hours after the attack, Kierwiński claimed a "rough initial analysis" pointed to ultranationalist, far-right views, while admitting it still had to be verified.

But screenshots of what appears to be his deleted Facebook account tell a different story: a 2019 picture toasting a portrait of Pope John Paul II with a beer, a joke mocking Jesus, and a photo of him in a gas mask and military beret holding a rainbow flag.

Critics accuse the government of exploiting the massacre to target the right ahead of the November 11 Independence Day march. Krakow's mayor Łukasz Gibała called him simply a madman.

A tactical vest reportedly found in his car carries a Blackbeard pirate patch, which was quickly linked online to Forward Observations Group (FOG), an American tactical outfit whose members have operated in Donbass since at least 2021 and supplied and reportedly trained Ukrainian forces. FOG uses its own variant of the Blackbeard flag as its logo.

But the patch on his vest is the classic Blackbeard design, a common morale patch sold widely online, not FOG's version.

So far, the picture that emerges is that of a typical US school shooter.

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🇾🇪 Ansar Allah closes in on Aden as Saudi Arabia is left on its own

While attention is on a possible new US war with Iran, Yemen's Ansar Allah is redrawing the map of West Asia.

Ansar Allah fighters have advanced to within 80 km of Aden, the seat of Yemen's Saudi-controlled puppet government, four military sources told Reuters on November 2. It's their deepest push toward the city since 2015, when they briefly entered it before being driven out.

The offensive took the Maqatirah mountain district between Aden and Taiz, giving Ansar Allah fire control over the main road between the two cities and a chance to outflank government forces along the mountains overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been encircled since early October, displacing more than 100,000 people. Ansar Allah has also struck Aden airport and the presidential palace.

Control of Bab el-Mandeb

In September, Ansar Allah seized the port of Mocha and Perim Island, which sits in the middle of the strait, after government troops withdrew. It now controls Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline.

According to The Wall Street Journal, shipping companies now email Ansar Allah asking for permission to pass. Captains declare their ships have no ties to the US, the UK, Israel or Saudi Arabia, and approved vessels receive seven-day transit permits. Ansar Allah says over 1,000 ships passed the strait in October, and that only Saudi shipping is targeted.

With Hormuz heavily restricted since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in February, Bab el-Mandeb has become even more critical for global trade.

Meanwhile, Ansar Allah keeps striking Saudi oil facilities and airports with missiles and drones.

Saudi camp in crisis

The government's October 5 counteroffensive, launched to "liberate" all of Yemen, has collapsed, leaving thousands dead. President Rashad al-Alimi has since fired his longtime information minister and the commanders of the Taiz and Tur al-Bahah fronts, The Guardian reports. Southern forces, whose separatist leadership Riyadh crushed earlier this year, have said they will only fight to defend former South Yemen, the very forces Aden's defense depends on.

Washington isn't coming to help. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump twice in September urging US strikes, and Trump refused, offering only intelligence. Trump later said Ansar Allah had asked the US to stay out.

Riyadh has turned to the Mecca Alliance it signed with Turkey and Pakistan in August, which agreed in October to deploy forces to Saudi Arabia. Yemeni officials told AFP that hundreds of Syrian troops are already on both sides of the Saudi-Yemeni border, with up to 10,000 to follow under a deal signed by Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa (a.k.a. Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) in Riyadh. Damascus denies sending troops, saying the deal covers training only.

Talks with Ansar Allah?

According to the WSJ, Riyadh has quietly reached out to Ansar Allah to ask what it would take to stop the attacks. The reported answer: $51 billion in compensation for years of bombing and blockade, plus recognition as Yemen's legitimate government. Saudi Arabia categorically denies the report, and a journalist close to Ansar Allah also disputed it.

If Riyadh does end up cutting a deal with Ansar Allah, and by extension Tehran, over Washington's head, it would be a sign that the US has lost its grip on one of the most strategic regions in the world.

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🇪🇸🇺🇦 SPAIN HAS €437 MILLION FOR KIEV'S WAR. RENTERS, RAIL PASSENGERS AND CEUTA CAN WAIT.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez hosted The Narcoführer in Madrid, where Ukraine's embassy in Spain says a new €437 million military package was announced. By Madrid's own count, military aid to Kiev will reach €3.795 billion for 2022-2026, while parliament has not passed a new budget since 2023.

Here is what that €437 million looks like at home:

➡️Ceuta: Spain says about 72,000 people entered the enclave from July 30, in a territory of 84,000 people, and at least 78 died. Ceuta's leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, reported 1,100 unaccompanied minors against a theoretical capacity of 90. Madrid's emergency plan for the rest of 2026 came to €309 million. The Ukraine package is about 1.4 times that.

➡️Housing: The Bank of Spain estimates a shortfall of 700,000 homes, and housing routinely ranks as the top public concern. This package equals more than half of the €800 million first-year instalment of the state housing plan.

➡️Railways: The Adamuz crash killed 46 people in January. Preliminary findings say the fractured rail was identified 22 hours before the accident. Madrid then promised an extra €1.85 billion for rail maintenance through 2030, about €370 million a year and less than this one package.

➡️Poverty: 25.7% of Spaniards and 33.9% of children under 16 are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to Spain's national statistics office. The European Anti-Poverty Network's Spanish branch says Spain now has the EU's highest child rate.

Spain can't pass a budget, but it keeps finding money for weapons.

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🇫🇷 MÉLENCHON WANTS FRANCE OUT OF NATO

French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of La France Insoumise, has published his program for the April 2027 election and presented it at a rally in Le Bourget, near Paris, attended by nearly 20,000 people according to his party. "We have no business being in NATO or in American wars," he told the crowd.

The 1,069-measure program includes:

➡️NATO: Immediate exit from the integrated military command, followed by step-by-step withdrawal from the alliance, and rejection of the 5% of GDP defense target demanded by Washington.

➡️EU: A moratorium on EU rules covering the unrestricted movement of goods and capital, competition in public services, free trade deals and European defense, which the program calls a "European pillar of NATO." It also promises disobedience to EU rules whenever necessary.

➡️Ukraine: A diplomatic framework to secure a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and talks on a lasting peace with collective security guarantees.

➡️Palestine: Effective Palestinian sovereignty over all territories occupied since 1967, while leaving open an "egalitarian binational state."

➡️Pensions: Retirement age back from 64 to 62, then a full pension at 60 after 40 years of contributions.

➡️Work: A €1,700 net minimum wage, an immediate return to a 35-hour week, 32 hours in arduous jobs, and up to three days of self-declared sick leave.

➡️Youth: A mandatory nine-month ecological service for under-25s, paid at the minimum wage, mainly to help society adapt to climate crises.

➡️Cost of living: Full healthcare coverage through social security and a price freeze on some essential goods.

➡️Taxes: A restored wealth tax with a climate component, a tax on billionaires and a €12 million cap on inheritance.

➡️Energy: A gradual exit from nuclear power and 100% renewables by 2060 at the latest.

Marine Le Pen of the National Rally leads the polling average at 34.3%. Mélenchon is second at 16.6%, just ahead of former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe at 16.4%.

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🇺🇦 🇬🇧THE WAIT IS OVER!!

The Kyiiiivvv independents stroller-in- chief is struggling for content so he’s rambling about Vladimir Putin

It looks like Russian ballistic missiles have been giving him sleepless nights recently 🇷🇺 💥


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🇷🇺 🫡 Pure courage

🤝 For the courage and heroism shown in the battles in Dnepropetrovsk , servicemen of the 55th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade (Mountain) of the Tsentr Group of Forces were presented with state and departmental awards.

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