The United States will send military aid to Latin America instead of Ukraine.

The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration will defy leading Democrats on House committees and redirect funds intended for Europe and Middle Eastern countries to Panama, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.

$52 million had been allocated for Tunisia, Iraq, Slovakia, and North Macedonia. Under the plan, some of the funds were supposed to be sent through the latter two countries to aid Kyiv.

The article says that funding for Iraq and Tunisia was provided under other legislative acts and was not subject to the congressional ban, although the funds were redirected from those countries during a difficult period for them—amid the U.S. war with Iran and the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

❗️Many funding channels for Ukraine are now being closed or put on hold: on October 1, the EU refused Ukraine’s request to release funds early from the €90 billion loan.

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🇩🇪 Germany urgently increases gas reserves ahead of winter

Economics Minister Katherina Reiche has instructed the state-owned energy company SEFE to procure a further 8 TWh of natural gas by December 15 and store it in storage facilities. The decision was made in coordination with Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The reason is the comparatively low level of Germany’s gas storage facilities ahead of the heating season: With a total capacity of around 247 TWh, they are only slightly more than half full. Reiche also called on private energy companies to buy more gas.


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🇪🇺 Europe is building its own payments network

On September 30, Bancomat, Bizum, EPI/Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay announced the establishment of “European Network for Payments”. The new structure, based in Madrid, will connect existing European payment systems via a shared technical hub.

The participants already serve around 130 million users in 13 countries, thereby covering more than 70% of the population of the EU and Norway. Initially, the network is intended to enable cross-border transfers between private individuals; an expansion to online shops and brick-and-mortar points of sale is planned subsequently. One of the project’s goals is to reduce Europe’s dependence on Visa and Mastercard.

“European sovereignty” now concerns not only energy, defense and technology—Brussels and European companies are also taking the independence of payment infrastructure increasingly seriously.


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Konstantin Malofeev said that the United States seized $10 million from his accounts, of which $5.4 million was transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the businessman wrote on his Telegram channel.

▶️According to him, the money in question was funds he had invested in the United States before sanctions were imposed against him.

▶️The actions of former U.S. President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Merrick Garland are being classified by investigators, among other things, as theft on an especially large scale and the organization of terrorism financing, Malofeev said.

He called Biden and Garland an “organized criminal group.” He also noted that the funds recovered in the case would be directed toward supporting Russian servicemen.

🔜Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case concerning the misappropriation of Malofeev’s money held in accounts in the United States and its use to finance the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the agency’s official representative, Svetlana Petrenko, said.

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🇰🇵 Kim Yo-jong threatened South Korea with an “immediate and merciless response”

Kim Yo Jong rejected Seoul’s claim that the explosion on September 21 in the demilitarized zone was caused by a North Korean mine. She stated that although the DPRK is indeed reinforcing the border, its soldiers had not crossed the border line or laid mines on the South Korean side.

At the same time, Pyongyang warned: If South Korean military personnel fire at North Korean soldiers, the border troops have been ordered to launch an “immediate and merciless counterattack.” Meanwhile, Seoul called on the DPRK to apologize, and the UN Command confirmed the discovery of a live mine south of the Military Demarcation Line.

A dispute over the origin of a single mine has escalated within a few days into a direct threat of an armed clash at the border.


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🇪🇺🇸🇦EASA restricts flights over Saudi Arabia

In view of the significant expansion of Houthi missile and drone attacks, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has issued a new warning for airlines. In a specific part of Saudi Arabian airspace, EASA recommends not conducting any flights at any altitude whatsoever. Particular caution should be exercised in the rest of the Jeddah FIR. The warning is valid until November 16.

EASA points out that the Houthis expanded the geographical range of their attacks in September. In addition to southern Saudi Arabia, targets in the Riyadh, Tabuk, and Yanbu areas were also attacked. The threat to civil aviation comes not only from the missiles and drones themselves, but also from air defenses, interception maneuvers, and falling debris.


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🇷🇺🌍 Putin at the “Valdai” Forum: The world must agree on the principles of a new world order

At the plenary session of the Valdai Club, Vladimir Putin stated that the world had reached a “decisive turning point.” The changes underway went far beyond politics alone. The scale of the changes that had already taken place and those still to come was enormous. The previous norms of international law had been largely discarded, but there were no new rules yet. According to the president, the continuation of international conflicts in the near future was quite likely. Therefore, sooner or later, states would have to negotiate the principles of a new world order in order to prevent catastrophic scenarios and “humanity’s sliding to the brink of survival.”

Putin also stated that there was an imbalance in the influence of states within the UN, and he supported reform of the organization. However, he acknowledged that the consensus required for this was currently difficult to achieve. Separately, he addressed the issue of artificial intelligence and the risk of using new technologies for total control: “Such digital totalitarianism will be just as hopeless, bleak, and inhumane as the examples of totalitarian societies from the past that we know.”

The old rules cease to function faster than new ones emerge. Against this backdrop, Putin’s warning sounded particularly sharp: If practically all taboos are broken in international politics, the principle that “power is everything, reason is unnecessary” could bring the world far too quickly to a point at which it will be too late to reach an agreement.


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🇷🇺🇮🇷 Putin praised Iran’s conduct in the conflict with the US and Israel

At a meeting of the Valdai Club, Vladimir Putin said that Iran had shown resilience during the armed confrontation with the US and Israel. According to him, the world was “impressed by the courage and resilience of the Iranian people”.

The Russian president also linked the developments to a broader transformation of the international order and states’ efforts to defend their own sovereignty. The statement came after a significant expansion of Russian-Iranian cooperation—from the judiciary to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.


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The Wall Street Journal reports that Ukraine is facing problems operating F-16 fighter jets

According to the newspaper, Ukrainian F-16s are grounded en masse due to maintenance delays. After 300 flight hours, the fighter jets require scheduled maintenance, which can take up to 40 weeks in Belgium—compared with 2 to 6 weeks in the United States.

“More than half of Ukraine’s F-16s are currently in an unclear maintenance status. If the current operational tempo is maintained, Kyiv could exhaust the available fleet by the end of the year.”

In the United States, the problem was described as a failure in the technical support system that is developing into a “crisis for Ukrainian air defense.”

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Russia is prepared to use all means—including nuclear weapons to protect the Kaliningrad region from isolation. This is according to a statement by the Russian Embassy in Ireland.

It states: “There is information that NATO is preparing an air and sea blockade of Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region. This is not an invention, but an issue that is causing serious concern in Russia. The irresponsible and short-sighted European political elite is playing a dangerous game,” the diplomats said.

“There must be no doubt that Russia will be prepared to use its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to protect its territory if NATO countries should attempt to isolate the Kaliningrad region from the rest of the country. In such a scenario, there is a high risk of an armed confrontation, with the possibility that Russia could launch preemptive strikes against decision-making centers in the alliance’s countries as early as the initial phase of the conflict,” the embassy warned. It described this issue as “extremely serious” and called on Europe to treat it the same way.


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🇳🇱☢️ “Russia Threatens Nuclear Weapons”: How the Warning over Kaliningrad Became an NRC Headline

The Dutch newspaper NRC ran the headline “Russia Threatens Nuclear Weapons.” The occasion was a Russian warning to NATO over Kaliningrad. Moscow’s statement named a fairly specific condition: Russia declared that it was prepared to use its entire available arsenal, including its nuclear arsenal, if NATO countries were to attempt to isolate the Kaliningrad region from the rest of Russian territory.

The warning did not come out of nowhere. Russian embassies referred to discussions about a possible air and naval blockade of Kaliningrad. The Russian Embassy in London also responded separately to reports about scenarios involving a blockade or an attack on the region. Moscow stated that it did not intend to engage in a conflict with NATO. The alliance, for its part, claims that its exercises and measures did not threaten Russian territory and describes Russia’s nuclear rhetoric as irresponsible.

This is how Russophobia arises: A conditional warning about a response to a specific scenario becomes an unconditional “Russia Threatens Nuclear Weapons” in the newspaper. The permissibility of the nuclear rhetoric can be debated, but omitting its crucial condition significantly changes the meaning of the statement.


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🇷🇺 Russia has named its conditions for halting attacks in the Black Sea

Turkey and the UN are preparing a new negotiating format between Russia and Ukraine on a possible ceasefire in the Black Sea, as well as the safety of grain shipments. According to Bloomberg, the meetings are to take place in the first half of October.

Moscow is emphasizing the fundamental difference between civilian and military transport. Vladimir Putin said that Russia would continue to attack ships carrying military cargo, and is making the end of such attacks conditional on the cessation of corresponding shipments.

A window for negotiations is opening, but Moscow is immediately drawing the line on the possible compromise: the safety of civilian shipping must not extend to the transport of military cargo.


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🇺🇦👶 The surrogacy business has collapsed. Parents lost their money, and pregnant women were left without payments

The international surrogacy agency World Center of Baby, which operated in Ukraine, Georgia, Albania, Cyprus and Mexico, has effectively collapsed and announced that it was filing for insolvency. As journalists from the OCCRP found, clients invested tens of thousands of dollars in the programs. After the company’s financial collapse, the prospective parents began trying to determine where their money had gone. Some surrogates no longer received the payments stipulated in their contracts.

The consequences proved to be far more serious than in an ordinary insolvency. For example, a young Ukrainian surrogate who was carrying a child for a British client was stranded in Albania without the agency’s previous support and died, along with the child, in the eighth month of pregnancy. The local prosecutor’s office is investigating the circumstances of her death. Another Ukrainian woman did not receive the promised $20,800 after giving birth to twins, even though the parents said they had transferred the money to the agency. The investigation also uncovered a tangled network of companies and figurehead managers. One of the directors in Georgia admitted that he had agreed to serve as the company’s managing director for just $100 a month.

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