House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backtracked on his pledge to remove U.S. aid to Ukraine from House Republicans’ defense spending measure on Saturday, telling reporters that such funds will be included in the legislation after all.

On Friday, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol that U.S. aid to Ukraine would not be included in House Republicans’ defense appropriations bill and would instead be voted on separately by the lower chamber.

“It would be out and voted on by itself,” McCarthy said. According to Just the News, the proposal to fund the Pentagon included a provision providing Ukraine with $300 million amid its ongoing war against Russia.

A long-standing agreement that gives the US military access to the Marshall Islands in exchange for financial aid and other benefits lapsed on September 30, The South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

The Post quoted Cleo Paskal, a fellow at the hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank, who claimed that what just expired with the Marshall Islands was the “financial and federal services component” while the “defense right continues,” signaling the lapsed agreement does not mean the US has to give up its military presence.

The Compact of Free Association (Cofa) agreement between the US and the Marshall Islands was signed in 1986. The US also has Cofa’s with Micronesia and Palau, but the Biden administration was able to negotiate a renewal of those deals.

“You’ve got to leave the country, Jamal. You’ve got to get out before they arrest you too,” I told my friend, Jamal Khashoggi, just a few months before his fateful decision to leave his homeland in 2017.

Little did we know that rather than find safety in Washington D.C., Mohamed bin Salman and his henchmen would trick him into visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where they brutally tortured and murdered him. Little did we expect that five years after his shocking murder, the Biden administration would be potentially rewarding MBS with an unprecedented security guarantee for his monarchical dictatorship.

As a human rights advocate, this was not the first time I had urged someone to flee from an Arab regime, but the others were prominent activists long in conflict with their governments. Khashoggi was a long-time government insider, acting as spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., where we first met, before returning to serve as a journalist and editor in the Saudi media. We remained in touch over the years, and I saw his evolution during the Arab Uprisings of 2011, when he came to the firm conclusion that only democracy and the rule of law would secure stability and peace for the Middle East.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted in favor of a US-sponsored resolution that authorizes a deployment of Kenyan-led troops to Haiti. The Washington-backed government in Port-au-Prince requested the mission after gangs captured large swaths of the capital city. The US has pledged financial support and training for the international force deployed to Haiti under the UN flag. 

During a meeting of the UNSC on Monday, the body approved a measure that gives Kenya the authority to send troops into Haiti aimed at restoring order. The measure calls for the troops to work with local police to plan “and conduct joint security support operations as it works to counter gangs and improve security conditions in Haiti.” The force will help secure “critical infrastructure sites and transit locations such as the airport, ports, and key intersections.”

It was unclear if Russia or China would veto the measure. Beijing’s representative to the council voiced some support for the mission, but China abstained. The Russian ambassador said Moscow would withhold support for the operation but would not veto the measure because it was requested by the Haitian government. The measure passed with 13 yes votes and two abstentions. 

Armenia urged the European Union on Monday to sanction Azerbaijan for its military operation in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and warned that Baku could soon attack Armenia itself unless the West takes firm action.

Tigran Balayan, Armenia's envoy to the EU, listed possible measures such as a price cap on Azerbaijani oil and gas and the suspension of EU talks on closer relations with Baku. He also urged the West to deliver "bold" security assistance to Armenia.

"It's not only the opinion of the Armenian government, but also of many experts - also some of the EU member states - that an attack on Armenia proper is imminent," Balayan told Reuters in an interview in Brussels.

Azerbaijani forces took control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave on its territory populated by ethnic Armenians, in a lightning operation last month, triggering an exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians in less than a week.

Germany showed it still values its economic ties with China despite geopolitical tensions, with the two countries pledging on the weekend to pursue closer financial cooperation, analysts said.

The commitment, made in Frankfurt at the first high-level financial dialogue in four years, also underlined Berlin’s rejection of decoupling, observers said.

In a 25-point joint statement released after the meeting on Sunday, the two countries said they would expand market access, deepen investment, and strengthen cooperation through multilateral economic frameworks, including the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The meeting was the latest top-level contact between the two countries. Last week, Chen Wenqing, China’s most senior security official, visited Germany for talks, taking with him officials from a broad range of government bodies, including the central bank and the ministries of foreign affairs, industry, public security, state security and justice.

Green energy stocks have dropped significantly in the last few months, underperforming compared to oil and gas companies, as high interest takes its toll.

The S&P Global Clean Energy Index, which comprises 100 of the biggest companies in green energy, has dropped over 20 percent in the last two months, Financial Times reported Monday. In contrast, the oil and gas-rich S&P 500 Energy Index has grown by six percent.

“There’s a dark cloud hanging over green stocks,” Martin Frandsen, a portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management, told the publication.

The drop in the green energy sector continues despite tens of billions of dollars of tax credits, loans, and subsidies. According to Financial Times:

The renewable sector has been particularly vulnerable to rising interest rates because many companies agree long-term contracts, fixing the price at which they will sell energy, before developing their projects.

As global inflation has surged, green energy companies have been hit by a huge rise in costs, exacerbated by growing demand for renewable projects, while elevated rates have made their high levels of borrowing more expensive to service.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) issued a defiant statement Monday blaming a staff member for referencing “Nazi” Republicans in a talking points memo sent by his office to every Democrat House member.

Bowman’s memo urged his colleagues to come to his defense after he reportedly pulled a fire alarm in the Capitol complex Saturday to delay a vote to prevent a government shutdown.

The Brooklyn Congressman’s bizarre non-apology acknowledged the “inappropriate” usage of the term, which he claimed was used “without [his] consent,” while specifying the instances in which the term should be used.

“I just became aware that in our messaging guidance, there was inappropriate use of the term Nazi without my consent,” Bowman, or his staffer, tweeted from his official account. “I condemn the use of the term Nazi out of its precise definition. It is important to specify the term Nazi to refer to members of the Nazi party & neo-Nazis.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the ongoing military operations in Ukraine. According to the Russian military, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost about 400 servicemen over the past day.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense:

• three Ukrainian attacks were repelled in the area of Krasnogorovka, Nevelsky, Andreevka in the Donetsk direction. As a result, up to 180 Ukrainian servicemen were killed or wounded
• two Ukrainian attacks were repelled near Chervona Dibrova and Belogorovka in the Krasny Liman direction. As a result, more than 60 Ukrainian servicemen were killed or wounded
• in the area of Kupyansk, Russian forces struck the AFU units nera Borovaya, Novoe, Novoselovskoe, Makeevka. As a result, up to 65 Ukrainian servicemen were destroyed.
• Russian forces struck the AFU near Rabotino, Malaya Tokmacka, Novodanilovka, Verbovoe in the Zaporozhie region. As a result, the AFU lost up to 35 Ukrainian servicemen.
• in the Southern Donetsk direction, Russian forces repelled Ukrainian attack near Priyutnoe. In their turn Russian forces struck Ukrainian forces near Konstantinovka. As a result, up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen were killed and wounded.
• Up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen were destroyed by Russian fire in the Kherson region.

Reports by the Russian military officials confirm the Ukrainian counter offensive struck and the AFU were forced to reduce all their military operations on the southern frontlines and they went into defence in several strategically important directions.

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The root narrative around the next government funding bill is slowly taking shape and it is uglier than many people suspected - Neo-cons within the GOP are determined to oppose the majority of Americans and will continue funding the war in Ukraine, and they are planning on using the border security issue as leverage. 

In a recent interview with CBS Face The Nation, Lindsay Graham suggested that any new government funding bill would require many billions more in Ukraine military aid well beyond the $24 billion already slated, and that if conservatives want funding for border security, they will have to submit to an ongoing proxy war in Ukraine.  In other words, the plan is to hold conservatives and America hostage using the immigration crisis.

The cases of suspicious infections in the Ukrainian army that are difficult to treat are most probably connected with the operation of US biolaboratories in Ukraine, the deputy speaker of the State Duma, Irina Yarovaya, has said.

"The Pentagon’s bio-laboratories in Ukraine are with a high degree of probability the source of infection of Ukrainian soldiers," said Yarovaya, a co-chair of the parliamentary commission for investigating the activities of US laboratories in Ukraine.

Earlier, the British daily The Financial Times published a story saying that in early 2023 doctors in one of NATO’s military hospitals in Germany studied test samples of wounded Ukrainian soldiers to conclude that they had been infected with pathogens resistant to antibiotics.

Yarovaya also noted that confirmations were already available the United States had tested unlicensed drugs on Ukrainian soldiers.

There are nearly 8,700 artificial satellites in Earth orbit, the vast majority of which have been launched in the last few years, including 5,000 Starlink internet satellites launched by SpaceX. By 2030, scientists expect there to be 100,000 satellites in orbit, dramatically altering Earthlings’ view of the night sky.

A recently-launched communications satellite has become one of the brightest objects in the night sky for an Earth observer, which astronomers say emphasizes the need for better regulation of orbital platforms. However, it’s just one of a whole new planned constellation of satellites - a situation astronomers say is “unacceptable.”

In September 2022, AST SpaceMobile launched the BlueWalker 3 satellite, a prototype for what the Texas-based firm hopes will be a new constellation of 5G internet satellites.

The satellite orbits at an altitude of between 316 miles and 327 miles (508 and 527 kilometers, respectively), which is higher than the International Space Station, as well as some other micro-satellite constellations that have attracted the ire of astronomers and stargazers alike. But BlueWalker 3’s problem isn’t its altitude, it’s the size and design of the spacecraft that’s causing the trouble.

Moscow's Ministry of Defense reported on the progress of the special military operation aimed at protecting the people of Donbass.

The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed fuel depots for Ukrainian aircraft and aviation munition on an airfield in Krivoi Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk region.

“At the Dolgintsevo airfield in the Dnepropetrovsk region, fuel depots and aviation munitions of the Ukrainian Air Force were destroyed,” the ministry said in a statement.

The UK and other NATO members have already put tens of thousands of conscripted Ukrainian troops through crash-courses of a few weeks — as well as supplying huge quantities of arms. But they insist they are not in direct conflict with Russia.

The UK's newly-appointed defense secretary was "mad" to suggest sending troops and ships to Ukraine, a military expert has said.

British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps told a newspaper over the weekend that UK soldiers could be sent to Ukraine to train conscripts to Volodymyr Zelenksy's depleted army.

The defense secretary even hinted that Royal Navy ships could be sent to the Black Sea to escort Ukrainian merchant vessels following the breakdown of the grain export deal with Russia — in spite of Turkiye's ban on military vessels of any other nation transiting the Bosphorpus straits to enter the land-bound sea.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak quickly slapped down Shapps in a TV interview on Sunday on the eve of his Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester, saying: "There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict."

Since 2022, the British Army has put tens of thousands of Ukrainian recruits through three-week crash courses on training grounds in the UK before they are sent to the frontlines.

Similarly, documents leaked from the US Department of Defense in April this year estimated that there were up to 50 SAS special forces operating covertly in Ukraine, but did not indicate what their mission might be.

German Unity Day is a national holiday in Germany, celebrated every 3 October. It commemorates the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Sputnik comes live as thousands of people take to Berlin's streets on German Unity Day to protest against the coalition government's policies.

Berlin-based groups are holding rallies on the streets of the German capital, calling for transparent political dialogue and peace talks in Ukraine.

On German Unity Day, ministers and members of the federal government customarily hold ministerial talks at the Dialogue Forum; this year, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will announce a turning point in the country's security policy.

UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay will propose barring transgender women from female hospital wards, The Telegraph reported on Monday.

The newspaper said the proposals would be formally announced at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday. 

The measures would reportedly guarantee that patients have the right to be cared for in wards only shared by people of their own biological sex and to receive “intimate care” by doctors and nurses of the same sex. 

The current NHS guidance allows for patients to be placed in wards on the basis of the gender they identify with. Barclay’s plan would reportedly have trans patients housed in “separate accommodation.”

The US and its allies will continue to support Kiev in its conflict with Moscow, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing on Monday. She promised more aid to Ukraine, after lawmakers decided not to include military assistance to Kiev in a short-term spending bill passed last week.

Jean-Pierre denied that support for Ukraine among Western nations is waning. “There is [a] strong, very strong international coalition behind Ukraine,” she told journalists. “And if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin thinks he can outlast us, he’s wrong. He’s wrong.”

The White House press secretary also announced “another package of aid for Ukraine soon,” but provided no details about either the timeline or the contents of the upcoming military assistance.

The Russian Osman special forces unit has wiped out an American M113 armored personnel carrier (APC) using an anti-tank guided missile system in the Zaporozhye region.

The Russian Defense Ministry has published a clip of Russian troops eliminating an M113 armored vehicle near the village of Verbovoye.

The footage captured by a thermal imaging camera from a drone shows several Ukrainian armored vehicles moving along a field road when one of them is hit by an anti-tank guided missile. The American M113 APC was destroyed.

Ukraine’s future “lies in” the European Union, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday, adding that the bloc would soon incorporate regions that had joined Russia in 2022 but are still claimed by Kiev.

“[The EU] will soon stretch from Lisbon to Lugansk,” Baerbock told journalists on the sidelines of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in the Ukrainian capital.

Lugansk is the capital of the Lugansk People’s Republic – one of the two former eastern Ukrainian regions that declared independence from Kiev in 2014 in the wake of the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev. Russia recognized its independence in February 2022, just days before the start of its military campaign in Ukraine. In autumn 2022, the Lugansk People’s Republic joined Russia, together with three other former Ukrainian territories following a series of referendums.

On October 2, a joint Russian-Azerbaijani patrol came under fire in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the incident, reporting that an unknown person opened fire on the patrol with a sniper weapon.

The incident took place in the city of Stepanakert and resulted in no victims. The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, Azerbaijani authorities and representatives of Karabakh are conducting a joint investigation of the incident.

“There are no casualties. The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, together with representatives of the Azerbaijani side and Karabakh, is conducting proceedings on this fact,” the report by Russian Defense Ministry says.

The incident was reportedly the only violation of the ceasefire regime in the region. The Azerbaijani security forces entered the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh after the ceasefire agreement was signed. They were patrolled by Russian peacekeepers.

The last column with refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, left the Republic:

Former billionaire, Sam Bankman-Fried, saw a meteoric rise as crypto's golden boy and an even more spectacular fall from grace as his $32 billion cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, collapsed in a matter of days. FTX customers and investors around the world watched in shock as a single tweet ignited a series of events that ended with the former crypto titan facing a dozen federal charges and waiting for trial behind bars. FTX customers, investors and employees were devastated to learn that $8.9 billion dollars in customer’s funds went missing from the exchange.

In this documentary, CNBC’s Kate Rooney speaks to the people most impacted by the fall of Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire. The in-depth documentary includes a candid interview with former President of FTX US who reveals what it was like to work directly for Bankman-Fried and what red flags concerned him most about the company. FTX investor, Anthony Scaramucci, tells all about his front-row seat to the collapse and what it was like to visit SBF while his empire was crumbling around him.

Rooney’s reporting also uncovers first-hand accounts from FTX customers who share the impact of their catastrophic losses, and pull no punches when discussing what lured them into SBF’s house of cards. And far beyond SBF’s rise and fall, the documentary explores the battle that lies ahead over the missing billions, and whether customers will ever get any of their money back.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ridiculed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky over his demands for more financial support from the US and its allies amid the conflict with Russia.

Posting on his X (formerly Twitter) social media platform on Sunday, Musk shared the popular ‘stressed guy’ meme with Zelensky’s face photoshopped onto it and with a caption reading: “When it’s been five minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.”

The post had already gained more than 25 million views and over 350,000 likes at the time of writing.

The ‘stressed guy’ meme features an image of a male student whose neck and forehead are bulging with veins while he sits beside a girl in a classroom. The picture is commonly shared for humorous descriptions of frustrating or uncomfortable situations.

Musk’s post comes after Zelensky attempted to drum up more support from the US during a visit to Washington in September. According to US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Ukrainian president told him that “if we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war.”

EU military aid to Ukraine will not depend on decisions taken by the US, the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told journalists during his visit to Kiev on Sunday. Brussels plans to continue and further increase its military assistance to the Ukrainian forces, he added. 

“We have not waited for the [US] decision to be taken to increase our propositions to support Ukraine,” the official stated when asked about the EU’s reaction to the US Congress removing military aid for Kiev from its short-term spending bill, passed over the weekend. 

Brussels still regrets the American lawmakers’ decision “deeply and thoroughly,” Borrell acknowledged, expressing his hope that “this will not be a definitive decision, and Ukraine will continue having the support of the US.”

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has unveiled the “next crisis” that will strip billions of citizens around the globe of their freedoms.

The WEF has revealed that a “water crisis” is among the “coming attractions” that will advance the unelected organization’s “global governance.”

WEF “agenda contributor” Mariana Mazzucato, who helps to plot the agenda for the unelected body of globalist elites, admitted during a panel discussion that “climate change” is “too abstract” for people to understand.

A far-left Minneapolis activist was the victim of a brutal armed car-jacking that occurred in the driveway of her home on Tuesday evening.

Shivanthi Sathanandan, a radical leftist and second vice chairwoman of the Democratic Farmer Labor party in Minneapolis, who was left bruised and bloodied during the incident, is calling for "accountability" despite her past history of being a notable "defund the police" agitator.

Sathanandan said in a Facebook post that she suffered a broken leg, deep lacerations to her head, and cuts and bruises all over her body when four armed juveniles allegedly beat her to the ground in front of her children and then stole her vehicle in broad daylight, according to KSTP.

The View hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg seemingly suggested that Republican members of congress were involved in a nefarious plot that forced U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) to pull a fire alarm in Capitol Hill’s Cannon Building, where a number of U.S. representatives have offices.

Following Saturday’s evacuation of the Cannon Building — which took place just hours before Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the government for 40 days — images emerged that showed Bowman pulling a fire alarm near one of the building’s exit. The far-left congressman soon admitted to pulling the alarm, claiming that it was an accident.

A number of House Republicans have accused him of intentionally pulling the alarm in an effort to delay the vote and force a shutdown, with some calling for his arrest and others demanding his expulsion from Congress.

On Monday, the hosts of ABC’s The View took turns defending Bowman. Sunny Hostin pushed back on the notion that Bowman intentionally pulled the alarm in an effort to force a shut down. Instead, she seemingly suggested that Republican members conspired to force Bowman to pull the alarm.

Webmaster addition: Desperation on the cusp of madness!

The leftist government in Germany is furious after Elon Musk outed them for funding at least 8 German NGO ships to pick up illegal aliens off the African coast and dump them in Italy.

The international left has been doing this for years. They are actually paying for the invasion and funding NGO ships to make it possible.

The warped do-gooders from Germany believe they are “rescuing” poor Africans and giving them a better life – in Italy! There should be an immediate transfer of these thousands of illegal aliens directly to Germany after they make land in Italy.

The radical leftists in Germany are also furious with Elon Musk because he apparently supports the populist AfD party that is anti-illegal immigration in his tweet.