"Hundreds of activists have marched through the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, carrying lit torches and a portrait of World War II-era nationalist leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.
The rally took place amid heightened tensions between Ukraine and Poland over Kiev’s glorification of its nationalist icons, whom Warsaw blames for the ethnic cleansing of up to 100,000 Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia between 1943 and 1945.
An estimated 1,500 people participated in the march, which was staged after dark on Sunday.
Videos from the scene show the demonstrators holding Ukrainian national flags as well as the red and black banners of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which were active during World War II." RT
"Exceptionally high tides have flooded coastal communities across California inundating homes, businesses and roads, forcing closures along Pacific Coast Highway and prompting a local emergency declaration in Huntington Beach. Water levels set a new record at San Diego, while the National Weather Service (NWS) extended coastal flood advisories around San Francisco, San Pablo and Monterey bays." W
"The Security Service of Ukraine’s Military Counterintelligence Unit detained another Russian agent in Odesa. He turned out to be a former merchant marine who, after retiring, began collaborating with the FSB and directed shelling of the city. Russian intelligence service recruited the former sailor after he was discharged from the ship. To recruit the man, the FSB used an acquaintance of his—a former police officer from Odesa who had moved to Russia." UN
"A series of small earthquakes has rattled northern California, with over two dozen minor tremors detected within 30 miles of the San Andreas Fault in the past day. The strongest and most recent was a magnitude 2.7 quake that struck at 10:14 a.m. ET Monday morning in The Geysers, a large geothermal field north of San Francisco known for frequent swarms of tiny tremors." msn
"A total of 206 combat engagements took place along the front line over the past day. Russian forces were most active in the Kostiantynivka sector.
In the Northern Slobozhanshchyna and Kursk sectors, Russian forces carried out eight assault actions over the past day, launched two airstrikes using five guided aerial bombs, and shelled Ukrainian positions and settlements 58 times, including four attacks using multiple launch rocket systems.In the Southern Slobozhanshchyna sector, Ukrainian troops repelled ten Russian attacks near the settlements of Izbytske, Hrafske, Vovchanski Khutory, Okhrimivka, Shabelne, Chuhunivka, and Ambarne.
In the Kupiansk sector, Russian forces launched three assaults toward Radkivka.
Attempts to break through Ukrainian defenses were repelled in the Lyman sector, where Russian troops carried out nine attacks toward the settlements of Nove, Kolodiazi, Lyman, Zarichne, and Dibrova.
In the Sloviansk sector, Ukraine’s Defense Forces stopped an attempt by Russian troops to advance near the settlement of Yampil.
No Russian assault operations were recorded in the Kramatorsk sector.
In the Kostiantynivka sector, 21 attacks were recorded. Russian forces launched offensive operations near the town of Kostiantynivka and toward Druzhkivka, Novoselivka, Raiske, Sofiivka, Kucheriv Yar, and Vilne.
In the Huliaipole sector, Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions seven times, attempting to advance toward the settlements of Uspishne, Ternuvate, Hirke, and Charivne.
In the Orikhiv sector, Russian forces launched one assault toward Chervona Krynytsia." Ukrin-
"Russia has agreed to stop recruiting Ghanaian citizens to send them to fight in the war against Ukraine. Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa stated this. According to him Putin allegedly promised Ghanaian President John Mahama that Russia would no longer allow Ghanaian citizens to participate in the war against Ukraine.
“Ghanaians will no longer be allowed to participate in the war, whether through irregular recruitment or as volunteers,” Ablakwa said." UN
"The Ukrainian Navy destroyed six Russian aircraft and ten multiple launch rocket systems." Ukrin
"Russian missiles struck 650 settlements in the Zhytomyr Region, leaving them without power. Vitalii Bunechko, head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration, stated that efforts to restore power are ongoing and that the number of people affected has not yet been determined.
In Vinnytsia, damage was also reported to a cell tower and several residential buildings; no casualties have been reported." UN
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkey if Ankara can organize such a meeting, the Ukrainian leader said in an interview with CNN Turk on Nov. 1. "This war must end. We must unite, we must at least move the hot phase of this war into a diplomatic phase," said Zelensky." UN
"Comparing Tusk to Zelensky since the former's attempted judicial coup, which aims to shape the post-war European order by preventing a future conservative-led coalition from stopping the EU's transforming into a German-dominated federation, is similar to Zelensky's from 2020. As a reminder, Zelensky suspended the Constitutional Court's chair during that year's political crisis sparked by their ruling on anti-corruption reforms, which readers can learn more about here.
The aforesaid crisis stretched into the large-scale phase of the Ukrainian Conflict that broke out in 2022, thus resulting in legally contentious laws that were promulgated on the pretext of wartime needs, which prolonged some justices' terms after they expire. After the expiry of Zelensky's own term in May 2024, Medvedev declared that "He spat on the Constitution of his 'country,' ignored the Constitutional Court, and did not even extend, but usurped the supreme power."
The similarity between Zelensky's earlier successful judicial coup and Tusk's attempted one is that both leaders suspended the heads of their respective constitutional courts (technically the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland's case) amidst a highly sensitive dispute in order to centralize their own power. In Poland's case, the aforesaid dispute is over the prior conservative government allegedly stacking the Tribunal, which the ruling liberals blame for them tending to prioritize Polish law over EU law.
Unlike Zelensky, Tusk probably won't manipulate political-legal processes in a bid to remain in power indefinitely regardless of however fall 2027's next Sejm elections turn out, but what he's attempting is much more insidious since it's about subordinating Poland to the German-led EU. It's for this reason why many patriotic Poles are accusing him of treason and demand that he be brought to justice for his attempted coup or at least resign in disgrace and then go into exile to his beloved Germany.
The only realistic way out of Poland's worst crisis since communism is to hold the early elections that reputable polling before Tusk's attempted coup suggested would return the conservatives to power in a coalition with their newly breakaway faction and the two libertarian-nationalist parties. After what just happened, which united the aforesaid fractured right-wing forces and led to most Poles rallying around Nawrocki as led the resistance to the coup from the front, they'd probably achieve a landslide victory.
The geopolitical fate of the post-war European order will be decided by the resolution of this crisis. Either Tusk wins, he subjugates Poland to Germany, and then the EU completes its transformation into a German-dominated federation, or the rule of law wins, Poland leads the EU's reform into a union of nation-states like Nawrocki declared late last year that he's dedicated to doing, and Poland resumes its historical role as a regional power. The stakes couldn't be higher for both Poland and Europe as a whole." ZH
"Ukrainian defense company Fire Point has confirmed a strike on the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Oblast." NV
"For the third Saturday in a row, Paris looked like a city under lockdown. More than 40 metro and RER stations were closed, and shopkeepers along the route boarded up their windows with plywood or kept their shutters down.
France's seats of power, including the Élysée Palace, the prime minister's office, and the National Assembly, were heavily guarded.
Some 70,000 police and gendarmes were deployed nationwide, and Nuñez said 40,000 checks had been carried out on roads and in train stations, 15,000 of them in the Paris region, to intercept weapons. Face coverings, Halloween masks included, were banned around the demonstrations.
By 9 p.m., 565 people had been arrested nationwide.At an evening press conference, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said every march had contained groups of rioters and looters, "many of them driven by the ultra-left and the radical far left," who attacked police with the goal of reaching the city centers "with unheard-of violence."
He listed Paris, Montpellier, Toulouse, Rennes, Marseille, Nantes, Angers, and Tours as cities where groups of several hundred people had tried to break through police lines with mortar fireworks, paving stones, and other projectiles, and said firefighters had to put out numerous fires.
The most serious incident took place at the end of the Paris march near Porte de Charenton, where a Molotov cocktail landed on the shield of a mobile gendarmerie unit and set a gendarme alight before his colleagues put out the flames. He ended up being slightly injured, Nuñez said.
another crisis appears to be unfolding in Germany on Halloween night: looting and chaos.
An initiative called "Gen Z regelt" ("Gen Z's got this") organized these protests "for education, health, climate protection and an affordable life" and opposing the return of military conscription.
Some protests in Germany also turned violent on Saturday night.
"The looting of stores has started in Frankfurt, Germany. Young first and second-generation migrants are attacking stores in the city," Poland-based digital news outlet Visegrád 24 wrote on X."German police were attacked with a Molotov cocktail in the city of Frankfurt on Halloween night. Youths participated in looting and clashes with police, with much of the footage livestreamed on TikTok," Budapest-based news outlet Remix News & Views wrote on X.
In Portugal, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Lisbon once again.
In The Hague, Netherlands, protests broke out after calls to demonstrate circulated online. According to Dutch police, 34 people were arrested, and one officer was taken to hospital with suspected hearing damage after fireworks were thrown at police. As in Paris, many shops across the city had boarded up their windows amid fears of rioting.
On Oct. 30, large crowds took to the streets across Italy following a call to demonstrate by the Italian trade union USB. The union estimated that more than 1 million people participated in protests across 70 cities, while the Interior Ministry put the figure at 255,000. Violent clashes between demonstrators and police broke out in Rome, Turin, Mestre, Vicenza, and other cities, according to Corriere della Sera.
Europe's mounting crises point to a troubling deterioration in stability." ZeroHedge
"The number of people injured in a Russian attack on the Koziatyn community in the Vinnytsia region has risen to six, while two people were killed." Ukrin
"A very strong magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in the Coral Sea 95 km (59 mi) from Vanuatu late in the evening at 10.47 pm local time (GMT +11). The depth of the quake could not be determined, but is assumed to be shallow. The quake was not felt (or at least not reported so)." VD
"A strong magnitude 5.4 earthquake occurred in the Coral Sea 121 km (75 mi) from Vanuatu in the afternoon at 5.26 pm local time (GMT +11). The depth of the quake could not be determined, but is assumed to be shallow. The quake was not felt (or at least not reported so)." VD
