Crypto News: Putin escalates, Ukraine allies waver

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While the US and its allies dither on whether Ukraine can use long-range weapons against targets inside Russia, Vladimir Putin is pressing on with his war at any cost.

As an in-depth report by Bloomberg's Stephanie Baker and Daryna Krasnolutska shows today, Russia is still obtaining vital Western components for missiles to rain down on Ukraine's population, despite ever-growing sanctions intended to prevent such technology transfers.

While Western intelligence agencies calculate that Russia is incurring record troop losses in eastern Ukraine, Putin keeps supplying his killing machine.

The president signed a law yesterday allowing criminal suspects to avoid prosecution if they join the army, a sign both of Russia's growing difficulties in replacing troop losses and of the Kremlin's determination to avoid repeating an unpopular mobilization two years ago.

Russian forces are creeping forward in eastern Ukraine — they took the strategic town of Vuhledar this week.

Putin plans to devote 40% of next year's state budget to defense and national security — much more than spending on education, health care and social policies combined — as he intensifies repression at home and bets on Ukraine's allies growing tired of supporting its defense.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is making increasingly urgent pleas for weaponry. Yet some allies already face funding difficulties and others are becoming less willing.

Much depends on next month's US presidential election, with Republican contender Donald Trump far more ambivalent about continued military aid than his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

Putin has no such concerns. He ramps up nuclear saber-rattling to try to spook the US and Europe into stalling further on long-range strikes.

As a third full winter of war approaches, the strategic question facing Kyiv's allies is the same as on day one: Are they helping Ukraine to defeat Putin's invasion or ensuring it ends in a stalemate? — Anthony Halpin

A billboard bearing the image of a Russian soldier in Moscow on April 28. Source: Getty Images

"The answer is no," US President Joe Biden said when asked if he would support an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for a barrage of about 200 ballistic missiles this week. After showing a reluctance to go to war in recent months, Iran had little option but to launch the assault in response to the damage Israel inflicted on its regional prowess, including the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

An overnight Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed at least six people. Source: AFP/Getty Images

The Central Intelligence Agency is stepping up efforts to recruit Chinese citizens as it seeks to capitalize on what US officials say is growing discontent with President Xi Jinping's rule, Deputy Director David Cohen said in an interview. The push comes as Xi has consolidated power to a degree unseen in decades, abolishing presidential term limits, packing the leadership with close allies and silencing dissent.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned that a lack of investment and too much regulation could make the European Union uncompetitive. Speaking at the Berlin Global Dialogue, Macron said Europe won't be able to keep up with the US and China unless it completes a banking union and makes global trade rules more fair.

Canada is working with Nordic countries to create a new Arctic security coalition, excluding Russia, to coordinate on defense, intelligence and cyber threats, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in an interview. China said its Coast Guard vessels entered the Arctic Ocean for the first time, patrolling the waters jointly with Russian ships, underscoring the growing cooperation between Beijing and Moscow in the region.

Universities became the latest focus of protests against Argentine President Javier Milei's austerity campaign, with staff and students taking to the streets to rally against budget cuts in higher education. Organized by labor unions, the demonstration was aimed at Milei's forthcoming veto of a bill approved by lawmakers that would raise salaries to compensate for sky-high inflation.

German police cordoned off part of a train station in Hamburg and isolated two people to reduce the risk of the deadly Marburg virus spreading after a medical student who was traveling from Rwanda reported that he might have contracted a tropical disease.

Vice President Harris will be joined by former US Representative Liz Cheney at a campaign stop in swing-state Wisconsin today as the Democratic nominee looks to tout the support of a longtime Republican critic of Trump.

While South African assets have rallied in recent months, the head of the country's biggest bank still sees a cautious approach among many foreign investors waiting for the national unity government to deliver on promised economic reforms.

Special Counsel Jack Smith presented a 165-page brief yesterday arguing that Trump should stand trial for "private crimes" over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden.

That distinction is crucial since the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents, in many instances, cannot face charges for official acts while in office.

"Although the defendant was the incumbent president during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one," Smith's office argued.

In an all-caps post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said, "I did nothing wrong. They did! The case is a scam, just like all of the others."

One thing to watch today: Factory orders for August are set for release, a day after a report showed hiring at US companies rose more than anticipated in September.

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The EU has caved to calls from countries including Brazil and the US to slow down on its ambitious proposal to curb global deforestation, pushing the start out to the end of 2025. The plan aims to stop the chopping down of forests as a result of the EU's insatiable thirst for commodities such as coffee, cocoa, soy and beef.

Anger is growing in Israel over what opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies say is a worrying trend: a crackdown on dissent by a government that's the most nationalist and religious in the country's history, and is now pursuing a wider war against Iran-backed Islamist militants. At the heart of it is National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a West Bank settler who helps set the ideological tone and has played a major role in prolonging the year-old conflict in Gaza that's scarred relations between Israel and its Western allies.

Ben Gvir attends an event to deliver weapons to local volunteer security group members in Ashkelon in October. Photographer: Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo

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