Covering democracy's slow-motion retirement tour. Strongmen, stolen votes & historic elections. Daily briefing, sourced, no spin https://xitter.cf/t.co/hn0SFKCsfS
Joined March 2026
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Not fully back. Trump says Musk “put it back.” Zelensky says it’s “still limited.”
Ukraine built fast interceptor drones to catch Russia’s jet-powered Shaheds.
“When an Iranian drone goes with a speed of 450 or 500 kilometers per hour, and you limit [the speed] one night to 70 or even 100, you cannot intercept anything.”
US missile-warning intelligence is back after talks with Rubio, he says. The satellite link isn’t.
Who ordered the slowdown? He doesn’t know. The Pentagon says it wasn’t them.
#Ukraine #USA
Trump called Musk this week to lift the Starlink cap crippling Ukraine’s drones, per WSJ, the same slowdown he spent days denying he knew about.
Hours later it started working again.
Vance says Washington should’ve controlled Musk.
Hegseth and Rubio say Musk alone had that power.
Nobody agrees who’s in charge.
#USA #Ukraine
About 150,000 people filled Belgrade’s Slavija Square last night for the Student List’s final rally before Sunday’s vote.
Across town, Vučić spoke in a sports hall and called the students a foreign funded coup.
After 14 years in power, a poll this week has them neck and neck.
#Serbia #Elections
Aleksandar Vučić has been in Serbian politics since 1998, as Milošević’s propaganda minister. He’s been at the top since 2012, as prime minister or president.
On Sunday, for the first time in 14 years, nobody can say for sure he wins.
#Serbia #Elections
The campaign hasn’t been fair. 24 Serbian civil society groups warn the conditions for a free vote are lacking.
Press freedom has hit its lowest ranking ever, and student activists have found Pegasus spyware on their phones.
Still they came. “For the first time in my life, I believe that it is possible.”
#Serbia #Europe
Trump called Musk this week to lift the Starlink cap crippling Ukraine’s drones, per WSJ, the same slowdown he spent days denying he knew about.
Hours later it started working again.
Vance says Washington should’ve controlled Musk.
Hegseth and Rubio say Musk alone had that power.
Nobody agrees who’s in charge.
#USA #Ukraine
Aleksandar Vučić has been in Serbian politics since 1998, as Milošević’s propaganda minister. He’s been at the top since 2012, as prime minister or president.
On Sunday, for the first time in 14 years, nobody can say for sure he wins.
#Serbia #Elections
The spark: a station canopy that collapsed in Novi Sad in 2024, killing 16. Almost two years later, no one has been convicted.
Now most of the opposition has stepped aside for the Student List, led by a heart surgeon with no political past.
Hungary showed a strongman can be voted out. Serbia votes Sunday.
#Serbia #Vucic
For weeks the war in Yemen has been hitting Saudi Arabia. Now it’s reaching the heart of Saudi oil.
A deadly attack hit the airport in Dammam, home city of Saudi Aramco, last night: 2 killed. Another drone killed 2 more at an Aramco oil field.
The Houthis have killed at least 22 civilians in the kingdom in weeks.
#SaudiArabia #Houthis
The US has ordered non-essential diplomats and their families out of Saudi Arabia. Aramco reportedly evacuated its headquarters.
Oil topped $112, the highest since May.
And US and Israeli military plans for new strikes on Iran are reportedly set for after the midterms.
#USA #OilPrices
Yesterday the banker. Today the tycoon.
Lőrinc Mészáros, the gas fitter from Orbán’s home village who became Hungary’s richest man, is losing his motorways.
The government is ending his 35-year deal for 1,237 km of highways, signed in 2022.
#Hungary #Corruption
Last week Brussels unfroze the money. Today the accountability started.
Hungary’s former central bank chief, György Matolcsy, was detained on suspicion of fraud.
He was one of Orbán’s closest allies for decades: economy minister, then central bank governor until 2025.
#Hungary #Corruption
The state road company takes the roads back, aiming to finish by April 2027.
His top builder, V-Híd, was thrown off one of the country’s biggest rail projects after EU auditors found serious tender irregularities.
And a new complaint targets Orbán’s hotel subsidies: 75% of the money went to 1.5% of the contracts.
#Hungary
Now Congress wants answers, from both parties.
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick wants Musk to testify under oath on the Starlink slowdown: “This is a very, very serious matter.”
He says Congress could block funding for any agency involved.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons asks why one man has the same power as a four-star general over a war.
Republican senators Tillis, Murkowski and Cornyn already asked the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate.
Musk’s reply: “Some fools still think the legacy news is real.”
#Ukraine #USA
Add one more step to the list.
The WSJ reports Elon Musk himself ordered the slowdown of the military-grade Starlink Ukraine relies on, starting Oct 14.
Days earlier he had posted “Zelensky has gone too far.”
His first public line: limits are decided by “the US military and ultimately POTUS.”
Trump now says he doesn’t know who did it, “but I would like to find out.”
One person familiar with it says Musk spoke to Trump before the cap.
Ukrainian officials say it helped Russian missiles slip past their defenses.
#Ukraine #USA
Last week Brussels unfroze the money. Today the accountability started.
Hungary’s former central bank chief, György Matolcsy, was detained on suspicion of fraud.
He was one of Orbán’s closest allies for decades: economy minister, then central bank governor until 2025.
#Hungary #Corruption
At the center: foundations his bank set up in 2014 with about $800M of public money. Revised accounts put the losses at roughly the same amount.
His son Ádám, with a Dubai residence permit, is now on Hungary’s wanted list, Telex reports.
Under Orbán’s prosecutors, nothing moved. Six months after he fell, it does.
#Hungary
And the polls back it up.
Talarico leads Paxton 48.8% to 46.9% across 49 polls, in a state Trump won by almost 14 points.
Paxton leads in only 1 of the 6 latest polls. 732K Texans have already voted.
Close, but the momentum has a color, and it isn’t red.
#Texas #Midterms26
Republicans are outspending Democrats 3 to 1 on TV in the Texas Senate race. They still get only 58% of the ads on air.
The reason: super PACs pay far higher rates than candidates, and Trump’s MAGA Inc. bought its airtime late, at peak prices.
#Midterms2026 #Texas
Republicans are outspending Democrats 3 to 1 on TV in the Texas Senate race. They still get only 58% of the ads on air.
The reason: super PACs pay far higher rates than candidates, and Trump’s MAGA Inc. bought its airtime late, at peak prices.
#Midterms2026 #Texas
Day one of early voting, Fort Worth, the last big urban county Republicans still hold in Texas.
Talarico packed a high school gym with 1,000+ people. Paxton had about 200 seated, a free bar, and RFK Jr. praising his “recklessness.”
Local Republicans also cut Election Day polling sites by a third.
Big money, small rooms.
#Midterms26 #Texas
Trump’s envoy lands in Russia today with a peace proposal drawn up in Oslo with Zelensky and the leaders of Finland and Norway.
Two things came out of Oslo.
First, US early warning intelligence is working again. “We are thankful that intelligence works now,” Zelensky said, after days of doubt over missile warnings and Starlink.
Second, he wants the only meeting that can end this war: him, Trump and Putin at one table.
Not the Trump-Putin-Xi summit Moscow dreams of, with Ukraine left outside.
A day after the WSJ revealed Musk ordered the Starlink slowdown, Washington needs a win on Ukraine.
The question is what Witkoff carries into the room: Kyiv’s proposal, or Trump’s warm greetings.
#Ukraine #Russia
