Category: World

South Korea has refused to sell weapons to Ukraine due to legal restrictions on exports to war zones. Ukraine tried to purchase the Cheongung air defense system and other defense equipment.

South Korea refused to sell weapons to Ukraine. The main reason for the refusal was the legislation of Ukraine, which prohibits the export of weapons to countries where wars continue. This is reported by the South Korean TV channel SBS, reports UNN.

Details

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with President Yun Suk Yol and the minister of National Defense. Ukraine has expressed a desire to purchase Korean weapons, in particular Cheongung – a medium-range surface-to-air missile.

A South Korean government source said: "the weapons that the country has actively requested to sell are non-lethal weapons, such as the Cheongung interceptor system, local air defense radar and anti-artillery radar.

However, it is reported that the export of weapons to Ukraine is complicated by "a high risk of violation of foreign trade laws that restrict exports to war zones.

previously

It was reported that South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yol does not rule out the possibility of adjusting his policy to allow the supply of weapons. Yoon Suk Yol also stated that he had discussed the North Korean issue with US President-elect Donald Trump and plans to meet with him in the "near future".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has stated that Russia's most recent bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure is just another reminder that the Kremlin is not interested in genuine peace talks.

Source: Sybiha on Twitter (X), as reported by European Pravda

Details: The foreign minister stated that Ukraine was subjected to another combined air attack by the Russian Federation, which harmed civilian and energy infrastructure and forced emergency power cuts.

Quote: "Putin does not want peace. We must force him into peace through strength. Strength of our air shield, long-range capabilities, and sanctions on his war machine" Sybiha said.

Background:

• Recently, there has been a growing non-public discussion in the West about the conditions under which the current hot phase of the Russo-Ukrainian war can be ended, particularly in light of Donald Trump's promises to "quickly end the war" after hit return to the White House, and uncertainty about whether sufficient military support for Ukraine will remain with the new administration in power.
• According to media sources, Trump's national security adviser has been studying different options to end the war in Ukraine in recent days.
• Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who has been appointed as US President-elect Donald Trump's special representative for Ukraine and Russia, has stated that he will "secure peace through strength".
• Dmytro Kuleba, the former foreign minister of Ukraine, warned against hopes of US President-elect Donald Trump’s future efforts resulting in peace between Russia and Ukraine, and stressed that the Kremlin regime continues to pursue its original goals.

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Mark Cherry is considering the idea of a Desperate Housewives prequel set in 1966. The creator of the series is ready to return to the project if he finds good enough reasons to restart.

The creator of Desperate Housewives, Mark Cherry, is open to exploring another era on Wisteria Lane – the fictional street where the characters of this American series live, writes UNN with reference to Variety.

Details

In a recent interview with People magazine, Cherry presented his idea that led to the popular ABC series starring Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria.

"I would probably like to bring this idea to life in an earlier decade," Cherry told the publication. "Because the character I miss the most is actually Wisteria Lane. It was the most fun playground anyone had ever had in the history of television because we owned the whole street. I know this street like the back of my hand. When someone shoots an advertisement on this street, I immediately understand it, because I know all these houses, I know the geography. It was such a fun place to write for. And there were moments when I thought, "You know what? I wonder if I can write Wisteria Lane sometime in 1966.

Cherry, who also created the TV series "Devious Maids" and "Why Women Kill," estimated that "about 70 000 people" asked him about the relaunch of "Desperate Housewives." He added, "The truth is, I have a couple of ideas on how to do it.

However, the creator of Desperate Housewives will only deal with the relaunch if "there is still something to say." "If you're doing a restart, you have to have a really good artistic reason for it," he explained. "And at some point I sit down with someone and say, 'OK, let's discuss if there's a good enough reason to do this.

Addition

Desperate Housewives tells the story of four women-Susan Mayer (Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Huffman), Bree Van de Kamp (Cross) and Gabrielle Solis (Longoria)-who uncover dark secrets in their seemingly idyllic suburban neighborhood after their friend and neighbor Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) committed suicide. This drama series, which aired from 2004 to 2012 on ABC, won seven Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes.

An infrastructure facility, a house, a hangar, and several vehicles were damaged, and two people were injured, as a result of a Russian attack in Kyiv Oblast.

Source: Ruslan Kravchenko, Head of Kyiv Oblast State Administration, on Facebook

Quote from Kravchenko: "An infrastructure facility was damaged as a result of an enemy attack. The fire has been extinguished. A building and two vehicles were also damaged.

A house, a non-residential building, and a hangar were hit in another district of the oblast.

Two people were injured. They sought medical assistance on their own with minor injuries and are receiving all necessary medical care."

Aftermath of the attack Photo: Kyiv Oblast police

Details: Kravchenko said air defence forces were deployed in the oblast, and several targets were shot down.

Emergency power outages are currently ongoing in Kyiv Oblast.

Quote: "466 invincibility centres are operational. Emergency response teams continue working to eliminate the consequences of the attack in Kyiv Oblast [Invincibility centres are heated premises stocked with food and power banks to assist residents facing hardships due to power cuts – ed.]."

Background:

• The Air Force reported missile launches at 05:30. Russia was attacking various Ukrainian oblasts with missiles and drones. Explosions were reported in Kharkiv and Lutsk.
• NEC Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian transmission system operator, has implemented emergency power outages in Ukraine due to Russia's large-scale missile and drone attack.
• Russian occupants also fired missiles at infrastructure in Sumy Oblast on the morning of 28 November.
• Explosions were heard in Kyiv at about 08:00, and the authorities reported that air defences were responding. Explosions were also heard in Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Khmelnytskyi.

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BlueSky reached 3.5 million active users, an increase of 300% after the election. Musk responds with new X features, allowing you to hide likes and reposts for a "cleaner" interface.

Users of the social network X are moving to alternative platforms such as BlueSky and meta's Threads, Elon Musk is alarmed, reports UNN with A Link to the Byte.

Details

Ashton Musk, owner of social network X, seems scared because of the continuous flow of users who are leaving the platform and switching to alternative BlueSky and Meta Threads.

Unexpectedly last week, Musk announced that X will start allowing users to hide likes, mailings, and reposts.

Now you can hide the interaction buttons and numbers under each post and interact with posts with special swipe gestures!

– written by the developer of the X program email.

Elon Musk himself rather strangely justified the new functions of the platform. He explained that this way the interface becomes "cleaner". why Elon Musk X suddenly took care of a "cleaner" user interface remains a mystery.

Since the social network took over in 2022, it has had a lot of obscure colored ticks, unnecessary information, and disruptive ads.

According to Similarweb, the number of daily active BlueSky users has grown to 3.5 million in the last week alone, up 300% from Election Day.

As of the beginning of this month, Threads had 275 monthly active users. However, thanks to the frenzied momentum, Bluesky is starting to close the gap where it matters. So Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is somewhat concerned that after the election, many former Twitter executives prefer Bluesky over Threads.

At that time, Elon Musk's social network introduced a number of policy changes aimed at hostility towards users. These changes range from requiring users to stop using their posts to train the platform's chatbot with artificial intelligence, to removing the blocking feature, which opens the floodgates for even more harassment.

Hate speech and even materials about child sexual abuse have spread to X since the platform became the property of Elon Musk, turning it into a hell of misinformation.

recall

Ashton Musk confirmed the restriction of the visibility of posts with external links in social network X. The network algorithm deliberately reduces the coverage of posts with hyperlinks to keep users on the platform.

The CEO of Ingka Group said that it is difficult to keep low prices for IKEA products due to Trump's new customs tariffs. The company will have to adapt to new conditions, which may affect the availability of products.

The CEO of IKEA, the owner of furniture stores, explained that after the introduction of import duties planned by Donald Trump, it will be problematic to keep low prices for the company's goods. This is reported by CNN, reports UNN.

Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (the company that owns IKEA furniture stores), said in an interview with CNN that the customs tariffs announced by Trump will not support international companies and international trade. In the end, this will hit the consumer's wallet.

"Tariffs make it difficult for us to maintain low prices and ensure accessibility for many people, which is ultimately our goal.",

Jesper Brodin said.

He mentioned that his company has always gone through difficult times when high tariffs were in effect. " this is beyond our control. We will need to understand and adapt," Brodin added.

Recall

The newly elected president of the United States Plans to impose a 25% duty on imports from Mexico and Canada due to problems with drug trafficking. An additional 10% tariff is also offered for Chinese goods due to the supply of fentanyl.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte have discussed Ukraine's specific needs for air defence systems in the wake of Russia's recent strike with a new ballistic missile.

Source: Zelenskyy on Telegram, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Ukrainian leader recalled that a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council had taken place earlier because of Russia's use of a new ballistic missile.

Thus, on Wednesday, 27 November, Rutte and Zelenskyy discussed response measures, specifically the critical need to strengthen Ukraine's air defence capabilities.

"I've outlined the specific air defence systems that are needed and can work. Our partners have these air defence systems," Zelenskyy stressed.

The president also emphasised that the decisions of the NATO summit in Washington on air defence and other supplies for Ukrainian forces had not yet been fully implemented.

"We expect this [the delivery of all promised supplies], and it significantly affects the motivation and morale of our people," he said.

The Ukrainian president noted that the recent authorisation for Kyiv to launch long-range strikes on military targets in Russia had helped, though pressure on Russia should be maintained and increased at various levels.

"We've discussed contacts with our partners – with the US and others – and our coordinated work with them to implement what we've already agreed upon and to ensure the necessary additional military and political reinforcement. In particular, for the sake of inviting Ukraine to NATO," Zelenskyy concluded.

Background:

• The meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council was convened last week in connection with Russia's first use of an experimental ballistic missile, which the Russians dubbed Oreshnik.
• Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said earlier that Kyiv hoped for "concrete, meaningful results" after the NATO-Ukraine Council.
• Following the Oreshnik strike, Kyiv asked its partners to help strengthen its air defences to counter such ballistic missiles.

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The US Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft's software and cloud computing licensing activities. The investigation covers the company's possible market abuses and Q is cybersecurity practices.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a large-scale antitrust investigation against Microsoft, including its software licensing and cloud computing businesses. This is reported by Reuters, reports UNN.

Details

Reuters reports on informants who confirmed that the FTC is investigating a case and allegations against a software giant that potentially abuses its position in the Productivity Software Market by imposing punitive licensing conditions to prevent customers from migrating their data from Azure cloud services to other competing platforms.

The investigation was approved by FTC Chairman Lina Han before her likely resignation in January.

The informant also said that the FTC is also studying practices related to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence products.

Competitors have criticized Microsoft's practices, which they say keep customers locked in its Azure cloud platform. The FTC received such complaints last year when it was studying the cloud computing market.

NetChoice, a lobbying group representing internet companies including Amazon and Google that compete with Microsoft in cloud computing, has criticized Microsoft's licensing policies and the integration of artificial intelligence tools into Office and Outlook.

Given that Microsoft is the world's largest software development company, dominating the productivity and operating system software industry, the scale and implications of its licensing decisions are extraordinary.

– declared the group.

Microsoft declined to comment.

Microsoft detects large-scale phishing attack from Russian hackers Midnight BlizzardOct 30 2024, 08:00 AM • 14996 views

The Biden administration does not have enough time to provide Ukraine with all the military aid authorised by Congress before Biden’s presidency ends in January 2025, and some of the authority in this regard will be transferred to Donald Trump's team.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in the White House and the US Congress, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Biden administration has over US$6.5 billion to transfer equipment from US Army stocks and warehouses to Ukraine, and had hoped to use the entire amount before Biden’s term ends on 20 January 2025.

However, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon says they have reached the amount of weaponry that can be sent to Ukraine each month without sacrificing their own fighting capability, and that there are logistical issues with getting munitions to Ukrainian forces.

It is estimated that the United States would need to supply Ukraine with about US$110 million worth of weaponry per day – nearly US$3 billion in December and January – to use up all the funds. "It’s impossible," a WSJ source in Congress said.

According to a Pentagon source, the US now intends to send US$500-750 million worth from its arsenal of weapons to Ukraine per month. Since larger equipment can take months to deliver, these supplies will primarily consist of artillery and ammunition, which are easier to transport.

Any unused cash will be available to Donald Trump's future administration. What he will do about the shipment of weapons to Ukraine remains unknown.

In addition to funding supplies from US Army stockpiles, the Biden administration has more than US$2 billion to fund long-term weapons contracts for Kyiv. They want to "get as much of that money as possible on contract" by 20 January, WSJ’s source in the Pentagon said.

Additionally, Congress has allocated the White House just under US$5 billion to purchase more weapons to replenish American stockpiles. The Biden administration intends this money to be spent in full by the conclusion of Biden’s presidential term, the WSJ says.

Background:

• Earlier, it was reported that US President Joe Biden had asked Congress for an additional US$24 billion to provide military assistance to Ukraine and replace US weapons sent to Kyiv.
• According to The Wall Street Journal, however, the future Congress, where Republicans will be in the majority, is lukewarm about this idea.

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