Ukraine Para Spent 131 Days At Front, But Life Under Russians Was Scarier

Serhii was living with his mother when the Russians invaded in 2022. He remained in his town for some months before escaping. 

But after spending 131 days at the front - mostly by himself - he reports that living under Russian occupation was scarier because of the hostility, drunkenness and unreliability of Russian occupation forces. JL

Yurii Ustymenko reports in Hromadske:

Serhii would spend 131 days alone at a front-line position near Pokrovsk, one of the most fiercely contested sectors of the war. Yet he still considers the eight and a half months he spent under Russian occupation more frightening. He serves in a reconnaissance platoon of Ukraine's 25th Sicheslav Airborne Brigade, part of the 7th Air Assault Corps. He joined the military in late 2024 after receiving his first mobilization notice. He had already experienced what Russian occupation meant. Originally from Ukraine's southern Kherson region, Serhii remained there with his mother after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. After joining the Airborne, Serhii remained a the front, by himself, for more than four months was not due to a shortage of soldiers to replace him. The terrain and intense Russian drone activity made movement exceptionally dangerous. The unit waited for overcast weather that could limit drone operations. "We were afraid of risking his life,"

First Week Of November Sets Russian War Loss Record, Nov 8 Highest Daily Record

During the first week of November, Ukrainian forces inflicted the highest number of weekly casualties on Russian troops of the entire war: 

16,130 killed or severely wounded, which works out to 2,300 a day or almost 100 every hour.

And as if that weren't enough, the Ukrainians then started the second week of the month by inflicting 2,980 casualties on the Russians in one day - again, the highest daily total of war. The previous record was achieved a week earlier, on November 1. The eleventh month of the year is not proving to be an auspicious one for the Kremlin and its troops. JL

The Kyiv Post and Kyiv Independent report:

The Russian military lost 16,130 military personnel during the first week of November, marking the highest weekly casualty toll recorded since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. "Over seven days, Nov. 1-7, the Russian aggressor lost 16,130 military personnel. On average, more than 2,300 occupiers daily, or nearly a hundred every hour– a new absolute record of the war.” On November 8, Russia suffered a record-breaking number of casualties on the front lines, totaling 2,980 soldiers either killed or seriously injured in a day. "One less invader every 29 seconds." The report comes a day after the General Staff reported Russian casualties reaching 400,000 since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022. The previous record for Russian daily personnel losses was 2,500, reported just a week prior on Nov. 1, 2026.

Is Jensen Huang, With No Designated Successor, Too Big, Vulnerable To Fire?

So it turns out the company primarily responsible for supplying and financing the AI boom is led by a guy with 60 direct reports, no succession plan and, oh by the way, got honey-trapped by a Chinese government operative who also appears to have convinced him to divert billions in chips to a US adversary in direct contravention of US law. 

Which means that Jensen Huang's firing - a absolute certainty for most public companies - may not happen because it could collapse the global economy, and would include trashing the financial well-being of millions who have Nvidia stock in their retirement portfolios. You know, just in case you thought this was a straight up morality and/or national security issue. One might well ask how an entire economy became dependent on a tech company with what appears to be zero corporate governance safeguards, but that would mean you haven't been paying attention to Trump administration corruption for the past two years. Ok, that's unbelievable and unforgiveable, but here we are. What happens now? The board will 'investigate' with an eye towards 'proving' that he was a lovelorn dupe, not a cagey operator who knew what he was doing. But the investigation will really be a cover for them to begin figuring out if they can survive without him and who, if anyone, could succeed. In the process, they will almost certainly begin to impose governance standards and a succession plan as well as streamlining the reporting structure. All with an eye to hoping they can forestall further collapse, competitive challenges based on lost confidence, a financial disaster and an economic depression. Wish the Nvidia board good luck. They need it. JL

Sam Sutton and colleagues report in Politico and Connie Loizos report in Tech Crunch:

CEOs have been felled by smaller scandals than an affair with an alleged spy who routed sensitive technology to China. But there doesn’t appear to be anyone in the wings to take Huang's place. He has 60 direct reports. Depending on the results of Nvidia’s investigation, shareholder lawsuits and the political tidal wave, the board may determine Huang’s removal would be more damaging than keeping him. Nvidia’s role at the center of a massive, complex circular financing web is what makes this so tricky and terrifying. Nvidia isn’t just the biggest provider of chips driving the AI boom but the bank behind the buildout. In addition to stakes in hundreds of smaller startups, Nvidia has invested in OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, CoreWeave. It signed agreements mobilizing more than $500 billion over time, and could backstop a quarter of it. The bigger test comes when Nvidia’s employees, customers, and partners, and millions of Americans with Nvidia in their 401(k) plans, have to decide whether an AI economy built on Huang judgement makes sense.

Counterattacks Add To Ukraine Gains In Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia

Ukrainian forces operating south of the Fortress Belt are counterattacking again, liberating more territory in three crucial oblasts, as Russian units continue to struggle to recover from the summer and fall Ukrainian gains. JL

Ryder Blackthorn reports in Frontline Signal:

Ukrainian forces have been gradually recovering territory in the Oleksandrivka direction, near the borders of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Ukraine’s counterattacks around Oleksandrivka were reportedly forcing Russia to commit naval infantry and tank units to defend the wider sector. Russian infantry operating in small groups, sometimes only two or three men, attempting to move through Ukrainian positions or remain hidden in wooded areas and abandoned buildings. Reconnaissance drones are used to locate these groups

Changes In Ukraine's Vivaldi Tactics, Command Paralyzed Russian Forces

Corporate executives will recognize the change that Ukrainian forces now credit with a major share of Operation Vivaldi's success.

In a technologically driven era, pushing information and decision making down to the commanders on the ground gave them the adaptability necessary to identify Russian vulnerabilities and then strike them, effectively paralyzing the Russian forces. JL

Carlotta Gall and Kamila Hrabchuk report in the New York Times:

Ukrainian troops had been losing ground to the far more numerous Russian Army for the best part of two years. But the wider use of drones and remote-controlled vehicles, and changes in the command structure and culture within parts of the army, enabled Ukraine to shift gears. Decision making was given to commanders on the ground rather than being relayed from a command post, while the senior commanders focused on the broader operational level to disrupt the Russian command. When Russian reinforcements were called in, Ukrainian drones struck them as they dismounted from vehicles miles before they could reach the front line The Russians were effectively paralyzed. The tactics were so successful that Ukraine's troops wiped out Russia’s 144th Motor Rifle Division in the fighting and reversed Russia’s gains of a whole year.

How the Data Center Backlash May Help Biggest Tech Companies

There is an argument to be made that US voters last week merely confirmed what the markets were already saying: data center development was becoming absurdly unaffordable and needed to slow down. 

But for the biggest tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Nvidia (?... more about that tomorrow), this could prove to be an advantage. The reason is that they already have the size, scale and financial resources - as well as existing capacity - to ride out the slowdown which may affect smaller or newer companies, giving them a cost and future growth advantage. AI has long been about the rich getting richer and this this situation simply magnifies that. JL

Telis Demos reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The market's major concern hasn't been AI’s growth potential. It has been the fear that building the capacity to meet that growth would be so costly that even companies that won the AI race would end up much less profitable. Rising AI credit costs were a big factor leading AI stocks to sink in recent weeks.  So if the Democrats’ sweep spurs a national slowdown in the AI computing power build-out, it could play into the hands of the biggest tech companies. A slowdown can ratchet down costs on supplies, labor and credit. And it would give existing data centers confidence that the scarcity of their asset will make it more valuable. “If you’re a data center that is already running, or have power in place, there’s scarcity value.” Amazon and Microsoft, which already control vast computing power and have the financial might to outbid for more, rallied more than 6%. Shares of computing and data center companies with less sterling credit and fewer cash resources were down. 

Recon: Inside One of the Ukrainian Army's Most Dangerous Jobs

Even on a drone dominated battlefield, human soldiers usually have to go in closer to assess the situation. Their work requires training, patience, skill, experience - and 60% luck. JL

Asami Terajima reports in the Kyiv Independent:

Their heir work includes ambushing the enemy, countering Russian infiltrators, and clearing out Russian positions. In the era of constant drone surveillance, both sides increasingly rely on infiltration to advance forward, sending a small group of soldiers one by one until they eventually accumulate, especially under bad weather conditions. Figuring out where Russian troops are infiltrating from is part of the reconnaissance soldiers' work to guard their area of responsibility. It is especially crucial for reconnaissance soldiers to be highly trained and conduct repeated drills, as the brain "shuts off" in these nerve-wracking situations, forcing the soldiers to rely on muscle memory instead. There is only so much that the drones can see from above, compared to the reconnaissance soldiers on the ground. Survival is defined 60% by luck, 30% by skills, and 10% by alertness and patience.

Counterattack By Ukraine Marines Lands On Kherson's Dnipro Left Bank

More destabilizing movement to test Russian defenses, throw their planners

off and create new opportunities for counterattacks all along the front. JL

Dmytro Shunlianskyi reports in Militarnyi:

Ukrainian Marines successfully landed on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region and is advancing deeper into Russian-occupied territory. "They (the Marines) are advancing, assaulting enemy positions and, accordingly, moving deeper into enemy territory toward positions we have designated. They rotated, established a foothold on the left bank, advanced, consolidated their positions, handed them over, and moved farther forward,” 

Trump's Russian Diesel Import Scheme Falters As Ships Are Diverted Away From US

Having been threatened with legal and significant financial penalties if they attempt to unload Russian diesel fuel, 

port operators and fuel brokers have recommended that the Russian ships change course for destinations away from the US.

All three of the tankers known to be heading to the US under the ostensible Trump plan have thus now changed their destination for Brazil, the Mediterranean or other locales. JL

David McHugh and Paul Wiseman report in PBS:

President Donald Trump's plan to allow imports of Russian diesel faltered this week after state and federal officials warned that handling any shipments could bring legal consequences as tankers bound for the United States changed course. The arrangement has yet to produce a confirmed U.S. delivery. Analysts said the imports were unlikely to do much to lower U.S. diesel prices, which have reached record highs during the U.S. war with Iran. Two sanctioned tankers that departed from the Baltic last month originally declared their destinations as the U.S. East Coast. As of Thursday, both had changed course, one toward Brazil and the other to the Mediterranean. A third vessel changed its destination from New York to "for orders." New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill advised port and terminal operators in her state to turn away ships carrying the fuel, warning that "any effort to profit from the illegal trade in Russian fuel will be met with harsh penalties."

All-Robot Ukraine Ground Assault In Kharkiv Oblast Largest of War So Far

In northern Kharkiv oblast this past week, Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade launched the largest all robot attack of the war on Russian positions.

The Ukrainian assault involved 28 unmanned ground vehicles of various types. And while it is not clear that the attack took the Russian defenses, it could be seen as a test of both the robots and the command systems that direct them with the intent being of trying these attacks more frequently in the future with even greater numbers of robots. JL

Euromaidan Press reports:

A recent all-robot assault carried out by the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade on 30 October was the biggest confirmed attack by unmanned ground vehicles so far in the war: no fewer than 28 UGVs of all kinds rolled across the gray zone near the village of Druzheliubivka in northern Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast. The attack  involved eight self-exploding UGVs plus another 20 UGVs with handheld weapons: 18 with pairs of single-round grenade launchers and two with automatic grenade launchers firing more but smaller rounds. The Russians posted a video depicting FPV attacks on the approaching Ukrainian UGVs. The robot itself is just the visible part of a complex system. The radio networks and other systems connecting the robots to their distant operators are just as important as the robots themselves. It's Ukraine's mastery of these command systems that guarantees more all-robot assaults are coming.

Anthropic's $1.5 Trillion Valuation Now Drawing Doubts From Investors

Elections have consequences - and so do market crashes. With both events having happened this week, investors are now casting doubt on Anthropic's putative IPO valuation at $1,5 trillion, with many saying it is more likely to come in at $1 trillion. 

Anthropic could choose to raise less money or even delay the offering, but it is not likely that market conditions are going to improve. The question now is whether AI's high water mark has already been reached or whether it still has some room to run. JL

Corrie Driebusch and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

Major investors are increasingly skeptical Anthropic’s initial public offering can proceed at the expected valuation of $1.5 trillion after a deep market selloff tied to the unwinding of artificial-intelligence related bets. Three major investors who plan to participate in the IPO say the valuation will likely need to come down, with one saying it could be closer to $1 trillion. The company could decide to raise less money than anticipated, perhaps $80 billion, said one investor who plans to participate in the IPO. That same investor hopes for the company to have well over $200 billion on its balance sheet post-IPO. Anthropic had $146.6 billion cash on hand as of Sept. 30. Another investor who plans to participate wondered if Anthropic might delay its offering to wait for more favorable conditions. Even before Thursday’s rout, investor enthusiasm had been waning for AI.

Ukraine Expands Lyman Counteroffensive To Kharkhiv Oblast

Add northern Kharkiv oblast to the sectors where Ukrainian forces have thwarted Russian advance attempts and have begun counterattacking. JL

Mariia Kritsak reports in Gwara Media:

Ukrainian have expanded the Lyman counteroffensive to the Borova direction to push Russian forces back away from the Oskil River and to alleviate pressure on the town of Borova from the north. After recapturing the village of Zelenyi Hai, Ukrainian assault groups also began pushing north by infiltrating Vyshneve village. Ukrainian forces have counterattacked northeast of Borova.

Russian Orikhiv Assault Decimated As Initiative Shifts To Ukraine Counterattacks

Russia's southern strategy, based on attacks towards Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia oblast has been derailed, as Ukrainian infantry and drone operators again isolated Russian assault forces by cutting off their reinforcements and supplies. 

This drained the Russian offensive of momentum as they could not assemble the necessary force for a breakthrough. Ukrainian counterattacks have now seized the initiative and are pushing the Russians back. JL

RFU News reports:

Ukraine achieved a significant success in Orikhiv, where Russian forces have been pushed out of the city after nearly three months of brutal fighting. The town anchors Ukraine’s defenses south of Zaporizhia. Ukrainian forces are now pressing southward along the same approaches used by Russian assault groups. Ukrainian drone operators played a decisive role, as they didn’t concentrate on the Russians already inside Orikhiv, but attacked the reinforcements attempting to reach them. As a result, the Russian offensive began losing momentum, and despite continued attempts to reinforce, repeated casualties reduced the ability to concentrate sufficient forces for a breakthrough. The initiative around Orikhiv has shifted toward Ukrainian counterattacks

Nasdaq Loses $2.5 Trillion In Wipe Out As "AI Trade" Cracks

This time is different, all right, but not exactly in the way the Silicon Valley-AI hype machine meant. 

Like the blue tsunami that annihilated the Trump-MAGA coalition on Tuesday - and to which it is connected - the equity market wipe out had many different causes, none of which should have come as a surprise as they had been detailed for months: unrealistic financial projections, lack of discernible operating and economic improvements, slowing corporate uptake, dramatic increases in debt, refusal to acknowledge practical impediments to data center buildouts (aside from the rising political opposition) and the growing dependence of the economy and the markets on a shrinking core of AI companies. Markets are up slightly this morning, so this may either be a one-day freakout or a harbinger of more fundamental change, but either way, it is another warning that the prolonged AI trade is not likely to continue in the same way. JL 

David Uberti and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

Thursday's stock-market wipeout left few corners of the tech sector unscathed. Asian chip makers, Texas power producers, New Jersey cloud-computing providers, Silicon Valley software makers, contractors and data-center developers all tumbled, in a selloff that appeared to feed on itself. Traders making highly leveraged bets got crushed, but so did those who doubted a recent pullback in AI stocks would get worse. It did, from the opening bell. cracks began to show in risky corners of the AI trade where companies amassed huge piles of debt to grow. Underwhelming earnings reports by Amazon and Alphabet sent tremors across trading desks. Then, the power shift in Washington, as well as the election of governors who promised data-center restrictions, exposed the stock market’s fragility. The yearslong bull market left the major U.S. benchmark indexes top-heavy and tech-dependent. The unwind of bullish bets using borrowed money compounded the pressure. 

decrease; down pointing triangleand Alphabet GOOGL -2.20%decrease; down pointing triangle sent tremors across trading desks.the power shift in Washington, as well as the election of several governors who have promised data-center restrictions, exposed the stock market’s fragility. The yearslong bull market left the major U.S. benchmark indexes top-heavy and tech-dependent.

Russia's Undertrained and Manned Motor Rifle Brigades Bear Brunt of Losses

The core of the Russian army is made up of Motor Rifle Brigades - motorized infantry. 

And they are being decimated by ineffective, often suicidal tactics, poor training, inadequate equipment and corrupt officers. Their casualties are staggering. JL

Amarsanaa Jegal reports in Medium:

"In the fifth year of the Russia–Ukraine war, the Russian force suffering the heaviest losses is its infantry. Motor rifle brigades, which bear the main burden of the Russian's offensive operations, are losing enormous numbers of soldiers.” The list of the heaviest losses is headed by the 15th Motor Rifle Brigade. Reports suggest its soldiers suffer not only in frontline combat but also as a result of violence, intimidation and demands for money by their commanders. The 30th Motor Rifle Brigade, based in Samara, came second. All five of the motor rifle brigades with the highest losses took part in the battle for Avdiivka, where Russia lost 16,000 men. The poor training of Russian motor rifle units had been highlighted early in the war.

On November 1, Russia Lost One Soldier Every 35 Seconds

The scale of Russian losses has become so enormous that they have become mind-numbing - at least for those who are not the casualties themselves. JL

Jimmy Rushton reports in the Kyiv Independent:

Russian Russian forces suffered a record 2,500 personnel losses on Nov. 1, approximately one every 35 seconds. "These are the enemy's largest daily losses during the entire full-scale war," October 2026 was the deadliest month for Russian troops since the start of the full-scale invasion. Russian forces suffered 54,400 personnel losses in October, roughly equivalent to the population of Vorkuta, a city in Russia.

North Korean Hackers' Fake Job Interviews, AI Made $6.3 Billion Binance Heist

There is a delicious irony in the fact that a crypto firm known for its attempts to evade regulation and taxes was hacked and ripped off by a North Korean government known for its expertise in exploiting in firms' security defenses. Karma. JL

Cris Tolomia reports in Quartz:

Binance said hackers from North Korea used fake job interviews and malicious software to steal $6.3 billion from the exchange. The attack began in June, when a staffer who builds Binance's wallets installed a doctored AI tool. Binance spotted the problem and swapped out the device, though the hacker learned the employee's role and those of others on the wallet team. In September, someone posing as a project director approached a second software engineer through a job hunting platform. That engineer took part in an interview on a social messaging app with someone posing as the CEO of an invented company, and was told to download an assignment that held a "malicious code repository." On Oct. 20, the attackers leveraged an internal AI along with the second engineer's infected computer to seize command of the devices belonging to two other engineers. On Oct. 29, the attackers logged in with stolen credentials and ran a malicious script that kicked off the theft,

Six KM Tunnel Allows Ukraine To Move Troops, Supplies Underground

A clever innovation by Ukrainian engineering troops, the tunnel permits the movement of men, supplies and medical evacuations with less risk from drone attack. JL

Valentyna Romanenko reports in Ukraine Pravda:

An underground tunnel nearly six kilometres long has been constructed in Donetsk Oblast for Ukrainian forces, ensuring the uninterrupted movement of personnel and vehicles, the supply of ammunition and provisions, and medical evacuation. The engineering structure ensures concealed movement. Devised by military engineers, the 81st Airmobile Brigade used an amphibious transport vehicle throughout the entire winter to conduct medical evacuations.

Continuing To Defy Trump, Ukraine Strikes More Russian Oil Refineries

In continued defiance of Trump's requests that Ukraine stop attacking Russian refineries, Ukrainian drones attacked one of the Kremlin's largest refineries at Yaroslavl. 

Given the electoral beating Trump suffered yesterday, expect Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries to escalate. JL

The Kyiv Post reports:

A Ukrainian drone attack struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight on Nov. 3, damaging infrastructure, injuring two employees and sparking multiple fires. At least five large fires were visible across the facility. The latest attack comes as Ukraine has resumed its campaign against Russian oil infrastructure following a nearly two-week lull in reported strikes on the country’s refineries. The pause followed mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump, who urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop targeting Russian oil refineries and diesel production facilities.

AI and Its Billionaires Were On the Midterm Ballot. And They Lost

Like Donald Trump, with whom it has become inextricably allied, AI was on the ballot yesterday even though its name never actually appeared. 

The arrogant disregard for the impact of data centers on electricity and water costs - to say nothing of their size and noise - as well as the billions and trillions being bandied about from which Americans well knew they would never financially benefit and might well suffer, all contributed to the historic Democratic electoral sweep. And from Elon Musk's flaunting of his wealth, to Jeff Bezos wedding to Sam Altman's and Mark Zucckerberg's smug disregard for public concerns, the faces of AI were as much an issue as the technology itself. While their money cannot be gainsaid, expect some sort of regulatory imposition to follow. JL

Calder McHugh and colleagues report in Politico:

Elon Musk spent a half-billion dollars, only to see his home of Texas go blue. Allies like Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and their Silicon Valley firm — as well as OpenAI’s Greg Brockman — plowed tens of millions of dollars into super PACs that suffered major upsets. Crypto money was crushed in Ohio, Democrats who ran against Big Tech claimed decisive victories Tuesday. Democrats who won Senate races in South Carolina and Ohio cast their opponents as the faces of a data center build-out and frequently name-checked “Big Tech” as a primary American villain. Democrat gubernatorial winners — Amy Acton in Ohio, Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, David Crowley in Wisconsin, Troy Jackson in Maine and Jocelyn Benson in Michigan — all supported a data center moratorium. “The American people rejected the alliance of Big AI and Big Government. Voters rejected Republicans in part because they were bought and paid for by AI billionaires,”