🇦🇱 Albania’s PM Edi Rama on the protests:

From the very beginning of the Flamingo Revolution, public dissatisfaction was accompanied by a wave of Russian influence across social media.

Tens of thousands of fake profiles were created specifically to pretend to be Albanians who wanted to protect nature.

They were mobilized, just as thousands and thousands of others were mobilized by the terrorist republic of Iran to protect nature in Albania.

How can these things be coincidences? These are not coincidences. There are no coincidences here.

🔗 Clash Report (@clashreport)

🇪🇺 During the latter half of 2026, a period of unrest spread across Western and Southern Europe. Demonstrations have occurred in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Albania, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Ireland. Though largely unconnected, these events usually have occurred against the backdrop of affordability crises and calls for better living and working conditions.

🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_European_unrest

🇱🇹🤝🇵🇰 Lithuania Agrees to Visa Facilitation for Pakistanis

Pakistan and Lithuania discussed visa and consular facilitation as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral ties. The talks covered measures to ease movement between the two countries for professionals, students and business personnel.

The discussions took place virtually during the eighth round of bilateral political consultations, according to the Foreign Office spokesperson.

During the consultations, both delegations explored ways to increase collaboration between their private sectors. They placed particular emphasis on information technology and digital services.

Lithuania is a country of just 2.9 million people.

🔗 https://propakistani.pk/2026/10/20/lithuania-agrees-to-visa-facilitation-for-pakistanis/

🇫🇷 The French 10 year bond yield as surpassed the 5% mark, the highest since June 2002.

Meanwhile, the premium investors ‌demand ⁠to hold French bonds over benchmark 10-year German Bunds was at around 157 bps, nearing levels last seen in 2011.

The gap between French ​and German ​yields reflects ⁠the extra return investors demand for lending to the former.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸🇮🇳 Vivek Ramaswamy proudly announced that his campaign is pouring an additional $4 million into a vicious attack ad campaign against Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton.

The ad features Acton’s estranged mother who testifies that her daughter is an untrustworthy liar. Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, married and cohabitated with the man indicted for sexually abusing Acton at age 12, before Acton was removed from her mother’s household.

Arthur lost custody of Amy Acton and Amy’s brother, Phillip Sterns, due to habitual neglect and sexual abuse, but remained married to him afterward.

Acton stated that she has not heard from her mother since they appeared in a courtroom together and were separated in 1978. Americans of all political affiliations are justifiably horrified by Vivek’s actions, but Ramaswamy, who was endorsed by JD Vance and President Trump for the Ohio governorship, has only doubled down.

🔗 https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2026/10/21/ramaswamys-campaign-admits-making-controversial-ad-featuring-amy-actons-mother-will-spend-4-million-airing-it/

📎 AF Post

🇺🇸🇮🇳 US vice-president, James David Vance, refuses to condemn Vivek Ramaswamy for the reprehensible campaign ad attacking his Democratic rival, Amy Acton and chooses to chastise other GOP members who called Ramaswamy out

Q: "Ramaswamy's campaign put out a controversial ad featuring his opponent's mother. Some Republicans are backing away from that. Do you think that ad was appropriate?"

JD VANCE: "Well, I'll be honest with you. Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. My concern is who is gonna govern. I have to admit I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans who are whining more about that ad than they are about what the Democrats want to do".

🔗 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)

🇺🇸🇮🇳 Unearthed video: Vivek Ramaswamy mocks Amy Acton for being raped by her stepfather and abused by her biological mother, saying she "complains about what someone else did to her"

🔗 Headquarters (@HQNewsNow)

🇺🇦 Ukraine lawmaker estimates 500,000 soldiers absent without leave

About 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers have fled their positions on the frontline and another 1mn men are in hiding to avoid the compulsory draft, lawmaker Oleksandr Fedienko told Telegraf on October 15.

Fedienko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada's national security committee who chairs its cyberspace security subcommittee, gave both numbers as estimates, "but we do not know the exact figures," he said.

The 500,000 refers to AWOL cases of unauthorised absence from a unit, which Ukraine's military and courts call SZCh, the abbreviation for samovilne zalyshennia chastyny. He raised the figures to argue for legislation making life harder for men who stay off the military register, including restrictions on their access to banking and municipal services.

It is two and a half times the last count the government itself gave. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is facing a catastrophic manpower shortage as it continues to lose between 100-300 men a day, according to various estimates, which is still five to ten-times less than Russia. However, the authorities are scrapping the bottom of the barrel as the pool of military aged potential conscripts is almost depleted, whereas Russia has yet to fully tap its population of 150mn people with a general mobilisation.

Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi has ordered an audit and asked  the Security Service of Ukraine and military intelligence to establish how many servicemen are absent and how many men are outside the military register altogether, Interfax-Ukraine reported on October 20.

Iuliia Mendel, a Ukrainian journalist who was President Vladimir Zelensky's press secretary from 2019 to 2021 and  now a vocal critic of his government argued that service is open-ended, with no fixed term and no reliable rotation. For many Ukrainian men that means conscription is a death-sentance with the realistic options narrowing to death, permanent injury or leaving. Zelensky placed her under Ukrainian sanctions by decree in September, in what was widely seen as a political move.

Then defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov gave parliament the last official pair of numbers in January: 200,000 absent and 2mn men wanted for evading mobilisation. "I don't want to be a populist - I want to be a realist," he told lawmakers. Fedienko's absentee figure is two and a half times that, and his evasion figure half of it.

Nine months on, the official pair of numbers has not moved. AP reported on October 8 that Ukrainian officials were still citing about 2mn men evading service and roughly 200,000 absent or deserted, with some front-line units at half strength.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/ukraine-lawmaker-estimates-500-000-soldiers-absent-without-leave-477664/

🇾🇪⚔️🇸🇦 An Ansarallah/Houthi drone targeted the Shaybah oil field on the KSA-Emirati border

The KSA said the drone was "intercepted" but that "falling debris" killed two foreign workers and injured two more.

Reuters published a thorough investigation last week detailing how interception rates published by GCC countries were fabricated with attacks written off as "damaged by falling debris" while in reality they destroyed by direct hits from Iranian missiles and drones.

@CIG_telegram