—👑 🇷🇸 WATCH: Prince Filip Karađorđević, heir to the Serbian throne, joins students celebrating their election victory on the streets of Belgrade.

🔗 Mario ZNA

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇮🇱/🇷🇸 UPDATE — Attacker killed outside Israeli Embassy in Belgrade

➡️ An assailant carrying two knives attacked a Serbian Gendarmerie officer guarding the embassy shortly after midnight. The officer suffered a cut to his cheek and shot the attacker dead. Prosecutors say the officer acted in self-defence.

➡️ Caretaker Interior Minister Ivica Dačić says the attacker was believed to be a minor and had been monitored as an Islamic State supporter. His identity has not yet been confirmed. Serbia has raised its terrorism threat level to its highest setting and increased security at key sites.

➡️ Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the embassy was closed at the time and no embassy staff were injured. The investigation is ongoing.

🔗 Serbian government · Prosecutor’s findings · Israel’s response

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

#BREAKING | 🇮🇱 🇬🇷 🇧🇬 — ZIM-operated container ship Contship Jet sinks off Bulgaria after drone attack

The Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet, managed by Greece’s Contships Management and operating on Israeli shipping company ZIM’s Levant–Black Sea route, sank overnight in the Black Sea after being struck by three maritime drones on Wednesday, 28 October.⁠

The vessel was en route from Haifa, Israel, to Constanța, Romania, carrying 421 containers (including some with lithium-ion batteries, flammable liquids, acids and other hazardous materials) when it was hit approximately 17–21 nautical miles east of Cape Kaliakra, within Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone but outside territorial waters.

All 18 crew members (14 Filipinos and 4 Ukrainians) abandoned ship and were safely rescued by Bulgarian Navy and Border Police vessels and taken to Varna. About 20 containers fell overboard. Initial inspections found no visible pollution; seawater sampling is underway.

No group has claimed responsibility. The incident is the latest in a series of drone strikes on commercial vessels in the western Black Sea this month and occurred as defence ministers from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey met in Sofia to discuss maritime security.

🌐 — The Global Eye | Subscribe ✈️

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦🇧🇬 Footage showing an unmanned maritime drone approaching the Liberian-flagged container ship CONTSHIP JET (IMO 9348625) from the starboard side, preparing to attack, has emerged.

The video was published by Bulgarian maritime outlet Maritime bg.

The vessel was struck by three maritime drones and sank overnight in the Black Sea off Bulgaria’s coast. All 18 crew members were rescued.

🔗 GeoInsider (@InsiderGeo)

🇧🇬❌🇷🇴 Bulgaria's PM blames Romania for provoking Russia into attacking commercial ships in the Black Sea

Radev stopped short of identifying Russia as the party responsible for the attacks, while implying that Bucharest’s accusations against Moscow had contributed to the escalation.

“I just want to mention the case of Romania. Romania came forward and said, ‘We have no evidence, but we know very well that Russia is responsible for these attacks and we condemn them categorically.’ What happened? Two ships, one of them just a few days ago, were hit and sunk in the most defiant way possible in Romanian territorial waters,” Radev said, according to Euronews Romania.

The Bulgarian prime minister also referred to his own position towards Moscow, claiming that he was the only head of government among Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey to have summoned the Russian ambassador to express his views, according to trud.bg, as quoted by Profit.ro.

“When I make accusations, I must have clear evidence before doing so. I cannot act on the basis of slogans,” Radev said.

The Romanian MFA handed over a protest note to the Russian ambassador in Bucharest over the many drone incursions into the country the past year. A few months ago, Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, expelled some of the Russian embassy's staff over a drone explosion that injured two people in the border city of Galați but did not even issue a protest note to Kiev when the latter detonated a unmanned surface vehicle (USV) self-detonated inside the port of Constanța while chasing an oil tanker carrying Kazakh oil because the oil tanker departed from the port of Novorossiysk the main export route for Kazakh and Central Asian oil to Romania and Europe.

Romania has long enforced a double standard for violations of its sovereignty, expelling Russian diplomats and issuing strongly worded letters to Moscow but ignoring every similar action committed by Kiev.

Politicians in Bucharest unlike those in Bulgaria still firmly believe in the "ironclad" security guarantees given to them by Western officials, a belief which has been put to the test by recent attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea which is directly harming Romania's trade. Russia won't forgive Romania for the support and aid it sent to Kiev.

🔗 https://www.romania-insider.com/society/bulgarias-pm-blames-romania-provoking-russia

—🇷🇸/🇧🇦 WATCH: Student List activists painted over a mural portraying Ratko Mladić with the word “Hero” in a central Subotica underpass as part of the student movement’s “Gradi pa posadi” (“Build, Then Plant”) post-election cleanup campaign.

🔗 Al Jazeera Balkans

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

#BREAKING | 🇮🇹 🇧🇦 — Italian Chinook crashes near Brčko, Bosnia, during EUFOR operation; three reported dead, unconfirmed.

🌐 — The Global Eye | Subscribe ✈️

—🇷🇸/🇽🇰 WATCH: Activist Miodrag Kapor and fellow campaigners painted over a “When the Army Returns to Kosovo” mural on Sremska Street in central Belgrade.

➡️ Kapor said they were continuing a campaign against nationalist messages after the election.

➡️ He criticised the positions of both the outgoing ruling party and the election-winning Student List on Kosovo. The action should not be attributed to the Student List.

🔗 Kapor’s video and statement · Local report

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇩/🇷🇴 The Economist | If the prospect of EU membership is postponed or watered down, one expert explains, the credibility of a “Plan B”, in which Moldova joins Romania, increases.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🖥 🇺🇸🔽Over 60% of the S&P 500's components are now in bear market territory, down -20% or more from their record highs.

Four of the Magnificent 7 stocks are now in bear market territory, with these seven names erasing a combined -$4 trillion in market cap since their highs.

We are in a "stealth" bear market.

📎 KobeissiLetter