USA - New York’s mayor urged residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping faucets and otherwise conserve water, issuing a drought watch Saturday after a parched October in the city and in much of the United States. A drought watch is the first of three potential levels of water-saving directives, and Eric Adams pitched it in a social media video as a step to try to ward off the possibility of a worse shortage in the United States’ most populous city. He ordered all city agencies to get ready to implement their water-conservation plans, and asked the public to do its part by, for example, turning off taps while brushing teeth and sweeping sidewalks instead of hosing them down. The dry weather constrained shipping on the Mississippi River and contributed to wildfires in the midwest and the east.

USA - Back in August, when discussing Buffett's ongoing liquidation of his Bank of America stake, we said that "Berkshire's rising cash stockpiles merely reflect the firm's inability to find deals in today's overvalued and weak economic environment", little did we know just how accurate that would be, because just one day later we and the rest of the market were stunned to learn that far from only dumping Bank of America, the 94-year-old Omaha billionaire had been busy quietly liquidating his most iconic holding in an unprecedented selling spree that sent Berkshire's cash pile soaring by a record $88 billion to an all time high $277 billion at the end of Q2.

USA - The Government is not going to ride in on a white horse to save you when global events hit the fan. Did you know that FEMA is not answering nearly half of the calls that it receives from those seeking disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene? Politico spoke to a man named Mike Toomey in North Carolina that desperately needs help after floodwaters destroyed his home. When Toomey called FEMA last week, nobody answered his call. Instead, he got a recording that informed him that he was 675th in line to be helped… Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina over a month ago. And people like Toomey still can’t get help from FEMA even though they are reaching out. In fact, Politico says that “hundreds of thousands of people” have not been able to get the assistance from the government that they are hoping for…

EUROPE - Households should be prepared for cyberattacks and the use of chemical weapons, a report has warned. EU citizens should start stockpiling three days’ worth of goods in order to be ready for various potential disasters, including a nuclear conflict, a report on the bloc’s civilian and military preparedness has warned. Published on Wednesday by former Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, the initiative is part of the EU’s push to make the bloc more resilient in the face of supposedly mounting threats, ranging from natural disasters to a major military conflict. The report encourages EU households to stockpile “basic self-sufficiency” goods that would last for at least 72 hours for fear of potential shortages in case of “armed aggression through conventional means” or other hostile activities such as “cyberattacks or the use of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons.”

RUSSIA - While people are busy watching the US election news, Russia is making moves in Donbass that the West would rather ignore. Meanwhile, India and China are de-escalating tensions in a disputed border zone, with troop withdrawals and joint patrols following the BRICS summit in Kazan. Don't get distracted by the noises of the Western Media Circus, expect similar events and headlines they'll try and gloss over/sweep under the rug.

NORTH KOREA - The projectile remained airborne for 87 minutes, reaching an altitude of 7,000km, Japanese and South Korean officials have said. North Korea has test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a warning to its regional adversaries, according to the state-run KCNA news agency. In a statement on Thursday, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Pyongyang described the test as “crucial,” adding that it was ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The missile launch “updated the recent records of the strategic missile capability of the DPRK and demonstrated the modernity and creditability of its world’s most powerful strategic deterrent,” the spokesman added.

USA - We live at a time when it is expected that chaos will follow virtually every big event. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, there was looting. In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, there was looting. The war in the Middle East has sparked wild protests and riots all over the country this year. And even if something really good happens, many people just consider it to be an excuse for even more rioting, looting and violence. For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers just won the World Series. But instead of celebrating peacefully, young men in Los Angeles looted stores and threw fireworks at police… When a team wins a major championship, it is basically expected that citizens of that city will start rioting and looting. If this is what they will do when they are “celebrating”, what will they do when they are extremely angry? You might want to think about that. Close to half the country is not going to want to be governed by whoever wins this election. We are headed for unprecedented societal chaos no matter how this election turns out.

INDIA - The world’s 4th-largest military spender is kicking its dependency on foreign weapons. For many decades after independence, the Indian armed forces imported military hardware from long-term friend and strategic ally the Soviet Union, and subsequently Russia. France, too, became a significant source for military aviation supplies to India. Israel emerged as an important source from the 1990s, as did the US after 2008.

RUSSIA - The so-called rules-based order imposed by the US and its allies on the global scene is an unstable structure, which is about to fall apart, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said in an exclusive interview with RT. Creating crises such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in various places is how the US is trying to rule the world, Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, told the broadcaster on Saturday. “So, the more crises they create, the better, they think, the situation is for America... It makes money from weapons, supplies, and by allocating money to its defense industry,” he said.

USA - JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is sounding an alarm most would rather not hear: World War III has, he believes, already begun. Dimon points to escalating conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, alongside a strengthening alliance among US adversaries like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. This growing geopolitical alignment, according to Dimon, is shifting global power dynamics and increasing the threat of a widespread, potentially catastrophic conflict.

UK - When a nation’s warships avoid the Red Sea because of the Houthis, that nation looks bad. They’ve got the ships and got the men. They didn’t have the money to arm them too. On Monday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius decided that a German Navy task group (of two ships) returning to Europe from the Indo-Pacific would not run the Houthi missile gauntlet in the southern Red Sea. They will instead go south around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa.

IRAN - Iran is preparing a fresh attack on Israel within days, intelligence officials believe. Tehran is expected to launch the attack from Iraqi territory using drones and ballistic missiles, possibly before the US election, Israeli officials told Axios. The attack would be intended as a response to Israeli strikes launched against Iranian military sites over the weekend. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran had the right to defend itself, describing Israel’s strikes as “evil committed by the Zionist regime”.

MIDDLE EAST - Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has declared that Hezbollah’s newly appointed leader won’t remain in charge “for very long.” On Tuesday, October 29, Naim Qassem was named as the successor to Hassan Nasrallah. Naim Qassem has served as Hezbollah’s second-in-command under Nasrallah for decades, Fox News explains. This year, he has also taken on a prominent role as the group’s spokesperson, coinciding with escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. In a post on the social media platform X, Israel’s Defense Minister emphasized that Naim Qassem’s appointment will be “temporary.”

USA - On Friday, the State Department approved two potential arms deals for Taiwan worth about $2 billion, drawing a sharp rebuke from China. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said one deal is for three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment and has an estimated cost of $1.16 billion. The other deal is for radar systems and is worth about $828 million. The approval of the arms sales begins a period when Congress could potentially block the deals. But the sales are not expected to face any opposition since there is strong bipartisan support for arming Taiwan. In response to the approval of the arms sales, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that China “strongly condemns and firmly opposes it, and has lodged solemn representations with the US” and warned Beijing will “take all necessary measures to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.”

RUSSIA - The group of emerging economies currently accounts for 23.3% of world merchandise trade, according to Ernst & Young India. The BRICS group could overtake the G7 countries in terms of its share of global merchandise exports by 2026, Ernst and Young India has projected. According to a report issued on Wednesday, BRICS nations’ combined share of global merchandise exports rose from 10.7% in 2000 to 23.3% last year. In contrast, the G7 share has declined from 45.1% to 28.9%. The share of the rest of the world in global merchandise exports has increased slightly from 44.2% to 47.9% during the same period.