‘10,000 Won’t Come Close to What the Russians Have Lost’ – Ukraine at War Update for Nov. 1

Democratic presidential nominee Harris gave her “final speech” at the site of Trump’s infamous “January 6th” Speech

The Democratic party’s nominee for the US presidential race Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her final campaign keynote speech at the National Mall in Washington, DC. ahead of the election, which officially takes place Nov. 5 but many from the US electorate will have voted before then by mail or through early voting stations.

Harris spoke from a podium near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the site of the storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump’s voters in their attempt to stop Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, from certifying election results as required by his constitutionally mandated duty on Jan. 6, 2021, following the 2020 election.

Harris recalled that the Republican candidate had called for the non-recognition of the election results of 2020 and disobedience to the Constitution, while his supporters raised a gallows on Capitol grounds and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

The date of “January 6” leaving out the year is now a phrase denoting the attempted coup, much in the way “9-11” recalls the Al-Qaeda terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Harris said Trump plans to “walk into the White House with a list of enemies,” while she “will walk in with a list of things to do.”

She said, “It’s time for a new generation of leaders,” and “America has been consumed by division for too long,” so “we need to stop pointing fingers and join hands instead.

Harris spoke out against the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, reminding that Americans are a “nation of migrants,” so asylum seekers should be treated according to their actions not their national origins.

Both Trump and his would-be vice president have falsely accused legal Haitian immigrants in Ohio, who are in the US as officially recognized asylum-seekers, of catching and eating their neighbors' pet cats and dogs.

Harris has also repeatedly hammered Trump’s long history of friendly association with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, telling a Tuesday rally that Putin and other strongmen were “rooting” for Trump, knowing he is “easy to manipulate with flattery and favor.”

Republican presidential nominee Trump held a campaign event from a garbage truck in response to Biden’s reaction to a controversial Trump rally “joke”

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Wisconsin from the cab of a MAGA-branded garbage truck, attempting to shame President Biden for comments in which he, according to reporting in The Hill, called Trump’s supporters “garbage.”

Biden’s statement was in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico as a “floating pile of garbage” made at Trump's official Madison Square Garden campaign event in New York City. The Big Apple is home to the largest number of Puerto Ricans originally from the US territory whose residents are US citizens and who are eligible to vote in US federal elections.

Referring to the situation, Biden allegedly remarked that “the only pile of garbage is Donald Trump’s supporters.”

The Biden administration staff claimed that the President’s words were misunderstood, and Kamala Harris distanced herself from the scandal, “condemning comments about people because of their voting preferences.” 

Trump responded to Biden’s remark by donning an orange reflective vest, typical worn by garbage workers, and rode in front of supporters from Wisconsin in a garbage truck emblazoned with Trump’s decade-old red hat slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Trump said he rented the garbage truck “in honor of Kamala and Joe.”

US Secretaries of State and Defense meet with South Korean counterparts, share intel on North Korean troops and weapons delivered to Russia

The United States said Thursday that up to 8,000 North Korean troops have reached Russia's Kursk region bordering Ukraine, trained and ready for combat, as Pyongyang fired a long-range missile which ramped up tensions days before the US election.

President Vladimir Putin has brought in troops and military hardware from North Korea, the first time that Russia has invited foreign forces onto its soil in more than a century.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that according to US intelligence 8,000 of the anticipated 10,000 North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk border region.

“We've not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” Blinken told reporters at a presser following a meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the South Korean foreign and defense ministers.

Blinken said that Russia has been training North Korean troops to “handle artillery and drones and to clear trenches... indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in frontline operations,”

Austin said the deployment of North Korean troops in Russian uniforms "just underscores how badly Putin's war has gone."

“This 10,000 won't come close to replacing the numbers that the Russians have lost,” Austin said, alluding to the recent estimates of over 10,000 Russian troop casualties per week.

Austin said: “Make no mistake, if these North Korean troops engage in combat or combat support operations against Ukraine, theywould make themselves legitimate military targets.”

“More than 1,000 missiles have been provided,” to Russia, in addition to troops heading there to fight in Ukraine, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said Thursday at a news conference in Washington, saying North Korea had also sent millions of munitions pieces.

North Korea, badly in need of cash, is being reimbursed at about $2,000 per week for each soldier Pyongyang provides to Moscow.