‘How Do You Like My Garbage Truck?’ – Ukraine at War Update for Oct. 31

With the US presidential elections just five days away, both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president held rallies in the swing state of North Carolina on Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the capital, Raleigh, and Republican nominee Donald Trump fired up his political base in the more rural area of Rocky Mount, about 45 miles to the east.

On average, polls show Trump leading Harris by roughly a point (49 percent to 48 percent, within the margin of error) in this state that voted for Joe Biden over Trump by about the same margin in 2020. A Reuters poll on Tuesday gives Harris the edge by one percent (44 percent to 43 percent) nationally, but with 16 electoral votes up for grabs in North Carolina (tied for the eighth-most among all states, along with another swing state, Georgia) all eyes were on the Tar Heel State on Wednesday.

One poll by Washington-insider newspaper, The Hill, noted that voters in North Carolina were about two percent more likely to go to the polls this time because of the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, which devastated the mountainous, western parts of the state with flooding in late September. What that means for either party is up for debate, but right-wing disinformation campaigns about the response of Biden’s administration to the hurricane appear to have found their target among the less-educated voters of Appalachia, where some residents even threatened federal emergency workers at gunpoint in October.

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As usual, both speeches were thin on foreign policy, skirting the issue of Ukraine entirely. But in her other recent rallies, Harris has mentioned Trump’s dangerous penchant for appeasing dictators such as Russian leader Vladimir Putin, while Trump’s foreign-policy remarks mostly centered on Beijing, announcing, to the disbelief of many economists, that he would impose steep tariffs on any imports coming from China and every other country around the world, therefore making goods more expensive in the US across the board. (When the prices of imports go up, economists explained in recent media interviews, domestic producers can charge more and still be competitive.)

North Carolina is one of seven closely watched states in these presidential elections. The others, which could go either way on Nov. 5, are Arizona (11 electoral votes), Georgia (16), Pennsylvania (19), Michigan (15), Nevada (6) and Wisconsin (10). Candidates need 270 electoral votes to win, and the other 43 states are deemed very unlikely to change their affiliations in these elections.

Harris is off to a campaign stop in Wisconsin on Thursday, while former Democratic president Bill Clinton has been delivering her message at various locations in Pennsylvania this week. The Vice President campaigned in Philadelphia, the largest and most Democratic-aligned city in that state on Oct. 27, while her VP pick, Tim Walz, will stop in Harrisburg, PA, on Thursday after other stops this week in Georgia. On Monday, Walz will appear at two locations in Wisconsin, before joining Harris in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The final stop for the Harris campaign will be, again, in Philadelphia on Sunday, where the candidate will visit a local church, a barbershop, and a Puerto Rican restaurant, after a comedian at a Trump rally recently described that US protectorate as a “floating island of trash.”

Biden then referred to Trump supporters as “garbage” themselves, presenting another gaffe for the Harris campaign to clean up, much as the unsuccessful 2016 Democratic candidate against Trump, Hillary Clinton, later regretted her campaign remarks about Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”

As for Trump’s campaign, his VP pick, JD Vance, will cover Michigan and Wisconsin this week, but Trump also held a rally on Wednesday night in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he was joined by local football legend Brett Favre. Trump will move on to Henderson, Nevada, on Thursday before returning to Wisconsin on Friday for an event in Milwaukee, where the Republicans held their national convention this summer.

As he arrived in Wisconsin for his Wednesday night speech, the former game-show host, Trump, organized a garbage truck to pick him up, asking reporters at the airport, “How do you like my garbage truck?”

Oslo offers more than €100 million for weapons and parts for F-16s after Norway pledged six more warplanes

Norway has already gifted Ukraine six American-made F16 fighter aircraft, but on Wednesday the Nordic country announced NOK 1.3 billion (€109 million or about $118 million) for their weapons and maintenance.

In a visit to the southern port of Odesa, Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram announced the additional military support for Ukraine for the maintenance and use of F-16 fighters, which will be disbursed as a grant through the US JUMPSTART mechanism.

“With this contribution, Norway helps to improve Ukraine’s air defense, in cooperation with the other participants in the Air Force Capability Coalition,” Oslo said in a statement. The Norwegian government reported that it would officially present this expenditure to its parliament by December, Ukrainska Pravda explained.

In addition, the Norwegian and Ukrainian defense ministers together signed a memorandum of understanding on materiel cooperation. Gram said this would help Norway locate solutions to support Ukraine with weapons other than those from Norwegian stockpiles.

Previously, Oslo had granted €120 million ($130 million) to Romania for a US-made Patriot air-defense system in return for the one they had given to Kyiv.

Moscow’s forces injure at least 12 in Wednesday night air attack on Kharkiv

According to local authorities, Russian forces launched guided bombs at an apartment building in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Wednesday night, wounding at least a dozen civilians. Some reports have increased the casualty toll to 17.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram, “The emergency services have been dispatched to assess the site of the impact… Preliminary information indicates that a guided aerial bomb hit a multi-story building, there are casualties,” he added.

The region’s military administration chief, Oleh Syniehubov, noted that Moscow’s forces struck Kharkiv’s Saltivskyi district: “There is an impact on the fourth floor of a multi-story building. Preliminary reports indicate that there are casualties, including some trapped under the rubble. Emergency services are currently conducting checks.”

The mayor later specified that the bottom six floors of the nine-story residence “are completely destroyed. As of now, we have information about 12 injured,” he said, adding that there may still be people trapped under the rubble.