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(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. shares tumbled about 50% from their all-time high, amid a broader selloff in the US stock market that has hit growth and technology companies especially hard. 

The electric vehicle-maker’s shares closed down 7.6% to $204.99 on Friday, taking its market capitalization to $642 billion. The decline has now sliced in half the stock’s Nov. 4 record closing high of $409.97. 

The plunge comes amid a wider meltdown in the markets, as the specter of an economic slowdown rattles investors already bracing for the impact of rising inflation and higher interest rates. Riskier growth stocks with rich valuations have borne the brunt of the selloff. 

Tesla’s own list of woes are long: Vehicle delivery in the third quarter took a hit due to logistical troubles, and some analysts warned that the climbing prices of the company’s cars may also weigh on demand at some point. On top of that, Tesla’s factory in Shanghai has faced disruptions due to Covid-19 lockdowns in the city. The company has also dealt with supply shortages and a surge in raw material costs, as has almost every other automaker around the globe. 

Chief Executive Elon Musk’s highly public attempt to first buy Twitter Inc., then to walk away from the deal and buy it again, has also been a drag on the stock, due to concerns that the company’s leader is spreading himself too thin between several challenging ventures. 

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(Bloomberg) — The Pentagon confirmed it’s talking with Elon Musk, who has threatened to stop funding Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite communications system, but pointedly added that the US is also looking into other options.

“We are engaged in talking with SpaceX,” the space exploration company owned by Musk, Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Friday. At the same time, she said, the US, Ukraine and allies are also “assessing our options” with other communications companies.

Musk, the world’s richest person, threatened Friday to cut financial support for the Starlink high-speed broadband system that has become an essential communications tool as Ukraine combats Russia’s invasion. He said SpaceX can’t carry the cost indefinitely. His move followed sharp criticism from Kyiv for Musk’s public comments suggesting the government cede territory in exchange for peace with Russia.

Responding to recent comments from a Ukrainian envoy that he should “f*** off” for his proposals, which included UN-monitored referendums in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Musk retorted on Twitter on Friday: “We’re just following his recommendation.”

As well as helping Ukraine’s forces on the ground, Starlink terminals have supported infrastructure across the country, and any move to withdraw them could potentially hinder progress in counteroffensives against Russian troops. It would also risk a backlash not just from Ukraine but also its allies who have provided financial and military support for months without conditions.

SpaceX has an established relationship with the Pentagon, Singh noted, having won contracts for national security space launches. 

SpaceX Correspondence

In a statement later, she added, “We can confirm the department received correspondence from SpaceX about the funding of Starlink, their satellite communications product in Ukraine. We remain in communication with SpaceX about this and other topics.” CNN has reported that SpaceX warned the Pentagon it may no longer partially fund Starlink in Ukraine unless the US military provides tens of millions of dollars of support per month.

On Friday, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to play down the feud. “Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of the war,” he tweeted. Ukraine “will find a solution to keep #Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.”

There was no indication that Musk was intending immediate action to withdraw Starlink from Ukraine. SpaceX “is not asking to recoup past expenses” on Starlink services in Ukraine, he said in another post, but it can’t sustain the financial aid or send thousands more terminals to Ukraine. 

Starlink terminals in Ukraine are using data as much as 100 times the amount of typical households, Musk said. A week ago he tweeted that Starlink in Ukraine had cost SpaceX $80 million, which would likely surpass $100 million by the end of the year. Musk’s net worth is $209.2 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation, has said previously the country is getting Starlink terminals free of charge, although he added there might be a different arrangement between Musk and the US Agency for International Development and European entities which provided Starlinks to Ukraine. 

Ukraine has 20,000 Starlink terminals, provided evenly by USAID, Poland, the European Union and private companies, according to an Oct. 5 report from state-run news agency Ukrinform that cited Ministry of Digitalization data.

Poland purchased 11,700 Starlink terminals for Ukraine, including 5,000 acquired by state-controlled refiner PKN Orlen SA, according to Janusz Cieszynski, the government official in charge of cybersecurity.

“SpaceX promised to cover the service cost for the terminals purchased by Orlen,” he said by phone. The Polish government, meanwhile, is “covering the full cost of service” for each terminal it bought “amounting to around $50 monthly” per device.

Musk angered Ukrainians — from Zelenskiy down — with his recent suggestion that Ukraine should seek a negotiated solution to the invasion by Russia and cede Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, for good. 

Musk also launched a Twitter poll asking citizens of recently annexed occupied parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea to decide if they want to live in Russia or Ukraine, days after Ukraine, Europe and the US denounced the annexation moves of President Vladimir Putin.

Ian Bremmer, head of political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in a note to clients this week that Musk told him about speaking recently with Putin. 

Bremmer said that conversation came before Musk posted his tweets urging Ukraine to find a negotiated solution to the war. Both Musk and the Kremlin subsequently denied he had spoken with Putin this year.

EXPLAINER: How Musk Sparked a Race to Send Satellites into ‘LEO’

(Updates with Pentagon confirming correspondence with SpaceX in eighth paragraph)

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

Even before sanctions cut off access to vital components and technologies for President Vladimir Putin’s defense industry, an internal Russian government review found years of attempts to reduce reliance on imports had largely failed.

Previously unreported assessments show a program with specific targets was put in place from 2019 to slash Russia’s dependence on Western parts for its arsenal by 2025 — everything from radar to advanced submarines to anti-missile defense systems. But an internal review of the plan 10 months before Putin invaded Ukraine found it was falling short on almost every metric.

Conversations with European officials including those familiar with the audit report highlight the protracted struggle by Russian companies and the trade ministry to move away from parts supplied by NATO member states and Ukraine. One of the Russian assessments explicitly warned the state’s defense procurement program could fail under a tougher sanctions regime, a European official said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.  

Information on Russia’s challenges sourcing components has been shared among a number of Western governments and fed into the discussions on trade penalties imposed since late February. 

Shortages of modern weapons have forced Russia to rely on models dating to the Soviet era, many of which are less accurate and reliable, according to US and European officials. They said the Kremlin is unlikely to be able to sustain the kinds of massive assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure seen this week, despite Putin’s threats to continue escalating.

Putin Says Has No Regrets About Ukraine Invasion After Reverses

Russia is already struggling to resupply its troops on the ground, has suffered heavy losses of tanks and aircraft, and is burning through its missile arsenal, those officials say. In Russia, senior officials have repeatedly said they are able to resupply their forces in Ukraine and Putin on Friday said he had no regrets about the invasion.

Since the war broke out the US, the European Union and others have also hit Moscow with hefty sanctions, including penalties designed to cut off access to semiconductors and other key components used in high-tech weaponry.

“The costs to Russia —  in people and equipment — are staggering,” Sir Jeremy Fleming, the director of Britain’s signals intelligence agency, said this week of the war in Ukraine. “We know — and Russian commanders on the ground know —  that their supplies and munitions are running out.”

The import substitution program was set up in 2014 in the aftermath of Russia’s previous invasion of Ukraine, and accelerated with detailed targets set from 2019. But what has been described to Bloomberg as a 20-page audit by the office of Russia’s prosecutor general in April 2021 —  covering a mammoth 177,058 components used in 278 types of military equipment — found widespread shortcomings. In 2020 alone, Russia had hoped for 18,047 substitutions covering 43 types of equipment but only managed 3,148 replacements across five items, the people said.

Kremlin officials have repeatedly said the import-replacement efforts across the economy have missed targets: Putin remarked in 2019 that, “in a number of cases as practice shows, obvious mistakes were made in the planning and organization of work on import substitution.”

Ukraine’s Allies Can’t Get Arms Fast Enough as Stockpiles Shrink

The trade minister was recently made a deputy prime minister, according to Russian state media, with greater powers to work on import substitution. The shortcomings have been discussed at meetings where public comments were made afterward.

Still, officials have said the efforts to limit reliance on foreign components allowed the industry to withstand the impact of sanctions imposed after the start of the war. “For some sectors, 100% import replacement isn’t that significant or necessary. But here we need it,” Putin told a group of defense-industry executives last month, calling for ensuring it “as quickly as possible.” 

The program for 2019 to 2025 aimed to swap imported technologies, electronics and essential goods for domestic equivalents or items produced from scratch, establish new supply chains and build a strategic stock of critical parts, one of the documents is said to show. A similar effort was established to replace nearly 640 components originating in Ukraine. 

The inspection reported some limited successes, the people said. It found nearly all the goals for a small number of radio and laser reconnaissance equipment were met. 

At the same time, the assessment showed that Ka-226.80 light, multi-purpose helicopters were allocated more than 230 million rubles worth of import substitution contracts, although they were not even part of the state arms procurement program. Efforts to produce analogue electronic components from scratch didn’t even get off the ground: Of the plan to develop 4,148 different analogues in 2020, Russia managed — none.  

One European official said the expectation is for a further degradation of Russian equipment and its armed forces more generally.  Some of Russia’s more advanced weapons are dependent on foreign components, such as cruise missiles, TU-22 bombers, submarines, the air defense system Nudol, and anti-aircraft radar.

Eight Years of Fighting Hardened Ukraine’s Army Into a Winner

Last year’s assessment, which includes an extensive list of examples, also found that billions of rubles worth of contracts with Russian entities were running late, the people said. The relevant ministries were unable to control the process and foreign components, including chemicals, specialist materials and electronics, were being covertly used in a number of development projects, according to one of the documents they cited.

Authorities have clearly recognized the extent of the problem.

According to the Kremlin, prosecutors were assigned by Putin to monitor the progress of the program by 2018. Then-Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said in July 2019 that “import substitution in the defense industry remains a problem.” His successor Igor Krasnov said in 2020 that it was still a matter of concern.

The audit also inadvertently highlights the extent to which European companies had contributed to Moscow’s weapons stocks for years, including after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014. 

The EU has since expanded its trade restrictions on Moscow. The bloc exported roughly 90 billion euros ($87 billion) to Russia in 2021, but nearly a third of that has been curtailed, with hundreds of items prohibited. Its most recent sanctions package includes prohibitions on several electronic components found in Russian weapons and aviation parts. The EU has also sanctioned semiconductors, quantum computing equipment and devices identified in Russian equipment used in Ukraine, as well as a few dozen individuals and entities linked to its military industrial complex.

The 2021 inspection includes issues with the following, the people said:

• The anti-missile and ballistic missile defense system 14Ts033 Nudol, where 1,548 tasks to substitute components were set but only 0.3%, including the supply of spare parts, had been achieved so far. The plan was to replace 30 components with domestic analogues but that work had not started.
• Early warning, long-range radar systems 1L119 Nebo-SVU and 55Zh6UM Nebo-UM. Work on replacing foreign components with domestic analogues had not started as of 2021, with targets to import spare parts met at 20% and 0.7%, respectively.
• GT-01 Murmansk-BN, a communications intelligence and jamming system that Russia claims has a range of 1,000km. At least 111 of its components were from EU and NATO nations and needed to be replaced, while the development of domestic equivalents had not started.
• Failure to meet targets for:
  • Yasen-class nuclear attack submarines, Russia’s quietest attack submarines, and older project 971M Akula-class submarines.
  • TU-22M3 bombers and Su-34 fighter bombers, alongside multiple types of missiles including guided air defense missile 9M96.
  • The IL-96 aircraft, a type of airplane also used by Putin to travel abroad.
  • Project 22350 class frigates, one of the more modern Russian vessels.
  • The air defense missile system Buk-M3.
  • Ka-52K attack helicopters.
  • Forpost drones.

The audit showed that nearly 100 contracts signed with Russian research institutes to develop domestic components since the annexation of Crimea had been delayed, the people said.

Attempts to replace Ukrainian components also underperformed in 2020, with 212 replacements on four types of equipment against a target of 260 substitutions for 12 types of equipment.

The same year, Moscow was able to establish a strategic supply of spare parts for just over a third of the 7,244 projects it had envisioned, the people said, citing the assessment. And of the 484 projects targeted for supply chain changes, only five saw progress.

“A reliance on Western components won’t stop Russia’s military machine but it will substantially slow down the pace at which Russia can regenerate military power,” according to Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. 

Russia, NATO Both Holding Nuclear Drills Despite Rising Tensions

”While it can find its way around export controls through evasion or substitution with lower quality Chinese or domestic parts, this will introduce challenges in terms of the cost of securing components by more circuitous routes and the quality of substitute components when those are used,” he said. “This in turn will limit Russia’s capacity for building capabilities at scale.”

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — As countries scrutinize mineral supply chains needed to fuel the clean energy transition, one potential source is hiding in junk drawers and trash cans all over the world. An estimated 5.3 billion phones will fall out of use this year, according to data from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) for the Global e-Waste Monitor — adding to what researchers call a largely untapped “urban mine” that could be used for new technology like solar panels, wind turbines and electric-vehicle batteries. 

While return rates vary by country, globally just 17% of electronic waste is collected and recycled on average, according to Dr. Kees Baldé, a senior scientific specialist at UNITAR’s Sustainable Cycles Programme and a lead researcher behind the Global e-Waste Monitor. Many devices end up in landfills, which is both a hazardous pollution problem and a waste of vast quantities of metals and minerals, such as copper and palladium, that could be recycled into new products. In a press conference, Baldé noted that the mining, refining and processing involved in producing a mobile phone accounts for 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced throughout its life. By repurposing old phones, users can cut those emissions significantly. 

Boosting recycling will require cleaning out some closets, though. One survey by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Forum of 8,755 households in Europe found that a single household contains 74 electronic devices on average — from phones to laptops to toasters — 13 of which are not in use but kept around for potential reuse, repair, resale or sentimental reasons. Mobile phones are particularly susceptible to what the UNITAR researchers describe as device “hoarding,” along with headphones, remote controls, clocks, irons, external hard drives, routers, keyboards and mice. 

“People tend not to realize that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value, and together at a global level represent massive volumes,” said Pascal Leroy, director general of the WEEE Forum, in a statement. “It is very easy for [small e-waste items] to accumulate unused and unnoticed in households, or to be tossed into the ordinary garbage bin.” 

Baldé says that the urban mine of e-waste — approximately 54 million metric tons today — is going to double in the next three decades. 

The European Union’s rate of e-waste recovery, at 55%, is significantly higher than in the rest of the world, due in part to decades of legislation. Member states have strict weight-based e-waste collection targets, which tend to skew toward heavier objects, contributing to the conundrum of hoarded phones. 

“Having legislation is the first requisite,” Baldé told Bloomberg. Legislation provides financial incentives for consumers and companies to develop collection systems, ensuring that recovered devices arrive at compliant channels. “For the first time in history, the growth in the collection of e-waste has been faster than the growth of the mountain of e-waste in the European Union,” Baldé said.

In the US, there is no nationally regulated e-waste management system, but some states and companies have their own collection schemes. Apple, for example, routed 38,000 metric tons of electronic waste to recycling in its 2021 fiscal year, according to the company’s environmental progress report, and was able to repurpose materials like copper and gold. In the US, Samsung recycles 100 million pounds of e-waste each year, said Mark Newton, the company’s head of North America corporate sustainability, upcycling a portion of old Galaxy phones into childcare monitors and low-cost medical diagnosis cameras. Customers of both companies can also hand in their old phones for discounts, or buy refurbished phones at a discounted price.

“We want consumers to rethink that journey of their devices,” Newton said. “Because even if they’re ready for a new one, the old one still has plenty of life to give.” 

((Updates to include Samsung’s US recycling.))

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(Bloomberg) — US stocks fell after a report showed US year-ahead inflation expectations rose for the first time in seven months. The dollar gained and Treasuries fell.

The S&P 500 fell to lows of the day, falling more than 2%. The growth-sensitive Nasdaq 100 posted the steepest losses, dropping more than 2.5% as Treasury yields climbed, with the two-year rate rising back to 4.5%. 

Equity markets turned sharply lower after a University of Michigan survey showed year-ahead inflation expectations rose in early October and the long-term outlook also crept up. The uptick is potentially worrisome for the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep views anchored. It also follows data a day earlier that showed a key measure of consumer prices accelerated in September to a 40-year high. On Thursday, however, stocks roared back from early losses in one of the biggest reversals on record.

“Yesterday you had this amazing, powerful intraday rally that was completely wrong,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Hermes. “Then you look at the Michigan numbers this morning that’s consistent with what we’re seeing in the economy, and the stock market now is down to reflect that number. That’s correct.”

Corporate America offered some bright spots, with big banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. rising after reporting results, while Morgan Stanley slipped as equity trading revenue disappointed. UnitedHealth Group Inc. shares gained after health-care giant beat profit forecasts in the third quarter and raised its outlook for the year.

Read more: Main Street Beating Wall Street Still Leaves Banks Facing Pain

In the latest Fed comment, officials suggested they’re ready to hike rates higher than previously planned. Kansas City Fed President Esther George said the terminal rate may need to be higher to cool prices. San Francisco Fed’s Mary Daly said she’s “very supportive” raising to restrictive levels and to between 4.5% and 5% “is the most likely outcome.”

Forecasts they released last month showed rates reaching 4.4% by year end and 4.6% next year, from a current target range of 3% to 3.25. Swaps traders have boosted wagers for rate hikes over the past week following strong payrolls and hot inflation readings, with the market leaning toward back-to-back jumbo hikes at the next two meetings and a high above 4.9% next year.

“A lot of investors are looking at inflation to get guidance on what the Fed is going to do, to find the bottom in the market once the Fed pivots,” Jerry Braakman, chief investment officer and president of First American Trust, said in an interview. “But looking at CPI, unemployment, there’s obviously a lot of heat in the economy. Inflation is going to take some time to come down.”

In the UK, markets capped another tumultuous week, with gilts sliding as Prime Minister Liz Truss confirmed she will U-turn on a planned freeze on corporation tax cuts. The Bank of England ended its emergency bond purchases on Friday, buying £1.45 billion of long-dated and inflation-linked gilts. Ten-year yields were up 13 basis points at 4.33% in late London trading, after swinging from a drop of 30 basis points earlier. The pound fell for the first time in three days.

Elsewhere, oil headed for weekly losses as signs of a global economic slowdown and tighter monetary policy threaten to sap energy consumption. The International Energy Agency earlier warned crude production cuts agreed by OPEC+ group risked causing a price spike that tipped the global economy into recession. 

Crypto assets gained, with Bitcoin touching a one-week high, within reach of surpassing the $20,000 level. 

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 fell 2.1% as of 2:28 p.m. New York time
• The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.7%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3%
• The MSCI World index fell 1.1%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.7%
• The euro fell 0.5% to $0.9724
• The British pound fell 1.4% to $1.1169
• The Japanese yen fell 1.1% to 148.77 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $19,243.3
• Ether rose 0.6% to $1,301.19

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 4.01%
• Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.35%
• Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 14 basis points to 4.34%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.9% to $85.63 a barrel
• Gold futures fell 1.7% to $1,648.40 an ounce

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has no regrets about the invasion of Ukraine, now well into its eighth month, and that Moscow’s aim isn’t to “destroy” its neighbor. The controversial mobilization of some 300,000 reservists is almost complete, Putin told reporters in Kazakhstan. 

Putin also said a direct clash with NATO troops would be catastrophic and that no further mass strikes are planned “for now,” days after missiles hit cities across the country in retaliation for a strike on a key bridge in Crimea. Russia’s leader said he doesn’t see a “need” for talks with US President Joe Biden at next month’s Group of 20 summit. 

NATO allies must press ahead with support for Ukraine while taking Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons seriously, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said. The Kremlin vowed to repair a crucial bridge from the Russian mainland to Crimea by July 2023.  

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.) 

Key Developments

• Musk Sends Ukraine a Broadside With Threat to Cut Starlink Funds
• Putin Says Has No Regrets About Ukraine Invasion After Reverses
• Germany Saw No Risk in Russian Gas, Declassified Report Reveals
• Putin Says All Infrastructure at Risk After Nord Stream Hit
• Russia, NATO Both Holding Nuclear Drills Despite Rising Tensions

On the Ground

Ukraine’s troops continue to push ahead in the Kherson region, where some 1,200 square kilometers including dozens of settlements have been liberated. Heavy fighting continues in the Bakhmut and Avdiyivka regions of Donetsk, said Serhiy Cherevatiy, spokesman of the “East” command. Russia struck the city of Zaporizhzhia with three S-300 missiles early on Friday, damaging infrastructure, regional authorities said on Telegram. Moscow’s troops are focusing on attempts to reach the administrative border of the Donetsk region and hold ground in occupied areas of the Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv regions, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. 

(All times CET)

IAEA Says Back-Up Power to Nuclear Plant Is Restored (8:04 p.m.)

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a tweet that backup power has been restored to the Russian-seized Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant in Ukraine.

Musk’s Starlink Isn’t Only Option for Ukraine, Pentagon Says (7:52 p.m.)

The Pentagon confirmed it’s talking with Elon Musk, who has threatened to stop funding Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite communications system, but pointedly added that the US is also looking into other options.

“We are engaged in talking with SpaceX,” the space exploration company owned by Musk, Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Friday. At the same time, she said, the US, Ukraine and allies are also “assessing our options” with other communications companies.

Zelenskiy Aide Praises Musk’s Starlink Contribution (5:40 p.m.)

Mykhailo Podolyak, a top aide to Ukraine’s president, praised Elon Musk in a tweet, saying that “like it or not,” the billionaire has helped the nation “survive the most critical moments of war.” 

His comments came hours after Musk threatened to cut off financial support for the Starlink satellite system that’s played a pivotal role in the war against Russia. Musk said others should step in the cover the costs incurred by SpaceX. 

Almost 40,000 Women Serve in Ukrainian Army, Official Says (5:37 p.m.)

Ukrainian troops include 40,000 women — more than 20% of the total, Serhii Nayev, commander of the United Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Friday, the nation’s Defenders Day holiday. 

“More than 5,000 of them are on the front lines — in areas of active hostilities,” Nayev said. According to him, among women serving in Ukraine are commanders of batteries, platoons, vehicles, leaders of unmanned aviation units, and snipers.

Ukraine Crop-Deal Talks May Hinge on Fertilizer, Extra Port (4:12 p.m.)

Russia and Ukraine are both seeking changes to their landmark grain-export deal as part of discussions to extend the initiative beyond the current deadline next month, according to the UN. 

Russia wants to see a pipeline that transports its ammonia to Ukraine’s Odesa port reopened as part of the new terms, said Amir Abdulla, UN coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Ukraine is seeking to extend the deal by more than year, and include Mykolaiv as a fourth exporting port, he said. 

Read more: Ukraine Crop-Deal Talks May Hinge on Fertilizers and Extra Port

Putin Says No Plans to Expand Mobilization (3:10 p.m.)

Putin said he doesn’t expect to expand the mobilization of reservists beyond the 300,000 announced last month, with most of those having now been called up. 

There’s no need for further such efforts in the “foreseeable future,” Putin told reporters in Kazakhstan. The “partial mobilization” will be completed in a few weeks, with 222,000 reservists already mobilized, he said. About 16,000 of those are already fighting in Ukraine, he said.

Putin’s sudden order in September to call up the reservists — the first such move since World War II — triggered an exodus of more than 300,000 Russians from the country and widespread alarm among those who stayed. 

Read more: Putin Says Has No Regrets About Ukraine Invasion After Reverses

Putin Says Goal Isn’t to ‘Destroy’ Ukraine (3 p.m.)

Putin said he doesn’t have any regrets about the invasion of Ukraine, which is approaching the eight-month mark. Russia’s actions are “right and timely,” Putin said in a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, replying “No” when asked if he had any regrets.

The Russian leader said no further mass strikes on Ukraine are needed “for now” and that its aim isn’t to “destroy” its neighbor. Moscow this week unleashed a barrage of missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, including many far from the front lines, after an explosion that severely damaged the key bridge link with Crimea that it blamed on Ukraine. 

Ukraine Reopens Kyiv-Kramatorsk Rail Connection (2 p.m.)

Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said Ukraine’s rail service from Kyiv to Kramatorsk, a major city in the Donetsk region, was being restarted as a result of a “significantly improved” security situation. 

Ukrainian Troops Liberated 29 settlements in Kherson Region and repel attack in the East: officials

Ukrainian Defense Minister Sees Progress in Weapon Deliveries (1:22 p.m.)

“Talks on weapons deliveries continue and there is progress,” Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in comments on TV. Ukraine will get the German IRIS-T complex soon and its troops are training on the system, he said. Several Nasams air defense systems will be delivered this month and training is already under way. 

“Russia has around 300 Iranian drones and seeks to receive more,” while Kyiv’s troops are learning how to shoot down the drones, Resnikov said. 

NATO Nuclear Exercise to Run Through Oct. 30 (1:11 p.m.)

Air forces from across NATO will practice nuclear deterrence capabilities with dozens of aircraft over north-western Europe from Monday, the alliance said on Friday. 

The annual drills are a “routine, recurring training activity and it is not linked to any current world events,” NATO said. 

“Steadfast Noon” involves 14 countries and up to 60 aircraft of various types. Training flights will take place over Belgium, which is hosting the exercise, as well as over the North Sea and the United Kingdom.

Defense Ministry Says 1,235 Russian Missiles Fired at Ukraine (12:22 p.m.)

Russia has fired 776 Iskander-type, ground-launched missiles, 228 Kalibr sea-launched missiles, and 231 air-launched cruise missiles since the invasion started in February, Ukraine’s defense minister said on Twitter. Officials in Kyiv had called repeatedly for more help from Western allies to shore up their missile defence. 

Lithuania Gets US Battalion Deployment Through 2025 (12:03 p.m.)

A US battalion will remain in Lithuania through 2025 after approval of a rotational force plan in Washington, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said after talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The US has been rotating a full combat battalion and reinforcement units in Lithuania since 2019. Additional US troops have been deployed there this year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Erdogan Agrees With Putin to Set Up Gas Hub in Turkey (11 a.m.)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed with his Russian counterpart to establish an international gas distribution hub in Turkey. Erdogan said the Thrace region, Turkey’s door to Europe, is the most suitable place for it and the work will start without delay. 

Putin introduced the idea of turning Turkey into a “gas hub” on Tuesday at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow. Moscow plans to transfer to the Black sea volumes lost from the suspension of service on, and blast damage to, the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

UN Atomic Chief ‘Moving Closer’ to Zaporizhzhia Security Zone (10:42 a.m.) 

Rafael Mariano Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he’s “moving closer to the establishment of a protection zone” for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as he left Ukraine. Grossi held talks this week with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. 

“The plants situation is untenable and we need immediate action to protect it,” Grossi said in a Twitter post. 

Russia Orders Crimea Bridge Repaired by July (10:40 a.m.)

Work to restore a flagship Russian bridge to Crimea damaged by an explosion must be completed by July 1, according to a government document signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

The 19-kilometer (12-mile) span across the Kerch Strait is the only road and rail link from Russia to the Black Sea peninsula Putin annexed in 2014. Moscow blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for the Oct. 8 blast on the bridge, which has has been critical for the Kremlin to resupply its forces in Crimea and Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Ukraine Expected to Get 5B Euros From EU in Three Tranches (10:07 a.m.)

The European Union is set to release 2 billion euros ($1.95 billion) in funds to Ukraine within days, with further tranches of €2.5 billion euros and €500 million in the second half of November and December respectively, according to the people familiar with the matter.

The funds are part of a €9 billion financial assistance package that the bloc first announced in the spring. The payments have been mostly delayed due to haggling between member countries over the terms of the package.

Musk Warns He Cannot Help Fund Starlink in Ukraine Indefinitely (9:37 a.m.)

Elon Musk warned SpaceX cannot indefinitely help carry the cost of high-speed broadband internet for Ukraine. His comments came days after a furor over his comments suggesting Kyiv cede territory in exchange for peace with Russia.

SpaceX “is not asking to recoup past expenses” on Starlink services in Ukraine, Musk said on Twitter, but it also cannot sustain the financial support or send thousands more terminals to Ukraine. The Starlink terminals in Ukraine are using data as much as 100 times the amount of typical households, Musk added. 

A week ago he tweeted that Starlink in Ukraine had cost SpaceX $80 million, which would likely surpass $100 million by the end of the year.  

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(Bloomberg) — The Pentagon confirmed it’s talking with Elon Musk, who has threatened to stop funding Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite communications system, but pointedly added that the US is also looking into other options.

“We are engaged in talking with SpaceX,” the space exploration company owned by Musk, Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Friday. At the same time, she said, the US, Ukraine and allies are also “assessing our options” with other communications companies.

Musk, the world’s richest person, threatened Friday to cut financial support for the Starlink high-speed broadband system that has become an essential communications tool as Ukraine combats Russia’s invasion. He said SpaceX can’t carry the cost indefinitely. 

His move followed sharp criticism from Kyiv for Musk’s public comments suggesting the government cede territory in exchange for peace with Russia.

Responding to recent comments from a Ukrainian envoy that he should “f*** off” for his proposals, which included UN-monitored referendums in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Musk retorted on Twitter on Friday: “We’re just following his recommendation.”

As well as helping Ukraine’s forces on the ground, Starlink terminals have supported infrastructure across the country, and any move to withdraw them could potentially hinder progress in counteroffensives against Russian troops. It would also risk a backlash not just from Ukraine but also its allies who have provided financial and military support for months without conditions.

Singh declined to confirm a CNN report that SpaceX warned the Pentagon in September it may no longer partially fund Starlink in Ukraine unless the US military provides tens of millions of dollars of support per month. SpaceX has an established relationship with the Pentagon, Singh noted, having won contracts for national security space launches.

On Friday, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to play down the feud. “Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of the war,” he tweeted. Ukraine “will find a solution to keep #Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.”

There was no indication that Musk was intending immediate action to withdraw Starlink from Ukraine. SpaceX “is not asking to recoup past expenses” on Starlink services in Ukraine, he said in another post, but it can’t sustain the financial aid or send thousands more terminals to Ukraine. 

Starlink terminals in Ukraine are using data as much as 100 times the amount of typical households, Musk said. A week ago he tweeted that Starlink in Ukraine had cost SpaceX $80 million, which would likely surpass $100 million by the end of the year. Musk’s net worth is $209.2 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation, has said previously the country is getting Starlink terminals free of charge, although he added there might be a different arrangement between Musk and the US Agency for International Development and European entities which provided Starlinks to Ukraine. 

Ukraine has 20,000 Starlink terminals, provided evenly by USAID, Poland, the European Union and private companies, according to an Oct. 5 report from state-run news agency Ukrinform that cited Ministry of Digitalization data.

Poland purchased 11,700 Starlink terminals for Ukraine, including 5,000 acquired by state-controlled refiner PKN Orlen SA, according to Janusz Cieszynski, the government official in charge of cybersecurity.

“SpaceX promised to cover the service cost for the terminals purchased by Orlen,” he said by phone. The Polish government, meanwhile, is “covering the full cost of service” for each terminal it bought “amounting to around $50 monthly” per device.

Musk angered Ukrainians — from Zelenskiy down — with his recent suggestion that Ukraine should seek a negotiated solution to the invasion by Russia and cede Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, for good. 

Musk also launched a Twitter poll asking citizens of recently annexed occupied parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea to decide if they want to live in Russia or Ukraine, days after Ukraine, Europe and the US denounced the annexation moves of President Vladimir Putin.

Ian Bremmer, head of political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in a note to clients this week that Musk told him about speaking recently with Putin. 

Bremmer said that conversation came before Musk posted his tweets urging Ukraine to find a negotiated solution to the war. Both Musk and the Kremlin subsequently denied he had spoken with Putin this year.

EXPLAINER: How Musk Sparked a Race to Send Satellites into ‘LEO’

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(Bloomberg) — Motorola Solutions Inc. could make “excess profit” of £1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) from its UK emergency services contract, the country’s competition watchdog said, warning that the government had locked into a monopoly provider.

Motorola Solutions was overcharging the UK’s Home Office for its emergency service radio network, which was ultimately being paid for by taxpayers, the Competition and Markets Authority said Friday. It recommended that price controls be imposed on the telecom network to restrict how much it can charge.

Motorola’s Airwave Network has run the secure mobile system for the UK’s police and ambulance services since 2000. The contract was due to end two years ago, but has been delayed until 2026 or later. The CMA said it was concerned about Motorola’s double role in providing the current network and in helping to deliver the replacement network is partly behind the large profits. Motorola acquired Airwave in 2016, hence the dual role, the CMA added.

“The Home Office and our emergency services are locked in with a monopoly provider which can charge much more than it could in a properly functioning market,” said Martin Coleman, chair of the CMA’s independent inquiry group.

The CMA said the company could make about £1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in excess profit from operating the network between January 2020 and December 2026. If the delay in rolling out a new network continues, it could make a further £160 million excess profit each year after 2026.

A spokesperson from Motorola Solutions said it “entirely rejects the CMA’s unfounded and incorrect calculation of ‘excess’ profits” and that it “is based on an arbitrary time period of the Airwave project.” Motorola Solutions shares fell as much as 4.2% in US trading on Friday.

The watchdog said the Airwave Network accounts for around 7% of Motorola’s global revenues and about 21% of its pretax profits.

The Home Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The CMA will make a final decision later in the year.

(Adds Motorola shares in 6th paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — Telecom Italia SpA’s board of directors delayed action on the multibillion-euro sale of its network after a key investor was unable to attend their meeting, according to people familiar with the matter.

The board postponed action Friday because representatives of French media conglomerate Vivendi SE, the company’s largest shareholder, couldn’t attend, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations aren’t public. 

A new meeting could be scheduled as soon as next week, the people added. The board is weighing whether to extend the original, Oct. 31 deadline for a bid. Representatives for Telecom Italia.

People close to Vivendi, however, said the French company was surprised and disappointed that Telecom Italia chose to convene its board knowing that directors Arnaud de Puyfontaine and Frank Cadoret coudn’t attend due to previous important commitments.

Read more: Italy, Macquarie Seek Delay for Bid on Telecom Italia Grid

The sale of Telecom Italia’s network to a group of investors led by state lender Cassa Depositi and infrastructure fund Macquarie Group Ltd. is the main step to start creating a single, ultra-broadband network in Italy.

Earlier this year, Telecom Italia and Cassa Depositi, along with Macquarie, signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at merging the phone company’s grid with smaller, state-backed rival Open Fiber.

But the network’s value remains a sticking point, with Telecom Italia advisers initially assessing it at about 20 billion euros ($19.5 billion), people familiar with the matter said earlier this year. Vivendi valued it at about 31 billion euros.

(Updates with person close to Vivendi in fourth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — T-Mobile US Inc. is coming under scrutiny for its business relationship with a small wireless carrier that’s helped fund a conservative takeover of several North Texas school boards.

More than 1,200 people have signed an online petition asking the mobile-phone giant to cut ties with Patriot Mobile, a Grapevine, Texas-based company that calls itself “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider.” It founded a political action committee this year that backed 11 winning candidates for school boards in the Dallas suburbs, many of whom sought to ban books as part of efforts to fight what they see as “woke” education policies. 

That’s in sharp contrast to T-Mobile’s public image as a left-of-center company, driven by its pledges to pay for employees to travel for abortions, promote diversity and protect the environment. So now its customers are left to wonder why it’s renting space on its networks to Patriot Mobile, a carrier that advertises a much different political bent.

The situation highlights the risk to companies when they take positions on hot-button cultural issues, as well as the expectations consumers have for those firms to maintain consistent political messaging. In March, some Walt Disney Co. employees protested Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek’s attempt to stay neutral on Florida legislation that limited classroom discussions of homosexuality. And AT&T Inc. has been criticized for donations to conservative lawmakers and its ties to the far-right One America News network. Now, T-Mobile is in the crossfires too.

“It makes for an odd match: Patriot, a far-right activist group using the network of the wokest carrier,” said Roger Entner, a wireless industry consultant at Recon Analytics.

T-Mobile, which is based in Bellevue, Washington, and also has a campus in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, says it has no influence over Patriot’s operations and simply rents excess capacity on its networks to the smaller company. A spokesperson declined to comment on Patriot Mobile’s politics, other than to note they don’t represent T-Mobile or its 89 million service subscribers.

Patriot Mobile, which has fewer than 100,000 customers according to Entner’s estimate, says its mission is to “passionately defend our God-given, constitutional rights and freedoms, and to glorify God always.” It donates a portion of proceeds to support religious freedom, the right to bear arms, the sanctity of life and freedom of speech. This year, executives created a political action committee and funded it with about $650,000 in cash and in-kind contributions, according to filings with the Texas Ethics Commission. 

CEO Glenn Story, who founded Patriot Mobile in 2013, says that the PAC received less than 25% of the company’s total donations to conservative causes, which also go to Turning Point USA and Concerned Women for America, among others. Executives at the company decided they wanted to direct attention to education amid reports of liberals trying to influence curriculum and classroom materials that seemed inappropriate for children, Story said. 

“Some of the stuff that you see out there is really mortifying,” said Story, who has three teenage children in North Texas suburban schools. “If it makes a 40-year-old man blush, it’s going to be wrong for a six-year-old.”

Texas bans more books from schools than any other state, but it isn’t alone. A report by PEN America published in September showed hundreds of incidents in states including Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Florida. The GOP has spearheaded the movement through its focus on bolstering so-called parental rights.

That’s also been a rallying cry for Patriot Mobile. While the PAC’s spending was minuscule by the standards of national elections, it was more than anyone remembers ever seeing in the four North Texas school districts that the organization targeted. 

In May, Stephanie Williams, a resident of the wealthy suburb Southlake, ran for a board position with the Carroll Independent School District. She ended up losing to the incumbent Andrew Yeager. Patriot Mobile Action supported Yeager with $24,000 worth of advertising in the form of mailers and digital ads, according to campaign filings from the Texas Ethics Commission. Separately, Yeager’s campaign spent another $25,900 for the May election, according to records filed with the school district. Williams’s campaign spent $24,500.

Yeager won with 71% of the vote. He said Patriot Mobile Action was helpful but that he already had a base of supporters from when he ran in a special election six months prior for an open board seat. 

“We had a school board that I think was going in the wrong direction,” Yeager said, citing elements of a 2020 district plan that required cultural sensitivity training for all students as well as tracking of micro-aggressions. “I thought I could use my skills and talents that I acquired over three decades in the professional world to help change that direction.” 

In July, Yeager — along with four other board members at Carroll ISD — successfully pushed through a policy that allows parents to challenge classroom materials or library books for anything they find offensive, a longstanding goal of Christian conservatives.

“They have made it pretty clear their first desire is to make their public schools like a Christian, anti-LGBTQ community,” Williams said.

Elsewhere in the area, school board members who Patriot had advocated for pushed through policies that prohibit staff from discussing gender identity until students complete the fifth grade or that exempt teachers from having to use anyone’s preferred pronouns if they don’t match a person’s biological sex. 

In Keller Independent School District, where three PAC-backed members sit on the board, an adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl — along with 40 other books — was put under review and briefly banned for being inappropriate.

Amid the controversy, liberal-leaning residents of the area honed in on Patriot’s relationship with T-Mobile.

“We don’t want our cellular telephone payments to support candidates who wish to institute policies every sane voter should oppose,” says the petition published at Change.org, which has been around about five months and collected some 1,200 signatures. “This doesn’t seem like anything a well thought of corporate entity like T-Mobile would want to be a part of.”

Of course the number of signatures is tiny compared with T-Mobile’s subscriber base.

Patriot Mobile’s business model — renting capacity from other providers instead of building its own infrastructure — makes it what is known in industry parlance as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO. There’s a liberal counterpart to Patriot Mobile, Credo Mobile, that operates similarly and has been putting money toward liberal causes for a few decades.

In a February post on Twitter, Patriot said it used T-Mobile and AT&T networks. Story declined to comment on which companies he works with, and officials at AT&T didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment on any business relationship with Patriot Mobile.

For its part, T-Mobile has its own PAC that makes donations to candidates it supports, roughly split between Republicans and Democrats.

In coming years, Patriot Mobile plans to expand throughout Texas and then onto other states. 

“We will go where God leads us,” said Leigh Wambsganss, the PAC’s executive director and the vice president of government and public affairs at Patriot Mobile. 

Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, has given to a PAC called Leadership for Educational Equity-Texas, which has funded local school board candidates in the Lone Star State.

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