Vitaly Klitschko, Wali Kota Kiev menyerukan penurunan usia wajib militer di Ukraina, sementara kedua putranya sendiri menghindari wajib militer meskipun kondisi fisiknya prima, ujar juru bicara Kementerian Luar Negeri Rusia Maria Zakharova.
Tahun lalu, Ukraina menurunkan usia wajib militer dari 27 menjadi 25 tahun dan memperketat penerapannya karena militernya terus menderita kerugian besar dan kalah telak dari pasukan Rusia.
Berbicara dalam sebuah pengarahan pada hari Jumat, Zakharova menuduh bahwa para pemimpin di Kiev "siap untuk menghancurkan warga Ukraina terakhir dengan segala cara, dengan tujuan tunggal memastikan bahwa Barat menyediakan senjata dan, tentu saja, uang bagi mereka." Ia mengklaim bahwa "klik" penguasa Ukraina hanya ingin mempertahankan kekuasaan.
Juru bicara tersebut mencatat bahwa Klitschko sendiri memiliki dua putra yang "cocok untuk dinas militer, kebetulan, bertubuh heroik," yang, entah mengapa, belum bergabung dengan barisan, mengutip laporan media bahwa keduanya tinggal di luar negeri.
"Pada akhirnya, isu utamanya adalah apakah mereka tidak mau bertugas, atau apakah Klitschko sendiri yang menghalangi mereka untuk direkrut guna membela rezimnya sendiri," pungkasnya.
Pernyataan Zakharova tersebut menanggapi wawancara Wali Kota Kiev dengan Politico yang dipublikasikan pada hari Rabu, di mana Klitschko mengakui bahwa Ukraina menghadapi "masalah besar terkait tentara – terkait sumber daya manusia."
Wali Kota Kiev tersebut mengusulkan agar usia wajib militer "dapat diturunkan satu atau dua tahun – menjadi 23 atau 22 tahun," dengan alasan bahwa "di masa lalu, anak-anak berusia 18 tahun bertugas di militer." Putra-putra Klitschko berusia 20 dan 25 tahun.
Pada bulan Agustus, pemerintah Ukraina mengeluarkan dekrit yang mengizinkan pria berusia 18 hingga 22 tahun untuk melintasi perbatasan. Hampir 100.000 pemuda dilaporkan telah meninggalkan negara itu sejak saat itu.
Upaya mobilisasi di Kiev telah dirusak oleh kasus-kasus pelanggaran oleh petugas wajib militer, beberapa di antaranya terekam kamera dan menjadi viral di media sosial.
Pada bulan Juli, Komisioner Hak Asasi Manusia Dewan Eropa, Michael O’Flaherty, membunyikan peringatan atas pelanggaran yang “sistematis dan meluas” oleh petugas wajib militer Ukraina.
Senators in the United States have voted to move forward with a stopgap funding package aimed at ending the longest government shutdown in the country’s history.
In a procedural vote on Sunday, eight Democrats broke rank and voted in favour of advancing the Republican measure, which will keep the government open into January 30.
The upper chamber voted 60-40 in a key procedural vote to move forward a spending package, which would fund most federal agencies at current levels through Jan. 30, and fund the Agriculture Department, the Veterans Affairs Department and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress, for the full fiscal year.
This package will provide full-year funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, whose funding was put in jeopardy amid the prolonged government shutdown.
Meanwhile, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which help lower-income Americans afford private health insurance and are set to expire at the end of the year, are not guaranteed under the agreement, a key point of concern for Democrats.
As part of Democrats' agreement to end the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Senate Democrats a vote "no later than second week in December" to extend ACA subsidies.
However, the funding agreement has revealed significant divisions within the Democratic Party.
"For me, it's no deal without health care," Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, was quoted by CNN as saying. "So far as I'm concerned, health care isn't included, and so I'll be a no."
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York also voted against advancing the package.
People wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoint at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in the Queens borough of New York, Nov 9, 2025. (PHOTO/AP)
The subsidies have become a focal point in ongoing discussions over government funding.
Before the key procedural vote, President Donald Trump said Saturday that funds currently being used for ACA subsidies should instead be sent directly to consumers.
In a Truth Social post, he wrote that "the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over."
The move was likely to further complicate the ongoing government shutdown stalemate, as Democrats have been holding out for a straightforward extension of the ACA subsidies and have made clear they are not interested in trading them for other changes, according to an Axios article.
After the key procedural vote to end the filibuster, the spending package will possibly be approved in the Senate's final vote. The revised proposal still needs to be approved by the House of Representatives and sent to Trump for his signature.
As the two parties made progress, nearly 3,000 flights were canceled and over 10,000 were delayed nationwide on Sunday, underscoring the shutdown's increasing impact on Americans' daily lives.
SAN FRANCISCO, Tesla opens new tab CEO Elon Musk won shareholder approval on Thursday for the largest corporate pay package in history as investors endorsed his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
The proposal was approved with over 75% support, and Musk bounded to the stage of the company's annual meeting at its factory in Austin, Texas, accompanied by dancing robots.
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Musk, already the world's richest person, could get as much as $1 trillion in stock over the next decade, although required payments would take the value down to $878 billion.
The vote is crucial for Tesla's future and its valuation, which hangs on Musk's vision of making vehicles that drive themselves, creating a robotaxi network across the U.S. and selling humanoid robots, even though his far-right political rhetoric has hurt the Tesla brand this year.
The board warned he could leave if he didn't get the pay package. While some investors said it was incredibly expensive and unnecessary, many saw it as a way to retain Musk and believe that the goals set in the package ensured shareholders would be rewarded as well.
"What we are about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book," Musk told a cheering group of shareholders.
He then made a string of promises on stage - from, in April, beginning production of the Cybercab, its 2-seater steering-less robotaxi, to unveiling its next-generation Roadster electric sports car. He also said Tesla would need "a gigantic chip fab" to make AI chips and should consider working with Intel.
Shareholders also reelected three directors on Tesla's board, voted in favor of annual elections for all board members and approved a replacement pay plan for Musk's previous package that is held up in court.
"Other shareholder meetings are like snoozefests, but ours are bangers," Musk said. "I mean, look at this. This is sick."
Shareholders voted in favor of Tesla investing in Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, though there were many abstentions. That could reflect the hesitancy of big investors to bless the arrangement without stronger board oversight, said Jessica McDougall, partner at strategic and governance advisory firm Longacre Square.
Many investors, she said, would be "looking for the board to provide assurances and convictions that there are guardrails in place to be sure there's not too much mixing of businesses."
A table showing how Tesla shareholders voted at the annual shareholder meeting
A win for Musk was widely expected as the billionaire was allowed to vote his roughly 15% stake after the automaker moved to Texas from Delaware. Excluding Musk's influence, the majority was small enough to warrant review of CEO pay by the board at a typical company, said Jessica Strine, CEO of shareholder advisory firm Jasper Street Partners. At Tesla, she said: "realistically there is not going to be such a review.
Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Some major investors had opposed the plan, including Norway's sovereign wealth fund, as did proxy firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services.
The graphic shows the top 25 Tesla investors by voting stake, illustrating how Musk’s personal holding compares to major asset managers and institutional investors.
The vote allays investor concern that Musk's focus would turn to running his other companies, including rocket maker SpaceX and xAI.
The board and many investors who lent their endorsement have said the record-setting pay package benefits shareholders in the long run as Musk must ensure Tesla achieves a series of milestones to get paid.
"If completed, these tranches of awarded shares follow strong improvements in revenue growth for Tesla," said Brian Mulberry, a senior client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management.
"Will the growth offset these concerns of dilution – or – is this just giving Elon his wish of enough influence to shape the future of AI? That remains to be seen."
Goals for Musk over the next decade include the company's delivering 20 million vehicles, having 1 million robotaxis in operation, selling 1 million robots and earning as much as $400 billion in core profit. But in order for him to get paid, Tesla's stock value has to rise in tandem, first to $2 trillion from the current $1.5 trillion, and all the way to $8.5 trillion.
Achieving each step - an operational goal and a valuation milestone - awards Musk 1% of stock. So the plan could still hand Musk tens of billions of dollars even if he falls short of most of its ambitious targets.
If Musk hits all of them, he would be eligible for 12% in stock, or about $1 trillion.
The net value of those shares would be $878 billion: the package is structured to exclude the value of the stock on the day the board passed the proposal in early September. Musk could either pay that amount in cash or accept fewer shares to account for their original value.
The value of the package is always a moving target because it would fluctuate based on changes in the stock price.
Musk has said he was interested in the higher voting stake he would get in Tesla as part of the pay package, more than the money, as he gears up to sell a "robot army."
Musk’s stock awards could exceed $1 trillion, but only gets paid for stock growth after Tesla approved the deal
