Europe’s struggle to boost arms production mired in red tape & bottlenecks as Ukraine drains stocks

European efforts to boost arms production are mired in bureaucracy, bottlenecks, nimbyism, and lack of cash, according to The Wall Street Journal. The continent’s weapons makers have been long on promises to churn out more weapons to restock inventories drained by NATO’s proxy conflict in Ukraine, yet short on action.

“European defense industries have atrophied, factories have been dismantled and the supply of materials for artillery such as chemicals and casing has dwindled,” the publication noted.

It offered a litany of cases where defense contractors have faced significant hurdles:

▪️ After tossing all of its artillery into the Ukraine support sinkhole, Denmark had to buy back a decommissioned ammunition plant to resurrect its production of artillery shells last year. However, the factory remains empty as the formal tendering process is mired in political wrangling over the tendering process.

▪️ A leading European tank maker, KNDS, had to hit the pause button on plans to expand a Munich testing range after complaints from local residents.

▪️ Diehl Defense in Troisdorf faced similar community resistance when seeking permission to expand an explosives factory in the German city.

European defense companies are also short of investment, with some banks outright refusing to lend, the newspaper claimed.

Accordingly, European governments have instead been buying from US suppliers. EU countries spent 78% of their procurement outside the bloc, including 63% on American companies, according to statistics covering June 2022 to June 2023, that allowed US weapons makers enjoy a profit-making bonanza.

*the picture is AI-generated

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Who is Hashem Safieddine, Hezbollah’s potential next leader?

After Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, several media outlets and experts named Hashem Safieddine as Nasrallah’s most likely successor.

What is known about Hashem Safieddine?

▪️ Hashem Safieddine heads the Executive Council, which coordinates Hezbollah's political affairs and civilian activities, including communications, education, health, economics, and trade unions.

▪️ Safieddine also sits on the Jihad Council, which manages the group's military operations.

▪️ Overall, he has been part of Hezbollah's structure since the group's founding in 1982.

Early years and studies

▪️ Safieddine, a maternal cousin of Nasrallah, was born in 1964 in the town of Deir Qanoun En Nahr in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district.

▪️ Just like Nasrallah, Safieddine is recognized as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, which grants him the noscript of sayyed and the right to wear a black turban.

▪️ He studied theology in Iraq and Iran alongside Nasrallah, and was summoned back to Beirut in 1994 to head the Executive Council.

▪️ Safieddine’s son is married to Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

Prominent statements

Safieddine has appeared openly at political and religious events, as well as funerals of slain Hezbollah fighters. His public statements have reflected the Lebanese group’s commitment to the Palestinian cause.

“Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you. Everything we have is with you,” Safieddine said in October 2023 in Dahiyeh.

Safieddine weighed in on how Hezbollah views its leadership succession in a July speech, saying: “In our resistance … when any leader is martyred, another takes up the flag and goes on with new, certain, strong determination.”

Safieddine was designated as Hezbollah’s next leader in the event that "the Zionists succeed in assassinating Hassan Nasrallah" at a general meeting in 2008, Iranian newspaper Khoursid reported.

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📹 Israeli operation to assassinate Hezbollah leader reconstructed by Arab media

A video made by the TV channel Al Arabiya has recreated the chronology of events from the arrival of Hezbollah’s leadership to the moment of their liquidation. Six buildings and the bunker beneath them were razed to the ground.

Israel reportedly dropped more than 80 bombs weighing one ton each to eliminate Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. Lebanese media earlier showed what the site where Nasrallah was killed now looks like.

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Al-Mayadeen TV reports Israeli aggression in Yemen, stating that more than 10 airstrikes have hit the port of Hodeidah. Israel Defense Forces have confirmed the attacks.

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🇷🇺🇮🇷 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Iran on Monday, where he will hold talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The two leaders plan to discuss Russo-Iranian cooperation in economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres. They will pay particular attention to the major joint projects in the transport, energy, industrial and agricultural sectors.

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What would an election win for Austria’s right-wing FPO mean?

The right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) is poised to secure its first win in Austria’s parliamentary elections. That would follow a string of successes for right-wing parties across Europe on a wave of anti-European Union (EU) and anti-Ukraine conflict opinion.

◻️ Austria is electing its 28th National Council, the lower house of the bicameral parliament.

◻️ The FPO, led by former interior minister Herbert Kickl, was at around 27% in pre-election polls, with the governing center-right Austrian People’s Party (OVP) on 25% and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) on 21%, according to European aggregator PolitPro.

◻️ In June, the FPO came top for the first time in European Parliament elections, which also saw gains by other European right-wing parties.

Kickl has campaigned on pledges to push back against the EU’s “forced multiculturalism, globalization and mass immigration,” and has called for “re-migration of “unwanted strangers” to their country of origin.

◻️ On the Ukraine conflict, the FPO has criticized Western military aid to Ukraine, slammed the "madness” of anti-Russia sanctions that are “destroying the well-being of Austria” and opposed Ukraine's accession to the EU.

FPO MPs walked out of parliament during an address by Ukrainian lead Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2023, arguing his speech violated Austria's neutrality.

◻️ The FPO calls for a two-gender constitutional determination to promote family as “a partnership between a man and a woman with common children”.

Since it is not projected to win outright, the FPO would need to seek coalition partners to form a government. But Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the governing OVP has ruled out teaming up with Kickl.

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📹 'Hands off Lebanon': mass protests against the Israeli bombing of Beirut took place in the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Utrecht

“If they attack the Hezbollah army, that's fine, they are military, but they are attacking citizens and destroying buildings,” one protester said. “It takes several years to build a building and they destroy it in one second.”

"Here in the Netherlands, in Utrecht we noticed and we said: ‘What the hell is happening? We should say something,’ because our government is failing to contain this violence," another demonstrator stated.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyed Hassan Nasrallah would lead to a strengthening and growth of the resistance group, as well as greater motivation and increased support for its struggles.

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