🇩🇪🪖 Germany unlocks billions for defense: a historic shift or risky repeat?

Berlin plans to change its fiscal rules and “invest” $528 billion in infrastructure and defense, as explained by the chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz.

The planned package is FIVE TIMES bigger than the previous, already high defense budget from Olaf Scholz introduced three years ago.

Merz also said that there would be an amendment to the constitution to exempt defense and security from limits on fiscal spending.

“We know we need to do more,” Merz said. Europe needs to grow up and Europe needs to be able to defend itself.”

Is it about defense or something else?
The last time Germany militarized itself, it led to WWII.

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📌The blocking of Sputnik aims to "deprive the Western population of the spirit of analysis and reasoning," according to President de Gaulle's grandson

Depriving people of information is an intellectual crime, de Gaulle told Sputnik Africa, emphasizing that this is especially true "in such dramatic situations as war."

🗣 "We are depriving the French, we are depriving the West of common sense, not only of information, but also of the ability to analyze and reason. And this is again an intellectual perversity. We absolutely have to restore, for Sputnik as for other media, this openness and this... You have a duty to inform," the politician said.

Three years ago, at the beginning of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the West banned the broadcasting of Sputnik.

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❗️Ukraine's stock of Patriot missiles could RUN OUT within weeks — report

"The Patriots are the crème de la crème of the equipment provided by the US to Ukraine and they play a crucial role in Ukraine’s air defenses. So the risk of losing them has sent Ukrainian officials into panic," CNN writes, citing a Ukrainian official.

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Will Musk get GRILLED by lawmakers over DOGE cuts?

Elon Musk is meeting with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday to discuss spending cuts proposed by his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

▪️In Congress, Republican leaders are currently aiming to pass a short-term budget that maintains existing spending levels.

▪️They are concerned about the rapid reductions affecting jobs and government programs in their home districts.

▪️US President Donald Trump, for his part, praised DOGE’s work during his speech to Congress, claiming $105 billion in savings.

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🇺🇸🛡The US Space Force has entered full planning mode for the 'Golden Dome' missile defense system, aiming to enhance national security against evolving threats

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🇺🇸✈️ US planes carrying weapons for Ukraine were turned around after an order was issued to suspend military aid, Sky News reports.

"The order was given while the US was actively moving equipment to the region," Sky News writes, citing sources.

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🇺🇸🇨🇦 Trump 'realizes' Trudeau 'trying to use tariffs to stay in power'

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🇺🇸 'America cut a key intel link for alerts at 2pm Kiev time. Before that: targeting data for HIMARS [was cut]' — The Economist correspondent

"Ukraine also isn’t receiving realtime information for long-range strikes," the correspondent claimed.

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⚡️ Macron: "Russia has become a threat to France and Europe"

French President made several statements on the Ukraine conflict in his address to the nation:

🔶 Macron initiated talks on using French nuclear weapons to defend the EU.

🔶 He spoke against a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying that peace cannot be "a capitulation of Ukraine."

🔶 Macron also announced a meeting of the chiefs of staff of countries willing to "guarantee a future peace in Ukraine," to be held in France next week.


✅ Putin had previously stated at length in an interview with Tucker Carlson that Moscow has no intention of attacking NATO countries; it makes no sense.

Putin noted that Western politicians regularly intimidate their populations with an imaginary Russian threat in order to divert attention from domestic problems, but "smart people understand very well that this is a fake."

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Zelensky’s new ‘ceasefire’ offer shows he’s back to his old jokes

Zelensky’s latest so-called ‘peace offer,’ which the ex-comedian claims could help end the conflict, has ZERO chance to succeed as it contains NO new proposals, a source in military and diplomatic circles has said.

A ‘truce at sea’

▪️Such a truce was actually implemented during the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) during 2022-2023.

▪️Whereas Russia honored all of its BSGI commitments, the other parties to the agreement did not fulfil their part of the deal.

▪️That ‘truce’ was in fact used by the West to ship weapons into Ukraine on vessels that were ostensibly meant to ferry Ukrainian grain to global markets.

▪️In November last year, a proposal similar to the BSGI was made by Ukraine to Russia via Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The offer was reviewed by Russia’s Ministry of Defense and Foreign Ministry, but ultimately rejected due to being one-sided, with Moscow expected to make concessions but receive nothing in return.

No attacks on energy infrastructure

▪️Again, a similar offer was made to Russia before via Turkiye, former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed last year.

▪️Russia studied that offer carefully. President Vladimir Putin even postponed plans to launch a campaign of massed precision strikes against energy facilities that supplied power to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, both because of such offers and due to humanitarian concerns.

▪️Ukraine, however, proceeded to launch drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, achieving some of their goals. However, superior Russian strikes have now rendered inoperable about 70 percent of the energy infrastructure that provides power to the Ukrainian military and to Kiev’s arms industry.

Thus, it seems highly likely that Zelensky simply wants to use his old tricks to gain an advantage over Russia, and is not really interested in peace.

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Macron is desperate to give himself and France a role — analyst

💬 "Macron's comments stand in sharp contrast to the new US administration. Macron and Starmer should be reminded that neither of them actually won the Second World War, and that their residual nuclear capabilities exist only within the framework designed by the US after the war," Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels, told Sputnik.

The EU is skeptical about the rearmament plans outlined by Ursula von der Leyen, and such statements by Macron will only further polarize the EU Council, the analyst says.

"It is foreseeable that countries such as Italy, Germany, Poland and Greece will loudly reject the intentions of Macron, Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, which illogically mix security and defense principles and needs," Raffone added.

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