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Iran's new defense minister, Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi, immediately issued sharp threats against the USA following his appointment and advised the president to focus on the safe withdrawal of troops from the region; otherwise, the response to further aggression would be "surprising and comprehensive." #Iran #Verteidigungsminister #Raketenprogramm (translated)

Marco Setaccioli challenged Marco Travaglio's calculations on European and Russian military spending, stating that Travaglio had indicated 450 billion euros for Europe and 150 for Russia and had argued that Russia had reason to fear Europe, which had invaded it four times in the last 200 years. According to Setaccioli, in the current year Russia would have spent around 17 trillion rubles on defense, equivalent to 181 billion euros, a figure indicated, according to him, by most analysts. He noted that the nominal comparison did not take purchasing power into account: applying indices developed by specialized research centers, Russian spending would rise to 574 billion international dollars, compared to about 700 billion for the entire EU. He added that the EU would have three and a half times the population of Russia and a GDP nine times greater. Setaccioli argued that the Russian federal budget did not show all military costs. He cited studies by economist Craig Kennedy, according to which part of the spending would be financed through subsidized loans and would thus remain on the banks' balance sheets. He also recalled an investigation by Dozhd', which, according to him, had documented pressures on private companies to hire people before signing contracts with the military and to supplement salaries with corporate funds. He added that at least three militias would be linked to Gazprom, which would cover part of the costs. For these reasons, he dismissed as false the claim that Russia spent less than the EU. Historically, Setaccioli criticized Travaglio's reconstruction, according to which the Napoleonic and Nazi invasions, along with interventions in Crimea and support for the Bolsheviks, would justify Russian fears toward Europe. Setaccioli listed Russian troop interventions in Poland in 1939, Finland in 1939-1940, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Romania in 1940, Bulgaria in 1944, Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, Moldova in 1992, Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. He stated that there were no Russian regions occupied by European countries, while eight regions—one in Moldova, two in Georgia, and five in Ukraine—would be under Russian control. Finally, Setaccioli accused Travaglio of presenting a selective and misleading reconstruction to make Russia appear not dangerous, portray Europe as a threat, and argue that rearmament was unnecessary and risky. In his view, that reasoning could legitimize a potential Russian attack on Europe and constituted a form of collaborationism. #Russia #Europa #Difesa (translated)

Andy Schneider asked if readers remembered that the Chief of Staff had tried to make it seem the day before, with a serious expression, that the troops were already five kilometers from Zaporizhzhia. He described this as not very surprising and referred to a link. https://t.co/dYsHwPZFjq #Putin #Ukraine #Militär (translated)

"Any agreement or understanding that opens the doors to foreign troops or military personnel to operate in our region is unconstitutional and violates the Spirit of the Torrijos-Carter treaties," notes Miguel Antonio Bernal, a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Panama, referencing the agreements that in 1977 ended the U.S. military presence in the so-called "Canal Zone." #Panama #Pentagono #DonaldTrump (translated)

Markus Haintz wrote that Dr. Claudia Wittig is right: It is useless to report on a war from only one perspective without trying to understand the other side. Those who feel morally superior because of it, in his opinion, do not contribute to ending wars. Haintz also stated that great powers tolerate no foreign troops at their borders and referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis as an example. Whether one finds this good or bad does not change the fact, according to his account. #Krieg #Frieden #Politik (translated)

Matthias accused Egon Krenz of having asked Mikhail Gorbachev during a visit to Moscow on November 1, 1989, for the deployment of Soviet troops against East German citizens. Gorbachev rejected this and stated that the troops would remain in their barracks. Krenz only signed the order against the use of firearms on November 3, Matthias wrote. He claimed that Krenz later falsely asserted that he had prevented bloodshed in the fall of 1989. The responsible commanders on the ground had waited in vain for orders from the leadership and had independently ordered not to shoot. Matthias also accused Krenz of shared responsibility for election fraud in May 1989 and wrote that he had approved of the Tiananmen massacre. Furthermore, Matthias pointed out that Krenz had been sentenced in 1997 to six years and six months in prison for manslaughter and co-responsibility for the East German border regime, of which he had served nearly four years. He criticized Krenz's complaints about the conditions of his detention in the Plötzensee prison, his defense of the GDR, and his complaints about the amount of his pension. Matthias also wrote that Krenz had only been in power for 50 days before being ousted by the people, and he stated that he should have been entitled to social welfare instead of pension and royalty payments. #DDR #Gorbatschow #Wende (translated)

Theresa Finn wrote that the situation for the Union is continuing to decline. She stated that the AfD should in no way catch the Union despite their coalition advances, comparing it to trying to catch a falling knife. https://t.co/GSeqUQ78vy #Politik #Deutschland #Union (translated)

The author wrote that social democracy is sinking into chaos and that the crisis is self-inflicted. The party crisis has long become a permanent government crisis. Those who cannot hold their own party together cannot lead a country but only manage the decline, he declared. In conclusion, he used the image of a sinking ship. https://t.co/KQegCeprkl #Sozialdemokratie #Parteikrise #Niedergang #DE (translated)