Also according to Guardian

Daniel Fiott, head of the defence and statecraft programme at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy, has summarised the main points in X

90 references to “defence”. Key points:

👉🏻 defence industry too fragmented 👉🏻 too many capability duplicates 👉🏻 not investing in EU suppliers 👉🏻 common procurement needed 👉🏻 defence fuels growth 👉🏻 need more investment 👉🏻 integrate AI into defence 👉🏻 private finance And more.

RIP " Moonfish" 🙏🏻

Colonel Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes was a fervent advocate of giving Ukraine the advanced fighters.

KYIV — Ukraine lost the first of its U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets during Monday’s massive missile and drone attack by Russia, killing the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes, one of the country’s first to be qualified to fly the advanced fighters.

link

It’s always quite peculiar to see these comparisons. Bilateral is US and EU institutions, the UK, and then some European memberstates.
Though U.K. is not EU anymore It’s still a military ally and geograohically part of the European continent. Also, how much did European countries donate in It’s totality?

And this just came in : "opposition candidate Edmundo González on Monday announced that his campaign has the proof it needs to show he won the country’s disputed election "

ap link

In a way I don’t fancy giving guys like Trump and Orbán any platform, considering that we all know what they stand for, and what they have been doing. On the otherhand, we still need to deal with the consequences of their actions. So, here we are.

For those who have missed it, UK had elections and the Labour Party won.

" So far Labour has won 412 seats, while the Conservatives have slumped to just 121 and centrist Liberal Democrats have taken 71. Reform UK, a successor to the Brexit Party, is set to pick up four seats, as is the left-wing Green Party " (link BBC)

The Danish People’s party and the Flemish nationalist pro-independence Vlaams Belang announced on Saturday that they would join, giving Patriots for Europe 23 MEPs – enough to meet the EU parliament’s threshold for formal recognition.

Other parties involved are the Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), the centrist ANO of former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, the Party for Freedom (PVV) of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, Portugal’s far-right Chega party and Spain’s Vox.

Disturbing trends…

"The son of Italian immigrants with Algerian roots on the father’s side, Bardella was born and raised in the diverse, largely working-class Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

“I came from elsewhere, but I became who I am here. I married French history,” is the way he describes his background on Tiktok, a social media platform popular with a young demographic, where he boasts 1.8 million followers. "

"Russian-based companies make up about half of the 61 entities added to the EU’s list Monday. In addition to the 19 Chinese companies, it also added nine from Turkey, two in Kyrgyzstan, one in India, one in Kazakhstan, and one in the United Arab Emirates.

To be clear: “NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday that 23 of its 32 member states were expected to meet the alliance’s defense spending commitments this year. That is 13 countries more compared to last year’s data, and five more than an earlier estimate in February.”

The department said it made its finding based on the group’s history of violence rooted in “its openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQI+ platform”. The United States remains deeply concerned about the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist threat worldwide and is committed to countering the transnational components of violent white supremacy,” a department statement said.

"Thousands of people rallied in Budapest on Saturday as a political newcomer led a push to mobilise voters against Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, ahead of European elections on Sunday.

“We defeated apathy,” declared Péter Magyar, a former government insider who switched sides and launched an opposition movement, as he stood in front of a vast crowd which filled the capital’s Heroes’ Square.

“Recently, the challenges and risks related to the rise of China as a dominant actor in many economy and technology areas have become more and more apparent in Latin America as well,” Christian Hauser, an expert on Latin America at the University of Applied Sciences in Graubünden, Switzerland, told DW.

Various Latin American societies are increasingly feeling that it’s predominantly Beijing which has profited from the region’s economic relations with China, said Hauser. Therefore, he said, current criticism of China’s trade practices could become even more pronounced."

Yes, I forgot Germany has a “diehard” constitution. Tnx for explaining this aspect. That would make it a third argument, or need of an " extra A-okay" mandate.

I also remembered, that big eavesdrop hack scandal while the Taurus issue was internally being discussed with the military brass and ministers. Having that scandal and the discussion " in the open" hasn’t helped either.

Their basis for holding back was Ukraine might use them to strike targets in Russia, and that cannot be allowed…

That was one argument, the other one was that a (German) ground force maintainance crew & training & encoding experts and stuff would be needed. Regarding sending maintainance crews, the opinions seem more and more positive of late. I’ll reckon we’ll might see Taurus , and hopefully more of it’s friends, being send. Then again, it will also depend on the outcome of the ( EU) elections this year.

Ofc Ukraine may defend itself! Anyway, here their quote:

“We think that we should allow them to neutralize military sites where missiles are fired, from where … Ukraine is attacked,” Macron said at a joint press conference alongside the German chancellor following talks at Schloss Meseberg near Berlin, the official state guest house of the German Federal Republic.

At the same time, he stressed that “we should not allow them to touch other targets in Russia, and obviously civilian capacities.”

TLDR(Long article);

Now, an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.

Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.

The joint investigation draws on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli intelligence officers and government officials, senior ICC figures, diplomats and lawyers familiar with the ICC case and Israel’s efforts to undermine it.

Unlike the international court of justice (ICJ), a UN body that deals with the legal responsibility of nation states, the ICC is a criminal court that prosecutes individuals, targeting those deemed most responsible for atrocities.

Probably, but that’s the problem right? Even if you could, it’s about sustainability. But also that’s there isnt very much . And, it’s a complete inventory chaos, because of different specs. And ofc, there’s always political reasons and what nots. Generally, that’s what’s being said anyway.

This deal will allow Ukraine to boost its capabilities, including its essential air defence systems to protect its civilians, cities and infrastructure, which are still suffering indiscriminate attacks as seen this weekend in Kharkiv,” Sánchez told a press conference after the signing.

He said Spain had already pledged to supply Patriot missiles and said it would also send “another batch of Leopard tanks and above all ammunition”.

The Spanish government said the agreement would also include other areas, such as intelligence, training, de-mining, reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.

That would be great if economies would chip in. Idk, USA, EU has some plans iirc, Saudi, Chinese , India etc.

And the Billionaires worldwide as well , they pack a wallet the size of some countries.