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Sandra Navidi wrote that the Trump family is making personal deals with Vladimir Putin at the expense of Ukraine and Europe. She recalled her warning from March 2025 that Donald Trump would side with Russia and take action against Ukraine, likely also against Europe. Additionally, she claimed that Pete Hegseth is currently removing dissenters from the military and that the AfD would also support Russia. #Putin #Diesel #Trump #Putin #Ukraine (translated)

Regina Laska wrote that Donald Trump promised hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel after a phone call with Vladimir Putin. The U.S. Treasury then allowed an exemption from the sanctions. Given the midterms in four weeks and a diesel price at record levels, Laska interpreted the move as a possible campaign maneuver. In mid-September, Trump publicly called on Volodymyr Zelensky to stop attacks on Russian refineries. According to a Reuters report led by Laska, at that time three of the six largest Russian diesel refineries were shut down or operating at limited capacity. She also pointed to a Russian export ban on diesel until the end of October and noted that Russia imported almost seven times as much diesel from Belarus from January to July as in the same period of the previous year. Deputy Prime Minister Novak is now talking about surpluses, she wrote; however, it is unclear whether the announced delivery quantities and deadlines will actually be met. Zelensky offered to stop Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries if Russia ends its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Laska referred to this as a symmetrical de-escalation offer that is on the table for the Americans. She also cited rocket attacks on a residential building in Pryluky, glide bombs on city buses in Kramatorsk, and shelling of the energy supply in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa. She warned that Russia would respond to the diesel with terrorism. The EU also criticized Laska: On September 22, Usmanov and Fridman were removed from the sanctions list under pressure from France, Slovakia, and Luxembourg. According to Laska, Zelensky pointed out that the attacks had since increased. At the same time, the EU extended the remaining personal sanctions from six months to three years. Latvia had long resisted the compromise and ultimately paved the way for it by abstaining. Laska compared Trump's diesel concession to Russia with the European compromise in favor of unanimity. In her view, the costs of such agreements are borne not by their authors but by the people in Pryluky, Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Oleshkiv. #Trump #Putin #Dieselpreise (translated)

Thomas Jäger asked what Ralf Stegner was talking about and mentioned champagne, the businesses of Globus, and a commission as possible topics. Jäger wrote that Stegner was either naively exceeding all limits or did not know what to say next. #Champagner #Geschäfte #Naivität (translated)

"prohibit all transactions with this rogue court, cut its resources, and severely weaken its ability to act. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the US would 'prohibit all transactions with this rogue court, cut its resources, and severely weaken its ability to act.'" #IStGH #USASanktionen #Völkerrecht (translated)

The author of the article wrote that the Trump administration is now also taking action against the International Criminal Court (ICC) following sanctions against individuals. According to him, almost all business with the court is forbidden, its assets are blocked in the US, and its access to the US dollar has been cut off. Additionally, US companies have six months to comply. #Trump #InternationalerStrafgerichtshof #Sanktionen #USA (translated)

Miss Eve criticized BMW over reports that the car manufacturer withdrew its leasing offer for the new President of the Saxony-Anhalt Parliament on the day of his election. If this is true, the question arises as to whether BMW makes business decisions dependent on the party affiliation of an officeholder, she wrote. She argued that for a company car funded by public means, efficiency and the requirements of the office should count. At the same time, she accused BMW of possibly applying political criteria in selecting customers and warned that these could choose other manufacturers. Miss Eve wrote that she drives a BMW 430i M Sport Coupe, but her leasing contract will soon expire. She could then choose another brand. In the event that BMW excludes customers because of their political views, she noted there are 60.5 million eligible voters in Germany, 30.5 percent potential AfD voters, and 18.5 million disgruntled customers. #BMW #Automobilindustrie #Kundenservice (translated)

Reza Pahlavi Communications published a statement that had reportedly been signed by 133 Iranian political prisoners and activists. In it, the signatories thanked the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for awarding the Freedom Prize 2026 to the Iranian people and for commissioning Prince Reza Pahlavi to accept it. The signatories wrote that during the protests on January 8 and 9, 2026, people had demanded an end to the Islamic Republic and more freedom. Published reports and estimates indicated tens of thousands of deaths and thousands of arrests. They stated that executions continued and death sentences were imposed in part based on confessions coerced under torture and in unfair trials. The authors referred to Reza Pahlavi as their political representative and supported him in leading a transition to a free, democratic Iran. They wrote that the Iranian people should decide on the future form of government in a free vote. They urged governments and international institutions to prevent executions, release political prisoners, and grant independent observers access to prisons. Additionally, they called for an end to business with the Islamic Republic, for a transparent use of frozen Iranian assets to support the freedom movement, and for better access to secure internet, including through Starlink. The letter was dated October 2026. #Iran #Freiheit #Menschenrechte (translated)

Manaf Hassan criticized the closeness of Federal Constitutional Court President Stephan Harbarth to the political leadership. A photo from the weekend in Bremen shows Harbarth at the state ceremony for the Day of German Unity directly next to leading politicians, he wrote. The court president must stand for the separation of powers, but had previously served as a CDU member of the Bundestag, a member of the CDU federal executive, and as deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag. Harbarth had switched from the faction leadership to the Federal Constitutional Court in November 2018 and was elected vice president the day after his election as a judge. About a year and a half later, he became president. Hassan described it as unusual that Harbarth reached the head of the court without prior judicial activity in Karlsruhe. Before that, Harbarth had worked as a partner in a law firm that split from Shearman & Sterling in 2008, becoming SZA Schilling, Zutt & Anschütz. Until 2004, Hanno Berger also worked there in Frankfurt on tax law. Berger is considered a central developer of the Cum-Ex transactions, in which banks and investors received refunds for capital gains tax that they had never paid. Experts estimate the damage, according to Hassan, at a double-digit billion amount. Berger later advised, among others, the Hamburg Warburg Bank and has since been legally convicted. Harbarth worked during those years in the Mannheim office of the law firm; what he knew about Berger's activities remains unclear, Hassan wrote. Additionally, Hassan referred to decisions and proceedings at the Federal Constitutional Court: The First Senate under Harbarth's chairmanship had examined and largely approved central Corona measures in 2021. In the Second Senate, there has been a complaint regarding the election review from BSW for almost two years, which wants to achieve a recount of the federal election and entry into the Bundestag. If BSW were to enter Parliament retroactively, the black-red coalition would lose its own majority, according to Hassan. He asked how Harbarth could be at the head of the court while also publicly standing next to the government, whose actions the court should control. #Bremen #Bundesverfassungsgericht #Politik (translated)

Lexa wrote that Friedrich Merz had stated that the German population and the federal government supported Ukraine and would stand by it until the end of the war. Lexa described this as slander against the entire German population. Only 10 percent of Germans were satisfied with Merz; 90 percent wanted nothing more to do with him and his dealings with Zelensky, wrote Lexa. #Ukraine #FriedrichMerz #Deutschland (translated)

Bernhard Heinzlmaier wrote that rumors about a replacement for Andreas Babler intensified. From Monday, Philip Kucher and Eva-Maria Holzleitner were to lead the SPÖ affairs as a dual leadership, while Babler was to remain party leader and vice-chancellor until the end of the year. Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer was to become vice-chancellor starting in January; a party congress was planned for March. Heinzlmaier stated that he had expected a dual leadership modeled after the SPD. He criticized the planned leadership as hopeless and wrote that the two young, but in his view already deeply rooted in the party bureaucracy, officials could not get the SPÖ back on track. Additionally, he described them derogatorily as a male-female duo in the manner of a traditional costume couple. #SPÖ #Politik #Österreich (translated)

Thomas Jäger wrote that Trump believed he could end Russia's war by offering Vladimir Putin business opportunities. Putin has been responding to this offer for months, and Trump is now showing interest. Business with Russia is therefore being pursued even without an end to the war, Jäger wrote. He claimed that Trump was never concerned about the war. #Trump #Putin #Russland (translated)