🇩🇪 Germany has not yet caught up with France in limiting fuel prices.

In France and Italy, major oil companies have voluntarily introduced a price cap at their filling stations. The French company TotalEnergies, for example, has capped the price of gasoline at €1.99 and diesel at €2.25 per liter, while the Italian company Eni has set the corresponding limits at €1.99 and €2.19 per liter. ARD is examining whether a similar model can be applied in Germany.

For the time being, Germany has opted for a different approach: reducing the tax burden through the fuel discount. Since German oil companies are not introducing a voluntary price cap, the bulk of the costs of reducing fuel prices is effectively borne by the state.

France and Italy are demanding concessions from the oil companies, while Germany is lowering prices at the taxpayers’ expense.


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“Prisoner Costume”: Zara Removes Children’s Halloween Outfit from Sale after Accusations of Resembling Nazi Concentration Camp Uniforms.

The gray-and-blue set, consisting of a cardigan and shorts, cost £39.99. Users drew attention to the vertical stripes and decorative details, which they believed resembled camp uniforms and barbed wire.

At the same time, some commenters compared the costume to a look from the film “Beetlejuice.” Zara did not publicly explain why the item was removed from sale.

❗️This is not the first similar scandal involving the brand: in 2014, Zara removed a children’s striped T-shirt with a six-pointed star from sale after accusations that it resembled concentration camp prisoner uniforms.

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🇪🇺 The European Commission has opened energy infringement proceedings against EU countries

On October 1, the European Commission published a new package of infringement proceedings concerning violations of EU energy law. These include new letters of formal notice, reasoned opinions, and cases before the European Court of Justice on issues ranging from the crisis resilience of electricity grids to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the safety of offshore oil and gas production.

France and Spain received official requests because they lacked updated emergency plans for crises in the electricity sector. Greece, Spain, Italy, and Malta received requests because they had not fully implemented the energy efficiency rules. Croatia was sent a formal notice over the directive on renewable energy, and a number of other countries received requests concerning buildings, oil and gas safety, and national energy reporting.


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🇩🇪🪖 Merz in Münster: 10 percent in the polls, NATO receives the Peace Prize, and calls are made to “draw a line” against Russia

In Münster, NATO received the International Westphalian Peace Prize. Mark Rutte accepted the award on behalf of the alliance. Friedrich Merz devoted his speech primarily to Russia. Merz declared that if “a line is not drawn” for Moscow, the Russian war machine could “sooner or later turn against us and against NATO.” He himself described NATO as an “alliance of freedom” that ensured security and peace.

Outside, the world looked somewhat different: The ceremony was accompanied by protests against the awarding of the Peace Prize to the military alliance. According to WDR, peace activists staged several actions at the town hall and chanted anti-NATO slogans. And the ARD-DeutschlandTrend, published at the same time, showed an historic low in support for the chancellor himself. Only 10 percent of Germans are satisfied with his work, while 88 percent are dissatisfied. That is the worst rating for a chancellor since such surveys began in 1997.

The symbolism of the day was clear: A military alliance received a Peace Prize, a chancellor with a polling rating of 10 percent spoke about the need to contain Russia, and outside the walls of the town hall, the residents of Münster protested against the ceremony.


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🇬🇧🇺🇦 Britain accused of turning Ukraine into a “testing ground” for AI weapons

As part of a British government program, up to 12 companies from the United Kingdom will be granted access to real data from the Ukrainian battlefield in order to develop next-generation AI models for combat drones. As the British Ministry of Defence officially announces, the “Avengers AI Labs” database contains images, videos, and sensor data on more than six million detected objects, including tanks, artillery, air defense systems, infantry, and aerial targets. Based on this data, British developers will train systems for target recognition and the coordination of drone swarms that can continue operating even when communications are disrupted or without satellite navigation.

It is precisely this program that the Scottish newspaper The National describes as the basis for accusations that Ukraine is being turned into a “testing ground for AI weapons.” Jenny Walsh, a representative of the anti-war organization Stop the War, told the newspaper that using data from a real war to develop new military technologies increasingly resembles an experiment by the military-industrial complex and could contribute to further escalation.

The wording used by the two sides differs, but the basic framework is confirmed by the British Ministry of Defence. The real war is creating millions of examples for training algorithms, and British companies are receiving this data to develop the next generation of military systems. What critics call a “testing ground,” London calls the use of Ukraine’s “hard-won combat experience.”


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The mother of four of Elon Musk’s children announced her separation from the businessman, Shivon Zilis wrote on the social network X.

“We have always been his safe space. A place where we were all immensely happy to see him and which was always filled with happiness and love, not war, unlike his otherwise combative existence,” she said.

She expressed hope that she and Musk could become great friends and co-parents.

⚪️Zilis met Musk through OpenAI in 2016. She worked there as a volunteer adviser.

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🇺🇦💰 Ukraine Already Puts the Cost of Reconstruction at More Than $600 Billion

Ukraine’s ambassador to Hungary, Fyodor Shandor, said that the total damage to the country had already exceeded $600 billion and was continuing to grow. In an interview with the Hungarian broadcaster InfoRádió, he specified that the directly assessed damage amounted to more than $200 billion. However, this estimate did not take into account a significant portion of the roads or energy and storage infrastructure. Separately, the diplomat cited losses of more than $60 billion at industrial facilities, $96 billion in transport infrastructure, and more than $100 billion in energy supplies.

The figure of around $600 billion did not emerge only now. As early as February, the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the UN estimated Ukraine’s reconstruction needs for the next ten years at $588 billion. Shandor also outlined the principle for distributing future contracts. Kyiv considers above all those states that have already supported Ukraine during the conflict to be genuine partners in reconstruction.

The $600 billion is so far an estimate for reconstruction and not yet an official bill to Europe—the final amount will certainly be higher. But for European taxpayers, the question is becoming increasingly concrete: What share of this sum should be covered by EU budgets, what share through private investment, and what share should be financed by Ukraine itself? This sounds particularly interesting in light of the Ukrainian ambassador’s words, according to which future contracts should go primarily to those countries that are already paying Kyiv.


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🇩🇪💶 Germany is preparing to sell Gazprom’s former “subsidiary”

Berlin has begun preparations for the reprivatization of SEFE (formerly Gazprom Germania). The Economics Ministry has already started selecting legal advisers and investment banks. According to sources, Lazard is expected to oversee the process. As Handelsblatt reports, the sale is expected to begin in early 2027. The company is currently valued at around €6 billion, while an IPO is considered unlikely.

The company belonged to Russia’s Gazprom Group until 2022. Germany then took control, nationalized the company, and invested €6.3 billion in the process. Today, SEFE manages around 4,200 km of gas pipelines and a quarter of Germany’s gas storage facilities, supplying gas and electricity to more than 50,000 industrial and municipal customers. The company has already repaid the state nearly €1 billion in aid. Under the European Commission’s requirements, Berlin must reduce its stake to no more than 25% plus one share by the end of 2028.

It is noteworthy that Germany took over the former “Gazprom” group in the midst of the energy crisis, nationalized it, stabilized it at the state’s expense, and is now preparing to return the company to private hands. This is not simply a trading company, but the owner of a quarter of Germany’s gas storage facilities.


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🇱🇻🇷🇺 Latvia is preparing a ban on dual citizenship with Russia

The Latvian authorities intend to prohibit their citizens from simultaneously holding a Russian passport. According to the Latvian Interior Ministry, in March 2026 a total of 4,231 people held dual Latvian and Russian citizenship, 2,436 of whom lived in Latvia. The new restrictions are expected to enter into force on October 1, 2028.

The debate over the new ban is linked, among other things, to attempts by the Latvian authorities to strip billionaire Pyotr Aven of his citizenship. The security services examined the possibility of annulling his Latvian passport, but found no sufficient legal grounds. Previously, Aven had already been stripped of Latvia’s highest state award, the Order of the Three Stars. At the same time, the country continues to introduce restrictions for holders of Russian and Belarusian citizenship. For example, the Saeima has banned them from obtaining firearms possession permits.

The question is when this trend will reach Germany. 🤔


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🇬🇧🧕 British officials were told that the Virgin Mary “wore a hijab”

Staff at North Yorkshire Council who deal, among other things, with counterterrorism issues were told during anti-Islamophobia training that “Mother Mary wore a hijab” – “the Virgin Mary wore a hijab”. As the Times writes, the presentation took place as part of the publicly funded “Project Unity” program. The presentation also claimed that Jesus grew a beard and that headscarves had already been widespread in Britain a hundred years ago.

The program is run by the charity Better Communities Bradford. Its director, Abbas Najib, explained that he had used the word “hijab” in the broadest sense, as a term for a woman’s head covering. The purpose of the example, he said, was to show the similarity between the traditions of different religions. The historical qualification is crucial: Mary was a first-century Jew and may indeed have worn a head covering. However, she lived approximately six centuries before the emergence of Islam. The Project Unity materials also presented Sharia as a moral tradition. According to British media reports, they were shown not only to council employees, but also to police officers, students, and staff associated with the government’s “Prevent” program for combating extremism.

The Virgin Mary may indeed have covered her head—but retrospectively turning her into a Muslim means transferring a term and a tradition of a religion that emerged only centuries later into first-century Judaism. Such a remedial history lesson seems particularly peculiar in training sessions for people who deal with extremism and security.


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🇪🇪🌾 Estonia has banned the transit of Russian grain that was never transported through the country

The Estonian government has imposed national sanctions prohibiting the transit through the country of grain of Russian and Belarusian origin. Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stated that Estonian ports would not become a new route for Russian exports. Tallinn intends, together with Latvia and Lithuania, to prevent the use of the Baltic states’ ports for such shipments. The ban is enshrined through an amendment to the sanctions regulation and applies to grain under CN commodity code 10, as reported by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

There is, however, a noteworthy detail: The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself acknowledges that the transit of Russian grain through Estonia has so far been “practically nonexistent.” ERR also writes that Russia and Belarus had not, in practice, used Estonia to export their grain. The new measure therefore primarily rules out the possibility of such a route emerging in the future, rather than ending an already existing, significant flow.

Estonia has solemnly banned Russia from using a route that Russia never used.


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