Germany

Germany will release up to 15 million barrels of oil and petroleum products from its emergency reserves under the G7 agreement on energy stockpiles. Diesel and heating oil go first, with crude oil to follow. Germany's economy minister called refineries critical to national energy security.

Israel warned U.S. and German counterparts roughly three weeks ago that Iranian intelligence services may be planning to target the American bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem in Germany, Western intelligence officials told WirtschaftsWoche.

Berlin: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is hosting UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

UK PM Andy Burnham: Britain is open to Germany joining GCAP, the next-gen fighter jet program with Italy and Japan.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz:

"Whoever elects a member of a far-right party as state parliament president must reconcile that with their own conscience."

"Whoever gives their vote to the AfD is playing the extremists' game and destroying credibility."

Germany: The AfD now holds the speaker's chair in Saxony-Anhalt. Tobias Rausch won Tuesday's vote, a month after his party took the state election. No far-right party has held the post since World War Two.

Germany's former intelligence chief has been arrested on suspicion of treason, accused of handing a foreign intelligence agency current information on Iran's nuclear program.

France and Germany are pushing for an EU "kill switch" on trade, in a joint letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It could cut a country off from the single market within days, not years, and scale from one product to an entire country. China is unnamed but is the obvious target. The EU's goods deficit with China hit €360 billion last year.

Germany will build a new major naval base in Emden as part of a wider navy expansion. The site is projected to cost several billion euros, house up to 2,000 military and civilian personnel, and reach full operational capability by 2030.

Germany's foreign intelligence chief: Russia's war on Ukraine is entering a new, more dangerous phase. Even more atrocious attacks are expected this winter.

Zelensky:

"Germany is not only helping Ukraine, we are helping each other. Ukraine and Germany are already jointly producing drones."

"Ukraine will purchase more weapons and equipment in Germany. Work has begun on creating UAV units, and we are ready to help with training and share our experience."

German Chancellor Merz:

"The Russian economy cannot wage this war indefinitely. We know that the Russian economy has already reached its pain threshold: 7% inflation, a 14% central-bank rate, falling oil and gas revenues and an increasingly large state deficit."

Macron is convening G7 leaders on energy prices as France pushes the EU to release 100 million barrels of reserves, 50 million crude and 50 million diesel. Germany is reluctant. The plan is still under technical review.

German Chancellor Merz: We are preparing for major hybrid attacks by Russia, and we would respond quickly and very clearly.

The Trump administration has told France and Germany to draw down their emergency diesel reserves as part of an effort to push global fuel prices lower.

Washington has floated a potential ban on U.S. diesel exports if the two governments do not comply.

Reuters.

Several European countries just urged their citizens to leave Iran immediately:

-Germany🇩🇪
-Italy🇮🇹
-France🇫🇷
-Norway🇳🇴
-Denmark🇩🇰
-Finland🇫🇮
-Sweden🇸🇪

The Trump administration is weighing a request for European governments to release diesel from their strategic reserves, an alternative to imposing a U.S. export ban. Europe holds over 350 million barrels in government and commercial stockpiles. Germany has signaled it is unlikely to tap reserves solely to bring prices down. U.S. diesel is averaging $6.44 a gallon. POLITICO.

A former bodyguard to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was granted asylum in Britain, later received permanent residency and became a British citizen, The Sunday Times reports.

Years later, he was arrested in London over a Hamas linked plot to attack Jewish and Israeli targets across Europe.

German prosecutors say he helped move weapons and recorded a masked claim of responsibility video.

He now remains in UK custody.

Peter Thiel on Germany:

In the U.S., nine out of 12 of the youngest wealthy people made their own money. In Germany, all 20 inherited it. Not a single person built a large new scalable company.

Four German Eurofighters have landed in Latvia to guard its airspace through the October 3 election. Deployment is set for about a week.

Latvian Defense Ministry.

Initial reports of an F-16 crash near Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.

12 x U.S. F-16Cs from Oklahoma’s 138th Fighter Wing departed Germany for the Middle East today.

Via @DefenceGeek

Lockheed Martin has handed over the first F-35A to Germany, part of Berlin's broader push to modernize its armed forces. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called it the only aircraft able to carry U.S.-owned nuclear weapons under NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement.

Bloomberg

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski on Poland's military strength:

"We have more tanks and more brigades than Germany, France and Britain combined that we could deploy."

A drone crashed near Steinhuder Meer in Germany, about a kilometer from the Wunstorf Bundeswehr air base. Police are searching for further debris. No known threat to the public, and no one knows who the drone belongs to.

BILD