Latest news with #Wolff
Euronews
9 hours ago
- Business
- Euronews
EU remains ‘highly vulnerable' and dependent on US defence production
Despite recent efforts to boost European defence production, the bloc remains 'highly vulnerable' and heavily reliant on the United States—particularly for major, high-end defence equipment—according to a new analysis by the Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel. Trade statistics show that the value of weapons imported to Europe increased from approximately $3.4 billion for the period 2019–2021 to $8.5 billion for 2022–2024 across the 27 member states, with the US leading this increase despite concerns over its capabilities. 'Europe has the industrial production capacities to increase production of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles,' said Guntramm Wolff, Bruegel's senior fellow, during the launch of the report Fit for war by 2030? on Friday morning.* 'What is more concerning is the more modern weapons systems, where we have limited capabilities,' he added. Bruegel and Kiel Institute for the World Economy researchers have detected that the reliance on the US for certain defence and security domains is very high, including hypersonic missiles, next generation jets, AI integrated systems and intelligence services. 'There has been some increase in various systems—artillery in particular has grown substantially—but these increases are still relatively small compared to the overall demand,' Wolff said. For example, the report notes that Europe held 1,627 main battle tanks in 2023, while projections suggest 2,359 to 2,920 will be needed in the coming years, depending on the scenario. As for air defence systems such as the Patriot and SAMP/T, stock levels in 2024 stood at 35 units—far below the 89 required. 'Major investments in research and development will be essential,' the authors advise EU policymakers and national governments, especially given Europe's lagging defence R&D compared to global competitors. In 2023, Europe invested €13 billion in military R&D. By contrast, China invested €21 billion, while the US allocated a staggering $145 billion. In March, the European Commission unveiled its rearmament initiative—now called Defence Readiness 2030—with a target of mobilising up to €800 billion to address the bloc's most critical defence shortfalls. Meanwhile, NATO is expected to call on its 32 members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2032—or potentially by 2035—a target Spain has already criticised as 'unreasonable'. But simply increasing budgets won't solve the problem, the report warns. 'More military spending will not automatically and immediately translate into military capabilities, especially if the defence industrial base is already under strain,' the researchers argue. The real challenge, they stress, lies in converting funding into tangible capabilities through a coherent, forward-looking strategic and operational plan. With the European defence market still highly fragmented, greater integration would improve cost-effectiveness. But alongside procurement reform, military planning must also be strengthened. 'This is really about rebuilding the ability to understand war through the lens of peer conflict—and that is just as much of a challenge as disbursing the money,' said Dr. Alexandr Burilkov, assistant director for research at the GLOBSEC GeoTech Center. According to the researchers' estimates, even the proposed €800 billion may fall short—insufficient to cover the development of missile capabilities, procurement of tanks, artillery, and infantry fighting vehicles, modernisation of forces, and investment in air defence systems. Russian drones struck the Black Sea port city of Odesa and the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight, killing at least one person, Ukrainian officials have said. The attacks against Odesa sparked fires in several apartment blocks, Ukraine's Emergency Service said. Flames engulfed a four-storey residential building in the city, which partly collapsed and injured three emergency workers. A separate blaze spread across the upper section of a 23-storey high-rise, leading to the evacuation of 600 residents. In total, one person was killed and 14 others were wounded in the overnight strikes against the port city, according to Odesa's regional prosecutor's office. At least eight drones hit civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, injuring two children and two others, Ukraine's Emergency Service said. A further four people were wounded in a second Russian strike on Friday. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 80 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, with Ukrainian air defences intercepting or jamming 70 of them. A Russian missile strike on a nine-storey Kyiv apartment building earlier this week was a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday. The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early Tuesday, the deadliest assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and wounded 142 others, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. 'This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing,' Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine's partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to 'feel the real cost of the war". As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive across the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, US-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine's mobilisation effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the date for the next round of peace talks is expected to be set next week. Ukrainian officials have not recently spoken about resuming talks with Russia, last held when delegations met in Istanbul on 2 June, though Ukraine continues to offer a ceasefire and support US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting. The two rounds of brief talks yielded only agreements on the exchange of prisoners and wounded soldiers.
Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Max Verstappen theory sees Nico Rosberg and Toto Wolff in disagreement
Red Bull lodged two protests against George Russell following his win at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg and Toto Wolff in disagreement over who was behind it Nico Rosberg has suggested that Max Verstappen could have been behind Red Bull's protest against George Russell after the Brit's Canadian Grand Prix victory. The former Mercedes star and 2016 world champion's thoughts are not in line with his former boss, Toto Wolff, however. Christian Horner's appeal resulted from Russell dropping back behind the Safety Car, with Red Bull accusing him of unsportsmanlike behaviour in trying to catch Verstappen out for overtaking. However, their protests were ultimately rejected. While Wolff, 53, believes the origins of the protest didn't stem from the Red Bull star, Rosberg isn't convinced. Rosberg mused that Verstappen, who is teetering on the brink of a race ban with 11 penalty points to his name, may have seen Russell's manoeuvre as a deliberate ploy to bag him a one-race suspension. He suggested that an irked Verstappen could have then urged his team to lodge the protest in retaliation. "The fact that Red Bull appealed, it wouldn't surprise me if that was pushed by Max," Rosberg said on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. "Because Max got angry that George hit the brakes and tried to get him into a penalty situation. So Max was like, 'I'm not having that,' and asked his team to appeal to try and get George into trouble. It wouldn't surprise me, so we're seeing the cat and mouse games continue, which is great." Wolff has a different take. "What is it all about? Who decides it? Because I'm 100 per cent sure it's not Max, he's a racer. He would never go for a protest on such a trivial thing," Wolff said at the premiere of the new F1 movie this week. The Mercedes boss also expressed frustration with the FIA and urged them to review their procedures. "First of all, it took team Red Bull Racing two hours before they launched the protest, so that was their doing. Honestly, it's so petty and so small. "They've done it in Miami. Now they lodged two protests. They took one back because it was ridiculous. They come up with some weird ISC clauses - sporting code clauses. "I guess the FIA needs to look at that, because it's so far-fetched it was rejected. You race, you win and you lose on track. That was a fair victory for us, like so many they had in the past. And it's just embarrassing." Wolff was particularly annoyed by the time taken to dismiss the second protest, which came five and a half hours after the race ended. "One of them they actually pulled as a protest, they didn't even follow it through because it was nonsense," he added. "The second one took us five hours because I don't even know what you refer to as 'unsportsmanlike behaviour' or something." Meanwhile, Red Bull team principal Horner defended his decision to approach the stewards. "No, absolutely not [got any regrets]," Horner said to Sky Sports. "I mean, it's a team's right to do so. You know, we saw something we didn't think was quite right. You have the ability to put it in front of the stewards, and so that's what we chose to do. Absolutely no regrets in that." Tensions between Red Bull and Mercedes had already been building this season. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen collided with Russell, earning him three penalty points that have him on the cusp of a ban. For next week's Austrian Grand Prix, the four-time world champion will need to tread carefully, as two of his 11 penalty points are set to expire by the end of the month, just before the British GP.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump ‘Reamed Out' Hegseth for Flop Birthday Parade: Author
President Donald Trump was unhappy with his sparsely attended military parade over the weekend and blamed it on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, biographer Michael Wolff revealed. Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump wanted a 'menacing' show of force to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary and his 79th birthday on Saturday—but got a 'festive' parade instead. 'He's p---ed off at the soldiers,' Wolff said. 'He's accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.' As thousands of soldiers flanked by tanks made their way past empty bleachers along Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., social media users pointed out that the soldiers were marching out of sync, and the muted atmosphere appeared to match the gloomy weather. That didn't escape Trump, who pointed the finger at his defense secretary, according to Wolff. 'He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this,' the Trump biographer said. 'Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, the tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? There was the tone problem. Trump, he keeps repeating himself.' 'Everybody was actually celebrating, celebrating the 250 years of the U.S. military—probably celebrating that more than Donald Trump's birthday,' Wolff said. 'But it didn't send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander in chief of this menacing enterprise,' he added. Wolff said Trump had put the word out, via his spokesperson Steven Cheung, that at least 250,000 people were in attendance. 'That was from Trump,' Wolff said. ''Put it out, 250,000.'' Wolff said the people he knows who attended the event said it was actually 'maybe' 40,000. Responding to the claims, the White House blasted Wolff once again as 'a lying sack of s--t' who 'has been proven to be a fraud.' 'He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,' White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast. Publicly, Trump has insisted that his parade was a 'tremendous' success even after it was overshadowed by 'No Kings' demonstrations across the country, which drew in millions of Americans who protested against the president's sweeping immigration agenda. 'Last night was a tremendous success with a fantastic audience,' Trump told reporters on Sunday. 'It was supposed to rain. They gave it a 100 percent chance of rain and it didn't rain at all. It was beautiful.' The parade was still on the president's mind on Monday as he bragged about it to his Canadian counterpart at the G7 Summit. 'We had the parade the other day. They said 100 percent chance of rain. It didn't rain,' Trump told Mark Carney as the Canadian prime minister smiled politely. Trump had long dreamt of a big military parade. During his first term, he was left feeling envious after watching a Bastille Day parade in France in 2017. 'We're going to have to try and top it,' Trump told France's President Macron a few months after the event. His attempts to hold such a grand military spectacle on American soil were repeatedly frustrated over the following years. Washington officials worried about the damage that heavy military vehicles would inflict on streets in D.C., and Trump eventually backed down in his first term as cost estimates for a parade spiralled into the tens of millions. Trump's desire for troops to perform a military extravaganza persisted even as bombshell reports claimed he'd made disparaging comments about U.S. service personnel. In 2020, the Atlantic published claims that Trump had referred to fallen troops as 'suckers' and 'losers.' Trump has always denied making the remarks, but John Kelly, Trump's second White House chief of staff in his first term, confirmed the reports to CNN. New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump raged at Hegseth over birthday parade where military had too much fun: ‘He's p***ed off at the soldiers'
President Donald Trump raged at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over Saturday's military parade, arguing that the soldiers were 'hamming it up,' biographer Michael Wolff has said. Wolff appeared on The Daily Beast Podcast, saying that the president wanted a 'menacing' show of force in honor of the Army's 250th, and his 79th, birthday on June 14. Instead, Trump got a 'festive' parade, said the author. 'He's p***ed off at the soldiers,' he said. 'He's accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.' Social media users noted that the soldiers weren't marching in lockstep during the parade as they made their way down Constitution Avenue in downtown Washington, D.C. Wolff claimed that Trump blamed Hegseth for the lacklustre performance. 'He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this,' Wolff said of the president. 'Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, the tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? There was the tone problem. Trump, he keeps repeating himself.' 'It didn't send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander-in-chief of this menacing enterprise,' the biographer added. The White House called Wolff a 'lying sack of s***' and a 'proven … fraud.' 'He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,' Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, told The Daily Beast. Trump, meanwhile, has claimed that the parade was a 'tremendous success.' 'Last night was a tremendous success with a fantastic audience,' Trump told the press on Sunday. 'It was supposed to rain. They gave it a 100 percent chance of rain, and it didn't rain at all. It was beautiful.' The parade didn't attract as many people as expected, while thousands of 'No Kings' demonstrations were held across the country on Saturday. On Monday, Trump appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. 'We had the parade the other day. They said 100 percent chance of rain. It didn't rain,' Trump told Carney. The president departed from the summit early to return to Washington, D.C., pointing to the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Int'l Business Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Trump Berated Hegseth After Soldiers Had a 'Good Time' at Military Parade Instead of Appearing 'Menacing,' Author Claims
President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a military parade meant to showcase American strength struck a lighter tone than he intended, according to a new claim from biographer Michael Wolff. The parade, held on Saturday in Washington, D.C., marked both the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary and Trump's 79th birthday. Designed to project force and unity, the event coincided with ongoing "No Kings" protests that drew massive nationwide crowds in opposition to Trump's policies. While the president promoted the parade as a triumph, critics online noted the mismatched marching, low turnout, and overall lack of the imposing spectacle Trump reportedly desired. During an appearance on The Daily Beast Podcast, Wolff claimed Trump was furious with how the event unfolded. He allegedly blamed soldiers for appearing too cheerful, waving and smiling, and accused them of undercutting the military image he wanted to project. "He's p***ed off at the soldiers," Wolff said. "He's accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face." Trump is said to have reprimanded Hegseth in a heated phone call, criticizing the event's tone and demanding answers about the parade's execution. Empty seats along the parade route, dreary skies and disjointed formations further fueled the president's dissatisfaction. "It didn't send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander in chief of this menacing enterprise," Wolff added. The White House denounced Wolff's claims, with communications director Steven Cheung calling him a "lying sack of s***" and accusing him of inventing stories. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to publicly frame the parade as a success. Originally published on Latin Times
