📢 🇩🇪 🇪🇺 AfD’s Alice Weidel to unveil plan to downsize the EU

Alternative for Germany (AfD) wants to scrap the directly elected European Parliament, shrink the European Commission and let Berlin opt out of common EU policies. That’s according to the party’s policy program, which party leader Alice Weidel will present at the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Last week, Marine Le Pen was in Brussels to outline her plan for the EU if she becomes French president. She vowed to halve Paris’ contributions to the budget if she gets to power, and to turn the European Commission into a “secretariat” in the service of its member countries.

“I’m not fooled by what the European Commission wants to do. The European Commission wants to turn itself into a state; we do not. And so we will stand in its way,” Le Pen said.

The AfD policy paper, obtained by Brussels Playbook, says the AfD would not seek to leave the EU or eurozone at first. Instead, it wants to renegotiate the EU treaties and cut the bloc’s powers, institutions and budget. Weidel will present her strategy at an event on Wednesday afternoon entitled “Our new deal for Europe.”

If its reforms fail, the AfD says it would put Germany’s EU membership to a referendum.

https://www.politico.eu/article/afd-alternative-for-germany-alice-weidel-plan-downsize-eu/

🚢 There are only about 950 supertankers in the world, each carrying about 2 million barrels of crude. Energy analyst Rory Johnston warns that losing a couple a day to attacks around Hormuz "adds up very, very quickly."

Johnston, founder of Commodity Context, told Drop Site News’ Ryan Grim the attacks are getting more serious. Early strikes mostly holed double hulls, damage repairable in a week or two. Now drones are hitting engine rooms, which may take months. Of more than 110 attacks since the war began, three ships have sunk, two in recent weeks.

Shipping a barrel from the Gulf to China now costs $25 to $30, more than ten times the prewar rate, with tanker day rates of $1.3 to $1.5 million.

📎 DropSite News

📝 🇮🇶 🇮🇷 Iraq to close all border crossings with Iran gradually, starting Wednesday

Iraq will begin gradually closing its border crossings with Iran on Wednesday, Oct. 21, starting with the al-Sheib crossing in Maysan governorate, under directives from Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, an official source with knowledge of the matter has told 964media.

The source said al-Sheib would close at 6 a.m. Wednesday to both commercial shipments and passenger traffic, with the suspension remaining in effect until further notice.

The source did not disclose the reasons for the decision nor how long it is expected to last.

“The closure of the al-Sheib crossing in Maysan governorate will begin Wednesday morning and continue until further notice, covering both goods and travelers,” the source said.

The source added that other crossings along the Iraq-Iran border would be closed gradually under the prime minister’s instructions.

No timetable was provided for the remaining closures, and it was unclear whether exemptions would apply to certain goods or travellers.

Key Iraqi border crossings with Iran were also temporarily shut in September following a drone attack on Saudi Arabia launched from Iraqi soil.

https://en.964media.com/54022/

⚡️🇺🇸🇶🇦 Trump Envoy Tom Barrack, speaking in Doha, Qatar, admits that the long-standing security guarantees the US has provided to the Gulf States are coming to an end. "America as the guarantor to the world, for the last 80 years, it is no longer there."

@MedmanNews

🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺⚡️- U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will present a new peace proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two men meet in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, according to Axios.

One U.S. official says the U.S. hopes the proposal will create a pathway for direct trilateral negotiations, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted should be the next step.