Germany’s federal government is reportedly embroiled in a behind-the-scenes dispute over plans to deliver an additional €3 billion in arms to Ukraine, according to German news outlet Der Spiegel. It reported late on Thursday that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius are pushing for the emergency funding ahead of the Feb. 23 […]
So I was all set to hit the upvote button because this is pretty relevant news.
Then I read the subtitle, “German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reportedly blocked a proposed €3 billion arms package for Ukraine so as not to antagonize voters ahead of next month’s election, Der Spiegel reports”. I can’t get access to the Spiegel article because it’s paywalled, but none of the other summaries of this story I quickly skimmed across said anything about the voters. They said he thinks the current aid is sufficient, and doesn’t want to take the significant financial hit if they don’t need to.
So then I looked a little further down the page on “ReMix News”, and found a big feature box with a photo of Putin and a link to https://rmx.news/article/majority-of-germans-want-chancellor-scholz-to-renew-talks-with-putin-on-ending-war-in-ukraine/:
It’s just tiny changes. So imperceptible that you could say they’re not even there, or are just some kind of rephrasing.
Excerpts from the exact same story, from https://www.dailyfinland.fi/europe/39911/Majority-of-Germans-want-Scholz-to-speak-with-Putin (the first place outside ReMix News that I found it):
Then how it’s summarized in ReMix News:
“Drag NATO further into the war” instead of “NATO could then be drawn into the war.”
“Territorial compromise” instead of “22% believe that Ukraine should give up the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia 10 years ago” (okay, that second one is the same thing from the opposite direction)
“Ukraine’s desired military strategy,” “Ukrainian loyalists in the U.S., the U.K., and France,” and “more willing to hand over missiles.”
Tiny changes.