The EU is not rearming fast enough to meet its goal of being ready to defend against Russia by 2030, according to the European Defence Agency.

Its first annual readiness report says current national plans still leave major gaps in air and missile defense, ground forces, naval capabilities, ammunition stockpiles and drones.

Despite record increases in spending and industrial capacity, the agency said Europe still lacks sufficiently deployable, sustainable and interoperable forces and needs to move “substantially faster.”

Source: Reuters

Obama:

Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasized about, if you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, all right, how are things going?

I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect, but they’d be better. They’d be better. I’m confident about that. I really do.

Armenia's PM Pashinyan:

For two and a half years now, there have been no casualties or injuries as a result of crossfire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and I think this is the greatest value that was created as a result of cooperation in recent years.

Armenia's PM Pashinyan on Türkiye:

We’re resolutely pushing forward the process of normalizing Armenia-Türkiye relations.

Obama:

The progress that’s been made on civil rights or women’s rights or LGBTQ rights have not been reversed.

You know, in most places, people strongly — the vast majority of people — believe in those things.

Obama:

When I travel around the country today, or I work with the young people that I work with who come from all across the country through the Foundation, what you discover is that, in fact, we are not as divided as we seem at the ground level.

We’re not as divided as our politics or our media would indicate. The loud, noisy, polarized dialogue is in part manufactured for a variety of interests.

And when you get on the ground, it turns out people are still treating each other decently and with respect.

Obama on Trump:

I am not surprised that the current president wants to ban newscasts that are critical of him, because he's "that guy."

Obama:

When I was president, we used to push other countries not to do this. Part of — if I went on a — if I was meeting with the Chinese or the Russians or anybody, I would be championing: you can't imprison journalists.

You can't exclude them. You can't choose a state organ that delivers your propaganda and your messaging nonstop.

Iran says it has presented a new proposal to the U.S. to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart negotiations toward a “final deal.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. would have seven days after accepting the proposal to meet undisclosed conditions based on the June Islamabad agreement, which covered sanctions relief, frozen assets and an end to military operations.

Tehran is awaiting a U.S. response and says it would prefer talks to resume before the U.S. midterm elections in early November.

Source: CNN

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

We did not choose war. The war was imposed on us.

We don’t seek war. Rather, whenever they attack us, we are forced to defend ourselves.

We never started a war, but if they wish to keep fighting us, we will respond strongly.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

We did reach an agreement with Trump. That agreement was signed, and based on that, we are willing and still wish to move forward, and the framework was agreed upon.

We had not closed the Strait of Hormuz. It was open. Without any legal justification or framework, they attacked us.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

One of the problems that we face is that our money in China is blocked.

We can't even get our own money out of a country to which we have supplied goods, let alone use those funds to pay someone else in another corner of the world.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

Whomever wishes to protest is fully entitled to do so. We sat and had a dialogue with many of these protesters. Now, weaponizing protests, that’s a whole different affair.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

If the current American government, within the international legal framework, wishes to reach an agreement, fine.

If not, before the elections or after the elections, what difference does it make for us?

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

We never sought war. We do not seek war. I deeply believe that humans should not cause the death of another human.

We are supposed to be the chosen beings of creation. When we can resolve issues through dialogue, we shouldn't resort to killing one another.

But with the instigations conducted by Israel, they have imposed this war on us. But we do not wish to continue. It's America that must choose whether it wants to end this or not.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

Trump kept saying, “I want to bring a gift to the people of Iran,” but the gift that they brought us was guided missiles, heavy weapons, and destruction.

What they truly wish to do is to instigate incidents in the country that pave the way for the downfall of the system, of the society, of the government.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

We will keep resisting until the very end. Yes, we do have economic issues, certainly, but in order to remain, we will go through any hardship and endure.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov meets Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly.

Trump welcomes Xi for the state dinner.

The Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Mecca Agreement for Joint Defense took place on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly.