Conscription Coming Back?

Hi Global Recap readers,

Today is a tragic day, with inflamed debate over how political rhetoric bleeds into everyday life.

• Yes, it’s another US shooting. Normally I wouldn’t cover a purely domestic event, as we focus on geopolitics and cross-border dynamics. But this case cuts into antisemitism, political violence, and gender ideology, all central to today’s international politics.

• At first, I assumed it was another case of misidentification, like the incident a few days ago when a student carrying an umbrella was mistaken for an active campus shooter.

We’ll dig into that below. 👇

🌐 WORLD
Fast Scroll News

🇩🇪 Germany Weighs Draft Return

Germany’s cabinet just passed a bill that launches voluntary six‑month military service and quietly leaves the door open for conscription if enlistment goals stall.

• Goal: Defense Minister Boris Pistorius aims to raise active soldiers from 180,000 to 260,000 by the early 2030s to meet NATO force targets.

• Targets: The voluntary scheme sets yearly recruitment goals starting at 20,000 in 2026 and climbing to 38,000 by 2030.

• Trigger: Missing those targets could let parliament reinstate compulsory service for young men, ending its 14‑year suspension since 2011.

• Tactics: But first, the Bundeswehr is using regional ads, career lounges, and troop visit centers to attract recruits, after a 28 percent jump to 13,700 new soldiers by late July.

• Politics: Conservatives want an automatic draft trigger, while Pistorius’ SPD allies prefer boosting the army’s appeal before reviving mandatory service.

🇲🇩 EU Courts Moldova

The leaders of France, Germany, and Poland have now invited Moldova to start its path into the EU, urging it to reject Kremlin “lies” ahead of a razor-close September election.

• Invitation: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stood outside Moldova’s National Assembly today and told citizens the EU’s door was “open” and they were “wholeheartedly welcome.”

• Alignment: French President Emmanuel Macron said Moldova’s choice was “in favor of peace and the rule of law” and warned against Kremlin propaganda portraying Europe as a warmonger.

• Support: Polish PM Donald Tusk reinforced that Moldova belongs with the 27-nation bloc, not in Moscow’s sphere of influence.

• Pressure: Pro-EU President Maia Sandu, narrowly reelected last year, warned of Russian tactics like disinformation and vote-buying targeting the September 28 parliamentary election.

• Strategy: EU leaders promised to open the first membership negotiation chapters this fall, citing Moldova’s 2023 green light to begin accession talks.

🇷🇺 Russia Pounds Kyiv

Russia pummeled Kyiv overnight with ballistic missiles and drones, killing four people, including a 14-year-old, and injuring more than 20 as neighborhoods burned and rescue crews dug through rubble.

• Timing: Strikes began around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 27 and continued into the early morning, with new blasts hitting the city at 3 a.m. and again near 5:30 a.m.

• Weapons: At least four MiG‑31 jets armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles participated, alongside waves of drones hitting regions from Odesa to Lviv.

• Damage: More than 20 sites in Kyiv were hit, including a shopping center, residential towers, a kindergarten, and office buildings. One five‑story apartment block collapsed completely.

• Casualties: In addition to the four dead, 18 people were hospitalized, including children aged 7, 10, and 11.

• Response: Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed hundreds of damaged buildings, while rescue teams fought fires and pulled survivors from debris.

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES
Gunman’s Hate-Filled
Attack on Children

The Minneapolis Catholic school shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, whose manifesto mixes violent fantasy, antisemitic slurs, and admiration for past mass murderers.

The biggest points of discussions online are:

• Westman is a transgender woman (born Robert)

• Westman is a Trump/Jew "hater"

• This has nothing to do with identity—the US has a mental disorder epidemic.

Here are the details. 👇

Attack at Annunciation

• On August 27, 2025, at about 8:30 a.m., Robin Westman, 23, opened fire through stained glass windows during a back‑to‑school Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

• Two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed instantly as they sat in church pews. At least 17 others were injured.

• Westman, a former student at the school, died from a self‑inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.

Shooter’s Identity

The personal details matter for understanding motive threads.

• Born Robert Westman, Westman legally changed their name at 17 in January 2020 to reflect her transgender identity.

• But jump 5 years later, Westman seems to have backed off from this gender presentation, saying:

And what's even more shocking is the fact that the shooter's mother worked as a secretary at the same school until 2021.

Politics

A lot of people see this as a failure of politics, feeding confusion into the mind of someone young and impressionable.

• Governor: Tim Walz, best known to many as last year’s Democratic VP pick, has actually been Minnesota’s governor since 2019. A strong supporter of trans rights, he picked up the nickname “Tampon Tim” after signing a law with language vague enough that schools now stock pads and tampons even in boys’ bathrooms for grades 4 through 12:

• Senator: Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) commented that "there's no way to pin an ideology on this."

• Lt. Governor: This is the Lt. Governor of Minnesota Peggy Flanagan, who is being criticized for previously wearing a "inflammatory" shirt.

Manifesto Content and Style

The multi-page long writings are dense with contradictions and coded language.

• Westman posted YouTube videos (now deleted) hours before the attack, showing a red notebook filled with handwritten text, some in Cyrillic characters.

• Westman praised Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, described wanting to be a “scary horrible monster” over powerless children, and sketched the inside of the church before stabbing the page with a knife.

• One page had a trans pride flag sticker reading “Defend equality,” with a black AK‑47 sticker on top.

• Elsewhere Westman wrote, “I also love when kids get shot,” making clear her motive was rooted in personal gratification rather than ideology.

• Gun magazines were marked with “kill Donald Trump” and “for the children.”

• Also, Westman wrote "ISRAEL MUST FALL" and "6 million wasn't enough"—referring to the Holocaust— on the firearm, and used antisemitic phrases such as “filthy Zionist Jews,” alongside “FREE PALESTINE!”

These points are being used as evidence by those on the right to say that he is a product of the left-wing's gender ideology push.

Target Selection and Planning

his does not appear to have been an impromptu attack but rather a premeditated one, as Westman went on to:

• call Annunciation a “good combo of easy attack form and devastating tragedy.”

• talk about attacking children during recess or during an event in the church to maximize casualties.

• show diagrams of the church interior and lists of potential “targets of political or societal significance” were included, though she claimed no political motive.

Thoughts

While I largely disagree with Senator Klobuchar’s claim that “there’s no way to pin an ideology on this,” I do agree with one part—it was the act of a deranged lunatic, not just the result of Westman’s gender ideology, though that clearly played a major role.

• If people weren’t raised to constantly see themselves as victims of some looming oppressor, but instead learned to face obstacles as part of life rather than personal attacks, tragedies like this could have been prevented.

  • How many of you were taught by adults around you to respond to attacks by working hard to prove (to yourself and to your attacker) that you are better than them, and to see such attacks as tests life throws at you from time to time?

  • How many of you had role models who anchored your confusing teenage years? (For me, it was David Hume and a high school English teacher who whipped my lazy grip on the language into shape.)

• Yet even now, I am seeing so many comments half-defending the shooter, framing it as a reaction to Trump and his supporters supposedly “dehumanizing” trans people and denying their rights and existence.

• So yes, ideology, sunk-cost fallacy, and cognitive dissonance are clearly at play for the shooter and those defending them, but committing an act this brutal crosses into something far darker and far more evil than ideology alone.