🇪🇺🇺🇦🇷🇺⚡️ — EU countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, and Poland, are pushing Brussels to revive efforts to use more than €200 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets to help fund Ukraine, amid fears of a renewed Ukrainian funding crisis, FT reports.

Previous plans collapsed last winter after Belgium, where most of the assets are held, blocked the initiative.

A coalition of EU states is now preparing a letter urging the European Commission to restart work on the proposal and explore alternative legal and technical options to overcome Belgium’s objections.

🇮🇱🗳 A new election poll for the upcoming Israeli Knesset (Parliament) elections shows Benjamin Netanyahu's party, Likud, slipping further behind former IDF Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot's liberal Yashar party.

Yashar stands to win 24 seats an impressive score as the party was founded just last year, while Likud has participated in every Knesset election since 1973.

If Likud was to win 19 seats, it would be the party's worst score since the 2006 Knesset elections when it won just 12 seats, the worst performance in its history.

Former PMs Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's Together alliance would come third with 13 seats.

Notably, the Arab-Israeli parties united in an electoral alliance called "Joint List" are set to gain 10 seats, the highest number of seats Arabs ever won in any Knesset election.

61 seats are needed for a majority.

🔗 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2026-08-26/ty-article/poll-likuds-decline-continues-new-right-wing-party-fails-to-cross-threshold/000001a0-3f77-d1ec-a7ec-7fff54df0000

🇲🇦🌍⚔️🇪🇸 4 Spanish soldiers were injured last night in Ceuta when a group of 40 Maghrebian and Subsaharan migrants attacked their army jeep with stones.

Other nearby police officers intervened leading to the migrant group dispersing. 12 of the migrants were later arrested with the others still on the run.

🔗 https://www.aragonplay.es/aragonnoticias/espana/doce-migrantes-detenidos-apedrear-herir-cuatro-militares-barrio-ceuti-benzu.html

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) will depart for the Middle East in the coming weeks to relieve the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) who has served inside CENTCOM's AoR since March and is beginning to suffer from the same supply issues and low morale as the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) did.

USS Theodore Roosevelt is expected to undergo a 7 month deployment.

🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/27/world/live-news/iran-war-trump?post-id=cmtavnkl400293b6rzxi6trkw

🇺🇸🇷🇺⚡️ — U.S. officials confirmed to RFE/RL that Washington will brief its allies on the details of CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s Moscow visit next week.

A Baltic diplomat said officials had been “pre-warned” about Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow.

🇾🇪⚔️🇸🇦🇬🇷 Ansarallah/Houthis launched a drone attack on the Saudi oil terminal at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast

The attack was repulsed by Greek air defenses.

Greece has deployed a ​U.S.-made ⁠Patriot air defence battery, operated by Greek personnel, in Saudi Arabia ⁠since ​2021 under an agreement ​to help protect the kingdom's energy facilities.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/greek-operated-air-defence-system-shoots-down-drones-over-saudi-2026-08-27/

🇪🇹🤝🇪🇹 Once bitter enemies Amhara, Tigray reach understandings in fight against Ethiopian govt

In mid-August, the leader of the Amhara insurgency fighting to overthrow Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made a surprising announcement.

The collection of armed Amhara movements fighting in the country’s northwest under the unified Fano umbrella would join an alliance of seven other anti-government groups across the country, Fano leader Zemene Kassie told the Swiss publication, Le Temps.

What makes the move surprising is that the alliance includes members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), whom the Amhara forces that make up the Fano fought against during the 2020-2022 war.

In addition to the TPLF, the alliance includes forces from Gumuz, Oromo, the Berta people and Somalia, Zemene said.

At the national level, the fight between Ethiopian oppositional groups and the government comes against the backdrop of a struggle over the future of the country’s multinational federal system and state’s right to self-determination.

However, this tension has a larger regional dynamic given Ethiopia’s involvement in the war in Sudan and its expressed desire to secure access to the Red Sea either by diplomatic coup or by force.

While fighting between the Fano and the Ethiopian government has transformed much of the Amhara Region into an active war zone since late 2023, the beginning of August saw clashes between TPLF forces and the Ethiopian military that threatened to transform long standing simmering tensions between the groups into an active war.

🔗 https://www.madamasr.com/en/2026/08/26/news/u/one-time-bitter-enemies-amhara-tigray-reach-understandings-in-fight-against-ethiopian-govt/

✊🇲🇦❌🇪🇸 Leftwing NGO members were spotted handing over pepper sprays to migrants roaming on the streets of Ceuta.

In Spain, pepper sprays are legally considered weapons and can't be sold without providing an ID card. The migrants roaming Ceuta are ID-less.

Leftwing NGOs are worried that the migrants might be harassed by locals for loitering around their homes or the many, many cases of robbery and attempted robbery that have happened since they came.

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 Von der Leyen acknowledged that the economic prosperity of the EU was based on energy from Russia, exports to China, and Western technological dominance, none of which exist anymore.

However, the President of the European Commission still believes the EU can compete with Chinese industry and technological development without the cheap Russian energy it once had access to.

Von der Leyen pledged to make the 2027 budget of the EU about reducing the EU's dependency on Chinese rare earth metals and reviving EU industry without going into too much detail, making vague promises of reducing bureaucracy and the cost of administration while also threatening to use "instruments" against Chinese dumping practices all while acknowledging that the EU depends on China for sometimes as much as 90% for a particular rare earth element used in various industrial processes.

🔗 Ursula von der Leyen

🗳 🇺🇸 🌹 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rejoins DSA after membership lapse of seven years

Then House candidate joined Democratic Socialists of America in 2018 but didn’t renew membership after a year

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America after not renewing her membership for seven years, amid speculation that she might run for president in 2028.

In a statement on Tuesday night, the DSA announced: “Democratic Socialists of America confirms Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a member in good standing of our organization, having recently rejoined in August 2026,” according to a report in City & State New York.

The DSA said it decided to disclose Ocasio-Cortez’s membership details amid reports that she could run for president in the next election cycle.

Interest in the congresswoman’s status comes as the organization has seen its ranks grow exponentially across the country, following a string of election victories from New York to Florida.

“While it is atypical for DSA to address the membership status of individuals, ongoing discussions about the 2028 presidential campaign have prompted this release … With chapters and members campaigning to draft Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a potential Presidential Primary candidate, we believe that the status of her membership is essential information for members to have in their deliberations and discussions,” the statement said, City & State New York reported.

Despite Ocasio-Cortez having been a lapsed member of the DSA over the last seven years, in November 2020 the DSA offered its “congratulations to DSA member AOC on officially being re-elected to Congress” on X.

Similarly, in March 2024, the DSA wrote on X: “We commend DSA members Rep Cori Bush and Rep AOC for upholding our democratic values by voting against this authoritarian legislation,” referring to the now-former Missouri representative Cori Bush and Ocasio-Cortez voting against a TikTok ban.

Earlier this month, in an interview on ABC, host Jonathan Karl asked Ocasio-Cortez whether she was still a member of DSA. She responded: “Of the New York City chapter.”

Asked to elaborate on the distinction, Ocasio-Cortez said: “Every DSA chapter is formed locally. And so the New York City DSA chapter, those are folks that you know, it’s kind of like your local union chapter.”

In July 2024, the DSA withdrew its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez at the request of NYC-DSA, according to the organization, citing her decision to vote for a House resolution that described “denial of Israel’s right to exist” as an example of antisemitism, as well as her participation in a recent panel discussion on antisemitism.

It added: “AOC recently hosted a public panel with leaders from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, lobbyists for the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of antisemitism. On this panel, anti-Zionism and antisemitism were conflated and boycotting Zionist institutions was condemned. This sponsorship is a deep betrayal to all those who’ve risked their welfare to fight Israeli apartheid and genocide through political and direct action in recent months, and in decades past.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/26/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-rejoins-dsa

❄️ 🇺🇸 🌎 Historic Snowfall Map Shows States Bracing for Significant Snow Amid El Niño

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association updated its prediction for the El Niño, which is strengthening and now has a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter 2026-27.

Additionally, the NOAA revealed that during the October-December 2026 season, there is now a 69% chance of a historic event that would exceed the strength of previous El Niño events dating back to 1950. Historical records from the NOAA only date back to 1950, but other reports suggest this could be one of the strongest El Niños in history.

El Niño is a natural climate cycle marked by warmer than average water temperatures along the equator in the Pacific Ocean. The warmer water triggers corresponding shifts in the atmosphere that have a domino-like influence on weather patterns around the globe – usually in ways that are largely predictable well in advance.

The NOAA revealed this winter could bring “copious” precipitation to the West Coast, namely parts of California, that saw historic precipitation during the last El Nino.

“Additionally the tilt toward above normal precipitation extends along almost the entire East Coast from November, December and January through February, March and April,” it said. “Meanwhile, along the West Coast, recent EP-based strong El Niños have produced copious precipitation, especially in late winter, with 2024 and 1998 being among the wettest Februaries in the last 100 years for parts of California.”

https://www.mensjournal.com/news/historic-snowfall-map-shows-states-bracing-for-significant-snow-amid-el-nino

🗳 🇩🇪 📊 Attempts to ostracize the AfD have fueled both the rise and radicalization of Germany’s far-right party, Thorsten Benner writes. | Foreign Policy

A year ago, an Indian opposition politician who had just met with several representatives of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) quizzed me about Germany’s approach to the far-right party. She wanted to better understand the logic of the “firewall” (Brandmauer) according to which all mainstream parties have resolved to never work with the AfD. At the end of our conversation, she voiced doubts about its prospects of success. In her view, India’s experience pointed to the opposite effect: The attempts to isolate India’s current prime minister, Narendra Modi, after the 2002 riots in the state of Gujarat—for which he was held partly responsible—only made him stronger.

Today, her skepticism seems more justified than ever. While the cordon sanitaire has so far successfully excluded the AfD from any political responsibility at the state and federal levels, the party has grown to become the strongest party in the polls by a clear margin. At the national level, the AfD sits at around 28 percent. In some eastern German states, it is around or above 40 percent. After the upcoming Sept. 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, the party may soon enjoy an absolute majority in a state parliament, thus earning responsibility for setting the region’s policing, education, and budget policies, and electing its governor.

Left-leaning political scientists, such as Oxford University professor Tarik Abou-Chadi, mainly blame the AfD’s sustained rise on the normalization of its rhetoric by the mainstream center-right and center-left forces of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). That explanation falls short. To be sure, we don’t know how quickly the AfD would have grown without the firewall—after all, right-wing populist parties in other European countries have become leading forces without a German-style cordon sanitaire.

But it is plausible that the firewall has contributed to the specifically German phenomenon of rapid growth combined with increasing radicalization. In some other countries, leading far-right forces have moderated somewhat as their success grew. The AfD, however, has taken the opposite path, adopting even more radical positions and promoting more radical cadres to national leadership.

So far, the firewall reduces incentives for the AfD to moderate. Voters can currently cast their vote for the AfD entirely risk-free. The firewall spares them the risk of having to live with the consequences of their choice. Other parties have to deal with the hard work of governing in increasingly dysfunctional coalitions.

⬇️ Continued:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/24/germany-afd-far-right-elections-saxony-anhalt-firewall

📎 Foreign Policy