🇸🇪🇫🇮⚔️🇷🇺 Something highly significant is unfolding on NATO's eastern flank, particularly among the Nordic countries.

According to SVT, Sweden has approved the provision of direct military support to Finland following a formal request from the Helsinki government.

Several JAS Gripen fighter jets and military vessels will assist Finland in patrolling its border with Russia to identify potential threats.

This move will significantly enhance the alliance's reconnaissance capabilities and readiness to respond to potential incursions by Russian aircraft or drones.

It also signals that Finland is taking the potential Russian threat very seriously, given that the Finnish armed forces are already among the largest in Europe.

Furthermore, by 2030, the Finnish Air Force is set to operate one of Europe's largest fleets of F-35 fighter jets, totaling 64 aircraft, this request for Swedish support indicates that Finland does not wish to wait that long, as it believes the Russian threat may be more imminent than anticipated.

🔗 MoloMonitor

🇪🇸❌❌ Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares blames Elon Musk and “Russian disinformation networks” for the anger driving Ceuta residents to confront and expel illegal migrants.

🔗 Europa.com (@europa)

🇫🇷🗳 French Ecologists are thinking of backing Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the 2027 Presidential Elections.

Jean Luc-Mélenchon’s strong start to his presidential campaign has pushed key figures from the French Greens to publicly discuss whether the best way to advance their agenda is to sit out next year’s election and instead back the increasingly popular leftist.

Were the Greens to throw their weight behind Mélenchon — who wants to pull France out of NATO and views the European Union as a vehicle for unbridled German-style capitalism — it would solidify his position as the race’s dominant left-leaning candidate and increase his chances at advancing to the contest’s second round, where he’d likely face far-right front-runner Marine Le Pen.

The French presidential election goes to a two-candidate runoff round if no one receives an outright majority in the first round of voting, and the second spot often comes down to the wire. In France’s last two presidential elections, Mélenchon missed the runoff by less than 2 percent of votes.

Ecologist candidate, Marine Tondelier, polls at 3-4% of the vote which would be enough to propel Mélenchon ahead of the other centrist candidates.

Rumblings of a Mélenchon-Green alliance began over the weekend when influential Greens attended the annual conference for his party, France Unbowed. Green presidential candidate Marine Tondelier did little to tamp down the speculation at a press conference Wednesday when asked about Mélenchon and center-left contender and MEP Raphaël Glucksmann’s platforms.

“Neither Jean-Luc Mélenchon nor Raphaël Glucksmann are the worst enemies of ecology in France,” Tondelier said. “It’s the power of the ecologists to see that the debate on the left is now focusing on who is the biggest environmentalist.”

Were Tondelier to stay in the race and split the left-wing vote, it could mean France has a third consecutive presidential election without a left-leaning option in the second round. A few voices from the Green party’s centrist wing are looking toward Glucksmann, but the loudest calls have been in favor of partnering with France Unbowed.

The Greens’ top lawmaker Cyrielle Châtelain is among those leading the charge in favor of partnering with Mélenchon.

Châtelain attended France Unbowed’s summer event along with seven other party officials, where she told reporters that “there is common ground” between the Greens and Mélenchon. She even appeared before cameras flashing a wide grin beside Mélenchon — a strong political signal given her key role as the party’s top lawmaker in the National Assembly.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/far-left-melenchon-courts-greens-as-presidential-bid-gains-steam/

🇺🇸❌🇦🇪 The U.S. Treasury Department put an Emirati Bank under sanctions as part of Operation Economic Outcast, for letting Iranian businesses access the U.S. dollar and the global financial system.

Banque Misr is accused of processing transactions worth $1.3 billion from 2024 to January 2026 for 103 Iranian businesses.

Previously the U.S. Treasury hit with sanctions several Hong Kong-based firms but refrained from targeting Chinese banks weary of retaliation from Beijing.

🔗 https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0617/

🇺🇸❌🇪🇬 The Trump administration plans to ⁠impose limits on an Egyptian bank ​for doing business with Tehran

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-issues-fresh-iran-related-sanctions-war-marks-six-months-2026-08-28/

🇺🇦⚰️ Head of the Office of the Ukrainian president and former director of Ukraine's internal security agency, Kyrylo Budanov, said Ukraine needs to mobilize 30k men/month to maintain the size of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

"Unfortunately, we have to accept it [mobilization] as it is. We cannot do otherwise. We have to find the courage and honestly say: we cannot mobilize fewer than 30,000 people a month. This is the minimum number needed to maintain what we have."

🔗 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/08/28/8050796/

🛢 🇺🇸 🇻🇪 KobeissiLetter on X:

President Trump just announced that the US has reached a deal to secure "majority control" of over 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves.

Furthermore, the US currently has ~46 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves.

Combined with the 65 billion barrels covered by this agreement, the US would have domestic reserves plus control over ~111 billion barrels of oil.

To put this into perspective, the entire world has roughly 1.57 TRILLION barrels of proven crude oil reserves.

In other words, the US is set to control ~7.1% of all proven oil reserves in the world under this new agreement with Venezuela.

At ~111 billion barrels, the US would be almost exactly in-line with the United Arab Emirates, which has 113 billion barrels of proven crude reserves, and it would exceed Kuwait's 102 billion barrels.

Assuming the agreement is structured as outlined in President Trump’s announcement, the implications for global energy markets will be enormous.

We will publish more in-depth analysis soon.

📎 KobeissiLetter