🇮🇷🤝🇱🇧 Iran told the U.S. it will strike Israel if the IDF tries to conquer the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon

Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern ​Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.

The message, delivered last month, highlights Iran's continued direct ‌involvement in the ground fighting in southern Lebanon and its readiness to retaliate against Israeli attacks there as the regional war enters its seventh month.

Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command center and weapons stores within the Ali al-Taher ridge, which has a commanding view of southeastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese security sources, and has become one of the most contested pieces of ground in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Hezbollah has said in public statements that it controls the hill and will ​confront any Israeli advances. Its officials have referred to a "facility" there, but have declined to provide details.

The Israeli military has occupied swathes of territory to Ali al-Taher's south and has ​identified the ridge as one of its "primary operational focuses" in public statements.

In its message to Washington, Tehran threatened that any full-fledged Israeli offensive on the ridge ⁠would be met with a large-scale Iranian attack, said the three officials in the region, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The IDF failed several times to conquer the ridge, losing dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles and a few KIA to Hezbollah drones and IEDs.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-warns-us-against-israeli-attack-south-lebanon-ridge-held-by-hezbollah-2026-09-03/

🇺🇸⚔️🇨🇦 Why Trump's trade war with Canada is poised to drag past the midterms

The U.S.-Canada trade standoff is threatening to stretch past the midterm elections. The White House is shrugging off the threat.

With a week to go before Canada imposes its retaliatory tariffs — aimed at key industries in states like Ohio and Texas with competitive Senate elections — tensions between Washington and Ottawa are at a steady simmer, with no sign of de-escalation.

Trump administration officials are united in the posture that the U.S. has the upper hand in the trade war, and risks exponentially less economic fallout than Canada. And they are signaling that the Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, will have to be the one to offer concessions to restart talks.

Privately, Trump officials are telling industry groups that the offer Canadian negotiators rejected on Aug. 21 is now moot, and they are no longer willing to make the same concessions on steel and aluminum tariffs, in particular.

The Canadians, meanwhile, have drawn a red line at key U.S. demands, like maintaining a 25 percent tariff on medium and heavy duty trucks. And Carney’s decision to stand up to Trump after months of rhetorical attacks and threats have helped produce a surge of Canadian patriotism and support for his Liberal Party, evidenced by their clean sweep of three special by-elections Monday.

The prime minister has little reason to back down ahead of votes in October in two provinces with strong separatist factions, who could challenge his political coalition.

As a result, both governments are digging in and readying for a longer trade war, all but guaranteeing the standoff bleeds into the fall campaign season.

Asked how Washington and Ottawa can find their way back to the table, a person familiar with the talks said, “You’ve got to get past the local elections in Canada.”

In the U.S., many Republicans fear the trade war will cut the other way, hurting the president’s party in the November congressional elections. House Republicans requested a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later this week to discuss Trump’s new tariffs on Canada, amid rising unease in Congress.

The White House doesn’t believe the tariff tit-for-tat with Canada will really be a factor in the elections, however. Greer argued in an interview Monday with POLITICO Playbook that the duties are too small to move the U.S. economy, adding they are “more [Canada’s] emergency than ours.”

But polls show Trump’s trade policies are increasingly unpopular, and Democrats are determined to make them an issue over the next two months, particularly in border states with economies that are tightly intertwined with their Canadian neighbors’. Michigan Democrats launched new attacks Monday on Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers for refusing to denounce the tariffs, with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed calling Trump an “asshole” for launching the trade war.

🔗 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/01/why-trumps-trade-war-with-canada-is-poised-to-drag-past-the-midterms-01059961

🇯🇵 The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is intervening again to prop up the Yen.

The Yen has strengthened against the U.S. dollar yesterday, going back to 156 yen for $1

Its unclear how much did the BOJ spend to prop up the Yen.

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇸🤝🇲🇦 Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, rejected his own police's evidence that Moroccan intelligence agencies were behind the Ceuta migrant crisis

During an extraordinary session of the Spanish parliament called to address the crisis, Sánchez dismissed the report’s allegations that Moroccan security officers guided groups of migrants toward the border with Ceuta.
“I can assure you that no government institution, nor the diplomatic service, nor the European Commission, nor any international organization has provided the Spanish government with solid evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the incident,” Sánchez said.

“No one can deny that this government is not afraid to confront other foreign powers when the situation has required it,” the prime minister added, alluding to his frequent clashes with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If solid evidence existed, we would act accordingly.”

Sánchez is facing mounting political pressure over the Ceuta crisis. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Spain on Wednesday to protest the government’s handling of the situation, and even members of Sánchez’s coalition government are challenging the prime minister’s narrative.

Ignoring jeers of protest from opposition lawmakers, Sánchez insisted that Spain must “continue cooperating with Morocco” and maintain “a good neighborly relationship” in order to deport the unauthorized migrants that remain in Ceuta and prevent future surges.nment, said it was “hard to imagine that 80,000 people could have been moved to the border without Moroccan authorities knowing about it.”

Prior to entering the parliament Thursday, Youth Minister Sira Rego, a member of the left-wing Sumar group, the junior partner in the gover

She also questioned Sánchez’s long-term “policy of appeasement with Morocco,” adding the strategy had not been beneficial for Spain.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/pedro-sanchez-dismisses-police-claim-that-morocco-instigated-ceuta-crisis/

🇪🇪🇮🇳🇺🇦 Estonian defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, resigned after it was revealed he paid 60-70 million EURs to Indian scammers for artillery shells which were going to be delivered to Ukraine.

The advance payments went to Datasel, a tiny Italian shell company that had been bought by an Indian family business with zero experience in ammunition manufacturing. Neither firm had ever sold an artillery shell.

Some materiel did arrive, but it was unusable, missing fuses and propellant. Even after deadlines were missed, more payments kept flowing. The money has not been recovered.

Pevkur admitted he "did not read the contracts in detail."

The shells were meant for Ukraine, funded mainly from the profits on frozen Russian assets held by the EU.

🔗 https://www.euractiv.com/news/estonias-defence-minister-resigns-after-e70m-ukraine-ammunition-dispute/

⚪️ 🇨🇦 📉 Canada: Share by Racial Group Percent of population, 1971-2026

Canada as whole was 99% white and Amerindian up until the early 1970s. Still 97% white in 1971.

📎 Smirkley

⚪️ 🇺🇸 📉 USA: Share by Racial Group
Percent of population, 1960-2024 Hispanic is any race. Every other group is non-Hispanid

📎 Smirkley

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — The U.S. Navy is facing mounting logistical pressure in the Middle East as Iranian attacks have disrupted its traditional regional supply network, according to NYT.

Around 20 U.S. warships carrying roughly 20,000 sailors and Marines currently require more than 420,000 meals and about eight million gallons of fuel every week.

Iran destroyed the key Navy logistics base in Bahrain and made it dangerous to use other nearby ports. Supply ships must now travel roughly 2,200 miles (approx. 3,540 km) to Diego Garcia — or as far as Singapore — before returning to replenish the fleet.

With nearby ports largely unavailable, U.S. warships require at-sea resupply missions every five or six days.

🇾🇪❌🇾🇪 — Additional PLC reinforcements are heading toward the Al-Kudha frontline in western Taiz.

🇺🇸🇬🇧⚡️ — President Trump says there are "Sharia courts" in London.

🧓 🌐 📈 People 65 and older now outnumber children ages 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history.

https://www.axios.com/2026/09/03/older-adults-outnumber-youngest-children-globally

📎 Anne Morse