GERMANY - The changing politics of mass migration in Germany: This is the most important issue facing Europe right now – more important than the folly of the energy transition, more crucial even than the fading memory of pandemic repression. For nearly 10 years, migration has felt like one of the most intractable problems in our entire political system. However crazy the policies, however contradictory and irrational, there was always only the towering mute wall of establishment indifference. It felt like the borders would be open forever, that we would have to sing vapid rainbow hymns to the virtues of diversity and inclusivity for the rest of our lives. Suddenly, it no longer feels like that. Over the past weeks, a perfect storm of escalating migrant violence and electoral upsets in East Germany have changed the discourse utterly.

MIDDLE EAST - The Middle East is teetering on the brink of "full-fledged" war, according to the EU's foreign affairs chief, after Israeli strikes killed nearly 500 people on September 23. Josep Borrell said prior to a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations on Monday: "I can say we are almost in a full-fledged war. We’re seeing more military strikes, more damage, more collateral damage, more victims", he said, adding: "Everybody has to put all their capacity to stop this."

UK - There is an old tactic among those who wish to rewrite history: take the truth, twist it, and present it as something altogether different. Today, we see this in the rise of anti-Zionism across social media. What was once a marginal, fringe element of discourse has now become mainstream. But this is no mere shift in the tone of debate — it is something far darker. In its most toxic form, anti-Zionism has become a vector for the glorification of Hamas, a terrorist organisation recognised as such by the civilised world.

UK - Social media companies are using your information to train AI models. LinkedIn users began complaining about one such example in posts across the site last week after discovering that their posts, images and profiles are being used without permission. Alongside other social media sites like Snapchat and Facebook, users are required to opt out of this option, possibly without having ever granted the app permission to use their information in the first place. It has become common practice for companies to use information found online to train their AI tools. While users regularly use these sites to share news of their latest achievements, events or friendly hangouts, this information has become fair game for companies who want to use it to their own benefit. Users have expressed their shock that social media sites aren't just using their information, they're automatically opting them in without their consent.

UNITED NATIONS - With a recorded vote of 124 nations in favour, 14 against, and 43 abstentions, the resolution calls for Israel to comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from occupied land, and dismantle parts of the separation wall it constructed inside the occupied West Bank. The General Assembly further demanded that Israel return land and other “immovable property”, as well as all assets seized since the occupation began in 1967, and all cultural property and assets taken from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions.

UNITED NATIONS - The Palestinian-fronted resolution passed by wide margin, demanding that the Israeli army and Jewish residents evacuate to the pre-1949 line within a year. Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the UN General Assembly passed on Wednesday. The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared any Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.

GERMANY - Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats have narrowly defeated the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. The victory for the party of Mr Scholz, although slight, will be a major relief to the least popular German chancellor on record, whose embattled coalition is struggling to cling to power. The state election on Sunday in the formerly communist east was a rare bit of recent good news for his party. The predicted results are also a blow to the AfD, which was polling high and predicted to win another state after a surge in support tied to its anti-immigration policies. Scholz’s centre-left SPD won 30.9 per cent of the vote, while the AfD scored 29.2 per cent, according to provisional official results by the State Electoral Commissioner.

USA - Congress has signed off on a bipartisan spending deal that would avoid a government shutdown before the election. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the new temporary funding proposal that will last nearly three months on Sunday - and it sported some deviations from the original bill he put forward earlier this month. Several go against Donald Trump's wishes, and some make concessions to Democrats. Earlier this month, Trump declared that if Republicans 'don't get absolute assurances on [amendments involving] Election Security,' they should not hesitate to shut the government down. No such assurances were seen in the new bill, which will fund the government until December 20. It did not include any part of the SAVE Act, the Trump-backed proposal that demands Americans show proof of citizenship to register to vote.

SAUDI ARABIA - The Saudis have joined other Asian countries in ditching their long-term sensitivity to the gold price. Evidence suggests the Saudi central bank has been covertly buying 160 tonnes of gold in Switzerland since early 2022, contributing to the current gold bull market. Although the Saudis played a key role in the birth of the global dollar standard in the early 1970s, this time around they might even become a lynchpin for its dissolution.

USA - The US military has moved about 130 soldiers along with mobile rocket launchers to a desolate island in the Aleutian chain of western Alaska amid a recent increase in Russian military planes and vessels approaching American territory. Eight Russian military planes and four navy vessels, including two submarines, have come close to Alaska in the past week as Russia and China conducted joint military drills. None of the planes breached US airspace and a Pentagon spokesperson said Tuesday there was no cause for alarm. “It’s not the first time that we’ve seen the Russians and the Chinese flying, you know, in the vicinity, and that’s something that we obviously closely monitor, and it’s also something that we’re prepared to respond to,” Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said at a news conference.

USA - Private equity firms and institutional investors are aggressively acquiring mobile home parks across the US, sparking massive rent hikes and evictions. For low-income residents, these 60% rent increases are financially devastating, forcing many into crisis. Mobile home parks, once a last bastion of affordable housing, are becoming battlegrounds for survival as elderly and fixed-income residents face impossible choices. “These communities have become the target of a new kind of landlord, private equity. Private equity firms are increasingly getting involved. Some of the biggest investors in America have moved into this industry. People living at a local mobile home park are outraged over the sharp increase in lot rents. Rents were raised by nearly 60%.” Resident “I worked for 45 years. There is no American dream anymore. All it is is survival.”

ISRAEL - Isaac Herzog has denied any Israeli involvement in this week's exploding pager and walkie talkie attacks and said the country is not interested in being at war with Lebanon. Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, the Israeli president warned that Israel is in a 'dangerous situation' and that there is 'clearly the potential of escalating dramatically'. The comments come just days after a series of attacks in which pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously - killing at least 39 and leaving a further 3,000 injured. Israel had made no comments regarding their involvement in the fatal attacks before this morning, where the president said he 'rejects out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation'. 'There are many enemies of Hezbollah out there, quite a few these days. Hezbollah has been choking Lebanon, destroying Lebanon, creating havoc in Lebanon again and again and again. We are here simply to defend ourselves. That's all we do,' he added.

LEBANON - Thousands of pagers are being carried in Lebanon which may still contain explosives, experts warned last night. Scores of Hezbollah commanders were killed and hundreds injured after communication devices were detonated in a coordinated attack said to have been carried out by Israel last week. Tel Aviv delivered another hammer blow to the Iran-backed terrorist organisation this weekend after launching an air strike which killed two senior commanders. Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi died alongside 10 other commanders and 16 soldiers of the elite Radwan unit tasked with carrying out attacks in northern Israel. Part of the “unprecedented success” of last week’s operation - for which Israel has not formally taken responsibility - is due to the targeting of devices which use ”old tech”.

UK - BRITAIN and the US need to “reset the Special Relationship” after a disastrous four years under President Joe Biden, experts said last night. The warning follows recent tensions over differences in approach over Israel and Ukraine. Downing Street was heavily criticised by Washington DC after a decision to suspend 30 export licenses to Israel and the PM was forced to return to Britain without managing to persuade Biden to allow the firing of long-range missiles from Ukraine into Russia - despite the UK having led on such decisions in the past. It was not the first time both capitals failed to see eye to eye. In 1968, Harold Wilson famously refused Lyndon Johnson's request to send troops into Vietnam. But the "withering" of the Special Relationship has appeared especially acute under Biden’s administration.

EUROPE - The Netherlands sent shockwaves to the European Union this week after requesting to opt out of the bloc's fundamental migration rules. The Dutch migration minister Marjolein Faber wrote to the European Commission to make the stunning request, adding: "We have to handle our own asylum policy once more!" Last week, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof unveiled the country's new immigration policy in response to an "asylum crisis". Mr Schoof said the Netherlands was aiming to implement the “strictest asylum policy ever," adding: "We cannot continue to bear the large influx of migrants into our country." Following the request, Hungary said it would follow suit and also ask for opt-out from the European Union’s migration policies, amid concerns in Brussels that the Dutch request could be the start of a domino effect.