🇪🇹⚡- Tigray separatist sources report Ethiopian military forces, ENDF, are attempting to enter the Tigray region from Sekota, Tigray-Amhara regional border.

🇪🇹 - Ethiopian media confirm the fall of Mekele, Aksum, and Shire airports to TPLF's TDF.

🇺🇸🇪🇹⚡- "I am disappointed to see the leadership of the TPLF, that the United States sanctioned earlier this year, make the poor decision to launch a large-scale offensive today.

Rejecting dialogue sponsored by the AU under President Obasanjo and engaging in an unwinnable fight does nothing for the people.

Other armed groups would be wise to avoid this.

While the U.S. has tools to sanction additional leaders who try to push Ethiopia down the wrong path, I still believe a reasonable political dialogue is the right way to go," - US Embassy in Ethiopia.

🇪🇺🇵🇭⚡️- The European Union and the Philippines have signed a bilateral agreement similar to the one signed between the EU and Indonesia last year. The deal comes off as a major new step in Europe's shifting trade policy towards new allies.

🇾🇪⚡- Ansarullah forces are approaching the northeast outskirts of At Turbah, a major town south of Ta'izz, southern Yemen.

At Turbah sits on the final main supply route for PLC forces into Ta'izz.

🇾🇪⚡- Ansarullah forces have launched a large-scale offensive on the al-Ashbut junction in the al-Maqatrah area.

The junction is located just south of At Turbah, along the exact same Ta'izz supply route.

🇾🇪 - The current Ansarullah offensive in the southeast Ta'izz direction, southern Yemen.

The primary objective seems to be the al-Ashbut Junction, while the al-Houthi forces also attempt to test At Turbah's northeast defenses.

The attack is centered on Ta'izz's final supply route.

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇰🇷⚡️- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News the U.S. and China have agreed to extend "the Busan agreement", the one-year trade truce the two sides reached last October in Busan, South Korea.

The extension will last two months and end on January 10, 2027 — two months after the original agreement was set to expire.

🇾🇪🇸🇦🇸🇩⚡- Unconfirmed reports indicate several explosions targeting Saudi Arabia’s Border Emergency Forces along the Saudi-Yemen border in the Jizan area.

Note, Rerum Novarum has previously documented that Saudi security personnel deployed along the Saudi-Ansarullah border are primarily Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces, RSF.

Just last month, RSF's chief Dagalo threatened to withdraw the troops following Riyadh’s criticism of the paramilitary group.

🇺🇸🗳⚡️- GOP pollsters in Iowa have told Republicans that even if they are in a heavily red district they are at risk of losing re-election and they are predicting a worse midterm result than 2006 where the GOP was demolished nearly beyond repair.

🇺🇸⚡️- Trump Admin will be moving forward with a 90 day diesel export ban in the coming days.

🇺🇸⚡️- Republican Senators from Kansas are demanding that ICE cease operations in the state unless they cooperate with local law enforcement.

🇺🇸⚡️- Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is seriously considering another run for President in 2028 depending on the results of the midterm elections.

He feels his arguments from the 2024 primary have been "vindicated" and that a sufficient midterm result will convince GOP voters to look for alternatives to Trump.

🇺🇸🇮🇳⚡️- Although Christie's most memorable moment from the 2024 primary was his "Donald Duck" line about Trump skipping debates, he also had a major moment when he accurately called Vivek Ramaswamy "ChatGPT" on the debate stage in what is arguably the greatest racial dog whistle ever uttered in the 2020s.

Christie is telling political allies he believes that GOP voters are getting tired of the Trump show and similar types like Vivek and Vance.

🇺🇸🗳⚡️- Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick in a meeting with donors today in Austin said that each statewide GOP candidate is in jeopardy and that Paxton will lose to Talarico if things don't change. He also warned that down ballot State Senate GOP candidates are in trouble despite the states gerrymandered maps.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that there were eight suicide attempts during the USS Abraham Lincoln’s strike group’s nearly ten-month deployment.

The strike group includes sailors assigned to the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier, its air wing, and the destroyers escorting the ship.