The big news today is that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for 29 November after what seems to be crisis after crisis. And another day of violent protests over a parliament and government that seems paralysed to respond appropriately to the maelstrom that surrounds it.

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The latest debacle? A high-profile housing eviction has crystallised the Mediterranean country’s anger over affordability and a lack of housing. The recent rout comes after the Ceuta incident, in which 80,000 individuals from Morocco stormed the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, where the community is still reeling from.

For the most acerbic writing on Madrid’s moment of truth, I recommend Maria Tadeo’s piece that explores what is seemingly becoming nothing short of a political Gordian Knot for a country of almost 50 million – but also Europe’s last major socialist bastion.

Another piece of essential reading is Luca Bertuzzi and Vincenzo Genovese’s story analysing what this loss means for EU politics. The forecast? Conservative forces will only be bolstered by the fall of Sánchez and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. Progressive lawmakers will also be less willing to cooperate across the aisle.

European Policy Centre expert Javier Carbonell just told Europe Today that the mood in Spain mimics the zeitgeist across the bloc. "There's this big anti-incumbency, anti-establishment sentiment," he said. If Sánchez does not survive the November ballot, Carbonell expects right-wing government to make large gains, which could pave the way for more defence spending and tougher migration policies for the country. Watch.

As an aside: My Euronews colleagues got their hands on what is presumably the first leaked draft agenda of next week’s widely anticipated European Council summit. The programme includes a whole section on the Ceuta crisis (albeit one point).

It also includes a chapter on competitiveness, Brussels’ favourite buzzword. The discussion should come at an inflection point in EU-China relations. The EU’s trade chief Maroš Šef?ovi? set an “October” deadline to solve the bloc’s eye-watering trade deficit, which is widely in Beijing’s favour.

From Paris to Berlin: EU ambassadors will discuss the state of play at a meeting today in the Belgian capital, where they are also expected to touch on a German-French letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dated this month.

In the communiqué, the two capitals – previously representing diametrically opposing views on how to handle trade with China – call for a “new set of tools” to fix the uneven trade relationship, among other measures.

But that’s not all: From Thursday to Friday, Šef?ovi? will meet with his Chinese counterpart, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, in Beijing. If the two days of crunch talks fail, robust discussion will need to occur at the European Council meeting next week. All eyes will be on the discussion of “new tools” and what they could be.

Other news from the Berlaymont: The European Commission will today present its grand plan on how to better bring candidate countries inside the EU and how to make an expanded bloc work in practice.

Luca offers this dispatch to help digest the pre-enlargement policy reviews due this afternoon. What to expect? Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos set out a preview of the proposal in August. It will focus on internal reforms to make the EU institutions “leaner” and decision-making faster, notably by proposing to move away from unanimity to qualified majority voting in several instances.

Safeguards to avoid another “Trojan horse,” like Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, are also on the cards, alongside more refined proposals on “gradual integration” to show candidate countries the early benefits of accession.

Also expect measures to protect sensitive EU policies, including enlargement itself, from new member states, and a nod to the roadmaps the European Commission president announced in her State of the Union speech for the four frontrunners: Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine.

News from the hemicycle: EU lawmakers will gather for the second day of this week’s plenary, with a particularly interesting press event slated to explore “the way forward” for combating sexualised deepfakes.

In May, the European Parliament and Commission agreed to prohibit “nudifier apps” — AI tools that digitally alter images of clothed people to make them appear naked or sexualised, often without their consent. The technology is part of a wider problem of sexualised deepfakes, which have affected everyone from ordinary citizens to theItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Among those impacted in EU politics includes Austrian MEP Lena Schilling of the Greens/European Free Alliance. She just told Europe Today that there was "immense shock" to discover that too was among those targeted, with the incident taking her "dignity away".

Schilling also warned that sexualised deepfakes could further discourage women from occupying public-facing roles, such as politics, while calling on national governments to get tougher on the technology. Watch.

EU mulls tougher restrictions on Russian diplomats as hybrid threats intensify

The movements and actions of Russian diplomats have come under intense scrutiny as the European Union grapples with a succession of hybrid attacks, some of which have been directly attributed to Moscow, that have shaken its collective security.

The topic has emerged as a potential next step in the bloc's sanctions regime, according to senior diplomats with knowledge of the discussions.

Brussels is seeking to turn the page after the contentious removal of two high-profile oligarchs last month, which strained the EU’s united front. Countries are now looking for ways to close ranks and push back against the Kremlin's interference.

Read more of this must-read sanctions analysis by Jorge Liboreiro.

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EU monitors 'very closely' suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague in Russia. The European Commission is monitoring the suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague in Siberia, Russia, following the death of a female lab worker. Read more of Jorge’s reporting on the health scare.

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We're also keeping an eye on

• European Parliament President Roberta Metsola meets with the Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro in Strasbourg.
• European Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas visits Airbus headquarters in New Delhi for the EU-India Aviation Dialogue.

? That’s it for today. Luca Bertuzzi, Jorge Liboreiro and Vincenzo Genovese contributed to this newsletter.