Sekmadienį Vokietijos kraštutinių dešiniųjų partija „Alternatyva Vokietijai“ (AfD) džiugiais pareiškimais ir plojimais šventė dar vieną numanomą pergalę regioniniuose rinkimuose.

Smūgis Maskvai buvo koordinuota operacija, apėmusi smūgius įvairiuose regionuose, o ne pavienė ataka prieš Rusijos sostinę. Vienas šios operacijos elementų galėjo būti balistinių raketų panaudojimas prieš Voronežo oro gynybos sistemą, siekiant Maskvos gynyboje sukurti „akląjį koridorių“, kuriuo galėtų prasiskverbti kitos smogimo priemonės.

Exit polls show damaging losses for Merz's centre-right CDU party in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

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Sir Ed blamed Donald Trump's war with Iran for damaging the UK economy and pushing fuel prices up.

BERLIN — Germany’s embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his conservatives suffered a second major defeat to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a regional vote Sunday — a result Merz conceded was a “disaster.”But the chancellor moved to quickly quell a rising storm of speculation that he would move to step aside following the loss, which comes only two weeks after another historic defeat to the AfD in a regional contest. He appeared before cameras just minutes after the polls closed Sunday to say he would continue to push through his reform agenda and act as an anchor of stability in turbulent times.“These reforms are the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism,” he said. “What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience. I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”The AfD won 37.9% of the vote in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — the second-best result in its history, just ahead of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) on 35.7%, according to preliminary results. Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered its worst election result in a state or national election since the end of World War II, coming in with just 5%, just winning enough votes to make it over the threshold needed to win seats in the state parliament. AfD leaders hailed their victory — party national co-leader Tino Chrupalla called the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania result a “sensation” — while also putting the pressure on a profoundly weakened Merz to step aside and abandon his party’s policy of maintaining a “firewall” around the far right.“Friedrich Merz is the wrong chancellor for the CDU and is dragging the CDU down with him,” national co-leader Alice Weidel told German public television. “So the CDU must ask itself, above all else, does it want to continue with this chancellor and with these left-wing policies?” Merz took the unusual step of convening CDU leaders at the party’s Berlin headquarters on Sunday night in an effort to rally their support ahead of what he knew would be another humiliating election defeat. Merz’s approval ratings are among the lowest ever recorded for a German chancellor at this point in their tenure, prompting internal CDU discussions about a possible change at the top—Kanzlertausch. “Of course, the mood isn’t exactly lighthearted,” Ines Claus, a CDU politician who took part in the leadership meeting, told ARD. “If you ask me now whether one might prefer to just pull the covers over one’s head, well, that might be the case. But that’s not what responsibility is about; stability is what’s required now.” Just 1% of voters — and 1% of CDU supporters — said Chancellor Merz had helped his party’s election performance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to a poll by public broadcaster ZDF.“We can’t sugarcoat the results in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” Merz said after the polls closed Sunday. “It’s a disaster.”The CDU also saw its support decline in a separate regional vote in Berlin, finishing second with 19.1%, behind the far-left Die Linke, which won 25.3% and is now poised to take over the capital’s mayoralty from Merz’s conservatives in coalition with center-left parties. ‘Reform chancellor’ Merz has staked his chancellorship on a reform agenda he argues will boost Germany’s competitiveness and restore growth to the EU’s largest economy, and has urged voters to be patient as the reforms kick in. But as Germany’s export-oriented growth model continues to suffer amid increased competition from China and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff wars, German voters don’t appear to be giving him the benefit of the doubt. The chancellor’s agenda includes raising the retirement age to shore up the pension system, cutting some health-insurance benefits to curb rising premiums and making it harder for workers to take sick leave in an effort to boost growth. Many of those reforms impose clear costs on ordinary voters, giving the far right and far left ample opportunity to exploit public discontent. Despite the AfD’s victory in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the party has no chance of governing in the state in part due to a late, come-from-behind surge for the SPD under state premier Manuela Schwesig, who cast herself in the election as a bulwark against the far right by employing the slogan “Frau gegen Blau” — “Woman against Blue,” a reference to the AfD’s party color.Schwesig is now likely to lead a new coalition government in the state with a coalition of left-wing parties.CDU leaders blamed Schwesig’s approach for effectively turning the election in her state into a two-party race that has greatly weakened Merz’s conservatives. “The CDU fought hard, but in the end, it was crushed in the escalating confrontation between the SPD and the AfD,” Merz said.But Schwesig blamed Merz and the CDU for failing to connect with voters and was able to gain on the AfD late in the race in great part because she attacked Merz as out of touch with ordinary people and his reform drive as punishing some of the most vulnerable.“The issue of the cost of living is a very significant one, and it’s important for the federal government to take a stand in favor of greater economic development to create jobs, but also to provide relief,” she told a public television broadcaster after the vote. Still, trying to stabilize the situation, Philipp Amthor, a CDU politician from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the chancellery’s federal-state affairs chief, said it was time to end the Kanzlertausch discussion. “We have seen that what we have experienced over the past two weeks since the state election in Saxony-Anhalt has done more harm than good — namely, ongoing discussions about personnel that have completely overshadowed the discussion of the issues at hand,” he said. “In that regard, it is right to put an end to these personnel discussions now and refocus on the issues.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government is preparing two legislative proposals that would ban face coverings in Italian schools and restrict the number of foreign students allowed in classrooms. “Italian children cannot feel like a minority in the classroom,” she said Sunday in a speech at Fenix, an annual event organized by the youth division of her right-wing Brothers of Italy party. “If the number of children who do not understand the language of instruction becomes large, or even forms the majority, that is no longer integration; that is neglect,” Meloni added. Roughly 930,000 students without Italian citizenship are enrolled in the country’s schools, representing almost 11.6% of the school population, according to research institute Fondazione ISMU. Over the last decade, the number of foreign minors in the country has fallen by 4.5%, ISMU found. Meloni did not elaborate on what her cabinet’s proposed cap on foreign students might entail. The Italian leader came to power buoyed by voters concerned with immigration issues, and made tackling migration a key pillar of her campaign. It’s not the first time Meloni’s government has looked to ban face coverings. In 2025 her party said it had plans to ban the burqa and niqab in all public spaces nationwide, calling the legislation a response to “Islamic separatism.” The bill is still under consideration in the country’s lower house.

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Partial results show CDU just above the 5 per cent threshold for parliamentary representation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Cutting threshold to £1.5mn would affect about 160,000 extra properties and hit party’s support in London

French President ​Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on ​Sunday called for stronger bilateral ties in the face of new global threats at a meeting on Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French territory off Canada's Newfoundland. The first-ever visit by a Canadian leader to the North Atlantic archipelago came as both countries have increasingly awkward relations with the US. 

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and Canada were "two great independent nations who want to stay that way" in a joint news conference with Canadian leader Mark Carney Sunday. Watch the press conference by the two leaders on the French overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon just off Canada's Atlantic coast.

Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, is promoting the reuse of residual palm oil from its iconic acarajé fritters — African-inspired, shrimp-filled dumplings made with peeled black-eyed peas and onions and served with sauce.

Children in Gaza are heading back to school as a new academic year begins, returning to classrooms that remain heavily damaged and lacking basic equipment after years of war.