Global Pulse

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  • Europe wrestles with impact of historic regional gains for Germany’s AfD

    Europe wrestles with impact of historic regional gains for Germany’s AfD

    On Sunday, the anti-immigration hard-right nationalist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured a historic breakthrough victory in regional elections in Germany’s eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, sending immediate political tremors across Berlin, Brussels, and beyond. Political analysts and major media outlets have already framed the outcome as a seismic shift, a socio-political earthquake, and a defining watershed moment for modern German politics — a description that, despite the state’s small geographic and demographic size, proves anything but exaggerated.

    Saxony-Anhalt, one of Germany’s 16 federal states, counts only 1.7 million eligible voters out of the country’s total 59 million, and the AfD fell just short of an outright parliamentary majority. Still, the implications of the result stretch far beyond this small, economically struggling eastern region, touching every level of German and European politics.

    Domestically, the landslide result amplifies pressure on Germany’s already embattled centrist federal coalition in Berlin, and may well spell the political end for unpopular conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who staked his political credibility on curbing the AfD’s growing support. This domestic political upheaval comes at a particularly precarious moment for the European Union, as the bloc confronts Russian military aggression in Ukraine, aggressive trade pressure from former U.S. President Donald Trump, and growing economic competition from China — and as Germany, the EU’s largest and most economically powerful member, finds itself increasingly weakened and distracted by internal strife.

    Most notably, the result marks the first major electoral landslide for a hard-right nationalist party in Germany since the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945, forcing a national reckoning with a country’s still-lingering legacy of Nazi extremism. German federal authorities have already formally classified parts of the AfD as anti-democratic, and the Saxony-Anhalt regional faction is explicitly labeled a far-right extremist extremist group. Long a dominant political force in eastern Germany, the AfD now stands as the most popular political party in national polling, a clear sign that Germany’s traditional mainstream political establishment has failed to address voter grievances.

    The shockwaves of the Saxony-Anhalt result have already reached across international borders. Within hours of exit polls being published, former U.S. President Donald Trump shared the result on his Truth Social platform, aligning the AfD’s nationalist, anti-immigration, “Germany for Germans” platform with his own “Make America Great Again” movement. Like many other European nationalist parties, the AfD has adopted core elements of Trump’s political playbook: attacking the credibility of mainstream media, questioning judicial neutrality, and promising to “make Germany great again.”

    Shortly after Trump’s post, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, hailed the outcome as “historic,” dismissing Germany’s sitting national government as “discredited” and Chancellor Merz as “humiliated.” Dmitriev’s comments are no coincidence: Germany is the largest single military donor to Ukraine, and the AfD has openly pushed to end Western military aid to Kyiv, lift sanctions on Russia, and resume imports of cheap Russian energy — a policy that holds particular appeal for energy-hungry German industrial firms that suffered massive economic losses after Russia cut energy exports following the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For voters in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany’s poorest region which still lags far behind western German states despite trillions of euros in integration spending since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the AfD’s pro-Russia stance and appeals to “Ostalgie” — nostalgia for the relative stability of communist East Germany — have resonated deeply.

    Across the European Union, the result has sparked widespread alarm, as the bloc prepares for a year of critical national elections across key member states including France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. EU leaders fear that the AfD’s victory will embolden far-right nationalist parties across the continent, a concern echoed by political actors on both sides of the debate. Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s nationalist Vox party, hailed the outcome as “a great hope for Germany and for Europe,” while French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad, a close ally of centrist President Emmanuel Macron, warned that “this is a serious moment in Europe, seeing the far right win in a regional election in Germany.”

    While far-right parties across Europe differ in tone and policy — Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France expelled the AfD from its European Parliament grouping two years ago for being overly radical — they share core anti-immigration and nationalist policy platforms that directly challenge the EU’s founding principles of cross-border unity and integration. Brussels fears that the rise of Eurosceptic nationalist parties will fracture European cohesion at a moment when unified action is more critical than ever, from countering Trump’s trade threats to checking China’s economic expansion to maintaining unified sanctions against Russia.

    European defense officials warn that softening stances on sanctions against Russia and wavering support for NATO collective defense — positions held by the AfD and many other European nationalist parties — only embolden Moscow, increasing the risk that the Kremlin could eventually launch attacks on NATO Baltic member states if left unchecked.

    At its core, the Saxony-Anhalt result is a stark warning to Europe’s traditional mainstream political parties and establishment institutions, which the AfD dismisses as a self-interested elite disconnected from ordinary voters. Across the continent, millions of voters report feeling let down by decades of leadership from traditional parties, grappling with growing anxieties over economic insecurity, crumbling public services, uncontrolled immigration, street safety, and the spillover effects of ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The growing willingness of voters to support the AfD, which has never held national governing power and ran on the upbeat slogan “Anything is Possible” paired with a promise to restore national pride, does not mean they have all embraced extremism — it means they are ready to try something new.

  • Congo’s Ebola burial teams battle community anger, fatigue and fear of infection

    Congo’s Ebola burial teams battle community anger, fatigue and fear of infection

    In the conflict-battered province of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, the ground zero of the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, a small group of frontline workers confronts an unrelenting, life-threatening workload every single day. Yuma Adolphe leads one of these specialized burial teams, tasked with laying Ebola victims to rest safely and with dignity — a job that has pushed him and his colleagues to their breaking points as the out-of-control epidemic continues to claim more lives.

    As of the latest reporting, the outbreak has recorded more than 6,500 confirmed and suspected cases, with nearly 3,200 deaths already recorded. Since the epidemic first emerged in mid-May, regional health authorities have deployed dozens of small, specialized burial teams across high-transmission hotspots to manage the steady stream of fatalities. Each team member earns just $20 a day for work that exposes them to the deadly virus on a constant basis, places them in conflict with grieving local communities, and leaves them physically and mentally exhausted.

    The core of the conflict between burial teams and local populations stems from a collision between infectious disease protocol and centuries-old cultural tradition. Public health rules require trained workers to handle all remains of Ebola victims, because the virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood and bodily fluids — and experts confirm that deceased victims still carry high levels of active virus that can trigger new chains of transmission. For local communities, however, this restriction means they are barred from carrying out the traditional burial rites that are central to honoring their dead.

    This cultural rift has erupted into violence on multiple occasions across the outbreak’s front lines. Since May, Adolphe’s team and similar burial crews have faced repeated assaults from bereaved family members angry at being stripped of their ability to practice their customs. “Under normal circumstances, families would receive their loved one’s body and carry out all the rituals our African traditions demand,” Adolphe explained in an interview with The Associated Press. “But in this crisis, we cannot allow families to handle the body as they normally would. They are denied their sacred customs, and that’s what creates the deep misunderstandings that put us at risk.” Jeanne Alasha, health and humanitarian affairs advisor to Ituri’s military governor, warned that those who attack burial teams will face legal prosecution under regional emergency rules.

    Ituri’s already dire crisis is compounded by overlapping layers of instability: the province is not only the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, but also the heart of an ongoing rebel insurgency in eastern Congo, and is governed by a military administration appointed by national authorities in Kinshasa. The outbreak has now spread to six eastern Congolese provinces, spread by rebel violence, mass population displacement, and constant large-scale population movement. Weak local healthcare and surveillance systems, incomplete contact tracing, and limited laboratory capacity have further hampered response efforts. Making matters worse, the outbreak is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no fully approved vaccine or targeted treatment exists. While frontline workers have been given the Ervebo vaccine, which the World Health Organization confirms offers some protection against other Ebola strains, there is no definitive data that it works against the current outbreak’s strain.

    The true scale of the crisis is even larger than official figures reflect: health officials estimate the actual number of cases and deaths is likely three times higher than what has been recorded, as the virus continues to outpace containment efforts. The WHO has warned the outbreak could soon surpass the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, the current deadliest on record which killed more than 11,000 people. Compounding these challenges, frontline health workers have held multiple strikes over unpaid wages, slowing critical response work across the region.

    The human cost of the crisis is visible in even the most recent burials. Shortly before noon on a recent Friday, 36-year-old Justine Habineno, a church chorister, was laid to rest in Ituri after dying from Ebola. Her mother, Sofia Wanito, recalled that Habineno only complained of mild headaches before being admitted to hospital and diagnosed with the virus. Under outbreak rules, Wanito was only allowed to see her daughter’s body through a hospital ward window, and was barred from touching the coffin. “We never had to deal with dying like this before,” Wanito said. “I couldn’t even cover her body with a sheet myself, couldn’t give her a final goodbye.” A lay catechist led the shortened ceremony, attended by dozens of community members, while Adolphe’s team — clad in full protective scrubs and boots — stood by to oversee the safe burial.

    For the burial team members, the danger of infection and community hostility is paired with constant physical and mental exhaustion, yet most say protecting their communities remains their top priority. Benjamin Muhindo, another team member, said his own family lives in constant fear he will bring the virus home, but he still shows up for work every day to ensure victims are buried properly. “Burial work during this epidemic is incredibly complicated,” Muhindo said. “We work under constant pressure, racing against the clock to stop the spread every single day.”

    Trauma experts note that the outbreak’s impact stretches far beyond the official case and death count, leaving deep psychological scars on both bereaved communities and the frontline workers who respond to the crisis. “The trauma of this outbreak doesn’t end when we count the latest case number,” said Rose Tchwenko, country director for the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps in Congo. Breaking the chain of transmission, she added, requires far more than medical intervention: “We need an integrated, holistic response that includes mental health and social support for both grieving families and the frontline workers who carry this heavy load.”

    After finishing Habineno’s burial last Friday, Adolphe acknowledged he is exhausted, but said his biggest concern remains the safety of his community. “We have no other choice,” he said. “We are here to protect our people, even when we have to push past our own limits to do it.”

    This reporting was contributed by Ope Adetayo from Lagos, Nigeria. The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation, and maintains full editorial independence over all content.

  • Carbon credit financing emerges as Africa’s biggest bet for expanding clean cooking

    Carbon credit financing emerges as Africa’s biggest bet for expanding clean cooking

    NAIROBI, Kenya — For Nairobi-based business owner Mary Kavutha, morning cooking for her two young children looks drastically different today than it did two years ago. Where she once relied on a smoke-choking charcoal stove that cost roughly $1.15 per day in fuel, she now uses an induction cooker powered by electricity, with daily costs dropping to just 80 cents.

    “It cooks much faster, and is much safer because I have young children,” Kavutha explained. “With charcoal there was always smoke in the house. Now I can cook indoors comfortably, and I spend much less.”

    Kavutha’s shift to clean cooking is part of a growing movement across the African continent, where an estimated 1 billion people still depend on traditional charcoal and firewood for daily meal preparation. Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) links household air pollution from these dirty fuels to roughly 850,000 premature deaths across Africa every year. Unlike many green transitions driven by climate advocacy, however, Kavutha and millions of other African households switched not for environmental reasons, but because carbon credit financing has made clean stoves far more affordable than their traditional alternatives.

    This financing model works by allowing clean cooking companies to secure upfront capital based on projected future revenue from carbon emission reductions. This capital is then used to heavily subsidize the upfront cost of stoves for low-income households, turning what was once an out-of-reach luxury product into an accessible everyday necessity.

    Clean cooking industry leaders are betting that despite longstanding criticism of carbon credit credibility, this financing model will become Africa’s most critical tool for expanding clean household energy and curbing deforestation driven by demand for firewood and charcoal. Recent momentum for the sector has been significant: in June, the IEA announced that Africa had secured $900 million in new financial commitments dedicated to scaling clean cooking technologies. Since the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, more than 30 governments representing 80% of Africans without access to clean cooking have rolled out 121 new policy frameworks to support the transition, according to IEA data.

    Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu emphasized the urgency of the shift during an IEA clean cooking conference co-hosted in Dar es Salaam earlier this year, noting that “Clean cooking is not a luxury, but an everyday necessity affecting every household.” Her remarks followed the African Union’s 2023 Dar es Salaam Declaration on Clean Cooking, adopted by 30 African governments to formalize regional commitment to the transition.

    Peter Scott, founder and CEO of Nairobi-based clean cookstove manufacturer BURN, described carbon finance as a transformative force for the sector. “The only way clean cooking is going to scale on the continent is through carbon project finance,” Scott said. “Governments earn revenue and customers get a product they would never have been able to afford without that subsidy.”

    BURN, which has distributed more than 7.3 million stoves across 11 African countries, attributes its growth not to stove design innovation alone, but to its carbon-backed financing structure. “Our biggest innovation is not the stove itself, but the financing behind it,” Scott explained. “Without that financing, many families cannot afford to switch.”

    The model works by cutting retail costs dramatically: an efficient biomass stove that would normally retail for $40 can cost end users as little as $5 after carbon credit subsidies. For higher-cost induction cookers like Kavutha’s, carbon credits are paired with flexible pay-as-you-go payment plans that spread costs across several months, making the technology accessible to households with limited upfront income. “Investors provide upfront capital that subsidizes the retail price of our stoves. In return, they receive revenue from carbon credits generated as households reduce their use of charcoal, wood and other polluting fuels,” Scott added.

    Despite this progress, the carbon credit model still faces significant scrutiny over transparency, credibility, and structural challenges. In recent years, industry leaders have adopted strict new standards and advanced measurement technologies — including Bluetooth usage monitoring, digital emissions verification, and real-time usage tracking — to address past criticism of unproven or overstated emission reductions.

    Critics still warn that overreliance on carbon credits to fund the clean cooking transition carries major risks. One high-profile setback came earlier this year, when leading Kenyan clean cooking firm Koko Networks — once held up as a poster child for Africa’s green transition — shut down in February after failing to secure required government authorization to sell carbon credits.

    George Mwaniki, WRI Kenya representative and head of Air Quality for WRI Africa, argues that carbon money can support the transition but should not be its foundation. The core structural issue, he explains, is that carbon financing typically disburses funds after emission reductions are achieved, while clean cooking companies need upfront capital to manufacture and distribute stoves before any emission cuts are generated.

    “Carbon financing is more of a second financing source,” Mwaniki said. “That creates a problem for clean-cooking companies as they need money to manufacture and distribute equipment before they can generate the emissions reductions that ultimately produce carbon credits. If we depend wholly on carbon credits to support the transition, it will be extremely slow and will not happen at the pace that we need it to.”

    Even with these shortcomings, the clean cooking transition is accelerating across the continent, as companies adapt their models to fit local economic and energy contexts. BURN, for example, has found electric induction cooking to be more viable in Kenya and Tanzania, while biomass stoves remain the preferred option for households in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Other regional players are carving out local niches: Eco Safi operates across Uganda, Kenya, and Malawi offering forced-draft pellet stoves and renewable fuel made from agricultural waste; Rwandan firm BioMassters produces locally manufactured smokeless solar-powered pellet stoves and biomass-residue fuel; and Kigali-based ENEDOM produces low-cost briquettes made from agricultural waste.

    For households like Kavutha’s, the policy and financing debates are secondary to the tangible improvements clean cooking has brought to daily life. “My kitchen is cleaner, my children are safer, and I spend less,” Kavutha said. “That is all that matters.”

    This coverage of climate and environmental issues by The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content. More information on AP’s standards for philanthropic partnerships, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas is available at AP.org.

  • Australians will be able to switch off social media algorithms under planned legislation

    Australians will be able to switch off social media algorithms under planned legislation

    Australia is set to advance landmark digital regulation this week, with Communications Minister Anika Wells set to introduce draft legislation that would require all major social media platforms to offer users the ability to disable content recommendation algorithms entirely. This new proposal builds on the federal government’s 2024 world-first policy that banned users under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms, and marks another step toward enforcing formal duty-of-care obligations on an industry that has long operated with minimal domestic safety oversight.

    Under the terms of the planned reform, big tech firms including Meta, Google and TikTok would face substantial financial penalties if they fail to implement the optional algorithm disable feature for Australian users. Wells confirmed the government is still consulting technical experts to settle a key policy detail: whether algorithms will remain enabled by default (requiring users to actively opt out) or switched off by default (requiring users to opt in to receive algorithmically curated feeds. Mirroring the process that led to the under-16 social media ban, the government intends to introduce the framework legislation before finalizing all implementation specifics.

    Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, Wells framed the policy as a measure centered on expanding user choice rather than restricting content. “We recognize that many Australians value algorithms, both for the personal enjoyment they deliver and the practical utility they provide, such as surfacing content from local small businesses in their community,” she explained. “Many users will choose to keep algorithms enabled. But we believe big tech has an obligation to offer customers that choice, and to respect the decision each individual makes. Big tech is not a protected species, and they must meet basic safety standards for their users.”

    The proposal has already sparked sharp political division. Opposition Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor has publicly stated he is highly skeptical of the plan, arguing that the reform could function as a de facto tool for government censorship. Taylor told News24 that he fears the policy is a deliberate attempt to restrict free expression on social platforms, and urged the Labor government to first address well-documented enforcement gaps in the existing under-16 ban. Wells, for her part, has pushed back firmly against these claims, telling Channel Nine’s *Today* show that “This is not about censorship. It is about requiring big tech to identify safety risks on their own platforms and take meaningful action to mitigate those harms.”

    Notably, Wells has acknowledged that the government has not yet issued any fines to tech firms for failing to enforce the 2024 under-16 ban, despite repeated independent research showing that the vast majority of minors who already had accounts on major platforms prior to the ban’s December implementation continue to access those accounts unchanged.

    Opinions among crossbench and opposition stakeholders are split: some opposition lawmakers have expressed support for the principle of expanding user control over feeds, while others echo Taylor’s concerns about free speech. The proposal also received high-profile backing from leading consent advocate Chanel Contos, who used an address last week at the National Press Club of Australia to urge the government to adopt an opt-in default for algorithmic feeds, a design that would make it far harder for platforms to evade the intent of the reform. Contos argued that unmoderated recommendation algorithms are directly driving the spread of harmful content that fuels rates of sexual violence across Australia, including exposing young users to misogynistic “manosphere” rhetoric and ideology.

    Beyond the algorithm reform, the upcoming draft legislation is also expected to introduce new mandatory requirements forcing social media platforms to proactively block and remove harmful content, including illegal pornography and content promoting disordered eating behaviors, before it can spread widely across user feeds. The bill is scheduled to be introduced to Australia’s parliament in the coming days, setting off what is expected to be a heated debate over the balance of digital safety, user choice and corporate freedom in the country’s growing regulatory framework for big tech.

  • The 49ers are refreshed in Australia and preparing for the opener vs. the Rams

    The 49ers are refreshed in Australia and preparing for the opener vs. the Rams

    MELBOURNE, Australia – In a groundbreaking moment for American football, the San Francisco 49ers have completed their trans-Pacific journey to Melbourne, shaken off most of the effects of international travel, and begun final preparations for their 2024 NFL regular season opener against the Los Angeles Rams this Friday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

    The 49ers departed their Bay Area base in California last Wednesday, touching down in southeastern Australia two days later. After granting players a full 24-hour break to explore Melbourne’s landmarks and local offerings, the franchise held their first game-week practice session on Monday at AAMI Park, with most players reporting they felt surprisingly refreshed following the long-haul flight.

    In a contrasting scheduling approach, their opponent the Los Angeles Rams have remained in the U.S. and will not arrive in Melbourne until Thursday, a plan Rams head coach Sean McVay has already framed as the optimal strategy for his squad.

    Speaking after Monday’s practice, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan shared that while the majority of the team had adjusted to the new time zone within a couple of days, his own experience of the city has been limited to a short stroll and views from his hotel window, a reality of being deep in the competitive season. “It took a couple days to adjust but feeling real good today,” Shanahan said. “Most of the city I’ve seen out of my window, I’ve gotten to go on one walk. It’s a little different for coaches. We’re in the season so we’re not out much. But players had yesterday off so I know they got out a little bit and they’ve spoken very highly of everything.”

    Multiple 49ers players took advantage of their day off to attend an Australian Football League match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the iconic venue that will host the first ever NFL regular season game held on Australian soil. Star running back Christian McCaffrey did not attend the AFL contest, but said he had heard glowing feedback from his teammates, and has thoroughly enjoyed his first days in the country.

    McCaffrey explained that structured pre-travel guidance from the team’s performance and training staff helped minimize disruptive jet lag symptoms, leaving only the fatigue from 14-plus hours confined to an airplane as the main lingering effect of the journey. Now fully recovered, the All-Pro back said the entire squad is eager to take the field Friday. “This has been such a cool experience. Obviously, there’s a lot of question marks when you hear you’re playing in Australia, but since we’ve been here, man, it’s been so cool. The people are unbelievable. The food’s incredible. The coffee’s great. The atmosphere, you can already feel it. It’s just been a lot fun, so we’re super fired up we’re here.”

    Shanahan acknowledged that he was initially less enthusiastic about the overseas matchup when it was first announced. The original schedule would have seen the 49ers face the Rams in Los Angeles, where 49ers fans traditionally turn out in large numbers to give the team a de facto home field advantage. But after arriving in Melbourne and learning of the strong ticket demand from 49ers supporters traveling for the game, Shanahan’s outlook has shifted.

    “That was nothing against Australia or anything, that’s just about competition and how important our 17 games are,” he explained. “It’s cool for us just we always have an advantage of having one, I see it as one home game a year in L.A., just the way our fans are and take over that stadium. So it was disappointing to let them off the hook and get them out of that. Knowing how our fans roll, I have a feeling they won’t be much different here. I expect to have a good showing. … After being here for a couple days like this is the right time to be here it’s the right place to be and it’s right team to go against.”

    The 49ers did not release any injury updates following Monday’s practice, a departure from Shanahan’s typical routine. Due to the 17-hour time difference between Melbourne and California, the Rams will hold their first game-week practice on Monday U.S. time, which falls on Tuesday in Australia. To maintain a level playing field for injury reporting timelines, Shanahan opted to delay any announcements about the status of star players including tight end George Kittle and defensive end Nick Bosa.

    “Because we’re technically in the future, from where we’re from, and the Rams are in the present, I don’t have to talk about injuries until tomorrow,” Shanahan joked. “So I’m not talking about them.”

    One confirmed injury update was released: defensive end Sam Okuayinonu fractured his foot during the 49ers’ final practice in California before departure. He has been placed on the injured reserve list and is expected to miss the vast majority of the 2024 season.

    In other team news, the 49ers announced they will retain the same eight team captains from the 2023 season. Quarterback Brock Purdy will once again serve as a captain, alongside McCaffrey, Kittle, Bosa, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, offensive tackle Trent Williams, linebacker Fred Warner and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir.

  • Germany’s far-right, pro-Israel AfD sweeps Saxony-Anhalt in historic electoral breakthrough

    Germany’s far-right, pro-Israel AfD sweeps Saxony-Anhalt in historic electoral breakthrough

    In a historic upset that has reshaped German political landscape and sent alarm across European capitals, Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) — an openly pro-Israel faction — secured a landslide victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, bringing the party closer than ever to leading a German regional government for the first time since the collapse of the Nazi regime.

    Initial exit polls conducted by public broadcaster ARD project the AfD will take 44.5% of the popular vote, a result that more than doubles the party’s vote share from the region’s 2021 election. Long-dominant conservative Christian Democratic Union, led by federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, trailed by a staggering 26 percentage points, finishing a distant second with just 18.5% of the vote. Turnout for the election reached approximately 76%, a marked increase from the average turnout for German regional contests, according to data from Reuters.

    Speaking to Reuters shortly after results began to roll in, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, celebrated the milestone: “We have made history in this country.” While the outcome is unprecedented, questions remain unresolved about whether the party will be able to secure the necessary alliances or parliamentary seats to form a functional regional administration. No other major mainstream German party has announced willingness to enter a governing coalition with the AfD to date.

    The shocking election result has already triggered urgent concern across the European Union, particularly in France. Jean-Luc Melenchon, one of France’s most prominent opposition leaders, took to the social platform X to warn that “The far right is back in Germany.” Labeling the electoral outcome a “disaster”, Melenchon added that a strengthened far-right presence in German politics undermines plans for European military integration, stating: “under these conditions, the German military project to create Europe’s first conventional army is unacceptable for France.”

    A notable undercurrent of the AfD’s rise has been its open embrace by senior members of Israel’s current government, despite the party’s widely accepted classification as a far-right movement. As early as February 2025, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli publicly praised the party for its stances targeting groups that advocate for Palestinian rights. Chikli noted that the AfD had taken a leading role in challenging German government backing for organizations critical of Israeli policy, an outcome he described as “surprising.”

    In his social media post at the time, Chikli highlighted the AfD’s past policy actions to align with Israeli government priorities: “It was also the AfD that initiated a bill in April 2019 calling for a ban on the antisemitic BDS movement… In June 2019, the AfD also proposed a complete ban on Hezbollah’s activities in Germany.”

    AfD leadership has actively cultivated its image as an unwavering ally of Israel, even as multiple senior party figures have been repeatedly caught making antisemitic statements and spreading Holocaust revisionist rhetoric. During a high-profile conversation with Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk in January 2025, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel went so far as to frame her party as “the only protector of the Jewish people” in Germany. Weidel has explicitly tied the AfD’s vocal support for Israel to the party’s core anti-immigration and anti-Islam platforms, casting the Israeli state as a natural partner in what the AfD frames as a broader global confrontation with Islam and Muslim communities.

  • China to pump $54bn into state banks and insurers to boost economy

    China to pump $54bn into state banks and insurers to boost economy

    Facing mounting economic headwinds ranging from cross-Pacific trade friction to global market volatility and long-term demographic shifts, Chinese authorities have launched a landmark 360 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) capital infusion into eight major state-owned financial institutions, in a coordinated move to shore up the national financial system and reignite sluggish economic expansion. Led by China’s Ministry of Finance, the targeted cash injection will benefit three of the country’s largest commercial lenders and five top insurance providers — including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, according to official statements released Sunday by state news agency Xinhua. Per Xinhua’s reporting, the policy initiative is designed to strengthen the core operating fundamentals, risk resilience, and capacity of these institutions to direct more lending and financial support toward the real economy, the backbone of China’s industrial and employment landscape. This capital injection marks the latest in a series of policy measures rolled out by Beijing to reinvigorate the world’s second-largest economy, which has contended with overlapping challenges in recent quarters. Beyond ongoing trade and technological rivalry with the United States, the economy has felt ripple effects from geopolitical instability such as the Iran conflict, while grappling with structural pressures from a rapidly aging population and shrinking domestic workforce. The Global Times, another leading Chinese state media outlet, noted that the capital boost will equip banks and financial firms with greater capacity to expand credit access for real-economy businesses, while also fortifying the sector against unexpected external disruptions amid widespread uncertainty across global financial markets. For years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has positioned sustained financial stability as a cornerstone of national economic security, framing a resilient financial sector as critical to weathering both domestic and international shocks. The timing of this weekend’s announcement aligns with Beijing’s broader push to recalibrate and rebalance the economy against a backdrop of persistent domestic and external headwinds. Recent official economic data underscores the urgency of the policy move: between April and June this year, China’s year-on-year GDP growth slowed to 4.3%, down from 5% in the first quarter, and falling short of the government’s full-year annual growth target. Weak domestic consumer demand and upward pressure on global oil prices driven by the Iran conflict outweighed strong performance from Chinese exports during the quarter, dragging overall growth down. Back in March, Beijing revised its full-year 2025 growth target down to a range of 4.5% to 5%, the lowest official expansion goal the country has set since 1991. Many independent economic analysts have interpreted this downward adjustment as a deliberate policy choice that gives Chinese authorities more flexibility to acknowledge long-running structural weaknesses in the economy, rather than pursuing unsustainable high growth through excessive stimulus.

  • Five dead after Amazon cargo plane crashes at Miami airport

    Five dead after Amazon cargo plane crashes at Miami airport

    A devastating aviation incident at Miami International Airport on the busy Labor Day travel weekend has left five people dead and five others injured, three critically, after an Amazon Air cargo jet overshot the runway during landing. The Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft, which departed from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, crashed just before 2 p.m. local time, striking multiple ground vehicles before coming to a stop at the northwest end of the airport’s diagonal runway.

    Emergency response teams mobilized rapidly to the scene, with more than 200 firefighters arriving within seconds of the crash to tackle heavy flames and smoke that erupted from the damaged aircraft. Miami Fire Chief Raied Jadallah confirmed that while crews successfully extinguished the blaze, a hazardous fuel leak remains at the crash site, which is located near a parking lot serving an Amazon warehouse and surrounding local businesses. Several injured people were trapped inside or beneath crushed ground vehicles, requiring specialized extrication efforts from rescue personnel, before all casualties were transported to area hospitals for treatment.

    In a statement following the crash, Amazon Director of Corporate Global Media Relations Kelly Nantel expressed the company’s profound grief over the loss of life. “We’re heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport,” Nantel said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.” The flight was operated by North Carolina-based charter carrier 21 Air, and Nantel confirmed Amazon is cooperating fully with local authorities and investigators to determine the root cause of the incident. The BBC has attempted to contact 21 Air for comment, but as of Sunday evening, no response had been received.

    Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava described the event as an “incredibly difficult day” for the community during a Sunday evening press conference, noting that first responders had prioritized care for victims and their families from the moment of the crash. “Right now, our focus is on the families, those who were injured, and the ongoing response,” she said.

    Initial flight data from aviation tracking service FlightRadar24 shows the aircraft was traveling at 112 knots (129 miles per hour, 207 kilometers per hour) when it exited the usable portion of the runway. The tracking service also reported light thunderstorm activity and gusting winds in the Miami area at the time of the attempted landing. Officials have emphasized it is too early to draw conclusions about what caused the overrun, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency tasked with investigating all civil aviation crashes in the United States, will lead the probe into the incident. The NTSB has scheduled a press conference for Monday to share initial updates on its investigation.

    In response to the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all outgoing flights grounded at the airport, one of the busiest aviation hubs in the United States and the nation’s busiest for international freight. Stranded passengers told the BBC they faced widespread frustration due to limited official information, with hundreds of travelers stuck in long lines at airline counters trying to rebook canceled or delayed flights. Many passengers reported they would be forced to extend their stay in Miami by at least one night due to the travel disruptions.

    The crash comes during the busiest travel period of the year for U.S. airports. The Transportation Safety Administration projected that 17 million passengers would pass through U.S. airports in the week leading up to Labor Day, with 2.3 million travelers expected to fly on Sunday alone. Miami International Airport, founded in 1928, handles more than 60% of all international arrivals to Florida and offers more connections to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport.

  • North Korea commissions 2nd naval destroyer as US, South Korea and Japan begin a military drill

    North Korea commissions 2nd naval destroyer as US, South Korea and Japan begin a military drill

    Tensions have escalated sharply on the Korean Peninsula in recent days, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the ceremonial commissioning of his country’s second domestically built guided-missile destroyer while doubling down on calls to expand and strengthen the regime’s nuclear deterrent. The high-profile naval event unfolded Sunday just as the United States, South Korea, and Japan prepared to launch a landmark trilateral military exercise that Pyongyang has long decried as a direct threat to its national security.

    The newly commissioned destroyer, named the *Kang Kon*, was welcomed into service at a ceremony held in North Korea’s eastern port of Wonsan. Kim Jong Un was joined at the event by his teenage daughter, who South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has identified as Kim Ju Ae and widely considers the leader’s likely heir. Official state media photos from the ceremony show the young woman dressed in a white dress and light blazer, walking alongside her father on a red carpet, touring the destroyer’s decks, and posing for formal photos with the ship’s crew.

    The *Kang Kon* is the second of North Korea’s new 5,000-ton guided-missile destroyers, following the *Choe Hyon* that entered service in June. Both vessels are outfitted to carry nuclear-capable missiles, marking them as the most advanced warships in the North Korean navy’s fleet. In his keynote address at Sunday’s commissioning, Kim emphasized that the sequential launch of these two advanced destroyers transforms the regime’s maritime nuclear capabilities, allowing North Korea to deploy its nuclear deterrent through more diversified and practical channels, a shift that will inevitably deepen anxiety among Pyongyang’s adversaries.

    “We must establish more clearly a powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent, to put into practice the diverse and effective operation of our nuclear combat systems and further strengthen our military activities for maritime defense and war deterrence,” Kim told ceremony attendees.

    This latest military advancement comes amid a period of renewed friction between North Korea and the United States, coming after Pyongyang rejected a conciliatory gesture from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who ordered the U.S. military to substantially scale back the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise with South Korea last month. The drill was cut six days shorter than originally planned, with Trump citing his positive personal relationship with Kim, who has long characterized large-scale U.S.-ROK joint drills as rehearsal for an invasion of the North.

    But the scaled-back exercise failed to win Pyongyang’s approval. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a top senior regime official, dismissed Trump’s outreach, arguing that merely shortening the drill does nothing to alter its fundamentally provocative and aggressive nature. In response to the exercise, North Korea carried out a threat it had issued previously, launching roughly 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its coast.

    On Monday, the United States, South Korea, and Japan launched their five-day *Freedom Edge* trilateral maritime exercise in waters off South Korea’s southern Jeju Island. South Korea’s defense officials have framed the drill as a defensive training initiative designed to improve coordination to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats. Pyongyang, however, has cast the exercise as clear evidence of U.S. escalating confrontational policy toward the North. Last week, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticized both the drill and repeated public statements from U.S. officials reaffirming Washington’s commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

    Diplomatic analysts broadly view North Korea’s recent escalation of military demonstrations and rhetorical pressure as an effort to extract larger concessions from the United States. Nuclear diplomacy between Kim and the Trump administration collapsed in 2019, after the two sides failed to reach agreement on the scope of sanctions relief North Korea would receive in exchange for taking limited steps toward dismantling its nuclear program. Today, after years of advancing its nuclear and missile programs and strengthening strategic ties with major powers Russia and China, experts note Kim holds far more negotiating leverage than he did during the earlier rounds of talks. Kim has repeatedly stated he is willing to return to diplomatic negotiations only if Washington abandons what he calls its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and formally accepts North Korea’s status as a legitimate nuclear-armed state.

  • Austria’s Islamic headscarf ban in force as under-14s go back to school

    Austria’s Islamic headscarf ban in force as under-14s go back to school

    As Austria welcomes millions of students back to classrooms for the 2026-2027 academic year, a highly divisive new law banning religious head coverings for girls under 14 has officially taken effect across all public and private educational institutions in the country. Targeting specifically what the legislation labels “traditional Muslim” headwear, including hijabs and burkas, the policy has sparked fierce debate across the nation, pitting proponents framing the ban as a defense of gender equality against critics who decry it as unconstitutional anti-Muslim discrimination.

    The policy was championed by Austria’s three-party centrist conservative-led coalition government, made up of the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), the center-left Social Democrats (SPÖ), and the liberal Neos party. Integration Minister Claudia Bauer of the ÖVP has publicly defended the law, arguing that the headscarf functions as “a sign of oppression and a means of controlling girls from the earliest childhood”. Proponents across the coalition frame the ban as a deliberate stand for gender equity, designed to safeguard young girls from coercive religious practices that undermine their autonomy.

    But opposition to the legislation has been widespread and organized. Austria’s official Islamic Community (IGGÖ) has issued a firm rejection of the policy, with spokesperson Carla Amina Baghajati telling the BBC that the law unjustly infringes on fundamental religious freedom rights and disproportionately targets Muslim girls and their families. “Rather than protecting children, it singles out a specific religious practice and risks excluding the very children it claims to support,” Baghajati said. The organization has confirmed it will back legal challenges from affected families who plan to bring the case before Austria’s Constitutional Court, marking a repeat of a 2020 confrontation when the court struck down an earlier primary school headscarf ban for violating the country’s principle of state religious neutrality.

    The law places the burden of enforcement directly on classroom teachers, who are required to initiate a series of conversations with students and their guardians if they observe a headscarf being worn. For repeated violations, child welfare services must be notified, and as a final enforcement step, guardians can face fines of up to €800 (£685). This enforcement structure has drawn criticism from educators and political opponents alike, with many pointing out that teachers are already overstretched and unprepared to take on a punitive, regulatory role. Sigi Maurer of the opposition Green Party accused liberal NEOS Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of “creating new conflicts and offloading them onto the teachers,” arguing that the policy forces educators to act as de facto law enforcement on top of their existing teaching responsibilities.

    The ban also faces criticism from both sides of the Austrian political spectrum: the far-right opposition Freedom Party (FPÖ) argues the current restriction does not go far enough, calling for a complete blanket ban on all head and face coverings for both students and teaching staff in Austrian schools. FPÖ politician Ricarda Berger stated that “there is no place for political Islam in Austria, and certainly not in our schools”. This hardline stance echoes recent comments from Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, ÖVP leader, who recently told public broadcaster ORF that he supports a constitutional ban on political Islam, adding that he did not “want to live in an Islamic state”.

    The new Austrian policy differs from similar legislation in neighboring France, which has enforced a 20-year ban on all conspicuous religious symbols — including headscarves, turbans, and Jewish kippas — in state schools. Austria’s ban, by contrast, explicitly targets only Muslim women’s head coverings. Austria already joins other European nations including France, Belgium, and Denmark in enforcing a public ban on full-face veils such as niqabs and burkas.

    Baghajati warned that the ban is part of a growing worrying trend across the continent, where complex social and political challenges are simplified into targeted symbolic restrictions against religious minority groups. “Such approaches may generate political attention, but they rarely solve the underlying problems,” she noted. Protests against the ban have already been held across the country, including a high-profile demonstration earlier this year in Vienna led by an 11-year-old student carrying a banner reading “meine Kopftuch, meine Entscheidung” — “my headscarf, my decision” — capturing the core of opposition arguments around personal autonomy and religious freedom.