In Berlin’s state election for the House of Representatives, Die Linke is on course to finish first with 24.5%, ahead of the CDU on 20%, according to an ARD exit poll.

Die Linke’s lead candidate is lawyer Elif Eralp, who has focused heavily on housing and rent controls during the campaign.

Berlin has been governed by a CDU-SPD coalition since 2023, but the result could end the CDU’s control of the mayor’s office.

The AfD won the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state election with 37%, narrowly ahead of the SPD on 35.5%, according to an ARD exit poll.

However, incumbent state premier Manuela Schwesig’s SPD is expected to have enough support to build a coalition and keep the AfD out of government. Schwesig was the SPD’s lead candidate in the election.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU collapsed to just 5.5% — its worst result in any German regional or national election since World War II.

Germany's Chancellor Merz:

We cannot talk up the result in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; it is a disaster.

The CDU has fought, but it is at the end been crushed by the polarization between the SPD and the AfD.

Germany's Chancellor Merz:

We are experiencing a state that has become too complicated. Our economy is right in the middle of a deep upheaval.

And the tone in interacting with each other, in our society, has become harsher and less reconcilable.

Finally, trust in the institutions of our country is sinking and is being actively undermined by radical parties left and right.

In Germany and across Europe, we must fundamentally rethink freedom, everyday security, peace, and our own strengths and weaknesses.

We must do so in the face of very concrete threats.

BIG: Seven Ethiopian armed groups — including former enemies TPLF, Amhara Fano, and OLA — formally announced an alliance to overthrow PM Abiy Ahmed and form a transitional government.

The coalition, called "Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Coalition for Survival," spans six regions (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Ogaden, Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz).

Notably, Amhara Fano fought alongside federal forces against the TPLF just four years ago during the Tigray war.

The TPLF called the alliance "irreversible" with a signed document.

New satellite imagery shows China built mock targets of US F-35s, F-16s, Patriot air defenses, and Japan's E-767 AWACS aircraft at a freshly paved desert range near Lop Nur.

The E-767 is notable.

Only Japan operates it (four planes total), making this an explicit Taiwan/Japan-scenario rehearsal target.

China has been building increasingly sophisticated US/Japanese military mockups in Xinjiang deserts since 2021 for live-fire practice and missile calibration.

But the addition of Patriot battery mockups and Japanese-specific assets shows expanding target sets.

Source: Brady Africk

Logan and Jake Paul visited the Pentagon and met with U.S. soldiers.

Germany's Chancellor Merz:

I want to bring our country forward.

I am firmly convinced that the success of our reforms will not only improve our coexistence, but also our self-image and our image in the world. Germany is reform-capable.

What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience.

Trump:

German Chancellor Merz says he won’t resign:

What now needs to be done requires backbone, steadfastness and patience.

I will provide that — as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as Federal Chancellor of our country.

Germany's Chancellor Merz:

We need change. Change requires strength. Not everything will receive immediate applause.

I know that these changes will also bring burdens and new uncertainties for many of you. And in some areas, the effects will only become apparent after some time.

But that is precisely why we cannot postpone these decisions now. The reforms must come.

The U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia says government employees now require special authorization for official or personal travel to Taif and Yanbu amid ongoing Houthi attacks.

Germany's Chancellor Merz:

The answer cannot be a return to the good old days. But the answer also cannot be to constantly talk down everything that is good.

The answer must be to make our country fit for the future. I want our country to once again become a country of new beginnings.

Trump will meet NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion on Monday.

The meeting will focus on issues affecting New York City and will be Trump’s first visit with Mamdani in New York.

The two have previously met twice in Washington and have developed an unexpectedly amicable relationship despite their political differences.

Source: NYT

Die Linke finished first in Berlin's state election today (~25%) with a 13-point surge, led by Elif Eralp, a 45-year-old lawyer of Turkish origin.

If she becomes governing mayor, she'd be Berlin's first Turkish-origin mayor, Germany's first female state leader with a migration background, and the first Linke politician to lead the capital.

Her campaign was compared to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani's. Her team actually exchanged ideas with Mamdani's campaign. Media have called her "Berlin's Mamdani."

Housing drove the vote.

85% of Berliners rent and advertised rents have doubled since 2014.

Her central promise is implementing the 2021 referendum to take ~240,000 private apartments into public ownership.

Coalition talks will determine whether she actually governs — a Linke-Greens-SPD bloc or a CDU-Greens-SPD coalition are both mathematically possible.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meets with Jake and Logan Paul.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel:

The AfD is clearly the new people's party in Germany.

We have overtaken the CDU, and people want a change of policy.

The CDU, with Friedrich Merz, with a weak chancellor, cannot continue.

In Russia’s State Duma elections, exit polls showed the ruling United Russia party leading with 49.4% of the vote in a VCIOM survey and 52.8% in an INSOMAR poll.

The Communist Party was second on 14.2%-14.8%, followed by the LDPR on 9.9%-10.7%, New People on 8.6%-9.7% and A Just Russia on 5.5%-6.6%.

Voter turnout was reported at more than 56%.

Russia's Medvedev:

The United Russia party performed with dignity.

And the citizens of our country maintain trust in our leading political force and consider it possible to entrust it with further governance at various levels of state power.

Zelensky:

I just spoke with President Trump. It was an important conversation, and we managed to discuss many things.

We agreed to meet in New York, and this meeting could bring about significant changes. There is a diplomatic dynamic at play.

NEW: The Trump administration is preparing sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court that could severely restrict its access to the global financial system.

The measures would ban most transactions with the ICC after a six- to seven-month grace period and could prevent it from conducting U.S.-dollar transactions.

The move would go much further than existing sanctions on individual ICC officials and follows the court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Marco Rubio has said the U.S. could dismantle the court “brick by brick,” arguing that prosecutions of officials from nonmember states threaten U.S. sovereignty.

A decision could come as soon as this week around the UN General Assembly.

Source: WSJ