Germany’s far right forces a reckoning for Merz

The brief

The AfD’s decisive victory in Saxony-Anhalt leaves Friedrich Merz facing a political reckoning, with the CDU’s defeat carrying implications beyond one eastern German state.

Ratko Mladić’s funeral in Belgrade brings nationalist reverence and denial of wartime atrocities into sharp focus, raising questions about Serbia’s prospects for European Union accession.

Reports from Kyiv and southern Lebanon document the human cost of intensifying attacks, from daytime drone strikes disrupting education to deaths reported despite a ceasefire.

Thirteen-year-old composer Kerry Tan’s symphony treats artificial intelligence as both destructive force and test of human creativity, individuality, nature and responsibility.

Australia’s proposed algorithm opt-outs and Gianni Infantino’s FIFA re-election bid extend the episode’s central question: who controls systems that shape public life?

The film Pressure revisits James Stagg’s D-Day forecast, when expert judgment meant advising General Eisenhower to delay the invasion despite immense pressure.