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Results show CDU/CSU will be largest party but success of Alternative fur Deutschland likely to complicate formation of a governmentThe conservative opposition has won the most votes in Germany's general election, but a dramatic surge by the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) is likely to complicate the formation of a government to help spearhead a European response to growing global threats.The CDU/CSU candidate, Friedrich Merz, was preparing on Sunday night to try to form a ruling coalition after clinching almost 29% of the vote from a high turnout. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the election here and find all our coverage of the election hereOpinion is divided as Germany faces what some describe as the most important election in their lifetime". The country is expected to shift to the right as Friedrich Merz is in pole position to become Germany's next chancellor, while far-right party AfD could become the second most powerful party.So earlier today I asked voters at a polling station in central Berlin what they expected from the election and what they wanted the next chancellor to focus on. Continue reading...

Tech company's share price plummets after latest market update and resignations of Lisa Brock, Richard Dammery, Michael Malone and Fiona Pak-Poy

Former Liberal staffer appeared in Hobart magistrates court by phone and did not enter a plea

Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean says Dutton's energy proposal is equivalent to adding two Beetaloo basins' worth of emissions to atmosphere

Government ruled out giving 10bn to women born in 1950s whose pensionable age was raised to be equal with menCampaigners have threatened the government with legal action unless it reconsiders its decision to rule out spending 10bn compensating Waspi" (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women hit by the change in the state pension age.Last March, the parliamentary and health service ombudsman recommended compensation should be paid to women born in the 1950s whose pensionable age was gradually raised to be equal with men, arguing the changes had not been properly communicated to them. Continue reading...

UK prime minister and French president will separately meet Donald Trump this weekKeir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed to show united leadership in support of Ukraine" when they separately meet Donald Trump this week.The UK prime minister and the French president spoke on Sunday afternoon to reiterate the importance of Ukraine being at the centre of any negotiations to end the war, Downing Street said. Continue reading...

Business secretary says negotiations - now in their 15th round - are a top priority' for Labour governmentMinisters are relaunching negotiations with India this week in an attempt to clinch a multibillion-pound free trade agreement that they hope will boost the UK's flatlining economy.Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, flew to Delhi on Sunday to meet his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal, for the first time since Labour won the election. Continue reading...

Alternative fur Deutschland projected to finish second in federal election with about 20% of the voteFor more than 150 years, the symbolism of the Siegessaule, or Victory Column, in Berlin's Tiergarten, has shifted alongside German identity: from emblem of the empire to strategic relocation by the Nazis and, finally, its adoption as an icon of Berlin's legendary love parade.On Sunday, as throngs of people gathered in its shadow, the golden statue bore witness to yet another shift - an election that had yielded an emboldened far right in a result that was unprecedented in Germany's postwar history. Continue reading...

Songs by the reluctant performer have been covered by The War on Drugs, Wilco, Pavement and Marc AlmondThe folk singer Bill Fay, known for songs such as The Healing Day and Thank You Lord, has died aged 81, his record label has announced with great sadness".Fay began work on his latest album just a month before his death, and his label Dead Oceans said they hoped to find a way to finish and release it". Continue reading...

People on board the boat said a shark was involved in the man being lost overboard, but another fisher disputed the account

Public asked to help with investigation after postmortem examination in October failed to find any DNAHe was wearing a wetsuit when police found his body floating in a Welsh reservoir in October. No clothes or belongings were discovered on the shoreline, and no car or bicycle was found nearby, despite it being a seven-mile hike to the nearest bus stop.A postmortem examination failed to find any DNA or fingerprint matches and two police appeals for information about the man were unsuccessful. Continue reading...

The country faces weeks or even months of coalition negotiations after no party won a majorityIt has been a extraordinary election in Germany, and the result has been keenly awaited around the world to see what new government might emerge in Europe's largest but ailing economy.Exit polls show a clear win for the CDU/CSU centre-right alliance, followed by the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) - an anti-Islam party that has advocated remigration" for migrants as well as German citizens deemed to have integrated poorly - in second place. Continue reading...

Pontiff had fallen into critical condition, receiving high flows of oxygen and blood transfusions in hospital as he battles complex lung infectionPope Francis, who is battling pneumonia and a complex lung infection, remains in a critical condition, the Vatican has said.The pontiff, 88, was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on 14 February and was subsequently diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection and pneumonia in both lungs. Continue reading...

Comments come after Russia launches largest drone attack on eve of third anniversary of invasion

Teetering designs, upside-down fabrics and garments made from offcuts created a feel of topsy-turvy dramaWhere can you find the author Daphne du Maurier and the sculptor Phyllida Barlow, along with the actor Tippi Hedren and the costume designer Edith Head? Only at London fashion week.All four women were muses for designers on the third day of catwalks. Barlow's uncompromising art was the inspiration at Roksanda, where vast ballgowns in bright felt wobbled perilously on the 16th floor of an empty brutalist office block, channeling the audacious spirit of Barlow's teetering towers of fabric, rope, chicken wire or papier-mache. Continue reading...

Continued operation in Palestinian territory will leave 40,000 displaced people unable to return homeIsrael has sent tanks to the West Bank city of Jenin, in the first deployment of its kind in the area in more than two decades, as troops intensify operations in the territory that officials said will last at least a year.The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that the latest operation across the West Bank was expanding, and that troops would remain in the area's urban hotspots for the coming year", meaning approximately 40,000 people displaced by the fighting will not be able to return to their homes. Continue reading...

Peter and Barbie Reynolds were detained in Bamiyan provice for teaching mothers parenting with children'The Taliban have arrested a British couple in their 70s for teaching mothers parenting with children".Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, were detained when returning to their home in the Bamiyan province on 1 February. Continue reading...

Former banker almost certain to be Germany's next chancellor faces testing domestic political and economic landscape - and then there's Donald Trump

Formal identification of body discovered in remote area in Teesdale yet to take place, says Durham policeA body has been found in the search for a young runner who went missing five days ago.Jenny Hall, 23, was last seen leaving her home in Barracks Farm, County Durham, just after 3pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Comments come after Israel suspended release of 600 Palestinian detainees. This live blog is now closed

First Ukrainian refugee to arrive in UK after Russia invasion says even the British dogs are better behaved, but that the weather is sad'Sharing a bowl of homemade Ukrainian borscht with your neighbours is one way to make friends in a new country, according to the first refugee to arrive in the UK after Russia invaded her country three years ago.Ukrainian refugee Valentyna Klymova, 72, now settled in Erith in Kent, has done just that, lovingly preparing the traditional soup containing beetroot, other vegetables and meat stock, served with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread. She offers it to English people she knows and says it has had a positive reception. In turn, she has embraced quintessentially British fish and chips, although she has not yet tried to cook it at home. Continue reading...

Hasan Nasrallah, one of the founding members of Hezbollah, was killed during Israeli bombing in SeptemberTens of thousands of people have attended a funeral in Beirut for Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Iran-backed, Lebanese militia and political party Hezbollah for three decades before being killed in an Israeli bombing last September.The ceremony was held in a sports stadium in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which had extra seats installed prior to the ceremony in anticipation of the massive crowds. Continue reading...

Forecaster issues amber and yellow warnings, saying torrential rain could cause fast-flowing or deep flood water'A period of torrential rain will cause danger to life from fast-flowing or deep flood water in parts of the UK, forecasters say.The Met Office has issued an amber rain warning for south and mid-Wales from Newport to Carmarthen and north to Brecon between 3pm on Sunday and 6am on Monday. Continue reading...

The prime minister also criticised Reform UK over employment rights and potential NHS charges at the Scottish Labour conferenceKeir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage and Reform UK for talking the language of workers' rights online but wanting to charge people to use the NHS and for fawning over Putin".The prime minister said Labour must be ready for the test Farage's party presents, saying there had been a rise in dangerous rightwing politics" and those who claim to be seeking to tilt politics towards the interests of working people". Continue reading...

Exclusive: Home Affairs tells the Guardian consular assistance is severely limited' in Syria, where Mustafa Hajj-Obeid remains in custody

Asio believed the man, anonymised as HWMW, was at risk of being exploited by the Mossad

Cucuta imposes curfew as National Liberation Army (ELN) clashes with army in province bordering VenezuelaResidents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s.The mayor of Cucuta imposed a 48-hour curfew on the population of 1 million inhabitants in the hope of regaining control of the city after combatants of Colombia's largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs. Continue reading...

Charities across the country highlight the rising demand for emergency accommodation as costs spiral to care for those most in needHolly Udobang is packing the last bag: a sleeping mat, gloves, woolly hat, waterproof poncho, hand warmers. It's the sort of kit that teenagers might need for a Duke of Edinburgh trip.But this bag is for young homeless people, to give them a fighting chance of getting some sleep on the streets of London. Holly and her colleagues at the New Horizon Youth Centre are packing them to give to the young people they now have to turn away every day, as an increasing number of emergency shelters shut their doors. Continue reading...

UK food producers plan more protests over inheritance tax changes ahead of this week's NFU conference in LondonThe suits and black cabs which typically dot the streets around Westminster have been frequently replaced by the wellies, tweed jackets and tractors of aggrieved farmers of late. The next protest in London by the nation's food producers is expected on Tuesday morning, ahead of the annual get-together of the National Farmers' Union (NFU).Farmers have regularly swapped their fields for the city since October, when changes to inheritance tax (IHT) for agricultural businesses were announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, angrily protesting and waving banners. Continue reading...

Bridget Phillipson calls 2.5% target ambitious' days before PM meets with Donald Trump in WashingtonKeir Starmer is unlikely to set out a plan this week for when the UK will increase its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, a cabinet minister has indicated.The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the target was ambitious, despite Labour previously claiming it would set out a path to meeting the spending goal after the strategic defence review in the spring. Continue reading...

Soon we can all read the late author's private notes about her therapy. But should we?In 1998, the late journalist Joan Didion wrote a scathing essay about the posthumous publication of True at First Light, a travel journal and fictional memoir by Ernest Hemingway, 38 years after the author killed himself. This is a man to whom words mattered. He worked at them, he understood them, he got inside them," Didion wrote. His wish to be survived by only the words he determined fit for publication would have seemed clear enough."Just over a year later, in December 1999, Didion began writing her own journal about her sessions with a psychiatrist. She addressed these notes - detailing her struggles with alcoholism, anxiety, guilt and depression, a sometimes fraught relationship with her adopted daughter Quintana and reflections on her childhood and legacy - to her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Continue reading...

Ahead of a career retrospective, Sue Williamson tells how the US pair are dragging her country through the mud'For more than 50 years, Sue Williamson's art has been shining a light on South Africa's problems - first to campaign against the apartheid state, and then to question how far the country has progressed in reconciliation and remembrance.But as she prepares for her first retrospective exhibition, the 84-year-old artist has a new pair of targets in sight: US president Donald Trump and his billionaire, South African-born adviser, Elon Musk. Continue reading...

As the education secretary announces the first primary schools to offer free breakfasts, Labour MPs question the commitment to fighting povertyThe government is trumpeting its policy of introducing free breakfast clubs into all primary schools in England as key to its efforts to cut child poverty, as ministers appear to have ruled out meeting the estimated cost of 3bn a year to end the two-child cap on benefits.Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, announced the first 750 schools that will become early adopters" of breakfast clubs, saying that 67,000 of the 180,000 pupils set to benefit come from the most disadvantaged areas of England. Continue reading...

The prospects of peace and the return of Russian gas looks likely to serve the interests of Donald TrumpThe Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine three years ago has reverberated through the global energy industry; unravelling Europe's decades-long reliance on gas imported via pipelines from Russia, and triggering a global squeeze on gas markets that unleashed a cost of living crisis still felt today.The prospect of a peace deal has many wondering whether the energy industry could be upended once again; this time giving way to a market serving the interests of the US president hoping to broker the deal. Continue reading...

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Europe holds its breath as world's third largest economic power and most populous EU country faces crossroadsGerman voters go to the polls today but it is a different world from when the campaign began only a few weeks ago.Nearly 60 million people are choosing a government that will have to grapple with the breakdown of the transatlantic alliance under Donald Trump and new threats to European security just as the country's vaunted economic model is hitting the skids. Continue reading...

Numbers of animals once hunted as vermin are rising across the continent. But scientists worry about how we are going to get along with these predatorsEurope's carnivores have had a remarkable change in fortune. After tens of thousands of years of persecution that wiped out sabretooth tigers, hyenas and cave lions, there has been a recent rebound in the continent's surviving predators.Across mainland Europe, bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine numbers have risen dramatically as conservation measures introduced several decades ago have begun to make an impact. There are now about 20,500 brown bears in Europe, a rise of 17% since 2016, while there are 9,400 Eurasian lynx, a 12% increase. Continue reading...

Super Members Council says summit may sway US president on tariffs on Australian industry after seeing scale of investment in US

Less than half of Australians were always bulk billed when they saw a GP in 2023-24, government data says

Statement by Netanyahu's office demands assurance of release of next hostages ... without humiliating ceremonies'Israel says the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be delayed until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies" at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza.The statement by Benjamin Netanyahu's office came early Sunday as vehicles apparently carrying prisoners left the open gates of Ofer prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, only to turn around and go back in. Continue reading...

Horrendous' eight-year long project has ended with final fact check, leaving a legacy nobody can argue' with, says researcher

Drivers had told Avon and Somerset officers that there was something on the road between junctions 20 and 21Police have discovered human remains on a motorway carriageway near Bristol and have shut parts of two motorways in both directions.A number of drivers called the police and reported seeing something on the road between junctions 20 and 21 of the M4 at 6.40pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

Open letter from some of the country's most distinguished artists strongly protests' at the removal of Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino

Eliya Cohen spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing Ziv Abud had died in Hamas attacks in 2023An Israeli hostage only discovered his fiancee had survived the 7 October attacks after his release on Saturday, Israeli media has reported.Eliya Cohen had spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing his bride-to-be, Ziv Abud, was dead. The last time they had seen each other, they were hiding in a shelter with relatives and friends after attending the Nova festival. Continue reading...

Hamas released Israeli hostages Hisham al-Sayed, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer WenkertA masked militant has sat down at a table on the stage with a Red Cross representative and they appear to be signing documents.Live images from Rafah are showing masked Hamas militants taking to the makeshift stage, with one speaking into a microphone. Continue reading...

Accident happened in Siem Reap province that saw heavy fighting in 1980s between government soldiers and Khmer RougeA grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes in rural Cambodia, officials said.The accident happened on Saturday in Siem Reap province's Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 90s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979. Continue reading...

Kyiv must be at the heart of negotiations' says PM as US threat to block Elon Musk's Starlink satellites fuels wave of alarmKeir Starmer has raised the stakes before a crucial meeting in Washington with the US president, Donald Trump this week, by insisting that Ukraine must be at the heart of any negotiations" on a peace deal with Russia.The prime minister made the remarks - which run directly contrary to comments by the US president last week - in a phone call on Saturdaywith Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he also said that safeguarding Ukraine's sovereignty was essential to deter future aggression from Russia". Continue reading...

Macron says knife attack is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism'A 69-year-old man who intervened when a suspected terrorist attacked police officers with a knife shouting Allahu Akbar" has died in eastern France.Two police officers were also seriously injured in the suspected Islamist terrorist act, which took place in the city of Mulhouse during a demonstration in support of the Congo on Saturday afternoon. Three other police officers were lightly wounded. Continue reading...

Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state's highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school yearThe measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state's department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result. Continue reading...