Crypto News: Extremist gains in Germany

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For all the talk of a political earthquake in Germany, the nationalist right's success in two state elections in the former east came with plenty of warning.

The impact is reverberating through Berlin regardless.

As projected, the Alternative for Germany placed first in Thuringia yesterday, the first time the far right has won a regional election since the days of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazis. The anti-immigration, pro-Russia AfD took second place in the neighboring state of Saxony.

In truth, the shock is overdue: The AfD was already the second-largest bloc in each state parliament. Nationally, its breakthrough was in 2017 when it became the main opposition party in the Bundestag.

Neither is it any great surprise that the AfD was able to capitalize on a weak federal government beset by economic stagnation, tensions over migration and persistent infighting.

But the message the result sends is still a serious one.

Thuringia is picture-postcard Germany; Saxony is its semiconductor hub. Voters in each state have shown that 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the country's east and west have never been more divided politically.

Attitudes to Russia are one core difference.

Among yesterday's big winners was a new party called BSW, which mixes left-wing economic positions with opposition to immigration and to arming Ukraine. From nowhere, it placed third in both states and may enter government in each.

Federal policy is not made in the state capitals of Erfurt or Dresden. But the prevailing sentiment there may become hard for Berlin to ignore as the next federal election due in September 2025 rolls nearer.

That's something that cannot have escaped one former inhabitant of Saxony — Vladimir Putin, who as a young KGB officer was posted in Dresden during the Cold War. — Alan Crawford

An AfD supporter in Thuringia. Photographer: Hannes P Albert/picture alliance /Getty Images

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced widespread protests and a labor strike in Israel as some critics say he's prolonging the war in Gaza to stay in office rather than prioritizing the safe return of the roughly 100 remaining people abducted on Oct. 7 by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The eruption of anger followed the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel. The military conflict has spread to the occupied West Bank and neighboring Lebanon, threatening to engulf the region in a wider war.

WATCH: Hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated yesterday in Tel Aviv and other cities. Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital today with a barrage of drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles, according to local authorities and Ukraine's air force. Missile debris caused fires in several city districts, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The attack on Kyiv is the second within a week, following the Aug. 26 bombardment that was the heaviest since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

China has threatened severe economic retaliation against Japan if it further restricts sales and servicing of chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms, a development that could complicate US-led efforts to cut off the world's second-largest economy from advanced technology. One specific fear, Toyota privately told officials in Tokyo, is that Beijing may react by cutting Japan's access to critical minerals essential for automotive production, sources say.

President Emmanuel Macron is set to meet today with Bernard Cazeneuve, a former Socialist Party official and ex-premier, and well-known conservative politician Xavier Bertrand as he prepares to name France's next prime minister. Macron is also consulting former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy about who to name for the post, which has been up for grabs since July when a snap election shook up French politics.

There is great uncertainty over Libya's exact oil output, with three fields ordered to gradually resume pumping even as production at a major site was slashed further amid a feud between the OPEC nation's rival governments. Libya's competing eastern and western governments are locked in a standoff over the leadership of the central bank, which holds billions of dollars of energy revenue.

Elon Musk's X started to go dark in Brazil after the Supreme Court ordered a suspension of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, making Latin America's largest nation the latest front in a global fight over the regulation of free speech on the internet.

The Philippines has expressed its "displeasure" to China after their ships collided again in the South China Sea on Saturday, Manila's Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's approval rating fell to the lowest level since he took office in 2022 as voters reported mounting struggles with the cost of living.

Vice President Kamala Harris is counting on union support to help her defeat Donald Trump. Labor leaders are lining up to oblige even if she hasn't spelled out how she'd follow a president hailed as the most worker-friendly in generations.

Some union leaders say they're confident she'll champion their issues at least as strongly as Joe Biden did, while others who are reserving judgment still say she'll be a more reliable ally for unions than Trump. Marc Perrone, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers, cited Trump's recent comments celebrating Musk's idea of getting rid of workers who go on strike.

Labor voters will be essential to winning key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. About a fifth of the electorate there are union voters, according to the AFL-CIO.

One thing to watch today: Harris and Biden are scheduled to speak in Pittsburgh.

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A wall of smoke from wildfires in the Amazon rainforest is spreading across Brazil, possibly heading toward neighboring Argentina and Paraguay. Toxic particles smothered the capital, Brasilia, last week and have reached Sao Paulo, the country's financial center and Latin America's biggest city. Blazes in sugar-cane fields of the world's top exporter are set to impact global supplies of the sweetener.

In the 20th century, swimming all but disappeared from many urban waterways because of industrial pollution and dangerous levels of human waste. But this year some of the coolest European destinations for bathers are waterways such as the Danube in Vienna and the Rhine in Basel, Switzerland. In Paris, the Seine was able to stage five Oympic swimming events thanks to €1.4 billion ($1.56 billion) worth of sewer upgrades.

Ladders line a pier and harbor in Copenhagen. Photographer: Sergei Gapon/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Thanks to the 44 people who answered the Friday quiz and congratulations to Mansi Shukla, who was the first to name Mexico as the country whose leader put his relationship with its US ambassador "on pause."

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