September 2024

“They are like a bleeding wound, and no one sees it,” a schoolteacher said of her pupils, many of whom have fled frontline areas or lost family members in the fighting.

The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, had a very successful night in two states, despite its state chapters’ classification as “extremist” by German domestic intelligence.

The attack, the third large-scale bombardment in a week, coincided with intense fighting in eastern Ukraine and Russia.

The Alternative for Germany party was on course to win in Thuringia, according to projections, in what was seen as a worrying sign of the health of German democracy.

Ukraine said Russia struck the country’s second-largest city with missiles and bombs. Russian state media and local officials earlier reported that Ukraine attacked power plants and refineries with drones.

Ukraine gambled that its move into Russia would draw Moscow’s forces away from the town of Pokrovsk. It didn’t happen. And now resigned residents are evacuating daily.

It’s so hot in Cairo that people like to go out all night. It might look like a party, but in reality, one shopkeeper said, “everybody is dead on the inside.”

One of the hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was an American citizen. Separately in Gaza, a polio vaccination drive was getting underway on Sunday.

The prospect of a strong performance by the far-right Alternative for Germany party in two state elections is only one of the problems for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

About a quarter of the residents of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, have moved away — and more are expected to soon follow.