World

Far-Right Surge in Germany, Ukraine Talks Stall, and Deadly Miami Cargo Crash Dominate Headlines

By Leonie Kidd

Voters in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt have delivered a major political upset, handing a sweeping victory to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and dealing a setback to Chancellor Friedrich Merz. According to exit polls released Sunday, AfD secured 44.4% of the vote, putting it on the brink of an absolute majority at the state level for the first time since World War II. Merz's conservative party trailed far behind at 18.3%, while the center-left Social Democrats and the Greens both cleared the threshold needed to enter parliament. AfD's leading candidate in the state, Ulrich Siegmund, campaigned on promises of strict immigration controls, withdrawing from the euro, and restoring ties with Russia.

Elsewhere, efforts to resolve the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine showed little progress over the weekend. U.S. presidential envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff traveled to both Moscow and Kyiv in an attempt to break the diplomatic deadlock. Despite three hours of discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, the Kremlin gave no indication that a breakthrough had been achieved. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after meetings in Kyiv that decisions on territorial disputes needed to be addressed directly between national leaders.

In the United States, investigators are examining the cause of a fatal crash involving an Amazon cargo plane at Miami International Airport on Sunday. The 32-year-old Boeing aircraft overran the runway at approximately 2 p.m. ET and struck vehicles on a nearby service road, killing five people and leaving others in critical condition. The accident triggered more than 160 flight cancellations and over 325 delays.

Separately, air travel across Southeast Asia was disrupted after the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau in Indonesia sent ash into the sky, forcing airlines to adjust flight schedules throughout the region over the weekend.

Financial markets in the U.S. were closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday, following losses on Friday after a stronger-than-expected August jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve might consider raising interest rates at its next meeting. President Donald Trump responded by renewing threats to halt trade with major U.S. partners unless the Fed lowers rates instead. In Asia, stock markets rose during Monday's session, driven largely by gains in technology shares.

In a milestone for European spaceflight, Isar Aerospace became the first commercial company to launch a rocket into orbit from European soil. The company's Spectrum rocket successfully carried satellites into orbit.

Finally, global sugar prices have surged well beyond typical stock market gains this year. Prices rose 21.5% in August, the sharpest monthly increase since October 2010, when sugar climbed 24%. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization also reported a broad rise in its Food Price Index for August, driven largely by sugar. The organization attributed the price jump to expectations of lower sugar beet yields in the European Union due to poor weather, concerns over El Niño's impact on production in key Asian countries, reduced output in Brazil, and India's recent announcement allowing duty-free raw sugar imports.