Closely fought German election ushers in post-Merkel era
CTV
German voters were choosing a new parliament Sunday in an election that will determine who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16 years at the helm of Europe's biggest economy
Polls point to a very close race Sunday between Merkel's center-right Union bloc, with state governor Armin Laschet running for chancellor, and the center-left Social Democrats, for whom outgoing finance minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz is seeking the top job.
Recent surveys show the Social Democrats marginally ahead. The environmentalist Greens, with candidate Annalena Baerbock, are making their first run for the chancellery, and polls put them several points behind in third place.
The Social Democrats have been boosted by Scholz's relative popularity after a long poll slump, and by his rivals' troubled campaigns. Baerbock suffered from early gaffes and Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, has struggled to motivate his party's traditional base.
About 60.4 million people in the nation of 83 million are eligible to elect the new Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, which will elect the next head of government.
With their Los Angeles-area homes still smoldering, families return to search the ruins for memories
Since the flames erupted in and around Los Angeles, scores of residents have returned to their still smoldering neighborhoods even as the threat of new fires persisted and the nation's second-largest city remained unsettled.
Flames were already attacking the campus of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center when the cantor, Ruth Berman Harris, and three companions rushed in to rescue its sacred Torah scrolls.
Investigators are considering an array of possible ignition sources for the huge fires that have killed at least 10 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in the Los Angeles area.
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says Canadian military personnel, their equipment and another 250 firefighters stand "ready to support our American neighbours" as wildfires devastate parts of Southern California.
Firefighters battled early Thursday to control major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and caused thousands of people to frantically flee their homes.
A fast-moving fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night, threatening one of Los Angeles' most iconic spots as firefighters battled to get under control three other major blazes that killed five people, put 130,000 people under evacuation orders and ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to inland Pasadena.
An American citizen convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill who said he was seeking asylum in Canada has been arrested as a "fugitive from U.S. justice," according to authorities.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, however powerful, and suggested that expansionist comments by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump are meeting with "incomprehension" among European leaders.
The world's largest island is now 'central to the geopolitical, geoeconomic competition in many ways,' partly because of climate change, said Ohio University security and environment professor Geoff Dabelko.
A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's far-right National Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, died Tuesday. He was 96.
The U.S. has transferred 11 Yemeni men to Oman after holding them for more than two decades without charge at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
New York’s new toll for drivers entering the center of Manhattan debuted Sunday, meaning many people will pay US$9 to access its busiest part in peak hours.
It was not the start to 2025 that Keir Starmer wanted or expected: in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Elon Musk lobbed a series of angry posts and allegations towards the British prime minister, engulfing his government in a very public fight.
President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
Prince William expressed his shock and sadness Saturday at the news of the death of his former nanny's stepson in the New Year's truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people.
A lit bundle of mortar-style aerials tipped over and shot into crates of unlit fireworks in Honolulu on New Year's Eve, causing a rapid-fire series of blasts that killed three women and injured more than 20 people, including children
A senior British politician pushed back Friday on Elon Musk's criticism of the government's handling of a historic child grooming scandal.