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Germany's election won by conservatives and far-right AfD party surges, official results show
CBSN
Berlin — Provisional results confirmed that mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won Germany's national election, while a far-right party surged to become the nation's second-largest.
The campaign was dominated by worries about the yearslong stagnation of Europe's biggest economy and pressure to curb migration, something that caused friction after Merz pushed hard in recent weeks for a tougher approach. It took place against a background of growing uncertainty over the future of Ukraine and Europe's alliance with the United States.
Germany is the most populous country in the 27-nation European Union and a leading member of NATO. It's been Ukraine's second-biggest weapons supplier, after the U.S. It will be central to shaping the continent's response to the challenges of the coming years, including the Trump administration's confrontational foreign and trade policy.
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France is about to hold its largest-ever child sex abuse trial. While just one man is in the dock — a former surgeon accused of raping or sexual abusing 299 people, mostly child patients — activists hope the trial empowers other victims and helps expose other abusers long protected by societal taboos.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make Hamas pay "the full price" for what he called a "cruel and wicked violation" of the tenuous Gaza ceasefire agreement after the Israeli and U.S.-designated terrorist group returned the remains of a Gazan woman instead of an Israeli mother taken hostage with her two young children.
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Cairo — Optimism in the Arab world that President Trump might bring a permanent end to the war in the Gaza Strip and, with it, stability to the tumultuous Middle East, soared as he was given a lion's share of the credit for ushering in the current ceasefire. But that hope has faded quickly since Mr. Trump suggested a plan to force Gaza's entire population out and to "take over" the decimated Palestinian territory to develop it as a vacation destination.