AfD’s rise is paralyzing Germany’s political center

Subscribe now with a one-month trial for only $1, then enjoy the first year at an exclusive rate of just $99. Firewall against the AfD is becoming a trapDiego Faßnacht reports that the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt breakthrough has pushed Germany’s firewall strategy to its limits, forcing the political center into increasingly fragile anti-AfD arrangements while weakening Merz’s reform agenda and deepening paralysis inside the governing coalition. Bessent goes Japanese as Japan’s economy goes GermanScott Foster reports that Scott Bessent’s debt-buyback strategy is faltering as bond markets resist US efforts to suppress yields, while Japan’s economy increasingly depends on government spending as inflation, yen intervention and weak consumption undermine Takaichi’s growth agenda. Why Putin said nyet to Trump’s ceasefire diplomacyJames Davis reports that Moscow rejected Trump’s ceasefire diplomacy because it views time, attrition and the blockade of Ukraine’s economy as working in Russia’s favor. A pause, in Putin’s view, would only let Kiev regroup without addressing Moscow’s core demands.