Political Guyentist

A far-right party won a German state election outright for the first time, taking 43.8%

Alternative for Germany more than doubled its 2021 vote in Saxony-Anhalt. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's party fell to 17.2% and lost a state it had run for 24 years; he says he will not resign.

Going into the vote on Sunday, Sept. 6, polls already put AfD first in Saxony-Anhalt, and every other party had ruled out governing with it. Preliminary counts that night gave the party 44.6% and Merz's CDU 16.9%. The official result on Monday, Sept. 7, settled slightly lower, at 43.8% and 17.2%, and cost the CDU a state it had run for 24 years. AfD's previous best anywhere was 32.8% in Thuringia in September 2024.

ContextAfD's previous state ceiling was 32.8% in Thuringia in September 2024 — the first far-right first-place finish in a German state since 1945 — and 30.6% in Saxony the same day. Saxony-Anhalt's 43.8% clears both by more than 11 points. In Thuringia the CDU still refused AfD and built a minority government with BSW and the SPD. Nationally, AfD has overtaken the CDU in polling, and Merz's approval has fallen with it.

CBS NEWS12 sources

2usUpdateIran war

Iran says it will declare a restricted zone near the Strait of Hormuz and will strike threats "even before" they are carried out

Tehran also doubled the price of gasoline for its heaviest users, the 15% of consumers who buy the most, for the second time since December.

- Aug. 10 — Tehran said it would keep Hormuz shut until the U.S. unfroze Iranian assets and lifted its naval blockade. - Aug. 20 — With the 60-day truce expired, Trump declared an "economic D-Day" on Iran; only 10 to 12 ships a day were crossing the strait. - Sept. 1 — U.S. bombs hit rocket sites near the strait and IRGC coastal air defenses; Iran fired eight missiles at bases in Jordan, all intercepted. - Sept. 3 — U.S. hit about 100 targets; Iranian officials counted at least 18 dead, four at a wedding compound in Kuhestak. - Sept. 5 — U.S. forces disabled three Iranian oil tankers after Iran fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. carrier and destroyer. - Sept. 6 — Iran claimed it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel; Central Command called the claim "a total lie."

ContextThe Strait of Hormuz normally moves 15 million barrels of crude a day, near a third of seaborne oil trade. The waterway is not formally closed — the White House says it is open and under U.S. control and the Navy says it has cleared mines — but transits were running about 95% below normal as of Aug. 27, 2026. U.S. retail diesel hit $5.60 a gallon on Aug. 31, 2026, just 18 cents under the record $5.78 set in June 2022 (EIA), and the U.S. military has redirected 94 commercial vessels since the fighting began. Iran's heaviest 15% of fuel buyers now pay 100,000 rials a liter, double December's rate.

AP11 sources

3usUpdatecontestedTariffs and trade

Canada's 15%-50% tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. goods took effect just after midnight Tuesday, Sept. 8

Hours earlier Trump posted "NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!" — the Quebec planemaker runs a Kansas plant with 3,500 American workers.

- Aug. 19 — Trump paused a 50% tariff on about $20.2 billion of Canadian goods two hours before it was due to take effect. - Aug. 22 — The replacement deadline passed with nothing signed. - Aug. 25 — The U.S. duties went on, covering $27.6 billion of Canadian products. Ottawa promised to match them dollar for dollar on Sept. 8. - Aug. 26 — Canada published a list of more than 700 American products it would tax. - Sept. 6 — Trump posted that Canada's "Dollar imbalance with the U.S. is unacceptable." Ottawa did not move its deadline.

ContextCanada and the United States traded $762.10 billion in goods in 2024, more than the U.S. did with any other country except Mexico (U.S. Census Bureau). Industrial supplies including energy account for 51.6% of U.S. imports from Canada, automotive vehicles, parts, and engines 13.9%, and capital goods except automotive 13.8% — so the layered 50% duties hit factory inputs, not finished consumer goods. This is the fourth escalation since February 2025, when Trump's opening 25% tariff drew a CA$155 billion Canadian response against tonight's roughly $20 billion.

ABC NEWS8 sources

4usUpdate2026 midterms

Witkoff says Moscow-Kyiv trip produced 'substantive progress' on scheduling more talks, with no date set and no terms disclosed

Zelensky told Axios he believes Putin "needs Trump" ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms; Bloomberg's sources say Putin remains committed to continuing the war.

- Sept. 4 — Zelensky said the two envoys would come to Kyiv and return to Moscow to restart stalled talks. - Sept. 5 — Witkoff and Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin for more than three hours. Putin then ordered a 72-hour halt to strikes covering the two capitals only. - Sept. 6 — The envoys met Zelensky in Kyiv, the first such visit of the war. It ended with agreement on next steps and no terms: no map, no sanctions language, no security guarantees, and a promise of an announcement "in weeks." - Sept. 7 — Ukraine's matching halt on Moscow expired. Russia's Defense Ministry had already rejected the wider Sept. 5-9 ceasefire Ukraine proposed.

ContextEvery announced pause in this war has broken. Putin's Jan. 5, 2023 holiday truce failed on day one. The 30-hour Easter truce in April 2025 drew Ukrainian claims of 2,000-plus violations and Russian claims of 1,000-plus, and a 32-hour Easter pause in April 2026 drew 469 logged violations. Congress is a separate lever: the Senate passed Sen. Lindsey Graham's Russia sanctions bill 86-11 on Aug. 7, and Speaker Mike Johnson (Rep-R Louisiana) said on Sept. 3 that he doubts a House vote before the midterms.

AXIOS10 sources

5not newslongform

Trump wants Greenland. The EU showed up in Nuuk with €200 million and a promise to more than double it.

Ursula von der Leyen made the pledge on Monday, Sept. 7, while 11 NATO countries — not the United States — ran military exercises on the island.

Greenland is a self-governing Danish territory of about 57,000 people — fewer than live in a mid-sized American town. Trump has pushed for U.S. control since returning to office. In January his administration threatened tariffs on Denmark and seven allies over Arctic exercises, then withdrew them after a NATO security deal. Betting market Polymarket, where traders buy and sell contracts on future events, prices the odds that Trump acquires Greenland before 2027 in the low single digits.

ContextGreenland is a self-governing Danish territory of about 57,000 people — fewer than live in a mid-sized American town. Trump has pushed for U.S. control since returning to office. In January his administration threatened tariffs on Denmark and seven allies over Arctic exercises, then withdrew them after a NATO security deal. Betting market Polymarket, where traders buy and sell contracts on future events, prices the odds that Trump acquires Greenland before 2027 in the low single digits.

WSJ5 sources

6not newslongformRussia-Ukraine war

Russia orders Germany's last consulate in Russia closed by Sept. 18, leaving one embassy each

Moscow also gave Goethe-Institut cultural centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg until Sunday, Sept. 13, to shut, days after Berlin closed Russia's Bonn consulate and the Russia House center.

What losing every consulate does to ordinary travelers: Russians living in Germany must now use the Berlin embassy for passports, visas and civil documents. Germans in Russia lose the only office outside Moscow that could help with an emergency passport or a detained citizen. Roughly 60 Russian diplomats, including Consul General Oleg Krasnitsky, were ordered out of Bonn; counts including families run to about 70.

ContextThe order is a mirror image of Germany's move a week earlier. On Wednesday, Sept. 2, Berlin shut Russia's consulate in Bonn and the Russia House cultural center in Berlin; on Monday, Sept. 7, Moscow shut Germany's consulate general in St. Petersburg and two Goethe-Institut centers, the German government's language and culture agency abroad. Each closure took out the other side's last consulate — a diplomatic office outside the capital that handles passports, visas and citizens in trouble. This does not cut diplomatic relations: after Friday, Sept. 18, each country still keeps an embassy in the other's capital, and every consular task now runs through those two buildings. Both moves trace to one event, an explosive-carrying drone that struck a parked cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Tuesday, Aug. 4. Germany blamed Russian state entities. Moscow denies any role. Germany has not said how many staff must leave St. Petersburg, and the sources here give no count.

PBS NEWSHOUR3 sources