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• Exit polls show opposition conservatives win German election
  

• Conservative chief Friedrich Merz on track to become chancellor
• Far-right AfD scores historic result
• Coalition talks could last months leaving vacuum at heart of EU

BERLIN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Germany's opposition conservatives won the national election on Sunday, putting leader Friedrich Merz on track to be the next chancellor while the far-right Alternative for Germany came in second on its best ever result, projected results showed.

Following a campaign roiled by a series of violent attacks, and interventions by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, the conservative CDU/CSU bloc won 28.7% of the vote, followed by the AfD with 19.8%, the projection published by ZDF public broadcaster showed.

"Tonight we will celebrate, and from tomorrow we start working. ... The world out there is not waiting for us," Merz, 69, told supporters.

Merz is heading into what are likely to be lengthy coalition talks without a strong negotiating hand. While his CDU/CSU emerged as the largest bloc, it scored its second worst post-war result.

It remains unclear whether Merz will need one or two partners to form a majority. A three-way coalition would likely be much more unwieldy, hampering Germany's ability to show clear leadership.

All of the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled to their worst result since World War Two, with 16.4% of the vote share, according to the ZDF projection, while the Greens were on 12.3% and the far left Die Linke party on 8.9% of the vote.

The pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) and newcomer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party hovered around the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25960554

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Israel’s defense minister said Sunday troops will remain “for the coming year” in parts of the occupied West Bank where they have launched an offensive and will prevent tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning, as Israel deepens its crackdown on the Palestinian territory.

Israel launched the broad offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas, saying it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks.

Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas.

• ICE memo outlines new effort to deport unaccompanied minors
  

• Agents are collecting data on the migrant children and sorting them into three priority groups
• ICE moves to require fingerprinting and DNA tests of sponsors

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is directing immigration agents to track down hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the United States without their parents, expanding the president's mass deportation effort, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo outlines an unprecedented push to target migrant children who crossed the border illegally as unaccompanied minors. It lays out four phases of implementation, beginning with a planning phase on January 27, though it did not provide a start date for enforcement operations.

More than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, according to government data, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached record levels.

Tens of thousands have been ordered deported over the same time frame, including more than 31,000 for missing court hearings, immigration court data show.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the memo and the Trump administration's plans.

During his first term, Trump introduced a "zero tolerance" policy that led to the separation of migrant children from their parents at the border. The children were sent to children's shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a government agency housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, while their parents were detained or deported.

The separation of families, including babies from nursing mothers, was met with widespread international outrage. Trump halted the policy in 2018, though up to 1,000 children may still remain separated from parents, according to Lee Gelernt, the lead American Civil Liberties Union attorney in a related legal challenge.

ATLANTA (AP) — Republican state lawmakers seeking to aid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration are threatening local officials who resist with lawsuits, fines and even potential jail time.

Lawmakers in more than 20 states this year have filed legislation targeting so-called sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural.

Some of those states already ban sanctuary policies but are now proposing to punish mayors, council members and other government officials who violate the prohibition.

The goal is to provide “teeth to those who are being aggrieved by local governments and local officials who are not abiding by Georgia immigration law,” said Republican state Sen. Blake Tillery, whose legislation would allow lawsuits against anyone who implements sanctuary policies. His bill recently passed the Senate and is now in the House.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis was conscious but still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen Sunday following a respiratory crisis and blood transfusions, as he remains in critical condition with a complex lung infection, the Vatican said.

“The night passed quietly, the pope rested,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in an early statement.

Further clinical tests were being performed on the 88-year-old pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, and a more detailed medical update was expected later Sunday.

On Saturday, Francis suffered a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis that required “high flows” of oxygen to help him breathe through a nasal tube. He also received blood transfusions after tests showed low counts of platelets, which are needed for clotting, the Vatican said.

Doctors said Saturday his prognosis was “reserved.”

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Israel’s defense minister said Sunday troops will remain “for the coming year” in parts of the occupied West Bank where they have launched an offensive and will prevent tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning, as Israel deepens its crackdown on the Palestinian territory.

Israel launched the broad offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas, saying it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks.

Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas.

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Syria's new rulers are combing through the billion-dollar corporate empires of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's allies, and have held talks with some of these tycoons, in what they say is a campaign to root out corruption and illegal activity.

After seizing power in December, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that now runs Syria pledged to reconstruct the country after 13 years of brutal civil war and abandon a highly-centralized and corrupt economic system where Assad's cronies held sway.

To do so, the executive led by new president Ahmed al-Sharaa has set up a committee tasked with dissecting the sprawling corporate interests of high-profile Assad-linked tycoons including Samer Foz and Mohammad Hamsho, three sources told Reuters.

Days after taking Damascus, the new administration issued orders aimed at freezing companies and bank accounts of Assad-linked businesses and individuals, and later specifically included those on U.S. sanctions lists, according to correspondence between the Syrian central bank and commercial banks reviewed by Reuters.

Hamsho and Foz, targeted by U.S. sanctions since 2011 and 2019 respectively, returned to Syria from abroad and met with senior HTS figures in Damascus in January, according to a government official and two Syrians with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The two men, who are reviled by many ordinary Syrians for their close ties to Assad, pledged to cooperate with the new leadership's fact-finding efforts, the three sources said.

Accused by the U.S. Treasury of getting rich off Syria's war, Foz's sprawling Aman Holding conglomerate has interests in pharma, sugar refining, trading and transport.

Hamsho's interests, grouped under the Hamsho International Group, are similarly wide-ranging, from petrochemicals and metal products to television production. Hamsho, whom the U.S. Treasury has accused of being a front for Assad and his brother Maher, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Foz could not be reached.

The establishment of the committee, whose members are not public, and the conversations between Syria's new government and two of the Assad government's closest tycoons who control large parts of Syria's economy have not been previously reported.

The new Syrian government's approach towards powerful Assad-linked businesses, yet to be fully clarified, will be key in determining the fate of the economy as the administration struggles to convince Washington and its allies to remove sanctions, Syrian analysts and businessmen say.

• In interview, Ukraine's Zelenskiy offers mineral partnership to US

Zelenskiy emphasizes need for security guarantees in any deal

Ukrainian president keen to speak to Trump before Putin does Ukraine proposes using its gas storage for U.S. LNG supplies

KYIV, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday, part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump's penchant for a deal.

The U.S. president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine's war with Russia, said on Monday he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort.

"If we are talking about a deal, then let's do a deal, we are only for it," Zelenskiy said, emphasising Ukraine's need for security guarantees from its allies as part of any settlement.----

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Groups representing some of South Africa’s white minority responded Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks.

The plan was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial assistance to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were “rights violations” by the government against some of its white citizens.

The Trump administration accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that enables it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

The South African government has denied there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump’s description of the new land law is full of misinformation and distortions.

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, but also French and German colonial settlers who first arrived in South Africa more than 300 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are distinct from other white South Africans who come from British or other backgrounds.

Together, whites make up around 7% of South Africa’s population of 62 million.

‘We are not going anywhere’

On Saturday, two of the most prominent groups representing Afrikaners said they would not be taking up Trump’s offer of resettlement in the U.S.

“Our members work here, and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here,” said Dirk Hermann, chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, which says it represents around 2 million people. “We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.”

At the same press conference, Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, said: “We have to state categorically: We don’t want to move elsewhere.”

Trump’s move to sanction South Africa, a key U.S. trading partner in Africa, came after he and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk have accused its Black leadership of having an anti-white stance. But the portrayal of Afrikaners as a downtrodden group that needed to be saved would surprise most South Africans.

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged,” South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said. It also criticized the Trump administration’s own policies, saying the focus on Afrikaners came “while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”

There was “a campaign of misinformation and propaganda” aimed at South Africa, the ministry said.

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Rwanda-backed rebels were quickly expanding their presence in eastern Congo after capturing Goma, the region’s major city, the U.N. said Friday, also expressing concerns over executions it learned were carried out by the rebels following a major escalation of their yearslong rebellion.

The rebels and Rwandan were now 60 kilometers (37 miles) to South Kivu’s provincial capital of Buakavu and “seem to be moving quite fast,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said at a press briefing on Friday. M23 has captured several towns after seizing neighboring Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for many of the 6 million people displaced by the conflict.

The central African nation’s military has been weakened after it lost hundreds of personnel and foreign mercenaries who surrendered to the rebels after the fall of Goma.

The U.S. military is providing facilities at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to process detained migrants. That's according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command, who told CBS News the request came from the Department of Homeland Security.

No military personnel will be involved in the ICE operations, according to a statement provided by the U.S. Northern Command.

In regards to Buckley Space Force Base, USNORTHCOM released the following statement:

At the request of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USNORTHCOM is providing facilities at Buckley Space Force Base beginning on January 27, 2025, to enable U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stage and process criminal aliens within the U.S. for an operation taking place in Colorado. Military personnel are not involved in this operation.

ICE requirements for the facility include a temporary operations center, staging area, and a temporary holding location for the receiving, holding, and processing of illegal aliens. This facility will be manned by ICE senior leaders, special agents, and analysts, as well as members of DHS Components and other federal law enforcement agencies.

On Tuesday CBS News confirmed that the Denver metro area will be the next target for stepped-up arrests ICE has been conducting since the start of the Trump administration.

• The Trump administration is offering millions of federal workers the option to accept buyouts through a government-wide “deferred resignation” program.
• The offers come as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes federal employees to return to the office five days per week.
• The White House expects up to 10% of federal employees to take the buyout, an official told NBC News.

The Trump administration is offering millions of federal workers the option to accept buyouts through a government-wide “deferred resignation” program if they resign by Feb. 6.

Those who accept the offer will receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30, according to a draft email obtained Tuesday by NBC News.

The sweeping buyouts are being offered to “make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards,” a senior administration official told NBC on condition of anonymity.

“We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable,” the official said, citing a report from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who co-chairs the congressional DOGE caucus.

The White House expects up to 10% of federal employees to take the buyout, the official said.

The emails will be sent starting Tuesday afternoon, NBC reported.

Buyouts are being offered to all full-time federal employees except military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers, roles related to immigration enforcement and national security, and “any other positions specifically excluded by your employing agency,” the emails will say, according to NBC.