Ahead of the United States presidential elections on Tuesday, public opinion polls had predicted a neck-and-neck race between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Yet eventually, Trump cruised to a comfortable victory, defying most polls. He has already won five of the seven swing states – Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin – and appears poised to win the remaining two, Arizona and Nevada. Most of...

Conservative leader wants confidence vote now, triggering January election, as poll shows more than half of Germans agree. Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz has slammed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, describing his decision to delay a confidence vote until next year as “irresponsible”. Merz, who leads the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), accused Scholz on Friday of being steered by “party-political motives” after he declined calls for an immediate parliamentary...

Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate from a wildfire northwest of Los Angeles as fierce seasonal winds blew flames into ranches and neighbourhoods, destroying dozens of homes. The wildfire has destroyed 132 structures in less than two days, fire officials said on Thursday. Firefighters and police cleared residents from neighbourhoods near Camarillo before homes were set ablaze by embers blown 3.2km (2 miles) from the firefront,...