Germany’s opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has been projected to win the national election, putting leader Friedrich Merz on track to be the next chancellor, exit polls show. On Sunday, the first exit polls said Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance had won at least 28.5 percent of the votes, crushing the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) of the outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, with SPD looking at around 16...

Future of Gaza ceasefire at risk after Israel suspended the release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel has postponed the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners despite Hamas setting free six Israeli captives on Saturday. The group says Israel’s far-right government is “playing dirty games and sabotaging” the agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the captive handover ceremonies in Gaza, “humiliating” and is accusing Hamas of using the captives for...

About 59 million Germans were eligible to vote in snap elections to decide who will govern the eurozone’s largest economy. Votes are now being counted across Germany where about 59 million citizens were eligible to vote in snap elections to decide who will govern the eurozone’s largest economy for the next four years. Polls opened at 8am (07:00 GMT) and closed at 6pm (17:00 GMT). Here are the...