In his first press conference since winning Germany’s election, Friedrich Merz reiterated his call for Europe to establish a security policy independent from America. He added tackling irregular migration and reinvigorating the economy would also be priorities. Mr Merz, whose centre-right Christian Democrats won 29% of the vote, confirmed he would seek to form a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats, ideally by Easter.
The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to its best-ever election result, receiving 21% of the vote. Mr Merz, who ruled out coalition talks with the party, called their success the “final warning signal” for those in the democratic centre. The AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, received congratulations from Elon Musk, who endorsed the party during the campaign, and Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister.
Ukraine and America are close to finalising a deal over rights to the embattled country’s rare mineral deposits, according to its justice minister. Olha Stefanishyna said “nearly all key details” had been finalised in the agreement, which has been subject to tough negotiation. Meanwhile Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, hosted around a dozen foreign leaders in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, held a call with Xi Jinping, in which he told China’s leader about his country’s negotiations with America. China “expressed support” for a “peaceful resolution” in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. According to Chinese state media, though, Mr Xi also suggested that the “long-term” partnership between China and Russia would not be prised apart by “any third party”, a probable reference to Donald Trump.
Apple said it would invest $500bn in America and hire a further 20,000 staff there over the next four years. The investment includes the opening of a plant to build servers in Texas, a training facility in Michigan and increased spending with existing suppliers. Other American tech firms have also announced big investment packages in a bid to please Mr Trump.
Alibaba pledged to invest at least 380bn yuan ($53bn) in cloud-computing and artificial-intelligence infrastructure over the next three years—more than it has spent on it in the past decade. Last week Eddie Wu, the Chinese e-commerce giant’s boss, said artificial general intelligence—hypothetical programs that could match or surpass human thought—would become the group’s primary focus.
Some federal agencies, including the FBI, advised employees to ignore an email sent by Elon Musk on Saturday that gave them 48 hours to explain what they had worked on in the past week. Mr Musk warned that failure to respond would be “taken as a resignation”. The DOGE boss is aiming to make deep cuts in government spending.
Figure of the day: 37%, the share of young Africans polled by the Africa Youth Survey who want to move to America. Read the full story.
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