State of Germany; capital Wiesbaden, financial hub Frankfurt am Main.
Storms have caused multiple casualties and widespread damage across Germany. In Waldorf, a 58-year-old woman has died after a tree fell on a shelter as a storm moved through Rhineland-Palatinate; a 47-year-old woman has been taken to hospital with serious injuries. Tornadoes and strong winds have damaged buildings, knocked out power, and forced evacuations at a Kronach festival. Authorities warn of more severe weather to come.
Regional ballots in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have shown heavy losses for Friedrich Merz’s CDU and strong gains for the far-right AfD, two weeks after the AfD routed the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt. Merz has cancelled travel, convened CDU leaders and cleared his diary as party figures warn the results will increase pressure on his leadership.
Youth-led protests have swept France and Germany this weekend over the cost of living, school funding and military policy. Large daytime marches were mostly peaceful, but night-time violence has broken out in Paris and several German cities, notably Frankfurt, where shops were looted and police reported arrests and injuries.
Hundreds of thousands have protested across France this weekend over the cost of living. Clashes in Paris and other cities have produced a widely shared video showing a homemade incendiary device igniting a gendarme's leg; prosecutors have opened an attempted murder investigation and police have made more than 770 arrests nationwide.