What just happened in Berlin?

The chancellor, Olaf Scholz of the SPD, sacked his finance minister, Christian Lindner, the FDP leader, on Wednesday night after months of disagreement over how to deal with the gaping hole in Germany’s budget.

Scholz wants to boost spending by taking on more debt, citing the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lindner opposed this and insisted instead on an array of tax and spending cuts that the SPD and Greens said were impossible to accept as they would torpedo much of the government’s programme. At stake: welfare payments, climate emergency measures and support for Ukraine (Germany is its second biggest backer after the US).

Whether Scholz called Lindner’s bluff by sacking him before he walked is up for discussion. Both men have vented their anger towards each other, with Scholz accusing Lindner of being “small-minded” and “egotistical” and failing to see the bigger picture – namely huge geopolitical challenges. Lindner accuses Scholz of “trivialising” the concerns of ordinary Germans.

France has summoned the Israeli ambassador over the incident, the latest of several controversies involving the Eleona sanctuary on the Mount of Olives, which along with three other sites make up the French national domain in the Holy Land.

The sites have been the focus of diplomatic incidents in the past. The national domain was attributed to France before Israel’s creation in 1948 and is administered as a private property by the French consulate in Jerusalem.

According to an AFP journalist who witnessed the incident, Israeli police entered the site and surrounded the two French gendarmes before pushing one of them to the ground.

The gendarme identified himself and shouted “Don’t touch me” several times, according to the journalist. Both gendarmes were then led into police cars, before being later released.

Ireland intends to join South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice before the end of the year, its foreign minister said on Thursday.

Micheal Martin's comments came as the Irish parliament passed a non-binding motion agreeing that "genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza".

South Africa in December brought a case before the ICJ, arguing that the war in Gaza breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, an accusation Israel has strongly denied.

Several nations have added their weight to the proceedings, including Spain, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, Chile and Libya.

Ireland had said it would file a submission to the court once South Africa had submitted a document supporting its claims, which it did on Monday.

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has passed a law that allows the deportation of relatives of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis, including those with Israeli citizenship.

According to the new bill approved on Wednesday, the minister of the interior can deport people for a period of up to 20 years to the besieged Gaza Strip or another location based on the "circumstances".

“ATTENTION VOTERS: Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats woke up this morning feeling EXTREMELY BUMMED,” wrote House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a 600-word email with the subject line “URGENT: VERY SAD.”

“Last night was HARD, but with your HELP, we can make sure Republicans don’t take away our SMILES completely.

For just $20, you can put the PEP back in our STEP. Are you with me?” At press time, the DNC sent a follow-up email that featured photos of Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and Liz Cheney frowning alongside a caption that read “LOOK WHAT YOU DID.”

Israeli ground forces are getting closer to “the complete evacuation” of northern Gaza and residents will not be allowed to return home, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, in what appears to be the first official acknowledgment from Israel it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area.

In a media briefing on Tuesday night, the IDF Brig Gen Itzik Cohen told Israeli reporters that since troops had been forced to enter some areas twice, such as Jabaliya camp, “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes”.

International humanitarian law experts have said that such actions would amount to the war crimes of forcible transfer and the use of food as a weapon.

Unlike 2016, when his victory over Hillary Clinton came as a shock to many Americans, Trump was no surprise in 2024. The Democratic Party had the benefit of four years to ensure that this would not happen again. Yet as in 2016, Democrats appear to have failed to win over the electorate in a race against a uniquely unpopular candidate — this time one with multiple impeachments, indictments, and criminal convictions.

The short-lived Biden campaign and subsequent Harris campaign opted to try to beat Republicans at their own game, by tacking rightward on issues such as immigration, criminal justice, and climate. After President Joe Biden dropped out, the Democratic Party rejected calls to stop providing arms to Israel’s war on Gaza. Instead, Harris touted the endorsements of conservatives such as Liz Cheney. The strategy was a ploy to woo moderates and conservatives wary of a second Trump term, but it may have alienated key voting blocs.

Police in Germany have arrested eight suspected members of a far-right terror cell alleged to have been plotting the armed takeover of eastern regions to establish a Nazi-inspired regime that would carry out “ethnic cleansing”, federal prosecutors said.

Amid a crackdown on neo-Nazi militants, the German nationals calling themselves Sächsische Separatisten (Saxonian Separatists) were taken into custody on Tuesday in pre-dawn raids on 20 premises in eastern Germany and the Polish border city of Zgorzelec, with another seven suspects in investigators’ sights.

The woman was wearing clothes so no headlines for her.