GERMANY - Germany’s center-left Social Democrats on Sunday narrowly won their first national election since 2005, ending 16 years of conservative-led rule under Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to preliminary election results. The Social Democrats’ candidate, Olaf Scholz, said the election outcome was “a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany.” Merkel will remain in office while coalition negotiations take place. The SPD is likely to seek an alliance with the Greens and the FDP, although the two parties could also team up with the conservatives. The election of the country’s new chancellor will only take place once a governing coalition has been formed — a process that could take months.

UK - Millions of families are facing a 'perfect storm' of empty supermarket shelves and an imminent hike in the cost of living of around £1,500 a year, it emerged today. A shortage of toys ahead of Christmas and soaring costs of used cars - to the extent that some are now more expensive than new models - is also contributing to what is set to be a difficult end to the year for many households. Brexit, increased gas prices and the Covid pandemic have all contributed to the crisis, which will leave families substantially out of pocket over the coming months.

UK - A combination of events has caused wholesale gas and power prices to spike, meaning household energy bills are set to soar: A fire earlier this week shut down a key cable that brings power into Britain from France. The IFA interconnector in Kent can transmit enough electricity for two million homes – but it will not be at full capacity until next March. A long winter meant European countries built lower gas stocks than usual over the summer. Russia has also been providing less gas to Europe, which many believe is a way to pressure leaders into switching to a controversial pipeline, Nord Stream 2. The UK has very little gas storage capacity, which leaves it at the mercy of imports. The price of tankers bringing in the liquefied form of natural gas has surged as Asian economies have recovered, and shipping delays have compounded this further. A lack of wind recently means that less renewable power has been generated. Coal power plants are now having to be fired up so Britain can keep the lights on.

USA - New York City officials have requested that heads of states, and the many diplomats traveling with them, show proof that they are fully vaccinated before entering the UN hall for the annual opening of the General Assembly, one of the top diplomatic events of the year. The request got the backing of the General Assembly’s president, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid. In a statement released on Wednesday, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio and International Affairs Commissioner Penny Abeywardena thanked UN diplomats for working with them on the issue, calling them “true New Yorkers” for helping the city recover. But not all those diplomats professed the same camaraderie. In a letter to colleagues released on Wednesday, Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya called the requirements “a clearly discriminatory measure” and said that they were a violation of the UN charter.

UK - Consider these facts: the source of much of the world’s food – seeds – is mostly in the control of just four corporations; half of all the world’s cheeses are produced with bacteria or enzymes manufactured by a single company; one in four beers drunk around the world is the product of one brewer; from the US to China, most global pork production is based around the genetics of a single breed of pig; and, perhaps most famously, although there are more than 1,500 different varieties of banana, global trade is dominated by just one, the Cavendish.

JAPAN - China has claimed Japan is "preparing for war" as it stages its first major military exercises for nearly 30 years. The defence drills stoked already rising tensions between the neighbours as a dispute over a chain of strategic islands threatens to escalate into open conflict. Beijing's ships and planes have made dozens of incursions this year close to the uninhabited Senkaku islands - known as Diaoyu in China.

EUROPE - Brussels' bid to crack down on big tech firms based in Ireland is motivated by "sour grapes" on the part of Germany and France - while the bloc has also been accused of having an "anti-US agenda". Ex-Irish diplomat Ray Bassett said: “Ireland is heavily reliant on the American companies which contribute greatly to the State's economy and provide a large proportion of our tax receipts, hence there is a natural desire not to work against their interests. “ In Brussels however there is a clear agenda against the American tech giants. “The European Commission has regularly expressed its discomfort at the domination of high tech by American companies and hence the EU authorities are very vigilant in prosecuting any perceived transgressions. The EU would love to greatly limit the US role and also would like to remove the individual countries' role in policing the GDPR.” Mr Bassett further suggested the enforcement of EU law on giant tech firms was always going to be a major problem.

USA - Imports to Los Angeles in August fell 5.9% year on year amid heavy congestion. The number of container ships at anchor or drifting in San Pedro Bay off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has now blown through all previous records and is rising by the day. There were an all-time-high 65 container ships in the queue in San Pedro Bay on Thursday, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Of those, a record 23 were forced to drift because anchorages were full. Theoretically, the numbers — already surreally high — could go a lot higher than this. While designated anchorages are limited, the space for ships to safely drift offshore is not. The Southern California gateway is acting like the narrow tube on a funnel: Ocean volumes pour in from Asia and can only flow out at a certain velocity due to terminal limitations as well as limitations of warehouses, trucking and rail beyond the terminal. When the flow into the top of the funnel is too great, as it is now, it creates an overflow in the form of ships at anchor or adrift.

IRAN - Iran on Saturday hailed its acceptance into a China and Russia-led bloc, an eastward turn it sees as opening access to major world markets and a counter to crippling Western sanctions. Conservative and reformist newspapers showed rare unity in welcoming the outcome of a conference in Dushanbe on Friday at which members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation endorsed Iran's future membership in the bloc. The eight-member group, created two decades ago and which also includes India, promotes itself as an antidote to Western dominance. Chinese President Xi Jinping said Iran's membership had been unanimously accepted. Apart from Russia and China, the other founding members are the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were admitted in 2017. Together they represent around 40 percent of the world's population and more than 20 percent of global gross domestic product - an immense potential market for Tehran.

EUROPE - Playing host was German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who delivered a speech to his Baltic counterparts at a luncheon they enjoyed together. He said: “...Yes, it’s true that in Germany we often instinctively look to the west. The decades of the Iron Curtain still have an impact decades later. And it remains true that the Franco-German friendship is a fundamental element of a united Europe. But good European policy is only possible when my country works closely with all member states, in the north and south, in the centre of Europe and in the north-east.

EUROPE - The European Union shows all the signs of worsening economic, social and political decline, with symptoms ranging from tepid economic growth and chronically high unemployment to social unrest and rising political extremism. The idealistic roots and worthy intentions of early European integration in the wake of two world wars have long given way to a bureaucratic cadre steeped in etatist [the extreme authority of the state over the individual citizen] doctrines. At its heart, the EU is an elite-driven project that rejects the primacy of market economics over social welfare models, compounded by a disdain for democracy. Until Europe starts to acknowledge the increasing gulf between old and new Europe, and takes economic reform seriously, it will continue to experience tepid growth. But while it may be only a matter of time before the system collapses, it will probably have to await a major ‘existential’ crisis or the arrival of a new generation of realists.

DENMARK - Denmark-based toy company LEGO is introducing a new set for kids, inspired by the Netflix reality show Queer Eye — a series featuring five gay men who give straight men a makeover. The LEGO set, “Queer Eye — The Fab 5 Loft,” features each member of the “Fab Five” inside a decorated loft. “Get ready to be your true self as you join the Fab 5 for a rewarding building project with this LEGO® Queer Eye,” LEGO said in an announcement. “As you recreate all the details that make up the interior of the Fab 5’s original Atlanta loft, you’ll discover lots of features from the show with tributes to each of the Fab 5’s special talents,” the company added. This is not the first time LEGO announced a pro-LGBTQ set for kids. This year, the toy company also released a rainbow “Everyone is Awesome” set for kids, just in time for Pride month. The multicolored set features 11 single-colored, non-gendered figurines that together form a rainbow with black and brown stripes, as well as the “transgender flag colors.”

USA - The TRUE inflation rate is 13%, if using the Bureau for Labor Statistics’ original calculation method. They changed this method in 1980, to deliberately downplay inflation risks and manipulate public opinion. The last time it was at current levels was in 2008, just before the crash…

CANARY ISLANDS - Fears are growing that a volcano on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands could erupt after 1,000 earthquakes were registered on the island in the past five days. Experts have noticed an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements under the volcanic ridge of La Cumbre Vieja on the popular tourist hotspot, which has a population of 85,000. More than 11 million cubic metres (388 million cubic feet) of magma have seeped into Cumbre Vieja in recent days, swelling the peak by around 6 centimetres, the Volcanic Institute of the Canaries said. A 2001 research article claimed a change in the eruptive activity of Cumbre Vieja volcano and a fracture on the volcano that formed during the 1949 eruption may be the prelude to a giant ridge collapse. Authors Steven N Ward and Simon Day estimated such a collapse could cause tsunamis across the entire North Atlantic and severely impact countries as far away as North America.

CHINA - Are we in danger of stumbling into a major military conflict? This week, a couple of startling revelations have really shaken up those that closely watch US relations with China. The relationship between our two nations continues to deteriorate, and we are now closer to a war with China than we have ever been since the end of the Korean War. …Here in the United States, it is pretty much a non-issue, because the vast majority of the population does not think that such a war will ever happen in their entire lifetimes.