In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, was projected to score a significant win in a regional election Sunday, delivering a serious setback to Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his center-right Christian Democratic Union.

Early projections indicated that Merz’s party was heading toward a deeply damaging result in Saxony-Anhalt, an eastern German state where the AfD has been working to expand its influence.

The AfD entered the contest hoping to establish Germany’s first far-right state government since the end of World War II in 1945. However, it was not immediately clear whether the party would be able to turn its projected victory into governing power.

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s anti-migration candidate for governor, celebrated the result, declaring, “We have written history.”

Siegmund, 35, told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a message that “things cannot carry on like this,” adding that it was “also a signal toward Berlin.”

“A very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz. Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many,” he said of Germany’s unpopular leader.

The election comes amid widespread public discontent with the national government, which has yet to convince many voters it can get the country’s sluggish economy back on track.

AfD aimed for an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern on its own and overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with it. But it was unclear long after polls closed whether that goal would become reality.

“AfD is a right-wing extremist party. It wants to leave the euro; that would be economic downfall … it works closely together with Russia, it wants a completely different social model,” said Franziska Hoppermann, the national general-secretary of Merz’s party. “We will not work with them.”

Achieving its first state government would be the biggest victory in the anti-migration party’s 13-year history.

Regardless of whether AfD forms its own government, the projected result is still a blow to Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years. Unlike several other European countries, modern Germany has not had a far-right or right-wing populist party leading a national, state or major-city government.

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AfD is the largest opposition party in Germany’s national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt sits.

Its regional branch in Saxony-Anhalt is one of several classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist group by the domestic intelligence agency, which cites members’ disparagement of migrants from Muslim countries among other things.

The party promotes “remigration,” which pushes for the deportation of immigrants.

Siegmund has said his top priorities include “a deportation offensive” and ending incentives for people to come to Germany and “exploit our social system.” He also wants to initiate a process to pull Saxony-Anhalt from the regional public broadcaster over allegations of “disinformation.”

Germany’s 16 states have extensive powers, including overseeing security matters and running the education system.

An AfD leader in a neighboring state appealed two convictions for knowingly using a Nazi slogan.

The party has pushed back on accusations of extremism as politically motivated.

Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and partial counting, have AfD at just over 44% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.

Merz’s Christian Democratic Union was significantly behind, polling 18% and losing about half its support. The Left Party, the center-left Social Democrats and Greens were seen polling around 9% each.

It was unclear whether the BSW party would reach the 5% of the vote needed to win seats. The projections put AfD at least marginally short of an absolute majority for now, but that could change.

Fox News commentator Joe Concha called on Mitch McConnell to either resume his Senate responsibilities or step aside, following months away from Capitol Hill while dealing with health issues.

McConnell, 84, went back to his home in early August after being hospitalized due to a serious fall.

The former Senate Majority Leader has been absent from public view for more than 80 days, with the exception of a photo that some described as a “proof of life” image.

Kentucky Republican James Comer has said the expectation is that McConnell will return to the Senate when lawmakers reconvene on September 14.

Concha, who frequently appears on Fox News as a conservative pundit, argued on The Big Weekend Show that McConnell has reached the point where he must either show he can do the job or give it up.

‘I’ll say it. If McConnell does not come back in September, he needs to step down! Enough of this already,’ Concha said. 

He added that he felt the photos and updates McConnell has sent out have been less than satisfactory.  

‘How many months has it been since we heard from him directly? I don’t want to see proof of life photos from a hospital bed anymore! He needs to get in front of a microphone and prove he can do this job.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Senator McConnell for comment. 

Comer, a top Kentucky Republican in the House, told the Daily Mail Thursday that he has not personally talked to McConnell, but that he ‘expects’ and ‘sure hopes’ that the senator will return to Washington later this month on September 14th with the rest of his colleagues.

‘I have not talked to Leader McConnell. I’ve talked to staff, many of whom are from my district originally, and they have all said it’s their goal for Senator McConnell to be here when they, when the Senate comes in next week,’ Comer told the Daily Mail at a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Attempts by the Daily Mail to reach McConnell’s office about his health, as well as other members of the Kentucky Delegation, were unsuccessful.

McConnell was hospitalized on June 14th and has not been publicly seen since then. Back in July, he spoke with some of his congressional colleagues by phone and indicated that he was on the mend and looking forward to returning to work soon.

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At the end of July, McConnell released another photo of himself and his wife, reportedly at home, amid widespread speculation about his health. ‘Senator McConnell continues his recovery from a fall at home in June,’ a comment from his doctor attached to the photograph said.

‘Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation.’

McConnell, who is not seeking re-election in this year’s midterms, has been dogged by health scares throughout his final term.

His office said in a statement to reporters in July: ‘The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.’ 

That was before the August recess. The House returned to Washington this week. Senators are not due back until September 14.

A fall in February left him reliant on a wheelchair and an aide to navigate the Capitol’s corridors. It followed a tumble in December 2024 that sprained his wrist and cut his face.

Before the falls came the freezes. In July 2023 he stopped mid-sentence at a press conference and stared silently ahead. Weeks later, asked in Kentucky whether he would seek re-election, the then-81-year-old stood motionless for some 30 seconds while aides moved in.

McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, arrived in the chamber in 1985. He spent his final years there locked in a bitter feud with Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, which has never forgiven him.

He gave up the leadership in 2024 after 18 years, handing the job to John Thune.

His retirement threw open his Kentucky seat. Congressman Andy Barr won May’s primary and will carry the Republican banner in November.

As Americans head back to work after the Labor Day weekend, the pressing question is whether the country will fully engage with the sharp choice awaiting voters in November’s midterm elections.

With only two months until Election Day, voters will decide whether the Trump administration can press ahead with its free-enterprise agenda, which supporters credit with fueling an economic boom, and continue pushing back against the woke cultural politics they argue have damaged countless lives — or whether Democrats, cast by critics as big-government socialists, will stall that momentum and drag Washington into another bruising cycle of impeachment battles.

History and much of the political commentariat suggest a blue wave — perhaps even a tsunami — could overwhelm the Trump agenda. But Donald Trump, backed by a well-funded political operation and an aggressive roster of administration officials, is preparing for a serious fight, one Democrats may struggle to match if conditions on the ground carry the weight Republicans believe they do.

The dividing lines in the midterm campaign are increasingly unmistakable.

Wrong on issues

Last week, House Democrats voted against a resolution condemning socialism, a move that fit neatly into Newt Gingrich’s argument that the election presents voters with a choice between “big government socialism and weird values” and a Republican Party he says is centered on “creating a better future for every American.”

By contrast, the GOP’s first midterm convention in Dallas this week will attempt to showcase the successes of the first half of the second Trump term that thus far have been muted by successful media nay-saying, clumsy messaging and a president distracted by war.

We will soon tell from Trump’s two bookend speeches in Dallas whether he is in the mood to stay on message.

He ought to be motivated by the fact that the midterms will be a referendum on his presidency at a time when his approval ratings are in the toilet.

Meanwhile, Democrats are assisting greatly by shooting themselves in the feet with weird policies and even weirder candidates,

Whether it’s rejecting voter ID, abolishing prisons, defunding police or allowing men to play in women’s sports, they seem to be on the wrong side of popular opinion on just about everything. All they have on their side is Trump derangement and the increasingly implausible ruse that they represent a “return to normalcy.”

We heard that about Joe Biden, and his presidency was the opposite of normal. No doubt Dems and their street militias are planning the sort of color revolution chaos that worked so well for them in 2020’s “summer of love.” Then, Biden offered the illusion of relief from the chaos he falsely blamed on Trump. But Americans are unlikely to be fooled twice.

Islamo-leftists Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Senate candidate, and their campaign buddy, the odious dog-torturing Twitch-streamer Hasan Piker, are symbolic of the off-putting anti-American weirdness that has gripped the Democratic Party.

Mamdani and El-Sayed have both been trolling 9/11 families on the eve of the 25th anniversary this week of al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack, with both politicians having previously downplayed the atrocity as just “3,000 [people] died” and being less sad than the foreign lives lost in the subsequent war on terror.

Not content with downplaying the attack, Mamdani insists on turning up at the Ground Zero commemorations on Friday even though 9/11 families and the Port Authority’s retired cops have told him to stay away.

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‘Lulu Lenins’

And last Friday, he went one step farther, during a signing ceremony of executive orders related to 9/11 commemorations, when he virtually spat in the faces of the dead. After signing the papers, he handed the honorary pen to Ramzi Kassem, his chief counsel and the lawyer who represented an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist.

His grotesque flex was even worse because he made a clearly uncomfortable NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch pass the pen to Kassem.

You can imagine the snickering and high-fiving in Gracie Mansion: Hasan will love it, bro!

The Turkish-raised Piker has said America deserved 9/11 and that he hates this country, and he proudly displays a framed front page featuring the burning Twin Towers in the background of his Twitch live stream — yet all his Democrat buddies can do is say he’s irrelevant.

El-Sayed, meantime, chose to spend the weekend before the 25th anniversary at an Islamic convention alongside various 9/11 conspiracy theorists and anti-Israel obsessives, where he railed against what he claims is a growing anti-Muslim sentiment across the country.

Great timing. The upside is that this very un-American malice scares normal voters outside the DSA bastion of New York City, where the “Lulu Lenins,” as Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) describes Mamdani and his trust-fund comrades, have given Democrats a terrible name.

The Democratic Party’s frantic efforts to rebrand itself as “normal” for the midterms are hilariously doomed, considering the reality of its policy priorities. Beyond impeaching Trump, Democrats have no agenda to create prosperity and ensure happiness for Americans.

It’s all about entrenching their power and making life miserable, whether it’s stacking the Supreme Court, creating two new Democrat states, abolishing the Electoral College, “Medicare for all” illegal migrants, abolishing ICE, defunding the police, and on and on.

By contrast, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did a great job last week at the G20 presenting the grown-up alternative of economic growth along with facts that show the Trump economic agenda is paying dividends.

He pointed to “4.7% wage increases [for the] bottom 25% on the income ladder” that come from Trump’s restructuring of the economy away from government jobs to the private sector. He said “regulatory certainty, tax certainty and energy certainty” have made the US the world’s energy superpower. By 2028, we will have 80% of global computing power, making America the world’s “AI superpower, and we are pulling away,” he told Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow.

Iran in a chokehold

Bessent also painted a picture of Iran’s dire economic situation as he moves to “economically asphyxiate” the regime. He has been busy ferreting out assets the regime elites have hidden around the world, and now Europe has agreed to join in. Just last week, two luxury London penthouses linked to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei were put up for sale, The Sunday Times reported.

Tehran is reportedly worried it has overplayed its trump card of the Hormuz Strait, as the US blockade of Iranian ships has left the regime with only “about 30 million barrels of Iranian crude oil left that China hasn’t bought” says Bessent, while our Navy helps friendly tankers get through.

“In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be . . . a worthless piece of water,” he told Kudlow, as oil “will be going on pipelines across land” instead.

As well, reports last week that China President Xi Jinping publicly snubbed Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian by refusing a formal meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit suggest that Tehran’s partnership with Beijing is fraying under the pressure.

There is a lot of good news for the Republicans to tell, if only people will listen.

Video shows the frightening moment several feet of floodwater slammed through the glass doors of an off-campus student house, ripping a door panel loose and sending it skidding across the room as muddy water surged in and swallowed the lower level.

The flooding unfolded on Aug. 27, after powerful storms triggered severe flash flooding in Glassboro, New Jersey, just as Rowan University students were getting ready to move into their housing before the September start of classes.

Resident Tommy Scirrotto said the flood caused widespread damage to four bedrooms on the home’s lower level, according to a GoFundMe post created after the storm.

“The storms in Glassboro, Nj claimed the entirety of the lower level at our home. 4 bedrooms completely flooded, resulting in a huge amount of damage,” Scirrotto said.

At the start of the video, about an inch of water had already seeped into the lower level.

As a student approached the doors, several feet of floodwater could be seen building up on the other side, appearing on the verge of breaking through. Towels had also been placed along the base of the French doors in an attempt to keep the water out.

Just as the student said, “This door is gonna break,” one of the doors immediately gave way and was sent flying across the room.

In the chaotic moment, water rushed inside, eventually overtaking multiple makeshift barriers made of laundry that appeared to have been used to slow the initial flow of water.

Photos posted on GoFundMe showed furniture, beds and rugs completely submerged in floodwater.

On the same day, Rowan University issued a warning about severe flash-flooding conditions across the region, adding that water had also “infiltrated” the Glassboro campus.

“Several campus buildings have also taken on water,” the university said.

“Please exercise caution and stay safe during this severe weather.”

According to the National Weather Service, the wider southwestern New Jersey region received between 4 and 6 inches of rain.