Germany’s Merz calls for ‘independe nce’ from US after election win

Hello. A day after Germany's elections, the country's likely new chancellor has said that Europe needs to unite and move away from the US – we bring you all the developments. America's influence is also being felt in Ukraine, where the country is marking three years since Russia's invasion, with fears increasing of an "extinction nightmare", writes international editor Jeremy Bowen. And check out the goat that somehow became stranded on a fifth-floor window ledge in Madrid.

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Merz says US is ‘largely indifferent’ to the fate of Europe

The election results are largely as expected, with the CDU topping the polls and the AfD second. Credit: Reuters

Germany is set to have a new chancellor, with Friedrich Merz the likely candidate after his Christian Democrats (CDU) topped Sunday's elections with 28.6% of the vote. Merz will now try to form a coalition, likely with outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats who came third. One party that will not be included is the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after Merz ruled out working with them. Speaking on Sunday night, Merz said the "absolute priority" is to "strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the US" which has become "largely indifferent" to the continent's fate. This tone from the close US ally is a seismic shift in transatlantic relations, writes our Europe editor Katya Adler.

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Three years on, Ukraine's extinction nightmare has returned

The exclusion of Kyiv from talks on the war between the US and Russia has angered many Ukrainians. Credit: Getty Images

Three years on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the return of Donald Trump and his stream of exaggeration, half-truths and outright lies about the war that echo the views of President Putin, have changed everything, writes international editor Jeremy Bowen. Recent developments have left Ukrainians as fearful now of national extinction as they were three years ago.

And finally... in Madrid

You think you've seen it all, and then you see this video of a goat being rescued from a fifth-floor flat ledge in Madrid. It's not clear how the animal ended up - high up - above Spain's capital, but what is clear, is that it was happily coaxed to safety with the help of salad.