Abend-Brief, Montag, 21. September

Friedrich Merz' CDU erlitt bei Landtagswahlen einen doppelten Schlag, der weniger lokal als strukturell wirkte. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern gewann die AfD 38,2 % und drückte die CDU unter die Fünfprozenthürde, sodass die Partei erstmals in der deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte ohne Sitze in einem Landtag blieb. In Berlin lag Die Linke mit 25,7 % vorn, während die CDU mit 18,8 % zurückblieb und die AfD 16,3 % erreichte.

Die Zahlen zeigen eine Mitte-rechts-Partei, die von beiden Seiten in die Zange genommen wird: Die AfD erntet im Osten ländliche und proletarische Wut, während Die Linke Berlins Wohnungs- und Lebenshaltungskostenpolitik in Stimmen verwandelte.

Friedrich Merz wies Rücktrittsforderungen zurück und argumentierte, dass die Turbulenzen inzwischen über das Schicksal eines einzelnen Parteichefs hinausgingen.

Die Märkte behandelten das Ergebnis vorerst als Rauschen, der DAX stieg um 1,2 %, auch weil Deutschlands größte börsennotierte Unternehmen weit über Deutschland hinaus verkaufen. Doch die Bundesregierung kontrolliert 328 von 630 Sitzen im Bundestag, sodass nur ein bescheidenes Polster bleibt, falls sich konservativer Widerspruch verhärtet. Die nächste Bewährungsprobe ist nicht, ob Friedrich Merz das Wahlergebnis erklären kann, sondern ob er Steuer-, Renten- und Wachstumsreformen durchbringen kann, während die regionale Basis seiner Partei unter ihm aufbricht.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a joint lawsuit after the Trump administration barred their reporters from the White House grounds over the weekend. The outlets asked the federal district court in Washington for an emergency injunction, arguing that the government punished them for their coverage and stripped access without notice or process. The dispute landed while CNN was due to serve as the White House television pool organization, giving the ban an immediate operational bite.

The exclusions played out at the gates. Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW found their electronic credentials deactivated, while Politico's Cheyenne Haslett was refused entry and had her badge confiscated. Donald Trump had announced the bans on Truth Social one day earlier and later cast the move as a strike against fabricated reporting, not against the press.

Presidents have sparred with hostile reporters before, but whole-outlet exclusions from the White House remain rare because access carries both practical and constitutional weight. The suit now asks judges to draw a line between managing a secure workplace and punishing disfavoured speech. The case will define how far a president can turn press access from an administrative credential into a loyalty pass.

American and Chinese negotiators used New York trade talks to sketch an early-warning channel for artificial intelligence incidents before Xi Jinping's Washington visit on 24 September. Scott Bessent, Jamieson Greer and He Lifeng discussed a US-China AI dialogue that would notify the other side when model behaviour or capability crosses national-security thresholds. The same meetings advanced a proposed bilateral trade board, though neither side has yet extended the tariff truce that expires on 10 November.

Scott Bessent sold the idea as a transparency device between the two biggest AI powers.

The diplomacy sits awkwardly beside hard technology competition. Washington restricts advanced semiconductor exports, Beijing controls rare earths and critical minerals, and Donald Trump has resisted slowing American AI development for fear of aiding China. Tech executives including Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang and Sam Altman are expected around the summit's state dinner, a neat reminder that private companies now sit close to the command table.

A hotline will not settle the contest for chips, data or standards. It may, however, reduce the odds that a model failure, cyber incident or military alarm becomes the first crisis neither capital understands fast enough.

An ICE officer shot and wounded Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan DoorDash driver, after a vehicle collision in North Austin on Sunday. City officials said the federal agent was in an unmarked pickup truck, while local police said they arrived after the driver had already been shot. The Department of Homeland Security described Garces Perez as subject to a final removal order, while his lawyer said he entered the United States through legal channels.

Austin's leaders demanded that outside agencies join the investigation rather than leave ICE to review itself.

The shooting fed a broader story about how far the Trump administration has pushed immigration enforcement. A Forbidden Stories investigation reported that the United States has deported at least 25,447 people to 28 third-party countries under secret or little-known bilateral deals, backed by agreements with 35 nations and at least $410 million in funding. Around 20,000 people were sent to Mexico, with others moved across Latin America, Africa and the Pacific.

Those transfers target people who cannot be returned to their countries of origin, often leaving them in murky legal status abroad. Add street-level force at home, and immigration policy starts to look less like border administration and more like a test of accountability across several jurisdictions at once.

More than 100,000 German auto workers rallied across more than 200 locations after carmakers pushed job cuts, plant relocations and a 40-hour week without extra pay. Around 20,000 workers gathered at Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen, while protests also hit sites linked to BMW, Audi, Porsche, Bosch and Daimler Truck. The union IG Metall blamed managers for falling behind on electric vehicles, digital systems and batteries.

Horst Ott put the charge bluntly.

Management argues that Germany's factories have become too expensive. Oliver Wyman put labour costs at $3,307 per vehicle in Germany, compared with $769 in Japan and $597 in China, a gap that explains why executives keep circling the 35-hour week won by unions in earlier decades.

The pressure is no longer theoretical. Volkswagen cut its 2026 profit-margin target to at most 1%, shares in Volkswagen and Porsche fell, and industry employment has already dropped from about 830,000 in 2018 to under 700,000. Formal talks start in October, and warning strikes could follow in November if the peace obligation expires without a deal. Germany's car model once joined high wages to export dominance; now each side fears it is being asked to preserve only half of that bargain.

Typhoon Dujuan tracked along Japan's Pacific coast with sustained winds of 130 kilometres per hour and gusts reaching 194 kilometres per hour. Authorities placed 1,674,084 residents across Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Shizuoka and Ibaraki under evacuation advisories, while level-five alerts covered 40,000 people in Sodegaura and 3,020 on Oshima and the Izu Islands. Forecasters warned that 24-hour rainfall could reach 250 millimetres in Kanto and 350 millimetres in Tokai, more than a typical September month in some places.

Takuya Hosomi said the storm strengthened after slowing over warm seas near the Izu Islands.

The storm turned mobility into the day's first casualty. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways grounded at least 275 commercial flights between them, while broader tracking showed nearly 500 cancellations at Narita and Haneda. Rail operators halted regional services, suspended parts of the Tokaido Shinkansen toward Osaka, and watched floodwater cover roads near Kamakura station. Power failures left more than 9,000 households without electricity, and organizers cancelled the final Monday schedule of the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba.

Japan knows how to live with typhoons, but familiarity does not make warm seas, urban sprawl and ageing infrastructure any kinder. Dujuan is a weather event today; it is also a reminder that disaster planning now has to assume heavier rain on tighter margins.