“Just days before the far-right AfD clinches a possible election triumph, German executives are warning of the economic damage that its extremism might wreak,” Bloomberg reports.

“The party is on track to win the vote in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, and could even potentially achieve an absolute majority. Such an outcome in the eastern German state would augur the first far-right government taking power at that level since 1945, a prospect that is openly alarming some business leaders.”

“Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday renewed his call for free and fair elections in Venezuela, just two days after the Trump administration announced that the U.S. would take over 65 billion barrels of oil from the South American nation,” NBC News reports.

Said Cruz: “There need to be democratic, free elections in Venezuela.”

“Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that Germany’s eastern Saxony-Anhalt region will suffer economic damage if the far-right AfD party wins control of the state’s government next Sunday,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Merz: “If things turn out the way the polls suggest, this federal state will face significant problems. I cannot imagine international investors showing up for a groundbreaking ceremony with an AfD state premier to establish new plants or set up new businesses in Saxony-Anhalt.”

“Iceland’s voters rejected a proposal to restart negotiations on joining the European Union more than a decade after previous talks ended, the national broadcaster reported Sunday,” the Associated Press reports.

“The vote will put the long-debated issue to rest more than a decade after a euroskeptic government ended EU talks.”

“The far-right One Nation party has secured its first lower house seat in the state parliament of Western Australia, defeating the ruling Labor Party to win a special election,” Bloomberg reports.

“The election was watched as an indicator of One Nation’s strength after the party surged in the polls over the past year.”

“A year out from Argentina’s presidential election, Peter Thiel has become an avatar for the left’s charge that President Javier Milei is putting the country up for sale,” Bloomberg reports.

“Opposition lawmakers launched a five-hour congressional hearing Friday into Thiel’s interests in Argentina, ramping up scrutiny on the tech billionaire who has purchased a mansion in Buenos Aires and a stake in the country’s biggest oil exporter.”

“Thiel also met with Milei and members of the cabinet earlier this year, just as the libertarian leader began pushing one bill to make it easier for foreigners to purchase Argentine land and another that would allow companies to be run entirely by AI.”

“Hungary’s parliament elected an academic with no legal training to head a flagship authority created by Peter Magyar’s government to map and help prosecute suspected misappropriation during former leader Viktor Orban’s tenure,” Bloomberg reports.

“Swiss voters will decide in a referendum next month whether to approve a more restrictive form of neutrality that would block their ​country from imposing economic sanctions or cooperating with NATO,” Reuters reports.

“Posters featuring doves of peace and asking voters to reject war have ‌appeared across the Alpine nation in a campaign that has won the backing of the Kremlin but has raised fears that it could isolate Switzerland from its European neighbors.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky said holding a wartime election in Ukraine while active fighting with Russia continues would “destroy” the country by splitting ​Ukrainians, Reuters reports.

“British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he will shift responsibility for economic growth away from the UK Treasury and toward his new office in the north of England,” Bloomberg reports.

“Burnham’s premiership, which began last month, has focused on giving more power to regions outside London, while the PM has tightened his grip on economic matters and moved some operations to a Manchester office called No. 10 North.”

“Six weeks from Brazil’s election, the talk of its campaign season is less about who will win than what President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will do when he does,” Bloomberg reports.

“From the capital Brasilia to trading desks in Sao Paulo, Lula is broadly considered the favorite to beat right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, whose campaign has been marred by a feud with his stepmother and links to a banker at the center of a massive financial fraud probe.”

“The popular former Ukrainian defense minister, whose firing by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy triggered nationwide protests, strongly hinted at his political ambitions with a late-night video calling for wartime elections,” Bloomberg reports.

“A Russian court sentenced an opposition politician to 11 years and one month in a penal colony for speaking against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the latest anti-war figure to be jailed in a broader crackdown on dissent,” Bloomberg reports.

“Lev Shlosberg, a deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, received the sentence on Monday after being convicted under Russia’s laws against disseminating false information and discrediting the military.”

“In a few weeks, Germany’s far-right party — Alternative for Germany, better known as AfD — could become a governing party of a German state for the first time. The stakes go far beyond the one state — and likely beyond Europe,” NOTUS reports.

“Germany’s modern political system was designed to prevent far-right rule. But Ulrich Siegmund, AfD’s head candidate, is currently leading in polls to become the head of a state government, Saxony-Anhalt.”

“An election that pitted Nigel Farage against a man dressed as a bin, and turned the English resort town of Clacton into a seaside media circus, ended on Friday morning with a fizzle rather than a bang as the victorious Reform UK leader ducked out of public appearances,” Bloomberg reports.

“As the candidates lined up in an Essex leisure center in the early hours of Friday morning to hear their results read out, Farage was not in their midst. Despite winning more than 60% of the vote, he said at a private party held down the road that he wouldn’t be ‘demeaned and humiliated by nobodies’ — denying photographers the chance to picture him shaking hands with his costumed runner-up, Count Binface.”

“He also canceled a victory speech on Friday, at which the media might have sought to question him about his personal finances.”

“When Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump met in the Oval Office two weeks ago, the president asked the Israeli prime minister how he was doing in the polls ahead of an Oct. 27 election,” Axios reports.

“Netanyahu paused. Then one of his advisers piped up: ‘Mr. President, he is winning,’ the aide said, according to a U.S. official familiar with the exchange.”

“Netanyahu is not winning. And so far, Trump hasn’t given him the endorsement he hopes for, despite being asked about it repeatedly by reporters.”

“Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party, has won re-election to parliament in a vote he triggered himself last month by stepping down amid controversy over his finances,” CNBC reports.

“Farage, who has previously been praised by U.S. President Donald Trump and was a figurehead in the U.K. campaign to leave the European Union, faces a parliamentary investigation over failure to declare a £5 million ($6.7 million) donation from a Thailand-based crypto investor ahead of his 2024 election.”

“The probe was suspended following his resignation on July 7. Farage has said the gift was a personal gift intended to contribute to his security costs.”

Bloomberg: UK’s Farage defeats Count Binface in special election.