Germany election, Musk’s email and Ukraine anniversary
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Today, Germany's new chancellor-in-waiting hits out at the U.S. and calls for a stronger Europe. Elon Musk's "What did you do last weekend?" email to federal workers. And Ukraine marks three years since Russia's invasion, with Zelensky promising to step down if it leads to peace. It's Monday, February 24th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool.

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A win for Germany's Conservatives in a fractured election. The CSU-CDU bloc won the most seats, but far-right and far-left parties hoovered up support from disaffected voters, with the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AFD, surging to a historic second place.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz is likely to be the next chancellor. But the hard work now begins with complex coalition talks. He's ruled out working with the AfD, a party which is monitored by German security services on suspicion of extremism. And Merz isn't wasting any time laying out his foreign policy agenda.

He's already taken aim at the US, criticizing recent comments from Washington as "ultimately outrageous," comparing them to hostile interventions from Russia. Merz is vowing to make a stronger Europe his top priority.

Our foreign policy editor John Durfee has been looking at what the US reaction could be to a coalition led by Merz. I think that other European leaders would really welcome having Merz as a conservative who opposes Russia, supports NATO and the traditional transatlantic alliance. But all those things would put him at odds with the Trump administration, which, as we've seen, has taken a really tough approach with its European allies. Trump and his officials have downplayed the Russian threat. They've

They've insisted that Europe bear more of the cost of supporting Ukraine and criticized what it characterizes as the censorship of right-wing voices in Europe. And there was this remarkable speech by Vice President J.D. Vance in Munich a couple weeks ago where he barely mentioned the war in Ukraine and said really laid into European allies and Germany in particular for marginalizing right-wing parties, in Germany's case, the far-right AFD. And you've seen

Trump's close advisor, Elon Musk, also being really vocal in support of the AFD. So what kind of a relationship could we expect Merz to have with U.S. President Donald Trump? The Trump administration has shown itself to not be shy about inserting itself into other countries' political debates.

So it's really not out of the question that Trump might try to pressure a Merz government to give a greater role to the AFD. After all, the AFD does share many of the same anti-immigrant views as Trump's MAGA movement. And I don't think we've seen enough to know how Merz himself would manage a relationship with Trump. Markets have been relieved at Merz's victory. Carmel Crimmins explains why.

So the euro has hit a one-month high and European stock futures are charging ahead. Investors are hoping that this election result means more state spending to counter Germany's weak economy.

Mertz and his party are seen as pro-business and pro-investment. But it won't be all plain sailing. The surge in support for the far right and the far left means it'll be difficult for him and other mainstream parties to revise strict limits on public borrowing that the market wants to see. And it could take him months to form a coalition.

If you're interested in hearing more about the economic challenges facing Germany, check out a Reuters Econ World podcast I did all about the transatlantic economy. We'll put a link to it in the description of today's show. Pope Francis remains in critical condition, according to the Vatican. He's in hospital battling double pneumonia and an issue with his kidney function. And the winner goes to Conclave. The papal thriller picking up a top prize at Hollywood Screen Actors Guild Awards.

A story of secret maneuvering at the Vatican during a selection of a fictional pope. Isabella Rossellini, who stars in the film, wished the real pope well during the ceremony. And Timothée Chalamet's portrayal of Bob Dylan landed him a best act to win. Israeli tanks rolling into the occupied West Bank for the first time in 20 years. The military has been ordered to prepare for an extended stay to fight Palestinian militant groups in the area's refugee camps.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has condemned the move as a dangerous escalation. Don't respond. That's the message some federal agencies are giving employees after Elon Musk demanded that they document their accomplishments over the last week or lose their jobs. Federal workers on Saturday evening received an email with a subject line that said, "What did you do last week?"

Musk later warned in a post on X that failing to respond would be taken as a resignation. Joseph Axe has been looking into the emails sent to roughly 2 million employees.

It seems pretty clear that it was very broad and went to basically everybody that works for the federal government. It has this deadline of Monday at midnight. From the response that we've seen from a number of officials in those agencies and departments, they didn't expect this. Because a lot of the responses have essentially been, we don't really know what this is.

don't respond to it until we do a little more digging, until we figure out a little more about what this actually is and what it means. It came from an address that I think some agencies didn't necessarily recognize. We know that at least in a couple of places, officials wanted to make sure that it wasn't some kind of phishing attempt, right? And so it does appear that the agencies were taken pretty aback by this move from Musk.

Does Elon Musk have the legal authority to tell workers that they'll lose their jobs if they don't respond?

I think legal experts have looked at it and said they don't think that that is something that Doge can do. A couple of unions that represent federal workers have quickly put out statements saying they view this demand as illegitimate, that they will fight any attempt to terminate workers who don't participate in the request. And the largest federal workers union sent out guidance to all of their members, he

Essentially saying, don't respond to that email unless your supervisor tells you to. And even then, you should ask your supervisor to explain in detail precisely what it is you need to say, what you can and cannot include in the email, so that that way they're at least covered. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky marking three years since Russia's full-scale invasion with a promise.

He vowed to give up his position as leader if it means peace in Ukraine, adding that he could exchange his departure for Ukraine's entry into NATO. His comments were seen as being directed at US President Donald Trump, who last week labeled him a dictator.

To mark the anniversary of Russia's invasion, many world leaders are in Kyiv. Canada's Justin Trudeau joining dozens of others from across Europe for a security summit in a show of unity with Ukraine. Notable for his absence is Trump, who's overseen a change of policy in the last two weeks, pushing for a quick end to the war and talks with Moscow.

At the UN later, the General Assembly will vote on two rival resolutions: one put forward by Washington and the other by Ukraine and the European Union. But Russia has come out and said it wants a long-term peace deal and not a quick US-backed ceasefire. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says a deal must stand the test of time.

On the front lines, fighting continues unabated. Yevhen Kolosov is the head medic at the treatment site in the Dnipropetrovsk region. He says around 70% of the injuries on the battlefield come from drone attacks. But he adds that Ukrainian soldiers are determined to fight on, despite the political battles with the United States.

And for today's recommended read: A weekend concert in Damascus where hundreds packed into a courtyard in the old city for a night of music and dance. It was a cultural event the singer wasn't sure would go ahead as HTS Islamist rebels advanced on the city at the end of last year. But it got the green light from the new authorities. We look at how Islamists have taken different approaches to artistic expression and cultural heritage in territories they've ruled.

There's a link to the story in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. And we'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.