{
  "reuters": {
    "source": "Reuters",
    "updated": "2026-09-09T03:10:07Z",
    "items": [
      {
        "headline": "Iran's Hormuz leverage wanes in the face of the US economic squeeze",
        "summary": "Tehran has failed to impose the costs it hoped would break Washington's resolve.",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Kushner, Witkoff visit Kyiv in push to secure peace for Ukraine",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Iran warns of 'painful response' if it suffers further attacks",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "At least 5 killed in Amazon Prime Air cargo plane crash in Miami",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Nepali woman found alive days after family began mourning rites",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Far-right AfD wins historic victory in German state election",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Australia's right-wing One Nation party proposes pension shake-up to boost take-home pay",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Netanyahu orders West Bank settler outposts to be removed, sources say",
        "summary": "",
        "source": "Reuters"
      }
    ],
    "articles": [
      {
        "source": "Reuters",
        "headline": "Iran's Hormuz leverage wanes as US economic squeeze bites",
        "url": "https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/irans-hormuz-leverage-wanes-us-economic-squeeze-bites-2026-09-06/",
        "author": "Samia Nakhoul",
        "date": "September 6, 2026",
        "body": "Sanctions squeeze hits revenues, inflation and trade\nGlobal markets adapt, blunting Tehran's coercive power\nOfficials hope economic pain sparks unrest in Iran\nSceptics say Iran's resilience could thwart U.S. strategy\n\nISTANBUL, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Six months after a conflict that rattled markets and pushed the Gulf to the brink of a wider war, the tide may be turning against Iran as Washington unleashes an unprecedented economic offensive to achieve what military force could not.\n\nAfter years of surviving sanctions, Tehran is now confronting one of the harshest squeezes in the Islamic Republic's history, according to Iranian insiders and regional sources. A U.S. naval blockade and tougher sanctions are curbing oil exports, restricting access to foreign currency and exposing growing strains in the economy.\n\nThe campaign has led U.S. and regional officials to wager that mounting economic pressure can force Tehran to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of global oil and LNG supplies.\n\nTheir bet rests on a simple calculation: Iran is suffering more economic damage than it is inflicting. Efforts to choke off oil exports have cut state revenues, while attempts to disrupt shipping through Hormuz have not triggered the global economic shock Tehran hoped would force Washington to compromise. Energy markets have adjusted and alternative supplies have continued to flow.\n\n\"The balance of power has tilted against Iran a bit,\" said Iranian analyst Arash Azizi. Iran is losing some of the leverage it had over the Strait of Hormuz because it has been unable to close it fully, he said, adding that the U.S. naval blockade was \"really hitting Iran.\"\n\nAzizi said Tehran had expected disruption in the strait to trigger a major shock to the global economy and drive Washington back to the negotiating table. \"It hasn't happened, really,\" he said. Other countries had adapted, exposing limits to Iran's ability to inflict economic pain on the region and beyond.\n\nWhether the pressure will force concessions remains unclear, the regional sources said. Tehran has failed to impose the costs it hoped would break Washington's resolve but has shown little sign of abandoning demands for sanctions relief, access to frozen assets and recognition of its security role in Hormuz.\n\nStill, a new formula for resolving the standoff is now under discussion between mediators and Iran, the sources said.\n\nCAN TEHRAN OUTLAST THE SQUEEZE?\n\nThree senior Iranian sources acknowledged that Washington's campaign is becoming increasingly difficult to withstand. The latest measures have sharply restricted Tehran's ability to access foreign currency, import goods and tap global financing networks that have helped keep the economy afloat.\n\nIranian leaders fear a worsening economy, marked by surging prices, weaker trade and pressure on household incomes, could reignite nationwide unrest that has repeatedly challenged the Islamic Republic.\n\nShortages of key imports, including fuel and wheat, are becoming an increasing concern, officials said.\n\nU.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the strategy as a \"one-two punch\" combining the blockade with \"the toughest sanctions in history.\"\n\n\"It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this regime,\" he told CNBC.\n\nFor some U.S., Israeli and regional officials, such strains strengthen hopes that economic pressure could eventually carry political consequences inside Iran by triggering unrest, widening rifts within the leadership and weakening its grip on power.\n\nOthers remain sceptical that economic and military coercion will produce a political rupture, pointing to decades of failed efforts to destabilise the Islamic Republic and Tehran's willingness to suppress dissent. They argue Iran's rulers may again prove more resilient than their adversaries expect.\n\nTHE RESILIENCE TEST\n\nDennis Ross, a former U.S. negotiator, said Washington may be interpreting Iran's economic distress as evidence of strategic success when the reality is more complicated. Tehran remains determined to demonstrate it can control Hormuz, but appears to be calibrating its use of force while keeping further escalation in reserve.\n\nThe Revolutionary Guards may believe Iran can absorb the economic pain and outlast the pressure rather than compromise, Ross said.\n\n\"The Iranians have consistently surprised us in terms of their resiliency,\" he added, saying he doubted economic and military pressure alone would force a retreat. Hardliners, he said, may believe they can endure and ultimately secure what they want.\n\nResilience may depend as much on public tolerance as Tehran's ability to absorb economic hardship, said Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.\n\n\"Of course, the economic squeeze raises the risk of public unrest, but for now, a wartime mentality appears to have a significant hold over the population,\" said Ozcelik. \"Foreign military intervention, civilian casualties and the perception of a wider civilization confrontation with a U.S.-led order are sustaining a degree of 'Iran-first' patriotic support, tolerance or simply patience with the regime.\"\n\nThe result is a more stubborn impasse than Washington may have anticipated. Economic pressure is deepening the pain, but Tehran's powerful Revolutionary Guards may see endurance, backed by the threat of escalation, as leverage rather than a reason to concede.\n\nThe key question is not whether Iran is hurting, but whether it is hurting enough to compromise before either side slips toward another confrontation, the regional sources said.\n\nRoss said the clearest path to a deal may lie in the dispute over shipping fees through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran could abandon any demand for a toll while retaining the right to charge for legitimate navigational, security or environmental services, he said.\n\nSuch an arrangement could give both sides a claim to victory, allowing Tehran to step back without appearing to capitulate.\n\n\"If you could announce that the Strait were reopened,\" Ross said, \"I think Trump would do a deal.\"\n\nAdditional reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Ros Russell",
        "error": null
      },
      {
        "source": "Reuters",
        "headline": "US envoys hope for new Ukraine-Russia talks soon after visits to both capitals",
        "url": "https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-envoys-make-first-kyiv-visit-amid-ukraine-war-peace-push-2026-09-06/",
        "author": "Max Hunder",
        "date": "September 6, 2026",
        "body": "KYIV, Sept 6 (Reuters) - U.S. peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff heralded new momentum in peace talks after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Sunday as the Trump administration renewed its push to end Russia's four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.\n\nKushner and Witkoff travelled from Moscow, where they held three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday but did not appear to secure a breakthrough in the conflict.\n\nWitkoff, President Donald Trump's envoy, said they had \"heard new ideas\" in Moscow, which they did not detail, and they hoped a new round of U.S.-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks would be announced \"in short order.\"\n\nZelenskiy praised the \"very substantive\" conversation with Witkoff and Kushner and said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks. He said he also discussed air defence supplies and energy support for Ukraine ahead of winter, with Russia expected to bomb Ukraine's power grid again.\n\nPrevious rounds of U.S.-mediated peace talks encouraged by Trump, who campaigned on a promise to quickly end the war, have yielded few results. He suggested on Friday that the U.S. had a fresh proposal, though he did not elaborate.\n\nKremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described Saturday's meeting as \"highly useful\", while a White House official told Reuters that next steps would be announced in the coming weeks.\n\n\"We made a lot of progress in Moscow,\" Witkoff told reporters in Kyiv on Sunday, adding that he was \"very encouraged\" by his conversations with the Ukrainian team.\n\nThe Ukrainian president, who believes Washington will be key to any peace deal, has said a window of opportunity to make peace exists before the U.S. begins focusing on its next presidential election in 2028.\n\nThe U.S. envoys held several hours of talks with Ukrainian officials. British, French and German national security advisers, who were also in Kyiv, joined for the final hour. The U.S.-Ukrainian discussions were due to continue on Sunday evening.\n\nDuring a break, Zelenskiy said officials discussed the possibility of security and economic guarantees for Kyiv, as well as a post-war \"prosperity plan.\"\n\n\"In the last 10 to 12 months, I believe we have got stronger,\" Zelenskiy said, adding that the U.S. and Europe had noted this.\n\nCAUTIOUS OPTIMISM ON THE STREETS OF KYIV\n\nWitkoff and Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, have visited Moscow several times in their roles as peace envoys. But Sunday was their first visit to Kyiv in their capacity as U.S. negotiators.\n\nTheir visit has long been sought by Ukraine's leadership, and on the streets of Kyiv, which has been bombarded heavily in recent weeks, some residents were hopeful.\n\n\"The issue can be solved in the blink of an eye. We want peace. I've fought myself, so I know what war is like. We need peace, because there's no other way,\" said military veteran Stepan Yermak.\n\nIn previous talks, the sides have remained far apart on key issues, including the future of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Russia has demanded Ukraine's withdrawal from a belt of towns that it still controls there, but Kyiv has refused, reasoning that it can still hold on.\n\n\"The question of Donbas... I believe, is the question of this war,\" Zelenskiy told reporters on Sunday.\n\nFor Ukraine, hard security guarantees from its European allies and the U.S. are crucial to deterring Russia from invading again. Although he said the issue had been discussed, Zelenskiy did not detail if progress was made.\n\nTEMPORARY HALT IN STRIKES\n\nThough the front lines of the ground war remain largely static, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have intensified long-range air strikes in recent weeks.\n\nRussia has pounded the Ukrainian capital day and night with missiles and drones for the past two weeks, including an attack on Friday on the headquarters of the SBU security service.\n\nThe Kremlin has said it would pause strikes on Kyiv until Monday, while Zelenskiy has said Ukraine would also halt strikes on Moscow.\n\nThere was no let-up in fighting along the 1,200-km (750-mile) front, however, and Russia bombarded other Ukrainian cities on Saturday.\n\nUkraine has inflicted damaging hits throughout the summer on Russian refineries, oil terminals and the warehouses of online retailer Wildberries, in an attempt to raise the cost to Moscow of continuing the war.\n\nUkraine said on Sunday it had struck the Ryazan oil refinery, around 480 km (300 miles) inside Russia, overnight, causing a fire.\n\nReporting by Max Hunder, Dan Peleschuk, Yuliia Dysa and Olena Harmashh; Editing by Joe Bavier, Sharon Singleton and Cynthia Osterman",
        "error": null
      }
    ]
  },
  "cnn": {
    "source": "CNN",
    "updated": "2026-09-09T03:10:37Z",
    "items": [
      {
        "headline": "US forces struck the vessels after Iran attempted to attack a US Navy ship, CENTCOM says",
        "summary": "CENTCOM says US forces struck the vessels after Iran attempted to attack a US Navy ship.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "US targets Iran’s airline industry as part of pressure campaign",
        "summary": "The US is targeting Iran’s airline industry as part of a pressure campaign.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Scores wounded as Iran-backed Houthis attack Saudi Arabia in major regional escalation",
        "summary": "Scores were wounded as Iran-backed Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia in a major regional escalation.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Ted Cruz says US in ‘military conflict’ with Iran, not at war",
        "summary": "Ted Cruz says the US is in a “military conflict” with Iran, not at war.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Trump lays out next moves after Canada’s retaliatory tariffs take effect",
        "summary": "Trump laid out his next moves after Canada’s retaliatory tariffs took effect.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "The Trump administration slams Ford for its ties to China",
        "summary": "The Trump administration criticized Ford over its ties to China.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "The threat at the US-Mexico border that authorities struggle to counter",
        "summary": "Authorities are struggling to counter a threat at the US-Mexico border.",
        "source": "CNN"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Federal judge orders Missouri to proceed with GOP-friendly map after Supreme Court balked",
        "summary": "A federal judge ordered Missouri to proceed with a GOP-friendly map after the Supreme Court balked.",
        "source": "CNN"
      }
    ],
    "articles": [
      {
        "source": "CNN",
        "headline": "Tehran threatens vessels in Bahrain, Kuwait after US strikes 5 Iranian tankers | CNN Politics",
        "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/08/politics/us-targets-iran-tankers?Date=20260908&Profile=CNNPolitics",
        "author": "CNN’s Eyad Kourdi, Thomas Bordeaux and Yasha Saebi",
        "date": "September 8, 2026",
        "body": "The US destroyed five Iranian tankers in response to attempted ballistic missile attacks on a US Navy warship, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Tuesday.\n\nUS forces struck four crude oil carriers in the Gulf of Oman and one near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf after Iran attempted to attack the US Navy ship twice over the past two days, CENTCOM said. It said the US ship had evaded the attempted attacks and was continuing to patrol regional waters, and no American personnel had been harmed.\n\nThe strikes come as the US has focused its strategy in the war to prioritize striking or disabling targets around the Strait of Hormuz, conducting escort operations for commercial vessels through the key waterway and maintaining its naval blockade on Iranian ports as part of a “full court press” to ramp up economic pressure on the regime’s leadership.\n\nCENTCOM said US forces instructed the crews of the vessels to abandon ship prior to striking.\n\nIran has vowed to retaliate by targeting oil tankers near Bahraini and Kuwaiti ports.\n\n“We warn all crews aboard oil tankers in the vicinity of ports in Kuwait and Bahrain — which host these (American) terrorists and are partners in their hostile actions — to immediately leave their vessels, whether they are at anchor or docked at the ports, as the vessels will be targeted,” state broadcaster IRIB quoted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as saying.\n\nOne of the Iranian tankers hit Tuesday was four miles from Kharg — an island in the Persian Gulf that acts as a hub for Iranian oil exports — according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. State broadcaster IRIB said a second tanker was hit off the coast of Jask near the Gulf of Oman and that the crews of both vessels were being taken ashore in lifeboats.\n\nSyrian state TV later reported that Iranian missiles were seen heading toward neighboring Jordan and being intercepted. The IRGC claimed it targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, a key facility used by US forces.\n\nUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during his trip to Colombia, warned Tehran that the US would respond every time Iran targeted its naval ships.\n\n“Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships and for every time they do that, or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” he told reporters in Baranquilla.\n\nThe latest strikes come after US forces hit three Iranian crude oil carriers at the weekend, after the IRGC attempted to attack a US aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer.\n\nAs part of the US’s pressure campaign on Tehran, the Trump administration also took sweeping actions against Iran’s airline industry on Tuesday. The sanctions affect 27 Iranian airlines and nine service providers and sales agents accused of providing services to Mahan Air, which has been sanctioned since 2011. The private airline is accused of providing key support to the IRGC.\n\n*This story is breaking and will be updated.*",
        "error": null
      },
      {
        "source": "CNN",
        "headline": "US targets Iran's airline industry as part of pressure campaign",
        "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/08/politics/us-sanctions-iran-airlines-pressure-campaign",
        "author": "",
        "date": "",
        "body": "The Trump administration took sweeping actions against Iran's airline industry on Tuesday as part of its pressure campaign on Tehran.\n\nThe latest sanctions hit 27 Iranian airlines and nine service providers and sales agents accused of providing services to Mahan Air, which has been sanctioned since 2011. Mahan Air is a private Iranian airline accused of providing key support to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.\n\nThe service providers and sales agents sanctioned Tuesday are in Turkey, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates.\n\n\"These jurisdictions have been on notice for some time, and now we're moving quite directly to essentially cut off those operators from the Western financial system,\" a Treasury official said Tuesday. It is not the first time the administration has targeted operators in other countries for allegedly supporting Mahan Air.\n\nIn addition, the US Treasury Department is \"effectively today terminating all licenses that related to aviation,\" the official said, including \"payments for overflights of Iranian airspace, authorizations that have allowed non-US airlines that were flying US export-controlled airplanes into Iran.\"\n\n\"We've also pulled back on a general license for safety and other emergency aviation support,\" they said, noting they could consider such licenses on a case-by-case basis.\n\n\"Essentially, we're taking the entire aviation sector of the Iranian economy out of the market,\" they said.\n\nThe latest measures come as the administration seeks to cut off Tehran's financial lifelines and stop its ability to fund the ongoing war. Administration officials like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have raised the prospect of regime change in connection to the sanctions.\n\nRichard Nephew, a former US deputy special envoy for Iran, said the new airline sanctions \"could be meaningful but mostly as a way of making it hard to engage in clandestine procurement and similar given the blockade\" the US has maintained in the Strait of Hormuz.\n\n\"Tourism has dried up, not surprisingly, so this mainly hinders business and cargo transfers,\" he told CNN. \"If we take the next stop and threaten airports providing services, (it) could reduce overall transit.\"\n\nStill, experts and diplomats have questioned the overall impact the new sanctions campaign, dubbed \"Operation Economic Outcast,\" will have on Tehran, which has withstood decades of economic pressure.\n\nThe Treasury official on Tuesday claimed there are a \"number of different economic indicators\" and \"a number of different anecdotes that we're seeing that sort of suggest and sort of show the effect that this is having.\"\n\nThere has also been deep skepticism from experts and diplomats that the US will take meaningful action against key Iranian partners like China.\n\n\"We have more in common with the Chinese on Iran than we disagree with them on,\" Bessent said at an event on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting last week, referencing nuclear weapons and freedom of navigation.\n\nAsked about conversations and possible points of agreement with Beijing, another Treasury official said Tuesday that Bessent has \"had a number of conversations with lots of foreign counterparts about these issues, and some of those conversations are best kept private.\"\n\n\"Just know that there is a level of progress being made, even if you may not see it publicly,\" the official said without specifically referring to China.",
        "error": null
      }
    ]
  },
  "pbs": {
    "source": "PBS NewsHour",
    "updated": "2026-09-09T03:11:01Z",
    "items": [
      {
        "headline": "What went wrong before an Amazon cargo jet barreled off the runway in Miami",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Far-right AfD win signals shift in Germany, raises alarm in Europe",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "News Wrap: Tropical Storm Marie brings dangerous surf to California coast",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Gavin Newsom on how to beat the GOP: 'Democrats need to grow a backbone'",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on GOP's midterm challenges",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "Inside southern Lebanon's villages where Israeli occupation has upended daily life",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "The Iranian school struck in the war's earliest attacks is now a memorial for children",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      },
      {
        "headline": "EU seeks to reassure a Trump-rattled Greenland with promise of a new partnership and investment",
        "summary": "The page provides no additional summary beyond the headline.",
        "source": "PBS NewsHour"
      }
    ],
    "articles": [
      {
        "source": "PBS NewsHour",
        "headline": "What went wrong before an Amazon jet barreled off the runway",
        "url": "https://www.pbs.org/video/deadly-crash-1788812309/",
        "author": "",
        "date": "September 7, 2026",
        "body": "AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the \"News Hour.\"\n\nFederal officials are investigating why and how an Amazon cargo jet overran a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, before striking two vehicles, killing five people and injuring five more.\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: The flight was coming from Puerto Rico, and the landing is going to be a focus of that investigation.\n\nVideo posted on social media shows the Boeing 767 jet still airborne far down the runway and that the left rear landing gear did not fully settle on the ground.\n\nSeconds later, the plane barrels across a grassy patch, crashes through a chain-link fence and slams into two vehicles.\n\nThe victims have not yet been identified.\n\nAuthorities say all were inside a van and an SUV struck by the plane.\n\nNational Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy described what investigators encountered at the scene today.\n\nJENNIFER HOMENDY, Chair, National Transportation Safety Board: I would describe it in one word of devastating, utter devastation.\n\nI mean, you can see in the -- on the paved surface tire marks that continues through the grass.\n\nThere's debris everywhere.\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: There are many questions being asked about this accident and the landing.\n\nOur aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, is here with more.\n\nSo, Miles, You've looked closely at the video of this landing.\n\nWhat stands out to you?\n\nMILES O'BRIEN: Geoff, what I see is a non-stabilized approach in non-stable meteorological conditions.\n\nThe wind was gusty.\n\nThere was a tailwind, which had a crosswind component.\n\nThe aircraft as it came down ended up significantly above what we call the glide slope, which is the imaginary slide which takes you down to the runway.\n\nThe crew tried to correct it and dove precipitously toward that altitude they should have been at, picking up speed.\n\nSo, by the time we see them in this video, it appears this aircraft is sort of diving for the runway with a tailwind, which makes it faster over the ground and, in addition to that, a crosswind, which is what caused that left wing to go up.\n\nAnd this is the key point to think about here, Geoff.\n\nThey landed at about 185 miles an hour in speed, which is much higher than you would expect, about halfway down a 9,000-foot runway.\n\nAnd then you see that left wing lift up, and the left landing gear is not on the concrete.\n\nThat's crucial, because that's what tells the airplane that it can deploy reverse thrust and the spoilers, the speed breaks on the wing.\n\nWithout those wheels on the ground, the crew would not have been able to do that.\n\nAnd so they left the runway at a very high rate of speed, about 130 miles an hour into the grass.\n\nAnd that's what we saw.\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: So, Miles, at what point should a crew abandon a landing like that?\n\nMILES O'BRIEN: Well, the textbook says, if you have an unstabilized approach -- and they were about three miles out when they were they were way above that so-called glide slope -- that probably would have been a prudent time to knock it off, as opposed to trying to dive down to catch it and get toward it.\n\nBut, certainly, if they just elected to continue and try to correct, which happens, by the time you are floating over the runway and about halfway down it, that would be the time to initiate what we call the go-around.\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: And the plane, as we saw on that video, it goes beyond the runway and through the safety area at the end.\n\nWhat is that area designed to do?\n\nMILES O'BRIEN: Well, there's about 1,000 feet between the end of that runway to the road.\n\nThat is what the FAA requires for a runway that it arrives and departs with large aircraft.\n\nSo that is to the book.\n\nHowever, there are other ways that you can slow down an aircraft in these situations.\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: And that brings us to something called EMAS.\n\nWhat is that and could it have stopped this plane?\n\nMILES O'BRIEN: engineered material arresting system.\n\nIt's basically breakable concrete.\n\nWhen the wheels of an aircraft get in it, it's like quicksand.\n\nIt will slow an aircraft down very quickly.\n\nIt's designed to accept and slow down an aircraft coming in at, say, about 80 miles an hour.\n\nThis aircraft, as we say, was arriving at the end of the runway at about 130 miles an hour.\n\nSo it's unclear what the EMAS might have done in this case, but certainly it would have slowed it down further.\n\nThat said, the FAA does not require this sort of engineered material at the end of a runway if there's 1,000 feet of runway safety area, which Miami has in this case.\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: And that's why, one would imagine, Miami did not have this EMAS system.\n\nMILES O'BRIEN: Exactly.\n\nNow, there'll be some questions raised about this.\n\nShould EMAS just be everywhere, just as another layer of safety?\n\nAnd there'll be some questions, of course, about what the crew was doing.\n\nAnd, of course, when that cockpit voice recorder is analyzed, as well as the flight data recorder, many of those questions will become much clearer, and a lot of the speeds and footages and distances will become more precise, and we can understand what happened here?\n\nGEOFF BENNETT: Our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien.\n\nMiles, thanks as always.\n\nMILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Geoff.",
        "error": null
      },
      {
        "source": "PBS NewsHour",
        "headline": "Far-right AfD win signals shift in Germany, raises alarm in Europe",
        "url": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/far-right-afd-win-signals-shift-in-germany-raises-alarm-in-europe",
        "author": "",
        "date": "Sep 07, 2026",
        "body": "Germany’s far-right AfD party won a major parliamentary election victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The win marks a growing divide in German politics. The AfD party is anti-immigration and has been labelled as xenophobic and extremist by German intelligence. Liz Landers discussed the outcome with Liana Fix, author of “Germany Rearmed: The Return of War and the End of Illusions.”\n\nAmna Nawaz:\n\nGermany's far right AfD, or Alternative for Germany party, yesterday won a major parliamentary election victory in the Eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.\n\nThe blow -- the win, rather, is a blow to chancellor Friedrich Merz, mired with record low approval ratings. And it marks a growing divide in German politics. The AfD party is anti-immigration. It's been labeled as xenophobic and as extremist by German intelligence.\n\nLiz Landers reports.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nIn Germany, a dawn of a more divisive era of domestic politics. Germany's far right Alternative for Germany Party, or AfD, won 44 percent of seats yesterday, just three seats short of a majority in the Eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.\n\nThe party has vowed to crack down on immigration and broaden its power to the national level.\n\nAlice Weidel, Leader, AfD Party (through interpreter):\n\nAnd if we assume responsibility for government in Germany at the national level, we will close the borders, and only those who have a legal right to reside in Germany will be allowed to come here. We will deport those who commit crimes here and those who are residing in this country illegally.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nAnd if it is able to successfully form a parliamentary coalition with other parties in order to govern, it would have extensive control over the state's domestic immigration, education, and other policies.\n\nAfD's anti-immigration stance has bled into its leaders' statements, which have been accused of being Islamophobic, antisemitic, and antidemocratic. Last year, the German intelligence agency labeled AfD extremist.\n\nAfD's win in the state is a turn in the state's politics. Saxony-Anhalt, once part of East Germany prior to reunification, voted for the ruling Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, in its last parliamentary election.\n\nYesterday's win also a reflection of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's plunging approval ratings, with an 87 percent disapproval rating in Saxony-Anhalt and just 16 percent approval nationwide as of July. He faces stiff competition. Today, he acknowledged his party's loss.\n\nFriedrich Merz, German Chancellor (through interpreter):\n\nWe are all deeply shocked. We did not expect this to happen in this way. Yesterday marked a turning point, not only in Saxony-Anhalt, but throughout Germany. I must admit, this is the most serious election defeat that the CDU has had for years, for decades.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nGermany's political system is positioned that each state is largely autonomous, much more reliant on the state's Parliament than the federal level in Berlin. The far right party's win also renewed concerns internationally.\n\nSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez today decried the win as an indicator of Europe's destabilization.\n\nPedro Sanchez, Spanish Prime Minister (through interpreter):\n\nWhat we saw yesterday in Saxony is a warning and also a confirmation, a warning that the far right threat, thanks in large part to the surrender of the traditional right, is gaining ground in Europe and in the world.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nMeanwhile, in the United States, President Donald Trump shared the news of the AfD's victory in a social media post. Last year, Vice President J.D. Vance shocked many when he appeared alongside AfD's leadership and chastised the German government's decades-old position of refusing to work with parties labeled extremist.\n\nFor perspective on the outcome of the election in Germany, we turn to Liana Fix, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of \"Germany Rearmed: The Return of War and the End of Illusions.\"\n\nLiana, thank you for joining the \"News Hour.\"\n\nLiana Fix, Council on Foreign Relations:\n\nAbsolutely. Thank you for the invitation.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nHow do you explain why the AfD did so well in the election?\n\nLiana Fix:\n\nSo one popular explanation is that in East Germany and East Germans, in particular since unification, have felt economically deprived, that they are not on the same living standards as their West German compatriots.\n\nBut that explanation really only goes so far. It is primarily about the self-perception, about the feeling of being left behind, because East Germany really has caught up in the economic situation.\n\nAnd at the same time, it is mixed with a profound sense that immigration policies have gone too far in Germany, and a general shock about all the change that is happening in Germany these days, both the Russia shock, also the A.I. shock, the China shock to Germany's industry.\n\nIt's a challenging time to be a chancellor of Germany.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nWhat are some of the policies that AfD advocates for?\n\nLiana Fix:\n\nSo, the federal level, the AfD in general is very anti-immigration. They want to deport both refugees, but also asylum seekers from other parts of Europe and the world. They are very much in favor of a very strict rule of law, but they also, especially in education, for example, in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD has proposed to focus more on the centuries before the Nazi era, and not to place too much emphasis on the Nazi era.\n\nThey also have some ideas about kicking out public broadcasters from Saxony-Anhalt. Overall, it is a very disruptive agenda. And, at foreign policy, they do want closer ties with Russia and China.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nThis news, of course, over the weekend, I think has shocked some people around the world. But how likely is it that the AfD will actually come to power?\n\nLiana Fix:\n\nSo this is Saxony-Anhalt. It is a small East German state, but it is relevant because, for the first time, the firewall the German parties have built against the AfD, no one should work or enter into a coalition with the AfD, is really crumbling, because in this case you would need all the other five parties, from conservatives to very left-wing parties, to build a coalition only to prevent the AfD getting into power.\n\nSo that's why this election is so powerful. It's such a danger to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, because it is about the future direction of the Conservative Party in Europe and partly also about his own future.\n\nOn the federal level, this -- the AfD is polling as the strongest party ahead of Friedrich Merz's Conservative Party, and quite comfortably ahead. But it's very unlikely that this would translate in the next election into a government responsibility for the AfD. However, 10 years down the road, that picture might look different.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nSpeaking of 10 years down the road, is this election seen as a bellwether and signal for how future elections are likely to go in Germany?\n\nLiana Fix:\n\nIt absolutely is.\n\nAnd the next elections are already coming up at the end of September in two weeks' time. There will be two more elections in the state of Berlin, but also in another East German region. They are not as dramatic as in Saxony-Anhalt. So the AfD is not as far ahead as it has been in this election.\n\nBut, still, further setbacks for Friedrich Merz, for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in these elections might actually raise the leadership question in Germany, and that at a time when Russian hybrid warfare campaigns are escalating against Germany. So it is really very much a twin threat that Chancellor Merz is facing here.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nThe AfD is pro-Russian. Will this election result have an impact on Germany's support for Ukraine and its efforts to shield itself from these Russian hybrid attacks?\n\nLiana Fix:\n\nNo, they will not directly, because foreign policy, security policy are obviously a federal issue that cannot be disrupted by Saxony-Anhalt.\n\nBut there are some concerns, for example, that, if the AfD gets into power, Saxony-Anhalt should not be included in sensitive intelligence sharing anymore because of the concern that intelligence might be leaked to extremists or to Russia. There are also concerns that, what if the AfD gets in power on Saxony-Anhalt and tries to prevent any mobilization efforts of the German army, of the Bundeswehr in that country?\n\nSo these are actual considerations. And then, of course, Germany's European neighbors, from Poland to France, are very concerned. They welcome Germany's rearmament, Germany's historic rearmament, that it is going through now.\n\nBut, as I argue in my book, of course, they don't want to see that military power in the hands of the AfD. Even if that is only a possibility like 10 years or 15 years down the line, it is still a very scary thought for Germany's neighbors.\n\nLiz Landers:\n\nLiana Fix, thank you for your expertise.\n\nLiana Fix:\n\nThank you.",
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