Voting to elect the leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is almost certain to go to a second round, with no candidate expected to reach the initial majority needed to avoid a runoff, national broadcaster NHK said.

The four lawmakers seeking to replace outgoing Yoshihide Suga as party leader, and thus premier, have two days to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to pass a $550 billion infrastructure bill this week and signaled that the headline amount on a bigger package of spending and tax measures will be lowered from $3.5 trillion.

In a nod to moderate Democrats eager to enact the roads-and-bridges bill, Pelosi said in a letter to caucus members that...Read more

President Joe Biden hadn’t heard Germany’s election results when he returned to Washington from his weekend retreat on Sunday, but he complimented the projected winner.

“I’ll be darned,” Biden said when a reporter told him that the Social Democrats were ahead in the election, which will determine who replaces Angela Merkel as German ...Read more

Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats inched ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in an unprecedentedly tight election that is still to decide who will lead Europe’s biggest economy.

Scholz’s SPD, the front-runner over the final weeks of the campaign, is set to win 26% of the votes, according to a projection by ZDF on Sunday, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to pass a $550 billion infrastructure bill this week and signaled that the headline amount on a bigger package of spending and tax measures will be lowered from $3.5 trillion.

In a nod to moderate Democrats eager to enact the road-and-bridges bill, Pelosi said she will put the Senate-passed ...Read more

Germany’s Social Democrats and the conservatives are locked together in the national election exit polls, leaving the decision over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s successor hanging in the balance.

Olaf Scholz’s SPD, the front-runner over the final weeks of the campaign, had 25% of the votes, according to exit polls from broadcaster ARD on ...Read more

Iceland is holding an election with the pandemic largely behind it but its voters faced with a reality check.

The travel restrictions with COVID-19 have laid bare just how much the sparsely-populated island got hooked on tourism, while there is little consensus on whether climate change presents a challenge or an opportunity.

This country in...Read more

PERRY, Ga. — Former President Donald Trump returned to Georgia on Saturday to showcase a trio of loyalists he’s endorsed in 2022 elections, deepening an internal rift among state Republicans that helped fuel upset Democratic victories in the last election cycle.

The pro-Trump slate took center stage at a rally at the Georgia National ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee advanced a draft version of President Joe Biden’s signature tax and social spending measure, a milestone ahead of possible votes on the floor of the chamber next week.

Lawmakers voted 20-17 in a mostly party-line ballot to move the bill forward during a rare weekend meeting.

Congressional Democrats ...Read more

PERRY, Ga. — For the first time since a pre-runoff visit in January, former President Donald Trump is returning to Georgia to hold a rally for thousands of supporters. And even though Democrats swept those Jan. 5 runoffs, Trump is likely to deliver much the same message.

He’s still fixated on attacking Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State ...Read more

BERLIN — In his first run for chancellor, Christian Democrat Armin Laschet risks losing the office that Angela Merkel held tight for conservatives for 16 years.

So a day before the nation’s most competitive election in almost two decades, Merkel joined him on the campaign trail one last time to stump for her would-be successor.

For ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee on Saturday is set to advance a draft version of President Joe Biden’s signature tax and social spending measure, a milestone ahead of possible votes on the floor of the chamber next week.

Congressional Democrats are using a fast-track budget process to ram the up-to-$3.5 trillion economic package ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley are gearing up for a grilling next week, as the Pentagon leaders prepare to testify before Congress.

Representatives and senators are planning to question them about last month’s bloody exit from Afghanistan and a new book that says Milley called ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is attempting to line up consequential votes next week on President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, making a high-stakes wager that warring Democratic factions won’t sink the bills if their competing demands aren’t met.

At stake is the fate of the most significant investment in domestic programs in ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania now stands to become ground zero in the movement to “audit” the election after former President Donald Trump’s efforts to discredit the 2020 election results failed in Arizona.

A monthslong partisan review in Arizona affirmed President Joe Biden’s victory there, according to findings made public Friday of ...Read more