You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Monday the 2nd of September.

Exit polls in Germany suggest a far right party has won a

regional state election for the first time since the Nazi era. Protests have

erupted in Israel after six hostages were killed in Gaza, the unions have called a general strike,

and Ukraine's second city Haqiev has come under heavy attack by Russia.

Also in the podcast, when he was first spotted, he was wearing a camera attached to a harness labeled equipment of St. Petersburg.

This and his friendliness towards humans sparked rumors the mammal had

been trained by the Russian Navy as a spy whale. The mysterious death of a young

whale allegedly recruited by the Russians.

A far right party is on course to win a state parliamentary election in Germany for the first time since the Nazis.

According to exit polls, the AFD or alternative for Deutschland looks set to become the biggest

party in Thuringia, while coming a close second in Saxony.

Both states are in the former East Germany and a fertile ground for the party's anti-immigration,

anti-Islam message.

The regional elections came just over a week after a mass stabbing by a suspected

Islamist in the German city of Zurlingen. Buren-Hooker, controversial head of the AFD in Thuringia hailed what he called a historic result.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win and then you win. And today dear friends we have won.

And today dear friends we have won.

Well, despite its victory, the AFD may struggle to find coalition partners,

but the result is another sign of how voters are abandoning the center ground, with a new

far left party coming third in both states.

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