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Here's today's free edition.

This is the World In Brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

Friedrich Meertz, the winner of Germany's election, vowed to give Europe real independence from America as he prepared to cobble together a coalition.

His center-right Christian Democratic Alliance won 29% of the vote.

The hard right alternative for Germany received 21% of the vote,

its best ever result. Mr. Meertz has ruled out governing with the AFD.

Vladimir Zelensky, Ukraine's president, offered to leave my post in exchange for the country's

admission to NATO. Speaking at a press conference the day before the third anniversary of Russia's invasion,

Mr Zelensky also dismissed the insults of Donald Trump, America's president,

who called him a dictator without elections.

Earlier Russia launched a record 267 drones at Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Air Force.

Elon Musk gave all federal employees just over 48 hours to explain what they had worked on in

the past week or faced a dismissal, hours after Mr. Trump pushed the Doge boss to get more

aggressive. In his efforts to make deep cuts in government spending, Mr. Musk has already offered federal employees the chance to resign if they do not want to return to the office full-time.

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