The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. Germany's political establishment absorbed a shock as the far-right Alternative for Germany claimed a landslide win in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt — a result that could make it the first far-right party to hold power in Germany since World War II, according to Semafor. The party topped the field but missed an outright majority, the closest any far-right party has come to holding state power since the war, per Time. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is now scrambling to contain the fallout after "an overwhelming victory by the far right in a state election delivered a powerful blow to the political establishment," Bloomberg reports.
Workers are getting squeezed at the pump too. Gas hit $4.14 a gallon heading into Labor Day weekend, nearly a dollar higher than last year and above the previous holiday record of $3.82 set in 2012, driven by the Iran war and refinery problems, according to CBS News and ABC News. Republicans from farm states are left defending an administration whose policies they broadly support while their own constituents absorb the consequences, MSNBC reports.
That squeeze sits on top of a longer trend: workers' share of national income is declining rapidly, and the reasons remain unclear even to the piece's own author, according to a New York Times opinion piece. The cost isn't only measured in wages. A contract technician died at an Applied Materials facility in Austin, Texas, amid a series of high-profile workplace fatalities nationwide, the World Socialist Web Site reports.
Capital keeps getting protected first. Beijing pumped $54 billion into state banks and insurers as growth pressures mount, with analysts saying the financial institutions may be asked to mobilize still more capital, CNBC reports. And empire keeps deferring justice: King Charles III will not personally receive a petition for slavery reparations being handed over by Jamaica, Newsweek reports.