Conservative leader Friedrich Merz has been elected Germany’s chancellor in a second round of parliamentary voting after his new alliance with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) was dealt a surprise defeat in the first attempt.
Merz’s failure to win parliamentary backing in the first round of voting was a first for post-war Germany.
Merz received 325 votes in the second round of voting on Tuesday.
He needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot, but only received 310 votes in the first round, well short of the 328 seats held by his coalition.
After the vote, the 69-year-old headed to the nearby Bellevue Palace to be formally nominated by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Later, Merz will return to the historic Reichstag building in the heart of Berlin to take the oath of office to become Germany’s 10th chancellor since the end of World War Two.
Merz-led conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) had topped in the national elections in February with 28.5 percent of the vote, but it still required at least one coalition partner to form a majority government.
Germany’s incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz shakes hands with outgoing leader Olaf Scholz in the lower house of the German parliament, May 6, 2025 [Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]
On Monday, the CDU/CSU reached an agreement with the SPD, which secured 16.4 percent in the elections after the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s government last year.
Their agreement has mapped out plans to revive growth, such as reducing corporate taxes and lowering energy prices. It is also promising strong support for Ukraine as it battles to repel Russia’s invasion, and higher military spending.
The new chancellor’s in-tray would also include the Trump administration’s confrontational trade policy and domestic issues, such as the rise of the far-right, anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Germany, the most populous member state of the 27-nation European Union, has the continent’s biggest economy and serves as a diplomatic heavyweight.
Merz is currently under heavy pressure to show German leadership.
“People have been asking Germany to lead for a long time, and there is no more space to not heed that call,” said Sudha David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
“Everything that had been undergirding post-war Germany in the past eight decades is no longer the case, whether it be open markets and free trade, whether it be the US security presence in Europe.”
The Indian government has condemned an auction of ancient Indian gems and issued a legal notice to stop the “unethical” sale of the relics, which it said should be treated as the sacred body of the Buddha.
New Delhi’s Ministry of Culture said the auction of the Piprahwa gems in Hong Kong, scheduled for Wednesday, “violates Indian and international laws as well as United Nations conventions” and demanded their repatriation to India “for preservation and religious veneration”.
The legal writ was served to the Sotheby’s auction house and Chris Peppe, one of three heirs of William Claxton Peppe, a British colonial landowner who in 1898 excavated the gems on his northern Indian estate and kept them as family heirlooms.
A letter posted on the Ministry of Culture’s Instagram account said Peppe, a Los Angeles-based TV director, lacked the authority to sell the relics. Sotheby’s, by holding the auction, was “participating in continued colonial exploitation”, it added.
The ministry does not believe the relics should go under the hammer, saying the gems “constitute inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community”.
What are the Piprahwa gems?
The Piprahwa gems date back to the Mauryan Empire, circa 240 to 200 BC. They have been described by Sotheby’s as “one of the most astonishing archaeological finds of the modern era” and “of unparalleled religious, archaeological and historical importance”.
The precious stones consist of thousands of pearls, rubies, topazes, sapphires and patterned gold worked into jewels and maintained in their natural forms.
They were originally buried in a dome-shaped funeral monument called a stupa in Piprahwa in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state.
They are believed to be mixed with some of the cremated remains of the Buddha, who died about 480 BC.
The British crown claimed William Peppe’s find under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act, and the bones and ash were given to the Buddhist monarch King Chulalongkorn of Siam in present-day Thailand.
Most of the 1,800 gems went to what is now the Indian Museum in Kolkata. But Peppe was permitted to retain about a fifth of them, some of which were described as “duplicates” by British colonial administrators at the time.
What the controversy is about
The gems are expected to sell for 100 million Hong Kong dollars (US$13m) at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Wednesday. But the sale has raised eyebrows.
Commentators argued that the Piprahwa gems are the heritage of both the Buddha’s descendants and of Buddhists worldwide.
“Are the relics of the Buddha a commodity that can be treated like a work of art to be sold on the market?” Naman Ahuja, a Delhi-based art historian, told the BBC. “And since they aren’t, how is the seller ethically authorised to auction them?
“Since the seller is termed the ‘custodian’, I would like to ask – custodian on whose behalf? Does custodianship permit them now to sell these relics?” he asked.
For its part, India’s government has called on Sotheby’s and Chris Peppe to halt the sale of the gems, issue a public apology to Buddhists worldwide and to provide a full disclosure of the provenance of the relics.
Failure to comply, according to the letter on the Ministry of Culture’s Instagram page, would result in legal proceedings in Indian and Hong Kong courts and through international bodies “for violations of cultural heritage laws”.
The ministry added that it would launch a public campaign highlighting Sotheby’s role “in perpetuating colonial injustice and becoming a party to [the] unethical sale of religious relics”.
It said the sellers “had no right to alienate or misappropriate the asset, … an extraordinary heritage of humanity where custodianship would include not just safe upkeep but also an unflinching sentiment of veneration towards these relics”.
The letter also noted that “the relics of the Buddha cannot be treated as ‘specimens’ but as the sacred body and originally interred offerings to the sacred body of the Buddha” and the proposed auction “offends the sentiments of over 500 million Buddhists worldwide”.
Earlier this year, Chris Peppe told the BBC that his family explored donating the ancient gems. However, he said an auction seemed the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists”.
He also wrote a post on Sotheby’s website in February in which he said: “I wanted the power of these gems to reach everyone, Buddhist or not.”
After this week’s private sale, he said, “I hope that many people will be able to see the gems and connect with the Buddhists who gave them over two thousand years ago, with our shared human experience of wonder and awe and with the Buddha and his teachings.”
Have such auctions been controversial in the past?
Museums in the West have rarely been forced by legal rulings to give up artefacts taken from the Global South during colonial rule. However, some have handed stolen objects back to their countries of origin under public pressure
In 2022, for instance, six artefacts looted by British soldiers 125 years ago from Benin City in what is now Nigeria were repatriated from the Horniman Museum in South London to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
That same year, Germany handed over two Benin Bronzes and more than 1,000 other items from its museums to Nigeria. “It was wrong to take the bronzes, and it was wrong to keep them,” said Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister.
But instances of successful repatriations are far outnumbered by private auctions of stolen artefacts. In 2020, for instance, Christie’s went ahead with the sale of Igbo statues that Nigerian museum officials said were stolen during the country’s civil war in the 1960s.
Another high-profile case was the sale of a 3,000-year-old quartzite head of the Egyptian “boy king” Tutankhamun, auctioned off in the United Kingdom despite an outcry in Egypt, which claimed the piece was likely removed from the country illegally.
Manchester City have joined Manchester United in signing up for the inaugural Women’s World Sevens tournament in May.
The seven-a-side competition runs between 21-23 May – three days before the Women’s Champions League final – in Estoril, Portugal with a prize money pool of $5m (£3.76m).
Manchester United confirmed their involvement last month with manager Marc Skinner hailing it as an “exciting opportunity”.
The two Women’s Super League clubs will battle it out with Bayern Munich, Roma, Paris St-Germain, Ajax, Benfica and FC Rosengard in the eight-team tournament.
Therese Sjogran, Manchester City Women’s director of football, said the club are proud to be part of this “milestone moment”.
The competition will begin with a two-day group phase before moving on to a knockout stage and a final.
Manchester City could play up to five 30-minute fixtures – depending on how far they progress.
Interim head coach Nick Cushing will oversee a side made up from the first-team squad.
Batter Shimron Hetmyer has been left out of West Indies’ one-day international squad to play England and Ireland this month.
Left-hander Hetmyer, currently playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and one of West Indies’ most high-profile players, featured in the Windies’ 2-1 win over an understrength England last year.
He missed a series against Bangladesh that followed through illness and was replaced by 27-year-old Amir Jangoo, who made a debut century in the third match.
West Indies play a three-match one-day international series in Ireland from 21-25 May, before matches in England on 29 May, 1 June and 3 June.
Three T20s against England follow from 6 June.
It will be the first white-ball series for England since Harry Brook was named permanent white-ball captain.
There is no place in West Indies’ squad for Nicholas Pooran, who has not played an ODI since 2023.
The touring party is largely the same as the one that beat England, with batter Shai Hope captain, and Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales and Shamar Joseph among the seam bowlers.
Former Ireland all-rounder Kevin O’Brien will work with Hope’s side during the Ireland leg of the tour.
“These matches form a critical component towards the 2027 World Cup and there are signs of the team building consistency following the series sweep against Bangladesh and the win over England late last year,” said coach Darren Sammy.
Nigerian filmmaker Niyi Akinmolayan has downplayed concerns over the United States’ proposed tariff on foreign-produced movies, describing it as “not a big worry” for Nollywood and the African film industry.
Speaking on Channels Television’s entertainment programme, Akinmolayan explained that Nollywood’s primary market remains Nigeria, with international distribution largely driven by streaming platforms.
“Typically, the most common way we get our films shown in the U.S. recently has been via streaming — Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, to be precise.
“What usually happens is they have what they call a worldwide licence, and then they have a U.S. and Canada licence. This is because the U.S. and Canada licence is a bit different in terms of taxation — about 30 to 35 percent tax on the licence deal — whereas, all over the world, it’s a completely different thing,” he said.
He noted that, “We make films predominantly for the Nigerian market first, before trying to appeal to an international audience. Usually, in those discussions, there is some tax calculation very specific to the United States, but I honestly do not think that is what this particular Trump tariff issue is.
“I think he’s being very specific about the key American studios that are now doing a lot of their productions outside America.”
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US President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement that Washington, DC, will host the 2027 NFL Draft, during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 100% tariff on all films produced outside the United States, citing national security concerns and the decline of the domestic film industry due to foreign tax incentives attracting U.S. productions abroad.
The proposal has sparked heated debate across the entertainment world. Critics argue that the global nature of filmmaking — involving international locations, crews, and post-production — makes it difficult to define what qualifies as a “foreign” film. There are also fears over the potential impact on independent films and co-productions that rely heavily on overseas budgets.
Reflecting on the possible implications, Akinmolayan expressed skepticism about the practical impact of the measure.
“Where exactly does the tariff come in? Is it from the production budget or the sales? The gross? What happens if you make the film and it doesn’t sell? What happens when you make a film targeted for festivals — and not as a commercial decision? It feels like a lot of it is still floating in the air,” he said.
“My thoughts would be that nothing much will change in terms of how much they need to spend if they are here or in any other part of the world apart from America — at least not in the immediate — because we do not know where the tariffs are going to be taken from,” Akinmolayan explained. “Typically, tariffs are taken ultimately from consumers in a place like America, which then motivates producers to save costs and do more of their work in America.”
He also highlighted the growing global nature of storytelling and collaboration: “I do not even see a future in such a thing because the world is becoming a global space.
“America is looking for stories to tell from all over the world — that’s why companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime have worked with us in Nigeria. So I do not even see this working in the long run. But we’re open to seeing how that goes.”
Looking ahead, Akinmolayan emphasised the importance of building trust and infrastructure in Nigeria to attract foreign productions.
“One of the things I was thinking about — even in Nigeria with initiatives like nollywoodfilmmaker.com — is to build a system of trust and reliability where Hollywood can actually come to film major productions in places like Nigeria. There are capable hands, good security, and all the like.
Beirut, Lebanon – More than five years into an economic crisis that sent inflation spiralling and saw the Lebanese lira plummet, Lebanon’s government is facing its biggest infrastructure project in years: Post-war reconstruction.
After 14 months of war with Israel, Lebanon needs $11bn to rebuild, according to World Bank estimates.
But, experts say, donors do not trust the Lebanese political class, which has a track record of funnelling construction contracting money to politically connected businessmen.
The needs
In addition to more than 4,000 deaths, the war took a vast material toll on the country already reeling from a multi-year economic crisis.
About 10 percent of the homes in Lebanon – some 163,000 units – were damaged or destroyed, to say nothing of the more than $1bn in infrastructure damage.
Most observers, and the new government formed in February, say Lebanon will again need foreign aid, as it did after a previous war with Israel in 2006.
But that aid has been slower to arrive than in 2006, with donor attention divided between Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and major donors like the United States pushing for the Hezbollah group’s disarmament as a precondition.
Hezbollah, until recently the most powerful political and military force in the country, suffered severe blows during the war and has seen its power curtailed, although many Lebanese continue to support it.
The country’s south, east, and Beirut’s southern suburbs bore the brunt of Israel’s offensive. Together, they are home to most of Hezbollah’s constituents, so restoring their homes and livelihoods is a priority for the party.
That translates into leverage for foreign donor states.
The problem
Politically connected companies overcharged the state’s main infrastructure buyer, the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), by 35 percent between 2008 and 2018, a 2022 study by local think tank The Policy Initiative found.
And the primary contracting regulation was so riddled with exceptions that as little as 5 percent of tenders were under the Central Tenders Board’s oversight.
All that came to a head in 2020, when a huge blast in Beirut’s port tore through much of the capital and donors decided they wanted nothing to do with the state, according to Khalil Gebara, economist and former World Bank consultant who previously advised the Lebanese government.
“Donors stopped transferring money to national authorities or to the treasury,” he said, because they had “a total lack of trust in national mechanisms”.
Instead, donors controlled spending directly or via a World Bank-managed trust fund, or worked through NGOs, Gebara added.
That year, the state, which was stalling on implementing International Monetary Fund conditions in exchange for a partial bailout, spent just $38m on its physical investments, down from more than $1.1bn in 2018, the year before the economic collapse, according to Ministry of Finance data.
(Al Jazeera)
Trying for solutions
A year later, Lebanon passed what many considered a landmark reform to state contracting, one of the few reform laws passed in recent years.
It dragged virtually the entire public sector into one unified framework, abolished a classification system that had frozen out contractors without political connections, and created a new regulator – the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
As crisis-ridden state agencies were corralled into the new system, public investment continued to fall, hitting below $10m in 2022.
“Procurement is going to be a big thing … and absolutely the test for the procurement system and for the regulatory authority,” said Lamia Moubayed, head of an in-house research and training institute at Lebanon’s Finance Ministry.
Rana Rizkallah, a procurement expert at the same institute, says the law is solid, but it’s up to the government to implement what it promised, adding that a crucial part of that is staffing the regulator.
The PPA is supposed to be a board of five members backed by a team of 83 staffers but, three years after the law went into effect in 2022, it has a single member and five employees overseeing 1,400 purchasing bodies.
A four-member complaints board that the law established also has yet to be formed, so complaints still go to Lebanon’s slow, overburdened courts.
Jean Ellieh, the regulator’s president and sole member, says the state doesn’t have the “logistical capacity” to recruit dozens of regulators in one fell swoop, but he’s put in a request for new hires.
“We will work with determination and resolve, regardless of our capabilities,” Ellieh told Al Jazeera. “We will not give anyone an excuse to evade the application of the law.”
He added that donors have expressed “satisfaction” with the PPA’s abilities.
Bonanzas to the well-connected
After several lean years in which the state had to keep spending to a bare minimum, the contracting scene remains dominated by the large companies that built up enough resources from earlier rounds of investment to stay afloat.
Wassim Maktabi, economist and co-author of the 2022 report on cartel behaviour in construction contracting, said it would be a tall order to ensure that reconstruction isn’t another bonanza for the well-connected.
“Rest assured that these political elites will not let this slip,” he said.
In addition, years of high-value contracts mean politically connected firms have accumulated the capital to be, in most respects, bigger and more experienced than competitors.
“Even if political influence was not a factor and you awarded these contracts purely based on merit,” he said, these firms “would still get a large piece of the pie”.
Despite a ceasefire, Israel has continued attacking Lebanon, increasing the damage (Al Jazeera)
Regardless, Maktabi says, reconstruction is simply too important to stall in pursuit of perfection.
Al Jazeera has identified 152 reconstruction contracts totalling more than $30m that are already under way, via the PPA’s online portal. Of the top four contract winners in dollar terms, two have political connections mentioned in media reports.
The top four companies, Beta Engineering and Contracting, Elie Naim Maalouf Company, Al Bonyan Engineering and Contracting, and Yamen General Trading and Contracting, have won contracts totalling $10.6m, $4.7m, $1.8m, and $1.4m, respectively – 60 percent of the total amount awarded in the PPA contracts examined.
Pushing for reformist credibility
The new government is negotiating with the World Bank on a $980m plan, known as LEAP, to kick-start reconstruction and be funded by a World Bank loan and foreign assistance.
But LEAP would only take care of a fraction of the total reconstruction costs.
The government also started hiring for a long-stalled electricity regulatory board and new faces on the CDR board.
A woman walks through the damage an Israeli airstrike caused, in Beirut on April 1, 2025 [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]
Moubayed says refreshing the CDR board is a World Bank requirement to approve LEAP, which would be a vital win for a government pushing to gain reformist credibility.
The World Bank declined to comment on whether refreshing the CDR board is a requirement.
It’s still unclear how the programme might be structured, but the government has endorsed the creation of a trust fund for post-war reconstruction, “characterised by transparency”.
But, Beirut residents were unhappy with a similar model used in 2020 for the Port blast reconstruction, architect and urbanist Abir Saksouk of Public Works Studio says.
A lack of equity between residents, based on which organisation took over repairing each area, further eroded a sense of shared citizenship, she says, calling it an experience that shouldn’t be repeated.
She is one of many calling for an inclusive reconstruction process led by all stakeholders, including people who have suffered damages, and with the involvement of relevant ministries, because they are a vital part of the process.
