📌German Election, Space Satellite Race, More

The conservative opposition won Germany’s general election, but the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) could complicate matters.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) candidate Friedrich Merz was preparing on Sunday night to try to form a ruling coalition after clinching almost 29% of the vote from a high turnout.

The AfD, buoyed by anger about immigration, violent crime and high energy costs, got about 21% of the vote — finishing second and nearly doubling its result at the last election in 2021. The mainstream parties, however, are barring formal cooperation with the anti-migrant, pro-Kremlin AfD.

Merz’s conservatives will need to seek an alliance to govern, with the goal of having a new administration in place by Easter. His most likely coalition partner is seen as the Social Democrats, reports say. Together, they should have just enough to form a majority.

“For me, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA“ in defense matters, Merz said.

AfD co-leader, Alice Weidel said a three-way coalition government under Merz would be “unstable“ and predicted it would “not survive four years,“ at which point the AfD would be waiting in the wings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed Ukraine’s “absolute heroism” on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

European leaders arrived in Ukraine on Monday. “We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake.”

Images on social media showed Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disembarking from a train and greeting officials. Some roads in the center of Kyiv were blocked and police officers were deployed.

Moscow launched 185 attack drones on Ukraine, of which 113 had been downed and another 71 disappeared from radar after being jammed, Ukraine’s Air Force said Monday.

The attack comes a day after Ukraine faced its largest drone assault since Russia’s invasion, with 267 drones launched — 138 were intercepted, Ukrainian authorities said.

Space is about to get more crowded for Elon Musk.

The billionaire's Starlink communications network is facing increasingly stiff challenges to its dominance of high-speed satellite internet, including from a Chinese state-backed rival and another service financed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

Shanghai-based SpaceSail in November signed an agreement to enter Brazil and announced it was in talks with over 30 countries. Two months later, it began work in Kazakhstan, reports say. Separately, Brasília is in talks with Bezos's Project Kuiper internet service and Canada's Telesat, according to a Brazilian official.

Starlink has since 2020 launched more satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) than all its competitors combined. Satellites operating at such low altitudes transmit data extremely efficiently, providing high-speed internet for remote communities, seafaring vessels and militaries at war.

China launched a record 263 LEO satellites last year, a report said. The emergence of competition to Starlink has been welcomed by Brazil's government, which wants high-speed internet for communities in far-flung areas but has previously faced off with Musk over commerce and politics.

Few of Musk's international rivals have the same ambition as SpaceSail, controlled by the Shanghai municipal government. It plans to deploy 648 LEO satellites this year and 15,000 by 2030. Starlink has about 7,000 satellites, reports estimate, and has set itself a target of operating 42,000 by the end of the decade.

Just five minutes of light exercise a day could help prevent dementia, even for frail older adults, researchers found.

They found that engaging in as little as 35 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week — as compared to none at all — was associated with a 41% lower risk of developing dementia over an average four-year follow-up period.

Even for people at an elevated risk of "adverse health outcomes," greater activity was associated with lower dementia risk, the researchers noted. The higher the amount of physical activity, the lower the risk of dementia.

Dementia risks were 60% lower in participants who got 35-to-69.9 minutes of physical activity/week; 63% lower in the 70-to-139.9 minutes/week category; and 69% lower in the 140-and-over minutes/week category. Participants in the study had a median age of 63. Women made up 56% of the sample.

Over an average follow-up period of 4.4 years, 735 people in the group developed dementia. Researchers found that for every additional 30 minutes of weekly moderate to vigorous physical activity, there was a 4% reduction in dementia risk.

While public health guidelines usually recommend 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, the study aligns with a growing body of evidence supporting a "some-is-better-than-none" approach to physical activity.

Gen Z's workplace expectations challenge traditional norms, sparking comments about the future of employment.

Countless hours of staring at screens have damaged young Gen Z employees' ability to function well in the workplace, said Jonathan Haidt, a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business.

Social media has diminished their ability to pay attention and blocked growth opportunities, he said. “Those people are largely taking themselves out of the game. They're much less likely to ever amount to anything. They're less likely to develop social skills, less likely to marry.“

Martin Sorrell, founder of one of the largest advertising agencies, WPP, echoed Haidt's comments about Gen Z's attention span. “Getting them to watch things is totally different because they watch highlights — they’re multitasking even when they're watching highlights.“

Gen Z will make up 30% of the workforce by 2030, EY's global chair and CEO Janet Truncale said, adding she sees similar work output, ideas and innovation from that generation as her own. “There's just as much that we can be taking from the younger generations. We shouldn't be living a life of comparison.“

A former surgeon is set to stand trial in France today for the alleged rape or sexual abuse of 299 victims.

Most of the victims were children who were his patients, in what investigators and his own notebooks describe as a pattern of violence spanning over three decades. Joël Le Scouarnec, now 74, will face hundreds of victims during a four-month trial in Vannes, Brittany.

Scouarnec faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, on top of 15 years he has been serving after being found guilty in 2020 of rape and sexual assault of children. He does not deny the allegations, although he says he doesn't remember everything. Some survivors were unconscious at the time.

The case began in 2017 when a 6-year-old neighbor said Le Scouarnec had touched her over the fence separating their properties. A subsequent search of his home uncovered over 300,000 photos, 650 pedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video files, and notebooks describing himself as a pedophile.

In 2020, Le Scouarnec was convicted of rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces, and was sentenced to 15 years. The Vannes trial will examine alleged rapes and other abuses committed in 1989–2014 against 158 men and 141 women aged 11 on average.

Le Scouarnec had already been convicted in 2005 for possessing and importing child sexual abuse material and sentenced to four months of suspended prison time. Despite that conviction, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year.

A bus stop in Fowey, England, has been getting artistic makeovers from creative locals for two decades.

Dubbed the Pretty Bus Stop on Lankelly Lane in Cornwall, it was given its first makeover after it became a target for anti-social behavior. Over the next 20 years, the stop has been decorated as a tea room, a yacht race, a library, and even donned an Elvis theme at one point.

Volunteers step forward to redesign the grotto a couple of times each year — especially during the winter. Sarah Worne, the artist behind the new plant-themed design, has been helping to keep the tradition alive since 2021.

The latest theme is called Thyme to Stop, and features real — and painted — pots of seedlings and plants. “It was cold coming into February and everybody needs warming up, so we have made it look like you are sitting in a greenhouse,“ Worne said.

The bus stop even has its own Facebook page, with more than 2,700 followers. The stop has had many makeovers since its inception. “It is just trying to bring a bit of warmth as you are sitting there waiting for a bus,“ Worne said, adding she likes to “engage with the local community.“