AfD Predicted To Win In Saxony-Anhalt As Merz Panics, Antifa Floods Streets

 Voters in Saxony-Anhalt head to the polls today in an election that could deliver Germany's most massive political shock in decades, with the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland on track to beat Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats.

Final polling estimates put the AfD at 40% to 41%, nearly double the CDU's 23%. The party's lead candidate, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, has ruled out governing in a coalition, suggesting the AfD would need an outright majority to take power of its first German state government.

About 1.7 million people are set to vote today, with polls closing at 6 p.m. local time. AfD's rapid ascent comes as voters are furious over Germany's stagnant economy, deindustrialization, energy costs, and the Third World migrant invasion.

The Polymarket bet on how many seats the AfD is expected to win today assigns a 74% probability to 38 to 41 seats, with 42 to 45 seats at 16%.

Ahead of the historic election, thousands of far-left Antifa crazies took to the streets wearing all black and holding Antifa and LGBT flags. Others were seen carrying signs reading "FCK NZS" and "FCK AFD."

A reported 15,000 left-wing activists joined a so-called pro-democracy festival in the state capital, Magdeburg, on Saturday, organized by the "Saxony-Anhalt Open to the World" alliance. Yet the whole globalist cult in Germany has likely run its course. It has been nothing more than what some call a nation-killing experiment, pushing uncontrolled mass migration and deindustrialization policies that have sent Europe's largest economy into a tailspin.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday threatened the AfD, saying, "We will not let these people, who trash Germany and everything we have achieved in recent years and decades," before adding, "We will not let these people talk our country into ruin!"

German politics coverage:

• Germany Braces For AfD Election Breakthrough In Saxony-Anhalt

• Germany's Anti-Immigration AfD Party Reaches Record Support Days Before Pivotal State Election

• "Citizens Want Political Turnaround": AfD Now Polls At 43% Across Eastern Germany

• Merz Warns Right-Wing Victory Will Hurt Germany, But Nomura Says Investors Aren't Buying It

What Nomura analysts see over the next 18-month election cycle across Europe: 

• "Seeds Of Political Change": Nomura Sees Europe Lurching Right, And Markets Are Fine With It

Yet what did Merz actually achieve? Destroying Germany's economy? That is something he certainly accomplished.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/afd-predicted-win-saxony-anhalt-merz-panics-antifa-floods-streets

Wright says US gas prices more likely to go down than up

 MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR:  Thanks, Rachel.

I'm joined now by the secretary of Energy, Chris Wright.

Good morning, Mr. Secretary.

As you know, we have renewed fighting with Iran. In fact, Iran is claiming they hit some ships overnight. President Trump has called this small potatoes, but it seems like we are still at war.

ENERGY SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT:  Look, it's a challenge. Iran is doing everything they can to cling on to something. They know their nuclear program's coming to an end. Their navy has come to an end. Their air force has come to an end.

They're clinging on to power as the United States continues to escalate the volume of oil that transits through the Strait of Hormuz. And when you add it together with the bypass pipelines, we're at two-thirds or so of total pre-conflict transits. And the world's had some buffers to not completely, but mostly offset that. So, things aren't looking so good for Iran.

RADDATZ:  But would you say we're still at war? They did hit -- they did launch ballistic missiles.

WRIGHT:  We're still in a conflict, for sure. The United States Navy is there to reduce Iran's ability to cause trouble, but they're doing everything they can to cause trouble. And the United States' capabilities to deflect that have continued to grow. But we're in a conflict zone.

RADDATZ:  You said that Monday we broke a wartime record with 17 million barrels a day passing through. The average before the war was 20 million barrels a day. Have we sustained that this week? What was our seven-day average?

WRIGHT:  The seven-day average right now is a little over 9 million barrels a day, which is the highest the seven-day average has ever been. So it continues to migrate up. And then there's also the bypass pipelines through Saudi Arabia, through the United Arab Emirates. And when you add those together, the flow out of that region is more like 13, 14 million barrels a day.

RADDATZ:  You also said, and just now again, that Iran is losing its ability to hold the world economic hostage. You talk about our troops being there. We have 50,000 troops being there. They are certainly escorting -- helping to escort these ships.

How long can we sustain that? Do we have to have that to maintain this?

WRIGHT:  Well, we'd love to see help from allies in the region, and I suspect we'll see some of that. But the critical mission that our Navy is doing is not just to escort the ships out, but it's to prevent any Iranian oil or any other export products from coming out. That's very important for the economic pressure in Iran that'll either change their regime or it'll change their regime's policies.

So this is a conflict, make no mistake about that. But a nuclear armed Iran is an existential threat, not just for the region, but for the world economy.

I'm very proud of President Trump, not just kicking this can down the road like previous presidents have done, but saying we've got to end that capability. We've got to reset the Middle East so it can have generations of peace and prosperity.

RADDATZ:  Well, let's talk about gas prices. Right now, the average is $4.10 a gallon. A year ago, the Labor Day average was $3.16 a gallon. Diesel prices are also soaring.

Just a few weeks ago -- you mentioned President Trump -- he dismissed the increase in gas prices as just a tiny bit.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, just remember, you're doing it so that a very evil country cannot have -- a country really is the number one state sponsor of terror in the world. We don't want to have them have a nuclear weapon. So remember that.

When you have to pay a little bit more, you're at $4. It's OK. I mean, it's -- I'm not -- I'm not -- I'll never apologize. I did the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ:  OK. It's been more than six months of paying higher prices. And there is also no sign of a nuclear agreement. You talk about that, President Trump talks about that. But where's the sign that they're going to have a nuclear agreement?

WRIGHT:  There may not be a nuclear agreement. It may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it. An agreement may await the next administration in Iran. We simply don't know that.

But I think what the president was communicating there is how critically important this is. If Iran has nuclear weapons, the Middle East, the world is a wildly different place than it is today. And the Trump administration, as you heard last year at Labor Day, incredibly low gas prices at the end of peak driving season.

Yes, they're higher today, but we're doing everything we can to push them down. We changed refinery specs recently so that American refineries can produce more gasoline and diesel. New York, Connecticut, California, and other Democratic-run states decided not to adopt those. Their goal is to raise energy prices. California's had that goal for quite some time.

RADDATZ:  Mr. Secretary, I've got to stop you there. You said we may not get a nuclear agreement. So how do we keep them from having a nuclear weapon? Just keep bombing when they build things up?

WRIGHT:  You have to destroy their capabilities to do it. They built a massive missile infrastructure to manufacture missiles, which you see them firing today, but they don't have the capability to build more missiles. We are degrading their capacity to develop nuclear weapons and ultimately to deliver them if they develop them.

It is 47-year-long effort. This is not trivial, but the United States will get the job done and we will work in cooperation with our allies in the region. And I think you'll see countries from around the world joining this effort as well.

RADDATZ:  And realistically, let's again talk about gas prices. How soon should Americans see these go down? We know you have this deal with Venezuela that could take years before we see any effect of that.

Will we see a change before the midterm? When will we see those gas prices go down?

WRIGHT:  Well, if you look at the futures prices, you wanted to buy today in bulk gasoline for two months out in November, it's about 35 cents cheaper than it is today. So the marketplace thinks gasoline prices are going to move meaningfully lower. So trust the market, certainly don't trust my predictions.

But we're doing everything we can to grow the production of gasoline as we pass Labor Day tomorrow, you start to see demand decline as we move out of summer driving season. So the Trump administration is leaning in heavily in that area.

And Venezuela, I wouldn't discount it. Things there are going well ahead of plan. Venezuelan oil exports are up 50 percent. Their total national production is up 25 percent and billions of dollars of new investment has been announced.

The Trump administration is working on all fronts from the Gulf of America to Alaska to onshore in the U.S. to our allies in the hemisphere to grow energy production in long term to reset energy prices lower and more stable supply chain.

RADDATZ:  And, Mr. Secretary, just finally, you negotiated this Venezuelan deal with Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president under the Maduro regime, the regime that the Trump administration attacked as a socialist dictatorship. Why do you trust her?

WRIGHT:  Well, I wasn't the negotiator on the deal, but she -- we have a lot of leverage over Venezuela. We control the sale of oil outside of their country. So right now, they are forced to work in partnership with us and they are working in partnership with us.

It's drawing billions of dollars in investment and it's transforming that region from a region of conflict to a region of commerce. I think the momentum going that direction, whoever is ruling Venezuela is quite strong, very, very positive for the hemis -- for the Western Hemisphere.

RADDATZ:  Thanks very much for joining us this morning, Mr. Secretary.

https://abcnews.com/Politics/week-transcript-9-6-26-energy-secretary-chris/story?id=136225571

London penthouses linked to Iran’s Supreme Leader put up for sale – Sunday Times

 Two luxury London penthouses linked to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, bought for a combined £36 million, have been put up for sale, The Sunday Times reported.

The apartments are at 3a Palace Green, an exclusive development overlooking Kensington Palace and close to the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Both properties include staff accommodation and private roof terraces, according to the report.

One is a five-bedroom duplex covering 3,944 square feet across the sixth and seventh floors. It was purchased for £19 million in 2016 but is now being offered for just under £12 million.

Knight Frank and Sotheby’s International Realty are jointly marketing the apartment. The listing describes it as “an exceptional duplex penthouse with staff accommodation and commanding unrivalled views across Kensington Gardens from one of London’s most prestigious addresses.”

The brochure does not identify its politically sensitive connections but notes: “Due to the property being in receivership, we do not have all of the material information for the property; therefore you should ensure you make all relevant inquiries,” the report said.

The second penthouse occupies the seventh and eighth floors of the same building. It was bought for £16.75 million in 2014 and has also entered receivership.

Land Registry documents show that financial advisory firm Teneo was appointed as its receiver, the report said, adding that the apartment does not appear to have been publicly listed, leaving its asking price unknown.

Several prospective buyers are believed to have viewed the properties amid significant interest, according to The Sunday Times.

The registered owner of both apartments is Iranian banker Ali Ansari, whom the US Treasury sanctioned in July as a “key financier” for Khamenei. Washington said Ansari “oversees a sprawling global network of assets benefiting Iran’s leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and other regime elites.”

Ansari was previously sanctioned by Britain over allegations that he financed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His British assets were frozen, and he was barred from entering the country. He is understood to deny wrongdoing.

The British government is believed to have authorized the sale of the two apartments after Ansari defaulted on their mortgages, according to The Sunday Times. The private lenders that financed the purchases appointed receivers to recover their money, although the amount originally borrowed is not known.

Any proceeds remaining after the lenders are repaid are expected to be frozen while Ansari remains under sanctions.

Neither Khamenei nor Ansari has been seen by employees at the Palace Green development since the apartments were purchased, the newspaper reported.

Since his father was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes in February, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen or heard publicly, leaving his condition and circumstances unclear.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202609061712

'Iran has only 30 million barrels of oil left for China, Bessent says'

 Iran has about 30 million barrels of crude oil remaining that China has not already purchased, and US sanctions and a naval blockade will soon prevent Tehran from supplying more, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox News.

“There’s probably only about 30 million barrels of Iranian crude oil left that China hasn’t bought,” Bessent said. “So that will run out soon, and there will be no problem with China buying because they have no product.”

Bessent described the pressure campaign, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast,” as the largest effort to isolate a country economically and said Washington intended to “asphyxiate” Iran’s ruling establishment.

“The blockade is working like nothing we’ve ever seen, and the combination - everyone says sanctions don’t work - but I can tell you, blockade and sanctions are one of the most powerful one-two punches in the history of economic isolation,” he said.

Asked about his prediction that the Strait of Hormuz would become irrelevant to the oil industry within two years, Bessent said oil-producing countries around the Persian Gulf were developing “alternative pipeline routes that will no longer entail oil going through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Bessent also rejected the suggestion that Iran controlled the waterway.

“The Iranian chokehold, to the extent they have one - and I can tell you, they do not have one - we are in control of the strait,” he said. “To the extent that they can threaten their neighbors, once we leave, that will not exist anymore.”

Iran’s Economy Ministry has established an “economic war” command center to coordinate and accelerate responses to economic problems caused by the conflict, deputy economy Minister Morteza Zamanian said on Sunday.

He acknowledged that higher energy prices caused by the conflict were affecting Americans but predicted that the shock would end and wage growth would continue.

“This war will end, and those will turn into real wage gains,” Bessent said.

He added that the administration expected the conflict to leave Iran unable to develop a nuclear weapon.

“I think we are going to get to the other side of this Iran conflict with a safer world, with an Iran that cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

The United States imposed a naval blockade in July alongside expanded sanctions aimed at restricting Iran’s oil exports and cutting a key source of government revenue.

Iran’s Economy Ministry has, meanwhile, established an “economic war” command center to coordinate and accelerate responses to economic problems caused by the conflict, Deputy Economy Minister Morteza Zamanian said on Sunday.

The center will initially focus on problems affecting businesses, trade and financing within the ministry’s authority, while using government economic bodies to coordinate responses across agencies, he added.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202609063834

'Turkey hopes to produce nuclear power by year end'

 Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar (pictured) said on Sunday that the country hopes to start operating its first nuclear power plant before the end of the year.

"We are currently in the testing phase of the first reactor. We want to complete the tests step by step and commission the first reactor by the end of 2026. Our goal is to produce electricity by the end of 2026," Bayraktar told the Sabah newspaper. "Work continues on the other reactors as well. We have a plan to establish a data center along with the third and fourth reactors. We are working on this," he added.

After Turkey signed a deal with Russia's Rosatom in 2010, the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant began in 2017, with the goal of the plant producing 10% of the country's electricity once fully operational. Bayraktar added that Russia has shown interest in participating in more nuclear projects in Turkey.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Turkey-hopes-to-produce-nuclear-power-by-year-end/67051887

'Turkey sees 2026 inflation at 28.4%'

 Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on Sunday that the country's inflation rate is expected to stand at 28.4% at the end of this year.

In a speech on the economic Medium-Term Program (MTP) for the 2027-2020 period, Yilmaz noted that inflation is seen rising 21% in 2027 and 13.5% in 2028. He added that Turkey's inflation is set to fall to single digits by the end of the MTP.

Meanwhile, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 3.3% in 2026, with the economy then expected to expand by 4.2% in 2027 and by 4.6% in 2028.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Turkey-sees-2026-inflation-at-28.4/67052068

Antifungal therapy restores gut microbiome in IBD patients

A commonly used systemic antifungal medication may help reduce symptoms in a subset of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by restoring a healthier gut microbiome, according to a preliminary study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The study, published Sept.1 in Nature Medicine, provides what is thought to be the first evidence that targeting intestinal fungal dysbiosis can reshape bacterial and fungal microbiome dynamics in patients with IBD, and establishes a framework for mycobiome-guided precision therapies. It compared the effects of two weeks of treatment with the antifungal mouthwash nystatin with the systemic antifungal medication fluconazole in 53 patients already receiving standard therapies for mild to moderate IBD who had an oral fungal infection called thrush. 

The  study enrolled 53 patients with mild-to-moderate Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis and mild oral thrush who were receiving routine clinical care at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Patients who received fluconazole – an antifungal medication that acts systemically and throughout the gastrointestinal tract – but not oral nystatin wash – which acts locally in the mouth –experienced improved IBD symptoms and a healthier gut microbial community after treatment. Notably, fluconazole reduced the intestinal Candida burden and reshaped gut fungal communities. These changes led to increased bacterial diversity, enhanced butyrate production and improved clinical disease activity.

“These results highlight the potential of microbiome-based approaches to restore a balanced microbial community in the gut,” said Iliyan D. Iliev, professor of immunology in medicine and co-director of the microbiome core laboratory at the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Upon reducing intestinal Candida burden, we observed recovery of some beneficial bacteria, restored production of microbial metabolites associated with intestinal health and improvements in clinical disease activity. These findings support the concept that disease-associated fungi play a role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease in some patients.”

The study is the result of more than a decade of research by Iliev’s laboratory on how fungal organisms in the gastrointestinal tract interact with the immune system and the overall gut microbiota. Through close collaboration with his clinical colleague, Dr. Ellen Scherl, the founding director of the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Iliev has shown that some patients with IBD and related conditions have an intestinal overgrowth of the fungus Candida albicans. Previous studies from the laboratory demonstrated that certain strains of C. albicans produce candidalysin, a toxin capable of damaging intestinal epithelial cells and triggering inflammatory immune responses that contributes to worsening symptoms. In mouse models, Iliev and his team have shown that Candida overgrowth can hamper the effects of anti-inflammatory IBD medications because the immune system ramps up inflammation to fight the fungal infection.

“In this context, the gut fungi can work against you,” said Xiangyu Pan, a postdoctoral researcher and first author of the study. “Overgrowth of fungi and a toxin they produce may affect how a disease progresses and how patients respond to treatment.”

Treating the fungal overgrowth, the team hypothesized, might reduce symptoms. But first they had to decide which patients might benefit. The researchers discovered that genetically related C. albicans strains were often shared between the oral cavity and the gastrointestinal tract of the same patient. 

They learned that a simple cheek swab worked because the fungi in the mouth mirror those in the gut. IBD patients with thrush were treated with nystatin or fluconazole to clear the oral fungal infection.

Although both antifungal therapies resolved oral thrush, only fluconazole effectively reduced intestinal Candida burden and triggered broad remodeling of the gut microbiome with durable changes that persisted weeks after treatment.

In addition to microbiome improvements, patients receiving fluconazole were more likely to experience reductions in disease activity and had a lower probability of disease progression during the eight-week follow-up period.

While the study was not designed to establish therapeutic efficacy and was not randomized or placebo-controlled, the findings support further testing of antifungal co-therapy in biomarker-selected patient populations. The next step will be a larger, multicenter placebo-controlled trial to confirm the results, said Scherl, who is also a gastroenterologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The researchers would also like to determine if patients without thrush who have a positive cheek swab for Candida would also benefit. 

If their future studies are successful, fungal- or other microbiome-targeted therapies may help prevent the progression of diseases affecting the gut and may help reduce the need for immune-suppressing medications, which could increase the risk of infections or cancer.

“If we can modulate immune-mediated inflammation by understanding and targeting the gut fungal regulators, we might be able to favorably impact the natural progression of inflammatory bowel disease, both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis,” Scherl said. “Further studies are warranted to determine what subtype of inflammatory bowel disease would respond best. This is a start.”

The research was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Irma T. Hirschl Career Scientist Award, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation Innovator Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) Award and the Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old STAR Award.

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/09/antifungal-therapy-restores-gut-microbiome-ibd-patients