FRANKFURT (AFP) – Germans began voting in two key state elections in a test for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious coalition halfway through its term, while the resurgent far right may get another boost.

A surge in immigration and economic woes are top issues for the nearly 14 million people eligible to cast ballots in Bavaria, the country’s biggest state, and in Hesse.

With the combined voter base making up almost one in five of Germany’s electorate, and both states qualifying as economic heavyweights among the country’s 16 regions, the elections are seen as a crucial indicator of the population’s mood.

After forming a three-party coalition two years ago, Scholz has had to contend with Russia-Ukraine war and the ensuing energy crisis, which plunged Germany into recession.

Adding to its problems, the chancellor’s coalition – comprising his centre-left SPD, the Greens and the pro-business FDP – has been consumed by bitter infighting on issues ranging from climate laws to spending cuts.

“The parties that form the federal government are in a bad starting position here,” Arndt Leininger, a political expert from the Chemnitz University of Technology, told AFP.

“In both states, all three parties are currently below their results in the last regional elections,” he said.

Not helping the cause of the SPD and its coalition partners, both states are conservative strongholds, with Hesse ruled for 24 years by the main opposition CDU and Bavaria since 1957 by the CSU, headed by Markus Soeder.

Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is forecast to make gains after a recent surge in poll ratings at the national level and a string of local election victories.

While the AfD is not expected to enter government in either state – its strongholds are in eastern Germany – further progress would ring alarm bells anew about the party’s growing popularity.

The AfD is traditionally an anti-immigration party but has also focused on attacking the coalition’s climate policies, driven by the Greens, that have been unpopular, with critics saying they could unduly burden households.

Immigration has emerged as a central theme for the elections as Germany – like elsewhere in Europe – faces a surge of new arrivals, reviving memories of a major influx in 2015.

In a recent survey Bavarians cited it as the most important subject, and on Friday, state premier Soeder, whose CSU is the sister party of the CDU, renewed calls for a tougher approach.

“The borders must be secured and they must be secured the way that the Bavarian border police do it,” he told broadcaster ZDF, while criticising Scholz’s coalition for sweeping the issue under the carpet.

CAIRO (AP) – A policeman opened fire on tourists in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt killing at least two Israelis and one Egyptian, Israeli and Egyptian authorities said.

A statement from Egypt’s Interior Ministry said that another person was wounded in the attack at the Pompey’s Pillar site in Alexandria. It provided no further details.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry identified the wounded person as an Israeli who suffered moderate  injuries. The ministry said in a statement that Israeli authorities were working with the Egyptian government to bring the Israelis home.

Extra News television channel, which has close ties to Egyptian security agencies, reported that the suspected assailant was detained.

The dead Egyptian was a tour guide, according to media outlets. Security forces quickly cordoned off the site of the attack.

Graphic footage posted on social media showed two people lying motionless on the ground.

Another was seen being helped by a group of men. One woman was heard shouting for an  ambulance.

The attack triggered mixed reactions from social media users. Some lauded the attack in Alexandria while others condemned the killing of civilians visiting Egypt.

Writing on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, renowned Egyptian writer and TV host Ibrahim Issa called the attack a terrorist crime, adding that, “any attempt to justify it is a crime against humanity and the nation”.

NECOCLI (AP) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams capped off a four-day trip to Latin America on Saturday by calling for a “right to work” for migrants in the United States (US).

He spoke during a visit to Necocli, the northern Colombia town where thousands of migrants start the perilous trek across the roadless Darien jungle into Panama, as they head for the US.

Speaking from a dock where migrants take boats toward the jungle, Adams said countries in the region need to “come together” to find solutions to the immigration crisis being felt across the Americas as well as in cities in the US, including New York.

He called on the US goverment to find pathways for migrants and asylum seekers to work legally in the US.

“When you look at Colombia they have really shown how to absorb individuals into their societies, and one of the most important ways to do it is to allow people to work,” Adams told reporters in Necocli.

“Nothing is more humane and, nothing is more American than your right to work, and we believe that is a right we should extend.”

New York City has struggled to provide emergency accommodation to tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in the city this year, with Adams and other city leaders calling on the federal government to speed up work authorisations for those who are already in the  city.

A unique rule dating from the 1980s requires New York to provide shelter to anyone in need.

Adams has said the cost of supporting migrants could climb to USD12 billion in the following three years, and this week challenged the statute that obliges the city to provide migrants with shelter.

The mayor also went to Ecuador and Mexico during his whistlestop tour, where he visited shelters for migrants and spoke to local legislators.

After stopping in Mexico’s Puebla state, Adams said his city is “at capacity”.

“Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not,” Adams told reporters. “We don’t want to put people in congregate shelters. We don’t want people to think they will be employed.”

In Colombia, Adams said his goal is not to tell migrants what they should do, but to learn about their motives and find solutions to the immigration crisis.

The South American country has received 2.8 million migrants from Venezuela over the past seven years, and enabled them to apply for 10-year residency permits that also give them access to health and education services.

But despite the effort to regularize Venezuelan migrants, many are heading to the US after struggling to rebuild their lives in Colombia and other South American countries, where economies are still reeling from the pandemic.

According to Panama’s National Immigration Service, more than 200,000 Venezuelans crossed the Darien Gap this year on their way to the United States.

Many are moving for the second or third time, after living in South American countries like Colombia, Chile and Peru.

This week the Biden administration struck a deal with Venezuela’s socialist government to resume direct deportations flights to Venezuela and said that Venezuelans who do not qualify for ayslum will be returned to their homeland.

In Necocli, some Venezuelan migrants headed north said they would persist in their trek to reach the US border despite the new policy.

“Getting in the US is also a matter of luck,” said Miguel Ruben Camacaro, a Venezuelan migrant travelling with his two children and sleeping on a tent at Necocli’s beach. “We will chase the dream, until there are no other options.”

At a news conference later in Bogota, Adams said countries like Colombia need more support with programmes that incorporate migrants so people don’t make the dangeous trek north.

The mayor described the visit as an eye opener, saying he was saddened to see dozens of families with children sleeping on the beach at Necocli in tents while they gather enough money to take boats toward the Darien jungle.

QUITO (AP) – A seventh man accused in the August assassination of an Ecuadorian presidential candidate was killed inside a prison in Ecuador’s capital, authorities said on Saturday, a day after six others allegedly linked to the crime were slain in a different lockup.

The killing of the seven suspects happened a little more than a week before Ecuador holds a presidential runoff election and as officials struggle to explain how this was possible.

The prison system said in a press release that the man killed was being held at a prison in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. It released no details of how it happened and identified him only “José M”, without giving his nationality.

Six Colombian men charged in the August 9 assassination of Fernando Villavicencio were killed on Friday inside a prison in Guayaquil.

President Guillermo Lasso called an emergency meeting of his security Cabinet, which decided to move the remaining six suspects in the assassination to a different prison, a government statement said. It didn’t identify the prison to which they were sent for security reasons.

The government also fired the prisons system director and the police chief of investigations, the presidential communication office said in a press release.

The killings came as the Prosecutor’s Office is expected to announce soon the conclusion of the investigation stage into the killing of Villavicencio, who was gunned down while leaving a political rally.

The 59-year-old politician had not been considered among the front-runners for the election’s first round on August 20, but his killing in broad daylight was a shocking reminder of the surge in crime gripping Ecuador. He had reported being threatened by affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, one of the many international organised crime groups operating in Ecuador.

Ecuador is holding the runoff presidential election on October 15 pitting the two top finishers in the August vote – leftist Luisa González and former lawmaker Daniel Noboa, who is the son of a banana tycoon.

WHITE TOWNSHIP (AP) – One person was killed and five were wounded in a shooting during a private party at a Pennsylvania community centre in the United States yesterday, police said.

Police and emergency services responded at 12.35am to a reported shooting at the Chevy Chase Community Center in White Township, the Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement.

Police said six people were shot and one was pronounced dead at the scene in White Township, which is located about 91.7 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh in Indiana County.

Surviving victims were transported to Indiana Regional Medical Center in Indiana and UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh with at least two of the victims believed to be in serious condition, police said.

State police said they did not have any suspects in custody yesterday. The police statement did not provide details about a possible motive, whether there was more than one suspect or if they were attending the party.