Germany has swung to the right, with yesterday’s elections looking likely to give the conservative group of parties the most seats in the Bundestag, and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) the second most – its best-ever result. While it may take weeks to form a coalition government, the man most likely to be chancellor is Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz. Understanding him can tell us a lot about where Germany – and the whole continent of Europe – may be headed in the coming months and years.

Today marks three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, with Donald Trump pushing hard for peace talks, some may believe the end of the war could be in sight. But historian Alex Titov argues that the position of Russia or Ukraine will have to change substantially before a deal will be done, and that in the meantime the fighting could well become bloodier than ever.

If you’ve ever been on the end of an attempted fraud via phone, email or social media, it might have come from south-east Asia, where hundreds of thousands of people – many the victims of trafficking from around the world – work in “scam factories”. In a new interactive multimedia and podcast series, The Conversation takes you inside these brutal fraud compounds with the help of researchers who’ve interviewed almost 100 scam workers to uncover the terrible, often violent conditions they endure.