Early bird: The clear winner of the German elections is the conservative CDU/CSU. On the eve of the Oscars, the ecclesiastical thriller Conclave was succesful.

Merz wants a new German government by Easter

In the anticipated German parliamentary elections, the conservative union CDU/CSU clinched a clear victory as expected. Their election leader Friedrich Merz is thus likely heading into the chancellor's seat.

The CDU/CSU won with 28.6 percent of the votes. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, known as a right-wing populist to far-right party, finished second with 20.8 percent of the votes. The third Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Chancellor Olaf Scholz received 16.4 percent of the votes, which is the worst result for this party in the federal elections. Seats in the federal parliament were also acquired by the Greens (11.6 percent) and the Left (8.8 percent).

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The elections, which were marked by an unusually high voter turnout between 83 and 84 percent since the reunification of Germany, have a clear winner, wrote the server Ceskenoviny.cz.

Conclave triumphed at SAG Awards, Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor

The papal thriller Conclave was the best film and Timothée Chalamet won best actor at Sunday's 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards. Edward Berger's drama succeeded at a time when the Catholic Church is praying for the health of Pope Francis. He remained in critical condition on Sunday after an asthmatic respiratory crisis. Other Oscar favorites - actors Demi Moore, Zoe Saldaña, and Kieran Culkin - also succeeded. The Screen Actors Guild Awards are closely watched as an Oscar harbinger. However, their choice does not always exactly match the selection from the Film Academy, reported the agency AP.

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The world's oldest rune stone has multiple pieces containing mysterious messages

The world's oldest rune stone, which was found in 2023, is a piece of a larger, almost 2000-year-old slab, as a new study has found out. Now, scientists in Norway are working on reassembling the ancient puzzle. The result should be to find out who carved the mysterious rune script on the slab and what these words actually mean.

Runes were the building blocks of the first Germanic script during the first few centuries AD, and were reportedly used up until the late Middle Ages. Numerous stones carved with runes, which were found in Scandinavia, carry fascinating messages - for example about a powerful Viking queen or a warning of icy climate changes based on past events, CNN reported.

Thieves used a stolen card to purchase a lottery ticket, which then won half a million euros

Using a stolen card, French thieves purchased a lottery ticket, which then won 500,000 euros, i.e. more than 12.5 million crowns. However, they disappeared before they managed to collect the winnings. The operator of the state lottery La Française des Jeux stated that no one has yet presented the ticket for payment. As a result, the thieves are now among the most notorious French fugitives. The original owner of the ticket found out earlier this month that someone stole a backpack from his car in Toulouse, where he had documents and other valuable items, as reported by the AP agency.

Sources: Ceskenoviny.cz, CNN, AP