AP Top News at 6:49 p.m. EST

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz won a lackluster victory in a national election Sunday, while Alternative for Germany doubled its support in the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II, projections showed. Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded defeat for his center-left Social Democrats after what he called “a bitter election result.” Projections for ARD and ZDF public television showed his party finishing in third place with its worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election. Merz said he hopes to put a coalition government together by Easter. But that's likely to be challenging. The election took place seven months earlier than originally planned after Scholz’s unpopular coalition collapsed in November, three years into a term that was increasingly marred by infighting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Sunday that it was placing all but a fraction of staffers at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave worldwide and eliminating at least 1,600 U.S.-based jobs. The move was the latest and one of the biggest steps yet toward what President Donald Trump and cost-cutting ally Elon Musk say is their goal of gutting the six-decade-old aid and development agency in a broader campaign to slash the size of the federal government. The move comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A contentious Trump administration proposal to give the U.S. $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine's rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv has been taken off the table, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday, indicating a more equitable deal is in the works. Zelenskyy had earlier declined a U.S. draft agreement on exploitation of his country's valuable minerals such as lithium used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries because it did not contain security guarantees and came with the $500 billion price tag. “The question of $500 billion is no longer there,” Zelenskyy told a news conference at a forum of government officials in Kyiv marking the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis remained in critical condition Sunday and blood tests showed early kidney failure but he remains alert, responsive and attended Mass, the Vatican said, as the 88-year-old pontiff battles pneumonia and a complex lung infection. In a late update, the Vatican said Francis hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday night but was still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen. Some blood tests showed “initial, mild, kidney failure,” but doctors said it was under control. “The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for drug therapies to provide some feedback, dictate that the prognosis remains guarded,” Francis' doctors concluded.

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return. Associated Press journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan.

YORK, Pa. (AP) — Workers at a Pennsylvania hospital who were injured during a shooting that left the gunman and a police officer dead were reported “medically stable” Sunday as the hospital remained closed to visitors, according to the hospital. Investigators were still piecing together what happened a day after a man armed with a pistol and carrying zip ties headed straight to the intensive care unit at UPMC Memorial Hospital in York and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police in a shootout that also left an officer dead. A doctor, a nurse, a custodian and two other police officers were shot and wounded in the attack at the central Pennsylvania hospital on Saturday, authorities said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's fifth week in office included a dramatic shift in U.S. policy toward Russia, firing the country’s senior military officer, sitting for a chummy interview alongside bureaucracy-buster Elon Musk and seeking greater authority over independent regulatory agencies. Trump also said “inflation is back,” but said his short time back in the White House meant he had "nothing to do” with prices remaining high. That deflection can only work for so long, unless the economic outlook changes. Consumer sentiment suggests that isn't happening. A look at where things stand after the first month of Trump's second term: Trump dispatched top foreign policy advisers to Saudi Arabia for direct talks with Russian officials that were aimed at ending Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the last week, sparking confusion across key agencies as billionaire Elon Musk expands his drive to slash the size of federal government. Musk, who serves as President Donald Trump's cost-cutting chief, telegraphed the extraordinary request Saturday on his social media network. “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx.

ROME (AP) — An American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi, India, landed safely in Rome on Sunday afternoon after it was diverted due to a security concern, which later proved to be “non-credible,” the airline said. American Airlines said Flight 292 “was inspected by law enforcement" after landing at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport and “cleared to re-depart.” It didn't clarify the cause of the security concern, but added an inspection was required by protocol before the flight could land in New Delhi. “The flight will stay in Rome overnight to allow for required crew rest before continuing to Delhi as soon as possible tomorrow," the airline said.

The 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night should offer the final clue in an unusually unpredictable Oscar race. The other major awards — including the BAFTAs, the Producers Guild Awards, the Directors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes — have all had their say. But actors make up the largest piece of the film academy pie, so their picks often correspond strongly with Academy Award winners. After wins from the PGA and the DGA — and last night, the Independent Spirit Awards — Sean Baker’s “Anora” is seen as the favorite to win best picture in a week’s time at the Oscars.