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Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU and coalition partners SPD have managed to cling to power in two crucial state elections. However, these former strongholds have seen a surge in support for Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The states of Saxony and Brandenburg -once part of the East German DDR- have long been considered bastions of support for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD). However, parliamentary election results on Sunday have dealt another blow to the so-called 'Grand Coalition.'

Saxony has been ruled by CDU prime ministers since the 1990s and is considered by some as the party's spiritual home. However, the CDU saw its support drop to 32 percent on Sunday, down 7.4 points since the last election in 2014, according to an exit poll by German broadcaster ARD. While the party remains the largest in the state, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) came a close second, taking 27.5 percent of the vote on Sunday, up from 9.7 percent in 2014.

Brandenburg encircles Berlin, and has been ruled by the SPD since German reunification in 1990. The AfD's hopes of surrounding the German capital were dashed on Sunday, but not by a wide margin. The SPD won 27.5 percent of the vote, ahead of the AfD's 22.5 percent. In 2014, AfD only managed to score 12.2 percent, while the socialists took just under 32 percent.

While campaigning in Branderburg, AfD invoked the spirit of 1989 to win votes, printing posters bearing the slogan "Wende 2.0," referring to the German word for 'turnaround,' used to describe the collapse of East Germany. While the party made a name for itself by vocally opposing Merkel's 'open door' immigration policies, it has also positioned itself as a champion of the relatively disadvantaged east, protesting the planned closure of coal mines and calling for urban regeneration.

Though refugee and migrant arrivals to Germany have slowed since the initial 2015 influx - which saw more than a million new arrivals turn up in the country - AfD has managed to grow and strengthen, despite initial predictions that its popularity would wane as the refugee crisis abated. Previously unrepresented in the Bundestag, AfD became the parliament's third biggest party in the 2017 federal election, taking 12.6 percent of the vote.

The immigration of over 1 million refugees may have slowed but the effect being felt throughout society has only just begun.

With right-wing voters abandoning the establishment parties for AfD, left-wing voters are also being pulled away. The SPD, in particular, is currently going through arguably the worst popular support crisis in the party's modern history, with many members accusing leaders of drifting from party values over their years-long alliance with Merkel's CDU.

Waiting in the wings to hoover up the disaffected left vote are parties like the Greens, who though traditionally unpopular in eastern Germany, managed to make modest gains on Sunday. The Greens scored 8.8 percent in Saxony and 10.2 percent in Brandenburg, up from around six percent in both states in 2014.

While two poor results in state elections don't quite spell doom for Merkel's ruling coalition yet, they are an important barometer of public opinion, two years out from Germany's next federal election. Should the decline in support continue, and should all of the country's other political parties continue to rule out working with AfD, the question of who will steer Europe's economic powerhouse next is a truly open one.

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"With God's help we will extend Jewish sovereignty to all the settlements as part of the (biblical) Land of Israel, as part of the State of Israel," Netanyahu said in the West Bank settlement of Elkana at a Sunday ceremony marking the beginning of a new school year.

"This is our land," he added, as quoted by Reuters. "We will build another Elkana and in another Elkana and another Elkana. We will not uproot anyone here".

The Turkish President Erdogan changed his position on Idlib after his recent visit to Moscow. He stopped the supplies to the 'rebels' to allow the Syrian campaign against them to succeed. The so called 'rebels' it has long supported now turn against it.

Another data point that confirms that take is a sudden lack of anti-armor missiles in the hand of the 'rebels':

The use of anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) by militant groups against the Syrian Army in Idlib province has fallen to almost zero as of the final days of August.
...
Since the Syrian Army kicked-off its Greater Idlib ground offensive against Islamist groups in early May, about 100 guided missiles from various systems have been used by militant groups during the three and a half months since.

It is pretty obvious that Turkey ended its missile supply to the 'rebels':

[O]ne only needs to assess the current attitude on pro-militant social media right now - an attitude which is highly critical of Turkey's lack of intervention in Idlib, a major part of this lack of intervention being identified by these sources as the sudden "collapse" (or rather, withholding) of ATGM supplies by Turkey.

The cutting off of supplies for the Jihadists in Idlib and the closing of the borders to 'rebels' who want to flee to Turkey made the country a target for those fighters. The Turkish president may well have calculated that killing their leaders now will lessen the danger of getting attacked by them.

Sending no warning to Russia or Turkey, the US bombed an array of targets within Idlib, Syria, killing numerous civilians and threatening the hard-earned truce across the province, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The air raid led to "multiple casualties and destruction" around two villages in the Idlib province, where a fragile ceasefire between government forces and militants is still in place, the Russian Reconciliation Center said on Sunday. The airstrike, carried out on Saturday, "endangered the truce" and "violated all previous arrangements."

Earlier, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it targeted leaders of a group it calls al-Qaeda in Syria. The strike "will further degrade their ability to conduct future attacks and destabilize the region," it claimed.

But it hit shortly after Syrian government forces began a unilateral truce in the rebel-held province, Russia's Defense Ministry noted. The Syrian Army is still sticking to the ceasefire despite militant attacks provoked by the US bombing.

"A number of anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon towards an Israel Defense Forces base and military vehicles. A number of hits have been confirmed," the IDF said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the Israeli military is "responding with fire towards the sources of fire and targets in southern Lebanon."

An IDF spokesman said later in the afternoon that while hostilities appeared to be over, Israeli forces remain on alert.

"We do not have factories to produce precision-guided missiles in Lebanon," Nasrallah said, speaking to supporters on Saturday night, his comments cited by Reuters.

Hezbollah already has enough precision missiles for 'any confrontation' with Israel, big or small, Nasrallah added.

Commenting on the recent drone attacks in Beirut, which Lebanese authorities blamed on Israel, Nasrallah said the attacks open a dangerous door to killings and political assassinations in Lebanon.

According to the Hezbollah leader, the appropriate "response" to Israel's "aggression" is now 'in the hands of field commanders, who know what they must do', and 'what the limits are'.

"We want the enemy to remain confused because we left all the options open," Nasrallah said. Israel "must pay a price" for its actions, he added.