Berlin-Moscow standoff deepens as US strikes Iran again

Germany shut Russia's consulate in Bonn after Berlin blamed Moscow for a failed drone strike on Leipzig airport, and EU and NATO leaders warned Russia is growing more reckless. Moscow hit back within hours, with Lavrov announcing the closure of Goethe Institutes in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. The exchange came as US forces struck Iranian radar and air-defense sites again Tuesday, part of what Trump called a wait-and-strike cycle analysts fear could become permanent. Tension is building closer to home too. In Saxony-Anhalt, activists, unions and churches are bracing for a September 6 election amid rising far-right threats and shrinking funding. Across the Channel, Farage's Reform UK held its first annual conference after a turbulent year, while Labour donors are quietly lining up behind Andy Burnham's possible leadership bid. Elsewhere, the WMO warned a Super El Nino could peak by late 2026, threatening floods and hunger in Central America, and UNICEF found one in five teens in 21 countries suffered online sexual harassment this year, usually by someone they knew. Doctors also flagged a new condition, orthosomnia, driven by obsessive sleep-tracking. Actor Tim Curry, star of Rocky Horror and It, has died at 79. In Bonn, the Beethovenfest reopens the renovated Beethovenhalle on September 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra and pianist Andras Schiff.