Merz on the brink as CDU fortunes falter in regional elections

Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces mounting CDU unrest ahead of two regional elections on Sunday, with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern polls showing the CDU in distress amid an AfD surge; Merz is skipping the UN General Assembly to hold a crisis meeting while insiders debate his future and possible successors, though a replacement would be politically risky and is far from guaranteed.