Most migrants on the border want to get to Germany, where Olaf Scholz, the man expected to succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor, is still in talks to form a government but is already facing crises on multiple fronts.
Behind all of them is the unmistakable hand of Vladimir Putin.
Russia has cut gas supplies to Europe, sending prices soaring with winter looming, and is openly pressuring Germany to rush the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline into operation.
The official line from the Kremlin is that these issues are not connected, but Justin Huggler in Berlin analyses why that isn’t fooling anybody and how Mr Putin is testing Western resolve in a world without the departing Mrs Merkel.
Cop26 pledges weakened
These border tensions come at a time when world leaders are grappling with the future of the planet as delegates at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow try to reach an agreement on how to limit catastrophic rises in global temperatures.
A key pledge in the Cop26 deal on phasing out fossil fuels has been watered down in the latest draft, released hours before the summit is due to end.
Cop26 president Alok Sharma said he was looking for “a high-ambition outcome” as he returned to the negotiating room less than an hour before the summit was officially due to end.
It looks like negotiations will continue into the night.
Yet Ambrose Evans-Pritchard analyses how China has got what it wanted at Cop26 after its bilateral deal with the US in the final innings of the climate summit.
Lockdowns return
As if that was not enough to contend with after leaders chewed on their neeps and tatties in Scotland, Western Europe’s first partial lockdown since the summer will be imposed in the Netherlands this weekend, in a bid to stop a surge in Covid-19 cases. Read on for details.
Conversely, this comes as a leading modelling expert said the “flattening” of Covid case numbers is giving us a “sunnier outlook” for Christmas.
Coronavirus cases are on their longest unbroken decline since May, according to government data, despite a daily rise in cases on Thursday.
Drugs giant AstraZeneca appears to be aligned with the notion, as it emerged it is to start taking a profit from its Covid jab.
It said Covid is becoming endemic and a pledge to deliver its vaccine at cost price is no longer needed.
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Comment and analysis
Around the world: Military junta jails US journalist
American journalist Danny Fenster has been sentenced to 11 years in jail in Myanmar, despite rights groups and his news organisation saying the charges have no basis. Mr Fenster, 37, was found guilty in a closed trial of breaching immigration law, unlawful association and incitement, for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information. Read how he still faces two additional charges in a different court next week that could lead to life imprisonment. Read why Human Rights Watch immediately called his sentence “a travesty of justice by a kangaroo court”.
Friday interview
‘It’s a tough business – I had a very bleak period’
