The leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland has said her party will campaign for a Brexit-style vote on EU membership if it comes to power, calling the UK’s departure from the bloc a model for its largest member.

Alice Weidel told the Financial Times in an exclusive interview that the UK decision would be “dead right” for Germany, and that a “Dexit” would boost the country’s self-determination.

“It’s a model for Germany, that one can make a sovereign decision like that,” she said.

India: Modi inaugurates controversial Ayodhya temple

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Ram on the site of a mosque in Ayodhya. His Hindu-nationalist BJP party has been hyping up the event ahead of the elections.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a consecration ceremony on Monday for the Ram temple and unveiled a black statue of the Hindu god in the city of Ayodhya, which is believed to be Ram’s birthplace.

Modi led the opening ceremony dressed in a traditional kurta tunic, as Hindu priests chanted hymns inside the temple’s inner sanctum.

Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set up lavish celebrations across much of the country marking the inauguration.

Taliban restricting unmarried women’s access to work and travel, UN report says

The Taliban are restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, according to a U.N report published Monday.

In one incident, officials from the Vice and Virtue Ministry advised a woman to get married if she wanted to keep her job at a health care facility, saying it was inappropriate for an unwed woman to work, it said.

The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule.

They have also shut down beauty parlors and started enforcing a dress code, arresting women who don’t comply with their interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf. In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burqa, similar to restrictions during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001.

Passengers wake up in the ‘wrong’ country as Storm Isha plays havoc with flight plans

Thousands of airline passengers across Europe woke up this morning at the wrong destination – and even in the wrong country – after Storm Isha caused havoc with flights, with dozens of cancelations, diversions and go-arounds in western Europe.

It’s usually the quickest way of getting from A to B for long journeys, but for those traveling to and from Ireland and the UK last night, flying became an odyssey. Airports in Ireland and the UK were badly hit by the storm, with gusts of up to 90 mph slicing across the runways.

Many aircraft heading west diverted to safer landings in continental Europe, often having flown to the destination before failing to land. Ryanair was especially affected, since its base is Dublin, where a whopping 166 inbound and outbound flights were canceled on Sunday, according to Kevin Cullinane, group head of communications at daa, the operator of Dublin Airport.

A group of relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas have stormed a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem, demanding that the lawmakers do more to try to free their loved ones, Reuters reports.

One woman held up pictures of three family members who were among the 253 people seized in the cross-border Hamas attacks of 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

About 130 hostages remain held in Gaza after others were brought home in a November truce.