The morning still belonged to Berlin's Left: as its party congress opened, FAZ described Elif Eralp overcoming internal resistance, TAZ profiled 'Germany's most dangerous woman,' and papers weighed the plan to expropriate 220,000 apartments. Bild separately reported the SPD faction leadership halting Linnemann's care reform.
At midday attention pivoted to Baden-Baden, where the DOSB picked Germany's Olympic bidder. After a delayed announcement, Munich beat Cologne/Rhein-Ruhr in the first ballot to pursue the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games, a Söder-Wüst duel that left NRW deflated and Munich celebrating.
In New York, Foreign Minister Wadephul then met Sergey Lavrov, the first bilateral foreign-minister talks in years, reportedly at German initiative, covering Ukraine and the Leipzig attack attempt.
The evening brought a poll showing Merz's Union sliding further, an SPD-CDU standoff over care reform conditions, and an espionage raid at ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.