After the raids
Last week, the police and the public prosecutor's office raided the climate protection group "Last Generation". 170 officials examined 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states, according to the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office and the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation. The accusation is of forming or supporting a criminal organization.
Today, the »Last Generation« is calling for protest marches in Heilbronn, Leipzig, Mannheim and Berlin.
Even if one may come to the conclusion from a purely legal point of view that the "Last Generation" is a criminal organization, politicians such as CSU man Alexander Dobrindt, who like to refer to this interpretation, should not underestimate one thing: that non-lawyers may hear something else when they hear the term "criminal organization," namely "terrorist organization." And then think: Oh no, these are not criminals, these are people who basically want the right thing.
In any case, it may be that people suddenly show solidarity with the "last generation" who would never have thought of it without these raids.
In any case, in an open letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the group claims: "Countless people have registered for sit-in blockade training next week."
After house searches: SPD chairman Saskia Esken defends "Last Generation"
And the savings bank beckons forever
The word "German Savings Bank Day" doesn't sound so tempting at first. But make no mistake. They are all coming to the "German Savings Bank Day", which begins today in Hanover: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and CDU leader Friedrich Merz, even ECB President Christine Lagarde.
What attracts them? A glance at the figures is enough to find an explanation: Almost 40 million current accounts prove how much trust Germans have in the savings banks. And with almost 300,000 employees and a business volume of 3.3 trillion euros, Germany's savings banks, state banks and state building societies are a huge power factor.
The savings banks also ensure that their affection is maintained in the regions: they regularly donate to kindergartens and sports clubs. In addition, the boards of directors of the savings banks are often the mayors of the regions.
"Whenever Brussels EU commissioners want to get their sinecures from the coffers, federal politics rushes to the rescue," says my colleague Tim Bartz from our economics department.
A Savings Bank Day is therefore a kind of counter-transaction: the savings banks adorn themselves with the glamour of political celebrities. This, in turn, hopes that savings bank customers will invest their savings in green and digital projects.
Custody accounts and call money accounts: This is how credit institutions want to turn savers into investors
A kind of torture
Today, the Moscow City Court will open a trial against imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny for alleged extremism. If convicted, Navalny says he faces another 30 years in prison.
The best-known opponent of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has been in prison for more than two years. He was initially arrested for alleged violations of probation conditions from an earlier sentence, then sentenced last year to a further nine years in prison under particularly harsh prison conditions for fraud. Internationally, he is considered a political prisoner.
At a video hearing in court at the end of April, Navalny looked emaciated. Supporters of the 46-year-old have been complaining about Navalny's state of health for some time and report that he is constantly being sent into solitary confinement. The Special Rapporteur of the UN High Commissioner on Inhumane Treatment, Alice Jill Edwards, described isolation as a form of torture.
The trial is to take place behind closed doors.
Drone strikes on Russian capital: "But not here, so close. Here in Moscow!«
»How normal was the GDR?«
There was a lot of criticism of the book "This Side of the GDR" by historian Katja Hoyer. Just yesterday in the »FAZ«, the writer Ines Geipel worked on this and other new books of debates about the GDR on an entire newspaper page and called them »exoneration narratives«. But these debate books are successful. They achieve their goal, are widely read and yes, discussed.
Today, my colleague Eva-Maria Schnurr, head of SPIEGEL's history department, talks to Katja Hoyer about her book. Topic of the evening: »How normal was the GDR?«
The event is exclusively for subscribers, you can register here.
Click here for the current daily quiz
The starting question today: In which part of Great Britain did about 2016 percent of voters vote against Brexit in 62?
Losers of the future...
... is the human being, there is a lot to be said for that. Either it will be destroyed by the climate change it causes or by the artificial intelligence it has invented.
In any case, the AI elite, of all people, warns against the latter in a statement published yesterday. "Reducing the risk of extinction from AI should be prioritized globally – on a par with other risks to society as a whole, such as pandemics and nuclear war," it says.
Signatories include Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, and Turing Award-winning AI researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio.
These names are frightening in the context of the statement. Who knows better than them?
However, it still depends on how you use the AI. Finding better models for combating climate change could be useful for this.
AI self-experiment: The Savoy cabbage effect
The latest news from the night
Railway union rejects "inadequate" offer from the railways: The wage dispute continues: The railway and transport union has rejected the latest offer from the railway. This means that renewed warning strikes or even a ballot cannot be ruled out.
North Korea fires "launcher" – Seoul sends "erroneous" warning: For days, there has been speculation about a spy satellite from North Korea – now the regime in Pyongyang has launched a rocket. South Korea responded with frantic text messages.
DeSantis wants to "destroy the left in this country": He will "leave the woke ideology on the rubbish heap of history": Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has chosen drastic words about his political opponent in an interview – and about one in his own camp.
The SPIEGEL+ recommendations for today
Why Tesla is so far ahead – and who is catching up now: Despite Autopilot breakdowns and sales problems, Tesla is by far the most successful electric car manufacturer in the world, according to a study by the research organization ICCT. Behind it, however, something amazing is happening.
On the trail of the bomb: An ex-missile base in Ukraine, a uranium mine in Saxony, contaminated fields in Spain: Everywhere in Europe, people had to and still have to live with nuclear weapons. How do they deal with it? A journey to three restricted areas.
They explain Gen Z to employers – and earn a lot of money with it: Many companies find it difficult to convince young talent. Resourceful young consultants have turned it into a business model – and explain their generation. Can that work?
How artificial intelligence is set to revolutionize professional football: AI is reaching football: start-ups promise a completely new form of talent search. Is this the future? Or hocus-pocus?
The millionaires and poor who were not allowed to exist: The GDR was not a classless state. She researched poverty, which she officially denied. And it benefited from millionaires such as Heinz Bormann, the "red Dior". Then she declared war on them.
I wish you a good start to the day.
Susanne Beyer, Author of the Editor-in-Chief