1. Escape & Greens
The asylum compromise of the EU states is tough – but the Greens must also realise that this is better than not at all, says my colleague Markus Becker (here is his comment). No, that's one imposition too many, my colleague Marina Kormbaki commented when the agreement was about to be reached: On the subject of asylum, the Green party leadership had gone too far with its pragmatism (here is her comment).
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Fishing boat with around 600 rescued migrants (in April in the port of Catania)
Photo: Orietta Scardino / ZUMA Press / IMAGO
But what does the compromise mean for refugees arriving at the European borders? Many are said to end up in strictly controlled reception facilities under detention-like conditions. There, the refugees are to go through a so-called border procedure: officials do not primarily check the reasons for fleeing, but above all whether the asylum application is admissible at all. If people have entered via a third country that is considered safe, their application could be rejected across the board. "Europe is sealing itself off," report my colleagues Ralf Neukirch, Steffen Lüdke and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt (all details here).
"On paper, the conditions in the new camps have to be humane, but in practice, Europe can't do it right now," says Steffen, who has often been on the road as a reporter at Europe's external borders. "There's nothing to suggest that things will get better if you build more or larger camps."
The big question is whether the reform can solve any of the many problems of the EU's migration policy. Does the pact reduce irregular migration? "Probably not," says Steffen. "Fast procedures do not mean repatriations. And the deportations fail mainly because there are no corresponding agreements with other states." And will refugees be treated better as a result of the reform? Will the procedures at least be fairer? "I think both are almost impossible," says Steffen.
Read more here: Europe is sealing itself off
2. Reasons for fleeing
More than a million people have fled Ukraine to Germany since Putin's invasion, three-quarters of whom have found private accommodation. Initially, the solidarity of the Germans seemed limitless, but now angry citizens are protesting again in front of the refugee homes, and the AfD is as popular as it was five years ago.
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Twins Zlata and Snjeza in Berlin
Photo: Milos Djuric / DER SPIEGEL
How did the refugees experience the change in the country? My colleague Max Polonyi and the photographer Milos Djuric have accompanied three women from Kiev for over 14 months since their arrival in Germany. The twins Zlata and Snjeza were 16 years old when they moved in with their mother Irina with a loving host family in Berlin. After more than a year as a trio in a 15-square-meter room, they found their own apartment.
"Over the months, the twins have become more and more estranged: from their homeland, from their host family, from their mother," says Max.
Read the full story here: Soon, when the war ends
And here are more news and background information on the war in Ukraine:
The Floating Danger: After the rupture of the Kakhovka dam, no one knows where booby traps washed away will wash ashore. Deminers are trying to prevent the worst.
And then the dam broke: Was it the incompetence of the Russians – or a monstrous war crime? After the dam collapse in Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly clear what could have happened in the hours before the disaster. The SPIEGEL report.
A dam burst to which there can only be one answer: The flood disaster in Ukraine shows that if you want a quick end to the horror, you have to help Kyiv's troops win.
Here you will find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine: The news update
3. Cursing Greens
Telling the big in the small, that's what they tried to drum into us at the journalism school. Seldom does it succeed as skilfully as today my colleague Serafin Reiber from our capital city office: He reports that on the one hand the Greens want to prescribe the heating turnaround to the country (together with parts of the traffic light coalition). On the other hand, they have not even been able to have a heat pump installed in their federal office – and have been doing so for three and a half years.
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Green Party headquarters in Berlin-Mitte: Trouble with the heat pump
Photograph:
Paul Langrock / DER SPIEGEL
"There is a good reason why the Greens are speeding up the heat transition," says Serafin. For too long, the previous governments had done too little to accelerate the installation of climate-friendly heating systems. "However, the party underestimates that the implementation is anything but easy, with a massive shortage of skilled workers, bureaucratic madness and deeply internalized sceptics."
Robert Habeck should have taken a look at the construction site at his party headquarters. And the Greens would do well to prescribe only what can be implemented. "Otherwise, their ambitious heating plans, negotiated at a high political price, will not benefit anyone – not even the climate." The whole world in a nutshell, uh, heat pump.
Read the full story here: How the Greens fail to install a heat pump in their headquarters
What else is important today
NRW investigates against users of crypto platforms: Those who trade cryptocurrencies can make high profits. The tax authorities of North Rhine-Westphalia are now evaluating data from users of such platforms – and checking whether taxes have been paid on profits.
A summer of chaos is looming at airports: Millions of air passengers have experienced chaotic travel months in 2022, with massive delays, endless queues, lost suitcases: this year it could happen to them again.
Conciliation negotiation failed: An attempt at conciliation before the Berlin Labor Court was intended to resolve the conflict between ex-"Bild" editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt and his former employer. However, the parties could not come to an agreement.
Google forces employees back to the office: Anyone who works from home more than two days a week could get a bad job reference. With this threat, Google wants to fill its offices again. What drives the Group to do this?
My favorite mirror today: the new
For two weeks, a SPIEGEL team researched the allegations against Rammstein. On social networks, young women had described a perfidious system for recruiting groupies, it was about parties and alleged sexual assaults.
The new SPIEGEL, now digital and on newsstands from Saturday
My colleagues Elisa von Hof and Juliane Löffler made contact with many of the women, and my colleague Ann-Katrin Müller investigated the methods used by a confidant of Rammstein singer Till Lindemann to lure "Tills Girls", as they were called. My colleague Jan Friedmann and my colleague Maria Christoph went to the concert of the band in Munich, whose representatives deny the allegations. The singer has hired star lawyers who speak of "invariably untrue" allegations and threaten legal action.
"A lot of women spoke up anonymously," says Juliane, "but the fear of describing their experiences with their full names was great." Many of the female fans she spoke to have since turned away from the band: "Some are already getting panic attacks from the music, others feel disgust when they think of their former heroes."
Read the SPIEGEL cover story here: Sex, power, alcohol – what the young women from "Row Zero" report
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
Christian Lindner's list of cuts – that's what it says on it: War, heating, nuclear phase-out: governing is more expensive than planned. Finance Minister Lindner therefore wants to cut the budgets of his ministerial colleagues – which is causing trouble. Will a thunderstorm from the chancellor help?
It's just Rudi: Rudi Völler has been the man for the mood at the DFB for half a year now. With the mission to make complicated football appear as light as possible. It may well be that he succeeds in doing so.
How a manatee could become a state affair: Tico swam from Brazil as far as hardly any manatee before, more than 5000 kilometers. Then Venezuela captured him. Since then, there has been a dispute over animal welfare – and a battle of political systems.
What is less important today
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Greta Thunberg's last strike as a schoolgirl
Photo: REUTERS
She was never there on Fridays: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 20, is ending her weekly school strikes – because her school days are ending. She now wants to find other forms of protest: "Today I'm graduating, which means that I can no longer take part in the school strikes for the climate."
Mini concave mirror
Here you will find the whole concave mirror.
Cartoon of the Day
And tonight's weekend?
If you are interested in football, you could, no, you will watch the Champions League final. "Pep Guardiola is the best football coach in the world," says my colleague Marcus Krämer. "But for twelve years he has failed to win the Champions League for the third time." In the final on Saturday evening, his club Manchester City's chance against underdogs Inter Milan could hardly be greater. The question is whether Guardiola just lets his superior players do it or whether he wants too much again. (On Saturday evening in the live ticker at spiegel.de)
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Verena Altenberger as Bessie Eyckhoff
Photo: Sabine Finger / BR
And if you are enthusiastic about crime novels, you could watch the last »Polizeiruf« with Verena Altenberger as investigator Eyckhoff. In the midst of grotesquely unleashed scenes of violence, the film sometimes comes across as unexpectedly tender, says my colleague Christian Buss: "A must-see!" (Sunday evening, 20:15 p.m., more here.)
Either way, enjoy the sun. Yours sincerely
, Oliver Trenkamp, newspaper editor in the editor-in-chief