To Israel every month
Annalena Baerbock is on the road again, which wouldn't actually be worth mentioning for a foreign minister, being on the road is her job. The destination of the trip is remarkable and worth mentioning: the Middle East, again. Since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th, Baerbock has been to Israel five times, and her sixth visit is scheduled for this evening. It will continue tomorrow.
With each visit, the tone in which Baerbock denounces the humanitarian situation in what she calls the “hell of Gaza” becomes more urgent. And their appeals to Israel's leadership are becoming increasingly strident. Before she flew to Egypt on Sunday, she called on Benjamin Netanyahu's government to allow more food into the Gaza Strip. And she contradicted Netanyahu's claim that only "total victory" over Hamas by military force could restore Israel's security.
Security? “This goal cannot be achieved purely militarily,” said Baerbock. And called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
My colleague Marina Kormbaki reports on the trip for SPIEGEL. What does she expect from Baerbock's visit? "Apart from the USA, Germany is Israel's last close ally," Marina writes to me. "But Baerbock's words of warning make it clear: understanding of Netanyahu's course is also dwindling in Berlin."
Will the government be impressed by this? “Hardly,” writes Marina – and points out that Baerbock’s counterpart Israel Katz immediately countered the call for a ceasefire on X, formerly Twitter: “We expect our friends to continue to support Israel in these challenging times not weaken against the terrorist organization Hamas."
Baerbock and Katz want to meet on Tuesday morning. You'll probably have a lot to discuss.
You can find more background here: Baerbock is relying on these alliances and strategies in the Gaza war
The Chancellor is practicing balancing act
The Chancellor doesn't travel quite that far today, only to Brandenburg an der Havel, where there is a pretty town hall from the 15th century and, fortunately, there has been no war for a long time. There will still be talk of war, both in the Middle East and in Ukraine, when Olaf Scholz answers questions from citizens at the “Chancellor Talks” today. It will be exciting to see how he manages the political balancing act there.
Scholz recently took a very clear position against Western ground troops in Ukraine and refuses to have Taurus cruise missiles delivered there. As we wrote in SPIEGEL, he is the “Peace Chancellor.” On the one hand, there are objective reasons for this, but on the other hand, the Chancellor obviously knows very well that a majority of Germans are on his side on these issues and that his stance is well received. Especially in the east of the republic, where people tend to view German involvement in Ukraine more skeptically than in the west. And where three state parliaments will be elected in September. Also in the state of Brandenburg, where, you guessed it, the city of Brandenburg an der Havel is located.
So what is the balancing act? In that, if you look at the raw numbers, Scholz is not the peace chancellor that Brandenburg might like to think he is. But a rather determined supporter of Ukraine, who does not want to release the Taurus, but has released anti-aircraft guns, infantry fighting vehicles, battle tanks and much more. Whose government has delivered and promised more than any other country, apart from the USA.
The election campaign in the East is likely to gain momentum soon. One of the important questions will be which of the two poles the Chancellor and with him the SPD emphasizes. Perhaps something can be learned from this in Brandenburg today.
The whole story here: From turnaround to peace chancellor - what's behind Scholz's new strategy
Mourning, used politically
After the terrible attack near Moscow, new findings are likely to become known today. About the terrible minutes in Crocus City Hall, about possible perpetrators, about the more than 130 deaths so far. The big question: How far can these findings be trusted? The answer: Probably not very far.
The constitutional ideal goes like this: The law enforcement authorities investigate independently and ultimately present their investigation results even if they are inconvenient for those in power. Unfortunately, even constitutional states repeatedly fail to meet this ideal. And Russia is not a constitutional state, it is an unjust state.
One must assume that Vladimir Putin will use the attack to increase repression internally and, if that is at all possible, brutality externally. In order to take even tougher action against opponents of the regime and to add another facet to the justification of his war of aggression against Ukraine. He has already started doing this and showed it right after the attack on Ukraine. All so-called investigation results that will come out in the next few days should be viewed with particular caution.
You can find out more here: "At that moment I realized that my life could end here and now"
Read the current SPIEGEL editorial here
Nothing learned from Diana's death:
For a while it seemed as if the public and the royal family had found a new way of dealing with each other. The events surrounding Princess Kate's cancer show that this was a mistake.
Click here for the current daily quiz
The starting question today: Where is the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea located?
Winner of the day…
...is Markus Söder, where winning is based solely on the kilometers traveled. Compared to the Chancellor and the Foreign Minister, Söder has had the longest journey. He is traveling in China. As Prime Minister of the world's largest German federal state, you always have a lot to discuss, and the whole thing probably has nothing to do with any ambitions to run for chancellor.
Or?
Friedrich Merz should still follow the travel route closely.
More on the topic: Markus Söder calls his candidacy for chancellor “extremely unlikely”
The latest reports from the night
According to media reports, Israel is responding to some of Hamas' demands:
the USA, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating between the warring parties for months. Israel is now open to the release of Palestinian prisoners and a return to the northern Gaza Strip.
Raids to murder Rio city councilor - ex-police chief arrested:
In 2018, the left-wing politician Marielle Franco was literally executed in Rio de Janeiro. Now three possible men behind the crime are in prison. Among them is a former high-ranking police officer.
Mass pile-up involving around 40 cars – two people die:
First there was a rear-end collision in the rain, then there was a crash in the backlog, cars caught fire: two people died in a mass accident on the A3.
I would particularly like to recommend this story to you today:
Attack of the computer children: An eight-year-old defeats a grandmaster, an eight-year-old dominates the women's blitz European Championship. Younger and younger players are becoming successful in chess. How can this be explained?
I wish you a good start to the day.
Yours Christoph Hickmann, head of the SPIEGEL capital office