News of the day: What Spiderman teaches us about Moria

1.

Empathy in Europe?

• "With tear gas against men, women, children seeking help: Bad, these pictures, but we have to endure that - it is no longer just right-wing agitators who talk like that."

• "Even smart friends, relatives and colleagues who are capable of compassion suddenly start using battle terms such as 'illegal migrants' and say zero sentences like: 'Such masses are unbearable.'"

• "In the refugee debate, agitators and babblers alike act as if reason and empathy were mutually exclusive, as if egoism were sensible per se. They disguise their fears, their prejudices, their racism as common sense irresponsible."

I wrote these sentences four years ago,

in a commentary about the

.

They came back to me after the

(here a reconstruction).

And I realized with horror: My heart has also grown colder in recent years.

At that time I could hardly bear the pictures from Idomeni, not even the picture of the drowned boy

.

At some point I stopped looking at many of the pictures, and I trained myself to find

for reading many texts and reports

.

If you expose yourself to the misery of the world at any time, madness threatens, that's how I explained it to myself. And of course, journalism doesn't work without sober analysis.

My impression is that many people feel that way - just don't let the misery get too close to you.

The problem:

in Europe, we accept it.

Icon: enlarge

After the major fire in Moria, around 11,000 refugees are still homeless

Photo: Petros Giannakouris / dpa

Now the moderators

and

a video from the warehouse and shown it on Pro Sieben and on YouTube.

The former

describes how he made three attempts to come to Europe.

How he was broken inside when he saw the camp.

These pictures, these descriptions blow a hole in every inner armor.

After the fire, many eyes turned

- but even now we are allowing the ordeal to continue for thousands.

The refugees in Greece are fighting for shelter, drinking and a future, as my colleague

and my colleagues

and

report. 

Of course, we have to discuss migration soberly and objectively.

But nobody forces us to do it with a cold heart and

to see

for something that should never be repeated: "2015 could also be understood as a moment in which many citizens in Germany have surpassed themselves, in which they decided to be empathetic, "comments Max. It may be that the

to accept 1500 people in the logic of the so-called Realpolitik is not unreasonable, as my colleague Florian Gathmann explains (even if that is part of the SPD top seem to see quite differently).

And yes, it is significantly more than the

the black-green government in Austria, as my colleague Dirk Kurbjuweit writes.

But is that enough?

I think Germany should

heed

the old

: "Great strength follows great responsibility."

Dozens of cities and municipalities would be ready to accept people, there are initial reception centers and language schools all over the country.

Four years ago I ended my comment like this:

"Fortunately, the brutalization of the public debate has not yet infected large parts of society. Doctors and nurses continue to work on a voluntary basis in the reception camps; teachers, educators, students collect donations; lawyers help with asylum applications; parishes, shared apartments, families take in Syrians ; Students bring refugees into the country in the trunk; Activists marry strangers to enable them to stay permanently. Many Germans are further in mind and heart than their elected representatives and the fillers of the comment columns. Let us learn empathy from them, let us do that Pictures of Idomeni who don't accept the dead in the Aegean. We have to, we mustn't endure these pictures. We should take in the refugees from Idomeni in Germany. "

The same goes for Moria.

• Read what refugees say about Moria: "I thought Europe was a different place"

2.

Empathy in America?

Empathy as a political strength

- this is the message with which US presidential candidate

campaigning.

As someone who has picked himself up again after strokes of fate such as the death of his first wife, daughter and son.

As someone who draws strength from grief and will therefore lead the

.

"An ally of light," he called himself.

But incumbent

lets his followers spread that he is

capable of

.

This became particularly clear at the election party conference a few weeks ago: "Trump and his strategists know very well that his aggressive style and his many scandals put off primarily female voters," my colleagues

and

analyzed

at the time.

"In order to score points with women, many speakers repeatedly praised Trump's alleged care and empathy."

Icon: enlarge

Doesn't seem to be one of the undecided voters

Photo: Reuters

Both want to win - will it succeed?

My colleague

explains in this video why

, almost exactly 100 years after their great- and great-grandmothers won the right to vote.

She spoke to a former advisor on Obama's team.

"When asked whether there was still anything left of the 'Yes We Can' mood, she admitted: 'I would say, respectfully, no'."

• See the full video here: Decisive voices

3.

Compassion for the Queen?

For all that is known,

not a friend of Brexit.

When she

read out the plans of her government

in her

, a blue and yellow coat and hat combination, connoisseurs interpreted this as a sign in 2017 in the direction of Brussels.

Icon: enlarge

Has his hat on, but little to report

Photo: Chris Jackson / AP

The

makes the royal family soon and financially.

With the exit from the EU, the British not only lose access to the European internal market, there will be no

more

.

And the Queen benefits personally from these, her farms receive several EU million each year: Elisabeth II has received over

for her Sandringham estate alone in the past five years

, like my colleague Isabelle Reichert reports.

"It is remarkable how the royals have upgraded their lands - just by converting to organic farming, as Prince Charles operates," says Isabella.

"That would not have been possible without EU subsidies."

• Read the full story here: Royals are losing millions of euros in agricultural subsidies

What else is important today

• The USA in the climate clamp:

  The west coast is on fire and a tropical storm is raging on the east coast: the catastrophes hit the USA in the corona crisis of all places.

  And the worst is likely to come.

• According to Navalny's team, the poison attack took place before departure from Tomsk:

  According to his team, the poison attack on Alexej Navalny had already been carried out in Tomsk, Siberia.

  Accordingly, a drinking bottle with traces of the poison was seized in the Kremlin critic's hotel room.

• The number of cases is rising, and everyone can be there:

  What do we care about Jens Spahn's chatter from five weeks ago?

  Now spectators are allowed in sport.

  This may be understandable emotionally, but it is still the wrong signal.

  A comment.

• Kramp-Karrenbauer apologizes to victims of discrimination:

  Until 2000, homosexuals were systematically discriminated in the Bundeswehr.

  Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to use the results of a new study to rehabilitate those affected.

My favorite interview today: Author Marina Benjamin about her menopause

Icon: enlarge

Author Marina Benjamin

Photo: Charlie Levy Sands

To be honest, it's not only my favorite interview today, but also that of my

- she recommended the text to me.

So I asked you to write down why you and women should read it:

"There are irrefutable wisdoms in our profession, one is: Write about the

Bags under the eyes

There is the - typically female - merciless look at your own shell, the horror at the preview of decay and end.

But: that is not the last word.

Benjamin talks about how women can be reconciled with this phase of life - and what great opportunity it offers.

• You can read the whole conversation here: "I felt at the mercy of my own body"

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +

• Asgaard's right-wing Rambos:

  Former police officers and soldiers from the German Armed Forces work for a private security company in Baghdad.

  The SPIEGEL has video recordings showing how the Nazi era was glorified there.

• "They hit my head like a football":

  Yegor Zhukov is only 22 years old - and is already an important voice of the opposition in Russia.

  Here he talks about the protests in Belarus and reports how he was last brutally beaten in Moscow.

• "Roy's mind is still there":

  In the third attempt, Roy Black finally gets a statue on Lake Wörthersee.

  The unveiling is a journey through time for everyone who finds reality too complicated.

  Right in the middle of the celebrations: Uschi Glas.

• If a child forces the boss to resign:

  Supervisory or board members have no right to parental leave.

  They often only have the choice of leaving office if they want to take a baby break.

  Now the subject is preoccupying the Bundestag.

• "Men were taught to follow money, women weren't":

  Billie Jean King has been fighting for equality for 60 years, now the Fed Cup has been named after her.

  Here she talks about equal pay for women and men - and about the younger generation of players.

 Which is not so important today

Icon: enlarge

Drew you love me?

Photo: Charles Sykes / AP

• Kissed enough

  : Actress

  Drew Barrymore

  , 45, also known from lesser-known films such as the journalist romcom "Unkussst", has no desire for men after three marriages - and no time for a romantic relationship like that of the acting icon

  Jane Fonda

  , 82, said on a television program.

  "I just don't know where to put it."

Typo of the day

, now corrected: "Why did the Wirecard scandal go unnoticed for so long?"

Cartoon of the day:

"He's chatting again, the colleague"

Icon: enlarge Photo: Klaus Stuttmann

And tonight?

Icon: enlarge

With Engelke to the Amen house

Photo: 

Jens Umbach / laif

Could you deal with death - and

meet

again.

The presenter, comedian and actress transforms herself into

Karla

in the new

six episodes, "who immediately loses her husband and becomes a funeral orator over this shock," as my colleague

writes Anke Engelke met.

"Although real undertakers have already complimented Engelke on how realistically the work on the corpse was carried out," says Anja, "death is only superficially the central theme in this series, which balances between funny and deeply sad moments".

Actually, of course, it's

.

In this sense: First sink into the sofa, then rise again.

Have a nice evening.

Heartily

Yours Oliver Trenkamp

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