Today it's about the passing of the largest climate package in US history, it's about shelling the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia - and about the so-called "NSU 2.0".
USA – suddenly a pioneer again
As a warehouse worker you have some privileges, I'll admit that.
The time of the creation of this text is not included.
Nor that one constantly confronts one's readers with war and crises and tries to explain them.
Especially at the moment it feels like managing permanent crises.
That's why I've decided to start this situation with good news:
Because today the House of Representatives in Washington is voting on President
Joe Biden
's climate package .
The Chamber's approval is practically just a formality.
Here the Democrats have a larger majority – more importantly, the law made it through the Senate on Sunday night.
One goal of the package: CO2 emissions are to be reduced by up to 44 percent by the end of the decade.
Recently, Biden has not exactly been blessed with success.
It rained bad poll results, debates about his age ran in a repeat loop.
And, yes, that too: The package now to be decided is only a small handbag version of the originally planned $ 3.5 trillion - but it's still about $ 500 billion.
By the way, this is not only good news for the USA, but for the whole world.
Scientists recently calculated in a study that the global sea level could rise by up to five meters if the ice sheet in East Antarctica melted.
That would be to be feared if it were not possible to comply with the temperature limits set in the Paris Agreement.
As is so often the case, the USA is suddenly a pioneer again, and
the law is considered a historic breakthrough
.
My colleague Marc Pitzke, our correspondent in New York, puts it bluntly: "The question is whether this triumph by Biden will also reach voters," and alludes to the upcoming congressional elections at the beginning of November.
So that the American population, who is suffering from price increases, is also interested in the package, it has the charming official name "inflation reduction act".
It also includes tax breaks and healthcare improvements.
US Senate approves historic environmental package: Joe Biden's master plan against climate catastrophe
How the German fear of a super meltdown is nurtured
I belong to the Gudrun Pausewang generation.
We read your book The Cloud at school.
As children we were terrified and scared, we didn't understand exactly what was going on.
Those were the years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
I can still remember clearly how classmates in elementary school washed their bananas and it was always expertly said in our children's conversations that you shouldn't eat mushrooms anymore.
These days, that Chernobyl feeling is reviving in many people.
There is fighting at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine
, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which has been occupied by Russian troops since the beginning of March.
The nuclear power plant is their hostage, along with the employees, and apparently they are using it as a shield for their artillery.
The UN is warning, the International Atomic Energy Agency is warning, as is President Volodymyr Zelenksy.
The president of the operating company Enerhoatom speaks of an "extremely dangerous working mode" and apparently means not only the shelling, but also the power supply of the nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the week and last night, the nuclear power plant came under fire again.
Both sides blame each other.
It is not possible to say with certainty who is responsible.
But who is the aggressor here and who started a war against the neighboring country, that can be said.
And thus triggers fears of a Gau.
Apparently that is Russia's intention too.
My colleague Thore Schröder, who regularly reports for us from the Ukraine as a crisis reporter, wrote a piece about the nuclear power plant in our current issue (from noon today on the site, tomorrow at the kiosk).
He was in Zaporizhia and in Nikopol, practically opposite the nuclear power plant, on the other bank of the Dnieper River.
He has spoken to weapons and nuclear power experts, officers, politicians and workers.
He writes: "The Institute for the Study of War in Washington warns that Russia is using the nuclear power plant to stoke Western fears of a nuclear disaster in Ukraine - raising doubts about arms deliveries."
Thore has also been able to speak to an engineer who still shows up at work every day.
"For me, that was the most remarkable thing about this research," he told me from Kyiv last night, "this man is in one of the most dangerous places in the world right now - but he's not running away because he feels responsible." I think if this man can keep a reasonably cool head, so can we.
Concerns about the Ukrainian nuclear power plant: "The situation can quickly become unmanageable during the war"
You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:
Will the Russian summer soon end at Northern Europe's borders?
Finland and the Baltic States want to make it more difficult for tourists from Russia to enter Europe - as a punitive measure for the war against Ukraine.
However, critics fear that a visa ban could benefit Putin
What the explosions in Crimea did:
The effects of the alleged Ukrainian strike on the Crimean peninsula are devastating.
Satellite images show that the Russian air force base probably lost about half of its planes
Nuclear reactor under fire – how dangerous is that?
The UN Security Council meets for an emergency meeting: A nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been shelled for the second time.
Security expert Sebastian Stransky explains the risks in the video
Frankfurt police, your friend - no way
Among all the current crises, other crises must not be allowed to go under.
Therefore, I would like to recall an event that should not be forgotten.
The trial against a Berliner who is said to have written threatening letters against people with and without an obvious migration history as "NSU 2.0." is to be continued in front of the regional court in Frankfurt am Main today.
People who are in the public eye
, including the cabaret artist Idil Baydar, Linke boss Janine Wissler, my »Welt« colleague Deniz Yücel and the Frankfurt lawyer Seda Başay-Yıldız - who represented the victims' relatives in the NSU trial in Munich.
Racist, insulting, misogynist, hate speech, dozens of them.
The case also triggered investigations against police officers in Frankfurt.
It's about right-wing extremist chat groups, retrieving addresses to which the threatening letters were sent (sometimes by fax), thwarting criminal prosecution in office and violating official secrets.
There are charges against police officers.
Başay-Yıldız expressed the suspicion months ago that the accused Berliner might have had willing helpers with the Frankfurt police.
Superiors are said to have covered suspicious colleagues, as it is now also called.
There is obviously a right-wing extremism problem with the Frankfurt police
, last year the Frankfurt special task force was already dissolved - because of right-wing extremist chats.
Despite all the shock about these conditions, one can also be happy that a lot is coming to light.
That many critical police officers are committed to a detox in their profession.
The police is one of the institutions that Germans trust the most.
Nobody should have to be afraid of their police.
Statement of the defendant in the "NSU 2.0" trial: Just a "useful idiot"?
Here's the current quiz of the day
The starting question today: Where did the G7 summit take place in 2022?
The latest news from the night
Armed man shot dead after attack on FBI office:
Donald Trump and his followers have been railing against the FBI since the raid in Mar-a-Lago – now there has been an incident at a branch office in Cincinnati: a man was killed
NBA retires jersey number:
For the first time in NBA history, a jersey number will no longer be assigned league-wide.
It is one of several actions honoring the late Bill Russell
Robert Koch Institute sees summer
wave over: The corona indicators are declining in all federal states and age groups: According to the RKI, this indicates an end to the summer wave.
However, there can be no talk of the all-clear
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
These are the pitfalls of the planned
gas levy: Gas consumers are to pay a levy from October 1 to prevent importers like Uniper from going bankrupt.
Consumer advocates and energy companies warn of chaos and bankruptcies.
But the Economics Ministry is sticking to the schedule .
»Germany is currently losing a large part of its identity«:
The forest is part of the German founding myth.
When thousands of trees burn down in Berlin and Saxony, it doesn't just destroy nature, says art historian Lisa Mattheis.
A smartphone in the school bag – is it still possible?
School enrollment is now celebrated in many places with a lot of fanfare - from catering to the marquee to the mobile phone that some parents put in their bags.
Four reasons why this isn't a good idea.
»I would like to be a tiny little screw«:
The CDU politician Gerhard Schröder traveled to China in 1972 for the purpose of rapprochement.
SPIEGEL reporter Hermann Schreiber looked for Mao's "new people" there - and found children who could give well-rehearsed short lectures.
I wish you a good start into the day.
Yours Özlem Topcu
