The situation in the morning: attack on Salman Rushdie

Rushdie seriously injured after assassination attempt

It has been more than 30 years since Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued his

, calling for the author's assassination for his work The Satanic Verses, with a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head.

Rushdie lived underground for a long time, and the fear of death only went away after a long time.

»It was serious for a few years«, only recently told »Stern«.

"But since I've been living in America, I haven't had any more problems." In the meantime, as his publisher explained last year, the Indian-British writer is again largely open and without special protection.

There were probably no special protections or special safety precautions on Friday evening either, in a cultural center in Chautauqua in the US state of New York, a place where you can read everywhere how peaceful and how safe it actually is here.

But it happened here of all places:

.

After an emergency operation, the author is artificially ventilated.

Rushdie is unable to speak, his agent says, he may lose an eye, the nerve cords in his arm are severed and his liver is injured.

The shock and horror worldwide are great.

, is there a direct connection to the hatred that Iran has fueled for Rushdie again and again?

Investigators still have no answers to these questions.

Either way, the regime in Tehran will hardly be able to deny responsibility for the cowardly assassination.

Bitter: In Chautauqua, Rushdie wanted to speak to hundreds of people as part of a series of events called "More than Shelter" - it was supposed to be about the political persecution of artists, about the question of whether the USA can be a safe haven for writers in exile.

• Knife attack in New York: assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie – police name suspects

Excerpt from Kabul

Exactly one year ago this coming Monday, the Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital Kabul.

Hardly anyone is left untouched by the memories of the thousands of people who desperately, angry, determinedly tried to leave the country at the north gate of the airport in the blistering heat.

Of people who even clung to planes taking off in order to somehow be able to leave the country.

To flee from the Taliban, whose reign of terror ended 20 years ago.

Since August 15, 2021, these images have been inextricably linked to the failure of the West, which also fled.

During their rule until 2001, the Taliban had killed members of minorities and opponents, established an Islamist autocracy, declared their interpretation of the Holy Scriptures to be the only true ones, stoned women and locked them in houses and under burqas.

Should everything start over now?

The so-called “local forces” in particular were worried about life and limb because they had worked with and for the West – would the Taliban take revenge now?

And Afghan women had to fear that from now on their lives would again be made into a prison, without education, without work or participation in society, with a view of the world through a powder-blue fabric grid.

Even if all was not well under the elected governments and the mission of the West - some things had improved.

Millions of Afghans, together with thousands of soldiers, diplomats and aid organizations had worked for this for years.

It was all the worse that the West practically "left the country to its own devices overnight,"

as the German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani put it.

"People believed in the democracy project," he said two weeks after taking Kabul.

For years, many of our colleagues at SPIEGEL have repeatedly reported on and from Afghanistan

.

Looked and wrote even when attention had long since ceased to be on Afghanistan.

So, of course, about the withdrawal last year - and the situation now, a year after the recapture.

In a three-part series, Matthias Gebauer and Konstantin von Hammerstein described the flight of the Germans from Afghanistan.

The colleagues Susanne Koelbl, Britta Sandberg and Lina Verschwele met or met again and spoke to Afghan women who talk about their life under the Taliban today - or about their life far away from their homeland.

You can read their stories on Spiegel.de on Monday.

And Christoph Reuter, who knows the country like no other German journalist

, describes in the current task how Afghanistan has changed over the past year – not for the better, but not as badly as expected.

He draws a complicated and interesting picture of the country.

There is a teacher who says: "They are suffocating us." And another who urges a Taliban commander to issue a death threat with letterhead and signature so that she can leave the country.

There is revenge, but that doesn't seem to be the country's biggest problem under the Taliban - rather that it is isolated and bankrupt.

Christoph writes: »The Taliban have no plan, but neither does Germany and the rest of the West.

For the time being, the country remains an international social case with a radical flag, peaceful and without prospects.«

• Catastrophe after taking power: This is how I experience Taliban Afghanistan 

A carefree relationship now even more carefree

As a warehouse worker, you always try to see, understand and explain political developments and changes early enough.

Today, for example, I'm trying to make sense of a video that Giorgia Meloni, party leader of the Italian party Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), which has been described as »post-fascist«, made available to the public on her Facebook page.

Or rather: the European public

, because she speaks there in French, English and Spanish, with Italian subtitles.

And she says - short version: Italy's rights have nothing to do with fascism, that was "handed over" to history.

Using the classic right-wing narrative, she points to the powerful left-wing media, which has published articles describing her party as a threat to democracy and European stability.

The sentence has also been handed down from Meloni: »I have a carefree relationship with fascism«, it is said to have fallen a few years ago.

Of course, that can mean all sorts of things, for example: »I have an easy relationship with fascism« – or also: »I have nothing in mind and am therefore relaxed.«

But now the woman wants to become Italy's next head of government

- in a three-way alliance with Silvio Berlusconi with his Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini and the right-wing Lega.

And if the polls stay the way they are until the September 25 election, she would have the best chance.

Obviously, Meloni felt the need to show himself serious and supportive of the state and to reassure the European neighbors.

Hence the variety of languages.

The question remains why she didn't also distance herself from fascism in German

.

In the text accompanying the video, she writes: "I won't dare to approach German." Next to it is the emoji, where you always don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Incidentally, our colleague Frank Hornig wrote a portrait of Giorgia Meloni almost exactly a year ago and anticipated that she could become prime minister

• Italian right-wing politician Meloni: Me, me, me 

An open letter made human

In the middle of Hamburg-Altona yesterday, I was about to lock up my bike to go shopping when an elderly woman approached me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that she was holding A4 slips of paper, I noticed a large peace sign on them and lots of tightly printed text underneath.

"May I put our appeal in your backpack like this?" she asked.

They want to start an initiative that must be "returned" to the negotiating table.

My backpack was next to my bike, open.

It was about the war against Ukraine.

I zipped up my backpack.

I said that I wholeheartedly understood their intentions, but that I found the idea of ​​getting the Russian President to negotiate at this point rather naïve.

At least from what I know and understand about it.

Our little dialogue went something like this:

Her: »But guns make everything a lot worse!«

Me: "Well, Russia has invaded Ukraine and the Ukrainians have to defend themselves with something."

You: "We want to start an initiative to ensure that diplomacy is used more intensively again."

Me: “I understand that, but as long as Putin has military success, it is unlikely that he will develop an interest in it.”

You: “How do you know that?”

I cut her off and "nevertheless" wished her all the best and much success for the initiative.

I think many people find it understandably difficult to

.

Or that the two contradict each other.

Especially supporters of the pure doctrine of »making peace without weapons« might have a problem with that.

Or "German intellectuals" who call on the federal government to "neither directly nor indirectly deliver any more heavy weapons to Ukraine."

After almost six months of Russian war of aggression, it can be said that a state of weakness or war-weariness must first appear before negotiations can begin.

But President Putin shows little sign of war fatigue.

When I got on my bike, she stood there with her slips of paper.

In hindsight, I was sorry that I didn't let her finish and didn't even take a note from her out of politeness.

• Former OSCE mediator»: A dictated peace is not real peace« 

Here's the current quiz of the day

The starting question today: Which politician called the wrong Vitali Klitschko?

Loser of the day...

…is Larry, the legendary tomcat at 10 Downing Street in London. Forgive me for speaking for a cat at this point – but after all, the cat can't do it.

If nothing else works, animals always work, seems to be the motto of Liz Truss (ok, ok, even in this situation), British Foreign Secretary and candidate for the presidency of the Conservative Tories.

Truss was now boldly suggesting that she might be one of Larry's favorite cabinet members.

And that he always sneaks up on her.

One of the goals of her application is to further deepen this friendship.

Animals cannot defend themselves.

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

• "Sincerely, your Friedrich":

  The CDU is largely at the feet of its boss Friedrich Merz.

  But the 66-year-old millionaire sometimes gets in his own way when trying to shed his reputation as a cold conservative.

• Trump's diabolical plan in Wyoming:

  Donald Trump has been under pressure for months, and the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago is even worse.

  Now he wants revenge - and politically finish Liz Cheney.

  Because: The woman from the Republican aristocracy has renounced the Trump cult.

• The fatal fear of the people:

  Olaf Scholz promised the Germans: »You never walk alone«.

  His government must now act in such a way that it sounds credible.

  Otherwise there is actually a threat of social upheaval in winter.

• How to travel with grandparents and children:

  Holidays on the farm with three generations?

  A city trip with elderly parents?

  Sounds like a nice plan - which can go terribly wrong.

  Five tips for realistically assessing and managing conflicts.

I wish you a good start into the day.

Yours Özlem Topcu