My colleague Tobias Großekemper was also there. That evening I asked Tobias about his impressions and he told me about a sentence that a firefighter had once said to him years ago: "Firefighters don't fear fire, they fear smoke." The man related this to house fires and the threat of suffocation. “I kept thinking about this quote on Friday in the Hürtgenwald,” says Tobias.
300 hectares of forest are burning in the northern Eifel. Dry forest with a lot of ammunition from the Second World War. There is a force of nature raging that delivers images that were previously more familiar from southern Europe or California (here is a video).
On Friday evening, around 200 firefighters arrived in the Hürtgenwald to replace their colleagues after a 24-hour operation. By Monday morning, the emergency services want to replace their people every twelve hours, in cohorts of 500 each. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) has announced his visit for today.
Forest fires were also reported on Friday in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse, Bavaria and Saarland. Drought-related fires are no longer exceptional, but appear to be the new normal. The federal and state governments have to prepare for this.
The regime is waging an open border war with Pakistan. Poverty, unemployment and hunger are taking on threatening proportions (you can find out more about this here). Girls and women are oppressed like in no other country in the world. Their right to education and to a safe life was once a concern for the West, but that was a long time ago.
The USA has completely stopped its aid payments, the Europeans are negotiating with the Taliban about deportations and are thus effectively recognizing the regime.
For 20 years, NATO and other allies tried to maintain relatively stable conditions. Around 3,600 soldiers from the Western Alliance paid with their lives, including 60 Bundeswehr soldiers. The return of the Taliban is a particularly dark spot in the West's recent history.
More background: This is how paradoxically the Taliban rule
Putin's war against civilians
At the beginning of June, people close to Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that a "window was opening for talks between the European side and Russia" - to end the war of aggression against Ukraine. At that time, the Ukrainian army attacked Russia with drone attacks deep in the interior of the country.
If this “window” actually existed, it is probably closed again. There can be no question of any willingness to talk on the Russian side (more here). Instead, Moscow is increasing its attacks against the Ukrainian civilian population.
The number of civilian casualties increased dramatically in July. According to the United Nations, it has now reached its highest level since May 2022. Accordingly, at least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 injured in July. This corresponds to an increase of 30 percent compared to June and an increase of 70 percent compared to the same month last year. According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the reason for this was Russian attacks with missiles and drones on cities far away from the front line.
My colleague Georg Fahrion, who reports from the Ukraine for SPIEGEL, has researched that even refueling there can now be life-threatening. Georg was traveling on the Ukrainian highway M03, near the front, where Russia repeatedly targets gas stations with drones, cruise missiles and glide bombs.
Ukrainian gas stations are meeting places. People like to stay there longer than necessary. »To the east of the city of Poltava, only a handful of gas stations along the M03 are still undamaged. Others are completely destroyed, charred ruins, crumpled sheet metal," writes Georg. "The majority are more or less severely affected, but are still in operation."
Georg was in one of these gas stations when the air attack warning app announced a Russian cruise missile. He describes what he then experienced in a report that is worth reading.
The whole story here: The Ukrainian highway of burned gas stations
The council found that the planned restrictions on the use of platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram constituted “a disproportionate interference” with freedom of expression and communication. The law goes too far because it “could refer to online communication services where the risks to the health and safety of minors have not been proven.”
This is a defeat for Macron. But the president doesn't want to admit defeat. He commissioned Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to draft a new, constitutional version of the law. This should be available quickly. After all, Macron will only be in office for a few months.
French Constitutional Council blocks social media ban for under 15s
Here's another note on our own behalf: Two people, two opinions, one conversation - SPIEGEL is taking part in "Germany Speaks 2026". The Germany-wide initiative brings people with different political perspectives together for personal discussions. SPIEGEL editor-in-chief Dirk Kurbjuweit calls participation in the campaign “a good deed for democracy.” Are you interested? Then answer the following questions and register. We also invite you to the SPIEGEL canteen in Hamburg for the conversation on August 30th. Here is the first question:
Are you optimistic about the future of Germany?
