“The Evidence Has Legs”

Cover story: Europe is battening down the hatches to ward of the massive influx of immigrants. The EU summit in Seville is to set a signal: in future, illegal immigrants are to be turned back at the external frontiers. However, this will improve the prospects for human traffickers, who make a huge profit from human distress. Budding right-wing populism is partly to blame, but also the terrorist cells of Muslim fundamentalists that have been uncovered inside Europe, and the lack of willingness of many immigrants to integrate – all these factors are ensuring that the term “European fortress” is about to acquire a shift in meaning in Seville. The fortress – until now a taboo word – will in future be deliberate; the repressive protection of the borders of European Union affluence are to become a declared aim.

Interview with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish prime minister and future president of the European Council, about stricter immigration policies in Europe.

“Germany Owes Us Help”

SPIEGEL interview with Kurdish leader Jalal Talibani on the looming war of the Americans against Saddam Hussein and the Kurds’ fears of the Iraqi ruler’s revenge:

“If it was up to us, we would favour a change of government through democratic change with the help of the Iraqi opposition, rather than a war. … We will not fight in any war if we are not also included in the scenarios for a democratic, federal Iraqi state. … If the American intervene in Iraq, we’ll see what happens. Maybe Saddam will be stupid enough to attack us in Iraqi Kurdistan. Of course we would then defend ourselves and launch a counter-attack.”

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW): Anxiety is growing within the German government that the German arms industry, and with that German known-how, could fall into the hands of American arms corporations.

“China’s Revolutionary Cell’s”

Bioethics: China has declared stem cell research a matter of national prestige. Already, the Germans are anxious about being outstripped by the Chinese – because there are few ethical constraints in the Middle Kingdom, but plenty of biological raw materials: egg cells, embryos and foetuses. Thanks to China’s one-child policy, researchers cannot complain of a lack of supply. Every pregnancy has to be reported to the local authorities in charge. If the mother of a healthy child becomes pregnant again, she can be forced to have an abortion. The abortion routine not only provides biologists with ample material for their research. It is also one of the reasons why many Chinese have few misgivings about the killing of embryos for research purposes.

“Super-Mobiles in a Turbo-Net”

Computers: Following the recent merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, the new company is exploring new markets. The giant is particularly attracted by the mobile phone market. However, since this is dominated by manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony, Ericsson, Motorola and Siemens, HP is now focusing on a radically different type of network architecture: wireless LANs (W-LANs). This fast, robust system for wireless data transmission has until now mainly been used in industry and in closed office networks. The computer giant is turning the city of Bristol into an open-air laboratory.

“Radioactive Dump on Indian Territory”

Environment: A handful of destitute Native Americans want to make a lot of money. Despite the resistance of the local governor, they are leasing out their land as a storage site for nuclear waste. By 2005 the world’s largest temporary nuclear storage site is to be built within sight of the Gosiutes. The only thing that could still stop its construction now would be security concerns. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, has already examined the project and found it to conform to legal requirements and be environmentally compatible.

“Alliance of the Obliterators”

Metropolises: The multiracial city of Trieste was once a famous stronghold of liberty and a refuge for poets: now a congress is reminding people that the Irish writer James Joyce spent the years preceding World War I here. But today’s Trieste shows little interest in its cosmopolitan traditions. Since 1995, the scientists Renzo Crivelli and John McCourt have been staging a Joyce Summer School in Trieste. For just under a week, researchers and enthusiasts from all over the world meet to discuss and to be intoxicated, following the trail of their hero through the old city and visiting the opera to get a flavour of the music-loving author’s life here. This year, the event will be bigger than usual: the “International James Joyce Foundation” is holding its annual symposium here, and integrating the annual meeting of aficionados to create a mega-happening with some 300 lectures. Since the resignation of Trieste’s mayor Ricardo Illy, a coalition of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the right-wing Alleanza Nazionale has been governing the city and the region – and doing its best to reverse the opening up and modernisation of Trieste, which Illy pursued for eight years.

“The End of Being Well-Behaved”

Music: The Viennese “Mozart Band” is blending classical music, pop and rock – its debut CD and tour demonstrate how delightfully Mozart’s music can be shaken up. The set of rules which the band uses on Mozart’s work seems comparatively simple: individual, usually fast pieces from the early symphonies and operas of the Salzburg teenager are selected, listened to, shortened, doubled, edited, daringly reassembled, transposed into strange keys, arranged for new instruments and then exposed to the caprices of the improvising musicians. Nevertheless, both melodically and rhythmically, enough of the original is still preserved: Mozart always shines through. Wolfgang Staribacher’s “Mozartians” are so smart, mischievous and intelligent in the way they execute their programme that the music is not harmed – the contrary styles blend impeccably in virtuoso sandwich technology, mixing precise notes and free improvisation. Success at last: cross-over as an elegant cross between gallantry and funk.

“The King of the Ghetto”

Boxing: For white America Mike Tyson is something like a conquered public enemy, for black America he is a loser with whom the dream of a rise to glory has died. After his knock-out in Memphis, the only path still open to the former champion is that of self-destruction – he is unable to stop.

“Difficult Inheritance”

Restitution: Two actions for damages being brought by the heirs of the Jewish department store Wertheim are putting the German government in a tight spot. The Ministry of Finance does not want to hand back the expropriated land. The case could now become one of the “largest Holocaust claims ever made by a family” (Wall Street Journal). The Federal government which manages the former Wertheim land in the heart of the German capital, refuses to give back to the ancestors what amounts to the most valuable fallow in Germany. In America this is felt to be like a “second dispossession”. The quarrel could even endanger the recently finalised compensation agreement.