HORROR FLOODS: Thursday served as a reminder of how broad and unforeseeable the range of tasks in politics is. On a visit designed to make up for some dark years in bilateral relations with the U.S., German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked for her host Joe Biden’s understanding when she addressed the extraordinary heavy rains and floods in Germany and Western Europe first. People’s “houses houses were literally death traps,” Merkel said at a joint press conference with the U.S. president after 11 p.m. our time.
‘My empathy and heart go out to all those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones,” Merkel said, adding she included Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands when she said she was “feeling with the ones who suffered” and would like to “send a message to the people that we will not leave them alone.” Biden offered his condolences, too.