The situation in the morning: Christmas presents and firecrackers - how viral does Christmas get?

Today is about the upcoming consultations between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister about the Christmas fight against the coronavirus - and about the personal decisions of the future US President Joe Biden.

Merry Christmas?

There are supposed to be people for whom it would be very convenient if they didn't need an excuse why they couldn't stop by their relatives on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

This year there would be a contagious argument: Corona.

Angela Merkel with Christmas tree in the Chancellery (archive picture from 2011)

Photo: Stephanie Pilick / dpa

For most, however, Christmas is the festival when you go out to the family.

Parents want to see their grown children, grandparents want to see their grandchildren.

And that's why the good news that

want to spread this Wednesday after their renewed deliberations on the fight against Corona is: Your little children are coming!

The latest

paper, which came in after the last preliminary discussions between the heads of the State Chancellery and Chancellery Minister Helge Braun, provides that the

be extended in principle, but the

between December 23 and New Year will be relaxed: Ten people from different households are allowed to move around assemble the tree, children under 14 do not count.

Is this a good idea?

Not from an epidemiological point of view, as my colleague Julia Merlot explains plausibly.

The danger is real that Christmas will

into a

.

Politicians are also aware of this.

Therefore, she combines her generosity with the call to restrict all contacts to the bare minimum for a few days immediately before the festival - there is talk of a "protection week", no longer of self-quarantine as in previous draft versions.

Quite unfamiliar, after all, in the last few days before the festival, all of Germany is running through the city centers in search of gifts.

But Merkel and Co. have an appeal ready: "The population is called upon to do their

during the week if possible." The main thing is that they buy, one could add that the Christmas business should be buzzing, pandemic or not.

When you go you can at least coordinate with the neighborhood - irony end.

Not only Christmas, but also

becomes a political issue in Corona times.

Big parties are taboo, but

are not, so the SPD countries could not prevail.

There are enough reasons for this even in normal times.

But I don't want to open this barrel now ...

The second wave may be flattening out, but it could swell to a third fairly quickly if we

lose

all

on Christmas and New Year's Eve - or even before that -

no matter what the Chancellor and Prime Ministers decide today.

It's up to us, as it has been all along.

Let us wish for the best.

And a vaccine under the Christmas tree.

• The pandemic data: can we take the curve?

Comeback of the Obama veterans

Icon: enlarge

Janet Yellen is slated to become US Treasury Secretary

Photo: CHRISTOPHER ALUKA BERRY / REUTERS

“Back to the future - how much

do

and

dare

?” That was

what

SPIEGEL asked last week on the cover.

Now that the elected president is gradually putting his team together, it can be said that it is not just the former vice president who will remind us of the Obama years.

Joe Biden has also picked out pre-Trump veterans for a number of key positions.

My colleague Susanne Beyer started the list at this point yesterday, but it is now getting longer every day:

• Antony Blinken

  is to become foreign minister.

  He was Deputy Security Advisor and Deputy Secretary of State under Obama.

• Alejandro Mayorkas

  becomes

  Minister of

  Homeland Security - a position he already held as deputy under the 44th President.

• Avril Haines

  is said to be the first woman ever to coordinate US intelligence.

  She was Vice-CIA chief from 2013 to 2015.

• An old friend becomes the special envoy for climate protection:

  John Kerry

  .

  He was Obama's foreign minister from 2013 to 2017.

• With

  Janet Yellen

  first woman in the US to lead the Finance Ministry.

  Obama made her president of the US Federal Reserve in 2014.

It won't have been.

The rest of the Biden team should also have plenty of links to the Obama orbit.

All that's missing is a job for Hillary Clinton.

• Read last week's SPIEGEL cover story: Biden, Harris and the legacy of their predecessor - Obama's third term?

Loser of the day ...

... is the MAD.

The Military Counterintelligence Service, the Bundeswehr's secret service, has investigated suspected right-wing extremist cases in the troops far too half-heartedly in the past.

A special investigator who was appointed by the secret service controllers of the Bundestag two years ago came to this judgment.

The bad thing is: it's not a surprise.

One can only hope that the change at the top and the reforms that have been introduced will really change the attitude of the MAD.

The latest news from the night

• "This will not be a third Obama term in office":

  There are many old friends in Joe Biden's cabinet.

  But the elected US president does not want to lead the Obama administration to continue - instead he prefers to quickly reverse Trump's policy

• Russian warship threatens US destroyer with ramming maneuvers

  : Escalation in Peter the Great Bay: According to Russian information, a ship belonging to its own navy has threatened a US destroyer.

  You see it differently on the other side

• Justin Trudeau falls for fake Greta Thunberg:

  Russian YouTubers talked on the phone with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the world situation - as Greta Thunberg.

  He praised her "passionate words"

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I wish you a good start to the day.

Your Philipp Wittrock