Today, we are working on new insights into the consequences of climate change, the Christmas elections in the UK and Vladimir Putin's return visit to Budapest with Viktor Orbán.
Boris Johnson gets new election instead of Brexit
Jessica Taylor / REUTERS
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Issue 44/2019
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Once again, the never-ending Brexit drama moves on to the next round: instead of leaving the EU at any cost tomorrow, as promised by Boris Johnson , the British are now allowed to elect a new parliament just before Christmas: 12 December That's what Parliament decided last night - after having rejected three new elections before Boris Johnson had to accept the renewed Brexit reprieve Parliament had imposed on him. Now followed by an election campaign and an election that will decide whether, on January 31, the British will really leave the EU, as Johnson and the EU negotiate.
It looks like the premier will win the election, but that's what Theresa May thought before the last election. And because Johnson had to break his key promise and the country will not be leaving the EU tomorrow, Nigel Farage's radical Brexit party has a good chance of winning votes and spoiling his choice.
- Election just before Christmas: The Brexit-mess
Millions of cities under water
Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
These are scenarios known from disaster films: Bangkok - under water. Mumbai - under water. Ho Chi Minh City - largely under water. But also: East and North Frisia - largely flooded. A study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications makes new, dramatic predictions about the effects of rising sea levels as a result of climate change . Cities and regions where 150 million people live could be flooded by 2050, significantly more than previously thought.
The new study measures the height of the coastline much more accurately than previous estimates, which were based on a data set from NASA in 2000. With satellite data and machine learning, scientists were able to pinpoint the consequences for coastal cities and their inhabitants. The Chinese Shanghai, the Egyptian Alexandria or Iraq's oil capital Basra would therefore be more affected by the rise in sea level than previously known.
But not only Asian megacities, but also the North German coast and the Netherlands are therefore at risk. It has just become fashionable again to accuse those alarmists who are warning of the consequences of climate change. But the truth is, the more scientists find out about the potential consequences, the more it becomes apparent that concern is appropriate. And the call for urgent political action as well.
- Meteorologist above sea level: One meter we can catch - nothing more
The witness against Trump
Patrick Semansky / AP
He is a highly decorated army veteran who has made it to the National Security Council in the White House as a Jewish-Ukrainian immigrant - and now Alexander S. Vindman, the government's top Ukraine expert, has become the most important witness against Donald Trump: he is the The first witness to overhear the telephone conversation in which the US president called on the Ukrainian head of state to investigate Joe Biden - and he was deeply shaken by it.
Pro Trump media like Fox News immediately tried to portray Vindman as biased or even spy because of his background. But it is increasingly difficult for the Republicans to discredit the allegations against Trump. There are more and more credible Witnesses inside the White House and clear evidence showing that the US President was actually guilty.
Meanwhile, the Democrats probably have enough votes to officially initiate an impeachment trial of Trump , there will be a first vote on Thursday. That would also deprive the Republicans of the opportunity to present the investigation as a secret plot. Because so far the witnesses are being heard in camera - but when the impeachment process officially starts, citizens will be able to follow witness testimony and evidence live on television.
- Trump and the witnesses in the Ukrainian affair: Now it gets really dirty
Putin at Orbán
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
It is the ninth bilateral meeting of Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin since 2013 and the fourth time since 2015 that the Russian head of state is coming to Budapest. This shows how Hungary's PM is increasingly confrontational with EU foreign policy. Officially Orbán wants to talk to Putin today about economic issues, but the visit is most likely a political gesture.
The Hungarian has been pleading for an end to EU sanctions against Russia. Russia is one of Orbán's role models, and consistently pursues his concept of "illiberal democracy" in Hungary. And he also forges alliances with authoritarian states: the Central Asian republics, China, Turkey, but also with authoritarian Western Balkan politicians like Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic. The West, however, turns his back increasingly.
- Elections in Hungary: A swan song on Orbán would be too early
Story of the day
John Boal / THE MIRROR
My colleague René Pfister, US correspondent for SPIEGEL, met Robert Kagan for a talk - the historian was once one of the most important advisers to republican politicians. He is considered a prominent member of the neoconservative school of thought and one of the few in the Washington establishment who are still convinced that the US is the "indispensable nation" for the world. Not only does he criticize Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria, but he also clearly does not believe in Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's Syria protection zone.
He asks: "Are Europeans really willing to pay the moral price of becoming a military interventionist, because that means killing people and also allowing innocent civilians to die because mistakes are made in every war." He did not believe, Kagan said, that the Germans wanted to bear this burden.
- Conservative Thinker: The conversation with Robert Kagan
Loser of the day ... ...
Hassan Ammar / AP
... is Lebanon's premier Saad Hariri . For two weeks, the Lebanese have been demonstrating against his government's national unity, holding protest parties and building roadblocks in Beirut. Starting with a tax on WhatsApp calls, a major protest movement developed against corruption and mismanagement, against the elites to whom Hariri was rightly attributed.
The announcement of reforms could not reassure the protesters and now Hariri has resigned - but one does not have to be too compassionate with him. He is a billionaire, has both the Lebanese and French and Saudi Arabian citizenship. And it is easy to imagine that he will be in Paris more often in the future - and is happy to have nothing to do with the desperate economic situation in heavily indebted Lebanon.
The compact news overview in the morning: current and opinionated. Every morning (weekdays) at 6 o'clock. Order directly here:
The latest news from the night
- Germany accuses China of mass arrests and surveillance: With 22 other countries, Berlin is making significant allegations
- Democrats present plans for public hearings in Ukraine: they want to refute a central reproach of the Republicans
- US House of Representatives condemns massacres of Armenians as genocide: It is only a symbolic step - but the reaction from Ankara is still clear
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
- Power plant blocker about imminent million penalty: "I would do it again"
- Geologists are reconstructing historical species extinctions: when the rain of death came over the earth
- Nazi crimes: So cruelly murdered soldiers of the Wehrmacht
- Tips for Gardening in Autumn: Knife Chipper or Roll Chopper?
- Mild verdicts for drunks: Is Vollrausch a license for rapists and blackjacks?
I wish you a nice start to the day.
Your Mathieu von Rohr
