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News of the day: Heiko Maas in quarantine - is Germany really getting through the pandemic that well?

2020-09-23T16:25:54.863Z


Quarantine measure for the SPD politician. A bitter asylum concept. And security authorities consider their own action against right-wing extremists to be insufficient. That is the situation on Wednesday evening.


1.

Quarantine measure

Icon: enlarge

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas: First test negative 

Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa

There was a time, around the beginning of the pandemic, when we reported

almost every day about every reasonably known person

who was

infected

with the

coronavirus

.

Jair Bolsonaro, Friedrich Merz, Prince Charles, Tom Hanks, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

It was

a journalistic decision

to forego it at some point.

Now the

German Press Agency sent

a

red-tinted breaking news

today

that

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has to

go

into quarantine

.

Sure, one supposes, Moscow and Tripoli, Ankara, Athens, there has been a lot going on in the last few weeks.

I also think a bit ashamed of my own travel plans.

Maybe we should stay home more after all?

It is fitting that the virologist Christian Drosten is also quoted today with the sentence that Germany is not yet adequately prepared for the coming period in the corona pandemic.

Specifically, he said: "The pandemic will only really start now. Here too."

He also said: "We have to stop talking about things like football stadiums."

Which he is right about, but that is a different matter.

In any case, Maas

now has to oversee world politics in the office

because one of his bodyguards tested positive.

So a man who should actually protect him from danger.

A first test with the SPD politician was negative

.

Nevertheless, this marginal report - i.e. breaking news in some news portals, but everyone has a different journalistic orientation - is once again proof that we are of

course still a long way from surviving

the

pandemic

.

That it can affect anyone, even with personal protection.

  • Read the full story here: Heiko Maas is in quarantine

2.

No punch line

Icon: enlarge

Children in the meanwhile burned down Camp Moria on Lesbos 

Photo: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP

I admit, I sometimes play a joke in this newsletter.

We want you to feel a little entertained.

But there are issues -

and the EU Commission's proposals for asylum reform are one of them

- there is little room for

punch

lines.

At most for the very bitter ones.

A concept was

presented

today in Brussels that

aims to regulate a common migration policy for all EU countries.

Roughly speaking, there are

two scenarios

:

1.

In normal times, the EU states help each other voluntarily.

2.

If a country is under pressure, a mechanism for mandatory solidarity can be triggered.

The EU countries would then either have to take in migrants or help in some other way.

But there is also a

crisis mechanism

: then states should either accept asylum seekers or deport a certain number of those who have been rejected.

If this does not succeed within a period of time, the country must accept them itself.

It is unclear whether these plans will ever be implemented.

Personally, I

would like

to see

European unification

- but I doubt that it will ever come.

The proposals that Ursula von der Leyen made are not new.

There is no mandatory quota for the distribution of asylum seekers in the concept.

"

Perhaps the biggest problem is that all EU countries have to agree to the migration pact

- and that some heads of government like Hungary's Viktor Orbán would benefit domestically if the migration issue were never resolved," said my colleague Markus Becker.

(Read here his analysis of the migration pact, which he wrote together with Peter Müller.)

  • Read a comment by Maximilian Popp on European migration policy here: Injustice instead of right of asylum

3.

No quick shot

Icon: enlarge

KSK soldiers in the open: overlooked brown tendencies?

Photo: MICHAELA REHLE / REUTERS

Let me make a provocative statement: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution should

aggressively and efficiently search for right-wing extremist soldiers

.

Don't you find it so provocative?

Do you think that after a number of explosive revelations about right-wing extremist tendencies in the Bundeswehr (for example here, here, or here) that would be standard anyway?

Well, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD), the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have now at least agreed on an "agreement to improve cooperation".

The Ministry of Defense had the impression that the MAD, for example, due to its military character, acted rather cautiously and slowly when it came to right-wing extremist suspected cases.

My

colleague Matthias Gebauer

has a classified document in which the three presidents of the MAD, the BfV and the Federal Criminal Police Office admit that the previous cooperation to identify right-wing extremist networks within the Bundeswehr is

inadequate

.

Now that everyone is up to date - I don't know the military-operational term for it, but it certainly exists - the

presidents have also decided on a package of measures to

ensure

that the exchange of information works better in the future.

So the fight against right-wing networks is progressing - albeit not particularly quickly.

  • Read the full story here: MAD is said to act more aggressively against right-wing extremist soldiers

What else is important today

  • Lukashenko can be sworn in as president:

    the opposition demonstrates against electoral fraud in Belarus - but Alexander Lukashenko has taken the oath to be president.

    The ceremony took place surprisingly and without notice.

  • Large-scale drug raid against Munich police officers:

    the drug scandal in Munich police headquarters is expanding.

    The authorities are now investigating 21 police officers.

  • Cindy McCain speaks out for Joe Biden:

    US President Trump never made a secret of his contempt for John McCain.

    The late Republican's widow now stands behind Democrat Joe Biden.

    This is "a good and honest man".

  • Steinmeier calls for a position against racism:

    The terrorist attack in Hanau hit "unique people", says Federal President Steinmeier.

    At a meeting with relatives of the victims, he urged citizens to speak out against racism.

  • Navalny released from inpatient treatment:

    The poisoned Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny was treated in the Berlin Charité for a total of 32 days.

    Now his condition has improved so much that he has been able to leave the hospital.

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +

  • Bavarian top official embarrassed himself in Wirecard survey:

    Karl Michael Scheufele is head of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and possibly jointly responsible for the failure of the authorities in the Wirecard scandal.

    Now he is clueless.

  • Von der Leyen's anti-social Green Deal:

    The EU wants to use CO₂ revenues to consolidate its budget.

    The costs are mainly borne by low-wage earners.

    The climate plan is deepening the gap between rich and poor.

  • "Bees don't eat stones":

    Baden-Württemberg's Environment Minister Franz Untersteller explains why he forbids homeowners to have gravel around their homes.

    And why the ban is not only good for insects.

  • "There was no economic miracle":

    Ludwig Erhard is considered to be the father of the upswing in the Federal Republic after the Second World War.

    The historian Werner Abelshauser sees his services elsewhere - Erhard was just a good seller.

Which is not so important today

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (left) with her husband, a British singer: "Every relationship is 50:50"

Photo: Charley Gallay / AFP

  • I imagine the readers of this newsletter as satisfied people who sit in large apartments in old buildings and have happy relationships.

    But there are exceptions.

    Unlucky ones who didn't do well.

    Some even have to get divorced.

    The

    actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, 47,

    approximately, was for many years the

    "Coldplay" singer Chris Martin, 43,

    married before the relationship broke up in 2016 officially.

    In a talk show with

    host Drew Barrymore

    , she chatted about how things can go on after a breakup with the ex-partner.

    And then you close the door in the pretty old-style living room to read it through in peace - out of curiosity, of course.

    The realization is sobering: "Every relationship is 50:50," says Paltrow.

    Nobody is just good or bad.

    With the help of a therapist, she and Martin learned to take responsibility for their own half.

    That is of course tough stuff

    .

    You wouldn't want to be told that by a couple who named their own children Apple and Moses.

    At Paltrow, relationship sounds like work

    .

    And if that's true, then you can stay in the office right away.

    So theoretically.

    Fortunately, your own apartment is far too beautiful for that.

Typo of the day

, now corrected: "In two other cases from Germans, the disease was so severe that the patients are still being treated"

Cartoon of the day:

The UN celebrates its 75th birthday

Icon: enlarge Photo: Klaus Stuttmann

And tonight?

Michael Gwisdek (r.) With Tom Schilling in the film "Oh Boy": Crazy, dangerous or sensitive

Photo: X rental

Today it became known that the

actor Michael Gwisdek died at the age of 78

.

Gwisdek, I'll help you now, although you probably know it yourself (wink smiley), became known in films such as

"Olle Henry" (1983),

"The Tango Player" (1991)

or

"Good Bye, Lenin!"

(2003)

.

In his case

, something connects me to a film

.

A few years ago I was sleeping sleeplessly through the public broadcasters that I paid for with passion and got stuck with the

tragic comedy "Oh Boy" (2012)

.

It may be because of my middle-class middle-class life that the black-and-white film about a melancholy man who drifts aimlessly through Berlin and actually only wants to drink a decent coffee in the entire 83 minutes immediately piqued me.

Towards the end, the

main actor Tom Schilling

meets a man in a bar who

philosophizes

at the bar

about his

life and childhood

during National Socialism.

This fine supporting role was played by Gwisdek and I remember that his aura was so scary because you didn't know whether this man was

crazy, dangerous or sensitive

.

So if you can't sleep tonight either, watch this movie.

(And read an obituary by Leander Haußmann here.)

Have a good evening


Yours Jonas Leppin

Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-23

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