1.
When the facts mattered
You can find the current SPIEGEL cover, the cover story here.
Mitt Romney suddenly stutters and looks in disbelief:
"You mentioned a terrorist attack the day after the attack?"
The question is when and with what words
Barack Obama
condemned the Islamist attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Romney thinks no, he knows: it took Obama 14 days to talk about terrorism - too long, too hesitantly.
That's how they report it on
Fox News
, that's how his staff briefed him.
But now, on the open stage, at the second television debate in 2012
, it becomes clear to him: He has been given misinformation.
Obama spoke of terror the day after the attack, very clearly.
That is what Obama says, that is what the moderator of the television debate confirms, that is how it was.
That totally upsets Romney.
Viewers see him as the loser of the show, voters give Obama a second term.
Despite all the turmoil, despite all false claims, the facts still counted for something in the 2012 election campaign. (You can see the passage in the video here.)
Icon: enlarge
Guilt and stage
Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
Donald Trump
is
unlikely to
be
confused
if he is
caught telling a lie
in the
televised debate with Joe Biden
tonight.
"If you follow Trump's behavior in the 2016 debates, he will unleash a volley of lies and insults, which Biden is likely to counter with pointed criticism of Trump," predict my colleagues Roland Nelles and Marc Pitzke.
The major US broadcasters broadcast the debate for 90 minutes without commercial breaks.
I
n Germany is to see them in the night from 2:45 at Phoenix and ZDF
.
The US ratings could set the previous record: 84 million Americans watched the first TV debate by Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
This time, up to 100 million viewers are expected.
Obama's former advisor Ben Rhodes fondly remembers Romney's failure at the time.
In his book, he writes about the Republicans and all the fake news, "I assumed they were just cynical, but what if they really believe all this stuff?"
In the case of Trump, it doesn't make any difference.
Read more here: Big theater, little substance
2.
We Corona survivors
"Corona is a test for communities.
The central resource to slow the spread as long as neither vaccine nor effective drugs are available is trust," writes my colleague Nils Minkmar.
The same applies to the pandemic as it does to love and politics - trust can be destroyed quickly, but it can only be rebuilt with great difficulty.
The most important ingredient, even if it sounds like a poetry album, is clarity.
Icon: enlargePhoto:
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Keep your distance, wear masks, wash your hands - these are clear messages.
R-value, seven-day incidence, percolation effect - these are technical terms that we come across all the time, but whose meaning is not clear to everyone for a long time, despite all the virologist podcasts and epidemiologist appearances on talk shows.
Several politicians and experts are therefore calling for a nationwide corona traffic light that
translates all the technical terms and data into clear signals.
My colleague Julia Köppe from our science department was surprised that the discussion is only now picking up speed after Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder also spoke out in favor of it: "The traffic light must be well done," says Julia, "the reported new infections alone are not enough . "
(Read here which criteria are important.)
The mark of one million corona deaths
, which according to Johns Hopkins University was reached last night,
cannot be surpassed in terms of clarity
.
Nils writes: "This enormous number makes us who are healthy or recovered into survivors, contemporary witnesses and fellow sufferers."
(You can read his essay here, five obituaries for corona deaths can be found here.)
You can read more about the corona traffic light here: Red, yellow, green - Söder's suggestion in check
And here you can read more about the measures currently decided by the federal and state governments
3.
Bard crime
I stopped dealing with German hip-hop sometime after 1996 ("My girlfriend is gone and is tanned").
But even I noticed that
German gangsta rappers like Gzuz, Haftbefehl and Capital Bra dominate the charts at times
.
But I have to admit that I've only known Gzuz's face since we showed him on the SPIEGEL cover a few months ago.
(You can see here which headlines we didn't dare to print back then. Read the cover story here.)
Icon: enlarge
Popular hit Gzuz
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt / dpa
I had to thank you for that when I read today:
The Hamburg regional court sentenced Gzuz to 18 months in prison and a half-million euro fine,
including violations of the gun law, possession of drugs and bodily harm.
On the last day of the trial, rappers and judges fought a battle of words: "You are a social bully! You disregard the rules of social interaction and think that you get everything with money," said the judge.
Gzuz replied: "You too!"
What kind of guy is that?
Fortunately, my colleague Jonas Leppin is somewhat familiar with the genre (his Twitter biography says: "Politics, media, rap music").
"Gzuz does extremely successful, but also extremely unsympathetic street rap," says Jonas.
"Violence, sexism, singing hook, auto-tune, done - even as a provocation that would be too limited for me by now."
Gzuz kept getting into trouble about weapons, drugs and violence.
"The verdict is a consistent continuation of his second career, from 2010 to 2013 Gzuz was already in prison for robbery."
Or in the words of the Hamburg judge: "Who, if not you, belongs in jail?"
Mic drop.
You can read more about it here: Rapper Gzuz sentenced to prison
What else is important today
The attacker wanted to set fire to the offices of "Charlie Hebdo":
His target was "Charlie Hebdo": According to investigators, the alleged
attacker in
Paris wanted to set fire to the rooms of the satirical magazine, which had long since moved.
Maas attacks Russia for Navalny's poisoning:
"Such a case cannot remain without consequences": Germany demands that Russia clarify the Navalny case.
Foreign Minister Maas has now confirmed the demand at the United Nations.
Investigators search Wirecard headquarters again:
Investigators have searched the Wirecard headquarters again.
According to SPIEGEL information, it was also about a loan from the state-owned KfW bank.
What should change at Germany's schools:
Germany is lagging behind when it comes to digitization and equal opportunities in schools, shows a new Pisa analysis.
Simply investing more money in the school system does not help.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
Second chance for unity:
The mood in East Germany has recently been bad, many citizens distrusted the government.
That has changed due to the corona crisis.
"California Must Burn":
Will the fires in the US be primarily caused by errors in forestry?
Or is it because of climate change?
Fire historian Stephen Pyne explains why.
With little money to the Happy Place:
My boyfriend and I had no idea about caravans or technical know-how.
But I dared something crazy and renovated an old vehicle myself.
Which is not so important today
Icon: enlarge
Show teeth with the royals: Another fossil in the British royal family
Photo: Kensington Palace / dpa
Diplomatic dental hygiene:
Britain's
Prince George
, 7, is allowed to keep a Maltese basking shark tooth.
It looked different before.
Because the government of Malta had something against it.
The Maltese minister of culture had reclaimed the fossil from the prince, although it had previously been given to the boy.
The politician drew malice on social media - and is now giving in.
"There is no intention to pursue this case," said a spokesman for the culture ministry.
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: During this time she regularly entered into hunger disputes.
Cartoon of the day:
fighting pandemic
Icon: enlarge Photo: Thomas Plaßmann
And tonight?
Could you get in the mood for the TV debate between Trump and Biden
with an episode of "The West Wing,"
the sixth episode of season four.
There, Martin Sheen, as Democratic President Bartlet, dismantles his Republican challenger.
Or you read an "Atlantic" text about the episode, which reminds you that such debates have a lot in common with sporting events - click here for the article.
In this sense: Game On!
Have a nice evening.
Sincerely,
Oliver Trenkamp
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.