News of the day: shutdown, lockdown, breakdown

1. It stays dark longer

"Each contact is one too many. Don't meet anyone."

When

said this, I had to think of a great Austrian,

, who lived in self-imposed isolation at times and from whom the sentence comes: "I hate people, but they are also my only purpose in life."

But I’m probably wronging both of them.

(By the way, you can read a short portrait here.) In any case, Kurz has sent his country into a tough lockdown, and there should be

in the run-up to Christmas.

"We are in close contact with Slovakia, which is the first country in Europe to test the population. That worked incredibly well," says Kurz.

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In short, Chancellor for a long time

Photo: Joe Klamar / AFP

"The mood is very bad."

That could also be a sentence from Bernhard.

But it comes from someone who describes the preliminary meeting between the

.

Country leaders of all parties were indignant about the resolution proposed by the Chancellery for today's

: They had obviously assumed that there would only be discussions in the afternoon, but nothing decided.

According to the template, Angela Merkel and her people wanted to enforce stricter rules, such as mandatory masking for all students.

The conversations were still ongoing in the early evening.

(Read more here.)

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Waiting for bad news

Photo: Fabrizio Bensch / dpa

"The ampoules are already piling up in the warehouses

, the trucks are almost ready to go in front of the door." That is definitely not a Bernhard sentence, but a quote from Stephane Bancel, the CEO of the US company Modern, who announced today: His Corona Vaccine has an effectiveness of 94.5 percent. "After the Mainz company Biontech, a second, relatively small biotechnology company has developed an apparently highly effective agent in record time," reports my colleague Thomas Schulz. However, there will probably be shortages for the foreseeable future Even if everything works out, the approvals, the production, the delivery. Bancel says: "At least in the first six months of the year we won't have enough for everyone." That almost sounds like a Bernhard mood again.

• Here you can find help with gloom: Get out of the shutdown of feelings

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2. Red cards

The

have replaced the US election cards in the news, newspapers and on the Internet.

They are much redder, the number of infections is increasing.

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Much red, more blue

The

was blue enough:

will soon have to move out of the White House, even if he does not seem to want to admit it yet.

He reiterated baseless allegations of fraud and announced "major lawsuits" that would question the outcome of the November 3rd presidential election.

So far, Trump and his people have mostly suffered defeats.

And his lawyers have now even toned down a lawsuit against the result of the presidential election in the important state of Pennsylvania.

When updating the complaint, you deleted the allegations that the vote counting violated constitutional rights by Trump observers.

(More on this here.)

Do you sometimes strain this detailed reporting?

Or have you followed US politics manically since Trump took office and are now exhausted?

Then you are like my colleague Hannah Pilarczyk.

You can read here how and why she is now putting an end to it.

• Or maybe you'd prefer to subscribe to our weekly US newsletter: "The Situation: USA 2020"

3. Gender paygap, sometimes the other way around

Appearances are deceptive?

Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / dpa

A message from the "Sounds like good news at first, but turns out to be bad":

.

At the 30 DAX companies, the women on the board of directors received an average of around 2.93 million euros last year, around 30,000 euros more than the top male managers, as the consulting firm EY has evaluated.

In the M and S Dax, one floor below, the lead is even greater. 

"Strangely enough, this is a signal that shows that

has still not been achieved," says my colleague Maren Hoffmann from our career department.

"Because not many women make it high enough to be considered for a position on the board."

But since the corporations are systematically trying to recruit women, the few that exist are in a comfortable negotiating position. 

However, the total amount earned by women on the board of directors is declining because their share is falling: "The percentage of women on the DAX board is a shameful 12.8 percent," says Maren.

"In times of crisis, many companies rely on supposedly proven management concepts, i.e. on men." 

Oh yes, and the salaries of the CEOs are not included in the entire evaluation, because they are considered a separate category.

"Their very high incomes would change the ratio significantly" Because that's all - men.

• Read more here: Top managers earn more than their male colleagues

What else is important today

• Hungary and Poland block Corona aid:

  The EU wanted to pass a 1.8 trillion euro financial package for the next seven years.

  The two countries have now vetoed it - in protest against a commitment to the rule of law.

• Desperately looking for president for Peru:

  After the resignation of interim president Manuel Merino, parliament is arguing over his successor.

  In the middle of the corona crisis, a dangerous power vacuum threatens.

• The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is allowed to call identitary right-wing extremists:

  The Identitary Movement had complained against being called "right-wing extremist".

  Now the administrative court in Berlin decided: The name is justified.

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +

• Is there now also a drug against cancer coming?

  The breakthrough by the Mainz company Biontech not only gives hope for an end to the corona crisis.

  The procedure could fundamentally change vaccination medicine.

• "They feel so powerful"

  Every year in the lignite mining district in the Rhineland, environmental activists, police officers and RWE employees face each other irreconcilably.

  Our reporter spent a day between the fronts.

• "The French hold on to this figure with desperation":

  Julian Jackson explains why no politician in France is so revered as Charles de Gaulle.

  Does he see parallels between the former president and Emmanuel Macron?

Which is not so important today

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On a small foot

Photo: CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / REUTERS

• Turning sales into value:

  Marie-Antoinette of Austria-Lorraine

  , the last Queen of France executed at the age of 37 and controversial nutritionist, made it into the headlines again - one of her low shoes made of silk and goatskin was auctioned in Versailles for 43,750 euros the auction house Osenat announced.

  After a bidding war, an anonymous collector paid significantly more than the originally estimated price of 8,000 to 10,000 euros.

Typo of the day

, now corrected: May 25th was also the day on which Liverpool FC secured the European crown for the first time, in 1977 in the Olympics in Rome against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Cartoon of the day:

home restaurant

Icon: enlarge Photo: Thomas Plaßmann

And tonight?

Icon: enlargePhoto: 

Helga Lugert

Could you read in the recipe from our cook Verena Lugert that the gods are not infallible either - and that that is sometimes a great happiness.

According to Norse mythology, Thor, the god of thunder,

once sent

to earth as a punishment.

Small and hard and unsightly, they fell from the sky and seemed no good for anything but clogging the wells.

But some also ended up missing in the fields.

And lo and behold, only a few centuries and many breeding successes later, small, kermit green, tasty legumes had emerged.

Verena's serving suggestion: pea and mint soup!

(Here is her recipe.)

In this sense: Don't look black, but eat green!

Heartily

Yours Oliver Trenkamp

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