Today we deal with the art of partial retreat while simultaneously rushing forward (artist: Donald Trump), and with what the state will decide for Christmas and what it may decide at all.
Donald Trump initiates the handover of official business to Biden
According to press reports, Donald Trump is said to have told confidants that he was
planning
a presidential candidacy for the
US election in 2024
, from which the confidants concluded that he had now accepted to have to
vacate
the
White House
.
On the same evening, the responsible body announced that the Michigan electorate would go to the elected US President Joe Biden, and it must have become clear to the incumbent US President that his attempts to defeat his US election failed to turn into a victory.
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Donald Trump has initiated the process of handover to Biden
Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
Finally, he announced on Twitter that although he would continue to fight to remain in office, the elected US President Joe Biden will now have access to the government infrastructure in order to be able to prepare for taking office.
Trump had previously denied this access.
Every day of those agonizing weeks, in which he did not let Biden do what he should have let him do, was an imposition for American democracy and its institutions.
Trump wants, if not the entire country, to at least
keep
the Republicans
under control.
Nobody should get past him, which is why he is already making his ambitions for the next election so clear.
But it serves the Republicans right.
The real villains in the pathetic game of the past five years were and are they.
They wanted to secure their own small power through Trump, which was more important to them than the state of the country.
Do you want to remain the villains?
Breakthrough in the transition phase: Trump initiates the process of handing over office to Biden
Old acquaintances for the US cabinet
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Things are moving forward for Joe Biden
Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP
Joe Biden is moving forward, but that doesn't mean his party is all cheering.
The party left
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
has already complained about Biden's transition team -
it lacks the will to progress
, it ignores the progressive youth of the party and disregards those who would have given Biden the election victory.
The mood in the party will also depend on who Biden wants to appoint to his future cabinet.
The first names to permeate come from the establishment.
Antony Blinken as Foreign Minister?
Was US Vice Secretary of State under Obama and National Security Advisor von Biden from 2009 to 2016, during his time as Vice President.
John Kerry as climate officer?
The 76-year-old was US Secretary of State between 2013 and 2017, again under Obama.
Nevertheless, the well-known newcomers mark a U-turn
, namely from Trump's politics.
Blinken stands for a multilateral foreign policy and will seek talks with the representatives of the EU again.
In turn, Kerry is said to be a special envoy for climate affairs on the White House's National Security Council.
With this, Biden shows how important he takes the fight against climate change.
The US is returning to the future.
Next US Administration: This is what Joe Biden's cabinet could look like
Relaxation possible over Christmas
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Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers will discuss how to proceed on Wednesday
Photo: Christian Thiel / imago images / Christian Thiel
Tomorrow the
Chancellor and the Prime Ministers
will meet for the new Corona summit, there will probably not be any easing, rather tightening, one exception: Christmas.
Apparently there are considerations to soften the regulations for the few days so that families and friends from several households can get together.
The upper limit could even be ten people.
The calculation: the schools will be too, most people won't go to work, that could offset the risks that are increased by easing.
In any case, it was none of the government's business "how I celebrate Christmas with my family," said Friedrich Merz, candidate for the chairmanship of the CDU.
Is he right?
In fact
, the Basic Law gives the family a high priority
and protects religious freedom in particular.
My colleague Dietmar Hipp spoke to Hans Michael Heinig, a constitutional law teacher and head of the Canon Law Institute of the Evangelical Church in Germany, about what that means for Christmas.
The expert expresses himself clearly: »The state cannot ban Christmas per se.
Christians are allowed to celebrate the birth of Jesus - but not necessarily in full churches or in large families. «Preventing the hospital system from collapsing is a legitimate concern in order
to justify
far-
reaching encroachments
on
fundamental rights
.
So despite the possible easing over Christmas, it will be depressing December days.
But there is good news.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn has announced that the first vaccinations can also be given in Germany from mid-December.
Corona and Christmas: Can the state ban church services and family celebrations?
A murder, a prince and many questions unanswered
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Jamal Khashoggi (2011) was murdered in October 2018
Photo: Virginia Mayo / picture alliance / dpa
The video conference is currently a much scolded format, but some heads of state and government will have been happy at the weekend that the pandemic saved them from having to travel to the G20 summit in host country Saudi Arabia.
They linked up via video so that certain images could be avoided, for example this: Chancellor Merkel smiling at the side of King Salman and his son
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
.
Such recordings might not suit her, because the criminal court proceedings against the murderers of
Jamal Khashoggi
are already going on in Turkey
- the role of MbS, as the Crown Prince is called, is still considered unclear here.
A special commando from Riyadh had probably tortured and dismembered Khashoggi on October 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he was going to collect papers for his planned wedding.
Immediately after the murder, rumors emerged that the Crown Prince personally ordered the killing, and he denies it.
In June 2019, however, a UN investigation report was published in which the killing of Khashoggis was
assessed
as an extrajudicial execution, thus as a
"state murder"
. UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard said she had "credible evidence" that the Crown Prince himself was behind the murder stuck.
She accused the German Chancellor and French President of "complicity" with Saudi Arabia.
Not enough international efforts have been made to solve the murder.
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancée, is at least more positive about Merkel.
"I feel that Germany is at my side," she says now.
A sentence that expresses hope rather than real confidence.
And which is meant as an invitation not to forget the matter.
Khashoggi fiancée denounces Saudi Arabia: "Sometimes I dream that Jamal is still alive"
The latest news from the night
Elon Musk overtakes Bill Gates in the ranking of the super-rich:
For Tesla it is on the stock exchange - and for boss Elon Musk on the account: Now he even overtook Bill Gates on a list of
the super-rich
.
Neither of them come close to the Amazon boss
"Unconventional thinkers" should beware of Holocaust comparisons:
It was about Anne Frank and Sophie Scholl.
In the "Querdenker" demos there were repeated references to victims from the Nazi era.
The anti-Semitism commissioner of the federal government finds it absurd
King Karl:
Karl Dall was embarrassing, rough - and a highly sensitive artist.
An obituary
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Susanne Beyer