The situation in the morning: Trump's servant opposes his master

Today we are dedicated to a clear message from US Attorney General Bill Barr to Donald Trump.

We deal with the atrocity in Trier, the future of the Kenya coalition in Magdeburg and a court case against the Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong.

The horror of Trier

The act of Trier

.

A man steers his vehicle in a zigzag course through a pedestrian zone.

He wants to kill people.

, including a baby.

There are several seriously injured and traumatized people.

The perpetrator, a 51-year-old German, was heavily

and apparently

.

He is said to have slept in his vehicle for the last few days.

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Church-goers take part in an ecumenical service for the victims in Trier Cathedral

Photo: Harald Tittel / dpa

There is apparently no secret, no ideology,

behind this act, just terrible emptiness.

For the relatives, the question of the motive does not play the role that it does for the public.

No matter what drove the person who committed the deed: He empowered himself to end human lives and to rob people of their loved ones.

and

were deeply concerned yesterday.

Around a hundred people prayed for the victims and their families in Trier Cathedral.

• With the SUV through the pedestrian zone: At least five dead after the death drive in Trier

Haseloff's future

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Fenced in: Prime Minister Haseloff (3rd from left) in the state parliament yesterday

Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / dpa

In the so-called

committee in

today,

the fate of the

of CDU Prime Minister Rainer Haseloff could be decided: Saxony-Anhalt is the last federal state that does not agree to the 86 cents increase in fees for public service broadcasting on January 1st Has.

The SPD wants to agree to the increase, the Greens want to postpone the decision for six months and the CDU wants to reject it - as does the AfD.

The government is now threatened with failure due to the dispute over this question, the situation has become a mess and a solution is not in sight.

Haseloff tried to postpone the meeting, which prevented his own faction.

If the CDU and AfD should stop the increase in the state parliament on December 15, the issue will also become a problem for the federal union.

• Radio license dispute in Saxony-Anhalt: CDU parliamentary group rebels against its own prime minister

The Hong Kong judgment

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Activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow in Hong Kong in 2019

Photo: Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

Today it will be decided whether the 24-year-old

to go to

for five years

.

The most famous face of the democracy movement is

on trial

together with its prominent colleagues

and

.

All three had pleaded guilty to having organized an unauthorized protest - each of them face up to five years in prison.

It's about a protest that the three organized on June 21, 2019.

It was the year Hong Kong was rocked for months by mass demonstrations against Beijing.

If the three leaders were to go to jail, they say they were trying to draw the world's attention to

.

Their battle seems to be almost lost: since Beijing effectively took direct control of Hong Kong with the new security law, the authorities have been able to take much more brutal action against any form of opposition.

• Hong Kong activist Law: "We know we are nowhere safe because China's arms go far"

Story of the day: direct democracy

In a region in eastern Belgium

.

My colleague Alexandra Rojkov wanted to know how it changes people's view of politics when they have a say - and

.

Here you can read what she found out.

• Democracy experiment in Belgium: when citizens drawn at random suddenly have a say

Trump's faithful servant has had enough

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He was still smiling: Barr is listening to Trump in 2019

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP

US Attorney General

has long been known for doing almost everything

demands of him - even if it contradicts his role: since

, the attorney

has had a certain degree of independence within the government, as powerful judicial organs such as are under his control the FBI.

Barr only adhered to this in part, as can be seen from the way he treated the Mueller Commission's report on the investigation into Russia: he initially did not publish it, but only a misleading summary that left out important allegations.

But the closer the election got, the more dissatisfied Trump was with his attorney general.

He wanted Barr to open criminal investigations into Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden - there was no real reason to do so, but Trump saw the Justice Department as a tool he wanted to use to harm his political opponents.

Barr refused, to the annoyance of his boss.

Now Barr has taken a stand

like never before

and made public that he does not support Donald Trump's absurd denial of the election result.

He told the AP news agency: There is

large-scale

that would change the election result.

A clear signal to the President that all the madness Trump continues to do is enough.

But the president has long been listening to his personal lawyer and conspiracy

.

According to several media reports, Giuliani, Trump's man for the rough, has already spoken to the President about the fact that he should preventively pardon him for all possible misdeeds that Giuliani might have committed for Trump. 

But Barr's statement doesn’t change the fact that he too is one of the president’s lackeys who have

: Perhaps to appease Trump, Barr announced yesterday at the same time that he will now have his own special with John Durham Counsel «: a special investigator who is supposed to investigate how the appointment of special investigator Robert Mueller could come about - and to verify Trump's assumption that the Russia investigation was the result of a conspiracy.

Are your head spinning?

Understandable.

Incidentally, the Trump presidency only lasts a good 50 days.

• "No Evidence" for Allegation of Election Fraud: Attorney General Barr contradicts US President Trump

Loser of the day ...

… Is

, 59. The Hungarian MEP is a confidante of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and boasts, among other things, that he himself should have inserted the words into the Hungarian constitution in 2011, according to which marriage is exclusively the union between men and women.

Last Friday, Szájer was caught by the Belgian police in Brussels for violating the Corona regulations at an illegal party together with two dozen other men - he had tried to escape and was from the police with bloody hands and a backpack been caught with drugs.

According to Belgian media, the broken gathering was a gay sex party.

This is newsworthy for one reason only: it shows the hypocrisy of a Christian nationalist politician who is openly homophobic in public.

Only then does the private become political.

In a statement yesterday, Szájer announced that he was stepping down from his position and apologized to his family - he is married to a Hungarian constitutional judge.

He also announced that although the police had found ecstasy, the pill was not his.

The latest news from the night

• US judiciary is investigating possible bribe payments for pardons:

  Details in the case are extremely sparse - but investigations are apparently underway in the US into alleged payments of money against pardons by President Trump

• Showdown in Magdeburg:

  On Wednesday, the Saxony-Anhalt Media Committee will again negotiate the radio license - and the Kenya coalition may burst.

  Will a solution be found?

  The lack of leadership is revealed in the CDU

• Ellen Page becomes Elliot Page:

  Ellen Page has been married to the dancer Emma Portner since 2018.

  Now the actress has declared herself transgender.

  From now on he calls himself Elliot - and writes about joy and fears

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

• Historians on the outgoing US President: "Trump is the opening of a boil that had previously formed"

• Financial policy in the corona crisis: The biggest mistake the coalition can make now

• French President Macron: A man sees green

• Collien Ulmen-Fernandes on thrift: "I envy my husband the ease with which he throws money out"

I wish you a good start to the day.

Your Mathieu von Rohr