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News of the day: Corona, virologist Melanie Brinkmann, Frontex, climate policy

2021-02-05T18:13:11.691Z


The corona mutants are there in almost all federal states. The virologist Melanie Brinkmann warns against easing the shutdown. And when it comes to climate protection, the agriculture and environment ministers are fighting over the seating arrangements. That is the situation on Friday evening.


1.

The fear of the mutants

If the slowly falling

corona numbers give

you hope, a look at the current reports unfortunately works like an antidote:

  • The

    British virus variant

    has now been detected in 13 federal states - and makes up almost six percent of the Sars-CoV-2 viruses in circulation, as RKI boss Lothar Wieler said today.

  • In Great Britain, it can be seen how rare complaints also increase with the increasing number of corona cases: As the Guardian reports, up to a hundred

    children

    are currently

    hospitalized with the Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome, or PIMS for short.

Icon: enlarge

Virologist Brinkmann (center), SPIEGEL colleague Jürgen Dahlkamp and colleague Rafaela von Bredow

Photo: Jörg Müller / Agentur Focus

I was particularly taken with the interview that my colleague Rafaela von Bredow and my colleague Jürgen Dahlkamp conducted with the virologist Melanie Brinkmann.

She says:

  • "The mutant from Great Britain and others will overrun us, the virus has got a rocket engine."

  • "This race is long lost."

  • "It will be like in England."

Brinkmann recently joined the scientific

advisory team for Angela Merkel

and the Prime Ministers.

With a view to the next round of decision-makers next Wednesday, she says: "Politicians will definitely not be able to relax without risking a surge of new infections." She calls for a

consistent containment strategy

to avoid a permanent shutdown (more on the "NoCovid" - Approach here).

"I think Brinkmann is very brave," says Rafaela.

"In these heated debates, in this never-ending state of emergency with pandemic-exhausted and bad-tempered people, you have to dare to call for further and possibly more severe restrictions." Explain pandemic and how Christian Drosten got a lot of headwind.

Which she did not contest.

"Now she has stepped back on the national stage with NoCovid - and felt the hatred of the easing apologists when" Bild "hung her as the" most radical voice in Merkel's team "that she wanted the" super lockdown "."

As a result, the tone of the e-mails to her changed, previously mostly positive, suddenly the pure hatred arrived, says Brinkmann: "I was scared for the first time." She asked her two older sons: "Please look see if you see people walking around in front of the house and acting strangely. "

  • You can read the whole interview here: Virologist Brinkmann warns of corona easing

2.

Crossing borders

Since last fall, we report that Europe's

border agency Fron-tex

in illegal repatriations of refugees, called

pushback

is entangled in the Aegean.

The EU anti-fraud authority Olaf then launched an investigation against Frontex, and the EU Parliament is also examining the allegations.

Icon: enlarge

Director Fabrice Leggeri: »You can't run an international organization like this«

Photo: 

Piotr Malecki / Panos Pictures / VISUM

My colleagues Giorgos Christides, Steffen Lüdke and Maximilian Popp have now spoken to Frontex employees and evaluated internal documents.

The crisis in Frontex, so they found not limited to pushback, it's obviously also about bullying allegations against Frontex director

Fabrice Leg-ge-ri

, possible mismanagement and financial irregularities.

"Frontex should control Europe's borders," says Steffen, "but the agency itself is out of control."

  • Read the full story here: The Frontex file

(Would you like to receive the »Situation in the evening« conveniently by email in your inbox?

Here you can

order the daily briefing as a newsletter.)

3. Who is the peasant enemy here?

Power is often a question of responsibilities.

Who takes care of what?

Who invites whom?

Who will decide in the end?

Who does the job?

Who adorns themselves with successes?

Who do failures hang on?

This can be seen quite well in

the field of

climate policy

, as my colleagues Philipp Kollenbroich and Jonas Schaible report.

They have evaluated internal documents that show that some agriculture ministers refuse their environmental colleagues a direct say.

"The problem starts at the federal level," write Philipp and Jonas.

"The environment and agriculture ministries in Berlin are primarily linked by mutual dislike."

Philipp finds the whole thing almost bizarre: »The most important EU agricultural reform of the last decades is currently being negotiated.

And in Germany people argue for months by letter about who is allowed to sit at the table with whom instead of working out a compromise on the content. "

  • Read the full story here: Climate policy is becoming a question of power

What else is important today

  • Russia expels three EU diplomats:

    In the dispute over the Navalny case, Russia expelled three European diplomats from the country - including one German.

    The federal government immediately threatens consequences.

  • "Apparently files were deliberately changed":

    Did employees of the Höxter youth welfare office manipulate documents afterwards?

    This is the question raised by the committee of inquiry into the Lügde abuse case.

    MEPs are demanding clarification for SPIEGEL information.

  • US Senate paves the way for Biden's Corona relief plan:

    With her vote, US Vice President Kamala Harris has lifted a stalemate in the Senate and cleared the way for Biden's trillion program in the fight against the pandemic for the time being.

    But there are still hurdles.

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +

Icon: enlarge

The cover story from the new SPIEGEL, the new issue is available digitally here, tomorrow at the kiosk.

Photo: Cover photos [M]: Leopold Fiala (2);

Florian Generotzky for SPIEGEL;

Tobias Hase / dpa

  • "The champagne was served in beer

    mugs

    ":

    Jörn Leogrande worked with Markus Braun and Jan Marsalek at Wirecard for 15 years.

    Here he talks about the inner workings of the Dax group, champagne parties and the question why even close employees did not suspect the fraud.

  • WDR deleted sensitive article about Laschet:

    Armin Laschet railed against activists in the Hambach Forest.

    A radio report about it is in the ARD media library for two and a half hours, then it disappears.

    Why?

  • As VfB Stuttgart revealed to its members:

    The Bundesliga club is said to have passed on data in order to influence club members.

    Because officials are blocking the investigation, the power struggle between the stadium curve and capital is now escalating.

  • The mystery of the separation

    children

    study: In

    2015, the Ministry of Family Affairs commissioned a study to show what children of separated parents need.

    It has not yet appeared.

    What's behind it.

Which is not so important today

Don't-Spectacular Appearance

Photo: 

Carolyn Kaster / AP

  • Self-doubt:

    The US singer

    Gwen Stefani

    , 51, spoke to the dpa news agency about her appearance at the Super Bowl 18 years ago a few days before the final of the NFL football league when she and her band No Doubt “I'm Just a Girl «and sang» Message In A bottle «with the singer Sting:» Even today I can hardly believe that they chose us.

    It was actually a size too big for me back then.

    I think I could do a better job today. "

Typo of the day

, now corrected: "130 handwritten pages of Jackie Kennedy's turned up in Ireland."

Cartoon of the day:

take the Vladimir!

Icon: enlarge Photo: Thomas Plaßmann

And on the weekend

Icon: enlarge

Author Wiedemann

Photo: 

SIMON MARTIN / Matthes & Seitz

Could you start a new book, maybe

Tender and Free.

On the fall of the patriarchy «

: It was written by the sociologist and journalist Carolin Wiedemann.

"Wiedemann neatly links social criticism with the history of feminism and the demands of contemporary queer-feminist movements," writes my colleague Elisa von Hof.

»Wiedemann tells so confidently and in such detail that even those can get in when Simone de Beauvoir or Margarete Stokowski is not yet on the night table.

And those who fear for their privileges, it takes the fear. "

Or you can watch the book show "Spitzentitel" by my colleague Volker Weidermann, in which Carolin Wiedemann talks about her book, about the "binary order that divides people into two genders" and about how coexistence can be organized more freely and with more solidarity.

In this sense: Cis Monday!

Have a nice weekend,


yours Oliver Trenkamp

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

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-02-05

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