1.
Vaccine dispute - can the EU hope for larger deliveries?
It sounds a bit scornful that the British Minister of Health Matt Hancock says that the EU has a contract with the vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca, which only guarantees "best efforts".
The government in London, on the other hand, stipulated exclusivity.
"I believe that free trading nations follow contract law," said Hancock.
"Our contract trumps them." After 29 million apparently hoarded AstraZeneca vaccine doses have been tracked down in Italy, the minister is now visibly proud of the preferential treatment of his country by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
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Better times: Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen in January 2020 in London
Photo:
Stefan Rousseau / dpa
My colleagues Markus Becker and Ralf Neukirch write about the "ugly war of the roses" that is being fought these days between the EU and Great Britain.
"London thinks it is on top - and could have the damage in the end," is her assessment.
The heads of state and government of the EU want to discuss the shortage of vaccines at their summit scheduled for today and tomorrow.
AstraZeneca had drastically cut its delivery commitment several times and pointed out difficulties in production.
Great Britain is hardly affected by this.
Will the new, surely very best "efforts" of the EU ensure more vaccine supplies after all?
"Whoever strives," says Goethe's "Faust," "we can redeem him."
My colleagues Hubert Gude and Philipp Kollenbroich are investigating the question of whether there are really large amounts of vaccine lying around unused in Germany.
Some experts and politicians had said this in the past few days, but research by colleagues only proves to be correct in a few individual cases.
In the case of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine, "the federal states are now swiftly vaccinating all available vaccine doses," the two report.
In the case of the Moderna vaccine, there are large quantities of doses still in storage in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, "a total of several tens of thousands".
In the case of the most controversial vaccine from AstraZeneca, for example, there are larger uninoculated stocks in Saxony.
The summarizing findings by Gude and Kollenbroich, however, give the all-clear: In the USA, according to official information, around 78 percent of the vaccination doses delivered this week were vaccinated, in Germany around 73 percent.
"However, the USA received significantly more vaccine doses from the manufacturers," said his colleagues.
This is precisely the basic problem of the German vaccination campaign: there is simply too little vaccine at the moment.
EU and British after Brexit: some poke fun at, others threaten
Alleged vaccination backlog: Where vaccinations stall in Germany - and where it works
2.
Football World Cup in Qatar - does a boycott of this major sporting event make sense?
Tonight, the German national soccer team, headed by Joachim Löw, will play a game against Iceland that will qualify for the soccer World Cup in Qatar.
There are still almost 20 months until the start of the Winter World Cup.
A survey of Germans aged 18 and over, which SPIEGEL commissioned on the occasion of the start of the World Cup qualification, shows that a majority thinks that the soccer tournament in Qatar is wrong, and more than two thirds of those surveyed are in favor of a boycott of the World Cup of the DFB.
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Fifa President Gianni Infantino, Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha (2019)
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
In his comment, my colleague Peter Ahrens calls the awarding of the tournament to the country known for human rights violations a “fall of man's world football”.
"Qatar should never have got the tournament." It is good that this flaw, as the survey shows, is clearly perceived by the population.
»Qatar is a country whose leadership shows what is possible in world sport with money: everything.
It is a mirror for all the grievances that the associations have led the sport into.
The corruptibility of the functionaries, the hypocrisy with which the noble sporting values are proclaimed and at the same time sold. "
Peter finds the attitude of the German sports officials "soft as wax".
Nobody is seriously thinking of taking the World Cup away from Qatar, which promises to be a football horror game.
In some other countries, such as Norway, there is currently a broad boycott mood - but one cannot really trust that either.
If your own national team actually qualifies, "you can bet that it will take part".
Will the mood of Germans change in a similar way?
Read the full story here: Large majority for a boycott of the World Cup in Qatar
Comment: The fall of man in world football
3.
Sexual violence - can online courses prevent men from assaulting?
The case of the murder of a 33-year-old woman by a police officer has only just sparked a debate in London about how to make public spaces safer for women in large cities;
for example through better street lighting.
My colleagues Sonja Peteranderl and Maria Stöhr report on initiatives in various countries around the world that proceed more fundamentally - and want to prevent boys and men from becoming (mostly sexually motivated) perpetrators in the first place.
"In order for something to really change, women shouldn't have to take detours, but rather men should reflect on their behavior," write the two of them.
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For many women, everyday situations are threatening - for that to change, men have to change their behavior
Photo: Enrique Castro-Mendivil / REUTERS
Her story tells of workshops for students in India, in which young men were animated to role-play, for example.
"Many men were very surprised that lewd jokes or asking a woman repeatedly on a date even though she refuses to be considered sexual harassment," says one of the workshop organizers.
All over the world, women suffer from attacks such as catcalling, stalking or unwanted contact.
The project of two universities in Hanoi also aims to use online courses to show young men where harassment begins.
And just as important: how they can change their behavior.
How you can intervene if you observe sexual assault on women in the lecture hall, in the canteen, in everyday life.
My colleagues quote a sociologist who accompanied the program in Hanoi as saying: "The effect of the online courses is overwhelming." Most of the male students have changed the way they address women - in chats and in real contact.
The cases of sexual violence have decreased at both universities.
»In this country too, women will be afraid of being alone in the dark in 2021.
Many of them have experienced some form of sexual harassment, «says my colleague Maria.
»To make this clear to men, online courses can also be useful at German universities.
It's not about putting all men under suspicion.
It's about telling them about a reality that they don't know about because they are not affected. "That could help" men to intervene when they witness an assault.
And of course it can also help prevent men from becoming perpetrators. "
Read the full story here: "We have to start with men because the majority of perpetrators are men"
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What else is important today
Where living in Germany is most expensive:
Apartments have been more expensive in metropolitan areas for years.
According to a new analysis for 351 cities, rental prices are rising much more slowly in many places than in previous years.
Merkel defends European path in the fight against pandemics:
Markus Söder calls for changes in the Bund-Länder-Round.
Chancellor Merkel also admits weaknesses with regard to fighting pandemics - and speaks out in favor of European strategies against Corona.
Julian Reichelt will have to share power at »Bild« in the future:
Julian Reichelt is allowed to return to the »Bild« newspaper after a limited period of leave due to a compliance procedure.
In the future, however, he will form a dual leadership with Alexandra Würzbach.
Open your mouth, vacationers!
Quarantine no, mandatory test yes: Anyone entering from abroad in the future should have a negative corona test with them.
According to SPIEGEL information, this will apply from Sunday.
The industry is gearing up.
My favorite story today
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Setting: Victoria has never been to India herself - she had suitable props brought in for this photo
Photo: Adoc-Photos / bpk |
Adoc photos
"A beautiful figure, broad in the shoulders and narrow in the hips," was how the British Queen Victoria enthusiastically called the man she was to marry in 1840, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
My colleague Bettina Musall portrays Queen Victoria, who has ruled for more than six decades, as an early influencer.
In order to secure political influence, she gave the British people insights into the private sphere.
The "myth of the reign of Victoria", writes Bettina, included among other things the happiness of the "apparently also erotically enthusiastic spouses" in royal service.
They had nine children together, Albert died in 1861, Victoria in 1901.
British Monarchy: How Queen Victoria Staged the Royal Family
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
“We dramatically underestimate the economic damage”:
The “Easter rest” has come to an end, but the shutdown remains.
The economist Gabriel Felbermayr warns of the long-term costly consequences - and says what politics could do about it.
How a chemical company turned poison into gold:
With questionable studies, Syngenta managed to keep the poisonous pesticide paraquat on the market for decades.
Internal documents now show how the company maneuvered while thousands of people died.
Insight into the secret report:
Cardinal Woelki kept the first study on abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne under lock and key for a year.
Until now.
What's in it?
Which is less important today
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Chrissy Teigen (2020): "It's time for me to say goodbye"
Photo: Evan Agostini / AP
Silent Twitter star:
Chrissy Teigen
, 35, American model, apparently no longer likes to communicate via Twitter.
"You have been my world for more than 10 years," said the wife of the musician John Legend and mother of two children to her fans.
"But it is time for me to say goodbye." The reason for their departure is apparently the hateful tirades of some media users.
She was sensitive, announced Teigen, and was "deeply injured."
She urged the Twitter community "never to forget that your words count".
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: "Merkel's power has been crumbling for a long time, and when it tried to rebel against unruly country mothers and fathers one last time, it crashed."
Cartoon of the day:
If already ... ... then already!
Enlarge picturePhoto:
Klaus Stuttmann
And tonight?
I find it difficult to keep track of the huge range of German TV crime novels.
Fortunately, however, my colleague Christian Buß watches over the investigation that is extremely popular with the public.
Not even at the thousandth performance of the standard question "Where were you between dinner and midnight yesterday?"
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Scene from »Night Shift« with Armin Rohde: Hygienic investigation
Photo: Marion von der Mehden / ZDF
Tonight you could watch Christian's highly praised crime thriller »Night Shift: Blood and Iron« by director Lars Becker in the ZDF media library.
The film is a black comedy with »absurd alliances and absurd concatenations of coincidences«, writes the colleague.
In the service of the reconnaissance work alongside the commissioner actor Armin Rohde as his colleagues, the Afro-German actress Sabrina Ceesay and Idil Üner.
Üner, Christian knows, had her first big appearance in 1998 in Fatih Akin's film »Kurz und painless« and should actually »have long since been the first German-Turkish superstar«.
(Here is the whole series review)
A lovely evening.
Sincerely
yours, Wolfgang Höbel
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.