today it's about the all-too-charming Boris Johnson, who invites you to his island;
about what should actually be learned in school now - and about practicing the disciplined jubilation at the European Football Championship.
Boris Johnson is allowed to play again - the host
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will receive US President Joe Biden today ahead of the G7 summit starting tomorrow in Cornwall.
The "Group of Seven" meeting will be held under Johnson's chairmanship in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, and will be the first personal meeting of Heads of State and Government in this format in two years.
Last year they only connected via video due to Corona.
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Joe Biden and his wife Jill before their flight to Europe yesterday.
It is Biden's first international trip since taking office in January
Photo: Evan Vucci / dpa
Two years ago, before Corona - that was still another world. Donald Trump ruled the United States, and Boris Johnson, the new prime minister, still had his first G7 meeting ahead of him. Because he wanted Brexit and drove it, he was not welcomed in either Berlin or Paris. At that time he was looking for proximity to America, to Trump.
Today Brexit is over, Johnson is dealing with Trump's successor, who has not forgotten that Johnson wanted to hook up with Trump and has been considered his likeness for long enough - for good reasons: Johnson is more original than Trump, but he is a populist after all. Now Johnson will have to show what position in the international network he intends for the kingdom after Brexit. Splitting is easier than bringing it together. And bringing together the different national interests is the task of a G7 host.
To identify himself as an honorable member of the Democratic Club, Johnson has invited special guests: the heads of government of India, Australia, South Korea and South Africa.
This should be understood as a demarcation from authoritarian states such as China and Russia - and would therefore also be encouraging self-praise of the states represented at the G7 meeting.
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Protest by the Ocean Rebbellion group in the run-up to the G-7 meeting
Photo: TOM NICHOLSON / REUTERS
He is just so charming and agile, the "Boris", as the inhabitants of the kingdom usually call him. He will amuse his guests with the mixture of eccentricity and perfection that he was trained in the British upper class from childhood. But just playing and charming - that won't be enough this time. Activists, for example from Ocean Rebellion, are already preparing to disrupt the summit. And Biden is said to have decided to talk to Johnson about the effects of Brexit, for example on peace in Northern Ireland.
And the issues that should be the main focus are serious: climate change and the economic consequences of the pandemic - which is still going on.
Environmental groups are hoping for a specific end date for the burning of coal and other fossil fuels.
There will also be negotiations on how the West can distribute more vaccines around the world instead of hoarding them in their own countries.
Cornwall meeting: Johnson calls for G7 pledges to vaccinate the world's population
The next school year: what the children should actually learn
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Parents and children with face masks wait in front of school for the class to start again
Photo: Gil Cohen Magen / DPA
Today and tomorrow, the Standing Conference will advise on the next school year 2021/2022. State of emergency is difficult enough, but the time after a state of emergency is often even more difficult - and hopefully that will be the upcoming school year. It will be about practicing normality after a year and a half of chaos. But what would normality be after all that has happened?
A few editions ago, SPIEGEL published a cover story on the situation of children in the corona crisis, in which a psychotherapist and a professor of developmental psychology have their say, they agree: Schools in Germany should put less pressure on children to catch up on missed material, but try to build on their experiences in the pandemic. Death, illness, fear of loss, sadness, loneliness, disputes - all these topics can be dealt with in subjects such as German, religion, music or art.
“Mental health belongs in the classroom,” says Silvia Schneider, professor for child and adolescent psychology, “you didn't need a separate subject for it, it can be dealt with in biology, art and sport.
It would be important in terms of prevention.
The children must be put in a position to understand how sadness, depression or anger arise and that they are completely appropriate in life situations such as a pandemic. "And the professor demands:" It would make sense for the state governments to produce appropriate materials in their school ministries let. "
Generation Corona: What we have to do now for our children
Prime Minister's Conference - as if nothing had happened
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Merkel asks for forgiveness in the Bundestag
Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images
In today's diaries a meeting has been announced that for a year had become a ritual for fighting the pandemic, although not loved: the
Prime Minister's meeting with the Chancellor
. The dominant topic of these rounds was Corona, until the group embarrassed itself before Easter with a powerful but ultimately impossible plan for an "Easter rest" and the Chancellor therefore had to ask the people for forgiveness.
In today's calendar, topics are listed that suddenly have nothing or hardly anything to do with the pandemic: "Implementation of the energy transition", "Digitization", "Development cooperation".
Political life after the pandemic seems to have begun
- at least almost.
You can already hear that it should of course be about Corona after all, namely about rules for major events and about vaccination.
But the official announcement closes with the note: "Corona is still uncertain as a topic".
Winner of the next few days ...
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Advertising for the Berlinale on the screen in the open-air cinema at the Kulturforum
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
... becomes the
outside screen
be. The Berlinale, the second part of which began yesterday - the "Summer Special" for the public audience - is a purely open-air festival. And an aerosol researcher, quoted by Deutschlandfunk, also recommends public viewing for viewers of the European Football Championship, which begins tomorrow. It is "absolutely the better alternative to watching football in front of your own television with five or six friends at home." The researcher even considers it harmless to be outside - in short! - to lie cheering in your arms: "The heads are next to each other and the aerosol cloud just passes each other." So a certain discipline of cheering would have to be observed. Because of the pandemic, no major public viewing events are planned in the city centers this year, but many restaurants and cafés want to show the games outside.
The latest news from the night
Ramelow pleads for complete opening in autumn:
Fewer and fewer infected people, more and more vaccinated people: When is Germany ready for everyday life as it was before Corona?
Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow has a proposal
Controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline finally failed:
It was one of Donald Trump's favorite projects, but environmentalists have protested for years.
The decision has now been made: the Keystone pipeline will not be built.
The decisive factor was the new US president
A rose that bears his name:
Prince Philip would have turned 100 on Thursday.
His widow, Queen Elizabeth II, has now had a special rose planted in his honor: "It looks beautiful."
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Starting a career in the pandemic: For them, the crisis is far from over
Ex-wife of the late Schalke manager: "The marriage with Rudi Assauer ruined me financially"
Anti-Semitism in Christianity: Martin Luther, the reformer and hater of Jews
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Susanne Beyer
