What Greenpeace comes up with
The
German national soccer team lost 1-0 to France, according to
a breaking news from my employer yesterday evening. You, dear readers, must have seen the majority of the game and thus experienced the part live that subsequently shocked me:
the action by Greenpeace
. An activist from the environmental organization flew into the stadium with a paraglider shortly before the start of the game to draw attention to the environmental pollution caused by the cars of the European Championship sponsor Volkswagen.
However, the paraglider pilot got entangled in the stadium roof, tumbled dangerously low over the grandstand and then landed uncontrollably between the players on the grass.
Two people were injured, the police later announced.
But despite all the love for environmental and climate protection, one wonders: Is it still possible, Greenpeace?
Who would have thought that Germany is experiencing its first major event under pandemic conditions - and the danger to life comes from the air, but not from the virus!
The Corona warning app does not help against a paraglider that has gotten out of control, a real German success story which, by the way, is celebrating its first birthday today.
The "Sportschau" later quoted a Greenpeace spokesman: "The pilot didn't want to go to the stadium." He may have been surprised by the wind.
Actually, the man just wanted to drop "a large latex ball" into the stadium with 14,000 fans.
Well, that sounds a lot more sensible!
Greenpeace wrote on Twitter: "This protest never had the intention of disrupting the game or injuring people." Perhaps Greenpeace should have a serious word with this protest.
Football EM: Unlucky on the lawn, danger to life from the air
How Biden negotiates
In Switzerland, that is, on neutral ground, the presidents of the USA and Russia,
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin
, meet today
. With their foreign ministers and large delegations in tow, these powerful men will
measure their strength on Lake Geneva
, even if Biden had previously emphasized: “We are not looking for a conflict with Russia. We want a stable and predictable relationship. "
But
Putin is unlikely
to have any
great interest
in any of the
issues
that Biden cares about: the poisoning of the opposition politician Alexej Navalny, the human rights situation in the Kremlin-backed dictatorship of Belarus, Ukraine that was destabilized by Moscow and of course the latest attacks by Russian hackers.
And that's only half of Biden's list of topics.
Both states have long since withdrawn their respective ambassadors.
Can we achieve rapprochement again in Geneva?
For his preliminary report, my colleague Marc Pitzke spoke to Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Moscow, who traveled to Geneva as an observer.
McFaul is pessimistic: "I don't think Putin is interested in a stable, predictable relationship."
And if it does, there will be a good thousand journalists on site who will report on it immediately.
Meeting of Biden and Putin: he called him "killer", now he wants to put him in his place
How Petry puzzles
Today, a
six-figure party donation from Switzerland is being
negotiated
before the Berlin Administrative
Court, which was received in the account of the
AfD district association Bodensee in
2017
.
She should support the federal election campaign of the top candidate and today's parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel.
The Bundestag administration had imposed a fine of 398,000 euros on the AfD for this inadmissible donation; the right-wing party's lawsuit against this is being negotiated today.
The donation came in small tranches, and in the search for donors, several alleged donors turned out to be straw people - how such a system worked in the AfD, my colleagues Ann-Katrin Müller and Sven Röbel itemized in a large report at the beginning of 2019.
For
today's proceedings it
could be decisive whether the court attributes the donation to the party or to the candidate Weidel.
In the first case the expensive penalty notice could remain, in the second case it would be cheaper for the party, but all the more expensive for Weidel.
Regardless of this, the AfD MP will run again as the top candidate for the federal election in the fall.
The trail of money seems to lead to the shy billionaire Henning Conle
. His name appears this week in a completely different context: the former AfD party leader Frauke Petry accuses Conle in a guest post for the news portal »T-Online« of secretly using social media in the period from 2015 to the federal election. Having financed AfD activities through the Swiss advertising agency Goal AG. The AfD owes its gigantic reach on Facebook, for example, to these undeclared donations. Only a rift about the content of the AfD Facebook presence would have ended the cooperation, according to Petry, who reported the process to the Bundestag administration according to "Correctiv" and "Frontal 21".
There is much to suggest that Petry's statements are correct - after all, she herself was AfD national spokeswoman at this stage.
At that time, however, she never addressed the allegedly illegal processes, but only now in her book "Requiem for the AfD", which will be published this week.
One wonders why?
But it is admittedly a rhetorical question.
At »T-Online« Petry wrote: »The longer I put the pieces of the puzzle together of the external flow of money into the AfD, the more the individual pieces began to form a whole.« Apparently, the AfD founder was late with her AfD puzzle started.
And whether she has sorted out certain uncomfortable puzzle pieces for her book remains to be seen.
The billionaire and the right wing: How August von Finck made the AfD big
Winner of the day ...
... is
Erich Sixt
.
After today's general meeting of Sixt AG, the patriarch of car rental will hand over the management of the company to his sons Alexander and Konstantin.
At 77, Erich Sixt does not necessarily take this step too early, but others cannot let go at a much older age.
Just think of Hans Dieter Beck, born in 1932, who still runs the legal specialist publisher of the same name.
Many a crown prince left the company annoyed in order not to have to wait any longer for Beck to leave.
On the other hand, Erich Sixt said in a very entertaining interview with my colleagues Alexander Kühn and Martin U. Müller: "I'd rather go a little too early than too late."
Our
runner-up of the day, Claus Kleber
, must have said that too.
The long-time presenter of ZDF “heute-journal” is leaving the station at the end of 2021 and is retiring.
Since 2003 he had moderated the "heute-journal".
He ironically added the word “felt” to a report in which it inadvertently said that Kleber had moderated the ZDF program "for 2003 years" - the man has a sense of humor.
The latest news from the night
Israel flies new attacks against targets in the Gaza Strip:
first flaming balloons rose from Gaza, then the Israeli air force reacted: there have been new incidents in the Middle East.
Nothing is known about victims yet
E-mails prove Trump's attempts at election manipulation:
In the weeks after his election failure, Donald Trump put pressure on the Justice Department - with the aim of spreading unfounded myths of fraud.
E-mails now show the sometimes horrified reactions of the addressees
Chinese investments in Europe are falling significantly:
Chinese direct investments in the EU and Great Britain fell by 45 percent year-on-year - to their lowest level in ten years.
That emerges from a new study.
This also gives the reasons for the decline
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They fell into the false gold trap on Ebay: "My wife asked: How can you be so stupid?"
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Melanie Amann
