1.
Many Germans are still lacking enthusiasm for the Olympic Games - but the fun of sport should begin with the first competitions
I'm not a particularly enthusiastic sports fan, but I'm looking forward to the
Tokyo Olympics
. With this anticipation, I would be an outsider in the host country, where a large majority of people would rather not have the competitions in the country. You haven't felt much enthusiasm for the Olympics in Germany either. The German soccer team sent to Japan faced Brazil today, one day before the official opening of the games, and lost 4-2. My colleague Anne Armbrecht and my colleague Jan Göbel spurred my desire for sports competitions even more than this game: Today they put together a list of German athletes who can hope for medals.
My favorite athlete with a chance of success from the German team is for now the runner Gesa Krause.
Her favorite discipline is the 3000 meter obstacle, in which she won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships.
But then the now 28-year-old got into a crisis, because of which she even took a short break from professional sport.
This year she won two titles at the German championships again.
"The Corona year 2020 hit Krause hard," says the story of the colleague, "now she wants to fulfill her dream of the first Olympic medal."
Enlarge image
German standard bearer Laura Ludwig
Photo: Oliver Hardt / Getty Images
I also liked what the German athlete Laura Ludwig, who will be the
flag bearer
for the
opening ceremony in Tokyo
tomorrow
, said in an interview with my colleagues Jan Göbel and Benjamin Knaack. On the one hand, it makes her “proud to lead Team Germany,” says Ludwig, and on the other hand, the job of the flag-bearer serves to raise awareness of the discipline in which she is involved at the Olympics: “It's great that I can bring my sport of beach volleyball a little further with it . "
Will the Germans still warm up to the Tokyo games in the next few days?
"It
has often been the
case at
sporting events
that everyone said beforehand: we think it's stupid, we don't want to know anything," says colleague Anne Armbrecht.
“But as soon as the first German surprise medal comes out,
great drama, tears
, a somehow special moment, everyone is always on fire.
Sport works through emotion, for better or for worse. "
The Olympics despiser and writer
George Bernhard Shaw was
probably talking about emotions
when he said that the Olympic Games were "a wonderful opportunity to sow discord among nations that have no reason to quarrel."
Read the full story here: These Germans have a chance to win a medal in Tokyo
2.
After fierce criticism, the federal government is now announcing more aid for Afghan armed forces volunteers who want to leave the country - but this only applies to some of the aid workers
The last Bundeswehr machine with German soldiers from
Afghanistan
landed at the end of June
.
Many helpers who let themselves be engaged by the Germans during the almost 20 years of work, for example as interpreters, have stayed behind and fear attacks by the radical Islamic Taliban.
While other nations such as the USA are already planning their own flights to get their Afghan aid workers to safety as quickly as possible, German government members such as Foreign Minister
Heiko Maas
and Development
Aid
Minister
Gerd Müller
have so far refused - among other things, on the grounds that it would allegedly attract Afghans who are currently still working on German projects in the Hindu Kush.
Enlarge image
Former Bundeswehr helpers at a demonstration in front of the German camp in Mazar-i-Sharif (in May)
Photo: Mohammed Javid / DER SPIEGEL
Although the Germans have at least
organized
exit papers and visas
for some of their former Afghan employees and their relatives
, there has been criticism for weeks that many of the helpers sought help in vain. Today the federal government announced a slightly stronger support for vulnerable Afghans traveling to Germany. They want to cover the costs of flights and at least think about charter flights. "I want us to give those who have helped us a lot a way out," said Chancellor Angela Merkel. "There are cases in which this help has not yet succeeded." You are promoting a pragmatic solution in the cabinet.
I asked my colleague
Christiane Hoffmann
from the SPIEGEL capital city office whether Merkel's promise of support today would settle the allegations that the Afghan aid workers would scandalously abandon their fate after the Germans left.
"Merkel's announcement is not enough," said Christiane.
“Many local employees who have worked for the Germans either do not yet have a visa or are not even entitled.
Much more support is needed to save them and their families from the Taliban.
The government urgently needs to switch from petty to generous. "
Read the full story here: Germany wants to support flights by Afghan local staff
3.
The forester and author Peter Wohlleben considers politics and the forest lobby to be jointly responsible for the flood disaster - because the forests are suffering from deforestation and soil compaction
"Floods do not arise in the valley, floods arise in the mountains," says the successful non-fiction author Peter Wohlleben in an interview with my colleague Tobias Becker about the flood disaster that devastated some areas of Germany.
Wohlleben lives in the Eifel and experienced the floods there up close.
The house in which he lives is undamaged.
"We are very lucky that we are sitting on a mountain."
Enlarge image
Best-selling author Wohlleben: “We are incredibly lucky to be sitting on a mountain.
There was a huge noise around us, like in the high mountains «
Photo: Marcus Simaitis / laif
The popular
forest
expert Wohlleben
is convinced that an intact forest could absorb large amounts of water without any problems. He opposes the way in which modern
timber harvesting
equipment is used to flatten the forest floor and smother the soil ecology. He also finds it fundamentally wrong
to cut down trees in
large numbers
that have been
damaged
by past
hot summers
and the
bark beetle plague
. "The forest owners should rather leave the dead spruce plantations and wait for new trees to grow," he says. “So the soil is exposed to the sun and rain without protection. It is much more difficult for new trees to be found on cleared areas. "
My colleague Tobias has known and valued Wohlleben for a long time and asks him why, unlike in the past, he has recently been appearing quite seriously and with political ambition.
Wohlleben
replied
that he was not interested in the federal election campaign. He was not interested in supporting a party, but in the
German forest lobby
.
In his opinion, it is fighting for »that even more wood is burned.
That means: more released CO2, rising temperatures, on average even less rain and even more local flash floods. «I find this argumentation very plausible - and worrying.
Read the full story here: "Many of our forests are green deserts"
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What else is important today
State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg elects AfD candidate in the constitutional court:
The parliamentary groups in the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg have heaved an AfD candidate into the state constitutional court.
Other factions also voted for him.
The SPD finds the choice incomprehensible.
RKI calls for preparations for autumn and winter:
A high vaccination rate and protective measures until next spring: The Robert Koch Institute has formulated measures with which Germany should prepare for rising corona numbers.
Daimler is planning to cut the combustion engine in less than ten years: by the
end of the decade, there could be no more new Mercedes cars with diesel or gasoline engines.
Daimler relies on electric cars - and wants to show a vehicle with an extreme range in the coming year.
This is how much money white founders get in Africa - and so much black:
The Kenyan start-up scene is often referred to as the Silicon Savannah.
But things are boiling there at the moment: Many black founders feel disadvantaged - a French entrepreneur recently suffered from their displeasure.
“It's time for change.
I want to become President of the DFB «:
He was three times German champion and is currently the DFB integration ambassador: Jimmy Hartwig is striving to head the world's largest sports association.
Numerous celebrities have already canceled.
My favorite story today: Congratulations to Mireille Mathieu
Enlarge image
Mireille Mathieu, "Avignon Sparrow"
Photo: imago stock & people / United Archives / imago images
The fact that
Mireille Mathieu
turns 75 today is definitely not the most important news of the day.
But for people like me who were born in the sixties, women have a certain meaning.
We grew up with her, her haircut and her voice.
For me it wasn't a pleasure, for my former colleague
Bastian Sick
but nice.
He remembers in a nice contribution to the history section.
A real fan article in which he tells, among other things, how he sat for hours in front of his parents' record player, listening to their songs and staring at the pictures on the record cover.
“Mireille was the reason I learned French in school - and later even studied.
It was through them that I learned to love the French language and France, «Bastian admits.
I wish my enthusiasm for Mademoiselle Mathieu had been as great, then my French would be better today.
Read the whole story here: And then she sang "La vie en rose" - for me!
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
Why the AfD's plan will fail this time - but still threats of trouble:
Thuringia's AfD parliamentary group leader Höcke wants to create more chaos in the state parliament on Friday - and is standing for election as Prime Minister.
The other parties are alarmed; they have come up with a special strategy in the CDU.
Can you go on vacation there now?
First the corona wave, then the tidal wave, now the cancellation wave?
Hosts in Rhineland-Palatinate fear that tourists will cancel their vacation - even in regions that are not affected.
»While Breivik was killing, I crouched under a bush«:
Bjørn Ihler was looking forward to the Utøya youth camp in 2011, to workshops, football and music.
Then assassin Breivik killed 69 people there, Ihler narrowly escaped.
Since then he has wanted to know: what drives extremists?
And how can a society arm itself against them?
The raid of the Moroccan spies:
Morocco is said to be the biggest buyer of the espionage software.
The eavesdropping targets were human rights activists and journalists - but also the French President Macron, and King Mohammed VI.
personally.
Which is less important today
Enlarge image
Bruce Springsteen (left) and Barack Obama
Photo: Rob DeMartin / AP
Unequal patriot duo:
Barack Obama, 59, politician, and Bruce Springsteen, 71, rock musician, want to immortalize their chats and conversations in a book. The work »Renegades«, compiled from the statements of the two in a podcast of the same name, is to be published on October 26th by Penguin Random House. In the introduction to the book, the former American President Obama, who resigned in 2017, proclaims that it will primarily be about the conditions in the USA: “On our way, Bruce and I, each in our own way, tried to understand this country, that of us gave both so much. "The dialogue between the two patriots is about" connecting our individual search for meaning and truth and community with the greater history of America. "
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "The Candidate Service in the Konrad-Adenhauer-Haus also has such guidelines on offer"
Cartoon of the day:
A good crisis manager grows with his tasks
And tonight?
Enlarge image
Actor Mikkelsen in "Der Rausch"
Photo: Henrik Ohsten / Weltkino
Could you go to the cinema and see the movie Der Rausch?
In him you can see the almost always great actor Mads Mikkelsen in the role of a teacher who gets involved in a drinking experiment with some of his colleagues.
The film was rightly awarded an Oscar and examines the extent to which the consumption of alcohol has
a “liberating effect”, as director Thomas Vinterberg puts it.
The film shows the courage to be ambiguous: it by no means denies the social, psychological and physical toxicity of all intoxicants - and yet it spreads a wonderfully good mood as a celebration of a possibly tipsy zest for life.
A lovely evening.
Sincerely
yours, Wolfgang Höbel
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