1.
Spahn and Wieler, the Duo Coronale of the German epidemic policy
When Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn and RKI boss Lothar Wieler invite you to the weekly Corona press conference, you can rely on one thing: a very bad mood.
So this morning too.
You just wanted to be happy that the seven-day incidence had not increased any further.
Spahn and Wieler came around the corner with new, gloomy facts: The intensive care bed occupancy has almost doubled in the past two weeks.
The average age of intensive care patients is falling.
And: "If we do not succeed in drastically increasing the vaccinations, then the current fourth wave can take a brilliant course."
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Federal Minister of Health Spahn (r.) And RKI boss Wieler
Photo: Wolfgang Kumm / dpa
The warnings are certainly justified.
The question is what the Duo Coronale of the German pandemic policy is doing to avert the danger.
Spahn announced today that he would start a new attempt, a "vaccination week" from next Monday.
The campaign is to be advertised in different languages on social media under the hashtag #hierwirdgeimpft.
Sports clubs and retailers are also involved.
Hashtag #Here is vaccinated?
But the Corona skeptic will be very impressed.
In a comment, my colleague Claus Hecking analyzes how Germany's vaccination campaign hits the wall: There is no vaccination bonus.
No state vaccination lottery.
No health insurance discount.
Very few employers are allowed to ask employees whether they are vaccinated or not.
Railway employees can check tickets, but not vaccination records or test results.
Politicians do not dare to make vaccinated people really better off than unvaccinated people.
"Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate," said Spahn today.
Like a cracked record.
Read the full story here: Germany drives its vaccination campaign against the wall
2.
The Taliban show their true, ugly face
White black, round square, moderate Taliban: three examples of contradictio in Adiecto, the contradiction in terms. There should be no illusions about the worldview of the new rulers. There is no woman among the 33 members of the Taliban government, but as Interior Minister there is a suspected terrorist whom the FBI counts as one of the most wanted men in the world.
My colleagues Christoph Reuter and Thore Schröder report from Kabul how the initially friendly-looking Islamists show their true colors when they meet women who stand up for their rights: “The Taliban react with threatening gestures: They start to hit them with their Kalashnikovs Fire air.
On a video that spreads on the Internet, a woman shouts into her cell phone: 'You are not human, you are not Muslim!' Later, recordings appear showing women being beaten with rubber truncheons and pushed into a parking garage. "
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Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announces the composition of the transitional government
Photo: Aamir Qureshi / AFP
In many places women's rights activists have already been arrested and girls' schools have been closed. At the beginning of the week, the Ministry of Education set new rules for university attendance: courses are divided between students, women must strictly cover themselves. Only permitted clothing color: black. Two Stuttgart women are also stuck in a dramatic way, as SPIEGEL employee Laurenz Schneider researched. They wanted to save their families; one of them said, "I can't watch my family die and have a good life for myself."
I am not prone to tribulation, but the fate of the people in Afghanistan affects me.
The women and girls trusted Germany and we let them down.
And while several deported criminals have mysteriously managed to organize a last-minute flight to Germany, hundreds of judges, journalists and teachers stayed behind in Kabul and are now waiting for the Islamic police to pick them up.
Read the full story here: How the world reacts to Afghanistan's new rulers
3.
Prevent overhang mandates - that's how it works
What will happen to the Erika-Heß-Eisstadion in Berlin after the vaccination center there was closed?
I have a suggestion: the German Bundestag will meet there soon.
Enough space for all MPs.
One thing is for sure: the Reichstag building will be too small in the next legislative period.
Because the parties failed to agree on a reform of the electoral law, there could be up to 800 seats.
The reason are the overhang and compensation mandates.
The plenary hall was built once for almost 600 members.
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Reconstruction in the plenary hall of the German Bundestag (archive picture from 2017)
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek / imago images
Political scientist Joachim Behnke, himself a member of the Greens, calculates that each overhang mandate costs around 40 million euros because it has to be offset by additional mandates.
But it's not just about the money: an inflated political apparatus also functions poorly and damages the reputation of democracy.
What to do?
Behnke has a proposal how the voters could still prevent the XXL Bundestag through strategic behavior.
It boils down to the supporters of the SPD, Greens, Left and SPD coordinating in Bavaria in order to pool their first votes against the CSU.
I suspect that as a member of the Union, Behnke would not have made the proposal.
It is more likely to be seen as a mind game.
But Behnke makes it clear how insane and urgently in need of reform is the German electoral law.
Perhaps the next Bundestag will find a solution when it sits in the cold ice rink.
Read the full story here: How the XXL Bundestag can still be prevented
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What else is important today
Clearance of tree houses in the Hambacher Forst was illegal:
on instructions from the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Kerpen had a protest camp cleared in the Hambacher Forst in 2018 - allegedly because of fire protection.
A court has now ruled: This reason was only a pretext.
Trial of terrorist attacks in Paris started:
20 people are charged with the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.
Almost a thousand police officers were mobilized to kick off the largest trial in France's history.
Several clubs report attempted match-fixing:
Just a few days after Energie Cottbus published news of attempted match-fixing, FC Carl Zeiss Jena now reports: Some players are said to have been offered large sums of money.
My favorite story today: France's blackest night
Enlarge image
Bataclan Concert Hall on November 13, 2015
Photo:
DANIEL PSENNY / AFP
Almost six years ago, on the night of November 13-14, 2015, terrorists murdered 130 people, many of them in the Bataclan concert hall.
Hundreds were injured.
The case has been on trial since today.
The main defendant confessed to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist militia at the start of the trial.
How are the people who survived?
Some time ago, my colleague Britta Sandberg wrote a large report that reconstructs France's Black Friday with those affected and eyewitnesses.
There are big stories, and supposedly small ones, like Louise Jardin's, who tells: “I remember the guy who sold Eagles of Death Metal merchandise near the cloakroom and wore a stupid motto shirt.
I told him it was a really embarrassing shirt.
And that's still bothering me today.
I know the man died in the attack.
One of the last sentences he heard in his life was that his t-shirt was stupid.
And it's my fault.
That's terrible. "
Read the full story here: The Night That Never Ends
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
"We have to stand up against racism, sexism, inequality":
Are leaders allowed to be political?
Former Siemens boss Joe Kaeser thinks: yes.
Where for him the limits have been reached and how he deals with death threats.
Why, as a feminist, I would like to have sex like a man:
Equal rights have not yet arrived horizontally: men have orgasm more often than women during sex.
I wish to finally close this gap - but how does it work?
"People come in droves and they run around everywhere":
Reinhold Messner has climbed all eight-thousanders on earth.
Today he preaches »renouncing alpinism« - and blames himself for destroying his favorite place in the Dolomites as an influencer.
Which is less important today
Enlarge image
Hape Kerkeling in his star role as Horst Schlämmer: does he have a hand in it?
Photo:
Jens Kalaene / picture alliance / dpa
Schlämmer Finger:
The entertainer Hape Kerkeling, 56, is to be honored next week at the gala of the German TV Prize for his life's work.
But isn't he too young for that?
My colleague Christian Buß expresses the suspicion that it could be a matter of displacement.
After all, RTL has just announced a number of new projects with him.
»Is it a coincidence or did RTL help you pay tribute to the man in his prime now?
Horst Schlämmer could have his sweaty fingers in the game. «Christian writes that Kerkeling deserves any award, but not the senior trophy.
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: "Protests at the G8 summit Heiligendamm: 14 years ago the meeting took place on the East Coast under high security precautions."
Cartoon of the day:
... 23 ... 21 ... 19 ...
And tonight?
Enlarge image
Elke Heidenreich
Photo: DER SPIEGEL
Do you sometimes wonder how your life would have been if you had changed your mind at one point or another?
For another turn?
For another person?
Then you might like the book »It would have been different with us« by Éliette Abécassis.
At least that's what Elke Heidenreich says in her, as always wonderful, video column.
The book is about a woman and a man, Amélie and Vincent, who in the course of their lives meet every now and then by chance and feel drawn to each other.
Of course, people of my generation immediately think of the Before Sunrise / Before Sunset / Before Midnight trilogy with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke (you could watch them again, by the way).
With the difference that Amélie and Vincent miss every chance they have together.
If you don't read books: It's still worth watching Elke Heidenreich talk about books.
I don't know anyone who can do it better.
And when, in Else Stratmann manner, she flatters the literary critic Dennis Scheck on the side ("white suit, I advise against it, white makes you fat"), it is very mean, but also very entertaining.
A lovely evening.
Sincerely,
Alexander Neubacher
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
