the three question marks today:
Soon ex-Chancellor - Has Merkel refused a call from Biden?
Thunberg at Friday protests - Germany, a climate rogue state?
The Mockridge File - What's in the Investigation Records, What Are Other Women Saying?
1. Callback campaign
Enlarge image
Did he experience a dacha gossip?
Photo: Adam Schultz / White House / imago images / ZUMA Wire
With all the reports on the
final spurt of
the
election campaign
(here the live blog) I almost overlooked this story: After taking office, Joe Biden apparently wanted to speak to Angela Merkel, and according to the Wall Street Journal, his first call abroad should be to the Chancellor. A signal that after the Trump chaos is now returning to normality in the transatlantic relationship. As the newspaper reported this week, Merkel declined an early telephone appointment with the US president. The Chancellor did not want to be disturbed in her weekend house in the Uckermark. One could also speak on Monday, they consider the symbolism of the first call to be irrelevant. Biden then called Boris Johnson first.
I imagine someone in the Chancellery switchboard answering the call from the White House: What was the name? Can you spell that? Suddenly a computer voice:
Please press, of course, the hash key
. In the chancellor's anteroom the question is asked: Does the boss have time? Nah, she's already in her dacha, should call again later.
Some are now terribly upset about Merkel. Others do not consider the WSJ report intrinsically credible. A government spokeswoman pointed out that Merkel had already telephoned him after Biden's election victory on November 10, 2020; Also in the summer there were "very good, trusting talks in Washington." You have nothing else to say about appointments. I think: Either way, it speaks for Merkel's professional composure that she is trusted to do that. Let's see how long it will take your successor (or maybe your successor after all?) To develop such coolness.
It is true that we will not yet know for sure on Sunday evening who will move into the Chancellery after Merkel
.
But at least it should be clear which coalitions are possible.
Be careful with the first forecasts at 6 p.m. - especially when things run out tight.
The large number of postal voters is a challenge for election researchers, because they cannot ask them about their decision directly in front of the polling station.
So maybe the early numbers differ more than usual from the final result.
The projections that come a little later should then be much more reliable.
You can find everything you need to know about the federal election here
2. Germany, a climate rogue state?
They are always there on Fridays: all over the world, numerous young people have taken to the streets to demonstrate for effective climate protection.
"Fridays for Future" had called for a "global climate strike", thousands came in Berlin alone
.
Greta Thunberg spoke to them: She called Germany one of the greatest »climate villains«.
The Federal Republic is the fourth largest CO2 emitter in the world: "With 80 million people that is quite an achievement." More than 450 campaigns were announced throughout Germany, including large rallies in Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Freiburg.
(More here.)
Enlarge image
Neubauer and Thunberg in Berlin
Photo: Filip Singer / EPA
At a congress in Hamburg, scientists discussed how
extreme weather
events are changing
as a
result of climate change.
My colleague Viola Kiel from our science department reports on a fact sheet published today in which the experts state: The number of some extreme events such as heat waves will increase in Germany.
"In some areas, prolonged phases with maximum daily temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius and above are a new phenomenon," they say.
On the other hand, severe frosts would become rarer.
The authors rate the consequences of this development as "very serious".
(More backgrounds here.)
Enlarge image
SPIEGEL editor Viola Kiel with microbiologist Beat Frey
Photo: Pascal Mora / DER SPIEGEL
The climate crisis is also changing at breakneck speed in the Alps
. Melting glaciers and thawing permafrost are now releasing viruses and bacteria from prehistoric times - they were trapped in the supposedly eternal ice for thousands of years. Researchers are now investigating the question of whether they can be dangerous for humanity - or helpful. In her research, Viola was challenged in terms of sport. Together with the microbiologist Beat Frey and three of his employees, she trudged up to the Dammagletscher in the Swiss canton of Uri. Viola tried to keep up for hours. The Swiss regularly look for unknown microbes and their genes in the melting glacier ice. The research is still at the beginning, nobody knows what the long-lost creatures can do. "But there is also hope that it will help us develop better drugs," says Viola,"The dangerous search in the ice is worthwhile for that."
Read the full story here: The dormant danger from the ice
3. The Mockridge file
Enlarge image
TV star Mockridge: Image of a clumsy mother-in-law's favorite
Photo: Lukas Seufert / HMB-Media / imago images
Rumors have been circulating on the net for months about Luke Mockridge
, audience favorite and one of the most successful German-speaking comedians.
It is about cross-border behavior towards women and a rape allegation.
Is there more to this than a battle of opinions on social networks?
Mockridge denies all allegations, the prosecutor has stopped the investigation due to a lack of sufficient suspicion.
In the current issue of SPIEGEL, his ex-girlfriend, the podcaster Ines Anioli, speaks publicly for the first time about her allegations against Mockridge: "I couldn't have agreed with myself if other women had to go through something similar with him."
In addition, numerous other women comment on their experiences with the comedian, many were afraid beforehand because Mockridge is such a big name.
My colleagues Ann-Katrin Müller and Laura Backes, who have researched the matter, come to the conclusion that it is an unusual #MeToo case.
“It's about a man who doesn't always seem to be in control.
And then you can rest assured that nothing will boil up because he's an influential celebrity. "
Read the full story here: Previously unknown details on rape allegations
(Would you like to have the "Situation in the evening" conveniently delivered to your inbox by email? Here you can order the daily briefing as a newsletter.)
What else is important today
EU accuses Russia of targeted cyberattacks before
the general election
:
Two days before the general election, the EU is making serious accusations against Russia.
The country is responsible for cyber attacks on politicians and representatives of the press and civil society.
Pope keeps Woelki in suspension:
The Pope leaves Cardinal Woelki in office, but orders him to take a break of several months.
The big question: How should it go on afterwards?
Taliban want to execute and amputate again:
After the
Taliban came to
power, the question was: How will they deal with human rights in the future.
Now a minister has announced that it will continue to be severely punished.
Maybe not in public.
How Alaska's health system collapses under the Delta variant:
Alaska practices triage - sicker people are prioritized in medical care.
Clinics appeal to refrain from risky activities.
There are no beds to save patients' lives.
My favorite story today:
job abroad in the pandemic
At the end of 2020, when in German cities you were allowed to move within a maximum radius of 15 kilometers from your own front door and when the question of what we can learn from Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea in the pandemic was discussed in the Sunday evening talks on television, where public life largely took place at the time despite the crisis, my colleague Maria Stöhr signed a contract for a correspondent position for SPIEGEL in Southeast Asia. More precisely, in Bangkok. She sent a farewell email to the collective address of the entire editorial team, which the email program had warned against: You are sending this mail to 590 recipients. As if it had suspected that Maria wouldn’t get away anytime soon.
"Because then nothing happened for nine months," she writes.
“Except that I experienced firsthand the zero-covid strategies of the Southeast Asian countries, namely to keep the number of infections low by largely isolating themselves from the rest of the world.
Emigration in the pandemic?
Sweet.
My little story must have affected many who actually wanted to leave for Asia during this time.
I didn't get a work visa, least of all a journalist's visa. "
Now it's finally here.
If you are dreaming of the distance - follow it!
Here Maria explains how she achieved the impossible.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
Germany's five deadly sins - and how we can do it better:
The next federal government must fundamentally reform the country, prosperity is in danger.
The good news: There are places where the departure is already in full swing.
The SPIEGEL cover story.
“Still better than any carrier pigeon”:
Because the Bundeswehr couldn't manage digitization, it is now investing in 40-year-old retro technology.
And invests 600 million euros in it.
Horses are the better people:
Children's entertainment with feminist subtext: In the Netflix film "My Little Pony: A New Generation" the protagonists overcome the social divide - without male help and not at all mare-biting.
Which is less important today
Twittering on Twitter:
Chancellor
Angela Merkel
, 67, otherwise known for her sober and dry appearances, caused a stir on the German-speaking Internet with the photos of her visit to the Marlow bird park in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania yesterday. She let all kinds of birds flutter around her, an Australian Lori even landed on her head, others sat on her shoulders and arms, one pinched her, which, judging by the picture, is rather unpleasant even for a head of government. The budgies were also trusting and let her feed them millet. Only with the fully grown European eagle owl was she reluctant and then did not want to hold him. “No, no. I did well with the parakeets. "
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: Kinshasa is one of the most expensive cities in the world, at least for foreign workers.
Cartoon of the day:
France in a rage
And on the weekend?
Enlarge image
Scene from "The Foundation"
Photo: Giles Keyte / Apple TV +
Could you get involved in a new series, oh what am I saying, a whole universe: From today on Apple TV + will run
"The Foundation"
. “The› Foundation ‹book cycle by Isaac Asimov is something like the most sacred sanctuary of the science fiction genre,” says my colleague Oliver Kaever from our cultural department. At its core, it is a trilogy of novels that spans a period of at least 500, depending on the number even 20,000 years and around which several other novels and stories are loosely grouped. The first "Foundation" novel alone consists of five independent novels. »Can not be filmed! That's how it always echoed from the fan warehouse, «says Oliver. "Now Apple has done it after all - and as expected, the reactions are very different."
As a result, tough Asimovians sense sacrilege and point to the numerous freedoms that the series makers took for their version.
"Some TV critics tend to see a big epic made with all the means of modern film technology, which achieves for science fiction what 'Game of Thrones' did for the fantasy genre," says Oliver.
Desecration or eulogy, Asimov's vision of a distant future is definitely depressing, because mankind has still not learned anything: "The Foundation" tells of a mathematician who developed the science of psychohistory and thus foresaw the downfall of civilization and 30,000 years Chaos.
I wish you a galactic weekend.
Sincerely
yours, Oliver Trenkamp
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
