1. Fiery wind
Anyone who had to take public transport to work this morning may have waited for the S-Bahn in vain.
At least that's how I felt in Munich.
The first violent autumn storm of the year with the unusual name »Ignatz« caused some major damage across Germany.
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The storm disrupted rail traffic: long-distance traffic in Cologne was temporarily suspended, the picture shows the main train station
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
Apparently several people were locked in cars in Berlin.
A storm surge is warned at the North Sea.
Long-distance traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia was idle for hours.
On the Moselle near Koblenz, a passenger ship was pressed against a bridge pillar by a strong gust and damaged.
A tornado caused severe damage in Kiel.
Fire department chief Kai Lässig reported that he had seen the trunk of the cyclone himself.
The storm left a "path of devastation" about 100 meters wide in the village.
In Bavaria trees crashed on railroad tracks.
I hope you all reached your destination safely.
Among other things, I used the waiting time at the platform to find out the meaning of the first name Ignatz, which supposedly reads: "The fiery one".
Read the full story here: Bahn stops regional traffic in several federal states - warning of storm surge on the North Sea
2. Of foxes and women
The "Dragon Lord" admits bodily harm.
No, it's not about new revelations from the boardrooms of Springer Verlag.
It's about an unusual court hearing.
The YouTuber and streamer Reiner Winkler, known on the Internet under the pseudonym "Dragon Lord", has been fighting for years with trolls and haters who harass and threaten him in his place of residence.
A trial began today in Nuremberg - against him.
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Johannes Boie: Man without qualities - and always at your service
Photo:
Bjoern-Arne Eisermann
If you wanted to describe the new editor-in-chief of "Bild", Johannes Boie, with a comparison of animals, you would definitely not choose a dragon. Boie is not a flamboyant type, his demeanor and appearance are rather inconspicuous. Together with my colleagues Gunther Latsch, Melanie Ahlemeier and Alexander Kühn, I tried to portray the newcomer at the top of Germany's largest tabloid. "Johannes had this quiet, fox-like manner with which he drew attention to himself," said someone who had worked with him at the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". Boie is described by others as being smart, calculating, and adaptive. "Boie found his way around classic men's networks and made a career without any problems," they say.
Incidentally, the reports on the case of the fired »Bild« editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt, who, among other things, are accused of having affairs with subordinate employees, have crept in a strangely prudish tone over the past few days. That is what SPIEGEL columnist Bettina Gaus thinks and speaks to me from the bottom of my heart: "In the meantime, the impression is created that women are always and fundamentally the victims in relationships with male superiors - even if they themselves want such a relationship."
Gaus quotes the author of the "NY Times" article, Ben Smith, who told "Die Zeit" on the Reichelt case that a US manager would have been fired immediately "for every small subset of these allegations, even for five percent of the allegations" .
Yes, that is quite possible.
After all, high-profile politicians in the United States have been chased from court with abuse and disgrace for betraying their wives.
But the question for Gaus is: »Would it be desirable if morals, as in the USA, also prevailed in Germany?
That can certainly be argued.
But I wouldn't be thrilled. "
Read the full story here: The incapacitation of women
3. Legal vacancies
One of the most important EU summits in a long time is starting in Brussels at the moment.
The heads of state and government are looking for solutions to the energy crisis in Europe and the conflict with the still-member Poland, which threatens to abandon the rule of law.
There is also a third pressing problem that has cost five lives in the past few weeks: the humanitarian plight of thousands of refugees on the EU's eastern external border.
My colleague Maximilian Popp, head of the SPIEGEL foreign affairs department, speaks of a »lawless area«, where neither human rights, European law nor the Geneva Convention on Refugees apply.
"State-organized crime" rules.
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Poland seals itself off against refugees with barbed wire and border guards.
Photo:
Viktor Tolochko / imago images / SNA
In the past few months, DER SPIEGEL has repeatedly documented how the Greek coast guard abandons refugees, women, children and the sick at sea, and how Croatian border guards mistreat those seeking protection.
Some migrants have been stuck in the no man's land between Poland and Belarus since August.
They sleep outdoors, feed on leaves and roots.
The EU accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of organizing migrants and refugees from crisis regions to the EU's external border.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer yesterday criticized the regime in Belarus as a form of "hybrid threat" by using migrants as a political weapon.
My colleague Maximilian is not only bothered by Seehofer's choice of words.
He believes that anyone who describes helpless refugees as weapons is "dehumanizing" through language.
He also pointed out to summit participants that the EU had failed to create a humane, efficient asylum system for years.
»Europeans like to complain about blackmail attempts by autocrats like Lukashenko or Erdoğan.
But part of the truth is that they made themselves susceptible to blackmail in the first place because of their failure in refugee policy. "
Read the full story here: Europe has made itself vulnerable to blackmail
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What else is important today
Traffic light alliance wants to present coalition agreement by the end of November:
SPD, Greens and FDP start coalition negotiations.
Olaf Scholz is to be elected as the new Federal Chancellor in the week from December 6th.
Booster vaccination brings high protection:
In Germany, particularly vulnerable groups of people can be vaccinated against corona a third time.
Company data from a phase III study show: protection increases to over 95 percent.
Flixbus mother buys legendary US company Greyhound:
Three years ago Flixbus started in the US, now it is taking over its biggest competitor Greyhound.
The people of Munich want to "meet the increased demand for environmentally friendly mobility in the USA".
US attorney personally targets Mark Zuckerberg:
The Cambridge Analytica scandal was five years ago, but by no means over for the attorney general of Washington.
He wants to hold the Facebook boss accountable and impose a billion-dollar fine.
Turkish central bank cuts key interest rate radically:
inflation in Turkey is very high, but head of state Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is calling for key interest rate cuts.
Now the central bank fulfilled this wish again - and sent the Turkish lira to a record low.
My favorite story today:
Dangerous little clouds
Those who want to talk smokers out of smoking, for example by pointing out the life-prolonging power of not smoking, often achieve the exact opposite.
At least that's my experience after ten years of marriage.
At the moment there is no smoking in our household, but rather steaming when it is.
An e-cigarette vendor exhaled in Biddeford, Maine, USA
Photo: Robert F. Bukaty / AP
That is why I read the interview with my colleague Marco Evers from the science department with great interest, who wanted to know from the environmental chemist Carsten Prasse whether the alternatives to tobacco such as e-cigarettes or vaporizers are really healthier.
His disconcerting conclusion: »As far as the known pollutants are concerned, e-cigarettes are actually probably much less likely to have them than conventional cigarettes.
But that's only part of the truth. "
In his studies of so-called tobacco-flavored liquids, Prasse found up to 2100 different substances.
For example, caffeine, plasticizers, a flame retardant and condensed hydrocarbons.
"We also don't know whether these substances are problematic for people who use e-cigarettes," says Prasse.
But what he does know: »There are many, many more substances in it than the manufacturers say.
And nobody knows exactly what they do to the body. "
Does not sound good.
Maybe I should recommend classic tobacco smoking to vapers in the household in the future?
Hoping to do the opposite.
A life as a non-smoker.
Read the whole interview here: »Caffeine, plasticizers and up to 2100 previously unknown substances«
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
The boldest mesh of energy suppliers:
The turbulence on the electricity and gas exchanges is putting suppliers under pressure.
Some try to pass rising costs on to their customers in breach of contract.
What can you do about it?
Two days until the major real estate collapse:
The payment deadline for the Chinese real estate company Evergrande expires on Saturday.
Foreign investors face billions in losses - but the biggest problem for the economy lurks elsewhere.
The green Marshall Plan for Germany:
The traffic light explorers are fighting for a program for the climate change, a new study offers a blueprint for this.
From electric cars to heat pumps - everything that needs to be tackled and how much it costs.
The joker:
Friedrich Merz?
Norbert Röttgen?
Jens Spahn?
For weeks these men have been favorites for the CDU chairmanship.
Meanwhile, however, the focus is on an outsider: Carsten Linnemann.
Which is less important today
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Zach Galifianakis
Photo: Jordan Strauss / AP
The US comedian Zach Galifianakis hides his four and seven year old sons that he is a well-known actor.
"My kids think I work as a librarian somewhere," he said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
Galifianakis became famous with his role as Alan Garner in the rough box office hit "Hangover" from 2010.
Perhaps the dizziness will be noticed at some point when Donald Trump has overcome his hangover after being voted out and his social network founded yesterday with the title "Truth Social" goes online.
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "Great Britain wants to join the trading bloc, to which New Zealand also belongs, by the end of 20222."
Cartoon of the day:
100 days after ...
And tonight?
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Photo:
Asterix®-Obelix®-Idefix® / © 2021 Les Éditions Albert René / Goscinny - Uderzo / Egmont Ehapa Media
To relax after a stressful day, you can light cigarettes or other incense sticks.
Sometimes, however, a warm bath can also help.
Reading comics at the same time is highly recommended.
Fittingly, the first volume of Asterix since the death of the draftsman Uderzo has been published today.
It is apparently getting chilly for the Gauls.
In "Asterix and the Griffin" the comic heroes travel to the territory of Russia for the first time, where they collide with Caesar's legions on a snow-covered steppe.
A lovely evening.
Sincerely,
Anna Clauss
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
