1.
First offer, soon mandatory
It is important "that we establish a general compulsory vaccination".
Olaf Scholz actually said that today.
No "I welcome the debate" statement, no "I suggest an urgent referral" phrase - but the clear political message: We need a general vaccination requirement.
A few months after the vaccination offers, for which there does not seem to be sufficient demand.
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Olaf Scholz
Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP
Scholz called for a "cross-faction initiative from the Bundestag".
This should be "put on the way quickly".
"I, as a member of parliament, will in any case agree to say that very clearly," said the future chancellor at the video link with the designated ex-chancellor and the prime ministers.
This is how participants report it unanimously.
It can be assumed that there will be a majority for this and that the vaccination will actually come in February.
Nothing has been decided yet, but the proposals are becoming more concrete - and Scholz's appeals are also more urgent.
He called for solidarity with the "highly infection countries".
Federal states with lower incidences should also accept restrictions.
Specifically, with the support of the SPD countries, he demanded:
2G almost everywhere, partly 2G-Plus, also for retail, with the exception of supermarkets, petrol stations and pharmacies.
A quasi-lockdown for the unvaccinated: They should only be allowed to meet privately with their own household and two people from another household.
Mask compulsory in all schools
Pharmacists, dentists and veterinarians should help ensure that as many as 30 million vaccine doses land in the upper arms by Christmas, i.e. first, second and booster vaccinations.
That would mean: in the future, all of Lothar Wieler's specialist colleagues could join the fight against the pandemic.
After all, as my colleague Arno Frank once wrote, the RKI boss took "the furthest possible detour - via the veterinary back stairs to the very, very big stage" with his career.
Perhaps it will still work out with the "national effort" that Wieler had called for.
In any case, Scholz also spoke today of a "national task".
There should be resolutions on Thursday: Then the representatives of the federal and state governments will meet again.
Read more here: Scholz wants pharmacists, dentists and veterinarians to also vaccinate
Follow the current events in our Corona news blog
2.
Print trembles
Everyone mocks the fax machines in German offices, including us at SPIEGEL. But the truth is that we ourselves sometimes suffer like dogs when digitalization shakes our everyday life upside down. For months I have been cursing again and again because an unholy alliance of IT engineers, system architects, process consultants, development officers and their allies has managed to make the paperless office really a reality under the guise of an urgently needed relaunch.
We used to print out every text, often several times, and even edit and correct it on paper in our online department.
We threw off the finished article in the so-called basket, a plastic tray for documents.
There, our bosses on duty fished out the stories that they urgently wanted for the website (and could leave those that they didn't feel like reading; a former colleague regularly threw texts back into the basket with a disgusted look and pointed fingers and said: "I won't read that now."
That makes a lot of things faster and clearer, but also better?
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Hewlett-Packard office in Böblingen (archive photo): printer as a gateway
Photo: Daniel Naupold / dpa
Sure, it will not have been beneficial to climate protection to print away a few hectares of forest every day with 150 online stories.
But I claim that it was at least beneficial for the spelling.
Admittedly, in the pandemic and in the home office, the old workflow could only have been maintained with the use of an army of messengers.
But only because someone carelessly mothballed the pneumatic tube system decades ago instead of connecting the apartments of all employees.
I don't want to bore you with heroic stories, but together with a few like-minded people I managed to wrest a button from the system developers with which stories can still be printed out, even if this is not provided for in the official workflow.
We quietly and secretly print in front of us, cross out mistakes, shorten, rearrange words and then type it off again.
Now, however, the paperless get further argumentation aid: IT experts have discovered security gaps in numerous HP printers, as my colleague Patrick Beuth reports.
“One of them only takes a single click.
Attackers could read all the documents and spread themselves over the company network. «You've already taken my basket, please don't take the printer from me too!
Read more here: Cripple the whole company with the printer
3.
Seafall
It sounds like the beginning of a James Bond film: off the coast of Norway, marine researchers use a state-of-the-art observatory to listen for sounds in the ocean - in a region that is also visited by Russian submarines.
Then someone sabotaged the station and cut the heavy power cable.
But it is a true story that my colleague Christoph Seidler from our science department reports on.
Because now the remains of the cable have been discovered on the seabed, a few kilometers away from the station.
Christoph asked around in Norway: "It is not clear who is responsible for the damage," he says.
"You may never find out." However, all those involved consider an accident extremely unlikely.
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Part of the »LoVe« observatory on an underwater photo
Photo: Screenshot / Norwegian Institute of Marine Research / YouTube
The case could bring back some memories in Germany, says Christoph.
»In August 2019, two heavy frames of an underwater measuring station of the Geomar Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research disappeared from the bottom of the Baltic Sea off Eckernförde.
One of them was found months later during a search expedition, the other is still missing today. «At the institute, Fischer is suspected to be the culprit - even though the research device was actually in a restricted area.
Perhaps the events in Norway can also be explained in this way, without any secret agents.
That would make a James Bond film more boring, in real life one could breathe a sigh of relief - one potential international conflict less.
Read the full story here: Who destroyed Norway's listening post in the sea?
(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
Why the fundamental decisions are not a free ticket:
The Karlsruhe judges have approved the “Federal Emergency Brake”.
But politicians should not be too sure that they will get away with future measures alike.
Habeck's four top officials have been determined:
The designated transformation
minister
Robert Habeck is equipping his house: According to SPIEGEL information, he wants to bring an energy expert, a leading Greens - and reinforcements from his home country.
Reduction of vacation with full short-time work is legal:
Anyone who is sent fully on short-time work is now entitled to less vacation time.
That was decided by the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt.
"She managed his sexual crimes":
For the prosecutor it is clear: Ghislaine Maxwell played a major role in Jeffrey Epstein's abuse network.
What is the defense saying?
Observations by SPIEGEL reporter Marc Pitzke, who is at the trial.
Far-right Zemmour announces his presidential candidacy:
As a right-wing commentator, he polemicizes against immigration and Islam.
Now he wants to head the state: Éric Zemmour will run for the presidential election in France.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
General Corona should now fix it:
Surprisingly, the designated Chancellor occupies the chief position of the new Corona crisis team with a Bundeswehr
general
.
Carsten Breuer is considered a courageous tackle-maker - Olaf Scholz would also like to benefit from this.
The longing for another magical moment of Tiger Woods:
After a serious crash, Tiger Woods almost lost a leg and his career seemed to be over.
But now he's talking about a possible return - and the golf world is electrified.
This is how you avoid your new solar system from becoming a loss-making business:
The Federal Environment Agency warns: From next summer it will no longer be worthwhile for many homeowners to install new collectors.
But there are tricks with which solar power pays off again.
Which is less important today
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"It was nice": Günther Jauch
Photo: Henning Kaiser / picture alliance / dpa
Retrospective retirement:
Günther Jauch, 65, no further introduction necessary, will use the 25th anniversary program of »People, Pictures, Emotions« on December 5 as an opportunity to say goodbye as a long-time host of this format, as the broadcaster RTL announced.
He hosted the RTL retrospective show for the first time on December 15, 1996. Before that, from 1989 to 1995 he had conducted the annual review »People« on ZDF.
"I was just in my early 30s when Frank Elstner 'gave' me the show," said Jauch.
“I then presented it for eight years for ZDF and now for a quarter of a century for RTL.
I think this is a good moment to say: It was nice. "
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: "On the big stage, at prime airtime on› Anne Will ‹, Christian Lindner, the designated FDP finance minister at Ampel, announced a completely new type of Corona Kristenstab."
Cartoon of the day:
advent calendar 2021
And tonight?
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Big puke in need of love: Lars Eidinger as a reporter in "Faking Hitler"
Photo: Wolfgang Ennenbach / RTL
Could you follow a recommendation from my colleague Wolfgang Höbel and start watching the six-part series "Faking Hitler".
"The RTL series turns the 'Stern' diary scandal into a cheerful crime thriller - and at the same time wants to be a time-critical didactic piece," writes Wolfgang.
It is the stuff from which the cinema hit »Schtonk!« From 1992 was tinkered, except that Götz George alias Heidemann is now played by Eidinger and Uwe Ochsenknecht alias Konrad Kujau by Moritz Bleibtreu.
(You can find the full review here.)
Don't be fooled by an F for an A.
And have a nice evening, Sincerely
yours Oliver Trenkamp
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.