Become a breakwater!

1.

Become a breakwater!

“Breakwater”

is the word of the year

Last year it was

It would be nice if the wave had already broken.

But what

says

still sounds gloomy

: Slightly more than one percent of the entire German population is currently infected.

4800 patients are in intensive care units, and the number of deaths is also increasing (more on this here).

My colleague Tobias Großekemper is a trained nurse; when he switched to journalism, he thought he would no longer see an intensive care unit professionally. It turned out differently. Two weeks ago he visited a clinic in Leipzig, this week an

in which the staff under clinic director Markus Wehler is now preparing for the previously unthinkable: the

the decision of who is allowed to live and who has to die if The capacities are insufficient in view of the many seriously ill

. His observations are part of the new SPIEGEL cover story (to be found here), for which a team led by my colleague Jürgen Dahlkamp spoke with doctors, with clinic managers, with rescuers who fly out patients.

Read the full issue here

All of this without an

Data from South Africa cloud the mood further: They suggest that the

"is associated with a considerable ability to bypass immunity from a previous infection," according to a preliminary study.

There are also reports that more and more South African children, five years old and younger, are ending up in hospital.

And the EU health authority is seeing signs that Omikron could dominate Europe in just a few months.

Maybe we need a lot of breakwaters, maybe everyone can be a breakwater - through less contact, more caution, through thinking and acting quickly. Just like the doctor who treated the South African

last week: When she heard about the new variant on the news, she immediately called the

laboratory

. Only a few hours later, Ciesek and her team investigated the suspected case. In an interview with my colleague Irene Berres, she says: “So far we have always been behind in this pandemic. Now we have the chance to anticipate the virus in its new variant and to take precautions. «(Here the whole conversation.)

After all, the

up speed again.

But yes, I long to go back to times when the word of the year was »fan mile« like 2006. I asked my colleagues for a nice word for 2022, and they came up with suggestions like these: herd mentality, delimitation of contacts, excessive crowds and disco fever .

(Do you have any better suggestions? Write to lageamabend@spiegel.de).

With a little luck, the Society for German Language in the coming year can't help but decide on such a word.

With a bit of bad luck, the »Youth Word of the Year« jury cannot avoid this insult: »You mutant!«

• Read the SPIEGEL cover story here: Clinics before collapse

• And a comment by my colleague Wolgang Höbel on the Word of the Year can be found here.

2.

Send to receive

The SMS to my colleague Ines Zöttl spreads an alarm mood: "I humbly ask you one last time, Ines," urges the sender: "Will you follow Pres Trump on his new social website?

This is your last chance to tell him. "

Enlarge image

Send an era?

Photo:

Alex Brandon / dpa

The link leads to a page on which time is running backwards at breakneck speed: five minutes, four, the chance is about to be wasted.

She should decide: Will she donate 35, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 or 5000 dollars?

Or a higher amount of your choice?

“

the bombastically announced new

has

so far been nothing more than a fiction

for

” reports Ines.

"For himself, on the other hand, the announcement is already paying off, in the truest sense of the word: According to research by the Washington Post, the ex-president collects more than a million dollars a week." Via text messages, e-mails, events and To sue.

I have to think of a tweet from Hillary Clinton, she once urged Trump: Erase yourself!

• Read the full story here: This is how Trump rips off the citizens

3.

New Year's Eve three times a day

Enlarge image

On hot rotation

Photo: SPP 1992 / Patricia Klein / REUTERS

Do you - unlike me - like to

Then the

one of your longing

.

Researchers in Berlin have discovered the celestial body; it is the smallest known planet outside of our solar system to date: slightly larger than Mars, half as heavy as Earth.

GJ 367b rotates around its star at lightning speed - after eight hours the year is over.

Experts call it “ultra-short periods”.

Practical difficulties, besides the distance of 31 light years: firecrackers and lead pouring would be a very short pleasure at 1500 degrees Celsius.

• Read more here: Bizarre planet discovered

(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

• Karl Nehammer becomes Austrian Federal Chancellor:

  After Sebastian Kurz and Alexander Schallenberg, Austria will now have its third Chancellor within a few months: the previous Minister of the Interior, Nehammer, will be the new head of government.

• Poland and Switzerland are becoming corona high-risk areas:

  In Europe, the number of infections continues to rise - after Belgium and the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland are now classified as high-risk areas again.

  Three other countries are also on the list.

• The last world champion in Bern:

  At the age of 22, Horst Eckel was part of the 1954 “Miracle of Bern”.

  He celebrated national success with 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

  He remained connected to the myth of Betzenberg until the very end.

• 6- to 14-year-olds can travel by train for free - even without their parents:

  Deutsche Bahn is adapting its rules to the changing understanding of family and parenting: in future, up to four children will always be able to travel for free if they are with any older person travel.

My favorite story today: fair gifts

Read in the Guardian: During the Christmas business, toy manufacturers try to target adults who are longing for the series and films of their childhood.

The target group is called “Kidults” in English.

As evidence, the article cites that Playmobil is marketing the "Spaceship Enterprise" and its crew.

Felt caught.

Or maybe you are looking for something more meaningful for Christmas?

My colleagues Bianca Lang, Brigitte Steinmetz, Aïcha Reh and my colleague Andreas Möller talked to 21 activists who are committed to social and ecological issues about whether consumption at the festival can also have a good effect.

Here you can find your gift tips.

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +

• The wind turbine minister:

  The traffic light wants to produce 80 percent of the electricity from wind and sun.

  No project will leave such visible traces in the country.

  Climate Minister Habeck is responsible - the fate of the Greens is in his hands.

• This woman is supposed to electrify Daimler's trucks:

  the traffic turnaround is hardly making any headway with trucks, and Daimler has not even built its own electric motor.

  The Swede Karin Rådström should change that - and bring the truck division of the group to the stock exchange.

• Embarrassing surprises in an endless loop:

  Full bubbles, crying babies, crooked karaoke: the premiere of »Surprise!

  The Bruce Darnell Show "was a lot of discomfort.

  The biggest surprise: the host hardly appeared himself.

Which is less important today

Quick help

:

30, and

74, jointly released a song that is said to be the Christmas hit of the year.

In the music video, the two British stars can be seen in green and red jogging suits in a festively decorated Christmas room, driving a carriage through a snowy landscape and performing on a red grand piano, surrounded by a musical ensemble: »I know there was pain in this one Year, but now it's time to leave that behind. "

Typo of the day

, now corrected: "These are only taxed when they are sold, which is why he drew criticism from politicians in the USA because rich people like Musk get higher taxes when paying them through such constructions."

Cartoon of the day:

Omicron variant

And on the weekend?

Could you

watch

doing his cutting

in

again (or in one of the sequels, but maybe not in the fifth part).

The films should be available from any well-stocked streaming service.

Stallone has now told my colleague Marc Hujer how he came up with the idea of ​​writing "Rocky" back in the seventies:

Enlarge image

Picture, tusks

Photo: Andreas Rentz / Getty Images

“Something boiled inside me because people always saw me as the bad boy. They called me the "bully" even though I have a really good sense of humor. I'm actually not the type to intimidate people, rather the opposite of that. I beat up people who bullied others, the bigger they were, the better, so everyone saw me as a mean guy. But what, did I think, if it weren't for that? I had this thought and suddenly there was a little flame glowing in my black life and I thought to myself: You have to pour gasoline on this flame. What if, deep down, he's a gentle, kind guy who lives in a world where he has to look tough, black hat, black armor, gloves with cut fingers, a man who always triesto scare people? And deep down he loves fish, turtles and his little friend. And that's how I started to write 'Rocky'. "

Marc visited Stallone in his new mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, where he was just hanging his private art collection.

Stallone also told him why he would rather paint than make films - and why he believes his greater talent lies in painting.

Marc experienced a man who, even at 75, is still looking for the next fight.

"He owes his global success to a huge anger," says Marc, "but this anger never lets him calm down." (You can read the entire conversation here.)

Have a fun weekend with the occasional rainfall.

Sincerely,

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