1.
Hard mildness
"Looking back, 2020 will have been the better year," said a colleague in early 2021. With this sentence he confirms his reputation as a cheerful pessimist, which he had developed in numerous editorial conferences.
I didn't want to agree with him, 2021 had to get better, even if the alpha wave was holding the country in check back then.
After all, the vaccination campaign had just started.
Now, almost a year later, the Omikron wave is approaching (or it has long been there, the Fax Republic does not know exactly because of the, a particularly German word, delay in reporting). We have to deal with triage rules again and fear school closings. In Vienna they barrack power plant employees to keep operations going. In New York, the virus paralyzes local transport, emergency services, clinics and shops (if you don't want to be in default with any corona reports, you can find our news update here).
After all, there are now vaccines and drugs. After all, the new health minister seems to be more familiar with the matter than the old one. After all, some experts are cautiously giving hope: at some point this corona virus will probably also become endemic and only trigger seasonally smaller waves of infection.
Many now hope that they will have a "mild course" at Omikron.
But what does medicine actually understand by mild?
"The threat of more complaints than some people suspect," says my colleague Irene Berres from our health team.
"Anyone who becomes slightly or moderately ill can still develop a multitude of symptoms: taste and smell disorders, fever, diarrhea, cough, a stuffy nose and fatigue." has to fight.
In a nutshell: "Only those who develop severe pneumonia are seriously ill with Covid-19."
So was 2021 mild?
Read more here: Three vaccinations?
Or four?
Virologists question vaccination regimen
2.
Do you want a lot, go to Thiel
“I would like to take care of the strategic in the future.” Regardless of the industry: People who say something like that either want to avoid the arduous day-to-day business.
Or they actually want to finally move more than before.
Sometimes both.
Now Austria's two-time ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz is hiring as a "global strategist" with the German-born billionaire Peter Thiel, in his investment company Thiel Capital.
Enlarge image
Peter Thiel, future head of Sebastian Kurz
Photo:
Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg / Getty Images
My colleague Patrick Beuth from our network world department explains why it is easy to mistake Thiel for a caricature at first glance, for an ongoing Silicon Valley cliché: He wants to build islands for the rich so that they can escape tax liability.
He wants to conquer death.
He names his companies using terms from "Lord of the Rings" (see Palantir).
But maybe Thiel should be seen as a dangerous man.
He says sentences like: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." Thiels biographer Max Chefkin says of the billionaire's political and economic philosophy that it borders "on fascism".
Thiel doesn't seem to care what people think and say about him.
"In this respect, he might be a good match for Sebastian Kurz," says Patrick.
Read more here: How dangerous is Sebastian Kurz's new boss?
3.
Claus time
Enlarge image
Photo:
Thomas Pirot / DER SPIEGEL
Tonight, Claus Kleber will host the »heute journal« on ZDF for the last time.
The industry bows to say goodbye:
The Süddeutsche Zeitung calls him a "giant";
Kurt Kister begins his text with the words: "Let's praise famous men, let us now praise famous men," which is both a biblical phrase and the title of a book that was published in the USA in 1941.
In the »Tagesspiegel«, Armin Wolf, the colleague from ORF, praises the ZDF man as a »prototype of a news presenter«: »If you had to paint an 'anchorman' in a clichéd manner today - urbane, well traveled, educated, eloquent, confident, personable, always serious, but also with lascivious mischief, and charming and good-looking: it would come out with Claus Kleber. "
In “Die Zeit”, my former SPIEGEL colleague Cordt Schnibben spoke to Kleber about activism and lazy thinking in journalism: “What I often hear from moderators, especially on the radio, makes me go crazy about the ease with which judgments are made, by people who obviously never dealt with the matter in depth. "
The »Gala« copywriter Bettina Klee admits: »What do my current husband and my ex-husband have in common?
At 9.45 p.m. they have a break from broadcasting, at least when Claus Kleber, 66, moderates the ›heute-journal‹. "
The ZDF has published a tribute to Gundula Gause under the title “The man by my side”: At its core, Kleber is “not just the shoulder-pounding, jovial guy, but the always somewhat distant intellectual with high demands on himself and others”.
"Germany without anchor Claus on the abyss," etched the "taz" on its "truth" page: "In future, nobody will explain the world to those with the second eye and third teeth in the evening."
For SPIEGEL, my colleagues Anton Rainer and Marc Hujer spoke to Kleber about his demands on himself.
"An anchorman has to obey a rule: What you can't explain, you haven't understood," says Kleber there.
“You have to penetrate the matter and work out the core.
And it needs a certain charisma.
I try to tell people: 'You can trust me, I'm not fooling you.
While you've been building houses, repairing cars, and caring for people all day, I've done my research, and that's my result.
Give me 28 minutes. ”“ You have another chance tonight.
Read the whole conversation here: "I'm neither the referee nor the chief virologist"
(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
Ministry of Defense checks video on plans for a violent coup:
In a video, a man talks about the violent coup and the death of the federal government.
According to SPIEGEL information, it is a soldier - the Ministry of Defense is now investigating the matter.
Two MPs are leaving the AfD and the Bundestag faction:
The politicians Uwe Witt and Johannes Huber are leaving the AfD and the party's Bundestag faction.
Witt justifies the move with the behavior of party colleagues, with Huber the reasons are different.
Özdemir has the ban on the sale of groceries below production costs examined:
Cem Özdemir steps up: Shortly after his controversial move for higher food prices, the Agriculture Minister brings a ban into play - and thus focuses on supermarket chains.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
The three big dangers for Joe Biden:
A difficult year is coming to an end for the US President.
The next one is unlikely to get any better.
Biden expect numerous new problems - and Donald Trump is planning his comeback.
How often Kohl made it onto the SPIEGEL cover - and how often Hitler:
400,000 texts in 75 years: Who the magazine interviewed most often, what was reported on - and which issue had the highest circulation.
"I was lost in him":
At first she saw in him the sensitive artist who needed her protection.
Then he took possession of her more and more.
Here Lisa Sollner describes how she let herself be taken by a narcissist.
Which is less important today
Me, Myself & Eye:
Pop singer
Sasha
, 49, is calm about his birthday at the beginning of January, as he told the dpa news agency.
He doesn't feel like he's turning 50.
"But that's probably a hormonal fallacy." He wanted to press the stop button when he was in his mid-thirties.
“You're physically super fit, you've already seen enough to stop being fooled, and you're in the middle of life.” However, he now has problems with his eyes: “I've always been proud that I can see so well .
That changed two years ago.
At that time I lost 1 to 1.5 diopters in one fell swoop. "
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "The Chinese authorities have long been a thorn for their eyes"
Cartoon of the day:
Toi, Toi, Toi
And on the long weekend?
Have a good new year.
And if you do drink too much, cure your high.
On New Year's Eve, my colleague Irene Berres from our health team is once again firing off a firework of rules of thumb, myths and tips for avoiding and fighting hangovers: Where does the hangover come from?
Why is it wise to stick with one type of alcohol?
And when is the headache worst?
(You can find the answers to the most important questions here.)
Enlarge image
Headache
Photo: Vivian Rutsch / plainpicture
In fact, according to Irene, studies have shown that roughly one in five doesn't develop a severe hangover.
However, no one has yet figured out why this is so.
On average, two drinkers from their New Year's Corona maximum occupancy should start the new year painlessly.
So keep your head up and not too many glasses.
Come on in well.
Sincerely,
Oliver Trenkamp
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
