Today it's about Donald Trump, who is in trouble with his supporters, about the planned phone call between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden about the Ukraine crisis - and about the verdict against the Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump is telling the truth - and will be punished
The fact that the real world and the world of the supporters of America's ex-President Donald Trump mostly exist completely separate from one another can currently be experienced once again: almost unnoticed by the normal world, Trump is currently experiencing a
downright shit storm
among his fans
.
Paradox: He is punished for telling the truth for once.
The reason is several interviews in which Trump campaigned for
the vaccination against Covid-19
around Christmas
.
Among other things, Trump had announced that he had already been boosted himself.
The vaccinations would work very well, said Trump.
“But some people don't take them.
Those who get very sick and end up in the hospital are all unvaccinated. "
Trump has never positioned himself so clearly about vaccinations, because his fans are teeming with conspiracy supporters who reject the government's vaccination campaign and even compare it to the Holocaust.
Now the ex-president gets the receipt for his honesty: For days the social media in the USA have been overflowing with outraged reactions from disappointed Trump fans.
The name Trump will in future be associated with "the pure devil," complained
right-wing radio presenter Alex Jones, who is
usually a supporter of the Trump movement.
Trump has to be very careful not to call him »Joseph Mengele 2.0.
goes down in history «.
Jones urgently called on Trump to turn back, otherwise he would be
remembered
forever as a
"monster" and a "child murderer"
.
It is doubtful, however, whether Trump is ready to change course again.
He obviously wants to sell the vaccination campaign as his success and hopes
to win
more moderate voters
in the next elections
.
Apparently he has recognized: There is no election to be won in the USA with the crazy ones alone.
As a journalist at a Trump event: "You have to leave!"
Telephone call in Ukraine poker
US President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin want to talk again about the Ukraine crisis today.
In Washington it is said that the telephone call is in preparation for the US-Russian talks scheduled for January 10 in Geneva.
The initiative for the phone call came from Putin.
What the conversation should bring is, however, open.
Putin is playing with high stakes in this round.
He has already deployed a good 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine, it is hard to imagine that he will now withdraw them again without real consideration from the West.
His demands are on the table: Among other things, he wants NATO to exclude Ukraine from membership for all time.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, cannot really accommodate Putin without looking terribly weak.
He should therefore try to
sound out Putin's willingness
to
compromise
.
He will also presumably make threats again.
At the last meeting between the two presidents at the beginning of December, Biden Putin announced tough sanctions in the event of an invasion.
In the US, meanwhile, the pressure on Biden is growing: Several Republicans are demanding immediate and
massive arms deliveries
to Kiev.
This not only includes other Javelin anti-tank missiles, but also
air defense systems and special missiles
for combating Russian warships on the Black Sea.
Even in Biden's own party, the Democrats, they are now calling for a hard line.
MEP Seth Molton demands that Biden should "react quickly" and make it clear by expanding arms deliveries to Ukraine that the Russian army would face massive losses if it actually attacked.
Ukraine crisis: How the US could still stop Putin
Gigantic omicron numbers
The rapid spread of the omicron mutant keeps setting new records in the number of infections:
Great Britain reports
a new high
with 183,037
new infections
. France's Health Minister Olivier Veran spoke to MPs of
208,000 new infections
within 24 hours in his country,
saying
the increase was "staggering". A new corona wave is also piling up in the USA, the number of new infections here is around 240,400 per day, according to the CDC. In the state of New York alone, the number of cases rose by 64 percent - in just 24 hours.
In Germany, the number of new infections is now a good 40,000, which seems relatively low. The
nationwide seven-day incidence
is just over 200. However, according to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, the figures should be treated with caution. He assumes
a significantly higher number of new corona infections
than officially reported. The actual incidence has been about two to three times that. The reason for this is probably, among other things, delays in reporting figures from the health authorities due to the holidays and public holidays.
Lauterbach appealed to the population
to spend New Year's Eve carefully in
order to avoid additional chains of infection.
"Please celebrate in a very small group and do not endanger each other." The reported incidence "underestimates the danger we are currently in".
Mutant is spreading particularly quickly in the north: Germany's Omikron hotspots
Loser of the day ...
… Is
Ghislaine Maxwell
, 60, the longtime confidante of the late multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. She has been found guilty of five out of six counts of sex crimes by a jury in New York. The prosecution had accused her of helping Epstein set up a ring for the sexual abuse of minors. Maxwell faces a sentence of up to 65 years in prison, the sentence to be determined by the court at a later date.
An interesting question now is whether Maxwell is possibly still cooperating with the investigators.
There have so far been no charges in the USA against several, sometimes prominent men, who are alleged to have been involved in Epstein's systematic abuse of minors.
Maxwell could help convict her in order to reduce her term.
The latest news from the night
Lebanese Customs finds nine million Captagon tablets in orange crates:
No citrus fruits, but drugs: Customs found almost nine million pills of the stimulant Captagon in the port of Beirut.
The destination of the delivery was apparently the emirate of Kuwait
Product recall for goose breast expanded
- due to the risk of salmonella: Sausage manufacturer Klaas + Pitsch has extended the recall campaign for its goose breast products.
The reason: danger of salmonella
Cape Town bids farewell to Desmond Tutu:
religious representatives commemorated Desmond Tutu - the first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town - with a colorful memorial service.
He died last Sunday at the age of 90
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Corona crisis, bad polls, coalition dispute: This is how the CSU wants to get out of disaster mode
New Transport Minister Volker Wissing: This man makes his decisions quickly - are they the right ones?
Debate between left-wing politician Gysi and CDU MP dos Santos: "There are leftists who consider themselves better people" - "I see some parallels with us"
“Lateral thinker” in Erbach, Hesse: A corona dispute escalates - and then they threaten the mayor
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Roland Nelles