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Whether he has to stay out at the Australian Open or not - the excitement about tennis player Novak Djoković seems a bit exaggerated
Sport is a beautiful and, as a rule, absolutely humorless human activity.
This is also evident in the dispute over the entry of the great tennis player Novak Djoković, which was approved this morning.
Both the family members and friends of the athlete from Serbia and many of the people who are upset about the behavior of the allegedly unvaccinated tennis professional now seem to attach a symbolic meaning to the case, which I think he does not really have.
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Tennis star Djoković
Photo: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake / REUTERS
Today's judge’s ruling in Melbourne, which allowed Djoković to enter, leaves behind, writes my colleague Peter Ahrens, “only losers. The authorities are embarrassed, the tennis star himself has gambled away his credit «. Whether Djoković, who is apparently a kind of modern Jesus figure by his own father, can really take part in the Australian Open tennis tournament from January 17th is probably unclear for a few more days. The Australian authorities have announced that they will continue to investigate the case and possibly withdraw the visa from the 34-year-old even after he has entered the country.
According to his own information, the player, whose fans and family are now cheering the judge's verdict, has already recovered twice from corona infections, most recently only at the end of the year. However, photos have emerged on social media that show Djoković without a mask one day after his supposedly positive corona test in mid-December, while he happily jokes with children, that "will not have increased his sympathy values," judges the colleague. The performance in Melbourne is particularly important for Djoković, because he could become the first male tennis player in the world to set a new record there with his 21st Grand Slam victory. If he is not allowed to compete, he could win elsewhere a few months later.
So how justified is the excitement?
With a little composure, one can also see positive things in the current development of the immigration dispute over tennis players, for example how a democracy with an independent judiciary works.
"All those who make up an opinion dictatorship in the pandemic," teach today's judges' decision a better one.
And what about the anger of many tennis fans against the supposedly particularly bad egoist Djoković?
His competitor Rafael Nadal called the whole discussion today a "circus".
And the great cabaret artist Werner Finck once said that for him it was the greatest sport to be able to fool himself.
Read the whole comment here: The egoist's pseudo-victory
2.
Europol collects massive amounts of data like its US colleagues from the NSA - to the annoyance of data protectionists, apparently without a legal basis
The security authority Europol plays an important role in the fight against terrorism and cross-border crime.
Research by a SPIEGEL team and the Lighthouse Reports media platform has now shown that the investigators at the facility have probably gone too far when collecting and storing sensitive information.
According to the European Data Protection Authority, Europol has illegally collected huge amounts of personal data in recent years.
This morning it became known that the police authority, on the orders of the data protection officers, should delete a large part of the data - namely those stored for more than six months.
The sensitive data was taken from criminal reports, hacked by encrypted telephone services and sampled from asylum seekers.
Research by SPIEGEL and Lighthouse Reports confirms the suspicion that, in addition to information about criminals, data from political activists, lawyers, journalists and business people have also been saved.
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High-tech data
Photo:
Oliver Burston / IMAGO
The enormous collecting mania of the Europol people evidently resembles that of the US secret service NSA. The colleagues Anna-Sophie Schneider, Apostolis Fotiadis, Daniel Howden, Maximilian Popp, Ludek Stavinoha and Giacomo Zandonini quote an expert from the civil rights alliance European Digital Rights with the assessment: »Europol's ability to suck off huge amounts of data and convert them into a kind of big Collecting Data Ark turns the agency into a black hole. "
My colleague Anna-Sophie says that the conflict between Europol and the European Data Protection Authority is ultimately "about the question of where to draw the line between security and privacy." The European police authority has accumulated billions of data in recent years .
“A lot of it comes from crime reports.
This means that not only information from criminals is stored.
Sensitive data of witnesses or victims are also likely to be affected.
If you don't draw a line somewhere, it will amount to mass surveillance. "
Read the full story here: Europe's data monster
3.
Around 80 percent of the antigen tests traded in Germany recognize the omicron variant of the coronavirus - this was the result of a scientific test
Allegedly there are now more than 200 different rapid antigen tests that Germans can use to check whether they have been infected with the corona virus.
Whether and how many of the tests also work in infections with the Omicron variant of the virus has been a matter of dispute among experts in recent weeks.
Today the Paul Ehrlich Institute announced its rather positive interim results: 80 percent of the rapid antigen tests checked by the institute were able to reliably detect the Omikron variant.
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Will there be a general compulsory vaccination in Germany?
Photo:
Robert Michael / dpa
We are still working on creating a neat list of which of the rapid antigen tests recognize the new variant well.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has announced such a list.
In the debate about the introduction of a compulsory corona vaccination, a SPIEGEL survey published today showed that the majority of Germans would welcome this step.
But the support is less than last.
Accordingly, around 64 percent are in favor of corona vaccinations becoming mandatory in this country.
About a third of people are against compulsory vaccination.
Read more here: Large majority for compulsory vaccination - but approval is declining
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What else is important today
Flood disaster in the Rhineland second costliest natural disaster worldwide:
280 billion dollars - this is how an analysis quantifies the damage caused by storms or floods in the past year.
Climate change is partly responsible for this.
The effects of low "Bernd" were particularly great.
CDU board of directors distances itself from Maaßen:
Ex-constitutional protection chief Hans-Georg Maaßen was recently noticed with skepticism about vaccinations.
CDU General Secretary Ziemiak is now speaking of "dangerous" statements.
However, he does not join calls for a party to leave the party.
Shipbuilder MV Werften files for insolvency:
The state, federal government and owner had been negotiating for days to save the ailing MV Werften - in vain.
The group has filed for bankruptcy.
What happens to the employees is open.
Soldiers wear blue helmets - the UN officially transmits "concerns":
During the riots in Kazakhstan, soldiers wearing helmets from the UN peacekeeping forces are photographed.
The world organization does not agree with that.
My favorite story today: "Virus VIPs" as birthday guests
Many journalists view the competing magazine »Apotheken Umschau« with happy envy, also because the loyalty of readers to their own paper seems to work even better there than anywhere else in the media landscape.
Now, on its 66th birthday, the customer magazine has taken the nickname »Pensioners-Bravo« and will be available next Saturday in pharmacies with special pages that were created in cooperation with »Bravo«: The title is already self-deprecating with a »Star Report to the Virus VIPs «promised - Karl Lauterbach, Sandra Ciesek and Christian Drosten are pictured - because after all:» Super Science!
Corona makes science a star «.
Read the whole story here: “Apotheken Umschau” is celebrating with a “Pensioner Bravo” supplement
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
How Denmark is forcing Syrians to flee:
It is one of the richest countries in the world - and yet more and more Syrians are fleeing from Denmark to other EU countries, as research by SPIEGEL and its partners shows.
The government in Copenhagen is targeting deterrence.
Dutch government worried about German gas needs:
During the crisis, German suppliers order more natural gas from the Netherlands - to the horror of the neighbors.
Because when the fuel is being extracted, earthquakes occur time and again.
Are politicians wasting billions on fine-weather means of transport ?:
A lot of money is invested in the expansion of cycle paths.
But hardly anyone cycles in the darker months of the year - at least that is a popular assumption.
So is the money badly invested?
The fact check.
The third German state and mini reunification:
Saarland was the tenth federal state to join the Federal Republic of Germany 65 years ago.
Before that it was partially autonomous and even sent its own team to the 1952 Olympics. The last living Saar Olympian remembers.
Which is less important today
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Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Pudding homage to the Queen:
At the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the throne of
Elizabeth II
, 95, in June there will be a culinary competition, among other things.
The aim is to find “a completely new pudding dedicated to the Queen”.
Of course, an expert jury decides.
However, due to the corona pandemic, the central celebrations with parades and church services in St. Paul's Cathedral are only to take place on a long weekend at the beginning of June.
On Saturday, June 4th, the BBC is organizing a live concert in honor of the Queen entitled “Platinum at the Palace” with “some of the world's greatest entertainment stars”.
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: "Can Genesis store its status in the warning app?"
Cartoon of the day:
Without atomic energy
And tonight?
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Concert organizer Michael Lang (1969 in Woodstock)
Photo: Ginny Winn / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Could you watch the famous concert film "Woodstock" which came out in theaters in 1970 on a streaming service? My colleague Andreas Borcholte wrote a touching obituary for Michael Lang, the man who invented Woodstock. Lang died last Saturday in New York at the age of 77. As the organizer of the three-day festival with the subtitle "3 Days of Peace, Love and Music", the concert organizer Lang, by no means particularly professional, experienced a spectacular chaos "full of bad drugs, downpours, mud fights, organizational breakdowns, poor food supply and with 400,000 visitors", writes Andreas. Admission to one of the most beautiful spectacles in music history was finally free because of the huge mess.In the concert film by director Michael Wadleigh, his colleague also reminds him, Michael Lang can be seen as the “Easy Rider” at the beginning of the festival on a motorcycle over the grounds, “unbroken optimistic and free, his bare torso underneath a casual one Leather vest «.
A lovely evening.
Sincerely
yours, Wolfgang Höbel
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