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News of the day: Ukraine crisis, Omicron, Friedrich Merz

2022-01-21T17:37:57.434Z


Friedrich Merz gets a basket from Angela Merkel. The situation in Eastern Europe is coming to a head. And there is also good news when it comes to fighting the pandemic: German hamsters are safe from being culled. This is the situation on Friday evening.


1.

He just wants to play?

Is it just exercises - or does

Russia

actually want to invade

Ukraine

?

The question has been floating around for weeks.

Moscow is stationing thousands of soldiers in the border area and is bringing a lot of military equipment to the region.

Russian battle tanks and artillery pieces are ready in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine.

"We shouldn't lie to ourselves and think that Putin is just bluffing," says Fiona Hill, who has worked as Russia adviser to three US presidents.

My colleague René Pfister from the SPIEGEL office in Washington was able to speak to her.

"

Putin

invaded Georgia in 2008 and he intervened in the war in Syria," Hill recalls.

'His secret services have done things that were not thought possible.

They used extraordinarily potent toxins to assassinate ex-Russian agent Sergei Skripal in Britain.

Alexey Navalny survived a poison attack, but that doesn't mean there was no intention to kill him.«

Enlarge image

US Secretary of State Blinken (left) and his Russian counterpart Lavrov in Geneva

Photo: POOL / REUTERS

After all, there are also small positive signals. Russian Foreign Minister

Sergey Lavrov

and his US counterpart

Antony Blinken

met in Geneva today for crisis talks. The US and its western allies are demanding a retreat of the 100,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border to the rear. Russia, on the other hand, wants written security guarantees and an end to the eastward expansion of the western military alliance NATO. Blinken said after the meeting that both sides now have a better understanding of each other's positions. Lavrov emphasized: "This is not the end of the dialogue."

This week's SPIEGEL cover story also deals with the Ukraine conflict.

A large team of editors has researched, among other things, what the conflict means for local people and why the German government has so far reacted so hesitantly.

  • Read the cover story here: »Putin ignites – and Scholz has no time for Biden«

2.

Free Goldi!

Great Britain did.

Denmark too.

Just like Israel.

Many countries are currently relaxing their

corona rules,

even though the number of infections is increasing.

Politicians in Germany also hope that a new phase of the corona pandemic will begin

with the obviously milder variant

Omikron .

"It doesn't make sense to tighten up now," said

Markus Söder

after a meeting of the CSU board on Friday in Munich.

Rather, it must be observed with a sense of proportion to what extent the omicron wave affects the burden on the health system.

He could imagine possible relaxations in Bavaria for the admission of spectators to professional sports and for children and young people when working in the afternoon.

Enlarge image

Photo: Nadtochiy / Zoonar / picture alliance

And there is more good news: The Federal Research Institute for Animal Health announced today that there was no evidence of relevant transmission of the coronavirus from pets to humans.

The killing of around 2,000 hamsters and other small animals was recently ordered in Hong Kong for fear that the virus could spread among the animals and also spread to humans.

After the discovery of several

hamsters infected

with the coronavirus in a pet shop, the authorities had also asked pet owners who bought their rodents after December 22 to hand them in at the official hamster collection point.

According to the agency, 68 rodents were delivered there by Thursday evening.

I don't even want to imagine the tears of the possibly underage owners.

Fortunately, we have so far been spared

cull actions

like this one in Germany.

  • Read more here: The federal government's pandemic policy - how do we get out of here?

3.

A basket for Friedrich Merz

What does

Angela Merkel actually do?

She hands out baskets.

In the middle of the week, she turned down a job offer as a consultant at the United Nations in New York.

Today it became known that the retired chancellor has no interest in the honorary presidency of the CDU.

"Angela Merkel also came to the decision: it no longer fits in with the times," said Armin Laschet in the RTL / ntv "early start".

There will also be no reconciliation with

Friedrich Merz

for the time being.

As my colleague Veit Medick from SPIEGEL's Berlin office found out, Merkel declined his invitation to a dinner with all living CDU leaders on Saturday evening.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer also apologized to Merz.

Only Wolfgang Schäuble and Armin Laschet are said to have agreed.

In addition to the ex-chairman, Merz also invited members of the old and new CDU presidium.

Enlarge image

Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa

The election of Friedrich Merz as the new party chairman

, which is due tomorrow at noon

, is considered certain.

The fact that the hero of the

CDU

base, as the 66-year-old has liked to present himself for the last few years, invites to a dinner event with selected party celebrities on the day he takes over the party presidency gives a deep insight.

In any case, I never believed Merz's change from millionaire to dishwasher.

I would be surprised if he put himself entirely at the service of the party from now on and ensured more grassroots participation or closeness to the people.

Merz's desire for a CDU elite party on the evening of his enthronement suggests that he considers himself even more important than the great task ahead of him: bringing the Union back to power.

  • Read more here: The four construction sites of Friedrich Merz

(Would you like to receive the "Situation in the evening" conveniently by e-mail in your inbox? Here you can order the daily briefing as a newsletter.)

What else is important today

  • Meat Loaf is dead:

    He became famous with the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" - "I'd Do Anything for Love" and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" were among his greatest hits: The American rock singer Meat Loaf has died.

    He was 74 years old.

  • Merkel rejects honorary chairmanship of the CDU:

    It no longer fits in with the times: according to outgoing party leader Armin Laschet, Chancellor Angela Merkel explained why she does not want to become honorary chairman of the CDU.

  • Traffic light deputies announce draft for compulsory vaccination:

    On Wednesday, the Bundestag will debate the introduction of compulsory vaccination in Germany.

    Seven MPs from the SPD, FDP and Green coalition factions have now presented a first draft law.

  • AfD has to compete without a state list:

    Due to internal disputes, the AfD in Saarland is without a state list for the state elections at the end of March.

    The party fears a clear reaction from the electorate.

  • "Squid Game" will be continued:

    The most successful Netflix series is entering its second season, as the streaming provider has now confirmed.

    At the same time, co-head Sarandos hinted at further sequels: "The 'Squid Game' universe has only just begun."

What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today

  • Will 48 million cars become worthless?

    The traffic light coalition is speeding up the switch to e-mobility, and it could be expensive for owners of diesel or petrol engines.

    Because the alternative fuels are needed elsewhere.

  • Ricarda Lang in particular can be harmed by the prosecutors' investigations:

    She is only 28, a young star with the Greens - now Ricarda Lang and the entire board are suspected of infidelity.

    The word turns a clumsiness into a possible crime.

    How dangerous is that for you?

  • Advantage Omikron:

    Basically, Omikron is hardly more contagious than Delta, underpin new data.

    The variant was able to prevail mainly because it bypasses the immune protection of vaccinated and recovered people.

  • The AfD is a pseudo-digital giant:

    The algorithms help the AfD, no other party is as successful on Facebook as the extreme right.

    But a SPIEGEL analysis shows that around a third of the top commentators are fake or not authentic.

  • "The Church has failed in two ways":

    Irme Stetter-Karp represents the Catholic lay faithful in Germany.

    that Benedict XVI.

    admits no wrongdoing, she finds shameful.

    And she makes a demand on bishops who have failed in leadership.

Which is less important today

Photo:

Simon Emmett;

Columbia Records / dpa

  • Singer Adele

    has canceled her concert series in Las Vegas – one day before the planned premiere.

    In tears, the 33-year-old addressed her fans in a video message

    .

    She's so sorry, but her show just isn't finished, the musician says, visibly resolved, on Twitter.

    She and her team tried everything, but the coronavirus pandemic ruined everything.

    Half of their employees are ill, and deliveries are delayed.

Typo of the day

, now corrected: »Even the people around him have basically remained the same«

Cartoon of the Day:

Ukraine talks

And on the weekend?

Today is

International Sweatpants Day.

If you have one, make yourself comfortable and open your diary.

If you don't have one, I can only advise you to get one.

"What I don't write down today, I won't have experienced tomorrow," Manfred Krug

noted

in his on August 4, 1997.

"Everyone over 50 should keep a diary because then they experience more."

Enlarge image

Photo:

Monika breeding / DER SPIEGEL

If you prefer reading a diary to writing (like my younger sister, who secretly read my teenage diary about 30 years ago, but one day forgot to put it back in the drawer and it all became clear) I recommend this text by my colleague Janko Tietz.

He writes about the diaries of the actor and singer Manfred Krug, who died in 2015.

He kept a detailed diary for the last twenty years of his life, which comprised several thousand pages.

DER SPIEGEL publishes a preprint of it in its current issue.

The first volume, which covers the years 1996 and 1997, will be published on January 26, 2022 by Kanon Verlag in Berlin.

In it, Krug describes how dissatisfied he was with his cooperation with Telekom, for which he praised the T-Share as an advertising face.

So much for an exciting life: Krug also describes the exposure of his double life with his lover Petra and their daughter Marlene, who was born illegitimate in 1995, on January 13, 1996: »I had arranged with my Petra that she would wait for me with Marlene in my apartment across the street.

She was sitting there, wearing only her underwear, in a leather armchair, the child was lying on the floor, when Ottilie suddenly came in without my knowledge to get butter from my freezer.

That's what happened: Otti met Petra and the child.«

Next week you will meet my situation colleague Alexander Neubacher at this point.


A lovely evening.

Cordially,


your Anna Clauss

Here you can order the »Situation in the Evening« by e-mail.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-21

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