1.
No result is also a result
What do school closures, cancellations of Christmas markets, masks or even vaccinations do to combat the corona pandemic?
Not only in politics, but also in many families, these questions have been the subject of merciless arguments in recent months.
The results of the expert committee set up by the Federal Government, which were presented today, were therefore awaited with great excitement.
The experts evaluated the measures to contain the pandemic on a total of 165 pages, some critically.
In their evaluation, they come to the conclusion that risk communication was poorly used in Germany and that the information campaign could have been designed better.
The effect of masks to protect against transmission is only given if people put them on correctly.
In the future, therefore, more information should be provided about the correct wearing of FFP2 masks.
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Photo: Maskot/Getty Images
However, despite numerous studies, the exact effectiveness of school closures in containing the spread of the coronavirus remains unclear.
This is one of the reasons why the expert report left me quite at a loss.
My colleague Milena Hassenkamp from SPIEGEL's capital city office, who has read all 165 pages, takes a similar view: "In the end, the question is why the scientists actually went to the trouble," she says.
Viola Kiel from the SPIEGEL science department also comes to the conclusion in her comment: “Even after two and a half years in which the Sars-CoV-2 virus has been crawling through our lives, it is still an insurmountable challenge in Germany to provide scientifically useful data on the pandemic and maintain it.« It is clear to her: »Germany needs an infrastructure for research data – a digital one.«
What can we learn from this for the fall?
In any case, the strategy of the federal government in combating the pandemic at the moment seems to be to spread the disease as widely as possible among the population.
In any case, I can slowly count on the fingers of one hand the number of people in my circle of friends, colleagues and family who have not yet become acquainted with the virus.
Perhaps it makes sense to no longer count the number of new infections every day, but to record those citizens who have been proven to be corona negative for two years.
What are they actually doing right?
The most important preparation for the fall remains "that people get vaccinated," says General Practitioners' Association leader Ulrich Weigeldt today in an interview with my colleague Jule Lutteroth.
He also calls for a smarter vaccination campaign.
"Poliio is cruel, oral vaccination is sweet." At the time, everyone understood that immediately.
“Now Germany is rolling up its sleeves.
That doesn't motivate anyone.«
Read the comment here: No rush, after two and a half years
2.
Here to stay
The Federal Republic is facing one of the greatest crises since the end of the Second World War.
Inflation is at record highs and a recession is looming.
And the government lacks a joint project on how to secure social peace.
"What happens in Germany when prosperity dwindles drastically?" A team of SPIEGEL editors addresses this question in the title story of the new issue of the magazine, which will appear on newsstands tomorrow and can already be read digitally today.
“Inflation kills prosperity” is the title of the new SPIEGEL.
You can get the issue digitally here and from Saturday at the kiosk.
Photo:
[M]: JH Darchinger / Friedrich Ebert Foundation;
Getty Images
According to the poverty report of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband, for example, there have not been so many poor people in Germany since reunification.
Never would more children and old people have had to live in poverty in a united Germany.
The poverty rate has never risen as rapidly as it did in 2020 and 2021. "There is much to suggest that the crisis could also erode the large German middle class," says the cover story of my colleagues from SPIEGEL's capital city office.
»If the middle class collapses, everything can collapse.«
The »journey through the expensive German country« by my colleagues Maik Großekathöfer and Katja Thimm is therefore well worth reading.
They have visited a family, a single, a pensioner and two single parents.
Jens Diezinger, a family man from Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, is afraid that inflation "is here to stay," as he says.
And that he then lies in bed sleepless at night because he has to think about how to fill the fridge for his family.
His 15-year-old daughter Lena, who is responsible for dinner, seems unusually mature when she says: “I try to cook in a balanced way.
Vegetables, carbohydrates, fiber, healthy fats.
The problem is: cooking healthy and shopping cheaply – they don’t overlap.«
Read the full cover story here: First Inflation, Then Recession
3.
Fateful day in Hong Kong
"In this country, the extent to which our prosperity is partly financed by China is extremely underestimated." Precisely because we have been reading and writing so much about increasing poverty lately, this sentence made me sit up and take notice when reading the new issue of SPIEGEL.
It comes from VW boss Herbert Diess, who, in conversation with my colleague Simon Hage and our editor-in-chief Steffen Klusmann, criticized the German government's course on China.
"Without the business with China, inflation would continue to explode," believes Diess.
If we were to detach ourselves from this, Germany would look completely different.
»We would have a lot less growth, prosperity and employment.«
Volkswagen, for example, employs 20,000 to 30,000 developers in Germany.
Half of them work for customers in China.
Four billion euros in profit flow from the People's Republic here every year, calculates the VW boss.
»I always say to my managers: A large part of your bonus is generated in China.«
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Democracy activist Simon Cheng
Photo:
Jonathan Browning / THE MIRROR
But one more thing should be made clear: we owe Germany's prosperity to trading with an oppressive regime.
It is generated in a morally very questionable manner.
After the publication of the Xinjiang Police Files a month ago, Simon Hage wrote in the SPIEGEL editorial: "Large parts of the West have surrendered to a regime that acts so brutally against those who think differently that the parliaments of Canada, France and the Netherlands as well as the US -government speak of genocide."
Especially today it is worth looking at China.
Because on July 1, 25 years ago, the former crown colony of Hong Kong was returned to the People's Republic.
Since then, the situation there has deteriorated drastically for many citizens, as the drastic report by my colleagues Georg Fahrion, Christoph Giesen and Muriel Kalisch shows.
Many democracy activists have now fled to Britain.
"China has largely incorporated the city," they write.
Read the full story here: Resistant Hong Kong is now in London
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What else is important today
Russia is threatening to close its embassy in Bulgaria:
Moscow recently cut gas supplies to Bulgaria, are diplomatic relations to follow?
After the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats from Sofia, the country is apparently considering countermeasures.
SPD blocks law – and thus helps the AfD:
A foundation close to the AfD does not receive any tax money and is suing against it.
She could be right, because there is no law.
The Greens and FDP want to remedy the situation, but the Social Democrats are reluctant to do so, according to SPIEGEL information.
Banks want billions back from the state:
Germany's financial institutions hope that 2.3 billion euros will flow back to them from the national restructuring fund.
But there is resistance to this.
Derailed train near Garmisch - broken concrete sleepers as a possible cause:
According to media reports, after the train accident near Burgrain in Bavaria, there are increasing indications that the route could have been damaged.
This is apparently suggested by a document from the Bundestag.
The trade association speaks of a disruption of “unprecedented dimensions”:
The problems with card payments with a widespread device have unsettled consumers and companies.
The German Trade Association has now asked 800 companies about the impairments.
My favorite story today: times change
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Clock in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris
Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP
At the next tone, it's ... quiet: In France, the automatic time announcement has been abolished at midnight.
In the smartphone age, demand has decreased, they say.
So far, so logical.
Despite this, I couldn't get this message out of my head all day today.
Perhaps because it shows how much the invention of the mobile phone has revolutionized our everyday lives.
We not only carry the exact time around in our handbags or trouser pockets.
For example, I recently unlocked my e-bike with the app, write in my diary with the app, look for chocolate cake recipes with the app, make transfers, pay for parking tickets and book cinema tickets with the app.
The list would easily fill three more paragraphs.
Oddly enough, I call people a lot less than I used to.
A lot of communication these days takes place via short messages, video calls, email traffic or hearts in social networks.
Maybe I should call my friends more again?
Or even dial 0180 4100 100.
In Germany, Telekom continues to offer the automatic time announcement under this number.
It is said that the time announcement is still very popular today, especially during the changeover from summer to winter time.
Read the full story here: Automatic time announcement has been discontinued in France
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
This is how the economic war against Putin works:
The EU has been preparing the sanctions against Russia for a long time - and is now taking more severe action than ever before.
Does the strategy work?
A visit to the command center in Brussels.
"Biden will not be able to meet climate protection goals":
The US Supreme Court has curtailed one of the government's most important climate protection instruments: the environmental protection agency.
The effects are likely to be serious, also internationally.
Better to ignore it:
The Ukrainian ambassador Andrei Melnyk played down the war crimes of a nationalist leader in Poland.
Despite this, the government in Warsaw is holding back criticism – the alliance with Kyiv is too important.
This Dane is now a German minister – what does he want, what can he do?
Claus Ruhe Madsen is the new Economics Minister of Schleswig-Holstein.
His record as mayor of Rostock was pretty mixed.
Which is less important today
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Norwegian Sun in Seattle
Photo: Manuel Valdes/AP
Luckily
, a cruise ship collided with a chunk of ice near Hubbard Glacier in Alaska.
According to the US Coast Guard, it was damaged by the impact on the starboard bow, as reported by CNN.
Divers examined the ship and found that it was still seaworthy.
It was able to continue at a slower speed to its homeport in Seattle, where it is now scheduled for repairs.
Apparently no one was injured in the collision.
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "If his grades are good, he wants to pay Daniel the admission fee for a form of financial center that promises freelance traders capital."
Cartoon of the day:
NATO summit
And on the weekend?
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Scene from »Axiom«
Photo: Martin Valentin Menke / Bon Voyage Films GmbH
What a name!
Director Jöns Jönsson sounds like it was made up.
Especially when you know he made a film about an imposter with changing identities.
It is about the native Swede, who studied at the University of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg, but apparently a real person who the SPIEGEL film expert Hannah Pilarczyk describes as "real directorial talent".
The main character of his debut film »Axiom« is the museum guard Julius, who effortlessly convinces those around him that he is someone completely different, better, more interesting.
But no more should be revealed about »Axiom«, writes Hannah, »because the appeal of the superbly staged and even better acted story« is »that you know next to nothing about Julius and constantly have to put together a new picture of him«. .
A lovely evening.
Cordially,
your Anna Clauss
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