1.
With the compost bin against Putin?
To begin with, a confession: the day before yesterday I carelessly threw a banana peel into the residual waste instead of opening the lid of the stinking brown bin to dispose of the organic waste in it correctly.
From now on I vow to get better.
Because I read the article by my colleague Nils Klawitter, which wrote: "If you believe the Biogas Association, biowaste, liquid manure and renewable raw materials could become the decisive means against Russia's gas withdrawal." By 2030, the association calculated, could 40 percent of Russian gas can be replaced by domestic fermenters.
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Organic waste in a garbage can
Photo:
Arno Burgi / picture alliance / dpa
Biomethane currently only covers one percent of German natural gas consumption.
As a result, Nils Klawitter from SPIEGEL's business department is a bit "a mystery" as to how the biogas association's calculations are supposed to work out.
Unlike in Denmark, where larger systems were used early on and the biogas share in the natural gas network is already around 25 percent, "the lavish funding in Germany has created a proliferation of many smaller systems that are not connected to the gas network".
The calculation by the Waste Management Association, according to which Germany's waste industry could double its gas production, is more understandable.
Namely, if the Germans would collect more organic waste and the municipalities would provide more collection options.
A good four million tons of household organic waste end up in underutilized biogas plants every year.
But there could be a lot more if the organic waste bin were available across the board.
"It's been a legal requirement since 2015, but many municipalities still don't do it," complains Peter Kurth, President of the BDE Waste Management Association.
So far, my organic contribution against Putin's gas blackmail has not failed because of the existence of a brown barrel, but because of its stench.
Luckily there are enough FFP2 masks in our household.
At the weekend I'll layer two and clean the brown thing!
Read more here: With the organic waste bin against Putin?
And here is more news and background information on the war in Ukraine:
"A dictated peace is not real peace":
Heidi Tagliavini mediated in conflicts with Russia for decades, including in Georgia.
Here she explains why she thinks peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are currently hopeless.
Russian oil deliveries through Ukraine stopped:
According to the Russian state-owned company Transneft, no oil has been flowing through Ukraine to Europe since last Thursday.
Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are affected – but not Germany.
Russian oligarchs continue to conceal their assets in Germany:
anyone who is sanctioned in this country must disclose their assets.
Since Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, this rule has also applied to Russian oligarchs.
Alone: None of these men has done so so far.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
2.
Belarus between hope and horror
"Today is a good day to think about what democracy means for all of us." Svetlana Tichanovskaya from Belarus writes this sentence in a guest article for SPIEGEL.
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Minsk in August 2020
Photo:
Sergei Gapon / AFP
On the second anniversary of the Belarusian revolution, the leader of the Belarusian democracy movement outlines what a new European Ostpolitik should look like.
German politicians were wrong when they thought that "working with authoritarian regimes would help countries to become more prosperous and bring about political change," writes Tichanovskaya.
It is time to “pursue a new Europe-wide Ostpolitik that includes both Ukraine and Belarus and recognizes our struggles as deeply European.
It should be guided by principles rather than pure realpolitik.
Today, with a new Iron Curtain falling in Europe, Belarus should be on the right side.
Tichanovskaya describes how August 9, 2020 led to the starting signal for a revolution against dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
"But two years later we still live in a state between hope and horror." One has to struggle with the same fear as the Germans who were hiding from the Stasi.
"We fight about our future just like the Portuguese did during the Carnation Revolution." The Ukrainians paid for their European history with their lives, the Belarusians with their freedom, and only the Europeans "have the opportunity to decide how much that's worth." .
Read the full guest article here: Acknowledge our history as your own European history
3.
Rescue in times of need
Is it the task of the state to protect the citizens from their own irrationality?
For example, to legally require you to wear a corona protection mask because there are apparently not enough sensible people who come up with the idea of protecting themselves in rooms with many people?
Today, the state health ministers are discussing the new infection protection law, which Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), who is currently suffering from Corona, and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) presented together last week.
There is a need for clarification, among other things, about the mask requirement, which the federal states could enact from autumn, for example in restaurants or at events, should the virus begin to spread uncontrollably.
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A mask hangs on the tap of a bar in Berlin
Photo:
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
It is undisputed that politicians have the task of warning people against their tendency to be unreasonable.
In Bavaria, my home state, today, for example, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (both CSU) warned tourists and mountaineers against overconfidence.
In Bavaria, significantly more alpinists died in their hobby in the past six months than in the same period last year.
According to this, 30 people died in southern Upper Bavaria during the period.
Last year there were 19.
"In 2021, more people died in the mountains in the Berchtesgadener Land district than on the road," said Minister of Justice Eisenreich.
The number of corona deaths is probably even higher.
There have been 33 corona deaths in the Berchtesgadener Land district since the beginning of January (current data on the corona virus can be found here).
In any case, I don't only wear my FFP2 mask voluntarily when cleaning the garbage can.
Read more here: Number of fatal mountain accidents in Bavaria reaches a high
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What else is important today
16 Chinese fighter jets cross the median line:
China's maneuvers off Taiwan are a single escalation of provocation.
The Ministry of Defense is now reporting that fighter jets have penetrated its air defense zone.
RBB releases another manager:
In the affair surrounding alleged nepotism and escalating expenses, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg has released another manager, according to SPIEGEL information: Verena Formen-Mohr, head of the main department.
Health insurance companies must turn off video identification:
Health insurance members can no longer use the smartphone camera to identify themselves in order to access online services.
The reason is apparently a new security hole.
According to the spokeswoman, actress Anne Heche is in a coma:
Anne Heche drove her car into a residential building, which then caught fire.
A spokeswoman said the actress' injuries were more serious than initially known.
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
A black day for Donald Trump:
FBI investigators have apparently searched the residence of the former US President in Florida.
They are said to have broken into his safe.
What is really behind the spectacular action?
Companies want to unleash the power of the sun on earth:
"Ambitious, but doable": More than 30 companies worldwide promise to develop nuclear fusion reactors.
They would accomplish what the state-financed large-scale research has been failing for decades.
Cruises are booming, as if the world knew no crises:
the pandemic paralyzed the cruise industry, now things are starting up again at full steam: with new luxury liners and modernized technology.
But the risk of infection remains.
Is that a holiday mood?
How top-class sport is also possible with diabetes:
Alexander Zverev is an Olympic champion - and that with diabetes.
Christian Brinkmann from the Cologne Sports University is not surprised.
Here the expert gives advice on what athletes should pay attention to.
The sound of the sea for breakfast, please:
Would you like a croissant with a view of the beach?
Our author takes you to some of the most beautiful campsites along the French coast.
Which is less important today
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Photo:
Christopher Katsarov / ZUMA Press / IMAGO
Serena Williams
will apparently end her extraordinary tennis career shortly.
This indicated the 40-year-old 23-time Grand Slam winner on Instagram.
"There are moments in life when you have to decide to go in a different direction," wrote the American next to a picture of the September issue of "Vogue" magazine, whose cover she graces: "My goodness, I'm happy at tennis.
But now the countdown has begun. ”Williams does not give an exact time for their last match.
However, she writes that she will enjoy the next few weeks, wants to focus on her role as a mother in the future and wants to discover another, "simply exciting" Serena.
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: "Actually, the federal states had promised each other not to dispute each other's teachers."
Cartoon of the Day:
Knock!
knock!
knock!
And tonight?
The world is heading towards the final episode of Better Call Saul.
Today the Netflix streaming service is broadcasting the penultimate episode of the US television series, and I too will be rooting for it on the sofa.
Cunning lawyer Jimmy McGill, played by Bob Odenkirk, has been my favorite TV series hero for almost a decade.
The shyster and bohemian made his first appearance in the equally monumental series »Breaking Bad«, which started in 2008, in which the transformation of a clumsy chemistry teacher into a ruthless drug lord was negotiated.
"Better Call Saul" is the prequel, i.e. the subsequently submitted prequel to the "Breaking Bad" saga penned by series creator Vince Gilligan.
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Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman
Photo:
Netflix
Now a "television era is coming to an end, which introduced the criminal as the favorite main character," writes Joachim Hentschel in his sensationally well-observed series review.
Hentschel describes how "Better call Saul" anticipated the Trump era, in which cunning lies and twisting of facts became a government reality.
At the cold core of »Breaking Bad« and »Better Call Saul« lies an »uninhibited individualism.
A political stance that is accompanied by a flaming passion for pretending to be distorted facts – and which occasionally conjures up a social motivation only for self-protection«.
So does the saga leave behind a depressing morality, asks Hentschel?
Not quite.
Every action has its consequences, and that is also shown by »Better Call Saul«.
The last two episodes don't seem to be much fun, I'm afraid.
Hentschel puts it this way: »No one is spared the consequences of what he has done.
A big, good word of power.«
Your Anna Clauss
wishes you a nice evening
Here you can order the »Situation in the Evening« by e-mail.