1.
Is it serving them right?
In which country can people be put behind bars without charge for a month as a preventive measure to make future crimes impossible?
That's right, in Bavaria, this distinctive mixture of rogue state and fairytale land.
Since the introduction of the new Police Tasks Act in 2017, the Bavarian police have been able to arrest people to "ward off a danger" in order to prevent a criminal offense or an "imminent commission or continuation of an administrative offense of considerable importance to the general public".
That's what happened three days ago, when 13 climate activists of the "last generation" were brought to the Stadelheim prison without a trial because they had sat down on a street at Munich's central Stachus traffic junction.
Eight of them are now to spend 30 days in preventive custody, i.e. preventive custody.
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Protest action in front of the Ministry of Transport
Photo: Paul Zinken / picture alliance
For a moment I caught myself thinking: "Serves the blockers right!" But then I picked up the phone to ask the lawyer and SPIEGEL legal expert Thomas Darnstädt for his assessment.
Are Bavaria's police acting proportionately here or are they not rather serving the populist desire for a strong state that really shows the self-justice-prone climate activists of the self-proclaimed "last generation"?
"Preventive deprivation of liberty is something very problematic in a constitutional state," says Darnstädt.
In his opinion, preventive detention should be limited to "crass cases such as the threat of terrorism".
The arrests in Munich are "a prime example" of how the Police Duties Act, against which two lawsuits are currently pending before the Bavarian Constitutional Court, can be abused.
As a deterrent method, the drastic measure only seems to work to a limited extent.
This morning, three climate activists stuck themselves to the street on Munich's Altstadtring, causing traffic chaos.
One of the supporters of the »Last Generation«, the 18-year-old schoolgirl Maria Braun, had announced in a press release before the campaign: »I will not be intimidated by threats of 30 days in prison.
My life and the life of my entire generation is at stake!
I can't help but resist now."
Read more here: »Last Generation« announces expansion of their radical protests
2.
Another fence
According to British intelligence experts, Russia cannot make up for the loss of aircraft in the war of aggression in Ukraine.
"Russian aircraft losses arguably far exceed their ability to produce new airframes," said the British Ministry of Defense's daily update on the Ukraine war.
The long time it takes to train competent pilots also reduces Moscow's ability to regenerate its air force capabilities.
In the fight against the Russian rocket attacks that have been rocking Ukrainian cities for weeks, Ukraine today announced the delivery of new air defense systems.
The Nasam and Aspide air defense systems would "significantly strengthen the Ukrainian army and make our airspace safer," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said today.
He thanked “our partners – Norway, Spain and the USA”.
He did not name Germany.
Which “partners” can Russia actually still rely on?
To answer this question, my colleagues Jan Puhl and Karolina Jeznach from the SPIEGEL foreign department took a look at Belarus today, which is well worth reading.
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Alexander Lukashenko
Photo:
AP / dpa
In the Ukraine war, the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko was "a loyal vassal of Putin".
The Russian military operates from its territory and launches missiles.
He drove the opposition into exile or arrested them, and Western sanctions almost paralyzed the Belarusian economy.
In this situation, Lukashenko is now apparently looking for a scapegoat: Poland.
The state-controlled newspapers in Minsk are rushing to attack Warsaw, which has so clearly sided with Ukraine, supplying arms and harboring millions of Ukrainian refugees.
In addition, human smuggling is a means of teasing our western neighbors.
»As early as autumn 2021, dictator Alexander Lukashenko lured thousands of people from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria to Belarus in order to then encourage them to travel on to Poland.
His goal obviously: to create chaos and uncertainty in the EU country,” write colleagues Puhl and Jeznach.
Warsaw tried to block the arrivals and had a metre-high fence erected at the border.
Brussels assisted, exerting pressure especially on airlines flying to Minsk.
Eventually the stream died down.
But for a few weeks now, Poland has been registering more new arrivals: 117 people from Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait, Congo, Sudan and other countries came last Wednesday, so many are now almost every day.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced this week that another fence would be built in case Moscow wanted to create an “artificial refugee crisis” based on the Belarusian model.
Pioneers have already begun to roll out barbed wire along the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Read the whole story here: Putin's vassal incites against Poland
And here is more news and background information on the war in Ukraine:
Biden's security advisor is apparently negotiating with Putin confidants
Despite the sanctions, the White House is still in contact with Moscow.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Joe Biden's national security adviser spoke to the Kremlin.
So it was about nuclear weapons
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
3.
Next stop: Christmas?!
The world community is meeting for the 27th time at the annual climate conference.
This time it is taking place in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, but citizens in Hamburg can also feel part of the conference spectacle.
Under the motto "#SteigEinBeimKlimaschutz", some stops of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund are given new names on the occasion of the World Climate Conference: Eppendorfer Baum becomes Steppendorfer Baum, Rothenburgsort is called Tropenburgsort, instead of Kirchwerder you get off the bus in Cape Verder.
The campaign is intended to make the concrete threat of climate change clear for Hamburg as well.
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Christmas offers in the shop window
Photo:
Markus Scholz / dpa
The German Weather Service measured record temperatures in Germany in the first ten months of the year.
The average temperature was 11.8 degrees, which is 0.2 degrees more than before - since records began, no year up to October has been warmer than this one.
At least I haven't had to get my winter coat out of the closet yet.
On the way to SPIEGEL's Munich office today, I was irritated by the wintry decorations on Marienplatz.
I'm not in the Christmas spirit at all yet.
Around seven weeks before the festival, the mood in the retail sector is already close to a low due to inflation and delivery bottlenecks.
Sellers are still hoping for customers to return before Christmas.
But the sharp rise in prices has discouraged many people from going shopping.
The shops have recently been significantly less busy than, for example, in the summer.
In a survey by the Ifo Institute, almost half of the retailers surveyed reported fewer customers in their stores in October than in July.
Read more here: What's at stake at the climate conference
What else is important today
FDP strictly rejects Merz proposal in the dispute over citizen
money More money, less pressure – the traffic light wants to overcome Hartz IV with the citizen money.
The Union wants to block the project and instead increase standard rates.
The FDP rejects the proposal surprisingly clearly.
Mateschitz is said to have given every employee 3,000 euros as a farewell gift
At Red Bull in Austria, group founder Mateschitz is said to have surprised more than 2,000 employees with a tax-free bonus before his death.
In the future, the fortunes of the brand will be managed by a trio away from the family.
Youth Welfare Office had indications of girl held captive for years
An eight-year-old child is said to have been held captive in a house by her mother and grandparents for almost her entire life.
The youth welfare office received several tips that the girl lived there.
FC Bayern meets Paris – Dortmund has to play against Chelsea Tough
opponents for the German Champions League round of 16.
FC Bayern will face the French champions, Leipzig will play against Manchester City.
Eintracht Frankfurt is also facing a high hurdle.
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
Three scenarios for Donald Trump
If the Republicans win the US Midterms, ex-President Trump will probably use this as the starting signal for a comeback.
But there are other possible consequences of the elections.
»The ECB's rate hikes are completely wrong«
Heiner Flassbeck regularly causes a stir with his theses.
Now the former state secretary has sharply criticized the monetary policy of the European Central Bank – and blames the West for Vladimir Putin's rise to power.
Can I claim child benefit from my parents?
The state also pays a subsidy for adult children.
What conditions have to be met for this – and how children get what they are entitled to.
Why these women let their hair grow down to their lower legs
This is about more than just a hairstyle: the photographer Irina Werning has been traveling through Argentina for many years.
She takes pictures of people who associate an ancient belief with their mane.
Which is less important today
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Jimmy Kimmel
Photo:
Kevin Winters/Getty Images
US presenter Jimmy Kimmel,
54, is scheduled to host the Oscars for the third time next year.
Kimmel will moderate the 95th edition of the event, scheduled for March 12, 2023, the film academy announced on Monday.
The presenter, who has his own late-night show on US television, previously hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018.
"Being invited a third time to host the Oscars is either an honor or a trap," Kimmel quipped.
"Anyway, I'm grateful to the Academy for asking me — so soon after all the good guys dropped out."
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "And Lukashenko's great patron, Waldimir Putin, also hates the Poles particularly".
Cartoon of the Day:
If Republicans Win the Midterms
And tonight?
read a book
For example, the new novel by Simone Buchholz with the beautiful title »Only the others are immortal«, which I leafed through in one breath over the weekend because I liked the rare mixture of suspense, humor and love on the high seas so much.
Two friends board a North Atlantic ferry to find a missing friend and fall into the clutches of a lustful and power-hungry gang of mermaids.
But now I've given away almost too much.
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A father reads to his children
Photo: imago stock&people / Westend61 / IMAGO
Reading is even better than reading.
Cuddle up, open the book and go!
The figures from the reading monitor, for which around 800 parents were asked about their reading behavior, made me all the sadder today.
Only 61 percent of one to eight-year-olds in Germany are regularly read to in their families.
This is a significant decrease compared to 2019: At that time, 68 percent of the children were still being read to regularly.
In particular, the proportion of parents who state that they never read aloud has increased – from 8 to 20 percent.
These five books, reviewed by Agnes Sonntag, are a colorful selection for different age groups: no mermaids looking for hot captains, but rhymes, animal poems, a bag full of picture books and two stories about a crocodile in distress and a gorilla woman who travels halfway around the world.
A lovely evening.
Cordially,
your Anna Clauss
