1.
The grand coalition is alive
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SPD Chancellor Scholz, Union faction leader Merz: With citizen money like GroKo once did?
Photo: Political Moments / IMAGO
The gray November sky, the desert World Cup a fiasco, brutal mullahs in Iran and a never-ending war on the edge of Europe - these days it rarely happens that I choke on coffee with joy while listening to the morning news on Deutschlandfunk.
Today it worked twice.
On the one hand, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has promised the direct mailing of ID cards.
In future you will probably no longer have to wait for hours in a queue at a citizens' office for a new children's passport to be issued, which can easily cost you half a day's holiday in a big city like Munich.
It's also nice that the government and opposition were able to reach an agreement faster than expected in the dispute over citizen income.
The Union has so far resisted the traffic light proposal to reform Hartz IV. Now the governing coalition has approached the opposition on crucial points.
Apparently, among other things, stricter sanctions against benefit recipients and a lower so-called protective asset are now planned.
This should be 40,000 euros and 15,000 euros for each additional person in the household.
The planned waiting period of two years, during which the costs of the apartment will be covered without further examination, is to be reduced to one year.
This Friday, the Bundestag and Bundesrat will probably pass the Citizens' Income Act, so that by January 1st, the income of single people will increase by more than 50 euros to 502 euros.
What an indictment it would have been for a rich country like this if the attempts by the "Ein Herz für Hartz IV" socialists and "Achievement must be worthwhile" conservatives to gain a better profile had continued to take place on the backs of the unemployed and those unable to work.
My colleagues Florian Gathmann and Veit Medick from SPIEGEL's capital city office are reminded of the time of the grand coalition.
They write: "In the end, both sides can probably live fairly well with the result: Minister of Labor Heil and his SPD can now celebrate the introduction of citizen's income on January 1st, the Union in turn can record politics for itself, even from the opposition to be able to help shape it.«
Read more here: The grand coalition is alive
2.
Labor law harassment
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Elon Musk at an event organized by his space company SpaceX
Photo: MIKE BLAKE / REUTERS
Not only because I currently have to hide my Tesla in the underground car park out of shame, I look to Elon Musk in America every day with renewed horror.
While freshly fired Twitter employees are still carrying the contents of their desks home, Elon Musk is apparently already looking for new employees.
The remaining tweeps, as Twitter employees call themselves, asked Musk to help him acquire new employees by recommending potential candidates.
Three and a half weeks after Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, there are probably only 2,700 to 2,300 left of the 7,500 employees, depending on who you ask.
The company itself does not provide any information on this.
What awaits the new employees?
My colleague Stefan Kuzmany speculates in his current commentary: »In the future, employees will have to be available at work around the clock, this will be monitored with electronic ankle bracelets.
If you leave your workplace to go to the toilet or to eat, you automatically lose it.
Musk answered questions about the associated health risk by referring to a hose system he had invented and still to be installed at all desks, which could meet “all human needs” “without wasting working time”.
The questioners were fired.”
Until now, I thought that fortunately there were no harassment under labor law that easily went beyond the limits of satire in Germany.
But then a recent report reminded me of labor law in the Catholic Church.
So far, it could cost you a job in a Catholic hospital if, for example, you committed to a same-sex partnership.
A second marriage after a divorce could also become a problem.
Queer carers had to reckon with layoffs.
That is about to change: the plenary assembly of the Association of German Dioceses (VDD) decided on Tuesday to change the so-called “Basic Order of Church Service”.
The German Bishops' Conference (DBK) in Bonn announced that diversity in church institutions was now explicitly "like never before" recognized "as an enrichment".
Read more here: Hire and fire – simultaneously
Read more here: Remarriage and same-sex marriage no longer lead to termination
3.
No heart for Bierhoff
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DFB official Oliver Bierhoff: Does he fear Fifa sanctions?
Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/ Bongarts/Getty Images
The Saudi Arabian team surprisingly defeated tournament favorites Argentina today.
In addition, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser sharply criticized FIFA for the one-love armband ban.
And the DFB is examining legal action against Fifa: My colleague Felix Dachsel pays tribute to the dazzling, absurd, beautiful and crazy Qatar moments every day.
For the duration of the tournament you will find his mini column here in the »Situation in the Evening«.
Today Felix writes about the armband scandal:
I've been thinking about Oliver Bierhoff. This man has been in my heart since I was a little boy, crouched in front of the sofa and watched him score the golden goal in front of the Queen in the European Championship final, 1996.
Maybe it's Lookism, but I always thought Oliver Bierhoff was very beautiful. He advertised multivitamin shampoo, his hair was shiny and had volume. Then he once advertised for nuclear power plants to run longer, that was in 2010. He got really pissed off, but his haircut held up.
Yesterday he stood sadly in the Emirate of Qatar and announced to the press that Manuel Neuer is not wearing a "One Love" armband after all. He stood there sheepishly next to the DFB President and looked like a lousy cat that had been threatened with beatings. "It feels like censorship," said Oliver Bierhoff.
Where's the multivitamin man who heads it all off? Where is Atomkraft-Olli, who promotes longer terms in a country of green skeptics, regardless of losses? Oliver Bierhoff, please leave my heart.
Read here: Argentina embarrasses itself with defeat against Saudi Arabia
And here is more news and background information about the World Cup:
Volkswagen and Adidas
remain loyal to the DFB: In the discussion about the "One Love" armband, the DFB bowed to pressure from Fifa.
With Rewe, a sponsor has brought forward a planned end to the cooperation.
Other partners of the association hold back with criticism.
Rainbow hats are said to have been taken off Wales fans:
When entering the stadium, some fans from Wales got into trouble: According to media reports, they had to hand in their specially made hats.
The Welsh Football Association wants to audition at Fifa.
World Cup live ticker:
Belgium's record national player feels monitored in Qatar
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
In the long run, the cold wears the body down:
the military successes do little to change the desperate situation of the people in Ukraine.
Moods also determine the progress of this war.
On which points the West should be clear.
Heavy fighting in the Donbass, Ukrainians have to be prepared for power cuts until April:
Fighting has flared up again in eastern Ukraine.
President Selenskyj is worried about his country's power grid.
And: The evacuation is offered to the people in Cherson.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
What else is important today
The police consider the eviction of Lützerath to be realistic from January:
RWE would like to excavate the town of Lützerath for opencast lignite mining - but it is still unclear when the climate activists' protest camp there will be cleared.
Now the police are urging SPIEGEL to hurry up.
"It can't go on like this"
It sounds anything but harmonious: FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki wedges against the coalition partners SPD and Greens, speaks of "toads" that his party has to swallow - and of a "fundamental problem".
Prosecution calls for life imprisonment for the Kusel police killer:
In the trial for two police officers who were killed, the public prosecutor's office has pleaded for life imprisonment for the main defendant.
Andreas S. was guilty of murder out of greed and commercial poaching.
My favorite story today:
Healthier through gender
"Men and women just don't go together."
"Ever since mankind has called itself civilized, it has treated women as copies of men who are inferior in terms of health," writes my colleague Viola Schenz today in her astonishing text on the history of the "Gender Health Gap".
To this day, women are often seen as deficient specimens of men and are neglected - with fatal misdiagnoses as a result.
Doctors are now clearing up myths, but an example from 2013 shows that there is still a lot to do.
A phenomenon was happening on America's streets at the time: car accidents were increasing, always in the morning, and there was always a woman at the wheel.
"Anyone who rushes to the spot with the information that women drive lousy, betray him: A small white pill turned out to be guilty," writes Viola.
»The drivers had swallowed the sleeping pill zolpidem the night before, obediently following the package leaflet.
But the prescribed dose was set too high, which affected the ability to react the next morning.«
As it turned out, the drug had only been tested on males.
This is the case with 70 to 80 percent of all medications, which, however, can have a different effect on women.
Their bodies are usually smaller and have a higher fat content, especially as they age their kidneys break down active substances more slowly.
Your metabolism and hormonal balance behave differently, depending on the day of the cycle, a drug works better or worse.
To this day, according to Viola, medicine tends to take women's complaints less seriously or to misdiagnose them as mental illnesses.
Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, endocrinologist and professor of gender medicine at the University of Vienna, gives the example of patients with heart problems who are often prescribed antidepressants because they tell their doctor more about their mental stress.
So-called gender medicine, which emphasizes gender differences, has only slowly been developing since the 1990s.
Read the full story here: How sexist medicine is making women sick
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
Agreement in the Chancellery - Bundeswehr withdraws from Mali:
The Bundeswehr's last major foreign mission is coming to an end: the troops are to leave West African Mali by May 2024.
The future of the blue helmet mission is uncertain.
32 teams, 830 players, a record attempt:
Which club will have the most players at the World Cup in Qatar?
Who is the only player with more World Cup experience than Manuel Neuer?
And what is the name of the most dangerous left foot of the tournament?
How I finally don't want to gamble away any more money: So
far I've mainly lost one thing with individual stocks and cryptocurrencies: money.
My retirement plan is now to be secured by a single ETF savings plan.
But setting it up is not that easy.
What matters.
Which is less important today
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Spielberg at the Toronto premiere of The Fabelmans
Photo: MARK BLINCH / REUTERS
The date of the award ceremony has not yet been set, but one thing is clear: the American director, producer and screenwriter Steven Spielberg is to receive the honorary golden bear at the 73rd Berlinale
received for his life's work.
The film festival also dedicates the »Hommage« series to him
,
which runs out of competition, and is showing his latest work »The Fabelmans« in the Berlinale Palast.
In it, Spielberg tells part of his own family history.
It won the audience award at the 47th Toronto Film Festival.
This is considered an indicator of which films will later be well received at the Oscars.
In Germany, »The Fabelmans« will be released in cinemas on March 9, 2023.
Typo of the day
, now corrected: SPD-Mast spoke of a "workable compromise in the interests of the matter".
Cartoon of the day:
skills shortage
And tonight?
Get in touch with your parents!
Since smartphones have been able to cook, make music, unlock bicycles and tweet, hardly anyone uses them to make calls.
I've just called my parents to ask them how it is that "Der Spiegel's daily quiz" has already been completed when I want to click through the questions of the day?
I suspected my father of playing the daily quiz with my SPIEGEL Plus account instead of his own – and I was wrong!
The family quizzer and thief of my SPIEGEL Plus subscription is my mother.
Incidentally, she found the questions of the day »stupid« today.
Nevertheless, she was proud to have answered six out of seven questions correctly.
Which question was particularly stupid?
"What is the name of the eldest son of Prince William and his wife Catherine?" and "What animal was named after US President Biden?"
Did you know?
Have a nice evening
Yours, Anna Clauss
