Economic Outlook – Is the Worst Over?
Kusel – what is behind the verdict against the police killer?
World Cup mascot – where is La'eeb from?
1. Inflation: The worst is over
Nothing electrifies us journalists more than the prospect of a dark future, I wrote, only slightly ironically, a few days ago after the news here on SPIEGEL.de was almost entirely bad.
I find the hopeful analysis in which my colleague Tim Bartz is dealing today with Germany's number one concern, inflation, all the more remarkable.
"Economists are cautiously optimistic about inflation," writes Tim: "The worst is probably over."
Now that is really good news.
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Market stall in Berlin
Photo: David Gannon / AFP
Tim relies on a number of positive indicators.
In October, producer and energy prices fell compared to the previous month for the first time in two and a half years.
The most recent wage settlements in the important metal industry were rather moderate;
IG Metall, with its clever behavior, has not turned any further in a wage-price spiral.
And because the dollar is again weakening against the euro, Europeans have to pay less for US goods;
this reduces the so-called imported inflation.
The Berlin research institute DIW provided further good economic news on spiegel.de today.
According to the economic barometer published today, the German economy is "more resilient than expected".
The probability of a gas shortage has decreased.
The federal government's relief packages are helping to cushion the consequences of the crisis.
So will everything be fine now?
We wouldn't go that far, we are still DER SPIEGEL.
But there is at least a silver lining on the horizon today.
Read the whole story here: The worst is probably over
2. Kusel: Life for the cop killer
The accused Andreas S. was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two police officers near Kusel in Rhineland-Palatinate at the end of January.
The district court of Kaiserslautern also determined today that the guilt was particularly serious.
It is therefore almost impossible that the 39-year-old could be released from prison after just 15 years.
During a check, Andreas S. killed a 24-year-old police officer and a police commissioner five years his senior with headshots.
According to the public prosecutor, his actions had the character of an "execution".
Apparently S. wanted to cover up his hunting poaching.
22 freshly shot deer are said to have been in his van.
The district court found the co-defendant Florian V. guilty of complicity in commercial poaching.
However, it refrained from punishment because the 33-year-old had already testified extensively before the trial began.
He was said to have contributed to the investigation of the crime.
The man is said not to have shot.
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Cordon off at crime scene in January
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
My colleague Julia Jüttner has observed the process over the past few months.
She writes that Andreas S. had attracted attention long before his crime by advertising his game by saying that he had shot the animals in the head.
In this way he ensured a maximum of usable venison.
"The butchers he supplied with game knew his way of killing and they appreciated it," writes Julia.
Andreas S. also seemed a little proud of it.
In any case, according to Julia, he nodded in agreement when a chief inspector said in the courtroom: "Well, shot in the head is your business card."
However, as a hunting license holder, I wonder why Andreas S. was not stopped before he also directed his headshots at people.
No normal hunter would think of aiming for the head of free-roaming game, because the danger of injuring the animal in a torturous way is far too great.
A deliberate headshot is therefore not fair - and every butcher who buys game meat knows that.
Read more here: Headshot at dawn
And: »A cover-up murder that weighs particularly heavily«
3. Qatar: The specter of the World Cup
The group phase of the World Cup is coming to an end;
Tomorrow the Germans will play the decisive game against Costa Rica for a place in the round of 16.
I've seen about half of the games so far, at least with one eye, and was pleasantly surprised at the high level that former so-called football developing countries have now reached, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to the USA and Canada.
From a sporting point of view, I think it's been a good World Cup so far.
And tonight I'm looking forward to Poland vs Argentina, Lewandowski vs Messi.
My colleague Christoph Scheuermann writes about the football mascot La'eeb in our daily World Cup column:
»In 1986 Mexico had a green chili pepper with a sombrero called Pique, in France in 1998 it was the rooster Footix, in Germany in 2006 it was Goleo, the lion. For decades, every World Cup has had a more or less bright mascot. In Qatar it is a flying tablecloth. It's called La'eeb and it talks like it's on an acid trip.
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Huibuh: The mascot La'eeb in front of the Doha skyline
Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
As he explains in a FIFA video, La'eeb lives in Mascot-Verse, a parallel world that can be entered through a blue portal. This parallel world has existed since the beginning of time, he says, and other mascots also live in it. We see Naranjito from Spain (1982) stumbling against a fire hydrant, Goleo talking (flirting?) with a woman, while Gauchito from Argentina (1978) leans against a fire hydrant. Anyway, there are many hydrants in the mascot verse. Probably for fire safety reasons.
La'eeb explains that he and his friends work at the "Mascot Accreditation, Growth and Integration Center," where they've been helping people get better for millennia. better people. A tablecloth and his buddies.
How much LSD was involved in developing La'eeb? What is he trying to tell us? At the end of the video, he's lying on the beach sucking on a cocktail straw and declaring that the mascots brought football to the world. Not us. The thesis is already circulating online that La'eeb is at the center of a portal-UFO-alien conspiracy. Who knows, maybe he can help us against Costa Rica on Thursday.
The sad truth is that La'eeb is lying. I researched where it really came from: a stuffed animal factory in Dongguan, southern China.«
Read more here: The Bizarre Story of the Ghost of Qatar
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy – one employee injured:
At the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, one employee has reportedly been injured in a "deflagration".
The reason was apparently a letter bomb.
"This device has proven itself very well":
In the summer, Germany handed over MARS II rocket launchers to Ukraine.
Recordings now show one of the weapons in action.
How to distinguish between war and war games:
Again and again scenes are circulating on the internet that supposedly document the Ukraine war, but actually come from video games.
A well-known manufacturer is now countering this with an educational video.
What else is important today
Baerbock warns Turkey of a ground offensive in northern Syria:
Turkey blames the Kurds for an attack in Istanbul - President Erdoğan is therefore threatening a ground offensive in northern Syria.
Foreign Minister Baerbock is urging the NATO partner to exercise restraint.
This is how the traffic light coalition wants to attract “helping hands and clever minds”:
The government wants to curb the bottleneck on the labor market with a new strategy for recruiting skilled workers from abroad.
An overview of the most important cornerstones of the planned changes.
Russian and Chinese warplanes fly joint patrols:
According to South Korean information, Chinese bombers and Russian SU-35 fighter jets have flown through a buffer zone outside the country's airspace.
Seoul then sent its own planes into the air.
My favorite story today: Myth of dehydration
I usually don't give a damn about nutritional tips, with one exception: drink a lot!
"At least two liters of liquid a day," preach experts.
And so you see people sucking on large water bottles in public all the time.
I was all the more surprised by an article by my colleague Julia Koch from the science department, according to which the iron two-liter rule is nonsense and that the fear of dehydration is unfounded in many cases.
"There is no scientific basis for the current recommendations," says Yosuke Yamada from the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation in Osaka, Japan, "no one knows where this recommendation comes from." And John Speakman, a metabolism expert at the Scottish University of Aberdeen, says, a guideline for everyone is "just plain crazy."
The scientists tracked down the two-liter mess by examining the water consumption of more than 5,500 subjects from 23 countries.
The test participants each drank a glass of water mixed with the harmless isotope deuterium, also known as "heavy hydrogen".
According to the idea, the faster the heavy hydrogen disappears from the organism, the higher the individual water turnover.
It turned out that the water turnover depends strongly on the individual case.
Men between the ages of 20 and 30 needed more fluids than older people, pregnant women more than non-pregnant women, athletes more than office workers.
If you like having eggs and bacon for breakfast in the morning, you should drink something with it;
if you spoon up fruit yoghurt, you probably don't have to.
For most people, one and a half liters a day is a realistic recommendation, Julia found out during her research.
There is also an endogenous stop signal that starts when you drink too much water, according to a study in Australia.
"The researchers were able to prove that test subjects found it harder to swallow after drinking a certain amount than people whose fluid balance was not balanced," writes Julia.
"The inhibition of swallowing was even reflected in brain activity, which the scientists were able to visualize using functional magnetic resonance imaging."
Read the full story here: Forget the drinking tips
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
It doesn't get any blacker:
On the occasion of Alice Schwarzer's 80th birthday, ARD is showing a two-part feature film about her beginnings as a publicist and feminist.
Unfortunately, »Alice« tires with constant glorification of heroines.
It's getting tight for Orbán:
Brussels is getting serious: The EU Commission has officially recommended that the member states freeze 7.5 billion euros of Hungary's funding.
Would Budapest's Prime Minister Orbán paralyze the EU in revenge?
Playing with fear:
"Don't protest here, for your own safety": Iran's World Cup defeat against the USA was followed by threats against Iranian fans, and a mob intimidated supporters.
Observations from Al-Thumama Stadium.
Which is less important today
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Photo:
Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images
Voiceover: Kevin Spacey
, 63, is about to take on a larger role in a film again after a long time.
However, only with his voice, he himself will not be seen.
In a thriller, the "House of Cards" lead actor plays the blackmailer of a politician who is steered through the city by her tormentor by telephone.
Writer-director Gene Fallaize said in an interview: »Spacey is one of the greatest actors of his generation.
I can't comment on his personal life, but it's just an opportunity for me to work with one of the greatest.” Kevin Spacey won a sexual harassment lawsuit in New York in October.
But in the coming year he has to answer before a British court for alleged sexual assault in a total of twelve cases.
Typo of the day
, now corrected: »Now the modern dance of Germany has been declared an intangible cultural heritage of mankind.«
Cartoon of the day:
Without me!
And tonight?
The world's biggest metal band Metallica have announced a new album and tour for next year.
Two performances are also planned in Hamburg and Munich, with the program changing from evening to evening.
The new record will be called »72 Seasons«, contain twelve songs about the first 18 years of a person's life and will be released next April.
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James Hetfield (left) and Kirk Hammett
Photo:
Theo Wargo/Getty Images
For me, one of the greatest wonders in music history is that Metallica still exists.
The documentary film »Some Kind of Monster« from 2004 already drew the picture of artist mimosas who got on their nerves with their vanities so much that it drove the group therapist who was hired for the purpose to despair.
On the other hand, it spoke for the perseverance of the band members that they agreed to the release of the film.
As a foretaste of their new album, Metallica has now released the single "Lux Æterna" and the accompanying video.
You can hear it, but you don't have to.
The spectacular documentary from 2004 is definitely worth checking out, regardless of whether you find Metallica particularly great or particularly stupid.
You can find the film on many streaming portals.
I wish you a fun evening.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Neubacher