1. European soft soap opera
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Politician Kaili: »It wasn't me!
It was someone else!'
Photo: Yiorgos Karahalis / REUTERS
Let's switch to Brussels for a moment, too, to the soft soap opera that has been running in the European Parliament for days.
I would call the latest episode »The Invisible Third«.
My colleague Arno Frank sums it up like this:
»Who doesn't know the unpleasant situation of having some 'money' lying around at home? So not a coin in the crack of the sofa here and a bill there on the kitchen table. But bundled bills of fifties, hundreds and two hundred in such masses that with a little skill you could build a small house for the cat. This is what happened to Eva Kaili. Of course, the former EU Vice-President of Parliament was amazed at the 600,000 euros distributed in bags, boxes and suitcases. So she asked her partner Francesco Giorgi who owned this tidy sum. Giorgi then explained that it was 'someone else's' cash. Caution! It cast the first stone, who never hats for 'someone else', kept a coat or an umbrella. Of course, according to Kaili, Kaili did not allow 'money that belonged to someone else to be kept in the shared apartment'. Whereupon her father kindly took a handcart, no, a bag with part of the money, in order to hand it over to its rightful owner in a hotel. To ask?"
Then the plot twist: according to media reports, Francesco Giorgi has now admitted that "the funds" did not belong to "someone else".
It was his job to manage the alleged bribe.
(More here.)
You can try it, Arno writes about Kaili: "Anyone who has ever wanted to find out why the toothpaste is lying around in the open knows her rhetoric."
Read the whole style criticism here: EU politician Eva Kaili weaves her guilt
2. Fever and madness
child in the hospital
Photo:
Sebastian Rose/Getty Images
Fever juice and antibiotics for children are, no, have been in short supply for a long time.
Parents rush from pharmacy to pharmacy and still don't get the prescribed medication.
Pediatricians groan under the workload, boys and girls sometimes wait for hours in clinics.
The viruses are rampant, the supply chains for drugs from China and India are crumbling, and hardly anyone in Germany can or wants to produce the drugs anymore.
Parents hoard fever juice, exchange the remedy in daycare groups, and are forced to use home remedies such as calf wraps.
Our columnist Sabine Rennefanz mixes half an ibuprofen into the apple sauce of her feverish eight-year-old.
"In the past, people were afraid of not getting good medical care in old age," she writes.
“Today you have to be afraid if your child gets sick.” She blames a series of child-hostile political decisions, not least driven by the “delusional belief that 'the market' would regulate everything and make it better for everyone in an indefinite period Future".
(More here. )
My colleague Martin U. Müller from our business department researched the deficiencies in medicine.
“There have been problems on the German drug market for years,” he says.
"While it used to be blood pressure medication, anesthetics or cancer drugs, now fever medicines are a comparatively trivial drug that almost everyone knows." It worries him that there are no solutions in sight.
»When I talk to people in the healthcare sector, I keep hearing the phrase: 'It's likely to get worse!'«
Now he has spoken to the pharmacist President Gabriele Regina Overwiening.
In the interview, she vividly describes the circular bureaucratic reasoning with which we block each other in this country.
Pharmacists can make their own fever juice, which can also cost more.
»The problem: Doctors would have to write on the prescription from the outset that the pharmacist should make it himself.
Otherwise the health insurance companies won't pay for it," says Overwiening.
»And doctors, on the other hand, fear being taken into recourse by the health insurers because they have prescribed expensive self-production instead of prescribing a cheap finished product.« (Click here for the interview. )
In the afternoon, the Bundestag debated the situation.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach announced help: "We will not allow the children who gave up so much in the pandemic not to get the care they need now."
A sentence that had already been overtaken by the topicality when it was said.
After all, children's hospitals should now be allowed to recruit and bill additional fee-based nursing staff.
The only question is: where should the people come from?
Once again Sabine Rennefanz: "When politicians talk about children, they get Bambi eyes and say terribly pathetic sentences." She recalls that in 2017 the three-year training course to become a child nurse was abolished and replaced by generalized nursing training to tackle staff shortages in old people's homes .
"It seems as if the needs of the elderly and children are constantly being played off against each other - care and nursing as a whole must be upgraded."
Read the whole column here: Capitalism eats its children
3. Imprisoned at 400 kilometers altitude
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The leak from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft
Photo: NASA
Snow!
In Hamburg, that's news, even if it usually quickly turns into wet mud - like almost everything in this city.
snow in space!
This is what it looked like today on spectacular Nasa images - and that was news worldwide.
Because the white flakes came about as a result of a breakdown in space: "The cooling system of a Soyuz capsule on the International Space Station is broken," reports my colleague Christoph Seidler from our science department.
»Apparently liquid escaped uncontrolled and under high pressure.«
For two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut on board, this could mean: They are missing the last lifeboat.
Locked up 400 kilometers above the earth - lost in space?
Although there is no immediate threat of an ISS accident, the crew withdraws into the capsule from time to time in order to be able to take off quickly - for example when space debris is approaching.
In the medium term, an empty replacement capsule could perhaps be sent up.
"But a mission like that can definitely not be implemented overnight," says Christoph.
In addition, the rest of the ISS timetable would get mixed up.
After all: For the moment, according to Nasa, the station is in “good condition” overall, and the crew is safe.
Still, a lifeboat wouldn't hurt: the more redundancies, the better.
This is the difference between aerospace and journalism.
Read the full story here: How dangerous is the Soyuz capsule leak?
News and background to the war in Ukraine
More than a third of war refugees want to stay in Germany long-term:
Most Ukrainian refugees feel welcome in Germany.
Experts assume that many will soon find work in this country.
A small proportion plan to return home soon.
How Ukrainian railway workers are defying the war:
The Ukrainian railways are a symbol of the will to resist – also thanks to a social media-savvy boss at the top.
Their importance increases in winter: every kilometer of the route could become a strategic advantage.
Kremlin threatens attacks on US Patriot systems, Ukraine reports on child torture chamber:
If the US sends its Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, Moscow will "definitely" consider it a target for attacks.
And according to Kyiv, Russian occupiers in Cherson also abused children.
Recent Developments.
And here you will find all developments in the news blog.
What else is important today
ECB raises key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points:
The European Central Bank is continuing the fight against escalating inflation.
However, the decision to increase interest rates to 2.5 percent is somewhat lower than the previous ones.
Special ship reaches the Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal:
The Höegh Esperanza has reached its future berth – the deep sea port of Jade-Weser-Port.
Germany is to obtain natural gas via the ship.
The first delivery is scheduled for January.
Kohl's widow is defeated in the dispute over quotes from the ex-chancellor:
Helmut Kohl fell out with Heribert Schwan while he was alive.
He published a book full of hearty, unauthorized quotes.
Maike Kohl-Richter wanted compensation for this – but now she is not getting it.
My favorite story today: The inner workings of the »Reichsbürger« troupe
My colleagues Maik Baumgärtner, Jörg Diehl, Matthias Gebauer, Sven Röbel and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt have compiled new details about the sectarians around Heinrich XIII.
Prince Reuss.
"The research allows a glimpse into the inner workings of the Reichsbürger troop," says Wolf.
»The picture of a political sect that is as bizarre as it is dangerous is piece by piece.«
In the parallel world of the alleged would-be putschists, the Federal Republic is criss-crossed with underground high-tech tunnels in which the final battle between good and evil has already begun.
"But as crude as the world of ideas is, the group's fantasies about a revolution were obviously not harmless," says Wolf.
"In intercepted phone calls, the suspected conspirators talked about fighting to the death and fantasized about killing politicians."
At the same time, according to the investigation, some of the men went through the country, visited gun shops, practiced shooting and tried to recruit other soldiers and police officers.
»The extreme right-wing revolutionaries would never have succeeded in a coup d'état.
But her obsessive belief in conspiracy ideologies made her dangerous.”
Read the full story here: Codename "Krone"
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
The momentum of Montreal:
In Montreal, Canada, almost 200 countries are negotiating rules for global nature conservation, based on the UN climate protection agreement.
It could be a historic success - or a tragic failure.
»Stone Age people are often completely misrepresented«:
hunters, gatherers and early farmers had dark skin and often black hair.
Nevertheless, in books and films they mostly look like modern-day Western Europeans.
Museum boss Karl Banghard now wants to help change that.
Which is less important today
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Boris Becker (in April 2022): was convicted of bankruptcy offences
Photo: Kirsty O'connor / dpa
Hard impact: Boris Becker
, 55, who became famous as a 17-year-old from Leimen, whom the Republic of Germany watched with their tube televisions pike jumping in Wimbledon, has been released from British custody and ended up in Munich.
His lawyer said: "He has served his sentence and is not subject to any criminal restrictions in Germany."
Typo of the day
, now corrected: You dispel the illusion that the way we exploit the planet is somehow reconcilable with nature.
Cartoon of the Day:
The Opposition Bank
And tonight?
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Michael Smith won his first major final on his ninth attempt in November
Photo: Christopher Neundorf / picture alliance / dpa
If you haven't had enough of the other World Cup yet, could you watch the start of the Darts World Cup.
"From December 15th to January 3rd, the world champion of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) will be determined for the 30th time in London's Alexandra Palace," reports my colleague Sven Scharf.
»93 players and three players from 28 nations fight for fame, honor and a total prize money of around 2.9 million euros.« (More here. )
If you are not in the mood for arrow messages, you could also consider what to give your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
My colleague Agnes Sonntag recommends five books for children and young people - they are "entertaining and clever, but not overly pedagogical".
(You can find their recommendations here. )
Have a nice evening.
Yours, Oliver Trenkamp