The situation in the morning

Today is about the end of a pandemic, the views of Comrade Mützenich and a father with four children in the snow.

A warner gives the all-clear

And how was your Christmas?

It started for me with a leaking

on the morning of the 24th , and it's unfortunate to say it didn't get any better after that, at least not consistently.

Further details are superfluous at this point.

Anyway, I hope your Christmas was better.

Of course, even a

in Germany, apart from extreme exceptions, is still bearable compared to how many people in the Ukraine have spent the past few days.

Or will spend January 7th, the day of the Orthodox Christmas.

One can hardly imagine that.

Nevertheless, briefly about myself: I consoled myself with the thought that after these rather careless Christmas days it will be easier than usual for me to find my way

, which among other things consists of writing this situation.

And with everything that's out there in everyday life, that certainly can't hurt.

The war goes on, and otherwise I see

that everything will be different and better next year.

But one should not give up hope, so I would like to start with what I think is good news.

, the virologist from the Charité, declared the pandemic over in the “Tagesspiegel”.

"We are experiencing the first endemic wave of Sars-CoV-2 this winter, and in my opinion the pandemic is over," he is quoted as saying.

That's right, that's exactly the Drosten, who has always been careful so far, warned and admonished when most of the others were already

again , of course without a mask.

Interestingly, of Drosten's many warnings, one in particular from the initial phase of the pandemic stuck with me.

Then he said that you should have

drink, it's safer.

That's when I knew: It's getting serious.

Now Drosten says that the virus will hardly get through in the summer – unless there is another

– “but I don’t expect that anymore at the moment either”.

I'll lean out the window with all my lay knowledge: If Drosten doesn't expect any more

, there won't be any more.

Not even the mutants dare.

Of course, a lot is now going back to how it was before the pandemic anyway, Corona has lost a lot of its

.

But when Drosten now says the pandemic is over, that gives hope that a few things could get better next year.

At least me.

I was happy.

• Virologist Christian Drosten - "In my opinion, the pandemic is over"

Dare more hats

Rolf Mützenich, the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, has spoken up again.

In the "tageszeitung" over the Christmas weekend he

lamented the loss of importance of

"Diplomacy is currently considered a kind of non-concept in Germany and is automatically rejected," said Mützenich.

Diplomacy seems to be “under general suspicion”.

It's about the

.

If one translates Mützenich's words for foreign policy laymen, the result is, very roughly speaking, that Mützenich thinks there is too much talk about weapons and the military - and too little about whether and how

could actually be possible.

It is fitting that Vladimir Putin has just reaffirmed that he is ready to negotiate "acceptable solutions."

In general, I think diplomacy is

, especially when it prevents or ends wars.

However, I would rather not imagine what Putin understands by an acceptable solution.

You may forgive me a

in view of the fact that the man invaded another country with his army and has left it reduced to

ever since .

This has little to do with a knee-jerk rejection of diplomacy.

The coalition partners, i.e. the Greens and the FDP, obviously have a similar view, as my colleague

in an article about the end of the Christmas season.

From both parties there is sometimes sharp criticism of Mützenich's statements.

I've known Mützenich for a relatively long

time and, I would at least say, relatively well for a politician.

I disagree with him on Putin and diplomacy, and have been

upset by some of his comments on war and

But I can never really get annoyed with Mützenich for long.

That's because, unlike some of his peers, he hasn't changed his stance in years, even decades.

This is one of the reasons why I believe that he actually means what he says.

That he is

.

For my taste, Mützenich was

towards Russia for far too long, but he wasn't alone in that, and certainly not in the SPD.

He has always been

.

The peace policy was something like his political life's work, which collapsed with Russia's attack at the end of February.

Sometimes it seems to me that he's holding on to it almost desperately.

I wrote a

of Rolf Mützenich this year, it was published at the end of May, three months after Vladimir Putin's attack.

"I very much regret that we will not leave a better world for future generations," he said in it.

About his life topics of disarmament and peace he said: "I failed there."

I think he deserves

for that too .

Few politicians say that so clearly, even when the situation is clear, overwhelming the burden of proof.

I have a different opinion than Mützenich on many points, but I think there should be more politicians like Mützenich.

• Mützenich on the Ukraine War - The Limits of Diplomacy 

You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:

• Lavrov issues an ultimatum, Kiev fears a major attack on the New Year:

  the Russian foreign minister chooses clear words.

  New attacks on the power grid are expected in Ukraine.

  And: Russia is testing its own gas turbines.

  The most important developments.

• Christmas Greeting to Putin's Troops:

  Is Russia Preparing Another Attack on Kiev?

  The Ukrainian leadership is demonstrating its readiness to fight - and in Donbass the real battle will continue into Christmas.

• Putin crosses Biden from his greetings list:

  "We are currently so deeply in mutual animosity that there will certainly be no congratulations," says Vladimir Putin's spokesman for the relationship between Russia and the United States.

Nothing drives anymore

with the train this Christmas

.

That was because, unlike in some previous years, I didn't drive across the country to visit family or other people.

In other words: The railway couldn't do anything for me this time.

Because I also ignored the

for a few days or only noticed it marginally, I can't say exactly how it turned out: whether the

occurred or the railway did better than expected.

Let's put it this way: It can be assumed that not every train was on time (by the way, that's a sentence that would make it through the really strict documentation of SPIEGEL without an overly detailed examination, because it's simply always correct).

But what I did notice, despite a temporary abstinence from the news: that there was a rail strike in Great Britain, which is why many people who traveled there over Christmas did not come home yesterday, on what is known as

.

I don't want to be misunderstood at this point: a strike has to hurt, which is why a

can be a very effective means of industrial action, i.e. it is absolutely legitimate.

And of course it is completely irrelevant to compare a strike with the permanent failure of

.

Nevertheless, I would like to point out that, hard to believe, it is sometimes a little

can be than here in Germany.

In any case, I haven't heard anything about a rail strike on Christmas Day.

• Nationwide Strike – Driving Home after Christmas?

  Not with the British railways

Here's the current quiz of the day

The starting question today: Although the elections were not held until autumn 2021, there will be elections to the Berlin House of Representatives again in February 2023.

Why?

Winner of the day...

…is Zila Santiago.

While in Germany, at least in Berlin,

you could leave

, large parts of the USA sank in the snow and literally froze.

And

, according to the New York Times, was in

stuck in a minivan with his four young children for eleven hours.

Anyone who has children can roughly guess what that means.

Santiago, a single father, it is further reported, did everything to keep the children, between 2 and 6 years old, reasonably warm, happy and alive.

In the end, everyone was saved.

Others weren't so lucky, and despite this, or precisely because of this, this story of Zila Santiago is ultimately a story that encourages.

I'll think of him when, after three hours on the ICE with two children, I think I've had a hard fate to bear.

• Winter storm in North America - "No matter how many emergency vehicles we have.

  You can't get through"

The latest news from the night

• Confusion about Mike Pence's possible candidacy:

  Will Mike Pence enter the fight for the 2024 White House?

  According to a media report, Donald Trump's ex-vice should have submitted the relevant papers.

  A denial followed – and a deleted tweet.

• Aliaksandra Herasimenia sentenced to 12 years in prison in Belarus:

  The government critic was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison.

  After Lukashenko's re-election, she founded the "Belarusian Foundation for Sports Solidarity" to help politically persecuted athletes.

• German clinics are expecting an unprecedented wave of bankruptcies in 2023:

  "A wave of bankruptcies that can hardly be stopped": Numerous hospitals could find themselves in financial difficulties in the coming year.

  A new survey suggests so.

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

• "Nothing seemed further away than war":

  SPIEGEL editor Lina Verschwele was in Kiev at the turn of the year - between parties she thought an attack was out of the question.

  Russia had already deployed 100,000 soldiers around Ukraine.

  Only One She Met Prepared.

• How to tame right-wing populists:

  For years, autocrats and populists were on the rise.

  But democracy is stronger.

• What you should know about the new electronic sick leave:

  As of January 1, 2023, sick leave will be digital.

  Employees and employers have to adapt – but the yellow paper note will not disappear completely.

  Questions and answers .

• These are the most exciting gourmet construction sites in the country:

  the work of local top chefs is often dismissed as lacking in tradition.

  In fact, the scene has long been in transition.

  Above all, lesser-known professionals show where the German pleasure trip is going in the coming year.

I wish you a good start into the day.

Your Christoph Hickmann