the three question marks today:
Byebye 2022 – How will 2023 be?
Compulsory corona testing for travelers to China - Why isn't Europe coming to an agreement?
Arrest of Andrew Tate - How does the term "small penis energy" make the news?
1. Ask what will
The most beautiful thing about New Year's Eve: The retrospective binge comes to an end.
As enriching, moving and clever as many articles on television, in newspapers and on websites are, at some point the feeling of satiety sets in - like when you eat dominoes and biscuits, the season of which began at about the same time (and feels like it’s starting earlier and earlier).
Now come the prospects: What will 2023 be like?
Maybe better than expected, despite Corona, climate crisis and war?
My colleagues from our cultural department asked people who should know: intellectuals, celebrities and intellectual celebrities, from Rezo to Thomas Gottschalk, from Luisa Neubauer to Barbara Salesch, from Peter Wohlleben to Boris Palmer.
(It's up to you to decide who falls into which category.)
[M] Noa Gunter / DER SPIEGEL;
Photos: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa;
Berndt / AAPimage;
Gordon Welters/NYT/Redux/laif
One of the best-known German sociologists, Andreas Reckwitz, manages the feat of allowing frustration and hope to germinate at the same time: »Crises are not exceptional cases in modern society, they are the norm.
In a sense, modern societies are always out of balance.« According to him, crises continue indefinitely.
“They cannot be prevented or resolved once and for all.
That is the case in society as well as in the life of the individual.” The task is to mitigate and cushion them so that they do not lead to catastrophes, Reckwitz writes.
»To believe that at some point humanity would live in a society in complete balance with itself and supported by contentment, i.e. free of crises, is an illusion.
›They lived happily ever after‹ only exists in fairy tales.«
And tidying up expert Marie Kondo advises: »Order can give us back a bit of control.« She thinks that it has become even more important to organize the private sphere in these times.
»After all, we often have little influence in the world, but it's different in our immediate environment.
It can help us a lot to at least put them in order.« (All contributions here .)
Sorted like this, we start the last »evening situation« of the year.
2. The cloverleaf principle
Plucking at the European Corona cloverleaf: Spain today announced that travelers from China will be required to take tests.
Germany does not control for the time being.
Italy does.
not Austria.
The EU health authority does not find controls necessary.
The EU Health Commissioner urges vigilance.
Whether international, national, regional;
Whether masks, vaccinations, quarantine - the constant in the fight against the virus is: Some do it this way, others do it that way.
Corona, you get me, you don't get me.
Yes, there are good arguments for both.
In favor of controls: In China, the virus affects hundreds of millions of people who are not sufficiently vaccinated, and the authorities have so far not wanted to use powerful vaccines from abroad.
Many Chinese have not yet gone through an infection because of the zero-Covid policy, they are immunologically naïve, as experts call it.
New mutants could form, which would be detected earlier by tests and gene sequencing.
Especially since the data from Beijing is not to be trusted: Yesterday the country reported one corona death – with 1.4 billion inhabitants.
(My colleagues Georg Fahrion and Christoph Giesen report here how the virus actually rages.) The USA, India, Japan, South Korea, they all no longer want to let travelers into the country without a negative test.
Enlarge image
An intensive care unit in Beijing
Photo: China Daily/ REUTERS
Speaking against controls: They mean effort without a guarantee that they will work.
In addition, experts are cautiously giving the all-clear – they tend not to fear a new, violent variant.
"But there is currently no evidence of any major genetic modification of the virus that would lead to a dramatic reduction in our existing immune protection through vaccinations and infections," said bioinformatician Richard Neher to my colleague Julia Merlot.
(Here the whole interview.)
Of course, polyphony is a strength of free societies.
"The difference between democracy and dictatorship has seldom become more apparent than during the pandemic," writes my colleague René Pfister.
Controversy, discussion, escalation, differentiation, contradictions and chaos here, authoritarian rule, harshness, lack of freedom, propaganda there.
"Today the USA left the pandemic behind, in Germany Christian Drosten declared it over - while in China the virus is eating its way through a people who are only inadequately protected at breakneck speed." (You can find the entire contribution to the debate here. )
Maybe I'm as naive as the immune system of many Chinese, but I would have wished for a joint approach by the EU - after extensive discussion.
Even in the fourth year of Corona, I tend to be overly cautious, but I could also live with a common yes to openness.
After all, there should be a crisis meeting at EU level in the coming week.
In the afternoon, Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach said: He does not think that testing is "necessary" yet, but he advocates close "variant monitoring" at European airports.
(More on this here.) His party friend, the SPD health politician Christos Pantazis, considers mandatory testing with subsequent sequencing to be sensible.
The cloverleaf principle – maybe we're lucky.
Read more here: China's delicate Corona U-turn
3. The Tate suspect
"For the first time since it was founded in August 1949, the German Press Agency used the term 'small penis energy' in its reporting yesterday," the dpa news chief tweeted today.
A quick look at the colleagues: "SZ", "FAZ", "Tagesspiegel", ZDF, ARD, all write about "small penis energy".
We at SPIEGEL too: here, here and here.
These are by far the most read reports on our website.
What's the matter?
The misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, 36, has had a Twitter exchange of blows with Greta Thunberg, 19, in the past few days. He has 33 cars, including a Bugatti and two Ferraris.
He would be happy to send her a complete list of his cars, including their enormous climate emissions.
All you have to do is give him your email address.
Thunberg countered below the belt: "Please enlighten me, email me kleinpenisenergie@hastdunichtsbessereszutun.com." She collected more than 3.1 million "Like" hearts with it.
Enlarge image
Andrew Tate when he was arrested in Bucharest
Photo:
Octav Ganea / INQUAM PHOTOS / REUTERS
The serious background: Since April, the police have been investigating Tate, his brother and alleged accomplices for human trafficking and rape.
Women are said to have been forced into sex, prostitution and porn performances.
"Now the investigators intervened and arrested Tate in Romania," reports my colleague Silke Fokken.
The story first circulated that Tate unintentionally gave himself away in the Twitter argument with Thunberg by posting photos of himself with pizza boxes that suggested his whereabouts.
The police today dismissed this as “amusing speculation”.
Would also be too good to be true.
The photo showing him when he was arrested in Romania is also circulating on the internet.
Silke says: "It's probably one of the few pictures of him that he didn't stage himself."
Read the full story here: Who is Andrew Tate?
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
Putin's obsession:
The Soviet Union was founded 100 years ago.
One seems obsessed with the circumstances: Vladimir Putin.
In his eyes, Lenin installed a “time bomb” – and Stalin failed to defuse it.
Moscow's ex-chief rabbi calls on Jews to flee Russia:
Pinchas Goldschmidt criticized Putin's war against Ukraine and left Russia in the summer.
Now the rabbi is worried about the safety of the Jewish community - also with a view to Russian history.
“Nothing comes for free in life.
You have to fight«:
As mayor, he has been guiding Kiev through the war for ten months.
Vitali Klitschko on the true heroes during the siege of his city, Zelensky's weakness in leadership and the Ukrainians' commitment to freedom in Europe.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
What else is important today
Congress Committee Releases Trump's Tax Records:
The former US President resisted for years - now Donald Trump's tax records from 2015 to 2020 have been made public.
The first numbers have already leaked out.
This is what German companies are facing with the Supply Chain Act:
In the future, large companies will be obliged to ensure that human rights are observed along their supply chains, including abroad.
An overview of what that means and what is being criticized about the law.
Farewell to winter:
The German Weather Service recorded a record number of hours of sunshine for 2022, and New Year's Eve can be celebrated in many places in a T-shirt.
why is it so warm
My favorite story today: Was Marx right after all?
"Was Marx right after all?" is the title of the new SPIEGEL.
You can get the issue digitally here and from today at the kiosk
Photo: SAMSON / DER SPIEGEL
Fortunately, I was able to escape the Marx reading group at the university.
But you don't have to be a Marxist to see the weaknesses of modern capitalism: Prosperity is concentrated among the richest, industrial production is accelerating climate change.
Many effects were recently intensified by the pandemic and the Russian war of aggression.
Critics from a wide range of ideological camps are now saying that it is not possible to mend all the cracks in the system individually, so why not take a big leap: designing a fairer, more sustainable capitalism that eats up fewer resources and needs less growth.
Work is already being done on this in many places, as my colleague Thomas Schulz and my colleague Susanne Beyer found out when researching the current cover story.
Enlarge image
Schulz, Beyer: How can capitalism be renewed?
Photo: DER SPIEGEL
They spoke to pioneers and bright minds such as the economist Mariana Mazzucato, who also advises the federal government on how industry and business can become greener.
“Mazzucato demands that the state no longer dictates where to go,” says Thomas.
»This idea is currently being well received by many governments, especially in Berlin.«
Read the full story here: Why Capitalism Doesn't Work That Way Anymore
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
Mr. Müller is looking for luck:
he was Berlin's governing mayor for seven years and met the powerful of the world.
A year ago, Michael Müller gave up his position and since then he has been trying to make a fresh start as a foreign politician.
Protocol of a Transformation.
Punk is dead:
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood stood for punk, provocation and politics.
But her greatest legacy is that she lived the way she wanted to.
Apart from Bugs Bunny, everyone was there to see him:
he played for FC Santos for almost 20 years.
He didn't speak English.
And in the US, soccer was meaningless.
Nevertheless, Brazil's football idol moved to New York - and sparked a huge hype.
Which is less important today
Enlarge image
Photo: Mike Theiler / REUTERS
The Ober-Ma: Michelle Obama
, 58, successful author and former First Lady of the USA, told Revolt TV in an interview - probably also for the marketing of her new book, a life guide entitled "The Light We Carry". how unfair she felt the division of parenting responsibilities in her marriage.
At times she "couldn't stand" her husband, for about ten years.
»That was exactly the time when the children were small.«
Mini concave mirror
From now on you will no longer find the »Typo of the day« section here, but instead the mini hollow mirror.
You can find the whole concave mirror here.
cartoon of the day
And on the weekend?
Could you read James Joyce, the complete works.
Or the general terms and conditions of your mobile phone provider.
If you take this as a serious suggestion and are generally afraid of partying, here are some tips on how you might feel comfortable at a party, put together by my colleague Julian Aé.
For example, how shy and introverted people become small talk heroes.
Enlarge image
Photo: Michael Hernandez/EyeEm/Getty Images
A tip that isn't there, but which I unselfishly recommend: You can get small talk ammunition reliably in our newsletters "Situation in the Morning" (order here) and "Situation in the Evening" (order here).
I wish you a good start into the new year.
And that it doesn't begin with the sentence: "Buck Mulligan, handsome and plump, appeared at the exit of the stairs, holding a soap basin on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed."
Yours sincerely,
Oliver Trenkamp