1. Helicopter Crash Mystery
When a helicopter crashes in Ukraine these days, you inevitably suspect an attack.
At least that's the thought that went through my head when I heard about the accident this morning - especially when the Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj died.
He is the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to die since the war began.
At least 17 people are said to have died in the accident in the small town of Brovary, north-east of Kyiv.
Among them are Deputy Interior Minister Yehwhenij Jenin and a state secretary.
Regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that at the time of the tragedy, children and staff were in the day care center where the helicopter crashed.
Several shrouded bodies lay in a yard near the damaged daycare center.
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Debris at the Crash Site: A "Black Morning"
Photo: Daniel Cole / dpa
According to the Interior Ministry, four children also died.
25 people were injured, including 11 children, it was said last.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (both SPD) expressed their deep shock.
"The helicopter crash in #Brovary shows once again the immense toll that #Ukraine is paying in this war," Scholz wrote on Twitter on Wednesday about Monastyrskyj's death.
"On this sad day, our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims and the injured" as well as with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who "lost his interior minister today".
Faeser said she was very sad that her colleague, his deputy and other people had died.
It is terrible that children died and were injured in the incident.
What led to the crash is not yet known.
A commission will examine the causes.
"It won't just take a day or two, because investigating a plane crash takes time," said Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the helicopter crash in a telegram entry as a "terrible tragedy" and a "black morning".
One can only guess under what enormous nervous tension Selenskyj has to exercise his office.
On Tuesday he appeared at an online lecture at two German universities and answered questions from the students.
In between, he had to interrupt the lecture because he had to answer an important call from his armed forces.
Then today the tragedy surrounding his Minister of the Interior and the many other victims, and in the afternoon a digital appearance in front of the World Economic Forum in Davos was scheduled.
Here's more about the accident:
Ukrainian interior minister dies in helicopter crash
In the video: This is the scene of the accident in Brovary
And here is more news and background information on the war in Ukraine:
Kiev denounces attacks on civilians, Moscow denies prisoner exchange report:
The Ukrainian army reports new rocket attacks in the east of the country.
Emergency services in Dnipro stop searching for victims.
Scholz and Selenskyj speak in Davos.
Russian embassy shows Ukrainian map with original borders:
The Russian embassy in Sweden apparently wanted to draw attention to the cheap petrol prices in Russia.
The European price difference should be illustrated with a map that is now causing ridicule.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
2. Growth and fact
The Club of Rome was founded in 1968, an association of experts dedicated to environmental protection and sustainability.
One might think that decades ago such a body warned of the effects of wasting resources and the destruction of nature and livelihoods, there was enough time to take countermeasures.
In 1972, the scientists published the now famous report "The Limits to Growth", in which they called for a reversal of the industrialized countries in their economies.
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Police the Fechenheim Forest: "Dangerous Message"
Photo: Hannes P Albert / dpa
What happened instead was the opposite: limitless growth.
The economies of the West, which were already large, generated more from year to year, emerging countries such as China, India, South Korea and Russia did everything to catch up – mostly at the expense of the environment.
Today, the ecological footprint of all humankind is about twice as large as it was in 1972, as my colleagues Isabell Huelsen and Simon Book state in their interview with the current head of the Club of Rome, Sandrine Dixson-Declève.
So all the warnings and demands obviously didn't help, right?
Yes, Dixson-Declève counters: »Our messages were not always heard 100 percent.
But they have arrived.« There has been progress, for example with environmental laws and in public discourse.
Today everyone would know that climate change exists.
It's just strange that there are always scenes like the ones recently in Lützerath - or today in Frankfurt am Main.
There, police officers cleared a protest camp in the Fechenheim forest.
Activists had settled there to prevent the construction of a freeway project that had been planned for decades.
In order to realize it, around 1000 trees have to be cleared.
A tunnel about 1.1 kilometers long, together with an above-ground route of about the same length, is intended to close a gap between two motorways.
So far, the A 66 from Hanau ends bluntly in the east of Frankfurt.
My colleague Matthias Bartsch was present at the eviction and says that the eviction "remained peacefully, at least in the first few hours after the start of the police action." Nevertheless, as in Lützerath, the activists' resentment is directed at the Greens, who are the Minister of Transport in Hesse .
He did nothing to stop the project.
In the face of events like this, do people love doomsday scenarios – only to then ignore them?
And this is exactly the question that Isabell and Simon asked Ms. Dixson-Declève.
Her answer is very interesting: translating warnings into "political change" is something else entirely.
»Then, as now, our message was very dangerous for those in power because it went against what gave them power: the previous system.«
Accordingly, the Greens have apparently finally arrived in the system.
Read more here: Operation in occupied forest - "Please don't climb any higher"
3. Send me to Angel
The corruption scandal surrounding the Vice President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, dominated the headlines for days in mid-December.
It was about wads of cash and expensive gifts paid to her and at least five other suspects close to the Brussels MPs.
Qatar and Morocco are said to have bribed EU politicians and their spindoctors on a large scale to bring about a positive view of their countries.
Both deny the allegations – unlike Kaili, who apparently made a partial confession and admitted that she knew about the activities of the alleged mastermind.
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New EU Parliament Vice Angel: He stands for "transparency and active anti-corruption"
Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
In Brussels, the investigators have so far secured almost 1.5 million euros in cash.
Police released photos showing trolleys, briefcases and plastic bags stuffed with banknotes.
They are images like those seen in mafia films.
The incident was a disaster for Parliament.
MEPs have long struggled with a reputation for being overpaid and idle.
The prejudice that everyone in the European Union was just holding out their hand was fueled by the allegations of corruption.
Now the EU Parliament has elected a Luxembourg social democrat to succeed the deposed Eva Kaili.
A majority of MEPs voted in Strasbourg for Marc Angel as the new Vice-President of the European Parliament.
The 59-year-old prevailed in the second ballot with 307 votes.
In the first ballot, he still missed the necessary absolute majority.
He stands for "transparency and active anti-corruption," said the chairman of the SPD MEPs, Jens Geier.
In Kaili's place, Angel will now be one of 14 vice-presidents of the parliament.
It is not to be expected that he will start a quiet job.
Just yesterday, ex-MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who is considered a key figure, announced that he wanted to testify.
Panzeri's lawyer Laurent Kennes told Belgian broadcaster RTBF that his client admitted "to have been one of the leaders of a criminal organization" that was "linked to Qatar and Morocco".
There is a fear that investigations and statements made by Panzeri could result in further EU parliamentarians being mired in corruption.
It is not yet clear what will happen to the deposed Vice President Kaili.
She is expected to appear before the Belgian judiciary in Brussels on Thursday.
This decides whether the 44-year-old must remain in custody.
Read more here: EU Parliament elects Social Democrat Marc Angel as Kaili's successor
What else is important today
Verlag CH Beck and ex-President for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, end their collaboration: Hans-Georg Maassen's collaboration
on the most important German commentary on the Basic Law had caused outrage.
Now the publisher wanted to end the contract - the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution reacted.
Israel's Supreme Court declares appointment of important minister invalid:
Benjamin Netanyahu hit hard: Because of his criminal past, Arie Deri is not allowed to keep his position as interior and health minister.
The verdict could fuel Israel's controversial legal reform.
Republican hardliners envisaged for US congressional committee:
The Republicans apparently want to fill the House Control Committee with far-right MPs.
Among others, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar should get important posts.
Tesla manager admits deception with autopilot video:
The car drives itself, so Tesla praised its autopilot system.
But a video to prove the skills in 2016 was staged.
A senior engineer admitted the deception before a California court.
Mini-jobbers must be paid the same hourly rate as full-time employees:
The judges at the Federal Labor Court ruled that whether you work full-time or part-time must not have any influence on how you are paid on the job.
A paramedic complained.
My favorite story:
It is not the story that is pleasing, but the text that emerged from it: A year ago, the media across Germany reported on a 17-year-old “mask refuser” in Berlin who was beaten up on a tram because she was allegedly not wearing a mask.
That was wrong.
She wore a mask.
The victim Dilan Sözeri then published a video in which she described the process from her point of view.
She had filmed parts of the event.
The video went viral, the police had to correct their depiction, and the media also corrected their reporting.
The student is said to have been racially insulted primarily by a group of men and women.
Sözeri apparently defended himself verbally.
This aspect was hardly or only marginally mentioned in the reporting.
The trial of the six suspected attackers was scheduled to begin on Monday.
However, he was surprisingly suspended on the spot because one of the accused was absent.
He probably has Corona.
My colleague Hannes Schrader was able to interview Dilan Sözeri before the trial began.
It is a sensitive conversation with a very thoughtful young woman whose life changed fundamentally on that day a year ago.
'It's good to open your mouth.
After the attack, many wrote to me: It happened to me too, but I don't dare talk about it like you did.
So I hope the process will give others the courage to speak up when they are being racially abused and attacked.
Because if you keep silent, no one will hear you.«
Read the whole interview here: Attack at a tram stop in Berlin – "I'm always afraid"
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
Now Scholz has a problem with women:
By naming Boris Pistorius, Olaf Scholz breaks his promise to have as many women as men in the cabinet.
The Greens scold, some liberals sneer - and what do the comrades say?
"In the Dax, we could reach a new all-time high towards the end of the year":
It is still unclear where the journey is going on the stock exchanges.
But financial expert Markus Sievers believes that investors could soon have a lot more joy.
Above all, one factor is decisive.
What happens to you in chess when you stand up for women's rights in Iran:
She is one of the best chess referees in the world.
But since Shohreh Bayat wore the wrong t-shirt in a tournament, she is no longer used.
Here she talks about her anger with the Russian federation president.
"Some have particularly significant side effects":
How helpful are antidepressants?
And which medications are recommended?
On behalf of Stiftung Warentest, Bettina Sauer tested products with 25 different active ingredients.
These are the results.
Which is less important today
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Photo:
Nicolas Tucat / dpa
Fulfilled veiled:
She survived the Spanish flu, the First World War and the Second, she even survived a corona disease.
Sister André
, real name Lucile Randon,
has now died.
She was considered the oldest person in the world and was 118 years old.
It is not known how much the state of the earth bothered her, but just a year ago, on her 117th birthday, she said, »People should help one another and love one another instead of hating one another.
Then everything would be much better.«
Mini concave mirror
Here you can find the whole concave mirror.
cartoon of the day
And tonight?
Could you go running again?
You must have made your New Year's resolutions.
How?
Running wasn't included?
Maybe you should start now then.
My colleague Jan Göbel spoke to Katharina Steinruck.
She should know: If you start training today, you can compete in three months.
Here the top athlete explains how to keep at it - and why the pulse is particularly important for beginners.
And if you're worried that your ambition will soon give up, then you could also subscribe to the new SPIEGEL newsletter, which will regularly remind you that you actually had a goal... The first issue is planned for Saturday.
You can sign up for the running newsletter here:
I wish you a nice evening.
I'm going for a run now.
Heartfelt,
Yours, Janko Tietz, Head of Department Germany/Panorama