The situation in the morning: were Chinese balloons also circling over the Rhineland?

today it's about how to deal with China's balloons, the tenth birthday of the AfD and the blind spots of medical studies.

Chinese Weather Studies

Well, did you squint at the sky this morning looking for a Chinese balloon?

With your first coffee in hand, hopefully wrapped up warm, have you stepped onto the balcony or into the garden and

Admittedly, in the grey, wet and cold February weather, Chinese balloons would not only be optimally camouflaged – one could even believe the leadership in Beijing's claim that the balloons are not used for espionage,

.

Of course, the Chinese regime could also call Jörg Kachelmann for information on the German winter weather

, or a randomly selected German cell phone number: It's horrible!

Bad for traveling!

Any questions Xi?

In any case, the federal government is concerned about balloons like the one that the US government just shot out of the sky.

It is being clarified whether there have also been such sightings over Germany, reports the »SZ«.

, and after a brief calming down, US-Chinese relations are again extremely tense.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck and his French colleague Bruno Le Maire are traveling to Washington today in the middle of this political depression.

-dollar Inflation Reduction Act, with which US President Joe Biden wants to boost his economy and attract foreign companies.

In Europe, this is seen as an aggressive bang against their own business location.

• China and the downed balloon: Beijing's embarrassment 

A terribly nice birthday

Today the AfD is celebrating its tenth birthday in Königstein, Hesse, where it was founded on February 6, 2013.

300 guests have been invited to the "House of Encounters" and one wonders how the AfD federal spokesman Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla and honorary chairman Alexander Gauland experience this encounter with the past.

In other

(the AfD has used this swearword to describe its competitors from the start) the founding fathers and mothers are now being honored.

They would be thanked for the arduous development work, one would hug one another and revel in the memories of joint election campaigns and successes.

But there was no success in the AfD,

.

Those who lost left the party with their followers, and then the scores were settled harshly and bitterly.

It would be a sensation for Alice Weidel to give Bernd Lucke a bouquet of flowers, or for Alexander Gauland to thank Frauke Petry.

When asked, ex-party leader Konrad Adam said he would not have come "even if I had been invited".

He finally broke with the AfD in 2021.

"I didn't want it that way," he says now about his work.

But anyone who thinks that today's AfD has nothing to do with that of ten years ago is

All the ugly sides of the party – populism, racism, nationalist fantasies of isolation, falsification of history and blunt answers to complex political problems – were already present in the Euro-critical Professors' Party.

Even some of today's top staff are still from back then.

The AfD has occupied me personally for ten years.

I have learned a lot about our country and politics from observing this party and talking to its members.

And I "owe" the AfD my first book, my first criminal complaint and my first civil lawsuit (hopefully the last one is still occupying the Saxon judiciary today).

So my dear readers, forgive me if this newsletter week could also become an AfD week.

• Strike against right-wing extremists: The Reich Citizens Judge and her AfD are so close 

Does glue hold up in a hailstorm?

Starting today, activists of the "Last Generation" want to shut

by sticking themselves to roads.

"Many shake their heads," said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a recent interview with "Bild am Sonntag" about the protesters.

"Me too."

In fact, you can shake your head

at climate activists who fly halfway around the world on vacation after docking and undocking from the asphalt.

Also, the goals of the "Last Generation" seem strangely mundane and small.

Speed ​​limit of 100 km/h and a permanent 9 euro ticket – really?

Against the climate apocalypse, which is being taped here, this seems to be a bad little antidote.

Still, they haven't lost my respect.

Because these people are not afraid of taking personal and legal risks for their goals and of making themselves really unpopular, whether with commuters, politicians or "Bild" editors.

, and the chancellor can drink a beer with Luisa Neubauer without pain.

The "Last Generation" people have the same cause, but are made of sterner stuff and don't allow themselves to be co-opted.

• Contribution to the debate on climate protests: The end of the world cannot be discussed 

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

• The latest developments:

  If it goes to Poland, a decision should be made at the security conference on fighter jets for Kiev.

  War refugees often end up in medium-sized German cities.

  And: debate about Russian athletes.

  The overview.

• Zelenskyj is apparently changing defense ministers:

  According to a confidante of President Volodymir Zelenskyj, the previous head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, is to become Ukraine's new defense minister.

  Incumbent Oleksiy Resnikov will take on a new role.

• Ukraine expects Russian offensive on anniversary of invasion:

  Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov says his country has reserves to stop the expected Russian advance.

  Meanwhile, the situation in the embattled town of Bakhmut is apparently coming to a head.

• Will Ukraine use anti-personnel mines in the war?

  Independent observers document the use of so-called butterfly mines in Ukraine.

  Kyiv would not be the first war party to use them.

  However, the consequences are devastating – even now. 

Why do doctors learn so little about abortion?

are performed in Germany every year

.

But as the doctor and activist Alicia Baier criticizes,

.

"I wouldn't say that every gynecologist in private practice has to offer terminations in her practice - that falls under professional freedom," says Baier in an interview with my colleague Ruth Eisenreich.

»But they should be mandatory in further training.«

In the coalition agreement, the traffic light government has set itself the goal of changing the medical training rules accordingly, and Family Minister Lisa Paus recently reaffirmed this goal.

“And I assume there is resistance there.”

Whatever one's opinion of abortion – it obviously takes place in many cases, and this fact is not changed even by being

.

And the idea that doctors only acquire

during their studies about the various methods, risks and side effects of an intervention, which is apparently as common as an appendectomy , is disturbing.

• Medical training: »You can become a gynecologist without ever having seen an abortion« 

Here's the current quiz of the day

The starting question today: Which country's secret service sank the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" in 1985?

Winner of the day...

… is Hans-Georg Maassen.

has let the CDU party leadership's deadline for a voluntary exit from the party pass.

Now the party executive has to decide

.

For Maassen, this development means more weeks and months of concentrated media presence and

.

Although one may ask oneself for a long time who exactly makes up this community.

Maassen wrote on Twitter that the CDU's "dirt campaign" was proof that "we" were doing everything right.

If that wasn't pluralis majestatis,

Could it be that Hans-Georg Maassen's true political home today is in the "House of Encounters" in Königstein?

• Maassen lets the deadline pass: he's still there 

The latest news from the night

• Two severe earthquakes shake Turkey:

  In the early morning two earthquakes occurred in the south-east of the country, the strengths were given as 7.4 and 7.9.

  Numerous buildings collapsed, the interior minister reports fatalities.

• Poland insists on German reparations payments:

  Germany does not want to compensate the neighboring country for the destruction of the Second World War - Berlin recently made that clear.

  From Warsaw it is now said: "We understand this rejection as the beginning of a discussion."

• Beyoncé is now the highest-grossing Grammy star of all time:

  no other artist has ever won more Grammys than the US singer.

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

• Brussels bang attempt:

  The EU Commission wants to counter China's "New Silk Road" with a billion-euro infrastructure project in Africa and Asia.

  But the implementation is met with resistance – in our own ranks.

• After the end of the world:

  corruption, economic crisis, a tremendous explosion - Beirut is in decline.

  Nevertheless, some young artists have stayed and are trying to preserve the city's memory.

• Why stock rents do more harm than good to stock culture in Germany:

  despite inflation, Germans still prefer to park their money in largely interest-free savings accounts.

  There is no real stock culture – also because politics and companies do not want it at all.

• Help, my boss isn't listening to me:

  what to do if the other person doesn't understand the precarious position or situation the company is in?

  Caren is devastated by her boss's ignorance.

  How does she convince him? 

I wish you a good start into the day.

Yours Melanie Amann, member of the editor-in-chief