1. Earthquake victims: Desperate for help
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Photo: REUTERS
After the devastating earthquakes in south-east Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared a state of emergency in ten cities.
At least 5,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria and more than 23,500 have been injured.
Thousands of buildings collapsed.
The search for survivors is a race against time.
Helpers rush in from all over Turkey;
the EU sent more than 1,200 rescue workers.
The situation in neighboring Syria, where tens of thousands of internally displaced people are staying in the earthquake region, is unclear.
Photos from the city of Hatay show the almost incomprehensible fates behind the numbers: people are lying under the rubble of a house, you can hear them screaming for help, but there are no rescue workers, no heavy equipment to get them out.
A man cries from helplessness.
Similarly in Syriac Jindires.
A child's arm is sticking out of the rubble, and helpers are desperately trying to free the victim.
Hüseyin Alan heads the Chamber of Engineering Geologists in Turkey;
he explained to my colleague Şebnem Arsu that experts recently warned of earthquakes in the region now affected.
“Unfortunately, our work was apparently not even acknowledged by anyone,” he says in an interview, “neither by the presidency in Ankara, nor by the governorships of the region, the respective mayors, or the members of parliament.
We didn't even get an acknowledgment of receipt."
As long as people are lying under the rubble, it is not the time to debate the political consequences of the catastrophe.
But one can assume that the elections planned for May will also be about how the Turks assess Erdoğan's crisis management.
Watch the video here: »They live, but nobody comes.
We're at the end"
2. Help, the job terminator is coming
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"It's difficult to predict exactly how AI will affect the demand for knowledge workers," ChatGPT declared as meaningful as it was meaningless
Photo: Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Can you actually do anything other than sit in the office and use a computer keyboard?
Maybe a craft?
Anything practical?
If your answer is "no," you probably should be concerned about your career.
It won't be long before the computer could replace you.
We have often said that here in SPIEGEL.
However, this time it seems to be really serious, as my colleague Ines Zöttl researched with economists in the USA.
Artificial intelligence (AI) such as the language software ChatGPT or Google's "Bard" therefore has the potential to make human labor superfluous even in sectors in which employees previously considered themselves irreplaceable.
Take journalists, for example: BuzzFeed's stock soared 200 percent after the media company said it would integrate "AI-inspired content" into its core business, writes Ines.
Or lawyers: Without human help, ChatGPT has already passed four law exams at the University of Minnesota Law School.
A startup is offering $1 million in prize money to the first attorney to use chat to testify before the Supreme Court.
Or manager: ChatGPT would easily be able to complete the MBA degree at Wharton Business School.
Or economists: “At some point language models like ChatGPT will be able to write economic papers better than I can,” says Anton Korinek from the University of Virginia.
In any case, the computer is already quite good at economists.
Economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman recently gave ChatGPT his column in the »New York Times« – it was not noticed.
On the other hand: Anyone who believed five years ago that the profession of radiologist would soon be overtaken because computers made better diagnoses than people was wrong, Ines quotes an expert as saying.
It therefore amounts to a coexistence of humans and computers.
People would still be needed where creativity is needed, the creation of new knowledge, the ability to quickly adapt to situations.
One thing is certain: as long as we can still publish articles about job-killing robots at SPIEGEL, the machines have not won.
Read the full story here: Fear of the Office Terminator
3. Clear cut at the traditional publishing house
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Gruner + Jahr protests in Hamburg: Hundreds of employees have to go
Photo: Marcus Brandt / dpa
A traditional publishing house is on the verge of extinction, without any help from artificial intelligence: The media group Bertelsmann announced today that it will discontinue 23 titles from Gruner + Jahr.
The list ranges from the printed "Eltern" edition to several "Geo" and "Brigitte" offshoots to more recent publications such as "Guido", "Barbara" and "Healthy Living".
Other magazines such as "PM", "Art", "11 Friends", "Business Punk" or "Beef" are to be sold.
Participation in »Landlust«, »Eating & Drinking« and »Living At Home« is also up for discussion.
With this radical step, Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe is drawing the consequences of the failed merger of Gruner + Jahr with RTL, analyze Anton Rainer and Isabell Hülsen from our business department.: »A »cross-media national media champion« should be created and synergies amounting to raise 100 million euros.
In the end, the main thing was great chaos.«
Of the 1,900 full-time positions at Gruner + Jahr so far, 500 are now to be eliminated.
Another 200 would leave if their magazines actually found a buyer.
But Rabe didn't want to give any firm employment commitments for anyone else either, he said: "There are no guarantees."
For reasons of transparency, I would like to mention at this point that Bertelsmann indirectly holds a 25.5 percent stake in SPIEGEL.
Because I was managing director of SPIEGEL-Employees KG for three years, which in turn owns 50.5 percent of SPIEGEL, I know some of those responsible for the media drama as well as parts of its history.
Just this much: It was certainly not due to an overly bold digitization strategy that magazines that were already on my parents' living room table went down the drain.
Now, as someone who doesn't work in the media industry, you might be thinking: why such a fuss when 500 jobs are going to be lost somewhere?
Doesn't that happen every day somewhere in Germany?
But that might underestimate the importance that media has for society.
And how important diversity of opinion and media competition are for the culture of a country.
I wish the colleagues at Gruner + Jahr all the best from the bottom of my heart.
Read more here: Bertelsmann wants to cut up to 700 jobs - and discontinue 23 magazines
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
East Germans are much more skeptical about the NATO alliance clause:
According to a survey, the Germans clearly see Russia as the greatest threat.
But opinions differ in West and East - on the right behavior in an emergency and on trust in the USA.
Ukraine reassigns leadership on the fronts - and bans 19 million Russian books:
The Ukrainian President is restructuring his troops - and could soon travel to Brussels.
The battle for Bakhmut continues.
And: Millions of books removed from libraries.
Recent Developments.
What else is important today
Majority of Germans are critical of Faeser's candidacy in Hesse:
A majority of Germans have a negative view of Nancy Faeser's candidacy for the Hessian state elections.
The announcement that she would remain interior minister in the event of a defeat also met with rejection.
Prime Minister Sunak is reshuffling his cabinet:
in the first 100 days of his term in office, Great Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calmed the financial markets, but was unable to get the chaos in his party under control.
Now a restructuring should help.
HSV professionals are said to have been involved in illegal street racing:
A serious traffic accident occurred on Hamburg's Hafenstrasse.
According to SPIEGEL information, two soccer professionals are said to have been involved in a previous illegal race.
My favorite story today: The most beautiful wedding photos
Of course, a perfect wedding photo is no guarantee for a happy marriage.
But at least a nice photo in hard times makes it easier to remember what a happy couple you once were - and maybe can be again.
If you are looking for inspiration in this regard: My colleague Jule Lutteroth has collected award-winning wedding photos from the past year.
According to the motto: Yes, I want to see these pictures.
A Scottish photographer caught a wedding party caught in a downpour.
The bad weather doesn't seem to affect the bride's happiness.
There are wonderful shots of people on dance floors, in nature, and under confetti and grains of rice.
The funniest photo shows a groom chasing after his bride's veil, caught in a gust of wind, as she bends over with laughter.
It's really great fun to look at the series of pictures.
Except maybe you're newly divorced.
See the photos here: Yes, I want to... see these pictures
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
"God bless Elon Musk":
Since December, Twitter boss Musk has granted selected journalists access to selected documents.
Part of the alleged revelations is now an issue in the US Congress.
Republicans are happy.
White laundry in the spin cycle:
A decade AfD – with a lonely fireworks fountain: At the ceremony in the Taunus, a whole series of ex-party celebrities were missing.
There were loud tones from the current leadership.
And visions for a »different Germany« .
"They try to compensate for their painful feeling of inner emptiness":
From "Donjuanism" to "Tindering": Here sexologist Christoph Joseph Ahlers explains when drive and desire become addictions, what he advises those affected - and how therapy with surrogate partners works.
Which is less important today
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The former queen and her successor: Franziska Giffey and Christian Lindner
Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa
Franziska Giffey
, 44, could lose her job as governing mayor
in the Berlin elections next weekend, she has already lost her job as kale queen: at the traditional "Defbig Ollnborger Gröönkohl-Äten" she handed over to her successor
Christian Lindner
, 44, last night
As usual, the kale dinner was organized by the city of Oldenburg in the state representation of Lower Saxony in Berlin.
Pinkel, Kassler, bacon and lots of schnapps were served with the cabbage.
Oldenburg has been using the evening to cultivate contacts since 1956.
Even when Bonn was still the capital, Essen established itself as a meeting point for prominent politicians.
Mini concave mirror
Here you can find the whole concave mirror.
cartoon of the day
And tonight?
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Patrick (Alessandro Schuster) and Christina (Verena Altenberger): Where does this world end, where does the hereafter begin?
Photo: Jacqueline Krause-Burberg / SWR
A woman loses her beloved partner in a car accident, sinks into grief, loneliness and alcohol, bashes her life.
Until, many years later, she meets a young guy who bewitches her and turns her head.
Similar to her deceased partner.
Very similar.
You could even say the men are eerily the same.
»Face of Memory« is the name of the mystery drama that Germany's master director Dominik Graf shot with Verena Alternberger in the leading role.
My colleague Christian Buß writes: »The film moves between pathological melancholy and paranormal mystery.
You can read it as a romantic ghost story or as a psychological case study, either reading works.”
Graf quotes Alfred Hitchcock's film »Vertigo – from the realm of the dead« in several places.
Just as he had his leading actor, James Stewart, reshape reality until it suited his desires, Verena Altenberger, intoxicated by the past, reshapes her young lover until he looks like the deceased great love.
However, things turn out differently than in »Vertigo« – of course I don't want to reveal how at this point.
"Face of Remembrance" will be broadcast tomorrow at 8.15 p.m. on ARD, but is already available in the ARD media library.
I wish you a nice evening.
Heartfelt
Yours sincerely, Alexander Neubacher, Head of Opinion and Debate