1. Power issues
Young women are voting on the left, young men are drifting towards the far right: new figures and evaluations have been circulating for a few days and are fueling the debate. What is the political gender gap?
Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2010, consists of two generations, not one, writes the Financial Times. Normally, the rule in opinion research is that each generation moves together in one direction. The younger generation obviously no longer adheres to this: "Tens of millions of people who live in the same cities, at the same workplaces, in the same classrooms and even in the same houses are no longer on the same wavelength." In the USA, in Great Britain, but also in Germany - the same picture everywhere: the proportion of left-liberal voting women under 30 is up to 30 percentage points higher than that of men of the same age.
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Fight against the Cis, er Sith: The main thing is no laser letters!
Photo: Disney / Lucasfilm / YouTube
My colleague Fiona Ehlers spoke about this with the democracy researcher Wolfgang Merkel. He explains the masculine right-wing turn with insecurity, with frustration, with loss of status. Reminiscent of Yoda: »Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to untold suffering." Anecdotal evidence can be quickly googled: Even the richest cis man in the world, Elon Musk, obviously feels denigrated simply by calling himself a cis man becomes. (More about the terms cis and trans here. And more about the culture war over the concept of gender here.)
Democracy researcher Merkel also criticizes a "certain intolerance of the left-liberal camp" and a "contempt with which the traditional world is viewed." Sure, no one wants to be insulted by wise-cracking nineteen-year-olds when they hold the door for a woman. Not every gentleman is a reactionary sexist. But it seems a bit poor to me to vote for enemies of democracy out of anger at moralistic know-it-alls.
What would help? “Education, education and more education,” says Merkel. Additionally, I suggest: calmness. The modern man is not easily disturbed.
Read the entire interview here: Why are the ideological worldviews of women and men currently diverging?
2. The fear on campus
Hatred of Jews has also increased sharply at German universities, as my colleague Christoph Schult reports, and some professors no longer feel safe. "The situation is not yet the same as at some US universities, where the pro-Palestine faction is very aggressive," he says, "but Jews are also insulted at universities in this country, there are threats and activists occupy lecture halls."
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Students demonstrate against a pro-Palestine rally at the FU Berlin
Photo: Fabian Sommer / dpa
Now 70 academics from Germany, Austria and Switzerland have joined forces to form the “Network of Jewish University Lecturers”. Anyone who would like to take part is warmly invited. “The model was the Jewish Student Union of Germany, which has been taking care of the concerns of Jewish students since 2016,” says Christoph, adding that it has produced prominent figures. "In the new network, it's not just anti-Semitism researchers who deal academically with their field; representatives from different disciplines come together here, including musicians and computer scientists." It's about giving them a voice, about visibility - and security.
Read more here: New network against anti-Semitism
3. Dogs, do you want to live forever?
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Pugs & People: A life without Loriot is possible...
Photo: Ringier / action press
Anyone who has a big mouth lives dangerously? Things seem to be different with dogs: small dogs with an elongated snout, such as miniature dachshunds, live the longest, while male medium-sized breeds with a flat snout live the shortest, British experts report in the specialist journal “Scientific Reports”. Bad news for pugs. (For consolation, here is a Loriot quiz.)
Data from 580,000 dogs were included in the analysis; around half had already died. The experts from an organization called the Dog Trust in London took 150 dog breeds into account, sorted by size and head shape, and calculated the dogs' median life expectancy. The popular Labrador dog breed lived to 13.1 years, the English Bulldog to just over 9 years. Dogs have one thing in common with humans: females live longer on average than males.
More here: Study on life expectancy of dogs
What else is important today?
Bundestag decides to reduce tax subsidies for farmers:
Despite weeks of farmers' protests: The Bundestag has approved the withdrawal of tax relief for agricultural diesel. In 2024, the debt brake should be adhered to for the first time in years.
AfD in downward trend - another survey sees losses:
Hundreds of thousands recently took to the streets against right-wing extremism - apparently with consequences for the AfD. According to another survey, the party is losing support.
US hourly wages are rising twice as much as expected:
This is what President Joe Biden was probably hoping for during the election campaign: As new figures show, the US labor market is in much better shape than expected.
DAX rises to record high:
crisis, what crisis? On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the German leading index Dax has risen to an all-time high. Strong numbers from tech companies and the hope of falling interest rates are considered drivers.
My favorite story today: surviving cancer
“Surviving Cancer” – The new SPIEGEL here digitally and at kiosks from tomorrow
A new era has dawned in cancer medicine. Doctors are achieving successes that science has long dreamed of. My colleagues Jörg Blech and Thomas Schulz describe these groundbreaking advances in our title package. “Around half of all adult cancer patients are now cured,” says Jörg. The encouraging story of Melanie Berg, the woman on the cover, is exemplary for many. After a breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 41, she benefited from new research, overcome her illness and regained her normal life (here is her story).
Thomas describes how passionately the search for ever better therapies is going on in a portrait of the Biontech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin. After their success with the corona vaccines, the two of them are working on their real life's work: defeating cancer.
Read the whole story here: How Biontech wants to make medical history again
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
Scholz reloads:
Europe is missing its goals in ammunition production, now the Chancellor is helping: Olaf Scholz wants to significantly ramp up domestic industry - an unusual step for a Social Democrat.
How deeply are German companies involved in the system in Xinjiang?
New allegations against German companies in China: Employees of BASF joint ventures are said to have spied on Uyghurs, Volkswagen wants to clear its name with a controversial report for the capital market.
“We want to know what happened on this school trip”:
A girl suffering from diabetes dies on a school trip to London. The trial against two teachers shows that the 13-year-old could probably still be alive if the women had taken care of her more quickly.
Which is less important today
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Photo: STAR-MEDIA / IMAGO
Solemn vows:
Boris Pistorius
, 63, the Germans' favorite minister, and the political scientist
Julia Schwanholz
, 43, have married. A spokesman confirmed a corresponding “Bild” report. The two have been a couple for a long time; He was previously in a relationship with
Doris Schröder-Köpf
, 60, until 2022. The former chancellor's wife wrote about him in the tabloid: "He is the perfect combination of experience and openness, groundedness and imagination, a sense of responsibility and generosity."
Mini concave mirror
You can find the entire concave mirror here.
Cartoon of the day
And on the weekend?
If you haven't already done so, could you follow a recommendation from my colleague Wolfgang Höbel and watch "the most exciting thing that has been seen in the cinema in a long time?" He means "Poor Things" with Emma Stone.
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Dance scene in “Poor Things” with Emma Stone
Photo: Atsushi Nishijima / Searchlight Pictures / The Walt Disney Company
It is “a ridiculously beautiful and also a bit crazy continuation of the Frankenstein story,” says Wolfgang. The film is an “intelligent, touching and often funny story about the creation of a Wonder Woman, a superwoman – and about how it drives men to the brink of madness when this woman so carelessly and unabashedly demonstrates the power she has over their lives and their sexuality.” .
Emma Stone herself says it like this: "The film takes a close look at the archetypal behavior of men who are concerned with bringing women under their control and keeping them under control." (More here.)
I wish you a relaxing and relaxed weekend. Warm regards,
Oliver Trenkamp, Blattmacher in the editor-in-chief