Is Sahra Wagenknecht Team Weissbier?
Today coincides with Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday, the day of love and the beginning of Lent. Two days for which an incompatibility decision would actually be needed. The foolish times are over, things continue only in the Bermuda Triangle of fine humor between Passau, Deggendorf and Landshut. Political Ash Wednesday is when party leaders and prime ministers joke about vegans and gender to beer and brass music from 10 a.m.
One person in particular is being looked at: Sahra Wagenknecht. The head of the newly founded Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party appears in the Öller inn in Schalding near Passau (self-promotion: “cozy – rustic – real”). The 180 tickets for the hall were sold quickly, so there is a tent outside for public viewing.
Wagenknecht knows what happens on political Ash Wednesday; she has been there many times. Apparently she doesn't want to leave the high mass of rude sayings and flat punch lines to the others. For example, the master of low-threshold humor, Prime Minister Markus Söder from the CSU, who, as always, appears in front of thousands of fans in the Dreiländerhalle in Passau. Or Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, the left's last remaining hope.
Can Wagenknecht, the eternally distant one, inspire her audience? Who does she distribute against? And: How will she present her new party? In any case, Wagenknecht is not lacking in aggressiveness. My colleague Rasmus Buchsteiner will report on site and also try to find out which drink Wagenknecht has in his beer mug: Is she team chamomile tea, as Edmund Stoiber was once said to be? Or classic Team Weissbier?
You can find out more about the topic here: Surveys put BSW at around five percent
Can you still rely on America?
Will the US continue to support Ukraine – or not? This uncertainty casts a shadow over the two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. If there were no arms supplies from the USA, the Europeans would probably not be able to compensate for this. Military experts assume that Ukraine's defense capability would then decline from the second half of the year. In other words: Russia could advance in some places. How can this scenario be prevented? The defense ministers will have to find answers to this. And of course Trump's crazy statements from the weekend will also be a topic. NATO must prepare for a second Trump presidency. And from now on.
There is at least one small ray of hope: On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the US Senate passed the controversial aid package worth $95 billion, most of it for Ukraine. In doing so, at least some Republicans have opposed Donald Trump, who has been stirring up opposition to aid to Ukraine for weeks. But the House of Representatives still has to agree. And there are a lot of Trump fans sitting there, including spokesman Mike Johnson. He has already made it clear that he is against the law. The vote could theoretically take place today, but Johnson will probably try to delay it.
It's a dangerous game. Not only for Ukraine, but also for the rest of the Western world, because the signal is: This America can no longer be relied on. Vladimir Putin should be delighted.
You can find more background information here: New hope for Ukraine
A TikTok general wants to become president
What does Indonesia have to do with the German transport transition? A whole lot. Because no country produces more nickel than the island nation in Southeast Asia. And without nickel, there would be no lithium-ion batteries and therefore no electric cars. Nickel is the new oil. Indonesia is also the third largest democracy in the world. Almost 280 million people, most of them Muslims, live together peacefully there. And because the national territory extends over around 17,000 islands and 5,000 kilometers, the logistics of today's election are also considerable. The ballot boxes and ballot papers are transported by horses and cows, by boat and by plane.
The current Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has the best chance of succeeding President Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”). However, the 72-year-old ex-general is also the former son-in-law of long-time dictator Suharto and is accused of involvement in murders, torture and kidnappings. The dictator was overthrown in 1998, and the majority of young voters no longer remember him. Prabowo presents himself as a nice grandpa, with cat pictures on Instagram and dance videos on TikTok. Economically, he would probably continue Jokowi's successful course. According to forecasts, the country could become one of the world's five leading economies by 2045 - and overtake Germany.
You can read more background information here: How Indonesia wants to get rich – thanks to the transport transition
Read the current SPIEGEL editorial here
A nation of part-time workers:
The unions are on strike for a 4-day week with the same pay. But in order to secure their prosperity, Germans would have to work more, not less.
Click here for the current daily quiz
Today's starting question: Where was Karl Marx born?
Loser of the day...
...is Martin Winterkorn. The former VW boss is called as a witness before the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court today. Thousands of investors are suing there because they were allegedly informed too late about the emissions fraud in diesel vehicles and thus suffered billions in losses on the stock market. The key question since the scandal became known in 2015 has been: When did VW management find out about the fraud? So far, Winterkorn has appeared contrite but has done little to clarify matters, even though he was once known for having a say in every detail. It is unclear whether the 76-year-old will now agree to this. As a witness, he does not have to incriminate himself and may refuse to testify.
Winterkorn now lives largely in seclusion in his villa in Munich-Bogenhausen. He cannot leave the country because the US authorities have been looking for him with an arrest warrant since May 2018. Because the ex-VW man is in poor health, the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office has brought charges against Winterkorn in the ongoing fraud case, but has not yet opened a case against him. But that could soon change: According to a medical report, Winterkorn will be able to stand trial again from September. Then he should be seen in court more often.
Ex-VW boss Müller in the diesel trial about his predecessor: Winterkorn sat there like a "heap of misery"
The latest reports from the night
Biden condemns Trump's NATO statements as "stupid", "dangerous" and "un-American":
Donald Trump recently caused irritation with his insane assessments of NATO. Now President Joe Biden is speaking out in very clear terms.
Israel's military chief rules out an early end to the war against Hamas:
The war between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas has been going on for more than four months. According to Chief of General Staff Herzl Halevi, there is no end to the violence in sight: "There is still a long way to go."
Republicans initiate impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary:
Their first attempt ended miserably, now the US Republicans are taking action against the Democratic Secretary Mayorkas with a very promising impeachment. The accusation: “breach of public trust.”
I would particularly like to recommend this story to you today:
"Let her sleep":
At some point there is only Hind at the end of the line, six years old, next to her her uncle, her aunt, four children - they are all dead. The black Kia in which the girl Hind is waiting is in Gaza City comes under fire. Now Hind is begging for help, she talks to an emergency call center employee for hours, but the rescuers can't do it. In the end, Hind is no longer alive either. My colleague Fiona Ehlers has reconstructed the disturbing case. If the story happened that way, she writes, "it tells of the brutality of this war against civilians in the Gaza Strip."
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Juliane von Mittelstaedt, deputy head of the international department