Two years – and there is no end in sight
There are events that are so drastic for a very large part of humanity that people will still know, decades later, where they were at the beginning, what they were doing when “it” started.
The start of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, 2022 is undoubtedly one of these events.
This weekend will show how much.
We situation-in-the-morning authors always look at the next day's events in the evening in order to prepare the most up-to-date topics for you.
The weekly and daily previews from the German Press Agency often help us with this.
The preview for this Saturday is largely dominated by demonstrations, events, church services and rallies surrounding the second anniversary of the war (and a long list includes anti-right demonstrations).
Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Kassel, Mannheim, Hanover.
All over Germany people want to come together.
Two years of aggressive war against Ukraine and against the post-war order in Europe would be reason enough for a SPIEGEL cover story.
But a lot is coming together at the moment: the death of the leading Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the situation on the front in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev's troops are lacking everything, but especially artillery ammunition and relief supplies.
And the apparently deepening indifference of a large part of Russian society and its establishment in repression.
You can read about all of these topics in our current issue.
Of course also about the few brave Russians who are even being harassed for their silent mourning for Navalny.
Or for laying red carnations in memory of him, which, as the “Süddeutsche” reported, were now sold out in some flower shops in Moscow.
You can read the report from the front in Eastern Ukraine here: The horror of the trenches
Nikki and the old men
Nikki Haley knows South Carolina well; she was born there and was elected governor at the age of 38, as the first American woman with Indian immigrant background.
Her term in office ended in 2017. But the 52-year-old obviously doesn't have a home advantage when she takes part in her Republican Party's primaries in the state today.
Nikki Haley is Donald Trump's last remaining competitor in the race for the presidential election next November.
But Trump leads the polls by a wide margin.
She also had to admit defeat in the previous primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“South Carolina is an absolute Trump state,” says my colleague Roland Nelles, one of our Washington correspondents and currently on site to report on the primaries in the southern state.
Enlarge image
2017: The then US President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, who was her country's ambassador to the United Nations at the time
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Nikki Haley is probably also aware of her chances, but the politician has just announced that she will continue until Super Tuesday, come what may.
There will be several primary elections this March 5th.
But the signs are clearly pointing to Trump, whose supporters are constantly attacking Haley.
The attacks on her on social networks, especially explicitly racist ones, are apparently becoming increasingly violent.
Your party is also completely fixated on Trump and follows him blindly.
So why does the woman do this to herself?
In the USA, after the election is before the election.
In 2024, two men aged 81 and 77 will likely compete against each other.
It's quite possible that Haley is already campaigning for the 2028 election.
You can read a portrait of Nikki Haley here: If Trump has to fear competition, it's her
Attack on the Greens
I would definitely like to recommend that you read another article from the new issue: It's about the research by my colleague Ann-Katrin Müller and colleagues Dayan Djajadisastra, Johannes Müller and Jonas Schaible about the hatred that the Greens have been experiencing for some time.
A reasonably thick skin is part of the job description of politicians, and all parties in parliament are attacked, on social networks, and often analogously.
But representatives of no other party are attacked as often as the Greens, as the police statistics show, write Ann-Katrin and her colleagues.
"Accordingly, local Green politicians experienced hostility or attacks on average once or twice a month, more often than politicians from other parties."
A lot remains under the radar.
But ever since angry groups of people prevented Economics Minister Robert Habeck from disembarking at a ferry pier in Schleswig-Holstein and recently ensured in Biberach that the party's political Ash Wednesday had to be canceled for security reasons, it is clear that something is going on here Slipping has occurred.
The saddest sentence in the history of my colleague: “With the Greens, they now count on everything.”
None of this is good for a liberal democracy.
There are attacks on political opponents that are okay and justifiable.
Constant bashing and attacks from the league, for example from Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder, who recently described the East German Green Environment Minister Steffi Lemke as the "Green Margot Honecker", exceed a limit
nce among Democrats.
Maybe some politicians don't believe it themselves, but words work.
The whole story here: How the Greens became targets and how they want to defend themselves
Click here for the current daily quiz
The starting question today: How often has a party been banned in the Federal Republic of Germany so far (as of February 2024)?
The latest reports from the night
Ex-Chancellor Kurz found guilty of making false statements:
The Ibiza affair once brought down Sebastian Kurz - then he is said to have given false information about the affair to the investigative committee.
A court in Vienna has now convicted the former chancellor because of this.
Former head of the US gun lobby NRA convicted of corruption:
Wayne LaPierre, long-time head of the National Rifle Association, stole more than five million dollars from the membership fund.
A jury came to this conclusion.
Sandra Hülser wins the César Film Prize:
She plays a woman who is accused of murdering her husband: Star actress Sandra Hülser was honored in Paris for her role in “Anatomy of a Case”.
I would particularly like to recommend this text to you today:
Are smartphones and the internet a threat to our memory?
My colleagues Maik Großekathöfer and Claus Hecking spoke about this with memory researcher Hannah Monyer: She researches brain functions at the University Hospital of Heidelberg and says: Giving a two-year-old a cell phone to keep him quiet - that's not a good idea.
I wish you a good start to the day.
Yours, Özlem Topçu, deputy head of the foreign department