1. Pensioners first
On the surface, the federal government had good news to announce today.
However, whether they are really good depends a lot on how old you are.
The coalition wants to stipulate that the pension level must not fall below 48 percent of the average wage by 2039 and beyond.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) also presented plans for a stock pension based on the Swedish model.
This is intended to relieve the burden on pension insurance from the mid-2030s - through the income from a 200 billion euro fund financed primarily from loans.
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Coalition partner Heil, Lindner
Photo: Tobias Schwarz / AFP
Lindner praised the new component, which would also benefit pension insurance from return opportunities on the capital markets.
Trade unions welcomed the pension level guarantee.
This is understandable because unions always welcome social measures.
And the fixing of the pension level must be viewed as such.
However, only for today's retirees and the boomer generation that will retire in the coming years.
Because you guessed it: If a level is set and loans come into play, someone has to pay the burden, especially if the number of contributors falls - and it will in the future.
The costs are paid by the younger generations and those people who have not yet been born.
The intergenerational contract, which provides for a fair distribution of burdens, has effectively been abolished.
My colleague Florian Diekmann from the economics department judges in his comment that "the coalition does not make pension policy, it refuses to do so."
This is because it does not want to impose anything on the largest group in the electorate, the senior citizens.
And also because their lobby associations regularly create a mood and refuse to face reality instead of recognizing that the pension money under the current conditions puts an undue burden on the young generation.
The pension fund still has a financial cushion of around 44 billion euros, the so-called sustainability reserve.
But according to the pension insurance calculations, the reserves will be used up by 2028.
That's in four years!
Fixing the pension level beyond 2039 without providing an answer to how the pension gap is really going to be socially financed in the long term could also be described as anti-social.
Read the whole story here: The coalition does not make pension policy, it refuses to do so
2. Is the Internet new territory for the Bundeswehr?
Everyone who regularly works from home or on the go knows the problem: you always have difficulties with the software applications that come with mobile working.
Sometimes a microphone is open when it should be closed, sometimes the camera is on when it would be better left off.
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Defense Minister Pistorius
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Why should Bundeswehr officers feel any differently?
The only problem is that in the Bundeswehr - as in the case of the Taurus leak - security-relevant and possibly state-endangering information becomes public that would have been better kept under wraps.
Boris Pistorius (SPD) announced the interim results of the investigation into the leak in Berlin today.
On Friday, Russia published a recorded conference call via the Webex provider from four high-ranking officers, including Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz.
The Defense Minister spoke of an “individual application error” and attributed it to the participant who took part in the conversation from Singapore.
He dialed in via a “non-secure data line,” i.e. mobile phone or WiFi.
Pistorius ruled out the possibility that a Russian spy took part in the conversation without being noticed.
"Our communication systems were not compromised," he emphasized.
At the time of the conversation, the Singapore Air Show was taking place in the Southeast Asian city-state, in which many high-ranking European military officials took part.
“For Russian secret services it is understandable that an event like this in this environment would be a hit,” said Pistorius.
Eavesdropping operations allegedly took place across the board in the hotels used.
Access to the Bundeswehr officers' Webex conference was a "random hit, as part of a broad, diversified approach."
Preliminary disciplinary investigations have been initiated against all four participants in the Webex conference.
Pistorius also emphasized that personnel consequences were “currently not on the agenda.”
Perhaps he also meant himself.
Read more here: Defense Minister Pistorius speaks of “individual application error”
3. Triumph for Trump?
In the USA, the primary elections began today in several US states - on Super Tuesday, voters in 16 states will vote on the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.
Millions of US citizens from Maine to California, from Texas to Virginia, from Alaska to Alabama are called upon to cast their vote for the candidate for the presidential nomination.
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Nikki Haley at a campaign appearance in Texas ahead of Super Tuesday
Photo: David J. Phillip / AP
Unlike previous US elections, however, it is already clear before this year's Super Tuesday who will be in the race for the White House: Among the Republicans, ex-President Donald Trump is heading towards running again after winning almost all previous primaries and the winner is;
Among the Democrats, incumbent Joe Biden is almost certain to run again because he has no serious rivals within his party.
Despite the predictable outcome, according to our US correspondent Roland Nelles, it's still worth taking a closer look at this Super Tuesday.
Individual results could provide important conclusions about the course of the actual main election campaign.
The three key questions are: How well is Trump really doing?
Is Nikki Haley kowtowing to Trump even though she has massively criticized him in her past appearances?
And: Is Joe Biden finally getting some momentum after recent polls showed that he is more unpopular than ever before?
For Trump, passage is by no means guaranteed.
It depends very much on how many voters will refuse to support him in the vote.
According to Roland, every vote for his internal party opponent Haley is a vote of no confidence in Trump.
He and his strategists would have to assume that these voters will not vote for him in the presidential election either.
So although no surprises are to be expected, it remains exciting.
You'll get answers to whether Super Tuesday will be a triumph for Trump over the course of the night and tomorrow here on SPIEGEL.de
Read the full story here: Three things that make this Super Tuesday exciting
What else is important today?
Moscow declares the SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation an “undesirable organization”:
The Moscow leadership is further isolating Russian society from foreign partners – and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation is now also feeling the effects of this.
It is now effectively banned in Russia.
Musk blames "stupid eco-terrorists" for alleged arson attack:
Tesla boss Musk harshly criticized the alleged perpetrators behind the power outage at the factory near Berlin.
According to Brandenburg's Economics Minister, hospitals and retirement homes were also affected.
Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world again:
In the unofficial race of the richest people on the planet, Amazon founder Bezos has replaced Tesla boss Musk at the top.
This means he has his place back from 2021.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
2871 supporting actors and one leading role:
The country is doing great, everything is fine - that is the message that China's leadership is spreading in Beijing at the annual meeting of the mock parliament.
Striking: The new prime minister cannot pay enough honor to President Xi.
"We assume that it was not a targeted attack":
several submarine cables off the Yemeni coast have failed.
The head of technology at the DE-CIX internet node, Thomas King, does not assume an intentional attack.
But he warns of the consequences of such damage.
“We are a kind of Gallic village on the Baltic Sea”
: The storm surge last October devastated the idyllic Langholz camp near Eckernförde.
It will be able to reopen soon.
About fans, willingness to help – and an owner who does many things differently.
Which is less important today
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Photo: Vianney Le Caer/dpa
Way-Watch:
The actress
Pamela Anderson
, 56, came to the catwalks at Paris Fashion Week without make-up - and received great recognition for it.
But not from her children: “Mom, you need a glamor team,” her sons said, Anderson reports to the magazine “Highsnobiety.”
However, Anderson apparently wasn't impressed: "I said, 'I know how to put on a dress myself.'
I don't need anyone to button my blouse.
I can do it.’ And they were just horrified.”
Mini concave mirror
The "Göttinger Tageblatt" about the 80th birthday of football player Helmut Hinberg:
"Hinberg will escape the birthday hustle and bustle on Monday - the celebration will be with the family, including with the newly minted 25-year-old grandson Luca."
You can find the entire concave mirror here.
Cartoon of the day
And tonight?
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Photo: Alexei Druzhinin / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
I can tell you what I'm doing tonight: I have to go to our older daughter's parents' evening ("the last of your child!"), as the teacher emphasized.
Our daughter is turning 18 and is in the middle of high school.
The prospect of the last parents' evening is only clouded by the fact that we also have a younger daughter in the 8th grade.
So if you don't have to go to a parents' evening today, you could watch an old film by the American director Oliver Stone on one of the many streaming services.
Why an old one?
Because his new films only deserve the disgraceful “Golden Raspberry” award.
The director once stood for a better America.
After "Born on the Fourth of July", "JFK" or "Natural Born Killers", he was considered an artist who exposed the injuries to the American soul.
But now he is not only interviewing his friend Vladimir Putin, but a SPIEGEL investigation also reveals how the Oscar winner jeopardized his reputation by offering propaganda films to dictators.
Documents show that the Kazakh regent Nursultan Nazarbayev was just one of several rulers with whom Stone - or his partners - wanted to do business.
Whether for the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or Azerbaijan's autocrat Ilham Aliyev - there was a suitable offer for everyone: so-called pitches outlined what a dazzling "Oliver Stone Documentary" with them as the main actors could look like.
For large sums of money, of course.
(Read the whole story here.)
Maybe Stone will make a biopic about himself. The title is obvious: “A Man Sells His Soul.”
A lovely evening.
Heartfelt
Yours, Janko Tietz, Head of Germany/Panorama Department