1. The duel between the two from 2020
Yes, Donald Trump clearly won the Republican primaries on Super Tuesday, his opponent Nikki Haley is withdrawing her candidacy (more here).
Yes, Trump is also ahead of incumbent Joe Biden in reliable polls.
But no, he is not unbeatable.
"There is a solid proportion of Republican supporters who are disgusted by Trump's lies, his vulgar appearance and his proudly presented amorality," comments my colleague René Pfister from Washington.
"If Biden convinces these voters and mobilizes the Democratic base, he can defeat Trump again in the fall."
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Republican Trump: The hair challenger
Photo: Rebecca Blackwell / dpa
However, “Let’s Finish the Job” is a very weak strategy.
Biden tried to use the slogan to start his re-election campaign a year ago.
A stuttering start.
Yes, the US economy is booming under his leadership.
Yes, inflation is falling.
And yes, Biden managed to unite NATO against Putin.
But in politics it's like salary negotiations: it's less about the past than about the future (more on that here).
Why reward someone who has already been paid or elected?
It's about what your boss still believes you can do.
And in a democracy, the electorate is the boss.
Someone who openly wonders whether Biden, at 81, is still fit enough for perhaps one of the most stressful jobs in the world.
Read more here: Donald Trump can be beaten
2. El-always-on Musk
Trump again, but only briefly, promised: He urgently needs money for his election campaign, the lawyers for his various lawsuits are expensive.
Biden and the Democrats are doing better financially.
According to the New York Times, Trump is said to have met with Elon Musk (more here).
They are united by their view of the world and life: both consider themselves to be fixed stars around which everything has to revolve.
Both invoke the fear of oncoming gender hordes from Wokeistan.
The newspaper writes that it is unclear whether he will donate money to Trump.
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Musk: Supporter of the Eloncentric worldview
Photo: Sergei;
Gapon/AFP
But while the Trump cult seems stable among its fans (see primaries), the Musk cult seems shaken.
“The problems are piling up at Tesla,” reports my colleague Ines Zöttl.
The core business is weakening, the shares are losing ground, analysts are disappointed.
One investor says he is often asked whether it makes sense that Tesla is worth more than the next ten largest carmakers combined.
"The short answer is: no." But this would only become a problem if the stock market became convinced that it was time to sell Tesla shares.
However, Ines writes: "Such a mass exodus is not yet in sight - even if some now consider the eccentric multi-billionaire at the top to be more of a mortgage than a profit." Some might wish that Musk would simply take a long vacation.
Oh, I just see that more and more travel providers are focusing on luxury tourists (more on that here).
That would be something, a time out for Musk: El-off.
Here's the whole story: Is Elon Musk still good for Tesla?
3. Time, age, person
Are you still living in the Holocene – or are you already living in the Anthropocene?
Many researchers say that after 12,000 years of the Holocene, a new geological age began around 150 years ago and should be called that: the age of humans.
After all, our species shapes the fate of the planet.
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Megacity Mexico City: Millions of people live in a small space and produce a lot of waste and exhaust fumes
Photo: Hector Vivas / Getty Images
Now the highest geological body in the world has rejected the new name.
“No wonder, geologists think in millennia, the climate crisis is less than two centuries old,” says my colleague Susanne Götze.
"But that doesn't change the fact that we are systematically destroying the earth." Basically, the scholars were talking past each other: "The opponents of a renaming in no way negate the dizzying influence of humans on the climate and ecosystems." They therefore just think it is too early to proclaim a new geological era after just 150 years.
Caution, restraint, thoughtfulness – all important virtues, especially in science.
But the more precisely we name things, the better we can deal with them.
Read Susanne's comment here: We have been living in the human age for a long time!
What else is important today?
Scholz and state leaders emphasize progress in refugee policy:
Many federal states approached the consultations with Chancellor Scholz on refugee policy with a critical eye.
Afterwards there was praise from both sides - although the number of initial asylum applications is hardly falling.
Russia puts Garry Kasparov on the terror list:
Anyone who criticizes the Kremlin as a Russian is living dangerously.
Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov has long been considered a "foreign agent" in Moscow, and he is now on a list for "terrorists and extremists."
Frankfurt Airport closed to departing passengers on Thursday:
Frankfurt Airport will be closed to departing passengers on Thursday due to the warning strike by aviation security forces.
Travelers shouldn't even go to the airport.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
Wanted ex-RAF terrorist Garweg apparently looked after an elderly woman:
According to SPIEGEL information, the suspected ex-RAF terrorist Burkhard Garweg spent a long time shopping for an elderly woman.
The police broke into their apartment.
Neighbors say they saw Garweg in the stairwell.
The incredible escape of Jan Marsalek to Russia:
The fugitive Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek probably changed his identity several times in Russia.
But his blood betrayed him.
The SPIEGEL report.
Why Olena Selenska supposedly doesn't want to sit next to Yulia Navalnaya:
Ukrainians' relationship with Putin's best-known Russian opponent remains heavily strained.
Now the Ukrainian First Lady is said to have even turned down an invitation from Joe Biden.
What's behind it?
Bodo Ramelow really behaved totally trashy - says Bodo Ramelow:
Drunk in the Corona switch, careless in the middle of a political crisis: In Erfurt, top politicians talk about their mistakes and appear surprisingly emotional.
Which is less important today
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Photo: Francois Lo Presti / AFP
Instead of love:
Tiphaine Auzière
, 40, the daughter of Brigitte Macron, 70, gave an insight into the private life of the French presidential couple.
In an interview with the French magazine "Paris Match", she tells how she discovered the beginning of the scandalous relationship as a ten-year-old At the beginning of the 1990s: »We were in a small provincial town.
Everyone knew everything." A lot of things were very hurtful for her, "the attacks, the slander, the prejudices."
Mini concave mirror
You can find the entire concave mirror here.
Cartoon of the day
And tonight?
Could you watch the shocking documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” in the ARD media library.
She is nominated for an Oscar (Program note: You can follow the gala in our live blog on the night from Sunday to Monday.)
Filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize winner Mstyslaw Chernov, producer Vasilisa Stepanenko and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka decided to stay in Ukraine in 2022 at the start of the Russian invasion.
There they filmed crucial moments of the war: how bombs fell on a maternity hospital, how mass graves were dug, a lot of cruelty and suffering.
“It’s difficult to watch this documentation,” says my colleague Veronika Silberg.
“And yet that’s exactly what’s so important.” (Here is the film, here are more streaming tips.)
I wish you an insightful evening.
Heartfelt
Yours, Oliver Trenkamp, Blattmacher in the editor-in-chief