1. Speechless in the Middle East
158 days ago, the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel and killed around 1,200 Israeli and foreign civilians.
Since then, you could say that nothing has been the same in this region, which has already been tense for decades.
In the Gaza Strip, strikes by the Israeli military against Hamas killed more than 31,000 people and injured more than 72,000.
There are drone videos showing the full extent of the destruction.
Kilometers of devastation, entire streets without a single intact building.
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Children next to a street art picture by the artist Amal Abo in Rafah, Gaza (end of December 2023): victims of the war
Photo: AFP
Israel is accused of having lost its balance.
And: to block urgent aid deliveries in order to at least contain the humanitarian catastrophe.
The government countered this accusation several times, most recently this Tuesday.
Since the start of the war, more than 16,000 trucks have driven into the Gaza Strip and only 1.5 percent have not been registered, wrote the Israeli Cogat authority, which is responsible for contacts with the Palestinians and humanitarian aid, on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Today it was announced that Israel has also allowed the evacuation of an SOS Children's Village in the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Office supported the campaign, as my colleague Severin Weiland reports.
95 people were brought from Rafah in Gaza to the West Bank by land via Egypt and Israel.
An SOS Children's Village in the city of Bethlehem took her in on Monday evening.
"We are relieved that our intensive efforts were finally successful yesterday," a spokesman for the Foreign Office told SPIEGEL.
The evacuees include 68 Palestinian children between the ages of two and 14, as well as eleven employees and their family members.
The Foreign Office said it was “a temporary evacuation due to the current emergency.”
The departure of the children and adults was closely accompanied by German representatives, and the German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also spent hours at the Israeli-Egyptian crossing.
Even if this action is a glimmer of hope, the situation remains life-threatening for thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
They suffer from hunger and thirst, have no shelter, and epidemics are spreading.
Qatar, which says it is trying to reach an agreement between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza war, appears disillusioned.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman said today: "The situation is very complicated." He cannot currently give a time frame.
"We don't see that both sides can agree on a language."
Read the whole story here: Foreign Office helps evacuate an SOS Children's Village
2. Undignified in Münster
As of today, the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) of North Rhine-Westphalia is to decide whether the AfD can be observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution using intelligence means.
The Cologne Administrative Court decided in 2022: Yes, he can.
The Federal Office had classified the party and the youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) as suspected right-wing extremist cases.
The AfD took action against it, now it's a question of whether the Cologne ruling stands.
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AfD top duo Tino Chrupalla, Alice Weidel: There is a risk of being classified as “certain extremist”.
Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / picture alliance / dpa
This much can be said: There is unlikely to be a quick decision.
Right from the start, the AfD tried to prolong the process with several motions.
Even before the OVG entered into the substantive dispute, their, um, lawyer called for an adjournment.
It was not possible to respond to the approximately 4,200 pages of documents and 116 hours of video material submitted in January in such a short time.
Negotiations are taking place in Münster, of all places, the place where the AfD achieved the worst result in Germany in the last federal election with 2.9 percent of the second votes.
“Not a good place for the party,” writes my colleague Elisa Schwarze, who comes from Münster.
A few years ago, someone at the university wanted to set up a student AfD representation, says Elisa.
Some students quickly founded their own alliance, the “Alternative for You,” and registered it as an official university group.
The abbreviation has been occupied since then, and the party supporters backed down.
The mood in the courtroom is also charged.
The presiding judge Gerald Buck accused the AfD of abusing the law.
The request for bias against the entire Senate was made across the board and obviously without any basis.
In the morning, media representatives and spectators even had to leave the courtroom for a short time because the AfD did not want to discuss a certain point publicly.
The Senate did not follow this.
My colleague Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt is on site.
»The AfD and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution are engaged in a real material battle in Münster.
The court file is 15,000 pages thick, plus 275 additional folders with documents from the secret service's engine room," says Wolf.
The presiding judge has already made one thing clear: it would be nice if Germany looked at Münster.
But “further information” – obviously what was meant was the prospect of a possible AfD ban – could not be expected from his Senate.
Courts do not “look into the crystal ball.”
Read more here: AfD against the Office for the Protection of the Constitution
3. Toothless in Frankfurt
Deutsche Bahn is biting its teeth into the train drivers' union (GDL).
On Monday, the company tried to take legal action against the GDL wave strike and failed.
And on Tuesday, Deutsche Bahn suffered another defeat in the appeal proceedings before the Hessian State Labor Court in Frankfurt am Main.
The GDL strike can continue as planned until Wednesday morning.
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Train travelers at Munich Central Station: Train fails in court
Photo: Frank Hoermann / Sven Simon / IMAGO
Scheduled collection instead of scheduled departure, you could say.
The instrument of the wave strike as a pinprick tactic is permissible, said presiding judge Michael Horcher.
The court did not want to make a decision about an appropriate lead time for strike announcements.
Horcher urged formal mediation and appealed to both parties to finally seek a compromise.
My colleague Frauke Hunfeld spoke to an expert who once negotiated with blackmailers and hostage takers for the Federal Criminal Police Office and Interpol.
So this now seems to be the league that could bring the arguments at the negotiating table to their senses.
You have to show ways out: "A hostage taker, for example, doesn't want to shoot people," says ex-BKA man Thorsten Hofmann, "otherwise he would do it." He wants to achieve something.
»Mr Weselsky doesn't want to destroy the railway.
We have to talk about it.”
This time the GDL wants to strike for 24 hours.
The strike in freight transport began on Monday at 6 p.m., and in passenger transport on Tuesday morning at 2 a.m.
It is the sixth industrial dispute in the collective bargaining dispute that has been simmering for months.
The crux of the matter is the union's demand for a 35-hour week for shift workers without financial losses.
“If there is no possibility that the two of them can repair their relationship, the conduct of the negotiations will be swapped,” says Hoffmann.
Unfortunately, this is only possible if you take part voluntarily.
But with Weselsky in particular, you notice a growing desire for trouble the longer the conflict lasts.
Read more here: GDL is allowed to continue striking – Bahn fails again in court
What else is important today?
Aviation security - Ver.di is calling for strikes at several airports on Thursday.
Ver.di wants to paralyze air traffic again at several locations in Germany.
The union has announced the next strike for Thursday.
Hospital staff accuse Israeli military of abuse:
Medical staff at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis told the British BBC about humiliation and abuse during a raid.
Israel denies the allegations.
Police take Greta Thunberg away:
With like-minded people, Greta Thunberg blocked an entrance to the Swedish parliament for two days in a row.
Now the police have intervened.
Fire in accommodation for refugees at Tegel Airport:
After the closure of Tegel Airport, the area serves as accommodation for refugees, thousands of people live in a very small space.
Now a tent with an area of 1000 square meters has burned down.
In the future, iPhone apps can be installed without app stores:
Apple cell phone users in the EU will soon be able to install apps directly from the developers' websites.
However, they must adhere to clear rules.
My favorite story today: Sandra and the Monster
In August 2021, I wrote the following sentences in the "Lage am Abend" to discuss the Caravan Salon, a trade fair in Düsseldorf for camping accessories and motorhomes:
Our family of four drives a twelve-year-old VW bus, and we always find it very amusing, when we ourselves are at campsites and these monsters roll up.
The people then spend a whole day arranging the furniture they brought with them, setting up mobile kitchen units or aligning satellite dishes.
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My colleague Sandra Schulz felt addressed, not to say unpleasantly affected.
Because she and her family own such a monster.
She asked whether she could write a counter-speech.
Of course, I replied.
On September 12th, her text “The Monster and I,” a cheerful eulogy to life in her newly purchased mobile home, was published.
And a success story began.
Since then, numerous episodes of this series have been published and Sandra has built up a real, er, Van community with her entertaining and funny stories, which are ultimately also relationship stories.
In the meantime, so many bon mots came together that it became its own book.
“Monster tours” – that’s what it’s called.
It's coming out tomorrow.
It also contains some previously unpublished episodes.
You can read the first excerpts here.
Read the first edited book excerpts here: »What are you doing around here?
Why are you getting yourself into trouble?”
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
A touch of black and green in the Ludwig Erhard Hall:
Saxony's Prime Minister Kretschmer is considered a constant critic of Economics Minister Habeck.
During a conversation about “appreciation,” the two get along well, but are far apart on important issues.
Trump's sore point: Ridiculousness:
The past few days have shown how quickly the ex-president and the Republicans make themselves a laughing stock.
For Joe Biden, this is the chance to finally go on the offensive.
The banks' party fright:
Since the Wirecard scandal, the reputation of the German financial regulator Bafin has been seriously damaged.
But now British-born Mark Branson is getting the ridiculed authority on its feet.
To the annoyance of many financial institutions.
Princess Kate in the sleeve gate:
Princess Catherine's photo fail raises many questions: Who in the palace actually needs further training in image editing?
Is there a royal obligation to appear weak?
And are dogs easier to fake than children?
Does microplastics increase the risk of heart attack and stroke?
Giuseppe Paolisso has found micro- and nanoplastics in the carotid arteries of patients.
Here the professor of medicine at the University of Campania says why this is dangerous.
Which is less important today
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North West (l.) with mother Kim Kardashian at a basketball game: child with career plans
Photo:
Ashley Landis/AP
Youngstar:
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter,
North West, 10
, announced her own album.
She has already rapped on her father's current album, and her own LP will have a rebellious title that is reminiscent of her father's first work.
And that should just be the start of a great career.
She recently told the US magazine “People” that she could imagine earning money as a basketball player later.
In any case, she will become an entrepreneur and take over her parents' business empires.
Mini concave mirror
You can find the entire concave mirror here.
Cartoon of the day
And tonight?
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Alexei Navalny with his wife Julia (2013)
Photo: Evgeny Feldman/dpa
Could you watch the documentary "Becoming Navalny - Putin's Public Enemy No. 1" on Arte about the opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who recently died under unclear circumstances in Siberian prison camp No. 3.
The director Igor Sadreev had been secretly working on a film for a long time.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, he smuggled the filming material out of the country and left Moscow, according to the broadcaster's announcement.
He completed the film in Berlin together with his colleague, the journalist Aleksandr Urzhanov.
They paint a contradictory picture of the prominent Kremlin critic: the beginnings of someone still searching at the liberal Yabloko party, the expulsion after xenophobic videos and racist statements, the rise as a charismatic anti-corruption activist.
The film will be shown on Arte at 8:15 p.m.
You can also watch it in the media library here.
I wish you a pleasant evening.
Heartfelt
Yours, Janko Tietz, Head of Germany/Panorama Department