How Scholz simply cannot end the Taurus debate
Do you know when the boss wants to end a discussion, but the discussion continues anyway?
Anyone who wants to end debates by force usually ends up looking smaller.
Olaf Scholz, who has been trying for months to stop calls for Taurus cruise missiles to be delivered to Ukraine, has to learn this.
First he tried to wait it out, then he claimed that this would require Bundeswehr soldiers in Ukraine (which many doubt).
Finally, Scholz even had to say: "I am the Chancellor, and that's why this applies." Apparently he has never seen the series "Game of Thrones" in which Tywin Lannister says the sentence: "Any man who must say, "I am the King", is no true king", i.e.: A man who has to say: "I am the king" is not a true king.
In any case, the discussion about Taurus continues, even within the government, even though Scholz is Chancellor: First the idea of a ring exchange with Great Britain came up, now, according to "SZ" and "FAZ", the Foreign Office is thinking about giving the Taurus to the British which they could then pass on to the Ukrainians and look over their shoulders.
Scholz's arguments against delivery could easily be avoided with such solutions, but he has so far stuck to his refusal.
Is that smart?
The debate is eating away at his authority, so there are good reasons for Scholz to find a clever political compromise.
One that leads to Ukraine quickly getting more precise long-range weapons, ideally Taurus or similar weapons.
Incidentally, the USA has taken exactly the opposite approach on the issue: Instead of endlessly arguing in public, Joe Biden delivered Atacms missiles to Ukraine last fall, which have a range of 300 kilometers - and has never talked much about it until now.
More about this: Hofreiter rejects the Union proposal on Taurus
Germany will soon drop aid deliveries via Gaza
The Bundeswehr wants to soon – as the USA is already doing – drop aid packages from the air over Gaza in order to help the population threatened by famine.
It is supposed to be a German-French joint operation: relief supplies are to be dropped using Bundeswehr C130 transport aircraft, which are stationed in Évreux, France.
Yesterday the first food delivery left Cyprus by ship.
This will test a sea corridor through which Gaza will be supplied in the future, and a seaport will also be built.
The ship belonging to the Spanish aid organization Open Arms is loaded with almost 200 tons of rice, flour and other food.
It is still the case that aid deliveries from the air are the most inefficient.
There is no meaningful replacement for the overland routes from Israel and Egypt, said the UN humanitarian aid coordinator in the Gaza Strip yesterday.
However, when it comes to imports by truck overland, the Israeli rules still severely restrict the import of aid goods in practice - if there was a solution here, aid deliveries from the air would not be necessary at all.
The whole story here: Air force should drop aid supplies over the Gaza Strip
Will an Eastern European become NATO Secretary General after all?
Romanian President Klaus Johannis – a member of the German-speaking minority in the country – now officially wants to become NATO Secretary General.
Former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is considered the favorite so far; he apparently already has two-thirds of all member states behind him.
But the election is traditionally unanimous.
Rutte's opponents point out that in recent years the Netherlands has never achieved NATO's goal of investing two percent of economic output in defense.
This could, it is said, put Rutte in a position of weakness if Donald Trump becomes US president again.
Johannis hopes for support from Eastern European states that are particularly affected by the Russian threat and have warned in vain for years.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is also repeatedly mentioned as a candidate, but many Western and Central European heads of government are critical of her because of her uncompromising stance towards Russia.
Last week, "Politico Europe" quoted an anonymous EU source as asking: "Do we really want to put someone who likes to eat Russian for breakfast in this position?" Kallas then posted a photo of her breakfast on X: oatmeal with blueberries.
More background: The man who stood up to Trump
Read the current SPIEGEL editorial here
Armored hearts:
Israel's legitimate self-defense has turned into a campaign of destruction.
German politicians are turning a blind eye to this.
This is wrong – and dangerous.
Click here for the current daily quiz
Today's starting question: Which British party is also called the Tories?
Loser of the day...
…is Katie Britt.
The 42-year-old Republican senator from Alabama was considered her party's young hope.
Until she was allowed to give the Republicans' official response to President Joe Biden's "State of the Union" speech last week.
Since then, one can say: Katie Britt was once a young hope for her party.
The speech that Britt gave from her kitchen for some inexplicable reason continues to inspire new parodies on the Internet to this day, which are actually not necessary because the appearance seems like a self-parody: the senator speaks every word and every sentence in a theatrically over-pronounced way , with a trembling voice, and always smiling in a ghostly way in inappropriate places.
According to the New York Times, her confidants wanted to sell her to the country as "America's Mom," "who checks out what's going on."
Instead, Scarlett Johannsson imitated her on "Saturday Night Live" and had her say the words, "I'm not just a senator - I'm a mother, a wife, and the craziest person in the supermarket parking lot."
Only Donald Trump still had praise for Britt, who has hopes of becoming the vice presidential candidate: "Katie Britt was a great contrast to an angry and obviously very disturbed 'President,'" he wrote.
The latest reports from the night
Aid convoy reaches north of Gaza for the first time:
It is the first successful aid convoy to the north of Gaza in three weeks: six trucks were able to deliver relief supplies via a new military road.
The road divides the Gaza Strip.
The family of the Boeing whistleblower blames the company for his death:
He testified in court for two days, and on the third day he was dead: John Barnett had made serious allegations against Boeing.
Now his brother has commented on his death.
Medication for trans people:
The English NHS no longer wants to prescribe puberty blockers to children.
He cites insufficient data as the reason.
I would particularly like to recommend this text to you today:
Why are mummies under wooden floorboards?
When people renovate old houses, they often discover animal corpses and other disturbing relics in the walls and beams.
Some of the finds date back to the Middle Ages and point to eerie customs.
My colleague Guido Kleinhubbert investigated the dark secrets - read what he found out here.
I wish you a good start to the day.
Yours, Mathieu von Rohr, head of the SPIEGEL foreign department