1. Change in values

Inflation in Turkey is rising to 68.5 percent (more on that here). You're almost ashamed to have complained about the German inflation rates of the past few years. But inflation is not the same as inflation anyway, explains my colleague Florian Diekmann from our economics department, at least on a personal level: “What you spend or have to spend your money on varies greatly.”

A new study now shows who has been particularly affected by inflation in Germany. Florian has evaluated them and finds the approach of determining inflation rates for certain groups exciting. "I would have classified pensioners as one of the groups that had to suffer particularly, simply because the prices for gas, oil, electricity and food have risen the most." In retirement, you may not need new sweaters or shoes as often as you do in working life - they only got a little more expensive - but you still have to eat and heat.

The surprising result: “The inflation rates for legally insured pensioners and non-pensioners were virtually the same,” says Florian. It is true that pensioners felt the increase in food and gas prices most strongly - but they were much less affected by the high fuel prices, unlike commuters, for example. In the end it evened out, at least on average.

But the study proves one thing above all: it's not about "the" pensioners - because inequality is also very high among them. "Social policy must be geared much more decisively to specifically helping the poorer half of pensioners."

  • Read the whole story here: This is how much inflation has really hit Germany's pensioners 

2. Hetz especially

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Former President Donald Trump at the election campaign appearance in Michigan: agitation with "bloodbath" and "invasion"

Photo:

Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

Donald Trump has further intensified his already harsh rhetoric against migrants and political opponents: During a campaign appearance, he accused Joe Biden of causing a "bloodbath" with his border policy. Trump claimed there was an “invasion” of criminals from other countries because of Biden; They come from prisons and "madhouses" and attack and kill innocent people in the USA: "They're not people, they're animals."

In a relatively stable political culture, anyone who talks like that, who dehumanizes others, disqualifies themselves for any political office. In the USA, this is what the most promising Republican candidate for the presidency says. And his fans cheer him on. According to a new survey by the Wall Street Journal, he is ahead of Biden in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

A few weeks ago I met a journalist colleague in Austin, Texas. He used to report from Europe for a major US newspaper and is still interested in many things that concern Germany, France and Great Britain. He had even heard about the Correctiv research at the Potsdam meeting, where a “master plan for remigration” was discussed (more on that here). The colleague said pointedly: Be happy that something like this still leads to an outraged outcry in Germany, even among conservatives; Parts of the US Republicans would openly discuss mass deportations. Maybe that's the lesson: border protection is important - we have to defend the limits of what can be said against the agitators.

  • Read more here: Trump intensifies incitement against Biden and those seeking protection

3. Players are responsible for their children

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Girls with Panini stickers in Brazil in 2022: “People value unfinished things more than finished things”

Photo: Douglas Magno / AFP

The climate protectors have stopped sticking, football fans are just getting started: tomorrow the sale of stickers for the European Football Championship starts - for the first time in decades without Panini. The booklet and stickers are now produced by the US company Topps from New York. “The rush is likely to remain huge for the new manufacturer,” believes my colleague Thilo Neumann.

A bag with six pictures costs one euro. And every time the anxious question: Is there finally a new one or another Slovakian striker that no one knows? “If you want to get all 728 motifs together, you will have to invest several hundred euros if in doubt; the path to your goal is paved with countless duplicates,” reports Thilo. An expensive hobby that has the potential for frustration when the last gaps in the album simply won't be filled.

Why do so many collectors put themselves through this stress? Thilo talked to a researcher about it who said, “People value unfinished things more than finished ones.” So the unfinished has a special ____.

  • Read more here: Why so many football fans collect stickers 

What else is important today?

  • Investigators uncover suspected Hamas weapons cache:

    Before Christmas, police in Berlin and Rotterdam arrested four men who may have been preparing attacks on Jews. According to SPIEGEL information, photos now led the investigators to an underground weapons depot - in Bulgaria.

  • Halle public prosecutor's office brings further charges against Björn Höcke:

    Björn Höcke is said to have used an SA slogan again. That's why the Halle public prosecutor's office is now bringing charges against the Thuringian AfD parliamentary group leader. The procedure is combined with an existing one.

  • “It was scary”:

    Landslides and overturned houses: The worst earthquake in 25 years shook highly developed Taiwan. At least seven people were killed and more than 700 injured.

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+

  • Jan Marsalek delivered secret laptop to Russian agents:

    The agent affair surrounding Jan Marsalek is expanding: The ex-Wirecard manager is said to have supplied Moscow with sensitive IT hardware. Among them was a laptop – with German crypto technology.

  • What the arrested freighter from Russia is all about:

    Customs has detained a ship coming from Saint Petersburg. There is uranium and birch wood on board. But who is behind the journey of the “Atlantic Navigator II”? And what about the sanctions? An overview. 

  • “Perhaps today we would be more likely to speak of the Wood Age than of the Stone Age”:

    The people of the Stone Age knew not only about stones, but also about wood. This is proven by spectacular artifacts from Lower Saxony. They could also advance an application for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Which is less important today

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Photo:

Mirko Hannemann / picture alliance / PublicAd

Goes through Denmark and Bein

: After ten novels, the Danish crime writer

Jussi Adler-Olsen

, 73, has said goodbye to his famous team of investigators around the oddball Carl Mørck. It wasn't difficult for him to say goodbye. "They are in my heart and sometimes they talk to me," he told the dpa news agency. "The only difference is that I don't write about her anymore."

Mini concave mirror

You can find the entire concave mirror here.

Cartoon of the day

And tonight?

Could you watch the documentary “Out of Duty?” in the ARD media library. Watch “The Gerhard Schröder Story”. NDR reporter Lucas Stratmann followed the former chancellor, who turns 80 on Sunday, for several months. He went with him to the golf course, to the Elbphilharmonie and on a trip to China.

"The documentary shows Schröder's point of view in just under 60 minutes, giving him some space without being submissive," says my colleague Christian Teevs. She manages to get Schröder to expose himself. »The social democrat lives in his own world in which he is still on the right course. And all critics are ghost drivers. Or in his words: 'poor people'."

So let Gerd tell you about it. Warmly, yours

Yours, Oliver Trenkamp, ​​Blattmacher in the editor-in-chief