What is important today
Beijing Winter Olympics begin. The heads of state of most Western countries will be absent from this Friday’s opening ceremony in protest at the Chinese regime’s human rights violations; even if the federal government avoided declaring a diplomatic boycott until the end. The International Olympic Committee has often cooperated with autocrats – but the Winter Games in Beijing show particularly drastically how far the sport has strayed from its values. Go to Article (SZ Plus)
EXCLUSIVE Heil wants to facilitate the advancement of mini-jobbers. So far, it hasn’t been worthwhile for this group to work beyond the limit of 450 euros, because social security contributions and, in many cases, taxes then suddenly have to be paid. The Federal Minister of Labor wants to change that, he wants to fundamentally reform mini and midi jobs as of October 1st. In the future, employees who earn more than what is permitted in mini-jobs will initially only have to pay low social security contributions, which will then increase steadily as their income rises. Go to Article (SZ Plus)
Free voters nominate their own candidate for the federal presidential election. The physicist Stefanie Gebauer from Brandenburg is “a young power woman in her early 40s from local politics, who stands for the political center, taking responsibility and optimism about the future,” says Free Voters boss Aiwanger. However, Gebauer’s chances are slim, the free voters only have 18 electors in the Federal Assembly. Go to Article
Telegram wants to cooperate with the federal government. Interior Minister Faeser wants Telegram to take decisive action against hatred and hate speech. The Federal Ministry of the Interior has now had “a constructive discussion” with the top management. The messenger service is considered a central platform, especially for “lateral thinkers” and conspiracy ideologues. Go to Article
US imposes visa requirements on Belarusians. The trigger is the case of the Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanowskaja, who fled to Poland from the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The US State Department initially did not provide any information on which people are specifically affected by the visa restrictions. Go to Article
Other important topics:
Current information on the Corona crisis
Nationwide seven-day incidence rises to 1,350. The Robert Koch Institute reports 248,838 new infections within 24 hours. Both are highs again. Almost 10.7 million infections have been registered in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. All reports about the corona virus
How Lauterbach feels about Wieler. There have been rumors in Berlin for some time that the Minister of Health is dissatisfied with Wieler. His uncoordinated recommendation for strict contact restrictions in December and the confusion about the reduction of the recovered status in January have apparently cooled the relationship between the two. To the article (SZ Plus)
Infected with Corona. In Great Britain, 36 volunteers were intentionally infected with Sars-CoV-2. But there is criticism of the study – it is unclear what significance the results really have and the question arises as to whether the findings were actually worth the risks. To the article (SZ Plus)
best things
you me belly There’s finally a pregnant man apple emoji. As a cosmopolitan person, you can only welcome that. Go to Article