Editorial
New edition
stern editor-in-chief about espionage: “Everyone who knows what they’re doing is sounding the alarm”
Experts warn: The threat of espionage is constantly growing due to new methods
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Espionage doesn’t just exist in books and films. It is a real and growing threat.
I admit, I’m a big spy romantic. John Le Carré’s books are badly worn on my shelf. When a documentary about his life was released last year, I could hardly sleep because of the excitement, too many historical images in my head. But espionage is by no means a told story from the archives. Today’s floppy hats live among us, even if they work differently. Everyone in the know is now sounding the alarm. Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Thomas Haldenwang says so star: “Foreign powers are attempting to harm Germany in ever more sophisticated and varied ways, both through human sources and through cyber attacks.”
For years, authoritarian states like Russia and China have been making increasing efforts to exert influence. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warns: “They want to destabilize our democratic societies and attack them from within.”
The AfD European politician Maximilian Krah, whose employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, is currently being shielded by his party. My RTL colleague Tom Kollmar was still able to conduct an interview with him. In it, Krah appears to be “shocked” by the allegations, but also says that he is “still wavering” about whether he completely believes it all. And, in true AfD style, he portrays himself as a victim at the same time: “The security authorities obviously had knowledge, didn’t inform me and dropped the bomb shortly before the election date.”
Kim Kardashian and Kant
Last week was a good week for Joe Biden. It wasn’t because he looked younger, fierier, or because his rival Donald Trump had to sit in a courtroom in New York. No, the best news for Joe Biden was that Kim Kardashian showed up at the White House – and thereby indirectly supported him. The woman has 363 million followers on Instagram. Her fortune is $1.7 billion, her life seems like a hashtag: #worldsmosttalkedaboutwoman. The woman the world is talking about. Kardashian will soon be coming to Hamburg for the major marketing conference OMR, where she will probably make people’s hearts and cell phones glow. Can we write a large text about her in Immanuel Kant’s anniversary year? Our author Nicolas Büchse answered the question with yes, because Kardashian simply reinterpreted Kant: Have the courage to use your own smartphone.
Many women were encouraged by the fact that #MeToo perpetrator Harvey Weinstein, once an all-powerful film producer, went to prison. Now a verdict against him has been overturned for technical reasons. Should women lose heart because #MeToo cases may be winnable in public but apparently hardly possible legally? Our columnist Jagoda Marinić does not want to accept that. She is outraged because it is the women’s statements that are now being described as procedural errors and they might have to go through the hell of testifying again. But Marinić also writes: “Weinstein was the beginning of #MeToo in jurisprudence. The women will not allow his lawyers to destroy this success.”