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Actionism in the White House
Donald Trump himself now suspects that he could lose the presidential election. Despite his crown disease, he is agitated. Today he wants to speak to supporters in front of the White House. A rally with him will be held in Florida next Monday.
In the dispute with Democrats in Congress over a new aid package, the Trump administration wants to increase its offer. Therefore, the package would comprise the fairy tale sum of 1.8 trillion dollars. Trump apparently acknowledges that the lack of state aid to businesses and the unemployed could do him serious harm during the election campaign. If there is no fresh money soon, for example for airlines, there will be new massive layoffs before November 3.
However, it is questionable whether progress in the negotiations will be successful. Senate Majority Leader Trump’s party member Mitch McConnell suggests that he no longer believes in a compromise before the election. The problem: There are some among McConnell’s Republican senators who firmly oppose another gigantic widening of the national deficit. Therefore, it is not safe to count on a majority in your own ranks for a huge aid package.
It’s also interesting: for days, the president has been putting massive pressure on his Justice Minister William Barr and other ministers to use the state apparatus to crack down on their political opponents. Barr should indict Joe Biden and Barack Obama for spying on his campaign team in 2016, Trump made clear. FBI chief Christopher Wray, appointed by him, was also a disappointment in this regard, the president said.
Trump is also launching a new offensive to mobilize his most loyal voters, the so-called “base.” In a two-hour interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday, the president recited the beauties he often enraptures his fans with: the wall in Mexico, the attacks on “Sleepy” Joe Biden and so on. In the middle, the well-known four-letter, less presidential English expletive was also used.
Trump’s uncontrolled rumble could be a clear sign that he has almost given up on his makeshift tactics of targeting swing voters in the suburbs. Now, of course, it’s just about getting as many of his white working-class fanatics as possible to the polls in major states like Pennsylvania, Florida or Wisconsin to make up for potential losses in the nation’s wealthier suburbs. It is a desperate tactic.
Calls for arms in the South Caucasus
The most important news of the night: Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire, Russia mediated the conflict over the southern Caucasus Nagorno-Karabakh region. The arms calls should begin on Saturday afternoon, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced. Read more about it here.
The crown crisis in Germany is reaching a critical point
The crown crisis is back in full swing, news about new risk areas, new quarantine measures and a curfew are rolling over and over again: after her meeting with the mayors of eleven major German cities, the Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to young people in particular to stick to the rules. so that the further spread of corona infections can be contained.
According to Merkel, young people may find restrictions on celebrations or the curfew excessive. But then he asked if it wasn’t worth being patient and thinking about family and grandparents.
Merkel and mayors agreed that cities will introduce sweeping restrictions if more than 50 infections per 100,000 residents are recorded in seven days. This includes, for example, the extension of the obligation to wear oral and nasal protection or the tightening of the requirements for private celebrations.
In Cologne, new rules will apply from the weekend: alcohol consumption should be prohibited in public spaces from 10 pm, in the future a maximum of five people from different households should be allowed to meet in public.
Chancellery Minister Helge Braun expressed his concern in SPIEGEL about the increase in the number of infections in Germany: “In general, it can be said that the freedoms we had during the summer cannot be fully maintained in autumn and winter”, He said. “The general caution among the population must increase again.”
Come now Jens spahn?
It’s not long before the CDU party conference in December. So the party wants to clarify the issue of leadership. Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen are running for party leadership.
My colleagues in SPIEGEL’s capital city office are now reporting on an exciting new development: in the Union, there is obviously growing dissatisfaction with the current range of staff, and in the party the Minister of Health is calling for a possible last minute candidacy Jens spahn noisy. Several officials want him to run. Olav Gutting, a member of the CDU board and a member of the Schwetzingen Bundestag, told SPIEGEL: “I would be happy with many others if Jens Spahn were elected.”
Without a doubt, Spahn has the advantage: in the crisis of the crown, the Minister of Health has gained popularity. The royal candidates, Merz, Laschet and Röttgen, meanwhile, play a supporting role.
Behind the personality of Spahn there is still an interesting game of thought of some people of the Union. Unlike Merz, Laschet and Röttgen, Spahn would probably be more willing to give up the chancellor candidacy as party leader and hand it over to Bavaria, then the way would be clear for Markus Söder.
Loser of the day …
… is Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Just three weeks ago, your Ministry of Defense awarded a major order of 600 million euros for CG Haenel’s new standard assault rifle of the German armed forces. Now the ministry had to withdraw the order. The manufacturer apparently did not inform the ministry about a patent dispute with a US manufacturer over parts of the rifle, reports my colleague Matthias Gebauer. Haenel should have made the ongoing dispute transparent in the contract application, they say.
Of course, this is embarrassing, especially as one wonders why the Kramp-Karrenbauer ministry did not discover the alleged formal error during the long-term selection process. Troops lose out, soldiers can now wait a while for new rifles. The entire project is zeroed first.
