Selenskyj challenges Putin – the situation in the morning

Good morning, dear readers,

Negotiations for peace in Ukraine have been stalling for months. Donald Trumpwho actually wanted to end the war in the country within 24 hours, slowly loses patience. The Ukrainian President and threats with sanctions pearls refuses his “compromise” to Putin.

Is something going on this week? After all, Putin has direct negotiations with Selenskyj agreed. He expects the boss in the Kremlin personally and with a clear demand.

Wolodymyr Selenskyj wants “complete and unconditional ceasefire – long enough to create the necessary basis for diplomacy,” he said in his every evening. He also expects Putin for a personal conversation in Istanbul on Thursday.

The three -day fire break last week had not been enough for Ukraine or the USA. Both had in advance on an at least 30-day fire break. Donald Trump also threatened with sanctions and with it to completely withdraw from the negotiations. But Putin was neither softened by one nor by the other.

Maybe the European partners of Ukraine have more success? Germany, France and Great Britain want Russia to hire its attacks completely from today. Whether the Kremlin is aimed at it depends on the sanctions with which sanctions the European partners can trump.

Saskia Esken was controversial. At the same time, her departure sends a clear signal: Although she received criticism and ridicule instead of a ministerial post, Esken is the mistress of her situation. And as such, she ends the debacle for her personnel. You can accuse a lot, for example the historically bad election result, but her departure is tactically wise: a victim for the renewal of the party and a victim for the political career of a young SPDler. Esken makes it possible.

All of this is less flattering for Lars Klingbeil. The SPD leader is at least as responsible for the election miser of the Social Democrats as his co-boss. Only he cemented his power with posts in the new federal government. “She became a debt”, but he was the “new strong man of the SPD,” says my colleague Lisa Beck from our capital office.

Klingbeil must now prove this strength first – and not in the government, but in front of your own comrades. The basis accuses him of enriching himself at the “low point of the party” and being punished. It is also expected that he is again running for the party chair. Vice Chancellor, finance minister and then also SPD party leader? How does Klingbeil want to justify that? And where is his vision for the party?

Esken’s departure, that should also be clear to him, does not solve the problems of the SPD, but in the worst case has created new ones.

Donald Trump has her birthday in a little more than a month. But there is already a gift: the US President receives a luxury jet from the royal family in Qatar. The Boeing 747-8 should already be prepared so far that Trump can use it as an Air Force One. He has already signaled that he will not say no. It is probably the most expensive gift that a US government has ever received.

If you are now wondering whether this is not already bribery: the white house has done everything so that it is not so that it is not the case. But read yourself.

Do you also know these annoying button and windows that often pop or flash in online shops? There is a discounts if you still put this or that product in the shopping cart, vouchers, and and and. Traders are getting clever and consumer advocates no longer remain no more than warning customers again and again.

Such manipulative buying incentives are strictly forbidden in Germany and Europe, but not everyone sticks to it. This is why retailers such as Shein and Temu have come into disrepute. As my colleague Matthias Urbach writes from the business editorial team, the ticket seller Eventim also relies on such unfair methods. It is about ticket insurance that customers are almost imposed shortly before payment. A court decided that this is inadmissible. Why Eventim continues anyway, read here:

I wish you a sunny week of the week

Christine Leitner
(News editor)