News that move us in June: We are facing three to four years of shortages +++ Austria wants to allow 6 genders +++ Google wants to pay 118 million dollars for salary discrimination
The most important news in the BRIGITTE ticker
What moves the world? What moves the BRIGITTE editors? In this ticker we summarize the most important news for you in June.
June 22, 2022
We have three to four years of shortages ahead of us
The corona pandemic and the Ukraine war are leaving ever deeper furrows. Inflation is rising and supply chain problems are intensifying. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner fears: “There is a risk of an economic crisis that has to be taken very seriously due to the sharp rise in energy prices, due to supply chain problems, due to inflation,” he said in the ZDF-heute-journal.
“My concern is that in a few weeks and months we could have a very worrying situation,” the minister said. “And in this situation we can’t be choosy. It’s about three to four, maybe five years of shortages, and we have to find an answer for that.” When it comes to countermeasures, there shouldn’t be any taboos, says Lindner. In this context, an extension for the three still functioning nuclear power plants in Germany should also be discussed.
Today, the heads of the traffic light coalition are discussing possible steps against the price increases – especially for gas and energy. According to the Federal Network Agency, the gas supply situation is currently tense, as Russia has been supplying significantly less gas to Germany for a few days.
June 21, 2022
In Austria there should be 6 genders in the future
Austria is the first country in the world to provide six options for specifying gender when reporting to the authorities. According to the draft for an amendment to the Registration Act, one should in future between the designations “male”, “female”, “diverse”, “inter”, “open” and “not specified” can choose. However, the new options are only open to people who can prove on the basis of an expert opinion that they are physically not clearly male or female.
The government in Vienna is thus complying with a ruling by the Constitutional Court in 2018. It had found that people whose gender is not clearly male or female had a right to a corresponding entry. The recognition was fought for by Alex Jürgen, who was born intersex, and the “Lambda Legal Committee”, an association that campaigns for equal rights for homosexual and transgender people in Austria.
However, the newspaper “Die Presse” pointed out that the validity of the decree was not final. It is only an internal instruction to authorities and has so far had no legal effect externally.
June 14, 2022
dm branches closed because cash registers are not working
From Berlin to Leipzig and Würzburg to Freiburg, many dm customers were standing in front of closed doors today. The drugstore chain had to close several stores because the tills didn’t work.
While EC payments were not possible in some supermarkets at the end of May, neither EC payments nor cash payments were possible this morning at the drugstore chain dm. In Freiburg, a sign on the door read: “Due to a cash register failure and the fact that we cannot collect your purchases, we cannot open our branch at the moment. The specialist department is working flat out on a solution! We ask for your understanding .” The customers had to stay outside.
Dm managing director Christoph Werner confirmed the problem on “Bild” request: “There are currently problems with the cash registers in a number of dm markets due to a software error.” However, one assumes that the problem will be fixed “in the next few minutes”.
June 13, 2022
Salary discrimination against women? Google wants to pay $118 million
Google plans to pay $118 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging wage discrimination against women in the United States. After almost five years of proceedings, the parties have agreed that this settlement is “in the best interests of everyone,” according to a Google spokesman. The US group emphasized in a statement that the comparison was not associated with an admission of guilt.
Former Google employees sued their employer in San Francisco in 2017 for allegedly paying women less than men in equivalent positions. Google is also said to have classified women with the same experience and qualifications at lower salary levels than men.
In addition to the payment, Google agreed to an independent review of its hiring and compensation practices. The agreement still has to be approved by the court.
June 9, 2022
Stiko advises risk groups to be vaccinated against monkeypox
After the number of cases of monkeypox in Germany has steadily increased in recent weeks, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has now issued a recommendation for certain risk groups to be vaccinated with a smallpox vaccine. Specifically, the recommendation is aimed at people who have had close physical contact with infected people, at staff who have had unprotected contact with samples in laboratories, and at people with changing sexual partners, as Stiko announced on Thursday in Berlin. Vaccination is carried out using the smallpox vaccine Imvanex, which is approved in the EU.
Monkeypox is usually only transmitted through close contact with an infected person, for example through sexual intercourse, hence the recommendation. The smallpox vaccine is currently only available in limited quantities, so Stiko advises offering it primarily to people at risk of infection. Two doses of vaccine 28 days apart are required for primary immunization. Anyone who has already had a smallpox vaccination only needs one more dose.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, 131 monkeypox cases from ten federal states were reported across Germany by Thursday.
June 8, 2022
After a long struggle: the EU is planning a binding quota for women on company boards and supervisory boards
After the decision for a Europe-wide quota for women was blocked and delayed for a long time, negotiators from the EU states and the EU Parliament have now reached an agreement: In Europe, listed companies will be obliged to employ a minimum proportion of women in their management bodies in the future. By 2026, the EU states should be able to choose between two models: Either at least 40 percent of the non-executive supervisory board members can be women. Or the supervisory boards and executive boards together achieve a proportion of women of at least 33 percent.
The Vice President of the EU Parliament, Evelyn Regner, described such a requirement as long overdue. “According to estimates by the European Institute for Gender Equality, currently only 30.6 percent of the members of the supervisory board are women and only 8.5 percent of the executive boards in the EU are women,” quotes “Zeit” the social democrat, who was instrumental in the negotiations. In order for the decision to be binding, EU states and the European Parliament must now formally agree to the agreement.
June 3, 2022
One in six children has become overweight during the pandemic
The sports facilities were closed, playgrounds were locked, outdoor sports were restricted and lessons were only held within one’s own four walls. The combination of lack of exercise, boredom and unhealthy eating has led to weight gain for many children during the pandemic. Children between the ages of 10 and 12 are particularly affected.
“We have never seen weight gain on the scale seen since the beginning of the pandemic. This is alarming, because obesity can lead to high blood pressure, fatty liver or diabetes even in children and adolescents,” explains Dr. Susanne Weihrauch-Blüher, Senior Physician at the University Children’s Hospital Halle/Saale and spokeswoman for the Working Group on Obesity in Children and Adolescents (AGA) of the DAG. “Even before Corona, 15 percent of children and adolescents were overweight, and six percent were even severely overweight.”
Every sixth child in Germany has become fatter since the beginning of the corona pandemic, almost half move less than before, around a quarter eat more sweets, according to a representative Parent Forsa survey conducted by the German Obesity Society (DAG) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius Center (EKFZ) for nutritional medicine at the Technical University in Munich. In addition, children and young people from low-income families are twice as likely to be affected by unhealthy weight gain as children from high-income families – 23 to 12 percent.
The scientists are now making concrete demands in the form of a “Marshall Plan for Child Health” to absorb the consequences of the pandemic. As an immediate measure, they recommend taxing sugar drinks, advertising barriers for unhealthy foods and strengthening obesity therapy, which is chronically underfunded in Germany.
New Omicron variant is on the rise
The omicron subvariant BA.5 is on the rise in Portugal and is causing the number of infections to rise again significantly. In Germany, too, growth is becoming increasingly clear. Recently, their proportion has doubled in random samples every week – but so far at a very low level, as stated in the weekly report of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on the corona virus. BA.5 currently accounts for 5.2 percent of the positive samples tested for variants – in April it was 0.6 percent.
Not only has the increasing number of cases in Portugal attracted attention, but also the significant increase in the number of hospitalizations and mortality associated with Covid-19 infection. And that despite a good vaccination rate of 87 percent.
In Germany, the omicron subline BA.2 currently still dominates with 90 percent. The new variants BA.4 and BA.5 have basically been known for a few weeks – but the BA.4 share is only growing very slightly in Germany. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies both variants as part of Omikron as worrying. In addition, the number of infections is currently stopping again. A steady decline could be observed for several weeks, which began to stagnate this week. The RKI also calls for compliance with recommendations for avoiding infection. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is already talking about new measures for the coming autumn.
Sources used: zeit.de, adipoditas-gesellschaft.de, welt.de
Any more news?
That was the news in May.