heute journal 21.03.24 Verluste bei Bahn, russische Gelder für Ukraine, Schulnoten Berlin (english)

Störungen auf der Strecke, die chronische Unpünktlichkeit und zuletzt Züge, die streikbedingt gar nicht mehr fuhren – schlechte Nachrichten ist man von der Bahn gewohnt. Heute kommt eine weitere hinzu, wie die Bahn auf der Bilanzpressekonferenz mitteilte. Diese und weitere Nachrichten des Tages im heute journal.

English Subtitles
Today’s topics: Major construction at Deutsche Bahn – Interview with CEO Lutz; Education woe in Berlin – Academic pressure at primary schools; Bored of books – How can we get kids into reading?

00:00 Vorspann

00:21 Deutsche Bahn macht Milliardenverlust
Die Deutsche Bahn hat 2023 einen Milliardenverlust verzeichnet. Konzernchef Lutz kündigt für die Zukunft mehr Investitionen und Sanierungen an – und verspricht pünktlichere Züge.

04:03 Lutz: “Infrastruktur auf Verschleiß gefahren”
“Wir haben einen wahnsinnigen Sanierungsrückstau”, so Bahnchef Richard Lutz. Es gebe keine Alternative zur Generalsanierung der hochbelasteten Strecken.

11:55 Russische Zinsen für ukrainische Waffen
Die EU-Staaten wollen die Militärhilfe für die Ukraine auf eine stabile Grundlage stellen. Hierbei planen sie auch, die Erlöse aus eingefrorenem russischem Vermögen zu nutzen.

17:52 Notendruck schon bei Berliner Grundschülern
Wer in Berlin von der Grundschule auf das Gymnasium wechseln möchte, muss oft einen sehr hohen Notendurchschnitt haben. So beginnt der Lerndruck schon in den ersten Klassen.

24:24 Leipziger Buchmesse: Junge Leute lesen anders
Für junge Leser zählt neben dem Inhalt besonders das Buchcover. Auf TikTok trenden zwar bunt gestaltete Bücher, trotzdem greifen immer weniger junge Menschen zum Buch.

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MAJOR CONSTRUCTION AT DEUTSCHE BAHN QUESTIONS FOR CEO LUTZ EDUCATION WOES IN BERLIN ACADEMIC PRESSURE AT PRIMARY SCHOOL BORED OF BOOKS HOW TO GET KIDS INTO READING And now the “heute journal” with Hanna Zimmermann and Christian Sievers. Good evening, everyone. There are not many companies

Where an entire nation can and wants to have a say in their operations. The Deutsche Bahn is certainly one such company. Everyone has their own experiences, and they are currently rather unpleasant, to say the least, almost routinely late, missed connections, missed appointments, because the train doesn’t arrive,

And a seemingly deadlocked wage dispute with its own train drivers. Rail fans from abroad are shaking their heads. The director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport says, “Germany is our problem child”. He says trains have to be on time, as that’s what the management is there for, and they have to deliver.

Rail management is delivering today, and it’s taking stock of the situation from its perspective. I’ll talk to the CEO of Deutsche Bahn in a moment, but first, Hansjürgen Piel reports. Bad news from Deutsche Bahn is almost the norm these days. Passengers have been sensing for a while

That DB’s reliability has reached an all-time low. And now there is even more bad news: the state-owned company has slipped deeper into the red than expected, by over 2 billion euros in 2023. After the high pandemic setbacks, the bottom line is that these are the highest losses in recent years.

The head of the railways blames this primarily on the high level of construction activity. There is no alternative to building at record levels, if we want to prevent further deterioration of the infrastructure. That is why we have made massive investments in 2023 in consultation with our owner.

Unreliability and losses, at least in part, have the same cause: the dilapidated rail network. It is being renovated. but the many construction sites cost money, and in conjunction with the condition of the rails, they are the main reason for delays and are possibly not entirely unwelcome.

Now, of course, it’s also a convenient excuse. I would say, the public has swallowed it for now. Politicians have swallowed it, and now Deutsche Bahn can hide behind it. Nobody expects the railway to make a profit anymore. It can comfortably spend a million here and another million there. Nobody asks questions.

The reason is always “network issues”. The biggest loss-maker is once again freight transport, with hundreds of millions of euros. An overdue restructuring of DB Cargo is now planned with the outsourcing of entire parts of the company, but it will take some time before this has an impact.

Critics can imagine even more drastic measures. If so many losses are being made, then the question arises as to whether DB Cargo will ever be able to operate within the rail group, or whether DB Cargo would be better off outside the group, i.e. whether DB Cargo should be sold.

However, the sale of the successful freight subsidiary DB Schenker, of all things, has already been decided today, despite the fact that it recently delivered billions in profits. Deutsche Bahn intends to use the proceeds to reduce its massive mountain of debt. The prospects for future balance sheets may therefore be just as bleak

As those for a rapid improvement in reliability. This is because the government, facing its own financial difficulties, has also cut funds for the construction of new lines. We have to expect that there will be no improvement for many years and that the railway will not be able to grow for many years.

So, we will have to live with what we have today, and see that we manage it efficiently and then hope for better times politically. The climate targets of the railway and the government, doubling the number of passengers and significantly increasing rail freight by 2030, hardly seem achievable on that basis.

The head of over 330,000 employees and someone who is supposed to ensure that almost 5 million people reach their destination reliably every day is Richard Lutz, the CEO of Deutsche Bahn. Mr Lutz, good evening. Good evening, Mr Sievers. The wave of strikes has been interrupted, but is not yet over.

When will you finally come to an agreement with the train drivers? Well, you know that we are currently back at the negotiating table. Thank goodness. We issued a press release the other day, with the same wording on both sides, saying that we are in constructive talks.

We are hopeful that this can be brought to a successful conclusion in the next few days. But I’ll ask you to respect that we have agreed not to speculate publicly or communicate interim results. We will give the process the privacy it needs to reach a good conclusion.

The impression has now taken hold among politicians and also among passengers who have been affected that the chemistry is simply not right, i.e. there are mutual accusations, that obviously you can’t really stand each other personally either. Just say something positive about Claus Weselsky today.

I honestly can’t say anything negative about Mr Weselsky when we meet in person. It’s always a very polite interaction, always pleasant and respectful. He was also on a supervisory board that I had chaired for some time. But nevertheless, we represent different interests, and they come to a head,

At least in some areas, due to our contrasting visions. Good, that sounds cautiously optimistic for rail customers in the future. Let’s come to the major issue currently affecting your company. DB should be the central building block for the transport turnaround in this country. Instead, everyone who has a really important appointment

Currently has to leave the day before in order to be able to arrive reliably by train out of concern that something might come up. When will we be out of this absurd situation in Germany? Yes, first of all, there’s nothing to minimise or gloss over.

The fact is, we are not currently meeting our customers’ expectations in terms of reliability and punctuality in both passenger and freight transport. Nor do we meet our own expectations. If we want to find a sustainable solution to this structural problem,

We have to realise that we have been driving the infrastructure to the point of dilapidation for years and decades. I am infinitely grateful that last year, we agreed to a joint programme involving the government, the sector, the construction industry and the rail industry. We now want to and must implement it consistently,

So that this infrastructure no longer has a limiting effect on growth and transport, and, above all, on stability, quality and punctuality. We must implement this now, and then things will get better again. Mr Lutz, you say the railway is pushing an avalanche of renewal.

Some experts say that this is a refurbishment cycle that is hard to break, but now we all know that the federal government has no money, it’s short by billions of euros. It’s now also cutting back on its actual commitments to the railway. Against this background,

How are you actually going to pull off this huge general refurbishment project? That’s not my impression, and that’s not the facts either. Let me say that again. A few weeks ago, at the beginning of February, the federal government passed a federal budget of 17 billion euros for the railways.

As you know, I’ve been around for a while. I lived through years in the early 2000s when there were only 3 to 4 billion euros for the railways. Of course, Mr Lutz, if I may interrupt you: 17 billion is more than the 3 billion you know from the past.

But the Federal Minister of Transport, Mr Wissing, has said that in the next few years alone, there will be an additional requirement of 40 to 45 billion euros. This 17 billion is not enough for that. Well, that’s referring to this 45 billion need, which we had also jointly determined.

This is needed to do what we want to make the infrastructure fit again for growth and traffic shifts, stability and quality. At the moment, we have 30 billion together as a first step. The important thing is that this is not all we had in mind.

But against the background of the ruling from Karlsruhe, and, above all, the situation that we can do everything necessary over the next few years to tackle the backlog of renovation work. Above all, this sends a very, very strong signal at a time when many other policy areas have really had to make cuts

And have not received any additional money. Your colleague at Swiss Railways, the CEO of Swiss Railways, Mr Weibel, said that the refurbishment concept that you are now planning, i.e. to completely close entire key lines, is suicidal. He knows of no railway that completely closes routes for months on end.

Shouldn’t that be a warning to you, coming from a man who really had the Swiss railway under control? Switzerland is different from Germany, in that it didn’t have an infrastructure that was underfunded in any way. I know my Swiss colleagues well, and if faced with this situation,

It would never occur to them to do something similar. But we have an insane backlog of renovation work, and we have seen that if we carry on as we have done so far, only closing single tracks for weeks at a time, we will not get out of this situation,

That we will not get really significant improvements in the state of the infrastructure. That’s why we have decided, and our Swiss and Austrian colleagues know this, that there is no other alternative than to tackle precisely this general overhaul of the heavily used routes.

The Swiss colleagues, whom you know very well, as you say, are actually sending back German trains at the border because the unpunctuality of the German trains is harming their own networks. How embarrassing is that for you? Of course, I don’t think that’s acceptable.

But it does show that our Swiss colleagues place a very, very high priority on the stability of the timetable, the reliability of the overall system, and a high degree of punctuality. Of course, with cross-border trains, we speak to the colleagues there,

And we do everything we can to ensure that we maintain this stability by ensuring that trains arrive punctually at cross-border stations. Currently the trains are interrupted. This is unpleasant, especially for passengers. But it is understandable to a certain extent if you want your own rail system

To run with a high degree of stability and punctuality. That’s what the Swiss do. Mr Lutz, you’re always quoted as someone who cares a lot about this country. To what extent is the state of our railways dragging Germany down? I think one can say

That Germany has many, many areas to improve, and this is one of them. There’s no way around it. And I think we have a great opportunity to show, together with the politicians, what the people in this country, as well as industry stakeholders, can expect in such a situation.

That the issue is not played down or glossed over, but that it will be analysed tirelessly to determine what is responsible. We need to talk about the causes and, above all, about solutions. Then we need to be courageous enough to tackle things and make decisions and not to complain or look for scapegoats,

But to name the issues and implement policies accordingly. That was the CEO of Deutsche Bahn. Richard Lutz, thank you for your time. Of course. We recorded the interview a few hours ago for scheduling reasons. An EU summit in Brussels and a signal. The European Union wants to “intensify” its aid for Ukraine,

As it is called in bureaucratic jargon. And it has found an answer to the question of where the money should come from, which at first glance seems obvious: from Russia. This is anything but uncomplicated, but, at the same time, shows that the help is necessary. Florian Neuhann reports.

If you want to know how desperate the situation in Ukraine is, all you need to do is take a glance at how the sky looked over Kyiv last night. Last night brought the heaviest Russian attacks on the capital in weeks. 13 people were injured. Ukraine urgently needs help,

And the West needs new ideas for who can pay for it. One of them is hiding here at financial services provider Euroclear in the middle of Brussels. This is where they keep 190 billion euros from the Russian central bank, frozen since the beginning of the war. Couldn’t we just use those funds?

The problem with the proposal is that the funds of the Russian central bank are actually immune. This means that they are untouchable by the courts or even the government. It’s only three kilometres from Euroclear to the European Council, where, today, the leaders of the EU made plans

To get their hands on this money, despite all of the red tape. Or rather, they’ve set their sights on the interest that accrues on it, also known in Brussels English as “windfall profits”. We have made ourselves clear here. It is always about the windfall profits. So, the income.

What is important to me is that we now give this use a clear direction, i.e. for the acquisition of ammunition. Interest on Russian state assets could raise 15 billion euros by 2027. According to the proposal, 90% of this should go directly to arms deliveries to Ukraine.

The rest would go to the EU budget. Surprisingly, an agreement was reached in Brussels today on making use of this interest. The dispute is over how to use it. Austria, which sees itself as militarily neutral, would prefer to use the money for reconstruction after the war. For us neutrals, we must ensure

That the money, where we give our consent, is not spent on weapons and ammunition. For Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, dialled in as always, everything is moving too slowly. His country needs the money this year. But wasn’t the Russian money actually untouchably immune? There is, say international law experts, a justification for using it:

The Russian war of aggression. You could say that someone who violates international law to such an extent cannot invoke this immunity when other states take countermeasures. Europe wants to continue to help Ukraine. That should be the signal sent to Kyiv today. But it’s unclear if the help will arrive in time.

Another decision made at the summit today: The EU states are calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the Gaza Strip, which should then lead to a permanent ceasefire. That’s a topic for you, Hanna, in your overview of today’s headlines.

For the first time, the USA has also called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for the release of the Israeli hostages. US Secretary of State Blinken made this statement during his trip to the Middle East.

Until now, the USA had blocked all resolutions on an immediate ceasefire with a veto. Blinken met with Egyptian President El-Sisi and foreign ministers of the Arab League for talks in Cairo today. He is expected in Israel tomorrow. At their summit today, the EU states also decided to open accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

This was announced in the evening by EU Council President Charles Michel. However, further reform steps are still required before a negotiating mandate can be issued. Hard work must now continue, explained Michael on X, formerly Twitter. More than 30 heads of state and government have announced a faster expansion of nuclear energy

At a nuclear summit in Brussels. A joint declaration states that they want to fully exploit the potential of nuclear energy. Capacity is to be tripled by 2050. France, Poland, the USA and China took part in the summit, among others. Germany was not represented. Later, on the “heute journal up:date”,

There is an interview with Anton Hofreiter, Chairman of the Committee on European Union Affairs in the Bundestag. The Yemeni Houthi have apparently reached an agreement with China and Russia not to attack their ships passing through the Red Sea. In solidarity with Hamas in Palestine,

The rebels have been repeatedly attacking this important trade route for months. The frigate Hessen is also sailing there and only today repelled another attack on a convoy of ships. In Portugal, the winner of the early parliamentary elections, Luis Montenegro, has been appointed as the new prime minister.

As his conservative alliance AD fell well short of a parliamentary majority in the election, the 51-year-old is aiming for a minority government. Montenegro had ruled out a coalition with the right-wing populist Chega. The Socialists are also out of the question as partners, as they have rejected a coalition with his party.

Between the first day of school and graduation, there is another key milestone for pupils: the transition from primary to secondary school. When that time comes, it’s a hot topic among parents. Especially in Berlin. Some districts there simply don’t have enough places for everyone at the schools.

There are also to be a strict entry requirements for year six pupils hoping for a spot at a grammar school. The Berlin Senate wants to decide on this before summer break. Stephanie Gargosch and Lisa Beusch have the details. Massive pressure to perform.

Benjamin and his mother have been feeling it for around two years. Since then, the pupils in his current year six class have been fighting for a place at a secondary school. The entrance grade at many grammar schools in Berlin is at least 1.5, the equivalent of an A grade.

We know that the second term of year five and the first term of year six are crucial. The worse we do, the more difficult it will be to get into the school of choice. That’s why the stress is really peaking. The secondary schools, grammar schools and integrated secondary schools,

Make their selections primarily based on grade point averages. At least 60% of school places are allocated this way. The pressure I feel is enormous, because I want to go to the school of my choice. Benjamin’s average is 2.4, the equivalent of a B minus.

Ms Siedelmann searched a long time for a suitable secondary school and spent days researching online. In the end, they applied to three integrated secondary schools that ask for a lower grade average. Now they are waiting. All together, this all took quite a lot of time.

We attended the open days a year in advance. You think: “If I do it the year it’s coming up, then I won’t be able to do it at all.” The core problem in the big cities like Berlin is a lack of school places. Competitive pressure leads to pressure to perform in primary schools.

This is a catastrophe, say education researchers. A tremendous amount of pressure builds up, and the parents start to sweat. The children lose their enjoyment of school, making for an inhumane system in and of itself, because many are hoping to pass their A-Levels, and the bottleneck on the way there is too narrow.

Often, it’s all about cramming. School is becoming a highly competitive environment, and the pressure is also growing on the teaching staff and elementary school heads. The teaching staff are affected, because we are actually being threatened with lawyers and told, “You have to show very clearly what each point really means.”

The pupils come to lessons, even in subjects like art, and say “Why did I get a B? What do I have to do to get an A?” The Berlin Senate Department for Education knows about the bottleneck problem, but defends the principle of entry requirements. The entry requirements aren’t causing the bottleneck in Berlin.

Rather, this is due to having far too few school places in the various types of schools, both grammar schools and ISSs. We have to build faster. It will take at least three years before the situation eases, at least in Berlin. Too late for Benjamin and his friends.

In the big cities, a good education has become a kind of competition for them. And now, the economy. Over to you again, Hanna. According to the Bundesbank, the weakness of the German economy will continue for a little longer. There are few indications of an economic recovery in the second quarter,

According to the central bank’s monthly report. In addition, the Bundesbank continues to expect a slight decline in gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2024. The German economy had already contracted slightly in the final quarter of 2023. None of this is making much of an impression on the DAX today.

It once again reached a new all-time high. Frank Bethmann, how does it all fit together? We’ve been observing these contradictory developments for some time now. Not the only explanation, but one of the most common is that most DAX companies are earning good money on the world markets.

The weakness in Germany also affects them, but not decisively. Today, the Swiss National Bank provided a new, important reason for the record run on the stock markets. It was the first of the major central banks to spring a surprise interest rate cut. The Swiss haven’t done this since 2015.

The direction of travel has thus been set. Key interest rates will fall, even here. It’s just a question of when. Rising share prices represent the hope that key interest rates will fall, making money cheaper to borrow, thus boosting the economy. In this country, the time could come in June.

In the Swiss financial centre, they have shown the way and have already heralded the turnaround today. Not only is the DAX on a record course today, gold is too. How can this be explained? Since the beginning of March,

The price of the precious metal has risen again by almost 200 dollars per troy ounce. In uncertain times, gold is once again proving to be a safe haven in times of crisis, not only for investors but also for numerous central banks.

They have also bought a lot of gold recently, thus becoming an important price driver. Thank you, Frank, for this assessment. In order to better combat disinformation, hate speech and fakes on the internet, the Bundestag passed the Digital Services Act today. It obliges internet companies, but also smaller platforms,

To take action against illegal content. Violations could result in fines. The Federal Network Agency plays a key role here. It is to monitor compliance with the new rules. The new law implements EU requirements. And now, in a special premiere in the Bundestag, a Deaf member of parliament took up her post today

For the first time in parliamentary history. Heike Heubach was welcomed in a special way, with the sign for applause. The SPD politician represents the constituency of the Augsburg region and entered the Bundestag as a successor. The 44-year-old is accompanied by two sign language interpreters. Reading is great, and important.

You can’t say that often enough, even on television. What you read turns into images and stories in your head. Reading encourages the imagination and stimulates fantasy. This is true for everyone, and especially for children. The relevant studies are very clear on this. Reading is healthy.

Children who read a lot sleep better and for longer. They are more relaxed and suffer less from stress. They develop more empathy and creativity. Sounds great. But there are two catches: First, hanging out on a tablet or smartphone is no substitute for real books.

Second, how do you turn young digital natives into real bookworms? The Leipzig Book Fair had an idea. Steffi Moritz reports. This year, Paul, Leonor and their reading friends selected the best books of the year for young people themselves, organised by reading foundation “Stiftung Lesen”.

Because they know why young people pick up a book, and what they like to read. I really like to read manga, action and fantasy, because I can just sink into another world. It’s a great feeling. I sit on my couch and transport into another world. With many books, you can empathise.

This emotional strength comes from the book itself. I always find that beautiful. What helps you decide what to read? I get inspiration from social media, from TikTok, Instagram or even posters. Sometimes I go to the library and just take a look around. Young people read differently today.

For them, books are more than just printed words. It’s important to read with the visual eye, too. Colourful books are the trend, and not without reason. They are also used as decorative objects on Instagram and TikTok, especially the book, including the layout. For example, opulent colour sections.

They are sort of “mandatory” for their own staging and platform. Most of them are active on TikTok themselves and want to present their book walls and their personality. The book fair is set to welcome 300,000 visitors again. So, a recent study by the “Börsenverein”, the Publishers & Booksellers Association, is hard to believe:

Significantly fewer books are being bought. But audiobooks, podcasts and e-books are competing with printed books. The number of young readers in particular is shrinking, and that has consequences. We urgently need to do something, as the Pisa study shows. A quarter of all children leave school unable to read a book properly.

By year ten, pupils demonstrably have problems grasping more complex tasks. Fewer and fewer parents read to their children. Fewer and fewer new books are available in libraries, and prices for books and magazines are rising. Reading, education and reading make a significant contribution to democracy.

By keeping myself informed beyond my own bubble, I get to know other opinions. Reading is training in empathy, being able to put myself in other people’s shoes, examining arguments and counter-arguments. That’s what I find so important. And that needs to be promoted more. This country needs to invest in education.

The Book Fair has also made an investment. This time, there’s not just one hall, but two just for children and young people, and lots of social media. How do you recognise fake news? That’s just one topic at the fair’s new youth camp.

But this is where those who love books, comics and news frolic. Meanwhile, the number of people who can’t read, or don’t want to, is growing. “Freezing the war”… Capitulating to Putin? This could become a heated discussion, coming right up with our colleague Maybrit Illner.

Around 12:30 AM, tune in to our “heute journal up:date” with Nazan Gökdemir. From all the colleagues who took part in this programme, have a nice evening. Goodbye. WEATHER REPORT Good evening today, on International Forest Day. The forest has been able to recover to some extent thanks to the rainfall in recent months.

However, climate change is still taking its toll. Four out of five trees are sick, and it will take time for more resilient, climate-resistant species to grow tall. Nevertheless, even a dead tree benefits the forest. Dead wood provides a habitat for animals such as woodpeckers

And serves as a food source for fungi and other organisms. The trunk also continues to store water. In the end, it becomes valuable humus, which a healthy forest urgently needs to grow. Of course, the forest also needs the right weather. We can see that the high, Markus, is now moving eastwards

And the low, Kilia, from the northwest, will bring rain to northern Germany tomorrow. Then also showers and thunderstorms. Tonight will be the last rain showers on the edge of the Alps, otherwise it will be partly cloudy and fog will form. Temperatures will drop down to between 1 and 10 degrees,

And tomorrow, we’ll see temperatures of 10 to 13 degrees in northern Germany. Otherwise it will be 14 to 19 degrees, and up to 21 degrees on the Upper Rhine. It will be very sunny in southern Germany. Rain clouds will pass over the Upper Rhine and the northern half of the country in particular.

That will now change with this nicer weather. Temperatures will plummet on Saturday, and on Sunday, they will only be between 5 and 10 degrees. There will be sleet storms and, in the mountains, snow. Have a nice evening.