A German government-sanctioned special investigation has exposed a “clear breach” of intelligence-sharing agreements—including illegal surveillance of European authorities—between the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its German counterpart, known as the BND.
The news magazine Der Spiegel reported (German) the development on Friday, after having seen a copy of the 300-page report from former federal judge Kurt Graulich, who was appointed by Chancellor Angela Merkel in July to investigate the NSA’s activities within Germany. Graulich is due to formally submit the report next week to the German Parliament.
In examining a list of so-called “selectors” or “catchwords” given to the BND by the NSA, Graulich uncovered a “surprisingly large number” of European targets said to have been disallowed by Germany’s BND on the grounds that they violated European or German interests. The list of 39,000 keywords—many of them email addresses and phone numbers—included government institutions in two-thirds of all EU member states and commercial enterprises, according to a translation of Der Spiegel‘s reporting.
Der Spiegel writes that Graulich “did not specify” whether the catchwords were related to “economic espionage or reconnaissance for military purposes.”
However, “the cooperation between NSA and BND was neither transparent nor…controlled for the German side,” he clearly indicated.
The news comes one day after the European Parliament passed a resolution urging its nations to afford NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden protection. Snowden’s 2013 leaks helped uncover the extent of the NSA’s cooperation with European nations, including Germany.
The NSA reportedly did not respond to Graulich’s requests for explanation.
Earlier this month, a group of activists flew a drone over a key NSA complex in Germany, dropping leaflets encouraging the intelligence workers inside to quit in protest over invasive surveillance.
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In a development with real implications for the upcoming Congressional debate over the corporate-friendly TransPacific Partnership (TPP), an international coalition of labor and consumer groups on Thursday filed “double-barrel,” cross-border complaints to challenge workers’ rights abuses by a Mexican retail giant in both the U.S. and Mexico.
Though the complaints are not directly tied to the 12-nation TPP agreement, how the Obama administration responds to them will offer labor and human rights groups a glimpse of its position on labor protections in international trade agreements.
“President Obama is pushing for TPP approval in the face of strong opposition from unions and others who see it as a giveaway to multinational companies that will only intensify inequality and downward pressure on jobs and wages,” said University of Maryland international labor law professor Marley Weiss, who was formerly chair of the U.S. National Advisory Committee on the NAFTA labor agreement. “If the administration fails to take strong action in this case, critics will see it as a signal that the United States is falling short on linking trade, investment, and labor rights.”
Led by the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 770 (UFCW) union in the U.S. and the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) union in Mexico, the coalition is seeking redress from Chedraui Commercial Group under both the NAFTA labor agreement and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines.
Chedraui is Mexico’s third-largest retail chain with 35,000 employees in more than 200 stores throughout the country; the corporation also has a majority-stake in the California-based Bodega Latina Corporation, which does business as the El Super grocery chain with 50 supermarkets employing more than 5,000 workers in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
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According to UFCW Local 770 president Ricardo Icaza, “in both Mexico and the United States, the company has silenced employees’ voices and trampled their rights.”
The OECD complaint calls for a halt to El Super’s “aggressive, multi-year campaign of coercion against workers seeking a living wage, adequate sick days, and affordable health insurance,” while the NAFTA filing alleges that Chedraui has “cultivated dozens of sham unions in Mexico through so-called ‘protection contracts’ that represent the interests of management, not workers, and prevent the formation of independent unions.”
“We believe an international solution is necessary to this international problem,” said Icaza.
The coalition says that Thursday’s filing is the first time complaints about a company’s international labor abuses have been simultaneously submitted under both the OECD and NAFTA complaint mechanisms—an approach organizers believe “will produce results tailored to the situation in each country.”
But the impact could go far beyond these specific cases, coming just as debate over the controversial TPP—which has been called “NAFTA on steroids”—intensifies. As the Obama administration tries to push the TPP through Congress, labor groups will be watching its response to these complaints, and if it fails to act, TPP critics will likely see it as proof that the U.S. is failing to protect labor rights within trade agreements.
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After strong wins in Nebraska and Kansas Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Sunday that he is gaining momentum with voters across the board, specifically noting his appeal to young voters.
Speaking to reporter Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union”, Sanders said, ” We are doing better and better with younger people, whether they’re black, Latino or white,” he said.
“Our numbers are getting better and better. In general, our numbers are getting better.”
“Well, for a start, Dana, what we are seeing in many cases is not just a racial divide, but a generational divide. We are doing better and better with younger people, whether they’re black, Latino or white. Our numbers are getting better and better. In general, our numbers are getting better. Truth is, we have not done well in the Deep South. But I am – I am absolutely certain that our numbers will continue to get better. And what we have done, based on yesterday, at this point, we have now won seven primaries and caucuses all across this country, all with double-digit victories.”
“We won with 67 percent of the vote in Kansas. If the turnout is high in Maine today, I think we have a good chance of winning there as well. So I think we’re showing strength all across this country. And as the blurb you just played showed, we are doing better against Trump than Hillary Clinton is. I think there was a poll that came out today having us beat Trump in Michigan by 22 points. So if Democrats want the strongest candidate to defeat Trump, I think you’re looking at him.
“We have made enormous progress over the last 10 months. We have now 5 million individual contributions, campaign contributions. We don’t have a super PAC. BernieSanders.com is doing fantastically well in raising money from ordinary Americans. We are going to stay in this campaign to the convention in July. Every state has the right to vote for the candidate of their choice…… BASH: No, senator, but will you do that even if Secretary Clinton gets the number of delegates needed in the contests before the convention? [SANDERS] Dana, you are – you are speculating. I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think that we have a lot of strength in very large states all across this country. I think we’re going to do very well in New York State. I think we have a good chance of winning throughout the West Coast in California, state of Washington, Oregon. I think our message of a corrupt campaign finance system which has to be changed, a rigged economy where almost all new income and wealth is going to the top one percent, that is resonating all over this country. So I don’t want to speculate as to what happens tomorrow or three weeks from now. We think we have momentum, and we think we’re going to do just fine.”
“I believe that the United States should join every other industrialized country on earth in guaranteeing health care to all people. Is that fantasy? If every – if Canada can do it, the U.K. can do it, France can do it – you know what? I don’t think it’s fantasy to say that we can do it in the United States. Is it fantasy to say that our young people should be able to go to college regardless of their income as we establish free tuition at public colleges and universities? Well, Germany has that. Scandinavia has that. Countries all over the world have that. Is it fantasy to say that we should end the obscene level of income and wealth inequality with the 20 wealthiest people in this country, now wealth from the bottom 50 percent? All of that may be fantasy to the ruling class and the big-money interests in this country. I don’t think that’s fantasy to the working people in this country who are work longer hours for lower wages who are tired of establishment politics and establishment economics…”
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Sanders noted that in a general election match-up, he is doing better against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump than rival Hillary Clinton.
“If Democrats want the strongest candidate to defeat Trump, I think you’re looking at him,” Sanders said.
Sunday afternoon, Maine Democrats will caucus.
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Mercedes has reaffirmed its commitment to Formula 1, the German manufacturer strengthening the ties that exist between its Grand Prix team and its AMG division.
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff recently rubbished rumors of a sale of the manufacturer’s F1 outfit to UK chemical giant and team sponsor INEOS
In a conference call with investors on Tuesday, any remaining doubts about Mercedes’ future in Grand Prix racing were put to rest by the company’s new global strategy that include a presence in F1, closer ties to AMG and a full commitment to electrification, with the production of a range of new cars
“We will use the technology development in Formula 1 for performance hybrids and going into other exciting technologies in the future, and put that into our AMG cars,” explained Mercedes chief executive Ola Källenius.
“With Project One, we’re taking the Formula 1 powertrain and putting it on the road. So it just comes natural to us to leverage Formula 1 even more for AMG going forward.”
Read also: Red Bull labels 2020 Mercedes ‘most complete and rounded car’ yet
The stronger alliance between Mercedes F1 and AMG will entail closer marketing links between the two entities, a technology transfer to AMG’s road cars and a more prominent presence of the AMG identity on the Brackley squad’s cars.
Mercedes returned to F1 as a works outfit in 2010 following the acquisition of Brawn GP and has won every single Constructors’ and Drivers’ championship since the advent of the hybrid engine in 2014.
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Levi Strauss & Co. has introduced its shoppers to SecondHand, a
recommerce site that buys back unwanted Levi’s items and resells
quality second hand denim.
“Levi’s SecondHand keeps coveted pieces in circulation,” the
company explained on its website. “It’s all about connecting people to
timeless styles they otherwise may not have found, and most
importantly, saving clothing from going into a landfill. Old denim has
never looked better.”
Customers may drop off unwanted Levi’s items at participating
stores in exchange for a gift card. The company will professionally
clean and sort the returned denim, which will then be sold through its
new SecondHand online store.
Shoppers can now find vintage and recently-made secondhand Levi’s
pieces through the site, with prices ranging from 30 dollars for a
pair of “mint condition” jeans to 297 dollars for a vintage denim
jacket.
A Republican candidate running for an open House seat in Montana was caught on tape praising the GOP’s measure to repeal and replace ObamaCare after declining to answer a question on Thursday about his stance on the bill.
A spokesman for Greg Gianforte, who is running against Democrat Rob Quist to fill seat vacated by now-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, told The New York Times that the candidate needs “to know exactly what’s in the bill before he votes on it.”
But in a call with lobbyists in Washington on Thursday, Gianforte could be heard expressing support for the American Health Care Act, the GOP bill repealing large parts of ObamaCare that the House narrowly passed Thursday, The Times reported.
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“The votes in the House are going to determine whether we get tax reform done, sounds like we just passed a health care thing, which I’m thankful for, sounds like we’re starting to repeal and replace,” Gianforte said on the phone call, according to the report.
The Montana special election is seen increasingly as a key battle for Republicans working to keep their House majority and Democrats looking to capitalize on President Trump’s historically low approval ratings.
Like other special elections in Kansas and Georgia, the Montana race has gained national attention. Vice President Pence is expected to travel to Montana next week to campaign for Gianforte. Likewise, Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) is set to appear alongside Quist this month.
Gianforte’s campaign manager Brock Lowrance told the Times that the candidate would not have voted for the bill, because he didn’t know what’s in it. He said Gianforte simply meant that he was “thankful” healthcare reform was underway.
Hours after President Barack Obama signed into law a defense bill that continues to thwart closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, a group of human rights activists is staging a vigil and fast at its gates to say “the whole prison must shut down.”
Under the banner “Forced-Feeding, Not Feasting at Guantanamo,” the Thanksgiving Day action outside of the base in Cuba by 14 members of Witness Against Torture aims to put a spotlight on the men who continue to suffer unjust detention and the continued practice of force-feedings of hunger striking prisoners at “the site of one of our country’s greatest shames.”
“Our actions are a simple act of solidarity,” Chris Knestrick from Cleveland, Ohio said in a media statement. “We are here to say: We know you are suffering; we have come to stand with you.”
In addition to closing the prison, the group says the U.S. military needs to shut down entirely its naval base in Cuba.
“The military base itself is an unwelcome symbol of U.S. power, which houses a torture chamber,” said New York artist Enmanuel Candelario. “No country should endure this breach of its sovereignty.”
The group’s current visit to Guantanamo marks their second; their initial trip was a decade ago. “We are impatient,” said Frank Lopez, an educator from New York City. “That is the understatement of the century,” he said, noting that though a few of the detainees have been freed and despite Obama’s pledge in 2008 to close the prison, 47 men who’ve been cleared for release still languish there. “The whole prison must shut down,” he said.
The action was met with praise by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which has represented current and former Guantanamo detainees.
Aliya Hana Hussain, Advocacy Program Manager for the Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative at CCR, writes Thursday, “In a place designed to dehumanize everyone it touches, this simple act of compassion has real power.”
“In the absence of their own homecoming, these activists are bringing humanity to the prisoners,” she writes, noting that
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Much has been made of how Donald Trump’s racist remarks on the 2016 presidential campaign trail are “un-American,” outlandish, and—incredibly to some—giving him a bump in the polls.
But others say it’s time for a reality check.
They say Trump is merely a symptom, not the disease. That he’s tapping into latent cultural currents and that we shouldn’t, in fact, be surprised that his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-“other” rhetoric is boosting his campaign and invigorating white supremacy.
Trump is “definitely not an outlier,” Erika Lee, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, told The Hill. “We always have this undercurrent of xenophobia that can burst at the seams. This might be the match that turns something that was simmering into a boil.”
“No good can come when we lie to ourselves,” added Chauncey DeVega at Salon on Friday. “Donald Trump’s racism, nativism, and bigotry are as American as apple pie.”
Citing the “racist immigration and naturalization laws” the U.S. used for decades to “maintain its status as a majority ‘white’ country,” DeVega continued: “Nativism and xenophobia are not limited to the demagoguery of Republican carnival-show barker professional wrestling wannabe reality TV show hosts who want to be president of the United States.”
Indeed, Peter Schroeder reported Friday for The Hill, “there is a significant chunk of the public eager to crack down on an influx of foreigners.”
“The sentiment is there in the electorate,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public policy at Princeton University. “You don’t need Donald Trump to have people who are calling for borders to be closed, but he taps into it. He brings it out.”
Consider Bettina Norden, a 60-year-old farmer in Springfield, Oregon, who said of Trump in an interview with the New York Times on Friday: “He’ll keep a sharp eye on those Muslims. He’ll keep the Patriot Act together. He’ll watch immigration. Stop the Muslims from immigrating.”
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Norden’s statement supports what Olivia Nuzzi declared Friday at the Daily Beast: “Trump’s ugliness does not seem to matter to his supporters because Trump’s ugliness is a reflection of the rot that can devour the soul when a person is overcome by paranoia and fear.”
The real challenge, then, is to confront not the mouthpiece, but the underlying message.
“Racism, bigotry and xenophobia are a core part of America’s national character,” DeVega warned in Salon. “We cannot defeat Donald Trump until we acknowledge that fact and own its legacy.”
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An Ohio grand jury has decided not to bring criminal charges against the two Cleveland police officers involved in last year’s fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
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Rice, who was black, was playing with a pellet gun when he was shot by white Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann. Video evidence shows that neither Loehmann nor Frank Garmback, the other officer present, moved to provide first aid to Rice while he lay dying.
According to Cleveland.com:
Monday’s decision comes in spite of the fact that in June, a judge in Cleveland found probable cause that Loehmann should face murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide, and dereliction of duty charges in the shooting death of Rice last November. The judge also ruled that probable cause exists to charge Garmback with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty.
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A group of clergy and activists known as the ‘Cleveland 8’ in July issued a video and open letter lambasting the grand jury process. It read in part:
Attorneys for the Rice family reiterated some of these criticisms in a statement released Monday, saying they were “saddened and disappointed by this outcome—but not surprised.”
“It has been clear for months now that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty was abusing and manipulating the grand jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment,” the attorneys said. “Even though video shows the police shooting Tamir in less than one second, Prosecutor McGinty hired so-called expert witnesses to try to exonerate the officers and tell the grand jury their conduct was reasonable and justified.”
“Then, Prosecutor McGinty allowed the police officers to take the oath and read prepared statements to the grand jury without answering any questions on cross-examination,” the statement continued. “Even though it is black letter law that taking the stand waives the Fifth Amendment right to be silent, the prosecutor did not seek a court order compelling the officers to answer questions or holding the officers in contempt if they continued to refuse. This special treatment would never be given to non-police suspects.”
The family’s attorneys said they are renewing their request that the Department of Justice “step in to conduct a real investigation into this tragic shooting.”
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President Barack Obama said during his final State of the Union that he would reform how oil and gas development is managed on public lands. Great, say environmental groups, who add that in order to really “protect the planet and his own climate legacy,” he must keep those fossil fuels in the ground.
Reacting to the president’s announcement to push for changes to oil and coal resource management, Abigail Dillen, Earthjustice Vice President of Litigation for Climate and Energy, said, “This is essential,” while Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard called it “encouraging.”
“For far too long,” Leonard’s statement continued, “the Interior Department has given away our publicly owned fossil fuels to mining and drilling companies without regard for the damage they cause to communities and our climate.”
As Ben Adler explained at Grist on Monday:
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Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said ahead of the address that Obama should seize his “final opportunity to curb one of the gravest dangers to the world’s climate: fossil fuel companies’ grotesque exploitation of America’s beautiful public lands. Every new fossil fuel lease pushes our planet closer to a dangerous climate tipping point because it locks us into more decades of dangerous carbon pollution.”
Leases on public land and offshore areas “now generate nearly a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions,” Suckling said. “Fracking, mining and drilling are destroying America’s natural heritage to create planet-warming pollution.”
It’s a key moment, Jamie Henn, director of communications and strategy for 350.org, writes, to see if Obama will “continue to act in the way he did on Keystone XL, standing up to Big Oil and turning down projects that endanger the climate and our communities or […] continue to promote fossil fuel development, leaving a legacy full of contradictions and half-measures. Here’s why:
Taking this important climate action to truly embark on an energy transition “is change the President can lead,” Earthjustice’s Dillen says.
And here’s an important reminder: “These lands are owned by the American people,” Suckling stated, adding that “the administration has a responsibility to manage them for the public trust. In the president’s last year in office, he must find the courage to take this powerful action to protect the planet and his own climate legacy.”
The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org were among hundreds of organizations who signed a letter for Obama in September 2015 urging him, for economic reasons as well as for the climate, to stop new leases for fossil fuel extraction on areas that are “cherished resources for us all [and that] embody deep and diverse cultural values and provide clean air and water, recreation and solitude, and refuge for endangered wildlife.”
The letter states that the Obama “administration alone has leased nearly 15 million acres of public land and 21 million acres of ocean for fossil fuel industrialization. In total more than 67 million acres—an area 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park—is already leased to the fossil fuel industry.”
Stopping such leases “would safeguard our air and water from dirty energy pollution; ensure the health of communities that have lived in energy sacrifice zones for generations; and keep our last, best wildlife habitat from being lost to fossil fuel industrialization,” they wrote.
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