This video says about itself:
Merkel under fire as media suggest state intelligence aided NSA spying
7 May 2015
The German Chancellor has come under fire over claims the country’s intelligence service helped America’s NSA spy on European companies for years.
From the Washington Post in the USA:
An elegant state dinner for Merkel, devoid of any drama
By Roxanne Roberts and Dan Zak, Wednesday, June 8, 5:27 AM
Elegant and uber-low-key, the state dinner for German Chancellor Angela Merkel was remarkably unremarkable, without a hint of intrigue or jubilant abandon, devoid of any Hollywood names. No David Hasselhoff, no Heidi Klum, no one who might steal the spotlight from the head table.
There, in the Rose Garden in front of the Oval Office, President Obama and Merkel professed their mutual admiration before 208 guests seated at tables draped in white-sequined cloth. Prior to his toast, Obama awarded the German leader the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.
So, Merkel gets the Medal of Freedom without having done anything for freedom.
The German voters hate her Rightist pro-capitalist policies. There is even criticism of Ms Merkel within her own party. If there would be elections now, she and her government coalition would lose.
There is just one thing Ms Merkel might conceivably get a medal for. For her plans for a long-term phase out of nuclear energy, making her differ favourably from other governments like in the USA or the Netherlands (where another nuclear reactor is planned) … Hey, wait a moment, until very recently, Merkel’s government wanted to continue with nuclear reactors, before they made an opportunistic electoralist U-turn which did not convince the electorate. So, the “medal” here should go to the Fukushima disaster and the German grassroots movement against nukes; not to Merkel.
Maybe Merkel, sort of, deserves a medal for Germany not participating in bombing Libya … well, err … that is due to the strong peace movement in Germany, and to divergences between US, French, British and German capitalist interests, rather than to Merkel. Meanwhile, Merkel’s Bundeswehr continues to participate in the bloody occupation of Afghanistan.
An attack on high-ranking German and Afghan military personnel has further revealed deep-seated popular hatred of the occupying NATO troops: here.
Obama certainly is not the first US president to award the Medal of Freedom to undeserving people. In 2009, George W. Bush awarded it to war criminal and liar Tony Blair, to his Australian Iraq war accomplice John Howard, and to Alvaro Uribe, ex-President of Colombia and world record holder in murdering trade unionists.
Obama may have thought that he might award the medal to Merkel undeservedly, as he himself got an award undeservedly. When he got the Nobel peace prize, it might still be defended, sorts of, as a slap in the face for his predecessor George W Bush, and because of his promises to close down Guantanamo, end torture, and end the Iraq war.
However, Obama’s post-Nobel record of not closing Guantanamo, not ending torture, not ending the Iraq war, escalating the Afghanistan war and starting the Libya war prove he should give back that prize so that it can be awarded to a genuine anti-war person.
Canada’s Conservative government has announced that the Canadian Armed Forces will play a leading role in the imperialist assault on Libya for weeks, possibly months, to come: here.
War Games: Bundeswehr Under Fire for Giving Kids Access to Guns: here.
Swiss MPs approved a Green Party motion today calling for phasing out nuclear power by 2034 and agreed that no new power stations would be built: here.
2012 Medals of Freedom: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Germany warns US on Afghanistan troop cuts
By MIKE CORDER Associated Press
BRUSSELS (AP) – Germany urged the United States on Thursday not to pull too many troops out of Afghanistan next month, saying a major reduction in American forces could risk NATO’s strategy in the 10-year conflict.
Defense ministers from NATO and other countries fighting in Afghanistan were discussing the war before a decision by the Obama administration on how many of the 100,000 American troops to pull out of the war in July.
German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere urged restraint.
Germany understands the U.S. move, but “we have some concerns that if it is too much then the (Afghanistan) strategy cannot be implemented as agreed. We hope for a moderate step by the American president,” De Maiziere said.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, briefed ministers from NATO and other countries at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. He is slated to deliver options for troop reductions to President Barack Obama in the coming days.
Despite the looming American troop reduction, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the meeting the alliance is on track to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
And he told Taliban insurgents to renounce violence and cut links with terror networks.
“The successful operation against Osama bin Laden sent a clear message – extremism has no future,” Rasmussen told a meeting of defense ministers focussed on the 10-year Afghanistan conflict. “It is time for the Taliban to make a choice: Cut links with al Qaida and terror networks, renounce violence and respect the democratic Afghan constitution.”
Thursday’s meeting was U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ last gathering at the alliance’s headquarters
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Greens agree to back nuclear halt
Germany: The Green Party has agreed to back Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proposal to scrap nuclear energy by 2022.
Most of the 500 delegates to an emergency conference on the issue, which will be debated in the parliament this week, voted to support Ms Merkel’s plan.
It represents a U-turn on an earlier plan to extend their life which was scuppered after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Some Greens complained that the chancellor was stealing their thunder on an issue that they had made a centrepiece of their campaigning since the party was set up.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/106288
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