Germany on Trade and Trading with the Enemy
The Economist: The German problem:Why Germany’s current-account surplus is bad for the world economy
Introduction:
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THE battle-lines are drawn. When the world’s big trading nations convene this week at a G20 summit in Hamburg, the stage is set for a clash between a protectionist America and a free-trading Germany.
President Donald Trump has already pulled out of one trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and demanded the renegotiation of another, the North American Free-Trade Agreement. He is weighing whether to impose tariffs on steel imports into America, a move that would almost certainly provoke retaliation. The threat of a trade war has hung over the Trump presidency since January. In contrast, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor and the summit’s host, will bang the drum for free trade. In a thinly veiled attack on Mr Trump, she delivered a speech on June 29th condemning the forces of protectionism and isolationism. An imminent free-trade deal between Japan and the European Union will add substance to her rhetoric (see article ).
There is no question who has the better of this argument. Mr Trump’s doctrine that trade must be balanced to be fair is economically illiterate. His belief that tariffs will level the playing field is naive and dangerous: they would shrink prosperity for all. But in one respect, at least, Mr Trump has grasped an inconvenient truth. He has admonished Germany for its trade surplus, which stood at almost $300bn last year, the world’s largest (China’s hoard was a mere $200bn). His threatened solution—to put a stop to sales of German cars—may be self-defeating, but the fact is that Germany saves too much and spends too little. And the size and persistence of Germany’s savings hoard makes it an awkward defender of free trade.
Washington Post: The United States and Europe are on a collision course over Iran
Introduction:
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When the French energy giant Total signed a landmark gas deal with Iran this month, the company’s chief executive lauded the nearly $5 billion investment as a trailblazing initiative for peace.
“We’re here to build bridges, not walls,” Patrick Pouyanné said in an interview with Agence France-Presse at the signing ceremony in Tehran.
The venture, which includes China’s National Petroleum and the Iranian company Petropars, will develop the South Pars gas field under a 20-year contract. It is Iran’s first major energy contract with a European firm since a nuclear deal with world powers lifted sanctions on Iran last year.
“Economic development is also a way of building peace,” Pouyanné said.
Pouyanné’s remarks reflect a broader vision among European leaders for improving ties with Iran, in part by encouraging firms such as Total to invest now that major sanctions are gone. But his comments also highlight the growing rift between the United States and Europe over how to engage with Iran, which the Trump administration has identified as a global menace and singled out for sanctions and isolation.
Since President Trump took office, Europe and the United States have pursued increasingly different courses on Iran, casting doubt over the future of the nuclear accord, which limits Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief and other trade.
Lone Actor attack @ Hamburg
The BBC report starts:
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The man who killed one person and injured six in a supermarket knife attack in Hamburg was a "known Islamist", officials say."He was known as an Islamist but not a jihadist," Hamburg's Interior Minister Andy Grote said, noting the suspect also had "psychological" issues.
The man, a failed asylum seeker born in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), attacked customers at random on Friday.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40763369
Via Twitter citing a German press report in Bild:
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Hamburg locals who cornered and overwhelmed Islamist knifeman on Friday: Afghan, Egyptian, German, Turkish
Investigators repeatedly missed chances to stop the Berlin killer
Mistakes happen in many investigations, but it appears the Berlin terrorist attack with a hijacked lorry was far worse. Here is one passage:
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The special investigator found that, although Berlin police considered Amri to be the most dangerous Islamist in the city, they only put him under surveillance for a few weeks. Even then, the monitoring stopped on weekends and on public holidays.
Link:https://www.thelocal.de/20171012/off...error-attacker
More knowledge leads to more questions
More revelations about the Berlin truck attacker, just as the first anniversary comes, on the 19th December. The title and sub-title says enough:
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Christmas market terrorist Anis Amri may have been used as 'lure': German newspaper According to data obtained by Welt newspaper, German authorities knew more than a year in advance that Anis Amri presented a clear danger. Intelligence services may have hoped that he would lead them to other terrorists.
Link:http://www.dw.com/en/christmas-marke...per/a-41828681
Only half of 'dangerous' Islamists actually dangerous - German police
Odd timing for such an article after recent publicity over the mistakes made, but this is Germany. At a minimum it is a pointer to the assessment tool developed and in use. Here is a key phrase:
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But it's no great skill to identify people who are highly violent...The skill is in categorizing the people who are not dangerous among the people defined as endangerers.
Link:http://www.dw.com/en/only-half-of-da...ce/a-41848406?
Extreme right group members found guilty of terror-related crimes
With almost no reporting outside Germany a year long trial of the 'Freital Group' ended today, after lengthy legal arguments:
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Eight people have been found guilty of numerous crimes including deliberate attacks on refugee shelters in Germany. After a yearlong trial, the legal points hinged on the very nature of the group's structure and intent.
Link:http://www.dw.com/en/freital-group-members-found-guilty-of-terror-related-crimes/a-42852954?
A German right-wing extremist soldier's double life
Strange and I think his arrest was reported here. A German article that opens with:
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One year ago, a right-wing extremist German army officer was arrested on suspicion of terrorism, then it was discovered he was also leading a double life as a Syrian refugee. The case is anything but closed.In early February 2017, Franco A., a career soldier in the German army, the Bundeswehr, was apprehended by Austrian authorities as he attempted to retrieve a French pistol and ammunition that he had hidden in a bathroom at the Vienna airport. After checking his fingerprints in a database, authorities discovered that the man, born the son of an Italian father and a German mother in the Hesse region of Germany, was actually registered as a Syrian refugee and living in Bavaria. Despite the fact that he spoke hardly any Arabic and was supposed to be serving full-time at a Bundeswehr base in Alsace, nobody had realized he was leading a double life.
Link:http://www.dw.com/en/a-german-right-...ife/a-43540639
The Under-Discussed Recent History Of The Radical Right Terrorism In Germany
Back to the completed trial in July 2018 of XRW murderers, a wider commentary that concludes:
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These findings, though, do not lead to the conclusion that we experience a rigorous criminal prosecution against radical right offenders in Germany. On the contrary, when it comes to
neo-Nazi violence in general (such as arson attacks, assaults, or riots), law enforcement often works slowly and hesitantly....This observation reveals an ambiguity in dealing with radical right violence in Germany. A consistent and decisive handling of this challenge by the prosecuting authorities is far off.
The article is by a UK-based observer of the XRW, CARR; oddly this commentary is not on their website (link:https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/) and is on a website not seen before.
Link:https://rantt.com/the-under-discusse...sm-in-germany/
Opinion: Neo-Nazis in Germany's police — put out the fire - and the Army SOF
Hardly believable: a fax was sent last summer from a Frankfurt police station's fax to the lawyer representing some of the victims in the long running (NSU) Neo-Nazi murder spree trial. So the first link is to a commentary:https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-neo-na...ire/a-46794541
Second is an August 2018 report of a Neo-Nazi cell inside the German Army SOF:https://www.dw.com/en/cases-of-far-r...ary/a-43352572
Ah, Berlin "we have a problem with our elite cops here"
Alerted by Twitter to these arrests, but nothing readily found on the BBC. Then AM today a series of tweets from @andrewflood and summarised as and complete with links to various articles, some in German:
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Truly shocking revelations from Germany this morning of a far-right cell mostly composed of cops connected to the recent murder of a politician which had used their access to police computers to draw up a death list with 25,000 targets on it & stole 10,000 bullets + machine gun.
Link:https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...505151489.html
(Added) Or a UK newspaper, which is a summary only:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...P=share_btn_tw
Oddly the first Google hit I did went to this Trotskyite website, which appears to have the same news and some commentary.
Link:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/201.../meck-j24.html