now even without the incidents that happened in the last week chancellor merkel has getting a lot of. resistance from german citizens a lot of pressure from media and from opposition politicians that say that she should be taking a tougher stance that she should take a tougher line with the u.s. why do you think that she's alternately chosen not to do that. well first of all i think the german people have a living memory of a tele tarion state and that's the stuff the east german stasi and the studies state and how they monitored and collected information on virtually everybody they could so they have a living memory of that now we here in the united states don't i mean we'd have to go back almost two hundred forty years before we'd have somebody who was more like a dictator george the third in england in charge of us at the time so we don't have any living memory of attala tarion state or the process of these that the taliban are in states implement and that's part of the problem here in the states over there they have a they have a living memory of it so they're obviously it's under

surveillance program chancellor merkel said the two countries have very different approaches to the role of intelligence agency is how would you create characterize that difference. i'm not so sure there is too much difference at all except in terms of the approach that n.s.a. has taken in bulk acquisition of information i'm not sure that the the german counterpart is doing that but i don't know for sure i mean they'll have to find out in their investigation if they're in fact doing that also if they aren't then and certainly that would be a big difference well we know that that germany has been trying to find out more about the extent of u.s. surveillance in germany you were actually called to testify in front of the german parliament this month about that very issue what were you asked. just basically you know what what i perceived the entire intelligence objective with this book acquisition of information was i mean it was it was basically a total information awareness effort to find out every information on everybody in the planet and to me that was a not just a waste of time energy

and calls sent by all received by a german citizens were monitored every month and of course chancellor merkelfell victim herself her phone was tapped out in february it was reported the former chancellor gerhard schroeder's phone calls were snooping on in the run up to the u.s. led war in iraq the invasion of iraq one american investigative journalist told us r.t. the latest revelations are leaving berlin in paris now the german and american security systems are so interwoven you can't even separate them they're basically the same infrastructure the same architecture of security so if germany was to say they don't want to it's very hard for them not to because there's so many institutions which are basically into a wall that made the same incident the german political leadership. wants to be involved with the united states they want to have an integrated security it's a structure it's part of who they are it is part of who they been since the end of world war two but this recent espionage scandal of america being spied on and of the two ross recent cases is embarrassing for the german politic

had been tapping chancellor merkel's cell phone. the most recent disclosures appear to belie u.s. claims that they were looking to rein in the intelligence services and better way political costs against possible information benefits. >> german u.s. relations are already strained because of the nsa revelations. is this another setback? >> we have heard some fairly strong statements from the range of politicians. this could be a very serious breach of trust. parliamentarians are currently in the u.s., members of the german foreign relations committee. they apparently have conveyed real distress to the u.s.. they need to work together whether it is on russia, uraine, matters related to iran and anything that puts another burden on the trans atlantic relationship makes that kind of cooperation more difficult. there are very real political costs here. they need to be weighed against any potential benefits >> chief political correspondent reporting, thank you very much. >> thomas is capable of firing rockets at big israeli cities. >> we will be back in exactly 60 seconds. >> all that a

s nsa had monitored chancellor merkel's personal cell phone, surveilled her email, text messages and phone conversations to and from germany. germany is a pivotal player in -- also recall that germany in the 28 member european union is the no. 1 power. also apart from the european union, president obama needs chancellor merkel's cooperation for some of the sensitive initiatives, particularly the nuclear talks with iran. >> how much damage has been done to the relationship by the u.s. spying? >> german public opinion is -- she secretly knows this is just how the world works. but she has to go tough. german public opinion is a streak of anti-americanism and they have their history of spying -- >> germany is not interested in a serious rift with the u.s. there's a group called the 5i's. they agree not to spy on each other. in exchange far that, they have extraordinary access to each other's intelligence. the germans were asked if they want to be part of that and they didn't want to. you can see the cia is over there. it was a node for the 9/11. i can see how the cia overstepped. she's r

russia's president has now arrived in brazil there's already been a meeting with the german chancellor merkel who has also come to see the football world cup later today paul scott is in rio de janeiro following the president's big trip well later on sunday russian president vladimir putin arrives in rio for the world cup final between argentina and he will see efficient responsibilities for the fee for world cup handed to russia from brazil of course russia is the host of the competition in two thousand and eighteen also president is going to be german chancellor angela merkel it's an opportunity for putin a mochel to mingle world do we know about brazil about the current host nation brazil is a false nation and despite a huge amount of us in areas housing the majority of the population is still there up to seventy tribes living in the amazon rainforest and who had no contact with the outside world the country's president dilma rousseff who had no fun times by the n.s.a. once you create brazil's own internet a lot of american countries to protect themselves from n.s.a. surveillance the found

president putin german chancellor angela merkel agreed to ukrainian crisis is getting worse they say the contact group consisting of russia ukraine the . government fighters need to resume peace discussions putin on merkel also called for an immediate ceasefire on the return of international monitors to eastern ukraine. gives military operation is starting many different areas across eastern ukraine on r.t. dot com we're keeping track of what's happening across the region and indeed beyond with a detail timeline of the conflict. in the. eye . moving on israel's military crackdown on hamas continues to escalate with a rising death toll it stays operation protective ages aimed at militants and gas up but according to u.n. estimates almost eighty percent of the victims are civilians at least fifty palestinians were killed in the israeli bombardment on saturday night bringing the total number of lives lost in the offensive to one hundred sixty caught in the violence people are fleeing their homes but not everyone has been able to escape the deadly attacks on this really are a strike on t

david cameron said he's in agreement with french president francois hollande and german chancellor angela merkel that further sanctions must be discussed the german chancellor though held a phone conversation over the weekend with president vladimir putin and which both parties said that an international investigation is a must and it must get to underway very soon from the hague peter all of r.t. so let's get more analysis from veteran british labor politician and former mayor of london ken livingstone who joins us now live good to see you can let's start with these threatened sanctions germany france the u.k. all apparently dishing out they sold him a term to russia because they want russia to make sure that the international investigators are given full access to the crash site what do you think about those threats. well i think there's an awful lot of pandering to the hysteria that's being whipped up here some of us are old enough to remember that back in two thousand and one ukrainian military shot down

i think that chancellor merkel is playing to jerry man domestic opinion with this very public expulsionthe cia station chief. i'm not aware of anything like this ever happening before in an allied country. have a problem, want the guy removed but you do it without doing it in the press. so i think this is playing to anti-americanism and the german population. i think that's very dangerous from our point of view. i think in other sense it's her expressing her displeasure with barack obama personally. and it extends over a range issues. not just intelligence. if she wanted to low key, this she could have done it i think it's a way for her to say to obama that she is very unhappy. >> if she is motivated by anti-americanism and, of course, this whole thing her cell phone was bugged by us at one time. i mean, if she is so willing to do that over this, suppose we have another problem. suppose want us to help with russia and ukraine or help us in the middle east or something. is she not going to play to that same anti-americanism and not go with us? >> i don't think she is anti-american hersel

german german chancellor angela merkel has arrived in beijing for a 3-day visit, meeting the premier and prime minister for trade talks. she has brought a delegate of top executives from german companies. adrian brown sent us the latest from beijing. >> the german chancellor angela merkel has been to beijing seven sometimes signs 2006, indicating the importance of this developing relationship. the value of trade is put at 200 billion an astonishing vigor. the visit began in a chinese city. she visited a volkswagen factory. they are feeding into an obsession with a car. there are many vehicles on chinese roads, and chinese want german-made cars. most cars that government officials drive around with are german made. 75 are exports to the county from germany the the chinese president was that germany speaking again about how important this relationship was. it's the sort of relationship that the rest of europe must recard with envy. it's been overshadowed by the domestic security agency who said they believe small companies are victims of industrial espionage by the chinese. they are ea

billion private messages on call sent or received by german citizens were monitored every month chancellor merkel fell victim to her phone was tapped and in february it was reported that former chancellor gerhard schroeder's phone calls were snooped on in the run up to the u.s. led invasion of iraq one american investigative journalist told r.t. the latest revelations are leaving berlin embarrassed the german and american security systems was so interwoven you can't even separate from the basically the same infrastructure the same architecture of security so if germany was to say they don't want to it's very hard for them not to because there's so many institutions which are basically into a wall but with the same incident the german political leadership. wants to be involved in the united states they want to have an integrated security infrastructure it's part of who they are it is part of who they've been since the end of world war two but this recent espionage scandal of medical being spied on and of the two roads recent cases is embarrassing for the german political system because it shows th

the "wall street journal" reports chancellor merkel and president putin haven't spoken in more than a week. with us from the "wall street journal," assistant managing editor and executive business director. a deal? >> yes. interesting story. in the independent. they point out after the crash, everything stopped. and that's what our reporters have a story in today's paper and on the web now. says the same thing. up to right after the crash, during the entire ukraine crisis, merkel has been acting a a broker between the rest of the world and putin. they talked something on the order of 30 times. three days after the crash, she said, look, give me a call once you've begun to diffuse things and they haven't talked since. that deal, if the eindependent has it right, probably much on the back burner for now and probably in danger because world opinion turned strongly against russia. >> wield for vladimir putin to get crimea with just a pat on the back. >> i don't think the u.s. would agree to a secession of land. this is an incredibly important relationship putin has with the white hou the

situation surrounding ukraine has been discussed to jury a meeting between president putin and chancellor merkel in brazil both leaders agree that the crisis is deteriorating and that the work within the contact group needs to resume as soon as possible perhaps even as a video conference they also called for an immediate cease fire and for monitoring activity in ukraine to be restarted as they hope across to the area for national some point in the next half hour you get a full picture of how the ukrainian crisis is unfolding the latest images a minute by minute updates by logging to r.t. dot com. the head of the palestinian ministration has appealed now to the u.n. asking for international protection for the people in gaza more than fifty palestinians died from yet more israeli bombardment saturday night nearly a week into the offensive the total number of dead risen above one hundred sixty more than half of them civilians including dozens of children to this is what was left after one of the deadliest israeli airstrikes which destroyed the home of a local police chief in fact eighteen members o

government won't do it. >> reporter: some politicians from chancellor merkel's own party are demanding that they be expelled from germany. there is a chance the political pressure may drop off unless there are more surprises in a city with a rich and murky history of spying. nick spicer, al jazeera, berlin. >> i'm joined by ray mcgovern from washington, d.c. former intelligence expert. thanks for being with us. account u.s. and germany put this scandal behind them, how badly has their reputation been damaged? >> as has been pointed out the close relationship of intelligence sharing is something that goes back a matter of decades. as a matter of fact, tom drake who testified on friday even talked about the bnd for example as being an appendage, unhanga is the engineer man word to the nsa and the u.s. intelligence establishment. so with that kind of history, it's going to be very difficult for mrs. merkel to assert her authority, and i see this as a kind of a metaphor for the unhanga, the appendage relationship that has existed between germany and the united states send the end of world

host of the competition in two thousand and eighteen also present is going to be german chancellor angela merkel is an opportunity for putin a michael to mingle world do we know about brazil about the current host nation brazil is a golf nation and despite a huge amount about bonaire is housing a majority of the population is still there up to seventy tribes living in the amazon rainforest who had no contact with the outside world the country's president dilma rousseff who had a fine time to buy the n.s.a. once you create brazil's own internet a lot of american countries to protect themselves from n.s.a. surveillance one of the country's most famous sites is the christ the redeemer statue but not sure where in ten may no eyebrows knit so fingers on the monument i'm busy and it's the country's capital not rio de janiero you need to just pull the one comes to build on from above it looks like an airplane the most popular sport in brazil is of course football it's like a religion hey but despite that later on sunday it could well be that all its rivals all janina they were celebrating you. were. an

situation surrounding ukraine's being discussed during a meeting between president putin and chancellor merkel in brazil both leaders agree that the crisis is deteriorating that work within the contact group needs to resume as soon as possible perhaps even by video conference they also called for immediate cease fire and for monitoring activity in ukraine to be restarted. and you can get the full picture of how the ukrainian crisis is unfolding with the latest images minute by minute updates by logging onto r.t. dot com. the head of the palestinian ministration has appealed now to the un asking for international protection for people in gaza more than fifty palestinians died from yet more israeli bombardment saturday night they only a week into the offensive the total number of dead has risen above one hundred sixty more than half of them are civilians including dozens of children this is what was left after one of the deadliest israeli airstrikes which destroyed the home of a local police chief eighteen members of the same family died there the un security council's call for a ceasefire but a

german chancellor angela merkel took it all in from the stands sitting very close to russia's vladimir putin. a notable arrangement that probably had some state department officials a little concerned, considering the recent strain in u.s./german relations. i'm joined by the german embassy philip ackerman. >> congratulations. >> thank you. really, the nation is euphoric. we are celebrating day and night and even at the embassy, people have lost their voices overnight. >> i'm glad you still have your voice and oare -- i shouldn't sy sober enough, i'm not sure how you celebrate, but it must have been quite a night at the embassy. which is quite nearby us. so you are neighbors. but i do want to ask you about this strain in relations. the foreign minister steinmeyer met over the weekend in vienna with john kerry who had the unfortunate task of facing -- coming face to face with the top german diplomat over this spy issue. now we know from germany and acknowledged by the u.s. that two germans were found to reportedly or allegedly being spying for the cia. one was a defense attache or some d

s activities although chancellor merkel reportedly went on little further than most comparing the whole ordeal to life under this french president francois long echoed her statements expressing deep disapproval and brazil's president called the u.s. surveillance a breach off and her national law the n.s.a. doesn't spy on only foreign citizens the latest batch of edward snowden's revelations claim the agency has been targeting prominent muslim americans as well even though there's no evidence any of them are connected to terrorism and artie's marina point i reports on the reaction to the surveillance. in the wake of this latest government spying revelation the american civil liberties union has announced that a coalition of forty five civil and human rights organizations have written to u.s. president barack obama demanding a full public accounting of these latest surveillance practices even question now according to the intercept the five american muslim citizens that had their e-mails monitored by the n.s.a. and the f.b.i. including records university professor who's also president of

and certainly chancellor merkel because of their economic strength in europe.would seem to me that the president conditiomplaint can't wing this. he has to have the europeans behind them. >> and i think chancellor merkel is the linchpin in so many ways because of the relationship between germany and russia. so certainly he needs her to be on board and that's why that conversation that took place yesterday was so pivotal. and that is why the united states is deeply concerned after last week's revelations about new spying allegations. so certainly that is a crucial relationship for president obama as he tries to pressure russia to deescalate the crisis in ukraine and i anticipate you will hear him touch on that to some extent. he could potentially get a question about it. and ed, i would also point out there are a number of other foreign policy issues that are roiling the administration. the crisis in the middle east. if president obama does take questions, and that's a big if, if he does decide to take questions, he can anticipate he will get questions about the

. >> you have always said that tapping chancellor merkel's phone was idiotic. >> it was a sloppy consequential -- >> you just put your finger on it. sloppiness seems to be the order of the day with the administration. it's one thing after the other. no idea that mosul was about to fall into the hands of isis. no further planning for bergdahl. the president after the nsa, what's remarkable about this, after the nsa scandal it turns out there is ongoing spying in germany. so you have an administration that is constantly surprised not only by events but by its own actions. you don't have a sense of adult responsibility coming out of the white house. >> just on this, i think you know obviously this is a bad episode but it's not going to be strategically problematic for the president. i want to go back one minute on obama's middle east policy. i think they got two things right. the solution is not in the hands of the u.s. and military intervention certainly is not going to fix things for the united states. that thing they got right. what they didn't get right is they were lured by the romance of pu

says was probably supplied by the russian military now german chancellor angela merkel has said that she's ready to back a halt on current arms sales to russia and would take part in an e.u. . ancyl session if one was convened merkel is hoping to have the e.u. sign off on sanctions by the end of this week and said that she's prepared for german technology exports to take a hit as expected blowback from such sanctions now the european commission that's the twenty eight nation regulatory arm is drawing of detailed proposals for broader sanctions against against russia after getting the go ahead from you diplomats this past friday the polish foreign minister said quote we are getting to a point when sanctions will be painful and double edged but if we don't introduce them the situation could get even worse. now meanwhile russia's my sex index is set for its worst performing month since march and was down one point nine percent by the close in moscow on monday russian stocks fell to an eleven week low in the rubles of the most among emerging market currencies diplomats are scheduled to m

. >> chancellor merkel and president putin have agreed to an international probe into what happened.o think the separatists will agree to that? >> nobody here in kiev trusts what they say. mr. putin has very little credit. if you remember, in may, he asked the separatists not to conduct a referendum. they still did so. he himself said in december that he is not going to invade ukraine. he said that is such nonsense. careful in be very judging what is going to happen and if such a probe will be successful. >>kiev says that they do not have the black ox recorders. do we have any more information? we can definitely say that ukrainian authorities do not have the black boxes. this sounds plausible. those black boxes are reported orbe found on thursday friday. eventually, they disappeared. no one knows where. probably they are in the hands of the separatists. probably already russia. >> this is a region that has been a war zone for months. is fighting still going on? >>well, yes. i asked the spokesman for the ukrainian security council if ukraine is going to stop fighting and he said yes,

german chancellor angela merkel is in beijing today to meet with her chinese counterpart, xi jinping, on day two of her visit to china. stephen engle joins us from beijing with a closer look at the chancellor's visit. what do we expect from the chancellor? day, the first full day in beijing today. business is the focus. this is her seventh visit to china as chancellor since taking the position in 2005. after arriving in beijing from her first stop in just one province, she met with the premier at the state guest house here in beijing. the two exchanged pleasantries for the cameras before retiring behind closed doors. she will have a bilateral meeting this morning with the premier. she will have dinner tonight with president xi jinping. germany is china's largest trading partner in europe. obviously, china is a key market for all those german goods, europe's largest exporter. she brought leaders from many key companies, including the lufthansa,siemens, folks like him, airbus, and others. she was touring a volkswagen plant with the volkswagen chairman. she will be given full military ho

leaders like president obama and chancellor merkel have stressed israel must be allowed to distress itself. >> as the israeli attacks from the ground, sea and the air, thursday's five-hour partial truce seems very far. yet some world leaders are trying to mediate one for the sake of those trapped in the fighting. some hoped hamas would accept a cease-fire. >> they asked me what i would do. i said i would contact turkish and qatar authorities because they can influence hamas. >> turkey and qatar are seen as two possible mediators but this time israel could be the one who dismisses the deal, as it sees qatar as a close ally of hamas, while tush -- turkish leaders re among its harshest critics. >> israel's unrestrained acts unfortunately plant the seeds of hatred in palestine and around the world. >> israel has received reports from the u.s., the u.k. and germany saying it has the right to defend its citizens. >> israeli cities are reachable with rockets, something that was tried. every country that is attacked like this obviously has to defend itself. >> but those countries say israel has to

chancellor merkel gave into demands to reduce the minimum wage, something the commissioner plans to extend to all e.u. countries. >> switching focus to washington, the central bank has warpped that while the revere is advancing, it is not yet complete. yen-hsun lu said the markets -- yell ensaid the markets remained weaker than she would like. the central bank has been tapering back stimulus measures and plans to stop purchasing bonds in october. interest rates could be raised from record lowe's sooner than expected if conditions improve, but she said they are not there yet. yell en's comments had an immediate effect on the markets. we saw wall street sliding in the aftermath. the dow has recovered a bit. this as washes optimism sings in. the tech-heavy nasdaq deck sinks on a separate report that yell ensubmitted in which they suggested that shares of tech media and bio tech firms may be over-valued. markets in europe closed down. they fluctuated, but ended in the red. the dax is down about .6%. new data showed investor confidence is sliding. we are going to end with what could be the larg

>> chancellor merkel made us damon today saying the decision -- made a statement today saying the decision to move to the sanctions was inevitable and that there could be further measures of vladimir putin doesn't help to de-escalate the situation in europe. saying it's inevitable, i think she is direct to matt first and foremost at german businesses, which of course -- directing that first and foremost the german businesses which of course rely on exports to russia. they've been very nervous about using economic measures against russia. looking at today's deal, for instance, some of the german oil industry would like a similar deal to the one the french have managed to thrash out for their military sector, namely that existing contracts should be protected and should be allowed to go ahead. having said that, many german business leaders have begun to say in the last few days that they do agree and believe that economic pressure should be used to get russia to change its mind in ukraine. >> even though these are the toughest to date, some are calling them goldilocks sanctions, just enough

east that's the statement the country's president expressed in a phone call with the german chancellor merkel meanwhile despite reassurances that kiev is not targeting civilians residential areas in the rez resistance hobbs' of scandal guns have endured another night of army air raids riff notion i met some of the victims of the military operation in. and you day brings most. of the guns. this goes mother has just been killed when a shell landed on her fourth floor balcony it was up to the do to tell her father. this young man was lucky he was cruel to the hospital with a gunshot wound and unlikely to survive. can regain consciousness just minutes before we arrived this could use a few here but it is a simple bullshit getting. a sense that it's all. a son of a fertility somebody. to tell the world it isn't. or no way out of the hospital we made him dre who just brought his wife here this is where she was sitting you can see one bullet here in the water another stuck somewhere inside the metal court and drays still in shock and can't believe his wife survived the whole mizen i was in the shop

year it was revealed that half a billion private german messages a month were being monitored chancellor merkel fell victim as well her phone was being tapped in february it was reported that care hard schroeder's phone calls had been spied on when he in the run up to the us led invasion of iraq when the us investigative journalist tells r t that the latest revelations are leaving berlin embarrassed. the german and american security systems is so interwoven you can't even separate from the basically the same infrastructure the same architecture of security so if germany was to say they don't want to it's very hard for them not to because there's so many institutions which are basically into the same institute the german political leadership. wants to be involved with united states they want to have an integrated security infrastructure it's part of who they are it is part of who they've been since the end of world war two but this recent espionage scandal that medical being spied on and of the two ropes recent cases is embarrassing for the german political system because it shows that germany h

andyes, chancellor merkel premier li talking about a whole host of issues today. e was in switzerland yesterday. the talks included cyber security and merkel committed about the latest u.s. spying allegations saying that if the reports are correct, it would be a serious case. but you are right. trade is the real focus of her seventh trip to china since 2005. merkel was given a full military welcome in beijing this morning and will meet later tonight with president jean tang -- xi jin peng. premier li said he will head to germany in october. china-german ties were described as being an important strategic partnership that has developed on a very broad sound -- a very broad foundation. a lot of deals being signed. are many is china's largest trading partner in europe and china is a key market for goods like audi, siemens. she brought leaders from many companies, including deutsche bank, lufthansa, airbus, vookswagen. vw today announcing a big expansion of production. euros worth of vehicle plant. signed a deal with fellow star lines member, air china. no details, but

. >> german chancellor angela merkel says new allegations of spying, this time by a double agent, are serious and a contradiction of trust between partners. >> there are now reports that the government may consider changing how germany spies to include the united states as one of its targets. >> we have more now on the latest spying shocker. >> the latest revelations involve the parliamentary committee investigating the nsa in germany and the suspicion that it was spied on. chancellor angela merkel rarely comments on domestic policies while traveling abroad, but on a visit to china, she made an exception. >> if the allegations turn out to be true, that would clearly contradicts my definition of trusting cooperation between agencies and partners. >> a german intelligence official is accused of copying more than 200 documents and passing them on to the u.s. embassy in berlin. the allegations have angered german politicians of all stripes. a member of merkel's governing coalition called for punitive measures against u.s. diplomats. >> is incredible that they can continue with their misde

over the weekend, i agreed with chancellor merkel and president hollande about sanctions against russia. >> threats of further sanctions stocks down, and it is weighing on market sentiment here. some of the stocks ended the day in negative territory, even though there were some stocks that made gains. and let's switch over to the united states now, where the picture is pretty much the same. as you can see, the nasdaq and s&p totally flat among global geopolitical tensions having a downward pull, and american and after the down tobacco maker was ordered to pay $23.6 billion to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer. food safetyn now, a scare has hit an american fast food giant in shanghai. a television station reported that a meat supplier was selling expired chicken and beef to mcdonald's and kfc. this is the latest canada comes in a series of food related issues to hit the country. joe now explains. tip-in, processed and transformed into nuggets. burgers picked up off of the floor. for saleeat repackaged to restaurant chains, like mcdonald's and kfc. the hidden camera images show th

. >>> german chancellor angela merkel takes on spying by the u.s. >> reporter: chancellor merkel said she's willing to hold talks with the u.s. over its spying program. berlin expelled it's top employees merkel said trust can be restored through talks but she doesn't expect a quick result. >>> president obama is allowing drilling companies to use sonic canons for oil and gas exploration along the east coast. the canons shoot sound waves 100 times louder than a jet engine in the water. environmentalists worry it could harm sea life. th >> michael: it's the university of connecticut has settled in a lawsuit. uconn has not agreed to wrongdoing but has settled $1.3 million. most of the money will go to a former female hockey player who was kicked off the team after she reported that a male player raped her. >>> this afternoon, colorado state supreme court ordered an end to the marriages, the denver clerk's office had been issuing permits after a federal ruling struck down the state's ban. today a federal appeals court ruled that the state cannot prevent same-sex marriage. they found the o

even chancellor angela merkel whose cell phone was tapped until late last year by the u.s. was restrained in her comments. >> if the allegations were true it would be for me a clear contradiction what i considered to be a trustful cooperation between agencies and partners. >> that cooperation goes back decades. this is a former listening post of the american national security agency or nsa. a cold war relic when most west germans accepted the need of knowing what's going on, on their soil. now germans take a much different view, like edward snowden living in moscow. >> snowden has offered to come to the area but the engineer man government has made it clear he will not be given asylum in this country. the intelligence sharing and diplomatic relationship with the u.s. is clearly too important. one of snowden's representatives said,. >> respond taken use reaction from the german government. they could have said enough is enough. we already said last year we don't like the american spying on top officials. there could be a number of consequences now including reconsidering the