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US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Friday demanded an independent investigation into a German journalist who was caught making up key details in a series of reports for Der Spiegel news magazine. He said the revelations “are troubling to the US Embassy, particularly because several of these fake stories focused on US policies and certain segments of the American people.” He said he wrote to the editors of the respected news weekly calling for an “independent and transparent investigation.” He said it was clear the US had been the victim of institutional bias at the magazine, saying the outlet...

Knowing that Relotius' purpose was likely to focus on a few of our many conservative voters, I still had an ounce of faith in journalism. Maybe, just maybe, since he was a professional, award winning, international journalist and was spending not one day here but several weeks, he would craft an interesting, nuanced story about how we all somehow manage to coexist with each other in Trump's America without burning each other's houses down. But I also had a distinct gut feeling that his portrayal of this town could go very, very wrong. What happened is beyond what I could...

Regarding Donald Trump's intentions, by contrast, there can no longer be any doubt. Since taking office, he has carried out a scorched-earth policy against multi-lateral treaties of all kinds. He is a man with no interest in foreign policy, seeing it merely as an instrument to pursue his "America First" ideology. He views cooperation as a weakness, the latest proof being the US withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Trump acts quite openly. And now, the American president has turned his attentions toward launching a disinformation campaign against Germany. He is doing so as a way of justifying...

Unmasking an Illegal Cartel The  German auto scandal just got much bigger according to a new report by the Spiegel.Audi, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Porsche colluded in all aspects of diesel technology.Effectively, the five corporations acted as one via a series of secret working groups that met several times a year.The Spiegel broke the story with its report on the Auto Syndicate Scandal.The story is in German, and it’s also behind a pay wall. Eurointelligence has a nice Email report. Spiegel magazine has an absolutely shocking account of a cartel between the five motor companies – VW, Daimler, BMM, Porsche,...

If you have not read this yet, now is the time. Given what president Obama recently said about skeptics in his inauguration address, I thought this 2010 article would be worth revisiting. In Germany, there’s a revolution going on. That revolution is that they are backing away from the global warming issue, and taking on much more pragmatic outlook on it an many things “green”. For example, they are going big on coal power. Below is one excerpt from the series, describing the David and Goliath story of Steve McIntyre. Links to all eight articles of the series follow. I...

The Spiegel may from now on may no longer maintain or awaken the impression that the Diocese of Regensburg desired to conceal cases of abuse and to criminally intend to make monetary payments. Regensburg (kath.net) The Diocese of Regensburg has one a case against the news magazine "Spiegel". According to the Bishop. In the main the conflict concerned whether a damage claim could be considered hush money. The Spiegel may no longer maintain this or give the impression that the Diocese of Regensburg has concealed cases of abuse and did this with the criminal intent to make payments. This decision...

In an interview with SPIEGEL, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, 68, criticizes US calls for Germany to reduce exports, outlines his plans for an insolvency framework for indebted European nations and the emphasizes the significance of the German-French axis for Europe...

Karl Rove was one of President George W. Bush's closest advisers. SPIEGEL spoke with the political analyst about the widespread anger against Barack Obama and the prospects of Tea Party success in the coming midterm elections. SPIEGEL: In the approaching midterm elections, the Republican Party is putting forward several unusually radical candidates, some of whom are not even "qualified to be a dog catcher," as one Republican said. What has happened with your party? Rove: That's nothing unusual. In campaigns from both parties, people get nominated who are not typical, particularly in times of rapid change. For example, the Democrats...

You know it's bad when a European gets America more than Obama does. Thomas Straubhaar describes, in the German paper Der Spiegel, just how bad the economy is in the United States with the high short-term and long-term unemployment and heavily indebted state and city governments. How do we fix it? Thomas writes it's not the European way that will fix things but the same way we became a great and powerful country. The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve want to fix the United States economy by spending more money. But while that approach might work for Europe, it...

"We want to be able to love America again,"German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, in an editorial for Die Zeit newspaper. Arizona Senator and U.S. presidential hopeful John McCain gave an interview with Der Spiegel. Although Hugh Hewitt found something in it to be encouraged by a McCain presidency, Laura Ingraham (who has a serious case of McCDS and conservative elitism) pointed out the other day the same fault that I see in the interview: the unwillingness on the part of John McCain, the straight shooter, to repudiate or challenge the premise of the questions. I found them rather flawed and insulting....

When describing Iraq, the word "peace" is seldom used. Truth be told, the Americans have restored order to many parts of the county. But Iraq remains fractured, and where new schools are built today, bombs could explode tomorrow. The "Hands of Victory" in Baghdad's Green Zone: The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe. The Iraq war came within a hair of returning to Ramadi in early July. The attackers had already gathered four kilometers (about 2.5 miles) south of the city, on the banks of the Nasr canal.

Der Spiegel has reflected and led overwhelming German opposition to the war in Iraq practically from the moment of the invasion in 2003. They have often featured George Bush on their cover in unflattering pictures and with negative headlines such as "Power and Lies", an issue last year in which they declared Iraq lost. However, they finally sent their own reporter for an in-depth tour of Iraq, and the magazine realizes that the world media has missed the story (via Medienkritik): "...Since June, Ramadi residents have only known the war from televison. Indeed, US military officials at the Baghdad headquarters...

Reconciling motherhood with a career is not a new dilemma. But research suggests that women in Germany have a particularly hard time straddling the divide between a career and being a good mother. Anke Jentzen didn't want to become one of these "incredibly uncool mothers" whose mental horizon extends about as far as the next playground. Instead she got a degree in marketing and quickly worked her way up the ranks of a renowned Hamburg advertising agency. By the age of 30, she had already been promoted to a management position -- she had plenty of responsibility and the dream...

Leader of Germany's Jewish community dies Holocaust survivor helped secure government recognition, funds BERLIN - Holocaust survivor Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, died on Sunday aged 68 after a long illness, the council said. Spiegel had since 2000 headed the council, which represents some 100,000 Jews in the country that once tried to wipe them out. In a statement, the council announced “with great mourning” that Spiegel had died early on Sunday in Duesseldorf. It said he had been suffering from leukemia. Chancellor Angela Merkel was saddened by Spiegel’s death, her office said. “The...

Ever since the German defense minister accused the Iranian president of having been involved in terrorist activities, the diplomatic exchange between Berlin and Tehran has taken an unusually acrimonious tone. In an interview for the German weekly Der Spiegel, published Monday, the German interior minister Otto Schily expressed his concern about "a fundamentalist coming to power in Tehran." He was referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected president of Iran on June 24. "We can't be certain that he (Ahmadinejad) has absolutely distanced himself from terrorism," Schily said. The spokesperson of the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs, Hamid Resa Asefi,...

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!" The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem. SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa... Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop. SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty. Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent...

German Spiegel points to a stealth bomber uncovered on Google Maps. Spiegel writes, “As you know it’s prohibited to get close to military bases, let alone photograph them. Usually satellite images which are made public online are retouched to blur scenerey which might compromise security. At least that’s what you assume in times of terror. However, the googling tourist stumbles upon a stealth bomber on a military airport in California.

Freep baking "we are nevertheless also many" The report over Vote manipulations by users of a conservative US Website led to the manipulation of the manipulated Votes - and to a solid reader echo. While some welcome "Vote being", others remind deliberated handling Votes and expressions of opinion in the on-line journalism on. At 17 o'clock on Monday registered the "Schulnoten" Vote to the presidency of George W. Bush accurately 38,449 voices. 59.6 per cent of it evaluated the US president with "unity", approximately 13 per cent with "six". Even these numbers for itself taken already showed that this Vote was...

Below is my translation (rough, don't swear by it) of Der Spiegel's latest on-line article about the Freeping of their "poll" about President Bush. I note, Vote, capitalized, refers to an online-vote conducted by a media site. There's a difference between it and the verb "to vote" or the noun, "vote." I apologize for the length of the body of the comment. If I knew a way to hide the bulk of it, I would do so. An earlier thread deteriorated into a shouting match including lots of ethnic slurs on both sides, IMO. Blah. I think these folks are...

SPIEGEL ONLINE With Large Pro-Bush User Base The votes are in. It's official: two thirds of SPIEGEL ONLINE visitors rate President George W. Bush's job performance as "very good" (59 per cent) or "good" (8 per cent). An anonymus SPIEGEL ONLINE source described the results as a "complete surprise to us, comparable only to the demise of comrade Erich Honecker". At this very moment, the left-wing SPIEGEL ONLINE editorial team has convened for a strategy session with their media consultants to determine their future course. "In terms of ideology, everything is now up for grabs," said the source. "We might...