Berlin police brace for virus protest as court overturns ban

BERLIN (AP) — Police in Berlin on Friday requested thousands of reinforcements from other parts of Germany to cope with planned protests over the weekend by people opposed to the country’s coronavirus restrictions.

Authorities in the German capital had banned the protests earlier this week, citing demonstrations a few weeks ago during which participants flouted rules on social distancing and mask-wearing.

Germany has seen a rise in the number of virus infections in recent weeks and officials had expressed concern that protesters might contribute to the spread of coronavirus during their rallies and while traveling to and from Berlin.

Germany has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic through robust testing and contact tracing and has seen far less drastic pandemic-related restrictions than other European countries such as France, Italy or Spain. Its confirmed virus-related death toll of 9,291 is one-fourth of Britain’s toll, although experts say all numbers understate the true impact of the pandemic due to various factors.

Protest organizers had appealed the ban and a regional administrative court ruled Friday that the rallies could go ahead, saying there was no immediate threat to public safety. The court ordered organizers to ensure social distancing. It didn’t impose a requirement for participants to wear masks, which aren’t mandatory outdoors in Germany but encouraged when social distancing can’t be maintained.

Angered by the looming ban, several groups had threatened to travel to Berlin regardless. The presence of far-right groups among the protesters had further raised police concerns about the possibility of unrest.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday, ahead of the court ruling, that the right to appeal bans was part of the freedom of assembly.

Asked whether she would meet with protesters, as she has done in the past with climate activists and others, Merkel said: “I always decide when people approach me whether I will seek to have talks with them.”

So far, she was unaware of any such request, Merkel added.

Associated Press

Germany eyes free wi-fi in public spaces, finally

BERLIN, Germany — Try looking for a free wi-fi connection in the cafe down the street in Germany and, more likely than not, there isn’t one.

Forget about looking for open connections in parks or at key monuments. They just don’t exist.

In an age when almost everyone carries a smartphone, the absence of such free hotspots can appear to be an aberration in a country that is known for its technological prowess.

But a new government deal may change all that, as it aims to tackle the root of the problem — by exonerating the connection’s provider of fraudulent usage by others.

The snag has been Germany’s tough rules to crack down on online piracy, with high fines for illegally downloading music and films.

No one wants to run the risk of exposing their wi-fi connection to possible misuse, a fear that has turned Germany into a hotspot desert.

A 2014 study by Eco, a federation of Internet professionals, found that there are only two open hotspots for every 100,000 residents in Germany, compared to 10 in Sweden and 29 in Britain.

For many, that is a stumbling block in the development of the Internet, an obstacle Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government wants to mow down.

But seeking an agreement took months of tough negotiations.

“A late but important step,” said Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Twitter.

‘Liberation’

According to the agreement reached this week within Merkel’s left-right ‘grand coalition’ government, the law will be amended so that “wi-fi providers would be considered like access providers” — that is to say, they are waived from all responsibility of users, and “will not be subject to any required checks”.

That is valid for anyone who offers their wi-fi access to others for free — be it a restaurant owner who allows clients to connect online or the friendly guy who gives his neighbor the password to get on his Internet access.

Only 39 percent of Internet users in Germany go online using wi-fi outside of their homes, according to a survey in 2015 by Bitkom, the German high-technology federation.

Plans by the government to amend the rule “will facilitate things for both operators and users,” said Bernhard Rohleder, who heads Bitkom.

For the federation Eco, it spells the end of the “great wall” to the development of hotspots in Germany, while hotels describe the move as an act of liberation.

But not all are happy.

The music industry federation fears that it could hurt creators and artists, and warned that it has “opened the doors and windows to illegal usage”.

A draft law prepared in September by Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel had required users to confirm that they are not doing anything illegal online, as well as for access providers to secure the network with passwords.

But that was deemed too restrictive, leading to the current agreement which scraps these conditions.

The proposal is due to be examined by cabinet before it is put to parliament, it is therefore not expected to come in force before the autumn.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Eurozone summit reaches deal on Greek bailout

BRUSSELS — European Union’s summit chair Donald Tusk said on Monday that eurozone leaders have unanimously agreed on a bailout deal for Greece.

In a tweet, Tusk said the European bailout program for Greece includes “serious reforms” and “financial support.”

The European Union’s top economy official earlier said he was hopeful for a deal to keep Greece in the euro — and that the German and French leaders will be at the center of it.

Pierre Moscovici played down ideological differences among Greece’s European creditors on Monday, telling France’s RTL radio that the marathon overnight negotiations show there is a “shared willingness to ensure that Greece remains in the euro.”

Earlier also in the negotiations there had been indications of splits among the European countries, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanding tough conditions before releasing aid while French President Francois Hollande prioritized unity among the nations that use the euro.

Moscovici said Merkel and Hollande have “solid and direct” relations despite ideological differences and that “there is no solution for Europe” without agreement between the eurozone’s two leading powers.

source: business.inquirer.net

U.S. weighs end to spying on allied leaders, source says

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering ending spying on allied heads of state, a senior administration official said, as the White House grappled with the fallout from revelations that the U.S. has eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.


The official said late Monday that a final decision had not been made and an internal review was still underway.

The revelations about National Security Agency monitoring of Merkel were the latest in a months-long spying scandal that has strained longstanding alliances with some of America's closest partners. Earlier Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for a "total review of all intelligence programs."

Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that the White House had informed her that "collection on our allies will not continue." The administration official said that statement was not accurate, but added that some unspecified changes already had been made and more were being considered, including terminating the collection of communications from friendly heads of state.

The official was not authorized to discuss the review by name and insisted on anonymity.

As a result of the spying allegations, German officials said Monday that the U.S. could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows. As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's nonbinding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money.

A top German official said she believed the Americans were using the information obtained from Merkel to gather economic intelligence apart from terrorism and that the agreement known as SWIFT should be suspended.

Feinstein said while the intelligence community has kept her apprised of other issues, like the court orders on telephone record collection, intelligence officials failed to brief her on how they followed foreign leaders.

Her statement follows reports based on new leaks from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden indicating that the NSA listened to Merkel and 34 other foreign leaders.

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein said. She added that the U.S. should not be "collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers" unless in an emergency with approval of the president.

European Union officials who are in Washington to meet with lawmakers ahead of White House talks said U.S. surveillance of their people could affect negotiations over a U.S.-Europe trade agreement. They said European privacy must be better protected.

Many officials in Germany and other European governments have made clear, however, that they don't favor suspending the U.S.-EU trade talks which began last summer because both sides stand to gain so much through the proposed deal, especially against competition from China and other emerging markets.

As tensions with European allies escalate, the top U.S. intelligence official declassified dozens of pages of top secret documents in an apparent bid to show the NSA was acting legally when it gathered millions of Americans' phone records.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said he was following the president's direction to make public as much information as possible about how U.S. intelligence agencies spy under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Monday's release of documents focused on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the bulk collection of U.S. phone records.

The document release is part of an administration-wide effort to preserve the NSA's ability to collect bulk data, which it says is key to tracking key terror suspects, but which privacy activists say is a breach of the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure of evidence from innocent Americans.

The release of the documents comes ahead of a House Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday on FISA reform.

The documents support administration testimony that the NSA worked to operate within the law and fix errors when they or their systems overreached. One of the documents shows the NSA admitting to the House Intelligence Committee that one of its automated systems picked up too much telephone metadata. The February 2009 document indicates the problem was fixed.

Another set of documents shows the judges of the FISA court seemed satisfied with the NSA's cooperation. It says that in September 2009, the NSA advised the Senate Intelligence Committee about its continuing collection of Americans' phone records and described a series of demonstrations and briefings it conducted for three judges on the secretive U.S. spy court. The memorandum said the judges were "engaged throughout and asked questions, which were answered by the briefers and other subject matter experts," and said the judges appreciated the amount and quality of information the NSA provided.

It said that two days later, one of the judges, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, renewed the court's permission to resume collecting phone records.

The documents also included previously classified testimony from 2009 for the House Intelligence Committee by Michael Leiter, then head of the National Counterterrorism Center. He and other officials said collecting Americans' phone records helped indict Najibullah Zazi, who was accused in a previously disclosed 2009 terror plot to bomb the New York City subways.

The documents also show the NSA considered tracking targets using cellphone location data, and according to an April 2011 memo consulted the Justice Department first, which said such collection was legal. Only later did the NSA inform the FISA court of the testing.

NSA commander Gen. Keith Alexander revealed the testing earlier this month to Congress but said the agency did not use the capability to track Americans' cellphone locations nor deem it necessary right now.

Asked Monday if the NSA intelligence gathering had been used not only to protect national security but American economic interests as well, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "We do not use our intelligence capabilities for that purpose. We use it for security purposes."

But National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden later clarified that: "We do not use our intelligence capabilities to give U.S. companies an advantage, not ruling out that we are interested in economic information."

Carney acknowledged the tensions with allies over the eavesdropping disclosures and said the White House was "working to allay those concerns," though he refused to discuss any specific reports or provide details of internal White House discussions.

source: lasvegassun.com