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Germany sees an inattentive partner in Washington
By Mick Krever, CNN
Germany needs U.S. partnership on spying but must first see a change from Washington and “probably the most detached President [in] decades,” former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
There is “a level of mistrust that needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed from Washington,” Guttenberg told Amanpour in London.
Trust between the two countries has fallen to dangerous lows as new allegations emerged that the U.S. recruited a spy inside Germany’s secret service.
Berlin has since ordered the top U.S. spy in the country to leave – the first time a close American ally has expelled a CIA station chief.
Spying, Guttenberg told Amanpour, “is nothing new.”
“Honestly, we all do it,” he said. “But you shouldn’t get caught.”
Getting caught now is particularly embarrassing for the United States, which had been under pressure to repair relations with Berlin after it was revealed last October that the U.S. had tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.
After stunning World Cup loss, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledges country will recover
By Mick Krever, CNN
It was a stunning loss for a country that views soccer as a religion.
If Brazil has been shell-shocked since its 7-1 rout by Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup, the President who staked so much on the Cup, Dilma Rousseff, pledged in an exclusive interview with Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday that the loss will not shake the national psyche.
“There is one hallmark and feature about football,” she told Amanpour at the presidential palace in Brasilia. “It is made of victories and defeats. That’s part and parcel of the game.”
“And being able to overcome defeat I think is the feature and hallmark of a major national team and of a great country.”
Brazil, like so many other middle-income countries around the world, has been engaged in the great project of modernization, and lifting millions out of poverty.
Rousseff has had a long education in Brazilian politics – first as a left-wing guerrilla battling Brazil’s military dictatorship, then as right-hand woman to the heavyweight of Brazilian politics, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Despite the country’s deep-seated passion for soccer, its move to host the World Cup was controversial. Brazilians across the country turned out in the streets to protest the vast sums the government spent on stadiums and how they were built.
Rousseff was booed and jeered as she watched the opening match pitting the host nation against Croatia.
Now as she gears up for re-election in October, can President Rousseff push forward with Brazil’s grand transformation?
Indonesia at a crossroads
A tightly-fought presidential race has been underway in Indonesia – the third largest democracy in the world. Two very different candidates are offering up two very different futures.
And it's their personalities rather than their policies that seem to be grabbing the headlines.
On the one side is Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, a former furniture maker who's running on an anti-corruption ticket. On the other is Prabowo Subianto, a military man and former son-in-law of one-time dictator General Suharto, whose rhetoric is putting the country's recent hard-fought freedoms to test.
Author and writer Elizabeth Pisani, has just written “Indonesia etc,” a detailed account of life inside the world's fourth most populous country.
She spoke with CNN’s Michael Holmes, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Thursday.
The grim reality in Gaza
As the shooting war between Israel and Hamas intensifies, what of the Gaza residents who aren't firing rockets, those who don't command or control Hamas fighters and aren't interested in the politics?
Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, spoke with CNN’s Michael Holmes about the reality for the people on the ground.
Click above to watch.
Brazil President: 'My nightmares never got so bad'
By Mick Krever, CNN
Amanpour's full interview with President Rousseff airs Thursday at 2pm ET, 3pm Sao Paolo, 8pm CET on CNN International.
(CNN) - Never in her worst nightmares did Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff imagine such a crushing soccer defeat, she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
"My nightmares never got so bad, Christiane," she said through an interpreter. "They never went that far. As a supporter, of course, I am deeply sorry because I share the same sorrow of all supporters. But I also know that we are a country that has one very peculiar feature. We rise to the challenge in the face of adversity. We are able to overcome."
Brazil, she said, will recover from this "extremely painful situation."
"Being able to overcome defeat I think is the feature and hallmark of a major national team and of a great country."
Israel warns of possible Gaza ground operation as Hamas vows to defend itself
By Mick Krever, CNN
An Israeli ground operation into Gaza “might become necessary,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told CNN’s Michael Holmes, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Tuesday.
On the same day, Hamas Foreign Policy Spokesman Osama Hamdan vowed that Palestinians would defend themselves against any “attacks.”
“If the Israelis continue their attacks, the Palestinian people will defend themselves. Not only Hamas – all the Palestinians,” Hamdan told Holmes.
Abdullah: Half of Afghan ballots are ‘suspicious’
By Mick Krever, CNN
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah alleged massive fraud in his country’s election in an interview with CNN’s Michael Holmes, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Tuesday.
“Half of the ballot papers used are considered to be suspicious based on standard critereas [sic], universal critereas of free and fair elections,” Abdullah, the country’s former foreign minister, said from Kabul.
Preliminary results from last month’s election were announced yesterday, and showed Abdullah’s opponent, former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani, with the lead.
Ghani on Tuesday said the preliminary results were “legitimate and credible.”
Shavit: Israel/Hamas escalation may be imminent
By Mick Krever, CNN
The latest airstrikes Monday night between Hamas and Israel may presage a serious escalation in violence between the two sides, Ari Shavit, senior correspondent for Ha'aretz, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“This is a very dramatic evening. I do not want to over-dramatize, but the last few hours may have been, God forbid, the tipping point.”
Tensions have already been high, with tit-for-tat violence; a 16-year-old Palestinian was kidnapped and burned alive, itself a possible act of retaliation for the deaths of three Israeli teenagers.
“For the last few days we’ve seen extraordinary attempts to stop the escalation. We’ve seen remarkable restraint on the behalf of the Israeli government – quite surprisingly for many, a right-wing, conservative government led by Benjamin Netanyahu did everything possible not to get into another war or cycle of violence. The same applies to President Abbas.”
“But Hamas – that kept on saying it wants to stop escalation – fired dozens of rockets into Israel in the last few hours, and Israel will not be able to be restrained anymore.”
U.K.: We warned Iraq about extremist threat
By Mick Krever, CNN
Amanpour’s full interview with Ambassador Simon Collis airs at 2pm ET, 7pm London, 9pm Baghdad time on CNN International.
The United Kingdom consistently warned the Iraqi government about the threat posed by ISIS before that group swept across large swaths of the country, UK Ambassador to Iraq Simon Collis told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“I’m not suggesting that anybody saw quite the speed and scale of the advances that took place, which were in part also a result of the collapse of very significant numbers of Iraqi security forces.”
“But the fact that Mosul was vulnerable was known. The fact that ISIL were already holding territory from last year in parts of western Iraq, in Anbar and elsewhere, was well known.”
“We were aware of the threat and we gave clear advice at the time and throughout about the best way to tackle it, the only effective way to tackle it.”
The UK told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government that the only way to defeat ISIS was through a “comprehensive counterterrorism strategy,” involving political, economic, and security measures, Ambassador Collis said.
For Sarkozy, ‘takes one to tell one’
The accusations are “grotesque.”
So says the Former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, after he was placed under formal investigation over alleged corruption and taken into police custody. It's the first time this has ever happened in France.
Speaking on French television Wednesday night, Sarkozy denied any wrongdoing and said the case against him is political.
"I'm profoundly shocked at what happened,” Sarkozy said. “I don't require any special privileges. If I have made faults, I will accept all responsibility. I'm not a man that flees responsibility."
Sarkozy is accused of seeking insider information about an inquiry into illegal campaign funding.
But, says Christopher Dickey, foreign editor at the Daily Beast, “it takes one to tell one.”
“He may be right about it having some political motivation,” Dickey told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
But “Sarkozy is a man who knows all about political manipulation or attempted political manipulation of judges and prosecutors. He used to call them up in the middle of the night when they were making decisions he didn't like when he was president or interior minister.”
Could the scandal threaten what is widely believed to be Sarkozy's political comeback? And who will make the most hay out of the nation's general political disarray?
Click above to watch Amanpour’s full conversation with Dickey.
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