Germany’s SPD ready for talks with Merkel to break deadlock - Financial times

Germany’s SPD ready for talks with Merkel to break deadlock

Centre-left party drops call for elections in favour of deal with conservative rivals

SPD debates rejoining Merkel ‘grand coalition’

SPD chairman Martin Shulz, left, leaves the Schloss Bellevue presidential palace on Thursday where he led talks with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Germany’s Social Democrats are ready to talk to their conservative rivals about the formation of a government led by Angela Merkel in a potentially decisive move to break the political deadlock in Berlin.

The decision, announced early on Friday after an eight-hour meeting of SPD leaders in Berlin, marks a U-turn for the centre-left party, which had backed new elections as recently as Monday.

“The SPD is firmly convinced that talks have to take place. The SPD is not closed to talks,” Hubertus Heil, the general secretary, said early on Friday.

Germany politics

FDP calculates the political odds with talks walkout

Manuela Schwesig, the deputy party leader, made clear the SPD had yet to decide whether a revival of the grand coalition with Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, its Bavarian sister party, was a serious option. Another possibility floated by SPD officials in recent days is the formation of a Merkel-led minority government that would rely on Social Democrat backing for certain key votes.

“Just because we say we are open to talks doesn’t mean that these are automatically talks about a grand coalition, and it is certainly not a vote in favour of a grand coalition,” she told German television on Friday.

Martin Schulz, the SPD leader who has resisted any move to rejoin a Merkel-led government, has come under growing pressure to reverse his stance since the smaller, free-market Free Democratic party withdrew from coalition talks last week, plunging Germany into a rare bout of political uncertainty.

Although the September elections left Ms Merkel’s centre-right bloc as the largest political group in the new Bundestag, her party emerged weakened and with no easy path towards a governing majority. With the rightwing Alternative for Germany and the anti-Nato Die Linke (the Left) shunned by establishment parties, the four in the centre have struggled more than ever to agree terms.

Mr Schulz held a closed-door meeting ahead of the intraparty debate with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, who has urged the former European Parliament president to reconsider his resistance. 

Mr Steinmeier, himself a former SPD foreign minister, has made clear repeatedly he wants to avoid new elections, and has urged party leaders on all sides to show flexibility and readiness to compromise.

For Mr Schulz, the decision to hold talks with the chancellor is an awkward one that could further damage his authority in the party. On Monday, he ruled out talks with the CDU — and in particular any move to revive the grand coalition. Mr Schulz also said the SPD was ready to go to new elections. 

German parties' political dilemma

But his stance has faced mounting criticism inside and outside the party in recent days, with a growing number of SPD officials saying they wanted negotiations.

On Thursday, more Social Democrats came out in favour of a minority government led by Ms Merkel, signalling the SPD’s readiness to back such an administration on key votes — for example on the budget or EU policy. But others made clear the SPD would also have to examine a return to the grand coalition.

“We will, if nothing else is possible, also have to think about a grand coalition,” Karl Lauterbach, an SPD MP, said on Thursday.

Stefan Zierke, another SPD lawmaker and spokesman for the party’s deputies from eastern Germany, said: “If you want to implement projects, if you really want to move forward social democracy in Germany, then you have to be in government.”

On Wednesday Mr Schulz himself signalled the SPD might be ready to shift its stance, saying he was “fully aware of its responsibility in the current difficult situation”. He added: “I’m sure we will find a good solution for our country in the coming days and weeks.” 

Despite the recent public pronouncement, many SPD leaders remain deeply reluctant to revive the idea of a cross-party coalition with Ms Merkel, pointing to the Social Democrats’ historic defeat in September’s general election. The debacle at the ballot box, in which the party won just 20.5 per cent of the vote, has been widely blamed on the decision to join the CDU-CSU as junior partners four years ago. 

Analysts said the SPD would have to handle the forthcoming talks with care and avoid any impression that it was rushing back into the arms of Ms Merkel. Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at the Free University in Berlin, said ordinary party members might be ready to back an SPD decision to let Ms Merkel take the helm of a minority administration — but not a full coalition agreement. 

“The party must be careful to avoid accusations that it wants to sneak back into government. It has to keep a clear distance [to a new Merkel administration],” Mr Neugebauer said.

Sensing the change in the political climate, senior members of Ms Merkel’s party have redoubled their efforts to bring the SPD back into the fold — while voicing a clear preference for a grand coalition over a minority government. Armin Laschet, the CDU prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said the country needed a stable government: “Germany cannot be ruled by a minority government,” he added.

Tennessee judge who offered inmates reduced sentences for sterilization rebuked- CBS News / Associated Press

By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP November 22, 2017,

Tennessee judge who offered inmates reduced sentences for sterilization rebuked

SPARTA, Tenn. -- A Tennessee judge who offered inmates less jail time if they voluntarily underwent birth control procedures has been publicly reprimanded by state judicial regulators.

The Tennessean reports White County judge Sam Benningfield received a letter of reprimand dated Nov. 15 from the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct, saying he'd acted in a way that threatened public confidence in the judicial system.

A public reprimand doesn't tangibly affect a judge's ability to work.

In May, Benningfield signed a standing order providing 30 days' credit toward jail time for men who agreed to free vasectomies and women who agreed to free Nexplanon implants.

Benningfield told CBS News at the time the controversial move was in response to the opioid crisis. He said he wanted to stop prospective mothers and fathers from passing their drug addiction to their children.

He estimated 80 to 90 percent of the cases that come before him are tied in some way to drugs or alcohol.

"I'm not in a crusade of any sort, I'm trying to help -- trying to help people," Benningfield told CBS News' David Begnaud.

Benningfield issued another order in July rescinding the practice after backlash.

Benningfield and White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe have been named in several lawsuits as a result of the program.

Judge issues blow against Trump's sanctuary city order - CNN Politics

Judge issues blow against Trump's sanctuary city order

Jeremy Diamond 2017

By Jeremy Diamond and Euan McKirdy, CNN

November 21, 2017

Judge blocks Trump's sanctuary cities order

Trump's twists and turns on DACA

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 14: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents detain an immigrant on October 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. ICE agents said the immigrant, a legal resident with a Green Card, was a convicted criminal and member of the Alabama Street Gang in the Canoga Park area. ICE builds deportation cases against thousands of immigrants living in the United States. Green Card holders are also vulnerable to deportation if convicted of certain crimes. The number of ICE detentions and deportations from California has dropped since the state passed the Trust Act in October 2013, which set limits on California state law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Who is a target for deportation?

Paul Ryan tells undocumented mom not to worry

First Lady Melania Trump honors International Women of Courage during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, March 29, 2017.

Ioffe: Melania is the 'right kind of immigrant'

President Donald Trump arrives at a rally at the Phoenix Convention Center, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump threatens shutdown over border wall

Mexican lawmaker says he scaled border fence

Olympic Stadium is shelter for asylum seekers

Judge blocks Trump's sanctuary cities order

US to expel Haitian earthquake refugees

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 28: Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke pauses while briefing reporters following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, September 28, 2017 in Washington, DC.

WH urged DHS to end immigrants' protections

Ivanka calls on Congress to act on immigration

Trump council member will quit if DACA ends

About 20 protesters demonstrate to demand immigration reform in front of the White House August 30, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Trump expected to end DACA program

Senator Bernie Sanders Labor Day breakfast 1

Sanders: Ending DACA most cruel, ugly decision

Donald Trump White House DACA sot_00002004.jpg

Reporter asks Trump if DREAMers should worry

US President Donald Trump participates in a tax reform kickoff event at the Loren Cook Company in Springfield, MO, on August 30, 2017. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump's twists and turns on DACA

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 14: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents detain an immigrant on October 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. ICE agents said the immigrant, a legal resident with a Green Card, was a convicted criminal and member of the Alabama Street Gang in the Canoga Park area. ICE builds deportation cases against thousands of immigrants living in the United States. Green Card holders are also vulnerable to deportation if convicted of certain crimes. The number of ICE detentions and deportations from California has dropped since the state passed the Trust Act in October 2013, which set limits on California state law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Who is a target for deportation?

Paul Ryan tells undocumented mom not to worry

First Lady Melania Trump honors International Women of Courage during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, March 29, 2017.

Ioffe: Melania is the 'right kind of immigrant'

President Donald Trump arrives at a rally at the Phoenix Convention Center, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump threatens shutdown over border wall

Mexican lawmaker says he scaled border fence

Olympic Stadium is shelter for asylum seekers

CHICAGO, IL - OCTOBER 16: A mural voicing support for immigrants is painted along a retail strip in the predominately Hispanic Pilsen neighborhood on October 16, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The U.S. Justice Department has accused four cities including Chicago, New York, New Orleans and Philadelphia of violating the law with their "sanctuary city" policies. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Judge blocks Trump's sanctuary cities order

Refugees line up for food distributions by the UN in a refuge camp that opened after the 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti in Port au Prince on January 29, 2010. (Photo by Nadav Neuhaus/Corbis via Getty Images)

US to expel Haitian earthquake refugees

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 28: Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke pauses while briefing reporters following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, September 28, 2017 in Washington, DC.

WH urged DHS to end immigrants' protections

Ivanka calls on Congress to act on immigration

Young immigrants and supporters gather for a rally in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in Los Angeles, California on September 1, 2017.

A decision is expected in coming days on whether US President Trump will end the program by his predecessor, former President Obama, on DACA which has protected some 800,000 undocumented immigrants, also known as Dreamers, since 2012.

Trump council member will quit if DACA ends

About 20 protesters demonstrate to demand immigration reform in front of the White House August 30, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Trump expected to end DACA program

Senator Bernie Sanders Labor Day breakfast 1

Sanders: Ending DACA most cruel, ugly decision

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The order blocks a key executive order

Trump signed the order soon after taking office

(CNN)President Donald Trump's latest executive order aimed at implementing the hardline immigration policies he championed during his campaign has been blocked by a federal court.

US District Court Judge William Orrick issued a permanent injunction Monday blocking Trump's executive order seeking to strip so-called sanctuary cities of federal funding.

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The ruling represents a major setback to the administration's attempts to clamp down on cities, counties and states that seek to protect undocumented immigrants who come in contact with local law enforcement from deportation by federal authorities.

The ruling was also the latest instance in which a federal judge has stood in the way of Trump's effort to implement his hardline policies immigration, joining rulings that have blocked different portions of Trump's travel ban and preliminary injunctions on the sanctuary cities order.

DACA deal state of play

DACA deal state of play

Monday's ruling, which followed lawsuits from two California counties, nullifies Trump's January executive order on the matter, barring the administration from setting new conditions on spending approved by Congress.

The January order sought to crack down on jurisdictions such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco that do not comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests for assistance with identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants.

It was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration was preparing to appeal the ruling, but the Justice Department said it plans to "vindicate the President's lawful authority to direct the executive branch."

"The District Court exceeded its authority today when it barred the President from instructing his cabinet members to enforce existing law," Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said in the statement.

Attorney: Ruling a victory for rule of law

A mural voicing support for immigrants is painted along a retail strip in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.

A mural voicing support for immigrants is painted along a retail strip in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.

Those fighting the executive order celebrated the decision Monday.

"This is a victory for the American people and the rule of law," San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. "This executive order was unconstitutional before the ink on it was even dry.

"We live in a democracy. No one is above the law, including the president."

The statement added that he was "grateful that we've been able to protect billions of dollars that help some of the most vulnerable Americans."

What is a sanctuary city?

These states have banned sanctuary cities

These states have banned sanctuary cities

The term "sanctuary city" is a broad term applied to jurisdictions that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions.

Cities, counties and some states have a range of informal policies as well as actual laws that qualify as "sanctuary" positions.

Most of the policies center around not cooperating with federal law enforcement on immigration policies. Many of the largest cities in the country have forms of such policies.

In 2015, more than 200 state and local jurisdictions did not honor requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain individuals, ICE Director Sarah Saldaña testified before Congress, and a subset of that group refused to give access to their jails and prisons to ICE.

What are sanctuary cities, and can they be defunded?

What are sanctuary cities, and can they be defunded?

According to tracking by the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for restricting immigration and opposes sanctuary policies, roughly 300 sanctuary jurisdictions rejected more than 17,000 detention requests, between January 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015.

The idea for sanctuary cities appears to have sprung out of churches in the 1980s that provide sanctuary to Central Americans fleeing violence at home amid reluctance by the federal government to grant them refugee status.

They became popular in more diverse locales to counter what officials there saw as overzealous federal immigration policies, particularly against those arrested for minor, non-violent crimes.

"San Francisco is a sanctuary city and will not waiver in its commitment to protect the rights of all its residents," San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee said in January, upon announcing an expansion to a city fund to provide legal services to the immigrant community, documented or otherwise.

Chicago has set up a similar fund, as has Los Angeles.

"Chicago has in the past been a sanctuary city," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in November, according to the Sun-Times. "It always will be a sanctuary city."

Case that sparked immigration debate

Trial for central case to sanctuary city debate 01:58

The murder trial of an undocumented immigrant has drawn national attention -- in part because he had been deported from the United States five times.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate's trial for the shooting of Kate Steinle, on a San Francisco pier in July 2015, stirred the already heated debate over immigration.

The case became a rallying cry for Trump and GOP politicians, who have invoked Steinle's name in decrying sanctuary cities and promoting the construction of a border wall.

Before the shooting, officials in San Francisco had released Garcia Zarate from custody instead of turning him over to immigration authorities.

CNN's Tal Kopan, Dan Simon and Darran Simon contributed to this report.

China stocks and bonds slide as leverage concerns intensify - Financial Times

China stocks and bonds slide as leverage concerns intensify

Dollar mired around October lows after Fed minutes

Dollar mired around October lows after Fed minutes

It is unclear how much enthusiasm foreign financial groups will have for increasing their investments in China © Bloomberg

Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong and Michael Hunter in London

Thursday - 23/11/2017

What you need to know

China’s stock and bond markets slide on concern over tighter policies on leverage

Dollar remains mired at mid-October lows with Fed looking harder to read in 2018

European stocks fall as investors shun risk with Tokyo and New York markets shut

Oil prices pare gains as lift from US inventories data wanes

Leading quote

“Although I agree that the authorities in China are in favour of deleveraging, I also think there is a higher objective to attract portfolio inflows which requires a strong renminbi exchange rate, and at least stable local asset prices,” says Koon Chow, strategist at UBP.

“To this end the sell off is likely to be temporary.”

Hot topics

Stock markets in China came under heavy pressure after weakness in the country’s bond markets rattled broad investor sentiment, with authorities engaged in moves to cut leverage.

The trepidation over tighter regulation chimed with news that Beijing halted all approvals for new online lending companies, and came amid pressure in corporate bond markets. Investors pushed the yield on China’s 10-year sovereign bond up 1.7 basis points, taking it back over 4 per cent, a level it has crossed above four times in November.

The CSI 300 index of large-cap stocks is down almost three per cent, its biggest one-day fall in around 18 months. The Shanghai Composite is down 2.3 per cent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong is 1 per cent weaker, after it breached the 30,000-point mark for the first time in a decade on Wednesday.

Tokyo markets are closed for a public holiday.

Meanwhile, the dollar is stuck at its lowest levels since October, with investors having already priced in the prospect of a December rate rise from the Federal Reserve.

The lacklustre trading in the world’s reserve currency reflects a more uncertain outlook at the US central bank after investors read the minutes from its policy meeting last month.

The dollar index is stuck at 93.209, its weakest level since October 20. It is down 0.9 per cent over the last two sessions. The yield on 10-year US Treasuries is down 5 basis points measured from Monday’s close to 2.32 per cent as investors have bought the debt. The demand for it underlines the more cautious feel to trade and the stubborn concerns among investors — and shared by policymakers — about inflation staying persistently under the Fed’s 2 per cent target despite the economic recovery.

There was a warning in the minutes that inflation may remain below target for longer than previously expected. Adding to the uncertainty, the make-up of the Federal Open Market Committee is facing a series of changes — not least a new chairman when Jay Powell replaces Janet Yellen in January.

The dollar is slipping against most other major currencies. The euro is up 0.1 per cent at $1.1829. The yen is 0.1 per cent stronger at ¥110.9 per dollar. Sterling is down 0.1 per cent at $1.3312, but remains around its strongest level since mid October.

The Australian dollar was 0.4 per cent firmer against its US counterpart at $0.7616.

Equities

European equities are under pressure, as the cautious feel to sentiment leaves investors unwilling to re-test recent highs.

London’s FTSE 100 is underperforming its peers, hit by utility stocks after news of a sharp decline in customer numbers as Centrica, one of the sector’s biggest names.

The main London index is down 0.5 per cent, while Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 is off by 0.4 per cent. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 is down 0.3 per cent.

Financial stocks are also under pressure, with the Euro Stoxx banking index down 0.7 per cent.

Commodities

Oil prices are edging lower. Global marker Brent crude is off 0.3 per cent at $63.14 while US marker West Texas Intermediate is off 0.2 per cent at $57.91.

The benchmarks had climbed about 1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, overnight following the release of data from the Energy Information Administration showing that US crude inventories fell last week while gasoline stocks and distillate inventories rose.

Gold is down 0.2 per cent at $1,288.20 per ounce.