John Kerry’s sweet secret: He once owned a cookie shop

WASHINGTON - Globe-trotting US diplomat John Kerry is known for his sweet tooth. But he surprised top chefs this week by revealing he loves to cook, and once ran a bakery.

Back in the 1970s when he was "bored stiff" working in a private law practice in his home town of Boston, he and a friend hit upon a madcap idea to open a late-night cookie shop.

"We came out after dinner, and I was craving a chocolate chip cookie. And this has been a craving all my life," Kerry joked in the sumptuous surroundings of the State Department at an event attended by some of America's top chefs.

"So we said, 'Wow, there’s nowhere in Boston down here where we can buy a great cookie late at night.'"

After scouting around, Kerry and his then partner found a spot at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, negotiated a space and two months later were ordering food mixers and "a fancy new stove" for their business adventure.

"I was having these great visions of 40 stores in 40 cities very quickly, and I suddenly realized, 'You know what? I don’t have any menus. I don’t have any recipes.'"

Addressing US chefs who will take part in America's contribution to the 2015 Milan Expo, Kerry revealed he began whipping up batches of cookies on his home stove "as many different chocolate chip versions as I could make."

"Lo and behold... by cribbing a little bit off the back of" a packet of cookie dough and "working very cleverly with molasses and pure Lindt chocolate and the best butter we could find and so on, we made a great cookie."

The Kilvert & Forbes Bakeshop opened on time and within a year had won a Best of Boston award.

Although Kerry and his partner have long since sold his shares in the business, the store still exists and the former Massachusetts senator remains one of the best customers of its chocolate chip cookies.

And Kerry said the experience had been a good lesson in how "people connect in unique and powerful ways over food" something which he has used in his diplomacy.

The chefs who will take part in the Milan Expo opening next month are "as committed to American diplomacy as any group of people I've ever met," Kerry said.

"We're going to showcase American innovation and technology and promote our agricultural products and trade," he added. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

German security recorded at least one Kerry conversation

BERLIN - Germany's foreign intelligence agency recorded at least one phone conversation held by US. Secretary of State John Kerry, a German magazine said on Saturday, potentially embarrassing Berlin which has reprimanded Washington for its surveillance.

Der Spiegel cited unnamed sources as saying security agents at Germany's BND had intercepted Kerry's words when he was in the Middle East negotiating between Israelis, Palestinians and Arab states last year.

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Laura Seal said in an e-mail concerning the Spiegel report: "We decline to comment."

The recording of at least one of Kerry's phone calls seemed to have been immediately deleted, the magazine said in a pre-publication copy of an article. It did not give any evidence for this.

On Friday, German media reported that German security agents tapped a conversation involving Kerry's predecessor, Hillary Clinton, while she was Secretary of State and had not immediately deleted the recording.

Spiegel said that phone call had taken place in 2012 between Clinton and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who had just returned from negotiations in Syria and wanted to brief Clinton.

Both Germany's government and a spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House declined on Friday to comment on the reports.

The magazine cited unnamed security sources as saying several US. officials had been intercepted by the BND when making phone calls via satellite in a plane but that these interceptions had been unintentional "bycatch".

A BND spokeswoman told Reuters Germany was not tapping the phones of allied countries and said the United States was not a target.

"Any accidental recordings are deleted immediately," she added.

A spokesman for the German government said it was up to the parliamentary control committee to deal with the accusations.

Bild newspaper cited a US. secret service employee as saying the phone calls of the secretary of state were encrypted just like those of the president so it would be "impressive if the BND was able to crack this encryption" and it was more likely Clinton's statements were intercepted on an unsecured line.

Relations between the United States and Germany were hit last year by revelations by former US. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden that Washington spied on German officials and bugged the phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The dispute was revived in July when Germany's Federal Prosecutor arrested Markus R., a 31-year old employee of Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND), on suspicion of spying for the Americans.

German media said on Friday they had discovered documents showing the German government had ordered the BND to spy on a NATO partner state, without naming the country. On Saturday Der Spiegel said Turkey was and still is the target.

Merkel said in an interview last month that the United States and Germany had fundamentally different conceptions of the role of the intelligence service, and she stressed the Cold War was over. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Kerry urges US envoys to make climate change a priority

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on American ambassadors around the world to make the fight against climate change a top priority ahead of new UN talks next year.

In his first department-wide policy guidance statement since taking office a year ago, he told his 70,000 staff: "The environment has been one of the central causes of my life."

"Protecting our environment and meeting the challenge of global climate change is a critical mission for me as our country's top diplomat," Kerry said in the letter issued on Friday to all 275 US embassies and across the State Department.

"It's also a critical mission for all of you: our brave men and women on the frontlines of direct diplomacy," he added in the document seen by AFP.

He urged all "chiefs of mission to make climate change a priority for all relevant personnel and to promote concerted action at posts and in host countries to address this problem."

The clarion call comes ahead of key UN-led talks in Paris next year when the international community is due to try to set new emissions goals for greenhouses blamed for global warming.


The emission levels will be applicable to all countries, not just the developed world, and will come into effect in 2020.

The new agreement will replace the Kyoto treaty which is due to expire in 2015.

The United States, which along with China is the world's top polluter, did not ratify the Kyoto Treaty arguing that developing countries should also be obligated to cut greenhouse gases.

Kerry traveled to China last month and won agreement from Beijing that the US and China would cooperate closely ahead of the Paris talks as they aim to agree emissions targets.

In his policy guidance, Kerry set out a seven step program to enhance the focus on tackling climate change including boosting multilateral and bilateral efforts.

"We're talking about the future of our earth and of humanity. We need to elevate the environment in everything we do," he said.

It was, he said "our call to conscience as citizens of this fragile planet we inhabit."

Kerry is currently weighing a decision on whether the US should approve the building of a pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands of Alberta, in Canada, to US refineries in Nebraska and then Texas.

An environmental review found that the Keystone XL project would not add significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

But opponents are calling on Kerry to reject the proposals by Canadian operators TransCanada, and a small but noisy protest was held late Thursday outside the State Department. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com