Some pieces of hot T+A (trans+Atlantic) action you may have missed this week:

The Guardian reports that the US is pressuring all 27 EU countries to sign up for a long line of new security measures on trans-Atlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

John Rosenthal seems to be filling the vaccum left by David's Medienkritik of Americentric scrutiny of German media in his weekly Transatlantic Intelligencer at the World Politics Review. Last week he noticed the characterization of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' letter requesting more German troops as "unusually sharp" and "shameless" by both Der Spiegel and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The rest of the German media followed suit with the same description, though discrepancies in their reports suggest that none of the reporters had any direct access to the letter itself, the same letter that all other countries participating in NATO's operation in Afghanistan received and one that French Minister of Defense Hervé Morin found to be "studiously polite."

Expert on trans-Atlantic relations and foreign trade policy, Stormy-Annika Mildner, at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin tells Deutsche Welle that John McCain as US President would entail certain perks for Germany over that of a Democratic alternative like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, not the least being that a Democrat would place greater demands on Germany to take on a greater responsibility in the world.

The National Basketball Association is looking into creating a five-team European division of the NBA within the next ten years, reports AFP. Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, the default ambassador of trans-Atlantic b-ball happiness, says, "The potential is definitely there. The arenas are there in the big cities. The knowledge is there. People over there love the sport. They follow the teams. There are plenty of opportunities. We just have to see how it plays out."

New York Times' Dennis Lim writes a decent overview of highlights from the Berlin International Film festival, albeit one that has been widely criticized for being short on surprises and long on publicity-baiting (see: Scorsese+Stones). One universal surprise: Madonna's movie doesn't suck!