Saturday, September 17, 2016

Eurosphere agenda: “Bratislava EU meeting”

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The EU is in a “critical situation”, the German chancellor says, as leaders meet to discuss ways to regain trust after the UK’s vote to leave the bloc.
The leaders of the EU member states meet today in Bratislava to discuss how the Union should deal with the Brexit vote and the huge differences of opinion on what to do with refugees. European Council President Donald Tusk called in the run-up to the event for a “sober and brutally honest assessment of the situation”. Journalists observe the meeting with a mixture of hope and scepticism.
Ministers from 12 EU countries have written to the bloc’s trade chief to back a planned trade accord with the United States, declaring clear support for negotiations that have divided opinion on both sides of the Atlantic.
Riot police clash with protesters in France marching against labour reforms in what unions say will be the last of such demonstrations.
A restaurant manager in Bielefeld, north Germany, triggers a social media storm after expelling a woman wearing the Islamic full-face veil.
Spain’s conservative and Socialist parties have been rocked by a series of corruption scandals. The former conservative mayor of the city of Valencia is on trial for money laundering while the Socialist ex-president of Andalusia is facing charges of embezzling public funds destined for schemes for the unemployed. The parties are immersed in a swamp of corruption, commentators are certain.

EU summit: World citizens’ hopes and fears

As Slovakia prepares to host a one-day informal meeting of 27 European Union heads of state and government, the BBC asks citizens from a range of countries their views on the future of the EU.

Refugees Pour Out of Turkey Once More as Deal With Europe Falters

The number of refugees arriving in Greece nearly doubled last week, to more than 1,000. Many are realizing that an agreement to stanch the flow is not being enforced.
The site of the world’s biggest beer festival will be fenced off for the first time, with mandatory security checks for the millions of revellers expected to attend.

Into the unknown: Government surveillance after Brexit

We’re living at the crux of two moments of political uncertainty. One is Brexit, and the other is the introduction of unprecendented surveillance powers. How might these uncertainties effect one another?

GCHQ Director Robert Hannigan. Photo: Ben Birchall / PA Archive/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.As the UK Parliament returns from its summer break, everyone’s back to talking about Brexit. But there’s another policy of existential significance to our democracy that we really need to be talking about. I refer here to the innocuously named ‘Investigatory Powers Bill’. The House of Lords are due to debate the ‘bulk powers’ – what we would call the mass surveillance measures – of the Bill over the coming days. We are literally weeks away from the most draconian and far-reaching surveillance legislation of any democracy becoming law.


Not long ago we reported that the Dutch national police was training birds in its efforts to take down drones that are being operated illegally. After a seven-month-long trial, the force is now certain that well-trained birds will be able to help them with its tasks involving tackling rogue drones. In the video above the takedown team is seen in a demonstration of how an eagle might be used in a real-life situation. It’s in Dutch, but easy enough to follow: A VIP gets escorted to a meeting, where an enemy drone is lurking in the distance. The VIP is then led safely back to…

Vía Erkan’s Field Diary http://ift.tt/2cxdhAC


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