Eurosphere agenda: “Bratislava EU meeting”
Refugees Pour Out of Turkey Once More as Deal With Europe Falters
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?
.jpg "GCHQ Director Robert Hannigan. Photo: Ben Birchall / PA Archive/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.")
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…
