Europe

Europe are cracking down on freedom of speech and people’s right to privacy by insisting that all social media giants require users to provide state-issued ID cards to log-in.  The European Commission say that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Uber must require all European Union citizens to show proof of their identity before being allowed to access the sites. Leaked EU Commission documents reveal a concerted push by Brussels to roll out more expansive use of national ID cards across the EU. The documents have been uploaded to the Commission’s official website since the leak.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

When you first go on duty at CIA headquarters, you raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution. So there’s this friction, this emerging contest between the obligations and values that the government asks you to uphold, and the actual activities that you’re asked to participate in.

 

The British labour leader has promised to veto the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between the EU and US due to concerns over “irreversible” privatization and “watered down consumer rights.” Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to stop the adoption of the deal if he is elected prime minister before it is completed.

Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

• Sports stadiums and big music events are especially vulnerable: "This is where you put a small town into a small area for a couple of hours." — Neil Basu, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, London.

Moments ago, in a move that will infuriate Turkey, the German parliament withstood a barrage of pressure from the Turkish government, and approved a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a ‘genocide’, a step widely viewed as a tacit escalation against Turkey.  The vote was almost unanimous in supporting the resolution with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The move was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.