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Opinion

Britain’s vast camera network is being used to secretly surveil drivers, privacy experts warn

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3 minute read

From LifeSiteNews

By Didi Rankovic

Big Brother Watch reported that U.K. number plate recognition systems are recording vehicles at an unprecedented rate, warning that police have been given access to this data and raising significant concerns about personal privacy and civil rights.

The use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) in the U.K. is now reportedly producing mass surveillance on a truly massive scale – cameras are capturing number plates close to 44.5 times per second.

That translates to more than one billion times a year, privacy and civil rights group Big Brother found out via freedom of information act (FOIA) requests, that concerned eight local or regional authorities.

This makes for “one of the biggest surveillance networks in the world,” is how the group summed up the situation.

APNRs are there to enforce green driving schemes (Clean Air Zones, CAZ; in London, this is known as the Ultra Low Emission Zone, ULEZ) by deploying mass surveillance and collecting data on drivers that can be retained for up to a year.

And this comes on top of the police capturing number plates for their own purposes, said to be happening billions of times per year.

The declared reason for the use and proliferation of surveillance cameras in these ULEZ-like schemes is to control how much emissions drivers are allowed to create. The authorities have the right to charge penalties – but in thousands upon thousands of cases, reports say this is based on erroneous data.

According to Big Brother Watch, Birmingham City Council had struck a secretive, and apparently ongoing, deal with West Midlands Police before the 2022 Commonwealth Games which let the police access the council’s ANPR network.

The response to this FOIA request, however, did not specify how much data was given to law enforcement thanks to this agreement, which the privacy advocates say, provided “unfettered access to number plate data.”

Meanwhile, Transport for London (TfL) data captured from 163.2 vehicles driving past its live CCTV cameras was requested by the Metropolitan Police between August 2023 and June 2024.

“Millions of innocent people’s car journeys are captured by automated cameras every day and this level of surveillance is a threat to everyone’s privacy,” warned Big Brother Watch Head of Research and Investigations Jake Hurfurt.

Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.

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Daily Caller

Trump Reportedly Has Ace Up His Sleeve For Countries That Refuse To Take Back Their Illegal Migrants

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

The incoming Trump administration is reportedly devising a plan to remove illegal migrants from the United States, even if their home countries refuse to accept them.

Illegal migrants that have been ordered deported by an immigration judge, but hail from a country that refuses to take them back, may be sent to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Grenada, Panama or possibly elsewhere once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, according to NBC News. Such a plan, which has yet to be confirmed by the transition team, could prove to be a game-changer in the president-elect’s promised goal of conducting the largest deportation initiative in U.S. history.

It’s not immediately clear if these illegal migrants would be allowed to remain and work in the countries in which they are deported, or what type of pressure Trump officials are applying to these host governments. A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Foreign governments that refuse to take back deportees have long frustrated federal immigration authorities in multiple administrations. In lieu of remaining in detention indefinitely, many of these individuals may simply be released back into the U.S., even if an immigration judge has ordered them to be removed.

Under the Biden administration, federal immigration authorities and major cities across the country experienced an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis. Management of this crisis was made more difficult when Venezuela, the second-highest source of illegal immigration into the U.S., stopped accepting deportation flights in February.

Nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country under Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist authoritarian who has overseen rampant inflation, economic turmoil and political repression. Trump is reportedly being pushed to make a deal with Maduro’s government, which would involve them accepting deportees again in exchange for an easing of U.S. sanctions, but it’s not clear if the incoming president is receptive to such an idea.

In the past, the Chinese and Cuban governments have also proven uncooperative with deportation flights from the U.S. However, both countries have begun accepting more flights from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) once again.

During Trump’s first White House term, he secured safe third country agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which were intended to keep asylum seekers at bay by forcing them to seek refuge in those countries first before applying in the U.S. However, the Biden administration suspended those deals immediately upon entering office — part of a massive unraveling of Trump-era immigration policies by President Joe Biden that helped spark the current southern border crisis.

Trump plans to enter office and begin to not only conduct the largest deportation program ever witnessed in U.S. history, but he has also vowed to resume border wall construction, end birthright citizenship for those born to illegal migrant parents, restart the travel ban and bring back the Remain in Mexico program — which kept asylum seekers waiting in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated in immigration court.

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National

Canadian Liberal MP accuses Conservatives of being bankrolled by Russia

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Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureaux

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

“There is something in his past,” Lamoureux said to MPs, adding, “He is hiding something. What is it?”

Without offering evidence to back up his claim, a high-ranking Canadian MP from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party claimed that Russia is bankrolling the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) in a bid to prop it up.

The claim was made by Kevin Lamoureux, a Liberal MP from Winnipeg North riding who recently alleged that Russia is “spending millions” as a type of “foreign influencer.”

Lamoureux, as per Blacklock’s Reporter, told his fellow MPs on November 27 that “Russia” was propping up the “Conservative Party of Canada, if not directly, indirectly.”

“Is it any wonder why maybe they might have actually voted against a Canada-Ukraine trade deal for suspicious reasons? I’m trying to be nice,” he claimed, without offering any evidence.

Lamoureux is no back-benching Liberal but serves as the parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader. He said that the Canada Elections Act bans “undue influence” as well as contributions made by any “foreign individual or entity” to Canadian federal parties.

His comments come at a time with support for the Trudeau Liberals is at an all-time low, with the most recent polls showing a Conservative government under leader Pierre Poilievre would win a super majority were an election held today.

House Leader Karina Gould did not comment on Lamoureux’s accusations against the CPC. As for Lamoureux, he claimed that Poilievre may be hiding something.

“There is something in his past,” Lamoureux said to MPs, adding, “He is hiding something. What is it?”

Lamoureux made the same accusations earlier, again offering no evidence to support his claims.

CPC MPs, notably those of Ukrainian background, blasted Lamoureux’s comments, demanding a “full apology.”

“It is gutter politics,” Conservative MP James Bezan said.

Pro-life CPC MP Cathay Wagantall demanded Lamoureux offer a “full apology” at once.

“My grandfather came here just before the Holodomor from a Russia that destroyed our people,” she said.

The reality is the CPC under Poilievre has consistently objected to Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

However, this has not stopped the Trudeau government from claiming Russia is somehow behind Canada’s freedom movement as well as the Conservative Party.

Trudeau’s cabinet had to earlier admit that it made up claims Russia had bankrolled the 2022 Freedom Convoy, admitting, “There was no evidence foreign state actors or foreign governments were conducting any disinformation campaign against Canada in relation to the convoy.

In 2022, the CBC, Canada’s state-run broadcaster, was rebuked by its overseer after running a story false story claiming Russia was behind the Freedom Convoy protests.

Trudeau recently drew the ire of popular Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson, who demanded an apology after the Canadian prime minister accused him of being funded by Russian state media.

Meanwhile, Trudeau has praised China for its “basic dictatorship” and has labeled the authoritarian nation as his favorite country other than his own.

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