Erstellt am: 24. 10. 2013 - 14:11 Uhr

Angie's Phone

Reality Check: Did the NSA bug Merkel's handy, will the EU leaders gathering at a summit talk about anything other than that, are the Greenpeace 30 hooligans, is transparency a good thing during coalition talks, and how do you identify victims of human trafficking?

The Genie is Out of the Bottle

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel looking at her cell phone. Tetris fan?

Whenever there is an international spy-type story breaking, I get excited because it gives me the chance to speak with one of my favourite Reality Check contributors, Nigel West. Not only is he always lovely to speak to, he has a breadth of knowledge on all things espionage and a fantastic way of formulating that knowledge.

Plus, the prospect of speaking with him always makes me hum this classic song in my head.

When I contacted Nigel this morning and asked him about the NSA spying on EU leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkl and France's President Francois Hollande's cell phones, he used such vivid terminology as, "...that would be like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank..." and "...the genie is out of the bottle...".
Why did he use these phrases with regards to the fresh allegations of US spying? Why don't you eavesdrop on our conversation and find out?

Meanwhile, an EU Summit Kicks Off

EU leaders, including the above-mentioned German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Francois Hollande, are set to discuss Europe's economic recovery and immigration at a summit starting today in Brussels. The headline-stealing issue is the whole NSA-Spies-on-EU-Leaders thing (also mentioned above) but our ORF correspondent in Brussels, Raimund Löw, tells us what the headlines, with regard to this current summit, SHOULD be all about.

The Greenpeace 30

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A handout picture provided by Greenpeace shows the bail hearing for Greenpeace International activist Ana Paula Alminhana Maciel from Brazil at the Regional Court of Murmansk, Russia, 24 October 2013

Hooligans. The so-called "Greenpeace 30" have been 'down-graded' from pirates to hooligans by the Russian authorities. This means, instead of facing a maximum of 15 years in a Russian jail, the activists now face a possible 7 years behind Russian bars.

Not a good solution according to Greenpeace and Charles Maynes, our correspondent in Moscow.

Austrian Coalition Talks, Wherefore Art Thou?

Almost one month after the Austrian General Election, political parties are doing their wheeling and dealing in an attempt to form a coalition and a government. They are keeping their talks on the down-low though and political analyst Thomas Hofer explains why that's okay.

Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking

This video awareness campaign by STOP THE TRAFFIK makes a really good point.

So does Ilias Chatzis (who is the head of the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime) when it comes to the difficulties in identifying victims of what amounts to a modern-day slave-trade.