Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News Podcast 19th June 2024

Transcript

UK Column News Podcast 19th June 2024 · UK Column Radio

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Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the nineteenth of June twenty twenty four, just
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after one o'clock. Welcome to the UK Colin News. I'm your host Mike
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Robinson joining me in the studio today Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program,
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Charles, Thank you, Mike. And in Damascus, as you sual,
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we have Vanessa Bailey. So we'll get kicked off with the general election or
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is it? Well exactly, Thanks Mike, and good afternoon. All.
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The question really to be asked in life of the fact that the politicians and
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indeed the mainstream media aren't really concentrating on this is what are people going to
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be voting for? So we'll start with a look at the United Nations Sustainable
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Development Goals and the highlighted text there the government saying the world we want to
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see by twenty thirty But exactly what do they mean by we and have we
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really had a say in this? So on their paper implementing the SDGs,
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they talk about the most defective way to delivering it is by ensuring that the
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goals are fully embedded in planned activity of each government department. The most effective
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mechanism for coordinating implementation is the departmental planning process, so they do appear to
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have all bases covered. At the national government level, we check that the
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London Assembly is very much following the same agenda and indeed they say that they
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set ambitious targets to create transformative socio economic and environmental progress by twenty thirty and
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critically they say that governments cannot do this alone. Local government, businesses,
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the public sector, community groups and others must all play their part, a
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message which is reinforced by the Local Government Association making the case for council engagement
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with the UN Sustainable Development Goal, so it really has seeped in absolutely everywhere.
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They say why councils should implement the sustainable Development goals and this is to
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hit the targets by twenty thirty depending on action at the local level, and
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councils being key because of course they reference health and wellbeing. They go on
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to say that the councils will provide a framework for strategic planning, policy review
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and action for sustainable development, of course, planning being one of the major
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taskings of local authorities. So further, they reinforce the declaration that there is
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a climate emergency that is now unequivocal, of course, and that's written down
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in not just policy but also legislation. So the evolution we may have,
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but with it comes lockstep. Here's the Climate Change Act Scotland two thousand and
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nine in which they say that the target setting criteria are the likely impact of
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the target on the achievement of sustainable development, including the achievement of the United
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Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Same score in Northern Ireland with the Climate Change Act
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there from twenty twenty two, in which they say the likely impact of the
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budget on the achievement of sustainable development, including the achievement of the United Nations
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Sustained Development Goals. So now we look to Wales with the Wellbeing of Future
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Generations Act from twenty fifteen, in which they say that Future Trends Report the
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Welsh Ministers must take account of any action taken by the United Nations in relation
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to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. So you get the picture. But further,
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going back to the local authorities, we look at the Department for Leveling
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Up, Housing and Communities and the Critical National Planning Policy Framework from December of
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last year, in which they refer to the purpose of the planning system being
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to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. And of course where's this come
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from. Well, in actual facts come from at a high level they talk
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about Similarly, high level members of the United Nations, including the United Kingdom,
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have agreed to pursue the seventeen Global Goals for Sustainable Development in the period
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to twenty thirty. If you are wondering why this matters, it concerns what
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may be described as vested interest. So we have statistics here from twenty ten
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the Chief Executive Board for Coordination showing where non government donations come from. At
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the top, very big category there from the European Union, but the red
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arrows point two the billmill Indigates Foundation, the multi or rather multi donor trust
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funds, Rotary International and World Bank Group, and I should point out total
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there is just over two trillion pounds. So we'll go on to twenty twenty
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two, by which time you see that the European Union is still a major
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donor, but that there are more contributors in this effectively non government donor system,
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the World Bank Group, unnamed private donors, multi Partner Trust Fund Office,
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Global Environment Facility, United States Fund, for unise F. The GAVI
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Alliance, of course, concerns vaccines and is largely controlled by billman Indicates or
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at least Bill Gates, the Bill mil Indigates Foundation and unnamed multi donor trust
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funds. I should also point out that the arrow from the Gates Foundation points
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mostly to the World Health Organization. So there is without doubt a conflict of
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interest in what governments are doing, or at least what the government of the
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four nations of the United Kingdom are doing. So are they going to confront
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any of this in their manifestos? Here they are from Reform UK, Liberal
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Democrats, Conservative and Unionist Party and Labor Party of this year will only two
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of those four actually mention the Sustainable Development Goals. The Conservatives say that they
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will ensure that aid and development supports our strategic objectives with a focus on fragile
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state. We will work with our partners to deliver the sustainable Development Goals.
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So they do want to make a note in their manifesto that this is what
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they're going to do in talking about it in the International Development White Paper.
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The lib Dems similarly say that they remain committed to delivering the United Nations sustainable
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development goals in the US, and they're going to put those goals at the
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heart of the UK's international development policy. Now, for a great amount of
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detail on this, I would encourage you to go to the UK column Shop
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and pick up a copy of Agenda twenty one, Your Life in Their Hands,
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originally written by Martin Edwards in twenty thirteen and effectively updated by Mike Robinson
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just now. And many thanks to all those who have already purchased a copy.
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They are flying off the shelves, but do get into it as a
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phenomenal level of detail in that now. Of course, these are exactly the
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sorts of questions we would want to ask politicians about. And indeed I've been
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in touch with the leaders of the four parties shown Sunak ed Davey, Nigel
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Farage and Kir Starmer. I have written to them four times each and I
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have had no response, not even an acknowledgment of my email. It is
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not credible that they have not received the email with the staffing levels that they
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would have. But anyway, in terms of accountability and conflict of interest,
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of course, it's well known that Kir Starmer had his Davos Westminster moment,
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which has been played many times. But here we are just a reminder that
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Sunak and Stamer are both effectively under the umbrella of the World Economic Forum,
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in addition, of course to the United Nations. Now we're just going to
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have a bit of a look at Reform because the influence they're coming from a
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different direction, and it just gives that potential for their being conflict or at
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least effectively not exactly declaring where the direction of travel might be coming from.
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The byline Times talking about political business brought to you by billionaires, and specifically
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they talk about Chris Harborne, who has given around ten pounds to the Brexit
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or Reform party as it's now become, and he's made his fortune and aviation
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fuel and tech investing. He's also in the Panama Papers that significantly he's the
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largest shareholder in Kinetic, the UK defense technology company. We've talked about this
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quite a bit, but as they say here, it's been boosted by the
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Ukraine War with rising sales of products, and here we just feature one of
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them, which we've concentrated on on UK column quite a lot before the dragonflyre
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laser program. Pinetic have a stake in that. So therefore we look at
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how this might affect reform in their defense part of the manifesto, they say
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they're going to increase spending to two point five percent of GDP by year three,
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then up to three percent within six years. But critically, with reference
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to Harborne and Kinetic, we're going to regenerate Britain's defense manufacturing and technology and
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introduce incentives and tax breaks to boost the UK defense industry. And now,
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of course, were they to do that in a position of power, it
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might not look very good for them when their funding is examined. If by
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this stage you are wondering what on earth to do with your vote and how
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necessary parliament actually is, we'll just have a quick look at what the House
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of Commons does do when it's in session and where the life carries on without
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them or not. Now, I don't mean to suggest that MP's are doing
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nothing when they're not sitting in Parliament. That patently is not the case.
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But nonetheless it is worth pointing out an average of one hundred and seventy days
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per annam are spent sitting in Parliament, and yet, of course, ire
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and large the country continues to function. We've talked a lot about sorts of
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candidates that are going to be standing this year, and so I should just
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make it clear that there is a record number of candidates standing in this general
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election, which does suggest there is a great degree of voter dissatisfaction or at
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least opportunities seen by those that may not necessarily have seen before. And of
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course we've talked about the fourth of July as being Independent Day, and there
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are four hundred and fifty nine independent candidates stepping forward at this general election,
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which is a vast total, very very significant number. But of course it
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still does present the question do you have an independent to vote for? Do
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you necessarily want to give that independent your vote? And indeed, if not,
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what other alternatives do we have now? Toby Young, I believe,
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put out a tweet this morning, he of Free Speech Union fame, and
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I think it's fair to say that he has had an incorrect reading of the
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situation in that he's talked about not voting, But of course not voting is
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effectively abstaining and it's meaningless because it doesn't get counted. However, a ballot
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paper that is spoiled, although the electoral Commission effectively write it up that it's
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not counted because it's deemed to be rejected. That's not the case. And
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this is from the Electoral Commission readout from the twenty nineteen general election, where
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they quite clearly do count the numbers of votes that are rejected. So that's
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really sort of the summary of the general election at the moment, and the
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sort of thing that I'm afraid is not being discussed in the mainstream. Will
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wait to see if any of those party leaders do actually come back and decide
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that they're going to give UK column the time of day. Sincerely hope that
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they do. Now, I'm Freddie. We were talking about Anne mcflasky and
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what had happened to her last week, and well some of that wasn't actually
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correct, So I just want to correct what we reported last week. Before
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we do that. Here's the Teller and this is a front page from today.
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And if we look on the right hand side here of the front page,
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wipe clean all COVID fines, says ex Minister. So this is Robert
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Buckland and he's suggesting that the outstanding finds need to be just forgotten about.
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That was one of the points that we were making last week that there were
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so many of these outstandings still now. I'm not clear whether they're making the
11:26
suggestion because they think they're pointless continuing with it, or it's just that the
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courts are never going to catch up with these. But nonetheless, An McCloskey
11:33
was singled out. So let's bring her on screen and let's look at what
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actually happened to her. So, first of all, she was picked up
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by the police as she was delivering her election documents to the post office.
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My understanding is that if she hadn't been quite swift about getting into the building,
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they might have had her before she had actually managed to get her election
11:54
documents submitted. But anyway, she did get them in and she was arrested
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on the way back out. Again. She was taken to a cell in
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Cole Rain. She was told she would be taken to the court the following
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day, whenever she was expected to appear in court, but in fact what
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happened instead she was taken to a room in the police station and provided with
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a video link. She was unable to see what was going on in the
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actual courtroom, and asked, for example, whether there were any witnesses in
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the courtroom, and was told that there absolutely were witnesses in the courtroom,
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including journalists, but of course she had no actual ability to verify that.
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So if we put that back up on screen, then as she was speaking
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to the judge, a police officer muted her mic, and then when she
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attempted to unmute the mic, he well, she describes it as an assault,
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so I've no reason to disbelieve that. She went on to say that
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she was then sent to prison, and then she was subsequently released from prison.
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So she was released from prison quite quickly, and this was originally told
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her because her husband had paid the fine. That was not the case.
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She was then told that it was because an anonymous supporter paid the fine.
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So at this point she has no knowledge of who has paid the fine or
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whether the fine has been paid. But nonetheless she was released. And the
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key points here are that there has been a complete breach of criminal procedure rules
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in my opinion, and also, in my opinion, a clear effort,
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as we mentioned on Friday, to interfere with the general election. Now I'm
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going to say that this issue of criminal procedure rules has parallels many parallels with
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several procedure rules, and going back many years, we were discussing the Tom
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Crawford case where he was having his home removed, and on screen theres Guy
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Tailor talking about that, and of course he was also involved in looking at
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several procedure rules. And of course we have these rules place in order to
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make sure that people are treated fairly by the courts and by the court system.
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And if those rules are subverted or shortcutted or removed, then of course
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those protections are also removed. And in an McClosky's case, it's absolutely clear
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that the procedures were not followed properly and she has a reason to believe that
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she was therefore not treated fairly lawfully. However you want to express it now.
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One of the points that she has made is that in Northern Ireland the
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coronavirus emergency legislation has been extended. And so this is the newsletter from Belfast
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and the headline is from March eleventh and March stormut rejects extending anti democratic COVID
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powers on health, but keeps them for the courts. And if we look
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down at this saying, however, Justice Minister and then we long did get
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approval from the Assembly to extend emergency COVID law which allow the wider use of
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live links by courts. So this is the excuse that appears that they've used
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in order to make sure that Anne did not get into an actual court room
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in front of a judge and so on, and therefore they were in much
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better position to control the proceedings and so on. But in the time that
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we've got today, I probably haven't given this the justice of the deserves.
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So if you want to get the full story, Anne McCluskey on her substack
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here has a video that she released on Friday evening, I believe, just
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immediately after she was released from prison, important doctor Ann mcluskey speaks about her
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recent and lawful arrest and internment with our trial under COVID nineteen emergency pars.
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The full details are on that and hopefully we will get the opportunity to speak
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to and very soon in interview form and get the latest from her very very
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soon, but possibly possibly after the election will because of course she is standing,
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so we wish our good luck with that. Now let's move on to
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international. Oh sorry, before we do that, one other point that Anna
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is making here, and that is that of course, when we look at
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who's running the criminal or the court system, the IT systems for the courts
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which enable these live links and so on, it is Fujitsu. So this
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is ICOSTS, this is their courts management system. And also they've got a
16:29
system called Causeway launched in two thousand and two, and that sort of links
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together various organizations including the police, the prison service, the court service,
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and the rest. So it is interesting that Fujitsu is the choice for IT
16:45
provider there. But let's move on to international affairs and welcome Vanessa to the
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program. And Vanessa, let's get started with what's been going on in the
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Red Sea. Yes, it's very interesting escalation beloved as they are known regionally
17:02
for their resistance, and of course what they're doing is entirely justified under the
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Genocide Convention. They are punishing and attempting to prevent genocide. So this was
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actually translated from Arabic to Almasira the Yemeni media, the main Yemeni media.
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So let's have a look at what they're saying. Drone boats in maritime warfare,
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the Yemeni armed forces possess advanced weaponry and military capabilities, particularly in naval
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weapons. They have demonstrated significant technological advancements in this area. These include offensive
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technologies achieved by only a few countries globally the clue is there, such as
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Russia, China, and the United States. Of course, Yemen has been
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capturing US manufactured weapons from the Saudi coalition that has been trying to beat Yemen
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into submission since March twenty fifteen, but the arsenal includes various tactical and strategic
18:06
weapons such as naval mind suicide drones, unmanned submarines, and a formidable array
18:11
of land to see missiles. Among these, unmanned surface vessels. Us fees
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are a critical innovation developed by Yemeny engineers to protect maritime sovereignty and counter threats
18:25
from enemy ships and fleet. So let's just have a look at some of
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the technical details. I won't dwell on them too much. People can freeze
18:32
frame and read it for themselves, but cost effectiveness and ease of use manufacturing
18:37
us fees is relatively inexpensive and straightforward, requiring minimal financial and logistical resources.
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Sealth and precision destructive power. Us bees can carry explosive charges up to four
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hundred and fifty KOs, capable of destroying heavily fortified naval vessels such as destroyers
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and frigates. The function as guided maritime bombs, surpassing torpedoes and surface missiles
19:04
in destructive capability. So let's have a look at the latest British boat to
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have been under attack, and that was These were two messengers from seven and
19:15
eight am this morning British Maritime Trade Operations. Marine debris and oil from the
19:22
ship Total have been reported in the last known location of the ship, which
19:26
was basically, as it says, in the Red Sea off the coast of
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Daida, where the UK and the US have been carrying out punitive air strikes
19:36
against and stroller against the resistance forces and Yemen. So let's just have a
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look at a quick video of the approaching USB from the crew on the Total
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ship that has now sunk. You know, scum here, no man,
20:07
nam me do me movie the inside? You said, he said, say
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you say, you say, you say walking M's what level? No no,
20:37
no, no, no, na no no oh no, Then I
20:47
mean the town of Melam. I mean. It must be noted, of
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course that these ships are only targeted when they refuse to turn around and continue
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as with Israel as their destination, so they are given the opportunity to cease
21:26
heading towards Israel. But this is interesting, This is Chinese experts and analysts
21:30
Yemen's targeting of the US aircraft carrier Eisenhower shakes US strategic dominance. So this
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was basically China National Radio highlighted the Yemene Armed forces targeting of the American aircraft
21:47
carrier Eisenhower. One of China's most influential national media institutions reported on the significant
21:53
events. So let's have a look at what they're saying. It's worth noting,
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of course, that the United States and not the targeting of the Eisenhower
22:00
and tried to produce on social media, in particular videos showing the Eisenhower without
22:07
damage, but eagle eye social media followers pointed out that the video was at
22:12
least a month old, so basically, the Liu the analyst highlighted that since
22:19
twenty twenty four, the m and Armed forces have projected a robust image,
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attracting public attention with actions like blockading waterways and supporting Palestine. He goes on
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to say that Androla's evolution into a force daring enough to challenge American carrier exemplifies
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the Chinese proverb he who digs a pit for his brother falls into it,
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emphasizing the irony and the unexpected nature of this development. For the United States,
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the attack on the Eisenhower signifies the shattering of the myth of invincibility surrounding
22:55
American carrier groups. The psychological impact on the US military outweighs any physical damage,
23:02
strategically undermining American dominance. The US previously threatened nuclear retaliation for any attack
23:08
on its carriers, a deterrent many feared. However, with Yemen's direct assault
23:14
on the carrier, whether successful or not, the question arises, will the
23:18
US wager nuclear war against Yemen? Clearly it's not feasible, meaning the illusion
23:23
of unchallengeable dominance has bursts. And this is the significant implication of the M
23:30
and E Armed Forces attack on the American aircraft carrier. Very interesting considering the
23:36
fact that China obviously is in the US. Cross says, particularly the naval
23:41
process. Yes, and I mean, do we know what actually caused that
23:48
ship to sink? I mean, was the total the British ship. Yes,
23:55
well, presumably they targeted the hull I would guess on it water because
24:00
it was some time. I think it was at least twenty four hours between
24:04
the time that it was targeted and the time that it's sunk. So presumably
24:08
the crew members. I haven't seen anything declaring that crew members were lost,
24:12
were able to be evacuated and the ship has since gone down. That's the
24:18
second British ship that is being sunk. Yeah, Okay, thank you for
24:25
awsome. Okay, if you like what the UK column does, you would
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well, not on Facebook anymore. And as Charles meant at the beginning of
25:00
the program, if you would like to pick something up at the UK column
25:03
shop. That would be fantastic as well. A quick reminder that blocked by
25:10
the MHRA reporting reported to the National to the Health Security Agency it day in
25:14
the life of vaccine injured Adam Rowland that went out at one pm yesterday.
25:18
That's now on the website if you'd like to see that and you didn't manage
25:21
to catch it yesterday. And tomorrow Brian is interviewing an independent candidate for Devon
25:27
Southwest, Darryl Ingram, and that will go at one pm tomorrow, so
25:32
please join us for that. And a reminder of the Science Beautiful Festival taking
25:37
place in Wimborne and Dorset twenty seventh to thirtieth. We're getting very close to
25:41
that night and well we will be there so if you can possibly join us
25:47
for that will be fantastic. So where does that take us? Charles the
25:52
reimagining reimagining what warfare or defense? Well quite just before we get onto that,
25:56
also a reminder that we will be running a live event in Bristol on
26:02
the nineteenth of October, so there'll be more detail to come on that.
26:07
Yes, okay, so Reimagining Defense Now, the Tony Blair Institute for Global
26:11
Change is breaking new grounds. Will just put the slide on screen now reimagining
26:17
defense and security from the eleventh of June, and rather than explain exactly what
26:22
it was all about, we'll get the flavor of it from a video of
26:26
a chap called Daniel Sleeter, Sorry, Daniel Sleet speaking modern conflicts show that
26:40
drones are better than tanks. Yeah, I think this is a really important
26:42
point to think through and be clear about. From my point of view,
26:47
the lessons of what's happening in Ukraine and on the battlefields around the world isn't
26:51
necessarily that new technologies are emerging completely at the expense of old technologies. It's
26:57
that the mix of capabilities you need is changing. What are some of your
27:02
ideas on the future of defense. We're currently experiencing the highest number of conflicts
27:07
per year than at any time since the Second World War. That tells me
27:11
that we need to be much better prepared for conflict if we want to avoid
27:15
it. Nothing can do what a soldier can do. Yes, that's very
27:21
true. We've seen in combat in recent years, particularly in Ukraine, the
27:25
enduring importance of ground soldiers. Technology like drones is fundamentally changing warfare, but
27:33
soldiers are vital in holding and taking territories. Hacking is now the only frontier
27:38
that matters. Cyber warfare is becoming really, really important. It is changing
27:45
how we defend ourselves globally, how we defend ourselves as a nation. That
27:51
has to form part of the right mix of capabilities that we have as a
27:55
country. Made your own judgments on the amount of experience that Daniel has to
28:03
qualify any of the statements he's just made. But we'll have a look at
28:07
his LinkedIn profile in which he's described as being the senior policy adviser at the
28:11
Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. And how has he got there. Well,
28:15
he has been a political advisor to Jack Straw after being a political advisor
28:19
to Lord Carter of Coles and he was then a special advisor to Tony Blair
28:25
now Blair. And indeed his institute or his acolytes have form in this regard
28:30
in sort of effectively creating a culture of not really knowing what's going on.
28:36
And I refer back to a publication in twenty ten Jonathan Pole, Blair's former
28:40
chief of staff, writing The Newmaciavelli about the events of two thousand and six
28:44
after Richard Dannatt, the then Chief of the General Staff, wrote in the
28:48
Male controversial piece about whether or not the British troops should be in Iraq,
28:52
and predictably it did not go down well at Downing Street. But this is
28:57
just an indication of how they thought at the time, and Paul says that
29:02
it was quite clear to me that he was unsuited to his job. Meaning
29:04
Danet Tony explained to those present that politicians would not support maintaining a first division
29:08
army if they were caused too much political pain by serving generals speaking out.
29:15
It was always easier for politicians not to risk soldiers' lives. Well, that's
29:18
an interesting thing to mull over, But I fear he was too subtle for
29:22
Danet, who was divinely convinced of his own righteous I can think of somebody
29:27
else that fits that description. It would be another step towards losing the ability
29:32
to control our destiny as a country, a far more important one than sharing
29:36
our sovereignty in NATO or the EU. Already we've lost the capacity to fight
29:40
major operations by ourselves. We could no longer must have a task force like
29:45
the one Britain sent to the Falklands, but sometimes war is necessary. After
29:48
nine to eleven it was clear that military action was essential, but we were
29:53
all a bit hazy about Afghanistan and the Taliban, neither of which had been
29:57
har on our radar screen until then. The day after the attack, I
30:00
walked up Whitehall to Waterstons on Trafalgar Square and bought all the books I could
30:07
find on the Taliban. By far the best, with Ahmed Rashid's Taliban the
30:11
Story of Afghan Warlord, and I sat at my desk and read it right
30:14
through. Tony and Alistair were keen to borrow it. Once I had finished,
30:18
I thought the sensible thing to do was send the Taliban an ultimatum.
30:22
Well, never mind the Foreign Office or indeed the Army or any Afghan specialists
30:29
to trip to Waterstons will do it. But that was the tenor with which
30:33
the Blair administration of that period conducted business, and in effect now is a
30:37
sort of reiteration and effectively the use or the abuse of people who are sitting
30:44
in office to further the ends of either Blair himself or any of his organizations.
30:48
So, just as a refresher, we look at the Commission for Africa,
30:52
which of course he set up whilst Prime Minister into Africa and then commented
30:56
on there by Chatham House saying Prime Minister's Blair Prime Minister Blair's personal commitment to
31:02
Africa is in no doubt indeed, but it should really be a professional commitment.
31:06
Blair himself writing on his own website marking the tenth anniversary of the Commission
31:11
for Africa. But then, of course the Africa Governances Initiative effectively he had
31:15
paid the way for a private enterprise by an action that he took whilst Prime
31:19
Minister, so he says it was for this reason. I also set up
31:22
the Africa Government's Initiative in two thousand and seven to continue to work shoulders shoulder
31:27
with African counterparts to help deliver the life changing improvements their citizens expect. That
31:33
is a highly questionable statement, but he's added again with the appointments of Nick
31:37
Carter General Sir Nick Carter and Patrick Valance of course joining the Blair Institute for
31:41
Change earlier this year, and Carter just a refresh all memory, has over
31:45
forty five years of defense experience, culminating at the top of his profession as
31:49
the Chief of the Defense Staff where he was the principal military advisor to the
31:55
Prime Minister, the National Security Council and the Secretary of State for Defense and
32:00
as head of UK Armed Forces. So he has connections of that. There's
32:04
little doubt now when Carter left and was considering what he might do in future,
32:09
he was referred to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and we look here
32:14
at his paid employment with Helsing. Now what does Helsing do if you've not
32:19
heard of it, it's a defense business that's concerned with artificial intelligence to serve
32:23
our democracies. In particular, AI will be the key to protecting them.
32:29
So they talk here about sea, land and air and if we remind ourselves
32:32
of what was going on on the eleventh through imagining defense and indeed from that
32:37
very document harnessing cutting edge software, they underpin the capabilities of hardware such as
32:43
drones as well as being essential for command and control systems. This is an
32:45
area in which the West, as the home of companies with advanced defense AI
32:50
capabilities such as and Urill, Palanteer and Helsing, hold a distinct advantage over
32:58
Russia and they go on leading global governance for long term influence. The UK
33:02
should build on its success with the AI Safety Summit and establishment of the AI
33:07
Safety Institute to expand the frameworks for testing and evaluating AI in high risk military
33:14
AI systems and develop norms for applying the existing international humanitarian law to the use
33:21
of laws by which they mean lethal autonomous weapon systems basically drones. So it
33:25
seems quite clear what the intent of the Tony Black Institute for Global Change is
33:32
in the very very cynical use or deployment should I say, of Nick Carter
33:37
and his network into not just defense but sorry, the defense hierarchy, but
33:43
also the defense industry. And this is something that we will absolutely be watching
33:46
for sure, but it seems very very likely that it will influence the direction
33:50
of travel of British defense policy. So the question is was the direction of
33:55
travel of Middle defense policy? And well, Jainst Stoltenberg published this in the
34:01
Sunday Telegraph this just past Sunday, NATO in talks. So this Telegraph calling
34:07
this an exclusive NATO in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons. So let's look
34:10
at what he had to say. I won't go into operational details about how
34:15
many nuclear warheads would be should be operational and which should be stored, but
34:19
we need to consult on these issues. Transparency helps to communicate the direct message
34:23
that we, of course are a nuclear alliance. NATO's m is, of
34:28
course a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapon exists,
34:31
we will remain a nuclear alliance because a world where Russia, China, and
34:37
North Korea have nuclear weapons and NATO does not is a more dangerous world.
34:43
In a not very distant future, NATO may face something that has never faced
34:46
before, and that is two nuclear part potential adversaries, China and Russia.
34:51
Of course, this has consequences, so he is talking about taking more nuclear
34:55
warheads out of storage and making deploying them operationally at least on standby, or
35:02
however they want to on the end of their button that they want to press,
35:06
and they do seem increasingly to want to press that button. So here
35:10
is Francis Boyle's substack. And there two ago he was talking about the new
35:16
Pentagon War Manual reducing us to the level of nazis now. In fact,
35:22
this document was published in or at least updated in July twenty twenty three.
35:27
Is originally published in June twenty fifteen. It comes from the Office of General
35:30
Counsel for the Department of Defense in the United States. Let's have a look
35:35
at what it does. First of all, it authorizes the use of depleted
35:37
uranium munitions, napalm, cluster munitions, mines, and herbicides. Vanessa can
35:44
correct me if I'm wrong in a second, But my understanding is that cluster
35:46
munitions are banned internationally. But this new defense what do we call it policy,
35:55
seems to certainly I'll permit that. They go on to say, this
36:00
is a direct quote. Now, there's no general prohibition in treaty or customary
36:02
international law on the use of nuclear weapons. And of course this is ignoring
36:07
all the various international conventions and treaties that exist for non proliferation and non use
36:12
of nuclear weapons. And this is getting to be a pretty dangerous kind of
36:16
rhetoric that we're saying out of the United States and NATO at the moment.
36:21
So going back to Francis Boyle's sub stack, this is one of the points
36:24
it's made. The Pentagon's new Law War Manual sanctioning nuclear attacks and the killing
36:30
of civilians quote reads like it was written by Hitler's Ministry of war. He
36:35
went on to say, historically, this is a terrible development. We're reducing
36:38
ourselves to the level of Nazis. It really is quite a terrible development.
36:45
But the rhetoric builds and the pressure builds on Russia and China, and how
36:50
are they supposed to respond? Because this pressure isn't just about what's happening now.
36:53
This has been going on for the last couple of decades, as we
36:57
have been reporting consistently throughout that time time. But at the recent NATO Defense
37:01
Ministers meeting, jin Stottenberg had this to say on Ukraine, we have agreed
37:09
and a plan that sets out how NATO will lead the coordination of security,
37:16
assistance and training. The will allow NATO leaders to launch this effort at the
37:22
Washington summit in July. It will consist of a NATO command located at a
37:29
US facility in Wiesbaden and at logistical nodes in the eastern part of the Alliance.
37:37
Across the Alliance, This effort is expected to involve nearly seven hundred personnel
37:43
from NATO and partner countries. These efforts do not make NATO a party to
37:51
the conflict. Do you agree with that? Stevent No? I think absolutely
37:58
do to party of the conflict. He looked suitably awkward whilst saying it,
38:04
which is rather meaningless. But the day, I mean, it seems to
38:07
be following this sort of same statement that keeps being chucked out, which is
38:13
the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it. But I'm not
38:19
entirely certain that people really grasp the concept of that properly. No, And
38:22
for that's I mean, when am I right about cluster ammunitions. They are
38:27
banned internationally at this point, yep, they are. I can't remember if
38:30
the US was a signatory, but in twenty sixteen, texture On, the
38:35
main manufacturer in the US, allegedly halted production because they were being used extensively
38:42
by the Saudi coalition against the many civilians from March twenty fifteen onwards. But
38:47
of course they've also been used in Ukraine by the NATO proxy forces against civilians
38:53
in Dombas, the petal mines that Eb Bartlett journalist and colleague has written about
39:00
extensively. Yeah, and just briefly, Vanessa, I mean, it seems
39:06
clear to me that Francis Boyle highlighting this Department of Defense document is important because
39:10
they are absolutely, saying in that that if there is a strategic need,
39:15
don't worry about the civilian casualties if you can demonstrate a strategic need to carry
39:20
out a certain operation, and they're massive civilian casualties, And it seems to
39:23
me that it may well be part of that document which is preventing any criticism
39:30
from the US side of what Israel's doing, because of course that would be
39:34
sheer hypocrisy. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know that's pretty much what we
39:40
see NATO and NATO allies doing. Civilian this horrible word collateral damage is used
39:49
liberally to cover up massacres. We saw it in Nusrets Camp last week.
39:54
One two hundred and seventy four people were killed to rescue four hostages and kill
40:00
three others. Yes, okay, well, let's move on to Ukraine.
40:05
And of course over the weekend was the Ukraine Peace Summit in inverted Commas,
40:10
because of course Russia wasn't there, So how it could possibly be a peace
40:14
summit, I'm not entirely sure. But what's interesting is that several countries that
40:19
were involved in it have refused to sign the plan. And I'll just here
40:22
here speculating on why that might be, but nonetheless, some countries have refused
40:28
to sign, and I think that is indicative of the reality of the Ukrainian
40:32
situation at the moment. But Medvedev has published a post on telegram which will
40:39
translate in one second about the peace conference, So let's just have a look
40:44
at what he had to say. He said, after all, to resolve
40:46
the conflict, the sly Swiss shepherds called only the proven animals a crazy small
40:52
board who has swallowed a sexual stimulant with his constant friend. I heard of
40:58
dumb headed Western Alpine sheep bleeding blissfully about peace, as well as a pack
41:02
of European guard dogs to guard the livestock. He's not mentioning his words,
41:07
He's drawing parallels with animal farm Here the dogs bark, spray poison saliva in
41:13
all directions and keep order, and they need to keep an eye on it.
41:15
The sheep often bleed out of place and get confused from the memorized formulas.
41:20
At the head of the flock, there's a visibly present, elderly feeble
41:23
knighted owner can't imagine who that is, who has long since lost contact with
41:28
reality and constantly freezes looking at the sky with a detached, idiotic expression on
41:32
his face. His family wouldn't let him go because of the progressive dementia,
41:37
sending his dim witted deputy to the mountains who took a photo on a green
41:40
lawn, set a memorized phrase, and quickly bolted home Vanessa. This is
41:45
obviously quite dark humor, but it's impossible to criticize because he has biden,
41:52
at the very least dye to the tea. Well, he's got everything down
41:57
to a tea in my opinion, Yes, perfect athletic description. Yes,
42:00
okay, Well, look, let's bring John Helmer on screen, and he's
42:07
basically talking about the situation on the ground in Ukraine with respect to electrical infrastructure
42:14
in this article, saying that that has become a major target for Russia in
42:19
the Special military Operation, that eighty six percent of Ukraine's electricity generating capacity has
42:23
been destroyed. But it's not just their electricity generating capacity, it's also their
42:29
heat networks, because of course the Ukraine is still full of massive heat networks
42:36
for heating people's homes. Is a carryover from the Soviet era, and these
42:40
heat networks are taking steam into people's homes to heat the central heating systems all
42:46
over the place. So Ukraine looking not only at energy shortages in terms of
42:51
electricity over the winter period, but also extreme cold in their homes because the
42:58
heat networks aren't going to function. So he's quoting a US military source saying
43:04
that this is Russian deep battle being fought in fact by the General Staff while
43:08
ass operations continue to be restricted in Moscow for political reasons. Soon the impact
43:14
will be impossible to cover up. For now we know how bad it's getting
43:16
by the lack of discussion about how bad it's getting. So I think that
43:21
is a very telling comment because of course we get an idea of how bad
43:24
it is because of the lack of discussion. And finally, I just want
43:29
to bring the I do apologize. I can't remember the position that this Ukrainian
43:37
holds, but basically, a finance minister related strong armies must be underpinned by
43:43
strong economies to win wars. As we approach the deadline, we must urge
43:46
our bondholders to continue productive and good faith negotiations with more substantial debt. Really,
43:52
for this is basically because Ukraine is about to fail to pay back twenty
43:58
billion dollars worth of bond they're owing and they are looking for a reorganization of
44:05
that debt. So it's likely that the people that have bought those bonds are
44:08
going to not get not only get their twenty they're not only not going to
44:13
get their twenty billion dollars back, but they're probably not going to get twelve
44:16
billion dollars of that. So you know, a significant haircut coming for people
44:22
that have been investing in Ukraine at the moment, Vanessa, let's move to
44:28
Lebanon. Yes, we've been talking about the potential for escalation for the past
44:34
nine months. We seem to be sort of incrementally escalating and attacks from the
44:39
Israeli side and from the Hasbala side in southern Lebanon. This was in the
44:45
BBC. The White House questions Natanyawhu's criticism over weapons delay, but it appears
44:52
if we look what they're actually saying. A senior Administration official confirmed to the
44:58
BBC that deliver of thousands of two thousand pound another bombs had been paused,
45:04
the first delay of US munitions to Israel, despite tens of thousands of Palestinians
45:09
having been slaughtered. It goes on to say that, of course, the
45:14
US is by far Israel's biggest source of weapons and ammunition three point five billion
45:21
pounds or three billion pounds of military aid each year. The Biden administration will
45:25
move forward with another major arm cell to Israel that includes fifty fifteen fighter jets
45:31
worth more than eighteen billion. US media reported after two key Democratic holdouts signed
45:38
off. Now, I've noticed today on social media that there's a lot of
45:44
information being put out there that there was never any real freeze on weapons supply
45:50
to Israel. This, again, I would say, is part of the
45:52
whole electioneering posturing by the Biden administration. However, what we've had in the
45:59
last couple of days, which coincides with the Biden administration members like Blincoln and
46:05
Amos Hoxstein visiting Arab states in the region and currently I think in Israel,
46:12
the Hoopo mission major security failure for Israel. Israel media outlets and officials continue
46:20
to comment on the video published by Hezbelah, which was about nine minutes long,
46:23
to address the implication and messages that Hesbela wanted to convey to Israel.
46:29
And now the fact is that hes Blah flew its by drone over vast waves
46:35
of occupied territory without detection, and in fact, the Israeli media was putting
46:40
out messaging saying it was alarms had gone off, but they were false alarmed.
46:46
Other Israeli media also mentioned that Hezbola's videos convey an unequivocal message to Israel,
46:52
indicating that they are present inside Israel by air, land and sea,
46:57
planning for the future, and capable of deliver severe blows. Filming these videos
47:02
is a first degree Israeli security failure, definitely, adding that the situation in
47:07
the north is much worse than we imagine. Is Raeli journalist an expert on
47:13
Arab affairs, Jackie Hugy, said that Hesbela's video aimed to send a message
47:16
that Israel does not reduce its firepower in Lubanon, Hezbola will have to use
47:22
greater force and that Heifer is within its reach. He also pointed out that
47:28
this message accompanies the verbal messages that Hezbla is sending to Tel Aviv. So
47:32
let's just have a very quick look as a summary of the video that Hesbla
47:37
took. So, I mean quite extraordinary intelligence gathering that Hezbla was able to
49:15
do, and this was in Al Myodine experts decode messages and has Bla's cooper
49:22
Mission video. In the same context. The experts told al Myodine that Bla's
49:28
video includes three types of potential targets military, the military industrial complex and the
49:35
Hypha military base and naval based civilian, the Crayat area two hundred thousand settlers
49:42
are in that area, and strategic Hyphaport and its facilities. They added that
49:49
the three types of potential targets are meant to establish a three dimensional balance of
49:52
deterrence against Israel, with each dimension relating to the type of target Israel may
49:59
strike in any confrontation with Lebanon. So this was a very strong message being
50:04
sent, of course, at the same time that Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon
50:12
to discuss with some of the resistance leaders a potential de escalation. Hochstein returned
50:20
from Lebanon in a state of pessimism, having spoken to, as I said,
50:25
leaders within the resistance, who of course are not going to withdraw from
50:30
the southern border with the occupied territories. And this was from Yaron Abraham,
50:37
who's the political affairs analyst for Channel twelve. In Israel. He pointed out
50:44
that Hogstein, before traveling to Lebanon, met with Netanyahoe Defense Minister Joaf Gallant,
50:51
Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who's in charge I think of the operations
50:55
in the northern occupied territories, Benny gantzt Yer Lapine, Isaac Kertzog, and
51:00
a group of Israeli officials. Now, what is becoming clear out of these
51:07
talks, and Blincoln has reiterated this is that Hez Blar is increasing the pressure
51:14
in response to Israeli aggression, but also putting on pressure to the United States
51:20
to effectively push through the withdrawal of Zionist forces from Gaza and basically fulfill the
51:30
piece steal that America is claiming that it concocted. So Blincoln has admitted that
51:37
the Gaza ceasefire is key to calming the Northern Front. And of course,
51:42
while all of this is going on, Israel has effectively continued its genocide and
51:47
massacres in Israel, killing and injuring Palestinians in Rafa, in Maussawi, Mawazi
51:55
Sorry Camp in the South which was designated as safe so and across pretty much
52:01
all areas of gards are continuing to decimate, decimate infrastructure and the ability of
52:08
Poalestinians to eat, drink clean water or simply survive. Okay, thank you
52:17
for that, Vanessa. Okay, let's come back to Europe then and snooping.
52:22
And of course we have been making the point that the Online Safety Bill
52:28
and the Investciatory pars Act amendments permit the UK government to demand that any company
52:37
providing end to end encryption services in a chat application, for example, need
52:40
to make it available. This was the National Crime Agency National Strategic Assessment of
52:47
Serious and Organized Crime talking about this the enhanced privacy and the use of encryption
52:52
is impacting on law enforcement's ability to collect intelligence and evidence. And then more
52:58
recently a week or two a go, the Joint declaration of European Police Chiefs
53:01
including the UK. By the way, two key capabilities are crucial to supporting
53:07
online safety. First, the ability of technology companies to provide law enforcement investigations
53:10
in response to lawful authority with strong safeguards and oversights. So that's okay.
53:15
Then the data of suspected criminals on their service. This is known as lawful
53:21
access. And they were worried particularly about child sexual abuse imagery because this is
53:25
always the excuse it's used for this and so on, And they went on
53:30
to highlight the need to give them access or to remove and encryption, because
53:37
without that access or removal of that system, we would simply not be able
53:42
to keep the public safe. It's what they said. Well, the EU
53:45
is busy pushing through their version of this at the moment it was supposed to
53:50
happen today, it's more likely to happen tomorrow. But if we look at
53:53
this document, it's talking about all services that provide any kind of chat functionality
54:00
and the ability to hoover up data on those services, and they're saying here
54:05
as services which enable direct, interpersonal and interactive exchange of information merely as a
54:09
minor ancillary feature that is intrinsically linked to another service such as chat and similar
54:15
functions as part of gaming, image sharing and video hosting, are equally at
54:20
risk of misuse and they should also be covered by this regulation. So it's
54:24
quite incredible that this is being, of course led by the Belgian EU Council
54:30
presidency. They want bulk chat control searches and they are saying, basically,
54:37
this isn't just about client side scanning which means scanning on your device, scanning
54:42
on your mobile phone, or whether they also want the ability to moderate any
54:47
content which is being uploaded to service and they want to include AI detection in
54:52
this. Now, of course there's dangers to this. One is, of
54:58
course, a mass surveillance is a totalent, total sorry, a totalitarian tool.
55:04
It's also actually pretty ineffective. But it's also it also undermines data security,
55:10
and this is the big danger as far as I'm concerned. Well,
55:14
one are the big dangers because if governments can get access to data, then
55:19
hackers can get access to data. And we've already seen so many data breaches
55:22
on so many platforms now, including government, National Health Service and a whole
55:25
bunch of other places, that we really should be treating this whole thing with
55:31
major contempt now. In the meantime, the National Police Chiefs Council just find
55:38
this quite interesting talking about child sexual abuse and exploitation analysis. This is from
55:45
January this year, but they're saying here that for the first time, a
55:50
new report from the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Program sets out publicly a clear detailed
55:55
picture of reported child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes across England and Wales. The
56:01
analysis sets out the consistent growth of CSA reported to police, with one hundred
56:07
and seven thousand crimes reported to policing, a figure that has risen significantly in
56:12
the last ten years. More than half of child sexual abuse offenses were committed
56:17
by children, a significant increase from what has previously was previously known. The
56:22
report also shows that over a third of child sexual abuse contact crimes take place
56:29
within a family environment. Group based CSA accounts for five percent of all identified
56:35
and reported crime. So you know, it might be possible to argue that
56:42
there is a massive prevalence of child sexual abuse imagery on the Internet and there
56:47
has been a growth of that over the last number of years, but the
56:52
kind of growth that you see on the internet with imagery, of course those
56:55
images have to be taken whenever children are actually being abused. We haven't seen
57:01
similar growth in the number of crimes being reported, so there are a number
57:07
of issues there that might be discussed. Is the rise of sharing of imagery
57:14
as a result of the ability of the use of encryption, or is it
57:17
because in fact it's easier now to take that type of material, produce that
57:22
type of material in the first place, and I find it fascinating that the
57:28
rise in criminal activity is particularly significant amongst children, and I question then why
57:36
that would be. Is that because of the type of child sexual education regime
57:39
that we have in the West at the moment, or is there something else
57:43
going on? There are many many questions to be asked around this whole issue
57:46
of child sexual abuse, and it's not right to use it as a sort
57:52
of poster child for the kind of censorship and mass surveillance that governments in the
57:59
UK and the EU and the United States are proposing at the moment. And
58:02
I would suggest that perhaps this issue, plus the other issues of warfare and
58:07
other things which are absolutely not on the general election agenda at the moment,
58:13
need to be Okay, Charles, Let's move on then to weld, fish
58:17
and seeds not together, but a very quick update on a couple of things
58:22
that I've reported on in recent times. On Monday, the Genetic Modification Inspectorate
58:30
updated its seed Audit program, in which they specifically make reference to the information
58:37
about the introduction of the Genetic Technology Precision Breeding Act of last year's Well just
58:43
read the critical bit of text here talking about the government taking step step approach,
58:47
it will enable precision breeding technologies for plants first, followed by animals.
58:52
Later precision breeding technologies such as gene editing can make targeted genetic changes. And
58:57
then, critically the highlighted text here, they say the changes can arise through
59:00
traditional breeding and natural processes and can produce beneficial traits. However, of course
59:07
they don't have any evidence of that, because it's too early to be able
59:09
to determine whether or not that is the case. Further, it's far too
59:13
early to determine the effect of such a product on either the human gut and
59:16
digestion or indeed the environment within which it's grown. So they're very confident apparently
59:22
about what they believe to be the case, but they don't know. With
59:27
that in mind, it's worth pointing out that there's just been an announcement about
59:30
the development of strains of wheat that haven't had any attention for over one hundred
59:35
years, the Watkins varieties hidden genetic treasure, and they say that sorry,
59:40
that was from seafood source and no wrong, that's from yeah, my apologyem
59:46
yeah, sorry, fizz Or. But it refers to an article in Nature
59:51
and it talks about sixty percent of the genetic diversity found in this Watkins collection
59:55
of wheat is unused, providing an unprecedented opportunity to improve with modern wheat and
1:00:00
sustainably feed a growing global population. Now they make it sound terribly simple,
1:00:04
but of course the same thing is true here. If the human system and
1:00:07
indeed genetic makeup is used to a particular diet or a particular strain of wheat
1:00:13
to reintroduce something that hasn't been in existence for well over one hundred years,
1:00:16
is likely to have very very significant effects. But again that's not talked about,
1:00:21
that's not dealt with. It's as though this is just a positive.
1:00:24
And then switching to fish, which again I spoke about recently, seafood Source
1:00:30
reports that the UK, Norway and Faroe Islands have reached an agreement on quotas,
1:00:35
but essentially it's a net loss for the UK. So on the one
1:00:39
hand, they're allowing macro stocks to recover, but also we're seeding more of
1:00:43
our fishing rights to Norway than they are to us. Say that the says
1:00:47
the agreement. We'll also see Norway Transfer twenty three thousand, six hundred and
1:00:52
sixty tons of its macrow quota in twenty twenty four to the UK to be
1:00:55
fished either in the UK's exclusive economics in all international waters, and the UK
1:01:01
is granting Norway similar provision but for a great deal more one hundred and twenty
1:01:07
three three hundred and thirty tons of mackerel. So again just with food security
1:01:14
in mind and considering not just the land but the sea. We wait to
1:01:17
find out where this is likely to go with regard to fisheries and access to
1:01:23
fish stocks. Yes, okay, thank you, thank you very much,
1:01:27
Charles, thank you to Vanessa as well. We've got to finish there for
1:01:30
today. I'm going to thank everybody for watching and we'll be back in a
1:01:34
few minutes if your UK column member for some extra Otherwise, don't forget the
1:01:38
interview tomorrow and one pm is usual on Friday for the next use see you
1:01:44
then, Bye bye b