Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 9th September 2026

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UK Column News — 9th September 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's Wednesday, the 9th of September, 2026, just after one o'clock.
0:12
Speaker 2: Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host, Mike Robinson.
0:15
Speaker 2: Joining me by video link today are Charles Mallett and
0:17
Speaker 2: Vanessa Bailey. Now later in the program, we'll be looking
0:20
Speaker 2: at the latest plans to create a police data factory,
0:23
Speaker 2: the school children's unique identifier and the drive for stronger
0:27
Speaker 2: online safety legislation. and yet another 100 million pounds of
0:30
Speaker 2: taxpayer money for Ukraine. But we're going to begin today
0:33
Speaker 2: with Ed Miliband's speech in the House of Commons yesterday,
0:37
Speaker 2: apparently criticizing Israel for settler violence in the West Bank. Charles,
0:42
Speaker 2: welcome to the program and over to you.
0:46
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Mike. Good afternoon all.
0:48
Speaker 3: And yes, as you quite rightly allude to, it is
0:50
Speaker 3: in many ways hard to know exactly what to make
0:53
Speaker 3: of this. But before we get into the detail of
0:55
Speaker 3: what was said and the reaction to it, I'm going
0:59
Speaker 3: to begin, in effect, at the end with the way
1:03
Speaker 3: in which Miliband was hoping it would be received and,
1:07
Speaker 3: in a way, his grand finale.
1:10
Speaker 4: And just as we want Israelis and Palestinians to live
1:13
Speaker 4: side by side, so, Madam Deputy Speaker, we have to
1:16
Speaker 4: live out those values in Britain. Jews in Britain, Muslims
1:20
Speaker 4: in Britain, people of all faiths and none have a
1:22
Speaker 4: right to live without prejudice or fear. Madam Deputy Speaker,
1:27
Speaker 4: a Britain that upholds its values at home and around
1:29
Speaker 4: the world, a Britain that fights against oppression and suffering
1:32
Speaker 4: wherever it occurs, a Britain that stands up for what
1:36
Speaker 4: is right, and I commend this statement to the House.
1:45
Speaker 3: So stirring stuff in some way, but like with all
1:49
Speaker 3: government communications, it must be regarded in so far as
1:52
Speaker 3: what was not said during his 20 minute statement, which
1:56
Speaker 3: was issued almost exactly 24 hours ago to, it must
1:59
Speaker 3: be said, not a House of Commons statement. I would
2:02
Speaker 3: say it is significant to look at Miliband's credentials because
2:07
Speaker 3: there was a certain amount of caveat put into what
2:11
Speaker 3: it was that he went on to say. And we'll
2:12
Speaker 3: just look at how he shaped the space within which
2:17
Speaker 3: he was going to enter into by setting out his
2:20
Speaker 3: own credentials, his stall.
2:24
Speaker 4: I do so as a proud British Jew, someone with
2:27
Speaker 4: the deepest gratitude to the state of Israel for giving
2:29
Speaker 4: a home to my grandmother after she lost her husband.
2:32
Speaker 4: my grandfather and 60 other family members at the hands
2:36
Speaker 4: of the Nazis. I remember visiting her in the 1970s
2:39
Speaker 4: in Tel Aviv and seeing the life and sanctuary Israel
2:42
Speaker 4: had provided. Indeed, some of my most joyful childhood memories
2:46
Speaker 4: were picking oranges as a kid on the kibbutz where
2:49
Speaker 4: my cousins lived. Madam Deputy Speaker, my personal story and
2:54
Speaker 4: that of thousands of British Jews is one of the
2:57
Speaker 4: many reasons why I say to anyone here or around
3:00
Speaker 4: the world, who questions Israel's right to exist as a
3:02
Speaker 4: homeland for the Jewish people. You are wrong and we
3:06
Speaker 4: will call you out whenever you engage in this attempt
3:10
Speaker 4: at the erasure of Israel. So, Madam Deputy Speaker, I
3:15
Speaker 4: am proud of my Jewishness and unwavering in my support
3:18
Speaker 4: for the State of Israel. And there is absolutely no
3:21
Speaker 4: contradiction between this and my support for the State of Palestine.
3:26
Speaker 5: Indeed, quite the opposite.
3:31
Speaker 3: So he's absolutely attempting to walk a very precise line there.
3:35
Speaker 3: And now I can't possibly know this, but it almost
3:38
Speaker 3: looks as though Miliband's credentials are exclusively what have allowed
3:43
Speaker 3: him to be able to go on to say the
3:45
Speaker 3: things that he said, as though this subject is simply
3:48
Speaker 3: too sensitive to be dealt with by somebody who is
3:51
Speaker 3: not Jewish and has not spent time in Israel. Nevertheless,
3:55
Speaker 3: let's get to the heart of what he is actually
3:57
Speaker 3: dealing with and what his remedy to the problem is.
4:04
Speaker 4: Today I announce that the official view of the British
4:06
Speaker 4: government is that the occupation is unlawful. Because of Israel's
4:12
Speaker 4: entrenchment of its control, its intention to extend permanent sovereignty,
4:16
Speaker 4: and its expansionist agenda via illegal settlements. Madam Deputy Speaker,
4:21
Speaker 4: our position is not just an overdue statement of reality.
4:24
Speaker 4: The government believes the unlawfulness of the occupation should be
4:28
Speaker 4: reflected in the economic relationships we choose to have with
4:31
Speaker 4: the occupied territories. I do not believe the British people
4:36
Speaker 4: want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements
4:40
Speaker 4: in our shops and supermarkets. So I can announce today
4:43
Speaker 4: that we will introduce an import ban on goods from
4:45
Speaker 4: illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
4:53
Speaker 3: So without wanting to take too much wind out of
4:56
Speaker 3: his sails, that is it. That is the sum total
4:59
Speaker 3: of what it is that he has proposed. detailed explanations
5:05
Speaker 3: about the actions, the activities of the State of Israel
5:08
Speaker 3: and how they should be regarded. And we will look
5:11
Speaker 3: at a few more clips. But his actions or those
5:14
Speaker 3: of the British government are limited to that particular measure.
5:19
Speaker 3: And I'll come on to a bit more detail about that. Now,
5:22
Speaker 3: in terms of the response, what's been interesting about this
5:24
Speaker 3: is to see what happened even well before Miliband started
5:29
Speaker 3: speaking about this. So three days ago, four days ago,
5:31
Speaker 3: in fact, we saw the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee,
5:35
Speaker 3: saying the Brits have lost it. The Jew hate of
5:38
Speaker 3: their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts. Now,
5:42
Speaker 3: of course, this is a very familiar sort of rhetoric
5:44
Speaker 3: and just interesting to see how that is still put
5:48
Speaker 3: out there, admittedly in advance of Miliband's statement. But before
5:53
Speaker 3: he actually had the chance to express his Jewish and
5:57
Speaker 3: apparently pro-Israeli credentials.
5:59
Speaker 1: Now, again, in terms of predictability.
6:02
Speaker 3: The Board of Deputies of British Jews has put out
6:05
Speaker 3: a statement and they said on Twitter that they expressed
6:09
Speaker 3: deep regret at the government's announcements of sanction on settlement goods. Now,
6:14
Speaker 3: it does seem almost intriguing that they would describe themselves
6:17
Speaker 3: the Board of Deputies of British Jews because they seem
6:19
Speaker 3: to be exclusively concerned with the state of Israel. and
6:23
Speaker 3: very much suggesting that Israel itself should be immune from
6:28
Speaker 3: any sort of criticism at all because of the potential
6:31
Speaker 3: for an anti-Semitic backlash. And of course, this is the well-worn,
6:35
Speaker 3: well-trodden path. The chief rabbi, in effect, stating exactly the
6:39
Speaker 3: same thing. This is truly a dark day for British Jews.
6:42
Speaker 3: These measures announced amount to little more than political flag-bearing
6:46
Speaker 3: for mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric and those who harbour a dangerous
6:50
Speaker 3: obsession with the Jewish state. These measures will succeed only
6:54
Speaker 3: in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target. Now,
6:58
Speaker 3: those words may be considered highly questionable, and they were
7:01
Speaker 3: certainly dealt with as such by the Voice of Rabbis
7:06
Speaker 3: Twitter channel, which contains a number of very prominent rabbis
7:10
Speaker 3: in the United States. And I think this is really
7:13
Speaker 3: significant to take on board. It may be a dark
7:15
Speaker 3: day for British Zionists, but not for British Jews. Israel
7:20
Speaker 3: is a political state. Judaism is a religion. And then
7:25
Speaker 3: in bold letters to, this is directly in response to
7:28
Speaker 3: the chief rabbi in the UK, you represent the state
7:32
Speaker 3: of Israel, not British Jews. Conflating the two and exploiting
7:36
Speaker 3: Jewish identity to defend Israeli policies is reckless and shameful.
7:40
Speaker 3: especially from someone speaking in a rabbinical capacity.
7:45
Speaker 1: Now, that is absolutely to the point.
7:47
Speaker 3: And this is part of the debate, of course, which
7:50
Speaker 3: is very seldom allowed into chambers such as the House
7:55
Speaker 3: of Commons. However, Miliband did definitely stray into territory that
7:57
Speaker 3: other ministers have not yet. So let's just listen to
8:00
Speaker 3: what he said on ethnic cleansing.
8:04
Speaker 4: Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, has described what
8:08
Speaker 4: is happening as I quote, a violent and criminal effort
8:12
Speaker 4: to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank. The former
8:15
Speaker 4: Minister of Health and retired Brigadier General from the IDF,
8:19
Speaker 4: Ephraim Sneh, has said, and I quote again, this is
8:23
Speaker 4: ethnic cleansing, pure, to put it simply. Madam Deputy Speaker,
8:29
Speaker 4: ethnic cleansing is defined by the UN. as a purposeful
8:33
Speaker 4: policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove
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Speaker 4: by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another
8:41
Speaker 4: ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas. The British
8:45
Speaker 4: government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in
8:48
Speaker 4: areas of the West Bank perpetrated by settler terrorists. And
8:53
Speaker 4: all too often, the Israeli government has turned a blind
8:56
Speaker 4: eye to this and worse, members of it have made
8:58
Speaker 4: statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians. Now,
9:04
Speaker 4: Madam Deputy Speaker, I recognize the gravity of saying this,
9:07
Speaker 4: but the truth is, it is the least the people
9:10
Speaker 4: who face such suffering deserve, and it should be the
9:12
Speaker 4: prelude to justice.
9:21
Speaker 3: That's a pity he stumbled over his words towards the
9:23
Speaker 3: end there. But there's no doubt that in many ways,
9:26
Speaker 3: much of what he says there is absolutely correct in
9:30
Speaker 3: terms of it needing to be said. But of course,
9:32
Speaker 3: the bigger question is what will happen as a result
9:35
Speaker 3: of it? Is there going to be a follow up
9:37
Speaker 3: or are we looking simply at a limited sanctions regime?
9:40
Speaker 3: I know Vanessa is going to come on to describe
9:44
Speaker 3: some of what she thinks is going to come as
9:48
Speaker 3: a consequence of any of this. But just while we
9:51
Speaker 3: explore the territory that he's entered into, we've looked at
9:53
Speaker 3: ethnic cleansing, now we'll listen to what he has to
9:55
Speaker 3: say on war crimes.
9:58
Speaker 4: International humanitarian law imposes clear rules for states fighting wars,
10:04
Speaker 4: including to ensure access to food and medical supplies, to
10:07
Speaker 4: avoid mass displacement of civilians, and to avoid the targeting
10:11
Speaker 4: of civilians. Serious and international violations of this law if
10:14
Speaker 4: proven amount to war crimes. What has occurred, including the
10:18
Speaker 4: actions of the IDF, have been examined in depth by
10:21
Speaker 4: a number of organisations, including the UN Independent International Commission
10:25
Speaker 4: of Inquiry. The conclusions of these reports represent increasing evidence
10:30
Speaker 4: that war crimes appear to have been committed.
10:33
Speaker 1: And we support legal.
10:34
Speaker 4: Processes to determine this. On the question of genocide, the
10:39
Speaker 4: UK has always supported full, robust and fair judicial processes
10:43
Speaker 4: to consider allegations. with final determinations made by competent courts
10:47
Speaker 4: before the British government reaches a conclusion. This has been
10:50
Speaker 4: the case for all of the genocides since the 1948
10:54
Speaker 4: Genocide Convention, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia, and acts against the Yazidi people.
11:00
Speaker 4: That will remain our policy. It is right this issue
11:03
Speaker 4: has been brought before the ICJ, and I want to
11:06
Speaker 4: make it clear that we support the court in coming
11:10
Speaker 4: to its determination.
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Speaker 3: Bearing, of course, full well that any such process is
11:18
Speaker 3: likely to be fraught with obstacles along the path. So absolutely,
11:22
Speaker 3: it must be observed that he is stopping well, well,
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Speaker 3: well short of any action. Now, this has been followed
11:28
Speaker 3: up by a joint statement, which he referred to again.
11:30
Speaker 3: And I know Vanessa is going to cover in more detail.
11:32
Speaker 3: But just to say this. In effect, he's trying to
11:35
Speaker 3: paint a picture of solidarity because Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain,
11:42
Speaker 3: Sweden and the United Kingdom are all in effect joining
11:46
Speaker 3: as a club to impose sanctions in the same way. Now,
11:50
Speaker 3: how was this treated by the BBC, described as the
11:53
Speaker 3: lowest ebb in British-Israeli relations in decades? And that a
11:59
Speaker 3: British foreign secretary should say that settler terrorism is rampant,
12:02
Speaker 3: and was responsible for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. in parts
12:06
Speaker 3: of the West Bank, while the Israeli government turned a
12:09
Speaker 3: blind eye to this, is truly remarkable. And in many ways,
12:13
Speaker 3: that might be the case. But of course, to come
12:15
Speaker 3: back to the fundamental point, this is more to do
12:17
Speaker 3: with what is going to happen next, what will the
12:19
Speaker 3: consequences be, and what action is Miliband actually proposing? Now,
12:24
Speaker 3: with that in mind, I just want to play you
12:26
Speaker 3: a clip now that's sort of split into two bits,
12:29
Speaker 3: and for you just to consider whether he is already,
12:33
Speaker 3: even in his statement, equivocating, and in effect, presenting caveats
12:38
Speaker 3: to be able to undo certain actions later on.
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Speaker 4: Our argument is not with the people of Israel, with
12:46
Speaker 4: whom the UK has unshakable bonds. Our argument is with
12:50
Speaker 4: the conduct of its government. And I also want to
12:53
Speaker 4: say emphatically to people in Britain and indeed across the world,
12:58
Speaker 4: holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli
13:02
Speaker 4: government is anti-Semitism, plain and simple. The sanctions regime will
13:08
Speaker 4: target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel. We will
13:12
Speaker 4: continue to support important and valued trade with Green Line
13:16
Speaker 4: Israel precisely because we support the two-state solution, including security
13:21
Speaker 4: and prosperity for Israel. For this reason, I wholeheartedly oppose
13:25
Speaker 4: the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions or BDS campaign. The legislation I
13:30
Speaker 4: have announced today will be in place within six to
13:32
Speaker 4: nine months and we will also take more immediate steps.
13:38
Speaker 3: So I think we have to consider, is the government's
13:39
Speaker 3: position really any different from what it was on the
13:42
Speaker 3: 8th of October 2023, as we see Downing Street posting
13:45
Speaker 3: the picture of the flag of Israel on the broadcast
13:48
Speaker 3: onto the wall of Downing Street? And it must be
13:51
Speaker 3: noted that Miliband also referred to continued national security cooperation
13:55
Speaker 3: with Israel. He brought up anti-Semitism repeatedly. He talked about
13:59
Speaker 3: another £ 250 million for community security within the UK. He
14:03
Speaker 3: said that the United Kingdom's going to host a meeting
14:05
Speaker 3: of the J7, which is the seven countries with the
14:09
Speaker 3: largest Jewish populations in the world. And then he described
14:13
Speaker 3: the two-state solution as being the north star of this
14:15
Speaker 3: government's policy. So there's an awful lot there to suggest,
14:19
Speaker 3: especially given that the legal process running up to this
14:23
Speaker 3: is going to take six to nine months. There's an
14:25
Speaker 3: awful lot of water that needs to pass under the
14:27
Speaker 3: bridge before anything happens. actually happens. And I know Vanessa
14:29
Speaker 3: is going to concentrate more with regard to what Israel
14:33
Speaker 3: is going to do. Again, I would like to hear
14:34
Speaker 3: what Vanessa has to say about that. We think back
14:37
Speaker 3: to the comments made by Gideon Saar, the BBC calling
14:40
Speaker 3: this retaliation already before it had even started. So an
14:44
Speaker 3: awful lot to think about, an awful lot to talk
14:45
Speaker 3: about in Extra, but certainly Miliband making it look like
14:49
Speaker 3: something that it quite possibly isn't.
14:52
Speaker 2: Charles, thank you for that. Vanessa, let me welcome you
14:55
Speaker 2: to the program now. Before you start talking about the
14:59
Speaker 2: sanctions and your thoughts on that, Charles just mentioned the J7.
15:05
Speaker 2: Is Iran part of the J7?
15:09
Speaker 5: That was actually going to be my first question. Yes,
15:14
Speaker 5: the second largest population of Jews in the West Asia region.
15:21
Speaker 5: One would assume yes, but one can safely conclude no.
15:27
Speaker 5: But anyway, moving on to what I consider to be
15:31
Speaker 5: the sanctions debacle by Miliband. This was helpfully published by
15:38
Speaker 5: Alex Wickham, who's the UK editor for Bloomberg, because it's
15:42
Speaker 5: always very difficult to bypass the Bloomberg paywall. Anyway, he
15:46
Speaker 5: basically summarized, British diplomats have privately told the US that
15:52
Speaker 5: the new sanctions Ed Miliband is imposing on Israeli settlements
15:56
Speaker 5: are largely symbolic and will have no material impact on
15:59
Speaker 5: the UK's wider relationship with Israel on trade or security issues.
16:05
Speaker 5: A behind-closed-doors diplomatic effort is underway to soothe the Trump
16:09
Speaker 5: administration's response amid fears that the sanctions could provide the
16:12
Speaker 5: first major setback in U.S. relations for Andy Burnham. People
16:17
Speaker 5: familiar with the matter said Burnham spoke to Trump by
16:19
Speaker 5: phone on Monday afternoon and told him what was coming. Now,
16:24
Speaker 5: I just want to play this little clip from Marco
16:26
Speaker 5: Rubio where he's extremely sort of non-defensive, in my opinion.
16:32
Speaker 5: But anyway, let's play it.
16:42
Speaker 6: Well, I would say that the president has not commented
16:45
Speaker 6: on this. As I said, neither have I at this point.
16:47
Speaker 6: We were made aware that they were going to make
16:49
Speaker 6: this decision. We heard their arguments as to why. But look,
16:54
Speaker 6: we share the goal of stability. We don't want to
16:56
Speaker 6: see some uptick in violence or an uptick in in
17:01
Speaker 6: conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very
17:03
Speaker 6: tenuous time in the region. There's always tenuous times. But
17:07
Speaker 6: beyond that, I don't think as of this moment, we
17:09
Speaker 6: don't have any further comment on the UK decision that
17:11
Speaker 6: I think was announced just a few hours ago.
17:17
Speaker 5: Certainly doesn't seem to be sort of very aggressive towards
17:20
Speaker 5: British policy there. And then, as Charles mentioned, a large
17:24
Speaker 5: number of EU countries are involved in, and Canada and others,
17:29
Speaker 5: are involved in imposing the sanctions on settlement goods. It's
17:34
Speaker 5: rather a shame that they didn't do it any sooner.
17:38
Speaker 5: But this was in Politico. If I can just have
17:41
Speaker 5: that back on for a sec, sorry. France and Canada
17:44
Speaker 5: joined the UK in issuing trade sanctions on Israeli settlements. Now,
17:48
Speaker 5: I just want to mention something here. I don't have
17:50
Speaker 5: a slide for it. but it's something that I picked
17:53
Speaker 5: up on just before the news started. Now, Bezalel Smoltrech,
17:58
Speaker 5: the Zionist finance minister, has basically just put out a
18:01
Speaker 5: statement saying, well, it's fine if these countries are going
18:05
Speaker 5: to sanction settlement goods, we'll simply take the funding directly
18:11
Speaker 5: from the Palestinian authorities. Now, this raises an interesting question
18:16
Speaker 5: because Britain in 2025-2026 is, is donating directly £ 116 million
18:24
Speaker 5: to the Palestinian authorities. France, £ 16 million annually. Canada in
18:30
Speaker 5: July 2025, £ 10 million. So if Israel is now going
18:36
Speaker 5: to siphon the funding from the Palestinian Authority into their
18:40
Speaker 5: coffers to make up for the rather sort of dismal
18:44
Speaker 5: sanctions on settlement goods, does that mean that they're actually
18:48
Speaker 5: benefiting from the sanctions? And will those countries imposing the
18:52
Speaker 5: sanctions continue to fund the PA, knowing that those funds
18:56
Speaker 5: are effectively going to go to Israel? Just a few
19:00
Speaker 5: questions we can discuss in extra time. And then moving on,
19:04
Speaker 5: I just wanted to show this quick clip from Israeli
19:07
Speaker 5: human rights organization, B'Tselem, showing exactly the history of what
19:11
Speaker 5: has been happening in the West Bank.
19:16
Speaker 7: Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967.
19:20
Speaker 7: Ever since, it has chipped away at Palestinian space. Annexing
19:26
Speaker 7: East Jerusalem, declaring military zones, building settlements, restricting movement, taking
19:34
Speaker 7: over farmland, isolating Gaza, building walls. Israel has fragmented the
19:41
Speaker 7: Palestinian land it occupied, using it for its own needs
19:46
Speaker 7: and controlling 5 million people denied their rights. Conquer and divide.
19:54
Speaker 5: So very clearly, this has been going on for an
19:56
Speaker 5: extremely long time. And I also just now wanted to
19:58
Speaker 5: show two very quick videos. The second is distressing, I
20:02
Speaker 5: warn you. So this is the mass detonation going on
20:06
Speaker 5: in the West Bank as we speak. This is in Jenin.
20:09
Speaker 5: And then the second video, which, as I warn you,
20:12
Speaker 5: is distressing, is a young man who has been taken
20:15
Speaker 5: captive by the Israelis and is shot at point blank range.
20:20
Speaker 5: Both of these actions were filmed in the last couple
20:24
Speaker 5: of days. So one can assume that Miliband sanctions are
20:28
Speaker 5: rather late and rather weak in response to what is
20:32
Speaker 5: actually going on. And then very quickly, Gideon Saul, what
20:36
Speaker 5: is he doing in response? So the British consulate in
20:38
Speaker 5: Jerusalem will be closed. British representatives expelled from the International
20:43
Speaker 5: Aid Center for Gaza. British training of Palestinian Authority forces
20:48
Speaker 5: is halted and the entry into Israel of 12 elected
20:51
Speaker 5: officials will be denied. Now, interesting, the Telegraph did point
20:56
Speaker 5: out that the choice of British elected officials who will
20:58
Speaker 5: now be denied entry is revealing, includes Jeremy Corbyn and
21:02
Speaker 5: John McDonnell. that lead a list of largely hard left
21:06
Speaker 5: political has-beens. Some people have said that the flights grounded
21:10
Speaker 5: across Britain were a result of Miliband's actions and Israel
21:15
Speaker 5: taking revenge. I would argue, of course, that that probably
21:18
Speaker 5: isn't the case. But then I also want to remind
21:21
Speaker 5: people not only of the 2030 UK-Israel roadmap, which people
21:26
Speaker 5: can find at the government website, but also this from 2024,
21:30
Speaker 5: but the original deal was 2020. The UK's Israeli weaponry purchases,
21:36
Speaker 5: elite presentation, and the ethical concerns it raises. So what
21:40
Speaker 5: is this talking about? This was effectively, oddly, called the
21:45
Speaker 5: HES-UK Defense Pact 2020, and it includes strengthened intelligence relations,
21:51
Speaker 5: defense industry collaboration, counter-regional threats from Lebanon and Iran. Bear
21:56
Speaker 5: in mind, this is back in 2020. Israel is crucial
22:00
Speaker 5: to UK military modernization, in particular drones, joint training with
22:05
Speaker 5: Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. And then going
22:11
Speaker 5: on to the mutual benefits of defense industry partnerships, Elbit
22:14
Speaker 5: and Thales UK or Babcock International. And then finally, access
22:20
Speaker 5: to overflight permissions, Israeli and British aircraft to operate across
22:23
Speaker 5: key regions for joint missions. and Intel gathering. So this
22:27
Speaker 5: was back in 2020, it's unlikely to be dropped. So
22:30
Speaker 5: in my opinion, what we're seeing here are human lives
22:33
Speaker 5: being traded for political and economic gains.
22:37
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, Vanessa. We'll have lots to talk about
22:41
Speaker 2: on that in extra. Now, let's come back to the UK.
22:46
Speaker 2: And if we put this on screen, this is BAE
22:48
Speaker 2: Systems Digital Intelligence, which describes itself as delivering the power
22:53
Speaker 2: of perspective to customers across the defense, government, and security domains,
22:57
Speaker 2: helping our customers make sense of complex data so they
23:00
Speaker 2: can build a clear intelligence picture. So you can decide
23:05
Speaker 2: what that means. But in fact, what it turns out
23:08
Speaker 2: means basically British police will be taking on their skills
23:13
Speaker 2: now because Statewatch has reported that BAA Systems Digital Intelligence
23:17
Speaker 2: has secured two home office contracts worth over 3.6 million
23:21
Speaker 2: since December last year. So that was roughly 1.3 million
23:25
Speaker 2: for work running until May 2026, and then a further 2.3
23:29
Speaker 2: million from June 2026 to May 2027. And both the
23:33
Speaker 2: contracts are to support the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme,
23:37
Speaker 2: which aims to cut £ 354 million from the £ 20 billion
23:42
Speaker 2: policing budget for England and Wales. Now, the designs for
23:49
Speaker 2: linking police data with other agencies Agencies are a big
23:53
Speaker 2: part of this, but also described in broad terms around
23:58
Speaker 2: national capability reform, productivity, commercial efficiencies. And then this work
24:04
Speaker 2: is feeding into a planned police data factory and the
24:09
Speaker 2: National Data Integration and Exploitation Service. And it's going to
24:13
Speaker 2: draw on more than 50 law enforcement agencies and other departments,
24:17
Speaker 2: potentially including the School Children's Single Unique identifier data. But
24:24
Speaker 2: questions around that, officials have declined to answer. Now, State
24:28
Speaker 2: Watch is flagging bias risks from expanded use of AI
24:33
Speaker 2: by police. And they also make the point that these
24:38
Speaker 2: BA subsidiaries' £ 470 million revenue is all about, at least
24:46
Speaker 2: raises questions about whether the forthcoming National Police Service will
24:51
Speaker 2: fall under Freedom of Information, whether the services that they
24:54
Speaker 2: provide to that National Police Service will fall under Freedom
24:58
Speaker 2: of Information. And that is a very good question. Now,
25:01
Speaker 2: my understanding from people that we've worked with in the
25:05
Speaker 2: past is that when a third-party contractor is providing a service,
25:09
Speaker 2: which up until that point had been provided by the
25:13
Speaker 2: state agency, that that would still fall under Freedom of Information.
25:18
Speaker 2: But that, of course, requires on people pushing on that
25:21
Speaker 2: because the information commissioner's office may be willing to capitulate
25:25
Speaker 2: to the government desires or to the private institutions' desires
25:31
Speaker 2: not to be part of the Freedom of Information regime. Now,
25:35
Speaker 2: I've just mentioned the school children's single unique identifier. For
25:39
Speaker 2: those that aren't aware of it, it is a feature
25:43
Speaker 2: of the Children's Wellbeing in Schools Act, which, of course,
25:46
Speaker 2: as we know, got Royal Assent back in April. The
25:49
Speaker 2: government told the House of Lords that their intention is
25:51
Speaker 2: that the child's NHS number will be this single unique identifier.
25:57
Speaker 2: And we should mention that the regime begins at the
26:01
Speaker 2: end of this month, although the actual use of the
26:03
Speaker 2: identifier itself is subject to further secondary legislation, which hasn't
26:09
Speaker 2: been put in place just quite yet. But certainly by
26:13
Speaker 2: the end of this month, safeguarding bodies are going to
26:15
Speaker 2: be required to share information between themselves about various children.
26:21
Speaker 2: We could make the point that to some degree, this
26:23
Speaker 2: is already happening with projects like CPOMS. I've mentioned this
26:27
Speaker 2: before on the news program. This is a private company
26:30
Speaker 2: that provides a service to primary schools and secondary schools
26:35
Speaker 2: in the UK where teachers and other school employees record
26:39
Speaker 2: any incidents that a pupil has been involved in. Maybe
26:44
Speaker 2: they said something which caused hurt feelings with somebody else,
26:48
Speaker 2: it gets recorded, or the fight in the playground gets recorded,
26:51
Speaker 2: any extremist language gets recorded, and this CPOMS record follows
26:55
Speaker 2: children right through to young adulthood. So there is a
26:58
Speaker 2: little bit of this already, and undoubtedly private companies like
27:02
Speaker 2: CPOMS are going to have to begin using the unique
27:06
Speaker 2: identifier as well. Now, there's been quite a bit of
27:10
Speaker 2: coverage in the mainstream media of a letter from Health
27:14
Speaker 2: Minister James Frith who wrote to Leila Moran, who's chair
27:18
Speaker 2: of the Health and Social Care Committee, responding to its
27:22
Speaker 2: criticisms of the National Health Service Federated Data Platform, which,
27:25
Speaker 2: as everyone knows, is run by Palantir. Now, there's not
27:29
Speaker 2: much new in this letter. It's typical defense of the system,
27:33
Speaker 2: to a certain degree, a defense of Palantir as well.
27:35
Speaker 2: He does acknowledge that Palantir's involvement could deter data sharing,
27:40
Speaker 2: but he says that opt-outs from the public rose only modestly.
27:44
Speaker 2: Around 20,000 extra people opted out of this when the
27:47
Speaker 2: federated data platform was announced in 2023, and roughly 60,000
27:53
Speaker 2: over the past four months. And he sets that in
27:56
Speaker 2: the letter against the 2021 GP data row when opt-outs
28:01
Speaker 2: hit 5% of the population. And he says in the letter,
28:03
Speaker 2: all products, outputs, and intermediate artifacts generated with the NHS
28:08
Speaker 2: federated data platform are the intellectual property of the NHS,
28:12
Speaker 2: including all associated data models, products, and analytical solutions. So
28:16
Speaker 2: he wants to assure us all that we are not
28:18
Speaker 2: locked into Palantir. And then finally in this segment, good news,
28:25
Speaker 2: because the number of arrests as a result of live
28:28
Speaker 2: facial recognition in Essex has reached 200. Sorry, missing a
28:33
Speaker 2: slide on this one. This is a significant landmark, they said,
28:37
Speaker 2: and underlines how effective live facial recognition technology is. And
28:42
Speaker 2: in total, they say there were 26 arrests made after
28:45
Speaker 2: suspects were identified thanks to the technology in August. And
28:51
Speaker 2: arrests included violence and theft offenses. So they also, they
28:56
Speaker 2: finished by saying that unless you're on the watch list,
28:59
Speaker 2: you cannot be matched. So that's it for now. Let's
29:04
Speaker 2: move on then to the ads. If we can get
29:07
Speaker 2: the ads back on screen, please. And yeah, here we go.
29:11
Speaker 2: So if you like what the UK Column does, please
29:15
Speaker 2: do support us. You can find out how you can
29:17
Speaker 2: do that on the UK Column website. There are various
29:20
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29:21
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29:23
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29:25
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29:28
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29:30
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29:35
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29:41
Speaker 2: issue three will be out next week so we'll actually
29:44
Speaker 2: have that on the website on the shop website this
29:47
Speaker 2: afternoon for pre-order but we should have them in stock
29:50
Speaker 2: on Tuesday don't forget and Charles I know you've got
29:55
Speaker 2: some comments on this but the 20th anniversary UK column
29:58
Speaker 2: one location event taking place on the 18th to the
30:01
Speaker 2: 20th of September in Plymouth. And, well, we've got one
30:05
Speaker 2: group of people arriving in style, Charles.
30:09
Speaker 1: We absolutely have.
30:09
Speaker 3: I think it's a fantastic testament to the strength of
30:13
Speaker 3: the relationship between UK Column and our members. We have
30:17
Speaker 3: a couple who, I mean, they may not be the
30:19
Speaker 3: only ones, but we certainly know of a couple who
30:21
Speaker 3: are sailing all the way from Scotland down to join
30:24
Speaker 3: us in Plymouth next weekend. And I think that is
30:26
Speaker 3: something worth celebrating. We very much look forward to seeing
30:29
Speaker 3: them and indeed their worthy craft. So I think it's
30:33
Speaker 3: just a lovely story to look at, but we are
30:36
Speaker 3: very much looking forward to it. Can't believe it's all
30:38
Speaker 3: happening next weekend.
30:39
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Thank you for that.
30:41
Speaker 2: Uh, 7.00 PM tonight, uh, germ warfare, uh, germ speaking
30:45
Speaker 2: to Sean stone about the dark forces that run the world. Uh, and, uh,
30:49
Speaker 2: tomorrow at 1.00 PM, we have, uh, from the archives,
30:53
Speaker 2: a nine 11 and COVID. This is a re a
30:55
Speaker 2: rerun of something we recorded some time ago, but obviously
30:58
Speaker 2: Friday is the 25th anniversary of the 11th of September.
31:02
Speaker 2: So we are putting that out at 1.00 PM tomorrow. Now, uh,
31:08
Speaker 2: Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy made a statement to the House
31:11
Speaker 2: of Commons yesterday, let's bring her on screen if we can,
31:15
Speaker 2: to set out the government's next moves on children's online safety.
31:20
Speaker 2: She made the point that in June, the government gave
31:22
Speaker 2: industry three months to produce roadmaps for stronger device-level protections
31:27
Speaker 2: aimed at stopping children taking, sharing or viewing nude images
31:31
Speaker 2: on phones and tablets. And she reported that the Department
31:35
Speaker 2: for Culture, Media and Sport said Digital Culture, Media and
31:38
Speaker 2: Sport and the Home Office officials had since worked extensively
31:41
Speaker 2: with Apple and Google and that both companies had made
31:45
Speaker 2: operating system level changes, making it harder for children to
31:48
Speaker 2: share nude imagery, including blocking rather than blurring such images
31:54
Speaker 2: on underage devices. I'm just going to be clear here.
31:58
Speaker 2: This is yet another example of child safety being used
32:01
Speaker 2: as an excuse to roll out surveillance and censorship technology.
32:04
Speaker 2: Because these operating system level changes that she's talking about
32:07
Speaker 2: involve scanning content before it's shared or uploaded anywhere. So
32:14
Speaker 2: it's nude images today, perhaps. Tomorrow, it'll be content critical
32:19
Speaker 2: of government policy. Nandi claims that the progress made so
32:23
Speaker 2: far is insufficient. She cites the Internet Watch Foundation, publishing
32:29
Speaker 2: figures that 91% of such images are self-generated by children.
32:33
Speaker 2: with roughly 9,000 child sexual abuse offenses a year, having
32:39
Speaker 2: an online element, and under 18s accounting for nearly a
32:43
Speaker 2: quarter of online blackmail victims. And she argued that government
32:47
Speaker 2: cannot be neutral about technology developed almost entirely in the
32:50
Speaker 2: private sector. So there were two following announcements. One was
32:56
Speaker 2: that primary legislation requiring major platforms to build device-level protections
33:00
Speaker 2: for children will be introduced as soon as possible. and
33:03
Speaker 2: also a requirement that apps that children use prevent sharing
33:09
Speaker 2: of nudity. So she said legislation could be reassessed if
33:14
Speaker 2: firms deliver technical solutions first and claimed that the package
33:19
Speaker 2: of legislation would make Britain a leader in online safety.
33:23
Speaker 2: So just in time to justify Nandi's claims that more
33:27
Speaker 2: needs to be done, England's children's commissioner, Dame Rachel D'Souza,
33:32
Speaker 2: was giving evidence to the House of Lords Communications and
33:35
Speaker 2: Digital Committee's inquiry into the Online Safety Act's implementation and impact.
33:41
Speaker 2: And she said that children have told her that the
33:44
Speaker 2: UK's Online Safety Act has made absolutely no difference to
33:48
Speaker 2: their ability to access harmful content online. She said, if
33:52
Speaker 2: Ofcom is going to be the vehicle to protect our children,
33:55
Speaker 2: we need them to be getting ahead of the harms.
33:57
Speaker 2: And I don't think they have. So when I talk
33:59
Speaker 2: to children around the country, she said, what's worrying them
34:02
Speaker 2: are things around AI, things around new defying apps. There
34:07
Speaker 2: are new harms, and we need Ofcom to be getting
34:10
Speaker 2: ahead of those. I don't think they are, as she said.
34:13
Speaker 2: So that's the situation there. It is, Charles, quite incredible
34:18
Speaker 2: that we are seeing the continuing rollout of this type
34:23
Speaker 2: of technology. I mean, just to put this in perspective,
34:25
Speaker 2: the This technology that Nandi was talking about on phones,
34:29
Speaker 2: which is scanning content before it is sent anywhere else,
34:33
Speaker 2: is pretty much identical to the chat control legislation that
34:38
Speaker 2: the European Union is trying to get through at the
34:40
Speaker 2: moment and that they are getting major pushback on. Now,
34:45
Speaker 2: at this point in time, the claim is that the
34:48
Speaker 2: scanning is happening on device and that that information doesn't
34:52
Speaker 2: go anywhere else. Of course, we are at the beginning
34:56
Speaker 2: of a slippery slope here.
35:00
Speaker 3: I think we are very much at the beginning, maybe
35:02
Speaker 3: not quite sitting at the beginning as many people might think.
35:05
Speaker 3: And I think this is just, again, vindication of our
35:07
Speaker 3: reporting on not just the Online Safety Act itself, but
35:10
Speaker 3: everything that's being done around it and does absolutely prove
35:13
Speaker 3: the point that this was quite like you say, nothing
35:17
Speaker 3: to do with the safety of children, but everything to
35:19
Speaker 3: do with all the other measures that can be taken.
35:22
Speaker 3: in so many other respects and where we go from
35:26
Speaker 3: here is a matter of, I think, some grave concern.
35:30
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely.
35:31
Speaker 2: So now on Monday's programme, of course, because of the
35:34
Speaker 2: activities over the weekend, the various protests, demonstrations and so on,
35:38
Speaker 2: there was quite a bit of focus on migration. You've
35:42
Speaker 2: got some more for us now.
35:46
Speaker 3: Yes, I have, and in a way not dissimilar to
35:49
Speaker 3: the way in which one might review Ed Miliband's statement
35:53
Speaker 3: yesterday insofar as what one should actually be making of this.
35:56
Speaker 3: But further to the protests, which, of course, were reported
36:00
Speaker 3: on UK Column News on Monday by Ben Rubin and
36:03
Speaker 3: Brian Gerrish, we've had a follow-up report in The Telegraph
36:07
Speaker 3: saying that the lifeboat, the RNLI lifeboats, which were carrying
36:12
Speaker 3: 140 migrants, were denied entry.
36:16
Speaker 1: At two ports.
36:17
Speaker 3: I think a very significant detail to mention at this
36:19
Speaker 3: point is that the lifeboats were not on their own.
36:21
Speaker 3: They were supported by UK border force. So here we
36:25
Speaker 3: have migrants who are making their way towards the United Kingdom,
36:30
Speaker 3: having their journey facilitated by not just the lifeboats, but
36:33
Speaker 3: also the border force. Now, I know people are in
36:36
Speaker 3: general aware of this, but I think that's still a
36:38
Speaker 3: point worth making. With regard to some of what the
36:41
Speaker 3: Telegraph actually wrote about this, I will just concentrate on
36:47
Speaker 3: one part of it, which is, again, sort of obscure.
36:49
Speaker 3: But the RNLA aided more than 36,000 people across its
36:53
Speaker 3: lifeboat and lifeguard services in recent annual figures, with crews
36:57
Speaker 3: launching over 9,000 times per year to assist those in
37:01
Speaker 3: distress at sea. Of course, what the article doesn't really
37:03
Speaker 3: do is qualify what the balance is of those 36,000
37:06
Speaker 3: people with regard to irregular migration, people coming across the
37:11
Speaker 3: Channel in small boats. But I think the important point
37:14
Speaker 3: to bring out here is the reason that entry was
37:18
Speaker 3: denied to these two ports was based on Harbourmasters' decisions
37:22
Speaker 3: as to whether it was in effect safe to do so,
37:25
Speaker 3: whether or not they had the facilities. And so the
37:28
Speaker 3: Association of British Ports was quoted as saying that that
37:33
Speaker 3: we had to decline the inquiry as the port did
37:36
Speaker 3: not have suitable reception facilities available. So I go back
37:39
Speaker 3: to the point of not knowing quite what to make
37:41
Speaker 3: of it, because, of course, that was immediately followed by
37:44
Speaker 3: them saying if there had been a safety of life
37:46
Speaker 3: at sea issue where Southampton was the closest port, or
37:50
Speaker 3: if we had received a formal direction from the authorities,
37:52
Speaker 3: then we would have played a role. So actually not
37:55
Speaker 3: quite such a meaningful act of, let's say, resistance as
37:59
Speaker 3: it might have at first appeared. Also, there's some considerable
38:04
Speaker 3: grey area as to what happened next, because, of course,
38:07
Speaker 3: they were diverted on to Eastney, where there was yet
38:09
Speaker 3: another group of some 200 protesters. So, in effect, they
38:13
Speaker 3: were unable to come ashore there. But what happened next
38:17
Speaker 3: doesn't certainly seem to be reported by the Telegraph. And
38:19
Speaker 3: I guess we may never know exactly what happened. So
38:22
Speaker 3: that is important to bear in mind.
38:25
Speaker 1: But I think....
38:27
Speaker 3: Where I would go next is what the Telegraph went
38:29
Speaker 3: on to say about the lifeboat service, which was that
38:31
Speaker 3: lifeboat crews have always launched to rescue those at sea
38:34
Speaker 3: without judgment or preference. Now, this might seem like a
38:36
Speaker 3: bit of an oblique sideswipe, but I think we should
38:39
Speaker 3: look back to 2020 when they followed the Resuscitation Council
38:42
Speaker 3: UK guidance. on whether or not to pull somebody out
38:45
Speaker 3: of the sea and assume that they had some deadly lurgy.
38:49
Speaker 3: And the guidance then was, if someone is unconscious and
38:51
Speaker 3: not breathing normally, do not put your face close to theirs.
38:55
Speaker 3: And it went on to say, do not do mouth
38:57
Speaker 3: to mouth. Now, the lifeboats followed that guidance, which even
39:02
Speaker 3: at the time seemed a perfectly astonishing thing to do.
39:05
Speaker 3: With regard to the powers that may be used, in
39:08
Speaker 3: order to do what was or what appears to have
39:12
Speaker 3: been done. There's supposed to be an act of parliament
39:14
Speaker 3: that deals with this. The Nationality and Borders Bill, which
39:16
Speaker 3: of course became an act in 2022, to deter illegal
39:19
Speaker 3: entry into the UK, we will stop and divert vessels
39:23
Speaker 3: suspected of carrying illegal migrants to the UK and subject
39:26
Speaker 3: to agreement with the relevant country, such as France, return
39:29
Speaker 3: them to where their sea journey to the UK began.
39:33
Speaker 3: Of course, UK column has concentrated on this to a
39:36
Speaker 3: considerable degree over the last few years. And yet that
39:40
Speaker 3: was not the legislation which came into effect or was
39:42
Speaker 3: being used earlier this week. Now, I just want to
39:45
Speaker 3: go back to Miliband just to highlight an irony. I'm
39:48
Speaker 3: not at all suggesting the context is comparable, but nonetheless,
39:51
Speaker 3: this is what he had to say about his concerns
39:55
Speaker 3: over significant population increases.
39:59
Speaker 4: At the time of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993,
40:03
Speaker 4: around 270,000 settlers lived in the occupied Palestinian territories. Today
40:08
Speaker 4: it is some 770,000. More settlements have been approved under
40:14
Speaker 4: the four years of this Israeli government than in the
40:16
Speaker 4: previous 20 years.
40:24
Speaker 3: Quite so much concern when the lives of people who
40:27
Speaker 3: live in the United Kingdom might have theirs disrupted by
40:30
Speaker 3: the significant population change. Now, by coincidence, the Migration Observatory
40:35
Speaker 3: has recently published some statistics, which we're just going to
40:38
Speaker 3: have a look at now. Citizenship applications hit new record
40:41
Speaker 3: while asylum applications fall. So this is data coming up
40:45
Speaker 3: to the end of June this year. Just over 315,000
40:48
Speaker 3: people applied to become British citizens, and this is up 17%.
40:52
Speaker 1: Percent.
40:54
Speaker 3: However, the number of people claiming asylum fell by 21
40:57
Speaker 3: percent from a year earlier. And even though it was
41:00
Speaker 3: the lowest applications figure, even at 86,000, it still remains
41:04
Speaker 3: high by what they're calling historical standards. Now, the rate
41:08
Speaker 3: of asylum granted was declining, falling to 38 percent of
41:12
Speaker 3: initial decisions, down from a peak of 77 percent back
41:16
Speaker 3: in 2022. So that does appear to be significant. The
41:20
Speaker 3: number of overall asylum seekers accommodated in hotels, we are told,
41:25
Speaker 3: has fallen by 50 percent with just over 16,000 currently
41:28
Speaker 3: housed in hotels. And then finally, returns of unauthorized migrants,
41:33
Speaker 3: always a thorny issue and something that there seems to
41:36
Speaker 3: be very little granularity on. But that, we are told,
41:40
Speaker 3: increased significantly. to 40,600 in the year ending in this June,
41:46
Speaker 3: an increase of 8%. So in a way, make of
41:50
Speaker 3: those statistics what you will, but it does appear that
41:54
Speaker 3: there has been a change, or at least the way
41:56
Speaker 3: that the Migration Observatory is reporting this.
41:59
Speaker 1: It does suggest that there is a change of foot.
42:00
Speaker 3: They have also just run or republished the details of
42:04
Speaker 3: a poll that was run by YouGov. Admittedly, not a
42:08
Speaker 3: huge sample, only just over 2000 people. And I'm sorry,
42:12
Speaker 3: the detail is quite small. But in effect, the purple
42:15
Speaker 3: area of the chart there shows that people are thinking
42:19
Speaker 3: that the level of immigration over the past 10 years
42:21
Speaker 3: has been too high. Now, that's The bottom one there,
42:24
Speaker 3: unauthorised migration is absolutely overwhelming majority of people thinking that
42:27
Speaker 3: that is the case. And then in answer to the question,
42:30
Speaker 3: do you think the level of immigration over the past
42:32
Speaker 3: 10 years.
42:32
Speaker 1: Has been good or bad?
42:34
Speaker 3: Again, that figure in the unauthorised migration is very high. Now,
42:39
Speaker 3: I think the question to ask at the end of this,
42:41
Speaker 3: which if time I would put back to Mike, is
42:44
Speaker 3: how is the government going to manipulate this in terms
42:47
Speaker 3: of the statistics, but also the public opinion when we
42:49
Speaker 3: consider what's already been said? about digital identity and further
42:53
Speaker 3: surveillance and indeed live facial recognition and the like.
42:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think we'll answer that question in News
43:01
Speaker 2: Extra later on, but we do need to move on
43:04
Speaker 2: now to Vanessa again. And Vanessa, what is the latest
43:09
Speaker 2: in the, do we have a resurgent spate of violence
43:14
Speaker 2: between the United States and Iran?
43:18
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, I don't think it's ever really, it's
43:21
Speaker 5: kind of ebbed and flowed, but we currently have what
43:23
Speaker 5: I call a tanker tit for tat. So on Tuesday,
43:28
Speaker 5: the U.S. targeted, some reports are saying five Iranian tankers,
43:33
Speaker 5: some are saying three in response to the attempted attacks
43:38
Speaker 5: by Iran on a U.S. warship. And Marco Rubio basically
43:44
Speaker 5: had this to say about the situation.
43:49
Speaker 6: Yeah, the back and forth is pretty straightforward. And that
43:51
Speaker 6: is that Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships.
43:55
Speaker 6: And for every time they do that or try to
43:57
Speaker 6: do that, they're going to lose tankers. And I think
43:59
Speaker 6: you'll see that again today.
44:03
Speaker 5: Well, the reality is that Iran retaliated and retaliated with force.
44:08
Speaker 5: So this is a video that was put out by
44:11
Speaker 5: the Iranian armed forces. They announced that its naval and
44:15
Speaker 5: aerospace units targeted a combined total of 20 vessels, including
44:19
Speaker 5: US military assets and commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait
44:24
Speaker 5: of Hormuz. According to a statement, the operation was executed
44:28
Speaker 5: in direct retaliation for recent United States strikes. And then
44:33
Speaker 5: if we go to a Telegram account that is basically
44:37
Speaker 5: run by a number of Iranian analysts, they go into
44:41
Speaker 5: more detail. In retaliation, Iran launched a large-scale military operation.
44:45
Speaker 5: Ballistic missile launches were reported from multiple missile cities across Iran,
44:51
Speaker 5: and more than 30 ballistic missiles were launched, while later
44:54
Speaker 5: reports put the total at 35 to 40 in the
44:57
Speaker 5: first wave alone, followed by a second wave of launches
45:00
Speaker 5: from central Iran, including additional launches from Isfahan, Yazd, and Tabriz.
45:06
Speaker 5: Iranian media described it as the largest missile wave since
45:09
Speaker 5: the April ceasefire and one of Iran's biggest missile attacks
45:12
Speaker 5: in the last five months. Now, this, according to Enemy
45:15
Speaker 5: Watch's channel, was also confirmed, if we can have that
45:19
Speaker 5: on screen, by Israeli and American media that reported direct
45:25
Speaker 5: hits on American bases in Jordan Israeli Channel 14 reported
45:29
Speaker 5: direct impacts on an American base, while Hebrew media reported
45:33
Speaker 5: casualties among U.S. soldiers following the missile strikes. The New
45:36
Speaker 5: York Times later reported that American soldiers were wounded during
45:41
Speaker 5: the Iranian attack on Jordan, and further American sources also
45:45
Speaker 5: acknowledged that U.S. bases in Jordan had come under Iranian fire.
45:50
Speaker 5: They did also launch an attack on an American Arleigh
45:53
Speaker 5: Burke-class destroyer operating in the Sea of Oman. So very clearly,
45:59
Speaker 5: Iran restoring deterrence, despite Rubio's claims. And then added to which,
46:07
Speaker 5: this story is circulating and appears to be confirmed by
46:10
Speaker 5: some of the more resistance-aligned media. Iran captures U.S. unmanned
46:16
Speaker 5: submarine near the Strait of Hormuz, which is quite extraordinary.
46:20
Speaker 5: What are we talking about? This is effectively dive limited
46:26
Speaker 5: unmanned submarine. I can give you some details here if
46:30
Speaker 5: we can put that up on screen so I can
46:32
Speaker 5: read it would be good. New large displacement autonomous underwater
46:36
Speaker 5: vehicle developed by DiveTech first dive LED, sorry, delivered in
46:42
Speaker 5: April 2025 to the U.S. Navy unmanned undersea vehicle squadron.
46:47
Speaker 5: one of the newest systems in the fleet designed for
46:50
Speaker 5: long endurance underwater missions, apparently captured. Iran has actually put
46:58
Speaker 5: out a video allegedly showing the capture of the unmanned submarine, 5.8
47:05
Speaker 5: meters long, 1.2 meters in diameter with an endurance of
47:09
Speaker 5: up to 10 days and a maximum operating depth of 6,000
47:12
Speaker 5: meters long. Now, apparently in the hands of the Iranians
47:18
Speaker 5: who I'm sure are going to do a bit of
47:20
Speaker 5: reverse technology development on it. Thank you.
47:25
Speaker 2: Thank you, Vanessa. Thank you for that. Now, sticking with
47:29
Speaker 2: the war theme and Ukraine, Trump spoke to Putin for
47:34
Speaker 2: about an hour yesterday. Putin's top aide, Yuri Ushakov, reported
47:39
Speaker 2: that they had exchanged opinions on the trips made by
47:43
Speaker 2: US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow
47:47
Speaker 2: and Kiev on 5th and 6th of September. He stated
47:51
Speaker 2: that the conversation was constructive and quite frank. As you understand,
47:55
Speaker 2: he said, the conversation itself is confidential, so I'm not
47:59
Speaker 2: at liberty to share with you many important details and nuances.
48:04
Speaker 2: He said that Trump directly communicated the desirability of bringing
48:09
Speaker 2: the Ukraine conflict to an end as soon as possible. Yeah,
48:13
Speaker 2: I think we can treat that with the same kind
48:15
Speaker 2: of consideration as Miliband's comments at the beginning of the program.
48:21
Speaker 2: Ushakov reported that actual tangible actions that the Americans could
48:26
Speaker 2: take to expedite the cessation of hostilities were outlined. And
48:30
Speaker 2: at the end of the briefing, he said, I will
48:32
Speaker 2: reiterate that the conversation proceeded in an upbeat tone. The
48:37
Speaker 2: presidents agreed to stay in touch and speak to each
48:40
Speaker 2: other by phone if the need arose. I think the
48:43
Speaker 2: last few words there are the key ones. Now, the
48:47
Speaker 2: day before, on Monday, Trump spoke to Andy Burnham, as
48:51
Speaker 2: we've already heard, because, of course, Burnham clearly was briefing
48:54
Speaker 2: him on the Israel thing. But in the meantime, he
48:58
Speaker 2: was also saying– at least the readout said, on Ukraine,
49:02
Speaker 2: the two leaders agreed on the need to continue working
49:05
Speaker 2: towards a ceasefire that prevented more loss of life. It
49:10
Speaker 2: went on to say the prime minister reiterated the UK's
49:13
Speaker 2: support for Ukraine and for recent US-led peace negotiations. The
49:18
Speaker 2: ceasefire that is being referred to there is probably the
49:22
Speaker 2: 30-day plan that was devised by number 10 advisor Jonathan Paul,
49:27
Speaker 2: which Putin has already said Russia could never agree to. Now,
49:34
Speaker 2: speaking of Jonathan Paul on Sunday, and this photograph isn't
49:37
Speaker 2: from Sunday, but it's just illustrative. Paul was in Kiev
49:42
Speaker 2: along with a delegation of Europeans to make sure there
49:45
Speaker 2: was no possibility of an accidental peace of any kind
49:48
Speaker 2: while Witkopf and Kushner were there. Now, I don't believe
49:51
Speaker 2: for a second that either of those would have been
49:53
Speaker 2: negotiating a good faith, but Paul was there in any
49:57
Speaker 2: case to make sure that nothing unexpected happened. But the
50:03
Speaker 2: upshot of all this so-called diplomacy is another £ 100 million
50:06
Speaker 2: taxpayer bung being spent on winter air defence package for Ukraine,
50:13
Speaker 2: including air defence interceptors, large-scale calibre, sorry, large-calibre artillery rounds
50:19
Speaker 2: and drones. And this is apparently an order that Ukraine
50:22
Speaker 2: can defend itself from barbaric Russian attacks this winter. That
50:27
Speaker 2: announcement came following a meeting of the so-called Ukraine Defence
50:31
Speaker 2: Contact Group, which is co-chaired by the Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting,
50:36
Speaker 2: and his German counterpart, Boris Pastoreus. and that brings together
50:41
Speaker 2: 50 countries to guarantee that the war continues. This was
50:46
Speaker 2: its 26th meeting. And speaking of Germany, just like the UK,
50:51
Speaker 2: Germany is reorienting its economy to a war economy once again.
50:55
Speaker 2: The latest example is the Volkswagen factory at Osnabrück, and
51:00
Speaker 2: they have sold that factory to Israeli private equity firm Aurelius.
51:06
Speaker 2: And so Aurelius is the new majority owner, and the lower...
51:09
Speaker 2: The state of Lower Saxony is a minority owner, so
51:13
Speaker 2: the plant will no longer manufacture cars, but instead is
51:16
Speaker 2: going to produce components for air defense systems produced by
51:19
Speaker 2: Israeli state-owned company Rafael. Osnabrück factory currently employs 3,000 workers,
51:27
Speaker 2: and most of those are going to be kept on
51:29
Speaker 2: to manufacture weapons instead. And then staying in Germany for
51:33
Speaker 2: a moment, I wanted to highlight the latest developments sabotage
51:37
Speaker 2: attempt on national infrastructure there this time. German police discovered
51:42
Speaker 2: multiple suspected launch devices positioned near a high-voltage power line.
51:47
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure. Clearly, the term launch devices is
51:51
Speaker 2: some kind of lost-in-translation thing. I'm not quite sure exactly
51:54
Speaker 2: what they found. But nonetheless, they clearly felt it was
51:57
Speaker 2: a threat to the high-voltage power lines. And this was
52:01
Speaker 2: close to the Weisweiler power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia. And
52:05
Speaker 2: that was on Monday. Now, the initial culprit for that
52:09
Speaker 2: and a bunch of other sabotage efforts was, of course, Russia.
52:14
Speaker 2: And this was following on from the claims that Russia
52:16
Speaker 2: had carried out some kind of failed drone attack at
52:19
Speaker 2: Leipzig Airport that we've reported on several times on this program.
52:23
Speaker 2: But that narrative has had to be rolled back somewhat
52:26
Speaker 2: because it turns out that the spate of power station
52:28
Speaker 2: attacks were actually being carried out by climate activists. So
52:33
Speaker 2: I suppose we've got to say oops to that one.
52:37
Speaker 2: But Vanessa, let's come back to you then and bring
52:40
Speaker 2: us up to date with what's been going on in Lebanon.
52:44
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I mean, I think what is important for
52:46
Speaker 5: me is to look at Miliband's actions on the very
52:52
Speaker 5: limited sanctions in context of what is going on regionally.
52:57
Speaker 5: And in Lebanon, Israel is escalating dramatically. These are just
53:01
Speaker 5: a couple of videos from the last 48 hours. The
53:04
Speaker 5: first is a school video that they put explosives in
53:09
Speaker 5: it and then detonated it. And then there were multiple
53:12
Speaker 5: strikes across strategic areas in southern Lebanon yesterday and for
53:19
Speaker 5: the last week or so. And a young Lebanese journalist
53:23
Speaker 5: that I recommend everyone following, she's going to be contributing
53:26
Speaker 5: far more regularly to UK columns. She talks about the
53:30
Speaker 5: last few hours, Israeli airstrikes, hit multiple areas in southern Lebanon,
53:37
Speaker 5: including a hospital very close to where she was filming,
53:41
Speaker 5: the killing of another paramedic, also by a drone attack.
53:47
Speaker 5: And so the massacres are continuing. Now, meanwhile, Lebanese President
53:52
Speaker 5: Joseph Allen put out a statement yesterday which has effectively
53:57
Speaker 5: sent everyone into a rage. So he questioned whether Israel
54:02
Speaker 5: really wants peace and says the Israeli pretexts are flimsy.
54:06
Speaker 5: This while he is, of course, endorsing direct negotiations with
54:12
Speaker 5: the genocidal entity that is on a wholesale basis massacring
54:17
Speaker 5: civilians in the south of Lebanon and detonating mass areas
54:21
Speaker 5: of Lebanese territory and residential areas. And then at the
54:25
Speaker 5: same time, now remembering the Mecca Pact, that we've all
54:29
Speaker 5: discussed on UK columns. Saudi warplanes launch a massive air
54:33
Speaker 5: campaign across Yemen, 30 airstrikes in significant escalation, key regions targeted,
54:39
Speaker 5: including Marib, Al-Jafz, Taiz and Hodeidah on the coast of
54:44
Speaker 5: the Red Sea. Now, why do I mention the Mecca Pact?
54:47
Speaker 5: Because right now we also have reports that Turkey is
54:50
Speaker 5: siphoning al-Qaeda elements from inside Syria, thousands, into Saudi Arabia
54:57
Speaker 5: to effectively potentially invade Yemen and fight against the Ansarullah
55:04
Speaker 5: elements in Yemen itself. Now, I wanted to bring this up.
55:07
Speaker 5: This is just a series of very recent events recorded
55:11
Speaker 5: at the cradle just to show how important context is
55:16
Speaker 5: for basically Miliband's actions, if we can just have that
55:20
Speaker 5: back up. So the Hind Rajab Foundation files criminal complaint
55:25
Speaker 5: against Israeli FM ahead of Slovenia visit. And of course,
55:30
Speaker 5: Israel definitely interfered in elections in Slovenia. Yemeni missile strikes
55:35
Speaker 5: halt operations, spark fires at critical Saudi energy sites.
55:39
Speaker 2: U.S.
55:40
Speaker 5: Army intel officials quietly discuss reducing presence across West Asia.
55:44
Speaker 5: Qatar says Gulf must realize the alliance with Washington is
55:48
Speaker 5: not enough. Iran warns South Korea against joining US military
55:52
Speaker 5: operations in Hormuz. And Sana'a, Yemen warns Saudi Arabia will
55:56
Speaker 5: be punished for its war crimes. So things are definitely
56:00
Speaker 5: escalating in this region. And I guess worth discussing an
56:03
Speaker 5: extra whether Miliband's sanction effort is related in some way
56:10
Speaker 5: to either halting or changing direction of some of these elements.
56:16
Speaker 2: Thank you, Vanessa. Charles, have you got any comments on
56:20
Speaker 2: what Vanessa's just reported?
56:25
Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, in particular, going back to Vanessa's,
56:28
Speaker 3: I think the points she was making earlier, really, about
56:31
Speaker 3: what it is that anything Miliband has said may be translated,
56:36
Speaker 3: not just by him, of course, because of the joint statement,
56:38
Speaker 3: whether any of the countries involved, you've spoken about France
56:41
Speaker 3: and Canada, whether any of them is going to take
56:45
Speaker 3: on any meaningful action. And I mean, I don't see
56:47
Speaker 3: anything from any of the reporting that Vanessa has produced
56:50
Speaker 3: during this programme to suggest that there is. But I mean,
56:52
Speaker 3: I think we can have a sort of a wider
56:53
Speaker 3: discussion about that in extra. I suppose the only thing
56:57
Speaker 3: I would ask, perhaps, is what sense one gets, or Vanessa,
57:02
Speaker 3: what sense do you get of the view of the people,
57:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I know it's a very difficult one to answer,
57:09
Speaker 3: but the people of Lebanon with regard to what you've
57:12
Speaker 3: just said about the president's sort of position on that?
57:18
Speaker 5: I mean, it's outrage. When Lebanese people are being slaughtered
57:23
Speaker 5: en masse in the south and the president is raising
57:26
Speaker 5: a question as to whether Israel wants peace or not,
57:29
Speaker 5: and this has been ongoing for decades, but certainly it's
57:33
Speaker 5: escalated in the last few months to effectively the ethnic
57:37
Speaker 5: cleansing of the south and the government is doing nothing
57:41
Speaker 5: to prevent it. It's not forcing a Zionist withdrawal from
57:46
Speaker 5: the areas that it's occupied. It's not basically deploying the
57:51
Speaker 5: Lebanese armed forces to protect any of those towns and villages.
57:55
Speaker 5: And at the same time, it's calling for the disarmament
57:59
Speaker 5: of the resistance factions that are currently the only elements
58:03
Speaker 5: that are defending people in the South. So, you know,
58:07
Speaker 5: there is outrage. There is also, I mean, it's worth mentioning,
58:10
Speaker 5: there is sort of a degree of derision over the
58:14
Speaker 5: Miliband announcement that he's going to impose sanctions on settlement goods.
58:19
Speaker 5: As most people have said, well, you know, that's a
58:22
Speaker 5: drop in the ocean. It's not going to make any
58:23
Speaker 5: difference at all. It's showboating. it's effectively going to do
58:28
Speaker 5: nothing to prevent the bloodshed that is ongoing across the region.
58:33
Speaker 2: Well, my thoughts on that, Vanessa, were having listened to
58:40
Speaker 2: his presentation yesterday. Where does that leave all the people
58:44
Speaker 2: that are currently going through a legal process for supporting
58:48
Speaker 2: an organisation that was campaigning against Israel's actions? So, you know,
58:54
Speaker 2: maybe we can talk about that. an extra as well.
58:58
Speaker 2: But let's leave it there for today. I'm going to
59:00
Speaker 2: say thank you very much, Charles and Vanessa, for joining me.
59:03
Speaker 2: Thank you all for watching. If you are a UK
59:05
Speaker 2: column member, stay with us on the live stream, and
59:09
Speaker 2: we'll be back. in a couple of minutes for UK
59:11
Speaker 2: column news extra. If you're not a member, maybe you'd
59:13
Speaker 2: consider joining, and then you can join us for extra
59:16
Speaker 2: as well. Don't forget, videos tonight at 7 and 9
59:21
Speaker 2: and 1 p.m. tomorrow as well. We'll see you for
59:24
Speaker 2: another news program on Friday at 1 p.m. As usual,
59:28
Speaker 2: we'll see you then. Thanks for joining us.
59:30
Speaker 5: Bye-bye.