Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 12th August 2026

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UK Column News — 12th August 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the twelfth of August twenty twenty six,
0:10
Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to you k called News.
0:12
Speaker 1: Your host Mike Ruminson joining me by video look today
0:15
Speaker 1: are Charles Mallett and Vanessa Billy. Later in the program,
0:18
Speaker 1: we'll have more on the Node project and its apparent
0:21
Speaker 1: possible drive for civil war. We're going to be covering
0:24
Speaker 1: the Burnham attempts to bribe local communities into accepting electricity
0:29
Speaker 1: infrastructure in the UK, and we're going to be asking
0:32
Speaker 1: what now for Russia in Syria. But we're going to
0:34
Speaker 1: begin today with the continuing rollout of live facial recognition
0:39
Speaker 1: because British Transport Police has extended its life facial recognition
0:45
Speaker 1: trial from National Reil stations into the London underground, with
0:48
Speaker 1: the first deployment at Victoria Underground station yesterday. Now this
0:53
Speaker 1: was announced in a Police or and AR sorry excuse
0:59
Speaker 1: me force press release on the tenth of August. The
1:03
Speaker 1: trial is going to rotate between the underground and Network
1:07
Speaker 1: real sites and it has been extended to run until November.
1:11
Speaker 1: A British Transport Police describes the move as the product
1:16
Speaker 1: of months of work with Transport for London, the Real
1:18
Speaker 1: Delivery Group, the Department for Transport in the Mayor's Office
1:22
Speaker 1: and their officer in charge, Chris Casey, said that deployments
1:27
Speaker 1: were going to be intelligence led and in at people
1:30
Speaker 1: wanted by police or the courts, including those breaching bill
1:34
Speaker 1: conditions or court orders, and they said that the technology
1:38
Speaker 1: would be used lawfully, proportionately and transparently. TFLs, Director of Security,
1:44
Speaker 1: Police Policing and Enforcement, said that live official recognition had
1:49
Speaker 1: potential as a tool for identifying those wanted for high
1:52
Speaker 1: harm offenses and that the four month trial is going
1:55
Speaker 1: to be monitored and assessed. But according to their own
1:59
Speaker 1: that's British Sport Police's own policy. Material cameras in these
2:04
Speaker 1: stations are going to be streaming footage to the live
2:07
Speaker 1: facial recognition system, which compares faces against a pre built
2:11
Speaker 1: watch list. A possible match is going to generate an alert.
2:15
Speaker 1: An officer then compares the image to the person in
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Speaker 1: front of them before deciding whether to intervene. They say
2:22
Speaker 1: that images generating an alert are deleted within twenty four hours,
2:26
Speaker 1: and they say that biometric data from those who don't
2:28
Speaker 1: trigger an alert is deleted immediately. Although the underlying CCTV
2:34
Speaker 1: footage is retained for thirty one days. They're going to
2:37
Speaker 1: have signs up and they're going to have QR codes
2:40
Speaker 1: placed around the place so that you can get more information,
2:44
Speaker 1: and they say that alternative routes are available for anyone
2:46
Speaker 1: preferring to avoid the recognition zone. But according to their
2:53
Speaker 1: deployment register, across eighteen deployments between the eleventh February and
2:57
Speaker 1: the seventeenth of July this year at London Bridge, Waterloo, Euston,
3:01
Speaker 1: King's Cross and Pancreas Liverpool Street in Victoria, they scanned
3:06
Speaker 1: five hundred and thirty seven six hundred and ninety seven faces.
3:10
Speaker 1: They said that watch lists arranged from three hundred pitty
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Speaker 1: one to five hundred and forty six people in each
3:16
Speaker 1: of those cases, and they said that the matching threshold
3:18
Speaker 1: was said a zero point sixty four. You can decide
3:23
Speaker 1: whether that is of interest or not. But anyway, the
3:26
Speaker 1: point here is the interesting part is that the only
3:31
Speaker 1: one alert was created in those six months at King's
3:35
Speaker 1: Cross in February, and that was false alarm. It was
3:39
Speaker 1: a false positive. So there are no confirmed true alerts.
3:44
Speaker 1: There've been no arrests and no recordings of any other
3:48
Speaker 1: kind of outcome. A Big Brother Watch, of course, is
3:51
Speaker 1: kind of leading the way in terms of the campaigning
3:53
Speaker 1: on this. They've called the expansion disturbing and dystopian, and
3:58
Speaker 1: they are concerned under the situe of this new infrastructure
4:03
Speaker 1: is treating the traveling public as suspects. Their advocacy manager
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Speaker 1: Matthew Feinney said that subjecting law abiding passengers to mass
4:13
Speaker 1: biometric surveillance is disproportionate. The language, I think isn't quite
4:18
Speaker 1: strong enough. And well, Charles, I mean, I'd be interesting
4:20
Speaker 1: in your thoughts on this because my first thought is
4:24
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing the same kind of pushback on this
4:26
Speaker 1: particular issue that we saw on Digital ID for example.
4:32
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Mike, Good afternoon all. And I think you're
4:34
Speaker 2: quite right, but there are many issues with it, some
4:37
Speaker 2: of which have been covered. I think one of the
4:38
Speaker 2: reasons that it's not had so much pushback is that
4:40
Speaker 2: people Bar and Lodge don't really understand it. And one
4:43
Speaker 2: thing to make very clear is that it changes in
4:46
Speaker 2: a fundamental sense the relationship between the police and the public,
4:50
Speaker 2: in that if a police constable asks you who you
4:54
Speaker 2: are or what you're doing, you are under no or
4:57
Speaker 2: answer that question and its own. If a suggestion that
5:02
Speaker 2: you're involved in a criminal activity, that that can be
5:06
Speaker 2: pushed further. Facial recognition switches that the other way around,
5:11
Speaker 2: in that police or indeed potentially anybody else is immediately
5:16
Speaker 2: aware of your identity. Now there are huge implications for that.
5:21
Speaker 2: The other thing to say, which of course has been
5:24
Speaker 2: highlighted by what you've just said, is that if goalposts
5:26
Speaker 2: to move with regard to certain legislation, then people may
5:29
Speaker 2: be captured by virtue of who they are. And you
5:32
Speaker 2: look at terrorism legislation where an arrest may be made
5:35
Speaker 2: of a terrorist. So if somebody is described as either
5:38
Speaker 2: a terrorist or a something as yet to be defined,
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Speaker 2: then facial recognition is already a gateway into capturing those people.
5:46
Speaker 2: The other thing to say is that Oxford to treat,
5:49
Speaker 2: which I think you might be about to go on
5:51
Speaker 2: to talk about, is also the subject of a redevelopment
5:55
Speaker 2: which is going to have we believe, trees all over it.
6:00
Speaker 2: So how that's going to work is another question.
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Speaker 1: That is a very good question. Let's just come on
6:05
Speaker 1: to the Oxford Free situation, because lifcial recognition cameras to
6:09
Speaker 1: be installed in Oxford Street as part of City Can's
6:12
Speaker 1: pedestrianization scheme, and so of course this is used has
6:18
Speaker 1: been out for a little while, but it's just been
6:19
Speaker 1: confirmed today. So. Asked at a City Hall session in
6:23
Speaker 1: July about the met Police's West End rollout, as Can
6:27
Speaker 1: said that the met Police was working closely with the
6:30
Speaker 1: Oxford Street Development Corporate Corporation on how to quote use
6:34
Speaker 1: LFR in a sensible way using the opportunity of new CCTV,
6:39
Speaker 1: and he said that the met Police would test individual
6:42
Speaker 1: sites rather than attempt a big bang. But so following
6:46
Speaker 1: that announcement in June, they basically associated press has managed
6:52
Speaker 1: to get some comment which confirms that. And so what
6:56
Speaker 1: they're saying is that unlike vans that are you by
7:00
Speaker 1: the police at the moment, the cameras are going to
7:02
Speaker 1: be fixed to street furniture. And so that's the way
7:06
Speaker 1: it's going to go. So we're going to see you know,
7:09
Speaker 1: this rolled out evermore. But we need to see I
7:13
Speaker 1: think much more pushback from the general public. But Charles,
7:17
Speaker 1: let's move on then to water issues, because we've been
7:22
Speaker 1: talking about water over the last couple of weeks. What's
7:27
Speaker 1: the liddist.
7:29
Speaker 2: Well, I think there are many aspects to the latest,
7:32
Speaker 2: but the main thing to draw out of it is
7:33
Speaker 2: that neither the government or indeed any extra governmental agency
7:37
Speaker 2: will miss the opportunity to associate climate change with absolutely anything.
7:42
Speaker 2: So of course the drought story is being inextricably linked
7:47
Speaker 2: with what is described as anthropogenic climate change. And I'm
7:51
Speaker 2: just showing you sort of be roll footage of the
7:53
Speaker 2: general sense of there being very little water around in
7:56
Speaker 2: many parts of the United Kingdom at the moment. The
7:58
Speaker 2: BBC have effectively cashed on this by reporting a story
8:01
Speaker 2: from Norfolk in which they say that experts worn more
8:04
Speaker 2: heat wave fish deaths may occur, with scary photographs of
8:08
Speaker 2: fish being pulled out of water dead fish, and of course,
8:11
Speaker 2: in the text of the article, experts believe mass fish
8:14
Speaker 2: deaths could become increasingly frequent due to climate change after
8:19
Speaker 2: thousands perished in a river heat wave disaster. Well, that's misleading,
8:23
Speaker 2: to say the least, because, of course, in actual fact,
8:26
Speaker 2: the article itself goes on to explain that the Environment
8:28
Speaker 2: Agency pointed towards heavy rainfall and runoff containing contaminants. And
8:34
Speaker 2: it's to say the BBC are unable to review their
8:36
Speaker 2: own content, because if you go to BBC Bite Size
8:39
Speaker 2: you'll find a GCSE sort of guide on utrofucation, which
8:44
Speaker 2: is the effect caused in bodies of water by, in
8:47
Speaker 2: particular the presence of phosphorus and nitrogen. So we'll go
8:51
Speaker 2: and have a look at what the Soil Associations say
8:53
Speaker 2: about this on their campaign for ending river pollution in
8:57
Speaker 2: the UK, and all is not quite as it's of course,
9:00
Speaker 2: because as the Soil Association point out, the leading causes
9:03
Speaker 2: of river pollution in the UK are sewage discharge, industrial
9:07
Speaker 2: waste and litter. But agriculture is the single largest cause
9:11
Speaker 2: of river pollution in the UK, contributing forty percent. And
9:14
Speaker 2: this seems to point more towards the BBC's story about
9:18
Speaker 2: the river in Norfolk, because excessive presence of these nutrients
9:22
Speaker 2: and as I say, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, lead to utrification,
9:25
Speaker 2: a process characterized by rapid algae growth. Algal blooms can
9:28
Speaker 2: block sunlight, reducing oxygen levels in the water and leading
9:32
Speaker 2: to the formation of dead zones where aquatic life struggles
9:35
Speaker 2: to survive. So yet again an effort made by the
9:39
Speaker 2: media and the government to obscure the very destructive processes
9:45
Speaker 2: by industrial farming methods of course come under some scrutiny
9:48
Speaker 2: since the strait of Harmer's narrative around the changes in
9:53
Speaker 2: fertilizer price and indeed the application of agricultural chemicals on
9:57
Speaker 2: a wholesale basis. But there is still a great reluctant
10:00
Speaker 2: to deal with this, and of course this is driven
10:03
Speaker 2: by the public's insatiable desire for ultra process foods which
10:07
Speaker 2: do require agriculture to work in this way. The other thing,
10:10
Speaker 2: just to round off with is the government and their
10:14
Speaker 2: complete inability to do anything about water on a grander scale.
10:18
Speaker 2: I know we've covered this in some depth from the
10:20
Speaker 2: news before, but just to update really this was from
10:23
Speaker 2: May twenty twenty five, the government steps in to build
10:25
Speaker 2: first major reservoirs in thirty years.
10:27
Speaker 3: Now.
10:28
Speaker 2: I asked DEFRAH for comment on this because there's been
10:31
Speaker 2: no update and does that mean no progress. Well, I
10:35
Speaker 2: got a very meleily mouthed response from the DEFA press
10:37
Speaker 2: office forty five minutes after my deadline had expired today,
10:41
Speaker 2: which says that work is already underway and we are
10:46
Speaker 2: also radically streamlining the planning process by automatically designating nationally
10:51
Speaker 2: significant status to projects essential for our national water resilience.
10:57
Speaker 2: They're talking about nine new reservoirs by the year twenty fifty.
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Speaker 2: So that's what we're calling progress in the face of,
11:05
Speaker 2: in the government's words, drought and climate change. But of course,
11:09
Speaker 2: in actual fact, what they're doing is ignoring many of
11:12
Speaker 2: the drivers that lead to environmental destruction and indeed water shortages.
11:16
Speaker 2: I mean, Mike, I think we might have done for
11:17
Speaker 2: a little bit of comment from you on this. Mean,
11:20
Speaker 2: first of all, you know, are the public really awhare
11:23
Speaker 2: We talk about this quite a lot on the news program,
11:25
Speaker 2: But is this something that people should be kicking up
11:27
Speaker 2: more of a stink about It?
11:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely is, because, of course we're being told that climate
11:32
Speaker 1: change is a justification for all kinds of policies, not
11:36
Speaker 1: zero related policies, but also other limitations on our freedoms.
11:41
Speaker 1: Whereas you know, if you take a country and you
11:44
Speaker 1: effectively increase this population by fifty percent, but you do
11:48
Speaker 1: not increase the infrastructure to support that population, you can
11:52
Speaker 1: then say, well, water shortages which have been caused by
11:55
Speaker 1: the population increase are caused by climate change instead, and
12:00
Speaker 1: it's a gift that keeps on giving. Yeah, Okay, very hups.
12:06
Speaker 1: So yes, okay, okay, thanks Charles. Okay. Now let's move
12:11
Speaker 1: on to Vanessa and welcome to the program. Vanessa. Bring
12:14
Speaker 1: us up to date with the situation Colombia and the earthquake.
12:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, very sad and follows on, of course, quite swiftly
12:23
Speaker 4: after the Venezuela earthquake that kind of opened the doors
12:27
Speaker 4: to effectively Israeli presence in Venezuela and an increasing normalization
12:34
Speaker 4: with Israel by the Schevista government after of course, the
12:39
Speaker 4: kidnap of President Maduro in January this year. So in
12:43
Speaker 4: Colombia now has been hit by a magnitude seven point
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Speaker 4: four earthquake which rocked western Colombia, killing at least one
12:51
Speaker 4: hundred and eleven of people, and of course that number
12:54
Speaker 4: is increasing. I'm seeing reports of around two hundred and
12:57
Speaker 4: fifty and one hundreds of injured. So let's just have
13:01
Speaker 4: a look at a video of some of the effects
13:04
Speaker 4: of the quake.
13:19
Speaker 5: MH.
13:57
Speaker 3: Niels Pleasure.
14:04
Speaker 1: Pay Leader.
14:11
Speaker 4: Apparently the clock tower, the clock stopped at the point
14:15
Speaker 4: that the earthquake actually hit. Now, of course, this is
14:20
Speaker 4: due partly perhaps to the ring of fire, which is
14:24
Speaker 4: a horseshoe shaped belt. If we can have the image
14:28
Speaker 4: approximately forty thousand kilometers long, that encircles the Pacific Ocean
14:34
Speaker 4: and it's the world's most seismically and volcanically active zone.
14:38
Speaker 4: Of course, it includes more than twenty five countries, including Japan, Indonesia, Chile,
14:44
Speaker 4: the United States, particularly Alaska, California and the Pacific Northwest,
14:49
Speaker 4: New Zealand and the Philippines. Now what is quite interesting
14:54
Speaker 4: is that this follows on after the election of a
14:57
Speaker 4: far right government, and this was an o call in
15:01
Speaker 4: harez'z Hebrew media yesterday. Far right Colombian government recognizes Israeli
15:07
Speaker 4: sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which were seized, of course
15:10
Speaker 4: by Israel in the nineteen sixty Southern Aggression or war
15:16
Speaker 4: between Israel and Syria. Now Columbia is now the second
15:22
Speaker 4: country to actually recognize the Golan Heights as being Israeli territory,
15:26
Speaker 4: which of course contravenes all international law ruling on this situation. Now,
15:37
Speaker 4: what I find quite amazing is the statement by the
15:42
Speaker 4: Foreign Ministry in Colombia was actually put out almost I
15:47
Speaker 4: looked yesterday, So it was put out on Monday, around
15:51
Speaker 4: an hour after the earthquake hit. So rather than hold
15:55
Speaker 4: back on this statement. It was literally put out as
16:00
Speaker 4: the earthquake hit the country. So this is clearly demonstrating
16:04
Speaker 4: the priority and bearing in mind that Ablado de l'espriella,
16:09
Speaker 4: who was a conservative political outsider endorsed by President Trump,
16:13
Speaker 4: came to power by a narrow margin and will come
16:16
Speaker 4: on to how that might have been engineered. And at
16:20
Speaker 4: the same time as they put out the statement regarding
16:24
Speaker 4: the recognition of Goland territory, they also put out another
16:29
Speaker 4: statement thanking the international community for their help with the earthquake.
16:33
Speaker 4: Again quite interesting because that was put out two hours
16:37
Speaker 4: after the earthquake hit, which makes one question what in
16:42
Speaker 4: that time had the international community actually done or did
16:47
Speaker 4: they perhaps have some inkling that the earthquake was incoming.
16:51
Speaker 4: That's my speculation. Now, basically, the presidents of Avalado had
17:01
Speaker 4: been obviously supported by Israel. This is the pro Israel
17:05
Speaker 4: Colombian presidential front runner. Pledged to open the embassy in Jerusalem,
17:10
Speaker 4: and let's have a look at what else he actually
17:13
Speaker 4: promised to do, move the embassy from Ramala to occupied Jerusalem,
17:19
Speaker 4: which of course mirrors what Trump agreed to do back
17:22
Speaker 4: in his first term. Triparthite security alliance with Israel and
17:26
Speaker 4: the US to combat narco terrorism, share intelligence and defense technology.
17:32
Speaker 4: This is all sounding very familiar. Columbia to withdraw from
17:36
Speaker 4: South Africa's genocide case and to restore coal shipments and
17:40
Speaker 4: trade agreements stopped under Gustav Petro. Now what is sort
17:45
Speaker 4: of interesting here the Israeli Diaspora Afairs Minister Amchuri Chickley
17:50
Speaker 4: went on record yesterday saying that in Europe they've created
17:54
Speaker 4: a system of alliances in Europe unlike anything that existed
17:58
Speaker 4: before with the deep conservative rights. So what this is suggesting,
18:02
Speaker 4: of course, and that's what we're seeing across Latin America
18:05
Speaker 4: is a sweeping to power of fire right governments. And
18:08
Speaker 4: in fact, former government Gustav Petro went on x to
18:15
Speaker 4: basically say foreigners used foreign money to commit the electoral
18:19
Speaker 4: fraud imposing a president who did not win the election,
18:24
Speaker 4: and so we are a colony starting Friday at three
18:27
Speaker 4: o'clock in the afternoon. A colony, of course, he means
18:30
Speaker 4: a colony of the United States. Very interesting. We've talked
18:36
Speaker 4: about black Cube on UK column before and the election
18:41
Speaker 4: interference in Slovenia in particular, but pretty much across the
18:47
Speaker 4: world now here as an article in Orino Co Tribune,
18:51
Speaker 4: from espionage to electoral fraud, Black Cube the is really
18:55
Speaker 4: firm hired for regime change in Columbia. So again we
19:00
Speaker 4: see them appearing and apparently bringing a far right government
19:05
Speaker 4: that is going to be very supportive of Israel to power.
19:08
Speaker 4: According to Petro, the alleged manipulation of the results was
19:12
Speaker 4: carried out from a server located in Los Angeles, California,
19:16
Speaker 4: utilizing algorithms designed to replace the records or citizens who
19:20
Speaker 4: did not show up to vote with irregularly issued ballots. This,
19:25
Speaker 4: in theory, allowed some individuals to cast multiple votes. The firm,
19:30
Speaker 4: singled out by Gustava Petro for supplying the algorithms used
19:33
Speaker 4: during the scrutiny phase to artificially favor the far right
19:37
Speaker 4: candidate who actually came to buy power by a very
19:41
Speaker 4: thin margin, has been repeatedly implicated in political interference during
19:46
Speaker 4: electrical sorry electoral processes in various countries, employing a diverse
19:53
Speaker 4: array of covert operations. As I said, we've spoken about
19:56
Speaker 4: this before. It has very much been reported in other
20:00
Speaker 4: Latin American countries and now pretty much the only countries
20:05
Speaker 4: without a Trump supported right wing administration. Or, of course
20:10
Speaker 4: Venezuela's case where they are effectively under the control of
20:14
Speaker 4: the United States. Is Brazil and Cuba. Cuba is now
20:18
Speaker 4: under blockade. Brazil has their elections in October where Lula
20:24
Speaker 4: is running against the son of jeb Alsonnaro, also the
20:29
Speaker 4: right wing candidate, so it remains to be seen if
20:33
Speaker 4: they will be given support by Trump and Israel to
20:36
Speaker 4: bring them to power over the slightly left leaning government
20:41
Speaker 4: of Lula.
20:43
Speaker 1: Vanessa. Thank you for that. South America as a region
20:46
Speaker 1: of the world, we don't cover half enough, so we'll
20:50
Speaker 1: talk about more about this in Extra's fascinating what's been
20:53
Speaker 1: going on there over the last few years. Now, let's
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Speaker 1: of course don't forget that. The twentieth anniversary on location
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Speaker 1: event is taking place eighteenth to the twentieth of September
21:47
Speaker 1: in Plymouth this year. Charles, you've got any comments on
21:52
Speaker 1: the event.
21:55
Speaker 3: Mike, I absolutely have. Thank you for asking.
21:57
Speaker 2: It's going to be absolutely terrific, as we have stated
22:00
Speaker 2: many times previously, but that's not a bluff. We've got
22:03
Speaker 2: a great lineup of speakers and there are no tickets
22:06
Speaker 2: available for the live stream to the event, and just
22:08
Speaker 2: to avoid any confusion, the live stream ticket means that
22:11
Speaker 2: you can watch it at the time, but also you
22:14
Speaker 2: have access to the recording afterwards, which means that if
22:17
Speaker 2: you buy a ticket and you're not able to watch
22:19
Speaker 2: at the time, you will still have access to the recording.
22:22
Speaker 2: So please, if you're unable to join us in person,
22:24
Speaker 2: take a look at the live stream.
22:27
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles and I'm just going to say that,
22:29
Speaker 1: of course, everybody that has ticket to come and join
22:32
Speaker 1: us physically will also get access to the recordings afterwards.
22:37
Speaker 1: Now seven pm tonight, jerem is speaking or asking the
22:41
Speaker 1: question Hi, sheishimping, became a hitler with Matt Ratt And
22:47
Speaker 1: at nine pm Carlos asking is China winning the global game?
22:51
Speaker 1: So that's at nine tomorrow, Charles. At one pm you're
22:55
Speaker 1: speaking to Brad Miller. And the title of this is
22:59
Speaker 1: from West Point to Military Accountability.
23:03
Speaker 2: Yes, I was very pleased to talked about because I
23:05
Speaker 2: covered the Declaration of Military Accountability on the news a
23:08
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, and he was one of the
23:10
Speaker 2: instrumental players in getting that out. And I've got a
23:14
Speaker 2: clip of him now talking about the way in which
23:16
Speaker 2: national security is wield is wielded with which to effectively
23:20
Speaker 2: strip sovereignty from citizens.
23:25
Speaker 6: Who doesn't care about the security of their nation. Right
23:28
Speaker 6: when we look at how the world operates and who
23:30
Speaker 6: these you know, shadowy global figures are, you know, whomever
23:34
Speaker 6: they may be, wherever they may be. Nothing seems to
23:39
Speaker 6: be beyond what they're willing to do, you know, And
23:43
Speaker 6: therefore that means that they will certainly manipulate some of
23:47
Speaker 6: your most positive traits against you. Love of country is
23:51
Speaker 6: one of those. Love of your family is one of those.
23:54
Speaker 6: I mean, perhaps one of the most extreme, ridiculous examples
23:58
Speaker 6: of this is the whole idea that if you take
24:00
Speaker 6: the COVID shot you might put grandma risk. You are
24:03
Speaker 6: a grandma killer. I mean, that is manipulating your love
24:06
Speaker 6: of your family against you, or your love of your community,
24:09
Speaker 6: your love of your countrymen. So national security is one
24:12
Speaker 6: of those things that gets right at the heart of
24:16
Speaker 6: our sense of self, but also one of the senses
24:20
Speaker 6: of collective that we also feel if someone is threatening
24:24
Speaker 6: our country, you know, the citizens of our country, then
24:27
Speaker 6: to some degree they are threatening us. But I am
24:29
Speaker 6: heavily critical of the government. You know, there's a saying
24:33
Speaker 6: that I've always liked from the author Mark Twain, which
24:37
Speaker 6: says patriotism means loving your country always and loving your
24:43
Speaker 6: government when it deserves it. And that resonates with me
24:47
Speaker 6: because I think we have to draw a stark contrast
24:50
Speaker 6: between country and government. They're not synonyms, you know, They're
24:56
Speaker 6: not the same thing. And sometimes the best thing that
24:58
Speaker 6: you can do for your country or to support your
25:01
Speaker 6: country or express your love of country and your fellow
25:05
Speaker 6: citizens is to rightly demarkeate the authorities and limitations of
25:13
Speaker 6: you know, government encroachment into our lives.
25:25
Speaker 1: So that's one pm tomorrow for that. Don't miss it, Charles.
25:29
Speaker 1: Let's move on then Harry Potter.
25:36
Speaker 2: Yes, it is not often that we do get to
25:38
Speaker 2: talk about Harry Potter on UK column News, but I
25:41
Speaker 2: am going to take the opportunity and I will prefix
25:44
Speaker 2: it by saying that there are also advantages to the
25:47
Speaker 2: BBC having dumbed down, because we have a story here
25:50
Speaker 2: about Harry Potter fans forcing diversion of UK Ireland power
25:54
Speaker 2: Link to avoid Dobby's grave. Now, as absurd as this sounds,
25:58
Speaker 2: it is actually true, and it concerns the Green Link
26:01
Speaker 2: interconnector running between Great Britain and Ireland, a four hundred
26:05
Speaker 2: and thirty million pound infrastructure project which was changed because
26:11
Speaker 2: Simon Ludlam, who's the chief executive of the project, gave
26:14
Speaker 2: an interview unwittingly with this in the background behind him,
26:18
Speaker 2: and there was an almighty fuss kicked up that it
26:23
Speaker 2: looked like it was going to disturb a apparent grave
26:28
Speaker 2: to a fictional character in a fictional story. Ludlin himself
26:32
Speaker 2: obviously was pretty confused by what was happening, and I
26:37
Speaker 2: think I have a quote saying, well, he was reported
26:41
Speaker 2: as having said that it had turned into a publication's
26:45
Speaker 2: nightmare after fans got wind of what was to happen. Now,
26:50
Speaker 2: silly and trivial as this may seem, what I want
26:53
Speaker 2: to concentrate on is the people power effect I think
26:57
Speaker 2: should and there is absolutely a lesson learned here, and
27:00
Speaker 2: I would point that lesson towards is the Renewable Energy
27:05
Speaker 2: Planning Database, because it is I think an objective truth
27:10
Speaker 2: that both the countryside and is being destroyed by the
27:13
Speaker 2: so called renewable or net zero plan. A map on
27:17
Speaker 2: screen now if you can't see it shows all the
27:19
Speaker 2: infrastructure projects that are either proposed or in some stage
27:25
Speaker 2: of planning or indeed not planning. And i'll qualify what
27:29
Speaker 2: I mean by this is all the projects. But of
27:31
Speaker 2: course if you select the filters for abandon abandoned, appeal,
27:35
Speaker 2: refused appeal withdrawn, application refused planning, permission expired, or application withdrawn,
27:41
Speaker 2: then you get a map that actually looks quite heartening.
27:44
Speaker 2: And I think the point to draw out of this
27:47
Speaker 2: is that rather than considering this overrunning scheme in its entirety,
27:53
Speaker 2: it's really to look at maps like these, which course
27:55
Speaker 2: are updated all the time by the government, and to
27:58
Speaker 2: identify what is going on in one's own area and
28:01
Speaker 2: then make the approach that way. And what I'd like
28:04
Speaker 2: to do is just ask Mike and I have comment
28:05
Speaker 2: because I think to me this strikes at the heart
28:08
Speaker 2: of exactly what Ian Crane was about with the campaign
28:12
Speaker 2: against fracking, and how to achieve an effect without them,
28:15
Speaker 2: without the necessity for a national campaign. How as silly
28:20
Speaker 2: as it might seem, this Harry Potter story actually plays
28:22
Speaker 2: into that.
28:23
Speaker 1: Well, indeed it does, and it's it's you know, the
28:27
Speaker 1: whole idea of a national campaign for in our Crane
28:30
Speaker 1: was absolutely reprehensible. He would not he would not consider
28:35
Speaker 1: it and actively worked to make sure that the anti
28:39
Speaker 1: fracking campaign in the UK did not become a national campaign.
28:42
Speaker 1: Some people were very much at the time trying to
28:44
Speaker 1: make it a national campaign. He felt very strongly that
28:49
Speaker 1: these types of things should be done locally with local
28:51
Speaker 1: people and it's much harder for any kind of control
28:55
Speaker 1: of the opposition movement under those circumstances. And as he
28:58
Speaker 1: said many times that never prevented individual campaigners or individual
29:03
Speaker 1: groups from working together when it suited them, but they
29:06
Speaker 1: should not be controlled from a central source, or from
29:09
Speaker 1: a central committee, or any of this kind of nonsense. So,
29:12
Speaker 1: and these types of infrastructure projects are absolutely analogous in
29:17
Speaker 1: terms of the type of campaigns that can be run.
29:20
Speaker 1: But the question, then, Charles, in my mind, is if
29:24
Speaker 1: there are local campaigns and they are having an effect,
29:27
Speaker 1: which they seem to be in many cases, what is
29:29
Speaker 1: the government going to do about it? Well, the Department
29:32
Speaker 1: for Energy Security and Net Zero has published the first
29:37
Speaker 1: wave of projects covered by its electricity Build discount scheme.
29:41
Speaker 1: So they've named forty three transmission projects across more than
29:45
Speaker 1: forty locations, and this is right across mainland Britain. Households
29:50
Speaker 1: within five hundred meters of qualifying infrastructure and by that
29:54
Speaker 1: we're mainly talking about electricity pylons and so on will
29:58
Speaker 1: receive or are expectedly to receive two and a half
30:01
Speaker 1: thousand pounds off their electricity bills over the course of
30:05
Speaker 1: ten years, and that's going to be paid in six
30:08
Speaker 1: months the one hundred and twenty five pound installments. So
30:11
Speaker 1: this only applies to new Onshore over ground transmission infrastructure
30:16
Speaker 1: where construction began on or after the tenth of March
30:19
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and it includes substations, converter stations and
30:24
Speaker 1: ceiling end compounds. Off GAM is going to administer the
30:28
Speaker 1: scheme and the first payments are expected in the first
30:31
Speaker 1: half of twenty twenty seven, following the laying of secondary
30:36
Speaker 1: legislation in Parliament under the Planning and Infrastructure Act. So
30:40
Speaker 1: on March twenty twenty six, impact Assessment estimated one hundred
30:44
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand, one hundred and sixty thousand households are
30:47
Speaker 1: going to become eligible by twenty to forty four. That's
30:53
Speaker 1: and that are round two thirds of the projects are
30:56
Speaker 1: in Scotland and this of course is supporting the ex
31:00
Speaker 1: mansion of wind generation, so absolutely feeds into what you've
31:03
Speaker 1: just been talking about, Charles. The first wave also includes
31:08
Speaker 1: National Grids, Bramford to twins Head Reinforcement and the North
31:13
Speaker 1: London Reinforcement project, and we'll talk about that the stuff
31:19
Speaker 1: more in extra. But the other thing to say about it,
31:22
Speaker 1: Charles is that although there was nothing specific in the
31:25
Speaker 1: press release on this with respect to AI and data centers,
31:34
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that this is the main driver for
31:37
Speaker 1: these projects because of the demands being placed on the
31:42
Speaker 1: national grid for electricity supply for these types of developments.
31:48
Speaker 1: But these types of developments themselves are equally subject to
31:51
Speaker 1: the planning regime and so hopefully we're going to see
31:55
Speaker 1: much more opposition activity in local areas for these as well.
32:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would absolutely hope.
32:04
Speaker 2: So, yeah, I mean that it's got to be the
32:07
Speaker 2: way to go, and we've demonstrated, you know, time and
32:09
Speaker 2: again that that is absolutely in effect when there is
32:12
Speaker 2: a coordinated response to this, really it cannot be ignored.
32:16
Speaker 2: But it is interesting to see there's sort of well
32:17
Speaker 2: worn path being trodden yet again of you know, sort
32:20
Speaker 2: of dubious financial incentives being offered. I mean, and one's
32:24
Speaker 2: reminded of the government's apparent sort of stripping back of
32:28
Speaker 2: inheritance tax for farmers, of course, which didn't exist at all,
32:31
Speaker 2: and then they said they'd halved it. So it is
32:32
Speaker 2: amazing the sort of double speaker comes out when they
32:35
Speaker 2: want convinced people to do something.
32:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely, so we'll see whether one hundred and twenty five
32:40
Speaker 1: quid every six months is sufficient to buy people off.
32:43
Speaker 1: But Anyway, let's move on then to army grives, because
32:49
Speaker 1: quite this story in the mills, quite a standing.
32:55
Speaker 3: It is.
32:55
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's not new. I think one
32:58
Speaker 2: of the most astunding things about it is that it's
32:59
Speaker 2: taking such long time for this to come into the
33:02
Speaker 2: public domain.
33:02
Speaker 3: But it's what I'm going to talk about.
33:04
Speaker 2: In the first instance, at least, is a story written
33:06
Speaker 2: up by Sean Raymond in the Daily Mail just last
33:09
Speaker 2: week which is entitled Fury of Himney's as Army crushes
33:14
Speaker 2: one hundred grades into gravel for a drainage ditch. And
33:17
Speaker 2: just to take a little bit of text from the article,
33:20
Speaker 2: this refers to a situation in Iraq in Basra and
33:23
Speaker 2: then just outside Basra back in two thousand to two
33:25
Speaker 2: thousand and five and the removal of eight hundred headstones
33:29
Speaker 2: from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Graveyard, but under the
33:33
Speaker 2: pretext that they were going to be protected and as
33:35
Speaker 2: raiment rights. Within eighteen months, almost all of the gravestones
33:40
Speaker 2: and panels had been deliberately pulverized into gravel and used
33:43
Speaker 2: to fill a drainage ditch at another military base in
33:46
Speaker 2: southern Iraq, which was Shiber Logistics Base. The work was
33:50
Speaker 2: overseen by sixty four works Group Royal Engineers and appears
33:53
Speaker 2: to have gone ahead amazingly after the ascent of a Padrey.
33:56
Speaker 2: Now I can't verify that, but I'm sure Sean Rayman
33:59
Speaker 2: would not have it without good reason. The Freedom of
34:02
Speaker 2: Information request disclosures show a sit rep situation report from
34:05
Speaker 2: sixty four Works Group in April two thousand and five
34:09
Speaker 2: which says the gravestones crushed and are ready to be
34:14
Speaker 2: playing the soaker way. So I think there are a
34:17
Speaker 2: lot of fairly astounding elements to that, but obviously the
34:20
Speaker 2: central point of the article is that this has been
34:22
Speaker 2: covered up by the Ministry of Defense as in Wealth
34:26
Speaker 2: War Gropes Commission, who seemed to have been very reluctant
34:28
Speaker 2: to admit what had happened, even though they were public
34:31
Speaker 2: back in two thousand and three and declaring they'd remove
34:33
Speaker 2: the headstones in order to protect them, only for this
34:36
Speaker 2: to go ahead. So I think, without wanting to a
34:38
Speaker 2: portion blame unduly to the Royal Engineers, it does seem
34:41
Speaker 2: to be yet another instance of just following orders, because really,
34:45
Speaker 2: what was the chain of command thinking when they were
34:48
Speaker 2: directed to carry out this action, So blaming this entirely
34:52
Speaker 2: on the Minister of Defense Commonwealth War Grapes Commission, I
34:55
Speaker 2: think is to slightly distort the significance of the story.
34:58
Speaker 2: As for the War Gravees Commission themselves, it is remarkable
35:01
Speaker 2: to see the way in which they're effectively sort of
35:04
Speaker 2: dodging the issue, because, of course they have on their
35:06
Speaker 2: website pieces about damage, restoration and maintenance of graves in Gaza,
35:11
Speaker 2: which course separate issue but absolutely related. They say that
35:14
Speaker 2: Gaza War Cemetery has suffered various levels of damage since
35:17
Speaker 2: the conflict commenced in October twenty twenty three, and in
35:20
Speaker 2: August twenty twenty five we were made aware of damage
35:22
Speaker 2: in the southeast corner, which was covered by the media.
35:26
Speaker 2: Of course, they go on to excuse themselves from having
35:28
Speaker 2: taken any action because they say it's unlikely we'll be
35:31
Speaker 2: able to enter Gaza some time. We're not able to
35:33
Speaker 2: protect the sites from further damage. The Foreign Commonwealth and
35:36
Speaker 2: Development Office advises against all travel to Gaza, So the
35:40
Speaker 2: Wargraves Commission absolutely dodging the issue, and there's no specific
35:45
Speaker 2: reference at all to the damage or at least how
35:48
Speaker 2: it was caused. In Gaza as to the fcdo themselves.
35:51
Speaker 2: It is just interesting to note what they are spending
35:53
Speaker 2: their time doing when they can't be allowing people to
35:55
Speaker 2: go and fix up wargraves producing graphics like this. UK
36:00
Speaker 2: turns the screw on, putin with a clever little eye
36:03
Speaker 2: as a screw and actually ironically putin standing as though
36:07
Speaker 2: bowing to perhaps a war memorial. Ukraine's fight is our fight,
36:11
Speaker 2: the same old rhetoric and not actually dealing with things
36:15
Speaker 2: that might be considered to matter. And as for the
36:17
Speaker 2: media coverage, quite rightly, this was provided by The Guardian
36:21
Speaker 2: at time. Israel Bulldeuz part of a Gaza war cemetery
36:24
Speaker 2: containing Allied graves. Now this was reported widely at the time.
36:27
Speaker 2: We're just going to look at a video from CNN
36:30
Speaker 2: from twenty twenty four which goes into a little bit
36:32
Speaker 2: more detail and detail I might say that was completely
36:36
Speaker 2: ignored and put to one side by the Wargraves Commission themselves.
36:41
Speaker 7: As the Israeli military put out that statement, we were
36:43
Speaker 7: completing our investigation into the Israeli military's desecration of cemeteries
36:48
Speaker 7: and what we found is sixteen cemeteries across Gaza damaged
36:52
Speaker 7: or destroyed. I do want to warn our viewers that
36:54
Speaker 7: they may find some of these images the serving.
37:00
Speaker 6: Zza.
37:00
Speaker 8: Even the dead cannot escape the indignities of war. More
37:06
Speaker 8: than a dozen cemeteries like this one in Jabalia desecrated
37:11
Speaker 8: by the Israeli military, Gravestones destroyed, soil upturned, treadmarks, leaving
37:17
Speaker 8: little left for the living to honor their dead. This
37:22
Speaker 8: is that same graveyard before the war. One month later,
37:26
Speaker 8: a series of treadmarks can be seen on the northwestern edge.
37:30
Speaker 8: It is no exception. A CNN analysis of videos and
37:34
Speaker 8: satellite imagery found that sixteen cemeteries have been damaged or
37:39
Speaker 8: destroyed by the Israeli military since it launched its ground offensive.
37:44
Speaker 4: Cemeteries are not military objectives.
37:46
Speaker 5: They are, in fact, what international law would consider an
37:49
Speaker 5: object that is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, like places
37:53
Speaker 5: of worship. Generally, so this is protected from intentional attack.
37:56
Speaker 5: It can only be intentionally attacked or destroyed if it
37:59
Speaker 5: becomes a military objective.
38:01
Speaker 8: In some cases, like this cemetery in the Szaia refugee camp,
38:05
Speaker 8: is really bulldozers turned cemeteries into military outposts, parking armored
38:11
Speaker 8: vehicles behind freshly raised Berms, So.
38:17
Speaker 2: That really speaks for itself. And I know Vanessa obviously
38:19
Speaker 2: has covered this considerably and consistently in the past, So
38:23
Speaker 2: I'd just like to go to Vanessa for comment on
38:25
Speaker 2: what appears to be quite a considerable discrepancy between the
38:29
Speaker 2: amount of outrage at what the Ministry of Defense has
38:31
Speaker 2: covered up as opposed to what Israel has actually done.
38:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, we shouldn't be surprised. And it goes
38:41
Speaker 4: beyond the desecration of graveyards, of course, it goes to
38:44
Speaker 4: in the West Bank, where the Israeli forces and the
38:48
Speaker 4: settlers have forced civilians to dig up their buried, freshly
38:54
Speaker 4: buried relatives and reburied them elsewhere because they want to
38:57
Speaker 4: take control of the territory they were buried. I did
39:02
Speaker 4: actually visit the war grapes when I was in Gaza
39:05
Speaker 4: in twenty twelve, and I have to say they were
39:08
Speaker 4: kept impaccably clean and well cared for by the Palestinian caretakers.
39:15
Speaker 4: It's I mean, you know, it's the point we've come
39:20
Speaker 4: to in the world today where there isn't even any
39:23
Speaker 4: dignity or honor for the dead.
39:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm afraid there's absolutely no gloss to be put
39:31
Speaker 2: on top of that, but I doubt we will. Sorry, Rather,
39:36
Speaker 2: I imagine we will talk about that during extra.
39:39
Speaker 1: Thank you Charles, thank you for NASA. Let's come on
39:42
Speaker 1: to world trade, I suppose, because if we think back
39:47
Speaker 1: to twenty seventeen, China's Shishin Ping proposed the U Ice
39:52
Speaker 1: Silk Road as a means of opening China Europe trade
39:56
Speaker 1: via the Arctic Sea passage. And well, China Academy here
40:02
Speaker 1: was reporting last year that a cargo vessel departed from
40:06
Speaker 1: Berluin in China heading to Felixtowe in the UK for
40:10
Speaker 1: the first time. It was one thousand cargo containers on
40:13
Speaker 1: board the ship and it arrived in just eighteen days,
40:17
Speaker 1: and that compares with thirty days if they'd gone by
40:20
Speaker 1: the Curs Canal. China Academy concludes report by saying, in
40:24
Speaker 1: driving global shipping from the canal era into the polar era,
40:28
Speaker 1: the birth of China Europe Arctic Express fills a critical
40:31
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle. The Ice Silk Road not only
40:34
Speaker 1: offers world shipping a new artery and provides a fresh
40:37
Speaker 1: model for Arctic development, but also includes a new vision
40:40
Speaker 1: of global solidarity amongst nations of different civilization systems and paths. Now,
40:47
Speaker 1: this has been the only use of the Northern Sea
40:50
Speaker 1: Route so far between China and Europe, and in fact
40:54
Speaker 1: the container ship involved made the journey back to China
40:58
Speaker 1: via surs but nonetheless it was done at that time.
41:01
Speaker 1: But now, according to ross Adam CEO Alexi Likachev, Chinese
41:08
Speaker 1: company Sea Legend Shipping is about to begin weekly trips
41:11
Speaker 1: from China to Northern Europe via the Northern Sea Route. Now,
41:16
Speaker 1: ross Adam has been the Northern Sea Roots official infrastructure
41:19
Speaker 1: operator since twenty eighteen because they operate the world's only
41:23
Speaker 1: nuclear part icebreaker fleet. Likachev said, today we're taking the
41:29
Speaker 1: next step. The Chinese shipping company Sea Legend Shipping is
41:32
Speaker 1: planning to launch the first regular route to Europe and
41:35
Speaker 1: ross Adam has already issued permits for seven vessels transit
41:38
Speaker 1: the Northern Sea Route and so they've begun an initial
41:42
Speaker 1: trial run and they're going to do this four or
41:47
Speaker 1: five times a week allegedly, so we'll see where it goes.
41:51
Speaker 1: But nonetheless, excuse me, Chinese container traffic via the North
42:00
Speaker 1: than Sea Root had already more than tripled, but aside
42:04
Speaker 1: from the Felixtowe trip, none of that was the European ports.
42:08
Speaker 1: Russia's been investing heavily in the Arctic silk Road, and
42:12
Speaker 1: Puttin described it as the safest, most reliable, and most
42:15
Speaker 1: efficient such root. But of course, as we reported before,
42:20
Speaker 1: we see propaganda appearing, such as documentary films talking about
42:25
Speaker 1: the competition for the Arctic and Charles, this is increasingly
42:31
Speaker 1: going to heat up if Russia, China, in fact I
42:35
Speaker 1: Indias start using the so called Northern Sea root on
42:38
Speaker 1: a more regular basis.
42:41
Speaker 2: I think it will, and I accept your pun wholeheartedly,
42:44
Speaker 2: but yes, I mean this is absolutely providing fodder to
42:48
Speaker 2: the to the whole sort of High North thing and
42:51
Speaker 2: will justify not just the cost of it, but the
42:54
Speaker 2: further of the pushing of military exercises and in effect
42:58
Speaker 2: categorizing anything has been a threat to either sort of
43:02
Speaker 2: territorial integrity or to of course the very many resources
43:06
Speaker 2: up in that region. So I think this is something
43:07
Speaker 2: that certainly the United Kingdom is absolutely going to be
43:10
Speaker 2: completely caught up in, despite the very very limited capability
43:15
Speaker 2: to be dealing with any of what is apparently a threat.
43:19
Speaker 1: Indeed, But Vanessa, sticking with Russia, you've been talking about
43:23
Speaker 1: Russia's Mediterranean business in Syria over the last well year
43:28
Speaker 1: or two. What's the litterst on this?
43:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, are very curious and interesting development. First of all,
43:37
Speaker 4: I think it's four days ago now, there was a
43:40
Speaker 4: meeting in Damascus President al Shara, or of course as
43:44
Speaker 4: we know him, Joe Lani, non president, discusses developments and
43:50
Speaker 4: ties with the UK National Security Advisor and of course
43:55
Speaker 4: that is none other we can zoom in than Jonathan
44:00
Speaker 4: pal former chief of staff of Tony Blair and facilitator
44:04
Speaker 4: of the illegal and devastating Iraq War in two thousand
44:09
Speaker 4: and three. Jolani looks happier with him than he does
44:12
Speaker 4: with the majority of world leaders. And then literally two
44:17
Speaker 4: days later there Oh sorry, I just want to remind
44:21
Speaker 4: everybody that there is an article at UK column the
44:24
Speaker 4: Blair Bush project in Syria that brought Alkaid a power,
44:27
Speaker 4: which very much focuses on the role of Jonathan Powel
44:30
Speaker 4: as again chief groomer under his the auspices of his
44:35
Speaker 4: organization Intermediate very much linked to MI six that were
44:40
Speaker 4: responsible for the early grooming of Jolani to become the
44:45
Speaker 4: quistling president in Damascus. In twenty twenty four, but then
44:51
Speaker 4: two days after the meeting between effectively I six and Jolani,
44:57
Speaker 4: Syria and Russia, according to Syrian media, agree to reorganize
45:01
Speaker 4: the Russian military presence under a new memorandum of understanding. Now,
45:07
Speaker 4: I just want to remind people this is a twenty
45:09
Speaker 4: twenty one map showing the Russian bases. It might have
45:15
Speaker 4: changed slightly prior to twenty twenty four, but not too much.
45:19
Speaker 4: You can see in the coastal area the eastern Mediterranean,
45:22
Speaker 4: the Latakia to the north, Tattoos to the south, and
45:26
Speaker 4: you can see the cluster of Russian bases around that area.
45:30
Speaker 4: And if we just again zoom in, we can have
45:32
Speaker 4: an image of the Himameme airbase that was used by
45:36
Speaker 4: Russia for military purposes from twenty fifteen onwards. But the
45:42
Speaker 4: agreement had been in place since actually seventy one under
45:46
Speaker 4: the former Soviet Union for the use of Tattoos and
45:50
Speaker 4: Heimomme or the Latakia area. So what, according to the Syrians,
45:57
Speaker 4: does the Russia Syria deal mean? What does it entail?
46:01
Speaker 4: So effectively, if we put this up on screen, First
46:05
Speaker 4: of all, the Jilani regime will take back control of
46:08
Speaker 4: Himomem as they call it, civilian airport and the fourth
46:12
Speaker 4: commercial shipping berth at tATu Sport, so it'll be reabsorbed
46:17
Speaker 4: into civilian infrastructure. Allegedly, Russian military bases will be converted
46:23
Speaker 4: to joint training facilities, which presumably means Russia will be
46:27
Speaker 4: training HTS or at least training with them, so former
46:32
Speaker 4: al Qaeda. Now, all of this is to be completed
46:37
Speaker 4: within the next three months. Now, this has been negotiated
46:41
Speaker 4: for the last eighteen months, but suddenly the pressure has
46:43
Speaker 4: been put on Russia to comply with the memorandum of understanding.
46:48
Speaker 4: What is interesting is that there hasn't been a single
46:52
Speaker 4: statement from anyone in the Kremlin. Now what is important
46:58
Speaker 4: for Russia and I just want to to before we
47:01
Speaker 4: show the next image. So it ends the framework that
47:04
Speaker 4: existed under Bashi Lahsad that was established in twenty fifteen
47:09
Speaker 4: and twenty seventeen. Himammeme Airport would house Russian military equipment. Obviously, warplanes, weapons, ammunition,
47:19
Speaker 4: equipment could be brought in without customs. They had diplomatic
47:23
Speaker 4: immunity and it was effectively a Russian exclusion zone. No one,
47:28
Speaker 4: not even Syrians, could enter that zone without permission or
47:31
Speaker 4: approval from Russian military brass Tartus. In twenty seventeen, it
47:37
Speaker 4: was agreed a forty nine year presence automatically renewable for
47:41
Speaker 4: twenty five year periods, free use of facilities, land water
47:46
Speaker 4: allocated to the military center. Up to eleven warships at
47:49
Speaker 4: one time, including nuclear powered vessels were allowed to dock,
47:54
Speaker 4: and Russian forces had again extensive immunities and autonomy. So
47:59
Speaker 4: that is now gone now, according to someone in Moscow
48:05
Speaker 4: that was cited in Bloomberg. Very difficult to open Bloomberg articles,
48:09
Speaker 4: but apparently this source in Moscow. The loan source said
48:13
Speaker 4: that Russia sees Syria bases deal securing a hub for
48:17
Speaker 4: Africa operations. And yes, I have a bridge to sell
48:21
Speaker 4: you the fact that Turkey is basically expanding into the
48:27
Speaker 4: coastal area. Jolani himself has factions within his military that
48:31
Speaker 4: want revenge against Russia. The likelihood of this being a
48:35
Speaker 4: positive deal for Russia is very slim, and in fact,
48:39
Speaker 4: this was echoed in another article in Headlines and Global
48:43
Speaker 4: News that was picked up by International Business Times. Basically,
48:50
Speaker 4: what this is saying, Syria Russia deal ends Moscow's use
48:53
Speaker 4: of Mediterranean bases, straining its global African reach, and this
48:57
Speaker 4: is very much what I would agree with now. In
49:00
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four, going into twenty twenty five, Julani did
49:05
Speaker 4: agree conditional docking for certain Russian containerships, but it was
49:11
Speaker 4: very limited. So let's have a look at what I
49:13
Speaker 4: agree with will be Russia's loss. So, first of all,
49:18
Speaker 4: Tartuus is Russia's only naval facility in the Mediterranean, and
49:22
Speaker 4: it's only one of two Russian military installations outside the
49:27
Speaker 4: former Soviet Union territory, and as I said, it goes
49:31
Speaker 4: back as far as nineteen seventy one. The other base
49:34
Speaker 4: that is still existing is actually in Vietnam, but has
49:38
Speaker 4: far less kind of agreements tied to it that Syria
49:42
Speaker 4: had under President Assad. It is going to disrupt Russian logistics,
49:47
Speaker 4: the resupply to the Africa Corps that were formerly the
49:51
Speaker 4: Wagner Forces, and the Syrian route has long been Russia's
49:56
Speaker 4: logistical bridge. So what does this mean. Of course, this
50:00
Speaker 4: means that increased dependency on Turkey for airspace and potential
50:07
Speaker 4: collaboration in Libya, and it is going to weaken Russian
50:11
Speaker 4: ability to project power in Libya. There are many other consequences,
50:16
Speaker 4: but I've basically summarized the main ones there. Now also
50:21
Speaker 4: coming onto what is happening elsewhere. Duan and Trump are
50:26
Speaker 4: talking about a deal on the Black Sea, where currently
50:29
Speaker 4: Russia is dominant. The US is trying to come to
50:34
Speaker 4: a deal with Urduan where Duwan will open up the
50:37
Speaker 4: boss Reroustrait where currently there are limits on container ships
50:42
Speaker 4: and tankers over two hundred meters. The majority of the
50:46
Speaker 4: LNG containers from America are two hundred and ninety meters plus,
50:52
Speaker 4: so they need that restriction lifted to be able to
50:57
Speaker 4: supply LNG through the Black Sea to Ukraine Turkey. Uwan
51:01
Speaker 4: is going to benefit from increased status within NATO, basically
51:07
Speaker 4: being responsible for the infrastructure which will increase or will
51:12
Speaker 4: help Turkish economy. US is going to provide protection. So
51:16
Speaker 4: what is this going to do. It is again going
51:18
Speaker 4: to reduce Russian the Russian sphere of influence in the
51:23
Speaker 4: Black Sea if it goes ahead. So what we're currently
51:25
Speaker 4: seeing is, since Russia left Syria in twenty twenty four,
51:30
Speaker 4: their sphere of influence in the Middle East region and
51:34
Speaker 4: stretching into Africa, East Mediterranean, potentially the Black Sea, which
51:39
Speaker 4: is included in the Mavi Vatam doctrine of Turkey is
51:45
Speaker 4: shrinking rapidly.
51:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Vanessa, thank you.
51:50
Speaker 4: I'm very happy about it.
51:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure he is. Yes, Okay, well look at
51:54
Speaker 1: let's well stick with Russia in a sense. But what
51:58
Speaker 1: have we got here? The Royal Navy again more rhetoric
52:03
Speaker 1: from the British government on this. Royal Navy warships and
52:06
Speaker 1: helicopters spent twenty one days on operations monitoring Russian activity
52:11
Speaker 1: in UK waters and the North Atlantic throughout July, and
52:14
Speaker 1: they claim that this is a twenty five percent increase
52:17
Speaker 1: in the last year. And so HMS Somerset, they said,
52:21
Speaker 1: HMS Thine, HMS Mersey and HMS seven must be about
52:26
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten percent of the entire British fleet
52:29
Speaker 1: were all dispatched, alongside Wildcat helicopters from IT fifteen Naval
52:35
Speaker 1: Air Squadron and Merlin submarine hunting aircraft to report on
52:38
Speaker 1: the movements of warships and submarines throughout July. So you know,
52:43
Speaker 1: this is an ongoing or a continuing narrative that keeps
52:47
Speaker 1: being pushed at us from the Ministry of Defense and
52:50
Speaker 1: from the British government. And absolutely echoed by the British media.
52:55
Speaker 1: They are claiming that this is all about the UK's
52:58
Speaker 1: area of responsible which is to escort Shadow Fleet tigers
53:03
Speaker 1: with then recognized traffic lands and to try to prevent
53:07
Speaker 1: them from delivering their cargoes. But the Russians, it looks like,
53:11
Speaker 1: are increasingly providing military navel support to those ships. Charles
53:19
Speaker 1: very quickly one of what your thoughts are on this,
53:22
Speaker 1: But it's just a continuing narrative, but something that basically
53:27
Speaker 1: always goes on.
53:30
Speaker 3: Yes it is.
53:30
Speaker 2: I mean, I think as far as we can see,
53:32
Speaker 2: it seems to be an exercise in getting photographers into
53:34
Speaker 2: the right location so that they can take the pictures
53:36
Speaker 2: for the navy. But I mean that absurd episode with
53:38
Speaker 2: the new UK Commando force supposedly storming that Shadow Fleet
53:43
Speaker 2: vessel told a story of its own, which was that
53:45
Speaker 2: if you're going to be doing that, then look at
53:47
Speaker 2: all the things that you cannot do because you've diverted
53:50
Speaker 2: all your tiny amount of resources to that one thing.
53:54
Speaker 1: Indeed, now back to the UK proper then I suppose.
53:59
Speaker 1: And of course something that we were you reported on
54:03
Speaker 1: a week or two ago was material on social media
54:08
Speaker 1: that seems to be encouraging the idea of civil war.
54:14
Speaker 2: This it does, and I think that was the reason
54:16
Speaker 2: for reporting on it. Mostly it was something produced via
54:20
Speaker 2: AI by what's called the Node Project, featuring supposedly a
54:25
Speaker 2: rapper called Danny Bones seen here on screen, a video
54:28
Speaker 2: that they made called civil War. Now it was ultra realistic,
54:33
Speaker 2: one might say, despite the fact that used are and
54:35
Speaker 2: it drew very much on current themes, which posed the
54:37
Speaker 2: question how close to the line was it sailing with
54:42
Speaker 2: regard to Section one of the Terrorism at two thousand
54:45
Speaker 2: and one, the encouragement of terrorism and the glorification of
54:48
Speaker 2: acts of terrorism. I think it's a question that's worth asking.
54:52
Speaker 2: But of course the reason I want to look at
54:53
Speaker 2: this is really to tear up a discussion for extra
54:56
Speaker 2: because of course there are so many more elements to
54:59
Speaker 2: be discuss. But this is particularly what it is that
55:02
Speaker 2: we're going to look at because they've just been banned
55:05
Speaker 2: from Instagram and TikTok from UK column to the Note
55:08
Speaker 2: Project join the club. But we'll just have a look
55:11
Speaker 2: at how they've presented that in their video.
55:17
Speaker 9: Within minutes of each other, our Instagram accounts were disabled forever.
55:23
Speaker 9: Then TikTok when nearly one hundred thousand followers across Instagram
55:29
Speaker 9: with no option to even appeal. So what was it?
55:34
Speaker 9: Was it the Fabian documentary Civil War, Unite the Kingdom?
55:40
Speaker 9: The impact This is England had? Was it the music?
55:43
Speaker 9: The message? What exactly is it that they don't like? Honestly,
55:51
Speaker 9: we don't know. They never tell us. You don't have
55:55
Speaker 9: to like what we make. You don't have to agree
55:58
Speaker 9: with us. But let pep'll see it and let them
56:01
Speaker 9: decide for themselves. As for us, we're still here and
56:07
Speaker 9: as long as you guys want us here, we'll keep creating,
56:11
Speaker 9: we'll keep building, and we're not going anywhere.
56:22
Speaker 3: Now.
56:23
Speaker 2: They're playing the free speech card, and it's certainly not
56:25
Speaker 2: for me to sit in judgment as to whether that
56:27
Speaker 2: is right or wrong. And I think there's a very
56:29
Speaker 2: much a discussion to be had here. But there are
56:32
Speaker 2: a lot of elements to consider, because certainly the material
56:35
Speaker 2: that's put out is of a very very high quality,
56:37
Speaker 2: and certainly, for example, the video they put out in
56:40
Speaker 2: the Fabian Society is extremely informative, it's very interesting. So
56:44
Speaker 2: there is a lot of material there that is very
56:47
Speaker 2: much noteworthy. But the question remains, to what end and
56:52
Speaker 2: whether or not it's intentional. Of course, this does conform
56:55
Speaker 2: very much to the agenda of the Israel lobby in
56:58
Speaker 2: that this does villify and demonize the supposed Islamification of
57:04
Speaker 2: the United Kingdom and many other things. Besides, so it's
57:06
Speaker 2: no coincidence that in reporting they were banned from Instagram
57:09
Speaker 2: and TikTok, they're of course celebrating that they are remaining
57:12
Speaker 2: on X, the platform owned by Elon Musk and Twitter.
57:19
Speaker 2: X has sort of become regarded as the public forum.
57:22
Speaker 2: But we must remember that that is not the case.
57:24
Speaker 2: It is owned by Musk, and therefore what goes on it,
57:27
Speaker 2: what people do see, can in effect be directed to
57:31
Speaker 2: a seven extent by him. So let's go back to
57:33
Speaker 2: the Unite the Kingdom rally from September twenty twenty five
57:37
Speaker 2: and listen to what Elon Musk said, with the idea
57:41
Speaker 2: of incitement towards civil war in mind.
57:46
Speaker 10: If this continues, that balance is going to come to you.
57:52
Speaker 10: You will have no choice. This is you're in a
57:56
Speaker 10: fundamental situation here where you were, whether you choose bounds
58:02
Speaker 10: or not, a bound is coming to you. You either
58:06
Speaker 10: fight back or you die. You either fight there or
58:11
Speaker 10: you there, and that's the truth today.
58:17
Speaker 5: Even I think we're I think the British public are
58:19
Speaker 5: telling the world that they're ready to fight back.
58:26
Speaker 3: Now.
58:26
Speaker 2: I think my question to you, Mike is what does
58:30
Speaker 2: Musk think he means by fighting back? And how responsible
58:33
Speaker 2: is he being with the language that he uses, and
58:35
Speaker 2: how does that relate to what the Node project are
58:37
Speaker 2: putting out. I know that's got a lot of questions
58:39
Speaker 2: and we'll probably have to go into extra, but it
58:41
Speaker 2: been in a sort of nutshell. Now what do you think?
58:45
Speaker 1: I think. I think there is a major effort to
58:49
Speaker 1: divide people, very strongly divide people, and a major effort
58:54
Speaker 1: not just in the UK, but in other Western countries
58:56
Speaker 1: as well and possibly further afield, to create tensions that
59:01
Speaker 1: are sufficient to cause violence on the streets. And I
59:04
Speaker 1: think if we think about what we were reporting last
59:07
Speaker 1: week or the week before on the civil contingencies efforts,
59:12
Speaker 1: the stuff that's been put in place, the preparation that's
59:14
Speaker 1: been put in place by the UK government at the moment,
59:18
Speaker 1: we can see that they are preparing for exactly that.
59:21
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's going to happen by accident.
59:26
Speaker 2: Well, I think I would absolutely go along with that,
59:28
Speaker 2: and I think will have be a lot more to
59:30
Speaker 2: get out in extras is absolutely big staff and very
59:33
Speaker 2: much current and very much does people up.
59:36
Speaker 3: Now.
59:37
Speaker 2: To round off the program, we must point out, of course,
59:40
Speaker 2: as mainstream media will have done, that there is going
59:43
Speaker 2: to be an eclipse today, and we're reminded of the
59:47
Speaker 2: money that was made by the brewers in Cornwall back
59:50
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety nine, as every beer that they brewed
59:53
Speaker 2: had some sort of eclipse name tagged onto it to
59:57
Speaker 2: great effect. Although other people are necessarily remembering back to
1:00:01
Speaker 2: that or not, I can't be sure. It's predicted that
1:00:05
Speaker 2: this will occur between about six o'clock and eight o'clock
1:00:08
Speaker 2: this evening, and I'm showing now a map from time
1:00:11
Speaker 2: and date, so that if you live anywhere on that
1:00:14
Speaker 2: map you can see the sort of darker red line
1:00:16
Speaker 2: up the more or less up the middle of it.
1:00:18
Speaker 3: Will give you the best view of the eclipse.
1:00:20
Speaker 2: But really what this does is to provide us with
1:00:22
Speaker 2: an opportunity to get across some of the absolutely terrific
1:00:26
Speaker 2: jokes that have hit the internet on the on the
1:00:31
Speaker 2: eclipse front. So the first one runs A child asks
1:00:36
Speaker 2: his father, dad, do you know what an eclipse is,
1:00:38
Speaker 2: and the father says no, son, so he might take
1:00:42
Speaker 2: a while to think about that one. That Mike's got it.
1:00:45
Speaker 2: The next one is I was told that you could
1:00:47
Speaker 2: view a solar eclipse through a columder. I tried it
1:00:50
Speaker 2: and ended up straining my eyes, and I don't want
1:00:53
Speaker 2: to overdo it. But I will finish off with I
1:00:55
Speaker 2: have an eclipse joke, but it gets kind of dark.
1:00:58
Speaker 2: There we go, couldn't listed?
1:01:01
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, well we'll finish on that note. Thank you
1:01:04
Speaker 1: very much, Charles. If you're UK column members, stick around
1:01:07
Speaker 1: on the live stream for UK called News Extra in
1:01:10
Speaker 1: a few minutes time. Otherwise, don't forget Jerman, Carl Tonight
1:01:14
Speaker 1: and Charles interview tomorrow at one pm. Join us for those,
1:01:19
Speaker 1: but we'll be back for another news program one pm
1:01:22
Speaker 1: on Friday. We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us,
1:01:24
Speaker 1: Bye bye,