Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 25th February 2026

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UK Column News - 25th February 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the twenty fifth of February twenty
0:11
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, just after one o'clock. Welcome to uk Collin News.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm your host Mike Rumson. Joining me in by video
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Speaker 1: link today are Charles Mallett and Vanessa Billy And later
0:19
Speaker 1: in the program, Charles is going to be reporting on
0:21
Speaker 1: the war between the US Department of War and Anthropic
0:24
Speaker 1: over AI enabled weapons. Vanessa is going to be bringing
0:27
Speaker 1: us up to date with the regime change efforts in Iran,
0:31
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be covering the latest digital ID news.
0:33
Speaker 1: But we're going to begin today with Ukraine because Tasks
0:37
Speaker 1: is reporting that the Foreign Office, the Foreign Intelligence Service
0:41
Speaker 1: in Russia is saying that London and Paris are considering
0:46
Speaker 1: equipping Ukraine with nuclear weapons. They are reporting an assessment
0:53
Speaker 1: by Russia's agency SVR that Paris and London are actively
0:57
Speaker 1: working to provide Kiev with a nuclear bom and presuming
1:00
Speaker 1: these are tactical nukes. But we can talk to Charles
1:03
Speaker 1: about that in a second. It is believed that Ukraine
1:07
Speaker 1: should be supplied with a wunder of APHA. Is the
1:11
Speaker 1: quote at present, according to the information available to the
1:14
Speaker 1: Russian SVR, London and Paris are actively working over the
1:16
Speaker 1: issue of providing Kiev with a weapon of this kind
1:19
Speaker 1: as well as with the means of delivery. This involves
1:22
Speaker 1: a covert transfer of relevant European mid components equipment of
1:27
Speaker 1: technologies to Ukraine. As an option, the French small size
1:30
Speaker 1: T seventy five warhead from the fifty one submarine launched
1:35
Speaker 1: ballistic missile is being considered. And they also said that
1:38
Speaker 1: Berlin has prudently refused to take part in this dangerous venture.
1:42
Speaker 1: They're saying that the British and French plot is a
1:46
Speaker 1: gross violation of international law, first of the Non Proliferation
1:50
Speaker 1: Treaty and carries the risk of destroying global non proliferation
1:57
Speaker 1: systems so on. So anyway, this is what the Russian
2:03
Speaker 1: intelligence agencies are saying. So if we just put that
2:05
Speaker 1: back on screen, I'll just show you what Maria za
2:09
Speaker 1: Zakarova is saying. Basically, any steps taken to assist Kievan
2:13
Speaker 1: acquiring military nuclear capabilities will be interpreted by US as
2:17
Speaker 1: an attempt to pose a direct and critical threat to
2:19
Speaker 1: our nation security. Now, the issue here, Charles, is that
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Speaker 1: Zakarova is absolutely mentioning non proliferation and talking about there
2:30
Speaker 1: being an effort a discussion within Russia and non proliferation
2:34
Speaker 1: in April, and it does seem to me a bit
2:37
Speaker 1: unlikely that you know, Britain and France are really considering
2:41
Speaker 1: doing this. If they are, it is an insame thing
2:44
Speaker 1: to do. But nonetheless, in the meantime, this kind of
2:47
Speaker 1: rhetoric and pushing this kind of information out for Russian
2:51
Speaker 1: intelligence to find is going to put pressure on Russia
2:55
Speaker 1: to consider, you know, further moving away from their position
2:59
Speaker 1: on non prolifit fruition, It.
3:04
Speaker 2: Would, I mean, I think it does a whole host
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Speaker 2: of things. And as you say, whether or not it
3:08
Speaker 2: is true, but of course, having just listened to Donald
3:11
Speaker 2: Trump talking about Iran and Iran not acquiring any nuclear
3:15
Speaker 2: capability at all costs, and then this is tossed in
3:18
Speaker 2: as though it might be perfectly normal. But also the
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Speaker 2: other thing is it's a massive distraction from what the
3:23
Speaker 2: United Kingdom and France might already be up to in
3:26
Speaker 2: Ukraine without actually declaring it. So the idea that this
3:30
Speaker 2: would be a step beyond is the case, but actually
3:33
Speaker 2: it does sort of obscure the rather nefarious goings on
3:37
Speaker 2: that have been happening frankly since twenty twenty two.
3:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, I mean she's also talking about the you know,
3:43
Speaker 1: the anti Russian rhetoric that's continuing to come out of
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Speaker 1: the United Kingdom and the EU and this just never ends, Charles.
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Speaker 1: So you know, what, what are the Russians supposed to think?
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Speaker 2: Well, I think they're put in a very difficult position.
4:00
Speaker 2: But I mean they have been in a difficult position
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Speaker 2: since the late eighties, early nineties on exactly this subject.
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Speaker 2: But of course the thing I think the difference now
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Speaker 2: is the way in which the messaging is joined up,
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Speaker 2: some of which I'll be commenting on and sort of
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Speaker 2: exemplifying a little bit later, but it's you know, it
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Speaker 2: is absolutely the sort of kicking of the hornet's nest,
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Speaker 2: forcing Russia into a position to which they have to
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Speaker 2: respond in the same way that they said they were
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Speaker 2: doing back in February twenty twenty two.
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Speaker 1: Indeed, well, in the meantime, then, amongst all the statements
4:31
Speaker 1: from the UK and the EU to mark the anniversary
4:34
Speaker 1: of the Ukraine War the start of the UK Korean War,
4:37
Speaker 1: the UK has announced what they're describing as a new
4:40
Speaker 1: landmark sanctions package, cutting off critical oil revenues, they say,
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Speaker 1: and further degridding the Kremlin's Kremlin's ability to wig it's
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Speaker 1: illegal war their words. So they're saying nearly three one
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Speaker 1: hundred news sanctions and including oil exports, key suppliers of
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Speaker 1: military equipment and so on. They're claiming that Russian oil
5:02
Speaker 1: revenues are now at their lowest since twenty twenty. As
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Speaker 1: the sanctions bite, and this news comes as in Kiev, EVT.
5:11
Speaker 1: Cooper is there announcing a new support for Ukrainian resilience
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Speaker 1: as they describe it. So they're talking about military, humanitarian
5:19
Speaker 1: reconstruction support, including twenty million pounds of new funding for
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Speaker 1: emergency energy support, five point seven million to provide humanitarian
5:27
Speaker 1: assistance to frontline communities. Medical mentoring is how they describe it,
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Speaker 1: and also helicopter training, so not quite F sixteen's but nonetheless.
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Speaker 1: And then star War is going to lead a coalition
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Speaker 1: to the will of the willing call today as Foreign
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Speaker 1: Secretary as Cooper is in Kiev, and then the UK
5:48
Speaker 1: is security in Ukraine. They're basically saying that they're going
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Speaker 1: to continue to support Ukraine. Is going to make Britain,
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Speaker 1: Europe safer, stronger, and more secure as a result. Well,
6:01
Speaker 1: we can buy that if we like. But let's just
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Speaker 1: bring a vet on saying today I'm shining a light
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Speaker 1: on Russia's disgraceful attempts to erase Ukrainian identity in the
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Speaker 1: temporary temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Vanessa, let me just
6:16
Speaker 1: get a comment from you on that, because it seems
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Speaker 1: to me that what Russia was intending to do with
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Speaker 1: the special military operation was in fact to reinforce the
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Speaker 1: Russian identity in the Donbas, not areas Ukrainian identity anywhere else.
6:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, they were always very clear about that. And really,
6:37
Speaker 3: basically what worries me about this Iran sorry, this nuclear rhetoric.
6:43
Speaker 3: So it's fine for a Zionist genocidal regime to have
6:46
Speaker 3: nuclear weapons, and it's fine for a Nazi regime in
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Speaker 3: Ukraine to have weapons, which speaks very loudly as to
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Speaker 3: the ideology of members of our own governmental class, whichever
7:00
Speaker 3: of the divide they're on.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, look, let's move on then to Iran, and
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Speaker 1: of course the military build up continues. There's some rhetoric
7:10
Speaker 1: doing the Rhyans Vanessa that perhaps Trump is having second
7:15
Speaker 1: thoughts about actual military action. What are your thoughts on that.
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Speaker 4: I don't think so.
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Speaker 3: I think what they're doing at the moment is trying
7:23
Speaker 3: to buy time through the negotiation track. Iran may also
7:27
Speaker 3: be trying to buy time to formalize, sorry to fully
7:32
Speaker 3: set up its air defense systems, and also to reinforce
7:36
Speaker 3: its borders, which is related to what I'm going to
7:39
Speaker 3: talk about now. But I just wanted to show two
7:42
Speaker 3: sections from Trump's congressional speech yesterday.
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Speaker 4: First of all, here he talks.
7:49
Speaker 3: About the assassination of General Cussum Solomony back in twenty twenty, and.
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Speaker 5: We took out Salomoni. I did that during my first
7:58
Speaker 5: term at a huge jump.
8:01
Speaker 4: He was the father of the roadside.
8:13
Speaker 5: And just over the last couple of months with the
8:16
Speaker 5: protests they've killed at least it looks like thirty two
8:20
Speaker 5: thousand protests. Thirty two thousand protests.
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Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, I just want to remind
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Speaker 3: everyone that it was not only General custom Solmoni who
8:31
Speaker 3: was killed by Trump's assassination. There he takes credit for it,
8:35
Speaker 3: as he has recently taken credit for putting Jolani and
8:39
Speaker 3: the al Qaeda forces in power in Syria, but it
8:42
Speaker 3: was also General Mohandez who was leading the popular Mobilization
8:47
Speaker 3: forces in Iraq, who was killed with solemony, both of
8:51
Speaker 3: whom were fighting genuinely fighting ISIS on the ground in
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Speaker 3: Syria and Iraq. And Kassam Solimani was responsible for the
8:59
Speaker 3: training of the defense forces for the Syrian Christians in
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Speaker 3: Syria to be able to defend themselves against ISIS and
9:07
Speaker 3: the tech theory forces. So that's just a reminder of
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Speaker 3: who Trump actually killed in that assassination.
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Speaker 4: And then he goes on he also, of.
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Speaker 3: Course is using the exaggerated numbers on those killed in
9:21
Speaker 3: the recent Mossad ciam Is six engineered riots in Iran,
9:27
Speaker 3: and then he goes on to talk about the latest
9:30
Speaker 3: threat from Iran.
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Speaker 5: But this is some terrible people. They've already developed missiles
9:39
Speaker 5: that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're
9:43
Speaker 5: working to build missiles that will soon reach the United
9:47
Speaker 5: States of America. After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to
9:53
Speaker 5: make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program in
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Speaker 5: a particular nuclear weapons, yet they can.
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Speaker 3: So we really are in weapons of mass destruction territory
10:07
Speaker 3: now with Iran. And it's very clear to me that
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Speaker 3: there is going to be no backing off from this,
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Speaker 3: whether that's Israeli Natanyahu pressure on Trump, or Trump simply
10:18
Speaker 3: has as part of his agenda to fully destabilize Iran.
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Speaker 3: And as I'm going to point out, I don't think
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Speaker 3: it's any longer going to be simply a kinetic war.
10:27
Speaker 3: I think we're now entering the territory of really a
10:31
Speaker 3: full blown hybrid war. Let's just have a look at
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Speaker 3: this map which shows very clearly the Kurdish areas, so
10:39
Speaker 3: the areas in Turkey, in Syria, in Iraq, on the
10:45
Speaker 3: border with Iran, and even inside Iran. Now, what is
10:49
Speaker 3: interesting that entire conglomeration of Kurdish population is between thirty
10:57
Speaker 3: to forty million according to conservative estimate. Of course, the
11:02
Speaker 3: separatist factions within those populations are very much backed by
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Speaker 3: Washington and Israel against Iran, so that gives an indication
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Speaker 3: of how big this threat is. And recently on UK
11:17
Speaker 3: column I published an article which talks also about British
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Speaker 3: intelligence has been radicalizing children in the Syrian ISIS prisons
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Speaker 3: for the long war against Iran. Because Trump basically gave
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Speaker 3: the green light to jo Lani to retake the northeast,
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Speaker 3: pushing the Kurds out into the far northeast corner and
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Speaker 3: releasing ISIS fighters up to fifteen to twenty thousand from
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Speaker 3: the prisons, which then become a threat in Iraq and
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Speaker 3: also potentially.
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Speaker 4: On the border with Iran.
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Speaker 3: Then we have this is effectively the release of an
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Speaker 3: Israeli documentary talking about the training of Kurdish separatist proxies
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Speaker 3: in Iran, so within Iran itself and on the borders
12:00
Speaker 3: of Iran, specializing in protest training and resistance training. That's
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Speaker 3: the Israeli terminology to Iranian security forces. And then very recently,
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Speaker 3: in the last few days, Iranian Kurdish factions have formed
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Speaker 3: an alliance which is apparently has as its mission to
12:22
Speaker 3: topple the Tehran government. So it's an alliance of five
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Speaker 3: members of various political groups within the Iranian Kurdish areas
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Speaker 3: known as the Political Forces or the Alliance sorry of
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Speaker 3: Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan. At the moment, we have
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Speaker 3: videos circulating on social media that I've been able to
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Speaker 3: if we can just put that up on screen, that
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Speaker 3: I've been able to confirm that IRGC and Iranian military
12:51
Speaker 3: are heading to the border between Iran and Iraq, obviously
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Speaker 3: building up defense against the potential of an attack from Kurdistan,
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Speaker 3: Iraqi Kurdistan and even from within Iran itself.
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Speaker 4: So clearly, for me, this is part of a hybrid war.
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Speaker 3: There is no chance that the US and Israel are
13:14
Speaker 3: going to be able to cross borders into Iran.
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Speaker 4: They would be eliminated.
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Speaker 3: But what they appear to be doing is grouping their
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Speaker 3: proxy forces together. And then in addition to that, apparently
13:27
Speaker 3: according to a San saferon Azad, who's an Iranian analyst
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Speaker 3: that I've been speaking to quite often in the last
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Speaker 3: few weeks, he's saying that the Iranian forces are now
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Speaker 3: erecting a security wall on that border, so they seem
13:42
Speaker 3: to be well aware of the threat. And then let's
13:46
Speaker 3: have a look at something that a son said on
13:49
Speaker 3: X the other day, I think about three days ago,
13:52
Speaker 3: which I totally agree with. So what he's saying is
13:56
Speaker 3: what if the US attack on Iran coincides with peaceful
13:59
Speaker 3: protesters in inverted Commons taking it to the street to
14:02
Speaker 3: show their support for regime change in Iran. After all,
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Speaker 3: the mainstream told you that armed insurgents in western parts
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Speaker 3: of Iran were mere peaceful protesters. Why wouldn't they do
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Speaker 3: it again? And of course we now know they are
14:14
Speaker 3: being trained by Israel, so that seems to be the
14:18
Speaker 3: job now quietly distributed among a network of armed groups
14:21
Speaker 3: on Iran's periphery, the Pjakpak, the so called National Kurdistan Army,
14:26
Speaker 3: them Ek terrorist group, the Balosh Liberation Army in the south,
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Speaker 3: and the merger of terror groups in South East Iran
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Speaker 3: with josh Adel. Each has its own baggage, its own ideology,
14:38
Speaker 3: its own patrons, but together they form something bigger, a
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Speaker 3: patchwork of proxy forces that can bleed the Islamic Republic
14:45
Speaker 3: when it's dealing with a US bombing campaign without a
14:49
Speaker 3: single foreign soldier crossing the border.
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Speaker 4: So exactly as I said.
14:53
Speaker 3: And then if we moved to Natanyao and his recent
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Speaker 3: address at the start of a government meeting in the Canasset,
15:02
Speaker 3: he talks basically about alliances in the region, and he says,
15:06
Speaker 3: in the vision I see before me, we will create
15:09
Speaker 3: an entire system, essentially a hexagon of alliances around or
15:14
Speaker 3: within the Middle East. He goes on to say in
15:18
Speaker 3: the same speech an access of nations to challenge the
15:22
Speaker 3: radical axes as he calls them both the radical sha axis,
15:26
Speaker 3: which of course is predominantly the resistance axis itself, and
15:30
Speaker 3: the emerging radical Sunni access to which of course he's
15:34
Speaker 3: referring Isis and alkaeder in Syria, although of course they
15:37
Speaker 3: were instruments of Zionis power in the region as well
15:41
Speaker 3: as working on behalf of the US and the British.
15:45
Speaker 3: And then in addition to this, US forces have rather
15:49
Speaker 3: unexpectedly fully withdrawn from inside Syria.
15:52
Speaker 4: If we have a quick look at.
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Speaker 3: The map, you'll see that in the northeast they've fully
15:58
Speaker 3: withdrawn and taken their forces into the Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan
16:04
Speaker 3: region under the Kurdistan Regional Government there, which again reinforces
16:10
Speaker 3: my idea or my speculation that they are planning a
16:13
Speaker 3: multiple pronged proxy attack against Iran with US support within
16:18
Speaker 3: the Kurdistan region in Iraq, and then from the Altanif
16:22
Speaker 3: base on the border with Iraq and Jordan, they've effectively
16:26
Speaker 3: withdrawn to Jordan.
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Speaker 4: What does this do?
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Speaker 3: This leaves a vacuum inside Syria which has potential also
16:33
Speaker 3: if we look at the next map, for as I
16:35
Speaker 3: mentioned there in the section on the Jordan Iraqi border,
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Speaker 3: for ISIS to move where the altanaf base was where
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Speaker 3: they were recruiting, arming and training all manner of terrorist factions,
16:50
Speaker 3: but including ISIS to be able to traverse Iraq and
16:55
Speaker 3: reach the Iranian border. You then have the same in
16:58
Speaker 3: the northeast that ISIS might potentially cross Iraq if it can.
17:03
Speaker 3: Of course, there is resistance forces in Iraq towards the
17:07
Speaker 3: Iranian border. You have the threat there from Kurdistan factions
17:12
Speaker 3: both inside Iran and on the border with Iran. In
17:15
Speaker 3: Iraq from the top there in Azerbaijan, Britain and sorry,
17:19
Speaker 3: well yes, Britain, the US and Israel have been building
17:22
Speaker 3: up their influence, their surveillance capability and military presence in Azerbaijan,
17:29
Speaker 3: which is on the northern border of Iran. Going around
17:32
Speaker 3: again to Turkmenistan, many of the terrorists that are actually
17:37
Speaker 3: in Syria came from Turkmenistan, so again I consider that
17:41
Speaker 3: to be a threat. And you also have another Kurdish area.
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Speaker 4: They're also from Pakistan.
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Speaker 3: You have terrorists from the Blotchikstan area that may join
17:53
Speaker 3: with the Boloch freedom fighters as they're called in the
17:56
Speaker 3: south of Iran. And also I would say we can't
17:59
Speaker 3: discount India. President Prime Minister Modi is in Israel today.
18:04
Speaker 4: They've agreed on.
18:05
Speaker 3: An eight point six billion defense agreement, and Israel is
18:10
Speaker 3: providing India with defense defense technology, and India is the
18:16
Speaker 3: first to receive it. It's never actually been given either
18:19
Speaker 3: to the US or to the UK, or to any
18:21
Speaker 3: other country in the Zionist block, but it's being given
18:26
Speaker 3: to India. So basically, this is how I perceive the
18:30
Speaker 3: war is going to proceed against Iran.
18:35
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Vanessa. I'm sure we'll talk more
18:37
Speaker 1: an extra on that. Charles, let's come over to you then.
18:41
Speaker 1: And of course, if we've got warfronts in Ukraine, in
18:45
Speaker 1: the Middle East, in Iran, also increasingly the rhetoric about
18:50
Speaker 1: the Arctic continues to build.
18:54
Speaker 2: It does, indeed, and it's all part of one bigger picture.
18:58
Speaker 2: And of course, as you pointed out and deed Bryan
19:02
Speaker 2: spoke about on Monday, we have just passed what's being
19:05
Speaker 2: described as the fourth anniversary of the Russian intervention into Ukraine.
19:09
Speaker 2: So as you can imagine, the messaging machine went absolutely crazy,
19:12
Speaker 2: and the Chief of the Defense Staff was no exception,
19:18
Speaker 2: retweeting this from the Ministry of Defense saying that Putin
19:21
Speaker 2: thought he could wipe Ukraine off the map in a
19:24
Speaker 2: matter of days, and basically confirming Ministry of Defense does
19:28
Speaker 2: still stand with Ukraine. We will listen to what the
19:32
Speaker 2: Chief of the Defense Staff said yesterday as he read
19:35
Speaker 2: off a script.
19:38
Speaker 6: As Chief of the Defense Staff, I know that Ukraine's
19:40
Speaker 6: defense is Britain security. I've seen firsthand the bravery, ingenuity
19:46
Speaker 6: and courage of Ukrainians, civilians and military alike. Ukraine and
19:52
Speaker 6: its people continue to stand strong with the support of
19:55
Speaker 6: their allies. They continue to stand strong and make sacrifices
19:59
Speaker 6: daily to protect their home. Just this month at NATO,
20:04
Speaker 6: the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and at the Munich Security Conference,
20:08
Speaker 6: we showed our Western alliance and our support for Ukraine
20:12
Speaker 6: is as strong as ever. As the war enters its
20:16
Speaker 6: fifth year, our resolve will not falter. We will stand
20:20
Speaker 6: with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will
20:23
Speaker 6: continue to put them in the strongest possible position for peace.
20:30
Speaker 2: He's never going to enter an operational theater. There's absolutely
20:33
Speaker 2: no need for him to be wearing combats. This is
20:35
Speaker 2: a propaganda exercise and it confirms his status as a
20:37
Speaker 2: political agent in what is increasingly to be regarded as
20:41
Speaker 2: a media organization. Now this does go hand in hand
20:46
Speaker 2: with the release the press release about further support for
20:51
Speaker 2: Ukraine and same old thing essentially money. But the critical
20:57
Speaker 2: detail here, which of course we did point out at
20:58
Speaker 2: the time, it's part of the additional support and Mike's
21:02
Speaker 2: just refer to the Coalition of the willing, but not able.
21:04
Speaker 2: And we're following the landmark declaration in January of the
21:08
Speaker 2: UK's intent to deploy British troops to Ukraine once piece
21:13
Speaker 2: is secured. Of course, we had the spectacle of Boris
21:15
Speaker 2: Johnson on Monday talking to Laura Cooonsberg about his particular
21:19
Speaker 2: theories on where and when British troops should be deployed.
21:24
Speaker 2: But what we'll do now is just go a little
21:26
Speaker 2: bit further back to the Immunich Security Conference and listen
21:28
Speaker 2: to what Kirs Starmer said about other deployments.
21:32
Speaker 7: I can announce today that the UK will deploy our
21:37
Speaker 7: Carrier Strike Group to the North Atlantic and the High
21:40
Speaker 7: North this year, led by HMS Prince of Wales, operating
21:47
Speaker 7: alongside the US, Canada and other NATO allies, in a
21:53
Speaker 7: powerful show of our commitment to euro Atlantic security.
22:04
Speaker 2: So again, same old story, but slightly different area that
22:07
Speaker 2: we're referring to here, And of course it's worth pointing
22:10
Speaker 2: out the carrier strike group he refers to is the
22:14
Speaker 2: only one. It's not a carrier strike group. It is
22:17
Speaker 2: the carrier strike group, which gives a significant indication of
22:21
Speaker 2: exactly what the capability is with regard to the High
22:24
Speaker 2: North or the Arctic region described as keeping the UK safe,
22:29
Speaker 2: but safe from what exactly never really articulated particularly, but
22:35
Speaker 2: of course this is part of a more joined up process. Here.
22:39
Speaker 2: We've got nor at the North American Aerospace Defense Command
22:42
Speaker 2: convening Exercise Arctic Edge. So they're all at it now.
22:48
Speaker 2: They are keen to point out with all the rhetoric
22:51
Speaker 2: around Greenland earlier on this year and at the end
22:53
Speaker 2: of last year, they specify that all training activities in
22:57
Speaker 2: Greenland are conducted in full coordination with the Kingdom of Denmark.
23:03
Speaker 2: And they go on to say that they're improving readiness,
23:06
Speaker 2: demonstrating capabilities, enhancing interoperability among multinational, interagency and joint force
23:13
Speaker 2: partners in the Arctics. It also sounds very cooperative, but
23:17
Speaker 2: is that really the case? Is that what we should
23:20
Speaker 2: be taking away from it, and I think the question
23:23
Speaker 2: is worth asking. We look now at the Joint Expeditionary Force,
23:25
Speaker 2: which have been up and running for a number of years.
23:28
Speaker 2: But of course most notable if you can't see the image,
23:31
Speaker 2: is that it does not involve any North American nations.
23:35
Speaker 2: It is comprised of Europeans. Of course, they, as you
23:38
Speaker 2: would expect, do stand with Ukraine. Their promotional video shows
23:43
Speaker 2: lots of wolf fighting capabilities up in the Arctic region.
23:50
Speaker 2: And I think the question to be asked here is
23:54
Speaker 2: there actually going to be the potential for some degree
23:58
Speaker 2: of friction as we have more organizations, more cooperatives, more
24:02
Speaker 2: groups apparently entering the fray or at least posing to
24:07
Speaker 2: do exactly that. As to how the JEF stands with
24:13
Speaker 2: regard to NATO, this diagram is supposed to clear it
24:16
Speaker 2: up for you. I would say it doesn't help enormously
24:19
Speaker 2: if you can't see it. It's a rather confusing sort
24:22
Speaker 2: of crisscross diagram or sort of to replicate a ven diagram,
24:26
Speaker 2: suggesting that NATO JF integration and mutual advantage is of
24:31
Speaker 2: course going to be where they coalesce, where they find
24:35
Speaker 2: a shared aim and a shared identity. Now As for
24:40
Speaker 2: NATO itself, of course, they have also just launched a
24:45
Speaker 2: press piece about what they're describing as Arctic Security, and
24:50
Speaker 2: this is under the banner of Arctic Century, something that's
24:53
Speaker 2: being stood up this month February twenty twenty six, and
24:56
Speaker 2: it reflects the Allies collective understanding that NATO must do
25:00
Speaker 2: even more as an alliance to ensure security in the
25:02
Speaker 2: Arctic and the High North and to further strengthen its
25:06
Speaker 2: ability to operate in the region. Now, what exactly is
25:12
Speaker 2: one meant to take from that? They of course describe
25:16
Speaker 2: the backstory they've been actively increasing their presence by establishing
25:20
Speaker 2: new structures throughout the High North, and that they're enhancing
25:23
Speaker 2: the alliance's situational awareness and the ability to operate in
25:29
Speaker 2: the region. Now, as I say, we're now looking at
25:33
Speaker 2: not just NATO, but also the Joint Expeditionary Force, the
25:38
Speaker 2: Coalition of the Willing, and the Board of Peace, to
25:41
Speaker 2: name but a few organizations that are all wanting in
25:44
Speaker 2: effect to take ownership of the delivery of strength sorry,
25:49
Speaker 2: peace through strength. This is one absolutely gigantic propaganda exercise.
25:55
Speaker 2: And just to illustrate that, I'll pick out a piece
26:00
Speaker 2: from the BBC yesterday in which they said that Russian
26:04
Speaker 2: soldiers tell the BBC that they saw fellow troops executed
26:08
Speaker 2: on commanders orders, as though this would only ever happen
26:11
Speaker 2: in Russia and absolutely nowhere else. So we only have
26:14
Speaker 2: to go to the National Arboretum, the National Memorial Arboretum
26:17
Speaker 2: to look at the Shot at Dawn Memorial, which commemorates
26:20
Speaker 2: three hundred and nine British and Commonwealth soldiers who were
26:23
Speaker 2: shot for desertion, cowardice, striking senior officer and so forth
26:28
Speaker 2: during the First World War. So these things do happen
26:32
Speaker 2: in places outside of Russia, if indeed they do happen
26:35
Speaker 2: in Russia. But of course the propaganda is the central
26:38
Speaker 2: for us do this. Mike, I'd be interested in your
26:42
Speaker 2: comment on where you see this going, in particular sort
26:46
Speaker 2: of alongside the push for deployment of troops into Ukraine.
26:50
Speaker 1: Well, I'm fascinated. I mean, I knew anyway better just
26:54
Speaker 1: as you express it than the way that you have.
26:56
Speaker 1: The Joint Expedition Force. Of course, is UK and Europe
27:00
Speaker 1: working together. This is the embryonic European Defense Union, if
27:04
Speaker 1: you like, the United States has no part to play
27:06
Speaker 1: in it. And of course this fits in with the
27:09
Speaker 1: whole narrative from the US, from the Trump administration, going
27:13
Speaker 1: back to the pre election days where they were presenting
27:17
Speaker 1: this idea that UK and Europe needs to be looking
27:20
Speaker 1: after Russia while they're busy looking in other directions. Obviously
27:23
Speaker 1: they're now looking at Iran, They're they're still looking at
27:27
Speaker 1: Latin America and so on. So they're busy and they
27:30
Speaker 1: want Europe to continue with this, with this effort against Russia.
27:35
Speaker 1: But you know, it's if they're serious about opposing Russia militarily,
27:44
Speaker 1: they've got either continue with the proxy war in Ukraine
27:47
Speaker 1: or they have to wrap it up because they don't
27:49
Speaker 1: actually have the men or material to actually prosecute a
27:54
Speaker 1: proper kinetic war. So in the meantime, we're just have
27:57
Speaker 1: to we just have to suck up the propaganda and
28:00
Speaker 1: the hybrid attack on us as much as on anybody else.
28:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think that's exactly it. You know,
28:08
Speaker 2: all this rhetoric, particularly where the United Kingdom is concerned,
28:11
Speaker 2: is absolutely not reinforced by any suggestion that we do
28:14
Speaker 2: actually have the capability to be able to meet what's
28:17
Speaker 2: being described as a thirty percent increase in threats from
28:21
Speaker 2: Russian naval vessels in UK waters and all that kind
28:24
Speaker 2: of thing, and of course they don't miss any opportunity
28:26
Speaker 2: to talk about the equipment that's being used from both
28:29
Speaker 2: Russia and China. So this is a sort of catch
28:31
Speaker 2: or propaganda net.
28:34
Speaker 1: Indeed, Okay, we need to move on. So let's say
28:38
Speaker 1: that we do need your ongoing support. So if you
28:40
Speaker 1: possibly can support us, have a look at the front
28:43
Speaker 1: page of the website. There's a button there depressed which
28:46
Speaker 1: will give you the information that you need. Thank you
28:49
Speaker 1: very much to everybody that is continuing to support us,
28:52
Speaker 1: it's absolutely appreciated. If you can't support us financially, then
28:56
Speaker 1: please do share anything that we publish on the UK
28:59
Speaker 1: col And website, because that helps us defeat the censorship
29:03
Speaker 1: that we're going to be talking about again a little
29:05
Speaker 1: bit later in the program. Now, if you didn't see
29:07
Speaker 1: the video that went out in the one o'clock slot
29:11
Speaker 1: yesterday from Rotherham to Epstein, please do watch it now.
29:14
Speaker 1: This was a presentation was given at a UK Column
29:18
Speaker 1: event in Telford in twenty fifteen. It's just as relevant
29:22
Speaker 1: now as it was then. Nothing has changed and we're
29:27
Speaker 1: what we aim to do in this presentation was to
29:29
Speaker 1: put all the various grooming gangs stories in context in
29:36
Speaker 1: the context of the overall child abuse picture in this country.
29:39
Speaker 1: Because Epstein is only part of it. Grooming gangs are
29:42
Speaker 1: only part of it. This is something which is systemic
29:45
Speaker 1: and systematic in the UK, and hopefully that video will
29:49
Speaker 1: help people understand that a little bit better. Now Tonight,
29:52
Speaker 1: Jerem is talking about revising established history. This is going
29:56
Speaker 1: to be quite a controversial conversation. Do join us for
30:02
Speaker 1: that at seven pm. And at nine pm Carl is
30:07
Speaker 1: taking a look at Starmar's recent visit to China, so
30:10
Speaker 1: join him at nine for that. Tomorrow at one pm
30:14
Speaker 1: there's an interview with three ladies on the question of
30:18
Speaker 1: keeping children safe and what's being taught in libraries or
30:22
Speaker 1: via libraries anyway. That's Kathy Mudge and two colleagues. Join
30:26
Speaker 1: Diane for that interview at one pm tomorrow. And there
30:29
Speaker 1: is an article on the UK column website that goes
30:33
Speaker 1: alongside that, entitled Queerfest at Extra Library, Devon County Council's
30:38
Speaker 1: Child Safety Test. So quite a lot of content for
30:41
Speaker 1: you to have a look at there. Please do and
30:44
Speaker 1: please particularly share it if you possibly can, that would
30:47
Speaker 1: be fantastic. Now let's move on to the issue of
30:51
Speaker 1: digital identity, because UK Immigration Enforcement is planning a third
30:57
Speaker 1: trial of live facial recognition at Holllyyod Port in North Wales,
31:02
Speaker 1: is a ferry port. This follows the two previous trials
31:05
Speaker 1: that Charles reported on last year, and in those previous trials,
31:10
Speaker 1: at Home Office claims that those resulted in seven and
31:13
Speaker 1: a half thousand faces scanned, with no incorrect alerts and
31:17
Speaker 1: one arrest made. There you go anyway, travelers arriving in
31:21
Speaker 1: the UK from Ireland are going to be scanned and
31:23
Speaker 1: compared against a database of offenders and people of interest,
31:27
Speaker 1: and that's beginning this week now. This is apparently because
31:31
Speaker 1: the UK Intelligence Services are reporting that individuals are using
31:36
Speaker 1: the Common Travel Area. This is the vastly pre European
31:40
Speaker 1: Union agreement between Britain and Ireland about traveling between those
31:43
Speaker 1: two countries. So they're using the Common Travel Area to
31:47
Speaker 1: come into Britain without the normal checks. Because, as I've
31:51
Speaker 1: reported on this program many times, if you're traveling from
31:54
Speaker 1: Britain to Ireland, you're required to show your passport at
31:57
Speaker 1: Dublin Port. But if you are traveling from our to Britain,
32:01
Speaker 1: or from from Dublin or from Belfast to Kearn Ryan
32:05
Speaker 1: for example, or Belfast to Liverpool, there are no passport
32:09
Speaker 1: controls in those ports. So coming into the UK there
32:12
Speaker 1: are currently no passport controls, but they're going to use
32:15
Speaker 1: facial recognition instead. So golf dot UK then has released
32:20
Speaker 1: a report on the legal mandate for live facial recognition
32:23
Speaker 1: at ports and they're saying that the use of live
32:26
Speaker 1: facial recognition technology can enhance the home offices intelligence capability
32:30
Speaker 1: by comparing disembarking passengers against a watch list of individuals
32:38
Speaker 1: subject to extant or deportation orders or people who are
32:42
Speaker 1: wanted on warrant in relation to an immigration related criminal offense.
32:46
Speaker 1: So it's clear now that this is going to be
32:48
Speaker 1: ruled out nationally. The question is has the Starmer regime
32:52
Speaker 1: done enough to radicalize people over the immigration issue that
32:56
Speaker 1: this panopticon that they're trying to build is going to
32:58
Speaker 1: be welcomed by everyone will see and directly we'll be
33:02
Speaker 1: talking that talking about that an extra as well. Now,
33:05
Speaker 1: the question is how is this going to be regulated? Well,
33:07
Speaker 1: late last year Starmar announced a consultation on the legal
33:12
Speaker 1: framework for life facial recognition use, and that consultation closed
33:16
Speaker 1: on the twelfth of this month, and Professor William Webster,
33:20
Speaker 1: who's the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, has published a
33:25
Speaker 1: response and he said that the new framework should be
33:28
Speaker 1: principles based rather than technology lead. It should focus on purpose, proportionality, necessity,
33:34
Speaker 1: and harm rather than specific technologies, and that's all going
33:38
Speaker 1: to make sure that it's future proof. And he said
33:40
Speaker 1: that its scope could extend beyond law enforcement agencies law
33:45
Speaker 1: enforcement agency sorry to include all public and private organizations
33:48
Speaker 1: conducting surveillance for law and enforcement or for public safety purposes.
33:54
Speaker 1: And my question that would be does that include the
33:56
Speaker 1: likes of Palenteer, because that's not clear at this point.
34:00
Speaker 1: That he said that the framework should have a codified
34:02
Speaker 1: restrictive approach making specified activities in offense unless strict criteria
34:08
Speaker 1: are met, mirroring the Investigatory Pars Act at twenty sixteen,
34:12
Speaker 1: because that is a spectacular piece of legislation, isn't it.
34:17
Speaker 1: And then he said that high risk deployments should require
34:20
Speaker 1: pre authorization by an independent regulator, and he described a
34:24
Speaker 1: new statutory independent regulatory body which could be created merging
34:28
Speaker 1: the existing Forensic Science Regulator and Biometrics and Surveillance Camera
34:32
Speaker 1: Commissioner Roles. So in other words, he's tyling for a job.
34:37
Speaker 1: And he said that this body should have robust powers
34:39
Speaker 1: of audit, inspection and compliance enforcement, that it should report
34:43
Speaker 1: directly to Parliament and should cooperate as a single point
34:46
Speaker 1: of contact for industry and the public. So in other words,
34:49
Speaker 1: like the MHRA, the role would be that of an
34:52
Speaker 1: enabler and lobby organization rather than a regulator in the
34:56
Speaker 1: strict sense. And then finally he said that meaningful public
35:00
Speaker 1: engagement and force at a foresight function to anticipate emerging
35:04
Speaker 1: technologies must be embedded in the regulator from the outset. Well,
35:07
Speaker 1: we'll see. But the question is where will all the
35:10
Speaker 1: data go? And the answer is into a database of course,
35:14
Speaker 1: but will it be safe there? Because absolutely not. Yet
35:17
Speaker 1: another potential data breach has taken place as time for
35:20
Speaker 1: one billion, yes one billion, digital ID records, and now
35:25
Speaker 1: these are believed to be to have contained highly sensitive
35:28
Speaker 1: personal information from at least twenty six countries and totally
35:32
Speaker 1: about a terabyte of data. The UK doesn't seem to
35:36
Speaker 1: have been affected by it. The United States, South America,
35:39
Speaker 1: most of the EU, China and Australia were the data
35:42
Speaker 1: is believed to have been on a database run by
35:44
Speaker 1: id Merit, whose little video clip you saw on screen
35:47
Speaker 1: there and now this is a global identity verification company,
35:52
Speaker 1: and no one knows how long the database was accessible
35:55
Speaker 1: to just about anyone that wanted to come and have
35:56
Speaker 1: a look at it. It was supposedly secured after the
36:00
Speaker 1: company was informed informed of the issue by security researchers,
36:04
Speaker 1: and those researchers noted that the company has not issued
36:07
Speaker 1: any kind of detailed public statement or confirmed specifics of
36:11
Speaker 1: the incident, and in fact, the company itself appears to
36:14
Speaker 1: be claiming that this is all fake news and nothing
36:18
Speaker 1: to see there. Of course it is not. But then finally,
36:21
Speaker 1: just very quickly, the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes
36:25
Speaker 1: has published the results of a survey of digital ID
36:28
Speaker 1: providers and basically the upshot of this is that they
36:31
Speaker 1: are very very keen to see international interoperability and Britain
36:35
Speaker 1: leading the role leading the way on international interoperability on
36:40
Speaker 1: this because that will put them in a very good
36:44
Speaker 1: position as far as the digital ID market goes. So
36:47
Speaker 1: Britain to be driving this, Charles. Let's head back to
36:52
Speaker 1: you then, and the question of ethics and war, and
36:55
Speaker 1: really this is about AI I suppose.
36:59
Speaker 2: It is, and ethics is very closely related to what
37:02
Speaker 2: you've just been talking about in many ways, which I'll
37:04
Speaker 2: sort of come to. But I've start with what Donald
37:07
Speaker 2: Trump was saying during parts of his State of the
37:10
Speaker 2: Union address, and in particular trying to boast about and
37:13
Speaker 2: sort of gone a support for military or warlike activities,
37:18
Speaker 2: and he's there. This has all been sort of retweeted
37:20
Speaker 2: by the rapid response element of the Department of War.
37:25
Speaker 2: They began by reiterating the point that they've got the
37:28
Speaker 2: Warrior Dividend, essentially a tax free payment to those serving
37:32
Speaker 2: in the armed forces of seventeen hundred and seventy six dollars.
37:37
Speaker 2: And then we've got at the bottom of that in
37:39
Speaker 2: small text which I've highlighted, peace through strength, of course,
37:43
Speaker 2: the message to be spat out every possible opportunity to
37:47
Speaker 2: reinforce what we're all supposed to believe. We've then got
37:50
Speaker 2: the Midnight Hammer, the operation in Iran as choreographed by
37:55
Speaker 2: Tom Cruise in the Top Gun Maverick film. And then
37:59
Speaker 2: we have of the Medal of Honor going to Eric
38:03
Speaker 2: Solver for Operation Absolute Resolve. By some strange quirk, E
38:09
Speaker 2: Solver is of course an anagram of resolve, So quite
38:13
Speaker 2: what that potential I wouldn't know. But the thing that
38:15
Speaker 2: unites all of these is really the question of necessity.
38:18
Speaker 2: And of course Trump is there talking about all of them,
38:20
Speaker 2: but without making it at all clear that any of
38:23
Speaker 2: these military operations weren't any way necessary. And that takes
38:27
Speaker 2: us to a former employee of Anthropic, and he's MIANK Sharma,
38:35
Speaker 2: the head of a team into safeguarding research, and he's
38:39
Speaker 2: just left. He's put a letter of resignation where else
38:42
Speaker 2: on X. In it, he says that he continuously finds
38:46
Speaker 2: himself reckoning with our situation, meaning that of Anthropic in
38:49
Speaker 2: the AI world. The world is in peril, and not
38:53
Speaker 2: just from AI or bioweapons, but from a whole series
38:56
Speaker 2: of interconnected crises unfolding in this very moment. We appear
39:01
Speaker 2: to be approaching a threshold where our wisdom must grow
39:03
Speaker 2: an equal measure to our capacity to affect the world
39:06
Speaker 2: lest we face the consequences. Now, he then goes into
39:09
Speaker 2: some poetry and whatnot. So it seems rather oblique, but
39:12
Speaker 2: what he's actually referring to is what Anthropic has been
39:15
Speaker 2: tasked to do by the Department for War. And turns
39:20
Speaker 2: out he's not the only one Anthropic that may be
39:23
Speaker 2: developing a conscience, and we have here from the Hill.
39:26
Speaker 2: The Pentagon threatens to cancel Anthropic contract by Friday if
39:30
Speaker 2: the company doesn't lift safeguard. So just to get a
39:33
Speaker 2: flavor of what this is about. From the Hill, Defense
39:37
Speaker 2: Extry Hexith met with Anthropic CEO on Tuesday at the
39:40
Speaker 2: Pentagon amid a dispute over the AI firm's usage policy,
39:44
Speaker 2: which bars its model Clawed from being used for mass
39:49
Speaker 2: surveillance or to develop weapons that can be used without
39:54
Speaker 2: human oversights. Now this has become something I think that
39:59
Speaker 2: has hasn't had nearly enough scrutiny at all over the years.
40:03
Speaker 2: So it's a very interesting marker in the sand that
40:06
Speaker 2: Anthropic has created here or potentially will create. Depends whether
40:10
Speaker 2: they're going to stand their ground or not. So I
40:12
Speaker 2: won't go into any further detail about that because obviously
40:15
Speaker 2: we don't know exactly what is going to happen. But
40:18
Speaker 2: what we should do is then look at this side
40:20
Speaker 2: of the Atlantic and to dese it, which of course
40:24
Speaker 2: has Anthropic as a partner in what's being described as
40:28
Speaker 2: the incorporation of top British AI expertise to help spark
40:32
Speaker 2: the renewal of public services and bolster national security. So
40:36
Speaker 2: what sort of consequence is this going to participitate with
40:40
Speaker 2: the relationship with Anthropic here described as specialists developing cutting
40:45
Speaker 2: edge AI solutions which will run offline to support national
40:50
Speaker 2: security and defense teams to make vital decisions whilst safeguarding
40:56
Speaker 2: sensitive data. Going well, if we just think back to
40:58
Speaker 2: what Mike's literally just been talking about, how can they
41:00
Speaker 2: possibly say that that can be safeguarded in the first place,
41:05
Speaker 2: But this should be set alongside the start. Contrast with
41:09
Speaker 2: Clearview AI's position which I reported on back in twenty
41:12
Speaker 2: twenty three on their line on the war in Ukraine,
41:15
Speaker 2: which is essentially to say that they were going to
41:17
Speaker 2: pick a side and they were going to utilize their
41:19
Speaker 2: technology or at least offer it up for targeting purposes.
41:24
Speaker 2: Here seen different ways to our technology could be used
41:26
Speaker 2: to help. And then they had a bit up on
41:29
Speaker 2: their website citing a Time magazine article about Ukraine's secret weapon.
41:34
Speaker 2: Basically as though their live facial recognition technology was used
41:37
Speaker 2: in order to bring about the death of particular individuals.
41:43
Speaker 2: There won't be a reference to this in the show
41:44
Speaker 2: notes because they've subsequently removed it from their website. So
41:48
Speaker 2: those are images that I'd captured at the time. And
41:50
Speaker 2: just to close off, I just want to finish with
41:53
Speaker 2: a look at the review from the Ministry of Defense
41:55
Speaker 2: into the regulatory system governing uncrude and autonomous systems in defense.
41:59
Speaker 2: Of course, I reported on the Red Dragon, aero environment
42:03
Speaker 2: technology suicide drone that the Americans have basically produced and
42:07
Speaker 2: are going to use. And just to make the point
42:10
Speaker 2: that the Ministry of Defense here behaving very much like
42:12
Speaker 2: the MHRA, which is to act as an enabler and
42:15
Speaker 2: be concerned much more with the speed and the provision
42:17
Speaker 2: of service as to whether it's actually right or not.
42:20
Speaker 2: So one of the questions asked in the consultation is
42:22
Speaker 2: this fit to enable you to achieve the aims of
42:25
Speaker 2: your organization? And then several other questions in between, and
42:30
Speaker 2: they then ask what can be done to enable the
42:33
Speaker 2: government to make the investment in autonomy to be realized
42:39
Speaker 2: faster and frankly, this is all that they seem to
42:42
Speaker 2: care about ethics absolutely cast to the win. So we
42:46
Speaker 2: return to the situation with anthropropic in the States and
42:49
Speaker 2: see what this does actually tease out the woodwork and
42:52
Speaker 2: what the result of that particular situation will be.
42:56
Speaker 1: Indeed, and we'll see we'll see what direction open AI
42:59
Speaker 1: goes as well. And because all the big AI companies
43:03
Speaker 1: are going to have to make this decision at some pointess.
43:05
Speaker 1: So let's come back to you then and move back
43:07
Speaker 1: to the Middle East and the question of what Israel
43:10
Speaker 1: is doing.
43:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, interesting, the question of conscience very quickly, and we
43:15
Speaker 3: should discuss that in extra that there is a potential
43:19
Speaker 3: that the crew of the USS gerald Ford are actually
43:23
Speaker 3: pushing back against their three hundred days at sea in
43:26
Speaker 3: the potential of being targeted in a war against Duran,
43:29
Speaker 3: and they are potentially sabotaging the mission. So that's something
43:33
Speaker 3: we should definitely discuss in extra because perhaps conscience is
43:37
Speaker 3: now coming to the fore among many of the military
43:41
Speaker 3: and some of these surveillance and AI organizations just on
43:46
Speaker 3: a side. So of course as well, in addition to
43:49
Speaker 3: building up the proxy forces as part of the hybrid
43:53
Speaker 3: war against Duron, of course, it's threatening the Lebanese resistance.
43:58
Speaker 3: It's basically messages through various diplomats and politicians in Lebanon
44:05
Speaker 3: saying if HESBLA should respond in any way, if the
44:10
Speaker 3: US and Israel enter a war with Iran, it would
44:14
Speaker 3: hit multiple targets, more than one two hundred targets in Lebanon,
44:18
Speaker 3: including the only civilian airport, which of course would of
44:24
Speaker 3: course be a humanitarian war crime with multiple civilian flights
44:31
Speaker 3: coming in and departing on a daily basis. And then
44:35
Speaker 3: basically in the last three days, they've carried out an
44:39
Speaker 3: extensive attack on the eastern border in Lebanon, in the
44:43
Speaker 3: Bakar area. If we can just have the slide up
44:45
Speaker 3: on screen, the death toll from the Israeli strike comes
44:50
Speaker 3: to now ten people killed, including the leadership of HESBLA,
44:54
Speaker 3: over thirty injured, the majority of civilians. At the same time,
45:00
Speaker 3: they've also carried out jerne strikes against Lebanese army positions
45:05
Speaker 3: in the south because the Lebanese army dead to actually
45:10
Speaker 3: establish a new border post in southern Lebanese territory without
45:14
Speaker 3: coordination with Israel, so heaven forbid they do that and
45:18
Speaker 3: act as if Lebanon is a sovereign country, so Israel
45:21
Speaker 3: carried out strikes. And finally, I want to actually bring
45:25
Speaker 3: everyone's attention to this story, which I think broke the
45:28
Speaker 3: heart of everyone here in Lubanon. You either die with
45:32
Speaker 3: your family around you, or you die alone. This is
45:36
Speaker 3: a gentleman who is I think a sixty two year
45:39
Speaker 3: old father and grandfather. He went with his wife to
45:42
Speaker 3: visit his family in Sudden, Lubanon. He received a call
45:46
Speaker 3: from an Israeli number saying, you have a choice. You
45:49
Speaker 3: can die with your entire family and his wife's family,
45:52
Speaker 3: or you can leave them and die alone. He made
45:55
Speaker 3: the choice, He left his family, he got into his
45:58
Speaker 3: car and he was a sacinated. So just for people
46:01
Speaker 3: to understand the sheer psychopathic psychopathy that is being generated
46:07
Speaker 3: against the Lebanese people on an almost daily basis.
46:13
Speaker 1: Thanks Vanessa for that report, and I have plenty to
46:17
Speaker 1: talk about an extra's day, it seems. Now, let's come
46:19
Speaker 1: back to the UK and online safety. On Monday this week,
46:23
Speaker 1: then Ofcom announced that they have fined the porn company
46:29
Speaker 1: IT five seven nine LLC one point three five million
46:32
Speaker 1: pounds for not having age verification checks in place, plus
46:37
Speaker 1: fifty thousand pounds for not responding to an information request
46:41
Speaker 1: from OFFCOM. Now, under the Online Safety Act, any site
46:46
Speaker 1: that allows pornographic material must use what they describe, as
46:51
Speaker 1: we've described it many times highly effective age assurance to
46:54
Speaker 1: prevent children from getting access to that type of content. Now,
46:59
Speaker 1: within day of that coming into force in July twenty
47:04
Speaker 1: twenty five, they OFCOM launched investigations into lots of adult sites,
47:09
Speaker 1: including it five to seven nine LLC and so on. Now,
47:14
Speaker 1: the thing is that they have had this fine put
47:17
Speaker 1: in place fulfilling to comply with the age verification requirements.
47:22
Speaker 1: They go on to say that, of course that fine
47:25
Speaker 1: increases by one hundred by sorry, about one thousand pounds
47:28
Speaker 1: per day if this company doesn't pay up. But the
47:31
Speaker 1: question I wanted answered was how would they actually collect
47:35
Speaker 1: this money, bearing in mind that eight five to seventy
47:37
Speaker 1: nine LLC is not a UK company. So I asked them,
47:40
Speaker 1: and this was their response. If a provider fails to
47:44
Speaker 1: pay a fine, Offcome is entitled to seek recovery of
47:47
Speaker 1: those penalties where appropriate. If a provider fails to comply
47:50
Speaker 1: with the requirement to implement age assurance, we can also
47:54
Speaker 1: seek a courte order for business disruption measures such as
47:57
Speaker 1: requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from
48:01
Speaker 1: a platform, or requiring Internet service providers to block a
48:05
Speaker 1: site in the UK. So, in other words, it's all
48:08
Speaker 1: smoke and mirrors. They are grabbing headlines by issuing these fines,
48:13
Speaker 1: then they're not in a position to actually do anything.
48:16
Speaker 1: So when they post a press release describing how they
48:19
Speaker 1: how they've actually received any money from such a fine,
48:22
Speaker 1: then maybe we can take them seriously. In the meantime,
48:25
Speaker 1: Discord has apology apologized for its age assurance mess up
48:30
Speaker 1: when it announced the volunteer funded identity provider Persona might
48:34
Speaker 1: collect data from users as part of an experiment related
48:38
Speaker 1: to Discords age assurance rollout, and they've also said that
48:42
Speaker 1: they're delaying the global age verification rollout now. They said,
48:47
Speaker 1: the way this landed, many of you walked away thinking
48:49
Speaker 1: we are requiring fiscans and id uploads from everyone just
48:53
Speaker 1: to use Discord. That's not what's happening, but the fact
48:56
Speaker 1: that so many people believe it is tells us we
48:59
Speaker 1: filled our more basic job clearly explaining what we're doing
49:02
Speaker 1: and why that's on us as a typical marketing nonsense,
49:07
Speaker 1: But They also attempted to reassure everyone about the fairly
49:10
Speaker 1: big data breach that they suffered at the end of
49:13
Speaker 1: last year, which we reported at the time. To be clear,
49:17
Speaker 1: it went on to say, we do not use the
49:20
Speaker 1: vendor who caused the data breach last year for age assurance.
49:23
Speaker 1: In fact, we no longer work with them at all,
49:25
Speaker 1: and we've taken lessons from that incident seriously, really well.
49:30
Speaker 1: Back in the UK, then, the Information Commissioner has fined
49:35
Speaker 1: Reddit fourteen point four to seven million pounds after deciding
49:40
Speaker 1: that Reddit had failed to use children's personal information lawfully.
49:45
Speaker 1: They cited serious failures in age assurance under UK data
49:50
Speaker 1: protection law, and they said that Reddit failed to comply
49:55
Speaker 1: with any robust age assurance mechanism and therefore did not
49:58
Speaker 1: have a lawful basis processing the personal information of children
50:02
Speaker 1: under the age of thirteen. And they said that it
50:05
Speaker 1: failed to carry out a data protection impact assessment to
50:08
Speaker 1: assess and mitigate risks to children before January twenty twenty five.
50:13
Speaker 1: But if anyone thinks, well, no problem, I'll just move
50:16
Speaker 1: to Russia to avoid all this nonsense, we'll no actually,
50:19
Speaker 1: because as Russian news website www one reports, customers have
50:24
Speaker 1: been using the max Messenger app to verify their age
50:28
Speaker 1: when purchasing goods from shops that need to be age
50:33
Speaker 1: verified of being over eighteen, and that's now happened more
50:36
Speaker 1: than a million times, so that number continues to grow daily.
50:40
Speaker 1: They report, and they report the State Secretary Deputy Minister
50:45
Speaker 1: of Industry saying to explaining this to reporters. Now this
50:51
Speaker 1: works at eighteen of Russia's largest retailers and more than
50:55
Speaker 1: seventy thousand stores. So the same kind of problem of
51:01
Speaker 1: age assurance, digital ID, online safety, these types of issues
51:06
Speaker 1: as active in those countries as they are in ours.
51:09
Speaker 1: So right, Charles, let's move on then, back to the
51:14
Speaker 1: issue of politics in the UK.
51:19
Speaker 2: We will, and we'll return to the significant amount of
51:23
Speaker 2: attention that's been garnered by Rupert Lowe's announcement that Restore
51:27
Speaker 2: Britain will become a sort of a formal entity. And
51:30
Speaker 2: I think the question to be asked is what sort
51:34
Speaker 2: of Britain are they aiming to restore? Because Rupert Lowe,
51:38
Speaker 2: certainly at a closer inspection, is not quite who he
51:41
Speaker 2: purports to be. And we've got the announcement now that
51:44
Speaker 2: all Minihan is going to be the spokesman or spokesperson
51:49
Speaker 2: for violence against women and girls, but specifically all are
51:52
Speaker 2: founded the Pink Ladies, a national network dedicated to protecting
51:56
Speaker 2: women from migrant crime. So actually it's not us violence
52:00
Speaker 2: against women and girls, as there's definitely an angle here,
52:03
Speaker 2: but we'll just take a quick look before we come
52:05
Speaker 2: to that at who she is. This is her on
52:07
Speaker 2: LinkedIn and interesting to note that during the height of
52:11
Speaker 2: the COVID tyranny she was working as a transformation program
52:18
Speaker 2: director for the National Health Service and she went on
52:22
Speaker 2: or has gone on to become immersed in transformation with
52:26
Speaker 2: digital business services for HSBC and now works for Deloitte
52:32
Speaker 2: as a program manager. So she is absolutely a corporate waller,
52:36
Speaker 2: but that is not very much the image that Restore
52:39
Speaker 2: Britain is trying to put forward. We'll just look at
52:43
Speaker 2: the Pink Ladies on Twitter saying very specifically that they
52:46
Speaker 2: want to protect British women. I think there's a fairly
52:51
Speaker 2: strong undercurrent there in terms of messaging, and this has
52:54
Speaker 2: been identified by the Byline Times, which has written in
52:57
Speaker 2: an article saying or describing the Pinks as laundering anti
53:01
Speaker 2: migrant views into the mainstream, which I'll go on and
53:07
Speaker 2: sort of qualify to a certain extent, But a lot
53:09
Speaker 2: of that revolves around the misuse of statistics that have
53:12
Speaker 2: been generated by a so called think tank for migration,
53:17
Speaker 2: or at least to create the impression that migration is
53:22
Speaker 2: responsible for particular issues, especially concerning violence towards women and girls.
53:28
Speaker 2: Now to get a better sense of the opportunism and
53:32
Speaker 2: indeed fact that this lady in particular is happy to
53:38
Speaker 2: hop from supporter to supporter. Here she is with Jacob
53:42
Speaker 2: Brice Mogg, apparently, who was flavor of the week at
53:45
Speaker 2: that point. At lo and behold she is from Epping,
53:49
Speaker 2: posting on Twitter a photograph of the so called Lion
53:54
Speaker 2: of Epping, who received much publicity during the protests last summer.
53:58
Speaker 2: Another tweet with the caption we are all Epping, no
54:03
Speaker 2: no accident. This is This is if you can't see it,
54:05
Speaker 2: a photograph of the Union flag flying above the flag
54:09
Speaker 2: of Israel on the same stick, and apparently that is
54:13
Speaker 2: for her the symbol of Epping. Just in case that
54:17
Speaker 2: wasn't clear enough. She's then tweeted that Britain does not
54:19
Speaker 2: stand with Gaza. British people do not support terrorists. Apparently
54:24
Speaker 2: the two are synonymous. True British patriots stand for peace, freedom,
54:28
Speaker 2: justice and respect. That's apparently what we fought to World
54:32
Speaker 2: wars to protect. So that's the sort of person that
54:35
Speaker 2: she seems to be. And then we mustn't forget that
54:38
Speaker 2: she did stand as a candidate for Reform UK. So
54:42
Speaker 2: so far Restore in much the same way that Reform
54:45
Speaker 2: have with all their Tory Party crosses of the line
54:51
Speaker 2: forgive me, I can't remember the word, but defectors, that's
54:55
Speaker 2: the one Restore looking similar and the individual and indeed
55:01
Speaker 2: collective level, they're now transmitting a message that is suggestive
55:09
Speaker 2: of jingoistic opportunism without any substance by means of a
55:14
Speaker 2: clear or credible message. And I think this is just
55:17
Speaker 2: something that people need to be aware of, is exactly
55:21
Speaker 2: who are these people and what is it they are
55:24
Speaker 2: using in order to garner support, And of course migration
55:28
Speaker 2: is absolutely at the heart of this. And so I
55:30
Speaker 2: just finished by reminding you that that absolutely has been
55:33
Speaker 2: manipulated both ways, and of course we have the Labor
55:36
Speaker 2: Together Britcard proposal effectively from the other end of the
55:40
Speaker 2: apparent spectrum last year.
55:45
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles. Okay, let's move on then to we
55:49
Speaker 1: can't let the program end without mentioning Peter Mandelson. Of course,
55:53
Speaker 1: because as everyone knows, on Monday, the met Police arrested
55:57
Speaker 1: Mandelsson aren't suspicion of misconduct in public office. So Mandelson
56:01
Speaker 1: joins Andrew in being suspected of improperly passing UK government
56:07
Speaker 1: information to Epstein. Following soul in the emails and the
56:12
Speaker 1: various other document releases, Mandleson is supposed to have forwarded
56:16
Speaker 1: Epstein a memo written to Gordon Brown at the Prime
56:20
Speaker 1: Minister at the time, that was appearing to confirm the
56:24
Speaker 1: timing of EU Bill out before it was publicly announced.
56:28
Speaker 1: Mandelsson's lawyers argued that his arrest was prompted by a
56:32
Speaker 1: baseless suggestion that he was about to flee the country,
56:36
Speaker 1: and that in fact he had agreed. The lawyer said
56:38
Speaker 1: that he had agreed to attend a voluntary and interview
56:41
Speaker 1: next month. He was released on bill and well we'll
56:46
Speaker 1: see what happens on that. In the meantime, then The
56:49
Speaker 1: Telegraph has reported the expanding fallout from the Epstein situation,
56:54
Speaker 1: which is now gathering around the Rothschild Empire. In this case,
56:59
Speaker 1: it's Aria. The Rothschild, CEO of the family owned Edmund
57:03
Speaker 1: de Rothschild, Swiss private bank. So the Telegraph here saying
57:07
Speaker 1: that the Epstein releases are showing that she corresponded dozens
57:13
Speaker 1: of times with Epstein and arranged multiple meetings over around
57:16
Speaker 1: five years, right up until his death, and this has
57:20
Speaker 1: caused significant reputational damage because the disclosures contradicted They say
57:27
Speaker 1: an earlier characterization by the bank that she'd met Epstein
57:31
Speaker 1: only as part of her normal professional duties. Now she's
57:36
Speaker 1: still claiming that her relationship came about purely because of
57:40
Speaker 1: his Epstein's standing as a significant global businessman. But the
57:45
Speaker 1: files showed that she negotiated a twenty five million dollar
57:50
Speaker 1: consulting contract with Epstein in twenty fifteen, and her name
57:53
Speaker 1: appears over four four hundred times in the document release
57:59
Speaker 1: so far are I'm sure if as that the analysis
58:04
Speaker 1: of that goes on, there's every opportunity for that number
58:07
Speaker 1: to rise. But well, it's been a bit embarrassing and
58:12
Speaker 1: they've had to write all their customers and beg for
58:14
Speaker 1: their customers to stick around. Some of their customers aren't
58:18
Speaker 1: very happy about the publicity that this brings. Charles Let's
58:25
Speaker 1: end then with subsidies to farmers.
58:30
Speaker 2: Indeed, as Julian Rose has always said, subsidy creates slaves,
58:34
Speaker 2: and that is absolutely, I would say, the correct way
58:37
Speaker 2: to look at it. However, when Emma Renalds the Environment
58:40
Speaker 2: sectually spoke to the NFU yesterday, she was very much
58:44
Speaker 2: trying to sell the line that the government were supporting farmers,
58:50
Speaker 2: that food security and national security are inextricably linked. There
58:53
Speaker 2: shouldn't be a choice between producing food or recovering or
58:57
Speaker 2: saving nature. She also perpetuates the absolute lie that the
59:01
Speaker 2: government has increased the threshold for agricultural property relief from
59:06
Speaker 2: one million pounds to two and a half million pounds,
59:08
Speaker 2: because of course it was zero. Nothing had actually changed,
59:11
Speaker 2: so that is a that is absolutely a propaganda offering.
59:14
Speaker 2: She produced the curious statistic that sixty five percent food
59:17
Speaker 2: security is where we are in the United Kingdom. How
59:20
Speaker 2: she accounts for that enormous jump was not made quite clear,
59:24
Speaker 2: but just as an illustration of the sincerity of what
59:28
Speaker 2: she was saying in so far as her position that
59:30
Speaker 2: the government are going to support farmers. She said that
59:33
Speaker 2: the environmental land management offerings were going to be produced
59:37
Speaker 2: later that day, yesterday, which indeed they were, and I've
59:39
Speaker 2: just pulled out of that funding for farmers, growers and
59:42
Speaker 2: land managers, and in particular the item the line item
59:46
Speaker 2: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, which has thrown at it
59:50
Speaker 2: a grand total of fifty million pounds available to farmers, growers,
59:55
Speaker 2: foresters and their contractors. Now there are over two hundred
59:58
Speaker 2: and nine thousand holding in England alone, so the question
1:00:03
Speaker 2: that might be asked is fifty million pounds is that it?
1:00:06
Speaker 2: And just as a frame of reference, I'd remind you
1:00:09
Speaker 2: that the garden Bridge project in London, which achieved absolutely nothing.
1:00:16
Speaker 2: Somebody drew some stuff and then made a model and
1:00:18
Speaker 2: that cost fifty three million quid. And yet farmers are
1:00:22
Speaker 2: being apparently sweetened with a fifty million pound offering to
1:00:26
Speaker 2: go to all of them. So that's the state that
1:00:30
Speaker 2: the state of the disdain with which government treats the
1:00:34
Speaker 2: farmers that it says that it respects and wants to support. Now,
1:00:40
Speaker 2: just to wind up vaguely related to agricultural rural matters,
1:00:45
Speaker 2: I'm going to share a short video which I think
1:00:47
Speaker 2: encapsulates very many of the things that we see going
1:00:51
Speaker 2: on in the background in the United Kingdom in twenty
1:00:53
Speaker 2: twenty six. This is how you deal with the flood. Apparently,
1:01:50
Speaker 2: thankfully she survived to tell the tale, so I hope
1:01:53
Speaker 2: that brings a smile.
1:01:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Charles, I'm not sure which was worse, the
1:01:59
Speaker 1: fact that she didn't want to get out of her
1:02:01
Speaker 1: car or the fact that the farbergate felt she needed
1:02:04
Speaker 1: some kind of floating fluciation need. But anyway, we could
1:02:07
Speaker 1: talk about that an extra as well. Look, we've got
1:02:10
Speaker 1: to leave it there for today. I want to say
1:02:12
Speaker 1: thank you very much to Vanessa and Charles for joining
1:02:14
Speaker 1: me today and for everybody that's been watching. Stick around
1:02:18
Speaker 1: for the News Extra in a couple of minutes. If
1:02:21
Speaker 1: your UK column members stay on the live stream otherwise,
1:02:24
Speaker 1: consider joining us and then you can join us for
1:02:26
Speaker 1: News Extra each time we do a news program. Don't
1:02:28
Speaker 1: forget Carl and Jeram tonight and also the interview with
1:02:33
Speaker 1: Dan tomorrow, and we'll be back one pm as usual
1:02:37
Speaker 1: for more news on Monday Friday.
1:02:40
Speaker 4: See them bye,