Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News Podcast 7th March 2025

Transcript

UK Column News Podcast 7th March 2025 · UK Column Radio

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: It's Friday, the seventh of March twenty twenty five, just
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Colin News. I'm your
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: host Matt Grumson. Joining me in the studio today is
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Patrick Hennickson. Welcome to the program. Patrick, great to be
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: with you, Mike, and by video link we have Mark Anderson.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Now we're going to begin with the Shenanigans in Europe
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: with the Ukraine EU deal or whatever it is, because
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: apparently the EU's decided to re arm so Ukraine's President
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Zelenski had the begging ball out again yesterday when he
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: was meeting the EU leaders at this meeting to rearm Europe.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Prior to the meeting, at Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: who's the former President of the European Council and a
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: rabbit anti Russian extremist, expressed concern about the US, saying
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that the US has become a more demanding and complicated partner,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: but by strengthening our own defense Europe and ship and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: reinforced transatlantic relations. He couldn't have put it better, could he?
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, okay, right, okay.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Well, Tusk was one of the most enthusiastic proponents of
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: EU defense. And while he did work for the EU,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: but while he was in Brussels yesterday, aside from hugging everyone,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Zelenski was begging for continued support to achieve what he
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: was describing as a fair and lasting piece, including a
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: truce in air and on the sea, as well as.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: A prisoner release deal.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And he was demanding that any deal should not come
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: at the cost of giving up Ukraine.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So here he is, we can.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: See him doing the runds, hugging everyone. When he gets
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: to the women in the room, of course it gets
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a bit more hands on, as we'll see in the second.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: He's the head of Europe. This is the new king
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: of the EU. I mean, look at how they fed
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: him and treat him basically like he's walking off of
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: super yacht as he enters the room. I mean, this
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: guy has got incredible gravitas.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Mike, Well, the gravitas is one way to put it.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, even orban Uh did shake his hand, although
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: no hugs from Orban. There's there's a tusk and then
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: we get the hands on the hips there.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Cali callus callous by name, callous by nature.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so so he did the rons, but unfortunately Patrick,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: some people felt that this deserved well. It was a
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: bit of an open mic segment.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: The hot mike. We've got the hot mic, don't we
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: thanks to our friend Jose Vega in New York City.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Let's uh, let's cut to Jose and listen to this
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: hot mic.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: All of this is only trouble for Presidents Zelenski and
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: the EU as a whole. God, Yes, sir, thank you
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: for the money.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Yes, Oh I love your money too.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for the europe content.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: Thank you for the money too, thank you. Thank you
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: for buying Michael Kain, thank you, thank you for buying
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: my luck jurious cars. Thank you so much, Thank you
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: so much, mister president for the money, thank you. Oh,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: miss Millennia, love your Italian currency money, thank you so much. Yes, yes,
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: thank you, oh and thank you very good and yes,
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: oh my favorite.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Best of you.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: You're going to be a good boy. Yes, thank you, Oh,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: thank you, thank you so much. Yes, thank you for
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: the money. Yes, thank you for the money. Yes, thank
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: you thank you for the money. Yes, yes, no, I'm
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: happy to be here.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And where's my chair?
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: It's my chair.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: The big one. Am I in the middle.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I mean it is a client show, so you know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: on one hand, we shouldn't be making fun of it,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: but on the other hand, we should absolutely incessantly be
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: making fun of it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: And it is kind of a joke. He's dressed up
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: in his pajamas, showing up asking for billions, wearing high
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: tech kids hiking boots. I mean, this guy is unbelievable,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: but he commands so much in Europe these days.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Absolutely no, of course, he was saying he wanted to
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: some kind of ceasefire deal to deal with air and sea,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: which is perhaps a bit ironic because the UK has
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: just announced a new deal to send drones to Ukraine.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: So it's okay, it's only thirty million pounds, which isn't
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: much in the greater scheme of things, but the Ministry
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: of Defense says that this is going to boost Ukraine's
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: capabilities to tackle Russian aggression in the Black Sea. And
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: this follows they say over ten thousand drones delivered to
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the front line so far. Well, coming back to the
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: EU summit, Ursula Vonda Lyon, president of the Commission, had
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: this to say as she was announcing eight hundred billion
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: euros are spending on war or up to eight hundred
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: billion euros, I should say, because well, let's listen to
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: what she said.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: First of all, I wanted to thank you Antonio that
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: you convened this extraordinary UKOM because I think today history
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: is being written. We are coming out of this European
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: Council very determined to ensure Europe's security and to act
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: with the scale, the speed and the resolve that this
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: situation demands. We are determined to invest more, to invest better,
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: and to invest faster. Together, from Paris to London to Brussels,
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: we have shown that we're willing and able to step
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: up our joint efforts and to coordinate effectively. The fact
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: is that Europe is facing a clear and present danger,
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: and this is why I presented the re arm Your
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Plan today to the Leaders, a plan to give Europe
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: the military capability that it needs to face today's threats.
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: It could mobilize up to eight hundred billion euros, and
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: it is about taking more responsible on our shoulders for
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: our own security because the urgency is real. And therefore
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: we agreed that, with the support of the Leaders, the
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: Commision will present before the next European Council, the regular
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: European Council in March, the detailed legal proposals.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so yes, as you say, before the new German
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: government comes in.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they have to pass it otherwise it's not going
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: to make it in Germany. We have to ram it
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: through before the new trancellor is sworn in. Right.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: You noticed that she said they're from Paris to London
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: to Brussels. I thought that was significant. We must remember
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to reinforce this. The idea of a
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: European defense union has been driven by the UK French
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: access from the beginning from nineteen eighty four onwards. But anyway,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: let's have a look at what she's intending to do
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: with this rearmed europe business. So first of all, they're
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: going to allow member states to increase war spending without
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: triggering what's called the excessive deficit procedure. This is otherwise
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: known as a national escape clause. It suspends budget rules,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: it allows governments, This is the member states governments greater
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: flexibility over public funding. And so you know, this eight
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: hundred billion euro number is based on this, and it's
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: based on this new clause, releasing an average a one
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: point five percent defense spending increased per member state, so
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: that's what they're.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Talking about there.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Then on top of that, we've got E loans to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: member states for war spending of one hundred and fifty
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: billion euros. On top of that, we have encouragement for
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: private investment by accelerating the Savings and Investment Union. So
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: you remember, the European Union is a pan national political
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: and economic organization which is made up itself of other unions.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: So we've got the Banking Union, you've got the monetary Union,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: we've got a Savings and Investment Union. We're now building
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: a defense union in the EU. And then they went
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: on to talk about encouraging private investment through the European
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Investment Bank. And finally the fifth of her things was
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: direct more warm on they are sort of more sorry,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: direct more money to war related investments using the EU budget.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Now it's not exactly clear what that means at this stage,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: but anyway, that in total then is supposed to create
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: eight hundred billion euros over the next four years.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: That's not counting mike overruns and cost budget overruns. It's
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: probably going to be more like a trillion. So that's
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: going to average out to I don't know, per member state.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: This is all debt, Mic.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Well, this is the point you've been making for the
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: last number of weeks. This cannot work without the deficit spending.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And you said a couple of weeks ago that it
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: was unlikely that they would pursue that. But then what
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: have they gone and done. They've gone and suspended their
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: own rules to enable that deficit spending.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know what that means. You know it's coming.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: It's the big A word. And that brings us to
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: this article in the Financial Times here talk about bourgeois
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: par clutching. Europe must trim its welfare state to build
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: a warfare state. This is from the Financial Times. I mean,
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: what a crass headline, an article by Jannan Ganesh here,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: who can often be seen sipping coffee in the most
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: expensive cafes on the Champs de Liche. There's no way
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: of defending the continent without cuts and social spending. This
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: is what it's all about, Mike. It's about austerity. So
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: piled debt on all of the EU member states, including
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: the unofficial EU member state, which is the United Kingdom,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: piled debt on these countries, cut social spending in order
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: to build up for war. I mean, this is exactly
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: what you just showed on your previous slides, Mike. Is
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: very similar to the not unlike let's say, the economic
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: model that was the brainchild behind the Nazi war machine,
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: building up Nazi Germany through selected corporations and then really
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: turbocharging the direct foreign investment. Because the profits that were
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: made during the buil of Nazi Germany's war machine, which
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: is incredible and everybody wanted a piece of that. It's
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: also very much reflective of Mussolini's fascist model in Italy.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: And this is what's going to happen. These defense companies
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: are going to become a central part of the new
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: war state. Okay. And by the way, if you put
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: your money in defense stocks in Europe right now, you're
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: going to make more money than putting it into gold.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: The last couple of months, the defense stocks in Europe
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: are through the roof. Who is putting the money in
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: those How many these people in the European Parliament Ursula Vanderlin,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: how much did she make off vaccines? Fact? Remember that
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: scandal which she deleted her text messages. These people are
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: making a heist all the way to the bank and
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: guess what's going to happen, austerity, social programs. The middle
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: class is going to get slaughtered during this period, but
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the elites are going to do better than ever. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: that's ladies and gentlemen, what this is really all about.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: But just very briefly, let's introduce the coven.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Ah. Yes, well, you know amongst the warhawks here, we're
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: calling this the euro Coven. Meet the tough woman leaders
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: taking on Vladimir Putin. We'll start with their Ursul Evanderlin
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: and you have Maya Sandhu. She's the president Moldova. Kalia Kalis,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: we showed her former Estonian leader, now deputy Foreign Affairs
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: person for the European Commission. Then Sona Marine there in
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: the bottom. She's temporarily out for the moment. And then
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Anolina Berbach Mike, who I hope you would be happy
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: to know Mike that she is being recruited for the
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Tony Blair Institute. There's a nice position for her. And
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: then this is the new deputy of Ursula. I think
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: she's going to be taking over as head of the
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: euro Coven. This is Mette Frederiksen from Denmark and she
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: has turned out to be the biggest voice for war,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: for spending, for defeating Russia. And what these women are saying,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Mike on record is that we need to defeat Russia
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: so that we can show that we can defeat China.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: So what happened You remember back in the eighties during
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: the Cold War, when everyone said it's because the men
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: are in charge. It's because of the men that we
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: have all this war. If only the women were in charge,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: we'd have world peace. I'm afraid that's not the case.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: No, and I mean Hillary Clinton was a perfect demonstration
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: of that.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So this euro coven backed up by an army
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: of beta males in suits. Okay, this is an absolute nightmare.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: And they do this every time. They'll push the women
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: to the front to do the dirty work for the
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: establishment because somehow, for the liberal classes it's much more palatable.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: We're holding out hope that maybe maybe Georgia Maloney will
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: somehow break out as the rebel amongst this coven and
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: thwart their efforts. But we're still waiting.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Well, in the meantime, as we know, kir Starmer announced
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: the Coalition of the Willing, and one thing we didn't
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: discuss about that is where we heard that term before.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: But anyway, we'll talk about that an extra Perhaps the
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: question is who's going to join?
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Well, nobody knows exactly.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: What we do know is that Britain is being driven
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: is being driven by Sorry, that the whole thing is
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: being driven by Britain and France, which is, as I
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: mentioned earlier on surprising since the U Defens has been
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: a British French project from the beginning. Now, Macron said
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: that the plan would begin with a one month truce
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: between Ukraine and Russia and that any deployment of peacekeeping
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: troops would come only after that. He told that the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: figure out on Sunday. But Starma isn't quite so certain
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: about that. Two countries which will definitely not be part
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: of the coalition of the willing or hungry at Hungary
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: and Slovakia with Urban and Feto seeking the kaibosh the whole.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Thing, and maybe Malonia as well. We have to wit
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and see.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: But where does that take us, because in the United
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: States in the meantime, Trump is playing his games as
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: usual and cutting off intelligence.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Well, this is the big one, Mike. You know. Cutting
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: out funding is one thing, because there was already billions
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: in the pipeline, so they still have time and money
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: and whatnot. But this, this is when things got really
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: serious for Zelenski and when you saw this story. We'll
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: put this back up on screen here. US cuts off
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: intelligence sharing with Ukraine, flesh up fresh blow to embattle
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: government in Kieva's. Trump administration shifts on conflict. So what
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: exactly is going on here? I'm reading this differently, Mike.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: This a is showing that the US is dead serious
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: about bringing the conflict to an end. It's also I
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: think a safety measure from Washington, knowing that there are
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: rogue elements within NATO, rogue elements within the EU who
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: are backing Zelenski. Who in the past, whenever there's been
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: a breakthrough, you remember, Mike, there'll be some provocation or
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: strike of storm Shadow missiles inside mainland Russia, or blowing
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: up the kurt Straight Bridge, or attacking Crimea or sinking
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: a Russian ship or some thing. So this was always
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: done strategically by I don't know, I can't imagine who
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: would want to do such things, but there are privateers
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: out there within the NATO setup, and so I think
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: by cutting off intelligence sharing, that's the targeting. That's the reconnaissance.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: That's the really important part because troop movements, all of
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: that information that basically allows Ukraine to do things potentially
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: that would completely thwart and completely derail any negotiations because
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: you know, Russia's going to react anytime these attacks come.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: They're just going to hit back harder and then we're
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: back to square one again. So I think is this,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: to me, is one of the strongest signals. I think
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: that the Trump administration can show to their allies as
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: well as to Zelenski that they're serious.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: And the US has told the UK that under no
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: circumstances are the UK to channel US intelligence through UK systems.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: That is not to happen. So you know, if the
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: UK decides to have a go with that, perhaps that
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: puts five eyes at risk. Who knows, all right, but anyway,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Starlink has been a key feature of the UK Korean
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: conflict pretty much from the beginning.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's also a key feature of this intelligence network
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: MIC because this allows for connectivity for Ukrainian forces. Here.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Now you probably saw a few weeks ago this story here,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: the US could cut off Ukraine's access to Starlink internet
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: services over the minerals deal. Okay, so this thing has developed,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and of course this brings Elon Musk right back in
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: the frame. And just on top of this here the
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: reaction is look at this Britain and France plot to
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: replace Musk's Starlink and Ukraine one Web will bring this
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: up on screen here one Web, a UK based subsidiary
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: of the French satellite company utel Sat, ready to swiftly
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: deploy new receivers to help the war efforts. So this
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: is very interesting here, and I thought there's another interesting
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: stink footnote. Look at this that in fact Starlink satellite
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: internet services have been a lifeline to Ukrainian soldiers and
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: drone pilots that's the key drone pilots, but has been
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: financed partly by the US Department of Defense. Ah, there
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: you go, funding cuts potentially is dovetailing there. And then
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: around half of the forty two thousand Starlink terminals on
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: the ground in Ukraine are paid for.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: By Poland's Donald Tusk.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Again, there you go. So the Polish deeply involved and
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: deeply invested in this part of the story here. But
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: what's also interesting here we'll show this too. Shares in
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: Utah SAT which is ten percent owned by the UK taxpayer,
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: and that dominant Cummings helped to save that project there
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty have risen by two hundred percent since Friday. Wow.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: So if you knew this was coming, yes, and you
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: could park your money there like Nancy Pelosi with some
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: great insider trading knowledge. So that's what it is. So
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: let me just bring us back to the as of Stall,
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: remember the as of Stall siege May twenty twenty two
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: months into this conflict. Here. Now, Elon Musk has been
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: tweeting out feverishly recently Mike saying we need to get
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: out of Ukraine. This is an unwinnable war. We shouldn't
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: be sending Zelenski our money. Elon Musk is flip flops
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: by the day. Whichever way the wind's blowing, he will
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: set his sail in that direction. But here is what
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Elon was up to back then. And we'll go forward here.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry if we take that off screen, Yeah, go
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: on ahead, there we go. Here we go. So this
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: this was from a testimony of the captured commander of
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: the thirty sixth Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces Ukraine.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: And basically it turns out that the Internet satellite terminals.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: This is back in May twenty twenty two of Elon
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: Musk's Starlink satellite company were delivered to the militants of
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: the Nazi Azol Battalion and Ukrainian Marines at Mariopol by
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: military helicopters. According to our information, delivery of Starlink equipment
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: was carried out by the Pentagon. Elon Musk thus is
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: involved in supplying the fascist forces in Ukraine with the
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: military and Elon's response to this at the time on
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: social media was to say, the word quote Nazi doesn't
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: mean what he seems to think it does. That's a
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: bit ironic coming from Elon, especially from his exploits of
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: late here. And then when he was called out about this,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: this was his response, and this is very telling. He said,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: there are no angels in war. That's May ninth, twenty
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: twenty two. So that's the attitude then. And then it
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: got more interesting. This is just in November twenty twenty four,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: and basically the Bulwark ran a piece accusing Elon or
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: being putin stooge. So and of course Elon's defenders here
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Alex and one of the gold Lion accounts or whatever.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: You're basically saying, the leftist media machine is attacking our leader, Elon.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: And so this was Elon's response. And you'll notice Elon
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: does this all the time, Mike. He always pivots and
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: panics and pivots. So here's the story there in the Bulwark,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: and here's Elon's response. He's basically saying, I was a
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: major factor for why Ukraine was not overrun by Russia.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: It's because of Starlink. And he's basically saying Starlink is
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: the backbone of the Ukrainian military communications at the front
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: lines because everything else has been blown up or jammed
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: by Russia. So he's saying, because of Elon and Starlink,
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: the war has been able to keep going, the same war.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Elon is now saying, Oh, we need to stop this
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: senseless war. All these poor Ukrainian man who've died on
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: the front lines. It's what an injustice, says Elon last week.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: So that's the real Elon Musk A total opportunity, absolutely,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: a total opportunity, is a chameleon and a political shape
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: shifter that is really only caring about one thing, and
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: that's this right.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: So yeah, and of course Mark, let's welcome you to
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: the program. Any or any war situation requires rebuilding afterwards
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: and well later on the year, in a couple of months,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: the Ukraine Recovery Conference will be taking place.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: That is correct. Good day, gentlemen, Good day listeners and viewers.
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: Ukraine Recovery Conference. I'm mainly reporting this today as an announcement.
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: It's quite a ways down the road. It's in July,
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: but I'll look at this first item here and just
• 21:46
  Speaker 6: cite the basic information and there'll be more news as
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: this gets closer. They're not releasing a lot of details
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: right now, but what we do know is what it
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: says here. The fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference for this year,
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: this is the fourth year of the Recovery Conference, will
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: take place in Rome the tenth and eleventh of July,
• 22:04
  Speaker 6: continuing the annual series of high level political events for
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: what they're calling the swift recovery and long term reconstruction
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full scale war
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: of aggression quote unquote against Ukraine. Governments, international organizations, financial institutions, businesses, regions,
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: municipalities and civil society will come together once again united
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: by a shared commitment, they say, to strengthen the resilience
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: of Ukraine for as long as needed. The event is
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: based on the Logano principles. I'll mention briefly that in
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty three, I believe Ukraine Recovery Conference took place
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: in London and I did a report a little more
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: extensive than today. Today is just an update to make
• 22:48
  Speaker 6: sure that we show our audience that we're paying attention.
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: And at that time a lot of very heavy handed
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: financial interests were there in what looks like a ongoing
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: long term effort to carve up Ukraine for the their
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: own interests. Like we mentioned recently, it looks like the
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: countries practically being put into receivership. We'll see how that
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: pans out. Now. The Logano principles are worth noting briefly.
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: They stem from, excuse me, the Iguano Switzerland meeting that
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: took place. For the record, prior to Russia entering Ukraine,
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: there were four meetings called the Ukraine Reform Conference, and
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: then there have been I believe that twenty twenty five
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: will be the fourth recovery conference. They only skip twenty
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: twenty due to the COVID pandemic, and so this has
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: been going on since twenty seventeen, starting with reform conferences.
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: So a lot of things have been in the pipeline
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: for a very long time, and they just changed it
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: to recovery once the war began. But I want to
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: cite those principles. Those principles include partnership, reform focus, putting
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: Ukraine on a European path, transparentency, accountability, and the rule
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: of law. You might want to put quotes around that
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: one democratic participation, multi stakeholder engagement, typical global easee language here,
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: gender equality, inclusion. But number seven is of course very notable.
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: Rebuild Ukraine, excuse me, in a sustainable manner, aligned with
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: a twenty thirty Agenda for Sustainable Development, and in alignment
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: with the Paris Agreement. So they'll plug it in on
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: a europath, a European path, but definitely in a globalist configuration.
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: So that's a little bit of an indication of where
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: they want to take Ukraine. But it's going to be
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: a lot of business interests as well as government that
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: are going to carve up and reorient Ukraine according to
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: their globalist insights and their globalist designs.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: So back to you guys, I just want to comment
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: to Mark the Lugano principles. So they've been working on
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: this for many years. You've said transparency, anti corruption failure there,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: democracy complete failure. There, a europath that's a dead end.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: And then rebuilding Ukraine. Everything that needs to be rebuilt
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: is going to be under Russian control. So the whole thing,
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: it's a total wash. What a joke?
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed?
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, Well, well, in the meantime, John Healey has been
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: in the USA to meet Pete Hexath, claiming to heal
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: the unparalleled depth of the UK special relationship with the US,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: as the quote the UK's closest security ally, as both
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: nations continue to collaborate on military operations, peace keeping, intelligence
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: gathering and development of advanced technologies, bolstering its security and
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: supporting economic growth. I mean, the language that comes out
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: of these people is it's just nonsense. But I mean
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: the visit also comes at the conclusion of the fiftieth
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: occurrents of Exercise Red Flag in Nevada, which is a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: joint exercise with the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: So that's all going on at that time. But discussions
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: are also expected with how Seth also expected to cover
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: deepening the UK US defense relationship. Sorry just yeah. But
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: also for discussion is probably the fact that Britain has
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: no independent nuclear deterrent, contrary to British regime claims. This
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: is The Times here is even acknowledging this, So they're
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: expressing perhaps an increasingly panicked view amongst defense experts that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: the Trump administration might withdraw access to Trent and missiles. Now,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: The Times quotes Nicholas Drummond, who's a defense industry analyst,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: and he says that Drummond says he believes it's extremely
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: unlikely Trump would cut off UK access to Trent missiles
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: because it would be quotes a strategic betrayal on a
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: grand scale that would damage him and America. But the
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: same man also warned that Britain needed a plan B.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: He said that when it comes to support and maintenance,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: I would say that we are largely dependent on the
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: US for parts and technical assistance. If this was withdrawn,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: it would also weaken our deterrent. Can you imagine a
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: situation where Britain's relationship with America is fractured and they
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: refuse to give US missiles through the agreement that's in place.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: It would render the billions we've invested in dreadnought both useless.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: A terrifying thought. Anyone who suggested this year ago, he said,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: would have been dismissed as an idiot. Now it's a
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: scenario for which we need to plan now. The Times
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: also reports that Britain originally bought fifty eight Trient missiles
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: as part of the stockpile at Kings Bay, Georgia, which
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: is the home base for US Ohio class submarines, in
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: two thousand and eight. They report there were fifty left
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: following test firings, and of course in recent years the
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: two test firings that have taken place failed miserably, But
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: the Times reports to the side from those deployed, the
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: missiles are held in a communal pool in Georgia, and
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: the Trident missiles in service or returned to the US
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: for periodic refurbishing. So you know, there is no question
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: therefore that the UK actually does not have a an
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: independent nuclear de terrent. In fact, France is the only
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: European country with that capability.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's kind of amazing to see the last
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: time the British tried to try to defive missile misfired
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: off the coast of Florida last year, having trouble with
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: the avionics. I think maybe if they can kind of
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: go into partnership with Kim Jong un in North Korea,
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: who's doing very well on his missile advancements and avionics,
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: maybe they could share intelligence and how to get that
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: thing to work. I think it could be good for
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: everybody quite possibly.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Anyway, let's move on then to Trump and NATO.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, as you said, Mike, the meeting, the conclave
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: in Washington all about defense. NATO's on the rocks. A
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: lot of rumors swirling around, Mike that Trump's going to
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: announce He's dangling the sort of damocles over Europe's neck.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: He's going to announce he might pull out of NATO.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Watch this casual conversation from the US president. Here we go.
• 28:57
  Speaker 7: On Peter's question, are you going to make that policy
• 28:59
  Speaker 7: US policy that wouldn't defend NATO countries that don't pay.
• 29:02
  Speaker 7: I think it's common sense right if they don't pay,
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: I'm not going to defend them.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: No, I'm not going to defend him. I got into
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of heat.
• 29:09
  Speaker 7: When I said that, you said, oh, he's violating NATO.
• 29:13
  Speaker 7: And you know the biggest problem I have with NATO,
• 29:14
  Speaker 7: I really you know, I mean, I know the guy's
• 29:17
  Speaker 7: very well. They're friends of mine. But if the United
• 29:21
  Speaker 7: States was in trouble and we called them, we said,
• 29:25
  Speaker 7: we got a problem, France, we got a problem.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: A couple of others I won't match.
• 29:33
  Speaker 7: Do you think they're going to come and protect us
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: they're supposed to, I'm not so sure. You know what, Japan,
• 29:41
  Speaker 7: You know what, Japan, we have a deal which is
• 29:43
  Speaker 7: a very interesting one.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: And I love Japan.
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: We have a great relationship with Japan. But we have
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them,
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: but they don't have to protect us. You know that.
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: That's the way the deal is.
• 29:56
  Speaker 7: We have to protect Japan, and by the way, they
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: make a fortune with us economically.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: There's another case.
• 30:03
  Speaker 7: But we have to protect Japan, but under no circumstances
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: do they have to protect us.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: He of course, Donald's not telling the whole story there.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: The US forbid Japan from building a national military after
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: World War Two because of World War two, and they
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: did the same with Germany. So the quid pro quo
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: is we will occupy you militarily so you don't have
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: to have a military yourself. But this is all World
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Wrestling Federation posturing of fake play by Trump. What he's
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: doing here is all part of a grander negotiation. I'm
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: sure that includes the tariff wars that are coming as
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: well as well. Look, let's face it, Mike bankrupting the
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: European middle class by plunging Europe into debt, so it'll
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: blow all its money on defense. And who is the
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: biggest defense manufacturer in the world. It's the United States
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: of America, so they will also be profiting off of this.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: So I thought that was rather interesting.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: But in the meantime, Starmer and Macron, considering occupying Zelenski,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: are accompanying Zelensky to the White House for his second visit,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: because clearly he's not capable of looking after himself while he's.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: There exactly, So this is more like escorting, or which
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: shall we say, chaperoning the little green man from Kiev.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: He's going to need help just in case he throws
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: a wobbler again. During a press conference, he looked a
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: little bit disheveled. Maybe he was pulling an old Nier
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: with Sean Penn before that meeting with Trump. We're not sure.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: It just didn't go well. So I don't think Macron
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: and Starmer won't leave anything to chance. Next time, they're saying,
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: don't worry, little Vola, we're going to be your escorts
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: and make sure that you sign. You put your hand
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: and put your pen on that paper and sign that deal.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Indeed, Okay, let's move on. If you like what the
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: UK Column does, you'd like to support us. Support dot
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: UK column dot org is the place to go. There
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: are options there. You can make a donation, join us
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: as a member. Do join us as a member. It
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: gives you access to the forums and to member exclusive content.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: You could pick something up from the UK Column shop
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: or from Clivedecarl dot com, where we do get a
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: small commission for anything you buy from there as long
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: as you use that link. But if you can't do
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: any of that, that's fine. Please at least share the
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: material you find and on the UK Column website in particular,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: and that will help us beat the sensors. Now another
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: reminder of UK Column on location Saturday, the fifth of
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: April twenty twenty five. Tickets going fast as we've said,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Catherine Gunn, Alex Thompson, Patrick Houkson, Raj and Maya and
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Brian will be speaking. There will also be a Q
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: and A with the UK Column and of course there
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: is a bar in the room that we're in at
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: once the event is over, So if you'd like to
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: join us for a bit of a social afterwards, that
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: is absolutely would be fantastic as well, So do pick
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: up a ticket for that if you possibly can. The
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: interview that Brian put out yesterday, A Child Snatched, is
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: available on the UK Column website. Now please have a
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: look at this and the others in this series, because
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: you know, this is something that we have been trying
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: to pull the lid off for many many years and
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: we would appreciate everybody's help help in dealing with this situation. Mark,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: very briefly, your article on Guernsey is up on the website.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: At the moment.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: You're muted Mark, Okay, Fred, your audio is not working,
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: so if you could maybe try to rejoin the connection,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: that'll be great. So anyway, you have a look at
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Mark's article on the tiny island that beat the bankers
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: for twenty years of monetary freedom and also an announcement
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: that James Rogowski will be joining us on the news
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: program next week, So do join us next Friday for
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: that an announcement of the Truth Be Told March. That's
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: happening at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, opposite outside Dining Street. We're
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: marking the day of reflection, but we believe reflection demands truth.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: So this, of course is the fifth anniversary of the
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: beginning of the lockover lockdowns and so on. So that's
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: one pm Sunday, the ninth of March. As many people
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: as possible, hopefully we'll be able to join that.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Are you back with this mark? No, he's not.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, right, Okay, we will move along. Then we'll come
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: back to this story later on. And let's have a
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: look at the situation with privacy in the UK. They
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: fight between Apple and the British government continues. The intelligence
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: agencies have begun the process of deleting advice they used
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: to give for people to protect their data. So here's
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: the document from the NCSC National Cybersecurity Center entitled Cybersecurity
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Tips for Barristers, solicitors and legal professionals is just one example.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: It was very clear that such people, at least as
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: far as this document is concerned, should be using encryption
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: to protect their data. So let's just have a look
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: that a bit closer. So turn on encryption and that
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: includes advanced data protection for iCloud, which of course is
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: the thing which the UK government has attacked that Apple,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: the service that Apple was providing. So that's that recommendation. Unfortunately,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: if you go to the same page today, this is
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: what you'll find. Sorry, the page that you're looking for
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: isn't here because they are starting to remove that content
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: from the Internet. In the meantime, I'm really happy to
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: say that a number of mainstream news articles reporting that
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Apple has filed a legal complaint with the UK's Investigtary
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Powers Beunal to challenge the British regimes order that it
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: must forcibly break the encryption of icloude data. Now, the
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Financial Times is the we've chosen here because they broke
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: the story in the first place. But if you remember,
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Apple has now removed advanced data protection facility from British
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: customers so that it doesn't have to comply, or at
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: least they think that means that it doesn't have to
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: comply with the demand to create a backdoor on their
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: encryption algorithms. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is an independent judicial
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: body and it's supposed to oversee legal complaints against potential
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: lawful actions by public authorities or by the UK Intelligence
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: services and the ft reports that should the case be heard,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: sorry that the case should be heard as soon as
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: this month, although it's unclear whether there'll be any public
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: disclosure of the hearing. Well, they're saying suggesting it's unclear
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: that there would be a public disclosure, But I am
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: going to suggest that it's very clear there'll be no
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: public disclosure of the hearing. And that's because the only
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: reason we know about this story at all is because
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: it was leaked to the press in the first place.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: And since the Investigatory Powers legislation demands total secrecy over
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: these issues, it's that we're not going to get any
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: announcement from the government, and probably not from the Tribunal itself. Now.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Although Apple has removed advanced data protection from British customers,
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: the British government is still claiming that Apple needs to
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: comply with the court order and provide a backdoor, and
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: so therefore that's still a risk as far as people
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: and other jurisdictions are concerned. As we reported last week,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Tulsy Gabard is nice seeking clarity on whether or not
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: Britain's actions are a breach of the Clyde Act, which
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: is a treaty with the US, and as we mentioned
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: last week, she wrote to two US congress people saying,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: my lawyers are working to provide a legal opinion on
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: the implications of the reported UK demands against Apple and
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Bilateral Cloud Act agreement. So you know, at the heart
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: of this is the provision in the Investigatory Par's Amendment
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Act of last year of the so called of these
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: so called technical capability notices. Now, these compel companies to
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: build and or maintain technical capabilities to respond to what
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: the government calls lawful requests for data under the Investigatory
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Pars Act. And as I say, the issuing of these
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: notices is supposed to remain secret, but as this case demonstrates,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: good luck with that, because you know, these companies aren't
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: going to continue to accept this kind of behavior, it
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: seems in many cases. And I just want to remind
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: every one of one other discussing aspect of all this.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: The reason the government wants back door access is that
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: otherwise they would have to get a court order to
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: require someone suspected of a crime to give up the
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: keys to their encrypted data, and they'd have to do
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: that on an individual basis. And now, the penalty for
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: not giving up keys to encrypted data at the moment
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: is a maximum two years in prison if I were
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: to be required to do this, for example, most offenses
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: that they're trying to use the encrypted data, you know,
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: as prosecution evidence for for example, child pornography, pornography would
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: have a penalty which is much greater than the two
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: years in prison that you get for not giving up
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: the keys. So, if you're genuinely innocent or you have
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: some integrity, the two years penalty looks pretty grim. But
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: if you're actually guilty of something, it's a cheap way
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: or you know, a short way to serve your time.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: So it's great for the pedophile, but it's not so
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: great for the journalist or the political activist.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: Interesting, yeah, it's really incentivizing the wrong behavior.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: I regret to say Mark has not managed to make
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: it back with us at this point. So let's see
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: what is next, Macron.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: And by the way, good to see Tulci Gabbard weighing
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: in on that important issue where you know, obviously we're
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: very critical of her appointment for other reasons, but we
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: applaud any positive move that any of these officials make,
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: so credit where credits due.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, okay, Mark, are you with us again?
• 40:21
  Speaker 6: I can hear you, but I can't see you believe
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: it or not?
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: Okay, well, no, we're good, We're good. Okay, got it?
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, right, Well let's let's come to your your segment
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: on Builderberg.
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: Then okay, that's that's fine. The we'll have to have
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: you move the slides on your end. Just a note, Yeah,
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: I was looking for Builderberg information about where they're going
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: to meet, trying to confirm it for this coming late
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: May early June. I wasn't successful yet, but I ran
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: across something very interesting here. The School for four Studies,
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: the Georgetown School of International Affairs. The Georgetown Journal of
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: International Affairs is the associated newspaper with the School for
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: Foreign Service. That's actually what it's called, the School for
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: Foreign Service, the Edmund A. Walsh School for Foreign Service.
• 41:16
  Speaker 6: This is the main school through which the US Diplomatic
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: Corps is trained to be our ambassadors and many of
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: those people have been Council on Foreign Relations members, who
• 41:26
  Speaker 6: of course are plugged in many years, many of the
• 41:29
  Speaker 6: time to Builderberg, and they have joined other think tanks
• 41:34
  Speaker 6: and been associated with other think tanks that are part
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: of the Builderberg universe. And so it's very significant that
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: the School for Foreign Studies would publish an article on
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: Builderberg at all, let alone an article that's rather critical
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: or at least nominally critical of the organization. That's kind
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: of the news here. We'll take a look at the
• 41:55
  Speaker 6: author real quick, and this is Lucas Cantor. He wrote
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: the article and then the School for Foreign Service published
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: it at Georgetown, which is on the outskirts of Washington,
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: d C. He's a Czech researcher and academic expert, they
• 42:10
  Speaker 6: say on the Bilderberg meetings, formerly with the Faculty of
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague, where he published
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: two articles on Bilderberg. Canter also served at the Press
• 42:22
  Speaker 6: Department of the Czech government, so he's been inside the
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: civic body there and has worked in journalism and public relations. Now,
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: it's notable that I've been aware for actually a few
• 42:33
  Speaker 6: years now that there's been these academic studies on Bilderberg.
• 42:38
  Speaker 6: Most of them kind of dismissed Buildeberg's significance. They didn't
• 42:43
  Speaker 6: go very deeply into that significance. And I put him aside,
• 42:47
  Speaker 6: not really thinking much of them. They were kind of
• 42:49
  Speaker 6: dry in terms of their writing style. But when I
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: saw that essay being published by that School for Foreign Service,
• 42:59
  Speaker 6: that really eye and it's actually kind of an interview
• 43:02
  Speaker 6: with Lucas Canter based on his writings. Is what it
• 43:06
  Speaker 6: actually is. And this is what Lucas had to say.
• 43:08
  Speaker 6: This is among two things that I quoted him on.
• 43:12
  Speaker 6: For one thing, he said, I do not want to
• 43:14
  Speaker 6: demonize Builderberg, as many critics do, but I also do
• 43:17
  Speaker 6: not want to whitewash it as some advocates tend to do.
• 43:21
  Speaker 6: Both of these extremes are misleading, and we need to
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: find a balanced position in between, although it's not easy.
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: And he went on to say, there are legitimate concerns.
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: Each time politicians and business people meet behind closed doors,
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: elites have disproportionate power. Fraternizations, including those at Builderberg, enhance
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: that power. So he's knocking on the door of getting
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: this thing right. And here we have an elitist school
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: through which Bilderberg members and attendees have passed through to
• 43:53
  Speaker 6: get their education, and that school is publishing this article
• 43:57
  Speaker 6: again that's a little bit critical of Bilderberg, and it's
• 44:01
  Speaker 6: either a limited hangout to try and create some damage
• 44:05
  Speaker 6: control for Bilderberg, because more and more publications are actually
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: starting to talk about Bilderberg. Time magazine has had some
• 44:13
  Speaker 6: significant articles, which is pretty unprecedented in recent years, and
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: CBS is paying more attention and so on down the line. Anyway,
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: I have some articles on the UK column website that
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: I'll mention, and I believe I really get to the
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: core of what Builderberg is all about, above and beyond
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: what Lewis Cantor was putting down in his academic papers
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: which he was interviewed for at that website, and I
• 44:41
  Speaker 6: have two of them. This one is Bilderberg Beyond the Meetings,
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: Part two, Secretive Gatherings a collusive conduit for AI big
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: big media marriage, and that article talks about how the
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: artificial intelligence people such as Sam Altman in particular, are
• 44:56
  Speaker 6: aligning themselves with big media. And my approach has been
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: to get beyond the meetings, not only look at those
• 45:03
  Speaker 6: all important annual meetings, but look at the fallout and
• 45:07
  Speaker 6: the long term plans and programs and ramifications of Builderberg,
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: and that goes a much That goes much further in
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: explaining what they're about and getting at their significance beyond
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: what mister Canter was willing to reveal, although he did
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: a pretty good job insofar as what they published. So
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: readers and viewers can check out those two articles I
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: put on your website, and I believe that really cuts
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: to the core of what modern day Builderberg is all about.
• 45:33
  Speaker 6: And of course I'll be looking more for where they'll
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: be meeting because those even though I'm looking beyond the meetings,
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: those meetings are still very important. I believe Patrick had
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: heard they might meet in Stockholm, if I remember correctly.
• 45:44
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure that's one hundred percent true. Well, we'll
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: be looking at that and trying to cover that as
• 45:49
  Speaker 6: best we can, so we'll leave it at that for now.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir Mark, our member of our research cohort saying
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: Stockholm Switen is he believes that, and he's in Sweden.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: He believes that that's going to be the location. And
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: that also elevates the Wallenberg family to the top steering
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: committee level. That's the Wallenbergs of ericson Communications SOB and
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: all of the defense contractors in Sweden as well. So
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: interesting if that's the case, more power shifting up towards Scandinavia,
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: a little bit of an interesting shift in power.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: He shouldn't forget that young Stoltenberg preseason, not from Sweden,
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: but nonetheless scott Olavian and he is on the steering committee.
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: No, he's the new Yeah, he's the new boss Bilderberg.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: So yeah, that's incredibly interesting. So Mark, Yeah, this could
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: could be an interesting turn for Builderberg this year.
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: Mark briefly, let me mention real briefly that you jar
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: my memory. Patrick Cantor did put in his interview with
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: his School of Foreign Service at Georgetown that he did
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: confirm that Ursula Bounderlion got to where she was largely
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: because of Builderberg and as well as Bill Clinton on
• 47:07
  Speaker 6: our side of the pond. So he did go that far.
• 47:10
  Speaker 6: And it's just amazing that that School of Foreign Service
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: again where cefire big Thing tankers and Builderberger's themselves have
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: been trained. It's amazing that they even published that article.
• 47:20
  Speaker 6: So it's good news in that sense, though it may
• 47:22
  Speaker 6: be limited hangout for damage control, but we'll see.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very good, thank you, Mark.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's move back to the war policy then, Micron.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: Well this this video, I mean, as propaganda videos go, Mike,
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: this is just really something else. So Emmanuel Macron is
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: in full war mode. Take take a look at this
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: video that he is unleashed this week.
• 47:47
  Speaker 8: Geron pip de trasonrene h perce liberte meso not security,
• 48:04
  Speaker 8: came app a person, the proprietor a celerody prefer applice
• 48:13
  Speaker 8: la pe papulietry guarantie not continent mem least to.
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: A dollar.
• 48:21
  Speaker 8: Lucrane lamnes chris Ela a toucheli paid up to Larisia
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: deja fed. You can free Ukrainian and confremonial la mobile
• 48:30
  Speaker 8: disease or notre contino des Aldan nor Korean. They quip
• 48:34
  Speaker 8: more Irania two p a sarmede advantage. Larisi president putin
• 48:41
  Speaker 8: viol frontiers opposon many puree elections. Romani or Maldevi a
• 48:47
  Speaker 8: organ is the attacked numeric controno l function. Lariusi turned
• 48:54
  Speaker 8: to do many pleenos opinion like the Monsons difusies or
• 48:56
  Speaker 8: the resosociol test and no limit el fed only there
• 49:00
  Speaker 8: on the dnist pass. The cornet are civt the frontier
• 49:08
  Speaker 8: larisident don't continue. The army depends with the carrol A
• 49:15
  Speaker 8: said d C do mill trantl revoi don minisodes ple
• 49:23
  Speaker 8: Monte said, the police keep a don gi don't context
• 49:30
  Speaker 8: CALARIESI dolcino Larisi palpol monas Paul France regret long term
• 49:46
  Speaker 8: la p contini rode pacific medi situation degree.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: And for anybody just listening to that, if you want
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: to come and look at the video afterwards, the subtitles
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: are there in English of course.
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, So I mean, let's just how do you
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: break this down? He told so many lies during this,
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: so this guy is in full propaganda mood. Let's bring
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: this up on stage here. We're calling this the euro Warhawks.
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: We showed you the euro coven earlier. You could say
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: that Macron is part of that coven in a way,
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: if you know what I mean. But nonetheless, so look
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: at this, Let's just break down some of these lies.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: So the propaganda and lies are replete throughout everything that
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: he said. Number one, if one country can invade its neighbor.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: We can't be sure of anything. So this is part
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: of the big line mic that Ukraine is in the
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: heart of Europe. How many times do you hear Piers
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: Morgan say this. They all say it. No, no, no,
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: Ukraine is not in the heart of Europe. It's on
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: the fringe of Eastern Europe only Caucus and Eurasian border lands.
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: That's what Ukraine means, by the way, means border lands
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: in Russia. Oh and he's basically saying Russia, because they've
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: had this dispute over the Dombas, that the entirety of
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: Europe is in danger. Total propaganda. Secondly saying it's the
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: law of the strongest that applies, Well, excuse me very much,
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: but who occupies almost every single European country militarily?
• 51:18
  Speaker 6: Is it not?
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: The United States of America did not the law of
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: the strongest apply after World War Two? Is that not
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: the basis of the entire peace dividend? I mean, it's
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: just unbelievable, but it goes on. It gets better. Russia
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: has globalized the Ukraine War with North Korean troops and
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: Iranian equipment on our continent. First of all, there is
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: no evidence of these North Korean troops. It's a total lie.
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: It's a trope that's been used in Western media just
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: to row people up, to make it seem like it's globalized.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: So here you see the self flicking ice cream cone
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: of circular propaganda. Iranian equipment on our continent again, Ukraine,
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: the heart of Europe. There's Iranian equipment. There's equipment from
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty different countries right now in any
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: different How.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Much Russian equipment does Ukraine using How much?
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: No, No, there's plenty of Russian equipment on European soil
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: as well, So I mean exactly, and how much American
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: equipment is there on European source. It's just so ridiculous.
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: But anyway, here we go. President Putin manipulates our elections
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: in Romania. Excuse me, but this is just a patent lie.
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: It was the EU that canceled elections in the democratically
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: elected front runner Georgio. He basically got shafted. Callen got
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: shafted by the EU at the behest of the US
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: State Department. Okay, so let's just get that clear. A
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: total lie. Number five Putent organized digital attacks on our hospitals.
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: There's no evidence that this ever happened. This is a
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: complete lie, ladies and gentlemen. This is the president of
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: France talking here to his country Russia, manipulating our opinion
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: on social media. I don't really know where to start,
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: but I think jd Vance sort of set Europe straight
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: during the Munich Security Conference on that very point here.
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: But I saved the best for last, Mike, because it's
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: always good to fact check the president of a UN
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: Security Council member. Here, Russia spends forty percent of its
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: budget on military. Now, I thought, wow, that's quite a
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: high number. Let's take a look at that for a minute.
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: Let's just go straight here. This is the Stockholm International
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Peace Research Institute, and this ranks countries here. I've got
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: it sorted for. Let me see total spending. Let's take
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: a closer look at that. Of course, there's the United
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: States upwards of a trillion dollars there, nine hundred and
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: sixteen billion, second China. China a far second at two
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: nine to six billion, Russia just over one hundred billion
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: mic not bad for the largest land mass on the
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: planet with all those borders to defend. But look at
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: the GDP show there, Russia spending five point nine percent
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: of its GDP on defense. So how did he get
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: this figure that they spent forty percent of all their
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: money on military there, check that out, five percent, five
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: point nine percent of GDP. Let's just take a closer
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: look here by comparison, Look at this, Ukraine spends thirty
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: seven percent of its GDP.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: On closer to the forty percent.
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: That's closer to the forty percent. But what does that
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: tell you? They're losing the war and they're still spending
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: thirty seven percent. They're losing to Russia who's only spending
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: five point nine percent, plus all of their Asian borders
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: and so forth. But it gets better. Let's just take
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: a look here and another comparable expenditure here, let's just
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: talk about the US for a minute. Here there's the US.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: That's a total outline the US budget might from last year. Okay,
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: this is according to the Department of the Treasury, US
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: Treasury Department, six point seven trillion dollars, right, But that's
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: not their budget, is it, Mike? This is their budget
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: is four point nine trillion.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: That means the United States has a deficit spend of
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: one point eight trillion dollars per year, year on year
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: out just about two trillion dollars a year. That's how
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: the United States is able to have a military budget
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: that is so boted. Okay, and so let's look at
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: percentages though, because Macron basically is talking about percentages here.
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: So let's just take a look at that. So basically,
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: US total budget four point nine trillion. That's for the government,
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: not counting the deficit overrun there military defense actual budget
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: MIKE is one point two trillion. That's the actual number.
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: That's twenty four percent of the US total budget is
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: on military. Let's compare that to Russia. Total Russian state
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: budget three hundred and forty billion, military defense one hundred billion,
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: twenty nine percent. Okay, So where's Macron getting these figures?
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: That's what we're trying to figure out. But look at this.
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: I just do a little bit of research, and this
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: is Andrew Cockburn from the Quincy Institute getting the defense
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: budget right. The real grand total for the US defense
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: budget one point four trillion dollars per year. That includes overruns,
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: overseas commitments and active theaters and so forth, plus homeland security.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: That's defense related. One point for trillion, okay, and they're
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: screaming about Russia, who spends one hundred billion, which I
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: think isn't a whole lot more than what France spends.
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: And France will have trouble even fielding ten thousand troops
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: at a pinch. Unbelievable.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Thanks for that, Patrick Mark. Let's come back to
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: you then, and well, a little bit on Trump and
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: the question. I mean, the European Union is very famous
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: for taking antitrust prosecutions against various companies like Microsoft and
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: Google and so on. But what is Trump doing with Google?
• 57:02
  Speaker 6: Well that's actually an open question.
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: And this.
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: This first slide asked some good questions. Will Trump go
• 57:12
  Speaker 6: after Google? A curiously named publication called The Jacobin asked
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: back on the fifteenth of January before he was inaugurated.
• 57:20
  Speaker 6: Much more recently, the New York Post Google met with
• 57:23
  Speaker 6: Trump's doj in effort to avoid what they're calling a
• 57:28
  Speaker 6: historic break of a breakup of the search giant. And
• 57:32
  Speaker 6: what's at stake here is just what kind of republican
• 57:35
  Speaker 6: is Donald Trump is? See the modern orthodox pro capitalist
• 57:40
  Speaker 6: at any cost all the counts's big business. Is he
• 57:43
  Speaker 6: that kind of republican? Or is he really the populist
• 57:47
  Speaker 6: in capitalist clothing that he kind of claims to be.
• 57:51
  Speaker 6: And in that way, he's kind of changed the Republican
• 57:54
  Speaker 6: Party to acting more like the old school Democrats. One
• 57:58
  Speaker 6: of the old school Democrats actually stood up for the
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: working man, the working class, the middle class. Trump has
• 58:04
  Speaker 6: been trying to reshape the Republican Party in that manner.
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: So will the real Donald Trump stand up? This is
• 58:09
  Speaker 6: going to be a real litmus test for what kind
• 58:13
  Speaker 6: of president Trump really is, what kind of a leader,
• 58:16
  Speaker 6: what kind of philosophy he really has, And we'll move
• 58:19
  Speaker 6: on from there. I'm going back in time a little bit.
• 58:23
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 58:24
  Speaker 6: The US proposes breakup of Google to fix the search
• 58:27
  Speaker 6: monopoly New York Times, third of December. Late last year,
• 58:31
  Speaker 6: in a landmark anti trust case, the government asked a
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: judge to force Google to sell its popular Chrome browser,
• 58:38
  Speaker 6: which many analysts see is very significant if that were
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: to happen. And then we'll go from there and kind
• 58:44
  Speaker 6: of comb through this. Now, Ken Paxton, the Attorney General
• 58:47
  Speaker 6: here in Texas, I asked the question, are today's Republicans
• 58:50
  Speaker 6: going populist? He seems to be, And back in August
• 58:56
  Speaker 6: of last year, Paxton delivered a major win against Google's
• 58:59
  Speaker 6: Internet monopoly and anti competitive business practices. And this was
• 59:04
  Speaker 6: part of a federal suit the US District Court for Washington,
• 59:07
  Speaker 6: d C. And they determined that Google's anti competitive and
• 59:11
  Speaker 6: monopolistic operations violated the federal Sherman Act, an act against trusts,
• 59:18
  Speaker 6: and then from there the ruling on Meta was also significant.
• 59:27
  Speaker 6: This Texas settlement, said mister Paxton, is the largest ever
• 59:31
  Speaker 6: obtained from an action brought by a single state. Further,
• 59:35
  Speaker 6: this is the largest privacy settlement an Attorney general has
• 59:38
  Speaker 6: ever obtained, dwarfing the three hundred and ninety million settlement
• 59:42
  Speaker 6: a group of forty states obtained in late twenty twenty
• 59:45
  Speaker 6: two from Google. And that had to do with Meta,
• 59:49
  Speaker 6: a lawsuit brought and first first settlement obtained under Texas
• 59:54
  Speaker 6: Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, and so on
• 59:58
  Speaker 6: and so forth. It has to do with ivacy rights
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 6: of Texans. Also, at thirty July last year, Attorney General
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 6: Ken Paxton secured that one point four billion dollar settlement
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 6: with Meta, which owns Facebook, over its unauthorized capture of
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 6: personal biometric data, in the largest settlement ever obtained from
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 6: an action brought by a single state as noted and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 6: anyway that pretty much outlines it. So this is a
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 6: it's an interesting movement on the part of the Republican
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: Party to kind of take the stance that the old
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 6: old guard Democrats used to take and the paleoconservative the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 6: old guard Republicans used to take to be antitrust and
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 6: to go after large trusts and things like that to
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 6: be trustbusters. In more modern times, the Reagan Republicans, of course,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 6: have shied away from that. So this is really going
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 6: to be a test in what Donald Trump does to
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 6: see which way the Republican Party is going to go,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 6: to see which way the White House is going to go.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 6: And I believe it would show that Trump is more
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 6: sincere toward helping the middle class and getting more economic democracy,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 6: if you will, in the country, if he's willing to
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 6: take on Google and bust up these trusts. Of course,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 6: one of the risk is, like what happened with Standard Oil.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 6: They broke it up into smaller pieces, but it became
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 6: more of an oligopoly and kind of a group of
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 6: powerful companies that operated more or less like a cartel.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 6: So it's going to be it'll have to be done
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 6: very carefully to be effective, and so there's a lot
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 6: at stake here. We'll have to keep an eye on
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 6: Donald Trump to see which way he goes, but it'll
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 6: be very telling about what he's really about.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, Mark Uh. We're just going to
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: end the program here with an announcement from Offcom. This
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: was pushed out on the third of March, but they
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: were putting informing everybody of this by email earlier today.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: This is the enforcement program to monitor compliance with the
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: illegal content risk assessment dudies and record keeping dudies. Now,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to bring this again to everybody's attention.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: We've mentioned it before, but they have now launched a
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: program to actually enforce this. So if you basically okay,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: on one hand, it's dealing with just as Mark was
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: talking about the big search monopolies and how they manage
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: content on the search engines, but this also applies to
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: anybody that's running an Internet forum, for example, what they
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: describe as a user to user service. And in fact,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: you know, this doesn't just apply to the largest user
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: user services like X or meta, but this also applies
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: to the most absolutely the smallest forums, special interest forums
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: and so on. UK Column absolutely falls under this umbrella
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: as well, and the same administrative burden is being placed
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: on voluntary organizations as is being placed on multi billion pound,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: multi billion dollar organizations like X and Meta. So it's
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: going to be very interesting to see how this develops.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: But we just wanted to bring that remind everybody of
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: this because if you are running a smaller forum, you
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: do need to pay attention to this. They clearly are
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: intending to be litigious with it in the not too
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: distant future.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: But that's that for now. We need to leave the
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: UK Column there. For today.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you very much to Patrick
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: and to Mark for today and for everybody that's watched.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: If you're a UK Column member, stick around for some
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: extra lots to talk about today. And if you're not
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: a member and we'd like to watch extra, please consider
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: joining as a member and then you can. We will
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: see you later. Otherwise, have a great weekend.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: Bye bye,