Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 29th October 2025

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UK Column News - 29th October 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Wednesday the 29th of
0:10
October just after 1:00. Welcome to UK Call News.
0:14
I'm your host Mike Robinson and my Co host today is Charles
0:17
Ballot. Welcome to the programme,
0:18
Charles. Thank you, Mike.
0:19
And joining us via Live Link is journalist and peace campaigner
0:22
Vanessa Bailey. And later in the programme, I'm
0:24
going to be covering the latest on the regime change operation
0:27
against Venezuela. Charles will be reporting on the
0:31
new digital ID for veterans and also on the D prescription of
0:34
the terrorist organisation currently occupying Syria.
0:38
And Vanessa is going to have the latest from Lebanon.
0:40
But we're going to begin with Gaza because, well, apparently,
0:43
surprise surprise, Israel has started bombing again.
0:46
Vanessa. Yep, the so called ceasefire
0:51
didn't really last very long, not that we honestly expected it
0:54
to. And, and we need to remember
0:57
this is not Trump's peace scam. This is only a ceasefire that
1:01
we're monitoring at the moment. The Israeli forces have
1:06
withdrawn to what is known as the Yellow Line, which is the
1:10
first step of the withdrawal from Gaza.
1:12
But of course, what are they doing?
1:15
If we have a look at the map of Gaza, you can see that they're
1:18
still occupying something like 58% of the Gaza Strip.
1:22
So that means that effectively around 2 million of the
1:25
Palestinian population, although of course numbers of dead are
1:29
rising rapidly and there are reports of around 500,000 having
1:34
been killed to date. You will see that those people
1:39
are being pushed into an ever decreasing area of land.
1:43
And when we talk about the staggered withdrawal, if we look
1:47
at the next map, you can see that the yellow line is supposed
1:51
to be the first withdrawal point.
1:53
But you can also see that the red dots are the bases or the
1:58
dig insurance that the Israeli forces have already started
2:03
putting in place there. And also worth pointing out that
2:07
the extremist factions that are very much affiliated to ISIS,
2:11
that are being backed by Israel and Netanyahu to lead attacks
2:16
against Hamas inside Gaza are being sheltered within that
2:20
section that is still under the control of the Israeli forces.
2:26
And I have to say in I think around 9:00 PM last night, the
2:31
reports of massive US Israeli bombing started coming in.
2:37
At the same time Trump is putting out statements such as
2:41
this one on the basis of an Israeli report that the reason
2:45
for the bombing is that there was an Israeli reservist soldier
2:49
killed by Hamas in the yellow zone.
2:53
So what is Trump saying? He's saying Hamas is a very
2:55
small part of peace in the Middle East and they have to
2:58
behave. Not that the Israelis have to
3:00
behave. Of course.
3:01
If they are good, they're going to be happy.
3:03
If they're not good, they're going to be terminated.
3:05
Their lives will be terminated. So again, we see the usual reset
3:10
position of the United States in support of anything that Israel
3:13
does, even if it's basically continuing the genocide
3:18
unimpeded. Rubio, Marco Rubio came out
3:21
pretty much with the same thing a couple of days ago, Says that
3:24
Israeli airstrike and Gaza is not a violation of the
3:28
ceasefire. Of course, total hypocrisy here.
3:31
And then if we actually have a look at what has been happening
3:35
since 9:00 PM last night, as I said, I noted it beginning
3:38
around 9 PMI woke up multiple times during the night and it
3:43
was still ongoing and it's still ongoing now.
3:46
So this is from the 28th to the 29th of October, massive US,
3:50
Israel strikes in Gaza, over 100 injured, 46 confirmed deaths.
3:55
That's now up to around 100 with the ongoing bombing.
3:58
Many children, I think up to 20 children have been killed in
4:01
these attacks. Entire families have been wiped
4:05
out. Very important.
4:06
This is always part of the Israeli genocidal tactic in
4:10
Gaza. Targeted densely populated
4:12
areas, tent camps sheltering internally displaced civilians
4:15
and children. More apartment blocks were
4:18
destroyed, killing anyone still inside.
4:20
And strikes across central Gaza are still ongoing as I'm
4:24
speaking now. Now, among the victims, I'm not
4:29
going to show many of the awful videos that are, as always,
4:33
coming out of Gaza, but just to put some human face on the
4:37
massacre that Israel is perpetrating still both in West
4:41
Bank and in Gaza. These are the twins, Sham and
4:44
Yahya, I mean Abu Dhal. And in fact, they're entire
4:49
family were wiped out. Their parents and the rest of
4:51
their family were wiped out in one strike.
4:54
And yet again, another journalist was also murdered in
4:58
the latest strikes. This is journalist Mohammed al
5:01
Manirawi who worked for Palestine News.
5:05
He and his wife and members of his family were killed in one
5:10
strike. Now, very recently, Peter Oborn,
5:14
who's a British journalist, who in my opinion was one of the few
5:18
that did a decent job alongside Robert Fisk in in his Syria
5:22
reporting during the regime change war that began in 2011,
5:26
particularly when he went to Aleppo, when really Western
5:30
media was running a criminal campaign to demonise President
5:33
Assad and the Syrian Army. Peter Oborn went to Aleppo and
5:38
came back and was heavily smeared actually for his
5:41
reporting on what was really happening in Aleppo.
5:44
He's now published a book called Complicit.
5:49
You will find the link to that in the show notes in which he
5:52
accuses the British government of being complicit with
5:55
genocide. And this is an interview on
5:58
Channel 4 with the former ambassador to Yemen, although,
6:02
as he points out, he was based in Saudi Arabia that was bombing
6:05
Yemen. He wasn't actually in Yemen.
6:09
Edmund Fitton Brown, and this is Peter Oborn, basically taking
6:15
the British government to task for their involvement in
6:18
genocide both in Yemen and in Gaza.
6:20
And please listen to Fit and Brown's response to it.
6:25
And when you were ambassador, I dare say you were in Riyadh, no.
6:28
I was in Jeddah. Jeddah.
6:31
I saw a humanitarian catastrophe visited on Yemen by a gay
6:37
British backed bombing. I saw the bombing of hospitals,
6:41
I saw the slaughter of civilians.
6:44
There you are in Jeddah and I and I also because I'm in a part
6:49
of an investigative journalist, I learned of the deep concern
6:52
inside the Foreign Office then as now that the Britain was
6:58
party to war crimes. What is your You have a record
7:03
here of supporting the mass slaughter of Arabs and you did
7:08
this in Yemen as British. I'm sorry, it's a very serious
7:11
matter. It isn't something you should
7:13
laugh about. No, it's a laugh of accusation.
7:15
It is the slaughter of of Arabs in the Yemen and now the
7:19
slaughter of Arabs in Gaza. These are these are two.
7:24
You have defended British government policies in each case
7:28
reduce of and I I find it very troubling and morally wrong and
7:33
morally atrocious and deeply shaming for our country that we
7:38
should support that, that that kind of hand, that kind of
7:42
contact. I I highly recommend watching
7:49
the whole interview. I have to say that Fred and
7:51
Brown represents the really unpleasant face of British
7:57
orientalism and neo colonialism throughout the entire interview.
8:02
But I just wanted to play one last excerpt from the interview
8:05
where basically Fit and Brown as supporting the concept or the
8:10
narrative that Iran is the next enemy for the UK.
8:16
So let's just play this one. Second, as well, the Houthis are
8:21
obstructing commerce in the Red Sea.
8:23
Iran has been a consistent enemy of the United Kingdom, has been
8:27
conspiring to murder a British author over decades, and has
8:32
been trying to kill people on the streets of the United
8:34
Kingdom. The Israelis provide preventive
8:37
intelligence that has enabled us to stop some of those plots from
8:41
going. Ahead, I would simply say here,
8:43
the Israelis also carried out a number of illegal
8:45
assassinations. The attack on Iran, which they
8:48
brought the United States in, was illegal.
8:50
There haven't been proper propagation from Iraq.
8:57
I mean, this is just extraordinary.
8:58
I mean, Iran threatening to kill people on British streets.
9:02
Mike, wondering what your comment is on that?
9:06
Well, yes, I think we'll talk about that more an extra.
9:09
I just wanted to ask you one, one question, Vanessa, and that
9:12
was, you know, you talked about US and Israel strikes, what is
9:16
the United States role and what's happening today and
9:19
yesterday? Well, I mean, they're supplying
9:22
the bombs. Sorry.
9:24
I think really they're, they're, you know, they're, they're
9:28
probably the most complicit in this.
9:30
But of course the UK is providing the surveillance.
9:33
So between them, they are leading this campaign against
9:37
the Palestinians. Yeah, OK.
9:39
Any comments? Well, I think, well I've saved
9:42
for extra, but there's there is a lot to say about it Vanessa, I
9:44
think. Yeah, Yeah.
9:46
OK. OK.
9:47
Well, look, let's move on to Venezuela then.
9:50
And well, in recent weeks, the United States has been making
9:55
clear that it intends to launch a new regime change operation in
9:59
Venezuela. So if we just put the map on
10:01
screen here, you'll just to make sure everybody knows where it
10:04
is. Now I appreciate Vanessa covered
10:07
some of this last week, but I think it's worth just having a
10:09
look again at what's been going on over the last several weeks
10:14
because earlier this month the United States began bombing
10:17
boats claimed to be involved in Venezuelan drug running.
10:22
Now the sixth attack as was being reported in US and I News
10:27
talks about drug smuggling semi submersible.
10:30
And for the first time since these operations began, the US
10:33
Navy said at that time that it had captured 2 survivors out of
10:38
four people who were said to be on board that that Reuters
10:42
claimed the exclusive here on the survivors story.
10:46
And then subsequently one of the survivors was apparently
10:49
released. We'll come onto that a little
10:50
bit later. Then the flights of B50 twos
10:53
over the Caribbean began on Wednesday, October the 15th in
10:58
what was clearly a big show intended to panic Venezuelans.
11:03
The Pentagon released a bunch of photographs for propaganda
11:06
purposes. And this opportunity was grasped
11:10
by with both hands by the likes of armyrecognition.com that we
11:13
just saw a second ago on screen. And they said the Pentagon said
11:17
AUS Air Force B52H Strata Fortress bomber, the side of the
11:21
second Bomb wing integrates with two US Marine Corps F35B
11:25
Lightning 2 aircraft in the US Southern Command area of
11:29
responsibility on October the 15th, 2025.
11:32
So that was one of the picture captions.
11:34
And then each of the picture captions included a statement
11:37
saying bomber attack demonstrations contributed to
11:40
the collective defence of the Western Hemisphere and
11:43
demonstrated the US commitment to the safety and security of
11:47
the region. So that should make everybody
11:49
here in Britain and Europe and in the United States feel a lot
11:52
better. But here in Britain, we weren't
11:54
immune from the propaganda for regime change as highlighted
11:58
here in the Daily Mail. And you know, this was Trump
12:02
deploys secretive night stalkers regiment as Venezuela mobilises
12:06
millions of troops fearing raising fears of all out war was
12:10
was their propaganda take. And then Trump announced on his
12:15
truth Social account 10 days ago that his interest isn't just
12:20
Venezuela, it's also Colombia. Because of course, the narrative
12:22
about this is that it's all about drugs and narco states.
12:26
And this is really the reinsert the resurgence of the war on
12:31
drugs narrative and so on as an excuse for regime change.
12:37
Meanwhile, on the 17th of October, NPR here reporting that
12:41
Senator Tim Kaine was planning to force a second vote.
12:45
There'd been an attempt to get a first vote in the Senate under
12:49
the War Powers Act to block Trump from attacking Venezuela.
12:54
The previous week, he and Adam Schiff had forced a Senate vote
12:58
to limit Trump's war powers, and that vote failed by 48 votes to
13:02
51. And two Republicans took part
13:06
in. That was mostly a Democrat
13:07
thing, but two Republicans took part.
13:09
That was Rand Paul and Senator Lisa Murkowski.
13:13
So they were supporting that idea.
13:16
For the second vote, Kane was joined by Rand Paul as Co
13:19
sponsor. And Rand Paul said the American
13:21
people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela
13:24
without public debate or vote. We ought to defend what the
13:29
Constitution demands, deliberation before war.
13:32
And then a few days later, Adam Smith, Representative Adam
13:37
Smith, who's the top Democrat in the House Armed Services
13:40
Committee, he called for hearings on the Trump regime's
13:43
bombing of these so called drug trafficking boats off the coast
13:49
of Venezuela. So the political imaginations
13:52
continue, quite ineffectually so far. military.com published an
13:57
article on the 20th which says while the Venezuelan military
14:00
couldn't match the United States military and firepower, it's
14:03
still a major threat with 21 Russian made Sukhoi 30 at mark 2
14:09
jet fighters delivered in 2008 and 2009 and armed with KH31
14:14
anti ship missiles. And they also talk about the
14:16
Venezuelan military having positioned older, older air
14:21
defence systems. But these could still present
14:25
problems for low flying aircraft, especially
14:27
helicopters. Now since then they've been
14:30
further repeated overflights by the US bombers as the
14:34
psychological war continues. So this is UK Defence Journal
14:38
talking about this a few days ago.
14:40
And Trump says, though, that he will not be going to Congress to
14:44
seek authorization for his military campaign.
14:47
I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a
14:49
declaration of war, he said, according to the New York Times.
14:52
Here. I think we're going to kill
14:54
people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?
14:56
We're going to kill them. You know, they're going to be
14:59
like, dead. Lovely, That's a very similar in
15:04
style of narrative to to what Vanessa was reporting.
15:07
Reporting a couple of seconds ago now, Five days ago, then
15:11
Secretary for War Pete Hegseth posted this to his ex account
15:16
saying that overnight, at the direction of President Trump,
15:18
the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a
15:21
vessel operated by a terrorist designated terrorist
15:25
organisation trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea.
15:29
Six people were killed. But he went on to say this,
15:32
which I thought was quite hilarious.
15:34
He said if you're a narco terrorist smuggling drugs in our
15:37
hemisphere, we'll treat you like al Qaeda.
15:40
And Vanessa, I'd be interested in your thoughts on that comment
15:43
because this is very interesting statement for Hexif to make
15:47
since just like al Qaeda, the drug cartels have the full
15:50
support of successful US regimes with the CIA being fully engaged
15:54
in the drug running, using drug money to fund black operations.
15:57
And this is very similar to what's been going on with al
16:00
Qaeda. They do, of course, over the
16:02
last number of years. Fascinating from from three
16:07
aspects, really. Because they're going to treat
16:10
them like they treat Al Qaeda. Does that mean with kid gloves
16:13
and a red carpet and take the bounty off their heads and
16:16
welcome them back into the fold of the international community
16:21
that is led by the United States?
16:23
If they're going to kill the people that are responsible for
16:26
the drug smuggling, they better start back at home with the
16:30
CIAAKA, the cartel of the sons that was run by the CIA and is
16:37
now being sort of used to target Maduro.
16:40
But also funny how the Captagon trade in Syria has increased
16:44
exponentially since Assad left, whereas previously, of course,
16:48
Assad was described as the head of a narco state and a drug
16:51
Lord. So, yeah, I mean, you know, this
16:53
is, this is an ongoing tragic comedy that is produced entirely
17:00
by the United States and the CIA.
17:03
Absolutely. Now the war of words continues,
17:06
with Congress apparently unable to do anything to stop events.
17:10
So Rand Paul again, talking about extrajudicial killings.
17:15
But it's not really having much bite yet.
17:18
So we'll see whether they can actually get any momentum behind
17:21
this. And now the United States has
17:23
sent an aircraft carrier to the region with threats to bomb
17:27
alleged drug cartel targets within Venezuela itself, as
17:31
Vanessa just mentioned. Now, as a result of the USS
17:34
Gravely docking at the Port of Spain in Trinidad, Venezuela has
17:38
suspended energy agreements that it had with Trinidad and Tobago
17:41
over what officials have described as hostile actions by
17:46
Trinidad and Trinidad. Not terribly impressed with that
17:50
situation. I see that they may feel that
17:52
they're stuck between a rock and a hard place in the sense that
17:56
they're probably equally concerned about what the United
17:59
States is capable of at this point.
18:01
But anyway, that we can discuss later whether there's any excuse
18:04
for that. But then late yesterday, the
18:08
news broke via Associated Press that the Trump regime attempted
18:11
to bribe Maderos as the Venezuelan president's pilot to
18:16
fly Maduro to a suitable location for the United States
18:19
to arrest him on drug trafficking charges.
18:22
And just to quote the article here, it says the untold saga of
18:25
how the agent tried to flip the pilot as all the elements of a
18:28
Cold War spy thriller. Luxury private jets, a secret
18:31
meeting at an airport hangar, high stakes diplomacy and the
18:35
delicate wing of a key Maduro Lieutenant.
18:38
There was even a final act of intrigue aimed at rattling the
18:41
Venezuelan president about the pilot's true loyalties.
18:46
So the question is, why is this happening?
18:48
Well, Afshin Ratanzi offers a suggestion in this post on X.
18:53
Now let's just have a look at a video he attached to this post
18:57
on X. It's a comment from former U.S.
19:01
ambassador James Story. This is a very bad actor,
19:08
sitting on top of the world's largest known reserves of oil,
19:13
plus the critical minerals that will fuel the 21st century
19:16
economy, and he's in bed with our strategic competitors.
19:22
So that seems to be the position of the United States anyway, and
19:27
perhaps we're getting a bit closer to the truth there.
19:29
Now. Tomorrow at 1:00 PM, I'm going
19:32
to be speaking to Jose Bimorgi. Bimorgi, sorry, who is the
19:36
Venezuelan ambassador to Lebanon and Syria, and we're going to be
19:40
talking about US actions against Venezuela.
19:44
And he certainly has quite a bit more to say on why that
19:49
particular action is being taken.
19:50
But clearly regime change is what it's all about.
19:53
And perhaps Vanessa, just very briefly, perhaps oil, rare
20:00
earths and other raw materials may be part of it, but perhaps
20:04
the fact that Chavez and Maduro. Are not supporting the drugs
20:08
trade in the way that previous Venezuelan governments did.
20:13
It may be part of it as well. Yeah, and also Colombia's
20:18
President Christophe Petro, who who has made a statement that he
20:22
would support Venezuelan militarily if if the US does
20:25
invade or declare war. But also it's Venezuela's
20:29
connection to the resistance axis, to Iran, to Hezbollah,
20:33
formerly to Syria, as you mentioned, Yemen and Iraq.
20:37
That's also another important reason for any kind of
20:41
destabilisation of Venezuela. Yes, thank you, Charles.
20:47
Yeah, well, I was just thinking, Hegseth.
20:50
I mean, peace through strength seems to be sort of last week's
20:52
news, doesn't it? Absolutely.
20:54
Yeah. But yeah, let's move on to
20:57
digital ID for veterans. Inevitably, yes, veterans, of
21:00
course, there are 2.2 million of them in the country.
21:03
So we believe, and the Ministry of Defence has finally announced
21:06
that they are going to make the veterans ID card a digital one
21:10
which they've inevitably put out on X.
21:14
And specifically the text says that veterans can now prove
21:18
their status and access benefits at the touch of I'm sorry, I've
21:23
let's get back one, prove their status and access benefits at
21:26
the touch of a button. A modern way to honour service
21:30
and deliver real support. I mean, that is quite the
21:33
stretch, but perhaps not so much of A stretch as using Yemen
21:37
warders at the Tower of London to try and make it look
21:41
exciting. It is perfectly extraordinary
21:44
the way in which this is being marketed, but nonetheless,
21:47
that's the way they've pushed on with it.
21:49
Specific iron there, of course, because the Tower of London is
21:51
known to the public at least for its ceremony of the keys with
21:55
the use of a physical key. But still they appear to be
21:59
trying to appeal to the older generation, perhaps by using the
22:02
Yemen warders or indeed tourists, but we'll see which
22:05
way this goes. Now the Office for Veterans
22:07
Affairs has got in on the ACT and this is how they are
22:11
plugging it. The Tower of London has 1000
22:15
years of history but today is about modernising government and
22:18
bring it right up to date by the launch of the Digital Veterans
22:20
Card. The purpose of the Veterans Card
22:23
is selling veterans to access charitable services, government
22:25
services, but also discounts that available to veterans and
22:28
by digitising that they can prove they are a veteran, they
22:30
can prove who they are and they can access those services much
22:33
more seamlessly and straightforward just from the
22:35
smartphone. If you're permanently called for
22:36
using a smartphone and you've got that physical card as well,
22:40
then I would really urge people to get it downloaded for me.
22:42
I've got banking through my phone, I've got my Veterans Rail
22:45
card is on my phone as well. And so this just really
22:48
complements those, which is this fantastic step in the progress
22:51
that we're making to modernise how veterans can access
22:52
services. I'm looking forward to all the
22:54
discounts that are going to be available to us.
22:56
So I think that's a really good idea.
22:57
The Tower of London, let's do a veterans discount.
22:59
So that's a great way. You've got it in your phone, you
23:01
can show you're eligible for that, so.
23:02
This government very much values of veterans and wants to make
23:05
sure that we can access those services much easier and that's
23:08
what digitising the veterans card is all about.
23:13
What is the psychological effect of talking about digital ID,
23:16
which is a very modern thing, and playing music from the 1500s
23:20
in the background? Not quite sure.
23:22
I mean, it does belong in a sort of comedy sketch from the 1990s,
23:27
but apparently it is true. The the Office for Veterans
23:30
Affairs have continued on X. They've, they've of course
23:33
tweeted out about it. They have said specifically that
23:38
they're, well, that sorry, I'm sharing on screen now an image
23:42
of how the card will look so dramatically different from the
23:46
thing on the smart screen, the smartphone screen, which is
23:49
going to be the digital identity.
23:51
But the text that they've drawn out the same line, again, it's
23:54
going to be secure and quick. Now, I'd say both of those
23:57
things are highly questionable. And to what extent do veterans,
24:02
Yemen waters in particular, struggle to actually get an ID
24:05
card out if they want to show 1? I mean, they've literally spent
24:08
their entire career producing the Mod 90, the military ID
24:11
card, with no trouble at all. But in the context of the recent
24:15
government government announcements about the wider
24:18
plan for digital Idi, think it's worth listening back to what
24:21
Johnny Mercer, who was running the Office for Veterans Affairs,
24:26
what he said about it a year or so ago?
24:28
Well. But the majority of the work
24:32
goes into digitising Vets UK, which should have been done 30
24:34
or 40 years ago to make sure that we understood where our
24:37
veterans are and looked after them properly.
24:39
So is it value for money? Absolutely.
24:42
Has it been extraordinarily difficult to get it over the
24:44
line because of all the working parts?
24:45
Yes. And if if it was, if it was
24:47
easy, it would have been done by now.
24:48
If there were some who who may not want a veterans ID card.
24:52
They're not mandatory. But for the vast majority of
24:54
people, I think it's going to be a really useful addition to
24:55
their lives, not mandatory, where we heard that before.
25:00
There we go. Given what Keir Starmer has said
25:02
recently, although he seemed to have backtracked on that, but
25:05
the the, this idea that a, that an ID card, even at that point a
25:09
physical ID card could be mandatory.
25:11
Now, why would he have said such thing all the way back then?
25:14
Indeed, as part of a Conservative administration, and
25:19
I've spoken about the development of this initiative
25:21
on a number of occasions, But one thing I did do back in 2022
25:25
was to put in a Freedom of Information request to the
25:27
Ministry of Defence to make a number of enquiries, but
25:31
specifically what a physical card might turn into.
25:34
And the Med replied that none of the information was in scope, as
25:38
though the things I was asking about had never actually been
25:40
considered, such as linking health and financial information
25:44
to the card. However, on the specific
25:46
questions about the digital context, they said that under
25:50
Section 16 of the FOIA advice, you may find it helpful to note
25:55
that the areas presented in these questions are not covered
25:59
in the scope of the ID project. There is no intention to link
26:02
the creation of a physical or digital card.
26:05
So we can just pop that back on screen that shows the text
26:08
there. And then they go on to say,
26:10
regarding your question six, there is no intention to share
26:14
any personal identifiable information with other
26:17
government, department or corporate bodies.
26:20
Now this obviously three years on would appear to be an out and
26:24
out lie and I will go on to explain the context of that lie.
26:29
But but before we do say, we'll just have a look at where this
26:31
has come from at least in recent recent years.
26:34
And I'm showing now the 2018 strategy for our veterans in
26:38
which they say that data is essential to understand veteran
26:42
community, contributing to a robust evidence base which can
26:45
inform policy making, enable planning and support service
26:48
delivery more effectively and deliver good evaluations.
26:51
So they talk about requiring data for the prediction of
26:54
needs. They don't specify whose needs,
26:56
which seems to be quite an important part of this.
26:59
And we go on just pull out another criterion, which are
27:02
which is veterans and the law. And really one would take from
27:06
this the implicit acknowledgement.
27:08
The government appreciates that there is a challenge potentially
27:11
presented by the 2.2 million veterans that could be
27:15
considered to be motivated, capable and organised and
27:18
therefore present a serious problem to government if they
27:21
chose to do so. Now they go on to say that
27:26
there's a specific challenge concerning legacy
27:28
investigations. Of course, Mike was speaking
27:30
only on Friday about those very investigations which are of
27:33
course being pushed forward by the government itself.
27:36
So this is very disingenuous in the way that the language is
27:40
being manipulated. Now also just to go forward a
27:43
little bit into the Veteran Strategy Action Plan 2022 to
27:46
2024, they insist again that they veterans have this sort of
27:52
specific problem identifying themselves.
27:55
They say it also needs to be easier for veterans to verify
27:57
their status in order to access government services.
28:00
Now my question is why? And very briefly on a personal
28:04
note, I am a veteran and I don't see that it needs to be any
28:07
easier for me than it does for anybody else to verify my status
28:11
in order to access government services, if I even wanted to
28:14
access government services in the 1st place.
28:16
But that might be considered slightly by the by this
28:18
obsession that veterans having a special problem with it seems to
28:21
be somewhat bizarre. Now also the the other issue
28:26
going back to the Freedom of Information request is that in
28:29
that strategy paper they said that they were going to carry
28:32
out a scoping study to design a service which will offer the
28:35
digital verification of veteran status.
28:38
Now this was published in January 2022, therefore some
28:41
months before my Freedom of Information request went in.
28:44
So they would have known at that time that there absolutely was
28:47
to be a link with the digital, digital version of the identity
28:53
card. Now obliquely, but I think very
28:56
relevant, there's been a lot in in the news at the moment about
28:59
the company's house requirement for directors to identify
29:03
themselves by the 18th of November.
29:06
You need to prove who you are to set up, run, own or control a
29:09
company in the UK, they say. Now there are many issues with
29:12
this, but according to the information put out by company
29:15
size and Government one login, there is no requirement for
29:19
biometrics nor to use photograph ID.
29:22
And the choice remains of course for you because they do still
29:26
request information which they cannot possibly guarantee the
29:29
security of. But this has been wilfully
29:31
misrepresented in some quarters. So I think it is worth looking
29:33
at what the what Companies House does actually say.
29:37
But just quickly as we finish off, we'll just go back to the
29:40
military and conflicting notions surrounding the readiness for
29:43
war. Of course, thinking back to what
29:45
Pete Hagseth was just talking about a moment ago, we've got
29:48
Sean Raymond in the Daily Mail yet again story about women in
29:54
the Royal Marines and indeed what the Commandant of the
30:01
Commando Training Centre Royal Marines actually said about it.
30:04
We'll just have a quick listen to him.
30:09
Most men can't complete this training and therefore the women
30:13
that might be able to do it are are extremely high performing.
30:16
They are out there. I wonder if they're out there,
30:19
though, already gainfully employed in the sorts of elite
30:21
sports that might otherwise, you know, be more appealing to them
30:26
than necessarily coming down to be a real Marine commando.
30:29
But I'm rocket clear there is, there are women out there that
30:32
could come and do this training if they were motivated enough to
30:35
do it. And we have had some women
30:37
recently who have come close. Unfortunately, they haven't met
30:41
all of the standards, but we absolutely want you.
30:45
The two questions Commandos always used to ask in World War
30:47
2. Are you here to help?
30:49
Are you any good? Well, the third question we need
30:52
to add is, and we want you if you're different.
30:55
We want you if you're different because the cognitive edge is
30:58
going to be a game changer for us going forward.
31:02
So it's hard to know exactly what he means by that, and if
31:04
anyone can be rocket clear on what rocket clear means and do
31:07
right in. But the other thing to set this
31:10
alongside is what's happened with the selectional recruitment
31:14
into the Reserve SAS. And the most recent edition of
31:18
Soldier magazine has this piece in it on the Special Forces and
31:24
indeed talks about being able to go into the selection process on
31:29
resettlement. But also interestingly, they've
31:31
got 2 little bits here saying applications are accepted from
31:33
men and women across all three services.
31:36
And you can join reserve SAS up till the age of 43 and 364 days.
31:42
So relevant to this is the most recent episode of Military
31:46
Matters, in which Brian and I spoke specifically about the
31:49
issues surrounding recruitment and how this is at odds with all
31:53
the various defence literature that's being put out, but
31:55
especially the commitment to what's being described as a push
31:58
for 30% of the armed forces to be made up of women.
32:02
Thank you, Charles. OK, let's let's move on then.
32:05
If you like what the UK column does, if you'd like to support
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But if you can't do that, please do share material you find on
32:30
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32:34
that is key for us to defeat the censorship regime.
32:39
Now it's 7:00 tonight. Jerem is speaking to Shannon Joy
32:43
on everything being a reality show.
32:45
I think the way things are going at the moment, it increasingly
32:48
looks like reality TV. It is nuts.
32:52
And then at 9:00 PM tonight is Karl Zaz speaking to Pepe
32:57
Escobar. Join him for that.
32:59
Then yesterday you were speaking to Shahz Khan at 1:00.
33:05
Absolutely. Well, she's written an excellent
33:06
book called The Ultimate Vaccine Timeline, and she has the
33:09
benefit of not being involved in any way in the medical
33:12
profession and therefore she looks at things very
33:14
objectively. Her father died, she believes,
33:16
as a result of a flu jab. And she's gone back into the
33:18
history of particularly the safety around vaccinations and
33:22
had a whole load of documents released that never been seen
33:24
before. So it's a fascinating interview
33:26
and I really would encourage you to have a listen.
33:28
Another quick reminder that 1:00 PM tomorrow, I'm speaking to
33:31
Ambassador Jose Bio Morji, Venezuelan Ambassador to Lebanon
33:34
and Syria. Join me at 1:00 for that.
33:37
And then a reminder that on Sunday evening, the latest 1000
33:43
Words podcast went out featuring James Delanpole.
33:46
Yeah, it did indeed. So that's the first first part,
33:49
and then the second part will be going out for members this
33:52
Sunday at 7:00 PM. So getting into Delano's sort of
33:55
transition from a Telegraph journalist into where he's got
33:59
to now in terms of his journey down various, it holds.
34:03
And finally, Charles a digital another digital idea event.
34:06
Yes indeed, this one up in Edinburgh and this is this
34:09
Saturday at the Mound just off Prince's Street, so if you are
34:12
able to get along up there then please do so.
34:15
Fantastic. Now let's move on to assisted
34:18
dying Charles. Yeah, indeed, now it's going
34:21
back a little bit. The second reading in the House
34:23
of Lords on assisted dying was on the 12th of September 2025
34:27
and there were many speaking in opposition for a whole host of
34:30
reasons. I think a notable comment to
34:31
pull out comes from Theresa May, Baroness May, now the former
34:35
Prime Minister, say, who said I do not believe that the
34:37
safeguards in the bill will prevent people being pressurised
34:40
to end their lives, sometimes for the benefit of others.
34:44
They worry that, as we have seen in countries where there is such
34:46
law, people will feel that they must end their lives simply
34:50
because they feel that they are a burden on others.
34:53
Now I bring this up because Will Coleshill has a report that he's
34:56
put out from the Battle of Ideas, which he attended
34:59
recently, and he caught up with Lord Moylan.
35:04
I'm Daniel Moylan. I was speaking this morning at
35:08
an event and I've got another one to speak out this afternoon
35:11
and I've been coming to the battle of ideas as a speaker for
35:16
a number of years now and I think it's a great event.
35:20
And what about the battle of ideas makes it special?
35:23
Well, the fact that it's so many of the events there are people
35:26
with an alternative take on on a different perspective on public
35:33
events, but also the fact that the audience is normally very
35:37
lively and intellectually critical.
35:39
May I enquire as to the topics on which you've been speaking?
35:42
The one this morning was about the process by which Parliament
35:45
has been making law on the assisted suicide legislation and
35:50
the one this afternoon, which I'm doing, it's slightly short
35:53
notice without very much preparation, is about the steel
35:56
industry and the railway industry and what the future is
35:58
for them. Do you want to talk a little bit
36:00
more about the assisted dying and then maybe the steel
36:02
industry? Yeah, well, I'm opposed to this.
36:04
It's a dying bill. But the question this morning
36:07
really was whether the legislative process we've got is
36:09
fit for purpose. And I do agree with people that
36:12
I think that the the way the the Commons has gone about this bill
36:17
has sort of tested the system very hard at the boundaries.
36:21
And this is partly because the government isn't honest or
36:24
Claire Starmer isn't honest about the fact that it's really
36:28
his bill. And these are a lot of glove
36:31
puppets really, that he's trying to move around without accepting
36:34
the responsibility for the bill. Don't say it's a government bill
36:38
because a lot of people in the government don't want it.
36:41
Or if they even if they do want it, they don't think it's a
36:43
priority, which should be distracting the government from
36:46
its core business, which is what it increasingly is doing, I
36:50
think. But Starmer does want it and
36:52
he's making that commitment. And, and the way in which the
36:54
parliamentary system has been used is really stretching it to
36:57
its limits. Comes to the Lords now and we'll
37:00
see you know how much scrutiny it can get there.
37:03
What is the mood like in the Lords around the assisted dying?
37:06
Do you think it could be rejected in the Lords?
37:08
I think there's a very, there's a huge amount of deep concern in
37:12
the Lords, even amongst people who support the bill or are
37:15
sympathetic to the principle about how badly drafted it is,
37:20
how many holes it has. It's a sort of skeleton
37:23
legislation with all the important stuff to be filled in
37:25
later, which people don't like at all, especially on something
37:28
as sensitive as this and for the stuff that they're talking about
37:32
to be filled in by ministers without proper parliamentary
37:34
scrutiny. And that's, that's what the bill
37:37
contemplates. So yes, I do think there's a lot
37:40
of concern about it even amongst people who might be sympathetic
37:43
in principle. Very, very unusual for the House
37:46
of Lords to vote down a piece of legislation, vote it down a
37:50
piece of legislation that has passed the Commons.
37:53
But I think it's likely to be heavily amended in the Lords and
37:57
then it would be up to the Commons to see if they can agree
37:59
to the amendments or not. So you're talking about the
38:02
legislative process, No. Do you think that we've
38:04
abrogated too much power away from the Commons and away from
38:07
the Lords to the ministers themselves?
38:10
And essentially, it's ruled by executive Fiat.
38:12
Well, it's it's certainly true that there are powers now in
38:15
many bills that give the government the right even to
38:18
rewrite other acts of Parliament without coming back to
38:22
Parliament. This is what we mean when we
38:24
talk about Henry the Eighth clauses, Henry the Eighth
38:27
powers, and there are too many bills with Henry the Eighth
38:30
powers. And I think we are in danger of
38:33
going that way. But it's partly a function of
38:36
simply having too much legislation.
38:38
We, we pass too much legislation, we try to legislate
38:42
for too many things. And I think and governments
38:45
trying to do too many things. And I think we would really
38:48
think about the scope of government and what it should be
38:50
doing because the state is the apparatus of the state is
38:54
falling over under the pressure of all the things it's being
38:58
asked to do. So is it time for a great repeal
39:01
bill? Well, we've tried something like
39:04
that before, but yes, there's an awful lot of legislation that's
39:07
specifically about the legislation passed by the Blair
39:11
government which totally distorted and changed our
39:15
constitution. They talked it, they called it
39:17
modernising it wasn't it? It's made large parts of it
39:20
democratically unworkable. And I think a lot of that does
39:23
have to go, yes. So you're looking forward to a
39:26
big change in 2029? I certainly think there will not
39:31
be a Labour government in 2029 and I rather welcome that.
39:34
Yes. Well, thank you.
39:35
Very much. Thank you very much.
39:36
Very nice and pleasure. Thank.
39:39
You. Dangers of modernising Thanks to
39:44
Will Colthill there no to Theresa May to go back.
39:47
She also suggested that it could be used as a cover up for
39:49
mistakes made in hospital or for hospital acquired infections.
39:53
And she said cited a friend of hers who calls it the licence to
39:56
kill Bill, say as Lord Moylan says there, she says it's not an
40:00
assisted dying bill but an assisted suicide bill and will
40:03
follow the next stage which will be the committee stage starting
40:05
on 14th of November. Thank you, Charles.
40:10
Now we talked mentioned earlier on in the programme the group
40:16
that is currently occupying Syria and of course many people
40:19
will know it by the name of HTS. It has been a prescribed
40:22
organisation for obvious reasons.
40:25
Is it still? It is not, no.
40:28
And Vanessa did actually mention this in Extra last week.
40:31
It was, It was sort of unfolding at the time.
40:34
And sure enough, the government has now announced its intent to
40:38
D prescribe HTS and so we'll just show you the notice from
40:42
the Home Office and the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office.
40:45
And here it is in English, which says UK removes Hayat tarea al
40:49
Sham from terrorist organisation list.
40:52
Now in this extraordinary news story they have said that the
40:56
government or for the government it will mean closer engagement
41:00
with the new Syrian government and support UK foreign and
41:04
domestic priorities from counterterrorism to migration
41:08
and chemical weapons destruction.
41:10
Now one might think that it would be cause for concern that
41:13
a terrorist organisation needs to be de prescribed in order for
41:17
any of those things to actually happen.
41:19
The statement, it also goes on to say something which I'd like
41:23
to hear Vanessa's comment on and it is this which is Daesh
41:27
remains a significant threat in Syria.
41:29
The D prescription of HTS will support this government's
41:33
engagement on the counter Daesh mission in Syria, in turn
41:37
reducing the threat to UK. Vanessa, how does that work?
41:44
And it doesn't work because HDS, which of course is simply a
41:47
rebranding of al Qaeda or or Jabat al Nusra, which was
41:52
founded by Jolani, now President Ahmad al Sharad in Syria.
41:57
But the HDS military are actually effectively reliant
42:02
upon ISIS to support them in their ethnic cleansing massacres
42:07
of Syrian minorities. So I'm really not quite sure how
42:11
that works at all. I think we we conclude that it
42:15
absolutely doesn't work much like most of the language that's
42:19
contained not just within that statement, but also that the
42:21
statement came from Dan Jarvis, the security minister in the
42:24
House of Commons on the 2020 second of October, which is
42:28
really a master class of euphemism.
42:30
He said after capital consideration and following
42:33
extensive consultation across government and with operational
42:37
partners, he says this decision reflects our unwavering support
42:41
for British interests and commitment to the security of
42:45
the United Kingdom. Now, as it happens, the Home
42:48
Office list of prescribed groups has not been updated.
42:52
And so this is what it's said since 2017 just to you in the
42:57
picture. So it comes under the AL Qaeda
42:59
banner and specifically it refers to Hayat Talia Al Sham
43:04
should should be treated as alternative names.
43:07
Obviously they've listed a few others should be treated as
43:09
alternative names for the organisation, which is already
43:12
prescribed under the name al Qaeda.
43:15
Now, of course, this links back to what we've just heard in the
43:18
news about Venezuela and and all the rest of it and indeed
43:23
relates to Hamas. I mean, there's so many things
43:25
that are tied into this. And of course, with that in
43:28
mind, it is absolutely relevant that this was the exact same
43:32
process was gone through in the United States back in July of
43:35
this year. We'll just have a look at that
43:37
on screen. So this happened in July in the
43:41
States. I'd just like to draw your
43:42
attention to the banner running across the top of the page which
43:44
says federal government shutdown.
43:46
Due to the Democrat LED shutdown, website updates will
43:50
be limited until full operations resume.
43:54
So blaming it on the Democrats, I mean, is this really how the
43:57
leaders of the free world are supposed to conduct themselves,
44:00
one might ask? Prior to this, even back in
44:04
December 2024, Middle East, I illustrated how the process is
44:08
very, very obviously simply geopolitical and has absolutely
44:11
nothing to do with the spectre or otherwise of terrorism.
44:14
And they also make a very good point about the process of the
44:18
prescription. Now this is government governed
44:21
by the Statutory Instrument number 2299 from 2006 attached
44:26
to the Terrorism Act 2000, which states an application under
44:32
Section 4 of the ACT must be made in writing and must state
44:36
the name of the organisation to which the application relates,
44:39
whether the application is being made by the organisation or by a
44:43
person affected by the organisation prescription and
44:46
the grounds on which the application is made.
44:49
Now in neither Dan Jarvis's statement in the House of
44:54
Commons or the news story, as I've articulated, is there any
44:58
reference to how this has actually come about.
45:01
So I I called the Home Office to ask who had put the application
45:05
into the Home Secretary and how was this process followed?
45:08
Of course the media office had absolutely no idea what I was
45:12
talking about but did say they would respond to my email to ask
45:15
the question so that they could formally look into it and get
45:17
back to me. There has been no response.
45:19
I called again immediately before the news programme and
45:22
asked that the press release would be sent to me immediately.
45:26
That did not come either. So it looks at the moment very
45:29
much like government to have written absolutely roughshod
45:31
over the due process. And just before asking Mike and
45:36
Vanessa for comment on this and with the appeal for the
45:39
deprescription of Palestine action in mind, I refer to one
45:43
of only four examples of the prescription happening.
45:47
And we look at a Guardian article from 2017 making the
45:51
connection between the supposed bomber, Salman Abadi of the
45:57
Manchester Arena incident and the Libyan Islamic Fighting
46:01
Group. Now the Guardian article there
46:05
says the 22 year old was influenced in part by the people
46:08
who formed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a little known
46:10
al Qaeda affiliate outlawed in 2004.
46:13
So al Qaeda again, but lo and behold, the same government
46:18
which described the events in Manchester as being among the
46:21
worst terrorist incidents we have ever experienced, de
46:24
prescribed the LIFG just two years later.
46:29
So there's an awful lot here that that needs to be made sense
46:33
of. But I think, as Vanessa
46:34
suggested for earlier, that that's quite because I'm
46:37
challenged to make any sense of it.
46:39
What are we to think about this? Well, I mean, the question is,
46:44
one question I would ask is why was Al Qaeda ever really
46:47
prescribed in the 1st place? Because, you know, this was an
46:49
organisation which Britain, the United States created in the 1st
46:53
place. It has served our purposes for
46:57
foreign policy ever since. We've been funding it, we've
47:00
been arming it. And so it, it seemed that like
47:05
the prescription of that organisation was virtue
47:08
signalling or it was an attempt on a domestic platform to
47:12
present a different situation that was happening
47:14
internationally. And of course they were able to
47:17
use the excuse that al Qaeda had carried out 9/11 and atrocities
47:22
in the UK and so on to justify certain things going on here.
47:26
So, but you know, the, the thing that really I think is striking
47:30
about this is that we here, we have HTS, which let's be
47:35
accurate about this, are head choppers.
47:37
They've been cutting off the heads of people that have been
47:39
assassinating people, murdering people.
47:41
These are people that have actually taken people's lives.
47:44
On the other hand, we have Palestine action.
47:47
And no matter what you think about Palestine action and what
47:49
they've been doing, they have not actually committed any crime
47:53
against a physical body. They've committed criminal
47:57
damage at worst in certain circumstances, and how these two
48:01
things are considered parity, I have no idea.
48:05
Yeah, Vanessa, specifically on that, on that conflict there
48:10
between what Palestine action have done in the form of
48:14
criminal damage and what HTS have been doing.
48:19
Well, in fact, I think the first case for the film 24, the first
48:24
three that were actually put before a judge, their sentence
48:27
was reduced from criminal damage to to I think just, I can't
48:33
remember what it was reduced to. And yet this group is prescribed
48:37
terrorists. But I also want to make the
48:39
point that Hamas and Hezbollah are prescribed terrorist groups
48:44
in the UK. They are not a threat to UK
48:46
national security. They're a threat to Israeli
48:48
national security. You've now de prescribed Al
48:52
Qaeda effectively HTS that is conducting genocidal ethnic
48:56
cleansing in Syria of minorities, including
48:59
Christians, that is backed by Israel and has a very high
49:04
probability of being a threat to the UK population when
49:10
particularly British jihadists belonging to Al Qaeda returned
49:14
to the UK. So yet again, Israeli national
49:17
security is being prioritised over British national security.
49:26
Let's come back to you and what's the latest in Lebanon?
49:32
Well, I mean, in Lebanon, we're seeing a ramping up of Trump's
49:35
administration bully boy tactics.
49:38
I don't know any other way to describe how Trump enacts his
49:42
foreign policy globally recently.
49:45
Well, in fact, yesterday and today, yesterday it was one of
49:50
the US envoys arrived in Lebanon.
49:55
And today Tom Barrack, Trump's economic hitman, as I describe
49:59
him, is going to be in Lebanon and he basically put out a
50:03
statement, I think it was yesterday, US envoy warns
50:07
Lebanon that they have one last chance to disarm Hezbollah and
50:12
of course the Lebanese resistance, which doesn't only
50:14
consist of Hezbollah. His full statement.
50:17
So basically he said, I will inform the president, the Prime
50:22
Minister and the speaker of parliament that they have one
50:25
last chance. He then went on in his
50:28
basically, what is a a threat to the Lebanese people.
50:33
Either they learn their lesson and decide to enter into direct
50:36
negotiations with Israel under US auspices to establish a
50:41
timetable and mechanism for disarming Hezbollah, or Lebanon
50:45
will be left to its fate and will remain so for a long time
50:48
with no one to care about it, neither in America nor in the
50:51
region. And no one will be able to
50:53
pressure Israel to prevent it from doing whatever it deems
50:56
appropriate to undertake disarmament by force.
50:59
This is quite an extraordinary statement.
51:02
He's not mentioned the fact that Israel is still occupying
51:05
Lebanese territory and is increasing its occupation of
51:09
Lebanese territory. Today an attack by the Israeli
51:12
forces inside Lebanon was carried out on a on a Lebanese
51:17
army vehicle. Not not a Hezbollah resistance
51:20
vehicle, but actually the official Lebanese army bombing
51:24
and and suicide drone attacks have, sorry, drone attacks have
51:29
been increasing in the last week and none of this is mentioned by
51:32
Barrick. In fact, what he actually does
51:34
is abrogate responsibility for Israel's action and basically
51:40
withdraws the US from the negotiations and Saudi Arabia
51:44
from the financing of the essential reconstruction of
51:48
civilian infrastructure destroyed by Israel in the last
51:51
war, and basically leaves the field open for Israel to do
51:55
whatever it wants. So in other words, just as the
51:58
British withdrew actually from the the occupied territories of
52:02
Palestine and left it to Israel to ethnically cleanse
52:06
Palestinians in 1948 with the UN support, right now the US is
52:11
doing exactly the same thing and saying to Israel, go ahead,
52:15
disarm Hezbollah and bomb the South.
52:17
And in fact, that is very much what has been happening.
52:20
This is just a very short video from an area known as Balbek
52:25
where you have some of the most historic heritage Roman ruins in
52:30
the region. And just to show on the map
52:34
itself where that is, because it's not in the South, it's
52:37
actually very much in the eastern sector on the border
52:41
with Syria. Sorry, the cats getting in on
52:44
the ACT. And so basically Israel is
52:48
increasing the field of its attacks in Lebanon, just as, of
52:54
course Barrack has given them green light to do so.
52:58
In the last few days there has been a strike on a number of
53:01
cars travelling in the South and these strikes are on a daily, if
53:05
not two or three times daily basis.
53:08
In the image, you can see basically what happens when
53:11
these drone strikes occur. They they just basically take
53:15
out the car, anyone close to the car, anyone travelling next to
53:19
the car and all the people in the car of course simply
53:22
obliterated. And on the left is a young man
53:25
who was killed in this way in the last couple of days, Issa
53:29
Karbala, who was basically assassinated by an Israeli
53:33
drone, of course violating the ceasefire, which has been
53:37
violated around now I think 6000 times by its by Israel.
53:44
And I think a very important factor in this and something
53:47
that I was reflecting on, having had a discussion with journalist
53:52
Madwa Osman, who of course is Lebanese, last night, over how
53:59
these policies are really affecting the human beings in
54:02
this region. And it's very difficult to
54:04
convey the psychological warfare that is being waged against
54:09
these people on an almost daily basis.
54:12
This is something that she posted this morning following
54:16
our long and detailed conversation last night.
54:19
And, and the whole post is in the show notes, but she
54:23
basically says there are days when grief feels heavier than
54:26
the sky, when silence echoes louder than any bomb and you
54:30
start to wonder if the heart can actually break twice in the same
54:34
place. People here are absolutely torn
54:37
apart by what is happening. Everyone has lost people, family
54:41
members, friends, relatives in this war.
54:46
And very much they they are, they are being ignored very much
54:50
by Western media, by Western regimes that are complicit in
54:54
the ongoing aggression by Israel against this region.
54:58
But one point that she made at the end, and I think this is
55:01
where you get the connection across all borders from the West
55:06
to the East to West Asia, that we're all fighting the same
55:11
enemy. So she says if you still ache at
55:13
injustice, if you still feel love burning under the ashes
55:17
when you're not defeated, you are alive.
55:20
And that in itself is resistance.
55:23
And I think it's a powerful message that even those that are
55:27
suffering really the most in in West Asia, from Yemen to to
55:31
Gaza, are still able to understand the concept of
55:35
resistance. And I think in the West we have
55:39
a lot to learn from this, that all the sacrifices that have to
55:42
be made to actually defeat the enemy ultimately are worth it
55:47
when you can feel that you have upheld your human values and
55:52
what it means to be human today. And that, of course, is what is
55:55
being attempted to be eroded by those that are enabling what is
56:03
happening in this region. Yeah.
56:05
And I suppose the other thing that we could say about that,
56:07
Vanessa, is if we're looking for inspiration for resistance, it's
56:12
the, the longevity and the, the, the, the determination over an
56:16
extended period of time to resist.
56:19
It's not something that is that they can solve in six months or
56:23
a year. It's something that takes years.
56:25
And and they're not, they're not running away from the fight.
56:31
No, and it doesn't mean that there aren't moments of of
56:35
defeatism or or a drop in morale or or even depression,
56:40
psychological trauma that exists.
56:43
But ultimately, at the core is this refusal to be dehumanised,
56:48
to be othered, to be wiped out or exterminated.
56:54
Yeah. All right, so I think it's a
56:56
very, very good point and and it should be considered in the face
57:00
of all of the various things that we talk about.
57:02
I mean, even though there is obviously a scale of how much
57:06
sort of trauma people are actually subjected to, but but,
57:09
but absolutely Vanessa, I think humanity is the main thing to
57:12
consider at all times. And in a way that sort of leads
57:16
into the final piece for the programme today, which is that
57:23
one might think that being autumn, it's the time of year
57:26
that you should be absolutely terrified of bird flu.
57:29
But thanks to the Purbright Institute, we can give at least
57:33
a little bit of our fear to mosquitoes.
57:35
Purbright Institute, which of course is largely funded by Bill
57:39
Gates and more or less has a direct connection with the
57:43
Animal and Plant Health Agency and therefore Defra.
57:46
But the Purbright researchers have said that they've helped to
57:48
uncover the origins of the London Underground mosquito.
57:53
Quite why this has assumed such significance at the moment, I
57:57
will leave for you to decide. But you might make your mind up
58:01
and I show you the next piece of information.
58:04
But basically there had been the supposition that a mosquito had
58:07
evolved in underground chambers and in the tunnels of the London
58:11
Underground over the last 200 years.
58:12
And apparently, per Bright scientists, presumably great
58:15
expense, have decided that in actual fact, it's come from
58:17
somewhere else. So now we know.
58:19
And the next thing is that this is coincident.
58:22
This month, surprise, surprise, with a grant of nearly $17
58:26
million from the Gates Foundation to Oxitec, who are
58:29
going to conduct field trials to measure the impact of a
58:32
biocontrol approach on mosquito populations and malaria
58:37
transmission. Now, this is specific to America
58:40
and Africa, but of course, talk about mosquitoes in the United
58:45
Kingdom means that we get to consider malaria and chikungunya
58:48
and always sorts of things that frankly, if you really haven't
58:51
the time to think about bird flu can occupy that space for you.
58:54
So this is where it looks like it's going with the the fear
58:58
narrative, and we will of course keep an eye on it.
59:02
But I think to Vanessa's point about humanity, all of this does
59:07
in fact come down to that. And the relationship between so
59:12
called sort of zoonotic diseases and public scaremongering is
59:16
something that should be taken very seriously.
59:18
And we've seen how it's been inflicted upon the human
59:20
population in the last five years.
59:21
And now, of course, the great push to make the natural world
59:25
seem frightening and something that we should be wary of.
59:28
So I think that's something very much that we should in mind as
59:31
we finished the programme and I'm sure we'll talk about it
59:34
more in extra. We, we will indeed.
59:36
So we will be back in a few minutes for UK column news Extra
59:39
if you're a UK column member. If you're not a member, maybe
59:41
you'd consider joining and then you could join us for that.
59:45
And for every UK called News Extra that's coming up in the
59:49
not too distant future. Don't forget Jerem and Carl
59:54
tonight and the interview with Jose and myself tomorrow.
59:58
Join us for that as well. But we'll see you on Friday at
1:00:01
1:00 PM as usual. See you then.
1:00:03
Bye, bye, bye.