Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 15th July 2026

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UK Column News — 15th July 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the fifteenth of July twenty twenty six,
0:11
Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK colum News. I'm
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Speaker 1: your host Mike Robson. Joining me by video link today
0:15
Speaker 1: are Charles Mallett and Vanessa Billy. Later in the program,
0:18
Speaker 1: we're going to be reporting on the further AI rollout
0:22
Speaker 1: in the British courts, so we'll be asking what is
0:25
Speaker 1: Operation Ourbiston Shadow, and we'll also be discussing the ongoing
0:29
Speaker 1: fight between the Church of England and the Board of
0:31
Speaker 1: Deputies of British Jews. But we'll begin today with the
0:35
Speaker 1: designation of three organizations of the new National Security State
0:39
Speaker 1: Threats Act. Charles over to you. Welcome to the program.
0:44
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Mike, Good afternoon, Good afternoon all. Yes,
0:47
Speaker 2: as you say, hot on the heels of the very
0:51
Speaker 2: very speedily passed National Security State Threat Act twenty twenty six,
0:57
Speaker 2: the moment has come that the Establishment has been waiting for.
1:00
Speaker 2: They have been able to now formally ban in modern
1:05
Speaker 2: parliaance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core, the IRGC, and this
1:10
Speaker 2: comes in the form of designating it as a body.
1:14
Speaker 2: So what we'll do is we'll just start by listening
1:17
Speaker 2: to what the Foreign Secretary IVEC Cooper says about this.
1:20
Speaker 2: But as you listen to what she says, please consider
1:24
Speaker 2: the effect that you think it's likely to have on
1:27
Speaker 2: the IRGC as well as the effect that it's likely
1:31
Speaker 2: to have on British citizens.
1:35
Speaker 3: Iran and Russia cannot be allowed to use different proxy
1:39
Speaker 3: organizations to threaten security and safety on Britain streets. That
1:45
Speaker 3: is completely wrong, and that's why we've taken this action.
1:49
Speaker 3: I have felt very strongly about this, particularly around the
1:51
Speaker 3: IRGC backed threats, for a long time, and that's why
1:55
Speaker 3: I push for us to change the law in the UK.
1:58
Speaker 3: That's what we've done. Now that process is complete, and
2:01
Speaker 3: that's why we're ready to take these steps and designate
2:03
Speaker 3: these organizations to stop them threatening the UK's.
2:07
Speaker 4: New intelligence suggesting that there isn't a fresh.
2:10
Speaker 3: Threaten on the UK soil, well, we've been responding to
2:14
Speaker 3: a series of cases where we have had both Iran
2:18
Speaker 3: and Russia backed threats on UK soil and we cannot
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Speaker 3: allow the safety on British streets to be threatened, and
2:26
Speaker 3: that's why we've taken this action. We've changed the law
2:28
Speaker 3: to make that possible, and now we're taking this action
2:31
Speaker 3: to make sure that we protect the British people and
2:35
Speaker 3: British residents against these threats.
2:41
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say she was on fairly
2:43
Speaker 2: shaky ground when asked a follow up question about the
2:47
Speaker 2: threats as they are actually presented, And of course it
2:50
Speaker 2: doesn't look in any way like this is going to
2:52
Speaker 2: make the slightest bit of difference to any of the
2:54
Speaker 2: organizations that are being designated, which at the moment are
2:57
Speaker 2: the ILGC as well as Russia's GRU and then another
3:01
Speaker 2: that will come onto in just a second, but we
3:03
Speaker 2: just have a look at the title of the press
3:05
Speaker 2: release itself, which will just put on screen now. Support
3:08
Speaker 2: for ILGC outlawed in crackdown on foreign state proxies. So
3:13
Speaker 2: it's all terribly exciting, and it's specifically the designation of
3:19
Speaker 2: where they were in the legislation described as bodies, they're
3:22
Speaker 2: now written up as groups and they're treated in a
3:24
Speaker 2: similar way to foreign intelligence services under key National Security
3:29
Speaker 2: Act defenses. But the critical part comes here, meaning prosecutors
3:33
Speaker 2: will not need to establish a foreign power connection in
3:37
Speaker 2: every case, making it easier to bring those engaged in
3:42
Speaker 2: hostile activity to justice. Now this has been widely misreported
3:47
Speaker 2: intentionally so and of course the government have been very
3:50
Speaker 2: pleased that this is the case. The word has been
3:53
Speaker 2: used as prescription. Now this is not prescription, because this
3:57
Speaker 2: is not terrorism legislation. But of course the purpose of
4:01
Speaker 2: a system is what it does. Possiwid reference many times
4:05
Speaker 2: on UK Colon quite rightly so, because what this does
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Speaker 2: do is provide the government with exactly the same tools
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Speaker 2: given by the Terrorism at two thousand in order that
4:15
Speaker 2: they may designate. And the critical part is that it
4:20
Speaker 2: lowers the threshold for offenses by which the British citizens
4:25
Speaker 2: who are prepared to speak out about certain matters may
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Speaker 2: be entrapped in the way terrorism law doesn't currently allow.
4:33
Speaker 2: And I think that's really the bit that needs to
4:35
Speaker 2: be got to. So we just go on to look
4:37
Speaker 2: at the next bit of text from the press release
4:42
Speaker 2: because this is again at the half of it. The
4:44
Speaker 2: government fast tracked the legislation to bring in new powers
4:46
Speaker 2: after the abhorrent anti Semitic attacks in North London ever
4:50
Speaker 2: the catalyst. So we just listened to what the Prime
4:52
Speaker 2: Minister had to say on that specific issue prior to
4:55
Speaker 2: the legislation passing.
4:58
Speaker 5: We need stronger power to tackle the malign threat posed
5:03
Speaker 5: by states like Iran, because we know for a fact
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Speaker 5: that they want to harm British Jews, which is why
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Speaker 5: we will fast track the necessary legislation.
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Speaker 2: So when biled down, there are actually a very small
5:22
Speaker 2: number of factors that can really be pointed to justify
5:26
Speaker 2: the legislation and indeed the designation of bodies. But that
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Speaker 2: hasn't stopped the Foreign Office, the Home Office and all
5:32
Speaker 2: the other agencies concerned by putting out a statement about
5:37
Speaker 2: a group that is supposed to have links to attacks
5:40
Speaker 2: on Jewish locations. Now, this is the Islamic movement of
5:45
Speaker 2: Companions of the Right. I AMCR, and if you've never
5:48
Speaker 2: heard of it, then I can hardly blame you. As
5:50
Speaker 2: written up by the Long War Journal showing the statement
5:54
Speaker 2: that they apparently put out on Twitter after some alleged
5:57
Speaker 2: attacks earlier this year. First of all, there in Arabic
6:01
Speaker 2: and in English warriors of Islam ow nights of the
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Speaker 2: Shadows and that kind of thing. This looks like a
6:07
Speaker 2: well drodden path of using a complete confection in order
6:12
Speaker 2: to suggest that there is a threat when none previously existed.
6:16
Speaker 2: And I'm now going to hand over to Mike, who's
6:19
Speaker 2: got more on this group specifically.
6:23
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, so this newly designated group, as you say, Charles,
6:27
Speaker 1: still appears to be completely fag. Now the Islamic Movement
6:32
Speaker 1: of the People of the right hand seems to be
6:34
Speaker 1: the correct translation. But let's just remind ourselves who they are, because,
6:38
Speaker 1: as Basil reported back in March, this group simply didn't
6:42
Speaker 1: exist until the United States and Israel decided to attack
6:44
Speaker 1: around when it suddenly appeared fully formed and started causing
6:48
Speaker 1: small incidents of property damage allegedly to Jewish assets in
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Speaker 1: Belgium and the Netherlands. As you've just commented on, from
6:55
Speaker 1: day one of its appearance, is really bad to think
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Speaker 1: tanks and security grew groups instantly claimed to have linked
7:02
Speaker 1: it to Iranian militias. The group had produced the scary
7:07
Speaker 1: looking statement if we just bring it back on screen
7:09
Speaker 1: for a second, in which they referred to Palestine as
7:12
Speaker 1: the land of Israel in both English and in Arabic, which,
7:15
Speaker 1: as Basil pointed out of the time, was pretty unusual
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Speaker 1: because Iranian textbooks books use the Farsi language and don't
7:22
Speaker 1: refer to Israel on a map. But of course, as
7:26
Speaker 1: is typical the United Kingdom corporate media are wholly uninterested
7:31
Speaker 1: in doing any serious forensic analysis of the group. But
7:35
Speaker 1: Unis Saramifa, political anthropologist at VU University in Amsterdam, did
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Speaker 1: at the time post in detail about the group on
7:45
Speaker 1: his LinkedIn profile, and he is quoted as saying that
7:50
Speaker 1: the act that various things in cas Sirius died on
7:55
Speaker 1: the Arabic language portion of the statement, and he suggested
7:59
Speaker 1: that the time this translation had been done by an
8:02
Speaker 1: AI tool, and he concluded that I don't think these
8:06
Speaker 1: things are a direct Sorry, I don't think these are
8:08
Speaker 1: a direct proxy or a sleeper cell associated with the
8:11
Speaker 1: so called Access of Resistance. Now, this is all very
8:15
Speaker 1: convenient for those seeking the stoke up fear and proper
8:18
Speaker 1: support for the war. But at the time, if you remember,
8:21
Speaker 1: the rapper Loki put this out on his x feed
8:26
Speaker 1: saying that the group appears to operate entirely within the
8:29
Speaker 1: Zionist propaganda ecosystem, and CBS in the United States being
8:34
Speaker 1: the sole organization to which they had spoken. So the
8:38
Speaker 1: question that I was wondering was are there any independent
8:41
Speaker 1: voices providing evidence of their existence. Well, there's the Institute
8:46
Speaker 1: for Strategic dialogue. They certainly push very hard on the
8:49
Speaker 1: IMCR narrative, and they are an independent voice, aren't they. Well,
8:54
Speaker 1: actually no they're not. I mean, as we look at
8:56
Speaker 1: the kind of things that they post here, we see
8:59
Speaker 1: the type of stuff that they're talking about. But they
9:02
Speaker 1: work directly with multiple governments on influence campaigns. In fact,
9:08
Speaker 1: they might be considered to be more of an intelligence
9:10
Speaker 1: agency than a think tank, and as I already mentioned,
9:15
Speaker 1: absolutely an influence organization. In fact, they boast here of
9:18
Speaker 1: having trained an army of over thirty two thousand activists
9:23
Speaker 1: and influencers. And then another voice that pushes the IMCR
9:27
Speaker 1: narrative HERD is the Global Network on Extremism and Technology
9:31
Speaker 1: g NET, and of course that must be independent as well,
9:34
Speaker 1: and mustn't it well, as you can see on screen there,
9:37
Speaker 1: if we just bring that back please. They are housed
9:40
Speaker 1: within the Center for State Craft and National Security at
9:43
Speaker 1: King's College, London, and that department within King's College is
9:47
Speaker 1: packed with former defense and intelligence agency aligned people and
9:52
Speaker 1: is funded by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism,
9:55
Speaker 1: which came out of the original British government efforts to
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Speaker 1: regulate the Internet and is funded by Meta and Microsoft
10:02
Speaker 1: YouTube and X and others. So I'm going to say, Charles,
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Speaker 1: I completely agree with Basil Valentine's analysis of this back
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Speaker 1: in March that this is a completely fake organization. I
10:14
Speaker 1: would say it's most likely a brand which can be
10:17
Speaker 1: used to attach false flags into incidents too for narrative building.
10:23
Speaker 1: But also just to just to clarify one thing, Charles,
10:26
Speaker 1: it wasn't the GRU themselves. It was the third organization
10:29
Speaker 1: on this. It was a GRU linked organization which is
10:35
Speaker 1: Russian ethnic people in Ukraine itself. So it's not the
10:42
Speaker 1: GRU itself.
10:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, my apologies. That is a very important clarification, Thanks
10:48
Speaker 2: very much, Mike. Yes, I think that the point about
10:54
Speaker 2: this being fake and in a way there to be
10:57
Speaker 2: used for whatever purpose is a very good point. I
11:01
Speaker 2: think also it demonstrates how an intense focus on a
11:06
Speaker 2: very small point of attention has been used to such
11:11
Speaker 2: great effect in recent times. Of course, I've just spoken
11:14
Speaker 2: about the so called protection of the Jewish community, and
11:17
Speaker 2: again that was an attack on two people in London
11:22
Speaker 2: which has been used to in effect create a new
11:25
Speaker 2: piece of legislation. We saw exactly the same thing with
11:27
Speaker 2: the attempt to float the hand to virus with the
11:32
Speaker 2: concentration on a very small number of people there. But
11:35
Speaker 2: to go back to the wider issue of exactly how
11:37
Speaker 2: this is going to affect people, I think the tweet
11:39
Speaker 2: that George Galloway put out is absolutely one that we
11:42
Speaker 2: should look at. And he writes, to the best of
11:45
Speaker 2: my knowledge, I have never met a member of the ILGC,
11:48
Speaker 2: neither expressed a positive opinion about them. An english woman
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Speaker 2: named Shabana Mamood has just made it punishable by fourteen
11:54
Speaker 2: years in prison. So to do as a freeborn Scotsman,
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Speaker 2: I will have to reconsider that. As far as I'm
12:01
Speaker 2: aware as a UK legislator across five decades, this is
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Speaker 2: the first time I have been explicitly told that I
12:08
Speaker 2: can go to prison literally for my opinion. For those
12:12
Speaker 2: of you cheering, remember it will be your opinion next.
12:17
Speaker 2: And I think this is a point that people should
12:19
Speaker 2: be holding very close because it is an extremely significant one.
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Speaker 2: And when I refer back to the comment I made
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Speaker 2: at the start, which is that this legislation, or at
12:30
Speaker 2: least the banning of these designated bodies, is being likened
12:33
Speaker 2: to prescription. But of course the threshold has been considerably
12:38
Speaker 2: lowered because again as stated there is no necessity for
12:43
Speaker 2: the prosecutor to have that link to what is being
12:46
Speaker 2: described as foreign threat activity. This means that the net
12:52
Speaker 2: is cast incredibly wide for the government and therefore presents
12:56
Speaker 2: a huge opportunity in terms of opportunities. We also have
13:01
Speaker 2: to look to the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
13:06
Speaker 2: Mariam Rajavi, who's casting ourselves as a sort of provisional leader,
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Speaker 2: albeit from outside of Iran, says that she welcomes the
13:14
Speaker 2: government's decision to prescribe again using that same word to
13:18
Speaker 2: prescribe the ILGC long overdue and it's essential regional and
13:23
Speaker 2: global peace, stability and security. Now I've spoken about her
13:27
Speaker 2: andization in the past, of course, something that British Government
13:29
Speaker 2: was very keen to distance itself from in years gone by.
13:33
Speaker 2: But times change, of course, and sans shift. So what
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Speaker 2: I'm going to do now is just player a clip
13:39
Speaker 2: from the MP Bob Blackman speaking in order that we
13:44
Speaker 2: get a sense of which way the British Government might
13:47
Speaker 2: be looking to go on this specific issue.
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Speaker 6: As Chairman of the British Committee for Around Freedom, my
13:55
Speaker 6: cross party colleagues and I from both houses of Parliament
13:59
Speaker 6: are pro to fought this provisional government and the Iranian
14:02
Speaker 6: people's right to determine their own future. I would like
14:06
Speaker 6: to announce so far more than three thousand parliamentarians across
14:11
Speaker 6: the world, former heads of states and distinguished personalities from
14:16
Speaker 6: no less than fifty five countries across five continents have
14:20
Speaker 6: endorsed a joint declaration supporting the Iranian people struggle for
14:25
Speaker 6: freedom and in welcoming the ncri's provisional government. Leaders of
14:32
Speaker 6: the world community must support President elect Maria Majavi's ten
14:36
Speaker 6: point plan and the ncri's provisional government to end the
14:40
Speaker 6: Iranian people suffering and guaranteeing a lasting peace, stability and security. Now,
14:47
Speaker 6: ladies and gentlemen, it has been long the goal of
14:50
Speaker 6: the UK both in across party that the Iranian Revolutionary
14:56
Speaker 6: Guard Corps should be classified as a terrorist entity and
15:01
Speaker 6: their assets secrustated. I'm pleased to say that this week
15:12
Speaker 6: finally the UK government put through legislation which allows us
15:17
Speaker 6: now to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. This
15:29
Speaker 6: brings forward the day when there will be an orderly
15:32
Speaker 6: transition from the theocratic regime that exists in Tehran to
15:38
Speaker 6: the democratic regime led by Madame Rijavi.
15:46
Speaker 2: I put force up there on the screen simply to
15:49
Speaker 2: make the point that even as one of the legislators,
15:52
Speaker 2: he has failed to grasp that this is not prescription,
15:55
Speaker 2: although in actual fact it will manifest him exactly the
15:59
Speaker 2: same way. What I'd like to do is just ask
16:01
Speaker 2: Vanessa for just quick comment on his suggestion that there
16:05
Speaker 2: would be an orderly transition from the current status quo
16:09
Speaker 2: in Iran to something else.
16:14
Speaker 7: Well, forty three million people came out for the six
16:18
Speaker 7: day funeral of the former Supreme Leader that was assassinated
16:22
Speaker 7: by Trump, so I think I would challenge that quite strongly.
16:33
Speaker 2: Entirely fair enough, I mean, I hope we'll have time
16:35
Speaker 2: to talk about this more in extra because it is
16:39
Speaker 2: fascinating to see the way in which the government is
16:42
Speaker 2: navigating this path. Of course, always coming back to the
16:47
Speaker 2: touch point of referencing anti Semitism and the idea of
16:52
Speaker 2: anti Zionism, and of course the conflation of those two things,
16:56
Speaker 2: which I will come on to in more detail later
16:58
Speaker 2: in the program.
17:00
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles, Thanks for Vernessa and Vanessa. Let's move
17:03
Speaker 1: on to you, and of course part and parcel of
17:06
Speaker 1: this idea of terrorism or no designation is the question
17:10
Speaker 1: of whether people are able to pass ports or at
17:14
Speaker 1: airports without being picked up by instruments of the state
17:18
Speaker 1: and the intelligence services. And no, we've reported quite a
17:21
Speaker 1: bit about what's been happening in the UK over the
17:24
Speaker 1: last couple of years, but it seems this is now
17:28
Speaker 1: beginning to happen in other countries as well.
17:32
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, this is actually quite an extraordinary case,
17:35
Speaker 7: and I think it's the first time that an activist
17:39
Speaker 7: has been picked up on European soil for extradition to
17:43
Speaker 7: the US. So this is pro Palestine activist Fergy Chambers
17:48
Speaker 7: that many of us within the pro Palestine movement are
17:51
Speaker 7: aware of if we don't know him personally. He was
17:54
Speaker 7: arrested in Ibetha after the US extradition requests of Spain,
18:00
Speaker 7: basically following through on Trump's demands, and it is the
18:04
Speaker 7: first time that an activist supporting the resistance in the
18:09
Speaker 7: West Asia region has actually been arrested in a fairly
18:13
Speaker 7: sinister way as he was returning home for extradition. And
18:20
Speaker 7: the term extradition to the US always kind of strikes
18:23
Speaker 7: as with fear, of course, because we have no idea
18:26
Speaker 7: where they might end up. So very quickly who is
18:28
Speaker 7: FOGD Chambers, because I'm sure quite a few of you
18:31
Speaker 7: have not heard of him. A number of think tanks
18:35
Speaker 7: basically run by the ADL, the Anti Defamation League, and
18:39
Speaker 7: APAC in the US have of course connected him, as
18:42
Speaker 7: we're talking about, to Iran and to the IRGC, But
18:48
Speaker 7: basically he's often referred to as Jim stands out as
18:51
Speaker 7: a striking contradiction, a wealthy air advocating for the overthrow
18:54
Speaker 7: of the capitalist system that built his family's fortune. I
18:58
Speaker 7: would say thirty nine years old. Chambers is an heir
19:02
Speaker 7: of the Cox family, owners of the Cox Enterprises, a
19:05
Speaker 7: multi billion dollar conglomerate. According to Forbes, the family is
19:09
Speaker 7: estimated to be valued at around twenty six point eight billion.
19:13
Speaker 7: His own wealth comes in at around two hundred and
19:16
Speaker 7: fifty million, and he's effectively been funding both legal action
19:22
Speaker 7: for US activists who are supporting the resistance in Palestine
19:27
Speaker 7: and Ara against genocide, but also he's been providing funds,
19:31
Speaker 7: as we'll see shortly, to families in Gaza themselves. I
19:36
Speaker 7: think over a million that he's actually poured into helping
19:39
Speaker 7: the victims of the genocide. And I just want to
19:42
Speaker 7: show this. This is how Trump's mouthpiece Fox News is
19:47
Speaker 7: framing this. FBI snares and American air indicted for allegedly
19:52
Speaker 7: bankrolling anti cop prohramas communist revolution. Yes, I mean, I
20:00
Speaker 7: don't think there's much more I can actually say on that.
20:05
Speaker 7: Gasan Abucito, who is a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who
20:10
Speaker 7: has spent considerable time in Gaza and in Lebanon, particularly
20:14
Speaker 7: after the Page You attack, helping the injured and the
20:19
Speaker 7: victims of the genocide in both countries, has said, since
20:23
Speaker 7: the beginning of the war, Chambers has been a vital
20:25
Speaker 7: supporter of revision of care for children wounded in the genocide.
20:32
Speaker 7: And I just wanted to play this clip from VPOL,
20:35
Speaker 7: a Lebanese independent media outlet that has basically summarized many
20:41
Speaker 7: of the many of the activities that chambers funding has
20:47
Speaker 7: actually enabled.
20:50
Speaker 8: Gods are responding. The Semir Project said Bergy's donations are
20:53
Speaker 8: the reason we have a biggery that feeds thousands of
20:56
Speaker 8: people from his funds also helped provide meals, water and
20:59
Speaker 8: medication for displaced Palestinians. Now he's being persecuted for this.
21:03
Speaker 8: Advocate for Fergie's release. Now, not only did Fergie's donations
21:06
Speaker 8: help establish the bakery, distributing three thousand, six hundred free
21:09
Speaker 8: loaves of bread to families a day, but it also
21:11
Speaker 8: helps build a desalination plant supplying one hundred and fifty
21:14
Speaker 8: thousand liters of Queen water daily, a free clinic in
21:17
Speaker 8: Javalia treating up to three hundred patients a day, and
21:19
Speaker 8: provide mental health care to organ children. A solidarity funders
21:22
Speaker 8: are posted. Fergie has been covering the costly medical care
21:25
Speaker 8: for this gossen evacuine Egypt, who needs eight thousand dollars
21:28
Speaker 8: every two months to prevent kidney failures. If Fergie is
21:30
Speaker 8: in prison, she can die of kidney failure like her
21:33
Speaker 8: little sister did. Her life depends on Fergie's health.
21:39
Speaker 7: So, I mean, you know, there has been a bit
21:41
Speaker 7: of a storm on social media. Some people don't like him,
21:44
Speaker 7: but it's not about your personal feelings towards Fergy Chambers.
21:49
Speaker 7: It's about the precedent that is being set that someone
21:52
Speaker 7: who is effectively helping victims of genocide and protesting genocide
21:58
Speaker 7: and even protesting the capitalist complex globally can be treated
22:04
Speaker 7: in this way and is in danger in this way. Now,
22:08
Speaker 7: some if the Spanish political parties have been pressuring the
22:12
Speaker 7: Spanish government not to hand over the pro Palestine philanthropist
22:18
Speaker 7: and basically what they've said, and I'll read the full statement,
22:22
Speaker 7: solidarity with Palestine does not constitute an offense, nor can
22:26
Speaker 7: it be equated without concrete and individualized evidence of the
22:31
Speaker 7: financing of violent acts, with the financing of terrorism, the
22:36
Speaker 7: fight against terrorism cannot be used as an instrument to
22:39
Speaker 7: prosecute the denunciation of genocide. Solidarity with an occupied people
22:45
Speaker 7: or support for humanitarian and social initiatives supporting the Palestinian
22:50
Speaker 7: people is not a crime. It is a legitimate expression
22:53
Speaker 7: of solidarity, the defense of human rights and commitment to
22:58
Speaker 7: international law. So, during very dangerous waters at the moment.
23:04
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you very much for that, Vanessa, what
23:06
Speaker 1: we are indeed, and so let's take a look at
23:09
Speaker 1: some more of the dangerous waters that we're entering, and
23:12
Speaker 1: back to the UK now. The National Risk Register is
23:16
Speaker 1: the UK government's published assessment of the most significant risks
23:19
Speaker 1: that they say face the country. It is the public
23:22
Speaker 1: facing version of the classified National Security Risk Assessment and
23:27
Speaker 1: is presented as a planning tool to help emergency planners
23:30
Speaker 1: and resilience professionals prepare for potential risks. The Cabinet Office
23:35
Speaker 1: claims that it is not intended as a prediction of
23:38
Speaker 1: future events. Now the register was updated yesterday as the
23:44
Speaker 1: Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones to give
23:48
Speaker 1: will actually give a written annual resilience statement to Parliament.
23:52
Speaker 1: Seven new risks have been added. The most notable is
23:55
Speaker 1: the risk of interference in the UK's democratic process, which follows,
24:00
Speaker 1: of course, as we've been talking about last week's announcement
24:03
Speaker 1: of the new National Security Act, but also safeguards that
24:08
Speaker 1: they claim they have implemented, including tougher checks on political
24:12
Speaker 1: donations made by companies and a cap on over political
24:16
Speaker 1: donations coming from overseas. Other editions include cyber attacks on
24:22
Speaker 1: data infrastructure, water infrastructure and police systems, and these are
24:26
Speaker 1: being attributed to the rapid increase in the sophistication and
24:29
Speaker 1: proliferation of artificial intelligence. Was a bit ironic, bearing at
24:32
Speaker 1: mind the British government is pushing so hard on that
24:35
Speaker 1: particular agenda and also what they describe as digital resilience failure,
24:40
Speaker 1: and this they say it's drawing on the lessons of
24:43
Speaker 1: the CrowdStrike it outage of July twenty twenty four. They
24:47
Speaker 1: also highlight the threat of disruption to Russian gas supplies
24:51
Speaker 1: that has been removed because of course they're saying that
24:54
Speaker 1: they are not using so much Russian gas anymore. But
24:58
Speaker 1: alongside the updated register, the government has announced a national
25:02
Speaker 1: resilience campaign which is going to launch later this year.
25:06
Speaker 1: It's going to encourage households prepare for risks such as
25:09
Speaker 1: cyber attacks, flooding and severe weather. It's going to build
25:12
Speaker 1: on the UK government's existing prepare guidance, and it's going
25:17
Speaker 1: to provide new resources for schools and colleges because we've
25:20
Speaker 1: got it in doctrinate them when you're young. And so
25:23
Speaker 1: the regime says, it intends that this brings the UK
25:27
Speaker 1: into ligne with European countries which already run similar campaigns.
25:33
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, we have a consultation
25:35
Speaker 1: which opened yesterday on the Civil Contingencies Act two thousand
25:38
Speaker 1: and four, which proposes a formalized role for local and
25:42
Speaker 1: regional mayors in responding to local and national emergencies, alongside
25:46
Speaker 1: existing structures such as the local Resilience Forums. And their
25:51
Speaker 1: view is that the Act room still remains fit for purpose,
25:54
Speaker 1: but there's a consultation begun on this, a public consultation link.
25:59
Speaker 1: Details will be in the show notes. And then under
26:02
Speaker 1: the Home Defense program, we have the largest UK home
26:08
Speaker 1: defense exercise in decades, Operation Albuston Shadow, which is going
26:13
Speaker 1: to take place next year. So this is going to
26:17
Speaker 1: be a multi day exercise which will test government preparedness
26:22
Speaker 1: for hybrid attacks against the UK, with the precise scenario
26:27
Speaker 1: remaining top secret. And this is going to complement Nitto's
26:31
Speaker 1: CMX twenty seven exercise which takes place next year as well.
26:35
Speaker 1: Now the government classified the crisis Plans. Sorry, they also
26:42
Speaker 1: have updated the crisis plans known as the War Books,
26:45
Speaker 1: which have been updated for the first time since two
26:48
Speaker 1: thousand and four. So let's just bring the wonderful Darren
26:53
Speaker 1: Jones on screen to see what he said in his statement.
26:55
Speaker 1: He said, we have also accelerated our home defense planning,
26:59
Speaker 1: including up updating the Government War Book and increasing the
27:02
Speaker 1: emphasis on aligning military and civilian efforts. If international hostilities
27:07
Speaker 1: affect the UK. We will rigorously test these plans through
27:11
Speaker 1: the largest UK Home defense exercise in several decades, twenty
27:14
Speaker 1: twenty seven to ensure that should the worst ever happen,
27:19
Speaker 1: we will always be ready. Over the last year, we've
27:22
Speaker 1: made strong progress against our commitments on biological security, including
27:26
Speaker 1: delivering Exercise Pegasus, the largest Tier one pandemic scenario simulation
27:32
Speaker 1: in UK history, published publishing a new pandemic preparedness strategy
27:37
Speaker 1: supported by an additional one billion pounds in health protection measures.
27:42
Speaker 1: So there we go. That's where we're at with this, Charles.
27:46
Speaker 1: I wanted to get your thoughts on it because the
27:50
Speaker 1: various voices related to this have been describing Russia as
27:53
Speaker 1: a direct threat to the UK homeland, not just a
27:57
Speaker 1: direct threat to Nailo's eastern flank, you know. And also
28:02
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, here we are in twenty
28:04
Speaker 1: twenty six, This big exercise is going to take place
28:08
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven, but the pandemic preparedness strategy is
28:12
Speaker 1: never too far away. Because of course, that was the
28:14
Speaker 1: last excuse that they had for bringing in emergency legislation.
28:18
Speaker 1: They're clearly intending to hit us with as many They
28:21
Speaker 1: may claim that this is none of this is predictive,
28:24
Speaker 1: but they're clearly intending to hit us with as much
28:26
Speaker 1: of this as they possibly can.
28:31
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's absolutely right. I think one point worth
28:33
Speaker 2: making is that the Civil Contingencies Act, whilst it's been
28:36
Speaker 2: there for now over twenty years, has in fact barely
28:39
Speaker 2: been used. I think I'm right in saying that many
28:42
Speaker 2: of the emergency provisions have in fact never taken effect.
28:45
Speaker 2: So but the fact remains that there is an awful
28:48
Speaker 2: lot there. And as to the point about Russia, I
28:50
Speaker 2: mean an awful lot of this rhetoric would simply collapse
28:53
Speaker 2: under its own weight if it were not for the
28:56
Speaker 2: constant reminders that Russia does apparently pay Who's this existential threat.
29:02
Speaker 2: As to the point about risk, I think we live in,
29:06
Speaker 2: as far as the government's concerned, a golden age where
29:09
Speaker 2: the majority of people have absolutely no idea what risk means,
29:12
Speaker 2: how you measure it, and how you mitigate it. And finally,
29:16
Speaker 2: I think the point that I would like to make
29:20
Speaker 2: is that we see a sort of well, a relentless
29:26
Speaker 2: push towards the magnification a little bit like I was
29:30
Speaker 2: saying earlier, all things that are frankly quite trivial and
29:34
Speaker 2: pushed into the public eye. And I think it doesn't
29:36
Speaker 2: matter what persuasion people might have, either politically or in
29:40
Speaker 2: terms of worldview, but it really can't be continuing to
29:43
Speaker 2: escape people's notice that as soon as we have an
29:46
Speaker 2: intense focus on a particular risk, lo and behold that
29:50
Speaker 2: manifest and if you turn that the other way around.
29:52
Speaker 2: Wasn't it absolutely astonishing that during the period twenty twenty
29:55
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty one terrorists also took the day off
30:00
Speaker 2: cause that deadly virus was just too much.
30:03
Speaker 1: Absolutely, But of course the first role of government is
30:07
Speaker 1: to keep the people safe, and that's what allows them
30:09
Speaker 1: to get through all this kind of nonsense because they
30:11
Speaker 1: keep pushing that mattra. But the other thing I forgot
30:14
Speaker 1: to mention there is on top of the one billion punts,
30:17
Speaker 1: there's another one point eight three billion points to create
30:20
Speaker 1: a network of national biosecurity centers. So you know, the
30:25
Speaker 1: money just keeps coming for these types of things. But look,
30:29
Speaker 1: we'll talk much more about this an extra I have
30:32
Speaker 1: no doubt. Let's move on. If you like what we
30:35
Speaker 1: do here at the UK Column, we do absolutely need
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Speaker 1: diverse range of content this time. Do pick it up
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Speaker 1: if you possibly can, or join us for the seventieth
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Speaker 1: or perhaps and join us for the twentieth anniversary UK
31:28
Speaker 1: Column on location event in September. Charles, I don't know
31:32
Speaker 1: what if you've got anything to say on this.
31:36
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it might well have felt like seventy
31:38
Speaker 2: years you like, but I think twenty it's course for
31:41
Speaker 2: celebration enough, and I'm delighted that we've got so many
31:44
Speaker 2: people on the team sheet already. Our list of speakers
31:46
Speaker 2: is absolutely phenomenal and I think for anyone who's been
31:49
Speaker 2: to any of our previous events, what will characterize this
31:52
Speaker 2: is that people are going to be doing a variety
31:54
Speaker 2: of things. We will have Jake Fern, for example, giving
31:56
Speaker 2: a demonstration of how he works up at one of
32:00
Speaker 2: his incredible portraits, and so there will be a lot
32:06
Speaker 2: to look at, as well as the obviously marvelous effect
32:10
Speaker 2: that is given by people just sharing their experiences and
32:14
Speaker 2: their views face to face. So please do come and
32:16
Speaker 2: join us.
32:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Speaking of Jake Fern, he is featuring on German
32:21
Speaker 1: Warfare tonight at seven pm. The truth movement is a cult,
32:25
Speaker 1: he is discussing, and I may agree with that, but
32:28
Speaker 1: we can talk about that an extra as well at
32:31
Speaker 1: nine pm. More history of China from Silk and Steel,
32:35
Speaker 1: the Battle of the End of China's First Empire. Joined
32:38
Speaker 1: Karl at nine pm for that and tomorrow at one
32:42
Speaker 1: pm Ryan is speaking to deep De once again. Joined
32:46
Speaker 1: him at one pm for part two of that conversation. Okay,
32:50
Speaker 1: let's move on then, and Vanessa bring us up to
32:56
Speaker 1: date with what's been happening in the Middle East and
32:59
Speaker 1: focus time on Yemen.
33:03
Speaker 9: West Asia.
33:04
Speaker 7: Mike, if we're not to follow the colonial ideology, just
33:10
Speaker 7: teasing you, Yes, of course. US in Iran has kicked
33:16
Speaker 7: off again. Trump is intensively bombing, particularly the coastal areas
33:21
Speaker 7: in Iran. What has been interesting is that Iran on
33:26
Speaker 7: a number of occasions. Now has actually broken the Saudi
33:31
Speaker 7: lead blockade of Yemen that's been in place since twenty fifteen,
33:35
Speaker 7: so no medical cases have been able to leave Yemen,
33:40
Speaker 7: no doctors have been able to enter, etc. And Iran
33:43
Speaker 7: has basically broken that in the last few weeks. And
33:48
Speaker 7: there was effectively a flight from Iran taking back the
33:53
Speaker 7: Yemeny delegates that had come for the funeral of the
33:57
Speaker 7: former Supreme Leader, and as the plane was basically transiting
34:05
Speaker 7: Yemeny airspace, Saudi Arabia bombed the civilian airport in Sna.
34:12
Speaker 7: So I just want to show the video of the
34:15
Speaker 7: actual bombing. I've left the sound in because it's pretty impressive.
34:35
Speaker 9: Absolutely, how about that.
34:58
Speaker 7: Now, bear in mind that the Iranian plane passenger jet,
35:02
Speaker 7: was traversing the airspace and virtually arrived Sona when the
35:08
Speaker 7: attack took place, which was incredibly risky. And if we
35:12
Speaker 7: just have a look at the map, we can see
35:15
Speaker 7: that basically what the pilot did was to immediately take
35:19
Speaker 7: action to avoid Suna and then to continue to Al Jodaido.
35:26
Speaker 7: But one assumes that he would have had to be
35:30
Speaker 7: sort of in the airspace at the same time as
35:33
Speaker 7: the Saudi jets. Now in response to the attack by
35:39
Speaker 7: Saudi Arabia, the Yemenese actually led an attack against Abhar
35:44
Speaker 7: Airport in Saudi Arabia, which is the main civilian airport.
35:50
Speaker 7: And we have a video of some of the damage
35:54
Speaker 7: that has been reported to have been caused at the airport,
35:58
Speaker 7: if we can just show that it's not very apparently
36:03
Speaker 7: there were no casualties. There was just a structural damage.
36:07
Speaker 7: But of course Yemen has been making statements for some
36:10
Speaker 7: time that they're not going to accept Saudi influence, even
36:14
Speaker 7: in southern Yemen, and so therefore the entire situation between
36:19
Speaker 7: Yemen and Saudi Arabia is now hating up. And I
36:22
Speaker 7: just wanted to show this because I found it incredibly touching.
36:27
Speaker 7: This was the pilot of the civilian airplane that basically
36:31
Speaker 7: avoided the Saudi missiles, landed his delegation of yemeny safely
36:36
Speaker 7: in Hodeida, and was obviously given a hero's reception when
36:42
Speaker 7: he came back to Tehran. And I found what he
36:46
Speaker 7: said incredibly humble, very patriotic. So I just wanted to
36:51
Speaker 7: share a section of his interview.
36:59
Speaker 10: Imen Tunsim ind Monroe, as is Monroe vain Mohem, Tarin
37:09
Speaker 10: Va Manala Va Corona and John and Professa. I see
37:20
Speaker 10: Hessinka in shure of Toya ham Casnica Toya what didn't chet.
37:36
Speaker 9: John live.
37:41
Speaker 10: Gadre, you know, with a portun with.
37:46
Speaker 7: I mean, I I don't know about you, but I
37:49
Speaker 7: find that very different to what we might have seen
37:51
Speaker 7: had it been an American Islight or even a European one. Now,
37:57
Speaker 7: what is interesting and what we're actually saying the moment
38:00
Speaker 7: is a growing confidence from Iran. We now have the
38:04
Speaker 7: connection between Babble Mandeb and the Straits of Homos. Basically,
38:09
Speaker 7: of course, Iran has now effectively reclosed the Strait of Homos,
38:13
Speaker 7: but Yemen is now talking about closing Bubble Mandeb, and
38:16
Speaker 7: the match just shows quite simply how that is going
38:20
Speaker 7: to then further impact upon energy supply, particularly with the
38:26
Speaker 7: access to the Sewers Canal. But I think, as I've said,
38:30
Speaker 7: what is very important here is the level of confidence
38:33
Speaker 7: from Iran and the unity that we're seeing from the
38:37
Speaker 7: entire West Asia regional resistance access. From not only a
38:43
Speaker 7: military perspective, but also from an economic perspective, we're actually
38:47
Speaker 7: seeing a degree of pan Arabism, and of course combined
38:53
Speaker 7: with persia that we haven't seen before.
38:58
Speaker 1: Thank you for a nessa. We'll talk more an extra
39:01
Speaker 1: but my telling off there. But let's move on then,
39:04
Speaker 1: did you to you? Charles? And the question is is
39:08
Speaker 1: the Church of England taking a stand on something?
39:13
Speaker 2: It's a very good question, and I must be careful
39:16
Speaker 2: not to fall foul of overblowing the situation, because really
39:19
Speaker 2: we are only dealing with words. However, the General Synod
39:23
Speaker 2: has just concluded yesterday in York for the Church of England,
39:28
Speaker 2: and the most significant part of it is, well, I
39:31
Speaker 2: suppose in particular what the archbishop, the relatively newly installed
39:34
Speaker 2: Archbishop of Canterbury has said. We'll just look at the
39:37
Speaker 2: Archbishop of Canterbury's website. There we must hear the voices
39:40
Speaker 2: of Palestinian Christians, says the Archbishop of Canterbury. Now she's
39:43
Speaker 2: been sort of teetering on the edge of talking about
39:46
Speaker 2: this subject and has finally taken the plunge, which I
39:49
Speaker 2: think set against the complete failure and inaction of her predecessor,
39:54
Speaker 2: Justin Welby, who failed to mention anything to do with
39:56
Speaker 2: this before he fell on his crozier. And indeed we
39:59
Speaker 2: might remember that he went so far as to suggest,
40:02
Speaker 2: and I paraphrase, that Jesus would have got the jab.
40:06
Speaker 2: Let's just listen to what Sarah Malali did say.
40:11
Speaker 11: More than ever, we need a critical, respectful dialogue that
40:14
Speaker 11: includes the voices of Palestinian Christians as well as our
40:18
Speaker 11: Jewish and Muslim friends to hear the heartfelt expressions of
40:23
Speaker 11: the lived experiences of the Palestinian Christians. Does not mean
40:27
Speaker 11: we agree with everything in these documents, but it does
40:31
Speaker 11: mean that we listen with compassion and stand in solidarity
40:36
Speaker 11: with them amidst the many injustices they face. I am
40:40
Speaker 11: a pastor, not a politician. When I say the Palestinian
40:44
Speaker 11: people deserve their freedom. That is not a political statement,
40:49
Speaker 11: but a moral and spiritual one. Both Palestinians and Israeli
40:53
Speaker 11: deserve to live free from the horrors of war, terrorism, occupation,
40:58
Speaker 11: displacement and oppression.
41:05
Speaker 2: Now you might be considering that what she said there
41:07
Speaker 2: was perfectly reasonable, and indeed that might be the case.
41:10
Speaker 2: What she's referring to when she says the documents are
41:13
Speaker 2: those written by the Palestinian Christians that have been effectively
41:17
Speaker 2: redone the Cairos version two Cairos roughly translating as a
41:21
Speaker 2: critical moment, and I hope I've got the pronunciation of
41:24
Speaker 2: that word correct. But the point is that this was
41:27
Speaker 2: brought by the Diocese of Carlisle and it was therefore
41:31
Speaker 2: presented as a motion. The language has changed slightly in
41:35
Speaker 2: that the motion initially was that they would receive this declaration,
41:40
Speaker 2: and that was amended to hear, which is of course
41:42
Speaker 2: slightly watered down. However, we'll just take a few bits
41:46
Speaker 2: of the text from the documents themselves. Human rights organizations,
41:51
Speaker 2: legal institutions and international experts have been unequivocal the statements
41:56
Speaker 2: of Israeli political leaders and Israel's actions in its assault
42:00
Speaker 2: on Gaza constitute genocide. Further, there are continuous assaults on
42:06
Speaker 2: Muslim and Christian holy sites, attempts to burn churches, desecrate
42:11
Speaker 2: and destroy cemeteries, and the writing of racist graffiti slogans
42:15
Speaker 2: upon them. And then finally, and these don't all follow
42:18
Speaker 2: one another. These are taken just from the document itself.
42:21
Speaker 2: The heads of the churches in Jerusalem have described these
42:24
Speaker 2: acts as part of a systematic policy to empty the
42:27
Speaker 2: Holy Land of its Christians. Now, the Church of England
42:32
Speaker 2: has so far not really engaged in a way that
42:37
Speaker 2: you might consider appropriate on this very subject. And what
42:42
Speaker 2: has immediately happened is that there has been a response
42:46
Speaker 2: by way of I suppose rebuke from the Board of
42:48
Speaker 2: Deputies of British Jews, which will just have a look
42:51
Speaker 2: at now, and they have published what they're calling a
42:54
Speaker 2: briefing from the Board of Deputies for members of the
42:57
Speaker 2: General Synod of the Church of England regarding the motion
43:00
Speaker 2: relating to Chiros Palestine. Now, what they've specifically said is
43:05
Speaker 2: that these documents spread a toxic narrative about Jews. Is
43:10
Speaker 2: that absolute pleasee And I think this is the point,
43:14
Speaker 2: because they are and I think in an objective sense
43:17
Speaker 2: it's fair to say they are misrepresenting the Chiros because
43:21
Speaker 2: they are saying, they are describing the Chiro that Zionism
43:27
Speaker 2: is a version of or Zionism and Jewish supremacy are
43:31
Speaker 2: at the heart of what's being discussed here, and that
43:34
Speaker 2: that is a libel to quote quote the Board of Deputies,
43:37
Speaker 2: a libel against Jews everywhere. So I think what we
43:41
Speaker 2: have to do therefore is go back to see what
43:43
Speaker 2: is actually said about Jews, and indeed about the Zionism
43:51
Speaker 2: that they refer to. So I quote again back from
43:54
Speaker 2: the Chiros, which is Zionist ideology, claims to represent and
43:58
Speaker 2: protect the Jewish people, but in doing so it has
44:01
Speaker 2: conflated jew and Zionists as though they were one and
44:05
Speaker 2: the same. Not every Jew is a Zionist and not
44:09
Speaker 2: every Zionist is a Jew. This confusion has done great
44:12
Speaker 2: harm to Judaism itself and to its image worldwide. So
44:18
Speaker 2: although this is in effect about an issue that of
44:22
Speaker 2: course is not within the United Kingdom, I think this
44:25
Speaker 2: is of huge significance in so far as the Church
44:28
Speaker 2: of England is concerned, and it would be a time
44:32
Speaker 2: that people should really be applying pressure, further pressure to
44:35
Speaker 2: the Church to push this issue much much further. And
44:39
Speaker 2: that of course harks back to what Ben Rubin was
44:41
Speaker 2: describing on Monday's news program and the falling away of
44:45
Speaker 2: the British population from the Church of England. I think
44:47
Speaker 2: now would be the moment to seize ground that is
44:50
Speaker 2: there for the taking.
44:52
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles. Vanessa. Back to you then, and over
44:55
Speaker 1: the last number of weeks, including on the Syria podcast
44:59
Speaker 1: that we recently did talking about Jiulani and his activities recently,
45:04
Speaker 1: what's the latest.
45:08
Speaker 7: Well, military build up is still ongoing inside Syria, and
45:12
Speaker 7: as I mentioned last week, the NATO summit was an
45:15
Speaker 7: opportunity for Trump to bring together Zelenski Jiolani and to
45:20
Speaker 7: kind of utter up Erduan to get his green light
45:24
Speaker 7: to his proxies that form part of Jolani's forces being
45:30
Speaker 7: included in any operation against Lebanon. Now, obviously Duan has
45:36
Speaker 7: taken that a little bit further. We've had reports and
45:39
Speaker 7: just show this quick video. So this is the Takia
45:44
Speaker 7: on the eastern coastal area of Syria, and these are
45:49
Speaker 7: Turkish naval vessels that have basically arrived at the port.
45:55
Speaker 7: And there are also reports even from Israeli think tanks
46:02
Speaker 7: like Alma Damascus Airport, the technology, technological dimension and the
46:08
Speaker 7: aerial threat deployment of the Turkish HTRS one hundred air
46:13
Speaker 7: defense system. Now, what they're actually saying is that this
46:17
Speaker 7: system provides a three dimensional aerial picture within a radius
46:20
Speaker 7: of eighty to one hundred nautical miles approximately one hundred
46:25
Speaker 7: and fifty to one hundred and eighty five kilometers. So
46:29
Speaker 7: they're saying it covers not only the skies of Damascus,
46:32
Speaker 7: but also large parts of Lebanon and even extends into
46:35
Speaker 7: the airspace of northern Israel. So, of course, from Israel's perspective,
46:41
Speaker 7: this move appears to constitute a certain threat to Israeli
46:45
Speaker 7: aerial freedom of movement in the region, in other words,
46:49
Speaker 7: over Syria and using the Syrian Iraqi airspace to attack Iran.
46:55
Speaker 7: At the same time, there has been a military build
46:58
Speaker 7: up reported of Turkish for so that's alongside Jolanese forces,
47:03
Speaker 7: many of whom of course are foreign mercenaries, and also
47:07
Speaker 7: the Ukrainian forces that have been reported to be building
47:10
Speaker 7: up alongside Julanese militia. But now also there are reports
47:15
Speaker 7: not only of the naval vessels from Turkey arriving in
47:18
Speaker 7: the Takia, but also of Turkish military arriving in the
47:24
Speaker 7: area within that red circle, so Safita in the Tartus
47:28
Speaker 7: coastal area, and Turkish flags are now apparently flying in
47:33
Speaker 7: some of the mountain villages there. Now, bear in mind
47:38
Speaker 7: that if I can just have the map back for
47:40
Speaker 7: one second, that in Tartus, of course you have the
47:43
Speaker 7: Russian existing naval military base that they've managed to maintain
47:50
Speaker 7: despite al Kaeda coming to power in December twenty twenty four,
47:55
Speaker 7: and that now in my opinion puts Russia at great
47:58
Speaker 7: risk because their effect surrounded by Turkish forces, Julanese forces,
48:03
Speaker 7: and now the Ukrainians. Now a couple of people ask me, well,
48:09
Speaker 7: what is the Turkish strategy and all this? And I
48:12
Speaker 7: come back to the Mavi Vatan doctrine. People can read
48:15
Speaker 7: it in the show notes Blue Homeland Anthem a look
48:20
Speaker 7: at Turkey's maritime worldview.
48:21
Speaker 1: So what does this actually mean?
48:24
Speaker 7: Turkey aims to ensure it possesses the military capacity and
48:27
Speaker 7: capability to project power and protect Turkish interests in the
48:31
Speaker 7: surrounding areas the Black Sea, the AEG and C and
48:34
Speaker 7: the Eastern Mediterranean, and strengthening Turkey's regional maritime boundary claims
48:40
Speaker 7: envisioned Turkey declaring, delimiting and defending maritime boundaries in those areas.
48:47
Speaker 7: So we're entering a very precarious age of potential conflict
48:54
Speaker 7: even between is Isl and Turkey right now over maritime
48:58
Speaker 7: corridor interests in the Eastern Mediterranean in particular.
49:02
Speaker 1: Thank you for Anessa. We'll obviously keep an eye on this,
49:06
Speaker 1: Charles back to you, and well, climate but also food,
49:11
Speaker 1: I suppose in this sense as well.
49:15
Speaker 2: Very much so. Yes, if in doubt blame the climate,
49:18
Speaker 2: even though you don't really need to articulate why what
49:20
Speaker 2: the problem is. And I point to a report produced
49:24
Speaker 2: by the Metal Office just yesterday, in fact, suggesting that
49:27
Speaker 2: climate extremes are becoming wait for it, the new normal
49:32
Speaker 2: for the UK. Mike Kendon, who's the author, said he
49:36
Speaker 2: was quoted as saying, what we used to think of
49:38
Speaker 2: as extreme we increasingly consider as normal. So I have
49:42
Speaker 2: to say made me wonder whether he was talking about
49:45
Speaker 2: the climate or in fact everything. But this is of
49:49
Speaker 2: course another exercise in manipulation of statistics and all the
49:53
Speaker 2: rest of it with the appropriate scare agram he's saying.
49:58
Speaker 10: Sorry.
49:58
Speaker 2: One of the things that is point out doubt in
50:00
Speaker 2: this is that many species and processes in nature are
50:03
Speaker 2: closely linked with climate. Well, that is absolutely the case,
50:06
Speaker 2: but they don't go on into any of the detail. Instead,
50:09
Speaker 2: they concentrate, as I say, on scalegrams like this, giving
50:13
Speaker 2: you the idea that over the years the country has
50:16
Speaker 2: got hotter and hotter and hotter, and yet somehow it's
50:19
Speaker 2: still there and so are all the people. But we
50:22
Speaker 2: do that, then we look back to twenty twenty three
50:25
Speaker 2: to consider something that is very closely related, which of
50:28
Speaker 2: course is referred to by the Met Office, which is
50:32
Speaker 2: this idea of nature, climate and therefore food but particularly
50:37
Speaker 2: insect decline and there was a committee hearing back in
50:39
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three in which it was said that insect
50:42
Speaker 2: numbers are difficult to quantify. However, recent research suggests that
50:45
Speaker 2: in the UK flying insects have declined by sixty percent
50:49
Speaker 2: in the past twenty years, something that's ignored by almost
50:53
Speaker 2: everybody except for the advocacy and genuinely environmentally motivated groups.
50:58
Speaker 2: Insects provide pivotal roles for UK food security, including pollination
51:02
Speaker 2: and pest or weed regulation, again something that's completely ignored.
51:06
Speaker 2: They are also concerns with the pest sorry it concerns
51:09
Speaker 2: that pest species may be increasing with negative impacts on
51:13
Speaker 2: crop yields. Now, what is very very closely associated with
51:17
Speaker 2: this is the use of not just pesticides but herbicides,
51:22
Speaker 2: and none more so than round up or chemically known
51:26
Speaker 2: as glyphosate, the product of Beyer Monsanto bought Monsanto in
51:32
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen and has a virtual monopoly on the market. Now,
51:35
Speaker 2: among their frequently asked questions on their website, they have
51:40
Speaker 2: the question why has the UK, glyphosate use increased one
51:43
Speaker 2: thousand percent since nineteen ninety. That is quite as statistic.
51:48
Speaker 2: And we prefix the response by something that they did
51:52
Speaker 2: put down in the answer, which is that glyphosate remains
51:55
Speaker 2: a safe and effective way to manage weeds when used
51:58
Speaker 2: as directed. So I'll leave you to make your mind
52:00
Speaker 2: up about where this is going. They then say the
52:03
Speaker 2: use of glyf state per hecta has remained approximately the
52:06
Speaker 2: same over decades, while the number of hectares treated has
52:08
Speaker 2: increased as a result of several factors. Of course, they're
52:13
Speaker 2: cautious to go into very much detail as to what
52:15
Speaker 2: those factors might be. But what I'm going to do
52:18
Speaker 2: now is wind the clock back to February of this
52:19
Speaker 2: year and cross the Atlantic to where the Trump administration
52:23
Speaker 2: has promoted the national defense by ensuring an adequate supply
52:27
Speaker 2: of elemental phosphorus and glypha sate based herbicides. And in
52:32
Speaker 2: a minute, I'm going to ask Vanessa to comment on this,
52:34
Speaker 2: but before I do, I'm just going to read out
52:35
Speaker 2: what they say, which is that they're going to ensure
52:38
Speaker 2: an adequate supply of these things, because of course, elemental
52:40
Speaker 2: phosphorus is required for the production of glyphasate based herbicides
52:45
Speaker 2: and is thus crucial to the national security. Here we
52:48
Speaker 2: go exactly like this side of the Atlantic, national security
52:51
Speaker 2: and defense, including food supply security, which is essential to
52:55
Speaker 2: protecting the health and safety of Americans. But of course
52:58
Speaker 2: the banner used here is one of defense. And Vanessa,
53:02
Speaker 2: just in sort of quick summary, you recently reported on
53:07
Speaker 2: gly being used as a weapon of war, but of
53:10
Speaker 2: course not by the United States.
53:14
Speaker 7: No, it's been used by Israel extensively in both occupied
53:18
Speaker 7: southern Syria and of course in Lubanon and in Hebron
53:23
Speaker 7: actually so effectively to destroy not only current farming processors,
53:30
Speaker 7: but also to ensure that long term farming and food
53:35
Speaker 7: security is going to be a major issue.
53:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think we really can't overstate the
53:42
Speaker 2: significance of this, not just what the Trump administration has
53:45
Speaker 2: done and setting the scene with regard to so called
53:49
Speaker 2: defense and national security, but also the environmental consequences of this.
53:53
Speaker 2: And just to give you a bit more of an
53:54
Speaker 2: idea if you're not necessarily o fav with the product
53:57
Speaker 2: and what it does, I'm going to share a short
53:59
Speaker 2: clip now from Dr Zach Bush, who has investigated this
54:02
Speaker 2: chemical for decades.
54:05
Speaker 4: We started to disrespect the importance of crop rotation and
54:10
Speaker 4: soil rest cover, cropping, et cetera. This led to a
54:13
Speaker 4: massive death of the top soil, which led to the
54:16
Speaker 4: dust bel During the dust Bowl, we actually, for the
54:19
Speaker 4: first time, started to outsource our food production because these
54:22
Speaker 4: people lost their local gardens and farms, so we started
54:26
Speaker 4: to rely on importing food for the first time, and
54:29
Speaker 4: we started outsource that concept. Then World War Two hit
54:33
Speaker 4: and we did something interesting, which is we had this
54:36
Speaker 4: huge petroleum industry that was wrapped up. So we have
54:39
Speaker 4: this glood of petroleum, and we suddenly realized we can
54:42
Speaker 4: extract nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium out of that oil, and
54:46
Speaker 4: we started making chemical based fertilizers for the first time.
54:49
Speaker 4: So they found a new marketplace for this oil, and
54:52
Speaker 4: it was a great message to the farmers who were
54:54
Speaker 4: still suffering with bad dirt in the Midwest. It is like,
54:57
Speaker 4: you don't need to do crop rotation, you don't need
54:59
Speaker 4: a compost, I need to go back to thousands of
55:01
Speaker 4: years of farming tradition. Just spray this chemical on there.
55:03
Speaker 4: And so these farmers started using it and it became
55:06
Speaker 4: a revolution for them, and it was actually called the
55:08
Speaker 4: green Revolution of the nineteen sixties, and so the green
55:12
Speaker 4: revolution was actually use of nitrogen phosphorus potassium or NPK fertilizers,
55:17
Speaker 4: and the MPKA fertilizer did turn plants green, because nitrogen
55:21
Speaker 4: and phosphorus do that. But what was lacking in those
55:24
Speaker 4: plants for the first time in huge in history was
55:26
Speaker 4: the nutrients and the medicine that should always have been
55:28
Speaker 4: in that food, and so the plants became weak. Just
55:33
Speaker 4: like a human being who lacks nutrients, their immune system
55:35
Speaker 4: goes down. And when a plant immune system goes down,
55:37
Speaker 4: becomes prone to viruses, pests, and it can't excrete the
55:40
Speaker 4: stuff from the root system that would keep weeds at bay.
55:43
Speaker 4: And so now the plants are getting attacked from the outside,
55:46
Speaker 4: if you will. And the chemical chemical industry says, no problem,
55:50
Speaker 4: here's a new chemical weed killer, here's a pesticide. And
55:53
Speaker 4: so the farmers got themselves locked into this codependent relationship
55:57
Speaker 4: with chemical fertilizers and chemical drugs for the plants to
56:00
Speaker 4: keep them alive despite a failing biology underneath the surface.
56:05
Speaker 2: There important part to take out of that because it
56:13
Speaker 2: is very easy to point to climate change, a so
56:16
Speaker 2: called climate change as the reason for soil degradation, of
56:20
Speaker 2: course completely ignore the chemical inputs. But the other part
56:24
Speaker 2: is that soil that has been degraded in such a
56:26
Speaker 2: way is not able to regulate its temperature and its
56:29
Speaker 2: condition in the same way. So these are very much linked,
56:32
Speaker 2: which is why it's a matter of such great concern. Also,
56:35
Speaker 2: I'll just point you back towards the petition being run
56:37
Speaker 2: by the Soil Association about pre harvest application of livestake
56:41
Speaker 2: cut the chemicals. It's only got seventy thousand signatures, and
56:44
Speaker 2: I would put it out there that I think it
56:46
Speaker 2: deserves more. So that's live Staate for today.
56:50
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles, Thank you. We're just going to finish
56:53
Speaker 1: off with a couple of AI related stories. First of all,
56:57
Speaker 1: the drive for AI run quotes continues with the announcement
57:01
Speaker 1: if we just bring this on screen, the justice will
57:03
Speaker 1: be sped up under major disclosure reforms to the Home
57:07
Speaker 1: Office say that they've accepted key recommendations from Jonathan Fisher
57:11
Speaker 1: cases independent review of disclosure and fraud offenses, including a
57:16
Speaker 1: commitment to legislate for the use of artificial intelligence and
57:19
Speaker 1: reviewing and summarizing police evidence. And this is apparently because
57:24
Speaker 1: the police are too bogged down in paperwork and need
57:26
Speaker 1: to be released from that burden. So the claim is
57:29
Speaker 1: that this is a response to the scale of digital
57:32
Speaker 1: material and modern investigations. They're saying that the current disclosure guidance,
57:38
Speaker 1: which dates from nineteen ninety six, wood case files typically
57:41
Speaker 1: filled a or fitted into a single box. They are
57:44
Speaker 1: now saying that most investigations now involved data equivalent to
57:48
Speaker 1: over five hundred thousand e books, with an average fraud
57:52
Speaker 1: case containing more than four million documents. And so under
57:55
Speaker 1: existing rules police have to manually process and produce a
57:59
Speaker 1: written for every potentially relevant file. So the proposals will
58:03
Speaker 1: allow the technology to identify, sort and compile this material instead.
58:10
Speaker 1: And so Police AI, which is the recently launched National
58:14
Speaker 1: Security National Center for Police AI, have backed by seventy
58:19
Speaker 1: five million points of government funding, they're going to pilot
58:22
Speaker 1: the tools that will automatically generate the summaries of the
58:25
Speaker 1: digital material, with the intention of scaling across all forces
58:29
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven. The government claims that Police AI
58:32
Speaker 1: will free up and estimated six million hours of police
58:36
Speaker 1: time annually by twenty twenty eight, equivalent to three thousand
58:40
Speaker 1: additional officers or perhaps equivalent to three thousand redundancies. Who knows,
58:44
Speaker 1: we'll come We'll come on to that. And next n
58:46
Speaker 1: do dit Now the Police Productivity Review found that officers
58:51
Speaker 1: spent roughly five hundred and thirty two thousand RS in
58:54
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three on disclosure work
58:57
Speaker 1: for cases that thea CPS litter dropped and so they're
59:01
Speaker 1: hoping that this is going to sort that problem out.
59:04
Speaker 1: And then two further recommendations from Fisher were accepted, the
59:09
Speaker 1: centralized procurement of police technology that's described as already underway
59:15
Speaker 1: through the Police Reform Program, and also the career creation
59:18
Speaker 1: of a National Police Service and a National Governance Forum
59:23
Speaker 1: for Disclosure Disclosure for disclosure technology, which is going to
59:28
Speaker 1: bring together policing, judiciary, prosecutors and the government to oversee
59:32
Speaker 1: these emerging tools what could possibly go wrong. And then finally,
59:36
Speaker 1: just a quick one on the UK defense Defense Innovation
59:41
Speaker 1: has launched a new themed competition which is called Novel
59:44
Speaker 1: Autonomy and Robotics and Other competition is being run on
59:47
Speaker 1: behalf of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratories Autonomy Program
59:51
Speaker 1: Incubator project, and it seeks cutting edge, low technology readiness
59:55
Speaker 1: level science and technology ideas that may be matured to
1:00:00
Speaker 1: support military use of autonomous systems across land, sea and
1:00:03
Speaker 1: air environments. There's not a huge amount of money behind
1:00:07
Speaker 1: this at this point in time, but nonetheless we see
1:00:10
Speaker 1: the direction of travel here. If your UK Call members,
1:00:15
Speaker 1: join us in a few minutes for extra because we've
1:00:17
Speaker 1: got a lot to talk about today, including this topic.
1:00:21
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, thank you to everybody's watched, Thanks
1:00:24
Speaker 1: to Vanessa and Charles for today, and we don't forget
1:00:28
Speaker 1: the interviews tonight and tomorrow at one pm. We'll be
1:00:31
Speaker 1: back for another news program at one pm on Friday
1:00:33
Speaker 1: as usual. We'll see you then