Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 4th July 2025

Transcript

UK Column News - 4th July 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon, it's Friday the 4th of July 2025.
0:11
Happy Independence Day, Patrick. Thanks for remembering, Mike.
0:14
Yeah, just after 1:00. And welcome to UK Column News.
0:17
I'm your host, Mike Robinson. My Co host today in the studio
0:20
is Patrick Henningson. And journalist Mark Anderson
0:23
joins us by video link from the United States.
0:26
Now let's get straight on Palestine.
0:28
Action is at the Royal Courts of Justice for what they describe
0:32
as the last opportunity to stop their prescription as
0:35
terrorists. This follows the agreement by
0:38
the House of Lords yesterday to prescribe the group.
0:42
Now, in an act of sheer hypocrisy, Yvette Cooper,
0:46
amongst others, attended the House of Commons on Wednesday
0:48
wearing a sash to celebrate the suffragettes who used even worse
0:52
tactics, including explosives, than Palestine Action to make
0:55
their point. So absolute hypocrisy because
0:58
most of the lot in that photograph there then went on to
1:02
vote to prescribe Palestine Action as a terrorist
1:05
organization. Now we are hoping at some point
1:09
during the course of the programme to have some life.
1:13
In fact, Willsey is just joining us as we speak.
1:18
Willsey, I don't know if you can hear us at the moment.
1:26
Hello. So we're just down near the
1:27
protest today at the High Court and we've got a massive crowd
1:32
down here and we've just been interviewing people.
1:34
A lot of people are extremely concerned that this is going to
1:36
be the thin end of the wedge in terms of protests in this
1:40
country. And as you can see, there's an
1:42
absolutely massive crowd here down at the High Court.
1:45
We weren't sure the turn out was going to be this big, but it's
1:48
absolutely massive. Well, let's, let's hold on one
1:54
second. Let's make a formal welcome to
1:57
the program. This is Willsey from Resistance
1:59
GB. As you say, a massive crowd
2:01
there, Willsey, And has it been well behaved so far?
2:09
How how are things going at the court?
2:11
Are the crowds protesting well? You can see there are a huge
2:17
amount of people. It's an absolutely massive
2:20
crowd. I'm sorry that it's slightly
2:22
harder to hear you down here, but you can see there's a huge
2:25
crowd. They've got speakers, they've
2:28
got a sound system and I'm estimating there might be.
2:32
It's maybe 1000 people down here.
2:34
It's a really big crowd. And is there any indication yet
2:39
as to what the likely outcome of this is going to be?
2:45
People are very unsure what the likely outcome is going to be.
2:48
People aren't certain, given that they've been talking
2:52
especially about Israeli infiltration and they say there
2:55
is a lot of Zionist control within the government.
2:58
And so they're worried that no matter how many numbers they
3:02
have down here that it will just be ignored.
3:05
But they do have hopes. They believe that there's a
3:07
human rights argument on this and I think hopefully, fingers
3:12
crossed, they can win, but no one really knows.
3:16
And does anybody know how long this is, this hearing is likely
3:19
to take? Are we going to get a result
3:21
today? You know, hoping to get a result
3:25
today, hoping to get a result today.
3:32
And a lot of people are very angry at the and the fact that
3:37
they're going to be designated terrorists.
3:39
And people have expressed to me that they're happy to continue
3:43
with Palestine action despite the terrorist designation A
3:46
potentially challenging that under human rights grounds.
3:51
Well, we'll see. I've got to say, thank you very
3:54
much for joining us today. That has been extremely
3:56
interesting. It's great to see that number of
3:58
people out on the streets. And we have, you have sent us a
4:02
little video report. We're going to put that out
4:04
during extra today and that'll go out alongside the news
4:08
program later on. So thank you for joining us
4:10
today. Thank you.
4:12
Very. Much.
4:14
OK. Thank you.
4:16
Now that is quite the situation there, Patrick.
4:21
The, the, the issue as I mentioned on Wednesday is aside
4:24
from the hypocrisy of Yvette Cooper and so on it went wearing
4:27
the, the sash, honouring the suffragettes at the same time
4:31
that they're making this vote. Of course, the action, the, the
4:35
actual activities of Palestine action no different to others,
4:39
including Just Stop Oil and others.
4:41
This this was not terrorism by any definition.
4:44
No. So the criminalization of what
4:47
used to be legal protest in the country.
4:50
And I think that's let's just underline the point here that
4:54
the government, the Yvette Cooper, the Starmer, the Israeli
4:59
lobby strong arming parliament, strong arming parliament in
5:03
order to criminalize protest on behalf of it looks like
5:08
according to their their involvement with the various
5:11
law, Israeli lobby actors Mike it on behalf of a foreign
5:16
government. Yes.
5:18
So, well, look, we are going to talk more about the context of
5:22
this in a little set in a little moment, but you've got more on
5:25
the Palestine action situation here.
5:28
As you can see, there's a shot here from the High Court, of
5:32
course. So as Wilsey was reporting,
5:34
there a lot more people. This was earlier from a previous
5:38
hearing, I believe. So this is the scene and there's
5:41
a lot going on here. There's a lot going on here.
5:44
And the government is is not looking good on all any of this.
5:49
Let's just look at chapter 1 here revealed how the Israel
5:53
lobby got Keir Starmer to ban Palestine action.
5:56
So clearly there is activity in the background here with regards
6:01
to the various Israeli lobby organizations and they're
6:05
playing a pivotal role, Mike, in pushing for the banning of
6:09
Palestine action or worse than banning, labeling them a
6:13
terrorist organization here. But here's what we spoke about
6:16
before and this is what you need to pay attention to.
6:18
And this is again from Yvette Cooper's statement here she is
6:23
the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Home Office
6:28
there. This the disgraceful attack on
6:30
Brize Nortney talking about RAF Brize Norton Air Base in the
6:34
early hours of the morning on Friday the 20th of June where I
6:38
guess they put red paint on one of the.
6:40
Yeah, I mean, to call it an attack, it's just ridiculous.
6:43
An attack. They broke in and they put some
6:45
red paint on a plane in the engine Bay and wait a minute,
6:48
what can we say? It's it's that used to be
6:51
considered legal and might be criminal damage.
6:54
We'll get to that in a minute. But back up on screen here is
6:56
saying that here we go this latest.
7:00
It is in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage
7:04
committed by Palestine action. So it's right there in the words
7:08
of the home Secretary, criminal damage.
7:11
It doesn't say terrorism. It's criminal damage, which is
7:15
legal is protected protest. OK, so and they go on here, and
7:20
this is also important, it says EU KS defense enterprise is
7:26
vital to the nation's national security and this government
7:30
will not tolerate those that put that security at risk.
7:35
So defense enterprise, What is the definition of enterprise?
7:40
Well, that's like industry. It's it's something productive.
7:43
It's profit driven industry enterprise.
7:46
So EU, KS, profit generating defense industry is vital to the
7:51
national security and anybody that touches it or disrupts it
7:55
for any reason is putting the national security at risk.
7:59
Or Mike, are they actually putting maybe that corporation's
8:04
profits or share prices at risk? Because are those two the same
8:08
thing? Now that's my question.
8:11
That's my question. So we're just looking at their
8:13
own statements and you know, you can draw your own conclusions
8:18
here and let's bring this in as well.
8:21
And of course, this one certainly is one for the books.
8:25
The UK High Court held back evidence whilst upholding the
8:29
F35 controversial exports to Israel.
8:33
So what exactly happened here? Let's take a look.
8:36
Well, it seems that the UK ignored its own spy footage when
8:40
assessing Israel's compliance with international law.
8:43
We're talking about human humanitarian law.
8:45
So are they guilty of war crimes or genocide?
8:48
Key documents withheld from court on Israel's shooting of
8:52
minors. That also happened.
8:54
And again, the Foreign Office paid according to documents that
8:59
are published. We'll show you in Declassified
9:01
UK, £750,000 for quote, independent analysis on Gaza.
9:09
And meanwhile, the firm contracted by the Foreign Office
9:13
happens to have been founded by a former UK embassy official in
9:17
Tel Aviv. So no conflict of interest
9:20
there. Nothing to see move along.
9:22
And here to the report by declassified UK withheld
9:27
evidence from court in Israel arms case and we'll take a
9:30
closer look here. This is just stunning, like
9:33
using data from Cir. and elsewhere, the Foreign Offices
9:38
IHL cell revealed over 400 incidents in Gaza, but found
9:42
only one attack to be impossible, breach of
9:46
international human rights law by Israel.
9:50
And that was Israel's airstrike on the World Central Kitchen
9:54
convoy, which killed 7 international aid workers,
9:58
including three Britons. That's the only one of all the
10:01
Israeli airstrikes that garnered any concern in this.
10:05
I can't believe I'm reading this.
10:07
But anyway, the other 412 incidents that were looked at,
10:11
those aren't the total Israeli incidents by the way.
10:14
Those are just the ones looked at were judged as, quote,
10:17
inconclusive. As such, the Foreign Office has
10:20
still not decided whether Israel has actually committed any
10:25
problems or, you know, is is not complying with international
10:28
human rights law in its general war conduct.
10:31
And here's the one obviously that was left out.
10:34
They refused to submit one of CIR's research reports, long
10:40
range shooting or shooting of minors, IE sniping at children,
10:44
to the court despite a duty to disclose and explicit requests
10:49
made for its disclosure. It didn't make it into the
10:52
evidence. So I mean, what kind of a legal
10:57
process is going on here? Sure, that's the question.
11:00
Here's low. Oh, go ahead.
11:02
No. I would say it's obviously a
11:04
fitted up legal process. I mean there is no legal
11:06
process. It completely subverts the legal
11:08
process. We've seen this in other areas
11:09
like the the fact that MI 5 was prepared to lie to court
11:12
recently. It doesn't matter what the
11:14
circumstances where they lied. And so we're just saying this,
11:18
you know, this is the the government or the regime that
11:21
has, no matter what color the the political party has said
11:25
we're standing for the rule of law.
11:27
Well, that's long out the window.
11:29
So they're they're willing to dismantle the rule of law, all
11:32
for Israel. They're willing to dismantle and
11:35
to destroy the international legal system, the international
11:39
post World War 2 legal system, the Genocide Convention,
11:42
international humanitarian law to protect Israel and to protect
11:47
the corporations supplying weapons to Israel as its
11:50
committing A genocide. Did I get any of that wrong?
11:54
Nope, I'm not sure that I did. Let's look at Loki, the great UK
11:59
based rapper and poet, entertainer and happens to be an
12:04
amazing journalist. This is just a clip of a report
12:07
he did recently for Double Down News.
12:10
Take a listen. In addition to that, we believe
12:14
in Israel has even boasted about being given access to classified
12:19
police information from a counter terror investigation
12:23
into Palestine action in 2022. Why would a lobby group for a
12:28
foreign power not only be so deeply involved in the security
12:34
state of this country, but why would it have access to
12:38
classified documents? We Believe in Israel came out of
12:42
Icon, Israel's largest lobby group in Britain, which is
12:46
currently led by Richard Pater, a reserve in the Israeli
12:49
military who previously was employed by the Israeli Prime
12:53
Minister's Office. We Believe in Israel campaigned
12:57
to remove my music from Spotify. At the time it was led by Luke
13:02
Acurst, now serving as a Labour MP.
13:05
Here is Israeli political officer from the embassy
13:09
discussing Luke Acurst. And We Believe in Israel.
13:13
So Lukas is the director of We Believe in Israel.
13:16
He's a great guy. He's.
13:20
One of the best of the inside. Why are we allowing a foreign
13:25
lobby group led by an alleged spy to dictate what is and isn't
13:31
acceptable protest in this country?
13:36
So the NGO he's talking about, We believe in Israel, are the
13:40
ones that look like they they pushed the initial push to ban
13:44
Palestine action. He's talking about an alleged
13:47
spy. Let's look at who that alleged
13:49
spy or who is referring to there.
13:51
And there's the organization we believe in Israel, it's trying
13:54
to ban Palestine action. This is a Israeli, clearly an
13:59
Israeli lobbying organization, whatever you want to call it
14:02
here. And this is the person, one of
14:05
the heads anyway, of this organization.
14:06
Her name is Catherine Shaktam. That name sounded familiar when
14:11
I first saw it. And lo and behold, it is this
14:14
woman, a woman of many faces who allegedly or apparently
14:19
converted to Shiite Islam and made her way onto Press TV and
14:24
RTV, RT International and other international networks posing as
14:30
a type of resistance journalist. And the allegations are that she
14:34
was an Israeli spy or British and Israeli spy infiltrated
14:38
those organizations. She on record has said, I
14:42
managed to infiltrate to the highest levels.
14:45
Quote. It's in Loki's report at Double
14:48
Down News. We'll give you the link to that
14:49
in a moment. But here she is there we are
14:53
executive director of We Believe in Israel.
14:55
So that's quite a jump from bring being a pro resistance
14:59
Shiite convert gallivanting around Tehran and returns to the
15:03
UK and is affiliated with the Henry Jackson Society and this
15:07
organization. I mean, that's just a little bit
15:10
fishy. I can see how the allegations of
15:12
her being a spy are certainly prevalent because it it it does
15:17
look very suspicious. So that's what's going on there.
15:20
If you want any more background on this story with her, this is
15:24
a great piece by Alan McLeod at MIN Press news entitled
15:28
Catherine Perez Shachtem, a French born UK, a Jewish French
15:34
Jewish and lives in the UK. Apparently here Israeli spy who
15:38
infiltrated Mint press so apparently made her way into
15:41
mint Press as well. So very effective.
15:45
And here's one of the people mentioned in Loki's report.
15:49
This is a former head of Labor Friends of Israel, John
15:53
Woodcock. He had to leave the party for
15:55
some reason, did he? He did.
15:56
There was a sexual harassment scandal as far as we could.
16:01
We could see apparently he left his his post after that, but he
16:04
he landed on his feet. Mike managed to get a, a title
16:08
there, a peerage, lifetime peerage there in the House of
16:11
Lords. Lord Walney, he is now known as,
16:14
so you know, there we are. But he, he's featured in this
16:18
report and it's quite damning actually.
16:21
And you can see the direct link with this gentleman and all of
16:25
these organizations and then the move to ban Palestine action.
16:29
So there we are. We see all these operatives
16:32
working pretty much in concert for the same ends.
16:35
There's Loki's report there. If you want to go look at this
16:38
double down news. He is just a fantastic
16:42
journalist. I I don't need to say any more
16:44
Mike, but all the receipts are there.
16:47
Yeah, OK. Thank you, Patrick.
16:48
Well, look, let's, let's just have a look at some of the
16:50
context behind this because of course, it shouldn't be really
16:54
surprising that the British government is behaving this way.
16:57
On Wednesday, we were discussing the fact that the inconveniences
17:02
of elections and representation of the electorate have been
17:05
removed from the MP's job description on the British
17:08
Parliament website. And this is just one of the
17:10
recent signs that we, in fact, do live in a dictatorship.
17:14
So let's just remind ourselves of where we're at.
17:17
So first of all, let's look, look, sorry, look at the
17:20
shutdown of any criticism of the state.
17:23
We have the Online Safety Act that everybody will be aware of.
17:26
We've got the new National Security Act, the Foreign
17:29
Influence Registration scheme, the Terrorism Act, as examples.
17:33
The Terrorism Act, as everybody knows, is increasingly used to
17:38
terrorize anyone who's speaking out through arrested borders
17:41
with interrogations, phone and laptop seizures and so on, and
17:44
of course, now with the prescription of organizations.
17:48
But it's the foreign influence and registration scheme that I
17:51
want to focus on for a second here because this is a subset of
17:55
the National Security Act that's just been made active yesterday.
17:59
The the land, Sorry, I'm just going to quote a little bit
18:02
here. This landmark measure introduces
18:04
an unprecedented enhanced tear protecting our economy and
18:08
society from covert, sorry activities by Iran and Russia.
18:13
That was from the Home Office. It is A2 tier scheme.
18:17
The political tier requires registration of any arrangements
18:20
to carry out political influence activities in the UK on behalf
18:23
of a foreign power, including political communications or
18:26
lobbying senior decision makers such as MPs and election
18:30
candidates. But a more straight stringent
18:32
enhanced tier applies to foreign powers considered to pose a risk
18:36
to UK safety of interests or interests.
18:40
The whole of the Russian and Iranian states have been placed
18:43
under this tier. Now there are limited exemptions
18:46
for journalists and so-called recognized news publishers.
18:49
But the Starmer regime says that quotes individuals and
18:52
organizations brackets, including news publishers and
18:55
journalists, who are required to register under the enhanced tier
18:59
if they are directed by a specified foreign power or
19:03
entity to carry out or arrange for others to carry out a
19:07
broader range of what are described as relevant activities
19:11
in the UK. Now, relevant activities in the
19:14
context of the media include, but they're not limited to
19:17
conducting or arranging interviews at the direction of a
19:19
specified foreign power or specified foreign power
19:23
controlled entity, publishing news reports at the direction of
19:26
a specified foreign power or specified foreign power
19:29
controlled entity, creating video reports at the direction
19:32
of a specified foreign power or specified foreign power
19:34
controlled entity, and investigative journalism
19:37
activities at the direction of a specified foreign power or
19:40
specified foreign power controlled entity.
19:42
Of course, they can make up what at the direction of a specified
19:46
power or specified foreign power controlled entity means.
19:51
But I've seen nothing which suggests that Russia Today or
19:54
Press TV are not foreign power controlled entities.
19:59
I'm certain they are. But then we're left with what
20:03
the what at the direction of means this is.
20:06
This is still absolutely unclear.
20:09
But coming back to the dictatorship, let's look at the
20:12
next group of statute and those are designed, sorry, those
20:16
designed to criminalize protest. And we have here the Police
20:19
Crime Courts and Sentencing Act and the Public Order Act, which
20:23
both place major limitations on the ability of the public to
20:26
protest government or regime actions.
20:30
And now as we've highlighted on Wednesday and today, the Terror
20:34
Terrorism Act is being used in this area as well as Palestine
20:38
action represents. And finally, surveillance that
20:42
we'll talk about here. The investigatory powers in this
20:45
country continue to be used to surveil us all and with the
20:49
ongoing row with Apple over the use of end to end encryption,
20:54
it's clear that the Starmer regime wants no limitations on
20:57
bulk to the collection in this country.
21:00
Now in news related to this, then Brian Leveson has been
21:06
reappointed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
21:09
This is the body which is supposed to hold the use of
21:12
these powers to account. Leveson's been doing this job
21:15
for the past six years and has been appointed for a further 3
21:19
now. This is to a so-called
21:21
independent oversight tribunal, which has frankly at this point
21:25
upheld almost no cases brought against the state in recent
21:28
years. And even for the few cases that
21:31
they have found against the agencies, in fact, it turns out
21:33
there's nothing they can do about it anyway because they
21:37
apparently can't apply any kind of financial sanction or
21:40
anything like that. But coming back to this again,
21:44
the Data Use and Access Act recently passed is another
21:48
contribution to the dictatorship as well as it enables the
21:52
sharing of bulk data with private companies such as
21:54
Palantir and others that Patrick's already mentioned just
21:56
a few minutes ago, so that AI can be leveraged by the state.
22:01
So this is quite an incredible batch of legislation that we've
22:05
seen coming through in the last few years, although the
22:07
Terrorism Act goes back a bit further than that, but it's now
22:10
being used in a way that it was never intended.
22:12
But let's not forget the daddy of them all, and that is the
22:16
covert human intelligence sources brackets Criminal
22:19
Conduct Act. If you remember this, the short
22:23
text of this went on, it says a bill to make provision for and
22:27
in connection with the authorization of criminal
22:30
conduct in the course of or otherwise in connection with the
22:33
conduct of covert human intelligence sources.
22:36
Now, there are apparently no real restrictions on the types
22:39
of criminal conduct permitted by this act, and the range of
22:43
government agencies is virtually limited that can make use of
22:47
this as well. Now, it is true that there's an
22:50
undoubted decline in the use of covert human intelligence
22:53
sources, but they are still used.
22:56
And it's in this contact context that we, I think we should be
22:59
looking at the Palestine action issue because even if you
23:02
disagree with their aims, the fact that their right to protest
23:06
and express themselves is shut down in this way is as dangerous
23:10
as it gets for all of us. And anyone welcoming this regime
23:15
action, I think, does so at their own peril.
23:18
And to add to that, Mike, what Loki shared in that double down
23:21
report is Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems has their own
23:25
corporate intelligence cell which they used to surveil and
23:30
monitor members of Palestine Action and then report to the
23:34
government corporate intelligence.
23:37
So this is another layer to that whole thing that you just just
23:43
laid out there. So we we have got ourselves in
23:45
quite the pickle in this country with respect to the level of
23:49
power and the degree of power that the government has claimed
23:52
for itself just in the last few years.
23:54
And this isn't the labor thing. This is, this is cross party,
23:57
it's the UNI party in action and we really have to consider that
24:01
when we are making a judgement of whether whether we should be
24:04
supporting this court action on behalf of Palestine action or
24:08
not. And it is a dangerous situation
24:10
when I don't know how many judges are going to be involved
24:13
in making this decision. Probably 3 I suppose, but
24:16
nonetheless it comes down to those 3 individuals.
24:19
And it also the the the continued blurring of the line,
24:21
Mike, between national security and national interests and then
24:26
between national interests and corporate interests.
24:29
Ergo, corporate interests become national security because what
24:35
are we protecting here? What's all this surveillance
24:38
for? Why is the government need
24:39
license to break the law? Is anything in in in in
24:43
Palestine putting the UK at risk?
24:46
No. No, the danger is to the
24:47
entities that operate in this country.
24:49
To the corporations that are based here, as well as Leonardo
24:53
and other big defense contractors, which their stocks
24:57
are doing very well right now, OK, through the roof, European
25:00
defense stocks. And I wonder how many people in
25:03
government own those shares or have them indexed in their
25:07
various funds. So the performance of these
25:10
defense contractors that are killing people right now, let's
25:13
just kind of put it bluntly. Somehow, that's in the interest
25:18
of politicians in Britain, Europe and the United States to
25:21
keep the killing going. Sorry to be crude and blunt
25:25
about it, but that's what it looks like.
25:27
Right now, we were talking about foreign influence there a second
25:30
ago. Now, of course, when we're
25:31
looking at journalists who may be affected by this, there are a
25:36
number of British journalists who have worked with RT and with
25:40
Press TV, and those are the two countries sort of media outlets
25:44
which are absolutely on the list for foreign influence.
25:46
Now, one of the people who does is seen on Press TV from time to
25:52
time, if not actually regularly, is David Miller and of course, a
25:56
very outspoken critic of Zionism.
25:58
He's coming under increasing pressure, Patrick.
26:01
Yeah, and they're all going after David.
26:02
One of the reasons they're going after David Miller is because
26:04
he's stood up and he has fought them and won at least in the
26:08
tribunal earlier regarding his dismissal of Bristol University.
26:12
But this latest challenge is a whole another level.
26:16
We've got a video message which David posted on his ex account.
26:19
Everybody listen to this very closely and we'll tell you how
26:23
you can help. But go ahead and roll this.
26:26
So I'm here at Westminster Magistrates Court where I came
26:29
this morning for the first hearing in the case being
26:32
brought against me by the Campaign against anti-Semitism.
26:35
They have accused me of sending 3 menacing tweets under the
26:39
Communications Act of 2003. It was the case hearing today,
26:44
there was no pleading done and we will come back in a couple of
26:48
months for further discussions and hearings before a trial date
26:52
has been set for the 15th of December.
26:55
They will try and silence me. They'll try and silence me
26:57
through this whole procedure. And of course what we're doing
27:01
is fighting back against the Zionist attempt to completely
27:05
destroy any speeches, support of the Palestinians and against the
27:09
existence of the Zionist movement, which is of course a
27:11
fundamentally racist, genocidal movement.
27:14
Obviously this is yet another court case which I'm fighting,
27:17
which will have significant legal costs.
27:19
We have a great legal team from Bermberg Pierce and we need to
27:23
raise funds to support both the Bermberg Pierce team and the
27:27
barristers who are acting from the influential, well known and
27:31
high profile barrister. So I would appeal to everyone
27:34
who could afford it to supply us with anything they can afford to
27:39
support the legal fees in this case to the left,
27:41
legalfightingfunds@fightingfund.org. Yeah.
27:48
So just just to get some more details on this, we'll bring
27:51
this up on screen. This is the basis this is
27:53
attempted a private prosecution and it's a strategic lawsuit
27:58
against public participation or a slap.
28:01
Talk about an acronym there. And an act of desperation by the
28:05
state of Israel in a propaganda war it has already lost.
28:09
This is up on David Miller's crowdfunding site here and this
28:12
is what he says and this is basically the gist of it, that
28:15
they say that some of my posts on this platform X were quote
28:19
menacing against Jews and Zionists says David Miller.
28:23
Now if you want to help out in this legal challenge here,
28:26
there's his crowdfunding campaign right there, Left Legal
28:30
Fighting Fund, Stop the CAA. The campaign against
28:35
anti-Semitism is what's being used to try to skewer David
28:38
Miller here once again. And again, take a closer look at
28:42
the URL. We'll bring that up on screen.
28:45
That's the URL. If you want to get involved
28:47
fightingfund.org/stop the CAA and.
28:51
It'll be in the show notes. This will be on the show notes
28:54
as well. And for those of you who don't
28:56
want to use the online facility, think they have a facility.
29:00
If you want to send a check, if you prefer to send a check,
29:03
there's the address right there. Take a screenshot of this right
29:07
now on the program and that's in Darby, England.
29:10
That address there. Please indicate on the back of
29:13
the check what is for IE right David Miller on the back of the
29:17
check so they know when you send it to that address.
29:19
But of that was posted by David Miller himself on his ex
29:23
account. So we are just copying that
29:25
information and sharing it with you.
29:27
Very important precedent. Obviously, they're really going
29:30
after David. They lost in the tribunal.
29:33
They tried to take him down. He fought back and he won.
29:36
And now they're coming at him to try to shut down his free
29:39
speech, to deny him of his rights of freedom of expression
29:43
as an academic and also as a journalist as well.
29:47
Now, let's welcome Mark to the program.
29:49
And Mark, the protest against what's going on in Gaza isn't
29:54
restricted to the UK. Many other countries as well are
29:57
protesting what's been going on in the Netherlands.
30:02
Good day, gentlemen. I was looking into similar
30:04
things and I happened to find an item from NDTV World News out of
30:10
Holland and it's very poignant. It kind of speaks for speaks for
30:14
itself. There's a video clip we can roll
30:16
in a moment. It also comes as an Irish
30:18
politician who was falsely labeled as the Prime Minister
30:22
spoke out in the Irish parliament very emotionally
30:25
about Benjamin Netanyahu's targeting of children.
30:29
He believes in Palestine with, with basically murder, you know,
30:34
with all the, all the blunt force of the IDF.
30:37
Anyway, this, this is very poignant.
30:39
A lot of shoes were recently laid out, 10s of thousands of
30:43
pair of shoes in Holland to symbolize the deaths of children
30:47
in Palestine. So let's let that roll.
31:13
This is a 12th time that we are organizing a memorial protest in
31:17
the Netherlands. We are in Almira.
31:19
This time we are saying 18,000 shoes.
31:23
That's the official numbers right now.
31:25
But we know that more children and that way more children than
31:28
that have been murdered. They are under the rubble.
31:31
They have not been found yet or not been registered because the
31:35
system just can't do it anymore. I felt angry today coming here
31:41
that we have to do this again and again.
31:44
A year and a half and the genocide is not ending.
31:47
Actually our family today said to each other maybe we will not
31:52
wake up tomorrow when they went to sleep in Raza last night,
31:56
Hamdulillah, they are alive, but we don't know how many more
32:00
people we are going to be losing.
32:02
So I am devastated that we are commemorating all of these
32:07
children, shoes represent children and that it's not
32:11
stopping. So I am calling the anybody in
32:14
power, anybody who can do anything, but also normal
32:17
people, to keep raising attention and put pressure on
32:21
governments to end this genocide by Israel in Palestine.
32:39
So again, a very poignant reminder of the death toll in
32:43
Palestine, particularly against children as she mentioned so
32:46
many of them under the rubble. A truly devastating and tragic
32:51
outcome. But of course, you know, not
32:53
unexpected given the ID FS absolutely relentless and
32:57
barbaric approach to this. So that puts a lot of icing on
33:02
the cake of what we've already seen.
33:03
And the protests are in the United States as well, but
33:07
they're pretty scattered. And of course, we always have to
33:11
believe, believe or understand that agent provocateurs or
33:15
infiltrators will occasionally get into these protests and lead
33:18
people to do things they otherwise wouldn't do, maybe
33:21
acts of vandalism. So then they can be labeled as
33:23
terrorists. That does happen from time to
33:25
time, but that'll do it for now. Back to you guys.
33:28
Thank you, Mark Patrick. Sticking with the Gaza genocide
33:33
then. Yeah, I'll give you an update on
33:34
that. And just just to just to let you
33:36
know there are good people in Holland.
33:38
Don't, don't let the secretary general of NATO give you the
33:41
wrong impression in that country.
33:43
There's wonderful people in Holland and we just showed you
33:46
one of them there. Now, let's bring this up here.
33:49
And just just just so people are aware, this is no longer
33:53
speculation. It's not video tricks you're
33:56
seeing on social media. US contractors say their
33:58
colleagues are firing live munition at Palestinians seeking
34:03
food in Gaza. As you can see, they've created
34:05
a concentration camp here funded by the US government and the
34:09
Israelis. They're calling this
34:10
humanitarian aid. They're letting them loose to go
34:14
find and run to get food and then shooting them the number
34:18
dead. It's running at a clip,
34:20
including from these sites as well as the bombing raids by
34:23
Israel, around 100 Palestinians a day it seems, Mike, like it's
34:27
a quota by the IDF. They need to kill 100 per day
34:31
because that's what it's averaging out at over the last
34:35
few few weeks. Is that all Hamas?
34:39
I don't think it is. Of course it's not.
34:40
It's ridiculous to even say so. So the UN has issued a, the
34:45
Human Rights Council's issued a new report.
34:47
We've seen the draft of that. I think the final has been
34:50
published already. If it hasn't, it's probably up
34:52
on their website. But here's Francesca Albanese,
34:55
the UN special rapporteur for human rights, talking about
34:59
what's in this report and why it's so significant and why the
35:02
time for debate, discussion and trepidation of oh, is it a
35:07
genocide? Oh, is it not?
35:09
Oh, is Israel intending to kill civilians on an industrial
35:12
scale? Or is it just a mistake and it's
35:14
just all this collateral damage? That time for that debate has
35:19
long since passed. Listen.
35:22
My report exposes a system, something that is so structural
35:27
and so widespread and so systemic that there is no
35:31
possibility to fix it and redress it.
35:34
It is to be dismantled and you know, had businesses and had the
35:40
corporate sector observed due diligence, had it honored its
35:45
commitment to do due diligence even before October 7/20/23, he
35:52
would have disengaged completely and totally from its
35:57
entanglement with the with the Israeli economy.
36:01
Because first of all, it's a fiction that there is a line
36:05
dividing, separating the good Israel within Israel and the bad
36:10
Israel in the occupied territory.
36:12
No, the economy is 1. Israel's economy is 1 and one
36:17
only and encapsulates the colonies.
36:19
The colonies do not exist because some fringy part of the
36:24
Israeli society is pioneering into the wild, Wild West Bank.
36:31
No, it's because this is resolving the housing crisis in
36:34
Israel. These people live and trying
36:37
within a system that is so connected that it's part of the
36:41
Israeli state. That's the special rapporteur
36:47
for Palestine and the occupied Territories, Francesca Albanese
36:51
here. Let's take a look at the draft
36:54
edited version here. This is just the clips that I
36:56
took from it. We'll bring this up on screen.
36:58
The UNS Special Rapporteur's 27 page report shows in granular
37:02
detail how Israel's war economy has mutated from occupation to
37:07
an economy of genocide, powered by a tight knit web of global
37:12
corporations and investors. Well, let's take a look at that
37:15
tight knit web. They're right here.
37:17
The document names more than 60 firms among them.
37:21
Drum roll, please. Ladies and gentlemen, tech Bros,
37:23
stand by. Google, Amazon, Microsoft,
37:27
Palantir. Anybody own volunteer shares?
37:30
I had a chance to buy at 60. I passed.
37:32
I'm glad I did. Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems,
37:36
well, we were just talking about them.
37:38
Caterpillar HD, Hyundai, Volvo. Good cars, but I'm not sure
37:43
about what they're doing with the Israelis.
37:45
Chevron, Drummond and Glencore. Of course, Glencore is in there
37:49
as direct beneficiaries and enablers of the deconstruction
37:54
of Gaza and the entrenchment of West Bank settlements.
37:58
Well, there you have it. It's an economy.
38:00
So it's it's beyond debate. And what why there is not
38:04
sanctions already? Why there is not full blown
38:07
embargo on arms? They're in violation of the Arms
38:11
Trade Treaty UK signed to that right, the genocide treaty,
38:15
Genocide Convention UK assigned to that, as is the United
38:19
States. They're fully in violation of
38:21
all of that. So why are governments still
38:23
shipping weapons? What?
38:25
And shipping, Anything we did, we everyone sanctioned South
38:29
Africa for far less in comparison.
38:32
Although the apartheid regime was bad, although it was brutal,
38:36
but they weren't doing anything near to the level of violence
38:39
that Israel has been doing for the last 20 months.
38:42
So what are we waiting for? That's the question.
38:45
That's a good question. OK, let's leave that there now I
38:49
move on. If you like what the UK column
38:51
does, we do need your support. I want to say thank you again to
38:54
everybody that does support us. And if you look on the front
38:56
page of the website, you'll find a link to the support page.
39:00
We do need your help. As I say, a reminder of the
39:04
interview that went out 1:00 PM yesterday with Professor Gloria
39:07
Moss. This is looking at the situation
39:09
in universities and so on. So do have a look at that
39:14
described as a higher education crisis.
39:16
And of course, that's exactly what it is tonight at 7:00 PM
39:20
with Jerome. Charles and I are with Germ for
39:23
our weekly banter. Uh, join us at 7:00 tonight.
39:27
Uh, a reminder of Vanessa's latest article on the UK column
39:30
website Iran on its Ring of Fire.
39:33
If you haven't read it yet, please do please share it.
39:36
Sharing it is absolutely sharing everything that's on the UK
39:39
column website is absolutely important for us as well.
39:42
And finally, an advertisement here for an event taking place
39:46
tomorrow in Scotland. This is taking place in Glasgow
39:50
at the end of Jamaica St. by the River Clyde on the digital
39:54
slavery, slavery. And so they are going to be out
39:57
campaigning on that issue tomorrow.
39:59
Anybody in the area would like to join them.
40:01
The details on screen will be in the.
40:03
Notes as well. Keep cash alive.
40:05
Look at that sign. Absolutely.
40:06
We love that. Yeah, sorry.
40:08
And finally then a reminder of the date for your diary,
40:11
Saturday 18th of October 2025. Next UK column on location
40:16
event. The subject will be health and
40:19
that's taking place in York venue to be organ well to be
40:25
notified later on so and speakers as well.
40:28
So keep that date in your Diaries for that.
40:30
OK? Let's move on then to Ukraine.
40:34
And what do we have here? Well, lots of bombing going on.
40:38
Trump was on the phone again to Putin yesterday.
40:41
He seems to have offered, well, not very much actually, in fact.
40:45
So the Western media is presenting this as Putin being
40:49
unwilling to do a deal. But in the early hours of this
40:53
morning, then Kiev was under bombardment again.
40:55
As we could see on screen at the moment, there were several waves
40:58
of attacks lasting for hours. And according to Ukrainian Air
41:01
Force, his Telegram channel, Kiev was the main target of the
41:05
strikes. As the landscape, of course,
41:07
piped up, he condemned it. He said that this was one of the
41:10
most, quote, demonstratively significant and cynical attacks
41:14
of the war. He was very unhappy, in fact,
41:17
that the sleep was disrupted. He said it was a harsh,
41:20
sleepless night. So he also complained that the
41:24
attacks came directly following Putin's call with Trump.
41:27
And he wrote on his Telegram channel that Russia once again
41:30
demonstrates that it does not intend to end the war.
41:34
Now, in related news, Mark Rutte, secretary general, gave
41:38
an interview to interview to Fox News on Wednesday.
41:41
Now let's just get a feel for how unhinged he actually is.
41:47
And then to Lavrov, I mean, he's foreign minister of Russia, I
41:51
think, since the birth of Jesus Christ.
41:54
And since then, nothing, anything usual came out of his
41:57
mouth. So let's not pay too much
41:59
attention to Mr. Lavrov. This is just quite incredible to
42:03
be coming out of the mouth of Mark Ruta, the biggest
42:07
propagandist on the face of the earth as far as I can see.
42:09
I could also interpret that as he's basically inferring that
42:14
Sergey Lavrov is the Messiah. So if that's the case, we should
42:18
organize some prayer. Lavrov prayer candles.
42:21
They're coming to you by next week, so look out for those.
42:23
OK, well anyway, Rhoda's bad message for the United States
42:27
was around his continuing whingeing that Trump appears to
42:30
have withdrawn support for Ukraine.
42:31
In fact, the Department of Defense has only announced a
42:34
pause in deliveries of some weapon systems, including
42:37
Patriot missiles and precision guided artillery shells,
42:40
Hellfire missiles, and munitions compatible with F16.
42:43
I mean, there's the F16's been shot down, so it hardly matters.
42:46
But anyway, Ruda said. I totally understand that the US
42:49
always has to make sure it's interests are covered when it
42:53
comes to Ukraine. In the short term, Ukraine
42:55
cannot do without all the support it can get.
42:58
I understand the US has to take care of its stockpiles and at
43:01
the same time we have to allow for some flexibility here.
43:04
Europeans in the meantime are really stepping up.
43:07
Well, my question mark, if we can bring you back on screen is
43:10
are they stepping up? Well, that is certainly the
43:15
plan. There is a major move in Europe
43:21
and I mentioned it, but we can show this first slide.
43:24
I mentioned it in a couple of reports ago on the 20th of June
43:30
when I talked about a Bilderberg attendee citing the Savings and
43:35
Investment Union as part of a greater stockpile of cash and
43:41
credit to leverage or collateralize to completely
43:44
revolutionize and enlarge European defense.
43:48
And that is to be based on largely European production and
43:53
far less reliance, they say, on American weapons and American
43:57
weapons systems. Let's go back to that first
43:59
slide, because that's the important report.
44:03
The Commission, European Commission unveils the White
44:06
Paper for European Defense and the Rearm Europe Plan and
44:09
Readiness 2030. The Commission and the High
44:12
Representative have presented a White Paper for European Defense
44:16
as part of the Rearm Europe Plan, an ambitious defense
44:20
package providing financial levers, including the Savings
44:24
and Investment Union to EU member states to drive an
44:27
investment surge in defense capabilities.
44:31
So this is about rumors of war, the possibility of war, real
44:35
war. It's it's about basically basing
44:38
the entire planned economic boost of Europe and basing it
44:42
all on defense and military. It it seems that we cannot have
44:46
peace and economic prosperity at the same time.
44:50
We have to put the entirety of Europe on a war footing, a war
44:54
production footing. Only then can we have that
44:57
military based, relatively good economic health, economic
45:02
vitality. Anyway, here's some key quotes
45:05
from that European Defence and Rearmament Plan Readiness 2030.
45:10
This plan also relies on the European Investment Bank Group
45:14
to widen the scope if it's lending to defence and security
45:17
projects while safeguarding its financial capacity.
45:21
On top of unlocking substantial funding, this will send a
45:25
positive signal to the all important markets.
45:29
And we have another call out, I believe, from that same plan.
45:32
And this relates again to that Savings and Investment Union,
45:35
providing further validation that that's happening.
45:38
Public investment alone will not be sufficient to fill the
45:42
defense industry's investment needs from startups to large
45:45
established companies. For this, the Savings and
45:48
Investments Union strategy will make it easier to mobilize
45:51
private savings into more efficient capital markets and
45:55
channel investments into critical sectors of the economy
45:58
such as defense. And they're saying for now in
46:01
this report that the Savings and Investment Union would be
46:05
putting forth money voluntarily from European savers, you know,
46:09
everyday citizens and their savings accounts and their time
46:12
deposits and things like that. This next slide is basically
46:16
just a source that people can access from the show notes.
46:20
This is a very in depth report in a lot of ways the economic
46:23
impact of higher defense spending and it admits pretty
46:26
clearly here that Europe will go significantly into debt and
46:31
incur much more debt to do this European wide major defense
46:36
manufacturing rearmament plan. And so that's very significant
46:40
to keep in mind. The next slide also reiterates
46:44
from a couple of reports ago from me, the Bilderberg link
46:48
leveraging or collateralizing the savings of Europeans, which
46:51
numbers in the 10s of trillions in the amount that came up
46:56
initially in this European financial stability and
46:58
integration review plan that Maria Albuquerque, a Bilderberg
47:03
attendee this year in Sweden announced on the eve of
47:05
Bilderberg. So we've got solid proof that
47:09
they're going to leverage savings and it's just a matter
47:11
of how they'll do it. The next thing is just a basic
47:14
graph. I only have one of these.
47:16
It shows from 2014 to 2024. That was the initial commitment
47:22
a little over 10 years ago for 2% of GDP to be spent on defense
47:28
by European countries. And by the time you get to 2022
47:31
where Russia invades Ukraine, you see the speed up and
47:35
increase of defense landing from NATO countries.
47:39
And so another key point here is that it's pretty much all
47:42
predicated on Ukraine and Russia.
47:45
Russia's this big threat. They, they alone wore the black
47:49
hats when they invaded Ukraine. Therefore, that's kind of the
47:53
whole central motivating point of this is Ukraine wears the
47:56
white hats. They can do nothing wrong.
47:59
And so because of what happened to them, Europe must rearm in a
48:03
very broad and long term sense with with profiteering being at
48:08
the top of the game. Anyway, there's some other
48:11
important aspects to cover here on breaking Defense.
48:15
This is a trade journal. Let's look at this.
48:18
There was a recent Paris Air show where a lot of these, of
48:22
course, weapons are put out like in an exhibit kind of way.
48:26
Europe is pouring money into defense, The headline says.
48:30
Can US firms reap the reward amid transatlantic tensions?
48:36
And so the US, of course, is chomping at the bit now that it
48:40
motivated Europe to spend not just 2%, but up to 5% of its
48:45
GDP. European nations on defense.
48:48
But that's a 10 year timeline. That's that's supposed to be up
48:51
to about 2035. They're giving them 10 years to
48:54
read that reach that 5% percent threshold.
48:56
Excuse me, but the Financial Post noted in this 27 June item,
49:02
European allies are wary of buying American as they plan
49:06
this defense build up. So the US may or may not totally
49:10
cash in on this rearming, rearming and remilitarizing of
49:14
Europe, where they're going to try and build the entire
49:17
economic prosperity of Europe pretty much on on military
49:20
matters, the armaments, AI systems, ammunition, you name
49:26
it. Now, Andreas Kabulius, the EU
49:29
Commissioner for Defense in space, had a couple interest
49:32
interesting things to say. And I'll mention that before I
49:35
quote him, that Ursula Vander Leyen, the president of the
49:38
European Commission, is saying the peace dividend is over.
49:42
The peace dividend is no more. In order for Europe to prosper,
49:46
we must be on a war footing, a war military production footing.
49:50
But anyway, here's what Andreas had to say.
49:53
The defense package, the white paper for European Defense and
49:56
Rearmament of Europe plan that I mentioned marks a defining
50:00
moment for our Union, a defining moment Europe can no longer
50:04
afford to be a bystander in its own security.
50:07
And he also had this to say. We must take our defense into
50:11
our own hands, reinforcing our commitments to collective
50:14
security and standing firm against those who seek to
50:19
challenge our sovereignty. And a real irony of this, of
50:22
course, is the the very creation of the EU, which Bilderberg had
50:26
at least a small hand in, was a, in a lot of ways, the
50:30
overturning of individual European nations sovereignty.
50:34
So the European Union really doesn't have a leg to stand on
50:38
in terms of talking about sovereignty because even for it
50:41
to exist, it had to at least lessen the sovereignty of its
50:45
member states. So that pretty much sums up
50:48
what's going on. The savings and Investment Union
50:52
has now been confirmed as one definite way that they'll
50:56
finance this and Europeans better hold tight on to their
50:59
money or at the at least they better get a lot more
51:01
information about how this is going to work.
51:04
There is one more slide if you want, Mike, we can save it for
51:07
extra. But at at the Paris Air Show,
51:11
they put baffling and, you know, opaque baffles around the
51:16
Israeli booths at that Paris Air Armament show in a move that
51:21
Israel called outrageous and unprecedented, evidently a
51:26
active protest in some respect against what the Israeli
51:30
military's been doing unless they were somehow protecting
51:33
them or maybe even a little bit of both.
51:34
But Israel did protest about that.
51:37
But that's an interesting twist on the end of this story for
51:40
today. Just on the defense thing, Mike,
51:44
this, this 5% target, the likelihood that any of these
51:48
countries are going to actually meet that they're talking about
51:51
all these, as Mark said, all the bail insurance or you know,
51:54
stealing savings to find they're, they're looking for all
51:57
these schemes because the cash isn't there.
51:59
Italy, Italy's doing about 1.5% at the moment.
52:04
And they're so desperate to add to the, to the NATO tally.
52:08
There's a bridge that's planned to join the mainland Italy to
52:10
Sicily, and Maloney's trying to bundle that in as a NATO expense
52:15
in order to get up closer to her 5%.
52:18
And Trump just threatens the Spanish.
52:20
The Spanish said no way are we going to spend 5% of GDP on
52:24
military, and Trump threatened them with tariffs.
52:28
So talk about an attack on sovereignty.
52:31
The United States is going to determine whether you're going
52:34
to go into massive debt to pay for this bloated 5% defense
52:38
budget to fight a phantom menace, the beast from the East.
52:43
Talk about an attack on sovereignty.
52:45
So you can't decide what you spend your money on anymore.
52:48
Is this the new Europe? It absolutely is.
52:51
Yeah. Unbelievable.
52:52
Unbelievable. No, it is the new Europe and you
52:55
know, it's, it's absolutely clear Patrick, the UK claims to
53:00
to be spending 2 1/2% already 2.7% whatever it is at the
53:04
moment. And there's, they say they're
53:05
going to go to 3 1/2% whatever in order to, to even come to
53:09
that number. They are including pensions in,
53:13
in the, in the figure. So, so, and I'm sure all the
53:16
other European countries are doing something similar.
53:19
So, you know, we are faced with Russia if Russia is our enemy,
53:25
which I absolutely say they are not.
53:27
But von der Leyen and the rest and Starmer claim that Russia is
53:32
our enemy. Now Russia has weaponry with
53:35
much smaller defence budget than the weaponry that we can't even
53:40
get near. And so, you know, do do these
53:44
people really expect Russia to sit back and wait for the 20
53:48
years that it's going to take to get for the for the West to get
53:52
up to a level where they could actually seriously prosecute a
53:55
war against them? Or are they just going to ignore
53:57
us? Or what are they going to do?
53:58
Well, if it takes 20 years, Mike, then that's just about
54:00
right. Because every 100 years, Europe
54:02
decides they're going to try to invade Russia and it gets the
54:06
same result every time they run back with their tail between
54:09
their legs. So let's set our watches for
54:11
2040 and let's do, let's do Operation Barbarossa again and
54:17
Napoleon trying to take Moscow. That went well, didn't it?
54:20
So I mean, this is just like ridiculous.
54:22
What is the problem with Europe? What what is this obsession with
54:26
having to go to war with Russia constantly?
54:29
Why didn't they just rollback NATO?
54:31
And so this is just unbelievable.
54:35
NATO's a joke, OK? This is all about
54:38
interoperability. We know there it doesn't work.
54:41
And how many tanks does NATO produce collectively in a year
54:45
in Europe, the European side 100?
54:49
What is Europe we. Don't have the productive
54:51
capability. What does Russia produce in
54:53
terms of tanks in a year? About 15 hundred 1500 a year.
54:59
The whole of Europe can't even do a tenth of the Russian
55:02
production. Are you guys kidding?
55:05
Seriously. Despite sanctions.
55:07
Seriously. Just remind ourselves of that.
55:09
Like what world are you living in?
55:10
But your stocks are doing good, your portfolios are doing good,
55:13
index funds, you're making money.
55:16
You'll be able to buy the 3rd or 4th house and maybe buy the
55:19
yacht. So everybody's happy, right?
55:21
Because that's what it's all about.
55:22
Absolutely. Mark, let's come back to you
55:25
now. Was it last week?
55:26
I think you were talking about Chatham House and the sudden
55:30
interest in Korea in the Korean Peninsula?
55:33
The event has since taken place. What happened?
55:38
While I was able to cover it July 2nd virtually and it was
55:42
called How should Britain build influence and impact on the
55:45
Korean Peninsula? It included Colin Crooks,
55:49
interesting, unfortunate surname, UK ambassador to South
55:52
Korea, Edward Howell, Korean Foundation fellow, Karen Maddox,
55:57
head of Northeast Asia Department, Foreign,
56:00
Commonwealth and Development Office, moderated by Simon Smith
56:03
of the British Korean Society. And I took some original photos
56:07
with screenshots here. There's Colin Crooks to the
56:10
left, Karen Maddox in the middle and Edward Howell to the right.
56:13
I didn't happen to include Simon in that, but there is some B
56:19
roll here that we can show if you'd like.
56:21
And I can just give it a very brief outline for the time we
56:24
have left. Colin Crooks talked about a
56:27
bilateral free trade agreement with South Korea and said that
56:31
that's in the works. And he said that Russia has
56:34
positioned itself as an enemy of South Korea.
56:37
Allegedly, South Korea to the Far East side of Russia is
56:42
geographically close, he mentioned to Russia.
56:46
And he said South Korea has a good leader in place and has
56:50
constitutional clarity now, even though it's previous president
56:54
declared martial law fairly recently in 2024, although that
56:59
president was reportedly impeached.
57:01
So they believe South Korea is now stable and constitutionally
57:05
sound so it can enter into the free trade agreement with the UK
57:09
and so on. Another important point is that
57:13
South Korea is sort of part of a apparent UK military and
57:19
diplomatic tilt, you might say, or outreach.
57:23
They're basically going to make South Korea sort of an adjunct
57:26
or add on to what they're calling the arsenal of democracy
57:31
for Europe. And so in a strange way, it kind
57:34
of fits into the report I just made about re arming and
57:37
militarizing the economy of Europe there.
57:41
There is that connection there. There's some other things, Colin
57:46
said, the ambassador to the South Korea of the UK.
57:50
Korean language is the fastest growing for study in the UK.
57:54
He called that a soft power connection and said 5000 youth
57:59
go both directions from UK to South Korea and vice versa in
58:02
terms of cultural relations and British universities and schools
58:06
are actively recruiting South Korean students.
58:10
Karen Maddox mentioned a lot of things.
58:14
One of the highlights of Karen Maddox comments was that she
58:17
doesn't believe North Korea is in with both feet in the axis
58:22
with Iran, Russia and China. She believes it's more of a
58:25
transactional opportunistic thing and that North Korea is
58:30
part of that axis only for its own benefit and it again, it's
58:34
not in with both feet. That was Karen Maddox opinion on
58:37
that. A number of other things could
58:39
be said. It was something of a dry
58:41
discussion. But All in all, they are saying
58:46
that tensions are down in the Demilitarized Zone between North
58:50
and South Korea. However, Karen Maddox said that
58:52
the channels of de escalation have declined as has the number
58:57
of embassies. So they're trying to re
59:00
establish the UK embassy in Pyongyang.
59:03
But meanwhile, North Korea does have an embassy in Ealing, a
59:08
adjunct or suburb of London. And the HMS Prince of Wales, a
59:14
naval ship of the UK, is supposed to visit Korea sometime
59:18
this summer. So that's some of the
59:21
highlights, guys. But they're trying to bring
59:23
Korea in as sort of a distant adjunct of free trade and some
59:29
of the military activities and related matters.
59:32
I'm sure that they'll be more on this as time goes by and we can
59:36
refer back to this Chatham House meeting from July 2nd.
59:39
So that should suffice for now guys.
59:41
Thank you, Mark. Looks like a barrel, laughs
59:43
there at the at the Royal Institute there.
59:47
Global Britain's back, Mike. Global Britain's back standing
59:50
the empire. I will.
59:51
Be shocked if the HMS Prince wills makes it to Korea, but
59:55
we'll see. We'll.
59:56
See how they have to go through warm water to get there.
59:58
So it might be some engine. Some engine trouble perhaps?
1:00:01
Yes. Well, look, we've we've got to
1:00:03
leave it there for today. I'm going to say thank you very
1:00:05
much to Mark and Patrick and a special thanks to Wilsey from
1:00:09
Resistance GB and we'll let everybody know what happens at
1:00:13
that High Court hearing if we hear before the the end of
1:00:17
extra. If you're not AUK column member,
1:00:19
please consider joining because you can join us in a few minutes
1:00:22
for extra on this live stream. Otherwise, have a great weekend
1:00:25
and we'll see you at 1:00 PM as usual on Monday.
1:00:28
See you then. Bye bye.