Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 14th November 2025

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UK Column News — 14th November 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Friday the fourteenth, November twenty twenty five,
0:11
Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK col um News.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm your host Mike Romson, my co host and studio
0:15
Speaker 1: today Patrick Hennison, Welcome to the program.
0:17
Speaker 2: Patrick. It's great to be with you, Mike, and we're.
0:19
Speaker 1: Joined today by Mark Anderson. I. Later in the program
0:21
Speaker 1: we're going to be covering tensions in the Baltic, the
0:24
Speaker 1: Arctic and Ukraine. More on Trump at the BBC and
0:27
Speaker 1: Trump on Epstein and what looks like preparations for banning
0:32
Speaker 1: VPN use in the United Kingdom, and also smart cities.
0:35
Speaker 1: But we're going to begin today Patrick with MP Rupert
0:39
Speaker 1: Lowe's comments on Gaza.
0:40
Speaker 2: Well it's much more than that in fact, but that's
0:43
Speaker 2: the jumping off point. But here is the topic at hand,
0:46
Speaker 2: and this is really focusing on I think Britain's role
0:50
Speaker 2: in the war on Gaza. And so we'll get into
0:54
Speaker 2: this and this was a comment which was posted on
0:57
Speaker 2: X by the British politician Rupert Lowe. Will bring this
1:02
Speaker 2: up on screen here. This is what he had to say,
1:05
Speaker 2: and this is interesting where this story goes. He is
1:08
Speaker 2: saying Rupert low MP. I want to know how many Gosins.
1:11
Speaker 2: He doesn't say Palestinians here, he says Gossen Gossen migrants
1:16
Speaker 2: are being treated on the NHS and at what cost?
1:19
Speaker 2: How many British people have been pushed aside? What number
1:24
Speaker 2: of Gosen's dependents have come to in other words, family
1:29
Speaker 2: members that have come with children to be treated as
1:32
Speaker 2: will show how many have already claimed asylum. Not a
1:35
Speaker 2: single Gossen migrant should be allowed on British soil. I
1:40
Speaker 2: mean it's quite a statement, Isn't Mike a Palestinian? This
1:46
Speaker 2: is from a British politician. So a lot of aggression here.
1:50
Speaker 1: Where's the empathy with the injured?
1:53
Speaker 2: Well, we'll get to that in a moment. So we
1:55
Speaker 2: did little digging on this and this is the government's
1:59
Speaker 2: official position on this here and we'll bring this up
2:02
Speaker 2: on screen. This is from uk dot gov, the government website.
2:07
Speaker 2: First group of gas and children arrive for specialist NHS treatment.
2:12
Speaker 2: Now this is from September, so it's very recent. By
2:16
Speaker 2: the way, many children have come already and have been
2:20
Speaker 2: treated privately, and that's been organized through a charity that
2:24
Speaker 2: deals with this sort of thing. But we'll bring this up,
2:26
Speaker 2: back up on screen, and this is what they say.
2:29
Speaker 2: The healthcare situation in Gaza remains incredibly difficult, with many
2:33
Speaker 2: unable to access even basic levels of care and increase
2:37
Speaker 2: difficulties of those who require specialist treatment and support. And
2:41
Speaker 2: so this brings us to the policy here where did
2:46
Speaker 2: this come from? Where did this government directed come from?
2:49
Speaker 2: Bring the sick and injured home? And this basically is
2:52
Speaker 2: the result of a cross party effort here cross party
2:56
Speaker 2: group in ninety six MP's in senior Minute who wrote
3:00
Speaker 2: to the government urging it to bring sick and injured
3:03
Speaker 2: children from Goza to the UK quote without delay for treatment,
3:08
Speaker 2: children at the risk of imminent death, any barriers to
3:11
Speaker 2: their evacuation should be lifted. Okay, very specific. It's a
3:16
Speaker 2: cross party effort on this. So let's look at what
3:19
Speaker 2: the Labor ministers are saying on this issue. Here will
3:24
Speaker 2: bring on screen. This is West Streeting the Labor, Health
3:29
Speaker 2: and Social Care Secretary and this is what he has
3:31
Speaker 2: to say on the issue. No one can fail to
3:33
Speaker 2: be distressed by the devastating impact of war as it
3:37
Speaker 2: has had on the children of Godzen. I cannot imagine
3:40
Speaker 2: the fear and anguish their families have endured. It is
3:43
Speaker 2: sole destroying situation that compels us to act. And he
3:46
Speaker 2: continues saying, this reflects the very best of our NHS values, compassion,
3:51
Speaker 2: care and expertise when it matters most I mean most
3:54
Speaker 2: British people. I think generally Mike would agree with that statement.
3:58
Speaker 2: Is it comports with British values one would think traditionally anyway.
4:03
Speaker 2: So that's what Streeting says. And here is Yvette Cooper,
4:08
Speaker 2: she is the Foreign Secretary and she says, we continue
4:10
Speaker 2: to call for the protection of medical infrastructure and healthcare
4:14
Speaker 2: workers in Gaza, for a huge increase in medicines and
4:19
Speaker 2: supplies to be allowed in So I mean I would
4:22
Speaker 2: agree with that, but is that what the British government
4:24
Speaker 2: are actually doing. That's another question. But anyway, the government
4:27
Speaker 2: is grateful to all it's partners who have assisted this operation,
4:30
Speaker 2: cluding the World Health Organization for the support with the
4:33
Speaker 2: evacuation process, and the Government of Jordan, the Royal Jordanian
4:38
Speaker 2: Hospital Organizations as well for facilitating the safe transit of
4:43
Speaker 2: UK Emergency Medical Team and NHS Clinical Team for their
4:47
Speaker 2: dedication in providing life saving medical care for these young patients.
4:51
Speaker 2: So and Obviously, the World Health Organization's name pops up there,
4:55
Speaker 2: so I'm some of our viewers are saying, oh my god,
4:57
Speaker 2: it's the who, it's Bill Gaie, So whatever. The World
5:01
Speaker 2: Health Organization is the intermediary that deals with the visas,
5:05
Speaker 2: the logistics and the transport. And so before you pass judgment,
5:08
Speaker 2: I would say, if this was your children that was
5:11
Speaker 2: trapped in Gaza and needed to get life saving care
5:14
Speaker 2: in the UK, and the World Health Organization was providing
5:18
Speaker 2: the intermediary assistance, would you say no on the basis
5:21
Speaker 2: of you don't like Bill Gates. I'm just throwing that
5:23
Speaker 2: out to the chat box, trying to preempt some of
5:26
Speaker 2: the lewd comments that are likely to arrive to land
5:30
Speaker 2: in our chat box as a result. But so I
5:33
Speaker 2: agree with all these Mike. I agree with West Treating
5:36
Speaker 2: and Uvette Cooper in principle what they're saying is correct,
5:40
Speaker 2: but is that the British government's actual position. These are
5:44
Speaker 2: good words and we can agree with them, but what
5:46
Speaker 2: is the British government actually doing. The hospitals have been
5:51
Speaker 2: bombed forty something hospitals and healthcare facilities have been destroyed,
5:56
Speaker 2: doctors have been murdered and tortured. Okay, British volunteers are
6:01
Speaker 2: also included in that, and healthcare and people aid workers
6:06
Speaker 2: killed by the IDEF. British aid workers killed by the IDEF.
6:10
Speaker 2: So what's the British role in all of this? Are
6:14
Speaker 2: they somehow involved in the actual providing of weapons, for example,
6:19
Speaker 2: providing of weapons intelligence assistants. Well, let's look at this here,
6:22
Speaker 2: and this is the problem, Mike, and this is from
6:25
Speaker 2: declassified UK this week. British military made at least forty
6:29
Speaker 2: nine trips to Israel during the Gaza War which is ongoing. Okay,
6:35
Speaker 2: let's look at who made those visits. A number of visits,
6:38
Speaker 2: this is what they've uncovered, four times higher than what
6:41
Speaker 2: was previously disclosed. They only disclosed twelve visits by senior officials,
6:46
Speaker 2: including Admiral Sir Tony radikin General Sir James Hockenhall and
6:52
Speaker 2: Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton. Okay, those officials have
6:58
Speaker 2: gone back and forth to Israel along with others, and
7:03
Speaker 2: we can't leave out of course this man. Labor Defense
7:06
Speaker 2: Secretary John Healey also traveled to Israel during the war,
7:10
Speaker 2: meeting his counterpart eof Gallant months before he was indicted
7:15
Speaker 2: by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. Okay,
7:19
Speaker 2: So John Healey, so what were the British rank and
7:24
Speaker 2: file Mike doing in Israel? But I guess what is
7:28
Speaker 2: like this colonial inspection of the genocide. Let's see how
7:32
Speaker 2: they're doing the Israelis. Let's look at the intel, Let's
7:35
Speaker 2: watch the footage of the buildings being destroyed and so forth.
7:39
Speaker 2: But it doesn't end there. We'll bring this up on
7:41
Speaker 2: screen as well. And this is Matt Kennard who has
7:44
Speaker 2: been tracking this for quite a while. UK participation in
7:48
Speaker 2: the Gaza genocide is not slowing down. This is from
7:51
Speaker 2: December twenty twenty four. He's continued to report on these
7:54
Speaker 2: flights from RIF equatories Bason, Cyprus, okay, and British spy
8:01
Speaker 2: planes here returning to Cyprus and back and forth. In
8:04
Speaker 2: other words, they claim the British government that they're providing
8:07
Speaker 2: intelligence about finding hostages in Gaza. But if you consider
8:12
Speaker 2: the fact that Israel's killed many of its own hostages,
8:15
Speaker 2: that's really providing intel about targeting Palestinians, including two hundred
8:21
Speaker 2: plus journalists who've been targeted and killed. Is that the
8:23
Speaker 2: sort of data that Israel's processing from the Israeli surveillance, sorry,
8:28
Speaker 2: the British surveillance flights from the RAF that are taking
8:31
Speaker 2: off from raf akuatory. I mean, these are fair questions.
8:34
Speaker 2: So this is what the British government is doing. On
8:36
Speaker 2: one side is assisting Israel in destroying Gaza, and on
8:41
Speaker 2: the other side ministers are saying we need to save
8:44
Speaker 2: the children. We're all for saving the children. But wouldn't
8:47
Speaker 2: it be simpler, Mike, just to stop the war, just
8:50
Speaker 2: to stop enabling and facilitating Israel's slaughter against the native
8:55
Speaker 2: Palestinian population in Gaza. I don't know. To me, it's
9:00
Speaker 2: not a difficult one. But let's see what the now,
9:03
Speaker 2: what does the Prime Minister have to say about all this, Well,
9:06
Speaker 2: let's bring this up on screen. The Prime Minister has
9:10
Speaker 2: to say this, Israel has a right to defend itself.
9:15
Speaker 2: That is the party line, and no matter what's going
9:18
Speaker 2: on in Gaza here, Starmer maintains that stern line, Israel
9:24
Speaker 2: has a right to defend self, even it means the
9:26
Speaker 2: total desolation. Look at the background images here, just everything's
9:31
Speaker 2: just been desolated. No one's seen annihilation like this in
9:35
Speaker 2: modern times. And that's here Starmer's position, Israel has a
9:39
Speaker 2: right to defend itself. Israel has a right to defend itself.
9:45
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm just making the argument, Mike that
9:49
Speaker 2: I support the rhetoric of the ministers on this issue,
9:54
Speaker 2: but I do not see it being backed up by
9:56
Speaker 2: actual policy and in terms of dealing with the cause
10:00
Speaker 2: of the problem, that's where the disconnect is.
10:04
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, well, this is an ongoing issue. People are dying.
10:10
Speaker 1: Ripert Low, by the way, was asking Prime Minister's questions
10:14
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, should the death penalty be brought back for
10:18
Speaker 1: all the domestic and immigrant criminals that are causing severe
10:25
Speaker 1: problems in the UK. He did that more or less
10:27
Speaker 1: on the day that, or at least in parallel with
10:31
Speaker 1: the same kind of an effort and Israel to bring
10:34
Speaker 1: the death penalty back there. I just find that quite interesting.
10:37
Speaker 1: Clearly from the language that he's using, calling them gass
10:40
Speaker 1: and not Palestinians, we sort of see what side of
10:42
Speaker 1: this argument he's on.
10:43
Speaker 2: Well, the press, then he died. If the press or
10:45
Speaker 2: politicians use the word gazins, Okay, this is a way
10:47
Speaker 2: of delegitimizing and dehumanizing Palestinians. Definitely a way of delegitimizing
10:54
Speaker 2: their identity for the Palestinian nation, which has been recognized
10:58
Speaker 2: by almost every country in world bar a few. Even
11:01
Speaker 2: Britain has recognized officially a Palestinian state. So where's Rupert
11:06
Speaker 2: Lowe coming from on this? It just seems a bit
11:09
Speaker 2: mendacious and a bit too pro I think pro Zionist
11:12
Speaker 2: or pro Israeli in the absolute extreme. Yes, and this
11:16
Speaker 2: is extremism we're talking about, make no mistake about it.
11:20
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, NATO. In the meantime, it is announced that
11:24
Speaker 1: the United States Air Force B fifty two Strata Fortress
11:27
Speaker 1: bombers from Berksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana have arrived in
11:31
Speaker 1: Moron Air Force Base in Spain. That happened on the
11:36
Speaker 1: eighth of November this year. This is to begin multilateral
11:40
Speaker 1: training under Bomber Task Force Europe and the quote is
11:45
Speaker 1: that the deployment strengthens coordination cohesion with allied and partner
11:48
Speaker 1: air forces, including Finland, Lithuania and Sweden. And they say
11:52
Speaker 1: that operating from Moron, the aircraft will fly training missions
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Speaker 1: across Europe, supporting the terrence and defense operation along Nitto's
12:01
Speaker 1: eastern flank and the High North. Missions in northern regions
12:04
Speaker 1: are starting to integrate under NATO's new Combined Air Operations Center,
12:09
Speaker 1: which is based in Norway, which was inaugurated in October
12:12
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. The new command node enhanced, as they say,
12:15
Speaker 1: NATO's ability to oversee and coordinate air operations across the
12:19
Speaker 1: Nordic and Arctic regions, complementing existing places in Germany and
12:26
Speaker 1: in Spain. So what's this all about. Well, the Arctic
12:30
Speaker 1: is certainly part of it, and particularly following the much
12:35
Speaker 1: non reported inaugural voyage of a container ship along the
12:39
Speaker 1: Arctic Silk Road which arrived in Felixstowe in the UK
12:42
Speaker 1: on the fourteenth of October. So clearly you know that
12:45
Speaker 1: is an ongoing pressure point as far as NATO is concerned.
12:49
Speaker 1: But it's also about the Baltic and Russian shipping. We
12:52
Speaker 1: had the annual Operation Balltos the Balltop's Exercises a few
12:57
Speaker 1: months ago, and this week it was the Needles Playbook
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Speaker 1: Marlin twenty twenty five, hosted by Sweden and led by
13:05
Speaker 1: Needles Allied Maritime Command. Now Playback Play Playbook Merlin twenty
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Speaker 1: five brings together what they described as cutting edge tactics,
13:13
Speaker 1: technology and teamwork. This is really exciting language, isn't it
13:18
Speaker 1: to work?
13:19
Speaker 2: Like maybe team up to blow up pipelines or something
13:21
Speaker 2: like that.
13:22
Speaker 1: We may be coming onto that in a second, but anyway,
13:25
Speaker 1: this was an anti submarine warfare exercise in the Baltic
13:29
Speaker 1: Sea and it included Germany, Sweden, United States, France and
13:36
Speaker 1: the Netherlands and at least one fifty two, which is
13:40
Speaker 1: as we've just mentioned, is now based in Spain, flew
13:43
Speaker 1: a mission into the Baltic region alongside a playbook Merlin.
13:48
Speaker 1: At one point that B fifty two was over Estonia,
13:50
Speaker 1: having flown over southern Sweden and Finland practicing similated bombing
13:55
Speaker 1: runs with Swedish and Finnish fighter jets, is reported to
13:58
Speaker 1: have flown within fifty miles of the Russian border. And
14:01
Speaker 1: you know, it's a pretty clear provocation.
14:06
Speaker 2: What are they hoping to achieve by that, I mean,
14:09
Speaker 2: besides the flex operationally, do they really think that's a
14:14
Speaker 2: viable actual operation.
14:16
Speaker 1: They're just i mean poking the bears all their attempting.
14:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, just a provacation.
14:22
Speaker 1: Now. Military Watch online magazine reported on the tenth of
14:26
Speaker 1: November that Britain's armed forces are in Estonia practicing military
14:29
Speaker 1: exercises to capture and board Russian ships, as well as
14:33
Speaker 1: to prepare amphibious landings on Russian coastal facilities. Should quote
14:38
Speaker 1: hostiles for sorry hostilities further escalate, they say. The British
14:42
Speaker 1: Armed Forces have deployed Royal Marine Special Forces from the
14:45
Speaker 1: forty two to forty seven Commander Units as part of
14:48
Speaker 1: a Special Operations Maritime Task Group to simulate covert boarding
14:51
Speaker 1: operations against enemy ships, coastal rids and the seizure of
14:55
Speaker 1: oil rigs. Exercises are taking place in eastern Baltic Sea,
14:59
Speaker 1: close to cred In Theater, where Royal Marines have also
15:02
Speaker 1: been involved in open hostilities with Russian forces. They say
15:07
Speaker 1: exercises sould the Marines rehearse rapid interdiction and coastal ridding
15:12
Speaker 1: and coordination with the British Army's Third Range of Battalion
15:15
Speaker 1: and under which they deployed the capture ships and oil
15:18
Speaker 1: in solutions and so on. So I mean this is
15:21
Speaker 1: also absolutely nuts.
15:24
Speaker 2: Well, it's about interdicting. It's what Starmer said, when we
15:26
Speaker 2: need to stop Russia's shadow fleet. We can't allow Russia
15:29
Speaker 2: to you know, transport energy or do trade in the
15:32
Speaker 2: Baltic I mean, this is the prelude to absolute war.
15:36
Speaker 2: The wars have been started over this very behavior, over
15:39
Speaker 2: these very policies. They're really playing with fire here, and
15:42
Speaker 2: I wonder what is the endgame other than World War III?
15:47
Speaker 2: I mean, because that's where this type of thing leads.
15:49
Speaker 2: And is this what the British government wants? Is this
15:52
Speaker 2: what NATO wants? Is that what Brussels wants? Is that
15:55
Speaker 2: what Finland wants?
15:56
Speaker 3: It's hot looks hot looks It's crazy that the frontline
16:01
Speaker 3: countries like Sweden and finlandnew NATO members that were basically
16:06
Speaker 3: coerced into NATO under a whole lot of hypeen hysteria
16:10
Speaker 3: in April and May of twenty twenty two, and these
16:13
Speaker 3: were previously neutral countries, and now the West of course
16:17
Speaker 3: are using Sweden and Finland as a cudgel against Russia
16:23
Speaker 3: in the same way they've been using Ukraine.
16:26
Speaker 2: Against Russia as well. So people in the Nordic countries,
16:31
Speaker 2: I just I can't believe how absolutely insane and stupid
16:36
Speaker 2: their governments and their society are to have gone along
16:39
Speaker 2: with this and not realizing the implications of it. The
16:42
Speaker 2: fact that they were safe before and now they are
16:44
Speaker 2: now at risk. I find that to be breathtaking.
16:47
Speaker 1: But let's say come on to North Stream.
16:49
Speaker 2: Then, well, the background of this, of course is North Stream.
16:52
Speaker 2: They're talking about submarine drills in the Baltic. I wonder
16:56
Speaker 2: if they'll interdict NATO's submarines that are involved in sabotage
17:01
Speaker 2: of major European energy infrastructure projects. Who knows. But in
17:05
Speaker 2: the background is the nord Stream Sorr. We'll go back
17:08
Speaker 2: to the previous slide. We'll bring this up on screen
17:11
Speaker 2: right now. And so the Italian Court and it's starting
17:15
Speaker 2: to get a little bit interesting, but this is part
17:17
Speaker 2: of the red herring operation. The Italian Court approves the
17:20
Speaker 2: extradition of Nordstream suspect to Germany. They're talking about one
17:23
Speaker 2: of these crack Ukrainian super soldiers that allegedly used this sailboat.
17:29
Speaker 2: Don't laugh, everybody, it's not us, it's the Wall Street Journal.
17:33
Speaker 2: They use this fifty foot sailboat to supposedly hit three
17:36
Speaker 2: pipelines that are, you know, in the bottom of the Baltic,
17:40
Speaker 2: impossible to locate, and with the amount of equipment and
17:44
Speaker 2: so forth, they did it all out of a fifty
17:46
Speaker 2: foot pleasure craft. Okay, believe it or not, so that
17:49
Speaker 2: they're still using. But they're using this Ukrainian Nordstream story, Mike,
17:54
Speaker 2: to basically divert attention away from the Western countries and NATO.
17:59
Speaker 2: And what more likely is that these pipelines were prepped
18:02
Speaker 2: during Balltops twenty two in June and July of twenty
18:06
Speaker 2: twenty two and detonated in September twenty twenty two with
18:11
Speaker 2: the other NATO drill that was going on at that time.
18:14
Speaker 2: So the Ukrainian red Herring store is just a convenient distraction,
18:18
Speaker 2: and so this is going on. It's also being used
18:20
Speaker 2: between to create tension between Poland and Germany. In the
18:24
Speaker 2: United States is quietly pushing that, as are the British
18:28
Speaker 2: so and the reason they're doing that is they're trying
18:30
Speaker 2: to maneuver Poland and Germany strategically in order to do
18:33
Speaker 2: certain things visa v Ukraine and also manipulate the politics
18:38
Speaker 2: in Poland. It's very clear that's what's going on, including
18:40
Speaker 2: the claims of reparations. Poland's asking for reparations now for
18:44
Speaker 2: World War two, imagine from Germany after eighty years, and
18:48
Speaker 2: the United States is egging them on. At the same time,
18:51
Speaker 2: they're also claiming to you know, want to support Germany
18:54
Speaker 2: as well, but they're trying to the US want to
18:57
Speaker 2: move a lot of their assets from Germany into Poland
19:00
Speaker 2: in terms of moving the Iron Curtain, the new Iron
19:03
Speaker 2: Curtain further eastward. That's the bigger picture.
19:07
Speaker 1: And the other thing that's going on between Germany and
19:09
Speaker 1: the Poland and Poland at the moment, which isn't getting
19:11
Speaker 1: very much coverage over here, is that Poland is accusing
19:14
Speaker 1: Germany of dumping migrants that are in Germany across the
19:18
Speaker 1: border into Poland And. So this is another sort of
19:20
Speaker 1: tension and inflection point. So the relationship between those two
19:24
Speaker 1: countries is quite shaky, it seems.
19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah. And the migrant issue of course again being used
19:29
Speaker 2: as a little bit of a tool, as it was
19:31
Speaker 2: between Poland and Belarus, which I might report more on.
19:34
Speaker 2: Is I learn more about that story recently by doing
19:37
Speaker 2: onderground investigation.
19:39
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, Well, if we think that what we've heard
19:42
Speaker 1: so far in this segment is in saying, let's have
19:45
Speaker 1: a look at this, because this is tasks the Russian media,
19:48
Speaker 1: i'd let and they're reporting that the Russian Federal Security Service,
19:52
Speaker 1: the FSB, has issued a statement claiming that Ukraine has
19:55
Speaker 1: been planning the false flag of all false flags. According
19:59
Speaker 1: to the statement quotes, the Federal Security Services uncovered and
20:02
Speaker 1: thwarted an operation by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's main intelligence
20:06
Speaker 1: directorate and it's UK supervisors to hijack a Russian Make
20:10
Speaker 1: thirty one supersonic fighter jet, which is equipped with a
20:14
Speaker 1: hypersonic missile and flight abroad. In order to hijack the aircraft,
20:18
Speaker 1: Ukrainian military intelligence officers tried to recruit Russian pilots offering
20:23
Speaker 1: three million dollars. The special services then planned to send
20:27
Speaker 1: the jet with the missile to an area where NATO's
20:30
Speaker 1: largest airbase in the Southeastern Europe is located in the
20:34
Speaker 1: Romanian city of Constanta, where it could be shot down
20:38
Speaker 1: by air defenses. And they're saying that the measures taken
20:42
Speaker 1: have thwarted the plans of the Ukrainian and UK intelligence
20:45
Speaker 1: services to carry out a large scale provocation. So that
20:50
Speaker 1: is quite a staggering claim by the Russian FSB here,
20:57
Speaker 1: But let's see what Sergei Lavrov had to say about it,
21:00
Speaker 1: if we bring him on screen. He said London's Hans
21:02
Speaker 1: Schong for provoking situations is of course notorious. Take the
21:06
Speaker 1: recent recent case where Russia's Russian FSB exposed a plot
21:09
Speaker 1: to trick a Russian pilot flying a fighter jet armed
21:13
Speaker 1: with the chasm a missile in the flying into flying
21:16
Speaker 1: to a base in Constanta, Ruminia with a fake order.
21:20
Speaker 1: The obvious intent was for the plane to be shot
21:22
Speaker 1: down in creating the pretext to accuse Russia of attacking NATO.
21:25
Speaker 1: But I'll set that aside for now. The FSB has
21:28
Speaker 1: already laid out the details. I don't know how the
21:31
Speaker 1: British will wash away the stain, but they've always had
21:34
Speaker 1: a remarkable talent for this. Like a dock that woddeles
21:37
Speaker 1: away from a sharer without a drop of water on
21:39
Speaker 1: its back, he is he is good crack in some ways. Patrick, Now,
21:45
Speaker 1: of course, the way that the British are going to
21:47
Speaker 1: wash away the stains, so the claim that this is
21:49
Speaker 1: just merely Russian disinformation and that there's nothing to see here,
21:53
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts?
21:54
Speaker 2: Well, First of all, if this false flag was allowed
21:57
Speaker 2: to happen, just imagine, okay, just imagine it went through
22:00
Speaker 2: and the NATO then shot down this false flag migjet
22:05
Speaker 2: and how would the Western press react. I mean, let's
22:08
Speaker 2: in reality, what would Russia gain from sending an old
22:12
Speaker 2: me again with a Kinshall missile to fire a single
22:16
Speaker 2: to fire in a NATO base when obviously that's going
22:18
Speaker 2: to open up a whole sort of Pandora's box in
22:21
Speaker 2: terms of Article five madness. And you know what the
22:24
Speaker 2: Western reaction is. I know the propaganda line so well
22:27
Speaker 2: to say Putin is emboldened because we have not been
22:31
Speaker 2: tough enough against the Russians, and he's so emboldened, and
22:34
Speaker 2: now he's really shoving it in our face. He's really
22:37
Speaker 2: taking the piss by sending an old meg to UH
22:40
Speaker 2: to send a Kinshall missile. You think we're joking. That's
22:43
Speaker 2: exactly the media line, and that's exactly what our ministers
22:47
Speaker 2: would stand up in government and say. They say, it's
22:49
Speaker 2: because we're not we haven't been tough enough on these
22:52
Speaker 2: Russians and now they're emboldened. They're sending you know, dilapidated
22:56
Speaker 2: air aircraft in to hit our biggest NATO bases. This
23:00
Speaker 2: is just insane, But yet I believe this is these
23:05
Speaker 2: types of plots are being hatched. And you know, there's
23:08
Speaker 2: more of them.
23:10
Speaker 1: Okay. Well, let's then move to the question of the Caribbean,
23:14
Speaker 1: and the question is, well, first of all, the question
23:16
Speaker 1: is where is the USS Gerald R. Ford, because it
23:20
Speaker 1: may be there or maybe actually in the Atlantic somewhere,
23:23
Speaker 1: it's not really clear. But the other question is why
23:26
Speaker 1: has Britain stopped sharing some intelligence with the United States
23:30
Speaker 1: on drug trafficking activities in the region. Now the New
23:33
Speaker 1: York Times here is saying is because Britain doesn't want
23:35
Speaker 1: to be complicit in US military strikes on the drug boats,
23:39
Speaker 1: because Britain believes the attacks are illegal. I'm just going
23:42
Speaker 1: to say, like Britain worried about that at any time
23:44
Speaker 1: in the past. They haven't worried too much about getting
23:47
Speaker 1: involved in illegal operations with the United States before, have they?
23:50
Speaker 2: And we're sure there's no British assets on the ground
23:52
Speaker 2: in Central America running around the jungles posing as nature
23:56
Speaker 2: photographers and things like that. I'm sure that's not happening.
23:58
Speaker 2: Sure it's not happening at all.
23:59
Speaker 1: But look at none of this is stopping Secretary of
24:01
Speaker 1: War Hexath who's announced Southern Spear And I wonder will
24:07
Speaker 1: Gerald Ford be part of this it's clear that it's clear,
24:10
Speaker 1: at least to me, that the US is wrapping things
24:12
Speaker 1: up here. On a Wednesday, then, speaking in Indiana, Hexath
24:17
Speaker 1: had this to say, So, let's have a look at
24:20
Speaker 1: this video clip.
24:24
Speaker 4: We are deterring China's influence around the world, not to
24:27
Speaker 4: mention the Panama Canal, where we are freeing that canal
24:32
Speaker 4: from malign Chinese influence, ensuring that American ships can sail freely.
24:41
Speaker 1: So we're opening up on all fronts, it seems. But
24:44
Speaker 1: what was the Panama?
24:45
Speaker 2: Panama? I didn't realize China took over the Panama.
24:50
Speaker 1: No, this is Trump's allegation going back.
24:52
Speaker 2: This is new news, this is breaking.
24:54
Speaker 1: But look, well, if you remember Patrick bark in the April,
24:58
Speaker 1: Hexath annoized deeper SECU early cooperation with Panama because of this,
25:02
Speaker 1: including joint trilling, more frequent US Panama military exercises, and
25:07
Speaker 1: even a us an increased US presence. So my question
25:11
Speaker 1: is is this is the Venezuela thing a front for
25:15
Speaker 1: Actually is Panama actually the target here at the end
25:18
Speaker 1: of the day, or are they just taking advantage of
25:22
Speaker 1: you know, all, you know, two birds of one stone
25:24
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But certainly the military presence in the
25:27
Speaker 1: region is being wrapped up.
25:29
Speaker 2: That said, there could be some credence to PEX allegations
25:32
Speaker 2: there because we have detected a high, sharp increase of
25:36
Speaker 2: Chinese takeaway restaurants in Panama City just in the last
25:41
Speaker 2: twenty four months, So there might be some legs to this.
25:44
Speaker 2: But all jokes aside, Mike, You're absolutely correct geopolitically, those
25:49
Speaker 2: are the big choke points. It's not just a Panama Canal,
25:52
Speaker 2: but the other competing canals through the massive lake in Nicaragua.
25:57
Speaker 2: But also they have other projects. China is involved in
26:01
Speaker 2: Visa vs. Southern Mexico that would bypass the Panama Canal
26:05
Speaker 2: by a combination of ports and high speed rail and
26:09
Speaker 2: with industrial bases built around that. So in other words,
26:12
Speaker 2: the Chinese and the Mexicans are way ahead in terms
26:15
Speaker 2: of their own economic interests and the Panama Canal is
26:18
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty year old relic. Yeah, so, I
26:23
Speaker 2: mean America is not happy about it, but I'm sorry
26:25
Speaker 2: you guys are I don't know, they've been messing around
26:27
Speaker 2: in the Middle East maybe for the last forty years.
26:30
Speaker 2: Maybe if you had focused on your own hemisphere, Washington,
26:34
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be having this conversation.
26:36
Speaker 1: Now, Well, let's move on then to Ukraine and well,
26:40
Speaker 1: it's not corrupt at all.
26:42
Speaker 2: Well this is well, this is nothing new. But what's
26:46
Speaker 2: new about this is the fact that this story is
26:49
Speaker 2: being put front and center in the global media. Normally
26:52
Speaker 2: it'd be about protecting the Zelenski regime. Here Ukraine corruption scandal,
26:56
Speaker 2: one hundred million dollar plot which is rocking Zelensky. That's
27:02
Speaker 2: correct spelling there with two whys. So this is through NABU,
27:06
Speaker 2: the National Anti Corruption Bureau. This was set up by
27:09
Speaker 2: Victoria Neuland and her gang in twenty fourteen. And why
27:12
Speaker 2: did the US set up an anti corruption bureau in Ukraine.
27:15
Speaker 2: It wasn't to stop corruption. It was to stop any
27:19
Speaker 2: potential whistleblowers and to protect the corruption that the US
27:23
Speaker 2: was favoring. And if you think about what Joe Biden
27:25
Speaker 2: got up to throughout his tenure as vice president, then
27:29
Speaker 2: you understand why NABU was put into place. So the
27:33
Speaker 2: fact that this is being the scandal is being highlighted
27:36
Speaker 2: and put out by NABU, which is a pre trial
27:38
Speaker 2: investigation unit, tells me. And the fact that it hits
27:42
Speaker 2: Zelenski's inner circle, which will show you in a minute
27:45
Speaker 2: that this is bad news for Zelensky, really bad news.
27:48
Speaker 2: It means the US have taken the protection off of Zelenski.
27:52
Speaker 2: Let's take a closer look at this scandal here and
27:55
Speaker 2: so who is Tamir Minditch. This is Zelenski's business partner
28:00
Speaker 2: basically here and how is he involved in this? Yes,
28:03
Speaker 2: there are piles of cash and photos of these circulating
28:07
Speaker 2: online and this is the in and out of this
28:11
Speaker 2: reportedly has links to Israel. This is from the Ukrainian press.
28:14
Speaker 2: By the way, Mindich celebrated his birthday in Israel in September,
28:19
Speaker 2: returned to Ukraine and mid October, and then went to
28:20
Speaker 2: Israel again. According to Ukrainian sources. He's also a longtime
28:25
Speaker 2: friend of Zelensky, not just a friend, co owner of
28:30
Speaker 2: Kivartol ninety five, that's Zelenski's media production outfit that was
28:35
Speaker 2: bankrolled by Igor Kolemoyski, that created Servant of the People.
28:40
Speaker 2: That was the sort of covert influence operation to prepare
28:44
Speaker 2: the public for him running for president. So this is
28:48
Speaker 2: a big scandal, and so it looks like this is
28:50
Speaker 2: Zelenski's inner circle being pinched. Here is funny Mike, how
28:54
Speaker 2: this tracks back to Israeli organized crime. It's just unbelievable,
28:59
Speaker 2: but really surprise anybody here. So all this is happening
29:03
Speaker 2: at the same time Zelenski is begging for well arms
29:09
Speaker 2: twenty seven patriot missile systems from the US. But in
29:12
Speaker 2: the meantime it's going to take years to fulfill those orders.
29:16
Speaker 2: So Zelenski says he wants to borrow the European allies systems.
29:22
Speaker 2: So Ukraine's going to empty Europe of air defenses. Doesn't
29:26
Speaker 2: get any better than this, does it, And so this
29:28
Speaker 2: is what he said to the Guardian recently here. So
29:32
Speaker 2: from a UK perspective, you know, why would you be
29:35
Speaker 2: pouring money into Ukraine and cure Starmus is We're standing
29:38
Speaker 2: shoulders to shoulder with Zelenski. We're going to keep I
29:41
Speaker 2: think they just okayed another big Christmas aid package for Ukraine. Here.
29:46
Speaker 2: Let's look at the total spend though from the UK
29:49
Speaker 2: government and we'll go to the House of Commons library
29:52
Speaker 2: here and we did the math or they did the
29:54
Speaker 2: math for us actually on this and very close the relationship.
29:58
Speaker 2: I mean, if if we did a slideshow of how
30:00
Speaker 2: many photos we have of them hugging in different locations.
30:03
Speaker 2: I counted at least twenty before the program the public photos. Yes, indeed,
30:09
Speaker 2: twenty one point eight billions since February twenty twenty two. Mike,
30:13
Speaker 2: Think of how many track and trace apps the British
30:16
Speaker 2: government could have made with that twenty one point eight billion.
30:20
Speaker 2: I mean, so where is all that money going? Think
30:23
Speaker 2: of all these corruption and graft scandals. The thing about
30:25
Speaker 2: this latest one, it involves the protection of Ukraine's energy
30:30
Speaker 2: infrastructure from Russian attacks. So they're talking about protecting Ukraine's
30:35
Speaker 2: nuclear facilities. Why would Russia ever attack a Ukrainian nuclear facility.
30:39
Speaker 2: Of course it wouldn't. But the electronic warfare systems and
30:43
Speaker 2: some of these defense systems, all this stuff is going out,
30:46
Speaker 2: the back door kickbacks for government contracts, all of this
30:50
Speaker 2: stuff has been going This is just what's been caught. Okay,
30:53
Speaker 2: this has been happening continuously for years. So if you're
30:57
Speaker 2: UK government in other European countries, the throwing money away,
31:01
Speaker 2: because very I would say, very little of this is
31:04
Speaker 2: being used actually on the ground for what's intended for
31:08
Speaker 2: in terms of aid. Here. So and the context of
31:12
Speaker 2: this is here, and we'll look at this UK pledges.
31:16
Speaker 2: Remember this story one hundred year packed. This was from
31:20
Speaker 2: last year or beginning of the year, January twenty twenty five,
31:23
Speaker 2: so this was this grand one hundred year commitment for Ukraine.
31:27
Speaker 2: This was the government's pledge. So what I'm saying Mike
31:30
Speaker 2: here is that this is not a good investment Ukraine.
31:35
Speaker 2: I mean, think of how much austerity is going on
31:38
Speaker 2: right now in the UK, and since twenty twenty two
31:42
Speaker 2: they've thrown away over twenty billion dollars for what are
31:45
Speaker 2: they winning the war? Are they doing better or is
31:48
Speaker 2: this a losing gambit? Is this or are we in
31:51
Speaker 2: the sunk cost fallacy type zone here? It's incredible people
31:56
Speaker 2: need to ask these questions. The numbers certainly aren't looking good.
32:00
Speaker 2: So meanwhile in Europe, and this is the other thing,
32:03
Speaker 2: This is not a popular war in Ukraine. And this
32:06
Speaker 2: story is just so emblematic. Moscow is mocking Zelenski after
32:10
Speaker 2: Berlin asks Kiev to keep its fighting aged males. So basically,
32:16
Speaker 2: Ukraine's having problems with conscription, They're having problems getting able
32:20
Speaker 2: bodied males to populate the frontline positions, and Germany is
32:24
Speaker 2: saying that's enough with your migrants and so forth. You
32:28
Speaker 2: can keep your fighting aged males. We don't want them anymore.
32:31
Speaker 2: I would think Germany might want them for conscription themselves,
32:34
Speaker 2: because they'll have problems conscripting or getting people to at
32:37
Speaker 2: least volunteer to join the German armed forces to meet
32:40
Speaker 2: the levels that we talked about on Wednesday. But just
32:44
Speaker 2: to show you how again to underline how unpopular and
32:49
Speaker 2: how incredibly crazy the government in Kiev is in trying
32:54
Speaker 2: to abduct people off the street to serve in Ukrainian
32:59
Speaker 2: armed forces. There are literally thousands of these videos circulating
33:03
Speaker 2: online the last couple of years. This one is particularly harrowing.
33:07
Speaker 2: Watch this. This is in Ukraine. Uh this is Zelenski's
33:11
Speaker 2: uh Impress gangs trying to pick up people for the
33:14
Speaker 2: front lines. Watch this.
33:17
Speaker 5: You and another one for the mate grinder.
34:11
Speaker 2: I mean, remember Defense Secretary John Healy, Britain's effort to
34:16
Speaker 2: support Ukraine must match the defiance of the Ukrainians. The
34:20
Speaker 2: defiance of the Ukrainians. You just saw the defiance of
34:23
Speaker 2: the Ukrainians. So they're abducting what was the son, maybe
34:26
Speaker 2: the husband of that poor woman screaming because the Ukrainians
34:30
Speaker 2: know it's a death sentence. It's a very unpopular war,
34:33
Speaker 2: and yet our European governments are saying, oh, this is
34:36
Speaker 2: a great noble effort. It's not. And the president of
34:40
Speaker 2: Ukraine doesn't want to have elections. He is a dictator.
34:44
Speaker 2: Let that one sink in.
34:45
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, let's move on then, and well, as we
34:49
Speaker 1: can see from NBC News here, their headline is Jeffrey
34:54
Speaker 1: Epstein wrote Trump knew about the girls and referenced mar
34:59
Speaker 1: A Lago and newly released emails. Mark, let me welcome
35:03
Speaker 1: you to the program and just bring us up to
35:07
Speaker 1: date with what has happened yesterday in particular.
35:12
Speaker 6: Yeah, I like to say this just in and that
35:14
Speaker 6: applies this time. Good day, gentlemen and UK viewers and members.
35:19
Speaker 6: Over the last forty eight hours, the US House Committee
35:23
Speaker 6: on Oversight has been the main source of a tranch
35:28
Speaker 6: of correspondence raising questions about Trump and Epstein's relationship. This
35:33
Speaker 6: is according to the Democratic side on the left part
35:36
Speaker 6: of the slide, the Democratic members of that House Oversight committee,
35:40
Speaker 6: and they're talking about Trump's a parent or alleged knowledgings,
35:44
Speaker 6: crimes and relationship to the victims. The other slide to
35:47
Speaker 6: the right The other item to the right of this
35:49
Speaker 6: slide is a more general House Oversight Committee release. Overside
35:53
Speaker 6: Committee releases additional Epstein estate documents. This has to do
35:58
Speaker 6: with lawyers and the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein.
36:04
Speaker 6: And so there's been a release in total of about
36:07
Speaker 6: twenty thousand pages, they're saying, and the Democrats have released
36:14
Speaker 6: what they think are the more salacious items select emails,
36:18
Speaker 6: and the Republicans have countered that the Democrats are cherry
36:22
Speaker 6: picking this, and Trump is maintaining that this is a
36:25
Speaker 6: conspiracy and a hoax, as he pretty much has always maintained.
36:30
Speaker 6: Some point to a couple of months ago when Gislaine Maxwell,
36:35
Speaker 6: who's now in prison, spoke to there was a recorded
36:41
Speaker 6: testimony to the Department of Justice, and she said that
36:45
Speaker 6: Trump really didn't have any direct involvement. And some people
36:49
Speaker 6: point to that, however, this latest release could change the
36:53
Speaker 6: landscape considerably. We'll know a lot more in the days
36:57
Speaker 6: weeks than even months ahead. Maybe we can talk about more.
37:01
Speaker 6: An extra the BBC has noted that within ours House,
37:09
Speaker 6: Republicans released a massive tranch of documents to counter the
37:13
Speaker 6: Democratic effort to cherry pick this. In other words, the
37:17
Speaker 6: large amount of documents seems to be just sort of
37:20
Speaker 6: a deliberate avalanche of information to sort of water down
37:24
Speaker 6: what the Democrats are allegedly cherry picking to what they're
37:27
Speaker 6: asserting that Trump was more involved with girls at Epstein's,
37:32
Speaker 6: you know, a fantasy island, that sort of thing. So
37:37
Speaker 6: the history of this is also quite interesting. I'm looking
37:40
Speaker 6: back to American Free Press to refresh my memory on
37:44
Speaker 6: this in an article that I proof read sometime back
37:47
Speaker 6: back in August, and a lot of this goes to
37:52
Speaker 6: the efforts of Representative Thomas Massey, arguably the biggest renegade
37:57
Speaker 6: in Congress and in the Republican Party, who's willing to
38:01
Speaker 6: speak out against the party line on a number of issues,
38:03
Speaker 6: especially a salacious and sensitive one like this, and Massey
38:08
Speaker 6: and a Democrat Representative Roe Kanna of California, Massy of
38:12
Speaker 6: course as a Kentucky Republican. They held a press conference
38:17
Speaker 6: back in August. I believe it was with many of
38:19
Speaker 6: the young victims of Epstein's sexual trafficking, and those victims
38:23
Speaker 6: spoke out, and Marjorie Taylor Green, the Georgia Republican who's
38:28
Speaker 6: also a bit of a rebel, was alongside Massey at
38:31
Speaker 6: that time, and they stood with the victims, and the
38:35
Speaker 6: victims spoke out and gave what looked to be convincing
38:39
Speaker 6: testimony about their harrowing experiences with the Epstein sex trafficking racket.
38:46
Speaker 6: And so it's an interesting thing. Massy blasted at the
38:51
Speaker 6: Times House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has tried to resist
38:55
Speaker 6: this avalanche of information. And what Massey said at the
38:58
Speaker 6: time about House Speaker Johnson and was his follows, what
39:01
Speaker 6: the speaker is asking you to believe when this is
39:04
Speaker 6: all over is that Epstein and Maxwell have one thousand
39:09
Speaker 6: victims themselves and nobody else was involved. And the DOJ
39:14
Speaker 6: has no idea who else might have been involved in
39:16
Speaker 6: that sex trafficking ring. That's obviously false. And then there
39:21
Speaker 6: was also talk at that press conference about alleged victims
39:25
Speaker 6: that mysteriously died that maybe knew considerable considerable information about
39:30
Speaker 6: what was really going on in Epstein's venue. So that's
39:36
Speaker 6: the essentials of it. So hats off to Massey for
39:40
Speaker 6: having the guts on the Republican side and Marjorie Taylor
39:43
Speaker 6: Green to stand their ground and get more objectivity in
39:46
Speaker 6: a deeper.
39:47
Speaker 2: Look at this.
39:48
Speaker 6: But that's the latest. Maybe you guys would want to
39:51
Speaker 6: come in and of course we can extrapolate an extra
39:53
Speaker 6: if you'd like.
39:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, just a quick comment. Look, Massey was also attacked
39:59
Speaker 2: by Trump and the Israeli lobby, and one of the
40:02
Speaker 2: reasons he's been attacked and threatened to be primaried in
40:05
Speaker 2: the next election is because of this issue. I think
40:08
Speaker 2: what this proves is that Trump lied about his relationship
40:12
Speaker 2: with Jeff Epstein. He says I hardly knew the guy.
40:14
Speaker 2: Clearly he more than knew him. They were very close friends,
40:18
Speaker 2: spent a lot of time together. So this really cuts
40:20
Speaker 2: to the credibility of Trump in the president and I
40:24
Speaker 2: think it shows that the president is compromised because at
40:28
Speaker 2: the same time this release comes, we find out confirmation
40:32
Speaker 2: that Jeff Epstein was an Israeli intelligence operative. Clearly, so
40:38
Speaker 2: that means John Trump, if you consider all of his
40:40
Speaker 2: Israel policies, how slavishly gushingly pro Israel he is. And
40:45
Speaker 2: now we put this into the frame, it's clear that
40:48
Speaker 2: this is a president who is deeply compromised, and that's
40:53
Speaker 2: really disturbing. It should be a disturbing from an American
40:55
Speaker 2: point of view, and not only that Trump is covering
40:58
Speaker 2: up the Epstein scandal with his DOJ and his FBI.
41:02
Speaker 2: They're completely covering it up. So he's lying to the
41:04
Speaker 2: public and he's running a cover up to me. And
41:07
Speaker 2: this is why MAGA is falling apart. And ultimately this
41:11
Speaker 2: will be the issue that basically brands MAGA is a
41:14
Speaker 2: complete fraud. And now we're beginning to see what an
41:18
Speaker 2: absolute fraud this whole movement was. Is basically a branding exercise,
41:23
Speaker 2: a bunch of red hats made in China, and this
41:26
Speaker 2: level of corruption should be unacceptable to all Americans, but
41:30
Speaker 2: yet there is still a hardcore that are hanging on
41:33
Speaker 2: to defend this president. I think it's unbelievable, well undibtedly.
41:38
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that extra. Thank you very much
41:41
Speaker 1: both of you for that. No, if you like what
41:43
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42:01
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42:04
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42:10
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42:13
Speaker 1: Jerrem will be at seven pm tonight and we will
42:17
Speaker 1: have a sorry that is the wrong graphic because that's
42:22
Speaker 1: from Wednesday's program, but we will have a Silken Stale
42:26
Speaker 1: podcast going out tonight at nine, so join Carle for
42:29
Speaker 1: that and well. Also tonight is Andrew Bridgin and the
42:33
Speaker 1: Seven Stars and Tom nas it is.
42:35
Speaker 2: It's going to be a great event. Is this sold out?
42:37
Speaker 2: By the way, I just found out The organizers just
42:40
Speaker 2: told us it's sold out. There might be a few tickets,
42:43
Speaker 2: I say, a handful of tickets for cash at the door.
42:47
Speaker 2: It's totally sold out. It's going to be a full house.
42:50
Speaker 2: Andrew Bridge and of course is a fantastic public speaker,
42:53
Speaker 2: so a lot of people are looking forward to this.
42:55
Speaker 2: Certainly I am as well, and some of our supporters
42:58
Speaker 2: will be attending this tonight in Totnes, Okay.
43:01
Speaker 1: And a reminder of a couple of digital ID events,
43:04
Speaker 1: the Cumbria Against Government Portrayal event happening at Carlisle Market
43:07
Speaker 1: Square and that's tomorrow at one pm. Diane is going
43:12
Speaker 1: to be speaking at that and the once again the
43:15
Speaker 1: guys in Glasgow will be at at the bottom of
43:18
Speaker 1: Jamaica Street by the River Clyde near the Crystal Palace Pub.
43:22
Speaker 1: To go and help them if you'd like to support
43:24
Speaker 1: them in getting the word out on digital ID brilliant
43:28
Speaker 1: t shirt.
43:28
Speaker 2: There's an interesting T shirt.
43:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Okay, let's let's move on to this online safety
43:37
Speaker 1: related news. Because ofcom at least tech Radar here is
43:40
Speaker 1: is talking about this being an exclusive OFCOMBS told tech
43:44
Speaker 1: Radar that it's choosing an unnamed third party tool to
43:47
Speaker 1: monitor VPN use that's virtual private network use in the UK.
43:52
Speaker 1: The OFCOM is refusing to name the platform that they're using, though,
43:57
Speaker 1: but it seems to have some kind of our official
44:00
Speaker 1: intelligence capabilities, and tech Relate are saying that despite assurances
44:05
Speaker 1: that personal information isn't being access privacy concerns remain.
44:10
Speaker 2: Now do you think that third party starts with a P?
44:13
Speaker 2: By the way, it.
44:13
Speaker 1: May well do. I couldn't possibly comment, but anyway, tech
44:17
Speaker 1: crate our contact at offcom and ask them to clarify
44:19
Speaker 1: how it's accessing information about VPN use in the UK
44:24
Speaker 1: and Ofcom said, we're using a leading third party provider
44:27
Speaker 1: which is widely used in the industry to gather information
44:30
Speaker 1: on VPN usage. The provider combines multiple data sources to
44:33
Speaker 1: train its models and generate usage estimates. The data way
44:37
Speaker 1: access and use in our analyses is fully aggregated at
44:42
Speaker 1: the app level and no personally identifiable or user level
44:45
Speaker 1: information is included. And tech Relars. Tech Relar are saying
44:49
Speaker 1: that although offcom has been transparent about the existence of
44:52
Speaker 1: them of VPN monitoring, and this is the first time
44:55
Speaker 1: it's provided any information outlining the methods it's using. They
45:00
Speaker 1: also say that VPNs pose a problem to the UK
45:03
Speaker 1: government and OFFCOME, specifically with regard to the controversial Online
45:07
Speaker 1: Safety Act. Well, I'm going to add to that and
45:09
Speaker 1: say that it's not only that. The bigger problem for
45:12
Speaker 1: the regime is the regulation Investry Powers Act or the
45:15
Speaker 1: Investigatory Powers Act, which requires Internet service providers to collect
45:19
Speaker 1: metadata on their customers internet activity and provided to the
45:23
Speaker 1: government if if there's a court order made. Now, this
45:27
Speaker 1: is not possible with widespread use of VPNs, and so
45:30
Speaker 1: the British government does not want to see any kind
45:34
Speaker 1: of driver for VPN use. In this country. So Barness
45:39
Speaker 1: Lloyd was telling the House of Lords there two go
45:43
Speaker 1: that nothing's off the table when it comes to protecting
45:45
Speaker 1: children online. She also said that there are no current
45:50
Speaker 1: plans to ban the use of VPNs. I think the
45:54
Speaker 1: word current there is extremely telling and that's probably the
45:59
Speaker 1: key word. But what we do know is it offcom
46:02
Speaker 1: is building the case at the moment.
46:05
Speaker 2: These are the types of tools that authoritarian regimes in
46:08
Speaker 2: the golf for instance, use to stop people from you know,
46:12
Speaker 2: using VPNs or et cetera. So what you know, what
46:15
Speaker 2: what is the real motivation by the state behind this?
46:19
Speaker 2: And you can see it's really about control, total and
46:22
Speaker 2: censorship absolutely absolutely. Mark back to you then, and what
46:27
Speaker 2: have you got on smart smart cities?
46:31
Speaker 6: Well, as you may recall, gentlemen, I reported in advance
46:33
Speaker 6: on smart cities in one of two reports I did
46:37
Speaker 6: in the UK column studio during very recent visit for
46:40
Speaker 6: the on location event in Europe, and I found a
46:44
Speaker 6: particular thread of information that was interesting. It's a it's
46:48
Speaker 6: a barrage of stuff going on, projects and pipe dreams
46:53
Speaker 6: and you know, very high falutin kind of stuff, some
46:57
Speaker 6: of it realistic and maybe helpful and maybe constructive in
47:00
Speaker 6: some ways, but a lot of it very ambiguous. So
47:04
Speaker 6: I found things that are a little bit more tangible
47:07
Speaker 6: and provide some interesting terminology and interesting projects that we
47:11
Speaker 6: can think about here. On this first slide, it gets
47:14
Speaker 6: into the basics of it making urban government open, participatory
47:20
Speaker 6: and accountable. Well that's questionable, Advancing smart city developments while
47:24
Speaker 6: pushing the boundaries of technology and handling the double edged
47:27
Speaker 6: sword of data collection which has to do with security,
47:32
Speaker 6: online security, things like that requires a careful and deliberate
47:36
Speaker 6: equilibrium involving good governance and cooperation as well as new
47:40
Speaker 6: partnerships business models. What are the tools local governments can
47:44
Speaker 6: use to enable products and services with a comprehensive approach
47:47
Speaker 6: to emphasis again data governance and privacy concerns. Data governance
47:53
Speaker 6: is significant here. Let's move on and I'll explain key
48:00
Speaker 6: Art City Expo planks, the whole event in Art City Expoo,
48:06
Speaker 6: that kind of that's the.
48:07
Speaker 2: Full name of it.
48:08
Speaker 6: Digital government and blue economy, along with the World Ocean Council,
48:13
Speaker 6: which is connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, those
48:17
Speaker 6: were the main things that jumped out. Other things AI
48:20
Speaker 6: regulation and ELGO, rhythmic transparency, and data ethics not quite
48:25
Speaker 6: as prominent, but also quite prominent. Now getting into a
48:29
Speaker 6: little bit more about what digital government actually means, we'll
48:33
Speaker 6: move on from there digital government. A main or major
48:37
Speaker 6: company that comes up when you look into digital government
48:40
Speaker 6: is Granicus, based in Denver, Colorado. I think they were
48:45
Speaker 6: formed in nineteen ninety nine. Well, this Reuter's item mentions
48:49
Speaker 6: a miscellaneous thing. Granicus owners exploring a four billion dollar
48:54
Speaker 6: sale of the software maker. Sources say, so this is
48:57
Speaker 6: going on in the background. The private equity owners of
48:59
Speaker 6: Greats are preparing to explore a sale of the government
49:03
Speaker 6: services software maker that could make it that could value
49:07
Speaker 6: it at about four billion, including its debt. But to
49:11
Speaker 6: get more specific, we'll go on from there on the
49:13
Speaker 6: next slide, and privatizing government seems to be a la
49:20
Speaker 6: buildeberg the main goal here. Founded in nineteen ninety nine,
49:24
Speaker 6: as I mentioned, Grantedgus provides cloud based software and other
49:28
Speaker 6: technology tools to federal, state, and local governments across the world,
49:32
Speaker 6: not just in the US, to increase efficiency and transparency.
49:36
Speaker 2: They say.
49:36
Speaker 6: The company designs and maintains government websites, manages public records,
49:42
Speaker 6: so they're privatizing the management of public records and helps
49:46
Speaker 6: upgrade technology, they say, to make it easier for citizens
49:50
Speaker 6: to contact public officials. The Grandecas CEO is Mark heines
49:54
Speaker 6: hyns Now I talk to a one of the top experts.
50:00
Speaker 6: It's in Michigan, indeed in the Midwest, about data government.
50:03
Speaker 6: So I'll mention this briefly before we go on with
50:05
Speaker 6: the slides. And he manages or oversees the digital systems,
50:11
Speaker 6: the phone systems, the computer systems, you name it for
50:14
Speaker 6: a major hospital, Brownson Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan. And he
50:19
Speaker 6: believes that what Granicus is getting at, and that's getting
50:24
Speaker 6: people involved in their government, but almost more or almost
50:28
Speaker 6: strictly on an online basis. In other words, there's less
50:31
Speaker 6: stress on attending government meetings, there's less stress on getting
50:35
Speaker 6: together under one roof, and more stress about public involvement
50:39
Speaker 6: being strictly through the internet, strictly through filling out forms online,
50:44
Speaker 6: filing complaints online, to where most of your contact with
50:48
Speaker 6: your government is simply online. And the guy that I
50:51
Speaker 6: talked to the systems experts, said he believes that would
50:55
Speaker 6: actually reduce citizen participation and make government more distant and
51:00
Speaker 6: in many ways unaccessible for the people, although it would
51:03
Speaker 6: be more efficient for certain things like filling out basic
51:08
Speaker 6: forms and some of that basic correspondence, maybe that would
51:11
Speaker 6: be an improvement in and of itself, just in that area.
51:14
Speaker 6: And so going on from there as we consider the
51:18
Speaker 6: questionable aspects of what Granicus is doing. There was also
51:22
Speaker 6: the talk at the Smart City Expo about the blue economy.
51:26
Speaker 6: And this is not a very widely known concept. It's
51:29
Speaker 6: certainly not household words by any stretch. As political, economic,
51:33
Speaker 6: and climate challenges reshape our world, the need to accelerate
51:37
Speaker 6: a sustainable and resilient blue economy has never been more urgent.
51:42
Speaker 6: They're saying. The blue economy is built on the vast
51:45
Speaker 6: yet vulnerable oceans, and it must undergo a profound transformation,
51:50
Speaker 6: they say, to remain viable and deliver long term value.
51:53
Speaker 6: The blue economy unites entrepreneurs, corporate entities, investors and experts
51:58
Speaker 6: leading this transformation. Lots of contracts, lots of money exchanging
52:03
Speaker 6: hands for the private sector being moored or connected with government,
52:07
Speaker 6: lots of public private partnerships here, not unlike what's going
52:12
Speaker 6: on with big pharma and government in that sense. So
52:16
Speaker 6: moving on from there, the blue economy also we can
52:21
Speaker 6: put this up just briefly, is led by a strategic
52:24
Speaker 6: coalition of partners hosted by the City of Barcelona. So
52:29
Speaker 6: cities are involved in the global cities movement is becoming
52:34
Speaker 6: much more pronounced in terms of smart cities. You don't
52:37
Speaker 6: hear about global cities by name much anymore, not as much,
52:42
Speaker 6: so they're really funneling it into the smart cities concept.
52:46
Speaker 6: So the Port of Barcelona is involved as a global partner,
52:50
Speaker 6: and we have the World Ocean Council and Ocean Innovation
52:53
Speaker 6: as strategic partners in the blue economy. So some other
52:58
Speaker 6: interesting and not altogether common concepts there. Moving on, I
53:03
Speaker 6: found that the World Ocean Council is a UoN partner
53:06
Speaker 6: in the Sustainable Development Goals and the WOC WOC as
53:10
Speaker 6: it's known as a non governmental, non for profit organization,
53:14
Speaker 6: a UN Sustainable Goals partner established as an international multi
53:19
Speaker 6: industry business leadership alliance on ocean sustainability, science and stewardship,
53:26
Speaker 6: those sorts of things. And then when it comes to Oceannovation,
53:31
Speaker 6: we have a slide on that and we can skip
53:36
Speaker 6: the World Ocean Council state admission. That's fairly self evident.
53:40
Speaker 6: Moving on to oceannovation. That's connected. As it turns out,
53:44
Speaker 6: we'll show this to the European Commission. One thing's connected
53:48
Speaker 6: to the UN. Now this is oriented around the European Commission,
53:52
Speaker 6: and this just shows some oceannovation events, innovation in terms
53:56
Speaker 6: of investments in ocean assets, that sort of thing. But
54:00
Speaker 6: one of those says, let's go back to that slide
54:03
Speaker 6: very briefly. There's one item I wanted to point out.
54:06
Speaker 6: The one to the upper right is an EU wide
54:10
Speaker 6: implementation developing national restoration plans under the EU's Nature Restoration
54:17
Speaker 6: Regulation of Marine Ecosystems. And they say unrealistically, I would think.
54:23
Speaker 6: They say they want to restore habitats and restore ecosystems
54:27
Speaker 6: to their original status, and they literally mean original ecosystems,
54:32
Speaker 6: original habitats, possibly as they might have been thousands of
54:36
Speaker 6: years ago, which really sounds like playing god, which really
54:40
Speaker 6: sounds like a presumptuous thing to say, how would they
54:43
Speaker 6: know precisely what the original habitat was? And they talk
54:47
Speaker 6: about renaturing the concept of renaturing restoring things in a
54:53
Speaker 6: very profound way in that sense. And so there were
54:56
Speaker 6: some breakout sessions. We can mention I won't go into these,
55:01
Speaker 6: The rise of private smart cities, promise practice and public impact,
55:06
Speaker 6: how to create a greener urban economy, the five up approach,
55:10
Speaker 6: urban planning for systemic climate action, Democratic innovation in European cities.
55:15
Speaker 6: That's just to give this report a little more breadth
55:18
Speaker 6: as to what all was covered. And I believe I
55:21
Speaker 6: have one more slide that shows a Norman Rockwell, a
55:26
Speaker 6: piece of the artwork of the well known American artist
55:29
Speaker 6: Norman Rockbell out of its four freedoms. And the town
55:33
Speaker 6: hall meeting, the concept where people get together under one
55:37
Speaker 6: roof to influence their government, to have their say where
55:41
Speaker 6: they where the citizens can hear what each other has
55:44
Speaker 6: to say, the democratic ideal, especially in New England and
55:49
Speaker 6: across the US, the town hall meeting was a long
55:52
Speaker 6: tradition that seems to be getting buried under this granicus
55:56
Speaker 6: concept that your only relationship with your government will be
55:59
Speaker 6: a digital one digital government, so that democratic ideal might
56:04
Speaker 6: be lost despite all the rhetoric of these globalists about
56:09
Speaker 6: wanting democracy and greater democracy. So a lot going on there,
56:13
Speaker 6: and that was just a small slice of it, guys.
56:15
Speaker 6: There was much more that could be said. But those
56:18
Speaker 6: were the most relevant topics.
56:22
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mark. So let's move on that to media. Well,
56:28
Speaker 1: you'll be glad to know that the BBC has apologized
56:31
Speaker 1: to US President Donald Trump for their Panorama episode that
56:35
Speaker 1: spliced parts of their of his speech from the sixth
56:39
Speaker 1: of January twenty twenty one together. But the BBC says
56:43
Speaker 1: that they have rejected his demands for compensition. So he
56:47
Speaker 1: was basically saying that he was going to sue them
56:51
Speaker 1: for a bit in unless they provided a retraction, apologized
56:55
Speaker 1: and gave him composition. He didn't specify how much competition.
56:58
Speaker 2: Oh, so this would be an out of court settled
57:00
Speaker 2: and of course interesting.
57:02
Speaker 1: So the BBC said that the edits had given the
57:05
Speaker 1: mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct of
57:08
Speaker 1: violent action, and they said that they would not show
57:11
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four program. Again, that's very interesting. What
57:15
Speaker 1: about the twenty twenty one Newsnight program, Because people were
57:18
Speaker 1: talking about that yesterdays we're going to come on to
57:20
Speaker 1: in a second where and the people who were talking
57:24
Speaker 1: about were suggesting that the twenty twenty one edit was
57:26
Speaker 1: even worse. But anyway, as to say, lawyers for Trump
57:32
Speaker 1: had threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars
57:36
Speaker 1: And well, Lisa and Nandy of course was sent to
57:40
Speaker 1: Parliament or sent to the media this morning to sort
57:43
Speaker 1: of justify everything that's going on, and she said that
57:46
Speaker 1: she's confident that the BBC is gripping this with the
57:49
Speaker 1: seriousness that it demands.
57:52
Speaker 7: Do you think that's likely, Well, jeez, I don't know
57:56
Speaker 7: the meddling in the US political system the BBC was doing,
58:01
Speaker 7: so yeah, I mean I can recommend the BBC to
58:04
Speaker 7: call Alex Jones's lawyers, well if they need some help,
58:09
Speaker 7: some spartan legal assistance.
58:11
Speaker 5: Yeah.
58:11
Speaker 1: Well, look, it's the Telegraph which has been leading the
58:14
Speaker 1: charge against the BBC. As we were discussing on Monday
58:16
Speaker 1: and on Wednesday, the Telegraph seems to be financially stable
58:20
Speaker 1: at the moment, with eight hundred and forty two thousand
58:22
Speaker 1: digital subscribers in December twenty twenty four. Digital subscriptions were
58:27
Speaker 1: up eleven percent in a year. That's perhaps disappointing news,
58:31
Speaker 1: but anyway, that's the situation. But they've been trying to
58:34
Speaker 1: sell themselves. I don't mean sell themselves as a pr exercise.
58:37
Speaker 1: I've been literally sell the business now for something like
58:40
Speaker 1: two years. Flog it yes, flog it yeah, because the
58:43
Speaker 1: Telegraph has been in limbo for the last couple of
58:46
Speaker 1: years after the company was taken to Lloyd's taken by
58:50
Speaker 1: Lloyd's Bank because of on paid debts to Barclays family.
58:54
Speaker 1: So in November twenty twenty three, the Abu Dhabi state
58:58
Speaker 1: backed investment group Bird IMI took control of Telegraph Media
59:03
Speaker 1: Group after agreeing a deal to pay off one point
59:06
Speaker 1: two billion pounds in Barkley Family debts. The UK government
59:10
Speaker 1: then issued pre emptive orders restricting any transfer of ownership
59:14
Speaker 1: or changes to the Telegraphs Board or no changes to
59:18
Speaker 1: key staff, order management responsibilities and so on. So the
59:22
Speaker 1: Red Bird imideal was stopped in March of twenty twenty
59:25
Speaker 1: four when the government announced plans to prevent any foreign
59:29
Speaker 1: government backed entities only more than fifteen percent of UK
59:33
Speaker 1: newspapers and magazines. So in May this year, Redbird announced
59:37
Speaker 1: a new bid within which the Abu Dhabi money was
59:42
Speaker 1: limited to fifteen percent, because that was what they were
59:45
Speaker 1: basically told by the government that they should do, and
59:48
Speaker 1: that's where the situation lies. It's been stalled for a
59:51
Speaker 1: long time. Night Redbird's Jerry Cardinill, who is the head
59:58
Speaker 1: of Redbird, made a public play just a few days
1:00:02
Speaker 1: ago asking the Star Wars, begging the Starmar regime in fact,
1:00:06
Speaker 1: to just get out of the way because this deal
1:00:08
Speaker 1: needs to be done. But unfortunately, as the Guardian is
1:00:12
Speaker 1: reporting here, the independent directors of the Telegraph who are
1:00:16
Speaker 1: there while this process continues, while the sale process continues,
1:00:20
Speaker 1: they've reported to the government alleged comments made by Cardinell
1:00:24
Speaker 1: to Telegraph editor Chris Evans the lere in breach of
1:00:27
Speaker 1: the of the rules protecting editorial independence. So what we're
1:00:34
Speaker 1: saying here, aside from any other motivations, as discussed on
1:00:38
Speaker 1: Wen Wednesse, these programs are two of the biggest media
1:00:42
Speaker 1: organizations in the UK fighting with themselves effectively over who's
1:00:46
Speaker 1: going to control them. So the bbcason a fight over
1:00:50
Speaker 1: the Royal Charter and the license fee. The telegraphs and
1:00:53
Speaker 1: a fight over ownership and editorial independence. And so the
1:00:56
Speaker 1: question is you know where where does this end?
1:00:59
Speaker 2: Well? I find it in It's not just that the
1:01:01
Speaker 2: Telegraph is attacking the BBC and provoking them over the
1:01:05
Speaker 2: license the upcoming review of the license fees. So it's
1:01:09
Speaker 2: and it's a bit rich considering. You know, there's supposed
1:01:11
Speaker 2: to be a Tory aligned you know, Britain first media outlet,
1:01:16
Speaker 2: but they're basically bankrolled with Arab money, you know, So
1:01:19
Speaker 2: I think that's funny, Like why are these why are
1:01:21
Speaker 2: these outlets skin in the first place. It's because they've
1:01:24
Speaker 2: lost huge shares of audience and huge shares of advertising
1:01:28
Speaker 2: because what they've been putting out is absolute tripe for years.
1:01:34
Speaker 2: That's why people have fled the mainstream media and now
1:01:37
Speaker 2: they have to go and beg to the Arabs or
1:01:40
Speaker 2: beg to whatever other you know, despotic regimes internationally, or
1:01:44
Speaker 2: to the Americans who have also sought to buy in
1:01:48
Speaker 2: and take over through proxies. By the way, and we're
1:01:51
Speaker 2: talking about private equity firms, edge funds and so forth.
1:01:55
Speaker 2: That's what that's what you're going to see more of
1:01:57
Speaker 2: when the government comes in with restrictions on this in
1:02:00
Speaker 2: terms of foreign money, the foreign funds will be able
1:02:03
Speaker 2: to erect proxies within the UK as shells or individuals
1:02:07
Speaker 2: that will do the bidding of the foreign powers. Yes,
1:02:10
Speaker 2: so that's what that's a new trend that's certain to happen.
1:02:13
Speaker 1: Now well, We're going to be talking a lot more
1:02:14
Speaker 1: about this an extra, because I know Marcus has thoughts
1:02:17
Speaker 1: on it as well, but unfortunately we're absolutely out of
1:02:19
Speaker 1: time for today. We're going to leave it there. If
1:02:22
Speaker 1: you are a UK column member, stay on the live
1:02:24
Speaker 1: stream for UK column News Extra. We've been back in
1:02:28
Speaker 1: a few minutes. Otherwise, don't forget jarm tonight at seven,
1:02:31
Speaker 1: cars at nine, and we will be back at one
1:02:35
Speaker 1: pm as usual for another news program on Monday. We'll
1:02:38
Speaker 1: see you then, all right,