Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 14th August 2026

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UK Column News — 14th August 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Friday, the fourteenth of August twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK col um News.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host Mike Robinson, and joining me by video
0:14
Speaker 1: link today is Basil Valentine.
0:17
Speaker 2: Now learning the program.
0:18
Speaker 1: We're going to be reporting on the funding of two
0:21
Speaker 1: cabinet ministers. We'll be asking what is the Defense University Alliance,
0:25
Speaker 1: and we're going to be also looking at what's going
0:28
Speaker 1: on on the USS Abraham Lincoln. But we're of course
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Speaker 1: going to begin today with the Clacton by election, because
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Speaker 1: as everybody will know, Nigel Farage is one the Clacton
0:39
Speaker 1: by election. This was supposed to give him a resigning
0:43
Speaker 1: endorsement in the face of corruption allegations centered on the
0:47
Speaker 1: five million pound donation by crypto billionaire. But in the end, Forage,
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Speaker 1: as we see on screen there, if we just bring
0:53
Speaker 1: that back up, received twenty two two hundred and thirty
0:56
Speaker 1: nine votes, sixty three point three four percent of the vote,
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Speaker 1: and his main opponent can't Binfitz. I've received n four
1:03
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five votes, which was twenty six point
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Speaker 1: ninety three percent of the vote. Now to put that
1:09
Speaker 1: in a bit of perspective. David Davis when he pulled
1:12
Speaker 1: the Sam stunt, received well over eighty percent of the vote,
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Speaker 1: so we've got to ask some questions about that.
1:19
Speaker 2: Now.
1:19
Speaker 1: Frash did not attend the Kind and that perhaps is
1:23
Speaker 1: hardly surprising because the entire exercise had really no credibility whatsoever,
1:29
Speaker 1: and that makes it even more strange that he felt
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Speaker 1: the need to justify his non attendance in some way.
1:36
Speaker 1: And how did you do that?
1:37
Speaker 2: Well?
1:37
Speaker 1: He will never let an opportunity go to waste, as
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Speaker 1: they say, because at a speech in to Reform Party
1:43
Speaker 1: members he said, I'm sad to say that, after thirty
1:47
Speaker 1: three years of being a candidate in active politics, I've
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Speaker 1: been advised tonight by Essex Police that there's an organized
1:54
Speaker 1: campaign to disrupt and degrade the result. That narrative was
1:58
Speaker 1: reinforced by Form Party spokesperson, who claimed the warning involved
2:03
Speaker 1: a credible threat that was also repeated by Richard Tice
2:08
Speaker 1: on various media appearances this morning. Essex Police aren't saying
2:13
Speaker 1: that at all. They said that no one had been
2:15
Speaker 1: advised to advice not to attend the Kind, and they
2:19
Speaker 1: said that they would have provided any protection that was
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Speaker 1: required in any case. But actually something else that Fresh
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Speaker 1: said at his speech to the Reform Party members gives
2:30
Speaker 1: a slightly different picture, because he went on to say,
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Speaker 1: I'm damned if I'm going to stand on a stage,
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Speaker 1: having won a resigning victory, a ringing endorsement of all
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Speaker 1: that I've tried to fight for and all You've tried
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Speaker 1: to fight for, referring to the Reform supporters there, and
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Speaker 1: be demeaned and humiliated by nobody's. This seems internally contradictory.
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Speaker 1: If the people there were nobody's, then how would he
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Speaker 1: be demeaned and ubiliated? But anyway, that was his position.
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Speaker 1: So was it the case that he had received some
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Speaker 1: kind of death threat or some kind of threat to
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Speaker 1: his person or was it that, in fact, he just
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Speaker 1: was embarrassed to be standing there amongst people that he
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Speaker 1: considered to be nobody's. So the question, then, basil, is
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Speaker 1: what has been achieved? I would suggest absolutely nothing. He's
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Speaker 1: going to join all the other children in the House
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Speaker 1: of Commons after the school holidays in September, and he's
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Speaker 1: going to face continued scrutiny over his financial affairs. The
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Speaker 1: problem is not going to go away, And in fact,
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Speaker 1: the parliamentary investigation has already restarted, and so his claims
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Speaker 1: of personal jeopardy aren't going to save him. But I mean,
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Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on the result? And in fact,
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Speaker 1: did you have any money on it?
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Speaker 2: Well? I saw lots of online content creators over the
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Speaker 2: last forty eight hours in the run up to the
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Speaker 2: vote itself, saying that support for Arge was cratering. Binface
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Speaker 2: actually stood a very good chance of winning the seats.
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Speaker 2: So I invested precisely thirty shillings of my hard earned
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Speaker 2: money at around forty five to one on bin Face
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Speaker 2: actually putting off the result. It was more a just
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Speaker 2: in case bet, because if you see something around forty
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Speaker 2: five to one, there's an old adage in hunting, you know,
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Speaker 2: never be afraid of having a few bob on something
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Speaker 2: at a big price. So I thought, you know, such
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Speaker 2: as people's distrust verging on dislike of the whole body
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Speaker 2: politic these days and farage now you know, in amongst
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Speaker 2: the characters that he himself had demean for so long,
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Speaker 2: facing effectively corruption charges in the in the House of Commons,
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Speaker 2: he's no longer the outsider. He's now very much an
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Speaker 2: insider when it comes to Westminster. He's not an insider
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Speaker 2: when it comes to Clacton anything. But in fact, bin
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Speaker 2: Face came up with a couple of rather clever and
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Speaker 2: novel ideas for his manifesto, saying that he promised to
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Speaker 2: spend more time in Clacton than in Washington, d C.
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Speaker 2: It's not something that Farage could boast, and that also
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Speaker 2: he promised not to take any bunks from crypto billionaires.
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Speaker 2: So with a sensible platform like that, based firmly on satire,
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Speaker 2: I thought bin Face stood a slightly better than forty
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Speaker 2: five to one chance of winning, hence my small wager.
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Speaker 2: As for Farage, well, he shot himself in the foot. Rather,
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Speaker 2: there are mumblings that his tenure as Leader of Reform
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Speaker 2: may be coming to an end. Has he lost his touch?
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Speaker 2: This wasn't so much as political theater in Clacton as
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Speaker 2: a black farce or Beard a rather amusing one to
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Speaker 2: entertain the residence of the Seaside resort at the height
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Speaker 2: of summer with all these differ different fringe candidates running around,
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Speaker 2: notably Lawrence Fox, who ran a semi serious campaign for
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Speaker 2: his Reclaim Party, pold no more than one percent of
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Speaker 2: the vote, so that isn't going anywhere. He should really
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Speaker 2: sign up with Binface, should Old Lozza?
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Speaker 1: Perhaps the question is just very very briefly, Buzzal, The
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Speaker 1: question is where would reform be with that Farage? And
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Speaker 1: I'm not sure that it could exist.
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Speaker 2: Well, they're down to third place in the latest national polls,
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Speaker 2: behind both Labor and the Conservatives. So the inevitability of
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Speaker 2: a reform government that people felt was the case only
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Speaker 2: a few weeks ago has been considerably diminished, both by
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Speaker 2: Farage's antics and of course the shot in the arm
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Speaker 2: that Labor have got from the anointment of Andy Burnham,
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Speaker 2: which brings us on very neatly to our next subject, Mike.
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Speaker 1: It does indeed, So let's just take us through what
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Speaker 1: you find out abide the funding of certain cabinet ministers.
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Speaker 2: Well, you know it's been no secret for months, years really,
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Speaker 2: I mean ever since the expenses scan. Extraordinary how quickly
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Speaker 2: that was. Memory hold that cabinet ministers are prone to
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Speaker 2: taking donations from all sorts of nefarious people, which in
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Speaker 2: some cases may conflict with their duties, leading us to
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Speaker 2: question whose interests exactly are they serving. First of all,
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Speaker 2: the newly anointed Health Minister, Yvette Cooper, who has received
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Speaker 2: more than half a million pounds from a chap called
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Speaker 2: Peter Fern. Five hundred thousand pounds she's taken. He has
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Speaker 2: ties to the NHS through ogp Ogborn Group, who are
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Speaker 2: one of these recruitment agencies that supply personnel to the
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Speaker 2: National Health Service, breaking off huge chunks of profit in
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Speaker 2: the process. We can see here a slide of some
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Speaker 2: of the donations to event Cooper, thousands of pounds from
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Speaker 2: various entities related to Peter Fern and also from the
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Speaker 2: discredited labor together. Yes, they've reared their head again. She's
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Speaker 2: declined to say evct Cooper whether she will take any
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Speaker 2: more donations from somebody intimately involved with the privatization of
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Speaker 2: the National Health Service. Indeed, the supply by private contractors
8:56
Speaker 2: of personnel often at hugely inflated rates, people being or
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Speaker 2: the NHS rather being charged three times the going rates
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Speaker 2: for cover staff, and then of that money, very sizeable
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Speaker 2: chunk goes to the recruitment agency. It's one of the
9:15
Speaker 2: you know, one of the very disappointing things about the
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Speaker 2: current state of the National Health Service that we don't
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Speaker 2: recruit more permanent staff and pay them accordingly. Rather than
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Speaker 2: relying on third parties. Incidentally, of course, Oldborne was particularly
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Speaker 2: involved with the appointment of Dido Harding to the track
9:36
Speaker 2: and trace fiasco. I'm sure you remember that. One might
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Speaker 2: Here we've got the former Health Secretary West Streeting, who's
9:44
Speaker 2: had his fingers in several pies as his evidence right
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Speaker 2: by his rather chubby cheeks. There, Trevor Chin, the famous
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Speaker 2: Israel supporter, labor donor amongst them. And now that Streeting
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Speaker 2: is at defense is of course our new Defense secretary.
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Speaker 2: One wonders who might be interested in greasing his palm
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Speaker 2: in that capacity. Now we move to somebody who stayed
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Speaker 2: in post under Andy Burnham. That's Sarah Sackman, who remains
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Speaker 2: the Minister for Courts now. She is one of the
10:26
Speaker 2: pro Israel lawyers along with David Lammy, who has since
10:31
Speaker 2: of course left the government involved in the bid to
10:35
Speaker 2: restrict jury trials in the UK. The bill of course,
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Speaker 2: passed its first reading back in March. It's now being
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Speaker 2: slow walked by Andy Burnham. But we've had no official
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Speaker 2: announcement yet that the huge reduction in jury trials is
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Speaker 2: going to come to an end. Zachman. They're saying that
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Speaker 2: she feels that structure changed. That's the code word for
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Speaker 2: getting rid of of huge numbers of jury trials. That's
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Speaker 2: the managerial speak point structural change is needed. Well, fortunately
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Speaker 2: that hasn't happened yet. A little bit more about Sarah Sackman,
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Speaker 2: because she was of course a clerk to the Supreme
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Speaker 2: Court of Israel, not of the United Kingdom. There she
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Speaker 2: is at the Ministry of Justice, and she's been a
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Speaker 2: firm Israel supporter since before her ministerial career. She signed
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Speaker 2: up to a letter from Labor Friends of Israel saying
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Speaker 2: that the should be a continuation of arm sales to Israel,
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Speaker 2: and also saying, of course that Kirstarma had got it
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Speaker 2: broadly right on Gaza. Burnham of course, seeking at least
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Speaker 2: in tone. We've yet to see anything substantial, seeking to
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Speaker 2: perhaps distance himself from the previous administrations avowedly pro genocide stance,
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Speaker 2: although of course they haven't admitted it would be a
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Speaker 2: genocide because then they would be required under international law
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Speaker 2: to do something. Here is Sackman again. She seems to
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Speaker 2: be all in favor of continuing armed sails to Israel,
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Speaker 2: even at the height of the genocide. Things Israel has
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Speaker 2: done nothing wrong at all and signed up to a
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Speaker 2: letter to that extent. There she is during her brief
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Speaker 2: previous appointment, alongside the then Lord Chancellor now Home Secretary
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Speaker 2: Shaban and Mahmood and a third person in one of
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Speaker 2: those funny weeks. Sachman herself has received one hundred large
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Speaker 2: donations from Israel supporters, including just twelve days after Andy
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Speaker 2: Burnham was anointed. And she's got no she's no problem,
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Speaker 2: no contradiction in that and her role as Minister of
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Speaker 2: Courts and Justice. But one thing she does have a
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Speaker 2: strong opinion about is the flying of the Union Jack,
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Speaker 2: not the Cross of Saint George, but the Union Jack.
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Speaker 2: And she's called for Barnet Council to remove Union jack's,
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Speaker 2: saying they are divisive and othering and make people feel uncomfortable.
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Speaker 2: And it isn't often, Mike that you will find me
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Speaker 2: agreeing with Stephen Pollard writing in the Spectator. But as
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Speaker 2: he points out here, what does this Labour MP have
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Speaker 2: against the Union Jack? Zachman writing in the local paper
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Speaker 2: that the site of the Union Jack makes some people
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Speaker 2: feel unwelcome. I've just returned from France, as you know,
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Speaker 2: where the trick law the French flag is resplendent on
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Speaker 2: every government building and in all sorts of places, both
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Speaker 2: official and unofficial. It is extraordinary the way our national
14:14
Speaker 2: flags across of Saint George, of course being particularly contentious,
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Speaker 2: but also here the Union jack seems to be offensive
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Speaker 2: to some people. But then again we have to ask
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Speaker 2: ourselves where their loyalties.
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Speaker 1: Lie, like well, precisely, buzzl. I'm sure we'll talk a
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Speaker 1: little bit more about that in extra and I let's
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Speaker 1: move on because following on from our recent coverage of
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Speaker 1: David Miller's win against Bristol University, it seems like a
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Speaker 1: good time to report that Bristol University has decided to
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Speaker 1: join the University Defense Alliance. Now this announced was actually
14:52
Speaker 1: made in July, but it seems to be hitting the
14:54
Speaker 1: headlines this week. I will come on to what the
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Speaker 1: Defense University Alliance is in a second, but just wanted
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Speaker 1: to begin by highlighting this quote from the university's article,
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Speaker 1: which is entitled Relationships with Organizations Operating in the Defense Sector,
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Speaker 1: where they state our university Constitution states that our academics
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Speaker 1: shall have freedom within the law to question and test
15:17
Speaker 1: received with them, to put forward new ideas and controversial
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Speaker 1: or unpopular opinions without placing themselves in jeopardy of losing
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Speaker 1: their jobs or privileges. Now, I think that's fascinating, bearing
15:29
Speaker 1: in mind their treatment of David Miller. But the question
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Speaker 1: then is what is the university's defense alliance. Well, let's
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Speaker 1: bring them on screen these roles, the university representatives meeting
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Speaker 1: the Armed Forces Minister at the time. But this is
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Speaker 1: a defense led network binding thirty five UK universities in
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Speaker 1: a formal partnership with the Ministry of Defense the UK
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Speaker 1: Armed Forces. The Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor for
15:56
Speaker 1: National Security and the Wider Defense Secretary was launched on
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Speaker 1: the thirteenth of July this year by the Luke Pollard MP,
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Speaker 1: Minister for Defense Readiness and Industry at the University of
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Speaker 1: at So. He launched at the University of Manchester. Its
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Speaker 1: stated objectives are advancing defense related research, promoting defense skills
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Speaker 1: and careers, and fostering partnerships between government's academia and industry
16:26
Speaker 1: and so. It's a fundamental part of the reorientation of
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Speaker 1: the entire British economy towards becoming a war economy. The
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Speaker 1: process began in June twenty twenty four before the general election,
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Speaker 1: with the policy paper prepared for the then Shadow Chancellor
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Speaker 1: Rachael Reeves and the Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey, and
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Speaker 1: they proposed an alliance of defense focused universities to coordinate
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Speaker 1: academic research games. If we just put that back on
16:52
Speaker 1: screen again, because that paper was absolutely drawing parallels with
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Speaker 1: China's Seven Sons of National Defense. Are the seven institutions
17:01
Speaker 1: mostly closely tied to the People's Liberation Army, so they
17:06
Speaker 1: were using that as a model. The twenty twenty five
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Speaker 1: Strategic Defense Review recommended that the Ministry Defense forge anchored
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Speaker 1: partnerships with a small set of trusted universities, and then
17:17
Speaker 1: September twenty twenty five's Defense Industrial Strategy confirmed that they
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Speaker 1: would go ahead with the DUA, the Defense University Alliance,
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Speaker 1: and that that would be created and redefined the UK's
17:31
Speaker 1: defense industrial base to include academic institutions. So the Ministry
17:36
Speaker 1: Defense published the DUA Charter on the thirteenth of April
17:42
Speaker 1: this year and opened applications for up to twenty founding members.
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Speaker 1: In fact, around one hundred universities applied and thirty five
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Speaker 1: were admitted, and that is significantly larger number that was
17:54
Speaker 1: originally planned. So the founding members include Oxford University College London,
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Speaker 1: King's College, London, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle, Durham, Warwick, Bath, Exeter, York, Lancaster, Cardiff, Swansea, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde,
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Speaker 1: Queen's University Belfast, Cranfield, Loughborough, Lincoln, Aston, Surrey, Portsmouth, Plymouth,
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Speaker 1: Queen Mary, Kingston, Northumbria, Huddersfield, Cumbria and University of Lancaster.
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Speaker 1: And now, as we've mentioned Bristol. Nineteen of the twenty
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Speaker 1: four Russell Group institutions are part of that. Of course,
18:28
Speaker 1: at Cambridge, Imperial and London School of Economics did not join.
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Speaker 1: At the stage. A selection was run by the Ministry
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Speaker 1: Defense Arsennel with assessment support from other government departments, and
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Speaker 1: the final decisions were taken by a panel which was
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Speaker 1: co chaired by the Ministry of Defense Chief Scientific Advisor,
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Speaker 1: Professor Tim Dapham and the Department's Director of Growth and Missions.
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Speaker 1: So government's governance lies with the Ministry Defense Steering Committee
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Speaker 1: of senior representatives from members institutions on which University's UK
19:05
Speaker 1: is also going to attend to represent non members or
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Speaker 1: perhaps future members, and then the remaining governance is going
19:14
Speaker 1: to be co designed with the original finders. And also
19:20
Speaker 1: they have also announced the applications are going to reopen
19:23
Speaker 1: in the second year from its funding, so in two
19:26
Speaker 1: years time, eligibility was restricted. They said to institutions holding
19:31
Speaker 1: a university title, so they had to be universities and
19:34
Speaker 1: not poly techs or other kind of institutions, and they
19:38
Speaker 1: had to meet the National Protective Security Agencies Research security baseline.
19:43
Speaker 1: And they also had to be signatories of the Armed
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Speaker 1: Forces Covenant and evidence attract record of defense research and
19:50
Speaker 1: development skills or careers or the training of defense personnel.
19:56
Speaker 1: So the Administrati Defense reserved the right to reach act
20:01
Speaker 1: or rescind membership where they see fit, and signatories commit
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Speaker 1: to growing defense and national security research capabilities and promoting
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Speaker 1: defense careers. So this is quite an incredible institution that's
20:15
Speaker 1: been set up. But just coming back to Bristol University's
20:18
Speaker 1: relationship with the Defense page here it states where we
20:24
Speaker 1: do have relationships with organizations operating in the defense sector.
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Speaker 1: Our work is either related to their civil sectors or
20:33
Speaker 1: some of their socially beneficial purpose. They say that with
20:38
Speaker 1: any tongue in cheek, I'm sure. For example, they say
20:41
Speaker 1: work to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
20:45
Speaker 1: Really we do not facilitate, they said, the sale or
20:48
Speaker 1: manufacture of conventional weapons and armaments to military regimes. And
20:53
Speaker 1: perhaps they're trying to push back on the possibility of
20:58
Speaker 1: any kind of direct action there. But if we bring
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Speaker 1: that back, they went on to say, however, we recognize
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Speaker 1: that certain research areas have the potential for dual use
21:07
Speaker 1: in defense applications, for example, digital technology domains such as
21:10
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. But as we've been covering over
21:14
Speaker 1: the last several years, dual use is by no means
21:18
Speaker 1: restricted to that and applies for example to a mobile
21:22
Speaker 1: phone technology and so on. Now we've been tracking and
21:27
Speaker 1: reporting on the re orientation of the British government onto
21:30
Speaker 1: a war footing pretty much since the end of the
21:32
Speaker 1: COVID era. So I can't tell you how much money
21:35
Speaker 1: this will mean for the universities at the end of
21:37
Speaker 1: the day, because the Ministry of Defense, while they know
21:40
Speaker 1: that they are not telling anybody, this appears to be
21:44
Speaker 1: going to be run through UK research and innovation. They
21:48
Speaker 1: seem to be likely to be the main channel of
21:50
Speaker 1: funding and it looks like and looking at their priorities
21:54
Speaker 1: in the face of it, defense is pretty low down
21:56
Speaker 1: the list. But dual use, I think is the key
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Speaker 1: consideration here and has to say this is only what
22:03
Speaker 1: we can see at the moment, because there are further
22:05
Speaker 1: announcements on this to come. Basil, what are your thoughts
22:09
Speaker 1: on this because everywhere we look now we just see
22:11
Speaker 1: the continuing integration of non governmental organizations into government with
22:17
Speaker 1: these types of deals.
22:22
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think anybody voted for this, did they might?
22:24
Speaker 2: Was this in the Labor Party manifesto at the last election?
22:28
Speaker 2: I don't think so. Personally, I find it very troubling.
22:34
Speaker 2: An agenda here is being driven forward that doesn't really
22:38
Speaker 2: have public consent and we have to ask ourselves why
22:43
Speaker 2: who's going to benefit from this? Obviously perhaps you know
22:47
Speaker 2: your Lockheed Martins of this world, but certainly not the
22:51
Speaker 2: British people. The universities have been really squeezed for funding
22:55
Speaker 2: and this kind of thing is an attempt to try
22:58
Speaker 2: and divert resort is into areas that most students have
23:02
Speaker 2: no interest in, and indeed most academics have no interest in,
23:05
Speaker 2: and that there are no direct benefit to the British
23:07
Speaker 2: people and are driven by this dark agenda that we've
23:11
Speaker 2: been reporting on for years, this warmongering, hidden agenda that
23:16
Speaker 2: comes from shadowy figures behind the elected officials, who as
23:23
Speaker 2: yes men and puppets, seem only too happy to go
23:26
Speaker 2: along with it.
23:28
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, I think we'll talk about a little bit
23:30
Speaker 1: about data and extra as well, because I have to
23:32
Speaker 1: say I'm deeply skeptical about this whole university funding thing
23:36
Speaker 1: because once again we've had A level results published in
23:40
Speaker 1: the last day or so and more eighteen year olds
23:44
Speaker 1: going to university than ever. So it doesn't seem like
23:47
Speaker 1: the universities are short of the candidates and the nine
23:52
Speaker 1: thousand pounds a year phase that they get from those candidates,
23:57
Speaker 1: and those numbers are just rising year on years. So
24:00
Speaker 1: maybe we'll talk about that.
24:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got to keep the numbers up, so you know,
24:04
Speaker 2: people are asking themselves whether or not they're dishing out
24:07
Speaker 2: all these high grade A levels so that they can
24:10
Speaker 2: fill all the places, particularly with the shortfalling foreign students.
24:13
Speaker 2: You know, let's get everybody in and fill the coffers.
24:16
Speaker 1: And then we'll be all right, Yes, Okay, well, we'll
24:19
Speaker 1: talk more about that an extra. Okay, let's move on then.
24:21
Speaker 1: If you like what the UK Column does, head over
24:24
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24:57
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25:01
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Speaker 1: like to go and have a look at that as well.
25:17
Speaker 1: Now tonight at seven pm, jerrem is suggesting John Stockwell
25:24
Speaker 1: was an important CIA whistleblower. That's seven to join them
25:28
Speaker 1: for that and at nine pm America's Asian allies prepare
25:32
Speaker 1: for a US retreat. That Karl is speaking to Warwick
25:36
Speaker 1: Paul once again on that on Sunday at seven pm,
25:39
Speaker 1: A thousand Words is with Matt Pain. That's part three.
25:42
Speaker 1: So that's for members only, so join us for that
25:46
Speaker 1: as well. Now let's move on to the issue of
25:50
Speaker 1: AI because the European Union's AI Act came into force
25:54
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this month, and among the provisions
25:58
Speaker 1: is Article fifty, which states that providers of AI systems,
26:02
Speaker 1: including general purpose AI systems gathering synthetic audio, image, video
26:08
Speaker 1: or text content, shall ensure that the outputs of the
26:11
Speaker 1: AI system are marked in a machine readable format and
26:15
Speaker 1: detectable is artificially generated or manipulated. So, in theory, what
26:20
Speaker 1: this legislation does is it will allow anybody to discover
26:23
Speaker 1: whether a piece of text, whether that's your homework for
26:26
Speaker 1: your school or your university, or whether it's an article
26:29
Speaker 1: on a news website, or whether some video or audio
26:34
Speaker 1: or imagery is AI generated or NOTAI companies already beginning
26:40
Speaker 1: to implement this because the penalties for non compliance are
26:43
Speaker 1: up to fifteen million euros or three percent of worldwide
26:47
Speaker 1: annual turnover. And so to take an example, Anthropic, who
26:51
Speaker 1: owns the claud Ai system has updated their page on
26:55
Speaker 1: how claud marks AI generated content and they did that
26:59
Speaker 1: at the beigin of the week to reflect the new requirements.
27:03
Speaker 1: They say that all content produced by Claude will carry
27:06
Speaker 1: a water mark, but they're posting mainly focuses on text content.
27:10
Speaker 1: They say that text generated by its Claude AI models
27:14
Speaker 1: will carry an invisible, machine readable water mark, and that
27:17
Speaker 1: the marketing will apply globally rather than only within the
27:20
Speaker 1: European Union, and they describe two main techniques for this.
27:24
Speaker 1: For text, they're saying that a supported claud model weaves
27:30
Speaker 1: an imperceptible watermark directly into the text itself, applied at
27:35
Speaker 1: the model level, so that its present regardless of which
27:39
Speaker 1: product delivers the output. And they say that because the
27:42
Speaker 1: mark forms part of the text, it survives copying and pasting,
27:46
Speaker 1: and they claim that it will persist through some editing.
27:50
Speaker 1: And then for files, whether that images or video or
27:52
Speaker 1: so on, they are attaching digitally signed provenance metadata to
27:57
Speaker 1: support formats including spgg, jpeg and so on. So that's
28:03
Speaker 1: what they're saying now. The UK has no equivalent requirement.
28:07
Speaker 1: And House of Commons Briefing House of Commons Library Briefing Sorry,
28:11
Speaker 1: published on the twentieth of January this year, was taking
28:15
Speaker 1: a look at the standardized labeling of AI content included
28:18
Speaker 1: by news organizations and the technical limitations and problems that
28:24
Speaker 1: arise from it. But no UK legislation is planned that
28:27
Speaker 1: I'm aware of which we require AI content to be
28:30
Speaker 1: labeled at this stage. But at least as far as
28:34
Speaker 1: Anthropic is concerned, anybody using Claude in the UK is
28:38
Speaker 1: going to be covered because, as I say, they have
28:40
Speaker 1: chosen to apply water marking everywhere that Claude is available.
28:44
Speaker 1: Ananthropic is explicit about the limits of what a watermark shows.
28:49
Speaker 1: It's indicating only that sort of content may have been processed.
28:54
Speaker 1: Sorry that it only indicates that content may may have
28:58
Speaker 1: been processed by Claude, not that load roaded. And they
29:02
Speaker 1: say that content which is being submitted for proofreading, translation
29:06
Speaker 1: or summary may have the same water mark as content
29:09
Speaker 1: written by scratch by Claude, And so you know, we
29:14
Speaker 1: probably should point out that the absence of a water
29:17
Speaker 1: mark as well actually proves nothing about whether something was
29:22
Speaker 1: written by a human or by AI. And the final
29:25
Speaker 1: part of this, which is still to be revealed, is
29:27
Speaker 1: how is the detection itself actually going to happen, because
29:30
Speaker 1: of course the IAI companies aren't going to be able
29:33
Speaker 1: to publish details of the watermark specification because quick as
29:37
Speaker 1: a flash, someone would use AI to make some software
29:41
Speaker 1: that would get rid of it. So we have to
29:43
Speaker 1: assume that AI company is going to make web pages
29:46
Speaker 1: or some kind of API available at some point, but
29:49
Speaker 1: so far no detection tool is available. So I don't
29:52
Speaker 1: know what your thoughts are in this basil, but it
29:54
Speaker 1: seems to me that on one hand we should perhaps
29:58
Speaker 1: be appreciative of the fact there's no requirement for AI
30:02
Speaker 1: content to be identifiable in this way, but on the
30:05
Speaker 1: other hand, with no detection tools available at this stage,
30:11
Speaker 1: it actually means nothing.
30:12
Speaker 2: At this point, well, there AREI detection tools for most scripts.
30:19
Speaker 2: And it turns out professor former Professor Jason Arday of
30:25
Speaker 2: Jesus College, Chambridge wrote his resignation letter last week with
30:30
Speaker 2: the help of AI. It's becoming increasingly prevalent across all
30:37
Speaker 2: sorts of business writing, you know, where people have got
30:41
Speaker 2: to produce sort of fairly generic screeds for things, AI
30:45
Speaker 2: is increasingly used and just a few words changed around.
30:49
Speaker 2: But as you say, even if there is a hidden watermark,
30:52
Speaker 2: somebody will come up with an AI in the near
30:54
Speaker 2: future that gets rid of it. So it's becoming increasingly
31:00
Speaker 2: emmeshed in every aspect of our reality, you know, whether
31:05
Speaker 2: it's whether you're watching videos, listening to music. We had
31:10
Speaker 2: the few worry over Boy George's abysmal AI record a
31:15
Speaker 2: week or two ago on Indeed, the clawed AI watermark.
31:21
Speaker 2: They're getting fused with our reality like that, and it's
31:25
Speaker 2: very hard to see how the two can be pulled apart.
31:28
Speaker 1: Indeed, okay, well, look, Basil, let's move on then to
31:34
Speaker 1: the USS Ibraham Lincoln. If we go back to the
31:38
Speaker 1: beginning of the Iran conflict, even at that stage, there
31:42
Speaker 1: was discussion that the US aircraft carriers has been to
31:46
Speaker 1: see for extended, I mean well past their mission normal
31:51
Speaker 1: mission length, and that things were getting pretty grim. And
31:55
Speaker 1: if we remember back to that time, we were starting
31:57
Speaker 1: to see sabotage, and yeah, aircraft carriers having to go
32:03
Speaker 1: back for refit and so on in order to try
32:06
Speaker 1: to fix this sabotage. The situation doesn't seem to be
32:09
Speaker 1: getting any better.
32:12
Speaker 2: No, that's right. These are nuclear powered aircraft carriers. They
32:17
Speaker 2: have their own small nuclear reactor on board because they're
32:21
Speaker 2: far too big to be propelled through the water by
32:26
Speaker 2: any conventional means. Some of the biggest floating objects mankind
32:30
Speaker 2: has ever made, with crews of in excess of five
32:35
Speaker 2: thousand and as you say, they've been at sea for
32:38
Speaker 2: a long time, the USS Abraham Lincoln and Nimits class
32:42
Speaker 2: aircraft carrier has been at sea for about eight months,
32:47
Speaker 2: only briefly taking to port in Oman in July. Over
32:53
Speaker 2: the last six months now, this places enormous stresses upon
32:57
Speaker 2: the crew obviously very confined circumstances. I mean they spend
33:02
Speaker 2: the vast majority of their times below deck, and it
33:05
Speaker 2: is indeed below deck that Iranian media claim there was
33:11
Speaker 2: a deadly incident. Iranian media has claimed that seven seamen
33:15
Speaker 2: died in a brawl, and of course US Central Command
33:20
Speaker 2: has denied this. Iran continues to spread lies and false information.
33:25
Speaker 2: A Central Command spokesperson said, I've got Snopes up for this,
33:30
Speaker 2: the fact checking website, and they say seven US Navy
33:35
Speaker 2: personnel have reportedly been killed and several others wounded in
33:38
Speaker 2: a violent clash aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as growing
33:42
Speaker 2: unrest among the carrier's crew has exposed mounting pressure inside
33:45
Speaker 2: the US military amid a prolonged deployment. Remember, the whole
33:49
Speaker 2: war was supposed to be over quick as a flash,
33:52
Speaker 2: a quick win and the decapitation of the Iranian regime.
33:56
Speaker 2: That was the plan that was sold to Donald Trump,
34:00
Speaker 2: if you remember. Now. Apparently this incident occurred after an
34:03
Speaker 2: advisor to US Central Command, Sentcom Bradley Cooper, boarded the
34:08
Speaker 2: carrier to address the mounting complaints from crew members following
34:13
Speaker 2: protests by their families over the prolonged deployment. Deployment. This
34:17
Speaker 2: according to the Tasnim News Agency, which cited an unnamed
34:24
Speaker 2: but informed military source. Now, although the Mayor News Agency,
34:29
Speaker 2: that's another Iranian news agians he cited the Tasnim news agency.
34:36
Speaker 2: A search of Tasnim itself returned no relevant results on
34:40
Speaker 2: Google or the Taznim news agency website either in English
34:45
Speaker 2: or Persian. And you can see on outside their picture
34:48
Speaker 2: of the messpor on the USS Abraham Lincoln in happier days.
34:54
Speaker 2: According to the Mayor News Agency story, crew members allegedly
34:58
Speaker 2: booed and through water bottles at Chief Cooper, which escalated
35:03
Speaker 2: into a fight among crew members involving knives and other
35:07
Speaker 2: bladed weapons, leaving seven personnel dead and several others wounded,
35:12
Speaker 2: according to the source. Now, I should stress that legacy
35:17
Speaker 2: media corporate media on both sides of the Atlantic, has
35:20
Speaker 2: largely ignored this story, perhaps wisely, but one or two
35:26
Speaker 2: content creators online on YouTube based on the other side
35:31
Speaker 2: of the Atlantic in the United States, people particularly critical
35:35
Speaker 2: of the current regime, have taken it up. The claim
35:39
Speaker 2: is that it would be impossible to hide an incident
35:41
Speaker 2: like this, it's so major. But on the other hand,
35:46
Speaker 2: we do know that other incidents aboard the USS Abraham
35:50
Speaker 2: Lincoln have only been reported to staff to family members. Consequently,
35:57
Speaker 2: we know there is grave concern over the conditions on
36:01
Speaker 2: the USS Abraham Lincoln. Ms NOW formerly MSNBC reporting the
36:07
Speaker 2: boat is finally getting to me. That's the wife of
36:11
Speaker 2: a sailor who jumped overboard, he told ms NOW. She
36:16
Speaker 2: told ms NOW her husband had expressed his mental health
36:20
Speaker 2: concerns to leadership during his long deployment on the aircraft
36:22
Speaker 2: carrier in the Lauren War, but was brushed off and
36:28
Speaker 2: of course, the Secretary of War, Abraham Pete headsth has
36:33
Speaker 2: dismissed claims of a mental health crisis, even though we
36:37
Speaker 2: know another sailor was prevented from jumping overboard by one
36:41
Speaker 2: of his crewmates. There are reports that the rations are
36:46
Speaker 2: down to half a cup of rice and a couple
36:49
Speaker 2: of tacos. The plumbing doesn't work, and this has prompted
36:53
Speaker 2: a couple of senators Democrats. Unsurprisingly, Richard Blumenthal has written
37:00
Speaker 2: to the Navy Chief and Defense Secretary on Wednesday expressing
37:04
Speaker 2: concerns citing widespread reports of basic suppliers of support shortages,
37:10
Speaker 2: water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns,
37:15
Speaker 2: and disruption in the mail, prompting Senator Reuben Galiago on
37:20
Speaker 2: the left there to post this week he's requested the
37:24
Speaker 2: Navy allow a bipartisan group of senators to visit the
37:28
Speaker 2: Lincoln to investigate the conditions on board. The ship is
37:33
Speaker 2: now due to be relieved of its duties by the USS.
37:36
Speaker 2: George Washington, I believe, And finally, while we're on this subject,
37:43
Speaker 2: what we do know about current American plans is that
37:48
Speaker 2: economic tactics that have never been seen in terms of
37:52
Speaker 2: their severity, are now going to be inflicted on the
37:57
Speaker 2: people of Iran, the United States refusing to accept a
38:02
Speaker 2: military defeat and opting to style the people of Iran
38:06
Speaker 2: into submission instead. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying the US
38:12
Speaker 2: will be applying economic measures that have never been seen
38:15
Speaker 2: before on Iran, a combination of economic isolation like the
38:20
Speaker 2: world has never seen and the continued blockade in the
38:23
Speaker 2: Strait of Hormos that will keep anything from going in
38:27
Speaker 2: or out of the Iranian ports, he said in an
38:30
Speaker 2: interview with Newsmax. I thought the whole idea was to
38:35
Speaker 2: get the straits of Hornbus open like they were before
38:40
Speaker 2: this completely unnecessary and illegal war. But now it seems
38:44
Speaker 2: the US would rather close them than admit defeat.
38:47
Speaker 1: Mike, highly surprising. We'll talk more about that an extra,
38:51
Speaker 1: But sticking with international defense news, let's bring US Air
38:56
Speaker 1: Force General Greenovic on screenuse He serves as both the
39:01
Speaker 1: Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and the senior US general
39:04
Speaker 1: in Europe, and a few days ago he was in
39:07
Speaker 1: Dublin at the US embassy there, demanding that there should
39:11
Speaker 1: be a conversation about the future of Irish neutrality and
39:15
Speaker 1: its usefulness in a changing world. As he described it,
39:19
Speaker 1: he pushed the usual NATO propaganda around claim threats facing Europe,
39:24
Speaker 1: including from drones and shadow fleet vessels, and then following that,
39:28
Speaker 1: he gave an interview to The Irish Times and he
39:30
Speaker 1: said that Ireland quote has every right to make sovereign
39:34
Speaker 1: decisions about how they want to invest and take care
39:37
Speaker 1: of things. But he said, what are the benefits of
39:39
Speaker 1: this neutrality and is it fit for purpose for the
39:43
Speaker 1: world we're entering into or not. Ultimately that's an Irish
39:46
Speaker 1: decision and not something I would weigh in on, although
39:50
Speaker 1: he did, but I do think he said that it's
39:53
Speaker 1: important conversation to be had among the Irish people. Last month,
39:57
Speaker 1: the US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whittaker, claimed that Ireland
40:02
Speaker 1: enjoys all the benefits of membership of the NATO Alliance
40:06
Speaker 1: while while incurring none of the down sides. But a luckily,
40:10
Speaker 1: question of Irish neutrality has been rumbling on for well
40:13
Speaker 1: over a decade now, but the rhetoric trying to persuade
40:16
Speaker 1: people that Ireland should abandon it is clearly wrapping up.
40:21
Speaker 1: Last week, academics from the International Security Program at Dublin
40:25
Speaker 1: City University. We're complaining that Ireland is decades behind the
40:28
Speaker 1: rest of the EU and intelligence gathering and in contributing
40:31
Speaker 1: to EU security, and of course they're talking about money there.
40:35
Speaker 1: The fact is though that you know, in fact, Ireland
40:38
Speaker 1: abandoned his neutrality as soon as it decided to participate
40:41
Speaker 1: in ESCO, which is one of the pillars of European
40:44
Speaker 1: Defense Union. And they're also members of the European Defense
40:48
Speaker 1: Agency and also took part in U Battlegroup exercise and
40:52
Speaker 1: so on. So you know, the idea of Irish neutrality
40:57
Speaker 1: now is something I think that is long since gone.
41:00
Speaker 1: But nonetheless there's a determination to try to formalize the
41:04
Speaker 1: situation because of course, with a formal recognition that Irish
41:09
Speaker 1: neutrality is no longer a thing, comes the expected money
41:14
Speaker 1: from the Irish treasury basil back to you then and
41:20
Speaker 1: bring us up to did with Israel and the border peace.
41:26
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mike. In a moment are we joined by
41:28
Speaker 2: Professor Salton Barracat, a very distinguished academic and a negotiator
41:34
Speaker 2: between the United States and Taliban in the lead up
41:39
Speaker 2: to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and first of all,
41:44
Speaker 2: what on earth is happening in Gaza. It seems the
41:49
Speaker 2: United States is concerned that Trump no longer has any
41:53
Speaker 2: leverage over Benjamin Nett in Yahoo, the Israeli Prime Minister,
41:58
Speaker 2: and the much voluntary Board of Peace of which Trump
42:02
Speaker 2: is the self declared president, appears absolutely toothless in the
42:07
Speaker 2: face of Israeli in transigence. Hamas has offered to disarm.
42:13
Speaker 2: The killings continue on an almost daily basis, the air
42:18
Speaker 2: strikes long since past the time when any hostages were
42:23
Speaker 2: still in Gaza, and indeed months after the so called ceasefire.
42:29
Speaker 2: So with this particularly Gordian knot to unravel, I'm delighted
42:33
Speaker 2: to say I'm joined by Professor Sultan Barracat. Welcome to
42:37
Speaker 2: the program, Sultan.
42:40
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
42:41
Speaker 4: It's a pleasure to join you.
42:45
Speaker 2: Donald Trump claims to still be the senior member of
42:52
Speaker 2: the US Israel Alliance, but his total inability it seems
42:58
Speaker 2: to leave Natagna who and the Israeli regime into accepting
43:06
Speaker 2: the Board of Peace proposals for a gradual Israeli withdrawal
43:10
Speaker 2: from the Belieker Guards. A strip would seem to indicate
43:16
Speaker 2: that he's completely powerless, and this represents a sort of
43:21
Speaker 2: final victory for Israel over the United States.
43:29
Speaker 4: Well, is not quite powerless. He is choosing not to
43:33
Speaker 4: exercise his power think at this stage because of the
43:37
Speaker 4: midterm elections and the way they're fast approaching, and the
43:40
Speaker 4: challenges and the mix up in politics within the United States,
43:44
Speaker 4: and that all he understands very well that Israel plays
43:48
Speaker 4: in influencing the decision in midterm elections in the United States.
43:55
Speaker 3: He could as in and.
43:58
Speaker 4: If you recall a few weeks ago, violence had publicly
44:07
Speaker 4: of the rural States and dependent Israel.
44:13
Speaker 3: It's on the United States. He said, basically, a third
44:17
Speaker 3: of your weapons were.
44:18
Speaker 4: Coming from US to stax pirate is being paid for.
44:22
Speaker 4: You must listen to us. And they did listen to
44:25
Speaker 4: the United States in the context of the war on
44:28
Speaker 4: Lebanon in order to allow Trump a semi exit at
44:34
Speaker 4: the time from his confrontation with Iran. So I think
44:38
Speaker 4: every United States and Trump wishes to force the Israelis
44:42
Speaker 4: to situation in Gaza, then well within his ability to
44:46
Speaker 4: do so. The challenge, I think is that he doesn't
44:49
Speaker 4: think that the price paid by the gathers and the
44:52
Speaker 4: Palestinians is high enough or worth him risking anymore his
44:58
Speaker 4: very delicate relationship with Isra. And that's why I think,
45:01
Speaker 4: and now he has not spoken publicly about the way
45:06
Speaker 4: he was not by the Israeli Prime Minister over the proposals,
45:12
Speaker 4: and he's trying to find a solution. Added to that,
45:17
Speaker 4: of course, he understands very well that the rest of
45:20
Speaker 4: the world, including the Arab states who are now standing
45:23
Speaker 4: by the palaces, are to a soft bond, and they
45:28
Speaker 4: will probably come up with more compromises to try and
45:32
Speaker 4: meet the Israeli demands. Israel understands very well that the
45:37
Speaker 4: initial agreement called for to contain, to withdraw, to go
45:42
Speaker 4: alongside the disarming of Hamas, and I think it's unacceptable
45:48
Speaker 4: at the moment the changing position.
45:51
Speaker 3: But they're banking on the fact that everybody wants.
45:54
Speaker 4: To please Trump and Trump is not causing his full
45:59
Speaker 4: power again Natanyahu.
46:01
Speaker 3: Then the compromise will come from the other.
46:03
Speaker 4: Side, which is potentially possible. However, the difficulties you never
46:11
Speaker 4: know what is the ultimate security, what does it mean
46:16
Speaker 4: to Israel? You know, when they say total disarmamental US,
46:21
Speaker 4: it's very difficult because they don't say specifically, what does
46:25
Speaker 4: that involve the initial discussions when.
46:28
Speaker 3: The Board of Peace was created, where.
46:31
Speaker 4: About Hamas giving up its heavy weapons and in particular
46:37
Speaker 4: the projectile or its ability to throw missiles against Israel. Now,
46:43
Speaker 4: when you listen to NATA, Yahoo is referring to all
46:47
Speaker 4: kinds of even light weapons that can threaten Israeli soldiers
46:52
Speaker 4: when they choose to go into Gather. So not knowing
46:56
Speaker 4: exactly what they're referring to, mixed very difficult seems to
47:02
Speaker 4: meet those terms. And it reminds me of it of
47:06
Speaker 4: the discussion around the borders of Israel. You know, they
47:08
Speaker 4: never define the boundaries or the borders of Israel, but
47:11
Speaker 4: they ask everyone to respect the right of Israel to
47:13
Speaker 4: exist and the right of Israel to defend itself and
47:16
Speaker 4: its borders without where the borders are.
47:19
Speaker 3: So the situation is very very difficult.
47:23
Speaker 4: And just to conclude, I think if they NA Says
47:25
Speaker 4: wanted to do something about that, they could, and.
47:28
Speaker 3: I hope they will because the suffering.
47:31
Speaker 4: At the moment is unbearable in the Gaza strip and
47:36
Speaker 4: they're just going through a very harsh summer as everybody
47:40
Speaker 4: else is now suffering in Europe, very hot at the
47:44
Speaker 4: moment and likely to be followed by a very harsh winter,
47:48
Speaker 4: and very very little has changed in terms of people's
47:53
Speaker 4: ability to live on the ground and to enjoy.
48:01
Speaker 2: Of security. Indeed, and Israel Katz, the Israeli Defense Minister,
48:08
Speaker 2: has said only this week that Israel has no intention
48:12
Speaker 2: of withdrawing from southern Lebanon or Gaza, and members of
48:19
Speaker 2: the cabinet indeed are calling for the colonization of parts
48:24
Speaker 2: of the Gaza strip and the building of settlements there.
48:29
Speaker 2: So we've got, you know, the most militantly aggressive Israeli
48:36
Speaker 2: government in power, sort of refusing to respect any of
48:41
Speaker 2: the accepted international norms that the world has been governed by.
48:50
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
48:50
Speaker 4: And we should also remember one of the reasons why
48:55
Speaker 4: at the time Hamas launched its attack on the seventh October,
49:00
Speaker 4: was the way the Israeli government, this current government has
49:05
Speaker 4: pressed ahead normalizing relationship between the City of Israel and
49:08
Speaker 4: the settlements, the illegal settlements in the West Bank. In
49:12
Speaker 4: other words, the way they have progressed the indirect annexation
49:17
Speaker 4: of the settlements. And as you know, the annexation of
49:21
Speaker 4: the settlements in the West Bank has been an issue
49:23
Speaker 4: on the table for a number of years.
49:27
Speaker 3: The Abrahamic Cores.
49:28
Speaker 4: That were signed between the United Daram Emirates and Israel
49:31
Speaker 4: were done so on the basis that Israel will seize
49:34
Speaker 4: the wish to annex the West Bank.
49:38
Speaker 3: But they didn't. They didn't.
49:39
Speaker 4: They went around it in a different route and they
49:43
Speaker 4: started to normalize the relationship between the civil administration in
49:48
Speaker 4: so called proper Israel and the West Bank settlements. And
49:52
Speaker 4: this was quoted by some of Hamas leaders as one
49:58
Speaker 4: of the reasons why they felt must take an action
50:01
Speaker 4: at the time. Now that agenda has never been put
50:06
Speaker 4: to to rest by the Israelis. It continued in different formats,
50:12
Speaker 4: and we rightly point out to the fact that some
50:15
Speaker 4: are arguing now that parts of Gaza should be resettled.
50:21
Speaker 4: The way they went ahead in reinforcing the the the
50:28
Speaker 4: barrier were between the or turning the yellow line. So
50:32
Speaker 4: the yellow line into a physical barrier is not about
50:37
Speaker 4: protecting the Israeli soldiers. It's about creating a clear demarcation
50:44
Speaker 4: across the length of Gaza, and it shows that the
50:51
Speaker 4: real intention is still there and it's unlikely to move ahead.
50:56
Speaker 4: And addition to that, of course, we can go with
50:58
Speaker 4: what not the Yeaho said recently when he was calling
51:02
Speaker 4: for the right for exercising the rights of the Palestinians
51:05
Speaker 4: to leave Gaza, that he out of his concern for
51:09
Speaker 4: their human rights. He was asking why they, unlike anybody else,
51:14
Speaker 4: are not allowed to choose to leave Cada, And that
51:20
Speaker 4: in itself shows you that the ultimate agenda is still
51:23
Speaker 4: the same. They need to push the population out and
51:29
Speaker 4: take over the land.
51:32
Speaker 2: Iran have been attempting to lead a permanent cessation of
51:36
Speaker 2: the slaughtering of Palestinians to their Memorandum of Understanding with
51:40
Speaker 2: the United States, but whenever they do so, it seems
51:44
Speaker 2: it seems Israel renews its attacks on the Palestinians.
51:51
Speaker 3: Well, Israel.
51:54
Speaker 4: Renews his attacks from the Palestinians, but also the Lebanese
51:57
Speaker 4: and elsewhere. It's important thing to explain that stability and
52:04
Speaker 4: security and peace in the region is not in the
52:07
Speaker 4: interest of Israel, and it's not in the interest of
52:12
Speaker 4: the making.
52:13
Speaker 3: Of the state of Israel.
52:17
Speaker 4: In Israel is the molding machine is the conduit that
52:23
Speaker 4: actually creates the Israeli identity, and for that to survive,
52:27
Speaker 4: you have to be under threat. Young joining at the
52:34
Speaker 4: age of seventeen and eighteen. Working together, attacking together, defending
52:42
Speaker 4: together is a tress that you create the state of
52:47
Speaker 4: Israel identity, and for that last thing you want is
52:51
Speaker 4: stability in the region. This is something that we've established.
52:54
Speaker 4: You know, over the last few decades. You see one
52:58
Speaker 4: problem after the other arises all the time, and they
53:02
Speaker 4: will not allow a settlement to take shape or in
53:07
Speaker 4: the region at anytime soon.
53:10
Speaker 2: I don't think very quickly, because we are a most
53:13
Speaker 2: out of time professor. Even Mike Huckabee has described some
53:17
Speaker 2: of the latest attacks by extremists in the West Bank
53:22
Speaker 2: as terrorists. Yet in Europe people still hide behind this
53:27
Speaker 2: fig leaf of the two state solution. Finally, push is
53:31
Speaker 2: coming to shove, and it seems Western politicians are beginning
53:35
Speaker 2: to realize that the roadblock to the two state solution
53:39
Speaker 2: is that Israel simply refuses to accept it. So at
53:43
Speaker 2: what point do you think of Western leaders going to
53:45
Speaker 2: finally wake up to the fact that they need to
53:48
Speaker 2: put enormous pressure on the Israelis to dismantle these settlements
53:52
Speaker 2: rather than expand them. Or is that simply not going
53:54
Speaker 2: to happen.
53:58
Speaker 4: I think given the history and what the Jewish people
54:01
Speaker 4: have been through in Europe will be very difficult for
54:04
Speaker 4: any European politician to stand up firmly against any.
54:09
Speaker 3: Action by Israel.
54:10
Speaker 4: They will show emotions, you know, they will take small
54:14
Speaker 4: steps like what happened in Britain recently with the Labor Party,
54:18
Speaker 4: you know, declaring one or two people as terrorists amongst
54:21
Speaker 4: the settlers, knowing andy present that the whole thing is illegal.
54:25
Speaker 4: But I think the public opinion is much more important
54:31
Speaker 4: in general, and it is shifting, and the genocide that
54:36
Speaker 4: we all witness taking place in Gaza has properly helped
54:39
Speaker 4: people make up their mind as to what is acceptable,
54:42
Speaker 4: what is not acceptable, and how far is or can
54:45
Speaker 4: get away with what it's doing at the moment. So
54:48
Speaker 4: I don't think the position is ripe at the moment,
54:52
Speaker 4: and I'm afraid even with the recent change in government
54:56
Speaker 4: in Labors that's also made some reversal, reversal of their policy,
55:04
Speaker 4: and we will inevitably have to continue to work on
55:07
Speaker 4: the public opinion. It's people that matter, and if the
55:11
Speaker 4: people see more of what is going on, then they
55:15
Speaker 4: can make up their mind and they can vote and
55:18
Speaker 4: influence decision makers. But ultimately politicians will be extremely sensitive
55:23
Speaker 4: to take a firm stand against what is obviously illegal.
55:30
Speaker 3: Being done by Israel.
55:32
Speaker 2: Indeed, and our new Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband held talks
55:37
Speaker 2: with Jewish community leaders only last week to discuss the
55:41
Speaker 2: tone of any changes in British foreign policy towards the
55:46
Speaker 2: Middle East. Thank you very much. Indeed, to join us today,
55:49
Speaker 2: Professor Southern Barracap, thank you.
55:52
Speaker 1: Yes, Basil, thank you very much for that. Okay, well
55:55
Speaker 1: let's see where does that take us then? Well, in fact, Basil,
55:59
Speaker 1: that takes us in case you missed it.
56:02
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, everybody's favorite trawl through stories that you may
56:07
Speaker 2: have missed this week, and we kick off with Southern Lebanon,
56:12
Speaker 2: I'm afraid, which we were just talking about very timely,
56:15
Speaker 2: and the detonation of thousands of homes just blown up
56:21
Speaker 2: for the sake of it. I don't know whether we'll
56:23
Speaker 2: see them actually exploded here in this footage. There we
56:27
Speaker 2: go bang families, ordinary citizens forced out of their homes
56:34
Speaker 2: at gunpoint and then their houses destroyed by the Israelis
56:39
Speaker 2: who really are laying waste to Southern Lebanon in biblical fashion,
56:43
Speaker 2: also starting wildfires, burning down olive graos and detonating houses.
56:50
Speaker 2: As you can see. Meanwhile in this country, are we
56:55
Speaker 2: surprised the UK government won't release the files on black Core?
57:02
Speaker 2: The euphemistically named Israeli company accused of meddling in Scottish
57:09
Speaker 2: elections have also apparently been meddling in elections in France
57:13
Speaker 2: as well. Apparently this would harm relations between Britain and
57:17
Speaker 2: another state if these files were to be released. One
57:21
Speaker 2: wonders whether the government would be quite so reticent if
57:25
Speaker 2: it was the Russians that they had been meddling in
57:30
Speaker 2: our elections. Next up, we've got a quote here from
57:35
Speaker 2: We've got a quote from.
57:36
Speaker 1: No, No, we don't. We've got a video, buzzle.
57:39
Speaker 2: That's what I meant. That's what I meant. A video
57:42
Speaker 2: from a representative of Oracle talking about the scary technology
57:49
Speaker 2: they've got and how it's used for military purposes.
57:53
Speaker 5: You hit our website in an Arab country and you
57:57
Speaker 5: saw your entire screen filled with an Israeli flag which said,
58:03
Speaker 5: not only we stand with Israel, we stand with our
58:06
Speaker 5: employees in Israel, we stand with the people of Israel.
58:10
Speaker 5: We stand with the military establishment of Israel. There's a
58:15
Speaker 5: few things that we did that I really can't talk about,
58:18
Speaker 5: to be honest. Because to advance the agenda for the
58:22
Speaker 5: Israeli military, but our teams did a lot. We have
58:28
Speaker 5: some really profoundly scary technology at Oracle and we wanted
58:34
Speaker 5: to make sure that it was available for the effort.
58:39
Speaker 5: Let's just say that, Okay, I was in the Curia,
58:43
Speaker 5: and I go in and I meet with everyone you'd
58:46
Speaker 5: imagine I meet with, and on my way out, I
58:49
Speaker 5: run into I don't know five of my team who
58:54
Speaker 5: are all in uniform working, and to be honest with you,
58:58
Speaker 5: it's like my proudest moment.
59:02
Speaker 2: Basha Ala Sad and now in Russia, of course, has
59:06
Speaker 2: been sentenced to death in absentia for his war crimes
59:10
Speaker 2: the ver it relates to a trust Is committee during
59:12
Speaker 2: the country's fourteen year civil war, in which about five
59:15
Speaker 2: hundred thousand people died. Did they really I'm not sure
59:18
Speaker 2: about forget, but we'll take it as read. Next. If
59:23
Speaker 2: you remember, a couple of weeks ago, we had Kat
59:25
Speaker 2: Hobbs on the program from We Own It, and it
59:29
Speaker 2: seems that terms of Water just wanted to do everything
59:32
Speaker 2: they possibly can to upset the public. The latest is
59:35
Speaker 2: a million pound payouts to the Finance direct absolutely taking
59:41
Speaker 2: the Michael from the bill paying general public. They're looking
59:47
Speaker 2: to increase bills by three point four billion pounds over
59:51
Speaker 2: the next few years. Even the government have said this
59:56
Speaker 2: payout to a finance chief one million pounds like winning
1:00:00
Speaker 2: the lottery, is unacceptable. Now a cheerful story for a change.
1:00:07
Speaker 2: I mean, really, in this day and age, in twenty
1:00:10
Speaker 2: twenty six, this should not be a shaft of light
1:00:14
Speaker 2: amid the gloom. This should be the norm. Pakistan and
1:00:17
Speaker 2: Norway calling for peaceful resolution of global conflicts. I think
1:00:23
Speaker 2: Pakistan and Norway called yesterday for the peaceful resolution of
1:00:26
Speaker 2: international conflicts, including the US Iran War and the establishment
1:00:30
Speaker 2: of an independent Palestinian state. Speaking of the joint press
1:00:34
Speaker 2: stakeout after bilateral talks in Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishak
1:00:39
Speaker 2: Dhar and his Norwegian counterpart espen bath Ida, reaffirmed their
1:00:43
Speaker 2: country support for multilateralism and international law under the UN Charter.
1:00:50
Speaker 2: Who on Earth would have believed it? You want an
1:00:53
Speaker 2: extraordinary thing international law? And finally this week, well, if
1:00:58
Speaker 2: there must be fights between countries, why not settle them
1:01:02
Speaker 2: this way? The vice mayor of Tel Aviv has challenged
1:01:07
Speaker 2: New York City Mayor Zora and man Danny to a
1:01:10
Speaker 2: boxing match, get the gloves on and sort it out.
1:01:14
Speaker 2: That way. I'll take on the Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz,
1:01:21
Speaker 2: although actually I discovered this week he was a noted
1:01:24
Speaker 2: thug when at university and went around beating people up.
1:01:28
Speaker 2: But nevertheless, I'll take the chance. Mike, who are you
1:01:31
Speaker 2: going to get the gloves on with?
1:01:34
Speaker 1: I'm not going to suggest who that might be, just
1:01:37
Speaker 1: at the moment. We might talk about that an extra.
1:01:40
Speaker 1: One thing we will talk about an extra though, is
1:01:42
Speaker 1: the Siria story, because there's quite a bit behind that.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: All clear of the the death sentence on a sad
1:01:52
Speaker 1: there's a significant kind of irony on that. Of course,
1:01:57
Speaker 1: we should not be except again I thing from the
1:02:00
Speaker 1: mainstream media on what is alleged or not to have
1:02:04
Speaker 1: happened in Syria from twenty eleven or before in fact,
1:02:08
Speaker 1: as we've covered many many times on this program. But
1:02:11
Speaker 1: we've got to leave it there for today. Thank you
1:02:13
Speaker 1: very much, Basil, Thank you very much for everybody that's watched.
1:02:19
Speaker 1: We will be back on one PM and Monday as usual.
1:02:22
Speaker 1: Stay with us if the UK called a number four
1:02:24
Speaker 1: extra and otherwise have a great weekend. Don't forget interviews
1:02:27
Speaker 1: tonight and on Sunday. We'll see you Monday about