Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 1st July 2026

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UK Column News — 1st July 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the first July twenty twenty sixth,
0:11
Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to the UK Column News.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm your host Mark Rumson joining me by video link
0:15
Speaker 1: to there, Charles Mallett. I'm Vanessa Billy. Now later in
0:18
Speaker 1: the program will of news of the massive data center
0:21
Speaker 1: build proposed in North Devon, an update on the absolutely
0:26
Speaker 1: breakneck speed the new National Security State Threats Bill is
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Speaker 1: being pushed through Parliament, and we'll be asking who is
0:32
Speaker 1: black Cube now. Before we get onto that, though, we're
0:36
Speaker 1: going to begin with the war policy and how the
0:38
Speaker 1: UK intends to fund it or not, because, of course,
0:40
Speaker 1: as most people will know by NY yesterday, in the
0:44
Speaker 1: final days of the Starmer regime, the Defense Investment Plan
0:47
Speaker 1: has been announced and published, just in time for the
0:50
Speaker 1: NATO summit due to take place in a few days.
0:54
Speaker 1: We're ending the hollowing out of the past and investing
0:58
Speaker 1: in the technology of the future with the eye line
1:00
Speaker 1: that went with this on X But the question is
1:04
Speaker 1: are they now? Before we get to that, and hopefully
1:06
Speaker 1: for the last time ever, let's listen to a few
1:09
Speaker 1: words from our current great leader.
1:14
Speaker 2: And the first place I wanted to start is by
1:16
Speaker 2: saying this that as Prime Minister, you get to meet
1:20
Speaker 2: people from all walks of life up and down the
1:24
Speaker 2: United Kingdom, and I know how worried they are about
1:30
Speaker 2: the state of our world. They see the walls in
1:33
Speaker 2: Ukraine and in the Middle East impacting on our stability,
1:37
Speaker 2: driving up the cost of living, and they're feeling tired
1:43
Speaker 2: at being at the mercy of events. Beyond our shores.
1:47
Speaker 2: We see countries that are arming, and tensions that are rising,
1:52
Speaker 2: a more dangerous and volatile world than any time for decades.
1:58
Speaker 2: We see the horrendous human whole of these conflicts, which
2:02
Speaker 2: cuts across our values of justice and sovereignty, and that
2:07
Speaker 2: simple British impulse that bullies and dictators cannot be allowed
2:12
Speaker 2: to push people around. We also know that these threats
2:18
Speaker 2: are not remote. We see foreign states targeting our nation
2:23
Speaker 2: as well. Thugs hired by foreign powers conducting violence, vandalism
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Speaker 2: and arson on our streets, disinformation aimed at sowing division
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Speaker 2: and stoking disorder, spreading lies and undermining our democracy. Russian
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Speaker 2: ships targeting the underwater cables that carry the data on
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Speaker 2: which modern life depends.
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Speaker 1: I don't even know where to begin with that Charles.
2:53
Speaker 1: But but you know, obviously I couldn't. The first thing
2:56
Speaker 1: to say is it couldn't work out whether the Arson
2:58
Speaker 1: comment was with respect to ambulances or whether it was
3:02
Speaker 1: with respect to his own car and his property. That was,
3:07
Speaker 1: you know, apparently said on fire aby people hired by
3:10
Speaker 1: the Russians. But you know, this whole narrative about not
3:13
Speaker 1: aligning bullies while he's bully busy bullying people into for example,
3:18
Speaker 1: digitalized idea and so on, is just incredible, I.
3:23
Speaker 3: Think, one of many incredible things. And I can't be
3:26
Speaker 3: the only person to have wondered if that was delivered
3:28
Speaker 3: to an empty room it was tery required. But he
3:32
Speaker 3: seems to consider that nobody listening to particularly his comments
3:37
Speaker 3: about Ukraine and the Middle East, is able to join
3:41
Speaker 3: simply two dots, which are that he is funding and
3:46
Speaker 3: facilitating those conflicts, and it is a hypocrisy of the
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Speaker 3: grandest scale that he can deliver in such terms those
3:56
Speaker 3: sorts of comments, so that the division and the effect
4:01
Speaker 3: that he's talking about in the United Kingdom is entirely
4:04
Speaker 3: of his own doing. He's making that perfectly clear, and
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Speaker 3: I would hope people can listen to that and under
4:10
Speaker 3: absolutely no illusion, and of course, as we look further
4:13
Speaker 3: ahead towards a probable Burnham premiership, is anything going to change,
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Speaker 3: It would seem extraordinarily unlikely.
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Speaker 1: Indeed, just to add fuel insult to injury here, let's
4:26
Speaker 1: just have a look at some of the propaganda that
4:29
Speaker 1: was pushed out on X following the publication of this,
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Speaker 1: and you'll understand the babbling as we go. You'll understand
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Speaker 1: why I've edited this in this way.
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Speaker 4: As Chancellor, I have overseen the biggest uplift in defense
4:44
Speaker 4: spending since the end of the Cold War, but demands
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Speaker 4: on the UK defense are growing.
5:00
Speaker 1: It's just all such a load of nonsense and you
5:02
Speaker 1: didn't really want to hear what they were saying anyway,
5:05
Speaker 1: not clearly. But look, prior to the release of the
5:08
Speaker 1: actual documents, Starmar phoned Mark Rudder to give him the
5:11
Speaker 1: bad news. According to the government readout, the Prime Minister
5:14
Speaker 1: set out how his plan would focus on readiness and
5:17
Speaker 1: autonomous capability, ensuring British forces would have the equipment they
5:22
Speaker 1: need to keep the UK and its NATO allies safe
5:25
Speaker 1: and sort of translate that he basically said to Mark, sorry, Matt,
5:28
Speaker 1: but there's no new money of course, they are claiming
5:32
Speaker 1: fifteen million as fifteen sorry billion pounds of brand new
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Speaker 1: money on top of last year's spending review, increasing defense
5:42
Speaker 1: funding from fifty four billion a year under the previous
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Speaker 1: government to eighty billion a year. This is what they're
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Speaker 1: claiming by twenty twenty nine. Some are even claiming some
5:53
Speaker 1: are claiming that Starmer has only found ten of the
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Speaker 1: fifteen billion, And there's some question whether any of this
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Speaker 1: is real or not, But anyway, the thing is that
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Speaker 1: here's the type of things they're talking about. So five
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Speaker 1: billion in autonomous systems over four years, hybrid navy AI
6:13
Speaker 1: driven armed autonomous vehicles for the army, autonomous fighters for
6:18
Speaker 1: the RAF. Twenty billion pounds to rapidly multiply the Army's
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Speaker 1: lethality through autonomous systems, long rail range missiles, AI and
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Speaker 1: armored vehicles. So that seems to have been announce twice,
6:30
Speaker 1: but anyway, with different amounts applied in each case. Two
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Speaker 1: and a half billion pounds to grow the new defense
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Speaker 1: cyber and Electromagnetic Force, sixty four billion pounds to the
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Speaker 1: nuclear deterrent, new submarines, a sovereign warhead F thirty five
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Speaker 1: A jets eight point six billion under the Global Combat
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Speaker 1: air Program with Italy and Japan, and three hundred million
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Speaker 1: for collaborative combat aircraft, eleven billion four munitions and weapons
6:59
Speaker 1: to increase stock piles, at least six new energetics factories,
7:04
Speaker 1: and three point two billion pounds in space capabilities is
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Speaker 1: what they're saying. Money for pay rises. And then another
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Speaker 1: nine billion over four years for the defense housing strategy.
7:16
Speaker 1: And as I said, Starmer apparently only has found ten
7:22
Speaker 1: of the fifteen billion so far. So if we bring
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Speaker 1: this back on screen, we have the defense spending graph here,
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Speaker 1: which is what is supposed to happen at the end
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Speaker 1: of the current spending period. And of course the AM
7:36
Speaker 1: is supposed to reach the three point five percent of
7:39
Speaker 1: GDP target for NATO, but they're not going to get
7:42
Speaker 1: anywhere close to that. But the point is that the
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Speaker 1: ten billion is being funded by stealing money from other departments,
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Speaker 1: so there's no new money there, and the five billion
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Speaker 1: pound shortfall that apparently exists is going to have to
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Speaker 1: be found, probably as part of the budget later this year,
8:00
Speaker 1: means tech tax rises. It's also a problem for Burnham
8:03
Speaker 1: and whoever the new chancellor would be. So clearly they're
8:07
Speaker 1: not going to borrow any money, they are going to
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Speaker 1: steal it from other departments and then they're going to
8:13
Speaker 1: have to work out where they're going to get the rest.
8:15
Speaker 1: But Charles, just as a final comment, what are your
8:19
Speaker 1: thoughts on what this announcement means for everybody in terms
8:23
Speaker 1: of how we are going to feel with the cost
8:27
Speaker 1: of living and so on.
8:30
Speaker 3: Well, I think what it means is that the defense dividend,
8:33
Speaker 3: as it's described in the Strategic Defense Review from last year,
8:36
Speaker 3: means lining the pockets of the military industrial complex. It's
8:39
Speaker 3: not about anything else. And the idea that somehow autonomy
8:42
Speaker 3: makes some sort of difference is in a way a
8:45
Speaker 3: tacit admission that recruitment and retention have failed spectacularly and
8:50
Speaker 3: that even conscription would be likely to be doomed. Also whereas,
8:55
Speaker 3: of course the narrative is contrary to that, because, of
8:58
Speaker 3: course we had the absurd spectacle of the new UK
9:01
Speaker 3: commando force boarding a vessel of the Shadow so called
9:05
Speaker 3: Shadow Fleet the other day, so suggesting that actually we
9:07
Speaker 3: are still reliant upon men and women to do this stuff.
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Speaker 3: But what sort of warfare are we imagining where we
9:15
Speaker 3: just have autonomous bits of kit blowing up other autonomous
9:19
Speaker 3: bits of kit, so that the sort of the sum
9:22
Speaker 3: game is hard to determine. From this, I think what
9:25
Speaker 3: was particularly interesting is the reference to dual use. There
9:28
Speaker 3: was a focus on dual use and this idea of
9:30
Speaker 3: defense unicorns, which are talked up, but actually suggests that
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Speaker 3: there is huge amount of obfuscation because of course there's
9:39
Speaker 3: no sense of accountability and we don't know where these
9:42
Speaker 3: sorts of unicorns are actually going to end up selling
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Speaker 3: their products to. So it's a very murky picture.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, we'll talk much more about this and extra I'm
9:51
Speaker 1: quite sure of Vanessa. Let me welcome you to the program.
9:54
Speaker 1: And the question is who is Black Cube?
10:00
Speaker 5: Very good question and particularly with a focus on what
10:02
Speaker 5: was at two point five billion spending on cyber defense.
10:06
Speaker 5: So yes, this was an article back in March of
10:09
Speaker 5: this year in harez So Hebrew media Intelligence confirms Black
10:14
Speaker 5: Cube visit foreign election interference suspected in Slovenia. Slovenia's intelligence
10:20
Speaker 5: agencies says senior officials from Israeli private intelligence firm Black
10:24
Speaker 5: Cube visited the country four times. And then let's have
10:28
Speaker 5: a look at what was said by the head of
10:32
Speaker 5: National and International Security Void chik Vulk facts indicate a
10:38
Speaker 5: suspicion of direct foreign interference in the Slovenian elections, most
10:42
Speaker 5: likely commissioned from within Slovenia. It's sub And then a
10:47
Speaker 5: quick look at what Black Cube actually is according to
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Speaker 5: its own website, If we can just pull that up
10:55
Speaker 5: so it secures this seemingly impossible. It's an intelligence firm
11:00
Speaker 5: that helps you win when no one else can. So
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Speaker 5: then back to the Peret school and for first of all,
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Speaker 5: the people that actually Folk identified three of the visitors
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Speaker 5: as being the Black Cube founder and CEO, Dan Zorella,
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Speaker 5: company advisor, retired Major General draa Ireland, and another Israeli
11:21
Speaker 5: named Lyron Sur. The identity of a fourth person was
11:24
Speaker 5: not disclosed. The operations, however, did include when again we're
11:30
Speaker 5: talking about cybersecurity, if we can just have that. Although
11:35
Speaker 5: Black Cube was not cited in Folk's initial reports, the
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Speaker 5: operation contained Black Cube's known methods fate LinkedIn profiles, operatives
11:45
Speaker 5: with false identity, stage meetings abroad, and the erasure of
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Speaker 5: digital traces, which he seemed to suggest match recent events
11:53
Speaker 5: in Slovenia, even as he refrained from directly linking the
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Speaker 5: Black Cube visits to the website and the campaign that
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Speaker 5: preceded it. But then if we actually look what they
12:05
Speaker 5: were finally accused of, the Black Cube operatives, if we
12:08
Speaker 5: can pull that up now accused by Slovenian law enforcement
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Speaker 5: of leaking recordings designed to undermine Prime Minister Robert Golob's
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Speaker 5: government by linking it to corruption. Days before a knife
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Speaker 5: age election, tapes show prominent Slovenia figures apparently discussing corruption,
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Speaker 5: illegal lobbying and the misuse of stage sorry state funds.
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Speaker 5: Now there are suspicions that Black Cube were hired by
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Speaker 5: the Slovenian Democratic Party that were standing in opposition to
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Speaker 5: Robert Golub's Liberal Freedom Movement, who secured twenty nine seats
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Speaker 5: in the ninety member assembly, just one more than the opposition.
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Speaker 5: So that's how close the election was in the end,
12:54
Speaker 5: with these corruption tapes being released, then if we look
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Speaker 5: at what else is happening in Greece Cypress related again
13:01
Speaker 5: to Black Cube, EU spyware scandal deepens. Black Cube and
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Speaker 5: Intellexa thrived in Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia amid Brussels in action. Now,
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Speaker 5: Black Cube was actually founded by veterans of Israeli elite intelligence,
13:20
Speaker 5: meaning of course Unit eight two hundred and operatives were
13:26
Speaker 5: deployed in Cypress posing as representatives of a private investment
13:29
Speaker 5: fund interested in committing one hundred and fifty million euros
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Speaker 5: to the island's energy sector. You can read more about
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Speaker 5: that story in the link in the show notes. But
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Speaker 5: then if we also look at previous campaigns by Black Cube,
13:45
Speaker 5: they were employed in twenty sixteen by the infamous Harvey
13:50
Speaker 5: Weinstein sexual predator, whose legal team hired Black Cube to
13:55
Speaker 5: investigate women who accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct
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Speaker 5: and journal investigating the claims. What that effectively boils down
14:03
Speaker 5: to are sting operations, intimidation and harassment by Black Black
14:09
Speaker 5: Cube operatives against those women accusing Weinstein of sexual predation.
14:16
Speaker 5: Also in twenty sixteen, in Romania, agents were arrested for
14:20
Speaker 5: alleged cyber attacks against anti corruption prosecutor Laui Kudruta Covis.
14:27
Speaker 5: And then moving on, let's come back to the Black
14:30
Speaker 5: Cube website itself. They claim that they are the world's
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Speaker 5: leading human intelligence firm. Their team comprises former Israeli intelligence officers,
14:40
Speaker 5: lawyers and agents with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages. As
14:45
Speaker 5: social engineers, we craft unique complex scenarios to capture evidence
14:50
Speaker 5: for high profile international litigations, arbitations, and white collar crime cases.
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Speaker 5: This is basically the International Advisory Board. On the left
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Speaker 5: you have Mayor Dagan, who's now deceased Director of Mossad
15:04
Speaker 5: twenty two to twenty twelve. Efraim Halivi, ninth head of Mossad,
15:10
Speaker 5: has kept forty years of service, including command of two
15:14
Speaker 5: major operational divisions and extensive field service in the IOF.
15:19
Speaker 5: Mister Danino served as the Israeli Police Commissioner and is
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Speaker 5: renowned for establishing Unit Laha four to three to three,
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Speaker 5: dealing with the most sophisticated fraud, corruption and cyber cases.
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Speaker 5: Mister Eland headed the IOFS Operation Branch, Planning Branch, and
15:35
Speaker 5: eventually Israel's National Security Council. So some very interesting characters.
15:42
Speaker 5: They're stuffed full of basically Mossad operatives. But then if
15:46
Speaker 5: we go down the page of the Advisory Board, there
15:51
Speaker 5: in the middle you have a gentleman called Adrian Leopard CB.
15:57
Speaker 5: Now this is the retired Commissioner of City of London Police.
16:00
Speaker 5: He retired in twenty sixteen. He was famous for solving
16:04
Speaker 5: the security test robbery. He has a background in fraud
16:08
Speaker 5: prevention and economic crime, focus on cyber enabled transition and sorry.
16:13
Speaker 5: He transitioned to consultancy in intelligence and security initiatives, one
16:19
Speaker 5: of which was Templar Executives, which has direct links to
16:24
Speaker 5: the British government, and he joined the international Advisory Board
16:28
Speaker 5: of Black Cube, headquartered in Tel Aviv with offices in
16:32
Speaker 5: London and Madrid in early twenty twenty one, and as
16:35
Speaker 5: far as we know he's still up at the website,
16:37
Speaker 5: he's still there. Then on the left you have Brigadier
16:40
Speaker 5: General Rose Lopez Kiroi, and she of course has a
16:45
Speaker 5: background in guess what in the CIA, but also currently
16:50
Speaker 5: with Africom allegedly working against al Qaeda in particularly the Sahel.
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Speaker 5: Then if you consider the fact, because then I started
17:03
Speaker 5: to look deeper into Adrian Leopard's connections to Israel, and
17:09
Speaker 5: while serving as City London City of London Police Commissioner,
17:12
Speaker 5: Leopard spoke at the annual conference of the International Institute
17:16
Speaker 5: for counter Terrorism the ICT and Israeli counter terrorism think
17:21
Speaker 5: tank founded in nineteen ninety six and based at IDC
17:26
Speaker 5: Hazilia now Reichman University, and here you have him actually
17:31
Speaker 5: mentioned on the ICT website, and I just want to
17:36
Speaker 5: play a very quick video of a speech that Leopard
17:41
Speaker 5: made in twenty and thirteen, and this is how he
17:45
Speaker 5: describes the relationship between British police and Israeli police.
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Speaker 6: Ladies and gentlemen. Firstly, to Biaz Jonathan, thank you again
17:59
Speaker 6: for inviting me my second time here. I feel I've
18:02
Speaker 6: made many good friends in Israel for lots of different reasons.
18:06
Speaker 6: They're very similar mindset to I think what we're trying
18:08
Speaker 6: to do in Britain as well to counter terrorism. I
18:12
Speaker 6: will speak today about cyber.
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Speaker 5: Now. After twenty thirteen, Leopard's speeches stopped appearing at the
18:22
Speaker 5: ICT YouTube channel and also on the ICT website. However,
18:28
Speaker 5: an AI search basically asking what was the content of
18:33
Speaker 5: the closing keynote at the ICT twenty five World Summit,
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Speaker 5: Lappard apparently outlined several critical observations regarding the evolving landscape
18:45
Speaker 5: of global counter terrorism, arguing that the world is at
18:48
Speaker 5: a strategic inflection point. He talked about the rise of
18:52
Speaker 5: proto states, meaning of course Hamas Jesbolah and the huties
18:57
Speaker 5: or Antruller in Yamen them of course to be proxies
19:02
Speaker 5: of Iran. At the same time, he talked about the
19:05
Speaker 5: rising anti Semitism globally and the diversification of terrorism beyond
19:10
Speaker 5: al Qaeda. And of course what is this talking about.
19:14
Speaker 5: It's talking about the elasticity of the term terrorist. We've
19:18
Speaker 5: seen that now being applied to organizations like Palestine Action
19:23
Speaker 5: that have carried out direct action against Albert Israeli weapons
19:28
Speaker 5: manufacturer subsidiary in the UK. And of course basically he's
19:33
Speaker 5: channeling Zionist talking points. But what is interesting is the
19:39
Speaker 5: number of these organizations that are suddenly coming to the fore.
19:43
Speaker 5: Most recently there was another organization which seems to be
19:47
Speaker 5: to some degree a spin off of Black Cube. This
19:50
Speaker 5: is an organization called Black coll whose footprint has been
19:55
Speaker 5: written off completely, who are accused of metal in French elections,
20:01
Speaker 5: New York governoral elections, Scotland and also creating Palestinian funding
20:10
Speaker 5: accounts to infiltrate the pro Palestine movement. They described themselves
20:16
Speaker 5: again as elite influenced cyber and technology company with again
20:22
Speaker 5: these links into Tel Aviv and Unit A two hundred,
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Speaker 5: But as I said, their digital footprint has now been removed.
20:30
Speaker 5: Although this was found on the way back machine.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Vanessa, thank you for that. Lots to talk
20:37
Speaker 1: about in extra today, so keep that for them, Charles.
20:43
Speaker 1: The other thing, because you know, obviously part of what
20:46
Speaker 1: we've covered this morning this afternoon has already been referencing
20:51
Speaker 1: the activities of foreign steads starmers referencing that. And here
20:54
Speaker 1: we have a foreigns did apparently interfering in elections, or
20:59
Speaker 1: at least people associated with the Foreuns did. But we've
21:03
Speaker 1: got legislation coming in which is going to make sure
21:05
Speaker 1: that anybody you know, countering the British narrative is going
21:10
Speaker 1: to be heavily censured.
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Speaker 3: We have, indeed, this is going to follow very closely
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Speaker 3: what we've discussed already, because as Vernessa has just shown
21:22
Speaker 3: a clip there of Adrian Leopard talking about the similarities
21:25
Speaker 3: between what the British and what the Israelis are trying
21:27
Speaker 3: to do. Of course he says with regard to terrorism,
21:30
Speaker 3: but really what he means is with regard to their
21:32
Speaker 3: citizens or subjects and inserting every possible mechanism by which
21:38
Speaker 3: the state may have an absolute rule. So you said
21:41
Speaker 3: earlier that the state threats or the national security state
21:44
Speaker 3: threats built twenty twenty six being rushed through. Indeed it
21:47
Speaker 3: is it appears to be leaving scorch marks through both
21:49
Speaker 3: houses of Parliament. And we're going to look. I showed
21:52
Speaker 3: last week this slide which showed that it was at
21:55
Speaker 3: committee stage in the House of Lords. As of about
21:58
Speaker 3: half past eight last night it had completed its third
22:02
Speaker 3: reading in the House of Lords, which means it's now
22:05
Speaker 3: in effect being teed up for Royal assent and to
22:08
Speaker 3: be passed as a general Act of Parliament. Now, it's
22:13
Speaker 3: very important to stress that there has been not one
22:16
Speaker 3: single voice of opposition at any point during any of
22:20
Speaker 3: the debates or committee stages. There's been a few technical
22:24
Speaker 3: amendments and clarification sort but in effect a bill put
22:30
Speaker 3: forward by the Home Office has been absolutely rubber stamped
22:33
Speaker 3: by everybody that has looked at it. And what I'm
22:37
Speaker 3: going to do is to show you a short piece
22:39
Speaker 3: of the debate from the House of Lords last night.
22:43
Speaker 3: So just consider how many people are actually there, and
22:46
Speaker 3: then particularly it's Lord Flint speaking first, and then Lord Cameron.
22:51
Speaker 3: Listened to what Cameron says about what's coming.
22:56
Speaker 7: My Lord's can I first of all thank the officials
23:00
Speaker 7: of the House for the speedy turnaround of the amended bill.
23:05
Speaker 7: I think it's a tribute to the dexterity that we've
23:09
Speaker 7: managed to turn this round in much quicker time than
23:11
Speaker 7: I expected, and our thanks go to them. I also want,
23:14
Speaker 7: if I may, thank the officials in the Home Office
23:18
Speaker 7: and all the people behind the bill who've given advice
23:21
Speaker 7: and support to ministers on this crucial issue, including the
23:25
Speaker 7: Security Services and others, but particularly my Private Office, the
23:30
Speaker 7: bill manager and team, and all the officials who are here.
23:33
Speaker 7: I also want to thank, if I may, the Official
23:36
Speaker 7: Opposition for their courtesy and their intensive scrutiny of the bill,
23:42
Speaker 7: for their alternative suggestions. This bill is done for a purpose,
23:46
Speaker 7: and the purposes to allow my right honorable friend, the
23:49
Speaker 7: Secretary of State to have the necessary powers to consider
23:53
Speaker 7: how best to act after the determination of state threats.
23:58
Speaker 7: The Bill as amends will now return to another place
24:02
Speaker 7: in the House of Commons, where it will be further scrutinized,
24:05
Speaker 7: where I am confident the amendments made in this House
24:08
Speaker 7: will be accepted, and then I hope that the bill
24:11
Speaker 7: will go for speedy consideration for royal assent, and on
24:17
Speaker 7: royal assent, I give the assurance to the House that
24:20
Speaker 7: the Secretary of State, the Home Secretary will take urgent
24:23
Speaker 7: action examining the state threats and if necessary, bring forward
24:28
Speaker 7: appropriate measures as soon as possible.
24:30
Speaker 8: There are some unfinished areas that the Nable Order Minister
24:34
Speaker 8: alluded to that we hope will be we will return
24:39
Speaker 8: to in due course when a new bill, a more
24:43
Speaker 8: wider national security bill comes before Parliament. But with those
24:49
Speaker 8: brief comments, I will say, I hope that it's building
24:52
Speaker 8: our past.
24:56
Speaker 3: So that's all cameeron. They're talking about a wider security
25:00
Speaker 3: bills come in the future. And of course this is
25:03
Speaker 3: already following the National Security Act of twenty twenty three,
25:07
Speaker 3: and it's absolutely no coincidence that this falls at exactly
25:09
Speaker 3: the same time the Defense Investment Plan has been released,
25:13
Speaker 3: all of which is predicated on the supposed threat by Russia,
25:17
Speaker 3: in particular as written out in the Strategic Defense Review,
25:20
Speaker 3: and also supposedly Iran with the narrative from MI I five.
25:24
Speaker 3: Now there's been no scrutiny of the ambiguity, and I
25:27
Speaker 3: think one of the things that I want to point out,
25:29
Speaker 3: which has been highlighted on Twitter by Craig Murray, is
25:32
Speaker 3: the way in which this may be further targeted at
25:36
Speaker 3: journalists and I quote, it will be illegal to publish
25:41
Speaker 3: true casualty information from Iran from Hamass run hospitals in Gaza,
25:45
Speaker 3: or idea for salt details from the resistance in Lebanon.
25:49
Speaker 3: Now what he's talking about there is the proposed section
25:51
Speaker 3: seventeen C which concerns obtaining material benefits from a designated body.
25:56
Speaker 3: And of course, if you've not seen the news for
25:58
Speaker 3: the last couple of weeks, a designated body is in
26:00
Speaker 3: effect a parallel track to proscription under terrorism legislation, in
26:05
Speaker 3: that it is deemed to be a body by the
26:07
Speaker 3: Home Secretary that has an undue foreign influence on the
26:11
Speaker 3: United Kingdom and poses a threat to the state. Now,
26:13
Speaker 3: the contents of that section say that material benefits may
26:17
Speaker 3: include financial benefits, anything which has the potential to result
26:20
Speaker 3: in a financial benefit, and information. And of course, the
26:24
Speaker 3: terribly subjective nature of this legislation means that it is
26:27
Speaker 3: entirely possible the Home Secretary may determine that a journalist
26:30
Speaker 3: who has sought information from a designated body may end
26:34
Speaker 3: up with a fourteen year prison sentence. Now this is
26:38
Speaker 3: obviously very serious business, and again the idea that there
26:42
Speaker 3: are states out there that are intending harm to the
26:46
Speaker 3: United Kingdom is propped up by the actions of the state,
26:49
Speaker 3: in particular the police. And I'm just going to share
26:51
Speaker 3: tweet from somebody called Jesse Winnie who was detained whilst
26:56
Speaker 3: coming back from Belarus just a couple of days ago,
26:59
Speaker 3: is we'd return from Minsk. Was detained at Birmingham Airport
27:03
Speaker 3: under the Counter Terror and Border Security Act, had phone
27:06
Speaker 3: and other belongings seased. And now I've put in bold
27:08
Speaker 3: at the end. We'll give more of an update shortly,
27:10
Speaker 3: and I'm pleased to say that he's going to join
27:11
Speaker 3: us on Friday's news program to talk about his experiences.
27:15
Speaker 3: But this is all of this is absolutely very much
27:19
Speaker 3: coordinated and pushing the British state into it or rather
27:24
Speaker 3: too a point of autocracy that should cause really significant concern.
27:29
Speaker 3: I mean, Mike, I don't know if you've got time
27:31
Speaker 3: for any comments, particularly on this, the speed of it,
27:34
Speaker 3: the lack of opposition, and really where it's going to go.
27:38
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think the speed of it is
27:40
Speaker 1: absolutely unprecedented. I haven't seen anything being pushed through I mean,
27:44
Speaker 1: what is this two weeks Charles largely from the first
27:48
Speaker 1: reading to the third reading is quite incredible. There's been
27:52
Speaker 1: no opportunity for any kind of pushback from anybody. We've
27:57
Speaker 1: been talking about it on this program for the last
27:59
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, but it takes longer than that for
28:01
Speaker 1: a proper opposition to get going. So they've clearly felt
28:06
Speaker 1: that there was a major danger that there was going
28:10
Speaker 1: to be opposition to this and they just needed to
28:12
Speaker 1: get it through as quickly as they possibly could. It
28:14
Speaker 1: is quite incredible, As I said, lots to talk about
28:18
Speaker 1: an extra today because the direction of travel is quite
28:22
Speaker 1: amazing at the moment. But anyway, let's move on. If
28:25
Speaker 1: you like what the UK Column does, we do need
28:27
Speaker 1: your ongoing support. You can find out more about that
28:30
Speaker 1: on the front page of the website. There's a link there,
28:33
Speaker 1: and so you could make a contribution donation that absolutely
28:39
Speaker 1: helps us. Join us as a member of course you
28:42
Speaker 1: get access to members on the content like UK Column,
28:45
Speaker 1: News Extra and a thousand words podcasts and so on.
28:49
Speaker 1: The new issue of the Column, the second issue, is
28:52
Speaker 1: available for pre order on the website on the shop.
28:56
Speaker 1: I believe well, we know that the delivery of that
29:00
Speaker 1: to the shop will be tomorrow and so those will
29:03
Speaker 1: start to go out as soon as possible. But join
29:07
Speaker 1: us in September for the twentieth anniversary on location event
29:11
Speaker 1: in Plymouth here. The details are also on the front
29:14
Speaker 1: page of the website, and do pick up a ticket
29:17
Speaker 1: for that if you possibly can. At seven pm tonight,
29:21
Speaker 1: Jerream is discussing Africa's unknown high speed trains. That's seven
29:27
Speaker 1: and at nine Carl is looking a bit of Chinese
29:31
Speaker 1: history with taking a look at Mao and Dong Jo
29:34
Speaker 1: Ping and so on. To join him at nine for
29:37
Speaker 1: that and Charles tomorrow at one pm. Then you are
29:41
Speaker 1: myth busting the food industry with Pat Thomas.
29:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think Pat was really doing the myth busting.
29:48
Speaker 3: She was on the news a couple of weeks ago.
29:50
Speaker 3: She represents Beyond GM, an advocacy group that has scored
29:53
Speaker 3: a victory against government in the High Court with regard
29:56
Speaker 3: to genetically modified organisms, and she is an absolute font
30:00
Speaker 3: of knowledge. But I think what she does very very
30:03
Speaker 3: well is put GMO in the wider context of the
30:08
Speaker 3: food industry. And I thought I would say this must
30:11
Speaker 3: listen because we all eat.
30:13
Speaker 1: Food absolutely one hundred percent. So that's one pm tomorrow.
30:17
Speaker 1: Join us for that and the usual places. Charles back
30:22
Speaker 1: to you then, and pretty disturbing use with respect to
30:26
Speaker 1: the Canary and the fact that there's apparently been debanked.
30:33
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean this has come directly from the Canary,
30:37
Speaker 3: which put out a note on its website and on
30:40
Speaker 3: Twitter yesterday saying they've been deeped by Lloyd. And I'll
30:44
Speaker 3: just read a little bit of the article that accompanied that,
30:48
Speaker 3: which is that we do know that multiple other politically
30:52
Speaker 3: engaged people have suffered similar actions by other banks in
30:56
Speaker 3: recent times. It is not lost on us that powerful
31:00
Speaker 3: able to restrict the financial activity of anti Zionist and
31:04
Speaker 3: pro Palestine organizations and individuals. Now, this is a debanking episode,
31:10
Speaker 3: but it should be absolutely regarded within the context of censorship,
31:13
Speaker 3: which of course is something that we have talked about
31:16
Speaker 3: ad infinitum on UK column, and quite rightly so. And
31:19
Speaker 3: the point I think to be made here is that
31:22
Speaker 3: whether or not this was a decision made by the bank,
31:25
Speaker 3: or whether it was made by somebody else in the
31:26
Speaker 3: bank was forced to act, just demonstrates the way in
31:30
Speaker 3: which alternative, independent media may be preyed upon. And therefore
31:34
Speaker 3: I think the appeal turning to the audience is if
31:37
Speaker 3: anybody has specialist knowledge in this area and could help
31:41
Speaker 3: the Canaria out with a way in which to force
31:44
Speaker 3: Lloyd's Bank at least into responding to them, because at
31:47
Speaker 3: the moment they're not even being told why this has happened,
31:51
Speaker 3: or any process by which they may seek a course.
31:54
Speaker 3: So there's a really serious issue, and of course could
31:56
Speaker 3: occur to absolutely any platform that's out there doing similar thing. Mike,
32:00
Speaker 3: I know you've you've had a lot to say on
32:02
Speaker 3: this specific issue in the past, but I think it's
32:04
Speaker 3: you know, it's absolutely very serious to see this happen
32:07
Speaker 3: to them.
32:08
Speaker 1: It absolutely is. And of course the thing to say
32:11
Speaker 1: here is that, you know, many people may view the
32:15
Speaker 1: Canary as being left wing media, and who cares about that?
32:19
Speaker 1: This would be a very silly approach to take, because
32:22
Speaker 1: this type of behavior by banks is absolutely politically agnostic,
32:27
Speaker 1: and in fact, you know, it's happening on all sides
32:32
Speaker 1: of the so called political spectrum. So you know, we
32:35
Speaker 1: should be standing up whether we agree with, you know,
32:39
Speaker 1: from a political point of view, with the Canary's position.
32:44
Speaker 1: You know, we would certainly naturally agree with their position
32:47
Speaker 1: on pasign and so on, but many other things we
32:51
Speaker 1: would disagree with, but we would uphold their right to
32:55
Speaker 1: say what they feel the need to say.
32:57
Speaker 3: Charles, asolutely we would, and to function as a viable
33:02
Speaker 3: business with a bank that will support whatever it is
33:05
Speaker 3: they're supposed to be doing. And for a bank to
33:08
Speaker 3: take this sort of action, especially without any justification or
33:11
Speaker 3: at least any justification given, is a serious step, a
33:16
Speaker 3: serious breach. And I think also the other I mean,
33:20
Speaker 3: obviously it's conjecture upon their part, but they are in
33:23
Speaker 3: effect joining dots on the anti Zionist pro Palestine point.
33:27
Speaker 3: I think a question to be asked is has any
33:30
Speaker 3: organization been de banked that is openly pro Zionist or
33:37
Speaker 3: pro Israel.
33:40
Speaker 1: Very good question. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about
33:44
Speaker 1: that more litter as well. Now let's move on then
33:47
Speaker 1: to AI and data centers and so on, because x
33:50
Speaker 1: links is proposing to develop a large AI data center
33:54
Speaker 1: and battery energy storage system on Greenfield land near Alpha
34:00
Speaker 1: alver discod in North Devon, and now they're calling it Valian,
34:04
Speaker 1: and they claim that Valiant would provide a one point
34:07
Speaker 1: five gigawatts of AI optimized compute capacity. These are their words.
34:12
Speaker 1: The brains behind the AI models that increasingly par everyday
34:16
Speaker 1: digital life. Most of us interact, they say, with data
34:19
Speaker 1: centers hundreds of times a day, from sending an email
34:22
Speaker 1: to making a bank transaction or streaming TV. The government
34:26
Speaker 1: treats data centers as critical national priority, on a par
34:30
Speaker 1: with airports and power stations, because they underpin essential services
34:35
Speaker 1: such as the NHS and financial systems and keep UK
34:39
Speaker 1: data managed within the UK. Now, they're saying that basically
34:45
Speaker 1: plentiful access to clean par from nearby solar and wind
34:49
Speaker 1: is there. They're saying that Devon's mild year round temperatures
34:55
Speaker 1: mean that the site uses less energy and water than
34:58
Speaker 1: many other locations. They're toad talking about spare highly available
35:01
Speaker 1: capacity at the local substation, and they're saying that it's
35:05
Speaker 1: set away from homes. In other words, it's in the
35:08
Speaker 1: middle of the countryside where existing trees, hills and valleys
35:12
Speaker 1: helps screen development from the development from view. And they're
35:16
Speaker 1: saying that the campus would directly create long term high
35:19
Speaker 1: quality roles and its computing power has the potential to
35:22
Speaker 1: attract well known AI related companies, bringing further jobs and
35:26
Speaker 1: investments investment to the area. We're exploring partnerships, they say
35:31
Speaker 1: with the University of Exeter, the Exeterra North Devon Colleges Group,
35:35
Speaker 1: and local training providers that local people are the first
35:38
Speaker 1: in line for these roles and a new career pathway
35:41
Speaker 1: opens into a sector usually based in larger cities. So
35:46
Speaker 1: you know, while they're talking about this dedicated community benefit package,
35:51
Speaker 1: they're not explaining how these thousands of people are going
35:53
Speaker 1: to get to the site in order to take advantage
35:57
Speaker 1: of these new jobs. So the roads networks certainly is
36:01
Speaker 1: not going to be suitable and there's basically no public transport,
36:05
Speaker 1: so how is this going to work? They don't seem
36:08
Speaker 1: to care or worry too much about that. They are
36:11
Speaker 1: saying that environmental assessments carried out during planning will inform
36:14
Speaker 1: mitigation measures built into the proposals. So look who is
36:19
Speaker 1: x links. Well, they are basically a private equity funded
36:23
Speaker 1: renewable energy company and their main bright spark idea is
36:27
Speaker 1: to solve the climate crisis by running a four thousand
36:29
Speaker 1: kilometer long cable from Morocco to North Devon in order
36:33
Speaker 1: to bring energy from Morocco because building wind turbines and
36:37
Speaker 1: solar panels in Morocco is environmentally friendly, as is mining
36:41
Speaker 1: and processing four thousand kilometers worth of copper to bring
36:44
Speaker 1: that energy to the UK. Now, in particular, that particular
36:49
Speaker 1: project seems to be on hold because they couldn't get
36:52
Speaker 1: backing from the British government. But don't worry, they have
36:55
Speaker 1: another plan because they intend to interconnect Morocco and German instead.
37:01
Speaker 1: But look, coming back to the North Devon Data Center,
37:05
Speaker 1: they're running four public information days over the course of July,
37:09
Speaker 1: but note the times. They clearly don't want the working
37:11
Speaker 1: public to have any opportunity to go and meet them,
37:14
Speaker 1: and they're making an online questionnaire available on their website
37:18
Speaker 1: on the fourteenth of July, they say, and they're asking
37:21
Speaker 1: for public feedback by the eleventh of August at the latest.
37:24
Speaker 1: And they're also involved in a planning process, so that
37:27
Speaker 1: might be somewhere people want to go to make some objections.
37:32
Speaker 1: But Charles, you have covered this issue of this battery
37:37
Speaker 1: storage in the countryside a number of times over the
37:40
Speaker 1: last year or two. They clearly intend to do much
37:45
Speaker 1: more of this. But what was one of the questions
37:47
Speaker 1: we've been asking over the past year, in particular, is
37:51
Speaker 1: where is the energy going to come from to provide
37:54
Speaker 1: the electricity for these data centers, and it seems like
37:57
Speaker 1: increasingly more and more companies are looking to prove this
38:00
Speaker 1: energy themselves through what's described as behind the mirror part generation.
38:06
Speaker 1: Their solution seems to be quite extreme, i you know,
38:11
Speaker 1: bringing energy from an African country, but other data centers
38:15
Speaker 1: are increasingly going to be pushing these battery banks and
38:20
Speaker 1: also gas generated electricity local you know, within the confines
38:25
Speaker 1: of the of the installation.
38:29
Speaker 3: Well, I think with regard to where the energy is sourced,
38:32
Speaker 3: it might well fall into the slam the door principle
38:35
Speaker 3: or shut the door might be getting that slightly wrong.
38:37
Speaker 3: And if they say they're going to get it from
38:40
Speaker 3: Morocco and that seems outlandish and completely absurd, then the
38:43
Speaker 3: idea of sticking a say a solar panel project down
38:48
Speaker 3: the road would then seem more palatable or some other mechanism.
38:51
Speaker 3: And of course it shouldn't be forgotten that the whole
38:53
Speaker 3: point of battery energy battery energy storage system best is
38:57
Speaker 3: in effect an arbitraged scheme because to do with the
39:01
Speaker 3: renewable element of it. It's all to do with being
39:04
Speaker 3: able to produce energy, store it and then sell it
39:06
Speaker 3: back onto the grid when the rate increases. So it
39:09
Speaker 3: is in effect a scam, like the rest of the
39:11
Speaker 3: renewable agenda, but also the one thing that has not
39:14
Speaker 3: been dealt with at all of the massive safety and
39:17
Speaker 3: environmental concerns about any kind of fire or incident that
39:21
Speaker 3: happens in a battery storage facility containing lithium batteries, of
39:25
Speaker 3: that there is no way to put out those fires.
39:27
Speaker 3: And this has been said by fibrigates up and down
39:29
Speaker 3: the land, and it's just fallen on totally deaf ears
39:32
Speaker 3: and this is all you know, you just use the
39:33
Speaker 3: word campus as though somehow it's all sort of kind
39:36
Speaker 3: of benevolent and going to further people's understanding of the world,
39:39
Speaker 3: when actually it has the potential to destroy enormous suades
39:42
Speaker 3: of the countryside and the economy.
39:45
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, now let's come back to you then and
39:48
Speaker 1: the DSTL. And obviously they are going to be in
39:53
Speaker 1: the receipt of some money, perhaps as a result of
39:55
Speaker 1: the spending review.
39:59
Speaker 3: Yes, a sort of day present. They have fallen under
40:03
Speaker 3: the windfall from the Defense Investment Plan, but it's also
40:06
Speaker 3: coinciding with them being twenty five years old. So you
40:09
Speaker 3: can see their tweet on the screen now saying celebrating
40:13
Speaker 3: twenty five years of DsCl, which is the Defense Science
40:16
Speaker 3: Technology Laboratory, and welcoming the announcement of five hundred and
40:20
Speaker 3: eighty million pounds in infrastructure funding over the next four years. Now,
40:24
Speaker 3: if you're not entirely clear on who they are and
40:28
Speaker 3: what it is they do do, then luckily they put
40:30
Speaker 3: together a compilation video of their biggest hits over the
40:33
Speaker 3: last twenty five years.
40:37
Speaker 9: At the turn of the millennium, the world had entered
40:40
Speaker 9: a new chapter. The Cold War had ended, wolves had fallen,
40:45
Speaker 9: democracy had spread. The celebration it was an era of
40:50
Speaker 9: peace and stability. The history had other plans.
40:55
Speaker 10: That a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.
40:59
Speaker 9: In a single all morning, the world changed forever. The
41:03
Speaker 9: Defense Science and Technology Laboratory was weeks old when the
41:07
Speaker 9: towers came down. A quarter of a century on, DSTL
41:11
Speaker 9: has stood at the center of UK defense and security,
41:15
Speaker 9: from conflict overseas to threats closer to home.
41:19
Speaker 10: When the stakes our highest. Evidence matters most.
41:23
Speaker 9: Through moments of crisis and moments when the eyes of
41:27
Speaker 9: the world were watching.
41:28
Speaker 10: When the world stood still.
41:30
Speaker 2: We stood up.
41:31
Speaker 9: As threats evolve and return, DSTL remains understanding, anticipating, countering existing,
41:39
Speaker 9: not for headlines, not for recognition, but for something more enduring,
41:45
Speaker 9: scientific truth in an uncertain world. Science and technology are
41:50
Speaker 9: no longer just tools of defense. They are the battleground AI,
41:55
Speaker 9: quantum cyber autonomous systems. The advantage will be on to
42:00
Speaker 9: those who understand and use them first. But DSTL is
42:04
Speaker 9: not defined by technology. It's defined by its people. Scientists, engineers, analysts,
42:12
Speaker 9: and those who keep everything running, often unseen, always essential.
42:17
Speaker 9: For twenty five years, DSTL has delivered strength away from
42:20
Speaker 9: the spotlight. The next twenty five will demand even more.
42:24
Speaker 9: Through advantages in science and technology, we deliver mission success.
42:29
Speaker 10: We are DSTL.
42:35
Speaker 3: Bit of a coincidence, starting just a couple of weeks
42:38
Speaker 3: before September the eleventh, two thousand and one, but we'll
42:41
Speaker 3: gloss over that one. I think the standout quote from
42:43
Speaker 3: that particular video was scientific truth in an uncertain world? Well,
42:49
Speaker 3: is that really the way that we should regard them? Now?
42:51
Speaker 3: They've they wrote a separate press release with their highlights appended,
42:56
Speaker 3: which will just show on screen now and list the
43:00
Speaker 3: events that they have played quite a significant hand in.
43:04
Speaker 3: And I think one has to regard this in an
43:05
Speaker 3: information context was the Novichok attack in Salisbury twenty eighteen,
43:10
Speaker 3: counter terror Manchester Arena and seven to seven noted in
43:14
Speaker 3: particular the COVID nineteen pandemic, various military operations, particularly Iraq
43:19
Speaker 3: and Afghanistan, global health and resilience with Ibola earmarked, and
43:24
Speaker 3: support Ukraine of course quote since Russia's illegal invasion. Now,
43:29
Speaker 3: I would say that might constitute twenty five years of propaganda,
43:33
Speaker 3: and for that they are being rewarded with five hundred
43:36
Speaker 3: and eighty million to build a new facility. Now, if
43:39
Speaker 3: you don't necessarily go along with the suggestion that it
43:43
Speaker 3: is propaganda, I would just refer back to what they
43:45
Speaker 3: produced in twenty twenty in order to terrify people who
43:51
Speaker 3: were considering doing something as reckless as meeting other human
43:55
Speaker 3: beings during the time that was described as the pandemic.
43:58
Speaker 3: And we see on screen here and ludicrously complicated diagram
44:03
Speaker 3: showing the various permutations of such a meeting as to
44:07
Speaker 3: whether you're inside outside, whether you had ten face masks
44:09
Speaker 3: on or clubs, or whether you could breathe or sing,
44:12
Speaker 3: or any of those sorts of things. And of course
44:14
Speaker 3: it could become much more dangerous with everybody being colored
44:17
Speaker 3: in red, which meant nearly certain death. But the point
44:21
Speaker 3: really to come out of what's happened now is related
44:25
Speaker 3: in part to the way they're going to name their
44:27
Speaker 3: new laboratory. This is going to be committed to their
44:29
Speaker 3: Port and Down facility in five hundred and eighty million,
44:32
Speaker 3: they say is going to go into creating a capability
44:36
Speaker 3: that's named after Ernest Bevin. Now that is I think
44:39
Speaker 3: an interesting point. It's being suggested that the reason for
44:43
Speaker 3: that is because he was a fundamental proponent and driver
44:46
Speaker 3: of the creation of NATO. And how we are, of
44:50
Speaker 3: course now to be made aware that what they're doing
44:53
Speaker 3: very much supports the Rizon depth of NATO and all
44:57
Speaker 3: of that kind of thing. But actually there's rather more
44:59
Speaker 3: t than that, as pointed out by the Dissident magazine,
45:05
Speaker 3: And I just point in particular to the highlighting of
45:10
Speaker 3: some memos that came out of the Foreign Office whilst
45:13
Speaker 3: Bevin was holding the post of Foreign Secretary in the
45:16
Speaker 3: late nineteen forties, And of course it should be pointed
45:19
Speaker 3: out at this moment that he was a very very
45:23
Speaker 3: keen anti Zionist and strongly opposed the creation of the
45:27
Speaker 3: State of Israel. So it is absolutely a very interesting
45:31
Speaker 3: naming of this facility. But from the memorandum by the
45:34
Speaker 3: Secretary of State Foreign Affairs as he then was in
45:36
Speaker 3: January nineteen forty eight, he wrote, the only new machinery
45:40
Speaker 3: required would be a small section in the Foreign Office
45:43
Speaker 3: to collect information concerning communist policy, tactics and propaganda. Of course, sorry,
45:48
Speaker 3: I should have prefixed this by saying this was to
45:51
Speaker 3: counter the specter of communism. He goes on to say,
45:55
Speaker 3: and to provide material for our anti communist publicity through
45:59
Speaker 3: our mission and information services abroad. The fullest cooperation of
46:03
Speaker 3: the BBC overseas services would be desirable, but this and
46:08
Speaker 3: the provision of the necessary material by the Central Office
46:11
Speaker 3: of Information would be arranged through the usual channels. Now
46:16
Speaker 3: what he's talking about there is the creation of the
46:19
Speaker 3: Information Research Department, the IRD, which ran from nineteen forty
46:23
Speaker 3: eight to nineteen seventy seven and was absolutely a government
46:28
Speaker 3: propaganda outfit. And here we are in twenty twenty six,
46:31
Speaker 3: having looking at DSTL being given five hundred and eighty
46:35
Speaker 3: million pounds to perhaps conduct activities of a very very
46:41
Speaker 3: similar nature. I would refer you to an article that
46:45
Speaker 3: David Miller wrote last year, which does reference the rd
46:49
Speaker 3: its creation and some of the influence that it had.
46:52
Speaker 3: How the British intelligence network of AstroTurf Muslim civil society
46:56
Speaker 3: groups is kept secret and deniable. So I think there's
47:01
Speaker 3: a lot more to this than meets the eye. But again,
47:04
Speaker 3: I think throughout the news program so far, we should
47:07
Speaker 3: regard all of these things as absolutely falling in line
47:10
Speaker 3: together the Defense investment Plan, the creation of a new
47:13
Speaker 3: facility with DSTL, and indeed even the activities of Black Qube. Mike,
47:19
Speaker 3: I'd be interested in your comments in particular given their
47:23
Speaker 3: sort of pedigree.
47:24
Speaker 1: Well, indeed, I mean I think you've hit the nail
47:26
Speaker 1: on the head there, and just speaking of the Information
47:30
Speaker 1: Research Department that as success or that, of course, we
47:34
Speaker 1: should never forget this integrity initiative and another example of
47:38
Speaker 1: exactly the same type of propaganda operation. Just one quick correction, Charles,
47:46
Speaker 1: the magazine was called Discent, not Dissident, and so we
47:51
Speaker 1: should we should mention that is that is that still published?
47:56
Speaker 7: Yeah?
47:56
Speaker 3: It is, yeah, absolutely, son. My apologies to the publishers
48:01
Speaker 3: and everybody involved with the magazine. What a silly syllable
48:04
Speaker 3: to insert decent magazine. It absolutely is. It's still running
48:08
Speaker 3: and it's actually that the article. There's a link to
48:10
Speaker 3: that in the show notes, and it is completely fascinating
48:12
Speaker 3: to read because it's it's one of three memos, and
48:16
Speaker 3: it makes it very very clear that coming out of
48:18
Speaker 3: the Foreign Office at that time, you know, alongside Bevin's
48:22
Speaker 3: strident views on Israel, was exactly this setup of a
48:27
Speaker 3: propaganda organization. And of course, you know, note the use
48:31
Speaker 3: of the BBC, I mean, Veressa, I daresay you've got
48:34
Speaker 3: a comment on the certainly the use of the BBC,
48:37
Speaker 3: the sort of the overseas contingent and how that bears
48:39
Speaker 3: relation to today.
48:42
Speaker 5: Well yeah, and plus the fact that my father was
48:45
Speaker 5: actual Middle East advisor to Ernest Bevin and therefore short
48:50
Speaker 5: up his anti Zionist views royally. But yeah, of course,
48:55
Speaker 5: I mean no surprise that the BBC should be weaponized
48:59
Speaker 5: as really.
49:03
Speaker 3: Fantastic. Okay, well, more on that an extra I think.
49:06
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, Vanessa. Let's come back to you then and
49:10
Speaker 1: bring us up to date with what's going on in Lebanon.
49:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, very quickly.
49:16
Speaker 5: I also wanted to add that humanitarian rights lawyer Than
49:20
Speaker 5: Covelet Coz, a US citizen was actually detained in Liverpool
49:26
Speaker 5: airport I think yesterday and held for a number of
49:30
Speaker 5: hours on his views on Palestine and Iran, et cetera,
49:34
Speaker 5: and had his phone and laptop withheld. So we can
49:38
Speaker 5: talk about that more in extra but it definitely seems
49:42
Speaker 5: to be ramping up in the fact that they can
49:44
Speaker 5: detain a US citizen on top of all the British
49:47
Speaker 5: citizens that they've been detaining of course. Yeah, So first
49:54
Speaker 5: of all, regarding Lebanon, Iran, the Lebanon Israel Memorandum of Understanding,
50:01
Speaker 5: the Iranian Memorandum of Understanding, both of which of course
50:04
Speaker 5: are collapsing under the weight of betrayal and just constitutional
50:14
Speaker 5: criminality actually in Lebanon. I suggest people listen to Mine
50:19
Speaker 5: and Mike's latest conversation the Aria Podcast, episode eleven, where
50:23
Speaker 5: we go into detail about everything regional, but particularly the
50:28
Speaker 5: build up of al Qaeda ISIS forces on the border
50:32
Speaker 5: with Lebanon in service of course to Israel. But coming
50:38
Speaker 5: back to Lebanon and Israel's violation of the latest kind
50:44
Speaker 5: of attempted or facade of a ceasefire. Yesterday there were
50:49
Speaker 5: reports of an explosion in an area in the south.
50:53
Speaker 5: Some media outlets described it as a nuclear explosion. You
50:57
Speaker 5: can see why these were the images put out by
51:02
Speaker 5: Mossad and the IOF. The tremor from the explosions was
51:09
Speaker 5: felt both in the northern occupied territories but also deep
51:15
Speaker 5: into Lebanese territory because this was on the border. And
51:20
Speaker 5: what the IOF claimed, of course, is that they were
51:23
Speaker 5: effectively destroying underground tunnels belonging to hes Blah where they
51:28
Speaker 5: stored missiles. What in reality they did. This is satellite
51:32
Speaker 5: imagery of the village of magdals Soon in the south
51:37
Speaker 5: and you can see the destruction after this explosion. What
51:41
Speaker 5: they also did was to divide the village into two.
51:46
Speaker 5: So basically now there's a massive chasm from the explosion,
51:50
Speaker 5: dividing the village into two. And if we actually look
51:54
Speaker 5: at the map we might be able to see historically
51:56
Speaker 5: what they're trying to do. So I've marked on the
51:59
Speaker 5: Maeules Zoo, which you can see is right on the
52:01
Speaker 5: border with the occupied territories. So now effectively they divide
52:05
Speaker 5: it into two. One half of it will be absorbed
52:08
Speaker 5: into the so called buffer zone and the other half
52:12
Speaker 5: will be eventually separated and is still at the moment
52:17
Speaker 5: in Lebanese territory, not that the buffer zone is not
52:21
Speaker 5: Lebanese territory, just to be very clear. But if you
52:24
Speaker 5: look over there to the right, you have Majdal Shams
52:29
Speaker 5: in Syria or part of the Goland territories that of
52:33
Speaker 5: course were illegally annexed by Israel, and effectively they did
52:38
Speaker 5: exactly the same thing there. If you go to Majdal Shams,
52:41
Speaker 5: which I have done, you will see that you can
52:45
Speaker 5: literally walk up to the barbed wire separation fence and
52:48
Speaker 5: you can shout at people across who will come and
52:51
Speaker 5: talk to you. And if we just have a look
52:55
Speaker 5: at what they actually did in Magdal Zoon a few
52:58
Speaker 5: days after the announcements of the Lebanese is really framework agreement,
53:02
Speaker 5: There is really army blop an entire Lebanese village destroying
53:07
Speaker 5: everything in it under the pretext as I said, and
53:09
Speaker 5: military tunnel existed, the enemy did not, as the agreement
53:14
Speaker 5: is supposed to stipulate, hand the site over to the
53:17
Speaker 5: Lebanese Army to inspect it, clear it, confiscate any alleged weapons,
53:22
Speaker 5: and do so under the supervision of a third party.
53:25
Speaker 5: Instead of course, what did it do it unilaterally demolished
53:29
Speaker 5: the entire village. And there are now reports of the
53:33
Speaker 5: US sending army personnel into Lebanon under the pretext of
53:39
Speaker 5: managing the deconfliction. Of course, we all know that this
53:45
Speaker 5: is nonsense. They're going to be here to effectively pressure
53:49
Speaker 5: the Lebanese resistant to disarm.
53:53
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Vanessa, Charles back to you then,
53:56
Speaker 1: and well, people buying goods from the Europe going to
54:00
Speaker 1: be paying war? Is that the case?
54:04
Speaker 3: Well, it seems sin and I suppose to some extent.
54:06
Speaker 3: This follows Friday's news program, of course, referencing the fact
54:09
Speaker 3: that ten years ago a lot of people in the
54:12
Speaker 3: United Kingdom voted that the United Kingdom should not really
54:15
Speaker 3: be part of the European Union, and how that's sort
54:17
Speaker 3: of working out. But yes, we have an announcement from
54:20
Speaker 3: the European Commission just on screen now saying that from
54:25
Speaker 3: today there is to be a three pounds levy on
54:29
Speaker 3: what are called low value parcels. I think a critical
54:33
Speaker 3: detail is that the new duty would apply per item
54:36
Speaker 3: based on tariff classification, not quantity. Now that might sound
54:39
Speaker 3: like gobbledegoop, but essentially each different thing that you buy
54:42
Speaker 3: that's coming from outside of the European Union will incur
54:46
Speaker 3: this duty. And of course the idea supposedly was that
54:50
Speaker 3: it would be the importers that would have been dealing
54:53
Speaker 3: with this rather than the consumer themselves, but of course
54:57
Speaker 3: we know that absolutely this will be lost on to
55:01
Speaker 3: the consumer. Now, how is that going to affect anybody
55:04
Speaker 3: within the United Kingdom where we look at the Northern
55:06
Speaker 3: Ireland Assembly having put out their research paper on the
55:10
Speaker 3: end of EU customs duty relief for small value goods
55:14
Speaker 3: in Northern Ireland, and although the timeline is slightly different,
55:19
Speaker 3: people in Northern Ireland will in effect find themselves subject
55:22
Speaker 3: to exactly the same charge. But where does the money go?
55:25
Speaker 3: That is the question and this was asked in Parliament
55:29
Speaker 3: last year written question EU Sorry UK Trade with the
55:34
Speaker 3: EU And the answer of course is that HMRC is
55:37
Speaker 3: responsible for collecting customs duties on behalf of the UK
55:41
Speaker 3: government of the European Union. So what happens here is
55:44
Speaker 3: the under the Windsor framework, where goods are moving from
55:47
Speaker 3: Great Britain to the EU, h will charge the EU duty.
55:52
Speaker 3: This duty is paid to hmr CP primitted to the EU.
55:56
Speaker 3: So just another indication of the way in which the
55:59
Speaker 3: British tax papair in this case the Northern Irish taxpayer
56:04
Speaker 3: is falls foul of the charge that's made by the
56:07
Speaker 3: European Union, but the money in fact goes into HM treasury.
56:12
Speaker 3: A bizarre situation, one might say, unless, of course you'd
56:15
Speaker 3: followed the activities of the European Unions. It's its inception,
56:19
Speaker 3: of course. The other big change to the EU's the
56:21
Speaker 3: Common Agricultural Policy cease to exist for the British and
56:26
Speaker 3: we've been left with a variety of environmental land management schemes,
56:29
Speaker 3: the SFI, the Sustainable Farming Incentive being one of them,
56:32
Speaker 3: which has been absolutely mired in chaos. That there was
56:34
Speaker 3: an announcement just yesterday that there is now to be
56:38
Speaker 3: another tranch made available. So their big press release, first
56:42
Speaker 3: application window for a simpler, fairer and more accessible SFI.
56:46
Speaker 3: That makes it sound wonderful. The truth of it is
56:48
Speaker 3: that this applies to holdings of between three and fifty
56:52
Speaker 3: hectares and they say that there's sixty million pounds available
56:56
Speaker 3: and now if you do some very basic arithmetic, that
56:58
Speaker 3: works out as being possibly one thousand pounds per holding.
57:03
Speaker 3: So this is the way in which the government is
57:06
Speaker 3: treating its farmers at a time where describing farming and
57:11
Speaker 3: food as being critical national infrastructure as part of the
57:16
Speaker 3: overall drive to enhance national security.
57:19
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, thanks Charles. I let's just finish with the
57:23
Speaker 1: issue of fertility and well, as most people are aware,
57:27
Speaker 1: fertility rits around the world are collapsing. But and if
57:31
Speaker 1: things weren't distillying enough, had mid still seems to be
57:35
Speaker 1: the direction of travel. Here you can see on the
57:38
Speaker 1: graph that even going back to the mid nineteen eighties
57:44
Speaker 1: in the US, the UK, and the EU, we were
57:47
Speaker 1: not breeding at a rate sufficient to replace the population.
57:52
Speaker 1: But anyway, that situation is getting worse. But don't worry.
57:57
Speaker 1: One company Conception is writing to the rescue because, as
58:00
Speaker 1: we all know, there are no opportunities to be had
58:04
Speaker 1: in finding out why birth rates are collapsing and fixing
58:07
Speaker 1: the underlying causes. Know the opportunities are in growing humans
58:11
Speaker 1: in a test tube and removing all the nasty human
58:14
Speaker 1: unpleasantness of actual sex from the argument. So Conceptions mission,
58:19
Speaker 1: they say is to turn stem cells into human eggs
58:22
Speaker 1: and redefine fertility. And they say that they have generated
58:25
Speaker 1: the first early human egg cells derived from stem cells.
58:29
Speaker 1: After performing a simple blood draw, we converted blood cells
58:32
Speaker 1: into stem cells and then coax the those stem cells
58:35
Speaker 1: into becoming miniature human ovaries that contain the early eggs
58:41
Speaker 1: while they still work ahead to grow these eggs to
58:43
Speaker 1: full maturity. We think this is a major scientific advance.
58:47
Speaker 1: So yes, the message there is let's all monetize the
58:51
Speaker 1: collapse in birth rates and not discuss the environmental toxicity
58:55
Speaker 1: that we all live in these days, whether caused by microplastics, pesticides,
59:00
Speaker 1: or electromagnetic radiation, not to mention the economic disaster which
59:04
Speaker 1: governments have created, which means people can't afford to have
59:06
Speaker 1: children anymore. But something to consider here, and I don't
59:10
Speaker 1: know if you'll have time, Charles, but just we've thought
59:13
Speaker 1: would be good. But something to consider here is a
59:14
Speaker 1: long term impact of research involving human conception, IVF and
59:19
Speaker 1: so on, Because, of course, we might say that genetics
59:23
Speaker 1: and evolution don't fully explain how humans exist. And while
59:28
Speaker 1: these people are running ahead with this research without worrying
59:32
Speaker 1: too much about what it is, it actually creates the
59:35
Speaker 1: next generation. Because it's not just about DNA, it may
59:38
Speaker 1: well involve things like gut bacteria, passing from mother to child,
59:42
Speaker 1: a selection of the correct egg or sperm out of
59:45
Speaker 1: millions some other, as yet unidentified process at work, and
59:51
Speaker 1: if these effects are bypassed with artificial conception, we might
59:55
Speaker 1: end up with humans which are the strong, aren't the smart,
59:57
Speaker 1: aren't as well adapted to the modern world, and so on.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: The effect might seem to be small with each generation,
1:00:06
Speaker 1: but after several generations, the combination of the effect would
1:00:10
Speaker 1: end up potentially at being something quite meaningful. We're already
1:00:15
Speaker 1: seeing this as the result of environmental toxicity already mentioned,
1:00:20
Speaker 1: but also lifestyle changes and the increasingly the impact of
1:00:24
Speaker 1: mobile phones in AI even are affecting our ability to
1:00:27
Speaker 1: live in this world. So this takes us a pretty
1:00:31
Speaker 1: negative direction when you take this whole lot as a whole.
1:00:39
Speaker 3: I think it does. I think the main point to
1:00:42
Speaker 3: make with it is that the unintended and unforeseen consequences
1:00:46
Speaker 3: are longer than any list I could really imagine. I
1:00:51
Speaker 3: think there's a lot more to talk about in this
1:00:52
Speaker 3: specific regard, But exactly like you say, this is yet
1:00:57
Speaker 3: another instance where the factors that do in fact to
1:01:00
Speaker 3: attain directly to it, all those that you list are
1:01:03
Speaker 3: completely disregarded and the idea that this, if it's sort
1:01:08
Speaker 3: of you know, associated with health, which of course it is,
1:01:12
Speaker 3: is just treated in the same way that everything else is,
1:01:15
Speaker 3: which is that there's a fake answer for it, which
1:01:19
Speaker 3: is to all intents purposes, what this is. Just as
1:01:21
Speaker 3: a side note, I would be very interested to know
1:01:24
Speaker 3: whether the church commissioners have had any involvement in the
1:01:29
Speaker 3: funding of this sort of an operation, because over the
1:01:33
Speaker 3: past few years they have had serious equity holdings in
1:01:36
Speaker 3: many organizations that have been involved in exactly this sort
1:01:39
Speaker 3: of research. So I just put that out there and
1:01:42
Speaker 3: if anyone has any information on that, I'd be very
1:01:44
Speaker 3: interested to hear back.
1:01:46
Speaker 1: Thank you for that. Yes, that's a very good question. Okay,
1:01:48
Speaker 1: well we have to leave the news there for today,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: So thank you very much Charles and Vanessa for everything,
1:01:55
Speaker 1: and thanks to everyone that's been watching. Don't forget Jerem
1:01:58
Speaker 1: Carl Tonight. I was interview with Pat Thomas tomorrow and
1:02:02
Speaker 1: we will be back for another use at one pm
1:02:05
Speaker 1: on Friday. We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us.
1:02:07
Speaker 1: Bye bye.