Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 11th March 2026

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UK Column News — 11th March 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, eleventh of March 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 Mike Rubinson. Joining me by videoing today
0:16
Speaker 1: are Charles Mallett and Vanessa Billy. Later in the program,
0:19
Speaker 1: we're going to be reporting on the release of the
0:21
Speaker 1: Mandelson files or not because they haven't been released on time. Today,
0:25
Speaker 1: the UK Government public consultation on Digital ID and the
0:29
Speaker 1: UK Government's Sovereign AI Fund and the pushback on AI
0:33
Speaker 1: by book publishers, and also the continuing impact of the
0:36
Speaker 1: war in Iran on the people of Lebanon as well
0:39
Speaker 1: as the people here in the UK. But we're going
0:42
Speaker 1: to begin today with Charles. Let me welcome to the program.
0:45
Speaker 1: The continuing defensive posture by the British in the Middle East.
0:52
Speaker 2: That's right, Mike, Good afternoon, Good afternoon, all. Yes, defensive posture,
0:55
Speaker 2: or at least whatever that is supposed to mean. Of course,
0:57
Speaker 2: it's wrapped up in the idea of something called collective
1:00
Speaker 2: self defense and other such terms which are rather hard
1:04
Speaker 2: to pin down. But to get an idea of what
1:06
Speaker 2: this does look like, we will go to the BBC,
1:08
Speaker 2: who reported just yesterday about the activities at RAF Fairford,
1:13
Speaker 2: where we see that their headline now US military prepare
1:16
Speaker 2: explosive ordinance at UK air base. So as the caption suggests,
1:21
Speaker 2: this is what a defensive posture looks like, and of
1:25
Speaker 2: course Starmer maintaining that we are not involved in any
1:27
Speaker 2: way in offensive actions. Now we're referring here to RIF Fairford.
1:33
Speaker 2: We've got some footage running on screen now of the
1:36
Speaker 2: B one and B fifty two bombers which have been
1:39
Speaker 2: coming in and out. This footage was shot at RAF
1:41
Speaker 2: Fairford just yesterday. So there is absolutely no doubt that
1:45
Speaker 2: the United Kingdom is being used specifically to conduct defensive
1:49
Speaker 2: operations in Iran, which of course we've talked about before
1:51
Speaker 2: and is very obvious to anyone paying attention. So Starmer's
1:54
Speaker 2: protestations do not add up too very much. Now that's
1:59
Speaker 2: the summary is sort of the air picture. Now as
2:02
Speaker 2: to what's going on at see the Raal Navy announced
2:06
Speaker 2: yesterday that HMS Dragon, the Type forty five destroyer, has
2:11
Speaker 2: been deployed from Portsmouth to the eastern Mediterranean. So as
2:16
Speaker 2: the moving image shows, at least she is able to sail,
2:19
Speaker 2: not quite under her own steam, because she has of
2:21
Speaker 2: course being pulled by a tug there, but we hope
2:23
Speaker 2: that she has got away without further incident. Now what's
2:26
Speaker 2: been interesting is the optics really on this. We've got
2:29
Speaker 2: a piece from the news, a local publication down in Portsmouth.
2:33
Speaker 2: And this is not a criticism, of course, of any
2:35
Speaker 2: of the people who are actually involved, because it's a
2:37
Speaker 2: perfect natural reaction. But the image on screens shows families
2:40
Speaker 2: waving Union flags, waving HMS Dragon or indeed drag On
2:45
Speaker 2: as she should really be known, because that's no doubt
2:47
Speaker 2: what the war will do. But the families there are
2:49
Speaker 2: shown waving and I would say this image is very
2:52
Speaker 2: much evocative of the Falklands. And of course it's very
2:55
Speaker 2: important to point out the distinction between the conflict in
2:58
Speaker 2: Iran now and what was at stake back in nineteen
3:01
Speaker 2: eighty two, two totally different things. Despite the fact that
3:06
Speaker 2: this is quite clearly something that is being invoked now.
3:10
Speaker 2: John Healy tweeted about what was needing to be done
3:13
Speaker 2: in order to make this possible, because of course there
3:15
Speaker 2: was quite a bit of back and forth about whether
3:17
Speaker 2: Dragon was going to be ready in time or not,
3:19
Speaker 2: and he says I have only praise for our Royal
3:21
Speaker 2: Navy personnel and civilian teams who worked flat out to
3:25
Speaker 2: prepare HMS Dragon for deployment. What is normally six weeks
3:28
Speaker 2: of work was completed in just six days, a remarkable
3:31
Speaker 2: effort around the clock. Well, funny enough, we've got a
3:34
Speaker 2: video that captures exactly how that does look. And if
3:38
Speaker 2: this is the Royal Navy working flat out, then one
3:41
Speaker 2: does rather imagine what they would ordinarily get done in
3:45
Speaker 2: six weeks here because the question I've put there is
3:50
Speaker 2: well or other The statement is there does seem to
3:52
Speaker 2: be a certain sense of urgency missing. So not to
3:56
Speaker 2: say that hard work hasn't gone into this, but it's
4:00
Speaker 2: for a navy that should really have a high readiness capability,
4:03
Speaker 2: it's not exactly doing terribly well on the point scoring
4:06
Speaker 2: side of it. I should also point out that from
4:09
Speaker 2: the row Fleet Auxiliary LINUM has been put on standby
4:13
Speaker 2: from Gibraltar also to move to the area, but specifically
4:17
Speaker 2: with a remit to deliver humanitarian assistance. And what's not
4:21
Speaker 2: been qualified is exactly where that would be relevant or
4:27
Speaker 2: indeed who would be concerned or quite why. So there
4:30
Speaker 2: are a lot of unanswered questions going on in amongst
4:35
Speaker 2: all of this, and none more so than in the
4:38
Speaker 2: case of HMS Prince of Wales, the aircraft carrier, which
4:42
Speaker 2: of course has been in the news for some considerable
4:44
Speaker 2: period of time, not least because it was in the
4:46
Speaker 2: Inno Pacific sort of trade tour last year, which was
4:49
Speaker 2: actually classified as being an operation. But here we have
4:53
Speaker 2: BFBS announcing that as part of Operation Epic Fury. They're saying,
4:59
Speaker 2: this is why the UK can't just send the Prince
5:02
Speaker 2: of Wales to the Gulf.
5:03
Speaker 3: Now.
5:03
Speaker 2: It is curious that they wouldn't be able to deploy
5:05
Speaker 2: straight away because Prince of Wales had been warned off
5:08
Speaker 2: to go to the High North to the Arctic, and okay,
5:10
Speaker 2: you could say, well this is going to be a
5:11
Speaker 2: different climate and therefore there would be adjustments to be made,
5:15
Speaker 2: but nonetheless there should have been a situation in which
5:18
Speaker 2: readiness was certainly attainable. The Financial Times reinforces the confusion
5:23
Speaker 2: here by saying stating outright that they've spoken to officials
5:27
Speaker 2: saying that the aircraft carrier is not going to the
5:31
Speaker 2: Middle East at all, so that seems quite final and
5:35
Speaker 2: exactly where they've come by that information is not quite clear.
5:38
Speaker 3: Now.
5:38
Speaker 2: What I'm going to do now is just dip into
5:39
Speaker 2: some of the UK column analysis on this, because Brian
5:42
Speaker 2: Garrish and I had a conversation which is wrapped up
5:45
Speaker 2: in the episode four of Military Matters, and this was
5:47
Speaker 2: recorded on Tuesday, the third of March, and this is
5:51
Speaker 2: Brian speculating on the nature of aircraft carrier warfare in
5:56
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six.
5:59
Speaker 4: And America has been able over a great many years
6:02
Speaker 4: to deploy huge numbers of aircraft into a theater of operations.
6:08
Speaker 4: In many cases that one, certainly two carriers will be
6:12
Speaker 4: delivering more aircraft than many air forces owned as a
6:18
Speaker 4: total thing. So they could bring those aircraft into theater,
6:22
Speaker 4: and they had the ability to dominate the air environment
6:27
Speaker 4: with surveillance and putting up the fighters and carrying out
6:32
Speaker 4: the attacks. This time it's different for all of the
6:37
Speaker 4: Bravado that it's a huge hundred thousand the latest aircraft
6:43
Speaker 4: carrier out there, Abram Lincoln. The reality is that it's
6:47
Speaker 4: facing weapons systems which can destroy it. Now, whether the
6:52
Speaker 4: Iranians have got those systems, and in particular I'm saying
6:57
Speaker 4: hypersonic missiles or very fast missiles which are capable of
7:03
Speaker 4: engaging a target at sea. Have the Iranians got those?
7:07
Speaker 4: We don't know. We may be about to find out.
7:10
Speaker 4: But if they have one hit ends the American dream.
7:16
Speaker 4: There's no ifsaw butts about it, because it says the
7:19
Speaker 4: era of the carrier is over. And I'm watching what's
7:23
Speaker 4: happening here and I'm thinking, are we about to see
7:26
Speaker 4: a conflict where the whole nature of sea power has changed?
7:31
Speaker 4: Because the carrier's demonstrated that, like the battleship, they've passed
7:36
Speaker 4: their prime.
7:41
Speaker 2: For anybody who has watched UK column for more than
7:44
Speaker 2: five minutes, it will not surprise you to know that
7:46
Speaker 2: Brian was absolutely on the button with his commentary. And
7:50
Speaker 2: so we look now to Defense Security Asia who have
7:54
Speaker 2: reported on exactly what Brian was projecting would happen, which
7:58
Speaker 2: is that the Abraham lincol And, in the words of
8:01
Speaker 2: Defense Security Agent, was forced to flee and this was
8:04
Speaker 2: after four cruise missiles were fired at it. Now, essentially
8:06
Speaker 2: this is breaking new ground. Okay, incorrect analogy because obviously
8:10
Speaker 2: were at sea, but this is this is changing the
8:12
Speaker 2: dimension of what's called A two A D, which is
8:16
Speaker 2: area denial sorry, anti access area denial, and this fundamentally
8:23
Speaker 2: changes the predicament that the aircraft carrier is in in
8:26
Speaker 2: terms of both logistics and combat effectiveness, because of course
8:30
Speaker 2: it's not able to deploy aircraft with the same element
8:32
Speaker 2: of speed having to move much further away from the
8:35
Speaker 2: coast than it was, and also it means that every
8:38
Speaker 2: element of its logistic chain becomes far more complicated. So
8:42
Speaker 2: that was I think credit to the UK column analysis
8:45
Speaker 2: on that, and then the second commentary was on what
8:48
Speaker 2: may or may not happen should the British aircraft carryer
8:50
Speaker 2: Prince of Wales deploy.
8:54
Speaker 4: If the you know, one of our carriers does go
8:56
Speaker 4: out there, nobody should be under any illusion they will
9:02
Speaker 4: be regarded as a second rate player by the Americans.
9:07
Speaker 4: They will be given a role, But the thing which
9:12
Speaker 4: I think is increasingly obvious is that there is now
9:15
Speaker 4: disrespect from the Americans for not only UK's political performance
9:21
Speaker 4: but also military performance, and I think the carrier would
9:26
Speaker 4: be given a specific role over there. Yes, obviously there's
9:31
Speaker 4: got to be some former command and control, integration and
9:35
Speaker 4: building the air picture, but essentially the Brits won't be
9:38
Speaker 4: seen as the savior in that theater. I think the
9:42
Speaker 4: Americans could regard them as another nuisance they'd not deal with.
9:49
Speaker 2: No, he might not be pleased to hear me suggest this,
9:51
Speaker 2: but it's almost as though Brian had the ear of
9:53
Speaker 2: President Donald J. Trump, because of course he took to
9:56
Speaker 2: truth Social to say exactly what it was that Brian
9:59
Speaker 2: had been considering. And he says that maybe the greatest
10:05
Speaker 2: allies finally giving serious thoughts sending aircraft carris to the
10:07
Speaker 2: Middle East. But that's okay, we don't need them any longer.
10:10
Speaker 2: We don't need people that join wars after we've already won.
10:14
Speaker 2: So in effect, the United Kingdom will be absolutely marginalized.
10:18
Speaker 2: And this does go back to the beginning of this,
10:20
Speaker 2: which is the idea that kirst Armor is trying to
10:24
Speaker 2: take a position of this so called defensive posture whilst
10:28
Speaker 2: at the same time taking actions that almost seem intentionally
10:32
Speaker 2: designed to alienate every single support base that he has.
10:36
Speaker 2: Because of course, those that consider that more offensive action
10:41
Speaker 2: should take place will not certainly be satisfied by this position,
10:45
Speaker 2: and equally, those that believe that pursuit to peace at
10:48
Speaker 2: all costs should be pursued again will not be satisfied. Clearly,
10:51
Speaker 2: the Americans aren't satisfied as allies, and the list goes on.
10:55
Speaker 2: Now I'd like to sort of hand over to Mike
10:57
Speaker 2: for a bit of commentary on what I've just been
11:00
Speaker 2: going through, but just to finish off as a as
11:04
Speaker 2: something just to go into the episode four of Military Matters,
11:07
Speaker 2: which is now up on the UK column website. I
11:10
Speaker 2: really would recommend that you do have a listen to that.
11:14
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Charles. Let's well, we
11:17
Speaker 1: will talk about this during UK col News Extra, which
11:20
Speaker 1: of course if your UK colun member immediately follows this program,
11:25
Speaker 1: so stay on the stream for that. But let's stay
11:28
Speaker 1: on the issue of Iran in the meantime, and Vanessa,
11:31
Speaker 1: welcome you to the program. What is the situation? Has
11:35
Speaker 1: there been major escalation? It's very difficult to get honest
11:39
Speaker 1: commentary on this because it seems that we're not hearing
11:42
Speaker 1: the full pigure, not getting the full picture from the
11:45
Speaker 1: corporate media.
11:47
Speaker 5: Well, absolutely not. I mean Israel effectively has a blanket
11:51
Speaker 5: d notice on all media coverage of what's happening inside Israel.
11:57
Speaker 5: And in response to Brian's question, and yes, Heiron does
12:01
Speaker 5: have hypersonic missiles and they have already been used in this.
12:07
Speaker 3: War.
12:08
Speaker 5: So I want to cover basically when you're talking about
12:13
Speaker 5: not getting truthful reports, Mike, I want to cover President
12:17
Speaker 5: Trump's address in the last twenty four hours. So let's
12:20
Speaker 5: just roll the first section.
12:23
Speaker 3: Jan it's we have the greatest military in the world.
12:28
Speaker 3: We have the greatest equipment in the world by far.
12:30
Speaker 3: You see that no matter where we go, you still
12:33
Speaker 3: need the people, though to operate it and to use it.
12:37
Speaker 3: And those are the people that we cherish. Even after
12:40
Speaker 3: we obliterated their key nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer,
12:45
Speaker 3: they never negotiated into good faith. They still continued to
12:48
Speaker 3: say we want to build nuclear we want enrichment at
12:52
Speaker 3: levels that were unacceptable, and they even turned down an
12:55
Speaker 3: offer for unlimited free nuclear fuel forever for civilian purposes.
13:01
Speaker 3: We had people offering them free nuclear fuel. They weren't
13:06
Speaker 3: interested in that because they wanted to build a nuclear weapon.
13:10
Speaker 3: So instead the regime was trying to reconstitute its weapons
13:14
Speaker 3: program at a different site. They couldn't go back to
13:17
Speaker 3: where they were the three sites that we obliterated, but
13:21
Speaker 3: they were starting work at another site, a different site,
13:24
Speaker 3: different kind of a site, and that was protected by granite.
13:29
Speaker 3: They wanted it protected. Granite's pretty good, but they wanted
13:32
Speaker 3: it protected by a lot deeper. They wanted to go
13:37
Speaker 3: a lot deeper, and they started the process.
13:42
Speaker 5: It was protected by granite, which the majority of the
13:45
Speaker 5: missile cities are, of course, because they're built under the
13:48
Speaker 5: mountain ranges in Iran. But even the Pentagon has challenged
13:53
Speaker 5: the absolute destruction of the nuclear energy Richmond sites in Iran.
14:00
Speaker 5: Trump is banging on about this, and then let's just
14:05
Speaker 5: play another section where basically Trump claims that they've destroyed everything,
14:09
Speaker 5: which includes around fifty or fifty one, as he said,
14:14
Speaker 5: naval vessels. Now, Iran only has ninety five vessels and
14:18
Speaker 5: as far as I could work out, only ten have
14:20
Speaker 5: been incapacitated so far. But anyway, let's play the next
14:24
Speaker 5: bit from Trump.
14:26
Speaker 3: The drone launchers are pretty well shot. But we're at
14:31
Speaker 3: over ninety percent decline in the Iranian missile launchers, which
14:35
Speaker 3: is very hard to reproduce and very hard to get.
14:40
Speaker 3: And usually what we were able to do through great equipment,
14:45
Speaker 3: a lot of smart people, as soon as they sent
14:49
Speaker 3: a missile up from a launcher, we were able to
14:51
Speaker 3: knock out that launcher within a period of five minutes.
14:54
Speaker 3: Or less accurately right on the noggin. So now we
14:59
Speaker 3: have local interceptors effectively combating Iranian drones and ore B
15:04
Speaker 3: two bombers recently dropped dozens of two thousand pound bombs
15:09
Speaker 3: to destroy missile launchers all over Iran and very deep
15:14
Speaker 3: under Iranian soil. In many cases the soil was no match.
15:19
Speaker 5: And it's very difficult not to smile during Trump's speeches.
15:27
Speaker 5: But anyway, of course, what they have hit is the
15:31
Speaker 5: Iranian spokespeople are saying ten thousand civilian sites have been
15:36
Speaker 5: hit by Israel and US so far. But I actually
15:41
Speaker 5: went to look at Israeli media headlines this morning and
15:46
Speaker 5: this is what I saw. So this is from why
15:49
Speaker 5: Not News, unrelenting nighttime shooting, which means of course missile
15:54
Speaker 5: attacks from Iran. So they clearly haven't destroyed everything, and
15:58
Speaker 5: they haven't destroyed the missile launch And then if we
16:02
Speaker 5: look again, another headline also from wynat the threat from
16:07
Speaker 5: the ground. During the war, Iran shot down Air Force
16:09
Speaker 5: drones planes maneuver to avoid being hit, so clearly the
16:13
Speaker 5: drone launchers are still very active. So again let's come
16:18
Speaker 5: back to Trump and his next claim, which is that
16:21
Speaker 5: the Strait of Hormus is totally safe and under control
16:25
Speaker 5: of American vessels. So let's listen to this.
16:29
Speaker 3: Oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without the threat
16:33
Speaker 3: of Iranian ships, drones, missiles, nuclear menace or anything. So
16:39
Speaker 3: the Strait of Hormuz, who is going to remain safe?
16:44
Speaker 3: We have a lot of Navy ships there. We have
16:47
Speaker 3: the best equipment in the world inspecting for mines. Again,
16:52
Speaker 3: most of their ships are down at the bottom of
16:54
Speaker 3: the sea, but we will hit them so hard that
16:59
Speaker 3: it will not be possible for them or anybody else
17:02
Speaker 3: helping them to ever recover that section of the world
17:05
Speaker 3: they do anything.
17:09
Speaker 5: Okay, so are you paying attention? So again, why not headline?
17:14
Speaker 3: Sorry?
17:15
Speaker 5: Now, this is the Iranian parliamentary speaker which is on
17:20
Speaker 5: x an oil tank across the Strait of Hormos, escorted
17:24
Speaker 5: by US Navy ships. Maybe on PlayStation, but he's not
17:29
Speaker 5: the only one speaking about this. Again another headline in uh? No,
17:36
Speaker 5: the next one?
17:37
Speaker 3: Oh?
17:37
Speaker 5: Sorry, yes, this one? Why not? Iran has planted mines
17:42
Speaker 5: in the Strait of hormusse Trump. If not removed immediately,
17:45
Speaker 5: there will be serious consequences. And then if we look
17:49
Speaker 5: at I think it's a Reuter's headline again today, US
17:54
Speaker 5: Navy tail shipping industry hor movees escorts are not possible
17:57
Speaker 5: for now, and in fact, the Navy has been reported
18:00
Speaker 5: multiple requests for escort and they've been forced to turn
18:04
Speaker 5: them all down. So again, not very correct. And then
18:07
Speaker 5: I wanted to play This is a section of the
18:10
Speaker 5: statement from Senator Chris Murphy, and I have to say
18:13
Speaker 5: he also went on X shortly before I came on,
18:16
Speaker 5: saying that during the private briefing he was told that
18:21
Speaker 5: they're not going to destroy the nucleo sites, not that
18:23
Speaker 5: they exist. There will be no regime change, and their
18:26
Speaker 5: intention is just to continue destroying Iran's missile capability. At
18:32
Speaker 5: the same time, also, support for war in the US
18:35
Speaker 5: is less than thirty percent. But let's hear what Chris
18:38
Speaker 5: Mercy has to say.
18:41
Speaker 6: I just came from a two hour closed door classified
18:45
Speaker 6: briefing on the war just confirmed to me it's totally incoherent.
18:51
Speaker 6: We are not going to be able to achieve any
18:52
Speaker 6: of our stated objectives. But I mentioned it because it's
18:56
Speaker 6: another closed door briefing. We have bill not yet heard
19:02
Speaker 6: a full explanation as to why this is necessary. We
19:05
Speaker 6: still have had no hearings in front of Congress that
19:08
Speaker 6: the public can see. And I think that's pretty simple
19:11
Speaker 6: because if the President did what the Constitution says, come
19:15
Speaker 6: to Congress to get authorization for this war, he wouldn't
19:19
Speaker 6: get it. He's the American people would demand that their
19:22
Speaker 6: member of Congress, their senator, whether they be a Republican
19:24
Speaker 6: or Democrat, vote no. Because this is a disaster of
19:29
Speaker 6: epic proportions. It's already getting Americans killed, it's driving up
19:32
Speaker 6: prices here at home. Harder line leadership, more antithetical to
19:38
Speaker 6: us interests are strengthening inside Iran, and there's really no
19:43
Speaker 6: way that we're going to be able to destroy their
19:44
Speaker 6: nuclear program because most of it is buried underground unless
19:48
Speaker 6: we mount a ground invasion, which would be even more
19:50
Speaker 6: disastrous and more unpopular.
19:55
Speaker 5: Some very good points made there. And finally, I just
19:59
Speaker 5: want to show this little clip from actually a friend
20:02
Speaker 5: of mine in Iran, in the city of com which
20:05
Speaker 5: has been very badly hit, going to the fuel station
20:08
Speaker 5: to show that everything is operating normally. Let's play this.
20:13
Speaker 7: This is the petrol pun almost no queah, Okay, thirty
20:26
Speaker 7: litters forty is is like forty cents less than that.
20:36
Speaker 7: I don't have the exact coalition, it's less than of
20:38
Speaker 7: a dollar.
20:39
Speaker 3: That's I love you.
20:48
Speaker 5: Anyway. Interesting, we should talk more about petrol prices. Perhaps
20:52
Speaker 5: in extra.
20:54
Speaker 1: We will, because that is quite a staggering figure. And
20:57
Speaker 1: actually William h one of our producers. Thanks William, give
21:01
Speaker 1: me a list of a comparative list of petrol pass
21:03
Speaker 1: prices around the world. So we'll talk about that in
21:05
Speaker 1: extra absolutely. Okay, let's come back to the UK then,
21:10
Speaker 1: And of course the Starmer government was supposed to be
21:14
Speaker 1: releasing the Mandleson files today at twelve thirty. There was
21:18
Speaker 1: supposed to be a statement made in the House of
21:20
Speaker 1: Commons immediately after Prime Minister's questions. The statement was supposed
21:25
Speaker 1: to be made by the Chief Secretary of the Prime Minister,
21:28
Speaker 1: Darren Jones. But strangely enough, at around twelve thirty, when
21:32
Speaker 1: Prime Minister's questions was finished, MP started filing out of
21:36
Speaker 1: the building, out of the room, and they immediately got
21:40
Speaker 1: onto the topic of the Royal Mail and whether it
21:43
Speaker 1: was letting people down with respect to letter deliveries. So
21:47
Speaker 1: these files are supposed to be talking about the process
21:51
Speaker 1: that led up to Mandleson being given the role of
21:54
Speaker 1: ambassador in Washington, and the release if it happens, if
21:59
Speaker 1: it may have happened by now, but it certainly hadn't
22:02
Speaker 1: happened when they said it was going to happen. The
22:04
Speaker 1: release is because it's happening because a few weeks ago
22:08
Speaker 1: the Tories used what's known as a humble address to
22:12
Speaker 1: demand the release of the files. So, in other words,
22:15
Speaker 1: the used parliamentary procedure to create a kind of petition
22:17
Speaker 1: to the King, not that the King had anything actually
22:20
Speaker 1: to do with the outcome. So anyway, Mandelson, for his part,
22:24
Speaker 1: still under investigation for misconduct and public office, even though
22:28
Speaker 1: his passport has been returned to him. So we will
22:31
Speaker 1: see whether this result in the files being released today
22:35
Speaker 1: or not, whether it's just a matter of an r
22:37
Speaker 1: to his delay, or whether whether that's something more significant.
22:42
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I wanted to highlight this BBC
22:45
Speaker 1: article because it's headlined as you can see on screen
22:49
Speaker 1: there BBC Jeffrey Epstein had two key aids. Why do
22:53
Speaker 1: they still control his money and secrets? And what they're
22:58
Speaker 1: saying is that the FBI had a run at Epstein's
23:01
Speaker 1: mansion in New York in July twenty nineteen with a
23:03
Speaker 1: warrant which meant that they well because of they made
23:08
Speaker 1: a mistake with the war. That meant that they could
23:10
Speaker 1: not remove items that they found when they forced open
23:12
Speaker 1: the safe that included diamonds, bundles of cash, passports, binders,
23:17
Speaker 1: the CDs and hard drives. And then by the time
23:20
Speaker 1: the FBI returned with the proper pit work, everything had
23:24
Speaker 1: been removed and taken to the home of Epstein's accountant,
23:27
Speaker 1: Richard Khan. The BBC's reporting that Can is going to
23:30
Speaker 1: be giving evidence to the House Oversight Committee later today
23:34
Speaker 1: and that Epstein's lawyer, Darren Indyke will be giving evidence
23:38
Speaker 1: to the same committee on Thursday next week. That's the nineteenth. Now,
23:42
Speaker 1: these are the men who still seem to be in
23:45
Speaker 1: control of Epstein's assets and possessions. And to quote the BBC,
23:49
Speaker 1: they say that the pair allegedly received millions and fees
23:52
Speaker 1: and loans from Epstein, paid off survivors, and even facilitated
23:56
Speaker 1: course marriages for women traffic from abroad to allow them
23:59
Speaker 1: to stay in the US. And this was according to
24:01
Speaker 1: documents file in court. One lawsuit they say alleges that
24:05
Speaker 1: no one except Glenn Maxwell was quote as essential and
24:10
Speaker 1: central to Epstein's operation as in dyking Can. So the
24:13
Speaker 1: question is did the blackmail and trafficking end with the
24:17
Speaker 1: arrest of Epstein. I don't know the answer to that,
24:19
Speaker 1: but it does seem strange that neither of these men
24:22
Speaker 1: seems to have even been questioned about their possible role
24:26
Speaker 1: in Epstein's criminality until they appear in front of these committees.
24:30
Speaker 1: But of course that's not a criminal investigation. So we
24:34
Speaker 1: have to watch the space and see what happens, and
24:37
Speaker 1: also watch the space to see whether the Mandelson files
24:40
Speaker 1: are actually released today or not. But hopefully some momentum
24:45
Speaker 1: could be kept in this whole thing. But now let's
24:48
Speaker 1: just move on and remind everybody that, of course we
24:51
Speaker 1: can only do what we do with your support. If
24:54
Speaker 1: you can support us financially, there is a place to
24:57
Speaker 1: go on the front page of the uk Come website
24:59
Speaker 1: will give you explanation of how you can support us.
25:02
Speaker 1: We absolutely need that. Thank you massive, Thank you once
25:04
Speaker 1: again everybody that is supporting us financially. If you can't
25:07
Speaker 1: support us financially, then do share this program and any
25:11
Speaker 1: other articles programs that you enjoy from the UK Colm
25:14
Speaker 1: website because that of course helps us spread the word
25:17
Speaker 1: and beat the censorship agenda. Tonight Jeream is talking about
25:24
Speaker 1: a solution for growing food at prisons and schools. Joined
25:28
Speaker 1: Jeram at seven pm for that discussion. Tomorrow at one
25:32
Speaker 1: pm there's discussion with Professor Richard Enos. That is Diane
25:37
Speaker 1: Rasmussen running that. Joined Diane for that at one pm
25:41
Speaker 1: tomorrow and Charles very very briefly. Diane then is speaking
25:45
Speaker 1: at the Truth University at the weekend.
25:49
Speaker 2: She is, yes, a Truth University having been set up
25:51
Speaker 2: by Professor Glorian Moss, who UK call them readers certainly
25:54
Speaker 2: should be very familiar with. She's written many times UK
25:56
Speaker 2: call them and indeed recorded a couple of interviews and
25:59
Speaker 2: that's taking place over the weekend, and indeed some of
26:02
Speaker 2: the speakers are Diane herself, Clive to Carl and Mark Devlin.
26:06
Speaker 2: So do get along to that and there'll be a
26:08
Speaker 2: link in the show notes.
26:10
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Charles. Okay. Now the government has
26:13
Speaker 1: launched finally a consultation asking the public to share their
26:18
Speaker 1: views on how a digital ID should be implemented in
26:22
Speaker 1: the UK. This is all about, as they describe it,
26:26
Speaker 1: making public services quicker, easier and more secured access. They say,
26:31
Speaker 1: from managing free childcare payments to filling in tax returns.
26:35
Speaker 1: The consultation will seek views from people on how the
26:39
Speaker 1: system could be used to make public services work better
26:41
Speaker 1: for them and if that isn't enough for you to
26:44
Speaker 1: be extremely enthusiastic about it. They say that anyone starting
26:49
Speaker 1: a new job will use the new digital proof of
26:52
Speaker 1: identity for digital right to work checks. Of course, they
26:55
Speaker 1: initially said that this was going to be mandatory, and
26:57
Speaker 1: then they said it wasn't going to be mandatory, but
26:59
Speaker 1: the press release on a today says and I quote
27:02
Speaker 1: which will be required by the end of the parliament.
27:04
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure that they know themselves whether this
27:07
Speaker 1: is going to be mandatory or not, and so on.
27:11
Speaker 1: But the questions that they're asking in this consultation or
27:14
Speaker 1: in going to include things like at what age should
27:17
Speaker 1: you be able to get a digital ID, What information
27:19
Speaker 1: would it be useful to include, for example proof of
27:22
Speaker 1: address as well as identity, Which government services could that
27:28
Speaker 1: it could improve your experience of, for example, getting a
27:30
Speaker 1: driving license, checking your tax code. Another question might be
27:34
Speaker 1: how we make sure everyone is included and so on.
27:38
Speaker 1: So this is the types of questions that are going
27:41
Speaker 1: to be asking, and of course I'm assuming that they're
27:44
Speaker 1: going to get a significant pushback on it. But the
27:47
Speaker 1: other thing that they're doing in parallel with this, something
27:51
Speaker 1: that Ben has been warning about for a very long time,
27:53
Speaker 1: is is they're going to establish a People's Panel on
27:56
Speaker 1: Digital ID, which they say is going to bring people
27:59
Speaker 1: together across country from different backgrounds, and the panel is
28:02
Speaker 1: going to have in depth discussion, sharing different views on
28:05
Speaker 1: proposals and agreeing ways to move forward. And I'm sure
28:09
Speaker 1: DELFI technique will not be part of that in any way,
28:11
Speaker 1: shape or form, and there will be no manipulation of
28:15
Speaker 1: anybody that's involved to come to the conclusions that the
28:18
Speaker 1: government wants. I'm sure that won't happen at all anyway.
28:21
Speaker 1: The plan includes at this point integrating health and education
28:26
Speaker 1: and education data along with other stuff. But look, here's
28:29
Speaker 1: Darren Jones with a really classy demonstration of the new
28:34
Speaker 1: digital ID app, which hasn't been released yet, but that
28:36
Speaker 1: he wanted everybody to see how it's likely to work.
28:41
Speaker 8: In the future, you'll be able to get all of
28:43
Speaker 8: your government admin done in the time it takes to
28:45
Speaker 8: make a cup of tea. If I look at this
28:47
Speaker 8: example I've got here, you can see some of the
28:50
Speaker 8: tasks you're going to be able to do in the future.
28:52
Speaker 8: So I can open it here. I can see my
28:54
Speaker 8: bigle text is due to be paid pretty soon. I'll
28:57
Speaker 8: be able to just go straight to pay now see
29:00
Speaker 8: out and pay using my phone pretty easy. I can
29:05
Speaker 8: also see that I've got eligibility for childcare funding. I
29:08
Speaker 8: can check where my local bin collections are based on
29:11
Speaker 8: what my counselor telling me. And if today we're polling day,
29:14
Speaker 8: for example, if you wanted to, you'd be able to
29:16
Speaker 8: go along and use this idea as opposed to using
29:18
Speaker 8: your passport, if that's what you like to do. I
29:21
Speaker 8: can also then make sure that if I've got a
29:23
Speaker 8: new job to go to, I'll be able to share
29:25
Speaker 8: those details and make it very simple, as my Right
29:27
Speaker 8: to work check is being digitized from twenty twenty.
29:30
Speaker 3: Right.
29:30
Speaker 1: That's enough for that. So, Charles, I noticed you had
29:33
Speaker 1: your head in your hands as you were watching that.
29:37
Speaker 2: Well I did. I mean for several reasons. I'm not
29:39
Speaker 2: sure it's time to go into all of them. I mean,
29:40
Speaker 2: the first thing was it is it an either or
29:42
Speaker 2: do you either have digital ID or a cup of tea?
29:44
Speaker 2: Because that seems a strange choice to present the population with.
29:47
Speaker 2: I think the other thing is I mean, as far
29:49
Speaker 2: as he was presenting it, it really seems to be
29:51
Speaker 2: applicable to anybody whose brain might have just fallen out
29:55
Speaker 2: of their head as they were making that cup of tea.
29:57
Speaker 2: I can't really see any other use for what He's.
30:01
Speaker 1: Indeed plenty to talk about later on an extra on
30:04
Speaker 1: that as well, But in the meantime, Tony Blair and
30:08
Speaker 1: well this company that we have on screen now, Cybernetica
30:11
Speaker 1: are jointly piloting a verifiable credential system in Kenya. This
30:16
Speaker 1: is a wallet based digital credential systems. It's just exactly
30:19
Speaker 1: like being rolled out in the UK. It's aimed at
30:22
Speaker 1: managing is particularly targeted in this case at education degrees
30:26
Speaker 1: in Kenya, and the country's Public Service Commission is involved
30:30
Speaker 1: in the project now. Commenting on the project, the head
30:33
Speaker 1: of Digital Identity Technologies at cyber Netica, Van Heiberg said,
30:39
Speaker 1: the Kenyan wallet project has been a valuable journey for Cybernetica.
30:42
Speaker 1: We've we're proud to have delivered a secure, modern solution
30:46
Speaker 1: for education degree certificates with the Tony Blair Institute. This
30:50
Speaker 1: experience has strengthened our confidence in wallet technologies and potential
30:55
Speaker 1: and so on. So, Charles, I'll come back to you
30:58
Speaker 1: for a little bit of comment this because of course
31:01
Speaker 1: you're very familiar with Kenya. But here we have once
31:04
Speaker 1: again the Tony Blair Institute working hand in glove with
31:08
Speaker 1: all kinds of people to do all kinds of nasty
31:11
Speaker 1: things in that part of the world.
31:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed, most notably Oracle in fact, and this has
31:18
Speaker 2: been pushed for a long long time. I think the
31:19
Speaker 2: sinister part of this is that, in a way slightly
31:23
Speaker 2: differently to the way in which it's affecting itself here,
31:26
Speaker 2: this is very much also part of the targeting of
31:30
Speaker 2: newborns and the linking of birth certificate data with medical
31:35
Speaker 2: information and essentially getting people on the list so that
31:38
Speaker 2: pharmaceutical products are forced into children as part of this
31:42
Speaker 2: sort of digital process from basically from the start, and
31:46
Speaker 2: that the two things are just absolutely laid over the
31:48
Speaker 2: top of each other, which explains very much why there's
31:51
Speaker 2: been such a push for sort of continued improvements in
31:55
Speaker 2: healthcare and Africa. You send out teams, diagnostic teams, and
31:58
Speaker 2: then of course that's your gay as well as being
32:01
Speaker 2: able to present them with the idea that there's money
32:04
Speaker 2: to be made, not not exactly made, but compensation in
32:07
Speaker 2: all of this to be worth people's While it's very
32:10
Speaker 2: very cynical, very sinister, I would say.
32:12
Speaker 1: Yes, and staying with the UK government, what matters.
32:17
Speaker 2: Yes, well exactly, well, whatever it is, Steve Reid really
32:20
Speaker 2: wants to protect it. And he's now been bunked from Agriculture,
32:24
Speaker 2: from DEFRAH into the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local
32:27
Speaker 2: Government and he has just announced a new paper which
32:30
Speaker 2: actually follows very closely some of what Mike has just
32:32
Speaker 2: been describing. So well, just look at a video of
32:35
Speaker 2: him in the House of Commons speaking just a couple
32:39
Speaker 2: of days ago.
32:43
Speaker 9: Britain has faced global crises at many moments in our history,
32:48
Speaker 9: and we got through them by staying strong and united.
32:53
Speaker 9: Today we navigate new threats to our communities and families,
32:58
Speaker 9: and we must stand together once again against those who
33:02
Speaker 9: seek to divide and weaken us. They want to sow
33:07
Speaker 9: division in our streets, our neighborhoods, our homes, and in
33:11
Speaker 9: our minds. They feed of deliberate misinformation, hatred and extremism
33:18
Speaker 9: carried across social media by algorithms and funded by hostile
33:23
Speaker 9: states and rogue billionaires determined to pull our communities apart.
33:29
Speaker 9: Online echo chambers, hatred for those with a different point
33:33
Speaker 9: of view, and unwillingness to seek compromise have led to
33:38
Speaker 9: a politics more aggressive, polarized, and toxic than we've seen before,
33:44
Speaker 9: certainly in our lifetimes. As a nation, we are proof
33:50
Speaker 9: that people from different backgrounds can live, work and contribute together,
33:55
Speaker 9: a multi ethnic democracy where neighbors look out for each other.
34:00
Speaker 9: But the foundations on which this country was built have
34:04
Speaker 9: been rocked by the rapid change all around us.
34:12
Speaker 2: On the face of it, this might sound like a
34:15
Speaker 2: well intentioned plan, but of course interesting to note that
34:17
Speaker 2: a government minister wouldn't accept any responsibility for any of
34:20
Speaker 2: the things that have gone wrong that he describes. Anyway,
34:23
Speaker 2: we will now look at the document itself, protecting what
34:25
Speaker 2: matters towards a more confident, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom,
34:30
Speaker 2: and I would add the words whether you like it
34:32
Speaker 2: or not, because that's definitely the direction in which this
34:34
Speaker 2: is going. He prefixes it by saying, as you heard
34:37
Speaker 2: in his speech, We've endured rapid technological, demographic, economic change. Again,
34:41
Speaker 2: no suggestion that the government has had anything to do
34:44
Speaker 2: with this. And what's being described as a rising tide
34:46
Speaker 2: of extremism and in particular malign foreign influence, and that
34:49
Speaker 2: is a very strong theme running through this document. On
34:52
Speaker 2: the foreign thing. They talk about hostile states actively seeking
34:56
Speaker 2: to divide us as part of their hybrid strategies, and
34:58
Speaker 2: of course we need think no more than Russia and
35:00
Speaker 2: Iran being the most obvious examples at the moment. Social
35:03
Speaker 2: cohesion is therefore not just a good in and of itself,
35:07
Speaker 2: it is also a vital front in the resilience of
35:10
Speaker 2: our national security. Now there it is that is the
35:13
Speaker 2: hook with which this document is is hung. We go
35:18
Speaker 2: on to talk about the proud tradition of free speech,
35:20
Speaker 2: and this will not surprise you at all because there
35:23
Speaker 2: is a but freedom of expression is fundamental to our democracy.
35:26
Speaker 2: But when people abuse these freedoms, they undermine social cohesion,
35:31
Speaker 2: leave minority groups feeling unsafe, and weaken support for freedom
35:36
Speaker 2: to protest. So again, rather a lot of hypocrisy coming
35:41
Speaker 2: out here, or at least inconsistency. But what are they
35:43
Speaker 2: going to do about it. And as I say, this
35:45
Speaker 2: is the whether you like it or not bit. They're
35:47
Speaker 2: going to develop a social Cohesion Measurement framework, They're going
35:50
Speaker 2: to introduce a local Cohesion Risk Assessment tool and increed
35:54
Speaker 2: increase and improve mechanisms for join up across government. And
35:58
Speaker 2: here we are again to tackle or information manipulation. So
36:02
Speaker 2: there's a very very strong push to suggest that all
36:05
Speaker 2: of the interference and everything that's gone wrong has come
36:07
Speaker 2: from overseas. They're going to introduce a State Threats Designation
36:11
Speaker 2: power and building resilient communities is a whole of society effort. Now,
36:16
Speaker 2: if you've been watching UK column news for any length
36:18
Speaker 2: of time, you will absolutely recognize that phrase and know
36:20
Speaker 2: where this is going. And finally, there'll be a Social
36:23
Speaker 2: Cohesion Task Force which will drive this work from within
36:26
Speaker 2: government with strong ministerial oversight. Now, I think the last
36:31
Speaker 2: bit that absolutely is worth reading in terms of whether
36:35
Speaker 2: you like it or not, is about teaching our values
36:37
Speaker 2: and history. We will mandate citizenship classes in schools and
36:41
Speaker 2: teach digital literacy, going back to Mike's segment of just now,
36:46
Speaker 2: to help young people navigate the modern world. We will
36:48
Speaker 2: improve the national curriculums teaching of our nation's history and
36:54
Speaker 2: insure Holocaust awareness stays a compulsory topic in schools. There
37:00
Speaker 2: is a lot more in this document, and then link
37:02
Speaker 2: will be in the show notes. I would encourage you
37:04
Speaker 2: to go and read through it, because there is nothing
37:07
Speaker 2: inclusive about this. This is absolutely being driven by the
37:10
Speaker 2: government determining the type of society that you are to
37:14
Speaker 2: be a part of. And I would suggest that this
37:17
Speaker 2: is absolutely an add on to what came out last
37:20
Speaker 2: year in the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defense Review,
37:24
Speaker 2: both of which with this whole society approach, point to
37:27
Speaker 2: conscription in one form or another. And I would just
37:30
Speaker 2: finish off with a very brief glimpse of JD. Vance
37:33
Speaker 2: speaking in twenty twenty four and how that might relate
37:36
Speaker 2: to the idea of conscription and indeed armed conflict now
37:43
Speaker 2: three or four.
37:48
Speaker 10: Donald Trump and I believe that America ought to be
37:51
Speaker 10: tough in America ought to have a strong foreign policy.
37:54
Speaker 10: But when people like Kamala Harris send our sons and daughters,
37:57
Speaker 10: our young people to fight in superd war, it is
38:00
Speaker 10: the young generation that carries the burden of that. We're
38:03
Speaker 10: going to stop sending our young people to far away lands.
38:06
Speaker 10: We are not the policemen of the world. We need
38:08
Speaker 10: to use our young people here at home.
38:14
Speaker 2: So more about that in extra.
38:18
Speaker 1: Charles just got a couple of seconds here. I just
38:21
Speaker 1: you were talking about hypocrisy. There any suggestion in this
38:25
Speaker 1: document that they are protecting the right of the freedom
38:29
Speaker 1: to protest at the time that we've seen the Police
38:33
Speaker 1: Crime and Courts Bill and all the other legislation we've
38:36
Speaker 1: seen in the last two years, which is specifically designed
38:39
Speaker 1: over the last few years, is specifically designed to shut
38:41
Speaker 1: down the right to protest. But how can they say
38:44
Speaker 1: this with a straight face?
38:46
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think this is it. And this
38:48
Speaker 2: pertains very closely to Basile Valentine segment from Friday, and
38:52
Speaker 2: this this link that we've seen absolutely for the last
38:54
Speaker 2: couple of years, in particular connecting activities that would be
38:58
Speaker 2: designed as being sort of counting our to if anyone
39:00
Speaker 2: who disagrees with anything the government might say could be
39:03
Speaker 2: captured within the definition of extremism and then of course terrorism.
39:07
Speaker 2: And I'm afraid that is absolutely the direction this is
39:09
Speaker 2: going in. And for a document that is supposedly sort
39:12
Speaker 2: of warm and loving and about social cohesion. There are
39:15
Speaker 2: an astonishing number of references to both extremism in terrorism
39:19
Speaker 2: and terrorism in that document.
39:21
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, thank you well. Just to finish off on
39:23
Speaker 1: the democracy side of things, let's just bring this on
39:26
Speaker 1: screen because his Starma regime has completed a project which
39:29
Speaker 1: Tony Blair started in nineteen ninety eight with the passing
39:32
Speaker 1: of the Hereditary Peers Bill yesterday. The majority of hereditary
39:37
Speaker 1: peers who inherit their titles through their families, of course
39:41
Speaker 1: they were abolished. In other words, they were no longer
39:44
Speaker 1: allowed to sit in the House of Lords from nineteen
39:47
Speaker 1: ninety nine during the Blair government. This has never been
39:53
Speaker 1: about contribution of individuals, they said, But the underlying principle
39:57
Speaker 1: was agreed by Parliament over twenty five years ago. One
40:00
Speaker 1: should sit in our parliament by where by way of
40:02
Speaker 1: an inherited title. That's the comment by Barnest Smith. But
40:06
Speaker 1: of course the issue here is that the Lords has
40:10
Speaker 1: been absolutely effective at blogging or reversing government policy in
40:16
Speaker 1: three main ways. But they defeat statutory instruments where the
40:20
Speaker 1: government has no way to override that defeat, and of
40:24
Speaker 1: course statuary instruments secondary legislation often the most egregious way
40:28
Speaker 1: of getting some of this horrible legislation through. They delay
40:32
Speaker 1: primary legislation to the point that it runs out of
40:35
Speaker 1: time and so on. And we just should remember the
40:38
Speaker 1: previous attempt by the British government to get id cards
40:41
Speaker 1: in the House of Lords. Absolutely stop that, and they're
40:44
Speaker 1: currently stopping the Assistant Dying Bill and so on. So
40:49
Speaker 1: you know, the House of Lords has been under attack
40:52
Speaker 1: for quite a long time because it has been effective
40:55
Speaker 1: at stopping the worst successes of the British government of
40:58
Speaker 1: the day. We'll talk more about this an extra but Ronessa,
41:01
Speaker 1: let's move on to Unite and Lebanon.
41:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
41:07
Speaker 5: Of course, the conflict is expanding, or has been expanding
41:11
Speaker 5: for some time now into Lebanon and recent developments between
41:17
Speaker 5: I guess the certain factions within the Lebanese government.
41:21
Speaker 3: Here.
41:22
Speaker 5: This is President Alan saying that Lebanon calls for direct
41:26
Speaker 5: talks with Israel and accuses has blurw of betraying the country.
41:30
Speaker 5: Of course, the reality is that factions within the government
41:33
Speaker 5: that are aligned with Israel have effectively been failing to
41:37
Speaker 5: defend their own people in the south and in the
41:40
Speaker 5: eastern areas of Lebanon that have been under attack from
41:44
Speaker 5: Israel since the ceasefire took place in November twenty twenty four,
41:49
Speaker 5: which of course Israel has violated thousands of times. And
41:54
Speaker 5: then effectively, Israel has turned down the invitation to direct
41:59
Speaker 5: negotiation and it has actually said that it prepares for
42:03
Speaker 5: an extended campaign against Lebanon even if the Iran wore
42:08
Speaker 5: wraps up. And in fact, in the last couple of
42:12
Speaker 5: days we've seen the targeting of what is known by
42:18
Speaker 5: Zionist deligne media as the Hasbala banking system. But in reality,
42:22
Speaker 5: if we can just put the video on screen and
42:25
Speaker 5: I'll just keep talking while it's playing, this is in
42:29
Speaker 5: central Beirut. This is an area known as hasmiir and
42:33
Speaker 5: here it's one of the Kadal Hassen banks that of
42:35
Speaker 5: course provide a usually free interest free lending service to
42:42
Speaker 5: all Lebanese civilians. And effectively Israel has been targeting all
42:47
Speaker 5: of them across the south within the suburbs of Beirute
42:52
Speaker 5: for the last couple of days. And then if we
42:56
Speaker 5: just bring up the fact that also Israel has carried
43:00
Speaker 5: out two incursions into Lebanese territory in the eastern Bekar area,
43:07
Speaker 5: and I'll show the map shortly where you can see
43:10
Speaker 5: where this is, and it means that two helicopter landings
43:13
Speaker 5: including special commando forces have come in from the eastern
43:18
Speaker 5: sector of Lebanon, but in fact from Syrian territory. If
43:22
Speaker 5: we can just have a quick look at the map,
43:25
Speaker 5: people can see very clearly that that incursion has to
43:28
Speaker 5: have come in from Syrian territory and therefore with the
43:32
Speaker 5: permission or approval of Jolani or ahmadal Sharda and his
43:38
Speaker 5: al Kaedo regime in Syria itself. At the same time,
43:43
Speaker 5: Hezbola has been extremely successful in its targeting of particularly
43:49
Speaker 5: the radar and surveillance systems inside Israel itself and driving
43:54
Speaker 5: the settlements or settlers in the northern area of the
43:59
Speaker 5: occupied toritories out from their settlements. In fact, the mayor
44:03
Speaker 5: of the area has said, we can't possibly continue under
44:06
Speaker 5: this barrage, and they have actually used precision guided missiles
44:11
Speaker 5: for the first time. And then finally, I just want
44:14
Speaker 5: to show this video which apparently was filmed from a
44:17
Speaker 5: car in the occupied territories, and it shows the direct
44:22
Speaker 5: targeting of the radar station that you can see on
44:25
Speaker 5: the right there as the car is traveling past, it's
44:28
Speaker 5: hit by a hes BLA missile directly, and I have
44:33
Speaker 5: to say there has been very little interception of either
44:36
Speaker 5: the drones or the missiles, which again points to the
44:40
Speaker 5: fact that the saturation technique by Iran and Hesbela is working,
44:46
Speaker 5: despite Trump's claims, of course, that they've entirely run out
44:49
Speaker 5: of missiles, drones, launchers, air defense, and anything else that
44:53
Speaker 5: they might need in this war.
44:56
Speaker 1: Thank you for that. Fanness and Charles obviously continues. But
45:01
Speaker 1: what is the effect that that's having here? Then?
45:06
Speaker 2: Well, I think one of the main effects is the
45:09
Speaker 2: elements of certainly confusion and an opportunity, and how they
45:12
Speaker 2: may overlap. And I think this is very well exemplified,
45:14
Speaker 2: admittedly not from here, but from the United States, where
45:18
Speaker 2: the Energy Secretary Chris Right tweeted out that the US
45:23
Speaker 2: Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Straits of
45:26
Speaker 2: Hormuz That s turned out to be complete nonsense and
45:29
Speaker 2: begs the question, one Earth did he tweet it if
45:31
Speaker 2: he wasn't sure or where had he got that information from?
45:33
Speaker 2: Of course, the White House had to scramble to correct
45:36
Speaker 2: the narrative. Now just to qualify, there we go. That's
45:41
Speaker 2: him removing the poster that went down, But just to
45:44
Speaker 2: look at the Strait of Homers, which is more or
45:46
Speaker 2: less in the middle of the image shown on screen. Now,
45:48
Speaker 2: this is from marine traffic showing all the ships that
45:51
Speaker 2: are active in that area. And with a bit of
45:53
Speaker 2: a close up you can see the Kasab Peninsula sticking
45:58
Speaker 2: out from Oman in the northern part of Omam there
46:00
Speaker 2: with a lot of red dots there and essentially most
46:03
Speaker 2: of the red vessels there are concerned in some way
46:05
Speaker 2: in the transportation of oil. Now, in relation to why
46:10
Speaker 2: did write tweet out such a thing and what was
46:13
Speaker 2: the effect, we've got oil price dot Com showing these
46:15
Speaker 2: spikes in prices of the various types on the Brent
46:19
Speaker 2: crude indexes that have happened over the last week or so.
46:22
Speaker 2: And what's very important to note or interesting to note,
46:26
Speaker 2: is that when he made this tweet, there was a
46:29
Speaker 2: sharp decline in the price of oil, because of course
46:32
Speaker 2: there was great confidence. Now to any oil trader that
46:35
Speaker 2: would have known or observed or had an insight into this,
46:39
Speaker 2: presumably a lot of money could have been made from
46:42
Speaker 2: such an instant. So I think that absolutely goes to
46:46
Speaker 2: the sort of opportunity element of it, and of course
46:48
Speaker 2: how does that affect us well, particularly at the petrol pump.
46:51
Speaker 2: We've just had Vanessa's video talking about very very low prices.
46:56
Speaker 2: We've had prices up to one pound eighty per liter
46:59
Speaker 2: of petrol in United Kingdom, and here we see the
47:01
Speaker 2: Bank of England in actual factor has not changed the
47:04
Speaker 2: base rate still at three point seventy five, with an
47:06
Speaker 2: update not due until later this month, but that has
47:09
Speaker 2: not stopped the mortgage industry, of course, from as reported
47:14
Speaker 2: here by a morning Star mortgage rates rise amid Iran
47:17
Speaker 2: warn Now, of course they've provided some sort of justification
47:21
Speaker 2: for it, but really I think it shouldn't be viewed
47:23
Speaker 2: as anything other than opportunism in the same way that
47:26
Speaker 2: similar overtures and moves were made after the EU referendum
47:31
Speaker 2: back in twenty sixteen, in terms of who is benefiting
47:34
Speaker 2: and how that affects us, because of course it is
47:36
Speaker 2: our money that's paying for all this. We've got the
47:38
Speaker 2: Financial Times publishing the foots all share area space and
47:42
Speaker 2: defense price and if you can't see the graph, it's
47:44
Speaker 2: a five year representation which has just climbed steeper and
47:47
Speaker 2: steeper and steeper. Particularly over the last two to three years,
47:52
Speaker 2: and of course is set to continue.
47:54
Speaker 3: Now.
47:55
Speaker 2: All this is predicated on the idea that Iran and
47:58
Speaker 2: indeed Russia present a threat. We hear consistently that twenty
48:03
Speaker 2: terror plots were foiled from Iranian state backed actors over
48:07
Speaker 2: the course of the last year. Ken McCullum repeated the
48:10
Speaker 2: saying this the head of mi I five. So therefore
48:13
Speaker 2: it seems pertinent to go to the threat level assessment
48:17
Speaker 2: itself from the Security Service, and we can see in
48:20
Speaker 2: much the same way that COVID nineteen was downgraded just
48:24
Speaker 2: before we were all locked up, the threat level actually
48:27
Speaker 2: hasn't changed since before Russia's incursion into Ukraine back in
48:31
Speaker 2: February twenty twenty two. It is still at substantial. So
48:35
Speaker 2: the rhetoric does not seem to be matched by the
48:38
Speaker 2: Security Service analysis. And on the element of inconsistency, I've
48:43
Speaker 2: just captured that situation, no change. But on the element
48:46
Speaker 2: of inconsistency, we go to the times of Israel where
48:49
Speaker 2: they are absolutely sort of propagating the narrative going across
48:53
Speaker 2: all the mainstream, which is that the Iranian police chief
48:55
Speaker 2: has threatened that if any protesters are caught outside, they
48:58
Speaker 2: will be confronted as an enemy, and of course that
49:01
Speaker 2: we are therefore supposed to take a very dim view
49:03
Speaker 2: of this. But this coincides exactly with the idea that
49:07
Speaker 2: the Metropolitan Police has put out an update, and of
49:10
Speaker 2: course that update is about the Al Kuds March, which
49:13
Speaker 2: was due to take place this Sunday. The Home Secretory
49:15
Speaker 2: is consented to the police banning this march.
49:18
Speaker 7: Now.
49:18
Speaker 2: Alcuds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem and started in
49:21
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine as a pro Palestine movement. Of course,
49:26
Speaker 2: the police are saying that it originated in Iran and London,
49:31
Speaker 2: and in London it's organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission,
49:34
Speaker 2: an organization supportive of the Iranian regime, which begs the
49:37
Speaker 2: question would it have been banned if it were not
49:39
Speaker 2: supportive of the Iranian regime but was still supportive of Palestine.
49:43
Speaker 2: But they now try to dismiss suspicion that they're doing
49:47
Speaker 2: this for any reason other than the risk that the
49:50
Speaker 2: protests presents. They say they don't prefer one political view
49:52
Speaker 2: over another, and they'll do everything they can to reduce
49:55
Speaker 2: violence and disorder, which seems slightly less than credible, and
49:59
Speaker 2: of course they have to finish with the veiled threat.
50:01
Speaker 2: They urged the organizers to comply with the conditions or
50:06
Speaker 2: to face arrest. So that's the situation as it is.
50:11
Speaker 2: I mean, there are only some of the very very
50:14
Speaker 2: many ways in which this so called defensive posture is
50:17
Speaker 2: actually affecting people people quite substantially in the United United Kingdom,
50:21
Speaker 2: and is set to do so from hereafter.
50:23
Speaker 1: Really, thank you for that, Charles Vanessa. Let's go back
50:27
Speaker 1: to Lebanon then, and well, we've been talking over the
50:30
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks about who is sitting along the
50:35
Speaker 1: border between Lebanon and Syria. Are there some new incumbents
50:41
Speaker 1: of that location.
50:44
Speaker 5: Yes, there are, I mean they have been there for
50:47
Speaker 5: some time. But actually I was talking with a friend
50:50
Speaker 5: of mine that is still inside Syria and they gave
50:53
Speaker 5: me some fairly updated information. So, first of all, the
50:58
Speaker 5: Syrian president as he's described here, of course I wouldn't
51:01
Speaker 5: describe him as that, But Joe Lanney, head of al Qaeda,
51:04
Speaker 5: and isis in Syria, vow's absolute support to disarm Hesbola
51:09
Speaker 5: in Lebanon. Well, of course he does, because he also
51:13
Speaker 5: is effectively a Zionist agent in the region. But I
51:18
Speaker 5: just wanted We've been talking about how Washington, CIA, I
51:23
Speaker 5: six have been maneuvering the ISIS elements that have been
51:28
Speaker 5: inside Syria, but particularly in the UK funded holding camps,
51:31
Speaker 5: were partially funded holding camps in the northeast, and of
51:34
Speaker 5: course we've recently seen sort of mass release of those
51:39
Speaker 5: ISIS terrorist detainees. So I just wanted to because actually
51:44
Speaker 5: I was chatting, as I said, with my friend and
51:46
Speaker 5: they pointed this out. So this is in Jerusalem posts,
51:49
Speaker 5: scent comps, scentcom sorry, he says, up to seven thousand
51:53
Speaker 5: ISIS So these are the actual fighters, not the family members.
51:57
Speaker 5: Detainees could be moved to Iraq from Syria, and we've
52:01
Speaker 5: been reporting on this on UK column and how potentially
52:04
Speaker 5: they could be used against the Iraqi resistance factions and
52:08
Speaker 5: even against Iran long term, because America is in my opinion,
52:13
Speaker 5: never going to put American boots on the ground in Iran.
52:15
Speaker 5: It would be suicidal, as Chris Murphy has said. But
52:20
Speaker 5: I just wanted to draw people's attention to this that
52:23
Speaker 5: we've somehow managed to lose three thousand ISIS fighters. So
52:27
Speaker 5: this is from within the article. It's believed that there
52:30
Speaker 5: are around nine thousand male ISIS detainees and Syria. Some
52:34
Speaker 5: of those are teenagers, but as we've reported, six has
52:39
Speaker 5: effectively been radicalizing them through various NGOs inside the holding camps.
52:46
Speaker 5: So that's nine thousand male ISIS detainees. Then it goes
52:51
Speaker 5: on to say up to seven thousand ISIS detainees could
52:57
Speaker 5: be transferred from Syria to Iraqi control facilities. So that's
53:01
Speaker 5: from CENTCOM. But then let's have a look at the
53:03
Speaker 5: more updated information. So this is from the Office of
53:07
Speaker 5: the Director of National Intelligence, National counter Terrorism Center Coordination
53:14
Speaker 5: for US Central Commands, cent COM's successful transfer of more
53:18
Speaker 5: than five seven hundred ISIS detainees. So forgive me if
53:22
Speaker 5: my math is wrong, but we seem to be missing
53:24
Speaker 5: three thy three hundred right. Then let's have a look
53:28
Speaker 5: at the MAPUSU and again this is based on inside
53:31
Speaker 5: information that I was told yesterday. The dark circle on
53:36
Speaker 5: the coastal area of Syria is effectively where many of
53:39
Speaker 5: the ISIS fighters were committing the mascers against the Alowhites
53:43
Speaker 5: in that region. Now they've been sorry, those were HTS fighters,
53:48
Speaker 5: so Jolani military forces, so they've been relocated to the
53:53
Speaker 5: three main cities of Hama, Homs and Damascus, which are
53:58
Speaker 5: circled in red. That leads the border with Lebanon without forces.
54:04
Speaker 5: So what have they effectively done. They've moved those three
54:06
Speaker 5: thousand plus ISIS fighters from the northeast as you can see,
54:11
Speaker 5: from the area there to the border with Lebanon where
54:14
Speaker 5: they are gathering that's been reported in Lebanese media, and
54:19
Speaker 5: establishing artillery and drawing posts on the border. So clearly
54:23
Speaker 5: a very prescient threat against Lebanon right now.
54:28
Speaker 1: Lots to talk about in extra today. Thank you very
54:30
Speaker 1: much for that, Vanessa, and let's come back to the
54:33
Speaker 1: UK and bring on screen the new Sovereign AI website.
54:39
Speaker 1: This is being launched by the British government. The Sovereign
54:43
Speaker 1: AI Unit is going to ensure the government can harness
54:47
Speaker 1: AI's capabilities to unlock economic growth and enhance UK national security.
54:52
Speaker 1: That's what they're saying now. This was originally launched in
54:54
Speaker 1: June last year, but what they've done is in the
54:57
Speaker 1: last day or so always launched this new website because
54:59
Speaker 1: the five hundred million pounds that they are going to
55:03
Speaker 1: use to fund AI projects in the UK is being
55:07
Speaker 1: launched via this website. Now the unit itself is working
55:12
Speaker 1: closely with the Prime Minister's advisor on AI. And as
55:17
Speaker 1: you say, they've just announced that the five hundred million
55:20
Speaker 1: pound fund is now effectively live. Now this was all
55:25
Speaker 1: announced in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, which was originally
55:30
Speaker 1: prepared by Max Clifford. Matt Clifford. Sorry, the announcement was
55:35
Speaker 1: made last year, but it's now been implemented. And they
55:37
Speaker 1: intend to influence AI development by investing in UK companies
55:42
Speaker 1: to support AI national champions, create and develop AI assets,
55:47
Speaker 1: AISSE assets and enablers such as data, compute and talent.
55:52
Speaker 1: This is these are their words, and they say that
55:54
Speaker 1: they intend to make the UK a partner of choice
55:57
Speaker 1: for so called frontier aidies. So if we just bring
56:02
Speaker 1: that back on screen, then we'll see that this was
56:05
Speaker 1: the Opportunity Unity's action plan. But let's look at who
56:09
Speaker 1: they're partnering partnering with. So they have a memorandum of
56:11
Speaker 1: understanding with Anthropic of course, they have the same with Nvidia,
56:17
Speaker 1: the same with coher and the same with open AI.
56:21
Speaker 1: So the question is what is sovereign AI. Then, well
56:24
Speaker 1: that they the definition says that Sovereign AI encompasses several
56:28
Speaker 1: key elements including infrastructure, sovereignty, data sovereignty, model sovereignty and governance, sovereignty,
56:34
Speaker 1: and operational autonomy. And this is an interesting thing because
56:38
Speaker 1: Alex Karp recently said this.
56:42
Speaker 11: Now you get to Silicon Valley.
56:45
Speaker 12: My one message for and again I don't I'm without
56:48
Speaker 12: getting in specific people or because I'm like, if Silicon
56:53
Speaker 12: mally believes we are going to take away everyone's white
56:58
Speaker 12: collar job, meaning primarily democratic shaped people whom I grew
57:06
Speaker 12: up with, highly educated people who went to elite schools
57:10
Speaker 12: or went to schools that are almost elite, who vote
57:12
Speaker 12: for one party.
57:13
Speaker 11: And you're going to screw the military. If you don't
57:16
Speaker 11: think that's going to lead to nationalization of our technology,
57:19
Speaker 11: you're retarded, and you might be particularly retarded because you
57:23
Speaker 11: have a one to sixty IQ.
57:24
Speaker 12: But this is where that path is going.
57:30
Speaker 1: So Sovereign AI is a term that can be applied
57:33
Speaker 1: equally to corporate as well as government. But nonetheless, clearly
57:37
Speaker 1: the British government is wanting to have major influence in
57:40
Speaker 1: how AI is being developed. But anyway, speaking of carp
57:46
Speaker 1: On Volunteer, here is a project typical of the type
57:49
Speaker 1: we're likely to see the five hundred milligo million going to.
57:53
Speaker 1: In this case, this money hasn't gone to this particular
57:55
Speaker 1: but I just wanted to highlight is that this is
57:57
Speaker 1: as one of the type of projects this is likely
58:00
Speaker 1: to end up. So this is a report on a
58:03
Speaker 1: company funded by two former Palanteer employees and one other person.
58:08
Speaker 1: The company is called Auger. It claims to have developed
58:11
Speaker 1: an AI security camera system to monitor critical infrastructure and
58:15
Speaker 1: sensitive sites. They say it integrates with existing cameras and
58:19
Speaker 1: centers deployed across transport hubs, critical energy infrastructure, stadiums, laboratories,
58:26
Speaker 1: innovation hubs and other so called sensitive heights sites and
58:29
Speaker 1: then they apply their AI model to it, and that
58:32
Speaker 1: AI model is used to detect abnormal behaviors, track what
58:37
Speaker 1: they describe as unfolding incidents, and reconstruct events in seconds.
58:41
Speaker 10: Now.
58:41
Speaker 1: This startup was part funded by this organization plural VC,
58:46
Speaker 1: which says that when it comes to protecting our people
58:49
Speaker 1: in critical infrastructure, we cannot afford to be as complete
58:51
Speaker 1: in the naive as we were in protecting Ukraine. The
58:55
Speaker 1: new focus on gray zone warfare and domestic sabotage is
58:58
Speaker 1: not a threat we're currently equipped to protecting our critical
59:01
Speaker 1: infrastructure is one of the defining challenges of our generation.
59:06
Speaker 1: So the fear narrative being used to justify this type
59:09
Speaker 1: of development and this type of funding of these types
59:12
Speaker 1: of organizations. But Charles, there's been a little bit of
59:17
Speaker 1: pushback then on the whole AI thing.
59:23
Speaker 2: There absolutely has, and I think this should be set
59:24
Speaker 2: within the context of a couple of reports we've had
59:26
Speaker 2: recently about Anthropic and indeed Open AI in their contracts
59:31
Speaker 2: with the Department of War in the United States. Now
59:34
Speaker 2: hasn't actually changed the situation yet, but nonetheless it's been
59:36
Speaker 2: discussed and it's something that's now in the public consciousness.
59:39
Speaker 2: But specifically, what has just happened in relation to publications
59:43
Speaker 2: of books is that this publication don't steal This book
59:48
Speaker 2: has just come out, which is basically a blank book
59:51
Speaker 2: which has been reproduced by at least one thousand authors
59:54
Speaker 2: and it has no words in it. And the point
59:56
Speaker 2: of this is that it is to message effectively that
1:00:01
Speaker 2: this sorry, that AI is absolutely there to steal the
1:00:09
Speaker 2: content that is written by these authors. And as put
1:00:12
Speaker 2: by the Society of Authors, most of the world's leading
1:00:15
Speaker 2: AI companies are known to build their models by copying
1:00:18
Speaker 2: books without permission or payment, some even turning to shady
1:00:23
Speaker 2: private libraries sorry pirate libraries to source these books and
1:00:28
Speaker 2: then again referencing Anthropic. This has led to dozens of
1:00:32
Speaker 2: lawsuits from authors and publishers around the world, one of
1:00:34
Speaker 2: which was recently settled in a one point five billion
1:00:38
Speaker 2: dollars settlement between AI Company Andthropic and the author's the
1:00:42
Speaker 2: largest copyright settlement in history. And this pertains specifically to
1:00:48
Speaker 2: the United Kingdom's copyright law, which they want to effectively
1:00:51
Speaker 2: turn on its head. Under the governments heavily criticized proposals,
1:00:55
Speaker 2: UK copyright law would be upended to benefit global tech giants.
1:00:59
Speaker 2: AI Company would be free to use an author's work
1:01:02
Speaker 2: to train their AI models without permission or remuneration. So
1:01:07
Speaker 2: it's removing the previous system of opting having to opt
1:01:12
Speaker 2: into something and turning it into in effect and opt
1:01:15
Speaker 2: out now. I would hope that this is going to
1:01:18
Speaker 2: be of significant interest to the UK column audience that
1:01:22
Speaker 2: a logo has been generated and this is put out
1:01:25
Speaker 2: by the author's guild. Books will now be stamped with
1:01:29
Speaker 2: this symbol which says human authored. That's the American symbol there.
1:01:35
Speaker 2: I think the spelling of the British one presumably might be
1:01:37
Speaker 2: slightly different, but no, sorry, no it won't absolute rubbish.
1:01:42
Speaker 2: But anyway, it does represent significant pushback in the field
1:01:47
Speaker 2: of AI. Of course, the music industry and the film
1:01:49
Speaker 2: industry have had similar moments, but this is good to
1:01:53
Speaker 2: see that the writing industry has had effectively a sort
1:01:56
Speaker 2: of moment and a point around which to coalesce and pushback.
1:02:00
Speaker 2: Whether or not this does actually change the proposals to
1:02:03
Speaker 2: the UK copyright law remains to be seen, and we
1:02:05
Speaker 2: will keep you updated on that.
1:02:08
Speaker 1: Brilliant Thank you very much for that, Charles, Well, we
1:02:10
Speaker 1: do have to leave it there for today now. I'm
1:02:13
Speaker 1: sure during Extra we'll be discussing the relative merits of
1:02:15
Speaker 1: spelling between US and UK English. But join us for
1:02:20
Speaker 1: that if you are a UK column member. If you're not,
1:02:24
Speaker 1: maybe you'd like to join as a member, and then
1:02:26
Speaker 1: you can join us for Extra as well. But don't
1:02:29
Speaker 1: forget that. John Warfare Tonight interview tomorrow at one pm,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: and we'll be back as usual one pm on Friday
1:02:36
Speaker 1: for more UK column news. We'll see you then, Bye bye.