Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 25th July 2025

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UK Column News - 25th July 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Friday the 25th of July
0:10
just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News.
0:13
I'm your host Mike Robinson. My Co host in the studio today
0:15
is Patrick Hennigson. Welcome to the program, Patrick.
0:17
It's great to be with you, Mike. And journalist Mark Anderson
0:20
joins us by video link from the United States.
0:22
Now later in the program, we're going to be discussing the new
0:25
impact of the newly enabled Online Safety Act.
0:29
Mark will be taking a look at EU KS upcoming pandemic
0:32
preparedness exercise, and Patrick and I are going to be
0:34
taking a look at Tulsi Gabbard's release of documents related to
0:37
Russiagate. But we're going to begin today
0:40
with Gaza. And yesterday, Keir Starmer
0:43
released a statement about Gaza on it.
0:46
It appeared on X amongst other places.
0:49
But actually just a week or so ago, Patrick, or a few days
0:53
before that, there was a further statement, a joint statement by
0:57
the UK and a number of other countries.
1:00
There is. And you know, you read through
1:01
these statements, Mike, it's exasperating at this point.
1:03
And all we get really is this. We condemn, you know, dot, dot,
1:07
dot, like no action taken. A lot of condemnations.
1:10
And again, same here, Mike. Group of 25 countries here, some
1:14
Europeans, including Australia. Same again.
1:17
We condemn. We don't see the S word in there
1:20
anywhere. Do you know what the S word is?
1:23
Is sanctions. We don't see sanctions there.
1:25
Still condemning Russia, still doing all that.
1:28
Carry on. Sanctioning Russia?
1:29
Still sanctioning Russia, but for Israel, Nope, it's just it.
1:32
I guess the crimes that are being committed in Gaza don't
1:35
rise to that level of Western condemnation.
1:39
Apparently not. We'll come on to that in a bit
1:42
more detail in a second. But let's go back to Starmer's
1:46
comments or Starmer's statement yesterday.
1:48
He began by saying this. The suffering and starvation
1:51
unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible.
1:55
While the situation has been grave for some time, it has
1:57
reached new depths and continues to worsen.
2:00
We're witnessing a human humanitarian catastrophe.
2:03
He spoke about an emergency call with E3 partners.
2:08
And this demonstrates once again that the key foreign policy
2:11
grouping in the UK is the E3. That's France, Germany and the
2:15
UK. And this is of course is a is as
2:19
defence union continues to be rolled out in the EU.
2:23
He went on to hint at A2 state solution once again with
2:26
language directly addressing the inalienable rights of
2:29
Palestinians to statehood. And sure enough, around the same
2:34
time, 1 E 3 leader Emmanuel Macron announced that France was
2:38
going to be recognizing A Palestinian state later this
2:42
year, perhaps when it's already too late because the
2:45
Palestinians will already all be dead.
2:47
But. So it's an announcement of an
2:49
announcement, right? That's right.
2:52
I thought he had actually inked it on paper.
2:54
I guess not. No, no.
2:56
OK. And, you know, if what we're
2:58
saying here seems cynical, it's because it needs to be
3:01
considered in the context of what else was going on.
3:04
Because as Matt Kennard pointed out here, just before Starmer
3:08
released a statement quote, he sent a UK spy plane over Gaza to
3:12
collect Intel on its starving population for Israel.
3:15
It was literally in the sky over Gaza when he posted that.
3:18
Starmer. Starmer has sent one over Gaza
3:21
for Israel pretty much every day since he became Prime Minister.
3:26
Now, also of note in Starmer's statement is the fact that
3:29
Israel is not named at all. So, you know, no attribution for
3:34
what's going on. OK, he's saying it's it's a
3:36
humanitarian disaster, but there's no blame and no
3:40
attribution and. Definitely no mention of
3:41
genocide, that's that's for sure.
3:44
Absolutely, absolutely. That is that is true now.
3:48
On Wednesday, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted a response from the
3:51
Middle Easter, the Middle East minister Hamish Falconer, on the
3:55
question of an inquiry into Britain's role in Israeli war
3:58
crimes. The response is unsurprising.
4:01
The answer is no. So the government, the response
4:05
says, opposes the Gaza Brackets Independent Public Inquiry Bill
4:09
because, amongst other reasons, the use of sovereign base areas
4:14
by the UK and allies is in line with international humanitarian
4:17
law. He claims the letter The letter
4:20
claims no lethal weapons have been transported to Israel, but
4:24
it says nothing about intelligence or targeting data
4:27
which is being given to Israel. Which is a military support
4:30
effectively for carrying out war crimes.
4:33
Absolutely. And in the meantime, of course,
4:36
the use of the Terrorism Act continues to become even more
4:40
totalitarian with the arrest a day or two ago of John Farley at
4:45
a Palestine demonstration, I think that was in Leeds, for
4:48
holding a sign based on a Private Eye cartoon.
4:52
So here's what in Hislop editor Private Eye had to say about it
4:55
on LBC. Well, he took a joke, which is
5:02
very obviously a joke. He blew it up, put it on a
5:04
placard, went on a March and got arrested on the grounds that he
5:10
was a terrorist. And he tried to explain to the
5:14
police that this is a joke for a satirical magazine, you know,
5:19
quite sad that the police hadn't actually heard of it.
5:22
And that was pretty disgraceful. But then this, they, they
5:27
handcuffed him. They put him in a van, they took
5:29
him away and then they let him out.
5:31
I mean, this is a retired headmaster, you know, who was
5:36
there not with Palestine action, with Palestine solidarity,
5:40
completely different, not a prescribed organization.
5:44
And under these ridiculous rules, he ends up getting
5:47
arrested, says what sort of Palestinian actions you see,
5:51
it's play on words. Do we find acceptable?
5:54
We don't find acceptable people throwing red paint at warplanes.
5:58
We do find acceptable shooting. People are starving in a queue
6:01
for aid. I mean, Patrick, The thing is in
6:05
his lab is right in everything that he says there, but it's the
6:08
sort of incontruity but that I don't quite get.
6:10
He still can't get it to grips with the fact that actually what
6:14
we're living through is not democracy anymore.
6:17
He thinks this is that there's something weird about it that
6:20
it's it's laughable that it's that the Labour government is
6:24
making fools of themselves. They're not making fools of
6:27
themselves at all. They're bringing in the
6:29
draconian totalitarian regime and and his lab doesn't seem to
6:33
want to acknowledge that. Maybe, maybe he doesn't, but
6:35
maybe he's also just basically playing to maybe any remnant
6:39
sensibilities, democratic constitutional sensibilities
6:43
that might be somewhere lingering in the hopes that they
6:46
might emerge and bring sanity to this madness.
6:49
So I can see where Eon Hislop is coming from here.
6:52
Maybe he's just, you know, suffering from cognitive
6:54
dissonance because it is for a lot of people in the code and
6:58
mainstream, this is this would come as a shock to them.
7:01
What's happening for us, maybe not so much because we've been
7:04
covering it so diligently for so long, but for them, maybe it's a
7:07
shock. Right.
7:08
OK, well, I want to just sort of end my part of this, this report
7:13
with this short clip from an interview of Foreign Secretary
7:18
David Lammy by ITV correspondent Shabaab Khan, which absolutely
7:23
demonstrates the sheer hypocrisy of Lammy and in fact, the entire
7:27
British regime at the moment. Let's just have a listen to
7:29
this. The Palestinians have been
7:31
driven out of roughly 85 to 86% of Gaza's territory.
7:35
There's now 2 million people in a 20 square mile radius.
7:39
I just want to quickly read you a quote.
7:40
Gaza will be entirely destroyed and the Palestinian people will
7:44
leave in great numbers to third countries.
7:46
Do you know who said that? You, you tell me.
7:48
So that was said by Bezalel Smotrich, who's a who's a
7:50
minister in the Israeli government.
7:52
I'm going to read you another quote.
7:54
Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international
7:56
law. Do you know who said that?
7:59
That was said by you, foreign Secretary, yesterday in the
8:01
House of Commons. So when you've got Israeli
8:02
ministers saying quite openly that they're willing to violate
8:05
international law, and that's by your definition, why don't you
8:08
take them at face value and suspend all cooperation until
8:11
you know for sure they won't do that.
8:13
Let's be clear. We have got no free trade
8:17
discussions going on with Israel.
8:20
We have sanctioned Israeli ministers.
8:22
This warm has come to an end. I'm very, very clear about that.
8:26
And so are are other foreign ministers.
8:28
When I look at the children who are being killed waiting for
8:32
food, all of this is egregious. We've asked the Israeli
8:35
government. To think again, we've told them
8:39
that their aid system isn't working, we've told them to stop
8:42
prosecuting this war and this conflict, and we're absolutely
8:46
crystal clear now that this war must come to an end.
8:51
I mean that that to me that was just an incredible exchange,
8:55
Patrick. First of all, he didn't know the
8:57
quote from the Israeli minister. He didn't recognise that.
9:03
Secondly, of course, he was completely dumbfounded by that
9:06
being put in juxtaposition with his own quote from yesterday,
9:11
because he was giving a statement in the House of
9:12
Commons on this yesterday. And then he came off with with
9:15
that lame rhetoric at the end, not mentioning genocide,
9:20
actually not condemning any of it in any way really.
9:25
So, I mean, what can we say about that?
9:27
It's just sheer hypocrisy. It's more we condemn, you,
9:29
condemn the situation, but you don't actually condemn Benjamin
9:32
Netanyahu, he says. We sanctioned Israeli ministers.
9:35
What really have they? I mean, I need to know the
9:38
details of that because they haven't sanctioned Benjamin
9:40
Netanyahu and he's the head of the government.
9:43
He is ultimately the one responsible, as is the defense
9:47
ministers, yo of Gallant and the current defense minister who are
9:50
both indicted in the International Criminal Court,
9:52
which wait a minute, is Britain a signatory to the International
9:57
Criminal Court? I believe they are to the Rome
9:59
Statute, right? So no condemnation from David
10:02
Lammy about that situation, that America's sanctioning the ICC,
10:07
punishing them for indicting Netanyahu?
10:10
That's an incredible situation, isn't it?
10:12
It is, absolutely. But in the meantime, Israel and
10:16
Ukraine, what's, what's going on there?
10:19
Well, it's just just to show the farce of it, Mike, the comedy of
10:22
it all. This is a clip the Israelis
10:24
visited Kiev and this is from the press conference there and a
10:28
lot of righteous indignation from the Israeli foreign
10:31
minister here. Let's let's roll this one.
10:35
I What happened yesterday in Belgium?
10:37
The arrest of two Israeli soldiers is a turning point.
10:40
Yeah, sorry, that's the wrong video.
10:42
Yeah, that's that's from the Hindrajab Foundation, right.
10:45
That's for a later story. If we just make a note, right,
10:48
OK on that, we can come back to that.
10:51
We'll come back to that and we'll move on if if do.
10:53
You want to do you want to show this this clip?
10:55
Oh, absolutely, Yeah. Let's go ahead and show it.
10:57
Play that. Please, yeah.
11:00
We condemn Russians strikes against civilians.
11:05
We call for a durable and lasting peace, which ensures
11:08
security for Ukraine. Israeli supporting Ukraine and
11:13
its people. We were the First Nation to open
11:16
a field hospital in Ukraine. We provided generators, food,
11:20
water and winter equipment. Two weeks ago, I instructed my
11:24
ministry to provide portable drinking water systems to areas
11:29
in Ukraine that lack clean water after being hit by Russian
11:34
attacks. It will be done very soon.
11:38
We send experts to help with PTSD and resilience.
11:43
We helped Ukrainians injured in the war with the recovery
11:47
process in Israel. We stand with Ukraine and its
11:51
people. So the hypocrisy clearly doesn't
11:55
just remain with the British, it's just off the charts.
12:00
I mean, what can you say? I mean that that that is, it
12:02
shows what what of total farce. This is the Israeli minister
12:06
saying we're going to bring clean potable water to the
12:09
Ukrainians. Meanwhile, they're laying siege
12:12
to the people in Gaza now for, you know, the better part of two
12:15
years and shooting them as they're queuing up for food.
12:18
I mean the front of the the Hutzpah.
12:21
Yeah, to use a Yiddish term, the Hutzpah is just off the charts.
12:26
Yes. So in the meantime, what is the
12:28
British Board of Deputies been doing?
12:31
Well his on to Hislop's comment made on LBCLBC presenter being
12:37
targeted. James O'Brien, who has been very
12:41
outspoken against the Israel genocide in Gaza.
12:45
Let's bring this up. He's being targeted right now by
12:48
the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
12:51
The Board of Deputies also went after Jeremy Corbyn and others.
12:54
This is one of the main organs of cancellation in British
12:58
politics and media and they're saying here, and it's a
13:00
statement they put out on the 22nd of July.
13:03
We are urgently seeking a meeting with senior executives
13:06
following the completely unacceptable and highly
13:09
offensive comments made by James O'Brien on his LBC show today.
13:13
Broadcasting such a transparent falsehood and demonizing the
13:17
British Jewish community at a time when anti-Semitism in this
13:21
country is that terrifying the high levels must have clear
13:25
consequences. LBC should apologize and take
13:29
Mr. O'Brien off the air, AKA sack him.
13:32
This is Andrew Gilbert, vice president of security,
13:35
resilience and cohesion at the British Board of Deputies of
13:40
British Jews. So not cohesion in the media,
13:43
though he wants to sack O'Brien here.
13:46
And this is a comment weighing in here, of course, the great
13:49
journalist Jonathan Book saying self appointed British Jewish,
13:52
quote, leaders insist that all criticisms of their Jewish
13:56
community, the one that supports Israel's genocide are a blood
14:00
libel, quote UN quote. How?
14:02
By showing that they can get anyone who allows criticism of
14:05
them, like LB CS James O'Brien sacked.
14:08
Well, if this is apparently forced, James O'Brien here to
14:13
make an apology. This is the MailOnline here.
14:16
Basically LLBC host James O'Brien issues an on air apology
14:21
after reading out anti-Semitic message from a friend.
14:26
So he's he's re recounting a comment made by a friend of his
14:29
about Shabbat schools. So within the Jewish community
14:33
and that maybe you know, discrimination, whatever is
14:36
indoctrination, all this stuff from a young age, sparking a
14:40
raft of complaints. So Ofcom got brigaded Mike with
14:44
a raft of complaints. Is that organized brigading one?
14:49
Are they anonymous complaints to offcoming?
14:51
How transparent is that system? We've seen this before, by the
14:54
way, with with many other examples.
14:56
So here it is once again. End result.
14:59
I don't think this is very good for press freedom.
15:02
Indeed. Or freedom of speech.
15:05
OK, well, let's move across the Channel to Belgium then, And
15:08
what's been going on there with arrests apparently of IDF
15:13
personnel? This is unbelievable.
15:15
So this this story just broke yesterday and I, I personally
15:18
was shocked when I read this shocked in AI think a positive
15:22
way because something actually happened.
15:23
We'll bring this up on screen right now.
15:25
This is from the Belgian press. Obviously I've translated this
15:28
into English here. The two Israeli soldiers
15:31
suspected of war crimes in Gaza arrested in Tomorrowland.
15:35
Tomorrowland's a big music festival here and we'll we'll
15:39
look at how this actually happened.
15:41
This is a first in Europe. 2 Israeli army soldiers present in
15:45
Belgium to attend the 2025 edition of Tomorrowland and
15:49
electronic music dance festival. Questioned by Belgium Federal
15:53
police regarding their possible involvement in war crimes
15:56
committed in Gaza before being released and will.
16:00
How did they actually get get identified?
16:03
This is interesting. They were recognized in the
16:05
crowd after flying a flag of the Givati Brigade and notorious
16:11
infantry unit of the Israeli army.
16:13
Now these are. Well.
16:15
Who? These are soldiers who boasted
16:17
online about, you know, the atrocities they've committed,
16:21
the schools they've demolished, the homes they've destroyed and,
16:24
you know, going through people's personal belongings in these
16:28
ruined houses and boasted about it across TikTok and Instagram.
16:33
And one of the organizations who has mounted this legal challenge
16:37
and who have put the pressure on authorities in Europe is the
16:41
Hind Rajab Foundation. Now we have a statement from
16:45
their chairman. We'll play this.
16:46
He's going to explain the significance of what happened
16:49
this week. I What happened yesterday in
16:53
Belgium? The arrest of two Israeli
16:55
soldiers is a turning point. It is a turning point because
16:58
for the first time a country not only acknowledges jurisdiction
17:03
over war crimes committed in Palestine without having any
17:06
direct link to these war crimes, but also moves and arrests
17:12
Israeli soldiers. Israeli soldiers have never been
17:15
arrested anywhere. This is the first time in
17:18
history that Israeli soldiers are arrested for war crimes
17:22
committed against Palestinians. For that matter, not only
17:26
Israeli soldiers, no Israeli ever, soldier or not, have been
17:31
arrested for war crimes against the Palestinian people,
17:35
notwithstanding the fact that Israel has been committing these
17:38
war crimes and these crimes for more than 77 years.
17:44
Obviously, that's the edited version of the full statement.
17:46
It's on his X account. If you do want to see the work
17:49
of this is unbelievable, this organization, what they have
17:52
done in the last few months, the Hind Rajab Foundation, go visit
17:55
them on X and look at the work they've been doing is
17:58
unbelievable. Catching and identifying or
18:01
helping to catch and identify Israeli war criminals, soldiers
18:06
in the IDF specifically using their own social media posts
18:10
that have incriminated them for international war crimes.
18:14
And by the way, some of this evidence is also in the
18:16
international courts of justice in the genocide case against
18:20
Israel. So again, more damning evidence.
18:23
And here's the legal organization also working on
18:27
this as well. This is the G LAN, the Global
18:30
Legal Action Network, London and Galway Ireland as well.
18:34
So Anglo Irish effort here to for for human rights and
18:40
challenging states like Israel and those who aid and abet it.
18:45
So very interesting. OK, now what has Mahmoud Khalil
18:49
been up to? Well, do you remember the
18:51
activist from Columbia University in the United States?
18:53
His name was Mahmoud Khalil. He then was kidnapped,
18:58
apprehended by the Trump administration, by Marco Rubio,
19:01
who called him an enemy of US National Security, and we're in
19:06
the process of deporting him. He's a Palestinian, a master's
19:10
student who had graduated legally in the United States,
19:13
married to to a woman with expecting child.
19:17
They were they, they bundled him out anyway.
19:20
And so he won his case. And you haven't heard much
19:23
fanfare about that. We heard a lot about his
19:25
apprehension, but not no best coverage about the fact he won
19:29
his appeal. So he is free, he's out and he
19:31
is trolling Donald Trump Here he is in Washington right now.
19:35
He's gone to lobby Congress here.
19:38
This is Mahmoud Khalil and what he's up to.
19:40
We'll, we'll take a look at what he's up to.
19:42
There he is in Washington, DC right now and his priority is to
19:46
urge US legislatures to stop the US funded genocide in Gaza, says
19:51
Khalil. He's trying to stop mass
19:53
starvation as Israel blocks entry of food supplies, forcing
19:57
Palestinians to crowd at aid hubs where they are facing being
20:02
fired upon by Israeli soldiers and American contractors who
20:06
have already killed more than 1000 starving Palestinians.
20:10
OK. And by the way, all of this is
20:12
denied by the Gaza humanitarian. Foundation naturally, of course.
20:17
So isn't that interesting? So, yeah, he's, he's out and he,
20:23
he's, he's a very, very good spokesperson on this issue.
20:26
He's very articulate. He's already been through the
20:28
wringer. So I think this is going to be a
20:31
problem for the Trump administration that this guy is
20:34
on the street, as it were, and, and doing what he's doing.
20:37
So I I think this is going to make a big difference in raising
20:40
awareness and pressuring Democrats, especially as far as
20:43
Republicans go. It might be a lost cause for the
20:46
moment, but definitely there's some movement with some of the
20:49
Democrats on the issue of Israel's genocide in Gaza.
20:54
Thank you, Patrick. Well, Mark, let me welcome you
20:56
to the program. And Matt Gaetz has, well he is
21:00
now a television presenter, I guess.
21:02
What is What's he been up to? Well, this is very interesting.
21:07
Good day, guys and UK column viewers.
21:10
Matt Gaetz, of course, yesteryear was a Florida
21:12
congressman. And as Patrick and you and I,
21:15
Mike, have talked about, he was sort of coaxed or cajoled, you
21:18
might say, out of his House seat.
21:20
Possibly, and probably because of his skepticism toward the
21:24
Israeli state. Thomas Massie has managed to
21:27
hang on. We don't know how much longer
21:28
that'll last, but I'm calling this Matt Gaetz's rebirth of
21:32
sorts. He's on one American News, the
21:34
Matt Gaetz show, and it also talks about what appears to be,
21:38
at least tentatively, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to
21:42
Israel, his paradigm shift. I put a question mark there on
21:45
purpose, and what's basically going on is Huckabee had quite a
21:50
tizzy, you might say, about Israel limiting or completely
21:54
blocking Christians, particularly evangelical groups,
21:57
from even entering Israel in the 1st place.
22:00
And this is amid Huckabees announced concerns and visits to
22:06
a Catholic Church in Gaza that was hit by the IDF, reportedly,
22:10
and the old Saint George Church in the West Bank, which
22:13
apparently was desecrated by Israeli settlers.
22:16
And Huckabee, a long time ardent, devout Zionist, pro
22:20
Israel all the way, apparently is having a little bit of
22:23
cognitive dissonance. But let's let Matt Gaetz talk
22:26
about this a little. Not many of us have heard him as
22:30
a journalist. So he'll kind of lay the
22:31
groundwork and I'll go from there.
22:34
Is Israel an unwelcoming place for Christians?
22:39
A new look into correspondence between U.S. ambassador Mike
22:41
Huckabee and the Israeli government raises questions
22:44
about whether Christians are being mistreated by Israel.
22:49
Huckabee alleges that's what's happening.
22:51
The ambassador sent a letter to the Israeli interior minister
22:54
accusing Israel of blocking Christian groups from entering
22:58
the country. As a private.
22:59
Citizen Governor Huckabee personally LED Zionist
23:03
Christians on such tours. Now, Ambassador Huckabee
23:07
initially met with the government of Israel to plea for
23:09
the Christians who wanted to come and enjoy the Holy Land,
23:12
but those pleas were ignored. Now Huckabee is threatening
23:16
reciprocal punishment against Israel and their visa seekers
23:20
wanting to come to America. He cited harassment and negative
23:24
treatment of Christian groups. The nerve of Israel to demand
23:29
America's weapons and money but then refuse our touring
23:33
Christians is astounding. About 3 billion people on the
23:37
planet Earth tie their faith to the geography around Israel, and
23:42
I believe everyone needs a little more of the Golden Rule.
23:47
Treat others as you would want to be treated.
23:53
Very interesting indeed. So Matt Gaetz is making some
23:56
headway as a journalist, much farther than I suppose he would
23:59
have gotten any more and as a House member.
24:02
But as I kind of felt what happened, there would be some
24:05
damage control to some degree. And sure enough, this next slide
24:08
shows that happened, the US embassy in Jerusalem.
24:12
Huckabee, again is the US ambassador to Israel, dated 21
24:15
July. There was some backpedaling, but
24:18
then there's some other things to talk about regarding Huckabee
24:21
that show he's still kind of in a quandary.
24:23
But the backpedaling consisted of this.
24:26
This is what he wrote after meetings with the minister of
24:29
the Interior. With the help of Prime Minister
24:31
Netanyahu. The issue concerning visas for
24:34
American evangelical organizations has been fully
24:38
resolved, he claims. Upon arriving in Israel as
24:41
ambassador, I learned that the changes in the process were
24:44
creating delays, costs, and significant burdens with
24:47
paperwork. After meeting with the Minister
24:50
of Interior, we thought the problem was settled, but
24:52
organizations continue to have issues.
24:55
I informed the PM's office Prime Minister of the problem and I I
25:00
emphasize this and pointed out how detrimental it was to the
25:03
relationship of the state of Israel with the American
25:07
evangelical community. A very sensitive thing because
25:10
if the Israeli state were to lose that support, it would be a
25:14
paradigm shift that at another level.
25:17
Now, I didn't have time to get a, a certain slide up that the
25:20
American Conservative very recently published a very
25:23
thoughtful article and it quotes Huckabee as as saying a number
25:30
of things. It it gets into the, again, the
25:32
desecration of the old Saint George's Church in the West Bank
25:35
and the apparent IDF shelling to a degree on the Holy Family
25:40
Church in Gaza, the last Catholic parish there.
25:44
And what what Huckabee was quoted as saying by the American
25:50
Conservative, he said it's unacceptable talking about these
25:53
attacks on the churches. It's unacceptable, he writes, to
25:57
desecrate a holy place and he called it an act of terror and a
26:01
crime. And then Huckabee said that
26:03
those things should bring harsh consequences.
26:06
In other words, not just condemnation, but consequences.
26:10
And the American conservative goes on to comment about this
26:14
situation. To make such an argument two
26:16
days after Israel struck the only Catholic parish in Gaza, a
26:20
crime that Catholic leaders condemned, including Pope Leo,
26:24
is more than brave. For for Huckabee, it's a radical
26:28
position for him to stake out and one that has unmistakable
26:32
ramifications that could spell the quick undoing of Israel's
26:36
whole campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.
26:40
So the American conservative went so far as to say that.
26:43
So Mike Huckabee, you might say, has had some cognitive
26:47
dissonance. How far it will go and how long
26:49
it will last is hard to say at this point.
26:52
But if Huckabee were to swim the other way on the tide, that
26:55
could have a potential domino effect that could weaken that
26:59
key evangelical support of the state of Israel.
27:02
It might not happen, but it's important to acknowledge what
27:05
happened at this point and keep an eye on this situation.
27:09
I think that's good for now guys.
27:10
There'll be some links in the show notes that will add
27:12
additional details. Thank you, Mark, I'd be
27:15
interested in get get I'd be interested in getting both your
27:18
comments and start with you first, Patrick, you know, is
27:22
that genuinely some somebody seeing the light or is this
27:25
diversionary to keep people look looking the other way from what
27:29
Israel is actually doing in Gaza?
27:32
Yeah, it's a good question, Mike.
27:33
Personally, I just think it's, it's sad that this will garner
27:37
headlines and controversy, but it does take focus off the
27:40
actual genocide that's happening.
27:43
But to be fair, to be fair, maybe this is the only way to
27:46
get Americans interested in the issue or at least get an entry
27:49
point is to mention Christian. So Americans will get outrage,
27:53
especially on the right, if there's Christians that are
27:56
somehow being denied rights, but they don't care if Muslims are
27:59
being gunned down and mowed down wholesale.
28:01
That's, that's not a problem, but for, for, for the, for the
28:05
issue. Maybe this is a positive thing
28:08
somehow They, they'll sort of help find their moral compass.
28:10
I don't know. Not holding my breath.
28:12
Cautious optimism. I'll I'll make a quick note.
28:16
Huckabee did visit both the site of the Church of Saint George
28:20
and the the Holy Catholic, the Holy Family Church.
28:23
He went there, he talked and met with Palestinians and with other
28:27
people. And so he did get boots on the
28:29
ground for himself. He is a pretty eloquent
28:33
Christian. You know, figure you might say
28:37
it would be very interesting if he were to see the light on this
28:40
because again, the effect that could have might be irrevocable
28:44
and could go a long ways in changing the context.
28:46
But it is, it's a tense thing right now.
28:49
We can't say for sure. He's also, Mark, someone who is
28:52
on record as soon as he got sworn in, said there is no
28:55
Palestinian people and they don't exist.
28:58
There is no West Bank. There's only Judea and Sumeria.
29:01
So I mean, maybe. So hopefully, Mark, I hope that
29:05
him meeting actual Palestinians will change his mind on that.
29:09
I really do. Well, look, let's maybe talk a
29:12
little bit more about this an extra.
29:14
So thank you very much for that, Mark.
29:15
Now let's move on. If you like what the UK column
29:17
does and you'd like to support us and have a look at the front
29:21
page of the website there, there's a nice big button for
29:24
you to click on. And I'd want to say thank you
29:26
once again to everybody that is supporting us financially.
29:28
We do need your ongoing financial support, but if you
29:31
can't support us financially, then please do share material
29:35
you see on the UK column website.
29:38
Share it as widely as you possibly can.
29:41
Very briefly tonight at 7:00 PM, the weekly banter with Charles,
29:46
myself and Germ will be going out on the Germ Warfare slot.
29:52
So do join us for that. And the discussion that Brian
29:56
had with Lynn Lopez Salzedo that went out yesterday at 1:00 PM.
30:02
It's available on demand now on the website.
30:04
I just want to clarify something I said on Wednesday.
30:06
I was mistaken to say that she was actually Israeli, but she is
30:10
obviously Jewish and is very rapidly changing her views on on
30:14
the Zionism question. Tonight, Patrick, we will be in
30:20
the Seven Stars Hotel in Totnes for a presentation by Andrew
30:24
Bridgen, introduced by you. Yes, and this event has already
30:28
sold out. It was sold, yes, it was sold
30:31
out on Tuesday. So if you didn't get if you did
30:34
get tickets, congratulations. If you didn't get them,
30:37
unfortunately no seats left. So and, and hopefully we'll see
30:42
some familiar faces that I'm sure we will.
30:43
OK. And.
30:46
OK, let's move on then. And just before we do, don't
30:51
have a graphic for it, I do apologise, but of course I
30:53
should mention the UK column on location event taking place on
30:57
the 18th of October in New York. Tickets going on sale on Monday,
31:02
just after the weekend. So we'll have much more detail
31:06
for you on Monday during the news programme.
31:08
So keep a lookout for that. Now let's come on to the issue
31:13
of Tulsi Gabbard and the Director as the Director of
31:16
National Intelligence, because she has released some files and
31:21
some infographics on Twitter here on X, rather on the
31:26
question of Russiagate. So Americans will finally learn
31:30
the truth, she said, about how in 2016 intelligence was
31:33
politicised and weaponized by the most powerful people in the
31:37
Obama administration to lay the groundwork for what was
31:40
essentially a years long coup against President Trump,
31:44
subverting the will of the American people and undermining
31:47
our Democratic Republic. That's what she said.
31:49
Now, attached to the posting on X was an infographic that you
31:53
saw on screen there, but that was followed by a series of
31:56
other follow up posts with infographics on them.
31:58
So let's just have a look at some of these.
32:00
Then in the 1st, as she points out that the original Intel
32:04
assessment was that Russia had no involvement with the 2016
32:07
election, and the last of these assessments was published on the
32:12
7th of December 2016. The following day, the
32:16
President's daily briefing was delayed because apparently Obama
32:20
had asked the Intelligence Committee to reassess the
32:22
situation and basically he was effectively instructing them to
32:26
find that Russia was interfering with the election or had
32:30
interfered with the election. And then by the 9th of December,
32:34
the Intelligence Committee decided that they were prepared
32:37
to produce an assessment as per the President's request.
32:42
Now that same day, they then leaked claims that Russia had
32:45
interfered with with the election to a compliant legacy
32:49
media. And finally, she highlights that
32:53
three years later, the Intelligence Committee, an
32:56
Intelligence Committee member, admitted that the Steele dossier
32:59
that EU KS GCHQ head Robert Hannigan had earlier delivered
33:03
to CIA Director John Brennan had led the Intelligence Committee
33:07
to their conclusion that Russia was involved in election
33:10
interference. Now, there's a few points to
33:13
make here, Patrick 1 is that there is nothing really new here
33:18
in a sense, because other than it's perhaps an official
33:21
acknowledgement of what investigators have known for
33:24
years and talking about the likes of you and us and and
33:27
others that have been looking into this.
33:29
But aside from mention of the Steele dossier, there's very
33:33
little mention of Britain's role in all this.
33:35
The focus is all on Obama. So let's just remind ourselves
33:39
of the key players here. Here's Robert Hannigan, GCHQ
33:44
director that we mentioned a second ago.
33:46
Uh, but we should also remember, sorry.
33:49
And, and let's look at this lot. Uh, we've got Richard Dearlove,
33:53
Christopher Steele, of course, wrote the, uh, Steele dossier,
33:56
the Trump dossier, Stephen Halber, Alexander Downer, Joseph
33:59
Misfood, Miss Sood, sorry, Felix Satter, all involved in
34:05
targeting George Papadopoulos. Yeah, setting up George
34:08
Papadopoulos, because that was the first original setup to
34:11
create this idea that Papadopoulos somehow in a
34:14
Russian chain, a spy ring or something that were infiltrating
34:18
the Trump administration. And that's how they got the
34:20
first FISA warrant. That's how the FBI pushed
34:23
through that first FISA warrant to surveil members of the Trump
34:28
team and the Trump transition team, the Trump administration.
34:31
So that's how it all started. And there's quite a few British
34:34
operatives, uh, in there on that last slide.
34:37
Absolutely. And and one or two more here
34:39
because of course, at the same we're roughly the same time that
34:42
was going on in the United States.
34:44
There was also a Russiagate UK operation going on involving
34:47
Sergei Skripal and the claims of of, you know, so-called Novichok
34:51
attacks. And what else did we have
34:55
Christopher Steele in fact involved with the not only the
34:59
Trump dossier, but the intelligence committee in the
35:02
UK, their Russia report and also involved in the intelligence
35:06
committee's Huawei dossier as well.
35:08
So, you know, this was something that was ongoing.
35:11
But my question, Patrick, is why is Tulsi Gabbard releasing this
35:16
information now? Is this just something that was
35:18
going to happen anyway? Or is there something special
35:20
about this time? You know, it just has such a
35:23
partisan feel to it. It's sort of like, you know,
35:26
pushing back on getting the Dems, getting Obama.
35:29
And this is basically red meat to the MAGA crowd, to Fox News
35:34
at a time when there's another story that is absolutely
35:37
destroying MAGA, which is, of course, the cover up of the
35:40
Epstein scandal. And so the timing of this Tulsi
35:44
pushing this out right in the middle of the whole Epstein
35:47
thing. And the implications might go
35:48
serious on Epstein because the implications are the Epstein
35:52
belong to intelligence, US, Israeli or both.
35:57
We don't know. And there's a third country in
35:59
there that maybe Epstein is also involved with.
36:04
The Britain by any chance? I'm just thinking because
36:07
Gillian Maxwell being the daughter of Robert Maxwell and
36:12
you think and the roles involved, you think the British
36:14
intelligence are not involved in Epstein.
36:18
That would be very naive. And I of course would not be
36:20
surprised if that were the case. But of course we can't prove
36:24
anything, can we? No one can prove anything
36:26
because this story is about to be thrown to the bottom with in
36:29
locked in Davy Jones's locker. So this is where we're at right
36:33
now. We'll bring this up on screen
36:34
here. Justice Department told that
36:36
Trump trumped in May, in May, mind you, couple months ago that
36:40
his name is among many in the Epstein files here.
36:43
This is the Wall Street Journal. Trump is suing them at the
36:45
moment. OK, just bear that in mind.
36:48
White House pushes back after reports that Donald Trump was
36:51
told in May that he was mentioned multiple times in the
36:53
DOJDOJ documents relating to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
36:58
This is somebody that Trump is disavowed saying I didn't know
37:01
him. He's a creep.
37:02
Why is everybody talking about the Epstein story?
37:05
So, I mean, no one's really buying Trump's cope on this.
37:09
So while all this is happening, something else just flies under
37:12
the radar. Mike flies under the radar and
37:15
it's this story. Let's take a look at this up on
37:18
screen. DOJ is meeting Jeffrey Epstein's
37:22
associate Gilane Maxwell is happening.
37:25
This meeting happening after Maxwell initiated contact with
37:29
the DOJ. Who's in the driving seat here?
37:32
It looks like Maxwell's in the driving seat.
37:35
Is she trying to get a plea deal here?
37:38
It does look like that. Let's take a look at this.
37:41
This is interesting. Deputy Attorney General Todd
37:44
Blanch. This is the power behind the
37:45
throne. OK, not Pam Bondi.
37:48
This is the guy Todd Blanch and Maxwell.
37:51
They met downtown Tallahassee, FL at the US Attorney's office,
37:56
which is located inside the federal courthouse.
37:59
Now, she's already been through trial.
38:00
They've already had discovery. What more could they they know
38:04
or would that she could tell them?
38:05
Hasn't been told already and is not in all of the exhaustive
38:09
court documents. Mike, this is getting
38:12
interesting, isn't it? Let's take a look at this and
38:15
just further on from this today, this is Blanche.
38:18
Today I met with Gilane Maxwell and I will continue my interview
38:23
of her tomorrow. The DOJ will share additional
38:25
information about what we learned at the appropriate time.
38:29
That's the keywords at the appropriate time, which means
38:31
potentially never. Or perhaps when it has the most
38:34
political impact, Is that possible?
38:36
Right. And The thing is, what will they
38:37
reveal? What, what?
38:39
What will Gilane Maxwell reveal to the DOJ?
38:42
Just enough to get a plea deal, right, and not enough to
38:46
incriminate anybody important. I think we're looking at a
38:49
little bit of a cover up here. Here's Blanche and here.
38:53
So President Trump has told us to release all credible
38:56
evidence. If Maxwell has information about
38:58
anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the
39:03
DOJ will hear what she has to say.
39:06
OK, Now they've already booked a deposition in prison for August
39:10
11th. They're going to get a
39:13
deposition from Maxwell from her prison on August 11th.
39:16
So that's in two weeks. And then what's going to happen
39:19
with that? They could get mothballed.
39:21
But this is powerful leverage behind the scenes because the
39:24
information can be used to lean on the president, to lean on
39:29
Congress to. There's a number of VIPs in
39:31
there, a lot of important people.
39:33
OK Now, would Israel ever run an espionage or blackmail operation
39:38
on US soil? I mean, who would think of such
39:40
a thing? But yet we reported on this in
39:42
2014. This is confirmed.
39:45
Bill Clinton was blackmailed by Netanyahu over the Monica
39:48
Lewinsky sex tapes. Netanyahu had recordings of
39:52
their sex, sex, texting and phone conversations, and he was
39:56
using it to lean on the Clinton administration to release.
40:00
Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, one of the most controversial
40:04
Israeli spies ever, and he eventually got his release, but
40:07
under Trump 1.0, I think. No, I think it was Obama right
40:10
before Obama's last term. So Pollard went on to the very
40:14
pro genocide now, by the way. But there he is.
40:17
That's Netanyahu meeting with Clinton, basically telling him
40:20
who's boss. I mean, this is how it went
40:22
down. So we we we we've been reporting
40:25
on this for a long time. So this is this is the point
40:28
here. There's pedigree Israel's run
40:31
blackmail operations against U.S. officials against the
40:34
president United sitting president in the past, plus a
40:39
whole bunch of other scandals, the Franklin scandal, all all
40:42
sorts of spy rings that were busted Lavon affair.
40:45
I mean, so just, you know, deductive reasoning here, Mike,
40:50
there's a high probability that that's exactly what we're
40:53
looking at here with Epstein. But again, don't ignore or
40:56
underestimate the potential of other government involvement in
41:00
this as well. Well, related, as we'll see in a
41:03
second, is that the death was announced yesterday of wrestling
41:07
icon and Trump supporter Hulk Hogan.
41:09
And so the question is, does this have anything to do with
41:13
the Epstein files? Well, actually it does.
41:16
And let's remind ourselves ourselves of Hogan's part in the
41:19
shutting down of Gawker, the so-called gossip website which
41:23
published A redacted version of Epstein's little black book.
41:26
Here's a short excerpt from an NBC report on this.
41:31
The now defunct news and gossip website Gawker, which in 2012
41:35
published portions of a sex tape involving Hogan and Heather
41:39
Klim, the wife of his close friend, radio personality Bubba
41:43
the Love Sponge. The lawsuit against Gawker went
41:46
to trial in 2016, bankrolled in part by Silicon Valley
41:50
billionaire and PayPal Co founder Peter.
41:53
Thiel. Who says he was outed as gay on
41:55
Gawker's Media tech blog in 2007, years before he was ready
41:59
to make that declaration possible?
42:01
Publicly at the RNC. I am proud to be gay.
42:05
Backed by Teal, Hogan won the case, a jury ordering Gawker to
42:09
pay $140 million in damages. The company filed for bankruptcy
42:13
within months, and the blog shut down shortly thereafter, Teal
42:17
riding in a 2016 New York Times op-ed after the verdict.
42:21
He funded the lawsuit because the site routinely published
42:24
thinly sourced, nasty articles. That attacked and mocked people.
42:28
Most of the victims didn't fight back, so I don't know what your
42:34
thoughts are on that. I was very young looking.
42:36
Elon Musk there, by the way. He was, yeah, this before he
42:39
grew into the monster that he's become today.
42:42
So what does Hulk Hogan have to do with Gawker?
42:45
That's a good question. Well, there is a kind of an
42:47
Epstein connection to this. So the Nick Bryant article,
42:51
which was published in 2015. Now, mind you, Hulk filed his
42:54
his case in 2013 against Gawker, but things developed during that
42:59
legal process, like the Epstein story broke on Gawker.
43:03
And this is where it gets interesting.
43:04
Let's go to Nick Bryant's article on Gawker.
43:07
How about that? First place we should look up on
43:09
screen here, actually, sorry, Mike, we got a four O 4 on this.
43:13
It's been erased. It's been taken down like every
43:16
other article on Gawker. So I thought their archive was
43:20
supposed to be preserved anyway, thanks to the Wayback Machine.
43:24
There it is. That's the flight logs for
43:27
Epstein's private jet, Love Island, Lolita Express, ETC.
43:31
It's all there. So Nick Bryant did a couple of
43:33
articles, stories, and Gawker was the place, was the venue.
43:36
Where it for now? Why?
43:38
Why was it Gawker and not every other media outlet like who
43:41
nobody wanted? Nobody wanted to touch it,
43:44
didn't want to touch it with a hot.
43:45
Kryptonite. Total kryptonite.
43:48
So, and what was interesting after this happened, so and so
43:51
Hulk Hogan sues Gawker and basically for I think thirty,
43:56
130 or 124 million or something and they go bankrupt.
44:01
OK, so guess who tries? There's a vulture capitalist
44:05
circling to try to buy the articles in the archive on
44:10
Gawker. Who is that?
44:11
Let's take a look at that. Well, there he is.
44:13
Peter Thiel. So hold on, hold on.
44:15
The guy who bankrolled Hulk Hogan's legal case wanted to buy
44:21
the remains of what was left. Yeah, the guy who bankrolled the
44:25
legal challenge to bankrupt the Gawker is now in 2018 tried to
44:29
acquire Gawker or what was left of Gawker.
44:32
OK, So what was interesting is Theo didn't do it in the end,
44:36
but he seemed to basically give give it away and could be from
44:41
one of his associates in Silicon Valley.
44:43
I don't know how close this next gentleman is, but this is who
44:47
ended up scooping up Gawker. There it is.
44:50
That's in 2018 Bustle Digital Group Bustle Media CEO Brian
44:55
Goldberg takes Gawker here in a bankruptcy auction.
45:00
Bustle Digital Group CEO Brian Goldberg acquired the Gawker
45:04
assets in bankruptcy auction, paying 1.35 million for the
45:10
rights to Brent for its brand and its archives.
45:13
That's the key and its archives. So he claimed he was going to
45:18
preserve the Gawker archives in perpetuity.
45:22
Well, let's let's look at this. And according to Wikipedia, I
45:26
couldn't find any follow up on this story, but Wikipedia says,
45:30
but later paused the project. So Goldberg didn't do it in the
45:34
end. He didn't do it in the end.
45:36
So what, what, what went on there?
45:38
It's gone. It's basically gone.
45:40
So that's what happened. So he paid.
45:43
He paid 1.3 million. I know it's Trump change for a
45:46
media mogul, but with the intention to what?
45:49
Bury it. That's the question.
45:51
That's kind of like what we're looking at there.
45:54
So that's an interesting back end to the Hulk Hogan story that
45:57
a lot of people maybe you aren't aware of, but maybe they are
46:01
now. So feel free to look into that
46:03
story. If anybody finds anything, let
46:04
us know. Absolutely.
46:06
That'd be very interesting. Now, Mark, let's come back to
46:09
the UK then. And of course, the last major
46:13
pandemic preparedness exercise that Britain held was exercise
46:17
sickness, which happened amazingly just prior to the
46:21
COVID situation. We've got a new one coming up
46:25
very soon. Indeed, I kind of got my pants
46:30
caught on a nail on this one, guys.
46:32
I stumbled across it as I keep an eye on the International
46:36
Health Regulations and things like that.
46:38
It's an ongoing thing, of course, and it turns out it's
46:41
called Exercise Pegasus, set for this coming autumn, the fall in
46:48
the UK, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
46:52
And I have the main slides from NHS England.
46:56
It might look a little excessive text wise, but I wanted to get
46:59
the main part of this on the record.
47:01
People can freeze the slides to read all of it if they'd like,
47:05
because this is more or less the initial report by UK column on
47:08
Exercise Pegasus. But on this one pandemic
47:11
response plan, the of these first two, the second one is
47:14
more important. Work is underway on developing A
47:17
pandemic response plan which will set out national roles and
47:22
responsibilities and how the the health and social care system
47:26
will respond to a pandemic occurring now for different
47:30
routes of transmission. The first of these focuses on
47:33
response to a respiratory airborne pandemic, something
47:38
that they could claim is more, you know, more transmissible.
47:41
Think things like that. Now moving on and just kind of
47:45
cherry picking this part, these parts, the main part of the of
47:49
the NHS England statement on this #3 is also, that's their
47:54
emphasis, by the way, not mine. Exercise Pegasus is a tier one
47:58
exercise defined as a national level exercise involving
48:02
ministerial participation and Cabinet Office briefing rooms
48:06
activation. And here's the key part, when
48:09
and will take place between September and November of this
48:13
year. Its key purpose is to simulate a
48:16
realistic pandemic scenario, and it's the first of its kind in
48:20
nearly a decade. They're saying, and you
48:23
mentioned Cygnus, Mike, there was also on our Side of the Pond
48:27
Event 2O One in New York City in October of 2019, a drill that
48:34
buried a very close resemblance or you might say the pandemic
48:37
that came in early 2020 very closely resembled many elements
48:41
of that drill Event 2O one in New York.
48:45
Moving on from there. These are just some other
48:47
components of the NHS England statement again, that constitute
48:51
the core of this. People can freeze these and, and
48:54
read read about this later. I'll read #6 Executive
48:58
participation is set to include national director for UEC and
49:02
operations, chief medical officer, selected national
49:06
clinical directors, chief nursing officer, regional
49:09
directors with support from the national program, director for
49:12
urgent and emergency care, and national director for NHS.
49:16
Resilience. The favorite globalists were
49:18
there. Resilience.
49:20
This will take place across 3/2 day phases in September and
49:25
October. Again, a little more of a hint
49:27
as to the timing and how this will be structured.
49:30
Now, another important thing, and I'll just cherry pick this
49:33
again, is from NHS England. They also had an appendix.
49:38
Appendix #1 The core objectives US one of them is exercise
49:43
decision making processes for measures to contain, control or
49:46
mitigate the impact of a pandemic, including how relevant
49:50
priority lessons from previous civil emergency exercises and
49:54
outbreaks have been embedded. And there's other miscellaneous
49:58
things. Some of it is is quite
49:59
bureaucratic. I call it bureaucratis.
50:02
It's kind of a language like Globalese, but in the second set
50:06
of the outcomes or the assumed outcomes, the middle one is
50:10
important. I marked it with an arrow and in
50:12
red test the strategic response. Of course, they have to do this
50:17
to disinformation and misinformation.
50:20
They have to control the narrative, particularly if they
50:23
want to look at the possibility if if they really have a
50:27
so-called real pandemic, would there be a lockdown worse than
50:30
the first one. They would really have to be
50:32
warding off the misinfo and disinfo so they can control the
50:36
narrative if they want to do that.
50:38
In the event this drill were to go real and we've seen drills
50:42
going real, even going back to 911 in the United States.
50:46
But we have a video I came to identify this MP member, a
50:53
Labour member, as Matt Western, as in country and western Matt
50:58
Western. And he represents some
51:01
Leamington and Warwick in the UK and he had a little something to
51:05
say about Exercise Pegasus, among some other miscellaneous
51:09
things. But it's not a long video, so
51:10
let's roll that. The action plan brings together
51:14
a range of policies. We have already set out our
51:18
proposals to increase defense spending.
51:21
We are earmarking £4.2 billion of funding for new flood
51:25
defences, £370 million to secure the UK's telecom networks,
51:32
opening a new Resilience Academy in North Yorkshire that will
51:36
train 4000 people every year from both private and public
51:39
sectors. And later this year we will have
51:42
the largest ever national pandemic exercise that will test
51:46
the UK's readiness for future pandemics.
51:50
We are also developing a risk vulnerability map for public
51:53
servants, applying one of the principal lessons of previous
51:56
tragedies, which is that all too often it's the most vulnerable
52:00
in our society who are hardest hit in the case of an emergency.
52:08
Interesting. Kind of a mixed bag there that
52:11
he shared, but he did mention it.
52:12
It looks like it's going to be a big unprecedented drill.
52:16
One thing that UK residents might want to ask themselves now
52:19
is are they seeing anything yet in the BBC?
52:22
Are they seeing anything yet in the British papers in the
52:25
British press hinting at this or is it being kept relatively
52:29
quiet? That would be quite instructive.
52:31
I also found talking to James Raguski, the noted IHR pandemic
52:36
treaty researcher, and some of my own research, that as a
52:41
related matter. For one thing, it appears that
52:44
Exercise Pegasus will have some reference to the International
52:48
Health Regulations because as those regulations are adopted,
52:52
and that's supposed to be as of September 19th.
52:54
So look at the timing. As those regulations are
52:57
adopted, the Pegasus exercise would look at England's, EU KS
53:03
preparedness with regard to what those regulations say.
53:08
Yet at the same time, of all places, Israel along with the
53:11
United States and Italy have through official correspondence,
53:17
they've signaled their intent to reject the amendments to the
53:22
International Health Regulations.
53:24
Now, an important point to keep in mind is you have the existing
53:28
regulations, but then you have amendments, which are changes to
53:31
the existing regulations. If you reject the amendments,
53:35
what's left? Does the remaining body of
53:38
regulations still constitute a threat to human freedom?
53:42
That's an important question to ask.
53:44
Just to give a little flavor of these countries that rejected
53:48
the amendments. However, I have a statement or
53:51
two from the Italian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,
53:55
Edmondo Cirielli. Here's one of them.
53:58
He said this. It's absurd and dangerous to
54:01
think that Italy should cede part of its healthcare
54:04
sovereignty to an organization like The Who.
54:07
And I emphasize this. The Maloney government rightly
54:10
rejected the IHR notice that it says rejected the International
54:14
Health Regulations, not just the amendments.
54:17
That's an important distinction and I'm hoping they're not
54:20
overlooking that distinction. And then he says which would
54:22
have introduced binding measures from above without going through
54:26
parliament. And he said this in addition,
54:29
this is not cooperation, it's bureaucratic centralism.
54:33
In a healthcare context, each nation's right to decide how to
54:38
address a health emergency must be defended.
54:40
He went on to say this isn't narrow minded sovereignism.
54:45
That might be a new word. Sovereignism.
54:47
It's a responsibility of a independent state to its
54:51
citizens. So this is the sum and substance
54:55
of what's going on so far. Of course, I won't be the only
54:57
one covering this. I'm sure you guys, Charles
55:01
Mallett, maybe you, Patrick, you, Mike will be looking at the
55:04
Pegasus exercise because it's going to require a lot of
55:07
repetitive reporting. But I'll keep an eye on it too.
55:10
So that should do it for now. Thank you very much, Mark.
55:13
OK, now let's stay in the UK and the Online Safety Act and of
55:19
course the Online Safety Acts age verification requirements
55:23
came into force today. Here's how the BBC is presenting
55:27
it as something pornography websites have to conform to.
55:32
Except as I was heading out on Wednesday, in fact reporting on
55:35
Wednesday, it's not just porn sites which are import imposing
55:38
an age verification regime on their users, it's all user to
55:42
user services. So Reddit, as we mentioned on
55:45
Wednesday, is using this organization persona for age
55:48
verification. And as we mentioned, this is a
55:51
company which provides literally 0 information about who they
55:54
are, which is pretty ironic bearing in mind collecting, uh,
55:58
the, uh, collecting your data is all, you know, that's what
56:02
they're all about. Uh, ostensibly for the know your
56:05
customer, uh, regime, uh, and their privacy policies and
56:08
disclosures provide no information about limitations
56:11
and how the data is kept and how it's shared and so on.
56:14
X is also using Persona for this alongside, uh, Autonix and
56:20
Stripe for ID verification. Blue Sky has announced that
56:24
it'll be using an organization called KWS for their age
56:27
verification checking. And they're already requiring
56:30
people to sign up to this if they want to use direct
56:33
messaging. That's person to person
56:35
messaging. Facebook is going to be using
56:38
EOT. And so we have a situation that
56:42
all platforms, not just porn sites are rolling this out.
56:45
And so to continue to these, to use these platforms, people will
56:48
have to send their sensitive personal information to a bunch
56:51
of companies, raising the risk of identity theft potential, you
56:55
know, exponentially. And now people could, of course,
56:57
choose not to use the platforms, but that isn't likely going to
57:00
be the outcome. So the Online Safety Act, I
57:03
would argue, is not a step forward in keeping people safe.
57:06
It puts people at much greater risk and you know, I'm going to
57:09
say once again, it should be scrapped.
57:11
So I'm very happy to see that the number of people who've
57:14
signed the petition has doubled since Wednesday.
57:17
So it's now at 67,000. And as I said then, no matter
57:21
what we might think of petitions and their usefulness, I think we
57:25
should be taking every opportunity to make our opinions
57:28
known. So I would continue to encourage
57:31
everybody to sign that if possible.
57:34
And Mark, let me come back to you then for the final report of
57:38
the day and UNESCO and the United States relationship to
57:44
that United Nations body. Yes, Now there's big questions
57:49
surrounding this one, guys. This first slide is from the
57:53
State Department, not from the White House headlined the United
57:58
States Withdraws from the United Nations Educational, Scientific
58:02
and Cultural Organization, AKA UNESCO, a July 22nd press
58:08
release, again from the Department of State.
58:11
Tammy Bruce issued the press release.
58:14
And what's interesting here, and this also comes this next slide
58:18
from the State Department to get into just a little bit of the
58:21
meat of that press release, Continued involvement in UNESCO
58:25
is not in the US national interest.
58:27
They're saying UNESCO advances divisive social and cultural
58:31
causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UNS 17 Sustainable
58:37
Development Goals, a globalist ideology, ideological agenda.
58:41
Excuse me, at odds with our American first foreign policy
58:45
emphasis. UNESCO's decision to admit the
58:48
state of Palestine as a member state says the State Department
58:53
of the US is highly problematic, interesting, contrary to U.S.
58:57
policy and contributed to the proliferation, they say, of anti
59:02
Israel rhetoric within UNESCO. So pursuant to Article 2.6 of
59:08
the UNESCO Constitution, the US. However, the withdrawal will not
59:13
take effect until the end of 2026, quite a long time when the
59:19
US apparently backed out of The Who.
59:22
That won't be official, we're told, until the beginning of
59:25
2026. So there's some long time frames
59:28
and a lot can happen in those time frames.
59:30
Backpedaling, second guessing, you name it.
59:33
Now, Reuters came out with a little something on this.
59:36
I'll just touch on Trump pulls US out of UN cultural agency,
59:41
UNESCO for a second time. Trump did that in his first
59:44
term. Biden put us back in.
59:47
And now to the Trump administration wants to take us
59:49
out again. UNESCO boss says the decision is
59:52
regrettable but expected. The White House says UNESCO
59:56
supports woke causes and Israel welcomes the US decision to pull
1:00:01
out again because UNESCO recognized Palestine as a state.
1:00:05
How dare they. Moving on here.
1:00:08
This is also quite interesting, Patrick.
1:00:11
I think you'll get a little bit of a kick out of this.
1:00:13
UNESCO was one of several international bodies Trump
1:00:16
withdrew from during his first term, the Paris, Paris climate
1:00:20
agreement, so on and so forth. The UN Human Rights Council,
1:00:24
although he has reinstated some of those steps, apparently.
1:00:27
But look at the second part here that I emphasize Trump's pick to
1:00:33
be his US, Excuse me, Trump's pick to be his UN envoy.
1:00:36
Mike Walls, He said recently and apparently he said this, I, I
1:00:41
really, really would like to double check this quote.
1:00:44
He said this month that the United Nations needs reform
1:00:47
while expressing confidence that we can make the UN grade again,
1:00:52
make the UN great again. Coming from someone in the Trump
1:00:56
White House, that sounds, to say the least, incongruent.
1:01:00
And in this next slide, there's I'll be very cherry picking
1:01:03
about this. In a post on X, Israel's foreign
1:01:06
Minister Gideon Tsar thanked Washington for its, quote, moral
1:01:10
support and leadership, End Quote and said that singling out
1:01:13
is Israel and politics. Politicization by member states
1:01:16
must end in this and all professional UN agencies.
1:01:21
So that's interesting here. Now, although the Trump
1:01:26
administration is saying that UNESCO is too woke for comfort
1:01:31
and they would they see this as going against the America First
1:01:34
policy, they're really not as explicit as most UNESCO critics
1:01:39
are. UNESCO is in the left wing
1:01:42
sense, in the international sense, international a sense, a
1:01:45
pretty radical organization, historically speaking, very big
1:01:49
and LBGTQ very big on so-called gender equality, which is a very
1:01:54
mixed bag and rather subversive and misleading.
1:01:57
Very big on reproductive rights. So euphemism for abortion.
1:02:02
According to World Low Meteor last year abortion was the
1:02:05
leading cause of death apparently in the entire world.
1:02:08
So UNESCO has taken some pretty radical positions across the
1:02:12
board. There are a number of reasons to
1:02:15
get out of UNESCO from a conservative national
1:02:18
sovereignty point of view if you're skeptical of the UN
1:02:21
Charter. But all all the Trump
1:02:24
administration has has made is some vague comments about
1:02:27
disagreeing with its social policies and that it's too woke.
1:02:31
They could be a little clearer of of why many conservative
1:02:34
organizations have had their doubts for a very long time
1:02:38
about UNESCO, but there's not a lot of clarity there.
1:02:41
And the comment by Mr. Walls, and I'd like to confirm it, make
1:02:45
the UN great again again is very incongruent and puzzling if
1:02:49
you're a genuine UN critic. So that's what's going on there.
1:02:54
We'll see if they actually withdraw from UNESCO.
1:02:57
We have to wait and see because the reality of this is a little
1:03:00
hard to peg. So there we go.
1:03:03
Brilliant. Thank you, Mark, Thank you for
1:03:04
that. Well, look, we, I'm afraid, are
1:03:07
completely out of time, so we're going to leave it there for
1:03:10
today. Plenty to talk about in UK
1:03:12
column use extra. If you're a UK column member,
1:03:14
please stick on the live stream and join us for that.
1:03:18
Thank you, Patrick. Thank you, Mark and thank you
1:03:21
everybody that's watched. We'll see you as many as
1:03:25
possible that are coming tonight for Andrew Bridges discussion in
1:03:27
Totnes. Otherwise, have a great weekend
1:03:30
and we'll see you on Monday at 1:00 PM as usual.
1:03:32
Bye bye.