Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 26th August 2026

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UK Column News — 26th August 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's just gone one o'clock on Wednesday the 26th of August.
0:13
Speaker 2: Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host, Charles Mallett.
0:16
Speaker 2: I'm joined in the studio today by Brian Gerrish.
0:18
Speaker 1: Welcome to the programme, Brian. Pleasure. Very good to have
0:21
Speaker 1: you here. Pleasure, Charles.
0:22
Speaker 2: And we have Vanessa Beely joining us by live link. Now,
0:26
Speaker 2: among the topics we'll be reporting on today are data
0:30
Speaker 2: sharing or yet another data sharing agreement with the state
0:33
Speaker 2: of Israel, the extraordinary bias of the BBC in shaping
0:36
Speaker 2: the war narrative, the increased push for super cities and
0:41
Speaker 2: what this really means, why and perhaps how the chief
0:44
Speaker 2: of the CIA has ended up in Moscow, how kites
0:48
Speaker 2: have become another source of conflict in Gaza, and the
0:51
Speaker 2: tungsten mining in the UK. But we are going to
0:55
Speaker 2: start with Ukraine and exactly what has been happening there.
0:59
Speaker 1: Brian.
1:00
Speaker 3: Well, thank you very much, Charles. I was, of course,
1:04
Speaker 3: fascinated by Andy Burnham's trip over to Ukraine. And aside
1:08
Speaker 3: from what he did and did not say, I just
1:11
Speaker 3: found the whole pageantry of the event very interesting and
1:16
Speaker 3: somewhat spooky in certain places. So This image, which is
1:21
Speaker 3: just one of many in a video of the event,
1:24
Speaker 3: really only shows a fraction of what was happening because
1:28
Speaker 3: we had military personnel, we had banners, we had people
1:31
Speaker 3: in national costumes. We, of course, had the flags. And
1:36
Speaker 3: if I just bring this little one in here, I
1:38
Speaker 3: found this one. I don't even know what was going
1:42
Speaker 3: on here, but Zelensky's presenting this immaculate picture. blonde lady
1:47
Speaker 3: dressed in white against the Ukrainian flag in the background.
1:55
Speaker 3: I don't know what is going on here, but it
2:00
Speaker 3: sort of, to me, just looks a bit uncannily like
2:03
Speaker 3: some of the images that we would see from Germany pre-war. Now,
2:08
Speaker 3: you have experience in the country and you said to
2:11
Speaker 3: me that this is what Ukrainians like. They like the pattern.
2:15
Speaker 3: the pageantry and the history, et cetera.
2:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think really the way I would
2:20
Speaker 2: look at it is that this sort of fanfare and
2:24
Speaker 2: the way in which things look in Ukraine, I think
2:26
Speaker 2: is very much distinctly different from what we might expect here.
2:29
Speaker 2: I think the question is, why on earth is somebody
2:30
Speaker 2: like Andy Burnham a part of that? What on earth
2:33
Speaker 2: has he got to do with Ukrainian independence?
2:36
Speaker 3: Indeed, yes. Well, I went and had a little look
2:40
Speaker 3: to see what the BBC was having to say on that.
2:43
Speaker 3: on Andy Burnham and what he had been doing and saying.
2:47
Speaker 3: And we're going to have a look at this exchange.
2:53
Speaker 3: I've taken some clips out of it. It's Adam Fleming
2:57
Speaker 3: is the gentleman on the left from BBC Newscast organisation.
3:02
Speaker 3: He's talking to BBC correspondent James Landale and the title
3:10
Speaker 3: of this discussion was, Can Secret UK Missile Blueprints Actually
3:15
Speaker 3: Help Ukraine Against Russia? This was a very general title.
3:19
Speaker 3: It didn't really seem to hit the spot. So let's
3:21
Speaker 3: have a look at this little series of clips where
3:24
Speaker 3: we've got some points to discuss. And the first one.
3:28
Speaker 2: And in terms of the international diplomacy, the Kremlin said
3:31
Speaker 2: this was the UK pouring petrol on the flames of
3:35
Speaker 2: the conflict.
3:35
Speaker 1: And Andy Brenham responded to that like this.
3:38
Speaker 4: Who started the fire? That's the question, isn't it? Ukraine
3:42
Speaker 4: did not do that. Russia began this illegal invasion and
3:47
Speaker 4: that is absolutely clear and they could stop it at
3:49
Speaker 4: any given time. Britain will never be a fair weather friend.
3:52
Speaker 4: People would expect me to be out here showing our
3:55
Speaker 4: unflinching support.
3:58
Speaker 3: Very much like the schoolmaster speaking to the class, I
4:03
Speaker 3: felt in that little clip. But of course, he twists
4:06
Speaker 3: the whole thing onto the fact it was the Russians
4:08
Speaker 3: that started the whole affair. When of course, we know
4:11
Speaker 3: from a variety of documentation, and even statements by Victoria
4:16
Speaker 3: Newland in the early days, that there was a massive
4:20
Speaker 3: push by Western powers to be manipulating the Ukraine as
4:27
Speaker 3: a country and also the political system. As this discussion continues,
4:33
Speaker 3: we'll hear a bit more of that nuance. But let's
4:36
Speaker 3: go on to the second clip and listen to what
4:41
Speaker 3: the discussion moves on to.
4:46
Speaker 5: So there is definitely a ritual involved. to Burnham's visit.
4:50
Speaker 5: This is what British prime ministers do and have to.
4:53
Speaker 5: And the messaging is not just though for Ukraine to
4:57
Speaker 5: ensure continuity. It is also a message from the UK
5:00
Speaker 5: to other European allies that the British position is not
5:03
Speaker 5: going to change. And it was very interesting, of course,
5:05
Speaker 5: that Mr. Burnham was on the same train as a
5:08
Speaker 5: lot of the European officials and leaders and the picture
5:12
Speaker 5: of him sort of hugging Mr. Costa and things like that.
5:15
Speaker 1: Who's the president of the European Council?
5:19
Speaker 3: So I think the BBC journalist is actually giving us
5:22
Speaker 3: some interesting information here because he sets the scene. He
5:25
Speaker 3: was on the train himself at one point, or he
5:28
Speaker 3: talks about a train journey. And what are we being told? Well,
5:33
Speaker 3: of course, we've got the relations with the European Union
5:37
Speaker 3: all continuing in the background. Everybody's very happy. They're cuddling
5:41
Speaker 3: each other. And this is Andy Burnham's message today. to
5:46
Speaker 3: the EU and to the world as to what Britain
5:49
Speaker 3: is going to do, which is to continue to support
5:53
Speaker 3: this really terrible war that's going on. So I would
5:56
Speaker 3: suggest any idea that relationship with the European Union is
6:01
Speaker 3: in a poor place, that's clearly not true. And Andy
6:06
Speaker 3: Burnham is going to attempt to produce even better relationship
6:10
Speaker 3: with the European Union over and above what Keir Starmer
6:14
Speaker 3: did last during his time as Prime Minister. But lots
6:18
Speaker 3: going on in the background that essentially the British public
6:22
Speaker 3: aren't being told about who is talking to who and
6:25
Speaker 3: what they're discussing.
6:26
Speaker 2: I think exactly right. But it is becoming more and
6:29
Speaker 2: more obvious and I think much harder to hide exactly
6:32
Speaker 2: what the agenda is and in particular why the war
6:35
Speaker 2: has been perpetuated by the Western powers. I mean, Boris Johnson,
6:39
Speaker 2: of course, is the person that springs to mind in
6:41
Speaker 2: terms of actively not seeking peace.
6:44
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I'd also point out to the audience the remarkable
6:50
Speaker 3: relaxed posture of these two men as they discuss a
6:54
Speaker 3: war where the Ukrainians at the moment are talking about 1.4, 1.5
7:00
Speaker 3: million casualties on the Russian side. They're not declaring their own,
7:05
Speaker 3: but this is a very relaxed, chatty discussion about what
7:08
Speaker 3: is essentially a vicious war which the West is helping
7:12
Speaker 3: to support. How long will that support go on for?
7:17
Speaker 3: Let's listen to this next clip.
7:21
Speaker 5: It's one thing to promise Ukraine rhetorical support, but the UK,
7:26
Speaker 5: whoever is in power, is going to have to be
7:29
Speaker 5: giving Ukraine military support for years to come, even if
7:34
Speaker 5: the war was settled tomorrow. the UK and other allies
7:38
Speaker 5: are going to be providing Ukraine with military support to
7:42
Speaker 5: help deter future Russian aggression. And all of that is
7:45
Speaker 5: going to require substantial additional expenditure in defence.
7:52
Speaker 3: So nobody's expecting this war to finish any time soon.
7:55
Speaker 3: Andy Burnham is not pushing for the war to finish soon. Rather,
8:01
Speaker 3: What this discussion shows is that they're going to be
8:04
Speaker 3: saying to the UK public, we've got to spend this
8:07
Speaker 3: on defence in order to support Ukraine and therefore other
8:12
Speaker 3: elements of expenditure in the UK economy are going to
8:17
Speaker 3: suffer as a result. So it's war and more war.
8:20
Speaker 3: But at the same time, we don't trust Ukraine. So
8:24
Speaker 3: they now move on to talking about reforms for Ukraine.
8:31
Speaker 5: The UK has always been heavily involved in talking to
8:34
Speaker 5: Ukraine behind the scenes about what's going on domestically and
8:37
Speaker 5: how things are happening. Not in terms of lecturing, in
8:39
Speaker 5: terms of saying you must do this and that and
8:40
Speaker 5: the other. But in terms of, you know, overtly, the
8:44
Speaker 5: public support has always been, you know, 100% commitment to Zelensky, blah, blah, blah.
8:47
Speaker 5: But behind the scenes, the British government has been repeatedly
8:50
Speaker 5: putting pressure on the government in Kiev to.
8:53
Speaker 4: Say, look.
8:53
Speaker 5: you've got to shift on civic society stuff. You've got
8:56
Speaker 5: to maintain your momentum for reform. So you've got to
9:00
Speaker 5: clean out the judiciary. You've got to make sure the
9:03
Speaker 5: anti-corruption organisations are working well.
9:07
Speaker 3: So I find this extraordinary, Charles, that we get the
9:10
Speaker 3: admission that we've been meddling in Ukraine for a very
9:13
Speaker 3: long time. We're not telling them to do anything, of course,
9:15
Speaker 3: but we are telling them to change their judicial system
9:19
Speaker 3: and to clean out wider corruption in the country. So
9:23
Speaker 3: We're providing all of this material and money into Ukraine,
9:26
Speaker 3: but at the same time saying, as we're going to
9:28
Speaker 3: be showing a little bit later in more detail, it's corrupt.
9:33
Speaker 3: It's quite extraordinary. And lastly, let's have a look at
9:38
Speaker 3: this one here, which is that Democratic UK is strongly
9:44
Speaker 3: not in favour of elections in Ukraine.
9:48
Speaker 5: I mean, look, the British government does not want there
9:50
Speaker 5: to be elections, but they do want.
9:52
Speaker 6: Zelensky to.
9:53
Speaker 5: Maintain legitimacy and they do want popular support to remain.
9:58
Speaker 5: Will there come a time when Ukraine moves from a
10:02
Speaker 5: comedian-termed wartime leader who used to run a TV studio
10:08
Speaker 5: into a younger... more technologically minded, with a completely different outlook,
10:16
Speaker 5: who has Elon Musk's personal phone number on his speed dial, right?
10:21
Speaker 5: Does Ukraine move to that kind of leadership in the future?
10:24
Speaker 5: That may happen.
10:27
Speaker 3: So a wartime comedian that's going to be morphed into
10:31
Speaker 3: somebody who's got Elon Musk on a speed dial on
10:33
Speaker 3: their phone. What is this, Charles?
10:35
Speaker 1: What are we looking at? It is bizarre. I mean,
10:39
Speaker 1: in fairness, there are sort of half-truths coming through.
10:42
Speaker 3: Correct.
10:43
Speaker 2: Which is fascinating. But I think equally, it's what is
10:48
Speaker 2: not said or apparently not understood or not known.
10:50
Speaker 7: Yes.
10:51
Speaker 1: We need to be considering.
10:52
Speaker 3: Well, let's just reinforce the point about corruption. So we'll
10:56
Speaker 3: put this article on screen by the Kiev Independent. What
11:00
Speaker 3: does Ukraine's latest corruption scandal tell us about how Zelensky governs?
11:05
Speaker 4: And.
11:06
Speaker 3: This is really what it's talking about here. So we've
11:10
Speaker 3: got charges, the latest chapter of charges in the corruption saga.
11:15
Speaker 3: We've got an investigation which is centered around the state
11:19
Speaker 3: nuclear power monopoly, NOGO Atom. And finally, down here, we've
11:25
Speaker 3: got an investigation which led to the resignation of Zelensky's
11:29
Speaker 3: chief of staff. So these are absolute major events pointing
11:33
Speaker 3: to deeply entrenched corruption at the highest level, with the
11:37
Speaker 3: UK prepared to pump in billions of public money without,
11:42
Speaker 3: it seems, any worries. Kiev independent here as well. EU
11:47
Speaker 3: reminds Ukraine of rule of law homework after Parliament stalls reforms.
11:52
Speaker 3: And if we just pick out the bullet points from this,
11:55
Speaker 3: the EU Commission reiterated that it's vital for Ukraine to
12:00
Speaker 3: continue rule of law reforms and the fight against corruption.
12:05
Speaker 3: Apologies for the typo there. Ukraine is required to strengthen
12:08
Speaker 3: its judiciary and anti-corruption bodies. This is reinforcing the fact
12:13
Speaker 3: that there is massive corruption. And finally, down here, we
12:17
Speaker 3: get to the bizarre situation where Ukraine's own parliament blocked
12:21
Speaker 3: five of these measures at its August 19th meeting. So
12:25
Speaker 3: none of this is going to be rectified, but Ukraine's
12:28
Speaker 3: still going to be sucking on huge amounts of money
12:32
Speaker 3: from the UK taxpayer. Now, I just add to that
12:35
Speaker 3: that the rhetoric and the propaganda continue. So on the
12:40
Speaker 3: Kiev Independent itself, I was interested to come across their
12:45
Speaker 3: war crimes investigation unit. Of course, this is heavily focused
12:50
Speaker 3: on the Russians. Apparently, 80,000 alleged Russian war crimes so
12:54
Speaker 3: far in the war. They're looking into individual stories and
12:57
Speaker 3: in-depth coverage. But I was fascinated to see that it's
13:01
Speaker 3: our old friend Microsoft that's actually supporting this work. So strangely,
13:07
Speaker 3: they seem very concerned about war crimes in Ukraine, but
13:11
Speaker 3: not elsewhere in the rest of the world. And lastly,
13:15
Speaker 3: the UK public, of course, being drenched with the pro-Ukrainian propaganda.
13:21
Speaker 3: And one of our viewers kindly sent me this picture
13:23
Speaker 3: of Sudbury Town Hall in Suffolk. And of course, what
13:27
Speaker 3: he was outraged about was the fact we still had
13:31
Speaker 3: the Ukrainian flag flying. So an overview there, Charles, apologies,
13:35
Speaker 3: I've taken a little bit of your time, but just
13:38
Speaker 3: remarkable to understand what the British government is actually doing
13:43
Speaker 3: with really no feedback to the British public at all.
13:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's absolutely right.
13:47
Speaker 2: And it's amazing what can be made to not matter.
13:50
Speaker 2: when it doesn't need to matter. I would say just
13:53
Speaker 2: a small concession there, saying that the Union flag is
13:55
Speaker 2: still actually flying above the Ukrainian flag.
13:58
Speaker 3: Yes, probably not for long.
14:00
Speaker 4: Yes.
14:01
Speaker 2: Now, on Monday's news, I reported on Burnham's visit to
14:05
Speaker 2: Ukraine like a rat up a drainpipe. He shot straight
14:08
Speaker 2: for the Independence Day celebrations. And I showed this announcement
14:12
Speaker 2: to say that he was continuing to be 100% behind Ukraine. Ukraine, which,
14:17
Speaker 2: of course, we know all too well, handed over the
14:19
Speaker 2: technology for the Scalp or Storm Shadow missile, as well
14:22
Speaker 2: as Stonecloak. Here's some of the footage that accompanied in
14:26
Speaker 2: a sort of PR capacity. So here he is resisting
14:29
Speaker 2: a hug, it must be said, and for how much longer.
14:33
Speaker 2: But he's now shaking hands with a couple of defence
14:35
Speaker 2: staff here, Richard Knighton, the chief of the UK defence staff.
14:41
Speaker 2: They then have a bit of a chat before a
14:43
Speaker 2: sort of chummy, but no doubt terribly profound meeting and
14:46
Speaker 2: then looking at signing a declaration with something that is
14:52
Speaker 2: actually just a biro. It looks like it's a sort
14:53
Speaker 2: of quill, but is really a biro. Now, this is
14:56
Speaker 2: a declaration of intent. And this was where considerable amount
15:01
Speaker 2: of formal language was used, but it is in its
15:03
Speaker 2: own way illustrative. They talk about, they resolve that the
15:08
Speaker 2: technological edge of democracies must be preserved as a foundation
15:11
Speaker 2: of deterrence. So going back to what James Landau was
15:14
Speaker 2: saying about having Elon Musk or having his telephone number
15:17
Speaker 2: on your telephone. And they then go on to talk about,
15:20
Speaker 2: they're determined that the United Kingdom and Ukraine should advance together,
15:23
Speaker 2: combining Ukraine's unrivaled battlefield experience with the United Kingdom's technological,
15:28
Speaker 2: industrial and research strength to build the AI era armed
15:32
Speaker 2: forces of our two nations and our allies will depend upon.
15:36
Speaker 2: I think this is getting closer to the mark in
15:38
Speaker 2: terms of what it is the United Kingdom is trying
15:40
Speaker 2: to get out of this, but also it's an implicit
15:43
Speaker 2: admission by the UK that we're in no position to
15:45
Speaker 2: fight ourselves because, of course, we lack the manpower, the money,
15:48
Speaker 2: the capability, and most importantly, the experience. And that's what
15:52
Speaker 2: Ukraine does have, which is why this could be seen
15:55
Speaker 2: as an enhanced effort, I think, to colonise the country
15:59
Speaker 2: or parts of it or its infrastructure. A new battlefield,
16:04
Speaker 2: one might say. Hotly contested and, of course, notable, I think,
16:07
Speaker 2: that Zelensky took great pains during his speech on Independence
16:12
Speaker 2: Day to praise China, talking about the appreciation that over
16:16
Speaker 2: the last 35 years, they've built relations with China on
16:20
Speaker 2: mutual respect and full recognition of the values of our peoples.
16:23
Speaker 2: They count on further cooperation and on China playing a
16:26
Speaker 2: strong diplomatic role in bringing Russia's war against our country
16:31
Speaker 2: to an end. So it remains to be seen whether
16:34
Speaker 2: that's actually going to have any kind of an effect
16:36
Speaker 2: or not. Back to the sort of defence side of it,
16:39
Speaker 2: West Streeting, of course, couldn't resist, but taped Twitter to
16:43
Speaker 2: show a series of photographs of him shaking hands with
16:47
Speaker 2: all sorts, Zelensky in particular. And then he went on
16:50
Speaker 2: to talk about sovereignty, freedom, and democracy. But of course,
16:54
Speaker 2: worth noting that it seems to be more important to
16:56
Speaker 2: him for Ukraine rather than the United Kingdom. And then
17:00
Speaker 2: with regard to the deliverables, one might say, there is
17:03
Speaker 2: another announcement to this, which is reference to the Avengers
17:06
Speaker 2: AI labs. Now, They are the successor to the Delta platform,
17:12
Speaker 2: and they say that it's bringing together Britain's world-leading AI
17:16
Speaker 2: ecosystem with Ukraine's operational experience, engineering talent, and technological innovation.
17:21
Speaker 2: So in effect, backfilling the deficit that I was talking
17:24
Speaker 2: about just a moment ago. And I think we should
17:27
Speaker 2: also be mindful of the potential for civilian application, because
17:30
Speaker 2: they say that there's the potential to revolutionize all parts
17:33
Speaker 2: of public life. from air traffic control to train systems.
17:37
Speaker 2: So this is a sort of AI system that's supposed
17:39
Speaker 2: to learn everything from the battlefield.
17:42
Speaker 1: What do you think about that?
17:44
Speaker 3: We see it with regard to defence and the battlefield,
17:48
Speaker 3: but indeed it's across civilian life as well. So this
17:51
Speaker 3: is major change. And clearly the UK is pushing this
17:55
Speaker 3: through the Ukrainian political system. This is not something which
17:59
Speaker 3: has just come out of nowhere. This has been driven
18:01
Speaker 3: for some time, in my opinion.
18:03
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
18:04
Speaker 2: But this is why we have to prefix everything with
18:06
Speaker 2: the spectre of war. And this is what the Ukrainian
18:08
Speaker 2: Ministry of Defence say about the Avengers AI labs. Just
18:12
Speaker 2: put that on the screen now. So this is the
18:15
Speaker 2: website and they say the Ministry of Defence has granted
18:18
Speaker 2: Ukrainian defence companies access to the Avengers Labs platform. Now,
18:22
Speaker 2: I think this is a critical point because the way
18:23
Speaker 2: in which the agreement was written up by the British
18:25
Speaker 2: government was to suggest that it's bilateral or that it's
18:28
Speaker 2: just the UK that has been given exclusive access to
18:31
Speaker 2: this lab.
18:31
Speaker 1: But actually, it's not.
18:32
Speaker 2: It's any other country or any other corporation that does
18:37
Speaker 2: not have an association or an affiliation with Russia. Now,
18:41
Speaker 2: given the vulnerability of absolutely every single tech platform in
18:44
Speaker 2: that has yet to be created, it seems reasonable to
18:47
Speaker 2: assume that because of the number of attacks on Delta,
18:49
Speaker 2: that this also will present vulnerabilities in future. And of course,
18:56
Speaker 2: as I say, this is open to any other country
18:59
Speaker 2: or corporation, and therefore it seems very likely to imagine
19:02
Speaker 2: that data sharing will be part of this. Now, just
19:05
Speaker 2: to go back to Brian's point about corruption, I think
19:07
Speaker 2: I'll just close out by referencing Transparency International's.
19:12
Speaker 1: Corruption Perception Index.
19:14
Speaker 2: And asked the question, why would the United Kingdom, with
19:17
Speaker 2: a score of 70, admittedly could do better, want to
19:20
Speaker 2: associate with Ukraine with a score of 36? And I
19:24
Speaker 2: think that's one of the very many questions which is
19:26
Speaker 2: not being addressed or answered in any of this, and
19:30
Speaker 2: what sense it actually makes to, in effect, throw one's
19:33
Speaker 2: lot in with Ukraine in this manner.
19:36
Speaker 3: A lot of UK public are not being told.
19:40
Speaker 1: A huge amount. I think we'll come back to that
19:42
Speaker 1: in extra.
19:42
Speaker 2: Vanessa, we have overrun somewhat, but I asked the question
19:46
Speaker 2: in the sort of opening preamble as to what is...
19:49
Speaker 2: the chief of the CIA doing in Moscow? Is he
19:52
Speaker 2: there on purpose or what are we meant to think
19:55
Speaker 2: about this?
19:58
Speaker 8: Is he there on purpose, Charles? That's a very interesting question.
20:01
Speaker 8: You mean that his plane by mistake land in Moscow
20:06
Speaker 8: as it was tracked? Well, I mean, this Headline was in,
20:09
Speaker 8: I think this was CBS yesterday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe
20:14
Speaker 8: on secret trip in Russia, which was kind of hilarious
20:18
Speaker 8: because by that time it was all over social media
20:20
Speaker 8: and pretty much all over the media in general. He's
20:24
Speaker 8: in Moscow. If I can just have that back on
20:26
Speaker 8: screen for one second. Oops. for a meeting. Sources familiar
20:31
Speaker 8: with the situation told CBS news of his trip came
20:34
Speaker 8: after a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport
20:39
Speaker 8: plane was spotted at a Moscow airport along with a U.S.
20:42
Speaker 8: diplomatic motorcade. Neither the U.S. nor Russian governments have commented
20:48
Speaker 8: on the identity of the U.S. official in Russia. Now, Ratcliffe,
20:56
Speaker 8: it's quite interesting to note that he last made two trips,
21:00
Speaker 8: one in January to Venezuela, where he met with acting
21:03
Speaker 8: President Delcy Rodriguez after Trump had had President Maduro kidnapped, unlawfully,
21:09
Speaker 8: of course. And then he was in Cuba in May,
21:12
Speaker 8: just as Trump was starting to beat the war drums
21:17
Speaker 8: or the military action drums against Cuba. So we're still
21:22
Speaker 8: a little bit in the dark. I have been speaking
21:25
Speaker 8: to Russia-based correspondent John Helmer, who was interviewed quite recently
21:30
Speaker 8: by Mike Robinson. And he sent me a couple of
21:35
Speaker 8: links because he's also slightly scratching his head. But anyway,
21:39
Speaker 8: the Wall Street Journal put out this headline today, CIA
21:42
Speaker 8: Director John Ratcliffe Makes Surprise Visit. So it's no longer secret,
21:46
Speaker 8: it's now surprise. And rather than read to you from
21:51
Speaker 8: the Wall Street Journal article. I'll read out the telegram
21:56
Speaker 8: post from Oleg Saurov, who's a well-known Russian analyst and commentator,
22:01
Speaker 8: and that was actually sent to me by John Helmer.
22:05
Speaker 8: So he says, the Wall Street Journal has found an
22:07
Speaker 8: explanation for the sudden visit of the CIA director to Moscow. Allegedly,
22:12
Speaker 8: Ratcliffe flew in to warn Putin about a planned mobilization.
22:16
Speaker 8: The logic of this version is as follows. The United
22:19
Speaker 8: States supposedly saw signs of preparations for mobilization and believed
22:24
Speaker 8: it was necessary to test NATO strength. Therefore, Ratcliffe came
22:28
Speaker 8: to say, we know what you're planning and you better
22:30
Speaker 8: not do it. The media is trying to portray this
22:32
Speaker 8: visit as similar to the visit in November 2021 when
22:36
Speaker 8: William Burns visited Moscow with a similar mission. At the
22:40
Speaker 8: same time, the Wall Street Journal itself acknowledges that the
22:43
Speaker 8: purpose of the visit is unknown. And that there is
22:45
Speaker 8: even no precise information that Ratcliffe was actually received by
22:49
Speaker 8: the president of Russia. Those silly Americans, they got so
22:53
Speaker 8: worried that they sent the CIA director. But you and
22:56
Speaker 8: I know there'll be no mobilization today. Peskov stated that
23:00
Speaker 8: there would be no mobilization. And previously, the Security Council,
23:04
Speaker 8: the State Duma, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made
23:07
Speaker 8: similar statements. So many respectable people have said that there
23:10
Speaker 8: will be no mobilization. So it definitely won't happen. Agree? Agree. Anyway,
23:16
Speaker 8: then it gets even more sort of comical. This is
23:20
Speaker 8: Moscow Press. It's been translated from the Russian. And this
23:23
Speaker 8: is a scientific analyst, Klimov, who named the reason for
23:27
Speaker 8: CIA Director Ratcliffe's visit to Russia. And I got very
23:30
Speaker 8: excited when I read the headline. But the reality is
23:34
Speaker 8: slightly different. If we actually look at what the political
23:38
Speaker 8: scientists found, it's difficult to name the exact agenda of
23:41
Speaker 8: the negotiations, but admitted that it could cover a wide
23:44
Speaker 8: range of topics. This can range from some technical issues
23:47
Speaker 8: that specialists should clarify to more serious agreements. This is
23:50
Speaker 8: translated from Russian, remember. Both are possible. I repeat once again,
23:55
Speaker 8: there is nothing unusual in the fact that the special
23:57
Speaker 8: services of certain states in difficult periods are involved in
24:01
Speaker 8: issues that are usually resolved through diplomats. Klimov concluded. But
24:05
Speaker 8: in reality, of course, there's absolutely no conclusion. However, three
24:10
Speaker 8: days ago, Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with a Russian
24:15
Speaker 8: media outlet, did say this. And I'm wondering if this
24:18
Speaker 8: bears any relation on the visit. So let's play this.
24:23
Speaker 9: Most of our citizens understand what we are fighting for.
24:28
Speaker 9: And it seems that they want, as some say, to
24:30
Speaker 9: get everything back as soon as possible, not to be
24:33
Speaker 9: afraid of drones, but to leave the Nazi regime to
24:39
Speaker 9: the authorities, and this is what the West is trying
24:43
Speaker 9: to achieve now, and Zelensky begs for it, he says,
24:46
Speaker 9: let's have a truce, no political agreements are needed, And
24:52
Speaker 9: then we will discuss the future. It won't be like that.
24:55
Speaker 9: It was like that in April 1922, when the Ukrainians
24:59
Speaker 9: themselves at the negotiations in Istanbul offered us the concept
25:03
Speaker 9: of regulation, and we accepted it. And it was approved.
25:08
Speaker 9: And then the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came
25:13
Speaker 9: and forbade them to do it.
25:17
Speaker 8: So Lavrov is effectively saying, well, we're not going to
25:20
Speaker 8: accept a truce if the Nazi regime in Kiev is
25:23
Speaker 8: going to stay in power. Then finally, and this is
25:27
Speaker 8: the final bit of information, adding any clarification to this,
25:31
Speaker 8: today Peskov said that contacts between Putin and the head
25:34
Speaker 8: of the CIA were not planned in Moscow. So it
25:38
Speaker 8: does raise the question, did he actually go to Moscow?
25:41
Speaker 8: If he did go to Moscow, was it arranged? Was
25:44
Speaker 8: it a mistake? Did he just sort of think he'd
25:46
Speaker 8: drop in on his way to somewhere else? We have
25:50
Speaker 8: no idea, pretty much.
25:53
Speaker 1: Vanessa, it was a great story. And Brian has got
25:55
Speaker 1: a little more on this, I think.
25:58
Speaker 3: Well, I'm fascinated by your report, Vanessa. We didn't have
26:02
Speaker 3: any form of collusion for today's news. So I was
26:05
Speaker 3: hearing your report, absolutely fresh and new. I just wanted
26:10
Speaker 3: to bring up my own little dig into this story.
26:14
Speaker 3: We can show the plane for people. This is the
26:16
Speaker 3: one reported by the BBC. And of course, a variety
26:20
Speaker 3: of stories appearing in both the media in the UK
26:24
Speaker 3: and the US. Still talking about secret visit on the
26:28
Speaker 3: New York Times there, Vanessa. But also we've got another
26:31
Speaker 3: little video clip we can play, which is inside Moscow
26:36
Speaker 3: of the motorcade itself. And they're moving past this parked car.
26:42
Speaker 3: And you'll see a variety of vehicles coming past. What's
26:46
Speaker 3: fascinating about this is that you'll be able to see
26:50
Speaker 3: or inform people will be able to see at the
26:52
Speaker 3: end of the clip. And actually, the car itself is Chinese.
26:56
Speaker 3: That's the little logo in the center of the steering wheel.
27:00
Speaker 3: And so the comment was made to us that local
27:04
Speaker 3: residents sitting in his Chinese car was able to get
27:08
Speaker 3: pretty close to that motorcade. But make of that what
27:11
Speaker 3: you like. I just wanted to say that if we
27:14
Speaker 3: have a look at the CIA flight to Moscow, what
27:17
Speaker 3: was social media saying about why this was happening? Well,
27:22
Speaker 3: there was a lot of talk about prisoner exchange because
27:25
Speaker 3: the Russians still hold some American prisoners through captures on
27:31
Speaker 3: the battlefield. The possibility of a new ceasefire initiative, and
27:35
Speaker 3: I absolutely take your point, Vanessa, that the Russians are
27:38
Speaker 3: extremely unlikely to agree to anything like that. because they're
27:42
Speaker 3: winning at the moment. But the other key point that
27:44
Speaker 3: was suggested was that because Ukraine has taken such a
27:47
Speaker 3: huge hit in its energy infrastructure and things are looking
27:51
Speaker 3: really bad for Ukraine for the coming winter, that there
27:56
Speaker 3: was the possibility of this visit was to see if
27:59
Speaker 3: there was the possibility of stopping attacks by both the
28:03
Speaker 3: Russians and the Ukrainians. on their oil infrastructure. Maybe that
28:08
Speaker 3: was a possibility. The fear of a general Russian mobilization
28:13
Speaker 3: you've covered. And the other point that I just want
28:16
Speaker 3: to make is the reality hitting home now that Ukraine
28:21
Speaker 3: is actually losing this war. But this was a final
28:24
Speaker 3: comment which came through my email channel. And it says,
28:30
Speaker 3: Western officials are urgently trying to protect Ukraine's infrastructure. from
28:35
Speaker 3: collapse as winter approaches. According to Ukrainian sources, CIA Director
28:40
Speaker 3: John Ratcliffe is ready to discuss in Moscow a mutual
28:43
Speaker 3: commitment not to attack energy infrastructure and ports because the
28:48
Speaker 3: Russians have been hitting Odessa particularly hard, as well as
28:52
Speaker 3: a freeze on the front lines in the Sumy and
28:55
Speaker 3: Kharkiv regions. So I'm just really coming in on the
28:58
Speaker 3: top of your report. Vanessa, but to say we're absolutely
29:03
Speaker 3: not sure what this visit is about. It's amazing.
29:06
Speaker 2: It's not people speculating now, is it? We may never know. Now,
29:11
Speaker 2: UK Column is funded by its members. We do know
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Speaker 2: you that do do it. So for those that don't,
29:18
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29:22
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29:27
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29:29
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Speaker 2: any of those appealed to you you can also go
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29:39
Speaker 2: least the the column magazine a new quarterly which we've
29:43
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29:47
Speaker 2: and we are also hosting our 20th anniversary event in
29:50
Speaker 2: Plymouth very shortly now Brian.
29:52
Speaker 3: It's incredible the speed at which the time's going is
29:56
Speaker 3: very exciting it is.
29:57
Speaker 2: Extremely exciting so a review of 20 years of exceptional
30:01
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30:19
Speaker 2: Much of that will also be available at the event itself.
30:23
Speaker 1: Now, tonight, Brian, you're speaking to Rainer again.
30:27
Speaker 3: Yes, this is a conversation I had with him about
30:29
Speaker 3: a week ago. In particular, I asked him about money
30:33
Speaker 3: with regard to the CIC, the Corona Investigative Committee, because
30:38
Speaker 3: a lot of people think that all the money has
30:41
Speaker 3: completely disappeared. That is absolutely not true. So I challenged
30:46
Speaker 3: Rainer on this subject and said, People, if you tune
30:50
Speaker 3: in tonight at 7pm on the live stream for the
30:53
Speaker 3: UK column, you can hear that telephone conversation. You can
30:57
Speaker 3: hear exactly what I asked him about money and his response.
31:00
Speaker 3: But the other thing was that we did talk about
31:03
Speaker 3: the possibility of his release due to a legal challenge
31:07
Speaker 3: that had been made. I learned a few days ago
31:11
Speaker 3: that that had been turned down. And I've posted a
31:15
Speaker 3: little additional audio note there. at the end of the
31:18
Speaker 3: interview with Reiner, plus in the show notes, we'll put
31:21
Speaker 3: a link to Reiner, a statement that he's made in
31:25
Speaker 3: the last 24 hours or 48 hours. So your opportunity
31:30
Speaker 3: to hear what Reiner says to my question about what
31:34
Speaker 3: did or did not happen to the money that was
31:37
Speaker 3: collected for the CIC. It's a very interesting exchange, I think, Charles.
31:42
Speaker 1: I'm sure it will be absolutely fascinating. Excellent.
31:44
Speaker 4: Thanks, Brian.
31:45
Speaker 2: And then shortly after that, we've got Carl Zarr. with
31:47
Speaker 2: Silk and Steel talking, or at least asking the question,
31:50
Speaker 2: is the US dollar empire finally breaking? And then tomorrow, Brian,
31:53
Speaker 2: you and I, Military Matters, episode nine, believe it or not,
31:56
Speaker 2: we've just got a short clip of what to expect
32:00
Speaker 2: from that tomorrow.
32:02
Speaker 3: And we've now got the press in UK openly boasting
32:07
Speaker 3: that it is UK design supplied drones that are now
32:12
Speaker 3: being used to attack inside Russia. So there must come
32:16
Speaker 3: a point at at which the Russians say, we are
32:19
Speaker 3: now being openly attacked by the United Kingdom, and we've
32:24
Speaker 3: got to respond to that. Now, how they're going to
32:26
Speaker 3: respond to it is where it gets interesting, because they're
32:30
Speaker 3: easily capable of launching missile systems to take out an
32:35
Speaker 3: individual factory in UK. But of course, that's an attack
32:39
Speaker 3: on mainland UK with all the possible repercussions. So what
32:46
Speaker 3: will they do? I don't know. But does a statement
32:50
Speaker 3: that we now regard ourselves as being attacked directly by
32:54
Speaker 3: the UK, is this a reasonable statement to make? I
32:57
Speaker 3: think it is.
33:00
Speaker 1: There we are.
33:01
Speaker 2: Now, Vanessa, the flying of kites is not something that
33:04
Speaker 2: most people would consider to be a hostile activity these days.
33:07
Speaker 2: But what is the situation in Gaza with regard to kites?
33:12
Speaker 8: Well, people who have been following the situation in Gaza
33:17
Speaker 8: for years will know that there has always been a
33:20
Speaker 8: history of kids flying kites as an antidote for the misery,
33:25
Speaker 8: the suffering, the displacement and the mass murder of Palestinians.
33:30
Speaker 8: And in this video, that's exactly what you can see.
33:33
Speaker 8: But apparently Israel's given the so-called Board of Peace or
33:36
Speaker 8: Board of Genocide three days to stop the paper kites
33:39
Speaker 8: coming out of Gaza. or else it will unleash a
33:42
Speaker 8: massive air aggression on the Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Israel
33:46
Speaker 8: Katz ordered the military to treat any kite flown from
33:49
Speaker 8: Gaza as an act of war, even without explosives, and
33:53
Speaker 8: to attack anyone flying them. Katz also threatened to forcibly
33:57
Speaker 8: displace residents and attack areas where kites have flown if
34:02
Speaker 8: it continues. So effectively, just another excuse to continue the genocide.
34:07
Speaker 8: So I had a look at how the BBC was
34:10
Speaker 8: effectively reporting this, and people won't be surprised that, of course,
34:13
Speaker 8: it very much takes a line in defense of the
34:17
Speaker 8: Israeli decision to continue murdering children in Gaza. If we
34:24
Speaker 8: can just have a look at the title again very quickly.
34:28
Speaker 8: if it's possible. So Israel warns of forceful response to
34:31
Speaker 8: kites flying from Gaza. So very much downplaying what Katz
34:35
Speaker 8: actually said. But then if we look at the text
34:37
Speaker 8: within the article, we can see how they frame it.
34:42
Speaker 8: So Israel has warned Hamas that it will increase strikes
34:45
Speaker 8: on Gaza following concern over launches of kites, drones and
34:49
Speaker 8: balloons from the territory, not the fact that four kites
34:53
Speaker 8: got loose and ended up in occupied territory. which were
34:57
Speaker 8: found in an Israeli community near the border with Gaza
35:00
Speaker 8: over the weekend. So they didn't even drift very far.
35:03
Speaker 8: They then do mention that forceful action will be taken
35:06
Speaker 8: to put an end to this phenomenon, but they're very much, again,
35:10
Speaker 8: using Israel's language to frame the narrative. And then they say,
35:15
Speaker 8: before the war, kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices were
35:18
Speaker 8: launched into Israel, causing fires that burned forest and farmland.
35:22
Speaker 8: I would like to know where their evidence for that is.
35:26
Speaker 8: And then if we have a look at this image,
35:28
Speaker 8: this is taken from a UN report in 2011 when
35:32
Speaker 8: kids in Gaza broke the world record that was formerly
35:35
Speaker 8: held by China. And they had 13,000 children on the
35:39
Speaker 8: beaches of Gaza flying kites at one time. So they
35:42
Speaker 8: actually broke the world record. And this is what kites
35:45
Speaker 8: have represented to the children of Gaza for years. And
35:50
Speaker 8: then if we actually look again at what the BBC
35:53
Speaker 8: said in their report, Four kites were found, and it
35:56
Speaker 8: goes on to say several more were found elsewhere in
35:59
Speaker 8: southern occupied territories last week, according to local media. The
36:03
Speaker 8: Israeli report, so they're still very much looking at this
36:06
Speaker 8: from the perspective of the Israeli genocidal forces, cited military
36:12
Speaker 8: sources as saying they believed Hamas was behind the kites
36:15
Speaker 8: and that they might have been intended to test Israel's response. However,
36:19
Speaker 8: no suspicious materials were attached to the kites. Surprise, surprise.
36:23
Speaker 8: And they did not pose a threat, the military said. However,
36:28
Speaker 8: it is still going to be used as a pretext
36:30
Speaker 8: to effectively continue the bombing and the massacre of Palestinians
36:35
Speaker 8: now pushed into 30% of Gaza and landmass such as
36:40
Speaker 8: it is. And if we look at the next video,
36:42
Speaker 8: this was in the last few 24 hours, bombing, raids in... Oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry.
36:54
Speaker 8: If we just move to the video, it's probably easier.
36:57
Speaker 1: Thanks.
37:00
Speaker 8: And so basically, in the last 24 hours, eight Palestinians
37:04
Speaker 8: have been killed, including two children. Across Gaza on Monday,
37:09
Speaker 8: strikes have hit various areas, homes, tents, prayer halls, water infrastructure,
37:15
Speaker 8: desalination plants such as those remained. Gaza City, Israeli aircraft
37:21
Speaker 8: bomb the Ashkelon prayer hall and a home in Shati Camp,
37:25
Speaker 8: one of the poorest camps even before October the 7th,
37:28
Speaker 8: wounding residents and the killing continues. But again, I just
37:32
Speaker 8: want to look, this is on X, so this is
37:35
Speaker 8: BBC World News. Israeli attacks kill five in Gaza, including
37:40
Speaker 8: two children. And then immediately we have the caveat, medics say,
37:44
Speaker 8: So in other words, this is unproven information as regards
37:48
Speaker 8: the BBC. However, if we look at one other media outlet,
37:53
Speaker 8: which is Dropsite News, that has multiple journalists on the
37:58
Speaker 8: ground in Gaza, they were children playing with kites. They
38:01
Speaker 8: were just sitting there playing. They are killing children. Israeli
38:05
Speaker 8: forces shot 10-year-old Palestinian girl Amal Abu Khala in the back,
38:09
Speaker 8: killing her instantly as she sat eating lunch inside her
38:12
Speaker 8: displaced family's tent in western Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. Amal
38:17
Speaker 8: had just returned from memorizing the Quran and performing the
38:21
Speaker 8: duhur prayer, her family told Dropsite. There were people who
38:26
Speaker 8: felt safe sitting in their tents. It's supposed to be
38:29
Speaker 8: a safe area and it's full of displaced people, Amal's
38:32
Speaker 8: relative Hassan Abu Khalid told Dropsite, Mohammed Ahmed. What did
38:36
Speaker 8: she do to deserve to be killed? She was sitting
38:39
Speaker 8: and eating sweets. What did this little girl commit? Amal's grandmother,
38:44
Speaker 8: Samira Abu Khalat Saad. So a little more detail there
38:49
Speaker 8: from Dropsite News. And I think we also need to
38:54
Speaker 8: remember when we're talking about the pretext of kites being
38:57
Speaker 8: used to continue the genocide in Gaza, that Gaza hosts
39:01
Speaker 8: the largest group of child amputees in modern history. 56,000
39:05
Speaker 8: children in Gaza have lost one or both parents. 74,000
39:10
Speaker 8: children under five in Gaza will suffer acute malnutrition in
39:14
Speaker 8: the year to April 2027. 5,000 plus children under the
39:19
Speaker 8: age of five, including 1,000 infants and hundreds of newborns,
39:24
Speaker 8: were killed by Israel. So I just want to play
39:27
Speaker 8: this report from Associated Press. showing some of the efforts
39:31
Speaker 8: to try and restore confidence in the children who have
39:36
Speaker 8: lost limbs in this ongoing genocide.
39:42
Speaker 6: This is the first time I've been to a market
39:49
Speaker 6: in the city.
40:08
Speaker 8: Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go,
40:12
Speaker 8: let's go. And when Israel Katz is talking about the
40:44
Speaker 8: risk of incendiary devices being attached to the kites that
40:48
Speaker 8: are drifting into the occupied territories, let's not forget this
40:52
Speaker 8: report from 2024, Israeli Thermobaric Weapons Vaporized Humans Probe Documents
41:00
Speaker 8: Gaza Genocide. And it's known as the chemistry of erasure
41:05
Speaker 8: in the documented reports. that disappeared 3,000 Palestinians. And this
41:11
Speaker 8: is part of the report. The investigation detailed how specific
41:14
Speaker 8: chemical compositions in Israeli munitions turn human bodies into ash
41:19
Speaker 8: in seconds. Vasily Fatigadov, a Russian military expert, explained that
41:24
Speaker 8: thermobaric weapons do not just kill, they obliterate matter. Unlike
41:28
Speaker 8: conventional explosives, these weapons disperse a cloud of fuel that
41:33
Speaker 8: ignites to create an enormous fireball and a vacuum. In fact,
41:37
Speaker 8: to prolong the burning time, powders of aluminium, magnesium and
41:41
Speaker 8: titanium are added to the chemical mixture. This raises the
41:45
Speaker 8: temperature of the explosion to between 2,500 and 3,000 degrees Celsius.
41:51
Speaker 8: According to the investigation, the intense heat is often generated
41:55
Speaker 8: by tritonal, a mix of TNT and aluminium powder used
41:59
Speaker 8: in the US-made bombs like the MK-84 bomb. And then finally,
42:04
Speaker 8: I'm going to come back again to the issue of
42:08
Speaker 8: the rubble removal in Gaza. And this is a report
42:11
Speaker 8: from a young Palestinian journalist in Gaza. And he says,
42:17
Speaker 8: far from the eyes of the media, which the Israeli
42:19
Speaker 8: occupation prevents from approaching these areas, it has occupied inside Gaza.
42:24
Speaker 8: Heavy machinery is systematically crushing the rubble of thousands of
42:28
Speaker 8: destroyed homes across the Gaza Strip. and transporting it to
42:32
Speaker 8: undisclosed locations where it is recycled and later sold to
42:36
Speaker 8: Israeli construction companies, turning the remains of Palestinian homes and
42:41
Speaker 8: Palestinian bodies into a source of economic profit for the
42:46
Speaker 8: Israeli occupation forces.
42:53
Speaker 2: Thank you very much indeed for that. I feel that's
42:56
Speaker 2: the sort of report that anybody pushing for war with Russia,
42:59
Speaker 2: or indeed anyone else, should really be looking at.
43:02
Speaker 8: Absolutely.
43:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.
43:05
Speaker 2: No, we're going to move on, but actually not too
43:08
Speaker 2: far removed. Now, it has fallen from mainstream headlines, but
43:11
Speaker 2: that wasn't so long ago that Ebola was being considered.
43:14
Speaker 2: We have the BBC here reporting about a man reportedly
43:17
Speaker 2: shot at a Kenya protest against US Ebola quarantine centre.
43:21
Speaker 1: Now, the story there was that.
43:24
Speaker 2: the Lykipia Air Base in the centre of the country
43:26
Speaker 2: was being used as a quarantine centre, but only for Americans.
43:30
Speaker 2: And that created some understandable controversy. But this was just
43:34
Speaker 2: the latest in a long list of controversies in that area,
43:37
Speaker 2: many of which are due to the enduring presence of
43:39
Speaker 2: the British Army for various training activities. Now, the ability
43:43
Speaker 2: to train in Kenya is dependent upon what's called the
43:46
Speaker 2: Defence Cooperation Agreement, the DCA, which has been running since 1964.
43:49
Speaker 1: And now uses.
43:52
Speaker 2: Lykipia Air Base, and after multiple allegations of rape and
43:56
Speaker 2: murder and environmental damage, the DCA was suspended, not for
44:00
Speaker 2: the first time, but was suspended and prompted the government
44:03
Speaker 2: to make a written statement to the Batuk Inquiry, Batuk
44:08
Speaker 2: meaning British Army Training Unit Kenya, at the end of 2025. Now,
44:13
Speaker 2: they said in the statement that the UK MOD deeply
44:17
Speaker 2: regrets those issues and challenges which have arisen in relation
44:20
Speaker 2: So the UK's defence presence in Kenya, both in the
44:23
Speaker 2: past and more recently, of course, notable.
44:25
Speaker 1: There's no apology, just regret.
44:28
Speaker 2: And the question to be asked at this point, obviously
44:31
Speaker 2: for the audience, really, is why is this relevant? And
44:33
Speaker 2: what does the army have to say about it? Well,
44:35
Speaker 2: Rowley Walker, who funnily enough was born and grew up
44:38
Speaker 2: in that country, is going to speak to us now
44:41
Speaker 2: from a video back in March about what he thinks
44:44
Speaker 2: about it.
44:46
Speaker 6: Hi, my name's General Rowley Walker. I'm the Chief of
44:48
Speaker 6: the General Staff. That means I'm the head of the
44:50
Speaker 6: British Army and I'm out here in Kenya to do
44:53
Speaker 6: a number of things. The first was to meet with
44:55
Speaker 6: the Kenya Chief of Defence and the head of the
44:58
Speaker 6: Kenyan Army just to reaffirm the importance of the strategic
45:02
Speaker 6: partnership that both the President of the Republic and the
45:06
Speaker 6: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom agreed last year. And
45:09
Speaker 6: to ensure that we underpin that strategic relationship around defence
45:16
Speaker 6: and security, in particular, to recognise the real concerns that
45:20
Speaker 6: Kenya has about al-Shabaab and the risks on.
45:23
Speaker 9: The border security.
45:24
Speaker 6: So a real focus on counter-terrorism and operational cooperation.
45:30
Speaker 2: Apart from having his hands in his pocket, so far
45:32
Speaker 2: so good, because he's talking about defence cooperation, apparently the
45:35
Speaker 2: benefits the British Army is going to be bringing to Kenya.
45:37
Speaker 1: But is that all there is to it. I think not.
45:40
Speaker 1: So let's hear what he went on to say.
45:42
Speaker 6: I've also been here to visit Batak to see for
45:48
Speaker 6: myself the training of our high readiness forces for global operations.
45:52
Speaker 6: And having been here a number of times as troops
45:58
Speaker 6: in training, I can just reiterate how brilliant this place
46:04
Speaker 6: is for training our soldiers to be ready for combat.
46:07
Speaker 6: There is something brilliant about this place that just works
46:10
Speaker 6: and we want to keep on doing that for as
46:12
Speaker 6: long as we can. We're not here as of right.
46:16
Speaker 6: We're all really clear that we are here at the
46:18
Speaker 6: invitation of the Kenyan government under their license to operate
46:22
Speaker 6: and we work very closely with the MOD and the
46:25
Speaker 6: Kenyan Army in order to earn that. We recognize that
46:28
Speaker 6: we have a responsibility to the community in and amongst
46:32
Speaker 6: whom we trade to give back as much as we
46:35
Speaker 6: can to ensure that they also value our presence. I
46:40
Speaker 6: recognise there are historical cases where we have let people down,
46:45
Speaker 6: where people have been abused, where people have been hurt
46:48
Speaker 6: and where people have lost their lives and where the
46:50
Speaker 6: environment has been damaged.
46:54
Speaker 2: So again, no apology, but people have been let down.
46:56
Speaker 2: I think the key part there was training our soldiers
46:59
Speaker 2: to be ready for combat. But exactly what does he
47:02
Speaker 2: mean by that? Now I've been in touch with the
47:05
Speaker 2: This arrangement has in fact been reinstated and they say
47:08
Speaker 2: that they greatly value the close cooperation shared between the
47:11
Speaker 2: two countries. And as a result, Exercise Haraka Storm can
47:14
Speaker 2: now take place in Kenya this autumn as planned. Funnily enough,
47:18
Speaker 2: I then had a later reply from the press office,
47:21
Speaker 2: which was somewhat revealing because they appeared to include something
47:26
Speaker 2: that I think they didn't mean to. And it was written,
47:29
Speaker 2: if drawn in on licenses further, I'll add that the
47:33
Speaker 2: UK remains committed to working closely with the government of
47:36
Speaker 2: Guinea to further strengthen our deep and enduring military partnership.
47:41
Speaker 2: full stop, agree, full stop. So it was as though
47:44
Speaker 2: this went further up the food chain. And that was
47:46
Speaker 2: the line that came back to the press office in
47:48
Speaker 2: order to tell me what was what. But as I say,
47:52
Speaker 2: so that means that the training is back on and
47:56
Speaker 2: the licenses, therefore, have been put back in place and
48:01
Speaker 2: therefore the army can carry on with Now, on the
48:05
Speaker 2: defence diplomacy side, which, as I say, has been going
48:09
Speaker 2: since the 1960s, we see here the page for BATAC,
48:13
Speaker 2: which I've referred to, but also the British Peace Support Team, BPST,
48:17
Speaker 2: which specifically was able to effectively create that link between
48:22
Speaker 2: the militaries of two countries. But interesting, at a time
48:26
Speaker 2: that the Ministry of Defence is talking about this enduring cooperation,
48:29
Speaker 2: it has had its funding cut. So that capability has
48:32
Speaker 2: been lost. But back to Haraka Storm, what is it
48:36
Speaker 2: that we are to gain from that? Now, we look
48:40
Speaker 2: at what's been printed in the Scots Guards magazine of
48:42
Speaker 2: the last year. The commanding officer wrote, sitting on Salisbury Plain,
48:46
Speaker 2: they are preparing to fight like the Russians as part
48:49
Speaker 2: of the enemy force for a major brigade exercise.
48:52
Speaker 1: And he goes on later to say.
48:53
Speaker 2: like many operational theatres, the malign influence of Russia is
48:57
Speaker 2: never far away and Russia remains a threat on which
49:00
Speaker 2: we are most focused. Now, this is going to be
49:02
Speaker 2: fairly typical of any infantry battalion rhetoric on the subject.
49:06
Speaker 2: He then goes on to say, thinking like the enemy,
49:08
Speaker 2: when the enemy subscribes to a very different value system
49:10
Speaker 2: is challenging, but it is a useful exercise trying to
49:14
Speaker 2: understand the barbarity of the Russian military mind. Now, this
49:17
Speaker 2: is fairly thick as propaganda goes. And if you're unaware
49:22
Speaker 2: of the way in which this is being communicated to
49:25
Speaker 2: serving soldiers, and indeed what the effect of that is,
49:28
Speaker 2: then I'm going to point you towards this outstanding video
49:30
Speaker 2: from the Ministry of Defence released on Ukrainian Independence Day.
49:37
Speaker 10: The blue and yellow flag flourishes above us, like the
49:42
Speaker 10: blue sky in a field above the rye.
49:47
Speaker 5: The blue yellow flag in the sunlight, a symbol of
49:51
Speaker 5: happiness and fate, the.
49:53
Speaker 1: Wings of Ukraine.
49:55
Speaker 7: From the freedom of the Cossacks, our flag was born.
49:59
Speaker 7: From the spirit of Ukraine, it unfolded in the heavens.
50:03
Speaker 10: We do not want to shed drops of blood The
50:07
Speaker 10: blue-yellow flag flourishes above.
50:12
Speaker 5: Us, like the blue sky in a field above the vai.
50:20
Speaker 7: The blue-yellow flag flourishes above us, like the blue sky
50:25
Speaker 7: in a field above the vai.
50:27
Speaker 3: The blue-yellow flag flourishes above us, like the blue sky
50:31
Speaker 3: in a field above the vai.
50:36
Speaker 2: I find it hard to believe that anybody would have
50:37
Speaker 2: joined any of the three armed forces, imagining that that's
50:40
Speaker 2: what they would end up doing.
50:41
Speaker 1: What do you think?
50:43
Speaker 3: Well, I'd say to the audience, we did discuss this
50:46
Speaker 3: video in Military Matters. You showed it to me raw.
50:49
Speaker 3: My reaction was it was outrageous that members of the
50:54
Speaker 3: armed forces in this country would sit and take place
50:58
Speaker 3: in such egregious propaganda. Simply outrageous.
51:03
Speaker 2: It is.
51:03
Speaker 3: And And who is actually in control of this country, Charles?
51:07
Speaker 1: Brian, a very good question, which we might get to
51:09
Speaker 1: in extra.
51:10
Speaker 2: Vanessa, at the risk of eating into yet more time,
51:11
Speaker 2: I could see your pained expression whilst watching that. What's
51:15
Speaker 2: your comment on that video?
51:18
Speaker 8: I mean, I'm just in shock, I think. I mean,
51:22
Speaker 8: it's insane. If we're not supporting Israel, we're supporting Ukraine
51:25
Speaker 8: that is supported by Israel. I mean, why not just
51:28
Speaker 8: send the country over to Israel fully? It's... Well, I'm speechless.
51:37
Speaker 2: Speechless is probably about right. But on that theme, we
51:41
Speaker 2: will continue with you because, of course, there is another
51:45
Speaker 2: sharing agreement with the European Union this time.
51:49
Speaker 8: Yes, well, I mean, I just wanted to remind people
51:52
Speaker 8: of this comment by Amichai Chikli, who's the Zionist diaspora
51:59
Speaker 8: affairs minister. And he says in an interview, we created
52:03
Speaker 8: a system of alliances in Europe, unlike anything that existed
52:06
Speaker 8: before with the deep conservative right. Exactly, of course, as
52:09
Speaker 8: they're doing in Latin America with the help of President
52:12
Speaker 8: Trump and organizations like Black Cube and Black Core who
52:16
Speaker 8: are rigging elections. Sorry, can I just have that quote
52:19
Speaker 8: back on to finish it off?
52:22
Speaker 6: Yeah.
52:24
Speaker 8: With these people, a genuine closeness was created. Now they
52:27
Speaker 8: are leading in all the polls. And of course, that's
52:29
Speaker 8: absolutely correct with Marine Le Pen in France for the
52:33
Speaker 8: French elections of 2027. But again, what is this about?
52:38
Speaker 8: The EU faces criticism for secret police data talks with Israel.
52:42
Speaker 8: This was a couple of weeks ago, actually. And it
52:45
Speaker 8: says the European Commission has been negotiating a secret agreement
52:48
Speaker 8: to share sensitive personal data with Israel's police service, despite
52:53
Speaker 8: internal legal warnings that the deal could violate international law
52:57
Speaker 8: and put Palestinians at risk, but I would say it
53:00
Speaker 8: would put anyone protesting the genocide at risk. The draft
53:04
Speaker 8: agreement originally negotiated with the European Police Agency, Europol, would
53:09
Speaker 8: allow the exchange of biometric data, genetic information, location data,
53:14
Speaker 8: political views and personal details. And I will remind everyone,
53:18
Speaker 8: that France is bringing in the ETIAS regulation where people
53:23
Speaker 8: will have to fill out a visa application. I think
53:26
Speaker 8: it's beginning the first quarter of 2027. It has been delayed,
53:31
Speaker 8: but that will be shared with Europol. So that raises questions.
53:35
Speaker 8: Is that then going to be shared with Israel and
53:39
Speaker 8: your views on Palestine or the war against Iran is
53:43
Speaker 8: going to penalize your ability to enter Europe? And this
53:47
Speaker 8: has even been basically picked up by Francesca Albanese, who,
53:52
Speaker 8: of course, is also sanctioned for her views on Gaza. Italians,
53:57
Speaker 8: starting with those from Salento, Apulia and the entire south,
54:00
Speaker 8: should understand what is happening to Greece. Defending Palestine from apartheid,
54:05
Speaker 8: a political model that is expanding, is not an act
54:08
Speaker 8: of charity, but of self-preservation before the danger breathes down
54:12
Speaker 8: our neck. Now, this is exactly what we've been talking
54:15
Speaker 8: about at UK Column, the expansion of Zionist settlements and
54:20
Speaker 8: interests across Europe. They are trying to establish settlements in
54:24
Speaker 8: Italy that are being protested against by the populations of
54:27
Speaker 8: the regions and provinces where they are trying to establish
54:31
Speaker 8: these settlements. But we also know that the expansion is
54:35
Speaker 8: ongoing across particularly Eastern Europe.
54:41
Speaker 1: Thank you very much indeed.
54:42
Speaker 2: And we're now going to go to a local story,
54:45
Speaker 2: in fact, because local to UK Column, just outside Plymouth,
54:50
Speaker 2: just north of Plympton, is Hemidon, the village of Hemidon,
54:54
Speaker 2: and there lie the operations of Tungsten West. So whilst
54:58
Speaker 2: this might appear to be a local story, it's one
55:00
Speaker 2: of national and, in fact, international significance, because for the
55:04
Speaker 2: first time in a number of years, there is now
55:06
Speaker 2: an operational Tungsten mine here in the UK that And
55:10
Speaker 2: we're looking at the website of Tungsten West, which took
55:12
Speaker 2: over Hemaden a few years ago. And they promise a
55:16
Speaker 2: net benefit to the local economy by the creation of
55:18
Speaker 2: 350 direct jobs in the first instance. Now, this is
55:23
Speaker 2: a significant development, I think, for a number of reasons,
55:27
Speaker 2: the first of which is the price of tungsten. And
55:31
Speaker 2: you can see in the box on the right-hand side,
55:33
Speaker 2: enormous spike in the price chart there. Now, this is
55:38
Speaker 2: attributed to China, which had historically provided about 80% of
55:43
Speaker 2: tungsten to the market, has decided that actually it's not
55:46
Speaker 2: going to sell into the rest of the world anymore
55:49
Speaker 2: because of the demand internally. Now, they had an event,
55:55
Speaker 2: a meet and greet event last week. And I went
55:58
Speaker 2: along and I spoke to the chief executive of whom
56:00
Speaker 2: I took a photograph, Jeff Court, there on screen. And
56:03
Speaker 2: I must say, without wanting to appear to be overly formal,
56:07
Speaker 2: Complementary in terms of community engagement, they are actually to
56:11
Speaker 2: be credited with the way in which they did this
56:13
Speaker 2: because they had a lot of staff there. They were
56:15
Speaker 2: very welcoming. They had a lot of things to look at.
56:18
Speaker 2: And they were actually extremely open about what it was
56:21
Speaker 2: that they were planning to do, how they were going
56:22
Speaker 2: to do it, and all the rest of it, which
56:24
Speaker 2: I think in this day and age is highly unusual.
56:27
Speaker 2: We've had five years' worth of consultations and all the
56:30
Speaker 2: rest of it done almost exclusively online. yet this was
56:33
Speaker 2: proper interface with the public. And of course, the reason
56:35
Speaker 2: I knew about it is because they had sent a
56:37
Speaker 2: mail shot out in the first place. So I actually
56:39
Speaker 2: saw a physical piece of paper, which in fact I
56:42
Speaker 2: have with me. So they had a meet and greet session.
56:44
Speaker 2: So there was a sort of real world element to this,
56:47
Speaker 2: which I think is of significance. The other thing that
56:50
Speaker 2: was very significant and came across in my talk with
56:53
Speaker 2: Jeff was that until this point, they had had absolutely
56:57
Speaker 2: no support from government whatsoever in terms of support to
57:02
Speaker 2: their business enterprise, bearing in mind this is the first
57:05
Speaker 2: or at least the only tungsten operation in the country.
57:08
Speaker 2: And that is something that I'll come back to. Now,
57:12
Speaker 2: the other thing to note is while they had no assistance,
57:15
Speaker 2: they've also been under absolutely no pressure on the sort
57:17
Speaker 2: of net zero side to alter their usage either of
57:21
Speaker 2: energy or diesel for their vehicles. But on the flip
57:24
Speaker 2: side of that, they've also had no assistance with regard
57:27
Speaker 2: to prices of electricity, for example, which, of course, are
57:31
Speaker 2: hugely sort of large input of their processes. Indeed, water
57:37
Speaker 2: the same. Now, this has been pushed on by Tungsten West,
57:42
Speaker 2: and that's a really important point, which I'll come back to. However,
57:46
Speaker 2: according to the government's critical minerals strategy, which we see
57:49
Speaker 2: on screen here, written a couple of years ago, part
57:51
Speaker 2: of the modern industrial strategy, first of all, We talk
57:54
Speaker 2: about the staggering increase in demand that's projected for copper
57:57
Speaker 2: and lithium. They're anticipating an 1100% increase in demand by 2035. Now,
58:02
Speaker 2: we're not going to look at that because we will
58:06
Speaker 2: focus on tungsten. But the government then says it is vital, therefore,
58:09
Speaker 2: that we have a plan to secure critical minerals for
58:12
Speaker 2: our industries and to diversify our supply chains. But how
58:15
Speaker 2: exactly is it that the government is going to do that?
58:19
Speaker 1: And do they have a plan?
58:21
Speaker 2: We are, of course, supposed to believe this because just yesterday,
58:24
Speaker 2: so therefore, a few days after I'd been to the
58:27
Speaker 2: Tungsten West event, the National Wealth Fund, which is the
58:33
Speaker 2: body that succeeded the UK Infrastructure Bank, has said that
58:38
Speaker 2: they are backing Tungsten West to unlock critical UK tungsten supply. Now,
58:43
Speaker 2: they're funding it to the tune of of £ 71 million,
58:47
Speaker 2: which may be regarded as significant. But I think we
58:51
Speaker 2: want to have a little bit more of a look
58:52
Speaker 2: at the wealth fund itself, which says that they're a
58:56
Speaker 2: mission-driven investor with the capital expertise and ambition to unlock
59:00
Speaker 2: the UK's future. Now, if you remember the infrastructure bank,
59:03
Speaker 2: you may remember the very significant detail, which is that
59:06
Speaker 2: in the About Us section, we're wholly owned by HM Treasure,
59:10
Speaker 2: but independent in our investment decisions so in effect the
59:14
Speaker 2: government gets the best of both worlds they can say
59:16
Speaker 2: that this is an arm's length body and they don't
59:18
Speaker 2: have any responsibility over what it invests in and yet
59:21
Speaker 2: they provide the funding does that make much sense to
59:24
Speaker 2: you brian.
59:25
Speaker 3: Well, it does if you want to run a skewed operation,
59:28
Speaker 3: which the government specialises in, yes.
59:30
Speaker 1: It absolutely does.
59:31
Speaker 2: I think it enables the government to absolve themselves of
59:33
Speaker 2: blame if anything goes wrong and indeed claim the credit
59:36
Speaker 2: if it appears to have gone right. Now, I think
59:41
Speaker 2: at the moment, the government is very much claiming responsibility
59:44
Speaker 2: for what has happened. And in fact, more than that,
59:47
Speaker 2: I would say John Healey in particular, now Chancellor Luke Shekhar, is,
59:51
Speaker 2: I would say, grasping the narrative. He has said of
59:54
Speaker 2: this deal or investment, we are living in a more
59:57
Speaker 2: dangerous world, which is why backing British industry is more
1:00:00
Speaker 2: important than ever before. That is what this deal does.
1:00:03
Speaker 2: We're tapping into one of the largest deposits of tungsten
1:00:06
Speaker 2: in the world, right here in the UK. Now, it's
1:00:09
Speaker 2: no great surprise that in actual fact, they go on
1:00:12
Speaker 2: to talk about defense and the various applications for tungsten,
1:00:18
Speaker 2: which again, I'll come back to in just a second.
1:00:21
Speaker 2: But with regard to who controls what, it is worth
1:00:25
Speaker 2: pointing out that the previous press announcement from the National
1:00:28
Speaker 2: Wealth Fund was, of course, for a data centre. Now,
1:00:31
Speaker 2: whilst John Healy might be pushing the case for the
1:00:35
Speaker 2: defence and indeed the energy transition element for tungsten, of course, sorry,
1:00:41
Speaker 2: no pun intended, the point to bring out is that
1:00:46
Speaker 2: the main application for tungsten is in industry and particularly
1:00:50
Speaker 2: things like drill bits, where, of course, Healy wants to
1:00:53
Speaker 2: seize that and say that it's all about defence, about
1:00:57
Speaker 2: armour and the rest of it. And the statement says
1:01:02
Speaker 2: that they're going to procure up to 50% of Hamilton's
1:01:06
Speaker 2: annual production. I think the question needs to be asked, well,
1:01:08
Speaker 2: why not 100%? If it's that critical and there's just
1:01:11
Speaker 2: one place that processes it in Europe, why not 100%?
1:01:15
Speaker 2: So that seems like an obvious question.
1:01:18
Speaker 1: To ask.
1:01:19
Speaker 2: I think also we need to look at the idea
1:01:21
Speaker 2: that it's going to play a significant part in the
1:01:23
Speaker 2: energy transition, because I think with what the Telegraph wrote
1:01:27
Speaker 2: about recently, which is that net zero fusion projects could
1:01:31
Speaker 2: trigger nuclear disaster, essentially they're writing about potential for an
1:01:34
Speaker 2: explosion with this technology, of which tungsten is a critical part. Now,
1:01:39
Speaker 2: the Telegraph does concede that pound for pound, Fusion makes
1:01:42
Speaker 2: 4 million times more energy than coal and creates none
1:01:46
Speaker 2: of the emissions or problematic waste of current energy generation methods. Now,
1:01:51
Speaker 2: I'm not sure about the veracity of that particular statistic,
1:01:53
Speaker 2: but I think the point is that what this does
1:01:55
Speaker 2: demonstrate is that it's an implicit admission by the net
1:02:00
Speaker 2: zero agenda that it's an absolute failure and that it
1:02:03
Speaker 2: can't be made to look like it works without nuclear fusion,
1:02:06
Speaker 2: which is yet again, another example of government attempting to
1:02:10
Speaker 2: claim credit that for something they've got absolutely nothing to
1:02:13
Speaker 2: do with. And just to leave you with a reminder
1:02:17
Speaker 2: of that theme, I would reference an article on the
1:02:20
Speaker 2: UK Column website about the steel debacle earlier this year,
1:02:24
Speaker 2: where the government effectively painted a picture of having saved
1:02:29
Speaker 2: the steel industry whilst doing absolutely nothing of the sort.
1:02:32
Speaker 2: And I think this is something we have to bear
1:02:34
Speaker 2: in mind with regard to the direction that Tungsten West
1:02:37
Speaker 2: is going in. So sort of hard to know exactly
1:02:40
Speaker 2: how to view it, a sort of qualified success story,
1:02:42
Speaker 2: but one in which the government want to paint a
1:02:45
Speaker 2: somewhat different picture from reality.
1:02:47
Speaker 3: People working hard to make something happen and, you know,
1:02:52
Speaker 3: against the movement of the government, it seems to me.
1:02:56
Speaker 3: I think we should just say to the audience that
1:02:59
Speaker 3: Hemerton itself has a long mining history for tin and copper.
1:03:04
Speaker 3: Excuse me. So, It's not that this is a strange
1:03:07
Speaker 3: industry to that area.
1:03:09
Speaker 2: No, it's not at all. And the mine has been
1:03:10
Speaker 2: there for decades. And exactly like you say, with China
1:03:13
Speaker 2: Clay right next door, I mean, there's a lot going
1:03:15
Speaker 2: on there. So in terms of sort of disruption to
1:03:17
Speaker 2: the community, in fact, we'll talk about it more in extra,
1:03:20
Speaker 2: but something that great pains to address and say that
1:03:23
Speaker 2: they have really made a point of sort of dealing with.
1:03:27
Speaker 2: So encouraging in some respects, but more to talk about. Now,
1:03:30
Speaker 2: if you are a UK column member, please stay on
1:03:32
Speaker 2: the line and join us for Extra. And otherwise, don't
1:03:36
Speaker 2: forget that Brian's talk with Rainer Fulmich will go out
1:03:40
Speaker 2: at seven o'clock tonight and then Carl's are at nine o'clock.
1:03:43
Speaker 2: And then you and I can be in for military
1:03:45
Speaker 2: matters at one o'clock tomorrow afternoon. So thank you very
1:03:48
Speaker 2: much indeed for joining us, Brian. Thank you for contributing.
1:03:52
Speaker 2: And indeed, Vanessa. And we will look forward to seeing
1:03:55
Speaker 2: you again, if not at Extra, at one o'clock on Friday.
1:03:59
Speaker 1: Thank you. Bye bye.
1:04:00
Speaker 6: Bye.