Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 16th January 2026

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UK Column News — 16th January 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Friday the 16th of January
0:10
2026, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News.
0:13
I'm your host, Mike Robinson. My hosting studio today is
0:16
Patrick Henickson. Welcome to the programme,
0:18
Patrick. Great to be with you, Mike.
0:20
And we'll be joined once again by Basil Valentine today.
0:22
Now, later in the programme, we're going to be covering the
0:25
what's described as the new technocratic Board of Peace for
0:27
Gaza, the use of the Insurrection Act in the United
0:30
States and of course, Greenland. But we're going to begin today,
0:33
Patrick, with the use of the various Palestine action related
0:37
court actions as a mechanism to attack everyone's right to a
0:41
jury trial here in the UK. Such an important precedent
0:45
we'll bring this graphic up on screen here under threat trial
0:49
by jury. And it's just my incredible to
0:51
me that this issue of Palestine Action is being used by the
0:56
state or it appears that way to basically undercut the the use
1:00
of juries in the UK. First with these speed trials to
1:03
do all these mass arrests with, without a jury, 20 minute
1:06
trials. And now we get to the actual
1:09
core, which is the independence of the jury.
1:12
And Mike, the also the issue of jury nullification is also an
1:15
important part of this. All of these things are hinging
1:18
on this issue with Palestine Action.
1:20
So Mike, if you think that this doesn't affect you because you
1:23
don't support or you don't sympathise or you have no
1:26
interest in this issue at all regarding the proscription of
1:29
Palestine Action and these story which we're about to cover,
1:33
you're probably making a big mistake if you're living in
1:36
Britain because it is fundamental what the decisions
1:39
being made and using these people in this organisation are
1:43
actually being used to undercut everyone, jury trials.
1:48
So it is important, you need, you do need to take an interest
1:51
in this issue. So, but just to bring us up to
1:55
date, how did this begin? It's important that we just give
1:58
you an important update here, very important update here.
2:01
The three Palestine Action protesters and their hunger
2:04
strikes. These are the three remaining
2:06
hunger strikers. They have now ceased their
2:10
hunger strike and we'll tell you why in a moment here.
2:13
So these are the three. Louis Charmelo, he is diabetic,
2:17
so he's alternating day's hunger strike.
2:19
But Hebba Moreasi and Cameron Ahmed, they also have withdrawn
2:24
their hunger strike. Now.
2:25
Now, Hebba, in the 773rd day, Mike, that's the exact amount of
2:29
time that Kieran O'doherty in 1991 reached the longest hunger
2:34
striker before, I believe. I'm not sure.
2:38
Did he pass away or not? I'm not sure, but nonetheless,
2:42
just just put this in perspective, Mike.
2:44
The the the earliest in terms of the hunger striking was 46 days
2:50
back in 81. Just this is an exceptional
2:53
event and I think people need to pay attention to that, but we'll
2:57
back up on screen here. So here, here's the the gist of
3:01
this, and this is the important part.
3:03
These three prisoners announced the end of their hunger strike
3:07
after the government, the UK government decided not to award
3:10
a £2 billion contract to the Israeli arms company subsidiary
3:15
Elbit Systems UK. So, so they're saying that the
3:20
US, the UK government cancelling that contract.
3:23
Seems to be. Grounds for them to end their
3:25
hunger. Strike.
3:26
Well, that was one of their key demands, wasn't it?
3:28
This is one of their key demands and also they're being treated
3:30
as terrorists even though Mike, when they were arrested in
3:34
August 2024, Palestine action was not proscribed at that time
3:38
by the UK government, yet they're being treated and
3:40
incarcerated like terrorists. So, but what's amazing, when we
3:43
go to the BBC, that was the Guardian there and you go, we'll
3:47
bring the BBC here. This is their article, Mike.
3:50
I searched and I searched. I went down.
3:52
I read this three times. No mention of Elbit Systems or
3:55
the government basically falling on their sword regarding this
3:59
and cancelling this $2 billion contract.
4:01
This is the home and legal correspondent Dominic Casgiani,
4:06
and he doesn't somehow mention the government $2 billion
4:09
contract, which is the reason they stopped the hunger strike
4:12
or Elbit. Systems.
4:14
So this is the BBC. What?
4:16
What exactly is going on here? Nothing.
4:19
The BBC has left out the most important part of the story and
4:22
why? Well here no mention of the BBC
4:25
and and Elbit systems the cancellation of this contract.
4:28
So we have to I put this through a new AI bot that we're working
4:32
on here, Mike, this is the Joseph Stalin or we're called
4:35
the Uncle Joe AI translator. And this is what Uncle Joe said.
4:40
Uncle Joe translation state propaganda, Oregon shielding
4:43
government apparatchiks not wanting to publicly.
4:46
Admit defeat. That's according to our new
4:49
chatbot. Thank you, Uncle Joe.
4:52
And this brings us to Craig Murray here now.
4:54
Craig Murray, Mike, they've delayed the judicial review on
4:57
on their proscription of Palestinian action.
4:59
Craig Murray's putting a challenge in the Scottish courts
5:02
directly and he's making incredible headway here.
5:05
And I do encourage people to go to Craig Murray's website, a
5:09
step towards sanity. And this is directly tied to the
5:14
main story here, which will bring on to the screen in just a
5:18
moment. And this is very well summarised
5:21
by Jonathan Cook. We'll get Basil Valentine's
5:23
commentary on this. So the, the barrister for the,
5:29
the the defendants here, he has basically, he's basically in the
5:35
crosshairs of the judge on this issue.
5:37
So he this is the dramatic point of the trial.
5:39
At one point the trial, the jury member sent a note to the judge,
5:45
Mr Justice Johnson, asking this very question.
5:48
If we decide that they, the defendants, genuinely believe
5:51
that they were performing life saving action and were morally
5:55
compelled to destroy these weapons, they believed they were
5:59
going to be used to kill civilians in what they believed
6:01
to be an illegal genocide, would that amount to a lawful excuse?
6:07
And here it was the response the judge who repeatedly stifled
6:10
efforts by the defence to air evidence of Elbit Systems
6:15
involvement and genocide, answered that the jury must not
6:18
take into account such lawful such a lawful excuse in the
6:22
judges words. There is no evidence in this
6:25
case of any that is capable in law of amounting to a lawful
6:29
excuse. So that is not something that
6:33
you need to consider. Now this is where things got
6:36
even more interesting and this is the KC Rajiv Menon and this
6:42
is where he entered the story. He made a rousing defence of the
6:47
rights of juries to reject judicial interference and of
6:52
their right to make up their own minds based on guilt and on
6:56
factors that might mitigate guilt.
6:59
And he does so at the very moment when Starmer and his
7:02
ministers are seeking to eradicate the principle of jury
7:06
trials. Everything hinges on this case.
7:08
I want to go to Basil Valentine in a moment, but Mike Starmer,
7:12
they really need convictions here to justify the prescription
7:16
of Palestine action. That's what Jonathan Cook says.
7:18
And I think, I think that's a fair assessment.
7:20
So I mean, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not AKC, I'm not a judge, but it
7:24
seems to me that the comments by Rajiv Menon are absolutely
7:29
appropriate. This judge, if he is directing
7:33
the jury, he is not giving the jury the chance to make up their
7:36
own minds. And and of course you talked
7:40
about a normal by jury earlier on.
7:42
That is key here because of course the jury has the right to
7:46
decide whether under this set of circumstances this was not a
7:49
crime. And of he is, he is effectively
7:52
by by making that definitive statement and the way that he
7:55
has, he has removed the ability that the right of the jury to
7:58
annul bad legislation that that is, that is a step too far in my
8:04
opinion. But I'm I'm not legally
8:05
qualified. I've got to stress.
8:07
Well, I think Basil Valentine has some historical perspective
8:11
on this. Basil, we're going to bring you
8:12
on right now. Basil, your, your thoughts on,
8:16
on this. This is absolutely, I think a
8:18
pivotal moment perhaps in, in, in legal history in Britain.
8:22
Is that an understatement? Yeah, I mean, the right trial by
8:26
jury goes all the way back to 1670 and the key case where
8:31
jurors were imprisoned but nevertheless brought back
8:36
verdict, which was contrary to what the judge wished the, you
8:41
know, one of the key defendants. Mr Penn then went on to America
8:44
to found the great state of Pennsylvania so interesting that
8:49
you know 355 years of precedent is about to be overturned if
8:54
this government has its way now. There's been a lot of tension in
8:58
the case at Woolwich Crown Court, with the judge I'm
9:02
indebted to of all media organisations, The face the
9:09
1980s music and fashion magazine.
9:13
It has found away the best reportage on what's been
9:16
happening there this week and it is extraordinary.
9:20
Worth pointing out that corporate media seem to be
9:21
completely ignoring the fact that so much hinges on this
9:26
case, including the prescription of Palestine action as a
9:30
terrorist organisation. It would appear that the judges
9:33
on that panel are waiting for a verdict in these cases to see
9:36
whether or not they can use them to bolster a case for
9:40
prescribing. So it's a very, we get into very
9:46
detailed legal arguments. As you said, Patrick, the judge
9:50
ruled out a justification defence, basically that the jury
9:55
could find the defendants not guilty even though they'd
9:59
committed a crime. But the concept of jury equity
10:04
remains. Juries are entitled to find
10:08
defendants not guilty and the judge cannot direct the jury as
10:14
to their findings. This is the key point that the
10:20
defendants KC made. Judges are not allowed to tell a
10:26
jury what the verdict should be. Otherwise, what would be the
10:29
point of having the jury? We can see clearly here.
10:32
If there was no jury, it's highly likely that the judge
10:36
would find against the defendants, but they're entitled
10:42
to make up their own mind. So an awful lot of, you know, a
10:47
lot of hinges on this decision. The jury retired on Tuesday of
10:52
this week to consider their verdicts.
10:54
We may get them back piece meal one by one on individual counts
10:59
and individual cases, or they may come back and return
11:02
verdicts on all the charges against all six simultaneously.
11:06
We simply don't know. Those verdicts could come today.
11:10
They could come next week. All depends on how long the jury
11:14
feel they need to deliberate. What's interesting, I'll go to
11:18
you in a minute, Mike, but unlike your comment on this as
11:20
well, Mike, but to to Mike and Basil Samuel Cornor at this,
11:24
everything seems to hinge on this particular individual.
11:27
He's the one accused of violent sledgehammer attack that hit
11:32
either intentionally or inadvertently a law enforcement
11:36
officer on site. And this they would have to
11:40
prove that this was intentional and it wasn't just the result of
11:45
an ensuing brawl. And this is a defence that's
11:47
usually brought in for football hooligan fights and things like
11:50
that, if you look at past cases. So, but but by doing that, if
11:54
they can, if they, if they get a conviction based on some kind of
11:57
a premeditated aggravated burglary, violent disorder that
12:02
has intention attached to it, then that fits the proscription
12:04
of Palestine Action as a violent terrorist organisation as it.
12:09
Were so it is so much hinging on the technicalities of this case,
12:14
Mike? Yeah.
12:15
Well, I mean, what I would say about that, Patrick, is, you
12:18
know, this is if, if the case against that guy is proven, then
12:24
that would be the first, as far as I'm aware, the first
12:26
conviction for any kind of violent action.
12:29
But we're not talking about, we're not talking about guns and
12:33
bombs here. We're not even talking about
12:35
petrol bombs or you know, or so on, but the traditional
12:39
terrorist paraphernalia. We're talking about something
12:41
that was brought on site in order to do damage to the, to
12:44
the physical apparatus of Elbit Systems.
12:46
It was not intended to damage, at least it's not proven yet
12:50
that it was intended to do damage to any individual.
12:53
So, but nonetheless, that's one case does it is, is that what it
12:56
takes to become a terrorist organisation?
12:58
Not at 1 case, but but you know, Basil said there that it's
13:03
highly likely that the judge would find a guilty verdict.
13:08
I think the judge in what he said and the way that he
13:10
expressed what he said to the jury has has absolutely made his
13:15
position clear. He he considers that there is no
13:18
justification for the action that they took.
13:20
So I think it's more than just likely that he would if if there
13:24
if there was no jury in the in the case that he would find them
13:27
guilty. And the problem here is that
13:29
juries are inconvenient for the government these days, not that
13:33
they're trying to justify the restriction on the use of juries
13:36
because of the length of time that, you know, the backlog that
13:39
there is in the court system. But it's not just that the the
13:42
fact is that juries, you know, often find against you, find in
13:49
ways that that governments don't like.
13:51
And that, I think is the main driver for wanting to get rid of
13:54
them. Oh, this case is definitely an
13:55
example of that. The state would prefer with his
13:58
current politics, would prefer no jury or a non independent
14:02
jury, a jury that couldn't make a decision on its own, common
14:06
law volition as it were. That's really what's at stake.
14:10
I want to bring Basil on in a moment.
14:11
But before that, let's look at. This is the part part of the
14:14
speech here. This is again serialise that
14:16
Jonathan Cook's Substack. Everybody support Jonathan Cook,
14:20
one of the great independent journalists in the in in Britain
14:22
and in the world, quite frankly at this moment.
14:24
But here's the important part. And he's he's addressing members
14:28
of the jury. You can find Charlotte and her
14:30
Co defendants not guilty of criminal damage.
14:33
It is a perfectly fair and proper verdict for you to return
14:37
in this case. Please don't think for one
14:39
moment that you're somehow barred as a matter of law from
14:42
doing so. And it goes and Craig Murray
14:45
said this is one of the most important speeches that he's
14:48
ever seen in his life, moments in sort of legal history and
14:52
precedent here. And I and Jonathan Cook includes
14:56
this mic and this is a placard here.
14:59
And I'll read this if you can't read the Old English.
15:01
It says near this site. William Penn and William Mead
15:04
were tried in 1670 for preaching to an unlawful assembly in.
15:09
Grace Church St Talking about Quake, a Quaker meeting at the
15:12
time. This tablet commemorates the
15:14
courage and endurance of the jury.
15:16
Thomas Veer, Edward Bushel and ten others who refused to give a
15:20
verdict against them, although locked up without food for two
15:23
nights and were fined for their final verdict of not guilty.
15:27
The case of these jurymen was reviewed.
15:30
On a writ of habeas corpus, and the Chief Justice Vaughn
15:33
delivered the opinion of the Court, which established the
15:36
right of juries to give their verdict according to their
15:40
convictions. So important and again if.
15:42
You want to read? More about this case we direct
15:46
you here and I'm not plugging Jeff Bezos, but it is available
15:49
on Amazon. The trial of William Penn and
15:51
William Mead for causing a Talmud and the Old Bailey,
15:55
etcetera, 1670 And I want to go back to you, Basil, just
15:59
briefly. Basil, just briefly.
16:02
You know, people who don't identify with this issue because
16:06
they don't support the Palestinian cause but might
16:08
identify as, quote, patriots, they seem to be wildly
16:11
disinterested in this issue at all.
16:15
When in fact, you have a Pakistani or I don't know if
16:19
he's a Muslim. KC defending the fundamentals of
16:24
common law in England, again, is extraordinary.
16:29
But this cuts right through race and identity politics.
16:32
It gets right to the fundamentals of a free society.
16:35
Basil, go ahead. Yeah, absolutely.
16:37
You would think that all the Conservatives and
16:39
constitutionalists would be all over this case.
16:42
We don't have a written constitution in Britain.
16:44
It is defined very largely by precedent.
16:47
And the 1670 case is one of the most important precedents in the
16:52
whole of British law. And now, as I say, unwritten
16:56
constitution. This particular trial is taking
16:59
place with the jury and with the terrorism, the whole use of the
17:04
terrorist legislation hanging over the defendants for the
17:08
first time in six months time. A similar case could be bought
17:14
with no jury if David Lammy has his way, and with the defendants
17:20
predefined as terrorists. We're then in a very, very
17:25
different place. So it could be, of course we
17:28
hope not, that this is the last trial of its type where
17:32
defendants are not assumed to be terrorists and defined as such
17:37
in law, and where they have the right to a jury trial.
17:40
Both those things could disappear if the government have
17:43
their way. Very important.
17:46
So, so much changes on this and Basil, just on the back end of
17:50
this, we want to get your comment here.
17:53
Tribunal finds no basis for misconduct in General Medical
17:57
Council GMC case against Doctor Abu Sita.
18:01
Explain to us the significance of this finding this week.
18:07
Well, I mean, it's, you know, really extraordinary that Doctor
18:12
Abu Sita had to go through this process.
18:15
He described lawyers for UKLFIUK, lawyers for Israel as
18:19
trying to destroy his life. And it would appear that they
18:22
are, they're trying to paint him as inherently violent because he
18:26
is simply of Arabian extraction. But it's really just the tip of
18:33
the iceberg. I mean, I'm pleased to say in
18:34
this case, the tribunal found that there was nothing anti
18:38
Semitic about anything he'd said or written or done.
18:41
But of course, the process is the punishment.
18:44
And UK lawyers for Israel are well funded and, you know, keep
18:49
bringing these vexatious cases against not just him, but dozens
18:54
of others. We're Streeting posted online
18:58
about now the imposition of the IHRA definition on the health
19:02
service across the broad, primarily to silence doctors
19:06
from, you know, speaking their minds about the genocide and
19:11
particularly Britain's complicity in it.
19:14
So what Streeting is trying to do, what the government trying
19:17
to do, is stop people from simply stating the facts about
19:23
Israel's genocide and Britain's role in it.
19:26
If you work in the NHS, you're not allowed to do so.
19:29
You'll end up before one of these tribunals.
19:33
And so this, it's incredible, you have all of these NGOs, stop
19:37
hate, there's a whole bevvy of these.
19:38
And you know, I think it's lawyers for Israel, these
19:41
different organisations. It's starting to be recognised
19:45
by some of these judicial bodies or tribunal bodies as being
19:50
vexatious litigants, Basil. In other words, there's a
19:54
possibility that they might now be sort of blacklisted, if you
19:58
will, from bringing these spurious cases, vexatious cases.
20:03
Just briefly, final comment, Basil.
20:06
Yes, it's to be hoped so. The key thing is the judicial
20:10
review, the legal challenge to the imposition of the IHRA
20:14
definition on the NHS as being fundamentally anathema to the
20:19
right to freedom of speech. There's a crowd funder for that.
20:23
We sincerely hope it succeeds because at the moment there are
20:27
people in the GMC staff who are now being forced to use the IHRA
20:32
definition, which we haven't got time to go into detail here, but
20:35
basically means that any meaningful criticism of Israel
20:39
and its actions is deemed as beyond the pale and means that
20:45
you will be in the crosshairs of disciplinary action.
20:48
So that's got to be overturned. You know, where streeting is
20:53
very firmly the property of the Zionist lobby in the UK is not
20:58
acting on behalf of the British people.
21:00
He's acting on behalf of the foreign government.
21:04
Thank you, Basil Valentine, Mike.
21:05
Absolutely, thank you. Well, let's let's just have a
21:08
quick look at what's going on with Gaza at the moment, because
21:11
Donald Trump yesterday announced on true social, let's bring it
21:14
up on screen, that the Gaza Board of Peace has been formed.
21:19
It's my great honour, he said, to announce that the Board of
21:21
Peace has been formed. The members of the board will be
21:23
announced shortly, but I can say with certainty that it's the
21:26
greatest and most prestigious board ever assembled at any
21:30
time, any place. Thank you for your attention on
21:32
this matter. So that's what he wrote on Truth
21:34
Social Now on Wednesday. Steve Witkoff posted on X today
21:39
on behalf of President Trumper announcing the launch of phase
21:42
two of the President's 20 point plan to end the Gaza conflict,
21:45
moving from ceasefire to demilitarisation, technocratic
21:49
governments and reconstruct governance and reconstruction.
21:52
Phase two establish, as he says, a trans transitional
21:56
technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza.
21:59
What does he mean by using that term?
22:02
Technocratic he means non democratic he means effectively
22:06
a colonial administration, administrative government.
22:10
So who's going to be the viceroy of of Gaza, Mike, There's a few
22:13
candidates vying for that. We.
22:15
Will come on to that in one second.
22:16
I'm just going to also mention this because on Wednesday as
22:20
well, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey released a joint statement also
22:25
using the term technocratic, announcing that Ali Shath, a
22:29
former Palestinian Authority official, had been selected to
22:31
lead the Palestinian Technocratic committee charged
22:35
with administrating the Gaza Strip.
22:37
So who else is involved? Well, Political tells us, citing
22:42
an unnamed source, that the board will consist of the heads
22:44
of state of around 9 countries. So that's the United States,
22:47
United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, UAE and
22:51
Jordan. And while they say former
22:54
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was initially expected to
22:57
be included, he has since stepped down from the position.
23:00
However, it's not quite that simple.
23:02
Political claims that Blair will serve on an executive committee
23:06
attached to the Board of Peace, which will also include Steve
23:09
Witkoff and Jared Kushner amongst others.
23:13
And well, ever dripping with irony, the British regime in its
23:17
statement said the UK has been consistently clear that the
23:20
future of Gaza, the Gaza must be Palestinian LED, which is why
23:24
it's got to be Tony Blair, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
23:29
I mean, could they do better, Patrick?
23:30
Bring that picture of Blair back up on screen.
23:32
Just a moment, please. It's too bad Mike, there's not a
23:35
safe and effective job for TB in Gaza.
23:39
That's what we hope anyway. We hope for these things.
23:42
No, to be clear, Mike, the bring that off screen, not to
23:45
traumatise the audience any further.
23:47
But Mike, Phase 1 isn't finished.
23:49
Phase one is the ethnic cleansing, is the is the
23:52
genocide, the extermination of the Palestinian, the native
23:55
Palestinian population? And the ethnic cleansing of any
23:57
survivors? Big Make no mistake, Israel's
24:00
been very clear that that's their phase one.
24:03
And they're not finished with that yet, right?
24:05
So I think just put that into perspective so people read
24:08
through the propaganda. Baz, Olivier, any brief thoughts
24:11
on this? It just goes from bad to worse,
24:15
doesn't it? I mean, my understanding, let's
24:18
always recenter the suffering of the Palestinian people because
24:21
the conditions on the ground in Gaza are as bad as ever.
24:25
There's been no meaningful ceasefire.
24:27
It's merely the rate at which Palestinians are exterminated
24:31
has slowed down somewhat. But, you know, children have
24:35
been freezing to death. Nothing like the amount of aid
24:40
has come into the country. Dozens of people have been
24:43
killed by buildings collapsing, having previously been badly
24:48
damaged. And the yellow line keeps
24:50
advancing so that Palestinians are crammed into ever smaller
24:54
space and all that, completely ignored by the corporate media.
24:58
We only ever hear about Gaza in the corporate media when it's an
25:03
announcement like this about the imposition of government on the
25:08
beleaguered people by Western powers.
25:11
Thank you, Basil. Thank you for that.
25:13
OK, let's move on to the outbreak.
25:15
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25:18
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25:51
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26:01
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26:57
OK, let's move on then to the question of insurrection
27:01
Patrick, because well, this went out on Truth Social on
27:07
yesterday. In fact, was it yesterday?
27:09
Yes, it was the if the corrupt politicians in Minnesota don't
27:14
obey the law and stop the professional agitators and
27:17
insurrectionists from attacking the patriots of ICE who are only
27:20
trying to do their job, I will institute the Insurrection Act,
27:23
which many presidents have done before me, and quickly put an
27:26
end to the travesty that has taken place in that once great
27:29
state. Is it true that many presidents
27:32
have brought in the Insurrection Act or called in the
27:35
Insurrection Act in the past? No, it's an extremely rare
27:40
occurrence, Mike. And it's been done in the past
27:42
for reasons very different, different than what we are
27:45
seeing here. And so that's one of the
27:47
problems with with this conversation as as you'll show
27:51
us and we have some video as well.
27:52
Yes, OK. Well, this was apparently
27:54
because a new wave of protests began in Minneapolis on the
27:57
evening of the 14th of January following another shooting by
28:01
federal agents involving in this this case of Venezuelan national
28:05
on the north side of the city. This was the response from the
28:09
Minnesota governor, Tim Waltz. I'm making a direct appeal to
28:13
the president. Let's turn the temperature down.
28:15
Stop this campaign of retribution.
28:17
This is not who we are. And an appeal to Minnesotans.
28:21
I know this is scary. We can.
28:22
We must speak out loudly, urgently and also peacefully.
28:26
We cannot find the flames of chaos.
28:28
That's what he wants. And he's referring to President
28:31
Trump. And it does.
28:32
I have to say, Patrick, it does, on the face of it, look like
28:34
that's what you know. There's definitely an attempt by
28:37
the federal government to fan the flames of this.
28:41
Yeah. The the language is increasingly
28:43
aggressive and, and heated and, and so this is bringing people
28:48
out on on the streets, but it's also making ICE agents behave
28:52
more and more oddly, it seems. Well, they're, they're giving a
28:55
a dog whistle from from the federal government.
28:58
They've been told they have immunity from prosecution so
29:00
they can commit any crimes. We've heard stories, Mike, with
29:03
their and we've seen as well in video, which will show you some
29:06
of them. They're ramming they're rear
29:08
ending cars because people won't get out of their cars.
29:11
They want to do random stop and searches to check people's
29:14
papers, see if they're U.S. citizens or not.
29:16
So they're ramming the back of people to get them to stop and
29:19
come out of the car and then they grab them.
29:21
So Donald Trump is sent 2000. He sent reinforcements as well.
29:24
So now 2500, roughly masked paramilitary agents who aren't
29:30
actual federal agents, but many of them have been hired through
29:33
recruitment agencies that deal with mercenaries and security
29:36
guards and things like that. And so these aren't real sort of
29:40
servants of the people, as it were.
29:42
They're basically hired guns, wearing masks and stopping
29:46
people at random, demanding to see their papers, demanding to
29:49
prove their ID. I I just see where this is
29:52
going. It's going to a very bad
29:54
destination. And then you didn't show the
29:56
other Trump tweet, which we could have shown what he's
29:58
saying. There's going to be retribution
30:00
to Minnesota for, you know, putting up resistance to what
30:06
looks like a federal invasion. And so funny, Mike, because of
30:09
the same people on the right that were defending the Bundy
30:12
family at Bundy Ranch for federal overreach.
30:16
And they went there and rallied to the support of the bunnies
30:18
because the federal government had no jurisdiction coming in
30:21
all guns blazing in that case. That was 10 years ago.
30:24
And now you see a total reversal, the right or cheering
30:28
on executive power. They're cheering on the federal
30:31
government even in the face of, you know, killing American
30:35
citizens, they're still cheering this on, which I find to be
30:38
extraordinary and just. Show you how dysfunctional US
30:40
politics is at the moment. Absolutely.
30:43
Well, on Tuesday, if we bring this on screen on Tuesday, 6
30:47
senior lawyers from the US Attorney's office in Minnesota
30:50
resigned along with four leaders of the Civil Rights division of
30:53
the Justice Department. The Minnesota, Minnesota
30:57
attorneys told the New York Times on screen at the moment
31:00
that they were outraged that instead of investigating the ICE
31:03
shooter in the recent killing, senior Justice Department
31:07
officials wanted to investigate the goods family.
31:09
And so they were also upset that the FBI was refusing to
31:13
cooperate with state level investigations.
31:16
And in the meantime, of course, Department of Homeland Security
31:20
Secretary Christy Norm is facing impeachment efforts as a result
31:24
of the ICE behaviour. The article, the impeachment
31:28
articles detail accusations against Norm, including
31:31
obstruction of Congress, violations of public trust and
31:34
self dealing. The allegations are that she
31:37
denied access to ICE facilities for Congress members, that she
31:40
misused funds for personal gain, and that she compromised public
31:45
safety and constitutional rights.
31:47
And this comes on top of the controversy over the podium that
31:51
she was standing behind earlier this week carrying the phrase
31:56
one of ours, all of yours. And that for the four came about
32:02
because of allegations that this was a Nazi linked slogan, or
32:05
perhaps linked the slogan was linked to the Civil War, the
32:08
Spanish Civil War. Sorry, the fact checkers were
32:11
out and forced to deny this. And I, I would ask why they
32:15
would begin to do that. But before we we before we ask
32:18
that question, let's just have a look at that, that video clip
32:21
that you were talking about, Patrick, because that's that's
32:25
we'll have a look at it and talk about it in a second.
32:27
Yeah, this is one of the most tame.
33:04
So Patrick, obviously the allegation over that podium sign
33:08
was that this was somehow linked to Nazi behaviour during the
33:10
Second World War in in fact, you know, as I said, the fact
33:16
checkers have been out if we bring the Fact Check article on
33:18
screen again just for a second, they've been out to to make it
33:21
clear this is not a phrase from Nazi Germany, but.
33:25
What does it mean then? Well, we'll come on to that.
33:27
My question is why are the fact checkers so keen to do this?
33:30
Because they all hit Trump, don't they?
33:31
At least they've taken a very anti Trump position previously.
33:36
But so why are the Russian to his defence now?
33:37
What could it be? That it's not for his benefit
33:40
that they've been quick to act? Could it be that this slogan
33:43
represents the policy of Israel, which has been imported into the
33:46
United States and they're now openly, you know, bragging about
33:50
it, Effectively, the policy of collective punishment, which is
33:53
which Israel is, has pursued for decades?
33:56
Because all the criticism of that comment was all about Nazi
33:59
Germany and Spanish Civil War. I didn't see anybody drawing
34:03
parallels with what Israel has been doing.
34:05
No. Well, it's it's common that
34:08
Israel would normally say 1 Israeli dies, we're going to
34:12
kill 1000 Palestinians or something to that effect.
34:17
It's a fascist, very authoritarian phrase.
34:20
One of ours, all of yours. There's no business being on a
34:23
government podium, let's be clear.
34:26
Not unless the government that you're looking at is
34:29
representing an ideology that is different to the one you think
34:32
it's representing. And we're starting to see more
34:34
and more that that is the case here, Mike, that this isn't, you
34:38
know, showing up and making a scene like that grab, having
34:41
people off the streets, you know, ramming cars, pulling
34:44
people out of cars and etcetera, demanding Americans show their
34:48
papers to prove that they're a citizen in a public space.
34:52
I mean, this is never, we've never seen this before in, in
34:55
the US. Maybe there was maybe 150 years
34:58
ago or something. But modern, modern times, no.
35:00
So it is highly disturbing and it speaks to, I think a federal
35:05
government, a Trump administration that believes
35:07
it's above the law, that believes that.
35:09
And he has mocked the Constitution in the past.
35:11
So he, you know, there's people are rightly saying he doesn't
35:15
have any respect for the Constitution or international
35:18
law, which he said this week that he doesn't need to.
35:20
Abide by international law and normally you see countries that
35:23
don't recognise international law tend to also not recognise
35:27
domestic law either historically, and I think the US
35:30
is now facing that problem. Basil, any thoughts?
35:35
Well, it speaks to the extreme polarisation in American
35:39
Society. Well, the sort of, you know, the
35:42
battle lines are really drawn between increasingly
35:46
authoritarian and violent oligarchy, of which Trump is the
35:50
current figurehead and a particularly erratic one, and
35:53
then the sort of the great mass of ordinary American people.
35:57
Theoretically, Trump got a mandate for all this from the
36:00
MAGA crowd, but MAGA has since fractured and cratered, and his
36:05
support is absolutely in the toilet.
36:07
But it just shows that, you know, the sort of civil society
36:12
that America was built on over the last 200 years is starting
36:15
to disintegrate. And yes, we do have to point out
36:18
that these ICE agents are trained in Israel, trained to
36:22
use deadly force, trained to regard protesters and what we
36:27
call civilians as the enemy. And that is a sea change in
36:32
societal behaviour. Thank you Basil for that.
36:35
OK, Patrick, let's move on then to Iran.
36:38
So a little, well, let's give you a very, very quick synopsis
36:42
of where we're at with this story.
36:43
We'll bring this up on screen. So destabilising Iran this is.
36:47
Exactly what the plan was and where we're at right now is that
36:53
there seems to be a low. We're we're told, Mike, that the
36:56
Trump administration has backed off strikes against Iran.
37:00
There were pre planned strikes against Iran.
37:02
We now know that these are been planned for weeks so and they
37:05
even the plan predated predated these so called protests or
37:10
demonstrations in which be really riots.
37:13
That's some crystal ball he's got right there.
37:15
In Tehran, and it is pretty clear what happened here, Trump
37:18
telegraphed the plan. I think this was one of his
37:21
undoings. He said that if the regime, if
37:23
the mullahs shoot any protesters, we're going to come
37:26
in and intervene. So he said that early on.
37:29
And what? And then we find out Mike
37:30
Pompeo, former CIA director, admits that Mossad is on the
37:33
ground around stirring up the protests and the Israeli press,
37:37
the Jerusalem Post also acknowledged this, as have other
37:41
Israel. 14 have acknowledged this.
37:42
They're both. They're boasting about the fact
37:44
that they were ginning up the violent riots that included
37:48
arson, burning of mosques, the murder of civilians and the
37:51
killing of 100 Iranian police. Now I don't know about you Mike,
37:55
but if there were, if there were foreign backed mobs in Britain
37:58
that killed 100 police officers, do you think that the state
38:02
would just be hands off and let the Democrats democracy mobs
38:05
flourish or would they just come down with the most incredible
38:08
heavy hand? Yes they would.
38:10
And in America too, but yet the American and the British
38:13
governments are saying and political leaders are saying,
38:16
oh, they, they, they're being hard handed, heavy handed with
38:19
these democracy protesters. So I think the game has been
38:23
given up here on this. So Trump claims, he's now
38:26
claiming credit for stopping the massacre that didn't happen.
38:30
Now, there's a lot of reports and we'll go through the
38:32
disinformation side with this, which to me is incredible.
38:35
But the let's just say Lindsey Graham, if you want an
38:38
indication that the attacks are definitely off.
38:41
I have never seen it so deflated Lindsey Graham as in this clip,
38:46
which to me is a pretty strong indication that there's going
38:49
there's not going to be a strike for now, for now.
38:52
But here's here is the the South Carolina Peach, Lindsey Graham.
38:59
There are a lot of headlines out there that are, in my view, not
39:03
accurate. President Trump's resolve is not
39:05
the question. Question is, and when we do an
39:09
operation like this, should it be bigger or smaller?
39:15
I'm in the camp a bigger time will tell.
39:19
I'm hopeful and optimistic that the regime days are numbered.
39:29
I've never seen him that. I mean, he's been totally high
39:31
on the the Venezuela OP right? Overthrowing the.
39:34
Overthrowing all these governments and then the to bomb
39:37
Iran. I mean, Lindsay's had such a
39:38
whirlwind of excitement over the last couple of weeks.
39:41
But as well as that, he's been anticipating dealing with Iran
39:44
for how long? Decades.
39:45
Maybe he wasn't. Part of his life's work.
39:47
Absolutely. And and he thought we were
39:49
finally going to get that. It's the legacy of John McCain,
39:52
his former close associate here. So, but where, where are all
39:56
these claims coming from about these massacres of Iranians?
40:00
And the number just keeps growing here.
40:02
But I point people to this article here.
40:05
We'll bring this up on screen. This is a great report by the
40:08
grey Zone. Western media whitewashes deadly
40:11
riots in Iran relying on U.S. government funded regime change
40:15
NGOs. Now this is incredible.
40:17
National Endowment for Democracy.
40:20
Which is really ACIA front. It's it's regarded as ACIA front
40:24
by many people. Let's just look drill down a
40:26
little closer into this situation here.
40:29
So you've seen the claims 2000 have been massacred by the
40:33
regime and then a few hours later it was 5000 and then later
40:36
that day it was 10,000. Then it next day it blew up to
40:38
20,000. I think it's probably at 50,
40:40
maybe 100,000 seems to be going up by like 20,000 every few
40:44
hours by the regime. And at every turn, you find 2
40:49
actors, the US, U.S. government and Israel, for example,
40:52
unconfirmed casualty numbers coming from Western, quote,
40:56
human rights activists organisations.
40:58
Here's one here, the Abdul Rahman Borroman Centre for Human
41:03
Rights in Iran. Well, it's not in Iran, Mike, is
41:05
it? It's, it's in the United States.
41:08
And here's another one. This is another one that's also
41:11
mentioned a lot. It was the centre for human
41:13
Rights in Iran. That's not actually in Iran,
41:16
that's actually New York City. And this is also an Ed cut out
41:20
organisation, Iran International News.
41:24
This has been admitted by former Israeli intelligence officers as
41:28
a clearing house for disinformation and Israeli
41:32
propaganda on Iran. And the the latter will show
41:35
there's other organisations here called the Human Rights Activist
41:38
News Agency. They were, they were doing anti
41:41
China, anti China campaigning, calling the Beijing Winter
41:45
Olympics, the genocide Olympics. That same organisation, they
41:48
were repurposed to work on Iran in the last couple of weeks
41:52
here, the Centre for Human Rights in Iran, we mentioned
41:54
that as well. So incredible here.
41:57
But here's this organ. You probably see a lot of this
41:59
Google is giving this priority on searches.
42:02
And again, this is admitted by Israeli intelligence officials
42:05
as being a disinformation hub for their propaganda, anti
42:10
propaganda activities as well. Just do a search here.
42:14
Iran human rights activist network or Iran human rights.
42:18
These are all Western based NGOs.
42:21
They're not in Iran and the same exact, like the same exact
42:25
formula was used for Syria. We had the Syrian Observatory
42:28
for Human rights. They use the same formula for
42:31
Venezuela. These are US based or or British
42:34
based or EU based human rights or.
42:36
Remind me who was behind the Syrian Observatory Human rights?
42:39
He was operating out of his bedroom.
42:41
Rami Abdul Rahman, above, a chip shop in Coventry.
42:44
Yes so but EU funded. That's not his real name, that
42:48
was his pseudo name. So.
42:50
Again, so, so all of the all of the Western influencers, Western
42:54
politicians are drawing off this propaganda and then repeating it
42:58
and they're all putting these videos up online.
43:00
But Nigel Farage was out on the street.
43:03
Now, Nigel doesn't like to opine on foreign policy issues unless
43:07
they except for boats coming over the Channel.
43:10
That's the extent of his foreign policy portfolio in terms of
43:13
commentary. But he's really engaged in this
43:15
regime change story on Iran. Here is Nigel Farage just the
43:20
other day. I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
43:22
it's in front of the Iranian embassy.
43:24
We'll roll this beautiful virgin, people.
43:30
You wonderful people, you freedom fighters, this time are
43:35
we going to win? We're going to win a terrible
43:42
price, a terrible price being paid.
43:45
I find many innocent people in every Iranian city right now.
43:51
But you've got to believe that this is the moment we.
43:55
Really appreciate you. May God bless you may.
44:01
God bless Of you So this is new that Nigel Farage seems to be
44:16
taking a position on international affairs.
44:18
Well, he's taking a position, all right, Mike.
44:20
He took a position in front of the Iran royalty flag.
44:23
So he is effectively advocating for the return of a monarchy,
44:27
even if he didn't explicitly say it.
44:29
Those are all pro monarchists there in front of a monarchy
44:32
flag. And the monarch himself, the son
44:35
of the Shaw Reza Pahlavi junior, as it were.
44:38
He's on record as saying he doesn't know anybody in Iran
44:41
because he's lived his whole life in the suburbs of
44:44
Washington, DC and Los Angeles for the last 50 years.
44:47
So he himself is not popular. He doesn't actually have a
44:50
support base. So they're not going to take
44:53
power. It's just not going to happen.
44:56
And again, we're we're challenging all of these these
44:59
claims about these massacres by the quote regime, when in fact
45:04
we have more evidence, documented evidence that
45:07
Iranians, Iranian law enforcement and people trying to
45:11
basically stop arson and violence on the streets were
45:14
killed on mass. So again, the, the, the claims
45:19
of thousands of protesters slaughtered or executed or hung,
45:23
it just hasn't materialised. But the propaganda keeps
45:26
flowing. Here's a good example of it.
45:28
Another one from the West, probably from the United States,
45:32
probably involved in these organisations somehow.
45:35
And it's just, there's hundreds if not thousands of these
45:37
videos, many of them have been paid for which we'll show you.
45:40
These people are being paid activists, many of these.
45:43
But what here's Here's a typical one right here.
45:50
The equivalent of 49 elevens have happened in Iran in just
45:53
the last four days for contacts. The death toll of the last three
45:57
years of the Russia Ukraine war stands at 14,500.
46:00
The number of protesters killed by the Islamic Republic stands
46:03
at 12,000 in just the last four days.
46:05
These numbers are being confirmed by rights groups,
46:07
doctors working in Tehran's hospitals, and people who
46:10
recently left Iran. This number focuses only on
46:12
Tehran, the country's capital, not a sum of all of Iran's 31
46:16
provinces. Iran is going into day seven of
46:18
a total Internet blackout will only receive updated numbers
46:21
once the country is reconnected to the outside world.
46:24
The estimated number of those killed is said to be in the 10s
46:27
of thousands. This is a mass casualty event
46:29
that has been overwhelming Iran's hospitals.
46:31
Witnesses report regime forces shooting to kill using military
46:34
grade weapons and automatic machine guns typically reserved
46:37
for the IRGC. Witnesses also confirm that the
46:40
regime is shooting at anyone on the streets, whether you're a
46:42
protester or not. This means they're not
46:44
targeting, they're just shooting at random.
46:46
Doctors report receiving victims who have been shot in the face
46:48
and who have been shot at close range, including including the
46:51
elderly and teenagers. One witness sent a voice note
46:53
saying that when people go to retrieve bodies of their loved
46:55
ones from the morgue, they've been asked to pay an exorbitant
46:58
fee. This is another cruelty the
47:00
regime imposes on family members of protesters.
47:03
This person also said that they were asked Shidinishku, which
47:05
means where are the sweets, Where are the pastries and our
47:08
culture? When something good happens,
47:09
like you get a new job, you have a baby, you buy a house, people
47:13
ask you, oh, where are the pastries, shidinishku.
47:15
It's a celebratory thing. This is the evil with which the
47:18
regime treats Iranian people. They're asked it of people who
47:21
are coming to pick up the dead bodies of their loved ones.
47:24
Friend of my friend sent a message and said that her cousin
47:26
was shot in the face and is now dead.
47:28
We're reaching the point where every Iranian you know know
47:30
someone who has been killed or is friends with someone who
47:33
knows someone who has been killed.
47:34
Many of us are still unable to reach our loved ones.
47:37
The Islamic Republic is massacring civilians in real
47:40
time. They're shooting them in the
47:41
eyes with birdshot. They're shooting them in the
47:43
head at close range and leaving a trail of bodies and blood in
47:46
the streets. Please do not stay silent.
47:49
Please share what this regime is doing and please stand with the
47:52
people of Iran. So just just to be clear, Mike,
47:57
some of these are scripted because we have found videos
48:00
from different people reading the exact same talking points,
48:03
the exact same script. And what happened was, and it's
48:07
admitted the Israelis admit that they had agents on the ground,
48:10
probably the CIA, probably British intelligence were
48:12
involved as well. That's not being naive.
48:15
And then the Chinese helped to basically jam Starlink.
48:18
Musk sent thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran and the
48:23
Chinese jammed it and that's when the riots started to fizzle
48:27
out because they weren't able to coordinate and do all the things
48:31
they over the Internet. So that's incredible, so.
48:34
Well, just before you move on, I just want to make the point that
48:37
that the there's this story about an exorbitant fee being
48:40
charged for the recovery of bodies that was on the BBC News
48:44
front page today. So they're taking some of these
48:47
narratives themselves and promoting them.
48:49
And and exactly and notice what she said.
48:52
Like a friend of a friend called me and told me dot, dot, dot,
48:56
this is just like 40 beheaded babies.
48:59
So, and this is the same type of thing.
49:00
Oh, I know somebody who knew somebody's mass rape after
49:03
October 7th, etcetera. These, this is the propaganda
49:07
that's used to basically they want to pressure Trump to bomb
49:10
Iran. This is clear in all of the
49:12
messaging. So they think they could get out
49:14
of soft touch with Donald Trump on this issue.
49:16
So let's look at the funding briefly here.
49:18
Just quickly and many of you are already aware of this, Who are
49:22
the influencers? Israel is paying $7000.
49:25
Per post on X, so there's huge. Huge budgets, millions have been
49:30
allocated to the Ester project among many, as well as social
49:35
media influencer agencies that are basically paying young
49:38
influencers in the West to put out these videos that we need to
49:42
save the people of Iran. Trump, please bomb, please
49:45
intervene. We need to get rid of the
49:46
regime. 20,000 have been massacred.
49:49
There's mass rape. I even heard mass rape going on
49:52
in Iran. So it's the same type of
49:53
propaganda that we saw from the Israeli side before.
49:57
It's being repurposed, a massive operation.
50:00
They're spending 10s of millions, maybe hundreds of
50:02
1,000,000 on the total information warfare side of
50:06
this. And they've been, many of these
50:08
people are making, getting paid a lot of money to do this.
50:13
So please people, be be aware that everything you're seeing on
50:16
social media, a lot of it is completely engineered and it's
50:20
very expensive, expensive propaganda.
50:24
Okay, and well, I'll just very briefly mentioned that the
50:28
Plymouth Herald today has story saying that there's a major
50:31
protest planned for Plymouth as death toll rises.
50:34
So even in local media we're getting the same propaganda as
50:38
they're talking about thousands of people dying, Major.
50:41
Protest. Major protest planned.
50:44
I think that's probably going to be about it tomorrow.
50:47
But anyway, my point is this is being brought down absolutely to
50:51
the local level as as they try to push this now this it.
50:56
Looks like the royal flag as well.
50:57
Yes. So these are royalists?
50:59
Yes, Absolutely. Yes.
51:00
So how's the monarchy Democratic?
51:02
Well, that's another question. That's another question.
51:06
OK, let's let's move on to Greenland then.
51:09
And well, here is a tweet and we're going to say that this is
51:14
according to Danish media, the this is showing the meeting
51:17
between Danish foreign minister and Donald Trump.
51:21
So that was a couple of days ago.
51:23
And this was on the request of Danish and Greenlandic governors
51:26
government, sorry, because they've had their first meeting
51:30
with Trump, but actually mainly with Janie Vance and also Marco
51:34
Rubio about this demand for Trump to take over Greenland.
51:39
And so they were represented by Lars Rasmussen, who's the Danish
51:43
foreign minister, and the Greenland foreign minister,
51:46
Vivian Modsfeld. And so the main message that
51:51
they were trying to get across after the meeting was the
51:54
meeting was held in a respective tone, that they and the United
51:59
States representatives agreed to disagree and to continue
52:03
discussions. And that a high level working
52:05
group was going to be set up to see if there was any way to
52:08
achieve some kind of agreement with respect to the security
52:13
concerns of the United States. While they say not crossing the
52:17
Kingdom of Denmark's red lines about maintaining the
52:20
sovereignty of its land. So I wonder, is the Kingdom of
52:24
Greenland in a position to have red lines?
52:27
Now it's reported that Rasmussen stressed that it was that sorry,
52:31
stressed that he and Motzalt were able to oppose the
52:34
narratives that Chinese and Russians pose.
52:36
And then imminent threat to Greenland.
52:38
But that's quite strange because that's not the message he was
52:42
expressing during his comment to the press following the meeting.
52:45
Let's just have a brief listen to this.
52:48
But I must say that of course we share to some extent his
52:52
concerns. There's definitely a new
52:55
security situation in the Arctic, in the high N All of us
53:00
transatlantic took the peace dividend years ago and we have
53:06
the vision of keeping Arctic as a low tension region.
53:10
So that doesn't seem to quite add up with with that.
53:13
But anyway, the President Trump's press secretary, Karen
53:16
Levitt, said on yesterday that the two sides agreed to
53:21
establish a working group, which you just mentioned he'll
53:24
continue to have technical, not that one, William, sorry, have
53:28
technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland?
53:31
The president has made his priority quite clear.
53:33
The US wants to acquire Greenland.
53:35
He thinks it's in our best interests for national security.
53:39
Since that, since the meeting, the headlines, of course, have
53:41
been full of this BBC article here of troop deployments to
53:46
Greenland. So we've got the BBC here.
53:48
We've also got CNBC here, Natal nations deployed to Greenland
53:53
after tense White House talks. Now, this is, you know, they're
53:57
using terms like deploy. They're hinting at something
53:59
serious. The situation is not quite as
54:02
the headlines would want us to believe.
54:04
What has actually happened is that small numbers of personnel
54:07
have gone to Greenland to take part in Operation Arctic
54:10
Endurance, which is a Danish LED NATO military exercise.
54:14
And now I'm not going to deny that Arctic Endurance has
54:18
clearly been quickly organised because it doesn't appear on the
54:21
NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe exercise page,
54:25
which we can see here. It's it's not on that list.
54:28
The first event is Arctic Dolphin, which take place in
54:31
February. Now back in September, we
54:33
mentioned this article in the BBC suggesting that the
54:36
competition for control of the Arctic is getting risky.
54:39
And at the same time, Patrick and I had attended a screening
54:42
of a propaganda document documentary called Arming the
54:45
Arctic. And so, you know, while the
54:50
rhetoric continues about Russian and Chinese ships encircling
54:53
Greenland, that rhetoric's clearly pretty unhinged.
54:56
Nonetheless, Western nations clearly unhappy with the fact of
55:00
Russia and China are way ahead in developing the Arctic Silk
55:03
Road with the first container ship bringing goods from China
55:07
to Felix still last September. But my question is this, Patrick
55:10
could just be very interested in your thoughts on that, on this.
55:13
Is Trump's rhetoric about green Greenland really about Russia
55:17
and China? Or is this eye really on the
55:19
51st 1st state Canada? Because we bring the map on
55:22
screen here. Of course, what we see is that
55:25
if he does get his mitts on Greenland, Canada is effectively
55:29
encircled, isn't it? And with all the additional
55:32
rhetoric about Mexico, Colombia and Cuba, Cuba, it actually
55:35
looks like he wants the whole of North and South America.
55:39
Yes, well, at least the whole of North America, save Mexico for
55:43
now, Mike. But Canada is a British
55:45
Commonwealth state, isn't it? Officially.
55:49
Officially. But are we going to go to war
55:50
with the United States? Well, it's like we got the
55:53
Europe and Britain have dealing with Putin on the other side,
55:56
threatening to invade, digest, invade Europe, then they've got
56:00
now Trump on the other side. So it's like a pincer movement
56:03
with the US and Russia coming in.
56:05
And I mean, it's just so ridiculous.
56:07
Totally the whole thing. But but what?
56:09
What's the? Real motivation.
56:10
Is it about China and Russia occupying Greenland?
56:12
Of course not. Don't be silly.
56:14
Does Russia need any additional land?
56:16
I kind of don't think so. But anyway, this is what it has
56:19
to do with. Let's not kid ourselves here.
56:21
Donald Trump is biessing. Sorry to be explicit, he's BS
56:26
ING the public on this. How a billionaire with interest
56:29
in Greenland encourage Donald Trump to acquire the territory.
56:33
This, ladies and gentlemen, is Ronald Lauder, a friend of
56:36
Trump. Of course, Trump has many
56:38
billionaire friends, doesn't he? One day during the first term,
56:41
Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea.
56:44
Trump called me down to the Oval Office, says John Bolton, who is
56:48
his national security advisor. He just said the prominent
56:51
businessman had just suggested the US by Greenland.
56:54
That was in Donald Trump's first term and understand the
56:58
significance of this year. Like many of those around the
57:01
President, Ronald Lauders policy suggests appear to intersect
57:07
with his business interests. So the policy intersects with
57:10
the business. And as Trump has ratcheted up
57:13
his threats to seize Greenland, Lauder has acquired commercial
57:16
holdings there. Surprise, surprise.
57:18
Lauder is also part of the consortium whose desire to
57:21
access Ukrainian minerals appears to have spurred Trump to
57:25
demand a share of the war torn country's resources.
57:29
Here, ladies and gentlemen, do we any further questions on the
57:34
motivation behind these policies?
57:36
Remember when Trump said we're going to get the raw earths?
57:38
It's rare earths, but Trump said raw earth, raw earths.
57:42
And what happened with the raw earths?
57:43
Nothing's been signed, hasn't been done, but it's still
57:46
there's plans to try to leverage those away from Ukraine.
57:50
And he's doing it here in Greenland.
57:51
So all you people that are, you know, pro Zelinsky waving
57:54
Ukrainian flag like there's some valiant cause for democracy.
57:59
This is nothing more than a resource grab.
58:02
Can you work this out yet? I hope so.
58:04
And by the way, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, they've also got
58:07
interests in Greenland and the rare earths in Greenland, as
58:12
well as putting data centres up there and creating an AI hub in
58:16
Greenland. This is all real.
58:17
So it has nothing to do with Russia and China.
58:20
But then again, we're talking about Donald Trump here, so we
58:23
have to try to tease out his logic, Mike, don't we?
58:27
We do. No, I'm going to say Patrick,
58:29
I'm no fan of Jon Stewart at all because particularly during the
58:34
COVID years, he was appalling along with Stephen Colbert and
58:37
others. But.
58:38
He's found his footing again. I suggest he has because because
58:44
I can't really disagree with anything he says in this clip.
58:47
So let's just end the programme with Jon Stewart here.
58:52
I don't understand why do we have to take over Greenland?
58:56
If we don't do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland.
59:00
And we're not going to have Russia or China as a neighbour.
59:20
We're already Russia's already our name.
59:25
This is where Greenland is Russia's closer.
59:29
Unless in your mind you think Alaska lives in a box next to
59:32
Hawaii. No, no, again, again, again.
59:38
We, we don't want Russia or China to take over Greenland.
59:43
Oh, you know what we could do to deter it?
59:46
Not through arrogance or conquest, but what if we formed
59:49
like kind of an alliance with Denmark and Greenland?
59:53
We could include all the North Atlantic nations.
59:57
What, what would we call this? Like, like almost like a North
1:00:02
Atlantic Treaty Organisation that we, I don't know what we
1:00:08
could. I guess we'll never know.
1:00:12
But again, since we all now dance to the tune of Juan Piper,
1:00:17
what possible justifications could you have for just taking
1:00:20
someone else's land? And please, if you would irony
1:00:25
proof your answer. I'm a fan of Denmark, but you
1:00:28
know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago
1:00:31
doesn't mean that they own the land.
1:00:39
Can someone pass him a note? How do you think we got our
1:00:47
land? So I'm afraid it's hard to
1:00:51
disagree with that of. Course, I mean just a couple
1:00:54
miles down the road there is the Plymouth, the Mayflower steps.
1:01:00
That's where it all happened. Yeah, Fain, they landed a boat
1:01:04
in Massachusetts 400 plus years ago.
1:01:08
So anyway, Trump's not. Big on history, so let's not
1:01:12
let's not get. Too hard on them.
1:01:13
Yeah, too well, you know, on the details.
1:01:16
Well, it's just history. OK, well, look, we we got to
1:01:19
finish there because we're out of time.
1:01:20
We'll be back in a few minutes for some UK column news.
1:01:22
Extra Basil will be joining us for some more discussion on what
1:01:26
we've been talking about today. If you're UK column member, join
1:01:28
us for that. Stay on the live stream.
1:01:29
If you're not a member, maybe you would like to join us and
1:01:32
then you can take part in that discussion as well.
1:01:36
Thank you to Basil and Patrick and everybody that's been
1:01:38
watching. Don't forget Jerem and Carl
1:01:41
tonight and also Jake Fern on Sunday night at 7:00.
1:01:45
But have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday at 1:00
1:01:48
PM. As usual, thanks for joining us.
1:01:49
Bye bye.