1 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:10,680 Good afternoon. It's Friday, the 26th of 2 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:14,000 September 2025, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK Column News. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,320 I'm your host, Mike Robinson, and joining me by video link 4 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:18,880 today are Mark Anderson and Patrick Hennigson. 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:20,440 Welcome to the program. Both. 6 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,960 Later in the program, we'll be looking at the potential for 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,440 Arab Israeli war. We'll also be looking at the 8 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:30,840 Gaza flotilla, the United Nations at 80, and the pandemic 9 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:32,119 treaty. A bit more on that. 10 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:35,360 But we're going to begin, of course, with the big news from 11 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:40,800 the UK today, which is digital ID, because the Starmer regime 12 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,680 has announced, the Starmer regime has announced a new 13 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:48,440 policy which has they've been warning about for years. 14 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:50,320 Actually, let's put this on screen. 15 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:53,720 Digital ID. What can we say about it? 16 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:58,120 Well, here's what Starmer said about it, He said I know working 17 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,000 people are worried about the level of illegal migration into 18 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,319 the country. A secure border and controlled 19 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,280 migration are reasonable demands and this government is listening 20 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,520 and delivering. He said digital ID is an 21 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,600 enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work 22 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,720 illegally in this country, making our borders secure. 23 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,640 And he said it will also offer citizens, ordinary citizens, 24 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:24,920 countless benefits like being able to prove your identity, to 25 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,120 access key services swiftly rather than hunting around for 26 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,160 an old utility bill. So there you go. 27 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:37,920 It's all about convenience. Well, he pushed out Lisa Nandy 28 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,320 this morning to do the round on the rounds on the various news 29 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:42,920 programmes. She's the culture secretary. 30 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:46,920 And, well, this is what she had to say to Sky News this morning. 31 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,840 Well, first of all, it's not a brick card that would obviously 32 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,400 raise all sorts of issues across the whole of the UK. 33 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:57,960 And so we we're calling it what it is, which is digital ID. 34 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:03,480 And the, the idea is that we've got a country that has for a 35 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,520 long time been living in a digital era, but operating in an 36 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,800 analogue way. We've been looking over the last 37 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,040 year at lots of different options and different countries 38 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:18,440 and the ways that they have rolled out Digital ID Estonia. 39 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:23,240 And the the major benefit of Digital ID of course, is that it 40 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:25,600 makes it far easier for employers to check whether 41 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:27,400 somebody has the right to work here. 42 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,880 So for people who come here and want to work, it will be 43 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,440 compulsory to show it. For all other UK citizens it 44 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,480 will be compulsory to have it but not to show it. 45 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:41,400 People will be able to choose whether they use it or not. 46 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:43,960 But we think for a lot of people, you know, me, me 47 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:47,880 included, who spend a lot of time digging out utility bills 48 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,600 and National Insurance numbers and copies of passports to to 49 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,720 prove verification in lots of different ways, that this will 50 00:02:54,720 --> 00:03:01,000 have a big benefit as well. So you lose your liberty and for 51 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,080 in exchange for convenience, it's great stuff and it is going 52 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,480 to be mandatory. Some of the comments that she 53 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:09,960 made this morning suggested that she was trying to deny that. 54 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:13,120 But of course what she just splitting hairs there by saying 55 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:16,240 that it's not it's not going to be mandatory for UK citizens to 56 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:18,360 show it, but it's certainly going to be mandatory for UK 57 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,480 citizens to have it. Now the response to the news has 58 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:26,440 been pretty impressive and well, this petition has been running 59 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:30,080 since the 4th of September, but it's really kicked off in the 60 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,720 last 24 hours since this news broke yesterday. 61 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:36,720 Umm and well, when I looked at this at about 9:00 this morning, 62 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:39,000 there were 650,000 signatures on it. 63 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:44,160 And this screenshot I took just before we came, I guess actually 64 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:48,120 probably about midday or so or 12:15 and it's now it was 65 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,880 856,000. It was about 875,000 just before 66 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,960 I came down onto the for the news programme, and it's 67 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:57,040 probably well over 900,000 by now. 68 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:03,040 So this is going off the scales as far as the typical Parliament 69 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:08,240 petition is concerned. But let's have a look then at 70 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,000 what some of the opposition voices have been saying. 71 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,279 So this is Nigel Farage. I saw enough during the pandemic 72 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:20,480 with vaccine passports. It created A2 tier Society of 73 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:23,320 those who could go to places, those who could travel, all 74 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,640 based on the fact that unless you were axed, you see, unless 75 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,440 you were axed, you were a danger because you might pass the virus 76 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,360 on to somebody else. Then we learnt that simply 77 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:36,520 wasn't true. And yet our freedoms have been 78 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,800 taken away for that period of time in a way that has never 79 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:43,880 happened before. I am personally vehemently 80 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,800 opposed to this in every single way, let alone the abuse that 81 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,360 could happen if any of these sites are hacked and your data 82 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,560 is taken. So I am deadly against. 83 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,120 So before we move on then Patrick, let me welcome you to 84 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,080 the program and just get a couple of thoughts on on this. 85 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,160 Well for straight off the bat Mike, then thank you for for 86 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:14,320 having me today. It's a bit rich for Nigel Farage 87 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:19,400 to be sort of throwing up opposition now after the ball 88 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:21,320 has already moved down the field. 89 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:25,800 He could have opposed this a while back and he didn't say 90 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,840 much about this as it was linked to the immigration issue. 91 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,440 And we were warning. We were warning before everybody 92 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:34,320 else. OK there. 93 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:38,880 We used immigration crisis to fast track a digital ID. 94 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:42,760 So in this way. And you wonder why Elon Musk is 95 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:47,960 funding Tommy Robinson and and Peter Thiel and all these other 96 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:51,960 so-called conservatives, all these these big tech oligarchs 97 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:56,480 are pushing the immigration issue, the anti Muslim issue to 98 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,280 get people riled up. And there is on the so-called 99 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:03,440 right and there's Keir Starmer on the so-called left saying we 100 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,600 are listening to the people and we want to solve the problem and 101 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:10,160 deal with the immigrants and the digital idea is a solution. 102 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,720 I mean, this is such a Punch and Judy show, Mike. 103 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,400 The whole left right thing should be exposed as a total 104 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:18,360 pantomime. At this point. 105 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:22,720 I I don't know what to say. Well, I think you've said quite 106 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:25,240 a bit there and I absolutely agree with everything that 107 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:27,320 you've said. So let's have a look then at the 108 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:31,920 situation in other countries because Lisa Nandy mentioned 109 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:35,360 Estonia there. But in fact there are three 110 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:41,640 other countries that are being used as sort of sources of 111 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:45,040 authority, shall we say, for the best or best practice for this, 112 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:47,920 this roll out. One is Australia, another is 113 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:53,520 Denmark and another's India. So let's have a look at each of 114 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,560 these in turn and we'll have a look at, since she mentioned it, 115 00:06:56,560 --> 00:06:58,040 we'll have a look at Estonia first. 116 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:01,720 So Estonia is enhancing the security of its digital 117 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,400 identities. This is a story from 2017 118 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,040 because they discovered a major vulnerability in their digital 119 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:12,720 ID. Then in July 2021, an attacker 120 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:17,760 managed to get hold of somewhere between 280 and 300,000 identity 121 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:22,000 document photographs from the state ID document database. 122 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,960 This incident was was discovered, the suspect was 123 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:31,280 arrested, the system was patched, but the data was lost 124 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,240 to the Internet and well, of course these kinds of things 125 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,000 happen reasonably regularly. Then if we look at Australia 126 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,960 beginning in 2019, there's been a large and growing number of 127 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:44,520 mygov. It's called mygov in in 128 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:47,720 Australia. Account takeovers and scams, so 129 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,720 phishing scams, SIM swaps, credentials stuffing, all the 130 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:53,000 usual stuff. With thousands of accounts 131 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:57,160 suspended and more than 10,000 reports of misuse into ID Care 132 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:00,840 Services Australia reported sharp rises in social 133 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:05,280 engineering breaches in 2024. And certainly thousands if not 134 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:07,480 10s of thousands of accounts were affected. 135 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:11,680 And they've been repeated waves of this between 2022 and 2025. 136 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,440 And we have Medi secure, this is the Electronic Prescription 137 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:17,640 provider with government links and contracts. 138 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,280 And they suffered A ransomware data theft incident which 139 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,240 affected 12.9 million Australians prescriptions 140 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,000 including contact details and Medicare details. 141 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:31,360 And then the Services Australia and Centrelink breaches which 142 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:35,200 were highlighted in the the Commonwealth Ombudsman report 143 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:39,640 here on screen keeping my Gov secure and saying that failures 144 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:43,960 to take protective action after breaches we're causing growing 145 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:48,000 misuse of Centrelink and Medicare linked accounts in 146 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:51,120 Denmark. Then between 2015 and 2020, a 147 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,280 software or a configuration error, whichever in the 148 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:58,480 government tax portal led to 1.26 million a personal ID 149 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:02,240 numbers being exposed to 3rd party services and otherwise 150 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,520 leaked. And then the local here they ran 151 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,200 an an investigation which reported vulnerabilities that 152 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:13,520 allowed attackers to guess MIT ID usernames and to lock 153 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:17,160 accounts that required changes to to the MIT ID system. 154 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,800 And then the NEM ID system, which is the successor digital 155 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,440 ID in in Denmark experienced major outages and crashes that 156 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:28,440 caused government services to fail. 157 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:34,400 And as I say, mid ID is gradually replacing NEM ID, so 158 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:40,120 not so great in Denmark either. And then finally in India in 159 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,720 2018, the Unique Identification Authority of India which runs 160 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:46,440 the biometric identity card scheme. 161 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:50,560 There they looked into they launched a police probe into 162 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:55,440 major security breach in 2023. Then data from the Indian 163 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:59,160 Council of Medical Research database appeared online with a 164 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:04,320 hacker apparently saying that India's biggest data breach on 165 00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:08,920 have has leaked the personal data over 8 of over 800 million 166 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:13,240 Indians and so on. So that included name, father's 167 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:16,280 name, phone number, other number, passport number, the 168 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:19,680 digital ID number and age. And in fact, there've been 169 00:10:19,680 --> 00:10:23,000 dozens of data breaches related to the unique identification 170 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,840 authority of India over the past decade or so. 171 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:29,880 And these these four countries are the countries that are being 172 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,760 used or being looked to by Britain for best practice. 173 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,600 But, you know, that should be no surprise to anyone that Starmer 174 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,080 is pursuing this. I remember he stood on a 175 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:42,400 platform of change at the last general election. 176 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:45,360 So it was obvious that he would obviously, that he would 177 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:49,080 continue doing exactly what the Tories were doing before him. 178 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:52,960 So. But we should also remember that 179 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,760 it's Tony Blair that's been driving this policy the hardest. 180 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,320 And since Starmer is Blair's poodle, there should be no 181 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:03,560 surprise here either. Now here's a brand new article 182 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:05,960 on screen at the moment from the Tony Blair Institute. 183 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,080 It's time for digital ID. It says the British public are 184 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:11,600 running out of patience with a state that does not work, where 185 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:13,880 interactions with public services are beset by 186 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:17,880 inconveniences and delays, even as outcomes slip and costs rise. 187 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,000 This is a good point. Convenience, Because that is the 188 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:24,200 mantra. And we should all keep in mind 189 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,200 that if we're going to resist policies such as this, signing 190 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:30,360 petitions probably isn't enough. Something we should do, but it's 191 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:31,680 not enough. We must. 192 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:36,520 It seems to me we need to accept inconvenience in our lives. 193 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:39,440 Anyway, they go on in this article and Modern Digital ID 194 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:42,160 does three things that allows people to prove who they are, 195 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,040 who they say they are, prove that certain things about them 196 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,480 are true and seamlessly and securely access services on that 197 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:53,880 basis. So that's what they had to say. 198 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:59,240 Now they went on to to post a load of stats and so on. 199 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:03,120 They're claiming that something around 62% of Britain's are in 200 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:08,400 support of this initiative and that only 19% of people are 201 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,880 actually against it. So well, that's their claim. 202 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,000 And of course, we could probably suggest that the reason that 203 00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:20,280 Keir Starmer thinks that it's a sensible thing to proceed with 204 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,200 this particular policy is because of the statistics 205 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:26,800 provided to him by the Tony, the Tony Blair Institute. 206 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:32,160 Now, as Patrick said there a couple of minutes ago, of course 207 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:35,560 we've been warning about this for quite a number of years. 208 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,120 It was all about, if you remember back, it was all about 209 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:43,360 a safer Internet. It was all about the Online 210 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:47,640 Safety Act when it was still a bill and not yet passed, we were 211 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,560 told how great it was going to be, especially for children. 212 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,200 And children of course, are going to be protected from 213 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:58,200 online pornography. In those days, it was Nadine 214 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:00,080 Doris who was leading the charge. 215 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:04,880 Age verification was the Clarion cry and age verification is what 216 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,760 we got. And of course that's what we got 217 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:10,280 under Starmer. So that's change you see. 218 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:16,040 And so that was digital. Idi believe this is 20/20/18 219 00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:21,080 when we were reporting this. It's this is already of course 220 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,360 as well as age verification rolled out as digital ID for 221 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,080 company directors with the recent promise that non 222 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,840 compliance will result in your company being shut down. 223 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,640 So if you don't get your digital ID registered with Companies 224 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:40,400 House, they will go to court and have your company shut down if 225 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:43,800 necessary. And let's not forget the data 226 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:47,560 use and digital, sorry, the Data Use and Access Act, which we 227 00:13:47,560 --> 00:13:50,720 were talking about all the way through its passage that 228 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,040 recently passed and it's something which we once again 229 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:57,080 warned about. It included making provision for 230 00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:59,840 the regulation of the processing of information related to 231 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:03,520 identified or identifiable living, being a living 232 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:04,320 individual. Sorry. 233 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:07,920 So, and if we remember what Peter Kyle said at the time, we 234 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,760 have an outdated approach to data which is holding back 235 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:12,880 Britain's economy. This bill will take the brakes 236 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:16,920 off unleashing a new era of wealth creation for all. 237 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:20,640 Well, it won't be an era of wealth creation for all, but 238 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,840 maybe for a few. And if we remember, this is what 239 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:27,520 the digital identity architecture was going to look 240 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:29,280 like. A wallet that sits on your phone 241 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:33,440 with attributes. Attributes such as your legal 242 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,880 name, date of birth, right to reside, right to work or right 243 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:39,480 to study. And this was published by the 244 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,880 Tory government years ago, several years ago. 245 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,760 And it's not going to, nothing is going to change here either. 246 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:48,800 So, you know, if we're talking about who's going to be making 247 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:52,000 lots of money, then we've got to remember it's got to be people 248 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:57,560 like this Lot Yodi and all the other digital ID providers that 249 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,960 because the digital ID industry has expanded exponentially over 250 00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:05,120 the last few years as it became clear that this policy was going 251 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,760 to become law. So just a quick reminder of the 252 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,560 petition. And let's just remember that 253 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:15,520 there are people out there that are opposing this and maybe 254 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,080 people would want to get involved with that. 255 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:21,080 Sign the petition. Big Brother Watch is 1 running a 256 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:25,120 no digital ID no to digital ID campaign together is another one 257 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:27,240 that's running no to digital ID cards. 258 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:31,760 And if you're in Glasgow tomorrow, you might want to 259 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,640 attend this event, which is taking place tomorrow between 260 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,080 12:00 and 3:30. Digital slavery, slavery 261 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:42,960 information, communication operation details on screen. 262 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:46,040 And they'll be in the show in the show notes as well. 263 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:50,920 OK, that's that. Clearly everybody or not 264 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:53,720 everybody, but lots of people becoming very motivated by this 265 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:57,320 topic. It's, I think the Starmer regime 266 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,040 is going to get a lot more push back to it than they perhaps 267 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,240 expected. And that's to be welcomed. 268 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:07,080 Let's move on then to the Middle East and Patrick, the 269 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:11,280 possibility of conflict between the Arab nations and Israel, 270 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:14,560 which perhaps spells the end of the Abraham Accords. 271 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:19,120 Very, yes, very well put, Mike. And we'll, we'll explain how 272 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:24,360 this is the fear right now. How you I, I do scan and I do 273 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,440 study the mainstream media very closely, especially papers of 274 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,880 record and daily headlines, because when they start to get 275 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,720 into certain topics, you know that things are moving. 276 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:39,440 And on this issue, things are moving in a probably not, not a 277 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:44,680 great way for Israel or the United States, but there could 278 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,320 be a prelude to to an actual war here. 279 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:52,560 In other words, we could be returning to the 1960s and 70s. 280 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,120 So take a look at how first clue. 281 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:59,560 The New York Times runs this as a front page story on their 282 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,440 print edition as well as on their website. 283 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:06,480 For Arab nations with ties to Israel talking about the Abraham 284 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:12,280 Accord, attacks on Qatar and Gaza City raise anxiety. 285 00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:14,880 Now, it's a pretty tame headline, but what are we 286 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,359 looking at here? This is Qatar is the main focus. 287 00:17:19,079 --> 00:17:21,920 They've just got hit and the United States and Israel on the 288 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,160 other side. And so this is the Arab world 289 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:29,200 looking at Israel in the United States as kind of 1 unit now. 290 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,920 And the US is not able to play that sort of game of deniability 291 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:36,400 or the fact that they're, you know, Israel's an independent 292 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,120 actor and has his own agenda. Now, what precipitated this? 293 00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:41,840 Let's look at this. This was just recently the 294 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:46,200 Israeli attack on the Qatari capital of Doha, attempting to 295 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:50,080 assassinate the Palestinian Hamas negotiation team. 296 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,840 That was, that's one of the big things here that's precipitating 297 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:59,280 this anxiety in the Arab world. And the other is this which is 298 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:04,160 Israel's invasion of Gaza. And you can see Benjamin Yahoo 299 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:09,400 there is all smiles right now as he sees a residential buildings 300 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,160 being downed on a daily basis in Gaza City. 301 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:17,640 He says that's to prevent them from being used by Hamas. 302 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:22,520 I mean, what a flimsy excuse after two years of this, but yet 303 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:24,360 it's a lot of people are swallowing it. 304 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:26,800 That was an Axios headline there. 305 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,760 They're just kind of reporting on this. 306 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:32,040 But I think the world is seeing this very differently now. 307 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,560 Let's look at how this is shaping up and how this is 308 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,760 history repeating itself. Now, in terms of the Arab 309 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:40,680 countries, what we're talking about here are the ones that no 310 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,440 longer feel secure. First up is Egypt. 311 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:46,200 This is probably the most important. 312 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:51,080 Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel. 313 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,240 Is that going to hold? There's al Sisi there, President 314 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:56,200 Sisi. Next up is Jordan. 315 00:18:56,520 --> 00:19:01,400 They also share a border with occupied Palestine and Israel. 316 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:06,400 King Abdullah, they're normally regarded as a client state by of 317 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:10,400 the US and Britain. But now things aren't changing. 318 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:14,320 And then next Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you can see Mohammed bin 319 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:17,800 Salman there lot of changes going on this week with Saudi 320 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,040 Arabia, their stance and their position as well. 321 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:24,840 And then last but not least, not an Arab country, but Turkey, and 322 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:26,080 that's why we put an actress there. 323 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:28,240 It's not an Arab country, but Turkey. 324 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:33,000 It may find itself now in the crosshairs somewhat of Israel, 325 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,480 and we'll explain how. Now the most important piece, as 326 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:39,520 I said, is Egypt. Let's go over and look at what 327 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:43,000 the issues are for Egypt. And this is a very serious 328 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:46,600 situation indeed. And so we look at this first and 329 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:49,400 foremost is the issue of the Palestinians. 330 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:55,400 Egypt's issue is they don't want Palestinians and Egypt regarding 331 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,680 this as a red line. Now, mind you, many have already 332 00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:02,120 been displaced into Egypt, medical evacuees and so forth. 333 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:06,960 But the next one is important. They're looking for a place to 334 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,600 host the Hamas delegation. There are people in Egypt to do 335 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,800 out of solidarity with the Palestinians in Egypt. 336 00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:18,760 So hosting Hamas negotiations could invite attacks by Israel. 337 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:21,800 That could break their long held peace agreement here. 338 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:26,160 Next, Israel informed Washington they are concerned about 339 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,400 Egyptian military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula. 340 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:34,760 OK, now Egypt have has every right to move troops inside of 341 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:36,520 its own borders. This kind of reminds you, 342 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:41,480 doesn't it Mike, about Western concerns of Russian troop build 343 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,920 UPS within Russian borders prior to February 2022. 344 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,360 And we all know what happened after that. 345 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,400 And of course, Russia was demonized and sanctioned and so 346 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:55,680 forth and blamed for everything, including an 8 year civil war 347 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,640 that was precipitated by the US coup in Maidan. 348 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:02,400 Has not digressed next. Now things. 349 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:03,560 You can see where this is heading. 350 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:08,240 Next, Israeli concerns about Hamas militants who've managed 351 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,800 to cross the border with refugees or so Israel claims. 352 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,960 This could provoke an Israeli attack on Egyptian soil. 353 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:20,160 Egypt is already accepted 100,000 medical evacuees and 354 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,600 others who fled during the genocide. 355 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:27,600 And the last but not least, this is risking a repeat of the 1978 356 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:31,760 PLO Lebanon traps. Important to understand history. 357 00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:35,600 This is what kicked off the mainly what kicked off the 358 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:40,160 so-called Lebanese civil war was the PLO being pushed into South 359 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,800 Lebanon and then Israel using that as an excuse to attack, 360 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:49,720 invade and occupy South Lebanon for many back of decades. 361 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:54,600 OK, so you could see the exact same scenario playing out here 362 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,840 with Egypt. Now, is this something Israel 363 00:21:57,840 --> 00:21:59,760 would like? Possibly. 364 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,720 And so it seems like they're doing everything possible to 365 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:05,240 make this happen. So keep in mind, on this 366 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:08,600 Egyptian situation, all of the signs in this New York Times 367 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,880 article point to a narrative that is being constructed here. 368 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:14,640 Next up, let's go to the Kingdom of Jordan. 369 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:20,800 There's King Abdullah there now mainly there's fears Israel 370 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:23,760 force millions of Palestinians over Jordan's border with the 371 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:25,800 West Bank. That's the number one concern 372 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,840 now for Jordan. Next, Israeli officials becoming 373 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,800 more vocal about annexing the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, 374 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,200 again bordering the Kingdom of Jordan. 375 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:38,600 And after the Abraham, of course, Netanyahu had declared 376 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:43,080 in 2020 the Jordan Valley belongs to Israel, but 377 00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:48,200 temporarily held off in exchange for Arab normal normalization. 378 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:53,680 That was a call by the UAE has been using the Abraham Accords 379 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:58,040 in conjunction with its own sort of expansionist military 380 00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:02,040 operations to basically play the West and play the other Arab 381 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:06,200 countries and in in the meantime change facts on the ground. 382 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,680 This has been Israel's game. The problem is King Abdullah, 383 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,440 who's been put in a corner by his American and British and 384 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:19,520 Israeli handlers and he they made him detain and arrest over 385 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:22,280 1000 people right after October 7th. 386 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:26,120 And this really on behalf of Israel in the United States. 387 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,200 So his, his legitimacy as a ruler is really coming into 388 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,720 question according to the opposition there. 389 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:36,360 Now, put this in context here. Marco Rubio, what was he doing 390 00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:41,080 in Israel recently? There is the walls, putting the 391 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:45,840 note in to the wall, that's the the old Roman Garrison wall. 392 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:48,920 It's not the old Temple, by the way, the old Roman Garrison 393 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:50,920 wall. And during his recent visit, 394 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:55,880 Rubio said that the United States warning about recognition 395 00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:00,680 of the Palestinian state by other UN member states outside 396 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,360 of negotiations. So he's saying countries don't 397 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:06,800 have a right to recognize a Palestinian state unless they go 398 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:10,960 into US-led negotiations. So it's really an anti sovereign 399 00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:15,360 or anti sovereignty signal by Rubio in the US saying they 400 00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:18,600 won't accept anybody having their own foreign policy on this 401 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,880 issue. And he's basically saying that 402 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:26,040 Israeli politicians talk of annexations was a reciprocal 403 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:28,680 action to unilateral moves through recognizing the 404 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:31,440 Palestinian state. But it what Rubio's saying is 405 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,760 trying to twist what's actually happened and say Israel's only 406 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,800 being aggressive because of this threat of a Palestinian state 407 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:42,400 being recognized, when in fact, according to the Europeans, it's 408 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,680 the opposite. So you can see how the Punch and 409 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,360 Judy game was playing. So here's Donald Trump yesterday 410 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:52,760 and he's been confronted about Israel openly calling for the 411 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:58,320 annexation of the West Bank. Here's Donald Trump few promise 412 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,240 leaders this week that would not allow Israel to annex the West 413 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:02,120 Bank. Is that something that? 414 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:02,520 You. I will. 415 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,120 I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. 416 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:07,680 Nope, I will not allow it. It's not going to happen. 417 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:09,200 Did. You speak with Netanyahu about 418 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:10,680 this? Yeah, but I'm not going to allow 419 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,080 it. Whether I spoke to him or not, I 420 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,560 did. But I'm not allowing Israel to 421 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,120 annex the West Bank. There's been enough. 422 00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:18,720 It's time to stop now. OK. 423 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:27,040 Question here is, do you actually trust Donald Trump? 424 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,440 Do you trust that Donald Trump is, is what he said? 425 00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:32,360 Does that carry any weight at all? 426 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:34,480 That's what he's saying. I won't allow it. 427 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:36,360 But that's not what Israel's saying. 428 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,360 So we we'll see how that one plays out. 429 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:43,880 So back to the other actors here, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 430 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:48,680 there is Mohammed bin Salman. OK, What is the different deal, 431 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,840 an Arab NATO or a new Middle East NATO? 432 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:55,720 Saudi just announced a new strategic defense pact with 433 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,960 Pakistan. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. 434 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,640 This is big news, OK, just happened this week. 435 00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,720 OK, in conjunction with everything that we've just said 436 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:10,320 this week, next realizing now Saudis realizing the Abraham 437 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,120 Accords aren't worth the paper they're written on. 438 00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:18,200 So I think we can say at this point it really after the Qatar 439 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:23,080 attack by Israel and the latest Gaza, Abraham McCord, they're 440 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,480 dead in the water. It's only the UAE hanging on by 441 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:31,080 a thread probably. And so next now Saudi Arabia no 442 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:35,000 longer regards Iran as the primary threat in the region. 443 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:39,640 Very important. So the gambit by the US and 444 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,960 Israel is basically out the window every the gambit they've 445 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,680 been playing for a very long time is now out the window 446 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:48,360 because of the actions of Israel. 447 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:54,680 And the US and GCC ally Bahrain also now has made signals they 448 00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,080 feel insecure about this as well. 449 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,480 So think about it. Israel's basically attacking the 450 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,280 Arab countries. He is assassinating heads of 451 00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,040 state. He took that they tried to kill 452 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,040 and somewhat successfully most of the Yemeni parliament while 453 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,280 they were in session. OK, So this is what targeted 454 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,560 assassinations, unprovoked attacks. 455 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,720 This is what Israel's now engaged with around the Arab 456 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,280 world. So, and so now for Turkey, 457 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,160 Turkey, some of their military facilities were hit recently 458 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:30,960 inside Syria by Israel, OK, that includes missile stocks and 459 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,600 other things that they were that were dotted around in key 460 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:38,000 positions in Syria. This is a change right now. 461 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:43,760 And next, Erdogan's HTS Jelani project may long may no longer 462 00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:46,600 be useful for Israel and the United States. 463 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,520 So it's past its sell by date. They've achieved what they 464 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,960 wanted in terms of annexing the Golan Heights. 465 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,200 So, but Turkey's safe for now, so long as they're a NATO 466 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,680 member, so long as they're a NATO member. 467 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:03,080 If you start seeing talk about Turkey being kicked out of NATO 468 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:05,720 by the Trump administration, then you know, the game is on. 469 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,280 So we'll go here to responsible statecraft. 470 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,120 And they're even saying this is this week. 471 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,200 So what I'm telling you is that a narrative is after Israel 472 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:20,560 stroking Qatar, is Turkey next. So this is a major foreign 473 00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:24,480 policy microphone in the United States. 474 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,920 So some clues there. So now we're back to the end of 475 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,760 this sort of analysis of the axis of chaos. 476 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:36,680 United States and Israel can only be described objectively as 477 00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,880 state terrorists and they are using and are allied with very 478 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:46,400 closely now Syria that has a self appointed president Al 479 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:50,680 Jilani al Sharar, whatever his name is this week, former 480 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,360 terrorist leader, former ISIS head, deputy head, former 481 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,120 founder of al Qaeda in Syria. This is now one of the main 482 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:03,240 tools of the United States and that is to to soak chaos in 483 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,320 Lebanon as well as other parts of the region. 484 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,240 So this this is where things are at right now. 485 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,960 All of the ingredients might point to an escalation, A 486 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,840 broader regional escalation here if things continue on the 487 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:23,320 trajectory there, Yeah. Patrick, thank you very much for 488 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,640 that. Sorry about that. 489 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,200 That's quite concerning. We'll talk about that an extra, 490 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,680 I have no doubt. Now if you like what the UK 491 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,480 column does, you'd like to support us, then the details of 492 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,800 how you can do that, sorry, let's take that off screen, are 493 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,360 on the front page of the UK column website. 494 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,280 There is a Big Blue button there that you can click. 495 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:47,840 I want to say thank you once again to everybody that is a 496 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,520 member or is making donations and so on. 497 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:52,360 Your support is much appreciated. 498 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:54,800 If you can't support us financially, please do support 499 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,520 us by sharing our reports and our material because that helps 500 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:01,800 us beat the censorship regime in this country. 501 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:06,480 Another reminder of the York event taking place on the 18th 502 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,360 of October. Live tickets are all sold uh, 503 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,840 but there's still the opportunity to uh, watch on live 504 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:14,840 stream. Please do if you possibly can. 505 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,240 It's gonna be a fantastic day and uh speakers on screen at the 506 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,240 moment uh, you know who they are anyway, uh, it's gonna be a 507 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:22,680 fantastic day. Don't miss it. 508 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:28,600 Now, Jerem is still in China. So we're showing again his 509 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,480 discussion with Mike Eden asking, is science dead at 7:00 510 00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:37,080 PM tonight. So keep us, join us live for 511 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,000 well on the live stream for that. 512 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:46,240 And then on Sunday at 7:00, the first of the new series of the 513 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,840 1000 Words podcast will be out. Let's just have a look at the 514 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:55,040 trailer for that 1000 Words is coming to UK column. 515 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,480 Watch Katie Jo Murphy, Co founder of Hope Sussex sit for 516 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,880 her portrait whilst deep diving into life, the universe and 517 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,360 everything. First episode airs this weekend 518 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:13,360 on UK column, 7:00 PM Sunday For that. 519 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,160 If you didn't see the discussion I had with Vanessa on the 520 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:21,800 sectarianism building in the UK and Europe that that went out at 521 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,800 1:00 yesterday, it's on the UK Column website now as an on 522 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,080 demand version. I want to point out two 523 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:33,160 articles, one published actually at the end of August from David 524 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,600 Miller entitled How the British Intelligence Network of 525 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,080 Astroturfed Muslim Civil Society groups is Kept Secret and 526 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,480 Deniable. If you haven't read this yet, 527 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,720 please do read it and share it. But there's an update to that 528 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:49,360 now and the latest article is entitled How Muslims Civil 529 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:52,960 Society Groups are Astroturfed into into Products by British 530 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,880 Intelligence. This is Part 2 of this series of 531 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,200 articles. It's extremely important to 532 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,800 understand. Please read it and share it as 533 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,840 you see fit. And and then a final reminder 534 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:10,520 that on Sunday the 20th in Edinburgh is the Food and Health 535 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,400 Festival details on screen and in the show notes. 536 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:18,320 OK, let's let's come back then. And Mark, let me welcome you to 537 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,560 the program. It's the 80th anniversary of the 538 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,240 United Nations this year. What have the think tanks been 539 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,560 saying about it? Well, that's an interesting 540 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:33,560 juxtaposition versus what Donald Trump recently told the General 541 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,720 Assembly upon the 80th meeting of that body. 542 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,840 Of course, American conservatives, many MAGA 543 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:44,200 supporters will give Trump a little bit of kudos for speaking 544 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:46,920 out against the green agenda, which is part of this part of 545 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:51,280 the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, and speaking 546 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:55,720 out against the insecurity of borders and and way too much 547 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,560 migration, things like that. However, it was a very mixed bag 548 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,160 as you reported Wednesday, to say the least, Mike, in terms of 549 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,720 what Donald Trump had to say. But the ever busy Chicago 550 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,760 Council on Global Affairs are arguably one of the busiest 551 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,280 think tanks in the world, a close cousin of the Council on 552 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,840 Foreign Relations. And of course, the former leader 553 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,520 of Chatham House is now leading the Chicago Council. 554 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,080 While they brought out another one of their surveys amid the 555 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,800 appearance by Trump at the UN. This is the Leicester Crown 556 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:28,200 Center on US foreign policy being involved. 557 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:32,040 This also the 50th anniversary of these ongoing Chicago Council 558 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:36,240 surveys about various issues. And Lester Crown, the family, 559 00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:40,480 the Crown family, keep in mind, is a defense industry related 560 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,720 family General Dynamics. So there could be some bias. 561 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:45,720 Is there some things to think about? 562 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:50,920 Anyway, there's some just, well, well, and large bullet points 563 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:53,720 here I'll share on screen. Just to very quickly summarize 564 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,920 what's going on. We have the CCGA survey. 565 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:02,440 Survey, excuse me, key findings. 2/3 of Americans say the US 566 00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:06,560 should be more willing to make decisions within the United 567 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:10,199 Nations, even if it means the US will sometimes have to go along 568 00:34:10,199 --> 00:34:12,239 with policies that aren't its first choice. 569 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:16,440 There tends to be a much more Democrat than Republican support 570 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:20,280 of the UN and its policies. Majorities of Democrats and 571 00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,960 independents support this compromise approach compared to 572 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:28,120 just four in 10 Republicans. And there's a couple more brief 573 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,239 bullet points that round out this survey. 574 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:32,679 And this is especially interesting. 575 00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:36,480 Let's show this one. Largest ever partisan gap, Four 576 00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,960 and ten Americans view strengthening the UN and this 577 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,320 keeps coming up in this survey. The idea of strengthening the 578 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,600 strengthening the UN as a very important goal for the US, 579 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,120 similar to attitudes over the past 50 years of this Chicago 580 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:52,560 Council survey. And here it gets a little more 581 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,840 interesting. Democrats are far more likely 582 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,880 than independents or Republicans to say strengthening the UN is a 583 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,400 very important US goal for foreign policy. 584 00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:06,280 And this is the largest partisan divide on this UN question in 585 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:11,160 the entire 50 years of the Chicago Council's polling of the 586 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:13,960 Chicago Council used to be called the Chicago Council on 587 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,400 Foreign Relations. Of course, the original CFR in 588 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:20,320 New York had a lot to do with bringing the UN into existence 589 00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,040 when the League of Nations failed. 590 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,880 Lots of propaganda at that time for for world governance. 591 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:29,720 Anyway. This is the only chart I'll show 592 00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:32,680 as part of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey. 593 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,160 Let's put this up there. It's interesting in its own way. 594 00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:40,600 And the question is, should US leaders consider UN resolutions 595 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:44,840 in policy making? When you look at a great deal to 596 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:48,840 the answer to that question, you see Republicans fairly low and 597 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:52,160 Democrats much higher and independents in between. 598 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:56,600 But when you say that US leaders should consider UN resolutions 599 00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:00,720 to a fair degree, you actually see Republicans and Democrats 600 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:03,640 almost on the same level, the orange and the blue there at the 601 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:07,880 second line down. And that is mainly the MAGA 602 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,120 movement that creates that that schism there. 603 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,800 And when you read through the survey, you kind of get the 604 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:17,360 impression that the MAGA movement is almost another 605 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:21,640 political party unto itself that rode the Republican banner to 606 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,640 get into office. That's a theory of mine at this 607 00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:26,480 point. It seems to be panning out more 608 00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:30,480 and more now in association. Mike, with that survey, there 609 00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:36,320 was a discussion at the Chicago Council headquarters in in, in 610 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,320 Chicago. And here is the title page to 611 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,720 that, The Future of Multilateralism, the UN at 80 612 00:36:42,720 --> 00:36:45,800 and beyond. And I I have a slide that shows 613 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,600 the speakers and a very quick summation of what they had to 614 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,440 say. This forum was on the 22nd of 615 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:55,240 September to go along with that survey, The moderator, Paul 616 00:36:55,240 --> 00:36:58,360 Post, University of Chicago political science professor. 617 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:03,520 He said a key item is the future of multilateralism as embodied 618 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,480 in the UN system. Important words there. 619 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,280 The UN is a system, not just a forum. 620 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:14,040 And Professor Ian Hurd of Northwestern University, he had 621 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,440 this to say. The International Criminal Court 622 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:22,080 is AUN reform, a free standing institution when the idea of UN 623 00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,320 reforms was brought up during the discussion. 624 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:29,440 And lastly, Juliet Sorenson, a Loyola law professor, she 625 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:33,720 suggested eliminating the permanent 5 veto and that of 626 00:37:33,720 --> 00:37:35,680 course would have a lot of ramifications. 627 00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:41,040 And she said the UN Charter is amendable in regards to critics 628 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,440 of the UN and some of the things they have to say. 629 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,560 And Leslie Benjamuri, as I mentioned, the former head of 630 00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:51,480 Chatham House is now leading the Chicago Council of Chatham 631 00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:53,360 House. That the New York CFR, the 632 00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:55,600 Chicago Council are birds of a feather here. 633 00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:57,480 They they're ideological cousins. 634 00:37:57,720 --> 00:38:01,560 She had this to say. If turning up is what matters, 635 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:05,560 like showing up somewhere, then the sheer popularity of the 636 00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:09,960 forum with world leaders is a clear indicator that the UN is 637 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,640 widely viewed to be politically relevant and an important 638 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:17,240 platform for shaping international discourse and and 639 00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:20,560 influencing public opinion. She also had this to say. 640 00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:24,720 There's one more quote from her. When measured by its ability to 641 00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:29,480 deliver impactful material solutions to the most critical 642 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:34,840 global problems, however, EU NS relevance looks far worse, 643 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,400 Leslie Vinjamuri said. It's been radically diminished, 644 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:42,720 she went on to say, by the US decision to delay critical 645 00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:47,600 budgetary support. Now, much of the discussion by 646 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:53,360 that panel portrayed the UN as little more than a forum and a 647 00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:55,880 platform. But actually the UN is a lot 648 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,160 more than that. And there's some history, 649 00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:01,680 historical things to talk about with regards to that. 650 00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,080 Briefly, of course, the UN Charter was only 5 years old 651 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:10,800 when a war under UN auspices, the Korean War, was fought 652 00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:15,400 starting in 1950 to 1953. And my first newspaper boss who 653 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:18,920 served in Korea said that everybody called it Aun War or 654 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:22,520 UN LED military operation. That's what he and other 655 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,520 soldiers were were calling it anyway. 656 00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:31,520 This article from 1996 revisits an important facet of the UN and 657 00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:35,160 this is having to do with Michael New from the Spokesman 658 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:39,280 Review in Spokane, WA mid 1990s Court martialed. 659 00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:43,240 The court martialed goes easy on the Army medic Michael New, 660 00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:46,640 convicted of disobedience and discharge for refusing UN 661 00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,760 Insignia and refusing you in command. 662 00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,640 And Michael New at the time was the 22 year old American soldier 663 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:56,640 and medic who was court martialed for refusing to accept 664 00:39:56,640 --> 00:40:00,120 foreign command on the United Nations operation. 665 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,720 And lastly, this is just a reminder this next slide, Mike, 666 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:07,720 that on the UK column website is an interview I did almost 667 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:11,920 exactly 1 year ago with Daniel New, the father of Michael New. 668 00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,880 At the time, Michael New chose not to be on the interview with 669 00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:19,560 us, but it talks about Michael New's experiences in the mid 90s 670 00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:24,440 as an Army soldier in Germany when he showed up for revelry 671 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,400 one day. And they just said you're going 672 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:29,360 to put on the UN Insignia, you're going to put on the UN 673 00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,640 berets and the arm bands, and you're going to serve under UN 674 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:35,960 command in Macedonia. And he refused because on 675 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,520 constitutional grounds, he had only signed up to defend the US 676 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,080 Constitution from all enemies foreign to domestic. 677 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,920 So that shows some of the conflicts that sovereign nations 678 00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:50,120 can have with the UN system that the Chicago, a professor 679 00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:53,240 moderating that discussion talked about some interesting 680 00:40:53,240 --> 00:40:55,960 perspective there. And of course that shows there's 681 00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,200 much more of that Donald Trump could have talked about that 682 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:01,480 would have made maybe a better case for him. 683 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:04,960 But I think he he went down a very perilous road and a very 684 00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:09,280 controversial 1 criticizing the UN for supporting Palestine, 685 00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:13,760 which is one of EU NS brighter spots, of course, but maybe we 686 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:17,840 can go more in in in extra Mike. But that provides a pretty broad 687 00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,960 perspective for the time being. Thank you, Mark. 688 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,240 Thank you for that, Patrick. Let's go back to the Middle East 689 00:41:24,240 --> 00:41:28,520 then, and what has been going on with the the flotilla? 690 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:33,520 Well, let's just give an update on this situation. 691 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:38,920 There's over 50 boats at Gaza departed from Barcelona, from 692 00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,640 Sicily and also from Tunisia and a few other ports. 693 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,200 And what's what's incredible is this is now getting global 694 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:50,040 mainstream, finally global mainstream attention here. 695 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,320 And what we're reporting is very interesting. 696 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:57,280 I just put this in an article as an example, Italy and Spain to 697 00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:02,120 deploy naval ships to help Gaza aid flotilla targeted in drone 698 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,040 attacks. So there's been multiple drone 699 00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:06,920 attacks. We've spoken to some of the 700 00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,240 numbers on boat that have been attacked in the last 24 hours. 701 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:14,680 And we, we, we have a video clip we'll share in a little bit of 702 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:18,480 one of those people, Frank Romano, who is on, I believe 703 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:20,640 the, the Specter, a boat called the Specter. 704 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,480 But so they are getting attention now. 705 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,920 So it looks like along with this announcement of the recognition 706 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:31,320 of the Palestinian state, they are getting some attention here. 707 00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:36,120 And this is Israel's response. It's just somewhat comical from 708 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:42,080 the Israelis basically saying that we're starting the what, 709 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:46,360 what they're calling a terror, a terrorist flotilla, basically 710 00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:49,800 response from the Hamas flotilla representatives that the 711 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,720 flotilla insists on his pursuing a violent course of action, 712 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,040 etcetera. And you could look above and 713 00:42:57,600 --> 00:42:59,880 there's one of the flotilla boats and they're singing peace 714 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:03,520 songs led by a guitar player and so forth. 715 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:07,760 So, I mean, to characterize this as a Hamas flotilla, it's just 716 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:11,280 par for the course for Israel. More lies, unfortunately. 717 00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:17,680 So here is Frank Romano on board the the the Spectre just off the 718 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:21,400 coast of Crete, where there's a rallying point happening now. 719 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,480 And we're not giving away anything because this is all 720 00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,360 public. And of course, those attacking 721 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:28,200 them with drones or miserable. Exactly. 722 00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:31,800 Is anyone? Here's Frank Romano with, I 723 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:36,520 think a very positive message after being attacked in the last 724 00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:46,560 2448 hours. Hello, here we are getting 725 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,520 ready. We're putting all the boats 726 00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:53,520 together to start the the last leg of our journey to Gaza. 727 00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:57,840 Here we are outside of Crete Islands. 728 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:19,370 You see all the boats. And we are towing a boat. 729 00:44:21,650 --> 00:44:24,690 It's like an old fishing vessel that perhaps the motors not 730 00:44:24,690 --> 00:44:29,370 working. Anyway, we are waiting for the 731 00:44:29,370 --> 00:44:36,770 final decision to group together the boats from Barcelona, 732 00:44:36,770 --> 00:44:42,880 Tunisia, Italy and Greece and finally head on our last leg to 733 00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:44,760 Gaza. It should take about 5 to 6 734 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,200 days, God willing. You see all the boats there and 735 00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:52,880 the Cove over there. And we are very, very upbeat. 736 00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:57,680 We want to send a message to the Gazan people, to the Gazan 737 00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,400 Palestinians. We're on our way. 738 00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:05,160 You have not been forgotten. We're we're going to open up the 739 00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:09,960 people's corridor, then we're going to break the siege 740 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,080 aspiring other activists to follow us. 741 00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:15,080 So in other words, we're not giving up on this. 742 00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:20,040 We'll have massive number of boats by sea and then hopefully 743 00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:23,240 a massive number of people continuing to March to Gaza 744 00:45:23,240 --> 00:45:27,480 movement and coordination eventually until Israel has to 745 00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:32,000 withdraw from Gaza with its AIDER and a better United States 746 00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:34,600 war criminals and from the West Bank. 747 00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:37,720 And we can help Palestine to to free itself. 748 00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,640 And I've said a million times before, Palestine has led the 749 00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:46,160 way to the world to show we can resist this military industrial 750 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:48,520 complex. We can resist this money powers 751 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:52,680 that control the entire world today to either directly or with 752 00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:55,520 respect or indirectly with respect to Russia and China. 753 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,840 The anytime any country that doesn't agree with the United 754 00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:03,120 States or Israel does something different, they're subject to 755 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:05,440 sanctions. But we are saying we're going to 756 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:08,880 free ourselves from the clause of this military industrial 757 00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:13,600 complex, money interests that control us, this oligarchy, the 758 00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:18,200 stifling, vicious, evil oligarchy that that controls us, 759 00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:22,280 including that's really pushing to exterminate the Gazan 760 00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:24,320 Palestinians. We will free ourselves from 761 00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:34,000 that, God willing. Real passionate message there 762 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:39,840 from Doctor Frank Romano. And again he he also informed us 763 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:45,240 that Israel had contacted the these boats message saying that 764 00:46:45,240 --> 00:46:51,200 they're welcome to sail to Ashkelon, which is an Israeli 765 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,600 port and drop off of their aid there. 766 00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,160 And who knows what would happen, whether they would be their 767 00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,560 boats would be seized like last time with the Madeline 768 00:47:00,720 --> 00:47:04,960 conscience and the the, the other boat that was was seized 769 00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:06,560 as well. And then what would happen to 770 00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:09,080 the aid? He said they don't trust the 771 00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:11,160 Israelis. So they're they're they're 772 00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:13,040 making their way to Gaza nonetheless. 773 00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:15,960 So you can see the Israelis are trying different ethics. 774 00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:20,440 They're even trying Coke them to basically stand down as it were 775 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:23,560 and not go to Gaza. They're calling ships going to 776 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:27,120 Gaza as illegal when in fact it's completely legal under 777 00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:29,440 international law, maritime law and so forth. 778 00:47:29,720 --> 00:47:33,360 So Israel has their own sort of version of international law 779 00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:36,160 now. And this is also I think an 780 00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:39,400 important development here. Spain is one of the European 781 00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:42,920 countries here that has deployed a military vessel to support the 782 00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:45,440 flotilla. They're staying at a a safe 783 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:49,760 distance they're in. They're to provide perhaps some 784 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:54,600 kind of support should these boats fall under a serious 785 00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:57,360 attack or something like that. But they're obviously not going 786 00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:00,280 to engage the Israelis. I would think not. 787 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,480 And Italy as well. Italy has done the same. 788 00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,960 We've actually of one of the flotilla members and has cited 789 00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:11,280 the Italian ship, one of one of multiple Italian ships, naval 790 00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,720 assets that have been deployed. Here's the video clip. 791 00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:20,800 But then we said last Saturday, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did see that 792 00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:21,680 one in the in the. Talk. 793 00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:27,680 About the Navy. Ships. 794 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:35,120 That joining us so we got we have quite quite a quite a bit 795 00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,280 more material on this and updates, but I would encourage 796 00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:43,760 people to go to their Instagram page Global Sumud Flotilla and 797 00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,880 also on X. We have a lot more video 798 00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:49,560 messages that were sent to us from the boats. 799 00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:52,720 We we'll play more in extra Mike, but in the interest of 800 00:48:52,720 --> 00:48:57,760 time we'll show you this. But just to suffice now leaving 801 00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:01,560 Greek territorial waters and really due to arrive on the 802 00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:06,840 shores of Gaza if they are successful in sort of four days 803 00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:09,280 time. But again, we don't know how 804 00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:13,040 this is going to end. We hope it doesn't end with 805 00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,640 anybody being hurt or worse. That would be horrible. 806 00:49:16,720 --> 00:49:20,160 But with the Israelis, I don't think they care about the 807 00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:23,680 welfare of the people in the boats at all, judging by how 808 00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:26,280 they treat the Palestinian population. 809 00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:28,000 So I'll leave it. I'll leave it there. 810 00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:30,280 Thank you, Patrick. Thank you for that. 811 00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:33,640 We wish them all the best. Now sticking with this topic to 812 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:40,200 some degree, if you remember in August we talked about Unit 8200 813 00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:45,240 and the fact that they were using Microsoft as yours, the 814 00:49:45,240 --> 00:49:50,600 Microsoft Cloud Platform, Azure for processing various forms of 815 00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:54,440 surveillance that they had collected from the telecoms 816 00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,960 networks and so on. And there were allegations that 817 00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,120 this was being used for targeting in Gaza. 818 00:49:59,960 --> 00:50:04,920 This was blown by the Guardian, +972 Magazine and a couple of 819 00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,480 others. And so this article here 820 00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:09,960 Microsoft storing is really intelligence trove used to 821 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,400 attack Palestinians was the headline on this. 822 00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:17,320 And if you remember, we were talking about another example 823 00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,520 here, Intel news saying is really intelligence using 824 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:23,440 Microsoft servers to store intercepted phone call data. 825 00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:27,760 Now Microsoft said that they they responded to this. 826 00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:32,040 They said that they had opened the second investigation into 827 00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:35,240 it, but that was on August the 15th. 828 00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:38,400 And by the time we reported this at the beginning of this month, 829 00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:42,120 there was about a month had gone past or certainly since the 830 00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:48,120 beginning of the of the inquiry. And Microsoft still had taken no 831 00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:51,080 action. In the meantime, though some of 832 00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:53,440 their staff were beginning to protest. 833 00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:56,640 And this organization know as you're for apartheid was set up 834 00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:00,360 and the Microsoft staff saying we refuse to be complicit. 835 00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,440 Well, the Guardian here is reporting now. 836 00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,840 Sorry, that's the that's actually the the the Guardian 837 00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:10,720 today. I don't have the the graphic for 838 00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:16,240 it was reporting then that Microsoft has now decided to 839 00:51:16,240 --> 00:51:20,840 kick unit 8200 off. It's as your platform and this 840 00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,920 has happened quite quickly is how it's being described. 841 00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:26,960 I would say that it's actually happened extremely slowly. 842 00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:29,520 It's taken them months to to reach this decision. 843 00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:36,240 I think that Unit 8200 for PR purposes has decided to move off 844 00:51:36,240 --> 00:51:39,280 that platform. Undoubtedly, they've found an 845 00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:42,040 alternative solution. It remains to be seen exactly 846 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,040 what that is. Microsoft then gets to claim 847 00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:50,280 that a success from for purely for PR and perhaps the protests 848 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:53,120 end. But you know, in the meantime, 849 00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:58,560 the targeting will not stop and Unit 8200 will be continuing to 850 00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:03,000 gather it's bulk data for processing, undoubtedly using a 851 00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:06,520 different platform. So I'm not entirely as positive 852 00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,480 about Microsoft's announcement as perhaps they are. 853 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:14,520 But Patrick, back to you then and well people, a quick preview 854 00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:18,360 there because it looks like Tony Blair is going to have a role to 855 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:25,080 play in in the new Gaza. Yeah, the convergence of digital 856 00:52:25,080 --> 00:52:29,680 IDs and real estate deals in Gaza and, you know, ethnically 857 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,200 cleansing the native Palestinian population. 858 00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:37,360 Of course, ATB outbreak in Gaza is the last thing that people in 859 00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:38,800 the region need, but there he is. 860 00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:44,080 So Washington is Trump, Donald Trump is backing Tony Blair's 861 00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:49,200 role as the head of the transitional authority in Gaza. 862 00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:53,160 So. So a war criminal is being put 863 00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:58,920 in charge of a disaster fomented by other war criminals. 864 00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:01,640 I mean, you can't make it up. President Trump is backing the 865 00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,200 plan would see Tony Blair had a quote temporary administration. 866 00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:09,440 It's like he'll be the Paul Bremer of Gaza lording over the 867 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:13,280 ashes of this genocide initially without direct involvement of 868 00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:16,960 the Palestinian Authority. According to Israel, there's 869 00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:20,640 Israel's guy Tony Blair, agent of chaos here. 870 00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:25,320 Arab states have said they would only contribute to aun mandated 871 00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:29,040 international peacekeeping force if there's a clear political 872 00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:31,560 timeline for the formation of the Palestinian state. 873 00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:36,680 Just the the Palestinian state of the recognition by these 874 00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:42,240 leading G7 countries and so forth and the hundred 156 UN 875 00:53:42,240 --> 00:53:44,160 members have recognized the Palestinian state. 876 00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:46,520 It's not enough. It's not enough for the Arab 877 00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:47,880 states. They say they want to see some 878 00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:50,840 concrete action otherwise they're not going to get 879 00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:54,160 involved in the UN mandated peacekeeping forces. 880 00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:56,760 So they're reserving that, right, Fair enough. 881 00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:00,560 And then finally, but it seems it seems to it's, it's but 882 00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:06,120 instead represents a different, more benign occupation than 883 00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:11,520 Israel. So Tony Blair will be presiding 884 00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:16,920 over a more benign occupation. Let's just say I think that's 885 00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:20,480 something that should make you feel good about this whole 886 00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:22,240 scenario. I'm just joking. 887 00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:27,080 But this is incredible, Mike, that Blair of all people would 888 00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:29,440 be but would be shoehorned into this role. 889 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:33,080 It's unreal. Incredible and unreal I have to 890 00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:35,200 say Patrick are not words that I would be using. 891 00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:40,520 Maybe we can during extra discuss which words might be I 892 00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:43,600 might be happier to use. But anyway, let's, let's quickly 893 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:47,800 move on to the Arctic actually, because if you if you have a 894 00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:51,680 look at UK column website and use the search function and type 895 00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:55,600 in the word Arctic, you'll see a host of different reports on the 896 00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:58,160 Arctic and why the Arctic is becoming important. 897 00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:03,400 The BBC back in July had this article The struggle for control 898 00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,440 of the Arctic is accelerating and riskier than ever. 899 00:55:06,720 --> 00:55:10,000 And if you remember back a few weeks, Patrick and I attended an 900 00:55:10,600 --> 00:55:16,120 event at Plymouth University which was showing a a new 901 00:55:16,120 --> 00:55:19,720 documentary entitled Arming the Arctic, which was really a bit 902 00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:24,560 of a NATO propaganda piece. The Arctic is something which is 903 00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:29,280 absolutely featured in many reports from Parliament, the 904 00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:32,080 House of Lords and so on. Why are we talking about it 905 00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:34,960 today? Because, and why in fact, is it 906 00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:36,920 strategically important in this way? 907 00:55:36,920 --> 00:55:40,880 Well, this gives us a clue. This is the China Academy and 908 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:42,200 they've just published this article. 909 00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:46,680 China, Europe Arctic route cuts transit to 18 days down from 30 910 00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:49,960 via Suez. So this is the inauguration 911 00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:51,840 effectively of the Arctic Silk Road. 912 00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:59,280 And in this case they were taking goods, a cargo ship with 913 00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:04,080 I think 1000 containers on it from a port in China to 914 00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:05,880 Felixstowe in the United Kingdom. 915 00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:09,760 And they were doing that in 18 days without the risk of the 916 00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:14,760 Suez Canal and the the passing. Not that a Chinese ship would be 917 00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:18,640 at at risk necessarily from passing Yemen, but nonetheless 918 00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:25,040 this becomes a game changer as far as getting goods to UK and 919 00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:28,000 Europe. Western Europe and China's been 920 00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:29,440 working on it for a very long time. 921 00:56:30,720 --> 00:56:35,480 It is therefore becoming a massive place for competition of 922 00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:38,240 the so-called great powers. So we'll talk about that later 923 00:56:38,240 --> 00:56:41,520 as well. And just very briefly, Mark then 924 00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:47,320 related to that is the the digital foundation and and their 925 00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:53,400 desire to consider the Indo Pacific as a region to look at. 926 00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:59,880 Yes, viewers might recall, Mike, that I covered Ditchley right 927 00:56:59,880 --> 00:57:03,560 around the time of Bilderberg in mid June or so. 928 00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:07,640 They met exactly that at the time the Bilderberg met in 929 00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:13,360 Sweden and Ditchley is kind of a ideological cousin of Bilderberg 930 00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:16,080 and the Trilateral Commission, nominally more open than 931 00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:20,440 Bilderberg, but this slide shows that they're meeting starting 932 00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:25,040 today through the 28th of September and the conference is 933 00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:28,040 at Greentree. I believe that's in the UK in 934 00:57:28,040 --> 00:57:30,440 partnership with the American digitally branch. 935 00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:33,640 There's also a Canadian digitally branch, of course, 936 00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:38,360 it's it's another elitist think tank where big money is married 937 00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:41,280 to big politics. That's kind of the leverage that 938 00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:44,520 they make sure stays in place. But yes, the Indo Pacific, 939 00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:47,520 including China, of course, is high on their agenda and the way 940 00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:49,600 they operate. They won't release details on 941 00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:52,080 this probably for at least three to four weeks. 942 00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:54,080 And when they do, of course, we'll report that. 943 00:57:55,360 --> 00:57:58,000 Thank you, Mark. And then let's just end today 944 00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:01,280 with a brief update on the pandemic treaty. 945 00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:06,360 Yeah, important stuff. I did a headline for American 946 00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:09,880 Free Press a brief article recently and it shows in this 947 00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:11,560 next slide. It shows that headline. 948 00:58:11,880 --> 00:58:16,160 One Worlders Global Pandemic Treaty hits a few snags and the 949 00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:19,640 US and Argentina withheld their participation in the still 950 00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:23,920 ongoing treaty talks and Slovakia during recent talks had 951 00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:27,600 the gall to request a vote. And when Slovakia took that 952 00:58:27,600 --> 00:58:32,160 action, some 46 delegates of participating nations simply 953 00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:33,920 left the room and did not return. 954 00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:37,720 Reportedly, another 11 delegates talking about the treaty 955 00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:42,040 negotiations at Stain and the remaining 124 delegates 956 00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:46,880 improperly voted to adopt adopt the treaty. 957 00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,640 Now, according to James Roguski, the noted treaty and 958 00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:52,880 international health regulations watchdog. 959 00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:55,160 There's a lot of double talk going on here. 960 00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:57,800 And here's an important quote that I just got from him. 961 00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:02,240 Adopted doesn't mean the same thing as ratified. 962 00:59:02,480 --> 00:59:05,720 It doesn't mean the same thing as signed, and it doesn't mean 963 00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:07,720 the same thing as entered into force. 964 00:59:08,080 --> 00:59:11,840 They, the negotiators, failed to reach an agreement on the whole 965 00:59:11,840 --> 00:59:13,680 reason that they were negotiating. 966 00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:16,600 So in other words, they're putting on their best face. 967 00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:19,560 But to a degree, the treaty talks are floundering and 968 00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:22,720 hitting a lot of snags, procedural among others. 969 00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:25,760 So that's some good news. But it's no time to rest on our 970 00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:27,560 laurels. Of course, for those of us that 971 00:59:27,560 --> 00:59:31,640 rightly fear another planned emic crackdown could happen, 972 00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:35,800 Remember Exercise Pegasus coming up very soon, a dress rehearsal 973 00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:39,400 for another pandemic in the UK. And lastly, we have the upcoming 974 00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,120 meetings of the Intergovernmental Working Group 975 00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:46,080 and this replaced the intergovernmental negotiating 976 00:59:46,080 --> 00:59:48,800 body that was working on the treaty. 977 00:59:49,120 --> 00:59:52,160 And N3 through 7. They're having the third meeting 978 00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:56,600 early December, their 4th next February, mid February, their 979 00:59:56,600 --> 01:00:00,080 fifth meeting, another meeting in March and finally the next 980 01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:04,600 World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland in mid-May. 981 01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:09,640 Very important stuff. And the pathogen access and. 982 01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:13,720 Sharing system is another important thing to keep in mind. 983 01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:16,440 We'll talk about more of that, more of that in the weeks to 984 01:00:16,440 --> 01:00:17,760 come. So back to you, Mike. 985 01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,840 Thank you very much, Mark. Thanks for that and thank you, 986 01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:24,160 Patrick as well. So we got to finish there for 987 01:00:24,160 --> 01:00:26,080 today. Thanks for watching. 988 01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:28,800 We'll be back in a couple of minutes on the live stream. 989 01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:32,000 If you're AUK column member, stick around for UK column news 990 01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:34,400 Extra. If you're not member, please 991 01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:37,240 consider joining and then you can join us for Extra as well. 992 01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:39,160 But otherwise, have a great weekend. 993 01:00:39,440 --> 01:00:41,280 We'll see you on Monday as usual. 994 01:00:41,400 --> 01:00:42,560 See you then. Bye bye.