1 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:10,760 Good afternoon. It's Wednesday the 29th of May 2 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:13,840 2024, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News. 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,200 I'm your host, Mike Robson. Joining me in the studio today 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:17,720 is Charles Mallett. Welcome to the programme, 5 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:18,800 Charles. So much Mike. 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,280 And from Damascus, as usual, is Vanessa Bailey. 7 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,960 Now, Vanessa, we're going to get started off with Rafa. 8 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:29,320 We mentioned it briefly on Monday, but you've got the 9 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:34,120 details. Yes, I'm sure everybody is well 10 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:38,560 aware of what happened on Sunday night with the Israeli bombing 11 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:43,440 of what was effectively a refugee camp close to the UNRWA, 12 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,680 UN agency. So this is just a little video 13 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:52,920 to recap for everyone if we can just roll that None. 14 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,600 I mean, really as the UN described that this was an 15 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:56,800 abomination and and we've seen plenty of massacres in the last 16 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:01,480 seven months inside Gaza and even also in the occupied 17 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:04,240 territories. But this came in the context and 18 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:06,680 I think this is one of the interesting points to make. 19 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:11,080 So this bombardment was basically in, as I said, an 20 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:17,240 UNRWA area, a safe area. Supposedly the Knesset is the 21 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:20,840 whole preliminary vote designating UNRWA a terror 22 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,120 organization after their absolutely fraudulent claim that 23 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:30,360 members from us, we're working with UNRWA from the 7th of 24 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:33,680 October onwards. Bearing in mind, of course, that 25 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,080 Hamas is the official recognized government of Gaza. 26 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:41,360 Also. It came at the time also or just 27 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:45,880 after the ICJ International Criminal Court Gaza ruling. 28 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:51,040 Israel was ordered to halt its rougher offensive, open the Gaza 29 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,040 Egypt crossing parade, which has effectively been close since the 30 00:02:55,160 --> 00:03:00,160 7th of October, thanks both to Israel and Egypt. 31 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,920 And of course, at the same time as the ICC had put in a request 32 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:08,440 for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoaf Gallant. 33 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,560 Now I just want to play those. Not my favorite person, and I 34 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:14,920 apologize for putting him out there again. 35 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:22,080 But let's have a look at how the US basically refuses to say that 36 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:26,880 even this massacre has not crossed any red line for human 37 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:32,360 rights abuses and war crimes. So this is John Kirby speaking 38 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:36,440 to reporters. Every case believes that the US 39 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,920 doesn't want to see a major ground operation in Rafa. 40 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,200 But. Israeli tanks just moved into 41 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:43,000 central Rafa. How is that? 42 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,320 Not a major military. Well, again, I don't want to 43 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:48,480 talk about Israeli Defence Force operations, but my understanding 44 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:52,280 is, and I believe the Israelis have spoken to this, that they 45 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,160 are moving along something called the Philadelphi Corridor, 46 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:58,720 which is on the outskirts of the town, not in the town proper. 47 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:00,160 That's what the Israelis have said. 48 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,960 We don't want to see a major ground operation. 49 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:04,720 We haven't seen that at this point. 50 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:12,320 How many more charred corpses does he have to see before the 51 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:14,240 president considers a change of policy? 52 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:16,160 We don't want to see a single more. 53 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,000 Innocent life taken and I kind of take a little offence at the 54 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,880 question. No civilian casualties is the 55 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:24,840 right number of civilian casualties and this is not 56 00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:27,280 something that we've turned a blind eye to, nor has it been 57 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:29,720 something we've ignored or neglected to raise with our 58 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:34,040 Israeli counterparts, including Ed this weekend as a result of 59 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:36,440 this particular strike. Now they're investigating it. 60 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,160 So let's let them investigate it and see what they come up with. 61 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:49,000 Unfortunately for Kirby, the headline in Jewish media, in 62 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,960 Hebrew media, IDF thanks role into central Rafa in an 63 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,720 unprecedented thrust into the city. 64 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:01,160 So either the information that he was being given is wrong, or 65 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,080 yet again he's trying to fudge details. 66 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,440 Basically reaction internationally was strong 67 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:12,440 against massacre and Rafa from Spain, Norway, Ireland. 68 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,520 As the foreign minister in Ireland said, one cannot bomb an 69 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,840 area like that without shocking consequences in terms of 70 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:24,560 innocent children and civilians. All of these countries are 71 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:26,480 speaking about a Palestinian state. 72 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:33,760 Personally, I think A2 state solution is playing lip service 73 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:38,200 to the Zionist entity and it should basically be up to 74 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,240 Palestinians to be able to liberate the territories that 75 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,800 have been taken from them by the occupying force, including 76 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,280 territory that has been taken since the 7th of October. 77 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,960 Even a member of the Israeli Knesset aid to Miss Lima. 78 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,480 This bloody government refuses to obey all orders of the 79 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:00,080 tribunal and is taking the madness and vindictiveness for a 80 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:04,200 new criminal level. What did Netanyahu have to say 81 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:08,480 bearing in mind Kirby is waiting for the results of a war 82 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:13,160 criminal nation investigation into its own war crimes? 83 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:18,200 Netanyahu roughest strike is a tragic accident, will never cave 84 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,600 to Hamas while the UN is, as they said, calling it the most 85 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:27,680 cruel abomination as EU weighs up the ideas of sanctions on 86 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,280 Israel. But within 24 hours, having 87 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:37,680 called Rafa, the first rough bombing, a mistake, at least 21 88 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:41,920 were killed in Israeli attacks on 10th camp near Gaza. 89 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:48,240 Rafa and again close to an Unruh agency centre and warehouse. 90 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:54,400 And I just wanted to show this. This was from Haaretz article. 91 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,520 So this was rougher pre April 2024. 92 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:03,640 You can see that the majority of the buildings are intact and 93 00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:08,320 this is our rougher looks now on a satellite match. 94 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:12,800 So we can see the extent to which Israel has effectively 95 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:17,280 deployed this entire area, which was sold by Israel as being a 96 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:21,680 safe area. And we shouldn't forget who has 97 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:27,080 given Israel the grim lights carry out these massacres. 98 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:33,680 Biden, Sunak von der Leyen, who is facing an ICC prosecution for 99 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:39,040 her simplicity in genocide, and of course, Keir Starmer. 100 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:44,120 And when I went to Twitter, both Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak to 101 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,600 see what they had potentially said about this appalling 102 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,400 massacre. Imagine that this has been an 103 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,160 attack carried out by Russia against Ukraine. 104 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,320 They would be all over Twitter in outrage. 105 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:02,520 But in reality, on the very day that the attack was carried out, 106 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:05,520 this is what Rishi Sunak was doing. 107 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:33,919 Play the video. Not sure what to say at the end 108 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:37,760 of that, but there you go. No, there's not really much to 109 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,320 say, Vanessa. Of course, these people are 110 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:44,640 effectively enabling this. So we're playing balls and 111 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:47,360 playing at politics at this time. 112 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,760 Well, I think that clearly it seems to me that that this topic 113 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,520 and the issue of what's going on in Gaza is off the table as far 114 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,120 as the election is concerned. I think that all, you know, both 115 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:03,280 sides of the, at least the two main parties see this as a 116 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:06,360 divisive issue and they don't want to go near it at election 117 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:09,160 time. Yeah, absolutely. 118 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,240 But I think with demonstrations that have been going on since 119 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:16,040 the Rough Massacre, they're going to be forced to confront 120 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,640 the situation at some point. Yes, indeed. 121 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:21,160 OK, thank you very much for that. 122 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:26,760 Now let's come back to the UK and at least initially anyway. 123 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:29,800 Now on Monday we were talking about this issue of National 124 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:34,200 Service and we were, if you remember, we're drawing 125 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:37,200 parallels with what Admiral Sir Tony Rattigan had said earlier 126 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:40,040 in the year with respect to conscription. 127 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:44,040 And could it not being in a traditional sense of the word 128 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:47,000 that they were using the term conscription back in January and 129 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,880 whatnot. Now it's not just the UK, at 130 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:53,240 least not just the Tory party that's talking about this. 131 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:57,160 This is something that's being talked about in other European 132 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:00,360 countries as well. So here is headline. 133 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:03,800 Italy's League party introduces Bill to bring back compulsory 134 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:07,000 military service. This is from the 22nd of May 135 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:10,880 Bill proposes 6 months of civil or military service for 18 to 26 136 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:14,400 year olds. It's not just Italy and Germany. 137 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:17,440 This is your act of saying Germany moles reintroducing 138 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:21,400 conscription. This one is from March this 139 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:23,960 year. But actually Germany just in the 140 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:27,640 last couple of days has been talking about pulling back from 141 00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:30,200 making it a compulsory thing. So Germany attempting to talk 142 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:33,960 about this in the same kind of language as the UK as as being a 143 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,760 voluntary sort of thing, at least initially. 144 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,920 So this is the Bundes, the Bundesfair saying voluntary 145 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,560 military service, an opportunity, not an obligation. 146 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:45,800 Security cannot be taken for granted. 147 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,800 Protecting Germany and its citizens is and will remain the 148 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:50,680 central mission of the Bundesfair in the future. 149 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,920 Everyone can do their part to defend the values which whose 150 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,200 values? Because of course, the response 151 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,120 to this, at least in the UK and I suspect further afield, has 152 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,560 been an utter rejection of the entire idea. 153 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:09,040 So I see, as far as I can see, on one hand, governments needing 154 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:12,720 the personnel because they're clearly on a war footing now and 155 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,520 they see the need in the not too distant future for people at a 156 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,080 time, particularly in the UK, as we mentioned on Monday, where 157 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:24,880 there is a complete inability to recruit for the military. 158 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:26,760 So they're trying to force people into it. 159 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:31,480 But nonetheless, at least initially talking about it being 160 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:35,160 a voluntary thing. In the meantime, what do we have 161 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:36,680 going on? Well, a few days ago when The 162 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:39,160 Economist, The Economist interviewed Jans Stoltenberg, 163 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:43,040 secretary general of NATO. And if you want to see the full 164 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:46,520 interview, it's headline. NATO's boss wants free to free 165 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:48,720 Ukraine and strike hard inside Russia. 166 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:52,120 And let's just look at the complete insanity of what he's 167 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,240 saying here. The time has come for allies to 168 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:57,000 consider whether they should lift some of the restrictions 169 00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,840 they've put on the use of weapons that they've donated to 170 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:04,600 Ukraine, especially now when a lot of the fighting is going on 171 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:08,200 in Kharkiv, close to the border. To deny Ukraine the possibility 172 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:11,760 of using these weapons against legitimate military targets on 173 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:14,360 Russian territory makes it very hard for them to defend 174 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:18,600 themselves so openly calling for Western weapons to be used 175 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,680 across the border in Russia. This is a direct attack, 176 00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:27,040 therefore, on Russia, and Russia is very clear in its military 177 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:30,840 doctrine about what this what happens in retaliation should 178 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:34,640 that kind of thing take place. But it's not just Stoltenberg. 179 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:38,440 This is the Russian Parliamentary Assembly pushing 180 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:42,800 out a press release yesterday and they're saying in this UK, 181 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:46,080 Ukraine must be provided with all that it needs as quickly as 182 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:48,800 possible and for as long as it takes for it to win. 183 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:52,720 It went on to say that allied governments, so-called allied 184 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,440 governments, need to support Ukraine and its international 185 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:58,280 right to defend itself by lifting some restrictions on the 186 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:01,720 use of weapons provided by NATO allies to strike legitimate 187 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,280 targets in Russia. And this is something that they 188 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:08,040 describe as a hard hitting declaration. 189 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:12,400 So of course, the response from Russia, if we just put that back 190 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:14,880 a second, Stephanie. So here's the response from 191 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:17,960 Russia, this is Sergei Lavrov. I doubt that the secretary 192 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:20,880 general can take it upon himself to speak on behalf of members of 193 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:23,240 the bloc before the issue is discussed within NATO. 194 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:26,200 Well, it seems, based on this Parliamentary Assembly press 195 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:28,960 release, it has been at least to some degree discussed within 196 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:30,960 NATO. He went to say, he went on to 197 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:33,520 say, I believe that Stoltenberg has stepped outside of his 198 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,360 authority. I think that may be true. 199 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:39,360 This is Dmitry Peskov and his response. 200 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:41,600 This cannot be his personal opinion. 201 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:44,560 He is an official. He is the secretary general of 202 00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:47,120 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and that's how we 203 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,720 perceive it. He went on say NATO is 204 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:51,560 increasing the degree of escalation. 205 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:55,160 NATO is flirting with warlike rhetoric, falling into wartime 206 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,120 ecstasy. This is the reality that we have 207 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:01,240 to continue to deal with and I don't think that's an unfair 208 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:02,520 position. What are your thoughts? 209 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:04,120 No, I. Don't, I don't think it's an 210 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,280 unfair position at all. And I think this, you know, this 211 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:10,600 entire narrative is, is the crafting of an emergency. 212 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:13,920 Specifically with regard to the suggestion here of national 213 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:16,560 service, it's often said that people forget their history. 214 00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:19,440 I think in a sense that politicians haven't, although 215 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,000 they have no regard for practical delivery troubles 216 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,160 because of course the armed forces were enormous. 217 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,880 I mean, you know, millions of men last time this was tried. 218 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,240 But what people forget is how quickly it was done. 219 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:34,120 The Military Training Act in 1939 happened before the war 220 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:37,160 started. It was in May, 240,000 people 221 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,040 signed up immediately. And then when war was declared 222 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,880 in September, the National Service Act came into effect 223 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,520 that day. So I think people would do well 224 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,160 to bear in mind how quickly these things can be changed. 225 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:53,000 Yes, it's it's. The unfortunate thing is that 226 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:56,480 should there be a complete rejection of the idea, they 227 00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:58,600 don't have the prison spaces to put people in. 228 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,480 So at this point in time. So it is a bit tricky situation 229 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:03,360 for them. But it's not just NATO. 230 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:08,360 So here's Joseph Burrell, the foreign, so-called foreign 231 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:10,400 minister of the European Commission. 232 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:15,800 Let's listen to this. We discuss also about something 233 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:22,240 which has been high in the media and Secretary General of NATO 234 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:26,920 referring to it. It is the possibility of lifting 235 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:31,960 restrictions on Western weapons used by Ukrainian forces to 236 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:36,680 target military objectives in Russia territory, in self 237 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:38,560 defence, but in Russian territory. 238 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:44,000 It's clear that this is a legitimate action on the 239 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:48,960 international law when it is being used in a proportional 240 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:53,720 manner, but it's also clear that it is a decision for each 241 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:59,560 individual member states to take and to take their responsibility 242 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:05,480 on doing that or not. So Vanessa, very, very briefly, 243 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,160 I realize I'm hijacking you a little bit here, but he is now 244 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:10,640 claiming that this would be a legitimate action under 245 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,160 international law. We're going to come on to the 246 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:15,360 so-called rules based international order in a minute. 247 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,040 But this is just it's a perversion of international law. 248 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:22,960 Well, of course it is. You know, everything that the 249 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,840 West is doing and NATO is doing right now is a distortion of 250 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,800 international law that is being bent out of shape in order to 251 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:35,200 comply with their agendas. Whether it's Israel, whether 252 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:40,000 it's Ukraine, China. International law is effectively 253 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,200 non existent to the West. Yeah, indeed. 254 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,360 So we're going to come on a little bit more in a second on 255 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:48,040 that. But just to mention again, 256 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,840 Reuters here reporting that the Ukrainians at least believe that 257 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:55,320 the French are going to send boots on the ground for training 258 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,360 in, in order to train personnel in Ukraine. 259 00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:00,360 So not to go to the front lines they claim. 260 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:04,920 But anyway, that's, that's the the French themselves still 261 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,640 trying to pull back from this position, but that seems to be 262 00:17:07,839 --> 00:17:09,200 increasing. But let's come on to the 263 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,359 international law aspect of this because it's an article that was 264 00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:16,480 published in the Financial Times by Gideon Rachman. 265 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:20,119 And it's really quite incredible because he's he's effectively 266 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:23,720 admitting that the rules based international order is basically 267 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,119 whatever Britain and the United States decides that it is. 268 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,720 And he basically says that because it's really something 269 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:33,760 that's mutable and can be changed and whatnot. 270 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:36,880 That's just abandoned the term rules based international order 271 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:43,600 completely and instead use a completely different term and 272 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,800 something which is which is really just about protecting the 273 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:52,440 West or some nonsense like this. So defending the free world, 274 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:54,360 that's what it was. So that was what he was trying 275 00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:56,520 to do. So we need to rebrand and make 276 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:00,800 it defending the free world. In the meantime, Zelensky has 277 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,200 been in Europe and Spain in particular, but he's mostly 278 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,960 concerned about the fact that there's going to be a so-called 279 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:10,360 peace conference in Switzerland in a few days time. 280 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:14,360 And President Biden might not be there because President Biden is 281 00:18:14,360 --> 00:18:18,680 also campaigning and he's apparently running a fundraising 282 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:21,400 event or so on. But of course, Russia hasn't 283 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,360 been invited to this peace conference. 284 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:26,640 And so it's not a peace conference at all. 285 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:31,160 It's much more about organizing the the war effort and so on is 286 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,800 how it seems. So, but he's unhappy that Biden 287 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,040 might not be there because of electoral commitments. 288 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,520 Now, if anybody thinks of course, that getting rid of 289 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:45,720 Sunak is going to get rid of the war agenda and that that Starmer 290 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,600 is going to be better, I don't, I'm sure pretty sure not if our 291 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:50,800 viewers think that. But anyway, just in case you do, 292 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:55,000 let's just remind ourselves what Starmer's attitude was during 293 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,880 the COVID pandemic, and you can decide for yourself whether he 294 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:01,640 was he's prepared to take a sort of opposition stance. 295 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:05,880 Anti vaxxers getting platforms and so on well. 296 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,360 We have to deal with the anti vax campaigns because they will 297 00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:13,120 cost lives and if we need to pass emergency legislation to 298 00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:14,960 deal with them, I'd be quite prepared to work with the 299 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,000 government on that. We could pass it in a couple of 300 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,440 days in Parliament and the sooner we do that, frankly the 301 00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:24,360 better because for many NHS staff it is really distressing. 302 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:28,840 They're under huge pressure and it's been building over the last 303 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:31,440 few weeks and months. They're all doing their level 304 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:33,800 best. They're all seeing that it's 305 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,640 getting very, very difficult and to come out and to have to 306 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:41,440 confront that or even hear that is against the national interest 307 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,280 and let, if we need legislation, I'll sit down with Boris 308 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:46,560 Johnson. We can draft it, we can pass it 309 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:49,360 very, very quickly because that misinformation. 310 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,560 So there you go. Quite clearly at that time he 311 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:54,680 was quite happy to be a member of the UNI party. 312 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,120 And I suspect that nothing has changed there. 313 00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,240 We're going to get the same kind of nonsense. 314 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,960 So look, here's my point. This is where we're heading 315 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:07,960 unless we change TAC. And this isn't to scare anybody, 316 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,960 but we've got to be realistic about the kind of lunatics that 317 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,480 we have running the asylum at the moment and we need a change. 318 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:18,680 And so I want to really strongly urge people to get involved in 319 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:23,280 this general election and get these fools out because there's 320 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:25,800 nobody from any of the mainstream parties that is 321 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:29,400 actually taking a pro peace position at the moment. 322 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,320 And the direction of travel is extremely dangerous. 323 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,520 But anyway, extremism, that might be an extremist view, you 324 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:40,200 see. So we've talked about extremism 325 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:42,320 and the new definition of extremism, which Charles is 326 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:44,080 going to mention again in a second, but there's been an 327 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:45,920 update on this. It has. 328 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,400 Thanks very much, Mike. Yes, essentially the The 329 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:53,000 Continued reframing of extremism, most recently updated 330 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,560 last week in the House of Commons with the Land for 331 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,280 Parliament of Lord Warney's report on what's called 332 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,320 Protecting our Democracy from Coercion. 333 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:06,880 The then Minister of Security, Tom Tuguenad, from whom we've 334 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,840 heard a lot on this issue, talked about it being a timely 335 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,880 and compelling report identifying a rising tide of 336 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:15,800 extremism. And its central finding is that 337 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,520 political intimidation and the incitement of hatred by 338 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,680 extremist groups and individuals are infringing on the essential 339 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:24,600 rights and freedoms of the British people. 340 00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,840 So we'll have a look into the report itself here. 341 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,920 It is protecting our democracy from coercion. 342 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:35,920 And he starts with a a forward talking about the elected 343 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:39,320 representatives facing violent threats on a daily basis and 344 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,480 intimidation, slightly surprisingly, or maybe not, he 345 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,400 refers to noble causes such as the battle against climate 346 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,320 change being hijacked by extremist groups. 347 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,680 And at the same time, hostile states have been emboldened. 348 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,760 So he's very much conflating the apparent sort of risks and 349 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,200 threats from within and without the country. 350 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:00,640 I've compiled a sort of scorecards. 351 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:03,400 You might be interested to know what topics turn up more 352 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,160 frequently than than others. Perhaps far right, Top of the 353 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:11,480 pops with 171, far left only 154, transgender, Black lives 354 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:15,160 matter, anti vax, climate change, anti-Semitism, a fairly 355 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,720 high score with 103. And of course nationalism, which 356 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:24,080 crept in as being guarded now as a sort of criminal offence. 357 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,640 But he also makes recommendations, and I think 358 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,960 this one's particularly telling. Specifically left wing anarchist 359 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,200 and single issue threats to provide ideological coherence to 360 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:38,440 the categories and add the word extreme to avoid unintentionally 361 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:42,280 conflating mainstream left wing views with the far left. 362 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,640 Now of course the the far right has not been afforded the same 363 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:51,320 privilege or indeed the right also a recommendation for MI 5 364 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,240 and Counter terrorism to publish information specifically to 365 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:59,000 allow researchers, journalists and the wider public to track, 366 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:03,680 report on and better understand the threat from failed terrorist 367 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,360 attempts. Now my question is what sort of 368 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:09,880 researchers, journalists and wider public, because I would 369 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,000 doubt that it includes absolutely everybody and as Mike 370 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,720 said, the definition of extremism, which is enabling all 371 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,160 of this narrative to be put forward. 372 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,040 But just to remind you, it's now defined as the promotion or 373 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,960 advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or 374 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:28,040 intolerance that aims to negate or destroy the fundamental 375 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:31,320 rights and freedoms of others or undermine, overturn or replace 376 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,320 the UK system, system of liberal parliamentary democracy and 377 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:38,040 democratic rights or, or to create the environment where 378 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:39,720 either of those things is possible. 379 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,800 Now the point of that is really what it's doing is shifting the 380 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,640 ground in order to demonise people and describe them as 381 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,160 being intolerant or full of hatred. 382 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:51,880 And the shift here, as I say, is described as being the threat 383 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,840 from extremism has been steadily growing for many years. 384 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,600 So it's this idea that this is getting worse and worse. 385 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,560 But also he goes on to say this is in line with the first duty 386 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,240 of our government to keep our citizens safe and our country 387 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,360 secure. Most extremist materials and 388 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:09,920 activities are not illegal and do not meet a terrorism or 389 00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,560 national security threshold. I think that's a very important 390 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:14,040 point. But of course glossed over. 391 00:24:14,360 --> 00:24:18,120 And I simply finished by with with the the quotes attributed 392 00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:21,160 to the Code of Hammurabi from 1772 BC. 393 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,600 In actual fact, saying that the first duty of government is to 394 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,520 protect the powerless from the powerful, which is quite a 395 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,280 significant diversion from what Walney has suggested. 396 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,280 And if you want to know where this comes from and indeed why 397 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,480 we're on this path, we look at the document Operating with 398 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,600 Impunity, which is referenced. This goes back to February 2021 399 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:44,400 and Sir Mark Rowley, the the Metropolitan Police Commissioner 400 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:48,400 involved in putting that together in which he said my 401 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,080 last role in policing was a national responsibility leading 402 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,480 counter terrorism policing. During those years I saw 403 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:58,360 terrorism and extremism transforming terrorism more from 404 00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:01,360 small secret organisations to terrorism inspired and 405 00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:03,960 encouraged via social media, something we've talked about a 406 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:06,360 lot in the past. Terrorism leaders split their 407 00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:08,400 efforts between the long established tactic of planning 408 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,720 large scale events and the new tactic for spreading their 409 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,600 ideology online and through their agents to grow support and 410 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,520 use this outreach to inspire some of their new followers into 411 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,320 lone actor attack. So it looks like that that in 412 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,240 order to cement this seed in in people's heads, the the there 413 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,760 are going to need to be lone actors found around who's next. 414 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,120 This sort of accusation can be hung. 415 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,720 But but this to just make the point that this was rarely in in 416 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:38,600 2021. Of course, he was appointed 417 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:40,800 Metropolitan Police commissioner in 2022. 418 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:44,120 And I would put it that this is a very obvious reason for why 419 00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:45,480 that's why he was put in the job. 420 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,160 OK, if you like what the UK column does, you'd like to 421 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,320 support us, you can do so by going to support.ukcolumn.org 422 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,000 and there are options to help us out there. 423 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:59,680 It is only £5 a month for a membership and that absolutely 424 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,880 helps massively. So if you can't possibly do 425 00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:05,520 that, please do join us. Do share anything you find on 426 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:07,880 the various platforms, especially ukcolumn.org. 427 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:12,360 UK column extracts.co.uk Not on Facebook anymore. 428 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:14,560 I believe Vanessa has the same problem. 429 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:18,680 We'll talk about that in extra. And if you've seen anything on 430 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,520 the shop that you would like, please pick something up there 431 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:23,360 because that helps us out greatly as well. 432 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,480 Now tomorrow at tomorrow is the anniversary of the passing of 433 00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:31,760 Arnie Burkhart, who did so much work on mRNA vaccines and so on. 434 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:40,040 Now Taylor Hudak will be introducing a short a summary of 435 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,600 her interview with him, the the last interview that she did with 436 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,880 him that'll go out at 1:00 PM tomorrow. 437 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,200 Please join us for that. So that's the anniversary of 438 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:52,000 Arnie's passing and we want to, to note to, to take note of that 439 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,200 and so on. So also at the weekend or sorry, 440 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,880 on the weekend of June the 2nd of 2024, if you would like to 441 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,560 head over to Glasgow, if you're in Scotland and there's going to 442 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,840 be an event there for the vaccine injured. 443 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,080 So please do visit that if you possibly can. 444 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:14,200 And of course, Charles, on Monday you were travelling back 445 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,120 from the Stand in the Light event, Yes. 446 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,840 Go through driving rain. But the the festival itself was 447 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,280 a great success. And so just to feedback, I think 448 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,760 that the sense of delight at being able to encounter people 449 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,480 face to face and share broadly similar views was really 450 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,160 appreciated by everybody that turned up. 451 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:35,000 UK column had a had a stand there, which I'll just show you. 452 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,960 You can see Brian sort of surrounded by people who were 453 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,200 very generous in their words and coming up to engage with us at 454 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:45,840 UK column. Also a great opportunity for 455 00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:50,600 Kenny and Claire there to to sell a good quantity of very 456 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,840 special merchandise. But really just an encouragement 457 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,480 to people to get out to these sorts of events because the the 458 00:27:56,120 --> 00:27:58,960 they're very, very good-natured. They're they're a great way of 459 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,640 re engaging and encountering people with someone who's to, 460 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,000 you know, to push the things forward that you care most about 461 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:05,760 in life. So it was a real success, very 462 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,800 well organized, absolutely beautiful countryside and. 463 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:09,400 There were about 1200 there were. 464 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:10,880 About 1200 people there, I think. 465 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:11,840 Yeah. So it was a lovely, it was a 466 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:13,720 really good size too. Yeah, brilliant. 467 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,920 OK, Now on Monday we were discussing the launch of the 468 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:22,920 World Health Assembly and, well, one of the video clips that Mark 469 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,000 Anderson showed was this one. Let's just have a look at it 470 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,960 again. Also at the Assembly, WHO will 471 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:34,880 be launching a new global health strategy developed in 472 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,600 partnership with 194 Member States and partners, Which? 473 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,640 Sets a course for getting the world back on track to hit the 474 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,360 health related Sustainable Development Goals. 475 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:51,320 Crucial decisions are expected on a range of health priorities 476 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:55,760 such as climate and health, WH OS work in health emergencies, 477 00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:00,120 access to transformative tools, communicable diseases, non 478 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:04,000 communicable diseases, mental health, Women's Health and the. 479 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:11,240 Reform of WHO itself On 26th May, WHO will be launching our 480 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:16,600 first investment round, a new mechanism for WHO, which the 481 00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:18,760 Executive Board approved in January. 482 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:23,760 The investment round is designed to ensure that voluntary 483 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,440 contributions, which are currently the majority of our 484 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:31,160 funding, will be more predictable, flexible and 485 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:35,200 sustainable. Our new investment case outlines 486 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:41,480 why and how supporting WHO is essential for progress in global 487 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,000 health and saving millions of lives. 488 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,720 It will be launched on 28th May during the Assembly. 489 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:53,440 And indeed, it was launched yesterday. 490 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,680 And here is the first graphic that they want to show. 491 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,840 We're not sure what kind of salute that is that they're 492 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,360 giving, but what the World Health Organization will deliver 493 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:06,640 between 2025 and 2028. So this is all about working 494 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,720 with existing donors and other partners. 495 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:11,480 They are calling it an investment round. 496 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,040 So it's like a venture capital kind of thing that they're 497 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:16,240 attempting to to sell it as here. 498 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,440 And it aims to attract new donors through an inclusive, 499 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,880 inclusive engagement process will culminate in a high level 500 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:26,200 financing event in the fourth quarter of 2024. 501 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:27,680 So let's just look at what they're doing. 502 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,640 So 40 million additional lives saved globally. 503 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,080 This is their elevator pitch that you're seeing right now, by 504 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,560 the way, because this is what you know, it's like Dragon's 505 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,680 Den. So they're attempting to sell 506 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,280 this to investors. What else did they say? 507 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:42,960 7 billion people protect better, protected from health 508 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:44,600 emergencies. This is the World Health 509 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,320 Organization's doing this. It's fantastic work. 510 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:51,240 It deserves massive investment. 6 billion people unable to live 511 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:56,040 healthier lives, they claim, and 5 billion people able to access 512 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,240 health services without financial hardship. 513 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:02,320 But they had produced in the actual report a nice little 514 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,240 infographic which tells us what the funding gap is that they 515 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:11,520 have between 2025 and 2028. So there's $7.1 billion short of 516 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:14,200 what they need. And I would say that that 517 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,080 there's an opportunity for a campaign that they to make sure 518 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:22,400 that they remain $7.1 billion short of their with respect to 519 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,680 their funding. And well, what more can we say? 520 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,680 We're going to have James Rogowski with us on Friday's 521 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,560 programme to give us a full update on what's been going on 522 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:33,120 this week at the World Health Assembly. 523 00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:39,040 So join us for that on Friday. Now, in the meantime, avian flu, 524 00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:42,200 Charles. Yes, yes, again, but this time 525 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:46,400 there is rather more to talk about I think, because what we 526 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:52,160 see is the slow March towards a well choreographed move into the 527 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,040 creation of a pandemic. And I will just go through this 528 00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,360 sort of step by step. This morning the Human Animal 529 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,480 Infections and Risk Surveillance Group, part of the UK Health 530 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:07,760 Security Agency, published a document called Avian Influenza 531 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,440 in Livestock, The risk statement. 532 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:12,840 Now I'm not going to go through the specific details of it, but 533 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,200 the point is that you put the suggestion out there that there 534 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:20,600 is a defined risk or threat and you allow that information to 535 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,520 circulate whilst submitting at the same time that there are 536 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,160 evidence gaps. So they admit that the source of 537 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,800 infection to the index farm is a gap of gap in evidence. 538 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:33,560 So is the severity of clinical signs, critically, the risk to 539 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:35,800 other ruminants and mammalian livestock. 540 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,600 And also there's uncertainty around the transmission risks to 541 00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:42,800 humans in contact with affected cattle, risk factors associated 542 00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:45,440 with increased susceptibility and disease severity in human 543 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:47,520 cases. So they're putting it all out 544 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:48,880 there. But of course, the headline 545 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:50,600 really is there is a risk or a threat. 546 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,840 Now where is that coming from? The UKHSA put out a 547 00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:59,520 extraordinary graphic suggesting that bird flu in Europe seems to 548 00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,040 be coming from Russia, but of course they don't substantiate 549 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,720 that even at all. Russia is not actually referred 550 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,680 to. And yet here we are now, also 551 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,640 from last month, avian influenza in US cattle, of course 552 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,440 suggesting therefore that this could be anywhere. 553 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,600 So here we go. Bird leaf cows were monitoring 554 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,000 reports of highly pathogenic avian influenza identified in 555 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,160 dairy cattle. We'll come on to exactly how it 556 00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,240 was identified later. These reports do not change the 557 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,760 risk level for animals in the UK, which is currently low. 558 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,120 And we've no reason to suspect the virus is circulating in our 559 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:33,920 cattle. Not for now at least. 560 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,560 And nor is this virus strain circulating in Europe. 561 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,480 So the Food Standard Agency remaining advice remains that 562 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:44,080 avian influenza poses a very low food safety risk. 563 00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,960 But of course that doesn't matter because if the food has 564 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,440 tested for it, then it will be destroyed and will not be fit 565 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,280 for human consumption because that's what they say. 566 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:56,320 So that's the first bit. You put that sort of information 567 00:33:56,320 --> 00:34:00,880 out there and then you need a willing media to effectively 568 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,760 corroborate the the suggestion that there is going to be a 569 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,920 pandemic coming to here. We have the BBC obliging and of 570 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,840 course the question is cows in the US of bird flu? 571 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,600 Is it inching closer to humans? And they are of course desperate 572 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,120 that it should be despite the absolute absence of evidence. 573 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:21,080 And here written up as the long feared leak, the H5 N one strain 574 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,440 of avian flu has been around since 1996. 575 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,320 Well, that's very much a qualified statement, but until 576 00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:28,320 now it has been largely confined to animals. 577 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,040 But now it's jumped to cattle in America, and some think it means 578 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,040 we're inching towards eventual human to human infection with 579 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:35,719 potentially serious consequences. 580 00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:37,920 I should point out this article was written by somebody called 581 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,159 David Aronovich, who has absolutely no background in 582 00:34:41,159 --> 00:34:43,800 science, medicine, or anything to do with animals. 583 00:34:45,199 --> 00:34:48,880 Anyway, the next thing is of course to be prepared for the 584 00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:50,320 outcomes. And here we have the Animal 585 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,480 Welfare Commission reporting just last week on the use of 586 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,800 high expansion nitrogen foam for culling poultry. 587 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,320 This is effectively where you just fill poultry sets with 588 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:03,680 nitrogen foam in order to starve them of air with which to 589 00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,600 breathe. This hasn't been used on a large 590 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,040 scale before, but nonetheless they're putting forward this as 591 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:11,880 an idea for disposing of all the poultry that will be disposed of 592 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,680 later this year. Now, these are the conditions 593 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:16,640 that are being set in the UK and of course these things don't 594 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:18,640 always necessarily move at the same pace. 595 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:22,120 So to highlight the difference, what I thought we'd do is take a 596 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,000 look at New Zealand, which had an extraordinary and draconian 597 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:31,080 response to the apparent pandemic in New Zealand in 2020. 598 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,920 But of course here, interestingly, they they say 599 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:36,680 that you do not need a license if you want to keep animals in a 600 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:38,960 rural area. So they are behind the UK. 601 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,320 And the reason for that is that their Ministry for Primary 602 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,840 Industries declares that New Zealand has never had a case of 603 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,800 highly pathogenic or avian influenza. 604 00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:52,560 Nonetheless, the the Department of Health has it it within its 605 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:56,480 pages highly pathogenic avian influenza and believe it or not, 606 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,600 they state at the moment this chapter is currently under 607 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,720 review as of April 2024. The guidance is being updated in 608 00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:08,680 the event of a case of HPIA occurring, sorry, AI occurring 609 00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:11,720 ahead of publication of the VICE guidance, interim guidance will 610 00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:13,360 be communicated to public health services. 611 00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:16,600 So here we have a country that has never, ever declared that 612 00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:20,320 it's had a case of Avalon influenza updating its 613 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,720 literature based on what's happening around the world. 614 00:36:22,720 --> 00:36:25,920 This is almost exactly the same as what happened at the tail end 615 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:30,440 of 2019-2020. And it's, it's frankly, it's 616 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:31,960 just, it's only a matter of time. 617 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,800 And of course, the only thing they're basing this on was what 618 00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,560 was reported on UK columns some months ago, which was the 619 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:41,240 apparent discovery of bird flu in elephant seals in South 620 00:36:41,240 --> 00:36:43,560 Atlantic. And that that is what they're 621 00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:45,960 basing this on. Nonetheless, the next step, of 622 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:48,760 course, having confirmed that it's possible to jump from one 623 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:51,880 animal to another, is to suggest that people are also at risk. 624 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,280 And here we've got the CDC in America talking about monitoring 625 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,840 influenza data to better understand the current avian 626 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:02,360 influenza situation in people. Updated May the 24th, 2024. 627 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:04,480 So here we are moving into lockstep. 628 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,760 And how do they do this? They do this by talking about 629 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,400 testing. And this goes back to 2023, 630 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:13,280 where in the UK we were told that it'd been detected in two 631 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:15,720 individuals, but when we scrutinize the detail of it, we 632 00:37:15,720 --> 00:37:18,080 found it wanting. The two people returning 633 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,160 positive tests are known to have recently worked on an infected 634 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:23,080 poultry farm in England. But what does that mean? 635 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:27,440 Neither has experienced any symptoms of avian influenza, and 636 00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,640 both have since tested negative. Detection of avian influenza and 637 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:32,960 poultry workers can follow contamination of the nose and 638 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,760 throat from breathing in material on the affected farm or 639 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,280 can be true infection. So already they're admitting 640 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,680 they have absolutely no idea of what they're talking about. 641 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,680 And they finish by saying it can be difficult to distinguish 642 00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,800 these in people who have no symptoms. 643 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,600 So just just think about that for a moment and consider that 644 00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:55,200 the tests used, the PCR test cannot, in the words of Carrie 645 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:58,400 Malis, it's inventor, be used as a diagnostic tool. 646 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:02,080 It cannot tell you whether or not the thing it's detecting has 647 00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:05,840 come from another animal or whether it's going to result in 648 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:07,480 illness. So that that needs to be 649 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,600 considered. But of course the, the, the 650 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,360 direction of travel therefore is towards vaccines and they have 651 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,080 all bases covered here. So first of all, we look at the 652 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:19,560 pen medicine news talking about pen researchers developing an 653 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:22,160 experimental mRNA avian flu vaccine. 654 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,680 Well, I think this is again beginning to sound very, very 655 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:26,600 familiar. And look at the date May 23rd. 656 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,680 So this is all being brought out at exactly the same time, and 657 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,920 this is again based on the assumption that everybody will 658 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:38,040 pick up the narrative at an illness that is only determined 659 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:43,200 in a laboratory and ascribed to poultry can infect other animals 660 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:46,280 and therefore humans. That is the basis of this. 661 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:53,720 And now another chance to use UKC verify, because just 662 00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:57,640 yesterday, Reuters and many, many other news agencies put out 663 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:01,480 news or apparent news that bird flu vaccines for laying hens 664 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,800 prove effective in practice. They go on and say the Dutch 665 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:09,120 government has implemented the use of a particular vaccine, 666 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:12,640 that they're going to roll it out across their poultry 667 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,160 population because it's been proven to be effective on farms. 668 00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:20,200 Now this is not true. We see here the particular 669 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:23,040 university in question and they talk about two vaccines being 670 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:26,400 effective against Bird. This is from September 2023 and 671 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,640 their laboratory tests, which I think we can safely say were 672 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,480 compromised to say the least, suggests that it's been 673 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:34,200 effective. But in actual fact, what they 674 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:38,000 say quite clearly here is the trial on the two farms will last 675 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:42,960 until the third quarter of 2025. So there's absolutely no way 676 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:47,240 it's possible to say whether or not there is any sort of 677 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:51,120 effectiveness or efficacy of this vaccine in this instance. 678 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:55,280 And of course, this again should reinforce the message that the 679 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:59,760 premise that avian flu exists in the 1st place is the construct 680 00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:04,320 of laboratory experiments and and of course culturing of 681 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,960 samples, which is not possible to do in the field. 682 00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:10,000 And just to finish off, they say 1st results are expected in the 683 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,840 second quarter of 2024, which of course is where we are now, but. 684 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,040 The point is that we're seeing this play out in slow time and 685 00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:20,920 it is effectively a complete rehash of the COVID narrative, 686 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,760 and it's going in exactly the same direction, and the 687 00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:27,720 consequences will be almost identical if it's not stopped in 688 00:40:27,720 --> 00:40:29,560 its tracks. Yes, thank you, Charles. 689 00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:33,080 OK, Vanessa, back to you. And what's the latest on the 690 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,200 Rafa Crossing? I just wanted to mention on that 691 00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:41,480 report about the bread flu also, doesn't that result in 692 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,600 contaminated or vaccine contaminated meat, eggs, 693 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,520 etcetera? Anyway we can talk about that in 694 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:53,520 extra. Yeah, this was a just an odd 695 00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:55,480 story that sort of jumped out at me. 696 00:40:55,480 --> 00:41:00,680 Biden officials are in talks with an EU group help reopen the 697 00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:03,560 Rafa crossing, which is currently controlled by 698 00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:08,560 effectively Israel and Egypt. So the US is proposing bringing 699 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,440 in a so-called mutual third party to take control of the 700 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:16,760 crossing, the European Union Border Assistance Mission, or U 701 00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:20,720 ban to the Rafah crossing point. The organization previously 702 00:41:20,720 --> 00:41:24,080 worked at the border in Gaza, but suspended its operations in 703 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:30,960 2007 after Hamas took over the EU border assistance didn't 704 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,200 comment. Representatives with the EU 705 00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:39,480 Commission also did not respond. It's an EU funded organization 706 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:43,120 in partnership with the International Organization for 707 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:47,880 Migration. So I just wanted to have it. 708 00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:54,120 So I, I, I basically went to EU Band site and let's have a look 709 00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:58,600 at it's kind of mission statement on the website on, on 710 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,680 the next slide. What do we do? 711 00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,240 Who are we? So basically it, it's head 712 00:42:04,240 --> 00:42:08,880 offices are in Odessa in Ukraine and then Moldova. 713 00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:14,840 It basically monitors the borders between Moldova and 714 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,680 Ukraine. It seems to be a sort of quasi 715 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:22,400 military security organization just from looking through its 716 00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:27,080 various press releases. And I guess what I really want 717 00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:29,760 to do is to put the question out to the audience because 718 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:35,480 obviously this is about bringing in EU control into Gaza, into 719 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:39,080 the border itself. The connection to Ukraine, the 720 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:42,320 connection between Ukraine and Israel has also been talked 721 00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:48,360 about consistently. But why now, and why this 722 00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:51,120 particular organization, although it has a history of 723 00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:54,280 having been at the Rafa crossing, it was established in 724 00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:57,560 2005. It was at the Rafah crossing 725 00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:03,800 until, as they said, the Zionist settlers and forces withdrew in 726 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:09,600 2005. Hamas was elected in 2007. 727 00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:14,160 So if anybody has any bright ideas why this organization in 728 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:16,080 particular? Not as far as I can see. 729 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:21,520 Funded by the US, funded specifically by the EU and it 730 00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:25,680 has actually been held on a retainer of 2.6 million. 731 00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:30,360 So sorry, yes, no. No, that that was, I was just 732 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:32,120 going to make that point. They've been held on this 733 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:35,360 retainer to do nothing on 2.6. €1,000,000. 734 00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:39,880 A year their, their funding runs out in June this year and then 735 00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:41,640 they've got to get a new tranche of funding. 736 00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:44,400 And so this announcements we made just in time for that new 737 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:50,480 tranche of funding perhaps. Yes, possibly, yes, you could be 738 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,680 right. But but then why are we funding 739 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:56,600 it for that purpose? Of course this could be related 740 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:03,920 to basically the destruction of the 320 million US peer if we 741 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:38,960 just have a look at the video. So, dare I say it, American 742 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,320 build quality. I think at least two ships were 743 00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,440 washed up shore and are currently under repair. 744 00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:49,040 But yeah, just anybody has any comments on that story, please 745 00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:50,960 let me know or let UK column know. 746 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:52,480 Yeah, brilliant. Thank you. 747 00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:56,440 Vanessa and Charles back to you then on Energy. 748 00:44:56,680 --> 00:44:59,400 Energy, yeah, something we've talked about in conjunction with 749 00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:02,080 food security quite a bit over the last few months. 750 00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,240 But I just want to look quickly at the Energy Trends, or at 751 00:45:05,240 --> 00:45:08,040 least the way that some we're being told the Energy Trends are 752 00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:10,720 playing out. So the most recent report from 753 00:45:10,720 --> 00:45:14,360 the tail end of last year says that total demand has been down 754 00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,040 for 2023. The renewable share is at a 755 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:21,000 record of 47.3, but we'll come on to explain exactly why that 756 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:22,840 may not be the case. Wind generation, they're saying, 757 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:26,720 is at 28.7%. Overall electricity generation 758 00:45:26,720 --> 00:45:30,680 down 11%, the lowest since 1983, and fossil fuel generation down 759 00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:35,480 22%, lowest since the 1950s. Now I'll explain what I mean 760 00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:38,000 when I say that things are not quite as they seem. 761 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:41,520 Here we see the what I've described as the cooking the 762 00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:47,360 books feature, which is that that the increase of 115% import 763 00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,040 of electricity for that quarter has skewed the statistics 764 00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,080 absolutely dramatically, which is the only reason that they're 765 00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:57,360 able to claim that renewable energy has made such 766 00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:00,680 contribution. But of course, we bang the same 767 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,360 drum about the winds not blowing all the time, the sun not 768 00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:05,600 shining all the time, because of course they have to go and 769 00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:08,480 qualify by saying with the exception of 2021, renewable 770 00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:10,440 generation has been largely stable. 771 00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:14,920 Now that's in itself an admission because the amount of 772 00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:18,120 renewable generation facility or capability has increased 773 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:20,680 dramatically in that time and yet the outputs has remained the 774 00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:22,840 same. So the vulnerability is 775 00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:24,280 enormous. Anyway, they talk about the 776 00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:27,200 drivers of changes in generation being complex for renewables, 777 00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:30,000 but of course they are with the impact of new capacity 778 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:32,360 interacting with variable weather conditions. 779 00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:34,560 I mean the suggestion is that perhaps they'd imagine the 780 00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:37,280 weather would not have variable conditions. 781 00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:40,040 And we go on to see this in a a graph format. 782 00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:43,040 The arrow that I've inserted there, the red arrow show the 783 00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:46,040 solar generation and of course everything coming down below the 784 00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:48,760 line is a decrease. And we've talked a lot about the 785 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:52,080 amount of farmland that's being used for the construction of 786 00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:53,680 these enormous, great solar farms. 787 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,400 And yet of course, the output is actually going down at the same 788 00:46:56,400 --> 00:47:00,000 time, the capabilities going up. So it's completely topsy Derby. 789 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:04,480 Nonetheless, the ESO, the part of the National Grid that's due 790 00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:07,520 to operate the system's electricity system operator, has 791 00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,520 put out future energy scenarios in which they're trying to work 792 00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,600 out how we're going to do something towards finding 793 00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,560 credible ways that the UK can achieve net 0 by 2050. 794 00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:20,240 And won't surprise you much, I shouldn't think to learn that. 795 00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:23,200 It's largely based on research and modelling and of course it 796 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:26,160 is because we're not there yet. They use what they call the 797 00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:30,840 scenario framework, which has some variables, the worst of 798 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:34,040 which they're calling falling short and the scenario not 799 00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:36,120 meeting the next zero target by 2050. 800 00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:38,080 And it's just interesting to specifically see what I've 801 00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:39,960 underlined there. The electric vehicle take up 802 00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:42,960 grows more slowly. Well, I think that does seem to 803 00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:46,760 be exactly what is happening. So this is already presumably 804 00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:49,000 way off course. We thought at the other side of 805 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,720 it, consumer transformation and this is the behavioral change 806 00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:53,480 part. So the next zero target is met 807 00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:55,840 with measures that have a greater greater impact on 808 00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:58,640 consumers and is driven by higher levels of consumer 809 00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:01,080 engagement by which they mean behavioral modification. 810 00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:03,960 They will have made extensive changes to improve their homes 811 00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:07,000 energy efficiency and most of their electricity demand will be 812 00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,920 smartly controlled to provide flexibility to the system. 813 00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:12,840 Yes, but will they have chosen that for themselves or will it 814 00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:15,440 have been chosen for them? So just to highlight what 815 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,080 they're wanting to do here, the projected increase in annual 816 00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:22,160 demand by the year 2050 is 254%. So they're wanting to move from 817 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,760 286 terawatt hours of electricity generated now up to 818 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,320 726. And bearing in mind what I've 819 00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:30,440 just said about renewables, which seems to be the direction 820 00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,720 they want to go, that looks extremely unlikely. 821 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:35,320 They do talk about large electricity demands and in 822 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,320 particular they highlight hydrogen electrolysis, which is 823 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,400 effectively unproven. Nonetheless, they refer to it as 824 00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:45,520 being an emerging technique that if commercially developed could 825 00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:48,920 provide one of the following. And I have to say it doesn't 826 00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:51,000 necessarily sound like the best bet. 827 00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:53,440 It could provide a higher level of general protection for the 828 00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:55,600 environment, or at least the same level. 829 00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:58,120 So again, not particularly convincing. 830 00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:00,880 But I just had a look elsewhere and in the private sector I 831 00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:04,440 found a company called Recharge, which say that it's much cheaper 832 00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:07,040 to produce green hydrogen from waste than renewable. 833 00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:10,280 So tellingly the the chief executive here, John Louis 834 00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:14,120 Kindler in 2020 talks about creating hydrogen, but without 835 00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:16,800 using the vast space that solar panels require. 836 00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:20,720 So again, sort of finding some sense of it somewhere, but 837 00:49:20,720 --> 00:49:23,960 certainly not from the ESO or indeed the British government. 838 00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:27,800 But data centres really what I want to talk about a little bit 839 00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:30,560 because of the, the, the push towards the fourth industrial 840 00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:33,280 revolution, where in fact everything is controlled by the 841 00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:35,040 Internet. It's worth noting that data 842 00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:39,600 centres now consume about 2 1/2 percent of UK energy, which is 843 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:42,680 an enormous figure. And because they run round the 844 00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:45,840 clock, it's possible that they might waste up to 90% of the 845 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:49,080 energy that they actually consume. 40% of that energy is 846 00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:54,040 just, is just spent in, in cooling the various machinery 847 00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:55,760 required for in these data centres. 848 00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:58,160 UK has the largest data capacity in Europe. 849 00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:01,680 Just to give an indication of the exponential rise, it said 850 00:50:01,680 --> 00:50:06,560 that there were 2.8 zettabytes of data in the world in 2012 and 851 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:09,600 at the last count in 2020 there were 44 zettabytes. 852 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:14,000 So it's very, very unlikely that this can be managed on the 853 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:16,600 current projections. But what I want to point out 854 00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:19,480 going back to the, the frameworks that they're putting 855 00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:22,680 out is the, the effectively the push required. 856 00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:26,680 So societal behaviour and the growth of remote services to 857 00:50:26,720 --> 00:50:29,480 facilitate hybrid working because of the COVID-19 858 00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:31,360 pandemic. So it's just another thing to 859 00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:33,200 look at is now the use of electricity. 860 00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:36,400 And of course, the, the point again, the second bit of 861 00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:40,000 highlights and text people being first instructed to work from 862 00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,760 home. So the suggestion is that people 863 00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:43,480 are doing this because they want to be doing it. 864 00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,200 And the reality is, in actual fact, they're just being told to 865 00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:48,160 do it. But again, we just finish off 866 00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:53,120 because everything now is about data and electronic systems. 867 00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:56,840 The Bank of England, of course, working on their CBDC are very 868 00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:59,640 keen to put forward the case that centrally controlled 869 00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,360 digital currencies are better for the environment. 870 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:05,120 And in fact, they're ticking the climate box because they're 871 00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:08,400 going to be energy efficient, whereas decentralized ones are 872 00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:11,240 bad and not, you know, not good for the environment. 873 00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:13,280 So they, they talk about it minimizing its impact on the 874 00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:16,160 environment and the physical effects of climate change and 875 00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:19,080 the transition to a nextary economy can create financial 876 00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:21,880 risks and economic consequences. So that's again a telling 877 00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:26,160 statement that that really should be applied to the, to 878 00:51:26,400 --> 00:51:29,120 the, the, the idea that digital currency, centralized digital 879 00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:30,840 currency has anything to offer at all. 880 00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:34,320 Yes, thanks for that, Charles and Vanessa. 881 00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:39,760 Back to you for one more time in this news bulletin and Egypt and 882 00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:46,080 Israel having problems. A couple of days ago, there was 883 00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:49,640 basically a skirmish, as it's described here, by Al Mayadeen 884 00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:54,920 on the Rafah border, during which at least one Egyptian 885 00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:59,520 soldier was shot and killed. And if we just have a look at 886 00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:03,880 the report, so Israeli investigations disagree with the 887 00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:08,320 Egyptian armed forces. Basically, Israeli sources 888 00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:11,120 report that Egyptian soldiers opened fire. 889 00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:15,160 Egyptian soldiers are of course saying that Israel basically 890 00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:17,640 targeted I think one of their watchtowers. 891 00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:23,160 There were reports today and Al Akbar saying that both Egypt and 892 00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:27,960 Israel have agreed to basically defuse the situation and any 893 00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:31,880 inquiry the the results of which are going to be kept 894 00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:35,080 confidential so as not to inflamed. 895 00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:39,000 Particularly an an Egyptian public that is already pretty 896 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:44,720 much up in arms against Egypt's role in facilitating the 897 00:52:44,720 --> 00:52:47,960 genocide and the blockade of Palestinians in Gaza. 898 00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:51,920 In fact, the Egyptian Nasurist party, which to a degree 899 00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:55,680 reflects much of the population's opinions on 900 00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,960 Palestine, calls for the cancellation of the Camp David 901 00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:03,640 of cords signed by President Sadat in 79, which was 902 00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:07,080 effectively Egypt's normalization process with 903 00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:09,680 Israel. So let's have a look at what 904 00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:12,280 they're talking about. So they're saying severing all 905 00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:16,720 ties with the Israeli regime, cancelling all treaties for most 906 00:53:16,720 --> 00:53:20,280 of which are the shameful Camp David accords and peace 907 00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:22,120 agreements. And that, of course, includes 908 00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:26,840 the Philadelphia Accord signed in 2005 that gives Israel some 909 00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:30,960 control of the Rafah border, providing all forms of support 910 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:34,200 to the valiant Palestinian resistance. 911 00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:37,720 Asserting Egypt's sovereign rights over the Rafah border 912 00:53:37,720 --> 00:53:40,320 crossing by opening it for humanitarian aid and the 913 00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:44,200 transfer of injured people without coordination with the 914 00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:46,800 Israeli regime. Lifting the security 915 00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:50,680 restrictions imposed on the citizens and releasing the 916 00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:55,120 prisoners of conscience, especially those detained due to 917 00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:58,400 their participation in pro Palestine protests. 918 00:53:58,960 --> 00:54:02,640 Supporting campaigns, boycotting the companies and products 919 00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:07,640 affiliated with the Israeli regime, the movement also found 920 00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:10,760 the right of the Egyptian and Arab people to utilize all means 921 00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:14,080 and methods of expression and support of the Palestinian 922 00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,480 people. Now interestingly, today in 923 00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:24,200 China and Beijing, there is the Arab state comet heads of Egypt, 924 00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:28,640 Bahrain, Tunisia and UAE to attend cooperation forum in 925 00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:31,000 Beijing during state visits to China. 926 00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:36,720 Basically again Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are floating the idea of 927 00:54:36,720 --> 00:54:40,160 the two state solution. I've given my opinion on that. 928 00:54:41,240 --> 00:54:45,680 But I think really despite the rhetoric that we're hearing, 929 00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:52,000 this may be a potential opportunity for China to try and 930 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:56,160 bring some of these states on board and away from the US and 931 00:54:56,160 --> 00:54:59,920 normalization with Israel. That's the hope. 932 00:55:00,440 --> 00:55:02,560 It remains to be seen. I think it's going to be 933 00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:06,280 extremely difficult with Egypt, who's, you know, completely in 934 00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:11,280 hoc through the IMF and to Saudi Arabia, UAE and to Israel to a 935 00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:13,880 large extent. Yes, OK. 936 00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:15,640 Thank you very much for that, Vanessa. 937 00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:21,240 Now let's let's just bring UKC Verify back on screen again 938 00:55:21,840 --> 00:55:25,720 because this was published in the BBC this morning. 939 00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:30,440 It's another bite at the cherry of the Singapore Airlines plane 940 00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:33,680 which experienced extreme turbulence a few days ago. 941 00:55:34,240 --> 00:55:38,120 Tragically, a British man passed away as a result of this and his 942 00:55:38,120 --> 00:55:41,240 wife and, and a number of other people injured in it. 943 00:55:41,240 --> 00:55:46,840 But never let the cynical British media, you know, take 944 00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:49,240 that. They're going to use that as any 945 00:55:49,240 --> 00:55:51,920 opportunity to suggest climate change, which is what they did, 946 00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:54,800 of course, but the interim report is out on this now. 947 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:58,080 And so they decided they had to create the sensationalist 948 00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:00,320 headline. Singapore Airlines plane dropped 949 00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:04,720 178 feet in five seconds, according to the preliminary 950 00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:08,640 report. But first of all, well, what can 951 00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:11,480 we say about Isaac Newton here, Charles? 952 00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:14,160 Because I wanted to highlight this paragraph in particular, 953 00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:18,160 their preliminary report. This is the the Singaporean 954 00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:25,920 equivalent to the NTSB or the the investigation team for for 955 00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,640 Air Accidents, the AAIB would be the equivalent in the UK. 956 00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:32,720 Their primary report said that rapid changes in gravitational 957 00:56:32,720 --> 00:56:36,560 force caused the altitude drop. What happens when the when 958 00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:39,400 gravity changes, Charles? I'm not sure. 959 00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:42,760 I mean, I, I suspect there was a sort of scrabbling in Newton's 960 00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:45,320 grave as he's struggled to get out to contribute to the news 961 00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:46,480 today. I I don't know. 962 00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:49,440 Yes, indeed. But anyway, the truth is 963 00:56:49,720 --> 00:56:52,760 forgetting about any claims about and I believe Sky News by 964 00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:55,120 the way also tried to claim it was there was some kind of 965 00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:57,760 change in gravitational force involved here. 966 00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:02,280 But what actually happened was that this aircraft flew into 967 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:06,760 absolutely between two major thunderstorms. 968 00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:11,520 Now, unfortunately, the the weather radar on these aircraft 969 00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:14,840 can see what they're approaching, but can't really 970 00:57:14,840 --> 00:57:17,920 see through it, particularly if it's dense thunderstorms and so 971 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:18,840 on. And there was a third 972 00:57:18,840 --> 00:57:21,800 thunderstorm, major thunderstorm behind the two that it was 973 00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:25,040 flying in between. So it ended up hitting some 974 00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:28,560 major turbulence. And apparently what the interim 975 00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:32,480 report says is that it went from experiencing within a few 976 00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:38,080 seconds plus one point 35G to -1 1/2 G. 977 00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:40,640 And that of course caused anybody that wasn't wearing a 978 00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:43,480 seat belt to hit the ceiling in the aircraft. 979 00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:46,720 Quite an aggressive change in direction. 980 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:50,040 And so there was 178 feet foot drop. 981 00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:54,360 But bearing in mind there were 37,000 feet, 178 feet in and of 982 00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:57,760 itself is not a major problem. It was the the speed at which 983 00:57:57,760 --> 00:57:59,960 the altitude change happened that was the problem. 984 00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:04,560 So absolutely fantastic reporting from the BBC on this 985 00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:09,360 and well, we'll do more to highlight their errors in the 986 00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:13,600 coming days and weeks. I just wanted to end with this 987 00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,960 report from Declassified UK. The headline here is King 988 00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:20,560 Charles accepted award from Nazi veteran. 989 00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:24,560 So what they're saying here is that a photograph has been 990 00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:27,320 discovered of the then Prince Charles receiving an award from 991 00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:31,160 former member of the Waffen S S Charles was given an honorary 992 00:58:31,160 --> 00:58:35,280 law degree during a ceremony at the University of Alberta and 993 00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:39,560 Edmonton, Canada in 1983. In his acceptance speech, he 994 00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:42,360 praised those who'd sacrificed their lives 40 years ago, 995 00:58:42,640 --> 00:58:44,200 referring to the Second World War. 996 00:58:44,760 --> 00:58:48,200 Yet the award was conferred to on him by Nazi collaborator. 997 00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:50,480 I go further than that. I don't think that's the 998 00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:53,080 appropriate word. The university's chancellor, 999 00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:56,960 Peter Savarin, originally from Ukraine, he served in the 14th 1000 00:58:56,960 --> 00:59:01,000 Waffen Grenadier Division, otherwise so-called Glacia 1001 00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:06,680 Division, that particular group responsible for absolute 1002 00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:09,720 atrocities in Poland, in particular Total War crimes. 1003 00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:12,880 They were vilified for it after the war, but nonetheless, 1004 00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:18,440 Britain helped a lot of these Ukrainians out of Ukraine at the 1005 00:59:18,440 --> 00:59:21,400 end of the Second World War and they got quite a lot of them got 1006 00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:27,320 sent over to Canada. So anyway, maybe, maybe, perhaps 1007 00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:29,920 if we were being charitable, we could argue that Prince Charles 1008 00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:31,440 can't have known that at the time. 1009 00:59:32,560 --> 00:59:34,840 I do wonder about this. We should remember that of 1010 00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:37,200 course, the family ties to the Nazi party. 1011 00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:41,400 This is Prince Philip his father at the funeral of his sister 1012 00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:46,160 which was course was attended by most of the Nazi dignitaries at 1013 00:59:46,160 --> 00:59:48,680 the time including his brother-in-law. 1014 00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:50,680 The Prince Philip's brother-in-law which who was 1015 00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:55,920 Prince Christophe of Hesse who joined the s s in 1932, so well 1016 00:59:55,920 --> 00:59:59,360 before Hitler came to power. And also Christophe's brother 1017 01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:03,400 also called Philip except with two PS on the end instead of one 1018 01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:07,640 who joined the SA in 1930. He was considered Hitler's 1019 01:00:07,640 --> 01:00:13,120 favorite Prince and actively acted as go between between 1020 01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:15,080 Hitler and Mussolini all the way through the war. 1021 01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:20,680 So until obviously Mussolini was no longer in in charge in Italy 1022 01:00:20,680 --> 01:00:23,520 as it were so. So many, many questions to be 1023 01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:27,480 asked about Prince now, King Charles and the entire family in 1024 01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:30,120 fact. And of course, bearing in mind 1025 01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:34,600 he is pushing and leading the charge towards net zero, I think 1026 01:00:34,600 --> 01:00:38,760 these are reasonable questions to ask as to what his ideology 1027 01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:41,600 actually is. But anyway, we'll leave it 1028 01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:42,840 there. But undoubtedly we'll talk a 1029 01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:45,480 little bit more about that and extra as well in a few minutes. 1030 01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:48,280 So if you are Auk column member, join us for extra in a couple of 1031 01:00:48,280 --> 01:00:50,040 minutes. Just stay on the stream and 1032 01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:52,880 we'll be back. If you're not AUK column member, 1033 01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:57,360 please do consider joining us and then you can watch Extra 1034 01:00:57,520 --> 01:01:02,000 Live and On Demand afterwards, but otherwise, we will see you 1035 01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:05,920 on Friday at 1:00 PM As usual, don't forget the Arnie Burkhart 1036 01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:08,480 interview at 1:00 PM tomorrow. See you then. 1037 01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:09,400 Bye, bye, bye bye.