1 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:10,360 Good afternoon. It's Friday the 14th of November 2 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:13,080 2025, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News. 3 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:15,880 I'm your host Mike Robinson, my Co host in studio today, Patrick 4 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:17,480 Hennigson. Welcome to the program, Patrick. 5 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:20,200 It's great to be with you, Mike. And we're joined today by Mark 6 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:21,840 Anderson. Now, later in the program, we're 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,880 going to be covering tensions in the Baltic, the Arctic and 8 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:27,720 Ukraine. More on Trump and the BBC and 9 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,600 Trump and Epstein and what looks like preparations for for 10 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:35,400 banning VPN use in the United Kingdom and also smart cities. 11 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,560 But we're going to begin today, Patrick, with MP Rupert Lowe's 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,200 comments on Gaza. Well, it's much more than that, 13 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:44,000 in fact, but that's the jumping off point. 14 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:49,320 But here is the topic at hand and this is really focusing on I 15 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,480 think, Britain's role in the war on Gaza. 16 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,440 And so we'll get into this. And this was a comment which was 17 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:01,480 posted on X by the British politician Rupert Lowe. 18 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:03,120 We'll bring this up on screen here. 19 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,000 This is what he had to say. And this is interesting where 20 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,320 this story goes. He is saying Rupert Lowe, MPI 21 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,080 want to know how many Gazans? He doesn't say Palestinians 22 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:14,200 here. He says Gazan. 23 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:19,320 Gazan migrants are being treated on the NHS and at what cost? 24 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:23,320 How many British people have been pushed aside? 25 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:29,080 What number of Gazans dependents have come to, In other words, 26 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:32,120 family members that have come with children to be treated as 27 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:35,200 will show how many have already claimed asylum. 28 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:39,400 Not a single Gazan migrant should be allowed on British 29 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,240 soil. I mean, it's quite a statement, 30 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:43,240 isn't it, Mike? Not. 31 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,440 Palestinian. Palestinian even it's, it's from 32 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:48,920 a British politician, so a lot of aggression here. 33 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,480 And where's the where's the empathy with the injured? 34 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:54,760 Well, we'll, we'll get to that in a moment. 35 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,640 So we, we did a little digging on this and this is the 36 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:02,200 government's official position on this here and we'll bring 37 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,160 this up on screen. This is from uk.gov, the 38 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,280 government website. First group of Gazan children 39 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,680 arrive for specialist NHS treatment. 40 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:16,800 Now this is from September, so it's very recent, by the way, 41 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:21,200 many children have come already and have been treated privately 42 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,760 and that's been organized through a charity that deals 43 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,080 with this sort of thing. But we'll bring this up back up 44 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:29,000 on screen and this is what they say. 45 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,680 The healthcare situation in Gaza remains incredibly difficult 46 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,720 with many unable to access even basic levels of care and 47 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,760 increase difficulties of those who require specialist treatment 48 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:44,120 and support. And so this this brings us to, 49 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,160 you know, the, the policy here, where did this come from? 50 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:49,200 Where did this government directive come from? 51 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,400 Bring the sick and injured home. And this basically is the result 52 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:59,440 of a cross party effort here, cross party group of 96 MPs and 53 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:02,560 senior ministers who wrote to the government urging it to 54 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:06,240 bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK, quote, 55 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:10,200 without delay for treatment, children at the risk of imminent 56 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,680 death. Any barriers to their evacuation 57 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,720 should be lifted. OK, very specific. 58 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,320 It's a cross party effort on this. 59 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:22,560 So let's look at what the Labor ministers are saying on this 60 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:28,240 issue here will bring on screen. This is Wes Streeting, the Labor 61 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,160 Health and social care secretary, and this is what he 62 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:34,480 has to say on the issue. No one can fail to be distressed 63 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:38,720 by the devastating impact of war is as it's had on the children 64 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,880 of Gaza and I cannot imagine the fear and anguish their families 65 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,240 have endured. It is soul destroying situation 66 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:48,160 that compels us to act. And he continues saying this 67 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:52,280 reflects the very best of our NHS values, compassion, care and 68 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,480 expertise when it matters most. I mean most British people I 69 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:57,640 think generally Mike would agree with that statement. 70 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:02,000 That is it comports with British values one would think, 71 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,480 traditionally anyway. So that's what Streeting says. 72 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:09,480 And here is Yvette Cooper. She is the foreign secretary, 73 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:12,720 and she says we continue to call for the protection of medical 74 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:17,839 infrastructure and healthcare workers in Gaza for a huge 75 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:20,880 increase in medicines and supplies to be allowed in. 76 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:22,680 So, I mean, I would agree with that. 77 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:24,920 But is that what the British government are actually doing? 78 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:27,240 That's another question. But anyway, the government is 79 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:30,480 grateful to all its partners who have assisted this operation, 80 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:32,840 including the World Health Organization for the support 81 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,480 with the evacuation process and the government of Jordan, the 82 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,480 Royal Jordanian Hospital organizations as well for 83 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:45,720 facilitating the safe transit and of UK emergency medical team 84 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:49,360 and NHS clinical team for their dedication in providing life 85 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:51,440 saving medical care for these young patients. 86 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:54,840 So, and obviously the World Health Organization's name pops 87 00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:56,680 up there. So I'm some of our viewers are 88 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:00,120 saying, Oh my God, it's, it's The Who, It's, it's Bill Gates 89 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:02,640 or whatever. The World Health Organization is 90 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,480 the intermediary that deals with the visas, the logistics and the 91 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:08,960 transport. And so before you pass judgment, 92 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:12,280 I would say if this was your children that was trapped in 93 00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:15,440 Gaza and needed to get life saving care in the UK and the 94 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,320 and the World Health Organization was providing the 95 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,600 intermediary assistance. Would you say no on the basis of 96 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:23,680 you don't like Bill Gates? I'm just throwing that out to 97 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:27,640 the chat box trying to preempt some of the lewd comments that 98 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:31,880 are likely to arrive to land in our chat box as a result. 99 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,720 But so I agree with all these, Mike, I agree with W Streeting 100 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,760 and Yvette Cooper in principle. What they're saying is correct. 101 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,400 But is that the British government's actual position? 102 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:46,920 These are good words and we can agree with them, but is what is 103 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:48,760 the British government actually doing? 104 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:53,000 The hospitals have been bombed, you know, a 40 something 105 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,960 hospitals and healthcare facilities have been destroyed. 106 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:58,720 Doctors have been murdered and tortured. 107 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:04,120 OK, British volunteers are also included in that, and healthcare 108 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,040 and people. Aid Aid workers killed by the 109 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,560 IDF. British aid workers killed by 110 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,680 the IDF. So what's the British role in 111 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:15,760 all of this? Are are they somehow involved in 112 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,720 the actual? Providing of weapons, for 113 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:20,160 example. Providing of weapons, 114 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:22,520 intelligence assistance. Well, let's look at this here. 115 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,160 And this is the problem, Mike. And this is from Declassified UK 116 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:31,240 This week, British military made at least 49 trips to Israel 117 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,040 during the Gaza war, which is ongoing. 118 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,320 OK, let's look at who made those visits. 119 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:39,880 A number of visits. This is what they've uncovered, 120 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,200 4 times higher than what was previously disclosed. 121 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,720 They only disclosed 12 visits by senior officials, including 122 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:52,560 Admiral Sir Tony Radikin, General Sir James Hulkenhall and 123 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,680 Air Chief Marshall Sir Richard Knighton. 124 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:01,200 OK, those officials have gone back and forth to Israel along 125 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:05,800 with others, and we can't leave out, of course, this man, Labor 126 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:09,120 Defense Secretary John Healey, also traveled to Israel during 127 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,520 the war, meeting his counterpart, yo of gallant 128 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:17,120 months before he was indicted by the International Criminal Court 129 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:21,120 for alleged war crimes. OK, so John Healey, what? 130 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:24,160 So what? What were the British rank and 131 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:28,760 file Mike doing in Israel? But I guess what it's like this 132 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:31,160 colonial inspection of the genocide. 133 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:33,680 Let's see how they're doing the Israelis. 134 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,000 Let's look at the Intel. Let's watch the footage of the 135 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:38,960 buildings being destroyed and so forth. 136 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,840 But it doesn't end there. We'll bring this up on screen as 137 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:44,240 well. And this is Matt Kennard, who's 138 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:46,760 been tracking this for quite a while. 139 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,960 UK participation in the Gaza genocide is not slowing down. 140 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,400 This is from December 2024. He's continued to report on 141 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,440 these flights from RAF Equatori, the space in Cyprus. 142 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,040 OK. And he's showing British spy 143 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,360 planes here returning to Cyprus and back and forth. 144 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:06,880 In other words, they claim the British government, that they're 145 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,760 providing intelligence about finding hostages in Gaza. 146 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,560 But if you consider the fact that Israel's killed many of its 147 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,440 own hostages, that's really providing Intel about targeting 148 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,680 Palestinians, including 200 plus journalists who've been targeted 149 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:24,880 and killed. Is that the sort of data that 150 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:28,200 Israel's processing from the Israeli surveillance or sorry, 151 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,560 the British surveillance flights from the RAF that are taking off 152 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,000 from RAF Equatori? I mean, these are fair 153 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:35,720 questions. So this is what the British 154 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,280 government is doing. On one side is assisting Israel 155 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,720 in destroying Gaza, and on the other side ministers are saying 156 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:45,040 we need to, we need to Save the Children. 157 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:47,960 Now we're all for saving the children, but wouldn't it be 158 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,080 simpler, Mike, just to? Stop the war. 159 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,040 Just to stop enabling and facilitating Israel's slaughter 160 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,200 against the native Palestinian population in Gaza. 161 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,640 I, I, I don't know. It's, it's to me, it's not a 162 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,480 difficult one. But let's see what the, what 163 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:04,880 now? What does the Prime Minister 164 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:07,880 have to say about all this? Well, let's bring this up on 165 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:11,240 screen. The Prime Minister has to say 166 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:14,560 this. Israel has a right to defend 167 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:17,040 itself. That is the party line. 168 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:21,560 And no matter what's going on in Gaza, Kier Starmer maintains 169 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:25,040 that stern line. Israel has a right to defend 170 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,360 itself, even it means the total desolation. 171 00:09:27,680 --> 00:09:30,000 Look, look at the background images here. 172 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:32,720 Just sit. Everything's just been desolate. 173 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:36,520 No one's seen annihilation like this in modern times. 174 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:38,280 And that's Kier Starmer's position. 175 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:41,160 Israel has a right to defend itself. 176 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,600 Israel has a right to defend itself. 177 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:49,600 So you know that I'm just making the argument, Mike, that I 178 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:54,680 support the rhetoric of the ministers on this issue, but I 179 00:09:54,680 --> 00:09:57,640 do not see it being backed up by actual policy. 180 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:02,240 And in terms of dealing with the cause of the problem, that's 181 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:04,960 where the disconnect is. Yes, indeed. 182 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,760 Well, this is an ongoing issue. People are dying. 183 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:13,600 Rupert Lowe, by the way, was asking Prime Minister's 184 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:17,800 Questions on on Wednesday. Should the death penalty be 185 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:22,240 brought back for all the domestic and immigrant criminals 186 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:26,280 that are causing, you know, severe problems in the UK? 187 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,880 He did that more or less on the day that, or at least in 188 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:34,280 parallel with the same kind of an effort in Israel to bring the 189 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,040 death penalty back there. I just find that quite 190 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:38,560 interesting. Clearly from the language that 191 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:41,360 he's using, calling them Gazans and not Palestinians, we sort of 192 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:43,160 see what side of this argument he's on. 193 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:44,480 Well, the press. He died. 194 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,720 If the press or politicians use the word Gazans, OK, this is a 195 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:51,680 way of delegitimizing and dehumanizing Palestinians. 196 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:54,920 Definitely a way of delegitimizing their identity 197 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:58,240 for the Palestinian nation, which has been recognized by 198 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,120 almost every country in the world bar a few. 199 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:03,040 I do. Even Britain has recognized 200 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:07,640 officially a Palestinian state. So where is Rupert Lowe coming 201 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:09,960 from on this? It just seems a bit mendacious 202 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:14,040 and a bit too pro, I think pro Zionist or pro Israeli in the 203 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,400 absolute extreme. And it this is extremism we're 204 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:20,000 talking about, make no mistake about it. 205 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,560 OK, well, NATO in the meantime has announced that the United 206 00:11:24,560 --> 00:11:28,600 States Air Force B52 Strata Fortress bombers from Berksdale 207 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:33,600 Air Force Base, Louisiana have arrived in Moron Air Force Base 208 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:37,120 in Spain. That happened on the 8th of 209 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,240 November this year. This is to begin multilateral 210 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:42,480 training under Bomber Task Force Europe. 211 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:46,440 And the quote is that the deployment strengthens 212 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:49,440 coordination, cohesion with Allied and partner air forces 213 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:51,800 including Finland, Lithuania and Sweden. 214 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:56,000 And they say that operating from Moron, the aircraft will fly 215 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:59,360 training missions across Europe, supporting deterrence and 216 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:01,800 defence operations along NATO's eastern flank. 217 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:05,160 And the High N missions in northern regions are starting to 218 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:08,640 integrate under NATO's new Combined Air Operations centre 219 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:12,720 in which is based in Norway, which was inaugurated in October 220 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,360 2025. The new command node enhances, 221 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,240 they say, NATO's ability to oversee and coordinate air 222 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:22,880 operations across the Nordic and Arctic regions, complementing 223 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:27,160 existing places in Germany and in Spain. 224 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,920 So what's this all about? Well, the Arctic is certainly 225 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:36,080 part of it and particularly following the much non reported 226 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:40,600 inaugural voyage of a container ship along the Arctic Silk Road 227 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,760 which arrived in Felixstowe in the UK on the 14th of October. 228 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:48,040 So clearly you know that is an ongoing pressure point as far as 229 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:50,720 NATO is concerned. But it's also about the Baltic 230 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:55,040 and Russian shipping. We had the annual Operation 231 00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:59,840 Boltops Boltops exercises a few months ago, and this week it was 232 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:04,120 the turn of NATO's Playbook Merlin 2025, hosted by Sweden 233 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,120 and led by NATO's Allied Maritime Command. 234 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:11,560 Now Playback Play Playbook Merlin 25 brings together what 235 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:14,520 they described as cutting edge tactics, technology and 236 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:16,720 teamwork. This is really exciting 237 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:20,280 language, isn't it? Teamwork, like maybe team up to 238 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,000 blow up pipelines or something like that. 239 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:23,640 We may be coming on to that in a second. 240 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:29,120 But anyway, the this was an anti submarine warfare exercise in 241 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:35,360 the Baltic Sea and it included Germany, Sweden, United States, 242 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:41,000 France, the Netherlands and at least one B52, which is as we've 243 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,880 just mentioned, is now based in Spain, flew a mission into the 244 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:47,360 Baltic region alongside Playbook Merlin. 245 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,520 At one point that B52 was over Estonia, having flown over 246 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,040 southern Sweden and Finland, practicing simulated bombing 247 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:58,480 runs with Swedish and Finnish fighter jets is reported to have 248 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:00,920 flown within 50 miles of the Russian border. 249 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:04,280 And you know it's. It's a pretty clear provocation. 250 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:09,480 What, what are they hoping to achieve by that? 251 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,800 I mean, besides the flex operationally, do they really 252 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,360 think it's a viable actual operation? 253 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:18,840 They're just, I mean. Poking the bears all their 254 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:19,400 attention. That's all. 255 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:23,920 Yeah, it's just a provocation. Now Military Watch online 256 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:27,200 magazine reported on the 10th of November that Britain's armed 257 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:31,360 forces are in Estonia practicing military exercises to capture 258 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:35,000 and board Russian ships, as well as to prepare amphibious 259 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:39,000 landings and Russian coastal facilities should quote hostiles 260 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,280 for sorry hostilities further escalate, they say. 261 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:44,800 The British Armed Forces have deployed Royal Marine Special 262 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:48,240 Forces from the 42 and 47 Commando units as part of a 263 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:51,320 Special Operations Maritime task group to simulate covert 264 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:55,000 boarding operations against enemy ships, coastal raids and 265 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,440 the seizure of oil rigs. Exercises are taking place in 266 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:01,200 the eastern Baltic Sea, close to the Ukrainian Theatre, where 267 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:04,840 Royal Marines have also been involved in open hostilities 268 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,360 with Russian forces. They say exercises saw the 269 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:12,040 Marines rehearse rapid interdiction and coastal raiding 270 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:16,200 in coordination with the British Army's 3rd Ranger Battalion, and 271 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,680 under which they deployed to capture ships and oil 272 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,360 installations and so on. So I mean, this is also 273 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:25,280 absolutely nuts. Was about interdicting. 274 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:27,640 It's what Starmer said. And we need to stop Russia's 275 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:30,000 shadow fleet. We can't allow Russia to, you 276 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,520 know, transport energy or do trade in the Baltic. 277 00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:36,600 I mean, this is the prelude to absolute war. 278 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,000 The wars have been started over this very behavior, over these 279 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,640 very policies. They're really playing with fire 280 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:44,280 here. And I wonder what is the end 281 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:47,960 game other than World War three? I mean, because that's where 282 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,120 this type of thing leads. And is this what the British 283 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:53,480 government want? Is this what NATO wants? 284 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,480 Is that what Brussels wants? Is that what Finland? 285 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:57,800 Wants. It's how it looks. 286 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:01,200 It's absolutely how it looks. It's crazy that the frontline 287 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,920 countries like Sweden and Finland knew NATO members that 288 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:09,120 were basically coerced into NATO under a whole lot of hype and 289 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,560 hysteria in in April and May of 2022. 290 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:15,840 And these were previously neutral countries and now 291 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:21,280 they're the West, of course, are using Sweden and Finland as a 292 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,880 cudgel against Russia in the same way they've been using 293 00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:30,680 Ukraine against Russia as well. So I, I, people in the, in the 294 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,040 Nordic countries, I just, I can't believe how absolutely 295 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:37,880 insane and stupid their governments and their society 296 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,200 are to have gone along with this and not realizing the 297 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:43,560 implications of it. The fact that they were safe 298 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:45,360 before and now they are now at risk. 299 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,560 I find that to be breathtaking. But let's come on to Nord Stream 300 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:51,520 then. Well, but the background of 301 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:54,280 this, of course, is Nordstrom. They're talking about submarine 302 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:57,560 drills in in the Baltic. I wonder if they'll interdict 303 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,720 NATO submarines that are involved in sabotage of major 304 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:03,840 European energy infrastructure projects. 305 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:07,079 Who knows, but in the background is the Nordstrom. 306 00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:09,960 I'm sorry, we'll go back to the previous slide. 307 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:12,200 We'll bring this up on screen right now. 308 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,359 And so the Italian court, it's starting to get a little bit 309 00:17:16,359 --> 00:17:17,839 interesting. But this is part of the red 310 00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,440 herring operation. The Italian court approves the 311 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:22,760 extradition of Nordstrom suspect to Germany. 312 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:25,280 They're talking about one of these crack Ukrainian super 313 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:28,640 soldiers that allegedly used this sailboat. 314 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,000 Don't laugh everybody. It's not us, it's the Wall 315 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,320 Street Journal. They use this 50 foot sailboat 316 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,680 to supposedly hit 3 pipelines that are, you know, in the 317 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:42,040 bottom of the Baltic, impossible to locate. 318 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:45,120 And with the amount of equipment and so forth, they did. 319 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:47,800 They did it all out of a 50 foot pleasure craft. 320 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:51,160 OK, believe it or not, so that they're still using, but they're 321 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:56,000 using this Ukrainian Nordstrom story, Mike, to basically divert 322 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,480 attention away from the Western countries and NATO. 323 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:02,920 And what more likely is that these pipelines were prepped 324 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:09,560 during ball tops, 22 in June and July of 2022 and detonated in 325 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,200 September 2022 with the other NATO drill that was going on at 326 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:16,120 that time. So the Ukrainian red herring 327 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:18,040 story is just a convenient distraction. 328 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,120 And so this is going on. It's also being used to create 329 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:24,120 tension between Poland and Germany. 330 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,400 And the United States is quietly pushing that, as are the 331 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,480 British. So, and the reason they're doing 332 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:31,840 that is they're trying to maneuver Poland and Germany 333 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,960 strategically in order to do certain things vis A vis Ukraine 334 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:38,800 and also manipulate the politics in Poland. 335 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:41,520 It's very clear that's what's going on, including the claims 336 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,040 of reparations. Polar is asking for reparations 337 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:48,360 now for World War 2, imagine from Germany after 80 years and 338 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:49,960 the United States is egging them on. 339 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:53,480 At the same time, they're also claiming to, you know, want to 340 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,520 support Germany as well, but they're trying to the, the, the 341 00:18:56,560 --> 00:19:00,240 US want to move a lot of their assets from Germany into Poland. 342 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,000 In terms of moving the Iron Curtain, the new Iron Curtain, 343 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:07,000 further eastward, That's the bigger picture. 344 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:09,280 And the other thing that's going on between Germany and the 345 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,240 Poland and Poland at the moment, which isn't getting very much 346 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,680 coverage over here is that Poland is accusing Germany of 347 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,640 dumping migrants that are in Germany across the border into 348 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:20,400 Poland. And so this is another sort of 349 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,720 tension inflection point. So it's it's the relationship 350 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,600 between those two countries is quite shaky it seems. 351 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:28,200 Yeah. And the migrant issue of course, 352 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,560 again being used as a little bit of a tool as it was between 353 00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:35,040 Poland and Belarus, which I I might report more on as I learn 354 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,360 more about that story recently by doing on the ground 355 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:39,520 investigation. Right. 356 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:43,280 OK, Well, well, if we think that what we've heard so far in this 357 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,520 segment is insane, let's have a look at this because this is 358 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:51,000 task, the Russian media outlet and they're reporting that the 359 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:53,800 Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, has issued a 360 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:57,600 statement claiming that Ukraine has been planning the false flag 361 00:19:57,600 --> 00:19:59,600 of all false flags. According to the statement 362 00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:02,400 quotes, the Federal Security Service has uncovered and 363 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,120 thwarted in operation by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's 364 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:09,560 Main Intelligence Directorate. And it's UK supervisors to 365 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,200 hijack a Russian Big 31 supersonic fighter jet, which is 366 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,840 equipped with a hypersonic missile and flight abroad. 367 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,240 In order to hijack the aircraft of Ukrainian military, 368 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,440 intelligence officers tried to recruit Russian pilots, offering 369 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:27,280 $3,000,000. The special services then plan 370 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,840 to send the jet with the missile to an area where NATO's largest 371 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,280 air base in the Southeastern Europe is located in the 372 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:38,120 Romanian city of Constanta, where it could be shot down by 373 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:41,960 air defences. And they're saying that the the 374 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,320 measures taken have thwarted the plans of the Ukrainian and UK 375 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:48,520 intelligence services to carry out a large scale provocation. 376 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:55,480 So that that is quite a staggering claim by the by the 377 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:59,240 Russian FSB here. But let's see what Sergei Lavrov 378 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:01,480 had to say about it if we bring him on screen, he said. 379 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:04,960 London's Honshon for provoking situations is, of course, 380 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,280 notorious. Take the recent recent case 381 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,400 where Russia's Russian FSB exposed the plot to trick a 382 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,760 Russian pilot flying a fighter jet armed with the Kaizal 383 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:18,520 missile into flying into flying to a base in Constanta, Romania, 384 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,320 with a fake order. The obvious intent was for the 385 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,600 plane to be shot down, creating the pretext to accuse Russia of 386 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,080 attacking NATO. But I'll set that aside for now. 387 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:29,880 The FSB has already laid out the details. 388 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,880 I don't know how the British will wash away the stain, but 389 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,520 they've always had a remarkable talent for this, like a duck 390 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,320 that waddles away from a shower without a drop of water on its 391 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:43,120 back. He, he is, he is, he is good 392 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:46,120 crack in some ways, Patrick. Now, of course, the way that the 393 00:21:46,120 --> 00:21:48,320 British are going to wash away the stains. 394 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,160 So they claim that this is just merely Russian disinformation 395 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:53,200 and that there's nothing to see here. 396 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:54,680 What are your thoughts? Well. 397 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,800 First of all, if this false flag was allowed to happen, just 398 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:02,120 imagine, OK, just imagine it went through and the NATO then 399 00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:06,160 shot down this false flag Mig jet and what, how would the 400 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:10,040 Western press react? I mean, let's in reality, what 401 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,960 would Russia gain from sending an old Megan with a Kinshaw 402 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,400 missile to hit, to fire a single to fire in a NATO base when 403 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:21,400 obviously that's going to open up a whole sort of Pandora's box 404 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:23,400 in, in terms of Article 5 madness. 405 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:25,400 And you know what the Western reaction is? 406 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,160 I know the propaganda line so well. 407 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,400 They'll say Putin is emboldened because we have not been tough 408 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,440 enough against the Russians and he's so emboldened and now he's 409 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:38,040 really shoving it in our face. He's really taking the piss by 410 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:41,560 sending an old Mig to to send a Kinshaw missile. 411 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:45,880 You think we're joking? That's exactly the media line 412 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:48,120 and that's exactly what our ministers would stand up in 413 00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:50,360 government and say. They'd say it's because we're 414 00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:52,000 not. We haven't been tough enough on 415 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,680 these Russians and now they're emboldened. 416 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:58,200 They're sending, you know, dilapidated air aircraft in to 417 00:22:58,200 --> 00:22:59,840 hit to hit our biggest NATO bases. 418 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:04,960 I mean, this is just insane. But yet I I believe this is 419 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,640 these types of plots are being hatched, hatched and you know 420 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:10,400 there's more of them. OK. 421 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,480 Well, let's then move to the question of the Caribbean. 422 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,400 And the question is, well, first of all, the question is, where 423 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:21,920 is the USS Gerald R Ford? Because it may be there or maybe 424 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:23,840 actually in the Atlantic somewhere. 425 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:26,760 It's not really clear. But the other question is why 426 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,720 has Britain stopped sharing some intelligence with the United 427 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,080 States on drug trafficking activities in the region? 428 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:35,200 Now the New York Times here is saying it's because Britain 429 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,000 doesn't want to be complicit in U.S. military strikes on the 430 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,920 drug boats because Britain believes the attacks are 431 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:42,800 illegal. I'm just going to say, like 432 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,400 Britain worried about that at any time in the past, they 433 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,920 haven't worried too much about getting involved in illegal 434 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,360 operations with the United States before, have they? 435 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:52,840 And we're sure there's no British assets on the ground in 436 00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:56,160 Central America running around the jungles posing as a Nature 437 00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:57,560 Photographers and things like that. 438 00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,440 I'm sure that's not happening. I'm sure it's not happening at 439 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:00,720 all. But look, none of this is 440 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,840 stopping Secretary of War Pete Exith, who's announced Southern 441 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,960 Spear. And I wonder, will Gerald Ford 442 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,960 be part of this? It's clear that it's clear, at 443 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,800 least to me, that the US is wrapping things up here on a 444 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,120 Wednesday. Then speaking in Indiana, Hexif 445 00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:20,920 had this to say. So let's have a look at this 446 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:26,400 video clip. We are deterring China's 447 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,000 influence around the world, not to mention the Panama Canal. 448 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,600 Where we are. Freeing that canal from malign 449 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:37,160 Chinese influence. Ensuring that American ships can 450 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:42,280 sail freely. So we're opening up on all 451 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,680 fronts, it seems, but. What was the Panama do you say 452 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:47,080 Panama. Panama Canal so. 453 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:49,320 I didn't realize China took over the Panama Canal. 454 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:51,440 Is this? No, this is Trump's allegation 455 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:53,600 going back this. Is new news. 456 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,720 This is breaking. But but look, well, if you 457 00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,240 remember Patrick, back in April, Hexes announced deeper security 458 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,600 cooperation with Panama because of this, including joint 459 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:07,240 training, more frequent US, Panama military exercises and 460 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,760 even AUS an increased US presence. 461 00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:15,240 So my question is, is, is this is the Venezuela thing a front 462 00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,520 for actually, is Panama actually the target here at the end of 463 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,120 the day or it are they just taking advantage of of, you 464 00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:25,080 know, all, you know, two birds, one stone sort of thing. 465 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,080 But certainly the the the military presence in the region 466 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:30,640 is being wrapped up. That said, there could be some 467 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,760 credence to Pete had sex allegations there because we 468 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:37,540 have detected a high sharp increase of China Chinese take 469 00:25:37,540 --> 00:25:41,840 away restaurants in Panama City just in the last 24 months. 470 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,040 So there might be some legs to this. 471 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,480 But all jokes aside, Mike, you're absolutely correct. 472 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,520 Geopolitically, those are the big choke points. 473 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,320 It's not just the Panama Canal, but the other competing canals 474 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:57,120 through the the massive lake in Nicaragua. 475 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,960 But also they have other projects China is involved in 476 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:05,560 vis A vis southern Mexico that would bypass the Panama Canal by 477 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,680 a combination of ports and high speed rail and and with 478 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:11,880 industrial bases built around that. 479 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,920 So in other words, the Chinese and the Mexicans are way ahead 480 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,000 in terms of their own economic interests. 481 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,640 And the Panama Canal is 120 year old relic. 482 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:22,480 Relic. Yeah. 483 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:26,040 So I mean, America's not happy about it, but I'm sorry you guys 484 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:26,760 are. I don't know. 485 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,920 They've been messing around in the Middle East maybe for the 486 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,480 last 40 years. Maybe if you had focused on your 487 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,720 own hemisphere Washington, you wouldn't be having this 488 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,880 conversation now. Well, let's let's move on then 489 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:41,480 to Ukraine. And, well, it's not corrupt at 490 00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,680 all. Well, this is well, this is 491 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,800 nothing new, but it's what's what's new about this is the 492 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:50,680 fact that this story is being put front and center in the 493 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,720 global media. Normally it'd be about 494 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,200 protecting the Zelensky regime here. 495 00:26:55,200 --> 00:27:00,640 Ukraine corruption scandal, $100 million plot which is rocking 496 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,920 Zelensky. That's the correct spelling 497 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,640 there with two Y's. So this is through NABU, the 498 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,680 national Anti Corruption Bureau. This was set up by Victoria 499 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:13,960 Nuland and her gang in 2014. And why did the US set up an 500 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,800 anti corruption Bureau in Ukraine? 501 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,520 It wasn't to stop corruption. It was to stop any potential 502 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,240 whistleblowers and to protect the corruption that the US was 503 00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:24,880 favoring. And if you think about what Joe 504 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:29,120 Biden got up to throughout his tenure as vice president, then 505 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:32,440 you you understand why Naboo was put into place. 506 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,080 So the fact that this is being the scandal is being highlighted 507 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:40,000 and put out by Naboo, which is a pretrial investigation unit, 508 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:42,360 tells me. And in fact, that it hits the 509 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,440 Zelensky's inner circle, which we'll show you in a minute, that 510 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,560 this is bad news for Zelensky, really bad news. 511 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:52,320 It means the US have taken the protection off of Zelensky. 512 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,880 Let's take a closer look at this scandal here. 513 00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:00,000 And so who is Tamir Minditch? This is Zelensky's business 514 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,200 partner basically here. And how is he involved in this? 515 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,120 Yes, there are piles of cash and photos of these circulating 516 00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:10,000 online. And this is the in and out of 517 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,080 this is reportedly has links to Israel. 518 00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:14,800 This is from the Ukrainian press, by the way. 519 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,360 Mintage celebrated his birthday in Israel in September, returned 520 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:21,520 to Ukraine in mid-october and then went to Israel again. 521 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,800 According to Ukrainian sources. He's also a longtime friend of 522 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:32,200 Zelensky, not just a friend, co-owner of Cavartol 95. 523 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,600 That's Zelensky's media production outfit that was 524 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:39,360 bankrolled by Igor Kolomoisky, that created Servant of the 525 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:41,800 People. That was the sort of covert 526 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,600 influence operation to prepare the public for him running for 527 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,320 president. So that so this is a big 528 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:50,640 scandal. And so it looks like this is 529 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,560 Zelensky's inner circle being pinched here. 530 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,760 It's funny, Mike, how this tracks back to Israeli organized 531 00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,640 crime. It's just unbelievable, but it 532 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,040 shouldn't really surprise anybody here. 533 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,840 So all this is happening at the same time Zelensky is begging 534 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:11,960 for, well, arms. 27 Patriot missile systems from the US. 535 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,320 But in the meantime, it's going to take years to fulfill those 536 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,960 orders. So Zelensky says he wants to 537 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,000 borrow the European allies systems. 538 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,560 So Ukraine's going to empty Europe of its air defenses. 539 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:27,800 It doesn't get any better than this, does it? 540 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,000 And so this is what he said to the Guardian recently here. 541 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:36,120 So from AUK perspective, you know, why would you be pouring 542 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,080 money into Ukraine? And Keir Starmer says we're 543 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,320 standing shoulder to shoulder with Zelensky. 544 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,600 We're going to keep, I think they just okayed another big 545 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,960 Christmas aid package for Ukraine here. 546 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:50,160 Let's look at the total spend, though, from the UK government 547 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,400 and we'll go to the House of Commons library here. 548 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,040 And we did the math or they did the math for us actually on this 549 00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,040 and very close the relationship. I mean if if we did a slideshow 550 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,000 of how many photos we have of them hugging in different 551 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,160 locations. I counted at least 20 before the 552 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:07,480 program. The public photos. 553 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:12,880 Yes, indeed. 21.8 billion since February 2022. 554 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,880 Mike, think of how many track and trace apps the British 555 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:20,560 government could have made with that 21.8 billion. 556 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,800 I mean, so where is all that money going? 557 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,280 Think of all these corruption and graph scandals. 558 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,280 The thing about this latest one, it involves the protection of 559 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,200 Ukraine's energy infrastructure from Russian attacks. 560 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,200 So they're talking about protecting Ukraine's nuclear 561 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,600 facilities. Why would Russia ever attack a 562 00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:40,760 Ukrainian nuclear facility? Of course it wouldn't. 563 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,920 But the electronic warfare systems and some of these 564 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,800 defense systems, all the stuff is going out the back door 565 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,680 kickbacks for government contracts, All of this stuff is 566 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:52,680 been going. This is just what's been caught, 567 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:54,400 OK? This has been happening 568 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:57,600 continuously for years. So if you're, if you're UK 569 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:00,040 government and other European countries, they're throwing 570 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:04,680 money away because very, I, I, I would say very little of this is 571 00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:07,720 being used and actually on the ground for what's intended for 572 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,160 in terms of, in terms of aid here. 573 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,720 So, and, and the context of this is here and we'll look at this 574 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,120 UK pledges. Remember this story 100 year 575 00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:22,480 pact, this was from last year or beginning of the year, January 576 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:25,560 2025. So this was this grand 100 year 577 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,240 commitment for Ukraine. This was the government's 578 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:30,960 pledge. So what I'm saying, Mike, here 579 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,920 is that this is not a good investment, Ukraine. 580 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,760 I mean, think of how how much austerity is going on right now 581 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,560 in the UK And since 2022, they've thrown away over $20 582 00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:46,800 billion for what? Are they winning the war? 583 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,680 Are they doing better or is this a losing gambit? 584 00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:54,440 Is this or are we, are we in the sunk cost fallacy type zone 585 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:56,280 here? It's incredible. 586 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:57,840 People need to ask these questions. 587 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:59,720 The numbers certainly aren't looking good. 588 00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:03,120 So in the meanwhile in Europe, and this is the other thing, 589 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:05,200 this is not a popular war in Ukraine. 590 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,760 And, and this story is just so emblematic. 591 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:12,120 Moscow is mocking Zelensky after Berlin asks Kiev to keep its 592 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,840 fighting aged males. So basically Ukraine is having 593 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,840 problems with conscription. They're having problems getting 594 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,400 able bodied males to populate the frontline positions. 595 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,720 And Germany's saying that's enough with your, you know, 596 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,760 migrants and so forth. You can keep your fighting aged 597 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:31,200 males. We don't want them anymore. 598 00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,880 I would think Germany might want them for for conscription 599 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,840 themselves because they'll have problems conscripting or getting 600 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,560 people to at least volunteer to join the German armed forces to 601 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,360 meet the levels that we talked about on Wednesday. 602 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:49,640 But just to show you how, again, to underline how unpopular and 603 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:54,920 how incredibly crazy the government in Kiev is in trying 604 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:59,360 to abduct people off the street to serve in Ukrainian armed 605 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,600 forces, there are literally thousands of these videos 606 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:04,800 circulating online the last couple of years. 607 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:07,960 This one is particularly harrowing of watch this. 608 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:12,560 This is in Ukraine. This is Zelensky's press gangs 609 00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,000 trying to pick up people for the front lines. 610 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:28,280 Watch this. None. 611 00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:11,159 I. And another one for the meat 612 00:34:11,159 --> 00:34:13,400 grinder. I mean, remember Defense 613 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:17,159 Secretary John Healy, Britains effort to support Ukraine, much 614 00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:21,120 must match the defiance of the Ukrainians, the defiance of the 615 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:23,520 Ukrainians. You just saw the defiance of the 616 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:25,600 Ukrainians. So they're abducting what was 617 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:28,760 the son, maybe the husband of that poor woman screaming 618 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,800 because the Ukrainians know it's a death sentence. 619 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,639 It's a very unpopular war. And yet our European governments 620 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,199 are saying, oh, this is a great noble effort. 621 00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:40,440 It's not. And the president of Ukraine 622 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:43,920 doesn't want to have elections. He is a dictator. 623 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,760 Let that one sink in, yes? OK, let's move on then. 624 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:53,800 And well, as we can see from NBC News here, their headline is 625 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:58,760 Jeffrey Epstein wrote Trump knew about the girls and referenced 626 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,320 Mar a Lago in newly released emails. 627 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:07,240 Mark, let me welcome you to the program and just bring us up to 628 00:35:07,240 --> 00:35:10,200 date with with what has happened yesterday in particular. 629 00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:15,560 Yeah, I like to say this just in and that applies this time. 630 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:17,960 Good day, gentlemen, and UK viewers and members. 631 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:24,400 Over the last 48 hours, the US House Committee on Oversight has 632 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:29,400 been the main source of a tranche of correspondence 633 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,840 raising questions about Trump and Epstein's relationship. 634 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:35,800 This is according to the Democratic side, on the left 635 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,800 part of the slide, the Democratic members of that House 636 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,880 Oversight Committee and they're talking about Trump's apparent 637 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,880 or alleged knowledge means crimes and relationship to the 638 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,280 victims. The other slide to the right, 639 00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:51,120 The other item to the right of this slide is a more general 640 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:52,840 House Oversight Committee release. 641 00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:56,680 Oversight Committee releases additional Epstein estate 642 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,960 documents. This has to do with lawyers and 643 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:03,920 the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein. 644 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:09,000 And so there's been a release in total of about 20,000 pages, 645 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:14,320 they're saying. And the Democrats have released 646 00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:18,480 what they think are the more salacious items, select emails. 647 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,160 And the Republicans have countered that the Democrats are 648 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,320 cherry picking this. And Trump is maintaining that 649 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:29,080 this is a conspiracy and a hoax, as he pretty much has always 650 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,840 maintained. Some point to a couple of months 651 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:37,960 ago when Ghislaine Maxwell, who's now in prison, spoke to 652 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:43,000 there was a recorded testimony to A to the Department of 653 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,800 Justice. And she said that, you know, 654 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,400 Trump really didn't have any direct involvement. 655 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:52,800 And some people point to that. However, this latest release 656 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,440 could, could change the landscape considerably, though 657 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,800 we'll know a lot more in the days, weeks and even months 658 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:00,480 ahead. Maybe we can talk about it more 659 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:08,480 in, in, in extra. The BBC has noted that within 660 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:12,440 hours, House Republicans released a massive tranche of 661 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,600 documents to counter the Democratic effort to to cherry 662 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,160 pick this. In other words, the the large 663 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,960 amount of documents seems to be just sort of a deliberate 664 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:25,320 avalanche of information to sort of water down what the Democrats 665 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,640 are allegedly cherry picking to what they're asserting that 666 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:33,360 Trump was more involved with girls at Epstein's, you know, a 667 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,280 fantasy island, that sort of thing. 668 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:39,560 So the history of this is also quite interesting. 669 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:43,920 I'm looking back to American Free Press to refresh my memory 670 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:48,080 on this in an article that I proofread sometime back back in 671 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:52,280 August. And a lot of this goes to the 672 00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:56,440 efforts of Representative Thomas Massie, arguably the biggest 673 00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:00,840 renegade in Congress and in the Republican Party, who's willing 674 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:03,760 to speak out against the party line on a number of issues, 675 00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:06,560 especially a salacious and sensitive 1 like this. 676 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:11,520 And Massey and a Democrat, Representative ROH Khanna of 677 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:13,840 California. Massey, of course, is a Kentucky 678 00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,000 Republican. They held a press conference 679 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,200 back in August, I believe it was, with many of the young 680 00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:22,880 victims of Epstein's sexual trafficking. 681 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:27,080 And those victims spoke out. And Marjorie Taylor Green, the 682 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:31,080 Georgia Republican, who's also a bit of a rebel, was alongside 683 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:35,200 Massey at that time. And they stood with the victims, 684 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,280 and the victim spoke out and gave what looked to be 685 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:42,560 convincing testimony about their harrowing experiences with the 686 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:48,040 Epstein sex trafficking racket. And so it's an interesting 687 00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:51,800 thing. Massey blasted at the Times 688 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,320 House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has tried to resist this 689 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,800 avalanche of information. And what Massey said at the time 690 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,160 about House Speaker Johnson was as follows. 691 00:39:01,720 --> 00:39:04,960 What the speaker is asking you to believe when this is all over 692 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:10,680 is that Epstein and Maxwell have 1000 victims themselves and 693 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:15,320 nobody else was involved. And the day DOJ has no idea who 694 00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:18,120 else might have been involved in that sex trafficking ring, 695 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:21,840 that's obviously false. And then there was also talk at 696 00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,280 that press conference about alleged victims that 697 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:29,760 mysteriously died that maybe knew considerable, considerable 698 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:33,680 information about what was really going on in Epstein's 699 00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:37,800 venue. So that's that's the essentials 700 00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:40,280 of it. So hats off to Massey for having 701 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,960 the guts on the Republican side and Marjorie Taylor Green to 702 00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:47,600 stand their ground and get more objectivity and a deeper look at 703 00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:49,880 this. But that's the latest. 704 00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:51,600 Maybe you guys would want to comment. 705 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:53,840 And of course, we can extrapolate an extra if you'd 706 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:56,480 like. Yeah, just a quick comment. 707 00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:01,440 Look, Massey was also attacked by Trump and the Israeli lobby. 708 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,120 And one of the reasons he's been attacked and threatened to be 709 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:08,080 primaried in the next election is because of this issue. 710 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,640 I think what this proves is that Trump lied about his 711 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:13,800 relationship with Jeff Epstein, he says. 712 00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:16,400 I hardly knew the guy. Clearly he more than knew him. 713 00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:18,600 They were very close friends, spent a lot. 714 00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:21,000 A lot of time together. So this really cuts at the 715 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,080 credibility of Trump and the president. 716 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,200 And I think it shows that the president is compromised because 717 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:32,160 at the same time this release comes, we find out confirmation 718 00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:37,280 that Jeff Epstein was an Israeli intelligence operative, clearly. 719 00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:40,960 So that means Donald Trump, if you consider all of his Israel 720 00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,800 policies, how slavishly gushingly pro Israel he is. 721 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:48,840 And now we, we put this into the frame, it's clear that this this 722 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,200 is a president who is deeply compromised. 723 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,040 And that's really disturbing. It should be a disturbing from 724 00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:57,480 an American point of view. And not only that, Trump is 725 00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:02,240 covering up the Epstein scandal with his DOJ and his FBI. 726 00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:03,880 They're completely covering it up. 727 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,600 So he's lying to the public and he's running a cover up to me. 728 00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:10,280 And This is why MAGA is falling apart. 729 00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:14,360 And ultimately this will be the issue that basically brands MAGA 730 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:17,240 as a complete fraud. And now we're we're we're 731 00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:20,280 beginning to see what an absolute fraud this whole 732 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:22,880 movement was. It is basically a branding 733 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:25,640 exercise, a bunch of red hats made in China. 734 00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:29,600 And this level of corruption should be unacceptable to all 735 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,960 Americans. But yet there is still a 736 00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:35,080 hardcore that are hanging on to defend this president. 737 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,720 I think it's unbelievable. Well, undoubtedly we'll talk 738 00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:42,480 more about that in extra. Thank you very much both of you 739 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:44,320 for that. Now, if you like what the UK 740 00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:47,280 column does, you would like to support us, head over to the 741 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:52,240 website, the front page. There you'll find a link to take 742 00:41:52,240 --> 00:41:54,200 you to page which shows how you can support us. 743 00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,880 We absolutely do need your financial support if you can 744 00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,800 possibly do that. So please join us as a member or 745 00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:03,080 make a donation. If you can't do that, then share 746 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,800 any of the material you see on the UK column website because 747 00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,160 that helps us beat the censorship regime that we're 748 00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:10,480 going to be talking about in a minute. 749 00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:14,720 Weekly banter with Charles, myself and Jerem will be at 7:00 750 00:42:14,720 --> 00:42:21,760 PM tonight and and we will have a a sorry, that is the wrong 751 00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,040 graphic because that's from Wednesday's programme. 752 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,360 But we will have a Silk of Steel podcast going out tonight at 753 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,440 9:00. So so join Carl for that. 754 00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:34,280 And well, also tonight is Andrew bridging in the Seven Stars and 755 00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:35,320 taught Ness. It is. 756 00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:36,440 It is. This is going to be a great 757 00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:38,160 event. This is sold out, by the way, I 758 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:40,880 just found out. The organizers just told us it's 759 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,280 sold out. There might be a few tickets, I 760 00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:46,880 say a handful of tickets for cash at the door. 761 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,720 It's totally sold out. It's going to be a full house. 762 00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:53,240 Andrew Bridgen, of course, is a fantastic public speaker. 763 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:55,160 So a lot of people are looking forward to this. 764 00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:58,240 Certainly I am as well and some of our supporters will be 765 00:42:58,240 --> 00:43:00,800 attending this tonight in Totnes. 766 00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:03,200 OK. And a reminder of a couple of 767 00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:06,200 digital ID events, the Cumbria Against Government portrayal 768 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,200 event happening at Carlisle Market Square and that's 769 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:13,040 tomorrow at 1:00 PM. Diane is going to be speaking at 770 00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:18,400 that and the once again the guys in Glasgow will be out at the 771 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:21,160 bottom of Jamaica St. by the River Clyde near the Crystal 772 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:25,280 Palace pub to go and help them. If you'd like to support them in 773 00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:29,000 getting the word out on digital ID, brilliant T-shirt there. 774 00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,480 It's an interesting T-shirt. Absolutely. 775 00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:37,800 OK, let's let's move on to this online safety related news 776 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:41,400 because Ofcom, at least tech Radar here is is talking about 777 00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,760 this being an exclusive. Ofcom has told Tech Radar that 778 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:49,040 it's using an unnamed third party tool to monitor VPN use 779 00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:51,320 that's virtual private network use in the UK. 780 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:56,520 Ofcom is refusing to name the platform that they're using, 781 00:43:56,520 --> 00:44:00,400 though, but it seems to have some kind of artificial 782 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:04,640 intelligence capabilities and Tech Radar, saying that despite 783 00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:06,920 assurances that personal information isn't being 784 00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:10,560 accessed, privacy concerns remain now. 785 00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:13,480 Do you think that third party starts with AP by the way? 786 00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:16,560 It may well do I I couldn't possibly comment, but anyway, 787 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:20,240 Tech Radar contacted Ofcom and asked them to clarify how it's 788 00:44:20,240 --> 00:44:25,200 accessing information about VPN use in the UK and Ofcom said 789 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:28,200 we're using a leading third party provider which is widely 790 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,160 used in the industry to get gather information on VPN usage. 791 00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:34,760 The provider combines multiple data sources to train its models 792 00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:39,480 and generate usage estimates. The data we access and use in 793 00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:43,240 our analysis is fully aggregated at the app level and no 794 00:44:43,240 --> 00:44:46,800 personally identifiable or user level information is included. 795 00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:49,680 And Tech Radar. Tech Radar is saying that 796 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,680 although Ofcom has been transparent about the existence 797 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:56,360 of the of VPN monitoring, this is the first time it's provided 798 00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:59,320 any information outlining the methods it's using. 799 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:04,160 They also say that VPN's pose a problem to the UK government and 800 00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:07,280 Ofcom specifically with regard to the controversial Online 801 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,240 Safety Act. Well, I'm going going to add to 802 00:45:09,240 --> 00:45:11,160 that and say that it's not only that. 803 00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,480 The bigger problem for the regime is the Regulation of 804 00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:17,520 Investigatory Powers Act or the Investigatory Powers Act, which 805 00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:20,360 requires Internet service providers to collect metadata on 806 00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:23,640 their customers Internet activity and provide it to the 807 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:26,160 government if there's if there's a court order made. 808 00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:29,720 Now this is not possible with widespread use of VPNs. 809 00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:34,320 So the British government does not want to see the any kind of 810 00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,920 driver for VPN use in this country. 811 00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:42,400 So Baroness Lloyd was telling the House of Lords a day or two 812 00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,720 ago that nothing's off the table when it comes to protecting 813 00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:49,680 children online. She also said that there are no 814 00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:55,080 current plans to ban the use of VPNSII think the the word 815 00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:59,040 current there is extremely telling and that's probably the 816 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,200 keyword. But what what we do know is that 817 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:05,040 Ofcom is building the case at the moment. 818 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,200 This is, these are the types of tools that authoritarian regimes 819 00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:12,200 in the Gulf, for instance, use to stop people from, you know, 820 00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:16,200 using VPNs or etcetera. So what, you know what, what is 821 00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:19,240 the real motivation by the state behind this? 822 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:22,520 And you can see it's really about control, total and 823 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:24,560 censorship. Absolutely, absolutely. 824 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:29,040 Mark back to you then and what have you got on Smart Cities? 825 00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:33,840 Well, as you may recall, gentlemen, I reported in advance 826 00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:38,280 on Smart Cities in one of two reports I did in the UK column 827 00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:41,960 studio during my recent visit for the on Location event in 828 00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,920 York. And I found a particular thread 829 00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:47,560 of information that was interesting. 830 00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:52,760 It's a, it's a barrage of stuff going on projects and, and pipe 831 00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:57,000 dreams and, and you know, very highfalutin kind of stuff, some 832 00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,680 of it realistic and may be helpful and may be constructive 833 00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:04,160 in some ways, but a lot of it very ambiguous. 834 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:07,640 So I, I found things that are a little bit more tangible and 835 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,320 provide some interesting terminology and interesting 836 00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:13,640 projects that we can think about here on this first slide. 837 00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:18,920 It gets into the basics of IT. Making urban government open, 838 00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,960 participatory and accountable. Well, that's questionable. 839 00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:24,800 Advancing smart city developments while pushing the 840 00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,080 boundaries of technology and handling the double edged sword 841 00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:32,720 of data collection, which has to do with security, online 842 00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:35,480 security, things like that requires a careful and 843 00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:39,360 deliberate equilibrium involving good governance and cooperation 844 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:41,520 as well as new partnerships, business models. 845 00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:44,840 What are the tools local governments can use to enable 846 00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:48,200 products and services with a comprehensive approach to 847 00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:51,880 emphasis again, data governance and privacy concerns. 848 00:47:52,240 --> 00:47:54,040 Data governance is significant here. 849 00:47:54,040 --> 00:48:01,840 Let's move on and I'll explain key smart city Expo planks. 850 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:07,560 The the whole event is Art City Expo that that kind of, that's 851 00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:11,040 the full name of it, Digital government and Blue economy 852 00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:14,200 along with the World Ocean Council, which is connected to 853 00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:16,280 the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 854 00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:19,120 Those were the main things that jumped out. 855 00:48:19,720 --> 00:48:23,920 Other things, AI regulation and algorithmic transparency and 856 00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:27,840 data ethics, not quite as as prominent, but also quite 857 00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:29,880 prominent. Now, getting into a little bit 858 00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:33,720 more about what digital government actually means, we'll 859 00:48:33,720 --> 00:48:36,920 move on from there. Digital government, A main or 860 00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:40,560 major company that comes up when you look into digital government 861 00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:44,280 is Granicus, based in Denver, Co. 862 00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:46,640 I think they were formed in 1999. 863 00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:50,560 Well, this Reuters item mentions A miscellaneous thing. 864 00:48:50,720 --> 00:48:55,280 Granicus owners exploring a $4 billion sale of the software 865 00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:58,000 maker, sources say. So this is going on in the 866 00:48:58,000 --> 00:48:59,840 background. The private equity owners of 867 00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:03,680 Granicus are preparing to explore a sale of the government 868 00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:07,400 services software maker that could make it that could value 869 00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:09,920 it at about four billion including its debt. 870 00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:13,760 But to get more specific, we'll go on from there on the next 871 00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:19,440 slide. And privatizing government seems 872 00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,840 to be a la Bilderberg, the main goal here. 873 00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:27,120 Founded in 1999, as I mentioned, Granicus provides cloud based 874 00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:30,160 software and other technology tools to federal, state and 875 00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:34,040 local governments across the world, not just in the US to 876 00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,200 increase efficiency and transparency. 877 00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:40,080 They say the company designs and maintains government websites, 878 00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:43,520 manages public records so that they're privatizing the 879 00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:47,400 management of public records, and helps upgrade technology, 880 00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,960 they say to make it easier for citizens to contact public 881 00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:54,760 officials. The Granica CEO is Mark Hynes. 882 00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:59,640 Hynes. Now I talked to a one of the top 883 00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:03,360 experts in Michigan, indeed in the Midwest about a data 884 00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:05,280 governance. I'll mention this briefly before 885 00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:09,120 we go on with the slides. And he manages or overseas a, 886 00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:13,120 the digital systems, the phone systems, the computer systems, 887 00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:16,760 you name it, for a major hospital, Bronson Hospital in 888 00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:20,480 Kalamazoo, MI. And he believes that what 889 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:25,320 Granicus is getting AT, and that's getting people involved 890 00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:29,360 in their government, but almost more or almost strictly on an 891 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:31,760 online basis. In other words, there's less 892 00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:33,840 stress on attending government meetings. 893 00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:37,720 There's less stress on getting together under one roof and more 894 00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:41,080 stress about public involvement being strictly through the 895 00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:45,200 Internet, strictly through filling out forms online, filing 896 00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:48,680 complaints online to where most of your contact with your 897 00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:52,200 government is simply online. And the the guy that I talked 898 00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:56,280 to, the the systems expert said he believes that would actually 899 00:50:56,280 --> 00:51:00,400 reduce citizen participation and make government more distant and 900 00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:04,040 in many ways unaccessible for the people, although it would be 901 00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:08,200 more efficient for certain things like filling out basic 902 00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:10,640 forms and some of that basic correspondence. 903 00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:12,840 Maybe that would be an improvement in and of itself 904 00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:17,840 just in that area. And so going on from there, as 905 00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:20,640 we consider the questionable aspects of what Granicus is 906 00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:24,320 doing, there was also the talk at the Smart City Expo about the 907 00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:28,600 blue economy. And this is not a very widely 908 00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:30,800 known concept. It's certainly not household 909 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:33,800 words by any stretch. As political, economic and 910 00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:37,600 climate challenges reshape our world, the need to accelerate a 911 00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:42,040 sustainable and resilient blue economy has never been more 912 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,000 urgent, they're saying. The blue economy is built on the 913 00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:49,160 vast yet vulnerable oceans and it must undergo A profound 914 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,680 transformation, they say, to remain viable and deliver long 915 00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:55,320 term. Value of the blue economy unites 916 00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:58,400 entrepreneurs, corporate entities, investors and experts 917 00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:02,440 leading this transformation. Lots of contracts, lots of money 918 00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:07,240 exchanging hands for the private sector being moored or connected 919 00:52:07,240 --> 00:52:11,240 with government, lots of public private partnerships here, not 920 00:52:11,240 --> 00:52:14,200 not unlike what's going on with big pharma and government in 921 00:52:14,200 --> 00:52:19,880 that in that sense. So moving on from there, the 922 00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:23,880 blue economy also we can put this up just briefly, is led by 923 00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:27,640 a strategic coalition of partners hosted by the city of 924 00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:30,720 Barcelona. So cities are involved in the, 925 00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:35,320 the, the global cities movement is becoming much more pronounced 926 00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,680 in terms of smart cities. You don't hear about global 927 00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:42,200 cities by name much anymore, not as much. 928 00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:46,480 So they're really funneling it into the smart cities concept. 929 00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:49,960 So the Port of Barcelona is involved as a global partner, 930 00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:53,960 and we have the World Ocean Council and Ocean Innovation as 931 00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:56,280 strategic partners in the blue economy. 932 00:52:56,880 --> 00:53:01,240 So some other interesting and not altogether common concepts 933 00:53:01,240 --> 00:53:03,560 there. Moving on, I found that the 934 00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,960 World Ocean Council is AUN partner in the Sustainable 935 00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:11,720 Development Goals and the WOCWOC as it's known as a non 936 00:53:11,720 --> 00:53:15,880 governmental non for profit organization, AUN sustainable 937 00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:19,600 goals partner established as an international multi industry 938 00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:24,840 business leadership alliance on ocean sustainability, science 939 00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:27,440 and stewardship, those sorts of things. 940 00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:32,320 And then when it comes to ocean innovation, we have a slide on 941 00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:38,600 that and we can skip the world, World Ocean Council stated 942 00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:40,320 mission that's fairly self-evident. 943 00:53:40,720 --> 00:53:44,480 Moving on to ocean innovation, that's connected as it turns 944 00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:46,840 out, we'll show this to the European Commission. 945 00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:50,200 One thing's connected to the UN. Now this is oriented around the 946 00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:54,280 European Commission and this just shows some ocean innovation 947 00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:59,080 events, innovation in terms of investments in ocean assets, 948 00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:02,600 that sort of thing. But one of those says, let's go 949 00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:05,720 back to that slide very briefly. There's one item I wanted to 950 00:54:05,720 --> 00:54:09,120 point out. The one to the upper right is 951 00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:13,720 AEU wide implementation, developing national restoration 952 00:54:13,720 --> 00:54:18,560 plans under the EU's nature restoration regulation of marine 953 00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:22,280 ecosystems. And they say unrealistically I 954 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:26,520 would think, they say they want to restore habitats and restore 955 00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,160 ecosystems to their original status. 956 00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:34,200 And they literally mean original ecosystems, original habitats, 957 00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:38,040 possibly as they might have been thousands of years ago, which 958 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,960 really sounds like playing God, which really sounds like a 959 00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:44,280 presumptuous thing to say. How would they know precisely 960 00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:47,840 what the original habitat was? And they talked about 961 00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:53,160 renaturing, the concept of renaturing, restoring things in 962 00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:55,200 a very profound way in that sense. 963 00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:59,840 And so there was some breakout sessions we can mention. 964 00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:02,960 I I won't go into these. The rise of private smart 965 00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:07,440 cities, promise practice and public impact, how to create a 966 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:11,400 greener urban economy, the five up approach, urban planning for 967 00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:14,400 systemic climate action, democratic innovation in 968 00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:17,120 European cities. That's just to give this report 969 00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:20,000 a little more breadth as to what all was covered. 970 00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:23,640 And I believe I have one more slide that shows a Norman 971 00:55:23,640 --> 00:55:29,280 Rockwell, a piece of the artwork of the well known American 972 00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:33,080 artist Norman Rockfell out of his four freedoms and the town 973 00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:36,560 hall meeting. The the concept where people get 974 00:55:36,560 --> 00:55:39,680 together under one roof to influence their government to 975 00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:43,840 have their say, where they where the citizens can hear what each 976 00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:47,720 other has to say. The the democratic ideal, 977 00:55:47,720 --> 00:55:51,240 especially in in New England and and across the US, the town hall 978 00:55:51,240 --> 00:55:55,200 meeting was a long tradition that seems to be getting buried 979 00:55:55,200 --> 00:55:58,080 under this Granicus concept that your only, your only 980 00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:00,600 relationship with your government will be a digital one 981 00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,360 digital government. So that that democratic ideal 982 00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:08,160 might be lost despite all the rhetoric of these globalist 983 00:56:08,720 --> 00:56:11,440 about wanting democracy and greater democracy. 984 00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:15,160 So a lot going on there. And that was just a small slice 985 00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:16,880 of it, guys. There was much more that that 986 00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:19,800 could be said, but those were the most relevant topics. 987 00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:26,560 Thank you Mark. So let's move on then to media 988 00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:31,480 and well, you'll be glad to know that the BBC has apologised to 989 00:56:31,720 --> 00:56:34,200 U.S. President Donald Trump for their 990 00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:38,480 Panorama episode that spliced parts of their of his speech 991 00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:40,760 from the 6th of January 2021 together. 992 00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:46,040 But the BBC says that they have rejected his demands for 993 00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:50,120 compensation. So he was basically saying that 994 00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,640 he was going to sue them for a billion unless they provided A 995 00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:56,760 retraction, apologised and gave him compensation. 996 00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:58,600 He didn't specify how much compensation. 997 00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:00,440 Oh, so this would be an out of court settlement? 998 00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:01,680 An out of court settlement? Yeah. 999 00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:04,400 Interesting. So the BBC said that the edit 1000 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:07,160 had given the mistaken impression that President Trump 1001 00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:08,960 had made a direct call for violent action. 1002 00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:12,600 And they said that they would not show the 2024 programme 1003 00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:15,400 again. That's, that's, that's very 1004 00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:17,560 interesting. What about the 2021 Newsnight 1005 00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:19,160 programme? Because people were talking 1006 00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:21,280 about that yesterday that we're going to come on to in a second 1007 00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:24,240 where? And the people that we're 1008 00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:26,880 talking about was suggesting that the 2021 edit was even 1009 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:31,680 worse. But anyway, as I say, lawyers 1010 00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:35,560 for Trump had threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars. 1011 00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:42,000 And well, Lisa Nandy, of course, was sent to Parliament or sent 1012 00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,440 to the the media this morning to sort of justify everything 1013 00:57:44,440 --> 00:57:47,040 that's going on. And she said that she's 1014 00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:49,880 confident that the BBC is gripping this with the 1015 00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:53,200 seriousness that it demands. Do you think that's likely? 1016 00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:58,760 Well, jeez, I don't know the meddling in the US political 1017 00:57:58,760 --> 00:58:01,360 system the BBC was caught doing so. 1018 00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:06,000 Yeah, I mean, I can recommend the BBC to call Alex Jones's 1019 00:58:06,000 --> 00:58:08,960 lawyers. Well, if they need some some 1020 00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:11,080 help, some Spartan legal assistance. 1021 00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:14,000 Yeah, well look, it's the Telegraph which has been leading 1022 00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:16,560 the charge against the BBC. As we were discussing on Monday 1023 00:58:16,560 --> 00:58:20,280 and on Wednesday, The Telegraph seems to be financially stable 1024 00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:23,680 at the moment with 842,000 digital subscribers. 1025 00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:29,080 In December 2024, digital subscriptions were up 11% in a 1026 00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:30,760 year. That's perhaps disappointing 1027 00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:32,200 news. But anyway, that's that's the 1028 00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:34,520 situation. But they've been trying to sell 1029 00:58:34,520 --> 00:58:36,480 themselves. I don't mean sell themselves as 1030 00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:39,640 APR exercise have been literally sell the business now for 1031 00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:41,440 something like 2 years. Flog it. 1032 00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:44,000 Yes, flog it. Yeah, because the Telegraph has 1033 00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:48,320 been in limbo for the last couple of years after the 1034 00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:51,960 company was taken to Lloyds, taken by Lloyds Bank because of 1035 00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:53,640 unpaid debts to the Barclays family. 1036 00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:59,560 So in November 2023, the Abu Dhabi state backed investment 1037 00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:04,000 group Redbird IMI took control of Telegraph Media Group after 1038 00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:08,600 agreeing a deal to pay off 1.2 billion pounds in Barclay family 1039 00:59:08,600 --> 00:59:11,040 debts. The UK government then issued 1040 00:59:11,040 --> 00:59:14,520 pre emptive orders restricting any transfer of ownership or 1041 00:59:14,520 --> 00:59:18,360 changes to the Telegraph's board, or no changes to to key 1042 00:59:18,360 --> 00:59:21,640 staff or to management responsibilities and so on. 1043 00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:26,400 So the red bird IM ideal was stopped in March of 2024 when 1044 00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:29,000 the government announced plans to prevent any foreign 1045 00:59:29,040 --> 00:59:33,120 government backed entities owning more than 15% of UK 1046 00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:36,880 newspapers and magazines. So in May this year, Redbird 1047 00:59:36,880 --> 00:59:42,200 announced a new bid with with within which the the Abu Dhabi 1048 00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:45,000 money was limited to 15% because that was what they were 1049 00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:47,800 basically told by the government that they should do. 1050 00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:50,040 And that's where the situation lies. 1051 00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:52,080 It's been stalled for a long time now. 1052 00:59:53,120 --> 00:59:59,640 Redbirds Jerry Cardinal, who is the the head of Redbird, made a 1053 00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:04,360 public plea just a few days ago asking the Starboard, begging 1054 01:00:04,360 --> 01:00:07,680 the Starmer regime in fact, to just get out of the way because 1055 01:00:07,680 --> 01:00:11,360 this deal needs to be done. But unfortunately, as the 1056 01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:15,200 Guardian is reporting here, the independent directors of The 1057 01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:18,880 Telegraph who are there while this process continues, while 1058 01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:21,120 the sale process continues, they've reported to the 1059 01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:24,240 government alleged comments made by Cardinal. 1060 01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:29,360 To Telegraph editor Chris Evans that are in breach of the of the 1061 01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:33,320 rules protecting editorial independence. 1062 01:00:34,120 --> 01:00:38,280 So what we're seeing here, aside from any other motivations as 1063 01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:41,880 discussed in Wendy's witnesses programmes, are two of the 1064 01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:45,960 biggest media organisations in the UK fighting with themselves 1065 01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:47,680 effectively over who's going to control them. 1066 01:00:48,360 --> 01:00:51,160 So that the BB CS in a fight over the Royal Charter and the 1067 01:00:51,160 --> 01:00:54,520 licence fee, The Telegraph's in a fight over ownership and 1068 01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:57,600 editorial independence. And so the question is, you 1069 01:00:57,600 --> 01:00:58,960 know, where, where does this end? 1070 01:00:59,160 --> 01:01:01,160 Well, I find it incredible. It's not just that, Mike, the 1071 01:01:01,160 --> 01:01:05,160 Telegraph is is attacking the BBC and provoking them over the 1072 01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,480 license, the upcoming review of the license fee. 1073 01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:11,560 So it's and it's a bit rich considering, you know, there's 1074 01:01:11,560 --> 01:01:15,520 supposed to be a Tory aligned, you know, Brit Britain first 1075 01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:18,080 media outlet, but they're basically bankrolled with Arab 1076 01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:20,200 money, you know, so I think that's funny. 1077 01:01:20,200 --> 01:01:23,120 Like why are these, why are these outlets skin in the 1st 1078 01:01:23,120 --> 01:01:27,840 place is because they've lost huge shares of audience and huge 1079 01:01:27,840 --> 01:01:30,600 shares of advertising because what they've been putting out is 1080 01:01:30,600 --> 01:01:35,960 absolute tripe for years. That's why people flee the 1081 01:01:35,960 --> 01:01:38,480 mainstream media and now they're, they have to go and beg 1082 01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:43,200 to the Arabs or beg to whatever other, you know, despotic 1083 01:01:43,240 --> 01:01:47,200 regimes internationally or to the Americans who've also sought 1084 01:01:47,200 --> 01:01:51,160 to buy in and take over through proxies, by the way. 1085 01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:54,880 And we're talking about private equity firms, hedge funds and so 1086 01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:56,360 forth. That's what that's what you're 1087 01:01:56,360 --> 01:01:58,520 going to see more of when the government comes in with 1088 01:01:58,520 --> 01:02:02,400 restrictions on this in terms of foreign money, The, the foreign 1089 01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:06,720 funds will be able to erect proxies within the UK as shells 1090 01:02:06,720 --> 01:02:09,680 or individuals that will do the bidding of the foreign powers. 1091 01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:13,080 So that's what we that's a new trend that's certain to happen 1092 01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:14,600 now. Well, we're going to be talking 1093 01:02:14,600 --> 01:02:17,120 a lot more about this an extra because I know Mark has has 1094 01:02:17,120 --> 01:02:19,040 thoughts on on it as well. But unfortunately we're 1095 01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:20,640 absolutely out of time for today. 1096 01:02:21,240 --> 01:02:23,920 We're going to leave it there. If you are UK column member, 1097 01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:26,680 stay on the live stream for UK column News extra. 1098 01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:30,480 We'd be back in a few minutes. Otherwise, don't forget Jerem 1099 01:02:30,920 --> 01:02:35,440 tonight at 7, Karza at 9:00 and we will be back at 1:00 PM as 1100 01:02:35,440 --> 01:02:38,160 usual for another news programme on Monday. 1101 01:02:38,200 --> 01:02:39,560 We'll see you then. Bye bye.