UK Column News - 4th June 2025

Good afternoon. It's just gone 1:00 on Wednesday the 4th of June 2025. Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host, Charles Mallett, and joining me in the studio today is Brian Gersh. Welcome to the programme, Brian. Thank you. Brian's going to be analysing the comments made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as looking at the ground truth in Ukraine at the moment, particularly following Operation Spider Web, as reported earlier

in the week. We're also going to be joined remotely by Vanessa Beeley from Lebanon, who's going to be scrutinising the murky affairs of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as well as looking at foreign fighters in Syria. And we also have Sandy Adams on Remotelink from Somerset talking about the Ocean Conference, access to what are called blue spaces and indeed natural resources, as well as a look at the most recent attack on the Kursh Bridge in Crimea.

But we're going to start with the Strategic Defence Review and the situation is that we're all going to war. At least that is without doubt the central message from the defence review, which has been released on Monday.

Back in February, UK Column surmised that the content of the review would be based on the suggestion that the country faces an existential threat and that this, for the most part, concerns what is consistently described as Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. There are nearly 80 references to the ongoing conflict in the document, and this is what Keir Starmer had to say about it. The moment has arrived to transform how we defend ourselves and to renew our nation.

An investment in British pride and the British people. A defence dividend that will be felt in the pockets of working people and the prosperity of the country securing growth for generations. To become part of a new contract to unite the Kingdom. A new spirit of service flowing from every part of society, from the supply lines to the front lines. Everyone benefits. Everyone playing their role, doing their duty to the nation and to each other to preserve our way of life and the things

that we hold dear. Because when it comes to security and renewal, nothing works unless we all work together. There it is, and as there were a Hollywood production, we'll just continue to look on screen at the trailer that the governments put out. Recently. The government, of course, has been releasing several dramatic trailers of the Defence Review and each containing the same fundamental tenets based on an

incorrect premise. The first first duty of government, of course, is not, as the state would have it, national security. It should be to protect the

powerless from the powerful. This review is very obviously a product of its three key authors, they being George Robertson, formerly Secretary General to NATO and a previous Defence Secretary during the Blair years, Fiona Hill, former member of the US Intelligence Architecture, possibly not former, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

She's also a dedicated Russophobe, she has compared Putin to Hitler in the past, and then Richard Barons, the former Commander Joint Forces Command, with his own defence industry consultancy and a valid interest in AI and space. So there are plenty of conflicts of interest here and this will be something that Mike Robinson will focus more on in Friday's

programme. Now in summary, or at least regard with regard to the content of the review summarised, which is far detailed to cover in any great depth in the in the programme. The main points are put by the government as being the move to war fighting readiness and this draws directly on the integrated operating concept which has been mentioned consistently on this programme.

Next, of course, with Robertson in mind, is the idea that it is NATO first, with the review stating that the UK remains at the forefront of NATO efforts to safeguard the Euro Atlantic against growing Russian aggression in all domains, providing the ultimate guarantee of UK and allied security in declaring its nuclear deterrence to the alliance. There's a lot more in the review on the nuclear issue and it's made very clear that nuclear war is not now considered as being a

remote possibility. Indeed, and I quote, nuclear deterrence can no longer be considered separately from the wider strategic environment as described in Chapter 2. Any future crisis or conflict in which the UK is engaged may include nuclear armed or nuclear aspiring states willing to use nuclear threats to compel or constrain UK and Allied decision taking. And lastly is the idea that defence, rather war is the product of what is being called

a whole society approach. And there's a sense of immediacy here with the recommendation on education that to quote again to quote the review, to meet the changing needs of the integrated force, education must be whole force by default, single service by exception. And they say by the end of 2026, Defence must establish a career education pathway for the whole force, regulars, reserves and civil service designed to respond to the changing ways of warfare over time and with NATO

at its heart. End Quote. So with recruitment and retention in mind, both of which are are in a parlour state, as has been reported here many times, There are initiatives such as improved investment in housing, though nothing really, which suggests that the spectre of conscription will fade away. And even though the message has been one of we're not ready yet for the past three years, here's Richard Barron's speaking about the apparent sense of urgency

and how the money gets spent. People have had this ambition, genuinely held it previously, but how do we get from thinking about it, wanting it, planning it to a more Ukraine like war footing where these things are sort of racing through the supply chain and the development and and getting out to the front line. So I think there are a number of things really in our, in our favour now.

And you're, and you're right that some of this thinking, it's been around for a while now, it's just taken time to, to gestate. The first reason this is different is we live in a much more threatening world. And so you probably don't have the luxury of trying to stay the same. You've got to change to stay safe and deter effectively. The second thing is we have the experience of Ukraine and Ukraine is an illustration of

war in the digital age. It's not a perfect template for how we would fight, but we've learnt lessons in military technology and also in the industrial arrangements that you need to make that work. Change to stay safe. What? What do you make of it, Brian? I think, I think Charles, it's a huge propaganda exercise. I'm slightly cynical because I'm the age I am and I've seen a lot of these defence reviews come and go.

They've all been a lot of words, glossy paper and at the end of the review it's never been implemented fully. So you end up with some improvements, but overall a decline in the armed forces. And we've just been having a look at some interesting statistics here. Relax, it's from full fact, so it must be correct. But essentially, if we look, the track record is a consistent

decline in U KS armed forces. We're at the point at the moment where we're talking around about 71, possibly 73,000 people in the in the Army. When I first came into the military scene way back in 72 total personnel 371,000. And I think for you, Charles, it was still up at 298. And now we're in this pitiful situation where we can't put

troops on the ground. The reality is the success of the Russians in the war in Ukraine has shaken this government to its boots and they're now desperate to try and pull U KS destroyed military. They they want to rabbit out of the hat. So I think this is all words. We will see some new equipment but my prediction is if we're speaking in five years time, we'll be saying what has not worked. Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks very much, Brian. And going back to Richard Barnes, I mean, what what he mentions only obliquely is the main driver of all of this, which causes the war industry. Now the government that's put out several announcements about specific funding initiatives across the whole of the UK,

which this map shows. Now there's much more to deal with and we will doubtless talk about this much more in extra, but I would like to leave you with this chart from the Financial Times, which shows how the arms industry benefits and has benefited over the past five years. Now, if you're listening rather than watching, the upward trend shown is completely out of kilter with all the with the all share line shown at the bottom, which is barely moved by

comparison. And with the focus of the messaging on the commercial collaboration, it would seem reasonable to predict that this trend will continue and that this investment will cause precisely the sorts of threats which are alluded to to materialise and thus the circle turn. So we'll we'll come back to that in extra. But for now, we will go across

to Vanessa in Lebanon. And as I say, you're going to be talking about the Gaza humanitarian foundation. We've got no sign. Oh, that's. All right, Vanessa. Sorry, Carry. On. Am I back? You are back. Am I there? Oh, OK. Yeah, basically. So this is the multi spectrum genocide that is being waged against Palestinians in Gaza and of course in the West Bank.

And there has been this humanitarian aid complex established to supplant the UNRWA agency that of course the Zionists have been trying to eradicate for for a number of years, which was the primary UN agency providing aid and food to Palestinians in all areas of the world, even the areas where of course they're living in diaspora and unable to return. So if we could just have a quick look at the Washington Post

headline. US consulting firm quits Gaza humanitarian aid efforts amid criticism And if we just have a look at the text within the article On Friday, a leading US management consulting firm hired last fall to help design the programme and run its business operations, withdrew its team operating on the ground in Tel Aviv.

A spokesperson for the firm, Austin Consulting Group, said the company had terminated its contract with GHF and placed one of the senior partners leading the project on leave pending an internal review. And of course, one can say this isn't terribly surprising when you look at the figures of those that have been killed while they've been gathering to receive the aid. So 102 so far killed and 490 now

up to almost 500 injured. And of course, what's been happening is that there have been centres established that are effectively being run, as we've talked about before, by American private military contractors that are known as military mercenaries. And I would recommend that everybody does a deep dive into this article by the Grey Zone. I'll just run through some of the main points that it makes.

Top Israeli lawmakers have accused the Zionist regime of laundering millions through US humanitarian organisations and private military contractors. As I said, as we've talked about previously on UK column the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was established in Switzerland in February supplanting on riot received over 100 million from an undisclosed donor.

But the Israeli opposition member and former Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Mossad and the Israeli Defence Ministry are covertly funding GHF. So that gives an indication as as to entirely what this organisation is determined to do, which of course is to increase 1 the starvation levels in Gaza.

Because if we look at this map, which was embedded in the grey zone article, the humanitarian Islands in Gaza plan interim phase, you can see basically the red pins there demonstrate I think there's only 1237 actual aid points. And of course in northern Gaza, the majority of people have been told to evacuate to a tiny area in the South. So 2,000,000 Gazans basically being kettled into that smaller area in the South there. And so those northern ones are

largely not doing anything. But what this is doing is creating IDP camps, internally displaced people camps and then providing the so called humanitarian aid points. And again, if we look at this, so that first of all there has to be security inspection during entry on the aid. So that's one delay. Then you have the biometric certificate. This again is what we talked about, actual biometric surveillance of these IDP camps and only the approved Palestinians will receive aid.

And then basically there's distribution to these IDP cities, note the term city. So basically what this is all doing is further corralling Gazans into smaller and smaller ever shrinking concentration camps that are now literally camps, refugee sites, internally displaced people camps. Then the aid is provided, as we said, only to those that are approved by these American private military contractors. They have to go through a series of security measures to be

allowed to receive the aid. And then once the starving people are basically in the lines to receive the aid and chaos naturally breaks out because of the starvation levels they've been forced to endure, the IDF is opening fire on them and killing them because effectively they've been drawn out into the open and they can be murdered wantonly by the Israelis. So yet again, you know, anything that that is described as aid by the Zionist entity or by its

allies in the UK, EU or US, it cannot be seen as such. It can only be seen as a further element of of genocide against the Palestinians. Very depressing. Vanessa, thank you very much indeed. And I should point out the link to the grey zone piece will be in the show notes, as indeed it will be to everything else that Vanessa's spoken about. Now, Brian, you've been

following what Marco Rubio has been up to recently. I have and I know there's controversy around him and he's not everybody's cup of tea, but I was listening to him speaking to the American Compass organisation. If you've never heard of that, I hadn't either. But it's an organisation promoting family, community and industry to to help underpin the nation. We're talking about the USA of course, the nation's liberty and prosperity. So this was their 5th annual

events. Let's have a listen to what Rubio had to say. And then in 1989 and 199091, it was my first years in in college and literally the entire world just transformed my by for my very eyes. Understand you grew up your whole life and like the whole world is about the Soviet Union and all of a sudden the Soviet Union no longer exists. My favourite memory of that is that I was actually taking a course that fall and by a Soviet expert at the, I think it's in Gainesville, FL.

And this poor guy's entire career came coming down over a three month period as the Soviet Union collapsed. It's like all these years of work, you have a PhD in Soviet studies and now the Soviet doesn't exist anymore. So I don't know what he did after that. I need to check up on that guy because.

But anyways, the point is the whole world transformed and there was this effusive exuberance, the belief that the Cold War is over, we won, and now the entire world is going to become just like US, free enterprise democracies. This is a very idealistic thing to believe. But here's the other conclusion they made. And that is that everybody that it didn't, nationhood no longer mattered when it came to economics, that right now the world would no longer have borders.

It wouldn't matter where things were made. What mattered is they were made in the most efficient place. And it became mantra. And look, I think it became part of Republican orthodoxy for a very long time and orthodoxy that I came up in, which was, it's OK if productive capacity moves to another country, because what that will do is it will free up our workers to do work that's even more productive

and pays them more. It was the famous or the infamous idea that who cares that you lost your job at a factory? You're going to learn how to code. And then you're going to be, you're going to make a lot more money doing that. What was completely unrealistic #1 and became incredibly disruptive that that decision was made. But here's the other implication of it. It robbed the nation of its industrial capacity, of its

ability to make things. And its industrial capacity and its ability to make things has two ramifications. The first is it hurts your economy, it hurts your country. It robs people of jobs. And the transition is not nearly as easy. But it also ends up becoming corrosive and destructive to communities. And as a result, we had a Rust Belt and we had places that were gutted. So what I found so interesting about that talk is a lot of what he says is, of course, factually

correct. These things did happen. There was a a focus on the global economy and for us and other nation states productivity absolutely declined to the extent that widespread poverty existed came into being in America. It's happened in UK as well. He talks about a plan for a world with no borders. This sounds very familiar. I'm sure Sandy's will have something to say about that in a minute and robbed of our industrial capacity. So all these things he's

describing factually correct. This has certainly happened in the US and it's happened in the West. But then he's used that wonderful little phrase they what he doesn't talk about is the people that actually created the globalist policy that America followed or engaged with, which caused all the problems in the 1st place.

So he's not talking about the United Nations even, he's not talking about the World Economic Forum, he's not talking about the Trilateral Commission. He's not mentioning any of the organisations which not only created the policies he now says destroyed America, they are still destroying America. So let's have a listen to a little bit more of this.

All of a sudden, that company or that field vanished because it moved somewhere else where it was cheaper to do, and those jobs were gone and obviously became incredibly destructive, not just for the United States, by the way, but for many nations in the industrialised West. But the other thing it robbed us of is the ability to make things, which is a national security impediment impairment and a very significant 1. And that's never changed. That's always been true.

And so today what you find is because of all those years of neglect, because of the loss of industrial capacity, we didn't just undermine our society, we didn't just undermine our domestic economy. We've undermined our position in

the world. And what you will find, and what we find even now is that increasingly on geopolitical issue after geopolitical issue, it is access to raw material and industrial capacity that is at the core both of the decisions that we're making and the areas that we're prioritising. Part of the decisions that were made were in the end, if something is good for the global economy, that's really what matters. Ultimately. A lot of public policy decisions were made without the nation

state in mind. Rather, the decision was, is this good for the global economy? The other, which is more broad but I think also ties to economic policy, is the following. Part of the decisions that were made were in the end, if something is good for the global economy, that's really what matters. Ultimately, a lot of public policy decisions were made without the nation state in mind. Rather, the decision was is this good for the global economy? So again, some very, very

interesting comments there. He's saying that the nation state was basically overlooked for the global economy and this has taken America into a dangerous place. Notice he said that making things equals national security. And here we are in UK where supposedly the government's brought in a defence review. And what is it actually? What's actually happening? Well, our ability to make steel just about gone. Our ability to produce

munitions? Gone. We need the Germans to help us produce barrels for weapons on the battlefield. So our manufacturing absolutely destroyed by successive governments, and that equals a direct attack on national security. So where does Rubio sit? Do I trust him? No, I don't. If he starts to talk about the people that have brought in these agendas, such as the World Economic Forum, then we know he's on the right path. If he doesn't, this is another complete distraction for the

American public. In this case, Sandy, I don't know whether you've got a very quick comment on that. Absolutely. I mean, every, everything that, that we, we had has gone, everything's been lost. And, and you know, as a, as a nation state, the UK has been hollowed out from inside for a number of years. And, and we know really who's behind that. So I, I totally get what you're saying. He's not to be trusted because he's not calling out the actors

involved. He's, he's just, he's just kind of brushing over it. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. We, we, everything is, is gone, really, that we held dear. Yeah. I think I, I, I've just going to talk today about the Ocean

Conference that's happening. And this is all part, part of this big agenda that that is, is, is really taking everything away from from us and putting it into corporate hands. And that's what we're seeing. And that's really what Rubio was talking out about. But he's not calling them out.

So, yeah, last month I covered David Attenborough's 99th birthday and the launch of his new film Ocean, which he's proudly shown to schools throughout the the the country to get children involved in saving, saving the planet. And he's he's, he's kind of lamenting that he's not going to live to see his great work seen. And, you know, The thing is that the film was released to coincide with the, with the

ocean conference. You know, he's, he's, he, he, this is about the, the, the children going, you know, having the, the, all this propaganda put into the schools. But it's on the back of this ocean conference that's

happening in, in Nice next week. So really the conference is, is being held in Nice. It's called the Ocean Conference and it's really taking into account Goal 14 of the of the Sustainable Development Goals. And it's all about conserving, you know, conservation and sustainability. This is what they're talking about, the use of the oceans, the seas and marine resources or, you know, sustainable

development really. And what they're what they're sort of going into is, is the targets that they're looking at is reducing marine pollution, managing and protecting marine ecosystems, minimising ocean acidification, regulating overfishing, prohibiting farming, you know, harm on for

farming subsidies. And, you know, increasing scientific knowledge and enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans through international law and stopping the the plastic and all that kind of stuff. And it all sounds great, doesn't it? You know, it's who wouldn't agree with cleaning up the oceans for for future generations. And this is what's Sustainable Development 14 is proposing that

it's doing. But there's a, you know, it's, it's a very like all the goals 14 is sold as a necessary benefit to mankind. But there's also a darker side to this and it's related to the financial aspect of ecosystems through what is referred to as the blue economy, which involves financializing the sea resource, you know, all the resources under the sea and the seabed, rather than focusing solely on the conservation and environmentalism side.

So there's always like what what they give with one hand, it's all about wonderful stuff like cleaning up the oceans and everything. But on the other side, we've got this, this really this new economy that they're, they're pulling out of a hat. So on the 7th and 8th of June, the Blue Economy and Finance Forum are hosting a less publicised event in Monaco at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

And this Foreman Forum is designated as AUN Ocean Conference Special Event, and it aims to mobilise funding to restore ocean health and accelerate the transition to a sustainable and regenerative blue economy. And Christine Lagarde is going to be speaking there, of course. And so the blue economy is presented as a new model for sustainable ocean based development.

It promotes ocean industries like offshore energy, marine biotechnology, ecotourism and seabed mining, all under the promise of green growth and climate resilience. But in reality, it's a means of financializing, you know, the ocean floor and the oceans and turning marine life, ecosystems and even the seabed itself into a tradable economic asset. The fight, You know, the valuable minerals of the seabed are needed to fuel the 4th Industrial revolution, the green

economy. At the end of the day, that's what they're doing. Through mechanisms like blue bonds, ecosystem service valuations and carbon offsetting, oceans are increasingly being absorbed into the financial system. Nature is being replaced, packaged and sold. And coastal mangroves become carbon credits. Fish stocks become debt instruments and, you know, ocean health becomes a, a line in, in the whole ESG portfolios. So it's a kind of a seabed gold

rush really. And it's control over marine resources that shifts from communities to banks, hedge funds and multinational corporations. So small fishing communities are being treated like a threat to the environment, but big companies are being allowed to expand like massive fish farms, huge offshore wind farms and

deep sea mining operations. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's global organisations like the UN and the World Bank and powerful charities are creating plans to divide up the ocean. As a result, small Fisher fisheries and fishermen and and smaller communities could be, you know, that that all their activities could be made

illegal. And in, you know, a lot of it is all about foreign debt or aid, you know, in return for these nations to give up control of their own waters, known as exclusive economic zones, Eezs, areas that could benefit, you know, their own people. These are being sort of swapped really for it was almost like a nature swap step for nature swaps so that the the people don't actually have a say in all this. It's, it's all being handed over

to big corporations. So I'm just want to look at the closer look at the sponsors of this. And, and of course, you know, you'll, you'll see that Prince Albert of Monaco plays a pivotal role in these initiatives.

He along with the World Economic Forum and all the major actors and he's the founder of the president of the Prince Albert, the second of the Monaco's foundation, which organises the Monaco Ocean Week in collaboration with the Monaco government and the Monaco the Yacht Club and into dish in.

In addition to the Blue Economy Finance Forum, Monaco Ocean Week features various events including the Monaco Smart Yacht Rendezvous and the Environmental Symposium organised by the Yacht Club in Monaco. And these events focus on, quote, sustainable yachting and innovative solutions for ocean protection. And Albert's involvement underscores Monaco's dedication to the ocean preservation and its leadership in promoting sustainable practises in marine

environments. So, you know, if you look at the, the this yacht, this huge super yacht thing, maybe I'm missing something, but there's, you know, there's nothing sustainable about smart super yachts for the Super rich. So in short, the blue economy means nature is not protected, but monetized and local stewards and are displaced by local global stakeholders. And where oceans are no longer a shared heritage, they become a financial instrument.

So it's not conserving life below water and it's more about who profits from it. So that's that's what I'm finding anyway. Great Sandy, thank you very much indeed. And you're absolutely right in terms of putting a value on it. And it's worth pointing out this coincides absolutely with publication or reports from the UK government about access to what they're calling green spaces and blue spaces. And the point of that of course is to put exactly that value on it.

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platforms do not like us to be able to do so, which means that we have to work that bit harder and this is how you would do it. Now, I'm pleased to say that the interview that went out yesterday, Ben Rubin talked to Paul Athan of the Royal Society for Arts and Manufacturer of Commerce has been very well received and I would encourage you to listen to how it has been

subverted. Tomorrow, Diane Rasmussen Mcaddy talks to Vicky Baggot, who is challenging the library system in the United States, particularly on the sexualisation of content of literature for children.

And that falls in line with the series of interviews that Diane's been running, particularly with relation to Diane Kleinman and indeed the organisation that they are both part of. Now tomorrow there is going to be a on the assisted dying Bill which you can tune into if you follow the link, which will be in the show notes. And then getting out and about UK column will be at the Sounds Beautiful festival in Dorset at the end of this month.

So please do have a look at getting a ticket there. That will be a great event and be delight to see people in person and on the in person front. You'll also be able to enjoy beer, truth and freedom all at the same time in Thetford towards the end of July 18th and 19th. And again, a link to that in the show notes. So please do get along to it. And then UK column will be appearing again at the Hope Freedom Music Festival over the August bank holiday this

weekend. Sorry, this August rather. So lots going on. Please sign up for some of or all of it and we'd be absolutely delighted to see you there. Now that takes us to the after effects of what was called

Operation Spider Web and an examination of what is or has been going on in Ukraine, which Brian is going to have a look at for us now. OK. Thank you for that, Charles. Well, just just a very quick comment. But of course we've seen Western media, newspapers and TV video streams alike absolutely crowing at the recent attacks on Russia, never mind how dangerous these were in view of the fact that it implicated Russian strategic

assets. But at times radio has been one of the leaders of this, that they seem to regard war as a joke and they were full of good humour because of the Kirsch Bridge bombing. So I'm just putting this one up as a as an image to reflect the type of things that the Times and other Western media is putting across. But of course, the reality for the reality of what's happening on the battlefield. We can't rely on mainstream media, but we can rely on some very hard working amateurs.

And I'm just going to bring up defence. Let's bring it up here, Defence, politics, Asia. I've mentioned before there's a number of these people and I'm trying to give them all credit for what they're doing. But the reality on the battlefield, of course is Russian advances. Yes, very slow, but this is the whole point of the Russian tactics. It's a creeping advance. It's like lava moving. And the reality is that Ukraine is losing on the battlefield.

And at the time we start to piece surprise, surprise, we get these attacks on Russia, mainland Russia. So Sandy, you were really quite taken, I think a little bit shocked by the attacks that took place over the over recent days. So tell us what what you feel. We've had, we know we had the drone attacks. Was it last week? And, you know, just in, in the last 24 hours, we've had the bombing of the Koch Bridge in Crimea, which is a vital link between Crimea and the Russian mainland.

And I've got a video of of that, of that bombing. And it's quite shocking really, that it's a third attempt on this bridge, which is a vital lifeline. And it's it's held dear by by Putin to actually, yeah. I mean, it really it was his. It was more than a bridge. It was a symbol of Russia's restoration of the Crimea, you know, after the people after the people voted to rejoin the Russian Federation in 2014. So let's see that that video.

Thank you. Yeah. It said, you know, there is being blown up. It was apparently the the Ukrainian USB has has admitted it. Here's one of their lieutenants, you know, saying this is a Trinity. It's the third attempt on, on, on Ukraine and on, on Russia. And he, you know, he says, you know, God loves the Trinity And, and we're going to continue to do it. Basically, you know, this is this is really baiting, baiting the Russians and, you know, baiting Putin.

And this is the drone attack obviously from last week. And it just, it, it just shows you, I mean, 41 of, of, of Putin's planes were bombed. And this is, you know, this is, this is what that we're looking at. We're looking at a real baiting of, of the bear.

You know, I mean, it's absolutely blatant and, and it's, it's significant because this bridge really is a symbol of Russia's, you know, Russia's referendum, which the West continues to deny because they deny the right people's self determination when it suits their agenda. And you know, if, if we keep pushing, if they keep pushing this, sooner or later the response will escalate because if you keep kicking the bear, eventually the bear turns round.

And the tragedy is the people of Europe and America are being lied to. They're being told this war is a war for democracy, when in truth it's a war for global, global hegemony. As we know they're they're being, I told Russia is the aggressor and NATO has expanded to Russia's doorstep. They've broken every promise, armed every hostile neighbour and now sponsors attacks on Russian soil. So let's be clear. The bombing of the Crimean bridge was a message and now

Russia will send its own. I'm sure our governments are marching us into a war, and they've already committed acts of war in our name. So because of this madness, you know, if it continues, you know, we we literally are, you know, that Russia is forced to respond as any great nation would. And the next bridge to fall might not be Crimea. It might be the bridge between peace and annihilation. So yeah, that's it really. Sandy, thank.

Thank you very much for that. You indicated to me earlier this morning that the people we're going to say in local communities, you've got good connectivity with with the community. And you were saying to me that people are now starting to see through this. They're not treating the mainstream media reports as if they are the absolute truth. I find that extremely

encouraging. The other thing I just wanted to add to your commentary is that the idea that the the drone attacks across Russia on strategic Russian strategic nuclear assets, the idea that that was simply carried out by

Ukraine is laughable. There would have been UK and possibly the the US behind, but for Ukrainians to do it on their own, I don't think so. And I think we can say the same with these attacks on the cursed bridge because they would have needed Western expertise to help them carry out these attacks. And this is the reality. This is not a war of Ukraine versus Russia. It is NATO and Ukraine versus Russia. And we need to be accurate in in

how how we describe this. People need to understand this. But Sandy, thank you very much. I'm encouraged that people are starting to see through what's happening, the reality of the

war. Now this is when it's difficult for UK column news because. People do say some of the information that we put across is very hard. It's very disturbing. But if we don't report the facts and the truth, what are we to do? Many people, as I've shown earlier in the news today, seem to think that war in Ukraine is a joke. It's something to be laughing and smiling about. Let's just hear commentary from the Russian diplomatic team who were commenting a few days ago about dead bodies.

Truly transfer 6000 frozen bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, which are on storage with us. We've conducted all possible identification procedures and we have organised special transport and those bodies will be transferred to the Ukrainian side next week so that they can give them a decent burial. I don't know if there are any bodies that they want to give to us. We would accept them, but that

is yet unknown. We also agreed on the most large scale and prisoner exchange, those who are gravely wounded or gravely ill. That will be a humanitarian gesture on our side, as the Ukrainian side often speaks about the general need for a ceasefire. We proposed a specific ceasefire for two or three days on certain parts of the front and it will now be worked out by our specialists and this will include the cessation of drone operations and other things so that the bodies can be collected

by commanders. It is a hot time of the year and there is a danger of epidemics, so we want to create the possibility, especially since the Russian army is advancing. So we're into the real horrible truth about this battlefield. The scale of the violence is on a par with the worst of the violence in the Second World War.

Massive losses. We still don't know the true figures, but between Russian and Ukrainian losses, we are certainly talking a million men, and the bulk of the bulk of the casualties has fallen on the Ukrainian side. There is no doubt about this. And of course, what is being said in this little clip is that the Russians moving forward are having problems because they're moving into areas previously defended by Ukraine where there are so many bodies. It is, it's presenting a health hazard.

And remember that Leader of the opposition, Kemi Bananock, Mike has shown this clip a couple of times, is very happy to say, well, we, we, the UK, are fighting a proxy war against the Russians. But of course, it's the Ukrainians that are taking the brunt of the of the casualties, the dead and the wounded. So this is a vicious war carried out by the West, but the UK is there at the forefront and the Russians talking in terms of handing back 6000 bodies.

This is just one incident that they hold on ice. It's truly despicable. And of course, the British government and Stormer and those who voted for him should be ashamed. Now, there's something else that was reported by those Russian diplomats. So Vladimir Medinsky, who was the main man speaking. Let's listen to something else he talked about. Now it's regarding children. So what did we hear recently at the United Nations, at other platforms?

We heard about 1.5 million Ukrainian children being abducted. Then we had about 200,000 Ukrainian children. Now the official figure is 20,000 children. And we tried to get any documentary evidence, any corroboration statements from parents, but there was nothing, no, no lists. And we have a permanently operating children's ombudsman. And children who found themselves in a difficult situation in the battle zone, they're evacuated.

And if their families are found, the children are reunited with their families, they're given back to those families. So what are the actual numbers? We finally received the full list. As you see, it's not 1.5 million

and not 20,339 names. So this number is a very visual indication of the fact that the entire story with abducted children is just a media operation aiming to impress the Europeans. There is not a single child who was abducted, but there were children who were saved by our soldiers risking their lives, who risked their lives to carry out those children from the battle zone. And we are now looking for their parents. And if we find those parents, we give the children back to the

family. And there are dozens such cases. Well, there we are. Very interesting testimony compared to the propaganda that we've seen from Western media. Do I believe that the Russians are squeaky clean on this?

I suspect not entirely because we're in a battlefield situation, but there are a number of extremely harrowing videos which you can watch on social media, which are from the battlefield, showing Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian soldiers trying to evacuate civilians, elderly men, women, children, from the battlefield zones or the zones which are

under fire from both sides. And those Russian soldiers being targeted by drones, many of which of course will have been supplied by the West. Now, on the subject of children, back in 2016 Mike Robinson produced a couple of articles talking about the basically the lies of the British government around unaccompanied children and the children disappearing at the time, some 400 children from Syria who'd come to the UK unaccompanied by their parents. Those children disappeared.

There was no major commentary from the BBC or the government on that. So that was one particular article. But Mike Robinson wrote a second one here on the 6th of October 2016 when he was talking about having tried to get an answer from Tim Farron about these dis the Syrian children that had disappeared. But again, a wall of silence. So I'm going to say to our audience today, utter, utter hypocrisy by the UK government over the subject of missing children.

And if I can reinforce this statement and this document was brought to my attention from 2024, eroding the right to family life, human rights violations in Britain's child protection systems. It was written by the Children and Families Truth Commission. And if you get in some of the detail, I won't give it all, but you can see this in your own

time. Essentially the report is saying that the findings demonstrate that the children's social care system is profoundly harmful and unsupportive for families and children and it's clearly incompatible with human rights legislation in the UK. In this section here of key findings, you will see the comments from families who've been affected by the system and essentially they're saying no support, grossly unfair, inaccurate reports, nothing is

independent and the whole system is unjust as children are taken away from parents. So we'll have more on that in due course, but Vanessa has probably a very good Segway to bring you in because of course, Syrian children have suffered on

a massive scale, not only in the war zone, but outside of the war zone. Yeah, absolutely. And not forgetting, of course, the MI 6 incubated White Helmet organisation that stands accused by the Syrian people of child abduction, organ trafficking and child abuse, of course, in the staging of the chemical weapon attacks that were used to criminalise the former Syrian government. So Britain has its hand behind many of these most nefarious harvests, as they're known of war.

So I'm going to come back to Syria now and try to unravel some of the complications surrounding what's actually going on. And, and people may sometimes think I'm contradicting myself from previous reports, but it's a very fluid situation. There's huge power plays going on between a number of players in the region, some allies, some not. And even within the Jelani are elected regime itself, there are things are not all looking good

for him. So most recently, Trump was talking about some of the concessions he was prepared to make if Jelani would give him assurances. And first of all, if we have a look at this article a few days ago in the Washington Post, Syrian leader faces the challenge of foreign militants who helped him win power. And of course, Trump is basically saying, or he was saying that all the foreign militants must get out of Syria.

So let's just have a look at some of the, or at least one of the main reasons that that's an issue for Jelani. The most hard line of these fighters are already turning their eye on Sharar, or Jelani as we know him, angry that he has not yet improved Islamic Sharia law and alleging that he's cooperated with the US and Turkish forces to target extremist factions. Jelani is attacking us from the ground, America from the sky. And of course, this is nothing

new. This is effectively what was happening when Jelani had dominance over Idlib and the US was helping him eliminate his challenges for power in Idlib itself by by drain strikes having been given the coordinates by Gilani and his loyal militia. However, America, just as you said, Brian, with the talk from Rubio, America seems to be, let's say chameleon like

changing its policy. So in the last 48 hours, Trump has said through his special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, US gives the nod to Syria to bring foreign jihadists and ex rebels into the army. So a complete flip there by the United States. Tom Barrack basically pointed out that I would say there is an understanding with transparency.

Me personally, I would say this is an understanding from the US, probably fed to them through the UK elements that are now operating in Damascus, that Jolani will not survive without the foreign elements in his militia. And Barrett goes on, and this is paraphrasing, it is better to keep the fighters, many of whom are very loyal to Syria's new administration, within a state project rather than exclude

them. Because of course, if they were to exclude them, what has been happening is those fighters who believe that Jolani has betrayed their extremist Takfiri roots and vision for Syria are now joining ISIS in Syria and turning against Jolani. Secondly, Tom Barrack also made comments that the US policy in Syria hasn't worked for 100 years and that it's time to change that policy. Of course, Trump tried this previously in his 2016 presidency and this has been reported in Reuters.

US to scale down its military bases in Syria, the envoy says. So Tom Barrick is basically saying they'll scale down from 8 bases to 1 and move further to the east. Now coming back to the incorporation of foreign jihadists into the Syrian Army, which raises certain questions, particularly with relation to China. This is an article from a Lebanese media outlet. The integration of 3500 Uyghur jihadists.

Now, that's slightly misleading because while the Uyghur jihadists are probably the majority of the foreigners joining Jolani's official new Syrian Army, they number about 4000 to 5000 in Syria, but they are outnumbered by the Chechens and the Tunisians. So a little bit misleading. But however, what is not misleading is, I believe, the reasons behind allowing the Uyghurs to remain in Syria, which is all about curbing China's influence on the new

Syrian government. This was a report from the Washington Institute and if we have a look at what they actually said in the report, there are fears that China is making steps to to get close to Jolani's government. A week after Assad fell, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that he was deeply concerned and called for urgent efforts to prevent terrorists and extremist forces taking advantage of the

chaos. Two months later, however, Chinese Ambassador XI Hongwei met with interim President Geolani and Damascus. So clearly from America's perspective, they want to prevent Chinese influence again in Syria. And coming back to what we talked about last week, of course, all of this is happening also after the British have very much entered Damascus and are heavily influencing decisions that are taken in the Syrian capital and by Jolani. So if we just have a quick look

at the article that's up at the UK column website, The Blair Bush Project in Syria that brought al Qaeda to power, which goes into detail about the role of Jonathan Powell connected to MI Six, former chief of staff for Tony Blair and now, of course, national security adviser to Kerr Starmer and who's actually running operations in Damascus. It appears to be this lady, Lucy Stewart. This has been confirmed to me by a number of people in Syria and

in Damascus in particular. She's embedded in the new Syria Foreign Affairs Ministry and is helping to groom the members of Jolani's al Qaeda government. She spent five years working for Saudi Arabia Media. She's a graduate from the School of Oriental African Studies of Arabic and Farsi, a joint intermediate Jonathan Powell's organisation, in June 2015, and

has been there ever since. And this is her job to basically groom Jelani or to transform Jelani from the terrorists that he was, Mohammed Al Jelani, into the president of Syria, if we can just see that. And so so basically the British involvement is having a huge effect, in my opinion, on U.S. policy, but not only U.S. policy.

Israel also feels emboldened. There were reports yesterday of so called resistance strikes against the occupied Golan Heights occupied by Israel and that led to blanket bombing by Israel yesterday of a number of sites in Syria. So Britain seems to have triggered a change in policy in the US and empowerment of the Jolani regime. Vanessa, thank you very much indeed. And it's something we'll certainly come back to in extra.

But for now, Law and Order and published at the end of last month is the independent sentencing review from Ministry of Justice. There's just time to look at two of the provisions, the first being a measure which would set a very dangerous precedent indeed, so called pharmaceutical interventions for those subject to criminal sanctions. And this is what the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmud had to say about it. And does that last forever?

Is it permanent? You, you, you have to keep taking the medication, the evidence. And you know, these studies are quite small in number. There's not huge evidence base here in in terms of what we've got available to us in this country, but the evidence suggests that the combination of the drugs with psychological interventions is actually the best combination for ultimately

reducing reoffending. What I've inherited from previous administrations is a very, very small scale pilot that's been running for some years in the Southwest. What I've decided is I think that this is a combination of medicine and psychological interventions that other countries are using to good effect. So more and more countries are taking this up. I'm not squeamish, squeamish about doing this here. So I would like to see a national roll out of the current

programme that we have. We're going to start with two regions and then and then progress to national roll out. It's a voluntary programme to start with. But I'm also exploring, you know, where the mandation might be a way forward for us as to force people to do. Chemical castration, something she's apparently not squeamish about and in many ways an extraordinary thing to listen to, especially when treated in such a bland manner.

But you will have heard at the end of the clip she referred to mandatory castration, which takes us back some decades. From the Auschwitz travelling exhibition. It is stated that the pseudo medical experiments carried out included, sorry, including for example, tests on sterilisation using iodine X rays or silver nitrate castration of the subhumans. Now not only that, but there's the extremely problematic issue of consent.

And this is what the NHS has to say about that, which is that consent from a patient is needed regardless of the procedure. The principle of consent is an important part of medical ethics and international human rights law, something everybody will have a particular view on from what's happened over the last five years. But of course, put the other way around the the obstacle, or at least the way around this particular obstacle concerns capacity.

And the health service goes on to say that the requirement for consent disappears with what they call a severe mental health condition such as schizophrenia, bipolar or dementia, and where the patient lacks the capacity to consent to the treatment of their mental health. Now, these are referred to as

psychological interventions. And and with regard to that, there's absolutely no evidence to substantiate the effectiveness of such as seen here in the rather outdated scoring profile from the College of Policing where the impact on crime is scored as low. Now the preface of all this is an extremely alarmist statement as put out by the Home Office that we are facing a total breakdown of law and order.

And as part of this narrative, Mood has also declared that she will sort out the very many issues confronting prisons and in particular the spaces inside them. This is dealt with in the sentencing review to an extent.

So the reporting here by the Telegraph is not quite as thorough as it ought to be. But they say that one way to reduce pressure on prisons is via what's called punishment in the community, which will, quote, restrict freedom, impose structure on an offender's day to day life and require people to confront the causes and consequences of their actions.

End Quote. This follows the increasing trend towards the imposition of various orders, many of which who do not even require involvement in a criminal offence. And then alongside all of this is the announcement that there's to be a Prevent commissioner charged with, quote, stopping people from becoming terrorists

or or supporting terrorism. It's likely that any reports produced by the interim commissioner will inform public policy around how counterterrorism interacts with integration, public health, faith and communities, and how these policy areas can support counterterrorism efforts in the

coming years. So the first agenda item no doubt will be to look at the review into the actions of Prevent with regard to Axel Rudiqabana, currently serving a prison sentence in relation to the Southport killings of last year, who was of course well known to Prevent.

Finally, on on this subject, with the Liverpool traffic attack in mind, it's worth considering the government's push for self driving vehicles which was meant to take effect this year, 2025. Now the Connected and Automated Mobility Report 2022 predicated the transition on the theory of change, another instance of nudge or applied behavioural

psychology. So it's not hard to see how the actions of Paul Doyle and the associated fanfare of attention could be used to engender public acceptance for automated vehicles. So this would be something that we keep an eye on. They say here the public trust and acceptance of any new technology is key to its success and this is identified as a critical factor in our theory of change modelling. One particularly important factor in public acceptance is safety.

So as I say, we'll see where that goes. Now finally to end on a positive, we've heard reports in from those that distribute the Lights newspaper out in the Cheltenham area. They've had a really good response in recent times to what they're doing and indeed to what's contained within the Light, which is of course an

excellent read. And I would encourage you to get a copy of the most recent edition, not least because it deals with our UK column on location event back in April in Cheltenham. So, so great work and please do keep in touch with stories like that because it's very important to reflect that back to the audience that all of this does actually make different. Now that's all we've got time for in the programme today. So I'll just leave you with a

few reminders. First of all, don't forget to tune in to Diane's interview with Vicki Baggett tomorrow. And of course at 7:00 every evening during the week, at least Monday to Friday, we have the Germ Warfare podcast going out and then starting in a few minutes we will have news extra. So do TuneIn to that. If you're not yet a member and therefore don't have access to extra, please consider joining

us as a member. And it just remains for me to thank Brian very much for joining me in the studio and Vanessa and Sandy remotely. We will see you again on Friday or indeed in a few minutes for extra. Thank you very much. Bye bye.