UK Column News - 23rd January 2026

Good afternoon, it's Friday the 23rd of January 2026, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News. I'm your host, Mike Robinson, my Co host in the studio today, Patrick Henickson welcomes the program. Patrick. Great to be with you, Mike. And we'll be joined today once again by Basil Valentine.

Now later in the program, we're going to be covering the latest on the Holocaust Memorial, local elections, more from Davos, including Trump's Board of Peace and the situation with ICE in the United States. But we're going to begin today

with the NHS and Palantir Patrick. Well, this is a really important story for for people in the UK and I think we are going to be able to lay out the facts here. And I want to get comment from from both you and Basil Valentine on this. But the NHS and Palantir, this is a relationship that is now inextricably linked and we're going to point to an excellent report here by an independent media called the People's Dispatch.

The British government pressures NHS institutions to adopt the quote Palantir plan and it's getting a lot of pushback from independent advocates, civil liberties people, people concerned with rights and using people's data. And what's going to happen to that data? The dangers of which of allowing Palantir to access all NHS data And Keir * what, what is his position on this? What is the Starmer government's position on this? Let's look at a couple of takeaways from this issue right

here. First of all, the government officials have attempted to reassure patients and staff that safeguards would prevent misuse of NHS data, claiming that data would be anonymized or pseudo. This is a tongue twister right there, however, that such assurances can be misleaded. The nature of health data is that it's so personal that it's actually very difficult to fully anonymize. And we'll go on here. The analysis continues Palantir's business strategy, offering new users initial

access at minimal cost. Users were talking about governments and institutions here, then raises the prices while locking them into dependence by retaining intellectual property rights and limiting compatibility with other systems. Government and public services are a favorite target under the strategy. Mike that can only be described as rent seeking. Rent seeking. Now I want to bring Basil Valley Valentine on for this. Basil, this is a incredible

story. This issue seems to have advanced down the road and a lot of people just aren't even aware that this has already happened. Give us your your thoughts on this important story. Yes, thank you, Patrick. Well, this contract was initially awarded by the Conservative government in 2023, although Palantia is also known to have close ties to the Labour Party, and it's been reported that they hired Peter Mandelson to lobby the Labour government to help it win more government contracts.

This particular contract is up for renewal in February of next year. And last year, in 2025, the British Medical Association passed a formal resolution calling for the cancellation of the contract. The BMA of course, the organization that represents

British doctors. The resolution said the involvement in Palantir in the NHS threatens to undermine public trust in NHS data systems due to a lack of transparency in how the data will be stored and processed, a track record of creating discriminatory policing software in the US. That of course is Palantir's other speciality and close links to AUS government, which shows little regard for international

law. The British doctors, they're making a sideways reference to Palantir's involvement in the Gaza genocide. Now I'm pleased to say there is increasing push back here in the UK against it. Zach Polanski wrote to Alex Karp of CEO of Palantir earlier this week putting the company on notice and saying that should the Greens form any part of a future British government, they would be terminating the contract forthwith. And meanwhile, there's resistance from within side the

NH chess. Although the government are trying to force this down everybody's throats, it does require the cooperation of patients and staff and that cooperation is being withheld. Duncan McCann of a good law project, Stretch the patients, healthcare workers and policy Lakers. We must understand that this deal has real impacts on NHS functioning. It's not just esoteric concerns. So if we choose to opt out then

I hope and believe we can. But why is the British government so dead set on working with Palantir? There are dozens of companies that provide the same services. Why pick Palantir? That's, that's a good question, Basil, but but I want to put this to you as well because it's at the end of the day, Palantir, a US based company with close ties to Israel. Other data, other similar types

of companies exist, of course. But none of this would have been possible if if the UK Parliament had not passed the Data Use and Access Bill as the Data Use and Access Act, because that was the legislation which amended the data protection legislation to allow this data to be exported. And well, the UK column, amongst others, were highlighting the dangers of this right the way through its process through Parliament. Nobody seemed to notice. So what is it?

What actually does it take to get people to notice this stuff? And, you know, it's at this point it's already too late because that legislation is on the statute books, as it were. Well, you make a very good point, Mike. There's so much of this that goes on behind closed doors in the corridors of Whitehall, but I just want to make reference as well to the sort of tangential situation with the Home Office.

Shabana Mahmoud, Panopticon of surveillance This is a white paper on policing expected next week, which will dramatically expand the use of artificial intelligence with the aim of keeping the eyes of the state on offenders at all times. Police could soon be stopping criminals before they even commit offences, and the sweeping reforms to be unveiled

next week. Now the reason I mention it is because it's all part of this privatisation of data and it's subsequent potential for misuse by the authorities. You never know something in your NHS record might identify you as a potential criminal. The that then ends up with you being arrested before you've committed any crime.

This is Minority Report. And Patrick, the other question is, will it will it remain with crime or will it be, will these people of interest, let's call them, include people that are speaking out in ways that government doesn't like? Well, there's that, Mike, but not, not just the targeting aspect, which becomes incredibly easy with this system, but in what I said at the digital ID protest a couple of weeks ago before Christmas, I said that it's already too late.

The data sets are already being shared across departments. It's it's it's already happened. The only thing that hasn't been implemented is the front end in our interaction officially with it via the digital ID for instance, but that system is already constructed. The back end is already done.

The data is already ubiquitous and who knows who has access to it. It could be being processed in U.S. data centers certainly would be, you know, US cloud power that's going to drive this with with Palantir. That's absolutely the case, yes. So is this is just rent seeking, really just incredibly entrapment, corporate entrapment and rent seeking because as it said, it gets you hooked on it dependent. And this is what's happened in the US. This is that that's their

business model. It's a predatory, very manipulative, manipulative business model. And they'll they'll have you in perpetuity. It's impossible to migrate out of that system once you once you start, turn the key and start that down that road. Yeah. When you say that it's not technically impossible, it is absolutely financially impossible because once you're stuck in that, it is extremely expensive to try to get out of it, take a very long time.

In the meantime, of course that you have to continue the service with that company and and they're they're not going to cooperate with, with the migration process either. So it it is, you know, very, very difficult. And politics are involved and money is involved in the back end. Now there's a petition which we'll bring up on screen right now.

This is a petition which was created by Jemma Smith in the UK and it's about introducing an NHS data opt out and requiring A consultation for system expansion. So introducing a clear national opt out for your NHS data which is being processed on the Federated data platform, as well as the national data integration tenant, the ND IT. So have a look at this. We've got the links to this in

the show description. It doesn't have a lot of signatures now, but it I've seen the argument for this as well as by the creator of this and it seems to make sense. I mean, these are things that are just not even available through this whole process. They've completely might bypass the public at every turn. And this is just one of a number of efforts here to try to claw back some accountability or some data sovereignty terms of the individual.

I think Mike, this is just paving the way for the privatization or the automation of the NHS, whereby AI will be your doctor in the future and your access to actual real people in the system will be severely restricted 100%. Absolutely, 100%. But I think I think if there's going to be some kind of data opt out, it can't be left as a

matter of trust. It's got to have a statutory basis and and some kind of legal accountability in the event that perhaps you take the opt out box and that gets ignored. Because at the end of the day, do we trust any of these people to to absolutely actually adhere to any wish to opt out? I don't. Is that a trick question? Well. Indeed, yeah. OK, well, we move on. We shall now let's move on then to the Holocaust Memorial Bill. Now it's received.

It has now received royal assent, which the UK government says helps pave the way for a memorial and a Learning Center in Victoria Tower Gardens. Now, this has been extremely controversial, as Charles in particular has been reporting on for quite some time now. This was done, they say, just in time for Holocaust Memorial Day, which is on the 27th of January. And they're saying that once built, the memorial will stand at the heart of our democracy. That's their words.

It's going to stand at the heart of our democracy. Now. The bill was first introduced in 2023 and it recommitted that the government, it was, it was a recommitment by the by the Starmer regime from something that the previous Tories government had decided to to run with. It removes a legal blockage caused by historic legislation which was preventing this being built in Victoria Tower Gardens because of of planning permission limitations. So those planning permission

limitations have been removed. So let's just have a look at what Keir Starmer had to say before we get some comments here from from Patrick and and Basil. He said we must do everything possible to advance Holocaust education while we still have survivors able to guide us, located at the heart of our democracy. So he repeated that again. It will strengthen our national commitment to challenge prejudice wherever it appears and defend the values that bind

us together. Does it do those things? I mean, no, irony is an irony proof zone we're going into here. Well exactly Basil, what are your thoughts on this? Because this has been highly controversial and quite a number of people don't want it, bearing in mind we already have a Holocaust Memorial in the country. Well, I take it he's referring to the Gaza Holocaust, and that's what this memorial is for, surely? Yeah. Well, that's that is a good question.

I'll just. That's a good idea by Basil. Maybe there should be two side by side. I would support that. We have a memorial for the tragedy and the the genocide in Gaza and a Holocaust Memorial. That's fair. And then people can learn about both and learn the lessons from history from both tragedies. What do you think? Well, you know, the mantra is

never again. But as number of Israeli spokespersons and associated assorted talking heads have said, as far as they're concerned, it's never again. Only for them, but not for thee, you know. So it's the most appalling double standards being exhibited here by Starmer, those utterly weasel words, while he himself has been not just complicit but, as we know through the spy flights over Gaza, actively involved in a genocide. I mean, we'll come on later to the moral atavism of Trump.

Starmer is no better. Yeah. And not only that, Mike, the the whole Elbit Systems controversy, I mean, the government could have stepped in at any point, absolutely, and just restricted arms sales and that type of activity, while the case is in the ICC and the ICJI mean most people would look at that as a no brainer, especially with the Prime Minister that has a background as a human rights

lawyer as well. That's the shocking part about it. Well, yes, but he's got other, other loyalties, let's put it that way. But let's just bring this on screen quickly because as I said, there has been some pushback against this and the main campaign as far as I know is St. Victoria, Victoria Tower Gardens, preventing building in this precious London park. The details of this campaign group will be in the show notes as well. So go and have a look at that if you want to find out more.

OK, let's move on then to local elections.

And of course the UK government has confirmed now that it's going to bring forward legislation to postpone elections for 29 councils. So if we just bring this on screen, this this for 29 councils have provided sufficient evidence on how postponement would would release capacity to help deliver local government reorganization. That's how they they were talking about it.

So 202429 government, sorry, 29 local authorities are postponing elections, 34 councils are going to go ahead with elections and that means, according to the government, they're very pleased for us all to know that that means a majority of local elections will go ahead as planned. That should make us all feel a lot better. Now what they say is that where elections are postponed, existing councillors will have their terms extended.

And they're saying that elections to the new unitary councils are expected to take place in May 2027, with the new councils expected to be up and running in April 2028. But this was a bit, Basil, I really want to get your thoughts on this because this was a bit that almost made me fall off my chair because I'm going to quote what they said here. They said these decisions follow precedent between 2019 and 2022.

The previous government postponed local local council elections to protect local government reorganization work. So postponement then, as now, they said, is to enable focused work on implementing proposals. Now that had me in stitches because this here's a man who is Prime Minister on the basis of campaigning on the idea of change, that he was going to do something different to the Tory government.

And here we are with him, actually, without a sense of a thread of irony, using the Tory government as president for this bad behavior. Well, as Thomas said, the heart of our democracy, Mike, is the Holocaust Memorial, not elections. What on earth makes you think that elections at regular intervals should have anything to do with democracy? Our democracy is defined by that Holocaust Memorial and nothing more. Yes, I'm not sure where to go after.

That there's nothing more democratic than postponing elections. What do you think? No, I think that's. That's a very Democratic thing to do extremely Democrat, just like Zelensky in Ukraine. He's he's, he's postponing now what he's over a year in 18 months in, yes, out of mandate. I mean, and that's the paragon of democracy for Europe. We need to defend that, right, Defend Zelensky because he's not having elections. I can see where this is going by the way.

Seems to be a pattern emerging, not a good one. No, indeed. OK, well that's local elections. We will keep you posted as as that develops as well. And of course that legislation will be coming forward very soon. But let's move back across to

Switzerland and Davos Patrick. Well, yeah, this is this is the great confab, isn't it, Mike? This is when the great and the good get together. And this is quite prestigious. It's now they're no longer calling it Davos. It's now called the WEF and a lot of people are using this term now. So they've really graduated right up to the up the cultural ladder. They've now got their own sort of quick nickname, if you will, almost a hashtag the WEF. And so what's going on at the

WEF? All is not well at the WEF. This has become the biggest slugfest at Davos in living memory. And a lot of that's to do with Donald Trump and his entourage that have descended onto the slopes of Davos, once the pristine and serene liberal neoliberal enclave in the Swiss Alps. And here is the big controversy. And this is pretty, I, I think, pretty significant. Christina Lagarde, she is the central banker of Europe and she walked out after Howard

Lutnick's speech. Howard Lutnick is Donald Trump's commerce secretary and we'll we'll look at him in a moment. But apparently, and she left the Davos dinner. I think she may have left the event full stop. She was completely taken aback and offended by the comments from Trump. Now, this is interesting too because, you know, bankers are usually politically agnostic. It wasn't the politics, though, that she was offended by.

It was the almost imposition of monetary policy coming from the United States in terms of what Europe needs to do in terms of accommodating American financial interests. And that goes really flies in the face of everything that I think any European bureaucrat, civil service or even technocrat is willing to swallow. And we'll talk about that in a moment. Now, here is the Howard Lutnick railing against globalization. I want to comment on this afterwards. Let's roll this.

And the Trump administration and myself, we are here to make a very clear point. Globalization has failed the West and the United States of America. It's a failed policy. It is what the WEP has stood for, which is export offshore, far shore, find the cheapest labour in the world and the world is a better place for it. The fact is it has left America behind. It has left the American workers behind.

That is a bit rich coming from an investment banker from Wall Street. Wall Street are the ones that drove globalization and they all got filthy rich out of it by financializing the American economy and they did the same in Britain. Mike. So Howard Lutnick in the City of London made out like bandits for the last 30 years, and he has the temerity to then come and pivot and say, oh, this globalization is hurting Americans. It is really unbelievable. These people are absolute shape shifters.

Playing psychological games, of course, because that that that sentiment that he's expressed is going to be very, very popular with, with the market base, of course, and, and all the other people that are Trump supporters around the world. And but he doesn't mean a word of it. To to the uninformed and the the the neophytes in terms of politics, economics and geopolitics, that might sound like a good sound bite. Or to JD Vance, you know, people who aren't that well steeped in such things.

But to educated people, he's not fooling anybody. Now here he is. This is the thing that really offended Christine Lagarde, we're told. Roll this next one. And what we are here to say is that America First is a different model, one that we encourage other countries to consider, which is that our workers come first. We can have policies that impact our workers. Sovereignty is your borders. You're entitled to have borders. You shouldn't offshore your medicine. You shouldn't offshore your

semiconductors. You shouldn't offshore your entire industrial base and have it be hollowed out beneath you. You should not be dependent for that, which is fundamental to your sovereignty on any other nation. And if you're going to be dependent on someone, it darn well better be your best allies, OK. And so that is a different way of thinking. And of course, he's absolutely right in what he says there.

I can't argue with anything that he said, but of course he is one of the people that's implemented this offshoring policy over the last decades. He is, but you know, if the US is, is so self-sufficient, why do they need to steal a country like Venezuela's oil and go and kidnap the president? I mean, the, the hypocrisy and just the balderdash that's coming out of these people is unprecedented.

And then why, why is he, why is the United States need to go and grab Greenland if it's so self-sufficient? And it's on short everything. They haven't on short everything. This is a globalized economy and you really can't get out of the fact that countries need to trade. And then at the same time, he is threatening the Trump administration's threatening punitive tariffs against European countries. So he's instrumentalized the whole purpose of the tariffs and

turned it into sanctions. Basically, there's no credibility from any of these people. And we don't know where to start, Howard. Howard Lutnick is a fanatic, is a political fanatic. He is absolutely an Israeli pick. Let's take a look at him for a moment. So who is Howard Lutnick? That is the question. An absolute Israeli lobby pick. And a lot of people are saying, Mike, that he is Trump's handler. You always see Howard Lutnick everywhere Donald Trump goes.

He's scanning every word that Trump says to the press. You do you rarely see Trump without Lutnick present. So that's why people are calling the him Trump's handler. And he's just always around, like lurking in the background, these sort of creepy pictures. This is from Air Force One here. He's almost become a mem in his own right here. And that's not the his endless creepy pictures.

Here he is again, but you might not be able to see him, but believe it or not, there he is right behind Lindsey Graham. I mean, so this is Trump's handler. So this is basically Israel's eyes and ears in the White House is effectively Howard Lutnick of Cantor Fitzgerald investment banks who coincidentally had offices in the Twin Towers on 9/11. So among other. But he wasn't there that day. No, he wasn't.

He, he was lucky. He I think he was no, I was told to picking or taking his kid to school that morning. So extremely fortunate in that regard. Not everybody was a sadly on 9/11. But the not to change the subject. That's something people need to pay attention to. You know, who is steering Donald Trump, who is Trump's handler. And we believe, a lot of people now believe it's Howard Lutnick, and it's kind of becoming obvious at this point.

OK, thank you for that, Patrick. OK, let's move on then. If you like what the UK column does, we do need your continuing

financial support more than ever, in fact, as we'll be in letting people know more about very, very shortly. But just have a look at the front page of the UK column website. There's a link there that will take you to where you can find out more details of how you can support us. Please do share anything you see on the UK column website or any anywhere else. In fact, that's ours because that helps us beat the

censorship regime. Now tonight at 7:00 PM, Charles and I are speaking to Jeremy again for our usual weekly banter. So join us at that 7:00 PM and then more from Carl's on Venezuela, geopolitics, minerals, and the future of Latin America. That's in Silk and Steel podcast at 9:00 PM and then 9:00 PM on Sunday for members only, the third part of the 1000 Words podcast with Abby Roberts. Jake speaking to Abby Robertson, painting, Abby Roberts, and of course, the reveal at the end.

Quick reminder of the digital ID rally happening in Glasgow, 1:00 PM on at the Commonwealth Monument on Glasgow Green. So join them at 1:00 PM in Glasgow if you're able to do that. And if you're not that far north, then there's going to be a digital ID meeting taking place at the Chamberlain Square at 1:00 PM on Saturday at Birmingham Square, Birmingham. Sorry, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham. So join for that if you can as

well. OK, let's move on then to the Board of Peace. And of course, yesterday at

Davos, Trump, well, he's, he announced it or he formally formalized it and signed the document and created the Board of Peace formally. This, of course, is to remind you of the technocratic corporate body, which he clearly envisages is going to replace the United Nations to some extent. Now, his son-in-law and special advisor, Jared Kushner unveiled a $30 billion plan for rebuilding Gaza. And he was talking about amazing investment opportunities so we can all buy shares in that.

The plan, he said, was going to begin with rebuilding the southern city of Rafa within as little as two to three years. And well, let's just get an idea of how this was presented. So quickly I'll go through this 2 year war, 90,000 tons of munitions, there's over 60 million tons of rubble there and 10s of thousands of fatalities. So on the aid I mentioned the UN. So now people are talking about famine, 100% of the, of the, of the food needs are are met and

that's been over abundance. The the cost of goods have gone down tremendously. Over 55,000 trucks have gone in and over 1.4 million pallets. So it's been the largest humanitarian effort done into a war zone that anyone's been able to tell us about. This really has been a great joint effort that everyone's been able to do and and so it's

a great thing. So first of all, Patrick, do you buy that this claim that 100% of of Gazan's food needs are met, that this is the greatest humanitarian effort going into and you notice he used the term war zone when in fact this in fact is a genocide. So you know, what are your thoughts on on his comments? He's absolutely lying. He's lying right to the camera, he's lying to the world.

But these people have proven that they don't have really have any conscious left when it comes to this area. Besides being the president's son-in-law, the president in law, he's also lifetime close friends with the Netanyahu family. This is the last person you want running point on such a a gaudy project. And the problem, Mike, here is like the Abraham Accords, this maneuver by Kushner basically leaves out any dialogue with the Palestine, the native Palestinian population.

And that's why the Abraham Accords failed. And that's why this is going to fail, because they haven't learned a lesson from the past. Well, I mean, I, I don't know how you can be right about that because it was all about the, it was license lines as we saw there. But he went, he went on to talk about the rebuilding and we've got to be very clear because he was very clear that this was all about the aspirations of the people of Gaza and nothing else.

Let's just have a listen. Rothful, we'll start with this will show a lot of workforce housing. We think this could be done in 2-3 years. We've already started removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition. And then new Gaza, it could be a hope, It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that that the people there can thrive, have great employment. Once this starts going, we think there should be 100% full employment and opportunity for

everybody there. And we have a lot of data on what can be. But we think that this really gives the Gazan people an opportunity to to live their aspiration. So it's not it's an opportunity for the Gazan people to live their aspirations. But as you're as you say, he's never spoken to any Gazan, so how does he know what their aspirations are?

Just be clear, everybody, Jared Kushner, the Trump administration, Steve Witkoff, the Israelis, Netanyahu, they have no intention of allowing any Palestinians to live in those pictures, which they are imagining they're going to build in Gaza. They're going to continue to push them out. When he says three years, he means what every Israeli parliamentarian and ministerial head have said and all the Hawks in Israel. We need to get rid of the Palestinians from Gaza.

We need to exterminate them. They say we need to push them out. We need to ethnically cleanse them. And whoever is left are going to be killed, quite frankly. And they'll, they'll have hopefully they in their mind, some cheap labor by Palestinians would still push into camps, into like concentration camps or

labor housing or labor camps. And they'll, they believe that they'll voluntarily or want to rebuild Gaza as a new Dubai for foreigners with tons of money and for Israelis to move in and Americans. And they believe that somehow that Palestinians are going to be OK with building this new Dubai on top of the dead bodies and remains of potentially hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including women and children. That's basically the gaudy, audacious move that's going on here.

And you know, Mike, it's going to fail for a number of reasons which I could talk about afterwards, but. Well, we'll talk about that in Extra. But then Kushner went on to say that the plan assumes that Hamas has agreed to demilitarize. So let's see what he said on that point. So demilitarization, this is

something we're starting now. We have a new government in Gaza. This government will be working with Hamas on the demilitarization to really take the principles that were agreed to in the document to the next phase, and hopefully that will be successful. Without that, we can't rebuild. So if Hamas does not demilitarize, that will be what holds back Gaza and the people of Gaza from achieving their aspiration. So, again, more aspirations there.

He went on to say that Hamas had signed a deal to demilitarize. Well, that's the first I've heard about that. And he then went on to say that that is what that the United States is going to enforce. So he's implying that if there's no demilitarization, that in fact we'll not only see Israeli, direct Israeli activity in Gaza, but we're going to see United States activity in Gaza. That's an absolute lie, what he said there, there is no deal. There's no new government.

They haven't. The US and Israel have installed a new government in Gaza. Hamas has not signed anything to disarm. It hasn't happened. So this, the level of lying here and and gaslighting is quite extraordinary. And where, how come our governments and the mainstream media aren't pushing back on this? Not that I'm surprised. Because they basically agree with it. It's, it's really, I mean this, this is really amazing. Well then, then the question is who's in and who's out?

And of course, the big question is, is Russia in? Oh, before, before we go to Russia. Yeah. So, so Belgium, they they claimed Belgium was in and Belgian leader just said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not in. And they rejected it. So the, the, the Trump administration's making up people, they're, they're telling us people who have joined that haven't never joined. So there's no credibility at all with this. So Belgium's out, Britain's out.

Well, we're going to currently, we'll talk about that. Canada's out. It looks like the France is out, Germany's out. Now China has basically said we're looking at it, we're reviewing it. But they said, they warned the Chinese. This has major implications for international law, and Russia has said more or less the same thing, but you have more. On Well, let's have a look at what Putin said because this is

what he said yesterday, he said. As for the peace council, yes, we really did receive a personal message from the president of the United States, Donald Trump, inviting us to join a new international body he's setting up. As for whether Russia will take part in this peace council, the Foreign Ministry has been instructed to carefully review the documents we've been sent, same, same as as China at this point. And he said and to consult with

our strategic partners. And then he said then here's the main point, whatever process is launched must actually help move things forward, sorry, towards a long term settlement of the Israeli Palestinian conflict based on relevant UN decisions. So in other words, he's very clear this is not going to replace the United Nations. And all the resolutions that have ruled on Palestine, OK, dozens of them.

Yeah, but he ended his comments with a bit of a Barb because he said so. Even before we decide whether to formally take part in the Peace Council, we could, I believe send 1 billion U.S. dollars to the council were frozen under the previous US administration. So that's that's pretty clear. But then finally, Britain's position as expressed by our wonderful Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Let's have a listen we. Want to be part?

Of the second phase of the peace plan for Gaza, we've strongly supported the 20 point plan. We won't be one of the signatories for what is a a legally binding treaty today that raises other constitutional issues, but also are concerned about suggestions that President Putin might be part of this because, frankly, we need pressure on President Putin to deliver peace in Ukraine, which so far he is refusing to do. So Britain not wanting to. Get in So Britain's not going to

join the. New Doral on the Med Country Club with the $1 billion joining fee. That's it's the Golf Club model and he wants to franchise it to other conflict zones around the world. Maybe we don't have a billion dollars to give. I don't know. But anyway, OK, look, let's move on then because over the last couple of weeks we have been

talking quite a bit about ICE and the immigration situation in the United States and the way that ICE is behaving as a federal agency. What have you got on this, Patrick? I had the pleasure of sitting. Down recently, Mike and talking to the founder and director of Mint Press news in the United States, Minar Adley. A lot of people are familiar with Mint Press and she she's been very busy covering this invasion in Minneapolis.

She's based in Minneapolis. As luck would have it, the story came to her and her team are there and they've been covering it doing an incredible job. This is a a very moving and powerful discussion, a part of that discussion I had with Minar just yesterday, Minar Addley. And we're going to, we're going to play this now and we'll come back with more details on this story in just a few minutes. Well, it's.

Really just a horrific. Scene here on the streets of Minneapolis. Trump has unleashed his Gestapo federal agents onto our city here and what we would describe accurately as an ICE invasion. We're witnessing massive and horrific domestic police repression.

I mean, for whatever it's worth, whatever police state we have witnessed in the past, we are seeing it put on steroids right here in Minneapolis with these domestic police, federal agents that are going literally door to door and walking up to people asking them to show them their papers to prove their citizenship. I mean, this is unlike anything that we've seen before here in the US, at least not in my time

in my generation. I was born and raised here in Minneapolis, and this is the first time I've heard or seen anything like this in the United States. Right now we have over, not even a minimum, but over 2000, perhaps 3000 federal agents with ICE that are here on the ground supposedly targeting, you know, criminals, undocumented immigrants. But the truth is is that they are kidnapping and abducting in many.

Cases American. Citizens, we just saw them, you know, live with Jonathan Ross, the federal ICE agent, shooting an American citizen, Renee Good, on the streets of Minneapolis. And they are kidnapping and abducting immigrants that have lived here for decades who might be, who might have work visas, who might be here on refugee status. And they're very specifically targeting brown people. I mean, they're not targeting like Ukrainians, for example, or Irish immigrants that are living here.

Minneapolis holds the largest refugee population from the Somali community. And many of these people are here because the United States history is, you know, operating its War on Terror in their country for decades has destroyed their country. And so they get refugee status. And many people are, many of the Somalis are here. Many of them are American citizens. And just to share a a story, I mean my friend Segundo, a good friend of mine, his name is Segundo.

He's from Ecuador and his wife Maria were on their way to church about a month and a half ago. They are Ecuadorian immigrants on a work visa here with their eight-year old son in their car. And they were abducted or the husband Segundo was abducted in his car as they were pulling up to their church to go to church. These are law abiding people.

And just how devastating and traumatic for that wife and for their son to witness ICE federal agents pull up, surround their vehicle with their masks on, burying their guns, pulling Segundo out of his car. He didn't even get to say goodbye to his family and his wife and his son are just looking at what's happening to their father, to their to her husband. An absolute horror. And he disappeared for over 2 weeks. They had no idea where Ice had taken him.

They didn't hear anything from him. And several weeks later, Segundo finally called them from a holding center and I believe it was in Texas to let them know that he was being deported back to to Ecuador, where he was from originally from. But as you know, Ecuador as well as a nation that has been completely destroyed by U.S. economic policies and that country is strife with crime and

corruption. And Segundo and his wife, Maria, and their eight-year old son, they have another daughter here who's going to college. They've now been separated from their families, from their dad. And this is the story of so many of these people that are being abducted and taken. By ICE, they're being kidnapped, they're being disappeared. And in many cases, the people that they're kidnapping are not even being sent to their home, you know, their home country.

They're being sent to a prison holding cell in El Salvador. And a lot of times these people have committed no crimes. And so for Trump to go on this rampage to send in these federal agents and its crackdown against, you know, criminals and illegal immigration, this is clearly rooted in white supremacy and racism. Because as they abducted Segundo in that church parking lot, he was on his way to church right

now. Nikima Levy Armstrong was just arrested by the DOJ because she LED a protest in a church here in St. Paul, MN. By the way, she is a reverend herself, OK? And she is a civil rights attorney, an African American sister who led a protest inside the Saint Paul church against a pastor who's also the regional director of ICE. And she was arrested for disrupting a church service.

And the right, right now, the far right is going absolutely insane saying that she went too far by disrupting, you know, Christians, right, to be, you know, sitting in their service peacefully without being disrupted while they are literally abducting other Christians who just happened to be brown skinned and Hispanic and Latino. And that's OK. Segundo was abducted in a church parking lot and he was sent back and, you know, completely

terrorizing his family. And now they just arrested Nikima because she LED that protest inside of a church. And they're quoting the Bible. That's what they're doing. They're quoting the Bible. People on the far right are quoting the Bible like this isn't Christianity. Well, what's not Christianity is prevent is, is having an ice pasture connected with ice terrorizing our communities. And many times they're also Christian, just like Segundo's

story. And you know, that story's on my mind, Patrick, because it's a good friend of mine. Every single person here in Minneapolis knows somebody who has been kidnapped and deported by ICE. And something that's really interesting that interesting that has happened is that ICE federal agents have actually stopped off duty police officers here in Minneapolis and asked them to show them their papers. And this has triggered the police departments to kind of say like, what is going on?

And this is not OK, you've gone too far. Because now they're seeing that it's it's affecting even their off duty police officers. And there's just one story where one of the police officers from the city of Brooklyn Park was stopped. And I believe she was Latina, you know, American Latina, And she was off duty. She was just in her regular clothes. And a federal ICE agent stopped her and asked her to show her

her papers. Well, most people don't walk around with their birth certificate or their passport. Like, that's like, not a thing. And so she didn't have anything to show him except for her driver's license. And she pulled out the camera to start recording her because recording him because he became aggressive with her and he actually knocked that phone out of her hand and detained her. And so this is a perfect example of how for. Even for those who might support.

What ICE is doing in this, you know, their so-called crackdown, it's not just going to affect immigrants or undocumented immigrants or people who are here as residents or, you know, visas. It's going to affect U.S. citizens. And we already saw that from the first day when a few weeks ago Renee Goode was killed. She was shot by a federal agent. And they are being extremely aggressive, extremely aggressive. And this is absolutely overreach.

And it's really scary for people who are living here. There are many people who are afraid to leave their house in the state of Minnesota. Even American citizens now feel that they're afraid to leave their house because they don't want to be detained by ICE. So yesterday I went actually to the Somali Mall to join a press conference. Literally one block down from US, ICE had abducted two teenagers, slammed them to the ground on the ice here because it is very cold here in Minneapolis.

It's like -10°. Today they slammed them both on on ice. We have video footage of this. None. Great reporting by Men Press. News that's Menorah Addley she's an award-winning journalist and I would say in terms of independent media men press is probably one of the best organizations in the world and has been been like that really for like over 10 years. So she's an incredible reporter and that's just a few she provide me with a lot of footage, Mike.

And that was there was stuff even more shocking than what we showed there. I mean, that was pretty light. But you know, perhaps we'll you know, we'll there's some other clips from this interview on future programs. But suffice to say, Mike, that's that's about as good of a clear account as you can get on the ground there from Minneapolis. And we'll we'll be getting more like that as well. We'll undoubtedly be talking about. This an extra. Now I want to bring this on

screen. This is whistleblower aid. Now. They describe themselves as a

pioneering nonprofit legal organization that helps public and private sector workers report and expose wrongdoing. It was founded in 2017, and they say they've supported and advocated for whistleblowers across government. This is in the United States, big tech and other parts of the private sector and so on. Right now, the organization does seem to be primarily funded just for transparency here by

individuals. But they have also received in the past funding from the Omadire Network and from Democracy Fund Voice. But foundation funding doesn't seem to be routine for them, though. Now they've published a document, which is a report. So let's bring it on screen by two anonymous whistleblowers. And they say whistleblower is represents 2 anonymous United States government officials disclosing a secretive and a seemingly unconstitutional policy directive.

This policy directive authorizes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter homes and residences without consent in order to conduct arrests and removals without a warrant issued by a federal judge. And it's the without a warrant, but which is the important

thing. Now the memo was was dated May the 12th, 2025 and was signed by the then acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. And that was recently determined that the the Constitution and immigration law do not prohibit using administrative warrants to enter, resist to enter a residence. So that's their position. And the memo instructs officers to knock, identify themselves and give occupants a reasonable chance to comply, but allows all necessary and reasonable force if entry is refused.

So that's what the memo was alleged to have said. Now, the assistant secretary of Homeland Defense, Tricia McLaughlin, took the X, and she said in every case that DHS uses an administrative warrant to enter a residence, an illegal alien has already had their full due process and final order of removal by a federal immigration judge. That's their claim. The officer also has probable

cause. And then the official Homeland Security X account posted that in every case we serve an administrative warrant, there's probable cause and the illegal alien has had full full due process and a final order of removal. So that's the claim from them.

But that's strange because according to the whistleblowers, it appears that the acting ICE director has authorized the very, the very conduct, sorry, the very conduct that the DHS in 2025 legal training materials has called the chief evil against which the wording of the 4th Amendment is directed. Physical entry of the home without consent or a proper warrant and administrative warrant doesn't cut it.

But in the meantime, as Patrick was highlighting last week, ICE has become a major employer in the United States with a with apparently no particular restrictions on who can apply. And we should also recall the press release from Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nob last year, which not only removed its restrictions on who could apply, but also all ordered, sorry, offered all kinds of incentives.

So it including a maximum $50,000 signing bonus, a student loan repayment and forgiveness opportunity, 25% law enforcement availability, pay uncontrollable overtime for enforcement removal operations, so basically unlimited overtime and enhanced retirement benefits. And Patrick, the question then is where, where is this coming from? Where has it come from? And the source seems to be the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.

And the key objectives in this document include clarifying and expanding ICE authority, removing restrictions on ICE operations, expanding expedited removal, reorganizing immigration functions, pushing for aggressive interior enforcement. This is all the the key features of this. And we're seeing that on the streets of the United States at the moment.

And, and, you know, I would just, we're going to talk about this more an extra, but just for those that are sort of saying, well, these people shouldn't be there there anyway and abductions equals arrests. I'm just going to make the point once again, once you start removing the rule of law and you start get working your way around the regulations and the the, the workflows that you're supposed to follow in the US Constitution and the. Constitution you are.

In a lawless state, the people that are accepting this because they happen to not like the levels of immigration in a country or because they happen to support the. Current president occupying the White House or party right that powers will be retained. By whoever. It follows follows them in office in fact will get worse. This is a slippery. Slope.

It's a direction of travel you've got to be looking at and you've got to be considering where this ends up and, and, and accepting this kind of behavior just because you don't like immigrants is being in your country is not. That's not the way to think about it. Yeah, that's that's a very jingoistic. Xenophobic way of looking at it, Mike. And I will add, when they say illegal aliens, as Minar showed us in her interview, they're not illegal aliens.

Some of the people being kidnapped, they're legal. So that shows you right there that there was no due process. And that's why and a lot of civil liberties attorneys now are being flooded, Mike, with this is this is going to the Supreme Court and the 4th Amendment will be upheld on all of these cases because this is just reckless what's going on here. And it's taking the rights away from all Americans, American citizens, not just quote

illegals. And that's the sort of short sighted ignorant viewpoint that unfortunately a lot of people have because there is a lot of ignorance out there on this issue. Because people are consuming really low IQ mega media and following bots on social media and being gaslit 24/7 on their favorite channels when in fact there's a real world out there that I should remind people that exists. Absolutely. Okay, where does that take us then? Filtered. Let's let's come back to the UK

and the filtered jury. We'll get a quick a quick.

Update on this and again, we're going to point to this excellent Instagram channel. He'll free the Filton 24. They've got already 40,000 followers, jury updates. And also I want to give a shout out to this excellent website. If you want a real time like trial summaries from court reporting here, Real media has just done an excellent job here. And you can go down and just Scroll down from each week right down to week #8 on this trial coverage.

Now, there's been some delays with regards to what's happening this week. And this is happening over at Willage Crown Court, which is adjacent to Belmarsh Prison. I want to bring Basil Valentine on the line right now. Basil, can you just give us an update? There's been some problems with the jury. Deliberation of major issues have come up. Just fill us in on the details. Basil.

Yes, unfortunately. Up to the middle of this week, the jury had had only been able to deliberate the two days out of a possible 7. Now it's worth remembering, of course, the The defendants are held under terrorism legislation, which means that conditions are particularly harsh. They're woken up at 5:00 AM.

The women spend around six hours a day travelling in a prison van to and from HMP Bronze Field. The men face extensive security at Belmarsh, where they're X-rayed and strip searched twice a day, and then at court they're held in filthy holding cells with nothing but a bench. They've also been denied food by Serco, the privatised prison supplier, and they aren't allowed to shower because they get back to prison too late. So, as was the case with Julian Assange, the process is very

much part of the punishment. Last week, as a result of family commitments, illness amongst members of the jury, the deliberations were cancelled on more than one occasion. It's to be hoped that they can come to conclusions sooner rather than later. Of course, this goes back to why the hunger strikes took place in the 1st place, which was to get

bail. Some of these people have been on remand, held in these appalling conditions for two years and the jury may find them guilty of no offence at all. Will they ever get any compensation for two years, not just of imprisonment, but imprisonment in very harsh conditions as terrorists and. Also Basil on. This on this update as well. What about the the timeline on

this? We also have the judicial review which is simmering off to the side with regards to the prescription of Palestine action. These two are politically linked. One could influence the other your your thoughts and just briefly, Basil. Well, strictly speaking. The judicial review shouldn't draw its conclusions conclusions entirely from what the jury decide at Bullish Crown Court, although it's likely that it will play a part.

The Filton 24 were prosecuted under terrorism legislation in advance of the prescription of Palestine action because the British government wanted to see if it could use terrorism powers to quash people who take direct action against the genocide. Thank you. Very much Basil. Valentine. Now, just briefly, finally, Basil, this is an incredible story. We'll bring this up on screen right now. Israel pays for UK adverts attacking Doctors Without

Borders. This is an international charity that provides free medical services in war zones. Explain to us what's happening here. Great report by Declassified UK. Basil, what do you what do you know about this? Well. If you type Medicine Sol Frontier into Google, you'll find a link directly to an Israeli government website which accuses the the organization which does terrific work for gardens. By the way, you can find out about more about what they've been doing over the last few

months. It claims that they failed to adequately adequately condemn the war crimes of October the 7th 2023 and that the pronouncements, public pronouncements have become too politicised, too critical of Israel. At the moment they only have a licence to continue practicing until the 1st of March. After that they may be kicked out.

This of course comes after the Israelis demolished the United Nations Relief and Works Agency building in East Jerusalem this week and also denied access to dozens of other humanitarian organisations. So the plan obviously is to punish the Palestinians by denying them healthcare because one of the few organisations have been able to help people injured by Israeli action, of course by gunfire, by shells. Punish the Palestinians because they mentioned some Fontiere.

Have the temerity to offer some milk toast criticism of what the Israelis describe as defensive operations. This is really the agenda. Thank you, Basil. This is the agenda, Mike, is to restrict any outsiders going into Gaza, journalists, NGOs, Doctors Without Borders, because of what they'll say to the world about the true or the images they might beam to the world about the true state of affairs in Gaza, which is really been met.

We've seen a lot. But that's only a fraction of what we could see if there were major media organizations there. But of course, Israel wouldn't be bombing, would they, if there were BBC crews running around and and ABC and CBS crews running around, right? Very likely they would not be able to, but of course the other thing that they can then do is stand up at a Board of Peace event and make claims about the

humanitarian response. Well, in fact, nobody has been in Gaza to see the humanitarian response, so nobody can. Nobody in the mainstream media is going to criticize that comment because they've had nobody there to look. And we saw the Gaza humanitarian. Foundation and what they did with their rap runs. Exactly. And concentration camps.

But lastly, my Israel's buying up ads on YouTube and running the worst propaganda you can imagine, demonizing Palestinians and also attacking different people. And even there was a report about Israelis who ran ads to collect donations, pretending to be Palestinian to collect donations for a fake charity for Gaza. So literally running scams trying to take advantage of Palestinian suffering. And YouTube is running these ads and all these social media platforms have a hard time

policing this stuff. We have seen so many reports of this since October 7th and it's but of course we have to go back to that to. Netanyahu meeting with the young, the youth in the United Nations and explaining how they were going to be funding thousands of influencers, never mind the ads, influencers as well on with, you know, host of YouTube channels and so on. And we saw those influencers.

Mobilized and kicked into action with the Iran riots and they've been flooding social media being paid $7000 per post. Good work if you can get it anyway. It is indeed. Well, look, we have to. Leave it there for today. I'm going to say thank you very much to Basil and Patrick and for everybody that's watched. We'll be back in a few minutes. If you're UK column member for some news extra, we'll see you then with Basil Valentine. Absolutely. Yes. We'll see you then. Thanks for joining.

US bye bye.