UK Column News - 4th March 2026

Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the 4th of March 2020, Sixth, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News. I'm your host, Mike Robinson. Joining me in the studio today is Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program, Charles.

Thank you, Mike. And by video link from Lebanon is Vanessa Bailey. Now, later in the program, I'm going to be reporting on the economic effect for us all of the ongoing war in Iran and also the Clintons giving evidence to the House Oversight Committee on their alleged links to Jeffrey Epstein. Charles is going to be reporting on the ongoing plight of Imran Khan in Pakistan and also taking a look at Rich Rachel Rhee's plan for the spring.

Well, we might call it a budget, but I'm not sure what they call it these days. But anyway, we'll begin.

We're going to begin today, of course, with with Iran, the Iran war itself. So let me welcome Vanessa to the program. Bring us up to date with with what the latest is. Well, yeah, good afternoon, everyone. It's a bit difficult to cover absolutely everything, but hopefully we can continue the discussion in extra. So first of all, basically, I'm just going to do an overview, a very limited overview of what has actually happened in the last four days.

I would direct everybody to an interview on neutrality studies. The link is going to be in the show notes, an interview with Stephen Starr, who's a nuclear weapons specialist, if we can just have that up on screen. So basically what he's saying is, and this is also being reiterated even in American media, the US has fired 1200 to 1800 interceptor missiles in the last two days. That so that was the first two days of the conflict. The US cannot make enough

missiles. The they manufacture only 400 THAAD missiles per year and 750 PAC 3 Patriot air defence missiles. In 2025 the US fired 25% of all of its third missiles in a few days. The 12 days fighting Iran. This, as I said, is also being picked up by American media. This is the Wall Street Journal. US races to accomplish Iran mission before munitions run out. And of course, remembering back

to the 12 day. War. It is believed that America pressured or or literally requested that Iran accept a a ceasefire because Israel was running out of interceptor missiles. And then I basically this is the main and in my view the most important strategy of Iran, Operation Grape blinding. This is in fact a tactic taken from Hezbollah, which is effectively you can freeze frame after and read what is actually

written on the on the infograph. But this was a tactic actually originating with Hezbollah of taking out all of the radar and early warning structures. And for Iran, of course, that's why they've been heavily targeting the Gulf states in particular. And this was released this morning, official figures from the IRGC accompanied by satellite images basically proving the damage to these

radar and early warning systems. So I'm not going to read out the names of the systems, but basically 2IN Bahrain, 3IN Kuwait, one in the UAE, one in Jordan and most importantly the AN FBS132 in Qatar, which is known as the all seeing eye. It has a 5000 kilometre range and it can detect ballistic missile launch in Iran, China and Russia. So effectively, the US has lost its early warning sister system.

And this morning, Senator Murphy, who'd attended a closed session at the White House, reiterated the fact that the US now has an inability to intercept Iranian drones and missiles. And it also appears from the Hezbollah launch of missiles and drones in the last few days that Israel is also unable right now to intercept those drones and missiles. And that of course, is deliberate that that Hezbollah is coordinating with Iran to flood the air defence missile systems.

There are even reports that the US is going to relocate air defence systems from South Korea to the Middle East to try and make up for the deficit. And then of course, part of what has been ongoing is that Iran has shut down the Hormuz Strait. If we can have the next slide up, which of course incorporates 20% of the world's oil and LNG. And if you look at any of the satellite images or maps available on social media,

you'll see the backlog of ships. But there are also so multiple ships, I think we're up to six ships now that have been targeted by Iran for trying to break the blockade and have either been severely damaged. I think 1:00 this morning, the crew has actually abandoned ship. Then if we come back to Stephen Starr in this interview on neutrality studies, he's talking then about the possible outcomes of the US Israeli attack on Iran.

First of all, he's saying, obviously their objective is regime change, the fragmentation of Iran, the end of Iranian power and containment, which of course, also relates to the Brookings Institute document Path to Persia, where the final strategy is to, in the end, prevent Iran from expanding, although I would argue that they haven't expanded at all into the region. And to contain Iran at the same time, to present US losses as a victory. Of course, this is very important for Trump.

Mike, you and I were discussing this yesterday. And then, of course, the second option, of course, is that US and Israel can't defend itself or destroy the missile cities. Now, it's interesting when he talks about the Iranian missile cities being deeply underground, the fact, sorry, can I just have the slide back on the screen for a second? And that effectively they're built out of granite.

And the only thing according to Stephen Starr, that will effectively destroy these missile cities that are dispersed across all of Iranian territory. And of course, that's pretty vast, our nuclear weapons. And he argues that in order to destroy those missile cities, they're not going to need one nuclear bomb. They're going to need a series of nuclear bombs to destroy all of the missile cities across Iran. And so the chances are extremely high as the US does suffer major

losses. Both ships aircraft, I think another aircraft was shot down today over to Iranian airspace, but we know that three have been lost. the US is trying to claim its friendly fire. It's also trying to claim that the targeting of Aramco in Saudi Arabia was a false flag by Israel. To bring Saudi Arabia into the war. I think you'd have to drag Saudi Arabia into the war in in the current state of affairs because of. Course.

The Gulf states now perceived that the US does not have their back and they're defending only Israel. But coming back to the, the idea of the use of umm, nuclear weapons, I just want to have a quick look at the map. And China, Russia and Iran are marked in red on this map.

So if nuclear weapons are used in Iran, you can see that not only this entire region, but one would assume that definitely Russia, which is on the northern border of Iran and and divided by the South Caucasus. But even China is going to be affected by whatever fallout there is from mass use of nuclear weapons because as we've said, 1 weapon is not going to achieve the presumed objectives of Israel and the United States.

And then basically last week on UK column, we talked about the potential of a ground invasion or an attempted ground invasion. We talked about the various proxies that might be used by the US and Israel, including the Kurdish separatist groups. Well, today, apparently, Trump is open to arming the Kurdish separatist groups to serve as boots on the ground in Iran. So surprise, surprise that appears to be going ahead.

And if we look at the map of the attacks on the border of Iran, you can see there that the Kurdish separatists have attacked at the various stages that are shown on that map. So on the western border of Iran, the IRGC has been responding. If we can just have the next slide up, because I want to demonstrate here that Israel is effectively bombing all of that western border area.

And that is clearly to to weaken the defences in in order to allow for a ground invasion by the Kurdish separatists that Israel has effectively been training and arming. And now Trump is saying that he's going to support them. And that of course, is despite the alleged betrayal of the Kurdish factions in Syria. The IRGC has put out a number of statements, but I'm just going to pull this one up.

They say that they've struck the Mossad backed Kurdish opposition bases in Iraqi Kurdistan. And an interesting point here, at one point they were using war jets, the Mig 29 that was delivered from Russia and a couple of their older aircraft to actually bomb inside the Iraqi Kurdistan area. Now, this is interesting because this proves the point that they have blinded the US. the US is unable to take the Iranian

aircraft out of the sky. And the fact that those aircraft are still flying right now over Tehran and able to take down other jets. Sorry, could I just go back to the IRGC very quickly to finish that off? So effectively, they've reportedly launched drone and missile attacks on multiple headquarters and camps of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Freedom Party and Kamala in the Kurdistan region of Iraq's Erbil

and Koya districts. And of course, at the same time, the Iraqi resistance factions have been heavily hitting the US base in Erbil. And actually to date, we understand that that much of it has been destroyed. And then coming back to the idea of a ground invasion, I just want to show people to to get an idea of the terrain that a ground invasion is going to face. So that's the western border where effectively you can see how mount well, how mountainous much of Iran is.

It's going to be a very difficult country to wage a ground war on. So in my opinion, they might sacrifice proxies, but Americans themselves are not going to put boots on the ground, which of course, is a very familiar aspect to US strategy. And then finally, for people to get an understanding of, um, the factions in the region, even within the Gulf States who are now, um, rising up against the regimes in those states, Iran and its Ring of Fire.

I go into a lot of detail about the potential resistance and alliances in the region that will come to Iran's defence in the case of the war that we're now witnessing. So if people want a bit more information on that and a bit more understanding then please go to UK column and read that. Article. Thank you for that, Vanessa.

We will undoubtedly be talking more on this in extra, but I just wanted to very briefly get a comment from you on the comments by Marco Rubio. So let's just bring Marco Rubio on screen here for a second, if we can, please, Chris, and let's just bring him on. We knew that there was going to

be an Israeli action. We knew that that that would precipitate an attack against American forces and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. I just, I, I have to admit, I nearly fell over when I, when I heard him say these words. Because Vanessa, this is the, the hypocrisy is, is off the charts. But but really, they just did it because they had to do it.

Yes, basically. And, and again, go to the path, path to pressure document and and you'll see that this entire ploy let Israel go in first and then make the US look as if it has to go in to to help its ally, blah blah blah. It's nonsense. Yes, utter it. Is how many how many different ways can you say exactly the same thing? Well. Indeed, Yeah. OK, Well, Charles then in the

meantime, of course, the question is what's Britain's reaction to all this being? Yes. Exactly. Are are we or aren't we? And as we saw on Monday's news programme, there was some excruciatingly awkward press interviews, particularly with John Healey over the weekend, where no answers really were found. After Monday's news, the Prime Minister made a statement to the House of Commons and took questions for a period of a couple of hours, which was

largely repetitive. There were many questions about the echoes of Iraq 2003 and the lawfulness of any action. We will look now at how he began his statement. Mr. Speaker, the United Kingdom was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel. That decision was deliberate. We believe that the best way forward for the region and for the world is a negotiated settlement in which Iran agrees to give up any aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon and ceases its destabilising

activity across the region. President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain's national interest. That is what I've done and I stand by it. But, Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Iran's outrageous response has become a threat to our people, our interests and our allies, and it cannot be ignored. Iran has lashed out across the

region. They've launched hundreds of missiles and thousands of drones at countries which did not attack them. And countries which did not attack them sort of relates back to Rubio's words and somehow the rules being somewhat different for Israel and the United States at least. So he is playing fairly fast and loose with his words and indicating that United Kingdom was not involved might be said to be extremely misleading. And at Exhibit A, we have RAF Lake and Heath which we'll just

put on screen. Now. This has been used by both F15 and F22 fighter aircraft. Of course, 3F fifteens have now been shot down by the Kuwaitis in what's being described as a friendly fire incident. But of course, CENTCOM confirmed that they were engaged in active combat. Now, as to Starmer's Love Actually moment in appearing to stand up to a United States president, this is what was said of his stance. And I'm not, by the way, I'm not happy with the UK either.

That island that you read about, the lease, OK, he made it. For whatever reason, he made a lease of the island. Somebody came and took it away from him and it's taken 3-4 days for us to work out where we can land. There would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. So we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with. Well, there we are now.

Just for that particular part of his rant, Trump had said that he was cutting all ties for Spain for approximately the same reason. And it's at this point reasonable to wonder how much longer nations will put up with this sort of unpredictability and volatility. And since the balloon went up effectively over the weekend, this has been pointed out by Douglas McGregor and others. But this sort of behaviour makes the Americans look increasingly

vulnerable and isolated. Now as to Keir Starmer, he went on to lay the ground for a so-called defensive posture, which looks very much like it's going to morph into an offensive 1. So we'll look at the next installment from his statement. And Mr. Speaker, our armed forces are also being put at risk by Iran's actions. On Saturday, Iran hit a military base in Bahrain with missiles and drones. There were 300 British personnel on the base, some within a few 100 yards of the stripe.

Last night, a drone hit RF Akrotiri in Cyprus. There were no casualties in this strike. Mr. Speaker, it is important for me to say that our bases in Cyprus are not being used by US bombers. I want to be clear of a strike on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was not in response to any decision that we have taken in our assessment. In our assessment, the drone was launched prior to our announcement.

Iran's aggression towards Britain and our interests is long standing and that's why we've always ensured that protections for British bases and personnel are at their highest level. Words chosen very cautiously there and again by saying that Cyprus has not been used by bombers is of course to obfuscate to quite some extent and this has been pointed out by the Middle East I which will

just stick on screen. Now it's exposed that the Cypriot point of view on the wider issue is 1 of unhappiness. And there's a quote in this piece entitled Cyprus condemns the UK after RAF base that launched Gaza fights is hit by

drone. And they quote a Cypriot minister saying despite the assurances given in yesterday's address by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, there was no clear clarification that the British bases in Cyprus would not under any circumstances be used for any reason other than humanitarian. And of course, this then links back to an article written by Ian Overton for his organization Action on Armed Violence, entitled Did Britain fly at

least 623 Spy flights over Gaza? And that the data he has suggests so. And, and I quote, the Ministry of Defence maintains that these flights were solely to locate hostages. Yet the scale, timing and persistence of the sorties raises questions as to how much they aided Israel's military operations despite being conducted under the banner of humanitarian intent.

Of course, the other big issue is indeed the intelligence sharing between the United Kingdom and Israel and the United States, making it extremely implausible that the United Kingdom has not played a far bigger part in all of this

than is being described. Also, we have a map drawn up by Declassified UK with data that is admittedly now a few years old, but this shows all the locations of the United States Armed Forces personnel in the United Kingdom at the moment, with Lagan Heath shown in boxed text about halfway down on the

right and side. Now, the other thing I want to make mention of is that given all the Sabre rattling from within NATO for the last four years and the action that's sort of unrolling right now up in the high N, it's got to be noted that Article 6 has been completely ignored.

Now I've mentioned this before and the Cyprus attack really with regards to Article 6, it pertains very much to Article 5 of course, because it Article 6 states that for the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the forces, vessels or aircraft of any of the parties when in or over these territories. RAF Akritiri being one such territory, of course staffed by those personnel.

But on the subject of an Article five response, absolutely nothing, which I think is a very interesting outcome, particularly given the rhetoric in, as I say, in inside and outside NATO the last four years. Now Sama went on to talk about how he must protect British lives and he describing what defensive operations must look like. So we will just look at the next video of him speaking about this issue. Moreover, it is my duty, the highest duty of my office, to

protect British lives. That is why we put British jets in the air, Typhoons and F-30 fives as part of coordinated defensive operations which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes, including, Mr. Speaker, taking out one drone that was heading towards a coalition base in Iraq housing

UK service personnel. I want to pay tribute to our brilliant servicemen and women putting themselves in harm's way to keep others safe, and I know the whole House will join me in expressing our gratitude and our respect. But, Mr. Speaker, it is simply not possible to shoot down every Iranian missile and every drone after they've been launched. The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at

source, in their storage depots or at the launchers. the US requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose because they have the capabilities to do so. Yesterday evening we took the decision to accept that new request in order to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk and hitting countries

that have not been involved. To be clear, the use of British bases is limited to the agreed defensive purposes. We are not joining the US and Israeli offensive strikes. The basis for our decision is the collective self defence of long standing friends and allies and protecting British lives. It is in accordance with international law and we produced a summary of our legal advice which clearly sets this out. We will keep the decision under review. And that last bit seems to be

the key phrase. It does, and we'll just come to the back of that in a second. But so they're boasting obviously about what defensive operations look like, the Ministry of Defence putting out an intelligence brief, an update about munitions being shot down with some footage to accompany it. And of course, then the other thing, again, defensive for defensive purposes only.

But the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon has now been deployed up to the eastern Mediterranean. And this course is at the same time the aircraft carrier has gone up to the high N. This has also got a couple of Wildcat helicopters on board. So I hope that they don't tip over the side. Now on the on the legal front, we, I, I would just like to reinforce the words that Starmer has used.

As I say, Iraq having been cited many times and he says it is important that we all learn the lessons of Iraq and that there and they are, that there needs to be a lawful basis for action if it is taken and that there needs to be a viable case. Now he seems very much to be inferring that Iraq in 2003 did not meet either of those criteria.

And I think the important point now is to look at what next, if there is indeed to be some sort of legal question and indeed request for for legal advice, of course, because that falls to the attorney general who's on screen now, Richard Hermer, who makes no secret of the fact that he is Jewish and has a close affinity to Israel. So he's made a recent speech in Australia, ostensibly about the events in Bondi Beach.

At the start of his speech he said, I spent my year off in Israel and on my very first night there met up with a group of Aussies from the same Jewish youth movement. Now, of course that doesn't tell the whole story, of course, but it is a significant detail and I think one that can't be ignored. If we are going to consider what happens next, we'll just look quickly at a last clip from Starmer in an attempt to sort of

clarify his overall position. Mr. Speaker, we all remember the mistakes of Iraq and we have learned those lessons. Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable

thought through plan. I say again, we were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and we will not join offensive action now, but in the face of Iran's barrage of missiles and drones, we will protect our people in the region and support the collective self defence of our allies because that is our duty to the British people. It is the best way to eliminate the urgent threat, to prevent the situation spiralling 3rd and support return to diplomacy.

It is the best way to protect British interests and British lives. Keyword there being now, we will not join offensive action now. Very much suggestive that this will happen in future. He's very much taken from the Israel playbook now in terms of what Israel is up to. Just a tweet from the IDF, illustrative of the way, the sort of attitude that they have towards the whole process.

They've set this little video to music with sort of glorious images of Iranian hierarchy being eliminated in in their words. And we go on the subject of British interests to another declassified report from two years ago in which they refer to GCHQ expanding their presence near Iran and rather presciently referring to a potentially devastating new war with Iran over Israel. Excellent reporting back there, which has stood the test of time. Now to look into this further.

I would recommend Vanessa did not mention this, but there she has just spoken to Jerm about exactly this subject. So please do look at that. And for other UK column content, the most recent published episode of Military Matters, Brian and I talking about this subject. And in fact we've just recorded a another discussion on this which will be out soon. OK, so let's let's look at the

economic implications of the Iran war because those continue are continuing and of course they're they're pretty stark. So first of all, here we have this article from G Captain Daily. They are reporting of this. The headline here is ship war risk insurance cancelled after Iran strikes. And so they're talking about Lloyd's and other insurance companies having cancelled the war risk insurance for shipping in the region. And 1st question is, how is that even possible?

Because of course, you know, you've taken out an insurance policy and suddenly the next thing you know, they've just decided that you're not insured. Well, you've paid for it. But anyway, look, the, the, the, this is, this is what they went

on to say. Machine marine insurers are cancelling war risk coverage for vessels and oil shipping rates are set to search further after the widening Iran conflict left at least three tankers damaged to seafarer killed and 150 ships stranded around the Strait of Hormuz. Hormuz. As Finesse has already mentioned now, the response from Trump was immediate.

He posted on Truth Social saying effective immediately, I've ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation to provide at a very reasonable price, political risk assurance. Political risk assurance What? What does that mean and guarantees for the financial security of all maritime trade, especially energy travelling through the Gulf. Now, the response in the markets was pretty immediate as well, with the prices of crude oil and gas rising yesterday.

Prices settled back a bit today. And if we look at what happened based on the graph for the past month, it looks pretty, you know, a significant rise over the last few days. But if we expand to the past 10 years, what we find, we're nowhere even close yet to historic highs. So the main reason is that that there's a reserve of oil, I believe about 3 weeks or so, and prices will really only start to rise properly as that reserve is drawn down.

And the implications for us all are huge because of course, the price of energy feeds into the price of everything, as we all discovered during COVID when we got a taster of that. And, and at that time, the British government stepped in to put a cap on retail energy prices, which were still horrendously expensive for just about everybody. But this is going to affect everybody globally if this war

continues. So and the other point there is that of course the British government is not going to be stepping in to put any cap on this I would imagine this time round. But let's just have a look at John Conrad here because he's one of the owners of G Captain Daily. He posted this on X quite an extensive article on X link will be in the show notes for you to read the whole thing. But I got some excerpts from this because he's saying this is potentially the biggest Iran

story. Nobody is talking about the global insurance market may be heading towards the systemic crisis and here's why Now he's talk not talking about the price rises of oil here. He's saying that most people don't realize London is just isn't just the financial center, it's the global center. Sorry, the Center for global insurance. Lloyd's underwrites around 40% of the world's maritime marine cargo ship sinks, port gets bombed, canal gets blocked, and the bell lands in London.

That's why the UK punches above its weight, not the Royal Navy. Absolutely not. Not diplomacy. It's insurance control. Insurance control trade. And London doesn't just control the 90% of global trade that moves. See Lloyds. And the London markets are major insurers of almost everything. Skyscrapers, factories, ports, satellites, entire supply chains. You can't participate in public markets or raise large amounts of capital without insurance.

And he says that London has maintained a stranglehold on global insurance while losing nearly every sub market related to ships. The answer? Better intelligence. It's no coincidence, he says, that MI Six headquarters sit directly across the Thames from the IMOHQ, the marine, the world marine, sorry, the world's maritime regulator and a short distance from Lloyds itself.

And I said I have no proof of direct pipeline, but it's long been speculated in the insurance intelligence flows from MI 6 to Lloyd's. Most large insurers worldwide don't do independent intelligence work. The index of Lloyd's rates. Other insurers see Lloyd's numbers and assume the diligence was done. They price accordingly. And he said that most large insurers worldwide don't do independent intelligence. Oh, sorry, that's a duplication. Sorry.

That means if London is suddenly flying blind, it's not just Lloyd's policy holders at risk, it's the entire reinsurance chain. The cancellation of war or risk coverage on ships isn't the crisis, it's the Canary. And that I think is a very astute statement and something that we should all be paying attention to. The implications for this are huge and really I think most of us, if not all of us, should be pushing back hard against any

further escalation of this. In fact, we should be making sure that the politicians are de escalating the situation as quickly as we possibly can. Yeah, absolutely agree.

Now, on a related note, Rachel Reeves was addressing the House Commons yesterday, giving her spring forecast in collaboration, of course, with the Office for Budget Responsibility. And as with all things governmental, they're putting a a positive spin on the situation and just one of the sort of good claims to draw out. The OBR's forecast shows GDP per person is now set to grow more than was expected in the budget, with a growth of 5.6% over the parliament. Now of course, that's a

projection. We go to the OBR report, Economic and Fiscal Outlook for March 2026, and I think what's worth pointing to is a couple of the graphs that they show now. The first is real GDP growth, which shows enormous just spikes and troughs, particularly 2008 and 2020-2021. But also at the right hand side of the graph, the shaded areas to the right to the above and below the line show the degree to which they may or may not be right.

So it's very much worth bearing in mind that these are estimated figures and effectively can be manipulated to give an idea that the government is doing good job or not. And of course, the other thing to point out is that on the real GDP per person projection, the going back to 2007, the, the forecast, the upward trajectory was completely knocked off course there by what was described as the, the financial

crash of that particular period. And of course, the again, the the shutdown during the COVID period in 2020, similar sort of deviation that the point of this is to suggest, as they did in their opening statement, that we are of course subject to all

kinds of shocks. And This is why we go back to documents like the just in case report from the National Preparedness Commission. And in effect, the the teeing up of there being a massive economic downturn, as though the government has absolutely no control over this. But of course, exactly like Mike's just talking about that we absolutely are in control because of what we do or do not do in relation to issues, issues such as the conflict in Iran.

And this relates directly back to the National Security Strategy 2025 and indeed the Strategic Defence Review, where there was the push for a whole of nation response to exactly these sorts of shocks to the supply chain, shocks to the economy. And guess what? The idea is that the next step is to be conscription and national service as we meet these threats that are coming from all different directions, whilst the government apparently has no control over them. Yes, indeed.

OK, let's move on and say if you like what the UK column does, we do need your continuing support. Please if you are not currently a member or not making any kind of financial contribution, we really would appreciate it if you could consider that. Thank you very much once again, everybody that is doing that. If you can't make a contribution financially, please do share this program and anything else that you see that you like because that helps us get around to various limitations with with

respect to censorship. Now, Jerem tonight is speaking to Terra Sadecki on why America won't defeat Iran. That's at 7:00 PM this evening. Tomorrow at 1:00 PM, Mark Anderson is speaking to Doctor Ollian Kula on the on weather events in the United States. And so that's it. That is an absolute typo on that graphic. So I do apologize about that. That's 1:00 PM tomorrow. So join us for that. OK, Now, Imran Khan, Charles, this has had almost no coverage whatsoever in the in the

mainstream press, but what has he been facing? Well, indeed, very, very little coverage and we'll come on to possible reasons as to why. But recently the Supreme Court, in fact, going back to last year, the Supreme Court in Pakistan have published a report highlighting the conditions under which he's been imprisoned and making specific reference to his deteriorating health, in particular his eyesight, the fact that he's been deprived visits from either family or

legal support. Now going back, he was Prime Minister in in that country between 2018 and 2022 and arrested in 2023. Now again, the Supreme Court at that time deemed that his original request was unlawful and the situation has moved on very much since then. Obviously the the the underlying suggestion more than is that this is all entirely a political charge and the further

imprisonment for 17 years. It relates to the allegation at least that he was buying and selling property that was gifted to him whilst he was in office as Prime Minister and therefore seeking to make money out of it. Now the situation was discussed or debated in the House of Lords last week and this is what his former brother-in-law Zach, Lord Goldsmith, had to say about it.

We have, we understand, I think anyone who's paying attention, we understand that that Imran Khan has been denied access to lawyers. He's been denied access to his family, including his two sons who are my nephews. He's been denied access even to doctors. And we understand that he's spent much of his time in prison in in solitary confinement and his health is deteriorating

rapidly. So I asked the noble lady whether or not she agrees that this is now the time for us to reconsider our aid contributions to Pakistan. Pakistan's often at the top of the list in terms of recipients of UK aid until that country's government demonstrates a clear, unambiguous commitment to the charter, the Commonwealth Charter that it's signed up to, which commits it to an independent judiciary and to the rule of law.

As you might imagine, the the government response was rather underwhelming and certainly not suggestive that they were going to do anything about it. Now.

There had been an earlier question asked about the comparability, if there was any, between the situation, or at least the outcry concerning the trial and the sentencing of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. And of course the rather glib response was that Jimmy Lai is British, completely ignoring the fact that Imran Khan was previously married to Jemima Goldsmith who is British and indeed has 2 British sons who have been denied not just access to their father in Pakistan but

also by their report they have also been prevented from visiting Pakistan itself. And the inaction of the British government and indeed the moral contradictions in their approaches to human rights affairs were highlighted in a later question by Lord Sikka, who said this.

My Lords, successive government shows selective outrage at repression by authoritarian states such as China, Iran, Russia and North Korea, but a very soft criticism when identical acts are committed by trade and defence partners. The government has the tools it can exert pressure on the army generals controlling Pakistan by ending aid and imposing trade sanctions. But it hasn't.

So my question for the minister is, can't you refer me to any moral principle which is guiding the government's foreign policy? I, I, I don't think it would be the right thing to do to end all aid to Pakistan. The government, that is not the government's position. And that is that, that's my

view. And I I say that because the the need is there, because the British interests are there, because the climate impact is there because of counter terrorism issues that we work alongside the Pakistani government and to tackle which I would say is absolutely in the interest of this country. Pathetic. Let's talk about clashing at straws.

That was That was an extremely unconvincing response by the minister there, who appeared not just very poorly brief but utterly prejudice against the the situation not not just of Imran Khan, but the the wider picture in Pakistan and indeed the relationship between Pakistan and the United Kingdom and plenty more besides. Now, whilst very little appears to have been done and very little interest taken in this

country. It is therefore an embarrassment, effectively that in Congress, a letter has been written by several Congress men and women highlighting this issue. This goes back to December of last year and I, quote, sent to Marco Rubio, Secretary of State. Such steps, alongside calls for the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and other political prisoners, would reinforce US commitment to human rights, protect American citizens from transnational repression and promote regional

stability. But of course, no action on this score on this side of the Atlantic. Now, in questioning why that might be or might not be the case, I think it's pertinent point back to February the 24th, 2022, which was of course the day that Russian incursion into

Ukraine began. But it was also the day that Imran Khan met Putin in Moscow and the position he took as Prime Minister was one of support for strong economic ties to both Russia and China. And that does seem, given what's transpired, since that does seem to be a relevant point concerning the attitude and the flippancy of the British establishment towards this particular situation.

Also, they should feel embarrassed because of course it's taken a number of former Test cricket captains to call out the situation, reported here by ESPN Cricinfo. Amongst them Samuel Gavaskar and Ian Chapel, both Chapel brothers, and several others getting into that.

And of course his former wife Jemima Goldsmith, who realised that not just was the establishment shutting down this debate and suppressing it, but also Twitter as well, which she perceived to be suppressing her tweets on this very issue and not just hers. And I quote from her tweet sent to Elon Musk in December. Every time I post about him, about Imran Khan, the reach inside Pakistan and often globally is throttled to almost 0. So that is how the situation seems to be unfolding at the

moment. Very little hope offered, certainly in Pakistan. And as far as the British establishment is concerned, there doesn't seem to be much concern or suggestion there's going to be any action about that. I mean, that'd be something that perhaps we talk about more in in Extra, unless you had anything to comment on. That Vanessa, let's welcome you

back. And of course, you're in Lebanon at the moment. What is the situation between Lebanon and Israel? Extremely tense, of course, after the assassination of Imam Mali in Iran was considered the second most important spiritual leader to Shia Muslim communities across the world, 260 million worldwide.

Hezbollah after 15 months of putting up with Israeli violations of the ceasefire, which are daily murders of civilians both by drone and by bombing incursions into Lebanese territory, the spraying of chemical glyphosate on agricultural lands in the South, etcetera, etcetera.

So now the government in Lebanon, which is very much, or let's say factions within the government, because it's very much a coalition government, after the TAFE agreement of 1989, factions within the government that are aligned with Israel and Washington have basically said they will ban

Hezbollah's military activities. So in other words, they're trying to throttle any response against Israeli violations by the resistance, whose people in the South are suffering the most from the Israeli violations, bombings, drone strikes, incursions, machine gunfire, etcetera, etcetera. And the president himself, President Joseph Allen, stresses that Beirut's decision to ban Hezbollah's military activity is a sovereign and final decision. Of course it isn't.

It's an Israeli and Washington decision. And so basically, he says the decision taken by the Council of Ministers yesterday, preserving the Lebanese state's sole right to control decisions of war and peace and banning military and security activities outside the law, is a sovereign and final decision from which there's no turning back.

And of course, that anger is rising in Lebanon because effectively, what the government is saying is that 50% of the population doesn't have the right to defend itself. And at the meantime, if we just move on to the next slide, also sent a written command to the Lebanese Forces, so the army on the border with Israel to withdraw from their positions and actually enabled an Israeli ground invasion a couple of days ago. So effectively, the government

is not a sovereign government. It's working to further the Israeli and Washingtons agenda inside Lebanon. At the same time, Hezbollah has not backed down and in fact much of its missiles and drone activity is evading the interceptor missiles As we discussed into inside Israel, If we can just put this up on the screen, in the last two days they've destroyed actually former Karva tanks, the Israeli tanks during the attempted ground incursion.

And there have. Been multiple ambushes of Zionist forces in the South and in fact even the IDF is putting out statements saying we don't know what to do because Hezbollah just appears out of the ground. Of course they do. They have an entire tunnel system in the South, and they're using it to their advantage against the ground deployment by the Israelis.

And at the same time, there are reports that Jolani is deploying thousands more troops because, of course, since December 2024, he's been building up military presence or terrorist presence on the eastern borders with Lebanon.

And the red stars there show, just as with Iran, that Israel in the last few days has been heavily bombing the border areas, one assumes to weaken any defence along that borderline and potentially to allow an invasion by Jalani's ISIS and al Qaeda forces into Lebanon. We can talk a bit bit more about that an extra. At the same time, there are reports today, just before I came on that Israel has demanded the full evacuation of the southern territories of Lebanon,

which is insane. Those people have nowhere to go. They're supposed to move from the South to north of the Litani River. The bombing hasn't started yet, but the roads are absolutely packed. And any of those people now stuck in jams on the one or two roads out of the South to the north are incredibly vulnerable for any mass bombing campaign that Israel is now going to launch. OK, Vanessa. Well, you can keep us posted on this. We'll talk more about this an extra as well.

I've got a couple of additional questions on it, but let's move on to the issue of nuclear proliferation.

Now. This is a tweet from Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Secretary and security Policy at NATO, Boris Ruja, who he's claiming that NATO was fully committed to the Non Proliferation Treaty, which remains the cornerstone, he says, of global non proliferation regime. Of course, that's a total misrepresentation could even be described as a lie.

Now the Starmer government announced on Friday last week that they had convened NATO's leading political and military officials quotes to discuss the crucial role of nuclear deterrence in keeping the alliances 1 billion citizens safe. And he claimed that this was demonstrating the unity of the alliance. The UK is unwavering commitment to NATO try not to laugh and the credibility of its nuclear deterrence mission.

Now, this brought together NATO ambassadors, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and the deputy chair of the military committee. But around the same time, or at least within a day or so of that, then Emmanuel Macron announced that France is going to increase its nuclear arsenal and for the first time allow temporary deployment of its nuclear armed aircraft to allied

countries. This is a new strategy, he said, aimed at strengthening Europe's independence. He said that France will expand its nuclear warhead stockpile beyond the current ceiling of around 300, and this is the first increase since 1992. Media reports are saying that talks have already begun with Britain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark to host these

nuclear armed aircraft. And Macron stressed that the sole authority over weapons would remain with the French President. And he said to be free, 1 needs to be feared. So that that was his statement. I note the image there. He's looking a bit stressed when he when he seems to be saying this. But anyway, that that's the situation that this of course has to be seen in the context of the end of the New START treaty, which is due to happen in the next couple of weeks and or the

next few weeks. And of course, The upshot of all this is that Russia and China are also expanding their nuclear arsenals. Now the last the sorry, the there's no replacement insight for the New START treaty and absolutely noises from the US saying that they've no intention of even considering any such replacement treaty.

The Trumpet regime is absolutely encouraging the spread of uranium enrichment around the world and both South Korea and Saudi Arabia are planning to move forward in acquiring fissile material. This is at the same time that Iran of course, is not allowed to acquire fissile material and so on. Now against all this then the 11th Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference is scheduled to take place in New York from the 27th of April to the 22nd of

May this year. And we will of course report on that at the time. In fact, back to Vanessa now because Marco Rubio, sorry, it wasn't Marco Rubio. It was. It was. Hexif was making some pretty, shall we say, inciting comments

recently with respect to religion. Yes, well, I mean, first of all, he claimed that only four American soldiers had been killed in the last few days of conflict, which. I. Think anybody with a brain will challenge vociferously, But this I just wanted to cover very quickly. And we can talk about it more in Extra, because I do find it both

terrifying and fascinating. So let's just roll part of Hagseth's weird statement regarding the military situation against Iran. President Trump and I have your back. Always. Through fire, through criticism, through fake news, through everything. We unleash you because you are the best, most powerful, most lethal fighting force the world has ever seen. May Almighty God watch over you. And his providential arms of protection extend over you. Godspeed warriors, and keep going.

And I mean, this entire speech was was just quite extraordinary. A lot of people are actually saying that maybe Egg Surf is the Antichrist rather than Trump. Very odd character. But this bit of information has been circulating all across social media quite extraordinary. U.S. troops were told Iran war is for Armageddon and the return of Jesus. So let's actually say see what

they say. A combat unit commander told non commissioned officers at a briefing on Monday that the Iran war is part of God's plan and that President Donald Trump was anointed by Jesus. So like the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to earth, presuming they mean Jesus. According to a complaint by a non commissioned officer, from Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders and

every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night. I mean this, you know, we all are fully aware of the fanatical Christian Zionist and Jewish Zionist vision of Armageddon

bringing in the second coming. But you know, heck, Suss mentions the fact that he and Trump have the backs of their soldiers in this war against Iran to herald Armageddon and and the second coming. But let's just have a listen to Trump and see how sincerely he has the backs of the young Americans that are are going to be giving their lives in this conflict. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to

the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case. I don't think there's any need to comment further on that. No, indeed. I mean, it's very hard not to not to just burst out laughing at that. But if it wasn't so serious, you know, I mean, this is this is the thing. No doubt we will speak more about that an extra as well.

Now, look, let's move on to the Epstein situation because it's

taken six months for the House Oversight Committee to get hold of depositions from Bill and Hillary Clinton over their alleged connections to Jeffrey Epstein. The committee released videos of the depositions on Monday this week. Now, at the end, perhaps unsurprisingly, it it turned out to be somewhat of a farce as the questioning diverted into Pizzagate and UFOs.

Now, the use of the term pizza in the Epstein files is undeniable, and it's clearly code for something, although what it's is, what that something is, is not yet

definitive. However, all the evidence that I've seen strongly suggest that the Pizzagate story itself, in in and of itself, was designed to be there to discredit and divert attention away from any use of that term by those involved with Epstein. But anyway, Bill Clinton, for his part, said he first met Epstein in 2002 when he flew in Epstein's private jet for humanitarian work. He described the relationship as cordial, but not a close

friendship. He said that Epstein provided Jet in exchange for Clinton discussing politics and economics. And Clinton said that he had visited Epstein's New York townhouse but denied ever visiting his private island. And denied that he and Epstein ever discussed young women or girl on or girls.

Which on the face of it, seems completely unlikely and ridiculous actually, bearing in mind the images Epstein chose to hang on the walls of his townhouse in New York, which Brian has already shown on a on previous UK column news program. Now, Bill Clinton said that he and Trump had briefly discussed Epstein at a charity golf tournament over 20 years ago, and that Trump had never said anything to suggest he was involved in anything improper with Epstein.

But the main take away from Bill's testimony was the need for him to be flanked by two lawyers. His job was clearly to divert the questioners and also to let Bill know which questions he should answer and which he shouldn't. Let's just have a brief look. How many dinners did you have with Glenn Maxwell or Jeffrey Epstein in attendance? She's asking to do the best of your recollections. I have no idea.

OK, Did you ever discuss sexual misconduct allegations made against you with Epstein or Maxwell? Never. Did Epstein or Maxwell ever offer to help manager silence women who made sexual misconduct allegations against you? No. Did Epstein or Maxwell ever offer financial support, directly or indirectly, to legal defense funds related to impeachment proceedings or civil actions against you? Not to my knowledge. Do you think a young girl massaging a president is unusual?

So are you asking his opinion? Well, he is massage by a young woman. I'm asking if he thinks it's unusual that a president, sitting president of the United States, leader of the free world. That it's, I'm sorry, are you speaking to? Are you talking to the the instance of the? Yes. Is it unusual the. Back massage that occurred while he was not president. I'm just trying to understand you said a president of the United States one more president. Thank you. Just trying to make sure we're

correcting the time frame. No, I don't need to. I'm actually trying to make sure that as you. Pretty clear, he he said. He said he was a sitting president. Excuse me? Could we just please go one at a time? Thank you, you said a sitting president. I want you to be clear so that when he answers your sitting president. Is it unusual? I have no idea, but it's on you. Objection calls for speculation.

I figured, do you ever, did you ever think that all these women around Jeffrey Epstein or Gillane Maxwell was odd, unusual, weird or creepy? There weren't all that many around when I was there. How many? Would you say is all not all that many? That was working long hours, having two to four people on there, I thought was as far as I knew they were all helping flight attendants in tank tops and jeans, right? No. Do you believe you were a victim? Of a Jeffrey Epstein.

Intel operation. Do you think that you might have been like? Caught up in some of what he was. Maybe potentially doing so that was. That was Bill. If you watch the whole thing and, and it will be LinkedIn, the show notes, he he absolutely, it came across that he was totally out his out of his depth and he needed the people either side of him to, to, to keep him on the straight

and narrow. Hillary, for her part, repeatedly told the committee she never even recalled meeting Epstein. She flew into an absolute rage as the questioning went on, particularly following questions about her connections to Commerce Secretary Hard Lutnick. So let's just have a brief look at at her behaviour. You asked the question I'm going to. Answer your question now you're going to this was. What I spent my time doing, I I've been trying to look out for

others. Well, I was trying to and I was taking care of the people who lost 3000 lives. So her. Her definite. Strategy was tack as the best form of defence now hard. Lutnick, by the way, has now decided to testify before the committee now that it's become clear that there's zero risk in doing so since no one appearing is being seriously challenged on any of the potential lies that have been told. It does come across as an absolute cover up.

It really does. Yeah. OK, well, look, let's end Charles with an and finally,

yeah, we will. We we take that offs where we can and I was absolutely. Delighted therefore, on a recent trip to encounter this sign in Aberdeen Airport which, if you can't see it, was positioned directly above a radiator and it reads attention, these radiators can become very hot.

Now I wasn't sure whether this was a reflection on the intelligence of airport staff or indeed the expected intelligence of passengers, or just a compliment to the heating engineer, but either way it made me laugh. Huge man. I hope it's done the same for you. And on that note, we have to leave it for today, so. Thank you, Vanessa and Charles, and for everybody that's been watching for UK column members, stick around on the live stream and we'll have some more in UK

Column news extra. If you're not a member, maybe you'd like to join us and join us for extra each time we do a news program. But nonetheless, Germ tonight, 7:00 PM Mark Anderson tomorrow, 1:00 PM. We'll be back for the news on Friday at 1:00 PM. As usual, you'll see you then. Bye, bye, bye bye.