UK Column News - 5th September 2025 - UK Column News

Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Good afternoon. It's Friday the 5th of September
2025, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK called News.
I'm your host, Mike Robinson. Mike host today is Brian Garish
once again this week. This is amazing, Brian.
It's a delight and a pleasure tobe here, Mike.
Joining us via live link is MarkAnderson from the United States.
Later in the programme, Mark's going to be reporting on the
latest from the global Parliament of Mayors and I'm

(00:31):
going to be taking a look at theexpansion of AI driven
surveillance in the UK and globally.
But we'll begin today with, well, Tony Radican, our ex, my
ex Chief of the Defence Staff. What man?
This is correct and I suppose I should apologise to the audience
because it's a bit like putting Tony Blair up on the screen.

(00:52):
But of course this is the man ofthe moment.
I just wanted to recap. The BBC is now grabbing him
because he's out to the job and we want to do some analysis on
his comments. But first of all, this is a
Telegraph article, I think this is 2021, where it says Tony
Radican, the state school educated boy.
That's an appropriate word from Oldham who has quote, changed

(01:15):
how the Navy works. Now we've already covered this
another UK call them news editions.
And that is that of course the RN suffering absolutely critical
breakdown shortage of ships and the ships that they've got, many
of them can't go to sea. And yet that this man is being
praised and feted as as effectively, the man who's been

(01:38):
running the war in Ukraine single handedly in his very
clean combat gear. So he changed how the Navy works
by making it not work anymore. That is how it appears to me.
Or at least if we say, well, it wasn't all his fault that the
Navy wasn't working when he was in the most powerful position.
Did he focus on the Navy and getting it working?

(01:58):
Absolutely not. Because he's been parading on
the international stage in his combat gear, supposedly making
out that he knows how to run a war on the scale that's going on
in Ukraine. What did he do to get those
medals, Brian? I have no well, I do know he
he's been in a job where he's been interfacing with the right
people. And of course it's widely

(02:20):
rumoured that his friendship with Boris Johnson helped him
actually get into the senior post itself.
So I'm going to say in the rightplace at the right time.
And then you get the medals because clearly he's never, he's
never put his life on the line in a combat zone.
So he didn't get them from the charity shop.
Possibly. Possibly.
Let's have a look at this short interview with the BBC.

(02:44):
And we're going to make quite a long comment on it.
This war has been a disaster forRussia.
Putin wanted less NATO. He's got more NATO.
We've grown from 30 nations to 32 nations.
Putin originally thought that hewould subjugate Ukraine in days,
if not weeks. That's clearly not the case.

(03:05):
It's it's, it's a facile description, but it's a really
important one. If a snail had left Rostov on
Don in Russia on the 24th of February 2022, by now it would
have crossed all the way throughUkraine and it will be halfway
through Poland. That's how difficult Russia is

(03:27):
finding it just to get those four Rd blasts.
If Russia carries on at the pacethat it currently is, it will
take it 4.4 years to get the remaining territory in those
four O blasts, and having lost amillion people killed and
wounded, it will lose a further 2 million people killed and
wounded. So this is.

(03:48):
About Ukraine's bravery, Ukraine's courage, our support
to Ukraine to keep them in the fight.
I, I find this absolutely shocking.
Like this. This man is pure.
Ali's also not giving the publicthe truth.
Maybe he doesn't know, but essentially these little stories

(04:09):
we've shown previous video clipsof him playing with coloured
pencils and maps on the wall. Apparently this gets him very
excited to do with the trade routes around the globe and and
now he's talking about snails. This man is not in the real
world, but so let's just pop a little bit of hard comment up on
the screen because this is wherehe started off with in in the

(04:33):
interview. This war has been a disaster for
Russia. Putin wanted less NATO.
He has got more NATO. Well, of course the reality is
somewhat different. We've got NATO that's a complete
broken mess at the moment so that you can the EU component of
begging for continued US supportand commitment.

(04:54):
Because the truth has always been that without the Americans,
there's no effective NATO. And this is freely available.
This fact is freely available ifyou look at comment in the UK
and the the American and the Western press.
So this is pure propaganda that he's pointing at that he's
starting with. But let's have a look at in a

(05:15):
bit more detail at key points. And as I just said, there's
there's quite a few of these, but I think it's worth going
through in some detail. So at no stage did Russia
declare or plan for an invasion,a full invasion of Ukraine with
a view to occupying the whole country in days or weeks.
This is a comment that's been made by the West, which Radicand

(05:37):
is repeating. There is absolutely no substance
for it. And of course, basic evidence is
that the size of Ukraine indicates that this was never
the case. So if we just put that one
across, Mike, thank you. Ukraine is a vast landmass,
average size depending what source you go to, 603,000 square

(05:59):
kilometres, and in 2022 Russia simply did not have the troops
to fully invade Ukraine. So it's nonsense to state this
and the Russians didn't, sorry. In contrast, the Russians did
state and actually enact the objective of military
intervention into Ukraine to demonstrate its intent to

(06:21):
counter Ukraine attacks on Russian speaking people in the
Donbas and the continued NATO plans to integrate Ukraine into
NATO itself. And of course, it was Boris
Johnson who was one of the key figures that disrupted the peace
discussions in Istanbul in orderto make sure that this war

(06:42):
continued. So of course, Ranekin doesn't
want to tell the public about any of these things.
If we go on, Russia has successfully mobilised what was
a small defensive Western army, because of course remember that
Russia has to deal with its western borders and its eastern
borders. That army, 200 two 120,000, now

(07:04):
increased to what many believe is around 800,000.
It's done all this while fighting the war in Ukraine,
which is not against the Ukrainians because of course
it's a war that's backed fully by the US, the EU, NATO,
etcetera. This is a tremendous achievement
in its own right. And if we go on through this,

(07:27):
we've got that Russia has already defeated 2 western
trained and equipped Ukrainian armies and defeated a major
western backed Ukrainian offensive.
This is all factual information that I'm giving you, and for
people who do their own research, you will be able to
find this quite easy, easily. Much of it has been reported in

(07:49):
Western press and UK press itself, but of course much of it
hidden in plain sight. We'll also say that Russia has
taken control of 20% of Ukraine.That equates to about 114,000,
well, 114 five, 100,000 square kilometres and that equates to

(08:12):
50% of the total land area of UK.
Plus they're gaining ground every day.
So this is on a vast, vast scale.
The West hasn't seen warfare like this really since the
Second World War, possibly the Korean War.
But what we've, what the Russians have been doing on the
ground is truly remarkable. Now we will go on to say that

(08:35):
Russia's continue to outproduce the Ukraine, USUK, EU and NATO
in shells, bombs, missiles and other munitions.
Beg your pardon. And the claims that were made,
including I believe by Radican himself, that Russia was going
to run shorter of munitions. This never materialised because

(08:56):
basically they were untrue. And then we've got the
technology that the Russians areare employing on the
battlefield. So we've got new missile
systems, including hypersonic missiles, and the West has no
defence against these missiles whatsoever.
And of course the failings of the UK, the West and indeed the

(09:20):
US military system to develop these systems themselves and the
countermeasures means that there's a lot of absolutely
false threats coming out of the West because they cannot deal
with the technology that Russia is operating with on the ground.
Now, if we come on a slightly different area of weapon systems

(09:43):
themselves, Russia at the momentis using high numbers of highly
accurate aviation dropped heavy glide bombs.
That's up to 3000 kilogrammes worth of bombs being used in
vast numbers. And these weapons are being used
to successfully destroy the Ukrainian frontline.

(10:04):
So Ukrainian troops are being killed by blast in their bunkers
or underground command shelters.They have no defence against
what's being used against them. And if they assemble troops in
numbers, the Russians are takingout those troop assembly points
with either missiles or these very heavy bombs.

(10:24):
So this is the reality, which isvery different from what Radikin
is trying to tell us. And if we add to that, of
course, Russia has developed highly accurate drones for, for
not only wide battlefield surveillance, but also
coordinated strategic attacks across Ukraine, both Eastern
Ukraine and Western Ukraine. And again, the majority of these

(10:49):
attacks absolutely getting through Ukrainians, largely
Western provided missile defences.
So failure on the ground to every stage in direct contrast
to these wild and puerile claimsthat Radican has been making.
And in addition, we can go on, because Russia has developed the

(11:11):
ability to completely restructure its approach to
warfare in a battlefield which is totally dominated by
surveillance, not only by long range surveillance by the US and
the UK in particular, but also satellite surveillance and then
local surveillance by drones on the ground.

(11:31):
Despite all of this, which makesit very difficult for even
individual soldiers or small groups of soldiers to move,
Russia has still been moving forward.
And we've got to recognise that there has been an impressive use
of command and control and coordination.
That's the C3 between the Russian troops on the ground,

(11:54):
plus information from drones. And this has been backed by
heavy weapons support, which does include long range
artillery, but it also includes the glide bombs and tactical
missiles. This is a new form of warfare
that Russia has been dragged into and at the moment Russia is
clearly demonstrating that they can fight this type of warfare

(12:17):
and win not only against Ukrainebut also NATO itself.
I noticed you've said on there, this is this is new warfare.
But we were told by Radigan, by his predecessor Nick Carter and
the people around the Joint Chiefs that new warfare was
going to be all about cyber and space.
This is a complete misreading ofthe reality.

(12:39):
A complete misreading, Mike. And of course The thing is now
that the Russians have many, many thousands of extremely
high, highly trained and experienced these are hardened
battlefield troops in this type of warfare.
So the idea that the West has the ability to step in and fight
the Russians is actually laughable at the moment.

(13:01):
So where do we go from this? Let's move on through, because
Russia's ability to win on the battlefield has also been
completely unaffected by the hyped Western Wunder weapons
which we had. So we have the Abraham's,
Challenger and Leopard tanks, Bradley infantry fighting

(13:22):
vehicles, these very expensive units, millions of dollars each.
These have been destroyed in huge numbers by very cheap
Russian attack drones. And of course the F sixteens,
which we heard week after week after week.
We're going to change the whole battle.
These barely got into the air before they were destroyed.

(13:44):
The few that did fly and others were destroyed on the ground.
So huge propaganda from the Westand they.
Said that was going to happen, absolutely.
I did like, yeah. So let's have a look at this.
Russia has demonstrated highly capable battlefield command and
control and the other thing it'sdone is shown the ability to

(14:07):
give troops in platoon concentrations, maybe 10 men,
the ability to call in fire support, not only for aviation
units but also from these long range missile defence systems.
This again is a unique change onthe battlefield that you're
giving trust for individual soldiers or groups of soldiers

(14:30):
that they are going to use thesevery impressive weapon systems
from long range to do the job, maybe even a few 100 metres in
front of them. Now.
At the same time, we've been seeing more reports that the
Ukrainians have been uneasy at the advice being given by what's
clearly on the ground, USUK weapons teams.

(14:54):
There have been a number of reports, certainly in Ukrainian
press, Kiev Independent or the Kiev posts, for example, showing
that the Ukrainians have had less and less trust in the
ability of the West to advise onthe war.
And if we go on through, this iswhere it gets really serious.
Because, of course, the West greatly underestimated Russia's

(15:17):
ability to absorb battlefield casualties.
If you're dealing in up to 30 million military and civilian
casualties for Russia in the Second World War, Russia knows
how to play with battlefield casualties.
The US, still frightened of its 58,000 people killed in Vietnam

(15:38):
and the Radican in the West, simply dare not talk about the
Ukrainian casualties. Now on that subject, we've got
Radican talking about a million plus casualties on the Russian
side. BBC Media Zoner, if we choose
that report, is talking about 220,000 Russian dead to August

(15:58):
2025. But all of the measured
battlefield analysis demonstrates that Ukrainian
casualties A2 to three times this figure, with an even higher
proportion of injured due to these weapons systems that the
Russians are using, which I've just described.
So if we get to the end of this,basically we've got the US and

(16:19):
EU sanctions on Russia as a strategic weapon.
Those have failed. And we've also got the bizarre
situation that through this war,the EU was continued to take
Russian oil. And the statistics here that
I've chosen to bring up is that Russian earned some 233 billion

(16:40):
from fuel exports to the European Union and the three
years from the invasion until early 2025.
And the Guardian itself reports from February that from February
2024 to February 2025, EU imports of Russian oil and gas
were valued at 20 point 21.9, a billion EUR.

(17:01):
So rank hypocrisy that they are doing something to actually
sanction Russia while we've got the European Union still feeding
off these supplies. So I'll end the segment by
saying that essentially just hypocrisy.
What this man is talking about, Ukraine's bravery and courage.

(17:24):
We are supporting them to keep the fight going.
The reality is this is a proxy war which is going to be fought
to the last Ukrainian. And Radican and his colleagues
are never going to put themselves in harm's way.
So I've been quite hard on this man.
And I think it's appropriate. Shortly before he retired, he

(17:44):
was here speaking on the streetsin Kiev and saying what what a
job he was doing effectively forpeace.
But we know it's not going well.And even on the American side
with Vance here, that he's talking about pretty strange
strained relationships with the Ukrainians.
So overall, Mike utter lies coming out of the UK government

(18:09):
and the Ministry of Defence. And if we take an objective view
of the of the war in Ukraine at the moment is no doubt that
Russia has the upper hand, whichis why, of course, they don't
want the fighting to stop. Well, to follow on from that
then on Wednesday our illustrious Secretary of State

(18:29):
for War, John Healey was in Kievonce again and during his visit
he announced that money raised from immobilised Russian assets.
Sorry, he said raised, I say stolen, but that's beside the
point. Has paid for more than £1
billion worth of weapons and military support purchased by
the UK on behalf of Ukraine and which has enabled this.

(18:52):
His words enabled the delivery of hundreds of thousands of
rounds of artillery ammunition, hundreds of air defence
missiles, spare parts and new support contracts to help
maintain and repair the its equipment and vehicles.
Now it should be pointed out though that this came in the
form of a loan, of course. And so the question is how does

(19:14):
Ukraine expect to ever pay that back?
But in other words, based on what he's just said, he has
enabled keeping the body bags full.
He also Co chaired a coalition of the willing virtual meeting
alongside Starmer and quotes representatives from more than
30 countries to cement further military contributions to a

(19:35):
multinational force to be deployed in Ukraine in the event
of a peace deal. And he told the virtual meeting
that the UK is reviewing readiness levels of UK armed
forces and accelerating funding to be ready for any UK
deployment to Ukraine. Ministers, he said, are also
discussing the composition of a multinational force, as well as

(19:57):
a tactical detail relating how to to how the deployment would
be strengthened across the seas,skies and land.
We've got to have gear for that and I'm not sure that we do.
But at the coalition of the willing meeting, French
President Macron said we the Europeans are ready to give
security guarantees to Ukraine and Ukrainians on the day when

(20:19):
peace is signed. Preparatory work is over.
And yet at the same time, a French official briefing
reporters declined to say which countries were ready to
contribute to Ukraine's securityguarantees, including to the so
called reassurance force. So the question is, I wonder
what the Russian attitude is to this.

(20:42):
BBC stepped in here because theyspoke to Dmitry Peskov and that
was on their website today. So let's just have a brief look
at at what Peskov was having to say.
As far as we can understand, they're speaking about ensuring
security guarantees for Ukraine by deploying European forces,

(21:05):
European regiments in. Ukraine.
And thus they're returning back to the main reason of the
conflict. The main reason of the conflict
was the attempt of NATO to infiltrate into Ukraine, thus
endangering our country. So we consider it a danger for
US presence of international forces or any foreign forces or

(21:27):
NATO country forces on the soil of Ukraine next to our borders.
So in our understanding, it's itwill not it will not help us get
closer to the solution of Ukraine.
And we'll do whatever is necessary to ensure our security
preferably would like to to reach our goals by diplomatic

(21:49):
and peaceful means. When we don't have these
possibilities, we'll continue special military operation.
So that's pretty clear, Brian. And, you know, I think Peskov
comes across as being a very reasonable person.
He's coming across very calmly there, despite Steve Rosenberg

(22:11):
from the BB CS sometimes questioning.
Yeah, yeah. Well, this, this is the reason
that there is there is reasonable dialogue going.
Trump himself saying that in dialogue with Putin, Putin's
very softly spoken and being reasonable.
But of course, Western press nowabsolutely censored, so the

(22:32):
public never gets to see what the other side is talking about.
And I would suggest that if we did get to see what the other
side, the Russians are talking about, the public, at least in
this country, would quickly be moving to the point where let's
get the fighting stopped and engage the talking.
But at the moment, we've just got more military hardware being

(22:53):
piled in to keep this proxy wallgoing.
Well, we'll come on to that in asecond.
Let's just listen to one other comment from Pascal here.
We see the readiness of the Russian Federation for dialogue.
We see the readiness of of the President of the Russian
Federation for any meetings, including meeting meetings on
the highest level. But in advance, they should be

(23:15):
well prepared. Also, we see the the very
constructive efforts by the president of the United States
in order to assist the process of settlement around Ukraine.
And we see the outrageous efforts of European countries to
provoke continuation of the war.I I can't disagree with anything

(23:39):
he said there either. Neither.
Neither can I buy it because we're watching that provocation
on a daily basis, not only provocation but the weapons to
follow it up. So it's clear what the the West
is doing. And no wonder that Trump's got
wobbly at the moment, because I think he's finally realising
that the European Union is not his friend.

(24:00):
So let's just look at the last 50 days of support to Ukraine.
This is according to the UK government. 4.7 million rounds
of small arms ammunition for Ukrainian soldiers. 60,000
artillery shells, rockets and missiles. 2500 drones.
More than 200 electronic warfaresystems.
A lot. I wonder how long and if this is

(24:21):
going to last. 100 light weapons.
What's a light weapon in this context?
Machine gun. OK, 30 vehicles, additional
counter drone and air defence equipment.
So that that was what the Ministry of Defence was bragging
that they'd sent in the last 50 days.
So that's if it's, if it was sent in the last 50 days, it's
probably all gone in the last 50days.

(24:44):
Yes. So anyway that, that was
Wednesday and then yesterday, following the announcement last
week of the deal for Norway to buy naval ships from the UK, Try
not to laugh when I say that Secretary of State for War John
Healey, again, uh, was in Norwayyesterday to sign, uh, an

(25:05):
historic agreement to exchange the strategic part, Sorry to
enhance the strategic partnership between UK and
Norway. So this, uh, deal actually
formalises the deal for the ships.
This, they claim, strengthens NATO in the region and provides
more opportunities for joint training and personnel exchanges
between Britain and Norway. And he claims that this is going

(25:28):
to support 4000 jobs and be worth £10 billion to the UK.
Now he and his Norway Norwegian counterpart discussed further
joint operations through this agreement.
So we'll see what comes of that.At the same time then here is
Starmer, because he was visitingBAE Scotstoun to thank to say

(25:50):
thank you to all those who helped get the what he describes
as huge contract pushed through.So there he was with some
frigates. Do you think they'll operate in
cold waters like the kind of cold waters?
Well, if it is if the propellers, all the screws as
the Navy would call them, go round, which they often don't in

(26:11):
the Type 40 fives, but hopefullythey will, they'll be able to
propel themselves in cold water as well.
OK. And then just to finish this
segment, I just want to highlight this Arctic article
from The Daily Telegraph following the reporting from
Wednesday on the situation in China and the the commemoration
of the end of the the, the Japanese defeat at the end of

(26:32):
the war and the various showing off material that China was
doing during that particular commemoration.
Here's the daily The Daily Telegraph editorial team.
And I think they probably need to be taken away by men in white
coats because the headline here of Britain must stand against XI
Jinping's disturbing, disturbingvision of the future.

(26:52):
And they say when Mr XI promisesto build a community, community
of common security, what he means is that no country should
have any allies, leaving all butthe strongest at China's mercy.
And when he stresses the sovereign equality of states, he
means that no one should interfere with the sovereign
right of tyrants to murder, torture and and oppress their
own peoples. No one should doubt that the

(27:15):
world reordered by Mr XI would be a bleak and pitiless place.
This kind of rhetoric coming from an organisation that over
the last few decades has supported interventionist
conflicts run by Britain and theUnited States, which have only
brought disaster and misery to the countries that that they

(27:35):
were imposed upon. So the Telegraph then demands
action against XI's chilling dream.
Does our government have a view on this?
One hopes that Britain would stand with America and the free
world in opposing Mr XI's disturbing visions.
If that's our intention, and oneday a Prime Minister should
muster the courage to say so, that it would make little sense

(27:57):
to allow China to build our entire energy system or supply
the electric cars that just about all of us will drive.
Well, that may well be the case that that last point.
But the, the, we've got to always keep in mind that
systematically our governments in the West have destroyed our
productive capability. This is why Russia and China are

(28:18):
so far ahead that productively and economically, I think it's a
shame that Russia and China are having to spend money developing
their own defence firms when they could be doing and, and
they they are doing in many other areas, so many more
positive things for humanity. You know, on a, on a broad
scale, of course, they're clearly feeling threatened.

(28:42):
And are they are? Is anybody expecting them to
respond any other way? Well, clearly the papers have
stopped thinking and, and papersthat are supposed to be the
papers for comment, particularlyon matters overseas newspapers
records, they just simply do notseem to have the quality of
journalists to comment on this properly.

(29:03):
If we look at the West, it seemsto me at the moment that it's
the United States that is the country which is telling
everybody what to do. And unless it's done as the
United States wants, we're all going to be sanctioned into line
or bullied into line. Mark, yeah.
Sorry, I was looking at Mark coming up so he might like to

(29:24):
respond. Mark, let me welcome you to the
programme. Bring us up to date then, if we
move to the United States now with what Trump has been doing,
because of course we've been hearing quite a bit about the
potential for deploying militaryon the streets.
Indeed. g'day you guys and UK column viewers.
I've been on a bit of a hiatus. It's great to be back.

(29:47):
And yes, over the years, living near the border where I do,
there have been troop deployments here, and there's
always been this conflict. When is it proper to use U.S.
troops in domestic operations and when is it not?
And I remember talking to a Kansas soldier out of Fort
Riley, and he was elated, in hisview, about 5-6, seven years

(30:11):
ago. It was during Trump's first
term, to be clear, And he was elated that he was actually
being used to guard the US border of all things.
The troops were being used to guard the US itself.
What a concept, he told me. Anyway, on this first slide,
we're seeing some of the controversy.
Federal ruling could restrict Trump on potential San Francisco

(30:31):
troop deployment. 2nd of September out of the Axios news.
And this is in the wake of Trumphaving deployed National Guard
in Washington, DC. Now in Washington, DC, it's
unique. Trump is the head of the DC
National Guard, the DC being a federal city in that sense.
So there was that deployment there to deal with what Trump is

(30:55):
calling crime amid immigrations and Customs Enforcement, ICE,
immigration arrests toward deportation as part of Trump's
border agenda. And then Trump also had troops
recently in Los Angeles. And of course, there's still a
presence in those cities, as I understand it.
And the main stated goal of Trump's deployments, besides

(31:18):
aiding in the eventual deportation process, has been to
guard federal property from whatthe administration is calling
actual and potential rioting as people protest the deportations.
And at any rate, we have a summary here on that Axios
article. I'll look at that.
The California Attorney general,Rob Banta, applauded a federal

(31:41):
ruling that the Trump administration illegally
deployed the National Guard to LA during anti ICE protests
going back to June. So there's been a court ruling.
What Trump has done in LA is being declared illegal.
Trump is vowing to fight back, of course, and appeal the
decision. U.S.
District Judge Charles Breyer's ruling only applies to

(32:03):
California, however, but it may influence how federal troops are
deployed in other places as Trump considers doing more of
this. And those other places are
potentially or actually San Francisco, Chicago and
Baltimore. So Trump's going to appeal the
LA decision. What's he going to do about
deployments in those cities thatare based on the same reasons?

(32:24):
Here we'll show some headlines that have been popping up lately
on this. The New York Times.
San Francisco had avoided Trump's ire until now.
So the Times are saying that Trump's deployment to to San
Francisco, Frisco, they call it for short, is fairly imminent.
And the Chicago Tribune, as Trump threatens more Guard
troops in U.S. cities, includingChicago and Baltimore, Here's

(32:47):
what the law allows. And that could be quite a long
thing. I studied a little bit of what
of what the law allows, but whatit boils down to is that right
after the US so called civil war, they passed the Passe
Comitatus Act and that forbade the use of federal troops in
local law enforcement. Because when there was the

(33:08):
reconstruction by the North against the South, there were a
lot of abuses of the people's constitutional rights, some very
egregious abuses. So the law of the Passe
Comitatus Act, that's Latin, is a logical law, but it's a little
bit fuzzy in legal circles when it applies and when it doesn't.

(33:29):
Many have claimed that it's improper to use federal troops
or or activated federally activated National Guard troops.
They've claimed, they claimed it's improper to use them to
guard the border. But I would argue and others
I've talked to have argued that guarding the border is a
national, largely a national responsibility and they're
oriented outward, they're guarding the perimeter.

(33:51):
So that in many people's view does not violate the Posse
Comitatus Act, but the these deployments in LA and DC and
other possible ones, is it? If it doesn't violate that act,
it's pushing right up to the line, just very, very close
because they say they're guarding federal property from
the protesters. And that's pretty much

(34:12):
legitimate. But if they start making arrests
for miscellaneous things that that would best be done by local
police officers, then then you've got some issues that
would violate that act. And so the, the overall
situation is such where there's,there's a lot to be seen.
A lot remains to be seen, but that's some of the realities on

(34:33):
the ground. Now under this report today, I'm
doing Trump news on three topics.
It's an approach I'm taking because there's so much coming
out of the Trump White House in the press releases that I get,
which is 4 or 5 or 6 a day and all the other things going on.
There has to be a way to distil this stuff down.
So I've got a couple other quicktopics On this next one.

(34:55):
We'll look at this headline out of Fox.
US Blocks Trump attempt to freeze more than 2 billion in
Harvard funds subhead Trump officials judge said are using
anti semitism as a smokescreen to block off a little over 2
billion actually in federal funding to Harvard.
What's going on there essentially is that Harvard

(35:17):
believes it's hiring and admissions policies are being
infringed upon and that it's improper for Trump to use anti
semitism as an excuse to cut these over 2 billion in federal
funding that funds scientific research at Harvard.
Now, you could almost go for that point of view, 100%, except

(35:37):
for the fact that Harvard says it's a 100% or pretty much out,
you know, largely private university.
But but one of the things that makes the university private is
not accepting much, if any federal funding.
Like Hillsdale College in South Central Michigan takes no
federal funding whatsoever. So they can truly call
themselves private. But Harvard, being the

(35:59):
wealthiest monetarily, the wealthiest College in America,
wants billions of dollars of federal funding every every
year, but it wants all the advantages of being called a
private university. So it wants to have its cake and
eat it too. Trump claims that the besides
anti semitism and protests against Israeli policies in

(36:20):
Palestine, Trump claims that theuniversity is way too liberal
and a lot of its governance and a lot of its content and things
like that. And so he's using the cutting of
the federal funds as leverage. And so that's what's going on
with that. I need not get into a lot of the

(36:40):
details that I included in the slides there.
It's better to explain it. And lastly, this headline from
American Free Press, President Trump is pushing for a ban of
mail in ballots. And the interesting thing here
is that with all the mail in ballots from the 2020 election,
when a contact of mine, Garland Favrito did factually prove that

(37:02):
that election had a lot of very serious anomalies and evidently
election theft. A lot of the reforms that Trump
wants to enact do make sense, although Trump sometimes
expresses them in ways that don't fully make sense.
He he needs to be more clear andprincipled on these things.
These are long time problems in the US electoral system.

(37:23):
And here's a vote from Trump, from the White House.
We're going to start with an executive order that's being
written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end
mail in ballots because they're corrupt, at least in terms of
the number of them. When they're used in massive
amounts, they do invite corruption.
And there's one other post from Trump's Truth Social.

(37:44):
He's also saying voter ID must be part of every single vote to
confirm who voters are and that they're eligible.
He's saying no exceptions. He's calling for an executive
order to that end. Again, no mail in ballot or no
mail in ballots. And what's interesting,
gentlemen, and I'll conclude with this note, he's also
calling for a hard look at whether we should use those

(38:06):
electronic voting machines that have been that have been rightly
accused of counting the votes insecret, even though ballots are
cast in public. So Trump is on the right track
on that last one, but he needs to be much more clear and
resolute on what his goals are and what the real problems are
on the other two items. It's it's a little murky and a

(38:26):
lot remains to be seen, but I'llbe following those in the weeks
ahead. So I'll be back.
We'll go back to you guys. Right.
Thanks, Mark. And we're going to come back
onto the issue of ICE a little bit later and undoubtedly we'll
have a deeper discussion about it in extra.
But now if you like what the UK column does, you'd like to
support us. We do need your financial
support. We want to say thank you to

(38:46):
everybody that is providing us with that at the moment.
But have a look at the a big button on the front page of the
website to find out how you can support us.
And thank you again to everybodythat is now tonight at 7:00 PM.
Charles is away on holiday at the moment.
So it's just myself with Jerem for the weekly banter.

(39:08):
And so join us at 7:00 PM for that.
Charles's discussion with Jake Fern that went out yesterday at
1:00 PM is up on the website foranybody that wants to watch On
Demand. So please do have a look at that
if you haven't seen it yet. It's a great discussion, Brian.
I just want to remind people of this discussion that I have with

(39:29):
Patrick Kennington about Stephanie Hegarty, BBC
journalist, who did a short analysis, a little mini
documentary into very young children being shot by snipers
in Gaza. This is an important discussion
between the two of us, and I'd like to encourage as many people
as possible to watch it. OK, another reminder of UK

(39:53):
column on location. Just about 30 tickets left for
this, so if you could possibly join us for that.
Saturday the 18th of October 2025 in York.
Andrew Wakefield is speaking andthis does also, we remind you,
give you access to his film Protocol 7.
Tess Lorry will be speaking, LizEvans will be speaking and

(40:13):
hopefully Liz will be back on UKcolumn news in the imminent
future. Doctor Sir Julian Rose will be
speaking particularly about the health implications of good
food, and Ben Rubin will be speaking as well.
So join us for this if you possibly can.
If you can't join us in person, absolutely the live stream is

(40:35):
there for you if you would like to pick up a ticket for that.
Brilliant. I'd just like to give another
shout out for Public Child Protection Wales.
Kim Isherwood and her team Who at the end of this month we'll
be going to Washington to meet with other groups, to Washington
and the states to go to, to meetup with other groups who are

(40:56):
going to be challenging the World Health Organisation, CSE.
It's sexual grooming of very young children.
So this battle has now gone fromSouth Wales, it's gone globally.
This is really fantastic news and I'd also like to just give
the audience a heads up. Very shortly I'll have another
interview out with a mum called Christine talking about the

(41:19):
failings in children's services.There's a lot more to her story
than we can cover in this first episode, but nevertheless I want
to keep the subject of child stealing by the state in front
of our audience. This is a very, very serious
thing happening in UK. Mark, let's come back to you
then. And global Parliament of ours

(41:40):
has been one of the institutionsthat's driving change in both
the UK and the United States andmost European countries as well.
What's the latest? Well, this is interesting.
Over the summer, of course, we've had Bilderberg and I
reported on the Ditchley Foundation, kind of a cousin of
Trilateral. Cousin of Trilateral and

(42:02):
Bilderberg. Excuse me.
And there's so many machinationsgoing on.
Weaponized neuroscience has beenin the news here on UKC
recently. But I got to looking at the
global cities thing and a quick announcement before we get into
the GPM Global Parliament mayors, is that the the Seminole
Annual conference, the Pritzker Global Cities Forum in Chicago

(42:23):
that started in 20/15/2016 and Iwas there right when it started,
has been apparently ended. I think it just didn't go as
viral as the former head of the Chicago Council and global
affairs that was pushing it evilDalder as he as he wanted.
And that has apparently died. When the Chatham House lady

(42:45):
who's leading the Chicago Council came over to replace
Dalder, as I've reported recently, there's no indication
that she's continuing that. So that's a little bit of good
news, you might say, given what we know about global cities now
on the global Parliament of Mayors here, they met earlier in
the summer. And I discovered that as I was
looking at all these other groups and trying to kind of
distil all this and their annualsummit 2025.

(43:09):
Ricardo Rio, the mayor of Braga,Portugal, was big in the news.
He's a major player here and we got a couple quotes from him.
There was a recognition by the Global Parliament of Mayors
about this gentleman city. The Global Parliament of Mayors
or GPM, recognises the path thatBraga Portugal has been forging

(43:29):
via its internationalisation strategy.
Emphasis added internationalisation strategy,
positioning Braga as a open collaborative city that and that
means in league with the global system that engages with global
networks of course and promotes democracy, big word inclusion,

(43:50):
bigger word and sustainable development.
Massive concept of course. And that that ties to the United
Nations. United Nations turned 80 this
year. And then Mayor Ricardo Rio of
Braga went on to say, and he's amember of the executive
committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors.
He went on to say this, these developments reflect our

(44:12):
commitment to position Braga as an open and collaborative city,
emphasis added, One that actively engages with global
networks and actively promotes democracy, inclusion, etcetera.
So this is very clear language of what global cities are all
about, that they kind of divorcethemselves to a point from the

(44:34):
nation state that they geographically inhabit and they
link up with other self declaredglobal cities and they operate
on a somewhat different legal and governance system.
So it's almost like a form of mutiny, if you will.
Maybe that's a strong concept, maybe a little too strong, but
they're kind of bowing out of their nation state membership
and adopting another kind of membership.

(44:56):
Localised globalism, also calledlocalism.
We've mentioned that now this also came come out as I was
perusing this on a looks like anex post here.
Nadia Virgie noted that there's a global, a global Parliament of
Mayors related summit going on the 27th through the 29th of

(45:18):
October 2025 in Dubai that they're calling Expo City.
And it, it's being it's, it's involving the Asia Pacific
Cities Summit and Mayor's Forum 2025, bringing together cities
from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
And we have a little bit more onthis.

(45:38):
We'll move on from there. And this is the actual website,
the Asia Pacific City Summit at Mayor's Forum.
That's the main element at this new GPM involved or GPM Tide
Expo City Dubai event in later October.
So just to get that in, in the news here, to get that on the

(45:59):
record as to that events coming up.
We didn't have a lot of advance notice about the summer event by
the global Parliament of Mayors.So we want to make sure we get
plenty of advanced news on this one.
So we're all aware, maybe we cantalk about it in York a little
bit on the side, but here's someof the other things they're
talking about with regards to that Dubai summit.
This is just some examples. We'll show this and I'll just

(46:21):
cherry pick it. City leadership and economic
development, city branding and identity, city diplomacy, where
city set themselves up to have foreign policy functions and act
like that. They can get into foreign policy
diplomacy, which is really illegitimate and improper for
any city to get into, and then digital transformation in urban

(46:45):
futures. They're looking at urban
intelligence that no doubt involves AI, probably in some
ill advised ways, new energy, mission driven ecosystem.
Some of this is clear, some of it's rather vague, maybe not.
All of it bad point by point. And in this last item, this is
just a reminder of the Urban 7 and the Urban 7.

(47:07):
I do have an article posted on UK column about the Urban 7 from
a year or two ago. And that is the city equivalent
roughly of the G7, showing how the city, the cities view
themselves as members of a global community, not so much
members of their nation state. And the Urban 7 at a meeting in
Japan in July 2023, was consulted in the drafting of the

(47:31):
G7 Sustainable Urban DevelopmentMinisters communique, which lays
out the priorities and commitments of the ministers.
So that definitely shows the concrete and tangible
involvement of these mayors, I think in an ill advised and
illegitimate way to get involvedin these global affairs.
So that's kind of the landscape for now guys and the schedule.

(47:54):
Thank you, Mark. Well sticking with cities in a
sense and also Mark was talking about surveillance and AI there.
Let's let's bring this on screen.
So this is from the all source intelligence Substack exclusive
ICE reactivated it's $2 million contract with Israeli spy Ware

(48:14):
firm Paragon following it's acquisition by US capital.
So this is the immigration agency, the agency that's
deporting people from the UnitedStates at the moment has begun
once again using Paragon. So they have, I mean, this has
been described as the most sophisticated hacking tool.

(48:38):
And this is following the Trump's decision to renew the
contract. We'll come on to that in a
second. But this is Paragon.
They produce a spyware product called Graphite, developed by
Paragon Solutions, which was established in 2019 by Ahud.
Well, can you pronounce that name?

(48:58):
Dorsen, a former commander of Unit 8200.
That's of course, Israel's elitemilitary intelligence unit,
effectively a military equivalent to the NSA or GCHQ.
And also a Finder is Tomer Barack, who's also got
associations with Israeli intelligence circles.
So graphite is a military grade spyware tool capable of what are

(49:21):
described as zero click infections, capable of
exfiltrating data from phones. This mainly for mobile phones,
also microphone and camera control and also stealth
operations on smartphones. And this includes iPhones and
and Android devices. And they began selling graphite
to U.S. law enforcement agenciesin 2021.

(49:43):
And that I signed the original contract with them in late 2024.
At the beginning of this year. Then WhatsApp discovered a
global spyware campaign using graphite that targeted 90
individuals, including journalists and activists in
more than 20 countries. And not long after that story
broke, Citizen Lab confirmed that Paragon's graphite was also

(50:05):
used in Italy against journalists there, leading to
the termination of the contract in Italy.
So let's just I put that on screen.
So this is Reuters reporting Italy and it's really peregrine
part ways after spyware affair. So graphite.
Graphite's design uses what are described as stealth tactics,

(50:26):
loading themselves itself into legitimate apps like WhatsApp to
evade detection, making forensicdetections highly challenging
and most almost impossible for the average user to discover.
It's easily installed in target phones and on including the
latest iPhones and that is confirmed in security week.

(50:50):
The headline here saying ParagonGraphite spyware, spyware linked
to zero click hacks on newest iPhones, which should be no
surprise because as Mint press reported in July, with the
dozens of former unit 8200 staffnow employed by Apple and the
question is to do what are they in fact there as legitimate

(51:12):
employees or are they there to perhaps you know, manufacture
into future Apple products plenty of attack vectors that
allow this type of software to operate.
So I think this is this is an important issue and something,
you know, that we've we've been talking about unit 8200 for
quite some time. We absolutely need to maintain

(51:33):
focus on that and it's role in finding many of the tech
companies that we rely on day today.
And in the meantime, then, social media yesterday was
highlighting the case of Bayern Mavalwala, the second, who is a

(51:54):
former Army Sergeant, U.S. Army Sergeant who served
survived A roadside bomb blast on a special operations mission
in Afghanistan. He's also son of a decorated
U.S. military intelligence officer.
He was arrested by the FBI in July and charged with conspiracy
to impede or injure officers following a scuffle with a,

(52:16):
well, an ICE officer who was completely masked and not really
identifiable as an ICE officer at one of the protests Mark was
talking about a couple of minutes ago.
So he was arrested. The protest itself took part.
It took place about a month before the actual arrest took
place. And now this is being described
as many as an escalation of the Trump regime's attacks on 1st

(52:40):
Amendment rights. We can talk about that and
extra. And I just want to mention that
in an effort to sort of deal with the massive overreach of
ICA agents, apparent massive overreach at the moment, an
application for the iPhone has been developed called ice Block,
which allows people to log sightings of ice activity and
alert others to that activity. Of course, it's not without

(53:03):
without limitations and flaws, but people really should
probably be asking what has happened to the United States
that this is even a thing Any. Thoughts.
I think it's immensely dangerous.
The first level is that we've got one country.
We've got Israel now burying itself not in, not only inside
the government systems of other countries, the US and the UK,

(53:27):
but it's also buried itself inside the intelligence and the
security services, so absolutelyunaccountable to nobody.
And now we're getting to the level of St arrests based on
these sorts of partnerships. That's very dangerous, I think.
Right, well here in the UK, wellhere's the Plymouth Herald

(53:49):
because the surveillance state rolls out a pace.
So the Herald here has publisheda report highlighting the use of
AI parts surveillance cameras inDevon and Cornwall, which
apparently cost 10,000 drivers being very naughty indeed.
The cameras are supplied by thisorganisation Accusensis.
Now these systems can capture images showing the inside of
your car, including the driver, passengers and children.

(54:12):
And accusensis claims that non infringing images.
So anything that hasn't capturedwrongdoing, we could be rest
assured that they these are deleted immediately.
And we believe that of course, and privacy safeguards like data
encryption and limited access are in place is what they claim.
Now, another AI camera system gaining traction in the UK is

(54:34):
from Flock, and now these are also being rolled out in the EU
and in the United States as well.
These are not just, you know, roadside cameras aimed at
searching for drivers using mobile phones.
These are being deployed in place of standard CCDTV cameras
all over the place. Now, there's a website that I
want to draw your attention to here called dfloc.

(54:58):
It's tracking the deployment of these cameras worldwide, and
they provide an interactive map so that you can see exactly
where they are. Now there aren't huge numbers in
the UK can be relative to the number of CCDV cameras that we
have in the country as yet. But you can see there's broad
usage right across the country. And actually the Midlands is, is
probably the the the biggest user of these cameras yet at

(55:20):
this point. So, you know, this is a
deployment that many people are unaware of and so on.
So, you know, we've got to consider this within the context
of the whole AI agenda that the UK government is pushing out at
the moment. And in order to encourage and
exploit this kind of surveillance state, the British

(55:42):
government has published a new AI assurance road map, which
they say will look to add billions of pounds to the
economy and create scores of newjobs.
Scores of new jobs. So it's really worth the effort
here. But anyway, AI Assurance is all
about assuring you and me that AI is to be trusted and that
there's nothing at all to worry about.

(56:04):
So the Starmer government is pushing millions of pounds of
taxpayers money into, for example, convening AUK
consortium to work towards a future AI assurance profession
and establishing a new forum from multi stakeholder
collaboration. These are their words.
Of course, this is going to be driven by the AI Assurance

(56:24):
Innovation Fund, which is going to get an initial bang of
11,000,000 lbs with lots more cash to come in the future.
And they also announced, the government also announced the
£2.7 million boost to develop a regulator capability, which as
we know from, for example, from the MHRA means an enabler
capability. So to to to sort of demonstrate

(56:45):
that this is a unit party issue,let's hear from a name that we
possibly have tried to forget, and that's Rishi Sunak.
Everyone's talking about the race to build AGI.
AGI, Artificial general intelligence.
What do you define as AGI and? AGI.
How close are we to AGI? That matters, but it's not the

(57:07):
only. Race we should care about.
The real prize is everyday AI. We have given them brains,
electronic brains, it's true, The kind of computer to which
you can give a problem and then leave it to work out the answer
all by itself. The countries that win won't
just be the ones with the smartest AI, they'll be the ones
adopting it fastest. Think about the electric Dynamo.

(57:27):
It only transformed industry when factories were redesigning
around it or the Internet it only.
Changed our lives when businesses shape their sales and
supply. Chains around it.
AI is no different. If it's just locked away in the
IT department, we'll only see a fraction of the benefits.
We need business leaders and world leaders trained to use it.

(57:48):
We need workers given the right skills now, not in 10 years.
And we need public services ready to use it.
And that also means getting the regulation right, protecting
against real risks like bio or cyber threats, without burying
people in rules that make using AI impossible.
I'm working with the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University to map out the practical steps.

(58:11):
That. Governments, businesses and
innovators can take to win the race to everyday AI, and to do
that, I want your input. In this early stage, thousands
have already had their say, but if you haven't yet, click the
link below to complete a short survey.
So he's a Hoover salesman? Yes, door to door vacuum

(58:31):
cleaners. Anyway, let me just give you a
very quick look at this survey that you need to click below to
to to do. And as you can see there, you
know, there's no option in the first question to say no way,
Jose, I'm not having anything todo with this.
You get the opportunity to say you haven't used AI in the last
30 days or maybe you're not surein the same answer, but you know

(58:53):
it it it is pathetic. But the the point here is, you
know, assuming anybody hasn't been physically I'll having to
watch that Here we have, you know, a former Prime Minister
absolutely shilling for this this industry.
Yeah, just a throw away comment from me.
Of course if you're a car driverin your car you will have a sun

(59:13):
visor. Use your sun visor.
It makes a big difference to what cameras can and cannot see.
Mark, just to conclude the programme, back to you and
what's been going on in the United States with RFK Junior.
More controversy is the short answer, Mike.
Yesterday the Committee on Finance, yesterday morning,

(59:35):
September 4, held their President's 2026 healthcare
agenda hearing. And who, other than RFK, was the
speaker? Who else could it be?
And he was grilled intensely, especially by Bernie Sanders,
who's kind of a grill master. You can put him in an apron with
his spatula and he would be the definite grill master on the

(59:56):
Senate side. ABC News headline real quick.
RFK junior testifies before the Finance Committee amid CDC
turmoil and vaccine changes. That's where the rub was and is.
And really, we can just get right to the videos.
There's two. If you want to show both, that's
fine. One now, one extra depending on
the time. But here's Bernie Sanders in the

(01:00:18):
first video, and we can discuss it after that.
Secretary Kennedy, are PresidentTrump and the medical community
right? Or do you still believe that the
COVID vaccine was, quote, the deadliest vaccine ever made?
I first of all, I didn't say that.
Oh, I said that in terms of affairs reports a while ago.

(01:00:42):
I said today I think that President Trump should get the
Nobel Prize. So who's right?
Is Trump in the medical community right Or are you
right? President Trump did.
Did an extraordinary piece of leadership?
Is he right or wrong? Did COVID save millions of
lives? As I said, he got Americans back
to work at that time. That particular vaccine was

(01:01:03):
perfectly matched the virus thatwas circulating then, and I have
no idea how many lives it saved,but it saved quite a few.
A lot of odd statements there. What we can talk about it more
an extra, but Kennedy definitelystammering and and kind of
waffling. They're not unlike his inaugural

(01:01:25):
comments when he was first nominated.
And then Sanders saying, you know, how many did COVID save?
Kind of he's kind of misspeaking.
He meant to say COVID vaccine. So you've got one that's for the
vaccine, which is pretty troubling, that being Sanders.
And then you've got Kennedy not being clear about his stance and
even trying to say that the vaccine initially was a success,

(01:01:48):
one that's highly questionable, if not outright false.
So then we have the other video.If you'd like to show up, Mike,
we can proceed from there. Well, well, look, Mark, if you,
if you don't mind, let's let's push that into extra because I
actually want to draw some parallels here with with what
RFK has just said. And maybe something that's going
on in the, in the United Kingdomaround Jeremy Corbyn.

(01:02:10):
Because it's it's quite interesting how when people are
pushed into a position that theywhere they feel like they need
to say something that they don'treally believe, it gets very
tricky for them very quickly. In indeed, yeah, he, he does
look like he's, he's giving a confession or saying something
that he doesn't fundamentally believe.

(01:02:30):
You can see the conflict in his body language.
But that's fine, Mike. We'll, we'll go with what you
said, obviously. And so we're good.
Thank you, Mark. OK.
And Brian, just a couple of closing comments.
And I'd like to say to to the audience, wherever you are,
you're watching UK column news. But if you go to the UK column

(01:02:50):
website, there is a vast, vast amount of information on that
website. Thousands of hours of, of video
reports, UK column news, hundreds and hundreds of
articles, thousands of articles.If you search on UK column
website, that is a good place tostart on almost any subject.

(01:03:10):
So if you're looking to researchsomething, go to the UK column
site 1st and have a look to see what we have said in the nearly
20 years that we've been reporting.
And finally, I'm going to give a, a last plea really to anybody
out there listening to this news.
If you can come along to York, let's get these last few tickets
sold, come along to the the event in New York.

(01:03:33):
It's going to be a fantastic event and it will be wonderful
for us to be able to meet you inperson.
So there we are. Can we get rid of these tickets
over the weekend? I think we can and it's going to
be a tremendous event it. Absolutely is OK.
Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Mark and thanks to
everybody that's watched. If you're UK column members,
stick around on the live stream and in about four minutes time

(01:03:55):
we'll start extra or so and otherwise have a great weekend.
We'll see you on Monday. Monday comes after the weekend,
doesn't it? Usually, yes.
OK, see you then. Bye.
Bye.

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