UK Column News — 18th March 2026

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Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, 18th of March, 2026, just after 1 o'clock.

Welcome to UK Column News. I'm host Mike Robinson joining me in the studio today.

Charles Mullard. Welcome to the program, Charles.

Thank you, Mike. And by video link from Lebanon is Vanessa Billy.

Now, later in the program, Charles is going to be reporting in high food standards agency is keeping us all safe.

And on Noana's efforts to sue the United Kingdom over the field for a migrant deportation scheme.

I'll be reporting on the UK government's new AI plan and also how they intend to fund mainstream media.

And Vanessa's going to bring us up to date with what's happening in Lebanon and at the United Nations Security Council.

We'll go to begin today with a follow-up from last Wednesday's report on the UK's so-called defensive posture with respect to Iran.

And we're back to RAF Fareford, Charles.

We are indeed. And as well as Wednesday, Friday, because of course I went down to Fairford on Thursday where I got to have a good look at the

well to essentially to substantiate the reports that live ordinance was being loaded on to be one bomber aircraft.

In full view of the public and the BBC are now reporting the roads are closed and screens have been put up around the RAF base.

Because of course when I was there there was it was very easy to view through the chain link fence.

And now that is being changed now it was considered at the time that there might have been a PR exercise in making it so visible that the Americans were obviously

loading bombs onto aircraft in British territory.

And what the repercussions of such thing might have been.

But interestingly in the BBC article they quote the 501st combat support wing who are responsible for the set decorations.

And they say that 501st combat support wing remains vigilant and will take appropriate actions to ensure the safety and security of our US service members, civilians, contractors and their families.

Well fair enough, but the question is are they being that vigilant and in my personal experience from last week I would say not at all.

But also this raises the very real issue of the safety and security of the UK civilian population in the area.

And in particular the proximity to the fence I refer to this in my report from last week.

And I've just got an ordnance survey map here showing just outside the village of most amazing the less than 300 meters between the JDAM bombs being loaded and inhabited residences.

And the question really is is this endangering British lives maybe not necessarily simply the loading of ordnance but also the fact that Fairford and other places are being turned into a target.

If indeed we go along with the narrative being propagated by MI5 which is that there is a constant threat from the Iranian state and that it is directly appropriate to refer to that in the United Kingdom as being live at the moment.

Now in so far as activity from Fairford I am going to show footage from NNAV radar which shows a recorded flight B1 on a active what looks like being over the West Bank and Jordan returning into our area Fairford at six minutes past five GMT this morning.

So many thanks to the UK column viewer who sent that in to us with regard to the activities of 501st Combat Support Wing.

I think it's worth considering what they've actually done.

Now a longstanding UK column viewer has been out taking photographs for me at Fairford and this was taken yesterday quite clearly that's a section of fence that has not yet been screened off.

That's with the fence screened off and obviously the terrain dictates that it's still very easy to see over the fence.

Further at the gates a couple of the crash gates here shown where if you're just standing on the ground admittedly you might not be able to see through.

However of course to cut a hole in scaffold knitting is really not so difficult but mostly it might be said that this is tactical incompetence because of course what have they done they have poked out their own eyes.

They don't have any sensors on the fence they have no CCTV and no patrols and they've now put up a screen which means that they cannot see what members of the public or indeed journalists like myself.

But very much I was subsequently questioned by police at the instigation of the United States visiting forces so this doesn't seem to be a bizarre movement by the Americans now as to the continued denial of the.

There being any involvement of the British in this action the T shirts are more or less printing themselves now.

Starmer as quoted by Ryan Garrison Monday saying that we will not be drawn into the wider war that's proving to be less and less likely now a couple of days ago there was an interview on radio for today program with an American retired general Ben Hodges he was a former commander of the US Army in Europe.

And it was most revealing in exposing the position that the United Kingdom armed forces find themselves in so we just listen to the first his first comment on the state of the British armed forces.

The quality of the Royal Air Force the Royal Navy the Romerines and the British Army the quality is where I would I remember for decades it's the size the capability is just not enough and this is the entirely a decision of the British government.

The amount of defense capability that you have every nation makes choices and I think certainly the UK's capabilities to do what it has done in the past is just not there.

So start contrast there with the words that were used in Monday's news program coming from head of the on the British army are generally Walker who was adamant that of course we do have such capability a disagreement there from general Hodges and he went on to speak about the use of UK airfield.

The United States needs strong allies and that means allies that have real capability strong economies resilient society as well as military capability and world class intelligence networks that we all need from each other so the United States needs that just like we need the the access that UK has given us for decades at the various RF bases that's important for us.

So the American perspective there should very much be noted that there is purely American interests and of course might play the clip of general.

So Richard sheriff the other day talking about the absolute lack of special relationship and how the American action is purely for the interests of the Americans now to the lawfulness of any such action.

I'll just show you a video that was put out by the White House on social media just recently and if you can't see this it is a essentially turning what's been named Operation epic fury into a video game with sports sort of cartoon sports people.

Shooting at targets which turn out to be real footage of parts of Iran being blown up and that is the level to which the official communications from the White House have sunk so I would invite people to make up their own minds as to the way in which the Americans are regarding the action that they're undertaking but in particular the lawfulness of it.

And as to the way that the British Ministry of Defense is reframing the narrative there they are here posting an intelligence update and making specific reference to space and this is going to be very much more a part of.

The war narrative here UK space command continues to support the UK's and our allies in response to this conflict also later in the same statement they say UK typhoon and F 35 aircraft continued to conduct defensive air patrols over Qatar bar rain.

The UAE Jordan and the eastern Mediterranean now of course defensive has been a use of euphemism for an awful lot of things over the last two and a half years and of course whether to be any hostile engagement that of course would still be described as being defensive now the reason for referring to that particular.

The particular update is because I want to go on to describe a couple of press releases from the foreign Commonwealth foreign Commonwealth and development office first of all on the left hand side of the screen.

The foreign secretary touches down in the Gulf to demonstrate support for regional allies facing Iranian aggression now that follows on from the support that given by typhoons and F 35s the Gulf States and the eastern Mediterranean and then on the right hand side is seemingly unrelated press release going back to December of last year.

UK sanctions command is responsible for sedan atrocities and pledges additional humanitarian support as Cooper says atrocities must not go unpunished now I'm going to hope to illustrate the diabolical hypocrisy of the British state by going through each of these and first of all we'll listen to evoke Cooper speaking about Sudan last month.

Today in security council session we will be discussing Sudan it is the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century and the world must not look away and we seem to how to often the world has looked away from the atrocities in Sudan.

That is why the UK led the process to commission the UN fact finding mission into the RSF siege and capture of Elfasha whose the report is out today and whose findings I will be taking to the security council this morning and the reports findings are chilling.

Starvation used as a weapon of war mass killings civilians ambushed and slaughtered as they fled and women raped by the bodies of their murdered children ethnic targeting and perpetrators calling for extermination and what the report describes as hallmarks of genocide.

There are atrocities indeed and if you're wondering what north that has to do with Iran as if that Cooper tells everybody not to look away at the same time as she absolutely looks away.

The reason for this is because the Rapids fort forces in Sudan who are responsible for the majority of the action which can be described as genocide is supported and armed and funded by the government of the United Arab Emirates.

This is very well documented and of course I've just mentioned the declaration that the United Kingdom is actively protecting the UAE.

So this is quite an extraordinary circle of in effect corruption and misery at the hands of the British state and for further information on this I'd invite you to read the article because if you just pop that back on screen.

An article by the campaign against arms trade entitled genocide in Sudan, the role of the UAE and the complicity of the West and to illustrate the point of how being looked away actually manifests.

This is the paper from the International Court of Justice last May at which they said that the application for Sudan's application request for the indication of provisional measures and orders the case be removed from the general list.

This was basically Iran sorry Sudan taking the United Arab Emirates to court cause of the relationship between the UAE and the RSF as as as described.

Now just on a sort of British roundup at this end it is interesting to note first of all that the push for recruitment in the armed forces has yielded no result for at least no published results.

MAD confirming to me last night that the supposed gap year scheme which was meant to launch this month has made no progress and also we've got the defense science and technology laboratory.

First of all on open source innovation report here about the collaboration between defense academia industry and international partners.

This goes back exactly to the point about space being used which is something that Mike has talked about in the past the idea of dual use technology and space whilst the space command sits alongside space agency means that any civil application may also have a military one and then also the announcement from DSTL.

But as part of this collaboration and innovation they've updated the paper on the five eyes science and technology side of it now this is something you've spoken about a lot in the past.

I mean either with specific relation to the Iran situation or indeed the situation here I mean I just wonder if you want to comment on the five eyes.

No I think we'll keep that for extra but let's come back on to Iran itself then and Vanessa what's the situation there and particularly what's Trump been talking about.

Yeah well I mean I stumbled upon sadly this press conference with Trump and with the Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin who apparently was in the US for St Patrick's Day.

And I just wanted to play some sections of it I mean effectively he spends almost the entire time bashing NATO for not coming to his support in the illegal war against Iran but let's just have a listen to his response to one question here.

I said that your war against Iran is illegal it's in a capital international law.

Who said that? The Irish President.

Look he's lucky I exist that's all I can say because if you're going to allow countries that are sick and demented and they are

demented to have nuclear weapons everybody in the whole world should be very thankful and I'm disappointed in NATO very disappointed I'm disappointed in a couple of other countries too.

But they should be very thankful that this group of people feels the way we do because if a country like Iran was allowed to have the power of a nuclear weapon.

If we didn't stop that by stopped him twice I stopped him my first term when I terminated the Iran nuclear deal which was Barack Obama's deal it was one of the maybe the worst deal I've ever seen.

And actually that's the first and only time in that discourse that he doesn't call Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama with emphasis on the Hussein.

So let's hear what he then continues with.

It gave everything to Iran including billions of dollars in green cash I don't mean cash I mean green cash flown over by airplanes.

I can't to this day I believe that was allowed to happen and come to think of it would be a good thing for somebody to look at.

How could the President have the power to hand hundreds of millions of dollars of cash to terrorists but it began with that and I terminated that deal.

If I didn't terminate that deal we might not be here right now if I didn't terminate that deal.

Unbelievable nuclear holocaust would have taken place and then I did it.

I mean I'm impressed that the Irish Prime Minister had the decency to look puzzled at that commentary from Trump and he has every right to do so this again is Trump just making history out of nowhere.

So I had a quick look at this from the Brookings Institute the United States this was in 2016 Iran and 1.7 billion sorting out the details.

So what are the details that Trump is claiming that Barack Hussein Obama handed this money over in plane loads to Iran in the 60s and 70s Iran under the shower of course was the largest partner of the US foreign military sales the FMS.

As an Obama administration official explained earlier this year as part of the FMS's programmer trust fund was established with Iranian funds to pay US contractors as work progressed on the various contracts in February 1979 days before the culmination of Iran's revolution.

The US and Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding that halted these payments and voided many of the remaining purchases the MOU also called for Iran's unexpended FMS funds to be placed in an interest bearing account.

So what did effectively happen this was both under the Bush and the Obama administration well guess what the US were put under huge pressure to return not only the money being held in the unexpended funds account but also to pay not only the 400 million 600 million sorry but also 1.3 billion in interest.

So just another demonstration of how Trump literally makes stuff up as he goes along and that any information that is putting out should be considered extremely unreliable.

And I just wanted to play here because of course the insult towards the Iranian people not only with the video game that you mentioned Charles but also the language that is being used to describe a 6200 year old civilization.

And I just wanted to play two videos the first one is a young Iranian woman that has returned to Iran from the safety of Europe to stand with the Iranian people and to be in her homeland during this time so let's just play this.

He's all about a war against imperialists because in this world you don't have the same option you either have to fight with them or you have to be there a slave.

We choose not to be a slave and that's why the struggle of Iranians Palestinian Lebanon historians you're all connected is the same thing I was living in Europe.

I can be the second day of war just to say that I'm here I'm in my country is our land and here will be your grave here will be the grave of anyone who has the plan of big Israel.

Big Israel will be big Israel. Many people ask me oh you're going back to do what and I said it's not about doing what it's about being there.

I came here just to be because me being here is a sense of solidarity that I'm standing with my people and it's not like my people are being on the government.

I'm just sitting in Europe on my sofa and reading the news no I couldn't do that.

Which is quite extraordinary because if you consider the videos we've seen of Iranians and diaspora actually cheering on the bombing of their people and finally this is what I found a very moving conversation with a young Iranian woman with her son out on the streets while they are being bombed.

And because it's an Iranian version sorry there are subtitles but basically she responds to them asking her how she will deal with the hardships having a young son so let's just play this.

So what she's effectively saying is why should she worry about any harm?

And the hardships that she faces after the hardships being faced by the children in Gaza and that Iran and everyone really must stand up against the oppression by the Zionist entity.

Thank you for that Vanessa let's move on then to Rachel Reeves because she was let's see what's happened here.

Rachel Reeves was with less Liz Kendall yesterday to visit the National Quantum Computing Center.

She announced that the UK is going to see the fastest adoption of AI and the G7 with a record 2.5 billion pounds boost to secure the UK.

This is her words as a world leader and AI and quantum.

And she also said that the UK's ambition is to lead the quantum revolution which they hope is going to create 100,000 UK jobs maybe AI jobs but we'll see.

And generally a 212 billion pounds of economic impact over the next two decades and they said that the investment delivers on the UK government's modern industrial strategy which has identified digital and technologies including AI and quantum as one of the it high growth sectors.

So that's what they're saying about it now Reeves herself had this to say AI is the defining technology of our era.

The choices this we can bury our heads in the sand and leave it to other countries whose values may differ from ours to shape and own this technology.

But what's she really interested in well I would argue that this is the kill chain that this regime is really interested in and here's a quick quote from the strategic defense review from from 2025 of course informed by lessons from Ukraine digital targeting web can connect sensors or wood connects sensors,

designers and effectors informed by AI and supported by a common synthetic environment.

The targeting web web epitomizes how integrate the integrated force must fight and adapt.

But we already know from John hillies meeting with Alex carb that another way of describing the digital target targeting web is the culture and of course,

Palantir absolutely well and truly embedded with the UK government on this well Palantir has felt the need to defend the kill chain in a letter to the United Nations special rapporteur and I just pulled one quote from this because.

I'm sorry if that makes anybody feel ill but it just is ridiculous that quote is Palantir has a long standing commitment to the preservation of human rights so that's really their position of this but also in a speech.

Given recently or in the last couple of days Alex carb has said this just have a listen.

But it's a highly meritocratic culture with the elite institutions and ideally shaped actually for AI because of mathematical aptitude so we're not a monolithic culture but.

One thing I tell Palantirians in America and outside of America you can be on any side of the issue but if you're expecting us to not support warfighters when they're in battle you got the wrong company.

And we at Palantir support warfighters and and once the war starts we're not interested in debating how we're supporting them we are very very proud to have our role in making sure the American men and women come home safe safe and happy and proud of what they're doing.

And that sometimes means that people on the other side don't go home and we are very proud of that and I'd like to just encourage everyone here who whatever side you know whatever your beliefs you know those people on the battlefield are the reason every business in this country gets away with winning abroad.

And you should know when you're interacting with Palantir those are our values.

So this is what the Starmer regime is actually investing in it's not an AI for the benefit of individual people ordinary people it's the kill chain and they've doubled down of course on their relationship with Palantir and they are indeed fully engaged with the use of AI for targeting and the consequences seems to be the position that they're taking but in the meantime it's increasingly recognized inside the Ministry of Defense Palantir.

The as they describe it in this particular article the USAI company is scaling with hundreds of millions of pines in UK government contracts with these MOD whistleblowers apparently are claiming that this is posing a national security threat to the UK I can't disagree with that.

Now this is an article in the nerve and there as I say they're quoting to anonymous high level sources working with the Ministry of Defense.

And these sources are reported as saying that while the underlying data may remain under the MOD's control the insights derived from that data do not the implications of this the insiders say are far reaching especially because of the vast quantity of personal and other data the company has access to across UK government departments.

So so that's where we are with this at the moment Charles what are your thoughts.

Well I mean this is not to he put any form of praise on him but it is in some ways refreshing to hear somebody be honest about the business that they're engaging in rather trying to obfuscate the truth and pretend that people aren't going to die as a result of their actions.

So at least people in some senses know where they stand and indeed know where government stand by using Palantir that much is at least clear.

I think in so far as the what an earth did people think was going to happen question or category I mean what I would just follow that with is.

Something goes back I suppose a few weeks really we talked about anthropic and open AI and their relationships with the Pentagon and indeed their attitude towards this sort of similar subject area but it's just been announced that both those companies and probably more have hired chemical and biological biological weapons experts and this is because in their risk report published back in February of this year.

There's a table of threats or potential misuse and under the the sort of chemical and biological weapons column it's written individuals or small groups with limited resources might use AI models to gain access to chemical or biological weapons leading to the risk of catastrophic harm now.

Those categories in that particular paper are much more extensive than that but as I say what an earth did people think was going to happen and this does articulate well the lack of thought or the lack of regulation in particular that has gone into any of this and of course now we're seeing a situation where this technology is embedded absolutely across the board.

And in many cases I would have thought it's it's in effect gone too far down the track for anything to be to be done apart from these rather pathetic regard actions like employing weapons experts to try to deal with it how would they compete with an AI system I don't know.

Vanessa before we move on I just want to get your thoughts and this because of course Palestine and Iran are both on the receiving end of the AI culture so what are your thoughts.

Well not only Iran and Palestine but now of course Lebanon it's being used here to dictate target bank to Israel and we're seeing the mass bombing of whole areas probably based on the same systems as we're used in Gaza.

Indeed okay thank you for that okay let's move on then so if you like what the UK column does we do need your ongoing financial support.

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Now tonight at 7 p.m. Jeremy speaking to Zoe Harcombe on why being father is good is better if for people of older age.

I'm going to be very interested in watching that because I thought you're an interesting one.

I agree with that so we're going to have to watch that and find out what what she's saying.

And at 9 p.m. tonight Carl is speaking to Arnold Bertrand on Europe suicide packed by the Iran war is a catastrophe for the European Union and China is laughing so join us for that at 9 and Jeremy at 7 as well.

And well let's move on then to the question of assisted dying because the MSPs in Scotland have rejected the chance to make Scotland the first part of the United Kingdom to legalize assisted dying.

Let's take just a quick look at the announcement of the result.

The result of the vote on motion 2 1 0 0 5 in the name of Liam MacArthur is yes 57 no 69.

There was one abstention the motion is therefore not agreed and the assisted dying bill for terminally ill adult Scotland bill falls.

So the bill was brought by this man liberal Democrat Liam MacArthur and would have of course allowed terminally ill mentally competent adults to seek medical help to end their lives.

The issue of coercion was the main objection that opponents had apparently and MacArthur complained that those who rejected the bill gave a woefully inadequate response to the suffering and trauma experienced by dying scots and their families.

So that was his position they upshot of all this is that campaigners have failed to persuade anyone that assisted dying is safe either in Scotland or in fact in England and Wales.

Where the equivalent bill is is still stalled in the House of Lords as everybody will be aware and it's generally acknowledged now that that is not going to pass in this parliamentary session.

Lord Faulkner of course is disgusted with the failure in both parliaments and he is about to fight on and fact on today's BBC today program this morning.

He made it clear that the fight is not over and that the bill will be brought back this is the English bill English and Welsh bill be brought back and at next time the parliament act is likely to be used to prevent the House of Lords from similarly preventing the passage of the bill in the future.

I remember the House of Lords is there as a revising chamber it's a constitutional function is to scrutinize to amend to delay legislation that's passed in the House of Commons or at least agreed to at that point within the within the sort of chain of events of the legislation passing through parliament and also to provide a stop on executive overreach so this is when the government is misbehaving as it absolutely is at the moment.

And he's mentioning the parliament act of the parliament act of 1911 and 1949 absolutely subvert the role of the House of Lords because they used to have an absolute veto on the House of Commons if they disagreed with what was a decision was making or with the legislation is putting through and the parliament act makes that a suspensive role.

Now under the acts of the Commons passes a bill in two consecutive sessions and the Lord's few refuse at the bill will be presented will be presented for all of a cent without the Lord's consent and that bypasses the Lord's entirely no ironically the 1949 act was itself passed using the 1911 act to do that so anyway that that's a situation.

But Charles, we should remember of course that Lord Falkner's son Hamish has been one of the main proponents of the Iraq War or at least propaganda for the Iraq War over the last couple of years.

Iran, yeah.

Yeah, it's absolutely knows as well, no, I mean one Rosenthaler as foreign foreign office minister, he has been absolutely hammering the narrative that Iran is minutes away from arming nuclear weapons and sending them off in particularly our direction, which of course is fed into the narrative that Iran poses a threat, a direct threat to the United Kingdom either through a potential nuclear program or through the so called state threats of the time.

I refer to earlier that are constantly being filed by Ken McCullum and his band at the security service so it just seems an extraordinary coincidence, probably not the right word that Hamish Falkner son of Lord Falkner would be pushing a narrative that has ended in plenty of death and destruction.

Indeed, Vanessa, let's come on to Lebanon and then what is the latest from there.

Well, we all had a very sleepless night again last night heavy concentration of war planes overhead and very heavy bombing not only in the suburbs of Beirut, but also closer again to central Beirut, very heavy warheads being used.

But I just wanted to quickly show this map, which I think is a little bit out of date, I think it's from the fourth to the sixth of March, but nevertheless not much has changed.

The green dot show the level of bombing or the concentration of bombing in the south of Lebanon.

The blue squiggly line is the Latani river and the shaded area is the area that Israel is now claiming as a buffer zone.

And so it's begun a ground invasion you can see from the little blue man going up to the right hand side of the border there.

And the arrow pointing to a town called Chaim, which has been witnessing some of the heaviest fighting for the last couple of weeks actually Israel has so far been completely unable to invade or to take any position within Chaim.

But it's interesting. Well, not interesting. It's sort of shocking that the Israelis now are talking about sending something like 450,000 so half a million reserves to the border to take on 100,000 maximum Hezbollah fighters inside Lebanon.

So they are making a very big push.

The video upcoming is just a demonstration of the strikes last night. This is the same building from two different angles. So let's just have a look.

It has to be said that there are still people living in these areas in the suburbs and all of these strikes were to kill one person a targeted assassination, which brought down numerous apartment buildings and killed I think to date about 10 civilians.

And some images here, these were pre dawn strikes also so while people were sleeping at store Ramadan. So people obviously are kind of sleeping in in the morning, massive damage to civilian infrastructure and property.

And also the two images that are coming up next. This is a family that were killed in strikes on the eastern border of Lebanon and the Balbek area and entire family apart from one boy who's now in hospital who you can see on the right.

And then I also just wanted to show this video, which was taken this morning, showing just some of the devastation in the Dache area from the recent bombing.

And of course, they've been unable to reconstruct from the war back in 2024 when the ceasefire came into effect in November. No one has been able to reconstruct and Israel has continued violating the ceasefire.

And then this is just a comment. The longer comment is on Marwa Osman's telegram channel and the link will be in the show notes.

But she's addressing the Lebanese government or factions within the Lebanese government, who of course are aligned effectively with Israel and Washington. And she says nobody is asking you to end the war.

You're clearly not capable of that. At least show some spine and do something to do to support the displaced and terrorized children. And she's absolutely right. I have to say the government here is doing nothing.

And the most they're doing is suggesting that refugees and displaced people head to the north to Tripoli and to Akka, which of course, Tripoli particularly is infested with those that are aligned with Joe Lani, so effectively tech theory.

So the chances of them remaining safe in Tripoli is very slim, particularly if the threatened invasion from Syria goes ahead.

Finally, I have been following Craig Mojibou before was a UN official before he resigned over Gaza. And he is a human rights lawyer. And he basically says, all three people must work in solidarity with Lebanese, Palestinian, Iranian people.

And I have to agree with him. He also said these really regime lawlessness and impunity are existential threats to all who live in the region to international peace and security and to the very idea of international law itself.

The machine must be defeated. I have to say he's been one of the strongest supporters of the resistance war against Israel and Washington on X. And I do recommend following him.

Thank you, Vanessa. Just a quick question. I mean, you're saying that the warplanes were flying overhead. I take it. This doesn't. This is just constant day or night, is it?

The warplanes not so much. The drones are constantly overhead. The warplanes tend to be there at night when the heaviest bombing raids come.

But in recent weeks, they've been flying incredibly low, I mean, to the point where you can actually see them. Previously, you could hear them, but they would be at very high altitude, so you wouldn't necessarily see them.

But they are now flying extremely low and the helicopters and endless drones.

And the latest was that the attacks are moving further into the center of Beirut.

Where's the where to the intent and this?

Well, I mean, if you remember, we reported on the fact that Israel said if Hezbollah were not disarmed, then they would start targeting essential infrastructure in all of Lebanon, including the airport.

They had a 1200 number of structures that they intended to strike if the war continued and also Hezbollah had launched a huge missile attack prior to this bombing.

I think two waves of more than 200 missiles that hit target inside the occupied territories before the bombing wave.

Right. Okay. Thank you for that. We'll talk much more about that in extra. I've no died, but Charles, let's come back to the UK then.

And the future of food because the food standards agency has been making comments on what they have to be eating in the not to distance.

Indeed. And one might say they're rather out of their depth. Now, we've reported a lot on where the direction of what is being described erroneously as food is going.

The food standards agency just to remind you has a remit to preserve the safety of the way in which food is produced and that really should mark the end of what it is able to do.

To do, but exactly as Mike says, it has produced a document entitled future foods that could transform UK plates by 2035 and specifically referring to technologies saying that technology is most likely to generate food safety and regulatory needs in Great Britain over the coming decade.

Now, we're getting to the detail of exactly what they are. But first of all, we're going to listen to an exchange between the head of the FSA professor Susan Jeb.

And then in response, Professor Tim Lang. And we just hear Susan Jeb on Radio 4, first of all.

Look, our food system is always evolving and this is really exciting science. So let's celebrate that in in British science week.

But we need these new foods to help us address some of the big societal challenges of our time. We know that diet related problems are causing ill health.

We know that the way we produce food is putting huge stress on our environment. And we know that with all the geopolitical instability around the country, around the world, we need to be more food secure in the UK.

And so some of these new technologies can help solve those challenges.

Health wise, what challenges could they solve there? Because we can obviously get a lot of this stuff anyway.

Of course, but because we're manufacturing these things in very controlled environments, it will be possible to tailor them much more specifically to our particular needs.

So perhaps to change the type of facts that are in a product or to develop particular foods if you like designer foods with the people with particular nutritional needs.

But the key thing is that with all these new technologies, we have got to be sure they're safe.

And effective.

I'm just going to run through a list of the sorts of things that she is actually referring to. And I'll leave you to decide whether you want to eat any of them or whether you'd consider that any

would constitute food first being controlled environment agriculture, which you heard are talking about precision and biomass fermentation cellular agriculture, including cell cultivated foods,

edible insects and of course, a reminder there that kite in the substantive ingredient is not by available to human beings molecular farming using plants or plant cells as tiny factories to make specific food ingredients such as proteins and enzymes.

Gas fermentation using microbes to convert captured carbon dioxide hydrogen or other industrial gases into single cell proteins and other useful food ingredients.

Now these last two appear to encapsulate how far removed the description of food has become from reality.

So we look at first of all 3D food printing building foods like in this I quote like chocolate or mashed potato out of layering edible.

Sorry, out of layering edible neither my apologies. I will start again. Of course neither of those is needed by human beings in the first place.

And indeed the ingredients come from the printer she then talks about reverse food manufacturing taking nutrients back out of food and turning them into new ingredients.

So as if that isn't enough she is painting a picture where the FSA is becoming much like the M-I-M-H-R-A which of course is described as a regulator but in actual fact is becoming an enabler.

Now she appeared to fear fairly far off course and was corrected I would say or put back on course by professor Tim Lang who was the author of the National Preparedness Commission just in case report and this is him countering Susan Jeb.

But I mean if you look at the technologies that the report the big report the FSA food standards Scotland has produced they're all factory approaches and in a sense what this represents is the food standards agency accepting the government's economic agenda of trying to engineer biology and move away from the land towards factories.

But it's that that's actually brought us the problems that indeed the societal problems Susan Jeb referred to namely obesity things.

But the criticism the hard criticism I have is I wouldn't like listeners of the today program to think this is actually the future that's coming.

It's one version of the future that's coming through a technology is completely missing in this report.

Artificial intelligence ransomware the weaponization which my report for just in case report that you referred to for the National Preparedness Commission went into.

These are the things which are affecting people directly.

So despite the fact he is in effect an insider in that he does write documents for government use Tim Lang there not not shy of criticizing exactly what it is the FSA is trying to push and of course the FSA exposing itself as first of all a net contributed to the process of destroying the British countryside and the way of life destroying the natural environment and destroying human health.

But also gifting enormous control and profits to big food and big farmer.

And as they say they could transform UK plates by 2035 it's up to the UK column audience and the wider population to ensure that this does not happen but the signs are not good and I just pick a recent BBC report on the decline in market for sheep farmers which has been a steady trend over the years.

A number of different influences of course one of them being the lure of ultra cheap ultra processed foods but also the push of subsidy which the article does reference how changing subsidies have made an impact away from livestock and towards nature recovery.

But also interestingly how Muslim communities could make a difference and I quote from the article.

This is called AHDB the agriculture and horticulture development board statistics suggest that 80% of Halal consumers eat lamb on a weekly basis and 64% eat mutton weekly by contrast only 6% of the general UK population eats lamb each week.

And so the HDB going on to produce an article that substantiates effectively the case for the Muslim population of Western Europe now providing the main market for British sheep farmers and of course the Muslim population of the United Kingdom now being the bastion upholding the British tradition of eating lamb and mutton.

So I will continue to look at this and how the food trends go but of course there's there's only one way really to defeat the type of narrative put forward by Susan Jeb and that is to change the eating habits of the British population.

Absolutely. Okay, thank you for that Charles. Now let's let's look at the situation with news media in the UK and a starmer regime represented by the culture secretary Lisa Nandie has posted this on X yesterday reporting on her new local media strategy.

Now make no mistake. This is about bringing centralized narrative control to the local level in the name of broadening the media debate and supporting new voices and supporting local media transition to digital business models because that's what it's all about.

Now launching the strategy Nandie said this this strategy will provide unprecedented funding for local media outlets to invest in innovation and infrastructure almost tripling the size of funding for community radio harnessing the power of local and national government and giving more young people access to high quality journalism and the opportunity to pursue pursue careers in it.

And she said the strategy we publish today is a start not the end point and we recognize there is more to do but it's a start of a new approach to local media which nurtures it and closes it directly at the heart of our government support for our country because the future of news is local that's her position.

And I say she announced 12 million points in funding a new regional media forum in this in the west of England to explore ways to improve the relationship between journalists and local public services.

And don't forget the children because they're also launching a campaign in schools in the northwest of England to inspire young people from all backgrounds to pursue local media careers.

Now this is a continuation of the Tory policy launched by Matt Hancock when he was culture secretary because always remember star was elected on a platform of change.

The bottom line is that once news media is funded by the state it's no longer independent Charles.

Indeed yes, I mean this is something that obviously we've been covering for a long time coming Ben in particular reporting on the way this is very likely to go and I think the probably misused expression that springs to mind is some is he pays the piper.

And you know effectively and find that you they will get exactly the result that they desire which causes the way this is intended to go.

Let's move on to the we will now it's just a very brief piece because of course you will remember the absolutely angled attempt to first of all suggest that there was a way in which the government could deal with might the migration problem but that also they had a workable plan with good optics surrounding it.

But whilst the summer regime may have gotten about planned to report to Rwanda the Rwandan administration has not an on screen now we've got a press release from the Rwandan government going back to January signalling their intent to take the United Kingdom government to court over this cancelled migration partnership and the reason for reporting on it today is that at the permanent course of arbitration in the hage the case is being heard.

So obviously I can't actually tell you specifically what will have happened but in summary as far as the British was concerned.

It was the inability of Rwanda to be able to guarantee the safety of the individual once deported and it must be said that this cannot have been unclear before the arrangement was either proposed or agreed with Rwanda so the government's defense which is long and one might say tedious has them hiding behind every single piece of furniture in order to

get out of it but in light of the complete failure to act in Sudan or to prevent any action in Iran it should be notable the government is willing to attempt to defend a clear cut case of reneging on an agreement so I'll report on the outcome when it comes through I don't know if you've got any comment on them.

Well at the very least you can say it was ill advised from the start of course it was a Liam attempt to appease certain sections within the Tory party itself they've got themselves into a big hole and they're not going to be able to dig themselves out of it very easily.

Yeah back five but of course you know because this is going on at a time like it is whether anyone's going to pay any attention to it or will actually reflect negatively on the government almost regardless of the outcome remains to be seen.

Vanessa let's come back to you then and what's been going on in the United Edition Security Council.

Well we've had a second resolution of course the first was UN Security Council resolution 2803 in relation to passing the Trump peace scam in Gaza where the genocide has continued unabated.

This again is Craig Mokrevo who went on to describe exactly what happened with the UN resolution 2817 which was passed on the 11th of March so he says for the second time in four months and he includes the resolution 2803 the UN Security Council has today bowed to the US Empire and its vessels and ignored international law on its behalf and neither Russia nor China have acted to stop it through their veto rights both abstained and actually.

The resolution was co-sponsored by India another one of the founding members of brick before it became bricks in the middle of the unlawful and bloody US Israel access aggression on Iran.

The council is entirely silent on the aggression and on Iran's charter base right to defend itself instead of condemning the aggressors it condemns only Iran for attacks on the territory of countries in the region.

The Gulf states hosting US military bases some of which have been directly complicit in the aggression proving once again how oil and money are valued more than sovereignty human lives or international law.

The resolution gained a record number of state co-sponsors and the council that has allowed genocide and serial aggression to continue for more than two years in the region without action has decided that oil prices are step too far.

In this section I just want to focus on Russia but I also would quite like to discuss China in extra if we can.

So first of all what I've done is look at the timeline leading up to this vote at the UN Security Council.

This was on the 25th of February reports were being put out.

Russia boosts budget reserve fund amid falling oil revenues now if you read the report it talks about the fact that funds are are hemorrhaging out of the fiscal funds the budget revenue funds and the national wealth fund.

So therefore steps were taken to try and replenish those funds basically which are falling based on the sanctions on oil revenues.

And then if we look at what happened after this so on the 3rd of March President Putin had talks on the telephone with leaders of Bahrain get us out of Arabia and the UAE and it's worth mentioning that previously.

Carol Demetriyev who's the envoy for Putin to the United States and is negotiating a reference both Gaza and Iran and now of course Ukraine.

But Qatar had been responsible for basically floating many of the national wealth fund and their subsidiaries in Russia a few years ago under the direction of Carol Demetriyev.

Then basically on I think it was the 4th Putin if we could have it up on screen please thanks.

Basically President Putin put in a call to Trump the presidential aid Yuri Yushrakov said that it was a highly important and constructive call it went on for about an hour according to this report.

On the day of the UN abstention so again both Russia and China abstained which effectively means the resolution went straight through without any veto blocking it despite the fact that the US had already blocked a Russian resolution draft resolution which was only calling for a ceasefire by the way it also wasn't naming the aggressor.

So on the day of the UN abstention Carol Demetriyev sorry if I could just have that back on screen I know I'm jumping around.

Putin's aid arrives in the United States for talks with Trump administration on economic cooperation and that includes Jared Kushner Steven Whitkov both of whom of course are pro Zionist pro Israel.

And then basically as a result of these talks Trump agreed to lift the sanctions for a period of time I think it's one month to allow the supply of Russian oil and unsurprisingly Russia is earning now an additional approximately $150 million per day due to the rising oil prices.

And I also have to say that Carol Demetriyev today or yesterday went on ex also condemning NATO for not supporting Trump in his war against Iran.

Now people might say Carol Demetriyev is fifth column and so on but he has the ear of President Putin he has his education based in the West.

He has connections always working at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs he introduced very Western centric financial systems including mortgage systems into Russia.

So in my opinion he directly represents Putin's policy here I don't think you can say that it's disconnected.

And how is is there any indication how Iran is feeling about that for us?

Well I mean Iran is being diplomatically very careful I mean they're not right now in the midst of a war going to basically condemn Russia or China on whom they are dependent for certain aspects of that war China for its bay do satellite system I don't actually believe in the line that Russia is providing any intelligence to them.

Simply because I don't think it's necessary to think all of the surveillance and we can talk about this comes through the Chinese military satellite system.

Okay thank you for that we'll talk about that in extra as well but let's end Charles with a little bit of and finally let's as we continue to have artificial intelligence and robotics ram down our throats is the only possible future that we can imagine.

It is pertinent to consider that these things in their technological manifestations are fallible so we're just like a couple of robotics incidents that have occurred in Macau and California in recent weeks.

Well obviously absolutely ludicrous but I think a timely reminder that this stuff hasn't really been thought through doesn't really work and shouldn't be part of our future.

I think we can probably agree on that well look thank you very much finesse and Charles and for everybody's watch today we got to finish there for now and stick with us if you're a UK column member for UK column news extra which is following on this live stream and otherwise enjoy germ and so can still tonight and also interview 1pm tomorrow as usual we'll be back on Friday for the news 1pm we'll see you then extra joining us bye.

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