UK Column News - 23rd January 2026

Good afternoon. It's Friday the 23rd of January 2026, just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK

column news. I'm your host, Mike Robinson, my co-host in studio today, Patrick Hennexon.

Welcome to the program, Patrick. Great to be with you, Mike. And we'll be joined today once again

by Basil Valentine. Now later in the program, we're going to be covering the latest on the Holocaust

Memorial, local elections, more from Davos, including Trump's Board of Peace and the situation

with ICE in the United States. But we're going to begin today with the NHS and Palantir, Patrick.

Well, this is a really important story for people in the UK. And I think we're going to be able

to lay out the facts here. And I want to get a comment from from both you and Basil Valentine

on this. But the NHS and Palantir, this is a relationship that is now inextricably linked.

And we're going to point to an excellent report here by an independent media law called

the People's Dispatch, the British government pressures NHS institutions to adopt the quote,

Palantir plan. And it's getting a lot of pushback from independent advocates, civil liberties people,

people concerned with rights and using people's data and what's going to happen to that data,

the dangers of which of allowing Palantir to access all NHS data. And Keir Starmer,

what is his position on this? What is the Starmer government's position on this? Let's look at

a couple of takeaways from this issue right here. First of all, the government officials have

attempted to reassure patients and staff that safeguards would prevent misuse of NHS data,

claiming that data would be anonymized or pseudo anonymized. This is a tongue twister right there.

However, that such assurances can be misleading. The nature of health data is that it's so personal

that it's actually very difficult to fully anonymize. And we'll go on here. The analysis continues.

Palantir's business strategy offering new users initial access at minimal cost. Users,

we're talking about governments and institutions here, then raises the prices while locking them into

dependence by retaining intellectual property rights and limiting compatibility with other systems.

Government and public services are a favorite target under the strategy, Mike, that can only be

described as rent seeking. Now, I want to bring Basil Valentine on for this. Basil, this is an

incredible story. This issue seems to have advanced down the road. And a lot of people just

aren't even aware that this has already happened. Give us your thoughts on this important story.

Yes, thank you, Patrick. Well, this contract was initially awarded by the Conservative

Government in 2023, although Palantir is also known to have close ties to the Labour Party and

it's been reported that they hired Peter Mangelson to lobby the Labour Government to help it win

more government contracts. This particular contract is up for a new in February of next year.

And last year in 2025, the British Medical Association asked a formal resolution calling for

cancellation of the contract, the BMA, of course, the organisation that represented British doctors.

The resolution said the involvement in Palantir in the NHS threatens to undermine public trust

in NHS data systems due to a lack of transparency in how the data will be stored and processed.

A track record of creating discriminatory policing software in the US,

and of course, is Palantir's other speciality. And close links to a US government which shows

little regard for international law. The British doctors there making a sideways reference to

Palantir's involvement in the Gaza genocide. Now, I'm pleased to say there is increasing pushback

here in the UK against it. Zach Polanski wrote to Alex Carp of CEO of Palantir earlier this week,

putting the company on notice and saying that it should the Greens form any part of a future

British government. They would be terminating the contract forth with. And meanwhile,

there's resistance from within side the NHS. Although the government are trying to force this down,

everybody's throat, it does require the cooperation of patients and staff, and that cooperation

is being withheld. Duncan McCann of the Good Law Project stressed the patient's healthcare

workers and polypsi-lakers must understand that this deal has a real impact on NHS functioning.

It's not just esoteric concerns. So if we choose to opt out, then I hope I believe we can.

Why is the British government so dead set on working with Palantir? There are dozens of

companies that provide the same services. Why pick Palantir? That's a good question, Basil,

but I want to put this to you as well, because at the end of the day, Palantir, a US-based company

with close ties to Israel, other similar types of companies exist, of course. But none of this

would have been possible if the UK Parliament had not passed the Data Use and Access Bill as a

Data Use and Access Act, because that was the legislation which amended the Data Protection

legislation to allow this data to be exported. And well, the UK column amongst others were

highlighting the dangers of this right the way through its process through Palant. Nobody seemed

to notice. So what actually does it take to get people to notice this stuff? And at this point,

it's already too late because that legislation is on the statute books as it were.

Well, you make a very good point, Mike. There's so much of this that goes on behind closed doors

in the corridors of Whitehall. But I just want to make reference as well to the sort of tangential

situation with the Home Office, Shabbana Mahmoud, panopticon of surveillance. This is a white paper

on policing expected next week, which will dramatically expand the use of artificial intelligence

with the aim of keeping the eyes of the state on offenders at all times. These could soon be

stopping criminals before they even commit offenses and the sweeping reforms to be unveiled

next week. Now, the reason I mention it is because it's all part of this privatisation of data

and its subsequent potential for misuse by the authorities. You never know something in your

NHS record might identify you as a potential criminal. That then ends up with you being arrested

before you've committed any crime. This is my minority report. And Patrick, the other question is,

will it remain with crime or will these people of interest, let's call them, include people

that are speaking out in ways that government doesn't like? Well, there's that, but not just the

targeting aspect, which becomes incredibly easy with this system. But in what I said at the digital

ID protest a couple of weeks ago before Christmas, I said that it's already too late. The data sets

are already being shared across departments. It's already happened. The only thing that hasn't

been implemented is the front end in our interaction officially with it via the digital ID for instance,

but that system is already constructed. The back end is already done. The data is already ubiquitous

and who knows who has access to it. It could be being processed in US data centers. Certainly,

would be US cloud power that's going to drive this with with Palantir. That's absolutely the case.

Yes. So this is just rent seeking really just incredibly in corporate entrapment and rent seeking

because as it said, it gets you hooked on it dependent. And this is what's happened in the US.

That's their business model. It's a predatory, very manipulative business model. And they'll

have you in perpetuity. It's impossible to migrate out of that system once you start

turning the key and start down that road. Yeah. When you say that, it's not technically impossible.

It is absolutely financially impossible because once you're stuck in that, it is extremely expensive

to try to get out of a take a very long time. In the meantime, of course, you have to continue

the service with that company. And they're not going to cooperate with migration process either.

So it is very, very difficult. And politics are involved. And money is involved in the back end.

Now there's a petition which will bring up on screen right now. This is a petition which was

created by Jemma Smith in the UK. And it's about introducing an NHS data opt out and requiring

a consultation for a system expansion. So introducing a clear national opt out for your NHS data,

which is being processed on the federated data platform as well as the national data integration

tenant, the NDIT. So have a look at this. We've got the links to this in the show description.

It doesn't have a lot of signatures now, but I've seen the argument for this as well as by the

creator of this. And it seems to make sense. I mean, these are things that are just not even

available through this whole process. They've completely, Mike, bypassed the public at every turn.

And this is just one of a number of efforts here to try to claw back some accountability or some

data sovereignty terms of the individual. I think Mike, this is just paving the way for the

privatization or the automation of the NHS whereby AI will be your doctor in the future. And your

access to actual real people in the system will be severely restricted. 100%. Absolutely, 100%.

But I think if there's going to be some kind of data opt out, it can't be left as a matter of trust.

It's got to have a statutory basis and some kind of legal accountability in the event that

perhaps you tick the opt out box and that gets ignored because at the end of the day,

do we trust any of these people to absolutely actually adhere to any wish to opt out? I don't.

Is that a true question? Well, we move on. We shall now let's move on then to the Holocaust

Memorial Bill. Now, it has now received Royal Ascent, which the UK government says helps

pave the way for a memorial and a learning centre in Victoria Tower Gardens. Now, this has been

extremely controversial as Charles in particular has been reporting on for quite some time now.

This was done, they say, just in time for Holocaust Memorial Day, which is on the 27th of January,

and they're saying that once built in Memorial, we'll stand at the heart of our democracy. That's

their words. It's going to stand at the heart of our democracy. Now, the bill was first introduced

in 2023, and it recommitted, it was a recommitment by the Stammer regime from something that

the previous Tories government had decided to run with. It removes a legal blockage caused by

historic legislation, which was preventing this being built in Victoria Tower Gardens because

of planning permissioned limitations. So those planning permissioned limitations have been

removed. So let's just have a look at what Kierstammer had to say before we get some comments here

from Patrick and Basel. He said, we must do everything possible to advance Holocaust education

while we still have survivors able to guide us, located at the heart of our democracy. So he

repeated that again. It will strengthen our national commitment to challenge prejudice wherever

it appears and defend the values that bind us together. Does it do those things?

I mean, no irony is an irony proofstone. We're going into it.

Well, exactly. Basel, what are your thoughts on this? Because this has been highly controversial

and quite a number of people don't want it bearing in mind. We already have a Holocaust

Memorial in the country. Well, I take it, he's referring to the Gaza Holocaust, and that's what

this Memorial is for, surely. Yeah, well, that's that is a good question.

That's a good idea by Basel. Maybe there should be two side by side. I would support that.

We have a memorial for the tragedy and the genocide in Gaza and a Holocaust Memorial.

That's fair. And then people can learn about both and learn the lessons from history from both

tragedies. What do you think? Well, you know, the mantra is never again, but as a number of

Israeli spokesperson and associated to sort of talking heads have said, as far as they're concerned,

it's never again only for them, but not for thee. So it's a most appalling double standards being

exhibited here by Starmer. Those utterly weasel words while he himself has been not just complicit,

but as we know through the spy flights over Gaza actively involved in a genocide, I mean,

we'll come on later to the moral activism of Starmer is no better.

Yeah, and not only that, Mike, the whole Elbit system's controversy. I mean, the government

could have stepped in at any point. Absolutely. And just restricted arm sales and that type of

activity while the case is in the ICC and the ICJ. I mean, most people would look at that as a

no brainer, especially with a prime minister that has a background as a human rights lawyer as well.

That's the shocking part about it. Well, yes, but he's got other other loyalties. Let's put it that

way. But let's just bring this on screen quickly, because as I say, there has been some pushback

against this. And the main campaign, as far as I know, is said Victoria Victoria Targardens

preventing building in this precious London park, the details of this campaign group will be in

the show notes as well. So go and have a look at that if you want to find out more.

Okay, let's move on then to local elections. And of course, the UK government is confirmed

now that it's going to bring forward legislation to postpone elections for 29 councils.

So we just bring this on screen. This, this is for 29 councils that provided sufficient evidence

on high postponement would, would release capacity to help deliver local government reorganization.

That's how they, they were talking about it. So 20, 24, 29 governments, sorry, 29 local authorities

are postponing elections. 34 councils are going to go ahead with elections. And that means,

according to the government, they're very pleased for us all to know that that means a majority

of local elections will go ahead as planned. That should make us all feel a lot better.

Now, what they say is that where elections are postponed, existing consulates will have their

terms extended. And they're saying that elections to the new unitary councils are expected to

take place in May, 2027, with the new councils expected to be up and running in April, 2028.

But this was a bit, Basel, I really want to get your thoughts on this, because this was a bit

almost made me fall off my chair, because I'm going to quote what they said here. They said,

these decisions follow precedent between 2019 and 2022. The previous government postponed local

local council elections to protect local government reorganization work. So,

postponement then, as now they said, is to enable focused work on implementing proposals.

Now, that had me in stitches, because this, here's a man who is prime minister on the

basis of campaigning on the idea of change, that he was going to do something different to the

Tory government. And here we are with him, actually, without a sense of a threat of irony,

using the Tory government as precedent for this bad behavior.

Well, as Thomas said, the heart of our democracy, Mike, is the Holocaust Memorial not elections?

What an earth makes you think that elections at regular intervals should have anything to do

with democracy. Our democracy is defined by that Holocaust Memorial and nothing more.

Yes.

I'm not sure where to go after that. There's nothing more democratic than postponing elections.

What do you think? No, I think that's absolutely right. That's a very democratic thing to do.

Screamly Democrat, just like Zalensky in Ukraine, he's a, he's postponing now what he's

over a year in, 18 months in, out of mandate. I mean, and that's the Paragon of Democracy for Europe.

We need to defend that, right? Defens Zalensky, because he's not having elections.

I can see where this is going, by the way. Yes.

It seems to be a pattern emerging, not a good one. No, and date. Okay. Well, that's local elections.

We will keep you posted as that develops as well. And of course, that legislation will be

coming forward very soon. But let's move back across to Switzerland and Davos Patrick.

Well, yeah, this is, this is the great confab, isn't it, Mike? This is when the great and the good

get together. And this is quite prestigious. It's now, no longer calling it Davos. It's now called

the WEF. And a lot of people are using this term now. So they've really graduated right up

to the, up the cultural ladder. They've now got their own sort of quick nickname, if you will,

almost a hashtag the WEF. And so what's going on at the WEF? All is not well at the WEF. This has

become the biggest slugfest at Davos in living memory. And a lot of that's to do with Donald Trump

and his entourage that have descended onto the slopes of Davos once the pristine and serene

liberal neoliberal enclave in the Swiss Alps. And here is the big controversy. And this is

pretty, I think pretty significant. Cristina Lagarde, she is the central banker of Europe. And she

walked out after Howard Lutnik's speech. Howard Lutnik is Donald Trump's commerce secretary.

And we'll look at him in a moment. But apparently, and she left Davos dinner, I think she may have

left the event full stop. She was completely taken aback and offended by the comments from Trump.

Now, this is interesting, too, because you know, bankers are usually politically agnostic.

It wasn't the politics, though, that she was offended by. It was the almost imposition of monetary

policy coming from the United States in terms of what Europe needs to do in terms of accommodating

American financial interests. And that goes really flies in the face of everything that I think

any European bureaucrat civil service or even technocrat is willing to swallow. And we'll talk

about that in a moment. Now, here is the Howard Lutnik railing against globalization. I won't

want to comment on this afterwards. Let's roll this. And the Trump administration and myself,

we are here to make a very clear point. Globalization has failed the West and the United States of America.

It's a failed policy. It is what the Weft has stood for, which is export, offshore,

far sure. Find the cheapest labor in the world and the world is a better place for it.

The fact is it has left America behind. It has left the American workers behind.

That is a bit rich coming from an investment banker from Wall Street. Wall Street are the ones

that drove globalization and they all got filthy rich out of it by financializing the American

economy and they did the same in Britain, Mike. So Howard Lutnik and the city of London made out

like bandits for the last 30 years. And he has the temerity to then come and pivot and say,

oh, this globalization is hurting Americans. It is really unbelievable. These people are absolute

shape shifters. Plan psychological games, of course, because that sentiment that he's expressed

is going to be very, very popular with the Mike Abyss. Of course. And all the other people that

are Trump supporters around the world. But he doesn't mean a word of it.

To the uninformed and the neo-fights in terms of politics, economics and geopolitics,

that might sound like a good sound bite or to JD Vance. People who aren't that well

steeped in such things. But to educate people, he's not fooling anybody. Now here he is.

This is the thing that really offended Christina Lagarde. We're told, roll this next one.

And what we are here to say is that America first is a different model. One that we encourage

other countries to consider, which is that our workers come first. We can have policies that

impact our workers. Sovereignty is your borders. You're entitled to have borders. You shouldn't

offshore your medicine. You shouldn't offshore your semiconductors. You shouldn't offshore your

entire industrial base and have it be hollowed out beneath you. You should not be dependent for

that, which is fundamental to your sovereignty on any other nation. And if you're going to be

dependent on someone, it darn well better be your best allies. And so that is a different way of

thinking. And of course, he's absolutely right in what he says there. I can't argue with anything

that he said. But of course, he is one of the people that's implemented this offshoring policy

over the last decades. He is, but if the US is so self-sufficient, why do they need to steal

country like Venezuela's oil and go and kidnap the president? I mean, the hypocrisy and just the

boulder dash that's coming out of these people is unprecedented. And then why is the United States

need to go and grab Greenland if it's so self-sufficient? And it's on short everything. They

haven't on short everything. This is a globalized economy and you really can't get out of the fact

that countries need to trade. And then at the same time, he is threatening the Trump administration,

threatening punitive tariffs against the European countries. So he's instrumentalized the whole

purpose of the tariffs and turned it into sanctions, basically. There's no credibility from any of

these people. And we don't know where to start. Howard, Howard Lutnik is a fanatic, is a political

fanatic. He is absolutely an Israeli pick. Let's take a look at him for a moment. So who is Howard

Lutnik? That is the question. An absolute Israeli lobby pick. And a lot of people are saying, Mike,

that he is Trump's handler. You always see Howard Lutnik everywhere Donald Trump goes. He's

scanning every word that Trump says to the press. You do, you rarely see Trump without Lutnik

presence. So that's why people are calling him Trump's handler. And he's just always around

like lurking in the background. He's sort of creepy pictures. This is from Air Force One here.

He's almost become a mem in his own right here. And that's not the endless creepy pictures. Here he

is again. Well, you might not be able to see him, but believe it or not, there he is right behind

Lindsey Graham. I mean, so this is Trump's handler. So this is basically Israel's eyes and ears

in the White House is effectively Howard Lutnik of Cantor Fitzgerald investment banks who

coincidentally had offices in the Twin Towers on 9-11. So among other... But he wasn't there that day?

No, he wasn't. He was lucky. I think he was, I don't know, I was told to picking or taking his

kid to school that morning. So extremely fortunate in that regard. Not everybody was sadly on 9-11,

but not to change the subject. That's something people need to pay attention to. Who is steering

Donald Trump? Who is Trump's handler? And we believe a lot of people now believe it's Howard Lutnik

and it's kind of becoming obvious at this point. Okay, thank you for that Patrick. Okay, let's move on

then. If you like what the UK column does, we do need your continuing financial support more than

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Now, tonight at 7 p.m. Charles and I speaking to Jeremy again for our usual weekly banter. So

join us at that 7 p.m. And then Wolf and Karls are on Venezuela and geopolitics minerals

and the future of Latin America. That's until concealed podcast at 9 p.m. And then 9 p.m.

on Sunday for members only the third part of the thousand words podcast with Abbey Roberts,

Jake speaking to Abbey Roberts and Pinting Abbey Roberts. And of course, the reveal at the end.

Quick reminder of the digital ID rally happening in Glasgow 1 p.m. on the Commonwealth

monument on Glasgow Green. So join them at 1 p.m. in Glasgow if you're able to do that. And if

you're not that far north, then there's going to be a digital ID meeting taking place at the

Chamberlain Square 1 p.m. on Saturday at Birmingham Square at Birmingham sorry,

Chamberlain Square Birmingham. So join for that if you can as well. Okay, let's move on then to

the board of peace. And of course, yesterday at Davos Trump, well, he's he announced it or he

formally formalized it and signed the document and created the board of peace formally.

This of course to remind you is the technocratic corporate body which he clearly

envisages is going to replace the United Nations to some extent. Now his son-in-law and special

advisor Jared Kushner unveiled a $30 billion plan for rebuilding Gaza. And he was talking about

amazing investment opportunities. So we can all buy shares in that. The plan he said was going

to begin with rebuilding the southern city of Rafa within his little less two to three years.

And well, let's just get an idea of how this was presented.

So quickly, I'll go through this two-year war. 90,000 tons of munitions. There's over 60 million

tons of rubble there and tens of thousands of fatalities. So on the aid I mentioned the UN.

So now people are talking about famine. A hundred percent of the of the of the food needs are met.

And that's been over abundance. The cost of goods have gone down tremendously. Over 55,000

trucks have gone in and over 1.4 million pallets. So it's been the largest humanitarian effort

done into a war zone that anyone's been able to tell us about. This really has been a great

joint effort that everyone's been able to do. And so it's a great thing.

So first of all, Patrick, do you buy that? This claim that a hundred percent of

Gaza's food needs are met. That this is the greatest humanitarian effort going into.

And you notice he used the term war zone when in fact this in fact is a genocide.

So what are your thoughts on his comments? He's absolutely lying. He's lying right to the camera.

He's lying to the world. But these people have proven that they don't have really

have any conscious left when it comes to this area. Besides being the president's son-in-law,

the president-in-law, he's also lifetime close friends with the Netanyahu family.

This is the last person you want running point on such a gaudy project.

And the problem right here is like the Abraham Accords. This maneuver by Kushner basically

leaves out any dialogue with the Palestinian population. And that's why the Abraham Accords failed.

And that's why this is going to fail because they haven't learned a lesson from the past.

Well, I mean, I don't know how you can be right about that because it was all about the

lies and slides as we saw there. But he went on to talk about the rebuilding and we got to be

very clear because he was very clear that this was all about the aspirations of the people of Gaza

and nothing else. Let's just have a listen.

Roth will start with. This will show a lot of workforce housing. We think this could be done

in two, three years. We've already started removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition.

And then new Gaza. It could be a hope. It could be a destination. Have a lot of industry

and really be a place that the people there can thrive have great employment.

Once this starts going, we think there should be a hundred percent full employment and

opportunity for everybody there. And we have a lot of data on what can be. But we think that

this really gives the Gaza people an opportunity to live their aspirations.

So it's an opportunity for the Gaza people to live their aspirations. But as you say,

he's never spoken to any Gaza. So how does he know what their aspirations are?

Just be clear, everybody, Jared Kushner, the Trump administration, Steve Whitcock,

the Israelis, Netanyahu, they have no intention of allowing any Palestinians to live in those

pictures, which they are imagining they're going to build in Gaza. They're going to continue to

push them out. When he says three years, he means whatever Israeli parliamentarian and ministerial

head have said in all the hawks in Israel, we need to get rid of the Palestinians from Gaza.

We need to exterminate them. They say we need to push them out. We need to ethnically cleanse them.

And whoever's left are going to be killed quite frankly. And they'll have, hopefully,

in their mind, some cheap labor by Palestinians, what still push into camps, into like concentration

camps or labor housing or labor camps. And they believe that they'll voluntarily or want to

rebuild Gaza as a new Dubai for foreigners with tons of money and for Israelis to move in

and Americans. And they believe that somehow that Palestinians are going to be okay with

building this new Dubai on top of the dead bodies and remains of potentially hundreds of

thousands of Palestinians, including women and children. That's basically the gaudy audacious

move that's going on here. And you know, Mike, it's going to fail for a number of reasons,

which I could talk about afterwards. But yeah. But then Kushner went on to say that the plan

assumes that Hamas has agreed to demilitarize. So let's see what he said on that point.

So demilitarization, this is something we're starting now. We have a new government in Gaza.

This government will be working with Hamas on the demilitarization to really take the principles

that were agreed to in the document to the next phase. And hopefully that will be successful.

Without that, we can't rebuild. So if Hamas does not demilitarize, that will be what holds back

Gaza and the people of Gaza from achieving their aspirations. So again, a more aspirations there.

He went on to say that Hamas had signed a deal to demilitarize. Well, that's the first I've heard

about that. And he then went on to say that that is what the United States is going to enforce.

So he's implying that if there's no demilitarization that in fact will not only see is really

direct us really activity in Gaza, but we're going to see United States activity in Gaza.

That's an absolute lie what he said there. There is no deal. There's no new government. They

haven't in the US and Israel haven't installed a new government in Gaza. Hamas has not signed

anything to disarm. It hasn't happened. So this the level of lying here and gas lighting is quite

extraordinary. And where how come our governments and mainstream media are pushing back

on this? Not that I'm surprised, but they basically agree with it. It's it's really I mean,

this is really amazing. Well, then the question is who's in and who's I'd and of course the big

question is is Russia in or before before we go to Russia. So Belgium, they claimed Belgium was in

and Belgian leader just said, whoa, whoa, we're not in. And they rejected it. So the Trump

administration's making up people. They're they're telling us people who have joined that haven't

never joined. So there's no credibility at all with this. So Belgium's out, Britain's out.

Well, we're going to currently we'll talk about that. Canada's out. It looks like the France is out,

Germany's out. Now China is basically said we're looking at it. We're reviewing it, but they said

they warned the Chinese. This has major implications for international law. And Russia has said

more or less the same thing, but you have more. Well, let's have a look at what Putin said,

because this is what he said yesterday. He said as for the peace council, yes, we really did

receive a personal message from the president of the United States, Donald Trump inviting us to

join a new international body. He's setting up as for whether Russia will take part in this peace

council. The foreign ministry has been instructed to carefully review the documents. We've been

same as China at this point. And he said and to consult with their strategic partners.

And then he said, then here's the main point. Whatever process is launched must actually help move

things forward to sorry towards a long term settlement of the Israeli Palestinian conflict

based on relevant UN decisions. So in other words, he's very clear. This is not going to replace

the United Nations and all the resolutions that have rolled on Palestine. Okay, dozens of them.

But he ended his comments with a bit of a barb because he said, so even before we decide whether

to formally take part in the peace council, we could, I believe, send one billion US dollars to

the council using Russian assets that were frozen under the previous US administration. So that's

pretty clear. But then finally, Britain's position, as expressed by our wonderful foreign

Secretary of Ed Cooper, let's have a listen. We want to be part of the second phase of the peace plan

for Gaza. We've strongly supported the 20 point plan. We won't be one of the signatories for what

is a legally binding treaty today. That raises other constitutional issues, but also are concerned

about suggestions that President Putin might be part of this because frankly, we need pressure

on President Putin to deliver peace in Ukraine, which so far he is refusing to do.

So Britain not wanted to get in. So Britain's not going to join the new

morale on the Med Country Club with the $1 billion joining fee. That's it.

It's the golf club model. And he wants to franchise it to other conflicts on the world.

Maybe we don't have a billion dollars to give. I don't know. But anyway,

well, okay, well, look, let's move on then because over the last couple of weeks we have been

talking quite a bit about ICE and the immigration situation in the United States and the way that

ICE is behaving as a federal agency. What have you got on this, Patrick?

I had the pleasure of sitting down recently, Mike, and talking to the founder and director of

Mint Press News in the United States. Minar Adley, a lot of people are familiar with Mint Press.

And she's been very busy covering this invasion in Minneapolis. She's based in Minneapolis.

As luck would avid, the story came to her and her team are there and they've been covering it

during an incredible job. This is a very moving and powerful discussion, a part of that discussion.

I had with Minar just yesterday, Minar Adley. And we're going to play this now and we'll come

back with more details on this story in just a few minutes.

Well, it's really just a horrific scene here on the streets of Minneapolis. Trump has unleashed his

Gestapo federal agents onto our city here and what we would describe accurately as an ICE

invasion. We're witnessing massive and horrific domestic police repression. I mean, for whatever

it's worth, whatever police state we have witnessed in the past, we are seeing it put on steroids

right here in Minneapolis with these domestic police federal agents that are going literally

door to door and walking up to people asking them to show them their papers to prove their citizenship.

I mean, this is unlike anything that we've seen before here in the US, at least not in my time,

in my generation. I was born and raised here in Minneapolis and this is the first time I've heard

anything like this in the United States. Right now, we have over, not even a minimum, but over

2000, perhaps 3000 federal agents with ICE that are here on the ground, supposedly targeting criminals,

undocumented immigrants. What the truth is is that they are kidnapping and abducting,

in many cases, American citizens. We just saw them live with Jonathan Ross, the federal ICE agent

shooting an American citizen, ran a good on the streets of Minneapolis and they are kidnapping and

abducting immigrants that have lived here for decades who might be, who might have work visas,

who might be here on refugee status and they're very specifically targeting brown people. I mean,

they're not targeting like Ukrainians, for example, or Irish immigrants that are living here.

Minneapolis holds the largest refugee population from the Somali community and many of these people

are here because the United States history is operating its war on terror in their country.

For decades has destroyed their country and so they get refugee status and many of the Somalis

are here. Many of them are American citizens and just to share a story, I mean, my friend Segundo,

a good friend of mine, his name is Segundo, he's from Ecuador and his wife Maria were on their way

to church about a month and a half ago. They are Ecuadorian immigrants on a work visa here with their

eight-year-old son in their car and they were abducted or the husband Segundo was abducted

in his car as they were pulling up to their church to go to church. These are a lot of

abiding people and just how devastating and traumatic for that wife and for their son to witness

ice, federal agents pull up surround their vehicle with their masks on bearing their guns,

pulling Segundo out of his car. He didn't even get to say goodbye to his family and his wife

and his son are just looking at what's happening to their father, to her husband, an absolute horror

and he disappeared for over two weeks. They had no idea where ice had taken him. They didn't hear

anything from him and several weeks later, Segundo finally called them from a holding center

and I believe it was in Texas to let them know that he was being deported back to Ecuador,

where he was from, originally from. But as you know, Ecuador as well is a nation that has been

completely destroyed by U.S. economic policies and that country is strife with crime and corruption

and Segundo and his wife Maria and their eight-year-old son, they have another daughter here who's

going to college. They've now been separated from their families, from their dad and this is the

story of so many of these people that are being abducted and taken by ice. They're being kidnapped,

they're being disappeared in many cases. The people that they're kidnapping are not even being

sent to their home, you know, their home country. They're being sent to a prison holding cell

in El Salvador and a lot of times these people have committed no crimes and so for Trump to go on

this rampage to send in these federal agents and this crackdown against, you know, criminals

and illegal immigration, this is clearly rooted in white supremacy and racism because as they

abducted Segundo in that church parking lot, he was on his way to church. Right now,

Nakeema Levy Armstrong was just arrested by the DOJ because she led a protest in a church

here in St. Paul, Minnesota. By the way, she is a Reverend herself, okay? And she is a civil rights

attorney, an African-American sister who led a protest inside the St. Paul church against a

pastor who's also the regional director of ice and she was arrested for disrupting a church

service. And the right right now, the far right is going absolutely insane saying that she went

too far by disrupting, you know, Christians right to be, you know, sitting in their service

peacefully without being disrupted. While they are literally abducting other Christians who just

happened to be brown-skinned and Hispanic and Latino and that's okay. Segundo was abducted

in a church parking lot and he was sent back and, you know, completely terrorizing his family

and now they just arrested Nakeema because she led that protest inside of a church and they're

quoting the Bible. That's what they're doing. They're quoting the Bible. People on the far right are

quoting the Bible like this isn't Christianity. Well, what's not Christianity is having an ice

pastor connected with ice terrorizing our communities and in many times they're also Christian

just like Segundo's story and you know, that story is on my mind Patrick because it's a good

friend of mine. Every single person here in Minneapolis knows somebody who has been kidnapped and

deported by ice. And something that's really interesting that has happened is that ice

federal agents have actually stopped off-duty police officers here in Minneapolis and asked

them to show them their papers and this has triggered the police departments to kind of say like

what is going on and this is not okay. You've gone too far because now they're seeing that it's

affecting even their off-duty police officers and there's just one story where one of the police

officers from the city of Brooklyn Park was stopped and I believe she was Latina, you know,

American Latina and she was off-duty. She was just in her regular clothes and a federal ice

agent stopped her and asked her to show her her papers. Well, multiple don't walk around with

their birth certificate or their passport like when that's like not a thing and so she didn't

have anything to show him except for her driver's license and she pulled out the camera to start

recording her because so recording him because he became aggressive with her and he actually knocked

that phone out of her hand and detained her. And so this is a perfect example of how

for even for those who might support what ice is doing in this, you know, they're so called

crackdown, it's not just going to affect immigrants or undocumented immigrants or people who are

here as residents or, you know, visas, it's going to affect U.S. citizens and we already saw that

from the first day when a few weeks ago Renee Good was killed. She was shot by a federal agent

and they are being extremely aggressive, extremely aggressive and this is absolutely

overreach and it's really scary for people who are living here. There are many people who are

afraid to leave their house in the state of Minnesota. Even American citizens now feel that they're

afraid to leave their house because they don't want to be detained by ice. So yesterday I went

actually to the Somali Mall to join a press conference. Literally one block down from us, ice

had abducted two teenagers, slammed them to the ground on the ice here because it is very cold

here in Minneapolis. It's like negative 10 degrees today. They slammed them both on ice. We have

a chance.

Great reporting by Min Press News. That's Monroe Adley. She's an award-winning journalist.

And I would say in terms of independent media, Min Press is probably one of the best

organizations in the world and has been been like that really for like over 10 years. So she's

an incredible reporter and that's just a few she provide me with a lot of footage Mike and that

was there was stuff even more shocking than what we showed there. I mean that was pretty light

but you know perhaps we'll you know we'll share some other clips from this interview on future

programs but suffice the same Mike that's that's about as good of a clear account as you can get

on the ground there from Minneapolis and we'll we'll be getting more like that as well.

We'll undoubtedly be talking about this next round. I want to bring this on screen. This is

whistleblower Ed and they describe themselves as a pioneering non-profit legal organization that

helps public and private sector workers report and expose wrongdoing. It was founded in 2017

and they say they've supported and advocated for whistleblowers across government. This is in the

United States big tech and other parts of the private sector and so on right now the organization

does seem to be primarily funded just for transparency here by individuals but they have also

received in the past funding from the Umadir network and from democracy fund voice but foundation

funding doesn't seem to be retained for them though now they've published a document which is

a report so let's bring it on screen by two anonymous whistleblowers and they say whistleblower

Ed represents two anonymous United States government officials disclosing a secretive and

seemingly unconstitutional policy directive. This policy directive authorizes immigration and

customs enforcement agents to enter homes and residences without consent in order to conduct

arrests or removals without a warrant issued by a federal judge and it's the without a warrant

which is the important thing. Now the memo was dated May the 12th 2025 and was signed by the then

acting ICE director Todd Lyons and that was recently determined that the constitution and

immigration law do not prohibit using administrative warrants to enter to enter residents and that's

their position and the memo instructs officers to knock identify themselves and give occupants a

reasonable chance to comply but allows all necessary and reasonable force if entry is refused so

that's what the memo was alleged to have said. Now the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Defense

Tricia McLaughlin took the ex and she said in every case that DHS uses an administrative warrant

to enter a residence and illegal alien has already had their full due process and final order

by a federal immigration judge that's their claim. The officer also has probable cause and then

the official Homeland Security Exocon posted that in every case we serve an administrative warrant

there's probable cause and the illegal alien has had full due process and a final order of

removal so that's the claim from them but that's strange because according to the whistleblowers

it appears that the acting ICE director has authorized the very contact sorry the very conduct

that the DHS in 2025 legal training materials has called the chief evil against which the wording

of the fourth amendment is directed physical entry of the home without consent or proper warrant

an administer of warrant doesn't cut it but in the meantime as Patrick was highlighting last week

ICE has become a major employer in the United States with apparently no particular restrictions

and who can apply and we should also recall the press release from Homeland Security Secretary

Christy Noob last year which not only removed its restrictions on who could apply but also all

ordered sorry offered all kinds of incentives so it including a maximum $50,000 signing bonus

a student loan repayment and forgiveness opportunity 25% law enforcement availability pay

uncontrollable overtime for enforcement removal operations so basically unlimited overtime

and enhanced retirement benefits and Patrick the question then is where is this coming from

where has it come from and the source seems to be the Heritage Foundation's project 2025

and the key objectives in this document include clarifying and expanding ICE authority

removing restrictions on ICE operations, expanding expedited removal, reorganizing immigration

functions, pushing for aggressive interior enforcement this is all the key features of this

and we're saying that on the streets of the United States at the moment and you know I would just

we're going to talk about this more and extra but just for those that are sort of saying well

these people shouldn't be there there anyway and abductions equals arrests I'm just going to make

the point once again once you start removing the rule of law and you start get working your way

the regulations and the workflows that you're supposed to follow and the US Constitution and the

Constitution you are in a lawless state the people that are accepting this because they happened

to not like the levels of immigration in a country that or because they happen to support the

current president occupying the White House or party right that that powers will be retained by

whoever it follows and it will get worse this is a slippery slope it's a direction of trouble

you've got to be looking at and you've got to be considering where this ends up and accepting

this kind of behavior just because you don't like immigrants is being in your country is not that's

not the way to think about us yeah that's that's a very jingoistic xenophobic way of looking at it

Mike and I will add when they say illegal aliens as Minar showed us in her interview they're not

illegal aliens some of the people being kidnapped they're legal so that shows you right there that

there was no due process and that's why and a lot of civil liberties attorneys now are being flooded

Mike with cases this is going to the Supreme Court and the Fourth Amendment will be upheld

on all of these cases because this is just reckless what's going on here and it's taking the rights

away from all Americans American citizens not just quote illegal's right and that's the sort of

short-sighted ignorant of viewpoint that unfortunately a lot of people have because there is a

lot of ignorance out there on this issue because people are consuming really low IQ

a mega media and following bots on social media and being gaslit 24 seven on their favorite

channels when in fact there's a real world out there that I should remind people that exists

absolutely okay where does that take us then filtered let's let's come back to the UK and

the filtered jury we'll get a quick a quick update on this and again we're going to point to this

excellent Instagram channel hill free the filter in 24 they've got already 40,000 followers

jury updates and also I want to give a shout out to this excellent website if you want a real time

Mike trial summaries from court reporting here real media has just done an excellent job here

and you can go down and just scroll down from each week right down to week number eight

on this trial coverage now there's been some delays with regards to what's happening this week

and this is happening over at Woolwich Crown Court which is adjacent to Belmarsh prison I want

to bring Basil Valentine on the line right now Basil can you just give us an update there's been

some problems with the jury deliberation major issues have come up just fill us in on the details

basil yes unfortunately up to the middle of this week the jury and I'd only been able to

deliberate the two days out of a possible seven now it's worth remembering of course the

the defendants are held under terrorism legislation which means that conditions are particularly harsh

they're woken up at five a.m the women spend around six hours a day traveling in a prison van

to and from HMP bronze field the men face extensive security at Belmarsh where they're x-rayed

in strip search twice a day and then at court they're held in filthy holding cells with nothing

but a bench they've also been denied food by Circo the privatized prison supplier and they aren't

allowed to shower because they get back to prison too late so as was the case with Julian Assange

the process is very much part of the punishment last week as a result of family commitments illness

amongst members of the jury the deliberations were cancelled on more than one occasion

it's to be hoped that they can come to conclusion sooner rather than later of course this goes back

to wider hunger strikes took place in the first place which was to get bail some of these people

have been on remand held in these appalling conditions for two years and the jury may find them guilty

of no offense at all will they ever get any compensation for two years not just of imprisonment

but imprisonment in very harsh conditions as terrorists and also basil on this on this update as well

what about the the timeline on this we also have the judicial review which is simmering

off to the side with regards to the prescription palestine action these two are politically linked

one could influence the other your your thoughts and just briefly basil well strictly speaking the

judicial review shouldn't draw its conclusions conclusions entirely from what the jury decide

act to punish crown court although it's likely that it will play a part the film 24 were prosecuted

under terrorism legislation in advance of the prescription of Palestine action because the

British government wanted to see if it could use terrorism powers to quash people who

take direct action against the genocide thank you very much basil valentine now just briefly

finally basil this is an incredible story we'll bring this up on screen right now Israel pays for

UK adverts attacking doctors without borders this is international charity it provides free

a medical services in war zones explain to us what's happening here great report by declassified

UK basil what do you what do you know about this well if you type medicine salt frontier into google

you'll find link directly to an Israeli government website which accuses the the organization

which does terrific work for gardens by the way you can find out about more about what

they've been doing over the last few months it claims that they fail to adequately adequately condemn

the war crimes of October the 7th 2023 and that the pronouncements public pronouncements have become

to politicize to critical of Israel at the moment they only have a license to continue practicing

until the 1st of March after that they may be kicked out this of course comes after the Israelis

demolish the United Nations relief from works agency building in East Jerusalem this week and also

denied access to dozens of other humanitarian organizations so the plan obviously is to punish

the Palestinians by denying them healthcare because one of the few organizations that we know would

help people injured by Israeli action of course by gun fire by shells punish the Palestinians because

they have the temerity to offer some milk toast criticism of what the Israelis describe as defensive

operations this is really the agenda thank you basil this the agenda mike is to restrict any

outsiders going into Gaza journalists NGOs doctors without borders because of what they'll

say to the world about the true or the images they might beam to the world about the true state of

affairs in Gaza which is right really been met but we've seen a lot but that's only a fraction of

what we could see if there were major media organizations there but of course Israel wouldn't

be bombing would they if there were BBC crews running around and ABC and CBS crews running

around right very likely they would not be able to but of course the other thing that they can

then do is stand up at a board of peace event and make claims about the humanitarian response

well in fact nobody has been in Gaza to see the humanitarian response so nobody can nobody

in the mainstream media is going to criticize that comment because they've had nobody there to look

we saw the Gaza humanitarian foundation what they did with their rat runs exactly and concentration

camps but lastly my israel's buying up ads on youtube and running the worst propaganda you can

imagine demonizing Palestinians and also attacking different people and even there was a report

about Israelis who ran ads to collect donations pretending to be Palestinian to collect donations

for a fake charity for Gaza so literally running scams trying to take advantage of Palestinian

suffering and youtube is running these ads and all these social media platforms have a hard time

policing this stuff right we have seen so many reports of this since october 7th and it's

but of course we have to go back to that to Netanyahu meeting with the young the youth in the

United Nations and explaining how they were going to be funding thousands of influencers never

mind the ads influencers as well on with you know host of youtube channels and so on and we saw

those influencers mobilized and kicked into action with the Iran riots and they've been flooding

social media being paid seven thousand dollars per post good work if you can get it anyway it

is indeed well look we have to leave it there for today i'm going to say thank you very much

to Basel Patrick and for everybody that's watched we'll be back in a few minutes if you're UK

column member for some news extra we'll see you then with Basel Valentine absolutely yes you see

then thanks for joining us bye bye