UK Column News - 8th March 2024

Mike Robinson, Debi Evans and Ben Rubin with today's UK Column News.

 

Shapps Says We Are In A Pre-War World

00:18 Chatham House: Are we heading for World War Three—and is Britain’s military ready? 

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps’s speech on 15 January described a shift from ‘a post-war to a pre-war world’.

Sky News: Budget's lack of new defence spending dismays insiders and Tory MPs

GOV.UK: UK to supply more than 10,000 drones to Ukraine

Royal United Services Institute: Trump-Proofing NATO: 2% Won't Cut It

EPP (YouTube): Ursula von der Leyen at the EPP Congress 2024 in Bucharest

NATO: Sweden officially joins NATO 07 March 2024

Ministry of Defence (on X): 

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is deeply proud to welcome Sweden into NATO.

 

Drones: UK Wants To Race To The Top

08:07 Air & Space Commander, UK (on X): 

CAS has just announced at #ASPC19 the reformation of 23 Sqn as the RAF’s first Space Squadron, and 216 Sqn as an experimental squadron taking forward our “swarming drones” capability.

Breaking Defense: UK drone test squadron fails to register a single test since forming in 2020: Procurement minister

GOV.UK: Advancing airborne autonomy: Commercial drones saving money and saving lives in the UK (PDF)

Drones could contribute up to £45 billion to the UK economy. More than 900,000 drones could operate in the UK’s skies

Altitude Angel (2022): UK consortium reveal blueprint to build 165 mile drone ‘Superhighway’

BT Group: Race to the top: Assessing and accelerating drone readiness in the UK, the G7 and other leading nations (PDF)

Free Sound Effects (YouTube): Drone Flying Sound Effect

Altitude Angel (YouTube): Altitude Angel Skyway Explained—Video

 

Communism Was “Soviet Power Plus Electrification” (Lenin); The New Al Economy Is Electric Power Plus Connectivity

15:53GSMA (YouTube): We are the GSMA

McKinsey & Company: Economic potential of generative AI

European Health and Digital Executive Agency: Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024—European Commission

RCR Wireless News: Five operators officially launch global telco AI alliance

Telecom Review: e&, Leading Telecom Giants Form Global Telco AI Alliance at MWC24

Reuters: Deutsche Telekom to build global COVID vaccine verification app for WHO

CNBC: Singapore’s AI ambitions get a boost with $740 million investment plan

In order for Al to really deliver on its potential, you need really good public and private partnerships.

 

Updates And Announcements

27:06 Support Independent Journalism from the UK Column

Please Join Us: Access the UKC News Extra—UK Column Community

UK Column Shop: https://shop.ukcolumn.org—the MHRA T-shirts are being discontinued because Dame June Raine has announced her departure

Brian Gerrish (YouTube): Youtube Première: Walking the Dog Episode 2—11 am, Sunday 10 March

UK Column: Climate Science Masterclass Ticket

People's Food & Farming Alliance webinar: Your Farmers Need You!—7 pm on Wednesday 6 March

Solidarity Rally: No Farmers, No Food—Truro, 12:30 pm on Saturday 16 March

Glastonbury event: An Evening With Richard Vobes, Sandi Adams and Clive de Carle—7–10 pm, Saturday 30 March—tickets (£15/£10) via Rosanne.EventsSomerset@gmail.com or from Fairyland Aromatics, 48 High Street, Glastonbury BA6 9DX

UK Column content: Debi Evans Blog: 5 March 2024

UK Column interview: Guerrilla Warfare for Truth in the Bronx: Jose Vega

UK Column article: Dying of Thirst

UK Column  nterview: No Smoke Without Fire 6: The Green King (Part 1)

 

Polish Farmers Burn EU Flags In Protest

30:08 Farmers Protest (Telegram): Polish farmers were burning EU flags in protest of the climate agenda

 

Digital NHS—Should You Delete The App?

33:10NHS England (YouTube): NHS England Board Meeting, 1st February 2024

GOV.UK: MHRA annual report and accounts, 2022 to 2023

The Telegraph: Britain’s outdated pandemic labs need urgent investment, spending watchdog warns 

National Audit Office (NAO): Investigation into the UKHSA’s health security campus programme

 

Data-Gathering And Climate Controls

44:10 The World Economic Forum: Data for the City of Tomorrow: Developing the Capabilities and Capacity to Guide Better Urban Futures 

The Business Of Cities: Urban intelligence for global business. Business tools for the world's cities

Connected Places Catapult: Climate Action Archives

3ci: Homepage

Connected Places Catapult: Lucy Yu

 

Labour Together Presents RESTITCH

52:57 Restitch: The Social Fabric Summit—Coventry, 7-8th March, 2024

Who we are

Onward is a future-facing thinktank, launched in 2018. The mission: to build a powerful ideas factory centre-right thinkers and leaders.

 

And Finally—Britain’s Representative Woman: CSW68 Delegate Pips Bunce

59:54 UN Women UK: Commission on the Status of Women