Join Niall for a fresh look back at the news that made the headlines this week and a look ahead to the stories that might develop over the weekend.
On the agenda tonight: The US has begun a wave of retaliatory airstrikes targeting militants in Iraq and Syria, officials have told the Associated Press, Reuters and our partner network NBC News.
The initial strikes were carried out by manned and unmanned aircraft hitting command and control headquarters, ammunition storage and other facilities, AP has reported.
They come in response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US troops and injured some 40 others on Sunday.
Joining Niall on the panel this evening:
🔴 Sophia Smith-Galer
🔴 Seyi Rhodes
#FridayNight #NiallPaterson #SkyNews
SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/skynews
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skynews
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skynews
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skynews
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skynews
For more content go to http://news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-news/id316391924?mt=8 Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bskyb.skynews.android&hl=en_GB
Sky News Daily podcast is available for free here: https://podfollow.com/skynewsdaily/
Sky News videos are now available in Spanish here/Los video de Sky News están disponibles en español aquÃ: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzG5BnqHO8oNlrPDW9CYJog
To enquire about licensing Sky News content, you can find more information here: https://news.sky.com/info/library-sales
For For it is Friday the 2nd of February welcome to Friday night with Neil Patterson this is the show where we take all of the news the good bits and the bads and dissect them For Your Entertainment Tonight we’ll be speaking to our panel here in the studio later on we’ll be
Getting a culture fix with Scott briyan who’ll be reviewing the latest TV releases but first the headlines this are sentenced to life the brutal murder orrian J their 16-year-old killers are named and are told they may never be released the police Senate new appeal to the
Public to find the man haunted over a chemical attack which has left a woman with life-changing injuries and there anger after Revelations that a man police want to speak to was granted UK Asylum despite being a convicted sex offender also tonight’s President Biden attends a service for three US soldiers
Killed in Jordan as he decides how America will respond coming up I’m going to be joined by our panel uh Sophia Smith gayer and Sher Ron uh both of them here with us until 9:00 to give us their take on the week’s news and the stories that are
Continuing to gain momentum as we head into the weekend what are we going to be talking about well first the big beasts of big Tech they were hauled in front of Congress this week to answer questions about Online safety but what difference if any is it going to make and don’t you
Roll your eyes at me the Civil Service spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on so-called microaggression training courses that’s bound to raise a few eyebrows Plus in the sport as the Six Nations gets underway can England under new captain Jamie George make an impact or will the Irish and French dominate
Once more and why has my producer not mentioned Scotland will be having words great to have your company we’re going to be here for the next three hours hold on tight it’s Friday Night evening all the teenage killers of 16-year-old Brianna ji have been named and sentenced to decades in prison the judge lifted the anonymity granted to the pair during the trial naming them as 16-year-olds Scarlett jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe Manchester Crown Court heard that they plotted together to kill
Brianna lured her to a park in warington and then stabbed her to death our chief north of England correspondent Greg milm has our first report on a Saturday afternoon at the bus stop Brianna ji dressed in white meets up with the two people who barely
An hour later would murder her girl X in that video was Scarlet jenkinson boy why Eddie Ratcliffe described as intelligent high functioning teenagers who hid a warped obsession with murder and who planned in meticulous detail how they would kill a girl who thought she could trust them after the killing Eddie
Ratcliffe boarded the bus to go home he was arrested the next day I can explain I can explain he says to police simultaneously Scarlet jenkinson was also arrested how come suspect how come I’m a suspect how come you’re a suspect because I’m last person
At se or is it know in the months that followed and during their trial they blamed each other their preoccupation with violence death and torture played out in thousands of messages jenkinson repeatedly changing her story the judge said it was impossible I to believe anything she said in fact it all played
Out as the note found in her bedroom predicted with a smiley face and a heart along with pages of details about high-profile serial killers in court Brianna’s mom Esther told of the grief and the devastation the thought the two could ever be released she said horrifies Brianna’s dad told Sky News
What he thinks of them I have no feelings well there’s only anger to towards him I if I’m honest I hate him um I they just evil you know have what they’ve done and I don’t think they’ll ever change I think they’ll always be monsters and that’s what they are to me
That’s my feelings with them they’re just a pair of monsters at first you know I thought yeah they they should be named why should they be protected you know people should know who they are uh and now I think now the name’s always going to be connected you know tied with
Brianna all the time so I just think this shouldn’t be N I think they should just be forgot about locked up and not even spoke about again cuz they’re nothing I’ll never stop thinking about Brianna I know want to should live on in M dreams and that’s all I keep thinking about her
On her own in that park with them and what they’ve done and I really wish I was there to protect her and that’s just what I have in my head all the time I can’t get it out my head you know what’s happened to her for Brianna’s family it’s made all the worse
That she thought of jenkinson as a friend she’d been moved to Brianna’s school after bringing cannabis Edibles to her previous one she was about to be returned there when it first happened Um you know I I felt like there was a level of responsibility because they had they’ met at this school but in terms of actually how we could have in any way have stopped that happening the were there were no signs there were there were no red flags a review is now
Ongoing the decision to lift reporting restrictions mean the Killer’s names and faces are known the judge said a pair who had other targets as well may never be released I therefore find that you both took part in a brutal and planned murder which was sadistic in nature and where a secondary
Motive was hostility towards Brianna because of her transgender identity you picked Brianna because you both thought she would be an easy target in doing so you Scarlet abused her trust she thought you were her friend you encouraged her not to be anxious and guided her through getting the
Bus Eddie you knew Scarlet was praying on Brianna in this way for Brianna’s parents any freedom would come too soon for an anxious child who they say showed bravery to leave the house on her own that day and who paid with her life Greg milm Sky News Manchester Crown
Court uh well more details have emerged at the trial I jenkinson and Ratliff planned and carried out Brianna’s murder our data and forensics correspondent Tom cheser reports there was no way she could have known but this was the moment that Brianna ji left her home for the
Last time a Saturday morning on her way to meet people she thought were her friends earlier that day the 11th of February Scarlett jenkinson had texted Brianna telling her to meet her and Eddie Ratcliffe in kth she was luring Brianna to her death Brianna left home
At 12:45 walking a mile to the bus stop that jenkinson had told her to go to even though there was another right by her house jenkinson had also told her to buy a child’s oneway ticket Brianna was an anxious teenager and she texted her mom I’m on the bus by myself I’m scared
But her mother Ester was proud of her for going out of her comfort zone the bus passed brana’s home on its way to kth she met jenkinson referred to throughout the trial as girl X and Ratcliffe boy Y at the bus stop outside the local library they walked past to
Sainsbury’s where minutes earlier the pair had bought bottles of Dr Peppa and cocacola they would eventually tie them to the scene of the crime as they walked through a series of Alleyways the group were last seen on CCTV heading towards Linea park at 2:02 p.m. Brianna had
Little more than an hour left to live as the teenagers walked through the park they messaged each other on Snapchat about a plan to take drugs together at 2:15 Brianna sent a message to jenkinson saying she was anxious J son was supposedly messaging a drug dealer at
The same time but this was a ruse she had set up a fake Snapchat account which she was using to pretend to be a dealer called Nathan she would message him and then reply to herself Brianna grew suspicious at 2:30 she messaged another friend saying she thought jenkinson was
Pretending to have a drug dealer what exactly unfolded over the next few minutes has known only to jenkinson and Ratcliffe but based on the number of wounds on her body Brianna was subjected to a sustained and violent assault with a hunting knife Brianna was stabbed more
Than 28 times across her head her neck her chest and her back at 3:6 Brianna’s phone sent a message to jenkinson girl where are you but it was not Brianna it was jenkinson trying to establish an alibi for herself she would later tell police Brianna had disappeared with a
Boy from Manchester minutes later a dog walker saw jenkinson and Ratcliff making their way to the next field and breaking into a run around a quarter p 3 the dog walker called 999 asking for police an ambulance someone had been attacked and she’d seen people running away Ratcliffe
And jenkinson had already left the woods a car’s dash cam caught them here on the right they threw Brianna’s phone into a drain on the way they then returned to their separate homes jenkinson walked Ratcliffe took the bus Brianna was declared dead at the scene police arrested her murderers the next day Tom
Cheser Sky News detectives involved in a Countrywide Manhunt have appealed for the Public’s help to find a man wanted in connection with a corrosive attack in South London which left a woman with life-changing injuries and two children in hospital police want to speak to 35-year-old Abdel aadii and have urged him to hand
Himself in our crime correspondent Martin brunt reports um I’m at the scene of that rather dramatic raid at 2 o00 this morning and as you can see in those pictures police clearly worried about what they might find here this block of flats uh about eight Flats one of them
Thought to be uh the home of uh the suspect’s brother um and I understand that he was among those who were woken up rather rudely uh and taken out and sat in cars and interviewed um but it seems that police found nothing hazardous because um according to one of
The residents they were all allowed back into their Flats um well Before Dawn and I’m told that that did include the suspect’s brother um huge police operation um underway uh principally the Metropolitan Police North Umbria police as well and British transport police but I suppose it’s fair to say that police
Forces all across the country uh are on alert until police are able to uh narrow down exactly where their suspect is um this raid here was one of five overnight that we’ve been told about two in London uh three more in Newcastle uh which was the more recent home of the most recent
Home of the suspect in one of those raids police say that they found empty canisters that may have contained uh the corrosive substance that was used in the attack um in Clapham if there is some good news in all of this uh please say that the two girls who were injured are
Not showing signs of any life-threatening injuries although of course um they are still in hospital and their mother is quite seriously ill um but the suspect is still at large and please continue to warn that nobody should approach him uh tonight a colleague of mine has been talking to a
Close relative of the suspect who has uh told my colleague that of course I’m worried about him uh but he insists he’s not in touch with him uh nevertheless shocked by the details of the attack at Martin brunt there now some of the other stories making headlines
Tonight and a woman who ran over and killed her fiance after she quotes lost her temper during an argument has been jailed for at least 18 years Alice wood murdered Ryan Watson who was 24 near their home and Road heathan cheser in May of 2022 the judge said wood may find
Prison hard but that she only had herself to blame the average water bill in England and Wales is expected to increase from April water companies have forecast an above inflation 6% rise adding an extra 27 a year to household costs in return firms say they will invest 14.4 billion
Pound to address sewage flows into rivers and the Sea a judge has thrown out a public order of a charge against Greta tunberg after the police attempted to impose unlawful conditions during a climate protest the 21-year-old Global campaigner was arrested during a demonstration in central London on the 17th of October last
Year Sir Elton John and his Husband David fish one among the MERS attending the funeral of the former political lobbyist Derek Draper the husband of Kate gar Mr Draper fell seriously ill during the early part of the covid pandemic in March 2020 and spent 13 months in hospital he died last month
Aged 56 after suffering longlasting symptoms from Corona virus at to the United States now where President Biden has been meeting relatives of three US soldiers killed in a drone attack on a base in Jordan the United States has blamed Iranian backed militants for the deaths of the troops
And has promised to respond despite Iranian denials of involvement indeed it has been reported that the US military is in the process of approving a list of Iranian Targets in both Iraq and Syria though there has been no official conf information our us correspondent James Matthews joins us
Now and James the the fact that we know that the US president is drawing up Targets in both Iraq and Syria it suggests to me that we may well be seeing air strikes in the immediate future I think I would share that view as many do here Neil there’s a question
Around what’s happening right now whether or not that is business that needs to be attended to for reasons of propriety and dignity before there can be a mil a US military strike uh Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden have been in attendance at do Airbase where
There has been the so-called dignified transfer of the three us Personnel who were killed following a drone strike on their base in Jordan sergeants bana muffett Kennedy Sanders and William River they have been repatriated back to the United States into the arms of their family carried uh by military
Personnel in transfer cases from the aircraft that brought them home the bidens have spent time with the families uh who have been bereaved and of course Joe Biden uh is a man in a position to invoke his own personal experience when it comes to bement a man who most
Recently lost his son and in the distant past lost his wife and daughter he has told the families that uh their loved ones were patriots in the highest sense and that in time when they think of them they will smile before they cry so a solemn event taking place at do Air
Force Base in Delaware within the past half hour and I do Wonder Neil in terms of um military strikes and when they happen uh the extent to which this plays in not just to the timing but also to the presentation uh to the rationale of a US strike in the Middle East because
These pictures will be broadcast around the world they reflect um a justification I suppose to many uh it reflects a US retaliation that is based on an attack on three of its own uh a retaliation that’s Justified on the grounds uh that it’s warranted and is a defensive
Measure so it may be that this is business that the president felt had to be taken care of much like yesterday his visit to Michigan where he has tried to engage with a Muslim Community that’s turned his back turned its back on the president that uh wasn’t a day perhaps politically and
Diplomatically uh to proceed with military strikes so you know he has a fo entry that his business to be taken care of but as you say um there is anticipation of what America does next and in terms of the timing um there is an expectation that that won’t be far
Away James for now thanks very much indeed now the labor Deputy leader Angela rer has told Sky News her party will reform workers rights should they win the next general election in an interview with our political editor Beth Rigby she says labor would put an end to so-called zero hours contracts and help
To Foster greater security for low-wage workers she also responded to concerns around MP safety after being confronted by Pro Palestine activists last week uh just a warning Beth’s report does contain flash photography from the start hoping to call time on the Tories and the SNP Labour knows in the next
Election Scotland is key Angela Raina touring a Distillery near Edinburgh with Scottish labors Anna Sawa to promote what labors dubbed the biggest leveling up of workers rights in decades and give this man something to sell on the doorstep this is the most transformative package in worker rights for a
Generation to finally end the scandal of exploited Zer hour contracts to end the scandal of fire rehire and to make H the minimum wage a real living wage that will have a transformative effect for workers as labor Rose back on its green investment plan and capping Bankers bonuses the deputy leader doubling down
On her radical workplace reforms well it’s security at work more than anything fundamentally it’s rights from day one it’s ending fire and rehire and it’s giving people guaranteed hours and making sure that people have that level of security if you’re in one of those workers jobs so you know delivering
Parcels or or food Etc um that they might watching this wanting reassurance can you tell them that this is a sort of when not if that they will get afforded the same rights under a labor government we will bring in the single status of worker we will end this bulus
Self-employment is our mission as part of the New Deal the message from Raina clear there’ll be no rowing back on workers rights in the first labor term CH come when but as she eyes public office the downsides made plain to see Miss Raina confronted at a fundraiser
Event in Stockport last week which left her shaken Vice chair friends of Israel your friendly isra president said he was waging yes I was scared and my family are scared for me when you get the levels of abuse and threats that MPS get now when someone comes at you you don’t
Know you honestly don’t know is someone’s shouting and they come over at you you don’t know what’s coming I didn’t know what’s coming at me and it did affect me and it has affected me since that incident do you ever think about packing it in because of it or not
Ever I don’t think about packing it in because I think that’s our democracy catching up the SNP in Scotland and way ahead of the Tories down South labor has the taste of Victory but no celebrations yet Beth riby Sky News Scotland and suddenly for some reason I’m very thirsty uh time to introduce
Our panel tonight with us for the next two hours uh the investigative journalist and filmmaker sha rhods and the broadcaster and content creator sofhia Smith gayer join us great to have you both here but before we quickly go to the break I’m going to ask I mean do
You have much sympathy for for for MPS who find themselves I think arguably probably more in the spotlight than before the amount of abuse that they’re getting and so on feere we know that anyone in the public eye but especially women um are sort of seen as fair game
For abuse more than people who aren’t in the public eye uh in research about uh harassment and abuse so it doesn’t surprise me at all uh I also I wonder what how much training you get as an MP before you become one in how to deal with these situations as journalists we
Have to go get training do they get training no I don’t think so Shan what do you think yeah no absolutely I mean with the kind of conspiracy theories that are out nowadays and the kind of focus on individual’s private lives their pasts their connections with different people some of the stories you
Read are absolutely insane but then we’ll be forwarded by millions of people and you can’t help feeling that that puts people in a dangerous position yeah you you have a good point anyway you guys paus there I mean coming up next we’re going to have plenty more with
That sofhia and she including a number of topics starting with with Mart Zucker uh and the other big Tech bosses well they were all hauled in front of the US Congress this week over Online safety but will there appearance make a single bit of difference Nicholas sturon appeared in
Front of the co inquiry this week but did her evidence raise more questions than answers that’s a little later in the sport the Six Nations getting underway tonight we’re going to have a full preview of the biggest rugby sh on Earth all that after this I’m Helen an Smith I’m Sky’s Asia
Correspondent and I’m based here in Beijing my most memorable story was covering the extreme zero covid restrictions a massive Co wave is sweeping this city but officially almost no one has died this is a four-lane jaw carriageway completely shut off some things are being allowed in but actually
The only thing we modernized military absolutely able to fight an international War if needed is this military ready we are prepared to face every kind of challenge my biggest challenge is adequately telling the stories of the Chinese people even when the authorities would prefer me not to hey hey hey youing by
The rules we are allowed to film in the streets to the left to the left I will always remember the atmosphere the Shanghai protests it was an electric mix of excitement fear and Defiance and a sense that history was being made it’s hard to express just how incredibly unusual these scenes are in
China there are people who are afraid on the streets of Shing Jang there is still attenion heavy police a sense they’re always watching it’s really an incredible eeriness to this place and it just is completely abandoned the Chinese housing market for so long a driver of
Growth is now a real liability we take you to the heart of the stories that shape our world it’s actually hard to describe the cold here it’s so intense it literally takes your breath away I can’t tell if I’m moving it or it’s moving me but it’s a very strange
Feeling the world is watching What’s Happening Here Welcome back to Friday night do hope you’re liking our temporary digs they’re very nice aren’t they uh let’s reintroduce our panel for this evening the journalist and filmmaker sha rhs and the broadcaster and content creator Sophia Smith gayer great to have both of you uh with us our first story we’re
Talking about at this week uh well it is those Tech bosses from Facebook Tik Tok amongst many others grilled by senators in Washington it is a wonderful thing to see so let’s have a look oh well we don’t seem to have it but but take my word for it it is a
Remarkable piece of footage we’ll come back to it and talk about it in a second um sopia you might as well just just let us know what was going on we were on oh we do have it so we let’s hit the space bar bosses of the world’s biggest social
Media firms are appearing before the US Senate as they vow to toughen safety measures for younger users CEOs of Snapchat X and Discord had to be subpoenaed to force them to face Congress I was sexually exploited on X this is my daughter Olivia this is our
Son Matthew how many more of my friends have to be harmed abused extorted or taken advantage of Mason was a smart kind curly haired normal team congress the ball is in your court Mr Zuckerberg you and the companies before us you have blood on your hands there’s families of
Victims here today have you apologized to the victims you’ve done nothing to help them you’ve done nothing to compensate them you’ve done nothing to put it right Mr Zuckerberg what the hell were you thinking I I don’t know the answer that off the top of my head have
You ever been Associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist party no Senator again I’m a Singaporean your platform is basically an Espionage arm for the Chinese Communist party why should you not be banned in the United States of America s let’s start with you on this topic look I might be wrong but it certainly felt that there was a republican bias in terms of the more of the stronger criticism but at the same time has the United States perhaps arrived at this point a little bit
Earlier than us that there has been sexual exploitation of children taking place on social media websites and at times it has felt that they have prioritized profit over the protection of children I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily coming to it sooner than we are what I would say is how long have we
Been banging on about the Online safety bill in our own country uh and the reason that they were in Congress first place this week was talking about the kids online safety act which is similar has a very much a focus as you described on child sexual exploitation uh are all
Platforms do they all need to be held accountable on this issue 100% you can you you saw there how many I mean that was just a couple of of families who who victims can’t even fathom or count how many there must be out there in the world the issue the issue is regulating
Social media companies it’s 2024 we’re still nowhere near really anything other than you holding their feet to the fire like that in Congress having them so publicly being challenged that’s actually some of the most regulation that we have of social media companies yeah I mean sh where are you
In this CU I’m old enough to remember where the whole point of the internet was that it was the Wild West that there wasn’t going to be regulation that there wasn’t going to be Cent and obviously clearly times have changed because young people have got access through their
Phones and and through the laptops that they use at school so so where are where are you on this very very tricky I mean obviously I’ve I I’ve moved I’ve moved over the years from a number of different through a number of different positions I was one of those
Young people who was on Napster in the early days you know downloading illegally downloading um people’s songs until I comment yeah until I got an email from from Dr Dre’s lawyers telling me to to stop very scary moment 21 years old you’re like oh but now I’m on
Spotify and I pay for my subscription and that happened quite naturally because not so much because of Regulation actually more because the tech Giants got their acts together they started to offer me some decent options and I no longer had to go to that dark place where where dirty things happen an
Interesting thing that they are being challenged about is what what do the apps do or what safety Provisions do they provide and actually because of uh largely in many cases EU regulation that these apps have had to contend with uh there are so many things on there in
Terms of you know parent pairing and you shouldn’t be on there if you’re under 13 there are already loads of those things but people get past them the point is that PE individual humans are circumventing a lot of these rules yeah I mean let’s let’s just because of
Course at at that hearing Mark Zuckerberg was asked whether he had actually spoken to any of the any of the the families that were that were in in attendance at this setting he hadn’t but then he had this to say I that go through the things that your families
Have have suffered and this is why we invested so much and are going to continue doing industry Le efforts to uh to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your families have had to suffer sh an expression of regret not an apology the
Type of thing we’ve come become used to from from our politicians in this country but but in terms of the of the broader point I mean yeah of course there is a responsibility on the social media sites themselves but if we’re talking about children there’s you know
There a massive El in the room there’s another set of people who are respond towards the parents oh clearly clearly I mean I I’ve got I’ve actually got uh three kids my eldest is 19 and my my middle child is eight so I’ve got I’ve had like a good decade of difference and
When I used to go online with my eldest it was a bit more of a wild west and there were moments where I noticed that people were trying to have sexual conversations with him in the chat boxes and so on that doesn’t happen nowadays um even just the way that my children
Log on to the internet they come in through their school’s account it’s all very managed and I feel much safer like that but one thing I should point out is that if people are going to use these new technologies whether it’s the internet or AI or anything like that to
Exploit sexually exploit children we know who these people are the police should already know who these people are this is a crime and we don’t need new laws or anything to cover it really what we need is for our our law enforcement services to be doing their jobs
Sorry Sophia before you come in the one of the Democrats who was on that committee am kashar compared the the situation with social media companies to to the situation with that Boeing plane where the door fell off that no one questioned the decision to immediately down the entire fleet for safety checks
To be carried out so why why are we not doing the same with the social media industry I mean I like the logic it’s obviously more complicated than that but children are being hurt children are being hurt regularly and still we still faffing around with twostep verification
And using credit cards to prove you’re over 18 and so on and so forth I’ve done enough investigations on social media platforms to know that despite everything that they say despite the very best will of the people running these platforms who are writing moderation policies that when you read
Them make a lot of sense the content guidelines sound legit things get through all the time and that’s because mod the moderation required for all of this content we’re talking billions of users the moderation required is being heavily automated uh we might see certainly in the bigger companies tens
Of thousands of moderators that’s not actually that big a number if you think about the amount of content being uploaded and you think about the number of individual users we need way more moderation to actually fulfill these guidelines they allegedly have and and two letters spring immediately to mind a
And I but we’re not going to talk about that because you know we could be here all night um sh Sophia you guys pause there um after the break we’re going to be having uh plenty more from these two what will we be discussing uh will as farmers bring the barricades to the
Motorways uh we’ll be discussing if the European Union is losing control of Europe that’s Next Welcome back uh this week saw Farmers protests all across Europe in the Netherlands France Belgium Germany Poland Greece Italy and Spain many are deeply unhappy at the effect of EU environmental laws including fuel duties and tariff free imports from Ukraine uh Shane Safir still here and we’ll start
With you because I think you may have a personal connection to this look it is it it is almost slightly surprising I think that we haven’t seen protests from from farmers in in this country but but your view on what’s happening in the other side of the channel well I mean
You know the French love to protest they love they love and they like they like a big show of force but but in this instance I think the farmers well we can see they’ve got a point because they’re being joined by their German polish Dutch Italian colleagues and when
Everyone in in Europe agrees on one thing you know something’s up yeah um Farmers have been really getting a hammering and I spoke to a friend of mine who’s um who’s a grain farmer here in here in just outside London actually the Essex borders and he says that it’s
Even worse for farmers in this country because they don’t have as big a market to trade with as as e EU farmers do um so you know and also subsidies are going to be tailing off over the next three years of course from leaving the European Union that Mone that money is
All going to start going away he already as a grain farmer is holding on to grain from 2023 because he cannot afford to sell it at the price is being offered um he’s got until sort of November next year really before it goes off or before
The next Harvest comes in what is his plan just just literally to sit on it until sit on it until the price goes up and then you know once the next Harvest comes in and you need to to find somewhere to you have to sell it for
What it’s worth at that at that point and you have to kind of constantly until then make an assessment of is this the best price I’m ever going to get or do I hold on and wait that would put people out of business and his perspective is
That he really admires the strength of of the Europeans all coming together and doing this at the same time because he feels very alone and he knows many other British Farmers feel the same I mean Sophia as we’ve said we’re seeing it all across Europe Netherlands Poland Greece
Italy Spain Belgium France there there are plenty of farmers who who who are upset but you know to kind of broaden this out slightly I mean of course we are we are at a time where there is an awful lot of concern about what is happening in terms of geopolitics if
Ever there was a point at which we would wish to guarantee our food security we’ve talked an awful lot about about energy security but food security surely this would be it yeah and those who are working in agriculture they’re in this position where they’re on the front
Lines of the climate crisis they are the ones who are witnessing it firsthand often you know dramatically drastically affecting their product on the other hand they also are contributing to greenhouse gases perhaps more than other Industries so that’s why they’re facing the the brunt of certain climate policies but they’re the first people
That you have to work with and on board in terms of Absolut dealing with the climate crisis and the minute you um they’re beginning to perhaps vilify some of these policies because they haven’t included them there that it’s not financially beneficial enough to work alongside it it’s not good in terms of
How we’re going to start seeing climate policy in general be discussed in Europe I mean but the idea that this is the point to which the European Union is losing control of Europe I I I just wonder sh whether that might be slightly slightly over the toop at the same time
However you know look it it it was it it took an awful lot of work for the European Union I know this is taking us away from the farmers but it took an awful lot of work for the European Union to get Victor Orban on side so that they
Could sort out the aid package to Ukraine there are definitely crack showing in crack showing but I think it’s it’s telling that they did get Victor Orban on board and they got their aid package away um when it comes to Farmers there is no more sensitive subject you’ve already talked about food
Security we’ve got to talk about the indigenous culture of each of these countries is based on their their rural populations it’s based on the foods they produce and the the the types of animals they grow and so on and so this is an incredibly sensitive subject in every
Country and I’m absolutely certain that the EU will will get this sorted because if they don’t they’ all be voted out uh another big week in terms of uh Co inquiry at Nicholas sturgeon appeared to be the Cal and collected leader during the pandemic who never seemed to appear
Overwhelmed or in a bit of a tizzy uh but this week the covid inquiry in Scotland saw the former first Minister appear visibly tearful and perhaps even vulnerable as she was questioned by lawyers over her response to the pandemic let’s take a quick look I was the first Minister
When H the pandemic struck there’s a large part of me wishes I hadn’t been um but I was and I wanted to be the best first Minister I could be during that period is for others to judge the extent to which I succeeded the idea that in those horrendous days weeks I was
Thinking of a political opportunity I find well it’s just it wasn’t true Sophia I mean I suppose I’m Twix two houses in this one on the one hand I I think politicians showing their More Human Side can only be a positive thing particularly given what we were talking
About early with you know politicians being criticized and being threatened as well on the other I am sorry but the deletion of her WhatsApp messages is one that is going to stick in my CW for an awful long time where are you yeah we were chatting about it and how um I read
About a justification that oh well we didn’t talk about anything relevant in the WhatsApp messages so you would say that you would say that wouldn’t you uh so not I I wanted a better a better justification for that 100% I was also very interested to hear about the
Criticisms over were you politic too much during this time but also uh who was involved in deciding policy for Scotland was it too smaller group that was quite interesting hearing about that as well sh I mean the idea that Nicholas sturgeon could go a week without uh trying to turn something into a
Political gain for herself or any politician frankly clearly it was always back of her mind she tried not to let it take the Forefront I I believe her on that but it was always there and we we saw it a little bit the WhatsApp messages really gets me yeah more
Because I’m I think I’m coming to the conclusion that politicians of this country have decided that WhatsApp is their private space they’re not going to share it and I don’t know if they got together and discussed this or if they’ve just noticed from just did on a
WhatsApp group or had a WhatsApp group yeah but you know once once Boris Johnson does it it’s almost kind of a free game for everyone else and now you see Nicholas sergeon doing it there is no reason for any MP ever to hand over a watch WhatsApp message again unless some
Kind of court and junk that forces them to I that that that’s kind of where I am and I direct everyone to the to to the Fantastic edition of The Sky News Daily podcast that I’ve hosted this week on this particular topic but you know on
The whatsapps it was 2021 at a CO briefing that she was asked by journalist from Channel 4 do you promise that you’ll hand over everything your whatsapps your emails if your from your personal address if they are relevant to this she said yes knowing at that point
That she’d already deleted a ton of them and she has had years to correct the record unfortunately it’s only happened when she’s got into the co inquiry I mean that said however you look at the levels of trust in Nicholas sturgeon during the co pandemic and compare and
Contrast with the levels of trust in Boris Johnson yeah no thought no no you just you’re just you said you described it very well exactly uh when compared next to him a lot of politicians automatically look that bit better yeah I think I think you have a point but but
Are we are we are we actually getting to to to the bottom of what we need to sh in these inquiries now don’t get me wrong I’m a member of the media and you know perhaps we’re as guilty as of guilty of it as anyone else but but we
Have been focusing on some of the titto tattle we have been focusing on the kind of the infighting in number 10 and the backbiting rather than the big broad brushstroke policy decisions that actually we need to rely on next time this happens because there will be an
Next time very much so and I think you know Sophia touched on that that point of how big was the group of people who were making decisions around Nicholas sturgeon was it literally just her and a couple of others in a zoom call because the next time something like this
Happens and it will happen again we need a much more robust procedure rather than leaving politicians you know locked in their homes with with just their laptop trying to figure out how to make it all better and not including the finance secretary Kate fors yeah she was she was
Not best pleased about that um maybe she could have committed her microaggression against Nicholas dudon guess what that’s what we’re talking about this week there were reports that civil servants have been uh warned about rolling their eyes and raising their eyebrows in meetings over fears they could be perceived as a
Microaggression they’ have been advised to nod instead uh now whilst there is no pre precise definition of a microaggression they can be committed unconsciously which sh could argue makes it difficult to show how people can be prevented from doing things they’re unaware of let’s just have a quick look
At Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin at the G20 in 2017 this is [Laughter] good one more time I’m not even not even not even trying to conceal it look this is I have to admit I made a bit of a point whenever I have been interviewing politicians in the past and particularly
During the co time to be going like that half all the way through the interview and it worked particularly well I mean do you believe in microaggressions sfia well I certainly believe in when they’re very legitimately causing harm yeah uh and and we know that’s thing and we do
Know that is probably the case in lots of workplaces that people don’t get enough training for actually how to be a decent colleague so £160,000 on telling people not to roll their eyes but hang on a minute how big is the Civil Service it’s quite big it’s quite big how many
Hours are they getting for this a few a few the minute you start adding these hours and the number of employees and you’d be surprised how quickly that that Workshop facilitating budget you know gets eaten up and even worse is the fact that they’re trying to do this in
Britain I mean the British are not the most expressive people a rle of the eyebrow really is as much as you’re going to get out of them I mean in Italy they’d be waving their hand in your face if they disagree whereas if you’re lucky
If you get a role in the ey role of the eyebrow in Britain at least you know where he’s coming from I was going to say if you go north of gret and green you find people slightly more animated I have to say there’s none of this quite
English stoicism but but I get it I get it but isn’t this just overpiece with everything that we are all much more aware nowadays of the way in which we are supposed to interact with colleagues friends family and so on I just sometimes feel I’m a little bit trapped
In the 20th century in the sense that I’m not sure I can control what this does at the best of times let alone when I’m sitting on telly yourselves I mean can you control it can you hold it in how you been concealing your microaggressions from me this evening so
Far so often I have been told by lots of people in my life I’ve got a cartoon face and I and I know that I I begin reacting visibly before I have a chance to actually fize what I think it’s actually a requisite skill for a
Journalist I I use it in the same way that you do all the time when I think someone’s talking nonsense I let my face show them that because actually you get a better response out of them if they know that they not coming across very well that’s not microaggression that’s
Honesty I guess there you go good way to put it sfia Shay thank you so much we will see you again in the 8:00 hour when we will of course be continuing H to discuss the week’s news but coming up in the sport big blow for boxing fans try
Saying that on a Friday night at Tyson Fury’s Blockbuster heavyweight fight is postpone find out why in a minute last the Six Nations getting underway tonight we’ll have a full preview of the biggest rugby show on app I went through a similar experience where I was sentenced to the electric
Chair I remember the judge telling me I was going to be taken to the Rock view State Prison where 2,200 volts of electricity would course through my body and in my life and then they changed it and made it lethal injection so I wasn’t ever sentenced to
Be stabbed with a needle but they changed it and that’s what they’re doing here so what’s bothering me was troubling me is they tried to execute this man for hours with needles imagine laying on a gurnie and they’re poking you in your groin in your
Neck all over your body trying to get a vein to murder you and you succeed in surviving that only to be an experiment like a giddy Pig so this is horrifying that the state of Oklahoma and the state of Mississippi are going to start doing this because successfully opponents of the
Death penalty stopped them from getting the drugs I’m so grateful that I went to death row because all my childhood friends DED of drug overdoses or violence or suicide and I was spared the AIDS epidemic and I I I started to learn self-respect and self-love and I elevated my entire life
Because I was on death row and even though I was there wrongly it didn’t matter I needed to use that opportunity I was physically tortured for years for being a rapist murderer they thought was mentally ill I I went through a lot of degradations but I learned when people
Are harming you you can really find it within yourself at that moment to love you I was suffering from hepatitis C infection after they beat me and broke my teeth in prison and I contracted this illness that was killing my fellow prisoners so after listening to them dying horrifying fashion with the nurses
Taunting them I asked that my appeals be dismissed and my lawyers be dismissed so that I could be ex executed I spent 23 years in solitary confinement that means every day of my life I was locked up 23 hours a day while I was being openly
Tortured they took me off a death row and they put me in a mental s cuz they feared I was going to kill them for what they did to me so I spent the last eight months of my life in prison in a mental ward being told that no human being
Could endure what we did to you without you being angry enough to kill one of us so we’re not going to trust you until we open the door doing uh welcome back some some very sad breaking news to bring you um the actor Carl Weathers um has passed away uh aged
Mid-70s in fact um a statement from his family has confirmed the news to to NBC news they say this uh we are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Carl Weathers he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday Carl was an exceptional human being who lived an extraordinary
Life through his contribution to film television the art and sports he has left an indelible Mark and is recognized worldwide and across Generations he was a beloved brother father grandfather partner and friend as someone who has watched him in Plato sorry in uh predator in Happy Gilmore in Star Wars
In any number of films of course as Apollo Creed and in Rocky one two three and of course four um yeah I think there’ll be plenty of us of a certain age uh looking at their streaming services theight tonight to to catch up with Carl Weathers
Film but let’s turn our attention to the sport now and the 2024 men’s Six Nations Champion Championship kicks off in Paris in just a few M minutes with a match that will go someway uh towards deciding this year’s title France are are playing reigning Champions Ireland in a repeat
Of last season’s Grand Slam decider England wor shocking in the tournament last year but we the only Northern Hemisphere side to reach the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup at much the annoyance of pretty much everyone uh joining us for more on this Chris latam
Over at Sky Sports News uh Chris a new era for a number of teams going into the tournament in particular England yes so you’re having to hide your microaggressions there with a little roll of the eyes as you were talking about it yeah it’s a new era for at
Least five of the Nations who’ve all got new captains going into this one so Wales have David Jenkins leading the team after the great Alan wi Jones walked away from the sport uh Scotland have duel captains in Finn Russell Rory D leading the way Ireland Peter Omani
Has taken over from Johnny ston and Gregory aldr leads the French with antoan dupon focusing his attentions on a different version of rugby this year and I’ll get into all of that as for England Jamie George is captaining the team with Owen Farrell unavailable he’s stood himself down and actually in the
Time that decided to St to stand himself down has only gone on and signed for a French team which means we won’t see him in the England team for a good number of years and you mentioned already that we’re starting off with a real bang France against Ireland could be a
Contender for the match of the championship you’ve only got a look at the last couple of years last year Ireland did the Grand Slam this year A couple of years ago I should say France did the Grand Slam and this year we’re starting off the tournament with those
Two going head-to-head Andy Farrell the man you can see in the center of your screen has a new captain because Johnny ston has walked away so Peter ommani will lead the team both of them off the back of really disappointing World Cups going out in the quarterfinals in narrow
Narrow matches but both of them will want to lay a statement heading into the cycle to start a new World Cup this guy new sports bulletin is brought to you by Vitality getting more people more active living life with Vitality I enjoyed the game in Scotland I thought not a qualifier but Scotland
Were really going well and the atmosphere on the night was brilliant extra to it for a challenge for the players no it did I mean we knew what it would be and uh yeah I think those nights a great experience for our players to go through
I mean you’ve been in post for a good while now what do you think you’ve learned in the last 12 months anything new or is it just more of a progression of learning about the squad and individual players yeah I mean I think that you you learn all the time when
You’re in football there’s new developments within the game definitely the new caps going in that’s always nice to see um so we’ve found a balance of winning the games we needed to probably more experimentation towards the end of the year um and two two wins against the big nation which we said
After the World Cup was one of the areas we wanted to get more consistent at um I think if you look across the top eight teams in the world the head-to-head games are often draws you know um France have been the country that have really nailed those
Games five six years ago they were the games that we weren’t getting over the line in then we started to win a few we we beat Belgium at Wembley we uh we had a couple of wins against Germany obviously Croatia we we beat a couple of
Times and now Italy twice so you know I haven’t seen the form table of those head-to-heads but in the last few years we would have definitely be higher up that list and that’s important because in the end in a tournament they’re the games that make the difference I want to
Ask you specifically about Harry McGuire because in all my career I’m not sure I’ve seen a player have to deal with some of the stuff that he’s had to deal with in the last couple of Seasons G Southgate launch’s passionate defense of Harry MaGuire it makes me livid because thankfully he’s got the support of the dressing room and people behind him I’m an experienced player now um and I know how to block it out and I know how to focus and concentrate and
Get through the games this Sky News sports bulletin is brought to you by vitality time for a quick look at the weather Warm memories wherever you go the weather sponsored by katar Airways the next few days will be rather D dull with outbreaks of rain but some brightness in the windy North most
Places looking dry this evening but low Cloud will bring fog and drizzly Rain to western coast lots of rain basically the weather sponsored by Kata Airways Welcome to Friday night with me Neil Patterson coming up on hour two of the show we continue our review of the week’s news with our winners and losers over the past 7 days but first the headlines this are sentence to life for the brutal murder of Brianna ji her
60-year-old killers are named and are told they may never be released police earn a new appeal to the public to find a man hunted over a chemical attack which has left a woman with life-changing Industries out there’s anger after Revelations a man police want to speak
To was granted UK Asylum despite being a convicted sex offender tonight President Biden attends a service for three US soldiers killed in Jordan as he decides how America will respond our news reviewers sha rhs and sfia Smith gayer while they’re both still with us and they will be helping
Us with our regular future good week bad week including why it’s good to talk a simple question on social media from Sesame Street Favorite Elmo led to an outpouring of online angst but at least the president of the United States came to the Muppet said and no I don’t mean
Donald Trump uh also this time I’m going to be speaking to the wife of Ian mckel he’s a grandfather from Scot land detained in Dubai for complaining about the noise of a neighbor’s house party whilst visiting his family at New Year what is being done about getting him
Home uh Plus in sport when a loan move between Chelsea and filam for this guy Amando Brer is the highlight of transfer deadline day you know you’re in a bit of trouble uh so why have Premier League clubs spent nearly 3/4 of a billion pounds less than they did last year
Great to have your company we’re here until 10:00 hold on time it’s F evening all the teenage killers of 16-year-old Brianna ji have been named and sentenced to decades in prison the judge lifted the anonymity granted to the pair during the trial naming them as 16-year-olds scarlet jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe Manchester Crown courth head that they plotted together to kill
Brianna lured her to a Part near warington and then stamped her to death our chief north of England correspondent Greg milm has our first report on a Saturday afternoon at the bus stop Brianna ji dressed in white meets up with the two people who barely
An hour later would murder her girl X in that video was Scarlet jenkinson boy why Eddie Ratcliffe described as intelligent high functioning teenagers who hid a warped obsession with murder and who planned in meticulous detail how they would kill a girl who thought she could trust them after the killing Eddie
Ratcliffe boarded the bus to go home he was arrested the next day I can’t explain I can explain he says to police simultaneously Scarlett jenkinson was also arrested how come suspect how come I’m a suspect how come you’re a suspect because I’m the last
Person I’ve seen or is it I don’t in the months that followed and during their trial they blamed each other their preoccupation with violence death and torture played out in thousands of messages jenkinson repeatedly changing her story the judge said it was impossible to believe anything she said in fact it all
Played out as the note found in her bedroom predicted with a smiley face and a heart along with pages of details about high-profile serial killers in court Brianna’s mom Esther told of the grief and the devastation the thought that two could ever be released she said horrifies Brianna’s dad told Sky News
What he thinks of them I have no feelings well there’s only anger towards him I if honest I hate them um I they just evil you know have what they’ve done and I don’t think they’ll ever change I think they’ll always be monsters and that’s what they are to me
That’s my feelings with them they’re just a pair of monsters at first you know I thought yeah they they should be named why should they be protected you know people should know who they are and now I think now the name’s always going to be connected you know
Tied with Brianna all the time so I just think they shouldn’t be N I think they should just be forgot about locked up and not even spoke about again cuz they’re nothing I’ll never stop thinking about Brianna I know want to she’ll live on in Mid dreams
And that’s all I keep thinking about her on her own in that park with them and what they’ve done and I really wish I was there to protect her and that’s just what I have in my head all the time I can’t get it out my head
You know what’s happened to her for Brianna’s family it’s made all the worse that she thought of jenkinson as a friend she’d been moved to Brianna’s school after bringing cannabis Edibles to her previous one she was about to be returned there when it first happened um you know I I felt like there
Was a level of responsibility because they had they’ met at this school but in terms of actually how we could have in any way have stopped that happening there were there were no signs there were there were no red flags a review is now ongoing the decision to lift reporting
Restrictions means the killer names and faces are known the judge said a pair who had other targets as well may never be released I therefore find that you both took part in a brutal and planned murder which was sadistic in nature and where a secondary motive was hostility towards
Brianna because of her transgender identity you picked Brianna because you both thought she would be an easy target in doing so you Scarlet abused her trust she thought you were her friend you encouraged her not to be anxious and guided her through getting the birth Eddie you knew Scarlet was praying
On Brianna in this way for Brianna’s parents any freedom would come too soon for an anxious child who they say showed bravery to leave the house on her own that day and who paid with her life Greg milm Sky News Manchester Crown Court detectives involved in a Countrywide
Manhunt have appealed for the Public’s help to find a man wanted in connection with a corrosive attack in South London which left a woman with life-changing injuries and two children in hospital police want to speak to 35-year-old Abdul aedi and have urged him to hand himself in our crime correspondent Martin brunt
Reports police preparing for a raid heavily protected against what they might find in their hunt for the corrosive attacker their target a block of flats the home of their suspect’s brother residents were woken in their beds what I need you to do is come out the address slowly okay on my instructions police
Officers with a warrant to search the address okay okay put your hands on your head okay and walk slowly towards me okay have you seen any anyone with an injured eyes still on the Run suspect Abdul aidi was injured in the attack on a woman until her two daughters in
Clapham on Wednesday night police appealed directly to the wanted man Abol you clearly have got some very significant injuries we’ve seen the images you need some medical help so do the right thing and hand yourself in Aid left his home in Newcastle early on Wednesday and drove South to London
Before Dawn he was in toting much later he was in Cen by 700 p.m. stram 25 minutes later the attack took place at lesser Avenue in Clapham soon after aidi got on a tube at Clapham South Station he was at King’s Cross by 8:00 p.m. just before 900 p.m.
Aidi was caught on camera at Tesco on the Caledonian Road the last image shows him entering King’s cross Tube Station where he boarded a Victoria Line train heading south the attack with a corrosive substance was was caught on a security camera the woman victim is in hospital sedated with expected
Lifechanging injuries her two daughters weren’t so badly hurt the attack has refocused concern over the issue of male violence against women and girls we know that he was convicted of a sexual offense before and I think uh to myself how seriously was that taken we know for
Example that you are more likely to because of the types of sentencing we have receive a higher sentence for uh attacking a statue than you would a woman that is the type of law that we have in this country the raid on the suspect’s brother’s home was one of
Several in a wide police operation Before Dawn residents were allowed back into their Flats here it’s not thought police found anything hazardous but they did say later that they had recovered important evidence in a total of five raids two in London and three in Newcastle police continue to warn the
Public not to approach the suspect but to dial 999 Martin brunt Sky News in East London well the case does raise serious concerns about why Abdul aadii was allowed to stay in the UK despite being a convicted sex offender calls are growing for the Home Secretary to review
Just how he could have been granted Asylum whilst on the sex offenders register as Sky Becky Johnson reports in the midst of a nationwide manhunt we now know Abdul aidi was granted Asylum after being convicted of sex offenses in 2018 he admitted sexual assault and indecent exposure and was
Handed a suspended prison sentence at Newcastle Crown Court but despite being on the sex offenders register and two earlier failed Asylum bids in 2020 a tribunal granted his claim after a priest told them he’d converted to Christian Christianity here in the home secretary’s constituency we found anger total
Disgrace that the government you know letting people in like that to this country we all in danger this acid and everything tack that’s happened who in Earth allowed him to come in in the first place they’re used to seeing Asylum Seekers here from nearby RAF Weathersfield where hundreds are housed
And the local vicar are kept busy around 20 of last weekend being a Christian is deemed a reason it’s unsafe for people to return to some countries your claim is on the grounds of Christianity also yeah most of them most most of the people yeah most of the claims are are they
Christianity but he doesn’t think II should have been allowed to stay as we are here we must respect and governed by the law of the Constitution of UK for people in communities like this one with Asylum Seekers housed close by there is no way of knowing how many have criminal
Records because the home office don’t publicly provide the data hearing that someone like aidi was granted Asylum will only add to the anxiety the government says its Rwanda policy will tackle those concerns but there are already rules around deportation of foreign criminals iid’s sentence wasn’t long enough to meet the criteria and his
Claim of being unsafe as a Christian in Afghanistan a legitimate ground for appeal and his case isn’t unique I had a specific client who must have had over 24 uh offenses and he could not be returned back to um Iran the government would seek to blame people like you who
They might describe as Lefty lawyers for creating this problem what what would you say to that they don’t understand the the law they don’t understand the European Convention of Human Rights and as a result of their ignorance I feel that they’re choosing escapegoat when the Asylum process
Allows a man like this to stay it’s Little Wonder public support for the system is at Breaking Point Becky Johnson Sky News in Weathersfield let’s head to the United States where President Biden has been meeting relatives of the three US soldiers killed in a drone attack on
Base in Jordan the United States has blamed Iranian backed militants for the deaths of the troops and has promised to respond despite those Iranian denials of involvement indeed it’s reported that the US military is in the process of approving a list of Iranian Targets in both Iraq and Syria though thus far we
Have had no official confirmation let’s check in on that with our us correspondent James Matthews and James given that we have yet to have that that that official confirmation I suspect the Iranian militants are are much like me waiting for the inevitable yes I think we all are given
Given the buildup frankly uh Neil we’ve been told for several days about plans Joe Biden says that yes they have decided on a military response we had Lloyd Austin the US defense secretary yesterday talking about a multi-tiered retaliation that could last for longer than a day other us officials are
Talking about something that could last longer than a week so there has been much talk we await the action but I suppose it’s worth making the point Neil that there are good reasons for a delay if indeed there is a delay I mean military uh the military imperative
First and foremost it will be something of a fixed plan but it will also have to be a fluid plan in terms of where they target and the suitability of those particular sit at any given time they’ll be looking at the potential for collateral damage that can change with
Civilian traffic one hour no civilian traffic the next so all these considerations will be under the microscope as we await uh America’s military response what may play in to the planning is what we saw within the past couple of hours at the do Airbase in Delaware it was the so-called
Dignified transfer of the three US service members who lost their lives in Jordan following an attack by a drone l with explosives and you can see there uh Joe Biden was in attendance with uh the first lady Dr Jill Biden as the three transfer cases were brought home to the
United States and the families of those three sergeants prion Muffet Kennedy Sanders and William Rivers Joe Biden spent some time with their families prior to this solemn event event and he told them that their youngsters their family members who passed were patriots in the highest sense in his words their
Ultimate sacrifice will never be forgotten by our nation I suppose Neil that this forms or plays into the politics of conflict you know pictures of American military personnel killed in Foreign Fields that presents part of the Americans case part of its justification for uh retali retaliatory strike it adds a justification
Demonstrates that this is on the back of an attack on representatives of the United States and these are pictures that will be broadcast around the world so to that end uh there is a value a milit military value I suppose in terms of the considerations around timing it may be
That the Americans wanted to get this event behind them thinking that that was perhaps the proper course of action uh get that behind them and then uh take their next military steps given that had they uh had they launched their military strike before that all the news would
Have been focused on that and the time and space that families need to grieve um would have been intruded upon James thank you Northern Ireland is getting its first Shin Fame leader ever and so as power sharing returns to Northern Ireland and storman sits for the first
Time in two years Sky News has been examining the impact of Michelle O’Neal becoming the first ever nationalist first minister in storman history our senior Ireland correspondent David BV reports she is the pride of clo a remote Village in Krone far from the corridor ERS of power at Stormont at primate
Dixon Primary School they never doubted that former pupil Michelle O’Neal would write a new chapter in politics everyone in the school is just incredibly proud that the day is coming at last when we’re seeing history in the making that um Michelle O’Neal will be taking up the role of first nationalist first minister
Of the North in this small community they speak highly of her should certainly would have put clo on the map that’s for certain and friends say she’s never forgotten her humble roots here she just lives literally I suppose from me about 200 yard so she’s a neighbor
And who is the Michelle O’Neal you know the Michelle O’Neal I know and most people around here would basically know as what you would describe as the Girl Next Door the Old Guard has gone Michelle O’Neal part of the shinan Rebrand but her background is staunchly Irish Republican her father is shinan
Counselor her her uncle an IRA member shot dead by the SAS arsela Donnelly whose brother was also shot dead has been her neighbor for four decades Leno has went through hell of a lot through the years and my own brother was murdered in 1983 by the SAS and clo and
I hope we get the Justice now that we have somebody here representing us and Michelle will fight for everybody no matter what your religion your creat or whatever Michelle O’Neal won’t have more power than she had when was Deputy first Minister the two most senior offices are codependent but here in her native
Terone they know it’s hugely symbolic for a woman who seeks Irish Unity to hold the title first Minister she was the first Irish Republican to attend the coronation of a British monarch and on Toon’s ancient hell of the O’Neal shared her hope for the future I grew up on society where my
Community were discriminated against I grew up on society where war came to my community so I think we have to understand each other’s perspective that we all come from a different lived experience but let’s respect that let’s respect each other let’s find ways to ensure that we build a better Society
She has spoken candidly about becoming a mother at the age of 16 and how that shaped her life her elevation truly marks the culmination of the Irish Republican Journey from guns to government David Lev’s Sky News in clo County toome our news reviewers are still with us the investigative journalist and filmmaker
Sha rhods and the broadcaster and content creator at Sophia Smith gayer um before we head into the break I mean it strikes me that this is a moment of of huge significance for Northern Ireland first and foremost because storman is back up and running after the 2-year
Hiatus but more than that as as David was so eloquently putting in his piece the significance of having a nationalist first Minister for the first time sere that was a really lovely portrait actually of a politician one that we often don’t get we’ve been talking today about about politicians and public
Perceptions of them that’s someone we can feel optimistic about I think for now let’s keep our fingers crossed fingers crossed but I mean My ultimate perspective and listening to that I did feel a little bit disturbed I I feel like ultimately Northern Ireland’s not going to be able to move on until they
Can elect leaders whose justification for their passion and their desire to be there doesn’t include my relative was shot by the British if we can if we can get a generation on I feel like I would believe in stormm want being able to to govern and hold
Things together well let just at the very very least hope that the peace continues for for as long as it’s possible uh stay right where you are H coming up next on the program uh Shane Sophia staying with us to help with our regular feature good week bad week
Including the latest trials and tribulations and then more trials for the Teflon Dawn the former president Donald Trump I’ll also be speaking to the wife of Ian mckel now he’s the grandfather the detained in Dubai after comp complaining about noisy neighbors during a family holiday and in this sport we’ll
Be discussing why the Premier League title hopefuls failed to bring in re reinforcements in this January transfer window all that after This I’m Helen an Smith I’m Sky’s Asia correspondent and I’m based here in Beijing My most memorable story was covering the extreme zero covid restrictions a massive covid wave is sweeping this city but officially almost no one has died this is a four-lane jaw carriageway completely shut off some things are being allowed in but actually the only thing we’ve seen coming out is an
Ambulance the message from China is clear this is a modernized military absolutely able to fight an international War War if needed is this military ready we are prepared to face every kind of challenge my biggest challenge is adequately telling the stories of the Chinese people even when the authorities would
Prefer me not to hey hey hey you doing by the rules we are allowed to film in the streets to the left to the left I will always remember the atmosphere at the Shanghai protests it was an electric mix of excitement fear and defiance and a sense that history was being
Made it’s hard to express just how incredibly unusual these scenes are in China there are people who are afraid on the streets of Shing Jang there is still a tension heavy police a sense they’re always watching it’s really an incredible eeriness to this place and it just is completely
Abandoned the Chinese housing market for so long a driver of growth is now a real liability we take you to the heart of the stories that shape our world it’s actually hard to describe the cold here it’s so intense it literally takes your breath away I can’t tell if I’m moving it or
It’s moving me but it’s a very strange feeling the world is watching What’s Happening Here Welcome back continuing our review of the week’s news and of course it is at this point that we ask who’s had a good week and who’s had a bad one the weekend is here so who relieved it’s all over and who has finished a winner still with us the broadcaster and content creator
Sophia Smith gayer alongside the journalist and filmmaker Shay rhods um and in fact Shay we’re going we’re going to start with you this is an interesting one and I’m hoping you’re going to explain it explain why it’s been a great week for international arms dealers it’s been a fantastic week to sell weapons
This week suddenly every politician in Europe it feels like is all talking about the positive benefits of some kind of military industrial complex in Europe we need to produce more weapons more ammunition more guns more bullets you know I I read earlier this week is the French army have just started retraining
In trench warfare they’re learning to clear trenches build trenches fight from trenches Everything Has Changed because of the war in Ukraine I mean this week we saw a Russian warship being taken down by a swarm of drones I don’t think that’s ever happened before remarkable Fage as well exactly and and really I
Think our generals and our Admirals are looking at that and they’re thinking if we were in the position of Russia facing an opponent like Ukraine we’d be getting a kicking and we need to upgrade and that’s what this is all why it’s great news to set arms if you set arms right
Now too and and presumably as well I mean Sophia I mean add to the instability of the situation in the Middle East as well and it does rather feel like the world is going to hell in a handcut right now yeah I’m not comforted by you bringing up as a good
Way for to be honest no neither am I I mean I’m a parent I’ve got a 19-year-old and an 8-year-old and there telling me there’s going to be a war in the next 10 years I look at my kids and I’m thinking but if your business is war business is booming
Um what though if your business uh Sofia is single use Vapes I mean it’s been a good week for the nonsmokers hasn’t it yeah uh it’s not good for you if you if if you’re busily you know chugging away I’m bring it out I’m going to bring it
Out I’m really sorry Mom because I know that you’re watching right now there is my but it’s not a single use it’s not a single use disposal VAP uh I really endorse and en encou encourage adults to make whatever decisions they would like to make for themselves as long as
They’re not harming other people right uh in terms of disposable Vapes often when you you talk about in the media everyone talks about schools and being very distressed about kids kind of using them because they’re colorful and they’re kind of the camaraderie of of puffing away at them in the school
Toilets but actually for me it’s environmental for me what’s always frustrated me about them is how many of them I’m seeing pav everywhere they’ve lithium batteries in them they aren’t I I actually think there’s been really poor awareness and education about what’s in them and people people if they knew what was in
Them wouldn’t have been chucking them and they wouldn’t be clogging up loads of our Landfield sites with with it’s really dangerous to have lein batteries around like that so very happy that um they might be going but just to be absolutely clear as a as a tool for for
Smoking cessation I mean if it’s a tossup between doing that or doing the cigarette then I think we all understand which which one’s the better for us this week we have decided to go for Elmo now if you’re not of a certain age you might
Not know who that is he is the Sesame Street Muppet who innocently sent out a social media message asking how’s everybody doing uh not very well apparently as more than in fact I’m going to have to check this because I think the figures might have even gone
Up yeah more than 18,000 people have responded with various Tales of War even Joe Biden joined in saying that Elmo is right we have to be there uh for each other I mean I don’t know if you dipped into the comments underneath Elmo’s post Elmo was just checking in how is
Everybody doing it’s dark down there but I suppose it’s a reflection of the time isn’t it absolutely I mean it’s January also you know nobody’s in a particularly good mood but it is very much a reflection of the times we’re talking about war we’re talking about all kinds
Of shocking things and there’s not many positive stories out there so I’m not surprised therapy is expensive replying to an Elmo tweet very very cost effective absolutely absolutely he did however conclude w w Elmo is glad he asked Elmo learned it is important to ask a friend how they are doing Elmo
Will check again check in again soon friends seriously if you want to be if you want to have yourself lifted go on Twitter H go on Twitter and have a look at the website the Twitter account Muppet history it’s absolutely fantastic um Shay explain exactly why it has been
A a bad week for Donald Trump I mean it’s pretty they’re pretty much always bad weeks for them at the moment I’m struggling I’m struggling to explain why it’s been a bad week because there’s no such thing as a bad week for for tefon
Don is it I mean he’s lost well how many court cases two cour court cases this week he’s apparently supposed to pay someone hundreds of millions of dollars I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen um he’s been told that this dodgy dossier was perhaps not as dodgy as as
He’s making out but has it had any effect on him I mean do you do we still believe he’s likely to be the Republican nominee for president yes I think do we think he’s still on for potentially winning that well I don’t think this week’s changed it so it’s really
Interesting to watch someone have a Terri week and still win yeah that is true um sopia tell us why Universal Music one of the I think the world’s actually the world’s biggest kind of music music Pride Music Company they’re having a bit of a bad week it’s it’s them having a bad week
But not only them it’s a lot of the musicians that they represent they are currently in this stalemate with Tik Tok and they are withdrawing all of their artists music from the platform because they’ve not been able to come to a satisfactory deal with which Universal Music feels like they’re being fairly
Exactly they think Tik tok’s ripping them off and I I wonder if actually they might have a point to be fair they say that it it’s not a deal that’s similar to the deals that they have with other social media companies interestingly if I mean if I ask you to guess how much
Revenue do you think uh percentage wise Universal Music gets out of Tik Tok a percentage of their total income I I did it on a podast this week which you should of course obviously check don’t cheat don’t cheat I I didn’t listen to the podcast no but guess how much
Revenue do you they I mean it must be in the hundreds of millions surely but percentage of to percentage of their total revenue getting coming from Tik Tok it must be quite small five 5% 1% 1% so they are kicking up a bit of a fuss
But this is most painfully going to hurt artists who have smaller followings you know Taylor Swift isn’t going to be terribly hurt by this her fans would be not being able to use her music on their on their audios but the the the smaller artists who really rely on online fandom
It this just cuts overnight um all all all of their Community from them and if you’re content creator all of a sudden audio is going to disappear on loads of previous content if we’ve used it that’s really bad for Content creators and monetizing and just general visibility
Of our content let’s go for for for our last Choice the team’s Choice today we think it’s been a bad week for for vegans after several plant-based ranges were pulled from the shops one vegan restaurant has had to Resort this is brilliant to serving meat to stay afloat
Um I’m not going to ask your opinion on that I am going to go straighten and say did did did either of you complete Vu as I think it’s called this year not massive vegans they PID of you I’m half Italian there you go there’s absolutely no way then there’s absolutely way
African blood it’s not going to happen has it ever has it ever occurred to you that this might be something that you could do I’ve adjusted my eating hand um so I I love fish and I don’t think I can ever say goodbye to fish but I eat less red
Meat than I wanted I eat more organic meat and meat which I I believe has been well grown um do Les she’s off she’s off for a burger after the show sh Sophia it has been brilliant having you and fantastic debut performance we will be seeing you guys
Again soon absolutely certain of that you guys have a lovely weekend let stick with this coming up next on Friday night with Ian with Neil Patterson we will be talking uh about the man on the left here Ian mckel a man who went on holiday to Dubai from Scotland visiting his
Daughter and granddaughter he hasn’t been allowed to leave find out why when we speak to his wife Carol after This Welcome back it’s the story of a row with the neighbors that’s turned into a complete nightmare Ian mckel who’s 74 and from Aberdine was looking after his granddaughter in Dubai on New Year’s Eve where his daughter lived the neighbors were having a party and at 1:00 in the morning he asked if they
Could keep the noise down now when they refused he had considered reporting the incident to police but his daughter was against the move as they were new to the area didn’t want to cause a fuss but instead the neighbors phoned the police on Ian accusing him of trespassing and
Now he could face a prison sentence uh we’re joined Now by R Sterling chief executive of detained in Dubai an organization that helps people being held in the UAE but first let’s speak to Ian’s wife Carol who joins us as well Carol thanks so much for taking the time
To talk to us and take us back to New Year to New Year’s Eve to Hugman as you and I would would would call it and explain exactly what went on okay if I give you a little background to that NE um my daughter had just moved out um
Just about the end of October um to start a new job in November um so because it was coming up to Christmas time and she was on her own with her H daughter we decided we would go out and celebrate Christmas with her and help her to move into our new
Accommodation um so we did that and uh in the following days we just helped her to move in and uh you know just did the general things around the house now we knew that we would have to look after our granddaughter both at Christmas and
That new year because as she was due to her job she would have to do the holiday um jobs um and actually what happened was on the morning of New Year the for there was a forum and she the person who was hosting the party had indicated that she
Was going to have this party for New Year so my daughter just replied have a lovely time enjoy New Year um but please remember some of us are working and I have a small granddaughter um and so could you please be mindful of that so that was okay now let me emphasize that
We as you said Neil we are Scottish so hogman is an important celebration here and we recognize that it’s an important celebration in many parts of the country so that wasn’t the issue whatsoever so we went out out that evening to the local souk and had a quiet meal with my daughter and
Granddaughter came home my daughter went to bed because she was up at 5:30 in the morning to get to work and um my granddaughter was initially in bed then about 9:00 at night music started so we kind of just felt okay New Year that’s the way it goes um my
Husband was actually watching football he’s a great football Scottish fan T um I went to bed as well because I I’m still essentially recovering from a cancer operation so I have to be mindful of U you know what I do of course um so then um at about oh I would say about
Maybe 11 o’ the music got really loud and it was the windows were rattling my uh granddaughter wasn’t sleeping she was weeping and my husband had her in his arms and would try and console her and my daughter came down just at the back of 12 she had all she had already
Messaged the host again and asked her look it’s really loud would you mind just putting it down a little now I believe all she got was a couple of laughing emojis there was no nothing else and then the music was turned up even louder so did this was this this
Presumably Carol was the point at which your husband went round there was an exchange between twoo but but the Curiosity of this situation is you guys went you know what let’s just leave it at that let’s just move on it was them that went to the police and made this
Accusation of of trespass so how how is he in doing right now where exactly is sorry sorry Neil to interrupt he’s really not very good he has been actually quite ill and bedded at the moment and I suspect he has got a significant amount of stress the last
Time I spoke to him he said that you know his mind was going down dark alleys and that worried me greatly oh dear because obviously it’s a not knowing where is this going to end I mean we’ve been advised by R that you know he could
End up in prison with a charge of trespass and he literally put his foot just into the garden he saw that people were Mill out he had tried to attract attention by knocking on the gate door couldn’t get an answer so saw the gate was open the site Gat so just stepped in
And he was immediately confronted with the all really aggression sorry it sound it sounds all all incredibly minor Carol but but clearly not not the part about not the part about your husband not being sat next to you I mean let’s speak to toada um chief executive of detained
In Dubai just just how common is this that and why in Earth would going to the police before the other party why on Earth would that that that be so definitive so such a significant Point under the UAE legal system yes we’ve we’ve seen for the past
16 years really that whoever goes to the police station and makes the original initial complaint is favored by the police favored by the prosecution and ultimately the judge when it finally goes to court so if someone feels if someone who’s familiar with the system feels that they’re potentially under
Threat of a case against them with whether it’s road rage whether it’s you know a trespass case like this where the woman allegedly threw um liquid over Ian and his daughter and granddaughter she felt that she was at risk of being charged with you know assault which
Could warrant several years in prison so she rushes down to the police station makes a complaint against him however frivolous however unevidenced that complaint will be taken seriously now when Ian was actually taken to the police station he asked whether he could open a complaint against her a criminal
Complaint and the police discouraged him they said yes we’ll deal with that later maybe maybe tomorrow maybe after and he was completely discouraged from proceeding with a counter claim often a counter claim will cancel out the original complaint and force both parties to uh respectively drop their
Cases against each other so it can be used as a little bit of an ammunition in a negotiation rather just in terms of what is going on with Ian at the moment I mean is he in custody I mean are they likely to give any kind of leniency
Because of his age you 74 years old the the the the lack of significance of the offense on top of everything else as well well it is insignificant I mean no one would ever imagine that if you make a complaint to a neighbor that you could possibly be charged with trespass
Obviously he did not commit a crime and yet he’s staying there under the judicial process which could take even if he were found innocent it could take four to six months potentially up to a year just going through the process um at this point his MP has made representations to
The uae’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and we do hope for that diplomatic intervention because this isn’t the kind of advertising that I think Dubai wants uh in the United Kingdom where they’re trying to attract tourism and investment uh so this is very frivolous he won’t be favored
Because of his age we have uh numerous uh 70 plus year olds in prison being denied medication and in egregious circumstances frankly so his age will not be a ticket home however the frivolity of this case should be assessed by UAE authorities diplomats and even the ruler shik Muhammad Al
Makum um I I just want to give a final word to to you Carol and and briefly if you can because we are just about to run out of time um you you must be up to high do right now with worry about your sorry yeah absolutely um it really is a very
Stressful time for me um because I don’t know if I’ll see him again frankly because if he ends up in prison his health situation is such that he certainly wouldn’t survive a term in prison um and it’s just something he’s just not not that not that type of man I
Really know he wouldn’t survive and it’s very difficult for me and for my children as well cuz we’re a very close family and this really has been the most awful experience that we’ we’ve ever got underg going and I sincerely hope somebody somewhere can give us some
Support you know R’s doing a great job but of course it’s it’s obviously the The Bu authorities emirati that please would you please look at this as as R said it really is a frivolous case and my husband and know no more than just ask for the music to be turned down that
Was it Carol I’m afraid that we do have to leave it there um but Carol mckel and of course r r s we hope that you get a speedy and positive H conclusion to this case thanks so much for your time thank you thank you uh we’re going to have to take a
Quick break but coming up in the sport we’re going to talk about why the Premier League title hopefuls failed to bring in the reinforcements during the January transfer window I went through a similar experience where I was sentenced to the electric chair I remember the judge telling me I
Was going to be taken to the Rock view State Prison where 2,200 volts of electricity would course through my body and in my life and then they changed it and made it lethal injection so I wasn’t ever sentenced to be stabbed with a needle but they changed it and that’s what they’re doing
Here so what’s bothering me and it’s troubling me is they tried to execute this man for hours with needles imagine laying on a gurnie and they’re poking you in your groin in your neck all over your body trying to get a vein to murder you and you succeed in
Surviving that only to be an experiment like a giddy Pig so this is horrifying that the state of Oklahoma and the state of Mississippi are going to start doing this because successfully opponents of the death penalty stopped them from getting the drugs I’m so grateful that I went to
Death row because all my childhood friends died of drug overdoses or violence or suicide and I was spared the AIDS epidemic and I I I started to learn self-respect and self-love and I elevated my entire life because I was on death row and even though I was there
Wrongly it didn’t matter I needed to use that opportunity I was physically tortured for years for being a rapist murderer they thought was mentally ill I went through a lot of degradations but I learned when people are harming you you can really find it within yourself
At that moment to love you I was suffering from hepatitis C infection after they beat me and broke my teeth in prison and I contracted this illness that was killing my fellow prisoners so after listening to them dying horrifying fashion with the nurses taunting them I asked that my appeals be dismissed and
My lawyers be dismissed so that I could be executed I spent 23 years in solitary confinement that means every day of my life I was locked up 23 hours a day while I was being openly tortured they took me off a death row and they put me
In a mental so cuz they feared I was going to kill them for what they did to me so I spent the last eight months of my life in prison in a mental ward being told that no human being could endure what we did to you without you being
Angry enough to kill one of us so we’re not going to trust you until we open the door welcome back to Friday night at the transfer window closed H yesterday with fans of most premier league clubs thoroughly underwhelmed by their team’s lack of activity in fact spending was down a whopping
75 million on at spending last January might the relative austerity have an impact on the title race Arsenal and Liverpool meeting at the Emirates on Sunday with the Gunners guilty of failing to sign the new Striker so many of their supporters crave let’s get the latest I was Chris Lon over at Sky
Sports News explain exactly what is going on here because I have to say h Chris that the highest profile uh transfer was a chat Armando broer that I have to admit I’ve never even held off before not watch much football he does play for Chelsea but they’ve decided
They’re going to loan him out to Fulham yeah an underwhelming window for many it depends what you’re into are you just into clubs just throwing cash I suppose that’s what we want here at Sky Sports news but really that has to end at some point right the age of austerity has to
Bite Everton and Nottingham Forest are currently being looked at for the way that they’ve managed their books over the past few years so maybe that’s what we’re seeing a little bit of it was a quiet window a few loans sneaking through you’ve mentioned Armando broer how about this they’ve missed the window
They’ve missed the deadline but I’ve got some breaking news for you Neil Tottenham have in the last few minutes confirmed the signing of a Swedish Wonder kid his name is Lucas bergal they’ve brought him in from du Gardens on his 18th birthday today and to do that they’ve beaten off the challenge of
Barcelona who were linked with him so a big signing for Tottenham he’s already a Swedish International but he won’t sign for them this season he signed the papers he’ll join them in the summer ahead of next season so yeah you can see it was a quiet window the big clubs
Didn’t do anything but Tottenham leaving it late too late for the window they’ve just got one over the line but but what but what about Arsenal during the transfer window I mean you don’t need to be an expert on English football to know that they need a Striker and they didn’t
Sign anyone y they’ve got a striker Gabrielle jayus and he’s only got four goals All Season he’s had a little bit of injury their top scorer bayaka has seven goals and we have to be honest that’s not really enough if you’re going for the title this weekend there’ll be a
Great Bell weather for whether or not they’re in this title race they play Liverpool and uh if they don’t win they could fall eight points behind Okay Chris take us away with the rest of the sport this Sky News sports bulletin is brought to you You by Vitality getting
More people more active live life with Vitality I enjoyed the game in Scotland I thought not a qualifier but Scotland were really going well and the atmosphere on the night was brilliant extra to it a challenge for the players no it did I mean we knew
What it would be and uh yeah I think those nights a great experience for our players to go through I mean you’ve been in post for a good while now what do you think you’ve learned in the last 12 months anything new or is it just more
Of a progression of learning about the squad and individual players yeah I mean I think that you you learn all the time when you’re in football there’s new developments within the game definitely the new caps going in that’s always nice to see um so we’ve found a balance of
Winning the games we needed to probably more experimentation towards the end of the year um and two two wins against the big nation which we said after the World Cup was one of the areas we wanted to get more consistent at um I think if you
Look across the top eight teams in the world the head-to-head games are often draws you know um France have been the country that have really nailed those games five six years ago they were the games that we weren’t getting over the line in then we started to win a few we
We beat Belgium at Wembley we uh we had a couple of wins against Germany obviously Croatia we we beat a couple of times and now Italy twice so you know I haven’t seen the form table of those head-to-heads but in the last few years we would have definitely be higher up
That list and that’s important because in the end in the tournament they’re the games that make the difference I want to ask you specifically about Harry McGuire because I in all my career I’m not sure I’ve seen a player have to deal with some of the stuff that he’s had to deal
With in the last couple of Seasons South Gate laun is passionate defense of Harry MaGuire it makes me livid because thankfully he’s got the support of the dressing room and people behind him I’m an experienced player now um and I know how to block it out and I know how to focus and concentrate and
Get through the game games um obviously it’s a it’s it’s it probably affects my my family and my friends more than than it actually affects my myself to come through that with the the sort of Honor that he has what does that say about him
As a man as much as a football from your perspective and you know him as well as anybody yeah uh look he’s a resilient character and you’ve got to have that resilience if you’re playing at a club like Manchester United um again you’re talking one of the biggest clubs in the
World um there is always going to be any number of stories in the news every day about a club like that uh he’s been Captain there in the recent past so that brings another level of um intensity to any speculation or stories people say you know have you you have your
Favorites but it’s not a case of uh they’re the people I like the most they’re the people that have played well for us they’re the ones that we think are still our best players so you know there might be a moment in the f future where it’s not Harry and John it’s the
Next two and that’s football um but when players have performed as they have and as Harry has for us and we know that he can play in the biggest games we’ve seen him in the tournaments we know what he brings to the group um in my view you
Back your players and uh I’ve felt at the times we’ve felt the need to do that it’s been the right thing to do you’ve done this role for a long time now and I’ve seen you change and adapt over the years in in lots of different ways do
You think you still enjoy the role as much as you did um this Sky News sports bulletin is brought to you by [Applause] Vitality Chris thank you sport done time for the weather Warm memories wherever you go the weather sponsor by katar Airways the next few days will be rather
Dull with outbreaks of rain uh but there will be some brightness in the windy North tomorrow at many places looking pretty dry this evening but low clouds will bring fog and drizzly Rain to Western coasts and Hills showers are more likely across Northwest Scotland it
Will be mild and windy too uh with gals as you can see in the north uh England Wales Ireland all three staying mild and mostly cloudy overnight with patchy rain especially in the west further north it will be clearer and colder with strong winds and a scattering of
Showers Southern Parts well I’m afraid they are looking dull again tomorrow morning with outbreaks of rain heavy over the south of Ireland and Wales uh elsewhere uh expect more in the way of brightness but Scotland will keep the risk of showers with snow possible on Northern Hills it’s going to be very
Mild in the South temperatures getting up as high as 12 12° colder in the windy North how about the afternoon well that will see the rain spreading across central England uh whilst the south of Ireland will turn drier and brighter Sunday I’m afraid it’s going to bring
With it more rain heavy and prolonged guess where across Western Scotland the weather sponsored by Kata Airways coming up next on Friday night with Neil Patterson The Killers of Brianna ji are named and sentenced for the murder of the Teenager Hello and welcome to Friday night with me Neil Patterson coming up in the final hour of the show you can expect plenty more on the week’s news as well as the sport and our Friday culture fix as well first the headlines this are sentenced to life for the brutal murder of Brianna
J Hur 16-year-old killers are named and told they may never be released the police are in a new appeal to find the appeal to the public to find the man being hunted over a chemical attack which has left a woman with life-changing injuries there’s anger after Revelations
A man police want to speak to was granted UK Asylum despite being a convicted sex offender also tonight’s President Biden attends a service for three US soldiers killed in Jordan as he decides how America will respond and Carl weers best known for his roles in Rocky and Happy Gilmore has
Died age just 76 lots more to come on the last hour of the show we’ll be live in Washington asking if President Biden’s stance on Israel and the Middle East could cost him the election th we’ll be helping you decide what to watch this weekend the top TV critic
Scott Bryan will be here among his picks the New World War II docu drama masters of the air great to have your company we are here until 10:00 hold on time it’s Friday Night evening all the teenage killers of 16-year-old Brianna ji have been named and sentenced to decad es in prison the judge lifted the anonymity granted the pair during the trial naming them as 16-year-olds scarlet jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe Manchester Crown Court heard that they plotted together to kill
Brianna lured her to a park near warington and then stabbed her to death our chief north of England correspondent Greg milm has our first report on a Saturday afternoon at the bus stop Brianna ji dressed in white meets up with the two people who barely an hour later would murder her
Girl X in that video was Scarlet jenkinson boy y Eddie Ratcliffe described as intelligent high functioning teenagers who hid a warped obsession with murder and who planned in meticulous detail how they would kill a girl who thought she could trust them after the killing Eddie Ratcliffe
Boarded the bus to go home he was arrested the next day I can’t explain I can explain he says to police simultaneously Scarlett jenkinson was also arrested how how come onsp how come you’re a suspect because I’m last person i’ seen or is it in the months that followed and
During their trial they blamed each other their preoccupation with violence death and torture played out in thousands of messages jenkinson repeatedly changing her story the judge said it was impossible to believe anything she said in fact it all played out as the note found in her bedroom
Predicted with a smiley face and a heart along with pages of details about high-profile serial killers in court Brianna’s mom Esther told of the grief and the devastation the thought that two could ever be released she said horrifies her to me Brianna’s dad told Sky News what he
Thinks of them I have no feelings well there’s only anger towards him I if I’m honest I hate him um I they’re just evil you know have what they’ve done and I don’t think they’ll ever change I think they’ll always be monsters and that’s what they are to me
That’s my feelings with them they’re just a pair of monsters at first you know I thought yeah they they should be named why should they be protected you know people should know who they are and now I think now the name’s always going to be connected you know
Tied with Brianna all the time so I just think they shouldn’t be N I think they should just be forgot about locked up and not even spoke about again cuz they’re nothing I’ll never stopped thinking about Brianna I know to she’ll live on in M dreams
And that’s all I keep thinking about her on her own in that park with them and what they’ve done and I really wish I was there to protect her and that’s just what I have in my head all the time I can’t get it out my head
You know what’s happened to her for Brianna’s family it’s made all the worse that she thought of jenkinson as a friend she’d been moved to Brianna’s school after bringing cannabis Edibles to her previous one she was about to be returned there when it first happened um you know I I felt like there
Was a level of responsibility because they had they’d met at this school but in terms of actually how we could have in any way have stopped that happening there were there were no signs there were there were no red flags a review is now ongoing the decision to lift reporting
Restrictions mean the killer names and faces are known the judge said a pair who had other targets as well may never be released I therefore find that you both took part in a brutal and planned murder which which was sadistic in nature and where a secondary motive was hostility
Towards Brianna because of her transgender identity you picked Brianna because you both thought she would be an easy target in doing so you Scarlet abused her trust she thought you were her friend you encouraged her not to be anxious and guided her through getting the birth Eddie you knew Scarlet was praying
On Brianna in this way for Brianna’s parents any freedom would come too soon for an anxious child who they say showed bravery to leave the house on her own that day and who paid with her life Greg milm Sky News Manchester Crown Court well more details have emerged at
The trial of how jenkinson and Ratliff carried sorry planned and carried out Brianna’s murder our data and forensics correspondent Tom chesher has this report there was no way she could have known but this was the moment that Brianna ji left her home for the last time a Saturday morning on her way to
Meet people she thought were her friends earlier that day the 11th of February Scarlet jenkinson had texted Brianna telling her to meet her and Eddie ratliffe in cth she was luring Brianna to her death Brianna left home at 12:45 walking a mile to the bus stop that
Jenkinson had told her to go to even though there was another right by her house jenkinson had also told her to buy a child’s oneway ticket Brianna was an anxious teenager and she texted her mom I’m on the bus by myself I’m scared but her mother Esther was proud of her for
Going out of her comfort zone she met jenkinson referred to throughout the trial as girl X and Ratcliffe boy Y at the bus stop outside the local library they walked past a Sainsbury’s where minutes earlier the pair had bought bottles of Dr Peppa and cocacola they would eventually tie them to the scene
Of the crime as they walked through a series of Alleyways the group were last seen on CCTV heading towards Linea park at 2:02 p.m. Brianna had little more than an hour left to live as the teenagers walked through the park they messaged each other on Snapchat about a
Plan to take drugs together at 2:15 Brianna sent a message to jenkinson saying she was anxious jenkinson was supposedly messaging a drug dealer at the same time but this was a ruse she had set up a fake Snapchat account which she was using to prot pretend to be a
Dealer called Nathan she would message him and then reply to herself Brianna grew suspicious at 2:30 she messaged another friend saying she thought jenkinson was pretending to have a drug dealer what exactly unfolded over the next few minutes is known only to jenkinson and Ratcliffe but based on the
Number of wounds on her body Brianna was subjected to a sustained and violent assault with a hunting knife Brianna was stabbed more than 28 times across her head her neck her chest and her back back at 36 Brianna’s phone sent a message to jenkinson girl where are you
But it was not Brianna it was jenkinson trying to establish an alibi for herself she would later tell police Brianna had disappeared with a boy from Manchester minutes later a dog walker saw jenkinson and Ratcliff making their way to the next field and breaking into a run
Around a quar 3 the dog walker called 999 asking for police an ambulance someone had been attacked and she’d seen people running away way Ratcliffe and jenkinson had already left the woods a car’s dash cam caught them here on the right they threw Brianna’s phone into a
Drain on the way they then returned to their separate homes jenkinson walked Ratcliffe took the bus Brianna was declared dead at the scene police arrested her murderers the next day Tom cheser Sky News detectives involved in a Countrywide Manhunt have appealed for the Public’s help to find a man wanting
Ed in connection with a corrosive chemical attack in South London which left a woman with life-changing injuries and two children in hospital police want to speak to 35-year-old Abdel aadii and have urged him to hand himself in our crime correspondent Martin brunt has the detail police preparing for a raid
Heavily protected against what they might find in their hunt for the corrosive attacker their target a block of flats the home of their suspect’s brother residents were woken in their beds what I need you to do is come out the address slowly okay on my instructions have
Police officers with a warrant to search the address okay okay put your hands on your head okay and walk slowly towards me okay have you seen any anyone with an injured eyes still on the Run suspect Abdul aidi was injured in the attack on a woman and her two daughters in Clapham
On Wednesday night police appealed directly to the wanted man AB you clearly have got some very significant injuries we’ve seen the images you need some medical help so do the right thing and hand yourself in Aid left his home in Newcastle early on Wednesday and drove South to London Before Dawn he was
In tooting much later he was in Cen by 700 p.m. stram 25 minutes later the attack took place at lesser Avenue in Clapham soon after aidi got on a tube at Clapham South Station he was at King’s Cross by 8:00 p.m. just before 900 p.m. aidi was caught on camera at Tesco on
The Caledonian Road the last image shows him entering King’s cross Tube Station where he boarded a Victoria Line train heading south the attack with a corrosive substance was caught on a security camera the woman victim is in hospital sedated with expected lifechanging injuries her two daughters weren’t so badly hurt the attack has
Refocused concern over the issue of male violence against women and girls we know that he was convicted of a sexual offense before and I think uh to myself how seriously was that taken we know for example that you are more likely to because of the types of sentencing we
Have re receive a higher sentence for uh attacking a statue than you would a woman that is the type of law that we in this country the raid on the suspect’s brother’s home was one of several in a wide police operation Before Dawn residents were allowed back into their
Flats here it’s not thought police found anything hazardous but they did say later that they had recovered important evidence in a total of five raids two in London and three in Newcastle Police continue to warn the public not to approach the suspect but to dial 999 Martin brunt Sky News in East
London well the case raises some significant concerns about exactly why Abdul aidi was allowed to stay in the UK despite being a convicted sex offender calls are now growing for the Home Secretary to review just how he could have been granted Asylum whilst on the sex offenders register Sky Becky Johnson has
More in the midst of a nationwide manhunt we now know Abdul aidi was granted Asylum after being convicted of sex offenses in 2018 he admitted sexual assault and indecent exposure and was handed a suspended prison sentence at Newcastle Crown Court but despite being on the sex offenders register and two
Earlier failed Asylum bids in 2020 a tribunal granted his claim after a priest told them he’d converted to Christianity here in the home secretary’s constituency we found anger total disgrace that the government you know are letting people in like that to this country we’re all in danger this acid
And everything attack that’s happened who in Earth allowed him to come in in the first place they’re used to seeing Asylum Seekers here from nearby RAF Weathersfield where hundreds are housed and the local vicar are kept busy around 20 of the men were baptized just last weekend being a Christian is deemed a
Reason it’s unsafe for people to return to some countries your claim is on the grounds of Christianity also yeah most of most most of the people most of the claims are are they Christianity yeah but he doesn’t think eidi should have been allowed to stay as we are here we
Must respect and govern by the law of of the Constitution of UK for people in communities like this one with Asylum Seekers housed close by there is no way of knowing how many have criminal records because the home office don’t publicly provide the data hearing that someone like aidi was granted Asylum
Will only add to the anxiety the government says its Rwanda policy will tackle those concerns but there are already rules around deportation of foreign criminals iid’s sentence wasn’t long enough to meet the criteria and his claim of being unsafe as a Christian in Afghanistan a legitimate ground for appeal and his
Case isn’t unique I had a specific client who must have had over 24 uh offenses and he could not be returned back to um Iran the government would seek to blame people like you who they might describe as Lefty lawyers for creating this problem what what would
You say to that they don’t understand the the laws they don’t understand the European Convention of Human Rights and as a result of their ignorance I feel that they’re choosing a scapegoat when the Asylum process allows a man like this to stay it’s Little Wonder public support for the system is
At Breaking Point Becky Johnson’s Sky News in Weathersfield uh some of the day’s other stories now and a woman who ran over and killed her fiance after she claimed she lost her temper during an argument has been jailed for at least 18 years Alice Woods murdered Ryan Watson who was 24
Near their home in Road Heath and chesher in May of 22 the judge said W may find prison hard but that she only had herself to blame the average water bill in England and Wales is expected to increase from April water companies have forecast an above inflation 6% rise which will add
An extra 27 a year to household costs in return firms say they’ll invest 14.4 billion to address these sewage flows into rivers and seas a judge has thrown out a public order charge against Greta tunberg after the police attempted to impose unlawful conditions during a climate protest the 21-year-old Global campaigner was
Arrested during a demonstration in central London on the 17th of October last year and so very sad news this the actor Carl Weathers has died aged 76 he of course starred alongside Sylvester Stallone as Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise he played chubs in the hit film Happy Gilmore his family confirmed
That he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday siron John and his Husband David fernish were among the MERS attending the funeral of the former political lobbyist Derek Draper the husband of Kate G Mr Draper fell seriously ill during the early part of the covid pandemic in March 2020 and
Subsequently spent 13 months in hospital he died last month aged 56 after suffering long-lasting symptoms from Corona virus uh a little bit of breaking news reaching is that that we do now believe that the United States has started carrying out those retaliatory strikes uh we knew that targets in Iraq and
Syria were on their agenda uh linked of course to Iran and the Iranian militants that they hold responsible for the attack in uh Jordan let’s bring in our us correspondent Mark Stone uh to try and give us a bit more detail I suspect Mark actually at this point
Despite the fact that you are that close to the White House that detail might not exactly be thick on the ground uh no and we’ve just gone through an hour of of of rather extraordinary confusion um because over the course of the past hour or so there have been
Multiple reports of a series of EXP explosions in the deserts of Eastern Syria to the northwest of tower 22 where just under a week ago three US soldiers were killed uh prompting a an announcement by the United States that they would retaliate against um uh Iranian proxy uh groups in Iraq and in
Syria but for the past hour or two um the Pentagon has been denying that those explosions were anything to do with them but in the last few minutes A Change uh the Pentagon has confirmed to our colleagues at NBC News and to Reuters and the Associated Press as well uh that
Yes indeed um American air strikes against Iranian proxy groups um in Iraq and in Syria have begun uh tonight it is it is now nighttime uh in that region uh the explosions that were reported earlier uh were in the deror um area of the east of Syria so you’re talking uh
Uh to the east of far to the east of the Syrian Capital at Damascus and about 300 miles to the northeast of tower 22 which is this uh US base uh just inside Jordan but on the the point at which uh both Jordan Syria and Iraq all meet now we
Haven’t at this stage gone any details on uh casualties there are some there is some reporting uh from local media uh within Syria that there are casualties and the Syrian State media has said to quote us aggression on a number of sites in Syria’s desert areas um has resulted
In a number of casualties and injuries of course we don’t have any uh confirmation of that at the moment it’s worth pointing out that this is not the first time in the last few months that the Americans have carried out air strikes uh in in both Iraq and in Syria
They have on Christmas Day I think it was and over New Year They carried out strikes uh in Iraq and in November They carried out out strikes uh in Syria I think the difference Neil this time will be uh that they have made quite clear from this building and from the Pentagon
And for the state department as well uh that what we will see over the coming days is a teared uh reaction uh to the the killing of three us Personnel last weekend it won’t just be one strike it will be a campaign as some here in
America are describing it uh so a series of air strikes against Syrian proxy targets in Iraq and Syria but this is not as some on the right of politics here in America wanted to see indeed Donald Trump himself uh striking back at Iran itself that at the moment is not on
The cards from the Biden Administration I suppose Mark that if you are absolutely correct in your assessment that this is just the beginning that that would go some way to explaining why it has it has taken the US president this long to respond to to the killing of of three American
Soldiers which is never something that goes down particularly well with the American people of course he has been under a huge amount of domestic pressure to to react uh to retaliate and to do it uh quickly um but against that he knows just how fragile the situation in the Middle East is at
The moment he has all along ever since the hamus attacks of last October wanted to deescalate not to escalate and so that uh explains why despite the fact that there’ have been more than 160 attacks by Iranian proxy groups against America and its interests in the region the the Americans have been very
Cautious with their retaliation but the killing of three Americans on Sunday that changed the game for the Americans he was um clear that he would retaliate um but still the balance that he has to draw to to to reaffirm deterence but not to inflame the situation U well it is a
Very difficult balance indeed I wonder too Neil whether there is some link up with the attempt to try and find a form of ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and what’s happening here too because if the Americans can uh can reestablish a deterrence more broadly in the region
And at the same time be able to announce that they were key to to forming some sort of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel well that would be a coup indeed for the for the Americans but this is a very very very delicate moment I was
Speaking to uh to Saudi sources here in Washington over the course for the past few days you know at the heart of all this the Saudis the qataris as well they’re nervous because they know just how delicate a moment this is and Mark I I suppose as well as you know a reminder
To Iran not to to to overextend itself it is a reminder as well of the American ability to prosecute military action in whatever part of the world that it likes and I I know that certainly here in the United Kingdom there have been concerns in whiteall about what hisbah would do
Next I suspect if those are concerns being experienced here in London then those will be concerns shared by Washington too yes what you have to remember is that that that Iran um operates in in decades it it has a game plan uh that is taking play slowly over decades and they
Want to exert a regional influence that they are determining over a period of decades America’s foreign policy certainly of late has changed quite quickly depending on what Administration is here at the White House um the what the Iranians have tried to do over decades is to establish an arc of
Influence that that runs through Iraq um which has been so destabilized since the American invasion of 2003 they’ve taken advantage of that the Iranians they have got control of sorts uh within um Parts large parts of Iraq that Arc of influence stretches through Syria also terribly destabilized because of such a
Long Civil War there and into um Lebanon as well where it is clear that that Hezbollah is a key proxy for the Iranians and then of course it stretches down to Hamas in Gaza as well so that is the the picture if you like in the
Middle East and they have sought to uh to expand that influence and to show off that influence uh with after the attacks by Hamas of October uh the 7 so what the Americans are now trying to do is reestablish uh some sort of control some sort of their own their own infuence uh
And their own um uh world view as they would see it across the Middle East um but yeah as you say a delicate moment indeed Mark to what extent is the conflict in the Middle East playing into the the the running to the next presidential election of course recent
Events of the the events of a week ago in which you know three US servicemen lost their lives that will have focused attention of course but when that kind when when when we move on from that particular issue I mean are the American people very engaged with what is going
On in Gaza and indeed the broader Middle East it’s it’s really interesting you know in most us elections certainly by the time you get to this stage in in the campaign and the election uh is in November um foreign policy really doesn’t play a big part it is all about
Domestic uh considerations and I think to an extent as we get even closer to the election that will be the case again it’ll be the economy and other things too the norn border here but with with Mexico uh but um it is certainly very true to say that the the conflict in the
Middle East and also what’s going on um in Ukraine as well is Weighing on the the minds of Americans more than perhaps you might think it would um the the on the right of politics here lots of questions about what the point of of of plowing so much money and weaponry uh
Into Ukraine is security begins at home is is the sort of cry from the right here in America so a question mark there and then in the Middle East well it works both ways um there are uh there is a a a very in key Arab American vote uh
In parts of America Michigan uh especially Biden was in Michigan yesterday because he knows he needs that vote and they are absolutely dismayed at the US position on Iraq Gaza there is in fact just over the road there on the other side of the of the road right
Outside the white house uh it says genocide Joe uh I mean they are very very upset the Arab American Community here so there’s a big problem for Biden there but then on the other side of it of of the equation um you have the right of politics uh in America uh Donald Trump
Leading that at the moment and they believe that that America is far too weak in the region and needs to uh reestablish uh a a sense of deterrence reestablish a sense of strength but then in the same breath uh you find uh um Donald Trump uh talking about uh
Focusing at home and not focusing abroad so confusion I think you could say on the right of politics but certainly yes to answer your question it’s really playing into the political and the election Dynamic here for sure what is the current position of Joe Biden when
It comes to what happens next at some point the expectation is although it may well prove to be an expectation in vain the expectation is that the violence will stop long enough in Gaza in and around Gaza for for for for there to be progress made of course we know that Joe
Biden is a proponent of the two-state solution Benyamin Netanyahu not is the fact that we’re seeing Joe Biden talking openly about what comes next and an attempt by uh the US president to put some form of pressure on Israel Israel of course one of the United States very closest
Allies yeah let me before I answer that let me just give you a little update that we’ve got here um which which I I suspected might be the case uh that there is some suggestion that some of the air strikes that were carried out uh in Syria tonight um were in fact Israeli
Air strikes the IDF that wouldn’t be at all unusual the the Israelis uh have quite regularly uh carry out air strikes uh within Syria um because against Iranian groups there H and in fact I think it was just a couple of days ago that they um they took out what they say
Was a a senior Iranian um uh Commander uh in Damascus so um so I think maybe what we’re seeing here is both Israeli and American a strikes taking place and this as I say will be the beginning of a of a a what some here are calling a
Campaign I think it will be a few nights of of bombing trying to reestablish deterrence and to take out uh Iranian uh proxies uh in uh the region I’ve now forgotten what your question was Neil that’s quite all right that’s quite all right Mark you’re thinking about bigger
Things it was about the two-state solution of course we know that the we know that Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden they do not speak with one mind on this issue not currently anyway no no no they don’t but it’s a really good question and I think it’s interesting
That both in in the US and in the UK uh we have seen um chatter uh more open chatter about um declaring or recognizing Palestine as a state um which is a a shift in policy a significant shift in policy if it ever becomes that because um the two-state
Solution stretching back to the Oslo Accords of the 1990s has always uh envis envisaged a state of Palestine at the end of a of a process um to to to peace um so to move that that end goal and put it at the beginning uh so announce that
You recognize the state of Palestine and then work out the details afterwards that certainly represents a shift in position and I think is is an attempt to sort of Kickstart or or maybe just kick uh the Israelis uh into into action but from an AR Israeli perspective um it
Won’t go down well at all because on the right on the right of of a of a far-right government uh that is currently in place in Israel uh the last thing that they will want to recognize is a state of Palestine and Mark just just in terms of
You know what happens next with the military conflict itself of course the United States not acting unilaterally I don’t know about this evening but in in previous occasions they have not acted unilaterally I mean where you are is the American public aware of the fact that for example the
United Kingdom has been providing some assistance I I don’t know actually that’s a good question I I would say probably not um I I would also say that that what I’m being told is that that for this particular series of of retaliatory strikes that are taking place um that
Have begun now and will probably continue through the weekend there is no suggestion that the British are going to be involved and it may be the case that some of the the American Hardware will come from bases uh that are in the UK don’t forget the Americans have air BAS
In the UK but the the British military as I understand it will not be involved in a way that they were involved in the strikes against the houthi uh group another Iranian militia um in um Iranian proxy uh in in Yemen a few weeks ago so
So I don’t think the British will be involved in these uh this round of stri of strikes in terms of where it goes well I suppose Neil best case scenario um and I’m guessing here uh might be a few days of of strikes a very low number of of Civilian casualties because that
Is the big worry and remember the Americans are now operating in countries where um the public perception of America is at an all-time low because of the way America has supported Israel in Gaza um so they’ll want a low number of Civilian casualties of course uh they will want to reestablish a deterrence
Stop the Iranian proxies from attacking their assets uh in the region and then at some point in the next week or two be able to announce alongside Hamas or alongside the Qatari speaking or coordinating some sort of peace deal with Hamas they would want to announce
Some some sort of pause in fighting in Gaza that would be a best case scenario Mark we will let you go off make a few phone calls get in touch with your contacts for now though thanks very much indeed uh we are of course going to continue to monitor the situation in the
Middle East the US military launching an air assault on what we are told at dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by those Iranian back militias that the United States CLS for the deaths of three of its soldiers in Jordan much more after This Uh welcome back at news breaking in just the last half an hour that the United States military has indeed launched that air assault that it had promised against sites in both Iraq and Syria used by Iranian back militias that they that they blame for the deaths of three US
Soldiers that took place a few days ago an incident in Jordan last weekend at Joe Biden and other leaders have been warning but for days now that there would be retaliation taking place let’s bring back in our us correspondent at Mark Stone joining us from outside of
The White House we had been expecting it given that there had been as we say in the business a bit of chatter around it we were expecting it pretty imminently I don’t know if you’re getting any detail as to what has happened now Mark but
From what I’m seeing on the wires on the news wires it does sound like it was an an extensive attack and more to follow I think undoubtedly more to follow that that much has been um to use the the jargon they’ve been using here at the White House for the last week
They have telegraphed um for for some days now that that there would be a retaliation for for the death of these three US service Personnel who whose whose remains were brought uh back here to the United States just today into do Air Force Base um not far from here up
In Delaware uh President Biden was there for that uh he has remained in Delaware uh tonight and I imagine is being updated on on what we are told will be uh not the last uh air strikes uh in Syria and in Iraq against isra Iranian uh proxy uh groups we don’t at the
Moment know uh what the uh the targets uh are precisely uh we have reports from uh Syrian State media um calling uh the America the aggressor and saying that there are civilian uh there are casualties I should say um we we have no confirmation of that the area that we
Understand has been hit is about 300 or so miles to the northeast of uh Tower 22 which was where those three American troops died on Sunday when a a kamakazi drone hit the sleeping quarters that they were they were in at that Airbase Tower 22 sits at
Point at which the Iraqi the Syrian and the Jordanian borders all meet uh and if you draw a straight line and the border is straight uh Northeast up from there uh you get to uh the area around deror uh which is a desert land on the Eastern
Edge of Syria uh bordering Iraq and that is where these air strikes we understand have taken place it’s an area where Iranian proxies are known to operate we we don’t know whether uh they they are uh bases that have been hit or perhaps perhaps storage sites weapon storage
Sites that the Americans uh will have hit but um it’s clear and when President Biden asked for for um options retaliatory options he would have been given a list of of options by the Pentagon of things that could have been hit uh and so this presumably is the
Beginning of what that is uh Mark in just the last 30 seconds confirmation from the US military that it has indeed conducted air strikes in in Iraq and Syria Syria against uh Iran’s Islamic revolution guards uh kuds force and the Affiliated um militia groups just just explain for us though the United States
Has been absolutely adamant that the deaths of its soldiers are directly linked to militia groups backed by Iran why the targeting of sites in Iraq and Syria but not in Iran itself one presumes it’s all linked to that that that word which we’ve been saying since October the 7th
Contagion yeah and yeah potentially U much worse I mean there is a marked difference between uh bombing Iran itself um and taking out Iranian flagged assets if you like and taking out uh militia groups uh proxy groups operating with the um uh W with the funding of Iran and perhaps with
Iranian weapons there’s a big difference between the two and so uh yeah it’s it’s all about not trying to escalate the situation more the statement from sencom is quite detailed actually it says at 400 p.m. on the 2nd of February us Central Command forces conducted air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the
Irgc ks Force um that is uh the the a the Iranian revolutionary guard KS force and affili affiliate media um militia groups this is what’s interesting though it says US military forces struck more than 85 targets with numerous aircraft to include longrange bombers flown from the United States the air strikes
Employed more than 125 prision missiles the facility facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers intelligence centers rockets and missiles and unmanned aerial vehicle storage sites um and of course it was an unmanned aerial vehicle otherwise known as a drone um which uh which hit that
Airbase T Tower 22 that US base uh on Sunday and sparked this latest moment uh in in um what has been a a very very tense period ever since the Hamas attacks back in October last year Mark we’ll let you go speak to your contacts in Washington let us uh speak
To John Sparks our International correspondent uh who’s in aril the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq you’ll have just heard there that that sencom statement from uh Mark Mark’s take on the centcom statement we’re talking about 125 Precision Munitions uh used more than 85 targets uh have been hit numerous aircraft including longrange bombers
Flown from the United States it was a we were expecting a response it is a pretty big response that that is a big response a precise detail from the US Central Command people in charge of US military operations in the Middle East yeah that is a a big response from them 125
Precision weapons 85 targets using longrange bombers from the United States you can see this is a a a major effort on on their behalf and what we’re getting here in Iraq and Syria are responses now to these attacks they’re coming through a variety of different sources official unofficial we are
Hearing from Syrian St State media of a series of attacks in cities in eastern Syria close to the Iranian uh border cities of mayadin and elu Kamal multiple strikes there again Syrian State media saying there are casualties there they are saying 10 people dead 18 injured at
This stage we’re also hearing from Iraqi media as well that there have been strikes in Western Iraq in ambar Province this is a huge area huge area of desert in between the two countries extensive strikes there we know from sencom they’re going after the Revolutionary guard Corp this is an
Adjunct of the Iranian Army that operates abroad and Affiliated militia and there are a dozen or more Affiliated militia Iran backed uh fighters who are based in Iraq of course katab Hezbollah the group that uh were responsible thought responsible for the attack on Tower 22 in Jordan three
Servicemen there killed 47 injured they are one of the groups who the Americans will be trying to Target very interesting clearly this is a calculated response it’s come 6 days after uh that drone strike on Tower 22 this is a calculated uh uh response from the Americans they’ve had to time to think
About the targets they’ve had time to think about the message that each strike will will pose to the Iranians to the militias as well they’ve had time to think about it and here in Iraq they’ve had time the passage of time it’s given them time to think about it as well
There is a lot of anxiety here a lot of chatter today about drones up in the air people worried about us strikes they know what the Americans uh can can do uh and I think this this passage of time also crucial and we’ve heard a lot of
Talk about it over the last couple of days because it has given militia members senior militia members time in Iraq to respond to hide uh in some cases to take themselves out of the country we talk about senior leaders from some of these militias going to Iran because
They don’t don’t believe that the Americans will strike Iran that would be a major escalation and it is interesting on the first day of what clearly will be a series a concentrated series of strikes that could last for a week or more but they haven’t struck Iran they’ve struck the desert regions of
Western Iraq and Eastern Syria but it has given these militias time to hide their arsenals to hide their Munitions to hide their personnel as well and I think that hasn’t been lost on people here in Iraq but they’re certainly anxious about these strikes they know what the Americans can do John you you
You say that of course it is it has given these militias time to hide time to to to move or or or hide their their material their arms and so on I wonder however given that you said that this was a calculated attack by the Americans whether it is also given time for
Political leaders in that part of the world to get used to the idea that there is going to be an air strike coming that there was going to be of significant size I mean your your first response was to tell us what the what the reaction had been from various parties in that
Part of the world I mean I I suspect that Joe Biden himself will be very very keen that the response is not a massive escalation in conflict in that particular part of the world well I mean clearly this is a very difficult decision for Joe Biden he’s
Got to do lots of different things at the same time he wants to deter uh the Iranians he wants to degrade the ability of these militias here in Iraq to strike at us bases and installations and and they’ve been doing that since the middle of October by our calculations over 170
Strikes at us Target since the middle of October so it didn’t just start at Tower 22 this had been going on for a while and I can tell you from our our contacts uh here in Iraq that some of these milias came very close to taking the
Lives of US service people uh before this happened at Tower 22 so they did pose a danger but he’s got to he wants to deter them and he’s got to satisfy his his critics in Washington who are calling for powerful strikes on Iran on the other hand Joe Biden doesn’t want to
Drag Washington into a regional conflict a regional War a conf flager so he has to balance these interests really carefully it’s a it’s a very difficult job with every strike with every Target he is sending a message but what he clearly doesn’t want we assume is to go
To war with Iran he doesn’t want to tip things over the edge and we know the Iranians don’t want that either they’ve spent the last couple of days backpedaling saying look we don’t want want war with Iran and then we heard messages very similar messages from some
Of these militias in Iraq really parting what the Iranians were saying as well suspending operations not seeking a major conflict so very interesting here in in Iraq a lot of pressure being put by senior Iraqi leaders on these militias they want them to back off they want them to suspend their operations
Not all of them have done it can tell you that there are a couple of militias here who have refused to do it because they can operate outside of the control outside of the influence of the the Iraqi government that the government here is is essentially weak but it
Certainly made its view known it wants these militias to stop it wants them to stop attacking American uh structure bases installations because of what we’re going to see over the next couple of weeks the Americans have a very difficult targeting mission on their hands they’ve obviously thought about it
Very quickly and they’ve had six days to think about it John no doubt back to you just as soon as we get any more detail emerging from from close to where you are for now though thanks very much indeed but let’s bring in our military
And St Shawn Bo who joins us on the channel once again Sean let me just run through this this us Central Command statement that we had a little bit earlier on today uh strikes air strikes uh in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic revolutionary guard core kuds force and
Associated uh militia groups 85 more than 85 targets struck by US military forces using more than 125 PR Precision Munitions multiple aircraft including long range bombers flown from the United States Joe Biden promised a response he certainly provided one yeah good evening Neil it’s no great surprise that this strike has happened
What is a surprise is that it’s taken so long um for it to be enacted and I think part of what we’re seeing here is the very very calculated measure response as your previous team were talking about that America knows that it was it’s on
The horns of of a dilemma it was obliged to take action following the death of those three servicemen and 40 injured uh in the northern part of Georgia Jord um but it doesn’t want to make a bad situation worse it knows that this is symptoms it’s not the disease the
Disease is actually Israel’s ongoing fight in the Gaza Israel as um well Iran has been very clear you know if you stop the war between Israel and Hamas will stop the irritation and the escalation so us is desperately trying to provide a a military response to what’s happening
But it’s no s great surprise Neil as you know that um in parallel to this there’s also been this us proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza two month stoppage of the Fighting 100 hostages being to potentially be released and I have no doubt there’s a lot of pressure on prime
Minister Netanyahu this is all part of the same uh conversation and I suspect that’s why Biden’s taken so long before he’s uh pulled the trigger on this military action we are told that we are hearing and have been hearing indeed over the past couple of days Sean from
From military sources inside the US state department and elsewhere that this will be a staggered a teered uh a response to to that that that drone strike that of course did Kill three US soldiers the targets that we know that they have hit include command and control operations intelligence centers
Rockets missiles unmanned AAL vehicle storages Logistics and munition supply chain facilities all of that taken together does suggest to me and I wonder what you’re view is that there is going to be an escalation these targets are taken out first and then that facilitates the taking out of of further targets your
View well it’s very different to difficult to speculate isn’t it Neil you and I have been commentating on this for quite some time I think what strikes me particularly is that from a military perspective um if you want to take out capability it’s equipment and people if
You want to send a signal you focus on equipment and I think what you’ve just listed is a whole load of equipment and the Very fact that um even um Sparks talked about the fact that with all this notice a lot of the leaders have have run away I suspect there’s been warning
Flags posted and that means that whilst um the Americans are targeting military equipment which appeases a lot of those senators in the US that are baying for blood who want to see a much more aggressive action against Iran tempered against that need to provide a measur response because absolutely you don’t
Have make a bad situation worse and I think that the um it’ll be interesting to see the casualty figures the very fact they’ve been targeting out of populated areas that they’ve been focused on particular military equipment I think sends a very clear message without actually seeking to escalate I
Mean inevitably this is an escalation but it’s really interesting to see the desperately difficult situation the Americans find themselves in that are desperately trying to avoid escalation whilst also in parallel trying to solve the disease which is the problem between Israel and Gaza indeed um Sean just
Pause there because of course it’s not just you and I that that speak on The Daily podcast about these matters our other military and security analyst Michael Clark is is on the line and Michael you’ve been listening in I’m sure you will have seen the centcom statement I I’m wondering what you make
About this as the initial stages of a US response uh to what happened to those three US servicemen yeah I mean I think you’re right to say these are the initial stages I mean what the Americans are trying to do is to offer a big enough series of targets I mean 85 Plus
Targets we’re talking about and they will do more of it I mean they’ve said that this will be a multi-layered operation that will be sustained it will go on and for sure I mean I think sha was mentioned the fact that um a lot of aircraft have come from the United
States certainly some B-52s and some B1 BS you know the B-52s are all considerably older than the pilots who fly them but they still work pretty well and they have they have launched quite a lot of missiles from the ship ships they’ve got tomahawk missiles on their
Ships the F22 the super hornets from the Eisenhower will have been involved I think they’ll have had everything up tonight probably in order to show that they can do this and as Shan said they’ve not gone for personnel they’ve given them deliberately warning so they know that they’ve dispersed and they’ll
Have taken with them whatever equipment they can but they’ve gone for the rest and the fixed sites and I think we’ll hear more about that tomorrow and the message very clearly is this is the first installment and there will be more I mean the idea is whether it will work
Or not we don’t know is that Teran has got to think again they’ve got to reign in these um militias and the various the irgc the Republican God groups who are across Syria and Iraq and so this is a a big demonstration but it is only a demonstration at the
Moment uh Michael we will leave it there uh much more from you and of course Shawn Bell uh Mark Stone in the United States and of course John Sparks I suspect as well uh in her Bal uh but let’s just remind you as to to the news breaking within the last hour uh
Confirmation from the United States that they have indeed begun those retaliatory strikes against Iranian proxies at Targets inside both Iraq and Syria more than 85 targets uh we are told have been struck by a variety of manned and unmanned aial Vehicles plus Precision Munitions 125 of them have been deployed
How many more will in the coming days weeks and months much much more in this story coming up in just a few moments Time oh