00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Monday.
00:04My name's Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Investigations Correspondent,
00:10Martin McLaughlin.
00:12Martin, hello.
00:14We're going to get to talking about a couple of your stories shortly,
00:18including one we've just put live in the last 10 minutes of recording of this bulletin.
00:25But firstly, the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:28It was hard not to lead on the latest developments with the situation in the Middle East.
00:34Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, spoke yesterday.
00:38She stressed that the UK is not at war but said that that Britain could possibly back Israel
00:47in the form of more military cooperation.
00:52We know that more RAF jets are being sent to the Middle East.
00:55Keith Starmer first confirmed that on Saturday.
00:58And obviously, there's a developing situation there.
01:01The missile strikes and drone strikes between Iran and Israel have stretched into a fourth day.
01:08And there's plenty of tension.
01:10There are some reports about Donald Trump's involvement in this emerging again overnight as well.
01:17Martin, we might try and touch on that in a minute.
01:19But I wanted to talk to you about a significant move by a new university.
01:25And it's coming against the backdrop of a trade deal that maybe has some significance here as well.
01:32Can you talk us through?
01:33Yeah, that's right, Dale.
01:35Well, the University of Aberdeen have announced this morning that they have made quite a significant step forward in their plans to become the first Scottish university to open a campus in India.
01:47And they've received essentially a letter of intent at a ceremony hosted by the Indian government.
01:54And the ambition is for them to have a campus up and running as soon as next year.
02:01And this is a decision that is subject to approval from the university's court.
02:06But the mood music from the university is very much that this is a major breakthrough in their plans for global expansion.
02:15So it's an interesting one.
02:17And like you say, it's not entirely unrelated to the trade deal.
02:21At the ceremony, there was a representative from the British Council there.
02:24So there's a degree of politics in all this.
02:27But there's also, I think, a good degree of financial interest in this.
02:32You know, the university may have global expansion plans, but it is doing that for, I would imagine, a pretty good reason to try and make some money.
02:40You know, we know that here, as with many other prestigious ancient universities in Scotland, Aberdeen is not without its woes to seek.
02:49You know, it is looking to make cuts to courses and possibly volunteer redundancies.
02:55So by expanding its operations to India, clearly it hopes that it can generate some revenue.
03:02And even though this has just been announced this morning, I think we have to keep a close eye on the reaction to this,
03:08because there have been other instances of UK universities expanding in India and facing a bit of a backlash from the staff here,
03:17given the kind of cuts agenda that they are facing.
03:21Queen's University Belfast is one example.
03:24They are planning to make about 270 job cuts in Northern Ireland while proceeding with their plans to expand in India.
03:32So it's going to be interesting to see how Aberdeen resolve those tensions.
03:37And, Martin, we should mention this comes against the backdrop of a general trend of falling numbers in terms of international students at the universities across Scotland.
03:48They obviously bring in a significant amount of income in terms of fee paying, as opposed to, obviously,
03:56we know the free education that is in place for Scottish-based students, that the universities here.
04:03So perhaps a financial incentive to complete and carry out this deal here, there, as well as universities do look at how they can improve their bottom lines.
04:14Martin, you also had, on a slightly different subject, a story about Police Scotland, some concerns around the use of live scanning or facial recognition technology over the weekend.
04:27Yeah, that's right, Dale.
04:29For close to a year now, Police Scotland has been kind of discussing proposals and the potential introduction of what's known as live facial recognition technology,
04:38technology, which effectively uses artificial intelligence to scan live camera feeds of crowds, streets, concerts, and this kind of thing to look for people that are of interest to the police.
04:53Now, there's a clear benefit to this from a police point of view, you know, it is a very tech and efficient way of tracking down perpetrators,
05:03but that it comes amidst kind of deep-rooted and ongoing concerns about the human rights impact.
05:10The story I wrote at the weekend was basically about a coalition of organisations, Amnesty International, Big Brother Watch,
05:19who were basically saying that they have real serious concerns about the impact on this, particularly amongst minority communities,
05:28because there are ongoing issues around bias in AI algorithms.
05:34So I think the force and the technology provider that it may or may not eventually hook up with certainly have to resolve these issues before there's public confidence in this technology.
05:47Martin, probably something that's captured by, well, the capture of the BBC series.
05:52I don't know whether you've seen that, but it touches on all this life scanning stuff and a lot of the potholes and question marks around it.
06:00Just on a last point, we started off talking about Israel and Iran.
06:05Donald Trump, who you've written plenty about over the years, he was speaking about the fact that he had advised against effectively the killing of a couple of key Iranian generals
06:20as part of the first wave of attacks.
06:22I just want to get your thoughts on Donald Trump here.
06:25He, in his first term, he was very much about an image of him as a dealmaker.
06:32We know he went out and met Kim Jong-un in person.
06:36And there was significant coverage around that at the time.
06:38He's pushed for a deal with Ukraine.
06:40It's not over the line yet.
06:41He's talking about deals again here that need to be reached soon overnight.
06:45What do you think the priorities are here for Trump and the US?
06:50And is it important that he starts to get some wins on the international front?
06:55I think that the number one goal that Trump and his administration are looking for, Dale,
07:00is to prevent the situation in the Middle East from becoming a more expansive conflict.
07:06You know, there was a report that you mentioned, Reuters, it was a named US official, saying that Trump had basically asked Israel to resist from pursuing what Israelis described as a credible plan to kill the Iranian supreme leader.
07:23And I think if that had come to pass, you know, the already tense and violent conflict that we've seen in recent days would have multiplied tenfold.
07:34So clearly, you know, the Trump administration is trying to keep a lid on this as much as possible.
07:40But as you reference with, you know, events in Ukraine, there's only so much that even somebody in the power of the Oval Office can do to influence events.
07:51And, you know, things are so chaotic and fast moving and tense that I think Trump will be frustrated at not having the sort of purchase over global affairs that he certainly thought he might.
08:02But as was the case in his first term, you know, Trump does not want to have US troops on the ground in the Middle East or anywhere else for that matter.
08:13So I'm sure he, like the rest of us, will be watching events in Iran and Israel very closely over the next few days and hoping the worst doesn't come to pass.
08:23You can read the latest around that developing situation at scotsman.com.
08:27And if you ever can't find any of our global coverage, head to the world tab in the navigation bar, you can read Martin's stories on both live facial scanning technology, as well as the University of Aberdeen and its move to open a campus in India on the website as well.
08:47Please follow us on all social media and go out and pick up a copy of the Scotsman imprint tomorrow.
08:53We'll have all the latest as G7 leaders meet today.
08:57Clearly plenty for them to talk about.
08:59Thanks to you, Martin.
09:00Thanks to everyone else for tuning in.
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