00:00Well, this is the second time I've called him and he's picked up on first ring, both times, interestingly, late
00:06Sunday afternoon, and he's been apparently wandering around Mar-a-Lago with his cell phone and picked up and was
00:14happy to chat.
00:15Kind of a little bit unnerving, shoot the breeze about, like, should we take the oil? Should we grab Carg
00:21Island? And I said, well, that's not really for me to say, Mr. President. What do you think? What are
00:29you planning to do?
00:30You have to sort of pinch yourself that this is the commander in chief of the world's, you know, super
00:34power because his thoughts are all over the place.
00:40So he wants to take Iran's oil, whatever that means. I said, would that mean taking Carg Island, which is
00:49the island 15 miles off the Iranian coastline where 90% of Iranian oil exports go because it's got deep
00:58ports.
01:00And he said, yeah, we could take Carg Island and we could not take Carg Island, but it doesn't have
01:05too many defenses. So we'd be happy to do that.
01:10I did ask him about the fact that you've got Army Rangers, Delta Forces, 82nd Airborne Marines. You've got these
01:17kinds of commando capabilities being moved to the region. Are you planning to use them?
01:25And he wouldn't give specifics, but he seemed pretty confident that Carg Island could easily be taken, which is not
01:33necessarily the expert view on what would be a boots on the ground operation.
01:40But at the same time, he said that the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran via emissaries, chiefly Pakistan,
01:50were going ahead and that he was confident there could be a deal.
01:53So, I mean, this wasn't an entirely consistent theme. He said, we're talking every day, constantly to Iran. I said,
01:59has Wyckoff, Steve Wyckoff, spoken directly to people in the Iranian government?
02:05And he kind of sidestepped the question and used the term emissaries.
02:09My overall takeaway is that right now Trump's got nothing new to get him out of this war or to
02:19win it. There are speculations about possible commando raids into Isfahan to seize the enriched uranium.
02:27But these would be extremely dangerous operations that would take days, possibly weeks, to secure this highly fissile material and
02:39would involve undoubted American bloodshed.
02:42So, that's what, you know, you'd call a Hail Mary option in American football.
02:49But in terms of an actual plan to end the war, I didn't finish this call feeling very confident that
02:57Trump had one.
02:59Who's backing Iran in its war with the U.S. and Israel?
03:03Let's start with the so-called Axis of Resistance, Tehran's patchwork of regional proxies, who include Iranian-backed Shia militias
03:10in Iraq.
03:11They're the ones widely blamed for this attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, and on other U
03:17.S. targets.
03:18In Lebanon, the Shia militant group Hezbollah has fired into Israel, bringing a fierce Israeli response that has killed more
03:25than a thousand people.
03:29In Yemen, the Houthis have entered the war, firing missiles and drones into Israel, in what analysts describe as a
03:36worrying escalation.
03:37With the ability to further disrupt shipping at the southern chokepoint of the Red Sea, compounding the crisis in the
03:43Strait of Hormuz.
03:45Before the war, Iran's regional influence was waning, after Bashar al-Assad fled Syria in 2024.
03:51Hamas, the Palestinian armed group, are still present in a swath of Gaza, but they're laying low too.
03:57Outside the Middle East, insiders say Russia has been sharing intelligence with Iran.
04:01This includes locations of U.S. military assets.
04:04In Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims Moscow has supplied Iran with Russian-made Shahed drones.
04:10Western intelligence reports confirm this, and say Moscow has also been sending Iran medicines and food too.
04:17China has stayed out of the war, but it's still a major buyer of Iranian oil, providing Tehran with a
04:22crucial wartime revenue stream.
04:24Iran's Islamist regime faces its biggest threat in decades, but analysts say Iran wants an asymmetrical conflict to raise the
04:32cost to the U.S.
04:33And while its regional access is weakened, its proxies still pose a threat.
04:41Tens of thousands of vending machines are vanishing from Japan.
04:45Once a symbol of the nation's love of innovation, they are now being shunned in a climate of rising inflation
04:51and deepening labor shortages.
04:53For years, consumers were willing to pay higher prices for the convenience these machines offer.
04:59At its peak, Japan built a vast network of drink-spending machines.
05:03Their stock has since fallen sharply, and operators are beginning to cut back further.
05:08Three years of rising inflation in the country has driven consumers to seek cheaper alternatives.
05:14Tea and coffee can now be bought cheaper in nearby convenience stores,
05:18while supermarkets and drugstores offer discount private-laden brands.
05:22At the same time, labor shortages are making it harder to keep the vending machines stocked.
05:27Vending machines may appear automated, but they still remain heavily dependent on human labor,
05:33and have not shifted quickly enough to digitize stock management.
05:37Driver wages are rising, and operators face increasing pressure to maintain nationwide networks.
05:42They are a crime example of Japan's sluggish adoption of technology,
05:46who address a national challenge, assistant labor shortages.
05:55Well, let's kick off then with the case for saving Starmer,
05:58which, Robert, is inspired by your column this week.
06:00Although I should point out, you've hedged slightly.
06:04The headline is,
06:05The case for keeping Starmer a little longer.
06:08I love this line in your piece.
06:09There are reasons why Labor MPs should not rush to action.
06:13The first being that it is never true that things cannot get worse.
06:17That's not the biggest endorsement of the current Prime Minister.
06:20No, I mean, look, the case for removing him is very strong.
06:23You know, there's been, it's been a very, very hard time.
06:26There's been a lot of drift.
06:28It's not clear that he is capable of driving through policies.
06:31He's lost his MPs.
06:33The country's clearly calcified its opinion against him.
06:36But the argument I was thinking to make is that, actually,
06:39you don't have to remove him now,
06:41even if you think he's not going to lead Labor into the next election,
06:43which I don't think he will and don't think he should.
06:46You've still got three years.
06:48You've got time to think about this.
06:49And the electorate, I just think,
06:51for all the fact that they don't like Keir Starmer,
06:53the polling is clear on this,
06:54would look at the toppling of a man elected less than two years ago
06:58and just say, what is it with you people?
07:00We chose a Prime Minister.
07:01Could you just get on with governing?
07:03And while we are watching what's already been going on in Ukraine,
07:07who knows where we'll be on Iran,
07:08the economy in great difficulty,
07:10you've decided to spend the next two months fighting amongst yourselves
07:13over who should be the next leader.
07:16And I just, I think, for all the country doesn't like Keir Starmer,
07:18they don't,
07:19I just think that could play very badly for the Labour Party.
07:28We've had very good negotiations today with Iran,
07:32getting a lot of the things that they should have given us a long time ago.
07:36We'll see how it works out.
07:37But they're very good, moving along very nicely.
07:40And they've destroyed a lot of additional targets today.
07:43The Navy's gone, the Air Force has gone, we know that.
07:45But we destroyed many, many targets today.
07:49It was a big day.
07:50And we are negotiating with them directly and indirectly.
08:17Can Dubai bounce back?
08:19The UAE's business hub has long been a haven of stability in the Middle East.
08:23But now it's at the heart of a major war.
08:25Iran has been striking nearby Gulf countries,
08:28including the United Arab Emirates and its showpiece global city,
08:31lashing out in response to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
08:36Dubai's predicament has made for some sensationalist headlines.
08:39Some British expats have paid top dollar for flights out.
08:42So is Dubai's status as a safe haven shattered for all time?
08:47Once a sleepy fishing village, Dubai set out to become a regional trading hub in earnest from the 1970s.
08:53Its population has more than doubled since 2010, to at least 4 million now.
08:58That's the official number anyway.
09:00Many residents believe the real population is higher.
09:03Dubai's residents are overwhelmingly foreign-born,
09:06ranging from striving blue-collar workers to tax-conscious multibillionaires.
09:10The New York or Singapore of the Global South, only about 1 in 10 are Emiratis.
09:15British expats are a significant group,
09:17but they're a small fraction of the overall population of the city,
09:21which doesn't publish detailed data by nationality.
09:24Many more come from South Asia, or the Philippines, or Africa, or other parts of the Middle East,
09:29and they're staying put.
09:30Not necessarily happily.
09:32Many are on unpaid leave.
09:34Dubai has faced setbacks before, and always bounced back.
09:37In the 80s, Iran and Iraq attacked each other's oil tankers in the Gulf.
09:41That's when Dubai built up an industry of ship maintenance and repair.
09:45During the global financial crisis of the Naughties, Dubai faced a debt crunch.
09:50It restructured and made it through.
09:51More recently, the city handled the COVID pandemic pragmatically.
09:55It locked down hard, but then it reopened to visitors early, and tourism bounced back.
10:00How Dubai recovers this time will depend on a lot of things,
10:03including how long the war lasts,
10:06and the relations Gulf countries have with Iran after it ends.
10:08But if history is any judge, it's probably premature to write Dubai off.
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