TRTWORLD — Newshour - London
20260806 180000 UTC
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[00:00:03] of of
[00:00:09] in
[00:00:14] of
[00:00:19] In Yemen, at least 35 government troops are reported to have been
[00:00:23] killed in Hoofi attacks on military
[00:00:27] of
[00:00:27] لا
[00:00:27] of of camps. Hello, welcome to TRT World, we're live. From London, I'm Maria
[00:00:31] of Ramos, also ahead on this program. As Iran says a straight
[00:00:35] of Hodmo's deal with Oman is almost done, US Vice President
[00:00:39] Jeddy Van says it will be messy and will take
[00:00:42] time. And Israeli forces launch
[00:00:45] wave of air strikes on southern Lebanon despite a fresh
[00:00:49] round of peace talks in
[00:00:52] of Rome.
[00:00:55] of
[00:01:00] of of of of
[00:01:05] in Hello again, some breaking
[00:01:09] news for you: bomb has exploded a
[00:01:13] of minibus
[00:01:13] of just outside the Syrian capital
[00:01:17] of of Damascus with state media
[00:01:17] of reporting of several deaths and injuries. It happened
[00:01:20] a in the suburb of Jaramana, around seven
[00:01:23] kilometers southeast
[00:01:25] of the city center, and witnesses are reporting that
[00:01:28] ambulances are heading. to the
[00:01:30] of scene and a main road has been closed to traffic,
[00:01:34] nobody has yet claimed responsibility, but
[00:01:37] of do stay with us here on TRT will be more details on
[00:01:41] the story as they come
[00:01:42] of into
[00:01:47] of us,
[00:01:49] of of well Yemen's hoothies have killed at least 35 government troops in missile and drone
[00:01:53] attacks on military camps in Hadraunt and Marin
[00:01:57] and the hoofies say
[00:01:58] that this attack is in response. once to an alleged military
[00:02:01] builder backed by neighboring Saudi Arabia, Yemen's
[00:02:05] internationally recognized government says it
[00:02:08] a will respond to the attack and fighting between the Hutis
[00:02:12] and the Saudi aligned government has escalated over the past
[00:02:15] of month. This is the deadliest fighting in Yemen since
[00:02:18] 2022.
[00:02:21] Mohammed Alatab has the latest from the Yemeny Capital
[00:02:23] Sana. This latest uh
[00:02:27] operation that have that has been uh
[00:02:31] revealed by these military spokes person says that they have
[00:02:34] targeted this these positions in um in
[00:02:38] ruway and
[00:02:39] of
[00:02:40] of also in in areas in
[00:02:40] of hadramot and marip he says that they have targeted these
[00:02:44] areas as there are
[00:02:47] of some military built up there the says that they have
[00:02:51] waged the preemptive strikes
[00:02:53] a of and they have he has also warned the yemenis there not to
[00:02:57] join the
[00:02:58] a
[00:02:58] of military cams in these areas while the senior
[00:03:02] official
[00:03:02] of the Yemani government says that the the group
[00:03:06] is under a mounting pressure that's that's why
[00:03:10] and they have carried out these
[00:03:12] operations as he mentioned or
[00:03:16] described at his
[00:03:18] uh uh at his
[00:03:19] of account of of at X website he
[00:03:22] of also mentioned that the there is all the only way is to end
[00:03:26] what he described as the militious code against the international
[00:03:30] recognized government while the the military spokes person
[00:03:33] of the hutis, he has made it clear that they will continue
[00:03:36] their what they have already declared, the
[00:03:40] the
[00:03:41] in operations of
[00:03:41] of the sage for sage, they
[00:03:43] of want
[00:03:43] to to w more pressure on Saudi Arabia, we are talking about nearly eight
[00:03:47] ships that have been targeted by the the Hies known
[00:03:51] as the ans, they have also being able
[00:03:55] to to turn back nearly
[00:03:57] 29 v so we are talking about since
[00:04:01] the beginning
[00:04:02] of the
[00:04:03] of their blockade, they have been able to attack
[00:04:06] vessels near the gulf of aden and also off the coast
[00:04:11] of of the saudi,
[00:04:12] in saudi in seaport of
[00:04:14] a Yambo. against the
[00:04:17] backdrop of heighten tensions in the gulf, pakistan's foreign ministry
[00:04:21] has announced that the
[00:04:22] in prime minister sheif sharif will travel to
[00:04:25] of Saudi Arabia for an official visit, although taking
[00:04:29] place against the backdrop of height and tensions in the
[00:04:32] of gulf, the visit will carry immense
[00:04:36] i significance beyond the immediate crisis and short term
[00:04:40] considerations. it will further strengthen bilateral relations,
[00:04:44] deepen strategic
[00:04:45] cooperation,
[00:04:50] of well around says a
[00:04:54] deal
[00:04:54] of with oman to reopen the straight of hormos is now in its final stages
[00:04:58] after confirming the... two sides
[00:05:03] of in have agreed a specific shipping route. Tehran says that
[00:05:04] of despite the agreement, the resumption of unrestricted shipping remains
[00:05:08] contingent on the US lifting
[00:05:10] of its naval blockade of ir. imports oman, which
[00:05:14] shares control the straight of hormos and acts as mediator between
[00:05:18] Tehran and Washington has yet to publicly confirm
[00:05:22] the deal. is in the Iranian
[00:05:26] capital with more on the proposal. It
[00:05:30] was about 24 hours ago or maybe a bit less that Iran's foreign
[00:05:34] ministry spokesperson said that Iran and Oman are on the
[00:05:37] verge of an agreement about the coordinates of a
[00:05:41] shipping route in straight of still we are waiting for
[00:05:45] that promised joint announcement by Iran and
[00:05:49] Oman about an agreement a shipping route
[00:05:53] in the straight of Formos when this hasn't happened
[00:05:56] after about 24 hours, but the
[00:06:00] details that we are getting is that there would be a
[00:06:04] an outbound lane and inbound lane, the inbound lane is
[00:06:08] located in the north the straight of armus closer to
[00:06:11] Iranian. territorial waters, that route is going to be totally
[00:06:15] controlled by Iran, the southern route, which
[00:06:19] is close to ani territorial voters, that would
[00:06:23] be the outbound route, and part of it, or half of it
[00:06:27] would be controlled by Iran, so this deal would basically give
[00:06:31] Iran control and authority over this strategic
[00:06:34] waterway, and these two lanes will be temporary, according to
[00:06:38] Iran's deputy foreign minister, they will be valid for about
[00:06:42] two to four months and in the meantime demining operations
[00:06:46] will take place in the straight offerms and after that two or
[00:06:50] four month period then a new route in the next
[00:06:54] phase the agreement new route will be announced that
[00:06:58] would be in the middle in the center the straight of armus
[00:07:02] so-called median lane and that route
[00:07:05] would be permanent we are still waiting for more details we
[00:07:09] understand that Tehran and Moscat still... continue
[00:07:13] their discussions, their talks and their
[00:07:15] consultations. For his part,
[00:07:19] US Vice President JD Vance has caught Iranian officials
[00:07:22] extraordinarily difficult and that it will take time to reach a
[00:07:26] consensus. I can certainly understand the American people are maybe
[00:07:30] looking at this and they say, well, it seems like we're making progress and it seems like
[00:07:34] we're not, but the reality Laura is that number one, the Iranians are
[00:07:37] extraordinarily difficult people, number two, they have a
[00:07:41] fractured system, "there are people within their system who want the war to be
[00:07:45] over, there are also people within their system who are crazy radicals who want the war to
[00:07:49] continue. our North America correspondent John Brane is
[00:07:53] in Washington and says Vance's comment is
[00:07:56] revealing. well, I think
[00:08:00] ultimately it tells us that the US went into this conflict
[00:08:03] without a proper understanding the Iranian mentality or the
[00:08:07] Iranian setter, and they seem to have learned little
[00:08:11] from the..." five months, don't they? the fact that
[00:08:15] the Iranians were necessarily speaking with one voice when they
[00:08:19] negotiated with the US, that's been a major
[00:08:22] frustration for the administration, they think they've got a deal, and then
[00:08:26] it turns out that the more hardline elements in Tehran have
[00:08:30] vetoed it. in terms of this arrangement or
[00:08:33] apparent arrangement between Iran and Oman, the
[00:08:37] U.S. is still waiting to be presented with the specific details
[00:08:41] of it, remains adoment that Iran
[00:08:45] cannot come out of this war with control over the straight
[00:08:49] of homoz, so so I think there's still a long way to go before the
[00:08:52] Americans will A, be prepared to lift their
[00:08:55] blockade and be accept this agreement. Having said all that, there
[00:08:59] is a pretty much a desperation within the Trump
[00:09:03] administration that this conflict is brought to an end as swiftly
[00:09:07] as possible, so it may be uh that the administration is
[00:09:11] prepared to overlook some... elements of any deal uh, if they
[00:09:14] feel those elements can be - brushed under the
[00:09:18] carpet so to speak.
[00:09:21] well, three days of peace talks between the US, Israel and Lebanon in
[00:09:25] Rome have just come to close. discussions reportedly focused on pilot
[00:09:29] zones in southern Lebanon, but the talks were overshadowed by
[00:09:32] continued Israeli violence in Lebanon south, which threatened to
[00:09:36] derail negotiations entirely. Priyann canavani reports from
[00:09:40] Beirut.
[00:09:43] "On the eve the last day of talks in Rome, this was the scene in southern
[00:09:47] Lebanon. The town of Burja Shamali was hit by massive Israeli
[00:09:51] strikes, injuring over dozen Lebaneses. Thursday morning,
[00:09:55] news stands were peppered with both headlines. Talks in Rome meant to
[00:09:58] bring peace, and the strikes on southern Lebanon bringing anything but many
[00:10:02] Lebaneses we spoke to said they were not surprised by the
[00:10:06] strikes.
[00:10:25] or no strikes, they don't believe anything can come the
[00:10:28] talks. since the start, Israel never
[00:10:32] committed to any agreement, every agreement that the israelis do, they don't
[00:10:36] honor. the three-day summit constituted the seventh round of Israeli
[00:10:39] Lebanese talks in the last few months, direct talks that are ordinarily
[00:10:43] unheard of, well progress has been made in the form of security
[00:10:47] framework that called for occupying Israely troops to slowly be replaced by the
[00:10:51] Lebanese army, the progress these pilot zones on the ground has
[00:10:55] and slow, and some argue Lebanon is giving more than it's
[00:10:58] getting. Unfortunately, until now Leban did not gain
[00:11:02] any good point regarding what's regarding the
[00:11:05] regarding talks in in Rome or with the Israelies. All what we could
[00:11:09] achieve was the
[00:11:11] seasfire. Yeah, it's not a full sease
[00:11:14] fire. The Israelies are bombing every day in the south and
[00:11:18] are invading more more regions. They are not
[00:11:22] retreating from any the occupied regions.
[00:11:25] and many agree, the uptaken strikes during the talks was no
[00:11:28] coincidence. the elephant in the room is the issue of
[00:11:32] Hezbollah's weapons. both the Lebanese and Israeli governments
[00:11:36] have said that they want the group disarmed, but Hazbollah is not party to
[00:11:40] these talks and the Lebanese government has yet to put forth any sort of
[00:11:44] substantitive plan, in part because Lebanese are divided on the
[00:11:47] issue, but this standoff leads many to believe that the talks in
[00:11:51] Rome will do little to affect their reality on the ground.
[00:11:55] Priyanka Navani, TRT World in
[00:11:57] Beirout. Well Turkey's
[00:12:01] national security council chaired by President Erdovan discussed the latest
[00:12:04] developments on the Terror Free Turkia initiative. On
[00:12:08] Wednesday, new legislative framework was submitted to the parliament to
[00:12:12] create a framework for the next stage the terror
[00:12:15] freeer plan and the legislation will take
[00:12:18] effect once the PKK terror group's full
[00:12:22] disarmment is verified. It will. allow
[00:12:25] cases of imprisoned terrorists to be
[00:12:28] reassessed, but authorities stress that this is not a
[00:12:32] general amnesty. but for more on this, our diplomatic
[00:12:36] correspondent Andrew Hopkins joins us now from Ankara.
[00:12:40] Andrew, just give us more context about what's been going on this week regarding the
[00:12:44] terror free Turkia
[00:12:45] process.
[00:12:49] this is now nearly two year long process in which the PKK terrorist
[00:12:52] group here in Turkey has a great to lay down its arms and
[00:12:56] also dispand itself, and clearly the National Security Council, which is
[00:13:00] made up of government ministers, leading officials and also
[00:13:04] heads the various branches the military, have been brought up to date on what's
[00:13:08] happening this week, and as you mentioned, this what's become known as a sort of
[00:13:12] framework law has been brought before parliament, and what this will do
[00:13:16] in the future is govern oversee what is
[00:13:19] happening to convicted PKK
[00:13:22] terrorists uh after... the full
[00:13:26] disbandment happen, so whether they will have to spend more
[00:13:29] time in prison, whether they will be released, whether they will be allowed back
[00:13:33] to live what you might call call normal life in
[00:13:36] Turkey and under what restrictions they might may have to
[00:13:40] live as well, but it's worth bearing in mind this law is
[00:13:43] not becoming a reality yet, it's not coming into force because
[00:13:47] it has to go through a parliamentary process, it has to go through the
[00:13:51] justice commission, it has
[00:13:53] to be approved by parliament as ' and also by the president before
[00:13:57] it becomes
[00:13:58] a reality
[00:13:59] and also worth remembering that it will only come into effect
[00:14:02] according
[00:14:03] to the government when they're satisfied that the PKK has
[00:14:07] really really and truly laid down all of its arms and
[00:14:11] destroyed them. there has been some done so far but it's been
[00:14:15] regarded by the government as a sort of token effort and
[00:14:18] the uh the situation, the process is being monitored
[00:14:22] and when the government is satisfied and more substantial and wider
[00:14:25] ranging destruction has taken place, then this new law is
[00:14:29] more likely to come into effect. Andrew, thank
[00:14:33] you so much, Andrew Hopkins live there from Ankara, thank
[00:14:36] you update with all the news here on
[00:14:40] TRT, do of course visit our website trtward.com for more
[00:14:43] news opinion and analysis and all the stories we've been following for you. news feed is
[00:14:47] coming up next and the news r we'll bring you that at 19 GMT. see you then, bye
[00:14:51] bye.
[00:15:07] Hello, I'm Lara Couchlan and this is News Feed. Your dolls are what people are
[00:15:11] talking about online. Almost three years after they were killed
[00:15:15] in Israeli strikes in their home in Gaza,
[00:15:18] 112 members the Abu Shariya and Al Hasina
[00:15:21] families have finally been laid to rest. Is targeted
[00:15:25] their residential building in western Gaza,
[00:15:28] over 300 members the two families died, among them
[00:15:32] children, women and people with disabilities, most their
[00:15:36] bodies remained trapped in destroyed building, data from the United
[00:15:39] Nations indicate the 81% of all structures in
[00:15:43] Gaza have been damaged or destroyed and across the Gaza
[00:15:47] strip thousands remained beneath the ruins. Heavy machinery to
[00:15:51] help with recovery operations only became available in July, but
[00:15:55] with just two excavators to do the job, the process has been
[00:15:58] extremely
[00:15:59] slow.
[00:16:04] ارفعوا تجعلوا تمر
[00:16:04] الصوت مرور الكرام عبرها. "every one
[00:16:08] them has story, has a dream, and we will not
[00:16:12] forget them
[00:16:13] forever. It took
[00:16:17] 136 hours to recover
[00:16:21] their bodies from beneath the rubble, while it
[00:16:24] took the world only seconds to look
[00:16:28] away. Today, 112
[00:16:31] souls returned to remind us that the crime
[00:16:35] does not end when the..." bombing stops and we
[00:16:39] scroll again, just absolutely
[00:16:43] sickening that we've normalized this
[00:16:46] too. i can't imagine the pain
[00:16:50] these families. this
[00:16:54] is horrific, devastating and
[00:16:57] heartbreaking. despite an official cease
[00:17:01] fire agreement, Israel's attacks have been stopped, meaning
[00:17:05] palestinians are being killed a daily basis. On Monday,
[00:17:09] US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace said the aggression needs to
[00:17:13] end. Turkia, Egypt and Qatar said the Israeli attacks
[00:17:17] were a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian
[00:17:21] law. They called on Tel Aviv to comply with its commitments under the
[00:17:24] ceasefire agreement. July 30th, Trump announced that the board of
[00:17:28] peace in Hamas came to an agreement for Hamas disarmament, and as soon as that
[00:17:32] announcement was made, violence in the Gaza strip increased as attempt to
[00:17:36] undermine the US. hamas deal, now from July 30th up until
[00:17:40] yesterday, Israel killed over 30 Palestinians across the Gaza
[00:17:43] strip and that includes three children and a pregnant mother. Israel has said
[00:17:47] that they have serious concerns with the US Hamas agreement because they want full Hamas
[00:17:51] disarmament before Israel withdraws from Gaza, but as they are
[00:17:55] saying that you have Israeli ministers that are saying that they plan on ethnically cleansing
[00:17:59] Gaza and settling it. This past Sunday IDE forces on alive
[00:18:02] 19 Palestinians including a 5-year-old boy. And a senior Israeli minister
[00:18:06] says that strikes. not stopping, it doesn't matter if Hamas agrees to the
[00:18:10] disarmament, in the long run the Israelis are not going to want to pull out of
[00:18:14] Gaza. Then are called the plan unacceptable, and people like Eli Coen, the
[00:18:18] Israeli minister for energy and infrastructure, say that, well, Israel
[00:18:21] already controls 70% of Gaza, so they might as well take the entire
[00:18:25] thing. But this idea isn't exclusive to Netanyahu or his
[00:18:29] Lacut party. Naftind at the former Israeli prime minister, who could
[00:18:33] very well be the next Israeli prime minister, so that he does not want to give...
[00:18:37] the Palestinians in inch of land and Gotdy Eisencott,
[00:18:41] Netanyahu's current biggest competitor, says that Netanyahu is being way
[00:18:45] too soft on Gaza. As the suffering in Gaza continues, pro
[00:18:48] Palestinian supporters across the world have continued to push for
[00:18:52] peace, but many demonstrations have faced restrictions,
[00:18:56] including bands on slogans and Palestinian symbols. Many
[00:19:00] protests are met by arrests, police confrontation and often teer
[00:19:04] gas.
[00:19:31] the video you have just seen was filmed during a trial in Germany,
[00:19:35] the activists are called the um... after targeting Israeli
[00:19:39] arms manufacturer in the city of OM. while most people know
[00:19:43] about the British group Palestine Action, their German
[00:19:46] affiliate has remained largely out the spotlight.
[00:19:50] The activists are from the UK, Spain, Ireland and
[00:19:53] Germany. They were arrested after taking action against Albet
[00:19:57] Systems in September last year. Prosecutors have charged them under
[00:20:01] section 129 the German criminal code alleging that
[00:20:05] Palestine Action Germany is a criminal. organization, the
[00:20:08] activists have been held in pre- trial detention since then.
[00:20:12] this case has sparked the debate in Germany over how to deal with pro-palestinian
[00:20:16] protesters and could set a president for future
[00:20:19] cases. oh, this is very obviously a show trial. the're trying
[00:20:23] to dissuade direct action, and essentially they're putting the whole palestine
[00:20:27] movement on trial with the om five, and critically they're not giving bail while
[00:20:31] this is all going a contrast. in the same courthouse, there were
[00:20:35] people being tried who were. involved a fascist
[00:20:39] coup attempt in Germany, so while five people are in
[00:20:42] prison for fighting against the genicit in Gaza, there's another trial
[00:20:46] against riceber who had weapons,
[00:20:48] wanted to all the... government and they're free to go, are out on
[00:20:52] bail, we're arriving into the courthouse taxis, are allowed sit
[00:20:56] beside their legal team, whereas in the court for the
[00:21:00] own five, the defendants are behind a glass cage,
[00:21:03] can't communicate directly with their defense team despite repeated pleas to
[00:21:07] the judge that they should be allowed do so. these five are accused
[00:21:11] of property damage, they have not hurt a single soul. we have seen
[00:21:15] over the last almost three years now, a complete normalization of
[00:21:19] mass. police repression, legal repression and state
[00:21:23] violence against particularly palestine
[00:21:26] protesters, but also against like anti-militarist protester, this is very
[00:21:30] obviously case that they are trying to really really make an example
[00:21:34] of so that nobody dares follow it. this is case that does
[00:21:38] not just concern Germans, but it concerns everyone in the EU, and
[00:21:42] honestly worldwide, because Germany is the massive exporter of weapons to other
[00:21:45] European countries and worldwide, hence why the
[00:21:49] OEM5? destroyed a weapons company to begin
[00:21:52] with. linkton has
[00:21:55] become the latest company to wage war against AI. they're
[00:21:59] targeting that low quality AI generated content that
[00:22:02] increasingly fills our feeds. the platform has introduced a new
[00:22:06] feature called seems like AI slop. it lets any user
[00:22:10] flag posts they believe were written by AI. hate
[00:22:14] ar slop and i think it's actually ruining linkedin particularly
[00:22:18] not only with image creation but als the way that people are just writing posts, which
[00:22:21] is so fake and it's horrible. it's very easy to see this
[00:22:25] linkedin ai slop button. all you have to do is go find any
[00:22:29] post on linkedin that you think is created with ar slop. press those
[00:22:33] three dots over there and you're going to see that there's a button that says report
[00:22:37] ar slop. so next time you see too many bullet points, the word
[00:22:40] actually used over and over again, m-
[00:22:44] dashes,
[00:22:44] perfect formatting, super verbose writing, it's not this, it's that. next
[00:22:48] time you see those super... in authentic AI giveaways, if you
[00:22:52] don't like it, you can go and smash this seems like
[00:22:56] AI slop button. LinkedIn is not the
[00:23:00] only company tracking AI content and bot activity, and to be
[00:23:03] fair, they're a bit late to the game. other platforms like snapchat and
[00:23:07] substack have already rolled out tools to help users identify
[00:23:11] AI generated posts. some startups are also attracting funding
[00:23:15] to tackle the same issue, but like many things on the internet, the way
[00:23:19] linkedin to address the problem has become a talking point,
[00:23:23] while some have welcomed the move, others say it may not be effective
[00:23:26] enough. so unlike Google creating their EEAT
[00:23:30] algorithm, LinkedIn is now relying on you to report AI
[00:23:34] slop. here's why it's lazy on LinkedIn's part, anyone can press it,
[00:23:38] and the button has no reasoning to tell if it actually is AI
[00:23:41] slop. it goes for human review, so what is actually being
[00:23:45] measured, whether human read a post and felt nothing? so
[00:23:48] LinkedIn also announced: they're revising their rewrite this with AI
[00:23:52] function. yeah, the one that took your post and just rewrote it with AI,
[00:23:56] they're swapping that now for a proof reader, so it's a tool that leaves your voice
[00:24:00] alone and just checks for mistakes. so the platform for
[00:24:04] professional writing is a platform that is now using AI just to
[00:24:08] proof free for you. the move comes as frustration grows over
[00:24:11] inauthentic content online, and there is even a name for it.
[00:24:15] it's called the dead internet theory. it's a cultural concept that
[00:24:19] suggests "the internet is now largely driven by bots, automated
[00:24:23] content and artificial intelligence rather than by genuine human
[00:24:27] interaction. while this still called a theory, many
[00:24:31] say it has already become a reality. cloudstack data suggests
[00:24:34] automated boats and AI agents now account for more than half of
[00:24:38] web traffic, which means a growing share of what you see online could be
[00:24:42] machine generated and not just by bots. it's a bit
[00:24:46] more difficult to track, but more and more people are also benefit. from
[00:24:50] AI to write posts, scripts and even to enhance their
[00:24:54] images. AI is being added to everything,
[00:24:57] even products that don't really need it. some warn our obsession with
[00:25:01] AI could make it the new plastic. it's everywhere,
[00:25:05] convenient, and difficult escape. so are we repeating
[00:25:09] history? 10 years, people are going to look back at
[00:25:12] 2026 the same way that we looked back on plastic. when plastic first came out,
[00:25:16] it was revolutionary, it was convenient and it was worth it until... we found out
[00:25:20] the cost on our bodies, the cost in our environment way too late. plastic industry
[00:25:24] invented recycling to avoid being regulated. AI companies are now making this same
[00:25:28] play and it's working. here is something that no one is connecting. in the early 1980s plastic
[00:25:32] was about to get banned, cities were passing single used plastic restrictions, public was
[00:25:36] furious. internal industry documents which came out in litigation show that
[00:25:39] petrolchemical company's new recycling was not technically or economically
[00:25:43] viable for most plastics. what they did was fund a campaign called keep
[00:25:47] America beautiful. they invented the litter bug and they put a little recycle. triangle on the bottom
[00:25:51] of every bin, the message was, problem isn't with the industry, it's with you, we're not
[00:25:54] recycling properly, well clearly it worked, the cost of dealing with the plastic shifted from the
[00:25:58] companies to taxpayers, and if you want to know how well that's working out, less than
[00:26:02] 10% of all plastics are actually recycled. now look at AI in
[00:26:05] 2026. in March, the White House announced something called the rate payer
[00:26:09] protection plan. AI company signed it, but it's a voluntary non-binding
[00:26:13] agreement that they'll pay for their own electricity cost. it's a performative gesture
[00:26:17] that looks like accountability and functions as an aliby for not actually regulating
[00:26:21] anything. residential power bills are already up $16 to
[00:26:24] $18 a month in some states, simply due to
[00:26:28] data center demands and sure even if they do pay for all their own electricity, which they
[00:26:32] don't have. have to doesn't account for the amount of strain this puts on the
[00:26:35] environment and city, but it's not our fault, and just like plastic shifted
[00:26:39] the blame onto consumers, AI data centers are going to ship the blame to you. why are
[00:26:43] you using AI? when the real answer is why are we building these data centers in the
[00:26:47] first place? artificial
[00:26:51] intelligence is moving beyond software and into physical
[00:26:54] form. google deepmind has officially announced gemini
[00:26:58] robotics 2. it's a new operating system designed to control
[00:27:01] humanoid. spots from their toes to their fingertips with a single
[00:27:05] brain. robot tiny trash bag is actually a bigger breakthrough than
[00:27:09] robot doing a back flip. google deepmind just launched gemini robotics
[00:27:13] 2 and here's why that trash bag not is more important than you think: when
[00:27:17] you see some these viral robot demos, they're basically just regenerating memorized
[00:27:21] sequence of skills and if one small thing changes they crash, but a trash
[00:27:24] bag reshapes itself every time it's touched, so no two nots
[00:27:28] are ever the same and there's no sequence to memorize. basically there's two A models that...
[00:27:32] make it possible for this robot to figure things out its own, but Gemini Robotics
[00:27:36] 2 works from feet to fingertips, and they're even teaching multiple robots to
[00:27:40] communicate and work together on the same job. The same underlying AI can
[00:27:44] be adapted to completely different robot bodies in just few hours, and in
[00:27:48] on-device version can run locally without an internet
[00:27:50] connection.
[00:27:54] Imagine buying whatever you want, but your bank balance never goes
[00:27:58] down. It still sounds like a dream, but South Koreans have found the next
[00:28:02] best. thing retail therapy minus the price tag,
[00:28:06] so-called dopamin sites recreate the thrill of online shopping without
[00:28:09] spending a single cent, but can virtual carts deliver
[00:28:13] real joy? in Korea right now, there's people ordering food
[00:28:17] cards at 2 a.m. and they're actually not putting in real money, they're
[00:28:21] filling up the carts and never ordering anything, and this is all on
[00:28:25] purpose. this is the rise of something called dopamine sites in Korea,
[00:28:29] so you browse the menus, you add the food, and you actually add
[00:28:32] it to... your car minus the food at the end. another one that's built like smoke break, you go
[00:28:36] on your smoke break, you can see how many strangers are on break with you. people can leave
[00:28:40] each other little notes. here's what's happening right now, i think that these apps are
[00:28:44] actually just people trying to regulate themselves through these
[00:28:47] apps, so they're less looking for function, they're more looking for
[00:28:51] connection and more looking for uh to fulfill the sense
[00:28:55] of need for lot belonging, their need for
[00:28:59] validation, or think in the case the food delivery app is. to
[00:29:02] numb themselves from the pain or discomfort of having to deal
[00:29:06] with the problems. the whole phenomena can showcase like how society is
[00:29:10] feeling and the fact that this is on the rise means people are longing for
[00:29:14] something and that they need these sides to fill it and that maybe doom scrolling
[00:29:18] or playing video games are just not it anymore and people want to feel that sense of
[00:29:21] familiarity and comfort. and that's our show. find our latest
[00:29:25] stuff on youtube and do subscribe to our channel. see you
[00:29:28] soon.
[00:29:46] As kid I was very eager, I was very active, I loved to
[00:29:50] dance and I used to love to ride my bike, really
[00:29:53] good, fun, but those things about me started to
[00:29:57] change even though I knew something was wrong, I never imagined it would
[00:30:01] be this. "the lime disease bacteria barilia Berdorfri is
[00:30:05] definitely one the smartest bacteria on the planet. This organism knows how to
[00:30:09] change forms. I came here because I wanted to meet the pope buse I
[00:30:12] believe a miracle. I believe a miracle. There are more
[00:30:16] cases of lime disease than HIV and breast cancer
[00:30:20] combined. Storyteller, the
[00:30:24] quiet epidemic on TRT
[00:30:26] World."
[00:30:47] British people haven't been tack so hard for decades, so is
[00:30:51] it time to squeeze more out the very rich with the so-called
[00:30:54] wealth tax? A group of over hundred British millionaires including
[00:30:58] ex-football star Gary Linicker thinks it is, and they're asked.
[00:31:02] the government to tax them and other rich people more to
[00:31:06] create a fairer society, however, is it a good
[00:31:09] idea? has it ever worked? we ask two multimillionaires what
[00:31:13] they think i how hard it is to have nothing and but I've earned
[00:31:17] what I've got. The wealthy get wealthier, money begets money, and
[00:31:21] inequality just rises and rises. More from them a moment, but
[00:31:24] first what is a wealth tax and how would it
[00:31:27] work? We need to tax the
[00:31:30] billionaires. Tax working people less, tax the super rich more, tax worth not
[00:31:34] work. It's just fair. Where else are you going to get the money
[00:31:37] from? Raiding the piggy bank the ultra
[00:31:40] wealthy is attempting ruse for governments on the hunt for more cash.
[00:31:44] High. net worth individuals are very good at keeping income away from the
[00:31:48] tax man, but a wealth tax targets what they actually own.
[00:31:52] compared to a monthly paycheck, it's much harder to hide a mansion or
[00:31:56] picasso. this is the wealth tax equation: you
[00:32:00] add up the value of a person's property, investments, savings, business
[00:32:04] assets, take away any debts and that's the net
[00:32:08] worth. you then take a percentage the net worth.
[00:32:11] there are usually threshholds, for example, economists Zukman
[00:32:15] and Ben Tippet have suggested the UK government introduce a
[00:32:19] 2% minimum tax, their term for wealth tax on
[00:32:23] households worth more than 100 million pounds or $135
[00:32:26] million. The group called patriotic millionaires including figures
[00:32:30] like footballer Gary Linica, music producer Brian Eno and
[00:32:34] filmmaker Richard Curtis signed an open letter in Britain saying they were
[00:32:38] more than happy to pay the 2% wealth tax any fortune over 10 million
[00:32:42] pounds or around $13.5 million. the whole thing's gone
[00:32:46] upside down, that the playing field is
[00:32:49] completely tilted right into the pockets the wealthiest
[00:32:53] people, but there are plenty of reasons wealth taxes have poor
[00:32:57] record of success, people can be wealthy on paper because they own
[00:33:01] an expensive house for example, but have no liquid cash, that
[00:33:04] means they may not have the funds to pay the tax bill when it arrives, short
[00:33:08] of being forced to sell their house (not ideal) and of course
[00:33:12] the other issue, very wealthy people are..." mobile and tend to take their
[00:33:16] money elsewhere in the world when they feel threatened, and 2% of
[00:33:20] nothing is, well, the maths on that one is much
[00:33:23] easier. well, let's bring in our two millionaires now, and we have
[00:33:27] Mike Berners Lee who would like to see a wealth tax
[00:33:30] introduce, and we also have Tony Ershaw, who is strongly against
[00:33:34] it, our two economists will weigh in on the debate a little later
[00:33:38] in the program after they've heard the millionaires talking. uh, so let's go with
[00:33:42] you, first of all, Mike, you signed this letter? to the government asking for
[00:33:46] a wealth tax, why do
[00:33:48] you think it's necessary? well, because it's the simplest
[00:33:52] way of raising the revenue to
[00:33:55] fund safer, more secure and more
[00:33:59] just society, from which everybody, including the wealthiest
[00:34:03] people will benefit, so if you get
[00:34:05] to point of wealth where you have reasonable amount
[00:34:09] of disposable income, you actually better off by having a
[00:34:13] society in which for example the... rate is reasonably low and
[00:34:17] everybody can afford good healthcare and basic services are working
[00:34:20] properly and you're secure against threats um international
[00:34:24] threats as well so for all these reasons it's by far yeah it's it's
[00:34:28] by far um something that we all benefit
[00:34:31] from and the natural dynamics the
[00:34:34] economy are that the wealth unless you do something about it the
[00:34:38] wealth get wealthier the wealthy get wealthier money begets money
[00:34:42] and inequality just rises and rises
[00:34:45] "and
[00:34:47] uh that throughout history that has led to catastrophic collapse of
[00:34:51] civilizations, so it's something you need to intervene
[00:34:54] on, and why it needs to be a wealth tax
[00:34:58] is because it's not good me just giving all my money
[00:35:01] uh, what I'll benefit from is if me and everybody
[00:35:05] who's as wealthy as me or wealthier does
[00:35:08] likewise, you and others like Tony
[00:35:12] Ernshaw. Tony, are you in?" " and
[00:35:16] no, disagree with it, it's not because
[00:35:19] um entrepreneurs are greedy, it's because it
[00:35:23] simply doesn't work, it does the opposite of what we're trying to
[00:35:27] achieve and that is to raise more taxes for for the
[00:35:31] government, it is to create more business in and around the
[00:35:34] UK, it's to attract businesses to the
[00:35:37] UK, and for instance, if you put a
[00:35:41] 2% wealth tax on 100 million pound,
[00:35:45] That's two million pound okay that I have to find
[00:35:48] now millionaires across this country
[00:35:52] don't have liquid two million pounds just lying
[00:35:56] around so we have to do one of two things either
[00:36:00] sell that asset um to or refinance it to be able
[00:36:04] to pay for that tax or we have to draw down that
[00:36:08] money from our companies which we own. Now we've
[00:36:11] already paid 25%.
[00:36:16] um corporation tax on that money,
[00:36:19] then when we draw down as a dividend, we are then
[00:36:23] paying another 39, nearly 40
[00:36:25] percent. tax on that as as a
[00:36:29] dividend um so it doesn't
[00:36:33] work now we've got countries across Europe who have tried this
[00:36:37] over 10 countries and Austria, Denmark,
[00:36:40] Germany and one the most high profile ones and was
[00:36:44] in Sweden where the owner um of and the founder of
[00:36:48] IKEA actually left the country and that's what's been happening in this
[00:36:52] country in 2025 we
[00:36:54] had so
[00:36:58] sorry, 16 and a half thous millionaires leave this country.
[00:37:02] now why is that important? these millionaires are business owners
[00:37:06] like meself, we employ people, we pay our
[00:37:10] taxes on our business, we pay personal tax, we spend in this company, but we
[00:37:13] employ people, which is the most vital part of it, and these people i employ are also pay
[00:37:17] income tax, corporation tax, and without people like
[00:37:21] meself, the country will
[00:37:24] suffer and will have less capital investment. and
[00:37:28] overall and the company will not will raise less tax and and tony, if the
[00:37:32] government did bring a 2% tax on
[00:37:35] millionaires with over 10 million and assets, would you be tempted to
[00:37:39] leave the country? i love the
[00:37:42] UK, um, i think it's one the best places to do business,
[00:37:46] um, but there has to be tipping point, doesn't that when you say actually,
[00:37:50] is it better for me to do business
[00:37:53] elsewhere? um, and and lot of people have already done that, like i
[00:37:56] said thous millioners
[00:37:58] and a half have done it in 2025, we're in 2026, um, we need to be
[00:38:02] open for business, Britain needs to be open for business, we need to be pulling in
[00:38:06] investment, we need to be actually lowering corporation tax, maybe things
[00:38:09] like not taxing young people, because at the moment they can't get a job, if
[00:38:13] we law the taxes and give businesses what they need, which is incentives,
[00:38:17] every business needs incentives, we can actually stop the
[00:38:21] gap from young people being employed, and we can we can raise more
[00:38:25] taxes overall, okay, let me actually even say let me
[00:38:29] just put that to to Mike, Mike, um, Tony there raising the
[00:38:32] possibility that you know actually it would be disincentive for
[00:38:36] business people to um, you create employment and so on, and
[00:38:40] that they would just leave, basically just leave the country if you brought in a
[00:38:44] wealth tax that you're proposing, so first of all, will people just leave, I mean
[00:38:48] it's funny if if people were to leave, if if wealthier people were
[00:38:52] to leave um, that would just be a sign of their wealth
[00:38:56] actually imprisoning them, 'if you if you find yourself you're so rich that you're
[00:39:00] no longer free to live in the country you want to you want to live in because you're afraid that
[00:39:03] you'll be slightly less rich um i don't think that's the case and
[00:39:07] when this has been tried in the scandinavian countries where a wealth tax has
[00:39:11] worked only something like 0.01% the population did
[00:39:15] leave
[00:39:16] i think i want emphasize the extent to which uh we all
[00:39:20] benefit from the tax that we pay being put
[00:39:24] into public services so tony you know as he grew
[00:39:28] up uh benefited from going to school, I also
[00:39:32] went had a great state education that was funded by
[00:39:36] tax payers and
[00:39:37] I on my most of my staff also had the same
[00:39:40] now as I grew up if I got
[00:39:44] ill which I did from time to time I could get um I
[00:39:47] could get my healthcare sorted out for free and all this is
[00:39:51] incredibly important and it's incredibly important for me and probably
[00:39:55] Tony for his workers as well. that he knows that if they get
[00:39:59] ill uh they can get their health seen to and that their
[00:40:02] relatives are getting health careare sure the thing is mike you know uh
[00:40:06] Tony knows better than anyone he he actually grew up a council house how difficult
[00:40:10] it can be starting from the bottom and all the way through he's paid
[00:40:14] his dues tony just want to come in on
[00:40:16] that yeah i think it's important to recognize
[00:40:20] that um as business owners um for
[00:40:24] instance i started my business when i was 19 year old my very first business um, I
[00:40:27] started with 300 pound, my background is I come from a counselor
[00:40:31] state, quite a rough area, actually, and I grew up in poverty,
[00:40:35] um, and I managed to get half decent GCs at
[00:40:38] school, um, and I basically went into the business world, I started off
[00:40:42] actually as a winder cleaner, and now I have a
[00:40:46] multi-million pound business which operates in every single town and city in the
[00:40:50] UK, and but I did that with lot of stress, lot of financial risk
[00:40:54] to meself, lot of pressure, lot of hard work, there was some... days
[00:40:58] i wasn't sure i could pay my my rent and some
[00:41:02] some months i was that worried and made sure paid my employees before i even paid
[00:41:05] meself and i remember eat having one meal a day sometimes eating
[00:41:09] beans toast from aldi because that's all i could afford that's when a t of beans was only
[00:41:13] three pents um so you can't lecture me on on these things because i
[00:41:17] know how hard it is to have nothing - but i've earned what i've got
[00:41:21] um but i've also brought people up the chain with me employ these
[00:41:24] people you mentioned the NHS i actually um pay
[00:41:28] for everybody who works for me for private health insurance
[00:41:32] and their families are included in that, so anyone within their household
[00:41:36] including their children, including their wife, and so we do all
[00:41:40] already passed down this wealth and like I said I employ over 100 people across the
[00:41:44] UK and within UK commercial
[00:41:46] group um but there's this thing it
[00:41:50] raises very little tax there's very simple things we can do
[00:41:54] for instance if we went to cash free society which is something we could
[00:41:57] do practically within a year or two um
[00:42:01] that would raise over 20 billion pound in revenue for
[00:42:05] the government that's 2% the government spend that would going back to
[00:42:09] your... argument, build 20 hospitals, it would employ
[00:42:13] 400,000 nurses, um, and it's a much
[00:42:17] better way of raising revenue than actually just saying, you know what, you've
[00:42:21] done well in your life, we're just going to tax you even more for it, what incentive does that give
[00:42:25] me or anybody else who wants to start a business? thank you for that, just going to pause the debate
[00:42:29] for one second, according to one survey, vast majority of British
[00:42:32] millionaires support a wealth tax, even the ones with assets over
[00:42:36] 10 million pounds or $13 million dollars, back it, "the
[00:42:40] majority the general public back the wealth tax too, and to double
[00:42:44] check, we conducted our own straw poll around London. Do you think we should have
[00:42:48] a wealth tax in this country? Absolutely, yes, I do think that, I think
[00:42:51] that's
[00:42:52] that the wealthy have been getting away for far too long and they need to pay fair share their
[00:42:56] taxas. I just personally don't feel like we should
[00:42:59] penalize people for accumulating wealth and doing
[00:43:02] well, yeah, absolutely, for the rich, I think they should
[00:43:06] definitely be paying more. I don't think so, no, some people..."
[00:43:10] worked hard for it and just because you're rich in assets don't mean you're rich
[00:43:14] in money so
[00:43:16] you know it's a bit difficult for everyone, you need wealthy people because you want
[00:43:20] them to pay tax, who do you think pays for all the services that you get? i
[00:43:24] think that does need to be some kind of redistribution, start with the billionaires
[00:43:28] and then see how much revenue that generates and
[00:43:31] then sort of scale it out from there. back to our panel
[00:43:35] now, so steve davis, it seems that millionaires and the wider british
[00:43:39] public actually back a wealth tax, but does it ever
[00:43:42] work? now the point is that, well actually it's
[00:43:46] not a good way of raising revenue because it has all kinds
[00:43:49] of knock on effects, as Tony explained, which are
[00:43:53] detrimental to the dynamism and growth the economy as a whole and therefore
[00:43:57] the degree to which the government has tax base that it can generate revenue out
[00:44:00] of.
[00:44:01] the problem is that as bike himself has explained
[00:44:04] there, what wealth is is assets that generate
[00:44:08] income, and if ' that explained start of his
[00:44:11] remarks, in order to pay a wealth pack, you've got to
[00:44:14] liquidate uh some of that wealth, because you can't typically
[00:44:18] pay it out the current income that the asset generates. now
[00:44:22] that means you have to sell it to who? probably foreign owner, which does means
[00:44:26] a lot of that income stream is now going to go to foreigners and not be
[00:44:29] taxed, so even if you grant that we need more government
[00:44:33] revenue, this is not the most effective way of doing it,
[00:44:36] there are other ways of doing it, but he also made different argument.
[00:44:40] is that you want to prevent accumulating wealth inequality?
[00:44:44] now that's a fair enough argument, I'm not sure I agree with them, but granting for the
[00:44:47] sake of argument that that is something we should be worried about and you want to do something
[00:44:51] about it, I would argue that actually a wealth tax is not the best
[00:44:55] way of doing it, there are other things you can do which are more effective and less economically
[00:44:59] damaging like for example um reforming land
[00:45:03] title or having major radical land reforms because it's actually things
[00:45:07] like real estate that are the prime base of wealth
[00:45:11] inequality uh, all those things that Thomas Pickety was pointing
[00:45:14] out in his book few years ago, it's been since shown that most the increase in
[00:45:18] wealth inequality is talking about is
[00:45:20] due to real estate appreciation, houses and land becoming
[00:45:24] more monetarily valuable, and so if you do want to reduce wealth
[00:45:27] inequality, supposed to income inequality, something else, that's
[00:45:31] probably a there are better roots to go down to using the tax
[00:45:35] system to do it, the tax system has other purposes,
[00:45:39] but I don't think... that redistributing wealth is
[00:45:42] particularly a good thing to use tax for. understood, thank you, and Steve
[00:45:46] Keane, and would a wealth tax work in the
[00:45:48] UK? no, I don't think it would. uh, the
[00:45:52] different reasons that have been put forward so far, I think George
[00:45:56] Monviel put it very nicely a short while ago, and that was he said that the
[00:46:00] the poor paid taxes, the middle class pay lawyers and the rich
[00:46:04] pay politicians, and what you get out of that is the distortions we've seen in
[00:46:08] tax rates over time - that mean that the wealthier can locate their money
[00:46:12] in offshore tax havens if they wish to, they can
[00:46:16] evade paying the tax in the first instance, they can lobby for tax rates to be
[00:46:19] reduced, so all this stuff means the tax is very ineffective way of getting
[00:46:23] money back from the wealthy. now if you see where they get their money
[00:46:27] from, then part of it, yes of course is pr is private enterprise
[00:46:31] and success of businesses and all the very difficult things that go into making
[00:46:34] a business, but a large part of why the taxes
[00:46:38] accumulated is that they... don't actually pay the tax in the first
[00:46:42] place, it's something they managed to reduce their tax rate, so the effective rate
[00:46:46] on millionaires is probably below the effective right on straight
[00:46:49] on windows clean as these days given all the ch. that have occurred
[00:46:53] over time, but what we're all focusing on is the decline in the
[00:46:57] quality of public services, now major reason for that decline in the public
[00:47:01] services is we've been cutting spending in the belief the government shouldn't spend more than
[00:47:05] it takes back in taxation, and that's what's causing all
[00:47:08] these constraints on public house building and
[00:47:12] hospitals and and education services and so on, and that's
[00:47:15] a fallacy, when you take look at the accounting that's involved, the
[00:47:19] actual financial trans
[00:47:22] government spending and government taxation, it turns
[00:47:25] out that government spending more than it takes back in taxation is what creates
[00:47:29] back money. we actually need the government to run a deficit. now the
[00:47:33] obsession that the government should not run a deficit is partially
[00:47:37] why we're cutting spending and cutting taxes and cutting spending and cutting taxes,
[00:47:41] driving the economy 0% the economy
[00:47:45] rather than 20 or 30% as
[00:47:47] it is right now. what we should be doing is realizing we don't need to
[00:47:50] eliminate the deficit. part the problems we're facing and I would
[00:47:54] also point out that you can see this is developing right-wing
[00:47:58] reactions by billion by millionaires to taxation, well everybody
[00:48:02] has that reaction to taxation, nobody likes taxation coming out their
[00:48:06] income. now this is something which is only occurred since World War II
[00:48:09] fundamentally, and this means that
[00:48:11] you you vote for people are going to reduce your tax so everybody bts right wing, and as you
[00:48:15] cut the tax you also cut the spending, we should actually I'd rather have
[00:48:19] transaction taxes and things like that that are much harder. to evade and
[00:48:23] that are also aren't something that make people think they want to vote right wing.
[00:48:27] mike, have either of our economists changed your mind on trying
[00:48:31] to introduce wealth tax? well, it's clearly, you
[00:48:35] know, the issues are complex and I'm sympathetic certainly to the idea that you
[00:48:39] tax dodging, it's true that that
[00:48:43] um, the very wealthy tend to pay less tax, not more tax, and that's
[00:48:46] a massively real problem. um, I'm
[00:48:50] sympathetic to the idea of a wealth. tax that begins on just the
[00:48:54] very wealthy, maybe people with over hundred million for
[00:48:57] example, in wealth, because actually it's such a small number of people that
[00:49:01] you're dealing with that it's possible to actually uh, it's possible to
[00:49:05] actually get a handle um on that evasion, mean
[00:49:09] i do think uh, i'm also
[00:49:12] sympathetic to the detail of you, maybe there are other
[00:49:16] mechanisms by which it is possible to raise
[00:49:20] money by reducing.
[00:49:23] inequality and if there's another mechanic
[00:49:26] that uh that works better then great
[00:49:30] i'm up for it. i think my the biggest thing i want to say is i
[00:49:34] want to register my willingness to be part of
[00:49:37] contributing more to society because
[00:49:41] i'm able to as long as
[00:49:45] others link more would do the
[00:49:48] same and i think most people if asked are in.
[00:49:52] same position, yes we'd be prepay prepared to pay more for
[00:49:56] better society provided as wealthy as me or
[00:50:00] wealthy like mike, just quickly, Tony was trying to say there that
[00:50:04] you can actually do that already, there's nothing stopping you
[00:50:07] from just going online and paying more
[00:50:08] in tax, why don't you? no, because the caviat is as
[00:50:12] long as everybody as wealthy as me or wealthier
[00:50:16] does likewise, and that's why it needs a government intervention such as through
[00:50:20] tax system, the wealth tax that you're... proposing would affect people
[00:50:24] with assets over 10 million pounds or $13 million dollars,
[00:50:28] how many people who signed that letter have assets over 10
[00:50:32] million or 10 million pounds or 13 million dollars, i know that some
[00:50:35] them are actually under that threshold so they won't be affected by the wealth tax
[00:50:39] they're proposing, well i
[00:50:43] signed that tax,
[00:50:44] i signed that letter uh and tick the box and say a person of wealth
[00:50:48] because when i did the sums on my total assets including pension and everything
[00:50:52] came to more than million pounds right, and I consider that to be somebody of
[00:50:56] you, I, relatively speaking, if you don't consider that
[00:50:59] to be wealthy, then then you've kind of got a problem, but the principle
[00:51:03] is that those with the greatest wealth can and should
[00:51:07] and will also themselves benefit, I think this is key point that I
[00:51:11] think I'd want to maybe emphasize to Tony, he will benefit from
[00:51:14] being a society in which crime rates are under control and
[00:51:18] people get their health looked after and everyone in society, however
[00:51:22] wealthy they are, gets the opportunity to maximize their
[00:51:26] opportunities and their potential in life. I
[00:51:28] mean, and very importantly, we become a more secure
[00:51:32] nation, so all these are things, it's not as though we're taking a hit, Tony,
[00:51:36] I'm not suggesting that you and I take a hit, I'm suggesting that we actually have better
[00:51:40] lives. Well, as Tony mentioned earlier in the debate, several European countries have
[00:51:44] tried a wealth tax, but has it ever worked on the continent? Let's take
[00:51:48] a quick look. In 1990, more than
[00:51:51] dozen. countries had a wealth tax, now
[00:51:55] nearly all them have scraped it, why? france
[00:51:59] introduced its modern wealth tax in
[00:52:01] 1982 under. it raised little.
[00:52:05] revenue and was blamed for driving away the rich. in
[00:52:08] 1995, the cap limiting how much total direct tax household
[00:52:12] could pay was abolished and the wealthy began to leave, an
[00:52:15] estimated 42,000 millionaires left between
[00:52:18] 2000 and 2012, taking with them not just their wealth
[00:52:22] tax revenue, but also income tax and VAT
[00:52:25] contributions. Emmanuel Macron scrapped the wealth tax in
[00:52:29] 2018, replacing it with tax on property wealth over
[00:52:33] $1.4 million. Sweden's wealth tax dated back
[00:52:37] to 1911 and peaked at around 4% in the
[00:52:40] 1980s. Wealthy Swedes including tennis starf
[00:52:43] beyond bog and IKEA founder Ingabard Khambrad left
[00:52:47] to avoid it. The tax was formally abolished in 2007.
[00:52:51] Only three European countries still have a wealth tax: Norway,
[00:52:55] Spain and Switzerland. The Steve Davis, as we saw
[00:52:59] many European countries have tried it, many have scrapped it, with the exception of
[00:53:03] Switzerland, Norway and Spain, what lessons are there to be
[00:53:07] learned from the European examples? Well,
[00:53:11] that although wealth tax sounds pretty simple, in reality
[00:53:14] it turns out
[00:53:15] to be very, very complicated. For the fundamental reason, first of all, there
[00:53:19] are lots and lots of international tax treaties. Most these taxes
[00:53:23] aimed to tax global net wealth, but the problem is, if
[00:53:27] somebody for example, owns real estate in the United States, they can't be asked
[00:53:31] to pay tax and say Norway or Switzerland or Spain on that wealth.
[00:53:35] because the tax treaties the United States has, so all
[00:53:38] sorts of assets in global wealth are actually out of reach because of various complicated tax
[00:53:42] treaty range between different sovereign jurisdictions.
[00:53:46] secondly, because actually valuing wealth, particularly amongst the super
[00:53:50] wealthy is very very difficult, because lot their wealth consists of
[00:53:53] tradeable financial assets, and working out what the net value
[00:53:57] of all those assets is actually very, very tricky, and so in
[00:54:01] practice wealth taxes tend to become very, very comp
[00:54:05] and
[00:54:05] they typically therefore don't raise kind of large sums of
[00:54:09] revenue that many people hope that they will, they also tend to have very
[00:54:13] significant knock-on effects in particular, they tend to fall
[00:54:17] mainly on people who generate a large amount of current income out of business
[00:54:21] activities, not so much on people who hold what you might call
[00:54:24] passive wealth such as real estate of various kinds, which is
[00:54:28] exactly the opposite of what you want to do essentially, and so for those
[00:54:32] reasons they tend to find that they're simply not worth the trouble, that's why
[00:54:36] they give it up, and finally, as Norway for example, has found out since
[00:54:40] 1921, uh, what you often get is an exodus
[00:54:43] of very high networth individuals, lot of Norway's
[00:54:47] richest citizens have left since the tax rate there was put up to
[00:54:51] 1.1% for really large fortunes and they've moved
[00:54:54] elsewhere, notably to Switzerland, which does have a wealth tax, but a much lower
[00:54:58] level and also on non-federal basis, so you have all these
[00:55:02] different problems, and the conclusion that lots of actually pretty left-wing
[00:55:06] governments in Europe have arrived at is, it's just not worth the amount
[00:55:10] of administrative grief and low results and you
[00:55:14] get from it, you might as well look for some other way of getting
[00:55:17] income out the wealthy uh and tax revenue that is out the wealthy
[00:55:21] and of dealing with wealth inequality, that's what you're worried
[00:55:24] about. mike, just coming towards end the
[00:55:27] the program, a quick answer from you and tony, um, do you expect the government
[00:55:31] to actually listen to you, no we have new prime minister, Andy Burnham, he said It's
[00:55:35] not off the table, but it doesn't look like it's his
[00:55:37] priority. Well, I'm sympathetic
[00:55:41] to detailed and nuanced analysis of what the exact
[00:55:45] best mechanism is, if there's if there's something that
[00:55:49] practically works better than a wealth tax
[00:55:52] at finding ways of taking money from the very wealthy and using
[00:55:56] it to improve our society, then I'm
[00:56:00] sympathetic to uh, getting at some different form of
[00:56:03] detail, but I think the... principle is absolut, that's that's really what
[00:56:07] I'm here to advocate for, I think
[00:56:11] society, even for the very wealthy. You wrote a letter to the prime minister, I'm
[00:56:15] just wondering, he's he's new into the job, although he's just gone on
[00:56:19] holiday uh, do you think that he is going to take up
[00:56:23] your cause? I hope Andy Burnham does the right
[00:56:26] thing a few different fronts, I think he's got, there's a great
[00:56:30] opportunity to put us a good a better course here if
[00:56:34] he takes them. I hope he does understood and turn your message to Andy
[00:56:38] Burn, I'm sure he's watching, well I'm hoping Andy's going to be
[00:56:42] a bit of a right leaning socialist and um actually instead of just
[00:56:46] taxing is maybe think about a bit of growth for the UK which will
[00:56:49] raise lot more tax than a wealth tax whatever whatever
[00:56:53] create and get the get the company the country open for
[00:56:57] business again and start bringing in outside investment instead of
[00:57:00] circulating the same money round and round and round Tony Earnshow Mike
[00:57:04] Berners. Lee, Steve Daves and Steve Kean, thank you all very
[00:57:08] much for your expertise today, really appreciate that, and thank you at home and
[00:57:11] on your phones for watching, if you want to see this episode or any of our previous episodes, go to our
[00:57:15] channel on youtube, just type in nexus dr. Till next week then,
[00:57:19] goodbye,
[00:57:34] but why is it africana only? I'm telling you
[00:57:38] today, they are going to
[00:57:39] live,
[00:57:46] we got that. flag down our throats all
[00:57:50] the time, you're not allowed to talk, oh no, that you
[00:57:54] oh, that's
[00:57:54] tabu,
[00:58:02] it's supposed to be safety device, breathe in, breathe out and avoid the
[00:58:06] fumes around you, they knew what day they would come
[00:58:10] die,
[00:58:14] if Europe does not soon wake up, you face. every
[00:58:17] day: is NATO
[00:58:21] a competitor or a threat? NATO is a threat to
[00:58:25] Russia.
[00:58:30] racism towards gypses and travelers is the last accepted former
[00:58:34] racism in this
[00:58:36] country. We
[00:58:40] were here yesterday, we're here today and we'll be here
[00:58:43] tomorrow. Beyond borders on TRT
[00:58:46] World.
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[00:59:30] The Balkans is at the crossroads of history,
[00:59:34] foreign influence has always weighed heavily on the
[00:59:37] people. The war in Ukraine
[00:59:41] has tested a fragile
[00:59:42] car.
[00:59:47] As global powers consider their next steps, few take
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[00:59:59] Across the Balkans on TRT
[01:00:02] World.
[01:00:25] Hello and welcome to TRT World, this is the news out, we're live from London
[01:00:29] with me, Maria Ramos, great to have your company, coming up in the next 60
[01:00:33] minutes, as Iran says a straight off's deal with Oman is
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[01:00:41] messy and will take time. In Yemen, at least 35
[01:00:45] government troops are reported to have been killed in. the attacks on military
[01:00:48] camps and Israeli forces launch wave of air strikes
[01:00:52] on southern Lebanon despite a fresh round of peace talks in Rome
[01:00:56] and Ukraine hits two oil refineries in multiple strikes
[01:01:00] inside Russia. Zelensky says the aim is limiting Moscow's
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