and controlling ones, are ruling and controlling in various press when it comes to the muslim society and community in the uk, they, they, they control the whole narrative. and the muslim and the muslim brotherhood and the islamists are do when he came

he said he would do when he came in, which is then these wars and the war in gaza and the war in ukraine. he's really looking at short term outcomes here. and i think that that's what we're going to be seeing going forward with this potential forced peace deal >> an irony, a paradox as far as i'm concerned. donald trump is putting america first, but apparently happy to see russia, the historic enemy, triumph in europe. i mean, triumph in the short term by getting, you know, a good result for putin in ukraine. but, i mean, if europe is to be defenceless, there's been quite a lot of talk this morning about what russia's next

move might be. is this really in the interests of the united states? >> i don't think it's in the united states interest at all to be negotiating with a bully and an authoritarian like vladimir putin. i think it's a very worrying moment for europe. as you say. it feels like we've been left defenceless on our own. america clearly no longer going to stand up for europe and for the for the shared values. essentially the post, the settlement that we had, you know, the whole notion of the nofion know, the whole notion of the notion of the west. it appears to be fracturing at the moment. i think if there's one positive outcome that might come out of this, i think you alluded to it at the top, is that europe does wake up. i think we've been complacent. i think we need to increase defence spending across the board. and this may be the moment that we do start taking responsibility for our own defence again. >> matthew, how realistic is that latter point? i mean, we do already spend 2% of gdp in the united kingdom on defence, which is quite a large sum of money. and yet, apparently we cannot deploy submarines, we cannot deploy submarines, we cannot deploy ships, aircraft carriers.

we've got an army of 70,000. and it's thought that we might might be able to deploy a brigade, which is quite a small number of soldiers. so, you know, the idea, even even if we go to 2.65, any number you choose, if we're spending our money this ineffectively, i mean, this we can't even put peacekeeping troops into ukraine, let alone defend ourselves. if russia, if russia came for us. >> yes. i mean, i don't think russia's got any capability to come for us either. let us not. i think one of the things is that trump is doing, you know, he's rather an 80s character. he's kind of stuck in in his heyday. i think he thinks, you know, he's thinking he wants to have a nice summit, you know, the summits of the 1980s, which eventually helped bring about the end of the cold war. and he thinks that and he's thinking, you know, that russia is still the power that it was. what, of course, he is doing is ignoring the other real world power, which is china. and so what we've interestingly said this week is we've had china saying

that europe must be involved in any peace talks. he's pushing europe into the arms of china, which is not in the long term interest of america. you're absolutely right, of course. whether whether, you know, spain spends 1.4 or 2% or we spend 3% and not 2% of our gdp on defence. the whole of as we were saying, as you're saying, the whole of the post—war settlement was based around the fact that we operated together, you know, yes, we need to do more in europe, the number of countries have started to do it. some countries spend more than 3%. but, you know, little estonia on its own is never going to hold back the russian might. and if and if trump wants to go down this absolutely insane path, then he is going to change the world. and it's not going to be to the benefit of america, because it's not 1945 and america does not have all its all its own way. >> there is one. >> there is one. >> we do need to take blame ourselves, don't we? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> the united kingdom and other europeans. matthew is right that the deal was that we did things together, but we, the europeans, have reneged on that deal. we've not done nearly sufficient. the united states is a serious

military force. we know that europe, which is a comparable size economy, is not in any way a serious military force. we have brought this upon ourselves. >> i do agree with that to some extent. and i do understand the frustrations that trump is saying that, you know, we've been putting our part into this to fund the ukraine war and protect it. and europe hasn't been doing enough. our defence spending right now is 2.3%, and there's only three countries in there's only three countries in the allies right now who are meeting their gdp per capita defence spending, which is us, the uk, the us and greece. surprisingly, italy is not making it. germany is not making it. they're actually saving around £25 billion not around £25 billion by not technically making their

expenses revelations about her expenses in a previous job, some fudging of her cv on linkedin. so i think she's in trouble. and as lester said, her wiggle room, her her fiscal headroom has been completely knocked out. so she's in a really difficult position, i think. and it does sound like in a battle between her and the

foreign secretary, david lammy, david lammy has been victorious. she's in a corner. the one thing i would say about america and about europe, we have been too complacent. our politicians have been failed to be honest with us about the trade offs involved.

welcome back to sunday with michael portillo. thousands of pro—palestine protesters took to the streets of barbaric

of october attacks, the barbaric 7th of october attacks in some ways kill the two state solution, particularly since, as you said in your introduction, michael, the whole region has changed. hezbollah emasculated syria, now dominated by probably a turkish backed turkish backed militias at the moment. we'll see how that works out. and iran very, very, very firmly weakened and on the back foot. and i find it difficult to see

solution for gaza. >> i mean, you do raise this very important question about what the muslim states with money and power and relationship with the united states and to some extent, relationship with israel, what they might be expected to do. i'm talking in particular about saudi arabia and egypt, but uae and qatar come into this. >> yes, indeed. and of course, there's a big division between qatar, uae and saudi arabia over their relationship with the muslim brotherhood in a whole. and of course, hamas is an offshoot offshoot of that. but i think it is part of, again, this is that old cry. if you want to understand the problem, get a bigger map. there's no doubt

about it. this is linked to what's going on in ukraine and russia. this is linked to what's going on in, you know, with with the relationship with china. it is linked to iran. and of course, many people believe that hamas launched the attacks on the 7th of october precisely to stop a rapprochement, perhaps between saudi arabia and israel between saudi arabia and israel be very difficult now because the emotions running about the palestinians, as i say, i draw a very sharp distinction between hamas and the palestinians in this case. yeah. so it is interesting what will be on the agenda when trump goes to saudi arabia, because it will not just be using saudi arabia as a base to talk about, you know, ukraine, russia, i'm sure. >> well, let's hope that the president steps up to the plate because as you say, you need to get a bigger map. it's a complicated problem. it needs a lot of thought. thank you very much indeed, general. sir. simon mayall coming up this week, italian police have launched a new series of raids to target mafia clans operating in and around the sicilian capital,

palermo. i'll be joined by a man whose family was involved in the cosa nostra. this is sunday with michael portillo only on gb news.

welcome back to sunday with michael portillo. the mafia in sicily was apparently set back in the early 1990s by an investigation that led to many of its leaders being imprisoned. the murder of giovanni falcone and paolo borsellino, the two judges who led the inquiries, led also to a popular revolt against the criminals. iron grip on society. now 1200 police officers have launched a new series of raids to target mafia clans operating in and around the sicilian capital, palermo, resulting in at least 180 arrests. the aim is to stop resulting in at least 180 arrests. the a