Russell Brand the rapist | The News Agents

Russell Brand used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women. Given how untouchable Russell Brand seemed for so long, no matter how famous you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how big your bank balance is, he is a convicted rapist as of today. This is going to be painful listening, but I'm going to tell you what the charges The News Agents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, and the counts are now. opening up a world of opportunity. This is a global production. Thank you for your time today. As I've repeatedly stated publicly and written about extensively, I led a very promiscuous life in the past, which I've spent years openly denouncing. I've never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity. That is Russell Brand in a police interview room after he had been arrested on allegations of rape. His counter to that was any sex he engaged in was always consensual. But today a jury has found Brand guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The judge has warned him he'll spend a significant period of time behind bars. Welcome to the News Agents. The News Agents. It's John. It's Maitlis. And it's hard to overstate what a fall this is for Russell Brand, who has been a controversial figure, certainly. He was a superstar. Back when these allegations are said to have happened, well, not allegations, when these things did happen, when this rape did happen, when these sexual assaults did happen, they are now proven against Russell Brand. He is a convicted rapist as of today. And the judge, in his summing up... Bland will be back for sentencing on Monday, has said that he is going to face a significant custodial sentence. So he's going to be behind bars. And after a case like this, what happens is that Russell Brand is taken down and put in a cell. And it is just such an astonishing image, given how untouchable Russell Brand seemed for so long. And what this all stems from is... An investigation carried out by the Sunday Times, by Ros Irwin and Charlotte Waits, who did amazing reporting in bringing this to public attention, and by Channel 4 as well. And it led to a very different picture of the Russell Brand, the cheeky chappie, the kind of funny guy, the late night comedian, the Radio 2 disc jockey, suddenly saw him in a much... Darker light. And the jury today voted and agreed to convict on one charge of rape and three of sexual assault. Yeah, this is going to be painful listening, but I'm going to tell you what the charges and the counts are now. Count six was a charge of rape between winter and spring of 2009 when Brandon, I know many of you will have followed this. Court reporting and followed some of the stories that came out of court. When he anally raped a woman at his home in Hampstead after previously meeting her at his gig at the Hammersmith Apollo, the jury has found Brand guilty. He's also been found guilty in the summer of 2004, a party at a bar in Soho when he grabbed a woman's breasts. He has been found guilty in the summer of 2004 or 5 when he sexually assaulted a woman at Choice FM. And he's been found guilty of sexual assault in, again, the summer of 2004 or 5, when he assaulted another woman also at Choice FM. So what you have here is a picture emerging of a pattern of behaviour. It wasn't one woman and one rape, although, frankly, that would have been enough. It would easily have been enough. If he had been convicted of that, but it is a pattern that is emerging here of various women who have finally been able to come forward and talk about what happened to them. And I think it's important to understand this element of what the Met is now telling us that Russell Brand used his influence. status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women. As his profile grew so too did his sense of entitlement and I have to say I remember at Newsnight interviewing Russell Brand he was as you say John a superstar. He was somebody who could command a crowd, who could flirt with a crowd, he was adored by the media, he was given jobs at the BBC, he was given jobs at I was at Channel 4 and There was to some extent, I think, a wall of silence around what anyone felt they were able to say because of who he was and because of how popular and how powerful he became. It is a story of sexual abuse we have now heard so many times. Frankly, men who have become so powerful and so entitled that no one dares speak out against them. We can cross to Andy Hughes, who is our crime agent back in the Newsagents HQ for us now. Andy, you've been following this whole trial much more closely than we have here in Washington, D.C. Just bring us up to date with what we're hearing so far this morning. Well, before the verdicts, Russell Brand stood outside the door of the dock. He looked at his wife, Laura. He said, I love you to her. He then kissed a pendant before closing his eyes and waiting for the verdicts. The jury took over eight and a half hours to reach their verdicts and sat through three weeks of evidence. The key, most important charge that he has been found guilty of. Is this rape in 2009? A young fan whose dad had bought her a ticket to watch her in Hammersmith. Brand had joked on stage that if anyone wanted to join him in his dressing room for sex, then they could. She said. She was treated like an animal and taken by surprise. This was all about consent. And these cases are notoriously difficult to prove. And the reason this one has been proved is that the victim told people contemporaneously about what Russell Brand had done to her. She told her friends. She told her family. She went to a sexual health clinic. And this all really... helped the jury form their verdict and also really helped the prosecution because over the course of time you are losing key forensic evidence and it comes down to in court what he said she said and in fact the fact that she told people uh close people to her really helped the the prosecution case now today Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy from the Metropolitan Police, he says that the verdict is first and foremost a testament to the extraordinary courage, resilience and determination of the women who came forward. Now, crucially, we are now told that the Metropolitan Police now believe there is more victims to come and they are appealing for more women to come forward. I can also tell you that Russell Brand, in fact, tried to get this case thrown out. Before the trial, he said he was too famous and effectively could not get a fair trial. But the judge threw that out and said that was nonsense. And today, justice has been done for those victims who've bravely come forward. Andy, I'm trying to understand the Russell Brand argument that he was promiscuous, but it was all consensual. It clearly wasn't, and he clearly must have known it was not consensual. How quickly was that thrown out? Well, this is what this whole trial was about. Did the women consent or not? All the women said they didn't, and in fact, they said it was only after they saw that documentary. And the good work that those journalists did, that in fact they realised that they did not consent. So that's really what this whole case centred on. Russell Brand's defence team said that these women were only coming forward because of the documentary. They hadn't reported it beforehand. And why would he get in touch with the victims after the rape? That's not what rapists do. Well, the jury did not believe that defence. I interviewed Russell Brand a number of times actually, but at one point he wrote this sort of self-help book, Andy, and it was all about his sort of road to recovery and how he'd come to understand himself and how he'd found himself now he was married and he had a baby daughter. And I remember saying to him, this was on Newsnight, I wonder what you'd think if your own daughter met someone like you. Just have a listen. When you look back at that promiscuous lifestyle, do you think, does that appall you? Do you think, God, I was disgusting? Do you look at your daughter now and think, I hope she never meets Russell Brand when she grows up? Don't get so worked up about it. It's only a rhetorical device. Does it appall you? No, my dear. I don't look back at the past and get all worked up about it like Ebenezer Scrooge. I simply think those are some things I've done. I've amended for them. And as for the likelihood of some sort of... Faustian kick up the arse from future Russell, if my daughter meets somebody who's caring and sensitive and knows how to communicate, then I think that will be a good thing. It is pretty chilling to listen back to that now. I mean, again, he tries to sort of laugh his way through it and he makes fun of me for being rather, I think, po-faced in that that interview. But as we sit here now, and I'm sort of struggling to find the words, he is facing a jail sentence, right? Yes, and a significant one at that. For anything like rape, you will be given a lengthy term. And in fact, the judge has told him that in the dock today. He told him that he will be remanded in custody because you will receive a significant jail term. This case really also... really throws out questions about enabling. Now, every person, every celebrity, every person of power who commits these types of offences, they need enablers. So, really, questions need to be asked. Who knew what? Who saw what? Who heard what? And what did they do about it, if anything? And do you think, Andy, that juries, judges, the Met Police, The police themselves are getting better. better at understanding these cases of sexual assault because we have traditionally notoriously low conviction rates when it comes to rape, precisely because of the conversation we're having now. Was it consensual? Did they really say no loudly enough? All the questions that surrounds women being believed in this space actually. Do you sense that that is changing Or was this a particular case because Frankly, there was this mountain of evidence that had come from investigative reporting first. Well, there's no doubt that since the Me Too movement that police and prosecutors have got a lot better at taking these cases to court. But the reality is, is that a lot of cases, a lot of rape victims will come forward and it could be five years until that actually gets to court. Has this one been rushed to court because it's so high profile? The cynical part of me would say yes. But I speak to these victims all the time. And quite often these victims get fed up of waiting. They're having to put their whole lives on hold for several years. And so this is an anomaly, shall we say, that this case has come to court fairly swiftly and that justice has been done for those victims. Obviously, there is anonymity when it comes to the victims, but have we had people speaking on their behalf since that verdict came out? Well, I do know that the victims have been extremely upset by the fact that Russell Brand has been doing regular posts and updates, Thank you. big long podcast sessions with his wife while the trial is going on. In fact, he has been commenting on the case. He's been walking in and out of court. We've all seen that footage and those images and I'm told by detectives that these victims are extremely upset by him doing that and the detectives themselves, they were really worried that this could potentially lead to the case collapsing. We already know that he tried to throw it out because he was in quotes too famous but the judge did not have any of that. So it's so interesting. This is a whole new kind of area for us. So he was trying to collapse his own court by essentially court reporting on himself. Well, that's what some people have suggested to me, because frankly, he was definitely. Secondly, Well, potentially crossing the line for contempt of court. Now, it is very difficult to collapse your own trial. Smile. But I just think the authorities, the judge, the police, they just thought, let's just let this play out and see what the verdicts are. And if the verdicts don't go our way, then let's consider our next course of action. And frankly, the last thing the victims wanted was for this to collapse and then... They have to go through that whole process again. But, you know, by law, defendants can't do that. A normal defendant can't just start streaming. Hour-long sessions talking about his mental state, how he feels and commenting as you're coming into court. I do know quite a lot of broadcasters were in two minds whether to broadcast his comments. I believe it was one of the early days or the first day of when he was giving evidence. He was saying, you know, I'm finally grateful that the truth will be heard. I mean, that's suggestive. That is contempt of court. And yet, People were reporting this. I think once one broadcaster went, I think everyone did. Will he appeal? We don't know. You would assume he would. But I assume since he has made no secret that he is innocent of all these charges that he probably will appeal. But that is a very long process. You're looking at years and years. He will be sentenced before that and he will get a long prison term. Andy Hughes, thanks so much. Thanks. It was astonishing watching those pictures every day of him arriving for court and leaving for court because he was dressed as though going to a film premiere. You know, the shirt undone, the wing collar, the kind of scarf halfway down his chest. You're thinking, I mean, what impression was he trying to create for the jury by going into court? Looking like that every day as if I'm still the grand film star and I'm arriving and, you know, the crowds are waiting for me. It was the Roy Cohn playbook. Never apologize, never explain. And I don't think that was coincidental because. Russell Brand has taken himself into MAGA circles, into MAGA influencer circles. We saw him in 2024 at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, and he had set up a whole podcast studio. He was being interviewed by none other than Eric Trump, you know, and there was this whole kind of. Stick around this poor guy, poor Russell Brand, he's being chased, he's being hounded by the liberal media, they don't really understand. And it was all the bro talk, you know, that he was going towards. He'd found his home on Rumble. Do you remember that kind of incredibly toxic site, which was where sort of, you know, MAGA went to shout even more loudly than they were everywhere else? Emily, you're talking about two years ago. I mean, he appeared at a Make America Healthy Again summit. In Washington, just a few weeks ago, just before the trial started, he was about to go back and appear in court, and he's appearing at a Make America Healthy Again rally. And look, you know, we can't draw too many lines. With old RFK. Yeah, with RFK Jr. Snap poses for a photo with him. I mean, look, we can't draw too many lines. You know, this is a guy who's been found guilty of rape. But what you have had is this sense among certain people, and we've been talking about it all this week, That the people around Trump behave and act as though they have impunity and immunity from any consequences for their actions. What we've seen in court today is that no. The rule of law still applies no matter how famous you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how big your bank balance is. And Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault by, you know, 12 men and women, his peers. Look, I don't want to go too woo-woo about all this, but there is a strange sort of alignment of the stars, isn't there, that Forty-eight hours after Trump has his biggest kicking of any president in a midterm election since post-Watergate, since 1974, there is this moment where Russell Brand, in a completely different time zone, with a completely different set of jurors, is found guilty. And there is something that feels as if it's happening in the air. There is a sort of sense of change, sense of things. Maybe getting done. I won't go further than that, but it's been one hell of a week. And just to say that the police have said that two other women have now come forward with allegations of rape. So, you know, he's been found guilty. In the court today, but there could be further legal action being taken against Russell Brand. When we come back, we're going to be talking about the response of all those who used to be very close to Trump about what happened on Tuesday night. And we'll be asking if the Democrats are shaping up to be more centrist than anyone saw coming. Now it's time to thank our partner, HSBC UK Commercial Banking. When you're growing your business, you need a banking partner as invested in your success as you are. And with HSBC UK, business financing is about more than just money. 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That's Donald Trump. Yesterday, the first response to the absolute nightmare defeat that he suffered was to bring White House correspondents into the building site that is now his ballroom and also show them the wonderful new helipad he's built on the South Lawn. It's sort of, I don't know, Kublai Khan and Xanadu. He's now in his little private heaven full of little gold edging and, you know, columns and pillars and all the rest of it and it's like the outside world he's cut himself off from and it's the outside world that has delivered this horrendous result and has led i think with astonishing speed to some of the republicans the leading republicans kind of Creating a bit of distance between themselves and him with an eye to 2028. Look, the scale of delusion inside his head is something to behold. He is unable, unwilling, to fathom what has just happened in the last 48 hours and what it says directly about him. But here's the thing, that the longer Trump spends on his helipad, on his ballroom, on his beams, on his arches, the easier it is, literally, for everyone else in the world. It's easier for the Democrats to get on with the job and it's easier, I think, for Republicans to start to find that distance. that they are searching after so rapidly now. We told you yesterday that J.D. Vance was the first to come out of the traps, pointing the finger directly at Trump's Iran war for the chaos it had caused. In the world and at the ballot box and today we had a similar message from Ted Cruz. Now to put this in context Ted Cruz has never liked Donald Trump. He stood against him in 2016 he was the last bastion basically of people that were trying to tell the party he was not the right man for the job and Ted Cruz is the Texas senator who came round to Trump ultimately because frankly he had very little choice. Is Ted Cruz now seeing an opening for himself? Is JD Vance trying to see an opening for themselves? There is a race now to be the first, the loudest and create the most distance from the man who frankly put them in the places, many of them, they are today. Well, that is what is so interesting. And I think the J.D. Vance one particularly. You know, Ted Cruz, he's the Texas senator. He doesn't hold a post in the administration. He's pretty free to do what he likes. J.D. Vance is in a much more difficult position because he has to be the cheerleader for the president as vice president. And I think that what J.D. Vance has seen ...is what happened in the last election cycle when Kamala Harris was trying to run as a candidate of being something new and different from Joe Biden, whilst at the same time defending everything that Joe Biden did. It's very difficult to pull that trick off, to be both separate, both be offering something new and defending everything you've just done. And I think that J.D. Vance has said, if I'm going to do this, I need to do it fast. And I think that it showed real... The extent of political calculation that what he posted on X was not something that he just alighted upon. It was something that he had been carefully calibrating about how to say it. And it brought a very sharp rejoinder from the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, who really went for Vance. How about that? We're not even 12 hours or whatever since the polls closed and he's already trying to distance himself from Donald Trump. Let's be clear. You can't delete the stink of Donald Trump. Once it's on you, it is stuck on you. And J.D. stinks, man. And he is not going to be able to tweet his way out of that. I think J.D. Vance has proven to be a real liability for this administration and someone that the American people seemingly don't like or trust. I wish he would have come and campaigned here for my opponent. And I might have been able to get a couple extra points in the... election. And so, yeah, I think what is clear is that those who attach themselves to Donald Trump, they paid a price in this election. They'll pay a price going forward and J.D. will be exhibit A. And actually, whilst we're talking to you, The Independent in the UK is reporting that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is on resignation watch. This is not breaking news in the sense that we don't have confirmation he is really going to resign or has resigned. But it is an inclination of what is going on, perhaps, in some of the heads of those next to Trump. Rubio was tied to Trump's war, I think, more closely than anyone else. And Rubio is the one who actually has been greeted with cheers and has become quite popular in the last few months, really probably at the expense of J.D. Vance. When he appears on the stump, he gets cheers. He gets pats on the back. I never really understood why, given that he has also been sort of in the middle of Trump's foreign policy. But if he does resign, and it is a big if, we will understand from that that he is trying to get away from this administration as quickly as his little legs will take him in the hope that in two years' time people will have completely forgotten Marco who, what, Rubio who, did what, and he can reinvent himself as a brand new person. and come back into the fray as a candidate? I think it's absolute chaos in the White House now. And I think that maybe Rubio is thinking, I need to resign before I get sacked because Donald Trump is going to want scalps for the various kind of things that he... Look, Donald Trump has acknowledged to some extent that the defeat in the midterms was down to the Iran war. I mean, the Iran war, sure, contributing factor, but it was overwhelmingly a whole pile of other stuff. But Rubio was seen to be a champion of it. The other person, I think, who will be walking the plank soon or facing impeachment is Mr. War himself, Pete Hegseth. Because I think that there is a real feeling that he misled Congress over what was happening in Iran. He was disingenuous about the money that had been spent. He has a huge number of questions to answer. And it's possible that those Republicans who've lost their places Their seats, their states, because Donald Trump kind of forced them out, Tom Tillis et al, will vote for Pete Hegseth's impeachment. And therefore, how much better to get in ahead of it? And so Pete Hegseth could resign or Trump could fire him. I think there is going to be score settling. I think there's going to be a bloodbath in, you know, amidst all the golden arches and gilt. in the White House behind us. It's so interesting, fascinating how quickly this went south for Trump because if you look at the first year, He sounded like a man on a mission. He had this whole Project 25 and he was doing the things that Americans, frankly, had told him they wanted him to do. And he said, do you want mass deportation now? And they said, yes, we're going to vote you in for mass deportation now. He did get immigration under control in the most horrific, inhumane way. But he was responding to something that Americans had said they wanted. You know, maybe they didn't understand. Maybe they didn't really believe the consequences of what happens when you round up your neighbours, you round up your communities, you put people on dark flights to places that they will never return to. But he was answering what people had told him they wanted. And there was a period, I think for about six months, where... He will have looked and said, well, you know, you told me you wanted tariffs. You wanted to equalise trade. You told me you wanted to get immigration under control. You told me you wanted to secure the border. And then it's almost as if he ran out of things to do in his immediate vicinity. The Epstein Papers scandal came along, or I should say he created it by not releasing them. And then the war that started in February is the only thing people can remember now. I mean, that's what's so fascinating. You know, do we remember? That he went after the lawyers. Do we remember that he went after the universities? Do we remember that he went after the campuses? Do we remember the Comeys of this world that he tried to lock up? Do we remember all these other bits of his kind of Project 2025 agenda of, you know, whatever he would call it, de-wokifying or stopping lawfare or creating lawfare, whatever he was doing. But now if you talk to people, the only thing that they actually... Remember, the only thing that is front of anyone's mind is gas prices linked to Iran war. I would add one other thing, which is partly to do with what you've just said about Epstein. It's the corruption. I think the twin effects of the rising prices and the astonishing monetisation of the presidency and the self-enrichment of those people around Donald Trump who are making millions in backhanders and contracts and all the rest of it. But I mean, there's some really great New York Times reporting today by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, as ever. Where they talk about this call that took place last week by all the key people that are part of the midterms campaign. And they were kind of, the call starts with them, do I take the white cyanide or the black cyanide pill first? You know, they knew that ---- was coming. They knew they were in for an absolute brutal kicking. And that it was just gallows humour all the way through the call. But the pollster, the chief pollster, said, He said, look, if you look How we are doing, and put it against the timeline of the Trump war in Iran starting at the end of February, that is when their poll numbers start to go down and then the prices go up and the Democrats seize on affordability absolutely brilliantly. Yeah, and the Democrats are, I think today, working out... What their response is to too much good news. And we started to look at this a little bit yesterday. The different responses that are coming from the new senators-to-be. The ones who say, we've just got to get them. Or we've got to go after them. Or we've got to, you know, tell them to lawyer up. And the ones like Talarico in Texas. I am not interested in retribution. The people of Texas did not elect me last night for retribution. They elected me to deliver for them, to make their lives easier and better and less stressful, and that's what I plan to do, and I plan to do it even for the Texans who didn't vote for me. Who are saying, I will pray for my opponent, you know, Ken Paxton, I will look after him as I will all Texans, and have tried to find this sort of graciousness in victory. And I do think it actually tells you a story about the Democrats now, which I hadn't really seen until I went back over the results last night. There has been so much concentration on the DSA, on the Democratic Socialists, and on whether they were going to seize the party, and whether they were going to be the voice of radicalism, and were they going to be the populists on the left that countered populists on the right. And actually, Because of the size of the victory, because of the size of that blue wave, the edges don't seem to matter as much. The extremes don't seem to matter as much. And you can see the pull for Democrats now is much more towards the center. You know, if you've got an Adam Hamilton in Kansas, or you've got an Ossoff in Georgia, or you've got a Talarico in Texas, then they're not going to... be pulled towards the hard left of their party because they know that's probably the end of their own seats, their own states. And so I think when I said, you know, that the party had sort of un-Hillaryed, in a way that was unfair because what Chuck Schumer has done, Chuck Schumer's come in for a load of criticism previously from people who said, oh, he's too old, he's too establishment, he's too tied up with the stuff that didn't work, the Biden administration, the Hillary years, all the rest of it. Chuck Schumer pulled off a blinder, he pulled off a blinder because he's actually put into the Senate, or he's chosen, pushed forward for the Senate, people who are now taking the party to the centre, but not in the old way, in a new way. I don't know if you've heard this phrase that I've started picking up, which is the mountain Democrats. Have you heard this? It's the Democrats who've won this time round and there's a cow in the background and there's a barn dance and there's a haystack. These are the people who are saying, like Josh Turok in Iowa. Josh Turok gets in by saying, I'm just here for common sense. I'm not going to be pulled into radicalism. I'm only going to please the people of Iowa if I stick to something that feels unpartisan. It's not a party thing. It's a get things done thing. That will be critical to the fight that they then choose to take on in 2028. You see, I think that's absolutely spot on. Obviously, if you are watching Fox News or One American News Network or Newsmax, which are all the Trump-loving networks, you're going to hear that the Democratic Socialists of America are about to turn the United States into a communist country with Sharia law. That is not reality. The reality is that indeed there are a block. of democratic socialist congressmen and women who have now been elected. But they can't hold Hakeem Jeffries, who's going to be the speaker, to ransom. They haven't got enough votes for that. The size of the Democrat victory is so huge and so wide that Hakeem Jeffries, I think, will have a much easier time than, say, when Nancy Pelosi was speaker or when Mike Johnson was speaker for Trump and he had a few moderates or a few on the far, far MAGA ultra-right who couldn't be reconciled. I think that actually the Democrats have put themselves in a position where they have, they still look like an establishment party, but they have got some really impressive new talent coming in. who are communicating. I mean, we keep talking about, you know, is it going to be John Ossoff? And what will Abdul Al Sayed do? What? There's all the other people that are still there. There's this, you know, the Buttigieg's and others from last time round who will be thinking, I could also run. So I think the Democratic Party now, it doesn't have an obvious leader. It doesn't have, you know. kind of Hillary Clinton or a Barack Obama style figure yet. But you're going to see that emerge, I think, quite quickly. And look, I want to hear from let's hear from someone now who's not going to be a candidate in 2028. He's the Ugandan born. That's that's the disqualifier. But Zoram Amdani, the mayor of New York, has really articulately put his finger on what the Democratic Party as a governing party is all about now. Our job is not to lecture Americans on the choices that they've made. Our job is to listen, and then our job is to lead. And now we have the opportunity to lead with a mandate the likes of which we haven't seen in our country for generations. And that is an opportunity to deliver the kind of change that Americans can feel in their wallet, to deliver the kind of change that inspires a newfound faith in politics. And to deliver the kind of change that understands that dignity is a non-negotiable for every American across this country. So before we go, and I don't want to overdo the sort of links between various things happening, whether it be Russell Brand going down for rape or Donald Trump going down to the most astonishing midterms defeat. It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu is going down as well, because the Arab bloc of MPs. Who will sit in the Knesset, I think 19 of them out of 120 have said they are going to back Gadi Eisenkot to be prime minister. That doesn't mean they've gone into a formal pact or alliance. And I think that would be very risky for Eisenkot to do such a thing, because I think Israeli public opinion might turn against him for doing it. But this bloc have said we will support him to become. Prime Minister which presumably will get him over the line in terms of forming a coalition. Look there are 37 parties in the Israeli election so nothing here is simple but a lot seemed to hinge on one man one candidate Lieberman who had said Four or five days ago that he was not prepared to work with the Arab parties but he was prepared to work with the Haredi parties, the very orthodox parties and maybe make them a carve out in terms of whether they had to serve military service. It looks now as if there has been movement from the Arab parties who can come towards Eisenkot because they recognise that Eisenkot for a whole host of political and PR reasons, cannot go towards them. But I think it is quite significant that one of Netanyahu's closest sort of tweeters, Amit Sehgal, a man who is very prolific on social media, has said, this is a very bad day. He was talking about the Trump shellacking, but he was also talking about the fact that it has all become much harder for Netanyahu now to see a path through. It is too early to call anything. But blimey, that would be quite the end to this week. And blimey, what a week it's been. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Bye for now. The News Agents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. This has been a Global Production.