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Zelensky wants another $175bn for 2027: Europe doesn’t have it

. Zelensky is now talking about a rise from roughly $100 billion to $155 billion next year. The EU is already cutting education and social programmes to fund the present level

Meanwhile Ukraine’s own economy is already in advanced collapse.

A conversation with Ben Aris of BNE Intellinews

Ian Proud, Nov 06, 2026, https://thepeacemonger.substack.com/p/zelensky-wants-another-175bn-for?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3221990&post_id=223752719&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Zelensky’s latest demand for yet more money collides with two hard realities: Europe does not have it, and Russia continues to outproduce the West in the munitions that decide late-stage industrial wars. ben aris of bne IntelliNews, whose recent analysis of defence production costs cuts should provide a cold shower to those who cling to the hope that the arithmetic of war will eventually turn in Ukraine’s favour.

Nominal Russian defence spending is about $210 billion against America’s near-trillion. On purchasing-power terms the gap narrows to roughly 60 per cent. Once you price the actual outputs—$1,000 for a Russian 155 mm shell versus $4,000 for its American counterpart—the effective capacity closes further. Artillery, missiles and especially drones are where the disparity bites. Russia has scaled cheap, mass-produced systems; the West still fields small numbers of expensive platforms such as the MQ-9 Reaper at $30 million apiece. Trump’s instruction to double interceptor production has been met with timelines stretching to 2030. Ukraine cannot wait that long.

Europe’s fiscal position makes the gap unbridgeable in the short term. Zelensky is now talking about a rise from roughly $100 billion to $155 billion next year. The EU is already cutting education and social programmes to fund the present level; demonstrations in Berlin are the visible result. Debt ratios in France, Italy and the UK leave little room for further borrowing, and Germany’s relative strength won’t help it convince and increasingly anti-war public. Globalisation has hollowed out the industrial base that would be needed for a rapid wartime surge to bring the nations of Europe on a par with Russia. Turning car plants into tank factories smacks of panic production.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s own economy is already in advanced collapse. Metals production, a pre-war export mainstay, has fallen to zero. Grain shipments through Odessa are repeatedly interrupted, with stocks rotting in fields and silos. The power grid is being systematically dismantled at the substation level; Kyiv has gone dark and three remaining nuclear plants cannot feed a grid whose connections are being destroyed. Debt has crossed 100 per cent of GDP. Trade deficits with the EU have widened sharply as tariff exemptions lapsed and weapons purchases were added to the import bill. Demographics are worse still: millions of women and children have left and show little incentive to return to a ruined economy and a generation of missing men.

These facts render the usual political slogans—“Ukraine must win,” “EU membership is the destination”—impractical. Full membership of the EU for Ukraine will never happen precisely because it would expose the Common Agricultural Policy to Ukrainian volumes that, on present rules, could cost the EU budget on the order of $186 billion a year. That is far more than the yearly sums tipped into the proxy-war effort thus far. As I have said many times, that helps to explain why the Eurocrats keeping kicking the war can down the road.

Net recipients of EU budget support such as Poland and Hungary would become net contributors and would veto. On which, I wrote about this over two years ago for Responsible Statecraft…. A watered-down association agreement is the more realistic commercial outcome for Ukraine; the ability to trade with all nations including Russia, neutrality and limited armed forces remain the political terms Moscow has repeated since 2022.

Late-stage wars are settled by who can put more metal in the air and on the ground. Russia has been doing that since the first months; the West’s production response has a multi-year lag built in. Europe’s public finances and Ukraine’s residual economy cannot wait that long.

The rational course is therefore a negotiated settlement that freezes the line, limits force levels and restores trade, before the remaining productive capacity and population base of Ukraine disappear entirely. The alternative is a rump state whose reconstruction costs will still fall, in large part, on the same European treasuries that are already running out of money.

November 9, 2026 Posted by | EUROPE, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Media Obscure Enormity of Trump Corruption

The second Trump administration is far more corrupt than Trump’s first administration, and stands out as the most corrupt administration in history. Trump has made no qualms about the fact that he is going to exploit his position as president for self-enrichment. In fact, he has said that he was a fool in his first term for overlooking the opportunities for self-enrichment, given the president’s exemption from the conflict of interest law (18 USC 208).

Julie Hollar, November 5, 2026, https://fair.org/home/media-obscure-enormity-of-trump-corruption/

Particularly since the Citizens United ruling, US politics has been awash in corporate and billionaire money, with both parties taking gobs of cash from corporations that have direct interests in government policies. But President Donald Trump has taken corruption to new and breathtakingly bold levels.

“I have never seen such open corruption in any modern government anywhere,” said Harvard professor of government Steven Levitsky (Guardian, 6/17/25).

So, it’s probably not surprising to hear CNN (10/21/26) report that voters are increasingly “concerned about corruption,” ranking it only after the economy and the cost of living as a top concern. In a Gallup poll (9/2/26), a record-high 89% of respondents said they believe corruption is “widespread throughout the government in this country.”

But what might be surprising is that, according to a recent NBC poll (10/18/26), a majority (56%) say corruption “is equally a problem among elected officials in both parties.” (Among those who find it worse in one party or the other, 25% point to Republicans and 17% point to Democrats.)

Why would a majority of the public believe that Republicans and Democrats are equally corrupt? A FAIR study suggests that media play no small role: The US media system has given more coverage to the most prominent allegations of corruption under Biden than to those under Trump.

‘The most corrupt administration in history’

During his first term, Trump refused to divest from his business interests, raking in millions through them from foreign governments and people with interests before his administration. His solicitation of Ukrainian intervention in the 2020 presidential campaign led to his first impeachment trial.

After the GOP-controlled Senate (with Mitt Romney as the sole Republican exception) voted to acquit him—and after the Supreme Court ruling granting the president impunity for virtually anything done in office—Trump unsurprisingly entered his second term with far greater boldness. He essentially operated a pay-to-play administration that engages in regular shakedowns of major corporations and offers pardons to those with political or financial ties to him.

There have been repeated accusations of insider trading under his administration. Trump made $1.4 billion from the cryptocurrency industry in 2025 alone, including $635 million from his $TRUMP memecoin, which was gobbled up by not only true believers but also those seeking political favors. (While Trump profited from fees on trade activity, investors have lost a total of $3.8 billion because of the memecoin’s unsurprising collapse.) In perhaps the most brazen incident of corruption, Trump accepted a Boeing luxury jet worth an estimated $400 million from the Qatari government to use—after spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on security upgrades—as his presidential plane.

Craig Holman of Public Citizen told FAIR:

The second Trump administration is far more corrupt than Trump’s first administration, and stands out as the most corrupt administration in history. Trump has made no qualms about the fact that he is going to exploit his position as president for self-enrichment. In fact, he has said that he was a fool in his first term for overlooking the opportunities for self-enrichment, given the president’s exemption from the conflict of interest law (18 USC 208).

The corruption is led by Trump, but it’s been enabled by his party since their first impeachment acquittal. In Trump’s second term, the Republican-controlled Congress has refused to investigate any of the corruption scandals, implement stronger ethical standards, or include safeguards in cryptocurrency regulation to prevent Trump (and other political officials) from profiting off it.

Unequal allegations

During Joe Biden’s election campaigns and presidency, the GOP attempted to paint the former vice president as the pinnacle of corruption. When they took control in 2023, House Republicans launched an oversight committee investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings during his vice presidency. They found that relatives and associates took in a total of $10 million from foreign companies during his tenure, but despite months of investigation, involving interviews and thousands of documents, the committee provided no evidence of Biden’s knowledge or influence. (It did lead to an unsuccessful impeachment inquiry.)

As perhaps the most memorable story in the right’s campaign to make the Biden family known as the “Biden Crime Family,” readers will be familiar with Hunter Biden’s famous laptop, which purportedly contained evidence of corruption on the part of his father. First published by the New York Post (10/14/20) just weeks before the 2020 election, the laptop story was pushed by the right for years and even continues to this day, despite its failure to show any actual evidence of corruption.

So on the one hand we have unsubstantiated stories of Biden family corruption, totaling $10 million in alleged graft, and on the other, we have stories of Trump corruption that total in the billions, some of which will be hard to legally prove Trump’s direct involvement (insider trading) and others in which Trump isn’t even trying to hide his self-enrichment (most of the rest, including the Qatari jet).

If the US had a media ecosystem in which those stories received attention relative to their importance, it wouldn’t even be close: Trump corruption coverage would overwhelm that of Biden.

The laptop and the ‘crime family’

In the distorted media ecosystem we are subjected to, reality is reversed. FAIR searched Media Cloud’s US–National dataset, which indexes 246 online outlets including all major corporate outlets, as well as right-wing sources like Daily Caller and left-wing sources like the Intercept, to compare attention to the two prominent Biden stories and two of the most prominent Trump stories.

When the New York Post (10/14/20) “broke” the Hunter Biden laptop story, it prompted a huge spike of attention that has never fully gone away. Coverage increased in spring of 2022, when outlets like the New York Times (3/16/22) and Washington Post (3/30/22) published pieces that helped revive it; coverage became particularly intense the next year, which saw the GOP inquiry and the Justice Department criminal investigation.

FAIR’s search found a total of 12,161 stories that mentioned “Hunter Biden” and “laptop” from the Post story’s publication through Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race (10/14/20-7/21/24). Right-wing outlets led the way, but MediaCloud showed even centrist outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and Newsweek in the top 20 outlets in terms of volume of coverage.

Coverage of the GOP investigation into Biden’s alleged “crime family,” which began in January 2023 and was led by House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R–Ky.), drew similarly high averages and peaks of coverage, and also largely petered out after Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race (1/1/23–7/21/24). In that year and a half, MediaCloud recorded 4,887 stories mentioning “Comer” and “Biden” and “family.”

Not all of these stories necessarily accused Biden of corruption; some centrist reports did work to debunk the false right-wing claims. But those big centrist outlets published enough prominent stories with murky headlines like “Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies” (New York Times, 5/1/19), or explaining that the Hunter Biden case throws a “new wrench” in “the 2024 election” because “Democrats will have a harder time highlighting Trump’s indictments,” to muddy the narrative and legitimize the GOP accusations (see, e.g., CJR, 10/29/19; Press Watch, 8/14/23).

The Qatari jet and insider trading

Compare the quantity of these Biden corruption stories to coverage of the Qatari jet, a story that broke on May 11, 2025, and continued as Trump poured taxpayer dollars into its security upgrades. In the nearly year and a half from the story launch through the end of October 2026, the media produced 3,364 stories on the jet. That means that in approximately the same amount of time, media covered the investigation into Biden family corruption almost 1.5 times more than the Qatari jet. (Note that like the Biden stories, FAIR did not filter out jet stories that did not accuse Trump of corruption.)

Accusations of insider trading in Trump’s second term began in April 2025, when large call options were placed on the market shortly before Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs, sending the market soaring. They continued as more such suspicious and lucrative trades happened just before major Trump announcements on Venezuela and Iran, including within Trump’s personal holdings.

Coverage of Trump and insider trading from the first accusations (4/10/25) until the end of October 2026—a month longer than the Qatari jet coverage—has totaled 2,614 stories. The Biden family inquiry, at 4,887, got 1.9 times that amount.

Hunter Biden’s laptop, which dominated news headlines for longer, overwhelmed the Trump stories by far more. It got 4.7 times the coverage of insider trading under Trump and 3.6 times the coverage of Trump’s Qatari jet.

Even measuring them in terms of percentage of all news stories during their respective time periods, the Biden stories got far more coverage, with the family corruption story and the laptop story each averaging .10% of all content, while the Qatar jet averaged .06% and insider trading averaged .04%.

‘So vast as to be a new phenomenon’

This isn’t to say there’s no coverage of Trump’s corruption that attempts to put it into proper perspective. The New York Times editorial board () ran a lengthy editorial in January that tried to put a dollar amount to Trump’s self-enrichment just in the first year of his second term: $1,408,500,000.

The New Yorker (), looking a bit more broadly and including his first term, came up with a conservative total of $4 billion.

Times columnist Jamelle Bouie (4/22/26) wrote:

To say that President Trump is corrupt is to somehow understate the size, scope and magnitude of his corruption.

It is as if you were to describe a modern thermonuclear device as a “bomb.” That is true enough, but it is not quite the truth. It does not capture the nature of the thing in full.

So it goes for Trump’s corruption, which is so vast as to be a new phenomenon in American politics.

Yet, just as media factchecking falters under the sheer number of Trump’s lies, these isolated efforts at contextualization fall increasingly short as Trump’s corruption balloons to nearly unimaginable proportions. That’s especially true as most right-wing media outlets’ interest in corruption would appear to apply only to Democrats.

One of the most important jobs of any media outlet in a democracy is to hold those in power accountable. Democracy doesn’t work if the public doesn’t know or understand what’s happening in their government. As polling shows, people clearly care a great deal about government corruption, but if they have little sense of its mechanics, scale or worst perpetrators, they can’t easily address it. With the midterm elections suggesting a mandate for rooting it out, there’s no more critical time for journalists to step up and shine the line—brightly and consistently—on what our elected and unelected officials are doing to us.

November 9, 2026 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Iranians prepare for fire, fury and nuclear fallout at Pickaxe Mountain.

No one knows exactly what the underground facility is for but as Trump
debates renewed war, Tehran is giving out iodine tablets and survival
advice. or as long as the regime in Iran has kept the kind of secrets that
put it in the crosshairs of the regime in America,

it has buried them deep.
From Natanz to Fordow, Isfahan to Bushehr, the nuclear facilities we can
see are often matched by those that we cannot. Despite the constellation of
satellites examining every square foot of Iranian territory and the best
efforts of intelligence agencies in the US and Israel, nobody can quite say
exactly what is going on at Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, the complex hewn from
granite known as Pickaxe Mountain.

That it exists is beyond doubt.
Satellite photos cited by President Trump prove that much. But not much
more is known, even to the vast majority of Iranians. This week, though,
that has started to change. A video being shared on Iranian social media
illustrates how the regime is increasingly concerned that Trump will order
a strike on Pickaxe, where the Ayatollah’s best nuclear scientists are
now rumoured to be working. A little over a mile south of the Natanz
uranium-enrichment complex in central Iran, the complex is believed to be
beyond the reach of conventional weapons.

Times 6th Nov 2026, https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/iranians-prepare-us-nuclear-attack-pickaxe-mountain-9grz5mznq

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The nuclear waste repository in Finland designed to outlast modern civilisation – how exactly have the engineers future-proofed their facility?

The first engineered structure built to last for 100,000 years is about to begin operations. The hope is that Onkalo, deep below ground in Finland, will offer a safe place for the country to store nuclear waste?

By George Bass and Jacklin Kwan,, New Scientist 3rd Nov 2026

There’s a timeless quality to the tunnels at Onkalo. And that’s the point. Carved into the rock more than 400 metres below ground, these passageways are part of a facility built for the long term. The extreme long term.

In fact, facilities such as Onkalo “should exist intact for at least 100,000, if not a million years”, says Allison Macfarlane at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who previously served as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the US. “Those are geologic timescales.”

Onkalo is Finland’s answer to one of the more tricky questions posed by nuclear power: what do you do with the waste? We are going to have to get much better at answering it, given nuclear power is expanding again, driven partly by the hunt for low-carbon energy.

There’s broad consensus that burying the waste is the best option. But there is a catch. Radioactive elements can remain dangerous on timescales that make normal engineering look absurdly short-term. Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza is around 4500 years old. Some nuclear repositories will have to contain their contents for more than 20 times longer. Before the waste becomes harmless, civilisations may rise and fall, and ice sheets may come and go.

An earlier attempt to store waste on geological timescales failed spectacularly after just a few decades. The engineers at Onkalo, and at a handful of similar sites now being planned or built around the world, think they can do much better. So, as Onkalo prepares to accept its first waste shipments in the coming months, how exactly have the engineers future-proofed their facility?………………………………………. (Subscribers only) https://www.newscientist.com/article/2595321-the-nuclear-repository-in-finland-designed-to-outlast-modern-civilisation/

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Finland, wastes | Leave a comment

PETITION – Stop Japan’s Failed Nuclear Plant Waste Coming to Cumbria

November 2026, https://www.change.org/p/stop-japan-s-failed-nuclear-plant-wastes-coming-to-cumbria

We the undersigned demand that Cumberland Council put their constituents and neighbouring areas before the interests of the nuclear industry and halt the plan to bring volatile liquid sodium coolant to the Port of Workington from the failed Japanese Monju reactor.

Cumberland Council plans to import sodium coolant, a type of nuclear waste,  thousands of miles from Japan to Cumbria, for processing at the Port of Workington, just 885m from Northside Primary School and nearby  residential areas including many towns and villages.  One of the best sites for birds in Cumbria, Siddick Ponds would be just 500 metres away.

Sodium coolant is extremely hazardous, and carries a high risk of violent explosion or fire if exposed to air or water.

It may also contain radioactive elements.

Further concerns include:

• Less than a mile from Northside Primary School, the proposed chemical plant is being designed to convert the hazardous coolant into caustic soda.

• Caustic soda is also a hazardous material and carries enormous risks to the environment including over decades if spilled.

• £4.5m of the Workington Town Deal government funding is being used to develop this site, despite the development planning to employ just 20 people over a period of 7 years.

• The Workington Town Deal  was promoted as being for the public benefit, not for creating profit for a handful of private nuclear businesses.

• The £25m that the site construction phase is predicted to generate is meaningless compared to the certain risk our children and local environments would face as a result of the site’s operation and the £Billions that would likely be required for clean up following operation of  this proposed  chemical plant for Japan’s failed fast breeder nuclear reactor wastes.

Further Info

Japan’s prototype fast-breeder reactor (FBR), ‘Monju’, was a disaster from the start. It was shut down due to an accident less than 9 months after achieving criticality, and remained closed for 15 years. Reopening in 2008, a second accident closed it for good. Overall, Monju generated electricity for exactly one hour after achieving criticality in 1994 and will cost £Billions to decommission.

Fast breeder reactors use liquid metal as a coolant – usually liquid sodium, which violently explodes on contact with air and water.   Dounreay, which ran the UK’s own Fast Breeder Reactors, processed the coolant onsite at both reactors.   Sodium coolant at Dounreay did contain radioactive caesium.

Cumberland Council are partners in the plan to bring the Monju’s sodium coolant to the Port of Workington.

Ironically, ‘Monju’ was named to represent transcendent wisdom in Buddhist tradition.  It has achieved neither wisdom nor its stated aim of electricity generation apart from one hour’s worth.    Campaigners in Japan have been working to “Stop the Monju” for many years.

Despite only producing electricity for just one hour, the Monju has produced tonnes of chemical and radioactive waste some of which the operators the Japan Atomic Energy Agency now want to ship thousands of miles to Cumbria instead of dealing with in Japan.  We say No!

We the undersigned demand that Cumberland Council put their constituents and neighbouring areas before the interests of the nuclear industry and halt the plan to bring volatile liquid sodium coolant to the Port of Workington from the failed Japanese Monju reactor.

For more info please see BRIEFING sent to all Cumberland Councillors

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Artemis II launch tore a hole in Earth’s atmosphere, say scientists

The launch of Artemis II caused three distinct disturbances in Earth’s ionosphere

Iain Todd, : November 6, 2026, https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/artemis-ii-launch-tore-a-hole-in-earth-atmosphere

NASA’s Artemis II mission caused enormous disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere that scientists say could have disrupted GPS and other communications.

The pre-print study by scientists from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan found that disturbances created by the launch of the Artemis II rocket were stronger than those caused by any other rocket launches to date.

The team say the research could point to future problems caused by increasingly powerful rocket launches becoming more frequent.

A mission around the Moon

The Artemis II mission was arguably the biggest spaceflight story of 2026.

It launched on April 1, 2026, taking four astronauts on a 9-day journey around the Moon and back.

Artemis II travelled further beyond the Moon than any mission before it, using the Moon’s gravitational pull to slingshot around it and begin the journey back to Earth.

It was the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo programme and marked a key stepping stone in NASA’s plans to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.

A disturbance in Earth’s atmosphere

Yet despite the success of the Artemis II mission and its popularity, a pre-print study published in Geophysical Research Letters says that the launch of the Artemis II rocket and subsequent rocket burns caused three distinct disturbances in Earth’s ionosphere.

The ionosphere is the region of our atmosphere that reaches about 80–640 km (50–400 miles) above Earth’s surface.

It’s at the edge of space, marking the boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere and the vacuum of the cosmos.

The first ‘disturbance’ caused by the Artemis II mission occurred during the rocket’s launch from Kennedy Space Center, generating shock-acoustic and gravity wave modulations.

But the next two upper-stage burns were much stronger than the initial liftoff.

An hour after launch, a second disturbance came via the ‘apogee raise burn’, which is an engine burn used to increase the Artemis II spacecraft’s altitude.

About 25 hours after lift-off, a third was caused by the ‘trans-lunar injection burn’, which is used to put the spacecraft on its journey towards the Moon.

That apogee raise burn “triggered shock waves and unprecedented large-scale disturbances that elongated 50° longitude across North America,” the study authors say.

“This is the first time a single space mission produced three instances of ionospheric disturbances over the same region during successive orbit manoeuvres.”

Rocket launches, GPS and self-driving cars

One of the key points made by the authors of this pre-print study is the effect that future rocket launches could have on technologies like GPS systems, drones and self-driving cars.

While they found that there was no widespread GPS disruption caused by the Artemis II lift-off itself, they did record changes in the ionosphere that could potentially cause problems during future rocket launches.

Such disturbances could disrupt communications on Earth by, for example, disturbing radio signals.

And rocket launches could affect other technologies on Earth that rely on GPS for positioning, such as self-driving cars and drones.

Read the full study at essopenarchive.org

November 9, 2026 Posted by | space travel | Leave a comment

Calogena awarded EU funding for SMR deployment – (nuclear loves socialism)

WNN, 6 November 2026

French small modular reactor developer Calogena has been awarded EUR40 million (USD44.6 million) through the European Commission’s Innovation Fund to support the potential construction of its first commercial nuclear reactor in Pierrelatte, in southern France…………………………………

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the deployment of innovative net-zero and low-carbon technologies. Established by Article 10a (8) of Directive 2003/87/EC to support innovation across all EU Member States, it is one of the key tools of the European Green Deal Industrial Plan. Financed by revenues from auctioning allowances from the European Union Emissions Trading System and with an estimated revenue of approximately EUR40 billion between 2020 and 2030, the Innovation Fund aims to help businesses invest in clean energy and bring technologies to market that can decarbonise European industry, while fostering its competitiveness…………………….

Calogena was selected in 2023 as part of the Innovative Nuclear Reactors call for projects under the aegis of the French government via the Secrétariat Général Pour l’Investissement, in order to support the development of nuclear technologies………………..

The Pierrelatte project could become Calogena’s first commercial reference and pave the way for deployment in other European towns and cities. The company is already involved in several projects outside France and is notably in contention to supply more than fifteen reactors in Finland.

…………………………………Calogena’s CAL30 is one of four SMR designs being evaluated by the French Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/calogena-awarded-eu-funding-for-smr-deployment

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

Iran continues distributing anti-radiation iodine tablets in Bushehr amid regional tensions


Middle East Monitor 6th Nov 2026, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20261106-iran-continues-distributing-anti-radiation-iodine-tablets-in-bushehr-amid-regional-tensions/

Iranian health authorities have continued distributing iodine tablets to residents of the southern city of Bushehr, home to the country’s only operational nuclear power plant, as part of an emergency preparedness plan launched before the June 2025 war, the Young Journalists Club (YJC) news agency reported Friday.

The deputy head of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences for health affairs said the distribution initially prioritized areas surrounding the nuclear power plant before expanding to cover the entire city.

A total of 180,000 iodine tablets have been distributed under a decision by crisis management authorities, the official said.

The tablets remain available to residents at comprehensive health centers across Bushehr, according to the official.

The distribution program is limited to residents of Bushehr and is intended to protect against the absorption of radioactive iodine in the event of a nuclear or radiological incident…………………………………………………….

The announcement comes amid continued tensions between Iran and the US following the military offensive launched by Washington and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28.

US President Donald Trump warned on Nov. 1 that Washington could strike Iran’s remaining suspected nuclear facilities within 10 minutes, specifically mentioning Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear site.

Earlier, on Oct. 16, Trump ruled out using nuclear weapons against Iran while raising the possibility of further conventional strikes against suspected Iranian nuclear facilities.

Bushehr, located along Iran’s Gulf coast, hosts the country’s only operational nuclear power plant, making radiological emergency preparedness a particular concern for local authorities.

The iodine tablets protect the thyroid against radioactive iodine but do not provide protection against other radioactive substances or external radiation. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20261106-iran-continues-distributing-anti-radiation-iodine-tablets-in-bushehr-amid-regional-tensions/

November 9, 2026 Posted by | health, Iran | Leave a comment

U.S. Sleepwalks Into War In Space

Who regulates weapons in space? Who regulates the pollution?

Lisa Savage, Nov 07, 2026, https://went2thebridge.substack.com/p/us-sleepwalks-into-war-in-space?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1580975&post_id=223756925&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=c9zhh&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Meaningful oversight of the Pentagon and NASA’s militarization of space is non-existent. Now that they’ve admitted putting an offensive weapon into orbit, shouldn’t people be paying more attention?

Also a kindergartener could look at photos and tell you that rocket launches are very bad for the environment. Scientists can of course quantify how bad and in what specific ways: ozone depletion and a rain of toxic substances on the ground and in coastal waters. And that’s when things go as planned. Accidents, which are not at all rare, cause enormous additional emissions and debris.

That’s why we’ve maintained a presence outside the annual Maine Space Conference for the last few years.

Yesterday’s standout was discouraging. Only four of us showed up to the conference’s new location in a satellite office of Northeastern University in Portland’s Old Port.

Also a kindergartener could look at photos and tell you that rocket launches are very bad for the environment. Scientists can of course quantify how bad and in what specific ways: ozone depletion and a rain of toxic substances on the ground and in coastal waters. And that’s when things go as planned. Accidents, which are not at all rare, cause enormous additional emissions and debris.

That’s why we’ve maintained a presence outside the annual Maine Space Conference for the last few years.

Yesterday’s standout was discouraging. Only four of us showed up to the conference’s new location in a satellite office of Northeastern University in Portland’s Old Port.

Some conference attendees passed us on their way to lunch. Others stayed in and took delivery of pizza which I’m guessing was the private Hyde School that had sent a short bus to transport students from nearby Bath. We saw teenagers watching our protest from a balcony three stories above street level. Not sure what their school policy is on phones but I hope some observers — including an older man who was clearly filming us from the 2nd floor balcony — share their videos on social media.

The offices across the street from the Roux Institute/Northeastern also had people observing us from inside the building.

As a board member for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space I’m realizing I should publish an informational webinar about the environmental harms of space programs. Stay tuned for that! If you find it useful, maybe you will share it with others.

as for the dangers of war in space, go here to the GN website to find lots of solid information about that.

November 9, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Canada Budget Commits C$518 Million To Ambitious Nuclear Energy Strategy

NUCNET, By David Dalton • 6 November 2026

Canada’s 2026 federal budget commits more than C$518.5m (€329m, $536m) to the country’s nuclear energy strategy as the government aims to make the technology the cornerstone of its clean electricity plans.

The nuclear energy push, which builds on the government’s nuclear energy strategy released in June, is part of C$8bn in capital spending on “electricity-related” projects over the next five years, according to the budget, tabled on 5 November.

Investing C$518.5m in the nuclear strategy will strengthen domestic supply chains and Canada’s position as a global energy superpower, a government statement said………………. (subscribers only) https://www.nucnet.org/news/canada-budget-commits-cusd518-million-to-ambitious-nuclear-energy-strategy-11-5-2026

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November 9, 2026 Posted by | Canada, politics | Leave a comment

AUKUS is a global issue – don’t let Albanese sweep it under the carpet

7 November 2026 Noel Wauchope, https://theaimn.net/aukus-is-a-global-issue-dont-let-albanese-sweep-it-under-the-carpet/

So easy to dismiss the AUKUS Public Inquiry. Apart from one feeble attempt to disparage it – by Jennifer Parker, in The Conversation, the mainstream media have pretty much left it alone, captive as they are, to the purportedly progressive and leftish Labor State and Federal governments. And it’s interesting that Ms Parker, of the, Defence and Security Institute, The University of Western Australia; UNSW,  so confidently dismisses the evidence of former Chief of the Defence Force, Inquiry Commissioner, Chris Barrie.

And weren’t the media lucky? They can have a party with the pleasant surprise of the Democrats trouncing Trump at the U.S. mid-term elections (even though Trump can make executive action havoc until the new Congress and Senate take over on 3rd January 2027). But the Australian media can rejoice about this and demonstrate their progressiveness, while ignoring the “trivial” AUKUS thing.

The Australian mainstream media is so busy toeing the line that Prime Minister Albanese has set up – be a small target – look what happened to Gough Whitlam, so busy that they’re becoming irrelevant.

The Albanese government has a huge advantage in the Parliament, with 94 MPs, and the lead in the Senate, but it chooses to become indistinguishable from the Opposition, when it comes to foreign policy. Everyone still bleats “Security” when there’s a risk of saying something slightly different from the USA’s mantras on relations with South East Asia and the Pacific. And here’s where AUKUS comes in.

The pretence is that AUKUS is for Australia’s security. Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.

In his introduction at the Press Club Luncheon, Garrett says that the Inquiry project goes to the heart of what kind of country we want to be.

The Inquiry was done with the love and concern of so many people, and all done without drawing on the public purse at all. Concerns include the question of radioactive waste. And above all, in the AUKUS decision-making, the government spurned any parliamentary oversight practices. The AUKUS agreement was announced with fanfare, but no scrutiny.

The Inquiry included an Impressive range of former parliamentarians and defence experts, who concluded that AUKUS is seriously flawed and unlikely to deliver security.

It means that at Stirling in Western Australia, 2000 US troops are to be housed at Australia’s expense. That’s just one part of the costs of the AUKUS agreement. There will be no recourse, no refunds, if things go wrong. There is also no costing made for storage of US radioactive waste. Neither USA or UK have waste facilities. There is no public understanding, no public consent. AUKUS legislation overrides existing legislation.

Chris Barrie explained that the AUKUS nuclear submarine plan is untenable. It would be madness for Australia to take on a great power like China. It makes no sense to build our defence policy around partnering the USA in a war against China.

Australia would be the only non-nuclear weapons state to operate nuclear powered submarines fuelled by weapons grade uranium. Australia has agreed to dispose of all radioactive wastes from the submarines. US subs could later carry nuclear weapons. We need to scrap the AUKUS submarine project now – and get the government to produce a comprehensive security strategy.We do need submarines. We must decide on what is the purpose of submarines. The Government should explain this – Australians should decide for ourselves, and have the submarines under Australian command and control. The test is whether we can say no – one of the hardest decisions a government has ever had to make.

Peter Garrett concluded that we need to share, and publicise the results of this inquiry. We need a Royal Commission into the AUKUS mess. End Pillar 2, suspend Stirling naval base and have an immediate audit of AUKUS.

Question time followed. It seemed to be a pretty widespread boycott of this Inquiry by the mainstream media. But there were exceptions – 9 News, the Sydney Morning Herald, and AAP. But overseas news media had noticed this Inquiry. And I thought that the most pertinent question came from Miriam Weber, from Politico, and the first woman to get a word in. Miriam Weber asked: “Do you have a plan to get the government to pay attention?”

And really, after all the work of so many people, including Defence experts, and former Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers from both Labor and Liberal – that is the big question.

Can this excellent Inquiry just sink and disappear under the weight of politicians and journalists deciding that their top priority is keeping their jobs? And as for the Labor Party, it’s sad to realise that the formerly anti-nuclear Anthony Albanese now has an unprecedented autocratic control over the Labor Party! The subject was carefully banned from discussion at the recent national Labor Conference in Adelaide! Is Labor going to continue to kowtow to this suppression of debate?

And here’s a bit of why I think that AUKUS is so very important:

Australia is the only continent which is governed by one single national government, and is a continent which has successfully resisted the commercial and military nuclear industry over decades, with both national and State legislation against it.

Australia has a really democratic political system, with compulsory voting, and preferential voting. It is run by an efficient, impartial and independent Electoral Commission.

Australia is part of South East Asia, and is a truly multicultural nation. It makes sense to maintain cordial relationships with our neighbours, even if we can differ on some individual matters. It does not make sense for Australians to see ourselves as some sort of Christian white outpost of USA and UK militarism, ready to be the frontline of battle against China.

Australia has a very considerable Chinese heritage, not always one to be proud of. Now we do have a proud and successful group of people with Chinese heritage – 5.5%of the population (compared with indigenous 2.5%). It is a disgrace and a shame that in the last few years, Australian education, particularly in universities, has downgraded the teaching of foreign languages and culture, especially Chinese. The industry-driven push for STEM education does have its role – we do need science education. But not as a definite campaign to stifle the humanities – which is what has happened to university funding.

In this tense, crisis-driven world, what is desperately needed is communication, negotiation, the reaching out for respectful understanding of other nations’ cultures, especially in the South East Asian neighbourhood. Trumpism will be over soon. How good it would be for Australia to dump its “cultural cringe” and take the lead in rejecting the USA-UK military-industrial-nuclear complex, by rejecting the AUKUS folly!

The USA seems to have only one big export industry – weaponry. Time for the world to stop buying the USA’s weapons and its philosophy of endless wars. Australia is poised to lead the way.

November 8, 2026 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Christina's notes, politics international | Leave a comment

At last some Grrrr reflected in the media on the diabolic plan to bring Japan’s failed reactor wastes to Workington

By mariannewildart, https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2026/11/06/at-last-some-grrrr-reflected-in-the-media-on-the-diabolic-plan-to-bring-japans-failed-reactor-wastes-to-workington/00

EXTRACTS from recent media coverage which are a break from the entirely uncritical and sickeningly celebratory tone of previous articles. –

Campaigners slam plans for toxic chemical plant near a primary school – https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-slam-plans-toxic-chemical-plant-near-primary-school-despite-earlier

“ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have slammed a council for backing plans for a toxic chemical plant near a primary school, despite an earlier warning that proposed new homes near a similar site could put residents’ safety at risk.

Cavendish Nuclear and Amentum (CNA) wants to build the facility at Port of Workington, Cumbria, to support the decommissioning of the Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, in Japan.

If the plans are approved, the company want to process radioactive sodium coolant from the plant, which would be located near Northside Primary School, into caustic soda.” Full article can be seen here: Morning Star 10th October 2026″

More than 900 people ‘oppose’ reactor clean-up – https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6y4x5z32p8no?at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_link_type=web_link&at_format=link&at_link_id=1524FB90-D82D-11F1-85EB-D57521BD2CAF&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_origin=BBC_Cumbria&at_medium=social&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_campaign_type=owned

“Cumberland Council, which owns the port, said it would use £4.5m of Town Deal funding to prepare land at the port and neighbouring Oldside for wider development.

The plan involves bringing the coolant to Workington where it would be converted into sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, which is used in cleaning products and manufacturing.” Full article can be read here:BBC News Cumbria 4th November 2026″

Dispute over Japan to Workington nuclear waste facility – News & Star

Radiation Free Lakeland “RFL believes Cumberland Council, as the port’s owner, should “put their constituents and neighbouring areas before the interests of the nuclear industry,” halting the plans “to bring volatile liquid sodium coolant” to Workington “from the failed Japanese Monju reactor. Campaigners raised concerns about the council’s celebration of the facility as an economic development opportunity for Workington given that it is also the landlord at the Port of Workington and the organisation responsible for deciding on its planning permission.” Full article at News and Star 5th November 2026 (paywall)

Please sign and share the petition to stop this plan

November 8, 2026 Posted by | media, UK | Leave a comment

Democrats, Please Take Note: Peace Is Good Politics

Jeffrey D. Sachs, 5 Nov 26, https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/democratic-party-of-peace

The message of voters is the same everywhere: diplomacy is safer, more effective, and trillions of dollars cheaper than war.

Voters across the United States were loud and clear on Tuesday in their historic drubbing of Trumpism. The election was a decisive rejection of Trump’s war on Iran and its staggering costs at home. While savoring their victory and the historic opportunity to restore America’s constitutional order, the Democrats should take the anti-war message of the election to heart, because they suffered the same verdict two years ago, when voters rejected the Biden administration’s wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Last week Israeli voters rejected Netanyahu’s reckless wars, and European voters are also rejecting parties that prolong the Ukraine War. The message of voters is the same everywhere: diplomacy is safer, more effective, and trillions of dollars cheaper than war.

On election night Trump conceded to Fox News, “I think a part of it was Iran.” The next day Vice President JD Vance was far blunter, posting on X: “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night…. everyone knows why we lost.” In the AP Voter Poll, about 60 percent of voters said the decision to use military force against Iran was wrong, and about 90 percent called the cost of living a crucial or major factor in their vote.

The war and the cost of living were of course utterly intertwined. Gasoline prices, around $2.80 per gallon before the war began on February 28, had risen by about 55 percent by mid-May and reached a monthly average of $4.43 in September. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed from below 4 percent before the war to above 5 percent in the autumn, and the Pentagon sought more than $200 billion in supplemental war funding. Every family with a mortgage, a car loan or a credit card balance suffered from the war.

Voters everywhere are sending the same message: peace through diplomacy.

The first duty of the new Congress is to restore its constitutional authority over war and its power of the purse to ensure that US forces are not sent back into combat in Iran or anywhere else on the whim of a president and the behest of domestic or foreign lobbies. Trump must of course refrain from restarting the war, which was never remotely necessary or justified. Remember that on February 28, the day the US and Israel launched the war, Oman’s foreign minister, who was mediating the U.S.-Iran talks, had said that a deal was within reach.

The Democrats should not imagine that the anti-war lesson applies only to Republicans. Kamala Harris lost in 2024 because voters held the Biden administration responsible for the costs of its own wars. The energy shock that followed the escalation of the Ukraine war in 2022 drove up inflation, and gasoline topped $5 per gallon for the first time in June 2022. Biden twice rejected negotiations that could have ended the conflict: in December 2021, when his administration refused to negotiate on NATO enlargement in response to Russia’s draft security treaty, and in April 2022, when the Istanbul talks were abandoned at the behest of the US and UK.


The Gaza genocide also cost the Democrats directly. Among Americans who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but not for Harris in 2024, 29 percent named ending Israel’s violence in Gaza as the main factor in their decision, the most frequently cited issue. The party’s voters have moved far ahead of its leaders. A New York Times/Siena poll in May 2026 found that roughly three-quarters of Democratic voters oppose US military and economic assistance to Israel.

Voters everywhere are sending the same message: peace through diplomacy. On October 27, after Israeli wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, Netanyahu lost his majority. Similarly, European leaders who have tied themselves to open-ended war in Ukraine are being rejected by the voters. Only 10 percent of Germans are satisfied with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the lowest rating ever recorded for a German chancellor. Emmanuel Macron’s approval fell to 15 percent in October. In Bulgaria, Iliana Iotova, who favors dialogue with Moscow, won the presidency on November 1 with more than 58 percent of the vote.

A key upcoming key test for the Democrats will be Ukraine. They must stop their party’s typical Russia-bashing and instead support a diplomatic end to the war.

As a start, the Democrats should remember why the war started. In 1990 the United States assured Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move “one inch eastward.” The Clinton administration broke that promise. In 2008 the Bush administration pushed through the Bucharest declaration that Ukraine and Georgia “will become members of NATO,” despite Ambassador William Burns’s warning that this was the brightest of all red lines for Russia. In 2014 the United States backed the coup against Ukraine’s elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, as the leaked Nuland-Pyatt call made clear. In April 2022, when negotiators in Istanbul came close to a peace agreement based on Ukrainian neutrality, the US and UK actually intervened to block the agreement. Today 75 percent of Ukrainians support negotiations with Russia to end the war.

The Democrats should not mistake their victory for a mandate to pursue their own wars.

In view of these causes of the war, I have recently set out a straightforward diplomatic framework for peace in Ukraine that would end the war. NATO would end its eastward expansion. Ukraine would adopt permanent neutrality on the model of Austria in 1955. An armistice line would be drawn, with both sides renouncing the use of force to change it. Ukraine would pursue membership in the European Union as a permanently neutral state. The Democrats should support such a diplomatic approach. It’s what can end the war, save Ukraine, and win the backing of both the Ukrainian and American people.

Most importantly, the Democrats should not mistake their victory for a mandate to pursue their own wars. The new Democratic majority should quickly reassert the constitutional authority of Congress over war and peace, champion a negotiated peace in Ukraine, end support for Israel’s wars, cut the military budget, and redirect the savings toward lowering the cost of living and repairing the public finances.

These positions are not only right but are good politics. For the Democrats to win the White House in 2028, they should become the party of peace. Better yet, both parties should become parties of peace and conduct the 2028 campaign on which party will best address America’s needs for decent jobs, affordability, healthcare, housing, a safe environment, and quality education.

November 8, 2026 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

10 November – WEBINAR – Nuclear Expansion, Major Projects, and the Environment: What’s at Stake for Communities and Rights-Holders?

Date & Time Nov 10, 2026 06:00 AM in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney – https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YDV2YXIMSAujAtKaA0cuVw#/registration


Canada is experiencing renewed interest in nuclear energy, with governments and industry looking to expand nuclear power generation and advance new projects across the country. But what does this growing interest mean for communities, Indigenous rights-holders, and the environment?

The webinar will examine different types of nuclear projects and their potential impacts on communities, opportunities for meaningful community and rights-holder participation, and how Bill C-39 and other federal legislative changes, including the Building Canada Act and Nuclear Safety and Control Act, could affect environmental oversight and public participation in project decision-making.

The discussion will also highlight opportunities for public engagement and ways communities can make their voices heard as nuclear development moves forward. Join us for a conversation with community organizers and environmental and Indigenous law experts Brennain Lloyd (Northwatch), Kerrie Blaise (Legal Advocates for Nature’s Defence), and Kim Reeder (Passamaquoddy Recognition Group) as we explore the implications of nuclear expansion and the changing regulatory landscape.

November 8, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

‘Operation Midas’ concludes: How Ukraine’s biggest corruption scandal shook Zelensky’s inner circle

RT, Thu, 05 Nov 2026 , https://www.sott.net/article/509330-Operation-Midas-concludes-How-Ukraines-biggest-corruption-scandal-shook-Zelenskys-inner-circle

Euros for UkraineA criminal group led by Vladimir Zelensky’s ‘wallet’ laundered $125 million over six years, investigators say

The pre-trial investigation into a major embezzlement scheme in Ukraine’s energy sector has been completed, the nation’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies announced. Known as ‘Operation Midas’, the probe lasted for two years. It triggered one of the biggest corruption scandals involving Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle and cost several top officials their positions.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said a “high-level criminal organization” managed to build a “large-scale corruption scheme” and embezzle $111 million and €12 million from 2020-25.

The two agencies also said they “took measures to seize the assets of a criminal organization both in Ukraine and abroad,” adding that efforts to identify and seize the illegal assets are continuing.

How did it all begin?

The scandal first grabbed headlines in November 2025 when NABU raided Energoatom facilities and the homes of several senior officials and businessmen, including then-Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Timur Mindich– a longtime friend and financial backer of Zelensky, who the media has called the Ukrainian leader’s ‘wallet’.

Mindich fled the country shortly before the raid, along with another suspected mastermind behind the scheme, financier Aleksandr Zuckerman. Both men have been residing in Israel ever since. Ukrainian media reported in May 2026 that Mindich may have been tipped off about the probe by the former deputy head of SAPO, Andrey Sinyuk, who resigned shortly after formal charges were filed against the businessman and his associates.

How did the scheme work?

The scheme centered on Ukraine’s state nuclear energy monopoly, Energoatom, with officials demanding kickbacks of up to 15% from private contractors, according to Wednesday’s statement. Those who refused allegedly faced exclusion from lucrative government tenders – including the construction of protective infrastructure for power facilities amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The money was then laundered through a specially established office in Kiev and a network of shell companies abroad and offshore accounts. According to the NABU and SAPO statement, “various financial instruments, including cryptocurrency, securities and a foreign investment fund were used to launder funds.”

Was anyone arrested?

Around a dozen people have been named as the primary suspects in the case, according to Ukrainian media. Apart from Mindich (codenamed ‘Karlson’), Zuckerman (‘Sugarman’) and Galushchenko (‘Professor’ or ‘Sigismund’), the list also includes former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov (‘Che Guevara’), former aide to the energy minister Igor Mironyuk (‘Rocket’), Energoatom’s former security chief Dmitry Basov (‘Tenor’), and people who ran the Kiev office used to launder the money.

NABU also confirmed that a “former deputy prime minister” and a “former minister of energy” were on the suspect list, without identifying them by name.

Five suspects were detained when the scandal first erupted in November 2025, with several subsequently released on bail. Chernyshov was also placed in pre-trial detention with a bail option, and Galushchenko was arrested in February 2026 while attempting to flee Ukraine. Mindich and Zuckerman remain on the run.

The fallout

Two weeks after the scandal erupted, NABU and SAPO raided the apartment of Zelensky’s then-chief of staff and close associate, Andrey Yermak.

Faced with allegations of involvement in the high-profile corruption scheme, Yermak resigned, although he denied any wrongdoing at the time. He was later charged in a separate money-laundering case connected to a luxury property development outside Kiev that he and Mindich reportedly co-ownedwith Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader’s ‘wallet’ was also later revealed to be linked to a number of other schemes. Mindich had been secretly running Fire Point – a Ukrainian defense contractor personally touted by Zelensky abroad as a manufacturer of state-of-the-art weaponry. A permanent advisory board urged the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to cut all ties with the company, which it still has not officially done as of November 2026.

The ‘Energygate’ scandal was followed by a string of similar corruption scandals that prompted a major Ukrainian government reshuffle in early 2026.

Did Zelensky attempt to derail the probe?

In July 2025, when Operation Midas was already in full swing but not yet public, Zelensky sought to curb the independence of NABU and SAPO through legislation that would place both agencies under the authority of a prosecutor general who the Ukrainian leader could directly appoint.

Zelensky signed the controversial bill on the same day it was passed by parliament, triggering protests in Kiev and drawing criticism from Ukraine’s Western backers. Under EU pressure, lawmakers reversed the measure a week later.

In November 2025, Yermak allegedly ordered prosecutors to prepare charges against SAPO head Aleksandr Klimenko, before the Energygate scandal cost him his job. According to Ukrainskaya Pravda, Zelensky also personally summoned the heads of NABU and SAPO in the wake of the scandal, but “the conversation didn’t go anywhere.”

What did Zelensky say?

Zelensky tried to downplay the matter, saying Ukraine is no more corrupt than any other European nation and calling suggestions to the contrary “lies.”

“The fact that we are fighting it, I believe we are doing a great job,” he told the BBC in February 2026.

How did Ukraine’s backers react?

Kiev’s major Western backers have largely downplayed the issue, even trying to portray the corruption scandal as a positive development. European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier said the kickback scheme proves that Kiev is on the right path, and that the anti-corruption bodies “are in place and functioning.”

French President Emmanuel Macron held a joint press conference with Zelensky in Paris just weeks after the scandal erupted, saying it’s not France’s place to teach Ukraine how to fight corruption:

“Is it our role to give lessons to Ukraine, which has a scandal of this scale? I think that if everything is taking place within the framework of justice and the special procedures, then everything is fine.”

The president also accused Russia of being a “real dictatorship” precisely because it lacks similar corruption scandals.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called Zelensky to express his “expectation that Ukraine press ahead energetically with fighting corruption and further reforms.”

The embezzlement revelations hardly affected EU support for Kiev, as just a month after Energygate erupted, the bloc greenlit a €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan to cover Kiev’s budget for 2026-27. The scheme, financed through joint EU borrowing, would cost European taxpayers €3 billion annually.

What did Russia say?

Moscow was not surprised by the lack of reaction by Kiev’s European sponsors. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in December 2025:

“They don’t care where EU taxpayer money goes as long as they can keep using the Kiev regime as a battering ram against Russia. In this particular case, the eyes of the West are wide shut, as the saying goes. Maybe, there are some beneficiaries as well. I rule out nothing.”

The aftermath

Ukraine has been reeling from recurring corruption scandals ever since Energygate, with the nation’s anti-corruption authorities reporting major cases almost every month.

In July, senior Ukrainian diplomats were accused of siphoning off at least $1.28 million in Western aid.

In August, Zelensky had to fire a deputy head of his office over her suspected links to an alleged money-laundering scheme used to finance bail for Galushchenko.

In September, NABU reported that it uncovered an embezzlement scheme involving 60 Soviet-era Russian-made metro cars donated to Ukraine by Poland.The New York Times reported that month that Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste, and mismanagement in military procurement in 2024 alone.

In October, a former head of a state-owned Ukrainian defense company was accused by NABU and SAPO of embezzling around $43 million through fake mediation deals linked to the export and import of military hardware.

Despite this, Western backers have continued to bankroll Kiev

The EU released €3.3 billion to Ukraine in September following a phone call between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Zelensky as Kiev sought to plug a $27 billion defense budget gap.

When Brussels refused to speed up payments to cover the deficit last month, Zelensky immediately lashed out at his Western backers, claiming they were not doing enough to assist Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.

Comment: The longer ‘the war’ lasts, the bolder and richer Zelensky and friends become. That EU willingly continues to finance the beast begs the question: Are there also EU kickbacks off the top? Add a couple of Bidens? War without end. Amen.

November 8, 2026 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine | Leave a comment

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