It’s Not Terrorism When We Do It
This is why a state was so crucial to the Zionist project. Before 1948, the groups that became the IDF, from the Haganah, to the Lehi and the Irgun were explicitly called terror groups. And their members were Jewish terrorists. These labels were widely used by western media, and the existence of Jewish terrorism was not controversial. In a 1948 Guardian editorial, in the aftermath of the King David Hotel bombing, the paper referred to “Jewish terrorists” who it said are “ruthless men corrupt by the sickness of the time, caring nothing for the sufferings of the individual Jews in Europe” for whom “every school boy’s jest is another argument for Zionism.”
But as soon as the Jewish Zionists got their own state, the terrorists were absorbed into the military arm of the state,
July 18, 2026, Nate Bear Do Not Panic, https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/18/its-not-terrorism-when-we-do-it/
Yesterday Pete Hegseth triumphantly tweeted a picture of Iran’s Chabahar maritime port tower collapsing following an attack by the US regime. The image bore a striking resemblance to the collapse of the towers on September 11th.
Despite the fact this was, like most of the attacks on Iran, an attack on civilian infrastructure, it will not be labelled as such by the western media and political class. They will never call it terrorism or a war crime, despite the fact that it was both. Whether a civilian tower, a bridge, or a school full of children, western actions that result in mass murder will always simply be the product of a “strike.”
Benign language whenever the imperialist death machine starts slaughtering is a critical tool in maintaining consent for war crimes and state terrorism. And even though Hegseth literally tweeted a picture of this war crime, I‘ve yet to see an imperialist media outlet reproduce the image, because they know how bad it looks. This is a classic tactic we see over and over again: selective reporting and the omission of detail in order to bolster public support for state terrorism and war crimes abroad. Western media has already bundled this “strike” in with all the others in order to present a false equivalence between an illegal war of aggression on the one hand, and legitimate Iranian defence on the other (defensive actions which, by the way, are always labelled as “attacks.”)
The underlying psychology behind the double-standard is rooted in arrogance and supremacy: they’re the bad guys, and they do terrorism. We’re the good guys, and we “conduct strikes.”
And by we, I mean the forces of western imperialism, whether that’s the US or any other power that lines up behind the American regime, especially, but not exclusively, Israel. The use of the words “terror” and “terrorism” are also a critical rhetorical device, conditioning westerners to accept imperial violence as legitimate, and any resistance to that violence as illegitimate. This tendency was seen starkly of course after October 7th. Hamas does terrorism, while Israel merely strikes. Those strikes can be genocidal, they can reduce entire cities to dust, destroy hospitals, schools, universities, water treatment plants, grain silos and the means of life for two million people. They can kill tens of thousands of children in all manner of sadistic and gruesome ways, they can wipe out entire bloodlines, but they are never labelled terrorism. They are, and always will be, simply strikes. Because terrorism is bad, and we’re the good guys.
This is why a state was so crucial to the Zionist project. Before 1948, the groups that became the IDF, from the Haganah, to the Lehi and the Irgun were explicitly called terror groups. And their members were Jewish terrorists. These labels were widely used by western media, and the existence of Jewish terrorism was not controversial. In a 1948 Guardian editorial, in the aftermath of the King David Hotel bombing, the paper referred to “Jewish terrorists” who it said are “ruthless men corrupt by the sickness of the time, caring nothing for the sufferings of the individual Jews in Europe” for whom “every school boy’s jest is another argument for Zionism.”
But as soon as the Jewish Zionists got their own state, the terrorists were absorbed into the military arm of the state, and their violence, which months before was clearly identified as terrorism, was legitimatised by the recognition of a state. And this legitimisation of Israeli state terrorism went hand-in-hand with the decades-long campaign to legally designate resistance to state terrorism as the real terrorism, a campaign which led us inexorably towards the genocide of Gaza.
Genocide. Another word reserved by the hegemonic media only for the victims of the imperial enemy, and not for those slaughtered by the imperial ally.
So for the western media, terrorism isn’t terrorism, genocide isn’t terrorism, and it’s not even genocide. Despite the almost universal belief of genocide scholars, holocaust scholars, and international legal experts that what has taken place, and continues to take place in Gaza, is a genocide, the term is almost never used. The Guardian can even write an article with the title ‘Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say’, and in the majority of its subsequent coverage, refer to it as a war. Their main hub for coverage of the genocide, ten months after that headline, is titled Israel-Gaza War. If they had the courage of their supposed progressive convictions, if the truly believed in experts, as all good liberals profess to do, they would accept the evidence they presented themselves, and refer factually to genocide.
They don’t because the western mind, in matters of imperialism requires dissonance. It requires references to “strikes” not terrorism, to “wars” not genocides and to “foreign policy,” not imperialism. This is especially true of the professional media mind which must filter, process and present the news from the imperial core. My guess is that some of the benign, consent manufacturing language is intentional, and some is simply the product of subconscious western supremacy and the dehumanisation of the periphery. Because to fully internalise the evil committed by the system you not only live within but help uphold would require the instant rejection of that system. And well, you’ve got bills to pay. The genocide can be the war if it means making that next installment on your mortgage.
As the terror attacks on Iran and Gaza continue, and as the genocide deepens, we’ll hear only of strikes and wars from a media class fully complicit in both.
World warned of ‘nuclear apocalypse’ after drone kills nuclear plant engineer in Ukraine
Russia has warned of ‘nuclear apocalypse’ after a drone strike allegedly carried out by Ukraine killed the chief engineer at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility
Daily Star, Will Stewart Russia Correspondent and Adam Cailler Senior reporter and MSN lead, 16 Jul 2026
Russia has warned of a “nuclear apocalypse” following an alleged Ukrainian assassination of a senior engineer at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Alexander Yakovlev, 46, was killed in a drone attack between the facility and the nearby town of Enerhodar.
He was travelling in a service vehicle and perished alongside his driver, according to Russian reports. Yakovlev served as the chief engineer at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest. Ukraine’s Mirotvorets website had branded him a “traitor to the motherland” and an “accomplice to terrorists and Russian occupiers.”
Through his work for the Russians following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he stood accused of “collaboration in the form of assisting the occupiers in committing acts of nuclear terrorism and blackmail”. Following the occupation of this section of Zaporizhzhia region, he obtained Russian citizenship.
Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, denounced the incident without explicitly naming Ukraine or Russia. The killing “represents an unacceptable attack on the plant and its management, seriously threatening nuclear safety.”
He demanded an “immediate end” to all strikes “on or near nuclear sites.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova declared: “This is a crime of the Kyiv regime that Grossi must finally see – we demand a clear statement condemning this killing from the relevant international bodies, first and foremost the IAEA.”
Alexei Likhachev, the head of Rosatom, stated: “We expect the IAEA to respond promptly, concretely, and clearly to this tragedy.” Russian forces took control of the plant in southeastern Ukraine during the initial weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine………
Russian authorities initiated a criminal investigation into the killings. Ukraine has yet to respond.https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/world-warned-nuclear-apocalypse-after-37438323
Ministry of Defence (MoD) finally admits ‘extensive’ human radiation experiments on nuclear test veterans
“There’s no truth, no justice. We were labrats in a government experiment which they didn’t bother to keep the paperwork for. But worse is the cover-up which continues.”
Susie Boniface Reporter, 16 Jul 2026, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/nuclear-test-veterans-ministry-defence-37439854
The Ministry of Defence has finally admitted it ran an “extensive” programme of human radiation experiments on troops.
A two-year review has confirmed ministers and officials falsely denied that medical data was collected from servicemen and civilians at nuclear weapons tests for more than a decade. Worse, the MoD says it has been unable to locate the results – leaving veterans continuing to suffer after 70 years without answers.
The results were published online, with a host of other last-minute announcements, a few hours before kick off in England’s semi-final match against Argentina. John Morris, who has waited a lifetime to find out why his son Steven died in his cot aged four months, and why he he’s had cancer and a blood condition, said: “This is vindication, but there’s no relief.
“There’s no truth, no justice. We were labrats in a government experiment which they didn’t bother to keep the paperwork for. But worse is the cover-up which continues.
“They lied, hid it all behind national security, and have come clean now only because we forced them. People should go to jail for this.”
- The review, ordered after the Mirror exposed the Nuked Blood Scandal in 2022, has found:
- A secret hoard of 50,000 files that include nuclear veteran records but have not been examined
- More than 5,000 nuclear test veterans deliberately excluded from government health studies
- Veterans who applied for a war pension had their medical records permanently stripped, denying them proper diagnosis and treatment
- Thousands of medical records were unlawfully destroyed, some as recently as last year
Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham has privately told staff to begin work on reparations, compensation and commemoration for the nuclear test programme, including setting up a special tribunal to determine the extent of government lies.
Criminal allegations of perjury, perverting the course of justice, fraud by false representation and misconduct in public office are being considered in a major crime review by Thames Valley Police. Officers have asked the Atomic Weapons Establishment to provide details of emails from 2014 which we reported this week, discussing a whistleblower report about fallout on inhabited areas, which was also covered up.
The review has not looked into how thousands of records were classified, why courts were told monitoring never happened, or why in 2018 Parliament was told by a minister that the MoD was “unable to locate any information” about blood testing. As recently as 2023, ministers said “only one blood test” existed.
It has also failed to look into the records of civilians, indigenous people, merchant navy crews and RAF units monitoring foreign nuclear weapons tests, who were all similarly monitored.
Lord Tom Watson, who as deputy Labour leader asked the first questions about the blood tests, said: “I am sure this report will deeply concern the new Prime Minister. It is extraordinary that veterans’ medical records were lost or destroyed, affecting their health and compensation claims. We now need to establish who knew what, when, and why nobody acted sooner.”
Satellite images show damage inside Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant
Satellite images [on original] reveal strikes between July 7 and 12 on Iran’s largest nuclear power plant
By Al Jazeera Staff, 17 Jul 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/17/satellite-images-show-damage-inside-irans-bushehr-nuclear-power-plant
Satellite imagery reveals new damage inside Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant complex following the latest wave of US strikes during renewed military escalation between Washington and Tehran.
A comparison of European Sentinel-2 satellite images captured on July 7 and July 12 shows newly formed impact scars inside the Bushehr complex, along with another apparent strike site within nearby support facilities.
The open-source unit of Al Jazeera Network compiled satellite imagery, field footage and official data from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) to map the locations of US strikes across Iran between July 7 and July 15.
Ehsan Jahanian, deputy governor of Bushehr province, had said on July 9 that several locations across the province had been struck, including areas surrounding the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a military site in Choghadak and a fishing port in the south of the province, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
Jahanian later denied reports that the nuclear power plant itself had been hit, saying the reactor remained unaffected and continued operating normally.
The strikes came during a broader US military campaign against Iran. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck about 90 military targets on July 7-8, including air defence systems, missile and drone storage sites, naval assets and military infrastructure along Iran’s southern coast.
The US did not identify Bushehr or any nuclear facility among the announced targets.
Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant
Bushehr is Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant. Located about 17km (11 miles) south of the city of Bushehr, the 2.5-square-kilometre (one-square-mile) complex includes reactor buildings, cooling-water channels connected to the ocean, assembly halls and a harbour used to receive equipment and materials for construction and reactor operations.
The site contains two reactor buildings, one operational and another that has remained unfinished for years.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Power Reactor Information System (PRIS), Bushehr-1 has a net electrical capacity of about 915 megawatts.
It was first connected to Iran’s electricity grid in September 2011 before entering commercial operation in September 2013.
Unlike uranium enrichment facilities such as Natanz or Fordow, the operating Bushehr reactor contains nuclear fuel and radioactive materials associated with power generation, making any damage to its cooling, power supply or containment systems significantly more sensitive.
Previous incidents
The July strike was not the first reported projectile incident near the Bushehr plant in 2026.
The IAEA event reports submitted by Iran’s nuclear regulator recorded multiple incidents, including projectiles striking inside the plant’s premises on March 17, March 24 and March 27, as well as another impact near the fence surrounding the reactor’s first unit on April 4. In each case, Iranian authorities reported that the reactor continued operating normally and that no damage to the reactor itself had been recorded.
The IAEA has repeatedly stressed that nuclear facilities should never become targets of armed attacks because of the potential consequences for people, the environment and regional nuclear safety.
‘Sip your coffee while watching the sunrise’: How Israel is colonizing the West Bank by selling Palestinian land to Jewish Americans
Israeli real estate companies are marketing land belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank to Jewish American buyers. We spoke to the Palestinians who are being displaced in order to make way for new Jewish settlement construction.
Mondoweiss By Majd Jawad July 17, 2026
In mid-May, protesters gathered outside a synagogue in Brooklyn to demonstrate against a real estate expo being held inside. The properties advertised for sale were not located in New York City, but in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the target clientele was members of the Jewish American community.
The “Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” organized by the Israeli company, My Home in Israel, was one of many property fares held across the U.S., Canada, and the UK, targeting prospective Anglophone Jewish buyers. A recently scheduled London event carrying the same name drew widespread condemnation last June from human rights groups and over 100 British lawmakers.
The settlements at the top of the event’s promoted property listings included Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Karnei Shomron, and Kfar Eldad. Each listed area is undergoing urban expansion and new construction, concurrent with seizure and confiscation orders targeting the Palestinian lands surrounding them — a systematic process aimed at entrenching settlement dominance.
The promotional advertising for these settlements deploys seductive language to attract investment. An advertisement for a real estate project in Kfar Eldad, located within the Gush Etzion Regional Council southeast of Bethlehem, pitches a rural lifestyle “close to Jerusalem, far from the routine.” The ad reads: “Time flows a bit differently around here. In the morning you can sip your coffee while watching the sunrise, and just 12 minutes later, before your coffee has even cooled, find yourself in Jerusalem. And in the evening, you’ll return to soothing tranquility. This makes Kfar Eldad the perfect alternative for those seeking reasonably priced housing close to Jerusalem, but away from the noise and traffic of city life.”
Behind the glossy brochures and manicured images of “modern residential communities” lie painful chapters of systematic Palestinian land confiscation — a process that has expanded in recent years to encompass nearly half of the total area that Israeli occupation authorities have declared “state lands” since the Oslo Accords were signed.
The “soothing tranquility” in the hills and open terrain of Bethlehem was, until recently, home to Palestinian and Bedouin communities who practiced seasonal farming and herding. Those original inhabitants were barred from accessing their land, which was confiscated under military orders decades ago, before settlement projects were built on it…………………………………………………………………………………………
Palestinians forced out, Jewish settlers brought in
……………………….At the start of this year, the Israeli government decided to confiscate approximately 700 dunams (70 hectares) of Palestinian land for the construction of a new settlement neighborhood in Karnei Shomron, built east of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank and overlooking the Mediterranean coastal plain 10 to 15 kilometers away.
This confiscation falls within what Israel calls its “Roof plan,” an all-encompassing agreement for expanding the settlement by adding 6,000 new housing units and accompanying infrastructure in the northern West Bank…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
How land goes from ‘state land’ to the real estate market
Khalil Tafakji, a researcher specializing in settlement and Jerusalem affairs and director of the cartography department at the Arab Studies Society, told Mondoweiss that Palestinian land is seized in a way that often takes roundabout legal avenues to strip Palestinians of their rights to it before it is offered for sale on the market.
“At that stage, the land is not offered for sale directly,” he explained. “Rather, it is excluded from the scope of private Palestinian ownership altogether.” The Israeli state does this by declaring the land “insufficiently cultivated to establish ownership,” Tafakji said, or by sealing it off and designating it a closed military zone reserved for army training. These areas are rendered “state lands” under the administration of the Israel Land Authority.
The first administrative step in this designation process rests on Israel’s interpretation of Ottoman land law, which has historically governed land ownership in Palestine. . Only then are properties marketed to potential homebuyers ahead of construction. The state effectively leases the land to prospective homeowners, and what buyers acquire is the property, not the land itself. “A buyer can own the property for 99 renewable years, while the land remains in the state’s name under what is called a land leasehold arrangement,” …………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Jerusalem as a settlement magnet
In settlement promotional campaigns, proximity to Jerusalem is often a cornerstone of their marketing strategy, presenting settlement properties in the Gush Etzion bloc as a natural geographic and urban extension of the city. This falls under Israel’s “Greater Jerusalem” project, which has necessitated the ethnic cleansing of countless Palestinian communities stuck in administrative “no-man’s-lands” inside the West Bank. These areas technically fall under the jurisdiction of Israel’s Jerusalem municipality, yet receive virtually none of its services. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://mondoweiss.net/2026/07/sip-your-coffee-while-watching-the-sunrise-how-israel-is-colonizing-the-west-bank-by-selling-palestinian-land-to-jewish-americans/
The false promise of nuclear power
THE LANCET, Volume 408, Issue 10551p214-215July 18, 2026, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01304-8/fulltext?rss=yes
Philip J Landrigana,b Send email to landrigp@bc.edu ∙ Brita E Lundbergc
By focusing narrowly on reactor operations, portraying reactor hazards as “extremely small”, and ignoring nuclear energy’s other dangers, Talha Burki’s World Report1 supports the mendacious narrative that nuclear power is a “safe, clean, and affordable” solution to both rising electricity demand and climate change.2
Uranium, the fuel of nuclear power, is radioactive and carcinogenic.3 It endangers health across the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Uranium miners suffer increased risk of lung cancer. Nuclear fuel production workers are exposed to uranium hexafluoride and radon.4 Reactor operators and nearby communities are exposed to radioisotopes; in the USA, 115 000 cancer deaths since 2000 are attributed to residence near nuclear plants.5 All reactors produce waste that will remain radioactive for millennia.6 Reactor decommissioning liberates this waste, exposing workers and communities.
Nuclear power is unique among energy sources in its potential for catastrophe—meltdown, fuel diversion, and weaponisation. A life-cycle analysis of 388 nuclear plants finds that all reactors, large and small, are susceptible to nuclear incidents.7
Nuclear power is not climate neutral. Nuclear power releases 66 g of greenhouse gases per kWh of electricity, which is far less than any fossil fuel, but more than any renewable. Most greenhouse-gas releases occur during uranium mining and milling.8
Nuclear power is neither cheap nor affordable. The levelised cost of nuclear energy has increased by 47% since 2009.2 Current economic analyses do not count health-related costs and underestimate construction costs. Construction of the most recent US reactor cost over US$35 billion,9,10 more than twice its original budget.
By contrast, the cost of renewables has plummeted. Since 2010, solar power costs have decreased by 90%, wind by 70%,11 and batteries by 99%.12
Nuclear power is economically viable only when it receives massive subsidies, tax breaks, and liability exemptions.Nuclear power is a dangerous distraction. It is time to move beyond it and invest in renewables.
References…………………………………………………………………………………….
Climate Change – It’s only a matter of time…
At the same time, nuclear energy is being consecrated as the answer to climate change and energy self-sufficiency. But, its high cost and long time scales, let alone the wastes and risks it brings, make it no solution at all. And in France closing nuclear power stations during a heatwave has become a routine response.
13 July 2026 Andrew Blowers, Chair of B Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG),
https://www.banng.info/news/regional-life/climate-change-a-matter-of-time/
“…………………………………. we seem woefully unprepared for what is becoming the new normal. Serious adaptation is required as the UK’s ‘infrastructure is built for a climate that no longer exists’.
As various ‘tipping points’ are passed the impacts on people and environments will become irreversible. Sea-level rise is already unstoppable and will irrevocably change environments. Here, in the Blackwater estuary there will be destruction of saltmarshes, widespread flooding and inundation of agricultural and urban areas beyond.
Until recently there was a broad political consensus on the need to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Now, the strenuous efforts by successive governments to achieve net zero by 2050 are being undermined by short-term political gestures such as opening up North Sea oilfields which does nothing for either energy or environmental security.
At the same time, nuclear energy is being consecrated as the answer to climate change and energy self-sufficiency. But, its high cost and long time scales, let alone the wastes and risks it brings, make it no solution at all. And in France closing nuclear power stations during a heatwave has become a routine response.
What drilling in the North Sea and building a few nuclear power stations does do is divert attention and resources from the pressing and fundamental need to press ahead with the energy transition as fast as we can.
Meanwhile it is only a matter of time before impacts will become intolerable. We shall have to ensure we can adapt and survive.
Trump Killed Those US Troops In Jordan
Caitlin Johnstone, Jul 19, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-killed-those-us-troops-in-jordan?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=207612455&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
More US troops have died in Trump’s insane war of aggression against Iran, so of course we’re seeing a bunch of phony bullshit from American warmongers about what a heroic sacrifice these soldiers made in order to justify further escalations.
“Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve,” tweeted Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in response to the news that two US troops were killed with one soldier missing after Iranian retaliatory strikes on a US base in Jordan.
But they weren’t “heroes”, and they did not make any “sacrifice”.
A hero is someone who risks danger taking noble action for the benefit of others. A sacrifice is when you give up your life for a higher cause.
This was neither of those things. Those soldiers were killed in response to US airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in a stupid, evil war of aggression waged by a Zionist president to please his billionaire Israeli megadonor. Those US attacks destroyed a desalination plant, cutting off an essential water supply for thousands of Iranian civilians.
They did not die defending the United States. They did not die protecting the American people. They did not die for freedom, for democracy, or for any of the other bogus reasons you’ll see imperial spinmeisters saying they died for. They died for Israel, for the military-industrial complex, and for US imperial agendas of global domination. And for nothing else.
I said this online and someone tried telling me “They died for their country and Fuck You for pissing on that.”
I told him no, they did not die for their country. The Iranians are dying for their country. The Americans are dying for Israel, for money, and for geostrategic control. Not a single American life in the United States is being protected by the actions of US service members in the middle east. They’re not defending their homeland, they’re attacking people who are defending theirs.
This isn’t worthy of praise, it’s worthy of anger and outrage.
There’s this bizarre, cultish belief among Americans that you have to play along with the idea that every US soldier killed in action died doing something heroic which benefited the American people, even when every reasonably intelligent person knows that’s objectively false. I reject this whole-heartedly. All this does is make it easier for the US military to recruit more soldiers and to manufacture consent for more depraved wars of aggression.
Those soldiers killed in Jordan did not die doin
Those soldiers weren’t killed by Iran. They were killed by Donald Trump. They were killed by the oligarchs and empire managers whose decisions sent them to die in yet another middle eastern war based on lies, and who will never lose a wink’s sleep over it.
Everyone thinking of joining the US military should refrain from doing so, and everyone who is already in the US military should do everything they possibly can to get out. Because there is nothing worse than killing and dying for rich bastards who will never give a fuck about you.g anything noble. They died meaningless, undignified deaths for an immoral and unworthy cause.
Everyone thinking of joining the US military should refrain from doing so, and everyone who is already in the US military should do everything they possibly can to get out. Because there is nothing worse than killing and dying for rich bastards who will never give a fuck about you.
The European holiday destinations where 50ºC summers could become the norm
A future where parts of Europe experience 50ºC temperatures may sound
unimaginable, but climate researchers warn that rising temperatures are
increasing the chances of extreme heat events. Liz Bentley, chief executive
of the Royal Meteorological Society, told The i Paper that countries around
southern Europe and the Mediterranean – popular tourism hotspots like
Spain, Portugal and Greece – are most likely to see 50°C summers soon. The
highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was 48.8°C in Sicily in 2021.
But there’s a chance we could soon hit the 50°C threshold, Bentley said.
iNews 17th July 2026 https://inews.co.uk/news/european-holiday-destinations-50c-summers-norm-4649609
Uranium-Chomping Bacteria Found In Bowels Of Mine That Once Supplied Soviet Nuclear Weapons
Could these mine-dwelling microbes be used to clear up radioactive junk?
Tom Hale, IFL SCIENCE, 15 July 26
In the heady days of the Cold War, the USSR extracted vast amounts of uranium from a mine in East Germany, much of it destined for nuclear warheads. Unbeknownst to the bigwigs back in Moscow, strange and potentially useful microbes were quietly lurking in the mine’s backwaters.
Those microbes were discovered in untreated water flowing from the Wismut GmbH Schlema-Alberoda mine in Saxony, Germany. Between 1946 and 1990, when Germany reunified, around 80,000 tons of uranium were extracted from the site, one of the largest uranium ore deposits in the world.
Strange things live in the mine
Microbiologists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) recently collected water samples from an inlet trail from the mine and found that they were teeming with anaerobic bacteria.
Among them were some that can break down metals, like Geobacter and Shewanella, others that run on sulfur, like Desulfovibrio, and a supporting cast of microbes that ferment and break down nitrogen compounds, including Clostridium and Pseudomonas.
Just as their previous experiments had hinted, the team found this gang of bacteria was able to utilize the highly radioactive uranium, as long as they had glycerol, a basic building block of plant and animal fats, to feed on.
“There are bacteria that can metabolically utilize the heavy metal, uranium, which is toxic for humans,” Evelyn Krawczyk-Bärsch at HZDR’s Terrestrial Microbiology research group, and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
“Our group’s investigations had already revealed that bacteria can use uranium dissolved in water for their metabolism when they have access to glycerol as a food source,” she added.
The researchers decided to dig deeper into how this was happening and whether the bacteria could be used as a handy tool to clear up radioactive contamination.
They set up an experiment in the lab in which the bacteria were placed in conditions very similar to their natural low-oxygen environment deep below the uranium mine. After being left for 130 days, just 5 percent of the uranium dissolved in the water remained in the samples.
A really weird chemical state
Using advanced microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, the researchers found the bacteria had incorporated the uranium into their cell walls. …………………………………………………………………………………………..
Clean up Chornobyl?
All of this raises the tantalizing possibility of using these bacteria to clean up uranium and other radioactive junk. Could they, for instance, be introduced into the contaminated waters of Chornobyl to lock its loose uranium into a stable, harmless form?
Whether that’s a genuine possibility or just wishful thinking remains to be seen, but it’s a pretty intriguing idea either way.
The new study is published in the journal Nature Communications. https://www.iflscience.com/uranium-chomping-bacteria-found-in-bowels-of-mine-that-once-supplied-soviet-nuclear-weapons-84123
BEC showcases nuclear powered A.I data centre, Pioneer Park (and Radiation Free Lakeland protestors were there)
RESIDENTS of West Cumbria were given the chance to shape a nuclear-powered
AI data centre, at a consultation event on Tuesday. Early ideas and
ambitions for Pioneer Park were showcased to the public at The Peddler in
Whitehaven on Tuesday July 14.
BEC is planning the community impact of the
development and overseeing the production of a master-plan. Appointed to
the project by Cumberland Council and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
(NDA), BEC says it is committed to ensuring Pioneer Park improves the lives
of West Cumbrians.
Pioneer Park will see a Small Modular Reactor (SMR)
developed at Moorside, neighbouring Sellafield, the immense amounts of
energy it will generate will be used to power an innovative A.I data
centre. Attendees of the event heard that excess energy produced by the
nuclear reactor could support Sellafield in its decommissioning mission and
even power homes to support those in fuel poverty.
The nuclear industry and
Cumberland Council is also considering whether the development could be
used to lower the cost of energy for communities and improve efficiency for
community facilities. Chief Executive Michael Pemberton told Newsquest
Cumbria that BEC is an enabler for the project.
Activists from Radiation
Free Lakeland protested the event, holding placards and flags about the
potential impact on the River Ehen as well as the ‘false advertising’ of
clean energy. Marianne Birkby told Newsquest Cumbria that Radiation Free
Lakeland were protesting the event “to show some resistance to the plan
that’s been called clean energy, which is a nuclear powered A.I data centre
between Sellafield, the River Ehen and Beckermet. BEC tasked Mott MacDonald
and WSP with the creation of Pioneer Park masterplan in March. Mr Pemberton
said that although the Government asked for the master-plan to be completed
in 18 months, he challenged its authors to have it ready in six.
Carlisle News & Star 16th July 2026
JD Vance Says Israeli Officials Are Pressuring U.S. to Prolong Iran War
SCHEERPOST, July 16, 2026
Vice President JD Vance has made one of the most striking public acknowledgments yet of tensions between Washington and Israel over the future of the Iran conflict, claiming that members of the Israeli government are actively working to keep the United States engaged in an open-ended military campaign.
In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Vance said he was “beyond a shadow of a doubt” certain that Israeli officials had attempted to shift U.S. policy away from negotiations and toward indefinite military action.
“There have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to shift us away from that policy because they want to continue the military campaign.”
Vance framed the dispute as one between competing national interests, saying that while Israeli officials naturally prioritize Israel, his responsibility is to pursue what he believes serves Americans.
“I care about America first.”
Claims of an Israeli Influence Campaign
Vance also alleged that individuals connected to Israel were attempting to manipulate American public opinion in favor of continuing the war.
According to Vance, some actors were:
Leaking information to reporters.- Coordinating attacks against him on social media.
- Opposing negotiations with Iran in favor of continued military operations.
He further claimed he had been falsely accused of acting on behalf of Qatar or taking direction from conservative commentator Tucker Carlson because of his position.
JD Vance on Israel, U.S. Policy, and the Iran War
Vance argued that he sees himself as occupying a moderate position in the debate over Israel within American politics………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
A Growing Divide Inside the Republican Coalition
The interview also highlighted a widening divide within the Republican movement over U.S. foreign policy.
While some Republicans continue advocating close military coordination with Israel, others—including Vance and several prominent “America First” figures—have increasingly argued against deeper U.S. involvement in another prolonged Middle East conflict.
The debate reflects broader disagreements over whether Washington should prioritize diplomacy, military escalation, or a more restrained foreign policy………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/16/jd-vance-says-israeli-officials-are-pressuring-u-s-to-prolong-iran-war/
Thirteen films that are essential to understanding the nuclear age
Bulletin, By Alex Wellerstein | July 16, 2026
Nuclear films are both reflections of the zeitgeist in which they are made and shapers of it. They feed off of both popular and expert anxieties, while also helping to solidify the terms on which these anxieties are engaged. While some themes are apparently universal (how many ways are there to blunder into nuclear war), some feel very much of their particular time and place…………………………………………………………………………………………..
This list has a strong Anglophone bias, and with a few notable exceptions approaches the topic from largely American points of view. This is a reflection of its author’s limitations and the film’s relative accessibility to an American. Undoubtedly lists could (and should) be created from different cultural and national perspectives. The list is presented chronologically and can be thought of as an unfolding of the nuclear perspective from the early nuclear age to the present.
Godzilla
1954, Toho. Directed by Ishirō Honda. Released in the USA as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, in 1956. Inspired in part by the 1954 Castle Bravo fallout disaster, which killed a Japanese fisherman and led to a boycott on tuna in Japan, Godzilla (Gojira in the Japanese original) is a more complicated film than just “radioactive monster attacks Tokyo.”…………………………….
On the Beach
United Artists, 1959. Directed by Stanley Kramer. The premise of On the Beach, adapted from the 1957 novel by the British author Nevil Shute, is that a future global nuclear war using cobalt bombs has both eradicated most of human civilization and created a massive, deadly cloud of fallout that is gradually circulating the globe, killing all in its path. Those in the southern hemisphere are momentarily safe, but the cloud is coming……………..
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1964, Columbia Pictures. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy about the risk of unauthorized and accidental nuclear war fundamentally altered the lexicon with which we talk about nuclear weapons…………………… . When Daniel Ellsberg, then still at RAND and having just completed a classified study into the command and control problems central to the plot, saw the film in theatres, he was amazed — it was, he wrote later, “essentially, a documentary.”
Fail Safe
1964, Columbia. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Fail Safe might be remembered as the film of mid-1960s nuclear anxiety had it not come out the same year as Dr. Strangelove and overlapped so significantly with its themes………… its management of tension has led to its retrospective status as a critical success.
The China Syndrome
1979, Columbia Pictures. Directed by James Bridges.The sole film specifically about nuclear power on this list, The China Syndrome is a taut thriller that was elevated into something even more by its historical moment. ………………………..The film would work on its own merits, but the fact that the film premiered less than two weeks before the Three Mile Island accident catapulted it to the position of prophecy—for better and for worse.
Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen)
1983, Kyodo Eiga. Directed by Mori Masaki. Barefoot Gen, first a manga (Japanese comic book) published in 1976, is a fictionalized version of writer and illustrator Keiji Nakazawa’s experiences of being a six-year-old boy growing up in Hiroshima before, during, and after the atomic bombing.
The Day After
1983, ABC. Directed by Nicholas Meyer. This classic made-for-television movie about the run-up to nuclear war and its immediate aftermath ……………… The film is sometimes cited as a factor in Reagan’s willingness to initiate talks with the Soviet Union and initiate “the golden era of arms control.”
Testament
Paramount, 1983. Directed by Lynne Littman. Among the crowded field of “the day after nuclear war” films of the early 1980s, Testament stands out for its relative quiet, reasonableness, and lack of sensationalism. ………………………………..
WarGames
1983, MGM. Directed by John Badham. WarGames is simultaneously a very ridiculous film and a very intelligent one. A teenage computer hacker infiltrates a government mainframe that, unbeknownst to him, is actually an advanced supercomputer at NORAD run by a highly capable-but-flawed artificial intelligence. ………………with nuclear war, “the only winning move is not to play.”
Threads
BBC, 1984. Directed by Mick Jackson. Widely regarded as the darkest and most dismal of the “day after” genre,………………………………………………………..
When the Wind Blows
Recorded Releasing, 1986. Directed by Jimmy T. Murakami. This distinctly British animated film, adapted from a 1982 graphic novel of the same name by Raymond Briggs, follows an aging couple living in rural Sussex before, during, and after a nuclear war. Stereotypically British stiff upper lips, enhanced by blundering ignorance, keeps them in largely non-complaining good humor even as the world collapses around them. ………………………….
Oppenheimer
2023, Universal. Directed by Christopher Nolan. There have been several attempts to represent the complicated life of J. Robert Oppenheimer on film. Nolan’s is the most stylized and artistic, and it’s based on the best source material ………………………
A House of Dynamite
2025, Netflix. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. This recent nuclear thriller depicts the 20 minutes between the detection of an unattributed missile launch heading towards the United States, and its arrival at its target……………….
Honorable mentions
There are many other films one might want to include in such a list. Those that did not make the cut, but came close to it for me, included the suppressed British nuclear aftermath pseudo-documentary The War Game (1966); the ruminative Soviet post-apocalyptic Dead Man’s Letters [Pisma myortvogo cheloveka] (1986); the impending nuclear attack cult-classic Miracle Mile (1988); the Japanese Hiroshima family retrospective Black Rain [Kuroi ame] (1989); the late-Cold War Tom Clancy submarine defection thriller The Hunt for Red October (1990); the Cuban Missile Crisis dramatization Thirteen Days (2000); and the post-Cold War Tom Clancy nuclear terrorism thriller The Sum of All Fears (2002). https://thebulletin.org/premium/2026-07/thirteen-films-that-are-essential-to-understanding-the-nuclear-age/
The Killing Machines -Governments and Technology Obsessing Over Efficient Death
“…………………………… The NATO event looks like essentially —a trade show—except the newfangled hoopla is of a different kind. World leaders, all decked out in fine suits (nerds of a special kind), stroll the aisles admiring missiles and tanks engineered for maximum lethality. Billions are spent to make killing more efficient. While societies debate the cost of keeping one person alive in their final months, trillions flow into perfecting the technology of death. People who still think can see the terrible clarity in this inversion: when the soul recedes and the material world reigns, efficiency in killing becomes one of the highest values of our age.
Personally, I don’t think there is a better definition of insanity than the way humans delight in war and death. Yes, there was a time when killing your neighbour because they wouldn’t let you eat an apple growing on their side of the tribal fence made a tiny bit of sense. But what it has evolved into today is pure insanity. Humans are supposed to be capable of compassion. We are supposed to be able to sort out our differences with other tribes. We are supposed to care more about human life than we did in the cave days, when it was all about survival and who would or would not get the apple. What happened to all of that? For any of us to justify wholesale killing the way we do only proves we haven’t gotten anywhere in hundreds of thousands of years.
It is all so screwed up, as is nearly everything. Nothing makes sense anymore. ……. This is the kind of arithmetic they are running through their heads while strolling the aisles at their NATO war show: “Now tell me again—how many people will this weapon kill, and how much does it cost? That’s some nice bang for the buck! I’ll take 20 of ‘em!” Insane.
I just read that Canada is deep in debt and running persistent deficits, while Ukraine sits on roughly $4 billion worth of gold reserves. So, Canada (and everyone else that can) keeps giving money to a country that already holds billions in gold, all so more people can be killed. And don’t tell me, “Russia ruthlessly attacked Ukraine! They should pay for it!” Yeah, right. If you are saying that right now, you are, unfortunately, still thinking like an ignorant caveman. That is not the whole story; in fact, it is very little of it. But Russia doesn’t get off the hook either. Grow up, people. Figure this shit out and quit acting like ten-year-olds playing in the backyard with stick guns.
…… It is astounding to think that most of us work a lifetime just so our country has the resources to kill—or help kill—thousands of other working stiffs who are simply minding their own business and trying to get through life in one piece. Almost no one fighting in these wars has any real inkling why they are out there killing other people……… It is all a game now—not for the people dying from the weapons their leaders are buying, but for the leaders themselves and the oligarchs who own the companies making all this hardware. It is their little game. And they are having a blast.
I’ll say it again, and I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face. It is all a game—a sophisticated 3D chess game. And we, the common useless eaters, are not at the table playing it. In fact, we barely even exist to the real players. Sure, they use us for kill stats. The more of us who die, the more some oligarch or world leader can claim victory and collect his chips.
Look at the actual numbers if you still doubt it. According to the latest available data from SIPRI and the International Institute for Strategic Studies:
The United States leads the world by a wide margin, spending roughly $920–950 billion a year on its military.
China follows at around $250–340 billion.
Russia is third at approximately $186–190 billion (about 7.5% of its GDP).
Germany has surged to over $100–114 billion.
India sits near $90 billion.
The United Kingdom spends close to $90 billion.
Ukraine, despite its size, is now pouring roughly $84 billion into its military—an almost unimaginable 40% of its entire GDP.
Saudi Arabia, France, Japan, and others round out the top tier with tens of billions each.
Canada, after years of lagging, has ramped up significantly and is now spending in the range of $35–40 billion (with recent announcements pushing it higher to meet NATO targets).
These are not abstract figures. These are the concrete resources extracted from ordinary people—through taxes, inflation, and delayed infrastructure, healthcare, and housing—so that a small circle of decision-makers can keep the machinery of death humming. Trillions of dollars every year, worldwide, flow into the business of preparing for, and conducting, the efficient slaughter of other human beings.
And still the game continues. The leaders meet, the contracts are signed, the missiles are ordered, the justifications are written, and the body counts are tallied. The rest of us are expected to cheer for “our side,” wave the correct flag, and never ask why the same people who claim to care so deeply about human life are so eager to spend our money perfecting the art of ending it. And nobody seems to care. As long as their game of pickleball is not disrupted, the leaders they seem to adore so much can continue to play their game to their heart’s content.
I don’t know how much longer this particular round of the game will last. I only know that as long as we keep accepting the premise—that war is inevitable, that leaders know best, that the dead on the other side somehow matter less—the players will keep dealing the cards and raking in the chips. The rest of us will keep paying the price, both in treasure and in blood.
Autonomous Weapons: The Wave of the Future in Military Conflicts Worldwide
Thalif Deen.. UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 2026 (IPS) –
As the international community continues to weigh the good, the bad and the deadly in artificial intelligence (AI), which is spreading far and wide with apparently no guardrails, the United Nations is taking a closer look at the impact, both positive and negative, of AI.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said last week that “the technology is heightening the danger, with sophisticated and increasingly autonomous new weaponry, including drones, able to inflict massive harm on populations.”
The new weapons, particularly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), more commonly known as drones, seem to be a new wave of killing machines in recent conflicts, including the US vs. Iran, Israel vs. Palestine and Lebanon, and Russia vs. Israel, plus scores of civil wars in Africa and Asia.
Simon Adams, Professor of Human Rights at Murdoch University in Australia and former President and CEO of the Center for Victims of Torture—a leading international human rights and humanitarian NGO—told Inter Press Service no country in the world has openly admitted to deploying a weapon that is completely autonomous in the sense of killing humans without a person also being involved in the decision-making process.
“But there are already a number of powerful states—including several that sit around the table at the UN Security Council—who are increasingly dependent on drones, robots and AI systems to fight wars for them. Algorithms are choosing bombing targets and are already responsible for killing civilians in some major conflict zones.”
AI has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people on this planet. It would be a moral failing of epic proportions and a global tragedy if AI were harnessed to innovate new ways for humans to outsource the dirty work of waging war to robots, he said.
“Killer robots are a horror that belongs in science fiction. There is nothing more sinister than outsourcing killing and warfighting to emotionless, faceless machines that will select which humans get to live or die. Lethal autonomous weapons systems are ethically indefensible and should be illegal. We need a global ban before it is too late.”
Guterres has also reiterated his call to have them banned by international law, adding that some decisions must remain forever human, none more than taking a human life.
David Swanson, campaign coordinator for RootsAction, told IPS dozens of national governments have already stated their support for banning autonomous weapons, and dozens of others expressed their inclination to support such a ban.
So, a treaty could be established among those nations, on the model of the recent Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and then work could be done to add more nations to it. The initial signers and ratifiers would be the small and medium nations with the most willingness to defy the will of the U.S. government.
This banning of a particular type of weapon would ignore, as does the TPNW, the existence of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which requires disarmament of all weapons. It would also fail to address the morally repugnant act of ordering a young person, on pain of severe punishment, to press a button that sends a missile into people thousands of miles away—an act of dubious moral superiority to setting loose fully autonomous killer robots, he declared.
“But the biggest denier of reality in all of this is the U.S. government, which pioneered drone wars, was widely warned that it would not like the results when other nations followed suit, went on to suffer huge damage from foreign drones in places like the Persian Gulf during the current war on Iran, and altered its agenda not one iota. As guns sometimes appear to have more rights within the United States than children do, all forms of weaponry seem to be treated as deserving first consideration in U.S. foreign policy’,” he said
According to the New York Times of July 13, for decades Western governments have ordered supplies like tanks, fighter jets and submarines from contractors such as Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman—items that take years to deliver and are dizzyingly expensive: an F-35 jet can run to over $100 million.
“But the current trend is clear: defense technology is becoming cheaper and nimbler, with breakthroughs developed by privately funded companies rather than governments,” says an article authored by Vivienne Walt.
Of the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request by the current US administration for next year, about $55 billion is earmarked for the creation of a new unmanned, AI-powered arsenal.
Singling out a more positive non-military use of drones, the Times said last month that Sri Lanka, faced with one of the worst outbreaks of dengue fever in years, is using military drones to scan rooftops and find mosquito breeding grounds to eliminate them. The country’s air force has been routinely flying drones over high-rise buildings to identify breeding sites.
Nick Mottern, co-coordinator of the Weaponized Drone Ban Treaty Campaign, told IPS: “We are calling for a treaty to remove all weapons from drones, rather than to ban drones controlled autonomously by AI.
This is because all militaries will claim that there will always be a human in ultimate control of AI-augmented drones in spite of the fact that the drone will identify targets using AI, select weapons using AI, and present a human with all elements of the decision to kill using AI.
A treaty banning weapons on drones is the only way to stop the drone tsunami, he declared
Speaking at the First Global Dialogue on AI Governance in early July, Guterres said the world faced more than 120 conflicts in 2025.
Conflicts are becoming more protracted, more complex, and more interconnected, he pointed out. “We see widespread violations of international law and a growing sense of impunity. Technology is heightening the danger, with sophisticated — and increasingly autonomous — new weaponry, including drones, able to inflict massive harm on populations.”
“And online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation are spread and amplified in an instant. Too often, early warning signs are ignored. And responses are often a little too late.”
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