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Given the Chance, Ukrainians Would Give Zelensky the Boot

A fifth of those who say they do not trust him cite corruption as the main reason, and 59 percent of Ukrainians blame Zelensky personally for the extent of corruption in Ukraine today.

The wartime leader’s favorability ratings have plummeted.

Ted Snider, Nicolai N. Petro, Sep 18, 2026, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/given-the-chance-ukrainians-would-give-zelensky-the-boot/

There was a time, not very long ago, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was lionized around the world and spectacularly popular at home. But, if elections were held today, he would struggle to finish in the top three.

Zelensky came to power in a landslide victory in 2019. His term, constitutionally limited to five years, has now stretched to over seven years because of the war. Although it is true that 57 percent of Ukrainians say they do not want to hold elections during the war, it is simply not true that it is unconstitutional to hold presidential elections until the fighting stops.

The western media has provided cover for Zelensky by reporting that presidential elections are not permitted by Ukraine’s constitution at time of war. But while Ukrainian law prohibits parliamentary, presidential, and local elections under martial law, the highest law in the land, the Ukrainian constitution (Article 83), speaks only of the parliament as being able to extend its authority in the event that martial law is declared and elections cannot be held. It pointedly says nothing about extending the term of the president.

This omission was deliberate: The authors of the constitution feared that some future president might declare martial law precisely to prevent removal from office. Indeed, Zelensky’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, was accused by three former presidents of Ukraine of trying this very maneuver in late 2018 in order to derail the elections that he later lost. 

Setting aside tricky legal matters, where do things stand politically? Were elections to be held today, three key metrics suggest that Zelensky would suffer a similar devastating loss. 

The most obvious is recent polling. Only 28 percent of Ukrainians say they want to see Zelensky remain president after the war. Other recent polls show that only around 21 percent of Ukrainians would vote for him in the next election—putting Zelensky just one point ahead of his rival, former Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny—while other polling suggests that Zelensky would lose to Zaluzhny. Meanwhile, a number of “closed polls,” those commissioned by the government for internal use only, apparently show that he would probably lose to Kyrylo Budanov, the former intelligence chief and Zelensky’s current chief of staff.

The second metric may be even more important. Current polling shows that no candidate would win the required majority in the first round, thus necessitating a runoff round. Since he has the highest number of Ukrainians who say they would not vote for him under any circumstances, one can infer that Zelensky would be soundly defeated in this round under any scenario. A recent poll indicates that Zaluzhny would defeat him by a margin of 66 to 34 percent; Budanov would defeat him by 60 to 40 percent; and even the recently fired minister of defense, Mykhailo Fedorov, would beat him by a whopping 64 to 36 percent.

The third metric is trust. In an ever-shifting field of hypothetical candidates, how much Ukrainians trust their candidate may be the most important question of all. And here, Zelensky does even worse. When the question is trust, Zelensky places a distant sixth.

Zaluzhny comes in first with 28 percent of respondents fully trusting him, 37 percent trusting him somewhat, 12 percent somewhat distrusting him, and 18 percent not trusting him at all. Fedorov and Budanov are more trusted than Zelensky, as are Mykhailo Drapatyi, the current commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, and even Robert Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces. Only 18 percent say they fully trust Zelensky and 25 percent somewhat trust him, while 37 percent say they do not trust him at all.Government corruption is a big reason for Zelensky’s collapse. A fifth of those who say they do not trust him cite corruption as the main reason, and 59 percent of Ukrainians blame Zelensky personally for the extent of corruption in Ukraine today. And this perception is unlikely to change for the better, as new corruption scandals are exposed. They already reach deep into Zelensky’s inner circle and personal staff. Last year, these scandals took out Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. More recently, they have hit three deputy chiefs of staff and Yermak’s successor, Budanov, not to mention several government ministers and Ukraine’s chief prosecutor.

Popular reluctance, as well as the logistics of holding elections under the strain of war, will prevent elections from taking place any time soon. But when this horrible war finally ends and Ukrainians return to the polls, if democracy is permitted a full and unimpeded voice, then Zelensky, Ukraine’s acclaimed wartime president, will probably not be its peacetime president.

September 30, 2026 Posted by | politics, Ukraine | Leave a comment

New Mexico lawmakers warn of ‘urgent threat’ over federal nuclear oversight shortfalls

sis for the changes and that the new directives pose serious risks to the residents of New Mexico,” the lawmakers write.

“The RHMC is gravely concerned that these extensive changes to nuclear safety requirements have moved forward without sufficient transparency or critical review regarding the technical and experiential basis for the changes and that the new directives pose serious risks to the residents of New Mexico,” the lawmakers write.

By Matthew Mondschein-September 17, 2026 

A bipartisan committee of the New Mexico Legislature on Wednesday warned that two developments in the federal government’s nuclear administration — the rollback of safety requirements and the obstruction of independent safety oversight — have created an “urgent threat” to workers, communities and national security.

The Legislature’s Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee unanimously approved letters from its chair, state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and one to both Wright and President Donald Trump calling for immediate federal intervention to address nuclear safety concerns. The letters, which the committee announced in a news release, also were sent to the state’s congressional delegation, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other state officials.

The letter to Wright raises concerns about the so-called “Project Velocity,” which the letter characterizes as DOE’s “effort to reduce its regulatory requirements.”

Last month, the letter says, the DOE issued 46 new or revised directives. 

“The RHMC is gravely concerned that these extensive changes to nuclear safety requirements have moved forward without sufficient transparency or critical review regarding the technical and experiential basis for the changes and that the new directives pose serious risks to the residents of New Mexico,” the lawmakers write.

In a letter addressed to both Trump and Wright, lawmakers wrote that the 46 new or revised directives issued by the U.S Department of Energy in August “moved forward without sufficient transparency or critical review” and that subject matter experts “were kept in the dark.” 


In a letter addressed to both Trump and Wright, lawmakers wrote that the 46 new or revised directives issued by the U.S Department of Energy in August “moved forward without sufficient transparency or critical review” and that subject matter experts “were kept in the dark.” 

The DOE removed or weakened requirements that were developed by prior safety concerns, the letter continues, citing the removal of emergency preparedness requirements and the process for employees to raise technical safety concerns. The effort to revise the directives was to “remove unnecessary barriers” in federal nuclear operations. Energy Secretary Wright said in a statement in August.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) also called on Secretary Wright to justify the directive changes in their own letter, also sent on Wednesday.

New Mexico’s lawmakers also point out that some of the now-eliminated safety requirements were implemented due to mishaps in New Mexico, including the multiyear shutdown at the plutonium facility in Los Alamos Laboratory and a 2014 incident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in which radioactive material leaked and exposed 21 workers to low amounts of radiation.

The letter to both Wright and Trump details concerns regarding “the collapse in communication and cooperation” between the DOE and the U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which provides oversight and safety recommendations for the nation’s nuclear facilities. 

The letter also calls on Trump to fill the rest of the safety board seats. Currently, the five-member safety board only has one Senate-confirmed member, making the three-member quorum needed to issue formal safety recommendations impossible. 

“New Mexico understands better than almost any state what is at stake when the nation’s nuclear weapons enterprise operates without strong, independent safety oversight,” Steinborn said in a statement. “Protecting workers, communities and the American public is a national security responsibility. President Trump and Secretary Wright must put Americans’ safety first by restoring the DNFSB’s full access and ensuring that changes to nuclear safety requirements are transparent, technically justified and independently reviewed.”The nuclear oversight board was denied access to observing biweekly safety meetings, received redacted information on safety reports and were not provided technical reviews on eight occasions from Jan. 1- June 30, according to a report to Congress from July. 

September 30, 2026 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

UK Government confirms dismantling of Swiftsure is on track, but with spiralling costs

the ‘whole life cost’ of the Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP), there will be 27 decommissioned boats to get rid of, has spiralled by another £89m to almost £500m.

At the beginning of 2025 it was just under £300m – and this does not include the money it will take to dispose of the remaining 26.

it will take several decades to get rid of the remaining 26 boats.

26th September,
https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/26582886.uk-government-confirms-dismantling-swiftsure-track/

WORKERS at Rosyth Dockyard are on target to dismantle and recycle an old nuclear submarine by the end of the year.

The world first ‘demonstrator’ project to cut up HMS Swiftsure and remove her radioactive waste remains on schedule, the UK Government has confirmed.

However the ‘whole life cost’ of the Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP), there will be 27 decommissioned boats to get rid of, has spiralled by another £89m to almost £500m.

At the beginning of 2025 it was just under £300m – and this does not include the money it will take to dispose of the remaining 26.

Responding to a series of questions in parliament, Luke Pollard, minister of state at the MoD, said: “Progress continues to be made, and the department remains committed to dismantling Swiftsure by the end of 2026 safely, effectively and in accordance with regulatory requirements.

“The increase in the project’s whole life cost is primarily due to the maturation of infrastructure (alongside other costs), while the end date extended to October 2028 represents the formal closure of the project and is separate from the milestone to complete the recycling of Swiftsure by 2026.”

The SDP is a world-first engineering programme designed to safely defuel, strip and recycle 27 decommissioned Royal Navy nuclear submarines.

The specialist team at Rosyth is leading the way as no other country has attempted to remove the reactor pressure vessels, the most radioactive part of the vessels.

Swiftsure is serving as the ‘demonstrator’ boat to establish a repeatable, standardised process for the rest of the fleet.

The first of her class, she was a nuclear-powered attack submarine whose primary role was intelligence gathering, anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare.

Swiftsure entered service in 1973 and was decommissioned in 1992.

Once the methodology is perfected, it’s expected that each sub will take 12 to 18 months to fully process.

The MoD expects that it will take several decades to get rid of the remaining 26 boats.

Dunfermline and Dollar MP Graeme Downie wants that work to be carried out here, he said that establishing the dockyard as a centre of excellence for dismantling old subs would guaranteeing decades of skilled, well paid jobs.

However, anti-nuclear campaigner and Rosyth councillor, Brian Goodall, has opposed this move and wants the “environmental time bombs” taken away from the town as soon as possible.

Seven subs have been laid up at the dockyard for decades, the last one arriving in 1996.

As well as HMS Swiftsure, there is HMS Churchill, HMS Resolution, HMS Repulse, HMS Revenge and HMS Renown.

HMS Dreadnought has been there for so long – since 1980 – that much of her low-level radiation has “disappeared naturally”.

In November 2022 local councillors were told of a UK Government pledge to “de-nuclearise Rosyth” by 2035.

While it has committed to dismantling all 27 subs, it will learn lessons from cutting up Swiftsure before finalising the plans for the remaining 26 vessels.

It’s thought that, as the other six vessels at Rosyth have already been defuelled and the skilled workforce and infrastructure is already at the yard, these boats will be next in line.

Another 15 subs are at Devonport – just four have had their fuel removed – and five more are due to come out of service.

Approved in 2013, the SDP aims to recover, reuse, or conventionally recycle approximately 90 per cent of each submarine’s total weight.

The three stages involve removing low-level radioactive waste; removing the reactor pressure vessel, which is classed as intermediate level waste; and, once all radioactive material has gone, recycling.

More than 200 people are working on the project at Rosyth and, by late 2024, more than £200m had been spent on it.

The high-quality steel that’s recovered is going into building the next generation of nuclear subs.

Low level waste that’s removed from the subs is processed and sent to a repository in West Cumbria.

The reactor pressure vessels are classed as intermediate level waste (ILW) and will be sent to Capenhurst in Cheshire for interim storage, above ground and in secure containers.

In the long term, the policy is to bury all ILW waste from the subs in a permanent, deep underground geological disposal facility.

The proposed site is not yet known and the UK Government estimates it will not be operational until sometime after 2040.

September 30, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Zelensky’s strategy is national suicide

Iuliia Mendel, 26 Sept 26

For Americans who follow the Russian-Ukrainian war, the past few months must look very strange. In the first half of summer, the story from Kyiv – and the many western media outlets that repeated it – was that Ukraine was winning. Then, not long after the NATO summit in July, Kyiv announced it lacked the interceptors to prevent a winter disaster. The country needed 300 missiles to survive, we were told. Even if these 300 missiles arrive, they are unlikely to protect a country as large as Ukraine from the sheer volume of Russian ballistic attacks and glide-bomb strikes. Now it’s September, and Ukraine says it’s facing a $27 billion shortfall in defense funding. There seems to be a vast difference between the public relations campaign and the reality in Ukraine………. (Sunscribers only) https://spectator.com/article/zelenskys-strategy-is-national-suicide/

September 30, 2026 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

‘UK spends twice as much switching off windfarms as it does on small nuclear reactors’

 More than £1 billion has been forked out in constraint
payments this year until the end of August – a 60 per cent increase on last
year. The UK government has paid almost twice as much to turn off windfarms
in Scotland as it plans to spend on developing small modular nuclear
reactors by the end of this decade, industry leaders have said. The Nuclear
Industry Association said ministers plan to invest £2.8 billion in the
technology, compared with £5.1bn in so-called constraint payments that
have been made since 2021. Some £1.04bn was forked out in constraint
payments this year up until the end of August. This is up from £648m in
the same period last year.

 Scotsman 26th Sept 2026 https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/uk-spends-twice-as-much-switching-off-windfarms-as-it-does-on-small-nuclear-reactors-9176795

September 30, 2026 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

UP FOR GRABS: Button pushed for new SMR spending round

energy economists point out that fixed costs (such as 24/7 security, exclusion zones and

energy economists point out that fixed costs (such as 24/7 security, exclusion zones and regulatory licensing) do not diminish proportionally with a smaller reactor…………….. “economies of scale come by making something bigger, not by making something smaller.”

By Simon Hacker | 25th September 2026

Businesses across Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds are being urged to throw in their hats for a share of £1.4bn in contracts to supply Rolls-Royce SMR‘s pathway for small nuclear reactors.

Rolls-Royce SMR said its new Supplier Programme gives UK firms a chance to bid for a slice of the contracts pie over the next year, the move aiming to support the company and Great British Energy-Nuclear (GBE-N) in its quest to achieve more than 70% UK fleet content for the Gwyndod (Wylfa) project in North Wales.

The invitation comes as SMR technology remains, as yet, unapproved for final implementation in Western markets: two demonstration operations in China and Russia (a floating project on the Arctic) are active as pilots, but elsewhere, while technical viability is proven, Rolls-Royce SMR remains engaged in a process to steal a lead on US rivals by concluding a Generic Design Assessment stage with regulators.

Since being formed in 2021, Rolls-Royce SMR said it had already spent more than £300m with UK based suppliers – equivalent to 88% of its total spend to date – and held three UK supplier events, formally engaging with more than 650 UK firms.

It hailed this launch as a “major milestone in establishing a resilient, high-value UK supply chain, capable of delivering at scale and supporting our export programme”.

Funding for SMR development is a mixed picture of streams from private investment and the UK taxpayer, with government documents showing that the £1.4bn reported here is derived from general taxation (via government spending), the ultimate goal of the SMR programme being to transition to a mix of private investment and consumer energy bills.

To date, the amount that Rolls-Royce SMR has drawn down and spent from the taxpayer is not isolated to a single figure, given that government funding shifts between committed grants, commercial loans and site purchases.

But in terms of money the government has formally spent or legally committed to Rolls-Royce SMR so far, the taxpayer footprint is reported to stand at around £830m in direct development funds, within a wider £2.6bn total programme allocation…………………

Chris Cholerton, CEO of Rolls-Royce SMR, said the scale of the opportunity in unlocking £1.4bn that is now available to UK suppliers from the Rolls-Royce SMR programme was significant.

“As the only SMR provider with multiple contractual commitments in Europe, we want to partner with the best of UK industry, to maximise their opportunity to contribute to our growing European fleet.”

It’s not quite over the line, but Rolls-Royce SMR has successfully completed Step Two of the GDA which makes it the leading SMR vendor in Europe in the race to provide the continent’s required legal paperwork for the technology……………………….

Rolls-Royce SMR said: “Through workshops, industry events and expert guidance, the Programme will demystify the sector, help suppliers understand regulatory and commercial requirements, and make it easier for companies to explore opportunities within the Rolls-Royce SMR supply chain.Participating suppliers will benefit from greater visibility of future supply chain requirements and access to potential opportunities across the programme. They will also have opportunities to engage directly with Rolls-Royce SMR and supply chain procurement teams through briefings, networking events and meet-the-buyer sessions.”

WIth the economic viability remaining as yet untested advocates of SMRs maintain that by building reactors in factories, rather than on-site, costs will plummet. However, energy economists point out that fixed costs (such as 24/7 security, exclusion zones and regulatory licensing) do not deminish proportionally with a smaller reactor.

Here in Gloucestershire, Stroud-based Ecotricity boss Dale Vince has taken a leading role as an ardent critic of the SMR concept, having argued that “economies of scale come by making something bigger, not by making something smaller.”

Trying to make cheap “mini nukes”, Mr Vince said, ignores the fact that miniaturising complex, highly regulated technology naturally drives costs up, not down.………
https://www.punchline-gloucester.com/articles/aanews/button-pushed-for-new-smr-spending-round

September 30, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

White House thinks it’s above the law

Judge rules media ban clearly unconstitutional

Freedom of the Press Foundation, 25 Sept 25

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that President Donald Trump could not bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, rejecting the administration’s argument that “national security” concerns justified the ban. But despite Kelly’s temporary restraining order, all three outlets reported hours later that they were still being blocked from entering the premises. Compliance since has been spotty at best.

“Government officials who continue to deny journalists’ access to the White House in defiance of Kelly’s order should be held in contempt,” Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern said. “And it’s long past time for judges to start aggressively sanctioning DOJ lawyers when they make frivolous national security arguments to turn Trump’s petty grievances against the press into government policy.”

September 30, 2026 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Building the foundations for regulatory collaboration

 UK and Swedish nuclear regulators have taken a significant step towards
international collaboration on small modular reactor deployment, with a
workshop supported by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and
Trade, designed to accelerate the safe rollout of the technology across
both countries. The workshop followed the recent announcement in June, that
the Swedish utility Videberg Kraft had selected Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd to
supply small modular nuclear reactors, representing the first new nuclear
build in Sweden for more than 40 years. Videberg Kraft, owned by Vattenfall
and a group of Sweden’s largest companies, plans to develop this new
nuclear power capacity alongside the site of the existing Ringhals nuclear
facility in southwest Sweden.

 ONR 10th Sept 2026, https://www.onr.org.uk/news/all-news/2026/09/building-foundations-for-regulatory-collaboration

September 30, 2026 Posted by | politics international, Sweden, USA | Leave a comment

White Paper aims to facilitate safe and secure transport of radioactive materials

 A series of recommendations have been made to mitigate the
denial or delay of transport of radioactive materials which nuclear power
plants, hospitals, industries and researchers rely on. Details of the White
Paper on the Facilitation of the Safe and Secure Transport of Radioactive
Material, which was prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA)’s Denial of Shipment Working Group, were presented at a side event
at the IAEA’s 70th General Conference.

There are more than 20 million
packages needing to be transported each year, and IAEA Director General
Rafael Mariano Grossi told the packed meeting that although there had been
progress with the issue, it “continues to present challenges
internationally. Denials and delays are subtle but extremely negative
things that continue to happen” even with “companies in countries that are
in favour of the transportation. So there is a problem in communication,
which should not exist. I think it’s high time we really tackle this issue
in a concerted way, in a coherent way and try to solve it as much as we
can”.

 World Nuclear News 25th Sep 2026, https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/white-paper-aims-to-facilitate-safe-transport-of-radioactive-materials

September 30, 2026 Posted by | safety | Leave a comment

Tech Plutocrats Cannot Lead Us Into A Healthy Future


Caitlin Johnstone, 26 Sept 26, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/tech-plutocrats-cannot-lead-us-into?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=217385553&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Tech plutocrats are the high-budget expression of the “everyone is twelve now” theory. You wanna go to Mars? Of course you do, you’re twelve. You think you can merge your consciousness with machinery and unlock the key to immortality? Hell yeah my twelve year-old homie. You’re gonna invent an Artificial Superintelligence God who will solve all our problems? Bless your twelve year-old heart.

Their visions for the future of humanity are never particularly wise or intelligent. It’s just a bunch of drugged-up rich guys using their vast fortunes to chart a course for our species that would sound totally awesome to the average preadolescent boy.

You ever hear about Jeff Bezos’ vision for our future? He brings it up once in a while. He wants to ship most of humanity offworld and have us all living in these giant spinning space tubes called O’Neill cylinders while only a few lucky individuals get to remain on humanity’s home planet. It’s true, look it up.

This is the best these freaks can come up with. Transhumanism. Space colonization. Virtual reality. ASI. Immortality. These are all visions which revolve around escape. Escaping from the human condition. Escaping from our planet. Escaping from reality. Running, running, running away in a mad scramble to get anywhere but here.

These aren’t positive visions for the future, they’re signs of deep psychological immaturity. They’re the symptoms of an inability to be with what is. Whenever you hear these guys bloviating about transcending our humanity or colonizing space they’re just telling you they’ve got a lot of unresolved early childhood trauma which led them to construct an entire personality around avoidance and restlessness.

They don’t know how to be at peace. Not with themselves, and not with the world. These are very emotionally primitive individuals. They are not wise. They are not kind. They are not happy. They are not even especially smart. They just have a particular kind of cleverness which has enabled them to succeed as parasitic middle men siphoning wealth off of other people’s labor in the specific type of dystopia we happen to live in.

And yet these are the men we’re allowing to rule our world. These are the people to whom we have handed the steering wheel of human destiny. A bunch of emotionally stunted manchilds who are drowning in a nonstop internal deluge of shame and inadequacy and unresolved mommy issues.

These are the men who have become our kings, because capitalism elevates whoever is wounded enough to do whatever it takes to claw their way to the top.

You trust these guys to shepherd us into a healthy world? They can’t even be here now, at peace in their own skins. Mainstream culture worships these people because they have a lot of money, but they’re walking train wrecks.

This isn’t going to cut it. We can’t led these infantile narcissists lead humanity into the future. We’ve got to create a better system for ourselves.

September 29, 2026 Posted by | culture and arts | Leave a comment

Trump Threatens Cuba at UN General Assembly, Cuba Responds

September 23, 2026,By Orinoco Tribune, https://orinocotribune.com/trump-threatens-cuba-at-un-general-assembly-cuba-responds/

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened Cuba, claiming that the country is under the highest level of pressure and that it will eventually fall.

In protest against Trump’s words, the Cuban delegation, led by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, walked out of the room. Prior to the threats from the US president, which he often repeats, the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had expressed his condemnation of foreign interference in the region and criticized the measures imposed by the US against Cuba. Lula emphasized that the intensified blockade represents collective punishment against 10 million people.

Trump claimed that Cuba is a failed state, and backed up his claims by referring to the added pressure of the economic and energy blockade policy. “It is failing like never before, and it is going to fall,” the US president said in his usual bellicose tone. He also mentioned that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading ongoing negotiations with the Cuban government, a claim that has been denied by Cuba.

In addition to his warlike tone against Cuba, the US president uttered warnings against Iran. Trump stated that he must decide between quickly annihilating Iran to supposedly prevent it from attacking other countries or allowing an agreement that favors the reconstruction of the country under Washington’s terms, although he toned down the bravado by adding that he expects to reach a pact after the US midterm elections. He also insisted that the Iranian government will never have a nuclear weapon, despite the fact that Iran has a declared

policy of not making any nuclear weapons.

Earlier, upon his arrival at the UN headquarters in New York, Trump had an incident with the press, when he reproached a CNN reporter for covering his attendance, citing his ban on CNN.

Trump also boasted about the achievements of the US economy, calling it the envy of the world, although the country is experiencing high inflation, elevated fuel costs, and rising mortgage rates faced by the US population.

Cuba condemns Trump’s attacks
The Cuban government responded to Trump’s attacks by reaffirming its right to sovereignty and condemning the economic and social impact of the intensified US blockade.

The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, decried on social media that the characterization of Cuba as a threat has the objective of justifying the genocidal US economic war against the Cuban population.

Díaz-Canel stated that Trump’s resorting to lies reflects a refusal to accept the self-determination of the Cuban people and reaffirmed that the country will maintain the defense of its sovereignty, working to overcome US imperialist aggression. He added that the blockade is the real threat.

Similarly, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said that the US government is incapable of recognizing Cuba as an independent and fully sovereign nation.

Rodríguez dismissed Trump’s accusations as falsehoods and slander, insisting that Cuba does not pose a danger to the United States or any other country, while the current economic restrictions and energy blockade do threaten Cuba and the rest of the world.

“The blockade is an act of genocide and collective punishment. We are a country of peace and we deserve peace,” emphasized the foreign minister, adding that the blockade has been systematically denounced by the majority of the international community.

September 29, 2026 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

A New Arms Race is Threatening to Take-off—this time in Outer Space

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 2026 (IPS) – The world’s ongoing arms race is threatening to extend beyond planet earth—and spillover into outer space.

The US has deployed weapons in space and will use them to defend American forces, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said last week, according to Cable News Network (CNN). His comments marked the first public acknowledgment of such capabilities, though he offered no details about the weapons or when they were put into orbit.

“Today we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist,” Meink told the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, an annual gathering hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association in National Harbor, Maryland.

The disclosure comes as the US faces an advancing space arms race with China and Russia, which are testing sophisticated offensive capabilities.

Specifically, American officials have said they are monitoring China’s development of a nuclear-capable partial-orbit hypersonic missile. US intelligence has also suggested Russia is developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could knock out satellites critical to weather forecasting, navigation, banking, shipping and emergency services — a claim Moscow denies, according to CNN.

The New York Times quoted Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry as saying: ‘We urge the US side to stop expanding its military force and preparing for war in outer space”.

There have also been reports that “Russia could be planning to put a nuclear weapon in space, a threat that could disrupt satellite networks that are vital to everything – from communications to military operations.”

The multiple UN Conferences on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE), have served as landmark global summits to shape international cooperation and policy for space exploration.

Convened at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna from 14 to 27 August 1968, UNISPACE 1 focused on the practical benefits of space technology and scientific exchange

Tariq Rauf, former Head of Verification and Security Policy, at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Inter Press Service (IPS) , while appreciating the transparency shown by the US, this disclosure is the most consequential open acknowledgement by any spacefaring State of weaponised on-orbit capability since the erosion of the informal post-Cold War taboo on space weapons.

The testing began with the 2007 Chinese ASAT test and the 2008 and 2021 Russian ASAT tests., the 2008 US and 2021 Russian ASAT tests, and India’s 2019 Mission Shakti ASAT test — building on earlier direct-ascent ASAT programs pursued by the United States and the Soviet Union from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The US deployment converts a long-suspected capability gap into a declared fact, and it will be read by other delegations as confirmation that at least one major power has moved decisively from space “control” doctrine to operational deployment, he said.

For the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the Ad Hoc Committee of the Conference on Disarmament on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), the announcement raises four immediate questions:

(1) whether the deployment is compatible with the existing Outer Space Treaty regime; (2) what it means for the stalled draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) and the EU Code of Conduct (EU International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities); (3) how the expert and policy community is interpreting the move; and (4) what practical steps the Committees can recommend to prevent a cascading arms race in space.

Rauf proposed five recommendations:

1. Convene an urgent joint briefing between COPUOS’s Scientific and Technical and Legal Subcommittees and the CD’s PAROS Ad Hoc Committee to develop a shared factual record of the announcement and its technical implications, avoiding duplicated or contradictory assessments across the two bodies.


2. Both PAROS Ad Hoc Committee and COPUOS should issue an urgent call for a moratorium on placing weapons in Space, urge the US to take down space weapons it has deployed and urge all spacefaring States to preserve Space as the common heritage of humankind and weapons-free.

3. Request, through the Conference on Disarmament Secretariat, that all spacefaring States with counterspace capability — not only the United States — provide voluntary technical briefings on the general character (though not classified specifics) of any on-orbit weapons systems, to reduce the information asymmetry currently driving worst-case assumptions.

4. Task the Legal Subcommittee with producing a technical working paper clarifying the scope of Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty as applied to conventional (non-WMD) on-orbit weapons, and the interaction of Articles III and IX with counterspace operations, to give delegations a common legal baseline rather than competing unilateral interpretations.


5. Encourage major space powers to reaffirm, at head-of-delegation level, existing voluntary moratoria on destructive kinetic ASAT testing, and invite additional States to associate themselves with such moratoria pending progress on a binding instrument.”

Jonathan Granoff, President Global Security Institute, told IPS placing offensive weapons in space is a very risky proposition.

The Outer Space Treaty has been instrumental in ensuring numerous benefits of outer space, including satellites and exploration. All major nations are parties including United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, and all member states of the European Space Agency. The Treaty in its first article establishes that space exploration and use shall only be for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind, ensuring free and non-discriminatory access for all states.

The deployment of weapons in space by the United States could easily be interpreted as violating that peaceful uses principle, he pointed out.

“However, there is an argument that putting weapons in space for defensive purposes only helps protect against abuses of the peace which is in the interest of all nations. This is not frivolous. The problem with that argument is that weapons used for defensive purposes can also be used offensively and the deployment of such weapons would indeed violate the the Treaty. Moreover, such a deployment by one nation will surely stimulate an arms race.”

There are several important questions, he said.

Should the entire world trust that the weapons the US places in space would only be used defensively to preserve the peace? If the US places weapons in space would this new interpretation of the Treaty stimulate other nations to do the same? Would it be wise to trust they would only use their weapons defensively?

Recall that President Reagan, addressing such questions, offered to share his Star Wars deployments of space based missile defenses with the Soviet Union. Would it be a good idea for the US to share space weapons technologies with other nations?

“The entire world benefits very much from the current military uses of outer space which allows the observation of the military activities of all nations thus helping stability. Such uses should affirmatively be protected and encouraged. Other uses that will lead to a new arms race should be prohibited. A protocol to the OST to prohibit offensive weapons in space as well as any anti-satellite weapons should be obtained”, declared Granoff..

September 29, 2026 Posted by | politics international, space travel | Leave a comment

A 12-foot bundle of 216 fuel rods tilted over inside the first American reactor being pulled back from decommissioning, after the loading machine had set it in the core and let go, and engineers are now designing tools just to lift that one bundle back out


Luis Reyes, Sep 23, 26, https://www.autonocion.com/us/fuel-bundle-tilted-palisades-core/#goog_rewarded

Three weeks ago, Palisades was the feel-good nuclear story of the year. On August 30, a crew at the shut-down plant on the Lake Michigan shore started lowering fuel bundles back into a reactor that had been sitting empty since 2022, the first time anyone has tried to pull an American reactor back out of decommissioning and switch it on again. Holtec, the owner, posted photos of blue water and a brand-new loading machine. Everyone covered it, including us.

Well, about that.

One of those fuel bundles isn’t standing up straight anymore. Holtec confirmed on September 21 that during fuel loading, one assembly “tilted from its upright position” after the crew had set it in the core and the loading machine’s grapple had already let go of it. Fuel loading has been paused ever since, and the company is now designing equipment just to lift that one bundle back out of the vessel and get it back to the plant’s spent fuel pool.

And you didn’t hear about it from Holtec. The first public version came from Reddit.

So what actually happened inside the vessel?

If you’ve never seen a nuclear fuel assembly, picture a bundle of 216 skinny metal rods packed into a square frame, standing about 12 feet tall, according to Holtec. The Palisades core takes 204 of them, slotted upright side by side like books in a crate. A machine rolling on rails over the flooded reactor pit grabs each assembly by the top, drives it over the right slot, lowers it in, and lets go.

Somewhere in the first days of loading, one of them got placed, got released, and then leaned over. Holtec hasn’t said how far it tilted, what it’s resting against, or how many assemblies were already sitting in the core when everything stopped. I’d genuinely like to know that last one, because it tells you how much of the job was left.

The regulator, at least, has been reassuring. Viktoria Mitlyng, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told The National there was “no radiological release” and no one got hurt. Holtec says it notified the NRC right away, and the plant’s own evaluation concluded the event didn’t rise to the level that triggers formal safety reporting. Which is why you didn’t hear about it. No one was required to tell you.

The regulator says tipped, not dropped

So how did the news get out? An anonymous Reddit post claimed the plant had dropped a partially used fuel assembly during loading. Edwin Lyman, a physicist who runs nuclear power safety work at the Union of Concerned Scientists, amplified the post and pointed out that more than two weeks had gone by with, in his words, “nothing but silence” from the company or the regulator. The National then put the question to the NRC, Mitlyng answered on September 21, and Holtec’s statement went up shortly after the paper published, by The National’s own account.

Does the difference between tipped and dropped actually matter? It does, and it’s pretty much the whole story. A dropped assembly means the machine lost its grip mid-lift and 12 feet of fuel rods came down onto whatever was underneath, and now you’re checking neighbors for damage. A tipped one means the bundle was already seated, the grapple had cleanly let go, and the thing leaned over afterward. Mitlyng was careful to make exactly that correction, and frankly she was right to, and that’s two very different days at a nuclear plant.

hat still leaves an obvious question. Fuel assemblies aren’t supposed to lean.

Holtec has started a root cause evaluation to figure out why this one did, and until that comes back, no one outside the company can tell you whether the problem is the bundle, the slot, or the handling. The fuel in this core is a mix of fresh assemblies and partially used ones from the plant’s last runs before the 2022 shutdown, and Holtec hasn’t said which kind the leaning one is.

Getting one bundle out takes new tools and a license change

Here’s where it gets unusual. You can’t just send the loading machine back to pick the assembly up, apparently, because Holtec’s in-house engineering team is designing purpose-built retrieval and storage gear to carry the bundle back to the pool. The company also has a License Amendment Request in the works with the NRC, covering the retrieval method itself.

A License Amendment Request is basically the plant asking the regulator, in writing, for permission to do something its current license doesn’t cover, and the NRC reviews it before anyone touches anything. Mitlyng said the agency will evaluate it thoroughly, and NRC inspectors have been watching the fuel handling work on site from the start.

None of that is fast. Holtec has been telling people it wants Palisades back in service late this year or in early 2027, and that target has already moved more than once. Designing new tooling, getting a license amendment through the NRC, and pulling a leaning fuel assembly out of a reactor vessel doesn’t strike me as a quick detour, though I’ll admit the NRC has moved faster on this project than on pretty much anything else in its recent history.

The rest of the plant keeps moving

The tilted bundle hasn’t frozen the whole site. On September 11, Palisades reconnected to its 345-kilovolt switchyard after restoration work with ITC, the company that owns the transmission lines serving the plant. The switchyard is the plant’s on-ramp to the grid, the path its electricity takes out once the reactor is running, so that box had to get checked no matter what happens in the vessel.

After the leaning assembly is dealt with and the rest of the fuel goes in, the vessel gets bolted back together and the plant moves to Cold Shutdown, the next stop on the checklist toward actually making power. There’s still testing and NRC sign-offs stacked up beyond that.

Holtec says the root cause evaluation is underway and the retrieval equipment and license paperwork are both in the works, and as of the company’s September 21 update, fuel loading at Palisades is still on hold.

September 29, 2026 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Feds publish notice to list nuclear waste project under Building Canada Act

Public feedback on the proposal to designate the scheme a project of national interest will be accepted until Oct. 26, 2026

Gary Rinne, NORTHERN ONTARIO BUSINESS, Sep 22, 2026 

OTTAWA — The federal government has taken the first step toward designating a proposed underground used nuclear fuel storage site in Northwestern Ontario a project of national interest.

It announced the publication Sept. 18 of a notice in the Canada Gazette formally advising the public it is considering whether to list the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO) deep geological repository project (DGR) under the Building Canada Act.

The government first disclosed its intention to do this in June.

The Building Canada Act is legislation aimed at ensuring major projects move forward efficiently.

Listing the DGR would put all federal permitting for the project under a coordinated framework, simplifying the regulatory process. It would virtually guarantee approval as the question would shift from whether to how the project should move proceed, according to an email from a federal spokesperson.

However, the government noted in its announcement that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission retains responsibility for issuing licences, and is independently responsible for ensuring the facility is built safely and in accordance with international treaties.

The NWMO plans to construct a network of tunnels and storage rooms 650 to 800 metres below the surface in the Canadian Shield between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.

It would store used nuclear fuel from the country’s existing and future nuclear reactors, beginning in the 2040s…………………..

Comments on the federal proposal may be submitted by email until Oct. 26, 2026.

The government said it will consider this feedback alongside the input it receives from stakeholders including Indigenous communities. https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/design-build/feds-publish-notice-to-list-nuclear-waste-project-under-building-canada-act-12806778?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sep%2022,%202026%2003:00%20pm&utm_content=mc_nob#google_vignette

September 29, 2026 Posted by | Canada, wastes | Leave a comment

Iran Launches Surprise Attacks On US Bases As Trump Covers Up Soldier Casualties

September 24, 2026, Robert Inlakesh MintPress News, https://scheerpost.com/2026/09/24/iran-launches-surprise-attacks-on-us-bases-as-trump-covers-up-soldier-casualties/

Iran’s IRGC has been striking various US targets and an average of two to three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on a daily basis, as gas prices hit working class Americans where it hurts. On this episode of The Target stream, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh explains how these blows have been compounded by revelations that the Pentagon is concealing its Iran War casualties.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out another ballistic missile attack against what they would later state was a US military base in Jordan, in the latest edition of The Target we cover the story before it was officially announced and put it together with a broader series of strikes on American military targets that are no longer even being acknowledged by US Central Command.

Tehran’s preemptive operations are not receiving much attention in the corporate media, despite visual confirmation of them occurring, alongside on the ground reports and later confirmations from Iranian military officials. Combined with the fact that multiple vessels are being targeted in the Strait of Hormuz by the IRGC’s naval forces on a daily basis, this spells a new regional equation.

So long as the Iranian attacks are not on a larger scale as to demand a response, the US military is simply pretending as if they are not happening at all. The previously announced equation was that Iran’s civilian infrastructure would be targeted each and every time a tanker is struck in the Persian Gulf.

Compounding the US’s declining hegemony and military embarrassments have been reports that the Pentagon has deliberately hid the deaths of a number of American military personnel. According to a bombshell report from the Washington Post, five sources who are familiar with the US’s casualty figures claimed that they knew about four deaths that were not publicly registered by the Pentagon, an additional source said that number could be five.

Meanwhile, gas prices are burdening working class Americans who are growing increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos Poll, published this Monday, found that only 17% of US citizens say that they are happy with the federal government’s management of the economy.

Although it has remained largely out of the mainstream spotlight, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen continues to backfire as it faces new rounds of ballistic missile and drone strikes against their oil infrastructure. The Yemeni Armed Forces continue to liberate territory from Saudi-proxy forces, as airstrikes based upon intelligence granted to Riyadh by officials in Tel Aviv have resulted in a growing number of civilian massacres.

Also on the stream, Robert Inlakesh takes an in depth look at the Lebanon front and what its weapons arsenal could mean during the upcoming regional escalation, analysing the Israeli predicament on southern Lebanese occupied lands. Hezbollah had proven it possessed a large range of weapons during its 2024 war with Israel. In 2026, the Party has chosen not to use its strategic arsenal so far, indicating that it is following a carefully calibrated escalation ladder.

September 29, 2026 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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