US and UK involved in attack on Crimea – Russia
https://www.rt.com/russia/583634-us-uk-crimea-strike/ 29 Sept 23
Moscow has “no doubt” about Western complicity in the attack on Sevastopol last Friday, the Foreign Ministry has said
Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has asserted that US and British intelligence agencies supported Kiev during an attack on Sevastopol last Friday. The Ukrainian assault targeted the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Speaking at a weekly briefing on Wednesday, she said there was “no doubt that this attack was planned with the use of Western surveillance assets, NATO satellite equipment, and spy planes and conducted at the direction of and in close coordination with American and British special services.”
The Defense Ministry has reported that the missile strike on the fleet headquarters involved several Ukrainian missiles, with Russian air defenses successfully intercepting some of them. British media outlets have also disclosed that Kiev employed Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK in the attack, resulting in significant damage to the building.
Zakharova described the incident as one of many in which Kiev “targets Russian regions, using missiles and shells supplied by NATO states,” citing several other recent examples. The goals of the Ukrainian government, she said, are “to draw attention away from the Ukrainian military’s failed attempts at conducting a counteroffensive” and to destabilize Russian society.
The US and its allies have supplied tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware to Ukraine to boost its summer charge against Russian defensive lines. The operation, however, has so far produced insignificant territorial gains at the cost of heavy losses in manpower and equipment.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu estimated on Tuesday that over 17,000 Ukrainian troops were killed in September alone. Western officials and media have acknowledged that the counteroffensive has not turned out as Kiev and its sponsors had hoped.
The administration of US President Joe Biden, however, has urged Congress to keep financing Ukraine for the foreseeable future. An appropriation request for over $24 billion in aid is currently floating in the legislature but is opposed by some Republican lawmakers.
Senators have proposed a compromise stopgap spending bill to avoid a possible government shutdown next month. The plan involves reducing spending on Ukraine to $6.2 billion. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives would need to approve the draft before it could be voted on and sent to Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
TODAY. Don’t let’s be beastly to the Nazis
We must be sweet-
And tactful and discreet
.…Let’s be meek to them-
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
They’ve been in floods of tears
Because the poor little dears
Have been so wronged and only longed
To cheat the world,
Deplete the world
And beat
The world to blazes.
– Noel Coward – 1943
We need another Noel Coward today – to sift through all the nonsense.
A Canadian military spokesman explained the need for “ongoing dialogue on the development of a diverse, and inclusive Ukraine.” meaning that we should accept feting a former member of the Waffen-SS , because after all, the Nazis were against Russia in World War 2.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, German Ambassador, Sabine Sparwasser, and the whole Canadian Parliament gave a long, standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, former member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. That division gained international infamy for hunting down anti-Nazi partisans, massacring thousands of civilians, and burning hundreds of Polish villagers alive.
Their excuse for applauding Hunka? They didn’t know, just honoured Hunka as a “war hero”. Were they lying? Or did they just not understand which side he was on?
The plea of ignorance is disturbing.
Is the study of history dead? In this age of glorifying S.T.E.M. education, apparently knowledge of history is irrelevant.
And we have to be “diverse and inclusive”?
Are we all so “woke” these days that we comfortably accept people with the Nazi philosophy, and practical history, of cruelty, anti-semitism, white supremacy ?
And that’s all Ok, as Zelensky seems to think, anyone who is against Russia is to be congratulated.
.
France pushes pro-nuclear momentum to host global talks at OECD, to get tax-payer funding for the nuclear industry
At the event, participants called on international financial institutions, regional development banks and organisations, including the EU, to finance nuclear power.
The joint statement calls on financial institutions to “classify nuclear energy with all other zero- or low-emission energy sources in financial taxonomies”.
By Paul Messad | EURACTIV France | translated by Daniel Eck 29 Sept 23 https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/france-builds-on-eus-pro-nuclear-momentum-to-host-global-talks/
France sought to build on the “momentum” behind nuclear energy in Europe by hosting world leaders on 28-29 September to accelerate nuclear financing and discuss long-term international cooperation that excludes Russia from the game.
The conference was attended by 21 countries, including 15 from Europe – Bulgaria, Romania, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK – as well as Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Ghana and the US.
“This is the first time in 13 years that so many ministers have come together for a Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) event,” said French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who co-chaired the event with William D. Magwood, director-general of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency.
The timing is right, added Pannier-Runacher about the shift in attitude among EU member states like the Netherlands and Italy, who were until recently historically opposed to nuclear power.
Some 30 industry leaders also participated in the debates, with several signing a joint press release on Friday calling for redeveloping nuclear power.
On the agenda of the Paris event were topics like financing, supply chain and fuel issues, and coordination between governments and industry.
International financing
At the event, participants called on international financial institutions, regional development banks and organisations, including the EU, to finance nuclear power.
“We intend to explore innovative financing approaches, including public-private partnerships, to facilitate access to capital for refurbishment, long-term operation, spent fuel and waste long-term storage & disposal, and new nuclear build projects internationally while mitigating the economic costs of risk through public support mechanisms,” says a joint communiqué.
This means that the EU is also called upon to join the movement.
In this sense, Pannier-Runacher “welcomed” the statement made on Tuesday (26 September) by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who, for the first time, envisaged EU subsidies for nuclear power.
“Nuclear energy needs public support in three areas: financing [including from the European Investment Bank], skills development and innovation,” the EU’s internal market Commissioner Thierry Breton said at the event’s start.
Asked about the possible reluctance of EU countries such as Germany to allow EU funds to be used for nuclear power, Pannier-Runacher said that “the problem lies in the different treatment of two energies that contribute to the same [decarbonisation] goals”, namely nuclear power and renewables, which are all low-carbon.
The joint statement calls on financial institutions to “classify nuclear energy with all other zero- or low-emission energy sources in financial taxonomies”.
The countries that signed the joint declaration have another powerful argument: nuclear capacity is set to triple worldwide by 2050 according to OECD scenarios, although a less optimistic IEA predicts that it will double.
Sharing the same values
The meeting was an opportunity for nuclear proponents to get together, but only from “democratic countries that share the same values”, Pannier-Runacher’s entourage explained on Wednesday.
While the talks did not directly address the dependence of some participating countries on Russia’s nuclear industry, “there is an implicit commitment by all OECD countries to condemn the Russian invasion,” Pannier-Runacher’s office said.
While Russia has been suspended from the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency, the Eastern European countries that attended the event are also members of the “Nuclear Alliance”, which is committed to “building partnerships to move away from this dependence [on Russia]”, the minister’s entourage added.
Their presence allowed EU countries present in Paris to hold informal talks on the ongoing reform of the EU electricity market, for which France advocates an approach favouring existing nuclear plants.
While the topic was not up for discussion, Pannier-Runacher’s office said ahead of the conference that “bilateral meetings with some of them [members of the nuclear alliance] will indeed take place”.
On the morning of the event, Pannier-Runacher was due to meet her Italian counterpart Gilberto Pichetto Fratin “to discuss cooperation on nuclear issues and the future of the European electricity market,” she said on X (formerly Twitter).
Italy did not take part in the OECD debates or sign the joint communiqué but was present as an observer.
German ambassador applauded Ukrainian Waffen SS Nazi – Berlin
Members of the Canadian parliament stood and gave long ovations for the 98-year-old Hunka when he was introduced during a visit by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Friday. Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the enthusiastic participants in the cheers.
Ukrainian Nazi collaborators slaughtered thousands of Poles during World War II. Hunka was among thousands of Ukrainian fighters who were allowed to emigrate to the UK and Canada after World War II, despite their possible participation in war crimes.
https://www.rt.com/news/583676-germany-ambassador-nazi-ovations/ 29 Sept 23
The foreign ministry has claimed that its diplomat was not aware that Yaroslav Hunka fought with a notorious WWII Ukrainian-based battalion
Germany’s Foreign Office has shrugged off the participation of its ambassador to Canada in last week’s embarrassing standing ovations for a Ukrainian veteran of the Waffen SS, saying she was unaware that he was a Nazi when she joined with Ottawa lawmakers in applauding him.
Foreign Office spokesman Sebastian Fischer acknowledged the gaffe for the first time on Wednesday, when asked at a press briefing about Ambassador Sabine Sparwasser’s honoring of World War II Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka.
Members of the Canadian parliament stood and gave long ovations for the 98-year-old Hunka when he was introduced during a visit by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Friday. Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the enthusiastic participants in the cheers.
Sparwasser simply didn’t know about Hunka’s Nazi affiliation when she joined with others in applauding him, Fischer claimed. The spokesman conceded that the incident was unacceptable, but Hunka’s true identity was not known to the German diplomat or other members of the crowd because his attendance at the event was not announced beforehand.
However, when House Speaker Anthony Rota introduced his guest to the crowd, he noted that Hunka “fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians,” which by definition suggested that he served on the side of the fascist Axis powers. “He’s a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” the speaker said.
Rota resigned from his position on Tuesday and apologized for his mistake in honoring Hunka. The war veteran was a volunteer in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a Ukrainian unit, which committed atrocities against Jews and Poles on the Eastern Front.
Asked about how Sparwasser could fail to understand Hunka’s Nazi affiliation – despite being told that he fought against the Red Army – Fischer said there were other possible explanations for his role in the war. For instance, he theorized, Hunka could have been a fighter for the Polish Home Army, which fought against both German and Russian forces.
Ukrainian Nazi collaborators slaughtered thousands of Poles during World War II. Hunka was among thousands of Ukrainian fighters who were allowed to emigrate to the UK and Canada after World War II, despite their possible participation in war crimes.
Moscow called the incident a cynical abuse of the memory of the victims of Nazism and an example of blatant Russophobia, and said it may launch a probe into potential war crimes and request the extradition of Hunka. Poland, which has been among the top backers of modern-day Ukraine in its fight against Russia, has also urged a probe into potential war crimes committed by Hunka.
Chinese Balloon Was Not Spying, US Government Admits Months Later
by EDITORS, September 29, 2023 https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/29/chinese-balloon-was-not-spying-us-government-admits-months-later/
The Pentagon admitted that a Chinese balloon that crossed into US territory in February was not spying; it was likely blown off course by wind. But Washington and the media milked this manufactured scandal for new cold war propaganda.
By Ben Norton / Geopolitical Economy
The US government has admitted that severe accusations it made against China were just a lot of hot air.
The highest-ranking official in the US military has clarified that a Chinese balloon that crossed into US territory in February 2023 was not spying; it was likely blown off course by wind.
CBS News published an interview this September with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who stated, “The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon”.
Milley conceded that the large rubber object was probably pushed off track by powerful wind.
This report, released seven months after the incident, has confirmed exactly what the Chinese government stated at the time: its balloon was not spying on the United States, and only accidentally entered its airspace.
The US government has still insisted that the Chinese balloon had technology that could have potentially been used to gather information – although it has not clarified if that technology was focused specifically on collecting data on weather patterns, which is what Beijing said it was doing.
Regardless, in another massive blow to Washington’s narrative, CBS News acknowledged in its report that, “After the Navy raised the wreckage from the bottom of the Atlantic, technical experts discovered the balloon’s sensors had never been activated while over the Continental United States“.
So even if the Chinese balloon had the technological capacity to spy on the United States, as Washington claims, the sensor was never turned on.
This is not the first time a senior US official has admitted that the Chinese balloon was not spying.
In June, Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder made very similar comments.
“We’re aware that [the balloon] had intelligence collection capabilities, but it was our — and it has been our — assessment now that it did not collect while it was transiting the United States”, the Defense Department spokesman said, in remarks quoted by ABC News.
These statements confirm that Geopolitical Economy Report was accurate in its analysis in February, which synthesized existing evidence at the time and concluded that the Chinese balloon had likely been blown off course by unexpected weather.
Despite these bombshells proving the entire scandal to be manufactured, Washington and the US media turned this weather accident into a diplomatic crisis, milking the incident to demonize China and depict it as a grave “threat”.
The nationwide freakout was reminiscent of crude propaganda from the first cold war, when the US government produced “Duck and Cover” films instructing students to hide under their desks in the case of a sudden Soviet nuclear strike, or when Hollywood churned out blockbuster movies imploring North Americans to suspect their neighbors of being dastardly Russian communist spies.
Today, the United States is waging a new, second cold war. Moscow is still a target, but this time Washington’s main adversary is Beijing.
As CNN put it bluntly in February, “the Chinese balloon crisis could be a defining moment in the new Cold War”.
During the manufactured scandal, the US State Department claimed the “high altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance”, and was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations”.
The Pentagon referred to the rubber object as a “maneuverable Chinese surveillance balloon” that “violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable”.
The White House accused Beijing of operating a “global” espionage program, stating, “We know that these [Chinese] surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners”.
Hawkish US politicians, like Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher, the chair of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, declared that the large rubber object “is a threat right here at home. It is a threat to American sovereignty, and it is a threat to the Midwest”.
Fox News brought on air neoconservative activists from think tanks funded by the weapons industry, who argued that Beijing was using the balloon to spy on the US to “prepare the battlefield” for war.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg even claimed the rubber object was a threat to other Western governments.
While standing next to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Stoltenberg insisted, “The balloon over the United States confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior where we see that China has invested heavily in new capabilities, including different types of surveillance and intelligence platforms… We need to be aware of the constant risk of Chinese intelligence and step up what we do to protect ourselves and react in a prudent and responsible way”.
New Brunswick Indigenous communities and Canadians need facts about Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, not sales hype.
Until the government shares facts instead of sales pitches for small modular nuclear reactors, Indigenous nations must assume that representation is not connected to people, but to industry.
BY HUGH AKAGI AND SUSAN O’DONNELL | September 28, 2023
FREDERICTON, N.B.—Governments and other nuclear proponents are failing both Indigenous and settler communities by promoting sales and publicity material about small modular nuclear reactors (SMNRs) instead of sharing facts by independent researchers not tied to the industry.
For decades, nuclear proponents, including both the federal and New Brunswick governments, have focused on the ‘dream of plentiful power’ without highlighting the risks. The nuclear fuel chain—mining uranium, chemically processing the ore, fabricating the fuel, fissioning uranium in a reactor creating toxic radioactive waste remaining hazardous for tens of thousands of years—leaves a legacy of injustices disproportionately felt by Indigenous Peoples and all our relations.
Now the same is happening with the push for SMNRs. We are promised safer reactors by nuclear startup companies in New Brunswick using modifications of reactor designs—molten salt, sodium cooled—that have never operated successfully and safely on a grid anywhere despite billions of dollars of public funds spent in other countries.
Only one example of the misguided SMNR sales pitches for Indigenous and settler communities in New Brunswick is that used CANDU reactor fuel can be “recycled” to make new fuel. The technical name for this process is “reprocessing.” Calling it “recycling” is a buzzword meant to reassure people because the truth is impossible to accept. Less than one per cent of the used fuel at Point Lepreau is plutonium and other elements that could possibly be extracted and re-used for new fuel. The more than 99 per cent left over will be a toxic mess of new kinds of nuclear waste that nobody knows how to safely contain.
The reprocessing method planned for New Brunswick is based on a technology developed by the Idaho National Laboratory, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars so far, over two decades, attempting to reprocess a small amount of used fuel.
In different countries, commercial reprocessing has been an environmental and financial disaster. In just one example, a small commercial reprocessing plant in the United States operated for six years—heavily subsidized by the federal government and New York state—before shutting down for safety improvements. After the owner abandoned the project in the 1970s, the multi-billion-dollar cleanup continues today.
The research on reprocessing used fuel is clear: it’s an expensive nuclear experiment that could leave a multi-million-dollar mess affecting entire ecosystems and the health of people and other living beings. Why are governments sharing sales and promotional material about the project, and fantasies about ‘recycling’ instead of facts about reprocessing and the experiences in other countries? Why are New Brunswickers and First Nation leaders not demanding the evidence?
The lack of transparency by governments on the risks of SMNRs indicates that either they are not concerned with the risks, or they choose not to share them—the opposite of what is required under the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Much of society’s standards for integrity have been lost. We accept circular references, we accept that no one is declaring a conflict of interest in conversations surrounding nuclear. When our integrity is lost, so is our quality of life. Words such as “protect” and “conservation” have no meaning anymore. Though we use the terms “transparency” and “accountability” more and more often, they have less and less meaning.
The Peskotomuhkati Nation in Canada and Wolastoq Grand Council cannot provide consent for any new nuclear developments in New Brunswick without considering the lessons they have learned in the past, the current relationships and communications they are experiencing, and the impacts of toxic wastes that remain dangerous forever. First Nations in New Brunswick cannot provide consent for toxic radioactive waste to be sent to Ontario, where Indigenous nations also do not want it on their territories.
The Wolastoq Grand Council, which issued a statement on nuclear energy and nuclear waste in 2021, opposes any destruction or harm to Wolastokuk which includes all “Flora and Fauna” in, on, and above their homeland. Nuclear is not a green source of energy, or solution to a healthier future for our children, grandchildren and the ones who are not born yet. Wolastoqewi-Elders define Nuclear in their language as ‘Askomiw Sanaqak,’ which translates as ‘forever dangerous.’
The Peskotomuhkatik ecosystem includes Point Lepreau. The Peskotomuhkati leadership in Canada has repeatedly tried to bring facts about both New Brunswick SMNR projects and their potential environmental implications to the attention of New Brunswickers and all Canadians, writing twice to Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault urging him to designate the SMNR projects in New Brunswick for a federal impact assessment, so that all the facts could be made public. Both attempts were denied, the most recent in August this year.
Peskotomuhkati leadership has participated, and continues to participate, in Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and various provincial processes, and has firsthand experience that these past and current engagement and assessment tools do not provide a sufficient framework to address adverse effects and impacts to Indigenous rights.
The SMNR projects planned for Point Lepreau within Peskotomuhkatik homeland will have profound and lasting impacts on Indigenous rights as well as those of Indigenous communities in Ontario where the nuclear industry is proposing to build a deep geological repository for the used nuclear fuel and other sites for intermediate radioactive waste. The SMNR projects will also have profound and lasting impacts on the Bay of Fundy, the marine life the bay supports, and coastal communities.
Until the government begins to ask for and share facts about SMNRs instead of sales materials, Indigenous nations must assume that representation no longer means peoples’ representation, but rather representation of the industry.
Hugh Akagi is chief of the Peskotomuhkati Nation in Canada. Dr. Susan O’Donnell is the lead investigator of the CEDAR research project at St. Thomas University in Fredericton
Pentagon discloses military deal with Elon Musk
Musk’s aerospace firm is now competing for nearly $1 billion in Pentagon contracts extending into 2028, as the Space Force seeks to repurpose existing communications satellites for military use as part of its “Proliferated Low Earth Orbit” program.
The billionaire entrepreneur continues to insist that the Starlink network should not be a “participant to combat”
SpaceX has signed its first contract with the Pentagon to provide satellite services as part of its new ‘Starshield’ program. CEO Elon Musk described the effort as a military alternative to the “civilian” Starlink system, although it will apparently rely on the existing constellation of satellites.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, Musk weighed in on reports that SpaceX had reached a deal with the US Space Force, confirming that the Starshield project would be “owned by the US government and controlled by [the Department of Defense].”
“Starlink needs to be a civilian network, not a participant to combat,” he said, referring to the use of the satellites in Ukraine throughout the conflict with Russia, adding “This is the right order of things.”
However, despite Musk’s stated reluctance to be involved in the fighting, the new Space Force contract will see SpaceX effectively lease out part of its Starlink network to the Pentagon, providing service over the same satellites, according to Bloomberg.
With a $70 million price ceiling, the deal “provides for Starshield end-to-end service via the Starlink constellation, user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management and other related services,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Bloomberg News.
The outlet noted that Musk’s aerospace firm is now competing for nearly $1 billion in Pentagon contracts extending into 2028, as the Space Force seeks to repurpose existing communications satellites for military use as part of its “Proliferated Low Earth Orbit” program.
Musk has come under fire from US officials for SpaceX’s decisions in Ukraine, after allegedly refusing Kiev’s demands to use the Starlink network to aid strikes on Russia’s Black Sea fleet last year. The billionaire’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, revealed earlier this month that Musk had developed a “military version of the Starlink” as a way to wash his hands of the project. more https://www.rt.com/news/583746-pentagon-musk-satellite-deal/
Greenpeace disrupts nuclear power meeting in Paris
MURIEL BOSELLI, Paris 28 Sept 2023
(Montel) Greenpeace disrupted early on Thursday the opening of a two-day international nuclear meeting in Paris to denounce the “promotion of nuclear power whatever the cost”, it said.
Anti-nuclear activists held up banners reading “Nuclear energy: cli…… (Subscribers only) https://www.montelnews.com/news/1524798/greenpeace-disrupts-nuclear-power-meeting-in-paris
Scottish independence would end the UK’s nuclear delusion.
The oncoming submarine crisis is not the only threat to the UK’s ability to maintain its nuclear weapon capability. The recent upsurge in the aspiration for Scottish independence should remind us that we are in a unique position with the potential not only to rid ourselves of these horrific weapons, but also to undermine the ability of the UK to persist with them since there is no credible alternative to the Clyde bases elsewhere the UK.
29th September, By David Mackenzie
LAST week a UK nuclear weapon Vanguard-class submarine returned to its base in Faslane, covered in algae and barnacles, reportedly after a patrol that lasted more than six months.
This prompted the pro-navy (and pro-nuclear-weapon) magazine Navy Outlook to publish a long article discussing the increase in the length of patrols and suggesting that this is down to the difficulty, due to refits and maintenance problems arising from skill shortages, of maintaining the pattern of always having one boat on patrol at all times. The article acknowledges that there is now great pressure on the submariners and that risks are being taken to maintain the patrol pattern.
The four Vanguard-class boats are now more than 30 years old and the replacement Dreadnought- class is already well behind schedule, so the question arises as to whether the current submarines can be patched and crewed sufficiently to close the potential gap in availability.
The Dreadnought programme is seriously hampered by a shortage of assembly space at Barrow and delays to the Derby unit where the reactor cores will be built. The UK Government refuses to say when it expects the new boats to be ready. The stretching of the patrol length to six months and beyond suggests that the crisis point may not be far away and that in the interim more and more risks will be taken with material and personnel.
The oncoming submarine crisis is not the only threat to the UK’s ability to maintain its nuclear weapon capability. The recent upsurge in the aspiration for Scottish independence should remind us that we are in a unique position with the potential not only to rid ourselves of these horrific weapons, but also to undermine the ability of the UK to persist with them since there is no credible alternative to the Clyde bases elsewhere the UK.
When the UK was setting up Polaris, its first system for the submarine launching of nuclear weapons, the Ministry of Defence conducted a study to determine what sites would be suitable for two essential items – a port for berthing the submarines and a nearby but separate armaments depot for storing the warheads and loading them onto the missiles in the submarines.
The study rejected all the projected locations in England and Wales (including Falmouth, Milford Haven, Portland, Devonport, Barrow, and completely new “greenfield” sites). So we have the submarines based at Faslane and the warhead storage and management facility at Coulport. The Clyde sites offer deep water access and a ready route to the Atlantic. Two other locations outwith the UK have been raised – one is moving the bases to King’s Bay in Georgia, US.
This would rip away the last tissue of pretence that the UK system is an independent one. Also mooted has been the sharing of the French facilities on Île Longue near Brest but this is seen as politically beyond the pale. In short, there is no feasible alternative to the Clyde bases. This analysis is accepted by the UK defence establishment. This makes Scottish independence a critical threat to the UK’s nuclear weapons.
It has also been pointed out that the increasing fragility of the UK nuclear weapon system may have prompted the projected return of US nuclear weapons to the US base at Lakenheath in Suffolk. If the UK is seen as an increasingly wobbly part of the Nato nuclear fabric this may represent a belt-and-braces tactic.
The third shaky-nail factor is the growing worldwide movement for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which came into force as UN law in January 2021, has acquired huge worldwide support – to date 69 ratifications, 93 signatures and the regular support of around 130 states on the floor of the UN General Assembly, to say nothing of such strong supporters as Ireland, Austria, Pope Francis and The Elders. Meanwhile, financial institutions are disinvesting from nuclear weapons, frequently ascribing their stance to the TPNW.
The nuclear war threat is like an open petrol can that is kept close to an open fire on a shoogly table. This is a uniquely dangerous moment.
Yet there is an overwhelming desire for prohibition from the majority of UN member states, especially from those who would suffer the most from the climatic effects of an exchange of nuclear weapons.
We can hope that these three factors will enable a fundamental rethink of the UK’s nuclear posturing.
We can certainly hope that Scotland will take its own clear stance on the matter with worldwide support.
David Mackenzie is secretary of Secure Scotland
Japan to release second batch of wastewater from Fukushima nuclear plant next week
UN-approved release to go ahead despite China’s ban on all Japanese sea imports following first batch
Japan will begin releasing a second batch of wastewater from the crippled
Fukushima nuclear plant from next week, its operator has said, an exercise
that angered China and others when it began in August.
Guardian 29th Sept 2023
‘Unprecedented nuclear crisis’ at Russian-controlled power plant with 148 attacks
An alarming dossier compiled by Greenpeace is being sent to
Western governments warning international regulators are currently
incapable of properly monitoring safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant in
Ukraine.
Mirror 28th Sept 2023
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/unprecedented-nuclear-crisis-russian-controlled-31050468
Polish minister calls for extradition of Ukrainian Nazi honored in Canada
https://www.rt.com/news/583631-poland-extradition-canada-ukraine-nazi/ 29 Sept 23
Przemyslaw Czarnek wants a probe into Yaroslav Hunka’s possible war crimes
Polish Minister of Education Przemyslaw Czarnek has signaled that he intends to seek the extradition of a Ukrainian Nazi SS veteran who was cheered in the Canadian Parliament last week.
Czarnek was reacting to the controversy surrounding Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian who fought for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician Division, formed by Nazi Germany from mostly Western Ukrainians, that took part in atrocities against Russian, Polish, and Jewish civilians during WWII.
Hunka received a standing ovation during the ceremony in the House of Commons after being introduced by now-former House Speaker Anthony Rota as “a hero… who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky also attended the ceremony.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Minister Czarnek said that “in view of the scandalous events in the Canadian Parliament,” he “has taken steps towards the possible extradition” of the SS veteran to Poland. The minister also appealed to Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance to “urgently examine the documents whether Yaroslav Hunka is wanted for crimes against the Polish nation and Poles of Jewish origin.”
Commenting on a potential extradition request from Poland, however, Canadian Attorney General Arif Virani said he had not seen one. “What I would say to you is that an extradition process is a sensitive matter,” he told Politico. He refused to elaborate on the issue until the document was produced for him, arguing that this “would jeopardize the investigation.”
The controversy sparked fierce international backlash, especially from the Jewish community. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said it was “appalled” by the celebration. At the same time, The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it “can’t stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed.”
The Russian and Polish foreign ministries also joined the condemnation. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow blasted Ottawa for abusing the memory of victims of the Nazisms as well as “unbridled Russophobia.” Meanwhile, in addition to calls for charges against Hunka, Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk urged then-Speaker Rota to step down over a lack of diligence and historical knowledge.
For his part, Rota issued a public apology and later announced his resignation, while Trudeau admitted that the latest scandal was “deeply embarrassing” for Ottawa.
Caitlin Johnstone: Neocons Love the Ukraine War
Empire managers were openly discussing the ways a war in Ukraine would directly benefit the U.S. empire long before the invasion.
They knew exactly what they were doing when they provoked this war, and they know exactly what they’re doing by keeping it going.
And they’re loving every minute of it.
One of the dumbest things the empire asks us to believe is that this war simultaneously (A) was completely unprovoked and (B) just coincidentally happens to massively advance the strategic interests of the government accused of provoking it.
By Caitlin Johnstone, September 28, 2023
The Bill Kristol-led group “Republicans for Ukraine” has released a TV ad to help drum up GOP support for Washington’s proxy war against Russia, and it’s surprisingly honest about what this war is really about: advancing US strategic interests using Ukrainians as sacrificial pawns.
Here’s a transcript:
“When America arms Ukraine, we get a lot for a little. Putin is an enemy of America. We’ve used 5% of our defense budget to arm Ukraine, and with it, they’ve destroyed 50% of Putin’s Army. We’ve done all this by sending weapons from storage, not our troops. The more Ukraine weakens Russia, the more it also weakens Russia’s closest ally, China. America needs to stand strong against our enemies, that’s why Republicans in Congress must continue to support Ukraine.”
One of the dumbest things the empire asks us to believe is that this war simultaneously (A) was completely unprovoked and (B) just coincidentally happens to massively advance the strategic interests of the government accused of provoking it.
From the moment Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 Westerners were aggressively hammered over and over and over again by the mass media with the uniform propaganda message that this was an “unprovoked invasion.”
But ever since then they’ve also been receiving these peculiar messages from U.S. empire managers and spinmeisters that this war is helping the United States crush its geopolitical enemies and advance its interests abroad.
This bizarre two-step occurs because the U.S.-centralized empire needs to convey two self-evidently contradictory messages to the public at all times:
- that the U.S. is an innocent little flower who just wants to help its good friends the Ukrainians protect their democracy from the murderous Russians who invaded solely because they are evil and hate freedom, and
- that it’s in the American interest to continue this war.
The second point is required because the message that the U.S. is merely an innocent passive witness to the violence in Ukraine necessarily causes certain political factions to ask, “Okay, so what are we doing there then? Why are we pouring all this money into something that has nothing to do with us?”
So another narrative is required to explain that backing this proxy war also just so happens to be a massive boon to U.S. strategic interests abroad while creating American jobs manufacturing weapons at home.
It doesn’t benefit normal Americans at home, but it absolutely does serve the interests of the globe-spanning empire that’s centralized around Washington. That’s why the empire deliberately provoked it.
Empire managers were openly discussing the ways a war in Ukraine would directly benefit the U.S. empire long before the invasion.
In 2019 a Pentagon-funded Rand Corporation paper titled “Extending Russia —Competing from Advantageous Ground” detailed how the empire can use proxy warfare, economic warfare and other Cold War tactics to push its longtime geopolitical foe to the brink without costing American lives or sparking a nuclear conflict.
The U.S. Army-commissioned paper mentioned Ukraine hundreds of times, and explicitly discussed how a war there could be used to promote sanctions against Moscow and attack Russia’s energy interests in Europe.
In December of 2021 John Deni of NATO propaganda firm The Atlantic Council authored a piece for The Wall Street Journal, “The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine,” subtitled “An invasion would be a diplomatic, economic and military mistake for Putin. Let him make it if he must.”
Deni argued that “there are good strategic reasons for the West to stake out a hard-line approach” against Moscow and refuse to negotiate or back down over Ukraine, because if doing so provokes Russia to invade it would “forge an even stronger anti-Russian consensus across Europe,” “result in another round of more debilitating economic sanctions that would further weaken Russia’s economy” and “sap the strength and morale of Russia’s military while undercutting Mr. Putin’s domestic popularity and reducing Russia’s soft power globally.”
[Related: Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War – Consortium News]
The minds on the inside of the empire were talking about how this war would benefit the U.S. before the invasion, and they’ve been talking about how much it benefits the U.S. ever since.
As The Washington Post’s David Ignatius put it this past July:
“these 18 months of war have been a strategic windfall, at relatively low cost (other than for the Ukrainians). The West’s most reckless antagonist has been rocked. NATO has grown much stronger with the additions of Sweden and Finland. Germany has weaned itself from dependence on Russian energy and, in many ways, rediscovered its sense of values. NATO squabbles make headlines, but overall, this has been a triumphal summer for the alliance.”
The managers of the empire are getting everything they want out of this war. In public they rend their garments and cry crocodile tears and call it a terrible criminal atrocity, but every now and then they look at the camera and flash it a quick Fleabag-style grin.
They knew exactly what they were doing when they provoked this war, and they know exactly what they’re doing by keeping it going.
And they’re loving every minute of it.
Portuguese youths sue UK and 32 others for climate change failure.
Britain and 32 other countries are in the dock in Strasbourg today for
failing to tackle global warming as a group of Portuguese children and
young people claim political inaction is damaging their human rights. The
group of six, aged between 11 and 24, will argue at the European Court of
Human Rights (ECHR) “that the forest fires that have occurred in Portugal
each year since 2017 are a direct result of global warming”.
Times 27th Sept 2023
Film examines France’s nuclear history in Algeria
Documentary gives voice to villagers who lived through explosions and still suffer from deadly effects
Melissa Gronlund, Sep 29, 2023 https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2023/09/29/france-algeria-atom-bomb/
etween 1960 and 1966, the French government detonated 13 atom bombs in the Algerian Sahara. The tests signalled France’s accession to the nuclear club and were hailed in Paris as a victory.
“Hoorah for France,” wrote President Charles de Gaulle the morning after the first blast, in a message to his army minister.
Little is known about the bomb’s effect in Algeria itself. According to a witness, 60 people died in 1962 after an explosion went wrong.
Inhabitants of the nearby village of Mertoutek say they were evacuated for 24hours and then told it was safe to return. More than 60 years later, they still say the land and water beneath it is contaminated. When they perform ablutions before prayers, for example, the water hurts their skin.
The international incident, which has been gaining exposure over the past few years, is the subject of a new short film And still, it remains by British filmmakers Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah.
The husband and wife team had been thinking about how to represent the end of the world and the nuclear tests presented them with the example of a community who had – when they heard the detonations – believed the world was ending.
But when they began investigating the event, they realised there was only documentation of the French side of the story.
“[There was] nothing about the villagers themselves and absolutely nothing in terms of what happened next,” says Aburawa, who grew up in Manchester, UK, in a Palestinian family. “We were interested in the lack of perspective of people on the ground. How did they experience this moment, and then how did they experience life after that?”
Commissioned by the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival to look into how the climate crisis is affecting the Arab world, Aburawa and Shah spent two years researching the tests. In 2022, they travelled to the small village of Mertoutek.
Located in the foothills of the Hoggar Mountains, Mertoutek is profoundly isolated. Most of the villagers have never been to the nearest town, which is four hours away – itself a two-hour plane ride from Algiers. Most trace their ancestry to tribes from Mali and Niger who migrated to the village 400 years ago.
Aburawa and Shah were prepared to be ignored, but they were instead immediately welcomed. The villagers were keen to tell their side of history, the pair say, and were as interested in Aburawa and Shah as the filmmakers were in them and their stories.
Aburawa, who could communicate in Arabic with some of the elders of the village, was invited into gatherings with the women, who wanted to know how she celebrated her traditions as a Palestinian. Every morning, the young girls of the village would come by their house to see if she wanted to come herd the goats, she says, or to teach her their games.
The villagers ended up changing the shape of the film. Aburawa and Shah had initially been taken by the very poetic metaphor that followed the detonations – that the dust cloud of radioactive material travelled along the northern winds towards France, in effect returning to pollute the country that had perpetrated the tests.
“But when we visited Mertoutek, we learnt they have a long, long history. They told us how their families had been in the village for hundreds of years, and people before that for thousands of years,” says Aburawa.
“Suddenly, our concept of time and how to place a community’s experience in the moment massively shifted. We wanted to acknowledge that people have long histories and the land has an even longer history.”
And still, it remains treats the landscape as a main character. The pair filmed with a wide anamorphic lens in order to bring in more of the surroundings, and they pay attention to the sensory feel of life outdoors – fingers dig holes in the soft sand to create a board game; the wind whips painfully through spindly leaves.
Longer sequences give the sense of the world turning. In one stunning scene, the sky turns from bright, almost lurid orange to a faded pink, as the sun rises and the craggy mountains transform from outlines to legible sandstone edifices.
“What’s happening right now in the climate crisis and what happened in colonialism are so deeply connected,” says Aburawa. “They are both colonial mindsets of extraction and toxifying without thinking of the consequences.
“The situation in Algeria is saying, ‘You can’t escape these things. They don’t just disappear. A bomb exploded in the 60s, but it hasn’t gone away. It still remains with us.’ And that’s what inspired the title of the film.”
Today, the townspeople of Mertoutek still live in danger. At one point, one of the villagers recounts in the film that her father and some other men from the village went to the test site to take scrap metal to use for their gardens. The men all got sick. The recounter’s father got brain cancer and died.
“We asked them, did you ever think of leaving?” says Shah. “And they said, ‘But where would we go?’ There wasn’t anywhere for them to leave to. It was never an option.”
And still, it remains is showing at Lux in Waterlow Park, London, until October 14. More information is available at lux.org.uk
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