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MP wants public vote on nuclear waste disposal

Richard Madden, BBC News, 26 January 2024 more https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crg7nlwnz59o

People in part of East Yorkshire should be given a referendum on a proposal to bury nuclear waste, the area’s MP has said.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), a government agency, has identified South Holderness as having potential for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said any development would need public consent.

Officials behind the scheme said on Thursday that if the community did not express support the disposal facility would not be built.

‘Toughest test’

Mr Stuart said: “Everyone is right to be concerned about the possibility of a nuclear waste facility in our area.

“They are required to get local consent and I want that to be the toughest available test, a referendum of residents in the affected area”, he said.

A working group has been formed to look at the proposal and a series of public meetings will take place.

Drop-in sessions

  • 1 February – Patrington Village Hall
  • 2 February – Withernsea, The Shores Centre
  • 8 February – Aldbrough Village Hall
  • 9 February – Easington Community Hall
  • 12 February – Burstwick Village Hall

All sessions run from 11:30 – 18:00 GMT.

Officials from NWS said the project could create thousands of jobs and investment in local infrastructure in South Holderness.

But campaigners in other areas have raised concerns about the impact on tourism, house prices and the environment, leading to protests.

The GDF would see waste stored under up to 3,280ft (1000m) underground until its radioactivity had naturally decayed.

Other proposals have been put forward in Cumbria and at Theddlethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

UK’s Ministry of Defence has continued to allow critical parts of the nuclear weapons infrastructure to rot

Dominic Cummings said amongst other things the MoD has: continued to allow
critical parts of the nuclear weapons infrastructure to rot creating
further massive secret budget nightmares as well as extremely serious
physical dangers (cf. the recent near disaster with a submarine),

UK Parliament 24th Jan 2024

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-01-24/debates/1F1CF40C-91E6-4C9B-A9BB-32A7EB43DAC4/NuclearDefenceInfrastructureParliamentaryScrutiny

January 29, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Ukraine uncovers another $40 Million in weapons fraud


SOTT, Melanie Sun, The Epoch Times, Sat, 27 Jan 2024

he war-torn nation has announced a clean-out of its weapons procurement process amid ongoing corruption.

Ukraine’s National Police and Security Service on Ukraine (SBU), alongside the country’s Ministry of Defense, announced on Saturday they have uncovered an insider network that has been charged with embezzling almost $40 million in funds marked for weapons purchases.

Five individuals who formed a suspected criminal organization have been served “notices of suspicion” — the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings — for “appropriation, embezzlement of property, or possession of it by abuse of official position,” the SBU said.

Four of the suspects are current or former employees of the Ministry of Defense, including the head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy, Development of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense, and the head and commercial director of the Lviv Arsenal company.

Another suspect is an ex-official from the ministry, who has been detained while trying to leave the country at a border crossing point.

A businessman representing a foreign company, presumed to be the arms supplier, has also been charged………………………………………………………………………………

To date, the United States has provided more than $44 billion in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022. But the Pentagon has run out of funds to replenish its stocks, so most military aid to Ukraine, for the time being, has halted.

Congress is currently debating a $105 billion supplemental spending package, proposed by the Biden administration in October 2023, that packages together defense funding for Israel, Ukraine, and the U.S. southern border.

Analysts previously told The Epoch Times that Ukraine doesn’t have a viable pathway for victory without foreign arms shipments and monetary support amid the waning U.S. support, as the Pentagon spreads its resources over increasing threats to the international rules-based order in the South China Sea as well as the Middle East.

Without international arms shipments, Ukraine would most likely be forced into a brutal stalemate with Russia and, at some point, would need to cede some of its territory to its aggressor, analysts say.

Comment: It brings to mind the old saying: “A fish rots from the head down”. So perhaps they should take a closer look up to uncover their “problems”. When a country’s leadership is completely corrupt, we can’t be shocked when more corruption is found lower down the ranks.

See also:

January 29, 2024 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Freezing Aid to Gaza: Israel’s International War against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

January 29, 2024,  Dr Binoy Kampmark,  https://theaimn.com/freezing-aid-to-gaza-israels-international-war-against-the-unrwa/

Imperilled, tormented Palestinians in Gaza had little time to celebrate the January 26 order of the International Court of Justice. In a case brought by South Africa intended to facilitate a ceasefire and ease the suffering of the Gaza populace, Israel received the unwanted news that it had to, among other obligations, ensure compliance with the UN Genocide Convention, including by its military; prevent and punish “the direct and public incitement to genocide” against the Palestinian populace in Gaza and permit basic services and humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.

Within hours, Israel, bruised and outraged by a body its officials have decried as antisemitic and favourably disposed to Palestinian propaganda, found an excuse to flaunt the ruling. 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the agency responsible for distributing aid in Gaza, were accused (not found) by Israel’s intelligence agency Shin Bet, of involvement in the Hamas attacks of October 7.

The response from UNRWA was swift. Contracts were terminated, an investigation was launched, including a full inquiry into allegations made against the organisation. The agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini promised, on January 27, that, “Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”

Not content with this, Israel stormily took to the campaign trail hoping to rid Gaza of the UN agency it has despised for years. UNRWA, after all, is a salutary reminder of Palestinian suffering, dispossession and desperation, its existence a direct result of Israeli foreign policy. Foreign Minister Israel Katz was severe in laying his country’s loathing for UNRWA bare. “We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza,” he stated on Shabbat. “UNRWA is not the solution – many of its employees are Hamas affiliates with murderous ideologies, aiding in terror activities and preserving its authority.” Deviously and fiendishly, Katz was dismissing the entire enterprise of aid through a UN outlet as a terroristic extension, rather than the ghastly product of Israel’s own ruthless, generational war against Palestinians. Leave it to us to oversee matters of aid: we know best.

Powers, many with military ties with Israel and sluggish about holding the Jewish State to account in its Gaza campaign, were relieved by the distraction. Rather than assessing their own export regime, the grant of licenses in the arms market in gross violation of human rights and the facilitation of crimes against humanity, an excuse to continue, and prolong the weapons transfers and assistance to Israel, had presented itself.

Within hours, nine states had added their names to the list suspending allocated aid. Australia, along with the United States and Canada, rushed to the podium to condemn UNRWA and freeze funding. The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Finland followed.

The measure of rage could now be adjusted and retargeted. A spokesperson for the UK government was “appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK government has repeatedly condemned.” The US State Department was “extremely troubled” and had “temporarily paused additional funding. Canada was also “deeply troubled by the allegations relating to some UNRWA employees.”

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, despite accepting that UNRWA’s role in conducting “vital, life saving work”, “providing essential services in Gaza directly to those who need it, with more than 1.4 million Palestinians currently sheltering in its own facilities” felt a suspension of funding was wholly sensible. This, from a minister who never tires about praising international law and its profoundly sacred qualities.

The assessment by Lazzarini was one of dismay and bafflement by the speed at which the funding had been halted. “These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region including and especially in the Gaza Strip.”

The measure could almost be regarded as hysterical, given that a mere 12 individuals had been tarnished from a pool of some 30,000 members. Johann Soufi, a lawyer and former director of the agency’s legal office in Gaza, gave this assessment to Agence-France Presse: “Sanctioning UNRWA, which is barely keeping the entire population of Gaza alive, for the alleged responsibility of a few employees, is tantamount to collectively punishing the Gazan population, which is living in catastrophic conditions.”

Australian Greens Senator and defence spokesman, Senator David Shoebridge, also picked up on the grotesque twist the latest stifling of aid to the beleaguered residents of Gaza entailed. “The one temporary pause [Senator Wong] has been able to achieve is not the bombing or killing, or even weapons exports, it’s providing aid to [Palestinians].”

January 29, 2024 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

Detailed response to a barrage of nuclear nonsense from Zion Lights.

Bulls, bears and ignorant nuclear propagandists. Detailed response to a barrage of nuclear nonsense from Zion Lights.

Jim Green, 27 Jan 24

This is a response to Zion Lights’ January 2024 article ‘Bulls and bears: a nuclear update’. Lights is a British nuclear power advocate who previously worked for self-confessed liar, climate denier and MAGA lunatic Michael Shellenberger. You can read more about Lights here and Shellenberger here.

Lights’ comments below are prefaced with her initials and placed in quote marks and in bold, and my responses are prefaced with my initials (JG ‒ Jim Green). I haven’t responded to everything in Lights’ article, which you can read in full here.

ZL: “In a world-first, 22 nations signed up to triple nuclear energy generation by 2050 at COP28 in Dubai this year, which illustrates how strongly the tide has turned in favour of the technology. Should they follow through on these commitments, the world could enter a new era of energy abundance and growth.”

JG response:

* 22 countries signed up to the nuclear pledge, 170 chose not to.

* The goal of tripling nuclear power by 2050 is laughable. David Appleyard, editor of Nuclear Engineering International, did the math: “Now 2050 still sounds like a long way off, but to triple nuclear capacity in this time frame would require nuclear deployment to average 40 GW [gigawatts] a year over the next two and half decades. The cruel reality is that’s more than six times the rate that has been seen over the last decade.”

* The nuclear renaissance of the late-2000s was a bust due to the Fukushima disaster, catastrophic cost overruns with reactor projects, and nuclear power’s inability to compete economically with renewables. The latest renaissance is heading the same way, i.e. nowhere. Nuclear power went backwards last year. There was a net loss of 1.7 GW of capacity.

* There were just six reactor construction starts in 2023. Only one outside China. One!

* The number of operable power reactors is 407 to 413 depending on the definition of operability, well down from the 2002 peak of 438.

*Nuclear power’s share of global electricity generation has fallen to 9.2%, its lowest share in four decades and little more than half of its peak of 17.5% in 1996.

* Over the two decades 2004-2023, there were 102 power reactor startups and 104 closures worldwide: 49 startups in China with no closures; and a net decline of 51 reactors in the rest of the world.

* Despite the drop in the number of operable reactors, and the sharp drop in nuclear power’s share of electricity generation, nuclear capacity (GW) and generation (TWh) have remained stagnant for the past 20 years due to increased capacity factors and reactor uprates (360 GW capacity in 2003, 374 GW in 2022; 2505 TWh in 2003, 2487 TWh in 2022). Thus it is possible, as Lights states (citing the International Energy Agency ‒ IEA), that nuclear power generation will reach an all-time high globally by 2025. If that happens, and it may not, it will be a pyrrhic victory for the industry, and it will be increasingly difficult to sustain, because of the ageing of the global reactor fleet. In 1990, the mean age of the global power reactor fleet was 11.3 years. Now, it is nearly three times higher at 31.4 years. The mean age of reactors closed from 2018‒2022 was 43.5 years. The problem of ageing reactors is particularly acute in two of the three largest nuclear power generating countries: the US reactor fleet has a mean age of 42.1 years, and in France the mean age is 37.6 years.

* Due to the ageing of the reactor fleet, the IAEA anticipates the closure of 10 reactors (10 GW) per year from 2018 to 2050. Thus the industry needs an annual average of 10 reactor construction starts, and 10 reactor startups (grid connections), just to maintain its current output. Over the past decade (2014-23), construction starts have averaged 6.1 and reactor startups have averaged 6.7. Former World Nuclear Association executive Steve Kidd noted in 2016 that “the industry is essentially running to stand still.” In the coming years and decades, the industry will have to run faster just to stand still ‒ it will have to build more reactors than it has been just to replace ageing reactors facing permanent closure. Growth ‒ even marginal, incremental growth ‒ becomes increasingly difficult and Lights’ nonsense about tripling nuclear power is thus seen as the nonsense that it is.

* The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just released its ‘Renewables 2023’ report and it makes for a striking contrast with the nuclear industry’s malaise. Nuclear power suffered a net loss of 1.7 GW capacity in 2023, whereas renewable capacity additions amounted to a record 507 GW, almost 50% higher than 2022.

* Nuclear power accounts for a declining share of global electricity generation (currently 9.2%) whereas renewables have grown to 30.2%. The IEA expects renewables to reach 42% by 2028 thanks to a projected 3,700 GW of new capacity over the next five years in the IEA’s ‘main case’ (while the IEA’s ‘accelerated case’ envisages growth of 4,500 GW). To put those numbers in context, global nuclear power capacity is 372 GW. There is little to no chance of nuclear power regaining a 10% share of global electricity generation.

* Solar and wind combined have already surpassed nuclear power generation and the IEA notes that over the next five years, several other milestones will likely be achieved: in 2025, renewables surpass coal; also in 2025, wind surpasses nuclear; and in 2026, solar PV surpasses nuclear.

* An estimated 96% of newly installed, utility-scale solar PV and onshore wind capacity had lower generation costs than new coal and natural gas plants in 2023, the IEA states. (Wind and solar became cheaper than nuclear power about a decade ago and the gap continues to widen.)

Ed note. Jim Green goes on to demolish Zion Lights’ arguments on a number of fronts: – South Korea’s nuclear “success” - China’s supposed nuclear progress – India’s nuclear ambitions – Japan supposedly rushing back into nuclear power – France’s grand nuclear plans – UK’s nuclear projects – USA’s nuclear projects - Sweden’s efforts…………………………………………………………………………………
more https://jimkgreen1.substack.com/p/bulls-bears-and-ignorant-nuclear

January 29, 2024 Posted by | spinbuster | Leave a comment

As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day

“The hostages must be released,” said one Palestinian rights advocate, but Israel “must also ensure continuous entry of lifesaving aid to Gaza.”

JULIA CONLEY, Jan 26, 2024,  https://www.commondreams.org/news/kerem-shalom-crossing-protests—

With nearly the entire population of Gaza now regularly forced to go without food for an entire day due to Israel’s total blockade of the enclave, protests by hundreds of Israelis at a crossing between Gaza and Israel over the past three days have put residents at even greater risk of starvation by blocking the passage of humanitarian convoys.

Demonstrators displaying Israeli flags have stopped trucks from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing since Wednesday, forcing some to go through the Rafah crossing in Egypt or preventing them from delivering the aid altogether.

Some of the protesters have been identified as relatives of the reported 132 hostages who remain in Gaza after being abducted by Hamas from southern Israel on October 7, while others are related to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and some are right-wing activists who want the return of Israeli settlements in Gaza.

On Wednesday, members of the Tzal 9, or Order 9, movement—named for the emergency notice received by Israeli reservists to mobilize—said, “No aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment [will] be transferred to the enemy.”

As the protests began that day, the demonstrators stopped more than 100 aid trucks from entering Gaza and allowed just 153 in, according to the United Nations—far below the amount of aid that’s been permitted in on a daily basis in recent weeks. Before the current war, many Palestinians in Gaza relied on the delivery of aid via an average of 500 trucks per day.

“The hostages must be released and Israel must respect the right to protest, but it must also ensure continuous entry of lifesaving aid to Gaza,” said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Wednesday that by holding up humanitarian aid deliveries, Israel is “using this as a pressure tool on the people of the strip,” despite claims by officials and the protesters who have mobilized at Kerem Shalom that they are only trying to keep deliveries from “aiding the enemy.”

Right-wing Israeli groups are reportedly planning a march in Jerusalem next week to protest aid entering Gaza.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini condemned Israel’s “baseless” claim that Gazans are currently facing starvation because Hamas is diverting aid deliveries.

The protesters at Kerem Shalom have said Gazans should receive no more aid until the hostages are released.

But negotiations between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar, were stalled this week as Israel refused to agree to a permanent cease-fire in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages.

According to the BBC, Israeli and American officials including Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns are expected to hold “critical” talks in Europe with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

A senior Palestinian official told the outlet that they may discuss a proposal to initiate a “phased release” of the remaining hostages in exchange for a “renewable” cease-fire, more aid, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza on October 7 with officials saying the IDF should “release all restraints” that would otherwise protect civilians, at least 26,083 Palestinians have been killed in the densely-populated enclave, including at least 11,500 children.

The “complete siege” Israel declared on Gaza, with deliveries of food, potable water, fuel, and other aid severely curtailed, has left “half a million people literally starving” nearly four months into the assault, the World Food Program’s (WFP) chief economist said earlier this week.

“We are one step away from a disease outbreak,” WFP’s Arif Husain told U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a livestreamed conversation, noting that a lack of sustenance has left thousands of displaced people living in overcrowded shelters and camps more susceptible to disease outbreaks that have been partially caused by a lack of safe drinking water.

The blocking of aid at Kerem Shalom also comes days after the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the IDF launched an attack with artillery shells, live ammunition, and drones on “hundreds of starving civilians” who were waiting near Gaza City for “U.N. trucks carrying limited aid supplies.”

Health officials in Gaza said at least 20 people were killed and 150 were injured in the attack.

Humanitarian officials in the enclave have reported seeing Gaza residents mobbing aid trucks when they arrive due to the “systematic limitation” Israel has placed on convoys even before the protests at Kerem Shalom began.

“It’s difficult to get into the places where we need to get to in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told Reuters. “I think the risk of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there.”

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January 29, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

ICJ Ruling on Israel Crimes “Poses the Greatest Political Dilemma for the Biden Presidency”

“I only hope that Biden will, on this occasion, stand up for justice.”

SCHEERPOST, By Phyllis Bennis / In These Times, 28 Jan 24

Friday morning’s much-anticipated decision by the International Court of Justice ​“marks the greatest moment in the history of the [court],” says Richard Falk, a noted international law professor and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“The decision is a momentous one,” says the foreign ministry, noting how important the determination is for the implementation of the international rule of law. “South Africa thanks the Court for its swift ruling.”

“It strengthens the claims of international law to be respected by all sovereign states — not just some,” Falk says about the ICJ’s ruling that South Africa’s magisterial presentation of evidence ​“was sufficient to conclude” Israel may be committing, conspiring to commit, or publicly inciting the commission of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The ICJ decision gave new strength to South Africa’s groundbreaking accomplishment — demolishing the taboo against holding Israel accountable for its crimes. As South Africa’s foreign ministry put it, ​“Today marks a decisive victory for the international rule of law and a significant milestone in the search for justice for the Palestinian people.”

“The decision is a momentous one,” says the foreign ministry, noting how important the determination is for the implementation of the international rule of law. ​“South Africa thanks the Court for its swift ruling.”

Friday’s decision was a significant victory beyond what most observers hoped for — not only the recognition that Israel’s actions are plausibly genocidal, but because of the imposition of provisional measures based on measures South Africa requested in order to stop Israel’s actions that are continuing to kill and put Palestinians at risk. 

The ruling was also particularly important because of the overwhelming majority of judges who supported it, including the sole U.S. judge on the court. When the president of the court, Judge Joan Donoghue, who was a longtime State Department lawyer before being elected to the ICJ, read out the provisional measures, she included the line-up of how judges voted on each one. And she was among the 15 or 16 out of 17 judges who supported every one. 

It should not have been a surprise that this preliminary finding recognized that Israel’s war against the entire population of Gaza may well constitute genocide……………………………………………………………

This decision fundamentally, even if preliminary, provides a vital new tool for mobilization and campaigns to force governments to escalate their pressure to stop Israel’s genocide. It’s a tool in the campaigns for cease-fire now underway around the world. In the United States it will likely be a persuasive tool for congresspeople, city councils, universities and other institutions — as well as the Biden administration — to support a cease-fire. Because now it’s not only a question of moral obligation to stop the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocents, it’s also about abiding by the requirements of international law. And for some people, that may make all the difference. 

With this new tool in hand, a U.S. shift towards supporting — and demanding — a cease-fire may be possible much sooner.  https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/28/icj-ruling-on-israel-crimes-poses-the-greatest-political-dilemma-for-the-biden-presidency/

January 29, 2024 Posted by | Legal, politics, USA | Leave a comment

NewsReal: ICJ Orders Israel to Prevent Genocide, West Responds by Slashing Aid to Gaza

Sott.net, Sun, 28 Jan 2024 

© Sott.netYou have to hand it to Israel. In the space of 24 hours it diverted international media focus from the ICJ’s ruling that it ‘must prevent genocide’ and ‘allow humanitarian aid into Gaza’ into a de facto Western blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza by alleging that the UN agency working to keep Gazans alive was ‘involved in the terror attacks of October 7th’ – a decision that is going to cause famine and disease, forcing Gazans to die or flee.

Also on this NewsReal, Joe & Niall discuss the growing attacks against Anglo-American targets in the Middle East, the widespread farmers’ protests in Europe, the promotion of ‘World War Three’ in NATO countries, and the Texas border showdown.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Giving Mastodon another go. They approved my appeal

Now, to add to my confusion – Mastodon sent me a message “My appeal has been approved. My account is back again” . My appeal was just “I don’t understand why my account has been suspended. No reason was given” . So, now I am going to give Mastodon another go

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Bitterly disappointed in Mastodon

Like many others, I left Twitter- X, because of Elon Musk and the whole weird setup developing there.

Today, on Mastodon, I find “Suspension of account from Jan 27, 2024”.

No warning, no notice, nothing.

My posts are almost always references to: my opposition to the nuclear industry, and to my condemnation of the genocide that Israel is perpetrating in Gaza.

Not personal attacks, not criminal accusations, not sexual content. No reason given for my suspension.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH MASTODON?

I have done a little research, on Reddit. It turns out that many others have had the same experience. Apparently you can appeal, but your Mastodon account will be permanently deleted. Hard to know how to appeal, as you have no idea what prompted them to cut you off. It seems that all that is need is for one person to make an objection to you – and you’re out! But of course, not knowing what their objection was, it’s hard to answer it. My lame appeal was:

I don’t understand why my account is suspended. I think that I deserve an explanation.”

Where to, from here?

I have a Facebook account. It doesn’t get anything like the same volume of traffic that Mastodon does. With Facebook, I feel that we enthusiasts for a particular cause (a nuclear-free world) are just talking to each other.

And by the way, the nuclear industry has a huge presence on Mastodon.

Is there any open-source, non-profit, alternative to Twitter?

Can anyone help me?

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

International Court of Justice Rules That Israel Must Stop Killing Palestinians

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 26, 2024

The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel must cease its warmaking in Gaza — cease committing and inciting genocidal acts — and that the case charging Israel with genocide must proceed.

DETAILS OF THE RULING:

  1. By 15-2: Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent all acts within the scope of Genocide Convention article 2
  2. 15-2: Israel must immediately ensure that its military does not commit acts within the scope of GC.2
  3. 16-1: Direct and punish all members of the public who engage in the incitement of genocide against Palestinians
  4. 16-1: Ensure provision of urgently needed basic services, humanitarian aid
  5. 15-2: Prevent the destruction of and ensure the preservation of evidence to allegation of acts of GC.2
  6. 15-2: Israel will submit report as to how they’re adhering to these orders to the ICJ within 1 month

This is Article 2 of the Genocide Convention:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Therefore, Israel must cease killing Palestinians.

This was a make or break moment for international law, or rather a break or make-a-first-step moment. There is hope for the idea and reality of international law, but this is only a beginning.

The president of the International Court of Justice, who read the ruling, is Judge Joan Donoghue, former top legal advisor under Hillary Clinton at the U.S. State Department during the Obama Administration. She previously was the lawyer for the United States in its unsuccessful defense before the ICJ against charges by Nicaragua of minining its harbor.

The court voted for portions of this decision by 15-2 and 16-1. The “No” votes came from Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda and Ad Hoc Judge Aharon Barak of Israel.

The case presented by South Africa was overwhelming (read it or watch a key part of it), and Israel’s defense paper-thin. And the case just grew more overwhelming during the bizarre delay (yes, courts are slow, but this genocide is swift).

People all over the world built the pressure to move South Africa to act and other nations to add their support. Over 1,500 organizations signed a statement. Individuals signed a petition by CODEPINK, and sent almost 500,000 emails to key governments’ United Nations consulates through World BEYOND War and RootsAction.org. Click those links because more emails are needed now. While several nations have made public statements in support of South Africa’s case, we need them to file papers officially with the International Court of Justice. To reach out to additional national governments, go here.

Governments that have made statement in support of the case against genocide include Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Bolivia, the 57 nations of the Organization of Islamic Countries, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Maldives, Namibia, and Pakistan, Colombia, Brazil, and Cuba.

Germany has backed Israel’s defense against the charge of genocide, which has been denounced by Namibia, victimn of a German genocide. Prominent Jews have denounced Germany’s shameful action.

Mass demonstrations in the streets of the world have continued in support of peace and justice, and to a far greater extent than major media outlets have reported.

Here’s a discussion of this campaign for justice with Sam Husseini on Talk World Radio.

Prior to today’s ruling from the International Court of Justice, the U.S. government pointedly refused to say whether it would comply with ruling, despite insisting that other nations comply with rulings by the ICJ.

Hamas said that it would cease fire if Israel does, and release all prisoners if Israel does

Germany, to its credit, reportedly said that it would comply……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://worldbeyondwar.org/international-court-of-justice-rules-that-israel-must-cease-fire/

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Legal, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Sorry, France, you’re on the hook at Hinkley Point

the French developers solely responsible for cost overruns during construction.

Nils Pratley, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/nils-pratley-on-finance/2024/jan/25/sorry-france-youre-on-the-hook-at-hinkley-point-edf

As its own finance director warned: EDF understood exactly what it was signing in 2016.

In the troubled history of Hinkley Point C, the resignation of Thomas Piquemal in 2016 ranks as a footnote, but he deserves a heroic mention in the week EDF, developer of the nuclear power station in Somerset, announced yet more cost overruns and delays.

Piquemal was the EDF finance director who took the dissenting view in the French boardroom that rushing to sign a contract with the UK government to build Hinkley would be a risk too far for his debt-laden employer. The energy company’s financial future could be put in jeopardy, he was reported to have said.

In truth, there were other reasons why EDF ended up being fully nationalised by the French state in 2022 – the cost of repairing domestic nuclear stations, and being forced to sell energy at a loss to subsidise French consumers’ bills – but Hinkley has been a financial albatross that has only become heavier. Back in 2016, the plant was meant to cost £18bn; the latest estimate is up to £35bn in equivalent terms and more like £46bn in today’s money. Vraiment, Piquemal was right.

Thus one cannot be surprised that an entertaining diplomatic row is brewing over Hinkley, with French officials telling the Financial Times that the UK might wish to contribute the odd billion to fill the budgeting hole. One argument says that, since EDF is also meant to be taking a stake of up to 20% in the replica Sizewell C plant in Suffolk, the two financing issues could be wrapped together.

Another says the UK worsened the financial pain in Somerset when it ditched the Chinese state firm CGN (one-third owner of Hinkley) as an investor in Sizewell. A disgruntled CGN, which owed its presence to the grotesque love-in with Beijing under David Cameron and George Osborne, is now refusing to invest more in Hinkley.

But, unusually, the UK’s hand looks excellent in this developing quarrel. As Piquemal’s warning demonstrated, EDF understood exactly what it was signing in 2016. The bargain was simple: the UK would buy Hinkley’s output for 35 years on inflation-linked terms that, at the time (but not now), were seen as wildly generous; in exchange, the developers were solely responsible for cost overruns during construction.

Nobody has ever doubted the watertight nature of the contract. EDF’s managing director at Hinkley made a video this week to explain the overruns and delays and said: “None of this affects British taxpayers or consumers.”

One could imagine a situation in which the UK agreed to lend a hand by buying an equity stake in Hinkley on commercial terms; even with higher costs, the projected internal rate of return over the long life of the plant is still 7%-ish. But there appears to be no obligation for the UK to negotiate.

Do Sizewell’s financing needs complicate the real-world politics? Possibly. The UK wants to attract outside capital to the Suffolk project and a proper cross-channel bust-up wouldn’t help the cause since EDF, aside from being a minority investor, will be a major supplier at Sizewell (but, not, as at Hinkley, the developer itself).

But, again, the UK has decent cards: the two projects have different funding models (UK billpayers are exposed to cost overruns at Sizewell) and the French nuclear industry presumably still wants the multibillion-pound orders for vital kit at Sizewell, including the reactors.

The deeper question over Sizewell is whether it is value for money if it, too, will end up costing £40bn-ish. Short answer: if the UK is committed to building 24 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050, or enough to meet a quarter of national electricity demand, there isn’t a ready alternative today. But Hinkley’s budget woes should be kept separate. In Somerset, EDF is on the hook, just as it was warned.

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Growing mountain of wasted money is a radioactive prospect

Alistair Osborne: Growing mountain of wasted money is a radioactive
prospect. Rishi Sunak’s apparent determination to press ahead with
mammoth investment in new nuclear reactors, whatever the cost, might not
prove to be the best solution.

It’s only a week since he set off — again — with his uncosted “nuclear road map”: a plan to have 24 gigawatts of new reactors by 2050, or seven more Hinkley Point Cs. On
Monday, the government sank another £1.3 billion into Sizewell C, so it
could “steam ahead” with that project, too, as Andrew Bowie, the
minister for nukes, put it.

Listen to him and investors are queueing up. So
what better news to encourage them than this jaw-dropper from EDF, the
state-backed French outfit behind both schemes? Hinkley Point’s costs
have shot up by as much as £10 billion to a top-end £35 billion, in 2015
prices.

And, instead of firing up in 2027, the first of the Somerset
nuke’s twin reactors could in an “unfavourable scenario” (the likely
outcome) be delayed until 2031. This is what comes with Hinkley’s
European pressurised reactor tech, as EDF has also proved at France’s
Flamanville, Finland’s Olkiluoto and China’s Taishan.

Indeed, two years after the Chinese nuke became operational, one unit had to be taken offline for a year’s repairs. So why is the government hellbent on a re-run with
Sizewell in Suffolk? Alison Downes from the Stop Sizewell C campaign is no
neutral voice. But she’s right to say the project “epitomises the
definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result”. With Sizewell, though, things would be far pricier.
Under the contracts-for-difference regime, EDF is on the hook for
Hinkley’s costs. Repeat the trick at Sizewell and, under the new
regulated asset base model, consumers would find £10 billion added to
their bills — before the nuke’s even operational.

 Times 25th Jan 2024

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/24osborne-hzs6r76nf

January 28, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Don’t be surprised if the UK tax-payer, not France, ends up paying the astronomic costs of Hinkley C nuclear power station .

Should we be bothered that Hinkley C nuclear power station has run even further over
budget (the latest estimate is £35 billion, nearly twice that quoted when
the project was given the go-ahead in 2016) and that its completion date
has been put back yet further, to 2031?

After all, the whole point of offering French energy giant EDF a guaranteed ‘strike price’ at the then juicy rate of £92.50 per megawatt-hour (at 2013 prices, rising with
inflation) was supposed to be to transfer financial risk to EDF and its
financial backers. ‘It is important to say that British consumers won’t
pay a penny, with the increased costs met entirely by shareholders,’ EDF’s
managing director of the Hinkley project state this morning.

I wouldn’t be so confident. Yet more delays to Hinkley C punch a huge hole in the
government’s net zero plans, which include the full decarbonisation of the
national grid by 2035 (Labour says it will do it by 2030). By 2028, all but
one of the UK’s existing five nuclear power stations are due to close – and
the other one, Sizewell B, is due to be gone by 2035. From generating
nearly a third of the UK’s power at its peak in 1998 the nuclear industry
could be down to virtually nothing by the time Hinkley C eventually opens.


No-one should be surprised if, before we get to 2031, EDF goes cap in hand
to the government, and the government offers it some kind of deal which
transfers risk back onto the taxpayer.

Spectator 24th Jan 2024

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/hinkley-c-and-the-rising-cost-of-net-zero/

January 28, 2024 Posted by | politics international, UK | Leave a comment

The War On Journalism In Belmarsh, The War On Journalism In Gaza

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, JAN 26, 2024,  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-war-on-journalism-in-belmarsh?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=141058691&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email—

I haven’t written much about Julian Assange lately because I’ve been so fixated on what’s been happening in Gaza, but we should all be acutely aware that the 20th and 21st of February may be the WikiLeaks founder’s final chance to avoid extradition to the United States to face persecution for the crime of good journalism. 

Assange and his legal team will face two High Court judges during the two-day hearing in London, who will then determine whether or not the UK will allow the Australian journalist to be dragged to the US in chains for a crooked show trial and cast into one of the world’s most draconian prison systems for exposing the war crimes of the world’s most powerful government. 

Some US lawmakers are attempting to block the extradition from the other end with House Resolution 934, which asserts that “regular journalistic activities are protected under the First Amendment, and that the United States ought to drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange.” If charges were dropped it would not only prevent the extradition but allow for Assange to be freed from the Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he has been jailed by the British government since 2019.

The fight to free Assange is a fight to protect press freedoms around the world, since the US is using the case in an attempt to set a legal precedent for extraditing and imprisoning any journalist or publisher anywhere in the world who shares information with the public that the US doesn’t want shared. 

And it’s worth mentioning that this fight is not actually separate from the fight against Israel’s efforts to keep journalism out of Gaza by assassinating reporters and blocking the press from entering the enclave. It’s also not separate from humanity’s overall struggle to build a truth-based civilization, nor ultimately from our greater struggle to become a conscious species.

All throughout humanity there are pushes toward truth and seeing and pushes toward secrecy and darkness. In the press we see both: the authentic journalists like Assange who want all that is hidden to be made transparent, and the propagandists of the mainstream media who work to obfuscate and distort the truth. Those who seek the emergence of a harmonious and truth-based society want as much visibility into what’s really happening as possible, while tyrannical power structures like the US empire and Israel are constantly working to dim the lights.

Wherever you see domination and abuse, you see efforts to limit perception and keep human minds from seeing and understanding what’s going on. It’s true of empires, it’s true of governments, it’s true of cult leaders, it’s true of abusive spouses, and it’s true of the unpleasant dynamics within our own psyches that we would rather not look at. The less seeing there is, the more abusiveness is possible; the more seen things become, the closer we get to freedom.

I’m no prophet, but I strongly suspect that our future as a species will be determined by the outcome of this struggle. If the impulse toward truth and seeing wins out, we are probably headed toward a world of health and harmony. If the impulse to keep everything confused and hidden and unconscious wins, we are probably headed for dystopia and extinction.

In any case, all we can do is fight to make things more visible so that health and harmony become possible. Fight to make things conscious within ourselves. Fight to keep journalism legal in the shadow of the empire. Fight to spotlight Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. Fight to make the unseen seen. Fight to bring humanity into the light of consciousness.

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Legal, media, UK | Leave a comment

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