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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

This week in nuclear news

A bit of good news.    Illegal to marry below 18 – Zambia passes the landmark Marriage (Amendment) Act, 2023

TOP STORIES. 

Mary Kostakidis: Assange’s Very Life Is at Stake.  

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 127: Growing international alarm over Israeli plans to invade Rafah.  

Full Speed Ahead on the Global Titanic -Going Along with the Utter Madness of Nuclear Weapons.    

Small Modular Reactors do not solve the many problems of nuclear, NGOs say. 

Rich men with the wrong answers – nuclear power has no future and yet they persist.

From the archives. Nuclear expert Mycle Schneider on the COP28 pledge to triple nuclear energy production: ‘Trumpism enters energy policy”

Climate. Atlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point, study finds.  Hottest January on record sees the world reach 1.7°C warming mark.

Nuclear. Very hard to exclude all the Israel-Gaza news – which could bring on nuclear war anyway!

Noel’s notes. Why we get distorted, unreliable, news about Ukraine and Israel.   Against all the evidence – nuclear industry propaganda blunders on – and the media regurgitates its nonsense!


NUCLEAR ISSUES

CLIMATE. European Union now promoting the lie that nuclear power is “green”. 
REVIEW CONFERENCE: CLIMATE CRISIS – WHY NUCLEAR IS NOT HELPING - also at		CIVIL LIBERTIES. UK steps up war on whistleblower journalism with new National Security Act.ECONOMICS. The clock is ticking on the nuclear renaissance. – also at    Rolls-Royce snubbed for UK’s first private small nuclear reactor plant. 
 EDF’s nuclear struggles dampen EU nuclear prospects – the industry “on a slow descent to hell”.
EMPLOYMENT France: EDF Faces Unprecedented Nuclear Workload in France,ETHICS and RELIGION. All is fair in A.I. warfare. But what do Christian ethics have to say?  
The West: guilty of genocide.		EVENTS. 
19 February - Webinar with Dr Helen Caldicott and Martin Sheen
INDIGENOUS ISSUES. Tribes condemn start of uranium mining at Pinyon Plain Mine south of Grand CanyonLEGAL. 100 Jewish Cease-Fire Supporters Arrested Blocking Biden’s NYC Motorcade Route.
  Canada citizens challenge environmental safety of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission waste facility near Ottawa River.		MEDIA. CNN’s CEO Is Making Staff Churn Out Israel Propaganda. CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’. 
“In The War Of Propaganda, It Is Very Difficult To Defeat The United States”.
  Study Finds Media Giants NY Times, CNN and Fox News Pushing for US War in Yemen. 
Chicago Tribune needs reality check on Russo Ukraine war.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . History repeats — and radiation radiates. 
Campaigners deeply concerned at Dr Thérèse Coffey’s support for Bradwell new nuclear power .		POLITICS. Nuclearization is underway. Or not.. (also at     

The future of nuclear: France’s nuclear dreams or nightmares? 

The folly of Ontario’s nuclear power play. 
 
Iran Plans More Nuclear Reactors Despite Serious Hurdles. 
Do the Right Thing: Put the South African Government’s Nuclear Plans to a Popular Referendum. Call to withdrawal from Holderness nuclear waste site talks amid tourism and farming ‘fears’.		POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. Report: Egypt warns Israel Rafah offensive may lead to suspension of peace treaty.   Western officials in protest over Israel Gaza policy 
 Israel Aid Bill Fails in House as Progressives Slam ‘Blank Check for Netanyahu’.  Walt Zlotow: Biden seeks $14 more billion to complete destruction of Palestinians in Gaza. 
EU Policy. Commission invites industry to join support platform for mini nuclear. 
Menaced by five Omnicides – Ralph Nader.
Putin ‘tried everything possible’ to make peace – Ukrainian diplomat.

SAFETY. Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is falling apart, and the world is ignoring the danger .  The dangerous craze for SMRs – also at   IAEA watchdog to visit nuclear plant in occupied Ukraine to assess safety of ageing fuel and low staffing. 

 France’s Flamanville EPR has numerous technical problems which mean that its safety issues are not “now closed”.

SECRETS and LIES. Absence of Evidence: Israel’s Case Against UNRWA.SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Nuclear secret: India’s space program uses plutonium pellets to power missions
WAR and CONFLICT. Escalating to de-escalate with nuclear weapons: Research shows it’s a particularly bad idea. 
The pragmatist’s guide to nuclear disarmament. 
NATO-Russia confrontation ‘could last decades’ – Stoltenberg. 
Israeli PM orders evacuation of last Gaza ‘safe zone’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l59LjI4XoA

 
Worst places in Australia to be if World War Three hits.		WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Noetic Continental | Part I: How CIA Foists Military Equipment Through Private War Companies. 

Over $1 Billion in Weapons Missing In Ukraine.  Why Biden’s $61 billion in weapons for Ukraine won’t prevent inevitable defeat. 

Citing World Court, Japan Firm Cuts Ties With Israel Arms Maker.

February 12, 2024 Posted by | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

Rich men with the wrong answers – nuclear power has no future and yet they persist

None of these realities deter the pro-nuclear lobby, now led most shamefully by the International Atomic Energy Agency itself. Even as its chief, Rafael Grossi, wrings his hands over the immense dangers posed by Ukraine’s 15 reactors embroiled in a war, he and his agency are planning what it boasts is the “first-ever” Nuclear Energy Summit, to be held in late March in Brussels in partnership with the Belgian government.

By Linda Pentz Gunter   https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/02/11/rich-men-with-the-wrong-answers/

Pro-nukers warned coal use would rise as reactors closed in Germany. The opposite happened.

Remember all those doomsayers from the pro-nuclear mythology unit who cast Germany’s Energiewende  — or green energy revolution — as a catastrophic failure? They claimed, totally erroneously or deliberately misleadingly, that the country’s choice to close all its nuclear power plants guaranteed an increase in fossil fuel use and especially coal.

Germany vehemently denied those false predictions since they clearly knew that the country’s renewables were more than able to replace nuclear and fossil fuels. And so it has come to pass.

Germany’s use of lignite, or brown coal, dropped to its lowest level in 60 years in 2023. Even more dramatically, its hard coal use is at the lowest level since 1955. All of this happened at the same time as Germany was closing its last three reactors.

Meanwhile, according to reporting by Clean Energy Wire (CLEW), and citing an analysis (in German) from the research institute, Fraunhofer ISE, renewables “contributed a record share of more than half of the country’s power consumption” in 2023.

“The country sourced nearly 60 percent (59.7%) of its net power production from renewables, which generated a total of 260 terawatt hours (TWh), an increase of 7.2 percent compared to 2022,” the report said.

The 2022 uptick of coal production in Germany was entirely driven by high gas prices and a shortfall of French nuclear power production. The French nuclear sector was so unreliable that 50% of its reactors were out of action in April 2022, and again in November 2022, just as winter electricity usage began to rise.

Consequently, France had to import electricity to keep the lights on and the heat running.

Far from eating crow, the pro-nuclear boosters like Ted Nordhaus, who co-founded the Breakthrough Institute (BTI), are still crowing about the benefits of nuclear power. Nordhaus couldn’t wait to take ownership of his latest scheme, apparently long in the plotting, to dismantle the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in order to eliminate the industry’s most burdensome (i.e. costly) hassle of having to worry about inconvenient things like reactor safety. Efforts to do just that are now underway in Congress.

“Through years of rigorous research and engagement with the NRC, BTI has pinpointed crucial opportunities to modernize the regulatory framework that will lay the foundation for streamlined and efficient nuclear reactor licensing,” boasts the company’s website.

Meanwhile, we learn that the struggling Vogtle 3 and 4 new reactor project in Georgia, already 20 billion dollars over budget and years late, is set once again to further gouge ratepayers for the mistakes and failures of Georgia Power. And across the pond that the UK twin EPR project will likely top $59 billion with a completion date originally set for 2017 now pushed back to “after 2029”.

None of these realities deter the pro-nuclear lobby, now led most shamefully by the International Atomic Energy Agency itself. Even as its chief, Rafael Grossi, wrings his hands over the immense dangers posed by Ukraine’s 15 reactors embroiled in a war, he and his agency are planning what it boasts is the “first-ever” Nuclear Energy Summit, to be held in late March in Brussels in partnership with the Belgian government.

The IAEA has now become possibly the world’s most aggressive marketer of nuclear power and is still crowing about what it sees as a triumph at COP28, a veritable nuclear coup d’etat. In reality, this encompassed a miserable 24 countries signing onto an absurd fantasy propaganda statement that the world can and must triple global nuclear capacity by 2025.

Is there any point to the COP anymore? (Was there ever?) It has become one big carbon footprint junket, taken over by the oil companies, and hijacked by the nuclear industry and the IAEA, while making pledges rarely kept. The next one, in Azerbaijan, is chaired by yet another oil executive and has precisely zero women on its 28-member organizing committee.

The COP28 triple nuclear declaration was followed by an outrageously presumptuous assertion, by former U.S. energy secretary, Ernest Moniz (with Armond Cohen) in a Boston Globe oped, that, quote, “The world wants to triple nuclear energy.” (The Globe published our reply on January 17.)

Are we tired yet of absurdly rich, mostly White men pronouncing what they have decided the world wants from the comfort of their ivory towers? We are one such elitist down now with the retirement of 80-year old multi-millionaire John Kerry as US climate envoy. As of January 2024, Kerry’s net worth was $250 million, but that’s after divesting himself from his shares in fossil fuel, nuclear power and nuclear weapons companies. 

Kerry has been replaced by, yes, drumroll, another old, rich, White man in the person of perennial White House advisor, John Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress. Podesta, a stripling at 75, is a mere pauper compared to Kerry with a net worth of just $10 million-$13 million depending on sources, none of which are fully reliable.

Where Podesta might stand on nuclear power is a little murky, although one assumes he will tow the Biden/Kerry line and evangelize accordingly. He is on the record as considering nuclear power as a producer of hydrogen, telling Cipher in a September 2023 interview: “I think the questions around how to utilize existing nuclear and the production of hydrogen are definitely on the table.”

And then there’s Rishi Sunak, prime minister of the UK, who, together with his even richer wife, has a net worth of $670 million. Despite all the evidence of extreme costs, rising sea-levels and agonizingly slow timelines, on January 11, Sunak’s government announced its plan for the country’s “biggest expansion of nuclear power for 70 years to create jobs, reduce bills and strengthen Britain’s energy security.” 

Nuclear power of course can achieve none of these. The electricity even of the current new nuclear reactors nearing completion at Hinkley Point will be almost triple the price Britons are currently paying. Promised new jobs will evaporate along with the new reactor plans, as we have already seen elsewhere — the V.C Summer and NuScale projects being prime examples. 

To achieve so-called energy security and get off its reliance on imported Russian reactor fuel, Sunak’s government also announced it would invest $381 million to produce the fuel domestically.

This is all a colossal betrayal of working people and their needs, with money squandered on illusory, expensive and irrelevant nuclear projects whose only purpose is to sustain the UK’s nuclear arsenal, one that could destroy the world many times over. 

What Moniz, Kerry, Grossi, Sunak and other nuclear-promoting leaders need to understand is what the world actually wants, alongside peace, is fast, affordable and safer renewable energy, not another Chornobyl.

February 12, 2024 Posted by | spinbuster | 1 Comment

“In The War Of Propaganda, It Is Very Difficult To Defeat The United States”

“Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like ‘slaughter,’ ‘massacre,’ and ‘horrific’ were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around,”

Got it? In Ukraine people die from bombs because Russia launched Russian airstrikes and killed them very Russianly, whereas in Gaza people get hurt by explosions because they got too close to some type of explosive material.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE,  FEB 11, 2024

“…………………… “In the war of propaganda it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world’s media and many European media,” Putin replied, adding, “The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions.”

…  Putin is definitely correct about the strength of the American propaganda machine. Of all the fronts one could possibly choose to challenge the United States on, propaganda is surely the least favorable. The US empire has by far the most sophisticated and effective propaganda machine ever to have existed, operating with such complexity that most people don’t even know it exists.

…………………………………………………………………In reality the nature of the US-centralized empire allows it to run a massive, nonstop international propaganda campaign through mass media platforms which are mostly privately owned. A diverse network of factors feeds into this dynamic which I’ve detailed in my unusually lengthy article “15 Reasons Why Mass Media Employees Act Like Propagandists”, but the gist of it is that anyone who’s wealthy enough to control a mass media platform is going to have a vested interest in preserving the status quo upon which their wealth is premised, and they will cooperate with establishment power structures in various ways toward that end.

The fact that these mass media outlets look independent but function as propaganda organs for the US empire allows its propaganda to fly into people’s minds without triggering any gag reflex of critical thinking or skepticism, which wouldn’t be the case if people knew those outlets were feeding them propaganda. Propaganda only really has persuasive power if you don’t know it’s happening to you.

The invisibility of US propaganda is further aided by the subtle methods by which it is administered, which we’ve seen exemplified beautifully in the coverage of Israel’s ongoing US-backed mass atrocity in Gaza. 

In an article titled “Coverage of Gaza War in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows,” The Intercept reports that a review of 1,000 articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times about Israel’s war on Gaza found that the outlets consistently used word choices which served Israeli information interests.

“Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like ‘slaughter,’ ‘massacre,’ and ‘horrific’ were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around,” The Intercept’s Adam Johnson and Othman Ali report. “The term ‘slaughter’ was used by editors and reporters to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 60 to 1, and ‘massacre’ was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 125 to 2. ‘Horrific’ was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 36 to 4.”

This is the sort of manipulation that a casual news consumer wouldn’t notice. Unless you’re on alert for bias and are keeping track of what words are and aren’t being used where, you’re probably not going to notice the absence of emotionally-charged words when reporting on Palestinians who are killed by Israelis. 

This type of slant shows up in all sorts of ways, like today’s headlines about the IDF killing a six year-old Palestinian girl named Hind Rajab along with her family. Reliable propaganda organs of the empire like CNN, The New York Times and the BBC have respectively gone with the headlines “Five-year-old Palestinian girl found dead after being trapped in car under Israeli fire”, “Missing 6-Year-Old and Rescue Team Found Dead in Gaza, Aid Group Says,” and “Hind Rajab, 6, found dead in Gaza days after phone calls for help”. In contrast, Al Jazeera reports on the same story with the headline “Body of 6-year-old killed in ‘deliberate’ Israeli fire found after 12 days,” and Middle East Eye goes with “Hind Rajab: Palestinian girl found dead after being trapped under Israeli fire for days”.

It’s easy to spot the difference when they’re placed next to each other like I just did, but unless you’re really watching out for it and have a good background on what’s going on here you’re likely to miss what’s happening. If you’re like most people and don’t read past the headline, you’d never know from the imperial media headlines that the child was killed by Israel, and you’d certainly never know about her terrified phone call for help while trapped by IDF fire and surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives. If you look to the legacy media and its algorithmically-boosted online iterations for information about the world, you went one more day with a distorted perspective of what’s happening in Gaza.

The western press constantly write headlines like this when trying to minimize the impact of someone’s death at the hands of a party they sympathize with, particularly with regard to Palestinians. Last month the BBC published an article titled “Record number of civilians hurt by explosives in 2023”, as though they were mishandling fireworks or something instead of being actively killed by Israeli bombs. The BBC later revised their atrocious headline, but revised it in the opposite direction, replacing “Record number” with “High number” to further minimize the impact.

Contrast this with the BBC’s headlines when it’s reporting on Ukrainians killed by Russian airstrikes . Here’s a recent one titled “Ukraine war: Russian air strikes claim five lives in Kyiv and Mykolaiv”, and another titled “Ukraine war: Baby killed in Russian strike on Kharkiv hotel”.

Got it? In Ukraine people die from bombs because Russia launched Russian airstrikes and killed them very Russianly, whereas in Gaza people get hurt by explosions because they got too close to some type of explosive material.

Last week The Washington Post ran an opinion piece titled “Is America complicit in Israel’s bloody war in Gaza?”, which is already a ridiculously skewed headline because the answer is self-evidently yes — implying that there’s any question of this skews things in America’s favor. But even this was too much for the Post’s editors, who re-titled the piece “Has the Israel-Gaza war changed your feelings about being American?” to keep Americans from thinking too hard about Israel’s bloody war in Gaza and their country’s complicity in it.

In a Wednesday article titled “Biden Tries Again With Arab Americans in Michigan”, New York Times editorial board member Farah Stockman wrote the absolutely insane line “The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel seems to be affecting Biden’s election prospects.” And then The New York Times actually printed it.

Read that line again. She’s saying Arab Americans are rejecting Biden because of the October 7 Hamas attack, which is of course absurd; they’re rejecting Biden because he’s backing a genocide in Gaza. She wrote this nonsensical line because in the New York Times you can’t say things like “Israel’s genocide in Gaza” or “the president’s facilitation of crimes against humanity”, and you won’t be hired if you’re the sort of person who’d be inclined to. Instead we’re pretending that for some inexplicable reason Arab Americans are just hopping mad at Biden because October 7 happened.

But again, these little manipulations fly under the radar if you’re not on the lookout for them. Such is the brilliance of the US empire’s invisible propaganda machine. That’s why it’s very difficult to win a propaganda war against the United States, that’s why westerners have been so successfully manipulated into accepting a status quo of endless war, ecocide, injustice and exploitation, and that’s why the world looks the way it looks right now.

 https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-the-war-of-propaganda-it-is-very?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=141567310&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email
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February 12, 2024 Posted by | media, spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear Fusion- costly and too late

‘the costs of electricity from a fusion reactor are likely to exceed those from fission by a factor of ten or more.’

The timescale for fusion is such that it has no relevance for the reduction of climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions’.

It is surprising that this company, which has prospered for 25 years, is advocating a technology that many experts say can never work’.  

10 Feb 24,   https://renewextraweekly.blogspot.com/2024/02/fusion-costly-and-too-late.html

A new report by a retired nuclear expert for the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) says there are ‘intrinsic concerns for commercial fusion’, as currently being explored by the large scale ITER device being built in France. It says issues included:      

• excessive cost compared to fission, because of its enormous size and complexity;

• low operational availability due to the necessity to frequently replace components damaged by neutron irradiation;

• scarcity of tritium fuel, requiring regeneration in operations and probably supplies for start-up from a fleet of fission reactors.

The GWPF report ‘Nuclear fusion- should we bother?’ goes on to look in detail at the issues ITER and the mainstream approach face. It is pretty damning. As the author Dr John Carr says in the press release ‘there is a litany of technical difficulties, from degradation of materials due to radiation damage, to lack of tritium fuel supply. Progress towards a working reactor has been dismal, and the problems may be insuperable’. Even if it can be done, he says, ‘the costs of electricity from a fusion reactor are likely to exceed those from fission by a factor of ten or more.’ 

His main focus is ITER, but, in the report he notes that there are a some alternative projects, mostly privately funded. He says that ‘some private companies have possible remedies for the first two points [in his issues list above], through use of high temperature superconductors. However, these solutions raise new challenges and it is highly likely that the timescales to develop the new technologies will be very much longer than the commercial promises’. 

Nevertheless, there are evidently many willing to try their luck. The report notes that ‘by 2023 there were a total of 43 major companies involved, of which 24 had declared funding of more than $10 million. The majority of these companies (15/24) are pursuing alternative concepts, while some (9/24) are building toroidal magnetic confinement devices, such as compact tokamaks, which are variants on the mainstream approach. A few of the companies (5/24) are proposing the use of alternative fuels. Many were founded by frustrated academic researchers, and all obviously want to avoid the pitfalls of mainstream fusion’. 

It goes on ‘The arrival of the private fusion companies, making claims for commercial fusion power stations to be connected to the electricity grid in the early 2030s, has the potential to dramatically change the prospects for the technology. This commercial optimism will compete with technological reality during the next 10 years; the oldest private fusion companies, including TAE, have already passed the original dates for which they promised commercial fusion. Such claims must therefore be taken with a pinch of salt. In parallel with these private company claims, ITER will have to readjust to a new schedule for fusion reactions after 2035. So, should these private companies succeed, it will be difficult to see why the ITER/ DEMO programme would continue’. 

Well yes, it could be overtaken, but, given the problems it identifies, the report does not in fact see the alternative fusion options as developing rapidly or effectively, so that, it concludes that overall ‘there is no reason to bother with fusion. It will almost certainly have no advantages over fission and will come – at best – a hundred years later than the Calder Hall milestone [i.e. 2056], costing vastly more. The timescale for fusion is such that it has no relevance for the reduction of climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions’.

That may be too conservative, even for the GWPF! John Carr may be right about ITER. And also some of the alternatives. He is certainly pretty dismissive about most of them.  For example, he notes that ‘TAE is studying the use of proton-Boron to replace D-T, because Boron is both abundant and the reaction produces no neutrons. The snag is that this fuel requires 6 times the reaction temp. of D-T (> 1 bn degrees). Critically, the radiation losses in the plasma are higher, to the point where an energy gain is impossible, according to calculations. It is surprising that this company, which has prospered for 25 years, is advocating a technology that many experts say can never work’.  

He looks at Commonwealth Fusion System’s ARC tokamak design, which uses high-temperature superconductors (HTS), in the form of the new rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) material, rather than the usual superconductor of niobium-tin and niobium-titanium used in ITER. Using HTS allows ARC to use higher magnetic fields and thus be smaller- half the physical size of ITER for a similar fusion power output. That would reduce costs. CFS gives a cost estimate for ARC at about $6 bn, compared with ITER’s $60 bn. 

However,  the report says ‘The REBCO superconductor is brittle – being a ceramic rather than a metal. In addition, the use of higher magnetic fields results in greater mechanical stresses, so constructing reliable magnets is more difficult. Further, the smaller size means the same fusion power output must be extracted through smaller breeder blanket systems and divertors, requiring these devices to sustain higher temperatures and radiation doses – another major challenge’. It says it’s similar for the UK’s spherical STEP.

Well maybe, but what about some of inertia/laser systems being developed in the USA- there’s almost no mention of them. There is certainly a lot of hype about imminent breakthroughs with laser ignition, but, arguably, at some point, there might be some real progress in this area- or in others. However, in addition to costs and safety, the key thing is when?  We need to deal with climate change now, not in many decades times. In that sense then Carr may be right- forget fusion for now. It’s not as if there are not other arguably much better (and urgent) things to spend the money on, although, given its hostility to almost all things green, the GWPF is probably not the best outfit to rely on for advice as to what the focus should be!   

February 12, 2024 Posted by | technology | Leave a comment

Absence of Evidence: Israel’s Case Against UNRWA

We got hold of Israel’s dossier against UNRWA – why did the donors including the UK withdraw funding on such flimsy unproven allegations before an investigation?”

the summary did “not provide evidence to support its claims.”

February 11, 2024 by: Dr Binoy Kampmark,
  https://theaimn.com/absence-of-evidence-israels-case-against-unrwa/

Statistics are often given lanky legs that take their user far. But how they are used, and how they are received, is striking. The current figure of 27,500 dead is a blighting, grotesque fact. But as they are Palestinians, the issue is less significant to certain parties than, say, 140 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

As with much in the noisy clatter of Middle Eastern violence, the value attributed to numbers alters in the shade of ideology and self-interest. Massacres become acts of self-defence; acts of self-defence become unconscionable inflictions of murder. It also follows that an organisation of 30,000 employees, working in the field of humanitarianism, aid and salvation, can be plastered as terrorist sponsors for having 12 individuals in their service allegedly involved in a murderous assault on Israel on October 7, 2023. Despite the relative smallness of this figure, the entire organisation itself becomes a target.

Israel was initially adamant that 12 such individuals in UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) had participated in the October 7 attacks by Hamas, sharing the details on January 29 with several media outlets. The accusations were made via a thin dossier amounting to no more than six pages. Little by way of evidence was supplied, though Israel was content to make further claims that almost 10% of the agency’s staff had ties to Hamas. As UN Crisis Group expert Daniel Forti writes, “Thus far, Israel has not provided evidence in writing to the UN to substantiate its allegations.”

For a gaggle of Western states and donors, that hardly mattered. The mere mention of the Satanic Twelve had made their way into public and political consciousness, and something had to be done about it. Funding to the aid body was swiftly suspended by the United States, Germany, the European Union, Sweden, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The organisation was smeared and threatened with functional incapacity and prospective oblivion, an outcome that would also, inevitably, doom Palestinians. Unchallenged accusations that the agency had long been a Hamas front – an article of faith among Israeli nationalists – were bandied about with abandon.

The United Nations, for its part, was unusually fleet footed in responding to the dossier. Contracts were terminated. Inquiries were announced, along with promises of stern self-examination, purging and cleansing. On February 5, the UN Secretary General António Guterres announced that an independent panel had been created with the specific purpose of assessing “whether the agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made.” The panel will be chaired by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who will work alongside a Scandinavian complement of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

With the setting up of such heavy machinery, the picture started getting foggier. Then a smiting report from the British news outlet Channel 4 took issue with the scanty material supplied in the document. As the network’s Lindsey Hilsum stated, “We got hold of Israel’s dossier against UNRWA – why did the donors including the UK withdraw funding on such flimsy unproven allegations before an investigation?”

Channel 4 goes on to reveal that the dossier “contains no evidence to support Israel’s explosive new claim other than stating, ‘From intelligence information, documents, and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihadi terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees. More than 10 UNRWA staffers took part in the events of October 7.”

Even the usually less than critical CNN network reported that it had “not seen the intelligence that underlies the summary of allegations”, going on to mention that the summary did “not provide evidence to support its claims.”

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When Ophir Falk, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was asked by CNN anchor Anna Coren to provide evidence of the claims, he refused to do so. When asked why the alleged culprits had not been arrested, he merely replied that “the first step is for them to be fired.”

Outlets such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal were less than concerned by the gaping lacunae and skimpiness of Israel’s case. Instead, the latter could even go so far as to claim that the dossier provided “the most detailed look yet at the widespread links between the UNRWA employees and militants.” The ABC World News Tonight was clumsy enough to suggest that the UN had “not denied the claims”, implying a veneer of veracity.

Now, other countries are finding absence of evidence from the Israeli side more than awkward. Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, had to also admit that she had not been furnished with much in the way of evidence. “We have spoken to the Israelis and we have asked for further evidence,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s 7.30. When asked why she did not ask UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini about the subject, she simply reiterated the point that she had asked the Israelis directly and was not aware if Lazzarini had evidence. “He may, I don’t know what he has.”

With trademark oiliness, Wong countered that the allegations were what mattered. “I think it is clear from UNRWA’s own actions that they regard these allegations as serious.” They had done so by “terminating the employment of a number of employees and putting in place an inquiry – in fact, there are two inquiries.” Effectively, the agency was to be punished for its own enterprising efforts to investigate the claims, leaving the accusers free to level whatever charges they saw fit.

In the meantime, Lazzarini has been scrambling to fill the funding void, making visits to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait. The dying and starvation in Gaza continue with the prospect of even more horror as Israel’s armed forces prepare their offensive on Rafah. A fine thing, then, to see donor countries for UNRWA, some of whom continue funding Israel’s military efforts, to moralise about terrorists and the agency.

February 12, 2024 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Israeli PM orders evacuation of last Gaza ‘safe zone’

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9l59LjI4XoA%3Fsi%3DouiPndP8-yM_48Hr

 https://www.rt.com/news/592207-israel-plans-rafah-civilian-evacuation/ 11 Feb 24

Benjamin Netanyahu has directed his military to prepare for moving civilians out of Rafah ahead of a major ground offensive

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to make plans for evacuating over a million Palestinian civilians crowded into Rafah, the last remaining refuge for displaced residents of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. Israeli troops are preparing to launch a massive ground offensive against Hamas fighters in the area.

Netanyahu’s office announced the directive on Friday, saying the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) needed a “combined plan” for the mass evacuation of civilians and the destruction of the last Hamas stronghold in the Palestinian enclave. “It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” the statement said. “On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat.”

The UN has estimated that around 1.4 million displaced Gazans have taken refuge in Rafah, located on the besieged enclave’s border with Egypt, since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. The city, which normally has a population of some 280,000, has become the last so-called “safe zone” for civilians as the IDF levels much of Gaza in its hunt for Hamas fighters.

The evacuation directive comes as the US and other allies step up pressure on West Jerusalem to reduce civilian casualties. The US State Department warned on Thursday that an Israeli military operation in Rafah without “serious planning” for protection of civilians would be disastrous. US President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday night that the IDF’s operations in Gaza had been “over the top,” marking his most pointed criticism of Israeli war tactics since the conflict began.

Biden’s administration has refused so far to press for a ceasefire in Gaza and has criticized allegations that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. About 28,000 people have been killed in the territory since the war began, according to local health authorities. The UN has reported that 85% of the population has been displaced from their homes, and 570,000 Gazans are starving.

The war started when Hamas fighters launched surprise attacks against Israeli villages, killing more than 1,100 people and taking hundreds of hostages back to Gaza.

February 12, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

UK steps up war on whistleblower journalism with new National Security Act

KIT KLARENBERG, ·FEBRUARY 9, 2024, The GrayZone

Under a repressive new act, British nationals could face prison for undermining London’s national security line. Intended to destroy WikiLeaks and others exposing war crimes, the law is a direct threat to critical national security journalism.

It was the afternoon of May 17 2023 and I had just arrived at London’s Luton Airport. I was on my way to the city of my birth to visit my family. Before landing, the pilot instructed all passengers to have their passports ready for inspection immediately upon disembarking the plane. Just then, I noticed a six-strong squad of stone-faced plainclothes British counter-terror officers waited on the tarmac, intensely studying the identification documents of all travelers.

As soon as the cops identified me, I was ordered to accompany them into the airport terminal without explanation. There, I was introduced to two officials whose names I could not learn, who subsequently referred to each other using nondescript callsigns. I was invited to be digitally strip searched, and subjected to an interrogation in which I had no right to silence, no right to refuse to answer questions, and no right to withhold pin numbers for my digital devices or sim cards. If I asserted any rights to privacy, I faced arrest and up to 48 hours in police custody. 

I chose to comply. And so it was that over the next five hours, I sat with a couple of anonymous counter-terror cops in an airless, windowless, excruciatingly hot back room. They fingerprinted me, took invasive DNA swabs, and probed every conceivable aspect of my private and professional life, friend and family connections, and educational background. They wanted to know why I write, say and think the things I do, the specifics of how I’m paid for my investigative journalism, and to which bank account.

I had been detained under Britain’s 2019 Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act, which the UN has branded draconian and repressive. Under its Schedule 3 powers, anyone entering British territory suspected of “hostile activity” on behalf of a foreign power can be detained, interrogated for six hours, and have the contents of their digital devices seized and stored. “Hostile acts” are defined as any behavior deemed threatening to Britain’s “national security” or its “economic well-being.”

More disturbingly, Schedule 3 is suspicionless. Under its terms, “it is immaterial whether a person is aware that activity in which they are or have been engaged is hostile activity, or whether a state for or on behalf of which, or in the interests of which, a hostile act is carried out has instigated, sanctioned, or is otherwise aware of, the carrying out of the act.” It must be quite an elaborate conspiracy when conspirators do not even know they’re conspiring.

It turns out the British state wrongly believed The Grayzone had a relationship with Russia’s notorious FSB security service. They based their assumption not on any evidence, but on our knack for producing factual investigative journalism based on documents passed to this outlet anonymously, via burner email accounts. Such activity is common practice for Western media outlets, rights groups, and much venerated “open source” investigative outfits like the US-government sponsored Bellingcat. If I and the rest of The Grayzone made any mistake, it was in publishing material the US-UK national security state does not want in the public domain.

Now, the British government is taking its war on investigative journalism to a new level through its little-known National Security Act. Under this law, authorities in London have granted themselves the power to surveil, harass, and ultimately imprison any British citizens they wish on similarly suspicionless grounds. Dissidents of every stripe must now worry that everything they do or say could land them in jail for lengthy terms, simply for failing to toe London’s rigid national security line.

Among the top lobbyists for these authoritarian measures is Paul Mason, the celebrity journalist who posed as a leader of the British left until The Grayzone unmasked him as a security state collaborator hellbent on destroying the antiwar movement from within.

Inspired by the US Espionage Act, designed to criminalize whistleblowing

In December 2023, after processing for 18 months through parliamentary procedures, the British National Security Act came into force. Under the aegis of protecting Britain from the threat of espionage and sabotage by hostile actors at home and abroad, the law introduces a number of completely new criminal offenses with severe penalties — and wide-ranging consequences for freedom of speech. Indeed, the law’s terms are so broad, individuals will almost inevitably break the law without wanting to, intending to, or even knowing they have.

Because no one has been prosecuted under the Act to date, its full ramifications remain unclear. However, London’s security and intelligence apparatus now enjoy far-reaching powers to police what can be said about the British government’s activities abroad.

Given the frightening implications of the Act, UK  journalists, press rights groups, and civil liberties organizations should be up in arms. Yet serious criticism of the law was largely absent from mainstream publications throughout various phases of debate in parliament.

Scrutiny of the anti-free press Act has been left almost entirely to independent journalists like Mohamed Elmaazi. Writing for Consortium News in July 2022, Elmaazi noted that it “shares many elements” with Washington’s “draconian 1917 Espionage Act,” which is currently being used to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange…………………………………………

Act specifically intended to criminalize WikiLeaks threatens whistleblowers

During the 2022 House of Commons debate, knighted Conservative MP Sir Robert Buckland led the charge against WikiLeaks. Buckland, who was responsible in his former role as Secretary of State for Justice for “upholding the rule of law and protecting judicial independence,” argued that the National Security Act was a vital tool to prosecute “those such as Julian Assange who dump data in a way that has no regard for the safety of operatives and other affected people.” He later remarked, “none of us [in Parliament] wants to see Julian Assange and his type carry sway here.” 

The UK Supreme Court expressed a very different view when, in 2018, it held in a unanimous decision that cables published by WikiLeaks are admissible as evidence in court proceedings…………………………………………………………………………

Should authorities in London merely suspect someone might in some way benefit from possessing “information” provided to them by an unknown “foreign” power, that they may have stumbled across on the internet or been provided one way or another without their express request or consent, they could be branded as a criminal and locked away.

British journalists more compliant to authoritarian measures than ever

The British state’s campaign to muzzle dissenting voices draws on London’s operation of a little-known but devastatingly effective censorship mechanism known as the Defense and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee.

Comprised of representatives of the security and intelligence services, military veterans, high-ranking government officials, press association chiefs, editors and journalists, the committee determines behind closed doors which national security related-issues can be covered by the press, and in what fashion.

On occasion, the Committee issues what are known as “D-notices.” Theoretically, these are voluntary requests for news outlets to not broadcast particular pieces of information, or to omit details deemed harmful to national security. While recipients are not legally obliged to comply, they are fully aware that a refusal could mean prosecution under the Official Secrets Act 1989, especially if the information in question results from an “unauthorised disclosure.” Alternatively, an offending journalist might simply be blacklisted, losing access to on and off-the-record briefings and privileged information from officials, which would then threaten their employment. As a result, examples of outlets ignoring “D-notices” are few and far between…………………………………………………………………………………….

Paul Mason suggests The Grayzone be prosecuted for exposing him

In June 2022, The Grayzone exposed British reporter Paul Mason for his collusion with a senior British Foreign Office intelligence officer in a clandestine campaign to brand the British antiwar left as a vehicle for the Russian and Chinese governments. The publication of the material, which was sent to this outlet via anonymous burner accounts, was clearly in the public interest………………………………… more https://thegrayzone.com/2024/02/09/uk-national-security-act-wikileaks/—

February 12, 2024 Posted by | civil liberties, politics, UK | Leave a comment

REVIEW CONFERENCE: CLIMATE CRISIS – WHY NUCLEAR IS NOT HELPING

In October 2019, a conference was held by “Don’t Nuke the Climate” and GLOBAL 2000 against nuclear energy as a supposed climate savior.

Recently, the nuclear lobby has been trying to present itself as the “green” technology that can produce electricity for the energy transition in a “CO2-free and reliable” manner, thereby enabling the exit from dirty energy sources such as oil and coal. Entire conferences on “Atoms4Climate” are organized with this in mind. At the climate conferences, the nuclear lobby acts aggressively and advertises subsidies – only through subsidies can nuclear power be expanded and kept running.

It has long been clear that nuclear power cannot be part of the urgently needed climate protection measures. On the contrary. According to the independent scientists, tackling the climate crisis is about saving CO2 as quickly – and as cost-effectively – as possible.

Nuclear power cannot make a contribution here – it is the most expensive technology – and is far too complex and slow to build to be able to make any contribution at all in the period of the next ten years that is relevant to the climate crisis. The construction time alone of the few reactors that went into operation in recent years took more than 10 yearsexternal link, opens in a new tab, plus there were planning and approval times of another decade. 

Even the basic argument of “CO2-free” nuclear power plants is untenable – nuclear power is not a climate saver: The uranium mining chain and the construction and operation of nuclear power plants cause far more greenhouse gas emissions than renewable energies, depending on the uranium content The ore releases between 88 and 146 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour.

The conference

The international conference “Climate Crisis – Why nuclear is not helping”, organized by “Don’t Nuke the Climate” and GLOBAL 2000, took place in October 2019 at the same time as the first IAEA Nuclear Climate Conference. Over two days, facts and figures about nuclear energy were presented and strategies were discussed to keep outdated technology out of the fight against the climate crisis. Key questions were: 

  • Are the pro-nuclear energy arguments correct or influenced by outside sources?
  • And can new technologies such as “Small Modular Reactors” improve the situation or are they uneconomical and not yet developed far enough?

The questions were developed in lectures and workshops and discussed in lively exchanges. The documents for reading the conference can be found below. The event was held in English, which is why most of the documents were written in English. You can download the program for reading here . The slides for the presentations (mostly in English) can be found here . We have collected photos of the event and a protest in front of the IAEA at the start here . 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… The international conference organized by “Don’t Nuke the Climate” and GLOBAL 2000 that took place at the same time as IAEA’s very first climate conference in Vienna in October 2019 has examined the hard evidence-base, the facts and figures – in order to prepare strategies to keep fresh money for the outdated technology that is nuclear. Key questions included: Whether those forecasts which support new nuclear are accurate – or are they unfairly biased? And whether any novel nuclear technology, such as Small Modular Reactors, are viable – or are they uneconomic and very far from deployment?

The program of the conference can be found here . All slides from the presentations are here , and pictures from the conference and the protest beforehand are collected here .

Role of nuclear and climate goals in IEA, IAEA, IPCC scenarios 
Critical look at forecasts – Overestimated for nuclear and underestimated for renewables? Nuclear generation increases, on average by around 2.5 times by 2050 in the 89 mitigation scenarios considered by the IPCC. What the IPCC report also says about nuclear (leukemia, proliferation)
Speaker: Georg Günsberg, Strategy Consultant Climate and Energy Politics, Vienna

Presentation Major Energy Scenarios

Can we afford nuclear power to save us from global warming? 
Speaker: Steve Thomas, University of Greenwich, UK

Presentation Cost Of Nuclear Power

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs): Findings from a key report by Paul Dorfman, MV Ramana and Sean Morris 
Speaker: Paul Dorfman, The Energy Institute, University College London

Presentation of Small Modular Reactors

Operating a very old fleet of nuclear power plants
Is it the most realistic scenario? Can aging plants contribute to energy security and which additional risks will arise due to climate change phenomena?
Speaker: Oda Becker, Independent technical consultant, Hanover

Presentation of old nuclear plants

Propaganda versus reality of new generation of reactors (GEN IV) 
Speaker: Christoph Pistner, Nuclear Engineering & Facility Safety, Ökologieinstitut Darmstadt

Presenting Reality New Reactors

Exclusive Presentation of the WNSIR 2019 by Mycle Schneider and the author of the special chapter on Nuclear Power and Climate Change by Amory Lovins RMI 
For nuclear to be considered a viable option in managing the decline of the fossil fuel economy, new reactors must be economically viable and built on-time – however, practical experience demonstrates that nuclear is hugely expensive and very much behind schedule. Nuclear costs and risks mean that plants can only be built with vast state aid (public subsidies), including loan guarantees and long-term power purchase agreements.
Speaker: Mycle Schneider and Amory Lovins – via video conferencing with Q&A

Presentation WNISR 2019

Presentation Nuclear Power and Climate Change

Nuclear power powers the bomb 
Speaker: Angelika Claußen, IPPNW president for Europe, Germany

Presentation Nuclear Powers Bombs

Nuclearization of Africa and the role of IAEA 
Speaker: Makoma Lekalakala, Earthlife South Africa

Presenting Human Rights Issues

Billions for EURATOM (in German)
Speaker: Christoph Rasch

Presentation costs EURATOM

First results of working paper on climate crisis and NPP
Energiaklub Presentation of the first results about NPP safety and operation under climate crisis condition.
Speaker: Eszter Mátyás, CEU PhD

Presentation Climate and Paks NPP

Presentation Nuclear and Safety

The European Nuclear Power Risk Study 2019
Doctors study analyzes accident consequences based on real weather situations (France, Swiss NPP) and shows the high risks arising from severe nuclear accidents also for neighboring countries.
Speaker: Claudio Knüsli, IPPNW

Presentation EUNUPRI2019

The conference & workshop day were organized by the Don’t Nuke the Climate network of anti-nuclear organizations and networks from all over the globe, that work together to keep nuclear out of the climate agreements and the Paris agreement: The conference
was organized by Don’t Nuke the Climate Network of anti-nuclear organizations and networks from around the world working together to keep nuclear energy out of the climate agreements and the Paris Agreement: 

…………………………………………………….. www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org/about-us   https://www.global2000.at/news/nachlese-konferenz-climate-crisis-why-nuclear-not-helping

February 12, 2024 Posted by | climate change | Leave a comment

France’s Flamanville EPR has numerous technical problems which mean that its safety issues are not “now closed”

Response from GLOBAL CHANCE to the ASN consultation on the request for
authorization to commission the Flamanville EPR reactor.

Contrary to what the President of the ASN stated on January 30, 2024 in his conference press
and the presentation of one’s wishes, numerous technical subjects which are
as much potential problems for the proper functioning of the EPR and which
call into question the reactor safety, cannot be considered “now closed”.


The problems that hamper the operation and safety of the EPR are numerous.
Most serious are presented in the following chapters in two parts: severe
and persistent then severe and whose solutions are risky. They lead to
asking questions including the answers do not appear in any of the
documents which constitute the file released made available to the public
by the ASN

 Global Chance 9th Feb 2024

February 12, 2024 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Pacific wants open discussion on AUKUS to ensure region is nuclear free

Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific Journalist, @eleishafoon, more https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/508948/pacific-wants-open-discussion-on-aukus-to-ensure-region-is-nuclear-free 12 Feb 24

Keeping the Pacific nuclear-free, in line with the Rarotonga treaty, was a recurring theme from the leaders of Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa to New Zealand last week.

The New Zealand government’s Pacific mission wrapped up on Saturday with the final leg in Samoa.

Over the course of the trip, defence and security in the region was discussed with the leaders of the three Polynesian nations.

In Apia, Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa addressed regional concerns about AUKUS.

New Zealand is considering joining pillar two of the agreement, a non-nuclear option, but critics have said this could be seen as Aoteroa rubber stamping Australia acquiring nucelar-powered submarines.

“We would hope that both administrations will ensure that the provisions under the maritime treaty are taken into consideration with these new arrangements,” Fiamē said.

New Zealand’s previous labour government was more cautious in its approach to joining AUKUS because it said pillar two had not been clearly defined, but the coalition government is looking to take action.

Prime Minister Fiamē said she did not want the Pacific to become a region affected by more nuclear weapons.

She said the impact of nuclear weapons in the Pacific was still ongoing, especially in the North Pacific with the Marshall Islands, and a semblance of it is still in the south with Tahiti.

She said it was crucial to “present that voice in these international arrangements”.

“We don’t want the Pacific to be seen as an area that people will take licence of nuclear arrangements.”

The Treaty of Rarotonga prohibits signatories – which include Australia and New Zealand – from placing nuclear weapons within the South Pacific.

Cook Island’s Prime Minister Mark Brown said Pacific leaders were in agreement over the security matter.

“I think our stance mirrors that of all the Pacific Island countries. We want to keep the Pacific region nuclear weapons free, nuclear free and that hasn’t changed.”

Reflecting on dicussions during the Pacific Islands Forum in 2023, he said: “A review and revisit of the Rarotonga Treaty should take place with our partners such as New Zealand, Australia and others on these matters.”

“It’s timely that we have them now moving forward,” he said.

Last year, Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka proposed a Pacific peace zone which was discussed during the forum leaders’ meeting Rarotonga.

This year, Tonga will be hosting the forum and matters of security and defence involving AUKUS are expected to be a key part of the agenda.

Tonga’s Acting Prime Minister Samiu Vaipulu acknowledged New Zealand’s sovereignty and said dialogue was the way forward.


“We do not interfere with what other countries do as it is their sovereignty. A talanoa process is best,” Vaipulu said.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Health and Pacific People’s Minister Shane Reti reiterated that they care and have listened to the needs outlined by the Pacific leaders.

They said New Zealand would deliver on funding promises to support improvements in the areas of health, education and security of the region.

February 12, 2024 Posted by | OCEANIA | Leave a comment

Why Biden’s $61 billion in weapons for Ukraine won’t prevent inevitable defeat

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 11 Feb 24

For 4 months President Biden has been beseeching Congress to grant another $61 billion in aid to Ukraine to continue their 2 year war with Russia. This is on top of $113 billion that has made no dent in Ukraine’s efforts to prevail against overwhelming Russian forces.

Biden could give Ukraine a trillion dollars in aid but it’s essentially worthless because Ukraine is running out of soldiers to use US weapons.

A dozen Ukrainian soldiers and commanders told the Washington Post that personnel deficits are at their lowest point ever.

One mechanized brigade battalion commander advised he’s down to 40 soldiers from a normal 200 to hold off the Russian advance. Another mentioned the same shortage in his unit.

Replacements are scares since August when Zelensky fired all recruitment office heads due to corruption. That’s caused a dramatic decline in replacements still not solved.

But if Biden gets his $61 billion he’d be better off tossing it into a bonfire instead of squandering it on more weapons for Ukraine. That will only prolong a war that was lost on Day One, 717 days ago. Had Biden not torpedoed a peace deal nearly inked in the first month, over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers would still be alive, the Ukraine economy would not be devastated, and Ukraine may not have lost a single square mile of territory.

Biden knows the $61 billion more will not turn the tide. But as Pete Seeger sang about LBJ continuing to fight a lost war in Vietnam 57 years ago, in today’s White House…’The Big Fool says to push on.’

February 12, 2024 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

France’s EDF shuts down two nuclear reactors after fire at Chinon plant

Reuters, February 11, 2024,  https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/frances-edf-shuts-down-two-nuclear-reactors-after-fire-chinon-plant-2024-02-10/
—

Nuclear energy operator EDF has shut down two reactors at Chinon in western France after a fire in a non-nuclear sector of the plant in the early hours of Saturday, the company said.

The fire has been extinguished, it said.

“Production unit number 3 at the Chinon nuclear power plant has shut down automatically, in accordance with the reactor’s safety and protection systems,” EDF said in a statement, adding it also shut down reactor number 4, which is coupled to number 3.

France’s nuclear safety watchdog said in a separate statement the fire had led to an electricity cut at the plant that triggered the automatic shutdown.

Chinon is one of France’s oldest nuclear plants.

Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; editing by Barbara L

February 12, 2024 Posted by | France, incidents | Leave a comment

Menaced by five Omnicides – Ralph Nader

Hope lies with societies with deliberative democratic practices and traditions of civic engagement By Ralph Nader The countries that straddle our tormented world are woefully unprepared to counter and prevent five Omnicides already underway or looming menacingly on the horizon. This is increasingly true with the yearly passage of neglected opportunities. The gap between our mounting knowledge and its application to these global threats is widening.

Menaced by five Omnicides
Menaced by five Omnicides

February 12, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Pushing Gazans Into Rafah And Then Attacking Rafah, Killing UNRWA Funding Without Evidence


CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, FEB 10, 2024, Caitlin’s newsletter.

Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Israel is reportedly preparing to launch a ground assault on Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip where Gazans have been pushed to flee to. Israel has instructed the 1.4 million refugees sheltering there to evacuate, along with the hundreds of thousands of people who were already living there before, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere for them to go. This could wind up being the single deadliest phase of Israel’s onslaught to date.

So to summarize, the IDF has been packing the population of Gaza into the southernmost part of the enclave like toothpaste toward the end of a tube, and now they’re going to attack that southernmost part, but it’s totally not genocide and you’re an evil Nazi if you say it is.

This genocide is not a genocide. Ceci n’est pas une pipe.

Can we all just stop and marvel at how successful Israel and its allies have been at moving the conversation from “The ICJ ruled that Israel needs to immediately cease killing Palestinians” to “Is it right or wrong to starve two million people based on unevidenced claims?”

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong has acknowledged that Canberra joined the US, UK and other allies in cutting off UNRWA funding without having seen proof of Israel’s claims against the organization. Empire managers are now openly admitting they suspended aid to Gaza without having seen evidence of the claims that call was based on; they cut the aid because they were told to, then waited for narratives to be provided to them as to why this was a good and righteous decision.

If you’re going to say that a bad thing happened and we therefore need to cut off aid to the most aid-dependent population on earth, then you’d better at least be able to prove the bad thing actually happened. If evidence exists, then show it. If you insist on starving two million people, you can’t do it on vibes alone.

How is this not obvious to everyone? How was it not immediately obvious the instant it came up? Time and time again we are asked to consent to the empire doing the most heinous things to the most vulnerable populations on secret, invisible evidence. We are expected to trust their secret evidence without getting to look at it, even though they’ve been caught lying about things like this over and over and over again.

They think we’re idiots………………………………………………………………..  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/pushing-gazans-into-rafah-and-then?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=141542598&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email—

February 12, 2024 Posted by | Israel, Religion and ethics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, weapons and war | Leave a comment