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TODAY. The global digital system is a threat to the nuclear industry – it’ll get worse with AI

At last, somebody noticed! And the amazing thing is that this warning from think tank Chatham House came on July 12 – 10 days before the global digital outage.

I have wondered about the cybersecurity of nuclear facilities. There have been warnings – that terrorists or “bad actors” – might attack them digitally.

But now – the global collapse of information technology showed the awful truth- things can go wrong with just a teensy little stuffup of “normal” digital operations!

Bad enough if airline booking systems suddenly don’t work, and cash registers at supermarkets don’t work, and all sorts of economic systems grind to an expensive halt.

But what if digital things go wrong in nuclear facilities – reactors, cooling systems, waste management facilities , and hell – nuclear weapons!

But surely, I, a mere amateur, am exaggerating!

Well, the experts at Chatham House are on the same page as I am:

many nuclear plants rely on software that is “built on insecure foundations and requiring frequent patches or updates” or “has reached the end of its supported lifespan and can no longer be updated”.

with operators opting to run the facility by a central computer system without human presence. Increased reliance on cloud systems to run infrastructure is bound to enhance the cybersecurity risks.

Even Chatham House still uses that lying term “cloud” system, when we all know damn well – there is no benign “cloud” – only acres of steel canisters and conglomerations of metal and wires.

We now live in a strange global digital monoculture. A single  software update gone wrong and Microsoft Windows computers around the world crash. There is something awfully wrong with our lives being dependent on one, or a very few, digital systems run by great corporations run by a few powerful squillionaires.

And of course, that includes the so-called “defense” systems – limbering up to attack China etc. It’s a sobering thought that Armageddon might come – not from a decision by some evil dictator – but just from a teensy computer glitch.

AI, now being incorporated in weapons systems, might now make digital technology more vulnerable to glitches?

The global IT outage has surely been a wake-up call – as businesses, governments and individuals cope with its expensive after-effects.

But it should be even more of a wake-up call for the public – to think about the danger we are all in, allowing the nuclear industry to proliferate.

July 24, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Kamala Harris Would Continue Genocide in Gaza

 SCHEERPOST, JULY 22, 2024 By Caitlin Johnstone / CaitlinJohnstone.com.au

“…………………………………………………Harris differs from Biden only in voice and appearance, and has been an enthusiastic supporter of Biden’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza over the last nine and a half months.

Harris, assuming she wins the nomination, will campaign on the promise of continuing Biden’s incineration of Gaza, continuing Biden’s “ironclad” support for Israel, continuing Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine, continuing Biden’s escalations against Russia and China, continuing Biden’s expansion of the US war machine, continuing Biden’s facilitation of ecocidal capitalism, and continuing Biden’s dehumanizing policies of worldwide exploitation and imperialist extraction. If she gets into the White House the face of the operation will change, but the operation itself will not.

And the same will be true if Trump gets in. Every few years the US empire has this weird little festival where it pretends the government is changing hands and will now begin operating in a way that is meaningfully different from the way it was operating before. But then exploitation continues, the injustice continues, the ecocide continues, the wars continue, the militarism continues, the imperialism continues, the propaganda indoctrination continues, the authoritarianism and oppression continues.

The behavior of the empire is no more changed by getting a new president than a corporation is changed by getting a new secretary at the front desk of its main office. …………………………………. more  https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/22/harris-would-continue-genocide-in-gaza/

July 24, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

A letter to the children of tomorrow

July 22, 2024, The AIM Network, By Roger Chao,  https://theaimn.com/a-letter-to-the-children-of-tomorrow/

Dear Children of Tomorrow, in sorrowed verse we write,
To pen our deep apology beneath the failing light.
We’ve ravaged Eden’s gardens and scarred her innocent face,
And left a fractured legacy of greed’s unyielding pace.

Forgive us for the forests, where once the giants stood,
Their branches high and mighty, their roots of ancient wood.
We felled their lofty canopies, and silenced whispered dreams,
Their fallen forms now stories, adrift in muddy streams.

Once pure and sparkling rivers, now heavy, choked, and foul,
No longer sing with clarity, but moan a mournful howl.
Their crystal veins, once life itself, are tainted now with blight,
The shimmering scales of fish are gone, lost in endless night.

The oceans, vast and sapphire, with treasures held within,
Are tombs of plastic relics, borne of our careless sin.
Coral citadels, once resplendent, lie pale and cold as bone,
Their colours drained to silence, their teeming life now flown.

The air, once sweet with fragrance, from blossoms fresh and bright,
Now hangs a heavy curtain, a testament to plight.
The wind that sang through valleys green, now carries cries of pain,
A dirge of darkened futures, beneath a sky of stain.

In cities sprawling, concrete-clad, where nature’s breath is thin,
We built our towers to the skies, and drowned the wild within.
The whispering leaves of yesteryear, now whispers of the past,
Replaced by metal murmurs, in shadows deep and vast.

Creatures grand and humble, who walked this world beside,
Have vanished from the wilderness, swept away by tide.
The thylacine’s bark, the marl’s squeek, the tasman starling’s song,
Are echoes in the empty night, of what we’ve rendered wrong.

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Mountains mined to hollowness, valleys deep and scarred,
Our insatiable appetite, left nature bereft and marred.
Glaciers pure, as ancient as the dawn of time itself,
Now weep into the oceans, their sorrow on the shelf.

For all these acts, we beg of you, forgive our blinded ways,
And listen to our earnest plea, in these twilight days.
Though the world we’ve handed over bears the marks of our neglect,
In your hands lies a future, that you can yet protect.

See the earth with reverence, its beauty in each form,
In every leaf and petal, where wonder is the norm.
Nurture the silent forests, let rivers run again,
And build a realm of radiance, where love and nature reign.

Embrace the ancient wisdom, that the earth does softly impart,
In the rustling of the branches, in the pulsing of its heart.
Guard the fragile sanctuaries, where wild things find their peace,
And in their freedom, find the song where human hearts release.

Let the oceans breathe again, with depths both bright and vast,
Heal the coral gardens, restore what we’ve surpassed.
Clear the skies of smog and smoke, let sunlight grace the land,
And cherish every creature, with a gentle, guiding hand.

In the sprawling fields of flowers, let bees and butterflies,
Paint the air with vibrant hues, beneath the open skies.
Plant trees that reach the heavens, their roots deep in the soil,
And find the joy in simple things, in honest, earnest toil.

Turn away from fleeting gold, and listen to the call,
For nature’s wealth is boundless, beyond the worth of all.
In every bird’s sweet melody, in every dew-kissed morn,
Lies a promise of a world anew, where harmony is sworn.

Learn from all our errors, let them be your guide,
Tread lightly on this precious earth, with each and every stride.
Hold every creature dearly, from the mighty to the small,
And in their quiet presence, find the greatest gift of all.

Rise with dawn’s first light, and greet the day with care,
For in your hands lies power, to make the world more fair.
With every seed you plant, with every tree you tend,
You leave a legacy of hope, where broken dreams can mend.

In fields where wildflowers bloom, let hope take root and grow,
In songs of rustling grasses, let your hearts forever know,
That though we’ve left you scars and pain, there’s still a way to mend,
To bring about a brighter dawn, where sorrow can now end.

So rise, dear future guardians, and heed this humble plea,
To forge a path of healing, to let the wild be free.
For though we’ve faltered, in our wake, there’s still a chance for grace,
In your hands, lies the power, to heal this sacred place.

With every step you take, may you walk with gentle feet,
And every path you choose, may it make the world complete.
For in your care and keeping, lies the promise of the earth,
A legacy of love and hope, a tale of endless worth.

So rise, dear children of the dawn, and let your spirits soar,
For in your hands lies the power, to heal and to restore.
Take this world we’ve given, with all its scars and pain,
And weave a brighter future, where love and hope remain.

Roger Chao is a writer based in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, where the forest and local community inspire his writings. Passionate about social justice, Roger strives to use his writing to engage audiences to think critically about the role they can play in making a difference.

July 24, 2024 Posted by | Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Will US defend Japan with nukes or turn it into the line of fire?

By Global Times, Jul 22, 2024

The US, which bombed Japan with nuclear weapons, is reportedly about to protect Japan with nuclear weapons. Reports show that Japan and the US will draft their first joint document on expanded deterrence policy, which will include a clause affirming nuclear weapons will be included in US methods to defend Japan. However, it might be premature if Japan feels moved by this.

Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, citing sources, reported that the document will specify measures that the US could take in peacetime and emergencies; as well as conditions under which the US could take retaliatory actions against third countries, and what those measures could be, under the backdrop of so-called threats from China and Russia. The foreign and defense ministers of Japan and the US will discuss the details at a meeting in Tokyo later this month, according to the report. …………………………………………..

Both the US and Japan have their own calculations behind the push for this joint document. Japan wants to boost its deterrent capabilities through military alliance with the US. Washington hopes to make Tokyo a thornier pawn in its “Indo-Pacific Strategy.” Claims of “threats” from China and Russia are merely far-fetched excuse – the US simply wishes Japan to be more proactive toward China and Russia under the nuclear umbrella, so as to alleviate US pressure in countering both countries.

The essence of today’s US nuclear umbrella in the Asia-Pacific region is not about protection. Rather, it serves as a platform for the US to disrupt regional stability among major powers through providing excuses to enhance strategic offensive capabilities of US allies.

Japan, a non-nuclear weapon state, would hardly become a primary target for nuclear strikes, if there will be one. Still, the US is now pulling Japan in its “nuclear protection circle” while mulling to deploy nuclear weapons to Japan. In that scenario, Japan could be viewed as a nuclear-weapon state. The US is pushing Japan to be the next battleground. And by promoting the joint document, Japan demonstrates its readiness to be considered a potential nuclear target due to its alliance with the US…………………………………………………………………… more https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202407/1316500.shtml

July 24, 2024 Posted by | Japan, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A New Brunswick reaction to the exorbitant costs of Point Lepreau nuclear power station.

When the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station was refurbished over three years and re-opened in 2012, NB Power did not complete a number of associated repairs, despite the lengthy time and high cost of the refurbishment.

As a result, the nuclear plant has experienced many problems since the refurbishment and has been performing poorly. Since 2023, the NB nuclear plant has been managed by Ontario Power Generation, three managers costing $2 Million per year, under a three-year contract. I’m unsure if these people actually live in New Brunswick and pay taxes here or if New Brunswick is sending the money directly to Ontario.

At the start of April, the Lepreau nuclear plant was shut down for a scheduled 100 days to do the associated upgrades/repairs that NB Power hopes will improve the performance. The cost of the repairs was estimated at more than $300 million including the replacement power for this year’s repairs and another scheduled repair session in 2025. The first repairs were scheduled to end last week but instead of starting up again, the engineers noted a major problem with the main generator. Note that most of these engineers and workers doing this scheduled upgrade / repair are from Ontario, so it’s unclear how much of this cash is staying in the province. 

Today we learned that the repair to the generator will cost an extra $70 million and the plant is down at least till September, which they say is a best case scenario. 

So, when all this is over, what can New Brunswickers expect? At the end of the story below is this kicker: “Even by 2030, NB Power still thinks the plant will be mired in the basement, performance wise.”

What a F*** disaster. It’s absolutely nuts that our small province with a population of only 800,000 people has a nuclear reactor. In addition to the nuclear waste and other problems the reactor creates, we can’t afford it and we do not have the capacity in-province to look after it!

July 24, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

Point Lepreau nuclear station down till at least September, costing utility extra $71M.

All of this has been costly for the utility, which now carries more than $5 billion in debt, and to ratepayers, who are being asked to swallow the biggest increases to their bills in their lifetimes.

New target is a ‘best-case scenario,’ said expert of 27 years, who added it ‘wouldn’t be appropriate’ to give a worst-case scenario.

Telegraph Journal, John Chilibeck, Jul 22, 2024 

The prolonged shutdown at the Point Lepreau nuclear plant is raising alarm, including over how it could affect power bills for residents and businesses.

At a rate hearing in Fredericton on Monday, NB Power officials said the longer-than-expected shutdown would likely last until at least September and cost an extra $71 million. That includes $51 million for buying replacement power and about $20 million for added repair and equipment costs.

Craig Church, a chief modeler for the public utility, said it would cost on average an extra $900,000 for each day Lepreau is shuttered given it is one of the cheapest in NB Power’s fleet of generators to run.

It normally provides one-third of the province’s electricity.

“The loss will have to be made up by future ratepayers?” asked public intervenor Allain Chiasson at the hearing.

After a pregnant pause, Church replied yes.

NB Power is already seeking the biggest hike in electrical bills in a lifetime. If the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board, an independent regulator, grants its request, households will have to pay 9.8 per cent more this year and 9.8 per cent more next year.

According to NB Power’s evidence, the average electrically heated residential customer is billed about $3,087 annually. Adding 9.8 per cent to that bill would be another $303, or a total of $3,390.

Big industry is facing a similar percentage hike, whereas small and medium-sized businesses would face slightly smaller increases.

But the evidence before the board does not take into account the prolonged shutdown of Lepreau, meaning those extra costs will only come into play in future years.

NB Power undertook a 100-day outage of Lepreau, west of Saint John along the Fundy coast, from mid-April to mid-July to overhaul parts of the non-nuclear side of the plant at a cost of $124 million.

It was part of a planned shutdown to renew the plant and make sure it was robust enough for the winter, when it supplies baseload power for the province. According to the plan, the upgrades were supposed to be completed last week.

But on Monday, an expert on the NB Power panel, Jason Nouwens, the director of regulatory and external affairs at Lepreau, said on June 29, the team discovered a problem with the main generator on the non-nuclear side of the plant.

Specifically, one of 144 stator bars in a giant rotor had failed, but NB Power isn’t sure why. To get to the failed equipment, workers must painstakingly take apart the generator piece by piece, a job that will take at least two weeks.

Then, Nouwens said, the troubleshooting team that includes outside experts from the Canadian nuclear industry will try to figure out why the stator bar broke and possible remedies to prevent such a failure from happening again.

The expert, who has been working at Lepreau 27 years, said the plant coming back online in September was a best-case scenario. When asked by one of the interveners, Nouwens said it “wouldn’t be appropriate” to give a worst-case scenario.

Besides the extra costs caused by the delayed re-start, questions have been raised about possible spillover.

On Friday at the same hearings at the Fredericton Convention Centre, a lawyer working on behalf of J.D. Irving, Limited asked NB Power officials repeatedly how the longer-than-expected outage at the nuclear generator would affect other important power plants in the electrical system.

The lawyer Glenn Zacher had before him Phil Landry, NB Power’s executive director of project management offices, who answered questions about other power plants in the system.

The other plants are also supposed to undergo regular outages for maintenance and repairs to ensure they are safe and reliable.

But some of the maintenance work has already been delayed because those plants need to be running when Lepreau is down, otherwise people’s lights and air conditioners wouldn’t work.

“When is it too late to do undertake maintenance elsewhere?” asked Zacher. “It seems to be an important question to be answered.”

Landry, however, didn’t have any firm answers and struggled to give any specific timelines, given the uncertainty at Lepreau

Landry explained to the board that NB Power has been running the Belledune Generating Station – which belches out emissions from high-polluting coal – and Coleson Cove, which burns similarly polluting heavy oil, to replace the energy lost at Lepreau.

Belledune was supposed to undergo maintenance and repairs right now, at a cost of $17.1 million, but its 46-day outage has been indefinitely delayed………………………………….

Pushing out the maintenance to later in the year, closer to the winter months, is not an ideal scenario, Landry said, because they need to be running smoothly when people heat their homes and electrical demand is greatest.

NB Power refurbished the nuclear side of the plant in 2012, at a cost of $2.5 billion, a project that was over-budget by $1 billion and took 37 months longer to complete than expected. But NB Power didn’t do similar work to other important parts of the plant, leading to frequent breakdowns.

All of this has been costly for the utility, which now carries more than $5 billion in debt, and to ratepayers, who are being asked to swallow the biggest increases to their bills in their lifetimes.

NB Power CEO Lori Clark has promised Lepreau will no longer be neglected in the hopes of improving its performance. The utility has partnered with Ontario Power Generation, which has more expertise with nuclear plants, to ensure the next phase of the overhaul is done right.

A benchmarking study showed Lepreau is one of the worst performers out of 38 similar nuclear power plants in the world, consistently in the bottom quarter.

On Monday, Nouwens said NB Power was committed to improving the plant’s performance but cautioned it would take years of extra spending and repair work to get to the average performance of most nuclear plants. He pointed out that Lepreau has 115,000 different components, many of which have to be replaced or repaired with age.

Even by 2030, NB Power still thinks the plant will be mired in the basement, performance wise.

“In the past, the work hasn’t been comprehensive and intrusive enough to reach the performance we need,” the executive said. “We’ve under-invested, causing unreliability.”  https://tj.news/new-brunswick/long-shutdown-of-nuclear-plant-would-have-knock-on-effect-warns-lawyer

July 24, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

Meta’s Policy On Zionism Exposed: Cyberwell Scrambles After Israel Ties Revealed

falsely conflating criticism of the Zionist entity and antisemitism

KIT KLARENBERG, Mintpress News, 22 July 24

In July 10, it was announced that social media giant Meta would broaden the scope of its censorship and suppression of content related to the Gaza genocide. Under the new policy, Facebook and Instagram posts containing “derogatory or threatening references to ‘Zionists’ in cases where the term is used to refer to Jews or Israelis” will be proscribed. Unsurprisingly, a welter of Zionist lobby organizations – many of which aggressively lobbied Meta to adopt these changes – cheered the move. Emboldened, the same entities are now calling for all social media platforms to follow suit.

The Times of Israel noted that “nearly 150 advocacy groups and experts provided input that led to Meta’s policy update.” This prominently included Tel Aviv-based CyberWell, mundanely described by the outlet as “a nonprofit that has been documenting the swell of online antisemitism and Holocaust denial since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.” These malign activities have had a devastating impact on what Western audiences see and hear about the Gaza genocide on their social media feeds.


In January, CyberWell published an extensive report on how it was seeking to censor many prominent X accounts that expressed doubts about the official narrative of October 7, including the widely disseminated, proven-to-be-false libel that Hamas fighters beheaded dozens of infants. Users in the firing line included popular anonymous Zei Squirrel, Al Jazeera, The Grayzone chief Max Blumenthal, and famous rapper Lowkey, of MintPress News. CyberWell claimed such legitimate skepticism was comparable to Holocaust denial.

The impact of these lobbying efforts isn’t clear, although almost simultaneously, Zei Squirrel was abruptly suspended from X without warning or explanation, sparking widespread outrage. It was only due to relentless backlash that the account was reinstated. More recently, CyberWell submitted formal guidance to Meta on censoring the Palestine solidarity phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which Zionists falsely claim is a clarion call for the genocide of Jews.

That intervention is part of a broader effort by the firm to force the social network to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) highly controversial working definition of antisemitism. This definition, which has been condemned by many sources – including academic David Feldman, who helped draft it – for falsely conflating criticism of the Zionist entity and antisemitism, is a major inspiration for CyberWell. So, too, it seems is a sinister Israeli government psychological warfare blitzkrieg, concerned with “mass consciousness activities” in the U.S. and Europe.

On June 24, independent journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulson reported that CyberWell was one component of this insidious effort to shape and spread pro-Israeli narratives across the Western world, known as Voices of Israel. In response to the exposé, CyberWell repudiated any affiliation with the long-running, Israeli-funded hasbara operation or receiving government funding “from any country.” As we shall see, though, there are unambiguous grounds to doubt these denials.


It is vital to clarify the political, ideological, and financial forces guiding CyberWell’s operations and the malign interests that its censorship activities serve. The non-profit is now a “trusted partner” of Meta, TikTok, and X, ostensibly assisting these major social networks to combat “disinformation.” In reality, this grants a shadowy private firm with open links to Israel’s intelligence apparatus and evident ambitions to take its censorship crusade global, unrestrained power to prevent the reality of Israel’s genocide from emerging publicly.

‘NOTHING WRONG’

In response to the exposures of Fang and Poulson, CyberWell – which had hitherto operated with a reasonable degree of transparency – went scurrying underground. Many sections of its website were pruned of incriminating information or deleted outright. This included a highly illuminating section on the individuals running and advising the outfit. Now, visitors to CyberWell’s website are offered no indication of who or what is behind the initiative, which promises to deliver “more data, less hate” by tackling “antisemitism” online using artificial intelligence…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

‘TIGHTLY KNIT’

CyberWell’s deep and cohering – if well-concealed – ties to Voices of Israel and the Israeli government don’t end there. The non-profit’s 2022 annual report lists its Chief Financial Officer as Sagi Balasha, the very first CEO of Voices of Israel when the operation was still named Concert. He took up the post after leaving the influential Zionist lobby group, the Israeli-American Council (IAC), right around the time IAC donated thousands of dollars to Keshet David under its former name, Israel Cyber Shield…………………………………………………………………………

To make this mephitic web even murkier and more incestuous, CyberWell partnered with the notorious Act.IL, which is closely associated with IAC and the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs. The latter leads Zionist entity anti-BDS efforts globally. CyberWell’s 2022 annual report noted that the non-profit “served as the data provider to Act.IL’s community for their end of year call to action on the state of online antisemitism…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

We can expect similar “studies” to circulate in the wake of every election and political incident in the years to come unless CyberWell’s Israeli intelligence-run operations are brought to a rapid – and wholly deserved – halt.  https://www.mintpressnews.com/meta-policy-zionism-exposed-cyberwell-scrambles-israel-ties-revealed/287923/

July 24, 2024 Posted by | Israel, media | Leave a comment

Almost a quarter of Keir Starmer’s Cabinet voted against renewing UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader

By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE, 21 July 2024

This was despite 140 other Labour MPs disobeying Mr Corbyn to vote with the Tories in favour of keeping nuclear weapons, with just 48 supporting him.

Some 15 of Sir Keir’s 25-strong frontbench team were among the rebels, plus the future PM himself, with the vote passing by 472 to 117.

Mr Lammy is known for having opposed the policy on the grounds of his Christian faith. He said earlier this year he he only started supporting the UK’s nuclear deterrent after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But Angela Rayner said last month that she didn’t regret voting against the nuclear deterrent in Parliament eight years ago.

Before the election Sir Keir said he was prepared to use Britain’s nuclear weapons as he today outlined his party’s ‘total commitment’ to the Trident deterrent…………………………..

Speaking at the Fusiliers’ Museum in Manchester Sir Keir said: ‘I lead this party. I’ve changed this party……………………… more https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13656237/Almost-quarter-Keir-Starmers-Cabinet-voted-against-renewing-Trident-nuclear-deterrent.html—

July 24, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment