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‘True horror’: Japan’s Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor campaigns for a nuclear-free world

Bun Hashizume, 93, who has written poems about her descent into ‘hell’ after the bombing, has travelled the world to spread her message

Norman Aisbett, SCMP, 3 Aug 24,

What I feel the most about these days is human stupidity,” says 93-year-old Bun Hashizume, from her home in the Japanese temple city of Kamakura.

“I was a victim of the first atomic bomb in human history and I have advocated throughout my life for the abolition of nuclear weapons, but the world leaders still do not understand their true horror.

“Even my poems cannot describe it.”

Rewind to 8.15am on August 6, 1945 in the final throes of World War II.

A US atomic bomb named “Little Boy” was dropped from a B-29 aircraft and exploded at low altitude over the city of Hiroshima. With a blast force equal to 16 kilotons of TNT, it destroyed most buildings and caused mass death and injury.

Then aged 14, Hashizume was a war-mobilised school student working in the four-storey reinforced-concrete Savings Bureau building about 1.5km from the hypocentre of the blast.

Looking back, she recalls a third-floor window being filled “with a sudden flash of light that was so bright I thought the sun had fallen at my feet. A thousand rainbows all at once seemed to explode before my eyes”. And how, after being briefly unconscious and bleeding heavily from a head wound, she staggered downstairs among other workers looking “like a parade of ghosts with wildly dishevelled hair and sooty bodies”.

Once outside the building, it was a regular employee, Tomoyanagi, who “half-carried” her to a nearby Red Cross Hospital, where more shocking scenes and high drama followed.

Hashizume is today the author of The Day the Sun Fell – Memoirs of a Survivor of the Atomic Bomb – translated by Susan Bouterey – which closely details her and her family’s horrific experiences and also explains her present-day opposition to “dangerous” nuclear power plants, which she emphasises during this Australian writer’s long-distance interview with her, via a Japanese interpreter-admirer.

Her drive was such that, at age 70, she began her solo pilgrimages to many countries over 15 years to “become a citizen of the world” and share her anti-nuclear views. With only her aged pension to buy airline tickets and stay in youth hostels, she spoke to anyone or group willing to listen, including schoolchildren. Everywhere, people were also touched by her genuine personal warmth and quiet charm. A small booklet she handed out was entitled, “Fellow Humans! Let Us Foster Love and Wisdom.”

Right now, though, she is homebound due to A-Bomb-related health issues that have plagued her life. She tells of having endured “lifelong” rheumatism, chronic kidney disease, thyroid cancer and more. The past 20 years have also brought numerous breaks of radiation-weakened ribs, collarbones and three compressed fractures of her spine after a fall in Norway in 2003.

She is unable to go outside alone. There are twice-weekly visits to a hospital and three transports per week to a rehabilitation clinic. “Otherwise I’m on my bed reading the newspapers, with care from my eldest son and his family, who live with me.”

Her activist spirit nevertheless endures. She cites recent-times threats of nuclear strikes by North Korea if threatened; by Russia amid the Ukraine war; and an Israeli cabinet minister’s suggestion to nuke Hamas in Gaza The minister was promptly sacked by his embarrassed government which has never admitted that it has nuclear weapons – and subsequent high tensions and conflict between arch-enemies Israel and Iran.

{I believe that nuclear weapons should never be used, stockpiles should be completely abolished, and the Japanese government should join and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as soon as possible,” she says. “It’s no wonder they are being been used as a threat.” She further notes that nine nations have nuclear weapons, but the warheads of only two nations – Russia (5,890) and the US (5,224) – “are enough to destroy all life on Earth several times over”.

A major disappointment for her was the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop28) in Dubai when 23 nations including the US and Japan declared they would triple the generation of their nuclear power plants to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“It is shocking that Japan joined this dangerous proposal despite the fact that the world’s pervasive emphasis on economic growth, baseless absolute trust in science and technology, and limitless pursuit of energy collapsed in Fukushima in 2011,” she says…………………………………………

After Tomoyanagi left to find her own family, a 16-year-old boy Yoshiaki Iida, who was unknown to Hashizume, helped her outside just before flames engulfed the whole building.

However, she later heard that her brother, Hideo, seven, had died after his back caught fire in an instant when hit from behind by the scorching A-Bomb blast in a school playground. Her other family members survived but with bad injuries and other health problems. Younger sister Shizuko, nine, had been evacuated to a temple when she was struck by the blast wave. Years of radiation sickness caused her suicide at age 19. Older sister Mitsuko, 19, suffered “ghastly” facial wounds at her grandmother’s house.

What does Hashizume remember most after the explosion? She replies: “The complete silence and the smell of burnt corpses that filled the air.”………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Day the Sun Fell – Memoirs of a Survivor of the Atomic Bomb by Bun Hashizume (translated by Susan Bouterey) is published by Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd and also available on Kindle.  https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3273031/true-horror-japans-hiroshima-atomic-bomb-survivor-campaigns-nuclear-free-world

August 3, 2024 Posted by | Japan, PERSONAL STORIES, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Trump could win back the nuclear codes. Biden should put guardrails on the nuclear arsenal—now.

By Tom Z. Collina | July 30, 2024, https://thebulletin.org/2024/07/trump-could-win-back-the-nuclear-codes-biden-should-put-guardrails-on-the-nuclear-arsenal-now/?utm_source=Newsletter+&utm_medium=Email+&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter08012024&utm_content=NuclearRisk_GuardrailsNuclearArsenal_07302024

On January 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump inspired a mob attack on the US Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration. Not only was this an unprecedented attack on American democracy, but it represented a serious national security threat. Many saw and see this as one of many examples of an unstable President Trump acting in dangerous, irrational ways. And throughout his time in office, Trump—like all presidents in the nuclear age—had the unilateral authority to launch the US nuclear arsenal.

At any moment, Trump could literally have ended the world with a phone call. Congressional approval is not needed, and the secretary of defense cannot stop a presidential order to unleash the US nuclear arsenal. The system is built for speed, not deliberation. The whole process, from presidential order to the launch of one or hundreds of nuclear warheads, would take just minutes.

The danger that Trump would do something catastrophic was so acute that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi desperately looked for ways to prevent the “unstable president from … accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” according to a letter Pelosi wrote in January 2021 to House Democrats in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley was convinced that Trump had suffered “serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election” and took the extraordinary step of ordering his staff to come to him if they received a nuclear strike order from the president. “No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley reportedly told the officers. “You never know what a president’s trigger point is.”

Pelosi and Milley had plenty of reasons to worry that Trump could start a nuclear war. In August 2017, in a thinly veiled nuclear threat, Trump warned North Korea that it would be “met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.” Trump mocked Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, writing “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” According to then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Trump privately discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea and suggested he could blame a US strike on another country.

Actually, however, Milley was not correct when he told his staff that he was part of the formal procedure to launch nuclear weapons. As former Defense Secretary William J. Perry and I wrote in our 2020 book, The Button, policy established during the Cold War puts decisions about the use of nuclear weapons solely in the hands of the civilian president, not Congress and above all not the military. All the president need do is call the Pentagon’s War Room—using the nuclear “football” or some other means—and identify himself and give the order to launch. The president may choose to consult with senior advisors such as Milley but is not required to.

Milley broke these rules, as others broke them before him. During the Watergate crisis, then-Defense Secretary James Schlesinger was so concerned about President Richard Nixon’s mental state and alcohol consumption that he told military commanders that if Nixon ordered a nuclear strike, they should check with him or Secretary of State Henry Kissinger first. Sen. Alan Cranston phoned Schlesinger, warning him about “the need for keeping a berserk president from plunging us into a holocaust.”

Should Milley, Schlesinger, or any military leader, let a clearly unstable president start a nuclear war just to follow protocol? Of course not. But officials should not have to break the rules to do the right thing. The United States needs to change the policy that put Milley and Schlesinger in an impossible spot.

With just six months left in office, President Biden can fix the system for himself and all future presidents. To do so, Biden should announce the White House will share authority to use nuclear weapons in any first strike with a select group in Congress. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, not the president. The first use of nuclear weapons is clearly an act of war. In a situation where the United States has already been attacked with nuclear weapons, the president would retain the option to act unilaterally.

President Biden would have to make such a policy change by executive order. Passing congressional legislation would be more durable but is unlikely in the current political environment. If Trump wins the election, he would likely reverse Biden’s order. But if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, the new policy could be strengthened over time with legislation.

Such a policy would provide clear directives for the military to follow: A launch could be ordered only if the United States had already been attacked with nuclear weapons or if Congress had approved the decision, providing a constitutional check to executive power. This would be infinitely safer than our current doctrine.

As an important part of his legacy, President Biden must put guardrails on presidential authority to start nuclear war now before the next dangerous leader gets elected—whomever and whenever that may be. We must never again entrust the fate of the world to just one fallible human. This is not about whose finger should be on the button. This is about making good policy that can keep Americans—and people around the world—alive, regardless of whom US voters happen to put in the White House.

August 3, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US Will ‘Certainly’ Defend Israel If Attacked By Iran In Wake Of Haniyeh Killing

by Tyler Durden, Aug 01, 2024,  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-says-hamas-chiefs-killing-had-us-involvement-blinken-denies-foreknowledge

More dangerous escalation coming from the Pentagon, at least in terms of declared ‘commitments’… how many wars or proxy conflicts does Washington want to be in at once? 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated Wednesday, just hours after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s death, “If Israel is attacked, we certainly will help defend Israel.“

He issued the words aboard the USNS Millinocket during a visit to the Philippines. “You saw us do that in April; you can expect to see us do that again,” he said, in reference to the prior Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack in retaliation for the previous Israeli attack on Tehran’s embassy in Damascus.

Multiple Iranian officials have told the New York Times in a breaking story that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered retaliation against Israel for the brazen assassination by missile strike of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh which took place on Iranian soil in the early morning hours.

Officials referenced the “humiliating security failure” and that Iran must once against show “strength against the risk of escalation” in exacting revenge on Israel.

Khamenei has, according to the report, “issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader” – three Iranian sources who were briefed on the matter said.

Russia is one among several nations urging calm and raising the alarm over a major regional conflagration:

Russia warned Wednesday that the assassination in Iran of visiting Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened a full “global conflict” — as the terror group called it “a grave escalation” and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei threatened “harsh punishment” for Israel.

“We resolutely condemn the attack that led to Mr. Haniyeh’s death,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said soon after Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike while in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

“We believe that such action is aimed against attempts to establish peace in the region, and could significantly destabilize the already tense situation,” he said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has issued a fiery statement saying that Washington must also bear responsibility for the Israeli attack which killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in the overnight and early morning hours of Wednesday.

“This terrorist act is not only a flagrant violation of the principles and rules of international law and the United Nations Charter, but also a serious threat to regional and international peace and security,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry statement began.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes the responsibility of the US government as a supporter and accomplice of the Zionist regime in the continuation of the occupation and genocide of the Palestinians, in committing this heinous act of terrorism,” it added.

The vague language of general ‘support’ to Israel leaves open the question of whether Tehran believes the US had an actual direct operational role in Haniyeh’s killing.

However, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations issued a more specific denunciation in tandem: “This act could not have occurred without the authorization and intelligence support of the U.S.,” it said in a letter submitted to the UN. According to fresh details of the strike:

HAMAS SENIOR OFFICIAL AL-HAYYA SAYS A MISSILE HIT HAMAS LEADER ROOM AND ‘STRUCK HIM DIRECTLY‘

Hours before the accusation, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken definitively stated Washington had no involvement in the attack. 

“This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It’s very hard to speculate,” Blinken told a regional outlet while on an official trip to Singapore. He had been asked about what he thinks will happen next in the region.

Iran will more than likely retaliate in a big way, possibly with another wave of drones and missiles on Israel, but this time less telegraphed (compared to the initial April 13 attack, largely intercepted by Israel’s anti-air defenses)…

The aforementioned UN letter has also called for the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting over the Hamas chief’s killing. But likely the US and its allies will see this as a legitimate killing of a designated terrorist responsible for the atrocities against Israel on Oct.7.

Meanwhile as Israel appears to be on an ‘assassination spree’, the body of Hezbollah’s military commander Fuad Shukr (and close advisor to Nasrallah) has been pulled from the rubble in Beirut.

Regional sources say the death toll from the Tuesday strike on a southern neighborhood of the Lebanese capital has risen to five with at least 70 injured. Among the casualties were women and children.

August 3, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Blank Checks for War: Congress Has Abdicated Its Power From Tonkin to Gaza

As the 60th anniversary of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution approaches, it’s time to reflect on how Congress solidified its long-standing deference to the presidency on foreign policy and how the people can make their voices heard.

Christian Appy Aug 01, 2024, Common Dreams

With the U.S.- backed carnage in Gaza continuing and the threat of growing violence looming throughout the region (in Lebanon, Iran, and who knows where else), we need to think more deeply than ever about how the American people have historically been excluded from foreign policy decision-making. An upcoming anniversary should remind us of what sent us down this undemocratic path.

Sixty years ago, on August 7, 1964, U.S. Congress handed President Lyndon B. Johnson the power to wage a major war in Vietnam, solidifying its long-standing deference to the presidency on foreign policy. Not once since World War II has Congress exercised its constitutional responsibility to vote on declarations to decide if, when, and where the United States goes to war.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964 flew through Congress, in part because most members trusted the president’s assurance that he sought “no wider war.” Their trust was misplaced. The Johnson administration kept secret and lied about its plans for future military escalation in Vietnam. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Congress, for its part, continues to enable an ever more imperial presidency that decides when and where the U.S. goes to war. It almost never uses the power of the purse to reduce U.S. militarism or to cut funding for unpopular wars. The nearly trillion-dollar Pentagon budget is rubber-stamped every year……………………………………………

We have seen, in the last 10 months, an unprecedented outpouring of American protest in support of Palestinian rights. For good reason. Nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, and many of them children, have been killed by the Israeli military’s indiscriminate and disproportionate response to the Hamas killing of some 1,100 Israelis on October 7, 2023. Around 1.7% of the Gazan population (2.3 million) have been killed and at least 90% displaced from their homes (many have had to flee multiple times). A recent study by the medical journal The Lancet, estimates that the death toll in Gaza could reach 186,000 even if there is a cease-fire today.

For most Americans, this level of suffering is unimaginable. Yet we must try to imagine it. If we were Gaza, at least 5.7 million of us would be dead, the vast majority women, children, and other civilians. Many millions more would be among the uncounted dead and dying—buried, lost, sick, starving. More than 300 million of us would be forced from our homes, on the road seeking shelter, food, and water under ongoing military attacks and perils beyond description.

That is the reality in Gaza.

In the end, only a mass democratic movement has the potential to dramatically change U.S. foreign policy. The first challenge is to overthrow the baseless claim that the United States is the greatest force for good in the world, the “indispensable nation” that stands for the rule of law, freedom, and democracy. Our record does not warrant such a delusion. Only when that ideology and naïve faith is broadly undermined can we hope to chip away at the long-standing infrastructure of U.S. militarism—the over 750 military bases on foreign soil, the annual military exercises in two-thirds of the world’s nations, and the “defense” budget that equals the next nine most militarized nations combined.

Ellsberg and Morse were right. The people must know the truth. But we have long had more than enough evidence to demand fundamental changes in U.S. foreign policy. We can’t wait for Congress to represent us faithfully. The people’s voice must be heard.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/congress-blank-checks-war

August 3, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Replacing the UK’s nuclear deterrent: The Warhead Programme-  without appropriate Parliamentary scrutiny.

 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9777/ 2 Aug 24

Since 2006 work has been underway on several programmes that will maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent beyond the life of the current system. Much of the focus in that time has been on the delivery of a new class of ballistic missile submarine (the Dreadnought class), which are expected to enter service from the early 2030s. However, a decision on replacing the UK’s Mk4/A nuclear warhead was also awaited and work on possible options had been ongoing. After a decision was deferred in 2010, one was widely expected to be taken as part of the Government’s Integrated Defence and Security Review in 2021.

In February 2020, however, a US official disclosed the existence of a UK replacement warhead programme, which the Government subsequently confirmed in a Statement to the House. That revelation prompted widespread criticism that a decision appeared to have been taken without an official Government announcement or appropriate Parliamentary scrutiny.

The programme is currently in its concept phase (the first phase in any Ministry of Defence procurement project). Details on timeframe and costings are expected to be matured as the programme progresses.

August 3, 2024 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Britain’s nuclear submarine software built by Belarusian engineers

Fears that coding work outsourced to Russia and its allies could pose national security threat

Telegraph UK, By Camilla Turner, 2 August 2024

Britain’s nuclear submarine engineers use software that was designed in Russia and Belarus, in contravention of Ministry of Defence rules, The Telegraph can reveal.

The software should have been created by UK-based staff with security clearance, but its design was partially outsourced to developers in Siberia and Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

There are fears that the code built by the Russian and Belarussian developers could be exploited to reveal the location of Britain’s submarines.

The Telegraph understands that the MoD considered the security breach a serious threat to UK defence and launched an investigation.

The inquiry discovered that the firm that outsourced the work – on a staff intranet for nuclear submarine engineers – to Russia and Belarus initially kept it secret and discussed whether it could disguise where the workers were based by giving them fake names of dead British people.

As well as the UK’s submarine fleet, there are fears that further defence capabilities could have been compromised because it has emerged that a previous project was also outsourced to developers in Minsk.

National security in jeopardy

On Friday, experts warned that the UK’s national security could have been jeopardised if personal details of those with classified knowledge of Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet fell into the wrong hands, leaving them exposed to blackmail or targeted attacks.

Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, said the breach “potentially left us vulnerable to the undermining of our national security”. He added: “Time and time again, countries like China and Russia have targeted the supply chains of our defence contractors. This is not a new phenomenon.”

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said it was an “absolute imperative” to ensure “our most sensitive defence programmes have total resilience and security”……………………………………………………………. more https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/britains-nuclear-submarine-software-designed-russia-belarus/

August 3, 2024 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

The Abrahamic Alliance: Reality or work of fiction?


Lorenzo Maria Pacini, Strategic Culture Foundation, Sat, 27 Jul 2024, https://www.sott.net/article/493617-The-Abrahamic-Alliance-Reality-or-work-of-fiction

DC‘Abrahamic Alliance’ will probably end up being an empty and superficial alliance, consisting mostly of the U.S. and Israel, similar to Operation Prosperity Guardian, which is widely considered a flop.

On Wednesday 24 July 2024, Israeli President Bibi Netanyahu delivered a speech to the Congress of the United States of America that will go down in history.

The speech of the world’s most dangerous clown

In the absence of the political leadership – embroiled in an unprecedented social crisis of paedophilia scandals, old men with Alzheimer’s pressing random buttons in war rooms and clowns on psychiatric drugs attacking banks -, the ‘host’ from the Middle East took the opportunity to travel to Washington and clarify certain programmatic aspects of the future of the collective West.

Here are some highlights of his crazy speech, with which he orwellianly turned reality upside down, spread fake news, manipulated his listeners and legitimised a genocide that goes on while the rest of the world thinks about going on holiday, while writing ‘All eyes on Rafah’ on social media to wash hisconscience.

– “The war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatants in the history of urban warfare”;

– “Not a single innocent Palestinian civilian has been killed by the IDF in Rafah”;

– “Iran is behind all the terrorism, all the unrest, all the chaos and all the endless killing. And this should come as no surprise”;

– “For Iran, Israel is first, America is second. When Israel fights Hamas, we are fighting Iran. When we fight Hezbollah, we are fighting Iran. When we fight the Houthis, we are fighting Iran. And when we fight Iran, we are fighting radical terrorism”;

– “We are not just protecting Israel, we are protecting the United States. Our enemies are your enemies. Our fight is your fight. Our victory is your victory”;

– Netanyahu then proposed an Abrahamic Alliance, consisting of Israel, the U.S., and Arab countries dependent on the two aforementioned.

– He received a total of 58 standing ovations in his 60-minute speech (not even a Taylor Swift concert!).

So, to recap:

– Genocide of the Palestinians does not exist;

– If anything, there is a good genocide and that is the Israeli one;

– Palestine is called Israel and if you think otherwise you are an idiot;

– Israel is a victim, unfortunately it has found itself in the home of people who had been there for thousands of years who are demanding their land back;

– The only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian;

– Iran (the only country in the world to have fought against the imperialism of the Great Satan (Israel+USA+UK+Saudi Arabia) is entirely to blame for being Shia (and also for having eradicated Wahabi and Salafist Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and curbed imperialist expansionism);

– If you think otherwise, maybe you deserve a bullet too.

The Abrahamic Alliance

In the general delirium of his words, Netanyahu put forward the strategic proposal of an alliance, military, political and economic, called the ‘Abrahamic Alliance’.

If the U.S. had tried to form this alliance 10 years ago, we could say that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt would probably have joined. With the ongoing Syrian war, fears over the nuclear programme and anti-Iranian sentiment at boiling point, the Arab nations felt they had something to prove.

However, in the Middle East of the year 2024, with Iran as an emerging force that has imposed hard power equations on its neighbours, and after the peace agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, I think such an alliance is not feasible. At best, the Kingdom of Jordan and Bahrain would join such an alliance.

Saudi Arabia is openly interested in closer ties with Iran, the UAE mostly follows Saudi policy and is heavily dependent on Iranian imports, while Egypt has a history of rejecting alliances and has bigger problems than Iran. None of these countries will be enthusiastic about the prospect of an anti-Iran alliance at a time when Iran is rapidly emerging as a pre-eminent geopolitical power in the Middle East.

Jordan, because of its dependence on NATO and the U.S., is the one most likely to be in favour. It was the only Arab nation to open its airspace to the Israeli Air Force when Iran launched its missile attacks against Israel in April this year.

Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Persian Gulf Fleet, while it might be interested in joining, has also openly expressed its interest in re-establishing diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In short: the ‘Abrahamic Alliance’ will probably end up being a shell of what it once could have been. It will be an empty and superficial alliance, consisting mostly of the U.S. and Israel, similar to Operation Prosperity Guardian, which is widely considered a flop.

Then, in all this, there remains one last fundamental point to consider: while Netanyahu and his followers blather on about turning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a global war on a religious basis (in perfect neocon eschatological style), they perhaps forget that the rest of the world – ‘the rest’, as the Americans used to say – is turning over a new leaf and will not stand by and watch. Russia and China have already concluded the laying of the pillars of a multipolar world… in which war will no longer be fought as before.

Comment: The Abrahamic Alliance is merely a guise to ‘circle the wagons’ assuring Israel an unhindered mission and survival at the expense of others. Some have eyes to see.

August 3, 2024 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

USA deploys 12 warships in Middle East amid rising tensions : Washington Post

The United States has deployed at least 12 warships to the Middle East, a defense official told the Washington Post, amid rising tension in the region following the Israeli assassination of senior officials in Hamas and Hezbollah.

The vessels included the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its accompanying warships, and the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, a three-ship amphibious task force that includes more than 4,000 Marines and sailors, the official told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that the rising tension in the Middle East has not prompted the Pentagon to announce any additional deployments, but the US Navy has assembled at least a dozen warships nearby………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.sott.net/article/493618-US-deploys-12-warships-to-Middle-East-as-Israel-escalates-attacks-in-region—

August 3, 2024 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Renewables are crushing gas-fired power

Europe’s electricity system is transitioning at breakneck speed.
Renewables are displacing thermal generation so fast that gas-fired power
has slumped to a two-decade low. Continental Europe produced less
electricity from natural gas over the first seven months of this year than
at any time since 2005, according to research by Energy Flux. A few
countries bucked the trend, but at the regional level there is no sign of
this changing any time soon. The continent’s full-throttled embrace of
wind and solar — combined with the return of French nuclear, and Alpine
hydro, milder winters and a weak economic recovery — has dislodged gas
from the heart of many EU power markets. The transformation is both
astonishing and alarming. Europe’s great gas power slump has wiped out
the equivalent of the combined annual primary gas demand of Denmark,
Ireland, Norway and Portugal since 2017. That’s roughly 240 cargoes of
liquefied natural gas (LNG) every year, no longer needed.

 Energy Flux 1st Aug 2024

https://www.energyflux.news/p/renewable-crushing-gas-fired-power-wind-solar-eu

August 3, 2024 Posted by | EUROPE, renewable | Leave a comment

How much electricity comes from the Sun on summer days in the UK?

With blazing sun across the UK, the past week has seen solar energy’s
contribution to Britain’s energy mixture hit levels of up to 32% –
highlighting how much the sun can contribute to the country’s electricity
supplies. Each summer, the levels of solar energy in use rise, according to
Christelle Barnes, vice-chair at Solar Energy UK and UK general manager at
SolarEdge. “Every year, that percentage number just gets a little bit
higher. So it was typically between 25% and 27% over the last couple of
years. So just seeing numbers like 30% now is definitely showing that we’re
continuing to deploy more solar,” she told Yahoo News.

Yahoo News 31st July 2024

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/how-much-electricity-sun-summer-uk-172202857.html

 More than 885 solar panels have been installed on two Scottish Water sites
in the Central Belt, helping to save 57 tonnes of carbon a year and address
the increasing urgency of climate change. The projects have seen 512 photovoltaic (PV) panels installed at
Bothwellbank Waste Water Treatment Works in South Lanarkshire, which are
able to generate 0.23GWh of power and will offset around a fifth of the
site’s energy needs. In addition, 373 tank-mounted PV panels are now in
place at Roseberry Water Treatment Works in Midlothian, supplementing 178
panels which were installed as part of a previous scheme. The site can now
generate a total of 0.18GWh of energy, offsetting 12% of its energy needs.
Combined, these installations are expected to produce 0.41GWh of green
electricity each year – equivalent to the energy needed to boil around
1.8 million kettles annually. This latest £678,000 investment by Scottish
Water and its commercial subsidiary, Scottish Water Horizons, sees the
sites join a growing list of water and waste water treatment works which
are now either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in their power
requirements.

 Midlothian View 31st July 2024

Solar energy boost cuts carbon at Central Belt treatment works

August 3, 2024 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

California achieves 100% renewable energy for 100 days.

 On 100 out of 144 days since 8 March, California’s electricity has been supplied fully by
renewable energy for at least part of the day.

 Power Technology 30th July 2024

https://www.power-technology.com/news/california-achieves-100-renewable-energy-for-100-days/

August 3, 2024 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Blackwater Against New Nuclear Power Group (BANNG)campaigners say company’s claims over Bradwell B are false

Maldon Standard, By Brandon Penny, 31st July 24

A CAMPAIGN group has hit out at claims a potential site for a new nuclear power station is “well connected.”

The current government nuclear policy statement identifies Bradwell as a site for nuclear energy until the end of 2025.

Plans for a Chinese-led nuclear power station in Bradwell, known as Bradwell B, are no longer progressing.

Campaigners Blackwater Against New Nuclear Power Group (BANNG) claim EDF, the French company which own Bradwell’s nuclear site, has “no idea what it is talking about”.

They claim there are no grid connections, no rail connection with the closest station being eight miles away in Southminster and no local skilled workforce.

BAANG’s chairman, Professor Andy Blowers said: “EDF cannot be allowed to get away with the false and misleading claims it is making in an obvious attempt to attract developers to its site on the Essex coast adjacent to Bradwell-on-Sea. “This is a site already abandoned by EDF’s one-time partner, the Chinese developer CGN. It is a site that is wholly unsuitable for nuclear development.

“EDF have previously claimed that Bradwell and other sites it owns, offer land, grid and rail connections, a skilled workforce and support communities which makes them compelling locations for small and advanced modular reactors.”

Mr Blowers continued saying: “It’s obvious EDF has no idea what it is talking about with respect to new nuclear development at Bradwell.”

BAANG have also said: “The noise, disruption and blight imposed on a tranquil rural area over many years would be intolerable.”…………… https://www.maldonandburnhamstandard.co.uk/news/24483433.baang-group-claim-edfs-claims-false-misleading/—

August 3, 2024 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Israel lobby ramps up scare campaigns in fear of truth

By Bilal Cleland | 1 August 2024,  https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/israel-lobby-ramps-up-scare-campaigns-in-fear-of-truth,18826

srael lobby groups have increased efforts to silence those accusing the nation of genocide in Gaza, writes Bilal Cleland.

SHAIMA FARWANEH, 16, in the coastal displacement camp in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, was preparing to make breakfast for her family on 13 July when the Israeli bombs fell. 

Ninety people, mainly women and children, were killed and over 300 injured.

Shaima told Mondoweiss:

There is no country in all the world that does this to children, women, and civilians. This isn’t how wars are.

A leg hit me and I saw dismembered bodies a few metres away. I saw a young child screaming. He lost his lower limbs and was crawling on his hands and screaming. The bombs didn’t stop and suddenly the boy disappeared. I saw how he vanished before me while we ran and lowered our eyes to the ground, unable to do anything but run.

Israel in trouble

Following 7 October, by the end of 2023, from over 4,000 immigrants a month only about 1,000 a month were arriving in Israel. A 70 per cent decline.

In that same couple of months, about 470,000 Israelis fled.

As reported in Anadolu Ajansi:

‘Therefore, there is a negative migration of about half a million people, and this does not include thousands of foreign workers, refugees and diplomats who left the country.’

Despite the support given to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the ruling parties across North America, much of Europe and Australia, one in four Israeli Jews and four in ten Arab Israelis would like to leave Israel according to a new survey. This reflects ‘a steady distrust with Israel’s political and military leadership’.

International institutions closing in

Haaretz published the stunning International Court of Justice (ICJ) findings on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory:

  • Israel must end its presence in the occupied territories as soon as possible.
  • Israel should immediately cease settlement expansion and evacuate all settlers from the occupied areas.
  • Israel is required to make reparations for the damage caused to the local and lawful population in the Palestinian territories.
  • The international community and organisations have a duty not to recognise the Israeli presence in the territories as legal and to avoid supporting its maintenance.
  • The UN should consider what actions are necessary to end the Israeli presence in the territories as soon as possible.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is expected to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant within a fortnight.

Conflating opposition to genocide with anti-Semitism

The United States makes much of the role of the Iranian Council of Guardians selecting acceptable candidates for political office but ignores the role of its own Council of Guardians, AIPAC, which decides on suitable candidates for office.

U.S. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, once a recipient of lobby largesse, after seeing reality in Palestine on a J Street-funded excursion, called Gaza a genocide and said boycotts were legitimate.  

Israeli lobby groups spent $9.9 million in a Democrat primary to get rid of him in favour of a supporter of Israel.

The scare campaign around rising anti-Semitism, which conflates criticism of Israel’s mass atrocities with prejudice against Jews, is a feature of most of the old colonial countries.

Mary Kostakidis, one of Australia’s most respected journalists, who speaks truth to power, has written regarding the Israeli genocide in Gaza:

‘In an effort to silence me, the Zionist Federation have filed a complaint with the [Australian Human Rights Commission] for racial vilification, aided by a reporter who can’t do his own research.’

The lobby levelled another case of harassment and suspicious accusations against a Palestinian Australian engaged in anti-genocide activity.

Hash Tayeh, who had to present himself to the police over alleged anti-Semitic comments, was not charged and his matter has been referred to the Office of Public Prosecutions.

His Caulfield Burgertory outlet was set on fire, allegedly by two men, on 10 November, an attack he claimed was linked to his involvement in a pro-Palestine rally and thus a hate crime.

Then we witnessed the arrest of a Palestinian activist in the Prime Minister’s electoral office.

Sarah Shaweesh, who was asking about the delay in visas for her family in Gaza, was arrested.

The office refused to help her.

She is a key organiser of the 24/7 Gaza sit-in protest in front of the PM’s office.

Complicity in genocide

In early March, Sydney law firm Birchgrove Legal lodged a communiqué to the ICC prosecutor claiming that the Australian PM and a number of other high-level local politicians are complicit in the Gaza genocide.

On Tuesday this week, it announced that the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC had added the document:

‘“…to the evidence gathered as part of the ICC’s investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine,” as well as having been transmitted “to relevant staff members for further review”.’

Meanwhile, Muslim Votes Matter is mobilising the anti-genocide vote in preparation for the next federal electio

August 3, 2024 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

‘Ultra-cheap energy for every household’: could a different kind of tariff change everything?

Rising block tariffs and national energy guarantee systems are almost unknown in Europe – but are flourishing elsewhere

By Matthew Taylor, 2Aug 24

More than half of the world’s population lives under an energy system
that its advocates say can tackle fuel poverty, improve crumbling housing
stock and reduce energy demand. And to cap it off – when properly
designed – it would not cost the taxpayer anything.

The so-called rising
block tariff or national energy guarantee system (NEG) are almost unknown
in Europe but operate successfully in many other countries and regions –
from Japan, South Korea and China to Bangladesh, India and California.

The idea is simple: the first block of energy, which is calculated to meet
essential needs from heating to cooking and lighting, is either given at a
reduced rate or free. The cost a unit then rises in additional blocks,
meaning wealthier homes with excessive or non-essential consumption pay
more.

According to its champions, the benefits that flow from this system
are numerous: fuel poverty is reduced or eradicated with those on the
lowest incomes getting affordable energy to cover the essentials – from
heating to cooking and light. Excessive consumption – overwhelmingly
linked to wealthier households – is charged at a higher rate, subsidising
the cheaper tariff. And everyone is incentivised to reduce consumption and
improve their homes through insulation, smart technology and other energy
efficient measures in an effort to stay within the cheapest block.

A further advantage, its backers say, is that the lowest tariff could be
directly linked to the rollout of renewable energy. In this scenario cheap
wind and solar power would determine the size of the lowest tariff, which
would then be split between all consumers, giving the public a direct stake
in the transition to a low-carbon energy system.

 Guardian 2nd Aug 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/02/ultra-cheap-energy-for-every-household-could-a-different-kind-of-tariff-change-everything

August 3, 2024 Posted by | ENERGY | Leave a comment

Rolls Royce – the “burning platform”?

 There aren’t many obvious similarities between Rachel Reeves and Tufan
Erginbilgic, but the use of the “burning platform” metaphor is
something that binds them. For Erginbilgic’s actual use of the phrase to
describe Rolls-Royce soon after he became chief executive 19 months ago,
read the chancellor of the exchequer’s discovery this week of a “£22
billion black hole” in the public finances.

 Times 1st Aug 2024

https://www.thetimes.com/article/rolls-royce-growth-needed-by-rachel-reeves-98sw9l952

August 3, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

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