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TODAY: The “tech bros” are going to have a global party with AI in warfare. Should we let them be in control?

Today I waded through a very worthy article – A new military-industrial complex: How tech bros are hyping AI’s role in war. Trouble is – I didn’t really understand it. Written by two highly qualified military experts, – it was couched in military jargon that was mostly impenetrable to me.

Good on them for knowing their stuff. But their underlying assumption seems to me that the world will continue to have whopping great wars, between the great powers, with the conflict being dominated by Artificial Intelligence methods – not only in physical, but also in psychological, warfare.

But, to be fair to these military experts, they do warn about the pitfalls of AI in warfare, and they do repeatedly remind us that the “primrose path” of AI warfare is being laid down, not by political leaders, not by military experts, but by the tech squillionaires:

“The current debate on military AI is largely driven by “tech bros” and other entrepreneurs who stand to profit immensely from militaries’ uptake of AI-enabled capabilities.”…….. “framing the future direction of war, despite their lack of military experience.”

We really are in a strange world – where we can let these ignoramuses (?ignorami) run things. You bristle at the term “ignoramus”? But the tech bros are ignorant – it seems, of all sorts of areas that really matter – ecology, biology, social history, diplomacy, ethics ….. They live in this wonderful STEM world, which is supposed to be the only part of knowledge that matters. Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics – yes those studies do matter – but they are not the only ones that matter.

I am grateful to these authors, Paul Lushenko and Keith Carter for tackling this timely subject.

They’ve done a great job, and I hope that military planners will pay attention to their work.

But even more, I hope that influential leaders of other kinds will also take up this question of should we let the tech squillionaires run things , especially war, for us?

October 12, 2024 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Israeli retaliation threat sparks call in Iran for nuclear weapons

any decision to change Iran’s nuclear policy would rest with the supreme leader

“We want a world free of nuclear weapons and the region of Middle East free of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) without any preconditions!” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said at last month’s gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

By Afp, 11 October 2024 ,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-13946359/Israeli-retaliation-threat-sparks-call-Iran-nuclear-weapons.html

With the prospect of Israeli retaliation for Iran’s missile attack looming, some Iranian hardliners want their government to revise its nuclear doctrine to pursue atomic weapons.

Israel has vowed to launch a “deadly, precise, and surprising” attack on Iran in retaliation for its second-ever direct strike on Israeli territory.

On October 1, Iran launched 200 missiles on Israel, in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders and a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

More than three dozen hardline lawmakers have submitted a letter to Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, urging it to revisit the Islamic republic’s nuclear doctrine, local media said on Wednesday.

The parliamentarians also called on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran, to reconsider his long-standing religious edict or fatwa banning nuclear weapons.

“Today, neither the international organisations nor… European countries or America can control the Zionist regime which commits crimes at will,” lawmaker Hassan Ali Akhalghi Amiri said, citing this as his reason for supporting the call.

Another lawmaker, Mohammad Reza Sabaghian, said “building nuclear weapons is Iran’s option to create deterrence”, according to the Ham Mihan daily.

On Tuesday, state media reported that parliament had received a bill on “the expansion of the country’s nuclear industry”, without elaborating.

The Islamic republic has maintained its policy against acquiring nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear activities were entirely peaceful.

– ‘Red line’ –

Iran has been drawn into the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, with Tehran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militants on the front lines of two wars with Israel………………………………………………….

US President Joe Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, which would risk major retaliation, and opposed striking oil installations.

Iran has warned that any attack on its “infrastructure” would provoke an “even stronger response”, while Revolutionary Guards General Rassul Sanairad has said an attack on nuclear or energy sites would cross a “red line”.

– Message to the West –

Iranian political commentator Maziar Khosravi said the lawmakers’ letter is “rather a strong message addressed to Western supporters” of Israel “so that they try to control” it.

Ultimately, he said, any decision to change Iran’s nuclear policy would rest with the supreme leader, and “is not linked to the will of the MPs”.

It is far from the first time that Iran has seen debate over whether it should revisit its nuclear doctrine.

Shortly after Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel in April, Kamal Kharazi, an adviser to Khamenei, said the Islamic republic was not pursuing nuclear weapons.

But “if Israel dares to threaten Iran with a nuclear weapon, we may reconsider our nuclear doctrine”, he said in an interview with Al Jazeera at the time.

For Khosravi, it remains unlikely for Iran to change its doctrine in the meantime.

But “if Israel attacks the nuclear facilities, what seems likely to me at this stage is the withdrawal of Iran from the NPT”, he said, referring to the United Nations treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear weapons.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian who took office in July has sought to revive a landmark 2015 nuclear deal to ease the country’s isolation and offset the economic impact of US sanctions.

The deal granted Iran sanctions relief in return for accepting curbs and monitoring that were designed to ensure it could not develop an atomic weapon covertly — a goal Iran has always denied having.

The accord has been hanging by a thread since the United States, under then-president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.

Since the collapse of the deal, Iran has suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities.

“We want to tell the world that we are not after a nuclear bomb,” said Pezeshkian in an interview with CNN in New York last month.

“We want a world free of nuclear weapons and the region of Middle East free of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) without any preconditions!” he said at last month’s gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

October 12, 2024 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel: Simply no red lines at all


SOTT. Craig Murray, craigmurray.org.uk, Fri, 11 Oct 2024

There is literally no act so vile that the UK, US and Germany will not support if perpetrated by the terrorist state of Israel.

Yesterday Israel:

  • deliberately attacked UN peacekeepers in three separate bases;
  • bombed residential central Beirut killing and maiming hundreds;
  • abducted, beat up and held an American journalist;
  • slaughtered 30 Palestinian refugees in an UNRWA school;
  • was found by an official UN Commission Report to be guilty of the crime against humanity of “extermination” in Gaza.

Any single one of these outrages would be roundly condemned if committed by any country at all except Israel, and would lead to repercussions.

But Israel can commit them all in a single day and suffer not one word of obloquy from the leading Western powers (although it does appear that the attack on UN peacekeepers may have snapped Macron’s subservience – whether it’s just a blip remains to be seen).

The UNReport of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, dated 11 September but released yesterday, is incredibly damning and will be a key document for the ICJ Genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa et al.

It notes 498 Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities in the Gaza strip and – much less known – 500 attacks on healthcare facilities in the West Bank, although individually less severe.

Here are some highlights of the report:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.sott.net/article/495403-Israel-Simply-no-red-lines-at-all

October 12, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Unprecedented peril: disaster lies ahead as we track towards 2.7°C of warming this century

October 9, 2024 , Thomas Newsome, Associate Professor in Global Ecology, University of Sydney, William Ripple, Distinguished Professor and Director, Trophic Cascades Program, Oregon State University  https://theconversation.com/unprecedented-peril-disaster-lies-ahead-as-we-track-towards-2-7-c-of-warming-this-century-240549

You don’t have to look far to see what climate change is doing to the planet. The word “unprecedented” is everywhere this year.

We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam. Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented drought in Brazil has dried out enormous rivers and left swathes of empty river beds. At least 1,300 pilgrims died during this year’s Hajj in Mecca as temperatures passed 50°C.

Unfortunately, we are headed for far worse. The new 2024 State of the Climate report, produced by our team of international scientists, is yet another stark warning about the intensifying climate crisis. Even if governments meet their emissions goals, the world may hit 2.7°C of warming – nearly double the Paris Agreement goal of holding climate change to 1.5°C. Each year, we track 35 of the Earth’s vital signs, from sea ice extent to forests. This year, 25 are now at record levels, all trending in the wrong directions.

Humans are not used to these conditions. Human civilisation emerged over the last 10,000 years under benign conditions – not too hot, not too cold. But this liveable climate is now at risk. In your grandchild’s lifetime, climatic conditions will be more threatening than anything our prehistoric relatives would have faced.

Our report shows a continued rise in fossil fuel emissions, which remain at an all-time high. Despite years of warnings from scientists, fossil fuel consumption has actually increased, pushing the planet toward dangerous levels of warming. While wind and solar have grown rapidly, fossil fuel use is 14 times greater.

This year is also tracking for the hottest year on record, with global daily mean temperatures at record levels for nearly half of 2023 and much of 2024.

Next month, world leaders and diplomats will gather in Azerbaijan for the annual United Nations climate talks, COP 29. Leaders will have to redouble their efforts. Without much stronger policies, climate change will keep worsening, bringing with it more frequent and more extreme weather.

Bad news after bad news

We have still not solved the central problem: the routine burning of fossil fuels. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases – particularly methane and carbon dioxide – are still rising. Last September, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit 418 parts per million (ppm). This September, they crossed 422 ppm. Methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, has been increasing at an alarming rate despite global pledges to tackle it.

Compounding the problem is the recent decline in atmospheric aerosols from efforts to cut pollution. These small particles suspended in the air come from both natural and human processes, and have helped cool the planet. Without this cooling effect, the pace of global warming may accelerate. We don’t know for sure because aerosol properties are not yet measured well enough.

Other environmental issues are now feeding into climate change. Deforestation in critical areas such as the Amazon is reducing the planet’s capacity to absorb carbon naturally, driving additional warming. This creates a feedback loop, where warming causes trees to die which in turn amplifies global temperatures.

Loss of sea ice is another. As sea ice melts or fails to form, dark seawater is exposed. Ice reflects sunlight but seawater absorbs it. Scaled up, this changes the Earth’s albedo (how reflective the surface is) and accelerates warming further.

In coming decades, sea level rise will pose a growing threat to coastal communities, putting millions of people at risk of displacement.

Accelerate the solutions

Our report stresses the need for an immediate and comprehensive end to the routine use of fossil fuels.

It calls for a global carbon price, set high enough to drive down emissions, particularly from high-emitting wealthy countries.

Introducing effective policies to slash methane emissions is crucial, given methane’s high potency but short atmospheric lifetime. Rapidly cutting methane could slow the rate of warming in the short term.

Natural climate solutions such as reforestation and soil restoration should be rolled out to increase how much carbon is stored in wood and soil. These efforts must be accompanied by protective measures in wildfire and drought prone areas. There’s no point planting forests if they will burn.

Governments should introduce stricter land-use policies to slow down rates of land clearing and increase investment in forest management to cut the risk of large, devastating fires and encourage sustainable land use.

We cannot overlook climate justice. Less wealthy nations contribute least to global emissions but are often the worst affected by climate disasters.

Wealthier nations must provide financial and technical support to help these countries adapt to climate change while cutting emissions. This could include investing in renewable energy, improving infrastructure and funding disaster preparedness programs.

Internationally, our report urges stronger commitments from world leaders. Current global policies are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Without drastic changes, the world is on track for approximately 2.7°C of warming this century. To avoid catastrophic tipping points, nations must strengthen their climate pledges, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

Immediate, transformative policy changes are now necessary if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Climate change is already here. But it could get much, much worse. By slashing emissions, boosting natural climate solutions and working towards climate justice, the global community can still fend off the worst version of our future.

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

Financing new nuclear. Governments paying the price?

 WISE Netherlands commissioned this research to provide a clear picture of
the current-day construction costs of a nuclear power plant.

WISE Netherlands is specifically interested in the government’s share of
financing the construction of nuclear power plants, a price to be paid by
the taxpayer.

The research request follows up on the Dutch government’s
intention to build two (or even four) new nuclear power plant units in the
Netherlands.

The current nuclear site at Borssele has been designated as
the preferred location for the first two units (Borssele 2-3). Nuclear
power plant construction is not business as usual in a privatised energy
market. Governments regularly intervene heavily, either through direct
financing, providing loans and guarantees, or via risk-sharing and
interference with price measures.

This raises the question of how much a government will have to pay when planning a new nuclear power plant. Based on recent examples, what is the range of cost estimates that can be expected?

To this end, this study aims to provide a detailed analysis of
the actual costs and timelines of typical and recent large-scale
construction projects of new nuclear power plants. Six nuclear power plants
have been selected for this research. They are among the latest to be put
into operation globally: Olkiluoto 3 (Finland), Shin Hanul 1-2 (South
Korea), Barakah 1-4 (United Arab Emirates), Vogtle 3-4 (United States),
Flamanville 3 (France) and Hinkley Point C 1-2 (United Kingdom).

 WISE Netherlands (accessed) 10th Oct 2024.

https://wisenederland.nl/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Financing-of-new-nuclear-Governments-paying-the-price-Profundo.pdf

October 12, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

EDF reportedly seeking up to £4bn from investors to finish Hinkley Point C

French energy firm reported to be in talks over potential investment to cover ballooning cost of nuclear project

Jillian Ambrose 11 Oct 24, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/10/edf-seeks-to-raise-up-to-4bn-to-finish-delayed-hinkley-point-c

The French energy company EDF is reportedly in talks with investors to raise up to £4bn to finish the delayed Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, Britain’s first new nuclear reactors in a generation.

The utilities company, owned by the French state, has approached investors to help cover the ballooning cost of constructing the nuclear plant, which is understood to have reached almost £50bn due in part to supply chain issues and struggles securing skilled engineers, according to Bloomberg.

EDF is reportedly engaged in talks with sovereign wealth funds and large infrastructure funds to raise the extra money through a bespoke financial instrument that would hand investors a stake in Hinkley while protecting them against the risk that the project is not finished.

Hinkley Point C is due to begin generating electricity by 2030, according to EDF – five years later than first planned and 12 years after construction began. The project’s costs have also spiralled, from £18bn when its contracts were signed in 2016 to £47.9bn in today’s money.

The cost overruns and delays are understood to be in part due to spending on extra safety measures to satisfy UK authorities, and trouble securing skilled engineers after Brexit.

A team of specialist engineers at the Hinkley site, represented by the trade union Prospect, voted to strike for 24 hours from Thursday after pay talks broke down. The union said the engineers had not had a pay increase in the last four years.

The financial pressure on the project has deepened after EDF’s partner, China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), a state-run company, declined to plough more funding into the project beyond its contracted term in 2023.

CGN has scaled back its interest in investing in the UK after tensions between Westminster and Beijing over security concerns made it clear that a Chinese company would not be given permission to lead a nuclear project in the UK.

In response, EDF has called on the UK government to stump up the cash to help finish the project, which will only benefit from bill payer subsidies once it begins generating, but the suggestion was rebuffed by the previous government.

One of the companies considering an investment in the troubled project is Centrica, the owner of British Gas, which has previously been linked to investment talks relating to EDF’s planned nuclear project at Sizewell C in Suffolk. The FTSE 100 company is reportedly in early talks to invest up to £1bn in Hinkley Point C, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Investing in new nuclear reactors would help to secure future electricity supplies for Centrica, which holds a 20% share in all five of EDF’s remaining UK nuclear power stations, four of which are due to close this decade.

Centrica is understood to be interested in investing in either Hinkley or Sizewell – but not both.

EDF and Centrica declined to comment.

October 12, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, France, UK | Leave a comment

Israeli Protesters Call for Ceasefire in Anti-War Demonstrations

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

Biden Allowing Israel to March US Into War With Iran

By cooperating with Israel in a new attack, the United States is assisting a state that has been responsible for most of the escalation and the vast majority of death and destruction in the Middle East for at least the past year.

Common Dreams, Paul Pillar. Oct 07, 2024, Responsible Statecraft

The Biden administration is not only endorsing but also on the verge of actively assisting a new Israeli armed attack on Iran. National security adviser Jake Sullivan says that the United States is working directly with Israel regarding such an attack. “The United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” declares President Joe Biden.

The projected attack serves no U.S. interests. The attack perpetuates a broader pattern of escalating violence in the Middle East that also serves no U.S. interests. The Iranian missile salvo to which the coming Israeli attack is ostensible retaliation was itself retaliation for previous Israeli attacks. Retaliation for retaliation is a prescription for an unending cycle of violence.

The United States is facilitating an attack on a nation that does not want war and has been remarkably restrained in trying to avoid it, in the face of repeated Israeli provocations. A sustained Israeli bombing campaign against Iranian-related targets within Syria elicited a response only when it escalated to an attack on a diplomatic compound in Damascus, killing senior Iranian officials. Even then, the Iranian response, in the form of an earlier salvo of missiles and drones in April, was designed and telegraphed in a way to make a show of defiance but — with most of the projectiles certain to be shot down — to cause minimal damage and almost no casualties.

When Israel assassinated visiting Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a government guest house in Tehran in July — the sort of attack that would elicit a quick and forceful response by the U.S. or Israel if it happened in one of their capitals — Iran did nothing until last week. It finally acted only after yet another Israeli attack — this time an assault on residential buildings in a suburb of Beirut that killed a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer along with Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. Far from being motivated by any grandiose ambitions of regional dominance or desire to destabilize the region, Iranian leaders believed that they were getting killed by a thousand cuts from Israel and that they had to respond to the repeated Israeli attacks lest they lose the confidence not only of their own people but of regional allies. The missile firings that constituted Iran’s retaliation, like the ones in April, again caused minimal damage or casualties.

By cooperating with Israel in a new attack, the United States is assisting a state that has been responsible for most of the escalation and the vast majority of death and destruction in the Middle East for at least the past year. Although Hamas’ attack on southern Israel last October is commonly seen as the starting point of the subsequent mayhem in the Middle East, the question of who is responding to whom could go back farther than that. For example, the 1,200 deaths from that Hamas attack, horrible to be sure, were fewer than the number of Palestinians that Israel had killed in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip just from the day-to-day operations of the occupying Israeli army, supplemented by settler violence in the West Bank, during the previous eight years.

Since the Hamas attack, the devastating Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip has gone far beyond anything that can be construed as defense, or even as a response to Hamas, and has brought suffering to innocent civilians that is orders of magnitude greater than anything Hamas or any other Palestinian group has ever done. The still-rising official death toll exceeds 41,000, with the actual number of Palestinian deaths probably much higher and likely into six figures. Much of the Strip has been reduced to rubble and rendered unlivable.

After Hezbollah fired rounds into Israel last October in a show of support for the Palestinians in Gaza, the story of conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese frontier has mainly been one of repeated Israeli escalations. Israeli attacks in Lebanon have far exceeded Hezbollah attacks on Israel, in number but especially in physical effects, with almost no casualties within Israel apart from a few military personnel at the border. The rapidly rising toll of deaths in Lebanon from Israeli attacks has now passed 2,000, with about 10,000 injured and about 1.2 million people displaced from their homes. As in the Gaza Strip, civilians constitute much and perhaps most of that toll, including as a result of Israeli airstrikes that have demolished residential buildings in densely populated neighborhoods.

As a growing Israeli ground assault in Lebanon accompanies the aerial bombardment, Israel has told people in almost the entire southern third of Lebanon to move north, even though Israel already has been conducting lethal aerial attacks throughout Lebanon, including as far north as Tripoli. This also is reminiscent of the pattern in Gaza, in which residents are told to move, only to be bombed again in their new location……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Israel has already entrapped the United States to a large degree in its lethal ways in the Middle East, and the entrapment threatens to become deeper with the anticipated new attack on Iran. The entrapment would not have been possible without mismanagement of the U.S.-Israeli relationship on the Washington end. President Biden’s approach of holding Netanyahu close in the hope of influencing his policies has failed. It also has been counterproductive. In the absence of any willingness to employ the leverage that U.S. material aid to Israel represents, all the bear-hugging and expressions of support have only reassured Netanyahu that he can continue to prosecute his wars and ignore American calls for restraint without losing that aid.

It is refreshing to see reports that at least within the Department of Defense there is some recognition that the policy has been counterproductive by emboldening Israel to escalate. It is perhaps unsurprising that the department whose personnel would be on the front line of any expanded warfare involving the United States is more willing than others to recognize the nature and sources of the violence plaguing the Middle East and the need to deter or restrain Israel rather than embolden it. One can only hope that this willingness will spread more widely in policymaking circles.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-israel-war-with-iran?fbclid=IwY2xjawFyg3dleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRouKaR2ZR-gz5KkJIrj7Lz4yB_yy0cppu3rr4KzPnZL0PIvnbHrmshjLg_aem_SGLFnpWmqgyty62qiA5Trg

October 12, 2024 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

US-Backed Israeli Military Forces Have Executed Numerous Journalists Since October 7

The Israeli military’s campaign of genocidal violence, carried out with the full support of President Joe Biden’s administration, has killed 138-175 journalists.

thedissenter, Kevin Gosztola, Oct 7, 2024

On October 6, Israeli military forces reportedly targeted and killed Hassan Hamad, a 19-year-old Palestinian journalist in Gaza, in his home in the Jabalia refugee camp. 

Maha Hussaini, a Middle East Eye reporter in Deir al-Balah in the occupied Palestinian Territories, reported that Hamad had received threatening phone calls and text messages months ago. 

Hamad had been covering an attack by Israeli troops on a residential home when he returned to his bedroom around dawn. “It’s clear [a] shell was fired directly and specifically at Hassan’s bedroom to intentionally target him,” said Ashraf Mashharawi, who manages the Media Town Production Company where Hamad worked.

As Mashharawi told Middle East Eye, his colleague had taken many photos and videos that had made headlines. “Apparently, this bothered [the Israelis]—the fact that his coverage gained attention.”

Barry Malone, the deputy editor-in-chief for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, responded, “Just saw the remains of [19-year-old] Palestinian journalist Hassan Hamad reduced to a plastic bag and a shoebox. According to a fresh tally from CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists], 123 journalists have now been k

Record Number of Journalists Killed, Several Of Them Targeted For Execution

Over the past year, the Israeli military has carried out a campaign of genocidal violence with the full support of President Joe Biden’s administration, including a seemingly unlimited flow of weapons. Officials from the U.S. and Israeli governments ask the world to excuse the carnage because Palestinian fighters led by Hamas launched an attack on October 7, and to them, Hamas must be entirely eliminated. 

Yet a coalition of American medical professionals who have volunteered in Gaza estimate that “the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population.” That estimate includes a record number of journalists killed, making it the deadliest conflict for members of the press. illed in Israeli strikes. If you’re a journalist and you’re not speaking out in solidarity…why?”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The Highest Number Of Detained Journalists In The World’

The Israeli government has also detained at least 69 Palestinian journalists, with 43 still in detention, according to CPJ. Most of the journalists detained are from the West Bank, and ten journalists have been confined under an “administrative detention law” that allows for “indefinite renewal of detention orders.” At least five journalists have been allegedly tortured and abused. 

CPJ reported, “On a per capita basis, Israeli authorities now hold the highest number of detained journalists in the world in a given year over the past two decades, followed by Turkey, Iran, and China.”

A censorship regime imposed by the Israeli government has prohibited nearly 4,000 journalists from entering Gaza to report on the war, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged, the country’s legislature passed a law to ban foreign media organizations that are deemed a “national security” threat. 

The most prominent media organization to be banned was the Arabic news media organization Al Jazeera. In September, Israeli soldiers illegally raided Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau and shut it down. But Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen TV, Radio Dream, a local radio station in Hebron, and the West Bank-based J-Media were all ordered to cease their operations. 

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who was behind the media censorship law that targeted Al Jazeera, threatened to sanction the Israeli newspaper Haaretz for “false propaganda” The Times of Israel reported that Karhi proposed a government resolution to block “any new commercial agreements with the newspaper, halt all advertising in it even if it has been paid for, and halt any outstanding payments from being made.” But Karhi backed away from his proposal after it was denounced. 

Destroying All Media Institutions

“Since October 7, 2023,” according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), “Israeli forces have destroyed all media institutions in the Gaza Strip. Airstrikes have demolished 73 media facilities, including 21 local radio stations, 15 local and international news agencies, 15 TV stations, 6 local newspapers, 3 broadcasting towers, 8 printing presses, and 13 journalistic service institutions.”

PJS additionally recalled, “In the early days of the genocidal war on Gaza, the Israeli military targeted most of the high-rise buildings in Gaza that housed both local and international media offices. For example, the Al-Shawa and Al-Haseeri towers in Gaza City, which contained 15 floors of media offices, were completely destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on December 18, 2023, causing extensive damage to the surrounding area.”…………………………………………………………………………………….

IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger concluded, “The vast majority of the world’s media are effectively cut off from a huge news story whose daily horrors pass them by. Their only available sources are the journalists who are members of the PJS and the IFJ, who take all the risks to film and photograph with their phones.”

“Gazan journalists are determined to tell their story, and for so long as that is the case, it is the IFJ’s duty to support them doing this in whatever way we can.”  https://thedissenter.org/us-backed-israeli-military-forces-have-executed-numerous-journalists-since-october-7/

October 12, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel, media | Leave a comment

One Horrible Year on from October 7 2023, a Bleak Reflection.

1

 larryjhs  September 27, 2024,  https://webstylus.net/2024/09/27/a-bleak-year/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF1TM9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHesplRcX1423JwSpof6CAkT303FkdzIX_bEcTdRO5SkXXOkPsj9hdRcULg_aem_XDLROjlruTcdEBP9ZqlzlQ—

The past year since Hamas’ attack has been traumatic for the Australian Jewish community locally and internationally.  The fate of hostages appears to in the hands of Netanyahu, his generals, and extremists, who despite public outrage, has continued to prosecute an unwinnable war.  It is now clear that that Hamas has made numerous offers for a prisoner exchange and ceasefire, but these have been deliberately refused with a preference for war at all costs by the Israeli government.  Israeli Jews who protest are now arrested and beaten up.  This includes hostage members’ families and protesting members of the Israeli establishment. The forces of anti-democratic extreme nationalism and militarism have taken over the country, unimpeded. Sadly, this mentality appears to be held by some Jews locally.

This war against the Palestinian people has now been extended to the West Bank and into Lebanon against Hezbollah for firing rockets.  For liberal Zionists, the sum total of such a military strategy is a betrayal of what they thought was possible, to negotiate a peaceful political settlement for two peoples, in two states.  Zionism as an ideal now appears bereft of a moral foundation and liberal Zionists are flailing.  For non-Zionists and anti-Zionist Jews, it is confirmation of their worst fears about the seemingly inevitable drift of Zionism to extremism of the worst sort.

Some now call what is going on genocide, others reject the term as offensive, and in fact, it is up to the Internal Court of Justice to make the final ruling.  But with the ongoing evidence of incitement to genocide in the Israeli media, we should call a spade a spade. This is a situation where some Israeli Jews are calling for, or taking part in war crimes.

The violence in real time – aided by an almost unimpeded flow of American arms is like nothing we have seen before, and we have rapidly entered into the world of science fiction with remote explosions of pagers and other devices.    

There is always the same excuse for such violence and its “collateral” damage – Hamas or Hezbollah are our eternal enemies and the fight is existential. The only solution is military eradication.  Sadly, this is the script that has been in use for decades, but it has worn thin. This violence is an attempt to permanently destroy anything that amounts to independent Palestinian life.  The Israel State rejects the existence of an independent Palestine. But people’s wars – which is what the revolt in Gaza is about – are not won by military force, as learned in Algeria and Vietnam.  

Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, far beyond Hamas’ own act on October 7. Israeli soldiers have been filmed rejoicing in destruction and using Palestinians as human shields. Hospitals and schools and universities have been destroyed and journalists killed.  Aljazeerah is closed down. Thousands are arrested for unspecified crimes. Starvation is taking place.  This is not an ordinary war for legitimate defence.  It is something far, far worse.  For Palestinians and their supporters, this is considered to be a continuation of what went on in 1948 and thereafter, but this time, the world sees the brutality on its screens.    


This brutality helps to explain why the atrocity against Jews and foreign workers on October 7 is now considered by many on the left as of secondary importance, when it has become an obsession among Jews, used to reinforce the sense of eternal victimhood. It also helps to explain the simplistic identification by some with Hamas’ actions and its war machine as a justified form of resistance “by any means possible”, when the result has been the superior and brutal murder conducted by Israel.   It also helps to explain why so many have doubted accounts of sex crimes and atrocities by Hamas, when Israel manipulated unclear information from the very beginning.  In war, truth is the first casualty.

Israel/Palestine brings together issues of war and peace, identity, and great power politics as a social media event. It has become a focus for culture and political wars that particularly affect the thinking of alienated young people in a world that appears to be falling apart under the pressure of climate change, political corruption, and technological abuse.  

The brutality of Israel’s assault also helps to explain how the uncritical acceptance of formerly specialist academic theories about colonialism, imperialism, and racism, have found root in many corners of the left internationally, angered by the lack of action by the US and others to stop the carnage.  Palestine has become the cause celebre even a surrogate for all international injustice even though other brutal regional wars and massacres also call for attention.  The difference is of course, that Israel has claimed to be acting as a democracy and in the interests of the West.  At times of course, this anger over Israel has at times segued into explicitly conspiratorial antisemitism, though this is abhorrent to responsible pro-Palestine advocates.  


In fact, the idea that only the colonized, not the colonialist has any rights is totally ahistorical.  Theories should not be set in stone and exclude other insights. In this case, the current take on Israel as a colony reflects theoretical narrowness and the absence of deep knowledge or particular empathy for the peculiar and awful historical circumstances that brought about migration of so many Jews to historical Palestine, as Zionists of one sort or other, or desperate refugees. Once a colony, damned as a colony for ever, including its children. This is determinism.  It has got to a point that the idea of a “conflict” is rejected, since the situation is seen as a pure invasion.   The Jews of modernity are thus regarded as wholly outside interlopers to an imagined Palestine, when in fact Palestine was always multicultural, subject to migration forces and domination by great powers. I’ve thus got a real concern that Palestinian nationalism, for all its talk of future equality, shares a similar thread of intolerance of difference as the Zionist project.  In fact, as the great Palestinian historian and activity Rashid Khalidi said in his The Hundred Years War on Palestine “[T]here are now two peoples in Palestine, irrespective of how they came into being, and the conflict between them cannot be resolved as long as the national existence of each is denied by the other.”

But such subtlety now appears to be rejected by many on the left in Australia with dogmatic calls for particular forms of future arrangements that smack of an antidemocratic form of thought and political control, and are devoid of any understanding of the reality of peacemaking in conflict zones, whatever the cause.  The result, as we all know, has even been a political nightmare even in Australia as accusations are made about the direct complicity of any number of institutions for any connection to Israel and politicians are accused of heinous crimes well out of their direct control. Many Jews feel unsafe whether or not the threat is real.  But as a number of commentators have said, there should be no confusion between the perception of unsafety because of political criticism that upsets a privileged comfort zone and blindness or indifference to the plight of others (as distinct from real antisemitism), and the truly and physically unsafe position of Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank.   

Of course, the intolerance shown by elements of the left to anything identified as “Zionist” deserves condemnation because it leads to stereotypes and oversimplification.  Consequently, I have greatly regretted the lack of support on the left in Australia for the activist Israeli Jewish left which while a minority in the Israel, has taken on the hard task of standing up for Palestine.  This criticism extends to elements of the anti-Zionist Jewish left who appear bereft of any empathy for 50% of the world’s Jews. This lack of support may be due to position that this amounts to “legitimatization” of Jewish -Israeli domination over that of oppressed of Palestinians.  I think this is a wrong position to take. Conflict resolution needs people of goodwill from all sides, whatever the shape of final political arrangements, which I hope are based on principles of full and equal rights for all, the end to the occupation and the apartheid system and restorative justice for Palestinians. Huge political & psychological concessions are required by both sides, something hardliners refuse to admit at both ends.

Of course, actions of major Australian Jewish organisations, aligned to dominant political interests in acting as echoes for hasbarah and attacking Israel’s critics has been destructive.  Their and others’ attack on universities for alleged and widespread antisemitism is also flawed, exaggerated, highly partisan, and a threat to academic freedom.  Crying wolf over antisemitism is destructive to the interests of free political speech.  Likewise, uninformed sloganeering, exaggerations and barbs on both sides, and attacks by Zionist or leftist thugs do nothing to progress social cohesion. They detract from political efforts to alter Australian foreign policy to take a strong stand against the Israeli state. 

Sadly, I may be wrong in all this and we will be stuck with unceasing violence by the military state, a largely compliant population, continuing repression of Palestians and violent blowback while the world stands by. The US will be constrained by internal weakness to do any thing, and there will be an increased fracture between Israel and a fair proportion of world Jewry, while an unrepentant and fanatical faction pours in money and support and exerts political pressure. Bleak Bleak Bleak.
(edited a bit for clarification)
[The image is “Exterminating the cockroach” Yosi Even Kama came up with these posters about the fascist state in 2010 as part of an art project about how things would be in 2023]

October 12, 2024 Posted by | culture and arts | Leave a comment

WWF: Average wildlife populations have fallen 73 per cent in 50 years

Global wildlife populations suffered a catastrophic average decline of 73
per cent between 1970 and 2020, according to the latest edition of the
Living Planet Index published today as part of WWF’s biennial Living Planet
Report. Bleakly subtitled A System in Peril, the landmark study of global
progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals attributed the
rapid wildlife losses to human activities, such as habitat destruction and
overfishing, which have then compounded by escalating climate impacts.

Business Green 10th Oct 2024

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4368251/wwf-average-wildlife-populations-fallen-cent

October 12, 2024 Posted by | environment | Leave a comment

China to head green energy boom with 60% of new projects in next six years

China is expected to account for almost 60% of all renewable energy
capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030, according to the
International Energy Agency. The IEA’s highly influential renewable energy
report found that over the next six years renewable energy projects will
roll out at three times the pace of the previous six years, led by the
clean energy programmes of China and India.

It found that the world’s
renewable energy capacity is on course to outpace the 2030 goals set by
governments to roughly equal the power systems in China, the EU, India and
the US combined. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, said:
“If I could sum this [trend] up in two words they would be: China,
solar.”

Guardian 9th Oct 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/09/china-to-head-green-energy-boom-with-60-of-new-projects-in-next-six-years

October 12, 2024 Posted by | China, renewable | Leave a comment

IAEA Missing in action, on Israeli nuclear strike threats, Iranian outlet argues

Oct 9, 2024, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202410096802

As anticipation mounts over a potential counterstrike by Israel on Iran which could target nuclear sites, an Iranian media outlet has faulted the UN nuclear watchdog’s silence on the issue.

The relatively moderate Iranian news site Rouydad24 wrote in an editorial on Wednesday that despite the possibility of attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) silence was perplexing.

“Should this silence be interpreted as tacit approval for such an attack, or does it imply the IAEA sees no reason for concern on this issue?” the editorial asked, suggesting that the agency’s silence could be interpreted as either passive endorsement or indifference to the potential threat.

The website characterized Western and Israeli discussions about the possibility Israel will destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities as a warning sign that the IAEA should intervene.

Publication of such articles in the tightly controlled Iranian media may indicate that the government’s top policy bodies have agreed or prompted a particular point of view to be made public.

The article may be an attempt by Iran to raise the issue of an IAEA intervention to stop a possible Israeli attack on its nuclear sites, especially since the US government has also voiced opposition to such a move.

Historically, the IAEA has remained neutral on political matters while stressing the importance of nuclear facility safety. Its statements generally focus on the consequences of strikes such as a potential radioactive release rather than on endorsing or opposing any party in a conflict.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the IAEA took an unusually vocal stance on nuclear safety, especially around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Director-General Rafael Grossi has repeatedly warned of the severe risks from military actions near nuclear reactors and has called for a protective zone around ZNPP to prevent a potential radioactive disaster.

The outlet went on to posit that the IAEA’s silence on a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites could be seen as an indication that the agency perceives Israel’s threats not as imminent actions but as strategic moves aimed at influencing Iran’s stance and pressuring the US to meet certain demands.

Last year, Grossi condemned what he called Iran’s “disproportionate and unprecedented” move to bar multiple inspectors assigned to the country, hindering the UN nuclear watchdog’s oversight of Tehran’s atomic activities.

The editorial may highlight a catch-22: by barring inspectors, Iran itself has limited the IAEA’s influence and capacity to respond effectively to the looming threat of a possible strike by Israel on nuclear targets.

Tehran’s removal of inspectors not only limits the IAEA’s influence but also isolates Iran further from the international system, complicating any calls for international intervention to prevent Israeli strikes.

As a threshold nuclear state, Iran has accumulated highly enriched fissile material for producing a nuclear weapon, though it has not yet taken the final step toward weaponization.

Although Tehran has consistently argued that its nuclear program is meant for peaceful purposes, the current state of its nuclear program, experts say, could act as a deterrent against Israeli aggression.

Some military analysts argue that Israel would require US assistance to effectively strike Iran’s nuclear targets. Despite this, the Biden administration has not received any assurance from Israel that targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities is off the table, according to a senior US State Department official who spoke to CNN last week.

October 12, 2024 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” Wins Greenwash Award for “The Edge” Water Sports Centre in Contaminated Harbour.

On  , By mariannewildart

To mark the 67th Anniversary of the Windscale Fire: Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” Wins Greenwash Award for “The Edge” Water Sports Centre in Whitehaven Harbour. The Edge was planned to open in 2022 but like all nuclear projects is running late and is still under construction.

The George Monbiot Award for Nuclear Greenwashing is presented this year to Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” for their funding of the £5Million water sports centre at Whitehaven harbour. The award organised by Lakes Against Nuclear Dump, alongside Close Capenhurst and North Cumbria CND will be made on the 10th October, the 67th anniversary of the Windscale fire, the UKs worst nuclear accident to date following the UK’s mad rush to produce atomic bombs. 

The Nuclear Greenwashing award is tongue in cheek and named after the famously pro-nuclear Guardian journalist George Monbiot who declared in 2011 “How the Fukushima disaster taught me to stop worrying and embrace nuclear power”.

Campaigners say that this “conversion” by Monbiot was instrumental in greenwashing the nuclear industry and effectively quashing opposition to new nuclear build at Hinkley Point C.

Lakes Against Nuclear Dump have sent silt samples from Whitehaven harbour to Eberline laboratory at Oak Ridge, USA who have found the highly radioactive element AM241 present in the silt at levels which if ingested or inhaled would be dangerous to health. The National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield describes AM241 as “intensely radioactive” and remaining so for many generations into the future..The regulators insist “levels are safe” in correspondence with campaigners who point out that there is no “safe level” of ingestion or inhalation of radioactivity, even so called “low dose” is cumulative…………………………….

Campaigners point out that “Sellafield are well aware that the silt in Whitehaven harbour contains a cocktail of radioactive isotopes from their operations, alongside this there is the continuing acid mine pollution pouring into Queen’s Dock from old coal mines……………………

Campaigners urge Sellafield and the UK government to take full responsibility for the damage to the environment and human health by nuclear and mining blight in Whitehaven harbour instead of shamelessly greenwashing devastating pollution.  https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/sellafields-social-impact-multiplied-wins-greenwash-award-for-the-edge-water-sports-centre-in-contaminated-harbour/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF1PI5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZUCqPj8uRxd0NDTt_2ovDKLWj9Hd_7cGEbKmDBDZgK_APILKkCJ5qg7Mw_aem_8lHUOhxrfEooARrUCKnKvA

October 12, 2024 Posted by | spinbuster, UK | Leave a comment