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Israeli soldiers reveal thousands of tons of aid ‘buried, burned’ in Gaza as famine took over strip

Rights groups say Israel has been carrying out a ‘deliberate campaign of starvation’ in Gaza

News Desk, OCT 17, 2025, https://thecradle.co/articles-id/33742

Over the past two months, the Israeli army has buried or burned more than a thousand truckloads worth of humanitarian aid in Gaza, including food, medical supplies, and bottled water, amid the ongoing starvation of Palestinians in the strip, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported on 17 October.

“We buried everything in the ground, and we even burned some of the things,” said an army source. “Even today, there are thousands of packages waiting in the sun, and if they are not transferred to the Gaza Strip, we will be forced to destroy them too.”

The humanitarian aid, which had spoiled while standing for many weeks on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, was allegedly not distributed because the mechanism to do so is not functioning.

“It simply doesn’t work,” the military source claimed to the Israeli broadcaster.

“The trucks are getting stuck, there’s a mechanism that doesn’t work, there’s a problem with the quality of the axles, and the coordination isn’t working either,” the source added.

“We have the largest grain warehouse in existence here. If the goods that are there today aren’t collected, we’ll evacuate and bury the equipment.”

The source also questioned the ability to drop aid into Gaza by air.

“There has already been such an attempt, and it was a complete failure, just like the port they built,” he said.

Throughout the two-year genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has armed and funded Palestinian gangs to loot humanitarian aid convoys, while blaming Hamas. 

On Friday, the UN reported that an average of 560 tons of food has entered Gaza daily since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last week, but deliveries have struggled to reach the north of the strip, including Gaza City, due to road closures and damage from past Israeli bombing.

The difficulty in delivering aid is raising concerns that famine conditions will persist in Gaza despite the current halt in the Israeli bombing.

“We’re still below what we need, but we’re getting there … The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance,” stated UN World Food Programme(WFP) spokesperson Abeer Etefa while speaking with reporters in Geneva.

In August, Amnesty International warned that “Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life.”

“It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction – which is part and parcel of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” the rights group added.

October 21, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Livret A: Will part of French savings soon be used to finance nuclear power?

Traditionally, the money in the Livret A savings account is intended to support social housing and local public infrastructure.

This announcement comes as the government seeks to diversify funding sources for a nuclear program estimated at colossal sums


 Le Monde De L’Energie 13th Oct 2025

This is a historic turning point for French public savings. The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) has confirmed that a portion of the funds from the Livret A savings account could be used to finance the construction of new EPR nuclear reactors. This unprecedented move symbolizes the rapprochement between public finance, industrial strategy, and national energy sovereignty.

An unprecedented agreement between the State, EDF and the Caisse des Dépôts

Traditionally, the money in the Livret A savings account is intended to support social housing and local public infrastructure.  But on Thursday, October 10, CDC CEO Olivier Sichel announced a major development: “We have reached an agreement with Bercy and EDF on using the Savings Fund.” This statement, made to the Association of Economic and Financial Journalists, marks the first official confirmation of the Livret A’s involvement in financing the French nuclear program.

This shift, both energy-related and financial, is part of the government’s desire to revive civil nuclear power. The state plans to build six new EPR reactors by 2038, at a total cost estimated at less than €100 billion, according to estimates by former Energy Minister Marc Ferracci.

A crucial step: the Brussels agreement

Before the transaction can become a reality, one key step remains: European approval. “The French government will present its proposal to Brussels to obtain approval for the overall financial model,” Olivier Sichel explained. The stakes are as much legal as they are political: the European Commission will have to verify that this financing scheme does not violate competition or state aid rules.

The Brussels agreement will make it possible to secure access to part of the Savings Fund, funded by French savings, while guaranteeing that investments remain safe and profitable for depositors.

A treasure of 400 billion euros at the nation’s disposal

The Caisse des Dépôts currently manages approximately €400 billion in regulated savings, collected in particular through the Livret A (Livret A), the Livret de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS) (Sustainable and Solidarity Savings Account), and the Livret d’épargne populaire (LEP) (People’s Savings Account). Just over half of these funds are already allocated to long-term loans to finance social housing or regional policies.

The remainder, invested in financial assets, could now contribute to financing the country’s energy infrastructure, including new nuclear reactors. “Nuclear power is obviously part of our energy sovereignty,” explained Olivier Sichel, adding that this direction aims to strengthen France’s capacity to produce stable, carbon-free electricity.

This announcement comes as the government seeks to diversify funding sources for a nuclear program estimated at colossal sums, in a context of constrained budgets and strong tension on the energy markets…………………………………..

 this development is already raising questions. Some social housing stakeholders fear that this shift will reduce the funds available for their projects. ………….

Asked about financial risks, Olivier Sichel also warned of the tensions threatening global markets, particularly in the technology sector. “The colossal investments in artificial intelligence are drawing parallels with the internet bubble of the late 1990s,” he warned, urging caution.

A major turning point for public investment policy

By linking popular savings to the country’s energy strategy, the government and the Caisse des Dépôts are redefining the role of the Livret A savings account in the French economy. This investment, held by more than 55 million French people, is becoming not only a social financing tool, but also a pillar of industrial and energy recovery.

If Brussels gives the green light, France will usher in a new era: one in which every euro placed in a Livret A savings account could, indirectly, contribute to fueling the nation’s future nuclear reactors. …… https://www.lemondedelenergie.com/livret-une-partie-de-lepargne-des-francais-bientot-mobilisee-pour-financer-le-nucleaire/2025/10/13/

October 21, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Foreign hackers breached a US nuclear weapons plant via SharePoint flaws

CSO News Analysis, Oct 20, 2025

A foreign actor infiltrated the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus through vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s SharePoint browser-based app, raising questions about the need to solidify further federal IT/OT security protections.

A foreign threat actor infiltrated the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a key manufacturing site within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), exploiting unpatched Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities, according to a source involved in an August incident response at the facility.

The breach targeted a plant that produces the vast majority of critical non-nuclear components for US nuclear weapons under the NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy (DOE) that oversees the design, production, and maintenance of the nation’s nuclear weapons. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T) manages the Kansas City campus under contract to the NNSA.

The Kansas City campus, Honeywell FM&T, and the Department of Energy did not respond to repeated requests for comment throughout September, well before the current government shutdown. NSA public affairs officer Eddie Bennett did respond, saying, “We have nothing to contribute,” and referred CSO back to the DOE.

Although it is unclear whether the attackers were a Chinese nation-state actor or Russian cybercriminals — the two most likely culprits — experts say the incident drives home the importance of securing systems that protect operational technology from exploits that primarily affect IT systems.

How the breach unfolded

The attackers exploited two recently disclosed Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities — CVE-2025-53770, a spoofing flaw, and CVE-2025-49704, a remote code execution (RCE) bug — both affecting on-premises servers. Microsoft issued fixes for the vulnerabilities on July 19.

On July 22, the NNSA confirmed it was one of the organizations hit by attacks enabled by the SharePoint flaws. “On Friday, July 18th, the exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy,” a DOE spokesperson said……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

China or Russia? Conflicting attribution

Microsoft attributed the broader wave of SharePoint exploitations to three Chinese-linked groups: Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and a third actor it tracks as Storm-2603. The company said the attackers were preparing to deploy Warlock ransomware across affected systems.

However, the source familiar with the Kansas City incident tells CSO that a Russian threat actor, not a Chinese one, was responsible for the intrusion. Cybersecurity company Resecurity, which was monitoring the SharePoint exploitations, tells CSO that its own data pointed primarily to Chinese nation-state groups, but it does not rule out Russian involvement………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Could the attack have reached operational systems?

The breach targeted the IT side of the Kansas City campus, but the intrusion raises the question of whether attackers could have moved laterally into the facility’s operational technology (OT) systems, the manufacturing and process control environments that directly support weapons component production.

OT cybersecurity specialists interviewed by CSO say that KCNSC’s production systems are likely air-gapped or otherwise isolated from corporate IT networks, significantly reducing the risk of direct crossover. Nevertheless, they caution against assuming such isolation guarantees safety………………………………………………………………………………………………………

IT/OT convergence and the zero-trust gap

The Kansas City incident highlights a systemic problem across the federal enterprise: the disconnect between IT and OT security practices. While the federal government has advanced its zero-trust roadmap for traditional IT networks, similar frameworks for operational environments have lagged, although recent developments point to progress on that front………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Even non-classified data theft holds strategic value

If the source’s claim of Russian involvement is accurate, the attackers may have been financially motivated ransomware operators rather than state intelligence services. But even in that scenario, the data they accessed could still carry strategic value……………………………………………………………….. https://www.csoonline.com/article/4074962/foreign-hackers-breached-a-us-nuclear-weapons-plant-via-sharepoint-flaws.html

October 21, 2025 Posted by | incidents | Leave a comment

The Bloc Québécois is calling for an immediate halt to the transfer of radioactive waste to Chalk River, on the shores of the drinking water source for millions of Quebecers

Anne Caroline Desplanques, Journal de Montréal, October 20, 2025, https://www.journaldemontreal.com/auteur/anne-caroline-desplanques

The request sent to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, follows a series of reports by our Investigative Bureau, which had rare access to the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) site where the waste is stored.

In the past year, the laboratories received 62.8 tonnes of irradiated uranium fuel from the Gentilly-1 nuclear generating station in Bécancour. This high-risk material is stored in a dozen gigantic reinforced concrete silos in the middle of the forest, along the Ottawa River.

The least contaminated materials are stored nearby, in containers stacked on top of each other.

More silos and containers need to be added as CNL also wants to dismantle two other federal nuclear power plants, in Ontario and Manitoba, and bring the waste back to Chalk River, they told us.

Risk of environmental disaster

“This is probably one of the worst possible and worst imaginable places to decide to store nuclear waste,” says the Bloc Québécois, which fears “an ecological and environmental disaster.”

CNL says the storage is only temporary: the high-level radioactive waste is ultimately to be placed in a geological repository more than 650 metres deep, supposed to open by 2050 in northwestern Ontario.

But for Lance Haymond, chief of the Kebaowek First Nation, whose traditional territory includes CNL, the opening of the geological repository remains hypothetical, as construction has not even begun yet.

The repository project is expected to cost $26 billion. Chief Haymond is concerned that the federal government will not be able to afford such a bill in these times of budget restraint and therefore may abandon the silos in Chalk River.

Long legal battle ahead

As for less contaminated waste accumulated in other containers, CNL wants to bury it directly on site one kilometre from the river. But the Kebaoweks has blocked the project in court.

They won the battle in the first instance, but the war continues since Ottawa has taken the case to the Court of Appeal. The hearings began in early October. Lance Haymond, supported by the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and the Assembly of First Nations of Canada, promises to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The conflict is therefore likely to drag on for years. In the meantime, and whatever the courts ultimately decide, the accumulation of garbage in Chalk River must stop, argues the Bloc Québécois.

October 21, 2025 Posted by | Canada, wastes | 1 Comment

Desperately seeking submariners: why keeping nuclear-powered boats afloat will be Australia’s biggest Aukus challenge.

Ben Doherty, Guardian, 21 Oct 25

A vast and highly trained workforce is needed to command, crew, supply and maintain nuclear submarines. Some say that’s impossible for Australia.

“Vice-Admiral Mead, you’re free to go home … good to see you cracking a smile.”

The head of the Australian Submarine Agency had spent a withering three hours before Senate estimates, parrying a barrage of questions about Australia’s ambitious Aukus nuclear submarine plan: interrogatives on consultants, on hundreds of millions of dollars sent to US and UK shipyards, on sclerotic boat-building on both sides of the Atlantic.

But while so much focus has been on Australia’s nuclear submarines’ arrival, their price tag and their “sovereign” status, the greatest challenge to the Aukus project, Mead told the Senate, would be finding the people to keep them afloat and at sea.

“Ensuring Australia has the workforce to deliver this program remains our biggest challenge,” he said.

If Australia’s nuclear submarines arrive on these shores – and that remains a contested question, with expert opinion ranging from an absolute yes to a certain no – will Australia be able to crew, supply and maintain them?

“It is a challenge we are continuing to meet,” Mead told senators. “Australian industry and navy personnel continue to build critical experience through targeted international placements.”

Others are less sanguine.

“The Aukus optimal pathway is a road to a quagmire,” says a former admiral and submarine commander, Peter Briggs, arguing that Australia’s small submarine arm can’t be upscaled quickly enough. “It’s not going anywhere. It will not work.”

Onshore trades, too, are perilously short. Without an additional 70,000 welders by 2030, that trade’s peak body says: “The Aukus submarine program is at serious risk of collapse.”

Mead was asked directly by senators: “Are you still confident of meeting the government’s agenda and timings?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

‘An eye-wateringly long process’

Briggs, a past president of the Submarine Institute of Australia, says the Aukus plan reads like one “designed by a political aide in a coffee shop”.

The navy’s submarine arm is approximately 850 sailors and officers (the defence department declined to give exact figures). The former chief of navy previously told parliament it needed to grow to 2,300 by the 2040s.

But Briggs estimates that to crew and support Australia’s Virginia-class, and later, Aukus-class submarines, the navy will need to more than treble its existing complement to about 2,700.

Virginias are massive submarines – nearly 8,000 tons – and carry a crew of 134, more than twice the existing Collins-class crew of 56. The Aukus submarines to be built in Adelaide will be bigger again. More tonnage, more people.

“That’s a huge increase in what is already in very scarce supply,” Briggs argues…………………………………………………………

The new generation of submariners is needed for between three and five Virginia-class submarines, then up to eight Australian-built Aukus boats.

“To get to be chief engineer of a nuclear submarine takes 16 to 18 years,” Briggs says. “It’s an eye-wateringly long process and of course you lose people along the way.

“That’s why you need a broad base, a critical mass, and Australia simply doesn’t have that right now. There is no way a navy the size of ours can manage this mix.”

Briggs does not believe the US will withdraw from Aukus: the presence of nuclear submarine bases on Australian soil is too great a prize for a superpower wanting to project power into the Pacific. But Australia’s unreadiness could lead to nuclear submarines under domestic command being delayed.

“We’ve got no warranty clause, no guarantee of anything. The cop-out could come in 2031, the US might say, ‘Look, you’re not quite ready yet, let’s push everything back three years, check in again in 2034.’ And it’s Australia that’s left exposed.”

‘Beyond frustrating, it’s dangerous’

Beyond the complexity of commanding and crewing a nuclear submarine, the vessels need a vast and highly trained workforce to keep them supplied, afloat and at sea………………………………………………………………………

“This is not just a workforce challenge,” its chief executive, Geoff Crittenden, said in a statement. “It’s a full-blown capability crisis … If we don’t address this issue now, Aukus will fail.”

Aukus represented a “perfect storm”, he said, and failure to address worker shortages was “beyond frustrating, it’s dangerous”.

“A once-in-a-generation opportunity like Aukus demands a long-term, strategic response, not just investment in ships and steel, but in people. We estimate that Australia will be at least 70,000 welders short by 2030. Without immediate action, the project is doomed to delays, cost blowouts, or worse.”…………………………………………………………………………

The first cohort won’t be Australian. “In the short term there will have to be an influx of international talent, as we train and upskill our own people.”

Tier two is a nuclearised workforce of skilled professionals – scientists, electrical and mechanical engineers, technical managers, reactor operators and health physicists – with advanced training and between seven and 10 years’ experience. The majority of a submarine crew would sit in this tier. Obbard estimates that about 5,000 tier-two workers will be needed.

Tier three is a further cohort of “nuclear-aware” workers – between 5,000 and 6,000 again – tradespeople including machinists, fitters and welders, who will require some nuclear training.

“The Aukus plan cannot work without building this workforce and the wider engineering community this workforce is drawn from.”

Does it make sense?’

Jack Dillich is uniquely placed to observe Australia’s transformation to a nuclear submarine power. A former submarine officer, he holds an advanced degree in nuclear engineering and served on the executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, where he was responsible for the country’s sole nuclear reactor, and as head of the regulatory branch at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. He now teaches a nuclear course at the Australian Defence Force Academy………………………………….

[Dillich says] Australia needs to be asking, ‘Does it make sense to try to build a tiny fleet here?’ Maybe 25 years from now, Australia could have eight nuclear-propelled submarines: they would be very, very expensive.”……………………………..https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/20/aukus-submarine-workforce-nuclear-powered-boats-australia

October 21, 2025 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, employment | Leave a comment

Slouching Towards Peace

“Zelensky has been given a Russian ultimatum via Trump. Accept Russia terms or face total destruction.” —SiriusReport on “X”

James Howard Kunstler, Oct 20, 2025, https://www.kunstler.com/p/slouching-towards-peace

Well, “No Kings” came and went. Inflatable animal costumes did a brisk business for one week. The old Boomers got a social space to act out their nostalgic re-visit to the Age of Aquarius. They resisted. . . something. (Mainly authority of any kind, a retarded adolescent fantasy.) And now it’s back to Rachel Maddow for further instructions. The Republic slogs on, albeit with a shut-down government.

Did you forget about Ukraine? Yes, a war is still going on there and it’s a weeping lesion on Western Civ, possibly leading to fatal sepsis. US neocons set the stage in 2014 with the Maidan color revolution as a wedge to wreck and then loot Russia. Then, for eight years, Ukraine harassed the Donbas with US-supplied missiles and artillery. Russia had enough of that in 2022 and ventured in to stop it. For “Joe Biden,” the war was a nice smokescreen to cover his long-running grift operations in Ukraine. The Euro club stupidly came along for the ride.

It was all a tragic and feckless waste. Mr. Trump wants to stop it, but Western Civ as a whole is in such a state of florid strategic disorder that he’s had to pretend the US supports Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky could not possibly carry on this mischief without US weapons and loads of US taxpayer cash. Still, the Russians advance implacably on-the-ground. They are going to “win” this war eventually — meaning, the US and Europe will lose — and everybody knows it.

It would be nice if France, Germany, and the UK were still stable, thriving, rational nations, but they are not. They have entered an arc of collapse, largely due to their own stupendously bad choices, and their leadership is insane. Macron, Merz, Starmer. . . these are the Three Stooges of our time, and Europe’s collapse has degenerated to morbid, masochistic slapstick as their factories shutter and the Jihadis go about raping their wives and daughters. Do you think that’s not happening?

Mr. Trump surely realizes he has to cut the US loose from this evil clown-show. That they are our NATO allies complicates things, yet, really, the Euro gang is impotent and NATO has become an irrelevant anachronism. They have no effective military mojo. Their economies are imploding. They have surrendered their culture to a savage cult. Their populations are demoralized, emasculated, in thrall to the menopausal viragos in their councils and ministries. They know full-well that Ukraine lies in Russia’s sphere-of-influence — a centuries-long reality — and that it is none of their business. Yet, Macron, Merz, and Starmer keep pushing the fantasy that Russia seeks to invade them, and so they must strike at Russia before that happens . . . all pure delusion.

You can suppose that Mr. Putin wants a negotiated peace rather than continuing the long grind on-the-ground, with all its casualties and expenditures. Such a negotiated peace really amounts to the US ceasing to support Zelensky’s war effort. Of course, such is the insanity of US political life, that many in our government pretend that we have a stake in Ukraine, and must retain some control of it.

Mr. Trump must know this is insane and is against the interests of the USA. He knows that Ukraine is historically in Russia’s sphere of influence — as Venezuela is in ours — and that the best outcome of this mess would be for Ukraine to return to its prior status as a harmless frontier between Russia and western Europe — as it had been since 1945 — looking to its humble business of growing wheat for export. We do not need Ukraine to be anybody’s problem, despite the insane yearnings of the neocons, the weapons manufacturers, and the reckless globalists of the EU, to make it everyone’s problem.

Hence, Mr. Trump’s dilemma: how to dissociate from this losing proposition and come out looking like a winner, saving Europe from becoming a smoldering ashtray, stanching the flow of US taxpayers’ money and US-made weapons into this black hole, and forging friendly relations with a Russia that is decades beyond being our ideological enemy? America and Russia’s interests are geopolitically aligned, though no one in the arena is willing to admit it. Russia has much more to worry about with China right at Siberia’s doorstep than with the USA, just as the USA has much more to worry about with China as it weaponizes A-I, moves into outer space, and casts a covetous eye on the resources of the USA, Australia, Africa, and its next-door-neighbor, Russia.

These are the matters that Presidents Trump and Putin must be touching on in those long, two-and-a-half-hour phone confabs they hold. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump must put on a vaudeville show for his US adversaries about maybe giving tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. . . no, maybe not doing that. . . and the rest of the song and dance to make it appear that we are kinda-sorta still on Ukraine’s side when the truth is we are not so much at all.

And so, the two presidents head for Budapest where — if the intel spooks of Euroland don’t try to bump them off there — they might come to the necessary agreement that the war will end because the US no longer supports it, not even the pretense of supporting it. President Viktor Orban of Hungary, who Mr. Trump respects, will be on hand for moral support. Expect some tough-talking mummery from DJT, just to throw the MSNBC lunatics off-balance. Rogue idiots such as Senators Blumenthal and Schiff will fume that “Trump lost Ukraine,” but the 50-plus percent of Americans who are not-insane will understand what actually happened.

October 21, 2025 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The madness of Trump’s vision for America


The Trump administration has banned or cautioned against using at least 350 words or phrases, including “climate change” (with and without a hyphen), “evidence-based,” “chest-feed + person” (don’t ask), “wind power” and yes, even “women.”

 17 October 2025,  https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/madness-trumps-vision-america

From terrifying the children of immigrants to pepper-spraying frogs, the US under Trump is rapidly descending into mayhem, writes Linda Pentz Gunter

N INFLATABLE frog has been pepper-sprayed, spawning (sorry) an army of affinity frogs and other creatures real and fictional, protesting at the often violent arrests of immigrants. A clarinettist in a brass band has been assaulted and arrested, abbreviations have been outlawed and naked bicycle riders are swarming our streets.

If it looks like the United States has gone mad, that’s because it probably has.

All of this happened in just one US city — Portland, Oregon — the hotbed of antifa, according to the Trump administration, which is trying to proscribe the “group” even though these days “antifa,” an abbreviation of “anti-fascist,” pretty much defines anyone who opposes Trump, and was never an actual organisation.

Also this week, the US Secretary of Defence, who, in the interests of achieving peace says he has renamed his purview the Department of War although no-one actually calls it that, announced this week that the United States had given the Qataris their own air force base in Idaho.

DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bizarre declaration was quickly retracted after President Trump’s own “America First” base reacted with shock that a foreign power was being gifted its own military base on American soil. What Hegseth apparently meant, or what he now says he meant it to mean, is that the US will be hosting the Qatari military on a US base for training purposes, a not uncommon practice.

In another ominous move by the DoD, this time to shut down free speech, the department has ordered media outlets that cover the Pentagon to sign onto a new press policy that forbids defence reporters from soliciting, obtaining or using any information not already authorised by the DoD. All but one have refused to do so.

Meanwhile, as the Gaza ceasefire agreement was finally announced, Jared Kushner, the reprehensible son-in-law of the even more repulsive US president, floating in some parallel universe and with visions of beachfront real estate still dancing in his head, publicly pronounced Israel “exceptional” for refusing to replicate “the barbarism of the enemy.”


Kushner seems not only to have missed the two-year genocide in Gaza but also Israel’s cruel and inhumane treatment of Palestinians for the many decades prior.

He is not alone, of course. The US mainstream media has been awash in happy reunion stories of the returned Israeli hostages, which would be entirely understandable if they did not at the same time largely ignore the grimmer realties surrounding the simultaneous release of the Palestinian hostages (for such they are, not “prisoners,” since most have never committed a crime).

Some of the Palestinians just released were never reunited with their families at all but were instead immediately deported to Egypt. Others were left in the West Bank where the hostile and violent takeover of Palestinian lands and homes by illegal Israeli “settlers” continues.


Even those who could joyously reunite with their loved ones, in some cases after decades of separation, were not allowed to savour that moment without the spectre of the Israeli menace still literally hanging over their heads.

Instead of bombs falling from the skies, the Israelis rained down threats in the form of paper messages warning Palestinians that “We are watching you everywhere. If you show any support for a terrorist group, you will expose yourself to arrest and punishment.”

No-one should believe that this ceasefire signals any intent whatsoever by Israel to relinquish its control over the lives of Palestinians.

The obvious response to all this? Give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize! The past weeks have seen a non-stop sycophantic advocacy campaign by legions of leaders and political commentators who advocated for Trump with almost unprecedented zeal. That was before last Friday’s announcement of the decidedly problematic choice of Venezuelan opposition leader and “iron lady” Maria Corina Machado instead.

That is the paradigm we are now in: the belief that the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to those who enabled, funded, armed and participated in a genocide, once they themselves decided to halt their own war crimes.

Trump could have ended Israel’s genocide in Gaza on day one of his presidency with a single phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He chose not to. Like us, he watched the killings, bombings, and forced starvation along with the targeted assassinations of 1,700 doctors and more than 200 journalists, live-streamed on our screens for two years. We’ve been horrified. He did nothing. Worse still, at times he egged on Netanyahu to “finish the job.”

Back home, Trump continues with his quiet coup. Denied for now the possibility of sending troops into major US cities, he will continue testing this, with an eye to deploying them during the 2026 midterm elections that could see both the US House and Senate swing to the Democrats.

Federal agencies are being purged of dissenters and stacked with “yes men.” The Elon Chainsaw Massacre may be over now that billionaire Elon Musk, who ordered the early rounds of dismissals through the entity he invented — the Department of Government Efficiency — has fled the scene. But the maiming continues, as critical workers are fired, public institutions defunded and non-profits viewed as progressive or “woke” are blacklisted.

The barbarity of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities has prompted citizen protests and sometimes even interventions in cities across the US. Portland has become the epicentre of street theatre protest.

The resistance began, as it often does, with a single individual, a man in an inflatable frog costume who goes by the name of Apollo Toad, staring down ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agents. Pretty soon, others rallied to his side, dressed as a variety of animals and cartoon characters, at once mocking the proceedings, but at the same time driving home the absurdity of Trump’s attempt to label them terrorists.

The Portland clarinettist, Oriana Korol, had been playing music with the Unpresidented Brass Band before she was knocked down according to eyewitnesses, then grabbed and taken to a jail in the neighbouring state of Washington to face charges of assaulting a federal agent, accusations her bandmates say are trump(et)ed up.

In Florida, far-right Governor and Trump acolyte Ron DeSantis is trying to get a Bill passed in his state’s legislature, HB 119, also known as the “No Sharia Act,” a fear-mongering attempt to “stigmatise Muslims by pretending that US courts could be ‘overruled’ by foreign or religious law,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group, said in a statement.

“In reality, American courts are already bound by the US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, making HB 119 completely unnecessary and clearly unconstitutional,” the group said.

Black Hawk helicopters have descended on Chicago, frightening children out of their beds in the middle of the night, dragged naked and handcuffed with their families Gestapo-style out onto the street before being driven away in unmarked cars.

Ironically, one of the most banned books in America right now is A Clockwork Orange that features a dystopian, violence-filled future. It’s a black comedy, but the censors miss that. In the meantime, there were 44,000 gun deaths in the US in 2024, equivalent to wiping out an entire British town the size of Salisbury or Ashton-under-Lyne.

The Trump administration has banned or cautioned against using at least 350 words or phrases, including “climate change” (with and without a hyphen), “evidence-based,” “chest-feed + person” (don’t ask), “wind power” and yes, even “women.”

On the international front, Trump is bombing boats out of Venezuelan waters without a care as to who might be on them, leading to concerns of a war against Venezuela. He has announced he may send long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, a clear provocation to Russia.

At home, renewable energy projects have been all but killed off. Trump has threatened 100 per cent tariffs against China. The price of eggs has become the least of our problems.

There are still 190 active lawsuits challenging Trump administration actions, down from more than 300 since Trump took office in January which already seems like a lifetime ago.

We are still clinging to the hope that our legal system will save us from autocracy and a descent into fascism, even though the US Supreme Court is stacked in Trump’s favour. Three of the nine justices were placed there by him alongside three other arch-conservatives. It was that court that declared last year that the president has widespread immunity from prosecution while in office.

The government is still shut down. Trump says he won’t go to heaven (in case anyone cares), for achieving the Gaza ceasefire. But he is determined to plunge the country he is supposed to be leading into a living hell.

October 21, 2025 Posted by | culture and arts, USA | Leave a comment

Pay attention to the nuclear threat on our doorsteps

 THOSE who fear for the future of our planet understandably focus on global
heating, biodiversity loss, autonomous weapons and an unsustainable and
unequal economic system. But there remains far too little attention to the
nuclear threat on our doorsteps.

That threat of nuclear conflagration has
edged a little closer this past week, highlighting both the dangerous
fiction of “deterrence” as a guarantor of security and how preparing
for war to protect peace can head rapidly in the wrong direction.

There has been little in the mainstream media over the past few days on the nuclear strike training taking place over European skies – which still includes Scotland, despite our lack of a seat around any of the tables that
influence or decide these things.

 The National 18th Oct 2025,
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25552853.pay-attention-nuclear-threat-doorsteps/

October 21, 2025 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Gaza to become a tax-free ‘billionaire haven’ according to Jared Kushner and Zionist billionaires

Skwawkbox, 16 October 2025

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, along with Epstein-linked Palantir boss Peter Thiel and pro-Israel Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, plan to turn Gaza into a haven for billionaires. They plan to do so with a city of tax-free startups, with scattered server farms for cloud processing and artificial intelligence. That will supplement factories with cheap labour, and simple regulations will also smooth the way for “normalization with Saudi Arabia”, according to Israeli media outlet N12.

The article – which, interestingly, does not seem to appear on the site’s English-search version – says that:

The huge economic project of rebuilding Gaza after the war is already attracting interest from countries, billionaires and former leaders [and] from Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who aspires to establish Al centers in the Strip, to foreign investors looking for enabling regulation.

Experts predict [that] the development initiatives could serve as leverage to promote normalization with Saudi Arabia, also through Kushner’s involvement, but the road there is still fraught with political and security obstacles.

It notes that Ellison is ready to put $350 million into the plan, which is in line with Trump’s notorious and unlawful ‘Gaza riviera‘ ethnic cleansing plan and fascist Israeli ministers’ Gaza ‘real estate bonanza’.

October 20, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Why hasn’t Trump been arrested for mass premeditated murder in the Caribbean?

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 18 Oct 25, https://theaimn.net/why-hasnt-trump-been-arrested-for-mass-premeditated-murder-in-the-caribbean/

All 15 presidents (Trump twice) since WWII have been involved in either dozens of regime change operations or 9 military interventions (wars) that have killed millions. So it should surprise no one that mass murder goes with the job of the post WWII presidency. 

But there is something particularly offensive, indeed ghoulish about Trump’s bragging over his blasting six unarmed boats out of the waters around Venezuela, sending the ships and their 27 occupants down to Davy Jones Locker. Trump pitched his summary executions of folks who will forever remain silent about their watery agenda, as necessary to stop narco terrorists emanating from Venezuela to satisfy Americans’ insatiable thirst for drugs. 

No one believes that besides Trump, his War Secretary Pete Hegseth and top diplomat Marco Rubio. All three lust to complete America’s 26 year long regime change operation against the socialist Venezuelan governments of Nicholas Madero and his predecessor Hugo Chavez. Those 9 warships, including a sub, 10,000 troops and B-52’s circling Venezuela awaiting attack orders are not there to interdict drugs. Their poised to complete America’s cherished regime change in Venezuela on Trump’s second watch. 

Trump’s murder in the Caribbean represents the highest of high crimes that should move him from his temporary stay in the White House…to a permanent stay in the Big House. 

Come on Attorney General Pam Bondi. If you can indict Letitia James for a frivolous statement on a real estate deal and John Bolton for top secret pillow talk at bedtime, you certainly can indict your boss for mass murder in the Caribbean. Start the investigation under the code name….Blonde Bombshell.

October 20, 2025 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

A US Strike in Caribbean Leaves Survivors, Reports Say

News of the strike comes as the US military’s top commander for Latin America has suddenly stepped down.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, October 17, 2025

new, seemingly not yet publicly disclosed U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean has left survivors for the first time, reports say.

Reuters, citing a U.S. official, reported that the U.S. bombed what they claim is a drug trade-related vessel on Thursday. However, unlike the military’s previous five strikes, which were publicly disclosed by officials, the attack did not kill all of the people on board, the source said.

Other news outlets confirmed that the strike had not killed everyone on board, and that this was a first amid the current escalation, officials said.

Trump administration officials have not touted the strike on social media. Footage and information on previous strikes that the U.S. has said killed 27 people altogether have been posted online by military officials and President Donald Trump, with the administration seemingly using the footage — something not typically posted online in such a matter — as a show of strength. The posts announcing the strikes were typically made just hours after they occurred.

News of the attack comes amid the sudden announcement of the departure of the top military official overseeing the strikes in the Caribbean on Thursday. Adm. Alvin Holsey announced that he is leaving his role as the head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America, on December 12.

Following the announcement, Holsey claimed that he would retire from the Navy. However, both a current and a former U.S. official told The New York Times that Holsey had raised concerns about the U.S.’s operations in the Caribbean, and two officials told CNN that “tensions had been simmering” between Holsey and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for weeks in the lead-up to the decision. Holsey’s departure from what was supposed to be a three-year post after less than a year is highly unusual.

“At a moment when U.S. forces are building up across the Caribbean and tensions with Venezuela are at a boiling point, the departure of our top military commander in the region sends an alarming signal of instability within the chain of command,” said Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat.

The strike and circumstances surrounding it potentially show that the administration is carrying out a wider campaign of aggression in the region than it is disclosing.

CNN reported this week that one of the strikes in September targeted Colombian nationals, despite administration officials typically only referring to attacks on Venezuelans in public statements. The administration has reportedly authorized a wide-ranging assault on gangs in the region that is far larger than what has been publicly disclosed.

Further, media reports say that Trump has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations within Venezuela and around the Caribbean.

Some information may also be obscured because the Pentagon effectively barred most of its dedicated press corps this week from covering the country’s largest federal agency.

The Department of Defense unilaterally imposed new, restrictive rules that sought, seemingly, to exercise control over journalists’ coverage and threatened expulsion. Rather than comply, dozens of journalists turned in their badges and left.

October 20, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Iran says restrictions on nuclear programme ‘terminated’ as deal expires

Iran also expresses commitment to diplomacy as landmark 10-year nuclear deal with Western powers officially ends

By News Agencies, 18 Oct 202518 Oct 2025, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/18/iran-says-restrictions-on-nuclear-programme-terminated-as-deal-expires

Iran has said it is no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its “commitment to diplomacy”.

From now on, “all of the provisions [of the 2015 deal], including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the related mechanisms are considered terminated,” Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday, the day of the pact’s expiration.

“Iran firmly expresses its commitment to diplomacy,” it added.

The deal’s “termination day” was set for exactly 10 years after the adoption of resolution 2231, enshrined by the United Nations Security Council.

Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement between Iran and China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States saw the lifting of international sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

But Washington unilaterally left the deal in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office and reinstated sanctions. Tehran then began stepping up its nuclear programme.

Talks to revive the agreement have failed so far, and in August, the UK, Germany and France triggered the so-called “snapback” process, leading to the re-imposition of the UN sanctions.

“Termination day is relatively meaningless due to snapback,” Arms Control Association expert Kelsey Davenport told the AFP news agency.

Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director, told AFP that while the nuclear deal had been “lifeless” for years, the snapback had “officially buried” the agreement, with “its sorry fate continuing to cast a shadow over the future”.

Western powers and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.

Neither US intelligence nor the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said they found any evidence this year that Iran was pursuing atomic weapons.

Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers are currently deadlocked.

“Iran remains sceptical of the utility of engaging with the US given its history with President Trump, while Washington still seeks a maximalist deal,” Vaez told AFP.

On Monday, Trump said he wanted a peace deal with Iran, but stressed the ball was in Tehran’s court.

Tehran has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy with the US, provided Washington offers guarantees against military action during any potential talks.

The US joined Israel in striking Iran during a 12-day war in June, which hit nuclear sites, but also killed more than 1,000 Iranians, including hundreds of civilians, and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Angered that the IAEA did not condemn the attacks and accusing the agency of “double standards”, President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a law in early July suspending all cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog and prompting inspectors to leave the country.

For its part, the IAEA has described its inability to verify Iran’s nuclear stockpile since the start of the war “a matter of serious concern”.

The three European powers last week announced they will seek to restart talks to find a “comprehensive, durable and verifiable agreement”.

Iranian top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said during an interview last week that Tehran does “not see any reason to negotiate” with the Europeans, given they triggered the snapback mechanism.

October 20, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Fascist Israeli minister Smotrich calls Gaza genocide a “real estate bonanza”

Oops, your real motives are showing

Skwawkbox by Skwawkbox, 19 September 2025, https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2025/09/19/smotrich-gaza/

“We paid a lot of money for the war, so we need to decide how to divide the percentages of the land” – these are the words of self-described ‘fascist and homophobe’ Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich as he discussed how Israel and the US plan to divide up Gaza between themselves this week.

“We paid a lot of money for the war, so we need to decide how to divide the percentages of the land” – these are the words of self-described ‘fascist and homophobe’ Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich as he discussed how Israel and the US plan to divide up Gaza between themselves this week.


Smotrich: Gaza is a ‘real estate bonanza’

Speaking in Hebrew at a property conference, Smotrich added:

The Gaza Strip is becoming a real estate bonanza.

The Israeli and Trump regimes – to be more accurate the Israeli-Trump regime – have long been discussing the US ‘Trump-Gaza plan’ to turn Gaza, after the extermination or expulsion of its rightful Palestinian owners, into a beach-front resort money-making project, a plan even accompanied by a deranged AI video posted by Trump to his social media.


We paid a lot of money for the war, so we need to decide how to divide the percentages of the land in Gaza. The demolition phase is always the first phase of urban renewal. We did that, now we need to start building.

Trump’s plan was first developed for him by the same people who came up with the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ whose ‘aid’ stations have killed more than 2,000 desperate refugees seeking food and wounded more than 15,000 –  a group of Israeli business people.

BCG, the consulting firm who financialised the plan, calculated that it would return to its backers four times the initial investment of $100 billion, according to the plan. The firm has since tried to distance itself from the plan, claiming to have sacked all the partners who approved it.

Smotrich should be in the Hague. No ifs, no buts.

October 20, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Deloitte to pay $34mn over audit work on US nuclear fiasco.

Deloitte has agreed to pay $34mn to investors who blamed the auditor for
losses stemming from the collapse of one of US’s largest nuclear power
projects, a rare legal settlement by a Big Four firm.

Former shareholders in the South Carolina utility Scana said Deloitte failed to spot red flags and allowed management to hide mounting problems with the construction of two nuclear reactors a decade ago. Scana shares tumbled when it eventually abandoned work on the reactors in 2017, leading to its cut-price sale to a rival utility and jail time for its former chief executive, who pleaded guilty to misleading regulators. The fiasco also pushed construction company Westinghouse into bankruptcy.

 FT 17th Oct 2025,
https://www.ft.com/content/f9fc0a78-ff10-40f3-8253-220d9acd56bb

October 20, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

It is now antisemitic to object to Israeli football hooligans causing violence in your city

Laura and Normal Island News, Oct 18, 2025, https://www.normalisland.co.uk/p/it-is-now-antisemitic-to-object-to?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1407757&post_id=176482013&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=ln98x&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Aston Villa football club caused outrage when it banned Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from an upcoming UEFA Europa League match. The pathetic excuse was that West Midlands police had intelligence that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were planning violence. Aston Villa took that intelligence seriously, just because Maccabi Tel Aviv fans had been violent at other European football matches.

In previous incidents, local authorities sensibly lied to protect Israeli fans, and pretended local fans caused the violence, disregarding camera footage and eye witnesses. News outlets such as Sky News were quick to apologise for their initial reporting and correct the narrative. This saved them from getting the same treatment as journalists in Gaza.

I’m proud to say I’m one of the few journalists who has consistently stuck to the officially authorised version of the truth, which is as follows:

In Amsterdam, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were innocently chanting words such as “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left” and the all-time classic, “Death to Arabs”. Obviously, only a racist would object to such chants.

Video footage shows Maccabi Tel Aviv fans carrying chains, and terrorising train passengers, and threatening journalists, and beating up random members of the public who had nothing to do with the football match. Outrageously, some local people attempted to defend themselves against these fans.

As we all know, it’s antisemitic for anyone to defend themselves against Israelis, whether they be Palestinians, or local football fans, or random people who did not know what the fuck was going on.

When Israel attacks your people, the only non-antisemitic response is to throw your people under a bus and blame them for being attacked. However, Aston Villa decided to ignore that principle, provoking outcry from all the politicians who are owned by Israel.

The UK’s most prominent genocide supporters, such as Michael Gove, suggested the ban of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans meant “no Jews allowed”. Please understand, it is not antisemitic to conflate Jews with Israel when Zionists do it.

Reassuringly, Sir Keir Starmer was instructed to say the ban was the “wrong decision.” The prime minister tweeted: “We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.”

Just so we’re clear, Starmer meant that Israeli football fans can enjoy the game. He doesn’t give a fuck if you’re the victim of violence and intimidation.

Thankfully, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud has stepped in and demanded Maccabi Tel Aviv fans be allowed into the game. She has promised additional police patrols so Maccabi Tel Aviv fans can chant “death to Arabs” and beat up Aston Villa fans without retaliation. She will take full responsibility for any violence by blaming Aston Villa fans who act in self-defence.

The home secretary has confirmed that any Aston Villa fans who defend themselves will be extradited to Israel where they will get the Greta Thunberg treatment. She has demanded the chair and board of Aston Villa resign for trying to protect their fans. She has requested that Aston Villa be banned from all UEFA tournaments, and insisted we should boycott, and divest from, the city of Birmingham.

If Birmingham fails to straighten up its act, Mahmoud will not rule out airstrikes against Villa Park x

October 20, 2025 Posted by | Religion and ethics, UK | Leave a comment

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