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

The past week in nuclear-related news

TOP STORIES.

Decades of Global Drone War Made Trump’s Caribbean Killing Spree Possible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsoa5k5Nguo&t=88s

Nuclear power is inherently colonialist and unjust.

Trump’s ‘End of History’ Moment.

Does Britain really need nuclear power?

Sizewell C — the last of its kind. After theFirst 70,669 Deaths

Chris Hedges: Rebranding Genocide. Israel Apologists Hasten To Use Bondi Shooting To Attack Anti-Genocide Activists.

Climate, Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined.

Noel’s notes. Ethics matter more than ever – even in Israel., https://theaimn.net/ethics-matter-more-than-ever-even-in-israel/

AUSTRALIA . H&B Defence and Curtin University launch nuclear training partnership for AUKUS. Australia’s security abandoned to the folly of declining US empire. How US Power Came toDominate Australian Sovereignty. The incoherent mix in Australian defence policy.

When grief becomes a weapon: The Bondi massacre and the politics of blame. Netanyahu is exploiting the Bondi Beach massacre to build support for the Gaza genocide and is fueling antisemitism in the process. The Australian Israel Lobby Is Flat-Out Saying They Want A Ban On Criticism Of Israel. Bondi demands grief, respect, fairness and empathy. Grief is not a licence for hate.

AUKUS Caucus.

The Shadow Cabinet: How Encrypted Lobbying and the Erosion of Record-Keeping Are Undermining Australian Democracy. A Wave of Action to Demilitarise Newcastle. HISTORY FELLOWSHIP WINNER TO EXPLORE HOW SOUTH AUSTRALIANS MOBILISED AGAINST URANIAM MINING IN THE ’70s

CLIMATE. Nuc­lear power plant is threat to our future.

ECONOMICS. Europe is about to commit financial self-immolation: Its leaders know it.

Let the investor beware: why buying UK government Green Savings Bonds now means backing nuclear. Elon Musk says small nuclear reactors ‘super dumb’. Google, NextEra expand collaboration to develop nuclear-powered gigawatt AI campuses’ ‘Huge conflict of interest’: Trump’s $600 million windfall after nuclear deal.

EDUCATION. The Israeli army is creating a ‘new security reality’ in the northern West Bank to advance colonization. Torness Nuclear Power Station welcomes East Lothian schoolchildren.

EMPLOYMENT. Revelation that UK’s Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) could be robotic prompts question over employment.

ENERGY. Transition will halve our energy costs by 2050. Elon Musk Slams Nuclear Energy As ‘Super Dumb’, Declares Solar Power The Real Future.

ENVIRONMENT.https://www.energylivenews.com/2025/12/11/transition-will-halve-our-energy-costs-by-2050/

ETHICS and RELIGION. A golden noose around Israel’s soul: Ben-Gvir’s theology of death strangles society – opinion.

Catholic bishops remind political leaders that nuclear weapons are immoral.

EVENTS. 5 January -Webinar-What is Trump’s Golden Dome? REGISTER AT Massachusetts Peace Action Education

HEALTH. Cancer risk may increase with proximity to nuclear power plants.

HISTORY. Memory as Resistance: WhyHibakusha Testimonies Matter for Nuclear Justice Today.

The first Zionist targeted assassination  – 1924

LEGAL. Julian Assange: Sweden Broke Own Laws With Nobel Prize to Venezuela’s Machado. US Relied on Illegal Sanctions to Seize Venezuelan Oil Tanker. Nuclear power: the courts put a stop to the project for two EPR2 reactors at Bugey – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/12/16/2-b1-nuclear-power-the-courts-put-a-stop-to-the-project-for-two-epr2-reactors-at-bugey/ Council battling illegal work near nuclear site. High Court challenge to Sizewell C ‘cannot be right’, court told ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/12/16/2-b1-high-court-challenge-to-sizewell-c-cannot-be-right-court-told/ Disappointing news from the High Court, to Together Against Sizewell C (TASC).

MEDIA. In 2025, The Israeli Army Was The ‘Worst Enemy Of Journalists’. Israel Propagandists Are Uniformly Spouting The Exact Same Line About The Bondi Shooting. Using the Slain:Israel Exploits the Bondi Beach Shootings. Ahmed Al Ahmed’s actions showed what moral clarity looks like — the commentary around him showed media bias.

Book –Secretary Of Perpetual War.

OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . The Oldest Nuclear Power Plant In The World Is Facing Public Backlash . More than 200 environmental groups demand halt to new US datacenters.

POLITICS. Israeli Ministers Wear Noose Pins to Symbolize Support for Killing Palestinians.

Ukraine wants West to pay for election Elections impossible under Zelensky’s ‘terrorist regime’ – exiled Ukrainian MP.

Nuclear power’s role in Japan is fading – The myths of reactor safety and energy needs can’t change that reality.

Scottish National Party says UK nuclear deterrent is ‘America-first’. Reeves’s planning overhaul stalls as UK’s senior adviser leaves after four months. India’s Parliament approves bill to open civil nuclear power sector to private firms.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. A Serious Proposal:Russia and China Call for Global Strategic Stability. Is the UN Ready for a Non-Renewable 7-YearTerm for the Secretary-General? Less Than 50 Days Before New START Treaty Expires.

EU leaders agree on $160b loan to Ukraine after plan to use frozen Russian assets unravels. Wait, What?! They are​ calling fast-track Ukraine EU bid ‘nonsense.’ – So why dangle it? EU member says it won’t finance Ukraine. The Ukrainian negotiations are dragging on. Europe Continues To Interfere In Ukraine’s Last Chance For Peace. US sets out condition for Ukraine security guarantees – Axios.

Trump Admits He Wants To Take Venezuela’s Oil – and Give It to US Corporations. Trump’s Empire of Hubris and Thuggery

RADIATION. Exposure to protracted low-dose ionizing radiation and incident dementia in a cohort of Ontario nuclear power plant workers. Radioactive fertilizer and the nuclear industry

SAFETY. Trump’s rush to build nuclear reactors across the U.S. raises safety worries. Panic as Chernobyl’s $2 billion protective shield cracks open sparking fears of a deadly radiation leak. Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant running on single power line, Russia says. Could armed robots be the future of nuclear site security? Fire safety failings hit Hinkley Point. Ottawa medical manufacturer giving up nuclear licence after defying regulator.

SECRETS and LIES. CLEAN? -WHAT A LIE! NIA welcomes first-ever nuclear appointment to Government’s Clean? Power Advisory Commission. The Lobby Is Milking the Bondi Beach Attack To Silence Critics of Israel’s Genocide. Hi-tech holocaust: How Microsoft aids the Gaza genocide.

SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Over the Moon and Down to Earth.

TECHNOLOGY. US pauses implementation of $40 billion technology deal with Britain. University of Michigan report: History showsadvanced nuclear likely to have predictable negative consequences.

URANIUM. Niger builds relationships with overseas uranium partners.

WASTES. 73 Organizations Send Joint Letter Calling on the Federal Government to Improve Nuclear Waste Oversight. What to do with Britain’s radioactive waste?

WAR and CONFLICT. ‘Unquestionably an Act of War’: Trump Declares Naval Blockade Against Venezuela. Trump Declares Fentanyl a Weapon of Mass Destruction as His ‘Lawless Killing Spree’ Escalates . Drones targeting European and UK nuclear weapons infrastructure.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Nuclear flashpoints to fallout. How nuclear submarines could pave the way for nuclear weapons in South Korea. NewUK-France Nuclear Steering Group Meets to Advance Cooperation Under Northwood Declaration. The worrying new detail in UK plans for nuclear-capable jets – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/12/16/2-b1-the-worrying-new-detail-in-uk-plans-for-nuclear-capable-jets/

December 23, 2025 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fukushima Now (29) – Part 1: What Constitutes Responsibility?

by Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center · December 21, 2025, By Yamaguchi Yukio, https://cnic.jp/english/?p=8747

n the 14 and a half years that have passed since March 2011, the cesium-137 that was released has finally made it to the halfway point of its half-life. After 90 years, its radioactive concentration will have diminished to one-eighth its initial level, and after 300 years, one-thousandth. According to the current medium-to-long-term roadmap, decommissioning measures should be completed around 2041 to 2051. Even by then, however, the radioactivity will have decreased only by a little more than half. Not even what these “decommissioning measures” are supposed to include has been decided on yet.

In places with serious radioactive contamination, nobody will be able to live there for another century. The area thus affected is said to exceed 300 square kilometers. The first sample of fuel debris taken from the Unit 2 reactor weighed 0.7 grams, and the second, 0.2 grams. The information gained from their analysis is just as miniscule. Meanwhile, the total amount of fuel debris in the Unit 1-3 reactors is estimated at 880 tons. Whether it will be necessary to retrieve all of it to begin with is a matter of great contention.

 Idogawa Katsutaka, who was mayor of Futaba Town at the time of the accident, evacuated the entire town to protect everyone there from radioactive exposure, leading many of them as far as 250 kilometers away to Kazo City, Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, where they took refuge in a gymnasium that had belonged to the town’s former Kisai High School. This was just one of the municipalities that evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture to escape radioactivity. The town’s population totaled 6,971 people overall, of whom 187 took refuge at the former Kisai High School (as of September 18, 2012). Details of their evacuation were relayed widely around the world by the 2012 film “Nuclear Nation” (Japanese: “Futaba kara Toku Hanarete,” directed by Funahashi Atsushi, music by Sakamoto Ryuichi).

As of 1 August 2025, the registered population of Futaba Town had dwindled to 5,157 in all, of whom 59 percent were living within Fukushima Prefecture and 41 percent were still evacuees elsewhere among 43 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Idogawa’s hope is, “We want somehow to go home, all of us, together, to a safe hometown.” The number of returnees so far, however, is a mere 87 people (as of August 2025).

■ Idogawa filed suit in May 2015 against the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), seeking 755 million yen in damages. A decision on the case was rendered on 30 July 2025 in Tokyo District Court, finding no responsibility on the part of the government, but ordering TEPCO to pay compensation of about 100 million yen for damages to real estate and compensation for the evacuations.

The reasoning behind this decision was that even if the government had required TEPCO to take measures against a possible tsunami, there was a good likelihood that a similar accident could have occurred anyway, so the government bore no responsibility for it. This followed the precedent of a Supreme Court’s ruling on 17 June 2022 denying the government’s responsibility.

Nor did they recognize Idogawa’s claim that his health had been damaged by his exposure in the course of evacuating. This angered Idogawa, who called it a terrible decision against a person who had faithfully fallen in line with Japan’s atomic energy administration.

I think what caused this tragic nuclear accident, unprecedented in scale, was Japan’s fundamentally flawed nuclear power system, adopted by the government in the name of “peaceful use of the atom.” It can only be called a huge transgression by the politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, and business leaders of that time on account of their lackadaisical inattention to safety.

The theory of plate tectonics teaches us not to expect to see broad regions of stability, free from concerns about earthquakes, tsunamis or volcanic activity in the Japanese archipelago. We are only part way toward clarifying the causes and circumstances of the Fukushima nuclear accident. Despite this, the government is ignoring the lessons of history and clearly announcing a “nuclear renaissance” in its 7th Strategic Energy Plan. Even if it intends to “put safety first” as a condition, it cannot create safety measures if it has yet to elucidate the causes of the accident. This is no way to ensure “safety first.” It’s a contradiction.

Establishing nuclear power plants in the Japanese archipelago in itself is a mistake. The first chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority publicly stated that even if the new safety standards created in 2012 were fulfilled, it would not guarantee safety. Even now, the phrase “safety first” commonly uttered by nuclear proponents is a fiction and can only be called irresponsible.

December 23, 2025 Posted by | health, Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

Revealed: Trump’s secret $264 million plot to put nuclear doomsday weapons in Britain to face down Putin

Daily Mail, By NICK ALLEN, US NEWS EDITOR (POLITICS), 22 December 2025

The true scale of President Donald Trump‘s ambitions to turn the U.K. into a potential nuclear launchpad has been revealed.

A massive $264 million plan to overhaul a Royal Air Force base in the English countryside includes knocking down at least half a dozen existing buildings, setting up secure intelligence facilities, protecting the surrounding area against enemy electronic pulse attacks, and sending over 200 American personnel, according to Pentagon funding proposals.

It represents confirmation that American nuclear weapons will return to Britain for the first time since President Barack Obama withdrew them 17 years ago.

However, despite widespread speculation that U.S. nuclear weapons have already arrived in the U.K, the documents indicate it will not happen for several years.

The idea that they had already been sent gained steam on July 17 when a massive U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III arrived at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

The aircraft had been tracked by flight data sites traveling 10 hours from Kirtland Air Force base in New Mexico, where America stores its nuclear arsenal.

Experts speculated that it may have been carrying B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs, each with a potential power bigger than the weapon dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Lakenheath is home to the U.S Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing, known as Liberty Wing, which flies F-35A aircraft capable of being fitted with B61-12s.

However, detailed Pentagon assessments of Lakenheath’s suitability as a nuclear base, reviewed by the Daily Mail, make clear that it is far from ready.

Bizarrely, one of the reasons given was that some of those involved in the U.S. nuclear operation would not have quick access to a toilet during an Armageddon-style scenario.

The existing building that would be used as the primary command post is in ‘adequate condition but beyond its useful life,’ the documents said.

It said controllers within the ‘Emergency Action Cell’ would ‘not have direct, restricted access to a restroom’ in the current facility.

In addition, ‘cooling and air filtration’ was not good enough to support a SCIF – a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility – which is a high-security room used by the U.S. government and military to discuss extremely sensitive classified intelligence.

The Lakenheath operation is described as a ‘Surety’ mission, which is a term the Pentagon uses when discussing the security and safety of nuclear weapons and associated facilities.

The Air Force’s budget estimates for the 2026 financial year suggests $104 million will be needed for a ‘Surety command post.’

It would house facilities including a control center for Air Force Nuclear Command, Control and Communications……………………………………………………………………………………………

The U.S., rather than NATO, is expected to pay for developments at Lakenheath because it is ‘necessary to complete the project in the timeframe required by United States military commanders.’

Construction of the command post is expected to start in August 2027 and be completed by July 2031.

A separate operations compound is priced at $149 million and will involve demolishing half a dozen existing buildings and creating an armory with massively thick concrete walls, and possible storage for anti-tank weapons.

‘This project is required to provide enhanced security capabilities supporting the potential stationing of specialized weapons at Royal Air Force Lakenheath,’ the project outline said.

‘Specialized weapons surety includes materiel, personnel, and procedures, contributing to the safeguarding and reliability of specialized weapons, and to the assurance that there will be no specialized weapon accidents, incidents, unauthorized weapon detonation, or degradation in performance at the target.’

The budget also details the addition of over 200 U.S. security personnel at the base.

A current building to be used by the first security personnel is said to be in ‘deteriorated condition.’

It ‘cannot accommodate the additional weapons, ammunition, and equipment associated with the increase in manpower required for the potential Surety Beddown mission.’

The problems include asbestos, lead based paint, poor ventilation, and ‘improper sanitary sewer drainage.’

Improvements are needed to ‘accommodate the potential Surety mission beddown’ and without them, security forces personnel would not be able to implement the minimum response times, safeguarding, and assurance procedures required for specialized weapons.’

Construction of the second compound is not expected to start until 2028 and finish in 2031…………………………………………………………….

Funding documents show an additional $11 million is expected to be spent on electronic security systems, bringing the total for the nuclear mission at Lakenheath to $264 million.

B61-12 nuclear bombs, which are 12ft long and weight about 800 pounds – are a staple of the U.S. arsenal.

They are unguided ‘gravity bombs’ dropped over targets and are equipped with four fins to increase accuracy to within 30 meters of the target.

They are ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons intended for use against specific military targets, such as wiping out battlefield units or bases, rather than for leveling cities.

However, their power can still be three times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The warhead used in B61-12s has a variety of options for how much explosive power it can yield with the minimum being 0.3 kilotons and the maximum 50 kilotons

The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 hade a yield of roughly 15 kilotons.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed this month that the U.K. is set to buy 12 F-35A fighter jets from the U.S.

The U.K. will receive its jets at the end of this decade and it will be the first time it has had an air-launched tactical nuclear weapon since 1998.

While it will own the jets, the U.S. will retain ownership of the nuclear weapons they come with.

It means the U.K. will not be able to deliver a nuclear strike with those bombs without explicit approval from Washington…………… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15375073/Trumps-secret-264-million-plot-nuclear-doomsday-weapons-Britain-face-Putin.html

December 23, 2025 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

If You’re Not Free To Oppose A Genocide, Your Society Is Not Free

Caitlin Johnstone, Dec 21, 2025, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-youre-not-free-to-oppose-a-genocide?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=182228375&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

If the right to free speech does not include the right to oppose an active genocide using strong and unmitigated language, then there is no freedom of speech.

This is exactly the sort of thing that freedom of speech is intended for: times when the government is doing something wrong which needs to be ferociously opposed. That’s the primary reason it’s an enshrined value in our society. Freedom of speech is for holding the powerful to account.

If you only have freedom of speech when you’re agreeing with your government and saying nothing which inconveniences the powerful, then Saudi Arabia has free speech. Every tyrannical regime that has ever existed has had freedom of speech by those standards. You don’t measure a society’s freedom by how much its citizenry are allowed to agree with their government, you measure it by how much they’re allowed to disagree.

And right now we are being told we’re not allowed to disagree. We’re being told the protests need to stop, the anti-genocide chants need to be criminalized, and everyone needs to shut up and obey — all justified by the completely baseless narrative that the words and actions of pro-Palestinian activists were somehow responsible a terrible massacre that was committed in Sydney last week.

And these policies just so happen to serve the interests of the very same western powers whose genocide-enabling actions were being forcefully opposed these last two years. Government officials constantly being protested and questioned about their facilitation of Israel’s genocidal atrocities. Politicians who are consistently confronted by anti-genocide demonstrators during their public appearances. Wealthy arms manufacturers whose profit margins are being harmed by direct action from activist groups. Plutocratic media institutions who are becoming more and more discredited in the public eye as the Gaza holocaust exposes them all. Billionaires whose empires are built upon the political status quo that gave rise to the genocide in question.

If the powerful are shutting down speech rights to advance their own interests in your society, then your society is not meaningfully different than the dictatorships the western world tries to contrast itself with. All our stories about living in a free society have been just that: stories. Fairy tales.

That’s what they’re telling us with this mad rush to stomp out freedom of speech this past week. They are telling us that we do not live in the kind of society we were taught about in school. They are telling us that the only reason we were allowed to speak as we pleased in the years leading up to the Gaza genocide is because we were a bunch of compliant sheep who were not meaningfully challenging the interests of the powerful, and now that we are meaningfully challenging them the facade of freedom and democracy is falling away.

As Frank Zappa once said, “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

December 23, 2025 Posted by | civil liberties | Leave a comment

Global nuclear arms control under pressure in 2026

 The fragile global legal framework for nuclear weapons control faces
further setbacks in 2026, eroding guardrails to avoid a nuclear crisis. The
first half of the year will see two key events: the US-Russia bilateral
treaty, New START, expires on February 5, and in April, New York hosts the
Review Conference (RevCon) of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT) — the cornerstone of global nuclear security
frameworks.

The RevCon, held every four to five years, is meant to keep the
NPT alive. But during the last two sessions, the 191 signatory states
failed to agree on a final document, and experts expect the same outcome in
April.

 Daily Mail 22nd Dec 2025, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-15405099/Global-nuclear-arms-control-pressure-2026.html

December 23, 2025 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

EDF faces the financial equation: Bernard Fontana is considering massive asset sales to generate 20 billion euros.

December 16, BY Emma Ray

 Barely installed at the helm of EDF, Bernard Fontana is embarking on a
major strategic shift. Faced with unprecedented investment needs and an
already substantial debt, the new CEO is preparing a sweeping adaptation
plan aimed at generating nearly €20 billion in financial flexibility over
three years.

This strategy comes as EDF’s financial situation continues to
be a cause for concern. At the end of 2024, net debt reached €54,3
billion, a level deemed worrying by the French Court of Auditors.

 Entrevue 16th Dec 2025, https://entrevue.fr/en/societe/edf-face-a-lequation-financiere-bernard-fontana-envisage-des-cessions-massives-pour-degager-20-milliards-deuros/

December 23, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Trump row threatens to delay Britain’s nuclear renaissance.

Concerns mount for power plant investment as US pauses tech trade deal.

Matt Oliver Industry Editor. James Titcomb Technology Editor. Matthew Field Senior Technology Reporter, 17 December 2025

Britain’s plans to usher in a “golden age” of nuclear power are at risk of being delayed amid a row with Donald Trump over the UK-US trade deal. Campaigners raised concerns that new projects face being hampered after the US paused the tech prosperity deal, in which Mr Trump and Sir Keir Starmer vowed to deepen co-operation on nuclear energy.

It was accompanied by pledges of investment in Britain by US-based X-Energy and
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, as well as the American nuclear company
Last Energy and the London port operator DP World.

Some nuclear industry
sources played down the dispute on Wednesday as a “negotiating tactic”,
but others said it could slow the deployment of American-designed mini
reactors in the UK if it was not resolved. It comes amid growing
frustration in Washington over Britain’s Online Safety Act, which critics
claim will stifle free speech and stymie American artificial intelligence
companies. Sam Dumitriu, of the pro-nuclear campaign group Britain Remade,
said: “This will undoubtedly concern Britain’s nuclear communities, who
have been promised new projects and the jobs that came with them.

 Telegraph 17th Dec 2025, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/12/17/trump-row-threatens-to-delay-britains-nuclear-renaissance/

December 23, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

The Problem with Machado: Assange Sues the Nobel Foundation.

21 December 2025 Dr Binoy Kampmark, https://theaimn.net/the-problem-with-machado-assange-sues-the-nobel-foundation/

The Swedish police have promised it will go nowhere, but the attempt by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to draw attention to the inappropriateness of María Corina Machado as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient raises a few salient matters. On December 17, Assange submitted a criminal complaint to the Swedish Economic Crime Authority and Swedish Crimes Unit. The legal complaint is directed against the Nobel Foundation, arguing that the pending transfer of 11 million SEK ($US 1.18 million) and the award of the prize medal to Machado violates the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will of November 27, 1895.

The will, binding under the terms of Swedish law, stipulates that the award of the prize and monies be given to a person who, during the preceding year, “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in pursuing “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Given that the peace prize laureates are selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, seeking to hold them accountable for their poor choice of awardee might have been a better starting point. But the complaint is alert to this, noting that the Swedish funds administrators have a fiduciary duty when it comes to disbursing the funds. “The Norwegian committee’s selection does not grant them criminal immunity.” Indeed, it was up to the administrators to consider such a decision made “in flagrant conflict with the explicit purpose of the will, or where there is evidence that the awardee will use or is using the prize to promote or facilitate the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity, or war crimes.”

Whatever the administrative minutiae, Assange’s effort is worth noting. Machado has become the unsavoury alternative to the Venezuelan incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, a figure who refused to accept the electoral returns for his opposing number, Edmundo González, in July 2024. González was essentially a pick by Machado, who has emerged as the empurpled, plumed candidate seeking Maduro’s overthrow. That she was the 2025 choice of prize recipient was galling enough for 21 Norwegian peace organisations to boycott the ceremony and prompt Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to remark that, “Giving the prize to someone who calls for foreign invasion is a mockery of Alfred Nobel’s will.”

Machado has made no secret of her approval of the buildup of US military personnel (around 15,000) off the coast of Venezuela since August, including a nuclear-powered attack submarine and the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. She has “incited and defended the Trump administration’s use of lethal military force and preparation for war.” The US military has already committed, charges Assange, “undeniable war crimes, including the lethal targeting of civilian boats and survivors at sea, which has killed at least 95 people.” (President Donald Trump has liberally designated such individuals narco-terrorists.) The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to conduct covert actions in Venezuela. Parts of the Venezuelan military have been classified by the Trump administration as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO).  

Since Assange submitted his complaint, Trump has ordered a complete blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering or exiting Venezuela. The US has thus far seized two tankers, though the authorities have failed to distinguish which tankers are sanctioned or otherwise. The Panama-flagged Centuries, for instance, was not officially sanctioned by the US, showing that this administration is not one to be, as US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth put it, legally tepid.

A list of incitements to war by Machado are enumerated. They include the dedication of the award to President Trump for having “Venezuela in where it should be, in terms of a priority for United States national security”; a heartfelt endorsement of US military escalation as maybe being “the only way” in dealing with Maduro; warm appreciation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “decisions and resolute actions in the course of the [Gaza] war” and the endorsement of extrajudicial killing of civilian boats in the Caribbean Sea as “visionary”. Hardly the résumé for a peacemaker.

Assange argues that the failure of the funds administrators to stop pertinent disbursements to Machado, in light of the material submitted in the complaint, “indicates ongoing criminal intent.” Such funds aided “a conspiracy to murder civilians,” violated national sovereignty through using military force and advanced resource theft (Machado’s promised reward to US firms of oil and gas resources amounting to US$1.7 trillion). In doing so, Nobel’s will and charitable purpose had been violated through “gross misappropriation, aiding international crimes […] and conspiracy.”  They also breached Sweden’s obligations under the Rome Statute. By way of remedy, the “immediate freezing of all remaining funds and a full criminal investigation lest the Nobel Peace Prize be permanently converted from an instrument of peace into an instrument of war” was sought.

In an email to AFP, Swedish detective inspector Rikard Ekman showed little interest in taking the matter up. “As I have decided not to initiate a preliminary investigation, no investigation will be conducted on the basis of the complaint.”

While this complaint remains a purist’s attempt to return the peace prize to a more conventional reading (Assange thinks the UN Secretary General António Guterres and UN human rights chief Volker Turk eminently more suitable candidates), the practice of awarding this inflated award to figures of ill-repute and sullied reputation will be hard to shake. The ghost of former US security advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a man lauded for bringing peace to Indochina when he covertly indulged illegal bombing campaigns, not to mention war crimes, torture and an assortment of other blood sports, continues to loom large. It might well be time to abolish the Nobel Peace Prize altogether, and the committee responsible for it. It was never a strong indicator of merit, even if it offers the chance for some very dark humour for the reptiles to revel in.

December 23, 2025 Posted by | Legal, Sweden | Leave a comment

Biodiversity Net Gain: can developers be trusted?

Developers seem rather too fickle concerning their obligations to protect the environment, and the situation may be about to get worse

Rachel Fulcher, 21 December 2025

 During the consultations for Sizewell C, it became clear
from the documents put forward by EDF, owner of this pine forest, that the
company considered the plantation to be of low biodiversity value.

They failed to take into account the fact that the rides between the trees
supported several species so rare that they are protected by law. Looking
into it in further detail I came across Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which
specifies that developers must provide a minimum of 10% net gain for nature
in addition to compensating for any damage caused.

Using the Statutory
Biodiversity Metric devised by the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Defra), the biodiversity value of the land prior to
development is calculated in units according to size, type of habitat, its
current condition, ecological distinctiveness and location. The proposed
replacement and enhancement habitats are then also calculated and must show
the necessary improvement.

Ideally these should be in the same area, but if
this is not possible then they can be elsewhere. As a last resort, builders
can simply buy habitat units from conservation organisations or even obtain
biodiversity credits from the government. In the first instance, however,
they must avoid harm – but do they?

A conversation with a Suffolk
ecologist revealed his profound disapproval of use of this metric,
considering the method to be ‘damaging’. He feels that it gives
builders a licence to destroy the environment, including protected sites
and species, so long as they offer something more elsewhere. However, some
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have accepted BNG on the basis that
something for nature is better than nothing.

 East Anglia Bylines 21st Dec 2025, https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/biodiversity-net-gain-can-developers-be-trusted/

December 23, 2025 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment