Israel Could Solve Its PR Problem By Simply Ceasing To Be Evil
Caitlin Johnstone, Jun 06, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-could-solve-its-pr-problem?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=200847621&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to “influence public consciousness” around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for “actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.”
Citing a leaked Defense Ministry tender, +972 reports that lecturers in the program are required to hold “doctorates and/or professorships in the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication,” as well as “at least four years of professional experience in the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.”
“Some of the courses — including those on influence operations, influence intelligence, and online activism — will be in English for ‘foreign partners,’ whose identities are not specified,” +972 reports. “For these participants, the Defense Ministry built a dedicated syllabus that includes study of ‘the American approach,’ meaning U.S. perspectives and cultural norms, and conducting influence campaigns in the international arena.”
Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to “influence public consciousness” around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for “actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.”
Citing a leaked Defense Ministry tender, +972 reports that lecturers in the program are required to hold “doctorates and/or professorships in the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication,” as well as “at least four years of professional experience in the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.”
“Some of the courses — including those on influence operations, influence intelligence, and online activism — will be in English for ‘foreign partners,’ whose identities are not specified,” +972 reports. “For these participants, the Defense Ministry built a dedicated syllabus that includes study of ‘the American approach,’ meaning U.S. perspectives and cultural norms, and conducting influence campaigns in the international arena.”
Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to “influence public consciousness” around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for “actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.”
Citing a leaked Defense Ministry tender, +972 reports that lecturers in the program are required to hold “doctorates and/or professorships in the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication,” as well as “at least four years of professional experience in the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.”
“Some of the courses — including those on influence operations, influence intelligence, and online activism — will be in English for ‘foreign partners,’ whose identities are not specified,” +972 reports. “For these participants, the Defense Ministry built a dedicated syllabus that includes study of ‘the American approach,’ meaning U.S. perspectives and cultural norms, and conducting influence campaigns in the international arena.”
Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to “influence public consciousness” around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for “actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.”
Citing a leaked Defense Ministry tender, +972 reports that lecturers in the program are required to hold “doctorates and/or professorships in the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication,” as well as “at least four years of professional experience in the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.”
“Some of the courses — including those on influence operations, influence intelligence, and online activism — will be in English for ‘foreign partners,’ whose identities are not specified,” +972 reports. “For these participants, the Defense Ministry built a dedicated syllabus that includes study of ‘the American approach,’ meaning U.S. perspectives and cultural norms, and conducting influence campaigns in the international arena.”
Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to “influence public consciousness” around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for “actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.”
Citing a leaked Defense Ministry tender, +972 reports that lecturers in the program are required to hold “doctorates and/or professorships in the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication,” as well as “at least four years of professional experience in the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.”
“Some of the courses — including those on influence operations, influence intelligence, and online activism — will be in English for ‘foreign partners,’ whose identities are not specified,” +972 reports. “For these participants, the Defense Ministry built a dedicated syllabus that includes study of ‘the American approach,’ meaning U.S. perspectives and cultural norms, and conducting influence campaigns in the international arena.”
This revelation comes as Israel quintuples its annual propaganda budget to three-quarters of a billion dollars. So going forward you can expect to be blasted in the face with a whole lot more pro-Israel perception management while you’re minding your own fucking business trying to live your life.
It’s such a trip how Zionists just take it as a given that the only way to improve public perception of Israel is to ramp up efforts to manipulate the thoughts people think about it. They never give serious attention to the possibility that Israel would have a lot more public approval if it stopped fucking murdering innocent civilians all the time and fucking torturing people and raping captives with trained rape dogs. Israel can’t possibly be wrong; only our thoughts about Israel can be wrong.
At an American Jewish Committee event on Tuesday, Santa Clara University’s Maya Ackerman argued that generative AI presents an exciting new opportunity for imposing pro-Israel narratives on public consciousness, because AI companies can be lobbied directly to push pro-Israel narratives since their leaders can control what information people see.
Here’s a transcript of what she said:
“The really cool thing about AI is that while it can become a great ally for our enemies if we act early, it could be exactly the opportunity that we need after missing the boat with social media. AI is now becoming the dominant source of information — the main source of information. People trust AI more than anything else. They trust AI more than social media. They turn to chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini instead of using Google. And young people use these bots instead of Google in very, very very large numbers. So this is becoming the main source of information.
“And so when I say this, I still find Jewish people being discouraged, they say ‘Oh, but Wikipedia is already so antisemitic and social media is so antisemitic — why bother? The AI just learns from all of this data.’ So, you know, whatever, not much we can do.
“But that’s not true, because over the past two years the AI companies have been moving towards alignment. So instead of algorithms sort of honestly representing what’s in the data, we’re finding that these chatbots and the text to image models are increasingly showing us exactly what the companies want us to see.
“Okay, so it’s becoming intentional. Which means that instead of trying to control the whole world and trying to somehow manage what’s happening in this big blob called Wikipedia and social media, we can go directly to the companies with clear technical and advocacy solutions. For the first time, there is a path to correcting the digital world.”
So to be clear, Ackerman is arguing that AI chatbots are useful because instead of “honestly representing what’s in the data” they are saying whatever their owners tell them to say, which means the owners of AI companies can simply be pressured to make the chatbots say pro-Israel things. She is saying this gives “Jewish people” (her words, not mine) an opportunity for “correcting the digital world” (her words, not mine) in a way that is more efficient than “trying to control the whole world” (her words, not mine).
It’s just surreal how people like me are always going to great lengths to draw clear distinctions and avoid coming across as antisemitic in our criticisms of Israel, and then Jewish Zionists go to these events all “Yes we Jews need to be actively manipulating western institutions in order to deceive everyone and control society.”
The other day at a Jerusalem Post conference, World Jewish Congress president Ron Lauder argued that Jewish billionaires should be using their wealth “to attack our enemies”, and advocated for Israeli intelligence agencies Mossad and Shin Bet to track and “counterattack” Israel’s critics online in the “fight” against anti-Israel sentiment.
Speaking at a book launch event in Jerusalem last month, British columnist and broadcaster Melanie Phillips argued that “the Jewish community” should use “psychological warfare” and “psyops” to promote the interests of Israel.
“There are plenty of people in this country who … are experts in what’s called psyops. They should be used. They could be drawn upon. These are reservoirs of talent and skill that could be used and harnessed, to really make a difference,” Phillips said.
If I wanted people to stop hating my favorite country for committing war crimes and genocide, I personally would simply encourage that country to stop committing war crimes and genocide.
I would not try to solve the problem by waging psyops and information warfare.
I would not try to solve the problem by lobbying governments to ban criticism of my favorite country.
I would not try to solve the problem by claiming that anyone who criticizes my favorite country is a Nazi.
I would not try to solve the problem with a dramatic increase to my favorite country’s propaganda budget.
I would not try to solve the problem by swarming the internet with paid trolls who argue in support of my favorite country.
I would not try to solve the problem by buying up news outlets and social media platforms in order to force them to amplify information that is supportive of my favorite country.
I feel like doing these things would only make people hate my favorite country more. I think people would get sick of my favorite country’s supporters constantly trying to manipulate their minds and assaulting their right to free expression.
I would only do these things if I wanted people to hate my favorite country. Like if my favorite country was premised on the idea that everyone already hates its inhabitants, so the only way to stay safe is to remain in a constant state of military combat and mass-scale manipulation. Then I suppose it would make sense to do the things I just described.
But come to think of it, if my favorite country was founded on the premise of nonstop warfare and manipulation and the assumption that it must necessarily always be despised throughout the world, at some point I suspect I’d find myself wondering why my favorite country is my favorite country at all. And I’d begin wondering if perhaps it was a mistake to establish such a country in the first place.
Israel Has Engineered a Deadly Shortage of Medications and Health Care in Gaza
June 5, 2026, By Hend Salama Abo Helow, https://scheerpost.com/2026/06/05/israel-has-engineered-a-deadly-shortage-of-medications-and-health-care-in-gaza/
A Palestinian doctor in Gaza says the territory is facing its worst medication shortage since Israel began the genocide.
My mother has been a hypertension patient for the past 25 years. Ever since her initial diagnosis, she has adhered strictly to her prescribed medication. Yet since the genocide broke out, her medicine gradually ran out until it vanished from the markets altogether, with no clinic, pharmacy, warehouse, or stockpile left untouched by the shortage.
Eventually, my mother was forced to redraw her therapeutic map around two alternative drugs with relatively similar efficacy to the one she had lost. The doses were measured carefully according to her condition. But the fear of losing the medication again grew on her, so she began rationing her doses, taking half a pill instead of a full one, to make them last longer.
Although the ceasefire that followed was supposed to allow the unhindered influx of humanitarian aid and life-saving medical supplies at scale, it proved to be nothing but another trap. My mother went to collect her monthly prescription, only for the pharmacist to tell her that this would likely be the last refill, as the medication had already been depleted.
This is not an isolated plight endured only by my mother, but the status quo for 350,000 chronic patients in Gaza whose health, like hers, hangs in the balance, conditioned on the fluctuating status of the borders.
Faced with a shattered health care system, patients’ survival is dependent on Israel’s tightening restrictions on border crossings. The World Health Organization has warned that Israeli forces are no longer only claiming people’s lives through bombs, but are also endangering Palestinians by denying them urgently needed health care services and medication.
Israel is willfully violating international law, which obligates the occupying power to maintain health care services, not undermine them nor use them as a bargaining chip.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital, described the ongoing crisis as “the worst period ever of depletion of medical supplies,” stressing that it even far outweighed the medicine shortage Gaza had witnessed earlier during the genocide. “It is the worst ever,” he emphasized.
He condemned the use of the word “ceasefire,” stating, “We are nearly 900 days into a war despite the one-sided truce.” He pointed to more than 2,400 breaches of the so-called ceasefire, during which 765 Palestinians were killed and roughly 2,100 wounded. Al-Farra further noted that around 1,700 medical staff have fallen during the two years of genocide, while many others remain captured in Israeli prisons.
Bringing the picture together, he told Truthout that 25 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are now out of service, while 103 out of 137 primary health care centers have been damaged, and medical supplies have totally run out.
Al-Farra, in a broken voice, remarked that hospitals have become “nothing more than hollow cement blocks, stripped from the very core they were built for: medical services.”
Sharing the latest not-yet-public statistics of the exact shortages compiled by Gaza’s Health Ministry exclusively with Truthout, he said:
“Fifty percent of basic medications for noncommunicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and respiratory diseases are now missing. Around 70 percent of medical equipment is nonexistent, while 84 percent of laboratory resources are unavailable. At the same time, hospital capacity has surged by 225 percent. Around 25 out of 35 oxygen stations have been damaged, while 61 electricity generators out of 110 have been leveled down.“
The health care system is “in its final throes,” Al-Farra sighed.
The unending crisis has extended beyond governmental hospitals to the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In early April, MSF released alarming reports stating that it had not been able to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since January 1, 2026. Israel has obstructed its vital role in providing necessary health care services for chronic and trauma-related patients, and those requiring surgical operations and post-operative care, all amid a growingly conducive environment for diseases to exacerbate.
Yet Dr. Abdullah Al-Naami, who has worked in the pharmacological field for the last 26 years, doubled down on the alarming report released by MSF about the unfolding medication crisis.
Al-Naami told Truthout that “the current stockpile of medicines is nowhere near enough for the spiraling needs.” He added that “hypertension, cardiovascular, and cancer patients are impacted the most.”
“New emergency cases have been rising due to the low-quality living conditions and contamination inside the displacement camps, including scabies and infectious diseases.” Yet “painkillers, antibiotic pills, ointments, and sterilized gauzes are running critically low. Patients receive their treatment for one month, while the following months remain suspended until further notice and medications become available again.”
Based on the medication scarcity, Al-Naami explained, “this is why we cannot provide the full amount of the prescribed medication. Instead, patients receive either half or quarter the quantities. The Ministry of Health has even resorted to extending the expiration dates of medications and renewing their use after testing their efficacy. All of this is merely to enhance the patients’ survivability amidst suffocating restrictions meant to crush Palestinians’ health.”
Al-Naami also underscored the significant shortages of nebulizers, whose absence has ultimately threatened hundreds of thousands of lives.
Young children are also facing devastating health consequences due to what Al-Farra described as “one of the Israeli strategies”: allowing one specific type of infant formula into Gaza until it became the primary milk depended on by nearly every child, only to later ban its entry after infants’ tiny bodies had already grown accustomed to it.
“Such abrupt switches in milk type result in malabsorption diseases, allergies, and potentially fatal complications,” he explained.
Al-Farra recounted the story of his patient, Huda Abo Al-Naja, a 12-year-old girl who was in the third phase of malnutrition, immunocompromised, and suffering from severe anemia.
He said she had been admitted to the hospital four times due to edema, “the accumulation of fluids in her body.”
Al-Farra lamented that the patient was “a unique and genius child,” fully aware of her own condition. He recalled how she would even compete with the intern doctors, answering questions related to her illness on their behalf.
Her journey fluctuated constantly between remission and relapse, improvement and deterioration, until she eventually developed sepsis that progressed into hypotension and septic shock, leading to admission to the ICU. During her stay, she urgently needed numerous diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions, including “bacterial cultures, a central line, arterial blood gas analysis, and electrolyte testing” — all of which were unavailable back then.
“Due to the lack of the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic tools needed to save her life, Huda died,” Al-Farra said.
Al-Farra placed the blame directly on “the collapse of Gaza’s health care system and the complete closure of border crossings imposed all by Israeli forces.”
For those who survived two years of genocidal war, the atrocities did not stop there. They are now at the peril of “a more engineered silent weapon: scarcity of medication,” as Al-Farra put it plainly.
He called on the international community and mediators to pressure Israel into opening the border crossings for the unconditional and unhindered flow of medical supplies. He added the need to reclaim Palestinians’ right to a dignified life and proper treatment, which is “a fundamental legitimate right under international law.”
‘Serious incident’ at Europe’s largest nuclear plant – work to stop ‘accident’ ongoing
An incident at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in
Ukraine has left some Russian military personnel injured as efforts to
prevent a ‘nuclear accident’ continue. Russian military personnel have been
injured following a “serious incident” at Europe’s largest nuclear power
plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today said it had been
informed of an incident which occurred during de-mining efforts following a
localised ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. The ceasefire is in place
so that power line repairs can be carried out, repairs the IAEA says are
crucial for preventing a “nuclear accident” at the site.
The power plant
has lost power on several occasions due to fighting in the region. Rafael
Mariano Grossi, IAEA director general, today called for “maximum military
restraint and full adherence to the ceasefire” so “efforts to prevent a
nuclear accident” can continue. The exact nature of the incident which led
to the recent injuries remains unclear.
Mirror 5th June 2026, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-accident-37255798
Power returns to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after prolonged outage, IAEA says
Power was restored to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power
Plant after a 15-hour outage that forced the facility to rely on emergency
diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on
June 6. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said off-site electricity supplies
resumed earlier in the day, ending one of the longest power disruptions at
the facility since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Off-site power was restored to the ZNPP this morning after a 15-hour
outage, when the site had to rely on emergency diesel generators for
electricity to cool its six shutdown reactors,” the agency said in a social
media post.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the outage
underscored persistent risks to the plant’s power supply. “It was the 18th
loss of off-site power during the war and one of the longest, highlighting
the extreme fragility of the electrical grid and the urgency of proceeding
with planned power line repairs under the protection of an IAEA-brokered
ceasefire,” Grossi said.
The outage follows another disruption reported by
the IAEA last week, when the agency said the plant experienced an extended
communications blackout and inspectors were unable to contact plant
personnel and agency representatives at the site for several hours.
Kyiv Independent 6th June 2026, https://kyivindependent.com/power-returns-to-zaporizhzhia-npp-after-prolonged-outage/
Honorable Mention to HIBAKUSHA – WANDERING SOUL
Brazilian-Japanese film director Joel Yamaji received an Honorable Mention at the 15th Uranium International Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro for his documentary “Hibakusha – Wondering Soul.” The award ceremony took place on Saturday, May 30, 2026, at the Cinematheque of the renowned Museum of Modern Art (MAM Rio).
JURY STATEMENT
Hibakusha – Wandering Soul is a very artistic film. The music combining modern and old (for instance The Song of the Apple of 1945) and sound-effects using the Shakuhachi flute, drums, the gong and sometimes total silence were wonderful. Also typical usages of the Japanese symbols of the Samurai (for resilience), the Origami Crane (for peace) and of the Noh-Theater (in this case for madness and devilishness and impermanence) gave the film a very distinctive Japanese character, especially for those who are not familiar with Japanese culture. What I found especially successful was the use of the shadow. In the tradition of Tanizaki Junichiro´s `In Praise of Shadows´, the black and white film successfully depicted the fleeting light of mankind and time, I thought. History, the past, passes away like a whirling lantern of memories and life is mysterious, sweet, and happy. One can have hope for the future.“ Makiko Hamaguchi-Klenner, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of East Asian Studies, Ruhr University Bochum and Member of the IUFF Jury
AWARD ACCEPTANCE STATEMENT
“We are very happy and grateful for the Honorable Mention awarded to our film. It is a special gift for us, because it comes from a Festival grounded in humanist ideas and purposes at a time when interests in immediate technocratic power are prioritized. A Festival that, for 15 years, has dedicated itself to disseminating and promoting the exchange of cultural experiences in a world still based on the consequences of a war that, in the words of the Japanese people, was not just World War II, the War of the Atomic Bomb: it was the War of us all, it belongs to us all. This Honorable Mention is quite significant for us who made the film about atomic bomb surviver Mr. Morita Takashi, who passed away at 100 years old, lucid, professing a world for Peace, in truth. For that it also belongs to him and to all the hibakusha, victims of an act of violence imposed by men. `I learned that I should never again think of anyone as an enemy. The logic of war leaves no room for human dignity.´ The Festival, made with the vibrant joy of a team whose youthful spirit is contagious, will remain in my memory. Long live the International Uranium Film Festival!” Joel Yamaji, Screenwriter and director of “Alma Errante (Hibakusha – Wondering Soul”
“It is with immense pride and deep emotion that we celebrate the achievement of the film Hibakusha – Wandering Soul, awarded a well-deserved honorable mention at the prestigious International Uranium Film Festival. This award represents not only recognition of the technical and artistic excellence of the work, but also the validation of an urgent and vital message that documentary cinema carries with it. The award ceremony gained an even more special shine with the presence of director Joel Yamaji, who was there in person to receive the honor and masterfully represent all the dedication, talent and heart of the team that made this project a reality. The event, which has established itself as one of the main global showcases for raising awareness about nuclear issues, reflects the tireless work and vision of its organizers, Marcia Gomes de Oliveira, Founder and Executive Director of the festival, and Norbert Suchanek, Founder and General Director, who continue to open fundamental spaces for stories of such human and social impact to reach the world. Seeing `Hibakusha – Wandering Soul´be revered on a stage of such international relevance is a testament to the power of independent cinema and an unforgettable milestone for everyone involved in this transformative cinematic journey!” Producer of “Alma Errante (Hibakusha – Wondering Soul”
HIBAKUSHA – WANDERING SOUL (ALMA ERRANTE – HIBAKUSHA)
Brazil, 2025, Director: Joel Yamaji, Producer: Joel Pizzini and Juliana Domingos, Grão Filme, Documentary, 20 min. / The film merges poetically reconstructed documentary fragments recreated as traces of the past with dreamlike images to express the imaginary of Hiroshima survivor Takashi Morita, who emigrated to Brazil and became a peace activist, turning his life itself into a message to future generations about the horror and senselessness of war.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
For 15 years the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) raises awareness about the risks of atomic power and promotes nuclear disarmament with independent films and panels of experts around the globe. In October 2024, Hollywood’s MovieMaker Magazine named it one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World 2024”. And in 2025, the festival’s founders, Márcia Gomes de Oliveira and Norbert Suchanek, received the prestigious “Nuclear-Free Future Award” in New York City in the category education. The Uranium Film Festival especially in Rio focuses very much on the young generation.
„You’ve never seen two people get more done than the life and project-partner duo Márcia Gomes de Oliveira and Norbert G. Suchanek, who run the International Uranium Film Festival in deep collaboration with activists around the world. The festival has its grand event in Rio, but also does an extensive U.S. tour in regions impacted by uranium-related industry. Inevitably, folks wonder whether there are enough films on the subject to warrant a festival. The answer is yes. This, of course, is because the issue is expansive, impacting all 50 U.S. states and many more corners of the world than most folks realize. From the Navajo Nation to Las Vegas to Chicago and many places between, this spirited DIY art, advocacy, and activism project brings folks together in a space of support, education, shared outrage, and a good time. The Uranium Film Festival is a refreshing example of what activism and advocacy can be: inclusive, expansive, and celebratory.“ Hadley Austin, MovieMaker Magazine
Think globally, act locally.
We thank our local supporters in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro: Armazém de São Thiago, Esquina de Santa, Bar do Mineiro, and Cachaça Magnífica de Faria for providing delicious local meals and drinks for filmmakers, audiences, and festival staff. And we thank our international supporter from California, the Samuel Lawrence Foundation.
Festival Team
Márcia Gomes de Oliveira
Founder & Director
Email: uraniofestival@ gmail.com
Norbert G. Suchanek
Founder & Director
Email: norbert.suchanek@ uraniumfilmfestival.org
Libbe HaLevy
Ambassador of the International
Uranium Film Festival to the USA
Los Angeles
www.nuclearhotseat.com
Website– https://uraniumfilmfestival.org
NUCLEAR HOTSEAT. Women, Children At Greatest Risk from Nuclear Radiation – UN Report by Mary Olson, Dr. Amanda M. Nichols
This Week’s SPECIAL Featured Interview:
United Nations report on the generational impact of nuclear radiation on women and children, written by Mary Olson of Generational Radiation Impact Project and Dr. Amanda M. Nichols.
We all accept as proven scientific and medical fact that human exposure to ionizing radiation from nuclear weapons and their production is damaging to human health. But how do we know that? Who figures out how bad it can be? How much radiation we can be exposed to without risking our health? And how valid are those measurements?
We learn the alarming truth behind how those numbers were generated and what needs to be done instead from today’s guests, co-authors of the new report for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm:
Mary Olson holds a degree in Evolutionary Biology and has been an educator on radiation health impacts while serving nuclear-impacted communities… and so much more. Her website is RadiationProject.org- Amanda M. Nichols, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nichols research focuses on illuminating the role of women in the North American anti-nuclear movement. Email contact: Dr.Amanda.M.Nichols@gmail.com
Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm is cornerstone information in the movement to rid our planet of nukes. It is available for free downloa or pdf HERE.
Further References mentioned in the interview and additional Resources:……………………………………………………………
Why Europe Embraced Authoritarianism For Israel
Nate Bear Do Not Panic, June 3, 2026 , https://scheerpost.com/2026/06/03/why-europe-embraced-authoritarianism-for-israel/
This week the UK revoked the visas of leftist American influencer Hasan Piker and the podcaster Cenk Uygur who were both scheduled to speak at events in Oxford and London.
The UK government hasn’t commented on the reason, but it’s obvious it was for their views on Israel. Piker and Uygur are not radical in any true sense of the word. They are both fairly mainstream progressives close to the AOC-wing of the Democrats. Uygur used to be a Republican. They don’t call for revolution, they call for voting and standard social democratic policies. Nothing in their speech is conventionally radical, hateful or incites violence. But they are anti-genocide and anti-Israel, and this is radical enough to get you banned from entering the UK.
While it’s a frightening level of authoritarianism from a supposedly liberal democracy, the decision is not that surprising. From proscribing non-violent protest group Palestine Action as terrorists, to the mass arrest of peaceful anti-genocide protestors, to the secret terrorism charges being brought against pro-Palestine activists, the UK’s embrace of authoritarianism on behalf of Israel has been a consistent theme of Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
The incredible twist is that banning Piker and Uyghur has attracted more attention and controversy than letting them speak at the event ever would have, and is going to win Labour precisely zero votes from a right that hates them anyway.
On the face of it the decision appears, like the crackdown on pro-Palestine activism which has seen Labour bleed votes to the Greens, to be comically bad politics. But I have to consider, as was pointed out to me when I posted this perspective on twitter, that maybe politics isn’t the point here. I have to consider that rational political calculations, when it comes to Israel, aren’t part of the equation for most western governments. Maybe slavish servitude to Zionists and Zionism is the only position that matters. Maybe signalling that you are prepared to do anything for Israel regardless of the domestic political consequences is the only point. And frighteningly, we have to consider that perhaps the worse those consequences are, the better. It seems illogical on the one hand, but there’s an argument to be made that the more pain an elected official endures on behalf of Israel, the greater the benefit to them in the long run. If not politically, then certainly personally and financially.
I think there’s a huge chunk of truth to this analysis, and I understand why people look at these moments and find it increasingly hard to interpret events in any other way. But I find it hard to accept this as the full explanation. I think a fuller explanation is that vote-losing slavish Zionism is simply a core tenet of the anti-politics of centrism. An anti-politics that clings, against all evidence, to a mythical centre ground in which an anti-fascist is considered the same as a fascist. I’ve been up close to these people, and their capacity to make utterly false equivalences between ‘extremes’ because doing so enables them to feel more secure about their defunct political ideology can be hard to appreciate. They will point to the fact the UK has also banned right-wingers from entering the country, and token progressive red meat such as recognising Palestine to sanctioning a few Israeli settlers, as proof of their centrist sincerity. They really think a sweet-spot can be found opposing fascist speech and anti-fascist speech, and because of their brainwashed Zionism do not recognise that their support for an apartheid state committing genocide is materially fascist in nature.
But it’s not just the UK of course.
France and Germany have also cracked down hard on pro-Palestine voices and are working to make criticism of Israel a criminal offence in pursuit of a miserable waste-ground politics of ‘anti-extremism’ which rests on the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Last month France denied an entry visa to the Palestinian human rights campaigner, Shawan Jabarin, a decision which came two weeks after the country arrested one of its own elected MEPs, Rima Hassan, for her pro-Palestine advocacy. France is also pushing forward with a law to make criticism of Israel punishable with up to five years in prison. Germany has embarked on a similar campaign of repression, cracking down on anti-Israel dissent by banning protest, arresting activists, outlawing pro-Palestine slogans as antisemitic, and denying entry to pro-Palestine figures. The EU has also frozen the bank accounts of critics of both Israel and NATO in its desperate attempts to wrest back control of a status quo narrative.
While these are the most high-profile efforts to codify anti-Zionism as hate speech, even in countries considered more sympathetic to Palestine, like Spain, police violence and repression against pro-Palestine activists has been a regular feature. Just this week a pregnant Palestinian woman was thrown violently to the ground and brutalised by Dutch police after her husband, a Palestinian from Gaza, was arrested on spurious disturbance charges.
All of this is happening, of course, while Gaza has been turned into a literal concentration camp, where 1.8 million people are living in tents, crammed into just 133 square kilometres of space while still being indiscriminately murdered from the sky, and with disease rampant.
But for most European governments, especially those dominated by legacy centre-left and centre-right parties, Israel’s colonial settler brutality is not an example of extremism. The sexual assault and rape of European citizens by Israeli soldiers is not extremism to be overly concerned about or condemn. No, the real extremists, in their minds, are those who oppose the creation of Palestinian concentration camps, who oppose Israeli rape dungeons, and who oppose the genocide of Palestinians.
There is no question that Zionism is a totalitarian ideology which has infected Europe deeply and at a moment of crisis has revealed the massive contradictions between the continent’s professed liberalism and its liberalism in practice. But it is not enough just to say that Zionism alone determines the political contours of growing European authoritarianism. The UK, for instance, has also been sentencing peaceful eco protestors to years in prison.
It is, I think, more accurate to say that the establishment status quo is by necessity Zionist, and a centrist anti-politics, which stands for nothing but the maintenance of the violent and oppressive status quo, is a perfect political vehicle for such an ideology.
Israel is a vital European project and a valuable geopolitical extension of the violent status quo, and embracing a natural inclination towards authoritarianism to protect it just makes perfect sense.
Another deadly explosion casts shadow over Hanwha Aerospace’s cutting-edge image
2026-06-02, HANKYOREH, By Choi Ye-rin, staff reporter; Jang Hyeon-eun, staff reporter; Kim Joong-gon, staff reporter; and Kwon Hyo-jung, staff reporter
Five were killed and two injured at an explosion at the defense contractor’s Daejeon plant.
Another explosion at defense contractor Hanwha Aerospace’s plant in Daejeon, the country’s No. 5 city, killed five people Monday, bringing the total death toll from explosions at the site to 13, including five fatalities in 2018 and three in 2019.
Hanwha Aerospace has recently emerged as a leader in the country’s cutting-edge defense industry. Yet behind the scenes, its plant has seen a series of workplace disasters that are at odds with the standards expected of a world-class manufacturer.
The site of Monday’s explosion was the plant’s tool cleaning area of Building 56. Hanwha Aerospace said this facility, which washes explosive materials from tools used to make rocket propellant, is separated from other buildings.
The company added that a management supervisor and six production staff were cleaning tools using water mixed with detergent when a sudden explosion caused a fire. Five workers died and one suffered second-degree burns over his entire body, with one manager who was outside the facility sustaining minor injuries.
The workers apparently had no time to escape as the explosion caused flames to instantly engulf them. Police plan to request DNA analysis from the National Forensic Service to identify the victims……………………………………..
Ga Jae-woong, a Hanwha Aerospace senior vice president and manager of the plant, declined to disclose details such as what sort of explosive material was involved, only saying that all processes at the workplace are “confidential.”
Hanwha Aerospace’s failure to pinpoint the cause of the blast has sparked fierce criticism considering the growing death toll at the plant. All three explosions are known to have been related to solid propellant used to transport weapons.
In 2018, an explosion occurred during the process of loading fuel into a rocket propellant container. The next year, another happened during the removal of a propellant core.
Workers at the plant bear inherent risk because of the highly explosive properties of the propellant used in rocket boosters. But Monday’s catastrophe demonstrates the company’s failure to take effective measures to prevent such explosions even after similar incidents in 2018 and 2019.
Immediately after the 2018 blast that killed nine, a Ministry of Employment and Labor inspection uncovered as many as 486 violations of workplace safety regulations.
An annual report by Hanwha Aerospace also said it had been fined 2 million won (US$1,300) by fire authorities in Daejeon in January 2025 for failure to comply with regulations for hazardous material prevention, as well as 1.6 million won that June for inadequate maintenance and management of fire safety facilities.
“Defense contractors often classify their production processes as confidential, so there are cases where they never take proper follow-up measures even after explosions resulting in casualties occur,” said Yeom Gun-woong, a professor of police and fire administration at U1 University. “Three similar accidents have occurred at the same workplace, so a fact-finding investigation and comprehensive inspection are necessary.”
The company’s union demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and identification of those responsible, slamming Hanwha Aerospace’s “slogans of eradicating industrial accidents and creating a safe workplace” as “nothing but empty words.”
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the country’s major umbrella unions, also criticized the company in a statement.
“Hanwha Aerospace has made it abundantly clear that it not only neglects the safety and lives of its workers, but has also made no safety improvements since the last two accidents,” it wrote. ………………………………….https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1261569.html
Military action near nuclear plants puts external power needs in spotlight
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi
suggests recent events means there may be a need for a fresh look at the
layout of external power lines. Grossi, responding to a media question
about whether nuclear power plant design safety standards needed to be
reviewed as a result of military action near them, said safety standards
were kept under constant review, although he did not feel there was a need
for a big overhaul.
However there was an increased emphasis on emergency
preparedness and response, he said, praising the reaction of the operators
of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the UAE after an electrical generator
located outside the inner site perimeter of the NPP was damaged by a drone
on 17 May – “they demonstrated the professionalism, skills and preparedness
that nuclear safety demands every day”, he said.
“The UAE never imagined in
their wildest dreams that one day Barakah would be attacked,” he added at
the media briefing after his opening address to the IAEA Board of
Governors’ meeting. “I am sure that there will be analysis and evaluation –
there is going to be, for example, a further look into the layout of
external power supply lines … sometimes the connections and
inter-connections are not designed for situations where loss of outside
power could happen more frequently.”
World Nuclear News 5th June 2026, https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/military-action-near-nuclear-plants-puts-external-power-needs-in-spotlight
Net zero fusion project could trigger nuclear disaster
A prototype
reactor that works as a ‘mini-Sun’ is being developed in
Nottinghamshire as UK hopes to lead world in nuclear fusion power.
Britain’s attempts to harness fusion energy could trigger a nuclear
disaster, official documents reveal.
A prototype reactor that works as a
“mini-Sun” is being developed in Nottinghamshire to create huge amounts
of energy by smashing atoms together. Fusion energy is seen as a panacea
for the energy crisis and for sustainable, long-term net zero energy
generation.
But official documents reveal concerns that a disaster at the
site could contaminate 15,000 hectares of surrounding land, costing farmers
£80m in lost profits, and result in thousands of cases of cancer in
civilians and workers. A worst-case event, such as an explosion of the
reactor itself, could lead to millions of pounds of damage, with the costs
borne by the taxpayer.
Telegraph 4th June 2026, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/04/net-zero-fusion-project-nuclear-disasters-possible/
1 This Month
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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