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The IAEA Faces a New Nuclear Puzzle Inside Iran

By RFE/RL staff – Jun 26, 2026, https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-IAEA-Faces-a-New-Nuclear-Puzzle-Inside-Iran.html

  • Experts say effective IAEA inspections require broad access to verify Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles, enrichment activities, and nuclear infrastructure.
  • A key challenge will be locating Iran’s roughly 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and ensuring it is properly downblended and cannot be re-enriched.
  • Former officials argue that restoring the IAEA’s “continuity of knowledge” after recent military strikes and restricted access will be one of the agency’s toughest tasks.

Amid an ongoing row between Washington and Tehran over whether international monitors can verify Iranian compliance with its nuclear nonproliferation commitments, former officials have told RFE/RL that the scale, scope, and degree of access are crucial to the success of inspections.

Details on those have yet to be determined, though Raffael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the UN body “will be working on the modalities — dates, procedures, places — very soon.”

That doesn’t mean, according to experts, that the organization hasn’t already drawn up a wish list for any eventual inspections

They almost certainly have a plan for when they go back in, what the priorities are, where they would want to go first, second, third,” Laura Rockwood, a former IAEA negotiator on Iran, told RFE/RL.

“The key thing is to find out where in particular the enriched uranium is…. I’d be willing to bet you that they have in place a plan for the day they need to go back in,” added Rockwood, who took part in high-level negotiations on Iran during a 28-year career at the IAEA before retiring in 2013.

Downblending Uranium

While US President Donald Trump has said that Iran has agreed to the highest level of nuclear inspections and Iran says it has no plans to allow the inspections, point No. 8 of the US-Iranian memorandum of understanding (MOU) states the two sides have agreed on a “minimum methodology” that Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU) will be “downblended on site under the supervision of the IAEA.”

But the details of this could also prove contentious.

“If IAEA inspectors were able to measure and characterize both the high and low enriched material before the downblending, then simple arithmetic gives a good sense of what the product is. They’d then want to measure to confirm and seal that product for future accountability,” Matthew Sharp, who served as director for Iran nuclear issues on the US National Security Council (NSC) from 2021-2022, told RFE/RL.

“If, on the other hand, Iran does the downblending itself and then provides the product to inspectors, it would be much more difficult to know how much HEU Iran started with, which could create uncertainties as to whether all of the 60 percent or other enriched material had been downblended or if some remained out of our awareness,” said Sharp, now a senior nuclear fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies.

Right now, the location of Iran’s roughly 450 kilograms of HEU is unclear. After the US and Israeli air strikes, it could be buried under rubble in a bunker beneath a mountain, or the Iranian authorities may have moved some or all of it elsewhere to hide it.

But if it can be successfully located and downblended, the next step is stopping Iran from re-enriching it again at a later date.

Monitoring Enrichment

The MOU says the two parties agreed “to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters related to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear needs, based on a satisfactory framework being agreed upon in the final deal.”

Experts told RFE/RL that verifying this must include a role for the IAEA.

“Any suspension on uranium enrichment is relatively meaningless if it cannot be verified and if the IAEA does not have the access to ensure that there are no covert nuclear activities related to enrichment going on elsewhere in the country,” said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.

“The level of access, the provision of information to the International Atomic Energy Agency, how quickly Iran has to comply with IAEA requests for access — all of that is going to be crucial,” she told RFE/RL.

“Once the enrichment level is low, below 5 percent, it’s much safer to ship out that material. It could be stored under an international fuel bank in Kazakhstan,” Davenport added.

The idea of shipping the downblended uranium out of Iran is something US officials appear keen on. At a recent background call with reporters, one official said dilution within Iran was “the floor” but that “we will push for more than that.”

A senior US official said Washington would rely heavily on the UN nuclear watchdog and US technical teams for verification. “We’re not in the trusting business,” the official said.

The IAEA has previously verified Iran’s compliance with its commitments to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it ratified in 1970, and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Lessons From The Past

Experts say many lessons have been learned from these experiences. They point to the importance of the IAEA’s Model Additional Protocol, which provides additional tools for verification.

Rockwood, now a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, was the principal author of the protocol.

Under the additional protocol, instead of just routinely being limited to nuclear material and nuclear facilities, we have access to information and locations concerning the entire nuclear fuel cycle, including the production of centrifuges,” she said. “So, if you know roughly how many centrifuges they are capable of making, you want to know where they are, and we can ask for that kind of access with an additional protocol.”

Iran signed the Additional Protocol in 2003 but has not sent an official letter to the IAEA that would bring it into force.

Iran provisionally implemented its provisions between 2003 and 2006 and for a period under the JCPOA. However, noted Rockwood, “there were lots of indications of noncompliance by Iran” during this time.

This, she said, could be expected to continue — with added complications.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | Iran, Uranium | Leave a comment

Substation damage delaying operation of repaired Zaporizhzhia power line, says IAEA

Friday, 26 June 2026, https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/substation-damage-stopping-zaporizhzhia-power-line-reconnection-says-iaea

After months of ceasefire negotiations, planning and complex repairs, the main external power line to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been fixed – but it can’t be put back into operation because of damage to a substation 100 kilometres away, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: “Of the six temporary ceasefires that we have negotiated since late last year to help protect nuclear safety … this was the most challenging to implement. It required several months of delicate negotiations, followed by mine clearance and repairs on high pylons across the Dnipro River. The IAEA monitored these activities on the ground to confirm they were carried out as agreed.

“Both sides worked constructively with us to enable the repairs to proceed. Despite the many military and technical challenges, this demonstrates that concrete progress remains possible, even during a large-scale war. We will continue our efforts to reduce the ever-present danger of a nuclear accident.”

The IAEA team based at the Zaporizhzhia plant monitored the repair work on the plant side of the frontline, with a separate IAEA team monitoring the repair work on the other side of the Dnipro River.

However the 750 kV Dniprovska external power line is not back in operation yet, because of damage sustained in May at an electrical substation 100 kilometres northwest of the plant, Grossi said.

“Repeated damage to the electrical infrastructure on which nuclear power plants depend continues to create serious nuclear safety and security risks. I once again call for maximum military restraint around all nuclear facilities and the power infrastructure they require,” he said.

Since the main Dniprovska line was disconnected in March, the six-unit nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian military control since early March 2022, has been relying on its sole remaining 330 kV Ferosplavna-1 backup power line.

During the war there have been a number of occasions when all external power has been lost to the plant. Last week the back-up power line was reconnected after the 19th such loss of power. As with the previous occasions, the plant had to rely on power from its emergency diesel generators for the power required by the plant, including for various safety functions.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Why X-Energy Stock Collapsed 19.2% This Week

COMMENT. Another dud Small Modular Nuclear Reactor fantasy?

Delays and downgrades are hurting X-Energy’s stock price this week.

By Brett Schafer – Jun 26, 2026 , https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/06/26/why-x-energy-stock-collapsed-192-this-week/

Key Points

  • X-Energy does not have a reactor design approved today.
  • Its construction projects keep getting delayed, causing an analyst downgrade.
  • The company does not generate much in revenue today.

Shares of X-Energy (XE+2.17%) fell 19% this week, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The nuclear energy start-up saw a delay in its construction timeline and an analyst downgrade, which has dragged down the stock since its April IPO.

Delayed projects

X-Energy is designing advanced nuclear reactors, partnering with Amazon for future reactor builds. Amazon is also a shareholder in X-Energy, providing upfront capital to build projects to power Amazon data centers.

The roadblock to development stems from the United States government’s lack of official approval for any X-Energy reactor, which has delayed the breaking ground of X-Energy’s first project with Amazon until 2027. On top of this, Jeffries downgraded the stock this week, from $30 to $22, sending shares sharply lower.

Should you buy the dip?

Modern nuclear reactors can be a valuable source of electricity for powering the AI revolution. However, today, X-Energy does not have much of an actual business and will need to spend massive amounts of money upfront in order to get its reactor designs approved and its manufacturing facilities built.

Even after this drawdown, X-Energy stock trades at a market cap of $7.7 billion with barely any revenue. That should keep all investors away from the stock today.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

CORWM visits Sizewell A and Sizewell B, -92% of pond low level waste is diverted to landfill

 Members of CoRWM visited Sizewell A and Sizewell B to examine interim
storage arrangements for intermediate level waste and spent nuclear fuel.


The visit, held on Thursday 26 February, was arranged to inform a study on
interim storage being undertaken by CoRWM Sub-Group 6 (Waste, Spent Fuel
and Nuclear Materials Inventory Management).

Sub-Group 6 members Pete
Bryant, Derek Lacey, Barry Lennox, and Simon Webb were joined by CoRWM
member Mark Kirkbride. The study will report on current and future interim
storage requirements for spent nuclear fuel and intermediate level waste
(ILW), considering the UK nuclear legacy, the existing operational fleet
and new build.

At Sizewell A, now in the early stages of decommissioning
following de-fuelling between 2006 and 2014, members reviewed progress in
the retrieval and conditioning of ILW, including material from the ponds.
They discussed arrangements for transferring ILW, including by rail, to the
Bradwell Interim Store, which is designed to accommodate waste from
Bradwell, Sizewell A and Dungeness until reactor dismantling begins.


Members noted the achievement of diverting approximately 92% of pond low
level waste from the Low-Level Waste Repository (LLWR) to permitted
landfill sites. This helps preserve capacity at the LLWR.

CoRWM 26th June 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/corwm-visits-sizewell-a-and-sizewell-b

June 29, 2026 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Should the State of Israel be defascistized?


Thierry Meyssan, Voltairenet.org, Tue, 23 Jun 2026, https://www.sott.net/article/507084-Should-the-State-of-Israel-be-defascistized

We are becoming aware, often belatedly, of the crimes committed by the Benjamin Netanyahu government against civilians in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. No other government in the world considers the elimination of those who resist it to justify all collateral damage, regardless of the number.

We must also realize that this way of thinking did not arise from nowhere; it has a long and abhorrent history.

We must take responsibility and intervene before this government begins to attack its own citizens. Not because they are more valuable than Arabs and Persians, but because they are the same: they are human beings too.

International public opinion has shifted significantly regarding Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. It is now clear to a majority that he is not seeking peace, but is attempting to annihilate the population of southern Lebanon, as he tried to do with that of Gaza.

This only became clear when he opposed the US peace plan with Iran, because, for the first time, his main ally showed that another way was possible.

We have been explaining since the Likud/Kahanist coalition came to power [ 1 ] , that the current Israeli government was pursuing the “revisionist Zionist” project of Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky [ 2 ] .

Although we have repeatedly emphasized that the “revisionist Zionist” project of a “Jewish Empire” has no connection whatsoever with Theodor Herzl’s “Zionism”, some readers have dismissed our arguments, believing they mask an antisemitic bias. Besides being insulting, this ignores our work in promoting equality for all.

We therefore recall a long-hidden truth:

The revisionist Zionists were allies of the Duce Benito Mussolini and they negotiated with associates of the Führer Adolf Hitler throughout the Second World War and even beyond. They organized, with the SS Adolf Eichmann, the deportation of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz [ 3 ] .

Confusion arose after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. A debate ensued regarding whether the Israeli response should be classified as genocide. Some argued that, firstly, the Israeli army clearly did not seek to kill targets based on their ethnicity, and secondly, that there were no government orders to that effect.

However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were implementing the “Dahiyah Directive,” drafted by the highly respected General Gadi Eizenkot in October 2008 [ 4 ] . Speaking about the suburbs of Beirut and South Lebanon, he told Yediot Aharonot:

“We will apply disproportionate force to the villages and cause extensive damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are not civilian villages; they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. It is a plan. And it has been approved.”

This plan was first implemented in Gaza over the past three years and in Lebanon in recent months. These are war crimes publicly claimed by a Jewish Arab military officer who served as Chief of Staff of the IDF from 2015 to 2019 and who became a minister without portfolio, joining the war cabinet, on October 11, 2023.

These war crimes are aimed at crushing the popular resistance of Gazans and Lebanese. To conflate resistance fighters with the civilian populationis to claim that all Gazans and all southern Lebanese will be annihilated. This undoubtedly constitutes genocide.

It was up to the International Court of Justice (the internal tribunal of the United Nations) to decide. This is what South Africa, already a victim of revisionist Zionists during the apartheid era, attempted to obtain as early as December 29, 2023. Unfortunately, the majority of the Court initially opposed it under the influence of its president, the Lebanese Nawaf Salam. He owes his family fortune to his grandfather’s purchase of Palestinian bourgeois land on behalf of Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild. Following Salam’s intervention, he was appointed Prime Minister of Lebanon… where he must now confront the very same situation he failed to resolve in Gaza.

The question now is: “Should we defascize the State of Israel?” as Germany was supposedly denazified. Everyone, in fact, must be aware that Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies intend to profoundly transform the State of Israel, which they have already defined as “the Jewish State,” and which they have said they want to make, no longer an “Athens,” but a “Super-Sparta” [ 5 ] .

This question is likely to be vital: to date, Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has practiced torture, war crimes, and genocide, but it has never taken the lives of its opponents. Yet this is the next step in its seizure of power and the achievement of its goals. It has not done so out of humanity, but for one reason only:to maintain the unity of the Israeli people in order to use their image to mask its crimes.

We must all understand, Israelis and non-Israelis, Jews and non-Jews, that the “revisionist Zionists” are enemies of humankind.They had no qualms about murdering pro-Soviet Ukrainian Jews in 1921-1923 [ 6 ] , and then the wealthiest Hungarian Jews in 1942-1945.

They will have no more restraint tomorrow in killing those who resist them, regardless of who they are. We must look at the facts clearly and stop them.

References:
[ 1 ] ” The Straussian coup in Israel “, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network , March 7, 2023.
[ 2 ] ” The veil is torn away: the hidden truths of Jabotinsky and Netanyahu “, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network , January 23, 2024.
[ 3 ] מדוע חוסל קסטנר (Why was Kastner murdered?). Nadav Kaplan, Steimatzky (2024).
[ 4 ] ” Israel warns Hezbollah war would invite destruction “, Reuters, October 3, 2008.
[ 5 ] ” Netanyahu and Nazism “, ” After “Greater Israel”, Netanyahu pleads for a “Super-Sparta” and “finish the job in Gaza” “, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, September 23 and 30, 2025.
[ 6 ] ” Who are the Ukrainian integral nationalists? “, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network , November 15, 2022.


Thierry MeyssanPolitical consultant, President-founder of the Réseau Voltaire (Voltaire Network).Latest work in English – Before Our Very Eyes, Fake Wars and Big Lies: From 9/11 to Donald Trump, Progressive Press, 2019.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | Israel, politics | Leave a comment

Finland buried nuclear waste in copper canisters 430 meters down, but the metal may not survive as long as the promise.

Every nuclear country has the same uncomfortable problem. ……………………….. spent fuel remains dangerous for time periods that are hard to grasp…….its most important results will arrive long after today’s engineers, regulators, and politicians are gone. That is not comforting, exactly, but it is the truth.

By Indux,  June 23, 2026, https://www.vozpopuli.com/indux/en/finland-buried-nuclear-waste-in-copper-canisters-430-meters-down-but-the-metal-may-not-survive-as-long-as-the-promise/6314/ 

Finland is close to doing something no country has fully done before. At Olkiluoto island, Posiva Oy has built Onkalo, a deep underground repository meant to hold spent nuclear fuel far below everyday life, traffic, homes, schools, and the electric bills that come with nuclear power.

The bold part is not just the depth, it is the bet. The fuel will be sealed in copper-and-iron canisters, wrapped in bentonite clay, and placed about 1,300 to 1,400 feet underground in bedrock that is roughly 1.9 billion years old.

Some scientists still question how long the copper canisters will really last, but Finland’s plan leans on a bigger idea: no single barrier is supposed to carry eternity alone.

A world-first nuclear waste plan

Posiva submitted its operating license application at the end of 2021 for an encapsulation plant and final disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel. The Finnish government said the planned license period runs from March 2024 to the end of 2070, with the repository located in bedrock at a depth of about 400 to 430 meters.

That timeline has not gone as smoothly as planned. Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, known as STUK, says its review has been extended and that it now has additional time until the end of June 2026, if possible, to submit its statement. The government can only grant the operating license if STUK supports it.

What goes inside the rock

The waste is not simply lowered into a tunnel and forgotten. Posiva’s disposal canister has a cast iron inner structure that holds the fuel elements, while the copper shell works mainly as a corrosion barrier. The copper shell is about 2 inches thick, and the lid is welded shut to keep groundwater away from the fuel.

In practical terms, it is a layered defense. First comes the fuel itself, then the iron insert, then copper, then clay, then rock, then the deep groundwater conditions around it. That is why the project is not just a story about a metal container, it is a geology story.

Why copper is controversial

Copper was chosen because it is expected to corrode very slowly in the oxygen-poor conditions deep underground. For the most part, that remains the basis of the KBS-3 concept used by Posiva and Sweden’s SKB.

Not everyone is convinced, however. A long-running scientific debate has focused on whether copper can corrode even in oxygen-free water. A 2023 assessment of canister degradation noted that anoxic copper corrosion and localized sulphide corrosion were among the most debated mechanisms reviewed by Swedish safety experts.

That does not mean the canisters are expected to fail tomorrow. It means the safety case has to survive tough questions. And with nuclear waste, “tough” means thinking beyond normal human planning, past elections, past companies, and past the lifespan of every building we know.

The rock is doing the heavy lifting

So why keep building if the copper debate is still alive? Because the Finnish design does not rely only on copper.

Posiva says geological disposal in Finland means placing the waste in crystalline bedrock, which makes up most of Finnish bedrock and is among the oldest in the world. The company also says deposition holes are drilled in solid rock zones where water seepage through cracks is as small as possible.

That ancient rock is the quiet star of the whole project. It has already been through immense geological time, ice sheets, and environmental change. The logic is simple enough to understand, even if the engineering is anything but simple: put the waste where the world changes slowly.

Licensing is still the near-term test

Onkalo may be physically close to operation, but the paperwork still matters. STUK says the review is close to completion, but it has been delayed by deficiencies in Posiva’s application documentation, updates tied to plant changes, and remaining uncertainties in the long-term safety case.

That is not a minor detail. The first real loading of spent fuel would mark a historic moment for nuclear energy, but regulators are still checking whether the full system is ready. Empty and test runs can prove a lot, but radioactive waste proves more.

Why this matters beyond Finland

Every nuclear country has the same uncomfortable problem. Reactors can produce large amounts of steady electricity with low carbon emissions, but spent fuel remains dangerous for time periods that are hard to grasp.

Finland’s answer may not fit everywhere. The United States, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom all have different rocks, politics, and public trust problems. You cannot just copy and paste a 1.9-billion-year-old Finnish bedrock system into another country.

Still, Onkalo is being watched closely because it turns decades of theory into a real facility. If it works as intended, it gives nuclear nations a serious example. If unexpected corrosion or groundwater behavior shows up later, that will matter, too.

A bet measured in centuries

The strange thing about Onkalo is that its most important results will arrive long after today’s engineers, regulators, and politicians are gone. That is not comforting, exactly, but it is the truth.

For now, Finland’s bet is clear. Copper may be debated, clay may shift, and regulators may keep asking questions, but the rock beneath Olkiluoto is the anchor of the plan. In the end, the country is asking ancient stone to help solve one of the most modern problems humans have created.

The official statement was published on STUK.

June 28, 2026 Posted by | Finland, wastes | Leave a comment

Covering the Impact of Climate Change—Without Mentioning Climate Change

despite leading their shows with severe weather headlines, nightly news shows on NBC, ABC and CBS failed to mention climate even in passing.

June 26, 2026, Olivia Riggio, https://fair.org/home/covering-the-impact-of-climate-change-without-mentioning-climate-change/

Severe weather has gripped the globe this week, with record-shattering, deadly heat in Western Europe. In the US, heat, wind and drought conditions fueled wildfires in the Southwest, while heavy thunderstorms, wind and floods caused destruction in eastern and central states.

Scientists attribute these extremes to fossil fuel–driven climate change. Europe’s heatwave would have been “virtually impossible to occur at this time of year” 50 years ago, scientists from the World Weather Attribution group reported. The project’s Theodore Keeping of Imperial College London told reporters (EuroNews, 6/26/26):

The science of how climate change is worsening heatwaves is settled…. Continued fossil-fuel emissions are directly responsible for the disruption people are experiencing this week in their homes, schools and workplaces.

With extreme weather events worsening each year, and the world on track to surpass by 2030 the Paris Agreement’s attempt to limit global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, connecting these disruptive and deadly events to climate change is a key part of the story.

Yet on the evening of Tuesday, June 23, despite leading their shows with severe weather headlines, nightly news shows on NBC, ABC and CBS failed to mention climate even in passing.

Cropping out climate

Substitute anchor Hallie Jackson began the NBC Nightly News (6/23/26) by describing apocalyptic scenes around the globe:

Tonight, the dangerous triple weather threat with fires, floods and deadly heat affecting millions. The flash flood emergency here at home: Fast-moving waters trapping drivers and washing out roads. Wildfires exploding out West. Plus, overseas, a record-shattering heatwave in Europe leaving dozens dead.

The broadcast covered heavy rains in Oklahoma, wildfires in Utah and Nevada, and heat and fire in Miami disrupting World Cup events. In France, it was so hot, Paris shut down the Eiffel Tower Tuesday, and Wednesday was expected to reach a 102°F record. More than 40 people were believed to have drowned in France’s rivers and beaches while trying to escape the heatwave that began last week.

In London, NBC’s Danielle Hamamdjian reported record highs in the city on Tuesday, with even higher temperatures anticipated to come.

The broadcast then cut to a clip of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying, “And today this city—and far beyond—are experiencing the hottest day of the year—with higher temperatures to come.”

The event that he was speaking at—London Climate Action Week—was not identified. In fact, a banner with the London Climate Action Week logo that was behind Guterres was cropped out of the shot. The soundbite NBC featured was excised from Guterres’ longer remarks about the severity of climate change and the critical necessity of quickly and justly transitioning from fossil fuels:

We have just lived through the 11 hottest years ever recorded. And today this city—and far beyond—are experiencing the hottest day of the year—with higher temperatures to come. London isn’t just calling—it’s cooking. Around the world, climate disasters are becoming more frequent, more destructive and more costly. And the World Meteorological Organization has warned we ain’t seen nothing yet. El Niño is not just knocking on the door. It risks blowing the house down. Turning up the heat. Disrupting food and water systems. And hitting the vulnerable the hardest. Ten years ago, world leaders agreed in Paris to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Now scientists say average annual temperatures will exceed that threshold in the coming years.

Later in the speech, Guterres demanded that AI companies publicly disclose their energy usage and commit to powering data centers with renewables by 2030.

From a speech entirely about climate change and its tangible impacts, NBC Nightly News managed to cherrypick a soundbite of Guterres essentially saying nothing more than “it’s hot.” While the segment linked together these extreme weather events in Europe and the US as a global phenomenon, climate change didn’t even get a passing mention.

Records broken by unknown force

ABC World News Tonight (6/23/26) with David Muir followed suit. Raising the alarm about tornadoes and flood watches in the east, severe storm threats in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming, extreme heat in the southwest and heatwaves in France, England, Italy and Spain, the broadcast didn’t mention the word “climate” once.

“We’ve lived here for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” a Fairfax County, Virginia, man said of the winds and storms that sent trees into cars and homes in the area.

CBS Evening News (6/23/26) led with fires, droughts, floods and storms across the US, spotlighting Utah, where one wildfire was the size of San Francisco. “The outbreak follows the state’s warmest winter on record and one of the driest, with just a fifth of normal snowpack,” said host Tony Dokoupil.

In the next segment, correspondent Leigh Kiniry reported from London about record temperatures across Europe. Uniquely among the corporate networks’ evening newscasts, this report alluded vaguely to climate change, noting that “the continent is warming faster than any other.” But viewers were given no clue as to how or why: Direct mentions of climate change were nonexistent throughout the entire broadcast.

‘Not one government is making progress’

The lone exception to the erasure of climate change on the nightly news broadcasts was PBS NewsHour (6/23/26). While the show didn’t lead headlines with extreme weather, its segment about the European heatwave included a soundbite from a Paris resident expressing dissatisfaction with how governments have ignored climate change. “Paris when temperatures go high is just hell on earth,” she said:

It’s catastrophic. I’m worried for the coming years. We have known about climate change for a while, and not one government is making progress on this issue.

Later in the broadcast, PBS dedicated a segment to droughts in the Southern US affecting farmers in Georgia. The report was part of an ongoing PBS series called Tipping Point, which focuses on the impacts of climate change and communities’ efforts to adapt.

Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists explained:

Climate change is making these more frequent, both the short-duration kinds of droughts that we’re seeing in some places, but also the longer megadroughts like the Southwest is experiencing. The unpredictability of it, the extremes, both the droughts and then the whiplash with extreme rainfall events, that makes it very difficult to plan for these kinds of conditions.

The report went on to describe precision irrigation systems as a possible mitigation—though noting that their cost is often prohibitive. The segment points to “policy steps worth considering,” like helping farmers obtain these technologies through grants and low-cost loans.

PBS deserves credit as the only nightly broadcast that mentioned climate change at all. But while it addressed the issue of adaptation, it avoided the more fundamental question of causation; the burning of fossil fuels, and its connection to the segment’s weather horror stories, wasn’t mentioned at all.

FAIR (7/18/23) has previously documented that even when TV news connects extreme weather events to climate change, it seldom connects climate change to fossil fuels—but the industry seems to have taken a step backward.

The lack of climate coverage in legacy media follows a trend media analysts have been tracking since President Donald Trump’s second term began. A Media Matters study (3/4/26) found that ABC, CBS and NBC aired 35% less climate coverage in 2025 than in 2024. A FAIR study (4/14/26) found that trend mirrored in online news. But as coverage decreases, climate change’s effects only increase in frequency and severity.

June 28, 2026 Posted by | climate change | Leave a comment

Canada – Federal Initiative to Fast-Track Approvals for Deep Geological Repository a Betrayal of Public Trust

June 24, 2026, We the Nuclear Free North
Borups Corners – We the Nuclear Free North vehemently opposes the Canadian government’s initiative, announced today, to potentially designate the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO’s) Deep Geological Repository (DGR) as a Project of National Interest under the Building Canada Act. Such a designation would mean guaranteed approval of the DGR, despite any lack of evidence to support the safety of the project.

In its media release today, the federal government defined the implications for the DGR project and other projects that were named:

“Listing these projects under the Act would streamline and consolidate key federal permits and authorizations, subject to a document outlining the conditions under which the project may proceed.”

“If the federal government does designate the NWMO’s DGR project as a Project of National Interest, it is very likely that the full Impact Assessment of the Project, currently underway, would be discontinued,” said Brennain Lloyd, project coordinator with Northwatch.

“At best, the remaining vestiges of environmental assessment and licencing would be simply adding details to a done deal. Project approval would be a foregone conclusion.”

Today’s announcement stated that national interest listing of a project would include
“shifting Canada’s regulatory focus from ‘whether’ the project should proceed to ‘how’ it will proceed.”

“In its ‘Getting Major Projects Built in Canada’ framework, the government had proposed that nuclear projects in the Impact Assessment’s Planning Stage, such as the DGR project, be vetted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) instead.”

“Canadians have well-founded doubts about the CNSC’s objectivity and its strong ties to the nuclear industry,” continued Lloyd. “When it comes to the integrity of the CNSC’s potential safety assessment process, the faith of Canadians just isn’t there. CNSC has never denied a licence to a nuclear project.”

We the Nuclear Free North volunteer Wendy O’Connor said, “As we continue our strong opposition to this project, it is jarring that the federal government would propose a measure that could discontinue the Impact Assessment process. Concerned Canadians have already sent more than a thousand comments to the Impact Assessment’s Registry – most of them expressing concerns with or opposition to the DGR project. We have been relying on the Impact Assessment Agency’s full assessment process to stringently vet the project’s social and environmental safety. I want to stress that the decision on this has yet to be made by our federal government. We are watching for promised input opportunities regarding this proposed change. Canadians have a right to a thorough and responsible assessment process.

We the Nuclear Free North also noted that in the case of the two other projects named in the announcement – the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the Grays Bay Road and Port projects – the federal government committed that the project moving forward would be “contingent on both projects successfully completing treaty-based impact assessment and regulatory processes”. No such statement was made with respect to the proposed deep geological repository in Treaty 3 territory. Grand Council Treaty #3 Chiefs in Assembly passed a unanimous resolution opposing the project in October 2024, just weeks before the site selection was announced, and Wabigoon Lake Ojbway Nation, whom the Nuclear Waste Management Organization refers to as a “host” for the project, responded to the site selection by announcing that they would be holding their own sovereign Regulatory Assessment and Approvals Process. There is no acknowledgment of the treaty rights or respect for a treaty-based impact assessment for the deep geological repository project in today’s announcement.

We the Nuclear Free North continues to strongly oppose the NWMO’s proposed DGR project in northwestern Ontario and is requesting meetings with Ministers and Members of Parliament in response to today’s announcement. The organization will monitor federal government announcements regarding actions under the Building Canada Act, including public input opportunities, and share those engagement opportunities with the public.

June 28, 2026 Posted by | Canada, politics | Leave a comment

Washington ‘ends’ Israeli freedom of action inside Lebanon: Report

Iran has reportedly threatened to end negotiations with the US if Israel continues to refuse withdrawal from Lebanon

News Desk, JUN 23, 2026, https://thecradle.co/articles/washington-ends-israeli-freedom-of-action-inside-lebanon-report

The US government has informed Israel that it no longer has authorization for “unrestricted” military action in Lebanon, despite continued Israeli attacks and occupation in the country, Channel 12 reported on 23 June.

Washington has allegedly informed Tel Aviv that “the previous authorization for unrestricted action in Lebanon had expired.” US President Donald Trump is “imposing restrictions on Israel, not only in Lebanon but also in other arenas.”

“These directives prohibit operations in areas such as the capital, Beirut, and the Tyre district in southern Lebanon,” the report went on to say. 

Meanwhile, Israel has refused to withdraw from south Lebanon and has not fully ended attacks. 

Two civilians were killed by Israeli artillery shelling on south Lebanon’s Nabatieh al-Fawqa on Tuesday as they were working to remove rubble caused by Tel Aviv’s strikes on the area. One of them was a municipal worker. 

“The Islamic Resistance warns that this act constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire, which the Resistance has adhered to until now,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

In a separate incident on 23 June, the Israeli army said it “identified a cell of armed terrorists” near its forces in the Ali al-Taher area, adding that it “struck the terrorists in order to remove the threat.”

Despite the reports in Hebrew media, Israeli officials on Tuesday insisted that occupation troops will not withdraw from Lebanon.

“The [army] will continue to act decisively to thwart threats to our soldiers and civilians, destroy terror infrastructure, and continue maintaining the security zone in southern Lebanon,” top officials said in a joint statement. 

The statement came hours ahead of a new round of US-hosted direct talks between Beirut and Tel Aviv, which are being conducted in violation of Lebanese law and are rejected by Hezbollah.

Hebrew reports have also claimed Tel Aviv is “scrambling” to sever Lebanon from Iran by reaching a separate agreement with the Lebanese government. 

Israeli officials and media personalities slammed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran, specifically the clause that calls for ending Israeli attacks and withdrawing from Lebanon.

Over the weekend, Israel launched a brutal escalation in Lebanon, killing at least 100 people. 

Major clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah resistance fighters also raged throughout the weekend before a cessation of hostilities was imposed on Tel Aviv by Tehran’s pressure on Washington.

According to a recent report by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, talks between Tehran and Washington will be “halted” if Israel continues to refuse withdrawal from Lebanon.

June 28, 2026 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Pentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say.

 Peter Thiel through Palantir is doing the same thing to US citizens that the IDF has been doing to Palestinians for over 50 years. That is, being gifted massive US government defense contracts to surveil, oppress and kill innocent civilians. 

The counterintelligence threat level was raised by the Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks after growing concerns that Israeli espionage had become more aggressive than usual, sources say.

In the case of Israel, under the guise of combating “terrorism,” the IDF is allowed to test with impunity all their latest, most sophisticated weapons technologies on Palestinian civilian bodies, for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of those US Zionist interests that control our foreign policy and provide a majority of the funding and weapons – no matter the war crimes or death toll.

In the case of Palantir, under the guise of “domestic terrorism,” it is contracting to provide high tech surveillance technology for ICE’s use on unwitting American citizens, so Palantir (who it is believed acquired all our personal records from Elon Musk’s DOGE theft at the White House), may continue to perfect and expand his hegemony into a gigantic global monopoly on behalf of Israel.

NBC News, By Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce, 6 June 26

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America’s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.

The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment of Israel is that its ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a “critical level,” according to the official.

It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said………………………………

While it is commonplace for allies and adversaries across the globe to spy on each other, the current and former U.S. officials said Israel’s recent efforts have gone well beyond what is typical and expected espionage. The officials did not know if a specific incident triggered the DIA’s decision to raise the counterintelligence threat level.

The heightened alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, including in a tense phone call this past week, NBC News reported. Trump acknowledged afterward to reporters that he called Netanyahu “crazy” during the call as questions mount about whether the two countries’ objectives in the Middle East are beginning to significantly diverge.

Since a ceasefire deal was reached in early April, Trump has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war Israel and the U.S. launched on Feb. 28. Israel has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would abide by any negotiated deal. Netanyahu has pushed for a resumption of bombing raids against Iran and disagreed with Trump, who has pressed him to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Western officials.

Israel is keenly interested in whether Trump decides to resume major combat operations against Iran or to end the conflict, the current and former U.S. officials and outside experts said. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/pentagon-raised-threat-israeli-spying-us-highest-level-sources-say-rcna348565

June 28, 2026 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Bechtel opens Polish office to oversee country’s first nuclear plant, to cost $37 Billion

Global Construction Review, Joe Quirke, 25.06.26

US engineering giant Bechtel has opened an office in Gdańsk, northern Poland to support the delivery of the country’s first nuclear power plant and develop a local workforce to grow Poland’s nuclear industry.

The office will serve as an engineering and operations hub for the nuclear facility in Choczewo, Pomerania, on the Baltic coast, which is Poland’s first nuclear project and will be built by Westinghouse and Bechtel alongside Polish utility company Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe..

The price tag for the nuclear plant could reach $37bn and will contain three of Westinghouse’s AP1000 units generating 3GW of energy. The Generation III+ reactor has fully passive safety systems, a modular design and one of the smallest footprints per MWe.

According to Poland’s state nuclear agency, the first phase of the plant is due to open in 2036. Two additional units are expected to follow within the next three years……

If finance can be secured, a second plant will be built by Kepco of South Korea and will consist of two APR 1400 reactors installed in Poland’s central Patnów-Konin region. https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/bechtel-opens-polish-office-to-oversee-countrys-first-nuclear-plant/

June 28, 2026 Posted by | EUROPE, technology | Leave a comment

Canada just lowered a 953-tonne slab of steel and concrete into a 35-meter shaft in Ontario and ended a decade of talk, starting the Western world’s first grid-scale small nuclear reactor.


autoNotion, By: Luis Reyes, Jun 21 2026

“……………………..That slab is the basemat, the foundation of the first GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300, going up at the Darlington site east of Toronto. Ontario Power Generation, the provincial utility building it, and GE Vernova both call it the Western world’s first grid-scale small modular reactor…….. it is the first of four planned for the same site.

None of them will generate a watt until the end of 2030. But the concrete is in the ground now, which is further than anyone in the West has gotten with this technology before……………………

The reason a slab of concrete counts as news comes down to nuclear bookkeeping. For a conventional plant, pouring the first concrete for the reactor basemat is the moment a project officially becomes a nuclear unit under construction……………………..

There is one wrinkle, and it has to do with fuel. The BWRX-300 runs on standard low-enriched uranium, the same kind feeding most of the world’s reactors, not the high-assay HALEU that more exotic designs need. That part is routine. The catch is local: Canada’s existing CANDU fleet runs on natural, unenriched uranium, so the country does not enrich uranium domestically, and the new reactors will need a fuel supply it currently has to source from elsewhere. It is a solvable problem. It is not solved yet…….

Twenty-one billion dollars, and what it buys

OPG’s release-quality estimate puts the first reactor at CAD 6.1 billion, plus another CAD 1.6 billion for roads, tunnels, cooling-water lines and other infrastructure shared across all four units, for CAD 7.7 billion to get the first one standing. The full four-unit program is budgeted at CAD 20.9 billion (about USD 15 billion) in 2024 dollars, with interest and contingencies baked in, and OPG expects each later unit to cost less as the supply chain matures, dropping to roughly CAD 4.1 billion for the fourth.

…… The Canada Growth Fund and the Building Ontario Fund are each taking a minority stake, putting up CAD 3 billion in equity between them

Why the rest of the world is watching a hole in the ground

The reason this particular construction site matters beyond Ontario is that Darlington is the reference unit for a much bigger plan. In Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority became the first U.S. utility to file a construction permit application for a BWRX-300, for a single reactor at its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission docketed that application in July 2025 and expects to finish its review by the end of 2026; TVA has said preliminary site work could start as early as this year, and the Department of Energy put a USD 400 million grant behind it. Poland’s Orlen Synthos Green Energy plans a fleet of about 24 of the reactors, with its first unit targeted near Wloclawek by 2032, and utilities in Sweden, Estonia, Hungary and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan are all somewhere on the same path.

The whole economic argument for SMRs rests on standardization, on building the identical machine over and over until the price comes down, the way the Darlington refurbishment shaved 250 days off its second reactor compared with its first. Darlington is where that theory either holds up or it doesn’t. Get the first one right and the next two dozen get easier and cheaper to finance. Blow the budget and every utility watching quietly revises its plans.

………………The West has spent the better part of two decades talking about small modular reactors. Canada is the first to find out whether the pitch survives contact with poured concrete. https://www.autonocion.com/us/canada-tonne-grid-nuclear-reactor/

June 28, 2026 Posted by | technology | Leave a comment

URANIUM ISN’T ‘NUCLEAR’?

Nuclear madness sweeps Sweden

Beyond Nuclear, 24 June 26.

n keeping with the collective taking leave of all senses that seems to have gripped politicians everywhere when it comes to nuclear power, the Swedish parliament has decided that uranium mines need no longer be described as “a nuclear facility”.

This means the radioactivity they release and the waste they create— and mainly leave behind— can be treated like any other mineral. The rationale: “With uranium mines no longer regulated as nuclear facilities, uranium extraction will no longer require explicit municipal consent.”

Sweden had already lifted its uranium mining ban in January 2026. Plus, they also voted to “amend Sweden’s environmental code to enable the expansion of nuclear power in more places on the coast.” Climate change? Sea-level rise? Never heard of it!

June 28, 2026 Posted by | Sweden, Uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear Autopsy for Indian Point Decommissioning?

June 25, 2026, https://beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-autopsy-during-indian-point-decommissioning/

On June 18, 2026, Beyond Nuclear was the guest speaker before the New York State Decommissioning Oversight Board (NYDOB) in a public meeting focused on the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power station entitled, “Mind the Gap: Decommissioning’s Critical Link to Public Safety & Extended Reactor Operations.” The presentation and Q&A session with the state board is video archived and available for viewing on YouTube beginning at time mark < 01:40:08 to 02:24:18 >. Beyond Nuclear is providing links to supporting documentation.  Following the presentation, the NYDOB recognized further inquiry into  broadening decommissioning’s role at Indian Point is warranted to include the equivalent of an autopsy on the closed reactors’ residual safety margins as an appropriate “cost of doing business” to  enhance public safety and reliable operations at other reactors that are seeking to renew operating licenses in New York and beyond.

The Ginna nuclear power station, a Westinghouse Electric Pressurized Water Reactor by design in upstate New York on Lake Ontario, has filed a Subsequent License Renewal Application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requesting to extend the 56 year old single unit reactor’s operating license to 60 to 80 years.

The permanently closed Indian Point nuclear station is certified by both the owner Holtec International and the NRC for decommissioning only. Similarly, Holtec International is also certified by the NRC solely as the decommissioning operator of the permanently closed Palisades nuclear station in Covert, Michigan, Combustion Engineering Pressurized Water Reactor. Holtec Internationalis however attempting to “recommission” the Palisades operating license to return to full power. Holtec International has submitted a Letter Of Intent to the NRC that it plans to submit an application to extend its Subsequent License Renewal (60 to 80 years) if it does restart.

Beyond Nuclear presented the State of New York Department of Public Service’s NYDOB with the idea that the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power station in Buchanan, NY is a critically important opportunity. Indian Point is not merely just decommissioning project for dismantlement and site remediation of the three-unit nuclear power station. It is also the opportunity to conduct a scientifically rich strategic “autopsy” of the nearly 50-year old commercial reactor site during the dismantlement and site remediation process. Rather than the decommissioning operator, Holtec International, developing the “custody of care” plan to also haul off the radioactive debris for permanent burial at a distant nuclear waste facility. Beyond Nuclear sees the nuclear waste company, now an aspiring would-be nuclear waste generator, should be directed to develop the “custody of care” to strategically target, harvest and deliver samples of decades old “real world” aged, mapped materials extracted safety-related systems, structures and component to a national laboratory qualified to observe, measure and scientifically analyze the residual safety margins in those material samples taken during the Indian Point decommissioning process.

These aged, extracted samples could then be analyzed and materially evaluated for their residual safety margins after irradiation and embrittlement of the reactors’ base metals, radiation induced cracking in dissimilar beltline weld materials from the reactor pressure vessels. Additional, samples could be cut from reactor internals, concrete core samples from the containment structure and “spent” fuel pools, and sections strategically cut from the original, previously inaccessible 47 and 46 year old electrical cables from Units 2 and 3 as well as other reactor safety-related systems, structures and components. These various harvested materials and their residual safety margins now need to inform a host of identified and unanswered “technical knowledge gaps” for such safety issues as how quick cracks can initiate and grow into the failure of those systems, structures and components in reactors seeking extreme license renewals.

For example, strategic harvesting and the associated laboratory analysis needs to determine the synergy of materially damaging conditions (neutron bombardment, extreme ranges of exposure to heat and rapid cooling, metal fatigue and vibration, extreme pressure, humidity, etc.) is needed to benchmark computer modeling of projected material safety margins remaining in operational nuclear power plants now making application to extend their operating licenses well beyond the original 40 year license at construction, beyond the “initial” 20 year license renewal period for 40 to 60 years and now extending into the first “subsequent” 20 year renewal period from 60 to 80 years of exposure to the harsh operational conditions inside a nuclear power station. The NRC and the nuclear industry are in the planning stages for the second “subsequent” 20 year license renewal period from 80 to 100 years becoming the US nuclear industry’s most apparent “bridge to the future.”

Nuclear autopsies are not a new idea. Harvesting and scientific analysis at the decommissioning stage of permanently closed nuclear power stations has long been recognized by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories for a critical role to provide “reasonable assurance” of the public safety and reliable reactor operations of safety-related systems, structures and components in reactor licensing and relicensing.

The DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in the state of Washington was contracted by the NRC Office of Research late in 2015 to publish a Technical Letter Report entitled “Criteria and Planning Guidance for Ex-Plant Harvesting to Support Subsequent License Renewal” (PNNL-27120). Published on December 7, 2017, the PNNL technical letter set out how to identify and mitigate known, but still unresolved “technical knowledge gaps” and make recommendations to effectively resolve and close those “gaps.” PNNL concluded that the targeted extraction of “experiential real world” aged materials from safety-related systems, structures and components permanently closed decommissioning nuclear power stations for laboratory analysis was . The resulting insights into a host of age-related degradation mechanisms to measure and project precise margins to failure will be essential to provide “reasonable assurance” that the materials/components will continue to perform their safety function throughout the subsequent license renewal period for 60 to 80 years.

US regulatory law is now in radical transition by politically-driven pro-nuclear agenda, nuclear industry hype and questionable White House’s decrees for the wholesale rewrite of regulatory law to refocus on “nuclear power benefits.” However, “reasonable assurance” needs to be safe guarded as the evidentiary standard in the NRC’s regulatory process for a legal standard of “adequate protection” established under the Atomic Energy Act for safe and reliable operations under the NRC commercial the reactor licensing and relicensing process.

June 28, 2026 Posted by | decommission reactor | Leave a comment

UN report finds Israel deliberately targets Palestinian children

by Stephanie Tran | Jun 23, 2026, https://michaelwest.com.au/un-report-finds-israel-deliberately-targets-palestinian-children/

A UN Commission of Inquiry has found Israeli forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, their actions amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. Stephanie Tran reports.

In a report released today, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel found that Palestinian children had been subjected to targeted killing, starvation, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention and repeated displacement.

The Commission found that “much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but

“intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group.”

It said the “sheer number” of cases it investigated showing children were directly targeted by Israeli forces constituted “a key element” in demonstrating genocidal intent from Israeli authorities.


Last year, the Commission found that Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The report also makes reference to its 2024 findings on “violations and abuses against Israeli children committed by the military wing of Hamas”. It found that “Israeli children were subjected to physical and emotional mistreatment on 7 October 2023.” 40 children were killed in the attack and hundreds injured, with many children losing one or both parents.

“Many children witnessed the killings of their parents and siblings and were also filmed for propaganda purposes by Palestinian armed groups.”

‘Children deliberately targeted’

The Commission found that Israeli security forces have directly targeted Palestinian children with the intention to kill them.


“Israeli security forces have consistently, directly and intentionally targeted individual children across Gaza during evacuations, in shelters and designated safe zones, at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites and after the ceasefire agreement in and around the so-called ‘yellow line’.”

The report found that children had been targeted “from newborns to adolescents” and that in some cases children were shot while holding white flags.

The Commission said evidence including precision gunfire, injury patterns and the use of sniper rifles, drones and quadcopters capable of visually identifying targets indicated deliberate targeting.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza, representing 30% of the total deaths.

Speaking to MWM, Commissioner Chris Sidoti said the documented deaths represented only a portion of children killed during the genocide.

“We have seen over 20,000 children killed directly as a result of the violence,” he said.

“Israeli security forces have consistently, directly and intentionally targeted individual children across Gaza during evacuations, in shelters and designated safe zones, at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites and after the ceasefire agreement in and around the so-called ‘yellow line’.”

“That does not include children who have not been identified, those who are buried under the rubble, those whose bodies have not been identified, those who have simply disappeared and are counted as missing.”

Sidoti said the figures also excluded children who had died from disease, starvation and the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.

“There are tens of thousands more children who have died as a consequence of this fighting,” he said.

He said some children had been deliberately targeted by snipers and drones.

“We know of snipers and of quadcopters that have killed children, deliberately targeting the children, not killing anybody else around them.”

The report found that children had been targeted “from newborns to adolescents” and that in some cases children were shot while holding white flags.

The Commission said evidence including precision gunfire, injury patterns and the use of sniper rifles, drones and quadcopters capable of visually identifying targets indicated deliberate targeting.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza, representing 30% of the total deaths.

Speaking to MWM, Commissioner Chris Sidoti said the documented deaths represented only a portion of children killed during the genocide.

Sexual violence against children

The Commission found that sexual and gender-based violence was being used “in the context of detention and arrests as a method of warfare and intimidation against Palestinian children”.

“Sexual violence against Palestinian children in Israeli detention is not exceptional but a systematic, state-enabled assault on their bodies and their dignity and deliberately meted out to cause humiliation,” the report states.

The Commission documented cases of forced public nudity, sexual assault, genital violence and sexual threats against children in detention.

Sidoti said some forms of abuse amounted to torture.

“Sexual violence itself is common, but it is not always used for the purposes of torture,” he said.

“A part of the sexual violence that we saw involved the stripping of children in public, their humiliation, and what, under Australian law and international law, constitutes child abuse.”

The Commission concluded that sexual violence against Palestinian children constituted both war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It further found that sexual violence “constitutes part of the genocidal act of causing serious bodily and mental harm.” 

“Such deliberate violence was intended not only to cause immediate and long-term harm to the individual children, but

“to target and destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, because children embody the group’s biological continuity and collective survival.”

Deliberate starvation and healthcare destruction

The Commission concluded that Israel had committed the war crime of wilful killing and the crime against humanity of extermination by intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare and depriving children of essential medical care.

The report found that Israel has “intentionally inflicted these conditions of life, in particular on Palestinian infants, children and young persons in Gaza”.

Attacks on hospitals, neonatal wards and maternity services, combined with shortages of fuel, medicine and medical equipment, have caused the deaths of newborns and seriously harmed pregnant women and infants.

Sidoti said the findings reinforced the Commission’s previous conclusions that Israeli actions in Gaza amounted to genocide.

“Our findings in relation to children confirmed those findings,” he told MWM.

He pointed to attacks on hospitals, neonatal and paediatric services and the destruction of medical equipment.

“All of these things indicate an intent that children should die, and that means for us reinforcement of our findings in relation to genocide“

Destruction of schools

The Commission concluded “Israeli security forces have intentionally directed attacks against educational facilities, resulting in the denial of Palestinian children’s right to education for present and future generations.”

More than 97% of schools in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.

“The destruction of the education system has been an attack on the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people as a whole,” the report states.

The Commission found that the collapse of education and healthcare systems had caused

“Irreversible learning loss, neural developmental delays and diminished future opportunities.“

The report also documents Israeli soldiers filming themselves destroying children’s toys, playground equipment and personal belongings.

“The confidence of the Israeli soldiers to film themselves in this manner and post the evidence online is a clear reflection of the lack of accountability,” the report states.

Detention, torture and abuse

The Commission found that Palestinian children held by Israeli authorities had experienced prolonged blindfolding, forced stripping, severe beatings, deprivation of food and water, sleep deprivation and denial of medical treatment.

It found a pattern of “severe and deliberate mistreatment” particularly affecting Palestinian boys.

Children were subjected to prolonged kneeling on hard surfaces, attacks targeting their heads, faces and genitals, threats involving dogs and detention alongside adult prisoners.

The Commission concluded that the treatment of detained children constituted the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing serious suffering.

Sidoti said the number of Palestinian children detained by Israeli authorities remained unclear.

Sidoti said the number of Palestinian children detained by Israeli authorities remained unclear.

West Bank settler violence and killings

The Commission also examined Israeli military operations and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

It found evidence that Palestinian children had been deliberately shot, denied medical treatment and subjected to violence by settlers.

“The Commission has identified a pattern of targeting of Palestinian children in the West Bank, mirroring Israeli practices in Gaza including deliberate shooting of children, particularly of boys. Israeli soldiers target boys, labelled as “terrorists”, on the basis of their male and Palestinian identity, with lethal force.”

The report describes cases in which wounded children were left bleeding while soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching them.

The Commission concluded that Israeli authorities had failed to protect Palestinian children from settler violence.

It concluded that settler violence functioned

“not as a deviation from state policy but as a means of implementing it”

“Both the State of Israel and violent settler groups share and collaborate in the same strategic objectives: the entrenchment of Israeli settlement on Palestinian land, annexation of Palestinian territory and the displacement of Palestinian people from their land.”

Chain of command and accountability

Sidoti said the Commission had found responsibility extended beyond individual soldiers.

“We have made that finding that there is a clear chain of command and it does go right to the top,” he said.

“It is not just individual soldiers who are responsible for individual war crimes. …  There is a chain of command that means that those at the top have issued clear orders as to the nature of this campaign, the objectives the military are to achieve.”

“Our conclusion on the basis of the evidence that we collected is that that constitutes a genocidal purpose.”

Sidoti said growing international attention had shifted from expressions of concern to discussions about concrete measures by individual states.

“The responsibilities under international law now fall on individual governments and groups of governments to decide what action to take and take it.”

He said governments, including Australia, should consider measures directed not only at individuals but also at institutions.

“We need to address questions of institutions now, and not just individuals who are committing war crimes. That means the Israeli Defense Forces as an institution, the Israeli government as an institution, and the settlements themselves, right across the West Bank, as organized violators of international law” he said.

Israel declines to respond

Sidoti said Israeli authorities had been provided with a draft copy of the report before publication.

“Our procedures require that we give all of our reports to the Israeli authorities in draft form before they’re finalised,” he said.

“The Israeli authorities had a draft of this report two or three weeks ago, and they had an opportunity to comment to us.”

According to Sidoti, Israeli authorities did not provide formal comments to the Commission.

“They did not do so, but instead … they prepared an 18-page rebuttal which they distributed to some diplomatic missions here in Geneva.”

The Commission called on states to ensure accountability for crimes committed against Palestinian children and urged the international community to “employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

MWM asked Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade whether Australia intends to take any action in response to the Commission’s findings.

They have not provided a response.

The Commission of Inquiry on OPT, including East Jerusalem, and Israel will be holding a livestreamed press conference at 9:30 PM (AEST) to discuss the findings of the report.

June 27, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

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