Ukraine confirms retreat from key Donbass town
https://www.rt.com/news/589722-ukraine-confirms-maryinka-retreat/ 27 Dec 23
Kiev’s top general has acknowledged Russia’s capture of Maryinka, saying his forces pulled back to the outskirts
Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny has confirmed the retreat of his troops to the outskirts of Maryinka, a key Donbass town, where Russian forces claimed victory on Monday after months of fierce fighting for the stronghold.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Zaluzhny acknowledged the pullback of Ukrainian troops from Maryinka, located to the west of Donetsk. He likened the heavy fighting for the town in recent months to Ukraine’s loss earlier this year of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukrainian).
“This is exactly the same as it was in Bakhmut – street by street, block by block, and our soldiers were being targeted – and the result is what it is,” Zaluzhny said. “This is a war, so the fact that we have now retreated to the outskirts of Maryinka and set up positions behind Maryinka in some areas is nothing that can cause any public outcry. Sadly, this is what war is like.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced on Monday that Moscow’s forces had fully liberated Maryinka. Ukrainian troops had dug in for nearly a decade, using the town as a key hub in their battles with Donbass separatists and later the Russian Army. President Vladimir Putin said the victory pushed Ukrainian units further away from Donetsk and would provide Russian troops wider operational freedom in future maneuvers.
Ukrainian officials have denied Russia’s claim of capturing Maryinka, saying that fighting for the town continued. However, Zaluzhny said Kiev’s troops remained only on the northern outskirts of the town. He added that although every inch of territory is important to Ukraine, “the lives of our soldiers are even more important to us.”
Kiev’s top general has clashed increasingly in recent months with President Vladimir Zelensky, whose office rebuked Zaluzhny in November for telling a Western media outlet that the conflict with Russia had reached a “stalemate.” Zelensky repeatedly hyped a long-awaited summer counteroffensive that cost Ukraine around 160,000 casualties and failed to make any significant battlefield gains.Russian forces achieved their main 2023 goal by thwarting the counteroffensive, Shoigu said on Tuesday. He added that the Russian military was steadily making strides toward overall victory in the conflict, “constantly taking more advantageous positions and expanding territories under its control in all directions.”
Russian forces achieved their main 2023 goal by thwarting the counteroffensive, Shoigu said on Tuesday. He added that the Russian military was steadily making strides toward overall victory in the conflict, “constantly taking more advantageous positions and expanding territories under its control in all directions.”
Year of the drone — how the hi-tech weapon has transformed warfare
The Times, Michael Clarke, 23 Dec 23
“Sixth-generation airpower involves the integration of many systems of information, tactics, weapons and decisions. It’s about AI, robotics and the autonomy we will grant to the robots. The aircraft that flies in the midst of all this is no longer the key component. Instead the massive Tempest IT system will come first; the physical fighter plane will be designed around its needs.”
Sixth Generation Warfare…New ways to kill that militaries are salivating over…brought to all living beings by tech and AI. Drones, autonomous weapons, AI facilitated/controlled swarms.
Excerpts:
“Combat aircraft still vie for superiority as they operate and fight at 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000ft. But down at 5,000ft, the airspace now belongs to the drones. It has become the new spatial domain of modern warfare.”
“Drones can attack, they can look and listen, they can report back, they can stick around. Or they can just intimidate troops on the ground by creating the dreaded buzzing overhead.
And this is where the 5,000ft air domain is about to become really revolutionary. The thousands of drones now operating are mainly controlled individually. But they are on the cusp of becoming part of an artificial intelligence world where their diverse functions can be integrated, and their prodigious numbers, plus the immediacy of their operations, makes them prime candidates as autonomous weapons systems — making their own combat decisions as they see the battlefield developing rapidly below them.”
“In this way, drones are all part of the AI revolution that is happening at the top of the airpower domain — up at the 30,000 and 40,000ft levels. ‘Sixth-generation’ airpower, due to be with us by the 2030s, will use advanced robotics and AI to produce aircraft that can either be piloted or left to fly and fight for themselves.”
“A single piloted aircraft in this sixth-generation conception could become an organic air wing of its own. But it will only work with advanced AI to integrate the massive information flows it will all require. And it implies a lot of system autonomy for the robotic units. A pilot will still be legally and morally responsible for what all of his or her aircraft get up to, but robotic Tempests and their accompanying drone swarms will be making a lot of their own immediate battle decisions. And the same will be true in sixth-generation maritime warfare — lots of vessels, only some of them crewed and fought like normal warships.”
“Sixth-generation airpower involves the integration of many systems of information, tactics, weapons and decisions. It’s about AI, robotics and the autonomy we will grant to the robots. The aircraft that flies in the midst of all this is no longer the key component. Instead the massive Tempest IT system will come first; the physical fighter plane will be designed around its needs.”
Tokyo court holds only the utility responsible to compensate Fukushima evacuees, and reduces damages
A Tokyo court has ruled that only the operator of the tsunami-wrecked
Fukushima nuclear power plant had to pay damages to dozens of evacuees,
relieving the government of responsibility. Plaintiffs criticized the
ruling as belittling their suffering and the severity of the disaster. The
Tokyo High Court also slashed the amount to half of a lower court’s
decision, ordering the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, known as
TEPCO, to pay a total of 23.5 million yen ($165,000) to 44 of the 47
plaintiffs.
AP News 27th Dec 2023
UK guarantees for minimum price for nuclear-produced electricity – an expensive disaster
Holger Hadrich
‘A little background on nuclear energy in the UK. France, or more precisely EDF, is also an important player there. For decades, however, attempts have been made to secure financing and risks for such projects through partnerships. Typically, the larger nuclear nations are involved: the USA, Japan and later China. But guarantees are also usually demanded from the countries where construction is taking place.
In the UK, for example, the government has not only guaranteed the operators of Hinkley Point a minimum price for the purchase of electricity, but has also tied this price to inflation. The price therefore continues to rise. These CfDs are officially registered and the data can therefore be easily read: At the start of the contract, the equivalent of 10.3 cents per KWh was guaranteed. The current figure is 14.8 cents. After various delays, the state-of-the-art blocks currently under construction are now scheduled to deliver in June 2026 to 2027. If this works out and the average inflation of recent years remains the same, a price of just under 17 cents can be expected by then.
For comparison: the tender prices for new offshore wind farms around the UK are between 3-6 cents per KWh. This roughly corresponds to the range for minimum prices with which renewables are guaranteed in Europe. Exchange electricity prices are around 10 cents, but vary greatly from country to country, and are slightly higher in the UK. Because of the gas price, they are still at double that level.
This guarantee contract from previous governments in the UK is therefore an expensive disaster for electricity customers. Here, purchases are already up to 100% too expensive, and if the electricity and gas markets continue to normalise, they will be 300% or even more so. Theresa May, who was in office for a very short time, wanted to get out of the contract, but did not found a way.
Anyone who now thinks this is expensive should know that investors from Japan already pulled out of the UK market many years ago and recently the Chinese have also bailed out.
This will not be a good deal even at the prices for EDF, which now has to shoulder the burden largely on its own. The only question is who will bleed more, the electricity customers in the UK or the state budget in France. If the true cost of nuclear power is taken into account, it will probably even be EDF.
As Paris is now raising electricity prices in its own country by almost 70% – which is certainly not politically desirable – in order to relieve the state coffers of at least some of the deficits, it will be interesting to see whether Paris will continue to pursue such foreign adventures by EDF&Co. The last and most modern nuclear power plant, the one in Finland, was offered at a fixed price, at least three times more expensive and the deficit is now in a special purpose vehicle in France, one more “bad bank” of Framatome.
France will not continue to do this and most European countries’ plans to expand nuclear energy are presumably effectively over.
The talk of some parts of German politics about such ideas should be taken into account. As long as no real progress is made on nuclear energy, this is purely a populist political show to revive age-old emotionalisation, especially in Germany.
Both sides should bear this in mind, because there is no point in getting worked up about it. As things stand today, nobody needs to ban nuclear energy or fear that the industry has to be discouraged from using it. It is enough to agree that you don’t want to pay a ridiculous price for it – neither as a taxpayer nor as an electricity customer.
Perhaps we can agree on that quickly?’
Via Dirk Specht
Talen Energy Is Building Data Centers That Run on Nuclear Power. Now, It Needs to Find Buyers
A potential partnership for data campus can boost independent power producer’s earnings
WSJ, By Soma Biswas, Dec. 27, 2023
Independent nuclear power company Talen Energy is betting its future on supplying power to technology companies that are looking for carbon-free energy sources to develop their artificial-intelligence capabilities.
Talen, which exited bankruptcy this year, is developing a 1,200-acre data-center campus with dedicated power supply from the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Berwick, Pa., according to the company’s public presentations. Talen could lease, sell or form a joint venture with technology companies such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon.com to operate the facility, according to Talen shareholders and a report by investment bank Oppenheimer.
In December, Oppenheimer analysts initiated coverage of the company, and added that such a deal could boost the company’s cash flow by $50 million annually. A power-supply contract to a tenant or buyer would yield higher rates than what Talen would earn in the wholesale power market since commercial customers, such as data centers, pay more for electricity, the company has said. ……………………………. (Subscribers only) more https://www.wsj.com/articles/talen-energy-is-building-data-centers-that-run-on-nuclear-power-now-it-needs-to-find-buyers-c9c8c4a9—
Russia To Retire World’s Only Nuclear-Powered, Largest Battle-Cruiser Pyotr Veliky
The Russian Navy will not modernize the massive Pyotr Veliky battle-cruiser, the world’s only nuclear-powered surface vessel, and the largest non-aircraft carrier naval warship.
The one-of-kind warship that packs phenomenal firepower was supposed to be refitted and modernized after another ship in its class, Admiral Nakhimov, concluded her modernization. Pyotr Veliky will head for decommissioning following that.
According to reports, the anticipated refurbishment has been canceled owing to concerns over the massive costs and technical challenges involved in the vessels’ operations and maintenance.
Moreover, the ships are also not in harmony with newer concepts being considered in the Russian Navy, which favor mid-sized, heavily armed missile boats, corvettes, and frigates, which have a mix of land-attack, surface-ship strike, anti-air, and submarine hunting capabilities. …………………………………………………………………………… https://www.eurasiantimes.com/russia-to-retire-worlds-only-nuclear-powered-largest-battle-cruiser-pyotr-veliky-sister-ship-to-serve-in-arctic/
China’s Low-Cost Nuclear Offer Faces Scrutiny in Kazakhstan
By Eurasianet – Dec 27, 2023,
- The Chinese proposal offers a nuclear plant at half the price of French, Russian, and South Korean alternatives.
- Concerns arise over the Chinese design using outdated technology, despite compatibility with Kazakh-produced fuel assemblies.
- The projected cost for a two-unit nuclear power plant is over $12 billion, with an output of 2.4 GW of power.
A Kazakh media outlet, citing a watchdog group representative, is reporting that the Kazakh government is balking at a Chinese proposal to build the Central Asian nation’s first nuclear power plant. The Kazakh government has not officially commented on the report. ………….. https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Chinas-Low-Cost-Nuclear-Offer-Faces-Scrutiny-in-Kazakhstan.html
Netanyahu’s Palestinian Genocide Is Also a Betrayal of the Jews
SCHEERPOST, December 21, 2023
Larry Gross offers his experience and thoughts on the growing calls of anti-Semitism against critique of Israel’s ongoing bombing of Gaza.
Apart from the death, destruction and suffering bestowed upon the Palestinian people in Gaza by the hands of the Israeli government, an ideological battle is taking place around the world, especially in the United States, where Jewish people face discrimination, prejudice and attacks on their identity by the hands of other Jews.
Former University of Pennsylvania—where former president Elizabeth Magill has just resigned because of this very issue—deputy dean Larry Gross and host Robert Scheer, “two old Jews,” as Scheer puts it, discuss the troubling, McCarthyite times that are transpiring now in the wake of the October 7th attacks and the subsequent daily bombardment of Gaza.
“It’s an attempt to silence opposition through a kind of rhetorical intimidation, and nobody should accept it. It is shameful and wrong and I would say it’s embarrassingly ignorant when the U.S. Congress votes for a resolution that defines criticism of Zionism as anti-Semitic,” Gross said.
The simple and objective realities that Jews like Gross and Scheer discuss could now be construed as anti-Semitic, despite them being Jewish. This “card,” Gross and Scheer argue, along with the “Holocaust card,” is illogical and stifles crucial dialogue.
Gross says “it is intellectually bankrupt, morally reprehensible and politically opportunistic,” while Scheer pleads “this idea that the U.S. Congress could tell even Jewish people that if you dare criticize this political movement of Zionism that you’re anti-Semitic, this is one of the greatest distortions of thought.”
“They pull out their victim card and accuse anybody who criticizes them of anti-Semitism. And as you know, if you’re Jewish, then you’re a, what do they call it, self-hating Jew? That’s the kind of trick psychoanalysts play, which is you can’t win no matter what you say,” Gross said.
Despite their vast experience with both Judaism as a religion and Israel as a state, with Gross spending eight years growing up in Israel and Scheer reporting on the Six-Day War when it happened, their contributions to the discussion of the war on Gaza can now be labeled and disregarded, thanks to the efforts of people like Elise Stefanik against university presidents in Congress and the rest of the establishment figures who uncritically take Israeli government officials’ words as fact.
Robert Scheer …………………………………………… If you are not Jewish, they’ll tell you you’re anti-Semitic. But even if you’re Jewish, they’ll tell you you are self-hating or anti-Semitic……………………………
Larry Gross ……………………………. (Jews are) famous for debate, dispute and argument. In fact, it’s sort of built into the centuries long tradition of Judaism………………………………… there is no uniform Jewish orthodoxy that everybody is expected to adhere to…………………………………….
…………………………….. there has been a consistent use of what might be called and has been called playing the Holocaust card that whenever the subject of Israel’s behavior externally or internally, particularly internally, comes up, the sort of importance of Israel: because Holocaust, because we need this because of the Holocaust, etc. is is played.
…………………………………And there are a number of problems with that. One of which is that at least half of the citizens of Israel come from communities and/or countries of origin that had nothing to do with the Holocaust, that were never in Europe, that were basically Middle Eastern Muslim countries…………………………………………………………………. . So Israel is not a collection of Holocaust survivors, as sometimes is implied.
……………………………..the key point today is that, to put it bluntly and crudely, the Holocaust card doesn’t work anymore, particularly for young people.
………………………………………….. So, I think the the Israeli effort to portray itself as needing to be militant and aggressive in the way that it has been, has run out of, you know, sort of moral authority and in fact, ceded the the role of victim, no longer held by the Jews, but held by the Palestinians whose lives they are constraining and controlling in ways that very much resemble the apartheid system in South Africa.
……………………………………… if you operate on a rhetoric of victimhood, the victims that we can see today are not Jews.
…………………………………….. But yes, so 1,200, let’s say Israelis were slaughtered in an obscene war crime by Hamas fighters on October 7th. But by now, the Israelis have killed, I don’t know, upward of 15, maybe by now, 20,000. ………………………………………………
Gross You know, using the kind of carpet bombing that just a year or so ago, we were decrying, condemning Russia for using in the Ukraine, except worse.
…………………………………………………………..just incidentally, one of the best examples, one of the biggest successes of the Israeli efforts to undermine political opposition through bogus claims of anti-Semitism is their collusion with politicians in Britain to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. To undermine an actual leftist who was the head of the Labor Party and who was undermined by the centrist members of the Labor Party with the active support and participation and help of the Israelis in mounting bogus claims that Corbyn was anti-Semitic despite his entire record of support for causes.
………………………………………………. And incidentally, as long as we’re on the subject of, you know, sort of Israeli backstage political maneuvering, it is by now documented that Israel was supporting Hamas for years. Israel was allowing Qatar to funnel billions of dollars to Hamas. And Netanyahu is recorded on tape talking about how we support Hamas to to counter the Palestinian Authority……………………………………………………………………………
Scheer……………………………………………. the irony here, the deep irony is that we never really came to grips with the actual Holocaust, meaning the elimination, the death, the destruction of 6 million Jews. And that was at the hands of primarily a Christian Europe. As you point out, this was not a Muslim crime and it did not happen in the Mideast.
……………………………………………… But the terrible thing here is for those of us who come out of a secular or liberal or reformed Jewish tradition, this is a denial of the universalist human rights values. And that’s why young people are rebelling against this, because they accept that human rights are universal, whether it applies to Ukrainians or applies to anybody in the world,
Gross ………………………………. the religious parties have always succeeded in controlling important aspects of Israeli life, public and private, in terms dictated by religion, not by secular law.
……………………………………………….I mean, the extreme religious orthodoxies in Israel have become much more militant in a non-democratic fashion. And this is one of the reasons that the Israeli public has been protesting long before October 7th and since then but for more than a year or so since there have been demonstrations against this anti-democratic, religious parties.
……………………………………………………………. And what we suddenly had from ’67 on and with accelerating force was ultra orthodox Zionism, ethno-nationalist Orthodox Zionism. And they’re the ones who were pushing the eradication of the Palestinian communities on the West Bank. They care much more at the West Bank than they do about Gaza…………………… they’re engaged there in apartheid chopping up of the land and various forms of what I think could appropriately be called ethnic cleansing, trying to kick people out, to appropriate their land, to push them out on religious grounds. And incidentally, this is again, important because Israel and its allies in their P.R. are very dishonest about this…………………………………………………………………….
Scheer. ………………………………………………………….You get to blame the Palestinians. And I want to ask you, as a professor, as somebody who comes out of the university, you look at what’s going on now, people are afraid to speak up. That’s my experience……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Gross. ………………………………………………. the incredible failures of Netanyahu’s government has been this unleashed calamity in Gaza. They are making Gaza unlivable on purpose. In the delusion, illusory notion that somehow all of those Palestinians will leave and go somewhere else…………………………………….
Scheer. …………………………… I think that’s an important point on which to end and it goes back to the universalism of Jewish values of an oppressed people. The Palestinians are the Jews of the modern world, that probably can get you fired. ………………………………………………….. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/21/netanyahus-palestinian-genocide-is-also-a-betrayal-of-the-jews/
Judge Rules Assange Visitors May Sue CIA For Allegedly Violating Privacy
Kevin Gosztola, Dec 19, 2023, The Dissenter
A federal judge ruled that four American attorneys and journalists, who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was in the Ecuador embassy in London, may sue the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for their role in the alleged copying of the contents of their electronic devices.
The Americans sufficiently alleged that the CIA and CIA Director Mike Pompeo—through the Spanish security company UC Global and its director David Morales—“violated their reasonable expectation of privacy” under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Richard Roth, attorney for the four Americans, reacted, “We are thrilled that the court rejected the CIA’s efforts to silence the plaintiffs, who merely seek to expose the CIA’s attempt to carry out Pompeo’s vendetta against WikiLeaks.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The U.S. government on behalf of the CIA will likely appeal the decision. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable development because there is a distinct possibility that there may be a civil trial, where CIA spying on Americans is challenged. And all while the U.S. government pushes forward with the unprecedented act of putting a publisher on trial for engaging in journalism. https://thedissenter.org/judge-assange-visitors-may-sue-cia-for-spying/?ref=the-dissenter-newsletter&fbclid=IwAR1S-KR9qxfueGXiIYf0quxldvaXEus_rLZsBUQbwIbPaTmZ_VjSft9KBzI
Ukraine losing 800 troops a day – ex-NATO officer
https://www.rt.com/news/589421-ukraine-losses-attrition-morale/ 22 Dec 23
Kiev’s manpower is “significantly worn out” as Russia’s “strategy of attrition” is taking effect, a former German Air Force Colonel has said.
Around 800 Ukrainian troops are being killed and wounded daily amid the conflict with Russia, retired German Air Force Colonel and prominent military analyst Ralph D. Thiele has claimed.
In an opinion piece for Focus magazine on Wednesday, Thiele, who used to serve in the personal staff of NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, claimed that Kiev needs to recruit more than 20,000 soldiers every month in order to replace its dead and injured. He did not reveal his sources or basis for his calculations, however.
Ukraine also requires additional personnel to be able to rotate its troops on the frontline, so that “exhausted soldiers” may recover and units may replenish their material supplies, he wrote.
According to Thiele, who now heads the Political-Military Society, EuroDefense (Germany) and StratByrd Consulting think tanks, “the highly motivated defense” and subsequent counteroffensive, which he described as “a thing of the past,” came at a “high price” for Ukraine.
Kiev’s manpower and hardware are “significantly worn out,” he said. “Western weapons systems are not miracle weapons and are wearing out,” the analyst added.
The worsening battlefield situation and decreasing Western support for Kiev are “eating away at the morale” of the Ukrainian troops, who “will have to save ammunition in a war of attrition and endure slaughter at the front without rest and without a greater sense of achievement,” Thiele stressed.
Russia has also lost “a large number of soldiers and huge amounts of material” during the conflict, but “it has much more of both than Ukraine,” he argued.
“Step by step, Russia’s superiority in the conflict with Ukraine is becoming more visible,” the analyst acknowledged. Moscow’s “strategy of attrition” is “taking effect” in terms of personnel, material, ammunition and morale, he said.
Thiele’s number of 800 Ukrainian soldiers being lost per day appears to be higher than the one announced by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu at the expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry’s Board on Tuesday. According to Shoigu, some 400,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded since the start of the fighting in late February 2022. This means that, according to Russian figures, Kiev’s daily losses stand at around 600 servicemen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who chaired the meeting, stressed that “we can say with confidence that our troops have the initiative” on the frontline with Ukraine. “In essence, we are doing what we consider necessary, what we want. Wherever… commanders decide active defense is best, it takes place. And where it is needed, we improve our positions,” Putin explained.
Surrender or die – Netanyahu
Thu, 21 Dec 2023 https://www.sott.net/article/487123-Surrender-or-die-Netanyahu
Israel intends to fight until total victory, its prime minister has announced…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war against Hamas until the Palestinian group is eliminated entirely and Gaza poses no threat.
His comments come after Hamas reportedly rejected West Jerusalem’s offer for another week-long “humanitarian pause” in exchange for freeing 40 Israeli captives.
In a video message posted on X (formerly Twitter) by his spokesman Ofir Gendelman on Thursday, Netanyahu said:
“We are fighting until victory. We will not stop the war until we achieve all of its goals: Completing the elimination of Hamas and releasing all of our hostages.
“The choice I propose to Hamas is very simple: Surrender or die. All Hamas terrorists, from the first to the last, are dead men walking.”
He added that after eliminating Hamas, Israel will ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat and that “whoever thinks we will stop is detached from reality.”
The message, in Hebrew with English subtitles, appears to have been recorded on Wednesday evening after the talks on a possible ceasefire reportedly collapsed. Citing anonymous sources, the Wall Street Journal said that Israel had offered to halt its military operations for a week in exchange for the release of hostages and allow more humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas, however, rejected the offer and insisted that any talks would require halting the offensive against Gaza first, according to the Journal.
The Palestinian group seized an estimated 240 Israeli captives during its October 7 incursion into the country, which claimed the lives of an estimated 1,200 people. Several of the hostages have since been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during their offensive against the enclave. Around 120 are estimated to still be in Hamas captivity after some were exchanged during a week-long truce at the end of November.
Israeli forces have so far taken the northern part of Gaza and thoroughly devastated the enclave’s infrastructure. Local health authorities have estimated that more than 19,500 Palestinians have been killed over the course of the fighting.
The US has called on Netanyahu to limit civilian casualties but continued to provide Israel with military and other support. West Jerusalem has faced backlash from abroad, with the Houthis of Yemen openly siding with the Palestinians and attacking Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea.
Meet the Companies Profiting From Israel’s War on Gaza
“The scale of destruction and war crimes in Gaza would not be possible without massive weapon transfers from the U.S.,” . “As global resistance to war and apartheid grows, it is important that the public know exactly who is making this violence possible”
“As global resistance to war and apartheid grows, it is important that the public know exactly who is making this violence possible.”
SCHEERPOST, By Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams December 21, 2023
As of Wednesday, a U.S.-based Quaker group’s online database listed over two dozen companies profiting from the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have spent the last 10 weeks waging what experts call a “genocidal” war that sent defense stocks soaring.
Backed by $3.8 billion in annual military aid from the United States, Israel declared war on October 7 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack that killed over 1,100 people. Since then, Israeli forces have killed over 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza—sparking massive protests demanding a cease-fire around the world, including many led by Jewish people.
“War and attacks on civilians will never bring safety or peace to Israelis or Palestinians.”
The growing death toll, displacement, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and difficulties in delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave have also increased scrutiny of a $14.3 billion package for the war that the Biden administration requested from Congress as well as criticism of the U.S. weapon-makers and billionaire donors who are arming and enabling the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“The scale of destruction and war crimes in Gaza would not be possible without massive weapon transfers from the U.S.,” said Noam Perry of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the group behind the tool, in a statement Wednesday. “As global resistance to war and apartheid grows, it is important that the public know exactly who is making this violence possible.”
As the AFSC webpage details:
Shortly after October 7, the U.S. government started transferring to Israel massive amounts of weapons. Among these weapons, Israel received more than 15,000 bombs and 50,000 artillery shells within just the first month-and-a-half. These transfers have been deliberately shrouded in secrecy to avoid public scrutiny and prevent Congress from exercising any meaningful oversight.
Some of these weapons were purchased using U.S. taxpayers’ money through the Foreign Military Sales program; some were direct commercial sales purchased through Israel’s own budget; and some were replenished U.S. military stockpiles in Israel, which the Israeli military may also use. A list of known U.S. arms transfers is maintained by the Forum on the Arms Trade.
The webpage notes that the list is based on reporting, social media, and other open sources, and “focuses on weapons used by Israel because all Palestinian militant groups are already sanctioned and receive no support from Western governments or corporations.”
For example, Boeing, the world’s fifth-largest weapon manufacturer, makes F-15 fighter jets and Apache AH-64 attack helicopters used by the Israeli forces, as well as “multiple types of unguided small diameter bombs (SDBs) and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits” that have been used “extensively” during the war, including in a bombing of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp…………………………………………………………………………..
Other companies on the list include weapons giants such as General Dynamics, General Electric, L3Harris Technologies, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX—formerly Raytheon—as well as vehicle companies AM General, Ford, Oshkosh, Toyota, and drone manufacturers AeroVironment, Skydio, and XTEND…………………………………………………..
The other foreign firms on the list are ThyssenKrupp, the German company that built four warships for Israel, and Nordic Ammunition Company, which makes the M141 Bunker Defeat Munition, a shoulder-fired “bunker-buster” rocket……………………………………..
more https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/21/meet-the-companies-profiting-from-israels-war-on-gaza/—
EDF to extend nuclear outages in 2024, 2025 on corrosion issue
CAROLINE PAILLIEZ, Paris, France, 21 Dec 2023
Montel) French utility EDF will extend planned outages at up to five of its reactors by an average of 30 days next year and again in 2025 related to repairs undertaken in 2023 for corrosion, it said late on Wednesday.
The shutdowns could affect one planned outage out of three at 13 reactors*, it said in a statement, adding it was “taking into account key learnings from controls and repairs undertaken in 2023 on reactors linked to stress corrosion cracking”.
The corrosion issue has dogged the firm, with reactor outages jumping 47% in 2022 due to corrosion issues at numerous units, with output plunging to a 33-year………. (Subscribers only) more https://www.montelnews.com/news/1533868/edf-to-extend-nuclear-outages-in-2024-2025-on-corrosion-issue
Day X Marks the Calendar: Julian Assange’s ‘Final’ Appeal
December 22, 2023, by: Dr Binoy Kampmark https://theaimn.com/day-x-marks-the-calendar-julian-assanges-final-appeal/—
Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, is rarely one to be cryptic. “Day X is here,” she posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter. For those who have followed her remarks, her speeches, and her activism, it was sharply clear what this meant. “It may be the final chance for the UK to stop Julian’s extradition. Gather outside the court at 8.30am on both days. It’s now or never.”
Between February 20 and 21 next year, the High Court will hear what WikiLeaks claims may be “the final chance for Julian Assange to prevent his extradition to the United States.” (This is qualified by the prospect of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.) Were that to take place, the organisation’s founder faces 18 charges, 17 of which are stealthily cobbled from the aged and oppressive US Espionage Act of 1917. Estimates of any subsequent sentence vary, the worst being 175 years
The WikiLeaks founder remains jailed at His Majesty’s pleasure at Belmarsh prison, only reserved for the most hardened of criminals. It’s a true statement of both British and US justice that Assange has yet to face trial, incarcerated, without bail, for four-and-a-half years. That trial, were it to ever be allowed to take place, would employ a scandalous legal theory that will spell doom to all those who dive and dabble in the world of publishing national security information.
Fundamentally, and irrefutably, the case against Assange remains political in its muscularity, with a gangster’s legality papered over it. As Stella herself makes clear, “With the myriad of evidence that has come to light since the original hearing in 2018, such as the violation of legal privilege and reports that senior US officials are involved in formulating assassination plots against my husband, there is no denying that a fair trial, let alone Julian’s safety on US soil, is an impossibility were he to be extradited.”
In mid-2022, Assange’s legal team attempted a two-pronged attempt to overturn the decision of Home Office Secretary Priti Patel to approve Assange’s extradition while also broadening the appeal against grounds made in the original January 4, 2021 reasons of District Judge Vanessa Baraitser.
The former, among other matters, took issue with the acceptance by the Home Office that the extradition was not for a political offence and therefore prohibited by Article 4 of the UK-US Extradition Treaty. The defence team stressed the importance of due process, enshrined in British law since the Magna Carta of 2015, and also took issue with Patel’s acceptance of “special arrangements” with the US government regarding the introduction of charges for the facts alleged which might carry the death penalty, criminal contempt proceedings, and such specialty arrangements that might protect Assange “against being dealt with for conduct outside the extradition request.” History shows that such “special arrangements” can be easily, and arbitrarily abrogated.
On June 30, 2022 came the appeal against Baraitser’s original reasons. While Baraitser blocked the extradition to the US, she only did so on grounds of oppression occasioned by mental health grounds and the risk posed to Assange were he to find himself in the US prison system. The US government got around this impediment by making breezy promises to the effect that Assange would not be subject to oppressive, suicide-inducing conditions, or face the death penalty. A feeble, meaningless undertaking was also made suggesting that he might serve the balance of his term in Australia – subject to approval, naturally.
What this left Assange’s legal team was a decision otherwise hostile to publishing, free speech and the activities that had been undertaken by WikiLeaks. The appeal accordingly sought to address this, claiming, among other things, that Baraitser had erred in assuming that the extradition was not “unjust and oppressive by reason of the lapse of time”; that it would not be in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (inhuman and degrading treatment)”; that it did not breach Article 10 of ECHR, namely the right to freedom of expression; and that it did not breach Article 7 of the ECHR (novel and unforeseeable extension of the law).
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Other glaring defects in Baraitser’s judgment are also worth noting, namely her failure to acknowledge the misrepresentation of facts advanced by the US government and the “ulterior political motives” streaking the prosecution. The onerous and much thicker second superseding indictment was also thrown at Assange at short notice before the extradition hearing of September 2020, suggesting that those grounds be excised “for reasons of procedural fairness.”
An agonising wait of some twelve months followed, only to yield an outrageously brief decision on June 6 from High Court justice Jonathan Swift (satirists, reach for your pens and laptops). Swift, much favoured by the Defence and Home Secretaries when a practising barrister, told Counsel Magazine in a 2018 interview that his “favourite clients were the security and intelligence agencies.” Why? “They take preparation and evidence-gathering seriously: a real commitment to getting things right.” Good grief.
In such a cosmically unattached world, Swift only took three pages to reject the appeal’s arguments in a fit of premature adjudication. “An appeal under the Extradition Act 2003,” he wrote with icy finality, “is not an opportunity for general rehearsal of all matters canvassed at an extradition hearing.” The appeal’s length – some 100 pages – was “extraordinary” and came “to no more than an attempt to re-run the extensive arguments made and rejected by the District Judge.”
Thankfully, Swift’s finality proved stillborn. Some doubts existed whether the High Court appellate bench would even grant the hearing. They did, though requesting that Assange’s defence team trim the appeal to 20 pages.
How much of this is procedural theatre and circus judge antics remains to be seen. Anglo-American justice has done wonders in soiling itself in its treatment of Britain’s most notable political prisoner. Keeping Assange in the UK in hideous conditions of confinement without bail serves the goals of Washington, albeit vicariously. For Assange, time is the enemy, and each legal brief, appeal and hearing simply weighs the ledger further against his ailing existence.
The ‘Greater Israel’ Scheme And Its Global Power Play: A Delusional Recipe For Armageddon
AuthorMatthew Ehret, The Last American Vagabond,
In 1996, a nest of American-born imperialists revolving around Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Richard Perle created a new think tank called “The Project for a New American Century.”
While the principled aim of the think tank ultimately hinged on a new “Pearl Harbor moment” that would justify a new era of regime-change wars in the Middle East, a secondary but equally important part of the formula involved the dominance of “Greater Israel” Likud fanatics then taking power over the murdered body of Yitzhak Rabin.
It was toward the start of the new regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Richard Perle wrote the report “Clean Break: A Strategy for Securing the Realm,” which outlined a series of goals that would govern the strategic vision of Washington and Tel Aviv for the next two decades. It called for:
Canceling the foundations for the Oslo Accords that threatened to bring about a climate of peace through economic cooperation in the Middle East under a two-state solution- Launching a new doctrine of “right of hot pursuit” justifying armed incursions into Palestinian territories
- Inducing the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq
- Armed incursions into Lebanon and possible strikes against Syria and Iran
In 2007, General Wesley Clark added even more detail to this neocon program when he revealed the content of a discussion he had with Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld 10 days after 9/11. General Clark stated that he was told of planned invasions of seven countries scheduled to take place within five years… namely: “Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.”
This program was, in short, a recipe for establishing the long-awaited “Greater Israel” promoted by the likes of Theodor Herzl, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook over a century ago.
While the Anglo-Zionist timeline was disrupted over the ensuing years (sometimes involving brave intervention by individuals within America’s intelligence community), the intention embedded in “Clean Break” never disappeared.
With the coming breakdown of the over-inflated Western financial system on one side and the emergence of a viable new multipolar security and economic architecture on the other side, it appears the ghouls that orchestrated 9/11, assassinated Rabin (1995) and Arafat (2004), and revived the Crusades have decided to kick over the chess board.
Conducting a rational analysis of the motives for this type of dynamic poses a major difficulty for any geopolitical commentator used to thinking in academically acceptable terms, which presume that rational self-interest animates the players within a game. In this case, rational self-interest is infected by heavy doses of self-delusional Hegemonism, fanatical imperial zealotry, and end-times eschatology with a Messianic twist (taking both Christian and Jewish forms).
Sifting out Order from Chaos
Netanyahu and his neocon (see: uniparty) supporters in America and Britain appear to be supportive of Israel’s ambition to provoke a vast regional war on one hand, while also believing that perhaps they will be able to use Israel as a wedge to disrupt Russian and Chinese-led development corridors (BRI, short for Belt and Road Initiative, and International North-South Transport Corridor) on the other hand.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
If Israel wishes to have full control over Gaza’s maritime oil/gas reserves, it can only achieve its goal if the legal owners and beneficiaries living in Gaza disappear.
On October 13, 2023, a policy paper authored by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence was leaked. It recommended “the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula,” as +972 reported.
The paper laid out three possible scenarios for the people of Gaza. The first involves the replacement of Hamas with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. The second involves the emergence of a new local Gaza authority (not Hamas or PA), and the third includes the expulsion of all civilians into Egypt. The report clearly identifies the third scenario as the most preferable option. The report’s authors write that this third option “will yield positive, long-term strategic outcomes for Israel, and is an executable option. It requires determination from the political echelon in the face of international pressure, with an emphasis on harnessing the support of the United States and additional pro-Israeli countries for the endeavor.”
Of course, US support for moving Gazans into the Sinai Peninsula began literally minutes after October 7. This would create a serious problem for future retaliation by extremely radicalized and traumatized people whose families have been killed by Israel’s crimes for decades. Hamas’ Qatar-based Muslim Brotherhood leadership of multi-billionaires would then easily be able to coordinate with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to act as agent provocateurs attacking Israel.
The Muslim Brotherhood has served as a major organizing force led by Anglo-Zionist intelligence for decades, was instrumental in orchestrating the Arab Spring, and supported the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
Perhaps if this was still 1996, and no powerful coalition of Russia, China, and Iran existed to defend Egypt against the threatened Anglo-Zionist war, then perhaps the PNAC Clean Break Strategy for Securing the Realm might be possible. The decision to ignore reality by rehashing this obsolete program implies the height of incompetence, which threatens to grow far beyond a regional war and into a global thermonuclear conflagration more quickly than many imagine.
This foreshadowing of a prophetic global war to usher in the Messiah (as many Christian rapturists dream of), was outlined in depth by Greater Israel advocate and Jabotinsky collaborator Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook 100 years ago.
Kook was Britain’s selection for the Chief Ashkenaz Rabbi for Jerusalem and Palestine from 1919 to 1935, and his influence in shaping several generations of radical Zionist zealots that took over control of much of Israel’s government after the inside job that was the Six Day War is immense. His prophetic remarks should not be easily dismissed. In his book Orot, Kook said:
“In wars, national characters crystalize. Israel, as the universal reflection of mankind, benefits thereby. The heels of Messiah follow upon World Conflagration… At the hour of the downfall of Western civilization, Israel is called upon to fulfill its divine mission by providing the spiritual basis for a New World Order.” [emphasis added]
The only hope to avoid this calamity and disrupt this flight toward an Armageddon scenario steered by End Times Messianic cultists is to force a ceasefire, as Russia, China, and the vast majority of world citizens (even Americans) demand.
Without this restoration of sanity, the world as a whole will be in for an experience that will make the 14th-century Dark Age appear to be an uncomfortable hiccup in world history. https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/greater-israel-power-armageddon/
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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