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Russia takes the first step towards revoking ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty.

 Russia has taken the first step towards revoking ratification of the
nuclear test ban treaty. The country’s lawmakers today voted on the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and their decision has moved them
closer to abandoning the landmark agreement. The vote comes after President
Vladimir Putin said earlier this month he was ‘not ready to say’ whether
Russia needed to carry out live nuclear tests – which they promised not to
do when ratifying the treaty in 2000.

 Daily Mail 17th Oct 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12640363/Russia-takes-step-revoking-ratification-nuclear-test-ban-treaty.html #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 19, 2023 Posted by | politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Two Men Plead Guilty to Falsifying Documents Related to Testing of Equipment at Nuclear Power Plants

Office of Public Affairs. Us Department of Justice 18 Oct 23

Two men pleaded guilty today for their roles in creating false calibration certificates in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

According to court documents, Miguel Marcial Amaro, 56, of Newark, Delaware, and Martin Ramos, 52, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, worked for a company that provided acoustic emissions (AE) testing to nuclear power plants to detect structural defects in the plant’s equipment. Following the testing, Marcial and Ramos helped create and transmit final testing reports to the owners of the plants which, among other things, contained calibration certificates for the equipment used.

Between 2010 and 2021, Marcial was responsible for ensuring that the company’s AE testing equipment was calibrated annually; Ramos worked under Marcial as an engineer. The two men created numerous false calibration certificates for AE testing equipment, and 15 of these false certificates were sent a total of 29 times to nuclear plant owners as part of final testing reports required by the NRC. The falsified calibration certificates were discovered in 2021 during an external audit.

Today, we hold defendants accountable for deliberately attempting to bypass testing protocols that are essential to keeping nuclear power plants safe,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). ……………………………………………………………….  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-plead-guilty-falsifying-documents-related-testing-equipment-nuclear-power-plants #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 19, 2023 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Crackdown on nuclear firm after cyber security ‘shortfalls’

“Cyber attacks threaten the security of nuclear facilities by compromising command and control systems and damaging safety, security and emergency responses.”

“Rapidly spreading computer viruses and worms can infect instrument systems and corrupt files.

The Ferret Rob Edwards, October 18, 2023

A multinational nuclear power company has been hit by an official crackdown because of cyber security failures that critics warned were a “very real and present danger”.

Oversight of EDF Energy by the UK Government’s safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation, has been “significantly enhanced” to combat “shortfalls” in defences against digital attacks. This means more inspections and increased scrutiny of EDF’s cyber security.

EDF is a French government company that runs one nuclear power station in Scotland, at Torness in East Lothian, and four in England. It is also building a new nuclear station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Campaigners described EDF’s failure to properly protect its nuclear operations from “potentially dangerous cyber attacks” as “incomprehensible”. Nuclear plants were “vulnerable” to computer viruses that could threaten safety, they said……….

No details of EDF’s cyber security failings have been released for fear of helping would-be hackers. Cyber attacks are on the increase, with many organisations – such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency – severely impacted.

The Times reported in 2017 that insecure passwords used by EDF nuclear managers had been found in two lists of stolen credentials traded on Russian hacking sites. According to The Telegraph in 2019, UK government intelligence experts had been called in after a cyber attack on an unnamed nuclear power company, suspected to be EDF.

The Ferret revealed in March 2023 that the police force tasked with guarding UK nuclear plants reported 37 security breaches in 2021-22, the highest for eight years. In August we reported that the Ministry of Defence’s nuclear managers had recorded 113 “security concerns” since 2017-18………………………………………………..

Nuclear plants ‘vulnerable’ to cyber attack

Dr Paul Dorfman, a nuclear critic and visiting fellow at the science policy research unit in the University of Sussex, highlighted concerns expressed by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the growing threats posed by cyber attacks.

Nuclear power plants are “vulnerable,” Dorfman said. “Cyber attacks threaten the security of nuclear facilities by compromising command and control systems and damaging safety, security and emergency responses.”

He added: “Rapidly spreading computer viruses and worms can infect instrument systems and corrupt files. EDF’s persisting failure to prepare for the very real and present danger of cyber attack on nuclear facilities is, quite simply, incomprehensible.”

Pete Roche, a consultant and anti-nuclear campaigner based in Edinburgh, pointed out that the Torness nuclear station was due to keep operating until 2028 despite cracks spreading in its graphite core.

“We need an operating company which can give meticulous attention to detail,” he said. “These revelations about cyber security seem to indicate that EDF is not capable of doing that.” …………………………………………………………………more https://theferret.scot/cyber-security-nuclear-security-crackdown/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 19, 2023 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Nuclear Weapons and New Mexico’s Downwinders: Tina Cordova on “the legacy for us that no one ever talks about”

NTI 18 Oct 23 Mary Olney Fulham, Communications Officer, Rachel Staley GrantDeputy Vice President, Communications

Tina Cordova is co-founder and executive director of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Since its founding in 2005, the Consortium has brought attention to the serious health effects that New Mexicans have suffered due to the development and testing of nuclear weapons in the state. NTI’s Mary Fulham and Rachel Staley Grant interviewed Tina during Hispanic American Heritage Month about her advocacy work—including recent breakthroughs in Congress—and her take on the recent attention that Oppenheimer has brought to the history of nuclear weapons in New Mexico.

Thank you for joining us, Tina. To get started, could you tell us about New Mexico’s experience with nuclear weapons and how nuclear weapons have made a mark on your life?

I grew up in a small village close to the Trinity test site. When I was young, I heard about the bomb detonated in our backyard, and I saw people with rare and aggressive cancers. When I went to college and got a degree in the sciences, I really began to understand how the health, economy, and environment of the entire state is horribly harmed by the nuclear industry.

We have the “cradle-to-grave” nuclear weapons lifecycle here: mining, testing, disposal. From the beginning of the Manhattan Project, the government disrespected and exploited native communities by building mines on sacred lands and forcing the people to work in and around the mines without safety gear. Well into the 1970s, Los Alamos National Lab dumped nuclear waste in the nearby canyons that feed the aquifer connected to the Rio Grande River, our water source. Everything south of Los Alamos was contaminated by that waste.

As a result, many people are sick from radiation exposure, which is both a health and economic issue. When people get sick with cancer they can’t hold a job.

I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when I was 39. My dad developed cancer after me, first on the base of his tongue, then prostate cancer, and then, eight years later, again on his tongue. He was healthy and had no risk factors, but the doctors said they see it a lot in New Mexico. After the second round of cancer, my dad had all the radiation treatment he could take, so he died. Both of my grandmothers had cancer and I had two great-grandfathers that had cancer. Now my 23-year-old niece has thyroid cancer.

That’s cancer in five generations of my family.

 I wish I could say we were unique, but we’ve documented hundreds of families with the same experience, and the really tragic thing is that we’re seeing cancer in younger people all the time. We are forced to bury our loved ones on a regular basis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

New Mexicans did the dirty work for the Manhattan Project. We built the roads, the bridges, the facilities. We were the ones who died in explosive accidents  at Los Alamos and the janitors who cleaned up. Our women were bussed up there and cooked every meal, cleaned every house, changed every diaper, and fed every baby. We lived as close as 12 miles to the Trinity site. None of that is shown in the movie.

This movie[LOppenheimer] will make hundreds of millions of dollars and have millions of views, and they wouldn’t even include a note at the end of the film acknowledging the sacrifice and suffering of New Mexicans as a result of the Manhattan Project. And for me, that’s just more of the same exploitation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

It makes me worried that, as we’re looking at a nuclear arms race right now, people don’t realize the human devastation that’s associated with these weapons. People need to recognize the nuclear legacy that so many Americans are already living with, and why it’s not sustainable to keep ramping up our nuclear arsenal and think that somehow it will lead to a good outcome.  https://www.nti.org/atomic-pulse/nuclear-weapons-and-new-mexicos-downwinders-tina-cordova-on-the-legacy-for-us-that-no-one-ever-talks-about/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 19, 2023 Posted by | PERSONAL STORIES, USA | Leave a comment

TODAY. Atoms4NetZero – the International Atomic Energy Agency is deceiving the world on climate change

I begin with this most telling comment from Japanese journalist Kolin Kobaryashi: “The international nuclear lobby, which represents only a minority, has the influence and money to dominate the world’s population with immense power and has now united the world’s minority nuclear community into one big galaxy.

Many of the citizens who have experienced the world’s three most serious civil nuclear accidents have clearly realized that nuclear energy is too dangerous. These citizens are so divided and conflicted that they feel like a helpless minority.”.

The nuclear lobby, having failed to really convince us with its claims that nuclear energy is “cheap”, “safe”, “clean”, “not at all connected with weapons”, has now concentrated its global lies on just one lie -that nuclear power ill solve climate change.

Along with that lie is that second lie – that nuclear power is the alternative to fossil fuels. Not so. The nuclear and fossil fuel lobbies work in tandem. Nuclear is really slow to build, but that’s OK – the timing is such that the fossil fuels can keep going for years, to be eventually taken over by nuclear power. Both sides are happy, and both rejoicing that the COP28 Climate Summit is to be held in oil-producing Dubai, with its President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, managing director and group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC Group)

From the International Atomic Energy Agency – October 2023:

The UAE will host COP28, the UN’s main climate change conference, starting next month in Dubai, where the IAEA for the second successive year will host a pavilion highlighting the role of nuclear energy in mitigating and adapting to climate change. “This year at COP, countries using nuclear energy will gather around the global convening point of the IAEA to state the reality: they use, they will continue to use, and they will increase the contribution of nuclear energy to the energy mix,” IAEA Director General said in his  opening remarks to this week’s conference. 

“The conference kicked off with a keynote address by Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, who noted that progress on nuclear power is currently not keeping pace and pointed to Europe, where 20 years ago nuclear provided 30% of electricity but will fall to about 15% in the coming years unless national policies change. “This has a lot of implications,” Mr Birol said, “for Europe’s electricity security and how challenging it will be to fight against climate change.” 

“To help governments and financial institutions make data-driven, science-based decisions about their investments in future energy systems, the IAEA last year launched the Atoms4NetZero initiative. In cooperation with a variety of partners, it aims to provide a comprehensive energy scenario modelling service, featuring the full potential of nuclear power in achieving net zero emissions, including providing non-electric applications such as hydrogen production.”

“The weeklong conference included ten high-level panels, a high-level segment, a special session, 18 technical sessions, and seven side events organized by various stakeholders. The panels focused on the role of nuclear power in the global clean energy transition, and how to enable it to fulfil its potential in that role, and mobilize multi-stakeholders, including women and young generation groups, to facilitate the global dialogue about nuclear as a sustainable low-carbon energy source.”  

The nuclear lobby will be pulling out all the stops at COP28- with their spiel aimed especially at younger generations – nuclear looks glamourous, new, young, trendy, feminist …… and no expense will be spared……

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

How Media Outlets Work With Israel To Control Gaza Narrative

The state of the free press in the Western world is far from free, in fact, they act as stenographers for the military class to ensure profits for weapons manufacturers continue.

From watchdogs to lapdogs: Mnar Adley reveals the disappointing state of the fourth estate in the West, exposing how biased media, often working directly with the Israeli government, has been complicit in whitewashing Israeli crimes in Palestine.

SCHEERPOST, Mnar Adley / MintPress News October 16, 2023

Israelis were killed, while Palestinians merely “died.”

That’s the leading headline on the BBC after Israel pummeled Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, with Western-supplied bombs after Hamas’s surprise attack and rockets that hit Israel.

Some media outlets are leading with images of injured Palestinian children while reporting on unverified crimes committed by Hamas.

As if given the same script, corporate media anchors and journalists repeat the line that Israel has a right to defend itself as it bombs Gaza’s 2 million Palestinian population, targeting civilians violating international law.

Meanwhile, the same anchors and journalists demand Palestinians denounce violence and Hamas and run with unverified stories handed to them by the Israeli government.

This week’s coverage by Western corporate media underlined its inability to hold the world’s 4th largest military to account for war crimes and instead give airtime to Israeli military officials to incite genocide against Palestinians, who are caged like animals in the world’s largest concentration camp.

Western corporate journalists cannot report neutrally on Israel/Palestine. And here’s just a few examples as to why:

Let’s take The New York Times, for example. Not only has the newspaper constantly supported Israel’s expansionist policies, but it has also directly participated in the dispossession of Palestinians from their homes…………..(examples given)………………………………………

Axel Springer – a giant German broadcaster that owns Politico – has explicitly told its staff that it is their duty to support Israel and those that don’t should leave. A wave of firings of Arab journalists across Germany underlined this message.

The BBC, meanwhile, is the state broadcaster for the United Kingdom, a nation that helped create the state of Israel in 1948. Many of its top foreign affairs journalists go on to work for NATO or big think tanks funded by weapons manufacturers who directly profit from war.

The BBC has been continuously criticized for not providing historical context to the crisis in Gaza and linking it to its own British colonial history of helping create the state of Israel through the Balfour Declaration and providing it with weapons to occupy Palestinian land ever since.

American journalists who don’t toe the line on Israel/Palestine are frequently made examples of.

CNN fired anchor Marc Lamont Hill for calling for a free Palestine. Katie Halper was fired from The Hill for (accurately) calling Israel an Apartheid state. And The Guardian sacked Nathan J. Robinson after he made a joke mocking US military aid to Israel.

Other journalists in the industry see these examples, and the message is clear: stick to the script on Israel, or lose your job.

In 2013, an investigation revealed that Buzzfeed was paid huge sums to become a public relations arm for the Israeli military to ensure millennials were sympathetic to the occupation and to show the sexy side of the IDF.

In 2016, an investigation that I personally conducted into VICE News showcased how the hipster rag publishes “soft propaganda” to an anti-mainstream audience while pushing a pro-US and pro-Israel government narrative.

VICE does this by regurgitating releases from the Board of Broadcasting Governors, an arm of the US government that disseminates propaganda abroad through outlets like Voice of America to push for regime change and forever wars that fuel the military-industrial complex.

However, after a lift of its ban to be used in the United States, its reach now is the average American through outlets like VICE.

Of course, these are just a handful of examples of how the media, which is supposed to act as a watchdog to those in power and in the military, is acting as a lapdog for their moneyed interests and military agendas.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of the the many conflicts of interest within our media that most people don’t know about, including pundits and other journalists who appear within mainstream media outlets and newspapers as “experts” who are actually either simultaneously working with or are trained by think tanks, Public Relation outlets and Israeli lobby groups like AIPAC that take huge sums from the Israeli government and weapons manufacturers to ensure a pro-Israel, pro-war narrative is dominant.

This is why the context of Israel’s history as an occupier, an apartheid state that engages in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, is almost always left out. Instead, the public is fed with simplified versions of the conflict, presenting it as “complicated,” thousands of years of fighting between religions, Muslim vs Jews – a religious war.

The state of the free press in the Western world is far from free, in fact, they act as stenographers for the military class to ensure profits for weapons manufacturers continue.

This is exactly why in order to break through the fog of war and this soft propaganda, we must turn to independent media like MintPress and others who have preserved their principles of holding the permanent war state and elite accountable – that’s the role of journalism as defined by our first amendment.  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/16/how-media-outlets-work-with-israel-to-control-gaza-narrative/ #Israel #Palestine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Small modular nuclear reactors: Unlikely, unaffordable, dirty and dangerous

So local jobs may only amount to security, cutting the grass, and periodic reactor maintenance with possible radiation exposure.

The Appalachia Peace Education Center in Abingdon considers the small reactors a bad idea. Here’s why.

by Rees Shearer, October 16, 2023 https://cardinalnews.org/2023/10/16/small-modular-nuclear-reactors-unlikely-unaffordable-dirty-and-dangerous/

A year ago, Gov. Glenn Youngkin came to Bristol to announce proposals from his new Virginia Energy Plan. He declared, “A growing Virginia must have reliable, affordable and clean energy for Virginia’s families and businesses.”

As a requisite to achieving those goals, the Governor proposed four small modular nuclear reactors for the Southwest Virginia Coalfields. But SM[n]Rs fail to meet the governor’s three laudable goals.

SM[n]Rs cannot be reliably licensed and constructed for a decade or more. No commercial SM[n]R has been successfully licensed. There are competing designs and even the Governor said the project would take 10 years. Nuclear power has a notorious history of construction and licensing delays. That means no new nuclear energy generation for at least a decade. There can be no reliable generation when the plant is not up and running. Solar energy and energy storage on restored mine lands can be brought online in a fraction of that time.

SM[n]Rs are unaffordable. At utility scale, the electricity energy standard, Lazards Levelized Cost of Energy, rates nuclear as the most expensive means to generate electric power. It’s not clear whether nuclear waste management, insurance, and decommissioning are included among the costs. The Nu-Scale reactor, under construction in Idaho, is the only SM[n]R even close to licensing. Between 2016 and 2023,  NuScale’s estimated power cost increased 60%. That’s in addition to $4 billion in subsidies from U.S. taxpayers. The latest nuclear project to come online (seven years late), Georgia Power’s Vogtle Units 3 and 4, exceeded cost projections by 120%. It’s unclear how much of the cost overruns customers will be forced to shell out. Nuclear power construction history shows an unfailing correlation between new designs and cost increases and project delays. Youngkin is opting for new technology designs. SM[n]Rs will not be affordable and Apco and Dominion Energy try to make sure customers bear the costs, even if the SM[n]R project is canceled before generating one Watt. The LCOE shows solar and on-shore wind, even adding battery storage, are the lowest cost sources of new power generation. 

SM[n]Rs are dirty and dangerous. SM[n]Rs produce plutonium 239, the most lethal element in high-level nuclear waste. A Stanford University study concluded that “small modular reactors may produce a disproportionately larger amount of nuclear waste than bigger nuclear plants.” That element is deadly for a quarter million years, a horrifying legacy. There is no permanent storage solution. Just to maintain this waste is already costing taxpayers and utility customers tens of billions of dollars. Additionally, plutonium 239 is the key element in proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism. There is risk of radiation leaks or a catastrophic accident. This becomes all the more concerning, given the proximity of sites already evaluated as potential SM[n]R locations to Southwest Virginia schools, neighborhoods, and downtowns. The governor proposes reprocessing the waste, which adds transportation and terrorism risks.

But what about jobs, you may ask? Modular design means that the reactors would be manufactured in one central location. Modules would be transported by truck to reactor sites. Then a specialized crew, moving from site to site, would assemble the reactor. At most, ground preparation will be the work for local contractors. What about high skill nuclear technology jobs the Governor is touting?  A spokesperson at NuScale Power, eagerly anticipated, “NuScale developed the information needed to obtain NRC approval that allows up to 12 NuScale Power Modules to be operated remotely from a single control room.” So local jobs may only amount to security, cutting the grass, and periodic reactor maintenance with possible radiation exposure.

The Clinch Coalition is a leading regional voice for transparency and opposition to  SM[n]Rs. The Coalition developed satellite videos (available at their website), demonstrating the risky proximity of homes, a school and businesses of three of seven SM[n]R sites proposed in a study by LENOWISCO Planning District Commission.

Gov. Youngkin could have proposed solar farms on restored mine lands. When combined with current technology battery storage, solar generates reliable, affordable and clean power — 24/7, installed and maintained by a local workforce — today. Just what the governor said he wanted.

Rees Shearer is a 40-year member of the Appalachian Peace Education Center in Abingdon. He writes this on the center’s behalf in response to the Sept. 9 opinion piece: “Virginia’s clean energy revolution begins in Southwest.” #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

Declassified Soviet files reveal horror crimes of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators

https://www.rt.com/russia/584980-kgb-documents-ukrainian-nazis/ 16 Oct 23

Nationalists began ethnic cleansing of Jews during WWII, even before German occupation began, documents show

RT has obtained a trove of declassified KGB documents, highlighting crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Soviet territories occupied by Nazi Germany during WWII. The files include witness accounts of people who survived ethnic cleansing, as well as testimonies of Ukrainian collaborators captured by the Soviet domestic intelligence, then known as the NKVD.

Large swaths of present-day Ukraine fell under Nazi occupation in summer 1941 as German troops advanced deep into the Soviet Union. In fact, attacks on ethnic Jews and Poles, as well as local communists, began immediately as Soviet troops withdrew.

“In the first hours following the retreat of the Bolsheviks, the Ukrainian population has demonstrated commendable activity against Jews,” a status report from the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police, dated July 16, 1941, reads.

Said “commendable activities” involved burning down a synagogue in the western Ukrainian city of Dobromyl and the murder of some 50 Jews by an “angry crowd” in Sambor. In Sokal, the help of local “trustworthy Ukrainians” allowed Nazis to find and exterminate some 183 “communist Jews.” Moreover, Ukrainian nationalists rounded up and brutally abused around 1,000 Jews in Lvov, subsequently putting them into a local prison, with the facility and the ‘inmates’ eventually taken over by the Germans, according to the status report.

With the German occupation regime properly established, the ethnic cleansing process was streamlined, with the so-called Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, created by the Nazis in August 1941, playing a very active role in it. According to the testimony of the Ukrainian police commander in Belya Tserkov, a major city in the Kiev region, Mikhail Tomasevish, members of his unit were so eager to kill Jews that they acted even beyond orders given by their Nazi masters. Namely, the local police secretary took pleasure in “questioning” arrested Jews, beating them with a rubber tube, and freely taking them “away” afterwards, with none of the detained ever returning to the police HQ.

Tomasevich led the police unit until 1943, when he fled alongside retreating German forces but ultimately ended up in the NKVD’s custody. While Tomasevich claimed most of the city’s Jews were exterminated before he assumed the post, he admitted partaking, one way or another, in the killing of over 1,000 people. Under his leadership, the police continued to actively search for survivors, using various tricks to lure the remaining Jews in the city to their deaths.

“To identify hiding persons of Jewish nationality, the [German field] gendarmerie, through the [Ukrainian] police, organized so-called traps, i.e., it was announced throughout the city that henceforth Jews would be allowed to live freely, but only in select houses,” Tomasevich testified.

“I put all the Jews who believed that and settled in the houses on a special register, a special folder of cases, titled ‘Yids’ [a derogatory term for ‘Jews’], was opened,” he explained, adding that when the flow of Jews willing to settle in the houses waned, all of them, some 50 people, were detained and killed “around January or February 1942.”

Civilian Ukrainian authorities, established under German occupation, have actively contributed to ethnic cleansings as well. For instance, according to an indictment in a 1944 case about Nazi crimes committed in the city of Sarny and its vicinity, local Ukrainian mayor Marinyuk directly facilitated the extermination of the entire local Jewish population in August 1942.

Some 13,000 people were gathered at a local concentration camp, guarded by field gendarmerie and Ukrainian police, under the pretext of being relocated for “work” in Germany. Instead, the Jews ended up before firing squads, with children thrown into the death pits and buried alive. Only some 40–50 people managed to escape the massacre, with Ukrainian nationalist units in pursuit, and those who managed to capture escapees were awarded a sack of salt.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | history, Reference, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Israel postpones ground operation in Gaza – NYT

https://www.rt.com/news/584962-nyt-israel-postpones-operation-gaza-weather/ 16 Oct 23

The offensive had been planned for the weekend but was rescheduled due to adverse weather conditions, the newspaper claims

Israel has decided to put off the start of its ground operation against Hamas in Gaza due to adverse weather conditions, the New York Times has claimed. The newspaper is also reporting that the incursion will likely come at quite a price for the Israeli military, given its scope as well as the fortifications built by the militants.

In an article on Saturday the media outlet alleged, citing anonymous Israeli officers, that the “invasion was initially planned for the weekend but was delayed by a few days, at least in part because of weather conditions.” These are so far precluding Israeli pilots and drone operators from providing ground forces with air cover, the NYT explained.

It quoted three unnamed Israeli officers as confirming that the imminent operation would involve tens of thousands of service members, including commando units, and tanks supported by warplanes, helicopter gunships, drones and artillery fired from land and sea. The alleged goal is the complete destruction of Hamas’ leadership, which has controlled the enclave since 2007.

The planned ground operation is expected to be the largest of its kind in over a decade, the NYT report continues, adding that it remains unclear if the IDF is planning to take control of only part of the densely-populated enclave or all of it. There is also a big question mark over whether Israelis are going to run Gaza or install a new Palestinian administration should they succeed in removing Hamas from power there, it wrote.

As for the imminent incursion itself, the anonymous Israeli officers told the NYT that it is likely to take months and to exact a large number of casualties on their side, as they will have to clear a vast network of Hamas’ underground tunnels.

Commenting on the ongoing Israeli air raids against Hamas on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country had unleashed “unprecedented force.” He stressed, however, that “this is just the beginning,” adding that “our enemies have only started paying the price.”

According to the latest estimates, Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 has resulted in at least 1,300 people killed, with nearly 3,500 injured. Dozens of people, both Israelis and other nationals, were taken hostage by the militants.

In Gaza, at least 1,900 Palestinians, including 614 children and 370 women, have been killed in the ensuing massive Israeli airstrikes over the past week, the Palestinian Health Ministry has reported.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on Saturday that his country would respond should Israel go ahead with a ground operation in Gaza. #Israel #Palestine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is over – Moscow

Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,

 https://www.rt.com/russia/584853-ukraine-offensive-failed-nebenzia/ 16 Oct 23

Kiev has achieved nothing and Russian troops have now taken the initiative, top diplomat says

The four-month “counteroffensive” by Ukrainian forces has failed to reach any of its objectives, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council on Friday.

“For several days now, Russian troops have switched to combat operations, practically along the entire front line. Therefore, we can consider the so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive formally over,” Nebenzia said.

According to the Russian envoy, four months of Ukrainian attacks resulted only in “hundreds of units of destroyed Western equipment” and “tens of thousands of lives of those conscripted by the Kiev regime, most of whom did not want to fight.” Some of the lucky ones surrendered and stayed alive, Nebenzia added.

Ukraine’s casualties have amounted to “over 90,000 people,” 557 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed last week at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. 

Instead of putting an end to the “massacre” of Ukrainians on the frontline, the West “continues to feed them weapons, like a drug to an addict, thus prolonging his agony,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.

“Let me emphasize that Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,” the Russian envoy added.

The cynicism of our former Western partners is simply amazing,” he said, bringing up the recent statement of Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren that arming Ukraine is “a very cheap way” to confront Russia.

A Ukraine that lives in peace with its neighbors and respects the rights of all of its citizens “had and still has a future,” the Russian envoy concluded. “The criminal neo-Nazi regime of [Vladimir] Zelensky does not.”

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted on Thursday that the offensive wasn’t just “behind schedule” but “off the schedule entirely,” adding that the explanation for that is classified.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Fukushima plant water release: Russia follows China, suspends all Japanese seafood imports

WION News, Moscow, Russia Edited By: Srishti Singh Sisodia Oct 16, 2023,

Russia on Monday (Oct 16) suspended all Japanese seafood imports in the aftermath of Tokyo’s release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant. 

Previously, China had suspended the imports, saying that Tokyo has not proved the authenticity and accuracy of the nuclear wastewater data, nor that the ocean discharge of the water is harmless to the marine environment and human health. 

China was Japan’s biggest market for fish, accounting for more than $500 million worth of exports in 2022. 

Japan recently released treated radioactive water into the sea from its defunct nuclear reactor in Fukushima after the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the plan. ………………………………………………

What did Russia say? 

Ever since it released the treated water, Japan has faced the wrath of some nations and a number of environmentalists. 

Japan has also criticised Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, while Tokyo’s relations with Beijing, which has deepened ties with Moscow, have worsened. 

As reported by the news agency AFP, Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s body responsible for regulating agriculture products, said that as a “precautionary measure”, it was “joining China’s provisional restrictive measures on the import of fish and seafood products from Japan as of October 16, 2023”. 

It added that the restrictions would remain in place “until the necessary exhaustive information to confirm the safety of seafood produce … is forthcoming”.   https://www.wionews.com/world/fukushima-nuclear-plant-like-china-russia-suspends-all-japanese-seafood-imports-647527

October 18, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, Russia | Leave a comment

Israel Hamas conflict: US President Joe Biden heading to Israel as Iran threatens ‘action within hours’

US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday and has warned other nations to stay out of the conflict, after Iran threatened to launch “action within hours”.

news.com.au Shannon Molloy, October 17, 2023 

Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday for high-level talks about the worsening conflict in Palestine, as Iran threatened to involve itself in the war.

The US President has reaffirmed America’s “iron-clad commitment to [Israel’s] security” and warned other state and non-state actors to stay away.

Some 2000 troops have been ordered to “prepare to deploy” as American warships head to the region.

Meanwhile, aid organisations say time is running out to avoid a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza as food, water and fuel runs out, aid organisations warn.

Biden heading to Israel

United States President Joe Biden will visit Israel for high-level talks about the escalating conflict with Hamas in Palestine, after Iran threatened to become involved “within hours”.

Speaking just now to reporters in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the visit, during which Mr Biden will “reaffirm the United States’ solidarity … and iron-clad commitment to its security”.

“The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Mr Blinken said.

Mr Biden will also “underscore our crystal-clear message” to others to not seek to take advantage of the crisis “to attack Israel”.

“To that end, he has deployed aircraft carrier groups and other military assets to the region.”

That warning to “state or non-state” forces and the president’s confirmed visit to Israel on Wednesday came just moments after Iran issued a stern threat that is prepared to involve itself in the conflict……………………………………………………….. more https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-conflict-israeli-family-of-five-found-dead-in-an-embrace/news-story/6d79f51f5bcc759020697fa44e63e33b #Israel

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Zelensky orders reporters to keep silent about corruption – Ukrainian media.

 https://www.rt.com/russia/584929-ukraine-gags-media-corruption/ 16 Oct 23

The Ukrainian president reportedly told journalists not to mention the issue until the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict

President Vladimir Zelensky has allegedly ordered Ukrainian journalists to avoid reporting on corruption, the editor-in-chief of the Zerkalo Nedeli (‘Mirror of the Week’) news outlet has claimed.

The Ukrainian president told journalists not to mention the issue until the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a leading Kievb outlet.

Speaking at the National Media Talk 2023, Yulia Mostovaya said that she had learned of Zelensky’s demand from colleagues who had attended an off-the-record meeting with him. 

The president reportedly made the request after the Ukrainian press published reports about inflated food prices paid by the country’s armed forces.  

According to Ukrainian media reports, including Zerkalo Nedeli, the Defense Ministry had been buying food and clothing for its service members at prices two to three times higher than the market price. For example, the ministry paid up to 17 hryvnia ($0.47) for a single egg and 22 hryvnia ($0.60) for a kilogram of potatoes, while the average prices for those goods at stores in Kiev at the time were about seven hryvnia ($0.19) and eight hryvnia ($0.22), respectively. 

Mostovaya stated that Zelensky’s request to avoid the topic of corruption in media publications was something the Ukrainian press may have considered if Zelensky had presented it in a “balanced manner” and explained that reporting on such issues could affect Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities. 

“We would accept these conditions if the president had said: ‘Here is a person. Here’s his phone number. If you have substantiated facts, please provide them to this person, he will immediately pick up the phone. And give us a week to respond. If there is no reaction within a week, send it to print.’” 

However, no such proposal was put forward by Zelensky, Mostovaya claimed, noting that instead the president told reporters to “remain silent until victory.”  

“If we remain silent, there will be no victory,” the editor-in-chief said. 

The issue of corruption in Ukraine has repeatedly been brought up by journalists and officials, both within the country and in the West.  

Last week, the former president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, stated that Ukraine will likely be unable to join the EU anytime soon because it is “corrupt at all levels of society.” He also urged Brussels not to make any “false promises” to the Ukrainian people who are already “up to their neck in suffering.” 

Ukraine has for years been seen as among the most corrupt countries in Europe and was ranked 116th out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2022. #Ukraine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel:  Biden’s treasure squandering trifecta

https://heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com/ 13 Oct 23

President Biden has a weapons supply problem. In 20 months of the Russo Ukraine war, also US proxy war on Russia, he’s blown $113 billion in US treasure desperately needed by the Homeland. , National health care, infrastructure, clean energy, border security, migrant aid relief, education, crime reduction among other issues, go wanting.

The repetitive requests for more, more, more are weighing on Americans who increasingly see it as the boondoggle for the weapons makers it is. While congressional Democrats completely support is Biden’s spending spree, a small Republican House contingent is pushing back, sensing public disgust with Biden’s giveaways as a means of defeating him next year. They’re holding up current spending requests with both their opposition and current legislative paralysis due to the vacant Speaker’s chair.

But no fool Biden senses this Republican opposition can be neutered by combining his weapons aid for Ukraine with that for Taiwan and now Israel, both countries of which are favored by the anti-Ukraine Republican claque.  

All three countries earmarked for endless weapons deserve US attention.

We should be negotiating an end to the Russo Ukraine war instead of sabotaging every diplomatic effort that could have ended it in the first 2 months. We blew an easy opportunity to save 400,000 Ukrainian lives simply to weaken Russia. Nuclear confrontation with Russia looms.

We need to go back to a One China policy that kept Chinese reunification with Taiwan on the back burner for 50 years till first Trump, then Biden, blew it to smithereens. Some military leaders fear we’ll be at war with China by 2025.

We need to be a broker for peace between Israel and Gaza Palestinians, not a weapons supplier and cheerleader for massive bombing and destruction of Gaza to avenge Hamas’ recent attack.  Israel, the dominant military power in the Middle East, needs not a single US weapon to prevent further Hamas attacks. They just need better intelligence. Conversely, US support for the current bombing and impending invasion puts every remaining hostage, including Americans, at risk of imminent death.

Too early to determine if Biden’s proposed Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel weapons trifecta will overcome taxpayer and Republican opposition. If it does, it’s the weapons makers and perpetual war promoters that will hit the Trifecta. Everyone else will lose….and thousands will die.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Poland’s $40 billion plan for 2 nuclear reactors, built by 2043, (hopefully)

US and Polish officials have signed an agreement to go ahead with the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant, under the Polish government’s policy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

The Polish state-owned utility Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe, PEJ, which is charged with overseeing the country’s nuclear programme, signed the agreement with a consortium of Westinghouse and Bechtel. The plant will be located about 280 km from Poland’s border with Germany, which recently shut down its last remaining nuclear reactors in line with its own national policy, and in 2022 the four German states closest to Poland said they were opposed to the Polish plan. There has also been some opposition to the plan within Poland on the grounds that the initial cost is prohibitive, and construction takes too long, but the opposition has not achieved any decisive results to date.

The current plan is for Poland to spend $40 billion on two nuclear plants, each with three reactors. The construction programme will come to a close in 2043. PEJ – a special purpose vehicle 100% owned by the State Treasury – applied to the ministry on 13 April for a decision-in-principle. The application included a description of project characteristics, indicating the maximum total installed capacity, the planned operating period and details of the Westinghouse AP1000 technology proposed for construction of the plant. In July the ministry issued a decision-in-principle, enabling the investor, PEJ, to apply for a number of further administrative decisions, including a siting decision and subsequently the construction licence………..

October 18, 2023 Posted by | EUROPE, politics | Leave a comment

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