Zelensky losing grip on power – Western media
Comment: Ending the war? Peace with Russia? Zelensky would be on trial. A presidential challenger is his worst nightmare.
20 Aug 2026, https://www.sott.net/article/508029-Zelensky-losing-grip-on-power-Western-media
A widening corruption scandal and an open challenge from a former official have fueled questions about the Ukrainian leader’s political future.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is facing his gravest political challenge in years, major US and European media outlets have reported, as a new corruption scandal engulfs his office and a former official openly challenges his leadership.
Zelensky fired the deputy head of his office, Irina Mudraya, on Wednesday after Western-backed anti-graft authorities launched an investigation into an alleged $3.4 million money-laundering scheme involving senior presidential officials. Mudraya has denied wrongdoing. It is the latest of many corruption scandals involving officials close to Zelensky.
A day earlier, former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, whose surprise dismissal last month sparked weeks of public protests, released a campaign-style video denouncing government corruption and calling for elections amid what he described as “a systemic crisis of governance.”
Zelensky’s five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, but he has refused to hold a new election, citing martial law imposed after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022.
The Wall Street Journal called the turmoil the “biggest challenge” to Zelensky’s “hold on the presidency” since 2022, saying Fedorov appeared to be positioning himself as a leading challenger amid growing frustration over recurring corruption scandals.
The Financial Times noted that the growing list of Zelensky allies caught up in corruption investigations have contributed to his falling approval ratings and raised concern among Kiev’s Western backers, citing an analyst who concluded that “the political crisis is obvious.”
The Washington Post described Fedorov’s intervention as a “remarkably direct challenge” to Zelensky’s authority.
The Telegraph said Zelensky had been “bruised by a series of lingering corruption scandals” as investigations “keep coming.” It argued that he was accumulating powerful rivals who were once deeply loyal to him and said it appeared “increasingly possible” that he may not lead Ukraine into peacetime.
The Guardian described Fedorov as a “potent political opponent.” Experts cited by the newspaper called corruption a “symptom” of deeper problems with “bad governance,” warning that public exhaustion and Zelensky’s failure to explain his decisions had created a “perfect powder box.”
Le Monde said Fedorov had “crossed a line” no major Ukrainian politician had dared to cross since 2022 by calling for elections. The newspaper said he was seeking to capitalize on an “accumulation” of crises, including repeated corruption scandals.
Der Spiegel cited a Ukrainian political analyst who described Fedorov’s challenge as an “application for the role of opposition leader.”The magazine said Zelensky now faced his first “public and direct opponent” since the conflict escalated.
Zelensky has not publicly responded to Fedorov’s accusations. His Wednesday evening address focused on military matters and the appointment of a new defense minister and did not address the mounting political pressure.
Walt Zlotow – Trump’s Iranian Roulette: Whose regime will collapse first, Iran’s or America’s?
23 August 2026 AIMN Editorial, By Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, https://theaimn.net/trumps-iranian-roulette-whose-regime-will-collapse-first-irans-or-americas/
Having suffered a catastrophic military defeat in his 39 day bombing war on Iran from February 28 thru April 7, Trump has pivoted to economic warfare to collapse the Iranian regime on behalf of Israel. But all out economic warfare keeps the Strait of Hormuz closed to most oil and other critical resources, guaranteeing that gasoline and everything fossil fuel based in America will rise to unacceptable levels to an American public near totally against Trump’s senseless, lost war.
Iran may be suffering economically much worse than America now, but that matters little for the likely outcome. Iran’s 90 million people will resist Trump’s Operation Economic Fury as the existential threat to their existence it represents regardless of cost. America’s 340 million people will sweep Trump’s deranged, criminal war policies causing senseless cost increases from power in ten weeks.
During that time no country will help Trump crush the Iranian regime. Russia, China and others are and will continue to help Iran weather Trump’s despicable regime change operation that has killed over 3,000 Iranians, virtually eliminated US Gulf Stage bases, inflicted over 750 US casualties in a lost cause.
Trump’s Operation Economic Fury is his last desperate gamble to prevent his Unconditional Surrender to Iran’s well-earned, well-deserved victory over Trump initiating the most senseless war in US history. It’s as if Trump put one bullet in an unloaded pistol, put it to his temple and successfully fired once. But instead, Trump keeps firing till the gun goes off. That’s Trump’s version of Iranian Roulette.
Miscarriages and stillbirths in Gaza surge as Israel’s siege, malnutrition, toxic exposure and displacement ravage mothers
Eva Karene Bartlett, Aug 22, 2026
August 20, 2026, RT.com, Shocking news of a sudden over-threefold year-on-year increase of the number of miscarriages and stillbirths should be front page on global media. But because it is one of the latest consequences of the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, it will probably go ignored by most Western corporate media.
In fact, since a ‘ceasefire’ supposedly came into effect in October 2025, media coverage of Gaza has decreased dramatically. But – as with ceasefires prior – Israel has continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza on a near-daily basis, by bombing, machinegun fire, quadcopter fire, drone strikes, and by (continuing its near twenty-year siege on Gaza) not allowing in adequate amounts of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and other things needed to just sustain life at the very basic level.
As of August 19, the Gaza Health Ministry reports 1,273 Palestinians have been killed, 4,223 wounded since October 11, 2025.
In mid-July, Ahmad Abu Foul, a Palestinian medic who I’ve known since I lived in Gaza, told me of the sudden increase in miscarriages, primarily among women living in displacement tents across the Gaza Strip.
He cited Dr. Mohammed Al-Bashiti, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, as warning of this disturbing increase and attributing it to various environmental and physical factors, notably, severe malnutrition and anemia, and “extreme physical fatigue due to repeated displacement from one place to another. Many are forced to carry heavy loads beyond their physical capacity, putting their pregnancies at greater risk.”
But it’s also caused by exposure to toxic chemicals – explosive residues, TNT-related materials, smoke – which put the baby at risk. Ahmad said that his sister just had a miscarriage at four months pregnant, and his niece had a stillbirth at eight months.
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on July 30 published an article highlighting the dramatic rise in miscarriages. It cited a recent UN report stating from January to June 2026, 3,950 miscarriages had been reported. This is over triple the 1,197 miscarriages reported from July to December 2025. The miscarriage rate, it notes, is one-sixth of all pregnancies.
Haaretz cited Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital as likewise saying the contributing factors to the increase in miscarriages are malnutrition and stress and also water shortages: “We have reached a point where each person has three liters of water a day, far below the minimum required. Ninety percent of the water is not fit for drinking. The water shortage leads to infections, weakening the immune system and worsening malnutrition.”
With the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and with Palestinians constantly forced to suddenly move their inadequate tents elsewhere, the lack of clean drinking water, and the near-complete dependence on financial and humanitarian aid from the outside world set the stage for a host of food-, water-, and hygiene-related illnesses, and now this dramatic increase in miscarriages.
Although it was stipulated in the ‘ceasefire’, Israel hasn’t been allowing sufficient food, water and medicines to enter Gaza.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported on August 9, 2026, that, “Israel enforces a comprehensive policy that disrupts the entire supply chain, starting from the entry of goods and aid through crossings until they reach the population.”
It notes the dearth of aid trucks entering Gaza in the first place, and that those which are permitted entry are not guaranteed to reach those in need, “due to the destruction or impairment of the transportation, storage, and distribution infrastructure.” It also notes that delays in shipping “cause frozen food, medicine, and other vital materials to spoil before reaching those in need.”
Euro-Med points out that Israel, “as the occupying power, has an obligation under Articles 55 and 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to guarantee that the population receives food and medical supplies when local resources are insufficient.”
From a logistical perspective, many of the illnesses plaguing Gaza could be eradicated were Israel to adhere to international law and allow in sufficient food, water and medical aid.
Israel is of course aware of this, as it has been since enforcing a full siege on Gaza in 2007. But the Israeli authorities know no international body or state – certainly not its biggest backer, the US – will force it to stop its genocide and allow in aid.
The invisible, creeping ‘Yellow Line’
Israel has been expanding its control of Gaza via a constantly-expanding, mostly-invisible, ‘Yellow Line’ – a demarcation line set out in the Israeli-US ‘peace plan’ of 2025. The Palestinians can mainly only guess at where it lies, aside from some yellow cement blocks which are periodically moved still further into Gaza, to claim more land………………………………………………………………………………………
Nonstop killing continues…………………………………………………………………………… https://evakarenebartlett.substack.com/p/miscarriages-and-stillbirths-in-gaza?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3046064&post_id=212152652&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
A blank check to the Pentagon while the facts on the “Golden Dome” are concealed from the public.
Elaine Cimino, 21 Aug 26
The Pentagon says Golden Dome will cost $185 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates a comparable system could cost $1.2 trillion. Other estimates range as high as $2.4 trillion.
When independent analysts challenge the Pentagon’s figure, Golden Dome’s director dismisses their estimates as false because they do not reflect what the military is actually building.
But the Pentagon will not tell Congress, the CBO or the public what it is actually building.
That is not national-security oversight. It is a blank check protected by classification.
Billions are already flowing to missile, satellite and weapons contractors while the architecture, total cost and technical feasibility remain concealed. Even the CBO’s trillion-dollar model would not provide an impenetrable shield or stop a full-scale attack by Russia or China.
This is ambush by concealment. By hiding the full architecture, government also hides the program’s full economic and environmental footprint: public subsidies, long-term operating costs and resources diverted from essential needs, as well as the consequences of manufacturing, testing, launching and continually replacing thousands of missiles, interceptors and satellites.
Meanwhile, in NM city councils and county commissions are being told to vote for “jobs” without seriously examining the consequences for surrounding communities—and they are voting unanimously. They approve public land, infrastructure, financing and development agreements without independent environmental review, cumulative-impact analysis or full disclosure of the hazards on weapons systems facilities ci tribute ng to the Golden Dome project and more. What do we call unanimous approval when decision-makers have not demanded the information necessary to protect the public?
Rubber-stamp government. Approval by concealment.
Communities are being committed to weapons production, hazardous materials, explosive testing, industrial pollution and intensive resource use before the public can evaluate the cumulative cost—or meaningfully object.
Golden Dome is therefore not simply a missile-defense program. It is an enormous, open-ended transfer of public wealth into a weapons system whose design cannot be examined, whose cost cannot be verified and whose promised protection cannot be guaranteed.
The public is being asked to fund the shield without being allowed to see whether the shield exists.
Golden Dome is Reagan’s “Star Wars” project on steroids—larger, more secretive, more expensive and already driving a nationwide expansion of missile production, weapons testing and the militarization of spac
Ukraine’s Ultranationalist War On History
Kit Klarenberg Substack, August 23, 2026, https://scheerpost.com/2026/08/23/ukraines-ultranationalist-war-on-history/
Over the past two decades, hardline Ukrainian ultranationalists have waged an ever-escalating war on history at home and abroad, with dramatic, world-changing consequences. In the country itself, a highly repressive legal apparatus is increasingly enforcing dangerously skewed narratives of Kiev’s near and distant past, with excessive criminal penalties even for those who unwittingly fall foul of the law. A brazenly politicised battle, it has become turbocharged since the Ukraine proxy conflict’s eruption. Despite widespread opposition, Kiev’s aggressive ultranationalist offensive on history is only intensifying.
These are the grave findings of an extraordinary paper by Ukrainian academic Georgiy Kasianov, “To discipline and punish”: A punitive turn in the memory politics in Ukraine, 2006–2025. As the author notes, the weaponisation of law in service of memory politics is common in Central and Eastern Europe. At least nine countries in the region boast legislation prohibiting public displays of Communist and Nazi symbols, which underpins local ultranationalist efforts – eagerly endorsed by the EU – to perversely conflate the two ideologies as comparable totalitarianisms.
Moreover, in many cases – especially the Baltics – these laws are components of wider cultural and legal ecosystems glorifying Nazi collaborators and Holocaust perpetrators as heroic freedom fighters, while strictly limiting discourse about World War II to conceal local culpability for macabre crimes. As such, Kasianov writes, Ukraine’s “punitive model of memory politics” fits into “a broader post-Communist pattern of state-enforced historical narratives.” Yet, “in its severity, selectivity, ideological and bureaucratic instrumentalization,” Kiev’s war on history “represents a particularly radical and revealing case.”
Today, Ukraine “leads Europe in the number of judicial decisions concerning violations of criminal statutes specifically designed to prohibit certain historical symbols,” with criminal penalties for breaching “memory laws” being the continent’s “most severe.” Kasianov traces this state of affairs to the mid-2000s, when Western-installed President Viktor Yushchenko’s government sought to implement laws “institutionalizing” the Soviet Union’s 1930 – 1933 famine as a deliberate genocide of Ukrainians specifically engineered by Joseph Stalin. It is known within Ukraine, and increasingly internationally, as “Holodomor”.
While the famine and resultant mass death was produced and exacerbated by catastrophic human errors combined with adverse natural factors, few historians consider the horror to have been intentional. Markedly, Kazakhs and Russians also perished in vast numbers. As of November 2022, just 23 UN member states have recognised Holodomor as a genocide – most being Kiev’s close allies, post-Maidan. Nonetheless, prominent Western sources state axiomatically the famine was deliberately inflicted, part of a wider ongoing Russian and/or Soviet effort to erase Ukraine.
Meanwhile, ultranationalist claims of how many Ukrainians were supposedly killed by the famine have grown ever-wilder, with some sources placing the figure as high as 10 million. This is several times the multiethnic death toll typically accepted by scholars, conveniently framing the so-called Holodomor as a greater targeted crime against humanity than the Holocaust. Yuschenko’s foray into memory politics contributed significantly to this warped contemporary informational climate. Still, 2006 legislation formally designating Holodomor as genocidal didn’t include punitive measures for denying or questioning that characterisation.
Kasianov documents how over the next 14 years, 13 separate attempts were made to criminalise “Holodomor denial” by ultranationalist Ukrainian elements within and without government and parliament. Each effort sought to impose “a state-sanctioned historical orthodoxy” around Holodomor, while “[constraining] scholarly debate and freedom of expression.” None received approval from parliament’s “legal analytical department”, but ultranationalist memory politics ultimately prevailed on a cultural and political level locally, and beyond. Notably, many of these initiatives were sponsored by the openly Neo-Nazi political party Svoboda.
‘Political Repression’
Svoboda played a substantial role in the Western-orchestrated 2014 Maidan coup, which not coincidentally “created a fertile environment for reframing memory politics as an instrument of state security and ideological consolidation.” The government of Petro Poroshenko justified the “rapid passage of a package of laws aimed at condemning [Communism] and institutionalizing a nationalist historical narrative” as a “necessary defensive measure” and “nation-building project,” countering supposed “external aggression” from Russia. This led to the adoption of hitherto unthinkable legislation in April 2015.
Approximately 90% of the legislation’s text “is dedicated to defining and enumerating Communist symbols, while Nazi symbols are addressed in relatively minimal and largely perfunctory terms.” Nazi-related prohibitions are “limited to the most universally recognized insignia of the Third Reich, such as the swastika.” By contrast, “the law offers an expansive and detailed catalog of banned Soviet insignia, ranging from the hammer and sickle to red stars and Soviet-era street names.” This “obvious asymmetry” extends even further.
These hastily passed laws equated Communism with Nazism, prohibiting the public display of symbols associated with both ideologies. Yet, Kasianov notes the legislation “also granted legal and moral rehabilitation” to mass-murdering, Nazi-affiliated Ukrainian nationalist factions heavily implicated in the Holocaust. This included Stepan Bandera’s Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, and its armed Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) wing. Moreover, despite the law’s formal dual condemnation of Communism and Nazism, Kasianov details how “its implementation and symbolic focus reveal a stark imbalance.”
Approximately 90% of the legislation’s text “is dedicated to defining and enumerating Communist symbols, while Nazi symbols are addressed in relatively minimal and largely perfunctory terms.” Nazi-related prohibitions are “limited to the most universally recognized insignia of the Third Reich, such as the swastika.” By contrast, “the law offers an expansive and detailed catalog of banned Soviet insignia, ranging from the hammer and sickle to red stars and Soviet-era street names.” This “obvious asymmetry” extends even further.
Symbols associated with local Neo-Nazi groups, or formal World War II-era collaborationist Ukrainian military units such as SS Division Galicia, are spared from proscription entirely. “Legal and policy experts and Ukrainian and international human rights organizations” have all expressed concerns over the law’s “vague definitions,” and “potential misuse for political repression.” The Ukrainian Rada’s own “expert department” found the legislation conflicted with the country’s established constitution, and several existing domestic laws.
Disproportionately harsh punishments for infringements, with offenders facing prison sentences of up to five years along with property confiscation, also drew widespread criticism. A lawyer and lecturer at Lviv National University strikingly compared the penalties involved to “using a guillotine to treat a headache.” A damning open letter signed by a welter of academics and policymakers dubbed the legislation “an instrument of ideological purification, selectively targeting the symbols and narratives associated with the political left while allowing for the implicit valorization of radical nationalist traditions.”
These devastating indictments were dismissed by the law’s advocates as “Kremlin propaganda”, if not outright treason. Kasianov reveals how “principal architects” of Poroshenko’s “Decommunization” agenda were a coterie of ultranationalist “memory activists”, drawn from the Lviv-based Center for Research on the Liberation Movement, and Youth Nationalist Congress. Both maintain “close ideological and organizational ties” with, operating as “facade organizations” for, the Banderite OUN. The pair have long-served as “conduits for nationalist reinterpretation of 20th century Ukrainian history and strong anti-Communist and anti-Russian policies.”
‘Memory Regime’
Post-Maidan, “several leading figures from this milieu assumed influential positions within state institutions, shaping historical policy.” This included extensive infiltration of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINP), the state body charged with implementing memory laws. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych of Neo-Nazi Svoboda appointed OUN-linked figures to influential positions within UINP. Not coincidentally, Sych cofounded the fascist, pro-Maidan Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, an OUN-B “political facade”. Once their long-sought anti-Communist legislation was enacted, enforcement came thick and fast.
From November 2015 – spring 2016, almost 52,000 toponymical objects, 32 cities, 955 villages and settlements, and 25 administrative districts were renamed, with 2,389 monuments and memorial plaques to “totalitarian leaders” removed. In all, 1,320 were Lenin statues. Between 2015 and 2021 too, Ukrainian police and the general prosecutor’s office registered 334 criminal cases against citizens related to the display of “totalitarian symbols” – “the vast majority of which concerned Communist imagery.” Details were almost invariably farcical.
n May 2017, a student narrowly avoided jail for posting Lenin quotes on Facebook. Under his plea deal, he publicly expressed “sincere remorse”, while his personal copy of Karl Marx’s Capital was destroyed. In June 2019, an unemployed man received a one year suspended prison sentence for wearing an old T-shirt featuring the Soviet coat of arms while washing windows. In March 2021, a Lviv resident was sentenced to one year’s probation after being “detained by politically vigilant local citizens” for wearing a USSR emblem.
In the meantime, further legislation was passed by Kiev sacralising ultranationalist historical narratives. Lack of political pushback was in no small part assured by Ukraine’s Communist party being banned in December 2015. The same openly fascist and Neo-Nazi elements behind Poroshenko’s “Decommunization” push successfully sponsored laws granting OUN and UPA genocidaires official combatant status and veteran benefits. Now insulated from legal consequences for any atrocities they committed, Ukrainian state sources universally describe them as “heroes” who fought for Ukrainian “independence”.
The volume of cases brought under “Decommunization” laws, and severity of the punishments involved, ratcheted significantly following the Ukraine proxy war’s eruption. Authorities were handed an ideal rationale further assaulting history, while waging war on enemies within, under the guise of “derussification and decolonization.” In keeping with the “near-absence of prosecutions for Nazi-related offenses” pre-conflict, in over 300 criminal cases brought to trial 2022 – 2025, fewer than 10 involved Nazi symbols. The vast majority “concerned the dissemination of prohibited [Communist] symbols on social media platforms.”
Today, even simply liking social media posts featuring Soviet symbols can land Ukrainians in court. Kasianov notes how “case materials” have “indicated the emergence of specialized investigators…focused on monitoring digital communications and online content,” within the ranks of both police and the SBU security service. There has concomitantly been a significant rise in “vigilant citizens” reporting acquaintances, coworkers, and neighbours to authorities for breaching Kiev’s stringent memory laws. “Overwhelmingly”, individuals “from marginalized and impoverished segments of the population” have been targeted.
Ever since Maidan, Ukraine’s “punitive memory regime” and “nationalist identity project” has been wholeheartedly embraced and promoted by Kiev’s Western proxy sponsors. No wonder – the legally-enforced distorted narrative Ukraine is fighting a battle for its very existence, and ultimate liberation from “Russian imperialism”, ensures the war will continue in perpetuity. All along, distorted “memory politics” becomes more entrenched and rabid at the country’s highest levels, leaving the population – and the wider world – at the mercy of a dangerous and deranged ultranationalist clique.
Romania adopts new measures to boost Danube waters to cool Cernavoda nuclear plant
By Reuters, August 22, 2026, Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Editing by Alexandra Hudson https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/romania-adopts-new-measures-boost-danube-waters-cool-cernavoda-nuclear-plant-2026-08-22/
WARSAW, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Romania’s National Committee for Emergency Situations approved new measures to boost the water level of the River Danube and ensure cooling of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, the government press office said on Saturday.
The plant remains shut due to historically low Danube levels and the country has declared a state of emergency throughout August stemming from a decline in electricity production.
- Emergency dredging of the Danube course in the plant area is planned.
- Along the Old Danube channel a groyne will be built to divert water towards the area of the water intake for the cooling systems of the plant.
- Hydro plant operator Hidroelectrica will begin releasing water from reservoirs on the River Olt on Saturday for five days to supplement Danube flow and generate extra electricity.
- High-capacity pumps will be mobilized to maintain, if needed, the water level necessary for the operation of the plant.
Russia Warns West Against New Arms Race
Aug 21, 2026 , By Ellie Cook, Senior Defense Reporter, https://www.newsweek.com/russia-warns-west-against-new-arms-race-12346603
A senior Russian official has warned that President Donald Trump’s new defense plans, including for the vast Golden Dome missile shield currently in development, will lead to a new space “arms race” and could be “devastating.”
“The risks of turning outer space into an arena of armed confrontation have ceased to be hypothetical,” Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, said in remarks reported by Russia’s Tass state news agency on Thursday.
“Its consequences will be devastating for all of humanity,” he added.
Although militaries worldwide already use satellites for intelligence gathering, communications, missile warnings and navigation, putting weapons in orbit has been controversial for decades.
A major part of the planned design for the Golden Dome will be orbiting interceptors to knock out incoming missile attacks, with early-warning sensors positioned in space, although the United States government and military haven’t released a full breakdown of how the system would be put together.
A White House spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement: “President Trump is building on the transformational achievements of his first term to maintain America’s leadership in space.”
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Defense via email for comment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping jointly said in May 2025 the proposed outline for the futuristic Golden Dome was an “obvious threat to strategic stability,” while North Korea said the program smacked of “self-righteousness” and “arrogance.”
The Trump administration says the project is needed to counter next-generation attacks on U.S. soil, like fast-moving ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons able to travel at more than five times the speed of sound. Moscow and Beijing have invested heavily in hypersonic programs, while the U.S. and NATO have lagged behind in developing these weapons.
Advocates for the Golden Dome say technology is now advanced enough to build a partially space-based system. Trump has explicitly linked the project to an ultimately shelved initiative launched by late Republican President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War arms race, popularly dubbed “Star Wars” because it planned to intercept Soviet missiles with lasers in space.
But critics argue that despite the ballooning projected costs, Trump’s Golden Dome may not protect the U.S. from a full-scale attack by Russia or China.
Costly and Possibly ‘Overwhelmed’
The Congressional Budget Office—the nonpartisan agency that advises American lawmakers on funding—said in May the “Golden Dome” will cost roughly $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, far exceeding the initial $175 billion allocated to the project.
The CBO said up to 70 percent of the acquisition costs and 60 percent of the total bill would be linked to the space-based components. It has also said that while the Golden Dome could cope with a “small-scale” assault or a North Korean attack, it would be “overwhelmed by a full-scale attack” from a country like Russia or China.
A dozen companies are competing to develop this space-based layer, including defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The U.S. Space Force says it can show off an “initial capability” by 2028.
In separate remarks on Wednesday, senior CBO official David Mosher said the agency hadn’t been able to contact the team in charge of the Golden Dome in the Pentagon and hadn’t secured briefings on the program, despite requesting updates.
“I know nothing about what they’re actually building,” he said during an appearance at the Brookings Institution.
Last year, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and three other Democratic lawmakers said the Golden Dome would be “detrimental to U.S. and global security by igniting a nuclear arms race with Russia and China.”
Unanswered Questions
The Golden Dome is expected to cover the U.S. mainland, Alaska and Hawaii. But Canada is in talks to come under the Golden Dome’s umbrella, and the U.S. has said previously that its northern neighbor would need to pay tens of billions of dollars to be included.
Currently, both the U.S. and Canada’s defenses against long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles are handled by the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). At this point, it’s hard to work out how an air defense system for long-range attacks would work without Canadian cooperation.
It’s also not clear how the Golden Dome will address the threat posed by drones, particularly after the U.S.’s experience intercepting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Middle East since the start of the war with Iran.
The Pentagon said in its National Defense Strategy released in January that the Golden Dome would have a “specific focus on options to cost-effectively defeat large missile barrages and other advanced aerial attacks.”
Because air defense interceptors that can shoot down sophisticated weapons often cost several million dollars apiece, many global militaries are wrestling with how to reliably knock out major air threats like drones at a far lower cost than in past years.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon said it had set up a new “hub” for defense companies, academics and investors with the Department of Defense, which it said would slash red tape often found in defense procurement negotiations.
Great British Energy -Nuclear (GBE-N) outlines £730M-£1.1bn early works package
21 Aug, 2026 By Lee Kenny
Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) has outlined plans for an early works package with an estimated contract value range of £730M to £1.1bn.
A preliminary market engagement notice published on 20 August sets out the scope of the package, which covers civils, infrastructure, buildings and MEP, and earthworks.
The package covers key enabling activities required to prepare the (unlisted) site for main construction.
The early works package forms part of GBE-N’s Owner’s Scope, which encompasses the planning, licensing, design and construction activities necessary to enable a Technology Partner to install and commission small modular reactor (SMR) technology.
SMR is a category of nuclear fission reactors that are significantly smaller in size and power output than traditional gigawatt-scale nuclear plants. GBE-N has spearheaded a competition to select preferred technologies, naming Rolls-Royce SMR as a preferred designer for projects at sites like Wylfa in North Wales (main image above).
The estimated contract period is from 1 June 2028 to 1 June 2034, with a possible extension to 1 June 2037 and the work includes design from RIBA Stage 4 and delivery of ground-related enabling activities, including species relocation, remediation services, site clearance, site establishment and construction utilities.
The package also includes supporting infrastructure such as drainage and haul roads to support bulk earthworks.
The early works will establish the correct ground levels and create safe access routes for subsequent phases. They will provide the foundational physical platform needed to de-risk, mobilise and accelerate the main works programme, according to the notice.
GBE-N considered splitting the packages into two but has decided to consolidate them into one package to minimise interface risk.
GBE-N cautioned that the positions and timelines presented are based on current information and assumptions. It said the scope, dates, values and sequencing may change as programme maturity develops and further validation is undertaken.
Port Hope’s radioactive past fuels pushback against proposed nuclear reactor
August 21, 2026, The Canadian Press
When the Ontario government announced plans earlier this year to build what could become one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants in a picturesque community of roughly 18,000 people, the news came wrapped in a series of celebratory speeches.
The province’s energy minister, Stephen Lecce, hailed the project as “another positive step” toward a secure energy future, while the local mayor said it would help usher in a “stronger and more resilient future” not only for the community about 100 kilometres east of Toronto, but for the entire province and country.
Though the news was welcomed by some, it shocked a generation of Port Hope residents old enough to have lived through the community’s fraught history with the nuclear industry, a legacy that permeates backyards and public properties to this day.
“I personally was outraged when I heard this announcement, and elected officials of every level were lined up here making this announcement as if this was good news,” said Faye More, a 75-year-old resident rallying opposition to the project in the community.
The community has felt “invisible for about 80 years in the matter of the operation of these plants,” and is feeling the same once again as the province forges ahead with the new project, More said in an interview.
It has been almost a century since the Eldorado mining company, which later became a Crown corporation, opened a radium refinery plant in Port Hope in the 1930s. When uranium suddenly became a prized commodity about a decade later, ore that was once considered a waste product was in demand. The plant began refining uranium instead, supplying the material to the United States military during the Second World War where its uses included the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government program that produced the first atomic bombs.
Over several decades, the plant dumped contaminated soil, rocks and building materials across Port Hope. The materials were used mainly as backfill, but also in the construction of parks, roads, schools and homes — including the home where More grew up and the one where she later raised a family of her own.
In 2001, the federal government signed an agreement with Port Hope and nearby Clarington, committing to cleaning up, isolating and managing the historic, low-level radioactive waste that contaminated the region.
The project, known as Port Hope Area Initiative, in being implemented by the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which manages historic waste sites on behalf of the Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
The provincially owned company in charge of the new nuclear power project is assuring residents that the sector operates much differently than when it was in its infancy………………………………………………..
Those assurances haven’t swayed critics.
The municipality is already home to two nuclear operations on top of the decades-long remediation project, More said. Another nuclear plant is not welcome, she said.
The community is being “treated like (it’s) expendable” as the government seeks to expand nuclear power generation, More said. “But the people here have been exploited and they have borne the price of this and we say no more.”
To many, the new power plant may seem like a done deal, but More and several other residents who oppose the project said they are optimistic their efforts will bear fruit.
More, who heads a local committee focused on health concerns, said the group will keep raising awareness of the proposal as well as lobbying the government to reverse its decision.
In June, she sent a petition to Canada’s auditor general, seeking protection under the upcoming National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice. The strategy, according to the federal government, aims to promote efforts to recognize and address the “existing inequalities faced by Indigenous, racialized or otherwise marginalized communities” when decisions are made about the environment.
Consultations on the draft strategy closed this week and the final version is expected to be tabled this fall.
Turning to the courts could also be an option, More said……..
Port Hope is one of the most contaminated towns in Canada when it comes to low-level radioactive waste; the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says the bulk of historic waste is there and in nearby Clarington.
The $2.6-billion remediation plan currently underway is “pretty much the largest environmental cleanup that’s ever been undertaken in the country,” said Bill Daly, the director of communications for the Port Hope Area Initiative, the organization behind the cleanup and long-term monitoring project.
Daly said some 5,000 sites in the municipality have been tested and about 1,200 were found to have some level of contamination…………………………
Like several others in the municipality, Erland said he can’t fathom why Port Hope was chosen to house a nuclear reactor.
“The irony couldn’t be lost that just while this remediation is being undertaken on our property, we’re learning that the government now wants to build the largest nuclear power plant in the world in this area,” the 66-year-old said…….
Autumn Woolsey said she and her family have gone through a long and painful cycle of testing, remediation and restoration on their property.
“This summer has been the first summer in eight years that we have not had anything going on,” she said.
No health monitoring was conducted in that time, even after Woolsey repeatedly asked for it, she added.
Woolsey, who fiercely opposes the new reactor, said she’s fighting for future generations.
“I can’t change what has happened and what we’ve been exposed to, but if I can advocate and fight for my children, their children … that is what my goal, my mission is in life,” she said.
“Do not come in here to a community that has suffered for decades and think that we’re going to be happy to hear about this.”…
Few might be affected as directly as Sarah Sculthorpe and her family if the new plant goes ahead. The farm property where Sculthorpe moved nearly 50 years ago after marrying an eighth-generation Port Hope resident shoulders the site chosen for the project.
Over the last several months, Sculthorpe has been knocking on neighbours’ doors, talking to politicians and nuclear experts, doing online research and taking copious notes — all aimed at preventing what seems to be the inevitable.
“The only way to win a battle is to raise the knowledge and the voices of people,” she said. “And if we cannot educate people and let them know why we don’t want this, it will happen, because (for) most people, it’s out of sight, out of mind.”
The land earmarked for the plant spans 1,300 acres, with 700 acres deemed environmentally sensitive, she said.
Sculthorpe’s biggest concern, she said, is that building one of the country’s largest reactor sites on a plot of that size might mean there’s no space for a buffer zone between the plant and her property.
She argues Ontario Power Generation has not been transparent with the plant’s potential neighbours — an accusation denied by the corporation, which said it has “engaged extensively” with residents near the site and throughout the municipality.
Sculthorpe said her husband remembers seeing yellowcake, a powdery form of uranium oxide, in the ditches when he walked to school as a child, and later became of a member Citizens for Responsible Nuclear Waste Disposal. The grassroots group successfully lobbied for the environmental cleanup of Port Hope in 1980s.
She said she doesn’t want her grandchildren to be raised next door to a nuclear reactor.
“For me it’s a very emotional battle,” she said. https://www.cp24.com/local/2026/08/21/port-hopes-radioactive-past-fuels-pushback-against-proposed-nuclear-reactor/
Why Britain and Europe MUST talk to Russia, and why no one wants to make the first move
In conversation with Mark Galeotti
Ian Proud, Aug 21, 2026. https://thepeacemonger.substack.com/p/why-britain-and-europe-must-talk?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3221990&post_id=212103666&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
After four and a half years of war in Ukraine, European leaders are still largely stuck repeating the same empty mantras: “as long as it takes,” “no talks until Russia withdraws,” “dialogue is a reward for good behaviour.”
In my latest conversation on The Peacemonger channel, leading Russia expert Mark Galeotti explains why this approach has become deeply self-harming — and why someone, somewhere, is going to have to break the logjam.
Galeotti, honorary professor at UCL, director of Mayak Intelligence and host of the widely followed podcast In Moscow’s Shadows, is characteristically clear-eyed.
The war is no longer delivering strategic benefits for Europe (I’d argue that it has been a disaster from the start).
Russia is slowly advancing in the Donbas.
Ukraine is paying a catastrophic human and economic price.
Europe is bankrolling the conflict while outsourcing its diplomacy to Washington and preparing to phase out the last of its Russian gas imports — a move with predictably severe economic consequences.
Yet no one wants to be the first to say out loud what many now admit privately: that a negotiated end is necessary, and that talking to Russia is not a concession but a necessity.
Galeotti is particularly interesting on Britain’s potential role.
Outside the European Union and still regarded by Moscow as both a serious antagonist and a serious player, the UK has a rare opportunity to act as a pragmatic interlocutor.
The “only Nixon could go to China” logic applies.
Under a possible Burnham government more focused on domestic priorities, that opportunity may be greater than under previous administrations — but it will still require political courage.
The conversation ranges widely beyond the battlefield.
We discuss the urgent need to restore military-to-military contacts, law-enforcement cooperation and academic exchanges — the practical, professional channels that have been allowed to atrophy.
Galeotti is scathing about the hollowing-out of British diplomatic and academic expertise on Russia, and the long-term cost of cutting off the next generation of specialists from time on the ground.
He is equally clear-eyed about the Russia–China relationship: transactional, competitive and far more fragile than the “friendship without limits” rhetoric suggests.
Western policymakers who talk of a seamless “Dragon Bear” alliance are, in his view, peddling dangerous nonsense.
When the war eventually ends — and Galeotti, like me, does not expect it this year — European politicians will face the awkward task of polishing a strategic failure as success, as I have long said.
The longer the fighting continues, the more expensive and politically toxic the post-war period will become.
This is a sober, realistic conversation free of both Russophobia and wishful thinking.
If you want to understand why Europe is stuck, and what it would actually take to start moving toward a settlement, I strongly recommend watching the full discussion which you can find here.
Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear plant cuts output because of Danube drought
First time in plant’s 52-year history that extreme weather conditions forced reduce output
Aysu Biçer, 20 August 2026,
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/bulgarias-kozloduy-nuclear-plant-cuts-output-because-of-danube-drought/4033319
Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant will reduce output from one of its reactors as the Danube River level continues to fall amid an unprecedented drought, Bulgarian News Agency BTA reported Thursday.
The energy ministry said it would “preventively lower the output of Kozloduy’s Unit 5 by some 120 MW on August 21” to ensure the plant’s safe operation.
Unit 5 has a generating capacity of just over 1,000 MW.
It is the first time in the plant’s 52-year history that extreme weather conditions have forced it to reduce output, the report underlined.
The ministry said the Danube was forecast to continue receding in the Bulgarian section of the river.
Kozloduy uses Danube water to cool steam in condensers in the non-nuclear part of the plant. The river is not used to cool nuclear reactors.
Water is supplied through the plant’s shore-based pumping station, which was designed to maintain the necessary supply even when river levels are low.
A crisis management working group was established at Kozloduy in early June as water levels began to fall and forecasts indicated prolonged drought across western and central Europe.
The plant has continued operating normally and supporting the national and regional energy system, said the ministry, while several nuclear plants along the Danube have reduced output or shut down.
Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant reduced production to critically low levels earlier this month as the Danube reached record lows.
In Romania, Unit 1 of the Cernavoda nuclear plant was shut down at the end of July, while a nationwide state of heightened alert was declared in the energy sector for August.
South Korea helps Egypt expand Russian-built nuclear plant
South Korea’s growing role in Egypt’s Russian-built El Dabaa nuclear plant has helped shield the project from sanctions and enabled expansion
The New Arab Staff, 22 August, 2026
South Korea’s growing role in Egypt’s Russian-built El Dabaa nuclear power plant has helped Cairo shield the project from Western sanctions and paved the way for a major expansion of the site, according to senior Egyptian energy officials.
Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Mahmoud Esmat said in televised remarks that Egypt was studying the addition of at least two more nuclear units at El Dabaa, with the possibility of eventually expanding the complex from four reactors to six or even eight.
Senior sources at Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy told The New Arab that the proposed expansion reflected “a state of confidence” surrounding the project following South Korea’s entry as a partner alongside Russia’s Rosatom.
They said South Korean involvement had enabled Egypt to gain access to Western-linked technology while limiting the exposure of companies working on El Dabaa to US and European sanctions imposed on Russian firms following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
According to the sources, the South Korean government is expected to provide financial and technical support for future expansions of El Dabaa, alongside its existing role in completing control systems and turbine-related work.
The arrangement has allowed Russia to retain control of the project’s nuclear core while South Korean companies handle major elements of its conventional power-generation infrastructure.
The sources said South Korea had taken on work that US company General Electric did not proceed with following the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
Egypt currently plans four Russian-designed VVER-1200 reactors at El Dabaa, with a total capacity of 4.8 gigawatts.
The proposed expansion could eventually increase capacity to 9.6 gigawatts by 2040, according to the sources.
Nuclear energy experts said Esmat’s remarks “open the door to transforming El Dabaa from a four-unit plant into a larger nuclear complex”.
No cost estimate, reactor models or timetable have yet been announced for the additional units.
However, the experts said Cairo increasingly views El Dabaa as “the nucleus of a long-term nuclear programme, rather than a standalone project that ends with the operation of four reactors”.
South Korea’s involvement in the project expanded rapidly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine complicated Western-linked supply chains.
Experts at Egypt’s Nuclear Energy Authority told The New Arab that Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom accelerated moves to bring Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power into El Dabaa as the key supplier for the turbine island and associated control systems for the four Russian units.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power signed a $2.25 billion contract with Russia’s Atomstroyexport in Cairo on 25 August 2022, months after the outbreak of the war and the introduction of Western sanctions…………………………………………………
https://www.newarab.com/news/south-korea-helps-egypt-expand-russian-built-nuclear-plant
Floating 10 MW nuclear reactor proposed for California.
By Efosa Udinmwen, 22 Aug 26, https://www.techradar.com/pro/floating-10-mw-nuclear-reactor-proposed-for-california-barge-mounted-smr-aims-to-power-15-000-homes
The Port of Long Beach is exploring small modular reactors that could eventually supply electricity for port operations and ships.
Bluecore Energy, a startup building compact nuclear reactors meant to operate from floating barges, is leading the proposal.
This marks a potential return of nuclear power development in California after nearly five decades under state restrictions.
A startup’s barge-based reactor plan
Bluecore has leased space at Berth 48 within the Port of Long Beach, where it intends to develop and test its floating reactor system.
The company’s initial system is rated at 10 MWe, a capacity the startup says can scale through pairing multiple units together, an approach which suits continuous port operations partly because individual reactors are designed to run for years on a single fueling cycle.
Iranian hackers shut down UK power plant
Telegraph 22nd Aug 2026
Unprecedented cyber attack believed to be most successful of its kind
Iran shut down a British power plant for four days in an unprecedented cyber attack, The Telegraph can disclose.
It is thought to be the first time that hackers affiliated to the Iranian regime have succeeded in closing down such a facility in the UK, and is believed to be the most successful cyber attack of its kind.
The Telegraph understands that the incident took place at the same time as a series of attacks on US water infrastructure last month, which affected 12 states and caused concern in the White House.
Iran shut down a British power plant for four days in an unprecedented cyber attack, The Telegraph can disclose.
It is thought to be the first time that hackers affiliated to the Iranian regime have succeeded in closing down such a facility in the UK, and is believed to be the most successful cyber attack of its kind.
The Telegraph understands that the incident took place at the same time as a series of attacks on US water infrastructure last month, which affected 12 states and caused concern in the White House.
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British officials refused to be drawn on which power plant had been affected, citing security concerns, but it is understood that the facility was disabled for four days while staff fought to bring it back online.
It is understood that the plant affected was relatively small and that the outage had no impact on the UK’s wider power supply or energy generation.
In response, the Government briefed the chief executives of power companies and wrote to businesses with advice, direction and next steps……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/22/iranian-hackers-shut-down-uk-power-plant/
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