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Biden, Netanyahu Closer to Consensus on Attacking Iran

Netanyahu convened his war cabinet on Thursday to approve plans

by Dave DeCamp October 10, 2024  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/10/10/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-consensus-on-attacking-iran/#gsc.tab=0

President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved closer to an understanding on Israel’s plans to attack Iran during their phone call on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday.

The report, which cited US and Israeli officials, said that the US had accepted Israel is going to launch a major attack on Iran soon and is only concerned that striking certain types of targets could dramatically escalate things. However, Iran has vowed it will respond to any type of Israeli attack, and the situation could easily turn into a full-blown war that would involve the US.

An Israeli official told Axios that the Israeli plans are still a bit more aggressive than the US would like. The US has been warning against striking nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure, and recent media reports have said Israel will likely target military infrastructure.

Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on Thursday to brief them on the situation with the US and is expected to get approval for him and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to set a timeline for the Israeli attack. The Times of Israel reported that the US and Israel will continue conversations on the plans in the coming days, signaling the attack is not imminent.

NBC News reported on Tuesday that the US was considering supporting Israel’s attack with direct airstrikes of its own, although US officials said intelligence support was more likely.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the US was offering Israel a “compensation package” of military aid and full diplomatic support if it only hits US-approved targets in Iran. The US has also committed to defending Israel from any Iranian response.

Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in response to a string of Israeli escalations, including the assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Immediately after the attack, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US would work with Israel to ensure Iran suffers “severe consequences.”

October 14, 2024 Posted by | Iran, Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Renewables based systems are reducing blackouts in UK and USA!

David Toke, Oct 11, 2024, https://davidtoke.substack.com/p/renewables-based-systems-are-reducing

The truth is gradually emerging that far from threatening electricity systems with blackouts, renewable energy-based systems are preventing them for occurring! This has a lot to do with the fact that the installation of batteries to deal with renewable output variability has the side-effect of improving grid resilience. Solar power is also reducing possibilities for blackouts in hot places.

Batteries stopped widespread blackouts just three days ago, on October 8th in the UK, when, the UK-Norwegian electricity interconnector suddenly crashed leading to a loss of 1.4 GW of power. Without rapid action, frequency levels would have fallen leading to widespread blackouts as the system tried to preserve grid stability. But 1.5 GW of batteries rapidly clicked into service saving the day (see HERE). Of course the build-up of batteries in the UK is only happening because of the growth of renewable energy!

Similar stories of how blackouts are being averted are coming from other places with growing renewables penetration, including Texas and California in the USA. In both cases, earlier blackouts were caused by conventional power system problems, but widely blamed on renewables by anti-renewables lobbies. But now as renewables, and battery systems, proliferate further, blackout rates are actually being reduced.

Speaking about the October 8th UK incident, Roger Hollies from the ARENCO Group, who originally posted about the outage response on linkedin (HERE) commented: ‘It’s exciting to see batteries casually keeping the lights on whilst delivering diversity of activity to maximise revenue. I count 9 markets and services being participated in by these 12 batteries during this 50 min window alone! This complexity is only going to continue with Quick Reserve coming online later this year, local markets expanding, more renewables coming online and we STILL are not using the +/-3Gvar of reactive power the installed BESS fleet can supply!’

In California, the number of blackouts has been dramatically reduced over the last couple of years. ‘Batteries were the biggest reason California didn’t see the power go out’ says Benjamin Storrow (see HERE). There has been a very big increase in battery installation in California. This has been driven partly by a State-led investment programme. In addition, the increase in battery capacity follows on from the new opportunities in spreading production from the increasing quantity of solar panels over longer periods of the day.

Texas has been saved from a summer power blow-out by a combination of solar pv and batteries. Climate-change inspired hotter summers have put a strain on the Texas grid to cope with the rising demands for air conditioning to meet the summer heat spikes. Once again, solar pv and batteries have come to the state’s rescue. See HERE.

Of course a lot of work still needs to be adapt the electricity from its traditional centralised dispatch mode to a decentralised way of operation. These include incentivising longer duration batteries, something encouraged by a ‘cap and floor’ incentive system for batteries announced by the Government today. See HERE. Initiatives to replace the inertial load system provided by traditional centralised power plant with new inertial sources needed to support variable renewable energy are also in play, for instance promoted by Statkraft’s Guy Nicolson HERE.

Acknowledgement to Dave Andrews from the Claverton Group for the alert on the Norway link tripping event.

October 14, 2024 Posted by | renewable, UK, USA | Leave a comment

Threads brings nuclear war fears to a new audience

“It is only in the last couple of years that the world is lurching towards world war three, that people start thinking about it again”

“the power station was a key target”

Julia Bryson, BBC News, 11 Oct 24

A television drama about a fictional nuclear attack on the city of Sheffield had a profound effect on many who watched it in the 1980s. Now it has aired once again, we spoke to some first and second-time viewers to gauge their reaction.

First broadcast in 1984, Threads has only been repeated a handful of times since – but having gained something of a cult following, it was repeated on BBC Four on Wednesday night to mark its 40th anniversary.

Andrea Cattermole, 56, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, said she loved the realism – but it made her “really anxious that it could really happen”.

She said: “It made me think if it did happen, I’d rather be one of the first to die and not have to live through it, with all the effects it has on everyone in the long term.

Ms Cattermole said she thought everyone should watch Threads to “understand the dreadful problems it causes to everyone and the planet for many years after the event”.

The post-apocalyptic film was created by Kes author Barry Hines, and watching it has become something of a rite of passage for people in his home city of Sheffield.

Val Yates, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, remembered watching Threads for the first time in the 1980s, because it was around the time of her 16th birthday.

Now 56, she said watching it for a second time was “like going back to being 16”.

“When we grew up in the 80s we lived with the threat of nuclear war,” she said.

“It has suddenly become poignant again, it’s happening again now but for a new generation.”

As a teenager, Ms Yates lived in the village of Clarborough, which was only about five miles from West Burton power station, where her father worked.

“I think I probably watched it on my own in my bedroom first time round, my dad worked at the power station, so it was even more scary,” she said.

“There was a lot of propaganda around at the time, even in schools we learned about the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, it was very realistic.

“We were told the power station was a key target because it’s infrastructure.

“They said if a bomb went off in Sheffield it would take 11 minutes to reach us – there was a graphic which showed how quickly it would sweep the area and it terrified me.”

She added: “Everything settles down and today’s kids have no idea what it was like.

“It is only in the last couple of years that the world is lurching towards world war three, that people start thinking about it again,” she said……

The story is focused around two families who live in Sheffield when a nuclear bomb is detonated.

In the aftermath of the blast, increasingly desperate people are seen trying to seek medical help and food, and civilised society eventually breaks down. Within a generation, language has died out and survivors live in medieval conditions…………………………..

“It remains the most accurate depiction of what nuclear winter would look like,” said Mr Mann – whose documentary “Survivors – The Spectre of Threads” is set to be released next year.

“Nothing has ever captured what the consequences would be, and I think that is what the producer Mick Jackson intended to do.

“He made a stark warning of what that would look like. It is accurate and I think that is why it continues to scare people,” he added.

“It is not something at the immediate forefront of the consciousness at all times but it could still happen and I think that is why people find it so scary.”

Threads is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2dp8197y3eo

October 14, 2024 Posted by | media, UK | Leave a comment

UK and Ireland partners congratulate 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner

Nuclear Free Local Authorities, 11 Oct 24,

On hearing the news that the Japanese Hibakusha survivor network Nihon Hidankyo (No More Hibakusha) has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, NFLA and Mayors for Peace Chapter Secretary Richard Outram lost no time in sending the worthy winners our congratulations.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee made their customary announcement on 11 October, two months before the formal award ceremony takes place in Oslo.

Founded on August 10, 1956, Nihon Hidankyo is the only Japanese national organisation of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Hibakusha). It has branches in all 47 Japanese prefectures, thus representing almost all organized Hibakusha. Impressively, its officials and members are all Hibakusha. Although most Hibakusha live in Japan, several thousand more live in Korea and in other parts of the world.

The website states that the organisation’s main objectives are:


1) The prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, including the signing of an international agreement for a total ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons. The convening of an international conference to reach this goal is also part of Hidankyo’s basic demand.

2) State compensation for the A-bomb damages. The state responsibility of having launched the war, which led to the damage by the atomic bombing, should be acknowledged, and the state compensation provided.

3) Improvement of the current policies and measures on the protection and assistance for the Hibakusha.

Although the Nihon Hidankyo website records that in March 2016 there were 174,080 Hibakusha living in Japan, since that time these numbers are fast dwindling as many are in their eighties or above. Doubtless this factor, and the fact that the organisation will be the holder of the current Nobel Peace Prize throughout 2025 when the world remembers and commemorates the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings, have played their part in their worthy selection as this year’s winners.

More information can be found on the organisation’s website:

The text of the letter of congratulation follows…………………………………………….more https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/uk-and-ireland-partners-congratulate-2024-nobel-peace-prize-winner/

October 14, 2024 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A desire to leave not a ‘compelling need’ under nuke dump compo scheme say Nuclear Waste Services

Residents no longer able to live under the continued threat of a potential nuclear waste dump will be unable to avail themselves of compensation if they simply sell up at a loss under the terms of the scheme recently announced by Nuclear Waste Services.

Last month, Nuclear Waste Services launched the Property Value Protection Scheme to compensate homeowners who sell their properties in the three GDF Search Areas in West Cumbria and East Lincolnshire for a sum that is lower than the ‘market price’ because the market has been blighted by the threat of a Geological Disposal Facility.

Given that a big factor in determining property price is ‘location, location, location’, future residency in an area hosting a GDF which we described as ‘a massive mining project akin to building the Channel Tunnel, into which the UK’s most deadly stockpile of radioactive waste would be deposited for eternity’, must inevitably result in blight, particularly in quiet, seaside retirement communities and those with no historic association with the nuclear industry.

In response, the NFLAs published a critique of the scheme as overly complex and too restrictive.[1]

Eligibility for compensation requires the applicant to hurdle five key conditions and supply complex evidence. One key hurdle is the need to demonstrate a ‘compelling need’ to sell.

On reading our critique, a Cumbrian resident and local Parish Councillor set out for the NFLAs their circumstances:

“I currently live in a rural hamlet with open countryside surrounding me, with far reaching views over the countryside to the mountains beyond. It is quiet and peaceful. This is the type of property and lifestyle I have chosen. I did not choose to live near a 1 KM square head works for a GDF with the long-term build and operating life with the noise, visual disturbance and general impact the development would bring. I would not live in that environment.”


The Secretary read out this scenario to NWS officials at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s Stakeholder Summit in September and asked them if the desire to escape the prospect of a future GDF development would be accepted as a ‘compelling need’’.

After a follow up exchange of emails, the response was a resounding No: ‘A desire to move away from an area being considered to host a potential GDF would not meet the “compelling” need criteria of the PVP scheme.’

Although on the face of it, the NWS reply represents for people wishing to move a massive disappointment, the actual position may – as per usual with the GDF process – be more nuanced. For under the published guidance, ‘Section 3.5 – Criteria 5: Compelling need to sell’ it states that a compelling need includes ‘a significant change in health’.

It is clear from public questions posed at recent meetings of the East Lindsey District Council that the continued uncertainty is taking a toll on the emotional, mental and physical health of some residents. Surely then, in circumstances where they have had to obtain related professional medical treatment, the need to move must constitute a ‘compelling need?’ To the NFLAs taking a counterview would be inhumane.

Regrettably they will be unable to rely on any sympathy from any member with local residency and knowledge of the situation on the ground; for it has been made clear to the NFLAs that only specialists with relevant experience of administering similar compensation schemes used with other large national infrastructure projects will be eligible for appointment as ‘independents’ to the five-member panel that will consider applications. Tellingly no positions will be reserved for members of the Community Partnerships.

For more information, please contact Richard Outram, NFLA Secretary by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

1. https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/co

October 14, 2024 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear lobby takes over tertiary education, with blatant lies about “clean” “green” nuclear

 X-energy plans fleet of 40 Xe-100 reactors across the UK. More than 100
businesses from across Teesside and the UK met to learn how they can work
with X-energy on its proposed nuclear new build project. X-energy, along
with deployment partner Cavendish Nuclear, discussed the potential fleet
production of its Xe-100 advanced modular nuclear reactors, likely
timescales, scope of contracts for companies of all sizes across multiple
sectors, and what is required to win business. The event at Hartlepool
College of Further Education was followed by a workshop……………  https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/24645271.x-energy-plans-fleet-40-xe-100-reactors-across-uk/

Hartlepool College of Further Education hosts 70 businesses to set out opportunities for X-energy’s multi-billion pound Hartlepool nuclear reactor project

By Madeleine Raine, 8 October 24

More than 100 representatives from local and national companies are meeting in Hartlepool to hear about the opportunities offered by X-energy’s proposed nuclear reactor project.

On Tuesday, October 8, businesses from across the UK are coming together at Hartlepool College of Further Education to find out about the role regional and British engineering, manufacturing and construction companies can have in building the next generation of [?] clean power production nationwide.

X-energy and deployment partner Cavendish Nuclear are going to be discussing the potential production of advanced modular nuclear reactors…………………………………………

“What X-energy is proposing with its AMR technology will make Hartlepool the epicentre of this country’s transition to a [?] green energy superpower with billions of pounds worth of generational investment”…………………………..  https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/people/hartlepool-college-of-further-education-hosts-70-businesses-to-set-out-opportunities-for-x-energys-multi-billion-pound-hartlepool-nuclear-reactor-project-4814707

October 14, 2024 Posted by | Education, UK | Leave a comment

Nuclear power stations are neither wanted nor needed in Scotland.

I REFER to the letter headed “Vote Sarwar if you want broken nuclear future” (Sunday National, Oct 6) from Leah Gunn Barret in which she summarises why Scotland doesn’t need nuclear power as proposed by the Labour government.

This is a position adopted by HANP (Highlands
Against Nuclear Power) since our formation. It appears that a lot more
lobbying and campaigning is needed, as the position taken by, for example,
environmental campaigner George Monbiot, is that nuclear is a clean energy
and needs to be “part of the mix” of energy sources.

Long-standing and new supporters of nuclear seem to ignore the reasons for nuclear not
needing to be “part of the mix” including: Generating electricity
through nuclear is twice as expensive as through renewables, and when
construction costs can’t be raised from the private sector the taxpayer
will pick up the bill.

Nuclear is not “carbon-free” or green, as uranium
has to be mined as the raw material required and there are high CO2
emissions during the average 15-year build period. All nuclear power
stations pose a risk to health and the environment both during operation
and decommissioning. Years after the fast breeder at Dounreay closed, there
are still radioactive particles being found on the foreshore around
Dounreay and there have been leaks of radioactive sodium.

 The National 10th Oct 2024

The National 10th Oct 2024 https://www.thenational.scot/community/24644810.nuclear-power-stations-neither-wanted-needed-scotland/

October 14, 2024 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | 1 Comment

Farmers warn over Hinkley Point C’s saltmarsh plan

Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News 12th October, By John Wimperis,

PLANS to turn a huge swathe of land in North Somerset into a marsh to make up for the environmental impact of Hinkley Point C would “destroy” homes and livelihoods, farmers have warned.

Bosses at Somerset’s new nuclear power station are proposing creating new saltmarsh habitats along the Severn to compensate for the number of fish that will die by being sucked into the power station’s cooling systems. But this means communities along the river and estuary face losing hundreds of acres of farmland.

In Kingston Seymour in North Somerset, the plans to turn 1,500 acres of prime agricultural land between Weston-super-Mare and Clevedon into salt marshes have caused outcry. Farmers, who were left in “extreme distress,” after finding out their land was under threat blocked access to wildlife surveys for the plans in protest on Tuesday (October 8).

A public meeting with EDF — the energy company building Hinkley Point C — is set to be held in Kingston Seymour Village Hall on October 14 at 7.45pm.

Farmers across the affected area have urged EDF to drop the plan.

Young farmer Sophie Cole of the farm at Wharf House said: “I am a third-generation young farmer in Kingston Seymour and all my land and property is directly impacted by this proposal.

“No amount of money can compensate me for the loss of my livelihood and exciting plans for the future.”

Peter and Karen Stuckey of Channel View Farm said: “We have a thriving commercial business which provides employment and services to local people. 

“We also have agricultural land and several dwellings which provides much needed local housing. 

“This proposal will destroy our home and livelihood and is causing us a great deal of worry and anxiety.”

They added: “This will destroy everything we have built up over the last 50 years.”

Meanwhile, at Dowlais Farm, Kathrin and David Kirk said: “We have rebuilt Dowlais Farm from near derelict to a great family home (grade II listed) as well as a thriving campsite and two holiday cottages.

“We purchased the farm seven years ago from North Somerset Council and have invested everything we have both financially and physically into this business and built it up from scratch.

“This proposal would destroy our livelihood and our home. It would also destroy wildlife habitats for otters, bats, badgers, foxes, deer as well as birds such as owls, kestrels and buzzards who all nest in the trees on our land.”

Dan Kostyla of Sea Wall Farm, another young farmer, said: “My family have been farming here for generations — I am fourth generation — and have invested heavily in the farm business.  We have a large dairy and beef farm business.

“All of this will be lost from the food chain and our business will be unviable/destroyed.” 

Another young farmer, Dan Kostyla of Sea Wall Farm said: “My family have been farming here for generations — I am fourth generation — and have invested heavily in the farm business.  We have a large dairy and beef farm business.

“All of this will be lost from the food chain and our business will be unviable/destroyed.” 

EDF said it is obligated to make environmental improvements such as salt marshes to compensate for the power station’s impact on fish populations, which the energy company said would be limited………….

A public consultation will be held on any plans before they go ahead……………………………………………………………… https://www.burnhamandhighbridgeweeklynews.co.uk/news/24646958.farmers-warn-hinkley-point-cs-saltmarsh-plan/

October 13, 2024 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Japanese anti-nuclear organisation awarded 2024 Nobel Peace Prize

ABC News, By Aoife Hilton with wires, 11 Oct 24

In short:

Japanese Hibakusha organisation Nihon Hidankyo has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

Hibakusha is the grassroots movement for survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945.

Norwegian Nobel Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said the organisation was chosen for its efforts to establish a worldwide “nuclear taboo”.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Japanese Hibakusha organisation Nihon Hidankyo, the Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced at a press conference in Oslo.

Hibakusha is the grassroots movement for survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945.

Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said Nihon Hidankyo had become “the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation in Japan” and had made efforts for “a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating … that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.

He said the Nobel committee “wishes to honour all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace”.

The ‘nuclear taboo’

He credited the organisation with contributing to the “nuclear taboo”, referring to the status quo wherein world powers avoid nuclear weapon use.

“Nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen,” he said.

“Today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power.”

Mr Fryndes stressed it was “alarming that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure” with new countries acquiring nuclear weapons and others bolstering their arsenals………………………………………………………………………………….

United Nations spokesperson in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, said the movement for Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors “fights against … even the idea that such a war can be fought again”.

“We’ve seen the effects of the bomb in the Second World War. We have got now weapons that are so many more times more powerful than those that we use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” she said…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Peace Prize winner compares post-war Japan to Gaza

Nihon Hidankyo’s co-head Toshiyuki Mimaki, a survivor himself, was standing by at the Hiroshima City Hall for the announcement.

He said the prize would give a major boost towards efforts to demonstrate that the abolition of nuclear weapons was possible.

“It would be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved.”

“Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished.”

He added the situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War II.

“In Gaza, children in blood are being held. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Mr Mimaki said……………………………………………

Prize will be presented in December

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has regularly put focus on the issue of nuclear weapons, most recently with its award to the the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), who won the award in 2017.

“The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” the committee said in a statement.

The Peace Prize is worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.57 million.

It is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will………………………… https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-11/nobel-peace-prize/104464170

October 13, 2024 Posted by | Japan, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US arms dealers witness ‘record profits’ from Israel’s year-long genocide in Gaza, war on Lebanon

The US and Israel’s ongoing military escalation across West Asia has helped the aerospace and defense industry outperform expectations

News Desk, OCT 10, 2024,  https://thecradle.co/articles/us-arms-dealers-witness-record-profits-from-israels-year-long-genocide-in-gaza-war-on-lebanon

US arms manufacturers have outperformed major stock indexes this year in a rally fueled by Israel’s year-long genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the expansion of its war against Lebanon.

Stock funds with holdings in the US aerospace and defense industry – including companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris – saw their profits soar past expectations this year, outperforming the S&P 500 index.

“That handout of taxpayer funds to Israel coupled with Israel’s, and global, demand increasing for weapons in a period of instability, has been jet fuel for stock prices,” reports Responsible Statecraft.


Lockheed Martin, makers of the F-35 aircraft that Israel has used to relentlessly bomb Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, produced a 54.86 percent total return from 7 October 2023 to the same date in 2024, outperforming S&P 500 by about 18 percent.

RTX, the makers of 2,000-pound ‘bunker buster‘ bombs that turned most of Gaza to rubble and are currently being dropped inside the Lebanese capital, saw its total return for investors in the past year reach 82.69 percent, outperforming S&P 500 by about 46 percent.

General Dynamics, which also manufactures bunker busters and is behind the BLU-109 bombs that Israel used to level several apartment buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut during the assassination of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, delivered a 37 percent total return for investors, outperforming the S&P 500 by just over 3 percent.

On 1 October, as Israel pushed forward with its ground invasion of Lebanon and Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles in retaliation for the bombing of its capital, Forbes reported that the stocks of most US arms makers gained over 2.6 percent in value.

“Both Lockheed Martin and RTX shares booked all-time highs Tuesday, while L3Harris and Northrop Grumman tallied their top share price since 2022,” the US financial publication reported.

Furthermore, the BlackRock-managed iShares US Aerospace and Defense fund indexing the aerospace and defense sector hit a new all-time high last week, extending its 12-month gain to 43 percent and outperforming the S&P 500 by 33 percent.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 2019 and 2023, Israel accounted for 2.1 percent of all global arms imports. During the same period, the US accounted for 69 percent of Israel’s arms imports, while Germany accounted for 30 percent.

As Washington retains its long-standing hold as the world’s largest arms dealer – controlling 42 percent of the global arms market – the country has also significantly boosted its military spending to assist Israel, blowing through at least $23 billion in one year.

October 13, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel Jails US Journalist, Fires On UN Peacekeepers, Bombs Beirut, Kills More Kids, Etc

If past behavior is a reliable indicator, the US will now dismiss these accusations, and Israel will promptly accuse the United Nations of antisemitism.

Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 11, 2024,  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-jails-us-journalist-fires?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=150080118&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

I used to be able to write individual articles about the individual bad things the US empire is involved in around the world. These days I’m increasingly finding it necessary to cram a bunch of them into a single daily write-up to touch on as many of them as I can, just to stay on top of things.

Israel has arrested The Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo, an American journalist who had recently done some on the ground reporting on last week’s Iranian missile strikes in Israel. 

Israeli news outlet Ynet reports that the charges against Loffredo “include aiding the enemy during wartime and providing information to the enemy,” which, as his fellow Grayzone reporter Kit Klarenberg notes, can be punished by the death penalty in Israel.

The Grayzone has further clarified in a statement that officially Israeli police are holding the reporter “on suspicion of serious security offenses for publicly publishing… the locations of missile drops near or inside sensitive security facilities, with the aim of bringing this to the notice of the enemy and thereby assisting them in their future attacks.”

Loffredo’s report on the missile strikes features footage of explosions at the IDF’s Nevatim Airbase, as well as shots of the location where a missile landed near the headquarters of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Imagine if an Iranian missile landed right next to the CIA headquarters and the US said was forbidden on pain of death to report anything about this major news story, even for foreign journalists.

Interestingly, these same things have been reported on by other foreign news outlets without any arrests being made. As journalist Dan Cohen noted on Twitter, a report from Nick Schifrin of PBS News also featured footage of the blast site near Mossad headquarters, but Schifrin has not been arrested. Perhaps Loffredo is being singled out more because The Grayzone has been reporting on Israel’s lies and criminality than because of his work in this specific instance.

As of this writing, Loffredo is still jailed. 

In other news, Axios reports that the US and Israeli governments have moved closer to a consensus on Israel’s coming “major attack” on Iran, with the Biden administration accepting that this enormous escalation is going to happen despite fears that it will spark a large-scale war.

“The Biden administration accepts that Israel will soon launch a major attack on Iran, but it fears that strikes on certain targets could dramatically escalate the regional war,” writes Axios’ Barak Ravid.

A UN inquiry has accused Israel of “extermination” because of its systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system via “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.”

“The report found that Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles while tightening their siege on Gaza and restricting permits to leave the territory for medical treatment,” a UN press release reads. “These actions constitute the war crimes of willful killing and mistreatment and of the destruction of protected civilian property and the crime against humanity of extermination.”

If past behavior is a reliable indicator, the US will now dismiss these accusations, and Israel will promptly accuse the United Nations of antisemitism.

Israeli forces repeatedly fired on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday, injuring two UN workers by causing them to fall from a tower that was struck. Israel has killed hundreds of UN humanitarian workers in Gaza over the past year, but extending these attacks to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon is a significant new addition to the list of Israeli criminality.

Israeli airstrikes in a densely populated residential area of central Beirut have reportedly killed at least 22 people, injuring at least 117.

Israel killed at least 28 people in an airstrike on a school where civilians have been sheltering in Gaza, reportedly including many women and children as per usual. Al Jazeera reports that they’re having trouble identifying and counting the dead because the bodies are so unrecognizably shredded. Dozens more were killed elsewhere in Gaza over the last 24 hours.

And then there’s the New York Times report we discussed yesterday adding to the mountains upon mountains of evidence that Israeli forces are routinely, deliberately shooting Palestinian children in the head throughout the Gaza Strip. There is too much evidence that this is happening for anyone to legitimately deny it at this point.

Today the US State Department did not hold a press briefing, which is understandable. If I were in charge of justifying the behavior of the US government and its allies, I wouldn’t want to face the press today either.

UPDATE: The Grayzone reports that Jeremy Loffredo has been released after three days in jail. Israeli police are still holding his passport and forbidding him to leave the country until October 20th while they look through his phone. Further updates to follow.

October 13, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Canada’s false ‘solution’ for used nuclear fuel waste

Potentially trucking waste to a deep geological repository could be a recipe for disaster.

BY WILLIAM LEISS | October 7, 2024, William Leiss is an author, and emeritus professor at Queen’s University

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is a curious hybrid body created out of whole cloth by the federal government in its 2002 Nuclear Fuel Waste Act to find a permanent solution for that waste. Governments tried and failed to find that solution for the previous quarter-century. Now, NWMO is weeks away from identifying the “final resting place” in a deep geological repository (DGR) in Ontario, either far into the province’s northwest at Ignace near Dryden/Wabigoon Lake First Nation, or South Bruce close to Lake Huron near Teeswater and the Bruce Peninsula. One of two small municipalities and one of two groups of treaty-rights holding First Nations will need to agree, but millions of Canadians potentially affected won’t get a say.

Last month, The Globe and Mail described the organization’s DGR solution: “For 40 or so years … big trucks carrying specially designed waste containers would trundle from the reactor sites to the DGR facility, where the fuel canisters would be lowered.”

More than 90 per cent of that waste is currently at the Pickering, Darlington, and Bruce nuclear generating stations. The rest is at far-off Point Lepreau, N.B., and in Quebec, Manitoba, and Ottawa. If NWMO chooses the Ignace site and an all-road transportation method, it estimates that those trucks will travel 84 million kilometres on Canadian roads.

Each truckload will hold exactly 192 used fuel bundles, packed into a special steel container weighing 35 tonnes. The current array of operating reactors will ultimately produce a total of six million bundles. But that figure doesn’t include the announced “Bruce C” development of new reactors, or other new ones yet to be unveiled, adding at least two million more bundles. Eight million bundles will require 40,000 truckloads over at least a 40-year period.

And there will be a further 20,000 dry-cask containers in which those bundles had previously been stored which will also require transportation to a DGR. Empty, they each weigh 60 tonnes and will be radioactive. They will need to be cut in half due to their weight, adding up to another 40,000 truckloads. If they go to a DGR in Ignace, that will add another 84 million kilometres of truck travel on Canadian roads. (The NWMO has not done this estimate.)

Is everybody OK with all this? Are most Canadians even aware of these scenarios? The NWMO says that the containers on the trucks will survive any imaginable road accident, and no radioactivity will escape. But trucks travelling 168 million kilometres are—quite obviously—going to be involved in a fair number of road accidents, some serious, across those four or more decades. In those cases, folks likely will be told, “Don’t worry, it may look awful, but you and your kids won’t be irradiated.”

The two small communities designated as potential “hosts” for the DGR do not, apparently, care too much about the transportation issue. However, others are starting to become alarmed, especially in and around the city of Thunder Bay, which is on the road route for those 80,000 trucks if the DGR is sited in Ignace. If the choice is South Bruce, well, who knows? The NWMO has not published any kind of transportation plan for that choice. Just looking at a map, however, a lot of those trucks will have to go through or near the already grid-locked GTA.

And what about the First Nations? Here’s where things get interesting. The designated First Nation treaty rights holders for the Ignace site are the 28 First Nation communities of Grand Council Treaty 3, the governing body of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty 3, which maintains rights to all lands and water in the territory. Development in the Treaty 3 territory requires the consent, agreement, and participation of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty 3. To date, that consent hasn’t been granted.

The designated First Nation treaty rights holder for the South Bruce site is Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON): the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation–Neyaashiinigmiing Anishinaabek, and the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation. CBC News recently quoted Greg Nadjiwon, one of SON’s two chiefs, that “if you think about how many [other] treaty territories that waste would have to go through, I don’t think it will happen.” The CBC then paraphrased the chief: “Nadjiwon says even if Ignace and nearby Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation say yes to the proposed nuclear dump, he doubts the spent nuclear fuel from the Bruce station, which is currently in temporary storage, would ever leave his nation’s traditional territory.” Mere weeks from a site selection announcement, there clearly isn’t agreement.

NWMO’s approach isn’t going to work. Canadians do not have an acceptable solution to the problem of long-term storage or disposal of used nuclear fuel. It’s past time to consider some alternative options.

October 13, 2024 Posted by | Canada, safety | Leave a comment

Slaughter In Gaza And Lebanon As War With Iran Approaches

And the US is encouraging Israel to move forward. On Tuesday State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told the press that the Biden administration no longer supports a ceasefire with Hezbollah, saying “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability” instead. Two weeks ago CNN reported that the administration has also essentially given up on a ceasefire in Gaza.

Whoever wins the US election in November appears to be committed to riding with Israel down this path into the depths of hell. 

Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 09, 2024 https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/slaughter-in-gaza-and-lebanon-as?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=149992165&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Israel appears to have begun its long-planned ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, with the IDF dropping bombs, issuing evacuation orders for multiple hospitals, attacking civilians with sniper drones, and besieging civilian populations in order to force tens of thousands of people to either move south or die. Israel has reportedly been dropping leaflets on the Jabalia refugee camp ordering people to leave, and then shooting anyone who tries to.

Since the seventh of October last year Israel has committed roughly 100 October sevenths in Gaza; scores of American medical workers who volunteered in the enclave signed an open letter to president Biden estimating the real death toll from Israel’s onslaught at over 118,000. Israel has also committed about two October sevenths in Lebanon during that time, with the majority of the 2,100 Israeli killings in that country coming just in the last few weeks.

As Israeli murderousness ramps up in both Gaza and Lebanon, Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement addressed to the Lebanese people telling them that they need to somehow defeat Hezbollah in order to “save Lebanon before it plunges into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

Israeli officials have been saying they’re going to destroy Lebanon like they destroyed Gaza for months. Back in December Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said, “Every person in Lebanon can take the map, the aerial photograph of Gaza, place it on an aerial photograph of Beirut, and ask themselves if this is what they want to happen there.” Now Netanyahu himself is saying this.

Notably, Netanyahu’s statement was delivered in English, with English subtitles. This wasn’t actually a plea made to the people of Lebanon, it was propaganda made for western consumption. Netanyahu does not actually believe the Lebanese people are going to take up arms against Hezbollah to stop their country from being destroyed, he’s just creating a narrative to justify what he already plans on doing to Lebanon.

And the US is encouraging Israel to move forward. On Tuesday State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told the press that the Biden administration no longer supports a ceasefire with Hezbollah, saying “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability” instead. Two weeks ago CNN reported that the administration has also essentially given up on a ceasefire in Gaza.

And we haven’t even talked about Iran yet. NBC News reports that US military officials have been discussing directly joining in Israel’s planned attack on Iran, potentially launching their own airstrikes on the Iranian military whenever Israel begins its attack. 

Whether the US joins with Israel in its coming attack or not, Iran has already made it clear that it will retaliate against any further aggressions by Israel, and Israel has made it clear that if Iran strikes back it’s going to ramp up its aggressions and perhaps start attacking Iranian energy infrastructure. If this blows up into full-scale war, as looks increasingly likely, it’s inevitable that the US will come to Israel’s defense.

Axios and its Israeli intelligence insider Barak Ravid have a new report out on how super duper frustrated the Biden administration is becoming with Israeli warmongering. In typical Axios fashion the outlet reports that the White House is becoming “increasingly distrustful” of Israel’s planned military operations against Iran and Lebanon, but that, in typical Biden administration fashion, its American sources admit that the US “would very likely help Israel defend itself regardless” of whatever happens.

Whoever wins the US election in November appears to be committed to riding with Israel down this path into the depths of hell. 

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Vice President Kamala Harris defended the Biden administration’s genocidal support for Israel, saying the weapons it has been giving them “allow Israel to defend itself.” She also named Iran as the number one enemy of the United States.

In an appearance on The View, Harris was asked what she would have done differently from President Biden, and she said “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” Then later she added, “You asked me what is the difference between Joe Biden and me, that will be one of the differences: I’m going to have a Republican in my Cabinet.”

And lest you make the mistake of thinking Trump would be any better, last week the former president said that Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and criticized the Biden administration for not being sufficiently aggressive on this front.

“They asked [Biden], what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?” Trump said at a campaign event on Friday. “And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right? I said I think he’s got that one wrong.”

Anyone who still says Trump is a peacemaker is a damn fool. Statements like this are in full alignment with the absolute worst warmongers in Washington like John Bolton or Lindsey Graham.

Anyway, that’s where we’re at right now. That’s the trajectory the US empire has us on. An active genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the threat of another extermination campaign in Lebanon, and acceleration toward a direct war of unimaginable horror with Iran.

These psychos must be stopped.

October 13, 2024 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | Leave a comment

“Greater Israel:” Cabinet Minister Plots Seizure of Territory from 6 Neighbors, including Lebanon

Gaining territory from other countries by military means is prohibited by the United Nations Charter, to which Israel is a signatory.

Juan Cole, 10/11/2024,  https://www.juancole.com/2024/10/territory-neighbors-including.html—

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday that Israel has no designs on Turkey, denying charges by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that “the Israeli government, which has gone mad in the Holy Land, will possibly target our homeland with its religious fanaticism after Palestine and Lebanon.”

Unfortunately for Herzog, on the same day, remarks surfaced from 2016 by Minister of Finance and Civil Administrator of the Palestinian West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, which gave credence to Erdogan’s fears of Israeli expansionism. Smotrich belongs to the Kahanaist, Religious Zionism Party, the Israeli equivalent of Neo-Nazism.

Herzog is a member of the center-left Labor Party, which at some points has been willing to accept a Palestinian state. Labor itself, however, has attempted to expand Israeli territory at the expense of its neighbors on some occasions, as with its seizure of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Palestinian Gaza in 1956, and again in 1967 with its seizure of the Palestine territories of Gaza and the West Bank, along with the Sinai and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The Jordanian foreign ministry on Thursday condemned the remarks by Smotrich as a “reflection of religious fanaticism.” In a television interview that has resurfaced on social media, Smotrich said that a prophecy predicted that Jerusalem would extend to Damascus. He also said that Israel would extend to the east of the Jordan River into the country of Jordan, and would have parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It goes without saying that he wanted, as well, Gaza and the West Bank. Smotrich in 2016 was a member of parliament for the Jewish Home Party (HaBayit HaYehudi), one of the components of his present Religious Zionism Party.

Gaining territory from other countries by military means is prohibited by the United Nations Charter, to which Israel is a signatory.

Smotrich is allied with Jewish Power extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security. Although the two are often underestimated, they appear to have a hold on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and have been central to the prosecution of the total war on Gaza and now Lebanon.

The two are advocating an Israeli military occupation of Gaza like that in the Palestinian West Bank, as well as the establishment of Israelis squatter-settlements in Gaza. They also want the Israeli army to take over the task of the distribution of food aid, though they advocate limiting daily calories available to Palestinians to what is sufficient to keep them from starvation.

October 13, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Hinkley Point C saltmarsh plans ‘a disaster’, say MPs

A debate was held in Westminster Hall on October 10

Somerset Live By Daniel Mumby, Local Democracy Reporter, 11 Oct 24

Creating saltmarshes to offset the impact of Somerset’s new nuclear power station would be “a disaster”, according to local MPs. EDF Energy held a public consultation in January and February over its proposals for new saltmarshes on the Pawlett Hams, which lie on the right bank of the River Parrett near the villages of Combwich and Pawlett.

The company U-turned in early-September following a successful campaign by local residents, and is currently exploring four additional sites in Somerset and Gloucestershire which could offset the construction of Hinkley Point C. But local MPs have warned that saltmarshes will not address the underlying environmental issues and could harm existing flood defences

Sir Ashley Fox, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater, secured a parliamentary debate on this issue, which took place in Westminster Hall on Wednesday morning (October 9). He said: “The Pawlett Hams proposal was highly unpopular with the local community.

“In fact, it was difficult to find anyone who thought it was a good idea, and when I met representatives from EDF, even they seemed a little half-hearted about it.” When EDF Energy secured planning permission to build Hinkley Point C, it set out three separate proposals to prevent the loss of fish stocks in the Bristol Channel, from which water will be sourced to cool the power station’s reactor:……………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/hinkley-point-c-saltmarsh-plans-9620846

 

October 13, 2024 Posted by | environment | Leave a comment

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