A nuclear meltdown at Zaporizhzhia would imperil the entire region.
Russia’s nuclear brinkmanship — a reckless gamble that began with its
occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — has
escalated into a crisis threatening the entire European continent.
In early November, local ceasefires between Ukrainian and Russian forces controlling the ZNPP allowed repair crews to safely restore critical external
electricity lines that had been severed. For a month prior, both the main
and backup external power lines were down, forcing the plant to rely solely
on emergency diesel generators for power vital to reactor cooling and
safety.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has characterised the
ZNPP’s prolonged reliance on diesel generators as “clearly not
sustainable”. But emergency diesel generators were never designed for
extended continuous operation. Industry standards specify preferred mission times of 24 hours.
In the recent outage at ZNPP, generators had been
running for an entire month — far exceeding design specifications — and
the plant recently lost its connection to the main power line again. Each
day of continued operation increases the probability of mechanical failure.
FT 17th Nov 2025,
https://www.ft.com/content/93130cd5-211c-4ba1-9303-0a550ddac93f
Starmer’s nuclear revolution is about PowerPoints, not power
Government’s latest energy announcement is ‘going small as slowly as possible.
Another week and another lie from a government that only seems
capable of pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. Last week found Ed
Miliband, the Energy Secretary, trumpeting “the largest nuclear building
programme in Britain in half a century”.
But at the same time, the
Government is making promises to the people of North Wales – and to the
rest of the UK – that it can’t possibly fulfil. It will do nothing to
help us keep the lights on in 2030, after most of our existing nuclear
fleet has been shut down. “This isn’t ‘going big’ – it’s going
small as slowly as possible,” one industry source told me. “It’s
PowerPoints, not power,” one source fretted. The Government has approved
three new small modular nuclear reactors at the Wylfa site on Anglesey.
The implication is that spades will be in the ground very soon. But by choosing Rolls-Royce SMR, that cannot possibly happen. But Rolls-Royce was very late to the race and is trailing in the pack. Perhaps this will come as a surprise to some. But some of the coverage has been highly misleading.
Like this example: “Rolls-Royce is already world-leading when it comes to
making small modular reactors. It is just the ones they make currently go
into submarines,” Sam Dumitriu of the think tank Britain Remade told
readers of The Spectator last month. He’s the magazine’s go-to nuclear
expert.
Not only does Rolls-Royce not lead the world, being one of the last
to start its design process, but comparing military and civilian reactors
is like saying a horse is a slightly larger goldfish. They are completely
different creatures, adapted to different habitats.
Wylfa is the only site
in the UK that is currently licenced to accommodate a big, gigawatt-scale
reactor generating as much power as three SMR tiddlers. “Wylfa was our
best site for our next gigawatt nuclear plant, which is why I signed one
off there,” Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, told me.
“It’s big enough to do both small and large nuclear. It would be a huge
downgrade of ambition to only do small nuclear reactors there.”
Telegraph 17th Nov 2025,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/17/starmers-nuclear-revolution-is-about-powerpoints-not-power/
Lancaster University to create £2m nuclear power station control room simulator.
r. Funded through a £2 million grant as part of an £88.5 million
capital investment by the Office for Students (OfS) into Universities and
colleges across England, Lancaster University will address a critical gap
by developing a nationally-unique educational facility designed to train
future professionals in nuclear engineering, cyber security and related
disciplines.
Lancaster Guardian 18th Nov 2025.
https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/national/lancaster-university-to-create-ps2m-nuclear-power-station-control-room-simulator-5407049
Nuclear levy will increase UK energy bills from December
SMEs need to factor in a boost in their energy costs as the nuclear levy – a mandatory charge for both homes and businesses – is brought in by the Government.
.From next month, all energy bills will include the “nuclear levy”, a charge used by the Government to fund nuclear infrastructure. It is expected to add up to around £100 a year for small businesses, but this will vary with their energy usage.
Start-Ups 19th Nov 2025, https://startups.co.uk/news/nuclear-levy/
‘We lose many patients’: Inside Gaza’s last hospitals
“Hospitals have become targets for the Israeli occupation and the Israeli army. Many hospitals have been destroyed… Doctors, nurses, and medical teams have been kidnapped from hospital premises.”
by Belal Awad, Leo Erhadt and Mahmoud Al Mashharawi November 18, 2025 / The Real News Network
Since October 2023, at least 34 hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israel. In that same time, as the humanitarian need for urgent medical care in the Gaza Strip dramatically increased, Israeli forces detained at least 405 Palestinian healthcare workers, according to NGO Healthcare Workers Watch. In this on-the-ground report, TRNN takes you inside one of Gaza’s last functioning hospitals………….https://scheerpost.com/2025/11/18/we-lose-many-patients-inside-gazas-last-hospitals/
Emails Reveal Epstein’s Ties to Mossad—But Corporate Media Looked Away
Drew Favakeh, FAIR, November 18, 2025
For years, there have been whispers that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had ties to key officials in the US and foreign governments, was involved with Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.
However, the Epstein/Mossad ties were often labeled by US corporate media as “unfounded” (New York Times, 8/24/25), dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” (New York Times, 7/16/25), or said to have been “largely manufactured by paranoiacs and attention seekers and credulous believers” (New York Times, 9/9/25). Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has claimed that “Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel.”
It’s true that far-right antisemites like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have promoted a conspiratorial version of the Epstein/Israel connection as part of their bigoted, attention-seeking narratives. But recent investigations by Drop Site News—the nonprofit investigative outlet founded in July 2024—into a major hack targeting Israel revealed that Epstein did play a significant role in brokering multiple deals for Israeli intelligence. Despite the hack’s significant revelations, US corporate media coverage remains scant.
……………………….Since the hacked information was released, numerous independent media outlets—including Reason (8/27/25), All-Source Intelligence (9/17/25, 9/29/25, 10/13/25), Grayzone (10/6/25, 10/9/25, 10/13/25), the (b)(7)(D) (10/16/25, 10/21/25) and DeClassified UK (9/1/25, 11/3/25)—have published investigations on its contents. Among the independent media outlets, Drop Site’s coverage stands out for its in-depth research and broad scope.
Drop Site’s investigations into the Handala hack have included six major stories since late September, four of which have centered around “Epstein’s work on behalf of Israeli military interests, particularly as it relates to his role in the development of Israel’s cyber warfare industry.”
Drop Site reporters Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim (9/28/25) detailed how Epstein wielded his influence to expand Israel’s cyber warfare industry into Mongolia. Drop Site wrote:
Jeffrey Epstein…exploited his network of political and financial elites to help Barak, and ultimately the Israeli government itself, to increase the penetration of Israel’s spy-tech firms into foreign countries.
…………………………………… Failing to cover the Handala hack
Hacked information must be handled ethically by journalists—including by verifying the files, considering public interest, concealing identities when necessary, and noting its origins. This is what Drop Site has done. And its reporting has significant public interest, revealing the ways in which Epstein served Israel’s interests.
Yet in a search of ProQuest’s US Newsstream collection for “Handala,” as well as a supplementary Google search, the only US corporate media outlet found to have covered the Handala hack is the New York Post (8/31/25). Its single 700-word story, drawing from Reason (8/27/25) and the Times of London (8/30/25), focused on how Prince Andrew stayed in contact with Epstein for five years longer than previously stated—sidestepping the revelations from Drop Site about Epstein’s ties to Mossad.
Hussain, who had not seen the New York Post story, said US corporate media is “deliberately ignoring” the story:
It’s such a goldmine of stories. They’re not going through it, they don’t want to talk about it. I think it’s very difficult for them to conceive what these emails refer to because they’ve spent so much time talking about it as a conspiracy theory. And now contravening evidence is emerging, or well-substantiated evidence, showing that it’s really not a conspiracy theory.
Indeed, recent mentions of Epstein’s ties to Israeli government officials have continued to dismiss them as conspiracy theories, ignoring the hack and Drop Site‘s work………………………………….
While it is of course absurd to blame “everything” on Epstein or Israel—and right-wing conspiracy theories that incorporate antisemitism are very real and dangerous—is it really unreasonable to blame “the war in Gaza” on too much “fealty to Israel”? After all, from October 7, 2023 to September 2025, the US sent $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project—more than a quarter of Israel’s total post–October 7 military expenditures. Epstein’s evident connections to Mossad do raise the question of whether there is more to that “fealty” than the $100 million the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC spent on both parties during the 2024 election cycle (Common Dreams, 8/28/24)………………………………………………………………………………….. https://fair.org/home/emails-reveal-epsteins-ties-to-mossad-but-corporate-media-looked-away/
North Korea says Seoul-US submarine deal will trigger ‘nuclear domino’ effect
Daily Mail. By AFP, 18 November 2025
North Korea denounced an agreement between Seoul and Washington to build nuclear-powered submarines, saying in a state media commentary on Tuesday that the deal would cause a “nuclear domino” effect.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung announced the finalisation of a long-awaited security and trade agreement with the United States last week, including plans to move forward with developing atomic-powered vessels.
Seoul said it had secured “support for expanding our authority over uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing”.
In its first comments responding to the deal, the nuclear-armed North fired back that the submarine programme was a “dangerous attempt at confrontation”.
The agreement is a “serious development that destabilises the military security situation in the Asia-Pacific region beyond the Korean peninsula and causes the situation of impossible nuclear control in the global sphere,” said the commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday.
South Korea’s possession of nuclear submarines “is bound to cause a ‘nuclear domino phenomenon’ in the region and spark a hot arms race”, Pyongyang added. It also said “the DPRK (North Korea) will take more justified and realistic countermeasures,” due to the two countries’ “confrontational intention”.
North Korea’s state media said in October that it had fired the ninth and final test of a ballistic engine, indicating that a full launch of a new ICBM could be conducted in coming months.
The commentary comes just a day after Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang to prevent border clashes, the first such offer in seven years.
President Lee has also offered to hold broader discussions with the North without preconditions, a sharp reversal from the hawkish stance taken by his conservative predecessor…………………..
North Korea’s comments show concerns from the nuclear-armed state that if South Korea acquires nuclear-powered submarines, “it could become a stepping stone to the country achieving a semi-nuclear-weapon-state status”, Yang Moo- jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
“The move is likely to negatively affect the prospects for holding inter-Korean military talks,” added Yang.
North Korea has yet to respond to Lee’s overtures.
Beijing also voiced caution over the Washington-Seoul deal on nuclear submarine technology on Thursday.
The partnership “goes beyond a purely commercial partnership, directly touching on the global non-proliferation regime and the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the wider region”, Dai Bing, China’s ambassador to Seoul, told reporters last week. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-15300649/North-Korea-says-Seoul-US-sub-deal-trigger-nuclear-domino-effect.html
Iran’s foreign minister says his nation is no longer enriching uranium
“All of our facilities are under the safeguards and monitoring” of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Abbas Araghchi said.
Politico, By Associated Press, 11/16/2025
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday said that Tehran is no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program.
Answering a question from an Associated Press journalist visiting Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered the most direct response yet from the Iranian government regarding its nuclear program following Israel and the United States’ bombing of its enrichment sites in June during its 12-day war.
“There is no undeclared nuclear enrichment in Iran. All of our facilities are under the safeguards and monitoring” of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Araghchi said. “There is no enrichment right now because our facilities — our enrichment facilities — have been attacked.”
Asked what it would take for Iran to continue negotiations with the U.S. and others, Araghchi said that Iran’s message on its nuclear program remains “clear.”
“Iran’s right for enrichment, for peaceful use of nuclear technology, including enrichment, is undeniable,” the foreign minister continued. “We have this right and we continue to exercise that and we hope that the international community, including the United States, recognize our rights and understand that this is an inalienable right of Iran and we would never give up our rights.”
Iran’s government issued a three-day visa for the AP reporter to attend a summit alongside other journalists from major British outlets and other media.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, also attended the summit and told those gathered there that Tehran had been threatened over potentially accessing the bombed enrichment sites. Satellite pictures analyzed by the AP over the months since the attack show that Iran hasn’t done any major work at the sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
“Our security situation hasn’t yet changed. If you watch the news, you see that every day we are being threatened with another attack,” Eslami said. “Every day we are told if you touch anything you’ll be attacked.”
Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels — after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Tehran long has maintained its atomic program is peaceful, though the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
European nations also pushed through a measure to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran over the nuclear program in September.
The IAEA’s Board of Governors is set to meet this week, during which there could be a vote on a new resolution targeting Iran over its failure to cooperate fully with the agency.
But Araghchi left open the possibility of further negotiations with the U.S. should Washington’s demands change.
He told journalists at the summit that the U.S. administration’s approach does not suggest they are ready for “equal, fair negotiations to reach mutual interests.”
“What we have seen from the Americans so far has actually been an effort to dictate their demands, which are maximalist and excessive. We see no chance for dialogue in the face of such demands.”………………………………………………………………………… https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/16/irans-foreign-minister-says-his-nation-is-no-longer-enriching-uranium-00653702
Greenpeace claims French resumption of nuclear trade with Russia
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace hit out at the resumption of nuclear trade between France and Russia during its war with Ukraine after activists observed the loading of a tanker in northern France with reprocessed uranium bound for Russia.
RFI 18/11/2025
Greenpeace published video that it said its activists shot on Saturday of around 10 containers with radioactive labels going onto a cargo ship in Dunkirk.
The Panamanian-registered ship, the Mikhail Dudin, is regularly used to carry enriched or natural uranium from France to St Petersburg, according to Greenpeace.
Saturday’s consignment was the first of reprocessed uranium to be observed for three years, it added.
“The resumption of this trade once again shows France’s dependence on Russia,” Pauline Boyer, the head of Greenpeace France’s nuclear campaign, told RFI.
The images released by Greenpeace came two days ahead of a meeting in Paris between the French president, Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss Ukraine’s air defence systems.
“Despite the French government’s commitments to support Ukraine — which is, fortunately, the case — on the other hand, there is ongoing collaboration with Rosatom, the Russian nuclear company, which is indirectly contributing to the financing of the war.”
…………………………..”It is outrageous that French nuclear companies — EDF, Orano, Framatome — continue to collaborate with Rosatom.”
French state-controlled energy giant Electricité de France (EDF) signed a 600-million-euro deal in 2018 with a Rosatom subsidiary, Tenex, for the recycling of reprocessed uranium.
These operations have not been affected by international sanctions over the Ukraine war.
Rosatom has the only facility in the world – at Seversk in Siberia – capable of carrying out key parts of the conversion of reprocessed uranium to enriched reprocessed uranium……………..
Only about 10 percent of the reenriched uranium sent back to France by Russia is used at its Cruas nuclear power plant, in southern France, the only one in the country that can use enriched reprocessed uranium, according to Greenpeace.
France’s energy ministry and EDF have yet to respond publicly to questions on the consignment or trade.
Top politicians in France ordered EDF chiefs to halt uranium trade with Rosatom in 2022 when Greenpeace France revealed the contracts in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine……
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20251118-greenpeace-claims-french-resumption-of-nuclear-trade-with-russia
Campaigners come together to challenge Britain’s disastrous nuclear expansion.
CND 17th Nov 2025
- Political leaders, MPs, Trade Union leaders and faith communities urge Prime Minister to reverse decision to purchase US nuclear-capable fighter jets
- Purchase breaches international law, heightens nuclear risks and ties Britain closer to the Trump administration
- Call comes as report show chaos and spiralling costs of fighter jet programme
On Monday, 17 November, MPs, trade unionists and civil society figures handed in a letter to Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to rethink his decision to purchase 12 nuclear-capable F-35A jets, to be stationed at RAF Marham. The jets have been designed to launch deadly US nuclear bombs, now very likely deployed across Europe and in Britain.
This comes amidst increasing nuclear threats and breaches of international disarmament treaties. In the letter, signatories argue, “[f]ar from protecting the British population, your decision to buy US nuclear capable fighter jets, that can launch US B61-12 nuclear bombs, ties Britain even closer to the dangerous leadership of US President Donald Trump” and “increases the risk of such weapons being used in war.”
It goes on to state, “[w]e see this nuclear expansion as part of the war drive which is draining public funds away from essential public services and making the population poorer.”
The letter hand-in follows a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that has exposed the chaos and spiralling costs already associated with government’s decision to buy nuclear-capable fighter jets from the Trump administration. The Committee’s report reveals that the Ministry of Defence had little understanding of the technical and financial implications of Britain joining NATO’s nuclear mission when Starmer announced the purchase at the NATO summit in June. PAC Chair described the MoD’s spending forecasts as “unrealistic.” The National Audit Office now calculates the full programme of 138 fighter jets could cost at least £71 billion, with even more – as yet unknown – costs involved in joining NATO’s nuclear missions.
The letter states, “[g]iven the grave consequences of this expansion, including Britain’s breach of international law, it is also deeply concerning that no opportunity was given for parliament to debate or vote on this decision before it was announced.”
The letter concludes by urging that “[i]nstead of pouring hundreds of billions into lethal weapons, action needs to be focused on tackling the underlying causes threatening our human security. This means reversing the devastating poverty, deprivation and crumbling public services that mark our communities, investing in sustainable homes, rebuilding our health and education systems, and funding a just transition through green jobs, skills and infrastructure.”
CND will be bringing together a powerful alliance of campaigners, trade unionists, student activists, environmentalists, and more this Saturday, 22 November, to discuss the next steps for the campaign to halt this disastrous nuclear expansionism. For an agenda and how to register, click here. ………………………………………………………………………………… https://cnduk.org/campaigners-come-together-to-challenge-britains-disastrous-nuclear-expansion/
‘Radioactive patriarchy’ documentary: Women examine the impact of Soviet nuclear testing
During the time of the detonations, approximately 1.5 million people lived near the sites, despite Soviet claims that the area was uninhabited.
In the ensuing decades, diagnoses of cancers, congenital anomalies and thyroid disease affected the surrounding communities at an alarming rate, particularly for women.
November 17, 2025, Rebecca H. Hogue, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Toronto https://theconversation.com/radioactive-patriarchy-documentary-women-examine-the-impact-of-soviet-nuclear-testing-256775
Following recent comments on nuclear testing by United States President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, it’s more important than ever to remember that nuclear detonations — whether in war or apparent peace time — have long-lasting impacts.
Over a 40-year period, up to 1989, the Soviet Union detonated 456 nuclear weapons in present-day Kazakhstan (or Qazaqstan, in the decolonized spelling)
During the time of the detonations, approximately 1.5 million people lived near the sites, despite Soviet claims that the area was uninhabited.
In the ensuing decades, diagnoses of cancers, congenital anomalies and thyroid disease affected the surrounding communities at an alarming rate, particularly for women.
A new independent documentary, JARA Radioactive Patriarchy: Women of Qazaqstan, examines the impacts of nuclear weapons in Qazaqstan. Jara means “wound” in the Qazaq language.
The film is directed by Aigerim Seitenova, a nuclear disarmament activist with a post-graduate degree in international human rights law who co-founded the Qazaq Nuclear Frontline Coalition. Seitenova grew up in Semey (formerly called Semipalatinsk), Qazaqstan.
Close to Semey is the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, also known as The Polygon, in Qazaqstan’s northeastern region. It’s an area slightly smaller than the size of Belgium — approximately 18,000 square kilometres — in the former Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
Nuclear Truth Project
Seitenova introduced her film in March 2025 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, hosted by the Nuclear Truth Project. The documentary premiere was a side event at the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
As a literary and cultural historian who examines narratives of the nuclear age, I attended the standing-room-only event alongside many delegates from civil society organizations.
Nuclear disarmament activist
Seitenova, who wrote, directed and produced JARA Radioactive Patriarchy on location in Semey, aims to bring women’s nuclear stories to Qazaqstan and international audiences.
The 30-minute documentary features intimate interviews with five Qazaq women. The film shares the women’s fears, grief and the ways they have learned to cope, as well as reflections from Seitenova filmed at the ground-zero site.
For Seitenova, it was essential that the film be in Qazaq language.
“Qazaq language, like Qazaq bodies,” she said in an interview after the premiere, “were considered ‘other’ or not valuable.” Seitenova acknowledged it was also important to show a Qazaq-language film at the UN, as Qazaq is not an official UN language like Russian.
Women consensually share experiences
One of Seitenova’s directorial choices was not just what or who would be seen, but specifically what would not be seen in her film.
“I’m really against sensationalism,” said Seitenova. “If you Google ‘Semipalatinsk’ you will see all of these terrible images of children and fetuses.”
Seitenova accordingly does not show any of these images in her film, and instead focuses on women consensually sharing their experiences.
Seitenova explained how narratives regarding the health effects in Semey are often disparaged. When others learn she is from Semey, Seitenova shared, some will make insensitive jokes like “are you luminescent at night?” — making nuclear impact into spectacle, instead of taking it as a serious health issue.
These experiences have propelled her to take back the narrative of her community by correcting misconceptions or the minimization of harms. Instead, she brings attention to the larger structural issues.
“Everything was done by me because I did not want to invite someone who would not take care of the stories of these women,” said Seitenova.
Likewise, Seitenova only interviewed participants who had already made decisions to speak out about nuclear weapons. She did this so as not to risk retraumatizing someone by asking them to discuss their illnesses, especially for the first time on camera.
Global legacy of anti-nuclear art, advocacy
Seitenova also wanted to show a genealogy of women speaking out about nuclear issues in Qazaqstan, contributing to a global legacy of anti-nuclear art and advocacy.
The film features three generations of women, including Seitenova’s great aunt, Zura Rustemova, who was 12 at the time of the first detonations.
As part of this genealogy of nuclear resistance, the film includes footage of a speech from the Qazaq singer Roza Baglanova (1922-2011), who rose to prominence singing songs of hope during the Second World War.
Effects felt into today
JARA Radioactive Patriarchy shows how the impacts of nuclear weapons are felt intergenerationally into the present.
“Many women lost their ability to experience the happiness of motherhood,” interviewee Maira Abenova says in the film. Abenova co-founded an advocacy group representing survivors of the detonations, Committee Polygon 21.
Other interviewees shared how often men left their wives and children who were affected by nuclear weapons to begin a new family with someone else.
Seitenova looks at the roles of women and mothers not just as protectors, but also as those who have launched formidable advocacy.
The film highlights the towering monument in Semey, “Stronger than Death,” dedicated to those affected by nuclear weapons.
The Semey monument depicts a mother using her whole body to protect her child from a mushroom cloud. Just like the monument, Seitenova and the women in her documentary use the film to show how women have been doing this advocacy work in the private and public spheres, with their bodies and with their words.
“I want to show them as being leaders in the community, as changing the game,” Seitenova said.
While the film brings a much-needed attention to the gendered impact of nuclear weapons in Qazaqstan, she makes clear that this is, unfortunately, not an issue unique to her homeland or just to women.
“The next time you think about expanding the nuclear sector in any country” Seitenova said, “you can think about how it impacts people of all genders.”
The Invention of “Ethical AI”
Kissinger declared the possibility of “a world relying on machines powered by data and algorithms and ungoverned by ethical or philosophical norms,”
How Big Tech Manipulates Academia to Avoid Regulation
Rodrigo Ochigame, The Intercept, December 20 2019
The irony of the ethical scandal enveloping Joichi Ito, the former director of the MIT Media Lab, is that he used to lead academic initiatives on ethics. After the revelation of his financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier charged with sex trafficking underage girls as young as 14, Ito resigned from multiple roles at MIT, a visiting professorship at Harvard Law School, and the boards of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the New York Times Company.
Many spectators are puzzled by Ito’s influential role as an ethicist of artificial intelligence. Indeed, his initiatives were crucial in establishing the discourse of “ethical AI” that is now ubiquitous in academia and in the mainstream press. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama described him as an “expert” on AI and ethics. Since 2017, Ito financed many projects through the $27 million Ethics and Governance of AI Fund, an initiative anchored by the MIT Media Lab and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. What was all the talk of “ethics” really about?
………………….. Inspired by whistleblower Signe Swenson and others who have spoken out, I have decided to report what I came to learn regarding Ito’s role in shaping the field of AI ethics, since this is a matter of public concern. The emergence of this field is a recent phenomenon, as past AI researchers had been largely uninterested in the study of ethics……………………………
At the Media Lab, I learned that the discourse of “ethical AI,” championed substantially by Ito, was aligned strategically with a Silicon Valley effort seeking to avoid legally enforceable restrictions of controversial technologies………………….
I also watched MIT help the U.S. military brush aside the moral complexities of drone warfare, hosting a superficial talk on AI and ethics by Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and notorious war criminal, and giving input on the U.S. Department of Defense’s “AI Ethics Principles” for warfare, which embraced “permissibly biased” algorithms and which avoided using the word “fairness” because the Pentagon believes “that fights should not be fair.”
…………………….IT lent credibility to the idea that big tech could police its own use of artificial intelligence at a time when the industry faced increasing criticism and calls for legal regulation.
…..corporations have tried to shift the discussion to focus on voluntary “ethical principles,” “responsible practices,” and technical adjustments or “safeguards” framed in terms of “bias” and “fairness”…………………………..
To characterize the corporate agenda, it is helpful to distinguish between three kinds of regulatory possibilities for a given technology: (1) no legal regulation at all, leaving “ethical principles” and “responsible practices” as merely voluntary; (2) moderate legal regulation encouraging or requiring technical adjustments that do not conflict significantly with profits; or (3) restrictive legal regulation curbing or banning deployment of the technology. Unsurprisingly, the tech industry tends to support the first two and oppose the last. The corporate sponsored discussion on ethical AI” enables precisely this position. ……………………….
Thus, Silicon Valley’s vigorous promotion of “ethical AI” has constituted a strategic lobbying effort, one that has enrolled academia to legitimize itself. Ito played a key role in this corporate-academic fraternizing, meeting regularly with tech executives. The MIT-Harvard fund’s initial director was the former “global public policy lead” for AI at Google. Through the fund, Ito and his associates sponsored many projects, including the creation of a prominent conference on “Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency” in computer science; other sponsors of the conference included Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
……………………………………….. After the initial steps by MIT and Harvard, many other universities and new institutes received money from the tech industry to work on AI ethics. Most such organizations are also headed by current or former executives of tech firms……………………..
Big tech money and direction proved incompatible with an honest exploration of ethics, at least judging from my experience with the “Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society,” a group founded by Microsoft, Google/DeepMind, Facebook, IBM, and Amazon in 2016. PAI, of which the Media Lab is a member, defines itself as a “multistakeholder body” and claims it is “not a lobbying organization.” In an April 2018 hearing at the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Partnership’s executive director claimed that the organization is merely “a resource to policymakers — for instance, in conducting research that informs AI best practices and exploring the societal consequences of certain AI systems, as well as policies around the development and use of AI systems.”
……— the partnership has certainly sought to influence legislation…….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………… the corporate-academic alliances were too robust and convenient. The Media Lab remained in the Partnership, and Ito continued to fraternize with Silicon Valley and Wall Street executives and investors. …………………………………..
Regardless of individual actors’ intentions the corporate lobby’s effort to shape academic research was extremely successful. There is now an enormous amount of work under the rubric of “AI ethics.” To be fair, some of the research is useful and nuanced, especially in the humanities and social sciences. But the majority of well-funded work on “ethical AI” is aligned with the tech lobby’s agenda: to voluntarily or moderately adjust, rather than legally restrict, the deployment of controversial technologies. How did five corporations, using only a small fraction of their budgets, manage to influence and frame so much academic activity, in so many disciplines, so quickly?
…………….The field has also become relevant to the U.S. military, not only in official responses to moral concerns about technologies of targeted killing but also in disputes among Silicon Valley firms over lucrative military contracts. On November 1st the Department of Defense’s Innovation Board published its recommendations for “AI Ethics Principles.” The board is chaired by Eric Schmidt, who was the executive chair of Alphabet, Google’s parent company,…….. The board includes multiple executives from Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, raising controversies regarding conflicts of interest. ……………………
The recommendations seek to compel the Pentagon to increase military investments in AI and to adopt “ethical AI” systems such as those developed and sold by Silicon Valley firms. …………………………………………..
“some applications will be permissibly and justifiably biased,” specifically “to target certain adversarial combatants more successfully.” The Pentagon’s conception of AI ethics forecloses many important possibilities for moral deliberation, such as the prohibition of drones for targeted killing.
The corporate, academic, and military proponents of “ethical AI” have collaborated closely for mutual benefit. For example, Ito told me that he informally advised Schmidt on which academic AI ethicists Schmidt’s private foundation should fund. Ito even asked me for second order advice on whether Schmidt should fund a certain professor who, like Ito, later served as an “expert consultant” to the Pentagon’s innovation board…………….Kissinger declared the possibility of “a world relying on machines powered by data and algorithms and ungoverned by ethical or philosophical norms,”….
No defensible claim to ethics” can sidestep the urgency of legally enforceable restrictions to the deployment of technologies of mass surveillance and systemic violence. Until such restrictions exist, moral and political deliberation about computing will remain subsidiary to the profit-making imperative expressed by the Media Lab’s motto, “Deploy or Die.” While some deploy, even if ostensibly “ethically,” others die. https://theintercept.com/2019/12/20/mit-ethical-ai-artificial-intelligence/
Nuclear Stocks Crash, With A Potential Payoff Still Years Away
Oil Price, By Alex Kimani – Nov 17, 2025
- Uranium prices have surged amid a structural supply deficit and a global policy-driven nuclear revival, but the sector faces long project timelines and mounting volatility.
- Despite major investment pledges like the U.S.–Canada $80 billion reactor partnership, nuclear and uranium stocks have plunged 15–45% in recent weeks.
- Investors confront the industry’s slow path to revenue.
‘…………………………………………… the harsh reality of the long lead and construction times of nuclear facilities, coupled with the fact that some stocks in the space with zero revenues are in nosebleed territory, has sent the sector into a tailspin. Nuclear and uranium stocks have pulled back sharply from recent highs, with many seeing double-digit losses: the sector’s popular benchmark, VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF (NYSEARCA:NLR) has declined -16.6% over the past 30 days, at a time when the S&P 500 has gained nearly 3%……………………………….
The market appears to be waking up to the reality that it could be up to a decade before we start to reap the benefits from the billions of dollars flowing into the sector. Whereas $80 billion can build enough reactors to power Virginia’s Data Center Alley, traditional reactors typically take 10 years or more to build. Meanwhile, the frequently touted small, modular reactors (SMRs) by the likes of NuScale Power, TerraPower and X-energy are still far from going mainstream primarily because the technology is still in early development and faces significant economic and regulatory hurdles.
While some prototype units are operational in countries like Russia and China, most designs are still in the theoretical or early construction phases………………………
Amazon has invested in X-energy with the goal of deploying up to 5 GW of SMRs by 2039.
Only Oklo Inc., Kairos Power and TerraPower have begun construction of their SMR plants; however, none have proven they can produce power at a commercial scale nor received regulatory approval to build a commercial system.
“There’s a lot going on, and nothing is going on,” BloombergNEF’s head nuclear analyst Chris Gadomski recently quipped.
To exacerbate matters, the markets have bid up these companies to absurd valuations despite many having no revenues to show for their troubles. To wit, Oklo’s market cap has at times exceeded $20 billion, despite the company having no operating reactors, no licenses to operate commercially, and no binding contracts to supply power. Wall Street analysts currently project Oklo will not generate significant revenue until late 2027 or 2028. Oklo’s current market cap is $15.3 billion…………………… https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Nuclear-Stocks-Crash-With-A-Potential-Payoff-Still-Years-Away.html
China has built first undersea data center — a breakthrough in ecocidal technology posing as “sustainable”.
18 Nov 25
China is framing the project as “sustainable,” but the project could accelerate deoxygenation and warming of the oceans already imperiled by the climate crisis. According to a July 16, 2025 report in Scientific American, “researchers say submerged data centers could harm aquatic biodiversity during a marine heat wave—a period of unusually high ocean temperatures. In those cases, the outlet water from the vessel would be even warmer and hold less of the oxygen that aquatic creatures need to survive.”
South Korea has announced plans to also pursue underwater data centers. Other countries, such as Japan and Singapore, are considering data centers that float on the ocean’s surface instead. Around the world, technocrats are going to senseless lengths to keep building data centers to churn endless volumes of data. And to what end? To replace more jobs? To generate more AI slop? To launch hypersonic missiles? To provide more AI “friends” that tell users to jump off the cliff? I have yet to see an upside to AI, while its downsides are on parade. Wouldn’t it be better for humanity and all living things if we just chucked the idea of AI all together?
US senator accuses Trump of ‘silence’ on huge Ukraine corruption scandal.
17 Nov, 2025, https://www.rt.com/news/627874-us-senator-slams-trump-silence/
Rand Paul had long called for oversight on aid to Kiev.
US Senator Rand Paul has accused President Donald Trump of staying silent on a major corruption scandal involving a close associate of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.
Last week, Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies alleged that Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s former longtime business partner, led a scheme that siphoned $100 million in kickbacks from contracts with the country’s nuclear power operator Energoatom, which depends on foreign aid. Two government ministers have since resigned, while Mindich fled the country to evade arrest.
“Remember when the Ukraine first Uniparty opposed my call for an Investigator General for Ukraine? Trump silent on $100M Ukraine corruption scandal resignations,” Paul wrote on X on Saturday, commenting on a news story about the affair.
Paul, who frequently attacks what he calls “wasteful spending” of American taxpayers’ money on foreign projects, has repeatedly pushed for a watchdog to supervise funds directed to Ukraine “in order to detect and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Trump has criticized unconditional aid to Kiev in the past, calling Zelensky “the greatest salesman on earth.” In August, he said the administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden, had “fleeced” America by committing $350 billion to Ukraine. He has since argued that the US is profiting from the conflict by selling Ukraine-bound weapons to NATO.
Kiev’s European backers have also raised concerns about corruption. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the affair “extremely unfortunate,” while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Zelensky to “press ahead with anti-corruption measures and reforms.”
The scandal erupted just months after Zelensky had unsuccessfully tried to strip the country’s anti-corruption bodies, NABU and SAPO, of their independence – relenting only after protests in Kiev and outcry from Western supporters. He has since imposed sanctions on Mindich, who is reportedly hiding in Israel.
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