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Poll Shows 70 Percent in US Disapprove of Striking Venezuela as Trump Mulls War

The US has built up the largest military presence in Latin America in decades off the coast of Venezuela.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, November 24, 2025

he vast majority of Americans say that the Trump administration hasn’t given proper explanation for potential military action in Venezuela and oppose the idea of strikes in the country, new polling finds as the U.S. builds up its military presence in the region.

New CBS/YouGov polling conducted late last week shows that 70 percent of Americans say that they would oppose the U.S. taking military action in Venezuela, with only 30 percent saying they support such an action.

Over three-quarters of Americans, 76 percent, say that the administration has not “clearly explained the U.S. position on military action in Venezuela.” The vast majority also say that President Donald Trump needs to provide an explanation, including 97 percent of Democrats, 86 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans, the poll found……………………………………………………………………………………….https://truthout.org/articles/poll-shows-70-percent-in-us-disapprove-of-striking-venezuela-as-trump-mulls-war/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=eb51515458-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_11_24_10_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-eb51515458-650192793

November 27, 2025 Posted by | public opinion, USA | Leave a comment

‘Elbows up’ means ‘lots of things,’ energy minister says after pressed on U.S.-based nuclear contract

Yahoo News, Catherine Lévesque, Wed, November 26, 2025

OTTAWA — Pressed on a Crown corporation’s decision to award a contract to a U.S.-based joint venture for the management of the country’s nuclear laboratories, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson suggested his government’s promise of “elbows up” can mean “lots of things.”

The National Post first revealed in June that critics were sounding the alarm on the recent decision by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) to award a contract to sole bidder Nuclear Laboratory Partners of Canada Inc. (NLPC) — a joint venture led by U.S.-based BWXT — for the management and operation of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).

CNL includes mainly Chalk River Laboratories, the birthplace of the CANDU reactor.

Critics raised national security concerns about giving access to Canada’s homegrown nuclear technology to companies involved with the U.S. Department of Defence at a time when Canada’s sovereignty was seemingly under attack by the Trump administration.

It appeared to be also contrary to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “elbows up” campaign promise, even though AECL awarded the contract independently from the government.

NLPC is spearheaded by Virginia-based BWXT — an important supplier to the U.S. Defence Department. The other partners are Amentum — also based in Virginia — and Kinectrics Inc. — a company based in Toronto but bought by BWXT earlier this year.

Its key subcontractor, Ohio-based Batelle Memorial Institute, is the world’s largest research and development organization and manages national laboratories, including for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Are you against any American company operating in Canada?” the minister asked Tochor, adding that he does not think that view is “consistent” with Conservative thinking.

Tochor shot back: “I think it’s consistent with the ‘elbows up’ campaign you just ran.”

Hodgson replied that “‘elbows up’ means lots of things.”

“Elbows up means negotiating with all of the countries in the world, doubling our exports, creating alternatives to Americans. That’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Tochor also mentioned that the Competition Bureau announced last week it has expanded its investigation into BWXT’s acquisition of Kinetrics in determining whether the transaction is likely to prevent competition in Canada’s live-saving medical isotopes………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/elbows-means-lots-things-energy-202224637.html

November 27, 2025 Posted by | Canada, politics | Leave a comment

ZELENSKY: CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

AEARNUR Nov 22, 2025 https://aearnur.substack.com/p/zelensky-caught-between-a-rock-and?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=312403&post_id=179640825&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ln98x&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

This war could have been avoided. A diplomatic pathway to peace existed in 2015 and in 2022. If the West had done what was right and needful on both occasions things would have been very different.

Russia has prevailed against the collective might of the West. Those who still retain their illusions and self-blinding prejudices concerning this are now totally irrelevant and unable to influence events now occurring. This includes the entire political elite of Europe apart from those in Hungary, Slovakia and since the recent presidential election, the Czech Republic.

We now stand before events which could herald the end of a conflict Russia never wanted. The last three and three quarter years of bloody warfare became inevitable following a catastrophic failure by the western political elites. The Russian president and his team walked every last mile and for six long years to achieve a diplomatic solution to the situation in Ukraine’s eastern regions following the West-supported insurrection and coup in Ukraine. The ultraviolent insurrection removed the democratically-elected president and government with full U.S., EU and UK support in 2014. Following the outbreak of hostilities when the new coup government irresponsibly and recklessly sent the Ukrainian army to quell unrest in the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine a diplomatic initiative between Russia and Ukraine began. This also included the then leaders of Germany and France. This process, which came to be known as ‘The Minsk Accords’ began in 2015.

The Minsk Accords began due to things going badly wrong for the Ukrainian army in Ukraine’s south-eastern region of the Donbass. They were begun after a plea by Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany at the time, to Vladimir Putin. These accords were meant to find a diplomatic solution to the question of the Russian-speaking population retaining their right to retain their language and democratic rights in the face of the removal of the president and government they had elected being illegally removed from office. The population of the Donbass saw gaining a semi-autonomous status as the way to achieve this and this is the outcome Putin sought to achieve for them.

The process to find a peaceful way through to a good outcome for both sides through diplomacy stretched on through th next six years to 2021 without success. The coup government in Kiev through its parliament refused to implement the steps that would have ensured a peaceful outcome. Instead of being willing to agree the way forward to the peaceful outcome visualized in Minsk they actively sought a military outcome favorable to them. Back in Minsk and throughout this period western leaders constantly attempted to put pressure on Russia and exerted virtually none on the Ukrainian regime in Kiev. This failure to put pressure on Kiev was the crucial missing ingredient that brought about the ultimate failure of the Minsk process by 2021. The two Kiev regimes since 2015 having felt no significant pressure from its western allies to implement Minsk finally abandoned it completely by late 2021. This set the stage for war

The Ukrainian army and the fortifications built to contain and attack the Russian-speaking populations of the Donbass which lay siege to the Donbass region had been built up and equipped massively by the West from 2014 to 2021. And in the first months of 2022 the number of attacks on the Russian-speaking population by the Ukrainian army rose significantly. It was clear that a major military push by the Ukrainian army against the population there was imminent. All this and all that came thereafter from February 24th 2022 could have been prevented if the West had been willing to put pressure on presidents Poroshenko and subsequently Zelensky, to agree the diplomatic solution which arose from the negotiations in Minsk. All the years of horrendous bloodshed could have been avoided. The western leaders could have applied massive pressure on Kiev but failed to apply any discernible pressure at all

Only now, after these years where over a million have died and countless numbers have experienced grievous injuries do we at last see significant pressure being applied to the Ukrainian regime. The new, 28-point Trump peace plan has been supplied to Zelensky and he has been told in no uncertain terms that he must agree to it or lose U.S. support. He has until November 27th to do this.

The big question is this: Why did we wait all the way from 2015 to now for the western powers to apply pressure on Kiev to settle?

The political leadership of the West concentrated solely applying pressure on Russia during the entire time from 2015 to now. If pressure had been applied to the degree possible and necessary by the West on the Ukrainian authorities they would have had to agree to the diplomatic peace initiatives, first in Minsk and if not then, in Istanbul. In Minsk the western leaders utterly failed in their duty to pressure BOTH sides, choosing to put pressure on Russia alone. In Istanbul we saw Boris Johnson, UK prime minister of the time, arrive in Kiev to urge Zelensky to abandon the road to peace and instead to instead choose war.

It has been the western leaders and their failure to apply this pressure where it would have been most effective that has precipitated the start and continuance of the fighting. It i the western leadership of this period and their anti-Russian strategies that are primarily responsible for this conflict and all the deaths and injuries that have occurred since 2015.

Now, as Russia achieves ever greater success on the battlefield, with the Kiev regime locked within a huge corruption scandal and its military forces in dissaray, lacking manpower, suffering massive desertions and in retreat, with western financial support to Ukraine failing, now at last pressure is being put where it should have been all along, on the Kiev regime and on Zelensky in particular. He must no decide by November 27th whether to sign up to the 28-point peace plan or lose the U.S. as ally. At long last pressure is being applied where needed as it ought to have been done all the way back in Minsk in 2015 and once again in Istanbul in 2022. Zelensky must now put up or shut up. Agree to a peace where Russia achieves th preponderance of its goals or reject that peace, fight on, and lose even MORE lives and land in the future.

Aearnur

Nov 22, 2025

November 25, 2025 Posted by | politics, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Labour’s nuclear tax to blame for rising energy bills, says Octopus.

THE UK Government’s nuclear levy is to blame for rising energy bills,
according to a leading utilities company. Octopus Energy has said that
Labour’s imposition of a tax on energy bills to pay for the construction of
the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk is forcing up household costs.

Rachel Fletcher, the company’s director for regulation, said: “The price
cap is rising again, driven by costly subsidies for mega projects like
Sizewell C and major network upgrades that are adding billions to consumer bills – with no end in sight.

“Let’s be clear: this isn’t about supplier
profits, which are capped at around 2%, or renewables. The real issue is
our inefficient electricity system burdened by ever-growing policy and
network costs that keep stacking up on household bills.

“Instead of
paying wind farms not to generate and locking the country into tens of
billions of unnecessary grid spending, we need bold market reform. This
would save billpayers at least £5 billion a year and finally unlock the
full potential of our homegrown green energy.”

Speaking to Westminster’s
Energy Committee earlier this month, Fletcher estimated that contrary to
Labour’s pledge to cut energy bills by £300 a year, they were actually
going up by that amount to fund improvements to the grid and transmission networks.

The National 21st Nov 2025,
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25641939.labours-nuclear-tax-blame-rising-energy-bills-says-octopus/

November 25, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, politics | Leave a comment

The promise, peril and pragmatism of Britain’s nuclear “renaissance”

LSE Shefali Khanna, Stephen Jarvis, November 21 2025

Nuclear energy’s capacity to help Britain meet its net-zero targets makes it a potentially attractive part of the energy mix. But do the high cost and complicated logistics of building new plants, as well as the emergence of renewable alternatives, make the government’s plans unviable? Shefali Khanna and Stephen Jarvis analyse whether ambition can be realised through delivery.

After decades of stagnation, nuclear energy is staging a comeback. The British government has called its plans for nuclear power a “renaissance”, with a goal to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050. Projects like Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset, and the proposed Sizewell C, in Suffolk, dominate headlines, while small modular reactors (SMRs) promise to make nuclear energy cheaper, faster to deploy and safer. But Britain’s nuclear revival raises questions about how old technologies fit into a rapidly changing energy landscape.

From decline to revival

Britain was a nuclear pioneer. Its first commercial reactor, Calder Hall, opened in 1956 and symbolised postwar scientific ambition. Yet by the 1990s, nuclear energy had lost political and public support………………………………

The nuclear policy push

The British Energy Security Strategy , published in 2022, set an ambitious target of up to 24 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050, meeting roughly a quarter of projected electricity demand. To deliver this the government created Great British Nuclear, a body tasked with accelerating nuclear project approvals and supporting innovative technologies……………Much of the optimism centres on small modular reactors, nuclear units with capacities typically under 500 megawatts, compared with the large gigawatt scale reactors at traditional plants. SMRs can be factory built, reducing on site construction delays and costs that have plagued conventional reactors. In November 2025 a domestic firm, Rolls-Royce SMR, was chosen to build three SMRs in Wylfa, in Wales. And several foreign developers, including NuScale and GE Hitachi, based in America, are vying for contracts. If successful, Britain could become a global exporter of modular nuclear technology, a rare case of industrial strategy aligning with energy policy.

SMRs are still unproven at scale, however. While prototypes exist, none have yet achieved commercial operation in a liberalised electricity market. Cost estimates remain speculative and nuclear waste management challenges persist. The modular approach may simplify construction but not necessarily long-term decommissioning or waste storage.

Economics and financing are the biggest barrier

Despite renewed enthusiasm, nuclear power remains expensive. The cost of Hinkley Point C has risen from £18 billion ($23.6 billion) to over £35 billion ($45.9 billion), with completion delayed from 2025 until as late as 2031. Financing such large projects in a deregulated market is daunting, especially when renewables and battery-storage technologies have seen such rapid cost declines.

Britain is experimenting with a Regulated Asset Base model, which allows developers to recover some costs from consumers during construction, reducing investor risk but increasing public exposure. This approach could make projects like Sizewell C more viable, yet it effectively shifts financial risk from corporations to consumers, reigniting debates about fairness and affordability.

Safety, waste and trust

Nuclear energy’s social licence remains fragile. Surveys show rising support for nuclear power as part of Britain’s low carbon mix, but opposition can intensify when communities face the prospect of new plants or local waste storage. The government’s search for a geological disposal facility for radioactive waste has struggled. Transparent governance, community benefit schemes and clear communication about risks are vital.

A deeper question is how nuclear fits into a net-zero electricity system increasingly dominated by renewables. Wind and solar costs have fallen dramatically, making them the backbone of Britain’s decarbonisation strategy. But their intermittency creates a need for flexible backup and firm supplies, particularly during dark, still winter days. Here nuclear advocates see an opportunity. Yet the future grid may evolve differently. Advances in battery storage, demand flexibility and even low-carbon thermal sources (such as hydrogen or gas with carbon capture) could provide reliability without the inflexibility and long lead times of nuclear projects. From a systems perspective, nuclear’s value depends on whether it complements or crowds out other low-carbon sources of power.

A combination of offshore wind, interconnectors with Europe and demand-side management could offer cheaper resilience than large scale nuclear expansion. National Grid ESO’s Future Energy Scenarios  suggest multiple credible pathways to reliability that do not rely heavily on new nuclear power.

The global dimension

……………………………… Britain wants energy sovereignty but depends on foreign partners for both capital and technology. Balancing national security with project viability will require deft diplomacy and strategic clarity.

From renaissance to realism

Nuclear energy could play a valuable role in Britain’s net-zero transition, but not at any cost. Policymakers must avoid treating it as a silver bullet or a national vanity project. Nuclear should be evaluated within a whole systems framework that considers economic efficiency, environmental impact and technological diversity. A pragmatic approach would prioritise completing current projects (such as Hinkley and Sizewell) efficiently before scaling new builds; rigorous cost transparency in SMR development; integrated planning with renewables and storage; and public engagement to rebuild trust through co-benefits, not just compensation.

The rhetoric of a “nuclear renaissance” is powerful, evoking a return to industrial confidence and scientific progress. But the real test lies in delivery. If Britain can demonstrate that modern nuclear projects are on time, on budget and publicly legitimate, it could indeed reclaim some global leadership. If not, this revival may join a long list of grand plans that stumbled on the realities of cost, complexity and public trust. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2025/11/21/the-promise-peril-and-pragmatism-of-britains-nuclear-renaissance/

November 25, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Japan approves restart of world’s biggest nuclear power plant

 Reactor at Niigata to reopen more than a decade after Fukushima disaster as country returns to atomic energy. Japan has approved the restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant more than a decade after its closure following the Fukushima disaster, as the country returns to atomic energy to address rising power costs.

The governor of Niigata prefecture approved the
reactivation of one reactor unit on Friday, clearing the last major hurdle
to restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. Japan has been gradually
restarting reactors, reopening 14 out of 54 that were closed. Another four
are waiting for local governments to give the green light and eight more
are pending regulatory approval, according to Yamashita.

FT 21st Nov 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/c5244861-0a72-42a7-87d6-b98497ad82ae

November 24, 2025 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Trump’s Westinghouse nuclear deal comes with unresolved questions

Unpacking the unusual details of the administration’s $80 billion deal with the nuclear giant.

Alexander C. Kaufman, LATITUDE MEDIA, November 20, 2025

Last month, the Trump administration announced a deal to spend at least $80 billion to build at least 10 new large-scale Westinghouse reactors, a move that seemed to anoint a “national champion” in nuclear power. On its face, the agreement appeared to offer these new U.S. AP1000s — the type of reactor built at Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle in Georgia — with a guarantee of financing akin to direct funding from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office. 

But exactly how the $80 billion will be spent and when remains an open question.

The details are unusual. Rather than coming from the Energy Department, the Department of Commerce brokered the deal in what one Republican source described as an example of the administration’s internal “chaos.” Rather than coming from the federal budget, the $80 billion appears to be contingent upon Japan fulfilling its $550 billion investment in the U.S. that President Donald Trump negotiated in Tokyo last month. Rather than funneling the money through an entity such as the LPO, the disbursement process remains unclear. 

“Without a sense of how this $80 billion is going to be used for nuclear in the U.S., it’s not going to give actual developers or owner-operators a chance to structure their own finances in response,” Advait Arun, a former Treasury Department analyst who now researches capital markets and energy finance at the Center for Public Enterprise think tank, told Latitude Media. “Is $80 billion going to go through LPO? Will it go through the White House? Are there other costs? There [are] all these different ways to imagine how the $80 billion will flow.”

Adding to the uncertainty, a top Energy Department official said this week the federal government may take ownership of the new reactors outright. 

“The role of having the government involved in private markets is sacrosanct; you just don’t do it,” Carl Coe, the Energy Department’s chief of staff, said at a conference hosted by the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council. “But this is a national emergency.”

In a statement, Cameco, the Canadian uranium giant that owns a 49% stake in Westinghouse, said the initial agreement with the Trump administration set the stage to “negotiate and enter into definitive” contracts. Brookfield Asset Management, the private equity firm that owns the 51% share of the nuclear giant, told Latitude Media it expected to broker a binding contract by early next year. ……………………………………………………………………….

The big investor-owned utilities — Exelon, Duke, or Southern Company, for example — are arguably the ones with the resources to pursue a new nuclear deal. But so far, they have resisted building the plants themselves.

“I wouldn’t build a nuclear plant,” Calvin Butler, CEO of utility giant Exelon, told CNBC last week. “What I could do is lean in on combined-cycle gas turbines. What I could do is build community solar. What I could do is own battery storage.”

In an earnings call earlier this month, Duke CEO Harry Sideris said North Carolina’s biggest utility would need to sort out some insurance policy to manage cost overruns before embarking on its loose plans to build more than a gigawatt of new nuclear power by 2037. 

“We still need to figure out what we’re going to do with cost overrun protection and how we’re going to protect our investors and our customers from overruns,” Sideris told investors on the call. “Nothing going forward until we have those other items resolved.”

Westinghouse is pursuing alternative ways to bring down the cost of new reactors. Earlier this week, the company debuted new artificial intelligence software it’s developing with Google to streamline construction and reduce the enormous cost of interest payments on loans from slow buildouts. 

‘A shiny toy’

That the landmark Westinghouse agreement came through the Commerce Department rather than the Energy Department is a sign of the lack of coordination between agencies under the Trump administration, a Republican source with direct knowledge of the White House’s nuclear plans told Latitude Media. 

“Everyone is running around the globe trying to make deals to bring a shiny toy back to the president,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The source said it was a situation of “the left hand not knowing what the right is doing,” and expressed doubt that the Japanese would direct that much funding toward a non-Japanese company in the U.S. 

But that might be about to change. In late October, hard-right stalwart Sanae Takaichi took office as prime minister, pushing her plans to rebuild her country’s nuclear sector. More than half of Japan’s operable reactors are still offline as part of a nationwide shutdown that occurred after the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident, but the new Takaichi administration is aiming to restart those reactors and build new ones………………. https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/trumps-westinghouse-nuclear-deal-comes-with-unresolved-questions/

November 24, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

The USA: A democracy on life support

21 November 2025, Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/the-usa-a-democracy-on-life-support/

When a President Demands the Death Penalty for His Opponents, Democracy Is Already on Life Support

There are moments in political life so shocking, so fundamentally corrosive, that they should stop a nation in its tracks. President Trump calling for the death penalty for six political opponents is one of those moments – not because it’s surprising, but because it isn’t anymore.

A president of the United States, the supposed leader of the free world, now speaks about hanging adversaries with the ease of ordering a cheeseburger. No evidence, no process, no pretence of legality – just the authoritarian impulse spoken out loud: eliminate them.

And the true horror is not just in the words themselves, but in the silence that follows.

The Republican Party, once fond of quoting the Constitution like scripture, now treats Trump’s threats as if they’re merely colourful commentary instead of the political equivalent of arson. Speaker Mike Johnson nods along. Karoline Leavitt repeats the talking points with the fervour of someone auditioning for a ministry of propaganda. The party’s enablers treat this behaviour as normal, even patriotic – as though the Founding Fathers intended freedom of speech to include calling for the state-sanctioned killing of critics.

This is not strength. It’s not law and order. It’s a chilling preview of what happens when democratic norms collapse under the weight of one man’s ego and a movement’s cowardice.

Because authoritarianism isn’t built overnight. It creeps. It numbs. It desensitises.

First, the president jokes about locking up opponents.

Then he insists it wasn’t a joke.

Then he escalates.

And the people around him – out of loyalty, fear, or ambition – normalise it.

By the time a president demands executions for political rivals, the real danger is already well underway: a nation where threats replace arguments, silence replaces dissent, and loyalty replaces truth.

America has weathered dangerous leaders before. What’s new is the echo chamber that institutionalises the danger – politicians who imitate Trump’s rhetoric, media outlets that launder it into legitimacy, and supporters who cheer it as strength.

A democracy dies long before the first political prisoner does.

It dies when its citizens shrug.

It dies when its leaders cower.

It dies when a president crosses a moral line and nothing – absolutely nothing – happens in response.

If Trump’s calls for death penalties don’t spark a bipartisan alarm, then the alarm system itself is broken. And once that happens, the fall isn’t sudden. It’s already begun.

November 24, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

US to “buy and own” new domestic reactors

November 20, 2025, https://beyondnuclear.org/us-to-buy-and-own-domestic-nuclear-reactors/

On November 19, 2025, Bloomberg news reported that the United States government will “buy and own” as many as ten new, large (1000 MWe and bigger) commercial nuclear reactors. The new nuclear power deal emerged out of President Trump’s October meeting with Japan’s first woman and ultra-conservative Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi.  According to the Trump White House, Japan pledged to invest a total of $550 billion in US infrastructure of which $332 billion will go into developing domestic energy projects. The Japan/US domestic energy infrastructure plan includes the licensing and construction of new large nuclear reactors (Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors as well as a new breed of small modular reactors [SMR]), new natural gas power plants, electric transmission projects and pipelines.

On November 13, 2025,  Beyond Nuclear spotlighted “Make Atoms Great Again?” on the White House announcement of an agreement with Westinghouse Electric where the US Department of Energy (DOE) plans to buy an $80 billion government equity share for 20% of Westinghouse corporation’s future nuclear profits from its fleet expansion of the controversial AP1000 “advanced” pressurized water reactor. The AP1000 pressurized water reactor was to only new reactor design to launched construction projects in 2007 and only two of the new Westinghouse units are operable today in the US.

Vogtle Units 3 & 4 were stricken with extreme cost overruns and as a result have indefinitely stuck Georgia ratepayers and manufacturers with electric rate shock.  Two additional AP1000 units (V.C. Summer 2 & 3) financially collapsed mid-construction in South Carolina and were abandoned with nearly $10 billion in sunk costs. The President and CEO of Santee Cooper at the time of project’s cancellation was quoted to observe in July 2017, “When you find yourself riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” An effort to resuscitate the failed construction project is presently underway by the utility. The cost overruns, recurring delays and cancellations however resulted in the 2017 Westinghouse bankruptcy that shifted the corporation to new Canadian ownership.

The White House issued an October 28, 2025 “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Drives Forward Billions in Investments from Japan,” identifying,

“Critical Energy Infrastructure Investments:  Up to $332 billion to support critical energy infrastructure in the United States, including the construction of AP1000 and small modular reactors (SMRs), in partnership with Westinghouse; construction of SMRs in collaboration with GE Vernova and Hitachi.”

November 23, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

The World’s Largest Nuclear Plant Inches Toward Restart After Key Approval.

By Tsvetana Paraskova – Nov 19, 2025, https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/The-Worlds-Largest-Nuclear-Plant-Inches-Toward-Restart-After-Key-Approval.html

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan, the world’s largest in terms of nameplate capacity, could soon clear a major hurdle toward a partial restart as the governor of the prefecture hosting the plant is expected to give consent to startup, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.

Hideyo Hanazumi, the governor of the Niigata Prefecture, is set to announce on Friday an approval to the restart of two units of the 8-gigawatt (GW) nuclear power plant, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reports.

The governor’s approval is not enough for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), to restart two reactors—the startup needs the approval of the Niigata Prefecture assembly, too. A session of the assembly is set to discuss TEPCO’s proposal in early December.

TEPCO, which also operated the nuclear power plant in Fukushima prior to the 2011 disaster, has planned for years to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the Niigata prefecture.  

Last month, TEPCO said that it carried out a full round of integrity checks at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa after fuel loading of Unit 6 was completed, confirming that primary facilities can sufficiently perform the functions required for reactor startup.   

But the company faces backlash over its restart plans and proposal to “contribute monetarily to vitalizing the regional economy.” Local residents and anti-nuclear activists in Japan oppose the restart and have slammed TEPCO’s proposal as a “bribery” of the local residents to accept the restart of the plant.    

Opinion polls suggest that local residents are split on whether TEPCO should be allowed to restart the nuclear power plant.

Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, favors accelerating the restart of nuclear reactors as a way to reduce the G7 economy’s dependence on energy imports.  

Before the Fukushima meltdown in 2011, nuclear energy accounted for about 30% of Japan’s electricity mix. The disaster prompted the closure of all reactors for safety checks. Since 2015, Japan has restarted 14 reactors out of 33, while 11 others are currently in the process of restart approval. 

November 23, 2025 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Trump administration lends $1 billion to restart Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.

The Trump administration said on Tuesday it has loaned Constellation Energy Corp $1 billion to restart its nuclear reactor at a Pennsylvania plant
formerly known as Three Mile Island. Constellation signed a deal in late
2024 with Microsoft to restart the 835-megawatt reactor, which shut in
2019, and which would offset Microsoft’s data center electricity use. The
other unit at the plant, renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, shut in
1979 after an accident that chilled the nuclear power industry. U.S. power
demand is now rising for the first time in two decades on technologies
including artificial intelligence. Nuclear energy, which is virtually
carbon-free, has become an option for technology companies with
uninterrupted power needs and climate pledges. Critics point out that the
U.S. has failed to find permanent storage for radioactive waste.

CNN 18th Nov 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/18/business/three-mile-island-restart-trump

November 23, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Trump officials announce $1bn loan to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant

Facility that was site of worst nuclear disaster in US history will provide power for Microsoft datacenters

Emine Sinmaz and agency, Guardian, 20Nov 25

 The Trump administration has announced a $1bn federal loan to restart the
nuclear power plant at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island that is under
contract to provide power to Microsoft’s datacenters. The US energy
secretary, Chris Wright, said on Tuesday that the loan to Constellation
Energy, the plant’s operator, would “ensure America has the energy it
needs to grow its domestic manufacturing base and win the AI race”.
Constellation signed a 20-year purchase agreement in 2024 with Microsoft,
which needs power for its artificial intelligence operations, to restart
the 835MW reactor that shut in 2019. The other unit at the plant, renamed
the Crane Clean Energy Center, shut in 1979 after the most serious nuclear
meltdown and radiation leak in US history.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/19/three-mile-island-nuclear-loan-microsoft-datacenter

November 22, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

First Minister John Swinney absolutely rules out changing SNP’s no nuclear stance

the proposal to develop new nuclear energy was both “economic and environmental folly” that would lead to more expensive bills.

First Minister John Swinney absolutely rules out changing SNP’s no nuclear stance saying ‘there is no way on this planet that I am going to change that policy’

 By Scott Maclennan, John O’Groat Journal 20th Nov 2025

First Minister John Swinney has absolutely ruled out any change to the SNP’s position against nuclear energy saying: “There is no way on this planet that I am going to change that policy.”

He was speaking at the weekend at the adoption night for the party’s candidate for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch Eilidh Munro in Dingwall alongside Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.

The First Minister reiterated the position after it was revealed that Anglesey in North Wales – which has many objective similarities with Caithness – is about to receive a £2.5 billion nuclear boost.

That sparked Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP Jamie Stone to reignite his argument that it is not too late for Dounreay – but the SNP must lift its ban on new nuclear power.

“This is an important announcement which demonstrates two things,” he said. “Firstly, that the UK government is serious about establishing ‘a network of small modular reactors across the UK’ – as the Energy Secretary put it.

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“The second point, which will be of enormous interest to the far north, is the specific reference from the UK government to ‘sites across the United Kingdom, including Scotland’.”

But Mr Swinney rebuffed all of those points arguing instead that the proposal to develop new nuclear energy was both “economic and environmental folly” that would lead to more expensive bills.

“I don’t think the position on nuclear power is exactly a surprise,” he said. “We have been around for a long time when we have won Caithness, Sutherland and Ross and there’s absolutely no way on the planet that I’m going to change that policy because I think it’s economic and environmental folly.

“These nuclear stations are hyper-expensive so if people are going to get nuclear power stations put onto their bills then they ain’t seen nothing yet because these projects always go way over budget.

“So we’ve got the opportunity for low cost renewable energy in Scotland in abundance and we should seize that opportunity to do the right thing, fiscally and environmentally and the nuclear argument will just saddle people with exorbitant fuel costs for the years to come.”…………………… https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/first-minister-john-swinney-absolutely-rules-out-changing-sn-419801/

November 22, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Wylfagasm! What does it tell us about Cymru?

18 Nov 2025, https://nation.cymru/opinion/wylfagasm-what-does-it-tell-us-about-cymru/

Some of the most unpopular politicians in the UK and Cymru, led by Starmer, rolled up to Ynys Môn on 13th November to announce that three Small Modular Reactors (SMR’s), to be designed by Rolls-Royce SMR are to be built at Wylfa by publicly owned Great British Nuclear, backed by £2.5 billion of public money.

Following the deferred gratification as the Hitachi project collapsed in 2019, the consequent media ballyhoo was euphoric, with the announcement being seen as at last confirming that nuclear is back on Ynys Môn, with up to 3,000 jobs expected during construction, and up to 900 jobs required to run the plant.  The politicians of the UK, Cymru and Ynys Môn of almost all political colours welcomed the news.  Starmer also announced that Cymru was to be an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) zone, with 3,500 jobs to be created.

What’s not to like about nuclear at Wylfa?

A great deal, as I know from too many years of campaigning with PAWB (People Against Wylfa B)!  Let’s be brief, though several volumes are needed to do justice to the objections.

The main argument used to justify nuclear by local politicians can be summarised in one word: JOBS!  Jobs for Ynys Môn, which has haemorrhaged jobs for years, thus giving youngsters an opportunity to stay on the Island.  Yes, Ynys Môn, like other economically bereft areas of Cymru, needs jobs to retain youngsters who have been drifting away in search of opportunities.  But this has been a running sore for decades, and the chief focus on Ynys Môn has been to concentrate on the economic silver bullet of Wylfa since Blair’s Energy Review in 2006.  So our youngsters have been let down for two decades, during which time a reliable job creation strategy could have been devised and implemented.  The result is that jobs of any sort are accepted with very little robust questioning.

Poverty induces gratitude for a poisoned chalice.

Why is the chalice poisoned?  The arguments against nuclear have been listed so many times that it is frankly staggering that mainstream politicians largely ignore them.

  • No solution to the problem of radioactive waste which must be safe for millennia.
  • Spiralling costs of every nuclear project, at the taxpayer’s expense.
  • Too little, too late to mitigate climate change.
  • The myth that nuclear is low carbon and safe.
  • Huge long term environmental damage where uranium is mined.
  • Risk of catastrophe as at Chernobyl, Fukushima, Windscale, Three Mile Island.
  • Risk of malicious attacks by cyberwarfare or direct military attack in a dangerous world.
  • Risk of nuclear proliferation
  • Intrinsic link to military nuclear – the first Wylfa was built to produce plutonium.

Other issues can be added.

Continue reading →

November 22, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Kiev Coup Poker Update, 19 November 2025

Russian & Eurasian Politics, by Gordon hahn, November 19, 2025

Beleaguered Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy is still on the road, having arrived in Turkey, where he had a meet and greet with of all people Mindichgate-incriminated Head of the Defense and Security Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov supposedly to restart peace talks with Moscow. Umerov has recently been heard on the Mindichgate tapes discussing a corrupt deal on bulletproof vests. Zelenskiy needs the support of the military, but Umerov did not and certainly will not have now command or authority inside the military. That is the domain of Ukraine’s most popular political figure, Kiev’s ambassador to the UK, and former commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF) Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhniy, fired by Zelenskiy last year.

Head of Zelenskiy’s Office of the President (OP) Andriy Yermak was reportedly in Washington speaking with the FBI, which has a hand in the opening of Mindichgate. He reportedly is now in London, where he is likely to meet with Zaluzhniy and British governmental figues, such as MI6’s new Ukrainian-British director (https://gordonhahn.substack.com/p/is-the-uk-readying-a-coup-option). With Zaluzhniy and the FBI, Yermak’s hand in the developing pre-coup or coup crisis is stronger than that of Zelenskiy, who is potentially isolated in Turkey with Umerov, a wholly unpopular figure in Ukraine and an ethnic Tatar to boot.

But the army is no longer Zaluzhniy’s to have without a fight. It is also the feifdom of the neofascists such as Azov and its founder Brig. Gen, Andriy Biletskiy, who heads a 20,000-strong Azov army corps as well as other Azov-dominated units.

There are also reports that the Secretary of the U.S. Army Dab Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff Randy George are in Kiev and are then scheduled to head to Moscow! They may be in Kiev to deliver an ultimatum to Zelenskiy in the form of the reported new U.S.-Russian peace plan he will be required to sign or face the consequences (arrest, removal from office by impeachment or coup, assassination), perhaps explaining why Zelenskiy remains away in Istanbul. However, this may prove a fatal mistake, as he has left door open to machinations.

Tonight Kiev stands empty without its president, its presidential chief of staff, its Security and Defense Council chief, its energy minister (with the country in an energy crisis), and perhaps who knows who else. Last night, Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, who also is implicated in Mindichgate, fled Ukraine, joining a full cohort of Kievan wanderers – Zelenskiy, Yermak, Umerov, Mindich himself, and his sidekick Tsukerman. They are going faster than American politicians to Epstein island. Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of the badly splintered Rada, rocked by Mindichgate, and head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Yuliya Svyrydenko, in her post for less than a year remain if talking about civilian leaders. Military Intelligence (HRU) chief Kyryll Budanov, a creature of the CIA remains, as presumably do at least some members of the UAF’s General Staff, including its chair Mikhail Gnatov, who just a week ago asserted military over civilian authority to Zelenskiy’s face.

This would be an excellent time for some of these figures, who remain in Kiev, to author a coup, it would seem, perhaps with the backing of those U.S. Army officials in town. It probably will not happen tonight, but who knows? Maybe tomorrow night, when Zelenskiy and Umerov can be arrested, as some official sources say they will be doing. At present a coup to replace Zelenskiy gives everyone among the present moment’s main players something of what they want. Zelenskiy remains a free (if likely hunted) man. The West’s Project Ukraine is rid of him and can be moved to its next course of action within the framework of Russian and American demands and ultimata. Russia achieves its special military operation’s goals at least for now. (Neofascist or others’ countercoups can turn over the chessboard and bring real chaos ala Ukraine’s 17th century Great Ruin or 1917-1920). At any rate, as an old American saying goes: “Get while the getting is good.”……………………………………………….. https://gordonhahn.com/2025/11/19/kiev-coup-poker-update-20-november-2025/

November 22, 2025 Posted by | politics, Ukraine | Leave a comment

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