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Connecticut Governor Lamont should veto SB 7 that would advance dangerous nuclear power

Gov. Lamont, veto bill to ‘advance’ dangerous nuclear power. CT Mirror, by Stanley Heller, June 12, 2023

What folly!  Just as a dam necessary for cooling nuclear waste at Europe’s biggest nuclear power complex is blown up, members of the Connecticut legislature pass a bill that includes promotion of dangerous outmoded nuclear power.

Senate Bill 7 creates a “Council for Advancing Nuclear Energy Development” specifically packed with six positions for people who work in the nuclear energy industry.  Their mission will be to discuss “advancements that are occurring in nuclear energy development.”  They’ll study “small modular reactors, advanced nuclear reactors, [and] fusion energy facilities.”

Rather than seek “advancement,” we should be figuring out how to phase out this technology.  We see by the Ukraine example that parties at war do not respect what one would think would be totally obvious, the need to do nothing to harm the safety of nuclear power plants.  Not that we expect warfare to break out in the U.S., but this country should lead in best practices so that countries where war is a lot more likely won’t go down the nuclear path and risk huge releases of nuclear contamination that spread world-wide. 

Realize that the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 led to thousands of fatalities.  In Ukraine alone 35,000 women have received compensation for spouses who died because of the disaster.   And that’s only the numbers from Ukraine. High levels of radiation covered southern Belarus too, but the government there has never released its statistics.

Another section of the Connecticut bill would classify nuclear power as a “Class 1 renewable energy source.”  That would allow the owner of a new nuclear facility to sell renewable “energy credits,” another dubious idea.  Rather than limit the use of polluting fuels, the idea is for “the market” to take care of things.  Grand, let’s rely on the same market whose mindless profit seeking got us hooked on fossil fuels in the first place.

The new council will study ways to “promote nuclear energy development, expansion and research” in Connecticut.  What won’t be studied is the problem of importation of Russian uranium that is used to generate nuclear power. Every year hundreds of millions of dollars are spent by U.S. companies to buy raw and enriched uranium from Russia.   Presumably Connecticut nuclear power companies are no different. Reuters reports that the U.S. power industry relies on Russia and its allies Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for roughly half of the uranium powering its nuclear power plants.  Why not respond to a petition about this and study how to stop relying on a fuel that enriches the Russian dictator?

……………………………………….. Governor Lamont should veto SB 7.  Then call a special session to pass a revised SB 7 clean of plans for more nuclear power.  After doing that stay in session and spend time passing blockbuster legislation that will provide leadership for a country teetering on a climate precipice.

June 14, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

USA Majority say taking nuclear, military secrets a national security threat

Former President Trump taking nuclear, military documents would be a national security risk, say 80 percent of respondents in a new CBS News/YouGov poll.

June 13, 2023 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

Japanese government making “all-out” efforts to convince fishermen that Fukushima waste-water release is OK

 Government seeks fishing industry’s understanding over nuclear plant water
release. Industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura met with local fisheries
industry representatives Saturday to seek their understanding for the
planned release into the sea of treated water from the Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant. The government will “make all-out efforts to prevent
reputational damage” to the fisheries industry from the water release,
Nishimura told representatives of a federation of fisheries cooperatives in
a meeting in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture.

 Japan Times 11th June 2023

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/06/11/national/fukushima-contaminated-water/

June 13, 2023 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

Lawmakers seek clearer picture of nuclear command and control costs

By Colin Demarest C4ISR Net 12 June 23

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a clearer catalog of spending on nuclear command, control and communications, the means through which the devastating arsenal is readied, coordinated and potentially used.

Members of the House strategic forces panel included in a draft of fiscal 2024 defense legislation a provision to establish a major force program for NC3, a highly guarded topic. The proposal was shared June 12, alongside additional National Defense Authorization Act input from other subcommittees.

……………………………… The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, published last year, pledged to strengthen nuclear command and control, including further insulation from cyber, space-based and electromagnetic attack. Different nuclear weapon types face different risks, as well, in part because of their age and lack of ingrained information technologies. Newer nuclear weaponry is expected to enter the stockpile after 2030 — and with it, the potential for more-modern systems. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2023/06/12/lawmakers-seek-clearer-picture-of-nuclear-command-and-control-costs/

June 13, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

The warmonger neocons, run the show of the puppet figurehead Biden.

Contribution from readers Tom and Sue Millon, 10 July 23

For Republicans and corrupt democrats, it’s never been about the debt of the USA or ending devastating military conflict. It has never been about domestic tranquility. As the arch neocon Dick Cheney said, “Reagan taught us that the debt doesn’t matter.” It’s about re-allocating the federal budget to the people who put you in office: arms makers, the military. oil companies, slumlords, tech giants. If you don’t have a lobbyist, a PAC or a dark money conduit, you don’t count for a damn thing in Washington dc. America and the world is paying the price of this. The neocons run Biden now. Their think tanks and focus, are heavily funded by arms makers and the military. The warmonger neocons, run the show of the puppet figurehead Biden.
Their goals are out of touch with anything that is rational. They are not preventing the escalation of this potential nuclear confrontation, they are encouraging it.

Eve Ottenberg
From the human-caused climate catastrophe to a nuclear showdown between Washington and Moscow or Beijing, to fascism ascendant, three terrifying disasters loom over humanity like the shadow of death. These threats have lurked for some years, but the Ukraine war, facilitated by Joe Biden’s arrival in the white house in 2021 and his pronounced aggressiveness toward Moscow, shifted nuclear Armageddon to center stage and pushed the doomsday clock close to midnight.

Trust between the Kremlin and western governments vanished long ago, so it’s hard to see how this calamity ever gets resolved. Russian officials watched the U.S. fork over more than $30 billion in armament to Ukraine with billions more in the pipeline, arm neo-Nazis, whitewash them and cover Kiev’s government payroll. They’ve seen (and often destroyed) the weapons Washington sent. Those weapons would never include long-range missiles that could strike inside Russia, Biden promised. Well, that oath wasn’t worth the toilet paper it was written on. The U.S. would never provide Ukraine with tanks, Biden swore up and down – until he changed his mind. American fighter jets, he gave his word, would not fly in Ukraine. Well, now we see what his word is worth. What next? NATO troops in Ukraine? Because then the bombing of U.S., European and Russian cities will commence. It’s called World War III. Biden knows this. So do the Russians. And despite their loud protests in the face of this nonstop U.S. escalation, they have become ominously quiet about their red lines.

Once upon a time in Bucharest back in 2008, Moscow basically told the west that if its neighbor Kiev joined NATO, that would be the end of Ukraine. Feckless Eurocrats and birdbrain American presidents did not listen. Years passed. Washington sponsored a coup against the duly, legally elected leader of Ukraine in 2014, then installed a west friendly, Russophobic regime, or perhaps more accurately a puppet, whose idiotic economic policies led to a population outflow of millions of Ukrainians, as Washington proceeded massively to arm and train far-right fanatics.

Through all of this, until December 2021, Moscow only protested about its red lines in general terms. It also periodically indicated it might snap. Then, in late 2021, the Kremlin sent detailed letters to Washington, listing Russian security concerns, chiefly that Ukraine should not join NATO. Moscow also was alarmed at the fate of Donbas Russians, 12,000 of whom Ukraine had slaughtered since 2014 and on whose borders Kiev had massed troops and, in early 2022, dramatically stepped up assaults, as noted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Such a deadly uptick signaled assault and possibly ethnic-cleansing for Russian-speaking Ukrainians. But the U.S. blithely responded with hokum about NATO being a defensive organization. Hokum any half-wit can see right through by looking at U.S. missiles in Poland and Romania, two countries that border Russia.

Washington also insisted on every country’s sacred right to join NATO, though decades ago when Moscow mentioned joining, it got the cold shoulder; apparently Russia did not have that right. So the Kremlin could be excused for regarding NATO as a hostile military axis. Indeed, as our leading public intellectual Noam Chomsky said, “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was clearly provoked, while the U.S. invasion of Iraq was clearly unprovoked.” (He also said whataboutism is “otherwise known as elementary honesty.”) Both invaders wrecked the target country, Russia more slowly, but make no mistake, that will be the outcome if this war doesn’t end soon.

The moral of the story is that if you can avoid war, that is a very good idea. If someone says “I will attack, if you don’t stop threatening me,” well, listen. The peacemakers are blessed, but sadly they were absent from the world’s imperial capital, Washington, in December of 2021. Currently they are absent everywhere they are needed, period.

So now, thanks to Biden, we stare down the barrel of nuclear war. The alternative in 2024 will likely be Trump, who promises accessories like martial law, a presidency for life, show trials of his political enemies and possibly nuclear war with China, in short, fascism. For this lousy choice we can blame our corrupt plutocracy and its media parasites. Put another way, those who rise to the top in Washington are not the cream of the crop, but the cream that curdled, years ago. Obama, Bush, Clinton – slick hustlers all, who slaughtered innocents across the globe, and all very short-sighted about anything other than looking out for the main chance, even if it meant bombing helpless residents of impoverished nations.


Meanwhile in the U.S. imperial capital, blood-soaked neocons run the show. This led to events May 26, when Russia’s foreign ministry summoned U.S. diplomats “over what it called ‘provocative statements’ by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan,” according to RT. “The American official was de facto supporting Ukrainian strikes against Russian territory.” Given that Sullivan’s up to his elbows in blood for his responsibility in this Ukrainian debacle, the blood of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and tens of thousands of Russian ones, I’m not surprised he was, de facto or otherwise, basically advocating World War III. Moscow called his endorsement of Ukrainian attacks on Russia “hypocritical and untruthful.” That’s called understatement.

Sullivan, secretary of state Antony Blinken and his undersecretary Victoria Nuland are in charge in Washington, instead of the unfocussed, forgetful figurehead, Joe Biden, and they want war, for decades, if they so choose.

Inauspiciously, sane, non-neocons now resign from the Biden regime en masse, a development covered in depth by Moon of Alabama May 25. Rick Waters, head of the state department’s “China House” leaves his post. After the ridiculous spy balloon hysteria, with its wild delusions of assault and evil designs by a mortal enemy, Waters was one of the more rational actors, trying to limit the damage, reportedly emailing state department staff to postpone some sanctions and export controls on China, you know, moves that could have been viewed as, um, hostile.

Also dispiriting to those hoping to restrain imperial war schemes, deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman announced her retirement. Sherman backed the original Iran nuclear pact and pushed hard to get an inept Biden administration to return to it, something, contrary to campaign promises, Biden couldn’t manage to do. As a result, the Middle East teeters constantly on the edge of regional war, which the pact would have helped prevent. Colin Kahl, a defense undersecretary departs this summer. He opposed escalating the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine. Nor was he popular with lunatic Sinophobes. To make the loss of these realists even worse, Biden tapped a ferocious China hawk to head the joint chiefs of staff, thus replacing the less rabid though rather ineffectual Mark Milley. All these moves spell trouble. They mean maniacal warmongers run the empire.

So the situation has deteriorated dangerously, and this is what Chomsky predicted if Washington didn’t face the “ugly” post-invasion choice of rewarding Moscow by enforcing Kiev’s neutrality and the Minsk Accords for the Donbas. No one has documented the U.S. empire’s depravity as long and relentlessly as Chomsky. His new book, Illegitimate Authority, continues this effort, singling out the triad of cataclysms – climate collapse, nuclear war and fascism – thundering in humanity’s front yard like the crack of doom. These interviews, collected from Truthout, at first zero in on how rich countries burning oil, gas and coal have crushed anything resembling a normal climate, with a few that focus on rising fascism.

For Republicans and corrupt democrats, it’s never been about the debt. As the arch neocon Dick Cheney said, “Reagan taught us that the debt doesn’t matter.” It’s about re-allocating the federal budget to the people who put you in office: arms makers, the military. oil companies, slumlords, tech giants, If you don’t have a lobbyist, a PAC or a dark money conduit, you don’t count for a damn thing in washington dc. Same goes for the , neocons whose think tanks are and focus, are heavily funded by arms makers and the military. The warmonger neocons, that run the show of the demented old, puppet figurehead biden.
Their goals are out of touch with anything that is rational. They are not preventing the escalation of this potential nuclear confrontation, they are encouraging it.

But when the book reaches early 2022, it shifts its emphasis to Ukraine. Chomsky is well aware of Washington’s provocations, while regarding Moscow’s response to them as criminal. He quotes Eastern Europe specialist Richard Sakwa: “NATO’s existence became justified by the need to manage threats provoked by its enlargement.” Well, now NATO has provoked a threat that, according to one whose hands are red with blood from this war, Nuland, could last “16 years.”

Chomsky also addresses the imbecilic fantasy of regime change, noting that historically this has led to worse, more extreme leaders, for which he cites a convincing discussion by Andrew Cockburn. Chomsky called NATO dreams of overthrowing Vladimir Putin “foolish,” because someone far more menacing would very likely take over. Among Kremlin leaders, Putin is, in fact, a moderate, with far less of an appetite for war than the others who advocated invading Ukraine for years, while he demurred.

In March 2022, when neutral countries sponsored talks between Moscow and Kiev, Chomsky warned, “negotiations will get nowhere if the U.S. persists in its adamant refusal to join…and if the press continues to insist that the public remain in the dark by refusing even to report Zelensky’s proposals.” Well, nowhere is exactly where they went, thanks to the then U.K. prime minister, the buffoonish Boris Johnson, who jetted into Kiev, allegedly at Biden’s behest, and clarified to Zelensky that while the Ukrainian president might be ready for peace, the west was not. That scuttled the talks.

That’s where we are now. Washington just extracted itself from losing a 20-year military quagmire in Afghanistan. Now it’s up to its neck in a proxy war its boosters say could last decades. Unfortunately for the imperial team, its opponent in this latest bloodletting is armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons. This is not some helpless undeveloped country that Washington can bully and then prevaricate about pusillanimous American behavior not amounting to a military defeat. Russia is a great power and a nuclear one.

June 11, 2023 Posted by | politics, Reference, USA | 1 Comment

German TV Shows Nazi Symbols on Helmets of Ukraine Soldiers

In a ZDF report on the fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, images were shown of soldiers wearing combat helmets with SS insignia and swastikas.

Sept. 10, 2014https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/german-tv-shows-nazi-symbols-helmets-ukraine-soldiers-n198961

Germans were confronted with images of their country’s dark past on Monday night, when German public broadcaster ZDF showed video of Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi symbols on their helmets in its evening newscast. In a report on the fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, Moscow correspondent Bernhard Lichte used pictures of a soldier wearing a combat helmet with the “SS runes” of Hitler’s infamous black-uniformed elite corps. A second soldier was seen with a swastika on his gear. “Volunteer battalions from nearly every political spectrum are reinforcing the government side,” the ZDF correspondent said in his report.

The video was shot last week in Ukraine by a camera team from Norwegian broadcaster TV2. “We were filming a report about Ukraine’s AZOV battalion in the eastern city of Urzuf, when we came across these soldiers,” Oysten Bogen, a correspondent for the private television station, told NBC News. Minutes before the images were taped, Bogen said he had asked a spokesperson whether the battalion had fascist tendencies. “The reply was: absolutely not, we are just Ukrainian nationalists,” Bogen said.

June 10, 2023 Posted by | politics, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Britain’s taxpayers, slugged with uneconomic Hinkley nuclear plant ‘s costs, now to be slugged again with Sizewell.

 In response to EDF announcing further delays and cost increases at Hinkley
C, Dr Doug Parr, Policy Director at Greenpeace UK, said – “Despite the
enax-payerstirely predictable and widely predicted overshoot of Hinkley C’s costs
and construction, we are still on course to make the same mistake again at
Sizewell, and this time with the taxpayer on the hook.

Why has a government
of free marketeers chosen to pay the French state to build reactors with
public money from the British state? Because the market has read Hinkley
C’s balance sheet and wants nothing to do with this over-priced,
overly-complicated, obsolete technology. The government, on taxpayers
behalf, will spend their money to cover up the failure. When the government
tells you it’s a good deal, remember that no one is willing to put their
own money into it.”

 Greenpeace 6th June 2023
 https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/press-centre/

June 8, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Increasing costs and delays in building Hinkley nuclear station.

The Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, the only one currently under
construction in Britain, is facing increasing worries about further delays
and cost overruns. During Keir Starmer‘s recent visit, the opposition
leader accused the government of hindering progress on the project.

Initially expected to be operational in 2023, the Hinkley Point C reactor
is now projected to start producing power in June 2027, highlighting
significant setbacks. Keir Starmer expressed frustration, stating that the
government is “holding the country back”, emphasising that the project
should have been completed by now.

Dr Doug Parr, the Policy Director at Greenpeace UK, raised concerns about the project’s escalating costs and construction delays.

 Energy Live News 6th June 2023

June 8, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

In Taiwan, DPP, Hou You-yi clash over nuclear power

Taipei Times, By Chen Yun and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer, 7 June 23

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday clashed over energy policy after Hou reiterated that he would back the utilization of nuclear power plants if elected president.

Hou is the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in next year’s presidential election.

Taiwan might not have enough electricity reserves to ensure a stable power supply for the nation’s chipmakers to retain their competitive edge, Hou told a news conference after a meeting at city hall………….

Taiwan is to generate 30,000 kWh of renewable electricity by 2030 as per the RE100 initiative, to which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and the nation’s top enterprises have pledged themselves, Chang said.

The initiative’s definition of renewables does not include nuclear power, he said, adding that Hou does not understand the needs of industry or Taiwan’s international obligations.

……………The New Taipei City Government has sued Taipower multiple times over the past 10 years to prevent the storage of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants in its jurisdiction, he said.

Hou must explain to voters how he would deal with the issue of nuclear waste if elected, Chang said.

“Hou cannot push for nuclear power on the one hand and give empty platitudes [about storage] on the other,” he said.  https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2023/06/08/2003801210

June 8, 2023 Posted by | politics, Taiwan | Leave a comment

Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet super ecstatic over USA govt’s budget deal.

There you have it folks. Galloping defense spending on perpetual warfare and 835 overseas bases, enriching James Taiclet and his defense CEO comrades. Meanwhile every decent, life enhancing aspect of American life gets the scrapes leftover.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coaliton, Glen Ellyn IL 5 June 23

Only American happier than Biden with budget deal

Everyone knows President Biden is ecstatic over the budget deal which prevents another default crisis during his last 2 years

But few knew the guy even happier than Biden, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet. He’s super ecstatic the deal provided a 3% bump to $886 billion in defense spending, while other areas of discretionary spending are frozen at current year levels.

Taiclet wasn’t bashful about bragging over the victory garnered in part by $13 million Taiclet speeds every year lobbying Congress to keep defense spending racing upwards toward a trillion bucks in blood money.

He told defense investors at the Annual Strategic Decisions Conference after the fix was in for weapons makers:

“The current agreement…is 3 percent growth for two years in defense where other areas of the budget are being reduced. And I think, again, that’s as good an outcome as our industry or our company could ask for at this point.”

Lockheed Martin, America’s largest defense contractor, receives 73% of its $66 billion annual sales net sales from the U.S. government. Taiclet is equally thrilled personally as well as for his shareholders. His $24 million in annual compensating largely consists of performance related bonuses.

There you have it folks. Galloping defense spending on perpetual warfare and 835 overseas bases, enriching James Taiclet and his defense CEO comrades. Meanwhile every decent, life enhancing aspect of American life gets the scrapes leftover.

June 7, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Greenland refuses to allow exploitation for uranium

Energy Transition Minerals, formerly Greenland Minerals A/S, has been
informed by Naalakkersuisut that their application for an exploitation
permit in Kuannersuisut has been refused. The ministry announced this in a
short press release on Friday afternoon. Energy Transition Minerals has
applied for permission for exploitation at Kuannersuit in Narsaq,
targeting, among other things, rare earths, zinc and uranium.

Sermitsiaq 2nd June 2023

https://sermitsiaq.ag/node/244682

June 5, 2023 Posted by | ARCTIC, politics, Uranium | Leave a comment

EDITORIAL: Government turns a blind eye to lessons from nuclear disaster

 https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14923055 June 2, 2023 

It appears that the lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster have been taken so lightly.

The government and a majority of the Diet are heavily responsible for pushing through a reversal of the nation’s nuclear policies without careful deliberation, shifting from a “reduction of dependence” on nuclear power and heading to its “maximum utilization.”

We must keep asking ourselves whether we can solve the many difficult problems plaguing nuclear power plants and whether they could end up haunting future generations.

This week, a bill related to promoting nuclear plants was passed by the Diet.

The government’s responsibilities and measures aimed at the active utilization are stipulated in the Atomic Energy Basic Law.

The new law also relaxed restrictions on nuclear reactors’ operational periods introduced after the catastrophic disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, opening a path to allowing reactors to operate beyond 60 years if certain conditions are met.

The Asahi Shimbun in its editorials has opposed the bill and called for its reconsideration.

That is because nuclear plants are plagued with a mountain of issues such as the ever-growing nuclear waste and Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle that has reached an impasse, not to mention safety and economic concerns.

And it is unacceptable for the government to reverse its stance to restarting nuclear plants without showing a path to solving the problems.

Now is the time to speed up reforms to make renewable energy a primary power source from the standpoint of the overall energy policy.

Returning to dependence on nuclear plants could lead to going down the wrong path.

The bill was also rushed along as the government adopted the new policy last year after only several months of debate.

The Diet was supposed to do everything in its power to scrutinize the bill from multiple perspectives, but no deep discussions ensued.

We can’t help but be disappointed.

Reasons cited for the about-face were the need for a stable supply of energy and the decarbonization of energy sources.

But how much of a role do nuclear plants actually play in these goals? And why is it necessary to treat them differently?

The government shied away from answering these questions head-on and repeatedly said it was important to pursue all possible options, including nuclear energy.

With several bills covering a variety of issues bundled into the legislation, discussions on concrete measures also wandered off-track.

It had been explained that the limit on the reactors’ operational periods was originally intended to reduce safety risks.

But the government claimed that it decided from the standpoint of the nation’s energy strategy, instead of safety regulations.

Although it was a major shift, the government failed to provide convincing explanations.

After all, numerous questions, including fundamental problems, were left unanswered.

If this stance continues, it will be inevitable for the government to single-mindedly devote itself to the promotion of its new polices on nuclear plants.

The latest policy shift was led by the economy ministry, seriously undermining the principle of separation between “promotion and regulation,” which is the heart of the nuclear policy introduced in light of the Fukushima disaster.

The government seems set to support the restart of nuclear plants and construction of new ones.

However, at the very least, safety procedures and economic benefits of nuclear plants must be thoroughly considered.

And, no matter how many efforts are made, inconvenient realities about nuclear plants won’t disappear.

The government and party members who voted for the bill must keep firmly in mind that they will have to face these realities sooner or later.

June 4, 2023 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Unlimited money to Ukraine is now allowed, through USA’s “Debt Sealing” arrangement.

Debt Ceiling Deal Puts No Limits on Ukraine Aid https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/02/debt-ceiling-deal-puts-no-limits-on-ukraine-aid/

Emergency spending that has been used to arm Ukraine is exempt and it could also be used to arm Taiwan

June 2, 2023, By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com

The debt ceiling agreement reached between the White House and House Republicans places no constraints on spending on the war in Ukraine, a White House official told Bloomberg.

The $113 billion that has been authorized to spend on the war in Ukraine so far was passed as supplemental emergency funds, which is exempt from the spending caps that are part of the debt ceiling deal.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, funding “designated as an emergency requirement or for overseas contingency operations would not be constrained, and certain other funding would not be subject to the caps.” The deal suspends the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025.

Hawks in Congress are looking to use emergency spending to increase the $886 billion military budget that was agreed to as part of the deal. The emergency funds could go beyond Ukraine and might be used to send weapons to Taiwan or for other spending that hawks favor as part of their strategy against China.

“We are almost certainly going to need a supplemental for Ukraine, which is, in my view, one of the most pressing defense challenges we have right now,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), according to Roll Call. “And the other obligations flow from China and Taiwan on one hand and Russia and Ukraine on the other.”

Other senators said they favor using the emergency funding to raise military spending altogether. The $886 billion budget is what President Biden asked for 2024, but Republican hawks have blasted the request as “inadequate.”

“Clearly our support for Ukraine will be outside the budget, as it has been in the past, but I’d like to see additional support for our own military in emergency supplementals as well,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).

The Senate passed the agreement, known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, on Thursday night in a vote of 63-36, sending the bill to President Biden’s desk. The legislation was passed through the House on Wednesday in a vote of 314-117.

June 4, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

France, Germany Dispute Over Nuclear Energy Leaves EU Deadlocked on Renewables

  • Paris wants to win greater role for nuclear in energy revamp
  • Disputed law on clean energy is key element of EU Green Deal

Bloomberg ,By Ewa Krukowska, Ania Nussbaum and, Petra Sorge, 3 June 2023

France is seeking to reopen negotiations over a key Green Deal law in an effort to ensure a greater role for nuclear in Europe’s energy transition, a move fiercely opposed by Germany, leaving the talks in deadlock. 

The government in Paris has informed Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, that it’s seeking changes to an agreement already brokered with other EU entities, according to officials with knowledge of the matter. Such a step would require revisiting talks with the bloc’s parliament and the European Commission ………………………….. (Subscribers only)  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-02/eu-in-deadlock-over-renewables-as-france-and-germany-lock-horns#xj4y7vzkg

June 4, 2023 Posted by | EUROPE, politics | Leave a comment

Bill to extend operating period of nuclear plants passes Japan’s Upper House

BY GABRIELE NINIVAGGI, Japan Times, May 31, 2023

A bill to extend the operating period of nuclear power plants to over 60 years — providing safety conditions are met — passed the Upper House on Wednesday, paving the way for a comprehensive overhaul of Japan’s nuclear policy.

The ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party, with the external support of two opposition parties — the Democratic Party for the People and Nippon Ishin no Kai — voted in favor of the bill, while other opposition forces on the left and center-left vocally opposed the legislation, saying that proposals to guarantee the safety of nuclear power plants were insufficient………..(Subscribers only)  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/05/31/national/nuclear-plant-operating-period-bill-pass/

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June 1, 2023 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment