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Swedish council votes in favour of nuclear waste disposal facility

Swedish council votes in favour of nuclear waste disposal facility, Energy Live, 19 Oct 20, The final decision now lies with the Swedish Government and is the last remaining decision point for developer SKB to obtain the construction licence for the repository in Forsmark.
The Municipality Council of Östhammar in Sweden has voted in favour of plans to build a geological disposal facility (GDF) for spent nuclear fuel. ……
The final decision now lies with the Swedish Government and is the last remaining decision point for SKB to obtain the construction licence for the repository in Forsmark…….. https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/10/19/swedish-council-votes-in-favour-of-nuclear-waste-disposal-facility/

October 20, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Sweden, wastes | Leave a comment

French nuclear company EDF disdains the Suffolk community with its cavalier change of plans

Stop Sizewell C (Instagram) 16th Oct 2020, This morning the East Anglian Daily Times published a story about EDF
wanting to change its Sizewell C proposals, and plans to hold a new 30-day
consultation. This has generated much confusion and outrage – but having
spoken to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) we have a little more
information about what this means.
The proposals are not yet published. It
looks like a 30-day consultation could be held from 16 November until 15
December during which we would be expected to send feedback to EDF.
EDF would finalise its changes and formally submit them to the Examining
Authority, which would then decide whether to accept these revised
proposals for examination. Whether new Relevant Representations would have
to be made, or whether the Examining Authority would decide the examination
timetable based on the ones already sent, is not totally clear to us.
The examination would almost certainly be delayed. We are appalled by EDF’s
cavalier treatment of people. Since it is not credible that EDF has only
just come up with these changes since 30 September (when Councils and MPs
expressed such strong concerns), EDF should have told us before 30
September that changes were coming, paused the process in order to conduct
their consultations, and then restarted it, so that everyone could make
their Relevant Representations based on up to date information.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGaTm8TJ6Fw/?igshid=101p11ihmpbc2

ReplyForward

October 19, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Sizewell nuclear project: EDF messes Suffolk communities about, with yet another public consultation, after 1200 responses already

East Anglian Daily Times 17th Oct 2020, Campaigners have voiced their frustration at major changes to the Sizewell
C plans which have been submitted just days after more than 1,200
respondents gave their views on the project.
EDF Energy has submitted 14changes to the plans for the £20billion twin reactor nuclear power station
– and a 30-day public consultation is to take place next month.
The main changes involve making more use of rail and sea to deliver construction
materials for the massive project, with an increase in trains and
alterations to the proposed beach landing facility. It was only a few days
ago that the opportunity to comment on the project closed and the Planning
Inspectorate is still verifying each of the 1,287 submissions from people,
businesses, councils and agencies.
Campaign groups say they are horrified
that people are likely now to be asked all over again to submit comments on
EDF’s revised proposals. Stop Sizewell C said it could not believe EDF
had only just realised after years of consultation that Suffolk people
didn’t want a road-led transport strategy for delivery of construction
materials that would put 1,000 HGVs on the roads.

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/sizewell-c-changes-provoke-frustration-from-campaigners-1-6887930

October 19, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, public opinion, UK | Leave a comment

France’s nuclear company EDF promises a new design pressurised water nuclear reactor (EPR)

EDF plans to announce new EPR nuclear reactor by mid-2021By Reuters Staff   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-edf-nuclear-idUSKBN2701B8, PARIS (Reuters) 18 Oct 20, – EDF EDF.PA aims to unveil a new, cheaper-to-build version of its EPR nuclear reactor by mid-2021, the French power company said on Thursday.

EDF has faced costly delays in the construction of some plants, including its Flamanville 3 nuclear project in France which is more than a decade behind schedule.

The French state last year called on the company to improve its record.

EDF, which is majority-owned by the government, said in a presentation that next generation EPR reactors would benefit from a reduction in necessary preparatory studies.

The group said it was also planning on bringing in new oversight measures for its major projects, after a government audit last year highlighted planning deficiencies and poor coordination at some sites.

EDF added in its presentation that it would introduce more of a results-driven relationship with suppliers.

The government has put off a decision on whether or not to build new nuclear reactors until after the Flamanville 3 project is operating, which is now expected at the end of 2022.

Other EDF projects include the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant in eastern England.

EDF is already building Britain’s first new nuclear plant in more than two decades, Hinkley Point C, with backing from China’s CGN.

Reporting by Benjamin Mallet, writing by Sarah White; editing by Jason Neely

October 19, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, politics | Leave a comment

France has more nuclear waste than shown in official inventory, reports the nuclear regulator

There is more radioactive waste in France than what the official inventory says, according to the Nuclear Safety Authority. ,  The nuclear gendarme says in an opinion that the industry will not be able to recover all of the 318,000 tonnes of depleted uranium stored. Le Monde,  By Perrine Mouterd,  October 15, 2020

There is more nuclear waste in France than what is currently in the official inventory.   This is one of the conclusions of  the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) in a report released on Thursday October 8 that went relatively unnoticed.  They assert that a significant part of what was until now considered radioactive material intended to be reused to produce electricity actually corresponds to radioactive waste, which will have to be managed and stored. An orientation against the tide of the doctrine defended for years by the French nuclear industry.

This report follows the public debate on the National Plan for the Management of Radioactive Materials and Waste (PNGMDR), the fifth edition of which is under preparation. Currently, the law provides that radioactive waste is an ultimate residue that can no longer be used, while radioactive material is potentially recyclable……. (subscribers only) https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2020/10/15/le-volume-des-dechets-radioactifs-est-revu-a-la-hausse-par-l-autorite-de-surete-nucleaire_6056058_3244.html

October 17, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, wastes | Leave a comment

Dangerous radiation levels from fracking

Dangerous radiation levels from fracking  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/15/dangerous-radiation-levels-from-fracking   Dr David Lowry on the risk of the radioactive gas radon being pumped into home     was very interested to read your report (13 October) on recent research by Harvard University scientists on radiation risks from fracking.

I have raised this concern in several letters to the Guardian over the past seven years. Indeed, seven years ago this month, Public Health England said in a review of potential risks that “there is … the potential for radon gas to be present in natural gas extracted from UK shale”.

Eight years ago, Dr Marvin Resnikoff, of Radioactive Waste Management Associates, estimated that radon levels from the Marcellus gas field in the eastern US were up to 70 times the average, and suggested that the radiation from some shale gas deposits was as much as 30 times as high as natural background levels.

Hence, there is undoubtedly a risk of radon gas being pumped into citizens’ homes as part of the shale gas stream. Unless the gas is stored for up to a month to allow the radon’s radioactivity to naturally reduce, this is potentially very dangerous.
Dr David Lowry
Senior international research fellow, Institute for Resource and Security Studies

October 17, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Putin suggests extending the START nuclear weapons control treaty for another year

Russia’s Vladimir Putin proposes yearlong extension of New START nuclear treaty with U.S.   “It would be extremely sad if the treaty ceases to exist without being replaced by another fundamental document of the kind,” Putin said.  Oct. 17, 2020, NBC News, By The Associated Press,   MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday made a strong call to save the last existing nuclear arms control pact between his country and the United States, proposing to extend it at least for one year.Putin’s statement comes amid conflicting signals from Russian and U.S. diplomats about the fate of the New START treaty that is set to expire in February unless Moscow and Washington agree on its extension.

Speaking at a meeting of his Security Council, Putin said that “it would be extremely sad if the treaty ceases to exist without being replaced by another fundamental document of the kind.”

“All those years, the New START has worked, playing its fundamental role of limiting and containing an arms race,” he noted.

The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, New START is the only nuclear arms control deal between the two countries still standing.

Russia previously offered its extension for five years without any conditions, while the U.S. administration pushed for a new arms control agreement that would also include China. Moscow has described that idea as unfeasible, pointing at Beijing’s refusal to negotiate any deal that would reduce its much-smaller nuclear arsenal.

Putin on Friday proposed to “extend the existing treaty without any conditions for at least one year” to allow for “substantive talks,” instructing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to get a quick U.S. answer to the offer. He emphasized that Russia is ready to discuss the new weapons it deployed in future arms talks with the United States.

Earlier this week, Lavrov voiced skepticism about reaching a deal on New START, noting that Russia can’t accept the conditions put forward by the United States for its extension.

Lavrov specified that Russia can’t agree to the U.S. proposal to limit battlefield nuclear weapons alongside nuclear warheads that arm strategic missiles and bombers until the U.S. agrees to withdraw its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe.

He also noted that Moscow wouldn’t accept the U.S. demand to have intrusive verification measures like those that existed in the 1990s when inspectors were positioned at missile factories……… https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-s-vladimir-putin-proposes-yearlong-extension-new-start-nuclear-n1243741

October 17, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Russia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

In Scotland, UK’s old nuclear submarines are left to rot

The nuclear graveyard just five miles from Edinburgh, where Cold War submarines are left to ‘rot’There has been repeated criticism of the fact seven contaminated nuclear subs have been laid up at Rosyth dockyard since the 1980s.  Edinburgh Live,  By

Hilary Mitchell, Editor, 16 OCT 2020 

A recent viral tweet has brought fresh attention to a decades-old controversy in Edinburgh’s back yard: namely, a hulking fleet of decommissioned, but still radioactive, Cold War nuclear submarines.  The seven defunct submarines – Dreadnought, Churchill, Swiftsure, Revenge, Resolution, Repulse and Renown – have been laid up since the 1980s, stored at Rosyth in Fife while arrangements are made to safely dispose of them.

All of the subs have had their toxic fuel removed, but parts of the vessels, including the reactor compartments, are still contaminated with radiation.

Seven of the submarines have been in storage for longer than they were in service with the Royal Navy.

A lack of money and a lack of suitable disposal sites are amongst the issues causing lengthy delays to the disposal process. In 2016 the Ministry of Defence admitted it could take until 2040 to completely dispose of the retired fleet.

This week, an Edinburgh Twitter user took to the social media platform to complain about the fact the historic submarines were still in the Forth, saying they had been ‘dumped’ to ‘rust’ in the dockyard. The tweet has since been shared over 800 times………

The MoD has said it will dispose of the fleet “as soon as practically possible”.

According to an article on Scottish investigative journalism site The Ferret, in the 1980s the UK government tried to hatch a secret plan to dump the radioactive hulks of the problematic and hard-to-dispose of subs in the sea off north west Scotland, documents released by the National Archives reveal.

The Ferret say that a survey for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1989 identified six sites for “seabed storage” of defunct naval submarines near the islands of Skye, Mull and Barra for up to 60 years – and probably longer.

According to one MoD official the aim was “to remove submarines from public view”. Another hoped that “everyone will forget about these submarines and that they will be allowed to quietly rot away indefinitely.”

The 1989 sea-dumping plan was dropped in the end, but the continuing presence of these ancient nuclear behemoths in the Forth makes it very clear that the MoD’s problem of what to do with the Cold War relics isn’t going away any time soon. https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/nuclear-graveyard-just-five-miles-19118105

October 17, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

35 crew on secretive HMS Vigilant £3billion nuclear submarine tested positive for Covid

Quarter of crew on £3billion nuclear submarine dubbed ‘HMS sex and cocaine’ test positive for coronavirus after defying orders and going drinking at bars and strip clubs near US naval base

  • 35 crew on secretive HMS Vigilant tested positive for Covid, source revealed
  • Among those who tested positive were a doctor and an executive officer
  • Nuclear weapons codes are known by that executive officer and 1 other person
  • Sailors defied orders while docked at the Kings Bay US Navy base in Georgia

Daily Mail By JEMMA CARR FOR MAILONLINE 14 October 2020   A £3billion nuclear submarine dubbed ‘HMS Sex and Cocaine’ has seen a coronavirus outbreak among its rule-breaking crew.

Highly-secretive HMS Vigilant saw more than 35 crew members test positive after several left the Kings Bay US Navy base in Georgia, a source has revealed.

Among those who tested positive – a quarter of the vessels team – was a doctor and an executive officer.

The codes to deploy the nuclear weapons stored on the submarine are known only by that executive officer and one other person, reports suggest.

Sailors defied orders to go to strip clubs, bars and restaurants in Georgia – which has seen 318,000 coronavirus cases and 7,282 deaths.

One trip saw them travel 200 miles away to a beach in Florida, an insider said…….. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8837335/Quarter-crew-3billion-nuclear-submarine-dubbed-test-positive-coronavirus.html

October 15, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, UK | Leave a comment

Confusion as USA- Russia nuclear arms talks fail

Nuclear arms talks spiral into confusion as Russia rejects US ‘delusion’,  Top US negotiator claimed there was ‘an agreement in principle’ between Trump and Putin, Guardian, Julian Borger in WashingtonWed 14 Oct 2020  US-Russian nuclear arms control talks have sunk into confusion after the top American negotiator claimed there was “an agreement in principle” between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a claim Moscow quickly rejected as a “delusion”. ………

The US had previously insisted that China be included in any future arms control negotiations rather than extending the bilateral arrangements in New Start, but Billingslea has dropped that demand in recent weeks, accepting that trilateral talks could be arranged later.

Alexandra Bell, a former state department official and now senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said the pre-election urgency followed “literally months of the Trump administration saying there’s plenty of time to do this – there’s no rush”.

The Trump administration has been keen to showcase foreign policy achievements before the election, but over the past four years, it has pulled out of three arms control agreements and signed none……..

Senior parliamentarians from across Europe wrote to their US counterparts on Tuesday urging them to support a New Start extension.

In the letter, organised by the European Leadership Network, the MPs from 19 countries said: “As officials who strive to protect the health and security of millions of European citizens, we feel distressed by the possibility that New Start may lapse in less than six months.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/13/us-russia-arms-control-talks-new-start-treaty

October 15, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Russia, USA | Leave a comment

UK: consultation with 2300 people about radioactive waste dump – only 13 people supported it.

Northern Echo 13th Oct 2020, THOUSANDS of people have written to the Environment Agency over concerns that plans to dump radioactive waste in Teesside will pose a risk to
communities. An application has been made by Augean North Ltd for a low
level radioactive waste permit at their existing Port Clarence site,
between Stockton and Billingham.

The Environment Agency, which held a
consultation which ended in January, published its report yesterday. About
2,300 people took part in the four-month exercise, with only 13 supporting
the application.

The Environment Agency is now considering these in
determining whether to grant the permit, taking into account information
submitted by Augean North. The operator has been asked to provide further
information, with a decision expected to be made by the end of January
2021.

Members of the public, as well members of Stockton on Tees Borough
Council and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council commented on the
socioeconomic impact and the general impact on the area, as well as the
potential impact on regeneration plans. Last year, Tees Valley Mayor Ben
Houchen criticised the plans, which he said were against the interests of
those living in surrounding areas. The report can be viewed by visiting
consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/north-east/port-clarence-landfill-permit-application

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18791632.2-000-objections-made-augean-north-port-clarence-nuclear-plans/

October 15, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | public opinion, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

USA to market nuclear reactor to Bulgaria

Bulgaria to hold talks with U.S. companies over new nuclear reactor,     SOFIA, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s government gave state-owned energy firm Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) a green light on Wednesday to start talks with U.S. companies on plans to build a new nuclear reactor at its Kozloduy power plant, the energy minister said……

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the new reactor should be based on U.S. technology and allow diversification in nuclear energy ….

Petkova did not name the companies that would be involved in talks, but said they were developers of nuclear technology, including those who work on small modular designs.

She said she would have until the end of January to present the results from the research, which will explore potential technology that could be used for the new unit at the Kozloduy plant and options for its construction.

Petkova did not name the companies that would be involved in talks, but said they were developers of nuclear technology, including those who work on small modular designs.

She said she would have until the end of January to present the results from the research, which will explore potential technology that could be used for the new unit at the Kozloduy plant and options for its construction. https://www.reuters.com/article/bulgaria-nuclear-kozloduy/bulgaria-to-hold-talks-with-us-companies-over-new-nuclear-reactor-idUSL8N2H44VI

October 15, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Bulgaria, marketing, USA | Leave a comment

Assange extradition case could esrablish a dangerous legal precedent

Crumbling Case Against Assange Shows Weakness of “Hacking” Charges Related to Whistleblowing

The charge against Assange is about establishing legal precedent to charge publishers with conspiring with their sources, something that so far the U.S. government has failed to do because of the First Amendment.

October 10, 2020 Micah Lee  THE INTERCEPT, By 2013, the Obama administration had concluded that it could not charge WikiLeaks or Julian Assange with crimes related to publishing classified documents — documents that showed, among other things, evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan — without criminalizing investigative journalism itself. President Barack Obama’s Justice Department called this the “New York Times problem,” because if WikiLeaks and Assange were criminals for publishing classified information, the New York Times would be just as guilty.

Five years later, in 2018, the Trump Administration indicted Assange anyway. But, rather than charging him with espionage for publishing classified information, they charged him with a computer crime, later adding 17 counts of espionage in a superseding May 2019 indictment.

The computer charges claimed that, in 2010, Assange conspired with his source, Chelsea Manning, to crack an account on a Windows computer in her military base, and that the “primary purpose of the conspiracy was to facilitate Manning’s acquisition and transmission of classified information.” The account enabled internet file transfers using a protocol known as FTP.

New testimony from the third week of Assange’s extradition trial makes it increasingly clear that this hacking charge is incredibly flimsy. The alleged hacking not only didn’t happen, according to expert testimony at Manning’s court martial hearing in 2013 and again at Assange’s extradition trial last week, but it also couldn’t have happened.

The new testimony, reported earlier this week by investigative news site Shadowproof, also shows that Manning already had authorized access to, and the ability to exfiltrate, all of the documents that she was accused of leaking — without receiving any technical help from WikiLeaks. …….

the charge is not actually about hacking — it’s about establishing legal precedent to charge publishers with conspiring with their sources, something that so far the U.S. government has failed to do because of the First Amendment………

Whether or not you believe Assange is a journalist is beside the point. The New York Times just published groundbreaking revelations from two decades of Donald Trump’s taxes showing obscene tax avoidance, massive fraud, and hundreds of millions of dollars of debt.

Trump would like nothing more than to charge the New York Times itself, and individual journalists that reported that story, with felonies for conspiring with their source. This is why the precedent in Assange’s case is so important: If Assange loses, the Justice Department will have established new legal tactics with which to go after publishers for conspiring with their sources. https://portside.org/2020-10-10/crumbling-case-against-assange-shows-weakness-hacking-charges-related-whistleblowing

October 12, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, Legal, media, UK | Leave a comment

World press freedom endangered, if UK extradites Julian Assange to America

The

 

Assange Faces Extradition for Exposing US War Crimes, BY Marjorie Cohn, Truthout, October 11, 2020  Three weeks of testimony in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing in London underscored WikiLeaks’s extraordinary revelation of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. But the Trump administration is seeking to extradite Assange to the United States to stand trial for charges under the Espionage Act that could cause him to spend 175 years in prison.

Assange founded WikiLeaks during the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” which was used as a pretext to start two illegal wars and carry out a widespread program of torture and abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo and the CIA black sites. On October 8, 2011, Assange told a Stop the War Coalition rally in London’s Trafalgar Square, “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”

In 2010 and 2011, WikiLeaks published classified material that Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning had provided to the organization. Manning was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking the documents. As he left office, Barack Obama commuted her sentence to the seven years she had already served. That commutation provoked “tremendous anger” in the Trump administration and drew Trump’s attention to Assange, Eric Lewis testified. Lewis, chairman of the board of Reprieve U.S. and lawyer for Guantánamo and Afghan detainees, called this “a politically motivated prosecution.”

The files that WikiLeaks published contained 90,000 reports about the war in Afghanistan, including the Afghan War Logs, which documented a greater number of civilian casualties by coalition forces than the U.S. military had reported.

In addition, WikiLeaks published nearly 400,000 field reports about the Iraq War, more than 15,000 unreported deaths of Iraqi civilians, and the systematic murder, torture and rape by the Iraqi army and authorities that were ignored by U.S. forces.

WikiLeaks also published the Guantánamo Files, 779 secret reports constituting evidence of the U.S. government’s abuse of approximately 800 men and boys, ages 14 to 89. That abuse violated the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Perhaps the most notorious release by WikiLeaks was the 2007 “Collateral Murder” video, which depicts a U.S. Army Apache helicopter target and fire on unarmed civilians in Baghdad. At least 18 civilians were killed, including two Reuters reporters and a man who came to rescue the wounded. Two children were injured. A U.S. Army tank drove over one of the bodies, cutting it in half. The video contained evidence of three separate war crimes prohibited by the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Army Field Manual.

As they are firing on the civilians, U.S. gunmen can be heard saying, “Look at those dead bastards.” In his written testimony, investigative journalist Nicky Hager drew a parallel between the Collateral Murder video and the television image of George Floyd screaming “I can’t breathe.”

Assange Cannot Be Extradited for a Political Offense

The 2003 U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty forbids extradition for a political offense. Although the treaty doesn’t define “political offense,” it generally includes espionage, treason, sedition and crimes against state power. Trump is asking the U.K. to extradite Assange for exposing war crimes. This is a classic political offense. Assange is charged under the Espionage Act and espionage constitutes a political offense as well………..

Assange’s Prosecution Violates Freedom of Press

While the Obama administration declined to file criminal charges against Assange for fear of setting a dangerous precedent, Team Trump demonstrated no such forbearance. By charging Assange under the Espionage Act, Trump is making him a poster boy for its full court press against the media, which he calls “the enemy of the people.” Assange’s prosecution would send an ominous message to all journalists: report the unvarnished truth at your peril.

No media outlet or journalist has ever been prosecuted under the Espionage Act for publishing truthful information, which is protected First Amendment activity. Journalists are permitted to publish material that was illegally obtained by a third person and is a matter of public concern. The U.S. government has never prosecuted a journalist or newspaper for publishing classified information, an essential tool of journalism.

Information-gathering, reporting and disclosure fit the classic definition of activity protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press. There is no distinction between what WikiLeaks did and what The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El País and The Guardian did as well. They all published articles based on documents WikiLeaks released. This is the reason Obama administration — which prosecuted an enormous number of whistleblowers — considered, but refrained from, indicting Assange. ………

WikiLeaks Didn’t Endanger Informants and Saved Lives

Although the U.S. government claims that Assange endangered informants named in the published documents, John Goetz, an investigative reporter who worked for Germany’s Der Spiegel, testified that Assange took pains to ensure that the names of U.S. informants in Iraq and Afghanistan were redacted to protect their identities. ……..

Moreover, WikiLeaks’s revelations actually saved lives. After WikiLeaks published evidence of Iraqi torture centers the U.S. had established, the Iraqi government refused Obama’s request to extend immunity to U.S. soldiers who commit criminal and civil offenses there. As a result, Obama had to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

WikiLeaks also revealed evidence of wrongdoing by other countries besides the United States. The organization uncovered Russian surveillance, published exposés of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and some say WikiLeaks’s exposure of corruption in Tunisia and torture in Egypt helped catalyze the Arab Spring…………

Assange’s Prosecution Will Chill Journalism

Ostensibly to get around allegations that it is prosecuting Assange for conducting journalism, the Trump administration is trying to paint him as a hacker by accusing him of conspiring with Manning to break into a government computer to steal government documents, in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. But, as Patrick Eller, a digital forensic expert, testified, the attempted cracking of the password hash was not technologically possible in 2010, when the conversation between Assange and Manning occurred. Even if it were feasible, the purpose would not have been to conceal Manning’s identity and it would not have given Manning any increased access to government databases.

The prosecution of Assange would set a disturbing example for journalists and media outlets that publish information critical of the government. Team Trump singled out Assange to deter journalists from publishing material that criticizes U.S. policy. If Assange is extradited to the United States and convicted of the charges against him, it would chill journalists from reporting the facts for fear they could be indicted under the Espionage Act……….

When she set the November 16 date for the defense to submit closing arguments, Judge Vanessa Baraitser asked the defense how the U.S. presidential election would affect its case and declared that her decision on extradition would come after that election, stating, “That’s one of the factors going into my decision.” Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said that the judge “acknowledged what has been clear since even before the first indictment against Julian Assange was unsealed — that this is a politically motivated prosecution.”

Baraitser, who has granted extradition in 96 percent of the cases that have come before her, plans to issue her ruling on January 4. If she grants extradition, there will be several levels of appeals, including to the European Court of Human Rights.

The stakes could not be higher.  https://truthout.org/articles/assange-faces-extradition-for-exposing-us-war-crimes/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=614ce999-9844-4d61-a600-169db0c99052

October 12, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, Legal, media, UK | Leave a comment

Cracks in France’s ageing Tricastin nuclear reactor

Liberation 8th Oct 2020, EDF’s small calculations to make people forget Tricastin’s faults. The
40-year-old Drôme plant is in the process of obtaining a ten-year
operating extension. But cracks in the reactor vessel number 1 alarm
scientists, who point to “Liberation” the risks in terms of safety.

https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/10/08/nucleaire-les-petits-calculs-d-edf-pour-faire-oublier-les-defauts-de-tricastin_1801822

October 12, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety | Leave a comment

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