More Than 200 Bodies Dug Out of the Gaza Rubble Since Ceasefire Went Into Effect
Gaza rescue workers say more than 9,500 people are missing
by Dave DeCamp | October 12, 2025, https://news.antiwar.com/2025/10/12/more-than-200-bodies-dug-out-of-the-gaza-rubble-since-ceasefire-went-into-effect/
Rescue workers in Gaza have recovered more than 200 bodies of Palestinians killed by the IDF from the rubble and from areas they were previously unable to access since the ceasefire went into effect on Friday, and Israeli troops pulled back from certain areas.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its death toll update on Sunday that at least 117 bodies were recovered over the previous 24-hour period. “A number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, where ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them at this time,” the ministry said.
On Saturday, the ministry said that at least 116 bodies were recovered over the previous 24 hours. Gaza’s Civil Defense said that around 9,500 Palestinians are reported missing, and most are presumed to be dead under the rubble.
As of Sunday, the Health Ministry’s violent death toll has reached 67,806, and the number of wounded has reached 170,066, meaning at a minimum, 237,872 Palestinians have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel unleashed its genocidal campaign following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The figure represents more than 10% of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.
Studies have shown the Health Ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount by as much as 40%, which means the real violent death toll could be around 100,000. The estimate doesn’t factor in deaths caused by the Israeli siege due to starvation, disease, the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure, and other factors, figures that could take years to determine.
Aid deliveries into Gaza are expected to surge as a result of the signing of the ceasefire deal, under which at least 600 trucks are supposed to enter the Strip per day, the minimum the UN says is needed to bring relief to Palestinians who have been starving under the Israeli siege. Back in August, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) determined that famine was taking place in Gaza City and likely in northern Gaza.
The famine declaration didn’t stop Israel’s plans to launch a major offensive on Gaza City, which continued until last week. The IDF has damaged or destroyed at least 83% of the buildings in Gaza City, and more than 500,000 Palestinians have returned to the area since the ceasefire went into effect to find total devastation.
Hamas is expected to release all remaining Israeli captives on Monday in exchange for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Israeli Government Votes to Implement Trump Peace Plan for Gaza as Hamas Pledges to Uphold It
Juan Cole, 10/10/2025, https://www.juancole.com/2025/10/government-implement-implementation.html
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 , the Israeli government on Friday approved the ceasefire in Gaza and the hostage exchange, and agreed to begin withdrawing troops from the west of the Strip. The approval came after the arrival of President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and their meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ceasefire was expected to go immediately into effect, with the Israeli military beginning its withdrawal from Gaza, to be followed by the exchange of hostages between Hamas and Israel over the next three days.
The extreme-right Religious Zionism and Jewish Power blocs, led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir respectively, voted against the agreement. Ordinarily, Netanyahu would need these votes for a majority in the 120-member Knesset or Israeli parliament, where his coalition has 64 seats. In this instance, however, the other Israeli parties, mostly center-right, had wanted this sort of agreement all along, and so they supported the sitting government from its left.
Orit Strook, Minister of Settlements and National Missions, also from Religious Zionism, said she was disappointed that Netanyahu had not explained to President Trump that Gaza is an inalienable part of Israel. (It isn’t.)
Smotrich expressed “Mixed feelings on a complex morning.” He spoke of his joy about the release of the remaining hostages, even though he had earlier repeatedly said that achieving the release of the hostages was not a high priority.
Smotrich defended his earlier obstructionism on the grounds that he had opposed “partial deals” that would have prevented the occupation of Gaza and the elimination of Hamas. In fact, of course, he opposed all deals and wanted to empty Gaza of its indigenous Palestinians, or the ones still left alive after two years of intensive bombing of civilian apartment buildings and infrastructure. Smotrich had also obstructed the delivery of aid to Gaza’s civilian population. He also opposed the release of 250 Palestinian hostages taken over the years by Israel, warning that they would go on to spill Jewish blood. Large numbers of the some 10,000 Palestinians kidnapped by Israel have never been so much as charged with committing violence, much less convicted. He pledged to go on striving to “eradicate” Hamas. Some ceasefire.
Conflicting reports are issuing from high Trump administration officials about whether 200 American troops would be sent to Gaza as observers of the ceasefire, with some confirming it and others denying it.
Hamas affirmed that they were committed to a deal that would end the two-year-long conflict.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said that it has enough food aid ready to go into Gaza to last for three months. The Israeli government has attempted to ban UNRWA, formed by the United Nations to help Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes by the Israelis, from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories, and has blocked most food aid since April. Gaza cannot feed itself, especially after the Israelis destroyed 80% of Gaza’s farmland. Nevertheless, UNRWA still has 12,000 workers in Gaza ready to swing into action to relieve the Israeli-imposed famine.
About the Author
Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment
Campaigners warn of ‘dangerous experiment’ as nuclear plans face backlash.
Tom Sinclair, 10 Oct 25, https://pembrokeshire-herald.com/124146/campaigners-warn-of-dangerous-experiment-as-nuclear-plans-face-backlash/
Climate Camp Cymru supports Llynfi Valley protest against small modular reactors – campaigners urge Pembrokeshire to stay alert
ENVIRONMENTAL activists from across Wales – including several from Pembrokeshire – joined forces with Climate Camp Cymru this summer to support the No Nuclear Llynfi campaign near Llangynwyd in the Llynfi Valley, South Wales.
The group is opposing plans by American company Last Energy to build four small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) on land within a mile of residential homes and two schools.
The company, a venture capital-backed start-up that has never built a reactor before, is currently seeking UK planning approval. Campaigners say it is deeply concerning that Last Energy is also suing the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, claiming its safety regulations are “overburdensome” – while applying similar pressure in the UK to reduce oversight and speed up development.
Concerns over waste and flood risk
No Nuclear Llynfi campaigners have highlighted several risks, including plans to store radioactive waste on-site indefinitely, and the fact that the proposed location lies below the water table in a Zone 3 flood risk area – the highest flood designation.
Other worries include the need for 24-hour armed security, the site’s proximity to homes and schools, and the potential use of generated power for data centres running artificial intelligence systems, rather than for local homes or industry.
spokesperson for Climate Camp Cymru said the project “treats post-industrial communities as expendable,” adding that “people in the valleys, and in places like Pembrokeshire too, are being used as testing grounds for risky new energy technologies.”
Raising awareness
The summer camp, set up over the August bank holiday weekend, occupied open land near the proposed nuclear site. Volunteers raised banners along the A4063, distributed flyers, and knocked on around 1,000 doors to alert residents.
Most locals, campaigners said, were unaware of the nuclear proposal – despite claims by Last Energy that it had consulted the community. “There’s a legal duty to inform residents, and that simply hasn’t been met,” organisers said.
An open meeting at Maesteg Rugby Club on September 25 drew strong attendance and marked the beginning of organised local opposition.
Workshops and wider links
Throughout the weekend, the camp hosted workshops and talks from campaigners behind Save Kilvey Hill in Swansea – where activists are fighting a proposed adventure park development – and from CND, the Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC), and academics from Cardiff University.
Discussions focused on linking environmental struggles across Wales, from open-cast mining and deforestation to speculative energy projects. Evenings featured live music and Welsh-language sessions celebrating Wales’ radical protest heritage.
Call for local action
Organisers say the success of the Llynfi camp shows the power of grassroots resistance. The camp was left clean and intact, with the landowner’s permission granted after the first day and support from nearby residents.
Pembrokeshire campaigners are now being encouraged to stay alert to similar proposals in the west. Sites such as Trawsfynydd and Wylfa are already under consideration for future SMR projects, and environmental groups warn that West Wales could be next.
Anyone interested in hosting or seeking support from next year’s Climate Camp Cymru can contact the group via email at climatecampcymru@proton.me.
UK small businesses and charities say nuclear levy could add thousands to bills.
Charge from next month expected to have disproportionate impact after energy-intensive industries given exemption.
Jillian Ambrose Guardian, 13 Oct 25
British charities and small businesses have warned that a new levy on energy bills, intended to support the government’s nuclear power ambitions, could raise their costs by thousands of pounds a year.
The extra charge could mean a significant cost hike for charities and small businesses with high energy use, meaning community services may be cut and economic growth curtailed, according to trade groups.
For most charities, the levy, which takes effect in November, will mean an increase in costs of between £100 and £240 a year, but some could experience increases of up to £2,500, according to Social Investment Business, an organisation that offers loans and financial support to charities.
Nick Temple, the chief executive of Social Investment Business, said: “Adding yet more charges on top of charity electricity bills penalises our most vital community spaces at a time when they are already struggling.”
For small business, including those in hospitality, the extra costs could undermine growth in the UK economy and make the shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon electricity more expensive, according to trade associations.
The levy is designed to pay back investors in the Sizewell C nuclear project in Suffolk while the power plant is under construction.
Households can expect the levy to add about £12 a year to their energy bills, but organisations with high energy use will shoulder a greater cost burden. This will have a disproportionate impact on smaller businesses and charities with high energy demands because energy intensive industries such as steel, cement and glass-making have been granted exemption.
A Bristol-based community arts organisation, Spike Island, has been told to expect a hike of £1,ooo a year from the nuclear levy alone. The company, which provides subsidised studios for underrepresented artists, expects the extra costs to put a strain on its work……………………………………………………..
Business groups have also said that the costs are a “huge concern” for smaller companies, which they say will be forced to carry a disproportionate cost burden because larger companies were given exemptions………………………………………………………. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/12/uk-small-businesses-and-charities-say-nuclear-levy-could-add-thousands-to-bills
Labour investing in nuclear due to fear of Scottish independence.
LABOUR may be investing hard in nuclear energy due to the fear of Scottish
independence, Stephen Flynn has suggested.
The SNP Westminster was speaking
at an event at SNP conference and took aim at the amount of cash the UK
Government has diverted from funding GB Energy to nuclear projects in
England.
Labour’s General Election manifesto in 2024 pledged £8.3
billion to GB Energy but Rachel Reeves effectively cut billions in funding
from the energy company — which is officially headquartered in Aberdeen,
although most jobs so far are in England – in June.
The Chancellor’s
spending review said a new body tasked with spearheading Britain’s
nuclear renaissance would receive £2.5bn of that funding for small modular
reactors (SMRs). She also confirmed a further £14.2 billion UK Government
investment in the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Sussex.
“I understand from a UK Government perspective why they might seek to go down that route because of the lack of indigenous energy production that they have,” Flynn told delegates. “And maybe there’s a fear in the back of their mind that if Scotland goes, they’re going to have to find some
electricity tonto to meet their own energy security requirements.”
In 2024, renewable energy accounted for about 70% of Scotland’s electricity
generation, which is significantly higher than England – which relies
more heavily on a mix that includes fossil fuels and nuclear power. Swinney
also hit out at the amount of Scottish families who are living in fuel
poverty despite Scotland being energy rich. “Scotland produces 6 times
more gas than it consumes, and 70% of our electricity comes from renewable sources,” he said. “So, I think all of us should be should be
questioning why we are such an energy originator and so many of our people are living in fuel poverty and why we’re not able to maximise that energy production in order to attract businesses and then, therefore, grow our economy.”
The National 12th Oct 2025, https://www.thenational.scot/news/25536897.labour-investing-nuclear-due-fear-scottish-independence/
Mainers: you have a chance to nip this Wiscasset data center idea in the bud
12 Oct 25
Scroll down for details on the next hearing, which will be October 21.
All these data centers are being fast-tracked to secure global fascism. I don’t even distinguish anymore between military or domestic control. It’s the same foe (Silicon Valley) with the same infrastructure: AI, data centers, nuclear power, mining, land theft, water theft, skyrocketing power bills, etc.
They can’t do AI and create a fascist surveillance planet with automated warfare unless they have these data centers. Stopping data centers is the most effective way of thwarting militarism in the 21st century. AI fascism is NOT a done deal (until they get the data centers up, get rid of physical cash, and make sure we continue scrolling on the internet.)
Here’s how to nip this in the bud:
When they wanted to build a space port in Hawaii and the company was in the early stages of building community trust (like the stage this data center is now in), we showed up in full force with a PA system and guitar and songs about how we didn’t want the spaceport. I also passed out hundreds of information sheets that talked about the devastation that the spaceport would bring. Basically, WE OWNED THE SPACE. It scared the shit out of them and they never came back. Hell, they didn’t want to deal with rowdies like us! See if you can get a gang together to do the same at the Oct. 21 hearing!
Westport, Wiscasset Residents Share Dissent on Possible Data Center
October 11, 2025 , Ali Juell
In a continuation of debate on a potential data center, the Wiscasset Select Board heard several public comments related to the possible development at their Tuesday, Oct. 7 meeting.
Wiscasset town officials told the county commissioners they were in early talks to turn the former Maine Yankee site on Old Ferry Road into a data center at a Sept. 16 commissioners meeting. At the time, Wiscasset Economic Development Director Aaron Chrostowsky said the project could strengthen Wiscasset’s tax base and provide jobs for construction and tech workers.
During the Oct. 7 meeting, Westport Island and Wiscasset residents expressed concerns about a data center’s potential long-term impacts to the environment and community.
“I would ask yourselves not only what is good for Wiscasset but … what’s good for Midcoast Maine,” Westport island resident Parkinson Pino said at the meeting.
Before opening the floor for public comment, Wiscasset Select Board Chair Sarah Whitfield said no formal proposal for a data center has been submitted. She said the town and the project assessor are asking questions of each other to ensure there is a complete understanding of the possible development.
If a completed application does come to the table, she said there will be ample opportunity for public involvement and input.
“We will absolutely do our due diligence,” Whitfield said. “Everything from environmental concerns to traffic to sound, light, water community, all of that will be addressed … if this moves forward, and we don’t even know if it will.”
Attendees raised a number of concerns such as the power demands, water capacity, and environmental effects brought on by a data center. Above all, people said they hope Wiscasset will consider the impacts of the data center both within and beyond town lines.
“There are questions here that could have huge consequences not just for Wiscasset but for Westport, Edgecomb, Georgetown, Boothbay, and Southport,” Westport Island resident Sam Godin said, calling on the board to keep the public informed if the process continues.
Comparing the data center to the Maine Yankee nuclear plant, Pino said the town should consider the potential aftermath of buying into corporate interest in the site.
“There are many consequences with this technology,” he said. “I would be very concerned about making sure you know as much as you can know about that (proposal).”
The next Wiscasset Select Board meeting is at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21 in the meeting room at the town municipal building. For more information, go to wiscasset.gov or call 882-8200.
Antarctica may have crossed a tipping point that leads to rising seas
Scientists are beginning to understand the sudden loss of sea ice in
Antarctica – and there is growing evidence that it represents a permanent
shift with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Antarctica may have
passed a climate tipping point of no return, scientists are warning, with
mounting evidence that a sudden slump in sea ice formation since 2016 is
linked to human-induced ocean warming. For decades, Antarctic sea ice
levels remained relatively stable despite rising global temperatures. But
that shifted suddenly in 2016, when the extent of sea ice began to sharply
fall.
The consequences of this recent shift could be catastrophic.
Antarctica’s sea ice helps to stabilise glaciers and ice sheets on the
land. Without adequate sea ice formation, their melting rates will
accelerate, with the potential to cause extreme global sea level rise. It
is estimated that the Antarctic ice sheet contains enough water to raise
global sea levels by 58 metres.
New Scientist 2nd Oct 2025 https://www.newscientist.com/article/2498509-antarctica-may-have-crossed-a-tipping-point-that-leads-to-rising-seas/
Italy’s Second General Strike for Gaza Brought 2 Million Workers into the Streets
The next day, one million people joined a demonstration in Rome, which highlighted Italy’s complicity in the genocide.
By Laura Montanari , Truthout, October 11, 2025, https://truthout.org/articles/italys-second-general-strike-for-gaza-brought-2m-workers-into-the-streets/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=b6b31995af-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_10_11_04_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-b6b31995af-650192793
It seemed impossible for Italy to strike for Palestine more successfully than it did the first time, yet it happened: 2 million people returned to the streets on October 3, blocking everything again. The second general strike was called by Si Cobas labor union on September 18, and circulated broadly after September 22, the date of the first strike.
After Israel attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla on the evening of October 1, CGIL (the biggest Italian union) and USB (the union that called the earlier general strike) joined the call. This landmark event marked the first time that all the leftist labor unions in the country decided to go on strike together.
The days preceding the strike were filled with constant mobilization. People took to the streets as soon as the attack on the flotilla was reported through media channels. A spontaneous rage and a will to act took over, with people rushing to the main squares in different Italian cities. After two years of genocide witnessed through phone and laptop screens, people of all ages gathered together physically in continuous and heterogeneous demonstrations. On October 2, the day after the attacks, people were in the streets again, in a diffuse vibrant and electric atmosphere that foreshadowed what would happen over the next two days.
As Marika Giati — a PhD student at the University of Pisa and part of the Women’s Assembly of the Migrants Coordination in Bologna — told Truthout, “In these demonstrations, a new consciousness could be felt — one that exploded and connected with the massive mobilizations stretching from Spain to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Tunisia, Mexico, and Morocco.”
People were enraged by the Italian government as well. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking about Israel’s illegal control of the international waters adjacent to Gaza, said that international law is important, “but does not always matter” — justifying both the Israeli blockade, and the fact that the Italian frigate accompanying the flotilla abandoned the flotilla while it was being attacked and while Italian citizens were being illegally arrested by Israel.
Chris Hedges: Trump’s Sham Peace Plan
October 11, 2025, By Chris Hedges ScheerPost , https://scheerpost.com/2025/10/11/chris-hedges-trumps-sham-peace-plan/
There is no shortage of failed peace plans in occupied Palestine, all of them incorporating detailed phases and timelines, going back to the presidency of Jimmy Carter. They end the same way. Israel gets what it wants initially — in the latest case the release of the remaining Israeli hostages — while it ignores and violates every other phase until it resumes its attacks on the Palestinian people.
It is a sadistic game. A merry-go-round of death. This ceasefire, like those of the past, is a commercial break. A moment when the condemned man is allowed to smoke a cigarette before being gunned down in a fusillade of bullets.
Once Israeli hostages are released, the genocide will continue. I do not know how soon. Let’s hope the mass slaughter is delayed for at least a few weeks. But a pause in the genocide is the best we can anticipate. Israel is on the cusp of emptying Gaza, which has been all but obliterated under two years of relentless bombing. It is not about to be stopped. This is the culmination of the Zionist dream. The United States, which has given Israel a staggering $22 billion in military aid since Oct, 7, 2023, will not shut down its pipeline, the only tool that might halt the genocide.
Israel, as it always does, will blame Hamas and the Palestinians for failing to abide by the agreement, most probably a refusal — true or not — to disarm, as the proposal demands. Washington, condemning Hamas’s supposed violation, will give Israel the green light to continue its genocide to create Trump’s fantasy of a Gaza Riviera and “special economic zone” with its “voluntary”relocation of Palestinians in exchange for digital tokens.
Of the myriads of peace plans over the decades, the current one is the least serious. Aside from a demand that Hamas release the hostages within 72-hours after the ceasefire begins, it lacks specifics and imposed timetables. It is filled with caveats that allow Israel to abrogate the agreement. And that is the point. It is not designed to be a viable path to peace, which most Israeli leaders understand. Israel’s largest-circulation newspaper, Israel Hayom, established by the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson to serve as a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and champion messianic Zionism, instructed its readers not to be concerned about the Trump plan because it is only “rhetoric.”
Israel, in one example from the proposal, will “not return to areas that have been withdrawn from, as long as Hamas fully implements the agreement.”
Who decides if Hamas has “fully implemented” the agreement? Israel. Does anyone believe in Israel’s good faith? Can Israel be trusted as an objective arbitrator of the agreement? If Hamas — demonized as a terrorist group — objects, will anyone listen?
How is it possible that a peace proposal ignores the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion, which reiterated that Israel’s occupation is illegal and must end?
How can it fail to mention the Palestinian’s right to self-determination?
Why are Palestinians, who have a right under international law to armed struggle against an occupying power, expected to disarm while Israel, the illegally occupying force, is not?
By what authority can the U.S. establish a “temporary transitional government,” — Trump’s and Tony Blair’s so-called “Board of Peace” — sidelining the Palestinian right to self-determination?
Who gave the U.S. the authority to send to Gaza an “International Stabilization Force,” a polite term for foreign occupation?
How are Palestinians supposed to reconcile themselves to the acceptance of an Israeli “security barrier” on Gaza’s borders, confirmation that the occupation will continue?
How can any proposal ignore the slow-motion genocide and annexation of the West Bank?
Why is Israel, which has destroyed Gaza, not required to pay reparations?
What are Palestinians supposed to make of the demand in the proposal for a “deradicalized” Gazan population? How is this expected to be accomplished? Re-education camps? Wholesale censorship? The rewriting of the school curriculum? Arresting offending Imams in mosques?
And what about addressing the incendiary rhetoric routinely employed by Israeli leaders who describe Palestinians as “human animals” and their children as “little snakes”?
“All of Gaza and every child in Gaza, should starve to death,” the Israeli rabbi Ronen Shaulov announced. “I don’t have mercy for those who, in a few years, will grow up and won’t have mercy for us. Only a stupid fifth column, a hater of Israel has mercy for future terrorists, even though today they are still young and hungry. I hope, may they starve to death, and if anyone has a problem with what I’ve said, that’s their problem.”
Israeli violations of peace agreements have historical precedents.
The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin — without the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — led to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt.
Subsequent phases of the Camp David Accords, which included a promise by Israel to resolve the Palestinian question along with Jordan and Egypt, permit Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza within five years, and end the building of Israeli colonies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were never implemented.
The 1993 Oslo Accords, signed in 1993, saw the PLO recognize Israel’s right to exist and Israel recognize the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people. Yet, what ensued was the disempowerment of the PLO and its transformation into a colonial police force. Oslo II, signed in 1995, detailed the process towards peace and a Palestinian state. But it too was stillborn. It stipulated that any discussion of illegal Jewish “settlements” were to be delayed until “final” status talks. By then, Israeli military withdrawals from the occupied West Bank were scheduled to have been completed. Governing authority was poised to be transferred from Israel to the supposedly temporary Palestinian Authority. Instead, the West Bank was carved up into Areas A, B and C. The Palestinian Authority had limited authority in Areas A and B while Israel controlled all of Area C, over 60 percent of the West Bank.
The right of Palestinian refugees to return to the historic lands that Jewish settlers seized from them in 1948 when Israel was created — a right enshrined in international law — was given up by the PLO leader Yasser Arafat. This instantly alienated many Palestinians, especially those in Gaza where 75 percent are refugees or the descendants of refugees. As a consequence, many Palestinians abandoned the PLO in favor of Hamas. Edward Said called the Oslo Accords “an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles” and lambasted Arafat as “the Pétain of the Palestinians.”
The scheduled Israeli military withdrawals under Oslo never took place. There were around 250,000 Jewish colonists in the West Bank when the Oslo agreement was signed. Their numbers today have increased to at least 700,000.
The journalist Robert Fisk called Oslo “a sham, a lie, a trick to entangle Arafat and the PLO into abandonment of all that they had sought and struggled for over a quarter of a century, a method of creating false hope in order to emasculate the aspiration of statehood.”
Israel unilaterally broke the last two-month-long ceasefire on March 18 of this year when it launched surprise airstrikes on Gaza. Netanyahu’s office claimed that the resumption of the military campaign was in response to Hamas’s refusal to release hostages, its rejection of proposals to extend the cease-fire and its efforts to rearm. Israel killed more than 400 people in the initial overnight assault and injured over 500, slaughtering and wounding people as they slept. The attack scuttled the second stage of the agreement, which would have seen Hamas release the remaining living male hostages, both civilians and soldiers, for an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and the establishment of a permanent ceasefire along with the eventual lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Israel has carried out murderous assaults on Gaza for decades, cynically calling the bombardment “mowing the lawn.” No peace accord or ceasefire agreement has ever gotten in the way. This one will be no exception.
This bloody saga is not over. Israel’s goals remain unchanged: the dispossession and erasure of Palestinians from their land.
The only peace Israel intends to offer the Palestinians is the peace of the grave.
‘It’s going to be really bad’: Fears over AI bubble bursting grow in Silicon Valley
“We’re creating a new man-made ecological disaster: enormous data centres in remote places like deserts, that will be rusting away and leaching bad things into the environment, with no one left to hold accountable because the builders and investors will be long gone,”
He’s especially concerned now given the magnitude of money on the table as compared to the dot-com boom. There’s so much more to lose.
“When [the bubble] breaks, it’s going to be really bad,
BBC, Lily Jamali, Technology correspondent, San Francisco 11 Oct 25
At OpenAI’s DevDaythis week, OpenAI boss Sam Altman did what American tech bosses rarely do these days: he actually answered questions from reporters.
“I know it’s tempting to write the bubble story,” Mr Altman told me as he sat flanked by his top lieutenants. “In fact, there are many parts of AI that I think are kind of bubbly right now.”
In Silicon Valley, the debate over whether AI companies are overvalued has taken on a new urgency.
Sceptics are privately – and some now publicly – asking whether the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be, at least in part, the result of what they call “financial engineering”.
In other words – there are fears these companies are overvalued.
Mr Altman said he expected investors would make some bad calls and silly start-ups would walk away with crazy money.
But with OpenAI, he told me, “there’s something real happening here”.
Not everyone is convinced.
In recent days, warnings of an AI bubble have come from the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund, as well as JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon who told the BBC “the level of uncertainty should be higher in most people’s minds”.
And here, in what is often considered the tech capital of the world, concerns are growing.
At a panel discussion at Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum this week, early AI entrepreneur Jerry Kaplan told a packed audience he has lived through four bubbles.
He’s especially concerned now given the magnitude of money on the table as compared to the dot-com boom. There’s so much more to lose.
“When [the bubble] breaks, it’s going to be really bad, and not just for people in AI,” he said.
“It’s going to drag down the rest of the economy.”………………….
AI-related enterprises have accounted for 80% of the stunning gains in the American stock market this year – and Gartner estimates global spending on AI will likely reach a whopping $1.5tn (£1.1tn) before 2025 is out.
Tangled web of deals
OpenAI, which brought AI into the consumer mainstream with ChatGPT in 2022, is at the centre of the tangled web of deals drawing scrutiny…………………………………………………
Then there’s tech giant Microsoft, which is heavily invested, and cloud computing behemoth Oracle has a $300bn deal with OpenAI, too.
OpenAI’s Stargate project in Abilene, Texas, funded with the help of Oracle and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and announced at the White House during President Donald Trump’s first week in office, grows ever larger every few months………………………………………
And as these increasingly complex financing arrangements get more and more common, the experts here in Silicon Valley say they may be clouding perceptions on AI demand.
Some people aren’t mincing their words about it either, calling the deals “circular financing” or even “vendor financing” – where a company invests in or lends to its own customers so they can continue making purchases.
“Yes, the investment loans are unprecedented,” Mr Altman told me on Monday……………………………………………….
OpenAI’s revenue is growing quickly, but it has never turned a profit.
And it is hardly a good sign that the people I’ve spoken to keep bringing up Nortel – the Canadian telecom equipment-maker that borrowed prolifically to help finance deals for their customers (and thereby artificially boost demand for their wares)………………………..
Telltale signs
Mr Kaplan says he seesa couple of telltale signs the AI sector – and therefore the wider economy – could be in trouble.
In frothy times, he says, companies announce major initiatives and product plans that they don’t yet have the capital for.
Meanwhile, retail investors clamour to get in on the start-up action.
The surge in AMD stock this week could indicate investors are trying to get a piece of the ChatGPT wealth machine – and while all this is playing out, real physical infrastructure aimed at satisfying the seemingly insatiable hunger for more AI development is being built.
“We’re creating a new man-made ecological disaster: enormous data centres in remote places like deserts, that will be rusting away and leaching bad things into the environment, with no one left to hold accountable because the builders and investors will be long gone,” Mr Kaplan said. ……………………………………….
There are plenty of believers in AI’s potential to transform society.
The question is whether the money to fund the ambitions of the foremost companies in the sector may be drying up………………………………https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz69qy760weo
From AI to TikTok to TV, This Pro-Israel Billionaire Is Expanding Power in US
One of Trump’s advisers once called megabillionaire Larry Ellison a “shadow president of the United States.”
By Derek Seidman , Truthout, October 11, 2025
arry Ellison’s name isn’t always mentioned alongside more public-facing megabillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg. But as he vaults to the top of the U.S. power elite after a string of high-profile corporate deals, that’s about to change.
Ellison, the founder of the tech giant Oracle, is quickly emerging as the new face of oligarchic power in the U.S. Oracle has become an AI powerhouse at the same time Ellison and his son David have acquired Paramount and its vast media empire. With Donald Trump’s recent executive order, Ellison and Oracle will also now oversee TikTok’s algorithms, shaping a platform that reaches 150 million U.S. users.
What’s more alarming than Ellison’s sheer wealth — in September, he briefly surpassed Musk as the world’s richest person — is that he’s building his concentrated power and control in collaboration with the Trumpian project of attacking so-called “wokeness,” all while supercharging the corporate expansion of artificial intelligence and tech surveillance.
Moreover, Ellison is a vocal supporter of the Israeli military and a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Israel looks to repair its image after two years of overseeing a genocide in Gaza, it’ll have a powerful booster in Ellison and his new media kingdom.
The Making of a Megabillionaire
Larry Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and was its CEO for nearly four decades. The firm ascended by providing database software for business and government agencies. Oracle’s first customer was the CIA, and the company is named after a CIA project.
Over time, Oracle has swelled into a business empire focused on cloud services and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.
Today, Ellison is worth more than $350 billion. He owns more than 40 percent of Oracle’s stock and still serves as the corporation’s executive chairman and chief technology officer. Ellison was also on Tesla’s board of directors from 2018 to 2022 and holds a 1.4 percent stake in the company that’s worth billions…………………………………..
Trump-Tied AI Deals
But far more than wealth and luxury, Ellison has power. Notably, he’s forged a close relationship with Donald Trump, with one Trump adviser calling him a “shadow president of the United States.”
While Ellison hasn’t directly donated to Trump, he personally hosted a major 2020 Trump fundraiser. Ellison also joined a November 2020 call “where Trump staffers and supporters discussed strategies for challenging their candidate’s loss at the ballot box,” according to The Washington Post………………………………..
A huge swath of Oracle’s AI business comes from a $300 billion deal with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Oracle’s partnership with OpenAI was supercharged by Trump’s announcement in January of the Stargate AI joint venture, which The New York Times called an “early trophy” for Trump.
Indeed, Stargate is just one expression of the mutually beneficial alliance that Ellison has forged with Trump. Oracle’s expanding partnership with OpenAI reflects a new primacy for Ellison within the AI boom that is increasingly driving the entire U.S. economy.
Media Mogul
This should raise alarm bells, especially since Ellison has openly celebrated AI’s ability to surveil people, pronouncing in 2024 that “citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”
Ellison’s alliance with Trump is also transforming him into an unrivaled media mogul…………………………………………………………………………………..
The Ellisons’ quest for media dominance doesn’t end with Paramount. They’re reportedly eying Warner Brothers, the iconic movie studio and owner of CNN and HBO. Such an acquisition, which would need the Trump administration’s approval, would create a media empire transcending even Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate.
And then came the TikTok deal…………………………………………………………………………………..
For Ellison, all his new acquisitions present the opportunity to forge a truly novel corporate mega-empire that will dominate the U.S. media and attention economy, injecting his agenda like a thread across an AI-powered chain of news outlets, streaming sites, film studios, and social media outlets.
“We Love the Country of Israel”
“These are very smart people, and none of this is accidental,” noted one business professor.
All of this is very good for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s vast influence operation.
Ellison is a staunch backer of Israel. He is one of the top donors to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), a U.S. nonprofit that effectively subsidizes the Israeli military. Ellison has given the FIDF at least $26.6 million.
“I feel a deep emotional connection to the State of Israel and the Israeli people,” Ellison said at the 2014 FIDF gala. “We love the country of Israel and we’ll do everything we can to support the country of Israel,” he added, with his “we” seeming to refer to Oracle.
Ellison is also extremely close to Netanyahu, who has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court over Israel’s genocide in Gaza………………………………………………………..
Ellison is also a backer of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and has given or pledged at least $348 million to Blair’s Institute for Global Change. Blair could be part of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Gaza if the current ceasefire deal holds.
…………………………………………………… Netanyahu recently called TikTok “the most important purchase going on right now,” adding that “weapons change over time,” and the most important ones today “are on social media.”
Now Oracle, led by Netanyahu’s friend and staunch ally Larry Ellison, is overseeing TikTok’s U.S. algorithms.
There are already clear signs of Ellison’s intent to take his new media empire in a pro-Israel direction, including his hiring of Weiss as CBS News’s editor-in-chief. The billionaire-courting Weiss is a staunch Zionist whose Free Press has stoked “genocide denial” with an “investigation” into “preexisting health conditions” of starving Palestinian children, notes The Intercept.
Modern-Day Robber Baron
Like the robber barons of the late 19th-century U.S., Ellison is consolidating his control over a vast corporate empire that dominates major sectors, from cloud storage and AI data centers, to iconic movie studios, mass news channels, and social media.
And clearly, Ellison is bringing his politics with him: Trump-aligned, anti-“woke,” and staunchly pro-Israel.
“Everything is consolidating,” media historian Michael Socolow told The New York Times. “What makes these deals different is that they are across multiple platforms.”
“To have the opportunity to establish an editorial line across TikTok, CBS News and CNN — that’s a new world,” Socolow added. https://truthout.org/articles/from-ai-to-tiktok-to-tv-this-pro-israel-billionaire-is-expanding-power-in-us/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=314e14bc07-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_10_11_06_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-314e14bc07-650192793
After robbing EU taxpayers, Zelensky uses blackmail to get inside the Bloc
He is demanding that Ukraine be made a member of the EU, and he wants to change the rules of the bloc to speed up the process.
The racket has laundered hundreds of billions of public money to the Western military industrial complex. The racket has destroyed the economies of Europe
Zelensky’s corrupt dictatorship is just a pale reflection of his patrons in Washington, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and London.
Since the United States-led NATO proxy war against Russia erupted in February 2022, the European Union has doled out $216 billion in aid to Ukraine. That’s equivalent to €186 billion, according to the EU’s latest official count. The true figure is likely to be even more.
The United States has given a similar amount to Ukraine. All paid for by taxpayers.
That’s about $400 billion total in three years, with the EU promising more over the next few years.
To put this in perspective, the EU aid to Ukraine is multiples more than all of the 27 member nations have received – combined – from the bloc’s collective budget and administration. According to Euronews reporting, some of the biggest recipients of EU subsidies each year are Germany (€14 bn), France (€16.5 bn), and Poland (€14 bn). Some of the smaller recipient countries are Austria, Denmark, and Ireland (around €2 bn).
That means Ukraine has received heaps more than all of the EU members combined.
Get your head around that. Ukraine, which is not a member of the European Union, is receiving manifold what actual member states are receiving. And you wonder why people in France are angrily taking to the streets because their shambolic government wants to cut pensions and other social welfare services to save money. Elsewhere, European governments are collapsing from unsustainable debt. And, at the same time, European citizens are constantly being lectured that their states need to spend more and more money on the NATO alliance, even to the insulting point of having to accept the cutting of social benefits and public services
Ukraine and its corrupt Kiev regime of NeoNazis has bled Europe dry. The so-called president, Vladimir Zelensky (who canceled elections last year, so he’s not really a legitimate president), is reported to be funneling €50 million a month to overseas funds for his retirement while his wife goes luxury shopping in New York and Paris. Other members of the regime, like former prime minister and now “defense” minister Denys Shmyhal, are also reportedly up to their eyes in corruption, siphoning off billions in the military aid that Western taxpayers have paid for.
This week, Zelensky took his brassneckery to new levels – if that’s possible. He is demanding that Ukraine be made a member of the EU, and he wants to change the rules of the bloc to speed up the process. The EU has granted Ukraine (and Moldova) a fast-track path to membership, but, to its credit, Hungary has objected to this.
In June, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán cast a veto on continuing access talks for Ukraine. According to EU rules, there must be unanimity among member nations for the approval of new members. Orbán said Ukraine is not eligible because of the current war against Russia. “We would be importing a war,” he said.
Also, Budapest objects to Ukrainian language laws that discriminate against a Hungarian minority in the western Zakarpattia region of Ukraine. (The Russian language has been banned, too, in public offices.)
A referendum held in Hungary in June recorded that 95 percent of voters were against Ukraine becoming a member of the EU.
Zelensky is pushing ahead regardless, with his peevish wheedling. In a joint press conference in Kiev on Monday, with the indulgence of the Dutch PM at his side, Zelensky said: “Ukraine will be in the European Union, with or without Orbán, because it is the choice of the Ukrainian people.”
The little dictator flaunted his insufferable presumptuousness by hinting that the European Union would change its rules to bypass Hungary’s veto – all just to accommodate his scrounging regime. “Changing the procedure is called finding a way without Hungary,” he said. And in a further arrogant dismissal of democratic process, Zelensky asserted that the Hungarian people support his EU ambitions, contradicting the referendum back in June.
Orbán responded firmly by telling Zelensky he could not blackmail his way into the European Union.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó added a dose of reality by stating: “The decision on which country is ready to join the European Union and which can join the EU will not be made by the president of Ukraine, but by the European Union itself, where such decisions require unanimity.”
In a further comment, Szijjártó nailed it by saying that Zelensky is “completely detached from reality.” The Hungarian diplomat also reminded that the Kiev regime is blowing up energy infrastructure and jeopardizing the EU members’ vital interests.
Last month, Ukrainian forces exploded the Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia, cutting off energy supplies to Hungary and Slovakia. The Zelensky regime carried out the sabotage as retribution for Budapest’s opposition to Ukraine’s EU application. This is what Orbán was no doubt referring to when he slammed Zelensky this week for using blackmail.
So, there you have it. A corrupt, unelected, Neo-Nazi regime headed up by a Jewish scam-artist who plays piano with his penis while wearing women’s high heels is using terrorist tactics to attack the vital interests of EU members, and is now telling those members that they won’t have a vote in the EU processes, because the regime has decided it will become a member of the bloc. You could not make it up. This, too, after robbing the taxpayers of the bloc of €186 billion to wage a war against Russia – a war that has killed 1.5 million Ukrainian soldiers – which could spiral out of control into a nuclear Third World War.
If this is the kind of ruination that this regime can inflict while not being a member of the EU, one can only imagine the hellscape it will bring after becoming a member……..
the real culprits in this obscene farce are the American and European elites who have fomented the war against Russia. Together, they have weaned and pampered the Kiev regime with largesse and indulgence, paid for by the taxpayers. The U.S.-EU transatlantic ruling class has cultivated the regime of corruption and war since the 2014 CIA-backed coup in Kiev against an elected president. The racket has laundered hundreds of billions of public money to the Western military industrial complex. The racket has destroyed the economies of Europe and is now destroying the semblance of democracy within Europe. (It’s not clear what Trump’s position in all of this is, but he probably doesn’t count anyway.)
The Western imperialist ruling class is so obsessed with its scheme for “strategic defeat” of Russia (and China) and for global domination that it is willing to cultivate any scumbag regime it can make use of for its goals, no matter how much that violates international law and its own professed democratic principles.
Zelensky’s corrupt dictatorship is just a pale reflection of his patrons in Washington, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and London. They are all detached from reality. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/10/10/after-robbing-eu-taxpayers-zelensky-uses-blackmail-to-get-inside-the-bloc/
Boldness is needed to take on toxicity of nuclear power.
SCOTLAND’S nuclear facilities, civilian and military, are leaking. Is
this an occasional hazard to bear, as we resolutely defend and power
ourselves? Or another indicator of how much independence has to clean up the modernity of Scotland?
This week’s reports of radioactive water
rushing into the Caithness shore at Dounreay – containing Caesium-137, as
well as alpha- and non-alpha-emitting radionuclides – admittedly came
from a clean-up situation, the decommissioning of the plant itself. But the
context makes you shudder. These “accidental” releases – spewing from
some “underground facility” – were deemed a “very small fraction of
our normal discharges via authorised discharge routes”, says Nuclear
Restoration Services (NRS), the firm responsible. (By the way, according to
the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory – a chilling vista of our
nation’s industrial filth – the “authorised” routes contain
Strontium-90 and tritium, some of the most dangerous by-products of nuclear generation).
Consider also last year’s leaks. They identified “corroded
steelwork in a building being used to store drums of radioactive sodium,
and leaks from low-level radioactive waste pits”, as reported in this
paper. It’s all a demonstration of the sheer toxicity of nuclear power
– as evident in its disassembly, as in its installation. And I can’t
not mention the 585 cracks in the graphic reactor core of the ageing
Torness nuclear plant in East Lothian, reported by The Ferret earlier this
year. This is a tiny bit less than the amount – counted across two
reactors – that compelled the shutdown of Hunterston B in 2022. Much
technocratic reassurance from the French owner-operators EDF about safety, until some projected cessation in the early 2030s.
But I’m not exactly
consoled. Are you? And if we need investigative reporting to unearth leaks
in the notoriously defensive nuclear energy sector, imagine the digging
required to get the same from our nuclear warfare facilities.
The Ferret again triumphed in August after a six-year battle, releasing proof of a 2019 irradiated spill from burst pipes at Royal Navy’s Coulport nuclear bombstore, pouring deep into Loch Long.
The National 11th Oct 2025, https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25535392.boldness-needed-take-toxicity-nuclear-power/
Chicago Tribune avoids giving Donald Trump “great credit” for enabling Israeli genocide in Gaza for 9 months
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 11 Oct 25
The Chicago Tribune is correct to praise Donald Trump for brokering a ceasefire in Gaza (Editorial: A remarkable day for peace in the Middle East. Donald Trump deserves great credit.)
However, good editorial journalism requires fair and thorough analysis and assessment. Alas, the Trib’s editorial is virtually devoid of that.
Calling it “two years of fighting and killing” is a callous way of describing two years of genocide inflicted by Israel that has largely obliterated Gaza, killing likely over 100,000 Palestinians and putting the remaining 2,200,000 into starvation and degraded health. That will increase the Palestinian death toll for weeks, months, years to come. That is not “fighting and killing”. It’s genocide, largely recognized by the entire world outside of the Israel and US political leadership. By the way….the US electorate views it as genocide.
An equally egregious Trib omission concerns the Editorial Board’s lavish praise of Trump’s conduct. The Trib likens Trump to the Long Ranger, riding out of the sunset to bring peace to the Palestinians.
If the Trib wants to praise Trump’s role in the ceasefire…fine. But why not include that for nearly 9 months Trump has been funding the genocide with billions in weapons, protecting it with vetoes of UN resolutions condemning the genocide, seeking African countries to take in the Palestinians from Gaza not killed by Trump’s bombs, and excited by the prospect of a Trump real estate project to rebuild Gaza for Greater Israel.
These are not inconvenient facts. They will forever be etched into the history of the worst humanitarian catastrophe the US has ever participated in during its 250 years.
The Chicago Tribune should have balanced its editorial solely praising peacemaker Trump, with condemnation of genocide Trump for enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza for nine long months following his predecessor Biden enabling it during his last 15 months.
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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