Israel’s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza
Authorities’ Widespread Deprivation of Water Threatens Survival
Human Rights Watch 19 Dec 24
Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population in Gaza by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.
In doing so, Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide. The pattern of conduct, coupled with statements suggesting that some Israeli officials wished to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, may amount to the crime of genocide.
- Governments and international organizations should take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, including discontinuing military assistance, reviewing bilateral agreements and diplomatic relations, and supporting the International Criminal Court and other accountability efforts.
(Jerusalem) – Israeli authorities have intentionally deprived Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water since October 2023, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths and thus committing the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
In the 179-page report, “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water,” Human Rights Watch found that Israeli authorities have intentionally deprived Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation needed for basic human survival. Israeli authorities and forces cut off and later restricted piped water to Gaza; rendered most of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure useless by cutting electricity and restricting fuel; deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials; and blocked the entry of critical water supplies.
“Water is essential for human life, yet for over a year the Israeli government has deliberately denied Palestinians in Gaza the bare minimum they need to survive,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “This isn’t just negligence; it is a calculated policy of deprivation that has led to the deaths of thousands from dehydration and disease that is nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination, and an act of genocide.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 66 Palestinians from Gaza, 4 employees of Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), 31 healthcare professionals, and 15 people working with United Nations agencies and international aid organizations in Gaza. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery, photographs, and videos captured between the beginning of the hostilities in October 2023 and September 2024, as well as data collected and estimates produced by doctors, epidemiologists, humanitarian aid organizations, and water and sanitation experts.
Human Rights Watch concluded that Israeli authorities have intentionally created conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza in whole or in part. This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to one of the five “acts of genocide” under the Genocide Convention of 1948. Genocidal intent may also be inferred from this policy, coupled with statements suggesting some Israeli officials wished to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, and therefore the policy may amount to the crime of genocide.
Immediately after the attacks in southern Israel by Hamas-led Palestinian armed groups in Gaza on October 7, 2023, which Human Rights Watch has found amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Israeli authorities cut all electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip. On October 9, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, stating: “There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed.”
That same day, and for weeks thereafter, Israeli authorities cut off all water and blocked fuel, food, and humanitarian aid from entering the strip. Israeli authorities continue to restrict the entry of water, fuel, food, and aid into Gaza and to cut Gaza’s electricity, which is required to operate life-sustaining infrastructure. This continued even after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures in January, March, and May 2024 ordering Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians in Gaza from genocide and, in so doing, provide humanitarian aid, specifying in March that this includes water, food, electricity, and fuel. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/19/israels-crime-extermination-acts-genocide-gaza
Nuclear Power Plants Report Massive Uptick In Drone Sightings
The drone reports filed by nuclear power plant operators for the entire year nearly doubled in just the week after Dec. 10.
Howard Altman, The War Zone 21st Dec 2024
he number of drone flyovers of nuclear plants for the entire year nearly doubled in one week, from December 10th to December 17th, according to data provided to The War Zone by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Between Jan. 1 and Dec.10, nuclear facility licensees reported a total of 15 drone events. As of about 1 p.m. Dec., 17, that number had jumped to 26, NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre told The War Zone on Friday in response to our query. While the timeline overlaps with a rash of drone sightings across the country and especially in the New Jersey area – including over military installations and energy infrastructure – it is unclear at the moment what, if any, connection there is to the dramatic increase in suspicious drone events over nuclear facilities…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.twz.com/news-features/massive-uptick-in-official-drone-sightings-by-nuclear-power-plants
Pentagon admits massive surge of US troops in Syria
https://www.rt.com/news/609720-pentagon-reveals-syria-troops/ 21 Dec 24
Washington insists it was a coincidence that reinforcements were sent before the collapse of President Bashar Assad’s government
The US has revealed that it has more than doubled its military presence in Syria, with a Pentagon spokesman saying that he “just recently learned” there were in fact roughly 2,000 American forces deployed in the country, rather than 900 troops as previously reported.
For years, the Pentagon had maintained that “about 900” US troops were stationed in the country, and officials continued to repeat this figure even after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad on December 8.
However, during a press conference on Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said that “we recently learned that those numbers [are] higher.”
The US military has been active in Syria since as early as 2014, ostensibly to fight Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS) terrorists, and has flown countless airstrikes against select militant groups and, at times, Syrian government forces.
Under President Barack Obama, Washington doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons to an array of jihadist rebel factions seeking to overthrow Assad, although the effort later fizzled following Russian and Iranian military involvement at the request of Damascus.
In 2019, President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw, but Pentagon officials pushed back, and he backtracked later that year, saying: “We’re keeping the oil… We left troops behind only for the oil.”
Since then, the US has kept some 900 troops scattered across several bases. Syrian officials have repeatedly accused the Pentagon of “stealing” the country’s oil reserves from provinces in the northeast, where American forces have been embedded with Kurdish militia groups.
Earlier this month, Syrian opposition forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists launched a surprise offensive across the country, capturing Damascus and forcing Assad to resign as president and seek asylum in Russia.
On Friday, Washington sent a delegation to Damascus for the first time since 2012, and announced it will no longer offer a $10 million bounty for the HTS leader.
Aldermaston nuclear bomb factory makes explosives error
By Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter, 21 Dec 24
Aldermaston’s nuclear bomb making factory AWE has been ordered to
improve procedures after damaging an explosives component. The Office for
Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has served an improvement notice on the Atomic
Weapons Establishment following an incident at its Aldermaston site.
Newbury Today 21st Dec 2024 https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/awe-told-to-improve-by-nuclear-regulator-after-explosives-er-9397154/
Martial Law Fiasco Casts Doubt Over Korea’s Nuclear Power Push
Enegy Connect, By Bloomberg, By Heesu Lee, Dec 16, 2024
— South Korea’s embrace of nuclear energy has been thrown into doubt as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment case raises the possibility of the opposition coming to power and overhauling the nation’s broader energy strategy.
With Yoon suspended from office because of a botched attempt to impose martial law, his push to build more reactors at home and ramp up exports of Seoul’s nuclear technology is at risk of stalling, alongside a flagship oil and gas discovery. Stocks related to the nuclear sector and the drilling project have already suffered losses due to souring investor sentiment since the political crisis began.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy has pledged to curb emissions by 40% from 2018 levels by 2030 and, while Yoon has come out in support of nuclear, successive governments have been criticized for dragging their feet on adding more renewables like solar and wind. The country is due to update its climate targets by early next year, but the political upheaval has now complicated that.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, Yoon’s most likely successor if he loses the impeachment case, is seen as more climate-friendly. During his campaign in the 2022 presidential election, which he narrowly lost, he pledged to expand renewables, bring forward the country’s 2050 net zero target by a decade, and pushed for stricter emissions targets with early phase-out of coal-fired power plants.
At the same time, he has opposed building new nuclear reactors but is set to allow the use of existing facilities. ……….
critics argued that Yoon’s nuclear-centric strategy sidelined the potential of renewable energy, which aligns more closely with global green initiatives. At the same time, his push for oil and gas exploration off the country’s east coast also faced a backlash from climate activists and opposition lawmakers, who claimed these policies undermine the decarbonization efforts of the world’s eighth-biggest emitter.
For now, all eyes are on South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which must decide whether or not to validate Yoon’s impeachment within 180 days. If it does, an election must be held for a new president within 60 days.
All this could delay the parliamentary approval needed for the country’s long-term energy roadmap plan…………………………………………..https://www.energyconnects.com/news/renewables/2024/december/martial-law-fiasco-casts-doubt-over-korea-s-nuclear-power-push/
France’s most powerful nuclear reactor joins grid after €13bn holdup
RFI 20th Dec 2024
France’s flagship Flamanville nuclear reactor in Normandy was to start supplying electricity to homes on Friday when it’s reconnected to the power grid after a dozen costly years of technical setbacks.
…………………………………………. The start of the new generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) comes 12 years behind schedule after a slew of delays and cost overruns.
The cost of the project, initially estimated at €3.3 billion, has ballooned to over €13 billion.
A test run in September had to be interrupted after one day due to an “automatic shutdown”, before starting again days later.
Betting on nuclear
Flamanville 3 is the fourth EPR reactor in the world and the most powerful in France, with a capacity of 1,600 MW. It is the 57th reactor in the French nuclear fleet, which generates around three fifths of the country’s energy.
France continues to bet on nuclear as a way of providing relatively cheap and carbon-free electricity.
The government has committed to building six new-generation EPR2 reactors at a cost of tens of billions of euros, with plans to eventually increase this number to 14.
But questions remain about EDF’s ability to deliver on its ambitions. The energy giant is already heavily in debt, as is the French state – EDF’s sole shareholder……………………………… https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20241220-france-s-most-powerful-nuclear-reactor-joins-grid-after-%E2%82%AC13bn-holdup-flamanville
Foreign company withdraws from plans for Swedish nuclear power.
South Korean KHNP has withdrawn from discussions with Vattenfall about possibly
building new nuclear power in Sweden. KHNP is one of three companies that
have been considered for building large-scale, conventional nuclear power
in Sweden. “The evaluation of other suppliers is progressing according to
plan,” writes Vattenfall to Ekot.
Swedish Radio 18th Dec 2024 https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/sydkoreanskt-foretag-hoppar-av-diskussioner-om-svensk-karnkraft
Starmer backs minister accused of embezzling billions in Bangladesh
Tulip Siddiq denies claims that she brokered corrupt deal with Russia to build nuclear power plant.
Keir Starmer has given his full support to Tulip Siddiq, the Treasury
minister, after Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission accused her and
family members of embezzling billions as part of a deal for a nuclear power
plant. Siddiq, whose role as economic secretary to the Treasury includes
responsibility for tackling financial corruption.
She has denied any involvement in the claims. While Downing Street strongly defended her, it
is another headache for Starmer after a turbulent few months that included
the sudden departure of another minister, the former transport secretary
Louise Haigh.
Guardian 19th Dec 2024m https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/19/labour-minister-accused-of-involvement-in-embezzling-billions-in-bangladesh
Regulator warns against delays in work on Chernobyl’s shelter
“Further delays in the implementation of the project to dismantle the unstable structures of the Shelter under the NSC shell increase the risk of their collapse, which could lead to extremely negative consequences.“
WNN, 20 December 2024
The head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, Oleg Korikov, has urged against any further delays in the project to dismantle the unstable shelter facility, which was built at speed in 1986 to cover Chernobyl’s damaged unit 4.
He was speaking during a meeting of backers of the International Cooperation Account for Chernobyl, which was established in November 2020 by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) at the Ukrainian government’s request to support a comprehensive plan for Chernobyl. The EBRD had already led the project to fund and construct the New Safe Confinement building which is now in place covering the whole of the reactor involved in the accident, including the initial shelter built around it in a matter of months.
Korikov said that equipping the New Safe Confinement with the necessary equipment and the dismantling of the unstable structures of the original shelter had already been postponed because of funding issues. This work was an integral part of the three-stage international Shelter Implementation Plan, which was firstly to stabilise it – the 2008 work gave it a design life to 2023 – and secondly to build a larger secure construction to enclose it – the New Safe Confinement (NSC) which was completed in 2017 – which would then pave the way for the dismantling and decommissioning stage.
“Further delays in the implementation of the project to dismantle the unstable structures of the Shelter under the NSC shell increase the risk of their collapse, which could lead to extremely negative consequences. This state of affairs causes serious concern for the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine,” he said.
The Shelter Object – also known as the ‘sarcophagus’ – still contains the molten core of the reactor and an estimated 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material. The stability of the structure has developed into one of the major risk factors at the site.
The licence for the storage of radioactive waste within the shelter was extended last year from 2023 to 2029, with a 2025 deadline for the development of a new design for the dismantling of “unstable structures with an unacceptably high probability of collapse”, and a 31 October 2029 deadline for completion of the dismantling.
In October it was announced that a new study was being funded by the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account which aims to determine the scope of deconstruction work for unstable Shelter structures and provide an initial cost estimate and enable the beginning of design work for the dismantling of the unstable Shelter structures………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The New Safe Confinement is the largest moveable land-based structure built – with a span of 257 metres, a length of 162 metres, a height of 108 metres and a total weight of 36,000 tonnes equipped…………….. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/warning-against-delays-in-work-on-chernobyls-old-shelter
U.S. Corporate Land Grab in Ukraine Underlies War With Russia
Heralded as a hero in Western media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has allowed foreign private interests to steal his country’s best land
Jeremy Kuzmarov, Dec 20, 2024 Originally published in CovertAction Magazine
In early November, Barbara Bonte, a Belgian member of the European Union (EU) parliament, raised concern about the sell-off of Ukrainian land on a massive scale to U.S. private equity firms along with some Saudi agro-industrial and investment businesses.
Bonte wrote to the EU parliament that, “according to several disquieting reports, mainly U.S. but also Saudi agro-industrial and investment businesses are purchasing Ukrainian farmland on a massive scale. Cargill, ADM, BlackRock, Oaktree Capital Management and Bunge Limited, for instance, have reportedly gained control over much of Ukraine’s farmland.”
Bonte then posed two questions to the EU parliament as follows:
“1. What is the Commission’s assessment of the impact of this sell-off of European farmland to multinationals serving only U.S. interests on EU strategic food-supply dependence? How does the Commission intend to address that impact?”
“2. This strongly suggests that the United States is seeking to recoup its military support for Ukraine, and ensure a geopolitical presence there in a post-war scenario through control over Ukrainian farmland and the profits it generates. How does the Commission intend to prevent the United States from cherry-picking in Ukraine and Europe from being left to deal with just the handicaps?”
Bonte’s questions are significant ones that point to a hidden, underlying motive to the war in Ukraine and U.S. and European support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The bonanza offered to foreign investors resembles past wars where young people were sacrificed on the altar of corporate profits.
War and Theft
A detailed analysis of the land grab in Ukraine by Western corporations was provided in a 2023 report by the Oakland Institute[1] entitled “War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land.”
Written by Frédéric Mousseau, a food security consultant, and Eve Devillers, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, the report starts by emphasizing Ukraine’s function as a “breadbasket of Europe” with its 33 million acres of arable land and “large swaths of the most fertile farmland in the world.”
In 2021, Zelensky initiated a land reform program as part of the structural adjustment program begun under the auspices of Western financial institutions that enabled U.S.-based corporations to take over Ukraine’s land.[2]
The structural adjustment program had been opposed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in the 2014 U.S.-backed Maidan coup.
After Zelensky’s “land reform” was initiated, about five million hectares—the size of two Crimeas—were outright “stolen” by private interests.
The thieves included Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street investment firm well represented in the Biden administration, which in April 2022 bought NN Investment Partners Holding N.V., a Netherlands-based company that is a major shareholder in Ukraine’s biggest landowner, Kernel Holding S.A, and in Astarta, another large landowner in Ukraine.[3]
Vanguard Group Inc., which gave $45,473 to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and $98,551 to Joe Biden in 2020, was another Wall Street firm that bought up Ukrainian land cheaply.[4]
Some large U.S. pension funds, foundations and university endowments are invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital—a U.S.-based private equity fund headquartered at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, which is the fifth largest landholder in Ukraine with its possession of 290,749 hectares.[5]
NCH Capital currently faces accusations of unlawful land acquisition, tax evasion, and illicit financial activity. In 2015, its founder and CEO, George Rohr, was part of the high-level meetings involving Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker that led Ukraine to agree to the structural adjustment program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a condition for two $1 billion loan guarantees from the Obama administration.[6]…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The Oakland Institute report compares the generous financing of multinational corporations and local oligarchs with the inability of Ukrainian small farmers to access loans and their being displaced from their land and plunged into poverty. Some have migrated to the U.S. to seek farm work in the U.S. Midwest, sending remittances back home.[9]
Mousseau and Devillers wrote that “the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund established by the World Bank to support small farmers is only US$5.4 million, a negligible amount compared to the billions channeled to large agribusinesses.” https://jeremykuzmarov.substack.com/p/us-corporate-land-grab-in-ukraine?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2091638&post_id=153373724&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1r1sdz&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
“I don’t care if its tainted money”: Council leader’s telling admission in Nuclear Waste Services cash grab debate
Nuclear Free Local Authorities, 16th Dec 2024
In a busy week for GDF developments, East Lindsey District Councillors were last Wednesday (11th December) engaged in a fractious debate over proposals to accept £3 million in money from the Environment Agency to carry out coastal defence works. The controversy arose because the money originated from the coffers of Nuclear Waste Services.
It is of course in the interests of NWS to invest in coastal defences because they would not want to see any Geological Disposal Facility sited in Mablethorpe or Theddlethorpe inundated in the future by flooding. The surface site would be operable for up to 175 years, receiving regular shipments of high-level radioactive waste shipments. Flood waters could render the facility inoperable far in advance of this end date.
Local members, Cllrs Travis Hesketh and Robert Watson called the proposal “pure blackmail”. Councillor Watson issued a caution that accepting the money will mean the district council “surrenders its independence” to NWS. Councillor Jill Makinson-Saunders echoed this sentiment, which was shared by many opposition members in the chamber, saying “If we are taking money from the nuclear people, we cannot fly the flag for independence”. In response to his critics, Council Leader Craig Leyland said “I don’t care if its tainted money”.
Despite the strength of opposition, the Conservative Minority Administration, with the support of some opposition members, were able to secure sufficient votes to approve the proposal.
The decision must again cast doubt on the supposed impartiality of the district council over the GDF proposal. There is within the report put before Council an admission that this is infact the case; under a section titled ‘Reputation’ it says:
‘There is risk of perception of predetermination for GDF facility due to the source of funding being NWS. This will be mitigated by providing clear information in public domain at all stages of work on full transparency basis’.
In addition, as the proposal will require East Lindsey District Council to find another source of finance to carry out the work were it to disengage from the GDF process, the Council is in effect curtailed from exercising its Right to Withdraw and it will certainly not be inclined to call for a Test of Public Support within twelve months, as agreed by Council at a previous meeting and as just again asked for by local MP Victoria Atkins.
The decision comes hot on the heels of a decision made by the Executive at Lincolnshire County Council to seek a Hosting Agreement with the NWS and government promising millions if a GDF comes to Lincolnshire.
Overnight Israeli Strike In Syria So Large It Caused Earthquake
by Tyler Durden, Tuesday, Dec 17, 2024
Days ago Israel began warning that it will use large bunker buster munitions to begin destroying the former Syrian Army’s underground missile and weapons storehouses.
This has begun in the overnight hours, with Israeli warplanes pummeling air defense systems and ammunition depots in Damascus and the coastal city of Tartous, near where a Russian naval base is located. The strike on Tartous resulted in the single biggest explosion seen in Syria in years, unleashing a fireball and mushroom cloud so large it led to quick speculation it could have been a tactical nuke (which widespread reports are denying).
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) described that Israeli warplanes hit air defense units and “surface-to-surface missile depots” as part of a bid to degrade and disable Syria’s military capability. SOHR also called it the “the heaviest strikes” on the region in over a decade.
The Telegraph wrote that “A 3.1 magnitude tremor was reported by the Geographic Survey of Israel’s seismology department at 11.49pm on Sunday night in the region of the bombings.”
“The explosions in Tartous were extremely loud,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from inside the country, additionally described. “Some experts are saying that might probably mean it was a chemical weapons production house.”
Other sites which were bombed overnight were radar and air defense systems outside of Damascus, around the Qaisioun mountain which dominates the background of the capital.
In total there have been an estimated 600 Israeli strikes over the course of eight days. Some of them began immediately upon Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entering the environs of Damascus as President Assad fled the country.
An Israeli broadcast correspondent from Kann previously wrote that “An Israeli source tells me: Israel’s goal is to destroy everything from Assad’s army that could fall into the hands of the rebels – from tanks to missiles. We are destroying the equipment of the Assad army.”
Jets and aerial equipment, and runways at bases are being obliterated. Part of Israel’s aim also seems to be preventing pro-Iranian entities from ever popping up again in Syria, and to finally and definitively dismantle Hezbollah and Shia militias’ arms networks. It’s also unclear what kind of future government will dominate Syria – most likely a hardline Sunni one.
Trump And Israel Can’t Wait To Start Bombing Iran
Caitlin Johnstone, Dec 18, 2024
Both Israel and the incoming Trump administration are reportedly eager to start bombing Iran ASAP now that Assad’s out of the way.
Israeli media reports that the IDF now sees airstrikes on Iran as much easier to execute now that its pilots don’t have to worry about Syrian air defenses along the way, while The Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump team is weighing its options for airstrikes on Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon (which there’s no evidence Iran is currently trying to do).
A new article from The Washington Post titled “Syria’s collapse and Israeli attacks leave Iran exposed” reports that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled a desire to capitalize on gains against Hamas and Hezbollah and take on Tehran more aggressively under a new U.S. administration.” The article notes that Trump has expressed openness to war with Iran, saying that “anything can happen”.
This comes as the al-Qaeda affiliates who captured Damascus assure the world that Syria will no longer allow itself to be used as a launchpad for attacks against Israel.
After Assad was ousted I got a bunch of weirdos in my comments claiming that Israel was somehow sad about this development, because Israel and Assad were secretly on the same side. This is one of the dumbest conspiracy theories I’ve been asked to believe in a long time, and I was asked to believe it not by crazy QAnoners or the liberal mass media but by a sector of pro-Palestine leftoids who also love NATO.
❖
The US hates al-Qaeda, then loves al-Qaeda, then hates al-Qaeda, then loves al-Qaeda. They split up, they get back together, they split up again. “We were on a break!” “We were not on a break!” Will they or won’t they? Keep watching and find out!………………………………………
Israel supporters will tell you antisemitism is one of the biggest problems in the world and then if you ask them for examples of where dangerous antisemitism is occurring in our society they’ll list things like the United Nations, Amnesty International, Ireland, and the pope.
❖
I often see questions like “Why are the billionaires destroying the world like this? What’s the point of amassing all that wealth if you’re just going to spend the rest of your life in some underground bunker?”………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Becoming a billionaire and becoming a heroin addict are both irrational destructive behaviors driven by irrational internal dynamics. The only difference is that the billionaires are taking the rest of us with them. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-and-israel-cant-wait-to-start?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=153285034&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
‘Long journey ahead’ for nuclear plant clean-up
Piers Hopkirk, BBC News, Dungeness, 16 Dec 24
It took about 16 years to build Dungeness B nuclear power station, but to return the site to its original state will take nearly a century.
This is the scale of the task facing EDF as the company continues the process of removing the uranium from this decades-old facility that sits on a remote headland on the Kent coast.
The turbines stopped turning at Dungeness in 2018 and, with the decision taken to cease electricity production, the process of defueling the plant has begun.
In the giant reactor hall the scale of the task becomes apparent.
Buried under the floor are the uranium-filled fuel assemblies that powered the station’s two nuclear reactors.
There are more than 400 rod-filled assemblies in each reactor and it will take six years to safely remove them all.
It is done with the help of a giant 2,000 tonne crane that will carefully lift each one out before moving them into another part of the plant to cool.
Plant Manager, Paul Windle, said: “So far we have removed around 25% of the fuel from one reactor.
“We have got a long journey ahead.”
From the reactor hall the fuel ends up in an area called the ponds.
The fuel, still hot, is stored under water here for 90 days before it is deemed safe enough to be placed into steel flasks which will be moved on to lorries to begin the journey to a nuclear waste facility at Sellafield in Cumbria.
Dungeness B was the first advanced gas cooled nuclear reactor to start construction in the UK.
It was at the vanguard of 20th Century nuclear power generation.
However, in the face of technical challenges that were seen to be too expensive and complicated to address, the decision was taken by EDF to halt energy production………………………………………………………….. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7qvderej9o
How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus
by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network | Paris (France) | 17 December 2024, Translation
Roger Lagassé
With surprising aplomb, the international press assures us that we are not witnessing a military change of regime in Syria, but a revolution overthrowing the Syrian Arab Republic. The presence of the Turkish army and US special forces is hidden from us. We are bombarded with propaganda that has been denied several times about the crimes attributed to “Bashar”. Cannibal throat-cutters are transformed into respectable revolutionaries. Once again, the international press is consciously lying to us.
In 11 days, the Syrian Arab Republic, which had valiantly resisted attacks by jihadists supported by the largest coalition in history since 2011, was overthrown. So what happened?
First of all, since October 15, 2017, the United States has organized a siege of Syria, prohibiting all trade with it and prohibiting the United Nations from participating in its reconstruction [1]. This strategy was extended, in 2020, to Lebanon with the Caesar Act [2].
We, members of the European Union, have all participated in this crime. The majority of Syrians were malnourished. The pound had collapsed: what was worth 1 pound before the war, in 2011, was worth 50,000 when Damascus fell (the pound was revalued three days later thanks to an injection of Qatari money). The same causes always have the same effects, Syria was defeated like Iraq before it, when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright congratulated herself on having caused the death of half a million Iraqi children from disease and malnutrition.
On the other hand, if it was the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTC) who took Damascus, they were not the ones who won militarily. On November 27, HTC, armed by Qatar and supervised by the Turkish army disguised as the “Syrian National Army” (SNA), took control of the M4 highway which served as a ceasefire line. In addition, HTC and Türkiye had very high-performance drones operated by Ukrainian advisers. Finally, HTC took with it the Uighur colony of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) which had been entrenched in al-Zanbaki for 8 years [3]. The Israeli, Russian and Chinese theaters of operation have therefore merged.
Then, these forces attacked Aleppo, until then defended by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The latter withdrew without a word, leaving a small garrison of the Syrian Arab Army to defend the city. Faced with the disproportion of forces, the Syrian government ordered its troops to withdraw to Hama, which they did on November 29, after a brief battle.
On November 30, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad went to Russia. Not to attend the exam that his son Hafez was taking at Moscow University where he is continuing his studies, but to call for help. The Russian forces in Syria could only bomb the jihadists’ convoys because they are only airborne. They therefore tried to block the road to HTC and Turkey. They could not intervene on the ground against them. Aleppo was well and truly lost. Moreover, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following his country’s tradition [4], has never acknowledged the loss of the Ottoman territories of Greece (Thessaloniki), the island of Cyprus, Syria (Aleppo) and Iraq (Mosul).
With dormant jihadist cells having been reactivated by Türkiye, the already exhausted Syrian Arab Army had to fight on all fronts at once. This is what General Maher el-Assad (the president’s brother) tried to do, in vain.
On December 2, General Jasper Jeffers III, commander in chief of the United States Special Forces (UsSoCom), arrives in Beirut. Officially, he comes to monitor the implementation of the oral Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire. Given his functions, it is obvious that this will only be part of his mission. He will supervise the capture of Damascus by the Turks behind HTC.
On December 5, the United States relaunches at the United Nations Security Council their accusations against President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons to repress his own people. They ignore the very many objections, testimonies and investigations that have shown that they are nothing more than war propaganda. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launch an operation to destroy the equipment and fortifications of the Syrian Arab Army. In four days, 480 bombings sink the fleet and set fire to armories and warehouses. Simultaneously, ground teams assassinate the country’s leading scientists.
After showing journalists around the empty Syrian fortifications along the coast, Benny Kata, a local military commander, tells his guests: “It is clear that we will stay here for a while. We are prepared for it.”
The IDF is already invading Syria a little more, beyond the Golan ceasefire line that it occupies. It announces that it will create a new buffer zone on Syrian territory, to protect the current buffer zone, in short to annex it. In addition, they annexed Mount Hermon so that they could monitor the entire region………………………………
Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, more than a million Syrians are trying to flee their country. They do not believe that the HTC jihadists have suddenly become civilized.
The author of this article, Thierry Meyssan, was an advisor to the Libyan and then Syrian authorities for nine years. From this experience, he produced a fundamental work on Western policy in the Middle East: Before Our Very Eyes, Fake Wars and Big Lies: From 9/11 to Donald Trump.
-
Archives
- October 2026 (104)
- September 2026 (339)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
