Sen. Lindsey Graham’s structural path: Let Ukrainians do all the dying in support of US proxy war against Russia
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 22 Mar 24
Early in the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Senator Lindsey Graham gloried in America’s use of Ukrainian soldiers to do all the dying. “I like the structural path we’re on here. As long as we help Ukraine with the weapons they need and the economic support, they will fight to the last person.” Anybody but US cannon fodder was just fine for the armchair warrior from South Carolina.
Two years later, with over 400,000 of those hapless Ukrainian soldiers dead from Sen. Graham’s exhortations to die for American exceptionalism, Graham remains unbowed.
During his recent visit to Kyiv, he demanded Ukraine pass a new mobilization law to draft younger cannon fodder to send into the chopper mill of a lost war. Graham is miffed Ukraine draft laws exempt men under 27. “I would hope that those eligible to serve in the Ukrainian military would join. I can’t believe it’s at 27. You’re in a fight for your life, so you should be serving — not at 25 or 27. We need more people in the line. No matter what we do, you should be fighting.”
Graham remains unconcerned he supported US provocations which led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He’s in denial of his acquiescence in the effort to prevent a negotiated settlement early on that would have preserved Ukraine territory. Now he’s telling Ukraine to send its young men to fill the ranks of the 400,000 dead Ukrainians he exalted to die for US exceptionalism.
It would take a psychiatrist, maybe a team of psychiatrists, to determine the pathology in in Graham’s psyche that leads him to promote mass slaughter of foreigners to prop up American’s collapsing control of European geopolitics. But good luck trying to get the Senior Senator from South Carolina to lie on the couch. His focus remains: ‘So many Ukrainians yet to die…so little time.”
Establishment Papers Fell Short in Coverage of Genocide Charges
the two most widely circulating newspapers in the US ………In the lead-up to the hearing (12/29/23–1/10/24), the New York Times only published three articles focused on the case (1/8/24, 1/9/24, 1/10/24), while another Times piece (1/10/24) included a brief mention of the genocide charges.
the two most widely circulating newspapers in the US cannot say the same. In the lead-up to the hearing (12/29/23–1/10/24), the New York Times only published three articles focused on the case (1/8/24, 1/9/24, 1/10/24), while another Times piece (1/10/24) included a brief mention of the genocide charges.
South Africa on December 29 presented a historic case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the highest court in the world. In an 84-page lawsuit, South Africa asserted that Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza—following the October 7 Hamas attacks, which killed 1,200 Israelis and foreigners—constitutes genocide. So far, more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been slaughtered, while over 71,000 have been injured in Israeli attacks.
Establishment media in the US were slow to cover South Africa’s “epochal intervention” in the ICJ—initially providing the public with thin to no reporting on the case. While the quantity of coverage did eventually increase, it skewed pro-Israel, even after the court in January found it “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and ordered Tel Aviv to comply with international law.
Thin early coverage
FAIR used the Nexis news database and WSJ.com to identify every article discussing the genocide case published in the print editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for one month, from the announcement of the case on December 29 through January 28, two days after the ICJ’s preliminary ruling.
Under international law, genocide is one of the gravest charges that can be brought against a state. Since its 1948 ratification by the UN, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide has only been presented to the ICJ on a handful of occasions, and the historic nature of the complaint was not lost on its applicant: “South Africa is acutely aware of the particular weight of responsibility in initiating proceedings against Israel for violations of the Genocide Convention.”
Unfortunately, the two most widely circulating newspapers in the US cannot say the same. In the lead-up to the hearing (12/29/23–1/10/24), the New York Times only published three articles focused on the case (1/8/24, 1/9/24, 1/10/24), while another Times piece (1/10/24) included a brief mention of the genocide charges.
The Wall Street Journal ran no pieces focused on the charges prior to the hearing. The Journal‘s only mention of the genocide case in the pre-trial period came in a broader article about the war (12/29/23), which included six paragraphs about South Africa’s application. The paper did not reference the case again until the trial began.
‘Without any basis in fact’
During the two-day hearing, each paper ran two articles about it in their print editions. Each published an overview of the case (New York Times, 1/11/24; Wall Street Journal, 1/11/24). For their second piece, the New York Times (1/11/24) looked at both Israeli and Palestinian reactions, while the Journal (1/12/24) focused only on Israeli reactions; the one Palestinian it quoted was identified as an Israeli citizen…………………………………………………………….
Uneven sourcing………………………………………………..
Unchallenged Israeli talking points………………………………………………….
Unscrutinized statements……………………………………………….
With no scrutiny of Israeli officials’ statements, US news becomes little more than a bullhorn for government propaganda.
Nuclear test veterans demand compensation and medical records access
By Anna Lamche, BBC News, 20 Mar 24
Veterans exposed to radiation during British nuclear tests are calling for the government to create a “special tribunal” to oversee compensation.
The group, who say their lives have been blighted by ill health as a result of the tests, also want access to their missing military medical records.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says no information is withheld from veterans.
But on Tuesday it was threatened with legal proceedings by alleged victims and their families.
Former military personnel and their families served a “letter before action” on the MoD and handed a petition into Downing Street earlier.
Veterans and their families developed cancer, heart problems and even lost babies after the tests – and their children have been born with obvious disabilities, the group claims.
The campaigners have called on the government to establish a “special tribunal” that would investigate, compensate and commemorate alleged victims of the nuclear tests, which took place between 1952 and 1967 in Australia and the South Pacific.
The government is under pressure to act quickly because many of the claimants are now getting older.
The group is demanding access to blood and urine samples taken during the Cold War weapons trials.
Regis
Nuclear test veterans demand compensation and medical records access
By Anna Lamche, BBC News 20 Mar 24
Veterans exposed to radiation during British nuclear tests are calling for the government to create a “special tribunal” to oversee compensation.
The group, who say their lives have been blighted by ill health as a result of the tests, also want access to their missing military medical records.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says no information is withheld from veterans.
But on Tuesday it was threatened with legal proceedings by alleged victims and their families.
Former military personnel and their families served a “letter before action” on the MoD and handed a petition into Downing Street earlier.
Veterans and their families developed cancer, heart problems and even lost babies after the tests – and their children have been born with obvious disabilities, the group claims
The campaigners have called on the government to establish a “special tribunal” that would investigate, compensate and commemorate alleged victims of the nuclear tests, which took place between 1952 and 1967 in Australia and the South Pacific.
The government is under pressure to act quickly because many of the claimants are now getting older.
The group is demanding access to blood and urine samples taken during the Cold War weapons trials…………………………………………. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68611769
IAEA’s Rafael Grossi in Iraq to market nuclear reactors
IAEA to Help Iraq Develop Peaceful Nuclear Program, Agency Head Says , https://english.aawsat.com/business/4917976-iaea-help-iraq-develop-peaceful-nuclear-program-agency-head-says%C2%A0 20 Mar 24
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi met Iraq’s prime minister in Baghdad on Monday as part of a visit to help the country develop a peaceful nuclear program.
“We have discussed several projects in Iraq, including building a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes,” Iraqi Education Minister Naim al-Aboudi told reporters following a meeting between Grossi and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
Grossi said that a team of Iraqi experts would visit the agency’s headquarters in Vienna in a few days to hold meetings to “set out a road map for the Iraqi peaceful nuclear program” amid growing interest in nuclear energy in the region.
“We see that in the (United Arab) Emirates, we see that in Egypt … and of course we should see it here in Iraq,” Grossi told reporters.
Iraq in the past had three nuclear reactors in Tuwaitha, its main nuclear research site, south of Baghdad. One was destroyed by an Israeli air raid in 1981 and the two others by US warplanes in the 1991 Gulf war that followed Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
“Definitely, turning the page on this complex past is of the essence and we’re doing just that,” Grossi said.
Nuclear power station workers set to walk out in dispute over pay
The union say that the dispute is a result of an ‘inadequate’ pay offer of 4.5%, effective from April 2023.
Caitlyn Dewar, 18 Mar 24, https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/dounreay-nuclear-power-station-workers-in-highlands-set-to-walk-out-in-dispute-over-pay
Hundreds of workers at a nuclear power station in the Highlands are being balloted for strike action in a pay dispute.
Unite the union confirmed that around 450 members employed by Magnox Limited based at Dounreay power station are being balloted for strike action in a pay dispute.
The union say that the dispute is a result of an “inadequate” pay offer of 4.5%, effective from April 2023 which was rejected by 95% in a consultative pay ballot.
Unite said the offer amounts to a substantial real terms pay cut, adding that the true rate of inflation based on the RPI stood at 11.4%.
Unite’s Magnox membership includes craft technicians, general operators, chemical and electrical engineers, and maintenance fitters and safety advisors.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The Dounreay workforce are highly-skilled and they undertake an extremely important job.
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Hundreds of workers at a nuclear power station in the Highlands are being balloted for strike action in a pay dispute.
Unite the union confirmed that around 450 members employed by Magnox Limited based at Dounreay power station are being balloted for strike action in a pay dispute.
The union say that the dispute is a result of an “inadequate” pay offer of 4.5%, effective from April 2023 which was rejected by 95% in a consultative pay ballot.
Unite said the offer amounts to a substantial real terms pay cut, adding that the true rate of inflation based on the RPI stood at 11.4%.
Unite’s Magnox membership includes craft technicians, general operators, chemical and electrical engineers, and maintenance fitters and safety advisors.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The Dounreay workforce are highly-skilled and they undertake an extremely important job.
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“The failure to pay our members a decent pay increase is outrageous, Magnox seems to have money to burn for directors and shareholders but thinks it is acceptable to deny its workers a decent pay increase.”
“Unite will fully support our members at Dounreay power station in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”
Magnox Ltd, currently trading as Nuclear Restoration Services, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
The Dounreay power station is scheduled to be fully decommissioned and cleaned-up in 2033.
The union said that the remuneration package of the highest paid Magnox director went up from £331,000 to £651,000 in March 2023, and the company paid dividends of £2.1m in the same period.
Marc Jackson, Unite industrial officer, added: “Pay negotiations with Magnox have been ongoing since January 2023 with next to no movement by the company. However, Magnox has not been slow in making sure the remuneration packages for directors have been bolstered with the highest paid director seeing their package double in the space of a year.
“Unite’s membership at Dounreay power station will no longer accept these double standards, and that’s why we are balloting our members for strike action.”
Magnox has been contacted for comment.
It’s Journalistic Malpractice To Say Gazans Are Starving Without Saying Israel Is Starving Them
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, MAR 19, 2024, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-journalistic-malpractice-to-say?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=142753938&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The mass media are printing some amazingly depraved headlines about a new UN-backed report on starvation in Gaza from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, who says half the enclave’s population is now at the highest-possible threat level for starvation.
The mass media are printing some amazingly depraved headlines about a new UN-backed report on starvation in Gaza from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, who says half the enclave’s population is now at the highest-possible threat level for starvation.
At a time when only 20 percent of news readers ever make it past the headline of a given story, this is an extremely destructive and propagandistic act of journalistic malpractice. The editors of The New York Times know exactly what they’re doing packaging a story about Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians like it’s a troubling prediction about the weather.
Contrast the New York Times’ headline with that of Al Jazeera’s report on the same story: “Gaza headed towards famine amid Israeli aid curbs: What to know”. That’s the normal way to present a story about a deliberately inflicted famine upon an imperiled population. If a population was being deliberately starved by siege warfare from a nation like Russia, China or Iran, we may be absolutely certain that the name of that nation would appear in the headline.
But because the western media exist to generate propaganda and not to report the news, we get headlines like “Gaza faces famine during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting” from the BBC, and “Famine in northern Gaza is imminent as more than 1 million people face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger, new report warns” from CNN, and “Famine imminent in northern Gaza, says UN-backed report” from Reuters, and “‘Catastrophic levels of hunger’ in Gaza mean famine is imminent, says aid coalition” from The Guardian.
We saw this with Saudi Arabia’s US-backed starvation of Yemen as well. When the mass media talked about Yemen at all (usually they just ignored it), editors consistently obfuscated the fact that this was a population being deliberately starved by a cruel blockade and the deliberate targeting of food infrastructure. The fact that it was being made possible by the United States was almost never mentioned.
This is a very good example of how western propaganda works, by the way. The mainstream western press don’t generally make up whole-cloth lies (though they will uncritically print claims made by western government agencies who have an extensive history of lying); what they do is rely on half-truths, distortions and lies by omission to give their audiences a wildly slanted picture of what’s going on in the world. By always going out of their way to tell you an enemy of the US-centralized empire is committing an atrocity the millisecond it looks like they might be, while being furtive and obfuscatory about the crimes of the US and its allies, they give their audience a skewed understanding of who is and is not committing the real evils in our world.
This doesn’t typically happen as a result of any grand monolithic conspiracy; it’s mostly just the natural consequence of having all the major news platforms controlled by wealthy and powerful people who each have a vested interest in manufacturing consent for the status quo upon which their wealth and power are premised. The oligarchs control the media, and they hire the executives who run the media, and the executives hire the editors who write the headlines and guide the reporters to report a certain way, and this gives rise to a system where everyone working for the outlet conducts themselves in a way that just so happens to suit the powerful people on top.
Then before you know it you’ve got editors at The New York Times — a paper that’s been published by the same family for over a century — packaging a story about starvation caused by an Israeli siege to look like it’s a story about an innocent crop failure. Odds are nobody told them to do that; they just learned over the years that that’s how you rise to the top in an outlet like The New York Times.
Heavy resistance to Canada’s 1st nuclear waste repository, while Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) says it is safe.
Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) reaffirms safety of Canada’s 1st nuclear waste repository but there’s still heavy pushback
Preferred site, in either southern or northwestern Ontario, to be chosen by year’s end
Sarah Law · CBC News Mar 18, 2024
The body tasked with selecting the future storage site for Canada’s nuclear waste has reaffirmed its confidence in the project’s safety, but others remain concerned about the potential risks of burying spent nuclear fuel hundreds of metres below the earth’s surface.
By the end of this year, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is expected to decide on its preferred site for the country’s first deep geological repository for used nuclear fuel.
The potential locations are:
- The Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area, about 250 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.
- The Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area in southern Ontario, about 130 kilometres northwest of London.
Earlier this month, the NWMO released updated “Confidence in Safety” reports, which say both sites are suitable for the safe, long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel.
However, We the Nuclear Free North and the First Nations Land Defence Alliance, for example, remain concerned about what’s known as the Revell site in northwestern Ontario.
The alliance issued a letter to NWMO president and CEO Laurie Swami on March 5, saying: “Our Nations have not been consulted, we have not given our consent, and we stand together in saying ‘no’ to the proposed nuclear waste storage site near Ignace. We call on you to respect our decision.”
……. “They’re both good sites. We think that both of the sites would be safe,” said Paul Gierszewski, technical subject matter expert with the NWMO and lead author of the “Confidence in Safety” reports.
Brennain Lloyd is project co-ordinator with Northwatch, which is part of We the Nuclear Free North. Members of the organization feel less confident about the project’s safety, she said.
“I think this newest report from the NWMO tries to put the best face possible on a project which is absolutely loaded with risk and uncertainty, and uses a lot of language that’s difficult for the public, for non-technical leaders to work through,” Lloyd said.
“There are no resources available in any part of this process for the public to be able to get technical assistance from independent third-party peer reviewers.
While Gierszewski says the 2023 reports expand on the previous year’s findings, Lloyd questions whether they contain new information or airbrushed statements that “paint a better picture.” …………………………………
Demand for in-person meetings
Chief Rudy Turtle of Grassy Narrows First Nation, 250 kilometres northwest of Ignace, said no one from the NWMO has met with him in person to discuss the proposed nuclear waste site.
Grassy Narrows has a particular interest in which Ontario site is chose, given the First Nation’s experiences dealing with contaminated fish in the 1960s and ’70s. Mercury from a Dryden pulp and paper mill was dumped into the English Wabigoon River, upstream from the First Nation. Research indicates past mercury exposure continues to impact the health of people in the community.
In the case of a nuclear waste repository, Turtle said, “Should there be any leak or if the containment fails, there is the possibility that [toxic chemicals] can leak downriver again.”
Turtle would like to see a series of in-person meetings so people can better understand the safety measures being proposed and the potential risks………………………………………..
Chief Michele Solomon of Fort William First Nation said it is unlikely her community’s position against the site will change.
Band council passed a resolution last September calling for the Ontario government to adopt the proximity principle, which means nuclear waste would be stored at the point of generation and not transported elsewhere.
“Anything that has the potential to get into our waterway that would cause harm to the fish or to the animals or to our people … we take that very seriously,” Solomon said.
………………………………………………. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nuclear-waste-repository-safety-reports-1.7145240
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“Anonymous” claims it has infiltrated Israel’s nuclear plant in Dimona
Hacker group discloses 7GB of documents it claims to have stolen, though Israeli sources view this primarily as psychological warfare rather than an act of substantive harm
AUDIO FILE here https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/byblpvdaa
Israel Wullman, 20 Mar 24
NATO Builds Largest Europe Base Near Black Sea
NewsWeek, Mar 18, 2024
Romania has now begun construction of what will eventually be the NATO alliance’s largest European military base, as the transatlantic bloc seeks to bolster its capabilities in the Black Sea region with an eye on Russian activity there.
The $2.7 billion project will expand the Romanian Air Force 57th Air Base Mihail Kogălniceanu, which is located close to the Black Sea port city of Constanța. The new facility will have a perimeter of almost 20 miles, cover around 11 square miles, and will be home to some 10,000 NATO personnel and their families.
Romania has long been a key hub for NATO operations in the Black Sea region. Thousands of U.S. troops have cycled through the country on training and security missions since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine. American combat and surveillance aircraft regularly operate from there as part of NATO’s policing operations………………………….
NATO began building its network of four Enhanced Forward Presence multinational battlegroups in the Baltic region following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Comment: 2014 was the year of the US coup in Ukraine.
After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, the alliance reinforced those missions and established four additional battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
France is the framework nation for the Romanian battlegroup, with Belgium, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, and the U.S. all contributing forces.
Bucharest is looking towards closer cooperation with its NATO allies — and the U.S. in particular — as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly fraught theater of confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as between Moscow and its Western rivals.
“Romania has already established itself as an anchor of the eastern flank of NATO and the EU,” Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told Newsweek in June. https://www.newsweek.com/nato-builds-largest-europe-base-black-sea-romania-1880210
US Air Force tests very expensive third-stage rocket motor for next nuclear missile
The U.S. Air Force and two main contractors on the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program on Saturday tested the solid-rocket motor that will power the nuclear weapon’s third stage.
The test, which also involved Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne, took place in a closed chamber at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tennessee. It followed static fire tests of the first and second stages’ rocket motors in March 2023 and January 2024, respectively.
This third stage that was tested is the smallest of Sentinel’s three-stage propulsion system. The Air Force did not offer further details about the test, nor did it identify whether the event was successful.
“This test is the latest in our ground and flight test program and is designed to help us refine Sentinel’s air vehicle design,” Maj. Gen. John Newberry, commander of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center and the service’s program executive officer for strategic systems. “It demonstrates the progress the Air Force is making on modernizing our nation’s strategic land-based nuclear deterrent.”
The Sentinel program is intended to replace the aging LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM, which has been a key part of the United States’ nuclear triad since the Cold War. The Air Force now has roughly 400 Minuteman III weapons in silos spread out across Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska…………………………………………..
The price tag for the Sentinel program has spiked enough to trigger a cost overrun process known as a Nunn-McCurdy breach. Top Air Force leaders have pinned the bulk of the cost growth on its highly complex command and launch segment, which involves securing real estate from hundreds of landowners across the Midwest, building more than 400 launch facilities and 7,500 miles of utility corridors, and laying thousands of miles of fiber-optic networks…………………https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2024/03/20/us-air-force-tests-third-stage-rocket-motor-for-next-nuclear-missile/—
Armed by Washington, Israel Trashes the Genocide Convention
Stop treating Gaza like a natural disaster.
SCHEERPOST, By Stan Cox and Priti Gulati Cox / TomDispatch 20 Mar 24
It’s been almost two months since the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop killing Gazans and destroying their means of subsistence. So let’s look back and ask (1) how Israel has responded to its “orders,” and (2) how hard the Biden administration has pushed Israel to abide by those orders. Spoiler alert: the short answers are (1) not well and (2) not very.
The American government has provided most of the armaments and targeting technologies being used to kill Gazans by the thousands while turning many of the rest of them into refugees by destroying their homes, offices, schools, and hospitals. Nor did the Biden administration threaten to withdraw that support when Israel blocked shipments of crucial food and fuel to the 25-mile-long Gaza Strip. It also keeps vetoing U.N. Security Council resolutions that would hold Israel accountable. And President Biden, despite an increasing amount of rhetorical shuffling, continues to back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), even though they have ignored the International Court’s orders and continue committing atrocities.
Flouting the Order to Stop the Killing
On January 26th, the International Court of Justice handed down a ruling in a case brought by the Republic of South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. It ordered that Israel must “ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts described” in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The court’s first order prohibited “killing members” of the Palestinian population or “causing serious bodily or mental harm” to them. How did Israel respond? Consider that, between late December 2023 and January 21st of this year, the IDF had killed about 5,000 Palestinians, already pushing the death toll in the Gaza Strip past 25,000. The court’s order, issued days later, would have essentially zero effect. Another 5,000-plus Palestinians would be killed by late February, raising the death toll to more than 30,000.
During the month after the ruling, Israeli troops repeatedly killed or injured civilians fleeing to, or taking shelter in, areas the IDF had advertised as “safe zones.” Typically, when, on February 12th, Israeli aircraft attacked 14 homes and three mosques in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing 67 Palestinians, some of the survivors told reporters that they’d been inside tents in a refugee camp. Similarly, on February 22nd, Israeli warplanes struck a residential area in central Gaza, killing 40 civilians, mostly women and children, and wounding more than 100.
Worse yet, the Biden administration has enabled that ongoing killing spree by approving 100 separate military sales to Israel since the conflict began in October. As a former administration official told the Washington Post, “That’s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time, which really strongly suggests that the Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of U.S. support.”
In other words, the backbone of the war on Gaza comes with a label: “Made in USA.” In the decade leading up to October 7th, as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported, two-thirds of Israel’s arms imports came from the United States. (From 1950 to 2020, the U.S. share was a whopping 83%!)
In just the first couple of months of the war, the Biden administration sent 230 cargo planes and 20 ships full of military goods to Israel, a trove that included 100 BLU-109 bombs (2,000-pounders designed to penetrate hardened structures before exploding), 5,400 MK84 and 5,000 MK82 bunker-busters, 1,000 GBU-39 bombs, 3,000 JDAM bomb-guidance kits, and 200 “kamikaze drones.”
Such powerful bombs, reported Al Jazeera, “have been used in some of the deadliest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, including a strike that leveled an apartment block in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing more than 100 people.” And yes, such bunker-busters were widely used in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not in places as densely populated as Gaza’s cities. Israeli sources tried to justify that particular death toll by insisting it was necessary to kill one of Hamas’s leaders. If so, we’re talking about a 100-to-1 ratio, or a kind of collective punishment being supported by our tax dollars………………………………………………………………………………………………………more https://scheerpost.com/2024/03/20/armed-by-washington-israel-trashes-the-genocide-convention/
Nuclear Deterrence At Sea – France Begins Work On ‘Cutting Edge’ Nuke-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarine
By EurAsian Times Desk -March 21, 2024
The steel cutting of the first third-generation French SSBN took place at Naval Group’s shipyard in Cherbourg on March 20th. This symbolic gesture marks the start of hull production for these submarines, which will ensure France’s nuclear deterrence posture until the end of the 21st century.
Among the most complex systems, SSBNs are the cornerstones of France’s strategic oceanic force (FOST) and ensure that nuclear deterrence remains at sea.
Launched in February 2021, the SNLE 3G program for the French Navy brings together the armed forces, the French defense procurement agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement – DGA), which is responsible for overall project management, the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), for the nuclear boilers, and Naval Group, which is responsible for overall project management of the submarines, in association with TechnicAtome for the nuclear boilers………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.eurasiantimes.com/nuclear-deterrence-at-sea-france-starts-constructing/
Nuclear weapons: France to restart tritium production with EDF
By Paul Messad | Euractiv France, 20 Mar 24
France’s Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, announced on Monday (18 March) a new production cycle for tritium, which is essential for the manufacture of nuclear weapons, using state utility EDF’s two civilian reactors.
Lecornu visited the Civaux nuclear power plant in south-west France, which will produce the tritium for the military.
The tritium will be manufactured on the premises of the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA), the French nuclear scientific and industrial research establishment.
To manufacture tritium, it is necessary to treat lithium-containing material with radiation, by exposing it to the neutron fluxes present inside the core of a reactor.
Tritium, whose gaseous form is practically non-existent, naturally, can be extracted from the irradiated material.
This hydrogen isotope (1 proton, 2 neutrons, and hydrogen-3) is particularly vulnerable to disintegrating spontaneously. As a result, any stockpile is halved in 12 years and disappears almost entirely after a century.
But it is vital for the production of nuclear weapons, particularly hydrogen bombs and neutron bombs, for which it is the main explosive.
The French army and EDF have come up with this “collaboration” to ensure the availability of sufficient stocks of tritium “as part of the continuity and credibility of France’s nuclear deterrent”, according to the annex to the press release.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, France currently has 290 active warheads, the fourth largest, after China with 500, the US with 3,700, and Russia with 4,400…………………………………………………….
Discussions between the French armed forces ministry and EDF on this subject have been underway for more than 25 years, in anticipation of the closure in 2009 of the two reactors intended solely for the production of tritium located in Marcoule, in south-east France, after more than 50 years in operation.
The parties finally selected Civaux, one of France’s most powerful and newest nuclear power stations. It was selected because it was capable of operating for a very long time, Dutheil said……………………
despite the reassurances of the various parties involved, any signed agreement between the French government, CEA, and EDF, will not specify a date – to define the legal and contractual scope of the activities, a press release states.
Dutheil stated, that later this year EDF will submit a dossier to the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire, the French nuclear safety authority, which will examine the feasibility of the project.
As a result of this timetable, the first test irradiation of lithium will not take place until before 2025, when the plant’s reactors are scheduled to be shut down for maintenance.
[Edited by Rajnish Singh] https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/nuclear-weapons-france-to-restart-tritium-production-with-edf/
Canada to expedite approval of new nuclear projects, energy minister says
Reuters, By Steve Scherer and Rod Nickel, March 1, 2024
OTTAWA, Feb 29 (Reuters) – Canada will expedite the approval process for new nuclear projects, but will not exclude them from the federal environmental review as requested by the province of Ontario, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said.
All new major projects in Canada, including nuclear reactors, have to be reviewed under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), which the government has promised to revise this spring after the Supreme Court last year ruled it overstepped into provincial jurisdiction.
Wilkinson said the legislative revisions to the IAA will be limited to addressing the concerns of the court because if the government does more than that, it would “have to open up large scale consultations that will take significant time.”
“That being said, we do have some ideas that as to how we can make the process more efficient and respond to the thoughts and aspirations of the provinces,” Wilkinson told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, adding that accelerating the process will not come at the cost of addressing environmental concerns.
Canada is the world’s second-largest uranium producer, but the long regulatory process has resulted in miners like NexGen Energy having to wait seven years and counting to build the world’s largest uranium mine in Saskatchewan.
“It’s a very long process,” said NexGen CEO Leigh Curyer. “Government and industry working together to bring these projects online more expeditiously, that is absolutely key.”……………………..
Nuclear expansion faces opposition, however, over charges it already doesn’t adequately review risks.
The Sierra Club environmental group opposes development of nuclear fuels because of dangerous waste, high cost and links to weapons, said Sierra’s Canada programs director Gretchen Fitzgerald.
“Canada again and again has failed to create valid environmental assessment processes and arms-length regulation of the nuclear power industry – leaving communities at risk,” Fitzgerald said………………………………
OLD SITES VS NEW ONES
Last month, Ontario said would start work to refurbish aging nuclear reactors at Pickering, located about 45 km (28 miles) east of Toronto, to extend production by 30 years…………………………………………………………..
Ontario is developing what could be the first operating small modular reactor (SMR) in the Western world by the end of the decade, a technology that many countries are looking at as a way of replacing coal-fired plants, Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said SMRs are “sort of carbon copies of each other” and so should not require repetitive engineering assessments.
The government is also reviewing its entire regulatory process to approve large industrial projects including nuclear by eliminating overlaps between the provincial and federal assessments, he said. The details of that review, which will have a particular impact on mining, will be released in the next few months, Wilkinson said……….https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/canada-expedite-approval-new-nuclear-projects-energy-minister-says-2024-02-29/
Israel Will Steal 16% of Gaza’s Land By Establishing ‘Buffer Zone’
Israel is destroying homes and agricultural land to create the zone
by Dave DeCamp March 18, 2024 https://news.antiwar.com/2024/03/18/israel-will-steal-16-of-gazas-land-by-establishing-buffer-zone/
Israel’s plan to create a “buffer zone” inside Gaza along its border with Israel will take 16% of the Strip’s territory, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an analysis of the operation by Adi Ben Nun, a Hebrew University geography professor.
Israel has begun the process of constructing the zone, which involves demolishing Palestinian homes and agricultural land that are in the way. The buffer will be about 1 kilometer (.6 miles) in width.
Israeli media reported in January that Israel had destroyed 1,100 of the 2,800 buildings in the border areas. In that same month, 21 Israeli soldiers were killed while working to demolish a building after a Hamas rocket detonated explosives IDF soldiers had planted.
The Israeli military insists it needs to create the buffer zone to prevent future October 7-style attacks. But the plan also advances Israel’s seizure of Gaza’s territory, and many ministers in the Israeli government favor re-establishing Jewish settlements in the Strip.
On top of the buffer zone on the border, Israel is also constructing a road that will cut the Gaza Strip in two. Israel claims that it doesn’t seek to occupy Gaza but wants to maintain open-ended security control of the Strip, which is not possible without some form of occupation.
The Biden administration claims it’s opposed to any Israeli plans that will shrink Gaza’s territory. But the US continues to provide Israel with unconditional military aid as it’s enacting a plan to steal 16% of Gaza.
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