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Bristol Airport generates record amount of renewable energy.

 Bristol Airport has generated a record amount of renewable energy from its solar arrays, totalling more than 1,425,000 Kwh so far this year. The
energy output is equivalent to the annual electricity use of almost 400
homes and already surpasses last year’s total.

 South Wales Argus 17th Oct 2025, https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25552365.bristol-airport-generates-record-amount-renewable-energy/

October 20, 2025 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

They Said The Massacres Would Stop When The Hostages Were Released. They Haven’t Stopped.

Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 18, 2025,https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/they-said-the-massacres-would-stop?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=176485051&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Last year I banged out an angry rant about the way Israel supporters would yell “release the hostages!” at anyone who talked about the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians, saying Hamas was to blame for the killing because of their refusal to release the Israeli captives, and that it would all stop once the hostages are free. I’m remembering that essay today because the hostages are free, but the massacres are continuing.

On Friday Israel reportedly blew up a vehicle carrying a Palestinian family of eleven people, including seven children. The IDF gave its usual excuse for the massacre: the civilians were deemed to have crossed an invisible line into a forbidden zone which made the Israeli soldiers feel unsafe. They did this exact same thing constantly during the last “ceasefire” as well.

In my polemic last year I argued that the slaughter we were seeing in Gaza plainly had nothing to do with pushing for the release of Israeli hostages, and that even if it did it would still be barbaric to massacre children until your enemies caved in to your demands.

But two years of genocide have made it clear that the Israeli military was never killing Palestinian civilians in order to push for the release of hostages or force Hamas to cave in to their demands. The Israeli military kills Palestinian civilians in order to kill Palestinian civilians. The killing is the goal, and it always has been.

We see this illustrated over and over again, in all sorts of ways. Israel apologists always argued that the only reason the IDF had destroyed Gaza’s healthcare system with nonstop hospital attacks was because Hamas was using those hospitals as secret military bases. But then multiple independent reports from western doctors in Gaza confirmed that Israeli forces had been entering the hospitals after attacking them and systematically destroying individual pieces of medical equipment one by one in order to make them unusable. Hamas wasn’t the target in those hospital attacks, the hospitals themselves were the target.

And now we are seeing the “Israel is killing people because Hamas has Israeli hostages” narrative debunked in exactly the same way the “Israel keeps bombing hospitals because there are Hamas bases in all of them” narrative was. The hostages are free, but the massacres continue.

None of which will surprise anyone who was paying attention these last two years. Israel’s genocidal intent has been on full display every minute of every day, and it continues to be even during this joke of a “ceasefire” where the genocide was theoretically supposed to be on pause for a little while.

October 19, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Amazon spills plan to nuke Washington…with X-Energy mini-reactors

COMMENT. At left -the picture of the as yet non-existent “small” nuclear project, to supply great steel towers -the so-called “cloud” of data.

The nuclear and AI industries abound with lies in their propaganda

Now they just need to get regulatory approval

Tobias Mann, The Register, Fri 17 Oct 2025

Despite technological and regulatory hurdles, Amazon remains convinced that small modular reactors (SMRs) are the answer to the cloud titan’s power woes.

Last fall, the house of Bezos announced a $500 million investment in SMR startup X-Energy. On Thursday, the e-tailer revealed that X-Energy’s Xe-100 SMR designs would eventually supply Washington State with “up to” 960 megawatts of clean energy.

“Eventually” is the key word here as construction isn’t expected to start until the end of the decade and the plants won’t begin operations until sometime in the 2030s.

The plan is to deploy the 80 megawatt reactors at a new facility called the Cascade Nuclear Energy Center outside Richland, Washington, in three phases, each totaling 320 megawatts of generative output. For context, xAI’s 200,000-GPU Colossus supercomputer uses roughly 300 megawatts of power when it is fully utilized. 

Amazon notes that X-Energy’s SMRs should be smaller, faster to deploy, and cheaper to operate than conventional pressurized water reactors. This is a common argument in support of the miniaturized nuclear power plants, but it’s worth noting that the tech hasn’t actually been proven out. In fact, higher-than-expected operating costs have already doomed one early SMR project.

And that’s not the only challenge facing X-Energy. The company’s SMR tech has yet to receive Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, which is required before construction of the reactor itself can begin. But that’s not stopping Amazon from sharing 3D renders of what the power plant might look like when complete………………………………………………………………………………………………
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/amazon_nuke_washington/

October 19, 2025 Posted by | technology, USA | Leave a comment

Key US nuclear agency to send 80% of workforce home as shutdown drags on.

About 1,400 staff at NNAS, which manages America’s nuclear weapons stockpile, to be furloughed on Monday

Joseph Gedeon , 18 Oct 25, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/government-shutdown-nuclear-agency-nnsa

The agency that maintains the US nuclear arsenal will be sending home 80% of its workforce as the government shutdown drags through its 17th day and into the weekend, now the longest full funding lapse in US history.

House armed services committee chair Mike Rogers said in a Friday press conference that the National Nuclear Security Administration has now exhausted its carryover reserves.

“We were just informed last night that the National Nuclear Security Administration, the group that manages our nuclear stockpile, that the carryover funding they’ve been using is about to run out,” said Rogers, a Republican from Alabama. “These are not employees that you want to go home. They’re managing and handling a very important strategic asset for us.”

The NNSA, which operates as part of the department of energy, does not directly control operational nuclear weapons – a Pentagon responsibility – but plays a strategic role in keeping warheads secure and functional without conducting explosive tests. The agency also runs non-proliferation programs aimed at preventing nuclear materials from reaching hostile nations or terrorist organizations.

Around 1,400 NNSA employees will be furloughed without pay starting on Monday, leaving only 375 staff members designated as essential to continue working, according to an agency notice obtained by Politico. A department of energy spokesperson confirmed the approximate workforce numbers.

The spokesperson also said that NNSA’s office of secure transportation, which is responsible for transporting government-owned nuclear material across the country, is funded through 27 October, and added that Chris Wright, the energy secretary, will be at the NNSA site in Las Vegas on Monday to “further discuss the impacts of the shutdown on America’s nuclear deterrent.

Under the agency’s 2025 contingency protocols in the event of a shutdown, the skeleton crew on duty will focus exclusively on hyperspecific safety operations: monitoring nuclear materials, maintaining unique equipment, ensuring reactor safety for navy vessels, and continuing international nonproliferation work it deems essential for security.

But most scientific research, stockpile maintenance, and global security programs will be suspended, potentially creating delays in sensitive national defense projects that need rigid and consistent oversight.

The current impasse has now become the longest complete government-wide shutdown in US history, surpassing a 16-day funding lapse in 2013. Previous lengthier shutdowns affected only portions of the federal government.

Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Senate Democrats for the crisis, saying earlier this week the country is “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history, unless Democrats drop their demands”. Republican leaders are also now worried about potential airport disruptions during the upcoming Thanksgiving travel period if the stalemate continues.

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees, including congressional and agency staffers, remain either furloughed or working without pay.

October 19, 2025 Posted by | employment, USA | Leave a comment

Trump downplays hopes he will supply Ukraine with US missiles after meeting with Zelenskyy

US president seemed more intent on brokering a peace deal after surprise phone call with Putin earlier in day

Pjotr Sauer Russian affairs reporter and Andrew Roth in Washington,Sat 18 Oct 2025

Donald Trump seemed more intent on brokering a peace deal than he was to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles during a White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that the US may need them for a future conflict.

While Trump did not rule out providing the long-range missiles Zelenskyy seeks, Trump appeared cool to the prospect as he looked ahead to a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Hungary in the coming weeks.

After speaking with Zelenskyy for more than two hours, Trump implored both Ukraine and Russia to “stop the war immediately”, even if it means Ukraine conceding territory.

“You stop at the battle line, and both sides should go home, go to their families,” Trump told reporters on his way to his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. “Stop the killing. And that should be it. Stop right now at the battle line. I told that to President Zelenskyy. I told it to President Putin.”

The Ukrainian leader was frank, telling Trump that Ukraine has thousands of drones ready for an offensive against Russian targets, but needs American missiles.

“We don’t have Tomahawks, that’s why we need Tomahawks,” he said.

Trump responded: “We’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks.”

Later, Trump reiterated that he wants the United States to hold on to its weaponry. “We want Tomahawks, also. We don’t want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country,” he said.

Trump’s doubtful tone on the cruise missiles follows a surprise phone call with Vladimir Putin on Friday during which the Russian leader told Trump that supplying the Tomahawks would damage US-Russian relations.

His position on supplying Ukraine with weapons has changed a number of times since he returned to office in January, often after negotiations with Putin or European backers of Ukraine.

During the White House meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump also discussed plans to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin in Hungary, saying it was “to be determined” whether Zelenskyy would join but that he would inform him of the discussions.

“There is a lot of bad blood,” Trump said.

After the talks on Friday, the US president issued a stern call to both sides on social media to “stop the killing, and make a DEAL!”.

“They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Zelenskyy told reporters he did not want to talk about long-range missiles, saying the US did not want escalation, and he was “realistic” about his chance of getting them.

The Ukrainian president, who spoke by phone with European leaders after the meeting, said he was counting on Trump to pressure Putin “to stop this war”.

The Kremlin’s top aide, Yuri Ushakov, earlier said Putin had initiated Thursday’s conversation with Trump, during which the Russian leader urged his US counterpart not to supply Ukraine with the Tomahawks.

“I did actually say: ‘Would you mind if I gave a couple of thousand Tomahawks to your opposition?’ I did say that to him. I said it just that way,” Trump said, recounting the conversation.

“He didn’t like the idea. You have to be a little bit lighthearted sometimes.”

Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that Putin warned Trump during the call that supplying Kyiv with Tomahawks “won’t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries”.

It was the eighth known call between the two men since Trump began his second term in January, and followed a familiar pattern in the complex and often confusing contest between Putin and Zelenskyy for Trump’s ear.

On previous occasions, when Trump had seemed ready to tilt towards Kyiv and its European allies, a call from Putin was often followed by a sudden softening in the US leader’s tone towards Moscow.

A flurry of activity was also set off with Trump’s announcement after the call that he was planning to meet the Russian president in the Hungarian capital on a date still to be determined, in an effort to end the war.

Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday morning said that the summit could take place “within two weeks or later”.

Peskov said Putin had already discussed the planned meeting with Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister. Orbán – an outlier among European leaders with warm ties to Trump and Putin – said he had also spoken to Trump about the summit, writing on X: “Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are under way.”

It remains unclear how Putin would travel to Hungary, given EU sanctions and airspace restrictions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the fact that he is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC). As a signatory to the ICC, Hungary would be obliged to arrest him, though Orbán has previously said this would not happen.

When asked about the logistical challenges, Peskov said the route was “so far, of course, unclear”.

Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said on Friday that Putin would be able to enter and leave the country. “There is no need for any kind of consultation with anyone, we are a sovereign country here. We will receive [Putin] with respect, host him and provide the conditions for him to negotiate with the American president,” he told a press briefing.

Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August, which did not produce a diplomatic breakthrough. Trump added that fresh high-level talks between Washington and Moscow would be held next week, led on the US side by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, before a presidential summit in Budapest.

The latest conversation, which lasted more than two and a half hours, appears to have sapped the momentum Zelenskyy had built with Trump, with the US leader now unlikely to show significant support for Ukraine before meeting Putin.

“Zelenskyy must be pulling his hair out. Today’s meeting with Trump is now completely overshadowed and overtaken by the Budapest meeting,” said John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Moscow and Kyiv.

Trump also has hinted that talks between Putin and Zelenskyy may need to take place indirectly, contradicting Zelenskyy’s longstanding aim of meeting Putin face to face to end the war.

“They don’t get along too well, those two,” Trump said. “So we may do something where we’re separate. Separate but equal.”

Zelenskyy, who touched down in Washington on Thursday and met US defence contractors before his White House visit, has not commented on the Putin-Trump call, though few in Kyiv are likely to view it positively.

Some Ukrainian officials tried to put a positive spin on the call, saying that Putin’s outreach underscored the Russian leader’s fear of new Ukrainian weapon supplies………….https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/17/trump-putin-phone-call-sinks-kyiv-ukraine-hopes-for-us-tomahawk-missiles

October 19, 2025 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Trump Administration’s Military Occupation of America

By Nick Turse, The War Within,  October 16, 2025

Let me do something I seldom do and briefly predict the future in an up-close-and-personal fashion. Count on this: on November 4th, Zohran Mamdani will indeed be elected mayor of New York City. (I’ll vote for him and I have no doubt that I’ll be anything but alone.) And count on this, too: as his opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, recently predicted, if the National Guard or other military outfits aren’t on the streets of this city — and possibly at my polling place — on election day, they certainly will be by the time Mamdani takes office next January.

Yes, once upon a time in a distant past, Donald Trump did indeed come from this very city, growing up in a neighborhood that he once termed “an oasis.” And I suspect he still thinks of it as, in some sense, “his.” As for Mamdani, whom he calls “my little communist,” the president isn’t likely to put up with him for long, not in a country that, as TomDispatch regular Nick Turse makes vividly clear today, he seems increasingly intent on occupying militarily.

I sometimes try to imagine telling my long-dead father, who grew up in Brooklyn and fought in the Second World War, about the Trumpian universe he’s missed, including the possibility that a president of the United States might actually send some part of the U.S. military into his old neighborhood as — yes! — an occupying force, while invoking the Insurrection Act. Once upon a time, such a thought would have been considered truly absurd science fiction, but no longer. And with that in mind, let Turse fill you in on just how Donald Trump is already beginning to militarily occupy this country and what that might mean for all of us. Tom

On the Precipice of Authoritarian Rule

The Trump Administration’s Military Occupation of America

By Nick Turse

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to unleash the armed forces on more American cities during a rambling address to top military brass. He told the hundreds of generals and admirals gathered to hear him that some of them would be called upon to take a primary role at a time when his administration has launched occupations of American cities, deployed tens of thousands of troops across the United States, created a framework for targeting domestic enemies, cast his political rivals as subhuman, and asserted his right to wage secret war and summarily execute those he deems terrorists.

Trump used that bizarre speech to take aim at cities he claimed “are run by the radical left Democrats,” including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. “We’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” he said. “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.” He then added: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”

Trump has, of course, already deployed the armed forces inside the United States in an unprecedented fashion during the first year of his second term in office. As September began, a federal judge found that his decision to occupy Los Angeles with members of California’s National Guard — under so-called Title 10 or federalized status — against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom was illegal. But just weeks later, Trump followed up by ordering the military occupation of Portland, Oregon, over Governor Tina Kotek’s objections.

“I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late last month. And he “authoriz[ed] Full Force, if necessary.”

When a different federal judge blocked him from deploying Oregon National Guardsmen to the city, he ordered in Guard members from California and Texas. That judge then promptly blocked his effort to circumvent her order, citing the lack of a legal basis for sending troops into Portland. In response, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that grants the president emergency powers to deploy troops on U.S. soil — to “get around” the court rulings blocking his military occupation efforts. “I think that’s all insurrection, really criminal insurrection,” he claimed, in confused remarks from the Oval Office.

Experts say that his increasing use of the armed forces within the United States represents an extraordinary violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. That bedrock nineteenth-century law banning the use of federal troops to execute domestic law enforcement has long been seen as fundamental to America’s democratic tradition. However, the president’s deployments continue to nudge this country ever closer to becoming a genuine police state. They come amid a raft of other Trump administration authoritarian measures designed to undermine the Constitution and weaken democracy. Those include attacks on birthright citizenship and free speech, as well as the exercise of expansive unilateral powers like deporting people without due process and rolling back energy regulations, citing wartime and emergency powers.

A Presidential Police Force

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled last month that Trump’s deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles, which began in June, was illegal and harkened back to Britain’s use of soldiers for law enforcement purposes in colonial America. He warned that Trump clearly intends to transform the National Guard into a presidential police force……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order claiming to designate antifa — a loose-knit anti-fascist movement — as a “domestic terror organization.” He also issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which directs the Justice Department and elements of the Intelligence Community and national security establishment to target “anti-fascism… movements” and “domestic terrorist organizations.” Such enemies, according to the president, not only espouse “anti-Americanism” and “support for the overthrow of the United States Government,” but also are typified by advocacy of opinions protected by the First Amendment, including “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Christianity,” and “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

After referring to the “war from within” during his address to the military’s top officers, he cast his political rivals as subhuman and claimed that they needed to be dealt with. “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats,” he told the sailors during the Navy’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The Trump administration has also admitted that it’s waging a secret war against undisclosed enemies without the consent of Congress. ……………………………………………………………


Police State USA

The Trump administration’s military occupations of American cities, its deployment of tens of thousands of troops across the United States, its emerging framework for designating and targeting domestic enemies, its dehumanization of its political foes, and its assertion that the president has the right to wage secret war and summarily execute those he deems terrorists have left this country on the precipice of authoritarian rule……………………………. https://tomdispatch.com/on-the-precipice-of-authoritarian-rule/

October 19, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Reward scheme for using less power at peak times could help lower US bills.

A cheap, bipartisan tool could help the US meet increasing energy demand
from AI datacenters while also easing soaring power bills for households,
preventing deadly blackouts and helping the climate.

The policy solution, called “demand flexibility”, can be quickly deployed across the US.
Demand flexibility essentially means rewarding customers for using less
power during times of high demand, reducing strain on the grid or in some
cases, selling energy they have captured by solar panels on their homes.

Peak power demand is expected to grow by 20% over the next decade –
driven by the dramatic rise of AI datacenters, onshoring of manufacturing,
increasing use of EVs and growing need for air conditioning amid hotter
summers. Increasing energy demand is putting states such as California and Texas at higher risk of life-threatening blackouts in extreme weather.
Meanwhile, the average household price of power increased by 9.5% this
year. The largest increase was in Missouri, which jumped by 38%.

 Guardian 17th Oct 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/tool-lower-home-energy-bills

October 19, 2025 Posted by | ENERGY, USA | Leave a comment

Fears raised that specialist Vulcan MoD work could shift to Sellafield

By Iain Grant, John O’Groat Journal, 16th Oct 2025

Concern has arisen that the plans to put the clean-up of Vulcan in the hands of next-door Dounreay could lead to the break-up of a long-time, specialist Ministry of Defence (MoD) support team in the far north.

The MoD has yet to comment on speculation that the intended transfer of the Rolls-Royce workforce to NRS Dounreay could lead to future work in support of the UK nuclear submarine fleet being switched to the Sellafield plant in west Cumbria.

The suggestion has emerged in the wake of the UK government’s confirmation that the decommissioning of Vulcan is to be undertaken by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which currently oversees only the clean-up of redundant civil nuclear reactor sites.

A Vulcan worker has told the Caithness Courier that the transfer has triggered a lot of disquiet.

“The majority of the workforce don’t want transferred to the NDA as they would have to re-train to support a general decommissioning role,” said the individual, who wants to remain anonymous.

“They would much rather continue to work on the existing MoD contract to make best use of their specialist skills that they have taken years to develop.”

Rolls Royce had earlier this year been informed by the MoD to expect more work involved with the current submarine programme to come to Vulcan.

But the worker claims that the site management has since been told that this is now scheduled to go to Sellafield.

“We don’t think that is right as it is unlikely that Sellafield will deliver the work on time,” said the individual. “The Sellafield programme has slipped for the last few years whereas Vulcan has been consistently hitting its delivery targets and we have been praised for it.

“If this work goes to Sellafield, the great specialist team that has been built up at Vulcan will be broken up and forced to move into a decommissioning role which does not need the same specialist skill set.”

The worker maintains retaining the work in Caithness represents the best value for the taxpayer.

“The workforce don’t think that it is right that the MoD are going to break up the team at Vulcan when highly skilled people are desperately needed in the nuclear sector and it will take many years to train any other team up to this level of specialism.

“We don’t think that delivers best value to the taxpayers of this country. We think that highly skilled jobs being taken from Scotland to England would be unjustifiable if publicly challenged.

“This work is the next phase of the programme that has already been safely and efficiently been conducted at Vulcan over the last 60 years.”

At the end of March, then-junior defence minister Maria Eagle announced that Vulcan’s nuclear submarine support role would continue until at least April 2027…………………………

Both the MoD and Rolls-Royce declined to respond to the speculation about work being redirected to Sellafield. https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/fears-raised-that-specialist-vulcan-mod-work-could-shift-to-416873/

October 19, 2025 Posted by | employment, UK | Leave a comment

Trump to Zelensky…’I haven’t got a weapon to spare’


Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 17 Oct 25

Ukraine President Zelensky arrives at the White House Friday to once again beg President Trump for US weapons which will do nothing to prevent his impending defeat to Russia’s overwhelming military forces.

Because Trump knows the war is lost, he will give Zelensky what he’s given him all year…nothing. While President Biden gave Zelensky over $170 billion in military aid during Biden’s last 3 years in office, Trump will only sell US weapons to European NATO countries to gift Zelensky’s lost cause. But while the US has the wherewithal to fund Ukraine till their inevitable collapse, Europe does not. 

NATO country leaders tried to fill the US void in the first 6 months of 2025 with an average of $3.8 billion in military aid. But that self-destructive policy has degraded their economies, tanked their polling, making right wing nationalist parties more popular than the interventionist incumbents. Beginning in July even diehards like UK’s Starmer, France’s Macron and Germany’ Merz have cut back on Ukraine’s lost cause. Total European military aid dropped to just $1.7 billion monthly for July and August with no possibility of heading north.

Trump must tell Zelensky Friday that with no cards to play he should capitulate to Russia’s very reasonable and non-negotiable peace demands. No NATO for Ukraine, neutrality between Western Europe and Russia going forward, and no return of lost territory.

Ukraine’s military will collapse on Trump’s watch. He’s correctly blaming America’s failed proxy war against Russia on predecessor Biden who made the Russian invasion of February 2022 inevitable. He’s also blaming Europe for not buying enough US weapons to keep Ukraine fighting.


Trump has plenty of weapons in his trillion dollar war warehouse. But he blew over $20 billion on weapons to enable Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and another $10 billion for related Israeli wars against Yemen and Iran. Now he’s ramping up weaponry to take out his Venezuelan bête noir Nicholas Maduro.
So many wars to gobble up Trump’s war weaponry is why he’ll tell Zelensky Friday…‘I haven’t got a weapon to spare.’

October 18, 2025 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel Returns Palestinian Prisoners’ Bodies With ‘Signs of Torture, Mutilation, and Execution’

An unknown number of Palestinians abducted by Israel died or were killed while in custody; living former prisoners have described horrific and sometimes deadly torture.

Brett Wilkins, 16 Oct 25, https://www.commondreams.org/news/palestinian-prisoners-tortured

Israel on Wednesday returned the bodies of dozens of Palestinians abducted during the Gaza genocide showing “signs of torture, mutilation, and execution,” as one US-based news site reported—a description consistent with the testimonies of former prisoners held by the Israeli forces over the past two years.

So far, Israel has returned 90 bodies, with more expected to be handed over soon, as part ofo the ceasefire agreement reached with Hamas last week. The Gaza Health Ministry’s forensic team said that some of the bodies were blindfolded and bound, and bore signs of torture similar to those seen on many of the living Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel on Monday.

Some of the dead prisoners appeared to be victims of field executions—a war crime Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops have allegedly committed against men, women, and children alike.

Furthermore, Israel’s obliteration of Gaza’s healthcare and medical infrastructure is making it difficult for Palestinian forensic personnel to identify the bodies returned by Israel, which are in various states of decomposition.

“The horrific scenes visible on the bodies of the martyrs returned by the occupation, bearing marks of torture, abuse, and field executions, clearly reveal the criminal and fascist nature of the occupation army and the moral and human decadence this entity has reached,” Hamas said in a statement.

“We call upon international rights groups, foremost among them the [United Nations] and [its] Human Rights Council, to document these atrocious crimes, open an urgent and comprehensive investigation into them, and bring the occupation leaders to trial before relevant international courts, as they are responsible for committing unprecedented crimes against humanity in our modern history,” the statement added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation. The International Court of Justice is also weighing an ongoing genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa and supported by around two dozen nations.

Although warned by their Israeli captors against speaking out, Palestinians freed from Israeli imprisonment this week described being held in a “slaughterhouse” rife with torture and abuse, including beatings, electrocution, and being shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.

Palestinians imprisoned by Israeli forces—including children—have described being raped and sexually assaulted by male and female soldiers, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, soaked with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and blasted with loud music. Dozens of detainees have died in Israeli custody, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton. IDF officers allegedly brought Israeli civilians into detention centers and allowed them to watch and film Palestinian prisoners being tortured.

Israeli physicians who served at the notorious Sde Teiman torture prison also described widespread severe injuries caused by 24-hour shackling of hands and feet that sometimes required amputations.

Hamas’ treatment of the Israelis it abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack is more complicated, with some freed captives saying they suffered torture and other abuse while others—especially those released early during the war—said they were treated relatively well. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier captured after the rest of his tank crew were killed said that although he was tortured, his captors granted his request for religious materials including a Torah. One woman even pushed back against Israeli media lies claiming she was wounded by her captors, when in fact it was an Israeli airstrike that injured her.

So far, Hamas has returned the bodies of nine Israeli and other hostages. Israel is calling on Hamas to “make all necessary efforts” to find and hand over the bodies of 21 remaining dead hostages still unaccounted for.

October 18, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

The 9,100 Palestinians left behind in Israeli prisons after the ‘peace’ deal

As world leaders celebrate the release of Israeli captives, over 9,000 Palestinian prisoners still face torture, hunger, and isolation behind bars. Half of them are held by Israel without charge or trial.

Mondoweiss, By Qassam Muaddi  October 15, 2025

As the leaders of 20 countries gathered in Egypt’s Sharm al-Sheikh to celebrate the ceasefire, mainstream media celebrated the release of the remaining 20 living Israeli captives in Gaza. After reuniting with their families, the captives described the harsh conditions in which they were held. Meanwhile, 1,968 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons, 88 of whom were released in the West Bank, 154 were deported to Egypt, and the rest were released in the Gaza Strip. Most of them were abducted by Israeli forces inside Gaza over the past two years. Of the total number of prisoners released, 250 had been serving life sentences for charges related to armed activity.

But over 9,100 Palestinians continue to be held in Israeli prisons. Some 3,544 of them are held under the Israeli system of “administrative detention,” which allows Israel to imprison Palestinians for up to six months without charge or trial. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, none of the released prisoners in Monday’s swap were administrative detainees.

Administrative detention orders are ratified by an Israeli military court, and the six-month period of imprisonment can be renewed indefinitely based on a “secret file” that neither the detainees nor their lawyers can access. Consecutive renewals have led many Palestinians to serve up to two years under this system, never having been given due process.

Administrative detainees represent the largest category of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, says Ayah Shreiteh, the spokesperson of the Prisoners’ Club. 

Shreiteh added that around 1,000 Palestinians have been arrested and held without trial, without even an administrative detention order. Many of them have spent months behind bars.

As for those who have been sentenced based on clear charges, the majority of sentences are for belonging to political organizations and unions, participating in protests, or throwing stones. Since October 2023, however, Shreiteh points out that the most common conviction has been over “incitement,” a charge that covers anything from a social media post to delivering public speeches, and even to raising the flags of Palestinian political factions in public.

“Before October 7, the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners had already been deteriorating,” Shreiteh noted. Then everything changed. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After October 7, things got dramatically worse, Ansari says. Both verbal and physical violence increased against Palestinian detainees to the point that violence was used during all phases of detention, starting from the moment of arrest. “But the most noticeable change after October 7 has been the complete isolation of Palestinian prisoners, with the ban of family visitation,” she said. “This is still ongoing.” …………………………………………………………………………………………

Palestinian prisoners have been largely absent from mainstream media since before October 7, appearing only in the context of prisoner swaps last January and last week. However, the day before October 7, human rights groups reported that a total of 5,000 Palestinians were in Israeli jails — at the time, it was considered a record that had not been met in several years, including 1,300 administrative detainees. Over the past two years, that record-breaking prison population doubled.

Mass captivity as a phenomenon is foreign to Israelis, but for Palestinians, it has been normalized over decades. According to human rights reports, at least 1 million Palestinians have experienced Israeli detention since 1967. Yet after October 7, the Israeli captives became the only talking point for Western politicians and the mainstream media, while Palestinian prisoners remained invisible. 

On Monday, Donald Trump celebrated his vaunted “forever” peace after the signing of the ceasefire deal in Egypt. Now that the Israeli captives have been released, the 9,100 Palestinians languishing in Israel’s dungeons can continue to be forgotten. https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/the-9100-palestinians-left-behind-in-israeli-prisons-after-the-peace-deal/

October 18, 2025 Posted by | civil liberties, Israel | Leave a comment

Trump Says He’s Mulling Land Strikes On Venezuela, Confirms CIA Covert Ops

Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden, Friday, Oct 17, 2025 –

President Trump later in the day Wednesday verbalized that he’s mulling a land operation or strikes in Venezuela following a New York Times report that same day which said he had authorized CIA covert operations targeting the Maduro government. 

“We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea under control. We’ve had a couple of days now where there isn’t a boat to be found,” Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office when asked about the issue. Below is direct confirmation from the Commander-in-Chief:

“I authorized for two reasons, really. No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America, they came in through the border,” Trump said. “A lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of drugs come in through the sea.”

“But we’re going to stop them by land also,” he added. The NYT report had made clear that the end goal would be overthrowing socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro.

We should note that by this logic, the United States would be justified in invading Mexico and waging war against other regional countries as well.

Congress has been missing in action and US Presidents have long pursued regime change in countries the US deems ‘enemies’ with or without the consent of the American people or its representatives…………………………………… https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-says-hes-mulling-land-strikes-venezuela-confirms-cia-covert-ops

October 18, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Exposed! The University of Sheffield’s role in Britain’s nuclear weapons

“It’s disappointing that there has been no public discussion of the university’s participation in Britain’s nuclear weapons system.”

By Sam Legg, 15 Oct 25, https://labouroutlook.org/2025/10/15/exposed-the-university-of-sheffields-role-in-britains-nuclear-weapons/

Working with local peace groups (such as Sheffield Action Group and Rotherham Friends of Palestine) we organised a protest outside the gates of the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). This is because of what was uncovered in the Sheffield Tribune’s article. So far, we know the following about the role of the AMRC in Britain’s nuclear weapons system:

  • The AMRC is working with the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) to design the Astraea, a new generation nuclear warhead.
  • This research has been taking place for at least the past three years.
  • The weapon being designed with AWE is expected to be 30 times as powerful as the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
  • This research is receiving government support from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Authority and 10 Downing Street.

Sheffield University was built thanks to the generosity of local residents (including steel and factory workers) in 1904, establishing itself as a civic university that aims to deeply connect and engage with its local community. Therefore, it’s disappointing that there has been no public discussion of the university’s participation in Britain’s nuclear weapons system. We are supporting calls for the AWE and AMRC to provide the public with an explanation.

One of the signs at the protest read ‘Make something useful instead’, harking back to the ideas laid out in the Lucas Plan and by Common Wealth to emphasise that the engineering skills being developed at the University of Sheffield should be put to better use. Minesh Parekh, a local councillor who attended the protest, told The Sheffield Tab that “there are so many areas that need cutting-edge research that could drive forwards our health and wellbeing, our net-zero transition, that are needed far more than nuclear weapons”.

With this year marking 80 years since the first atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we need to urgently reflect on whether more weapons of mass destruction is what we want the skills of our talented researchers and workers to be used for. Sheffield was once a nuclear-free zone (declared in the 1980s), yet today we are concerned that the message of the film Threads (based in the city) is being forgotten by the people of Sheffield.

Yorkshire CND will continue to discuss future action to be taken. Alongside this, we are supporting efforts for local councils to adopt motions in favour of a world without nuclear weapons. Get in touch if you would like to find out more – info@yorkshirecnd.org.uk

October 18, 2025 Posted by | Education, UK | Leave a comment

Israel Tortured And Sexually Humiliated Greta Thunberg.

Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 16, 2025, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-tortured-and-sexually-humiliated?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=176291910&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

In an interview with Swedish paper Aftonbladet, Greta Thunberg has corroborated earlier eyewitness reports that she and her fellow Global Sumud Flotilla activists were subjected to monstrous abuses by Israeli officials after being abducted from their boats carrying aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

Here are some excerpts (quotes from Thunberg are italicized, quotes from Aftonbladet are in bold):

“They grab me, pull me to the ground, and throw an Israeli flag over me.”

“They dragged me to the opposite side from where the others were sitting, and I had the flag around me the whole time. They hit and kicked me.”

“They moved me very brutally to a corner that I was turned towards. ‘A special place for a special lady’, they said. And then they had learned ‘Lilla hora’ (Little whore) and ‘Hora Greta’ (Whore Greta) in Swedish, which they repeated all the time.”

In the corner where Greta was sitting, the police placed a flag. “The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted ‘Don’t touch the flag’ and kicked me in the side. After a while, my hands were tied with cable ties, very tightly. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me while I was sitting like that.”

“They were thrown to the ground and beaten. But I could only see it out of the corner of my eye, because every time I lifted my head from the ground, I was kicked by the guard standing next to me.”

Greta was then taken into a building to be searched and undressed. “The guards have no empathy or humanity, and they keep taking selfies with me. There’s a lot I don’t remember. So much is happening at once. You’re in shock. You’re in pain, but you go into a state of trying to stay calm.”

Outside, she was forced to take off her clothes again, she says. “It was mockery, rough handling, and everything was filmed. Everything they do is extremely violent.”

“It was so hot, like 40 degrees. We begged the whole time: Can we have water? Can we have water? In the end, we screamed. The guards walked in front of the bars the whole time, laughing and holding up their water bottles. They threw the bottles with water in them into the trash cans in front of us.”

“When people fainted, we banged on the cages and asked for a doctor. Then the guards came and said, ‘We’re going to gas you.’ It was standard for them to say that.”

“This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”

Thunberg told Aftonbladet that the Swedish government greatly downplayed the abuse she and her fellow Sumud Flotilla activists suffered, and wouldn’t even bring them water:

“We were together and told them about the treatment we received. About the lack of food, water, about the abuse. The torture. We showed them the physical injuries we had — bruises and scratches. We gave them all our contact details — I gave them my father’s number and the number of our contact in the organization. We were clear: everything we say now must be released to the media.”

“They didn’t do anything, they just said: ’Our job is to listen to you. We are here and you are entitled to consular support.’”

“We said over and over again: we need water. And they saw that the guards had water bottles. The embassy staff said: ’We’ll make a note of that.’ One of us, Vincent, said: ’Next time we meet you, you must bring water.’”

Then it took two days before the embassy staff showed up again.

“They didn’t bring any water, except for a small bottle of their own that was half empty. Vincent, who was in the worst shape, got to drink it. We kept asking the guards, ‘Can we have some water?’ but they just walked around with their water bottles and didn’t answer.”

“I said, ‘Are you going to leave us like this? If you leave now, they will beat us up.’ But they just kept walking.”

When Aftonbladet compares emails sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to relatives, with what the captives describe telling embassy staff, it becomes clear that the seriousness of the situation has been downplayed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes the scene at the port, where Greta Thunberg was beaten for hours, as follows: “She told us about harsh treatment and that she had been sitting on a hard surface for a long time.”

On Saturday, several media outlets published testimonies that Greta had been subjected to torture.

Aftonbladet has spoken to three other members of the flotilla who largely confirm what Greta Thunberg says and who have all experienced various types of abuse and humiliation. We have also spoken to relatives. Everyone is highly critical of how the Swedish embassy staff acted.

Thunberg’s statements are not just in alignment with eyewitnesses who said these things were done to her, but with statements from the Israeli government itself.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last month that Sumud activists must be treated as terrorists in order to “create a clear deterrent” from future flotilla activism, declaring that “Anyone who chooses to collaborate with Hamas and support terrorism will meet a firm and unyielding response from Israel.”

“We will not allow individuals who support terrorism to live in comfort. They will face the full consequences of their actions,” Ben-Gvir said at the time.

After the flotilla activists were abducted by the IDF, Ben-Gvir filmed himself taunting them and calling them “terrorists” and said he “was proud that we treat ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters.”

Israel, needless to say, has an extensively documented record of torturing and raping individuals who’ve been given the “terrorist” label by the regime.

So what Thunberg is describing would be Israel doing what it said it was going to do in order to send a message and deter future efforts to feed starving Palestinians — perhaps singling out the most high-profile activist on the flotilla for special abuse in order to really drive the point home.

Israel is so evil it’s actually hard to wrap your mind around it.

October 18, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel, Sweden | Leave a comment

Gravelines: the  Safety Expertise Department of ASNR’ damning opinion calls into question the EPR2

October 16, 2025, https://www.greenpeace.fr/espace-presse/gravelines-lavis-accablant-de-lasnr-remet-en-cause-les-epr2/

The Safety Expertise Department of ASNR, the nuclear safety and radiation protection authority, has just published a damning expert opinion on EDF’s project for the Gravelines power plant.

In addition to the already identified risks of submersion and flooding of the power plant, there is now the risk of soil settlement and liquefaction. The soil, which is designed to support the weight of the new EPR2 reactors, has “poor mechanical characteristics,” posing an unprecedented technical challenge regarding the robustness of the foundations over time and in the face of seismic hazards that could compromise nuclear safety.

“ This relentless opinion from the ASNR is further proof that the criteria for choosing sites for the construction of new EPR2 reactors are largely questionable. After underestimating the climate risks, EDF is underestimating the risk of building such a dangerous infrastructure on such unsuitable ground ,” emphasizes Pauline Boyer, nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace France. “This demonstrates once again the haste of EDF, which is rushing headlong into its plans to build new reactors in Gravelines. ”

A relentless opinion 

In this opinion dated July 23, the ASNR severely rejects EDF’s copy of its first study of ground reinforcement on the Gravelines site, considering that the approach adopted by EDF is not sufficiently robust , ordering it to clarify the safety issues relating to ground reinforcement, to conduct new studies and to set up a monitoring system over time.

The opinion considers that the planned reinforcement of the ground at the Gravelines site constitutes “ a major technical challenge ” and that the system proposed by EDF is  “of unprecedented scale, of great complexity and without representative feedback in France and internationally”.

A hard blow for EDF 

The Gravelines nuclear power plant, built on a polder, is supposed to accommodate two new reactors (EPR2) as part of the nuclear recovery plan.

A year ago, Greenpeace published a report which, through mapping work projecting the rise in water levels in the Gravelines area until the end of the reactors’ lifespan, demonstrated that in 2100 and 2120, the entire Gravelines power plant site could be temporarily below sea level.

“The project to build new EPR2 reactors in Gravelines, EDF’s “seaside sandcastle,” is already sinking into quicksand. It’s time for EDF to make the most sensible decision: stop trying to build reactors at all costs, especially on such a vulnerable and unsuitable site, and invest this money in its renewable energy sector,” adds Pauline Boyer.

The difficulties and uncertainties of this nuclear construction project overlap, at the heart of an area accumulating risks (submersion, flooding, unsuitability of the soil, extreme climatic events, etc.). The 11-meter platform on which the EPR2 would be perched in an attempt to protect them from the risks of submersion and flooding (which Greenpeace always questions) makes the task even more difficult.

After the  setbacks with the concrete intended for the construction of the future EPR2 in Penly, this is yet another example of EDF’s amateurism in wanting to build EPR2s in unsuitable areas without first carrying out a robust risk analysis.

October 18, 2025 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

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