The USA: A democracy on life support
21 November 2025, Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/the-usa-a-democracy-on-life-support/
When a President Demands the Death Penalty for His Opponents, Democracy Is Already on Life Support
There are moments in political life so shocking, so fundamentally corrosive, that they should stop a nation in its tracks. President Trump calling for the death penalty for six political opponents is one of those moments – not because it’s surprising, but because it isn’t anymore.
A president of the United States, the supposed leader of the free world, now speaks about hanging adversaries with the ease of ordering a cheeseburger. No evidence, no process, no pretence of legality – just the authoritarian impulse spoken out loud: eliminate them.
And the true horror is not just in the words themselves, but in the silence that follows.
The Republican Party, once fond of quoting the Constitution like scripture, now treats Trump’s threats as if they’re merely colourful commentary instead of the political equivalent of arson. Speaker Mike Johnson nods along. Karoline Leavitt repeats the talking points with the fervour of someone auditioning for a ministry of propaganda. The party’s enablers treat this behaviour as normal, even patriotic – as though the Founding Fathers intended freedom of speech to include calling for the state-sanctioned killing of critics.
This is not strength. It’s not law and order. It’s a chilling preview of what happens when democratic norms collapse under the weight of one man’s ego and a movement’s cowardice.
Because authoritarianism isn’t built overnight. It creeps. It numbs. It desensitises.
First, the president jokes about locking up opponents.
Then he insists it wasn’t a joke.
Then he escalates.
And the people around him – out of loyalty, fear, or ambition – normalise it.
By the time a president demands executions for political rivals, the real danger is already well underway: a nation where threats replace arguments, silence replaces dissent, and loyalty replaces truth.
America has weathered dangerous leaders before. What’s new is the echo chamber that institutionalises the danger – politicians who imitate Trump’s rhetoric, media outlets that launder it into legitimacy, and supporters who cheer it as strength.
A democracy dies long before the first political prisoner does.
It dies when its citizens shrug.
It dies when its leaders cower.
It dies when a president crosses a moral line and nothing – absolutely nothing – happens in response.
If Trump’s calls for death penalties don’t spark a bipartisan alarm, then the alarm system itself is broken. And once that happens, the fall isn’t sudden. It’s already begun.
Israel Launches Major Attacks Across Gaza, Killing at Least 28 Palestinians, Including Many Children.
by Dave DeCamp | November 19, 2025 https://news.antiwar.com/2025/11/19/israel-launches-major-attacks-across-gaza-killing-at-least-24-palestinians-including-many-children/
The Israeli military launched strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 28 Palestinians, including 17 women and children, as it continues to violate the US-backed ceasefire deal.
The Israeli military claimed that its forces came under fire in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, but provided no evidence, and according to Israeli media, there were no casualties among IDF troops, and the attack occurred on the Israeli-occupied side of the yellow line. Hamas later denied that its fighters fired on Israeli troops, and called the claim “a weak and exposed attempt to justify their ongoing crimes and violations.” Following the alleged incident, the IDF unleashed strikes on Gaza City.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that one Israeli strike targeted the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in southeastern Gaza City, killing at least 10 people, including two women and three children. Al Jazeera reported that a family of five in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood was wiped out by Israeli strikes.
In southern Gaza, WAFA reported that at least four Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi tent camp on the coast. The news agency also said that an Israeli attack on a neighborhood of Khan Younis killed two children.
The Israeli escalation came two days after the UN Security Council passed a resolution affirming President Trump’s so-called “ceasefire deal” that places the Gaza Strip under the control of the US-led board. Since the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect on October 10, the Trump administration has backed Israel’s continued attacks on Palestinians.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said earlier in the day that since October 10, Israeli forces have killed 280 Palestinians and injured 670. The strikes on Wednesday bring the total death toll during the “ceasefire” to more than 300.
US Reaches Initial Deal With Saudi Arabia on Nuclear Sharing.
The absence of a 123 Agreement — designed to prevent countries from manufacturing fuel which could be diverted to weapons — has implications across the region. Should Saudi Arabia win access to the full nuclear fuel cycle, other Middle Eastern countries including Iran and the United Arab Emirates may demand the same conditions.
By Ari Natter and Jonathan Tirone, November 20, 2025
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
- US negotiations with Saudi Arabia on a nuclear technology-sharing deal have been completed, potentially allowing American companies to build reactors in the kingdom.
- A formal 123 Atomic Energy Act agreement, which includes non-proliferation requirements, has yet to be signed, according to a US Energy Department spokesman.
- The prospect of a deal has alarmed non-proliferation experts and some members of Congress who have raised concerns over weapons-grade material and the potential for Saudi Arabia to gain access to the full nuclear fuel cycle.
US negotiations with Saudi Arabia on a long-sought nuclear technology-sharing deal have been completed, potentially opening the door for American companies to build reactors in the kingdom.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi Arabian counterpart signed a joint declaration signifying the talks were finished, the Trump administration said Tuesday following a White House visit by the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A formal 123 Atomic Energy Act agreement, which customarily includes non-proliferation requirements, has yet to be signed, a US Energy Department spokesman confirmed.
If finalized, such an agreement between the two nations could inject new life into America’s atomic energy sector and provide a boost to Westinghouse Electric Co. and other US companies that want to construct plants or sell reactor technology to Saudi Arabia. Still, the prospect has alarmed non-proliferation experts and some members of Congress who have raised concerns over weapons-grade material.
The absence of a 123 Agreement — designed to prevent countries from manufacturing fuel which could be diverted to weapons — has implications across the region. Should Saudi Arabia win access to the full nuclear fuel cycle, other Middle Eastern countries including Iran and the United Arab Emirates may demand the same conditions.
“It does include fuel cycle activities,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told journalists after speaking by phone with Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman early Wednesday. The IAEA hasn’t been notified about whether or not there will be a 123 Agreement attached to the deal, Grossi said.
Both the Energy Department and the White House didn’t immediately respond to questions seeking clarity over whether the deal would include the so-called “gold standard,” barring the enrichment and reprocessing of spent uranium that Saudi Arabia has been reluctant to agree to in the past
………………..The declaration signed Tuesday “builds the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar nuclear energy partnership with the Kingdom; confirms that the United States and American companies will be the Kingdom’s civil nuclear cooperation partners of choice; and ensures that all cooperation will be conducted in a manner consistent with strong nonproliferation standards,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
On Nov. 17, ahead of the Saudi crown prince’s visit to the White House, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Channel 14 TV that he’s skeptical of an agreement.
“I think Israel should be opposed, because it would bring about a situation where there will constantly have to be monitoring and oversight, to check whether the nuclear civilian project is sliding toward the military side,” Cohen said “This will constantly have to be checked.”
Non-proliferation watch dog groups pointed to the fact that the formal agreement, known as 123 for the section of the US Atomic Energy Act that discusses transfers of nuclear equipment and material to other nations, wasn’t announced…………. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-19/us-reaches-intitial-deal-with-saudi-arabia-on-nuclear-sharing
Nordic nations’ Ukraine burden ‘unsustainable’ – Sweden.
Stockholm has criticized uneven cash injections from other bloc members, despite claims about backing Kiev “for as long as it takes”
RT Thu, 20 Nov 2025, https://www.sott.net/article/503063-Nordic-nations-Ukraine-burden-unsustainable-Sweden
It is unsustainable for Nordic countries to continue to pay a disproportionate amount to support Ukraine, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard has said in an interview with Politico. Rifts are widening inside the EU over how – and whether – to keep funding Kiev, according to the outlet.
Currently, Nordic and Baltic countries continue to contribute the most to Kiev relative to GDP, while larger EU economies trail far behind in proportional terms – a disparity Stockholm says the EU can no longer ignore.
In an interview published on Thursday, Stenergard claimed “a few countries take almost all of the burden,” calling the imbalance “not fair” and “not sustainable in the long run.”
She noted that the Nordic countries, with fewer than 30 million people, are expected to provide a third of NATO’s military aid to Ukraine this year. “It’s not reasonable in any way. And it says a lot about what the Nordics do – but it says even more about what the others don’t do.”
Comment: The Swedish foreign minister forgets that the Nordic countries are doing it out of their own blindness to reality. If they feel it is unfair, then just stop handing over the Nordic taxpayers money to Ukraine.
Stenergard’s comments reflect mounting frustration in northern capitals despite continued rhetoric about backing Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” Politico reported.
Comment: They thought that “as long as it takes” wouldn’t last so long. In other words, it was just a nice sounding slogan without much thought to what it actually meant.
EU officials have reportedly circulated a document outlining three options for the bloc’s next package for Kiev – two involving increased cash injections from member states, and a third using proceeds from frozen Russian sovereign assets. Stenergard signaled that using the immobilized assets could be the only viable path, given resistance in parts of the bloc to deeper budget commitments.
Western nations froze about $300 billion in Russian central bank assets after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The EU has so far transferred over a billion from interest to Kiev.
The debate comes as Ukraine faces a $100 million corruption scandal uncovered this month, in which anti-corruption agencies accused Timur Mindich – a former business partner of Vladimir Zelensky – of siphoning kickbacks from contracts with nuclear operator Energoatom, a company heavily dependent on foreign aid
The scandal broke just as Kiev is pushing for a new €140 billion ($160 billion) loan backed by frozen Russian assets, a plan stalled for weeks amid legal worries and Belgian resistance, with Moscow dismissing any use of its assets as “theft.”
Comment: So the Swedes want to steal Russian assets because they couldn’t really afford to support the black hole of Ukraine forever. They are now realizing that the money they gave to Ukraine will never come back and there wont be Russian resources to plunder. If they steal Russian frozen assets in Belgium, then the Euro will be relegated to the history of failed fiat currencies.
US to “buy and own” new domestic reactors
November 20, 2025, https://beyondnuclear.org/us-to-buy-and-own-domestic-nuclear-reactors/
On November 19, 2025, Bloomberg news reported that the United States government will “buy and own” as many as ten new, large (1000 MWe and bigger) commercial nuclear reactors. The new nuclear power deal emerged out of President Trump’s October meeting with Japan’s first woman and ultra-conservative Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi. According to the Trump White House, Japan pledged to invest a total of $550 billion in US infrastructure of which $332 billion will go into developing domestic energy projects. The Japan/US domestic energy infrastructure plan includes the licensing and construction of new large nuclear reactors (Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors as well as a new breed of small modular reactors [SMR]), new natural gas power plants, electric transmission projects and pipelines.
On November 13, 2025, Beyond Nuclear spotlighted “Make Atoms Great Again?” on the White House announcement of an agreement with Westinghouse Electric where the US Department of Energy (DOE) plans to buy an $80 billion government equity share for 20% of Westinghouse corporation’s future nuclear profits from its fleet expansion of the controversial AP1000 “advanced” pressurized water reactor. The AP1000 pressurized water reactor was to only new reactor design to launched construction projects in 2007 and only two of the new Westinghouse units are operable today in the US.
Vogtle Units 3 & 4 were stricken with extreme cost overruns and as a result have indefinitely stuck Georgia ratepayers and manufacturers with electric rate shock. Two additional AP1000 units (V.C. Summer 2 & 3) financially collapsed mid-construction in South Carolina and were abandoned with nearly $10 billion in sunk costs. The President and CEO of Santee Cooper at the time of project’s cancellation was quoted to observe in July 2017, “When you find yourself riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” An effort to resuscitate the failed construction project is presently underway by the utility. The cost overruns, recurring delays and cancellations however resulted in the 2017 Westinghouse bankruptcy that shifted the corporation to new Canadian ownership.
The White House issued an October 28, 2025 “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Drives Forward Billions in Investments from Japan,” identifying,
“Critical Energy Infrastructure Investments: Up to $332 billion to support critical energy infrastructure in the United States, including the construction of AP1000 and small modular reactors (SMRs), in partnership with Westinghouse; construction of SMRs in collaboration with GE Vernova and Hitachi.”
State Finds No Exemption for Holtec on Nuclear Wastewater Release
Official advises DEP to uphold its earlier decision based on Ocean Sanctuaries Act
Christine Legere, the Provincetown Examiner, November 19 2025,
PLYMOUTH — Holtec International, the company that owns and is decommissioning the Pilgrim nuclear power station, has likely lost its appeal of a state environmental ruling that has prevented it from releasing nearly one million gallons of the power plant’s wastewater, which contains radionuclides and other contaminants, into Cape Cod Bay.
Salvatore Giorlandino, the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s chief presiding officer for the appeal, issued his 60-page recommendation on Nov. 6. It advises DEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple to uphold her agency’s 2024 decision to deny Holtec’s request for an amendment to its discharge permit that would allow releasing the wastewater
The DEP’s 2024 decision was based on the state’s Ocean Sanctuaries Act, which prohibits the discharge of industrial waste into designated ocean sanctuaries. Cape Cod Bay carries that designation.
Giorlandino’s recommendation finds that Holtec does not qualify for any of the exemptions listed in the Ocean Sanctuaries Act, including an exemption for discharges related to the generation of electric power, since Pilgrim has not generated electricity since its shutdown in 2019.
The recommendation also discussed why preemption by federal law does not apply. Holtec had argued that the federal Atomic Energy Act would preempt the state law. But Giorlandino wrote that because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved three methods of nuclear wastewater disposal investigated by Holtec in connection with the Pilgrim plant — discharge, shipment for disposal, and evaporation — Holtec has options beyond a discharge into the bay that would comply with both federal and state laws.
“If all three methods of disposal approved by the NRC were prohibited by state law, this case may have a different outcome,” Giorlandino noted.
The recommendation awaits Heiple’s final determination.
Making It a Federal Case
A dismissal of the appeal by Heiple likely won’t mark the end of the wastewater debate.
In an email on Nov. 14, spokesman Patrick O’Brien said Holtec is currently refraining from comment until the state decision is finalized. “But based on a recent federal court ruling, it is likely that we may go that route as well,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien was referring to a federal judge’s September ruling in favor of Holtec in a New York case related to Holtec’s plan to discharge 1.5 million gallons of wastewater into the Hudson River from the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which it also owns and is dismantling.
New York passed a state law, the “Save the Hudson Act,” in 2023, which prohibited the discharge of radioactive substances into the Hudson River in connection with the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant. But according to a report on the website of the clean water advocacy group Riverkeeper, the judge in the appeal ruled that federal laws relating to the regulation of nuclear waste discharges supersede state laws. The site noted that New York Attorney General Letitia James had notified the court that the state would appeal the ruling.
James Lampert, an attorney and member of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel for Pilgrim, said that Giorlandino had considered the New York case in this ruling on Pilgrim. “I am pleased that he correctly found that a New York court decision that a New York statute prohibiting the discharge of radioactive waste into the Hudson River was preempted did not affect his decision here because, among other things, the facts in New York and Massachusetts are very different,” said Lampert in an email.
The difference, he wrote, is that the Ocean Sanctuaries Act has been in place since the early 1970s and prohibits all industrial waste discharges, not just discharges containing radioactive waste. New York’s law, only a few years old, limits its application to radioactive waste discharges.
Mary Lampert, who is also an NDCAP member and leads the community advocacy group called Pilgrim Watch and who is James Lampert’s wife, said she was not surprised that Holtec plans to continue its legal battle.
“Why would Holtec not appeal?” Lampert said by email. “Its legal fees all come out of the decommissioning trust fund, paid by ratepayers; not one dime comes out of Holtec’s pocket.”
Local Opposition Continues
Holtec first announced plans to discharge 1.1 million gallons of wastewater from Pilgrim into Cape Cod Bay in late 2021, triggering vigorous pushback from state, federal, and local officials, the fishing and tourist industries, and the public. At the time, Holtec said it had investigated alternatives to discharging the wastewater into the bay, including evaporating it, shipping it off site at a cost of $20 million, or storing it on the site. Releasing the wastewater into the bay was and remains the company’s top choice.
………………………………………………………Members of the NDCAP panel and the public have become increasingly concerned over the evaporation of the wastewater, which has not yet been treated to reduce radioactive contamination levels.
The Lamperts have said at NDCAP meetings that the evaporated water and its contaminants ultimately end up in Cape Cod Bay in the form of precipitation.
They are not the only ones to make that point.
Diane Turco, president of the Cape Downwinders advocacy group, said in an email that DEP’s denial of Holtec’s request to discharge the wastewater should also apply to its evaporation of the wastewater because “it’s falling into our environment and Cape Cod Bay.”
Andrew Gottlieb, an NDCAP member and executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, posted on his agency’s website that Holtec now has a choice. The company could forgo appeals and dispose of the wastewater legally and responsibly, Gottlieb wrote, or it could continue with “serial appeals” to give it time to evaporate the wastewater “into the air breathed by residents of southeast Massachusetts and the Cape.” https://provincetownindependent.org/featured/2025/11/19/state-finds-no-exemption-for-holtec-on-nuclear-wastewater-release/
The World’s Largest Nuclear Plant Inches Toward Restart After Key Approval.
By Tsvetana Paraskova – Nov 19, 2025, https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/The-Worlds-Largest-Nuclear-Plant-Inches-Toward-Restart-After-Key-Approval.html
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan, the world’s largest in terms of nameplate capacity, could soon clear a major hurdle toward a partial restart as the governor of the prefecture hosting the plant is expected to give consent to startup, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
Hideyo Hanazumi, the governor of the Niigata Prefecture, is set to announce on Friday an approval to the restart of two units of the 8-gigawatt (GW) nuclear power plant, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reports.
The governor’s approval is not enough for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), to restart two reactors—the startup needs the approval of the Niigata Prefecture assembly, too. A session of the assembly is set to discuss TEPCO’s proposal in early December.
TEPCO, which also operated the nuclear power plant in Fukushima prior to the 2011 disaster, has planned for years to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the Niigata prefecture.
Last month, TEPCO said that it carried out a full round of integrity checks at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa after fuel loading of Unit 6 was completed, confirming that primary facilities can sufficiently perform the functions required for reactor startup.
But the company faces backlash over its restart plans and proposal to “contribute monetarily to vitalizing the regional economy.” Local residents and anti-nuclear activists in Japan oppose the restart and have slammed TEPCO’s proposal as a “bribery” of the local residents to accept the restart of the plant.
Opinion polls suggest that local residents are split on whether TEPCO should be allowed to restart the nuclear power plant.
Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, favors accelerating the restart of nuclear reactors as a way to reduce the G7 economy’s dependence on energy imports.
Before the Fukushima meltdown in 2011, nuclear energy accounted for about 30% of Japan’s electricity mix. The disaster prompted the closure of all reactors for safety checks. Since 2015, Japan has restarted 14 reactors out of 33, while 11 others are currently in the process of restart approval.
A multi-million dollar dispute rages over Olkiluoto 3 – Only lawyers will win
The Olkiluoto multi-million dollar dispute between TVO and Fingrid is
alive and well. However, an agreement in this matter would be in the
interest of electricity users. The dispute between Teollisuuden Voima (TVO)
and the transmission grid company Fingrid over the costs of the backup
system – system protection – built in case of a failure of the third
reactor at the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant and who will pay for it shows
no signs of abating – quite the opposite.
MSN 20th Nov 2025,
https://www.msn.com/fi-fi/talous/uutiset/olkiluoto-3-sta-riehuu-miljoonariita-vain-juristit-voittavat/ar-AA1QMSzq
Israel Moved Gaza’s Yellow Line And Then Shelled Palestinians For Being On The Wrong Side.
Caitlin Johnstone, Nov 22, 2025
Drop Site News reports that the IDF quietly moved part of the “yellow line” which divides Gaza 300 meters forward, and then started shelling Palestinians for being on the “wrong side” of the line.
They just keep finding new ways to carve off more pieces of Gaza and murder more Palestinians.
❖
Haaretz has a disturbing story out about a 14 year-old Palestinian boy who was waiting for his school bus in the West Bank on a quiet street eating a cookie, when suddenly a bunch of IDF vehicles pulled up and a soldier shot him directly in the face with a teargas canister. Then they sped off.
The boy lost his right eye in the attack………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-moved-gazas-yellow-line-and?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=179610682&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Austria appeals taxonomy ruling
Austrian Government 20th Nov 2025, Vienna (OTS) – https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20251120_OTS0136/oesterreich-legt-rechtsmittel-gegen-taxonomie-urteil-ein
On September 10, the General Court of the European Union (EGC) dismissed Austria’s action against the classification of nuclear energy as a “sustainable investment” under the EU taxonomy. Following a thorough legal review of this ruling, the Austrian Federal Government has decided to appeal.
“As the Federal Government, we stand firmly for an honest and fact-based sustainability policy. Classifying nuclear power as sustainable is misguided and contradicts the fundamental principles of the taxonomy. Therefore, we are taking this further legal step,” emphasizes Environment Minister Norbert Totschnig. “We remain firmly committed to ensuring that European regulations actually promote the expansion of renewable energy sources. We stand behind our Austrian approach – no nuclear power, but rather a push to expand renewables.”
Background:
The appeal is based primarily on the argument that, from an Austrian legal perspective, the court applied an incorrect standard of review and that the contested regulation was adopted in violation of important procedural rules. Furthermore, from an Austrian perspective, the regulation governs fundamental policy issues, which constitutes a breach of Article 290 TFEU. In addition, Austria maintains that several provisions of the Taxonomy Regulation have been violated. The appeal was filed within the prescribed time limit.
The Palestine Laboratory: Exporting Occupation Technology (w/ Antony Loewenstein) | The Chris Hedges Report
Gaza has become a testing ground for Israeli and Western weapons and surveillance tools — technologies that will inevitably be used to target populations across the globe.
Chris Hedges, Nov 20, 2025, https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-palestine-laboratory-exporting
This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.
Filmmaker, author and journalist Antony Loewenstein documents how Israel has used Gaza as a weapons showcase. Spyware, killer drones, robot dogs and other weapons are debuted in Gaza and field-tested on the civilian population, demonstrating their effectiveness to regimes around the world that await their chance to purchase them.
Loewenstein joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to chronicle what he has learned from writing The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World and producing The Palestine Laboratory, a documentary based on the book.
“I think the whole idea of what Israel…has been showing the world, I say two things. One, what weapons you can use to murder, kill, target Palestinians but also how to get away with it. I think Israel sells that concept,” Loewenstein explains.
As spyware companies like Pegasus and Paragon and arms companies like Elbit and Rafael see business boom, Loewenstein argues countries have a moral imperative to end trading with Israel. These same technologies perpetuating the genocide in Gaza, Loewenstein explains, will come back to haunt the citizenry of purchasing countries.
“All these governments around the world, whether they’re so-called democratic or repressive, are obsessed with these tools. They can’t give them up. They’re desperate to listen to their opponents, to the journalists, to activists,” Loewenstein remarks.
“It’s very hard for these regimes to give them up because there’s no regulation. There’s just none. It just doesn’t exist.”
China to reimpose ban on Japanese seafood imports amid row over Taiwan, reports say
Japan Times, By Jesse Johnson, STAFF WRITER, Nov 19, 2025
China will reimpose a ban on imports of Japanese seafood products, media reports said Wednesday, as the diplomatic row over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent comments on Taiwan escalated and officials girded for a prolonged dispute.
The ban would effectively be a return to one put in place in August 2023, following Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Tokyo and Beijing reached an agreement in September last year to resume imports, with Japan confirming the first shipment of seafood to China less than two weeks ago.
NHK said China had explained that the ban was necessary in order to monitor the wastewater being released from the No. 1 plant, with the import halt lasting “for the foreseeable future.”…………………………………………… https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/11/19/japan/politics/japan-china-relations-marine-products/
Trump administration lends $1 billion to restart Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.
The Trump administration said on Tuesday it has loaned Constellation Energy Corp $1 billion to restart its nuclear reactor at a Pennsylvania plant
formerly known as Three Mile Island. Constellation signed a deal in late
2024 with Microsoft to restart the 835-megawatt reactor, which shut in
2019, and which would offset Microsoft’s data center electricity use. The
other unit at the plant, renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, shut in
1979 after an accident that chilled the nuclear power industry. U.S. power
demand is now rising for the first time in two decades on technologies
including artificial intelligence. Nuclear energy, which is virtually
carbon-free, has become an option for technology companies with
uninterrupted power needs and climate pledges. Critics point out that the
U.S. has failed to find permanent storage for radioactive waste.
CNN 18th Nov 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/18/business/three-mile-island-restart-trump
Torness nuclear power station was opposed at every stage
Torness power station was opposed at every stage, according to the East
Lothian Courier on 14th November 1975. An alternative was put forward by an Edinburgh University professor. Calling for an end to the madness which
Torness represents, Professor Arnold Hendry of the Civil Engineering
Department claimed the proposals were unnecessary, a waster of money and dangerous. More than 60 members of the newly formed Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace marched to the proposed site.
East Lothian Courier 13th Nov 2025
https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/
UN Security Council Gives US ‘Mandate’ Over Palestine
The council endorsed Donald Trump’s neo-colonial governing board over a territory that he said should be depopulated to make way for his resort fantasy to be built on the bones of the victims of Israel’s genocide, reports Joe Lauria.
November 17, 2025, By Joe Lauria, Consortium News, https://consortiumnews.com/2025/11/17/un-security-council-gives-us-mandate-over-palestine/
The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution that gives the world body’s imprimatur to Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, a territory he said publicly should be ethnically cleansed to develop a Mediterranean resort.
The council voted 13 nations in favor with two abstentions from China and Russia, which could have vetoed Trump’s plans.
The resolution essentially revives the colonial mandate system of the League of Nations after the First World War, and the United Nations’ trusteeship system after the Second World War, both schemes in which colonial powers remained in charge of a colonized territory while it was supposed to wean it towards independence.
The resolution that passed on Monday says “conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
The resolution “welcomes” the establishment of a Board of Peace (BoP) “as a transitional administration” in Gaza to coordinate reconstruction. The resolution authorizes the board to set up a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza “to deploy under unified command acceptable to the BoP.” Though the resolution does not say who will head the BoP, Trump has made it clear that he would be running it himself.
Nations will contribute troops to the force “in close consultation and cooperation” with Egypt and Israel. But it will be Donald Trump who ultimately gets to call the shots of this international military force.
[See: Jeffery Sachs: Trump’s UN Ploy]
Among the Trump-run forces’ tasks is to demilitarize Gaza by decommissioning weapons and destroying military infrastructure. In a statement reacting to the resolution, Hamas said: “The resolution imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject.” Hamas says it has a legal right under international law, which it does, to resist Israel’s occupation with force if necessary.
If the stabilization force actually tries to disarm Hamas we could be looking at armed combat between them. The U.N.-approved force would in essence then be taking up the unfinished job of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to defeat Hamas.
In step with Hamas’ disarmament, the IDF is supposed to withdraw from Gaza, according to the measure. An annex to the resolution says Palestinians cannot be forcibly expelled from Gaza and Israel can neither annex nor continue to occupy Gaza, according to the remarks to the council by Algeria’s ambassador.
An expert Arab committee with take part with Trump’s board in running Gaza until the Palestinian Authority takes full control. Israel took part in the meeting as a guest but did not have a vote.
Why Russia Abstained
The U.S. draft resolution initially did not mention possible future, Palestinian sovereignty, but it was added after opposition from Arab states and other countries. That addition allowed the Arabs, and importantly the Palestinian Authority, to back the resolution. That led Russia, which had opposed the initial draft, to drop the threat of its veto and China joined in abstaining.
In explaining his abstention to the Council, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Russia “has taken note of Ramallah’s position, as well as that of many Arab-Muslim States that spoke in favor of the American draft so as to avoid renewed bloodshed in the enclave. In this regard, we chose not to submit our own draft, which was aimed at amending the US concept to bring it in conformity with long-standing UN resolutions agreed previously.”
Bur he also complained that the stabilization force would not coordinate with the Palestinian Authority
“This may entrench the separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, and it is reminiscent of colonial practices and the British mandate for Palestine granted by the League of Nations, when the opinions of the Palestinians themselves were not taken into account whatsoever,” he said.
Nebenzia also raised an alarm about the force become engaged in the war. “The resolution … confers on the ISF such extensive peace enforcement mandate that the Mission may actually transform into a party to the conflict going beyond the confines of peacekeeping,” he said. The Russian envoy blamed the U.S. for “arm-twisting in capitals or pressuring delegations here in New York,” which he said can “hardly be called working in good faith.”
Nebenzia said:
“In essence, the Council is giving its blessing to the US initiative relying exclusively on Washington’s honor, we leave the Gaza Strip at the mercy of the Board of Peace and the ISF, whose working methods are still unknown to us.
The most important thing here is making sure that this document does not become a smokescreen for unbridled experiments by the US and Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) nor turn into a death sentence for the two-state solution.” … There is no cause for celebration: today is a sorrowful day for the Security Council. Besides the wishes of the parties concerned, there is also such notion as the integrity of the Security Council. And today, with the adoption of this resolution, that integrity and the prerogatives of the Council have been undermined. …
Regrettably, we’ve already had the unfortunate experience when decisions on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which were pushed through by the US, led to the opposite to what was intended. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
PA & Arabs Agree
The PA has long collaborated with Israel in its occupation of the West Bank. Its long-standing opposition to Hamas’ resistance makes it amenable to the United States taking control of Gaza to run it with Israel if the Authority is given a seat at the table.
That, however is not a sure thing as the extremists in Israel’s cabinet blew a fuse when it saw that a mere mention — a throwaway line — about some distant possibility of recognizing Palestine was added to the resolution. Netanyahu himself on Sunday reiterated his opposition to the Palestinian state and vowed that it would never come to pass.
How his government will proceed with U.S. administration of Gaza will be of the greatest interest. As Netanyahu is loudly insisting that Hamas will disarm the “easy way or the hard way,” it will bear watching whether the IDF, which occupies half of Gaza, and the international force, with the Palestinian Authority’s blessings, join arms to fight Hamas to crush the last of the violent resistance to Israeli dominance over Palestine.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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