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Parliamentary Committee calls for clear direction on Oldbury and Wylfa, and a “one-stop shop” to finally overcome excessive cost and delays in deployment of nuclear energy

  House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, 24 October 2025

In a report today the Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee says new planning guidance for building Britain’s future nuclear energy generation brings a welcome ‘presumption of consent’ for low-carbon generation across a range of nuclear technologies.

But the UK’s move into unprecedented territory of private development of new nuclear sites creates new challenges. The Committee is concerned that the “exhaustive” drafting of the criteria in EN‑7, intended to introduce the flexibility to consider a wide range of factors towards approval, may in fact just duplicate issues also addressed by specialist regulators and create more uncertainty, delay and cost.   

It concludes that new policy statement EN-7 “fails to present a truly joined-up approach across planning, safety, and environmental regulation” and so risks undermining its own purpose: to provide a definitive and coherent framework for decision-making.  Commercial developers, facing a front-loaded application system and potential review both by multiple regulators and in Court, may be driven to “gold plate” applications with excessive detail.  ……………………………………………………………………………… https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/664/energy-security-and-net-zero-committee/news/209808/committee-calls-for-clear-direction-on-oldbury-and-wylfa-and-a-onestop-shop-to-finally-overcome-excessive-cost-and-delays-in-deployment-of-nuclear-energy/

October 25, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

European leaders are unable to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia yet unwilling to face the political consequences of peace in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is now entirely dependent on the ability of European states to pay for it at a cost of at least $50bn per year

a strong likelihood……….. that three years from now Ukraine would have to settle for a peace that was even more disadvantageous to it than that which is available now

Ian Proud, Oct 22, 2025, https://thepeacemonger.substack.com/p/european-leaders-are-unable-to-inflict?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3221990&post_id=176818542&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

President Trump’s latest about face on dialogue with Russia doesn’t change the fundamental predicament Europe finds itself in: unable to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia but unwilling to face the political consequences of ending the war in Ukraine.

The Budapest Summit between Trump and Putin is now off, it seems. European leaders and Zelensky have clearly sold the US President on the idea of entering a ceasefire along the current line of contact. Yet, caught between a rock and a hard place, European leaders continue to deny the obvious realities of the dire situation in Ukraine, which will only worsen over time. I see no evidence of any willingness to change course, despite the obvious political hazard they face and the increasingly grim forecast for Europe and for Ukraine should they continue to push an unwinnable war.

The war in Ukraine is now entirely dependent on the ability of European states to pay for it at a cost of at least $50bn per year, on the basis of Ukraine’s latest budget estimate for the 2026 fiscal year. Ukraine itself is bankrupt and has no access to other sources of external capital, beyond that provided by the governments sponsoring the ongoing war.

That then brings the conversation back to the creation of a so-called ‘reconstruction loan’ underwritten by $140bn of the Russian foreign exchange assets currently frozen in Belgium. The term ‘reconstruction loan’ is itself disingenuous, on the basis that any expropriated Russian assets would not be used for reconstruction, but rather to fund the Ukrainian war effort. Indeed. Chancellor Merz of Germany recently suggested that the fund could allow Ukraine to keep fighting for another three years.

The most likely scenario, in the terrible eventuality that war in Ukraine did continue for another three years is that the Russian armed forces would almost certainly swallow up the whole of the Donbass region – comprising Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. This – Ukraine’s departure from the Donbas – appears to be the basis of President Putin’s conditions for ending the war now, together with a Ukrainian declaration of neutrality and giving up any NATO aspirations. More likely, the Russian Armed forces might also capture additional swathes of land in Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts, and also in Dnipropetrovsk, where they have made recent incursions.

So, there is a strong likelihood, at the currently slow pace of the war effort in which Russia claims small pieces of land on a weekly basis, that three years from now Ukraine would have to settle for a peace that was even more disadvantageous to it than that which is available now, having lost more land, together with potentially hundreds of thousands of troops killed or injured.

Logically, European policymakers would be able to look into the future to see this grim predicament with clear eyes and encourage Zelensky to settle for peace now.

But European policy is driven by two key considerations. Firstly, an emotional belief that an extended war might so weaken Russia that President Putin was forced to settle on unfavourable terms. The idea of a strategic defeat of Russia – which is often spoken by European politicians – however, doesn’t bear serious scrutiny.

Russia doesn’t face the same considerable social and financial challenges that Ukraine faces. Its population is much larger and a wider conscription of men into the Armed forces has not been needed – Russia can recruit sufficient new soldiers to fight and, indeed, has increased the size of its army since 2022. Ukraine continues to resort to forced mobilisation of men over the age of 25, often using extreme tactics that involve busifying young men against their will from the streets.

Critically, Russia could likely continue to prosecute the war on the current slow tempo for an extended period of time without the need for a wider mobilisation of young men, which may prove politically unpopular for President Putin domestically. Yet, the longer the war continues, Ukraine will come under increasing pressure, including from western allies, to deepen its mobilisation to capture young men below the age of 25 to shore up its heavily depleted armed forces on the front line.

There has been considerable resistance to this so far within Ukraine. Mobilising young men above the age of 22 would prove unpopular for President Zelensky but it would also worsen Ukraine’s already catastrophic demographic challenge: 40% of the working age population has already been lost, either through migration or through death on the front line and that number will continue to go south, the longer the war carries on.

Russia’s financial position is considerably stronger than Ukraine’s. It has very low levels of debt at around 15% of GDP and maintains a healthy current account surplus, despite a narrowing of the balance in the second quarter of 2025. Even if Europe expropriates its frozen assets, Russia still has a generous and growing stock of foreign exchange reserves to draw upon, which recently topped $700bn for the first time.

Russia’s military industrial complex continues to outperform western suppliers in the production of military equipment and munitions. In the currently unlikely event that Russia started to fall into the red in terms of its trade – what commentators in the west refer to as destroying Russia’s war economy – it would still have considerable scope to borrow from non-western lenders, given the strength of its links with the developing world, aided by the emergence of BRICS.

Ukraine is functionally bankrupt because it is unable to borrow from western capital markets, on account of its decision to pause all debt payments. With debt expected to reach 110% in 2025, even before consideration of any loan backed by frozen Russian assets, it depends entirely on handouts from the west. Ukraine’s trade balance has continued to worsen throughout the war, reinforcing its dependence on capital injections from the west to keep its foreign exchange reserves in the black.

So while the determination of Ukraine to fight is unquestionable, the emotional belief in the west that this will overcome the enormous social and economic challenges the country faces in an extended attritional war with Russia is wildly misplaced.

So, let’s look at the rational explanation for Europe’s continued willingness to prolong the fight in Ukraine. The uncomfortable truth is that Europe’s political leaders have boxed themselves into this position because of a hard boiled determination not to concede to Russia’s demands in any peace negotiations. Indeed, there is a steadfast and immovable objection to talking to Russia at all, which has been growing since 2014.

However, across much of Europe, the political arithmetic is turning against the pro-war establishment with nationalist, anti-war parties gaining ground in Central Europe, Germany, France, Britain and even in Poland. And despite so far fruitless overtures made by President Trump towards negotiation with President Putin, Trumpophobia provides another brake on the European political establishment shifting its position.

So, changing course now and entering into direct negotiations with Russia would have potentially catastrophic consequences, politically, for European leaders, which they must surely be aware of. A full 180 degree change in diplomatic course by Europe would require an acceptance that the war against Russia was unwinnable, and that Russia’s underlying concerns – namely Ukrainian neutrality – would finally have to be accepted as a political reality.

On this basis, European politicians would face the prospect of explaining to their increasingly sceptical voters that their strategy of defeating Russia had failed, having spent four years of war saying at all times that it would eventually succeed. And that would lead potentially to internationalist governments falling across Europe starting in two years when Poland and France will again go to the polls, and in 2029 when the British and German governments will face the voters.

There are deeper issues too. An end of war would accelerate the process of admitting Ukraine into the European Union with potentially disastrous consequences for the whole financial basis of Europe. The European Commission will face the prospect of accepting that a two-tier Europe is inevitable, admitting Ukraine as a member without the financial benefits received by existing member states; for probably understandable reasons, this would cause widespread resentment within Ukraine itself, having sacrificed so much blood to become European, precipitating widespread internal dissent and possibly conflict in a disgruntled country with an army of almost one million. Alternatively, the European Commission would need to redraw its budget and face huge resistance from existing Member States, who would lose billions of Euros each year in subsidies to Ukraine. And the truth is that it will in all likelihood be unable to do so.

Caught between hoping for a strategic defeat of Russia which any rational observer can see is unlikely, and accepting the failure of their policy, causing a widespread loss of power and huge economic and political turmoil, Europe’s leaders are choosing to keep calm and carry on. If they had any sense, the likes of Von der Leyen, Merz, Starmer or Macron would change tack and pin their hopes on explaining away their failure before the political tide in Europe evicts them all from power. But I see no signs of them having the political acumen to do that. So we will continue to sit and wait, while storm clouds grow ever darker over Europe.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Rise of the Thielverse and the Construction of the Surveillance State (w/ Whitney Webb) | The Chris Hedges Report

 Chris Hedges, October 23, 2025 

Whitney Webb traces the Thielverse’s rise and the bipartisan construction of the modern surveillance state that Trump and his benefactors are deploying against dissidents and immigrants today.

The descent into a new, mutated and technology-focused form of American fascism is already here. Those who have kept track of the rise of the Thielverse, which includes figures such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and JD Vance, have understood that an agenda to usher in a unique form of authoritarianism has been slowly introduced into the mainstream political atmosphere.

Whitney Webb, investigative journalist and author of One Nation Under Blackmail, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to document the rise of this cabal into the most powerful positions of the American government.

“I think now it’s quite clear that this is the PayPal Mafia’s moment. These particular figures have had an extremely significant influence on US government policy since January, including the extreme distribution of AI throughout the US government,” Webb explains.

It’s clear that the architects of mass surveillance and the military industrial complex are beginning to coalesce in unprecedented ways within the Trump administration and Webb emphasizes that now is the time to pay attention and push back against these new forces.

If they have their way, all commercial technology will be completely folded into the national security state — acting blatantly as the new infrastructure for techno-authoritarian rule. The underlying idea behind this new system is “pre-crime,” or the use of mass surveillance to designate people criminals before they’ve committed any crime. Webb warns that the Trump administration and its benefactors will demonize segments of the population to turn civilians against each other, all in pursuit of building out this elaborate system of control right under our noses.

Transcript:

Chris Hedges

There were many, including some liberals, who mistakenly believed the Trump administration would dismantle the deep state. In fact, as the investigative reporter Whitney Webb has documented, Trump is closely allied with the most authoritarian figures in Silicon Valley, such as Peter Thiel, who envision a world where our habits, proclivities, opinions and movements are minutely recorded and tracked.

These Trump allies do not intend to free us from the tyranny of intelligence agencies, militarized police, the largest prison system in the world, predatory corporations or mass surveillance. They will not restore the rule of law to hold the powerful and the wealthy accountable. Nor will they slash the bloated and unaccountable spending — some $1 trillion dollars — by the Pentagon.

They are rapidly purging the civil service, as well as law enforcement and the military, not to eradicate the deep state, but to ensure that those in charge of state machinery are exclusively loyal to the whims and dictates of the Trump White House. What is being targeted is not the deep state, but the laws, regulations, protocols and rules, and the government civil servants who enforce them, which hinder absolute dictatorial control.

Compromise, limited power, checks and balances and accountability are slated to be abolished. Those who believe that the government is designed to serve the common good, rather than the dictates of a tiny cabal of billionaires, will be forced out. The deep state will be reconstituted to serve the leadership cult.

Laws and the rights enshrined in the Constitution will become irrelevant. It is a coup d’état by inches, one that will be enforced in crude and brutal fashion by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the streets of our cities and empowered by Thiel’s Palantir and the sophisticated forms of monitoring made possible by artificial intelligence and digital surveillance pioneered by Silicon Valley.

Joining me to discuss our emergent Orwellian state is the investigative journalist and author of One Nation Under Blackmail Whitney Webb. You can find her on her website, Unlimited Hangout.

Whitney, let’s go back to the beginning, [John] Poindexter, Iran-Contra, which I covered actually when I was in Nicaragua, because that’s really the origin of where we are today.

Whitney Webb……………………..right after the Reagan administration, Poindexter was sort of in various roles throughout these tech companies that were sort of a prototype to what Palantir and Total Information Awareness (TIA) would later do…………………………………………………………………………….

 Peter Thiel incorporated Palantir and as Palantir was developing as a company they, Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, the Palantir co-founders, reached out to Poindexter directly through Richard Perle, who’s a well-known neoconservative figure and was also one of the architects of the Iraq War at the Bush-era Pentagon.

Basically they hatched this plan to privatize this program, rightly calculating that if they turned it into an entirely private sector enterprise, the outrage would essentially dissipate, which it remarkably did because originally it was a public-private partnership housed within DARPA……………………………………………………………………………..

the CIA was Palantir’s exclusive client for, I believe, the first six years of its existence as a company and its engineers went to Langley, the CIA headquarters in Virginia, every two weeks for several years as well where the CIA was developing their algorithm with them, in a very direct partnership and Alex Karp has even said that the CIA was always the intended client of Palantir………………………………………………………….

Palantir, you know, also works extensively now in the private sector as well. They’re a major AI engine for Wall Street banks, for example, and they have different programs that are sold to different entities, but ultimately, they are a massive contractor to essentially every US intelligence agency, and that includes DHS and ICE

………………………………………………….. predictive policing is the term that they use but a lot of other companies have attempted to also get in on this.

One of the most notorious being PredPol that was a partnership I believe with UCLA and LAPD or something to that effect and they’re notoriously inaccurate…………………

another Peter Thiel-backed entity called Carbyne also has a predictive policing component……………………………..

But this is a company that wasn’t just funded by Peter Thiel, it was funded by Jeffrey Epstein and was led for a significant amount of time by Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, as well and has sort of expanded outwards. 

…………………………… The Trump administration was explicitly using Palantir to make databases on every American. But that has been done in a way that has been more covert through something called the Main Core database. 

…………………………..William Barr, then Attorney General, created this program at the DOJ called DEEP that basically created the legal infrastructure for pre-crime. And you had Trump come out and say that the way to combat these shootings was to have social media develop algorithms that flag posts to predict shooters before they can act, target some of these anonymous online message boards.

…………………………………………..It is rather unsettling but, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of this profiling of Americans has been going on for a long time under the guise of what was developed by the Iran-Contra crowd covertly. The continuity of government protocols in this effort by parts of the “deep state” or the national security state to basically profile people they deemed unfriendly for whatever reason, people that could be, you know, potentially incarcerated in a time of political upheaval, they said.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………And so since then you have a whole network of people that have either been protege’s of these figures or worked at one point for PayPal. For example the current AI and crypto czar at the White House David Sacks, a former top executive at PayPal with Thiel and all of these other people.

And of course JD Vance, the current vice president, is intimately connected to Peter Thiel……………………………………………………

So Thiel’s influence is incredibly significant. It was also arguably significant during the first Trump administration, but I think now it’s quite clear that this is the PayPal Mafia’s moment. These particular figures have an extremely significant influence on US government policy since January, including the extreme distribution of AI throughout the US government.

…………………………………………………….what I find particularly troubling about this is that a lot of these PayPal Mafia figures Thiel, Musk and Vance, among others, are extremely close to or acolytes really of the philosophy advocated by a fellow named Curtis Yarvin, whose political philosophy is essentially that the way to solve the problems of our current system and current bureaucracy is to basically completely privatize the state and install a CEO in place of the president, who would rule essentially as a dictator, which is completely bonkers and it’s amazing that people have allowed people like Peter Thiel or even Yarvin himself to masquerade as so-called libertarians when they’re very in favor of the authoritarian abilities of the state.

………………………………………………… And you can also see how a lot of these people are also war profiteers, Palantir, of course, not only is this tool of mass surveillance, it’s a tool of mass murder used by the US Army and also by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to decide who lives and who dies in Gaza.

And a lot of these other people that have been Thiel protégés, for example, like Palmer Luckey and Anduril, which Luckey co-founded with Trae Stephens, who’s also affiliated with the aforementioned Epstein-funded Carbyne 911.

Anduril is ushering in this era of autonomous warfare, and bankrolled, of course, by Peter Thiel. And they’re also developing the so-called smart wall on the US-Mexico border. And really, you know, these people are developing very Orwellian disturbing systems with not just domestic implications but also very significant implications to how the US military and other militaries operate abroad……………………………………………………………………….

So under the guise of “we’re making the government more efficient”, what aspects of the government are these people in the PayPal Mafia actually making more efficient? Well, one of them is mass murder.

…………………………………………………………………………………… basically the goal of the smart wall, it’s not a physical wall, it’s meant to be basically an invisible wall that uses a combination of surveillance and drone technology to basically intercept anyone crossing the border in a non-authorized way.

………………. I’m not sure exactly what you’d like to talk about as it relates to SpaceX, but it is worth pointing out that they’re a massive military contractor specifically for Space Force created under the first Trump administration. They really are the main contractor for Space Force.

And also, you know, they are directly affiliated with Starlink, the satellite internet company that also arguably has some kind of covert uses with Elon Musk, for example, saying he is going to help sneak Starlinks into Iran, for example

………………………………………………….. through the Department of Government Deficiency, a government efficiency DOGE, a lot was made to facilitate that by laying off a lot of government workers in their place putting, basically replacing them with, AI algorithms.

And those algorithms are, of course, patented and controlled by Silicon Valley companies. And the vast majority of major Silicon Valley companies double as either intelligence or military contractors or both, or have for a very long time. 

One that’s often overlooked a lot is Oracle, Larry Ellison’s Oracle. And Larry Ellison, before creating Oracle, worked on Project Oracle at the CIA, and then created Oracle, the company, which then took on the CIA as one of its earliest main clients, similar in a way to what happened with Palantir, as I noted a moment ago.

And now, Larry Ellison is becoming, basically taking over a large swath of American media now. So you’re seeing a lot of these Silicon billionaires that contract for the military are also becoming major owners of mass media. So you see that with Ellison, for example, and it’s also true with Elon Musk after his purchase of Twitter…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Chris Hedges

I want you to speculate what this world is going to look like, it is the fusion of corporate and governmental power. In some ways, of course, these corporations will have even more power than government institutions. We just had the presidential memo that came out a couple days ago, which essentially criminalizes… It’s quite an amazing memo that criminalizes people who criticize capitalism, support gender equality.

Whitney Webb

Or really anyone who is antifascist in any capacity…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

we lost all of our freedoms, but now al-Qaeda is just let’s shake hands and let them come to the UN while we don’t let anyone from Palestine come. I mean, it’s totally insane. ……………………………………………….

 I think Americans have been naive that a lot of the evil that that national security state has done abroad would never be used against them. And I think that we need to be very aware of what is going on here and that the deep state, whatever you want to call it, is expanding and it’s expanding in the hands of private oligarchs that have a very dangerous political vision that is rarely talked about.

……………………………………………………………………..So I think there’s a potentially dark future but there’s still time for awareness about these agendas and for people to develop parallel systems to escape this. And I think it’s very important too that people start really seriously considering how to wean themselves off of these Silicon Valley giants that are building these systems and contracting with these military and intelligence agencies. You know, getting off of Microsoft or Google products………………………………………………………….. https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-the-thielverse-and-the

October 24, 2025 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Ukraine Says It Struck a Chemical Plant Inside Russia With British-Provided Storm Shadow Missiles

The Ukrainian military requires US targeting data to fire Storm Shadow missiles

by Dave DeCamp | October 21, 2025, https://news.antiwar.com/2025/10/21/ukraine-says-it-struck-a-chemical-plant-inside-russia-with-british-provided-storm-shadow-missile/ 

Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday that it used British-provided Storm Shadow missiles to strike a chemical plant inside Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, signaling the US is again supporting Ukrainian missile strikes on Russian territory.

“A massive combined missile-and-air strike was carried out, including with air-launched Storm Shadow missiles that penetrated Russia’s air defence system,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement, according to Reuters. So far, the attack hasn’t been confirmed by Russia.

Storm Shadows are produced jointly by the UK and France and have a range of about 150 miles. Ukraine first began firing them into Russia last year, along with US-provided ATACMS missiles, which can hit targets up to 190 miles away.


In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was not allowing Ukraine to fire ATACMS into Russia, a policy that also applied to Storm Shadows, since the Ukrainian military requires US targeting data to fire the British missiles. But another report from the outlet this month said that President Trump reversed the policy and signed off on providing Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes on Russian territory.

The Financial Times has also reported that the Trump administration has been providing intelligence for long-range drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure since July.

US-backed missile and drone attacks on Russian territory always risk a major escalation from Moscow. When President Biden first gave Ukraine the green light to fire ATACMS and Storm Shadows into Russia, Moscow responded by altering its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | Russia, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

  Request for an Immediate Stop to the Transportation of Radioactive Waste to Chalk River.

This is a translation of a letter, written in French, sent to the Minister of Natural Resources
 by the Bloc Québécois on October 17 2025. 

Mr. Tim Hodgson,Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, House of Commons,Ottawa (Ontario)

Dear Minister,

It is with dismay that we learned of your government’s ambition to use the Chalk River site as a “radioactive dump” to house the waste irradiated from at least three different nuclear reactors.

This revelation is all the more distressing because it comes just weeks after we learned that tons of spent fuel were transported over the summer, to this same location at Chalk River, all with the blessing of your government.

We remind you, Mr. Minister, that the site used in Chalk River is located very close to the source of drinking water for millions of Quebecers. This is probably one of the worst possible and imaginable places to decide to store nuclear waste.

And we are not the only ones to be outraged by this location: no less than 140 Quebec and Ontario municipalities as well as the Kebaowek First Nation are urging to abandon your proposed landfill site also located in Chalk River, known as the Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF), near the Chalk River Ottawa. 

This is an irresponsible project that unnecessarily risks an ecological and environmental disaster with effects for decades and a direct impact on millions of human lives.

As a result we call for an immediate halt to any further operations to transport radioactive waste to the Chalk River site.

There is no reason, no reason at all, to justify the lack of transparency and consideration that your government has shown in this matter. We’re talking about decisions that affect millions of people and an entire ecosystem: they can’t be taken lightly. The bare minimum should be to listen to the views of those affected and to to take into account the consequences that such a choice would have for our world.

We are counting on your sense of responsibility, Minister. There is still time to take a step back, abandon the landfill project and stop all further transportation of nuclear waste to Chalk River.

Mario Simard, Bloc Québécois Critic for Natural Resources

Patrick Bonin, Bloc Québécois Critic for Environment and Climate Change

Sébastien Lemire, Bloc Québécois Critic for Indigenous Relations

C.C.: Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, House of Commons, Ottawa (ON) K1A 0A6 613-995-8425

October 24, 2025 Posted by | Canada, opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

EU and Ukraine to offer Trump ‘peace plan’ with no territorial concessions – Bloomberg

Rt.22 Oct 25, https://www.rt.com/news/626782-bloomberg-european-peace-proposal-ukraine/

Kiev’s European backers are planning to advance a condition Moscow has firmly rejected.

Ukraine and its European backers are finalizing a 12-point peace plan that would rule out territorial concessions to Russia, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The proposal would reportedly establish a “peace board” chaired by US President Donald Trump to oversee its implementation. European officials could travel to the US this week to present the roadmap to Trump, Bloomberg reported.

According to the outlet, the plan includes a ceasefire along the current front lines, a prisoner swap, as well as “security guarantees” and fast-tracked EU accession for Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine would negotiate “the governance of occupied territories,” but neither Ukraine nor its European backers would recognize Russia’s new borders, Bloomberg cited its sources as saying.

Russia has listed recognition of its new borders as one of the crucial conditions for a lasting peace. Moscow has also demanded that Ukraine withdraw troops from parts of Russian territory it controls, halt mobilization, and stop receiving military aid from abroad.

Multiple US media outlets reported that Trump urged Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to cede land to Russia during their meeting at the White House on Friday. The US president later noted that Russian troops already control nearly all of the Donbass region claimed by Ukraine. Zelensky supported Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire but ruled out recognizing Russia’s current borders.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | EUROPE, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Climate disasters in first half of 2025 costliest ever on record, research shows.

The first half of 2025 was the costliest on record for major disasters in
the US, driven by huge wildfires in Los Angeles and storms that battered
much of the rest of the country, according to a climate non-profit that has
resurrected work axed by Donald Trump’s administration that tracked the
biggest disasters.

In the first six months of this year, 14 separate
weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage hit the US, the Climate Central group has calculated. In total, these events cost
$101bn in damages – lost homes, businesses, highways and other
infrastructure – a toll higher than any other first half of a year since
records on this began in 1980.

Guardian 22nd Oct 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/22/climate-disasters-2025-cost

October 24, 2025 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

UK Government planning for nuclear power in Scotland in anticipation of a Labour 2026 victory

A senior UK Government minister also says Scottish
independence would be a win for Vladimir Putin. The UK government could
soon start submitting planning applications for new nuclear power stations
in Scotland in anticipation of a Labour administration at Holyrood. A
senior government source said ministers do not want Scotland “to be left
behind” and suggested potential sites including Torness in East Lothian
were being actively considered.

A senior government source said that civil
nuclear companies see Scotland as “off limits” because of the SNP’s
stance on nuclear energy. However, they said: “The reality is planning
law is devolved and so that requires a change of government in Holyrood
next May to translate these possibilities but we are planning practical
changes on the ground because we don’t want Scotland to be left behind.”


Scottish Labour has high hopes of winning the 2026 Scottish Parliament
election and its leader Anas Sarwar has repeatedly lauded the benefits of
nuclear power. However the party has slipped back in the polls and is now
several percentage points behind the SNP, who are the current favourites to
win on polling day.

Scotsman 22nd Oct 2025, https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/uk-government-planning-for-nuclear-power-in-scotland-in-anticipation-of-a-labour-2026-victory-5369530

October 24, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

NRC: Individual fell into ‘reactor cavity’ at Palisades Nuclear Plant

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the person fell into the reactor cavity, ingested cavity water and was transported off-site.

 Steven Bohner, October 22, 2025, https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/nrc-individual-fell-into-reactor-cavity-palisades-nuclear-plant/69-8c68f69f-4b48-4869-b66a-f3b18e8c7bbb

COVERT, Mich. — The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said an individual fell into a “reactor cavity” at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert, Mich.

The NRC said the incident happened on Oct. 21, around 9:30 a.m., when an individual fell into a reactor cavity at the plant. They said the individual ingested “some amount” of the cavity water, and was decontaminated by radiation protection personnel before being taken off-site to seek medical attention about nine hours later at 4:32 p.m.

The NRC report said the individual had “300 counts per minute detected in their hair,” and categorized the individual as “contaminated.” The report listed the incident as a non-emergency. 

The reactor cavity is a space between the reactor vessel and a concrete shield surrounding the reactor, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Holtec International provided 13 ON YOUR SIDE with the following comment:

“While performing work inside the containment building, a Palisades contractor fell into a pool of water located above the reactor. The contractor was wearing all required personal protective equipment, including a life vest, which is standard when working near the pool without a barrier in place. The worker was promptly assisted from the water, evaluated, monitored, and decontaminated for removable contamination in accordance with established industry standards and safety procedures. Radiological assessments are ongoing and are expected to confirm exposure well below regulatory and administrative dose limits. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was properly notified, and a review of human performance factors contributing to the incident is underway. The worker sustained minor injuries from their fall and has since returned to work.”

The Palisades Nuclear Plant is in the process of restarting its 800-megawatt reactor. Once restarted, Palisades would become the first nuclear power plant in the United States scheduled to restart its reactor after its fuel had been removed.

In July, the NRC approved a series of licensing and regulatory actions that are essential for the plant to restart, including allowing Holtec to load fuel into the reactor.

At the time of the incident, it is unclear if fuel was present in the reactor.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Gaza ceasefire is an illusion – starvation and killings still continuing


Martin Jay, Strategic Culture Foundation, Tue, 21 Oct 2025 , https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/10/21/gaza-ceasefire-is-an-illusion-starvation-and-killings-still-continuing/

Just how much of what we see in mainstream media about Gaza is the real story? Actually none of it is true as the bigger, darker game being played is all about preparing for a war with Iran.

How’s the so-called ceasefire holding up in Gaza? You might be forgiven for thinking that it is anything but a ceasefire but more of an illusion created by the U.S. and a deal which can be broken at any moment by Israel if and when it sees capital to be gained there. Indeed, if there is one thing Bibi Netanyahu is renowned for, it is breaking ceasefires and so it should come as little surprise that he recently did that, supposedly to attack Hamas fighters which Israel claimed were posing a threat.

Let’s be clear. The ceasefire is really all about boosting Trump’s credibility as a statesman and giving Netanyahu breathing space to re-equip his army, ahead of an inevitable war with Iran. It is anything but a peace deal with the Palestinians but more of a bluff which was really about giving Netanyahu a shot in the arm amongst voters as he gets the credit for bringing back the hostages. But what is the real story? What is behind all this and reports of ISIS fighters being shipped in to take on Hamas?

How’s the so-called ceasefire holding up in Gaza? You might be forgiven for thinking that it is anything but a ceasefire but more of an illusion created by the U.S. and a deal which can be broken at any moment by Israel if and when it sees capital to be gained there. Indeed, if there is one thing Bibi Netanyahu is renowned for, it is breaking ceasefires and so it should come as little surprise that he recently did that, supposedly to attack Hamas fighters which Israel claimed were posing a threat.

Let’s be clear. The ceasefire is really all about boosting Trump’s credibility as a statesman and giving Netanyahu breathing space to re-equip his army, ahead of an inevitable war with Iran. It is anything but a peace deal with the Palestinians but more of a bluff which was really about giving Netanyahu a shot in the arm amongst voters as he gets the credit for bringing back the hostages. But what is the real story? What is behind all this and reports of ISIS fighters being shipped in to take on Hamas?

The smooth media operator who is comfortable doing ‘pieces to camera’ like broadcast journalists stirred up controversy recently when he made a series of films of him standing in front of UN aid trucks driving past, supposedly heading for Gaza. Sara Wilkinson, a UK-based activist who is often in Gaza, claimed that the trucks were actually only moving in and out of a UN compound and that the whole stunt was dishonest.

My own personal experience with Fletcher is that he smeared my name in Lebanon in 2015 as a pathetic act of petulance following an interview I wrote up about him which, in places, revealed him to be at best a lame diplomat winging it, at worse misinformed and woefully ignorant of regional politics. His response was to defame me in front of a group of visiting MEPs which backfired as the hapless buffoon didn’t realize that I had worked in Brussels previously for a decade and most of the MEPs knew me (or knew of me) and respected my work. One of them even invited me for a working breakfast the next day and was shocked at how immature and vindictive he was.

World

Gaza ceasefire is an illusion – starvation and killings still continuing

Martin Jay

October 21, 2025

© Photo: Public domain

Just how much of what we see in mainstream media about Gaza is the real story? Actually none of it is true as the bigger, darker game being played is all about preparing for a war with Iran.

Join us on Telegram, Twitter, and VK.

Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

How’s the so-called ceasefire holding up in Gaza? You might be forgiven for thinking that it is anything but a ceasefire but more of an illusion created by the U.S. and a deal which can be broken at any moment by Israel if and when it sees capital to be gained there. Indeed, if there is one thing Bibi Netanyahu is renowned for, it is breaking ceasefires and so it should come as little surprise that he recently did that, supposedly to attack Hamas fighters which Israel claimed were posing a threat.

Let’s be clear. The ceasefire is really all about boosting Trump’s credibility as a statesman and giving Netanyahu breathing space to re-equip his army, ahead of an inevitable war with Iran. It is anything but a peace deal with the Palestinians but more of a bluff which was really about giving Netanyahu a shot in the arm amongst voters as he gets the credit for bringing back the hostages. But what is the real story? What is behind all this and reports of ISIS fighters being shipped in to take on Hamas?

What we are witnessing is an illusion on a grand scale. Israel has not really stopped its military campaign against the Palestinians there and is still killing Gazans on a daily basis. It is also not feeding them as legacy media likes to assert but in reality the starvation policy is still in place. The West likes to create the narrative that the Gazans are getting fed now with aid shipments whereas in reality these trucks are not getting through. Tom Fletcher, a man comfortable in his role as someone who lies to the press in his previous role of British ambassador to Lebanon is the UN’s relief chief who claims that his operation is feeding one million Gazans a day? But can we believe the softly spoken former diplomat?

The smooth media operator who is comfortable doing ‘pieces to camera’ like broadcast journalists stirred up controversy recently when he made a series of films of him standing in front of UN aid trucks driving past, supposedly heading for Gaza. Sara Wilkinson, a UK-based activist who is often in Gaza, claimed that the trucks were actually only moving in and out of a UN compound and that the whole stunt was dishonest.

My own personal experience with Fletcher is that he smeared my name in Lebanon in 2015 as a pathetic act of petulance following an interview I wrote up about him which, in places, revealed him to be at best a lame diplomat winging it, at worse misinformed and woefully ignorant of regional politics. His response was to defame me in front of a group of visiting MEPs which backfired as the hapless buffoon didn’t realize that I had worked in Brussels previously for a decade and most of the MEPs knew me (or knew of me) and respected my work. One of them even invited me for a working breakfast the next day and was shocked at how immature and vindictive he was.

Fletcher is just all spin. He is hollow and has no substance and only made the news in Lebanon almost on a daily basis for being photographed with super models with bee sting lips and fake boobs while his podgy Irish wife stood behind him with eyes rolling. He is so vain that he gave a photoshoot to a local TimeOut magazine posing as James Bond in front of a British supercar and has a fabulous contempt for free speech. But of course he is a good communicator. He is the man to go to if you have a grand illusion to pull off for Israel as he will happily make that magician’s trick happen by misinforming the press and the greater public about what is the real story.

Gazans are not only still starving but according to a number of top analysts like Lawrence Wilkerson are still being killed at gunpoint (airstrikes) by Israel at feeding centres. So what exactly is the role of this UN body which Fletcher heads up?

The aid trucks are a huge deception conjured up to draw us away from not only a more nefarious, bloody plan which is about to kick off in Gaza but a bigger existential threat to the West and in particular America, which is coming Trump’s way. Like a moth being drawn to a flame, Netanyahu is preparing for war with Iran and this time it will be nuclear.

Some pundits wrongly pour over the subject of the power struggle between Israel and the U.S., with many pointing to the power of AIPAC within the deep state. It is a common idea that Israel completely controls Trump – a notion I sign up to. But we miss the point.

Yes, it’s true that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will make billions in real estate deals in Gaza. The point though is that Trump will no longer have any cards to play if a war starts with Iran. He will be forced to join Israel with its Samsonesque suicide doctrine. The problem with a war with Iran is that it is unwinnable for Israel and more to the point, a disaster for Western hegemony. War with Iran, even if it were only with Iran, doesn’t favour Israel even backed by the U.S. But war with Iran goes beyond the country’s borders as since the Donald was reported to have directed U.S. attacks against Iran’s nuclear bunkers and since it was reported that they had severely damaged them, Saudi Arabia has signed a nuclear pact with Pakistan and both Russia and China are stepping up their military procurement for Iran.

Iran is no longer alone and the first U.S. bunker buster bombs have, if anything, conglomerated these regional powers’ support for Iran. Put bluntly, China simply cannot afford to have its economy threatened by Iran’s cheap oil being halted and Russia needs Iranian drones. To allow Israel, backed by the U.S., to go ahead with a nuclear strike on Iran poses such an existential threat to both Russia and China that is inconceivable that there will be no counter strike on Israel which has never been seen before, which might well mean the end of Israel as we know it. There are no good outcomes to Bibi’s plan to begin a war with Iran and Trump fears more than ever being dragged into it. Yet for the moment, the Gaza ceasefire can be seen for what it is. An illusion, rather like those marching bands and performing artists which come onto a soccer pitch during the half time break which you don’t pay too much attention to and Tom Fletcher is the effeminate wanker leading them spinning his gilt baton and his sparkling teeth.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | Israel, MIDDLE EAST, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Vaunted Trump Ceasefire? Israel has a genocidal Palestinian ethnic cleaning to complete

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 22 Oct 25, https://theaimn.net/vaunted-trump-ceasefire-faggedaboudit-israel-has-a-genocidal-palestinian-ethnic-cleaning-to-complete/#google_vignette

The tremendous support given to Trump’s second ceasefire in Israel’s genocide in Gaza ignores reality and history.

How quickly the Trump high-fivers forget Israel abandoned Trump’s first ceasefire that lasted from January 19 to March 18. During that time Israel continued to kill hundreds of Palestinians while restricting food, water and medicine. Then, with Trump’s bombs, they resumed their grotesque genocide further obliterating Gaza while killing tens of thousands more Palestinians.

The first ceasefire released 33 Israeli hostages, leaving 48 to languish as Israel returned to their first priority, ridding Gaza of its Palestinians not yet disappeared. It took nearly 7 months for pressure to build on Israel to agree to a second ceasefire to return remaining hostages, 20 living and 28 dead.

But like Ceasefire 1, Ceasefire 2 is just genocidal ethnic cleansing by subtler means. In the first 9 days, Israel’s military has killed or wounded nearly 400 Palestinians, while again restricting food, water and medicine. Israel still occupies over half of Gaza, establishing yellow lines forbidding Palestinians to cross.

On ceasefire day 10 Israel unleased massive air strikes across Gaza. In their most grotesque ceasefire violation, Israel bombed a vehicle that strayed across Israel’s yellow line, killing 11 family members including 3 women and 7 kids.

Was Trump outraged? Only at Hamas who he’s threatening to obliterate by giving Israel the green light to ‘finish the job.’

This should surprise no one with a moral conscience. Israel has been violating the ceasefire in Lebanon for nearly a year. During that time they’ve killed over 4,000 Lebanese, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and gobbled up 5 Lebanese areas.

That’s some ceasefire you negotiated Mr. Trump. All you accomplished is delay Israel’s one and only goal…bringing a Palestinian free Gaza into Greater Israel.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel, USA | Leave a comment

Gaza Officials Say Israel Has Violated Ceasefire 80 Times in First 10 Days

Israel carried out a bombardment on Sunday after two Israeli soldiers were apparently killed in an explosion.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, October 20, 2025, https://truthout.org/articles/gaza-officials-say-israel-has-violated-ceasefire-80-times-in-first-10-days/

srael has committed at least 80 violations of the ceasefire agreement since it began just 10 days ago, Palestinian officials have said, leaving hundreds of casualties as Israeli officials threaten to return to their extermination campaign now that the living Israeli captives have been returned.

In a statement on Sunday, the Gaza Government Media Office said that Israel had killed 97 Palestinians and injured over 230 amid the ceasefire. These violations show the Israeli government’s wish to break the agreement and return to its genocidal aggression, the office said.

“These violations ranged from direct fire against civilians to deliberate shelling and targeting, the use of simultaneous air strikes, and the arrest of a number of civilians,” it said, per Al Jazeera’s translation. “These practices reflect the occupation’s continued aggressive approach, its clear desire for escalation on the ground, and its constant thirst for blood and killing.”

This includes an attack on Friday in northern Gaza, in which Israel attacked a vehicle and killed 11 members of the same family, simply trying to return to their home. The attack killed seven children. Israel claimed that the vehicle had crossed a line of demarcation where Israeli forces are still deployed — an area that encompasses the majority of Gaza and that is not clearly marked by the military.

​​“They had crossed the so-called ‘yellow line’, an imaginary boundary mentioned by the Israeli army,” said Mahmoud Basal, Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson, per The Guardian. “I am certain the family couldn’t distinguish between the yellow and red lines because there are no actual physical markers on the ground.”

It also includes numerous violations on Sunday, during which Israel seemingly temporarily suspended the ceasefire agreement after two Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in Rafah. Israel blamed Hamas, saying that fighters fired an anti-tank and carried out a bombardment and said it would end all humanitarian aid delivery.

However, shortly after, Israeli officials said the ceasefire was back on and that it had resumed aid delivery. Officials did not give a reason, but Drop Site journalist Ryan Grim reported that the explosion actually happened when an Israeli settler ran over an unexploded ordnance.

“Soon after the explosion in Rafah, I’m told by a source familiar, the White House and Pentagon knew that the incident was caused by an Israeli settler bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance — contradicting [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas had popped up from tunnels,” Grim wrote on social media.

“After Netanyahu said he was blocking all aid from entering Gaza in response, and unleashed a bombing campaign, the administration conveyed to Israel that they know what happened. Netanyahu then announced he would re-open the crossings in a few hours,” he went on.

Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi also reported this, and further said that the Israeli government implemented a gag order to the media on the incident. Axios reporter Barak Ravid similarly said that Israeli officials said it was due to pressure from the Trump administration that the decision was turned back.

Israel has already been limiting aid into Gaza and refusing to open the Rafah border crossing, once the most important crossings for aid delivery. Officials accuse Hamas of violating its agreement to release Israeli captives’ bodies, but officials have said that it is impossible to retrieve all of the bodies as long as Israel continues blocking the entry of heavy equipment that can clear rubble.

Top Israeli ministers have been pushing for an end to the ceasefire. “Enough with the folding,” wrote Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on X on Sunday.

October 24, 2025 Posted by | Gaza, Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A Genuinely Just Transition: Kill Off Sizewell C – Shaft Reform UK

the insanity of Labour’s nuclear obsession

Jonathon Porritt. 23 Oct 25,
https://jonathonporritt.com/just-transition-uk-sizewell-c-reform/

I’ve been more than a little mean about Ed Miliband in my last two blogs – which is somewhat ungenerous given that he would appear to be the last sensible, caring person standing in this misbegotten Labour Government.

So, let me big him up for a bit!

Last Saturday, he gave what is probably his most important speech since becoming Secretary of State at DESNZ – on what (in my opinion) is probably the single most important policy area within the sprawling DESNZ portfolio: the green economy, skills, energy efficiency, retrofit etc.

He was unveiling details of the Government’s latest scheme to create an extra 400,000 ‘green jobs’ over the course of the next few years. Thirty one skilled trades have been identified as priority areas, with HVAC (heating and ventilation engineers) and plumbing at the top of the list, with carpenters, electricians and welders next in line.

The Government won’t just be targeting those particular skills, but those who they hope will end up in the new jobs: school leavers, NEETS, veterans, ex-offenders – and those exiting the once safe embrace of fossil fuel jobs (the package includes a designated fund of £20 million to upskill workers from the oil and gas industries). Miliband indicated that any companies benefiting from Government money will have to demonstrate the contribution they can make to those goals.

There wasn’t anything like enough in the speech about ramping up the current retrofitting programmes to reduce still chronic levels of fuel poverty here in the UK, let alone about opportunities to support energy efficiency schemes across the economy – including the highly effective SALIX scheme which is allocated a miserly £32 million a year.

As we all need to keep reminding people, overall energy consumption here in the UK has actually declined by a massive 28% over the last 20 years – one of the reasons why our greenhouse gas emissions have declined by 40% during that time. As the indefatigable Andrew Warren points out:

“There is no good reason why this trend should not continue. There are still approaching nine million homes on the gas network running gas-guzzling boilers, and many of these could readily switch to electric heating. There are still some fifteen million homes with grossly inadequate insulation. And still a majority without energy efficient glazing”.

So let’s hope we hear more about these critical areas in the future. But for the time being, let’s celebrate what looks like Labour’s most substantive attempt yet to set about a genuinely ‘just transition’ away from fossil fuels.

And that’s why Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves should go on backing Ed Miliband every step of this politically contested way! The two of them still seem to have not the first idea of how to combat the surging success of Reform UK in the polls – other than to claim (pretty idiotically) that they will deliver Nigel Farage’s agenda in a rather nicer and less aggressive way.

By contrast, Miliband gets the true threat from Reform to Labour. His interview on Sunday with Laura Kunzberg was splendidly combative, providing Labour with its strongest strapline yet: that Reform UK “is waging war on jobs”.

“Obviously, this is a massive fight with Reform. Reformers say they will wage war on clean energy. Well, that’s waging war on these jobs….. it’s all part of its attempt at a culture war, but I actually think they’re out of tune with the British people because I think people recognise that we need the jobs from clean energy”.

If I wasn’t somewhat suspicious of the whole idea of ‘eco-populism’, I’d say this is a very clear signal of Miliband taking the fight directly to the climate-denying neanderthals in both Reform and Badenoch’s Tory party – and, in the process, reminding Zack Polanski, the Green Party’s new leader, that he shouldn’t expect to command this territory unchallenged!

Which is precisely why my blog yesterday – about the insanity of Labour’s nuclear obsession – highlighted the scale of the challenge Ed Miliband faces. This whole ‘green economy’ commitment has been allocated £880 million in the DESNZ budget – 50% of what Sizewell C will get in direct subsidy! And that’s before we all start paying through the nose for Sizewell C on our electricity bills. It’s abundantly clear that this newly unveiled strategy is going to need a whole lot more backing than that.

Which is why Miliband has a very strong signal to send to Rachel Reeves: kill off Sizewell C – shaft Reform. 

October 24, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

The Palestinian Authority may become a casualty of the Trump plan and the new Western consensus

Western support for a two-state solution was never intended to create Palestinian statehood — it was meant to justify the existence of the Palestinian Authority. Now that the Western consensus is shifting, so are thoughts about the need for the PA.

Monodoweiss, By Qassam Muaddi  October 17, 2025

Total and lasting “forever” peace. Not just for Palestine, but the entire Middle East.

That’s what U.S. President Donald Trump promised at the signing of the Gaza ceasefire deal in Egypt last week. One way the plan differs from previous incarnations of the “peace process” is that it abandons the framework of the two-state solution as the accepted way of resolving the Palestine question.

Historically, the U.S. model for integrating Israel into the region was the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994 after the Oslo Accords, which was given limited governing responsibilities over the West Bank and Gaza with the nominal assumption that it would be the precursor to a Palestinian state.

Trump’s plan tries to bypass all of this, putting Gaza under the administration of a U.S.-led board of “peace” headed by Trump himself. The PA has no clear role in running the Strip — at least not according to Trump’s 20 points, which mentions that the PA would have to undergo a series of “reforms” that could, in some unspecified future, establish “a path” toward Palestinian self-determination. During the reconstruction phase, the West Bank and Gaza would be politically split.

Israel has made its rejection of a Palestinian state official policy. But it is also a matter of national consensus across the Israeli political spectrum, as recently articulated by Benny Gantz, a member of the opposition, in the New York Times. 

It goes back to well before October 7…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza two years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the PA will have no role in governing the Strip in the future. Yet the calls by Ben-Gvir and the Israeli far right to abolish the PA altogether are not so easy to implement.

The PA runs civil affairs in the West Bank, responsibilities that would otherwise fall to Israel. It also sustains the image of a peace process on which most Western countries and the UN base their official positions, anchored in the rhetoric of a “two-state solution.”

But nominal Western support for a two-state solution was never meant to actually implement it. Rather, the function this support has ended up performing has been to maintain the political rationale for supporting the continued existence of the PA. The demands of the maximalist Israeli far right have placed this in jeopardy.

If Trump’s “peace” plan, if one can call it that, is to have a chance, it would need some European buy-in, especially in funding and bankrolling the so-called “reforms.” That puts it at odds with the maximalist Israeli position.

Last Monday, as the leaders of 20 countries met in Egypt’s Sharm al-Sheikh to sign the Gaza ceasefire deal, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, told the media that the EU would increase its aid to the PA by 1.6 billion euros. He added that European intervention will focus on humanitarian aid, police training, governance, border control, and PA reforms, to ensure that “in the future, Palestine will be a democratic state, free of terrorism.”

The new global consensus

The PA has already adopted a political platform that recognizes Israel, rejects armed resistance, and commits to security cooperation. But the PA is also part of a larger Palestinian political spectrum. Even if there aren’t elections, the PA is still bound to operate in relation to other Palestinian political forces. This sets a bare minimum “floor” that the PA is obliged to maintain, which is the rhetorical insistence on a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and perhaps as an afterthought, paying some lip service to the right of return. Decades of Palestinian struggle since the Nakba have made it impossible for the PA to rhetorically sidestep this political ethos, even though it has done virtually everything on the ground to render it materially meaningless.

In other words, the PA cannot abandon its pretenses to being Palestinian and representing some notion of Palestinian nationhood.  This is what Palestinians fear the “reforms” are about — turning the PA into a self-governing and apolitical body shorn of any remnants of Palestinian national culture and memory………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/the-trump-plan-the-palestinian-authority-and-the-new-western-consensus/

October 24, 2025 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, politics | Leave a comment

Why Tony Blair governing Gaza would result in more war crimes.

Soldiers who served under his command in Iraq got away with sexually assaulting prisoners, in scenes similar to Israel’s torture of Palestinians.

IRFAN CHOWDHURY, 8 October 2025, https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-tony-blair-governing-gaza-would-result-in-more-war-crimes/

Under US president Donald Trump’s new plan for Gaza, former British prime minister Tony Blair has been touted as having a senior role in governing Gaza, acting as a deputy to Trump himself. 

Aside from the obvious neo-colonial implications of this – Western Viceroys ruling over occupied Arabs, as opposed to those occupied Arabs being granted self-determination – Blair’s track record of human rights violations makes him deeply unsuitable for the job.

Blair made the decision in 2003 to join with the US in invading and occupying Iraq. Human Rights Watch has noted that “UK nationals committed abuses in Iraq after 2003 on a significant scale”.

Many of these abuses stemmed from policies that were implemented by Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) under Blair’s leadership, wherein abusive interrogation techniques were authorised from above.

Under Blair’s MoD, ‘harshing’ was authorised – this constitutes a technique of psychological abuse wherein an interrogator screams into a detainee’s face, making implicit threats of violence and engaging in personal insults and vitriol.

‘Uncontrolled fury’

Justice Andrew Collins observed at the High Court in 2013: “There can be no doubt that the practices carried out under the guidelines then in place were unacceptable. The harsh technique included the following elements which could be deployed as the questioner considered necessary. 

“The shouting could be as loud as possible. There could be what was described as uncontrolled fury, shouting with cold menace and then developing, the questioner’s voice and actions showing psychotic tendencies, and there could be personal abuse.”

Sir William Gage, who chaired the Baha Mousa Inquiry in 2011, noted: “The teaching of the ‘harsh’ permitted insults not just of the performance of the captured prisoner but personal and abusive insults including racist and homophobic language.

“The ‘harsh’ was designed to show anger on the part of the questioner. It ran the risk of being a form of intimidation to coerce answers from prisoners. 

“It involved forms of threats which while in some senses indirect were designed to instil in prisoners a fear of what might happen to them, including physically.”

Footage published by The Guardian in 2010 of Iraqi detainees being harshed by British soldiers makes for harrowing viewing. 

Nicholas Mercer, who served as the British Army’s chief legal advisor in Iraq in 2003, has stated that in his view, harshing is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Sexually abusing prisoners

In 2005, under Blair’s MoD, training documents at the headquarters of the British Army’s Intelligence Corps in Chicksands encouraged interrogators to sexually humiliate detainees as a form of conditioning and for punitive purposes.

One training aid stated: “Get them naked. Keep them naked if they do not follow commands.” 

Another training aid encouraged the use of blindfolds in order to put pressure on detainees; harshing was also encouraged. 

During the same period, a training document at Chicksands explicitly stated that “Sexual frustration” was a vulnerability that interrogators were allowed to exploit in detainees. 

I have written about how between 2006 and 2007, evidence suggests that interrogators from the Intelligence Corps subjected detained Iraqi men to widespread sexual abuse at the Shaibah Logistics Base in southern Iraq.

Ian Cobain noted in regard to these training documents at Chicksands: “This material was created for the instruction of ‘tactical questioners’, who conduct initial interrogations of prisoners of war, as well as for the instruction of servicemen and women from all three branches of the armed forces who conduct ‘interrogation in depth’. 

“The material suggests not only that British military interrogators have employed techniques that may be in breach of the International Criminal Court Act, but that the MoD has spent a considerable amount of time and money training them to do just that.”

‘Misguided zeal’

Blair’s MoD also oversaw a near-total lack of accountability for even the most serious war crimes in Iraq.

After photographs emerged in 2005 showing British soldiers physically abusing Iraqi civilians, stripping them naked, and forcing them to simulate oral and anal sex at Camp Breadbasket in southern Iraq, none of the Iraqi victims were called to give evidence at the subsequent court martial proceedings. 

The Army Prosecuting Authority’s excuse for not calling the victims to give evidence is that it could not locate them – this is despite the fact that the Independent on Sunday was able to locate the victims and interview them.

None of the soldiers who were responsible for what the Judge Advocate described as “perhaps the worst of these offences” – namely, forcing detainees to simulate oral and anal sex – were prosecuted.

The images are reminiscent of what Israel has done to Palestinian detainees at its Sde Teiman camp in the Negev desert. 

Captain Dan Taylor, who issued the order for the detainees to be “worked hard” at Camp Breadbasket, was exonerated by the British Army before the court martial proceedings even began.

The military determined that while his order was “unlawful”, he had “acted with well-meaning and sincere but misguided zeal”. He was subsequently promoted from the rank of Captain to Major.

‘Unacceptable’

Similarly, in the 2003 case of Ahmed Jabbar Kareem Ali – a 15-year-old Iraqi boy who British soldiers beat and forced to enter a canal, where he drowned – the Royal Military Police’s Special Investigation Branch failed to conduct a proper investigation into the killing.

The MoD also massively delayed the court martial proceedings, which saw all of the soldiers being acquitted.

The court martial of the soldiers did not convene until 28 months after the incident – a delay which Brigadier Robert Aitken, who was commissioned to look into cases of detainee abuse, criticised as “unacceptable”.

These soldiers were all later deemed culpable for Ahmed’s death in a public judicial inquiry that took place in 2016, although some still dispute its findings. 

The European Court of Human Rights examined this case, and found that “the Special Investigation Branch was not, during the relevant period, operationally independent from the military chain of command”.

It added: “no explanation has been provided by the Government in respect of the long delay between the death and the court martial. 

“It appears that the delay seriously undermined the effectiveness of the investigation, not least because some of the soldiers accused of involvement in the incident were by then untraceable.”

The man who oversaw all these abuses – Tony Blair – should not be appointed to have any role in governing the people of Gaza; a people who have been subjected to a campaign of genocide, who are deeply traumatised, and who deserve to live with dignity and safety.

Most troubling is Trump’s stipulation that the people of Gaza must be “deradicalized” – if this “deradicalization” process is overseen by Blair, and involves a programme of detention and punishment, then it is virtually guaranteed that egregious human rights violations will occur.

This is not to mention that if anyone needs to be “deradicalized” in this conflict, it is the genocidal Israeli leadership and Israeli society who have perpetrated one of the gravest crimes in modern history in Gaza, as well as the likes of Blair himself – who appears to view the lives of Arabs as inferior to his own.

Irfan Chowdhury is a freelance writer and PhD student at the University of Brighton. His PhD is titled: ‘’How systematic were the British Army’s war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2009? An investigation into Britain’s abuse of underage Iraqi boys’. He has had articles published in Bella Caledonia, Iraq Now, Mondoweiss, Roar News, Peace News, Hastings In Focus, Interfere Journal, and Norman Finkelstein’s website.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, MIDDLE EAST | Leave a comment

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