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1,500 Killed While Seeking Aid in Gaza Since May: UN.

 August 5, 2025, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250804-1500-killed-while-seeking-aid-in-gaza-since-may-un/

Around 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza since May while seeking humanitarian aid, the UN said Monday, Anadolu reports.

“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that many people reportedly continue to be killed and injured, including people seeking food along the UN convoy routes and militarized distribution points. Some 1,500 people have been reportedly killed since May,” Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesperson, told reporters.

He added that a health care worker with the Palestine Red Crescent Society was killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunus, southern Gaza.

Since May 27, a US- and Israeli-backed aid scheme in Gaza has been widely criticized as being ineffective as well as being a “death trap” for starving civilians.

Asked by Anadolu whether the UN secretary-general believes the UN’s reputation and effectiveness can be salvaged given its failure to stop Israel’s actions, including plans to expand the annexation of Palestinian land, Haq responded: “He certainly does.”

Haq said the UN’s record includes “successful diplomatic negotiations” and humanitarian aid that continues to “keep billions of people alive.” He emphasized that lack of international unity, particularly within the UN Security Council, hinders the organization’s effectiveness.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said Monday that Israel had allowed in just 674 aid trucks since July 27 – only 14% of the strip’s minimum daily requirement of 600 trucks.

It said most of the 80 trucks that entered on Sunday were looted amid what it called “a deliberately engineered climate of chaos and starvation,” accusing Israel of weaponizing hunger to undermine Palestinian resilience.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 61,000 Palestinians, almost half of them women and children. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.

August 11, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Weekly Briefing: A tipping point for Israel’s legitimacy

Global pressure mounts as Israel chooses famine over peace

By Dave Reed  August 9, 2025, https://mondoweiss.net/2025/08/weekly-briefing-a-tipping-point-for-israels-legitimacy/

Israel’s war on Gaza has never been solely about “defeating” Hamas. This week’s reporting makes that clearer than ever. If you read just one article this week, Tareq Hajjaj documents how Israel is engineering chaos in Gaza’s aid system, shooting at desperate civilians, and allowing looters to operate freely so that food does not reach starving people. Qassam Muaddi reports on leaked Israeli cabinet minutes that confirm they deliberately chose starvation as a weapon of war, rejecting a ceasefire in favor of forcing Gaza’s surrender through hunger.

This policy is not hidden. It was discussed from the very beginning, nearly two years ago, and is still openly embraced by senior Israeli figures and the majority of the Israeli population. That brazenness is finally eroding Israel’s legitimacy around the world. The International Sociological Association’s suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society is the latest sign of an expanding academic boycott. In United States politics, Bernie Sanders’s recent resolutions to block weapons sales did not pass, but they showed something important: Palestine is becoming a litmus test inside the Democratic Party, and electeds are starting to respond to the shift in the party’s base on these issues.

At the same time, the rot inside Israel’s political culture is on full display. A new poll shows that seventy-nine percent of Jewish Israelis are not troubled by the famine in Gaza. This normalization of atrocity makes it easier for Israeli leaders to escalate the suffering of the Palestinians there. Netanyahu is now ordering the army to expand the war and reoccupy the entire Strip. There are few defences of this genocidal behavior available to the pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian crowd.

Governments and institutions desperate to protect Israel’s impunity are cracking down even harder on dissent. In the United States, Columbia University’s mass suspensions of Palestine activists and PEN America’s firing of Kori Davis show how institutions are bending to political pressure. Trump’s looming overhaul of the federal workforce threatens to hardwire this repression into the government itself. These are not separate battles. They are part of the same effort to shield Israel and complicit institutions from accountability.

We are witnessing the tipping point that the movement for Palestinian liberation has labored on for decades. Israel’s legitimacy is being contested in more places and by more voices than ever. But breaking its genocide, apartheid, and occupation will depend on escalating the movement across civil society around the world. 

August 11, 2025 Posted by | Israel, politics | Leave a comment

Occupation and Slaughter: Netanyahu and Taking Over Gaza

9 August 2025 Dr Binoy Kampmark, https://theaimn.net/occupation-and-slaughter-netanyahu-and-taking-over-gaza/

To say that Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had lost the plot is to assume he ever had one. With a dearth of ideas as to how to come up with a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem, he has received a majority approval from his cabinet colleagues to take over Gaza City. It took a late-night meeting with the security cabinet lasting some ten hours.

A statement released on the morning of August 8 from his office mentioned a five-point plan intended to defeat Hamas and conclude the war. None of this is an improved version of what has come before: the intended disarming of Hamas, the return of all hostages, demilitarising the Gaza Strip, assuming security control of the territory and creating “an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”

There is also not much difference here from recent proposals made by the French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, with one fundamental difference: the Israelis want no current Palestinian representative authority to govern the people they so loathe. What all the proposals share is a core belief that the Palestinians be reduced to subordinate status, forever policed and monitored by watchful authorities. Their representatives are to be vetted by the Israelis and any number of international partners. Genuine sovereignty can sod off.

The Israeli military has announced that it “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones.” Little change then given the current model of aid distribution that features daily massacres of the desperate and the starving overseen by trigger itchy personnel from both the IDF and the obscenely named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. OHCHR, the United Nations human rights office, claims that at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking food have been killed since May 27, 859 in proximity of the GHF’s distribution points. Another 514 have perished along the routes traversed by food convoys.

The UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk has done his best to reiterate a certain ghastly obviousness in the plan. The military takeover “runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreed two-State solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination.” The takeover would entail further escalation, resulting in “more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.”

The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. General Eyal Zamier, is not a fan of the plan, concerned that itwould do more to imperil the surviving Israeli hostages held in the Strip. The New York Times reports that the country’s military leadership would prefer a fresh ceasefire, with the IDF suffering from the effects of attrition from the conflict. The head of Israel’s National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, is in furious agreement: such an operation would further endanger the surviving Israeli hostages. Mossad’s director, David Barnea, also adds his name to the list of sceptics.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid did not shy away from excoriating the cabinet decision, something he called “a disaster” that would breed further disasters. The far-right figures of Itamar Ben–Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich had “dragged” the Prime Minister into a strategy that would lead to the death of the hostages and Israeli troops while costing billions to the Israeli taxpayer.

An announcement from Hamas proved suitably contemptuous of the latest Netanyahu gambit. “We warn the criminal occupation that this criminal adventure will cost it dearly. It will not be a walk in the park. Our people and their resistance are resilient to defeat or surrender, and Netanyahu’s plans, ambitions, and delusions will fail miserably.” The group also thought it fitting to name the United States as “fully responsible for the occupation’s crimes, due to its political cover and direct military support for its aggression.”

In a turn up for the books for those opposing Netanyahu’s blood-soaked adventurism, some of Israel’s closest allies are going beyond muttering criticism. Modest as it is, Germany has announced that weapons exports to Israel for use in the Strip had been suspended “until further notice.” (Between 2020 and 2024, the country accounted for a third of Israel’s arms imports.) A statement from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, while acknowledging the usual proviso that Israel had “the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism,” expressed concern that “even tougher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip” undermined prospects for releasing the hostages and pursuing negotiations for a ceasefire. Merz further warned that Israel “not take any further steps toward annexing the West Bank.”

For his part, Starmer called Israel’s “decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza […] wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately. This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed.”

Türk, if somewhat hollowly, demands an end to the war in Gaza with a rosy vision: an arrangement where Israelis and Palestinians are “allowed to live side by side in peace.” Admirable as this aspiration is, optimistic in its transcendence, it misunderstands the currency of hate and vengeance currently traded in Netanyahu’s cabinet and swathes of the Israeli populace. This is not a matter of side by side, but above and below, living in a state of permanent conflict, suppression and suspicion.

August 11, 2025 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

From boots to orbits: Army develops space skills amid growing battlefield reliance on satellites

The service is launching “40 Delta” military occupational specialty to build expertise in space domain operations

by Sandra Erwin, August 6, 2025, https://spacenews.com/from-boots-to-orbits-army-develops-space-skills-amid-growing-battlefield-reliance-on-satellites/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Top stories%3A NASA s commercial space station pivot%2C China tests crewed lunar lander&utm_campaign=SNTW 8%2F8%2F2025

The U.S. Army will begin recruiting soldiers for its first dedicated enlisted specialty in space operations. This is part of a broader push by the service to build organic expertise as satellites become increasingly critical to modern ground warfare….

…The initiative comes as military leaders increasingly view space capabilities as essential to ground operations, driven in part by lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, where electronic jamming, cyber threats and satellite-denied environments have become routine challenges for forces.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army will begin recruiting soldiers for its first dedicated enlisted specialty in space operations. This is part of a broader push by the service to build organic expertise as satellites become increasingly critical to modern ground warfare.

Army officials at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium this week said the 40 Delta (40D) Space Operations Specialist military occupational specialty is moving from planning to implementation, with full operations expected by October 2026. 

Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, head of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, said the service is just weeks away from the official launch of the new specialty. The goal is to “build long-term, institutional knowledge and to retain noncommissioned officers (NCOs) with space expertise,” Gainey said.

The 40D program was approved in December and will begin accepting applications early next year, with selection boards starting in May, according to Command Sergeant Major John Foley, the Army’s senior enlisted leader for space operations. Selected soldiers will receive specialized training in Colorado Springs to become space operations specialists.

The initiative comes as military leaders increasingly view space capabilities as essential to ground operations, driven in part by lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, where electronic jamming, cyber threats and satellite-denied environments have become routine challenges for forces.

Organizational structure

Beyond the new enlisted specialty, the Army is developing what it calls a “space branch” – a professional category similar to existing branches like Infantry, Armor and Artillery. Foley said the space branch would initially encompass about 1,000 enlisted soldiers and officers and would allow space professionals to advocate for programs and resources. The branch is not officially in place yet but should be coming soon, he added.

These organizational changes build on the evolution of the 1st Space Brigade and expansion of “multidomain” task forces, which Gainey identified as significant developments in Army space capabilities. These units have integrated space operations with ground maneuver formations through exercises and collaboration with special operations and cyber elements, giving soldiers hands-on experience in spectrum awareness and techniques to deceive and disrupt adversaries’ satellite use.

The Army’s own labs also have produced weapons like BADGR, a portable system that combines surveillance sensors and jamming devices for electronic attack missions. Brig. Gen. Don Brooks, deputy commander for operations at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said five BADGR prototypes have been delivered to Army units based on feedback from ground forces requesting specialized equipment for “electronic attack.”

A joint endeavor, not a turf war

The Army’s push to develop internal space expertise has drawn criticism from some observers who view it as creating a “mini Space Force” that could duplicate the newer service’s mission. Army leaders have pushed back against such characterizations, emphasizing their goal is to cultivate organic space competencies rather than compete with the Space Force.

Army officials argue that having soldiers on the ground who understand space-based assets and can immediately translate satellite data, communication support and threat warnings into real-time action is essential for modern warfare. They contend that waiting for external support, even from an expert service like the Space Force, is often impractical when ground units need instant solutions integrated into their tactical operations.

The Army continues to rely on the Space Force for satellite launches, advanced systems and global networks, but maintains that a land component with skilled space professionals can make the entire joint force more capable and resilient.

Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, offered support for the Army’s approach during remarks at the symposium. “I’m gratified to see that all of our military services are understanding the criticality of space,” Whiting said. “The Army recognizes that for maneuver elements to be successful, that there needs to be soldiers who understand space.”

Whiting emphasized that the Space Force maintains its “global space mission to provide space capabilities to the entire force and also to protect and defend capabilities in the domain,” while acknowledging that “all of our services have real institutional strengths.” Rather than viewing the Army’s efforts as competitive, Whiting said, “I don’t see it as being an overlapping and competitive set of responsibilities … but I do see them being complimentary.”

August 11, 2025 Posted by | space travel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

“Memories that do not heal”: the legacy of uranium mining at Laguna Pueblo.

Following passage of the Radiation and Exposure and Compensation Act expansion, which includes post-1971 miners for the first time, Searchlight spoke with three tribal members whose lives were changed forever by a toxic industry.

SEARCHLIGHT NEW MEXICO, by Aviva Nathan, August 8, 2025

On July 25, I drove to the Pueblo of Laguna to speak with Loretta Anderson, Millie Chino and Vincent Rodriguez, steering members of an advocacy group called the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post-71. Anderson co-founded the organization in 2014 to fight for the expansion of paid benefits — to uranium workers who entered the industry after 1971 — under the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act (RECA), the 1990 law created to provide financial support to people exposed to radiation from atomic weapons testing as well as the milling, mining and transporting of uranium.

At Laguna, the mines deformed the hills into tiered sites of extraction that are still gray from the uranium. Infrastructure that was built for the mining still remains, now in a state of disrepair. In the wake of mining, what was once a hill collapsed into a contaminated green pond that smells like methane. (The mine in question, called Jackpile Mine, was the largest open-pit uranium mine in the world and operated both underground and open-pit areas.) Anderson’s late husband, Roy Cheresposy, was a miner. Chino lost her husband, James, another miner, in 2023. Vincent Rodriguez was also a miner. 

Our conversation took place while we drove around various sites on pueblo land that were affected by mining that happened here between 1953 and 1982. It followed the recent RECA expansion that’s part of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed on July 4. This legislation, for the first time, will compensate post-1971 uranium workers, offering a one-time payment of $100,000 to New Mexico workers who meet certain criteria related to exposure and health consequences. Compensation will be overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); the agency has yet to release the new RECA application forms.

The urgent desire of downwinders and uranium workers to be compensated after decades of waiting has been seized upon by lawyers, home health care companies and other third parties that hope to get a slice of the pie for themselves. Already, there has been a cacophony of misinformation and rumors of unlawful solicitation. (For details on how the application process should work, see our sidebar about frequently asked questions.) Right now, it’s difficult to estimate how much will be paid in expanded compensation. Since Reca was first passed, more than $2.7 billion has been awarded.

While potential applicants are in limbo, the physical source of harm remains unattended. The Jackpile Mine, which was declared a Superfund site in 2013, is vacant, but it’s still exposed and quietly lethal. Meanwhile, members of the steering committee have expressed concern that uranium mining could begin again shortly, given the Trump administration’s eagerness to expand uranium mining, which includes efforts to fast-track the opening of mines in New Mexico. Susan Gordon, a coordinator with the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, adds that further steps are required of companies before they can start mining again in this state. 

Land and memory converged as Anderson, Chino and Rodriguez spoke about the history and intimate impact of uranium mining in Laguna Pueblo. The following transcript is edited for clarity and length. 

As I drove onto Laguna land, which sits around 50 miles west of Albuquerque, Anderson drove ahead of me and contextualized the landscape over the phone. I’ve added Chino’s comments from a trip on the same roads a few hours later.

Millie Chino: They used to have sheep camps along these hills, years ago before the mining started. But once it started, they couldn’t herd anymore, because of the blasting and all the production going on. Many of our people were farmers and sheepherders and cattle workers. 

Lorretta Anderson: There was no acknowledgement of the harm being done by the mines. That’s the terrible part. If you look up at those hills, you can see where the gray clay is. That gray color is uranium.

That was where the mines were. Part of it, anyway. They did do a reclamation at one time, but they only put on a thin layer of dirt. They didn’t clean it up. That dirt all has to have blown away already. The people who did the reclamation are sick. They didn’t have any protective gear.

Chino: On your left, you’ll see the housing area where the supervisors of the mines and their children and families lived. We’ve been told they’re all deceased. Even their children, they died of cancers. My mom worked there as a housekeeper for one of the big shots. Both my parents passed away from radiation diseases.

Anderson: On the right, you can see the arroyo. Now it’s highly contaminated. It’s seeping down the Rio San Jose. Uranium contaminated our Mesita Dam. And there’s a little lake here that’s highly contaminated. That is a hot spot. They don’t know what to do with it. If you stop here, you will see that the horses, cattle and all the animals drink off that area where it’s highly contaminated. 

Now we’re entering the village of Paguate. People here are very sick. They’re suffering and dying. The majority of our people were working at the mines. From January 1, 1972, the uranium mining industry just expanded so much, and everybody was employed there at that point. I was living in Seama Village. I live about 11 miles from the mines, down in the valley. I’m in the farthest village, actually. We have six villages in Laguna Pueblo. 

We arrived at Chino’s house. In her living room, she read from a poster she’d made.

Chino: These are recollections of my childhood memories, and I’ve titled it, “Memories That Do Not Heal.” The recollections of childhood memories living in Paguate village are of pain, heartbreak and anger. Anger. Uranium mining operations began near our village in the 1950s. A frightening sound became an everyday event. A dynamite blasting happened at least twice per day. When the blasting occurred, everything vibrated. The village shook. The houses built with rock and mud were affected by the vibrations. The pictures that hung on the walls fell.

As children, we were so curious and excited by the loud explosive booms coming from the uranium mine. We figured out the blasting schedule. We gathered at the edge of the village to observe the huge billowing of dust clouds after the blast. The clouds of dust drifted over the village and settled on everything. Women dried fruit and meat outside their homes. Families ate the contaminated food, not knowing the eventual consequences. Years passed. The continued blasting caused cracks in the walls of homes. The outdoor oven walls cracked. The women could not bake bread, roast corn or cook. Today, there are no ovens to be used as they once were. They are in disrepair. As mining operations continued, miners and community members were exposed to the toxic environment.

The Jackpile Mine closed in 1982. Since then, we’ve lived with the knowledge that many community members are sick and dying from cancers. Kidney and respiratory diseases. My beloved spouse, a Vietnam veteran, parents and other relatives passed away from the uranium diseases. These are memories of my childhood growing up in the village so near to the uranium mine.

Anderson: Once you disrupt uranium — and the government knew this — you can’t do anything to stop it from contaminating people. You just open up a porthole of illnesses and diseases. And that’s what our people are suffering from right now. They don’t know how to stop the contamination. There’s nothing they can do. It’s awful. It’s headed down the Rio San Jose, which is going toward Albuquerque and Las Lunas and Belen. And they can’t stop it.

They only have given us until 2027 to file RECA claims. That’s not enough time. Right now, I’m working with over 500 living miners, trying to get them going. We have all these attorneys and home health care groups that are causing so much havoc throughout the community. I told people: Don’t answer them. Do not give out your information. The city of Grants right now is just craziness.

We had a meeting recently and went through everything — and we told everybody to hold off. Our people are calling me asking how to apply, and to get tested, but right now the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program at the University of New Mexico is just swamped, because so many people are trying to get tested. I’m telling everyone to get a disc and a radiology report from their doctor, and then we can have the pulmonologist from RESEP read it, so he can do a B-read, in which a diagnosis is made from looking at an X-ray, to determine if miners qualify for compensation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://searchlightnm.org/radiation-exposure-compensation-act-expansion-trump-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-new-mexico-laguna-pueblo-uranium-miners-jackpile/?utm_source=Searchlight+New+Mexico&utm_campaign=5a9ee266ce-8%2F8%2F2025+%E2%80%93+%E2%80%9CMemories+that+do+not+heal%E2%80%9D&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8e05fb0467-5a9ee266ce-395610620&mc_cid=5a9ee266ce&mc_eid=a70296a261

August 11, 2025 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

How industry is positioning itself for the giant Golden Dome budget.

…What emerges from these individual fundraising rounds, tests and production increases…is companies who see a generational windfall… 

. 

PART 3  |  AUGUST 6, 2025

Welcome to the third part of our four-part newsletter series on the funding, technology and mission of the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, where we break down the highly ambitious space-based military program, from its history to its planned architecture to its budget and to the role of AI. We’ll keep you up to date on what stands to become one of the most expansive military defense systems in United States history.

Today, we’ll talk more about industry’s visions for Golden Dome, and how some companies are already positioning themselves to win Pentagon contracts.

Almost immediately after President Donald Trump announced the idea that came to be known as Golden Dome, space and defense companies started making their case for how their technology could be a fit for the program. 

As a result, industry officials have several visions for what Golden Dome might include and how it might work. While Gen. Michael Guetlein, recently appointed program manager for Golden Dome of America, only recently kicked off a 60-daysprint to deliver an architecture, some of the pitches and procurements already out there may offer ideas on the range of possibilities and the technologies involved.
Many of the defense industry’s largest players have started touting a vision for Golden Dome. 
Among them:
L3Harris is touting its history and pedigree to develop part of the system. The company has built a missile-tracking satellite that successfully demonstrated the ability to track a hypersonic missile from space, the Missile Defense Agency confirmed April 25. L3Harris has also recently expanded its manufacturing capabilities, ramping up its ability to produce infrared sensing payloads — a central technology for the Golden Dome missile-defense shield that relies heavily on space-based capabilities. In addition, the company announced plans to leverage its AI partnerships with Palantir and Shield AI in the interest of securing Golden Dome contracts. And in July, L3Harris named Rob Mitrevski, who recently oversaw the company’s expansion of infrared sensor payload production capacity, as president of Golden Dome strategy and integration — signalling the company’s intent to steer its growing portfolio of work on Golden Dome.

Northrop Grumman, too, is discussing its experience as a lead contractor for the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer. In a recent interview with SpaceNews, Raymond Sharp, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s missile defense solutions business unit, said the company is “all in” on Golden Dome, and hopes to cement a systems-integrator role that goes beyond supplying components. The company would incorporate modular networking technologies that it’s already developed for other military contracts into Golden Dome concepts to demonstrate “plug-and-play” integration — a key requirement for a system expected to absorb a range of sensors, weapons and decision-support software from across the industrial base.

Northrop also intends to offer components — in a second-quarter earnings call, CEO Kathy Warden said the company is significantly ramping up solid rocket motor production and plans to offer a space-based interceptor concept soon, saying that ground-based tests are already happening. During an Aug. 5 meeting with reporters, Northrop Grumman executives said the company’s billion-dollar investment in solid rocket motor production facilities put the company in a strong position to capitalize on the demand likely to be generated by Golden Dome.

Similarly, Lockheed Martin announced it hopes to conduct orbital tests of space-based interceptors, which is thought to be a key part of Golden Dome, in 2028. However, the company has not clarified whether those interceptors will rely on kinetic or directed energy weaponry and probably won’t announce those details until an architecture is released.

Booz Allen Hamilton unveiled a concept for a megaconstellation of 2,000 smallsats operating as an artificial intelligence-powered network that the company is calling “Brilliant Swarms.” The company said the satellites would serve as both detection systems and as “kill vehicles” that would de-orbit targets by physically slamming into them — no space-based missiles required.
The project is also expected to attract disruptors to the Pentagon’s business. Reutersreported in April that executives from SpaceX, Anduril and Palantir met with the Trump administration to pitch a Golden Dome architecture that involves a constellation of 400 to 1,000 missile detecting and tracking satellites and another constellation of 200 attack satellites that would target and disable missiles with lasers or with missiles of their own. The trio is reportedly being considered a frontrunner for Golden Dome, though SpaceX CEO Elon Musk disputed Reuters’ claims and those reports came prior to the public dissolution of Trump and Musk’s relationship. More recently, Reuters reported that the administration is looking to expand the companies involved in Golden Dome to reduce reliance on SpaceX. Officials have reached out to companies like Amazon, Rocket Lab and Stoke Space about participating in the effort in an attempt to reduce the role SpaceX would play.

At the same time, more traditional space companies are also now seeing a potential lane for defense work. For example, Voyager is working to paint a clear line between the technology it’s already been building and the presumed needs for an advanced missile defense system. Voyager plans to offer up its propulsion technology — the company has developed  a solid propulsion roll control system designed to stabilize a missile’s flight trajectory — to Golden Dome. Voyager has also pitched edge computing systems it’s developing in partnership with Palantir. 

Redwire, which includes spacecraft, sensors and digital engineering systems, is also offering up many of its core technology for Golden Dome.

Top-down visions

Some aspects of what will become Golden Dome are likely already underway; last week we mentioned that BAE Systems had won a $1.2 billion Space Force contractfor 10 medium Earth orbit missile (MEO) tracking satellites. The satellites will become part of the Resilient Missile Warning Tracking Epoch 2, which marks the second phase of the Space Force’s program to develop a missile-tracking network in MEO. The constellation is intended to help defend against evolving missile threats, particularly hypersonic weapons that have become a key focus for U.S. defense planners, and as a result will be integrated into the overall Golden Dome project.

Several other space industry firms are presenting themselves as capable of handling the work necessary for building the Golden Dome.
Take Rocket Lab, which in recent months took several steps to expand into the military sector and pursue coveted status as a prime contractor for the Pentagon and a worthwhile partner for high-value contracts. Those steps include a $275 million acquisition of Geost, which produces electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) sensor payloads that are already used in U.S. military satellites, with plans for more acquisitions down the road.
Other companies have been busy raising funds or ramping up their own capabilities, such as Sophia Space, which raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding to develop orbiting data centers, which it hopes to demonstrate as useful for Golden Dome through a memorandum of understanding with Axiom Space.

Apex recently raised money in a $200 million Series C, which it will use to increase satellite bus production — similarly arguing that they would be useful for missile defense. And Quantum Space raised $40 million to develop its national security-focused Ranger spacecraft, also hiring to its executive team former Defense Department official Richard Matlock, who previously worked in missile defense.

What emerges from these individual fundraising rounds, tests and production increases — whether it’s Virgin Galactic’s work on suborbital spaceplanes or Ursa Major’s contract to test a hypersonic-capable engine — is companies who see a generational windfall.  

Uncertainty about the scope of Golden Dome translates to uncertainty about which firms and which technologies will make their way into the program. It also means it’s way too early to guess who the winners will be. But with the size of Golden Dome’s $25 budget, many space companies will look to show off their capabilities. 

 follow all our coverage at SpaceNews.com,

August 11, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

$10 billion, 10 year US Army contract elevates Palantir to defense contracting royalty.

Crashes the multibillion-dollar DoD party alongside Boeing, Lockheed, and Raytheon.

Brandon Vigliarolo. Fri 1 Aug 2025 , https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/palantir_us_army_contract/

There are no official criteria for what constitutes membership in the upper echelon of the US military industrial complex, but a $10 billion deal that consolidates dozens of contracts under a single blanket purchase agreement sure makes it seem like Palantir has earned entry.

The US Army announced on Thursday that, rather than continue to buy Palantir products on one of 75 different contracts the branch has with the data analytics software company, it’s awarding a ten-year Enterprise Agreement (EA) with the aforementioned cap of $10 billion. Like a standard blanket purchase agreement, the deal allows the Army to buy what it needs from Palantir over the course of a decade. 

It doesn’t appear that the Army is awarding Palantir any new contracts based on the press release or a procurement notice published about the contract in May. According to that document, the Army had figured out that it’s doing so much business with Palantir over so many separate procurement actions that it’s wasting a lot of time and money.

“Consolidating these efforts under an EA will streamline future modifications and task orders under a single set of ordering instructions and terms and conditions,” the May publication pointed out. “Instead of managing dozens of contracts with varying terms, the government will empower a single team to manage the contract.” 

With 75 active contracts between the Army and Palantir, it’s nearly impossible to track down what exactly the Army is using from Palantir, though we do have some ideas.

Palantir won its first major defense contract from the Army in 2019 when it scored $800 million to work on new battlefield intelligence software for the branch. It also scored contracts to build things like mobile battlefield intelligence trucks, and the Pentagon tapped it to develop the Maven Smart System after Google backed out of the deal following employee protests. 

More broadly, Palantir offers various data analytics tools and suites, any number of which may be in use. 

Beyond the US Army and the DoD, Palantir has also worked with US Immigration officials to develop deportation software, at the IRS to help it with new software initiatives, and even at US-backed mortgage broker Fannie Mae, where the company’s code has been put to use detecting fraud.

Palantir has found itself in US President Donald Trump’s good graces thanks to CEO Alex Karp’s previous comments about his opposition to “woke” ideology, support for DOGE, and comments about “powering the West to innate superiority.” This latest contract will likely do little to assuage conspiracy-minded fears that Palantir is gobbling up and monetizing government data for the benefit of Trump and a coterie of right-wing billionaires. 

By scoring an EA, Palantir finds itself in the company of defense contractors like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin – an elite club, to be sure.

Palantir declined to comment on this story beyond pointing to the Army press release, while the US Army didn’t immediately respond to questions.

August 11, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Fire safety improvements required at Dungeness A

Sam Williams, 7 Aug 25, https://www.kentonline.co.uk/romney-marsh/news/fire-safety-improvements-required-at-power-station-328268/

Fire safety failings have been uncovered at a nuclear site in Kent, prompting a formal enforcement notice from the UK’s watchdog.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) issued the notice to Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) following inspections at its Dungeness A site on Romney Marsh.

Inspectors identified several safety shortfalls in the Fill House facility, a building used to retrieve and manage nuclear waste.

According to the ONR, issues were found with the site’s risk assessment, fire safety protocols, firefighting arrangements, and fire detection systems.

Tom Eagleton, ONR superintending inspector, said: “Fire safety is important in order to protect workers and the public, and we expect the necessary standards to be maintained at all times.

“This enforcement notice sets out the specific improvements that must be made by NRS to ensure adequate fire safety provisions are in place.

“We will continue to monitor NRS’ progress in addressing these issues in line with the relevant legislation.”

The enforcement action has been taken under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. NRS has been given a deadline of September 30, 2025, to rectify the problems and meet the required standards.

August 11, 2025 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Israel Preparing To Escalate Military Offensive in Gaza

An Israeli official said Netanyahu is pushing for ‘the release of hostages as part of a military resolution’

by Dave DeCamp | August 3, 2025 https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/03/israel-preparing-to-escalate-military-offensive-in-gaza/

The Israeli military is drawing up plans to escalate its genocidal war in the Gaza Strip that will soon be presented to Israeli political leadership, Haaretz reported on Sunday.

An Israeli official said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is pushing for the release of hostages as part of a military resolution,” and he is set to discuss the matter with his cabinet on Tuesday. According to the Haaretz report, the idea is to extend ground operations into sensitive areas, including Gaza’s central refugee camps, where Israeli captives are believed to be held.

Israeli officials are now claiming that Hamas doesn’t want a deal, even though the group has long said it is willing to release all remaining Israeli captives in exchange for a permanent ceasefire. Officials are pointing to Hamas’s denial of a claim by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who said the group was willing to disarm. Hamas responded that it would only give up its weapons if an independent Palestinian state were established.

Witkoff was in Israel on Friday and Saturday and met with family members of Israelis being held in Gaza. He told them that President Trump no longer seeks a temporary ceasefire deal but wants a comprehensive one that will free the remaining 20 living Israeli captives. However, Netanyahu hasn’t shown interest in a deal, and there’s no sign that Trump is willing to put pressure on him.

The family members of Israeli captives in Gaza want a diplomatic solution and are against military escalation. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has criticized the reported plans for the expansion of military operations, warning that “expanding the war endangers the lives of the hostages, who are already in immediate danger of death.”

Netanyahu claimed on Sunday that the videos of two emaciated Israeli captives released by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) show that Hamas “doesn’t want a deal” and vowed that he would work to “eliminate” the Palestinian group. For its part, Hamas insisted that the Israeli prisoners eat “what our fighters and our people eat” and said that the Red Cross could deliver aid to them if Israel permanently opened humanitarian corridors and halted airstrikes during aid deliveries.

Israel has been under significant international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza as Palestinians are starving to death due to its blockade. The Haaretz report said that the US and Israel appear to be moving toward expanding Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points in north Gaza, which would require Israel to occupy more territory.

Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF near GHF distribution sites, according to the UN. Anthony Aguilar, a retired US Army Green Beret who worked at GHF sites, has blown the whistle on the operation and says that the sites were designed purposely so Palestinians seeking aid would have to walk through combat zones where they can be killed. He said that he witnessed the IDF commit war crimes by firing into crowds of hungry civilians.

Despite the massacres near GHF sites, the operation has received a resounding endorsement from the Trump administration. On Friday, Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited a GHF site, a move that was criticized as a PR stunt.

August 7, 2025 Posted by | Gaza, Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Europe’s electricity system tested by heatwaves as air-conditioning use soars – nuclear power plants affected.

 Record temperatures force temporary shutdowns at power plants.
Europe’s energy systems have come under intense strain this summer as
repeated heatwaves have driven up demand for electricity and forced plants
to pause production. June was the hottest on record in western Europe,
fuelling a rise in the use of air conditioning and prompting a sharp
increase in electricity prices. Most parts of the region experienced at
least two intense periods of heat in June and July, with some suffering
more.

The barrage of heatwaves this summer marked a “massive change”
for Europe’s energy systems, said Jan Rosenow, leader of the energy
programme at Oxford university’s Environmental Change Institute. Peak
electricity demand has historically happened in winter in Europe, but as
“summers get hotter at some point that might flip”, he said. SSE, the
UK power company, said generation from its hydropower plants dropped by 40
per cent quarter on quarter to the end of June, as Britain also grappled
with heatwaves and severe drought. Inland nuclear power plants across
France and Switzerland temporarily suspended or reduced activity earlier in
the summer, as it is harder to cool reactors in hot weather.

In France, 17 out of 18 nuclear power plants faced capacity reductions during the
June-July heatwave, Ember said. Most inland nuclear plants rely on rivers
to cool reactors and spent fuel, heating the water in the process before
discharging it back. But with many rivers already hot, the plants could not
discharge heated water without potentially damaging the river ecology.

 FT 3rd Aug 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/23b3dc59-b40f-48e2-ad93-e301de7ac5f2

August 7, 2025 Posted by | climate change, EUROPE | Leave a comment

Chris Hedges: The Gaza Riviera

Text originally published July 26, 2025.

Scheerpost, By Chris Hedges / The Chris Hedges Report, August 4, 2025 , https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/04/chris-hedges-the-gaza-riviera-2/

TRANSCRIPT:


Israelis do not see the images of skeletal corpses of Palestinian children who they have starved to death as a curse. They do not see the slain families they gun down at food hubs — designed not to deliver aid but lure starving Palestinians into a massive concentration camp in the south of Gaza in preparation for deportation — as a war crime. Israelis do not look at the savage bombing and shelling that kill or wound dozens of Palestinian civilians, where an average of 28 children die daily, as anything extraordinary. They do not see the wasteland of Gaza, pulverized by bombs and methodically being torn down by bulldozers and excavators, leaving virtually the entire population of Gaza homeless, as barbaric. They do not see the destruction of water purification plants, decimation of hospitals and clinics, where doctors and medical staff are often unable to work because they are weak from malnutrition, as savage. They do not blink at the assassinations of doctors as well as journalists, 232 of whom have been murdered for trying to document the horror.

Israelis have blinded themselves morally and intellectually…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The genocide in Gaza signals the abolition, for Israelis as well as Palestinians, of the rule of law. It marks the obliteration of even the pretense of an ethical code. Israelis are the barbarians they condemn. If there is any warped justice in this genocide it is that Israelis, once they finish with the Palestinians, will be forced to live together in moral squalor. https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/04/chris-hedges-the-gaza-riviera-2/

August 7, 2025 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Miliband’s Nuclear Quango Chief In Line for £200,000 for Working Three Days a Week

 Guido Fawkes 4th Aug 2025, https://order-order.com/2025/08/04/milibands-nuclear-quango-chief-in-line-for-200000-for-working-three-days-a-week/

Great British Energy – Nuclear (not to be confused with the inexplicably separate quango Great British Energy) is searching for a new chairman. ‘GBE-N’, as it is known in the ever growing domain of government bodies poking around in the energy industry, is in charge of delivering small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK, among other things. That programme has been ongoing since at least 2015…

Now Red Ed is looking for a new head for the organisation – and a live job advert shows a cool salary of more than £203,268 per annum for just three days a week. Meltdown for taxpayers…

The government is banking on deploying SMRs in the 2030s. The new chair will oversee that target with a “more agile, programmatic and faster delivery approach than has been achieved previously”. That won’t be hard, because currently zero SMRs have been delivered. It’s such a civil service priority it’s a three day a week role…

August 7, 2025 Posted by | employment, UK | Leave a comment

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Expands Nuclear Bomb Production, Rejects Cleanup, Still Plans to Release Tritium.

Lab officials have released plans to “defer” cleanup of one of the older radioactive dumps
Overarching above all is LANL’s vast expansionof its nuclear weapons programs

August 3, 2025,   https://nukewatch.org/lanl-expands-bomb-production-while-planning-tritium-releases-and-rejecting-cleanup/

Santa Fe, NM – Eighty years after the first radioactive waste was buried at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lab officials have released plans to “defer” cleanup of one of the older radioactive dumps. Material Disposal Area C (“Area C”) is an 11.8-acre site that was active from 1948 to 1974. It contains metals, hazardous constituents, and radioactively and chemically contaminated materials in six unlined disposal pits and 108 shafts. The total waste and fill in the pits and shafts are estimated at 198,104 cubic meters. Area C also has a serious gas plume of industrial solvents. Given the amount of long-lived plutonium wastes that are likely to be in Area C, leaving it buried 25 feet deep in a landfill rated for only 1,000 years is not acceptable. 

On June 18, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) sent the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) a letter outlining its plans to “defer corrective action” (i.e. cleanup) at Area C. It stated that the dump “is associated with active Facility operations and will be deferred from further corrective action under [NMED’s] Consent Order [governing cleanup] until MDA C is no longer associated with active Facility operations.” 

DOE’s letter does not state why it wants the change or what “active Facility operations” are. However, that is not difficult to guess as Area C is within a few hundred yards of PF-4, LANL’s main plutonium facility that is gearing up for the expanded production of plutonium pit bomb cores. As co-plaintiff, Nuclear Watch New Mexico legally forced the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to undertake a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement for pit production, which the agency chose to give a fifty year time horizon. In combination this means that DOE and LANL are seeking to indefinitely postpone cleanup while expanding nuclear weapons production on into the future.

Fortunately, NMED has responded that it “will utilize to the fullest extent all statutory and legal authority necessary to enforce the requirements of the 2016 CO [Consent Order] in order to ensure that New Mexicans receive effective cleanup of legacy contamination at LANL in a timely manner.”

The Environment Department went on to say: 

“DOE continues to respond to the regulatory direction provided by NMED in ways that do not reflect any good faith efforts to be accountable for cleanup of the legacy waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory and, in fact, are directly contradictory to the assertations previously made by DOE. As you may recall, during the substantial negotiation process in 2023-24 for revision of the Consent Order, DOE repeatedly reiterated its desire to work collaboratively and effectively with NMED. This recent example of an improper, unilateral deferral contrary to the terms of the Consent Order, along with the bad-faith withdrawal of the CME [Corrective Measures Evaluation to initiate cleanup] Report, contradict such assertions and reassurances from DOE.”

At the same time DOE and LANL are still seeking to intentionally release up to 30,000 curies of tritium, which has been highly controversial. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that can be easily absorbed by the body as tritiated water. Instead of complying with a NMED order to organize an independent expert panel and a public meeting on the subject, they have invoked a dispute resolution process under the Consent Order. This is the kind of forum in which taxpayer supported lawyers from DOE and LANL can try to run circles around NMED’s limited staff and resources. 

Overarching above all is LANL’s vast expansion of its nuclear weapons programs. A full billion dollars is being added in FY 2026 (which begins this October 1), making 84% of LANL’s $6 billion dollar annual budget directly tied to nuclear weapons. This increase is primarily for:

1) New-design nuclear weapons that can’t be tested because of the international testing moratorium; or, conversely, could prompt the U.S. to resume testing, with serious global proliferation consequences; and 

2) Expanded plutonium pit bomb core production for these new-design nuclear weapons. This is ill-conceived because no future production is to maintain the existing stockpile. Independent experts have found that pits last at least a century and at least 15,000 existing pits are already in storage. 

In contrast, cleanup and nonproliferation programs are being cut by 5%, non-weapons science by 50%, and renewables energies research completely eliminated. 

Scott Kovac, Research Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico commented, “LANL and DOE once again treat New Mexico as their nuclear colony with their radioactive releases, obstruction of cleanup and expansion of nuclear weapons programs. The day will come when this is no longer tolerated in the Land of Enchantment.”

Sources:

June 2016, State of New Mexico Environment Department, Compliance Order on Consent U.S. Department of Energy – Los Alamos National Laboratory (Modified September 2024)

June 18, 2025 Letter from DOE to NMED, Deferment of Corrective Action Activities for Solid Waste Management Unit 50-009 at Material Disposal Area C under the 2016 Compliance Order on Consent 

July 2, 2025 Letter from NMED to DOE, Response, Deferment of Corrective Action Activities for Solid Waste Management Unit 50-009 at Material Disposal Area C 

July 9, 2025, LANL and NNSA to NMED, Response to June 9, 2025 Letter, Temporary Authorization Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Waste Facility Permit

Department of Energy FY 2026 Congressional Budget Request, Laboratory Table

August 7, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A NASA Nuclear Reactor On The Moon? Bold Proposal Is Unfeasible By 2030– Here’s Why.

There are already many complications in this proposal,
which has not been officially released yet. The Trump administration
proposed a budget that would devastate NASA’s multiple science programs,
and while it asked for more funding for human spaceflight in the short
term, it would cancel the Space Launch System and Orion Spacecraft, making
NASA exclusively reliant on private companies to get to the Moon. As yet,
we don’t have one of those that won’t stop exploding.

 IFL Science 5th Aug 2025, https://www.iflscience.com/a-nasa-nuclear-reactor-on-the-moon-bold-proposal-is-unfeasible-by-2030-heres-why-80289

August 7, 2025 Posted by | space travel, USA | Leave a comment

When the Press Becomes the Enemy: The Erosion of Media Independence in Trump’s America

6 August 2025 Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/when-the-press-becomes-the-enemy-the-erosion-of-media-independence-in-trumps-america/ 

A free and independent press is one of democracy’s last lines of defense. It’s where power is questioned, facts are verified, and the public gains its understanding of the world. But under President Trump’s leadership – particularly in his second term – the media has been steadily undermined, attacked, and manipulated into submission.

From the earliest days of his political rise, Trump branded the press “the enemy of the people.” At the time, it sounded like theatre – one of his many outrageous slogans designed to rile up the crowd. But over time, it became policy. Journalists were banned from briefings. Reporters were publicly harassed at rallies. Entire news organisations were delegitimised as “fake news” unless they offered praise. What started as rhetoric turned into a campaign of disinformation and intimidation.

This erosion of media independence has happened in two key ways: by silencing critical voices, and by co-opting sympathetic ones.

Independent journalists now work under constant threat. Legal pressure, license challenges, defamation suits, and even surveillance have become tools to muzzle dissent. Whistleblowers are prosecuted, not protected. Major networks once known for tough questions now pull their punches – or are simply locked out.

At the same time, pro-Trump media outlets have risen in influence, often indistinguishable from state-run propaganda. Whether it’s Fox News personalities given cabinet positions, or social media influencers granted White House access in exchange for loyalty, the lines between journalism and political theatre have blurred.

These outlets don’t challenge power – they amplify it. They repeat Trump’s talking points uncritically, flood the zone with outrage and distraction, and vilify any journalist who dares to question the narrative. The result is an information landscape where truth becomes tribal, and lies travel faster than facts.

Why does this matter? Because a democracy without a free press cannot stay democratic for long. When citizens no longer trust what they see or hear – when news becomes just another weapon of the powerful – then accountability dies, and corruption thrives.

Some journalists continue to fight. They fact-check, investigate, and shine light where it’s needed most. But their space is shrinking, and their safety increasingly uncertain. In many ways, the press has not just been pushed to the sidelines – it’s been made part of the battlefield.

History teaches us that authoritarian regimes always start by silencing the press. What’s unfolding in America is no exception. We may still have newspapers, networks, and headlines – but when truth itself is up for debate, freedom is already slipping through our fingers.

August 7, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

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