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Are Trump’s nuclear plans illegal?

“Fifty years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission was abolished because they became too much of a promoter and lost the confidence of Congress and the public over safety,” said Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project at Beyond Nuclear. “The NRC was established to provide a regulator that prioritizes safety and is obligated not to take shortcuts for a production agenda. Instead, half a century later, we are on the same dangerous collision course, casting aside the NRC in favor of the DOE, which doesn’t have the experience or the staff to get the industry in line with safety and security. This capitulation to the Trump agenda could lead to the NRC being abolished altogether, because nobody will have confidence in them.”

May 11, 2026, https://beyondnuclear.org/are-trumps-nuclear-plans-illegal/

13 organizations, including Beyond Nuclear and Nuclear Information & Resource Service, have filed comments to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, suggesting Trump’s nuclear “orders” may violate long-standing legislation

The so-called “Rubber-Stamp Rule”, an effort by the Trump administration to “Make America Nuclear Again”, violates key components of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) and Energy Reorganization Act, according to comments filed this week by 13 organizations including the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and Beyond Nuclear. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) proposed rule will allow reactor designs that the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) have approved to bypass required safety reviews by the NRC. 

In a separate comment filing in March, 11 state attorneys general concurred with the organizations’ findings that the Department of Energy ‘s new policy to exclude “pilot reactors” from both NRC licensing and environmental reviews violates existing law. In that case, the Department of Energy announced, in violation of federal law, that it would exempt previously untested reactors that it approves to be built and operated from any review of their environmental impacts.

“Along with the DOE’s environmental ‘free pass’ policy, the whole ‘expedited licensing’ regime the administration is attempting to set up appears to be illegal,” said Tim Judson, executive director of NIRS and co-author of comments filed to the NRC. “The White House is trying to create a ‘regulatory tunnel’ around NRC’s safety regulations. That would mean DOE’s biases and obviously false assumptions about the safety of nuclear power plants become the new normal, exposing the public to unacceptable dangers to our health and safety.”  

The NRC’s proposed regulation would allow companies that want to build a nuclear reactor of the same design as one DOE has previously approved to merely submit documentation of that approval and claim that the previously built reactor “is safe.” Such companies would likely never have to go through a detailed safety review by NRC to build and operate such reactors. In 1974, Congress amended the Atomic Energy Act to prohibit such a scheme.

“Fifty years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission was abolished because they became too much of a promoter and lost the confidence of Congress and the public over safety,” said Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project at Beyond Nuclear. “The NRC was established to provide a regulator that prioritizes safety and is obligated not to take shortcuts for a production agenda. Instead, half a century later, we are on the same dangerous collision course, casting aside the NRC in favor of the DOE, which doesn’t have the experience or the staff to get the industry in line with safety and security. This capitulation to the Trump agenda could lead to the NRC being abolished altogether, because nobody will have confidence in them.”

The groups also told NRC that it cannot simply “rubber-stamp” reactors that the military builds, either. “And while the law allows the DOD to build its own nuclear reactors,” said Tim Judson of NIRS, “it does not allow the NRC to skip safety reviews for civilian nuclear plants just because they use the same designs. The military routinely exposes its personnel to dangers that civilians are supposed to be protected from.”

“In its eagerness to short-circuit reactor safeguards, the Trump administration is once again doing what it does best – demonstrating a complete disregard for the law,” said Linda Pentz Gunter, executive director of Beyond Nuclear. “But nuclear technology is too inherently dangerous to operate as an outlaw. Ignoring those dangers will put millions of Americans at risk of another catastrophic nuclear accident.”

Download the press release

May 13, 2026 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Blind Eyes at the United Nations While the U.S. Bombs for Nonproliferation

Iran’s civil nuclear program is lawful under NPT rules, and its representatives are here in New York attending the RevCon which runs until May 22. Still, one after another UN member representative used their ‘general debate’ time to attack Iran for its processing of uranium and Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but not the United States for its unprovoked, internationally illegal war on Iran

John Laforge, May 8, 2026 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/08/blind-eyes-at-the-united-nations-while-the-u-s-bombs-for-nonproliferation/

There is deadly irony in the juxtaposition of Trump’s ‘anti-nuclear war’ on Iran, and the ongoing United Nations Review Conference for the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, or NPT RevCon.

The decision to initiate a war of aggression against Iran killing thousands of civilians was made (among other public pretexts) in order to prevent Iran’s allegedly intended future construction of a nuclear weapon.

The 1970 NPT prohibits the development of nuclear weapons or the transfer of nuclear weapons among or between nations that ratify the treaty. The NPT has slowed the spread of such weapons, while pushing the spread of nuclear reactors. The U.S., Iran, and 187 other UN member states are parties to the NPT.

Iran’s civil nuclear program is lawful under NPT rules, and its representatives are here in New York attending the RevCon which runs until May 22. Still, one after another UN member representative used their ‘general debate’ time to attack Iran for its processing of uranium and Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but not the United States for its unprovoked, internationally illegal war on Iran.

No friend or military ally of the United States except Israel was consulted or informed about the U.S.’s February 28 Middle East blitzkrieg — with plenty of reason. Trump’s war of distraction would never have been supported much less joined by U.S. allies because: 1) Iran’s nuclear facilities were “totally obliterated” in June 2025 by U.S. Air Force and Navy bombardments; and 2) the International Atomic Energy Agency — the UN body that oversees compliance with the NPT — has reported since 2025 that it has found no evidence of an ongoing Iranian nuclear weapons program.

The catastrophically ill-advised and criminal U.S. war on Iran had to be launched by surprise, without NATO, or UN or U.S. authorization, because the White House’s justifications were so easily debunked, and because the NPT is already working to stop the spread of nuclear arsenals.

During the first days of the NPT RevCon, member states spoke with a shocking and confounding display of double standards, with one after another condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Iran’s alleged violations of NPT inspection rules, but not one criticizing the U.S. attack on Iran, its January 3rd bombing of Venezuela, or its June 2025 bombardment of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Argentina for example said, “This Review Conference is taking place against a backdrop that we cannot ignore …. the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran…,” while the Nordic States together singled out Russia, saying its “war of aggression against Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter….” The U.S. war on Iran was evidently aggression non grata.

The nuclear weapons states’ 56-year-long violation of the NPT’s Article VI — requiring good-faith efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons — was often bemoaned, but the U.S., U.K., Russian, Chinese, and French violators were never called out by name. (North Korea, India, Israel, and Pakistan have nuclear weapons but have not joined the NPT.) Likewise, open, ongoing U.S. violations of the Treaty’s Articles I and II — which forbid the U.S. transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear States Parties including Germany, Italy, Holland, and Belgium — were ignored, while the European Union’s delegate said, “The EU condemns in the strongest possible way Russia’s … announced deployment of nuclear weapons in the territory of Belarus.”

Comically, a few ministers openly excused the U.S.’s Article I & II violations — its stationing of B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs at six air bases in Europe — as when the representative of the Nordic States, asserted that “NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements are fully consistent with the NPT”. The 110-member Non-Aligned States Parties Group politely pushed back and condemned the practice, noting without naming names, “The Group reiterates its deep concern over … practices that run contrary to the principles and objectives of the Treaty such as … nuclear weapons sharing arrangements”.

The most brazenly selective and myopic presentation to date was the “Joint Statement on Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine” signed by 43 NPT States Parties. The paper said, “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Charter….” Every use of the word ‘Russia’ in the text could have been replaced with ‘the U.S.’ and still made perfect sense. The letter endorsed Ukraine’s but not Iran’s “independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”; Ukraine’s but not Iran’s “inherent right to self-defense” in accordance with the UN Charter “against Russia’s”, but not the United States’ “ongoing illegal war of aggression.” The paper acknowledged the critical danger of attacking nuclear sites and condemned Russia, but not the U.S., both of whom continue to put “nuclear facilities at risk.” The group did manage to generally denounce “indiscriminate attacks that have resulted in civilian deaths and destruction of critical infrastructure….” Yet, the 43 states urged the General Assembly “to condemn Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric”, but not Trump’s mindless threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” or his genocidal outburst that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

For UN member states to ignore U.S. government violations of the UN Charter and the Laws of War is evidence of not just hypocrisy and double standards, but a submissiveness reminiscent of the groveling fear of state terrors of 1930s. More than just Spain’s PM Pedro Sánchez and Pope Leo XIV the have to stand up to the megalomaniacal madman of the hour. ### [905 words]

John LaForge is a Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, and edits its newsletter.

May 13, 2026 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

Nuns join calls for renewed support for anti-nuclear treaty

The declaration argued that underlying the current situation “is a spiritual crisis rooted in the normalization of violence and war as instruments for resolving conflict between peoples and nations

by Chris Herlinger, New York — May 11, 2026, https://www.globalsistersreport.org/social-justice/nuns-join-calls-renewed-support-anti-nuclear-treaty

Sister congregations are adding their names to calls at the United Nations for a renewed commitment to curb the spread of nuclear weapons.

In a statement read publicly during the first week of a monthlong review conference of the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, 109 faith groups, including more than a dozen sister congregations, called on political leaders “to reaffirm the spirit of the NPT as an urgent and binding commitment.”

“Fifty-six years after the entry into force of the NPT, the treaty’s most fundamental commitment remains unfulfilled,” said Dominican Sr. Carol Gilbert, a longtime anti-nuclear-weapons activist, speaking at the U.N.’s General Assembly Hall in New York May 1 on behalf of the faith groups. The review meetings run from April 27 to May 22.

“We see the NPT unraveling and a proliferation crisis brewing,” Gilbert said. “All nuclear-armed states are modernizing their arsenals with new delivery systems and doctrines that lower the threshold for use. The moral authority of the treaty depends upon the credibility of the disarmament commitment. That credibility is now in crisis.”

Most of the organizations signing on to the statement are Christian, but across a spectrum of largely Catholic, Protestant and Anglican groups, as well as interfaith organizations. Among the Catholic organizations are global members of Pax Christi and some 20 congregations of women religious, including multiple congregations affiliated with the Dominicans and Sisters of Charity.

The statement read by Gilbert said that those holding “power today do not fully grasp how near we have already come to nuclear war.” 

The declaration argued that underlying the current situation “is a spiritual crisis rooted in the normalization of violence and war as instruments for resolving conflict between peoples and nations.”

The statement said: “When armed force is treated as a first resort, when military spending eclipses investment in human development, when entire populations are taught to accept the threat of annihilation as a condition of their security, our moral imagination has failed.

“We affirm that genuine security is built on justice, on mutual care, on the recognition that no nation’s safety can rest on another nation’s annihilation.”

The United Nations’ Office of Disarmament Affairs calls the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty “a landmark international treaty” that was designed “to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to further the goals of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament, and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.”

The treaty, the U.N. said, is “the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon states” and is regarded as a cornerstone in efforts to end the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Acceptance of nuclear use called ‘spiritual sickness’

In a longer written statement entered into the proceedings’ official record, the faith groups said that the “acceptance of apocalyptic violence as the final arbiter of disputes among nations is not simply a strategic posture. It is a spiritual sickness — one that every faith tradition we represent has named, lamented and called its followers to resist.”

In specific actions, the statement calls for nations to recommit to verifiable reductions in nuclear weapons with a moratorium on new warhead development, with a return to negotiations that includes all nuclear-armed states, including the United States, which was one of the first nations to sign and ratify the treaty.

As an example of the continued uncertainty surrounding nuclear weapons and war, Gilbert said in an interview that it is not clear if the United States and Israel have ruled out using a nuclear weapon against Iran. “We don’t know with [President Donald] Trump what’s on or off the table,” she said.

Gilbert noted that according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “We are at 85 seconds to midnight,” citing the bulletin’s “doomsday clock,” which the bulletin said is now the closest the clock “has ever been to midnight in its history.” 

Gilbert told GSR that the present moment “is the closest we have ever been to using nuclear weapons.” She noted one looming challenge is the danger artificial intelligence poses to military operations.

Other issues, Gilbert argues, include that “many in powerful positions continue to support the arms industry and all those who make billions on these ‘forever wars

With U.S. spending on arms significantly higher than any other country in the world, “we continue to rob the poorest around the world as the money is taken from social programs, healthcare, education and childcare,” she said.

Responding to the review conference and to the overall state of nuclear weaponry in the world, Mary Yelenick, the main representative of Pax Christi International at the United Nations, told GSR that the “nine nations that presently possess nuclear weapons seem to enjoy holding the planet hostage to their will.”

She added: “They seem to view the NPT not as a binding legal document, but as a pesky impediment to their own national policies. They count on obfuscation, and employ responsible-sounding language, such as ‘deterrence,’ to justify their murderous positions.”

Yelenick, who is an American, was particularly critical of the United States, citing the fact that the United States “not only possesses nuclear weapons,” but is the sole country that “has actually used them — murdering countless people, and irradiating multiple generations and lands through the development and use of those weapons.”

She noted that the United States used two nuclear weapons in Japan at the end of the Second World War and later tested them on U.S. and non-U.S. lands.

Annemarie O’Connor, the representative to the United Nations for Passionists International, attended the May 1 meeting at the U.N. She told GSR that given current global tensions, adhering to the Non-Proliferation Treaty is important for the whole of humanity and the planet.

She also acknowledged that despite the review meetings at the United Nations, the issue of nuclear perils is not high on the global agenda, either for nation states or the media. “But we have to respond to this,” she said. “It’s urgent, and really important.”

May 13, 2026 Posted by | Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Nuclear option: Adi Roche says Ireland should commit to renewables rather than nukes.

in modern warfare, nuclear facilities themselves can function as potential radiological weapons — “dirty bombs” whose consequences could be catastrophic without a single warhead being deployed.

Chornobyl activist ADI ROCHE says Ireland should resist the push to adopt nuclear power generation,

 Irish Examiner 11 May, 2026 -Adi Roche

I am a firm believer in the philosophy that “we do not own this Earth … we borrow it from our children and our children’s children” and that nothing is more important than the protection of our environment.

I constantly remind myself that this Earth is our common and only home, a beautiful grain of life spinning in the depths of the universe. But now, in a nuclear age, a time of grave mortal danger, with our very existence on the cusp, our planet has become so fragile in the hands of man.

This planet is our children’s inheritance, and we are only its custodians.

Ireland had long and healthy debates on the subject of nuclear power in the late ’70s and ’80s, and the people concluded that the inherent and unique dangers that come with it were not worth the risk for future generations.

Those “future generations” are now young adults and have the privilege of inheriting a nuclear-free Ireland.

So, the discussion on nuclear power, once more, needs to focus on those that have yet to be born and what kind of world we want them to inherit.

In this 40th anniversary year of the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of mankind, I am reminded that Chornobyl has become a symbol — a potent and enduring metaphor for catastrophe.

Chornobyl and Fukushima

It is a cautionary tale we need to take heed of, making sure it never happens again. If we do not learn from the past, we will not be able to understand the present or make proper decisions for our future.

Chornobyl and Fukushima are stark reminders of what can go wrong, with consequences that endure for generations exposing the vulnerability of humanity to sudden, profound change — whether from nature or from human hands.

None of the original arguments questioning nuclear power have changed. If anything, the world we now inhabit has deepened and sharpened them.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine through the “Chornobyl exclusion zone”, the most radioactive place on earth, the unthinkable became reality: A nuclear facility was transformed into an instrument of war with catastrophic potential. The invasion on February 24, 2024, marked a decisive turning point not only in geopolitics, but in how we must understand the true risks of nuclear energy.

This cavalier act made a nuclear threat without making a nuclear threat, and for the first time in the history of the atomic age, a nuclear power plant was weaponised not by firing missiles, but by occupying and controlling it.

The subsequent targeting and takeover of Zaporizhzhia demonstrated that, in modern warfare, nuclear facilities themselves can function as potential radiological weapons — “dirty bombs” whose consequences could be catastrophic without a single warhead being deployed.

We must re-examine how we look at energy through this deeply unsettling prism. The risks that once seemed theoretical are no longer abstract. They are immediate, real, and global.

Against this backdrop, Ireland must reject any drift towards nuclear power and instead commit fully to renewable, sustainable energy solutions.

Invest in renewables

Strong political will and sustained investment in research and development for renewable, clean energy, championed by pioneers such as Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir at UCC, represent the greatest gift we can offer to our world and to future generations.

Nuclear power depends on a highly radioactive finite resource, uranium, which, even when unmined, poses huge health damage risk. Studies suggest that, at current consumption rates, uranium supplies could be depleted within two decades. To invest heavily in a system reliant on a dwindling resource is short-sighted.

Against this backdrop, Ireland must reject any drift towards nuclear power and instead commit fully to renewable, sustainable energy solutions.

Invest in renewables

Strong political will and sustained investment in research and development for renewable, clean energy, championed by pioneers such as Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir at UCC, represent the greatest gift we can offer to our world and to future generations.

Nuclear power depends on a highly radioactive finite resource, uranium, which, even when unmined, poses huge health damage risk. Studies suggest that, at current consumption rates, uranium supplies could be depleted within two decades. To invest heavily in a system reliant on a dwindling resource is short-sighted.

At a time when Ireland is striving to build a resilient and sustainable energy future, replacing one finite resource with another is a false solution. 

True sustainability lies in harnessing what is abundant and enduring: Wind, solar, tidal, and other renewable energies that are native to our island and free from geopolitical volatility.

Perhaps the most enduring indictment of nuclear power is one that has never been solved — the safe disposal of radioactive waste, which becomes the raw material for nuclear weapons. Decades into the nuclear age, there is still no permanent, fail-safe method of managing this hazardous material.

There are hundreds of extremely hazardous nuclear waste silos dotted around the world.

Nuclear waste remains radioactive for centuries and the risk of contamination, whether through leakage, human error, or environmental change, cannot be eliminated. The possibility that radioactive material could seep into water supplies or ecosystems is a burden we would impose not only on ourselves, but on countless future generations. What an unbearable weight of destruction we are placing on the shoulders of those yet to be born.

Ireland stands at an important crossroads. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to choose a different path. Rather than investing in a technology fraught with risk and uncertainty, we can lead by example in the transition to renewable energy totally powered by nature.

All we need is political vision, courage, and foresight for energy independence on behalf of future generations, so we are no longer reliant on the politics on the international stage.

The existential threats we face today are all created by human decisions. That means the solutions are also in our hands. Through co-operation, diplomacy, and moral leadership, it is still possible to reverse our current trajectory towards catastrophe.

Our windswept coasts, powerful tides, and advancing solar capacity offer us a sustainable, secure, and peaceful alternative.

By embracing renewables, we not only address the climate crisis, but also safeguard our future from the escalating risks of nuclear power in an unstable world……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41841921.html

May 13, 2026 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

No case for nuclear in Scotland

When the lobby group Britain Remade, proclaimed support for nuclear power in Scotland last year, they declined to disclose that 89% of their own poll supported home-grown energy within our own borders – that desire for self-sufficiency kills nuclear stone dead. Scotland has no uranium mines.

When the lobby group Britain Remade, proclaimed support for nuclear power in Scotland last year, they declined to disclose that 89% of their own poll supported home-grown energy within our own borders – that desire for self-sufficiency kills nuclear stone dead. Scotland has no uranium mines.

   by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2026/05/10/no-case-for-nuclear-in-scotland/

What the country needs is the flexible, affordable power delivered by renewables, writes George Baxter

Editor’s note: With the sweeping victory in last week’s Scottish elections by the pro-independence Scottish National Party, the country’s moratorium against new nuclear power plants, that the SNP leads and supports, remains secure. The London-headquartered UK Labour Government has been pushing Scotland to lift the ban, an approach rightly viewed in Scotland as yet another example of Westminster treating Scotland as a vassal state.

I’ve been through every argument that the nuclear industry makes promoting new nuclear power stations – but scratch the surface and they just melt through the floor.

New nuclear is fundamentally not needed – numerous studies, including by Stanford University and renowned energy modellers at LUT show that the UK, and indeed most, if not all, other countries can meet their energy needs with 100% renewables. Politicians’ fears about the wind and sun and the rain and the waves and tides being unable to meet all our needs are misplaced. Renewables, energy storage, energy efficiency and flexible power with a modern upgraded grid can do it all – cheaper, quicker, safer and a hell of a lot cleaner, and create many more thousands of jobs.

The cost of nuclear power is eye-watering. Look at Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C – nearly £100bn to build them both with massive delays and cost -over-runs. That is enough to install a 5kWh battery in every one of the 28 million homes in Britain, and leave £44bn for other things. Combine that with solar and every home becomes a power station with its own ‘baseload’. Alternatively, £100bn could fund planned upgrades to the grid needed to facilitate large and small renewables, twice over. The Coire Glas pumped hydro storage project in the Highlands could be built 50 times over. £100bn spent on a nuclear-free transition could be revolutionary.

What a renewable based system needs is flexible power, energy storage and a smart, modern grid. Surplus renewable electricity could also be used to generate ”green hydrogen” to generate electricity on calm, dull days. It could also be used to power heavy transport and industry.

Battery systems, including compressed air and pumped storage hydro, alongside vehicle to grid technology, can all be parts of the bedrock of energy security and an energy system that would be cooking with green power 24/7.

Nuclear does nothing to help any of this. Indeed, it is worse, it directly causes wind and solar plants to be switched off when green power is plentiful, because nuclear is so inflexible. Not only does nuclear cost an arm and a leg, it adds cost to the consumer for renewables.

We only have to look at the recent history of nuclear power to see how dangerous and polluting it is. Fukushima remains a slow motion disaster for the region as they scramble to deal with millions of gallons of radioactive water and melted reactor cores. Chornobyl’s 40 year anniversary is another timely reminder, that when things go wrong, they can go very wrong. At least when a wind turbine breaks down – you don’t need an exclusion zone for decades and mass public health measures – you just get some engineers with a crane and some spanners to go fix it. And despite what the ‘nuke, baby, nuke’ lobby says, there is no solution for the waste yet, other than to store and guard the most highly radioactive cores for hundreds of years to cool down out of the way somewhere. That’s the solution!

The hype about Small Modular Reactors is just that, hype. In fact, the only two operational SMRs are in China and Russia, and both have been beset by delays and cost increases. The economies of scale are lost, and studies have shown that they produce more highly radioactive waste for the same generating capacity than their slightly larger cousins.

These projects are pure spin, a clever wheeze by industry lobbyists intended to promote nuclear acceptability- small, click and collect, a kind of middle-aisle at LIDL feel to it.  In the words of energy expert Amory Lovins on SMRs: “This illusion neatly fits the industry’s business-model shift from selling products to harvesting subsidies.”

The Rolls Royce SMR – chosen by Great British Energy–Nuclear to be built at Wylfa in North Wales – is a 470MW reactor, not much smaller than the two Torness reactors, which are about 600MW each.

And then there is the fuel – uranium ore is needed and we don’t have any, (and the mining of it is handily missed out in nuclear promotional graphics comparing its land use to renewables, which also fail to point out that the land around solar arrays and turbines can still be used for traditional purposes).

Mind you, there is some recoverable uranium ore on the Orkney mainland – and when it was proposed to dig it up to use it at Dounreay last century, all hell broke loose and Orcadians stopped it by popular protest. So we would have to rely on imports of this global commodity – a market that is dominated by Russia and associates. Pete Roche of SCRAM put this well when commenting on a recent poll indicating only 14% of Scots thought we should focus on uranium fuelled nuclear reactors for our long term energy security needs: “Relying on a uranium-fuelled nuclear future is like jumping out of the oil and gas frying pan and into a nuclear fire – it makes no sense and Scots seem to get that.”

That Survation poll, surveyed 2000 Scots in the middle of the current election campaign, and found an overwhelming public preference to focus on a renewable energy future that would lower energy bills and tackle climate change more effectively. Only 12% of those polled thought the nuclear industry was the most trustworthy about its products, costs, pollutants and safety record.

When the lobby group Britain Remade, proclaimed support for nuclear power in Scotland last year, they declined to disclose that 89% of their own poll supported home-grown energy within our own borders – that desire for self-sufficiency kills nuclear stone dead. Scotland has no uranium mines.

We should just get on with building a country that is a renewable energy powerhouse so that future generations can look back and thank us for choosing a green, clean and sustainable energy route.  Nuclear is NOT a natural partner with renewables, indeed, it is a delaying tactic, holding back rapid decarbonisation, and adds extra and unnecessary cost to a renewables-based energy system.

George Baxter is the director of Green Power. He leads Green Power’s team delivering greenfield wind and solar developments both in the UK and Ireland.

May 13, 2026 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Japan faces tough road ahead over nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant

Japan Times, 10 May 26,

Japan still faces a tough road ahead over the construction of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture, whose completion date has been moved back 27 times.

With less than a year to go until the current deadline at the end of next March, Japan Nuclear Fuel is in time-consuming exchanges with the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) over the plant.

The completion “will definitely be delayed” again, Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita has said. Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara has said that the deadline remains unchanged.

Japan Nuclear Fuel began the construction of the plant, a key component of the country’s nuclear energy policy, in the village of Rokkasho in 1993, originally planning to complete it in 1997.

Delays primarily stemmed from a series of problems, including those with some equipment, before northeastern Japan was struck by the massive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

After the triple disaster, Japan significantly tightened nuclear safety standards. The NRA’s lengthy regulatory review to ensure the Rokkasho plant’s compliance with the standards led to delays in recent years.

The regulatory watchdog finished examining the plant’s basic design in 2020 and then started a detailed design review, which is still going on.

When Japan Nuclear Fuel announced its 27th postponement in the summer of 2024, it said it would complete its submissions to the NRA by November 2025 and win the body’s approval by March this year, but the plans have not progressed as scheduled………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/05/10/japan/japan-nuclear-fuel-reprocessing/

May 13, 2026 Posted by | Japan, technology | Leave a comment

Fires break out in exclusion zone around Chernobyl nuclear plant

Arpan Rai & Maira ButtFriday 08 May 2026, https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/chernobyl-fires-radiation-russia-ukraine-b2973234.html

A forest fire burns in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (AP)

  • Russia has said it is carrying out enhanced radiation monitoring after fires broke out in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Friday.
  • The country’s national public health agency said that enhanced radiation monitoring was being conducted and the situation was now “stable”.
  • The 1986 Chernobyl disaster is considered to be the world’s worst civil nuclear accident.
  • It spread Iodine-131, Caesium-134 and Caesium-137 across parts of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, northern and central Europe.
  • Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued its long-range attacks on Russia with a drone strike one of the country’s largest oil refineries, located in Yaroslav

May 13, 2026 Posted by | incidents, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Fears Royal Navy nuclear submarine docks will be built overseas

A multibillion-pound nuclear submarine maintenance contract is at risk of
being awarded to a foreign shipyard, despite safeguards that normally
dictate that high-security work must be performed at secure sites in the
UK. The Ministry of Defence is preparing to kick off a tender for the Royal
Navy’s Additional Fleet Time Docking Capability (AFTDC) programme to build
floating dry docks that are pivotal to national security. The scheme would
double the availability of nuclear submarine docks at HM Naval Base Clyde.
The new docks would allow concurrent dry-dock maintenance of two submarines
at the base, also known as Faslane.

Times 9th May 2026,
https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/royal-navy-nuclear-submarine-docks-programme-euston-v22btzbm3

May 13, 2026 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

‘The odds are not in our favour’: who sets the Doomsday Clock – and what can they tell us about the future of humanity?

because nuclear bombs have not been used since 1945, the public has developed a false sense of security. We don’t like to contemplate the role played by luck. “We’ve been lucky, because the odds are not in our favour. The more weapons that exist, for longer, the more likely it is something will go wrong,”

Guardian Sophie McBain, Sat 9 May 2026 

The Earth is getting hotter. Conflicts are raging, in the Middle East and Ukraine, each increasing the chance of nuclear war. AI is infiltrating almost every aspect of our lives, despite its unpredictability and tendency to hallucinate. Scientists, tinkering in labs, risk introducing new, deadly pathogens, more destructive than Covid. Our pandemic response preparedness has weakened. The Doomsday Clock – a large, quarter clock with no numbers, keeps ticking, counting down the seconds until the apocalypse. Tick. Tick. Tick. In January, we reached 85 seconds to midnight. Experts believe humanity has never stood so close to the brink.

“What we have seen is a slow almost sleepwalk into increasing dangers over the last decade. And we see these problems growing. We see science advancing at a rate that defies our ability to understand it, much less control it,” says Alexandra Bell, CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the organisation that sets the Doomsday Clock. She speaks of the “complete failure in leadership” in the US and other countries, which are doing little to address global, catastrophic threats, even as they feed into one another. Climate change increases global conflict, for instance, and the incorporation of AI into nuclear decision-making is, frankly, terrifying.


Bell speaks over video call from her office in Washington DC, which is decorated with a huge world map, Day of the Dead cushions and a framed print of Barbie superimposed on to a mushroom cloud – a gift from a colleague in response to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, because in this field it helps to have a sense of humour.

Bell, who has spent much of her career working on nuclear arms control, believes that because nuclear bombs have not been used since 1945, the public has developed a false sense of security. We don’t like to contemplate the role played by luck. “We’ve been lucky, because the odds are not in our favour. The more weapons that exist, for longer, the more likely it is something will go wrong,” she says – though she’s quick to add that diplomatic disarmament and peace-making efforts also played a big role……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2026: Inching to doomsday. It’s 85 seconds to midnight

In January, the clock was set to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. Within four weeks, the AI expert Gary Marcus argued on the Bulletin’s website that humanity was already “significantly closer to the brink”, after a showdown between AI developer Anthropic and the White House revealed Trump’s determination to have unrestricted military access to AI. A recent study found that in simulated war games, leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons 95% of the time.

Two days later, the US and Israel began bombing Iran, raising the risk of nuclear war. “Further escalation or expansion of the conflict could lead to actions driven by miscalculation, misperception or madness, as President Kennedy once said,” warned Alexandra Bell, who succeeded Bronson as president of the Bulletin in 2025. From the start, she worried about the lack of a plan to secure Iran’s nuclear materials, and that other countries would conclude that having nuclear weapons is the only way to maintain their security…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/09/doomsday-clock-ai-iran-ukraine-war-climate-breakdown-nuclear-apocalypse

May 13, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The death of professional journalism?

11 May 2026 Noel Wauchope, https://theaimn.net/the-death-of-professional-journalism/

As a person who’s always been fascinated with Journalism, although myself pretty much an amateur, I have admired those writers who bring us the facts – “Just the facts, ma’am”. But in reality, even the facts can be used in a biased way. That is often done by the omission technique, by leaving out some of the facts.

So for me, all journalism has a bias, and I like it when a writer acknowledges that bias, and makes it clear. However, news and important events don’t happen in a vacuum, but in an environment of conflicting opinions and attitudes – involving people from different cultures, with different histories, emotions and ambitions. So the very best writers are able to step back a bit, and see the many shades of grey in a story.

And the other great qualities in a journalist are what I would call grace and respect. This becomes important in interviews. The really great journalist is one who knows the facts, and asks the hard questions in a courteous way. This is why I’ve always preferred the “mainstream” journalists, who have achieved that level of confidence, and have the backing, and funding, of a reputable professional journal to support their work.

But what’s happening now?

There are still some great mainstream journalists out there, doing their valuable work. I have mentioned some, in previous articles. But what about the current status of ‘reputable professional journals”?

In today’s news, one of the world’s top journalists is herself the news, on this very topic:
Christiane Amanpour Lays Out Her Fear for CNN With Blistering Attack on David Ellison’s CBS ‘Realignment’:

“Christiane Amanpour pointed to the “ideological realignment” at CBS News on Wednesday as she expressed her “concern” at what her own network might look like under the oversight of incoming owner David Ellison.

“Clearly I’m concerned, and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about a corporate thing that’s underway, but I am, obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned,” Amanpour said. “And I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already like CBS News right? I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there?”

Amanpour is not just anybody in the journalistic world. For one thing, Wikipedia lists her 35+ prestigious awards, and her membership of important global media organisations. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and journalist safety. I have admired her articles on world leaders, and controversial figures, and her respectful but persistent, questioning of them – for example, in interviewing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Some of Amanpour’s principles on reporting:

“There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral, you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn’t mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.” (The New York Times).

“Some people accused me of being pro–Muslim in Bosnia, but I realized that our job is to give all sides an equal hearing, but in cases of genocide, you can’t just be neutral. You can’t just say, “Well, this little boy was shot in the head and killed in besieged Sarajevo and that guy over there did it, but maybe he was upset because he argued with his wife.” No, there is no equality, and we had to tell the truth.” (The Guardian).

I think that I left out another quality essential in a great journalist – a humanitarian outlook, which clearly Christiane Amanpour has in spades. That is another reason why her concern about changes at CBS and CNN is significant.

For a long time, I’ve been worried about the mainstream media’s self-censorship, especially here in Australia, where we’re supposed to have such freedom of the press. How long is real freedom of the press going to last, here, or anywhere?

In the meantime, I do think that it is up to the ever-more important alternative media to keep on trying to get the facts out, but with recognition of those shades of grey, and some respect for the individuals involved in those events.

Australia has inherited an absolutely adversarial legal system, and now has an absurdly adversarial political system. We need commentary that is broader, more willing to pay attention to conflicting views.

A case in point is the current Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. We in the alternative media are quick to pounce on this as kow-towing to the prevailing pro-Zionist propaganda. But in reality, already the Commission has allowed the voice of the Jewish Council, an organisation that is critical of Israel. And as for the Royal Commissioner, Virginia Bell – she has had a distinguished career in support of human rights. And I ask you – what better recommendation can Virginia Bell have, than this – from Liberal former treasurer and Jewish Australian Josh Frydenberg?:

“It is unthinkable the Prime Minister would choose a Commissioner that did not have the total confidence of the Jewish community.”

May 12, 2026 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Will Trump’s failed Iran war provoke his break from Netanyahu’s ironclad grip?

10 May 2026 AIMN Editorial – Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL, https://theaimn.net/will-trumps-failed-iran-war-provoke-his-break-from-netanyahus-ironclad-grip/

On Iran war day 71 it’s clear Trump has not only lost his war, he’s blundered the world into a looming economic catastrophe. As horrendous as that is, it wasn’t even Trump’s idea. Trump was simply following orders from his real boss, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On February 11, Netanyahu arrived at the White House with Mossad Director David Barnea. They encouraged – if not demanded – invasion. The Netanyahu-Barnea tag team argued Iran would collapse within a couple of days from a combination of assassinating Iran’s leader Ali Khamenei, massive bombing, Mossad-fomented civil unrest and ground incursions by Kurdish fighters.

That couple of days has morphed into 71 days of arguably the greatest military disaster in US history. Instead of collapsing within a couple of days, Iran retaliated against the massive US, Israeli bombing onslaught with their own. Result? All 13 US bases in the neighboring Gulf States are damaged or destroyed. Gulf States infrastructure has suffered massive damage. So has Israel, suffering its worst bombing in its 78 years.

Worst of all, Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz, choking off a fifth of world oil supply which may cause a worldwide recession, if not depression. The Netanyahu-Barnea presentation was a blizzard of lies Trump swallowed whole in spite of Intelligence assessments to the contrary.

As the world careens toward economic catastrophe, Trump is completely out of options to achieve any of his war goals. Check that. Friday he alluded to striking Iran with nuclear weapons. Trump told reporters on whether the ceasefire if off: “If there’s no ceasefire you’re just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran.”

Assuming he either doesn’t order nuclear strikes, or his military commanders disobey this directive to do so, Trump is facing the worst military defeat in America’s 250 years, all brought on by his fealty to Benjamin Netanyahu. What motivated Trump’s caving to the Israeli Prime Minister? Was it the hundreds of millions in campaign cash showered upon Trump and his Republican Congress? Was it the ‘Epstein Button’, damaging evidence related to the Epstein pedophile enterprise that Trump dare not risk being exposed? Is Trump simply an ardent Zionist believing that any Israeli murder and mayhem to further Israeli expansion and Middle East dominance is worthy of Trump’s enabling?

While we’ll likely never know, Trump must be contemplating the enormity of the disaster he’s inflicted on the Middle East, and very soon the US and entire world. The one benefit that may result from Trump’s immoral, criminal war is he may be rethinking his special relationship with the man who brought on the greatest calamity of his life, Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump needs to truly become the peace president he campaigned to be in 2016. He can do that by quitting his senseless and lost Iran war. He needs to jettison his subservience to Netanyahu’s vision of Greater Israel. He needs to cut off all US military aid to Israel till Netanyahu or his successor end the genocide in Gaza, near genocide in Lebanon and quest to destroy its hegemonic rival, Iran.

If Trump refuses to do the right thing, events on the battlefield and the world economy may push Trump aside and hopefully implement that peace initiative without him.

May 12, 2026 Posted by | Iran, Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The non-corporate nuclear news – week to 10 May

Some bits of good news – 

India is skipping China’s coal boom, and heading directly for green energy. 

Scottish seabeds rebound after trawling bans.Teenage pregnancy rates have fallen across the world.‘

TOP STORIES.

Combatants must address root causes to end Ukraine, Iran wars. 

Has the US accepted Iran’s demand to settle Hormuz first, nuclear later?

Sachs on U.S. Power in Freefall: “The Most Dangerous Country in the World”

Oil, Empire, and the Price of War: How Energy Became the Ultimate Weapon– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh-E3q6tGEw

Nuclear Scaling Requires Discipline
– Small Modular Reactors Deliver Fragmentation.

Climate. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere just hit a ‘depressing’ new record.

Environment. The Plague of Plastic: The other Petroleum Curse

Peace  – Mother’s Day Pivots to Peace

AUSTRALIA. 

NUCLEAR-RELATED ITEMS

ATROCITIES. FIFA-Backed “Board of Peace” Plan for Gaza Stadium Ignores Needs of Palestinians. Israel is making Palestinians disappear in more ways than one. Israel’s war on water–depriving Palestinians in Gaza of water for at least nearly two decades, if not longer.
Israeli violence against Palestinians echoes Holocaust – ex-Mossad chief. 
CULTURE and ARTS. Nuclear fears resurface among younger generations amid global tensions. 
ECONOMICS. When will the new nuclear operators be required to put money aside for decommissioning?
The billion-dollar boondoggle: how Vogtle became the US’s monument to nuclear folly.
Trump calls US seizure of Iranian ships ‘profitable’ amid Hormuz tensions.
The AI Mythos: If We Can Destroy the World, Imagine What We Can Do for Your Hedge Fund. 
ENERGY. Am I the only one who doubts the need for more electricity?
Scots are right to back renewables over nuclear energy– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2026/05/08/1-b1-scots-are-right-to-back-renewables-over-nuclear-energy/
Unfounded Health Concerns Are Powering a Solar Backlash. 
ENVIRONMENT. The ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster 15 years on: a photoessay.
‘Fish disco’ not enough to protect nature at nuclear plant, says green quango – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2026/05/04/5-b1-fish-disco-not-enough-to-protect-nature-at-nuclear-plant-says-green-quango/
ETHICS and RELIGION. Peter Beinart on What It Means to Be Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza. Pope Leo rejects claim he supports nuclear weapons after Trump tirade.
Trump attacks Pope Leo again ahead of Marco Rubio’s Vatican visit.
Joint interfaith statement calls for world free of nuclear weapons.
New outrage after Israel demolishes convent in Yaroun, southern Lebanon 
EVENTS. Korean A-Bomb Victims U.S. Speaking Tour & NPT Engagement Highlights 
HEALTH. The story of the cooks of Chernobyl, 40 years later. 
HISTORY. The man who blew up a nuclear power station and disappeared. 
LEGAL. The Second Global Sumud Flotilla: Israeli Piracy and Abduction on the High Seas.
Israeli Attack on Flotilla Violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Iranian Group Submits Evidence of US-Israeli War Crimes to International Criminal Court. 
MEDIA.
Press groups demand records on potentially corrupt Paramount acquisitions.   
Christiane Amanpour Lays Out Her Fear for CNN With Blistering Attack on David Ellison’s CBS ‘Realignment’. CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour expresses ‘concern’ over the future of the network, citing ‘idealogical realignment at CBS.
The mainstream media is finally beginning to echo Americans’ outrage at Israeli slaughter.
Dangers to the Fourth Estate: The 2026 World Press Freedom Index.
American Press Freedom on the Brink. 
PERSONAL STORIES. ‘We will never forget giving our Chernobyl children three weeks of fresh air and fun’ Eerie Reminder of Holocaust Past .
Donald Trump Claims He’s “The Most Powerful Person To Ever Live”

POLITICS.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.

RADIATION. Infant mortality rates in San Luis Obispo County in proximity to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
SAFETY. Nuclear Sector Must Step Up Cybersecurity. Chernobyl at 40: Belarus took the brunt. Belgian state is not prioritising safety in its nuclear policy. 
SECRETS and LIES. Trump claims his mass murder in the Caribbean saved a million American lives…real number 0. Accountability is optional. Covert NATO initiative turns film into anti-Russia battleground. 
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. With launches slated to grow a hundredfold, Space Force seeks more sites, money, people, and AI. 
SPINBUSTER.  Sweden generates 99% of electricity from clean sources –So why is windpower under attack? 
The UK Descends Into Confected Antisemitism Hysteria .
Dissecting An “Antisemitism” Psyop .
The West’s bubble of illusion about Israel – and about itself – is finally being burst.
“The myths of ‘Russian aggression.’
Nuclear in New Mexico conference in Bernalillo continued the myth that nuclear power is clean and safe. 
TECHNOLOGY. The World’s Biggest Fusion Reactor Just Hit a Milestone. 

WASTES.

WAR and CONFLICT. ‘The odds are not in our favour’: who sets the Doomsday Clock – and what can they tell us about the future of humanity?
DAYS 53-65: World on the Brink in the Hands of a Madman.
Ukraine drone attacks hit nuclear power plant, Baltic port.
Russia’s Threat Of A Massive Retaliatory Strike On Kiev Likely Isn’t A Bluff.
Not so quiet death – the US orders to kill the Iranian Navy’s Dena and its crew.
NewsReal: Energy Wars on the High Seas – Trump Admits “US Navy Like Pirates!”. 
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.
Israel targets southern Lebanon with internationally banned phosphorus shells.
War Dividends: Potential U.S. Arms Sales to the Middle East Surge in Q1 2026.
Pentagon strikes deals with top AI companies .
Central Asia celebrates 20 years as a nuclear-weapon-free zone 

May 12, 2026 Posted by | Weekly Newsletter | Leave a comment

Christiane Amanpour Lays Out Her Fear for CNN With Blistering Attack on David Ellison’s CBS ‘Realignment’

David Gilmour, May 6th, 2026, https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/christiane-amanpour-lays-out-her-fear-for-cnn-with-blistering-attack-on-david-ellisons-cbs-realignment/

Veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour pointed to the “ideological realignment” at CBS News on Wednesday as she expressed her “concern” at what her own network might look like under the oversight of incoming owner David Ellison.

Speaking in London at the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit on Wednesday, Amanpour voiced “concern” over Ellison’s influence on CBS News and what it potentially meant for CNN as his Paramount Skydance acquisition of the network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, moves forward.

The deal would place Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and Trump donor Larry Ellison, in control of the network where Amanpour has worked since 1983, alongside CBS News, which has already undergone sweeping changes under Paramount and Skydance leadership.

“[Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth, the world’s favorite frat boy supremo, has said that the sooner David Ellison owns CNN, the better. And CNN has become this sort of lightning rod, hasn’t it, for this administration?” asked moderator Emily Maitlis, as the topic of corporate ownership takeover came up. “Does it change what you do? Do you fear what is coming at you now in terms of a change?”

“Clearly I’m concerned, and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about a corporate thing that’s underway, but I am, obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned,” Amanpour said. “And I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already like CBS News right? I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there?”

Amanpour then delivered a blistering takedown of the CBS News under Ellison’s leadership.

“I mean hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction potentially of 60 Minutes,” she said.

In a passionate case for 60 Minutes, she praised the show as “one of literally the legacy” programs in American television journalism, adding: “Nobody can match 60 Minutes for a brilliant television magazine show that’s been doing hard news and cultural news, and for decades and decades.”

The comments come amid mounting scrutiny over the future editorial direction of major news outlets as billionaire-backed consolidation reshapes the media landscape.

Amanpour suggested staff at CNN were anxious about preserving newsroom autonomy under new ownership.

“I would like to think that we would have the very basic, which is editorial independence, I’m hoping for that,” she said. “I know many of us at CNN are incredibly – including leadership – are very, very committed to that clearly.”

May 12, 2026 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

Putin names condition for meeting with Zelensky

Face-to-face negotiations can take place, but only after a final long-term peace agreement is fully prepared, the Russian president has stressed

9 May, 2026 , https://www.rt.com/russia/639812-putin-names-condition-for-meeting-zelensky/

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky could take place “anywhere,” including in a third country, but only after a final long-term peace agreement is fully prepared and ready for signing.

“The Ukrainian side and Mr. Zelensky, they are ready to have a personal meeting… We have never refused,” Putin said during a press conference after Victory Day celebrations on May 9. “We can meet in the third country as well, but only after there is an ultimate agreement regarding a peace deal that must be a long-term deal.”

He stressed that the meeting should be the “final thing,” the signing ceremony, and not turn into negotiations. Recalling the Minsk Accords experience, Putin noted: “We can speak hours, day and night and it would yield no results. We need specialists to take care of that… then we can meet, we can sign.”

During the same May 9 briefing, Putin declared that the Ukraine conflict “is heading towards the end.”

These remarks came one day after US President Donald Trump expressed hope that the ceasefire declared by Moscow on May 8 could lead to the fighting wrapping up soon.

Last December, Putin reiterated that Russia seeks a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict provided its root causes are eliminated.

May 12, 2026 Posted by | Russia, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Covert NATO initiative turns film into anti-Russia battleground

The Grayzone and Kit Klarenberg, May 10, 2026

A scandal has erupted over covert NATO conferences with the Western entertainment industry. Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone show how NATO has sought to infiltrate film and TV for decades, with UK intel operatives taking the lead.

On May 3, The Guardian revealed that NATO has held a series of secret meetings with film directors, screenwriters and TV producers in cities from Paris to Los Angeles. The disclosure suggests NATO is seeking to employ the entertainment industry in its propaganda operations as a European war looms.

To date, NATO’s “conversations” with scriptwriters have reportedly “inspired, at least in part” three separate unstated projects, which are already in development. At a forthcoming London summit, NATO operatives are set to meet with screenwriters tied to the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB). In email correspondence, the union told its members the event will focus on the “evolving security situation in Europe and beyond.”

Organizers claim NATO was “built on the belief that cooperation and compromise, the nurturing of friendships and alliances, is the way forward.” The alliance is actively seeking to influence film and TV projects extolling this mantra, stating, “even if something so simple as that message finds its way into a future story,” as a result of the meeting, “that will be enough.”

But collusion between NATO and the entertainment industry has a well-established history. Over recent decades, NATO has covertly sought to employ film and television creatives as psychological operations specialists, while influencing popular culture. A core driver of this push has been Chris Donnelly, a veteran British Ministry of Defence and military intelligence operative, who led alliance expansion into Central and Eastern Europe during the 1990s.

Donnelly later developed the Integrity Initiative to cultivate support for conflict with Russia through covert networks of influential pro-war pundits and operatives. Hidden behind a seemingly legitimate think tank called the Institute for Statecraft, the Integrity Initiative only became known to the public after independent outlets like The Grayzone reported on leaked emails from Donnelly revealing its existence.

In leaked documents discussing NATO expansion, Donnelly stated, “What I needed in the 1990s and did not have” was a major international public relations firm to “scale up successful activities to have real impact,” and achieve “essential behavioural change” in audiences. To address the problem, he proposed “advertising campaigns on TV promoting change, a TV soap opera looking at the problem of corruption” and other innocent-seeming cultural products aimed at enhancing NATO control.

Donnelly expanded NATO – often against significant public opposition – in the former Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact and Yugoslavia by penetrating target countries’ governments, militaries and even religious institutions. This ensured a NATO-friendly lobby on the streets, and throughout corridors of power, across the region. This experience was fundamental to Donnelly’s founding of now-defunct ‘charity’ the Institute for Statecraft. Through its subsidiary Integrity Initiative, the Institute constructed clandestine nexuses of journalists, academics, and military and intelligence operatives throughout the Western world, known as “clusters”.

These networks could be mobilized to spread pro-NATO propaganda, and encourage public and state-level antagonism towards Russia. Integrity Initiative played a not insubstantial role in laying the Ukraine proxy war’s foundations. An essay published on the Institute’s website in July 2014 by MI6-connected academic Victor Madeira openly laid out this objective, declaring “economic boycott, breach of diplomatic relations” and “propaganda and counter-propaganda” could produce “armed conflict of the old-fashioned sort” with Moscow, “that Great Britain and the West could win.”

In a leaked Institute file, Madeira discusses precisely the kind of “propaganda and counter-propaganda” he meant. “We’ll need to go beyond old-style military ‘romps’ and get entertainment ‘outputs’ that draw out the nature of 21st-century conflict: diffuse, across society, without clear boundaries at times,” he wrote. “That’s the real fight we’re fighting; we can more than hold our own on the military side of things.”

Popular TV show ‘McMafia’ influenced by British intelligence

In February 2018, a veteran writer on US state cultural policy and public diplomacy named Martha Bayles emailed Donnelly to pitch a “multi-episode, multi-season dramatic television series” about Russia in the 1990s. Bayles pointed to a US-UK co-production called McMafia as an example of the “commercial and cultural dominance” of long-form TV with “an avid following among young and old alike.” The widely-watched program drew on former BBC World Service reporter Misha Glenny’s 2008 non-fiction book of the same name………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Donnelly and the British military-intelligence veterans who staffed his now-defunct Institute for Statecraft were hard at work weaponizing popular culture to drive public hostility to Russia. In January 2018, the British state broadcaster interviewed a staffer at Donnelly’s Institute, Euan Grant, about “the impact of suspect Russian money” on London, as part of BBC wider series enquiring “How Real is McMafia?”………………………………………………………………………………

As part of the proposed collaboration, NATO would be granted “input” into the show’s script. At the time, the Institute for Statecraft was the British representative of NATO’s Atlantic Treaty Association, a “community of policy-makers, think tankers, diplomats, academics and representatives from industry.” The organization described its mission as “inform[ing] the public of NATO’s role in international peace and security and promote democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law through debate and dialogue.”

Western popular culture infiltrated by NATO for years

Leaked files show Grant masterminded a dedicated Institute project countering supposed “Russian destabilisation” of “international financial sectors.” Contacts in journalism and the arts provided an ideal delivery mechanism. He argued the broadcast of popular TV shows and films referencing Russian organized crime provided an extraordinary propaganda bonanza for the British military-intelligence apparatus, potentially exposing millions of Westerners to anti-Russian programming……………………………………….

In other leaked documents, Grant strategized a covert propaganda blitz to expose how the NATO protectorate of Moldova was supposedly “exploited” by Moscow, for “building Russian and Russian speaking influence in EU, EU applicant and Eastern Partnership countries.” He noted how recent Hollywood films and the smash French drama series Spiral had featured “Moldovan linked” plotlines, providing “opportunities” to Institute for Statecraft propagandists. He suggested the BBC “might also be interested” in covering recent books about Russian organized crime, “set in Moldova.”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Were these top serials demonizing Russia organic products?

It is uncertain which recent Western cultural productions have resulted from NATO’s covert meddling. However, inexplicably timed historical dramas in recent years, featuring highly negative portrayals of Russia and Russians, raise serious questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/covert-nato-initiative-turns-film?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=474765&post_id=197028664&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=4ds0bd&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

May 12, 2026 Posted by | EUROPE, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

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