Ukraine admits to murdering “quite a few” Russian civilians
BY TYLER DURDEN, Zero Hedge, 22 May 23
A senior Ukrainian official has admitted that his country has assassinated “quite a few” Russian civilians who support Putin and his war to assert control of the Donbas region. In interviews first reported by The Times of London, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukraine’s military intelligence service, also promised more attacks are to come.
“We’ve already successfully targeted quite a few people,” said Budanov. He didn’t name any of the victims, but said “there have been well-publicized cases everyone knows about, thanks to the media coverage.”
Since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, several prominent Russian supporters of the invasion — and many innocent bystanders — have been killed or wounded in the campaign.
One of the most prominent such attacks happened last August, when a car bomb killed journalist Darya Dugina — in a possible attempt to kill her father, the political scientist-philosopher Aleksandr Dugin.
Like her father, Darya was a vocal supporter of Putin and his invasion. Both she and her father were sanctioned by the United States after the war began. Given her profile, it’s possible Ukraine may have intentionally murdered her in a sinister two-for-one act of punishment.
Most recently, novelist Zakhar Prielepin was wounded in a May 6 car-bombing, and Russian military blogger Vladen Tatarsky was killed at an April public appearance after a woman presented him a statuette with a bomb concealed inside it. Fifteen others were injured.
For perspective, a hypothetical parallel for this campaign would be Iraq’s intelligence service blowing up Iraq-invasion cheerleaders like Bill Kristol, Jeffrey Goldberg, Ann Coulter and Max Boot in 2003. Ukraine’s targeting of civilians doesn’t merely violate vague “international norms” that Washington pretends to hold dear — they are explicitly war crimes.
What’s more, if one accepts the definition of terrorism as “the intentional use of violence against civilians in order to obtain political aims,” Budanov has implicated Ukraine as a state sponsor of terror — one that’s received $37 billion in US military aid since the war started, and perhaps double that in other assistance.
Budanov isn’t merely an unapologetic terrorist, he’s a boastful one. “These cases have happened and will continue,” he said. Such people will receive a well-deserved punishment, and the appropriate punishment can only be liquidation and I will implement it.”……………………………….more https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-admits-murdering-quite-few-russian-civilians-who-back-putin-and-his-invasion
NATO to Draw Up ‘Russia War Plans’ for First Time Since Cold War
MAY 21, 2023 BY NEWS WIRE https://21stcenturywire.com/2023/05/21/nato-to-draw-up-russia-war-plans-for-first-time-since-cold-war/
NATO alliance leaders to approve thousands of pages of secret military plans that detail how to respond to a Russian attack.
David DeCamp from Antiwar.com reports…
NATO is drawing up plans on how to fight a war with Russia for the first time since the Cold War.
According to Reuters, at the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius this July, alliance leaders will approve thousands of pages of secret military plans that will detail how to respond to a Russian attack.
The plans will be vastly different than anything drawn up during the Cold War as NATO has expanded from 16 members to 31 since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The documents will also outline how NATO members should upgrade their forces and logistics.
“Allies will know exactly what forces and capabilities are needed, including where, what and how to deploy,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the war plans.
NATO’s newest member, Finland, shares an over 800-mile border with Russia and is poised to sign a deal that will give US troops access to its territory. While the alliance is preparing to beef up its presence on its “eastern flank,” one NATO official acknowledged the danger of massing troops near Russia’s border.
“The more troops you are massing up on the border, it’s like having a hammer. At some point, you want to find a nail,” said Lt. Gen. Hubert Cottereau, the vice chief of staff for NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. “If the Russians are massing troops on the border that will make us nervous, if we are massing troops on the border that will make them nervous.”
Biden Okays F-16s For Ukraine, US Weapons To Attack Crimea
Moscow has considered Crimea a part of the Russian Federation since its annexation in 2014, meaning efforts to recapture it would — at least in theory — be treated the same as an invasion of any other part of Russia. It was only by way of an arbitrary bureaucratic fluke that Crimea wound up a part of Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Crimeans overwhelmingly prefer to be a part of the Russian Federation. That we may soon be staring down the barrel of a nuclear third world war over something so pedantic is a very dark shade of absurd.
As Tapper noted, both the F-16 decision and the Crimea decision marked a sharp policy shift by the Biden administration in just a few months. This proxy war just keeps escalating and escalating, with aggressions once deemed unthinkable due to their likelihood of sparking a nuclear exchange now becoming commonplace. Every time a new once-unthinkable escalation is enacted, the hawks are already pushing for the next one.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, MAY 22, 2023 https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-okays-f-16s-for-ukraine-us?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=123001716&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
The Biden administration has signed off on both F-16s for Ukraine and attacks on Crimea using US-made weapons. Both of these moves have drawn dire warnings from nuclear-armed Russia, and both would have been unthinkable a year ago.
In a Sunday interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper from the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made it clear that Washington would approve of US weapons being used in an offensive to recapture Crimea, a horrifying prospect that many experts have agreed is the most likely scenario to lead to nuclear warfare in this conflict. Sullivan told Tapper that while the US has forbidden the use of American weapons to attack Russia, the US considers Crimea to be part of Ukraine, not Russia.
Here’s CNN’s transcript of the exchange:
TAPPER: In February on this show, you would not say whether the U.S. would support Ukrainian efforts to recapture Crimea. That’s one of the concerns that has been expressed about whether or not the Ukrainians are given the ability to hit Russian targets in Crimea. Do you think that Crimea is part of Ukraine?
SULLIVAN: Of course.
TAPPER: So, what would be the objection of giving…
SULLIVAN: Crimea is Ukraine.
TAPPER: Right.
SULLIVAN: I mean, that’s a very straightforward thing.
TAPPER: Well, yes you answered it directly. I mean, Russia doesn’t think so, obviously. But do you think that Ukraine should have weapons that can reach Russian targets in Crimea?
SULLIVAN: Yes. We have not placed limitations on Ukraine being able to strike on its territory within its internationally recognized borders. What we have said is that we will not enable Ukraine with U.S. systems, Western systems, to attack Russia. And we believe Crimea is Ukraine.
TAPPER: OK.
Moscow has considered Crimea a part of the Russian Federation since its annexation in 2014, meaning efforts to recapture it would — at least in theory — be treated the same as an invasion of any other part of Russia. It was only by way of an arbitrary bureaucratic fluke that Crimea wound up a part of Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Crimeans overwhelmingly prefer to be a part of the Russian Federation. That we may soon be staring down the barrel of a nuclear third world war over something so pedantic is a very dark shade of absurd.
In the same interview, Tapper questioned Sullivan about the Biden administration’s policy shift toward approving F-16 fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine, demanding to know why the war planes weren’t approved sooner.
“President Biden told the G7 leaders that the United States is going to support this joint effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets,” said Tapper. “As you know, just a few months ago, the president said there was no basis militarily for giving Ukraine jets and that Ukraine didn’t need them at all. What changed? And would these jets not have been more effective if Ukraine had been trained and had them in time for the upcoming counteroffensive?”
It’s so obnoxious how the only time you ever see these mass media propagandists challenging the US government on its warmongering is when they’re pushing it to be more warlike and demanding answers on why it isn’t warmongering more. This creates the illusion of brave adversarial journalism, when in reality these empire cronies are just manufacturing consent for the increased aggressions the US wants to wage anyway.
These escalations have drawn stern warnings from Moscow, which have just been casually hand-waved away by Biden like he’s rejecting jello for dessert. In an article titled “Russia Says West Providing F-16s to Ukraine a ‘Colossal Risk’”, Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp writes the following:
A Russian official said Saturday that the Western plans to provide Ukraine with American-made F-16 fighter jets bring “colossal risks” after the US announced it would sign off on European countries delivering the aircraft.
“We see that Western countries are still adhering to the escalation scenario. It involves colossal risks for themselves,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, according to TASS.
“In any case, this will be taken into account in all our plans, and we have all the necessary means to achieve the goals we have set,” Grushko added.
During the last day of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, President Biden was asked about Russia calling the F-16 plan a “colossal risk.” He replied, “It is for them.”
As Tapper noted, both the F-16 decision and the Crimea decision marked a sharp policy shift by the Biden administration in just a few months. This proxy war just keeps escalating and escalating, with aggressions once deemed unthinkable due to their likelihood of sparking a nuclear exchange now becoming commonplace. Every time a new once-unthinkable escalation is enacted, the hawks are already pushing for the next one.
As we’ve discussed previously, this pattern of continually escalating nuclear brinkmanship in Ukraine has built-in incentives for Russia to ramp up its own aggressions against NATO itself. Every time the west ramps up its brinkmanship and crosses another once-taboo line in the sand without Moscow responding with direct military confrontation, the west takes this as a sign that it can ramp up the escalations again. This has put things on a trajectory toward more and more direct western-backed attacks on the Russian Federation unless Russia lashes out at NATO powers in some way to show them it’s not worth it. Which would be about as dangerous an occurrence as you could possibly imagine.
It is not okay for our rulers to play games with our lives like this. It is not okay for them to keep rolling the dice on nuclear escalation more and more often in the name of securing US unipolar hegemony. These people are making it abundantly clear that sanity and level-headedness are not in the driver’s seat here. Everyone on earth should be shouting a loud, unequivocal “no” to this at the top of their lungs.
Sending F-16 planes to Ukraine will create a new Cuban Missile -style nuclear crisis.
| Andrew Thomas 23 May 23 The only saving grace here may be that F-16s are so different from the planes that Ukrainian pilots have flown before that they have no chance of being capable of retraining their minds to make the split-second decisions necessary to effectively operate them. The idea advertised is four months, which from what I have read is an absurd goal. However, if the NATO countries supplying these planes supply the pilots as well, that saving grace disappears. It is astonishing that there is no recognition at all in the US mainstream media or amongst its political class that we have created a situation analogous to the two-week long Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The only differences that matter are that it has been going on for fifteen months, and that every action and pronouncement of the US government during that fifteen months has escalated the crisis. We are on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, and the only person who matters who recognizes it, and has said so publicly, is Donald J. Trump. Of course, he says he could end the conflict the day he becomes president again, so he is as ignorant and deluded as he has always been. But, still… https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-okays-f-16s-for-ukraine-us?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=123001716&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email |
US Electricity From Renewable Energy Beat Electricity From Coal Or Nuclear In 2022
Since 2007, the use of coal for electricity generation has generally been in decline, while the use of renewables has been on the rise. Electricity generation from nuclear had remained relatively flat over the last two decades but has experienced a slight decline in recent years. In 2022, net generation of electricity from renewables reached 0.91 billion megawatt-hours, topping both coal and nuclear (0.83 and 0.77 billion megawatt-hours, respectively). In 2022, renewables accounted for about 21% of all net generation of electricity.
- Renewable sources of power include wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal energy. “Other” category includes petroleum liquids, petroleum coke, batteries, chemicals, hydrogen, pitch, purchased steam, sulfur, miscellaneous technologies, and non-renewable waste.
- Electricity net generation is the amount of gross electricity generation a generator produces minus the electricity used to operate the power plant.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity Data Browser, queried April 21, 2023.
View the supporting data for this Fact of the Week.
Elders say – Nuclear states must now act following G7 statement – Mary Robinson
MARY ROBINSON https://theelders.org/news/nuclear-states-must-now-act-following-g7-statement 22 May 23
As the G7 leaders release their Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament, The Chair of The Elders, Mary Robinson, stresses this must now lead to meaningful dialogue and action from nuclear states.
I welcome G7 leaders issuing their first separate statement reaffirming their commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. But these words must now be followed by meaningful action to realise that goal.
If G7 leaders are serious about their “Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament”, they need a concrete plan to implement that vision. At the same time, leaders must prioritise serious dialogue between nuclear states to reduce nuclear risks. Despite the difficulties, it is vital that the USA engage Russia on returning to implementation of New START, and on a successor agreement.
When I visited Hiroshima in March, I was reminded again of the terrible human cost of nuclear weapons. Japan showed leadership by holding its G7 summit there. G7 nuclear states now need to show leadership by acting on what was agreed.
Russia Claims Group Crossed Border From Ukraine In Attack
Radio Free Europe 22 May 23
Violent clashes erupted on the Russian-Ukrainian border with Moscow accusing a Ukrainian “sabotage group” of trying to make an incursion into the country, an allegation Kyiv rejected.
Explosions and sporadic gunfire could be heard on May 22 in the Belgorod region, with the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, saying that fighting had spilled into Russia in the Graivoron district which borders Ukraine. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The governor said six people were injured in the clashes. The incursion into Russian territory may be the biggest since the Kremlin launched its war against Ukraine 15 months ago.
A group calling itself the Liberty of Russia Legion, which claims to be made up of Russians cooperating with Ukrainian forces, took responsibility for the attack. The Ukrainian government denied any role in the events………………………………………
Nuclear would be labeled ‘clean energy’ under new legislation
KEVIN GARCIA-GALINDO, MAY 22, 2023, The Carolina Journal
Senate Bill 678, “Promote Clean Energy,” currently in the N.C. House Rules Committee, could pave the way for more investment in nuclear energy in North Carolina.
The bill would relabel “renewable energy resources” as “clean energy resources” in the State’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard and add nuclear fission and fusion into the definition of clean energy. If approved by the state legislature, this bill would make nuclear energy a viable option toward replacing coal-fired power plants with new cleaner sources.
S.B. 678 would also help further the proliferation of nuclear energy by eliminating statutes that had previously restricted the construction of nuclear facilities in House Bill 951, which passed in 2021.
COOPER INDICATES RESISTANCE
The N.C. Senate passed S.B. 678 in late April, but it is now seeing opposition from Gov. Roy Cooper. At the State Energy Conference last month, Cooper told business leaders that he did not want politicians to be seen as influencing which energy sources are prioritized over others.
Environmental activist group CleanAIRE NC told the Wilmington Star-News in a statement that “nuclear energy may be zero-emission, but it is not renewable and it’s certainly not clean. … Uranium is a mined resource. And on the backend storing nuclear waste poses major, unanswered safety questions. With wind and solar capacity rapidly expanding, is it really worth gambling with our health and safety?”
A Cooper spokesperson stated that the governor would not look at the bill until it reached his desk………………………………………………….. https://www.carolinajournal.com/nuclear-would-be-labeled-clean-energy-under-new-legislation/
Rishi Sunak ‘turns his back’ on UK’s nuclear test veterans a year after pledging support
The Prime Minister has refused to look at their evidence of a criminal cover-up within the Ministry of Defence, less than a year after pledging his support for a police investigation
By Susie Boniface, 22 May 2023 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-turns-back-veterans-30046288
It comes after the G7 summit in Japan when the PM visited a memorial honouring the 200,000 who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the event that triggered Britain’s own atomic experiments.
Campaigner Alan Owen, whose father died after witnessing 24 nuclear bombs in just 78 days, said: “He was happy to take the headlines for getting us a medal, but now he’s turned his back on 22,000 men who suffered and died for the nuclear deterrent that he’s relying on to keep us safe from Vladimir Putin.”
Nuke veterans have waited 70 years for official recognition, and since the weapons trials have suffered a legacy of cancers, miscarriages, and birth defects in their children.
Sunak delivered them a medal just a month after taking office.
During the Tory leadership campaign last summer, a spokesman for Sunak told the Mirror: “Rishi supports the campaign for nuclear veterans to be recognised for their service.
“We are incredibly grateful for our nuclear veterans’ sacrifice which kept Britain safe during the Cold War… He would also back an investigation into whether the tests represented a criminal offence towards these veterans.”
After making the medal announcement at the National Memorial Arboretum last November, he briefly met Laura Morris, of Salford, whose grandfather John witnessed several H-bombs in 1958, later lost his son Steven to cot death, and developed pernicious anaemia before being refused a war pension.
He had multiple blood tests during the trials, but the results are not in his medical file.
Parliament has been told all such records are at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in “scientific data”, but veterans, widows, and next-of-kin have been refused access. Withholding or falsifying medical records is a crime. Laura asked the PM to meet and discuss it, and he told her he would.
Her MP, Labour’s Rebecca Long-Bailey, said: “It’s frankly soul-destroying that the PM made a promise in person to my constituent but now fails to keep his word. It has taken six months to decide that he just can’t find the time.”
“In the Tory leadership contest he promised he’d support a criminal investigation, and now he won’t meet us so we can show him the evidence,” she said.
“It’s appalling that after what these veterans have suffered, and I truly hope he changes his mind, and meets them as promised.”
In a letter to Laura, Sunak said the “extraordinary sacrifice” of veterans had been overlooked “for too long” and he had been “delighted” to announce the medal.
He added: “The significance and poignancy of the announcement was not lost on me.
“I was greatly moved to meet and speak with the veterans during the event, including your grandfather… I want to thank him, not only for his years of service and campaigning, but also for bravely sharing his experiences with others.
“Unfortunately due to diary pressures, I am currently unable to meet you.
Portugal’s renewable energy success
Portugal reached a major milestone of producing more than half (51%) of
its electricity from wind and solar in April. The previous monthly record
high was 49%, set in December 2021.
According to Ember, Portugal’s record
of 50% from wind and solar comes despite relatively modest wind generation.
Strong deployment of solar capacity pushed solar generation to an all-time
high of 360 GWh in April, significantly higher than the previous record of
300 GWh in July and August of 2022. Last year, the country installed 0.9 GW
of solar photovoltaics, increasing its solar capacity by more than 50% to
2.5 GW.
Review Energy 18th May 2023
Damning critique of Rolls Royce
The new chief executive of Rolls-Royce has delivered another damning
critique of its performance, saying that one of its core divisions has been
“grossly mismanaged”. Tufan Erginbilgic, 63, took the top job at the
aerospace and engineering group at the start of this year and weeks later
infamously described the group as a “burning platform”. In his latest
broadside, the former BP executive took aim at the performance of its power
systems division, which makes diesel and gas engines for use in
superyachts, trains and mining lorries, and for back-up power generation.
Times 22nd May 2023
Have your say on plans to abandon acoustic fish deterrents at Hinkley Point C
By Burnham-On-Sea.com, May 21, 2023
Have your say on plans to abandon acoustic fish deterrents at Hinkley
Point C. A consultation period is set to end this week on proposals to
allow Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to drop a planning condition to
fit acoustic fish deterrents (AFDs) to its water intakes in the Bristol
Channel.
Anti-nuclear campaigners claim 11 billion fish could be killed
during the power station’s lifetime if AFDs are not used. Stop Hinkley
says EDF, which is building the £27billion power plant, should not be
allowed to “wriggle out of conditions imposed when the project was given
planning permission.”
The Environment Agency, which has been considering
an application from EDF to amend Hinkley’s water discharge activity, says
it was proposing to remove the requirement for AFDs. But before the
proposal could be confirmed it is holding a second public consultation
which runs until Thursday May 25th, 2023.
Burnham-on-sea.com 21st May 2023
This week’s (mercifully shorter) nuclear news
A bit of good news – A low birthrate is good news for the planet. What went right this week? The good news you should know about.Climate. Cop28 host UAE’s approach is ‘dangerous’, says UN’s ex-climate chief.
Christina notes: Pathetic war-mongering response by G7 stuffed shirts at the historic Hiroshima nuclear-bombing site.
Nuclear. Linda Gunter writes “Lying is the new black” – about the promotion of nuclear energy. But it’s timely too, about the latest developments in Ukraine. Have the Russians had a win? We are told – not really! The G7 leaders went to Hiroshima – all for world peace of course, paid lip service to America’s horror nuclear bombing in 1945, and went on to militaristic planning against Russia and China – nothing about nuclear disarmament. No suggestion of negotiation.
TOP STORIES:
Hiroshima survivors warn G7 leaders about using nuclear bombs.
Ukraine’s Depleted Uranium Blast: Europe on Brink of ‘Environmental Disaster’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kqpbw6YTLo Depleted uranium won’t end a war that has no winners.
Global heating is predicted to trigger more nuclear outages in France every year..
Should South Carolina have canceled Plant Summer? Yes, and Georgia should have canceled, too
**************************************************************
CIVIL LIBERTIES Stella Assange: ‘This is the closest we’ve ever been to securing Julian’s release’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6N33Ca8UrA
CLIMATE. Siting new nuclear power stations — an unsustainable geography.
ECONOMICS. Finnish nuclear plant throttles production as electricity price plunges. Russia’s Atomflot added to U.S. sanctions list.
ENERGY. Finance for renewable energy. Germany’s green revolution puts nuclear power in the past. The nine hours in which Spain made the 100% renewable dream a reality. New report finds millions of Britons planning to get rid of their cars .
ENVIRONMENT. Nuclear Free Local Authorities condemn UK Environment Agency’s failure to protect the marine environment in Hinkley Point C’s nuclear project .
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY. Nuclear Fusion breakthrough hits hurdles as five experiments fail.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR. How a small activist sailing ship successfully challenged the nuclear arms race.
POLITICS. Sceptical opinions about Vladimir Zelensky. Australia: Labor, Greens & Defence Experts call for AUKUS Parliamentary Inquiry Richard Marles and the ‘seamless’ transfer of Australian sovereignty. Pentagon seeks authority to transfer nuclear submarines (and costs) to Australia. Why nuclear power won’t work in Australia — yet another explainer. France to speed up nuclear power deployment. Poland’s Greens oppose construction of small nuclear reactor in Kraków. Energy minister Andrew Bowie in visit to Suffolk projects. Robert F Kennedy’s Peace Platform.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.
- At a G7 summit high on ambition, nuclear disarmament takes a backseat to Zelensky’s diplomatic appeals. Facing Russia’s nuclear threats, the U.S. and its allies must not whitewash their own. Former world leaders urge G7 to get nuclear arms control back on track . Hiroshima’s nuclear history sounds an urgent warning for G-7 summit.
- Indonesia calls for destruction of the world’s nuclear arsenals.
- Ukraine’s neighbors ready to pay off Zelensky to stop conflict – Seymour Hersh.
- France holds up EU energy agreement over nuclear power.
- Drink Fukushima water if it’s clean, South Korea tells Japanese officials. Ocean release of Fukushima nuclear wastewater endangers Pacific Islanders’ welfare.
- French Polynesia’s anti-nuclear organisation Association 193 criticises France for downplaying impact of atomic tests.
- New UK sanctions on Russian energy to include Rosatom and nuclear energy ( a little bit) .
- Stronger Global Governance is the Only Way to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.
PROTESTS. Anti-nuclear activists protest Japanese government plans to release radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
SAFETY. Nuclear Safety Authority identified faults in Olkiluoto nuclear power plant . IAEA Warns of Tense Military Situation Near Ukraine Nuclear Plant.
SECRETS and LIES. Lying is the new black. AUKUS may turn out to be the largest financial swindle perpetrated by the United States and the United Kingdom against Australia and other Asia Pacific nations.
WASTES. Fukushima fishermen speak out against nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping plan.
WAR and CONFLICT. US hopes to snatch victory from jaws of defeat in Ukraine. Ukrainians forced by Russia to retreat from Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) , their supposed ‘fortress’ in Donbass. Russian forces dig in at Ukrainian nuclear plant, witnesses say. Ukrainian diplomat fears ‘terrible summer’ ahead.
G7 Desecrates Hiroshima A-Bomb Memory With Warmongering Summit. Biden Won’t Apologize for 1945 Nuclear Attacks on Japan as G7 Leaders Gather in Hiroshima.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. UK and Netherlands agree ‘international coalition’ to help Ukraine procure F-16 jets. Western Weapons to Ukraine: Black Market for Terrorists “On Command”. $3 BILLION Pentagon ‘accounting error’ means more weapons for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Depleted Uranium Blast: Europe on Brink of ‘Environmental Disaster’
Sputnik lnternational 19.05.2023
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev warned on Friday that a radioactive cloud was heading towards Western Europe following the destruction of a Ukrainian warehouse storing British-supplied depleted uranium ammunition.
Sputnik News spoke with Dr. Chris Busby, physical chemist and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, about how the West’s decision to provide depleted uranium (DU) ammunition to Ukraine has potentially caused a continent-wide ecological disaster. Below is his answer in full.
Recently, several web media outlets provided videos of an enormous explosion in the town of Khmelnitski, located to the West of Kiev, and about 200 km from the border with Poland. There were two major explosions which produced a massive roiling swirling fireball which, like an atomic bomb, developed upwards and formed a mushroom cloud, which was black.
I have represented nuclear atmospheric test veterans in the Royal Courts of Justice in London and have seen many films of nuclear explosions: this was not one. A nuclear explosion is characterised by an immediate intense white light which wipes out the camera film or detector.
So, what was it? It was suggested by several commentators that an arms depot that had been hit contained the Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons sent by the UK to the Ukraine for use in the British Challenger tanks as anti-tank penetrators. That the explosion was one involving the burning of the DU in the fireball. Since I am a scientific authority on Uranium and its health effects, but have also examined its dispersion and behaviour in the environment, I will comment on what I believe happened, and why it is important. I was a member of the UK government Ministry of Defence Depleted Uranium Oversight Board (DUOB) in 2000-2005, and also the UK government Committee Examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters (CERRIE) 2000-2004. I am Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) which is an independent NGO that provides advice on risk from ionising radiation.
My main research interest in this area is Uranium and health, particularly the DU particles, which are so small they act as a gas and move over very large distances once they are created by the burning of DU. I found them in England in 2003 after they had come from Iraq. I found them in 2023 in England after they came from the Ukraine war. So that is the first thing: the material is able to travel very large distances.
Therefore, if the Khmelnitsky explosion was a DU one, the material would move with the wind direction and should be detectable at monitor sites downwind.
First, we need to say that DU has a gamma signature, it releases gamma rays. The UK and USA governments lie about this. They point to the fact that the U-238, that remains after the fissile U-235 is removed in the centrifuges (and is sent off for nuclear weapons and reactors), is a weak alpha emitter.
They say that alpha radiation cannot penetrate skin and so the DU itself is harmless. That it cannot be detected by a Geiger Counter and the alpha particles don’t make it through the window. There is, of course, a health problem if the post-impact particles are inhaled and pass into the body through the lung into the lymphatic system or directly into the digestive system, but essentially DU is harmless.
What you need to know is that Uranium 238, when it decays with its alpha emission, turns into Thorium-234 and Protoactinium-234m which then turns into Uranium 234. Thorium 234 is a beta and gamma emitter delivering 6% of its decay energy as a gamma ray. Thus, large clouds of DU particulate aerosol will be detectable by gamma detectors.
When I visited Iraq with Al Jazeera in 2000 I went to the south and examined the corpses of the tanks that had been hit by DU in the first Gulf War. Some of the A-10 DU penetrators were still lying around. They gave off an intense gamma ray signal, and the holes in the tanks were highly gamma ray active. So much for only an alpha emitter.
I am a yachtsman: examination of the UK metereological weather pressure maps tell us that at the time, and for days after the explosion, there was an anticyclone to the North of the explosion site and winds were weak but from the South East blowing North Westerly around the high-pressure area. So, the plume would move towards Poland. If the winds were about 5km/h they would reach any Poland detectors 250 km away on the 15th.
After Chernobyl, the European Union set up a Europe-wide gamma radiation detector system that used to give gamma readings in real time. I went to look. But astonishingly, all the data was blocked. The web- based system, administered from Germany, (EURDEP) would not provide the detector maps that are normally available. Luckily, there were some location maps on the web and some that had been already downloaded by colleagues of mine before the system stopped working. I obtained maps from Poland. One of these I show below. [on original]
You will see that a very highly significant increase in gamma radiation occurred at this detector, north west of the explosion site almost exactly when it would be expected on the basis of a distance of 250km and a mean wind speed of 5km/h. The increase, from 60nSv/h to 90nSv/h was highly statistically significant about 50%. Other detectors all across Poland showed an increase*, as the plume passed over them, the increase being weaker the further away (due to dispersion of the plume).
Later, the Poles measured the increase at the Marie Curie Institute in Lublin, but their map was a more sophisticated one and needed some expert interpretation. The Polish map gave gamma increases split into two natural isotopes, Bismuth and Thallium, also total gamma and cosmic ray gamma………………………………………………………………..
The European radiation detector system web map came back online on May 18. The map type had been changed and everything we saw in the downloads had disappeared or had been smudged out by data analysis averaging. Why? This, and the early blocking of access to the site suggest panic and cover-up.
So taken all together, what we see is a massive explosion which is thought to be DU, and reports of a spike in gamma radiation near the site. Uranium oxide is black, and the black plume moves north west slowly, the weather pattern is stable and the wind blows to Poland. The Polish EU detectors all show gamma radiation increases at the expected time of arrival of the plume. The EU detector system is shut down rapidly, but not before we have obtained data from several sites. The Poles provide a detector result that identified Bismuth as the cause of the increase, but do not go so far as to formally state that it is (in case of later blowback).
One final piece of evidence. We see videos on the internet of the Ukrainians clearing up the explosion site using Robot vehicles, not ordinary firemen. Why do they need Robot vehicles? The last times we saw Robot vehicles clearing up was in the ruins of Chernobyl and Fukushima.
If I am right, there has been an environmental disaster, and the DU particles will travel across Poland, Germany and Hungary, and will end up in the Baltics, probably later the whole of Europe including the UK (after all, the Chernobyl Uranium particles came to the UK).
They will deliver genetic damage and death like that seen in the Balkans and Iraq. Cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, infertility, lung damage, mental problems (Gulf War Syndrome) and so forth. The scientific and epidemiological evidence on this has been clear since the Gulf War. It is all there in the scientific literature—but the governments in the West and the military ignore it, deny it and cover it up. In the case of the UK coroners court finding for Stuart Dyson, the jury found that DU caused his fatal colon cancer.
But when the coroner wrote to the health minister (as he had to by UK law, Rule 43) the reply was: we disagree. This stuff can be measured, but no one will measure it, or if they do, they will be attacked and their arguments dismissed.
Even if I am wrong, and there is some other explanation for the gamma peaks, DU must be banned. It is a weapon of indiscriminate effect and kills civilians, the enemy and your own troops (well, Ukrainian troops). It is much worse than a war gas, like Sarin, or phosgene, mustard gas or all the other chemical agents banned by civilisation. This stuff destroys the genetic basis of life itself. And no one does anything. Those who use it base their action on obsolete science supported by dishonest epidemiology carried out by dishonest scientists and obsolete and fantastical risk models.
Those who provide the weapons, the UK government in this case, are morally bankrupt. Unless it is their intention to destroy the Ukrainian people. Who knows anymore? The world has gone mad.
*Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency claims there is no increase in radiation levels https://sputnikglobe.com/20230519/ukraines-depleted-uranium-blast-europe-on-brink-of-environmental-disaster-1110462939.html
At a G7 summit high on ambition, nuclear disarmament takes a backseat to Zelensky’s diplomatic appeals
Picture above is from Zelensky’s previous visit to Washington, but it’s the same idea.
The Conversation, May 21, 2023 Donna Weeks, Professor of Political Science, Musashino University
Hiroshima, the site of this year’s G7 summit, is one of just a handful of places in the world that provides a stark reminder of the horrors of war.
The A-bomb Dome in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, for example, is one of few structures left standing in the neighbourhoods that were flattened by the atomic blast in August 1945. Around the city, there are also “survivor trees” from the blast and burn marks on temple stoneware and statues – reminders of how far and wide it radiated.
It is no surprise that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chose Hiroshima as the setting for the 2023 G7 meeting. Not only are his electoral constituency and family roots located here, he is also an advocate of a nuclear weapons-free world.
And there were hopes the meeting could spur further action towards this ultimate goal of global nuclear disarmament. Kishida said ahead of the meeting,
I believe the first step toward any nuclear disarmament effort is to provide a first-hand experience of the consequences of the atomic bombing and to firmly convey the reality.
Ukraine takes priority
It wasn’t to be. Though the final communique from the summit did make a vague commitment toward a “Hiroshima Vision” for nuclear disarmament, it took a backseat to the main headline from the weekend – the continued global support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
An “unscheduled” visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky certainly raised the stakes for the summit at a critical time in the war.
On Friday evening, the leaders released a strongly worded, six-page statement on Ukraine, which reaffirmed their commitment “to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine” and condemned “Russia’s manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the impact of Russia’s war on the rest of the world”.
But it was the potential impact of the in-person attendance that might amplify the otherwise rhetorical words of the summit leaders………………………
Zelensky’s opportunity to make a direct appeal to the leaders may end up being the key statement of the summit, distinguishing it from previous gatherings……………………………………………….
Inevitably, at each G7 Summit, there are calls for a review of its purpose. Originally an “informal” grouping of the world’s leading economies, it has become, like the UN Security Council, an institution of a different time. It is somewhat of an anachronism, no longer representative of today’s global economy.
…………………………………….. This summit will be most likely be remembered for Zelensky’s visit and the message it intended to send to Russia. But as leaders make their journeys home, wars will continue and all we are left with are the platitudes that will carry over to the next G7 Summit in 2024.
As for the ageing hibakusha, the survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima, this may have been their last major opportunity to press for an end to nuclear weapons. https://theconversation.com/at-a-g7-summit-high-on-ambition-nuclear-disarmament-takes-a-backseat-to-zelenskys-diplomatic-appeals-205829
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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