Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Pacific Islands Forum – time to reinvigorate the Treaty of Rarotonga, the nuclear weapons-free pact ?

Pacific backs Australian climate policy: Albanese.

St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, Australian Associated Press 9 Nov 23

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………. Joining climate as one of the top issues at the gathering are nuclear concerns, with Pacific leaders showing their resolve to keep the region nuclear-free.

The Pacific is stridently nuclear-free, a legacy of the region’s painful history with testing of nuclear weapons by the United States, United Kingdom and France.

Australia’s AUKUS deal to obtain nuclear-powered submarines raises concern among many, given the sensitivity of nuclear issues.

Leaders in Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Fiji have previously expressed reservations on different fronts, including the extravagant cost, which exceeds the entire annual GDP of PIF members excepting Australia and New Zealand.

PIF chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has suggested the time could have come to “reinvigorate” the Treaty of Rarotonga, the nuclear weapons-free pact signed during the Cold War.

Mr Albanese was less forthcoming on whether reform was needed, declining to respond to questions on whether he supported Mr Brown’s calls.

“We support the Treaty of Rarotonga. It is a good document. It has stood the test of time, all of the arrangements that have been in place, we’ve been consistent with that, and it retains our support,” he said.

The legacy of another nuclear incident – the 2011 Fukushima power plant disaster – also hangs over the Pacific.

Japan is releasing treated wastewater from the power plant, insisting it is safe to do so, with an International Atomic Energy Agency report as proof.

Australia and New Zealand accept those guarantees, but a growing number of Pacific nations hold concerns, including Polynesian and Melanesian blocs.

At the PIF summit, Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is championing another initiative: declaring the Pacific an “ocean of peace”.

That proposal, the nuclear concerns and the Suva Agreement regional unity pact are late inclusions onto the agenda of the leaders retreat.  https://www.theleader.com.au/story/8417306/pacific-backs-australian-climate-policy-albanese/

November 9, 2023 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

TODAY. “Suspicious website” -Hooray -I have earned this award.

I’m pretty chuffed to have at last been included in this elite honoured group.

At least Google now has recognised my status. When I send an email, with a link to my Substack website, Google has kindly coloured it red, with the announcement that it is a SUSPICIOUS WEBSITE.

Little me! Up in the echelons of Chris Hedges and Caitlin Johnstone – the highly honoured few who dare to tell the truth, or even make fun of the mighty!

While we’re on about this, I have to acknowledge that some websites surely deserve this award from our corporate masters. For example Scheerpost does a great job in busting corporate propaganda.

I couldn’t resist pinching this one, today from https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/08/shooting-gallery/

There are so many truth-tellers: their message is not acceptable in the “mainstream” media – but they are out there – still fighting the good fight. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #Israel #Palestine

November 9, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

First newly built nuclear-powered submarine under AUKUS likely to be sold in 2038, US admiral reveals

ABC, By defence correspondent Andrew Greene, 9 Nov 23

Australia will be sold its first new American nuclear-powered submarine in 2038, according to a senior US naval officer who has also revealed that initial sales of second-hand Virginia-class boats will likely take place in 2032 and 2035.

Key points:

  • US Navy personnel have laid out when they think the first nuclear-powered submarines could be delivered to Australia
  • The first newly constructed boat under the AUKUS deal is expected to be sold in 2038
  • Second-hand Virginia class submarines could be sold in 2032 and 2035

During a separate media event in Sydney, the visiting commander of the US Pacific fleet also assured Australians that this country will maintain full sovereignty over the American technology when it eventually comes into service here.

Speaking in Washington, the US commander of submarine forces, Vice Admiral Bill Houston, provided a provisional timeline for transferring Virginia-class submarines to Australia under the AUKUS partnership.

According to US publication Breaking Defense, Vice Admiral Houston said planned US sales of “in-service submarines” to Australia are expected in 2032 and 2035, while the 2038 sale will be a newly constructed Block VII version of the Virginia-class.

The newly constructed Block VII submarine will not carry the Virginia Payload Module, the mid-body section equipped on certain boats in the fleet that increases its missile capacity.

Under the AUKUS agreement, the United States will sell at least three, and up to five, Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s, before the United Kingdom will then jointly construct a new SSN-AUKUS submarine fleet with Australia.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has not yet commented on the new details of the proposed “optimal pathway” for nuclear-powered submarines, but earlier this week he expressed optimism the project still enjoyed broad political support in the US.

“There is legislation which is going through the US Congress as we speak, legislation which goes to reducing the export control regime as it applies between Australia and America,” Mr Marles said on Tuesday.

“[It is] legislation which will enable the sale of the Virginias but importantly legislation which will enable the provision of the Australian contribution to the American industrial uplift,” he added.

US officials insist the annual production rate of Virginia-class submarines needs to increase from the current level of 1.2 vessels to well above 2 per year, before transfers to Australia can occur………………………………………………  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-09/aukus-submarine-sales-timelines-revealed/103083780

November 9, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Small modular nuclear reactor that was hailed by Coalition as future cancelled due to rising costs

Opposition climate and energy spokesperson had pointed to SMRs as a solution to Australia’s energy needs, but experts raise questions over price tag.

Adam Morton, Guardian, 9 Nov 23

The only small modular nuclear power plant approved in the US – cited by the Australian opposition as evidence of a “burgeoning” global nuclear industry – has been cancelled due to rising costs.

NuScale Power announced on Wednesday that it had dropped plans to build a long-promised “carbon free power project” in Idaho. It blamed the decision on a lack of subscribers for the plant’s electricity.

The Coalition’s energy and climate spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, has cited NuScale’s technology as part of the opposition’s contentious argument that Australia should lift a national ban on nuclear energy and that small modular reactors (SMRs) could be an affordable replacement for its ageing coal-fired power plant

In an opinion piece in the Australian earlier this year, O’Brien said the company’s integrated reactors, starting with the Idaho plant in 2029, offered “exceptional flexibility” and were an example “of a burgeoning nuclear industry for next-generation technology” in the US.

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said SMRs were “the opposition’s only energy policy”.

“The most advanced prototype in the US has been cancelled. The LNP’s plan for energy security is just more hot air from Peter Dutton,” he said………………………………………………………………………………

Industry experts say SMRs are not commercially available, that nuclear energy is more expensive than alternatives and in a best-case scenario could not play a role in Australia for more than a decade, and probably not before 2040. The Australian Energy Market Operator found renewable energy could be providing 96% of the country’s electricity by that time.

The Coalition opposes Labor’s goal of reaching 82% renewable electricity by 2030. It has argued for a slower response to the climate crisis and amplified local concerns about new clean energy and electricity transmission connections.

The projected cost of the NuScale project had blown out from US$3.6bn for 720 megawatts in 2020 to US$9.3bn for 462MW last year. It failed after securing subscriptions for only 20% of the required capital from a Utah-based consortium of electricity companies.

Simon Holmes à Court, a clean energy advocate and commentator and convener of political fundraising body Climate 200, said the estimated capital cost of the Idaho project before it was cancelled was 70% higher than CSIRO projections of what nuclear power plants could cost to build in 2030.

He said this undermined arguments by the Coalition and other nuclear advocates, who had accused the CSIRO of exaggerating the likely cost of nuclear energy.

Holmes à Court said Australia needed a rapid rollout of solar, wind and energy storage. He recently toured nuclear power projects in the US.

“The simple fact is that commercial SMRs don’t exist. There are zero in operation or even contracted for construction outside Russia and China. The cancellation of one of the three leading proposals underscores the speculative nature of this far-off technology,” he said.

“More than two thirds of our coal generators will retire in the next decade due to age. By pushing a unicorn technology the Coalition is posing a threat to the cost and security of Australia’s electricity grid.”  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/09/small-modular-nuclear-reactor-that-was-hailed-by-coalition-as-future-cancelled-due-to-rising-costs
—

November 9, 2023 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Endgame is ‘Destruction of the Idea of Palestine’

The arms manufacturers are thrilled. They’re making money in Ukraine, they’re making money with Israel, because remember, most of this money is going straight to Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, and that’s who’s making the money.

the Palestinians really don’t have many friends. Iran, Qatar, Hezbollah, Syria to a certain extent, but not… Am I, if I had to make an educated guess, I think Israel’s going to get away with it.

Pushing most of the Palestinians out of Gaza and turning most of Gaza into a moonscape, which is they’ve already done with the North.

 I know that’s what they want to do. I mean, that is without question. The question is whether they can be stopped, but I don’t see the forces that are going to stop them.

What Netanyahu’s government aims to achieve in Gaza today is something akin to the Armenian genocide.

SCHEERPOST, 8 Nov 23

One month since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, the Israeli military has slaughtered more than 10,000 Palestinians, including over 4,000 children. International condemnation is growing, with multiple governments withdrawing their ambassadors from Israel and organizations around the world calling for Israel’s leaders to be prosecuted for war crimes. In an Oct. 28 resignation letter, Craig Mokhiber, former Director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted that there is “no room for doubt or debate” that the Israeli government is intentionally perpetuating a genocide of the Palestinian people with the support of the US, EU, and other international actors. Drawing on his decades of experience as a war correspondent and years living in and reporting on Gaza, Chris Hedges joins The Marc Steiner Show to discuss Israel’s endgame: the full elimination and depopulation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and eventually the West Bank.

TRANSCRIPT

Chris Hedges:

Well, most of the people in the Netanyahu government, including Netanyahu himself, have been quite clear for, often decades, what the end game is, and that’s the destruction of the state or even the idea of Palestine. And that will be accomplished through acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. 

And I fully expect things to get worse in Gaza. I mean, they’re bombing the hospitals now. There’s not enough food or water. Israel is impervious to requests from Washington because of the Israel lobby. They have, traditionally Israel, because of the power of the Israel lobby, it doesn’t really matter what any administration wants. They humiliated Biden when he was Vice President and called for a moratorium on settlements, and then the day he was in Jerusalem, announced an expansion of settlements. They bypassed the White House to go speak, by Netanyahu, to go speak before Congress to denounce the Iran deal.

They know that, in essence, the Biden administration can’t touch the military aid and has no ability to really pressure the government to halt this massive bombing campaign. 

…………………the first two weeks, they damaged or destroyed 45% of the housing stock. They’ve dropped, I think, it was just in the first two weeks, 20,000 tons of bombs. I mean, this is a Stalin grad level. It’s as bad as Sarajevo was. It doesn’t come close.

Thousands of Palestinians are trapped under the rubble and they have surrounded the northern part. I mean, they will do it piecemeal. They learn that from the Americans, in Fallujah. You don’t essentially attack on a wide front. You break up your urban areas into sectors that you then dominate. So, they’ve cut off Gaza City from the South, which is Gaza’s largest city, about 700,000 people.

………. I think that it’s saturation bombing. I mean, they will keep the northern part of Gaza corded off, surrounded, but I expect them to kind of bomb their way to victory, or what they’re going to continue or call victory.

……..They don’t really want to start crawling through the rubble fighting Hamas fighters. The tunnels are an issue. We don’t know how big, but they’re big. But they need generators in order to pump down air into the tunnels.

……….I think most of the hostages are probably in the tunnels. This is also a very cynical decision on the part of the Netanyahu government. I don’t think many of those hostages are going to come back. I think they know that and they don’t care. So, they’ve cut off food. In essence, they’ve cut off water. I mean, the trucks that have come over through Rafan are, it’s negligible. It’s a very cynical kind of public relations ploy, but it doesn’t do anything to alleviate the tremendous suffering.

So, I expect that they will push what remains of the Gaza population over the border into the Sinai, into Egypt, and they will never come back. And there have been reports in the Egyptian press that the Americans have approached the CC government. The Egyptian economy is in a mess at over $160 billion in debt. And they will offer financial incentives, and probably if that doesn’t work though, use threats and to do Israel’s bidding. And in essence, Gaza as we know it, and I spent seven years covering Gaza, my office was right in the center of Gaza City, just won’t exist.

……………………………………………………………….. Marc Steiner:

So, I’m thinking about the American end in this, and I know it’s not going to happen, but it seems like the only way conceivably to stop Israel from doing what it’s doing at this moment would be the threat of a cutoff of aid. And when you see inside the Jewish world in America, in the United States, I see it all the time, is a growing body of Jews saying, ‘No, not in our name. We don’t agree,” And whether it’s marches or articles and organizations being developed. So, I mean, that seems to me the only way to stop the madness.

Chris Hedges:

Well, that would be the only way, even that might not work because Israel needs that aid to essentially replenish stockpiles. But they have a pretty robust arsenal. Well, those are the Jews that don’t count. I mean, J Street and Jewish voices for peace don’t count. I mean, for me, they count quite a bit. But I’m talking about in terms of the power structure, and it’s money. I mean, it’s APAC and these Sheldon Adelson type retrograde Jewish billionaires. By the way, they funded Netanyahu. I covered that campaign. Netanyahu was their baby. They created him and they bankrolled him against Rabin.


So, yes, I mean, I think ultimately that’s why I support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction movement, that it is about severing aid and imposing sanctions on Israel. That’s the only weapon we have. We’re very far from achieving that. Even most of the liberal groups don’t support BDS. And the Israel lobby is just so well-funded and so powerful, and they represent a political strain of a very right wing political strain within the American population that it does not, I would guess, represent the political leanings of probably most American Jews.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………for them, it’s the final solution, or their version of the final solution, which is, and they won’t stop. And once they finish with Gaza, they will turn on the West Bank. And they want to create, these are their own words, a kind of religiously pure state, which means the forced exile, ethnic cleansing, whatever you want to call it, of millions of Palestinians, including Christians. I mean, there’s a significant Christian population among the Palestinians. They think they’re going to finish with this problem once and for all.

………………………… the United States is actively backing and supporting the genocide with intelligence, with military support, vetoing, the calls for the ceasefire at the UN, etc. I mean, what you will, you will certainly create blow back probably in the form of terrorism. But once these people are pushed out of their land and permanently thrust into the diaspora, which I think is the plan……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 Well, I mean, it’s not my job to sell hope. That’s not journalism, by the way.

It’s my job to assess the situation as clearly as I can.

………………………………………………….. Israel will become a fascistic state ruled by the ultra orthodox, kind of Jewish version of Iran.

……………………………..Netanyahu’s dismantling of the judiciary is, of course, a huge step in that. But people who speak out against the Netanyahu assault against democracy or the slaughter in Gaza are attacked as traitors and silenced. And I mean, there’s been a huge campaign preceding October 7th against Israeli human rights workers at B’Tselem.

……. And that will just now accelerate. There’ll be no room for dissent

Marc Steiner:……………………………………. And what’s happening in the Palestinian world, I think people don’t really grasp the intensity, the madness, the murder that’s taking place among Palestinians now…………………..

Chris Hedges:

Well, Israel’s cut off all the internet and cell phone service because when you carry out genocide, you block the ability of the victims to reach the outside world. That’s standard.

……….. it’s about the wholesale destruction of people, and all of the mechanisms by which you can destroy a people. The denial of food, the denial of water, the denial of safety, the ability to flee, fleeing to the south. They’re bombing the south. They’re bombing the supposedly corridors that they set up to go to the south. It’s indiscriminate, dropping 2,000 pound bombs on Jabalia, on refugee camps. Jabalia, I’ve been in, spent a lot of time in Jabalia. So, Gaza is one of the most densely packed spots on the planet, but Jabalia is the most densely packed spot in Gaza, and I think they bombed it three times. Nobody knows the number of dead because-

……… … thousands are under the rubble. So, that indiscriminate, they’re bombing hospitals. I mean, they say, “Well, they’re terrorist command centers, or Hamas command centers.” They’re bombing hospitals, they’ve cut off the fuel. The babies in incubators are dying. I mean, that’s genocide.

………………………… the wild card is whether it ignites a regional conflagration. So, that would begin in Lebanon with Hezbollah, but it wouldn’t begin unless Iran green-lighted it. I don’t think that Iran or Hezbollah wants to ignite a regional conflagration, but that’s the wild card. I mean, things can just go wrong. I’ve covered enough war that once you open that Pandora’s box and let all those evil spirits out, they control you. It doesn’t control… You don’t control it.

So yeah, things could go wrong that way. The arms manufacturers are thrilled. They’re making money in Ukraine, they’re making money with Israel, because remember, most of this money is going straight to Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, and that’s who’s making the money. So, I don’t… The Palestinians have always been friendless, powerless. And the Arab states are very duplicitous about their commitment, which is largely rhetorical, and they’re quite happy to sell the Palestinian’s outing. There’s a lot of animus towards, I mean, for instance, Egypt hates Hamas because Hamas was born out of the Muslim brotherhood, and they, CC with us and Israeli backing, seized power to essentially prevent a Muslim brotherhood government from running Egypt.

So, the Palestinians really don’t have many friends. Iran, Qatar, Hezbollah, Syria to a certain extent, but not… Am I, if I had to make an educated guess, I think Israel’s going to get away with it.

Pushing most of the Palestinians out of Gaza and turning most of Gaza into a moonscape, which is they’ve already done with the North.

I  know that’s what they want to do. I mean, that is without question. The question is whether they can be stopped, but I don’t see the forces that are going to stop them.

…………………..Marc Steiner:

Mainstream media is not really giving the people here [inaudible 00:25:15]…………………………………………………………………………………more https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/08/chris-hedges-israels-endgame-is-destruction-of-the-idea-of-palestine/ #Israel #Palestine

November 9, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Preventing AI Nuclear Armageddon.

Nov 8, 2023,MELISSA PARKE https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dangers-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-applications-nuclear-weapons-by-melissa-parke-2023-11

Nuclear history is rife with near-misses, with disaster averted by a human who chose to trust their own judgment, rather than blindly follow the information provided by machines. Applying artificial intelligence to nuclear weapons increases the chances that, next time, nobody will stop the launch.

GENEVA – It is no longer science fiction: the race to apply artificial intelligence to nuclear-weapons systems is underway – a development that could make nuclear war more likely. With governments worldwide acting to ensure the safe development and application of AI, there is an opportunity to mitigate this danger. But if world leaders are to seize it, they must first recognize just how serious the threat is.

In recent weeks, the G7 agreed on the Hiroshima Process International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems, in order to “to promote safe, secure, and trustworthy AI worldwide,” and US President Joe Biden issued an executive order establishing new standards for AI “safety and security.” The United Kingdom also hosted the first global AI Safety Summit, with the goal of ensuring that the technology is developed in a “safe and responsible” manner.

But none of these initiatives adequately addresses the risks posed by the application of AI to nuclear weapons. 

Both the G7 code of conduct and Biden’s executive order refer only in passing to the need to protect populations from AI-generated chemical, biological, and nuclear threats. And UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not mention the acute threat posed by nuclear-weapons-related AI applications at all, even as he declared that a shared understanding of the risks posed by AI had been reached at the AI Safety Summit.

No one doubts the existential risks posed by the use of nuclear weapons, which would wreak untold devastation on humanity and the planet. Even a regional nuclear war would kill hundreds of thousands of people directly, while leading to significant indirect suffering and death. The resulting climatic changes alone would threaten billions with starvation.

Nuclear history is rife with near-misses. All too often, Armageddon was averted by a human who chose to trust their own judgment, rather than blindly follow the information provided by machines. In 1983, the Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov received an alarm from the early-warning satellite system he was monitoring: American nuclear missiles had been detected heading toward the Soviet Union. But rather than immediately alert his superiors, surely triggering nuclear “retaliation,” Petrov rightly determined that it was a false alarm.

Would Petrov have made the same call – or even had the opportunity to do so – if AI had been involved? In fact, applying machine learning to nuclear weapons will reduce human control over decisions to deploy them.

Of course, a growing number of command, control, and communications tasks have been automated since nuclear weapons were invented. But, as machine learning advances, the process whereby advanced machines make decisions is becoming increasingly opaque – what is known as AI’s “black box problem.” This makes it difficult for humans to monitor a machine’s functioning, let alone determine whether it has been compromised, is malfunctioning, or has been programmed in such a way that could lead to illegal or unintentional outcomes.

Simply ensuring that a human makes the final launch decision would not be enough to mitigate these risks. As psychologist John Hawley concluded in a 2017 study, “Humans are very poor at meeting the monitoring and intervention demands imposed by supervisory control.”

Moreover, as Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security showed in 2020, leaders’ decision-making processes in a nuclear crisis are already very rushed. Even if AI is merely used in sensors and targeting, rather than to make launch decisions – it will shorten the already tight timescale for deciding whether to strike. The added pressure on leaders will increase the risk of miscalculation or irrational choices.

Yet another risk arises from the use of AI in satellite and other intelligence-detection systems: this will make it more difficult to hide nuclear weapons, such as ballistic-missile submarines, that have historically been concealed. This could spur nuclear-armed countries to deploy all their nuclear weapons earlier in a conflict – before their adversaries get a chance to immobilize known nuclear systems.

So far, no initiative – from Biden’s executive order to the G7’s code of conduct – has gone beyond a voluntary commitment to ensure that humans retain control of nuclear-weapons decision-making. But, as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has noted, a legally binding treaty banning “lethal autonomous weapons systems” is crucial.

While such a treaty is a necessary first step, however, much more needs to be done. When it comes to nuclear weapons, trying to anticipate, mitigate, or regulate the new risks created by emerging technologies will never be enough. We must remove these weapons from the equation entirely.

This means that all governments must commit to stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons by joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which offers a clear path toward a world without such arms. It also means that nuclear-armed states must immediately stop investing in modernizing and expanding their nuclear arsenals, including in the name of making them “safe” or “secure” from cyberattacks. Given the insurmountable risks posed by the mere existence of nuclear weapons, such efforts are fundamentally futile.

We know that autonomous systems may lower the threshold to engage in armed conflict. When applied to nuclear weapons, AI is adding another layer of risk to an already unacceptable level of danger. It is critical that policymakers and the public recognize this, and fight not only to avoid applying AI to nuclear weapons, but to eliminate such weapons entirely. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 9, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear (and other) news this week

Some bits of good news:  Abandoned Ohio Golf Course Being Rewilded into Public Land with Native Fish and Wildlife Returning.  There was an ‘outbreak of common sense’ in England.    A teen started an ambitious coral reef restoration project that’s planted more than 50,000 corals in French Polynesia and Fiji.   The world has made substantial progress in increasing basic levels of education.

TOP STORIES. The Invisible Slaughter of Palestinian Children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBmM5fvQWE8     Leaked: Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Israel in Search of Its Hiroshima: Massive Bomb Wipes Out 20 Apt. Buildings, Kills, Wounds 400 Civilians. 

Book review of “Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste”.

Climate. Deep divisions could hamper progress at the UN’s crucial COP28 climate summit. Future of fossil fuels leaves nations at odds ahead of UN climate summit. We can now stay under 1.5°C target only if we achieve net zero by 2034

Nuclear -sort of off the radar at the moment, though the Middle East could soon be on the brink.  But -nuclear power – no connection with weapons?   As the media hypes up small nuclear reactors.

Christina Notes. Let’s just bust all those comfortable Panglossian lies and stupidities.  The Atlas Network and its toxic messages to the Stink Tanks.   (Wow – at last my site is now labelled “suspicious”)

**************************************

AUSTRALIA. Australia must lobby US for ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons, says ex-minister Gareth Evans. Mapping the revolving door between government and the weapons industry- Defence continues its blanket secrecy on weapons exports. Targeting Gaza From US Spy Hub in Australia.                Is nuclear the answer to Australia’s climate crisis?                   Australian leadership in Indo‑Pacific nuclear diplomacy.

ARTS and CULTURE. As The Lights Go Out In Gaza.

CLIMATE. Storm Ciarán: Hinkley Point C workers transported off site.Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament : Nuclear war, conventional war and climate change are linked.

CIVIL LIBERTIES. UK poised to brand dissent as ‘extremism’ .

ECONOMICS. 

ENERGY. Nuclear plays minor role in IEA World Energy Outlook 2023.          Environmental Advocates fear New Hampshire “clean” nuclear energy proposal would pit nuclear against solar, wind.        Solar panel advances will see millions go off grid, scientists predict.

ENVIRONMENT. Ocean. China calls for a long-term international monitoring mechanism for Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater . Dounreay: New two radioactive particles found at Sandside beach.

ETHICS and RELIGION. The Moral Complexities Of Bombing A Concentration Camp Full Of Children.

LEGAL. 1,500+ Israelis Urge International Criminal Court Action on ‘War Crimes and Genocide’ in Gaza. Together Against Sizewell C wait on outcome of battle with government over new nuclear power plant. Sizewell C campaigners wait for ruling on latest court fight over nuclear plant. Court of Appeal hearing into Sizewell C set to begin. Sizewell C nuclear plant project disputed at Court of Appeal.

MEDIA. Media Manufactures Consent for Gaza Genocide. When the Journalists are Gone, the Stories Will Disappear.

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY. Bad guys and bombs: The nuclear risks of small modular reactors.

OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . Nuclear Ban Treaty Members to Meet in November.

PERSONAL STORIES ‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight. The cost of America’s nuclear arsenal: Taking care of our atomic veterans.

POLITICS. 

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. U.S., European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine. EU may become complicit in ‘genocide’ – Spanish official. China agrees to nuclear arms-control talks with US -WSJ. Macron pursues nuclear deals in Russia’s back yard. A small victory for nuclear justice. And international cooperation.

PROTESTS. Worldwide protests against Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

SAFETY. Nuclear plant problems have happened across the planet, and aging facilities across USA still pose a major threat. How well protected are Ukraine’s nuclear power plants? 3-day evacuation drill at Niigata nuclear plant called ‘useless’. Two more Japanese nuclear reactors granted 20-year extensions. Switzerland continues its nuclear safety awareness with iodine pills distributed to the population .

SECRETS and LIES. Biden Wants Arms Deals With Israel to Be Done in Complete Secrecy. Chris Hedges: Israel’s Final Solution for the Palestinians.

SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Number of planned low-orbit satellites NOW EXCEEDS ONE MILLION.

SPINBUSTER. There’s Only So Much Propaganda Spin You Can Put On The Murder Of Thousands Of Children.

WASTES. Nuclear Waste Management market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 1.4% by 2034: Visiongain. Deb Katz: There’s no end in sight to the crisis in nuclear waste. Decommissioning: Magnox rebrands to Nuclear Restoration Services as its decommissioning portfolio expands. 300 scientists call for finding safe site to store nuclear waste.

WAR and CONFLICT. Israel Rejects US-Proposed Temporary Halt to Fighting.  Netanyahu Rejects Calls for Ceasefire as Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 8,300.       A Dangerous Conflation -an open letter from Jewish writers. Rights group: Israel dropped equivalent to 2 nuclear bombs on Gaza.       Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 29: Israel Hits Hospitals, Ambulances, and Schools Across Gaza.      Israeli minister Amichai Eliyahu says nuclear attack on Gaza is ‘an option‘.      NewsReal: Ukraine War Ends, Mid-East War Begins? Why America is Shifting Gears.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. 

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Christina reviews | Leave a comment

Showboating for War: Johnson and Morrison in Israel

November 7, 2023,  Dr Binoy Kampmark,  https://theaimn.com/showboating-for-war-johnson-and-morrison-in-israel/

Banished Prime Ministers are an irritation. They clog the airwaves of punditry with their views about how things were and how things should be. But even there, degrees of severity and competence should be observed. The more noble sorts would pursue the goals of peace, even as they bag large wads of cash in stating the obvious. With former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and his disgraced counterpart from the UK, Boris Johnson, the cash is being forked out for war.

That Israeli authorities thought it suitable to invite these two men to bolster their war against Hamas shows a degree of deep desperation. Johnson, a serial rule breaker when it came to his own government’s pandemic regulations, was forced to resign as PM by his own Conservative party in June this year. He proved to be persistently and pathologically mendacious, a ragtag mix of contemptuousness and buffoonery.

Only Australia’s own Morrison could have possibly kept up, secretly commandeering, without knowledge of his own Cabinet, up to five different ministries in addition to his own. Despite losing the May 2022 election to Labor’s Anthony Albanese, he remains a sitting federal member, when not avidly think-tanking for anti-China causes and the US imperium.

As Gaza City is being systematically liquidated, pulverised, demolished and destroyed by Israeli firepower, these two men have decided to cheer matters on with their equivalent of pompoms and drums. The Israeli Defence Force needs all the help it can get in destroying any vestige of Palestinian political power in the small settlement, and history lessons are not what interests them. While Johnson is infinitely more informed about history than Morrison, both were united in their cheap showboating exercise.

Their Israeli hosts, assured that they would never be questioned, took the men to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the place where 100 residents met their fate at the hands of the al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of Hamas, on October 7. Here was a chance to compress and cleanse history, to give it that ethical clarity Morrison and Johnson always resisted as prime ministers. It was Johnson’s wish that the world would be able to see what had taken place “so people could be under no illusion about the savagery, the sadism, the lack of humanity of Hamas terrorists.”

That word, again: humanity. The humanity exorcised from any assessment of Palestinian worth, sovereignty, liberty. A humanity reserved for a certain type of privileged victimhood, one rarified in the cool atmosphere of exceptionalism known as God’s chosen people drawn from a document part fiction, part history. It follows that the retaliatory steps taken in prosecuting any response will be justified. “Of course,” Johnson emphasises, “it is right for Israel to take the necessary steps… to stop that happening again.”

On Channel 12 news, Johnson stressed the need to keep the moral compass steady and free of any regard for the Palestinians or their cause: “[S]ince that appalling massacre of October 7, you’re seeing a kind of fog descend, a moral fog, and I just want to remind people of the absolute barbarism of what took place and to make it clear that Israel has the right to defend itself.” With emphasis, he stated that, “There can be no moral equivalence between the terrorism of Hamas and the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces.”

When given the chance to talk about pursuing a ceasefire in the name of ecumenical grace, Johnson was curt. Think of those 240 hostages held by Hamas. “[W]hen you have a crime of this scale, and when there’s the possibility of it happening again, I don’t think it’s the business of the world to tell Israel to stop.” Forget international law, humanitarian restraint on the use of force, proportionate response, and conduct might just find itself within the margins of the tolerable.

Morrison, for his part, saw the trip as “an opportunity to understand firsthand what is occurring on the ground, honour those who have been lost, show support for those who have suffered and are now engaged in this terrible conflict and discuss how to move forward.” He also argued against a ceasefire, as this would only “advantage Hamas to be able to strengthen their positions and make this war go on for even longer”.

As for the matter of making sure the attacks of October 7 are never repeated, the point is all too obvious. It will keep happening again with dreary, bloody predictability. If not next year, then the next decade. Or generation. Eliminating Hamas will simply be a bloody pruning exercise verging on genocide, allowing fresh vegetation to thrive. The forest of vengeance will continue to grow; the thousands of children who survive will never forgive the IDF for what they have done and continue to do. Each dead family brings with it a family of converts for the Palestinian cause. Israel’s publicity relations wonks would be best advised to pay Johnson and Morrison and wish them on their merry way.

November 7, 2023 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

US Says It’s Powerless To Stop The Genocide That It Is Directly Funding And Supplying

Of course the US can stop this. Of course it can. The US is currently pouring weapons into Israel on an almost daily basis, is pouring billions of dollars into Israel and is preparing to pour in billions more, and is currently physically assisting Israeli operations in Gaza with drones and special operations forces while US warships swarm the eastern Mediterranean. All of this can easily be pulled away if Israel refuses to stop murdering children by the thousands in an indiscriminate bombing campaign that reportedly isn’t even doing any meaningful damage to Hamas.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE. NOV 6, 2023

In a bizarre new article titled “White House frustrated by Israel’s onslaught but sees few options,” The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration believes Israel has gone too far and is killing too many civilians in its assault on Gaza, but are powerless to do anything about it.

The Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb writes the following, citing anonymous US officials:

“As Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza escalates, the Biden administration finds itself in a precarious position: Administration officials say Israel’s counterattack against Hamas has been too severe, too costly in civilian casualties, and lacking a coherent endgame, but they are unable to exert significant influence on America’s closest ally in the Middle East to change its course.

“U.S. efforts to get Israel to scale back its counterattack in response to the Oct. 7 killings by Hamas that left at least 1,400 Israelis dead have failed or fallen short. The Biden administration urged Israel against a ground invasion, privately asked it to consider proportionality in its attacks, advocated a higher priority on avoiding civilian deaths, and called for a humanitarian pause — only for Israeli officials to dismiss or reject all those suggestions.

“In recent days, they said, the administration has become deeply uncomfortable with some of Israel’s tactics. Last week, Israel bombed the densely packed Jabalya refugee camp two days in a row, an attack that Israel said killed a Hamas leader but that also killed dozens of civilians. On Friday, an Israeli airstrike hit near the entrance of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a strike the Israeli military said was aimed at an ambulance ‘being used by a Hamas terrorist cell.’ And Israeli authorities recently expelled thousands of Palestinians who had been in Israel for work, sending them back into Gaza even as it continues to bomb the enclave.”

All this helpless hand-wringing is exposed for the load of ridiculous bullshit that it plainly is a few paragraphs down in the very same article:

“Washington is Israel’s largest military backer, and the White House has asked Congress for an additional $14 billion in aid for Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks. But administration officials and advisers say the levers the United States theoretically has over Israel, such as conditioning military aid on making the military campaign more targeted, are nonstarters, partly because they would be so politically unpopular in any administration and partly because, aides say, Biden himself has a personal attachment to Israel.”

So the Biden administration does in fact have tons of leverage it can use to stop the genocidal massacre in Gaza, it just doesn’t want to because it would be “politically unpopular” and because “Biden himself has a personal attachment to Israel.” 

The US president does indeed have a personal attachment to Israel. Biden has proudly described himself as a Zionist, and has gone on record to say that if Israel didn’t exist the United States would have to invent an Israel to advance its interests in the middle east.

We’ve been asked to believe a lot of very stupid things since this onslaught began last month, but the idea that the Biden administration is powerless to stop a genocide that it is directly arming and supplying has got to be the absolute stupidest.

Of course the US can stop this. Of course it can. The US is currently pouring weapons into Israel on an almost daily basis, is pouring billions of dollars into Israel and is preparing to pour in billions more, and is currently physically assisting Israeli operations in Gaza with drones and special operations forces while US warships swarm the eastern Mediterranean. All of this can easily be pulled away if Israel refuses to stop murdering children by the thousands in an indiscriminate bombing campaign that reportedly isn’t even doing any meaningful damage to Hamas.

What’s that? You didn’t know this murderous bombing campaign is doing no meaningful damage to Hamas? Well let’s clear that up then.

A new report by The New York Times cites an anonymous US military official saying that Israel “has not come close” to destroying Hamas leadership or even its mid-level command.

“One senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said the operations so far have not come close to destroying Hamas’s senior and middle leadership ranks,” The New York Times reports………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: the US is every bit as culpable for the murder of all these civilians as Israel. Don’t let the empire’s narrative managers try to tell you different.  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/us-says-its-powerless-to-stop-the?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=138626181&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Doomsday weapon” Israel’s worst kept secret

‘That’s one way’: Israeli cabinet minister says nuking Gaza is an option

Fears that the war against Hamas could spiral into a wider regional conflict have again raised the spectre of Israel’s “worst-kept secret”.

Frank Chung, news.com.au 6 Nov 23

A far-right minister in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has sparked fury after suggesting Israel could nuke Gaza.

The comments, which made headlines in Arab and Israeli media, were quickly disavowed by Mr Netanyahu, who immediately suspended Mr Eliyahu from cabinet meetings……………………………………………………………………….

Israel’s nukes

Fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could spiral into a wider regional conflict have again raised the spectre of nuclear weapons — and Israel’s own “worst kept secret”.

Israel is widely believed to have around 80 to 90 plutonium-based nuclear warheads, and enough material for more than 200, making it one of only nine nuclear-armed countries alongside Russia, the US, China, France, the UK, Pakistan, India and North Korea.

The arsenal consists of an estimated 30 gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft, with the remainder of the warheads for delivery by missiles.

The Jericho II medium-range ballistic missile and Jericho III intermediate-range ballistic missile “are believed to be based with their mobile launchers in caves at a military base east of Jerusalem”, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says.

According to Professor Clive Williams from the ANU’s Centre for Military and Security Law and Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Jericho II has an estimated range of 1500 to 1800 kilometres, while the Jericho III can reach more than 4000 kilometres.

Israel also operates a fleet of around half a dozen Dolphin-class diesel-electric submarines out of the northern port city of Haifa.

A number of the German-built submarines are commonly thought to have been adapted to carry cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads to maintain a second-strike option.

“An estimated 30-40 nuclear weapons have been allocated to the submarines, with a possible missile delivery range of up to 1500 kilometres,” Prof Williams writes.

While never openly acknowledging its capability, Israel has issued veiled threats in the past.

“Our submarine fleet is used first and foremost to deter our enemies who strive to extinguish us,” Mr Netanyahu said in 2016. “They must know that Israel is capable of hitting back hard against anyone who seeks to hurt us.”

‘Nuclear ambiguity’

Officially, Israel refuses to confirm or deny its secret nuclear weapons program, and is not party to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The policy, known as “nuclear ambiguity” or “nuclear opacity”, dates back more than five decades to a 1969 Oval Office meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and US President Richard Nixon, after nearly a decade of tension between the two countries over the issue.

The two leaders reached an unwritten agreement that effectively amounted to “don’t ask, don’t tell” — Israel would agree not to declare, test or threaten to use nuclear weapons, and the US would not pressure Israel to sign the NPT, which had been co-sponsored and signed by the US the previous year.

Despite this, Israel is suspected to have carried out an illegal nuclear test in 1979, roughly halfway between South Africa and Antarctica — an incident quickly swept under the rug by the Carter White House.

Israel began developing its nuclear program in the 1950s and is believed to have produced its first nuclear weapon in the late ‘60s.

The US government had first caught wind of Israel’s secret nuclear reactor — located in the Negev desert near the city of Dimona and built with the assistance of the French — in 1960.

The Americans, fearful of a Middle East arms race, for several years put pressure on the Israelis to inspect Dimona, with Israel going so far as to build a fake control centre at the plant to mask its true purpose.

“The Israelis, who are one of the few peoples whose survival is genuinely threatened, are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons,” national security adviser Henry Kissinger told President Nixon in a declassified 1969 memo.

“This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us and may even have stolen from us.”……………………………………………………………….

Successive US presidents honoured this unwritten agreement until it was formalised into a secret letter during the Clinton administration.

According to a 2018 report in The New Yorker, the letter — first signed by President Bill Clinton and known only to a handful of senior officials — amounted to an American pledge not to pressure Israel to give up its nuclear weapons as long as it continued to face existential threats in the region.

“In the letter, according to former officials, President Bill Clinton assured the Jewish state that no future American arms-control initiative would ‘detract’ from Israel’s ‘deterrent’ capabilities, an oblique but clear reference to its nuclear arsenal,” investigative journalist Adam Entous wrote…………..

Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump each signed updated versions of the letter.

Vanunu scandal

The existence of Israel’s nuclear program was only revealed to the general public in 1986 when UK newspaper The Sunday Times published a bombshell story featuring whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, a former Dimona technician.

Vanunu provided the paper with details and photos of the inner workings of the nuclear plant.

“Based on his revelations, some experts estimated that Israel had built between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons of varying yields and complexity,” writes the Nuclear Threat Initiative……………………………………………………………………………..

‘Doomsday weapon’

In the wake of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, which left 1400 Israelis dead and more than 240 taken hostage, fears have grown that any widening of the conflict could involve nuclear weapons……………………

Mr Eliyahu is not the first Israeli politician to suggest using “doomsday” weapons against the Palestinian terror group.

“Jericho missile! Jericho missile! A strategic alert, before we consider introducing our forces. A doomsday weapon!” Revital Gotliv wrote in a post on X two days after the attacks. “This is my opinion. May God preserve all our strength.”

Ms Gotliv, a member of Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party with a history of making inflammatory comments, wrote in a follow-up post that Israel should show no mercy in battling Hamas.

“Only an explosion that shakes the Middle East will restore this country’s dignity, strength, and security! It’s time to kiss doomsday,” she said.

“Shooting powerful missiles without limit. Not flattening a neighbourhood. Crushing and flattening Gaza. Otherwise, we would have done nothing. Not with passwords, with penetrating bombs. Without mercy! Without mercy!”

The post was tagged with a disclaimer by the social media platform that its visibility had been limited as it “may violate X’s rules against Violent Speech”, Insider reported.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), warned last month that “Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons significantly increases the risks associated with the conflict and contributes to regional tensions”.

“Escalation is a real danger,” a spokeswoman told The South China Morning Post frank.chung@news.com.au https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/thats-one-way-israeli-cabinet-minister-says-nuking-gaza-is-an-option/news-story/7822218dceeb4c77e2204d30e1da292b #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #Israel #Palestine

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Biden Wants Arms Deals With Israel to Be Done in Complete Secrecy

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Josh Paul, a former top State Department official.

By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT November 2, 2023, https://truthout.org/articles/biden-wants-arms-deals-with-israel-to-be-done-in-complete-secrecy/

In a highly unusual move, the White House has requested for it to be able to conduct arms deals with Israel in complete secrecy, without oversight from Congress or the public — in a time when the U.S. is supporting a military that experts say has been committing war crimes in Gaza and beyond.

The White House made the request within a $106 billion supplemental defense funding request sent on October 20. As reported by Women for Weapons Trade Transparency for In These Times, the White House is asking for up to $3.5 billion in military funding for Israel to be able to purchase weapons and other equipment, from sources like the U.S. military or U.S. defense contractors, without the spending having to be approved by or even disclosed to Congress.

Crucially, such notifications to Congress are also logged in the Federal Register, where they are viewable to the public — but the White House is trying to get rid of that transparency for Israel for funding through September 2025 and potentially beyond if Israel chooses to set aside funding before then.

Experts have said that the move is alarming and rare. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Josh Paul, the former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in the State Department, told In These Times. Within the State Department, where he worked for 11 years, Paul helped the bureau in its work on arms deals and resigned in protest of a push to increase arms sales to Israel amid its genocidal siege on Gaza.

​“A proposal in a legislative request to Congress to waive Congressional notification entirely for [Foreign Military Financing ]-funded Foreign Military Sales or Direct Commercial Contracts is unprecedented in my experience,” Paul said. “Frankly, [it’s] an insult to Congressional oversight prerogatives.”

Paul added that the White House is already allowed to unilaterally approve foreign military transactions in “emergency” situations but still has to notify Congress. The move, then, seems calculated to specifically create opacity around Israel sales. “This doesn’t actually reduce the time, it just reduces the oversight,” he said.

John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal fellow on U.S. issues for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told In These Times that Congress should reject the White House’s request. “The waiver would further undermine meaningful scrutiny of weapons sales on Capitol Hill at a time when U.S. support is enabling bombings that have killed thousands of civilians,” Chappell said.

The request comes as the Biden administration has sought to crush dissent on its support of Israel, even within its own ranks. A new report by HuffPost published Thursday found that Biden officials are sidelining work within the State Department on the atrocities that Israel is committing in Gaza, seeking to seemingly cover up the issue and disallow employees from speaking up against the genocide.

Citing Paul and five workers within the agency, the outlet reports that State Department staff have been told by higher ups that they are not going to be able to move the needle on the executive branch’s approach to Israel, no matter their credentials or the horrific things they report coming out of Gaza.

The workers say work from staff on conditions in Gaza is being ignored — perhaps like a recent internal State Department report finding that over 80,000 babies under six months and pregnant people in Gaza are being forced to drink contaminated or brackish water due to Israel’s blockade.

Rather, State Department staff told HuffPost, the administration seems to be sweeping aside evidence of the humanitarian crisis and genocide, even from its own staff, in favor of fealty to Israel’s fascistic military and leaders. At listening sessions within the agency, discussion about the genocide is redirected to fears of antisemitism, while some staff, particularly Muslim workers, say that they feel like they have to censor themselves.

This culture of silence is happening even as senior agency officials may acknowledge in private that Israel is committing war crimes, according to the report. “Over the past weeks, as I have heard from numerous officials across both the executive and legislative branches, it has become clear to me that many senior leaders not only fully understand how Israel is currently using U.S.-provided arms in Gaza, but are even, behind closed doors, willing to acknowledge that these actions include ‘war crimes,’” Paul told HuffPost. “The fact that none are willing to do so publicly … points to a deep moral rot in our system.” #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #Israel #Palestine

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 29: Israel Hits Hospitals, Ambulances, and Schools Across Gaza

Israel targeted an ambulance convoy at al-Shifa hospital, while other schools and hospitals were targeted as Israel doubles down on lifesaving civilian infrastructure. Meanwhile, Palestinian workers from Gaza return, recounting torture.

SCHEERPOST, By Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau / Mondoweiss 5 Nov 23

CASUALTIES

  • 9,448 Palestinians killed, including 3,900 children, and 24,158 wounded in Gaza
  • 145 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

  • Israel claims attack on ambulance convoy at al-Shifa hospital, killing at least 15 people.
  • Israeli forces bomb at least one other hospital and an UNRWA school where thousands had taken shelter, as UNRWA warns that UN flag “cannot even provide [Palestinians] safety.”
  • Thousands of Palestinian workers who were arbitrarily detained after October 7 are deported back to Gaza, and recount violent beatings, interrogation, and imprisonment.
  • ‘Alarming’ Israeli army and settler violence continues in the occupied West Bank, as at least one Palestinian teenager is killed.
  • Several Arab states hold a meeting in Jordan on Saturday, set to meet with U.S. envoy.
  • Honduras recalls its ambassador to Israel over its “genocide” in Gaza.
  • Pro-Palestine activists prevent U.S. military ship believed to be headed to Israel from leaving Oakland, California port.
  • National March on Washington, D.C. scheduled for Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza

GAZA HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, MOSQUES, AND WATER TANKS — NOWHERE IS SAFE

Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza somehow reached further lows nearly a month on, as the army attacked an ambulance convoy outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Friday, killing 15 people and injuring 60, the Gaza Ministry of Health said. One of those killed has been identified as journalist Haitham Hararah.

The ambulances were due to transfer a number of injured people through to the Rafah crossing to receive medical treatment in Egypt. While 28 people were due to enter Egypt on Friday, 11 of them were blocked from leaving Gaza because of the attack on al-Shifa.

Unlike some other attacks on medical facilities, the Israeli army promptly claimed responsibility for the airstrike, claiming that the ambulances were used by Hamas — an allegation that the Gaza Ministry of Health forcefully rejected, noting that at least 27 ambulances, and 105 health institutions have been targeted by Israel in the past four weeks. Some 150 health personnel have been killed, while 16 hospitals and 32 primary care centers have been put out of service by airstrikes and dire fuel shortages, it added………………………………………….

Meanwhile U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified”. “Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children and women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed, and bombed out of their homes,” Guterres said. “This must stop.”

The airstrike at al-Shifa was far from the only Israeli attack on spaces defined as “protected civilian objects” under international law in the span of 24 hours.

On Saturday, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that another strike had hit Al-Nasr children’s hospital in Gaza City, killing at least two people……………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/05/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-29-israel-hits-hospitals-ambulances-and-schools-across-gaza/ #Israel #Palestine

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Solar panel advances will see millions go off grid, scientists predict

Solar energy costs have fallen 90 per cent over the last decade, while new discoveries have seen efficiency rates rise

Anthony Cuthbertson

 More than 30 million homes in Europe could meet all their energy needs
using rooftop solar panels alone, according to a new study. Researchers
from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany found that more than
50 per cent of Europe’s 41 million freestanding homes could have been
self-sufficient in 2020 using just solar and batteries, with this figure
expected to rise to 75 per cent by 2050.

Advances with solar technology
mean that it will also make it economically viable for a portion of these
freestanding single-family homes to abandon the electrical grid altogether
in the coming decades. Rather than abandoning the grid altogether, however,
the researchers said it would make more sense at a macroeconomic scale for
households to remain connected and feed excess energy back to other users
during times of overproduction.

 Independent 3rd Nov 2023

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-panels-cost-renewable-energy-b2440891.html #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

TODAY. The Atlas Network and its toxic messages to the Stink Tanks- especially relevant to Australia

Especially relevant to Australia? Why?

Because they just had a major victory – filling the public with fear and distrust, and so winning the “NO” vote against an indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Who are the the Stink Tanks?

Posing as impartial advisers, these “Think Tanks” provide reports and articles designed to direct governments, and educational and other social organisations, towards policies that improve the profits of big corporations, and remove barriers to their profits, The barriers would be regulations, especially those involved with protecting the environment, and the rights of indigenous people.

How does the Atlas Network operate to spread these messages?

Apart from some funding, and training support, the real focus of the Atlas Network is on LANGUAGE –teaching the stink tanks how to use words to manipulate thinking. George Orwell alerted the world to the way in which fascism uses language, and wrote of Newspeak. Now the Atlas Network perfects the method – repetitively using vague and deceptive words to convey a lying message that is aimed at molding public opinion.

Sometimes these words are straightout lies: sometimes just vague words in which the meaning is distorted. The word “Elite” is a good example – now used to discredit scientists and other experts, so that the public comes to distrust them, and to rubbish their opinions, and their reports, particularly about regulations to protect the environment and indigenous rights.

FEAR is indeed the currency of the Atlas Network. Fear and distrust of regulations, of officers and organisations involved in human rights and environmental protection. So these stink tanks work to weaken laws, and discredit agencies of human support – such as the United Nations.

Side by side with those messages of fear, come the lying messages of reassurance – for example the story that global heating is not happening, or, if it is, it has nothing to do with human activities, -greenhouse gas emissions. So we don’t need to worry, or to do anything to stop these emissions. So we are reassured that nuclear power is “clean “green” “safe” “cheap” “nothing to do with weapons” .

What is the motive of the Atlas Network?

Are they evil? Wanting to harm people? Hating the environment?

NO – it’s just one simple thing – company profits. Freedom – defined as – Nothing should impede corporate profits.

This month we shall no doubt see some wonderful activity by the hundreds of stink tanks affiliated with the Atlas Network, leading up to, and beyond, the COP 28 Climate Summit, as they parrot out soothing messages about how all is well, in control, we don’t need to act on climate change.

And who funds the Atlas Network?

 Fossil fuel companies and tobacco firms. Atlas has received funding from Koch Family Foundations,  the Bradley Foundation. DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. The Atlas Network receives much of its funding from libertarian and right-wing organizations and individuals

What can we do about this?

Well, I don’t know – but at least we can be alert to their language – alert to those repetitive, misleading words:

There are the “hooray” words – “justice”, “life”, “freedom” and those “positives” – “clean” “green” etc.

There are the “negatives” -“Hitler, “taxes” – and words used negatively “elites” “bureaucrat”, “government official” and “public servant “.

And as well, there are vague, really, almost meaningless words – that waffle, weaken, and obscure the argument- “may” “can” “could” “might” , “arguably”.

November 5, 2023 Posted by | Christina reviews | Leave a comment

Targeting Gaza From US Spy Hub in Australia

Peter Cronau reports on Canberra’s secret support for Israel’s brutal assault on Palestinians in Gaza through NSA intelligence satellites in the U.S. Pine Gap base near Alice Springs. 

Peter Cronau, Declassified Australia  https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/03/targeting-gaza-from-us-spy-hub-in-australia/

The Pine Gap U.S. surveillance base located outside of Alice Springs in Australia is collecting an enormous range of communications and electronic intelligence from the brutal Gaza-Israel battlefield — and this data is being provided to the Israel Defence Forces.

Two large Orion geosynchronous signals intelligence satellites, belonging to the U.S. and operated from Pine Gap, are located 36,000 kms above the equator over the Indian Ocean. Frosxxxdxxxxxm there, they look down on the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and gather huge amounts of intelligence data to beam back to the Pine Gap base.xxxxxc

After collecting and analysing the communications and intelligence data for the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Pine Gap is providing it to the Israel Defence Forces, as it steps up its brutal assault on Palestinians in the Gaza enclave.

Pine Gap facility is monitoring the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas with all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel,” a former Pine Gap employee has told Declassified Australia.

David Rosenberg worked inside Pine Gap as “team leader of weapon signals analysis” for 18 years until 2008. He is a 23-year veteran of the NSA. 

“Pine Gap has satellites overhead. Every one of those assets would be on those locations, looking for anything that could help them.”

“Pine Gap facility is monitoring the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas with all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel.”

Rosenberg says the personnel at Pine Gap are tasked with collecting signals such as “command and control” centres in Gaza, with Hamas headquarters often located near hospitals, schools and other civilian structures. “The aim would be to minimise casualties to non-combatants in achieving their objective of destroying Hamas.”

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed over 1,400 Israelis, both military and civilian, the Israel Defence Forces has bombed hundreds of targets inside Gaza, killing far more than Hamas militants. An estimated 9,000 people so far have been killed, including most shockingly 3,600 children.

United Nations agencies have deplored the nearly four-week Israeli bombing campaign saying,

“Gaza has become a ‘graveyard’ for children with thousands now killed under Israeli bombardment, while more than a million face dire shortages of essentials and a lifetime of trauma ahead.”

Pine Gap’s Global Role

The sprawling satellite ground station outside Alice Springs, officially titled Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG), has been described as the United States’ second most important surveillance base globally.

About half the 800 personnel working at the Central Australian base are American, with Australian government employees making up fewer than 100 of the increasingly privatised staff. 

The base is no mere passive communication collector. Personnel at the Pine Gap base provide vital detailed analysis and reporting on SIGINT (signals intelligence) and ELINT (electronic intelligence) it collects. 

As well as surveillance of civilian, commercial and military communications, it provides detailed geolocation intelligence to the U.S. military that can be used to locate with precision targets in the battlefield.

This was first conclusively documented in a secret NSA document, titled “Site Profile,” leaked from the Edward Snowden archive to this writer and first published by ABC Australia in 2017:

“RAINFALL [Pine Gap’s NSA codename] detects, collects, records, processes, analyses and reports on PROFORMA signals collected from tasked target entities.”

These PROFORMA signals are the communications data of radar and weapon systems collected in near real-time — they likely would include remote launch signals for Hamas rockets, as well as any threatened missile launches from Lebanon or Iran.

“Pine Gap detects, collects, records, processes, analyses and reports on PROFORMA signals collected from tasked target entities.

This present war in Gaza is not the first time the dishes of Pine Gap have assisted Israel’s military with intelligence, including the detecting of incoming missiles, according to this previous report.

“During the [1991] Gulf War, Israeli reports praised Australia for relaying Scud missile launch warnings from the Nurrungar joint U.S.-Australian facility in South Australia, a task now assigned to Pine Gap.”

During the early stages of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the NSA installed a data link to send early warning of any Iraqi missile launches detected directly to Israel’s Air Force headquarters at Tel Nof airbase, south of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s Access to ‘Five Eye’ Jewels 

The NSA “maintains a far-reaching technical and analytic relationship with the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU),” according to documents published by The Intercept in 2014. The documents show the NSA and ISNU are “sharing information on access, intercept, targeting, language, analysis and reporting.”

“This SIGINT relationship has increasingly been the catalyst for a broader intelligence relationship between the United States and Israel.

“The Israeli side enjoys the benefits of expanded geographic access to world-class NSA cryptanalytic and SIGINT engineering expertise.”

It’s thanks to the Pine Gap base, with its satellites so strategically positioned to monitor the Middle East region, along with its targeting and analysis capability, that Israel is able to make use of these benefits.

Another leaked document, a targeting exchange agreement from the U.K.’s surveillance agency, GCHQ, reveals one of the “specific intelligence topics” shared among the NSA, GCHQ and ISNU was “Palestinians.” The document states that “due to the sensitivities” of Israeli involvement that particular program does not include direct targeting of Palestinians themselves. 

The NSA considers their intelligence-sharing arrangement as being “beneficial to both NSA’s and ISNU’s mission and intelligence requirements.” 

This wide intelligence sharing arrangement potentially opens up to the Israelis the “jewels” of the Five Eye global surveillance system collected by the NSA global surveillance network, including by Australia’s Pine Gap base. 

Declassified Australia asked a series of questions of the Australian Defence Department about the role of the Pine Gap base in the Israel-Gaza war, and about the legal protections that may be in place to defend personnel of the base should legal charges of war crimes be laid. No response was received by deadline.

Peter Cronau  is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer, and film-maker. His documentaries have appeared on ABC TV’s Four Corners and Radio National’s Background Briefing. He is an editor and cofounder of DECLASSIFIED AUSTRALIA. He is co-editor of the recent book A Secret Australia – Revealed by the WikiLeaks Exposés.

This article is from Declassified Australia.

November 4, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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