Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Judge Who Ruled Against Assange Built Career as Barrister Defending UK Government

“absurd that a single judge can issue a three-page decision that could land Julian Assange in prison for the rest of his life and permanently impact the climate for journalism around the world.”

Jonathan Swift, the High Court judge who has just rejected Julian Assange’s attempt to halt his extradition to the US, is the government’s former top lawyer and previously defended the Defence and Home Secretaries.

SCHEERPOST, By Mark Curtis / Declassified UK, 19 June 23

  • Swift was entrusted to act for the Defence and Home Secretaries in at least nine legal cases
  • His “favourite clients were the security and intelligence agencies” while representing the government

onathan Swift, the High Court judge who has rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the US, has a long history of working for the government departments that are now persecuting the WikiLeaks founder.

Swift, who ruled against Assange on 6 June, was formerly the government’s favourite barrister. 

He worked as ‘First Treasury Counsel’ – the government’s top lawyer – from 2006 to 2014, a position in which he advised and represented the government in major litigation. 

Swift acted for the Defence and Home Secretaries in at least nine cases, Declassified has found.

…………………….. It was reported in 2013 that Swift had been paid nearly a million pounds – £975,075 – over the previous three years for representing the government.

Swift now presides over Assange’s extradition case being fought by the Home Office for whom he previously worked.

As with previous judges who have ruled against Assange, the case raises serious concerns about institutional conflicts of interests at the heart of the UK legal system…………………………………………

Ruling

In his rejection of the appeal by Assange’s lawyers, Swift curtly dismissed all eight grounds to their arguments as “no more than an attempt to re-run the extensive arguments made to and rejected by the District Judge”, who previously ruled on the case.

Media freedom group Reporters Sans Frontieres said Swift’s ruling brought Assange “dangerously close to extradition”. 

It added it was “absurd that a single judge can issue a three-page decision that could land Julian Assange in prison for the rest of his life and permanently impact the climate for journalism around the world.”

The US government seeks to extradite Assange in order to try him in connection with WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked classified documents that informed public interest reporting around the world. 

Assange faces a possible 175 years in prison and would be the first publisher prosecuted under the US Espionage Act.  https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/19/judge-who-ruled-against-assange-built-career-as-barrister-defending-uk-government/

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Silent Slaughter of the Flower of Ukraine’s Youth

Now that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway, it is clear that the government and its Western allies are maintaining silence to conceal the brutal cost Ukraine’s brave young people are paying.

By Medea Benjamin | Nicolas J.S. Davies / Common Dreams. June 21, 2023
 https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/21/the-silent-slaughter-of-the-flower-of-ukraines-youth/

As Ukraine prepared to launch its much heralded but long delayed counteroffensive, the media published a photograph of a Ukrainian soldier with his finger on his lips, symbolizing the need for secrecy to retain some element of surprise for this widely telegraphed operation.

Now that the offensive has been under way for two weeks, it is clear that the Ukrainian government and its Western allies are maintaining silence for quite a different reason: to conceal the brutal cost Ukraine’s brave young people are paying to recover small scraps of territory from Russian occupation forces, in what some are already calling a suicide mission.

Western pundits at first described these first two weeks of fighting as “probing operations” to find weak spots in Russia’s defenses, which Russia has been fortifying since 2022 with multiple layers of minefields, “dragon’s teeth,” tank-traps, pre-positioned artillery, and attack helicopters, unopposed in the air, that can fire 12 anti-tank missiles apiece.

On the advice of British military advisers in Kyiv, Ukraine flung Western tanks and armored vehicles manned by NATO-trained troops into these killing fields without air support or demining operations. The results have been predictably disastrous, and it is now clear that these are not just “probing” operations as the propaganda at first claimed, but the long-awaited main offensive.

A Western official with intelligence access told The Associated Press on June 14, “Intense fighting is now ongoing in nearly all sectors of the front… This is much more than probing. These are full-scale movements of armor and heavy equipment into the Russian security zone.”

Other glimpses are emerging of the reality behind the propaganda. At a press conference after a summit at NATO Headquarters, U.S. General Mark Milley warned that the offensive will be long, violent, and costly in Ukrainian lives.

“This is a very difficult fight. It’s a very violent fight, and it will likely take a considerable amount of time and at high cost,” Milley said.

Russian videos show dozens of Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles lying smashed in minefields, and NATO military advisers in Ukraine have confirmed that it lost 38 tanks in one night on June 8, including newly delivered German-built Leopard IIs.

Rob Lee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute explained to TheNew York Times that the Russians are trying to inflict as many casualties and destroy as many vehicles as possible in the areas in front of their main defensive lines, turning those areas into lethal kill zones. If this strategy works, any Ukrainian forces that reach the main Russian defense lines will be too weakened and depleted to break through and achieve their goal of severing Russia’s land bridge between Donbas and Crimea.


Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that Ukraine’s forces suffered 7,500 casualties in the first 10 days of the offensive. If Ukraine’s real losses are a fraction of that, the long, violent bloodbath that General Milley anticipates will destroy the new armored brigades that NATO has armed and trained, and serve only to escalate the gory war of attrition that has destroyed Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk, and Bakhmut, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians and Russians.

A senior European military officer in Ukraine provided more details of the carnage to Asia Times, calling Ukraine’s operations on June 8 and 9 a “suicide mission” that violated the basic rules of military tactics.

“We tried to tell them to stop these piecemeal tactics, define a main thrust with infantry support and do what they can,” he said. “They were trained by the British, and they’re playing Light Brigade,” he added, comparing the offensive to a suicidal charge into massive Russian cannon fire that wiped out Britain’s Light Cavalry Brigade in Crimea in 1854.

If Ukraine’s “Spring Offensive” plunges on to the bitter end, it could be more like the British and French Somme Offensive, fought near the French River Somme in 1916. After 19,240 British troops were killed on the first day (including Nicolas’s 20-year-old great-uncle, Robert Masterman), the battle raged on for more than four months of pointless, wanton slaughter, with over a million British, French, and German casualties. It was finally called off after advancing only six miles and failing to capture either of the two small French towns that were its initial objectives.

The current offensive was delayed for months as Ukraine and its allies grappled with the likelihood of the outcome we are now witnessing. The fact that it went ahead regardless reflects the moral bankruptcy of U.S. and NATO political leaders, who are sacrificing the flower of Ukraine’s youth in a proxy war they will not send their own children or grandchildren to fight.

As Ukraine launches its offensive, NATO is conducting Air Defender, the largest military exercise in its history, from June 12 to 23, with 250 warplanes, including nuclear-capable F-35s, flying from German bases to simulate combat operations in and over Germany, Lithuania, Romania, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea. The exercise has led to at least 15 incidents between NATO and Russian aircraft in the skies near Lithuania.

It seems that nobody in NATO’s foreboding fortress in Brussels has stumbled on the concept of a “security dilemma,” in which supposedly defensive actions by one party are perceived as offensive threats by another and lead to a spiral of mutual escalation, as has been the case between NATO and Russia since the 1990s. Professor of Russian history Richard Sakwa has written, “NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”

These risks will be evident in the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, where Ukraine and its eastern allies will be pushing for Ukraine membership, while the U.S. and western Europe insist that membership cannot be offered while the war rages on and will instead offer “upgraded” status and a shorter route to membership once the war ends.

The continued insistence that Ukraine will one day be a NATO member only means a prolongation of the conflict, as this is a red line that Russia insists cannot be crossed. That’s why negotiations that lead to a neutral Ukraine are key to ending the war.

But the United States will not agree to that as long as President Joe Biden keeps U.S. Ukraine policy firmly under the thumbs of hawkish neoconservative desk warriors like Antony Blinken and Victoria Nuland at the State Department and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House. Pressure to keep escalating U.S. involvement in the war is also coming from Congress, where Republicans accuse Biden of “hemming and hawing” instead of “going all in” to help Ukraine.

Paradoxically, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies are more realistic than their civilian colleagues about the lack of any military solution. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, has called for diplomacy to bring peace to Ukraine, and U.S. intelligence sources have challenged dominant false narratives of the war in leaks to Newsweek and Seymour Hersh, telling Hersh that the neocons are ignoring genuine intelligence and inventing their own, just as they did to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

With the retirement of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the State Department is losing the voice of a professional diplomat who was President Barack Obama’s chief negotiator for the JCPOA with Iran and urged Biden to rejoin the agreement, and who has taken steps to moderate U.S. brinkmanship toward China. While publicly silent on Ukraine, Sherman was a quiet voice for diplomacy in a war-mad administration.

Many fear that Sherman’s job will now go to Nuland, the leading architect of the ever-mounting catastrophe in Ukraine for the past decade, who already holds the #3 or #4 job at State as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

Other departures from the senior ranks at State and the Pentagon are likely to cede more ground to the neocons. Colin Kahl, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, who worked with Sherman on the JCPOA, opposed sending F-16s to Ukraine, and has maintained that China will not invade Taiwan in the near future. Kahl is leaving the Pentagon to return to his position as a professor at Stanford, just as China hawk General C.Q. Brown will replace General Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs when Milley retires in September.

Meanwhile, other world leaders continue to push for peace talks. A delegation of African heads of state led by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on June 17, to discuss the African peace plan for Ukraine.

President Putin showed the African leaders the 18-point Istanbul Agreement that a Ukrainian representative had signed back in March 2022, and told them that Ukraine had thrown it in the “dustbin of history,” after the now disgraced Boris Johnson told Zelenskyy the “collective West” would only support Ukraine to fight, not to negotiate with Russia.

The catastrophic results of the first two weeks of Ukraine’s offensive should focus the world’s attention on the urgent need for a ceasefire to halt the daily slaughter and dismemberment of hundreds of brave young Ukrainians, who are being forced to drive through minefields and kill zones in Western gifts that are proving to be no more than U.S.- and NATO-built death-traps

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

SCOTT RITTER: On Horseradish & Nuclear War

Consortium News, June 21, 2023

When Vladimir Putin was recently asked about the potential use of nuclear weapons in the context of Ukraine, an understanding of back-alley Russian slang was needed to understand his response.  

“……………………………….During the June 16 discussion period of the plenary session of the 2023 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Russian leader was asked about his views on the potential use of nuclear weapons in the context of the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.

“This use of nuclear weapons is certainly theoretically possible,” Putin bluntly answered.

“For Russia, this is possible if a threat is created to our territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, the existence of the Russian state. Nuclear weapons are created in order to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state.”

Putin’s answer reflected long-standing Russian nuclear doctrine, which postulates the use of nuclear weapons in the case of an existential threat, nuclear or otherwise, to the survival of Russia.

Putin then sought to put the audience at ease. “But we, firstly, do not have such a need,” Putin noted, “and secondly, the very factor of reasoning on this topic already lowers the possibility of lowering the threshold for the use of weapons. This is the first part.”

What came next was classic Putin. “The second is that we have more such weapons [i.e., tactical nuclear weapons] than the NATO countries. They know about it and all the time they persuade us to start talks on reductions.”

Putin paused, before shrugging and, with a half-smile, saying “Khren Im”.

Putin paused, before shrugging and, with a half-smile, saying “Khren Im”.Khren Im is a Russian slang term derived from the word “horseradish” (khren), thus a literal translation of the phrase used by Putin would be “horseradish them.” But khren closely resembles a more salty term …….. khren Im is understood to mean “F*ck them.”“F*ck them, you know?” Putin said, to the obvious mirth of the audience……………….

The “them” in the horseradish reference made by the Russian president is the United States. Two weeks prior to Putin’s man-in-the-street reaction, on June 2, U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, addressed a conference hosted by the Arms Control Association, in Washington, D.C. The topic, not surprisingly, was the administration’s approach to U.S.-Russian arms control.

Biden’s Nuclear Strategy ……………………………………………………….

Likewise left unspoken was Russia’s contention that the U.S. was in violation of the New START Treaty by keeping some 101 strategic delivery systems from being inspected, despite being required to do so by the provisions of the New START Treaty.Khren Im.

Sullivan called out Russia’s decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, without elaborating on either the threats made to Belarus by several NATO members, including Poland and the Baltic states. Nor did he acknowledge that the Russian action parallels a similar U.S. policy in stationing some 100 nuclear B-61 gravity bombs on the territories of five NATO nations. Khren Im.

Sullivan strongly criticized Russia for its total disregard for international law, including arms control treaties such as the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) from which Russia recently withdrew, without putting the Russian decision in proper historical perspective. This perspective involves the ongoing disregard by the U.S. and NATO of deliberate inequities in the CFE structure that were brought on by the ongoing expansion of NATO.

Nor did the U.S. national security adviser acknowledge that it was the U.S., not Russia, which had withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Intermediate Forces Treaty, both of which are considered foundational for all arms control treaties going forward.[Related: U.S. Establishment: Nixing Arms Control]Khren Im.

Sullivan’s presentation ignored such salient matters as the purpose behind NATO’s certification of the F-35 fighter as a nuclear-capable delivery system, and what the deployment of nuclear-capable F-35s to NATO nations not included in the existing shared nuclear defense scheme meant to the scope and scale of the NATO nuclear deterrence model considering the continued NATO Baltic Air Policing and South European Air Policing operations.

Sullivan also failed to address the current “launch-on-warning” posture employed by the Biden administration, which positions the U.S. to carry out a first nuclear strike against Russia, and the role that the continued patrols in Europe and Asia by American nuclear-capable B-52H strategic bombers, including aggressive flight profiles appearing to simulate the launch of nuclear-armed cruise missiles against Saint Petersburg.

Sullivan also ignored the impact of the Biden administration’s ongoing plans to bring back medium- and intermediate-range nuclear-capable missiles to the European theater will be on the overall nuclear balance of power between the U.S.-NATO and Russia.Khren Im.

A day before Putin addressed the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov spoke to the media about the “opposing, irreconcilable positions” of Russia and the U.S. concerning the resumption of discussions regarding the New START treaty. “[T]he suspension of New START remains in effect,” Ryabkov said, “and this decision may be revoked or reconsidered only if the U.S.  demonstrates a willingness to abandon its fundamentally hostile policy toward the Russian Federation.”Khren Im……………………………………………………………………

While people are right to be concerned about the policy recommendations made by prominent Russians such as Karaganov, they must also address the root cause of such pronouncements, namely the policies of the Biden administration to achieve the strategic defeat of Russia in Ukraine, seemingly at whatever cost (especially when the cost is paid in the blood of Ukrainian soldiers)

Russia will not use nuclear weapons to fulfil the tasks set forth in its Special Military Operation. It will use nuclear weapons to preserve Russian territorial integrity. The reality today is that the irresponsible policies of the U.S. and its NATO allies have sought the expansion of NATO up to the Russian borders . As they abandoned every opportunity to prevent a conflict with Russia over Ukraine, there is a war between Russia and Ukraine that has resulted in Ukraine irrevocably losing 20 percent of its territory (the oblasts of Kherson, Zaparizhia, Donetsk and Lugansk, along with the Crimea).

All of that territory has been absorbed into the Russian Federation and makes any effort to strip them away from Russia by definition an existential conflict where, if Russia were to lose, would necessarily trigger the use of nuclear weapons.

And yet Biden and his NATO allies continue to feed a Ukrainian fantasy where the reacquisition of these territories by Ukraine is a desirable outcome.

Has either Biden, his advisers, or the American public considered the potential consequences of this action? Are they willing to trade Boston for Poznan, or sacrifice humanity for the sake of appeasing Ukrainian sensibilities? The answer appears to be “no.”

As for Russia, one is guided by the words of Vladimir Putin: “Khren Im”F*ck them. But in reality, F*ck us. All of us. If this insanity is allowed to continue unabated, it is lights out for all of humanity.

Chew on that the next time you cheer on the Ukrainian counteroffensive or applaud the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund the Ukrainian military.

It is high time for the American public to recognize that our only hope for a survivable future is one where arms control and nuclear disarmament once again serve as the cornerstone of a U.S.-Russian relationship, and that the shortest possible path toward achieving that objective is for Russia to win its war against Ukraine.

And for those politicians in the U.S. and Europe who have invested their political futures on the suicidal mission of feeding Ukraine’s anti-Russian fantasies?

Khren Im.   https://consortiumnews.com/2023/06/21/scott-ritter-on-horse-radishes-nuclear-war/

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Scientists monitoring ‘doomsday’ glacier in Antarctic warn climate change happening faster than ever before.

Collapse of the Thwaites glacier and its accompanying ice sheet could lead to more than three metres of sea level rise. The British Antarctic Survey is hoping to find out how fast it might collapse

i news, By Daniel Capurro, Environment Correspondent, June 20, 2023 

Antarctica is changing at “a pace that we’ve never seen before” with the potential collapse of key ice sheets threatening three metres of sea level rise in a century, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has warned.

Scientists at the BAS, which is launching a new 10-year strategy, are part of a multinational effort to monitor the Thwaites glacier, which has been dubbed the “doomsday glacier”.

The river of ice has retreated more than eight miles since the 90s and is already responsible for 4 per cent of global sea level rises. Were it to melt entirely, this would cause a rise in the sea level of 65 centimetres.

More worryingly, it is thought to be both the keystone and the “weak underbelly” of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

If Thwaites were to pass a tipping point and be lost completely, said the BAS, it could potentially lead other glaciers around it to rapidly disintegrate and eventually to the collapse of the entire ice sheet.

Were that to happen, global sea levels would rise by more than three metres, with Cambridge, the headquarters of the BAS, suddenly finding itself on the edge of saltwater marshes.

“There’s this common perception of sea level changes a few millimetres a year, and therefore we all relaxed thinking what are a few millimetres?” said Dr Dominic Hodgson, head of the Ice Sheets and Climate Change team at the British Antarctic Survey. “But when we look back at the historical record, we can see that in the past when ice sheets melted, they do in very non-linear jumps.”

There are periods of meltwater pulses, where essentially an ice sheet collapses and the sea level rises by several metres in the 100 years or so. It’s really rapid.”

BAS scientists are now racing to understand the composition of the bedrock beneath the glacier. Depending on how hard or soft it is could affect whether the glacier takes just five years to disappear or 500, although Dr Alex Brisbourne, who is part of the bedrock team, said the worst-case scenarios already appeared unlikely.

Even without such a collapse, the picture from the Polar regions is a troubling one. “We’ve seen extreme temperatures in Antarctica in the last couple of years, over 20°C, which is completely unsustainable for keeping ice,” said Dr Hodgson.

“We’ve got serious problems happening, starting in the polar regions and spreading out to the rest of the planet that we have to address now,” he said………….
more https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/scientists-racing-doomsday-glacier-change-faster-ever-2422082

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ocean heat is off the charts – what it means for humans and ecosystems around the world

Ocean heat is off the charts – what it means for humans and ecosystems around the world

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“We must move quickly:” CEFC gets $20bn to put renewable transition back on track

“We must move quickly:” CEFC gets $20bn to put renewable transition back on track

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Battery storage takes another giant leap over fossil fuels in heart of coal country

Battery storage takes another giant leap over fossil fuels in heart of coal country

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Largest vanadium flow battery in Southern Hemisphere ready to go live at Port Pirie

Largest vanadium flow battery in Southern Hemisphere ready to go live at Port Pirie

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

CEFC gets $20bn to put renewable transition back on track

“We must move quickly:” CEFC gets $20bn to put renewable transition back on track

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

23 June Public Forum – NO TO NUCLEAR SUBMARINES

June 22, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Week to June 19, in nuclear news

A bit of good news .  The ‘lost’ underwater forests that came back from the dead.

Climate. Greta Thunberg: not phasing out fossil fuels is ‘death sentence’ for world’s poor…….   . Oil-rich nations dominate COP28 – now offering rich sponsorships, in the effort to silence critics. Fossil fuel lobbyists will have to identify themselves as such in registering for the UN Cop28 climate summit,

Environment.     Global biodiversity crisis

Nuclear. Russiamoved small “tactical” nuclear weapons to Belarus, sparking anxiety that the Ukraine war could “go nuclear”. Meanwhile, I have no doubt that Russia propaganda is portraying the war as being won by Russia.  And it is also patently obvious that Western media depicts the Ukraine “counter-offensive” as being a winner.  What gets me is that we – that’s the USA and all its “like-minded” hangers-on – are not actually at war against Russia. So we don’t really have to have the blanket of anti-Russian spin thrown over every news item of this proxy war, (as is the  practice in a real war)

Christina notes. Rafael Grossi – suffering a sort of “Schizophrenia” about nuclear so-called “safety?      Nuclear industry puppet France is bullying Europe into environmental destruction.   Council of Polluting Corporations COP28 – in charge of the November-December global climate talks.

TOP STORIES

The Imminent Extradition of Julian Assange and the Death of Journalism.

Milley Predicts Long, ‘Very Violent’ Ukrainian Counter-offensive.   Jacques Baud on the legitimacy and legality of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine.       The Voltaire Network on the collapse of Kiev. Ukraine -its past, and now.

EU states back nuclear energy while diluting biodiversity reforms.

USA’s Inflation Reduction Act expands tax-payer funding for nuclear power plants.

USA Majority say taking nuclear, military secrets a national security threat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_j38JnnKxw

Fukushima waste-water plan a nuclear threat to Asia-Pacific.

AUSTRALIA.

  The AUKUS mess – false promises about Australian jobs: Richard Marles, Jonathon Mead duped? Dreadnoughts and Virginias: why is Australia paying more than twice the price for submarines?          

 Australia’s Atomic Survivors want Prime Minister Albanese to sign treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Karina’s father went blind at Emu Field. Now, she’s fighting for a treaty on nuclear weapons. 

Pro-nuclear brigade ignores inconvenient truth. Member of Parliament Ted O’Brien gets it so wrong about nuclear power.

CIVIL LIBERTIES. Democracy out the window in USA – as teachers and others punished for making pro-Russian comments.

CULTURE and ARTS.  The Fukushima Wastewater ‘Discharge’: What’s in a Name? – technostrategic language.

ECONOMICS. 

EMPLOYMENT. Workers, residents, at US site that made Nagasaki A-bomb’s plutonium are still suffering.

 ENERGY. Expert: Germany’s energy system has coped with nuclear shutdown. 45 nations pledge to double their rate of energy efficiency improvements.        Nuclear Free Local Authorities – visiting community owned project in the UK, at the start of Community Energy Fortnight.

ENVIRONMENT   The profligate use of our stressed freshwater resource by the nuclear industry.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogeKk9b-yjY        Macao SAR to suspend Japanese food import after nuclear-contaminated wastewater discharge.          Japan urged to halt release of toxic water.

HEALTH. Cancer patients can possibly avoid radiation. Silent Danger: Hidden Link Discovered Between Low-Dose Radiation and Heart Disease.

LEGAL. Why Biden Wants Assange in Jail: Case at the Tipping Point, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joAMokiAllk

MEDIA. “Radioactive – The Women of Three Mile Island”” is compelling viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iotD7_cKWfc

POLITICS. 

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. 

SAFETY.   UN: Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s Largest, Faces ‘Dangerous Situation‘. UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi continues to have a bet each way on nuclear power “safety”. UN concerned by ‘discrepancy’ in Ukraine nuclear plant water levels after dam collapse. U.N. nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuke plant after dam explosion, to “help prevent a nuclear accident“. 

French nuclear watchdog specifies questions for EDF reactor life extensions. Safety issues for 9 French nuclear reactors make their lifetime extension doubtful. 

Nuclear Weapons Cybersecurity.   Lawmakers propose shoring up nuclear cyber standards ahead of National Defense Authorization Act markup.

SECRETS and LIES. CIA: Black Market of Arms Trade. Part 1. Israel Worries U.S. Weapons for Ukraine Are Ending Up in Iran’s Hands.

SPINBUSTER. Ukraine’s propaganda machine is vital for Zelensky: Here is how it works. Ignoring the Fiction of a Nuclear Silver Bullet. The absurdity of Western reporting on the war in Ukraine – Schrodinger’s Offensive. “Nuclear is CLEAN” Trumpets Westinghouse’s Uranium Fuel in Cumbrian Press Adverts.

WASTES. 

WAR and CONFLICT. Zelensky Confirms Ukrainian Counteroffensive Has Started.        Kiev intends to kill as many Russians as possible – top Zelensky aide.       Moscow estimates Ukraine’s counteroffensive losses.     Why Russia must not take the Western bait, to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.     Putin warns NATO over being drawn into Ukraine war.     Time to remove nuclear weapons from NATO countries, in return for Putin not putting them in Belarus? [ on nuclear-news.net]Trudeau visits Kiev to bolster US-NATO war on Russia.   Vienna Summit: Anti-War Activists From 32 Countries Call For Diplomacy to End Ukraine War. Ukraine Becomes A ‘Nuclear Battleground’ As US, UK Russia Could Unleash Their ‘Cursed Ammo’ To The Warzone. Norman Solomon: Bipartisan Obsession With War.Darkness: nuclear winter – fire, ice, famine.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Number of nuclear weapons held by major powers rising, says thinktank. Nuclear weapons on rise in a world where ‘peace through deterrence’ is a myth. Nuclear weapons spending increases while global security decreases. Nuclear arsenals growing as chances for diplomacy shrink: report.     Tit For Tat: Putin says Russia will use depleted uranium against Ukraine if necessary.      US nuclear-powered submarine arrives in South Korea.

June 19, 2023 Posted by | Christina reviews | Leave a comment

Member of Parliament Ted O’Brien gets it so wrong about nuclear power.

Nuclear not an option, Llew. 19/06/2023, Chris B, https://gympietoday.com.au/opinion/2023/06/19/nuclear-not-an-option-llew/

On the 29th of May 2023, our local member demonstrated yet again that he fails to understand the importance and the reasoning behind the Borumba pumped hydro scheme.

Mr O’Brien noted his opposition to the project based on the impact of transmission lines on the environment and members of the local community.

Failing to understand environmental impacts, Mr O’Brien utilised his platform to recommend nuclear power instead!

On cost alone, nuclear power represents over five times the lifetime costs of pumped hydro and solar, as costed by the CSIRO in 2022.

Not to mention the exorbitant costs associated with nuclear waste handling, decommissioning the sites, or that nuclear plants are required to shut down for maintenance periodically.

He also failed to mention that transmission lines would still need to be established at the new site of the reactors.

His increasingly unconstructive and arrogant behaviour during the renewable energy transition boils down to a bad case of ‘not in my backyard’ and political grandstanding.

Mr O’Brien stands yet again in the way of progress for our nation, future jobs and skills for the people of Wide Bay.

June 19, 2023 Posted by | politics, Queensland | Leave a comment

Pro-nuclear brigade ignores inconvenient truth

JUNE 16, 2023 https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2023/06/pro-nuclear-brigade-ignores-inconvenient-truth/

The pro-nuclear brigade don’t give up, do they? (Dark times ahead, CCN393)

Despite much correspondence published in the past, I have yet to hear of a realistic scheme to safely dispose of not only the waste, but also the highly-radioactive reactor vessel once the plant has reached its commercial end of life.

Are these people deliberately ignoring this inconvenient truth, hoping that the sheep will not realise this obvious problem?

If and when a suitable scheme is developed then sensible people will no doubt support nuclear energy; unless that happens then it will be the subsequent hazards of fossil fuels all over again.

What exactly is wrong with renewable sources such as water, wind, solar, etc – all of which are free?

I am familiar with the tired old argument that “the sun doesn’t shine all the time”, but that’s why we have proven technologies such as high-capacity batteries (chemical energy), pumped water (potential energy), etc.

The way some of these proponents carry on, you’d think that they had shares in the nuclear industry.

June 17, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Anthony Albanese faces AUKUS submarine deal backlash at Victorian Labor state conference.

 THE AGE 15/6/23:

Powerful unions want Labor’s rank and file to formally condemn the $368 billion AUKUS submarine deal this weekend, potentially setting up an awkward clash with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when he addresses Victorian Labor’s first state conference in four years

Both the prime minister and Premier Daniel Andrews will deliver speeches to party faithful at the conference, according to several state and federal government sources.

The conference will be the first since 2019 – before the pandemic, Melbourne’s long lockdowns, and the federal intervention that followed revelations by The Age about branch stacking, especially by former Labor right powerbroker Adem Somyurek.

The 606 delegates will be asked to vote on a motion from manufacturing union the AMWU seen by The Age, slamming Australia’s decision to acquire a nuclear-powered fleet from the United States and the prospect of the Albanese government “dragging Australia into a new Cold War, rather than pursuing the labour movement’s longstanding commitment to a peaceful and independent foreign and defence policy”.

AMWU Victorian secretary Tony Mavromatis said he expected his motion would win strong support from the conference floor.

“We will push ahead with our motion, no matter who is at the conference, including prime ministers,” he said. “The AUKUS deal is a terrible arrangement for Australia. It lets down Australian workers, apprentices and trainees and Australian manufacturing. We should not be getting into nuclear.”

The AUKUS deal was initially agreed to by former prime minister Scott Morrison and later supported by federal Labor.

While Andrews is expected to receive a hero’s welcome after Labor’s resounding November election victory, the conference is the first opportunity for years for Labor’s rank and file to vent over the big issues facing the state, including the housing crisis.

…………… To be held at the Moonee Valley Racecourse, the conference will also be the first public display of factional muscle since the federal intervention.

………… Some party insiders also see the weekend meeting as an important preparation for the federal conference in Brisbane in August, where the AUKUS submarine deal and stage three tax cuts are expected to feature prominently.

Labor’s national executive has administered the branch since branch stacking revelations were aired in June 2020.

The state conference was traditionally the setting for often passionate public rows over policy and factional grievances, especially in the tumultuous 1970s and ’80s. Conferences have been more stage-managed in recent years.

The move follows a complaint to the party’s dispute tribunal by veteran Labor activist Eric Derricott about the factional control over elections at the conference, but will leave the results of the election unknown for some weeks.

After this conference all such elections will be held by secret ballot.

Current state Labor president Susie Byers said Victorian Labor had achieved much in the past three years, “not just with election victories, but reforms to our branch that have made the organisation one our members can be proud to belong to”.  https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/albanese-faces-aukus-backlash-from-victorian-labor-party-faithful-20230614-p5dgix.html

June 15, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics | Leave a comment

Australia’s Atomic Survivors want Prime Minister Albanese to sign treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

By Rudi Maxwell, June 14 2023  https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8232976/survivors-want-pm-to-sign-treaty-to-ban-nuclear-weapons/

Karina Lester (above) and June Lennon are still affected by the fallout from British nuclear tests on their country 70 years later.

The two First Nations women are part of a delegation of atomic survivors and relatives, which includes veterans, visiting Canberra to call on the government to sign an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

“We still see the craters and the scars that were left by those weapons tests, both at Emu Field and also at Maralinga Tjarutja,” Ms Lester, a Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman from north-west South Australia, said.

Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John and Labor MP Josh Wilson co-chair the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which heard from the delegation on Wednesday.

“It was so powerful to hear the stories of lived experience and direct connection to the impacts of nuclear testing,” Senator Steele-John said.

“That makes it viscerally real and really brings home the urgent need to eliminate nuclear weapons.”

Ms Lester’s father, the late Yami Lester, (above) went blind as a young man after the British tested atomic weapons in Emu Field.

“The scars are still felt on our country,” she said.

“And the scars are still evident on our people.”

The group of Australian atomic survivors and relatives are calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

In 1953 the British initiated a program of nuclear testing in Australia at the Montebello Islands, off the coast of WA and in Emu Field in South Australia.

Two years later, the British government announced a larger site for the tests at Maralinga.

In October 1953 when the British detonated the Totem I and II nuclear bombs at Emu Field, Yankunytjatjara, Antikarinya and Pitjantjatjara woman June Lennon was only a few months old.

June 15, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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