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This evening's music features blues and rock guitarist Chuck Berry. Enjoy!

"Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves."

-- Che Guevara

News and Opinion

Hmmm... doesn't sound like a difficult choice to me...

Leftist teacher takes on dictator’s daughter as Peru picks new president

Peruvians must choose between the son of illiterate peasant farmers who pledges to upend the country’s free-market economy and the unpopular daughter of a 1990s autocrat, who faces jail on corruption allegations, when they vote on Sunday in the most polarised election in living memory. Amid surging poverty, one of the world’s worst Covid outbreaks, months of political crisis and rampant anti-left scaremongering, Peruvians will choose the fifth president in as many years.

Rightwing Keiko Fujimori, 46, who narrowly lost in the previous two presidential runoff votes, is technically tied in opinion polls with Pedro Castillo, a former teachers’ union leader who belongs to the hard-left Peru Libre party and holds a lead of just two percentage points over his rival.

Images of the last week of the campaign show Castillo, wearing his trademark wide-brimmed straw hat, standing on a stage where he appears dwarfed by a hill covered by a multitude of supporters in Peru’s southern highlands. Fujimori struck a more lonely figure when she was pictured in the courtyard of an aristocratic mansion in the southern city of Arequipa signing a pledge to uphold democracy, surrounded by elite figures including the rightwing Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López and Álvaro Vargas Llosa, whose father, the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, endorsed the candidate as the “lesser of two evils”.

The Peruvian elite has rallied around Fujimori, terrified at the prospect of a victory for Castillo, whose Marxist party backs widespread resource nationalisation, higher taxes, import substitution and pledges to rewrite the constitution for “the people”.

After Castillo’s unexpectedly strong showing in the first round, “our business aristocracy panicked and opted for fear”, said the political scientist and newspaper columnist Gonzalo Banda. Several corporations have helped Keiko’s campaign with apparently free advertising and electoral propaganda on food handouts in poor neighbourhoods. Castillo has done little to moderate his message, lambasting the “golden salaries” of the despised political class and pledging to overturn the “old, corrupt state”.

More Fauci LIES Exposed In Emails

Worth a full read, here's a snippet to get you started:

Was There a Wuhan Lab Leak?

Viruses are known to have escaped from labs like Wuhan’s many times before. And there are now reports, rejected by China, that several staff at Wuhan got sick in late 2019, shortly before Covid-19 exploded on to the world stage. Did a human-manipulated novel coronavirus escape from the lab and spread around the world?

Here we get to the tricky bit. Because nobody in a position to answer that question appears to have any interest in finding out the truth — or at least, they have no interest in the rest of us learning the truth. Not China. Not U.S. policy-makers. Not the World Health Organization. And not the corporate media. The only thing we can state with certainty is this: our understanding of the origins of Covid has been narratively managed over the past 15 months and is still being narratively managed. We are being told only what suits powerful political, scientific and commercial interests.

We now know that we were misdirected a year ago into believing that a lab leak was either fanciful nonsense or evidence of Sinophobia — when it was very obviously neither. And we should understand now, even though the story has switched 180 degrees, that we are still being misdirected. Nothing that the U.S. administration or the corporate media have told us, or are now telling us, about the origins of the virus can be trusted.

No one in power truly wants to get to the bottom of this story. In fact, quite the reverse. Were we to truly understand its implications, this story might have the potential not only to hugely discredit Western political, media and scientific elites but even to challenge the whole ideological basis on which their power rests. Which is why what we are seeing is not an effort to grapple with the truth of the past year, but a desperate bid by those same elites to continue controlling our understanding of it. Western publics are being subjected to a continuous psy-op by their own officials.

FBI suggests Russian hackers are behind beef plant cyberattack

Switzerland Cancels Putin-Biden Summit - Kind of ...

Russia is doing away with the U.S. dollar.

Russia plans to fully abandon the US greenback in the structure of the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and reduce the share of the British pound within a month, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov revealed on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday, adding that the share of euro and yuan will rise, gold will be added, but the portfolio of Japanese yen will remain unchanged in the NWF.

"We, just like the Central Bank, have decided to reduce the funds of the NWF invested in dollar assets. Today’s structure has around 35% of the NWF’s funds invested in dollars. We have decided to fully withdraw from dollar assets, replacing investments in dollars by an increase in the euro, in gold," he said, adding that the shift to a new structure of the NWF is expected within a month.

"[Investments] in dollars will equal 0%; in euro they’ll come to 40%; in yuan they’ll amount to 30%; in gold - 20%; and in pounds and yuan - 5% each. We have substituted dollars with an increase of 5% in euro, gold and yuan," the finance chief explained.

Russia's national wealth fund has a total value of some $120 billion. The Central Bank of Russia has likewise decreased its U.S. dollar reserves. It has also created an alternative to the SWIFT interbank transfer system that will be used should U.S. sanctions make SWIFT transfers impossible. ...

Russia is clearly expecting that its relations with the U.S. will get worse. It is protecting itself from new U.S. sanctions.

This comes two weeks before Biden-Putin summit in Geneva. If that summit happens at all:

If you think that this is a joke, don't:

Switzerland will not accept certificates on COVID-19 vaccination with Sputnik V for the media accreditation at the upcoming Russia-US summit in Geneva, Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, told Sputnik on Wednesday

Here is (in Russian) Russian official version from Ria. Considering the fact that Vladimir Putin and Russian delegation to summit in Geneva are all vaccinated with Sputnik V, Russians finally have their excuse to cancel a generally useless summit and not attend it.

U.S. Finally Offers to Send Vaccines Abroad, But Lack of Global Plan Leaves Poorer Nations in Crisis

Biden bans US investment in Chinese military and tech surveillance sectors

Joe Biden has signed an executive order that bans American entities from investing in dozens of Chinese companies with alleged ties to defense or surveillance technology sectors. In a move that his administration says will expand the scope of a legally flawed Trump-era order, the US treasury will enforce and update on a “rolling basis” the new ban list of about 59 companies.

It also bars buying or selling publicly traded securities in target companies, and replaces an earlier list from the defense department, senior administration officials told reporters.

The order prevents US investment from supporting the Chinese military-industrial complex, as well as military, intelligence, and security research and development programs, Biden said in the order. “In addition, I find that the use of Chinese surveillance technology outside [China] and the development or use of Chinese surveillance technology to facilitate repression or serious human rights abuse constitute unusual and extraordinary threats,” Biden said. ...

Major Chinese firms included on the previous defense department list were also placed on the updated list, including Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), China Mobile Communications Group, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC). SMIC is key to China’s national drive to boost its domestic chip sector.

“We Are a Plutocracy”: Jeffrey Sachs Slams Biden for Offering to Preserve Trump’s Corporate Tax Cuts

Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary paid zero corporation tax on £220bn profit

An Irish subsidiary of Microsoft made a profit of $315bn (£222bn) last year but paid no corporation tax as it is “resident” for tax purposes in Bermuda.

The profit generated by Microsoft Round Island One is equal to nearly three-quarters of Ireland’s gross domestic product – even though the company has no employees.

The subsidiary, which collects licence fees for the use of copyrighted Microsoft software around the world, recorded an annual profit of $314.7bn in the year to the end of June 2020, according to accounts filed at the Irish Companies Registration Office.

The company’s profits jumped from just under $10bn in the previous year and compare with Ireland’s 2020 GDP of €357bn ($433bn).

The revelation of how much money Microsoft has saved by routing via Ireland comes as finance ministers attempt to hammer out an agreement to tackle multinational tax avoidance in London on Friday, ahead of the G7 meeting in Cornwall this month.

GOP Governors' Termination of Jobless Aid Could Cost Local Economies Over $12 Billion: Report

In addition to stripping a key lifeline from millions of jobless workers across the country, Republican governors' plans to prematurely cut off emergency unemployment benefits could cost local economies an estimated $12 billion as previously covered individuals and families lose the extra $300 in weekly federal aid they were using to buy groceries and other necessities.

According to a report (pdf) released Wednesday by the Joint Economic Committee, a congressional panel chaired by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the decision by dozens of Republican governors to cut off the $300-per-week boost to unemployment insurance "will take over $755 million from UI beneficiaries and their families on average."

"These numbers, while rough estimates, nonetheless probably understate the extent of the economic loss caused by this decision," the report reads. "By ending these programs early, states are refusing billions of already appropriated federal dollars that could be spent in local groceries, restaurants, and retail shops."

The JEC's cost estimate does not include Maryland, which earlier this week became the 25th Republican-led state to announce it will end its participation in the $300 weekly unemployment boost—formally known as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC)—that supplemented notoriously low state benefits.

Maryland, along with 20 other GOP-led states, is also opting out of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), federal programs designed to provide aid to jobless gig workers and those who have exhausted their eligibility for state-level benefits. Depending on when the state submitted a notice of withdrawal to the Biden administration, the benefits will officially end between June 12 and July 13.

Originally approved in March 2020 under the CARES Act and extended in subsequent relief packages, the emergency unemployment programs aren't set to expire nationwide until early September.

The JEC warns in its new analysis that "the earlier that states prematurely cut off FPUC, the more money their local economies stand to lose."

"Estimates of the multiplier effect of UI find every $1 in UI generates $1.61 in local spending," the report notes. "Based on this multiplier, localities around the country will miss out on more than $12 billion flowing back into their economies from FPUC-related spending from June 19 to September 5. This estimate does not include the amounts lost to early cancellation of PUA/PEUC, underscoring that the loss to local economies as a result of early termination will far exceed the $12 billion estimate."

US kidnaps Venezuelan diplomat: the case of Alex Saab

Food prices rose 40 percent in May amid expanding global hunger and social crisis triggered by pandemic

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) monthly food price index rose by 40 percent in May, the largest increase in a decade. The year-over-year increase was the sharpest in the past year and was interpreted widely as an indicator of broader price inflation. The FAO report released on Thursday states: “The May increase represented the biggest month-on-month gain since October 2010. It also marked the twelfth consecutive monthly rise in the value of the FFPI to its highest value since September 2011. ... The sharp increase in May reflected a surge in prices for oils, sugar and cereals along with firmer meat and dairy prices.” The FFPI (FAO food price index) is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities.

According to the report, corn prices are 67 percent higher than a year ago, sugar is up nearly 60 percent and prices for cooking oil have doubled. The surging food prices are catastrophic for millions of people around the globe—already facing desperate conditions from the coronavirus pandemic—with hunger driven up rapidly in the poorest countries of the world.

The UN World Food Program reports that 270 million people are currently suffering from acute malnutrition or worse situations in the 79 countries in which the agency operates, double the number in 2019. Among the regions facing a rising hunger crisis that is exacerbated by skyrocketing food prices are Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America.

Analysts attributed the food cost increases to a series of global climate and economic factors. Bloomberg, for example, reported: “Drought in key Brazilian growing regions is crippling crops from corn to coffee, and vegetable oil production growth has slowed in Southeast Asia. That’s boosting costs for livestock producers and risks further straining global grain stockpiles that have been depleted by soaring Chinese demand.”

Among the food supply issues driven by China’s economic expansion are an increased demand for feed to rebuild pig herds that were struck in recent years by disease. The pig feed contains staples, such as corn and soybeans, that are also consumed by people.

Kamala Harris Abandons Helping Border Immigrants

Media and data firm Thomson Reuters faces pressure to ditch Ice contracts

The data and media company Thomson Reuters is under increasing pressure to re-evaluate its contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), which critics say facilitate deportations of immigrants and perpetrates human rights abuses.

The company – which provides data and information to companies and government clients, and also owns the Reuters news agency – has held contracts with Ice since 2015, including providing the immigration agency with a software called Clear that helps track people for deportation. The software does not contain data on an individual’s legal and work status, but it does consolidate public records, including motor vehicle and arrest databases. The company’s contract with Ice for the use of Clear expired in February 2021, and Ice does not have a subscription contract for the database as of April 2021.

But the company’s shareholders will vote at an upcoming meeting on whether it should assess the human rights impact of such software contracts, which allow Ice to “track and arrest immigrants on a massive scale”, according to Jacinta Gonzalez, a senior campaign organizer for the advocacy group Mijente.

“Thomson Reuters has a long history of supporting immigration enforcement in the United States, including funneling the data of tens of millions of Americans directly to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has used this data to terrorize and deport immigrants throughout the country,” said Gonzalez. “The company has a responsibility to investigate these practices for human rights abuses,” she added.

A new shareholder resolution, to be voted on 9 June, calls on Thomson Reuters to produce a human rights risk report regarding its current $4.5m in active contracts with Ice. It was introduced by the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU), a labor union in Canada with holdings in Thomson Reuters. The resolution seeks to produce a report on “how Thomson Reuters assesses its role in contributing to and being directly linked to human rights impacts by end users”, and how the company “mitigates its role in contributing to adverse human rights impacts from end users”.

Minneapolis removes barricades to reopen George Floyd Square to traffic

Parts of the memorial space constructed at the south Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer were removed by work crews on Thursday morning. The city confirmed to the Guardian that barricades had been taken down to allow the intersection to be reopened to traffic, as reporters on the ground confirmed the presence of a large group of workers early in the morning. The deconstruction work appeared to have ceased within a few hours.

Floyd, 46, was killed by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. Shortly after the incident community members turned the intersection where Floyd took his last breaths into a public mourning space, named George Floyd Square. The space, which became a de facto autonomous zone in which city police stayed away, features community art, sculptures and often hosts performances and protests.

In an email, city spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie described the work as a “community-led reconnection process with city supporting efforts”. She added that more information on the work would be forthcoming, and that “artworks and memorials to George Floyd” would be preserved.

In April, former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder over Floyd’s death, and city leaders renewed efforts to reopen the intersection, which had become a focal point throughout the murder trial. The city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said in May that after the anniversary of Floyd’s death he would back a “phased reopening” of the intersection.

Trump-appointed postmaster general Louis DeJoy investigated over political fundraising

Federal law enforcement authorities are investigating the controversial US postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who was widely criticized for his handling of the post office during the election, in relation to political fundraising that involved his former company, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

FBI agents recently interviewed present and former employees who worked for DeJoy and his business, according to the Post. They are asking about campaign contributions and business activities, sources told the newspaper. Prosecutors also hit DeJoy with a subpoena for information, according to the report.

The Post reported in September 2020 that staffers at DeJoy’s former business in North Carolina, New Breed Logistics, claimed that he or his aides pressured them to patronize fundraising events or contribute to GOP candidates. These employees alleged that they were reimbursed through bonuses.

This sort of repayment could violate federal or state campaign contribution laws that bar “straw-donor” set-ups, which enable deep-pocketed donors to bypass contribution limits. Straw donors can also obscure the source of politicians’ fund

DeJoy’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, reportedly confirmed that there was an investigation. He was adamant that DeJoy did not knowingly break any laws.

Biden goes on the offense in battle to pass voting rights legislation

The next few months could determine the course of American democracy. After months of Republican attacks on voting access, Joe Biden used his speech at the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race riots this week to say he would “fight like heck” to pass sweeping voting rights legislation. He also announced that Kamala Harris would lead the White House’s efforts to push the bill.

But Biden’s most significant comment on Tuesday was an acerbic quip that served as a thinly-veiled warning shot to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two moderate Democrats in the US senate who have not endorsed eliminating the filibuster, a procedural requirement that requires 60 votes to advance legislation. With the rule in place, Democrats cannot advance voting rights legislation, even though they control the Senate.

“I hear all the folks on TV saying, ‘Why doesn’t Biden get this done?’ Well, because Biden only has a majority of, effectively, four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends,” Biden said on Tuesday. (White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday the comment was not a direct attack on Manchin and Sinema).

The pressure is escalating on Capitol Hill, too. Last week, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the US senate, announced that the Senate would take its first vote on the For the People Act, the sweeping Democratic voting rights package, at the end of the Senate’s June work period. This means Manchin and Sinema will have to go on record to defend their position on the bill.

Despite the growing pressure, both Manchin and Sinema seem dug in. Their refusal to budge is causing a “panic” among some Democrats. Because the once-per-decade redistricting process kicks off later this fall – a process in which Republicans will enjoy an immense advantage – there is worry that the summer is the final window for Democrats to put in place voting protections, especially protections against partisan gerrymandering.

Joe Manchin Open To ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER To Save Infrastructure Bill?

Sinema Lambasted for Claiming Filibuster 'Protects' Democracy as It's Used to Block Voting Rights Bill

Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona came under fire Wednesday for defending the legislative filibuster as essential to preserving U.S. democracy amid growing calls to eliminate the archaic 60-vote rule, which remains a major obstacle in the way of voting rights legislation and other key priorities.

While touring Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities in Tucson alongside Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, Sinema told reporters that the filibuster "protects the democracy of our nation" and that a change of behavior—not a change of rules—is needed to end Senate dysfunction.

"The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively... the way to fix that is to change your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules," said Sinema, who has repeatedly joined Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in defending the filibuster from progressive lawmakers who have characterized it as a "Jim Crow relic" that must be abolished.

Adam Jentleson, executive director of the Battle Born Collective and a former Senate aide, said in response to Sinema that focusing on individual behavior to remedy systemic problems is "literally the opposite of what you do."

"When you have a system that is not working effectively, you fix the system," Jentleson added.

In a statement, Eli Zupnick of Fix Our Senate said that Sinema "is simply wrong about the history of the filibuster," which was repeatedly deployed by segregationists to obstruct and tank civil rights legislation.

"Its current abuse by Senator McConnell has turned the Senate into a cesspool of partisanship, gridlock, and dysfunction," said Zupnick. "The fact that a bipartisan bill to form a bipartisan commission investigating an attack on Congress was blocked by a filibuster is a perfect demonstration of why the filibuster needs to be eliminated to fix the broken Senate."

"Changing the behavior of the entire Republican caucus—or even just 10 members—is a pipe dream," Zupnick added. "The only way Democrats can pass any meaningful legislation to protect voters and our democracy is to eliminate the filibuster."

The Arizona Democrat's latest defense of the filibuster came just weeks before the Senate is expected to vote on the For the People Act, a sweeping voting rights bill that stands virtually no chance of passage with the filibuster in place.

Breaking a legislative filibuster requires 60 votes, meaning every Senate Democrat and at least 10 Republicans would have to agree to proceed to a final vote on the bill—but the GOP is unanimously opposed to the measure and Manchin has refused to sign on as a co-sponsor. ...

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, passage of the For the People Act would "thwart virtually every single one" of the hundreds of voter suppression bills Republicans have introduced in states across the U.S. in recent months.

"Amidst a withering attack on voting rights in nearly every state," the group said in March, "the Senate must now get to work and pass this bill into law."

David Sirota: How Big Pharma Is UNDERMINING Joe Biden

‘More cops’: mayoral frontrunners talk tough in New York debate

The New York City mayoral race exploded into life on Wednesday night, as the Democratic primary debate saw candidates clash over whether to rein in or bolster the city’s beleaguered police force, and the two centrist frontrunners found themselves variously attacked as Republicans or gun-toters.

Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, who are leading the polls along with Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, were the focus of their rivals during the debate, as eight candidates pitched themselves to be mayor of the biggest city in the US – a role once dubbed the “second toughest job in America”. ...

Poverty and homelessness, which have continued to blight New York City under the last eight years of a Democratic mayor, were left by the wayside as law and order became an enduring topic. After a year where tens of thousands of New Yorkers called for the police department (NYPD) to be cut in size amid protests against police brutality and racism, it was Yang, a tech entrepreneur who ran a high-profile campaign for US president last year, who took the remarkable position of calling for the NYPD to expand.

“We need to go on a recruitment drive” to hire more police officers, Yang, the early leader in the race said, in a statement which is an anathema to the progressives in the Democratic party. The NYPD is already the largest police force in the country, with a budget of $6bn and a staff 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.

“Defunding the police is not the right approach for NYC,” Yang said – a direct effort to distance himself from candidates who have called for money to be taken from the police budget and spent on social programs and mental health treatment. He later called for “more cops on the subways” – and said the officers should not just be a presence on platforms, but should conduct regular “visual inspections” of carriages.

Climate tipping points could topple like dominoes, warn scientists

Ice sheets and ocean currents at risk of climate tipping points can destabilise each other as the world heats up, leading to a domino effect with severe consequences for humanity, according to a risk analysis.

Tipping points occur when global heating pushes temperatures beyond a critical threshold, leading to accelerated and irreversible impacts. Some large ice sheets in Antarctica are thought to already have passed their tipping points, meaning large sea-level rises in coming centuries.

The new research examined the interactions between ice sheets in West Antarctica, Greenland, the warm Atlantic Gulf Stream and the Amazon rainforest. The scientists carried out 3m computer simulations and found domino effects in a third of them, even when temperature rises were below 2C, the upper limit of the Paris agreement.

The study showed that the interactions between these climate systems can lower the critical temperature thresholds at which each tipping point is passed. It found that ice sheets are potential starting points for tipping cascades, with the Atlantic currents acting as a transmitter and eventually affecting the Amazon.

Could radioactive rhino horns scare off poachers?

‘Mind-blowing’: tenth of world’s giant sequoias may have been destroyed by a single fire

A huge fire in California last year may have destroyed up to a tenth of the world’s mature giant sequoia population, according to a draft report produced by scientists working for the National Park Service. From August to December 2020, the Castle fire tore through Sequoia national park, burning through thousands of the ancient redwoods, the world’s largest tree. By the time the blaze was contained, it had consumed 175,000 acres of parkland. NPS scientists now estimate that between 7,500 and 10,000 mature giant sequoias went up in flames.

“I cannot overemphasize how mind-blowing this is for all of us. These trees have lived for thousands of years. They’ve survived dozens of wildfires already,” said Christy Brigham, the chief of resources management and science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

Giant sequoias only grow in the peaks and valleys of a small central range of California’s Sierra Nevada. Because of the trees’ concentrated range, last year’s fire managed to literally decimate part of the world’s remaining population of the unique flora.

In recent months, researchers with the NPS have traversed the charred forests to survey the damage. In early May, some of these researchers discovered a trunk of one sequoia still burning, months after the rest of the fire was contained, and after an entire winter of rain and snow. At that time, researchers did not yet know the extent of the fire’s damage. Now, a draft report shared with the Visalia Times-Delta newspaper, which first reported the news on Wednesday, reveals just how catastrophic the burn was.

Brigham, the study’s lead author, cautioned that the numbers are preliminary and the research paper has yet to be peer-reviewed. Beginning next week, teams of scientists will hike to the groves that experienced the most fire damage for the first time since the ashes settled. “I have a vain hope that once we get out on the ground the situation won’t be as bad, but that’s hope, that’s not science,” she said.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to build new kind of nuclear reactor in Wyoming

Power companies run by billionaire friends Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have chosen Wyoming to launch the first Natrium nuclear reactor project on the site of a retiring coal plant. TerraPower, founded by Gates about 15 years ago, and power company PacifiCorp, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, said on Wednesday that the exact site of the Natrium reactor demonstration plant was expected to be announced by the end of the year. ...

“This is our fastest and clearest course to becoming carbon negative,” Wyoming’s governor, Mark Gordon, said. “Nuclear power is clearly a part of my all-of-the-above strategy for energy” in Wyoming, the country’s top coal-producing state.

The project features a 345 megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten salt-based energy storage that could boost the system’s power output to 500MW during peak power demand. TerraPower said last year that the plants would cost about $1bn.

Late last year the US energy department awarded TerraPower $80m in initial funding to demonstrate Natrium technology, and the department has committed additional funding in coming years subject to congressional appropriations.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Pentagon Undercounts Civilian Casualties in New Report, Experts Say

Twisting UK Law to Criminalize Dissent on Palestine

Before Tulsa there was Bethesda: The Cover-up of MAAFA (Genocide) and the Continuation of State Sponsored Racial Terror

The FBI's Strange Anthrax Investigation Sheds Light on COVID Lab-Leak Theory and Fauci's Emails

Eight Thoughts On The “UFO” Narrative

Fire-Stricken Chemical Cargo Ship Sinks Off Sri Lankan Coast in Enormous 'Man-Made Disaster'

The media is still mostly failing to convey the urgency of the climate crisis

North Atlantic whales shrinking due to fishing gear entanglements

Jimmy Dore: Biden Creeps On Young Girl In Audience

A Little Night Music

Chuck Berry - Memphis Tennessee

Chuck Berry - It Wasn't Me

Chuck Berry - Carol

Chuck Berry - Little Queenie

Chuck Berry - Almost Grown

Chuck Berry - I Want to Be Your Driver

Chuck Berry & Eric Clapton - Wee Wee Hours

Chuck Berry - Come On

Chuck Berry - House of Blue Lights

Chuck Berry With Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Johnny B. Goode