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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Rosco Gordon

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Memphis blues piano player and songwriter Rosco Gordon. Enjoy!

^{Rosco Gordon - Just a Little Bit}

"US officials voicing “concerns” about humanitarian conditions in Gaza is like someone holding your head underwater while mumbling “Help, someone please help, this poor soul is drowning.” "

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

The Major Obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian Peace Is the United States of America

On June 13, Hamas responded to persistent needling by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the U.S. proposal for a pause in the Israeli massacre in Gaza. The group said it has “dealt positively... with the latest proposal and all proposals to reach a cease-fire agreement.” Hamas added, by contrast, that, "while Blinken continues to talk about 'Israel’s approval of the latest proposal, we have not heard any Israeli official voicing approval."

The full details of the U.S. proposal have yet to be made public, but the pause in Israeli attacks and release of hostages in the first phase would reportedly lead to further negotiations for a more lasting cease-fire and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the second phase. But there is no guarantee that the second round of negotiations would succeed.

As former Israeli Labor Party prime minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio on June 3rd, “How do you think [Gaza military commander] Sinwar will react when he is told: but be quick, because we still have to kill you, after you return all the hostages?”

Meanwhile, as Hamas pointed out, Israel has not publicly accepted the terms of the latest U.S. cease-fire proposal, so it has only the word of U.S. officials that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has privately agreed to it. In public, Netanyahu still insists that he is committed to the complete destruction of Hamas and its governing authority in Gaza, and has actually stepped up Israel’s vicious attacks in central and southern Gaza.

The basic disagreement that President Joe Biden and Secretary Blinken’s smoke and mirrors cannot hide is that Hamas, like every Palestinian, wants a real end to the genocide, while the Israeli and U.S. governments do not.

Biden or Netanyahu could end the slaughter very quickly if they wanted to—Netanyahu by agreeing to a permanent cease-fire, or Biden by ending or suspending U.S. weapons deliveries to Israel. Israel could not carry out this war without U.S. military and diplomatic support. But Biden refuses to use his leverage, even though he has admitted in an interview that it was “reasonable” to conclude that Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political benefit.

The U.S. is still sending weapons to Israel to continue the massacre in violation of a cease-fire order by the International Court of Justice. Bipartisan U.S. leaders have invited Netanyahu to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on July 24, even as the International Criminal Court reviews a request by its chief prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes, crimes against humanity and murder.

The United States seems determined to share Israel’s self-inflicted isolation from voices calling for peace from all over the world, including large majorities of countries in the UN General Assembly and Security Council.

But perhaps this is appropriate, as the United States bears a great deal of responsibility for that isolation. By its decades of unconditional support for Israel, and by using its UN Security Council veto dozens of times to shield Israel from international accountability, the United States has enabled successive Israeli governments to pursue flagrantly criminal policies and to thumb their noses at the growing outrage of people and countries across the world.

Israel’s de facto expansion has been facilitated by the United States’ monopoly over mediation between Israel and Palestine, which it has aggressively staked out and defended against the UN and other countries.

This pattern of U.S. support for Israel goes all the way back to its founding, when Zionist leaders in Palestine unleashed a well-planned operation to seize much more territory than the UN allocated to their new state in its partition plan, which the Palestinians and neighboring countries already firmly opposed.

The massacres, the bulldozed villages and the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 to a million people in the Nakba have been meticulously documented, despite an extraordinary propaganda campaign to persuade two generations of Israelis, Americans and Europeans that they never happened.

The U.S. was the first country to grant Israel de facto recognition on May 14, 1948, and played a leading role in the 1949 UN votes to recognize the new state of Israel within its illegally seized borders. President Eisenhower had the wisdom to oppose Britain, France and Israel in their war to capture the Suez Canal in 1956, but Israel’s seizure of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1967 persuaded U.S. leaders that it could be a valuable military ally in the Middle East.

Unconditional U.S. support for Israel’s illegal occupation and annexation of more and more territory over the past 57 years has corrupted Israeli politics and encouraged increasingly extreme and racist Israeli governments to keep expanding their genocidal territorial ambitions. Netanyahu’s Likud party and government now fully embrace their Greater Israel plan to annex all of occupied Palestine and parts of other countries, wherever and whenever new opportunities for expansion present themselves.

Israel’s de facto expansion has been facilitated by the United States’ monopoly over mediation between Israel and Palestine, which it has aggressively staked out and defended against the UN and other countries. The irreconcilable contradiction between the U.S.’s conflicting roles as Israel’s most powerful military ally and the principal mediator between Israel and Palestine is obvious to the whole world.

But as we see even in the midst of the genocide in Gaza, the rest of the world and the UN have failed to break this U.S. monopoly and establish legitimate, impartial mediation by the UN or neutral countries that respect the lives of Palestinians and their human and civil rights.

Qatar mediated a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in November 2023, but it has since been upstaged by U.S. moves to prolong the massacre through deceptive proposals, cynical posturing and Security Council vetoes. The U.S. consistently vetoes all but its own proposals on Israel and Palestine in the UN Security Council, even when its own proposals are deliberately meaningless, ineffective or counterproductive.

The UN General Assembly is united in support of Palestine, voting almost unanimously year after year to demand an end to the Israeli occupation. A hundred and forty-four countries have recognized Palestine as a country, and only the U.S. veto denies it full UN membership. The Israeli genocide in Gaza has even shamed the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) into suspending their ingrained pro-Western bias and pursuing cases against Israel.

One way that the nations of the world could come together to apply greater pressure on Israel to end its assault on Gaza would be a “Uniting for Peace” resolution in the UN General Assembly. This is a measure the General Assembly can take when the Security Council is prevented from acting to restore peace and security by the veto of a permanent member.

Israel has demonstrated that it is prepared to ignore cease-fire resolutions by the General Assembly and the Security Council, and an order by the ICJ, but a Uniting for Peace resolution could impose penalties on Israel for its actions, such as an arms embargo or an economic boycott. If the United States still insists on continuing its complicity in Israel’s international crimes, the General Assembly could take action against the U.S. too.

A General Assembly resolution would change the terms of the international debate and shift the focus back from Biden and Blinken’s diversionary tactics to the urgency of enforcing the lasting cease-fire that the whole world is calling for.

It is time for the United Nations and neutral countries to push Israel’s U.S. partner in genocide to the side, and for legitimate international authorities and mediators to take responsibility for enforcing international law, ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and bringing peace to the Middle East.

Chris Hedges: Nero's Guests

Making October 7 About Antisemitism To Hide Israel’s Abuses

They keep telling you October 7 happened because Hamas hates Jews because they don’t want you asking questions about Israel’s actions which provoked the attack.

The October 7 attack was unquestionably provoked by Israel’s extensively documented abuses of the Palestinian people, but whenever you say this you get Israel supporters shrieking “How dare you JUSTIFY the actions of Hamas?? Nothing could JUSTIFY such a savage attack!” It’s a good example of how empire apologia in the 2020s largely consists of deliberately conflating the words “provoked” and “justified”.

Whether or not the October 7 attack was justified is a mental judgement; the answer to that question will always necessarily be entirely comprised of subjective opinion. Which means if the empire apologist can drag the debate kicking and screaming into the question of whether it was justified they’ve actually got a leg to stand on, since then they’re only dealing with feelings and opinions. If you keep the focus on the unassailably factual claim that the attack was provoked then they’ve got nothing, because the facts are all squarely against them.

Keeping this distinction conscious clears up a lot of imperial spin, whether you’re talking about the Hamas attack, Russia’s entirely provoked invasion of Ukraine, or the war the empire is trying to provoke with China over Taiwan.

The imperial spin machine is smearing people who ask inconvenient questions about October 7 with accusations of “October 7 denialism”, a phrase which is deliberately worded to invoke the emotional response that people have to Holocaust denialism.

The thing about this charge is that, unlike Holocaust denialism, nobody actually denies that the October 7 attack happened, they just dispute certain aspects of the mainstream narrative. This is being framed as something sinister and nefarious, despite the completely undisputed fact that Israel has been caught circulating many lies about what happened on October 7.

IDF Had Hamas Oct 7 Blueprint. Did NOTHING

Benjamin Netanyahu dissolves Israeli war cabinet

Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the Israeli war cabinet that had been overseeing the conflict in Gaza, rebuffing his far-right allies who had been seeking seats, and apparently moving to solidify his grasp on decision-making over the fighting with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah across the Lebanese border. The prime minister announced the move to ministers, saying the war cabinet had been established as part of an agreement in which the moderate politician Benny Gantz and his National Unity party joined an emergency coalition last year.

The disbanding of the war cabinet was confirmed by Israeli officials against a backdrop of mounting discontent over the conduct of the war in Gaza and calls from anti-government groups for a week of daily protests.

David Mencer, a spokesperson at the prime minister’s office, said the war cabinet was a “prerequisite” for Gantz, a former army chief and defence minister, to join a unity government. He added: “So with Mr Gantz leaving government, there is no need for the cabinet. Its duties will be taken over by the security cabinet.” ...

Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers, including the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and the strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, who had been in the war cabinet. The dissolution of the war cabinet is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the conflict – decision-making will move back to the security cabinet – but the political ramifications may be more significant.

The move appears to be a deliberate snub to Netanyahu’s far-right allies in the coalition, including the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who had been angling for a seat in the war cabinet since Gantz’s departure after complaining he had been sidelined for key decisions.

Larry Johnson: Unconscionable Israeli Arrests

Netanyahu Plots More Illegal West Bank Colonies

Top Israeli officials on Sunday discussed plans to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank as an act of retaliation against countries that recently joined the majority of the international community in recognizing Palestinian statehood.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement Sunday announcing that government officials “discussed steps to strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria, including in response to the countries that unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state after October 7, as well as a series of responses against the [Palestinian Authority] following its actions against Israel in [international] bodies.”

“The defense minister and the attorney general requested additional time to comment on several of the proposed clauses,” the statement added.

The government’s announcement, released hours before Netanyahu dissolved Israel’s war cabinet, comes amid an unprecedented wave of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank — violence that Israeli soldiers have abetted and frequently joined.

Settlers and Israeli forces have demolished homes, razed refugee camps, set fire to cars and businesses, and carried out summary executions of West Bank residents — including children — in the eight months since Israel launched its assault on Gaza.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has vocally supported the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territories, recently threatened that Israel’s military would turn the West Bank into “ruined cities like in the Gaza Strip.”

CNN noted Sunday that Smotrich suggested last month that “Israel should approve 10,000 settlements in the West Bank, establish a new settlement for every country that recognizes a state of Palestine, and cancel travel permits for Palestinian Authority officials.”

“This is what total unchecked impunity sounds like,” researcher Abe Silberstein wrote on social media following the latest news of Israel’s settlement-expansion plans. “Netanyahu knows Biden will do nothing, and that he will in fact stop others from doing anything.”

The Biden administration, which acknowledged earlier this year that Israeli settlements are “inconsistent with international law,” has sanctioned a handful of settlers as well as an entity accused of fundraising for them, but critics say the actions were largely a public relations stunt.

In May — amid growing global outrage over Israel’s brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank — Norway, Ireland, and Spain announced their decision to formally recognize Palestinian statehood, drawing a furious response from Israel’s right-wing government, which warned of “severe consequences” for the move.

Earlier this month, Slovenia’s Parliament overwhelmingly voted to recognize Palestine, becoming the latest European country to do so.

Meanwhile, Israeli leaders — including Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — are facing the possibility of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor, who applied for the warrants against Israeli officials and Hamas leaders last month.

A United Nations report published last week found that Israeli forces in the West Bank have “committed acts of sexual violence, torture, and inhuman or cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, all of which are war crimes.”

“Furthermore,” according to the report, “the government of Israel and Israeli forces permitted, fostered, and instigated a campaign of settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in a statement Friday that “while the world is understandably focused on the destruction unfolding in Gaza, we should not lose sight of what is happening in the West Bank — actions which are in violation of both American and international law.”

“Let’s be clear: The right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government is not only breaking international law in Gaza, they are doing the same in the West Bank, where they are pursuing illegal annexation by force,” said Sanders. “Netanyahu should be facing serious consequences for these violations, not receiving an invitation to address a joint session of Congress.”

Phil Giraldi : Israel’s Control Over America

US Sanctions Israel Group Attacking Aid Shipments

The US blacklisted an Israeli organization for interfering with aid shipments headed to Gaza. The group, Tzav 9, demands that no aid enter the Strip until all Israeli hostages are released and uses violence to curb deliveries of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians. The organization operates in open view of Israeli security forces and is supported by top officials in Tel Aviv.

In a press release published on Friday, the State Department described Tzav 9 as a “violent extremist Israeli group that has been blocking, harassing, and damaging convoys carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

“For months, individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blockading roads, sometimes violently, along their route from Jordan to Gaza,” the statement continued. “On May 13, 2024, Tzav 9 members looted and then set fire to two trucks near Hebron in the West Bank carrying humanitarian aid destined for men, women, and children in Gaza.”

The group receives support from Israeli National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir, who has ordered police to leave the aid trucks unguarded.

50,000 Gaza children require urgent treatment for malnutrition: UN

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says more than 50,000 children in the Gaza Strip require immediate medical treatment for acute malnutrition.

In a statement on Saturday, the agency noted “with continued restrictions to humanitarian access, people in Gaza continue to face desperate levels of hunger. UNRWA teams work tirelessly to reach families with aid, but the situation is catastrophic”.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder also described how difficult it is to not only get aid into Gaza, but also to distribute it across the war-battered coastal enclave. “More aid workers have been killed in this war than any war since the advent of the UN,” he told Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday, UNICEF had a mission to drive a truck full of nutritional and medical supplies for 10,000 children, Elder said. Their task was to deliver the aid, which was pre-approved by Israeli authorities, from Deir el-Balah to Gaza City, a 40km (25 miles) round trip.“It took 13 hours and we spent eight of those around checkpoints, arguing around paperwork – ‘was it a truck or a van’,” he said. “The reality is this truck was denied access. Those 10,000 children did not get that aid … Israel as the occupying power has the legal responsibility to facilitate that aid.”

Israel Uses Phosphorous Bombs To Set Fires in Southern Lebanon Towns

Just days after using a trebuchet to set fires to farmland across the southern Lebanon border, the Israeli military is looking to make fire even more of a weapon of war, striking several southern towns with phosphorous bombs.

The towns of Houla, Tallouseh, Adaisseh, and Kfar Kela were all reported hit, with civil defense forces out in forces across the area to try to keep the fires subsequently set under control.

This isn’t necessarily easy for firefighters, especially compared to the incidental fires which result from ordinary military strikes on both sides of the border. Used as incendiary devices, the phosphorous bombs tend to set fires that spread more quickly than ordinarily.

Pop stars for peace?

Dua Lipa says criticism of Israeli war in Gaza was for ‘greater good’

The pop star and soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has said she is willing to risk a backlash over political statements after she recently described military operations in Gaza as “Israeli genocide”.

In an interview with the Radio Times, the 28-year-old said she repeatedly checked herself before making a statement, but did so if she felt it was for the “greater good” and worth the risk.

The Grammy award-winner last month reposted to her 88 million Instagram followers a graphic from the group Artists4Ceasefire, along with the hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah, which trended in the days after Israel’s bombing of the city in Gaza.

She wrote: “Burning children alive can never be justified. The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”

Recently, she was referenced in an Israeli drill rap song that called for violence against public figures who have expressed pro-Palestinian views.

Russia wins Swiss summit. NYT resurrects Istanbul ceasefire

Campaigners Decry 'Dangerous Escalation' as NATO Chief Floats Nuclear Deployment

Nuclear disarmament campaigners on Monday implored NATO and Russia to step back from the brink after the head of the Western military alliance said its members are considering deploying additional atomic weapons to counter Moscow and Beijing.

"This is the dangerous escalation inherent to the deterrence doctrine," the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) wrote on social media, referring to the notion that the threat of catastrophic nuclear retaliation prevents nations from using atomic weaponry.

The U.S., which spent more on its atomic weapons arsenal than every other nuclear-armed nation combined last year, currently has nukes deployed in five NATO countries—Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Russia, meanwhile, recently deployed nuclear weapons to Belarus, which said earlier this month that it would join Moscow's nuclear exercises.

ICAN said Monday that "it's time for both to reverse course."

"NATO countries hosting U.S. nuclear weapons should admit to their citizens they have weapons of mass destruction on their soil with no public say," ICAN added. "But neither Belarus nor NATO allies should flaunt being prepared to indiscriminately kill millions of people."

The group's warning came after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg toldThe Telegraph on Sunday that members of the military alliance are in the process of deliberating over "how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored."

"NATO's aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world where Russia, China, and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and NATO does not, is a more dangerous world," Stoltenberg continued.

The NATO chief's remarks drew a swift response from Moscow. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, condemned Stoltenberg's comments as "nothing else but an escalation" and claimed that whenever Russian President Vladimir Putin "comments on the issue of nuclear arms, he does so taking someone's questions or questions from reporters, including foreign ones."

A report published Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that "nearly all" of the world's 2,100 deployed nuclear warheads that were "kept in a state of high operational alert" as of January 2024 belonged to the U.S. or Russia.

Separately, ICAN released an analysis Monday showing that the U.S., Russia, and China were the world's largest spenders on nuclear weapons last year. The U.S. and Russia control about 90% of the world's arsenal of atomic weapons. According to experts, a nuclear conflict between the two countries would likely kill tens of millions of people within hours and set off a devastating global famine.

"The risk of nuclear weapons use, and public attention to this danger, is at an all-time high," ICAN's new report warns. "Explicit and implicit threats to use nuclear weapons, including in the context of ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, combined with the Oppenheimer blockbuster, Fallout TV show (and possible video game reboot), and bestselling book 'Nuclear War: A Scenario,' mean the world is talking about the bomb."

Pepe Escobar : World Reactions to Putin Peace Plan

EU leaders move closer towards giving second term to Ursula von der Leyen

EU leaders are converging on a second term for Ursula von der Leyen as head of the European Commission but have failed to reach a quick agreement. Meeting for the first time since elections shifted the European parliament to the right, with big gains for nationalist and far-right parties in France and Germany, EU leaders discussed how to fill the bloc’s top jobs on Monday.

The European Council president, Charles Michel, expressed confidence of agreement next week, while declining to answer if there had been a majority for von der Leyen or candidates for the other senior roles. “It is our collective duty to make a decision by the end of June,” he told reporters at about midnight. ...

Former Portuguese prime minister António Costa is widely favoured to take over from Michel as president of the European Council, making him responsible for crafting compromises between EU leaders. Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has been floated as the EU’s new top diplomat, a position currently occupied by Josep Borrell.

But pitfalls lie ahead for all three. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, called for “public clarification” about a corruption scandal that forced Costa from office last year. Costa, who won three elections, has not been accused of any crime, but an investigation into alleged influence-peddling by his Socialist government is in progress.

Peter Pellegrini, Slovakia’s president, standing in for the prime minister, Robert Fico, who was hospitalised in an assassination attempt, said leaders needed to be “very careful” about who would represent the EU at international level. “We have to have there a person which will be able to calm the situation, which is now extremely under huge tension,” he said. Pellegrini did not name anyone, but his point could be seen as a veiled criticism of Kallas, a noted Russia hawk, from a government that is less hostile to Russia.

Ahead of Juneteenth, Maryland Pardons 175K Pot Convictions

Maryland governor issues pardons for 175,000 cannabis-related convictions

Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, issued pardons for 175,000 cannabis-related convictions on Monday, the largest mass pardoning of its kind since recreational cannabis was legalized in the state last year following similar moves across many US states.

The Democratic leader’s executive order includes more than 150,000 misdemeanor convictions for simple possession of cannabis and over 18,000 misdemeanor convictions for use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia.

Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, said the pardons were designed to address longstanding inequities in the criminal justice system connected to the drug.

“Marylanders should not continue to face barriers to housing, employment, or educational opportunities based on convictions for conduct that is no longer illegal,” Moore said in a statement.

“This action will also help make significant progress to address the racial wealth gap and will benefit Marylanders from across the state and from across the economic spectrum,” he added.

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Biden is like a man in a sanatorium

Will SCOTUS Rule To ALLOW Presidents To Do Whatever They Want

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‘The time is right’ for US to catch up on high-speed rail, says British Amtrak exec

After years of dashed hopes, delays and the all-consuming dominance of the car and airplane, high-speed trains may finally be about to have their breakthrough moment in the United States, according to one of the country’s top rail executives. Half a dozen high-speed rail projects across the US are currently planned or have already started construction, with a gush of federal infrastructure dollars, a supportive White House, and rising angst over snarled highways and the climate crisis all helping bring the prospect of bullet trains, belatedly, closer than ever before to the American public.

“This is the golden opportunity for the US to join that high-speed club with all the benefits that it would bring,” said Andy Byford, a British executive who was nicknamed “Train Daddy” during a spell overseeing New York City’s subways. Since last year, he’s been senior vice-president of high-speed rail at Amtrak. “There’s no question the US is for now the outlier when it comes to high-speed rail. “But I think once we get one route up successfully, people will clamor for more. We believe the time is right for this where the topography, population and so on makes sense. I think if it’s not going to happen now, I wonder if it ever will.”

High-speed trains, capable of 200mph (322km/h) or more, have long become commonplace in countries including France, Germany, Japan and even Morocco. Yet the US, despite being an early rail pioneer, has instead prioritized the build-out of vast and ever-widening highways, often choked with traffic and rammed through razed neighborhoods, supplemented by a matrix of flights linking even relatively close cities.

This is gradually changing. In April, work started on building a high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas to southern California, promising 200mph trains that will cut the normal four-hour drive time in half by the time of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028. “If they pull it off it will be remarkable,” said Byford. “That would be practically a mile a day [of track] construction.”

California has another high-speed rail project that has labored under grueling delays and ballooning costs over the past decade that aims to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Projects in the earlier stages of planning include efforts to link Atlanta, Georgia, to Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as Chicago, Illinois, to St Louis, Missouri, and Vancouver, British Columbia, to Portland, Oregon.

Scientists Say Senate Bill Will Endanger People 'Living Downwind' of Nuclear Plants

As U.S. senators prepare to vote on a bipartisan bill proponent say will accelerate the development and commercialization of advanced nuclear reactor technologies, the Union of Concerned Scientists warned Monday that the legislation would increase the chances of a "catastrophic" meltdown by weakening the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—an agency already ridden by conflicts of interest.

Upper chamber lawmakers are expected to vote this week on the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, introduced last year by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and passed by the House of Representatives in a 365-36 vote on February 28.

Proponents of the legislation argue it will facilitate U.S. nuclear leadership, develop and deploy new reactor technology, preserve existing nuclear energy, and more.

However, critics including the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) argue that the bill threatens the independence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), some of whose officials have long been criticized for their dangerously close ties to the industry they regulate. Additionally, NRC advisers have been accused of undisclosed conflicts of interest.

"It's extremely disappointing that, without any meaningful debate, Congress is about to erase 50 years of independent nuclear safety oversight by changing the NRC's mission to not only protect public health and safety but also to protect the financial health of the industry and its investors," UCS director of nuclear power safety Edwin Lyman said in a statement Monday.

"Just as lax regulation by the [Federal Aviation Administration]—an agency already burdened by conflicts of interests—can lead to a catastrophic failure of an aircraft, a compromised NRC could lead to a catastrophic reactor meltdown impacting an entire region for a generation," he continued.

"Make no mistake: This is not about making the reactor licensing process more efficient, but about weakening safety and security oversight across the board, a long-standing industry goal," Lyman contended. "The change to the NRC's mission effectively directs the agency to enforce only the bare minimum level of regulation at every facility it oversees across the United States."

"Passage of this legislation will only increase the danger to people already living downwind of nuclear facilities from a severe accident or terrorist attack, and it will make it even more difficult for communities to prevent risky, experimental reactors from being sited in their midst," he added.

In a February opinion piece published by The Hill, Lyman asserted that the ADVANCE Act would "put the proverbial fox in charge of the henhouse" by eroding the independence of an agency that critics say is already too cozy with the nuclear industry.

"Congress needs to strengthen, rather than weaken, the NRC's science-based safety focus," Lyman stressed.

Stanford disappoints critics of fossil fuel donations by hiring PR firm with big oil ties

Stanford University’s sustainability school has hired a public relations firm to address “potential reputational challenges” amid concern from campus activists over the institution’s extensive ties with fossil fuel companies. However, that PR firm, the Brunswick Group, has itself faced criticism for working with oil and gas companies, disappointing the university’s climate advocates. Brunswick says it is “vital to engage with companies in the most complex sectors to decarbonize”. ...

The sustainability school, which was founded in 2022, and its precursor departments has accepted funding from Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other oil majors, sparking anger from climate organizers on and off campus. It is not alone: fossil fuel companies have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into university research across the US.

Late last month, school officials sent an email to student leadership announcing its partnership with Brunswick, a major public relations firm based in London which operates in 14 countries. The university described the partnership as part of an effort to show the school’s brand, tackle “potential reputational challenges” and develop a PR strategy that “leverages Stanford’s reputation, and addresses key stakeholder concerns”. Student council members were invited to a catered lunch meeting to help inform the strategy.

Brunswick has worked with the energy giant BP, creating a strategy in 2017 and 2018 to help “reframe the conversation on gas”, “protect BP’s ‘advantaged gas position’” and “secure support for gas as a natural low carbon fuel”, according to documents released in 2022 to a US congressional investigation. (The campaign was meant to “draw attention to the urgency of tackling methane emissions in 2017, as a prerequisite for natural gas playing a role in the energy transition”, a Brunswick spokesperson told OpenDemocracy in 2022.) As recently as 2022, Brunswick also counted Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, as a client.

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Also of Interest

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

The Yasser Arafat Era Is Over

The night Israel killed my family

Wikipedia war: Fierce row erupts over Israel’s deadly Nuseirat assault

Zelenski's Summit Has Failed

Next Stage – The General Staff’s Targets After Putin’s Feint

British meddling in Macedonia backfires, exposing coup machinations

Shell’s Exit From Nigeria

Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Loses Job Offer for Saying Israel Is Committing Genocide

WAPO: Swap HILLARY For Kamala

Tucker Carlson To Go On Tour; Liberal Media FREAKS OUT

Automatic Registration For The Draft -For Women Too!

Anya Parampil: How US sanctions, regime change triggered migration wave

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A Little Night Music

Rosco Gordon - No More Doggin'

Rosco Gordon - Booted

Rosco Gordon - Chicken in The Rough

Rosco Gordon - Let's Get High

Rosco Gordon - We're All Loaded

Rosco Gordon - Just In From Texas

Rosco Gordon - Cheese and Crackers

Rosco Gordon - Roscoe's Boogie

Wayne Bennett + Rosco Gordon - Hello Baby (Jelly, Jelly)

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