Tag: nuclear submarines

Biden’s Canada visit aimed at girding North American imperialist alliance for war with Russia and China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Joe Biden will make his first official visit to Canada as US President this Thursday and Friday. The publicly announced agenda of issues Biden is to discuss with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau underscores that North America’s twin imperialist powers are recklessly rushing towards world war, under conditions of an unprecedented global capitalist crisis that is also fueling a global working class upsurge of revolutionary dimensions.

Biden’s Canada visit aimed at girding North American imperialist alliance for war with Russia and China

Australia’s nuclear waste from AUKUS deal raises treaty violation concerns

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

By: Romita Chattaraj | March 20, 2023 – 2:06pm

On March 14, 2023, Australia, the US, and UK concluded a deal that will extend nuclear powered submarines to the Australian Navy, a key part of the AUKUS security agreement between the three countries. The AUKUS deal requires the Australian government to dispose of nuclear waste containing radioactive materials produced by the submarines. While Australia has facilities to store low through intermediate-level waste, no facilities exist to store high-level waste for the decades or centuries such waste requires. This has raised concerns about violating Article 2 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which does not permit non-nuclear states to “receive nuclear explosive devices or seek their manufacture.” However, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reaffirmed Australia’s commitment to the NPT and stated that the country will work in “close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).” One other violation concern has been raised regarding the Treaty of Rarotonga, also known as the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, which does not allow signatories to “acquire, possess, or have control over any nuclear explosive device” but allows reservations in Article 14. Reservations, as defined by Article 14 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, permits a state to exclude the application of certain provisions, creating a loophole for Australia’s ability to store nuclear reactors. US submarines will start visits to Australia this year with UK submarines expected by 2026. Full nuclear capability is expected by the early 2030s.

Australia’s nuclear waste from AUKUS deal raises treaty violation concerns

US & UK make the submarines, Australia stores the waste.

MoA: Some Small Corrections To Seymour Hersh’s New Nord Stream Revelations

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Seymour Hersh is a legendary investigative reporter who has revealed dozens of crimes the U.S. government committed at home and abroad.

In his latest piece Hersh describes the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea by U.S. government forces. The destruction released an enormous amount of methane, a global warming gas. It destroyed Germany’s gas lifeline with Russia and thereby heavily damaged Germany’s industry. It was ecological and economic terrorism by the U.S. government targeted at an ‘ally’.

Some Small Corrections To Seymour Hersh’s New Nord Stream Revelations

Reminder:

CIA warned Germany of pipeline attack

IAEA Unaware If Iran Has Nuclear Weapons Program, Grossi Says

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

IAEA Unaware If Iran Has Nuclear Weapons Program, Grossi Says

When asked how close he thought Tehran was to making a nuclear bomb, Grossi said in an interview aired on Sunday, ‘At the current level of production of this enriched uranium, Iran has accumulated already enough material to have more than one device, if they chose to do that. But we don’t have any information that would indicate that Iran has a nuclear weapon program at the moment.’

Related:

YouTube: 60 Minutes interview with Rafael Grossi

US Says Iran Is Not Trying to Build a Nuclear Weapon

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

“We don’t believe in hegemony, we don’t believe in confrontation, we believe in stability,” Macron said.

…

Macron said a coordinated response was needed to tackle the overlapping crises facing the international community — from climate change to economic turmoil triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Our Indo-Pacific strategy is how to provide dynamic balance in this environment,” he said.

“How to provide precisely a sort of stability and equilibrium which could not be the hegemony of one of those, could not be the confrontation of the two major powers.”

The Indo-Pacific Strategy doesn’t sound as innocent as Macron makes it out to be:

The new US Indo-Pacific Strategy document released in February has two interesting components, one overt and one covert. The document overtly declares the US is an “Indo-Pacific power.” Covertly, its aim is to “tighten the noose around China.” Arguably, minus the military might, China’s nearly a decade-long “Belt and Road Initiative” cannot be perceived as a grand national strategy aimed at controlling Eurasia or the Asia Pacific or any region for that matter. Yet the BRI is mythologized into such a geostrategic game-changer that it has rattled the US and its allies in the Asia Pacific. The BRI, at best, is nothing more than a mere geopolitical overland and maritime “chessboard” based on trade and investment.

BRI and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ Strategy: Geopolitical vs. Geostrategic