Newsletter XXXII 2026
August 9 to...
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| Top | Today | Current news+ | Background |
Radioactivity accumulates; this means that radioactive particles continue to accumulate in the living organism and over time similar damage can occur as with a short-term, massive exposure to radiation...
The PDF file "Nuclear Power Accidents" contains a number of other incidents from various areas of the nuclear industry. Some of the events were never published through official channels, so this information could only be made available to the public in a roundabout way. The list of incidents in the PDF file is therefore not 100 % identical with "INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities", but represents an addition.
August 1, 1983 (INES Class.?) NPP Pickering, Canada
August 2, 1992 (INES Class.?) NPP Pickering, Canada
August 4, 2005 (INES Class.?) NPP Indian Point, USA
August 6, 1945 (1st atomic bomb dropped by the USA) Hiroshima, JPN
August 9, 2009 (INES-1 Class.?) NPP Gravelines, FRA
August 9, 2004 (INES-1 Class.?) NPP Mihama, JPN
August 9, 1945 (2st atomic bomb dropped by the USA) Nagasaki, JPN
August 10, 1985 (INES-5) submarine accidents, K-431, USSR
August 11, 2014 (INES Class.?) NPP Heysham and NPP Hartlepool, GBR
August 11, 1973 (INES Class.?) NPP Palisades, Michigan, USA
August 12, 2001 (INES-2 Class.?) NPP Phillipsburg, GER
August 12, 2000 (Broken Arrow) submarine accidents, K-141 Kursk, Russia
August 18, 2015 (INES-2) NPP Blayais, FRA
August 19, 2008 (INES-1) NPP Santa Maria de Garoña, ESP
August 21, 2007 (INES-2) NPP Beznau, CHE
August 21, 1945 (INES-4) Nuclear factory Los Alamos, USA
August 23, 2011 (INES-1 Class.?) NPP North Anna, VA, USA
August 25, 2008 (INES-3) Nuclear medicine IRE Fleurus, BEL
August 25, 2004 (INES-2) NPP Vandellos, ESP
August 27, 2009 (INES Class.?) NPP Leningrad, St. Petersburg, RUS
August 27, 2008 (INES-1 Class.?) NPP Tihange, BEL
August 29, 1949 ("RDS-1" 1. USSR nuclear test) Semipalatinsk, KAZ
August 30, 2003 (Nuclear submarine) submarine accidents, K-159, RUS
We are always looking for up-to-date information. Anyone who can help, please send a message to:
nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
| Top | Today | Current news+ | Background |
16 August
Expensive electricity due to Merkel's years
Jürgen Trittin: The energy transition had to survive 16 years of hostile government
When the energy transition began, then-Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin promised it would cost German households no more than an ice cream cone. One euro a month would be enough to switch from nuclear power and coal to renewables. The plan backfired. Electricity prices rose, and the energy transition fell into disrepute. However, according to Trittin, this wasn't due to renewable energies or feed-in tariffs. "Electricity prices went down," Trittin said in the ntv podcast "Das Klima-Labor" (The Climate Lab) about the start of the energy transition. The Green Party politician blamed the Merkel years: the EEG surcharge, he claimed, had been "deliberately driven up" by the center-right coalition government in order to "denounce renewables as too expensive." The goal? To help the coal companies and reverse the nuclear phase-out.
ntv.de: When did you first hear, say, or think the term "energy transition"?
Jürgen Trittin: That was in the late 80s in Lower Saxony. Back then, we in the state parliament were discussing: What would we do if we prevailed and the nuclear power plants were shut down? They would have to be replaced. Wind turbines were already being erected on the occupied building sites in Grohnde. They were widely ridiculed.
But not from you.
No, no. From proponents of nuclear power. But that's how the term "energy transition" came about: the anti-stance was to become a proactive one.
Was the starting point for the energy transition not environmental or climate issues, but rather the fear of nuclear power?
The success of the energy transition rests on three pillars: phasing out nuclear power, embracing renewables, and implementing emissions trading. There were a number of reasons why people opposed nuclear power. The most important was the risk. In 1979, there was a major nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in the USA. It was only just contained. The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was not. This risk of accidents was also the reason why, after Fukushima in 2011, Germany definitively phased out nuclear power with a consensus ranging from industry to unions, from environmental organizations to the CDU (Christian Democratic Union). Another reason is the lack of a clear distinction between civilian use and the use of nuclear weapons. This is currently evident in Saudi Arabia. Those who oppose nuclear weapons are also opposed to nuclear power.
And the energy transition was the proposal for what Germany should do instead.
The anti-nuclear power movement posed a legitimate question: How does electricity get to the socket? They had to provide an answer. The substitution of nuclear energy capacity was one of the key reasons for the target set out in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
15 August
Global warming in July
Heat record in 23 countries
The effects of global warming were felt in almost every country in the world in July – even in Antarctica. In 23 countries, it was the hottest July since 1940.
For numerous countries around the world, last month was the hottest July since 1940. This is shown by an analysis by taz based on data from the EU climate service Copernicus. The 23 countries with record-breaking heat include Spain, France, and Russia, as well as several countries in Central America and the Sahel region of Africa. These countries are home to approximately one billion people, roughly 12 percent of the world's population.
A similar analysis by the AFP news agency counted 33 countries with record heat and 900 million people affected. The US weather service NOAA also reported that the month was the hottest July in the US in 130 years. An additional 350 million people live there. According to the taz analysis, July 2026 in the US was just shy of the record.
The data show that climate change is now noticeable worldwide. In every country in the world – except for the two island nations of Fiji and Vanuatu – the average temperature was above the international climate reference period of 1961 to 1990.
The highest temperatures were recorded in Tunisia and France, where it was 4,5 degrees Celsius warmer than usual. According to Copernicus, sea temperatures also reached a record high in July. Even in Antarctica, currently experiencing winter, the temperature was -42,7 degrees Celsius, about 0,2 degrees warmer than average. Globally, warming reached approximately 1,47 degrees Celsius in July compared to pre-industrial levels.
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Closed due to drought!
What is the point of building new nuclear power plants?
The Earth is warming rapidly, causing enormous problems not only for us, but also for the animal and especially the plant world. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and causing damage everywhere. Currently, it is drought that is troubling us; another time it will be floods, and the damage is immense. Whether this trend can be stopped is questionable, but not only are measures against climate change expensive, but climate change itself is. Doing nothing will only make it worse. And what if next year's dry summer is followed by another one?
“Nuclear power likes to present itself as an emission-free and environmentally friendly form of energy production, which it is far from being,” says Manfred Doppler of the Anti-Nuclear Committee. “The facts tell a different story.” It's not just nature and the share of hydropower that suffer. It's primarily the nuclear power plants themselves, which, with their high water consumption, have to be throttled back or shut down completely time and again.
In France and Switzerland, this happens almost regularly. This year, Hungary and Romania are also facing a huge problem supplying energy to the country and its industry due to the currently low water level of the Danube, and additional reactors would not change that.
[...] Nuclear power plants are among the largest consumers of water. The phase-out of nuclear power alone has reduced total industrial water consumption in Germany by around 17%. In principle, a reactor – regardless of its design – only produces heat, of which only about a third is converted into electricity via steam turbines. The remaining two-thirds are waste heat that must be released into the environment through cooling.
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Spain reinforces police in Ceuta following calls for a new influx
Calls are circulating on social media to try once again to enter the exclave of Ceuta. Spain fears a new influx of people and is taking precautions.
Following calls on social media for another incursion into Ceuta in North Africa, Spain has increased its police and military presence in its exclave. As early as Friday evening, Spanish soldiers in combat uniforms were guarding supermarkets and public buildings in Ceuta, and a large number of police vehicles were patrolling the area's main roads.
On the Moroccan side of the border, dozens of security forces monitored Fnideq beach, from where many migrants had set off for Ceuta more than two weeks ago. According to local media reports, security forces were also reinforced at the border with the other Spanish exclave of Melilla, and new barbed wire fences were erected.
At the end of July, according to the Spanish government, around 80.000 people reached Ceuta within a short period. Many swam there, others scaled border fences. Morocco reported around 40.000 arrivals in Ceuta. 83 people died attempting to reach the enclave.
Events in Ceuta sparked ongoing debate
According to the Spanish government, the majority of migrants returned to Morocco shortly after arriving in Ceuta – either voluntarily or because they were pushed back by the military. These events sparked a debate about migration policy within the European Union, and the Spanish government faced considerable criticism. Following the border crossings into Ceuta, Italy suspended the application of the Schengen Agreement to Spain, even though the enclave is not part of the Schengen Area.
Following the border crossings, Spain had already erected a sea barrier and deployed more than 500 additional police officers from the mainland. The Interior Ministry stated they would remain as long as the situation required.
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Germany's largest offshore wind farm completed: electricity for 1,1 million households
Off the North Sea coast, one of Germany's largest offshore wind farms, "He Dreiht," is taking shape. The EnBW project is scheduled to go into operation in late summer and will then supply around 1,1 million households with electricity from renewable sources.
As part of the energy transition, renewable energies are intended to increasingly replace fossil fuels while simultaneously ensuring a climate-friendly and reliable electricity supply. Wind power plays a key role in this, and its expansion is being promoted both onshore and offshore.
Offshore wind farms are considered particularly important because winds at sea are generally stronger and more consistent than on land. This allows the very large installations to generate correspondingly high amounts of electricity.
According to the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, there are currently 1.764 offshore wind turbines in operation in Germany. These have a combined capacity of 10,8 gigawatts.
There are 64 wind turbines in the offshore wind farm “He Dreiht”
According to the foundation, there should be a significant increase in total installed capacity over the next ten years. This is because the German government is also pushing for the expansion of offshore wind energy as part of its climate goals.
According to the plan, installed offshore wind capacity is to increase to at least 30 gigawatts by 2030 and to at least 40 gigawatts by 2035. At least 70 gigawatts are planned for 2045. Large wind farms like "He Dreiht" in the North Sea are intended to help achieve these goals and further increase the share of renewable energies in Germany's electricity supply.
[...] The plant is the energy company's largest offshore project to date. Approximately €2,4 billion was invested.
“As our largest offshore project to date, He Dreiht represents the consistent expansion of renewables and the further development of our generation portfolio towards climate neutrality,” Heydecker continued. The project is expected to have a total capacity of 960 megawatts, which would theoretically be enough to power approximately 1,1 million households.
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
14 August
Five years of Taliban in Afghanistan: Germany's grotesque double standards
While aid to Afghanistan is shrinking, Germany is cooperating with the Taliban on deportations. The editorial.
Five years already. It's been five years since the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan. For us, time may have passed quickly. That's how it is with crises that disappear from our view. But for women in Afghanistan, these were five long years. More than 100 decrees and orders were issued against women and girls.
The US almost completely cuts off development aid to Afghanistan
The US, for years by far the country's most important donor, has almost completely cut its aid. Europe is far from filling the resulting gap. On the contrary, it too is making cuts. For twenty years, the US and its allies helped build a system that could hardly function without foreign money. Then the Western troops withdrew. And shortly thereafter, a large part of the funding also dried up.
The Taliban boast that they have made Afghanistan safer, and politicians in this country are adopting this narrative. Yes, the years of large-scale fighting are largely over. Those who previously could barely walk through Kabul at night can do so again today. But for women, Afghanistan has become a surveillance state. The morality police control their daily lives down to the smallest detail. How is a single mother supposed to survive under such circumstances? When she is not allowed to work, can hardly leave the house, and international aid is drying up?
Despair in Afghanistan: Oppression of women by the Taliban
The desperation is now measurable. Almost three-quarters of the women rate their mental health as poor or very poor. Reports of suicides are increasing. Women set themselves on fire because they see no other way out. Families marry off their underage daughters because the bride price can keep the other children alive through the winter. Men sell their kidneys for around $300. The medical conditions are appalling: the wounds become infected, and some are unable to work afterward.
And what is Germany doing? The federal government is negotiating with this terrorist regime to deport people. Initially, these were convicted criminals and so-called "potential terrorists." Now, for the first time, a man who had not committed any crimes was also on a deportation flight.
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Spain postpones the decommissioning of the Almaraz nuclear power plant
Despite the delay at Almaraz, Spain's target date for a complete phase-out of nuclear power remains 2035. More than 50% of the country's total energy mix comes from renewable energy sources.
MADRID – Spain is extending the operating life of one of its most important nuclear power plants to “protect” its citizens from the global energy price shocks caused by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The Energy Ministry's decision was published in the State Gazette on Friday, confirming the planned decommissioning of the Almaraz nuclear power plant postponed from 2027 to 2030.
Almaraz, located in the southwestern region of Extremadura, was the first power plant scheduled to be shut down according to the state's nuclear phase-out plan.
The Almaraz I and II reactors were originally scheduled to be decommissioned in November 2027 and October 2028 respectively, followed by the remaining Spanish reactors in Catalonia (Ascó I & II, Vandellós II), Valencia (Cofrentes) and Guadalajara (Trillo).
"Limited and temporary extension"
The ministry's order states that the new "limited and temporary extension" will "mitigate the strain on the electricity grid and Spanish consumers caused by previously unforeseen price spikes originating from the international natural gas markets".
The decision emphasizes that the delay neither undermines the energy transition based on renewable energies promoted by the Spanish government nor violates the renewable energy targets set by the EU.
In a report from July, the Council for Nuclear Safety supported the extension of the deadline requested by Almaraz, after the owners of the two reactors (Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy) had initially requested a postponement of the decommissioning.
In recent years, Madrid's rapid expansion of solar and wind infrastructure has brought a large amount of renewable energy into the national energy mix, making Spain a leading force in the field of renewable energy.
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Much faster than the Suez Canal
China is now sending ships across the Arctic Ocean via an "express freight route".
The journey from China to Great Britain via the Arctic Ocean is expected to be almost three weeks faster than through the Suez Canal. The route will now be regularly served. However, experts see it as little more than a niche market.
The Chinese shipping company Sea Legend will launch an "express freight route" through the Arctic Ocean this Saturday. The voyage from Ningbo on the East China Sea to Felixstowe in Great Britain is expected to take around 20 days – half the time of transiting the Suez Canal. The company plans to operate the route once a week until the beginning of October this year. Until then, freighters can often navigate the Arctic Ocean without icebreakers.
The ship "Dubai Tower" will depart from Ningbo port on Saturday night, a port official said. Sea Legend tested the voyage from Ningbo to Felixstowe via the Northeast Passage last year; the journey took 20 days, according to the shipping company.
Other shipping companies have also already tried the Northeast Passage along the Russian coast – the first being Maersk from Denmark in 2018. According to the company's insurer, Allianz Commercial, 23 ships navigated the route last year. It is shorter than the route through the Suez Canal, therefore saving time and fuel, and is also safer.
The route is mostly only usable in summer, however, and many shipping companies have signed a pledge not to use it because this could accelerate ice melt. Companies such as Hapag-Lloyd from Germany, MSC from Switzerland, and CMA CGM from France have signed this pledge. "Increased shipping traffic on Arctic sea routes means major risks and potentially devastating impacts on the environment," states the website of the environmental organization Ocean Conservancy.
Route is a niche
According to analysts, the Arctic is a particularly important trade route for China. In 2018, Beijing published its plans for better access to the region through a "Polar Silk Road".
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OpenAI CEO wants to keep data center in Germany
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman continues to promote German computing power while his company struggles with losses and security incidents.
The US company OpenAI is opening a new location in Germany and plans to build a data center there as well. "We have decided to open a second office in Germany, specifically in Berlin," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told the Handelsblatt newspaper. He added that it would open "fairly soon." The AI company's first German office has been located in Munich since early 2025.
Altman justified the move by citing the market's importance. According to OpenAI, Germany is the largest European ChatGPT market in terms of paying subscribers and ranks among the top three markets worldwide for paid subscriptions. OpenAI confirmed the plans to Golem.
"Germany has always been one of our largest and fastest-growing markets," the manager said. "It's also among those that use our tools most aggressively." At the same time, the OpenAI CEO hinted at further investments: "We are currently exploring how we can build even more infrastructure in Germany."
"The German economy has already decided"
Talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) about a German data center had previously been unsuccessful, according to a media report. "I personally hope that Germany will consider building data centers and provide the necessary resources," said Altman. Even without its own data centers, he added: "The German economy has already decided to deeply integrate AI."
[...] Altman was reserved in his comments regarding the security incidents at his company. "In this kind of development, there will be incidents. Things will go wrong," said the OpenAI CEO.
Cybersecurity faces a "very turbulent phase"
He emphasized: "I consider it very important that we do not develop models that we cannot control. That is our principle." Globally, cybersecurity is facing a "very turbulent phase." Altman expressed confidence that "something like an industry organization" for AI security would be created in the coming months.
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Energy crisis
Power plants groan under drought and heat
Heat waves are increasingly putting pressure on Europe's energy system. Nuclear, coal, and gas-fired power plants have to reduce their output, while hydroelectric and wind power plants produce less. Solar energy copes better with these extremes. At the same time, air conditioning is driving up electricity demand.
This summer, Europe is experiencing not only a heatwave and drought crisis, but also an increasing stress test for its energy system. Rivers are running extremely low and are unusually warm, while temperatures sometimes exceeding 40 degrees Celsius are increasing the demand for electricity for cooling and air conditioning. Precisely when electricity demand is highest, some power plants are unable to supply as much.
This is particularly evident in the case of nuclear power plants on the Danube. Hungary's only nuclear power plant in Paks, which normally produces almost 2.000 megawatts and generates nearly half of the country's electricity, had to continuously reduce its output at the end of July and beginning of August due to the low river level.
At the beginning of August, the plant was operating at only ten percent capacity. Following a slight rise in the Danube's water level, the operator began to gradually increase the plant's output again on August 10. Whether this improvement will last remains uncertain given the drought.
The situation is even more critical downstream in Romania. The Cernavodă nuclear power plant has two reactors with a combined capacity of around 1.400 megawatts and normally supplies about one-fifth of Romania's electricity. Unit 1 was shut down in a controlled manner on July 28 due to the exceptionally low Danube water level.
The second unit also recently came under pressure. Authorities dredged the cooling water channel and removed obstacles to direct more water to the power plant. Romania called for energy conservation.
In France, at times one-eighth of the capacity was missing.
Nuclear power is also heavily impacted in France. Some of the 57 French nuclear reactors are located on the Rhône, Garonne, Loire, or other rivers. The problem is often not the cooling water itself, but rather that the rivers are already so warm that the power plants are no longer permitted to discharge their waste heat to the usual extent. These limits primarily serve to protect aquatic ecosystems.
[...] Even modern gas-fired power plants can be affected.
The fundamental problem isn't limited to nuclear power. Every thermal power plant needs to dissipate excess heat. In nuclear, coal, and gas-fired power plants, heat is initially generated and used to produce electricity via turbines, but a large portion is released as waste heat. As air and water temperatures rise, it becomes more difficult to release this waste heat into the environment.
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
13 August
German uranium enricher
Creeping militarization of Urenco
The operator of Germany's only uranium enrichment plant is becoming part of the nuclear arms industry. Can the German government veto this?
Urenco, the operator of Germany's only uranium enrichment plant (UAA), is losing its exclusively civilian character and becoming part of the nuclear arms industry. The company confirmed to taz that "the British government has asked Urenco to relocate to the site." Capenhurst (Great Britain) to support the potential rebuilding of the nuclear fuel cycle in order to be able to provide reactor fuel for defense purposes in the future.” Urenco is a German-Dutch-British corporation; Urenco Deutschland GmbH is headquartered in Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia.
This "reactor fuel" is apparently intended for use in the reactors of British submarines such as the Vanguard class, each of which carries 16 nuclear-armed Trident intercontinental ballistic missiles. These missiles secure Britain's status as a nuclear power, capable of striking anywhere in the world depending on the submarines' position. The combined explosive power of the British submarine fleet's missiles can be more than 1.000 times that of the Hiroshima bomb.
Urenco Germany's statement therefore reads, almost apologetically, that this is "a directive from the British government and not an initiative launched by Urenco itself." Apparently, the US is no longer supplying the Royal Navy with sufficient reactor fuel. The British state owns one-third of Urenco's parent company. Another third is held by the Dutch government, which announced the use of Urenco technology for military purposes in a notification to parliament. The German energy companies RWE and Eon each own one-sixth of Urenco's shares.
Politicians from the Left Party, who were the first in Germany to draw attention to Urenco's entry into the nuclear arms industry, speak of a "breach of taboo". "This makes the supposedly civilian Urenco, but also the German energy companies RWE and Eon, part of the military-industrial complex", criticizes Hubertus Zdebel, nuclear policy spokesperson for the Left Party in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Many unanswered questions
Although the German government, in response to an inquiry from Mareike Hermeier, the Left Party's spokesperson for nuclear safety in the Bundestag, stated that "the use of uranium enriched in Germany in the nuclear fuel cycle for reactor fuel for defense purposes" is "not foreseen by the United Kingdom," neither the responsible State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, nor Urenco itself answered whether Urenco Technology and Development, based in Gronau and considered the research department and thus the "brain" of the uranium enrichment plant, provides services or knowledge transfers for the British nuclear program.
Hermeier now wants to find out by asking questions exactly how the Federal Government has positioned itself towards Great Britain – after all, the Treaty of Almelo, which led to the founding of Urenco in 1970, contains “the principle of unanimity, i.e. a right of veto”.
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Election campaign in the East: How the AfD is fighting windmills
The AfD is deliberately inciting opponents of wind power: This could give them important percentage points in the state elections in September – and especially slow down the successful expansion of wind energy in Saxony-Anhalt.
A demonstration against wind turbines in Zwickau in May: Next to the lectern of the local citizens' initiative Gegenwind Erzgebirge (Against the Wind Erzgebirge), there's a campaign table for the AfD (Alternative for Germany). Flyers with false and misleading claims about wind turbines, AfD beer coasters, and party membership applications are displayed there. Around one hundred people have gathered in front of the town hall. AfD politician Kay-Uwe Klepzig, an assessor on the Zwickau district council, takes to the stage and stirs up sentiment against wind turbines. He claims they are "economic nonsense" and destroy farmers' land.
Afterwards, some of those gathered bought yellow safety vests from the citizens' initiative for two euros each. Equipped with these vests, they marched together to the town hall. There, the regional development plan for wind energy was being presented that evening. Those present were allowed to ask questions about the planned wind power projects – some participants became loud and almost snatched the microphone from the moderator. One participant said he now intended to join the AfD (Alternative for Germany) to oppose wind turbines.
Alice Weidel speaks of "windmills of shame"
Zwickau exemplifies a nationwide strategy of the AfD: The party is getting involved wherever there is controversy surrounding wind power. CORRECTIV investigated the extent to which citizens' initiatives in the two German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are supported by the AfD. Elections will be held in both states in September. The analysis is based on the evaluation of websites, events, and interviews with experts.
The result: In most conflict zones in Saxony-Anhalt and in more than a quarter of the areas in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD is fueling resistance to wind power: It organizes demonstrations and submits motions against new projects. The party is exploiting the emotionally charged debate surrounding wind power to garner votes. Polls currently show the AfD at around 41 percent in Saxony-Anhalt and 36 percent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
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Wind power in the USA:
How a German energy company supports Trump's climate mania
RWE is being paid by Donald Trump not to build any wind turbines. Where is the stance that CEO Markus Krebber is usually so keen to emphasize?
There's an English expression called "eat your words." In German, one might say "to sheepishly back down," but the direct translation captures the situation much better. Eating his own words: that's precisely what Markus Krebber, the CEO of RWE, is doing right now. And he should be reminded of this in the coming months, whenever he or his company writes something about climate protection. Sentences like, "Climate change is a central challenge of our time. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and growing climate crises require decisive action."
RWE simply allowed itself to be bought off regarding climate protection.
RWE and its CEO have repeatedly issued similar statements in the recent past. It sounded like a company with a leader who cares not only about share price and bonuses, but also about us and the world. Someone who wants to at least partially reconcile ecology and economy and therefore thinks with foresight. However, the news now coming out of the US fits this narrative like a microwave oven in a bedroom. Because there, RWE has simply been bought off climate protection. The energy company is receiving $1,2 billion from the US government for relinquishing leases for wind turbine sites. But that's not all. RWE will instead invest in fossil fuels in the US. Instead of wind turbines that were supposed to spin off the coasts of New York, California, and Louisiana, money is going into fossil fuel projects. $900 million alone is being invested in an LNG project, and then RWE also intends to secure turbine capacity for 15 planned gas-fired power plants for $300 million.
Is this cynicism? Short-sightedness? Greed? Or is there a compelling argument in favor of the decision? RWE justifies its decision against wind energy as follows: "After careful consideration, it was determined that there is no way to obtain approval for these projects in the US in the future." The sentence sounds regretful, as if it were a difficult but unavoidable decision. But was the situation truly hopeless? Yes, it's true that RWE, like other companies that want to make money with renewable energy, is under massive pressure from the White House. And indeed, RWE isn't the first corporation to be faced with a choice between the stick and the carrot and to have chosen the latter. Trump has already paid other companies almost four billion dollars to prevent them from building wind turbines. However, RWE's decision wasn't without alternatives.
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Storing wind power instead of curtailing it: Large-scale storage directly at the wind farm in Lower Saxony
Co-location in Berne combines wind power and battery storage – existing grid connection makes lengthy grid expansion unnecessary
A new model for the energy transition is emerging in northern Germany: At the Berne wind farm in the Wesermarsch district, battery storage provider Voltfang and wind farm operator Alterric are building a large-scale battery storage system directly adjacent to the existing wind farm. The storage facility is designed to absorb excess wind power and later feed it back into the grid.
The unique feature of this project is its co-location. The wind farm and battery storage share the existing grid connection. This eliminates the need for an additional grid connection and the associated new infrastructure. This not only saves costs but also significantly accelerates implementation.
Use wind power when the grid can absorb it
The situation is particularly well-known in northern Germany: there are large amounts of wind power, but at the same time, the transmission and distribution networks are heavily burdened in some regions. Therefore, in situations with very high wind power production, wind turbines sometimes have to be throttled back or shut down.
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Intelligence service reform
Secret home visits should be allowed
The German government has adopted a major reform package. The aim is the "modernization of the Federal Intelligence Service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution".
"Revolution," "turning point." No comparison was too grand for Interior Minister Dobrindt when he presented the draft law for the reform of the intelligence services, which the federal government passed this Wednesday. Never before had the legal foundations of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution been so fundamentally revised. No wonder the draft law comprises 732 pages.
The intelligence services are to be granted new powers for reconnaissance, but for the first time will also be able to "actively" influence adversarial forces. Minister of the Chancellery Nina Warken (CDU), who is responsible for the BND (Federal Intelligence Service), stated that the intelligence agency will in future be permitted to shut down hacker groups and even spread disinformation. The BND could manipulate the delivery of dangerous components or infiltrate foreign IT facilities to prevent imminent dangers and threats.
Warken emphasized that the BND (Federal Intelligence Service) will be permitted to store the "content data" it collects for six months and the collected "metadata" (who communicated with whom, where, and when) for up to 12 months. This data stems from the strategic surveillance of internet traffic abroad or between Germany and other countries. The data is to be stored as a precautionary measure, to ensure it is readily available, Warken explained, should the need arise. This constitutes a massive data retention effort that also encompasses the content of communications.
Dobrindt emphasized that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is being granted permission for the first time to conduct online searches of computers and smartphones. The BfV will then be able to use spyware (federal Trojan) to secretly copy and analyze the entire contents of a computer.
Secretly entering apartments
While the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) will also be permitted to take "active" measures in the future that go beyond mere information gathering, the focus, according to Dobrindt, will remain on the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), because it operates abroad. Domestically, the BfV will only be allowed to employ such measures if the police are unable to do so. As an example, Dobrindt cited a situation where a foreign intelligence service prohibits the BfV from passing on information about a threat to the police.
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
12 August
"As it is, it's madness."
Different, better: France is reforesting after the fires
Following the devastating fires on the Atlantic coast, France faces the challenge of salvaging millions of tons of timber and creating new, climate-resilient forests. How can this be achieved?
Following the catastrophic forest fires on the Atlantic coast, France's forestry sector faces the daunting task of removing and processing several million tons of timber from the forests. In addition to the pine trees damaged by the fires, this also includes trees that were hastily felled to create firebreaks and thus escaped direct flames.
The question then arises as to how and with which tree species these vast areas will be reforested. In light of climate change, it is essential to "replant and rebuild a different kind of forest," said President Emmanuel Macron.
As the National Forestry Administration (ONF) announced, the immediate priority after the fires are extinguished is securing the forests, for example by felling trees at risk of falling and identifying areas where landslides or flooding are a threat. Trees felled to create firebreaks are being removed from the forests as quickly as possible and stacked at the roadside to prevent them from reigniting the fires, according to Benoît Fraud, director of the Forestry Cooperative (AFB). From the roadside, the logs are transported to a storage facility for sale.
Adapting to climate change
As the French Forestry and Timber Industry Federation (FBF) explains, the forest fires confirm the need to adapt French forests to climate change. A "different forest," as Macron calls it, means a forest adapted to future climatic conditions while continuing to fulfill its ecological, economic, and social functions. This requires more firebreaks, better forest management, and a selection of tree species that can withstand local conditions and increasing drought.
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GES study:
Nuclear power as a miracle weapon against periods of low wind and solar energy?
The events of this summer cannot be ignored: five heat waves in parts of Europe, forest fires from Portugal to Germany, crop failures due to drought, and rivers at low water levels. Those who have propagated a counter-narrative for years now have to provide new narratives and are doing so with their usual simplistic solutions.
Meteorologists, climate scientists, and attribution researchers are constantly explaining the situation, both on television and online: heat waves of this frequency and intensity wouldn't occur without global warming. This message is finally reaching people this summer who have heard the opposite for years.
This counter-narrative always thrived on emotions. It created the reassuring impression that there was no danger and nothing needed to change. True to the CSU motto: The luxury BMW will become a highly efficient combustion engine running on e-fuels. But otherwise, nothing will change.
Now this reassuring narrative is being overshadowed by something stronger: the real experiences of people this summer.
Conservative and right-wing parties have been building this narrative for decades. In France, the USA, and Germany, a counter-narrative has emerged in which ultimately nothing needs to change: a culture war against the supposed CO2 lie. Donald Trump, who declared climate change a hoax. Alice Weidel's party, the AfD, which demands a reversal of the nuclear phase-out.
Anyone wanting to salvage the narrative of "business as usual" must now acknowledge what is happening—while simultaneously denying change. This can be achieved in several ways. The first reaction: unveiling their own silver bullet. Those forced to admit climate change immediately need a technology that solves everything without altering the economic model. In France and Germany, this silver bullet is nuclear power.
Simple answers: from Le Pen to the GES study
Marine Le Pen's National Rally is demonstrating this pattern in two stages. First comes the heat: air conditioning for schools and hospitals is now the party's central climate demand. After this summer's devastating wildfires comes stage two: climate change is acknowledged. Adaptation is demanded. And the answer? Naturally, the wonder weapon of nuclear power.
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Heatwave in France:
And now there's a jellyfish plague too.
Extreme heat, drought, filters clogged with jellyfish: France has to reduce output or even shut down several nuclear power plants completely. This is also leading to rising prices.
A swarm of marine animals has forced the French energy company EDF to shut down three reactors in Gravelines The power plant at Calais was shut down completely; a fourth plant is now only supplying minimal power. On Tuesday, jellyfish clogged the intake filters for the seawater, preventing the plant from cooling. The animals had multiplied rapidly in the unusually warm Atlantic.
The jellyfish are causing EDF another problem in the climate crisis: The state-owned company had already been forced to completely shut down nuclear reactors at four sites, losing more than 15 percent of its electricity capacity. This is the largest heat-related outage in the history of France's nuclear power plants. And the situation is not getting any easier. The French weather service, Météo France, is forecasting continued dry weather and another heat wave – the fifth since June. In response to an inquiry from ZEIT, EDF stated that the low water levels could force even more plants to reduce their output. However, the company considers itself well-prepared and describes its nuclear power plants as "robust."
It therefore seems to be only a matter of time before more nuclear power plants have to shut down. "This hot summer is expected to see further reactor outages in France and Europe," says Andreas Lochner, expert for Central and Western Europe at the energy analyst firm Montel. This would drive electricity prices in Europe even higher. The exact price effect, especially for customers, would be difficult to quantify, as gas prices also fluctuate and the effects can overlap. But: "An announced reactor outage can drive prices up by several euros within minutes, as recently happened in the case of Chooz Nuclear Power Plant”, Lochner explains. EDF had to shut down the reactor on the border with Belgium in July.
Solar power lowers prices during the day
The cutbacks in European nuclear power are already massive, according to Lochner, as other countries have also had to reduce the output of their reactors. Hungary, for example, had to temporarily take its only nuclear power plant offline, and in Switzerland, the nuclear power plant in Beznau They would be throttled back multiple times or shut down completely. At midday and in the afternoon, a particularly large amount of solar power would be produced and fed into the grid – this would drive down the price level on the electricity exchange. In the evening, however, when many countries – including Germany – would ramp up gas-fired power plants to ensure a stable supply, the price per megawatt-hour would rise significantly.
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The situation this morning
Germany is engaged in hybrid warfare – and wants to allow the BND to launch a counterattack.
Today's topics are the reform of the intelligence services that the cabinet intends to approve, the hardliners who are in charge in Iran – and the partial solar eclipse that Germany will experience.
License to attack
It was probably just luck that the drone equipped with explosives didn't detonate at Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4th. Its target was apparently a Ukrainian Antonov An-124; the detonator was likely defective. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has been investigating since then, and the National Security Council has met.
While the Wall Street Journal reported on August 7, citing two American officials, that US intelligence agencies blamed the Russian government for the Leipzig drone strike, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has been speaking for a week of a "hybrid attack scenario" and "foreign powers." It has not yet been proven that Russia is behind the attack. What is clear, however, is that Germany has long been a target of hybrid warfare.
Today at 10 a.m., the cabinet will decide on a reform of the German intelligence services, not because of Leipzig, but under the impression of the events there. And here, too, one can certainly speak of a turning point.
The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) are to be granted significantly more powers. The BND will no longer merely be permitted to collect information, but will be allowed to actively intervene in limited circumstances. It could hack foreign IT systems, cripple the infrastructure of enemy cyberattacks, and, in a "special intelligence situation," even weaken an adversary's offensive capabilities.
A sabotage operation against a Russian drone factory would also be conceivable. BND President Martin Jäger says it is necessary to show the adversary "that we are capable of doing very similar things, so that the other side also feels the pain."
New regulations also permit online searches and the comparison of biometric data with internet search results. At the same time, the services are to be subject to stricter oversight. Nevertheless, this represents the largest increase in powers for German intelligence agencies in years. The BND is far from becoming a CIA or a Mossad. But it is intended to transform the agency from one that merely observes into one that can retaliate if necessary.
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
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August 12, 2001 (INES-2 Class.?) NPP Phillipsburg, GER
A deviation from the prescribed boron concentration was reported to the authorities. In addition, the liquid level had not reached the value stipulated in the start-up operating instructions and was only implemented with a delay. Subsequent investigations revealed that significant deviations from the commissioning requirements and violations of the relevant instructions have probably been common for several years.
(Costs ?)
Nuclear Power Accidents
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Philippsburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Philippsburg II was started up in August 2001 with a defective emergency cooling system. Although the defect was discovered two weeks later, the reactor remained in operation illegally. It was later discovered that the emergency cooling system had not been sufficiently filled for years. It should be added that the operator had not reported this incident in 2001 to the supervisory authority. In November 2001, the Stuttgart Ministry of the Environment reported that contaminated water had leaked out of Philippsburg I due to a defect in a valve for operational drainage...
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August 12, 2000 (Broken Arrow) submarine accidents, K-141 Kursk, Russia
Der Spiegel
DISASTERS
A big bluff
The nuclear submarine "Kursk" that sank off Murmansk is back home. Documents that surfaced in Moscow suggest that Russia's fleet accidentally sank the high-tech ship itself.
The bow section, and thus the entire torpedo assembly, was left behind on the seabed during the salvage operation. The official Russian account was adopted almost unchanged in Wikipedia.
Wikipedia
List of U-boat accidents since 1945
Nuclear submarine. Sank after one of its own torpedoes exploded on board. Mostly raised and scrapped in 2001. The entire crew perished.
Kursk (submarine)
The Kursk, K-141, was a Russian nuclear submarine of Project 1990A (NATO code Oscar II class) built in 1991/949 and equipped with anti-ship missiles.
When it sank in the Barents Sea in 2000 as a result of an explosion presumably caused by a technical defect, the Russian military initially claimed that the Kursk had been rammed by a US submarine. The Russian Navy did not have a special rescue submarine that had rescue locks or robotic arms compatible with the Kursk, but only diving capsules. The hesitant Russian information policy, the initially unsuccessful rescue attempts by the poorly equipped Russian Navy to open the exit hatch with the help of Norwegian divers, and the skepticism of Russian naval officers as to whether it was still possible to open the allegedly damaged exit hatch, led to a serious delay and to the very late acceptance of foreign offers of help.
After time-consuming failed attempts, Norwegian divers, now operating from their own dive platform, managed to open the inner hatch three days after their arrival and more than a week after the explosion. They had to realize that there could be no survivors because all sections were already flooded. However, Norwegian officer Erland Raanes testified that, contrary to claims by Russian naval officers, no damage was found to the exit hatch. The Russian government then asked the Norwegian government to carry out the recovery of the bodies.
11 August
Human rights organizations
Trump sued over US sanctions against the ICC
In February 2025, the US government under Trump imposed sanctions against representatives of the International Criminal Court. The US president is now being sued by several human rights organizations for this.
Several human rights groups have sued US President Donald Trump over his actions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). A lawsuit filed in a New York court states that the sanctions imposed under his administration against representatives of the court prevent victims of war crimes from obtaining justice.
In February 2025, shortly after the start of Trump's second term, the US government issued travel bans and froze the assets of several judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The main reason for this was the court's investigations and arrest warrants against high-ranking Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip.
The four human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, are demanding in their lawsuit that the sanctions be withdrawn because they violate laws, such as the protection of freedom of expression.
The US wants to weaken the International Criminal Court
The more than 100-page indictment stated: "This is an unlawful abuse of power that constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law, on the independence of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, on fundamental principles of the international legal order and on the principle of equal access to justice." The sanctions made it more difficult to prosecute genocide, war crimes and human rights violations.
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“Black Mountain” burdens Croatia:
Cancer cases are increasing, large coastal area at risk
In Donje Biljane, residents are fighting against a toxic waste mountain that the state ignored for years. Now, cancer cases are on the rise.
Donje Biljane – A small village in the Dalmatian hinterland region of Ravni Kotari has been overshadowed by a toxic hill for more than a decade and a half. What began in 2010 with arriving trucks has developed into one of Croatia's most serious environmental scandals – with far-reaching consequences for health, drinking water, and the state budget.
The so-called "Crno Brdo"—meaning "Black Mountain" in English—is not a natural phenomenon, but a product of industrial failure. Around 140,000 tons of silicomanganese and ferromanganese slag from a disused factory in Šibenik were dumped on private property in the village of Donje Biljane. According to the European Court of Justice, the slag contains elevated concentrations of hazardous substances and exhibits radioactivity levels exceeding permissible limits. Local residents see a connection between the landfill and an increase in cancer cases.
“Black Mountain” in Croatia: Toxic slag threatens groundwater and health of the region
Shortly after the slag was delivered, residents went public and alerted the authorities. A journalist from Morski.hr, who interviewed a truck driver by phone at the time, later reported that his reports had no consequences whatsoever – there were neither arrests nor criminal investigations.
What remains are reports from the village that carry considerable weight. In 2025, a resident told the Croatian state broadcaster HRT that several people from the village had died of cancer within just six months. "Whoever dies, dies of cancer," the resident said. To this day, no official epidemiological report exists that confirms or refutes a causal link between the slag and the disease rate. Croatian health authorities have not yet published any local study that scientifically investigates the matter.
Years of government failure and EU fines: Croatia pays €6.500 daily for the toxic waste depot.
The European Court of Justice had already ruled against Croatia in 2019 (case number C-431/17) because the country failed to treat and dispose of the slag as waste in accordance with the EU Waste Framework Directive. The court stated that Croatia had failed to protect human health and the environment. However, Croatia took no significant action even after the ruling. When the European Commission filed another complaint in 2023, a second ruling followed in 2024, imposing substantial fines: a lump sum of one million euros plus 6500 euros per day until the site was fully remediated.
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Sweden bans PFAS in everyday products
The Nordic country follows France and Denmark, where PFAS bans also came into effect this year.
The European Union plans to present legislative proposals for a PFAS ban in 2027. Some countries consider this too long. Sweden intends to ban PFAS in everyday products such as kitchen appliances, clothing, and cosmetics as early as 2028. The Swedish government announced this on July 23.
“Sweden does not intend to stand idly by while ‘perennial chemicals’ continue to spread in our homes, in nature, and in our bodies,” said Swedish Environment and Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari. “Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have no place in everyday products when effective alternatives exist.”
Public acceptance of the ban is high, according to several media outlets. Local scandals, such as the one in Kallinge, where the population is heavily contaminated with PFAS, have raised awareness among the Swedish population. Organizations like Chem Trust welcomed the national initiative.
France and Denmark as pioneers
Other countries have also preempted a potential EU-wide ban on PFAS. France has banned PFAS in everyday products such as clothing, shoes, cosmetics, ski wax, and waterproofing agents since the beginning of 2026. However, PFAS in kitchen utensils remain permitted – a victory for lobbyists, according to critics.
Denmark has banned PFAS in clothing, shoes, and waterproofing sprays since the beginning of 2026. Products containing these substances may still be sold until the end of the year. PFAS in paper and cardboard food packaging, such as pizza boxes, have been banned in Denmark since 2020. Several PFAS-containing pesticides were added to the list in 2025.
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The next heat wave is rolling in
More than 70 percent of England is affected by drought.
People in England usually have no shortage of rain. This summer is different. There are now even warnings of food shortages.
This extreme summer has had massive consequences on the island as well. According to the government in London, almost three-quarters of England are now affected by drought. 71,3 percent of the country "is now in a state of drought, as the situation has worsened further after a dry start to August," the British Environment Department declared on Monday. "Nowhere" in the United Kingdom is normal anymore.
Parks and fields, normally green at this time of year, are parched and yellow. At the same time, river levels have dropped in many places, and farmers are warning of potential food shortages due to crop failures – in a country usually known for its wet weather.
No improvement is in sight for the time being – instead, the country is facing its fifth heat wave of the year in the coming days. No precipitation is forecast for the time being.
According to the British Met Office, July saw the lowest rainfall in England and Wales since weather records began – in England it was only ten percent of the usual amount of rain.
Due to the drought, authorities have already imposed numerous restrictions on farmers and citizens. In some regions, for example, it is forbidden to water plants with a garden hose. A total of 27 million Britons are affected by the water restrictions.
Extremely dry conditions are also affecting other parts of Europe. According to an AFP analysis, 95 percent of mainland France and 99 percent of Switzerland experienced drought conditions in July. AFP based its findings on data from the European Drought Observatory, which has been monitoring the situation in Europe since 2012.
As a result of the heat, the levels of many European rivers have dropped drastically, including the Rhine, the Danube, the Elbe and the Vistula.
June and July were the hottest months ever recorded in Western Europe for the two summer months. The average temperature reached 21,62 degrees Celsius – exceeding the previous record from 2022. This was reported by the EU's Copernicus monitoring program. The figure reflects "the exceptionally persistent heat" this summer.
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Intelligence service reform:
"The protection of journalists is being systematically dismantled."
German intelligence agencies are to be subject to new regulations. This will also affect the work of journalists in Germany and abroad. Maximilian Jung from Reporters Without Borders explains in an interview why the BND (Federal Intelligence Service) could more easily monitor media professionals in the future and what this has to do with press freedom.
One of the most important prerequisites for journalistic work is confidentiality: sources must be able to rely on the security of their communication with media professionals. Journalists need protection for sensitive research when communicating with interviewees around the world. But this protection is jeopardized by the planned intelligence reform affecting the BND (Federal Intelligence Service) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, warns Reporters Without Borders.
We discuss this aspect with Maximilian Jung. As an advocacy officer at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), he advocates for press and information freedom worldwide. He researches and works against state surveillance of journalists and the use of spyware. In the interview, he explains how intelligence reform affects the work of journalists and what could be improved.
There is no absolute protection from surveillance.
netzpolitik.org: Journalists are bound by professional secrecy. What does that actually mean?
Maximilian Jung: These are people in certain professions: for example, lawyers, clergy, and journalists. The aim is to protect the relationships that arise from these professions. This ensures, for instance, that information people share in confidential conversations with their lawyers cannot be used in criminal proceedings. Therefore, special protective mechanisms exist for those bound by professional secrecy, both in police laws and in laws governing intelligence services.
Journalists and journalism associations in Germany have fought hard to ensure that this is also the case for journalists and their sources.
Unfortunately, a kind of two-tier system exists, with lawyers and clergy often receiving a higher level of protection. Since a 2011 ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, relative protection is considered sufficient, and each case must be weighed individually: Is the protection of press freedom more important than the interests of law enforcement or intelligence gathering by an authority?
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
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August 11, 2014 (INES Class.?) NPP Heysham and NPP Hartlepool, GBR
Corrosion and defects in the boiler systems at Heysham and Hartlepool forced an 8-week shutdown of four reactors for repairs.
Nuclear Power Accidents
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August 11, 1973 (INES Class.?) NPP Palisades, Michigan, USA
A leak in the steam generator led to the manual shutdown of the pressurized water reactor.
Nuclear Power Accidents
10 August
Nuclear security
Shut-off reactors continue to emit antineutrinos
For the first time, the barely detectable antiparticles have been detected from decaying fuel elements instead of active nuclear fission.
A research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg has detected minute quantities of antineutrinos using an experimental setup. One hundred of these particles, which barely interact with matter, were detected during the shutdown phase of the Chooz nuclear power plant on the French section of the Meuse River.
The source of the antineutrinos was therefore the residual radioactivity in the reactors and the fuel elements in the cooling pool. This origin could be verified because two detectors, spaced 400 and 1.500 meters apart, generate a typical double signal. This allows the detected particles to be distinguished from other sources.
The research team hopes that the measurements, for which a study was published in Physical Review Letters, will offer new perspectives for reactor monitoring and nuclear safety. In particular, independent verification of the reactor's condition and the number of stored fuel elements would be conceivable.
Experiment with a different background
The Double Chooz Experiment It was originally set up to study neutrino oscillation. This is the ability of particles to transform into different types of neutrinos.
There are three generations, or flavors, of neutrinos and antineutrinos. According to theoretical calculations, the more distant detector has a higher probability that the conversion has occurred. The measurements run for several years to obtain the most accurate result possible.
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Enough for 600 million people:
Why does AI consume so much water?
Artificial intelligence and data centers not only require vast amounts of electricity, but also gigantic quantities of water. But why is that? In our FAQ, we answer the most important questions and explain why the issue of water consumption belongs on the political agenda.
It's summer in Europe, and once again heat records are being broken. Regular droughts and water shortages are no longer just a phenomenon of the Global South. While nuclear power plants in countries like France and Hungary are being shut down because the rivers needed for cooling aren't carrying enough water, several districts in Germany are rationing fresh water. Last year, a mountain village in the Bavarian Forest even had to be supplied with drinking water by milk truck.
With increasing water stress, the water consumption of the digital world is also slowly coming into focus. Last summer, for example, a drought commission recommended that people in Great Britain delete old emails and photos from the cloud to relieve the burden on data centers. At the same time, the British government is pushing ahead with the construction of new data centers to keep pace in a global AI race that critics describe as a "race to the bottom." The German government also aims to quadruple the AI capacity of German data centers by 2030.
The issue of water consumption by AI and data centers is therefore highly topical, even though it has played hardly any role in the political debate so far. Our FAQ provides answers to the most important questions.
Why does artificial intelligence consume water at all?
Most applications labeled "AI" today are based on machine learning. Here, software analyzes vast amounts of data to identify patterns and derive probabilities. Enormous computing power is required, especially for training and operating so-called general-purpose models like ChatGPT or Claude.
That's why many huge data centers have been built in recent years. The IT connection capacity of data centers, meaning the amount of electricity provided for operating the servers, is expected to have almost quadrupled in the last ten years: from 32 gigawatts in 2015 to 114 gigawatts in 2025. Data centers are, of course, not only used for artificial intelligence, but the current hype has led to a veritable construction boom in this sector. However, these facilities are not only very energy-hungry but also thirsty, which is resulting in rapidly increasing water consumption.
One can roughly distinguish three types of water consumption by AI:
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"It's high time to stop military deals with Israel"
Our guest author Heinrich Frei demands that Switzerland finally take action after Israel's use of glyphosate.
Israel is sending planes across the border into Syria and Lebanon. They are spraying glyphosate, a herbicide. Afterwards, nothing grows. Wouldn't it be time, after this use of herbicide in Syria and Lebanon, to end arms cooperation with Israel and, among other things, stop drone deals with Israel?
Military deals with Israel should have ended long ago after the Gaza War and the wars in Lebanon and Iran. Switzerland should also halt exports of military equipment to countries that supply Israel with weapons. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, these are primarily the USA, Germany, and Italy. By supplying weapons to Israel, they are considered belligerents.
For decades, it has been enshrined in law that the manufacture, brokering, export and transit of war materiel for recipients abroad will not be authorized if "the destination country is involved in an internal or international armed conflict."
This paragraph in the War Materiel Act should lead to our neutral, humanitarian country, which is committed to peace, immediately ceasing all exports of war materiel to such states, not just exports to Russia.
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One of the world's most problematic plastics is suddenly being turned into premium lubricating oil.
Researchers at Virginia Tech are transforming difficult-to-recycle PVC into high-quality lubricating oil that can compete with commercially available products.
Virginia – PVC is almost everywhere – in pipes, window frames, flooring, and plastic cards. But once these items have served their purpose, the useful material becomes a chemical problem: chlorine and numerous additives make recycling difficult. Researchers from the United States have now found an unusual solution.
They break down old PVC products in such a way that no new plastic is produced, but rather a high-quality base oil for engines, machines, and turbines. The process was developed by chemists and chemical engineers at Virginia Tech in the USA. The team, led by Guoliang "Greg" Liu, describes the process in the journal Nature.
The scientists first remove the chlorine from the polyvinyl chloride (PVC). They then break down the long plastic chains into shorter molecules. The result resembles polyalphaolefins, which are found in high-performance motor and machine oils, among other things.
PVC recycling has often failed so far due to chlorine and additives.
PVC is among the plastics that pose particular challenges for recycling companies. Its basic chemical structure already contains a high amount of chlorine. In addition, it contains plasticizers, stabilizers, dyes, and other additives. Its composition varies depending on the manufacturer and product. Therefore, old pipes contain different substances than floor coverings, window profiles, or plastic cards.
At high temperatures, PVC can also release aggressive or harmful compounds. Many conventional methods are therefore only suitable to a limited extent. Large quantities end up in landfills or are incinerated. Liu and his team were looking for a way not only to dispose of the plastic, but also to utilize its carbon for a new, high-quality product.
Researchers selectively remove the chlorine
For their process, the scientists place shredded PVC into a solvent. They then add aluminum trichloride and so-called alpha olefins. The mixture is heated to about 70 degrees Celsius for three hours. During this reaction, the chlorine atoms disappear from the plastic chains. Other molecular groups take their place.
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Amazon's $10 billion data center sparks protests
600 diesel generators, tax breaks and little say: In North Carolina, resistance is growing against a gigantic AI site.
Hamlet, North Carolina – A $10 billion data center by Amazon is set to become one of the largest economic projects in the state's history in Richmond County. However, for many local residents, the project is primarily a symbol of a development where economic interests are prioritized over environmental and civic concerns, as reported by Inside Climate News.
A total of 21 buildings are being constructed on a site of approximately 646 hectares. Upon completion, the site will house nearly 600 emergency power generators. Each building will have its own tank with a capacity of approximately 12.000 gallons of diesel fuel.
For local residents, this means an additional industrial burden in a region already struggling with numerous environmental problems. There are few alternatives: the surrounding area includes quarries, an asphalt plant, a poultry slaughterhouse, and a natural gas power plant. There is also a former Superfund site with contaminated land.
[...] Nearly 600 generators as emergency power reserve
The energy supply is particularly critical. Amazon's application for an air quality permit includes 592 diesel generators. These are intended to ensure the power supply to critical IT infrastructure in the event of power outages.
According to calculations in the permit application, the generators could emit up to 249,9 tons of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds annually. In addition, they would emit particulate matter and hazardous air pollutants such as benzene and formaldehyde.
Amazon emphasizes its intention to use modern exhaust gas purification systems and to operate the generators with low-sulfur or renewable diesel. The company also explains that the generators will only be used during rare power outages, as well as for maintenance and testing.
However, environmental organizations are questioning this very argument. Studies of data centers in the USA show that emergency power generators sometimes run more frequently than originally assumed.
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
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August 10, 1985
(INES-5) Nuclear submarine K-431 Vladivostok, USSR
Wikipedia
Echo Class#K-31
K-31 was laid down on January 11, 1964 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and launched on September 8, 1964. In 1978, the boat was given the tactical number K-431. On August 10, 1985, the boat was anchored at a naval facility in Chasma Bay, 55 km from the city of Vladivostok, to receive new fuel rods for its reactors. An error in releasing and lifting the top cap of a reactor caused a spontaneous chain reaction. The reactor cover was blown off and ruptured the boat's pressure hull, allowing water to enter the hull and K-431 to sink to the bottom next to the pier. Ten crew members were killed. The accident and subsequent salvage operations left seven people heavily irradiated and 39 others suffering from radiation sickness. The reactor compartment was subsequently filled with cement and K-431 was towed to a long-term storage facility. In 2010, the boat was transferred to the shipyard "Stern" in Bolshoi Kamen and its scrapping began ...
The nuclear chain
Chasma Bay, Russia
Nuclear submarine accident
In August 1985, an explosion on a Soviet nuclear submarine in Chasma Bay resulted in a massive release of radioactivity. More than 290 people were exposed to radioactivity and the sea and surrounding terrain were permanently contaminated. The nuclear accident was kept secret for many years. In addition, the surrounding sea has been extensively contaminated due to long-term dumping of nuclear waste. The extent of the consequences for the environment and health will probably never be fully understood.
9 August
Sunni military alliance
The atomic bomb in sight
New “Mecca alliance”: Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia do not want to stand idly by while Iran arms itself with nuclear weapons.
The Middle East has a new military alliance. And not just any alliance, but one that, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, is intended to stabilize the entire region, which has been in turmoil since the partition of the Ottoman Empire by the European colonial powers. The so-called Mecca Alliance of the Sunni regional powers Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan symbolically aims to change this.
Fidan continued, saying that the alliance was open to further members, with Egypt being the first candidate being considered. Contrary to what many immediately assumed, it was not directed against Shiite Iran, nor against Israel.
In effect, Turkey is joining an alliance that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already formed earlier, because both know they can no longer rely on the US. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not want the alliance as an alternative to NATO, but rather as a complementary structure in the region.
While the alliance includes a mutual assistance clause similar to NATO's Article 5, no one seems to expect Turkish or Saudi soldiers to support Pakistan in a new war with India, or Saudi Arabia to support Turkey in a conflict with Greece. It's more about pooling their respective capabilities.
Turkey has steadily expanded its arms industry in recent years, is now internationally competitive, and is seeking secure markets. Pakistan has a large army, the Saudis have money, and Turkey has military technology. This is intended to benefit all three, as they will become less dependent on US arms purchases. But there is a broader consideration at play. Pakistan may be poor, but it is nonetheless a nuclear power.
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EU external border in Latvia
Where Ceuta should not be repeated
What happened on a large scale in Ceuta is also familiar at other EU external borders – the manipulation of migration, presumably as a means of exerting pressure. Latvia has therefore massively reinforced its border with Belarus. What are border guards experiencing there?
The rumble of Roland Mukans' Jeep is the only sound that penetrates the forest. The border guard is patrolling a specially constructed gravel road. To his left is dense forest. To his right, a seemingly endless fence, several meters high, topped with barbed wire and cameras.
Suddenly, Mukans stops, gets out of the jeep, and points to a severed metal post in the fence. Migrants had tried to cut through the fence at this point: "They use various tools, such as metal shears. Now they're even building ladders out of branches and sticks they find in the forest on the Belarusian side and climbing over the fence."
More and more tunnels
Every day, Mukans and his colleagues from the Latvian border guard patrol the border with Belarus. The fence is now so sturdy that only a few migrants still attempt to cut through it.
More and more tunnels are being dug for this purpose recently. In the first seven months of the year, Latvian authorities registered almost 9.000 attempted border crossings. But border guards are now catching almost all of them, Mukans emphasizes; he estimates the success rate to be around 95 percent.
Migration as a means of exerting pressure
The migrants come primarily from Africa or Central Asia. Latvian authorities believe that Belarus is deliberately luring them and sending them across the border to put pressure on Europe.
This is part of the hybrid warfare against the West, says Nika Aleksejeva from the NATO Centre of Excellence for Strategic Communication:
"The point is to say that the Baltic countries cannot defend their border, that they do not have the situation under control, even though a lot of money has been invested in expanding the border facilities."
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After mass influx to Ceuta
WDR journalist Restle sees a "US-Israeli-Moroccan alliance" at work – Broadcasting Council files complaint
Former "Monitor" presenter Georg Restle suggests in a tweet on X that a network of Israel, the USA, and Morocco orchestrated the events in Ceuta. This could have consequences.
He is considered one of the country's most outspoken television journalists. Even as presenter and head of the WDR-produced political magazine "Monitor," Georg Restle repeatedly sparked debate with his opinionated segments. Since June, he has headed the ARD's cross-media studio in Nairobi.
Now, Restle has sent out a tweet from Africa that could have consequences. In it, the journalist spreads the theory that the mass influx of migrants into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta could be the result of a secret joint operation by Israel, the USA, and Morocco.
Restle's article is written in English. In it, he refers to an article in the US weekly magazine "The Nation," which is considered left-liberal. He quotes the article as stating that the events in North Africa are "neither a genuine humanitarian crisis nor part of an anti-colonial struggle, but part of the efforts of the strengthening US-Israeli-Moroccan alliance (...) to weaken a progressive European government, divide Europe, and undermine international law."
Ceuta was “neither a genuine humanitarian crisis nor part of an anti-colonial struggle, but part of efforts by the growing US-Israeli-Moroccan nexus (…) to weaken a progressive European government, divide Europe, and undermine international law.”
Georg Restle (@georgrestle) August 5, 2026
Restle is referring to a dubious interpretation of events circulating since the beginning of the week, according to which Israel co-initiated the attack on Ceuta to retaliate against the Spanish government for its stance on the Gaza issue. Spain was, among other things, the first EU country to join the genocide lawsuit against Israel before the International Court of Justice in 2024.
Al Jazeera, for example, launched the theory that Israel might be the driving force behind the events. However, the Arabic news channel placed a large question mark in the introduction to the article in question because there is no evidence for this claim. The article in "The Nation" also uses a question mark in its subheading. The passage quoted by Restle, however, does not contain a question mark.
Freedom of expression? Freedom of the press? US-Israeli-Moroccan alliance?
Influence? Revenge? Gaza? Europe? International law? ICJ?
Disrupt! Divide! Undermine!
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Situation "extremely dangerous"
Canadian province declares state of emergency due to forest fires
Thousands have been forced to leave their homes, and entire towns are being evacuated: Wildfires in British Columbia are keeping residents and emergency services on edge. Now the provincial government has declared a state of emergency.
Authorities in the western Canadian province of British Columbia have declared a state of emergency due to a rapidly spreading wildfire. "We know there has been significant loss of homes and property," said British Columbia Premier David Eby. Conditions are "extremely dangerous" and constantly changing. "We also know that some people have been trapped due to the rapidly changing situation," he added.
More than 20.000 residents had to be evacuated due to the fires. People cut off by the flames would be evacuated by air, Eby added. The province's disaster management minister, Kelly Greene, declared a state of emergency.
Strong winds fanned the flames late Friday evening, allowing them to spread further. The fire reached the area around Summerland and also affected towns in the surrounding valleys. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney thanked the firefighters and rescue workers on Twitter for "working tirelessly to keep people safe."
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Don Trumpl's very last messages
IMHO: Don Trump lies, cheats, and is thoroughly corrupt.
Why isn't this horror clown behind bars yet?
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August 9, 2009 (INES-1 Class.?) NPP Gravelines, FRA
The fuel assembly system failed to properly eject the spent fuel rods from the Gravelines nuclear plant, resulting in the fuel rods becoming stuck and the reactor shutting down.
(Cost approx. US$ 2 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Slowly but surely, relevant infos about incidents in the nuclear industry is being removed from Wikipedia!
Wikipedia
Gravelines nuclear power plant
The Gravelines nuclear power plant consists of six pressurized water reactors of the same type, each with a net output of 910 MW. It is operated by the French company Électricité de France (EDF). Water from the English Channel, on whose coast the nuclear power plant is located, is used for cooling...
Wikipedia
Translation https://translate.google.de
Gravelines Nuclear Power Station
In August 2009, during the annual refueling in Reactor 1, a fuel assembly caught on the upper handling structure, halting operations and prompting the evacuation and isolation of the reactor building...
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August 9, 2004 (INES-1 Class.?) NPP Mihama, JPN
A steam explosion in block 3 of the Mihama nuclear power station killed 5 workers and injured 6 others.
(Cost approx. US$ 11 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Wikipedia
Mihama Nuclear Power Plant#Incidents
After two minor incidents in Block 2 in 1991 and 2003, a fatal accident occurred on August 9, 2004 at 15:30 p.m. local time, with four employees killed. According to police, the workers were hit by a jet of steam at 270 degrees Celsius. Seven more people were injured. The accident was caused by a leak in the turbine hall...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Mihama (Japan))#2004 pipeline break and other incidents
In August 2004, at Mihama-3, a condensate line in the non-nuclear secondary circuit broke longitudinally and circumferentially. The escaping hot water turned to steam and scalded workers; five died and six others were injured. The cause was corrosion and sloppiness: the wall thickness of the line had thinned from an initial 10 mm to around 1,5 mm, and the line is said not to have been checked since the reactor was commissioned. The vulnerability had been known a year earlier...
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August 9, 1945 (2st atomic bomb dropped by the USA) Nagasaki, JPN
Wikipedia
Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, were the only uses of nuclear weapons in a war to date.
The atomic bomb explosions killed a total of approximately 100.000 people immediately—almost exclusively civilians and forced laborers abducted by the Japanese army. A further 1945 people died from the effects of the bombs by the end of 130.000. Many more died in the following years. Japan currently reports the total number of deaths, including those from radiation sickness and injuries, as 344.306 for Hiroshima and 198.785 for Nagasaki (as of August 2024).
9 August 1945 - Fat Man
A plutonium bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945, by a US B-29 bomber belonging to the 509th Composite Group and exploded at 11:02 a.m. over the Japanese city of Nagasaki, which was largely destroyed. The bomb exploded about 550 meters above a densely populated area ...
The nuclear chain
Nagasaki, Japan
nuclear attack
On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, with a population of more than 240.000. The explosion resulted in the immediate deaths of approximately 22.000 people. Those who survived the attack were left without assistance because hospitals and infrastructure had been destroyed. More than 64.000 people had died by the end of the year as a result of the atomic bomb. To this day, many survivors suffer from the long-term effects of radiation.
| Top | Today | Current news+ | Background |
Current news+
August 9, 2026
The situation this morning
Our Earth is becoming uninhabitable
Today's topics are the water shortage in Europe, the war in Ukraine, which is increasingly being fought in the air, and the fate of the migrants who remained in Ceuta.
Climate catastrophe is everyday life
In 2017, American journalist and author David Wallace-Wells published an article in New York magazine titled "The Uninhabitable Earth," which was later adapted into a book. In it, he describes how climate change is altering parts of the world to such an extent that humans will no longer be able to live there in the foreseeable future. Wallace-Wells has been widely quoted, but his analysis has also drawn criticism, with some accusing him of alarmism.
In fact, Wallace-Wells' findings have only been further confirmed since the article was published. It's no longer just regions in Asia or Africa that are turning into deserts. Even in Europe, on the continent that is heating up faster than any other, people are increasingly asking themselves existential questions. One only needs to look at the news reports of the past few days to grasp the scale of the crisis. Here is a selection:
- In the Alps, helicopters are delivering drinking water because mountain water is becoming scarce in the mountain huts.
- The water level on the Rhine has meanwhile dropped to 24 centimeters, making shipping almost impossible.
- Hungary shut down the Paks nuclear power plant due to the heat; the country is currently missing half its electricity.
Climate catastrophe is no longer a distant dystopia. It has long since become a reality, the new normal, even in Europe. The problem is that neither politics nor society are even beginning to meet the challenge (more on this here). Instead of doing everything possible to at least contain the crisis, climate protection measures are actually being scaled back. However, the climate catastrophe can only be ignored until it can no longer be ignored – through droughts, fires, and floods.
Two wars in one
Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles at Kyiv on Tuesday night. The Ukrainians were unable to intercept a single one. At least 17 people were killed and around two dozen injured in the attack. Last month, the Russians fired a total of 126 ballistic missiles at Ukraine, the highest number since the start of the war.
On the eastern and southern fronts of Ukraine, the war has been a war of attrition for many months, with both armies grinding each other down without making any decisive territorial gains. Simultaneously, the two countries are waging a second war, as the New York Times recently described it: an air war fought primarily with drones and missiles.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia's military has terrorized the people of Ukraine with airstrikes. It targets military installations, residential buildings, and power plants alike. Ukraine responds by targeting locations, sometimes far inland from Russia, from the air. The regime in Moscow is clearly trying to wear down the Ukrainian people. The leadership in Kyiv hopes to force Vladimir Putin into peace negotiations by bringing the war to Russia.
At the moment, it looks as if neither strategy will work – but only the destruction will increase.
What will become of the stranded people of Ceuta?
If there's one thing Europeans excel at, it's quickly returning to business as usual after a crisis. Over the weekend, politicians were outdoing each other with attacks against Spain because more than 70.000 migrants from Morocco had apparently reached the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. On Tuesday, at their summit, EU interior ministers were already striving for unity. European migration policy has proven its worth, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner essentially said.
But that's only half the story at best. While most of the migrants from Ceuta have now returned to Morocco, which has dramatically eased the situation, the crisis has clearly demonstrated how quickly panic erupts among Europeans at the mere suggestion that larger numbers of migrants might arrive again. And how reflexively right-wing forces exploit the issue.
It remains unclear what will happen to those who have remained in Ceuta, especially children and teenagers. Save the Children had already pointed out at the beginning of the week that the reception centers for minors are hopelessly overcrowded: there are currently around 100 people for every available space. Now, the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Viva, has also sounded the alarm. He described the situation for the unaccompanied minors in the enclave as "absolutely untenable." It is unlikely that the rest of Europe will pay much attention. Here, the Ceuta issue has long since been considered closed.
| Top | Today | Current news+ | Background |
Background
The map of the nuclear world
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The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Klimawandel+Wasserknappheit
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Krieg+Zerstörung
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Fluchtursachen
**
Wikipedia
Global warming
Global warming – also known colloquially as "climate change," "global warming," or "global heating" – refers to the current rise in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface atmosphere and oceans. It is a human-induced climate change resulting from net greenhouse gas emissions, which have been generated since the beginning of industrialization through the use of fossil fuels and unsustainable forestry and agricultural practices. These greenhouse gas emissions increase the troposphere's capacity to trap infrared heat radiation, thus intensifying the natural greenhouse effect. The most important greenhouse gas contributing to current global warming is carbon dioxide (CO2), along with others such as methane and nitrous oxide. The average CO2 concentration in the Earth's atmosphere, as measured by the Mauna Loa Observatory, has risen from approximately 280 ppm before the start of industrialization to over 420 ppm today.
According to the IPCC, the temperature increase from 1850–1900 to the 2010s was approximately 1,1 °C. Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one. 2024 was the hottest year on record, with temperatures about 1,6 °C above the average of the pre-industrial reference period. The eleven years from 2015 to 2025 were the eleven hottest years since records began. A comparable temperature level was last seen at the end of the Eemian interglacial period 115.000 years ago. Since around 2015, there has been a statistically significant acceleration of global warming.
Water scarcity
Water scarcity exists when there is not enough water available to meet the water needs of the population.
People on every continent are affected by water scarcity. In 2019, the World Economic Forum declared water scarcity and its impacts the greatest threat of the coming decade: Approximately half of the world's population suffers from severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, due to both climatic and non-climatic factors. Three-quarters of the world's population live in countries that are expected to experience persistent water scarcity for the foreseeable future.
General information
97% of all water on Earth is saltwater. Of the 3% that is freshwater, only 0,014% is easily accessible, as the vast majority is located in remote areas such as the polar ice caps. Nevertheless, there is theoretically enough water to meet humanity's needs. However, a global water crisis is expected, exacerbated by global warming, the unequal distribution of this resource, and the sharp increase in water demand. Global demand is projected to exceed the amount of available water by 40% within 15 years.
Globally, water scarcity exists because freshwater is unevenly distributed geographically and seasonally. The main reasons for the increase in global water scarcity are the growing world population, rising living standards, changing consumption patterns, and the expansion of irrigated agriculture. Further reasons include climate change, for example, changes in weather patterns (droughts and floods), deforestation, increasing water pollution, as well as wasteful water consumption and inefficient water supply. Thus, water scarcity is often caused by anthropogenic interventions in the water cycle. Experts are certain that water scarcity is not an ecological problem, but one created by political mismanagement.
In South Asia, according to estimates by the UN Children's Fund UNICEF, 347 million people under the age of 18 were "facing high or extremely high water scarcity" in 2023.
With increasing droughts, such as the severe summer of 2022, the problem of water scarcity is gaining public awareness in Central Europe. While in Germany it was long assumed that there was more than enough water available, and therefore generous water use was recommended to flush pipes, shortages are now becoming more frequent. During the drought of 2022, more than 50% of municipalities in Germany reported water shortages. Sixteen percent of municipalities imposed restrictions, such as bans on car washing or irrigation, to conserve water. In some municipalities, the water shortage was so severe that there was no longer enough water available for households and fire department operations. Industry is the largest consumer, accounting for 72% of water usage.
Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War (until February 2022 primarily referred to as the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict, and more generally as the Ukraine Crisis, the Ukraine War, or Russia's War against Ukraine) began in late February 2014 as a regional armed conflict on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Following the annexation of Crimea, which violated international law, Russia escalated the conflict further, particularly by establishing pro-Russian armed militias in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. These militias fought alongside regular Russian troops against Ukrainian armed forces and volunteer militias. The Minsk agreements of September 2014 and February 2015, brokered with international assistance, stipulated a lasting ceasefire for the war in eastern Ukraine; in reality, at best, they achieved a stabilization of the local conflict, with ongoing provocations by the Russian separatist side.
After a relative lull, Russia massively built up troops on the Ukrainian border starting in the summer of 2021, but denied any plans for an attack. From February 24, 2022, the Russian army launched a large-scale offensive from several directions, aiming to overthrow the Ukrainian government and replace it with a pro-Russian regime. After suffering heavy losses, Russian troops withdrew from northern and northeastern Ukraine at the end of March 2022, concentrating their offensive exclusively on the east of the country. In the south, the major offensive had created a Russian-controlled land corridor between the Russian mainland and Crimea, which it had annexed in 2014. The Russian offensive made little progress during the summer, and from the end of August, the Ukrainian army launched a counter-offensive in the east and south, achieving significant territorial gains by October 2022. In September 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced a Russian mobilization, and the following month Russia annexed large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, initiating Russification there. After the Russian withdrawal, evidence of serious war crimes committed by Russian troops against civilians was discovered in the previously occupied territories.
Iran War 2026
The Iran-Iraq War of 2026 is a war of aggression in Western Asia and the Middle East that began on February 28, 2026, with attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran. The initial targets of the joint attacks were key Iranian officials, military commanders, and institutions. These included, most notably, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike. Further Israeli-US attacks also killed Defense Minister Aziz Nasserzadeh, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leader Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Council Chairman Ali Shamkhani, and Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi.
Hours after the initial attacks, Iran launched at least nine retaliatory attacks against Israel and US military installations in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and other countries, attacks that had been announced during the US threats. Civilian infrastructure in Oman, which had previously assumed a neutral mediating role and does not host US bases, was also targeted with drones. A few days after the outbreak of hostilities, a British military base in Cyprus was attacked by an Iranian drone; France and Greece, among others, provided military assistance.
The Iranian-backed Islamist Hezbollah, which rules part of Lebanon, attacked Israel in response to the death of Khamenei, and Israel in turn attacked Hezbollah.
The US government gave conflicting accounts of the immediate trigger for the attacks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Israel was on the verge of an attack on Iran that would lead to retaliatory strikes against American forces in the region. He claimed that US participation in the attack had minimized these retaliatory strikes. Trump contradicted this account, stating that if anything, he had merely guided Israel's hand. Parts of the administration and allies, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, portrayed the war as a "religious war" or "holy war" against "evil." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also cited the removal of the "existential threat" posed by Iran and "creating the conditions for the Iranian people to change their destiny" as war aims.
By day 12 of the war, it had cost the US $16,5 billion, according to the think tank CSIS, primarily due to intensive airstrikes and missile attacks. The ongoing costs for veterans' support, equipment replacement, and so-called perpetual costs are estimated by CNN at between €890 million and €1 billion per day. The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimates that the persistently high energy prices resulting from the war could reduce global GDP growth by 0,3 percentage points in 2026.
In statements by international law experts, the war is predominantly classified as a clear violation of international law and the general prohibition of the use of force, while some statements discuss possible justifications.
[...] War aims
In March, US President Donald Trump stated that the main goals of the war were to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, to end its control of terrorist militias, and to decimate its missile capabilities. He also cited freedom for the Iranian people as a further reason.
In July 2026, Democrats in Congress complained that the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which had been open before the war, was now also being mentioned as a war aim.
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UN refugee aid
causes of flight
Nobody flees voluntarily
Under international law, only those who leave their country for "fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" are considered refugees. (Article 1 of the Geneva Refugee Convention)
The reasons for fleeing can vary greatly. Most often, it is war and violence that force people to leave their homes. Always present is the fear for one's own life, for the life and well-being of children, family, or friends.
[...] Why do people have to flee?
War and violence
Human rights violations
Hunger
Climate and environment
**
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Klimawandel+Wasserknappheit
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Krieg+Zerstörung
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Fluchtursachen
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic of atoms*
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Newsletter XXXI 2026 - August 2st to 8th
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