Newsletter XLV 2023
5. to 11. November
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The PDF file "Nuclear Power Accidents" contains a number of other incidents from various areas of the nuclear industry. Some of the incidents 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...
4 November 2004 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Balakovo, RUS
11 November 1983 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
16 November 2001 (INES ? Class.?) High Flux Reactor, Petten, NLD
19 November 2003 (INES 2 Class.?) Nuclear factory La Hague, FRA
19 November 1975 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Gundremmingen, GER
20 November 1959 (INES 4) Nuclear factory Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
22 November 2002 (INES 2) NPP Tihange, BEL
28 November 2007 (INES 2) NPP Asco, ESP
29 November 1970 (INES 3 | NAMS 2,5) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
29 November 1955 (INES 4) Research reactor EBR-I, NTRS Idaho, USA
30 November 1975 (INES 5) NPP Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad, USSR
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
11. November
Renewables | Electricity price | CO2 price
Less dependent on gas
Renewable energies should reduce electricity prices
The expansion of renewable energy in Germany is not making as much progress as hoped. In doing so, it would ensure that the price of electricity generally falls, explains electricity market expert Huneke from Agora Energiewende. This is already clear on electricity exchanges.
According to experts, renewable energies will increasingly dampen electricity prices. “The more renewable energy systems with their low prices are in the electricity system, the less expensive wholesale gas power plants determine the electricity price,” said electricity market expert Fabian Huneke from the Agora Energiewende think tank. Renewables would already reduce future electricity prices.
"You can clearly see on the electricity exchange: the futures market prices are significantly lower for deliveries in a few years." For example, if you currently pre-order electricity for the next year or the year after, the longer the delivery is, the lower the wholesale electricity price will be. "This can clearly be attributed to the influence of renewable energies, because the price of electricity is significantly below the development of fossil fuel prices or CO₂ prices."...
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Solidarity with Israel, as long as right-wing extremists allow it...
Israeli flag will soon be taken down completely in Augsburg
The city hangs up two peace flags and wants to set an example as a city of peace. Elsewhere, two Israel flags are torn down and taken away.
In recent weeks there has been a lot of excitement about the Israel flag on the town hall square. The flag that the city hung in solidarity with Israel after the terrorist attack was torn down twice. Since the second incident, the flag has been taken down in the evening and raised again in the morning. Now both the Israeli and Ukrainian flags will be taken down completely after Remembrance Day. The city has chosen a different path.
[...] Meanwhile, two Israel flags were torn down from the house where Daniel Melcer's advertising agency is located. Melcer, who is Jewish, put it there after the Hamas terrorist attack and criticized the city for its "part-time solidarity" with the flag on the town hall square, which only flies during the day (we reported). On Friday night, when the Kristallnacht pogrom night was 85 years old, two men climbed onto the balcony, tore it down, stepped on it and took it with them. A video camera filmed the incident and the footage is now supporting the police investigation.
For Melcer, this is no coincidence. "By bending its Israel flag, the city has signaled that our solidarity is negotiable. And in doing so, it has stimulated those who already consider us weak to act," he says. Anyone who opens the door halfway should not be surprised if uninvited guests accept the invitation. Melcer will hang up new Israel flags again...
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Israel | Gaza | Konflikt | Human rights
Positions on the Middle East conflict:
Uneasiness in remembrance
One month after the terrorist attack on Israel, the fronts in remembrance and protest seem to have hardened. What would be a broadly accessible gesture?
Yes, it's complicated. First of all, it is exhausting to try to understand the background and origins of the Middle East conflict. And then it is also challenging to bring your own solidarity, your own perspective, your own criticism onto the streets. Because too often you end up in close proximity to positions that you actually wanted to keep your distance from.
Just like at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, where many participants share the fundamental concern of wanting to draw attention to the plight of the people in the Gaza Strip and, increasingly, in the West Bank. And then you turn around and suddenly someone is standing right next to you with a poster whose message makes you cringe: because it questions Israel's right to exist, because it is anti-Semitic, or perhaps simply because you are not sure is what is ultimately required.
You can also feel unwell at the more state-supporting commemorative events that parties or associations close to Israel have called for in recent weeks. Such as the commemoration of the victims and hostages at the Brandenburg Gate, organized by the German-Israeli Society on Tuesday evening, exactly one month after the terrorist attack. On stage, the Israeli embassy envoy said that the first goal was to destroy Hamas and the second was to bring all the hostages home.
[...] But perhaps as a civilian you don't have to take to the streets with military-strategic demands. Perhaps it is enough for now to emphasize the position of peace and peaceful coexistence. So right now we should support initiatives in which Palestinians and Israelis work together and continue to think about ways to live together. Especially now, we should continue to urge those responsible to finally think and act outside of military logic.
Left can only be a position that puts the well-being of all people involved in the conflict first. To stand up for human rights, you don't have to demonize the "other side"...
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Climate change | Temperatures | Human rights
Global warming
Super hot record year
According to a new analysis, temperatures over the last twelve months were on average more than 1,3 degrees higher than before industrialization. This means a new record has been broken. The researchers also talk about responsibilities.
The past twelve months up to October 31 this year were the hottest consecutive months on record. This is according to an analysis by Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and communicators that researches and reports on the facts about climate change and its impact on people's lives.
The temperatures were on average more than 1,3 degrees Celsius higher than before industrialization.
[...] Friederike Otto put it this way in the press conference: "If we continue to burn fossil fuels in the same way as before, this represents a massive violation of the human rights of the vast majority of the world."
One of the human rights referred to here is the right to life and security of the person. Due to climate change, this basic right is already being restricted for many, said Otto. The Paris Agreement, with its goal of limiting warming to well below two degrees or, if possible, to 1,5 degrees, is there to protect these rights and must be adhered to...
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11 November 1983 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
Accidental transfer of 59 TBq of radioactivity with solvents and raw materials from building B205 to a sea tank in building B242. (Cost approx. US$44 million)
Slowly but surely, all the relevant info on disruptions in the nuclear industry is coming out Wikipedia away!
Wikipedia
The complex was made famous by a catastrophic fire in 1957 and by frequent nuclear incidents, which is one of the reasons why it was renamed Sellafield. Up until the mid-1980s, large quantities of the nuclear waste generated in day-to-day operations were discharged in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.
Radiological releases
Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
10. November
LNG terminal | Gas consumption | Stranded assets | Compensation payments
German LNG overkill
Claudia Kemfert predicts liquid gas disaster
The temperatures are falling and the need for heating is increasing. Unlike last winter, the German gas storage facilities are overfull this year, even without Russian pipeline gas. However, the new LNG terminals have little to do with this. Only ten percent of the supplies were imported by sea, as Table.Media reports. Nevertheless, the federal government is undeterred in pushing ahead with plans for a seventh floating terminal in Mukran in the north of Rügen. An expensive mistake, predicts energy economist Claudia Kemfert from DIW. She accuses politicians in ntv's "climate laboratory" of falling for the gas industry's threats, as they did in the past: "The way back will be market-driven with 'stranded assets' and compensation payments that we have to make."
ntv.de: Three LNG terminals are in operation, three more are scheduled to be completed this winter, and a seventh is planned. How many LNG terminals do we need in Germany?
Claudia Kemmert: We examined this question in a new study and have now once again come to the conclusion that we are building oversized gas capacities. In Germany, but also in neighboring countries. That was our conclusion with Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. We also demonstrated in a study last year that we do not need a single fixed and permanent LNG terminal. Three temporary ones to transition would be enough and save us a lot of money. Because if we succeed in reducing our gas consumption as planned and intended, it could happen that the terminals end up as stranded assets and we have to pay the operators compensation for lost profits for the next 15 to 20 years. The terminals are government money thrown out the window...
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Turning point | Defense spending | Two percent target
Scholz wants to achieve NATO's two percent target next year
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been talking about the “turning point” ever since the Ukraine war. Now he is getting specific and is talking about significantly higher defense spending in the double-digit billion range.
Is this the “turning point” that everyone always talks about? Significantly higher defense spending in the double-digit billion range into the next decade. At least that’s what Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) promises. The special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr is only “an important first step,” said the Chancellor on Friday at the Bundeswehr conference in Berlin. Germany will reach NATO's two percent target for the first time next year. “We will guarantee this two percent permanently, throughout the 20s and the 30s. I say that very consciously because of course some of the things you might order now will be delivered in the 30s,” he said.
The federal government spent two days discussing the future course of the armed forces with the military leadership. The global political situation makes it clear how important the change of course is, said Scholz, who mentioned the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and also the major attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel. He warned: “Our peace order is in danger.” ...
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European Union | Nature Conservation | Biodiversity
EU agrees on nature conservation law
After a long struggle, the compromise has been reached: In the future, forests, moors and rivers in the European Union should be able to recover - if the Christian Democrats ultimately agree to the law.
80 percent of natural habitats in the European Union are in poor condition and ten percent of bee and butterfly species are at risk of extinction. These are just excerpts from a devastating inventory analysis of nature in the EU. In order to save them after all, negotiators from the European Parliament and the member states agreed on a nature conservation law during the night. In the future, more forests will be reforested, moors will be irrigated and rivers will be restored to their natural state. Member states should draw up national “recovery plans”, for example to stop the loss of biodiversity.
The law, which is considered a pillar of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's Green Deal, was preceded by a heated dispute. The Christian Democrats in particular were against the project and tried to put it on hold completely. However, a motion to reject the law did not receive a majority in parliament in the summer...
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Energy company RWE | CO2 emissions | Climate catastrophe
Farmer from Peru is suing German energy company RWE
Severe glacier melt threatens the farm and home of a farmer in the Andes. He is suing the coal company RWE because the climate damage in his region has become worse because of the burning of fossil fuels.
[...] The eagerly watched court case is the culmination of almost ten years of effort. Lliuya, with the support of the environmental organization Germanwatch, filed his lawsuit in November 2015 with the Essen regional court, where RWE has its headquarters. The court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but in 2017 the farmer from Peru successfully appealed to the higher authority, the Hamm Higher Regional Court.
“The court has agreed to legal evidence in this case, something that has never happened before,” says Christoph Bals, political director of Germanwatch. "If we win the final verdict, it will mean that all of Europe's biggest emitters can be brought to justice."
In May 2022, a group of independent experts and judges from Germany traveled to Peru. They wanted to assess on site the extent to which the plaintiff was at risk of an impending climate catastrophe. In August 2023 they laid her Expert opinion before. The hearing is scheduled to begin in a few months. It is the first transnational climate dispute case of its kind to reach this stage...
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Media | Journalists equal terrorists?
Photojournalists from CNN, NYT, Reuters or AP as accomplices of Hamas?
The Israeli government calls on the media to clarify. On October 7.10th Journalists from the Gaza Strip documented the attack for Western media.
On Wednesday, HonestReporting.com, a New York-based pro-Israel organization that reviews coverage of Israel and combats “ideological bias in journalism and the media,” released a report that raises important questions about journalistic practice. What was discovered, which had previously been ignored, was that journalists were there during the Hamas attack on Israel and during the brutal massacre and kidnappings of children and babies, whose pictures were published by major media outlets such as the New York Times and CNN as well as news agencies such as AP and Reuters probably bought it, or at least published it.
[...] Communications Minister Karhi wrote to the New York Times: “I am writing to you with deep concern at recent reports about the alleged involvement of your staff in the tragic events in southern Israel. It has come to our attention that certain individuals within your organization, including photographers and others, were aware of these horrific events and may have had disturbing connections to the perpetrators. I urgently call for a thorough investigation into this matter. The seriousness of the situation requires a rapid and thorough response.” The NYT rejects accusations that the photojournalists were just doing their job.
But not only the Netanyahu government itself, but also the wartime government is trying to exploit this. Former prime minister, ex-defense minister and ex-chief of general staff Benny Gantz, a member of the wartime government, wrote: “Journalists who knew about the massacre - and yet stood by as children were slaughtered - are no different from terrorists and should be treated as such “Suspicions are immediately used as evidence to take action against journalists and the media.
9. November
Electricity price | Climate targets | Electricity tax
Industrial electricity price:
Traffic lights relieve pressure on companies
The price of electricity for manufacturing companies should fall to 6 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour. Depending on consumption, they save millions.
BERLIN taz | After a long struggle, the traffic light has agreed on measures to curb the high electricity costs for manufacturing companies. Relief of up to 12 billion euros is planned for next year.
[...] The government wants to reduce the electricity tax to the European minimum. This will be decided in the coming weeks for 2024 and 2025. The reduction will apply for another three years, although counter-financing is still open. The stabilization of network fees has already been decided. Existing regulations for the 350 companies that face the most international competition will be extended for five years. Companies no longer have to make their own contribution.
Government circles say that all relief measures together would lead to an electricity price of 6 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour. All manufacturing companies, from bakeries to aluminum smelters, as well as agriculture and forestry, benefit from this price.
[...] The relief from the environmental organization Greenpeace has met with little enthusiasm. The measures “undermine incentives to reduce energy consumption and emissions,” said Greenpeace energy expert Bastian Neuwirth: “In doing so, the federal government is slowing down the necessary climate-friendly transformation of the economy and risking climate goals.”
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United States | SMR | NuScale | NRTS Idaho
The first mini-nuclear power plant in the USA was abandoned
The first mini-nuclear power plant should have been built in the state of Idaho by the end of the decade. But the project was stalled.
Small Modular Reactors are intended to actually produce cheap nuclear energy. Unlike large nuclear power plants, they are supposed to be manufactured centrally in a factory and then transported to their destination. This type of mass production is intended to massively reduce construction costs. But it's not quite that simple, as a case from the USA shows.
SMR project stalled again
To date, only one Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design has been approved in the United States, that of NuScale Power. Its 50 megawatt reactor was certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January 2023 and was scheduled to be built in the US state of Idaho by 2029. The plan called for the Idaho National Lab research facility to receive some of the site's first reactors, while other reactors would provide power to area businesses.
However, as the costs of producing green electricity are falling rapidly, even SMRs no longer seem to be economical. Electricity generation from sun, water and wind is simply too cheap to invest in comparatively expensive nuclear power. Many supporters have therefore withdrawn from the project.
The final blow came on Wednesday when NuScale Energy's main partner, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, also withdrew from the project. According to the electricity wholesaler, it appears "unlikely that the project will find enough takers to continue the rollout."...
Sh... Reality, they were going to build 6 SMReactors in Idaho, and now it may not even be one. But we shouldn't rejoice too soon, because nobody can sell defeats as victories like MiK. When it comes to presenting age-old ideas as super fresh in ever new announcements, nobody can fool them. And one thing is 100% certain: MiK and the nuclear lobby will never give up trying to get super-awesome and super-expensive projects off the ground, because without the announcement of the very latest nuclear steam engines there will be no more fresh money and that would be the end of their Ponzi scheme, this trillion-dollar business model would be dead as a doornail in no time at all...
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Radiation protection | Low-level radiation | Blood cancer
MHB researchers involved:
Study confirms connection between CT radiation in young people and increased risk of blood cancer
More than a million children in Europe undergo a computer tomography (CT) scan every year. The significance of this for a possible cancer risk has now been investigated on a large scale, and the local Theodor Fontane Medical University was also involved. A message: The multinational study of almost a million people confirms a connection between radiation exposure from computer tomography scans in young people and an increased risk of blood cancer.
“This is the most important conclusion of the latest evaluation of data from the EPI-CT study with the participation of the Institute for Biometry and Registry Research at the Brandenburg Theodor Fontane Medical School (MHB),” the university said in a statement. The results were published in the journal Nature Medicine. According to the experts, they illustrate how important it is to continue to apply strict radiation protection measures, especially for young people.
“The results show a clear connection between the radiation dose to the bone marrow during CT scans and the risk of developing cancer of the blood and lymphatic system (myeloid and lymphoid malignancies). A dose of 100 milligrays (mGy) increases the risk of developing cancer of the blood or lymphatic system by about three times,” explains Prof. Dr. Michael Hauptmann from the Institute for Biometrics and Register Research at the MHB...
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Medicine | Human rights | Nazism | Holocaust
The most comprehensive report to date
Nazi medical atrocities closely examined
On the historic 9th of November, a commission presents its report on the Nazi medical atrocities. The experts also explain what effects these have on the present and what we can learn from them for the future.
A comprehensive report on the medical atrocities under National Socialism clearly shows that the crimes were not just carried out by individuals. "It is often surprising how limited knowledge of the Nazi medical crimes is in the medical community today, apart perhaps from a vague notion of Josef Mengele's experiments at Auschwitz," said lead author Herwig Czech of the Medical University of Vienna. For this reason, three years ago he and his colleagues suggested to the editor-in-chief of the specialist journal "The Lancet" the establishment of a commission that would expand this knowledge and draw conclusions for the future.
The report now presented by 20 scientists and doctors is based on 878 sources and is the most comprehensive report to date on these atrocities, writes "The Lancet"...
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Assange | WikiLeaks | Journalism as a War Crimes?
“WikiLeaks ends wars”: That’s why Julian Assange should be a free man
Time passes and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been in a maximum security prison for over four years. A scandal.
The Berliner Zeitung is campaigning for the release of journalists Julian Assange and Evan Gershkovich. Julian Assange is in custody in Great Britain, Evan Gershkovich in Russia. Both journalists are being wrongly detained. We call on the British and Russian governments to release the journalists immediately.
A lot has already been said about Julian Assange. For many, he is considered a freedom hero who spread uncomfortable truths with his revelation platform WikiLeaks at the beginning of the decade and changed journalism forever. For others, he is the hacker-crook, the spy, the criminal Assange, whose unscrupulous behavior helped put the reputation of the United States at risk.
While the public debates whether Assange is a hero or a criminal, the 52-year-old has been in the maximum security wing of London's Belmarsh Prison for 1675 days. His crime: publishing the truth...
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Perpetrator | Victim | Tabu | Trauma
Nazi perpetrator descendant Maite Billerbeck: “Taboos in families have psychological effects”
Coming to terms with it Maite Billerbeck suffered from feelings of guilt and shame to the point of depression. Then she learned that her great-uncle Hans Röhwer was the main perpetrator of the massacre of Jews on Lake Maggiore in September 1943. A conversation about the meaning of processing
A good 80 years ago, in September 1943, SS men from the infamous “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” committed a massacre of Jews in the village of Meina on Lake Maggiore, Italy. In total they murdered 57 people. Maite Billerbeck is the grandniece of the SS officer in command at the time, Hans Röhwer. The 54-year-old psychologist has been studying this part of her family history for ten years. On September 23rd, she asked for forgiveness at a memorial service in Meina as the grandniece of the main perpetrator. A memorial event took place in Berlin at the beginning of October. A conversation about the meaning of coming to terms with difficult family stories.
der Freitag: Ms. Billerbeck, what motivated you to deal with the actions of your great-uncle so many years later?
Maite Billerbeck: During a long internal process, I became aware that it was necessary to come to terms with one's own history. We actually can't avoid it if we want to get out of the cycle of transgenerational transmission and the burden of guilt and shame on the part of the perpetrator's offspring and the burden of a traumatic inheritance on the part of the victim's offspring...
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Anti-Semitism | Fascism | Auschwitz
Holocaust survivor Friedländer: “That’s how it started back then”
Margot Friedländer experienced the pogrom night in Berlin in 1938. In the WDR interview she talks about what she experienced back then - and how she perceives anti-Semitism to be growing again today.
Margot Friedländer was born in Berlin in 1921 into a Jewish family. Her younger brother was murdered along with her mother in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Friedländer hid in various places for a long time until she was caught in 1944 and transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. She survived the camp with her future husband Adolf Friedländer and emigrated to New York in 1946. At the age of 88, she returned to Berlin after decades in the USA. Here she appears at schools and tells her story as one of the last contemporary witnesses.
[...] WDR: We are currently experiencing bad things again: Stars of David are being daubed on houses, the Israeli flag is being torn down and Jews no longer dare to go out on the streets. How do you feel about that?
Friedlander: People must be respected - no matter what religion they have. Because I always say: we are all the same. When we are born, it doesn't matter whether to a Jewish woman or to someone of another religion. The child has been fed by the mother and knows nothing about anything. It has no religion. It's a human. Be human! Respect people! ...
8. November
Spain | Right-wing extremists call to Coup
Right-wing ultras are causing a ruckus against the formation of a government in Spain
There are even calls for a coup in the security forces, but apparently this is only directed against the planned amnesty in Catalonia, which is one of exiled President Puigdemont's conditions for supporting the Social Democrats.
After several nights in which the offices of the Social Democrats (PSOE) in Spain were besieged by ultra-right protesters, there have been violent riots since Monday, especially in front of the PSOE headquarters in Madrid. After remaining largely inactive for days, the police took tentative action on Monday against attacks by around 3500 right-wing extremists as they tried to break through barriers to storm the party headquarters. Three people were arrested. On Tuesday there were street battles, with barricades being built, garbage containers being set on fire and the police being attacked. Of the 30 or so injured, the majority were police officers.
A police force that is otherwise known for brutal actions, such as against peaceful voters in the independence referendum in Catalonia, held back against the right-wing mob, which now also wants to see acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in jail. It is significant when the foundation for the dictator Franco - which should have been banned long ago - describes the Social Democrats as a "criminal organization"...
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Species extinction | Biodiversity | Climate change | Environmental pollution
Animals and plants:
Every fifth species in Europe is endangered
A study shows how alarming the loss of species is in Europe alone: More species are threatened with extinction than previously thought. This is also bad news for humans.
It has long been known that the diversity of animal and plant species is rapidly decreasing. But can the loss be quantified in bare numbers? A working group led by Axel Hochkirch from the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle in Luxembourg has now carried out such an inventory with the help of the IUCN Red List.
[...] The research group examined 14 animal and plant species that live on land and in water and were on the Red List for Europe at the end of 669. The team has thus recorded around ten percent of all species listed on the Red List. The analysis showed that around 2020 percent, i.e. 19 species, are threatened with extinction, critically endangered or endangered. 2839 species are already considered extinct, regionally extinct or possibly extinct.
[...] »It has been proven that the functioning of ecosystems depends on their biodiversity. Protection against flooding, groundwater recharge, slope stability, pollination of crops and many other existentially relevant ecosystem services are achieved through biodiversity," says Carl Beierkuhnlein, head of the Department of Biogeography at the University of Bayreuth, according to the Science Media Center. "No society, no matter how highly developed, can afford the financial means to replace these services provided by nature for our livelihoods with technological solutions."
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Westinghouse | Adoption | Brookfield | Cameco
Acquisition of Westinghouse completed
Cameco Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management, along with its subsidiary Brookfield Renewable Partners and institutional partners, now own the company that built the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor more than 60 years ago.
Westinghouse - one of the world's largest providers of nuclear services - was acquired out of bankruptcy by Brookfield Business Partners in 2018. The proposed acquisition of the company by the strategic partnership of Cameco Corporation and Brookfield was announced in October last year, and Cameco announced receipt of the final required regulatory approval on November 3. The completion of the acquisition means that Cameco now holds a 49% stake and Brookfield owns a 51% stake in Westinghouse...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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Climate targets | Production volume | Fossil
Climate targets are difficult to maintain
More and more coal, oil and gas are being produced worldwide
Time is running out if the world wants to keep global warming at 1,5 degrees. Despite this, more coal, oil and gas are being produced than ever before. And the trend continues to rise. Germany is also at the forefront when it comes to coal production.
The planned global production volumes of coal, oil and gas continue to significantly exceed the level permitted to contain climate change. The production planned by countries for 2030 is more than twice (110 percent more) what would be compatible with the goal of limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees Celsius agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and leading research institutes.
More and more coal will be produced worldwide until 2030. Oil and gas production volumes are expected to continue to rise until at least 2050. “Governments’ plans to expand fossil fuel production undermine the energy transition necessary to achieve net-zero emissions, create economic risks and call into question the future of humanity,” criticized UNEP Director Inger Andersen.
A representative of the Climate Action Network, which brings together more than 1900 climate protection organizations in around 130 countries, spoke in a reaction of "blatant hypocrisy" from states that presented themselves as climate pioneers but at the same time aggravated the crisis themselves...
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agrivoltaics | Dryness | Solar radiation
Pilot project in sand pit that is unique in Germany
Solar roof is intended to protect young trees in Meßkirch
Can a solar roof protect newly planted trees from drought? This is what a pilot project in Meßkirch aims to find out – on an abandoned area of a quartz sand pit.
The company Emil Steidle wants to research in its sand pit in Meßkirch-Rengetsweiler (Sigmaringen district) whether a photovoltaic system can protect newly planted trees from wind and weather, but especially drought. To do this, she planted silver and Nordmann firs in the summer on a 3.500 square meter area where sand is no longer mined. Half of it stands under photovoltaic panels on six meter high stilts.
The company developed the design itself. The company says it is obliged to reforest abandoned areas in the sand pit. However, young trees are particularly affected by dryness caused by strong sunlight, especially in summer. Hence the idea: Why not protect the trees from this with a solar roof and at the same time produce electricity using the power of the sun?
Pilot project is considered unique in Germany
The project, which is unique in Germany, is supported by the state, the Sigmaringen district and the Fraunhofer Institute. They monitor whether the shading is good for the trees. According to the Sigmaringen district, it can be assessed after two to three years whether this is the case...
7. November
Israel | Hamas | War Crimes | False flag
Hamas massacre: Roger Waters accuses Israel of false flag operations and propaganda
The musician says that Israel is exaggerating Hamas atrocities and making up stories. The October 7 attack may have been a “false flag operation,” according to Waters.
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters is once again causing a stir with comments about Israel. The controversial rock musician says the world doesn't know "what really happened" when Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7. In his opinion, it could have been a “false flag operation”. He also accuses Israel of “exaggerating” the attack by the Islamist Hamas and “making up stories.”
[...] “If war crimes have been committed, I condemn them.” “Of course” he condemns the killing and kidnapping of civilians. “But the whole thing was blown out of proportion by the Israelis, who made up stories about beheading babies,” Waters said. He was referring to a brutal Hamas attack on an Israeli community. Reporters reported a few days later, citing unnamed soldiers, that “beheaded babies” had been found in some houses. This claim was later retracted before being confirmed by a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The military refused to confirm such a thing. Netanyahu later released photos showing the burned remains of infants...
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Nuclear waste transport | Jülich | Ahaus
Protest against Castor transports:
Nuclear waste trips unnecessary
Due to the risk of earthquakes, dozens of nuclear waste transports are to roll from Jülich to Ahaus. But the danger apparently doesn't exist.
[...] “We are committed to minimizing nuclear transport,” says the coalition agreement of the black-green NRW state government of CDU Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst. And further: “In the case of the fuel elements stored in Jülich, this means that we are pushing forward the option of building a new interim storage facility in Jülich.”
There are many reasons for this: Not only are the 40 to 50 truck trips necessary to transport highly radioactive nuclear waste through the middle of densely populated North Rhine-Westphalia to Ahaus considered dangerous. “Like all German interim storage facilities, Ahaus is not adequately protected against terrorist attacks and plane crashes, and therefore only has an operating license until 2034,” says Felix Ruwe from the citizens’ initiative No Nuclear Waste in Ahaus.
Castors are only designed to last 40 years
Ruwe also criticizes that the Castor containers are only designed to last for 40 years. In view of the completely unresolved final storage issue, the nuclear waste will soon have to be repackaged. This is not possible in Ahaus, but is possible in Jülich. Even Jülich's non-party mayor Axel Fuchs sees it the same way: "I could also imagine an interim storage facility in Jülich," he said on WDR in mid-October...
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Castor transports | Interim storage | Ahaus
Dress rehearsal for Castor transport from Jülich to Ahaus
A test transport with a Castor container is scheduled to roll from Jülich to Ahaus on Wednesday night. Opponents of nuclear power in the Jülich area and Münsterland have announced protests for the afternoon.
152 nuclear waste containers, so-called castors, are to be brought to the Ahaus interim storage facility. The containers contain 300.000 spherical fuel elements from the decommissioned Jülich experimental reactor.
There are protests against this in both Jülich and Ahaus. Jülich's mayor Axel Fuchs rejects the transports, as does his counterpart Carola Voß in Ahaus. The city of Ahaus has even filed a lawsuit with the state's Higher Administrative Court to prevent the storage of Jülich's nuclear waste...
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Russia | Arms trade | Assault Rifles | Ammunition
German weapons for Russia
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, over 7.000 civilian firearms from Western manufacturers and almost eight million rounds of ammunition have reached Russia. Some of them are deployed there during the war. German weapons also found their way to Russia. This is also due to gaps in sanctions.
The town of Isny in the Allgäu lies between Munich and Lake Constance. Tourists appreciate it for its healing climate, hikers and hunters for the picturesque forest areas that extend over the foothills of the Allgäu Alps. On the arterial road to the east, right on the edge of the forest, is the company that offers the accessories for these leisure activities: Blaser GmbH, a manufacturer of hunting equipment.
On their website, blonde women and male models with well-groomed three-day beards pose in olive-green hunting vests and khaki-colored functional pants. Blaser, as the text on the website describes, is a traditional supplier that has been developing and producing innovative hunting weapons with uncompromising quality standards “for 60 years”. “Our focus is solely on the practical use when hunting.”
But is that true, do the weapons really only end up with hunters?
Change of scene: The Russian Telegram channel “The Mile” posted eleven photos on September 16th of this year: A new delivery of “Sniper Rifles” had arrived, sniper rifles. “The Mile” is known in Russia as a shopping portal through which the Wagner mercenary group, among others, supplies itself with weapons - including for its use in the war in Ukraine. In the photos you can see an opened box containing a rifle that is still in its original packaging, complete with accessories and operating instructions. Type: R8. Manufacturer according to the enclosed instructions for use: Blaser GmbH...
6. November
Dear friends,
That was a real announcement: A few hours ago, around 20 farmers rolled up with their tractors and large agricultural vehicles together with the BI "No Nuclear Waste in Ahaus", the mayor of Ahaus and the Münsterland Action Alliance Against Nuclear Plants in the middle of the transport route for the planned Jülich-Ahaus Castoren against the Castor madness - and for a while, due to the many tractors, there was no going back and forth on one of the main roads into Ahaus! The protest is expanding significantly in Ahaus! The protest is expanding significantly in Ahaus! You can also see moving pictures on WDR (from min. 4.41):
A vigil also took place in Jülich in the evening - and that was urgently needed, because according to information from the city council in Ahaus, the 2nd rehearsal castor is scheduled to start in Jülich this Tuesday evening. On November 21.11st A third test castor is then planned. The protests in Jülich and Ahaus are therefore increasing significantly. The farmers have already announced that they want to roll their tractors again.
In 2024, radioactive nuclear waste could be transported through North Rhine-Westphalia again
Therefore: If you spontaneously have time tonight, contact the BI in Ahaus or the “Stop Westcastor” action alliance in Jülich or call us - and write November 21st in your calendar for the next series of protests - so that the protest grows visibly !
This is also urgently necessary because neither the state government nor the federal government and certainly not the Jülich nuclear waste company JEN or the research center behind it want to abandon their transport plans. They want to plunge North Rhine-Westphalia into a Castor disaster on the highways with 152 Castors. We continue to demand the cancellation of the Castor plans and finally the start of construction on a new Castor warehouse in Jülich.
Current news also on www.westcastor.org and www.bi-ahaus.de
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Public transport | Bureaucracy | Repowering
Negotiations in the Chancellery
The federal and state governments agree on the continuation of the Deutschlandticket and “acceleration pact”
The Deutschlandticket will also be available in the future - possibly with price increases. With an extensive package of measures, the federal and state governments also want to speed up the planning and approval of projects.
The future of the Deutschlandticket is secured for the time being. According to SPIEGEL information, during discussions in the Chancellery, the federal and state governments agreed to keep the public transport ticket in the coming year. Funds for the ticket that will not be used in 2023 should be able to be used next year to compensate for loss of income for transport companies.
[...] In recent decades, the federal and state governments have invented more and more regulations "with great love and affection," said the Chancellor. These should now be simplified. The planned changes would affect, among other things, highways and train routes, the construction of apartments, the expansion of attics and the installation of cell phone masts. Further simplifications, for example in the healthcare system and the hydrogen industry, should follow, said Scholz.
Criticism from environmental associations
Hesse's Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU), the chairman of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK), spoke of a "good move and an important step." Conversion and expansion of apartments will no longer fail due to car parking spaces. A wind turbine can be replaced by another in the same location without approval.
[...] environmental associations had previously sharply criticized the federal-state plans. They fear that it could be at the expense of nature if regulations for environmental impact assessments and species protection are changed...
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The Left | Anti-Semitism | Hamas
Left-wing liberals and Hamas:
Which left?
The sympathy of left-wing intellectuals for Hamas has little to do with freedom, equality and fraternity. Not everyone can be blinded.
On the occasion of the almost unbearable expressions of solidarity from intellectuals who are positioned on the left in the public debate, it is said that “the left” has failed collectively. Objection: You have to be more precise about who is meant by this. The organized party left, which is currently abolishing itself in Germany. The social-emancipatory movements that pursue very diverse goals.
A diffuse “left-liberal public”, which is then supposed to be represented by prominent speakers such as Slavoj Žižek or Judith Butler, who more or less include an anti-Semitic and genocidal terrorist group in their fight against the Empire. What's wrong with that? Since the early 19th century, the Left has stood for freedom, equality and solidarity in parliamentary seating and against all conditions “in which man is a degraded, enslaved, abandoned, contemptible being” (Karl Marx).
[...] The penetration of left-wing anti-Semitism in the BDS movement against the “apartheid state” of Israel, in the “Islamo-Gauchisme” that is very widespread on the French left and which exposes the errors of Tiersmondisme continues and now escalates to the most oppressive or completely open sympathy for Hamas is a declaration of moral bankruptcy. But not in general “the left”, which is not completely deceived by the genocidal politics of Russia and the Islamists.
Putin and Hamas pursue similar exterminist goals and exploit the naivety of abstract anti-fascism and anti-imperialism. They betray all the basic principles of freedom, equality and fraternity and want to ensure that Ukraine and Israel disappear from the map and that the people living there are humiliated, enslaved, abandoned and despised.
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Approval for solar park delayed with bureaucratic diligence
Lengthy processes, complex reports, complicated applications
Mayor in Dieblich frustrated: Bureaucracy has been delaying the planned solar park for years
The municipality of Dieblich is planning a solar park that will supply several thousand households with electricity. It could have been standing for a long time, but bureaucratic processes are delaying construction.
Dieblich could actually have been climate neutral for a long time, explains Mayor Christoph Jung (CDU). The planned solar park on an area of 60 hectares will provide electricity for around 27.000 households in the future - Dieblich has 2.680 residents. "It's a great project that I thought would be easy to implement," says Jung. "But I was wrong."
[...] For years, reports have been prepared, applications have been formulated and files have been moved back and forth between the authorities. Now the community is facing a new challenge: the solar park is to be built on an area that was previously used for agriculture. This needs to be repurposed. But the responsible authority wants to hear from all interest groups before granting approval. In Mayor Jung's opinion, this is another procedure that will only delay the major project even further: "At this rate, we won't be able to achieve the energy transition."...
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Israel | Human rights | Anti-Semite | Civilization
Writer Deborah Feldman: “We are at the beginning of a break in civilization”
The Jewish writer Deborah Feldman about the situation of Jews in Germany, the terror of Hamas and the war in Gaza.
Ms. Feldman, there is criticism that the Germans are not sufficiently supportive of Israel after Hamas' deadly attack on Israeli civilians. Would you agree with that?
Deborah Feldman: I myself stand with the Israelis, with the people who protested against this government in the months before the Hamas attack, I stand with the Israeli friends who lost friends and family members in the Hamas attack. I stand with the people who are worried about the hostages. There are different interpretations of what “stand with Israel” means. When the current Israeli government says: You must stand by us unconditionally, the real demand is that you must suppress the voices of Jews and Israelis who criticize us.
This perspective is also viewed differently. Are the demonstrations for Palestinians inherently anti-Semitic?
Deborah Feldman: I don't think that standing up for human life in Gaza could be anti-Semitic per se. Why should that be the case? Anyone who advocates for innocent children in refugee camps, who advocates for universal human rights and thus for the lessons that had to be learned from the Second World War, is not an anti-Semite...
5. November
Israel | Press freedom | Settlers | West Bank
West Bank incident
ARD team held by Israeli soldiers
On the way back from researching violence by radical settlers against Palestinians, an ARD team was detained and threatened by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. The ARD Tel Aviv studio sees this as a clear attack on press freedom.
An ARD team was held and threatened by Israeli military (IDF) soldiers in the Palestinian West Bank. According to the ARD Tel Aviv studio, which is operated by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), correspondent Jan-Christoph Kitzler was already on the way back from an interview with a Palestinian employee and a German employee when they were attacked by Israeli soldiers south of the Palestinian city Hebron were stopped.
As Kitzler reports and the team's cell phone videos show, the soldiers behaved extremely aggressively towards the ARD team. Weapons were held in the team vehicle on several occasions. The soldiers repeatedly filmed the ARD team at close range - a clear attempt at intimidation for Kitzler and the team...
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Arms industry | military-industrial complex | Military spending
What Paul Krugman Gets Wrong About the Military-Industrial Complex
NYT columnist uses irrelevant metrics to argue for more money for the Pentagon.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wants us to know (The Military-Industrial-Complex Complex) that the term "military-industrial complex" (MIC) is outdated and that we spend far less on the Pentagon today than we used to the time when President Eisenhower introduced the term in his farewell address in 1961.
Krugman is wrong on both counts.
First, it uses a misleading measure of Pentagon spending that obscures rather than reveals our historical investment in the department. He notes that Pentagon spending represents a smaller share of the national economy than it did in Eisenhower's time. This is true, but irrelevant. There is no reason why Pentagon spending should keep pace with the growth of the overall economy, which is six times larger today than it was in 1961. But no one in their right mind is proposing a six-fold increase in the Defense Department's budget. The level of military spending should be based on how much is needed to address the security threats we face, not on arbitrary comparisons to the size of the economy.
[...] The defense industry spends even more on lobbying than on campaign contributions, employing a total of over 800 registered lobbyists - more than one for every member of Congress. Most of these lobbyists have come through the revolving door of high-ranking positions in Congress or the Pentagon, and they use their connections to former colleagues to ingratiate themselves with their employers.
For example, a study my colleague Dillon Fisher and I recently conducted for the Quincy Institute found that 80 percent of four-star generals and admirals who retired in the past five years did so in one way or another Formally worked for the defense industry: as board members, lobbyists, executives, consultants or consultants of companies that invest heavily in the defense sector...
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Anti-Semitism | Pogrom | Scheunenviertel
Berlin pogrom on November 5, 1923:
The forgotten pogrom
100 years ago, an anti-Semitic mob looted the Jews living in Berlin's Scheunenviertel. A search for clues.
[...] In the fall of 1923, inflation was at its peak. The price of a loaf of bread rose to up to 233 billion marks. Banks had collapsed and unemployment was rising. There was also a political crisis. The right-wing extremist Kapp Putsch had just been repelled. On November 5th, there was a rumor that the employment office would pay out money. This turned out to be false. The mass of unemployed people were then told by agitators that the Jews in the Scheunenviertel had bought up the emergency money, newspapers reported the following day.
The Vossische Zeitung wrote: “The company signs were torn down, the windows were broken, and the shop owners were threatened if they did not distribute their goods to the crowd. A private car driving along Grenadier Street was stopped, the owner of the car was taken out and beaten, and the car itself was demolished. There was no police officer anywhere to be seen during these events.”
[...] Regarding the pogrom, the Alexanderwache police station declared on December 7, 1923 that the Jews themselves were to blame because they had cheated the unemployed. A trial against police officers who had mistreated the men of the Reich Association of Jewish Front Soldiers ended in 1925 with the conviction of three officers to minor sentences, which were soon thereafter overturned.
It has never been clarified who the agitators were who incited the unemployed to pogrom. Doubts were even raised as to whether this even existed.
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Pesticide | genetically | plant protection
New pesticide: This poison switches off genes
Active ingredient kills Colorado potato beetles by interfering with genome. US authorities shorten test phase. How the drug works and what dangers it poses.
The United States is apparently on the verge of widespread introduction of a new class of pesticides. At a genetic level, these intervene deeply in the metabolism of the organism being combated.
There, the new active ingredients prevent the expression of individual genes into proteins that are essential for the survival of the animal being fought - in this case the notorious Colorado potato beetle. In the USA, a temporary approval of such a drug is currently being sought without the usual safety checks being required beforehand.
[...] A 2021 study examined a similar gene-inhibiting RNAi, also developed for a spray to combat the same potato pest. Within just nine generations, 11.100 times the amount of the original active ingredient was needed to achieve the same effect.
It is a truism that with every agricultural plant protection method you also breed resistant pests - simply because some always survive the spraying and multiply. But the rapid development and strong expression of resistance observed here was described as “extreme” even in sober scientific research.
It is therefore not surprising that Friends of the Earth warns:
RNAi pesticides represent an open-air genetic experiment. Unintended genetic consequences could be inherited and persist in the environment for generations.
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Greens | Ministry of Environment | Global Warming
Green breezes, bitter distribution battles and prisoners of yesterday
Calendar week 44: Since the beginning of the “renewables revolution”, real developments have exceeded forecasts, says Michael Müller, SPD thought leader and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. At the same time, never since the Second World War have we found ourselves in such a dangerous decade.
Climate reporter°: Mr. Müller, the coalition agreement of the first red-green federal government was signed 25 years ago. This is linked to the Renewable Energy Act, the eco-tax reform and the introduction of emissions trading. How do you see the red-green legacy today – as an ecological initial spark or as a missed opportunity for transformation?
Michael Müller: I have never been as disappointed with environmental and nature conservation policy as I am today. How puffed out the Greens' cheeks were when the traffic light coalition started, but only a very thin breeze emerged.
It started with the dismantling of the Environment Ministry, which was downgraded to a marginal ministry by the Greens. Nor can it compensate for its weakening with important, long overdue programmatic contributions to the forgetfulness of nature, to the social classification of ecological modernization, to the ecological limits of growth, to the understanding of the social and natural environment, and other things.
The mess began with the division of climate policy, the heart of the Federal Environment Ministry in recent years, between three ministries. The result was a weakening of ecological policy rather than its strengthening.
I don't understand why the Ministry of the Environment has not been strengthened into a Ministry of Sustainability with extensive veto rights against unsustainable policies...
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Umwelthilfe | Climate protection | complain
MAKE PRESSURE!
Jürgen Resch wanted to protect nature from a young age. Today he is the best-known, but also the most endangered, environmental and climate protector in Germany, the Federal Managing Director of German Environmental Aid (DUH). A review by Udo E. Simonis
Now he is finally presenting his first book on environmental policy, a voluminous work about long-term and serious environmental damage and destruction, about defeats as well as successes in environmental protection.
The book begins with hopeful “words in advance”: with the story of an eleven-year-old student Marlene, who obliged the federal government through the Federal Constitutional Court to do more climate protection, with the young community service worker who discovered a bird die-off and who enforced the ban on a toxic pesticide, and with one initially a small environmental association that discovered the joint machinations of governments, authorities and powerful industries and was then able to stop some of them.
Jürgen Resch did not come up with these and many other examples himself, he has experienced them himself in more than 47 years as a nature, environmental, climate and consumer protector - and bases his structural optimism on them: “We as citizens are not powerless against political and economic decisions; “We can improve the world if we push together” (p.11). The consequence of this statement will be provided immediately: It is no longer enough to simply lead by example or to promote nature and climate protection with good arguments; We are more dependent than ever on enforcing law and order in court. This results in the decisive, current core sentence of the book, the author and its institutional home, the German Environmental Aid: “Don’t complain, but sue”...
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Migration policy | right-wing conservatives | rhetoric | Violence
Language in migration policy
The democratic center is verbally moving to the right - and that has consequences
“Physical violence”, “cutting social benefits”, deportations “on a large scale”: the demands regarding migration policy have become sharper – and are no longer just coming from right-wing conservative parties. Where does the rhetorical change come from? And what are the consequences?
Within just a few weeks, the political debate about how to deal with people fleeing to Germany has intensified immensely. Jens Spahn (CDU) wants “physical violence” against “irregular” migrants, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is calling for deportations “on a large scale” and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to cut social benefits for asylum seekers in order to mitigate “incentives”. . It is rhetoric that we are used to from the political right-wing spectrum. What kind of wind is suddenly blowing in the democratic center?
“The right-wing conservative discourse is increasingly beginning to determine the entire political spectrum and also the words with which people talk about the topic,” says Isabella Löhr, professor of 20th century international history at the Free University of Berlin, to the Editorial Network Germany (RND ). “We have a semantic shift towards the right in political discourse.”...
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Current news+
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War economy | War-weary | Arms industry
Are Habeck, Pistorius, Baerbock a...
… Trio infernale? No of course not. They always want to create good things.
I've just come from the garden, I watched a few birds hanging artistically in the bushes and stealing my raspberries, mean, because these late raspberries taste much more intense than the early ones, maybe I'll write to the spring raspberry fans with this assessment no matter what, I come into the apartment and turn on the radio and what do I hear?
War here, war there, the garden idyll is suddenly very far away, instead now very close in my ears are sentences from the Minister of Defense, who may soon be called the Minister of War again, but, stop!, I might really be writing myself off with that, words of that Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, SPD: “We have to become ready for war. We have to be defensive. And prepare the Bundeswehr and society for this.” Said the SPD politician recently on television.
My father was more than war-weary
Warworthy? One should not, says the young Green Foreign Minister, “get tired of war”. But I think back to my youth, to my father, who came home from the war with an injury. There was shrapnel traveling through his body, a word I didn't understand, but that piece of iron somewhere in my father's body forced him to scream in pain with every change in the weather. If there was a shot on TV or a gun was shown, he had to rush out of the room. Anyone who has ever been to war carries it with them forever. My father – dear Annalena Baerbock, he was more than tired of the war.
The 50s and early 60s of the last century were still post-war times. At Christmas, candles are put up in the windows of many houses for the displaced, lost and missing people. In our village, at the Vogel butcher, people almost greedily demand the particularly fatty cuts of pork. In my memory I only see gaunt people, warrior widows in their black clothes, I also see many cripples, injured, mutilated people, and in every train carriage there is a small sign asking that the space underneath be freed for war disabled people.
What are these memories about? They're just a nuisance today, something from the day before yesterday, because now there's no looking back, only the seemingly no-alternative, martial move forward, and so says the Green Vice Chancellor, a member of a party that has become great through the peace movement the course was set towards a war economy, very coolly and without receiving many objections: “If we take the turning point seriously, Germany must do more for its security. We will need a lot of money for the Bundeswehr for this.” And the bosses and insiders of the defense companies can hardly believe their luck and are popping the champagne corks. But they definitely won't be there where there's a real bang. Bet?
Then there is only one thing to do: say NO!
The images of war are omnipresent. But are they actually war images? You can see exploding bombs, burned-out tanks, destroyed houses. But you don't see the suffering, you don't see the horror. The mutilated. The burned ones. The tattered ones. Is that a coincidence? Consideration for the victims? Could it be that the brutality of war is so brutal that one hardly dares to think that too many people would then demand the sensible from their rulers and that too many of the possible victims would desert? With the cry: “Never again war!”
He was on the Russian front, he was a Hamburger, he died far too early, far too young from his war injuries, shortly before his death Wolfgang Borchert wrote his great poem “Then there is only one!” In it, annoying memory, it says : “You. Man at the machine and man in the workshop. If tomorrow they order you not to make water pipes or cooking pots - but steel helmets and machine guns. Then there is only one thing to do: say NO!”
And now I go into the garden, look at the last raspberries and hope that they haven't frozen. It's just too cold, everywhere.
| Current news+ | Background knowledge | Top |
Background knowledge
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The map of the nuclear world
War is a lucrative business...
The “Internal Search”
with the search terms
War economy | War-weary | Arms industry
brought the following results, among others:
July 18, 2023 - How Rheinmetall earned money from Russia's rearmament
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February 22, 2023 - "Not a single Ukrainian or Russian life can be sacrificed anymore"
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February 3, 2023 - War is Peace, Peace is War
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May 1918 - War-weary - that is the stupidest of all words that time has.
The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
Keyword = armaments industry
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Rüstungsindustrie
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The report of Statista
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus Group, BAE Systems, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman are among the world's leading aerospace and defense technology companies. The largest weapons manufacturers in terms of sales come from the United States of America as well as Russia, Germany and France.
In addition to military aviation, the naval sector and the area of land systems, important sub-areas of the armaments and defense industry also include intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance technologies as well as the cybersecurity sector...
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Wikipedia
The defense industry is the industry that produces equipment for the military. The core area is the production of weapons, mobile and stationary weapon systems and ammunition to fulfill sovereign security tasks. However, these only take up a small part of the total volume of goods. The far larger share, and the part of the industry referred to as the focus, goes back to the so-called extended area, such as communication or surveillance technologies, which are also used in the private sector, for example. B. used at airports...
The world's largest arms suppliers are the United States of America, followed by Russia, Germany, France, China and Great Britain. All of these countries have highly developed defense industries and are in competition with each other to develop new and more effective weapon systems. The numbers in the following table are from the 2016 SIPRI database and are rounded to billions of US dollars based on 1990 prices...
The term military-industrial complex (MIK) is used in socially critical analyzes to describe the close cooperation and mutual relationships between politicians, representatives of the military and representatives of the defense industry. In the USA, think tanks such as PNAC are considered a possible additional interest group involved...
Characteristics and characteristics
We speak of a military-industrial complex when phenomena of this kind occur in a society:
- strong lobbying work by representatives of the military industry,
- numerous personal contacts between representatives of the military, industry and politics,
- intensive exchange of personnel between the leading positions in the military, business and state administration, especially when representatives of the military or politics move to significantly better paid positions in this industry,
- intensive research in the area of innovative weapon systems, significantly supported by government contracts,
- targeted influence on democratic control bodies and public opinion through an exaggerated security ideology.
For Alex Roland, the F-35 stealth fighter project reflects the current state of the military-industrial complex in the USA, which he personally would prefer to call the “Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex”. Although the threat posed by drones, cyber warfare and military robots to national security is significantly greater, more money has flowed and continues to flow into the most expensive arms project of all time than into these 3 areas combined. Despite the explosion in costs and considerable doubts about its combat value, because the controversial stealth capability comes at the expense of operational readiness, speed, range, maneuverability and weaponry, the project is immune to cancellation due to the military-industrial complex.
YouTube
Keyword = armaments industry
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rüstungsindustrie
DW German - January 25, 2019 - 4:18
Armament - not an industry like any other
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ZDFinfo documentary - July 26, 2023 - 14:19 p.m
Turning point in the Bundeswehr? Bombs, tanks and problems
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Galileo | ProSieben - April 13, 2022 - 14:29 p.m
Morals don’t matter? A look into the weapons industry
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic
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