The US bought 416 tons of uranium from Russia in the first half of the year, more than double the amount for the same period in 2022 and the highest level since 2005, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing data from the US statistical service.

According to the report, Russia is supplying the US only with enriched uranium, a critical component for civil nuclear power generation.

RIA calculations show Washington paid $696.5 million for uranium deliveries from Russia, marking the highest value since 2002. Over the first half of the year, the cost of supplies increased by 2.5 times, and Russia’s share of American imports increased by 13 percentage points to 32%.

The US also significantly increased its purchases of uranium from the UK in the first half of this year, up 28% to $383.1 million, bringing it to just under 18% of all imports. Imports from France soared to $319 million (15% of US total imports), compared to $1.9 million for the same period in 2022.

Germany and Canada were also in the top five uranium suppliers to the US market, accounting for 13% and 11% of imports respectively.

According to a recent New York Times report, roughly a third of enriched uranium used in the US is imported from Russia. GHS Climate, a clean-energy consulting company, states that one out of every 20 American homes and businesses was powered by Russian uranium last year.

READ MORE: US still spending billions on Russian uranium – NYT

Nearly half of the world’s enriched uranium is produced in Russia, and US efforts to reduce its reliance on imports from the country have so far failed. American enrichment plants were shut down after the Cold War as it was significantly cheaper for importers to buy Russian uranium. Currently, only two US facilities – one in Ohio and the other in New Mexico – are licensed to produce high-grade nuclear fuel.

The US and the EU have sanctioned Russian oil, gas, and coal over the Ukraine conflict, but have continued to allow the purchase of enriched uranium from Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, as they race to cut reliance on fossil fuels.

https://www.rt.com/business/581755-us-doubles-russian-uranium-imports/

 

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By Mary Kostakidis

 

The morning of the ALP National Conference on 18 August, ABC online news led with two ‘Bad China’ stories. One about whether China is building an airstrip on a contested island, the other likely to cause great discomfort and anxiety to Australians because it showed the level of China’s spying on Australia via hundreds of satellites and Australia’s great disadvantage because we have no military satellites whatsoever.

Labor scrapped a Morrison government plan to develop our first 4 satellites fit for dual purpose – gathering both natural disaster and military data – along with a raft of other planned defence spending to create savings to pour into AUKUS.

The ABC report on Chinese spying during the recent joint military exercises generates the notion we are now on the back foot in the race for space as the ‘increasingly important domain for modern war-fighting operations across the globe’.

Curious then that no mention was made that the US has, not hundreds, but thousands of satellites monitoring eastern China and the South China Sea, collecting data on Chinese activity – information Australia would have access to via our 5 Eyes partnership, the biggest spy operation in the world.

What difference would 4 Australian satellites make?

Acquiring the satellites is both of practical and symbolic importance – the US is insisting its partners pull more weight in terms of funding the US war machine to enforce the Rules Based Order in a manner that both integrates all Defence procurement into that machine, but also guarantees the US control, and at the same time, with the assistance of the media, cements it as normal, because an enemy has been created from which only our alliance with the US can save us. Our acceptance of this as normal is where the current battle lines are drawn between the ALP Executive and growing parts of the Party’s membership.

The US doesn’t own all the satellites it controls. It can be mighty inconvenient if an owner steps in to exercise control, against US interests. The US can rely on Australia to never do an Elon Musk. The owner of Starlink drew the line at the satellites being used for military purposes in the Ukraine War, saying the service was intended to be used for communication purposes, not to start WW111.

Any Australian dual purpose satellites would be diverted at the drop of a hat according to US priorities – too bad if we are struggling with a natural disaster at the time. Of this we can be sure – our sovereignty has been relinquished. But, if there is comfort to be had, it is that we are members of a club of nations and outshone by Germany in its total capitulation and humiliation to US interests. A demonstration and a warning of how far the US will go in subordinating an ally to achieve its goals.

The mission Clinton Fernandes describes as ‘a full spectrum search for relevance to the US’ by Australia in his book Subimperial Power, is now more transparent than ever, and has enthusiastic bipartisan political support and a public largely convinced by the media its fear of China is warranted, though it is in fact our alliance with the US that is making us an enemy of China. China’s surveillance of joint military exercises conducted in preparation for war against China should surprise no one.

The effective monitoring of deep space can only take place in the southern hemisphere because of the earth’s tilted axis – hence Pine Gap has been hugely important. However new satellite technology has enabled many of Pine Gap’s functions to be carried out onboard satellites or in the US.

The war in Afghanistan gave Pine Gap renewed relevance, says Fernandes (p43, Subimperial Power), with the ‘Red Dot system’ which ‘integrates signals, imaging and all-source inputs in order to place a red dot on a computer display in a vehicle, alerting friendly forces to the existence of a possible IED (improvised explosive device) ahead.’ It has integrated Australia into US war fighting machinery since becoming operational in 1970.

However, new satellites with new capabilities, he says, need ‘greater space supporting infrastructure in Australia and a much larger analytical/interpretive effort at Pine Gap to keep Australia relevant – that means a greater and longer-term US presence (here)’.

Given Australia has agreed to AUKUS, the biggest transfer of wealth in our country’s history to another nation, as Bob Carr points out; and given that since the AUKUS deal more funds have been committed to integrating us into the US war machine with planes and missiles, if it pleases the US for Australia to spend public money on a few satellites to add to the thousands already operating, we will do so.

As deals struck at the recent Labor conference have shown, the government can buy off opposition to a dangerous alliance with jobs. Jobs are welcome, but should form part of government policy anyway. We should not have to exchange a few jobs for supporting the loss of Australian sovereignty and risking national security in the most fundamental and serious way – making the nation a US forward operating base and an increasingly likely nuclear target.

Jobs won’t help us if the US provokes a nuclear war with China.

https://johnmenadue.com/abc-shamelessly-spruiks-china-threat-stories-on-morning-of-alp-national-conference-aukus-debate/

 

 

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Canberra’s trade ties with Beijing can only return to normal if China removes restrictions it still has in place, Australia’s assistant minister for trade Tim Ayres has said. The sides are currently in talks over the issue, with Beijing having lifted tariffs on Australian barley imports earlier this month.

Tensions between the two countries have been growing since 2018, after Canberra banned Chinese vendors from its 5G rollout and blocked Chinese investment, citing national security grounds. The situation worsened in 2020 when Australia called for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. This triggered reprisals by Beijing, including anti-dumping duties on Australian wine and barley.

“That is a good outcome, but I want to see –and the Australian government wants to see– trade with China return to normal and to be stabilized across the board,” Ayres told CNBC on the sidelines of the B20 summit in New Delhi over the weekend. “Until we remove all of those impediments, it’s not possible to say that trade is back to normal,” he stated.

In 2020, Beijing gradually slapped import tariffs on some Australian goods, ranging from wine and red meat to lobsters and timber. Tariffs on Australian barley have been hiked by 80.5%, wiping out bilateral trade previously worth nearly $1 billion a year. In April, Australia agreed to “temporarily suspend” its World Trade Organization complaint against China and earlier this month Beijing lifted tariffs on Australian barley imports.

Now Canberra wants Beijing to drop tariffs on Australian wine imports that were introduced in March 2021, Ayres said.

READ MORE: China accuses Australia of ‘economic coercion’ amid escalating tensions

“It’s certainly not in the interests of Chinese business for these impediments to continue to be placed in front of a range of imports into China,” he said, adding “What business needs to see is confidence in the rules-based approach to trade,” and that the meeting ahead was “an opportunity to underscore the requirement for further progress.” 

The two countries in the Asia-Pacific have also seen tensions grow due to a range of other issues, including Taiwan, their trade dispute over coal exports, and Canberra’s trilateral AUKUS defense pact with the US and UK, which allows Australia obtain nuclear-powered submarines.

 

https://www.rt.com/business/581964-china-australia-trade-curbs/

 

 

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Muddled on the Middle Kingdom   By Geoff Raby

 

It is time for Anthony Albanese to begin to understand what it is we are balancing with China, and what a challenge that is going to be. That the prime minister has mostly, but not entirely, clarified his position on visiting China this year is therefore welcome. But his language around going still has the whiff of hedging.

Even to get this far he has had to thread a path through competing voices of advisers, some saying it is time to go while others wish he would never go.

He is to be congratulated for saying that meeting the leader of Australia’s largest trading partner, the world’s second-largest economy (at nominal exchange rates), and the region’s major power should not be just ‘‘transactional’’.

Those who would prefer him not to go would have made removal of the major problems in the bilateral relationship – unjustified unilateral trade measures and the citizens in detention – a high bar to any visit. By insisting these things should be fixed before a visit would probably ensure a visit would not occur.

Albanese, as a seasoned politician, however, is practised in the art of compromise. He understands that a bargaining chip is leverage until it is no longer. If it has no value to the other side, it is worthless. China was not prepared to ‘‘pay’’ for a visit by Albanese. It has little value to Beijing. The prime minister is going without preconditions.

The official program will depend in part on whether it is designated as a ‘‘state visit’’ or a ‘‘working visit’’. Some advisers will want a working visit, lest it seem as if there is too much pomp and ceremony.

If working level, the Australian public will be denied the spectacle of our prime minister wandering past perfectly turned-out soldiers at least 30 centimetres taller than him. In Germany, on a similar occasion recently, Albanese seems to have managed to get himself lost. No such mishap will occur in Beijing.

If the weather is fine, Albanese will notice that Beijing, or any other major Chinese city, is not the gagging, polluted environmental stew that many still think. It is an uncomfortable truth for comfortable middle-class folk that economic growth leads to better environmental outcomes, once incomes rise beyond a certain level.

Beijing’s improved air quality was helped by closing the massive Soviet-era Shougang steel mills in the city’s west, from where the prevailing winds come. The choice of location reflected Beijing’s fears of invasion from the east. In happier times in international relations, Beijing felt secure enough to shift Shougang to Caofeidian on the coast, so it could be more efficiently supplied by seaborne iron ore and coking coal from Australia.

Driving around, he’ll also see a European luxury car show in motion. He should keep an eye out for Barbie-pink Mercedes jeeps and Porsches, even before Barbie has been released. Less obvious is that about 40 per cent of new car sales are electric vehicles, topping the world. China is in the vanguard of renewable energy even as it consumes more coal.

But Albanese would do well to venture beyond the capital. He is a train buff. Since he last visited the country as transport minister, China has covered the country in high-speed trains. It now has more than twice the world’s total high-speed track. Recently, I watched live the Swans defeat the Suns on my laptop on the Beijing-Shanghai train at 350 kilometres an hour, as fast as F1 cars.

As the prime minister admires the skyscrapers, even in smaller cities, the bridges, immaculate six-lane highways, spaghetti-like intersections of high-speed train lines, and cranes across the horizon, he could reflect that much of this depends on Australian iron ore and coking coal, and much of Australia’s economic good fortune depends on sales to China.

When Albanese’s advisers are frothing about India as an economic alternative to China, he might also consider that China produces more than a billion tonnes of steel a year, compared with India’s 125 million tonnes, about where China was in the mid-1990s.

In Shanghai, with a stroll along the famous Bund, taking in the faithfully preserved relics of European colonial occupation, he could see with his own eyes what Walt Rostow called the Age of High Mass Consumption, but now in China on an unprecedented scale.

On the way out, his flight could stop in Shenzhen – a city that was no more than a fishing village on mud flats and peasant farms 40 years ago. He will see a city that looks and feels like Singapore on steroids. He would here glimpse the future of China. A quick lunch of superior seafood, and then he could take the suburban metro to downtown Hong Kong.

It would be a pity to miss Hong Kong, as so much has been said since the riots of 2019, including by Australia. He might be surprised about how little things have changed there, despite political freedoms and legal independence having been constrained.

As they say, travel broadens the mind. The prime minister has done a lot of grinning with world leaders for photo ops, been submerged by the British royal family, first in mourning and then in celebration of a new king of Australia, all managed so that no one can doubt we stand full square with the alliance, with US allies, and with anyone who might be useful in balancing China.

Historically, envoys from neighbouring states visiting Beijing with tribute often returned home with gifts greatly more valuable than those that were given. The ritual of the relationship is what mattered. It was form, courtesy and respect. It was not transactional. So, in going, the prime minister may well leave with his saddlebags full, and be a little more informed.

 

First published in the Financial Review eEdition August 29, 2023

https://johnmenadue.com/muddled-on-the-middle-kingdom/

 

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The large French concern Thales secretly handed over its new Australian-made assault rifles to the APU, Les Echos reports. For the company, Ukraine is an excellent testing ground where you can test weapons before showing them at exhibitions, the author of the article notes.

The French group Thales secretly handed over to Ukraine "a few" new ACAR assault rifles designed and manufactured in Australia.

The arsenal of the Ukrainian army may soon be replenished with a new basic weapon from a large French company: modern assault rifles of the Thales concern. According to our information, this group last month secretly supplied the APU with "a few" Australian ACAR combat rifles "for testing and evaluation."

"We are not talking about a contract or a sale," says a representative of Thales. "Therefore, we have not made any statements to date."

 Australian Army Rifle

Manufactured in Australia by a local subsidiary of Thales (Lithgow Arms), the ACAR rifle (from the Australian Combat Assault Rifle) is an improved model of the F-90, which was developed specifically for the Canberra Army in the early 2000s. Thales invested several million dollars in the creation of these weapons and the provision of the necessary production facilities with a clear desire to no longer be limited to the Australian market.

In 2015, Thales did not participate in the French army's tender for the replacement of the Famas rifle due to the fact that at that time it could not meet the technical requirements of the General Directorate of Armaments. The forces of Paris had to choose their new assault rifle from foreign manufacturers. The Famas was replaced by the German HK416-F submachine gun. That is why Thales is interested in using the combat experience of Ukraine before showing ACAR at upcoming weapons exhibitions.

 Ukraine is a testing ground for new weapons

The new Australian ACAR rifle should fill a gap in Thales' commercial range, in particular due to the greater versatility of ammunition. Various modifications of the weapon are designed to use ammunition of 5.56 caliber (NATO standard) and 7.62 mm, a new American cartridge of 6.8 mm caliber, as well as a large number of accessories (grenade launchers, laser sight, night vision goggles).

The ACAR combat rifle will not be the first novelty to be tested on the Ukrainian front. With the prolongation of the conflict, this country has become a testing ground for new weapons. In particular, Thales sold Kiev a copy of its newest mobile radar detection system GM200 in combination with an anti-aircraft system. The Group also participated in the introduction of a new secure communication system in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, combining all types of data, modeled on NATO.

https://vpk.name/en/759863_ukraine-has-become-a-testing-ground-for-the-new-australian-rifle.html

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.armyrecognition.com/defense_news_august_2023_global_security_army_

 

MEANWHILE:

Russian security forces have intercepted a Ukrainian commando team, seeking to conduct sabotage operations in Russia’s Bryansk Region. Two Ukrainian servicemen were killed in a firefight, and five were captured, including three who were injured, the report said.

The press service of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said the counter-sabotage operation took place on Wednesday, with the FSB working alongside the National Guard and Interior Ministry.

The Ukrainians were identified as members of Ukraine’s military intelligence and special operations command.

The FSB statement described them as “carrying an impressive arsenal,” including US-made automatic firearms equipped with silencers, powerful explosive devices, night vision gear and a large quantity of NATO-standard hand grenades and ammunition. A video released by the FSB showed the hardware laid out on the ground.

https://www.rt.com/russia/582124-fsb-ukrainian-commandos-bryansk/

 

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David Bradbury, lifetime war abolisher, wins award for Anti-AUKUS efforts

By Sandi Keane

 

The cracks in Labor ranks over AUKUS won’t be going away despite Albanese staring down dissenters at Labor’s national conference. A pitched battle over the choice of submarine base is guaranteed — and now we discover that Albanese has suffered the mother of all brainsnaps: Australia has agreed to set up a weapons-grade nuclear waste dump. At the heart of the resistance to this militarism has been David Bradbury’s documentary film The Road to War.

This week, Australia’s legendary political filmmaker, David Bradbury, achieved another media milestone with his much-lauded anti-AUKUS documentary, The Road to War (2023) winning the Lifetime War Abolisher of 2023 award. Adding to the list of International and Australian film awards including two Academy-award nominations (Frontline (1979) and Chile Hasta Quando? (1985), his latest documentary won the World BEYOND War’s Individual ‘Lifetime War Abolisher Award’ —named for David Hartsough, who co-founded World BEYOND War in Virginia, USA in 2014.

The creator of 26 documentary films, Bradbury advances our understanding of war, peace, international relations and peace activism. His films have been broadcast around the world on the BBC, PBS, ZDF (Germany), and TF1-France, as well as ABC, SBS and commercial television networks in Australia.

Bradbury is no ordinary film maker. Not for him the mercenary characters like Prigozhin lauded in Hollywood with their larger than life bravado, greed and murderous intent. When interviewed by P & I, he said:

“Peace activists operate out of a sense of ‘the Other’, the Greater Good for Humanity and ALL species on the planet and rarely given their moment ‘in the Sun’, whereas War and those who pursue it are, in some twisted way, elevated to Hero status.” 

Bradbury added:

“Those of us who work against the Grain, against the entrenched Conservatism and self interest of the ‘Capitalist’ press — the Fourth Estate who mostly, with some wonderful exceptions, do a miserable job in exposing the entrenched privilege of the Ruling Class — do our work for Peace tirelessly, without financial gain…”

Bradbury shoots his own footage, traveling widely, and seeking out people with uncomfortable truths to tell — sometimes at great risk. Bradbury has filmed in Iran during the final days of the Shah, in Nicaragua during the CIA-Contra war, and in El Salvador during the days of death squads during the early 1980s. His film on Pinochet’s Chile, Chile Hasta Quando? (1985) was nominated for an Academy Award. He has filmed independence struggles in East Timor and West Papua, and in India, China, and Nepal.

In The Road to War (2023), concern is raised among the Australian experts interviewed by Bradbury about Australia’s AUKUS commitment of hundreds of billions of dollars for new weaponry, nuclear propelled submarines and stealth bombers — to protect us against our biggest trading partner — China. Yes, China. The film shows why it is not in Australia’s, or the world’s interests to be dragged into another US-led war and brings into sharp focus that Australia is being set up as USA’s proxy:

“Basing US B52 and stealth bombers in Australia is all part of preparing Australia to be the protagonist on behalf of the United States in a war against China. If the US can’t get Taiwan to be the proxy or its patsy, it will be Australia,” warns former Australian ambassador to China and Iran, John Lander, in Bradbury’s film.

We all appreciate the Labor Government was still on its toddler legs when it signed the AUKUS agreement and had only 24 hours to decide — or be wedged on Defence by the Coalition in the 2019 federal election.

But the cracks in Labor ranks won’t be going away despite Albanese staring down dissenters at Labor’s national conference and enshrining the tripartite security pact in the party’s policy platform. A pitched battle over the choice of submarine base is guaranteed — and now we discover that Albanese has suffered the mother of all brainsnaps: Australia has agreed to set up a weapons-grade nuclear waste dump. According to the Fact Sheet: Trilateral Australia-UK-US Partnership on Nuclear-Powered Submarines:

“as part of this commitment to nuclear stewardship, Australia has committed to managing all radioactive waste generated through its nuclear-powered submarine program, including spent nuclear fuel, in Australia.”

Who knew about that? Hats off to Crikey for disclosing the secret no-one is talking about. Where was the spirited public debate about which port such terrorist “bait” will be shipped to, how it would be transported? By truck? Train? Where to? Given the Coalition has had a nuclear waste dump on the back burner for decades, Maralinga is the likely bet.

The lack of debate now resembles the barely reported signing of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership by Prime Minister John Howard on 5 September 2007. Had the Coalition won the 2007 election on 24 November, Australia was on track to become a global nuclear waste dump. Did anyone know about it then? Like now, it went under the media radar. MSM were MIA.

Back then, Howard had control of both houses. All the ducks were in a row. The Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2005 had passed effectively transferring power to the Minister to nominate nuclear waste dump sites. The ANSTO Bill passed around the same time giving ANSTO the power to accept waste generated outside Australia.

Maralinga in South Australia seemed to tick all the boxes. But they forgot that nuclear waste produces hydrogen when it eventually breaks down and Maralinga is sited right on top of the Great Artesian Basin.

John Large, whose company, Large & Associates handled the salvage of the stricken Russian U-sub, Kursk, told Julie Macken in an interview in New Matilda on 15 November 2006 that when the waste breaks down, it produces hydrogen and “there is simply no way, over a 100,000 year time scale, to stop the fuel leaking out.”

Large was shocked to hear that Australia wanted to go down this path.

As Bradbury sums up in his acceptance speech:

“Neither government of either stripe have learnt anything from being dragged into America’s wars of folly since World War II — Korea, Vietnam, two disastrous wars in Iraq and America’s failed 20 year war in Afghanistan which ripped that country apart, only to see the Taliban warlords return the country and its female population to feudal times.”
He continues:

“Each of us, each of you have the option of either sitting back and letting our leaders take us into a nuclear war which will end life on this planet as we’ve always known it. Or we can rally and come together and support each other in communities across the world to say, WAR NO MORE. EARTH CARE… NOT WARFARE.”

The 2023 War Abolisher Awards and the video of David Bradbury’s acceptance speech can be accessed on the website at War Abolisher Awards.

War Abolisher awardees are honoured for their body of work directly supporting one or more of the three segments of World BEYOND War’s strategy for reducing and eliminating war as outlined in the book A Global Security System, An Alternative to War. They are: Demilitarising Security, Managing Conflict Without Violence, and Building a Culture of Peace.

 

https://johnmenadue.com/david-bradbury-lifetime-war-abolisher-wins-award-for-anti-aukus-efforts-pic/

 

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