Friday, March 17, 2023

400k gallons of radioactive water leaked from Minnesota nuclear plant

***Massive radioactive leak at Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear plant***

At least 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked from a Minnesota nuclear power plant in November — but officials only publicly revealed the spill on Thursday.

Minnesota regulators shared the disconcerting development on Thursday and said they have been monitoring the cleanup from Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant.

While the energy company reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last fall, state officials said they waited to tell the public until they had more information.

The four-month delay in announcing the leak to the public sparked an alarm over public safety and transparency. However, industry experts on Friday said there was never a public health threat as the radioactive water never reached a threshold that would have required public notification.

Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant. — The delay in notifying the public about the November leak at Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant raised questions about public safety and transparency.

“This is something that we struggle with because there is such concern with anything that is nuclear,” said Victoria Mitlyng, a spokesperson with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “The concern is very, very understandable. That is why I want to make extra clear the fact that the public in Minnesota, the people, the community near the plant, was not and is not in danger.”

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty said Thursday that officials knew that one of the plant’s monitoring wells contained tritium in November but “Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location.

“Now that we have all the information about where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater and that contaminated groundwater had moved beyond the original location, we are sharing this information,” Rafferty said.

Xcel said the leak came from a pipe between two buildings.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the environment and is a common by-product of nuclear plant operations. It emits a weak form of beta radiation that does not travel very far and cannot penetrate human skin, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The chemical only poses a health risk to people who consumed a large amount of tritium, according to Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists. The risk is contained if the plume stays on the company’s site, which Xcel Energy and Minnesota officials said is the case.

Lyman said that if officials are certain that it did not leave the confines of the powerplant, people should not be concerned about their health or safety.

Cooling towers release heat generated by boiling water reactors at Xcel Energy's Nuclear Generating Plant on Oct. 2, 2019, in Monticello, Minn. Minnesota — Cooling towers release heat generated by boiling water reactors at Xcel Energy’s Nuclear Generating Plant on Oct. 2, 2019, in Monticello, Minnesota.

“Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment,” the Minneapolis-based utility said in a statement.

Mitlyng said nuclear plants are not required to report all tritium leaks to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, however Xcel had agreed to report certain leaks to the state, who, in turn, shares it with the commission.

On November 23, the commission posted a notification about the leak on its website, which it classified as a nonemergency and said was under investigation. No other notification was ever given to the public until Thursday.

There is no way for the tritium to get into the drinking water, Mitlyng said. The powerplanthas groundwater monitoring wells and plant employees regularly track the progress of contaminants by looking at which wells detect higher amounts.

Xcel said it has recovered about 25% of the spilled tritium so far, as Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors are on site too, monitoring the response.

The company said it plans to install a permanent solution this spring.

With Post wires

Millions of dead fish wash up near Australian town

Millions of fish have died in a New South Wales river. Photo: Screenshot / ABC News

Residents in a regional Australian town have woken to find millions of dead fish in their river.

The large-scale fish deaths were first reported on Friday morning in the New South Wales' (NSW) town of Menindee.

The state's river authority said it was a result of an ongoing heatwave affecting the Darling-Baaka river.

Locals say it is the largest fish death event to hit the town, that experienced another significant mass death of fish just three years ago.

In a Facebook post, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said the heatwave put "further stress on a system that has experienced extreme conditions from wide-scale flooding".

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Speaking to the BBC, Menindee resident Graeme McCrabb described the deaths as "surreal".

"It'll probably be a bit more confronting today," he said, as he warned that locals were anticipating that even more fish would die as the already decomposing fish sucked more oxygen from the water.

Around 500 people live in the town in far-west New South Wales. The Darling-Baaka river is a part of the Murray Darling Basin, Australia's largest river system.

The NSW DPI also said that the fish deaths were "distressing to the local community", a sentiment echoed by McCrabb.

"You can just imagine leaving a fish in your kitchen to rot with all the doors shut and no air conditioner, and we've got millions of them."

The temperature in Menindee was expected to reach 41C on Saturday.

He added that locals in the regional town rely on the Darling-Baaka for water supplies, "we use the river water for washing and showering in so people won't be able to use that water for those basic needs again," he said.

"Over time those people won't be able to access that water for domestic use which is just shameful".

This week's fish deaths throws a light on the troubles facing the Murray Darling Basin. Drought and increased human use has impacted the health of the Murray Darling ecosystem.

The Murray Darling Basin authority said agriculture, industries and communities have used water from the river system which has resulted in less water flowing through the river.

It also said the Basin is prone to extreme weather events and has a highly variable climate that makes it vulnerable to both fires and droughts.

In 2012, a plan worth A$13 billion was implemented to try and stop the river from drying up and returning it to a healthier level.

The NSW DPI said it will work with federal agencies to respond to the latest incident, and to find the underlying causes of the deaths.

- BBC

Rolls-Royce to develop nuclear reactor to power UK base on the Moon

By Jacqueline Howard in London with wires

5 hours ago

Rolls-Royce released this concept image of a "space flower Moon micro reactor".(Supplied: Rolls-Royce)

The UK's Space Agency (UKSA) has commissioned Rolls-Royce to develop nuclear reactors that could power a base on the Moon.

Rolls-Royce was awarded £2.9 million ($5.26 million) to fund research into developing nuclear power that would operate in the desolate, zero-gravity environment.

The company's research centres around the concept of a micro-reactor, a portable power source that could operate in any environment.

The lunar modular reactor would power space missions, as well as support humans living and working on the Moon.

"This innovative research by Rolls-Royce could lay the groundwork for powering continuous human presence on the Moon, while enhancing the wider UK space sector, creating jobs and generating further investment," said UKSA chief executive Dr Paul Bate.

UK Science Minister George Freeman said, "Space exploration is the ultimate laboratory for so many of the transformational technologies we need on Earth: from materials to robotics, nutrition, clean-tech and much more.

"As we prepare to see humans return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we are backing exciting research like this lunar modular reactor with Rolls-Royce to pioneer new power sources for a lunar base."

Rolls Royce said it plans to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon before 2030.

An astronaut in a white space suit looks across a dusty, grey plain where white pods link by tunnels — It's hoped the nuclear reactors could power a base on the Moon that would support the life of scientists conducting research in space.(Supplied: Rolls-Royce)

The company, best known to the average person for high-end cars, also operates in air and sea technologies.

Rolls-Royce will be fitting the newly announced Australian AUKUS submarines with nuclear propulsion systems.

Earlier this week, the UK government moved to reclass nuclear power as an 'environmentally sustainable' power source.

Britain has a number of ageing nuclear power stations, with all but one set to be decommissioned by 2028.

The change in classification would make it easier to green-light new developments to modernise the UK's power base.

A week of new space technologies

On Tuesday, the UK government awarded funding to Open Universities researchers to develop construction material out of resources on the Moon.

The concept being pursued by scientists involves melting down the soils that naturally make up the Moon's surface and 3D printing the substance into a concrete-like substance that can be built with.

NASA on Wednesday unveiled the first prototype for a newly designed next-generation spacesuit.

a dark grey space suit has pops of orange and blue on the shoulders and chest. — The grey is an outer layer — the true suit will be white, but the design is a closely guarded secret.(Supplied: Axiom)

Named the "Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit," or AxEMU for short, the new suits are more streamlined and flexible than the old Apollo get-ups, with greater range of motion and variability in size and fit.

They are designed to fit a broad range of potential wearers, accommodating at least 90 per cent of the US male and female population, NASA said. They also will incorporate advances in life-support systems, pressure garments and avionics.

The precise look of the suits, however, remained a closely guarded trade secret. Those on display came with an outer layer that was charcoal grey with dashes of orange and blue and Axiom's logo on the chest — intended to obscure Axiom's proprietary outer fabric design.

But the company said the suits to be worn on the lunar south pole by astronauts will be white because that is the best colour to reflect the harsh sunlight on the moon's surface and protect the wearer from extreme heat.

ABC/ Reuters

If we invest in nuclear power, what do we do with the waste?

COMRADES IN ARMS MILITARY JUNTA'S

Facebook posts falsely claim Thai army chief 'declared war on Myanmar'

AFP Thailand

Published on Friday 17 March 2023

Burmese-language posts viewed thousands of times on Facebook are falsely claiming that the head of Thailand's army has "declared war on Myanmar". They feature videos with the same misleading thumbnail that claims he warned the Thai army would seize Myanmar's Karen state, which borders Thailand. But the army chief shown in the videos retired in 2020, and the Thai army told AFP the claim is false.

"If the Myanmar military keeps killing civilians, Thailand will completely seize Karen state. The Thai army chief has declared war on Myanmar," reads Burmese-language text on the thumbnail of a video posted on Facebook here on February 24, 2023.

Myanmar's Karen state, which borders Thailand, has long seen heavy fighting between Myanmar's military and local rebel groups and the violence has worsened since the army seized control of the country in a 2021 coup..

The video, which has been viewed more than 20,000 times, is captioned: "Cannot stand seeing Karen people suffer from war anymore."

Its thumbnail includes photos of Apirat Kongsompong, a former Thai army chief, and Myanmar general Min Aung Hlaing, who has ruled the country since 2021.

A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on March 13, 2023

The same misleading thumbnail was also used for videos posted elsewhere on Facebook here and here.

The false claim in the thumbnail, however, is completely different to the content of the video.

The public relations team for Thailand's army also told AFP on March 10 that assertions about a war or seizing Karen state are "fake news".
Ex-army chief

The video itself addresses a range of geopolitical issues from the fighting in Myanmar to the war in Ukraine.

It carries accurate Burmese-language narration and says the Thai army has set up "safe zones" for Myanmar refugees where they can receive shelter, security and humanitarian assistance.

According to monitoring group ACAPS, camps in Thailand are housing more than 90,000 refugees along the Thailand-Myanmar border, with over 80 percent of them from Karen state.

This development has been reported by credible media outlets including the Bangkok Post and Thai-language sites The Reporters and Naewna.

When the video narrator mentions the safe zones for Myanmar refugees at the one-minute mark, a still image of former Thai army chief Apirat Kongsompong is shown.

The same photo of Apirat can be found here in AFP’s archive. It shows him attending an Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference (IPACC) in Bangkok on September 9, 2019.

Apirat retired from the position in 2020.

According to the Bangkok Post, he has since been appointed by Thailand's king as vice-chamberlain of the Bureau of the Royal Household.

The current Thai army chief is General Narongpan Jitkaewtae, who has been in the position since September 2020.

Below is a comparison between former chief Apirat (left) and the current army head, Narongpan (right):

Former Thai army chief Apirat Kongsompong (left) and the current head Narongpan Jitkaewtae (right)
Unrelated video content

The rest of the video is made up of an assortment of still images which also do not support the claims made in the thumbnail.

Photos of a Thai armoured vehicle patrolling the border and a Myanmar military truck in the city of Taungoo appear while the video's narrator is talking about the Thai army setting up safe zones for Myanmar refugees at the 24-second mark.

The image of the armoured vehicle was used in an article by Thailand's Nation TV, while the Myanmar military truck picture was used in an article by Myanmar Now.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the images as they were used in video in the false post (left) and as they appear in the Nation TV and Myanmar Now articles (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the images as they were used in video in the false post (left) and as they appear in the Nation TV and Myanmar Now articles (right)

When the narrator speaks about China abstaining as the United Nations voted to demand Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine at the two-minute 35-second mark, a photo of China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian is shown.

The photo was used on the Chinese foreign ministry website.

When the narrator refers to a speech by Myanmar military chief Min Aung Hlaing during a meeting in Naypyidaw to mark the second anniversary of the 2021 coup at the two-minute 58-second mark, an image of a Russian airbase in Syria is shown.

The photo was used in an article by Syria's North Press Agency.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the images used in the video in the false post (left) and the photos as they were used on the Chinese foreign ministry website and by Syria's North Press Agency (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the images used in the video in the false post (left) and the photos as they were used on the Chinese foreign ministry website and by Syria's North Press Agency (right)

AFP Thailand

All articles

DOJ looking into TikTok owner over surveillance of journalists: reports

BY JARED GANS - 03/17/23

Associated Press-Kiichiro Sato

The Justice Department (DOJ) is investigating the Chinese company that owns the video-sharing platform TikTok over the potential surveillance of journalists who cover technology, multiple outlets reported Friday.

Three people familiar with the matter told The New York Times that the DOJ is investigating the company’s surveillance of U.S. citizens broadly, too. The Times reported that the probe seems to be related to the admission from ByteDance, which owns TikTok, in December that some of its employees inappropriately gained access to some U.S. citizens’ user data.

Internal emails that the Times obtained showed the company conducted an internal investigation and found employees gained access to data from two journalists and people associated with them. Forbes reported following the Times’s report that two additional journalists that work for the outlet were also tracked.

The employees were working as part of a monitoring program to try to find the source of leaks. All four employees involved in obtaining the data were fired.

A person with knowledge of the situation told the Times for its Friday report that the DOJ’s criminal division, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia are conducting the investigation.

A DOJ spokesperson told the Times that they had no comment on the report.

A spokesperson for TikTok referred the Times to ByteDance for questions.

A ByteDance spokesperson told The Hill that the company “strongly” condemns the actions of the employees who obtained the data on the journalists and are no longer working for the company.

“Our internal investigation is still ongoing, and we will cooperate with any official investigations when brought to us,” they said.

Forbes also confirmed the investigation before the Times report. What Xi and Putin want to gain from their joint meeting GOP hopes energy bill hits Biden, lays marker on future negotiations

The Biden administration has recently been increasing pressure on TikTok following criticism of the app over concerns about the security of its U.S. users’ data on a platform run by a Chinese company. Critics have expressed worries that the data could be obtained by the Chinese government, while TikTok has insisted that the data is not at risk.

The administration has told ByteDance that it must sell its stake in TikTok or the app could possibly be banned in the country. The app has been banned on devices owned by the federal government and more than two dozen state governments amid the backlash.

Legislation has also been introduced in Congress to ban the app in the country entirely.

New Zealand Bans Lawmakers From Using TikTok In Parliament, Why Are Governments Banning TikTok?

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. This has led to fears that Chinese government, which has unrestrained control over China, could access users data and misuse it in strategic competition with the West.

TikTok is under the scanner in several countries (Representative image)

UPDATED: 17 MAR 2023

New Zealand lawmakers and Parliamentary staff cannot use Chinese app TikTok on their official phones, said officials on Friday.

The New Zealand TikTok ban will come into effect at the end of the month. The ban follows similar bans in the United Kingdom, United States, and India.

In some countries, including in the United States, broader restrictions, regulations, and even a potential ban on TikTok are under consideration.

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However, New Zealand's ban will apply only to about 500 people in the parliamentary complex, not to all government workers like bans in the United States and UK. Other New Zealand agencies could decide later to impose their own bans.

Here we explain what's TikTok, what are the concerns around it that are leading to such bans, and what the New Zealand government has said.

What's TikTok, how it works?

TikTok is a social media app owned and operated by Chinese company ByteDance. It's installed on mobile phones.

TikTok features 15-second videos along with chat and search functions that make emergence of trends and possibility of going viral high. It also allows for filters and music to be added to the videos. It became very popular primarily in young adults in several countries.

Considering TikTok's popularity, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube also incorporated the short video format into their interface. While Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram call such videos Reels, YouTube calls them Shorts.

However, there are security concerns over TikTok. These concerns related to the design of the app as well as its Chinese ownerships.

Security concerns over TikTok

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Considering the fact there is a blurry line between state and public enterprise in China and there is no check and balance on the ruling Commuist Party of China's (CPC) powers, there are fears China could misuse TikTok as it competes with the United States and the West.

Global concern about TikTok come after warnings by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies that ByteDance could share TikTok user data —such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers— with China's authoritarian government.

Besides knowing user preferences and behaviour patterns of users as well as societies, TikTok collects lot of data, such as:

All TikTok videos you watch
All of your messages as messages are not encrypted
Your country location, IP address, and device type

Cyber-security company Kaspersky notes TikTok also collects the following information with permission:

Your exact location
Your phone’s contacts and other social network connections
Your age and phone number
Payment information

While most social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram collect such data, there are key differences that raise concerns over TikTok. Firstly, unlike Meta-owned Instagram or WhatsApp, TikTok chats are not end-to-end encrypted. Second, Meta and others are based in free countries like the United States where there are checks and balances and where the government does not control private companies or accesses their data.

The potential access and misuse of US users' data by Chinese government is a concern. If Chinese government accesses US users' data, then it can study behaviour patterns and flood the platform with targeted content to influence US behaviour and even meddle elections just like Russia was accused of doing in 2016 presidential election that Donald Trump won.

Kaspersky notes that TikTok does not use two-factor authorisation which makes it vulnerable to cyber attacks.

"One of the less-discussed TikTok security issues is the absence of two-factor authentication...Single-factor authentication is not uncommon on social platforms. Coupled with a weak password, this creates a possible security issue as it can lead to phishing or ransomware attacks, among other threats. Many social media platforms now offer two-factor authentication," notes Kaspersky.

It is out of these fears of potential Chinese control and subsequent misuse of it by Chinese government that there are concerns over TikTok. Similar concerns don't exist for Facebook or Instagram as these are platforms based in free countries with robust rules and regulations and are not prone to state control. The same cannot be said about China where lines between private and state enterprises is blurry and there are no checks and balances on Communist Party's authority.
New Zealand government on TikTok ban

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he didn't have TikTok on his phone.

He said, "I'm not that hip and trendy."

The New Zealand move came on the advice of government cybersecurity experts, said Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero. He said the app would be removed from all devices with access to the parliamentary network, although officials could make special arrangements for anybody who needed TikTok to perform their democratic duties.

Gonzalez-Montero, "This decision has been made based on our own experts' analysis and following discussion with our colleagues across government and internationally...Based on this information, the service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand parliamentary environment."

Hipkins said cybersecurity advice came from New Zealand's intelligence agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau. He said New Zealand didn't take a blanket approach to all government workers, and it would be up to each department or agency to make cybersecurity decisions.

(With AP inputs)

Knight Ridder: How a small team of US journalists got it right on Iraq

Twenty years after the US invasion of Iraq, the reporting team at Knight Ridder shares how they debunked the Bush administration's relentless march to war

An anti-war placard made from a collage of newspaper clippings during a rally in Bangalore on 27 February 2003 (AFP)

ByUmar A Farooq in
Washington
Published date: 17 March 2023

In the months leading up to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the American media landscape was awash with false reports linking Saddam Hussein to weapons of mass destruction.

That claim, like much of the Bush administration's justifications for the Iraq war, often went unchecked by the overwhelming majority of media organisations.

Except for one newspaper company.

The team covering Washington for Knight Ridder, a media company that merged with McClatchy in 2006, published dozens of articles in several newspapers criticising the intelligence being cited by mainstream US media at the time.

How Bush and Blair plotted war in Iraq: Read the secret memo in fullRead More »

While their reporting couldn't sway public opinion against the invasion of Iraq, twenty years later, the reporters and editors are the subject of the Hollywood-produced documentary, Shock and Awe, directed by Rob Reiner, which chronicles the story of Knight Ridder's coverage.

"I don't want to say [our reporting] brought me satisfaction. It didn't. Because we still invaded. The cost, in lives and money, is just astronomical and we're still paying for it. We're still paying for the consequences of this invasion," said Jonathan Landay, one of the reporters who led Knight Ridder's coverage on Iraq.

Nor did their work strike a serious conversation in the US Congress about the war.

The 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed through the House and Senate with little difficulty.

"Our job isn't to stop wars or to start wars, or to set American foreign policy. But I'll forever be disappointed that our reporting did not stir a real critical debate in Congress," said Warren Strobel, another Knight Ridder reporter who led their Iraq coverage.

Since the invasion in 2003, Brown University's Costs of War project estimates the direct death toll in Iraq, and later in Syria, to be between 550,000 to 580,000 people.
Knight Ridder news

Knight Ridder's coverage in the lead-up to the Iraq war was led by John Walcott, Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel, and Joe Galloway, who passed away in August 2021.

Walcott, who served as the Washington news editor and later bureau chief from 1999-2006, said many of the towns and cities in the US where Knight Ridder had a strong readership were military towns.

As a result, their outlook on news coverage related to wars can be summed up in a line Walcott stated in the film Shock and Awe, which Walcott, Strobel, and Landay said was based on a real conversation in the newsroom.

"We don't write for people who send other people's kids to war. We write for people whose kids get sent to war," Walcott, played by Reiner, was depicted as saying.

Their coverage exposed holes in the US intelligence against Iraq's then-leader Saddam Hussein as early as 2001.

'We don't write for people who send other people's kids to war. We write for people whose kids get sent to war'
- John Walcott, Washington editor at Knight Ridder

"Very soon after the 9/11 attacks, I found out that the Bush administration was considering not just Afghanistan, but also looking at Iraq in terms of military and diplomatic options," Strobel said.

"This is long before they started making the case for war, but just the very fact that they were considering Iraq as a potential target made no sense to me."

What set them apart, according to Walcott, was that the reporters had an extensive network of sources inside the lower and mid-levels of the US military and intelligence apparatus. The links date back to the days of the Vietnam War, according to Walcott.

So rather than relying on the official line toed by top American officials, like other newspapers were doing at the time, Landay, Strobel, and Galloway were able to speak with officials that were more insulated from the politics of national security.

"The value of a source is more often inversely proportional to their rank, rather than directly proportional. The higher you go up the ladder, the more politicised the sources become, understandably so - their job is sales, not research," Walcott said.

"I think there were a lot of reporters who liked to run in those circles. They want to be invited to the right parties. They really want to be part of the first estate, not stand outside and be part of the fourth estate."

This was a part of the problem, Walcott noted. Much of the press corps in Washington at the time was relying on high-level officials in the Bush administration, and failed to push back against their claims or even at times to fact-check.

Debunking intelligence

Between 2001 and 2004, the team of Walcott, Strobel, Landay and Galloway published more than 80 stories related to faulty intelligence on Iraq. The articles are currently available at McClatchy (under a paywall).

The reports included debunking the infamous aluminium tubes intel, in which the Bush administration had stated that Hussein was purchasing thousands of aluminium tubes for the purposes of creating centrifuges and ultimately a nuclear weapon.

Landay wrote a story citing a CIA report that disputed this and instead said the aluminium tubes were likely meant for conventional weapons, not a nuclear bomb.

Landay said he had several favourite stories from that time, including one revealing how the Iraqi National Congress (INC), an Iraqi exiled group, fed false reports and intelligence to numerous western newspapers.

One such report was published by the New York Times and was based on an interview with an Iraqi defector who claimed he had visited 20 sites in Iraq associated with a biological weapons programme, adding that there were labs under two presidential sites in residential areas.

9/11 attacks 20 years on: How the 'war on terror' turned full circle

Read More »

"Who puts a bioweapons lab under their home?" Landay wondered when he saw that report.

It turned out that the defector was coached into saying these things and was even trained to pass a polygraph lie detector test.

"I won't even call it intelligence because it wasn't intelligence. And this stuff was leaked deliberately to The New York Times and other news organisations by an administration that was eager to gin up public support for an invasion," Landay said of the information fed to both US officials and the news media by the INC.

One of Strobel's favourite reports was a story he did with Walcott in February 2002, citing several officials that said Bush had decided "Saddam had to go".

"That story got a lot of attention. We got angry emails from people saying we've given away the president's plans and put American lives at risk, which of course is ridiculous. I'm proud of that story," Strobel said.

By the end of 2002 alone, the team had published more than a dozen stories pushing back against the faulty intelligence being used to justify the war.

"One by one, almost every argument they made to justify invading Iraq just either fell apart or didn't hold water," Walcott said.

Knight Ridder was one of the largest newspaper companies in the US during the early 2000s (AFP/File photo)

Yet even though they had done intense, well-researched stories that bucked the mainstream media's coverage, they at times struggled to have their stories read by the public.

Some of their own newspapers wouldn't publish their stories, citing that the information they had wasn't in The New York Times or the Washington Post.

"We probably had greater resources than anyone else. What we didn't have the ability to do - and it's probably right that we didn't - is to tell the newspapers what to print. And so there was a constant struggle going on with newspapers wanting to run with the New York Times," Walcott said.

"There was one editor's meeting I remember at San Jose, when the editor of a fairly prominent newspaper said 'that's the New York Times'," the editor recalled. "'We have to run that'."

The New York Times did get it wrong, and on 26 May 2004, the editorial page published a note to editors, in which it outlined in detail the various stories that were "not as rigorous as it should have been".

Middle East Eye reached out to The New York Times for an interview regarding its coverage leading up to the Iraq War, but the newspaper said no one was available for an interview and referred to its 2004 editor's note.
Incredibly lonely

This period in time was "incredibly lonely", as both Strobel and Landay described it.

"As journalists, you want to be out there in front with a scoop or with a story or with a fresh take on a story," Strobel said.

"But you also want to look behind you and see that others are racing to catch up. We looked behind us and nobody was racing to catch up."

Landay recalled that sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night wondering whether what he was reporting was right.

'Why isn't anyone else reporting what we're reporting?'
- Jonathan Landay, reporter at Knight Ridder

"Are we accurate? Why isn't anyone else reporting what we're reporting?" he wondered on those nights.

Few voices in Washington, at the time, were critical of the war, and several figures in the mainstream media who were critical found themselves no longer employed.

There were some people in the administration as well as members of the press, however, that were supporting their work and cheering them on, albeit in private.

"The rest of the press mostly left us alone. There were some people at other news organisations who quietly cheered us on because their organisations weren't doing what we were doing," Walcott added.

But aside from the silent support, they received a lot of hate, and their reporting had also led to a death threat that was sent to the newsroom, which Landay said didn't do anything to stop their work.

"That really never caused us to pause or dissuaded us from pursuing the journalism that we did, it was journalism. It was our job," Landay said.

'Just do journalism'

Sitting in the Edward B Bunn Intercultural Center at Georgetown University in Washington, Walcott said that he has very few regrets from his time covering the lead-up to the war.

Looking back at his time at Knight Ridder, Walcott said his only regret was not getting to break the story of Curveball, the name given to a now-discredited Iraqi defector who had provided information that was the basis for Bush's claims that Hussein "built a fleet of trucks and railroad cars to produce anthrax and other deadly germs".

He continues to teach at Georgetown and has assigned his students this semester to watch the 2017 film Shock and Awe.

Iraq war architect Ahmed Chalabi dies aged 71

Read More »

Since his team's coverage of Iraq in the early 2000s, Knight Ridder has been bought by the publishing company McClatchy. Walcott went on to work for McClatchy for a number of years before moving on to other news companies.

Landay stayed on at McClatchy for nearly a decade before moving to Reuters, where he works in a similar role as national security correspondent. Stroebel is now at the Wall Street Journal, where he is a national security reporter. Galloway died on 18 August 2021.

Besides The New York Times' editor's note in 2004, there has been little public apology from American media for their coverage leading up to the Iraq War.

Walcott noted that Knight Ridder's own newspapers haven't issued any apology and he wasn't expecting them to make one anytime soon.

"The New York Times to its credit, apologised. But I don't recall any of our newspapers apologising to me or anyone else. That would be painful, I understand."

The three journalists have stayed in touch throughout the years, and Strobel and Landay continue to work in the field of national security reporting, where they say that the lessons of the Iraq war coverage are still relevant today.

"A national crisis is no time to lose your head or lose your bearings," said Strobel.

Strobel noted that reporters should continue to be skeptical, pointing to today's cases of fear over a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, as well as the reports of Iran's nuclear programme.

"Just do journalism. Ask the right questions. Don't accept what the government tells you at face value, which is what was happening on the part of virtually all of the media in the run-up to the war in Iraq," said Landay.

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Detroit customs officials find 6 live Giant African Snails in suitcase at airport

The Giant African Snails are meant to be eaten and are even kept as pets in some countries

By Louis Casiano | Fox News

Border officials seized six live Giant African Snails inside a suitcase belonging to a traveler who traveled from Africa to Detroit, authorities said Friday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) found the snails at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. They were found in the suitcase of a traveler who had just arrived from Ghana.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials found six Giant African Snails inside a suitcase in Detroit belonging to a traveler who had arrived from Ghana. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

"Our CBP officers and agriculture specialists work diligently to target, detect, and intercept potential threats before they have a chance to do harm to U.S. interests," said Port Director Robert Larkin. "The discovery of this highly invasive pest truly benefits the health and well-being of the American people."

The snails were meant to be eaten, authorities aid. They pose health risks to humans and the environment.

The Giant African Snails can carry a parasitic nematode that can lead to meningitis in humans. They can also eat at least 500 different types of plants, along with plaster and stucco, meaning they can cause significant damage to structures and ecosystems.

They are prohibited in the United States and are popular for consumption and are even kept as pets in some countries.

Half of bottled water sales enough to provide safe tap water to all: UN report

CGTN

Environment 17-Mar-2023

Half of the money spent globally on bottled water, sales of which have exploded in recent decades, would be enough to provide universal access to clean drinking water from taps, according to a UN study released Thursday.

A shift in drinking habits away from bottled water would also lead to a big drop in plastics waste, as an estimated 85 percent of bottles end up in landfills, the report says.

However, the study's Canada-based authors flag that a misconception around the safety of both tap and bottled water plays a major role in individuals' preferences.

"The perception is that bottled water is the healthiest option," lead author Zeineb Bouhlel said.

"But we've shown that this is not necessarily the case, and people are paying a lot more for bottled water, from 150 to 1,000 times higher than for a liter of tap water," she said.

According to the study, contaminants have been found in hundreds of bottled water brands in more than 40 countries, often exceeding local or global standards.

Over the past decade, global bottled water sales jumped 73 percent to almost $270 billion and 350 billion liters.

Some 600 billion plastic bottles are produced each year, amounting to approximately 25 million tonnes of plastic waste.

In the Global North, consumers tend to buy bottled water because of its portability and a perception it is healthier and tastier than tap water, whereas in the Global South sales are usually spurred by a lack of reliable public water supplies.

Drinking water. /CFP

The report notes that the bottled water industry is mostly unregulated, as policymakers have been unable to keep pace with its rapid expansion.

This has brought risks such as "uncontrolled groundwater withdrawal for bottling," which could eventually lead to groundwater depletion or scarcity, the authors said.

Vladimir Smakhtin of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) in Hamilton, Canada, said that two billion people still do not have access to safely managed drinking water.

The situation is worst in Sub-Saharan Africa, and globally it is compounded by the continuing expansion of bottled water markets, which he argued distracts attention and resources from public water systems development.

There has been some progress, with 74 percent of the world's population in 2020 using safely managed drinking water, up from 62 percent in 2000.

But "we are significantly off-track" to meeting a UN target of making drinking water universally available by 2030, said Smakhtin, a co-author of the report, adding that "the current trend is not sustainable."

"We must try to invest more in public water supplies to provide people with stable reliable water rather than bottled," he said.

The reports' authors also called for more transparency and legal measures that would compel bottled water companies to publicly disclose water volumes extracted and assess the environmental consequences of their activities.

Source(s): AFP

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