Harris’s one-word response to Trump’s declaration that he wants RKF Jr to work on ‘women’s health’

Katie Hawkinson
Fri, November 1, 2024 

Harris’s one-word response to Trump’s declaration that he wants RKF Jr to work on ‘women’s health’
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Kamala Harris gave a short but clear response after Donald Trump suggested that he will put Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge of “women’s health” if elected on Tuesday.

“No,” the vice president wrote from her personal X account Thursday night, attaching a red heart emoji. In the clip she re-posted, Trump told his supporters in Nevada that Kennedy will work on “health and women’s health” if he regains the White House.

“He’s going to work on health and women’s health, and all of the different reasons because we’re not really a wealthy—or a healthy country,” Trump said on Thursday night.



Kennedy also claimed earlier this week that Trump promised him “control” over multiple health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Trump campaign called his claims premature, according to the New York Times.

Kamala Harris gave a one-word response to Donald Trump’s announcement that Robert F Kennedy Jr will work on ‘women’s health’ if he’s elected (Getty Images)

“President Trump has promised me ... control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA, which ... is key to making America healthy,” he said. “Because we’ve got to get off of seed oils, and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”

Kennedy ran alongside Nicole Shanahan as an independent candidate for the presidency before suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump in August.

Before leaving the race, the 70-year-old said he supports restricting access to abortion at “fetal viability,” CNN reported.

In addition to his stance on abortion, Kennedy is a staunch opponent of the COVID-19 vaccine and has spread misinformation about its safety and efficacy.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, seen here with Donald Trump, is known for his anti-vaccine views, previously said he supports restricting abortion after ‘fetal viability’ (REUTERS)

Kennedy’s organization, Children’s Health Defense, has advocated against vaccinations, including by spreading the unfounded claim that vaccines cause autism.

Kennedy also falsely claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci colluded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to exaggerate the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic in his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Forbes reported.

Spreading COVID-19 misinformation resulted in Meta deactivating his Instagram account in 2021.

He also spread a baseless conspiracy theory about COVID-19 last year, claiming the virus targets “Caucasians and Black people” while “Ashkenazi Jews and [Chinese people]” are the most immune.

“The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and Black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories,” according to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League at the time.

The Independent has contacted Kennedy for comment.


Harris: RFK Jr. ‘last person in America’ who should set health policy

Joseph Choi
Fri, November 1, 2024 

Vice President Harris on Friday blasted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s possible role as a public health authority in a second Donald Trump administration, calling him the “last person” who should be considered for such a position.

“He [Trump] has indicated that the person who would be in charge of health care for the American people is someone who has routinely promoted junk science and crazy conspiracy theories, who once expressed support for a national abortion ban. And who is the exact last person in America who should be setting health care policy for America’s families and children,” Harris told reporters Friday afternoon.

In recent weeks, Kennedy and the Trump campaign have indicated he would have outsized influence over public health policy should former President Trump retake the Oval Office.

Harris has previously cited Trump’s embrace of Kennedy as evidence of him being unfit for office.

“Putting an anti-abortion conspiracy theorist in charge of our public health agencies says everything you need to know about how Donald Trump would govern,” Harris said in a post on social platform X.

Kennedy said Monday that Trump has promised him “control” of public health agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Trump has said he would let Kennedy “go wild on food” and “go wild on medicines” if reelected.

“The key that … President Trump has promised me is — is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its subagencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is … key to making America healthy,” Kennedy said in a video viewed by The Hill, referencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. “Because we’ve got to get off of seed oils, and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”

Health experts have expressed concerns over the harmful impact Kennedy could have on public health if Trump wins a second term, citing his long-held beliefs in debunked conspiracy theories.

Kennedy is a leading voice among anti-vaccine proponents, having long pushed the debunked claims linking vaccinations to autism. Though he has at times rejected being called anti-vaccine, he has also claimed there is no such thing as a “safe and effective” vaccine.

Critics of Kennedy have cited his actions in Samoa as an example of the harm his influence can have on public health. In the months before a 2019 outbreak of measles in the country that killed 83 people, Kennedy and the nonprofit he leads, the Children’s Health Defense, visited Samoa and publicly supported prominent vaccine opponents.

Kennedy has denied any involvement, saying in a 2023 film, “I never told anybody not to vaccinate.”

Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team, said in an interview on CNN that Kennedy is seeking federal data to force vaccines off the market.

RFK Jr. says a Trump White House would immediately push to remove fluoride from water

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY DREAM SINCE 1959

Megan Lebowitz and Erika Edwards and Jason Kane and Erin McLaughlin
Sat, November 2, 2024 


WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that a Trump administration would, on its first day, "advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water."

Kennedy cited linked fluoride to various illnesses, despite major medical associations supporting water fluoridation, which they say is safe and a benefit to public health.

"President ​@realDonaldTrump and First Lady @MELANIATRUMP want to Make America Healthy Again," the former Democratic presidential hopeful wrote in a post to X, tagging Michael Connett, an attorney who has led litigation that opposed the fluoridation of public drinking water.

Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who has a history of pushing conspiracy theories, is primed to play a key role in a future Trump administration's health policy. Since dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Trump, Kennedy has frequently appeared on the campaign trail stumping for the former president, and Trump said at a rally this week that if he is elected, Kennedy is “going to work on health and women’s health.”

Trump has embraced Kennedy. In an event in Arizona earlier this week, the former president said that Kennedy "can do anything he wants" in a potential Trump administration.

“He really wants to with the pesticides and the, you know, all the different things. I said, 'He can do it. He can do anything he wants.' He wants to look at the vaccines. He wants —everything. I think it’s great. I think it’s great," Trump had said.

In late October, Trump said that having Kennedy as an ally "is such a great honor," adding that he would let Kennedy "go wild on health."

"I'm going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicines," Trump had said.

Kennedy, a former independent presidential candidate, has touted widely debunked theories linking vaccines and autism. He also previously said that he would support a national ban on abortion after three months of pregnancy, before quickly walking back his comments.

When reached for comment on Kennedy's proposal, Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez did not commit to backing the plan.

"While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s election," Alvarez said in a statement.

Major public health groups such as the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention support water fluoridation, citing studies showing that the mineral helps fight cavities. Health groups also emphasize that the practice is safe.

"Water fluoridation is an equitable and inexpensive way to ensure that prevention of dental disease reaches everyone in a community," the American Academy of Pediatrics' website says.

The academy's Campaign for Dental Health also says on its website that "there is no scientifically valid evidence to show that fluoride causes cancer, kidney disease, or other disorders."

Fluoride helps make teeth “stronger and more resistant to decay,” according to the CDC’s website, and drinking fluoridated water “reduces cavities by about 25% in children and adults.”

"Documented risks of community water fluoridation are limited to dental fluorosis, a change in dental enamel that is cosmetic in its most common form. Changes range from barely visible lacy white markings in milder cases to pitting of the teeth in the rare, severe form," the CDC's website says, noting that most dental fluorosis seen in the U.S. today is "of the mildest form."

Similarly, the American Dental Association says on its website that water fluoridation is "safe and effective."

"Throughout more than 70 years of research and practical experience, the overwhelming weight of credible scientific evidence has consistently indicated that fluoridation of community water supplies is safe," says a fact sheet on the association's website.

Water fluoridation is not ubiquitous, and the CDC does not mandate fluoridation programs. Some cities have worked to end public water fluoridation programs as groups argue that it should be up to them to decide whether they want fluoride in public water supplies.

Opinion

Trump Reaches Next Level of Deranged With Proposed New Gig for RFK Jr.

Hafiz Rashid
Fri, November 1, 2024

At a rally Thursday night in Nevada, Donald Trump pledged to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of “women’s health” if he’s elected president.

“He’s going to work on health, and women’s health, and all of the different reasons ‘cause we’re not really a wealthy or healthy country,” Trump told a crowd of supporters.

Kamala Harris had a one-word response.

Kennedy, formerly an independent candidate for president, dropped out of the race in August and endorsed Trump, likely in exchange for a prominent role in a potential second Trump term. Some reports suggest that Kennedy could get a Cabinet position, such as secretary of Health and Human Services, or have a hand in choosing appointees. In fact, Kennedy has already recommended a prominent vaccine skeptic for HHS.

Kennedy heading up women’s health would be a disaster. Kennedy has a long history of opposing vaccines, and his anti-vax conspiracies even helped spread a measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 83 people, most of them children. Kennedy also supports restrictions on abortion, and blames the rise in mass shootings on antidepressants and video games.

Kennedy has co-opted Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan into his own initiative, “Make America Healthy Again.” But his own health hasn’t been as impeccable as he claims, admitting that a doctor once suspected a worm ate part of his brain and then died inside his head.

His record with women’s issues apart from health isn’t good, either: He has a reputation as a compulsive womanizer, which may have been a contributing factor in the 2012 suicide of his second wife, Mary Richardson. If more recent allegations are to be believed, Kennedy also carried on an affair with journalist Olivia Nuzzi, leading to her losing her job with New York magazine.

Kennedy’s reputation should be toxic enough for the Trump administration in any role, let alone one connected to public health and women. The question is whether this would help Trump attract any voters on the fence, or remind them that the former president’s reputation on public health isn’t so great either.

RFK Jr. Says Trump Administration Would Advise Against Fluoride In Drinking Water

Liz Skalka
Sat, November 2, 2024

Since dropping his own presidential bid, Kennedy has become a top surrogate for Trump. via Associated Press

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a possible candidate for a role in Donald Trump’s cabinet, should Trump retake the White House — claims that a new Trump administration would immediately advise against the use of fluoride in U.S. public water systems.

Kennedy, a former presidential candidate who has endorsed Trump and a prominent vaccine skeptic, suggested this would happen on the first day of a new Trump administration.

For decades, U.S. health regulators have recommended adding a small amount of fluoride to drinking water supplies to prevent tooth decay. Fluoride at such a low dose is generally considered both safe and effective to protect oral health.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy posted Saturday on X, formerly Twitter.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Kennedy’s remarks.

Trump and Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who tried to walk back his criticism of the COVID vaccine during his presidential campaign, have both floated a health-focused role for him — possibly a post commanding health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At his rally last weekend at Madison Square Garden, Trump said he would let Kennedy “go wild on health, ... go wild on the medicines.” On Friday in Nevada, Trump said Kennedy would also be “in charge of women’s health.”



Kennedy, according to a video obtained by CNN, told supporters he might be given control of more than one health-focused agency.

“President Trump has promised me ... control of the public health agencies, which are [the Health and Human Services Department] and its sub-agencies ... and then also the [Department of Agriculture], which is key to making America healthy. Because we’ve got to get off of seed oils, and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture,” Kennedy reportedly said.


Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Donald Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water

JONATHAN J. COOPER
Sat, November 2, 2024 

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a Turning Point Action campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Duluth, Ga. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., walks on the tarmac as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Romulus, Mich.

 (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Kennedy made the declaration on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.

It was not clear if Kennedy discussed Saturday’s post with Trump or his aides. The Trump campaign did not answer directly, and a spokesperson for Kennedy did not respond when asked.

“While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s election," Danielle Alvarez, Trump campaign senior advisor, said.

But the sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.



In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.

But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump's top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want" except oil policy.

VW cost cutting necessary after 'decades of structural problems', CEO tells paper

View shows the Volkswagen power plant in Wolfsburg 

Reuters
Sun, November 3, 2024


BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen's planned cost-cutting programme was unavoidable in order to remedy "decades of structural problems" at the German carmaker, CEO Oliver Blume said in an interview published on Sunday.

"The weak market demand in Europe and significantly lower earnings from China reveal decades of structural problems at VW," Blume told Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag.

The head of Volkswagen's works council said last Monday that the carmaker plans to shut at least three factories in Germany, lay off tens of thousands of staff and shrink its remaining plants in Europe's biggest economy as it plots a deeper-than-expected overhaul.

The carmaker has not confirmed those plans but on Wednesday it asked its workers to take a 10% pay cut, arguing it was the only way that Europe's biggest carmaker could save jobs and remain competitive.

Blume said the cost of operating in Germany was a major drag on Volkswagen's competitiveness, telling Bild am Sonntag that "our costs in Germany must be massively reduced."

There was no flexibility on the goals for cost-cutting, only on how they are to be achieved, he said.

The carmaker has set aside around 900 million euros ($975.06 million) in its annual report for executing the measures, according to the paper.

($1 = 0.9230 euros)

(Reporting by Friederike Heine, editing by Susan Fenton)

Iran student strips in protest over strict hijab dress code

Akhtar Makoii
Sun, November 3, 2024

A female student at a university in Tehran stripped to her underwear in a defiant act of protest on Saturday

A female student at a university in Tehran stripped to her underwear in an act of protest after being harassed by campus security officers over her hijab.

Videos circulating widely on social media show the unidentified student sitting outside the campus in her underwear while the security guards surrounded her.

Another video shows her walking around the campus in her bra and knickers while stunned fellow students film her on their mobile phones.

Her act of resistance began after a confrontation inside Azad University’s science and research centre on Saturday, when security forces physically attacked the student because she was not wearing a headscarf.

In response to having her clothes torn, she chose to remove her remaining garments as a protest, according to Iranian student social media news channel, the Amir Kabir newsletter and witnesses who spoke to The Telegraph.

Multiple witnesses confirmed her subsequent detention by the authorities. Video footage showed security officers abducting her from the campus.
Officers forcibly detain student

About 10 security guards were captured on video forcibly bundling the young woman into a vehicle. The footage showed a group of officers overwhelming her before she was detained.



“Oh God, how many of them are attacking just one person?” one onlooker was heard saying. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” another said.

“Around noon, near the entrance of the faculty, I saw a girl being grabbed and forcibly taken by security forces,” one witness told The Telegraph from Tehran.

“She wasn’t wearing a headscarf. Then they reached the security building near the entrance, where a male and a female security guard grabbed her and tried to take her into the office with force.

“She resisted, and her hoodie was torn off her body, it made her very angry and she took off the rest of her clothes.

“She angrily yelled at them and took off her trousers - she sat outside the campus for a few minutes and the officer became more aggressive.

“I couldn’t see much but, a few minutes after she started walking, several plain-clothes officers ambushed her and forced her into a car.”

Student media outlets reported that she suffered injuries during the arrest, including severe head trauma after being struck against a vehicle. Witnesses said traces of blood were visible at the scene.
#Girl of Science and Research

The footage has been widely shared in Iran and the student has already become a powerful symbol of resistance, drawing nationwide attention under the hashtag: “Girl of Science and Research.”

“If courage had a face,” one user posted on X with the girl’s picture. “That brave girl is my leader,” another user wrote.

Amir Mahjoub, the director of public relations at the university, said that she was transferred to a “police station” and claimed that she is under “severe mental stress and suffering from psychological disorders”.

The Farhikhtegan newspaper, affiliated with the university, also claimed, citing “official and unofficial sources” that the student has “severe psychological and mental issues”.

The report added that, after being handed over to the police by university security staff, she has been hospitalised in a psychiatric facility.

A female student at a university in Tehran stripped to her underwear in a defiant act of protest on Saturday
Whereabouts and condition unknown

There has been no further information about her whereabouts or condition.

Amnesty International has urged Iranian authorities to release the girl “immediately and unconditionally”.

It is not the first time that officials and media affiliated with the Islamic Republic have accused protesters of “mental disorders” and forcibly placed them in psychiatric institutions. The protest echoes earlier acts of civil disobedience, notably that of Vida Movahed, known as “the Girl of Enghelab Street”.

That show of defiance gained international attention in 2017 when a woman removed her headscarf and held it aloft on the tip of a stick while standing to protest against the mandatory hijab.

Observers have drawn parallels between these demonstrations, viewing them as key moments in Iranian women’s ongoing struggle for personal freedoms.

After the September 2022 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, and the subsequent protests, Iranian universities have also faced heightened repression and intensified control. The protests led to acts of civil disobedience by Iranian women and girls against the mandatory hijab.
New stricter laws

All women in Iran must conceal their hair with a headscarf and wear loose-fitting trousers under their coats while in public but a growing number of Iranian women have appeared in public without head coverings.

Iranian police and security forces have intensified their enforcement of the rules. A new bill making its way through Iran’s parliament is set to harden the regulations governing how women and men can dress in public, but authorities have started enforcing it before its formal approval.

Article 50 of the bill says anyone found “naked, semi-naked, or wearing clothing deemed improper in public” will be immediately arrested and handed over to judicial authorities.

The bill also implements gender segregation across a wide range of settings, including universities, hospitals, educational and administrative centres, parks and tourist sites.

People found in breach of the new rules also face a ban on leaving the country and using social media for a period of six months to two years.

“These girls will one day bring down Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s future belongs to free women, not the mullahs,” a Tehran student told The Telegraph.

“She’ll be remembered as a hero by many women,” she said of the girl who protested on Saturday. “After this regime falls, her picture will be everywhere in Iran, like Mahsa Amin’s and many more.”

Iran arrests female student who stripped to protest harassment

Shweta Sharma
Sun, November 3, 2024 

Iranian student protest assault by secuirty forces at university (Screengrab/AmnestyIran)

An Iranian woman was arrested after reportedly stripping down to her undergarments to protest an alleged assault by security forces for not following strict hijab laws.

The woman was reportedly assaulted, and her clothes were torn inside Tehran’s Azad University of Science and Research on Saturday for not following strict hijab rules, Iran International reported.

A widely circulated video on social media shows a woman sitting and walking around the university campus in her undergarments.

Another video shows her being detained by security forces and forcibly taken into a car.

Islamic Azad University confirmed her arrest on X without giving any reason.

“Following an indecent act by a student at the Science and Research Branch of the university, campus security intervened and handed the individual over to law enforcement authorities,” Amir Mahjoub, director general of public relations at Islamic Azad University, wrote on X.

“The motives and underlying reasons for the student’s actions are currently under investigation.”

The student sustained injuries after being physically assaulted during her arrest, Iran International reported, citing a newsletter by the student group Amir Kabir Newsletter.

It said the student was “disrobed after being harassed for not wearing a headscarf and having her clothing torn by security forces”.

“Blood stains from the student were reportedly seen on the car’s tyres,” the newsletter said, adding that her head was struck either by a car door or a pillar which caused heavy bleeding.

Amnesty International’s Iran unit called on the Iranian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the student who was violently arrested on Saturday.

“Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture & other ill-treatment & ensure access to family and lawyer. Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent & impartial investigations. Those responsible must held to account,” it said in a statement on X.

A growing number of women are defying the strict hijab laws in the country by discarding their veils since the brutal 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.

Twenty-two-year-old Amini died after being detained by the morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly. Her death became a breaking point, sparking unprecedented protests known as “Women, Life, Freedom”, which lasted for three months in the country.

A monthslong security crackdown that followed killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.

However, media reports indicate that nothing has changed since the protests, and scattered photos and videos have surfaced showing women and young girls being roughed up by officers.

In October 2023, Iranian teenage Armita Geravand was injured in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s metro while not wearing a headscarf. She later died in the hospital after falling into a coma.

In July, activists reported that police opened fire on a woman fleeing a checkpoint to avoid her car being impounded for not wearing the hijab.

The country’s new reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to halt the harassment of women by morality police. But the 85-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who remains the country’s ultimate authority, has previously said that “unveiling is both religiously forbidden and politically forbidden”.

Female student arrested in Iran after stripping off in public on university campus

Evelyn Ann-Marie Dom
Sat, November 2, 2024
EURONEWS

An Iranian woman has been arrested after she stripped partially naked on a university campus, reportedly in protest against the strict dress code after she was physically harassed by security officers for wearing her hijab incorrectly, according to Amnesty Iran.

Video circulating on social media platform X, filmed by other university students in a classroom overlooking the Tehran Islamic Azad University campus, has attracted a lot of attention online, with many people applauding the woman for her "boldness" and "courage".

No further information has been released about the identity of the individual.

In a post on X, Amnestry Iran pressed for her immediate and unconditional release.

The organisation called for the protection of the woman from "torture and other ill-treatment" pending her release and demanded that she must be granted access to family and a lawyer.

"Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent and impartial investigations," Amnesty added that all those found responsible must be held accountable.

The university's public relations director Syed Amir Mahjoub said the security officers turned the student in to the police and denied that there was a physical clash. He added that initial investigations reveal that the woman suffers from a psychological disorder and was under severe distress.


Earlier, some news sources reported the women was arrested by intelligence agents and transferred to an undisclosed location.

 Almost 3,000 killed by Israeli attacks in over a year, Lebanon says

DPA
Sat, November 2, 2024 

Civil defense workers are engulfed in smoke as they try to douse fire from cars and destroyed buildings that were targeted by Israeli air raids on Beirut southern suburb. Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

At least 71 people were killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon on Friday, authorities said Saturday, which brings the total number of fatalities to almost 3,000 since fighting broke out between Israel and the Hezbollah militia more than a year ago.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said another 169 people were injured across Lebanon on Friday.

The highest number of victims were reportedly killed in attacks in the north-east of the country, with at least 52 dead.

The Health Ministry usually does not release the total number of victims until the evening of the following day.

At least 2,968 people, including 183 minors, have been killed and 13,319 injured since fighting broke out between the Israeli military and pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon following the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The ministry's figures do not distinguish between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.

Israel's path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

KAREEM CHEHAYEB, JULIA FRANKEL and BASSEM MROUE
Sat, November 2, 2024 

This Oct. 24 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Ramyah in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Sept. 26, 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Ramyah in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Sept. 26, 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Blida in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Oct. 24 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Blida in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Sept. 26, 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Oct. 24 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Sept. 26, 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Mhaibib in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Oct. 24 2024, satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the village of Mhaibib in southern Lebanon. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The map above displays an aggregated count of damaged structures within 2.6km areas across Lebanon from Oct. 2-26, 2024. (AP Digital Embed)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The map above displays where Israeli forces have fired on U.N. peacekeeping and Lebanese army forces and 11 villages that have been recently destroyed. (AP Digital Embed)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The image above shows a frame of a before and after interactive slider in the southern Lebanese city of Blida. (AP Digital Embed)ASSOCIATED PRESS


BEIRUT (AP) — Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.

Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.

Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place.

More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza.

Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, according to an Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and data collected by mapping experts that show the breadth of destruction across 11 villages next to the border.

The Israeli military has said the bombardment is necessary to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and other infrastructure it says the group embedded within towns. The blasts have also destroyed homes, neighborhoods and sometimes entire villages, where families have lived for generations.

Israel says it aims to push Hezbollah far enough back that its citizens can return safely to homes in the north, but Israeli officials acknowledge they don’t have a concrete plan for ensuring Hezbollah stays away from the border long term. That is a key focus in attempts by the United States to broker a cease-fire.


Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel's immediate aim is not to create a buffer zone — but that might change.

“Maybe we’ll have no other choice than staying there until we have an arrangement that promises us that Hezbollah will not come back to the zone,” she said.

A path of destruction

Troops pushed into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, backed by heavy bombardment that has intensified since.

Using satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, AP identified a line of 11 villages — all within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of Lebanon's border with Israel — that have been severely damaged in the past month, either by strikes or detonations of explosives laid by Israeli soldiers.

Analysis found the most intense damage in the south came in villages closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each, according to Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in damage assessments.

In Ramyah, barely a single structure still stands on the village’s central hilltop, after a controlled detonation that Israeli soldiers showed themselves carrying out in videos posted on social media. In the next town over, Aita al-Shaab — a village with strong Hezbollah influence — bombardment turned the hilltop with the highest concentration of buildings into a gray wasteland of rubble.

In other villages, the damage is more selective. In some, bombardment tore scars through blocks of houses; in others, certain homes were crushed while their neighbors remained intact.

Another controlled detonation leveled much of the village of Odeissah, with an explosion so strong it set off earthquake alerts in Israel.

In videos of the blast, Lubnan Baalbaki, conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched in disbelief as his parents’ house — containing the art collection and a library his father had built up for years — was destroyed.

“This house was a project and a dream for both of my parents,” he told the AP. His parents’ graves in the garden are now lost.

When asked whether its intention was to create a buffer zone, Israel’s military said it was “conducting localized, limited, targeted raids based on precise intelligence" against Hezbollah targets. It said Hezbollah had “deliberately embedded” weapons in homes and villages.

Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro even helped blow up a home that the military said was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In a television segment, Kushmaro and soldiers counted down before they pressed a button, setting off a massive explosion.

Videos posted online by Israel’s military and individual soldiers show Israeli troops planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, Israel has not built any bases or managed to hold a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to move back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy fire from Hezbollah.

October has been the deadliest month of 2024 for the Israeli military, with around 60 soldiers killed.

Attacks on UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Army

The bombardment has been punctuated by Israeli attacks on U.N. troops and the Lebanese Army — forces which, under international law, are supposed to keep the peace in the area. Israel has long complained that their presence has not prevented Hezbollah from building up its infrastructure across the south.

Israel denies targeting either force.

The Lebanese military has said at least 11 of its soldiers were killed in eight Israeli strikes, either at their positions or while assisting evacuations.

The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said its forces and infrastructure have been harmed at least 30 times since late September, blaming Israeli military fire or actions for about 20 of them, “with seven being clearly deliberate.”

A rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an allied group hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday, causing some minor injuries, said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.

UNIFIL has refused to leave southern Lebanon, despite calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for them to go.

Experts warn that could change if peacekeepers come under greater fire.

“If you went from the U.N. taking casualties to the U.N. actually taking fatalities,” some nations contributing troops may “say ‘enough is enough,’ and you might see the mission start to crumble,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

The future of the territory is uncertain

International cease-fire efforts appear to be centered on implementing U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

It specified that Israeli forces would fully withdraw from Lebanon while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — not Hezbollah — would be the exclusive armed presence in a zone about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.

But the resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah never left the border zone, and Lebanon accuses Israel of continuing to occupy small areas of its land and carrying out frequent military overflights above its territory.

During a recent visit to Beirut, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement was needed to enforce Resolution 1701.

Israel could be trying to pressure an agreement into existence through the destruction wreaked in southern Lebanon.

Yossi Yehoshua, military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the military needs to “entrench further its operational achievements” to push Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and mediating countries “to accept an end (of the war) under conditions that are convenient for Israel.”



Some Lebanese fear that means an occupation of parts of the south, 25 years after Israel ended its occupation there.

Lebanese parliamentarian Mark Daou, a critic of both Hezbollah and of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, said he believed Israel was trying to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese public “against the will to resist Israeli incursions.”

Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one aim of Resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility that it, not Hezbollah, would be seen “as the legitimate defender” in the south.

“That evaporates if they become (Israel’s) gendarmerie of southern Lebanon,” he said.

___

Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Lujain Jo in Beirut contributed to this report.

___

For more Middle East news: https://apnews.com/hub/middle-east

The health ministry said on Friday (November 1) that Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,897 people and injured 13,150 in Lebanon, with 30 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours.

Allegra Goodwin and Tamara Qiblawi, CNN
Sat, November 2, 2024

The ground shook, windows shattered, and the cries of patients filled the air. An Israeli bomb had just struck Beirut’s southern suburbs in yet another near-nightly attack – this time hitting a building across the street from Lebanon’s biggest public hospital.

“I was treating a patient when the bomb went off. I fell over him from the shock of it,” said Mohammad Fouani, an emergency room nurse at Rafik Hariri University Hospital, recalling the aftermath of the October 21 attack. “The smoke was so thick; I could barely see my fellow colleagues.”

“Since the start of the war, every night has been difficult,” Fouani told CNN. “But this was the worst by far. It was the most painful.”

Israel said the strike hit a Hezbollah target, though the area was not covered in Israeli military evacuation orders for locations with alleged links to the Iran-backed group in the south of Beirut. At least 18 people, including four children, were killed and 60 injured in the residential building some 70 meters away from the hospital, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Lebanon’s health sector has been in the thick of a ferocious Israeli air assault as Israel and Hezbollah trade fire in an ongoing war, with the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs hardest hit. In the first month of its all-out air offensive in Lebanon, which began on September 23, Israeli strikes damaged 34 hospitals, killed 111 emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and hit 107 ambulances, according to data compiled by the Lebanese health ministry.

Emergency workers and locals stand at the site of a demolished building after an Israeli strike near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 22, 2024. - Yara Nardi/Reuters

Around 20% of all hospitals registered with the health ministry in Lebanon have been damaged in a month of attacks, with most strikes landing in their vicinity, according to data compiled by medical authorities.

The Lebanese health ministry data and CNN’s analysis of airstrikes show that the Israeli military has dropped bombs within dangerous proximity of hospitals, which are protected under international law.

Responding to CNN’s request for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it operates in strict accordance with international law and accused Hezbollah of being deeply embedded in civilian areas. “Hezbollah strategically places its military assets in close proximity to medical facilities, such as hospitals and clinics, as part of its human shield strategy,” it said.

For a country that has been embroiled in many cycles of war and crises, the Lebanese healthcare sector has rarely been so vulnerable to firepower, the country’s health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad, told CNN. Abiad accused Israel of “weaponizing” access to healthcare and drew parallels to Gaza, where Israel has openly attacked hospitals, accusing them of links to Hamas.

“Health institutions are supposed to be sanctuaries,” said Abiad. “It’s clear that this is premeditated, that this is a state policy that Israel is following, whether in Gaza or in Lebanon.”

Lebanon's health minister, Dr. Firas Abiad, has accused Israel of "weaponizing" access to healthcare. - CNN

CNN has reviewed over 240 airstrikes in Lebanon and found that at least 24 hospitals were within a 500-meter danger zone – used by the Israeli military as its parameter for evacuation areas – of the bombs. Israel dropped munitions within what is known as a “lethal range” – 340 meters – of at least 19 hospitals, the analysis, which covered the first month of the war, showed.

CNN’s analysis only looked at airstrikes verified in publicly available imagery or declared in Israeli military evacuation orders between September 23 and October 23. That sample is smaller than the more than one thousand Israeli strikes estimated by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a crisis monitoring organization, to have hit Lebanon over the course of the month and so has likely produced a conservative estimate of hospitals within a dangerous or lethal range.

“Even a hospital that is not directly targeted can be damaged from the blast wave or fragmentation caused by a nearby strike,” Trevor Ball, a former senior explosive ordnance technician for the US military, told CNN. “Fragments can injure or kill people hundreds of meters away, meaning a strike hundreds of meters away could still injure or kill people that are not behind adequate protection.”

CNN shared with the IDF a list of coordinates for all 24 hospitals it assessed as having been within dangerous proximity of Israeli strikes, 16 of which were damaged according to data compiled by the Lebanese health ministry and medics. The IDF did not comment on CNN’s specific findings, but said it was only operating against Hezbollah, “not the Lebanese population or medical facilities” and took measures to mitigate harm to civilians.

Abiad, who is a veteran doctor and former hospital director, said the nearby strikes have had a devastating affect on healthcare. “Once you target so close to the area, it means that people are now afraid to come to the hospital,” Abiad told CNN. “Some people in the hospital would rather go home than receive treatment because they are worried that they will be targeted in hospitals.”

The UN special coordinator for Lebanon said on October 25 that “first responders heeding the call to help, including healthcare personnel and paramedics, have also been hard hit,” and called the number of attacks impacting healthcare facilities and personnel “alarming.”

The attacks on the first responders, said Abiad, has sent “a very chilling message: if you’re injured, you’re going to die.”

Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons, though it has not provided evidence. Many of the ambulances hit and first-responders killed in Israeli strikes were affiliated with Hezbollah’s civilian infrastructure. At least 12 Lebanese Civil Defense first responders and 16 Lebanese Red Cross paramedics have been killed in strikes. The IDF did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on attacks that have killed paramedics and emergency workers.

Since September 23, Israeli strikes have killed eight people inside the premises of four hospitals, and eight facilities have been forced to close, according to the health ministry.

Hospitals and other medical establishments are protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law. It is illegal, with few exceptions, to attack hospitals, ambulances or other health facilities, or to otherwise prevent them from providing care. In a report released on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch referred to Israeli attacks on healthcare workers in Lebanon as “apparent war crimes.”

The threat to Lebanon’s healthcare sector was felt most acutely on the night of October 21. As well as the strike that hit the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Israel also claimed that another major hospital in the south of Beirut, Al Sahel General Hospital, was located above a Hezbollah bunker. Hours later, hospital staff and patients evacuated the facility for fear it would be hit. The next day, journalists toured the premises and said they found no evidence to support the claim.

Israel published a 3D graphic to show what they claimed was a Hezbollah underground facility storing cash and gold beneath the hospital. Officials at Sahel General Hospital vehemently denied the accusation, and Israel has not struck the hospital.

For the Lebanese, the graphic was reminiscent of imagery released by the Israeli military last year alleging the presence of a Hamas “command-and-control” center under Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital. The hospital was later attacked by Israeli forces.


“For me, what’s really concerning is that the rhetoric from the Israelis is the same, especially when they talk about infrastructure beneath healthcare,” said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an American physician who volunteered at Gaza’s Al Nasser hospital in Khan Younis earlier this year and is now working in Lebanon.

Ahmad said all healthcare workers he’s interacted with are “pessimistic,” and fear the health system will suffer the same fate as it has in Gaza.

“There are no red lines. There is no respect for international humanitarian law. We saw that in Gaza for the past 13 months and we’re seeing it in Lebanon,” Ahmad told CNN. “Are we heading in that same direction, are we actually going to see this repeat itself?”
Fragmentation zones

Israel’s air, ground and naval assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon has decimated the Iran-backed group’s military leadership and dealt harsh blows to its rank-and-file, as well as to its arsenal of weaponry. It has also killed hundreds of civilians, according to health authorities, and destroyed large swathes of civilian infrastructure.



Israel has regularly dropped 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound bombs on Lebanon, according to analysis of aftermath imagery by weapons experts, inflicting catastrophic damage to neighborhoods and towns. The Israeli military has argued that it has deployed these bombs as bunker busters to destroy Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure.

The weapons experts told CNN that Israel has also used the GBU-39, or small-diameter bomb, to take out single floors of multistorey buildings. The attacks have been concentrated in, though not restricted to, areas of Hezbollah dominance – namely the south and east of the country as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The lethal fragmentation radius of these bombs puts nearby people and civilian structures, such as hospitals, at serious risk. When they are dropped, white-hot metal fragments can fly out in all directions, tearing through their surroundings. Known by experts as a “kill zone,” the area of exposure to injury or death around a target can range from 340 meters for small-diameter bombs, to 365 meters for 1,000 and 2,000 bombs, weapons experts say.

All eight hospitals in the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, fell within the lethal fragmentation zones of verified airstrikes. According to the health ministry, all of these healthcare facilities were damaged in the first month of Israel’s offensive since late September. Three hospitals on the edges of the area were also damaged, according to the ministry’s data.

Almost all of Hezbollah’s leadership were killed in Israeli strikes in Dahiyeh, the group’s seat of power. Several videos of attacks there have shown signs of secondary explosions – evidence that at least some of the targets were weapons depots.

Beirut’s southern suburbs, previously home to around a million people, were also a major flashpoint of Israeli attacks in the country’s last all-out war with Lebanon in 2006. Airstrikes there transformed large parts of the area into a seemingly endless stretch of rubble and detritus. Yet back then, the bombing campaign left hospitals in the south of Beirut comparatively unscathed.

Under international law, a hospital can lose its special protected status only if it is being used for military purposes. But the wounded and sick inside are still protected by the principle of proportionality, and time must be given for evacuation before an attack.

On October 1, an Israeli strike near al-Zahra University Hospital in Dahiyeh killed one person and injured two more inside the facility’s premises, according to the health ministry. Video of the attack analyzed by CNN found that the strike hit a building adjacent to the perimeter of the hospital, less than 50 meters away from the main building.


The analysis found that the weapon was likely a GBU-39.

The hardest-hit health facilities have been in the southernmost part of Lebanon, where the Israeli air assault has been the most intense and ground forces have been met with fierce resistance from Hezbollah fighters. It was in that region that the first of the country’s hospitals shuttered after the start of the all-out offensive.

In the town of Bint Jbeil, Israel struck a mosque which it described as a command center within the compound of the Salah Ghandour hospital on October 4. Ten people inside the hospital were injured, according to the health ministry, forcing it to close.

That day, an Israeli airstrike hit the premises of Marjayoun governmental hospital in a southern Christian town of the same name.

Two people were killed outside of the hospital’s emergency room, according to health minister Abiad. CNN spoke to the director of the hospital hours after it was evacuated.

“We held on for as long as we could,” Dr. Mones Kalakish told CNN as he was departing the Marjayoun area, which had been surrounded by intensive bombardment for weeks. “But this morning, we came under fire, and we had to evacuate. We were panicked and we were terrified.”

The night that a nearby strike rocked Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital there was panicked discussion among the staff about whether to evacuate. “Because of Gaza and what happened to the hospitals in the south and the rest of the country, our initial thought was that the hospital itself was hit,” said Rafik Hariri University Hospital director Jihad Saadeh. “But when we saw that it wasn’t a direct hit, we were reassured. We continued our work.”

For Nurse Foany, merely considering the evacuation was a terrifying thought. “Can you imagine what that was like? Imagine evacuating Lebanon’s largest public hospital, not just its staff but its sick and its injured in a single night,” he said. “It was a horrific thought.”

CNN’s Rachel Wilson, Abeer Salman and Mohammad Tawfeeq contributed to this report. This story has been updated.

In 2016, Elon Musk Said It's 'Terrible To Make A Profit On Service.' Now, Repairs, Parts And Superchargers Are Beginning To Drive Its Profits

Adrian Volenik

BENZINGA
Fri, November 1, 2024

In 2016, Elon Musk said something that might surprise you today: “Our philosophy with respect to service is not to profit from service. I think that it's terrible to make a profit on service.”

By 2024, however, it appears that things are going the other way. As Electrek’s Fred Lambert reports, a significant portion of Tesla’s revenue comes from auto repairs, components and its network of Superchargers – exactly the sectors Musk had insisted would not be centered on profit.

According to Tesla’s Q3 2024 financial figures, “services and others” profits soared over $250 million, a staggering 90% increase over the previous year. What comprises these earnings? The Supercharger network, Tesla’s auto repair facilities, and selling replacement parts account for most of them.

This shift marks a big change from Tesla's previous approach. Musk had always said that Tesla aimed to improve its cars so they'd hardly need any service. As Electrek reports, his famous line was, “The best service is no service.”

If Tesla could make its cars super reliable, owners wouldn’t need to worry about spending time (or money) on repairs. But the reality today seems a bit different.

Many Tesla owners have reported long wait times for service and repairs aren’t cheap. Customers are becoming irritated by even standard equipment like suspension components. For instance, one Tesla owner shared that he was quoted over $2,400 to fix his Model S front suspension, but he bought the parts online for just $365.

Tesla’s Supercharger network is also changing. Initially, Musk stated that the Supercharger network would “never become a profit center” for Tesla – it was meant to make Tesla ownership more convenient, not to add to the bottom line. However, Supercharger prices have been increasing and Tesla openly pointed out that profits from the Supercharger network were a major factor in their improved results for Q3.

Of course, there’s more to the story. Tesla recently opened its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles, which means new revenue opportunities. According to Electrek, it’s possible that Tesla is just changing its approach to accommodate this network’s expansion. However, many Tesla owners find that the price increases don’t match their initial expectations when they purchased their vehicles.

US approves game-changing technology that turns used nuclear waste into fuel: 'A critical step'

Mike Taylor

TDC
Sat, November 2, 2024 



A nuclear power plant that has been decommissioned for 30 years will soon help power a new facility with recovered nuclear waste.

The Department of Energy approved Oklo's conceptual safety design report (CSDR) for the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility, as Interesting Engineering reported. It will use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II and be located at the Idaho National Laboratory.

"The approval of the CSDR is a critical step toward fabricating fuel for Oklo's first commercial deployment," Jess Gehin, INL associate laboratory director for nuclear science and technology, said in a news release. "As the nation's nuclear energy research laboratory, we are committed to partnering with companies like Oklo to advance fission technologies and deliver clean energy solutions."

The next steps include a preconstruction preliminary safety analysis and a documented safety analysis after construction and commissioning.

The recovered highly enriched uranium will be cleaned and mixed with lower-enriched uranium to make HALEU, Interesting Engineering detailed. It requires a high-temperature molten salt chemical bath and an electric current, which separates the highly enriched uranium from the fission products.

After it is formed into ingots, it is broken down into smaller shapes with low doses, which can power advanced reactors such as Oklo's microreactor.
Watch now: This company is making it easier than ever to save money with solar power

The developments are promising, and the use of spent fuel minimizes one risk of the generally safe industry. But renewable energy such as solar and wind is even safer and cheaper. In that vein, researchers are working to improve nuclear safety by testing a compound molecule, designing robots to handle radioactive waste, and creating power plants that don't need water for cooling.

The United States has dozens of nuclear reactors, though the number has been ticking down. Twenty-five are in the process of being decommissioned, though the industry is gaining traction in repurposing sites and even building new ones as the demand for clean power and the desire to slow the rapid heating of the planet grows.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

‘I had to get out’: the US military officers filing for conscientious objector status over Gaza

Alice Speri

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, November 1, 2024 

Joy Metzler.Composite: Joy Metzler

For Joy Metzler, a second lieutenant in the US air force, joining the military had felt like answering a calling. An adoptee from China who was raised in a conservative Christian family, she believed she owed a debt to the United States.

But the Hamas attacks in Israel last year, and Israel’s war that followed, rocked Metzler’s convictions. Within months, she filed for conscientious objector status, one of a small number of US military personnel seeking to end their service because of their moral opposition to US support for Israel.

“I didn’t know Palestine was a place before October 7,” Metzler told the Guardian.

“All of a sudden it felt like a light clicking on for me.”

As the war in Gaza enters a second year, some disillusioned members of the US military have turned to the Vietnam war-era conscientious objector policy to terminate their military service because of religious or moral convictions.

There are few avenues to express dissent in the army. Earlier this year, Harrison Mann, an army officer assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency resigned in protest of US support for Israel. In a far more extreme gesture, 25-year-old US airman Aaron Bushnell died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in February.

The conscientious objector route is a seldom-invoked alternative that few service members are aware of – though some advocates say there has been an uptick in interest in the last year.

The defense department referred questions about the number of conscientious objectors to each branch of the military. A spokesperson for the air force said that it has received 42 applications since 2021 and granted 36. Applications since 7 October “are on trend with pre-conflict averages”, the spokesperson added. (The army, navy, and Marine Corps did not respond to requests for comment.)

But while the numbers remain relatively low, the war in Gaza is top of mind for those service members who have considered conscientious objector status this year, said Bill Galvin, a Vietnam-era objector and director of counseling at the Center on Conscience and War, one of a handful of groups that helps military members navigate the complex bureaucratic process.

Galvin said his group helps roughly 50 to 70 applicants a year, across military branches, and that there’s been more interest than usual this year.

The US has subsidized Israel’s war in Gaza to the tune of nearly $18bn over the last year, and is growing more deeply entangled as the conflict spills into the broader region. The Biden administration recently announced the deployment of 100 troops to Israel to man a missile defense system in anticipation of an escalation against Iran.

“Almost everyone that I’ve talked to has at least cited what’s happening in Gaza as a factor in causing them to rethink what they’re doing,” Galvin said. “Some have actually said: ‘I know that the airplane that I’m doing maintenance on is delivering weaponry to Israel and so I feel complicit.’”

***

Metzler said she was raised to believe that Israel is “the nation of God’s chosen people” and “terrorists were morally bankrupt people, who hate us because of who we are”.

When the war in Gaza started, the images of Palestinian civilians’ suffering disturbed her, but it wasn’t until Bushnell’s self-immolation that she started reading about the history of the conflict and the role of the US government in it. “A lot of the things I had been told about the US’s role in the world were wrong”, she said.



The war pushed Metzler to re-evaluate her time in the air force academy. She recalled laughing with her classmates as they watched footage of people running from a drone – she wasn’t sure in which country. She felt ashamed.

“I had come out of the academy glorifying the act of warfare,” she said. “There’s a certain disregard for human life that you just have to have to be a member of the military.”

Metzler learned about the conscientious objector option when she met a group of veterans at a pro-Palestine protest at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s completing a master’s in aerospatial engineering.

The defense department first introduced the objector application process in 1962. Tens of thousands obtained the status over the following decade, as the Vietnam war, and a mandatory draft, sparked a mass antiwar movement. But since then, the number of applicants has fallen drastically, with many members of the military unaware that the option even exists.



“It’s not common knowledge,” said Metzler. “You don’t want to advertise to the people that are working for you that there’s a legal way for you to break your contract if you start to feel weird feelings.”

For the few who embark on it, the process is rigorous and lengthy – Metzler’s application filled 19 pages and she is still waiting for final word after filing it in July. Applicants must demonstrate that they are opposed to all wars and that their beliefs about military service changed after they enlisted. They have to interview with a chaplain and with a mental health professional before an investigating officer reviews their case and makes a recommendation to a committee that decides whether to grant the status. In the past, the military has approved about half the conscientious objector applications it received.

Larry Hebert, another US senior airman, said the process was “excruciatingly long”.

A six-year veteran, Hebert reached what he called “a moral break” as horrific images of Palestinian children resembling his own filled his TikTok.



During a leave from his service in Spain in March, he traveled to Washington and staged a hunger strike in front of the White House to highlight the plight of starving children in Gaza. He later applied for conscientious objector status, but as the wait became unbearable, he filed for voluntary separation, another avenue to legally end one’s service. When that was rejected, he took off his uniform and refused to obey orders. He was disciplined and is currently waiting to be released on administrative grounds

“I had to get out,” he said. “I didn’t want to be a part of any of it.”

***

Juan Bettancourt, a US airman who also filed for conscientious objector status earlier this year, told the Guardian that many of the service members he has spoken with have fear of speaking out but are privately appalled by US support for Israel. “There’s a lot of deep-seated criticism and moral disgust at the complicity of our government in the genocide in Gaza,” he said.



Because dissenting voices are so rare, the military just tries to “brush them under the rug”, Bettancourt added, noting that Bushnell’s self-immolation was portrayed by the air force exclusively as a matter of “mental health,” Bettancourt said.

The air force spokesperson wrote in a statement that the force is committed to ensuring its members “never feel compelled to resort to self-harm as a means of protest”. She added that policies like the conscientious objector process “provide a safe avenue for individuals to voice their concerns”.

But service members say voicing dissent is not easy, with a number of them incorrectly believing it’s illegal for them to do so or fearing they may get into trouble for raising questions. (Metzler, Bettancourt and Hebert all stressed they are speaking for themselves, and not on behalf of the military.)

To address that, a coalition of military personnel and veterans groups have launched an “appeal to redress” campaign, modeled after an earlier one during the Iraq war, as a way for service members to register their opposition with legislators to the US’s Israel policy.



Metzler, Bettancourt and Hebert have also launched Servicemembers for Ceasefire, offering resources for fellow members who are opposed to the war, including an explanation of the conscientious objector process.

Metzler stresses that they are not encouraging people to leave the military – they just want those with doubts to know that they have options.

“I’m not saying you have to jump ship or refuse orders,” she said. “But at the very least, pick up a book, figure out what’s going on in the world, and understand the context of what you’re doing.”