China has discovered a significant uranium deposit in its north-western region.The discovery will significantly increase the country’s uranium resources.
The China Geological Survey, under the Ministry of Natural Resources, announced on Friday that major progress has been made in uranium exploration in the Jingchuan area of the Ordos Plateau, also known as Hetao in Chinese, reports the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper.
It is the first ultra-large uranium deposit in the world to be discovered in a region dominated by aeolian sandstone, a type of rock formed by the wind’s effect on sediments. In addition to the 200,000 square kilometer Ordos Basin, similar areas can also be found in other parts of China.
The discovery of the Jingchuan uranium deposit is expected to create new exploration opportunities in China and help secure the country’s uranium resources.
China has also recently made one of the world’s largest gold discoveries. The discovery, made in the Wangu gold field in Pingjiang County, is estimated to contain over 1 000 tons of gold worth more than €80 billion.
Uranium is mainly used as fuel for nuclear power plants.
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Montage. Photo: Alan Wilson/CC BY-SA 2.0, Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
BAE Systems, based in the UK, is Europe's largest arms manufacturer, employing more than 83 000 people and producing, among other things, the Challenger tank.
The UK will invest $2 billion in new arms factories as part of a major military buildup, Defense Secretary John Healey announces ahead of the government’s Strategic Defense Review tomorrow.
The investment includes at least six new ammunition and explosives factories, as well as the purchase of over 7,000 domestically produced long-range weapons, including drones and missiles.
– The hard-fought lessons from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind it, said Healey.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer also underlines the need to respond to alleged threats from states with advanced military capabilities – singling out Russia, Iran and North Korea in particular.
– We are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, so we must be ready to fight and win, he declares.
The investment is also said to be aimed at stimulating the economy, and will see the UK spend a total of around £6 billion on munitions during the current parliamentary term.
AI to improve decision-making in combat
– We welcome investment in new munitions factories, but we don’t know when they will be ready – only that these orders should have been placed months ago, said James Cartlidge, defense spokesman for the Liberal Conservative opposition.
The UK, one of Ukraine’s most generous funders, has decided to raise its defense budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with a long-term goal of 3% by 2034.
Meanwhile, Moscow warns of rising tensions and accuses former prime minister Boris Johnson of sabotaging the 2022 peace talks and pressuring Ukraine to leave – a claim he denies.
Meanwhile, the UK government has announced it will invest billions in artificial intelligence to improve decision-making on the battlefield and has committed to spending an additional £1.5 billion to improve the country’s military housing.
Israel’s invasion and bombing of Gaza have been described as among the most extensive in modern times and condemned worldwide because of the high number of civilian casualties.
However, the country’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has long been one of the strongest voices calling for further escalation of the situation – now he is insisting that it is time for Israel to “go in with full force” into the already bombed-out territory.
Ben-Gvir, who also leads the Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party, believes that Israel should take control of both Gaza and the West Bank and has been criticized over the years, even in Israel, for praising Jewish terrorists and mass murderers.
Itamar Ben-Gvir also caused a major uproar when he attended the so-called “wedding of hate” in 2015, where guests celebrated the murder of a Palestinian family in the village of Duma. At the wedding, participants waved weapons and stabbed knives into a picture of the 18-month-old boy who was killed in the arson attack – an act that Ben-Gvir had previously defended.
Itamar Ben-Gvir was present at the ‘Wedding Of Hate’ in Dec 2015, at which revellers including the groom Amiram Ben-Uliel celebrated the latter’s murder of Palestinian toddler Ali Dawabsheh and his parents in an arson attack on the West Bank. pic.twitter.com/zrjPs5WL6l
The number of Palestinians killed during Israel’s invasion and bombings is unclear – but is estimated to be between 40,000 and hundreds of thousands.
However, given that Hamas has said that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal does not meet their demands, Ben-Gvir believes that too much caution has been exercised so far and that it is now time to seriously use military force.
– Mr. Prime Minister, after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again – there are no more excuses, Ben-Gvir said on his Telegram channel.
– The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities. It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one.
אדוני רה״מ, אחרי שחמאס דחה שוב את הצעת העסקה, אין שום תירוץ יותר, לאף אחד, להמשיך עם הדשדוש הזה בעזה. פספסנו כבר מספיק הזדמנויות. זה הזמן להיכנס בכל הכוח, להשמיד להרוג ולאבד את החמאס.
Ben-Gvir’s definition of terrorists who must be eliminated includes, according to him, not only combatants but also all Palestinians who are considered to sympathize with the Islamist group.
He has also previously argued that it is difficult to determine which Palestinians belong to Hamas and which do not, and he has repeatedly argued that Gaza should be permanently emptied of Palestinians.
Australian whistleblower David McBride will not have his prison sentence reduced. The Australian Capital Territory Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday, rejecting McBride’s attempt to appeal the five-year and eight-month sentence he was handed down last year.
McBride, a former army lawyer, pleaded guilty to stealing and leaking classified documents about war crimes committed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. This information was then used as the basis for ABC’s high-profile investigation, The Afghan Files, in 2017.
In his appeal, McBride claimed that he had acted in the public interest, citing the oath he had sworn as a member of the military. However, the court rejected this argument and ruled that the oath actually obliged him to act “according to the law“.
– It is my own conscience and the people of Australia that I answer to. I have kept my oath to the Australian people, McBride said in a statement through his lawyers.
– People who have stood up for what is right in history have suffered far more than I have. … It is a great privilege to sacrifice for the country and I am confident the outrage produced by this judgment will be felt by all Australians. I will not give up.
“It can’t be illegal to tell the truth”
McBride can apply for parole after serving two years and three months, which means August 2025 at the earliest. However, his lawyer Eddie Lloyd says he will probably not be able to begin parole hearings until August 2026.
The decision has drawn criticism from rights groups and lawyers, who point out that McBride is the only person so far to be jailed over allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. A 2020 military report recommended that 19 soldiers be investigated for 39 cases of suspected war crimes, but only one – Oliver Schulz – has been charged so far.
Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, recently lost a civil case that found he had killed four unarmed Afghans in violation of the laws of war, but he has not yet been charged.
“It cannot be a crime to expose a crime. It cannot be illegal to tell the truth”, McBride’s lawyers wrote, announcing that they will now take the case to Australia’s highest court.
The lawyers are also calling on Justice Minister Michelle Rowland to pardon McBride. Her office declined to comment, but said it was considering further protections for whistleblowers in the public sector.
– David should never have spent a single day behind bars. Yet as we speak, he is returning to a cold, dark prison cell – preparing for winter in a concrete jungle – while those who committed crimes walk free and those who covered up those crimes have been rewarded with medals and promotions, Lloyd said.
The Nordic Times has previously reported on McBride’s case in connection with his prison sentence.
German Chancellor and former BlackRock executive Friedrich Merz is threatening to support a freeze on EU funding for Slovakia and Hungary if the countries continue to oppose EU leaders’ sanctions policy against Russia.
On Monday, Merz removed restrictions on Ukraine’s use of German long-range weapons deep inside Russia, a decision the Kremlin described as a “serious escalation”. Slovakia and Hungary have also taken a critical stance toward the West’s policy in the Ukraine war.
However, Merz does not appreciate the criticism and issued a clear warning to Bratislava and Budapest, stating that EU countries considered to be in breach of the rule of law could face infringement proceedings.
– Withdrawing European funds is always an option… If it is necessary, then we will deal with it, he added.
He also emphasized that “we cannot allow the decisions of the entire EU to depend on a small minority” and hinted that there could be “clearer words and possibly also harder conflicts” if the two countries do not change course.
“The end of democracy in Europe”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have long criticized EU leaders for prolonging the war with military and economic support for Kiev without any visible progress.
Fico, who survived an assassination attempt in May 2024, has taken a more neutral stance than his predecessors since coming to power in 2023. Under his leadership, Slovakia has reduced its military support for Ukraine and promised to veto new EU sanctions that could damage the country’s economy. Fico has also visited Moscow twice since December to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has sparked anger and criticism from both the EU and NATO.
The Slovak prime minister rejected Merz’s threat to withdraw funding and called the attack unacceptable.
– If someone wants to push a policy where only one opinion is allowed, that’s the end of democracy in Europe, he told reporters during a visit to Armenia on Tuesday.
SLOVAKIA IS NOT A LITTLE SCHOOLCHILD THAT NEEDS TO BE LECTURED
Slovakia’s sovereign positions do not stem from vanity, but are based on our national interests.
The politics of a single mandatory opinion is a denial of sovereignty and democracy.
When you hear such aggressive… pic.twitter.com/xr1WexRZny
He argued that a policy where only one opinion is allowed is as dangerous for Europe as a third world war, and that German leaders must accept that not everyone shares their views.
“Slovakia is not a little schoolchild that needs to be lectured. Slovakia’s sovereign positions do not stem from vanity, but are based on our national interests“, Fico stated, continuing:
“When you hear such aggressive remarks, it feels like we are not heading into good times. The words of the German Chancellor are absolutely unacceptable in modern Europe. If we don’t obey, are we to be punished? This is not the path toward cohesion and cooperation”.
