An informative rundown from the AP on the urgent response to the nuclear power crises in Japan.
CNN reported this afternoon that State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley is resigning over public statements last week about Bradley Manning’s imprisonment.
More details emerge on the series of events that led to the nuclear power crisis in Japan, including this grim news:
Pentagon officials reported Sunday that helicopters flying 60 miles from the plant picked up small amounts of radioactive particulates — still being analyzed, but presumed to include Cesium-137 and Iodine-121 — suggesting widening environmental contamination. …
Japanese reactor operators now have little choice but to periodically release radioactive steam until the radioactive elements in the fuel of the stricken reactors stop generating intense heat, a process that can continue for a year or more even after the fission process has stopped. … That suggests that the 200,000 people who have been evacuated may not be able to return to their homes for a considerable period and that shifts in the wind could blow radioactive materials toward Japanese cities rather than out to sea.
Late word is that there has been another explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi facility, but at a different reactor than the scene of the hydrogen explosion on Saturday.
Just as you can watch al Jazeera English on the web, you can watch the English language service of NHK World. Watch the live feed after the jump, courtesy of Tokyo-based TPM Reader MG. Read More
Mitch McConnell starts making threats about not raising the debt limit if President Obama doesn’t give way on Republican spending cut demands.
The GOP’s unfolding war on unions could boost President Obama going into 2012.
‘This American Life’s’ Ira Glass: I don’t understand why NPR isn’t fighting back (AUDIO).
There’s so much we don’t know yet about the situation in Japan. And there’s so much yet to happen — we don’t know how bad this is all going to get. For that and many other reasons, I don’t want to try to say anything definitive. But as we watch this very frightening situation unfold in Japan, I think it’s worth keeping a few thoughts in mind. Read More
Stunning shots from post-tsunami Japan:
My wife made the point over the weekend that we are all to one degree or another inured to the images coming out of Japan because of our long-term exposure to disaster movies, which I think is right. If you try to imagine never having seen 2012 and its countless antecedents — which isn’t easy to do (although I really wish I hadn’t seen 2012) — the images take on new significance.