CND Press Digest: Monday 26th February 2024

Posted: 26th February 2024

NATO / Europe

  • Hungary set to finally approve Sweden joining NATO.
  • FT: European capitals are racing to raise $1.5bn in emergency funding to provide Ukraine with artillery shells from overseas to shore up the front lines against Russia as the full-scale war enters its third year.

  • The FT also looks at the arms companies benefiting from “Europe’s defence revival.”
  • Sky News’ Kay Burley explores NATO warship.
  • The Telegraph: UK has ‘no plan B’ if Trump pulls out of NATO. Europe urged to hedge against ex-president’s return to power by spending more on defence.
  • Kaja Kallas: Estonian PM urges NATO to bolster support for Ukraine.
  • Australian Institute of International Affairs: An anxious Europe ponders nuclear weapons.
  • The Trumpet: A European military with nuclear weapons?

Middle East & North Africa

  • UnHerd: The Houthi air strikes aren’t working.
  • Al Jazeera: US airman sets himself on fire outside Israel embassy to protest ‘genocide.’ Active duty airman reportedly said he did not want to be ‘complicit in genocide’ as he lit himself on fire.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

  • Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines have encountered their “first foe” which is a rare butterfly colony, says Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight.

  • How AUKUS plans to outpace China with defense tech investments.

Space

  • The cost of nuclear war in space. FT: How could nuclear weapons be used in space?

Global Nukes

  • Nuclear Threat Reduction: P3 Statement. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom (“P3”) held nuclear threat reduction consultations among senior Elysée, White House, and Cabinet Office officials. These exchanges are part of longstanding and ongoing trilateral cooperation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear materials to non-state actors and to advance collaborative capabilities to counter the threat of weapons of mass destruction terrorism worldwide.
  • Hiroshima watch with hands stuck at exact time of bombing sells for thousands.The wristwatch is said to have stopped at the exact moment the atomic bomb was detonated over the Japanese city on 6 August, 1945, near the end of the Second World War.
  • Private bunker sales boom amid nuclear war fears. Manufacturers of shelters saythey have seen an influx in demand in the past year, primarily the past six months.

Nukes in Britain

  • Trident missile failure exposes folly of nuclear weapons. Kate Hudson writes for Declassified UK, asking why we must continue to pay extortionate amounts of money on nuclear weapons.
  • Simon Tisdall also writes about last month’s failed Trident test for the Observer, asking what a return of Donald Trump to the White House could mean for Britain’s nuclear weapons.
  • The Times: Ignore the missile flop — this is why Trident is more vital than ever. The nuclear deterrent will cost £117bn in the next decade and last week’s missile flop has raised questions over its usefulness. So how does it protect us in a volatile world?

UK Nuclear Energy

  • Nation.Cymru: Has the nuclear lobby hijacked Welsh democracy?
  • SMRs are useless says the UK’s leading SMR analyst! – 100 per cent renewable energy is much more feasible!
  • BBC: Berkshire civil nuclear site first to be fully decommissioned.

Nuclear Energy

Best,

 

Pádraig McCarrick

 

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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