CND Press Digest: Thursday 2nd November 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• The Financial Times (paywall): Why Vladimir Putin toned down his nuclear rhetoric. Russia’s president unnerved his foes and friends about the war in Ukraine turning into an atomic conflagration.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law revoking Russia’s ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Arms Control

• The Guardian: China and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration. The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China’s foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Nuclear Risk

• NATO exercise came perilously close to triggering nuclear Armageddon. Taylor Downing explains how Operation Able Archer led us to the brink of destruction.

• BBC: An 85-year-old veteran has been given a medal for participating in nuclear weapon testing. David Elam, who lives in Eastlington, Gloucestershire, served in the Royal Navy from the age of 15 and was part of Operation Grapple in 1957.

AUKUS

• The Guardian: The $368bn AUKUS plan to build nuclear submarines in Adelaide has been labelled “a fairytale” and “pork barrelling” by Alexander Downer, Australia’s longest serving foreign minister.
• Asia Times: How AUKUS Plus could reshape the Indo-Pacific. There is still no consensus but the idea of expanding alliance to include Japan and S Korea is gaining certain traction.
• Polling: A significant minority of Australians think the country should withdraw from the overall Anzus security alliance with the US if Donald Trump returns to the White House, while just under half of the respondents in a new poll believe the AUKUS pact locks Australia in to supporting the US in any armed conflict.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Climate sceptic and independent energy consultant Kathryn Porter’s latest column in the Telegraph arguing for nuclear power to take centre stage in the move away from fossil fuels.
• The BBC  on Together Against Sizewell C’s legal action to stop the development of the Suffolk nuclear project. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67287666?link_id=10&can_id=3728975d598a06451f917f9…
• More coverage from East Anglian Daily Times.

Nuclear Energy

• Analysis in the the i newspaper on Saudi-US relations and how Riyadh has been able to leverage its growing geopolitical power to get support from Washington for its nuclear power ambitions.  
• The Times, Politico, and https://japantoday.com/category/national/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-starts-3rd-release-of-treat…?

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament