CND Press Digest: Thursday 16th November 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• David Cameron has visited Volodymyr Zelenskiy in his first outing as Foreign Secretary. The former UK PM used the visit to Kyiv on Thursday to pledge that long-term British support for Ukraine would continue.
• Russia’s rocket forces loaded an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with the nuclear-capable “Avangard” hypersonic glide vehicle into a launch silo in southern Russia, according to a defence ministry TV channel broadcast on Thursday.

Israel-Palestine

• UN security council backs resolution calling for humanitarian pause in Gaza.
• More than 50 UK Labour MPs break ranks to vote for Gaza ceasefire.
• The Canary reports on figures from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who say more than 150,000 people have written to their MP about a ceasefire.
• Ceasefire vote: Full list of Labour MPs who voted for SNP pro-ceasefire motion.
• Jess Phillips among eight MPs in Keir Starmer’s frontbench to defy whip and vote for Gaza ceasefire amendment.

RAF Lakenheath

• The Canary, Morning Star and Eastern Daily Press have picked up on CND’s legal challenge to the construction of new buildings at RAF Lakenheath.
• US aircrews from RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall have finished their weeks-long participation in Atlantic Trident 2023 - a series of biennial multinational wargames with Britain and France.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Queen Mary University: Storing the most dangerous materials on earth: how modelling is unlocking the potential of nuclear power.

Nuclear Energy

• The US will lead an effort at the COP28 climate summit to set a target for tripling the amount of installed nuclear power capacity globally by 2050, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. The push also has the backing of the UK.
• Russia’s state nuclear power corporation has reported that turbine blades broke at a plant where the company has installed two reactors of a type it is also building in Turkey and plans to construct in Hungary.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Reuters: Iran has enough uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity, close to weapons-grade, for three atom bombs by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s definition and is still stonewalling the agency on key issues, confidential IAEA reportsshowed on Wednesday.

North Korea

• North Korea has criticised a recent trip by senior US officials to South Korea, vowing more “offensive” responses to what it called military threats from Washington and its allies.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament