CND Press Digest: Thursday 29th February 2024

NATO / Europe

• Russia must be “properly protected” after the expansion of NATO to include Sweden and Finland, Vladimir Putin Reuters: Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets.
• BBC reports on the jailing of Russian human rights campaigner, Oleg Orlov, who has had a fine for speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine turned into a 2.5 year prison sentence. The article also mentioned the jailing of Boris Kagarlitsky.
• CND website: NATO allies back away from Macron’s troops to Ukraine plan.
• Morning Star editorial: No troops for Ukraine war.

Middle East & North Africa

• In response to the consistent pro-Palestinian protests, UK home secretary may tighten restrictions on protests.
• Letter: As British Jews, we call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
• If Biden loses in November, don’t blame voters who are angry over Gaza.
• One in five pregnant women in Gaza clinic are malnourished, doctors warn.
• UK should impose sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, says Ed Davey.
• Rochdale polls open after election contest dominated by Gaza.
• Haaretz Opinion: Israeli calls to ‘Nuke Gaza’ are undermining the nuclear ambiguity doctrine.
• The Jerusalem Post National Interest: Iran could decide to build a nuclear weapon.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

• The Express runs an opinion from Professor Doug Stokes (Exeter University, and a senior adviser at pro-Brexit think tank, the Legatum Institute: Time to bring Canada into the UK’s nuclear submarine pact with US and Australia.

Global Nukes

• China urges largest nuclear states to negotiate a ‘no-first-use’ treaty.
• The Telegraph reports on conversations in Germany about getting nuclear weapons. 

Nukes in Britain

• Watch back Monday’s webinar on RAF Lakenheath’s role in the US war machine.
• Chatham House: The failed Trident test highlights an imbalance in UK defence strategy
• BBC: A former Royal Engineer who witnessed several atomic and hydrogen bomb explosions as part of the UK’s nuclear tests said he was a “guinea pig”.

UK Nuclear Energy

• (Former UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary) Chris Huhne letter to the FT: Tax-payers shouldn’t be footing bill for EDF failings. I was astonished and saddened by your report that both Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, and Luc Rémont, chief executive of EDF, are pressing the UK government to help with the cost overrun at Hinkley Point C, the EDF nuclear plant under construction in the UK. I regret EDF’s €12.9bn write down, but it is the French company’s responsibility (Report, February 17). I will save French blushes by not quoting all the promises that were made by the company about the low cost of its nuclear energy (a fraction even of what was ultimately agreed). What is wholly unacceptable, however, is the notion that the UK taxpayer should in any way be on the hook for cost overruns when it was always made utterly explicit — by me and my successor — that this would never happen. A clear condition of the Hinkley project was that EDF would be entirely and solely responsible for the construction costs and risks, and the UK government would merely guarantee a price (subsidy-free, taking account of carbon costs) for the electricity output once the plant started. Nothing could be more unambiguous either legally, politically or morally. Neither I nor my immediate successors would ever have agreed any contract — a contract for difference — on any other basis. Any British minister who now goes back on that arrangement would be betraying their responsibility to the exchequer, and would be a legitimate target for the public accounts committee.
• Holderness: Government guarantees plans for nuclear waste dump will be droppedfor good.
• Nuclear fusion: What is the JET nuclear reactor, and why is it being decommissioned? After 40 years of fusion science, the Joint European Torus in Oxfordshire is shutting down.

Nuclear Energy

• The Guardian reports on the Coalition’s support for nuclear power: Anyone reading the Australian’s Newspoll survey might think there was an actual proposal in place to build small modular nuclear reactors around Australia – except there isn’t.

CND

• A video from Salisbury CND showcasing the 12 Gaza ceasefire vigils they have held to date.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament