CND Press Digest: Monday 25 March 2024

NATO / Europe

• Trump right to abandon NATO countries that fail to pay bill, say third of voters. Survey also finds UK considered US’s most important ally and Europe too dependent on US for military defence.
• Former deputy secretary-general of NATO, Rose Gottemoeller writes in the FT on the war in Ukraine and the “mind games of nuclear deterrence.”
• Presidents of Latvia and Estonia say European states in NATO should do more to prepare for Russian threat, including looking at a return to conscription and a special defence tax to dramatically increase military spending.
• Russian billionaire calls for nuclear strike against Ukraine after 115 dead. Konstantin Malofeev threatened harsh retaliation against Ukraine hinting at the use of nuclear force after he believed the nation was behind the terror attacks – before ISIS claimed it was them.

Middle East & North Africa

• Israel behind alleged sabotage at Iran’s covert nuclear arms site, report says.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

• Australia’s $4.6bn AUKUS funding to help create more than 1,000 jobs in UK, Rolls-Royce says. The company said work is already under way ‘to double the size of the Rolls-Royce Submarines site in the UK.

Nukes in Britain

• Rishi Sunak has announced that the British government will pump an extra £200 million into Britain’s nuclear weapons industry, as part of a £763 million investment in the sector. Meanwhile, Grant Shapps will also publish a Defence Nuclear Enterprise command paper to set out how ministers plan to modernise the country’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent, including the Trident missile system. Coverage from Reuters, Newsweek, Sky News, the i newspaper, and Financial Times: The EU must wean itself off Russian nuclear fuel “as fast as possible”, Belgian’s prime minister has said, to stop a renaissance in Europe’s interest for the low-carbon energy inflating Moscow’s war chest. Alexander De Croo told the Financial Times that Belgium had taken a “180 degree” turn in its attitude to nuclear power, prompted in part by the bloc’s laws aimed at curbing carbon emissions across Europe. Pressure to meet those targets and a rush to move away from Russian gas has prompted renewed interest in nuclear power in Belgium and other European countries. But with Russia’s enriched uranium making up 30 per cent of EU supply in 2022, there was a risk that the bloc could swap one dependency for another.
• Watch: Al Jazeera’s Counting the Cost programme looks at the rising interest in nuclear power.
• Energy Central: The West’s nuclear power revival could be slower than hoped.
• Climate-conscious investors put nuclear dead last on list of desirable Australian ventures.
• Peter Dutton in standoff with state Liberal leaders over federal Coalition’s nuclear plan.
• Exclusive: Ukraine hopes to start installing nuclear reactors from Bulgaria in June.
• Ukraine says power line to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant fixed after blackout risk.

CND

• Kendal peace campaigners display roses alongside their placards.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament