CND Press Digest: Tuesday 4th June 2024

General Election 2024

• The Guardian: Rayner hasn’t ‘changed mind’ on nuclear weapons but backs Labour policy. Deputy leader has voted against renewing Trident but says she supports ‘triple lock’ commitment to programme in near term.
• The Guardian: Reality check: is Keir Starmer’s triple lock on nuclear weapons. anything new? We look at the facts and figures behind Labour’s defence pledge and its affordability.
• Naval Technology: How would UK defence spending change under Starmer’s Labour? UK election frontrunner Keir Starmer has pledged to raise the country’s defence spending to 2.5% of GDP under a Labour government.
• The Morning Star: ‘Britain will be fit to fight within the first year of a Labour.
• government’. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer renews commitment to militarism and Britain’s nuclear weapons.
• The New Statesman: Why Starmer needs to embrace nuclear weapons now.
• BBC: Starmer says he is prepared to use nuclear weapons.
• Politico: UK Labour talks up nuclear weapons to banish Corbyn’s shadow.
• The Telegraph: Angela Rayner says she wants to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
• David Lammy Bella Caledonia: Nuclear War, Scotland, and the General Election. On the day when Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary went on radio to say we can’t rebuild our public services if we don’t have nuclear weapons, David Mackenzie makes the case for peace, and sanity.
• European Leadership Network: Time to engage seriously with the TPNW’s security concerns.
• Financial Times: Russia’s nuclear threats are losing their power. The western alliance is intensifying support for Ukraine in a way that was unthinkable at the beginning of the war.
• Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer writes for the Kyiv Independent: The Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling has raised eyebrows in the West since the start of Russia’s full-scale war, but Putin isn’t interested in triggering a nuclear war.
• Reuters: In Japan, energy security fears put nuclear back in favour for 2040 plan. Japan is set to push for more nuclear power in an energy policy update due next year, seeking stable electricity supply in face of growing demand and heightening geopolitical risks, but is likely to struggle to meet its targets, industry experts say.
• Reuters: IAEA’s Grossi says it’s far from safe to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
• MEMO: IAEA chief voices concerns over possible changes to Iran nuclear doctrine.

NATO / Europe

• The Telegraph: NATO land corridors could rush US troops to front line in event of European war. Pre-planned logistical routes could help stave off a potential Russian attack.
• Reuters: NATO’s recent move to strengthen its eastern border is aimed at deterring Russia, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday, adding that it should be clear to Moscow that the alliance will be ready to defend itself if necessary.

AUKUS & Indo-Pacific

•  The monumental shift in North Korea’s nuclear program that never happened. The offer to close the Nuclear Weapons Institute could have had major ramifications for the prospect of denuclearisation.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament