Dear all,

I’ll be on leave tomorrow so this week’s email is coming to you all a day early. Thank you all for your continued support and have a great rest of your week.

 Britain

• Navy Lookout has an CND comment on Keir Starmer’s suggestion that Britain could send troops to Ukraine as part of security guarantees.
• BAE Syetems announces annual profits of £3 billion for the first time and a record-breaking order book.
• Clive Lewis MP on Donald Trump’s ditching of Britain, and the opportunity it poses to reassess Britain’s defence and investment, social spending and foreign policy.
• Lots of discussion this week about an increase in Britain’s military spending and how it will be funded, with some arguments and coverage from Politics Home, Independent, Sky News, and a Guardian editorial.

Global Nukes

• ICAN’s 2024 Don’t bank on the bomb report identifies 260 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions with significant finance or investment relations with the 24 main nuclear weapons producers.
• BBC: US government tries to rehire nuclear staff it fired days ago.
• The new art of atomic critique. A new generation of artists is exploring non-literal and multi-layered depictions of nuclear injury and anxiety, incorporating multimedia sculpture, Indigenous totems, nuclear mascots—and taxidermized “super rats.”
• Japan will not participate in meeting of Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty. With China, Russia, and North Korea in mind, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya pointed outthat “qualitative and quantitative nuclear arms proliferation is advancing around our country.”

Middle East

• Prioritizing Nuclear Negotiations With Iran. Why nuclear negotiations with Iran are necessary and urgent, and might prove fruitful.

NATO / Europe

• Patrick Wintour in The Guardian: Why Europe’s defence spending may need a bold new approach.
• NTI joined world leaders and policy makers at the 2025 Munich Security Conference (MSC) to issue a statement on steps to reverse the slide to nuclear war and host a side event focused on reducing nuclear threats imperiling humanity.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Sellafield has been taken out of special measures over concerns of its physical security, but concerns remain over its physical security.

Nuclear Energy

•  IAEA boss Rafeal Grossi visited Fukukshima on Wednesday as the watchdog took part in the sampling of treated water being discharged from the defunct nuclear plant.
• Plokhy argues in Chornobyl occupation book that Russia’s nuclear blackmail is ‘warning for the future.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament