Dear all,

Please find this week’s top stories below.

Britain

• Sophie Bolt responds to Keir Starmer’s annoucnement that cuts to the foreign aid budget will help fund an increase in military spending.
• David Lammy defending the decision and Gen Lord Richard Dannatt calling it a “shortsighted” move, and the Guardian asks if the decision it just to satisfy Donald Trump.
• The Bulletin with an update on Britain’s nuclear weapons. 
• The Federation of American Scientists has RAF Lakenheath is being prepared as a backup base for US nuclear weapons in Europe.
• The i paper looks at Britain and France combining their nuclear weapons to provide wider European nuclear weapons network.
• The UK’s nuclear deterrent provides “no tangible or realistic benefit” SNP leader John Swinney has said. But some campaigners say the remarks were confusing.

Global Nukes

• The Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, expresses the Holy See’s “deep concern” over the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons, in his remarks to the High-Level Segment of the UN’s 2025 Session of the Conference on Disarmament.
• South Korea Reuters: North Korea’s Kim orders nuclear readiness after missile test, KCNA says.
• Nuclear weapons are ‘one-way road to annihilation’ warns Guterres.

Middle East

• Reuters: Iran’s stock of uranium close to weapons grade has jumped since it announced a dramatic acceleration in enrichment in December and there has been no progress on resolving outstanding issues, two reports by the IAEA nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.

NATO / Europe

• The Telegraph’s Colin Freeman writes for The Spectator in an article titled “Ukraine wants its nuclear weapons back.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• More than 700 tonnes of nuclear waste is due to be shipped to Europe as part of a project to send back spent fuel to the countries that produced it. The Sellafield nuclear plant in West Cumbria was tasked with reprocessing the nuclear material used to produce electricity in Germany.

• EDF has been urged by campaigners to stick with plans to install underwater loudspeakers to deter fish in the Bristol Channel, as the energy company grapples with delays to construction of its Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor. The row over the “fish disco” deterrent, as it is known in Whitehall circles, marks the latest salvo in the UK’s long-running battle to balance growth with environmental protections.
• Nuclear Decommissioning Authority budget raises Sellafield safety concerns. Safety could also be impacted at 16 other Nuclear Decommissioning Authority sites. Safety concerns over the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) budget, which includes Sellafield as well as UK-wide services for nuclear waste and restoration, have been raised by Unite, the UK’s leading union.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament