Day 1: Ban Treaty - New York

TPNW: What I learned on day one of UN summit on nuclear weapons. Melissa Parke, the chief executive of the 2017-prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), warned that nuclear weapons could “destroy all complex life on earth”. “They are therefore everyone’s business,” Parke said. “Not just the narrow security concern of nuclear-armed states.” She added: “Half the world has joined this treaty already. A global majority of nations support this treaty, and have gathered to be part of the solution, not the problem.” Notably absent were all of the nine nuclear-armed states: the US, Russia, China, France, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, India, and the UK. Japan – the only country to have been targeted by nuclear attacks – was also conspicuous in its absence.