Dear all, 

Please find this week’s roundup of news, in what has been a very busy time for nuclear news. Thanks all for your continued support and have a lovely weekend!

 Britain

• Anti-arms groups plan mass protests over expansion of UK nuclear deterrent. Expansion decision ‘undermines democracy’ and will mobilise new generation of protesters, groups warn.
• How and why is Britain obtaining access to nuclear gravity bombs? UK purchase of F-35A squadron means US nuclear warheads are likely to be stored on British soil once again.
• ‘Are we safe, if nuclear weapons are here?’: trepidation in Norfolk village over new jets - The Guardian.
• Greenham Common women ITV Anglia report on CND’s recent protest at RAF Marham. More coverage from Lynn News, Counterfire, and Rayo.
• Mentions of CND in Glastonbury coverage from The Guardian, Far Out magazine, BBC online, and released to the public, after Scotland’s freedom of information watchdog said it threatens “reputations” not national security.

• House of Lords exchange on the independence on Britain’s nuclear weapons programme.  

• RAF’s nuclear-capable F-35As due for delivery by end of the decade, Healey confirms.

Iran

• The Pentagon has collected intelligence material that suggests Iran’s nuclear program was set back roughly one to two years as a result of the US strikes on three key facilities last month, the chief spokesperson at the defense department said at a news conference on Wednesday.
• Financial Times: Israel 1967, Iran 2025: two countries on the threshold of a nuclear bomb. Facing an existential threat in the 1960s, Israel hastily assembled an atomic device. What will Iran choose to do?
• The Bulletin: Iran can still build nuclear weapons without further enrichment. Only diplomacy will stop it.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• Hiroshima mayor invites Trump to visit after ‘that hit ended the war’ crack comparing WWII atom bomb to Iran strike. President’s comments incited angry backlash in Japan, with Hiroshima’s city assembly passing resolution condemning statements that ‘justify the use of atomic bombs’

NATO / Europe

• The Italian job: how Rome plans to work around NATO spending hike.
• Politico: US arms stoppage to Ukraine ‘serious setback’ for EU and NATO, Danish PM says.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

• AUKUS deal’s importance ‘well understood’ by Trump administration, Penny Wong says – but no iron-clad guarantee given.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament