Despite the deteriorating security situation, there are some signs of progress in the field of disarmament, such as the intention of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States to hold summit talks, a senior United Nations official on 2 April 2018 said.
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NASA International Space Station (2008). | Source: UN News Centre.
“At a time when global anxieties about nuclear weapons are higher than at any time since the Cold War, measures for disarmament and arms control are more vital than ever,” Thomas Markram, Deputy High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the opening of the 2018 session of the UN Disarmament Commission, held in New York.
Behind the UK’s nuclear-armed submarines are lesser known tactical warheads primed for battle.
22 March 2018 (openDemocracy)*— Several recent columns in this series have discussed the risk of nuclear war. Four trends have pushed the issue up the international agenda: North Korea’s tests, Trump’s nuclear posture review, Russia’s development of new weapons, and rising tensions in Nato-Russia relations.
“Even the small Type 21 frigate, two of which were lost in the Falklands/Malvinas war in 1982, was nuclear-capable.” HMS Antelope of the Royal Navy was one of those destroyed. Wikicommons/ Dmgerrard. Some rights reserved.
A recurrent theme in these columns is the widespread myth that nuclear weapons are solely about deterring attack through the threat of an overwhelming response.
9 March 2018 (openDemocracy)* — An earlier column in this series looked at the unknown or neglected history of accidents involving nuclear weapons. Much of the secrecy that shrouds nuclear issues, above all their actual targeting, is the result of deliberate supprerssion by governments with the collusion of the media.
HMS Illustrious in Portsmouth Harbour Aircraft Carrier, April 2009. Wikicommons/Peter Trimming. Some rights reserved.
“A US-Russia Strategic Dialogue is more urgent following President Putin’s public address on March 1st when he referred to several new nuclear weapons Russia is reportedly developing, including a cruise missile and a nuclear underwater drone,” a letter signed by US Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) reads.
The letter, addressed to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was published on Thursday [8 March 2018]. The senators stressed that while the countries have many “significant” disagreements, including alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and the “annexation” of Crimea, Moscow and Washington need to come to the negotiation table.
7 March 2018(EURACTIV.com)— Belgian pharmacies will provide radiation-busting iodine tablets free-of-charge to anyone as part of the country’s new nuclear strategy, while Benelux partner Luxembourg has come out fighting against atom-smashing.
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Anyone living within 100kms of one of Belgium’s nuclear plants will have access to free iodine tablets. [Shutterstock] | Photo re-posted from EurActiv
Iran is implementing a series of commitments under the nuclear agreement reached with key countries in 2015, the head of the United Nations nuclear energy agency 5 March 2018 said.
Dean Calma/IAEA | Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), briefs members of the media in Vienna.
“As of today, I can state that Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments,” he said in his introductory statement to the Board of Governors, one of the two policy-making bodies of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
22 February 2018 — We are all familiar with the climate change denial of Donald Trump and the US Republican Party. Motivated by the greed of giant fossil fuel corporations, climate change denial contradicts the research of the vast majority of scientists and endangers the futire of human civilization and the biosphere.
(Don’t Want Your) Nuclear Umbrella | ICAN – International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
There exists another very similar greed-motivated denial: It is the denial of the peer-reviewed scientific research on the environmental effects of a nuclear war. In this case, the greed is that of the military-industrial complex against which US President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned in his famous farewell address.
6 February 2018 (RT)*— Washington’s latest Nuclear Posture Review imperils global security in three ways: it inflates perceived threats to the US, it conflates conventional & nuclear war and it pushes for the development of low-yield nuclear weapons.
These three new moments in US policy increase the risk of nuclear war rather than lowering it, as American Defense Secretary James Mattis claimed in signing off on the Nuclear Posture Review published last week.
8 February 2018 — The United States Department of Defense released its latest ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’ (NPR) on 2 February, updating the last one issued in 2010 during the previous administration. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’.
Several authors have already thoughtfully exposed a phenomenal variety of obvious lies, invented threats, strategic misconceptions and flaws – such as the fallacious thinking behind ‘deterrence’ and significantly increased risk of nuclear war given the delusional ‘thinking’ in the document – as well as the political fear-mongering in the NPR.
Source of photo: ICAN – International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
The review specifically calls for the development of new, low-yield nuclear weapons that have lower explosive force. Many experts warn that such smaller weapons would blur the distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, representing a significant and dangerous increase in the likelihood of their use.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 