NATO HQ Steps Up Misinformation Campaign Against TPNW
By ICAN
GENEVA (IDN) – NATO’s 15 December statement on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as it enters into force reiterates misconceptions about the treaty and is tone-deaf to the global support for this landmark instrument, including popular support within several NATO countries.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted in 2017 by 122 countries and will take full legal effect on 22 January 2021. It is the first international treaty to ban nuclear weapons and require victim assistance and environmental remediation for people and places harmed by nuclear weapons use and testing. [2020-12-16]
Doubts Whether Space Is Being Used Only for Peaceful Purposes
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – A Soviet cosmonaut and an American astronaut shook hands high above the planet Earth, on July 17, 1975, where the Soviet spaceship Soyuz-19 and the U.S. spacecraft Apollo had met and docked.
In a message of greeting, the Soviet leadership described the "joint flight of the Soviet and US spaceships" as "a major step in the development of Soviet-American scientific and technological cooperation" opening up "new prospects for various countries to work together in the peaceful exploration of outer space". [2020-12- 06 | 21] CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN
Missile Defence Plans Threaten to Trigger Arms Race
By J C Suresh
TORONTO | WASHINGTON (IDN) – President Trump's legacy is far from inspiring. Joe Biden and his team face numerous crucial decisions. Arms policy experts believe that one of the momentous decisions confronting the new administration is "whether and how to move forward with Trump-era plans to expand the U.S. national missile defence footprint with new sea-based missiles that can shoot down long-range ballistic missiles". But this will undoubtedly hamper progress on arms control. [2020-12-04 | 20] ARABIC | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
China to Add Long-Range Bombers and Other Arsenal in the Next Five Years
By Sahil Mishra *
NEW DELHI | BEIJING (IDN) – The highly publicised fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded at the end of October 2020 with an important communiqué which outlines the main objectives of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the long-term vision to realize socialist modernization by 2035. [2020-11-25]
Faith-based & Other NGOs Look Forward to Entry into Force of the Nuclear Ban Treaty
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN (IDN) – When she learned that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached the 50 states parties required for its entry into force, Setsuko Thurlow said: "I was not able to stand. I remained in my chair and put my head in my hands, and I cried tears of joy. … I found myself speaking with the spirits of hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was immediately in conversation with these beloved souls. …I was reporting to the dead, sharing this good news first with them, because they paid the ultimate price with their precious lives." [2020-11-10 |19] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal Under International Law
A Landmark Victory for the United Nations
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached on October 24 the required 50 signatories for its entry into force on January 22, 2021. It will eventually make nuclear weapons — the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction — illegal under international law.
Unquestionably, it is a landmark victory for the United Nations that continually for 75 years had on its agenda the issues relating to disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons. It is remarkable that it coincided with the UN’s 75th anniversary, and also the infamous use of atomic bombs in August 1945. [2020-11-07 |18] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH
A Rallying Call for Nuclear Weapons Elimination By 2045
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan's Permanent Representatives to the United Nations in New York has joined the call of civil society for achieving the global elimination of nuclear weapons at least by 2045, arguing that setting the 2045 goal would provide a global rallying call to build a strong movement and that would leave no room for being dismissed as unrealistically early by those who rely on nuclear deterrence. [2020-11-05]
Almost Unnoticed Nuclear Pandemic Is Spreading in Japan
By Manlio Dinucci
This article was originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto. It is being republished from Global Research. Manlio Dinucci is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
MONTREAL (IDN) – It was not Covid-19, therefore the news went almost unnoticed: Japan will release over a million tons of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. The catastrophic incident in Fukushima was triggered by the Tsunami that struck the north-eastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, submerging the power plant and causing the core of three nuclear reactors to melt. [2020-11-04]
US Pressurizes TPNW Signatories Triggering Uncertainty About Nuclear-Weapons-Free World
By Thalif Deen *
NEW YORK (IDN) – Responding to a question, Albert Einstein, the German-born physicist who won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics, predicted rather ominously: “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Einstein, who regretted the marginal role he played in the creation of the atomic bomb, was implicit in his warning of a world going back to a pre-historic stone age — in case it is annihilated by nuclear weapons in a third world war. [2020-11-01]
Setsuko Thurlow: The TPNW – A Game Changer in Nuclear Disarmament
The following is the text of the Statement by Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and long time campaigner for nuclear-weapons abolition, as the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached the 50 states parties required for its entry into force. ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons published the Statement on its website. [2020-10-28]
