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☆ UK Nobel Prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs dies aged 94
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

London —Physicist Peter Higgs, whose theory of an undetected particle in the universe changed science and was vindicated by a Nobel prize-winning discovery half a century later, has died aged 94, the University of Edinburgh said on Tuesday. Higgs described himself as “incompetent” in the physics laboratory at school and at first preferred maths and chemistry. What came to be known as the Higgs boson would solve the riddle of where several fundamental particles get their mass from: by interacting with the invisible “Higgs field” that pervades space. That interaction, known as the “Brout-Englert-Higgs” mechanism, won Higgs and Belgium’s Francois Englert the Nobel prize in physics in 2013. CERN’s massive Large Hadron Collider finally proved to be the sledgehammer needed to crack the nut, and in 2012 two experiments there independently found the Higgs boson.

Persons: Peter Higgs, Higgs, “ Peter Higgs, ”, Sir Peter Mathieson, Paul Dirac, Belgium’s Francois Englert, Robert Brout, “, Rolf Heuer, welling, theoreticians, Jody Williamson, ’ ”, Robert Evans, Tom Miles, Farouq Suleiman, Pravin Char, Mark Heinrich Organizations: London, University of Edinburgh, CERN, Reuters, “, Edinburgh University, Fermilab, Collider, chuckling Locations: Geneva, Chicago, American, Edinburgh

☆ Putin looms over a third successive US election
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —“Russia, Russia, Russia.”Ex-President Donald Trump’s scathing catch phrase for a torrent of investigations during his administration also serves as an apt catch-all for the current meltdown over Moscow roiling US politics. But Russia and its leader, whom President Joe Biden described as a “crazy S.O.B.” at a Wednesday fundraiser, won’t go away. All the ways Putin is playing in US politicsPutin is advancing Russian interests against the US on multiple fronts. Putin recently formalized his warming ties with North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un by presenting him with a new limousine. The Russian leader was particularly incensed by the US-led operation to topple Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Donald Trump’s, Joe Biden, won’t, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Ukraine –, –, Alexander Smirnov, “, Trump, Smirnov, Biden, it’s, Putin can’t, ” Douglas, Alexey Navalny, Biden lambasts Trump, ” Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, he’s, he’d, Mike Turner, Ksenia, Paul Whelan –, Evan Gershkovich, Geopolitically, Kim Jong Un, George W, Bush, Barack Obama, Moammar Gadhafi, Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, “ We’ll, Mueller Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, United States, European NATO, ”, Moscow, House Republicans, GOP, CIA, NATO, Republican Party, Republicans, Republican, Trump, Marine, Wall Street, Putin, Biden, US, Democratic Locations: Russia, Moscow, United States, China, Soviet, East Germany, United, Ukraine, Russian, European, Washington, Asia, Sweden, Finland, Berlin –, Europe, Ukrainian, California, North Korea, Iran, Crimea, Helsinki, Geneva

☆ A Trident missile test-fired by a UK submarine failed. That's a lot of money down the drain.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Polly Thompson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThe British navy suffered an embarrassing flop after a failed test launch of a Trident nuclear missile was revealed. AdvertisementIt's the second time in a row that a test launch of a Trident missile by the Royal Navy has had an unhappy ending. These failures have a high price tag, given that each missile costs tens of millions of dollars. AdvertisementThat involves manufacturing costs, missile extension programs, replacement warheads, in-service costs, and personnel salaries. Building the Trident system in the 1980s cost about £21 billion ($26.5 billion) in today's money, according to the Ministry of Defense.

Persons: —, Grant Shapps, Lockheed Martin Organizations: Service, British, Trident, Sun, Business, Defense, Royal Navy, US Navy, US, Lockheed, Vanguard, Ministry of Defense, Nuclear Disarmament, Department of Defense, Congressional, Office Locations: Florida, Africa, Ohio, Red Sea, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan Strait

CNN —The Doomsday Clock that has been ticking for 77 years is no ordinary clock — it attempts to gauge how close humanity is to destroying the world. Last year the Bulletin set the clock at 90 seconds to midnight mainly due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The clock isn’t designed to definitively measure existential threats, but rather to spark conversations about difficult scientific topics such as climate change, according to the Bulletin. Originally, the organization was conceived to measure nuclear threats, but in 2007 the Bulletin made the decision to include climate change in its calculations. “When the clock is at midnight, that means there’s been some sort of nuclear exchange or catastrophic climate change that’s wiped out humanity,” she said.

Persons: Rachel Bronson, ” Bronson, Michael E, Mann, Eryn MacDonald, ”, Bronson, “, Boris Johnson, George H.W, you’re Organizations: CNN, Atomic Scientists, Midnight, Manhattan Project, Security, Sponsors, University of Pennsylvania, Union of, ’ Global Security, Bulletin Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Glasgow, UK, Soviet Union, Iran, Paris

☆ A former OpenAI exec says AI could be the last technology humans ever invent
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

So now you start compounding the implications on life sciences, and biosciences and it gets really, really exciting. I will say this, I don't think that it is currently popular to espouse an overwhelmingly positive sentiment, because I think it is seen as naive. I think we are so wrapped up in the Terminator Skynet idea, and I just don't think that's even remotely interesting given what we think we're building. I point to nuclear as the best example of how one policy, especially influenced by public perception, can have a really, really incredible consequence on the human experience. I think there is not enough attention paid to the issue of AI versus AI.

Persons: Zack Kass, Kass, Santa Barbara, Sam, Altman, I've, we're Organizations: Artificial Intelligence, biosciences, Artificial General Intelligence Locations: Santa, China

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China, Iran and a multitude of Arab nations condemned an Israeli minister’s statement that a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was an option in the Israel-Hamas war, calling it a threat to the world. It is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, and a former employee at its nuclear reactor served 18 years in Israeli prison for leaking details and pictures of Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal program to a British newspaper in 1986. He urged Israel to stop “such rhetoric or posturing” and join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ambassador Amir Iravani told the conference the nuclear threats directed toward Palestinians by high-ranking Israeli officials highlight Israel’s “pride” in having these weapons in its hands. “The secrecy surrounding Israel’s nuclear capabilities poses a significant threat to regional stability,” he said.

Persons: Amihai Eliyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu, U.N, Geng Shuang, Geng, Izumi Nakamitsu, ” Nakamitsu, Mohamed Al, Hassan, Gaza “, ”, d’Affaires Hadi Hachem, Amir Iravani, “, ” Israel, Netanyahu, Mikhail Ulyanov, “ there’s Organizations: UNITED NATIONS, United Nations, Israel’s Heritage, British, Gulf Cooperation, U.N Security, IAEA, Nuclear Locations: China, Iran, Gaza, Israel, Beijing, Saudi Arabia, Vienna, Moscow, United States, United Kingdom

That was the vision of Joan Kroc, billionaire philanthropist and heiress to the McDonald’s fortune of her husband, Ray. And today, 20 years later, 26 grand, state-of-the-art Kroc centers have opened in places as varied as Ashland, Ohio; Guayama, Puerto Rico; and Quincy, Illinois. Half was to be earmarked for the construction of recreation centers, with the other half deposited into endowments to support them. In the two decades since Kroc’s bequest, quantifying the precise impact on all of the communities served by the Kroc centers is difficult. She explained that Joan Kroc meant for the place to be accessible to all — that beauty was part of her plan.

Persons: Joan Kroc, Ray, Army didn’t, Joan Kroc’s, MacKenzie Scott, Kroc, revved, she’d, Ronald McDonald, MacKenzie, Phil Buchanan, Scott, ”, “, that’s, Angelia Grandberry, Grandberry, Lisa Napoli, Joan Organizations: Salvation Army, Phoenix Kroc, Army, baseball’s San Diego Padres, San, National Hockey League, Catholic, Notre Dame, University of San, Ronald McDonald House Charities, National Public Radio, Center, Coast Kroc, Associated Press Locations: Ashland , Ohio, Puerto Rico, Quincy , Illinois, Boston, Augusta , Georgia, San Francisco, U.S, Southern California, baseball’s, St, Paul , Minnesota, San Diego, University of San Diego, Biloxi , Mississippi

[1/2] An analyst monitors from a computer screen in the control room of the international nuclear test monitoring agency CTBTO in Vienna February 12, 2013. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 17 (Reuters) - Russia's parliament starts voting on Tuesday on withdrawing Moscow's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The CTBT is a 1996 treaty that bans "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world. It says that the test ban, "by constraining the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and ending the development of advanced new types of nuclear weapons, constitutes an effective measure of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in all its aspects". But the move would provide it with legal cover to test if it wanted to, and some security analysts see a Russian test now as more likely.

Persons: Heinz, Peter Bader, Matthew Harries, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones Organizations: REUTERS, Comprehensive, UN, Arms Control Association, State Duma, Publicly, Thomson Locations: Vienna, Britain, France, Russia, United States, Israel, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, US, London, RUSSIA, Ukraine, Russian, Belarus

☆ Labour Party Conference: Meet Keir Starmer, Britain's likely next Prime Minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

At least that’s how it felt in Liverpool, where the opposition Labour Party held its annual conference this week. In front of a packed hall, Labour leader Keir Starmer gave an upbeat speech painting the ruling Conservatives as the party of national decline and Labour as the party of stability. A protestor throws glitter over Labour party leader, Keir Starmer during the leader's speech at the Labour Party conference on October 10, 2023 in Liverpool, England. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves makes her keynote speech during the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on October 9, 2023. The story Labour is telling right now isn’t just the story of Keir Starmer, leader in waiting, but Keir Starmer and his political allies, who are the government in waiting.

Persons: Keir Starmer, “, Ian Forsyth, wilder, Jeremy Corbyn, –, Corbyn’s, Starmer, Corbyn, Boris Johnson’s “, Liz, ”, Queen Elizabeth II, David Lammy, Lammy, he’d, Johnson, Rachel Reeves, Peter Byrne, Jeremy Hunt’s, won’t, Trump, Labour – Organizations: Liverpool CNN, Labour Party, Labour, Conservative, Conservative Party’s, CNN, Conservative Party, Northern, Conservatives ’, Government, University of Leeds, Oxford, Cambridge, Public Prosecutions, Labour Party Conference, Corbyn, Biden, Conservatives Locations: Liverpool, Manchester, England, Corbyn, Israel, Britain, America, Germany, Labour’s

Japan's Kishida, at UN, Tries to Get the Global Nuclear Disarmament Effort Back on TrackJapanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to lead the effort to put the struggling global nuclear disarmament back on track

Persons: Japan's Kishida, Fumio Kishida Organizations: UN, Nuclear, Japanese

☆ Germany's Scholz: Fresh Nuclear Disarmament Talks Should Include China
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Sept. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for new international negotiations on nuclear disarmament on Tuesday, saying that not only Russia and the United States but also China should be involved. "Getting a fresh start on arms control would be very important," he said at a religious event in Berlin, adding that several other countries had also built up a nuclear arsenal. Preventing Iran from producing uranium that could contribute to nuclear weapon production "remains an important task," he said. Scholz said nuclear weapons posed an existential threat to humanity, which is why there is an "immediate obligation" to do everything possible to ensure they are never used. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the number of operational nuclear weapons rose slightly in 2022 as countries implemented long-term force modernisation and expansion plans.

Persons: Olaf Scholz, Scholz, Andreas Rinke, Friederike Heine, Miranda Murray Organizations: BERLIN, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Locations: Russia, United States, China, Berlin, Iran, Stockholm

☆ North Korea's Kim appears to have departed for Russia for summit with Putin -YTN
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un pose for a photo during their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, April 25, 2019. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSEOUL, Sept 11 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have departed for Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, South Korean broadcaster YTN reported on Monday, citing an unnamed senior government source. Kim appears to be headed to North Korea's northeastern border on a special train, with the summit likely to be held as early as on Tuesday, according to the report. His last trip abroad in 2019 was also to Vladivostok for his first summit with Putin after the collapse of North Korea's nuclear disarmament talks with former U.S. President Donald Trump. Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Jack Kim; Editing by Toby Chopra and Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong, Alexander Zemlianichenko, YTN, Kim, Putin, Donald Trump, Soo, hyang Choi, Jack Kim, Toby Chopra, Himani Organizations: Rights, National Intelligence Service, U.S, Thomson Locations: Vladivostok, Russia, Rights SEOUL, South Korean, North

☆ Hiroshima marks a-bomb anniversary, calls nuclear deterrence "folly"
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Kiyoshi Takenaka | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERSTOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japan on Sunday marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Hiroshima, where its mayor urged the abolition of nuclear weapons and called the Group of Seven leaders' notion of nuclear deterrence a "folly". The day to commemorate the victims of the world's first nuclear attack comes as Russia has raised the spectre of using nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine. It also comes as biopic "Oppenheimer", chronicling the creation of the atomic bomb, has become a box-office hit in the United States. G7 leaders issued a statement expressing their commitment to achieving disarmament but said that as long as nuclear weapons existed, they should serve to deter aggression and prevent war. The prime minister said the road to a world without nuclear weapons was getting steeper, due in part to Russia's nuclear threats, but that this made it all the more important to bring back international momentum towards that goal.

Persons: Oppenheimer, Fumio Kishida, Kazumi Matsui, Antonio Guterres, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Chang, Ran Kim, William Mallard Organizations: Kyodo, REUTERS, Seven, Kishida, United Nations, Japan, Thomson Locations: Hiroshima, Japan, REUTERS TOKYO, Russia, Ukraine, United States, Nagasaki

☆ 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' are both about death
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Maiya Focht | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In their shared opening weekend, "Barbie" and' "Oppenheimer" have been breaking box office records. In box office-shattering numbers, people flocked to the theaters for the premieres of Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" and Greta Gerwig's "Barbie". Life in plastic, not so fantasticIn what is now a viral meme, Barbie begins having incessant thoughts of death early on in the film, mid-dance sequence. 'Death, the destroyer of worlds'Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer." Universal PicturesIt's easier to understand what "Oppenheimer" has to do with death.

Persons: Barbie, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's, Greta Gerwig's, pinker, Mari Faines, Robert Oppenheimer, we're, Ruth Handler, Murphy, J, Albert Einstein, Einstein, Daniel Uhlfelder, you've, — we've, Faines, We're Organizations: Service, Global, Manhattan Project, Pictures Locations: Wall, Silicon, Florida, Russia

☆ Oppenheimer never won a Nobel Prize, but these 31 scientists with ties to the Manhattan Project did
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +26 min

Manhattan Project: After a harrowing escape from Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943, Bohr began consulting on the Manhattan Project. Manhattan Project: Between 1943 and 1944, Muller was a civilian advisor for the Manhattan Project, consulting on experiments studying the effects of radiation. Maria Goeppert Mayer, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1963Maria Goeppert Mayer worked on the Manhattan Project and later won the Nobel Prize in physics. Manhattan Project: Working as an assistant to his father, Niels Bohr, Aage Bohr proved instrumental in interpreting for some members of the Manhattan Project. Manhattan Project: At 18, Glauber was still a student at Harvard when he became one of the youngest scientists to join the Manhattan Project.

Persons: Robert Oppenheimer, Alfred Nobel, Joseph Rotblat, Albert Einstein, Christopher Nolan's, Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Bohr, Nicholas Baker, Nick, James Franck, Boyer, Roger Viollet, Gustav Ludwig Hertz, Niels Bohr's, Franck, Arthur Compton, Imagno, Compton, Harold Urey, Harold, Urey, James Chadwick, Chadwick, Enrico Fermi, Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, Lawrence, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Nancy R, Schiff, Rabi, Hermann Muller, Muller, Edwin McMillan, Bettmann, Glenn Seaborg, McMillan, Elsie McMillan, Seaborg, Felix Bloch, Edward Purcell, Nobel, Hans Bethe, Bloch, Purcell, Emilio Segrè, Owen Chamberlain, Chamberlain, Segrè, Willard Libby, Leona Libby, Lowell, Libby, Linus Pauling, Leona Woods Marshall Libby, Eugene Wigner, Wigner, Leo Szilard's, Einstein, Franklin D, Roosevelt, Maria Goeppert Mayer, J, Hans Jensen, Goeppert Mayer, Teller, Richard Feynman, Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger, Fenynman, Hans Bethe's, Feynmwan, Feynman, Schwinger, Robert Mulliken, Mulliken, Szilard, Hans A, Bethe, Luis Alvarez, Alvarez, Enola Gay, Walter Alvarez, James Rainwater, Aage Bohr, Ben Mottelson, Rainwater, Wu, Aage Niels Bohr, Mottelson, mumbled, Val Fitch, James Cronin, Fitch, Jerome Karle, Isabelle, Larry Morris, Herbert Hauptman, Karle, Isabella Karle, Norman Ramsey, Ellie Welch, Ramsey, Norman Ramsey's Nobel, David Cheskin, Rotblat, Russell, Bertrand Russell, Enstinen, Frederick Reines, Philippe Caron, Sygma, Reines, Roy Glauber, Gail Oskin, Glauber Organizations: Manhattan Project, Service, Manhattan, US Army, AP, Getty, University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory, Chicago Met, Los Angeles Examiner, USC, Columbia, Keystone, Gamma, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Trinity Test, University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Hulton, Trinity, Deutsch, Los Alamos, University of Chicago's Metallurgical, Atomic Energy Commission, Harvard University, MIT Rad Lab, Denver, Chicago Met Lab, Materials Laboratory, Los, Radiation Laboratory, MIT, University of Chicago's, Princeton University, Naval Research Lab, Washington, US Naval Research Laboratory, Science, World Affairs, Einstein, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Harvard, Institute for Locations: Wall, Silicon, Polish, Denmark, Copenhagen, Nazi, London , Washington, Los Alamos, German, Germany, Japan, Manhattan, British, France, Washington, DC, Berkeley, Ridge , Tennessee, Los, New Mexico, Hanford, antiprotons, Hiroshima, Lowell Georgia, San Diego, Chicago, Washington ,

☆ NATO official calls for transparency over nuclear weapons
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Greg Torode | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool/File PhotoSingapore, June 2 (Reuters) - A senior NATO official on Friday urged Beijing to be more open about its accelerating nuclear weapons build-up, saying that as a global power, China had a responsibility to improve transparency. "As a global power it has a global responsibility to be more transparent," Lapsley said, adding that the scale and pace of the Chinese build-up was "really striking". "NATO is open to dialogue, but it can't substitute dialogue between the U.S. and China," he said. The Pentagon's annual China report, released in November 2022, noted that Beijing's nuclear programme had gathered pace and now has more than 400 operational nuclear warheads - a figure still far below U.S. and Russian stockpiles. A nuclear power since the early 1960s, China for decades maintained a small number of nuclear warheads and missiles as a deterrent under a "no first use" pledge that remains its official policy despite Beijing's broader military modernisation under President Xi Jinping.

Persons: Johanna Geron, Angus Lapsley, Lapsley, Xi Jinping, Anthony Albanese, Greg Torode, Gerry Doyle Organizations: NATO, REUTERS, Atlantic Treaty, Defence Policy, U.S, Pentagon, People's Liberation Army, Australian, Thomson Locations: Brussels, Belgium, Singapore, Beijing, China, Atlantic, United States, France, Britain, Australia

☆ Podcast: What's the G7 to do about China?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

President Joe Biden wants to send a tough message to Beijing from this year’s G7 summit. But China’s trade ties with other G7 countries are complicating Biden’s goal. Japan’s hopes for concrete action on nuclear disarmament also look out of reach as countries stock up on missiles and warheads. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Opinion: It’s no accident world leaders are revisiting this site of nuclear devastation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Opinion Paul Sracic | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —It’s no accident that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida selected Hiroshima as the site for the 2023 G7 meeting. Paul Sracic Arne HoelSince World War II, Hiroshima has served as a powerful symbol of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons. Not surprisingly, 78 years later, many Japanese are still haunted by the horrors of nuclear war. The threat of nuclear weapons is one Kishida has both written and spoken about before. The proliferation of nuclear weapons to North Korea, not to mention the ongoing nuclear program in Iran, alongside the ongoing concern that Russia might use nuclear weapons in Ukraine serve as a reminder of the urgent need for global cooperation to mitigate the risk of nuclear war.

☆ At Hiroshima G7, bomb survivors grapple with a disarmament dream deferred
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Sakura Murakami | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/6] U.S. President Barack Obama (L) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. Kishida, who represents Hiroshima, said he chose it for the summit to focus attention on nuclear weapons. "I want to see the leaders commit to getting rid of nuclear weapons," Mori, 86, said in an interview. Senior German government sources did not list nuclear disarmament as a high priority, saying at the G7 it was "important mainly for Japan". "We recognise that the current international landscape is very challenging given Russia's threat to use nuclear weapons," one Japanese government official said.

☆ Biden urged to deliver 'historic' arms control speech at G7 summit in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - Two dozen arms control advocates have urged President Joe Biden to use next month's G7 summit in Hiroshima, which was hit by the first U.S. atomic bombing of World War Two, to reaffirm a U.S. commitment to nuclear disarmament and readiness for arms control talks with Russia and China. The advocates, including several former senior U.S. arms control officials, made their appeal in a letter sent to Biden on Wednesday that was first seen by Reuters. The May 19-21 summit in the Japanese city "creates an historic opportunity for you to acknowledge the horrors of nuclear war," advance the goal of nuclear disarmament, and pledge "concrete steps to prevent a new arms race," they wrote to Biden. The letter urged Biden to deliver an address at the G7 summit acknowledging the "long-lasting human suffering" caused by the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the "catastrophic devastation" a nuclear war would cause "on a global scale." Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

It was the first time that Seoul suggested a willingness to provide weapons to Ukraine, more than a year after ruling out the possibility of lethal aid. During the summit, Yoon said he will seek "tangible outcomes" on the allies' efforts to improve responses to evolving threats from North Korea, which has ramped up military tests, and launched its first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile last week. In February, South Korea and the U.S. staged table-top exercises simulating a North Korea nuclear attack as part of Seoul's efforts to play a bigger role in Washington's nuclear policy over the North. "I think there's no big problem if Japan is joining, but since there's been much progress between the U.S. and South Korea, it would be more efficient to create this system ourselves first." "The Taiwan issue is not simply an issue between China and Taiwan but, like the issue of North Korea, it is a global issue."

☆ South Korean President Says Country Could Develop Nuclear Weapons
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Dasl Yoon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SEOUL—South Korean President Yoon Suk -yeol said the country could develop its own nuclear weapons or ask the U.S. to redeploy them on the Korean Peninsula if the threat from North Korea grows, in the first time a leader of the country has explicitly raised the prospect in decades. The prospect of South Korea, a nonnuclear state, acquiring its own weapons threatens to destabilize nuclear disarmament efforts and inflame already high tensions with Pyongyang. The idea has long been rejected by the U.S. and previous administrations in Seoul, although polls have shown it is supported by a majority of the public in South Korea.

☆ Vivienne Westwood, Britain's provocative dame of fashion, dead at 81
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Marie-Louise Gumuchian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/4] Designer Vivienne Westwood poses for a portrait before her catwalk show at London Fashion Week Men's in London, Britain June 12, 2017. "Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. Instantly recognisable with her orange or white hair, Westwood first made a name for herself in punk fashion in 1970s London, dressing the punk rock band that defined the genre. Westwood used her public profile to champion issues including nuclear disarmament and to protest against anti-terrorism laws and government spending policies that hit the poor. "I've used fashion to challenge the status quo."

☆ Analysis: Why is North Korea testing so many missiles?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Josh Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Analysts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to genuinely dislike the allied drills, and particularly the involvement of U.S. stealth fighters. After North Korea conducted an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test on Thursday, the allies announced they would be extending Vigilant Storm past Friday. "North Korea is aiming to increase its deterrence capabilities," he said. If North Korea prefers to conduct a nuclear test in a crisis, it is well on its way to manufacturing one." North Korea has completed all the technical preparations for a nuclear test - its first since 2017 - according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

☆ Ex-Russian diplomat warns Putin willing to sacrifice 20 million soldiers to win the war with Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An ex-Russian diplomat has warned that Putin will sacrifice 20 million soldiers to win the war in Ukraine. Putin is using the nuclear button to "compel other countries to whatever he wants," he said. He may sacrifice 10 or 20 million Russians just to win this war just to slaughter all Ukrainians because it's a matter of principle. A destroyed Russian Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) is seen near the village of Nova Husarivka, Ukraine, on September 15, 2022. "While Putin and his regime are in power in Russia, this threat of war — the threat of nuclear war — will not go anywhere," he said.

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