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Britain has become third-largest nuclear weapons spender – CND

, https://labouroutlook.org/2026/06/10/britain-has-become-third-largest-nuclear-weapons-spender-cnd/

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has called on the government to cut wasted billions on nukes ahead of its Defence Investment Plan announcement.

CND is calling on the government to stop wasting public money on its nuclear black hole, after the latest nuclear weapons spending report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) reveals that Britain is now spending more on its nuclear weapons than Russia.

Collectively, the nine nuclear-weapon states spent a record $119 billion in 2025 on maintaining, modernising, and expanding their nuclear arsenals, an increase of 19% ($16.8 billion) on their 2024 bill.

Britain overtook Russia as the world’s third biggest spender, spending $12.6 billion (£9.6 billion), an increase of 17%.


This spending includes:

  • operating costs of Britain’s current four Vanguard nuclear-armed submarines
  • building the replacement to Vanguard – the Dreadnought submarine
  • maintenance of Britain’s nuclear weapons stockpile
  • development of a new nuclear warhead, Project Astraea

It does not include the costs of the 12 F-35A nuclear-capable fighter jets that the government announced it was purchasing in June 2025. This shocking surge in nuclear spending comes as the government’s own Public Accounts Committee criticised the MoD for a lack of transparency over its ‘ever-increasing nuclear expenditure’, which is expected to rise to 20% of the total MoD budget for 2025–26, and again increase further to up to 25% in the coming years.

According to ICAN, the top nuclear spender globally was again the US, which spent $69.2 billion, an increase of 22% from 2024, outspending all other nuclear weapons states combined. China was second, spending $13.5 billion, an increase of 7%. Behind Britain was Russia, with an increase by 6% to $9.5 billion. Of the others, France spent $7.7 billion, India spent $2.8 billion, Pakistan spent $1.5 billion, Israel spent £1.2 billion, and North Korea spent $656 million.


The report also found that arms companies involved in the manufacture of Britain’s weapons had sought to influence government policy. According to Open Access data cited in the report, senior government figures met with representatives of the following arms companies: Airbus, Amentum, Babcock International, BAE Systems, Bechtel, Boeing, General Dynamics, Honeywell International, Leidos, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Peraton, Rolls Royce, RTX (Raytheon), Safran and Thales. The report noted that Airbus and BAE Systems, which had 44 and 35 meetings respectively, also included meetings with the Prime Minister’s office.

CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:

“This is a timely report that comes when the British government is planning to make savage cuts to public spending in order to fund more hikes to military spending. Britain’s nuclear weapons are a black hole, swallowing up even greater proportions of the Ministry of Defence’s already ballooning budget.

“It is Britain’s replacement of its nuclear weapons system which is driving these huge nuclear weapons spending increases. This is contributing to a much more dangerous world where the threat of these world-ending weapons being used in war is the highest it has been since the Cold War.

Far from keeping us safe, Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines are totally dependent on the US administration, which ties us even more closely to Trump’s reckless leadership that is dragging the world into more and more reckless wars that could go nuclear.

“With the government’s upcoming Defence Investment Plan expected to give at least £15 billion more to the military, it’s time to end the wasteful spending on war and nuclear weapons and redirect it into tackling the real security issues we face – from climate breakdown and the looming cost of living crisis.”

June 15, 2026 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

More Palestinians killed by Israeli military and settlers across occupied West Bank in last 3 years since Gaza hostilities than previous 17 combined – Oxfam

11 June 2026 AIMN Editorial, https://theaimn.net/more-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-military-and-settlers-across-occupied-west-bank-in-last-3-years-since-gaza-hostilities-than-previous-17-combined-oxfam/

More than one in five killed over last 20 years were children.

More Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military and settlers across the occupied West Bank in the last three years than in the previous 17 years combined, analysis from Oxfam has found. The number of children killed over the last three years was also higher.

An analysis of United Nations data found that 1,036 Palestinians – including 225 children – had been killed by Israeli forces or settlers between 2006 and the end of 2022. However, in the last three years, from 2023 to the end of last year by comparison, 1,244 Palestinians – including 268 children – have been killed.

Over the 20 years, 22 per cent – more than one in five of those killed – have been children.

For the same periods analysed, in the 17 years between 2006 until the end of 2022, 86 Israeli settlers, including 12 children, were killed by Palestinians. In the last three years – from 2023 to the end of 2025 – 43 Israeli settlers have been killed, including ten children.

The West Bank continues to be subjected to Israeli policies and practices of fast-tracked annexation, amid record mass forced displacement, movement restrictions, killings by army and settler militias, and ongoing military operations. Checkpoints and closures are fragmenting the territory and limiting access to essential services and livelihoods, while repeated state-backed settler violence is driving mass displacement.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam International Humanitarian Policy Lead said: “The mounting killing of civilians in the West Bank is tragic and horrifying. While the eyes of the world have been on Gaza, attacks in the West Bank have been accelerating. Since the atrocities committed by Hamas and other armed groups in 2023, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza while also enabling an unprecedented surge of violence across the West Bank.

“Oxfam works with Palestinian families whose lives have been destroyed. It is devastating that scores of children are being killed. This is the human cost of impunity, Israeli violence and cruelty in full view, while world leaders look the other way”.

A record number of Palestinians in the West Bank – nearly 46,000 – have been forcibly displaced over the last three years, compared to just over 13,000 for the previous 14 years combined by Israeli military operations, settler violence, demolitions and access restrictions. Many families are having to live in unstable and insecure conditions, often with host communities or in informal shelter arrangements, with limited access to essential services.

Saed* is 50 years old and was forced out of his home in the Ein Samya community. He said: “We used to deal with settlers all the time, but over the past three years, settler violence has increased massively. Eventually we had to leave and now a settler is staying in my home. I saw him. He took over the community too. It breaks my heart to talk about the past.

“We went to another community in Jericho, but it did not stop there. Settlers closed the roads, carried weapons, harassed and terrified our children on their way to school, and grazed their livestock inside our community, next to our houses. In the worst cases they would steal our livestock under the protection of the army and police.”

Communities across the West Bank have experienced repeated demolitions and destruction not just of their homes but water pipelines, animal shelters and trees. Last year, the World Health Organisation documented over 230 attacks on healthcare facilities, including obstructed access, the vandalization of ambulances and harassment of medical staff.

There is now a record 925 obstacles that permanently or intermittently restrict the movement of over 3 million Palestinians across the West Bank including East Jerusalem. This is 43 per cent more than the annual average of 647 movement obstacles in the preceding 20 years.

In the first three months of this year alone there have been more than 540 settler attacks, 33 Palestinian people killed and more than 2,200 people displaced. More than 60 water and sanitation structures have been vandalized, including pipelines, irrigation systems and water tanks, which have undermined access to water in 32 Palestinian communities.

Despite Israel’s ongoing process of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Oxfam and its partners continue to support vulnerable communities across the West Bank with humanitarian assistance, including clean water, food, the rehabilitation of agricultural water cisterns and livestock shelters.

Oxfam is calling for an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and further annexation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to the foreign complicity in the illegal occupation and settlement enterprise. A just and sustainable peace must be anchored in international law and the right to self-determination.

June 14, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

‘Burn for us’: The real message of US-EU ‘nuclear sharing’

Guarded by American troops – whose real mission is, of course, to keep the compliant clients from laying their grubby hands on them – these nukes sit ready for American orders to be used…….. in reality, “there’s only one key” and  – only one man will decide: the US president.

Washington has made Brussels another offer the Europeans are too slavish to refuse – even if it paints a giant target on their backs

these fresh nukes for Europe are supposed to make up for Washington withdrawing its conventional forces from the old continent.

What is truly baffling is why anyone in Europe would agree. The catastrophic disadvantages are just too obvious. Painting more targets on Europe’s back, distributing nuclear weapons further east when NATO’s eastward expansion is precisely what caused the Ukraine War,

8 Jun, 2026 , By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory

There’s an old treaty that, if you have signed up to it, says that you can’t spread nuclear weapons. So, if you don’t have any nukes and you sign the treaty, you can’t get any. Simple as that. You’d think.

But leave it to the West, with all its ‘values’ and ‘rules-based order’ to, you know, not really break the rules. Just bend them a little. Bend them so much, in fact, that just breaking them would be more honest and less embarrassing.

The agreement we are talking about is, of course, the 1968  Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), according to the International Atomic Energy Agency “the centerpiece” – no less – of much that is good, beautiful, and eminently reasonable. Namely “global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.” Germany, for instance, is a long-standing signatory.

And yet, Germany and five other NPT signatories who belong to America’s NATO client system have nuclear gravity bombs on their (formally, at least) sovereign territory, and their air forces stand ready to carry them to targets which would be – surprise, surprise – in Russia. The little piece of shyster-level legal sophistry used to cover for this obvious breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is called – wait for it – “Nuclear Sharing.” Sweet, isn’t it? The world – or, perhaps, just Europe – may end in a man-made big bang of fire and fallout, but, as they say in kindergarten ‘sharing is caring.’

By the way, it is obvious – and would have been to men such as Clausewitz, York (both with some serious delay, admittedly), or Bismarck – that, for instance, German officers worth their salt would have to prepare secret emergency plans for rapidly seizing those nuclear weapons on German territory from our American ‘allies.’ Without bloodshed, if possible; or with, if necessary.

And yet, Germany and five other NPT signatories who belong to America’s NATO client system have nuclear gravity bombs on their (formally, at least) sovereign territory, and their air forces stand ready to carry them to targets which would be – surprise, surprise – in Russia. The little piece of shyster-level legal sophistry used to cover for this obvious breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is called – wait for it – “Nuclear Sharing.” Sweet, isn’t it? The world – or, perhaps, just Europe – may end in a man-made big bang of fire and fallout, but, as they say in kindergarten ‘sharing is caring.’

By the way, it is obvious – and would have been to men such as Clausewitz, York (both with some serious delay, admittedly), or Bismarck – that, for instance, German officers worth their salt would have to prepare secret emergency plans for rapidly seizing those nuclear weapons on German territory from our American ‘allies.’ Without bloodshed, if possible; or with, if necessary.

Guarded by American troops – whose real mission is, of course, to keep the compliant clients from laying their grubby hands on them – these nukes sit ready for American orders to be used. Yes, formally, there’s some mumbo-jumbo about a ‘dual key,’ but everyone not badly dropped on their head when in their nappies knows that’s BS. As a French officer has just confirmed to Le Figaro, France’s conservative paper of record, in reality, “there’s only one key” and – as in every decent organized-crime outfit – only one man will decide: the US president.

Then, in case the American capo di tutti capi gives his end-of-days order, you, country X, will have the privilege to take these American nukes to Russia. Once your – not American – planes drop American nukes on Russian troop concentrations and bases or, say, Kaliningrad or St. Petersburg, just sit tight and wait for the response. It would come, even if it were the last thing they ever did. Because that’s the way the world works. Also, they have told us so.

There are variations to the ‘nuclear sharing’ shtick: Greece for instance, has a nifty little deal which means it doesn’t host US nuclear bombs but maintains a unit for helping deliver such bombs to Russia. Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, “and two unknown countries” are riding nuclear shotgun, as it were, by participating in the SNOWCAT (Support of Nuclear Operations With Conventional Air Tactics) program. So sneaky!

With things set up so neatly to cheat the NPT, you would think that everybody is hunky-dory, as that old mafiosi Tony Soprano would have said. Yet far from it. In reality, the US is loudly considering expanding the “nuclear sharing” scheme, and several European states – including some for whom mere SNOWCAT-ing clearly is just not good enough – seem eager to get their own local pile of US nukes.

At the same time, as everyone acknowledges frankly, these fresh nukes for Europe are supposed to make up for Washington withdrawing its conventional forces from the old continent. What a message: “Dear Euro vassals, we won’t stay around to fight and die with you, but we are happy to make more of you bases and delivery boys for our nukes. Hope you feel safer now. (Oh, and also, we’d love to sell you more of our overpriced F-35s, US kill switches included, that you’ll need for your bombing runs against Russia when we whistle. Deal?)”

In a normal world – or to be precise, a normal Europe – the answer to such American generosity would have to be a resounding ‘f*ck off’ (in plain American English). But Europe’s elites are not sane and so Europe is very far from normal. There seems to be a real eagerness to keep doing what America wants, European interests be damned.

That’s why the so-called ‘NATO 3.0’ project associated in particular with ‘brain-of-the-Pentagon’ Elbridge Colby is likely to proceed just fine. Its essence is simple: Fewer US troops, key capacities, and conventional arms for Europe, so that Washington can shift its weight against China. Apart from the grandly strategic, there’s the personal: That Colby’s father, while working for the CIA, helped lose the Vietnam War may play a role in shaping his son’s priorities.

Russia, if things ever went that far, is extremely unlikely to play along with this NATO 3.0 strategy, obviously. On the contrary, once US nukes land on its troops, bases, and cities, whether launched from and through European vassals or the American mainland, Moscow is likely to hit back at both.

Yet the real mystery here is not how Washington has arrived at adopting such a transparently fragile strategy. Looked at from the big, group-think blob on the Potomac, it may appear worth a try. What is truly baffling is why anyone in Europe would agree. The catastrophic disadvantages are just too obvious. Painting more targets on Europe’s back, distributing nuclear weapons further east when NATO’s eastward expansion is precisely what caused the Ukraine War, sending yet another antagonizing signal to China that Europe is straining to do what it can just to help the US pressure Beijing, and, last but not least, setting Europe up for a large-scale re-run of what the West has just done to Ukraine: a devastating proxy war.

Europe does not need even more “nuclear sharing” with the unreliable, irrational, and aggressive US. It needs decoupling from its abusive and exploitative masters in Washington. If its leaders wish to share, how about doing some hard thinking about the economic and security interests their countries clearly share with both Russia and China? But then, Europe’s leaders don’t think. And when they do, then not on behalf of their own peoples. What a shared misery.

June 13, 2026 Posted by | EUROPE, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear weapons spending surges to record high of $119bn, report says

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons says states spent an extra $16.8bn on their nuclear arsenals in 2025.

By John Power 9 Jun 20269 , https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/6/9/nuclear-weapons-spending-surges-to-record-high-of-119bn-report-says

Global spending on nuclear weapons last year rose to an all-time high of $119bn, according to a report by nonproliferation advocates.

The world’s nine nuclear-armed countries spent an additional $16.8bn on their arsenals in 2025 compared with the previous year, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said in its latest report released on Tuesday.

The United States spent an estimated $69.2bn, a rise of $12.6bn, and more than all other nuclear powers combined, ICAN said.

China was the second-biggest spender, with an estimated $13.5bn, followed by the United Kingdom with $12.6bn, Russia with $9.5bn and France with $7.7bn, according to ICAN.

India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea spent sums ranging from $656m (by Pyongyang) to $2.8bn (by New Delhi).

ICAN said nuclear-armed states spent a combined $471bn over the past five years, with all of them planning to retain their arsenals for decades more.

“This exorbitant spending comes at a time when countries are significantly scaling back their investments in the global commons,” ICAN said in a summary accompanying the report.

“Whether reneging from climate change adaptation agreements or failing to pay their fair share to prevent the scourge of war through multilateral diplomacy, this overwhelming spending on nuclear weapons shows a willingness to research, develop, finance and build tools to exterminate humanity instead of save it.”

The report comes just a day after the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute warned that nuclear states were “sidelining” and “walking away from” nuclear disarmament commitments in favour of modernising and enhancing their arsenals.

The nine nuclear-armed states are estimated to possess more than 12,000 warheads between them, with the vast majority held by the US and Russia.

In 2017, the United Nations adopted the first legally-binding global treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.

Ninety-nine countries have signed, ratified or acceded to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which bars states from developing, testing, or acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

No country with nuclear weapons has signed the treaty.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the US and Russia signed a series of treaties to limit the size of their arsenals, but the last of these, New START, expired in February without any succeeding agreement.

June 13, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

UK overtakes Russia as Labour hike nuclear weapon spend by 17 per cent

the private sector earned at least $38bn from nuclear weapons contracts in 2025.

“This money is being wasted given the nuclear-armed states agree a nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought. It is also diverting resources from acute human needs.“

By Xander Elliards, https://www.thenational.scot/news/26176024.uk-overtakes-russia-labour-hike-nuclear-weapon-spend-17-per-cent/

THE UK Government increased its spending on nuclear weaponry by 17 per cent in the first full year of Labour in power, according to new statistics.

The data, published by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), shows that spending on nuclear weapons rose globally in 2025 by 19% to reach its highest levels ever.

In total, eight countries other than the UK have nuclear weapons: France, the US, Russia, India, China, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

The ICAN report said that in total the nine nations had spent $118.8 billion in 2025, up 19% on 2025. The US spent $69.2bn, an increase of 22%, while Pakistan spent £1.5bn, an increase of 18%.

The UK spent a total of $12.6bn on nuclear weaponry in 2025, up 17% on 2024.

The UK was also third in terms of absolute spend, behind China in second place on $13.5bn, an increase of 7% on 2024.

Russia, who had been third in 2024, dropped to fourth, upping spending by 6% to $9.5bn.

Elsewhere, the report from ICAN, which produces the most authoritative figures on annual nuclear weapons expenditure, found that the private sector earned at least $38bn from nuclear weapons contracts in 2025.

ICAN said: “This money is being wasted given the nuclear-armed states agree a nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought. It is also diverting resources from acute human needs.

“A minute of nuclear weapons spending could provide access to clean water and sanitation for 3478 people. A day of this spending could save two million people from food insecurity. A week could protect more than 12 billion people from measles, mumps and rubella. A year’s spending could provide more than six million homes with solar power.”

ICAN also noted that the increase in spending on nuclear weaponry is happening alongside cuts to the humanitarian and development sector.

In the UK, the Government had pledged the UN target of 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) to the international aid budget each year. However, the Tories cut this to 0.5% in 2021, and Labour will cut it again to 0.3% from 2027.

The UK spent more than triple the UN’s entire annual budget for 2025 ($3.72bn) on nuclear weaponry. The US spent more than 19 times the UN budget.

Susi Snyder, ICAN’s director of programmes and co-author of the report, said: “At a time when the cost of living is skyrocketing and food and fuel are unaffordable for so many, it is unthinkable that these nine countries are spending billions on a false promise of security.

“Nuclear weapons cannot be used without causing catastrophe, and the false logic of nuclear deterrence requires us to trust our enemies with our very survival.”

Alicia Sanders-Zakre, a second co-author of the report and ICAN’s head of policy, added: “Our research is annual, but nuclear weapons spending is not.

“The nine nuclear-armed states are planning to maintain and modernise their nuclear forces for decades to come, diverting untold billions of dollars away from real human security needs.”

June 13, 2026 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The US Starts Wars On The Other Side Of The Planet And Then Claims “Self-Defense”

Caitlin Johnstone, Jun 10, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-starts-wars-on-the-other-side?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=201394626&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

The US is bombing Iran again after an American attack helicopter was downed over the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed escalations in the conflict.

CENTCOM said the following in a statement on the airstrikes:

“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”

It always amazes me how the US can start an unprovoked war of aggression on the other side of the planet and then claim it is “launching self-defense strikes” there.

These military forces are nowhere near the United States. It’s absurd to claim “self-defense” against a country that has been defending itself in a war you started. There’s some debate about whether the helicopter was intentionally targeted by Iran and whether or not it was over international waters at the time it was struck, but honestly, who cares? It shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

These freaks really do operate from the premise that the entire planet is their property, and that any failure to respect their property rights shall therefore be viewed as an act of aggression.

I mean, just look at who’s making this statement. US “Central Command” is the unified combatant command responsible for military operations in the middle east. The US military has separate unified combatant commands for every part of the globe:

• Central Command (CENTCOM) for the middle east.

• Africa Command (AFRICOM) for Africa.

• Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) for Asia, the Pacific islands, Australia and Antarctica.

• European Command (EUCOM) for Europe.

• Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) for South America.

• Northern Command (NORTHCOM) for North America.

No other country on earth does this. No other military power is segmented into areas of responsibility spanning every continent on earth. This is because normal military forces are used to defend the actual, official country they belong to, whereas the US military is used to dominate the entire planet.

And in that sense it’s actually entirely reasonable that the US “Department of Defense” changed its name to the Department of War. The US military is never used to defend the actual, official country of the United States of America; it is only ever used to prop up the globe-spanning imperial power structure it commands.

This is not normal. It is a freakish aberration without historical precedent. The world cannot know peace until the US empire is dismantled.

June 13, 2026 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Lawrence Wilkerson: Israel Bet Everything on War With Iran-and Lost

9 June 26, https://scheerpost.com/2026/06/09/lawrence-wilkerson-israel-bet-everything-on-war-with-iran-and-lost/

Speaking with political analyst Glenn Diesen, Wilkerson contends that despite years of military escalation, sanctions, and regional conflict, Israel has failed to achieve its central objective: weakening Iran’s influence across the Middle East. Instead, he argues, the war has strengthened regional opposition, intensified global criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and exposed growing cracks in America’s support for endless military intervention.

At the center of Wilkerson’s analysis is a point often ignored in Western discussions: the conflict ultimately revolves around Palestine.

“The Palestinians are still dying every day,” Wilkerson noted, arguing that military campaigns against Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza have failed to address the root political crisis driving instability throughout the region.

Highlights

• “All Iran has to do is not lose.” Wilkerson argues that Israel and the United States require a decisive victory while Iran simply needs to survive and endure.

• Palestine remains the core issue. According to Wilkerson, efforts to shift attention toward Iran, Hezbollah, or other regional actors obscure the unresolved question of Palestinian statehood.

• Growing public opposition. Wilkerson points to rising global criticism of Israel’s actions and increasing skepticism among Americans about continued military involvement abroad.

• A deeper U.S.-Israel integration. He warns that proposed legislation would further embed Israel within the U.S. military and defense establishment while reducing public oversight and accountability.

• A changing world order. Wilkerson argues that conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine are unfolding alongside a broader shift in global power away from Western dominance and toward emerging Eurasian economic and political networks.

For Wilkerson, the danger is not simply another regional war. It is the possibility that Washington continues doubling down on military solutions while ignoring the political realities that have fueled conflict for generations. The result, he warns, could leave both Israel and the United States increasingly isolated in a rapidly changing world.

June 12, 2026 Posted by | Iran, Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Visual data reveals extent of systematic Israeli white phosphorus attacks on south Lebanon: Report

These shells are designed to release 116 burning felt wedges that can be detonated high in the air and drift over a radius of up to 250 meters, causing widespread fires on the ground. 

Lebanon’s Ministry of Environment has formally accused the Israeli military of committing ‘an act of ecocide,’ resulting in an estimated $25 billion in damages

The humanitarian risks of these munitions are devastating because white phosphorus causes horrific, deep-tissue burns that can reach the bone and may reignite if exposed to oxygen after treatment.

News Desk, JUN 7, 2026, https://thecradle.co/articles/visual-data-reveals-extent-of-systematic-israeli-white-phosphorus-attacks-on-south-lebanon-report

A report by The New York Times (NYT) published on 6 June gathers thorough documentation that the Israeli military has repeatedly deployed white phosphorus over populated areas in southern Lebanon during its ongoing war and invasion of the country.

Visual evidence collected by NYT, including verified social media footage and news coverage, shows distinctive smoke trails and airbursts over cities like Nabatieh and Tyre, as well as smaller towns like Qlayaa, Khiam, and Yohmor, with incidents documented as recently as May 2026.

While the Israeli military maintains that its use of these munitions is intended for smoke screens and complies with international law, human rights experts assert that deploying such an indiscriminate incendiary substance in civilian-heavy areas violates the laws of war.

The body of evidence gathered by numerous international observers and human rights groups is extensive and corroborates these findings. 

Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have verified dozens of videos and photos showing the airbursting of US-made M825A1 artillery shells. 

These shells are designed to release 116 burning felt wedges that can be detonated high in the air and drift over a radius of up to 250 meters, causing widespread fires on the ground. 

In Yohmor, HRW geolocated eight images from March 2026 showing these munitions exploding over residential neighborhoods, directly resulting in fires in homes and vehicles. 

Similar evidence from Dhayra in October 2023 includes testimony from residents and doctors who treated nine civilians for suffocation and respiratory damage caused by the “garlic-like” smoke.

Independent researchers have now documented over 200 uses of the substance in Lebanon since October 2023, which the Lebanese government reports have caused more than 600 fires.

This pattern of use extends far beyond recent events in Lebanon; Israel has a long history of deploying white phosphorus in the region, including during the 1982 and 2006 wars in Lebanon, extensively in Gaza in 2009, and throughout its ongoing genocidal campaign since 2023.

Amnesty International documented the use of white phosphorus artillery shells in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza shortly after the launch of the war on 7 October, 2023; this deployment directly violated a 2013 pledge by the Israeli military to phase out the use of the incendiary substance in populated areas.

The humanitarian risks of these munitions are devastating because white phosphorus causes horrific, deep-tissue burns that can reach the bone and may reignite if exposed to oxygen after treatment. 

Beyond the immediate physical trauma, the substance poses long-term environmental hazards by contaminating soil and water, necessitating specialized cleanup operations before farmers can safely return to their land.

Due to the indiscriminate nature of these illegal weapons, rights groups continue to call for an immediate halt to their use in residential areas.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Environment formally accused the Israeli military of committing “an act of ecocide,” back in April 2026, citing a National Council for Scientific Research report that details $25 billion in damages, including the destruction of thousands of hectares of forest and orchards alongside extreme phosphorus soil contamination in strikes conducted between 2023 and 2024. 

June 12, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Russian drone hits nuclear fuel site near Chernobyl.

A Russian drone hit a storage site for spent nuclear fuel near the
Chernobyl power plant on Sunday, the latest in a series of incidents that
have raised fears of a nuclear incident as the Ukraine war drags on.


Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said the drone hit the reception
area of a heavily secured facility overnight, triggering a fire that was
quickly extinguished. No casualties were recorded while radiation levels
remained “within normal limits”, the company said. “Russia
deliberately struck this particular nuclear infrastructure facility,”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.

The new attack comes as
Zelenskyy was set to meet in London UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, as
the European leaders seek to spearhead a new effort to revive peace
negotiations with Russia.

FT 7th June 2026 https://www.ft.com/content/3c109ff1-e1cd-42c9-86b2-5e5bfb4671e5

June 12, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

UK Navy nuclear submarine fleet stuck in dock while awaiting maintenance

The UK’s Navy’s entire available fleet of nuclear attack submarines is stuck in
port, leaving Britain vulnerable to Vladimir Putin’s underwater fleet. All
five of the UK’s Astute-class hunter-killer boats are awaiting maintenance
and repairs. A sixth, which was commissioned into the fleet, is not yet
ready to deploy. Naval commanders have said the situation makes the UK look
“toothless” in the eyes of Russia, which has ramped up naval activity
around British waters by a third in the past year. Cdr Ryan Ramsey, a
former nuclear submarine captain, said the lack of available attack boats
was a “serious wake-up call” for Britain.

Telegraph 7th June 2026, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/07/navy-fleet-out-of-service-maintenance-russia-lord-west/

June 12, 2026 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Investigating the Foolish: The AUKUS Public Inquiry is Announced

The inquiry proposes to answer a number of salient if self-evident questions. Will Australia, for instance, ever receive the sought and undeservedly celebrated submarines? Where and how will the toxic medium to high-level nuclear waste be stored?  How many actual jobs will be created in Australia, and at what opportunity cost?

7 June 2026 Dr Binoy Kampmark, https://theaimn.net/investigating-the-foolish-the-aukus-public-inquiry-is-announced/

Of the three countries involved in AUKUS, that most draining, useless and even pernicious of security pacts, Australia has been the only country indifferent, even scoffing, about the need for an inquiry into its merits. Unsurprisingly, both the US and UK inquiries have found much to merit the project – Australian taxpayer money has sluiced and soothed the submarine industrial base of both countries – but have also expressed concern about their respective production rates of nuclear-powered submarines.

While the first pillar of the agreement promises, with mighty emptiness, that the Royal Australia Navy will receive three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs), with the possible opportunity to acquire a further two, the prospect of their timely arrival looks increasingly doubtful. The recent developments at the Shangri-La Dialogue held in Singapore that these will be hand-me-downs from the US Navy already suggests the lack of regard Australian personnel and their slavish representatives are held in. Add to this a joint as yet undesigned UK-Australian SSN design that will use US technology, the chances that a fleet of these expensive hulks finding their way into the hands of Australian sailors looks damnably remote.

With the Canberra mandarins and political governors insisting that no official inquiry be conducted into AUKUS, it has fallen to those keen on a public inquiry to take up the mantle. The crowd-founded AUKUS Public Inquiry, coordinated by the Australian Peace and Security Forum (APSF), will be led by a number of commissioners, spearheaded by former federal environment minister and frontman for Midnight Oil Peter Garrett. Former MPs, retired military and naval officers (these include former chief of the Australian Defence Force Chris Barrie), strategists and academics, human rights lawyers and union leaders promise to feature in this inquiry into the unpardonably foolish.

In remarks made on launching the inquiry, Garret declared that AUKUS “was the most significant, and by far the most costly decision made in secret by an Australian government, tying us to two other sovereign governments, and taking out an extraordinary amount of taxpayers’ money on a proposition which has got a lot of distinct and very difficult complexities and potential problems lying up ahead.”

The inquiry proposes to answer a number of salient if self-evident questions. Will Australia, for instance, ever receive the sought and undeservedly celebrated submarines? Where and how will the toxic medium to high-level nuclear waste be stored? (Australia lacks a single facility suitable for that task.) How many actual jobs will be created in Australia, and at what opportunity cost? (The conservative estimate of AU$368 billion is a ruinous one when considering what other parts of the federal budget will suffer as a result.) Why does Australia find itself in a situation where it will potentially join a war with the United States against China, its largest trading partner? The two last questions go to the central soundness (or lack of it) regarding AUKUS: whether sovereignty will be jeopardised (a moot point: it already has been), and whether the pact will turn the country into a nuclear target.

Other subsidiary matters will also fall within the purview of the inquiry. Transferring nuclear technology in this manner not only sets a precedent of destabilising value but raises concerns about nuclear non-proliferation treaty commitments and the environmental costs arising from developing nuclear storage facilities. Governments in Australia have repeatedly failed to consult and engage local communities about such projects, which have usually stymied in failed negotiations and costly litigation. How the martial dictates of AUKUS risks corrupting the tertiary sector in terms of research and university institutions is also a worry, given the tentacular nature of the military-industrial-university complex seen in such countries as the United States. Money hungry university vice chancellors and their morally flabby inner circles can always be trusted to make their institutions and countries less secure if the price is right. Then comes that most relevant of considerations: “Were credible and less costly alternatives to AUKUS properly assessed before the decision was made in secret?”

Civil society groups have welcomed this long-awaited effort. “The AUKUS agreement was conceived in secret and continues to be shrouded in secrecy,” observed Rtd Army Major Cameron Leckie, spokesperson for the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN). “Australians deserve the truth about what they are paying for, what they are getting, and what risks this agreement carries for our sovereignty and security.”

In parliament, independent MP Allegra Spender raised a “Matter of Public Importance” demanding that the government “be transparent about the risks to the delivery of AUKUS and how Australia’s national and security interests will be protected especially in light of recent changes to contract terms.” There were also “emerging gaps in capability” arising from the Collins-class Life-of-Type Extension program, intended to supposedly drag out the deployment of boats beyond their retirement. Other parliamentarians, all independents, including Sophie Scamps, Dai Le, Zali Steggall, Nicolette Boele, Kate Chaney and Monique Ryan, also expressed similar reservations about AUKUS. Pithily, Ryan, who represents the Melbourne federal seat of Kooyong, called the crowdfunded independent inquiry into AUKUS “a national embarrassment” for the government: “it’s only a matter of time before we find ourselves crowdfunding for the submarines themselves.”

Even more heartily, there are rumblings of disquiet within the Australian Labor government about the pact. Former cabinet minister Ed Husic, whose career as a frontbencher was scrapped, if only temporarily, by the factional fanaticism of his own party, is demanding a fresh caucus vote on the agreement. “We are not going to get the deal that was promised,” Husic told Sky News. He suspected a straitjacketed deal were the submarines ever to arrive. “You know, you can almost imagine [the Americans] saying, ‘We give you these, you will do this with them’. And so there’s an active sovereignty question there.”

While his efforts to raise the issue on June 2 were dismissed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy with the usual nonsense that AUKUS was more than just a submarine agreement, the number of dissenters are growing. May their numbers burgeon sooner rather than later.

June 11, 2026 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons, says Kim Jong-un’s sister

The sister of Kim Jong-un has insisted that North Korea will never give up
its nuclear weapons, setting back hopes of progress towards
denuclearisation during Monday’s visit to Pyongyang by President Xi of
China. Kim Yo-jong, a senior figure in the leadership who sometimes serves
as spokeswoman for her brother, said North Korea’s “status as a nuclear
weapons state is the line of no retreat and it is a stark reality whether
anyone recognises it or not”.

Times 7th June 2026, https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/article/kim-jong-un-sister-north-korea-nuclear-deal-president-xi-zs7qbkt5c

June 11, 2026 Posted by | North Korea, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Fusing the US Military and the IDF

A bill’s provision to integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries will go to a U.S. House vote after an effort to stop it failed Thursday. Passage will make it nearly impossible to end the U.S.-Israel special relationship, writes Alan MacLeod. 

Alan MacLeod for MintPress News,  June 6, 2026, https://scheerpost.com/2026/06/06/fusing-the-us-military-and-the-idf/

Amid widespread and growing public opposition to the Israeli genocide of Gaza and South Lebanon, a controversial new bill seeks to formally integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries like never before, making it difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Section 224 of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposes to join the two forces together at the hip, laying the groundwork for extensive cooperation into “seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation,” according to the Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

This includes the research, development and production of modern, hi-tech arms, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, drones, directed energy, cyber and autonomous weapons systems. It would compel the United States to integrate Israeli arms and technologies into its defense supply chain, and fuse the countries’ data-capturing and storage facilities together, meaning that Israel could have access to essentially all the U.S. military’s data.

The bill also requires the creation of a new position within the Department of Defense: an executive agent whose role is to coordinate cooperation and integration between the two parties.

In essence, then, it would dramatically change the relationship between the two states, from one where Washington supplies Tel Aviv with money, weapons, and diplomatic support, to a situation where the two are fundamentally intertwined.

It would also make the relationship far less transparent, as aid to Israel currently requires an annual public debate and vote. However, by moving it away from the political realm into that of defense acquisition, oversight and accountability mechanisms will be removed, and the public will have little right to know the details going forward.

Judging by its sponsors, Section 224 has strong support on Capitol Hill. It was put forward by Mike Rogers (R-AL), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Adam Smith (D-WA), the panel’s highest-ranking Democrat.

[On Thursday Rep. Ro Khanna’s effort to revoke the provision from the massive military funding bill failed, paving the way for the NDAA to advance to a full House vote.]

The news that a new bill could essentially fuse together the U.S. and Israeli militaries has been met with pushback online, but provoked little comment in Washington, D.C.

One lawmaker who has spoken up is Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, who has promised to offer an amendment to strip Section 224 from the bill on the House floor. “We are a sovereign country,” he said on Saturday.

Massie, a strong critic of U.S. support for Israel, recently lost his primary to challenger Ed Gallrein, after AIPAC and other Israel Lobby groups flooded the race with tens of millions of dollars, making it the most expensive contest in American history.

Massie at a speaking event in Las Vegas in 2024. (Gage Skidmore/ Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Analysts have noted that, if passed, the bill will “extraordinarily” expand Israeli influence in domestic American politics, giving Tel Aviv the opportunity to pull powerful political levers through the tried and tested method of offering jobs.

As the Institute for Responsible Statecraft warns, by expanding or starting new arms production facilities like they already have in Mississippi and Arkansas, the Israeli government could use the influence of bringing jobs to districts to buy the support of American members of Congress.

The U.S. already provides Israel with enormous amounts of military aid, having sent hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons since 1948.

Since 2008, it is required by law to protect Israel’s “qualitative military edge,” by supplying it with advanced weaponry.

Section 224, however, would transform and deepen this relationship, making it all-but-impossible to democratically break the U.S.-Israel special relationship.

That alliance is under increased scrutiny, as support for Israel is collapsing across the United States. A new poll published by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies found that 60 percent of Americans (including 75 percent of respondents under 30 years old) hold a negative view of the country. When asked, a large plurality says that Israel holds too much sway over American politics and politicians.

A 2025 study found that half of American voters believe Israel is carrying out a genocide against its neighbors in West Asia.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, among others, on charges of crimes against humanity.

The United States, however, has refused to accept the ICC’s actions, attempted to shut down proceedings, and imposed sanctions on the court. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan stated that Senior U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham – one of Netanyahu’s closest allies in Washington – told him that his court is only “for African thugs like [Russian president Vladimir] Putin. It is not for democracies like Israel and the United States of America.”

The response from the governments of Israel and the United States to the increasing opposition to the genocide has been to crack down on dissent and to censor social media.

As Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of pro-Israel pressure group, the Anti-Defamation League stated, “We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem.” The Trump administration forced through the sale of TikTok to the family of Larry Ellison, a passionately pro-Israel tech billionaire who is the largest private funder of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Ellison, no doubt, will support Section 224. Yet the effective merger between the U.S. military and the IDF will have profound consequences for the future of America, and should provoke stiff opposition nationwide. Whether it passes will depend largely on the nature and scale of that opposition.

Alan MacLeod is senior staff writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine and Common Dreams. 

June 10, 2026 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Kim Jong Un vows to build nuclear-armed navy with ‘secret underwater weapons’ as he tours warship with his daughter

Kim Jong Un has vowed to bolster North Korea‘s defences with a nuclear-powered navy and a new generation of ‘secret underwater weapons’. 

The North Korean leader made the announcement on Thursday while inspecting a new warship, alongside his teenage daughter, believed to be named Jin Ju Ae, ahead of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

State media reported Kim called for the rapid development of naval forces capable of playing a central role in the country’s nuclear deterrent. He said the navy must be able to deliver ‘a deadly blow at the enemy any moment under the water or on the water’. ………………………….

Daily Mail 6th June 2026, https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15879219/Kim-Jong-nuclear-navy-underwater-weapons-warship-daughter.html

June 10, 2026 Posted by | North Korea, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel Has Engineered a Deadly Shortage of Medications and Health Care in Gaza

 June 5, 2026, By Hend Salama Abo Helow, https://scheerpost.com/2026/06/05/israel-has-engineered-a-deadly-shortage-of-medications-and-health-care-in-gaza/

A Palestinian doctor in Gaza says the territory is facing its worst medication shortage since Israel began the genocide.

My mother has been a hypertension patient for the past 25 years. Ever since her initial diagnosis, she has adhered strictly to her prescribed medication. Yet since the genocide broke out, her medicine gradually ran out until it vanished from the markets altogether, with no clinic, pharmacy, warehouse, or stockpile left untouched by the shortage.

Eventually, my mother was forced to redraw her therapeutic map around two alternative drugs with relatively similar efficacy to the one she had lost. The doses were measured carefully according to her condition. But the fear of losing the medication again grew on her, so she began rationing her doses, taking half a pill instead of a full one, to make them last longer.

Although the ceasefire that followed was supposed to allow the unhindered influx of humanitarian aid and life-saving medical supplies at scale, it proved to be nothing but another trap. My mother went to collect her monthly prescription, only for the pharmacist to tell her that this would likely be the last refill, as the medication had already been depleted.

This is not an isolated plight endured only by my mother, but the status quo for 350,000 chronic patients in Gaza whose health, like hers, hangs in the balance, conditioned on the fluctuating status of the borders.

Faced with a shattered health care system, patients’ survival is dependent on Israel’s tightening restrictions on border crossings. The World Health Organization has warned that Israeli forces are no longer only claiming people’s lives through bombs, but are also endangering Palestinians by denying them urgently needed health care services and medication.

Israel is willfully violating international law, which obligates the occupying power to maintain health care services, not undermine them nor use them as a bargaining chip.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital, described the ongoing crisis as “the worst period ever of depletion of medical supplies,” stressing that it even far outweighed the medicine shortage Gaza had witnessed earlier during the genocide. “It is the worst ever,” he emphasized.

He condemned the use of the word “ceasefire,” stating, “We are nearly 900 days into a war despite the one-sided truce.” He pointed to more than 2,400 breaches of the so-called ceasefire, during which 765 Palestinians were killed and roughly 2,100 wounded. Al-Farra further noted that around 1,700 medical staff have fallen during the two years of genocide, while many others remain captured in Israeli prisons.

Bringing the picture together, he told Truthout that 25 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are now out of service, while 103 out of 137 primary health care centers have been damaged, and medical supplies have totally run out.

Al-Farra, in a broken voice, remarked that hospitals have become “nothing more than hollow cement blocks, stripped from the very core they were built for: medical services.”

Sharing the latest not-yet-public statistics of the exact shortages compiled by Gaza’s Health Ministry exclusively with Truthout, he said:

“Fifty percent of basic medications for noncommunicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and respiratory diseases are now missing. Around 70 percent of medical equipment is nonexistent, while 84 percent of laboratory resources are unavailable. At the same time, hospital capacity has surged by 225 percent. Around 25 out of 35 oxygen stations have been damaged, while 61 electricity generators out of 110 have been leveled down.“

The health care system is “in its final throes,” Al-Farra sighed.

The unending crisis has extended beyond governmental hospitals to the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In early April, MSF released alarming reports stating that it had not been able to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since January 1, 2026. Israel has obstructed its vital role in providing necessary health care services for chronic and trauma-related patients, and those requiring surgical operations and post-operative care, all amid a growingly conducive environment for diseases to exacerbate.

Yet Dr. Abdullah Al-Naami, who has worked in the pharmacological field for the last 26 years, doubled down on the alarming report released by MSF about the unfolding medication crisis.

Al-Naami told Truthout that “the current stockpile of medicines is nowhere near enough for the spiraling needs.” He added that “hypertension, cardiovascular, and cancer patients are impacted the most.”

“New emergency cases have been rising due to the low-quality living conditions and contamination inside the displacement camps, including scabies and infectious diseases.” Yet “painkillers, antibiotic pills, ointments, and sterilized gauzes are running critically low. Patients receive their treatment for one month, while the following months remain suspended until further notice and medications become available again.”

Based on the medication scarcity, Al-Naami explained, “this is why we cannot provide the full amount of the prescribed medication. Instead, patients receive either half or quarter the quantities. The Ministry of Health has even resorted to extending the expiration dates of medications and renewing their use after testing their efficacy. All of this is merely to enhance the patients’ survivability amidst suffocating restrictions meant to crush Palestinians’ health.”

Al-Naami also underscored the significant shortages of nebulizers, whose absence has ultimately threatened hundreds of thousands of lives.

Young children are also facing devastating health consequences due to what Al-Farra described as “one of the Israeli strategies”: allowing one specific type of infant formula into Gaza until it became the primary milk depended on by nearly every child, only to later ban its entry after infants’ tiny bodies had already grown accustomed to it.

“Such abrupt switches in milk type result in malabsorption diseases, allergies, and potentially fatal complications,” he explained.

Al-Farra recounted the story of his patient, Huda Abo Al-Naja, a 12-year-old girl who was in the third phase of malnutrition, immunocompromised, and suffering from severe anemia.

He said she had been admitted to the hospital four times due to edema, “the accumulation of fluids in her body.”

Al-Farra lamented that the patient was “a unique and genius child,” fully aware of her own condition. He recalled how she would even compete with the intern doctors, answering questions related to her illness on their behalf.

Her journey fluctuated constantly between remission and relapse, improvement and deterioration, until she eventually developed sepsis that progressed into hypotension and septic shock, leading to admission to the ICU. During her stay, she urgently needed numerous diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions, including “bacterial cultures, a central line, arterial blood gas analysis, and electrolyte testing” — all of which were unavailable back then.

“Due to the lack of the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic tools needed to save her life, Huda died,” Al-Farra said.

Al-Farra placed the blame directly on “the collapse of Gaza’s health care system and the complete closure of border crossings imposed all by Israeli forces.”

For those who survived two years of genocidal war, the atrocities did not stop there. They are now at the peril of “a more engineered silent weapon: scarcity of medication,” as Al-Farra put it plainly.

He called on the international community and mediators to pressure Israel into opening the border crossings for the unconditional and unhindered flow of medical supplies. He added the need to reclaim Palestinians’ right to a dignified life and proper treatment, which is “a fundamental legitimate right under international law.”

June 9, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

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