| Eminent Persons Warn Against Any Demonstration Nuclear Test Explosion By Reinhard Jacobsen VIENNA (IDN) – Members of the CTBTO Group of Eminent Persons (GEM) have expressed “deep concern about credible press reports” that senior U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of conducting “a demonstration nuclear test explosion”. JAPANESE | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH Postponement of NPT Review Conference Offers an Opportunity Antagonisms, Conflicts and Nuclear Risks After the Pandemic A Pugwash Document ROME | GENEVA | WASHINGTON | LONDON (IDN) – The new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has already inflicted great damage on a number of nations and on the world at large, resulting not only in many tens of thousands of deaths but also in economic, financial and social crises. [2020–05-15] Global Civil Society Demands Bolder Action from NPT States Parties By Jamshed Baruah Image credit: PixabayGENEVA (IDN) – A diverse network of national and international peace and nuclear disarmament non-governmental organisations has in a joint statement urged government leaders, particularly from the nuclear-armed states and their allies, to act with greater urgency and cooperation to meet unfulfilled promises to reduce nuclear risks and advance progress on disarmament, and to realise their commitment to the “complete elimination of nuclear weapons”. The statement coincided with the 25th anniversary on May 11 of the indefinite extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). ARABIC | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE | THAI 25 Years After the Indefinite Extension of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: A Field of Broken Promises and Shattered Visions By Tariq Rauf*  VIENNA (IDN) – “I long ago took to heart the words of Omar Bradley, spoken virtually a half century ago, when he observed, having seen the aftermath of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus: ‘We live in an age of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We live in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We’ve unlocked the mysteries of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living’.”[2020–05-11] Beware of Weaponizing COVID-19 Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal  Image: Collage of images of biomasks and COVID-19 with graphics from Internet. SINGAPORE (IDN) – Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) were something that USA and UK coalition forces were trying to find in the armouries of Saddam Hussain in Iraq in March 2003. Anglo-Saxon media was painting the fears of death, destruction and sufferings to humankind unless those weapons were destroyed – justifying the illegal invasion of the allied forces into a sovereign Iraq, violating all international laws and order. [2020–05-10]Russia’s Victory in WWII Changed the World but War Drums Continue Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*  NEW YORK (IDN) – On May 9, 1945, after four years of violent battles inside Russia, recorded as the bloodiest and most destructive military conflict in the whole history of humanity, the Russians defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. It is the single most important day in Russian history that elicits a strong feeling of pride and patriotic fervour that binds the nation together. [2020–05-06]World Conference Calls for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons and Reversing Climate Change By Santo D. BanerjeeImage credit: World ConferenceNEW YORK (IDN) -– In a dramatic warning from 13 Nobel Prize winners about the existential dangers of nuclear weapons and climate crisis, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on January 23 set the hands of its iconic ‘Doomsday Clock’ to 100 seconds to midnight. CHINESE | JAPANESE | KOREAN | RUSSIAN An Unexpected Chance for the Success of Postponed NPT Review Conference Viewpoint by Sergio DuarteThe writer is Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and current President of Pugwash.  NEW YORK (IDN) – It took patience from the President-designate of the 2020 NPT Review Conference, a sober assessment of the situation by a number of states, particularly from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and help from the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). In the end, the parties to the Treaty agreed to postpone the Conference to next year, “as soon as circumstances permit, but no later than April 2021”.ARABIC | CHINESE | JAPANESE | SPANISH A Nobel Peace Laureate Calls for Slashing Military Spending and Investing in Healthcare By Jutta Wolf  Image credit: IPBBERLIN (IDN) – The world’s oldest peace NGO, the 1910 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Peace Bureau (IPB), is calling for a “dramatic reduction” of military spending in favour of healthcare and meeting social needs. A petition launched on March 27 and signed by all interested will be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly on the first day of the next session opening on September 15, 2020. ITALIAN | JAPANESE | RUSSIAN |
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