Top secret NATO nuclear exercise to take place over UK as Russia tensions intensify
A NATO nuclear exercise with warplanes that can drop atomic bombs will take place from next week over the United Kingdom, the North Sea and Belgium, the alliance has said.
The annual training – called Steadfast Noon – is going ahead despite escalating tensions with Russia over fears President Vladimir Putin might consider a real nuclear strike in Ukraine.
Unusually, NATO chose to highlight well in advance the fact the exercise was coming up.
This appears to have been in a bid to ensure transparency and reduce the risk of any misunderstanding about the top secret and highly sensitive exercise.
A B-52 bomber assigned to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota – where some aircraft will fly from for the training exercise. Pic: AP
Ukraine war latest news: Vladimir Putin says he is open to talks but threatens NATO
Even the name, Steadfast Noon, was only formally declassified three or four years ago.
Air forces from some 14 countries are set to take part, with up to 60 aircraft operating over northwestern Europe, the alliance said on Friday.
They will include fighter jets from allied nations, such as Belgium and Germany, that can carry B61 bombs provided by the United States as well as US B52 bombers.
No live weapons will be used.
The jets will be escorted by other warplanes along with refuelling aircraft and spy planes.
The aim is to test the ability of allies to conduct nuclear strikes – the bedrock of NATO deterrence policy.
“Training flights will take place over Belgium… as well as over the North Sea and the United Kingdom,” NATO said in a statement.
A B-52H Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota flying over an oil tanker. Pic: AP
Training helps ensure nuclear deterrent is ‘safe, secure and effective’
The B-52 long-range bombers will fly from Minot Air Base in North Dakota.
Hosted this year by Belgium, the training will run from Monday until 30 October.
Oana Lungescu, the alliance spokesperson, said: “This exercise helps ensure that the alliance’s nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.”
A different NATO country hosts the exercise each year. Last year it was Italy’s turn.
Everything related to the alliance’s nuclear policy, posture and activity is normally top secret.
Allies try to be incredibly careful about any comments on nuclear weapons because even that could be seen as escalatory.
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What is a tactical nuclear weapon?
Similarly, NATO does not spell out when it might use nuclear weapons, other than to say such circumstances would be “extremely remote”.
Drawing red lines could undermine the alliance’s ability to deter threats so it prefers to be deliberately ambiguous.
But France’s president appeared to break with this convention on Wednesday.
In a television interview, Emmanuel Macron said his country would not retaliate with a nuclear strike should Russia’s Vladimir Putin launch a nuclear weapon in Ukraine or in the region.
Axing training event would have sent ‘very wrong signal’
Russia has used the threat of a nuclear strike in Ukraine as part of its efforts to deter the West from supporting the Ukrainian military.
The Ukraine crisis appears to have prompted the alliance to be increasingly public about its annual nuclear exercise.
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, said earlier in the week it would send a “very wrong signal” to cancel the long-planned event.
Read more:
What would the West do if Vladimir Putin does launch a nuclear attack?
British troops take part in extreme weather training with Sweden and Finland
Ben Wallace, the British defence secretary, echoed this view and noted that Russia’s nuclear forces are due to conduct their annual training exercise at around the same time.
“I think that is the key. What we don’t want is to do things out of routine,” he said on Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
Only three of NATO’s 30 allies have nuclear weapons – the US, the UK and France.
But France plays no direct role in NATO’s nuclear deterrence and is not part of the alliance’s nuclear planning group, which oversees all allied nuclear matters.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
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Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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