NH #656: Nobel Peace Prize-winning ICAN’s New Exec. Director Melissa Parke, Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) new Executive Director,
Melissa Parke (L) interviewed by Nuclear Hotseat’s Libbe HaLevy

This Week’s Featured Interview:

• Melissa Parke took over the helm of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) as Executive Director in September, 2023. She is a former Australian Minister for International Development and former Member of Parliament for the Australian Labor Party for Fremantle from 2007 to 2016. As an MP, she regularly voiced support for nuclear disarmament, including as a member of a cross-party parliamentary group dedicated to the cause. She has also been an ambassador for ICAN Australia and has served as a patron of the Tom Uren Memorial Fund, which supports ICAN’s work.
  
  She began working on nuclear issues in the 1990s when she joined a campaign to oppose the establishment of a global nuclear waste dump in her home state of Western Australia. Her former constituency of Fremantle is a self-declared “nuclear-free zone” and active member of the Hiroshima-based Mayors for Peace network.
  
  Prior to entering the Australian Parliament, Ms Parke served as an international lawyer with the United Nations in Kosovo, Gaza, New York and Lebanon. More recently, she served as a member of the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen. 
  
  I spoke with Melissa Parke on Thursday, January 11, 2024.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

So many numnutz to choose from! The Congressional “comprehensive” 160-page review of nuclear arms build-up that doesn’t mention “waste” even once, or Atoms4Food <!>?

Links:

• How You Can Get your city, town or local authority to join the ICAN Cities Appeal. Even if you’ve never engaged with local politics before, it’s easier than you might think. Learn whether your city is yet involved Here – and if not, what you can do about it.
• New York Times Minimizes Impacts of Three Mile Island by Karl Grossman
• Nuclear-free NYC: How New Yorkers are disarming the legacies of the Manhattan Project
• “Steadfast Noon” spells Doom by John LaForge
• The backstory on this week’s Numnutz: Why a nuclear weapons ban would threaten, not save, humanity
• “The Hate Song” from the original cast recording of “The Mad Show,” illustrating in musical theatre terms the futility of trying to get rid of war with… well, more war. Perfect for Zachary Kallenborn, who just wrote that extensive screed (see: above) on how abolishing nuclear weapons will make us more vulnerable to nuclear weapons. (Say what…?)