STOCKHOLM: The world’s nuclear-armed states are beefing up their atomic arsenals and walking out of arms control pacts, creating a new era of threat that has brought an end to decades of reductions in stockpiles since the Cold War, a think tank said on Monday.
Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,241 warheads in January 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its yearbook, an annual inventory of the world’s most dangerous weapons.
Around 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles, nearly all belonging to either the US or Russia.
SIPRI said global tensions had seen the nine nuclear states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — plan to increase their stockpiles.
“The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the Cold War, is coming to an end,” SIPRI said. “Instead, we see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric and the abandonment of arms control agreements.”
SIPRI said Russia and the US, which together possess around 90 percent of all nuclear weapons, had kept the sizes of their respective useable warheads relatively stable in 2024. But both were implementing extensive modernization programs that could increase the size of their arsenals in the future.
The fastest-growing arsenal is China’s, with Beijing adding about 100 new warheads per year since 2023. China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as either Russia or the US by the turn of the decade.
According to the estimates, Russia and the US held around 5,459 and 5,177 nuclear warheads respectively, while China had around 600.
World entering new era as nuclear powers build up arsenals — SIPRI think tank
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World entering new era as nuclear powers build up arsenals — SIPRI think tank
- Nine nuclear states — US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel plan to increase their stockpiles
- Of total global inventory of estimated 12,241 warheads in Jan. 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use
UK police to arrest those chanting ‘globalize the intifada’
- Pro-Palestinian groups say the move will infringe on the right to protest and misunderstands the meaning of the word
- UK police say the context surrounding the chants has changed after the Bondi Beach attack
LONDON: People publicly chanting pro-Palestinian calls to “globalize the intifada” will be arrested, UK police warned Wednesday, saying the “context had changed” in the wake of Australia’s Bondi Beach attack.
The announcement by the police forces of London and the northwest English city of Manchester swiftly prompted accusations of political repression by some campaigners.
The move follows father-and-son gunmen killing 15 people Sunday at a Hanukkah festival on the Sydney beach and an October attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
“We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as ‘globalize the intifada’,” the UK capital’s Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police said in a joint statement vowing to “be more assertive.”
“Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed — words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests.”
Jewish groups welcomed the announcement, with the UK’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis calling it “an important step toward challenging the hateful rhetoric we have seen on our streets, which has inspired acts of violence and terror.”
But Ben Jamal, from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said in a statement that it infringes on the right to protest.
“The statement by the Met and GMP marks another low in the political repression of protest for Palestinian rights,” he said, ahead of a planned central London pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday evening.
He criticized the lack of consultation over the move, adding “the Arabic word intifada means shaking off or uprising against injustice.”
‘Sickening’
“It came to prominence during the first intifada which was overwhelmingly marked by peaceful protest that was brutally repressed by the Israeli state,” Jamal said.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israel. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
UK police have already stepped up security around the country’s synagogues, Jewish schools and community hubs in the wake of this year’s violent incidents.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urged Australia to act against a “surge” of antisemitism after Sunday’s atrocity, echoing similar previous demands aimed at Britain.
In a social media post, Saar branded slogans heard at pro-Palestinian protests such as “Globalize the Intifada” “Death to the IDF,” the Israeli military, as antisemitic and violent incitement.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose wife is Jewish, denounced the weekend gun rampage in Australia as “sickening,” saying it was “an antisemitic terrorist attack against Jewish families.”
Chief prosecutor Lionel Idan said Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was “already working closely with police and communities to identify, charge and prosecute antisemitic hate crimes.”
“We will always look at ways we can do more,” he added.
Hate crime referrals and completed prosecutions rose by 17 percent to 15,561 in the year to June 2025, according to the CPS.
