War Profiteers

In the first week of September 2018, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, spent four days visiting Israel. His trip was an opportunity to meet the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the thousands of Filipinos who live and work in the country… and explore opportunities to buy weapons.

As part of the European Union's Permanent Structure Cooperation framework (PESCO), Estonia, Latvia and Finland are planning to develop land-based drones to be used for planning and reconnaissance.

Journalists in Yemen and the USA have collected evidence that the missile used by the Saudi-led coalition forces to bomb a civilian bus Yemen, killing dozens of children and injuring many more, was as a 500-pound GBU-12 MK 82 laser guided missile, built by Lockheed Martin.

A new report called “A Lab and A Showroom” exposes how the extreme violence used by the Israeli military against Palestinian protesters supports the sale of military equipment by Israeli arms companies.

In the United Kingdom, campaigners have been resisting arms fairs being held in their cities. In Glasgow, dozens of activists held noisy protests outside the Undersea Defence Technology exhibition and conference, held at the cities Scottish Events Campus (SEC). In Farnborough and London, activists protested against the Farnborough International Airshow - biannual, week-long event, combining a public air show with an international trade show attended by military delegations from all over the world.

On Thursday 2nd August, over 40 artists descended on the Design Museum in London to remove their submissions. The artists and activists who contributed pieces to the exhibition were protesting against the museum hosting an event that facilitated the arms trade.

In early July, the European Parliament adopted the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP). The programme was first proposed by the European Commission in June 2017, as part of the European Defence Fund.

On 11th July students at the University of Melbourne took direct action to protest the universities collaboration with Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest arms company. The University has recently partnered with Lockheed on the STELaR laboratory.

In Paris, activists from across Europe joined with French protesters to take action against the Eurosatory arms fair, a biannual event that in 2018 saw over 1,700 arms companies exhibit their products to 57,000 individuals from over 150 countries, including military delegations from across the world.

In Paris, activists from across Europe joined with French protesters to take action against the Eurosatory arms fair, a biannual event that in 2018 saw over 1,700 arms companies exhibit their products to 57,000 individuals from over 150 countries, including military delegations from across the world.

A new report from Corruption Watch UK covers a number of corruption scandals involving the Italian arms company Leonardo.

Former South African President Jacob Zuma is scheduled to appear in court on July 27th on 16 charges (and 783 counts) of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud relating to South Africa’s long-running and convoluted arms deal scandal. Long time anti-arms activist Terry Crawford-Browne gives his take on the South African arms trade scandal.