Faith leaders and scientists have written to ask President Obama ‘to take nuclear risk-reduction steps’ during the G7 summit next week (26/27 May). ‘Heightened tensions between the United States and Russia, and the growing risk of nuclear use worldwide, are all the more reason for the president to take meaningful steps to strengthen national and international security’, the letter read. Reducing nuclear weapons has been a key goal of Obama's presidency, and is one of the reasons he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He has rebuked Donald Trump for suggesting that Japan and South Korea should consider developing nuclear weapons. The president will visit Hiroshima, but there will be no apology for the bombing in 1945 that killed 140,000 people. The G7 agenda will cover uncertainty in global economy and trade; freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights; counter-terrorism; the Middle East, Ukraine, North Korea; and climate change and energy. See: