nuclear weapons

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Trump: Nuclear Weapons Tests Will Resume 'Immediately'

Move comes as Russia, China expand nuclear weapons programs

(Newser) - President Trump on Wednesday announced he has ordered the Pentagon to "immediately" resume testing nuclear weapons, citing the need to keep pace with rival nations' programs. The president made the announcement on Truth Social just before a highly watched meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, NBC...

Bigelow Defends Nuke Thriller After Pentagon Pushback

Director says A House of Dynamite is grounded in realism

(Newser) - Kathryn Bigelow has responded to criticism from the Pentagon regarding her new Netflix film, A House of Dynamite, which dramatizes a failed US response to a nuclear strike. The director is defending the movie's portrayal of missile defense systems. She tells the Hollywood Reporter that her movies, including Zero ...

Putin Says Russia's Got a New Nuclear-Capable War Toy

President says Russia's underwater drone was tested successfully

(Newser) - Russia has conducted a successful test of a new atomic-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, declaring that the new weapon can't be intercepted. Putin's statement, which the AP reports comes three days after he praised a successful test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile,...

Trump on Putin Proposal: 'Sounds Like a Good Idea to Me'

President appears to back a one-year extension of nuclear arms treaty

(Newser) - The Kremlin on Monday welcomed President Trump's comments about Russia's offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his readiness to adhere to...

Putin Offers Extension on Last Nuclear Arms Treaty With US

New START treaty is set to expire in February

(Newser) - With the clock ticking on the last major nuclear arms treaty between Washington and Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a one-year extension—if President Trump agrees to do the same. Putin on Monday floated a proposal to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which...

Survivors of Hiroshima Worry on Atom Bomb's 80th Anniversary

As global leaders lean into nukes for deterrence, those who lived through 1945 bombing speak out

(Newser) - Hiroshima on Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the Japanese city, with many survivors expressing frustration about the growing support of global leaders for nuclear weapons as a deterrent. With the survivors' numbers rapidly declining (the average age now exceeds 86), the anniversary is considered...

Russia Scraps Nuclear Treaty: 'Expect Further Steps'

Kremlin zaps missile pact as tensions with US escalate

(Newser) - Russia is officially backing away from any pretense of abiding by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, with the country's Foreign Ministry announcing that it "no longer considers itself bound" by the treaty, reports NBC News . The move was accompanied by stark warnings from former president Dmitry...

UK Is Buying Up Nuclear-Capable Fighter Jets
UK Acts Amid 'Growing
Nuclear Threat'
Jun 25, 2025 10:05 AM CDT

UK Acts Amid 'Growing Nuclear Threat'

PM Keir Starmer says Britain is buying 'at least' 12 nuclear-capable fighter jets

(Newser) - The UK says it will soon regain the ability to drop nuclear weapons from the air. With war raging in Europe and the Middle East, the UK announced Tuesday that it would buy "at least" 12 US-made F-35A stealth fighter-bombers, capable of carrying conventional and nuclear bombs, per the...

Trump: My Intel Chief Is 'Wrong' on Iran's Nukes

Tulsi Gabbard, meanwhile, says her testimony in Congress on the matter was taken out of context

(Newser) - President Trump on Friday said that his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was "wrong" when she previously said that the US believed Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon, suggesting it would be "very hard to stop" Israel's strikes on Iran in order to negotiate a...

He Built the First Fusion Bomb at Just 23
'The Only True Genius
I Have Ever Met'
OBITUARY
May 15, 2025 11:50 AM CDT

'The Only True Genius I Have Ever Met'

Physicist Richard Garwin, who played a critical role in the hydrogen bomb, has died at 97

(Newser) - Richard Garwin never saw a nuclear explosion in person, but his fingerprints are on one of the most pivotal blasts in history—and on inventions that quietly shaped everyday life. Garwin, one of the scientists behind America's first hydrogen bomb, died Tuesday at his home in Scarsdale, New...

Want an Easy Way Cut $2T? Think Nuclear
Want an
Easy Way
to Cut $2T?
Think Nuclear
OPINION
Feb 6, 2025 2:36 PM CST

Want an Easy Way to Cut $2T? Think Nuclear

Dan Vergano calls for ending nuclear weapons modernization

(Newser) - Elon Musk has an easy task in cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget in the view of Scientific American opinion editor Dan Vergano. But rather than going after the NOAA or the Labor Department , his Department of Government Efficiency should "recommend ending one of the most misguided, wasteful...

Doomsday Clock Just Moved Closer to Midnight

'Every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster'

(Newser) - Tick tock—the Doomsday Clock is now closer to midnight that it has ever been before. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , founded by Albert Einstein and Manhattan Project scientists, has moved the clock a second forward and it is now at 89 seconds to midnight, reports the New York ...

Exposing the 'Irrationality' of Nuclear Deterrence

Beatrice Fihn calls on ordinary people to challenge myths around nuclear weapons

(Newser) - The threat of nuclear weapons—"catastrophic destruction, potentially wiping out hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and spreading radioactive contamination across borders and generations"—is terrifying. But "nuclear weapons are remarkably inefficient tools of war"—"they are clumsy, expensive, and lack practical military utility,"...

Putin Makes Ominous Move on Nuclear Doctrine

He lowers threshold for use after US allows Ukraine to fire longer-range American missiles

(Newser) - Russia just loosened its rules on when it can unleash nuclear weapons, and Reuters sees the timing as a clear warning to the US. On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin formally changed Moscow's nuclear doctrine by lowering the threshold for when it can use nukes against its enemies. The move follows...

US Accuses China, Russia of Shielding North Korea

Hours later, North Korea launches more missiles

(Newser) - North Korea says it's speeding up the building of its nuclear weapons arsenal to counter threats from "hostile nuclear weapons states," like the United States. "The nuclear threat of United States against [North Korea] has already reached critical point in terms of its scale and danger,...

Atomic Bomb Survivors Win Nobel Peace Prize

Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo advocates against use of nuclear weapons

(Newser) - This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as the "taboo...

Putin Says Russia Might Loosen Its Nuclear Doctrine

Announcement is seen as a threat against the West

(Newser) - In what multiple news outlets are painting as an apparent threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced proposed changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine. He highlighted one in particular, NBC News reports: "It is proposed that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear...

China's 'Routine' Test Launch Was Anything But

Nation test-fired intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters for first time since 1980

(Newser) - China hasn't test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters in more than four decades—until now. The AP reports that China launched an ICBM with a dummy warhead on Wednesday, and that the missile fell into the Pacific Ocean as it was intended to, according to the nation'...

Looks Like Launch of 'Satan II' Didn't Go So Well

Russia's Sarmat nuclear missile launch deemed a 'catastrophic failure,' based on launch site pics

(Newser) - Earlier this month, a launch silo at Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome looked unmarred and ready for its next mission. Now, satellite images show a whole new picture of the site, suggesting that a recent test of its RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile went awry, reports Reuters . In fact, arms experts...

Putin Says US Forced His Hand on Nuclear Missile Plan

Russian president says missiles banned in late-'80s US-Russia treaty to go into production again

(Newser) - A decades-long halt on Russia's production of shorter- and intermediate-range nuclear-capable missiles has come to an end. Vladimir Putin on Friday called for his country to resume the manufacture of ground-based missiles with a range of between 310 and 3,410 miles, which had been banned in the Intermediate-Range...

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