Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
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French Licorne nuclear test, July 3, 1970. Image: Pierre J/Flickr There are currently about 15,000 nuclear warheads on Earth—enough to blow our planet to kingdom come. It’s complete overkill, literally. But how many nukes is enough to deter an enemy? And how many nukes could an aggressor nation drop on an enemy before the effects…
WASHINGTON — President Trump told President Emmanuel Macron of France on Tuesday morning that he plans to announce the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, according to a person briefed on the conversation. Mr. Trump’s decision unravels the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama, isolating the United States…
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon every used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said. The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons…
Tillerson: ‘The Policy of Strategic Patience Has Ended’ Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, in a visit to South Korea, said if North Korea increased “the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level, the Trump administration would consider action. “The policy of strategic patience has ended,” Mr. Tillerson said. By REUTERS. Photo by…
Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times It is now two and one-half minutes to midnight. Our organization, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is marking the 70th anniversary of its Doomsday Clock on Thursday by moving it 30 seconds closer to midnight. In 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to…
Between the Trump transition team’s infighting, incompetence, and high-profile resignations, any decisions that signaled even a modicum of stability for the country would come as a relief at this point. Unfortunately, the nascent Trump Administration isn’t inclined to calm anyone’s nerves. According to an official within the Department of Energy, this past Friday, the President-elect’s…
The last time the United States declared its nuclear weapons policy, in 2010, it required a year of deliberation and a fussed-over 64-page report to set it out. President-elect Donald J. Trump appears to have done so in only 140 characters, forcing analysts and foreign states to divine United States policy from a few brief…
Rick Perry, a swaggering idiot who found a pair of glasses on the street one day, is about to become the head of the Department of Energy, according to CBS News. The Department of Energy’s job right now is to develop the next generation of nuclear weapons. What this means practically speaking, of course, is…