North Korea Says its Second Military Satellite Launch Attempt Failed
Colin Zwirko | NK News
North Korea attempted to put a military spy satellite into orbit but failed for the second time in three months on Thursday morning, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), announcing that the country will make a third attempt in October. “The flights of the first and second stages of the rocket were normal, but the launch failed due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight,” the report said. It added that the “cause of the relevant accident is not a big problem in the aspect of the reliability of cascade engines and the system.”
Poland’s Leader Says Russia is Moving Tactical Nuclear Weapons to Belarus
The Los Angeles Times
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda confirmed Tuesday that Russia has begun shifting some short-range nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus, a move that he said will change the security architecture of the region and the entire NATO military alliance. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, said last month that Moscow had already shipped some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus after announcing the plan in March. The U.S. and NATO haven’t confirmed the move.
China Slams US Call to Ban Anti-Satellite Missile Tests as ‘Fake Arms Control’
Liu Zhen | South China Morning Post
Beijing on Wednesday accused a US proposal to ban anti-satellite weapons testing in space of promoting “fake arms control” and “real military expansion”...Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that the US commitment was deceptive since it “sets no substantial limit to US military forces in outer space”, and Washington had already carried out enough direct-ascent missile tests and developed other types of anti-satellite weapons.
North Korean Missile Food Fight
ALEXANDER WARD, MATT BERG and ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL | POLITICO
There is growing disagreement about the origins of the North Korean Hwasang-18. US experts agree that Russia (and China) has helped North Korea advance its nuclear program. Kim Jong Un in July showed off his missiles to Russian Defense Minister SERGEI SHOIGU, an indicator of the countries’ relationship…But the how matters a lot, and there’s a wide gap between “Moscow has been helpful” and “the Kremlin gave North Korea its blueprints.”
Nuclear War Could End the World, but What if It’s All in Our Heads?
Sarah Scoles | The New York Times
Historically, scholarship on nuclear decision making grew out of economic theory, where analysts have often irrationally assumed that a “rational actor” is making decisions…But growing scientific understanding of the human brain hasn’t necessarily translated into adjustments in nuclear launch protocols. Now there’s a push to change that. The organization led by Ms. Rohlfing, for instance, is working on a project to apply insights from cognitive science and neuroscience to nuclear strategy and protocols — so leaders won’t bumble into atomic Armageddon.
Survey: Most Americans Don’t Know Much About Nuclear Weapons. But They Want to Know More
Dina Smeltz and Sharon K. Weiner | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
But how ready are Americans to reengage with nuclear issues? A recent joint Chicago Council-Carnegie Corporation survey among the American public shows that Americans are fairly mixed in their views about nuclear weapons. A limited percentage of Americans say they are familiar with US nuclear weapons policy, their costs, their effects, and other issues related to the US nuclear weapons arsenal. But regardless of their age, most Americans today do not consider themselves familiar with nuclear issues.