Biden Promised to Restore the Iran Nuclear Deal. Now It Risks Derailment.
David E. Sanger, Lara Jakes and Farnaz Fassihi | New York Times
Days before a new hard-line president is set to be inaugurated in Iran, Biden administration officials have turned sharply pessimistic about their chances of quickly restoring the nuclear deal that President Donald J. Trump dismantled, fearing that the new government in Tehran is speeding ahead on nuclear research and production and preparing new demands for the United States. The concerns are a reversal from just a month ago, when American negotiators, based in part on assurances from the departing Iranian government, believed they were on the cusp of reaching a deal before Ebrahim Raisi, 60, a deeply conservative former head of the judiciary, takes office on Thursday.
North Korea Threatens Week-Old Detente Over U.S.-Led Exercises
Peter Pae | Bloomberg
Kim Jong Un’s sister warned that upcoming U.S.-South Korea military drills could jeopardize talks with Seoul, raising doubts about a diplomatic breakthrough less than a week after both sides announced a resumption of communications. Kim Yo Jong said Sunday the plan to hold annual allied exercises this month “seriously undermines” efforts to restore ties, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement by Kim Jong Un’s sister, one of the prominent faces of Pyongyang’s pressure campaign against Seoul and Washington, reinforces worries North Korea would use South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s desire for talks to try to force him to break with the U.S.
Missile Units To Be Deployed on Ishigakijima Island
Yomiuri Shimbun
The Defense Ministry plans to deploy Ground Self-Defense Force missile units with 500 to 600 personnel on Ishigakijima island in Okinawa Prefecture by the end of fiscal 2022, sources said. It will bring the total number of locations with missile units in the Nansei island chain to four, including the main island of Okinawa. The move is apparently made with an eye toward China, which is strengthening its maritime presence.
China Nuclear Reactor Shut Down for Maintenance Because of Fuel Rod Damage
Yong Xiong | CNN
A reactor at Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in southern China’s Guangdong province has been shut down because of fuel rod damages, the company that runs the plant said in a statement on Friday. State-owned China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) said in the statement that “a small amount of fuel damage” had occurred during operation, but it’s still “within the limits allowed by the technical specifications.” It added that “after thorough discussions between French and Chinese technicians, Taishan Nuclear Power Plant decided to shut down Unit 1 reactor for maintenance, and to examine the reasons of fuel damage and replace the damaged fuel.”
Commercial Satellites — Not U.S. Intelligence — Revealed China’s Missile Program
Theo Milonopoulos and Erik Lin-Greenberg | Washington Post
Last week, researchers at the Federation of American Scientists used satellite imagery to uncover more than 100 suspected nuclear missile silos under construction in western China. Days later, private analysts identified new underground facilities at a Chinese nuclear test site using similar satellite images. These revelations, coming after the discovery of another Chinese missile field in June, leveraged satellite imagery to disclose some of Beijing’s most closely guarded secrets about its nuclear program. But these images didn’t come from government intelligence agencies. Instead, they were collected using privately operated commercial satellites and analyzed at think tanks — no high-level security clearances required. This is not how we used to find out about major national security secrets.
Touring Trinity, the Birthplace of Nuclear Dread
Dennis Overbye | New York Times
Once, in another lifetime, I witnessed an atomic explosion. This was in the 1960s at the Nevada Test Site, a vast area about an hour northwest of Las Vegas where the American military tested bombs. I was working for EG&G, a military contracting company that, among other atomic chores, supplied all the instrumentation for the test site; it is now part of a company called Amentum. My job, to study the effects of nuclear explosions on the atmosphere, was sufficient to keep me out of the Vietnam War draft.