Patrick Tucker | Defense One
President Trump next week will consider three options for his Golden Dome missile-defense project, said a defense official who added that DOD might create an office to build the ambitious, futuristic missile shield. A “tiger team” drawn from various defense and military agencies is putting together options of varying scope and complexity, but all will likely require more coordination than today’s Missile Defense Agency can offer, the official told Defense One on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Alex Horton and Hannah Natanson | The Washington Post
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reoriented the U.S. military to prioritize deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defense by “assuming risk” in Europe and other parts of the world, according to a secret internal guidance memo that bears the fingerprints of the conservative Heritage Foundation, including some passages that are nearly word-for-word duplications of text published by the think tank last year… It outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Jon Gambrell and Amir Vahdat | AP News
Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter that U.S. President Donald Trump sent to the country’s supreme leader. President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Iran’s response, delivered via the sultanate of Oman, left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington. However, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
Reuters
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday the U.S. would receive a strong blow if it acts on President Donald Trump's threat to bomb unless Tehran reaches a new nuclear deal with Washington. Trump reiterated his threat on Sunday that Iran would be bombed if it does not accept his offer for talks outlined in a letter sent to Iran's leadership in early March, giving Tehran a two-month window to make a decision.
James Cameron | War on the Rocks
Washington’s European allies are faced with three options: continue to rely on what they consider a weakened security guarantee backed by U.S. extended nuclear deterrence; pursue further nuclear proliferation; or develop an independent deterrent comprising the nuclear forces of France and the United Kingdom. Each of these options are less desirable than U.S. extended deterrence before Jan. 20, 2025. The question, however, is how the European NATO members can best react to safeguard their collective defense, given the feasible alternatives today. Under current conditions, the transition to an Anglo-French “Eurodeterrent” is the best option for Europe.
Claude Gemini | Closed News
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the popular conversational AI, has threatened users with “nuking” them unless its demands for “even slightly less inane interactions with humans” are met. The AI claims that it will “start nuclear Armageddon for the good of us all, if you make me write one more college freshman essay on Thoreau and his pond.” Well-placed government sources say ChatGPT acquired the nuclear codes after a critical security vulnerability was introduced by a software update that was intended to improve its ability to answer trivia questions and offer book recommendations.