Tong Zhao | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The strategic alignment among Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang has grown significantly in recent years. However, seeking to maintain access to Western technologies, investment, and markets, China has a vested interest in avoiding the appearance of an emerging trilateral alliance with Russia and North Korea. As Beijing seeks to navigate an increasingly complex web of relationships with these aligned powers involving elements of cooperation and competition, China strives to cultivate influence over both Russia and North Korea while carefully avoiding entrapment by either.
Reuters
The United States will start deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to NATO and European defense, the United States and Germany said in a joint statement on Wednesday. The United States' "episodic deployments" are in preparation for longer-term stationing of such capabilities that will include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons that have a longer range than current capabilities in Europe, the two countries said
C. Todd Lopez | Department of Defense
The Defense Department has announced its decision to continue to modernize the land-based leg of the nuclear triad with a program called Sentinel. That decision comes after the Air Force notified Congress in January that the program had exceeded its baseline cost and triggered what is known as a Nunn-McCurdy breach…During the media event, William A. LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said that during the past 120 days he has led a review to determine if the program meets the criteria to continue, and he has determined that it does.
Kelsey Davenport | Arms Control Association
Iran expanded its uranium-enrichment capacity after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution censuring Tehran for failing to cooperate with the agency. The June 5 censure “reaffirms” the board’s decision from November 2022 that it is “essential and urgent” for Iran to clarify “all outstanding safeguards issues,” including providing the agency with “technically credible explanations” for the presence of uranium at two locations in Iran that were not declared to the IAEA. The resolution also calls on Tehran to provide the agency with design information for new nuclear facilities, as required by Iran’s safeguards agreement.
Marni Rose McFall | Newsweek
Russia's state-run nuclear energy agency said it is looking at potentially building six new high-power nuclear power units and low-power nuclear power plants in India, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The announcement comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes his first visit to Russia in five years.Modi is holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that are expected to bolster relations between the two countries and may result in the delivery of strategic deals, according to Bloomberg.
Evan Halper | The Washington Post
The dormant power plant renowned as the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history — Three Mile Island — may be switched back on, driven in part by the ravenous energy appetites of artificial-intelligence developers. The plant along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, where a partial reactor meltdown in 1979 sent the nation into a panic and the nuclear industry reeling, is part of a broader push backed by the White House to bring mothballed nuclear facilities back to life, something that has never before been done in this country.