Tong Zhao | Foreign Policy
For decades, China charted a somewhat different path from the world’s two nuclear superpowers, maintaining a relaxed nuclear posture in comparison to the United States and the Soviet Union. It kept nuclear weapons on low alert in peacetime and remains the only country to pledge never to use nuclear weapons first under any conditions. Yet certain behaviors suggest that China may be preparing to adopt one of the Cold War’s most dangerous nuclear practices—launch under attack (LUA)—as part of its substantial expansion of its nuclear capabilities.
Mari Yamaguchi | AP News
Hiroshima on Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japanese city, with many aging survivors expressing frustration about the growing support of global leaders for nuclear weapons as a deterrence… “We don’t have much time left, while we face a greater nuclear threat than ever,” said Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization of survivors that won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its pursuit of nuclear abolishment.
Farnaz Fassihi | The New York Times
Iran executed one of its nuclear scientists on Wednesday over allegations that he was a spy for Israel and had facilitated Israel’s assassination of another nuclear scientist during the two countries’ war in June, according to the judiciary’s news outlet, Mizan. The judiciary said the scientist, Roozbeh Vadi, had worked at one of the country’s most sensitive and important nuclear sites and had access to the type of classified information sought by Iran’s enemies.
Evan Harper | The Washington Post
The Golden Chest Mine in the far northern reaches of Idaho seems an unlikely staging ground for clean power innovation. It is a throwback to an earlier era, the last hard rock gold mine in Idaho, where heavy machinery bores deep into the earth… But mine owner Idaho Strategic Resources plans to make the operation a showcase for a new energy source: miniaturized nuclear power. The company wants to power its mining machines with a nuclear reactor small enough to be packed in a shipping container and loaded on a truck.
Orange Wang | South China Morning Post
The US appears to be strengthening its allied deterrence against China by deploying its Dark Eagle hypersonic missile, a move that could “further intensify” regional rivalry, Chinese experts have warned. The United States Army Pacific, a service component for America’s Indo-Pacific Command, confirmed on the weekend that it had deployed a Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) system – commonly referred to as Dark Eagle – to Australia’s Northern Territory as part of the three-week Talisman Sabre 2025 military exercise that wrapped up on Monday.
Sam Winter-Levy and Nikita Lalwani | Foreign Affairs
The rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years has led many analysts to suggest that it will upend international politics and the military balance of power… AI is no doubt a transformative technology, one that will strengthen the economic, political, and military foundations of state power. But the winner of the AI race will not necessarily enjoy unchallenged dominance over its major competitors. The power of nuclear weapons, the most significant invention of the last century, remains a major impediment to the bulldozing change brought by AI.