U.S. Intel Shows Saudi Arabia Escalated Its Missile Program With Help From China
Phil Mattingly, Zachary Cohen, and Jeremy Herb | CNN
The US government has obtained intelligence that Saudi Arabia has significantly escalated its ballistic missile program with the help of China, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, a development that threatens decades of US efforts to limit missile proliferation in the Middle East. The Trump administration did not initially disclose its knowledge of this classified development to key members of Congress, the sources said, infuriating Democrats who discovered it outside of regular US government channels and concluded it had been deliberately left out of a series of briefings where they say it should have been presented. The previously unreported classified intelligence indicates Saudi Arabia has expanded both its missile infrastructure and technology through recent purchases from China.
Sen. Kaine: Trump Approved Nuclear Tech Transfer to Saudis After Khashoggi’s Murder
Andrew Desiderio | Politico
The Trump administration has approved the transfer of nuclear technical expertise to Saudi Arabia seven times — including twice since the Saudi-orchestrated murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Democratic senator said on Tuesday. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said the administration approved one of those transfers on Oct. 18, 2018, just 16 days after Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in an operation that the CIA believes was directed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The second transfer was approved on Feb. 18. “President Trump’s eagerness to give the Saudis anything they want, over bipartisan congressional objection, harms American national security interests and is one of many steps the administration is taking that is fueling a dangerous escalation of tension in the region,” Kaine said in a statement.
Putin Says Russia Prepared To Drop Arms Control Treaty If U.S. Not Interested In Renewal
Radio Free Europe
In a far-ranging discussion on foreign policy, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is prepared to drop the New START arms control treaty if the United States is not interested in renewing it. At a meeting with the heads of international news agencies in St. Petersburg, Putin said Washington is reluctant to begin talks on extending the deal, which is due to expire in 2021. “We do not have to extend it. Our systems can guarantee Russia's security for quite a long period of time," Putin said. "If no one feels like extending the New START agreement, well, we won't do it then," the Russian president said.
Defense Policy Bill Opens New Partisan Fight Over America’s Nuclear Arsenal
Joe Gould | Defense News
Over Republican objections, a Democratic-controlled House panel on Tuesday advanced legislation to halt deployment of a new low-yield nuclear warhead and bar any withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty. In a 10-8 party line vote, the House Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee recommended its portion of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which contained the provisions, to the full committee. The subcommittee’s inclusion sets up partisan fights over the size and cost of America’s nuclear arsenal ― both in the NDAA markup June 12 and in future talks to reconcile the bill with the GOP-led Senate’s version. One provision would bar funding to deploy a low-yield warhead on a Trident missile, or W76-2, ordered by the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review last year. Another would block the U.S. from withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty, which lets its signatory nations fly over each other’s territory to verify military movements and conduct arms control measures, unless Russia is in material breach.
North Korea Says American ‘Rogue State’ Jab is a ‘Declaration of Confrontation’
David Brennan | Newsweek
Faltering U.S.-North Korean relations have taken another turn for the worse after Pyongyang protested its characterization as a "rogue state" in a recent security report published by the Pentagon. The North Korean foreign ministry said Wednesday that the description was an undignified move of aggression, the Yonhap news agency reported. In the Pentagon's Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, released on June 1, the U.S. military said North Korea is a "rogue state" that "remains a security challenge." The secretive state "has developed an intercontinental ballistic missile intended to be capable of striking the continental United States with a nuclear or conventional payload," the report explained.
U.S. to Label Nuclear Waste as Less Dangerous to Quicken Cleanup
Guardian
The US government plans to reclassify some of the nation’s most dangerous radioactive waste to lower its threat level, outraging critics who say the move would make it cheaper and easier to walk away from cleaning up nuclear weapons production sites in Washington state, Idaho and South Carolina. The Department of Energy said on Wednesday that labeling some high-level waste as low level will save $40bn in cleanup costs across the nation’s entire nuclear weapons complex. The material that has languished for decades in the three states would be taken to low-level disposal facilities in Utah or Texas, the agency said. “This administration is proposing a responsible, results-driven solution that will finally open potential avenues for the safe treatment and removal of the lower-level waste,” said Paul Dabber, the energy undersecretary. “This will accelerate cleanup and reduce risk."