Trump Jr: “Declassify Everything!!!” December 6, 2020
On November 8 Donald J. Trump Jr., the President’s oldest son, tweeted: “DECLASSIFY EVERYTHING!!!” adding “We can’t let the bad actors get away with it.”…
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First New START Data After Extension Shows Compliance
By Hans M. Kristensen The first public release of New START aggregate numbers since the United States and Russia in February extended the agreement for five years shows the treaty continues to limit the two nuclear powers strategic offensive nuclear forces. Continued adherence to the New START limits is one…
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FAS Presses for Release of Nuclear Stockpile Data
For the past three years, the Trump Administration refused to provide an annual tally of the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. nuclear stockpile or the number of weapons that had been dismantled each year, though that had been the practice under the Obama Administration and through 2017. The Federation…
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British Defense Review Ends Nuclear Reductions Era
By Hans M. Kristensen The United Kingdom announced yesterday that it has decided to abandon a previous plan to reduce it nuclear weapons stockpile to 180 by the mid-2020s and instead “move to an overall nuclear weapon stockpile of no more than 260 warheads.” The decision makes Britain the first…
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A New Policy on Setting Intelligence Priorities
Shortly before the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe issued a directive that altered the process for preparing the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, or NIPF, stripping out limitations on signals intelligence collection from the previous policy. The NIPF is perhaps the single most important administrative…
Read morePresidential Transition Act, and More from CRS December 6, 2020
Noteworthy new publications from the Congressional Research Service include the following. Presidential Transition Act: Provisions and Funding, November 13, 2020…
Read moreTrump Administration Again Refuses To Disclose Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Size December 3, 2020
The Trump administration has denied a request from the Federation of American Scientists to disclose the size of the US nuclear weapons stockpile and the number of dismantled warheads.
Read moreScientists take action by engaging with Congress on the promise of monoclonal antibody therapies for COVID-19 November 20, 2020
The limited science and technology (S&T) resources available to policymakers in Congress and state legislatures have compounded the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. To help meet legislators’…
Read moreUSAF Plans To Expand Nuclear Bomber Bases November 17, 2020
The US Air Force is working to expand the number of strategic bomber bases that can store nuclear weapons from two today to five by the 2030s. The plan will also significantly expand the number of bomber bases that store nuclear cruise missiles from one base today to all five bombers bases by the 2030s.
Read moreEnvironmental Assessment Reveals New Details About the Air Force’s ICBM Replacement Plan November 3, 2020
Any time a US federal agency proposes a major action that “has the potential to cause significant effects on the natural or human environment,” they must complete an…
Read moreSocial Media Conversations in Support of Herd Immunity are Driven by Bots October 30, 2020
Approximately half of the profiles pushing the case for herd immunity are artificial accounts.
Read moreUS Officials Give Confusing Comparisons Of US And Russian Nuclear Forces October 22, 2020
In their effort to paint the New START treaty as insufficient and a bad deal for the United States and its allies, Trump administration official have recently made statements suggesting the treaty limits the US nuclear arsenal more than it limits the Russian arsenal.
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