After evaluating all our social channels, we will no longer be actively posting on Mastodon. Check us out on our other platforms for more Nukes of Hazard content and news analysis!
Twitter: @nukes_of_hazard
Instagram: @nukes_of_hazard
Threads: @nukes_of_hazard
Bluesky: @nukesofhazard.bsky.social
FB: /armscontrolcenter
Email list: https://armscontrolcenter.org/front-and-center/

As the landscape of social media begins to shift, we want to hear your thoughts on how/where you'd like to hear more from us! Are you following us on other platforms? Do you want to follow us elsewhere?

The test firing of a Trident missile from a Royal Navy submarine has failed, for the second time in a row.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68355395

“As we enter the third year of the Russian invasion with both sides convinced they would lose more by stopping the fight, history can provide guidance on the risks of taking losses of lives lightly,” writes Senior Policy Director John Erath in our Nukes of Hazard blog.
https://armscontrolcenter.org/the-ukraine-war-after-two-years-a-lesson-from-the-past/

Senior intelligence and administration officials had been reaching out to Russia — along with India and China as possible intermediaries — about the Russian space project for weeks before it became public, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the outreach.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/biden-white-house-russia-space-weapon-00142172

“Independent monitoring is feasible, viable, and achievable, making it essential to preparing for and responding to the inevitable next pandemic,” write Elliot Hannon, Nina Schwalbe and Susanna Lehtimaki.
https://thebulletin.org/2024/02/who-member-states-are-negotiating-a-pandemic-treaty-but-will-countries-follow-the-new-rules/#post-heading

“The Navalny poisoning has been taken as one of many examples of Putin’s efforts to erode norms around weapons of mass destruction,” writes Matt Field.
https://thebulletin.org/2024/02/putin-critic-alexie-nevalny-who-once-survived-a-chemical-weapons-attack-dies-in-a-russian-prison/#post-heading

Iran continues to enrich uranium well beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use despite U.N. pressure to stop it, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday, adding he wanted to visit Tehran next month for the first time in a year to end the "drifting apart.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/iaea-chief-says-irans-nuclear-enrichment-activity-remains-high-2024-02-19/

A rare olive branch from the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader offering up the enticing possibility of repairing ties with Japan may be concealing what analysts say is a more likely motivation — to drive a wedge between Tokyo’s ever-closer trilateral and bilateral ties with Seoul and Washington.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/02/19/japan/politics/north-korea-japan-dipomacy/

The debate in NATO on collective defense has led to a renewed debate on Germany and nuclear weapons.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-and-nuclear-weapons-a-difficult-history/a-68279838

Talk of a potential European nuclear deterrent that would not involve the United States is "not helpful,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Saturday.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/talk-european-nuclear-deterrent-not-helpful-says-natos-stoltenberg-2024-02-17/

Top diplomats from the U.S. and China on Friday held a “candid and constructive” discussion on issues vexing their strained relations over Taiwan, the situation in the South China Sea, Russia’s war against Ukraine and synthetic opioids, the State Department said.
https://apnews.com/article/us-china-blinken-wang-3612e2b3fdd6c2d9dcb977347e31f879

Does Christopher Nolan read our Nukes of Hazard blog?
https://www.nme.com/news/film/christopher-nolan-thanks-nuclear-disarmament-campaigners-in-baftas-acceptance-speech-3589167

A powerful explosion was reported in Russia's Udmurt Republic at a plant that produces ballistic missiles, local media reported on Wednesday.
https://www.newsweek.com/explosion-russian-military-weapons-plant-nuclear-udmurt-votkinsk-1868050

“Robust techniques for identification of nuclear tests will continue to be a key component of global monitoring programs,” writes Mark Hoggard.
https://theconversation.com/underground-nuclear-tests-are-hard-to-detect-a-new-method-can-spot-them-99-of-the-time-222500

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol reiterated that the country would not seek its own nuclear deterrent in the face of threats from nuclear-armed North Korea as he vowed further efforts to sharpen nuclear deterrence strategies with ally United States.
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-suk-yeol-nuclear-north-korea-35f002effe08a320580eb38e5a2a727b

United Nations sanctions monitors are investigating dozens of suspected cyberattacks by North Korea that raked in $3 billion to help it further develop its nuclear weapons program, according to excerpts of an unpublished U.N. report reviewed by Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/un-experts-investigate-58-cyberattacks-worth-3-bln-by-north-korea-2024-02-08/

“FAS has tracked the progress of Russian nuclear submarine modernization as well as the upgrades to the supporting naval infrastructure, including submarine piers, missile loading piers, and new nuclear warhead storage facilities,” writes Eliana Johns.
https://fas.org/publication/submarine-upgrades-russia/

Hollywood movies encompassed sci-fi, drama, noir and even comedy as they spotlighted a brave new world marked by duck-and-cover drills, apocalyptic speculation and the legitimate possibility that the world could end at any moment.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-02-06/atomic-terror-and-the-movies

Roughly three out of four South Koreans think their country should develop its own nuclear weapons amid concerns about the growing threat from neighboring North Korea, according to a new survey conducted by Gallup Korea.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/02/06/Gallup-Chey-survey-North-Korea-nuclear-weapons-denuclearization/8841707211962/