A new fellowship for historians looking to profile key figures of the nuclear age, named for the remarkable nuclear historian Marty Sherwin: www.gc.cuny.edu/news/generou...

While the US failed for 26 years to fix Penn Station, China built 30,000 miles of high-speed rail and 1,000 new rail stations. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Have had a post in Substack drafts now for months that I need to finish on why SBIs invite a world of fast-ascending (think Sprint ABM), nuclear-tipped DA-ASAT weapons.

"what began as a way to increase the pace of deportations has come to look like a national police force, answerable to the president, that is at least as focused on bullying the residents of Democrat-run cities as it is on deporting undocumented migrants" www.economist.com/interactive/...

Looking forward to reading this one. Sole presidential responsibility for nuclear use needs to be moderated in some way -- literally EVERY other thing involving nuclear weapons requires at least two people to be involved.

Aurora in New Mexico?? Amazing.

2023 bleaching event—unprecedented in severity—killed 97.8-100% of elkhorn and staghorn coral in the Florida Keys. Both species now “functionally extinct” on Florida reefs. 😩😩😩

ICYMI: The effort outlined here to undermine or bypass the NRC -- long the international gold standard of nuclear regulation -- is self-defeating. Only well-managed nuclear energy with strong safety and security regulation has a chance of growing enough to help mitigate climate change.

Surprise, surprise: when you intentionally traumatize government employees it becomes harder to recruit good people for those jobs. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

My friend @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social is brilliant. And he is gifted in his ability to explain the complex and dangerous realities of nuclear weapons in a way any could and everyone should understand. Congrats to the @thebulletin.org for making him do so. www.youtube.com/watch?v=czyk...

Please share with anyone in your organization or department who may be interested. Pre/postdoc and visiting scholars welcome. On sabbatical and want to join a great research community? Let us know

With so much national political noise, it's easy to overlook successes close to home. My first article for @earthislandjournal.bsky.social Journal looks at the movement to build trails for people of all abilities, including those on wheels @appmtnclub.bsky.social www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

Any diplomatic agreement that left us with no agreed limits on Iran's program, no inspections of Iran's HEU, and completely dependent on intelligence success to determine if Iran was moving toward nuclear weapons would be seen as a terrible accord. But that's where the 12-day war left us.

“If Trump wants to save the lives of Nigerian Christians… all Trump has to do is restore the American aid that was estimated to be saving the lives of more than a quarter-million Nigerians each year.” Bang-on (as usual) from @nickkristof.bsky.social

New post on the history of Soviet and Russian hydronuclear tests axesandatoms.substack.com/p/the-questi...

ICYMI, NYT story a couple weeks ago on how China surged past the United States in building nuclear power plants. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Today's NYT story on where we are on climate today compared to when the Paris accord was signed is interesting in several ways -- including showing just how bad we collectively are at projecting energy futures. The solar and coal projections in they cite were hilariously wrong.

Jobs numbers, per ADP. Back in the black but not by much--and 3-month moving average basically zero.

The factional grifters will hate this, but the Mamdani-Spanberger-Sherrill axis actually suggests the outlines of a broad, emerging Dem coalition organized around both anti-Trump *and* affordability politics, not a party bitterly divided against itself.

If we want nuclear energy to play a major role in addressing energy and climate challenges, we need to think through the key obstacles to, and risks of, large-scale growth, and what better technologies and policies might do to mitigate them. I offered some thoughts. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1gkmt...

Often forgotten part of Dick Cheney’s legacy. For more, see Susan Koch’s excellent account. ndupress.ndu.edu/portals/68/d...

President Trump's interview on 60 Minutes did very little to clarify his stance on the United States resuming full-scale nuclear tests for the first time in more than three decades. Let's look at some of his statements. 1/11

“It makes everyone afraid when the guy in charge of America’s nuclear weapons doesn’t appear to know what he’s talking about.” Quoted in NYT. Trump Doubles Down on Nuclear Tests. His Energy Secretary Differs. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

Looks like extraordinary cowardice. "...following pressure from the Chinese state and a separate defamation law suit against the university, Sheffield Hallam decided not to publish a final piece of research by Prof Murphy and her team into forced labour." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Two studies from committees of the National Academies concluded there was no technical need to resume nuclear explosive testing. 2002: nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/1047... 2012: nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/1284...

For the moment, Energy Secretary Chris Wright sensibly says the Trump admin. is NOT planning actual nuclear explosive tests -- just tests of all the other parts of the weapons. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

A Nature poll found that 75% of U.S. researchers are considering leaving the country. Guyz, even the *historians* are leaving or contemplating / likely to go. Including, at least 3 historians that I know of in my subfield. 😢

"US nuclear arsenal currently safe, reliable: STRATCOM nominee"

Children tear-gassed. Teenagers tackled to the ground. Bellingcat analysed footage of clashes between federal officers and civilians after a judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics in Illinois: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

A checklist: "The Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon." Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Honored to be on this list from @forbes.com. "Taylor packs a wealth of analysis and interesting facts into a compact book.. The book is ideal for anyone who wants a better context for understanding news reports about Putin and Russia." www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

For 33 years, all U.S. presidents, including President Trump during his first term, preserved the moratorium on explosive nuclear testing because they understood testing would do more harm than good to U.S. national security. The same logic applies today: It is unnecessary, unwise, and unwelcome.

Well, whad’ya know. Russia allegedly launched missile with a range it said it didn’t have. Reuters cites sources in the Ukraine FM saying 23 9M729 GLCMs were fired since August and more back in 2022. Missile violated INF treaty and caused US to pull out. www.reuters.com/business/aer...

Recording now available! Listen in to catch up on last week's conversation with @andrewfacini.com, Lily Boland, and @elianajjohns.bsky.social. 📼 Event video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkyr... 📑 Full report: councilonstrategicrisks.org/2025/10/23/t...

Here’s something really graphic for Halloween:

Not coincidentally, today is the National Day of Remembrance for Nuclear Weapons Workers, established by Congress in 2009 to honor those who designed, built, tested, and maintained our nuclear stockpile, and also mined, hauled, milled, and enriched uranium for making nuclear bombs and warheads.

1/n - Trump says something about nuclear weapons tests...It’s hard to know what he means. As usual, he’s unclear, all over the map, and wrong. 1. The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. Wrong. Russia has more nuclear weapons than the United States.

Trump announced the US' resumption of #nuclear tests. How might #Russia react? 🧵

If Pres. Trump wants to test “on an equal basis” with other nations DOD should test an ICBM and an SLBM. It’s the delivery systems, not the warheads, others are testing.

CBO: $542 billion to defend against 1-2 missiles DIA: North Korea could have 50 by 2035 www.dia.mil/articles/pre...

Fall 2025 issue preview @intsecurity.bsky.social! M. Trachtenberg | rules-based international order @aaronbateman.bsky.social | U.S. space power @ajmount.bsky.social | conventional deterrence of nuclear use DJ Kim | clients’ demand evasion @mikegoldfien.bsky.social | hawks, doves, & rapprochement

For anyone interested, a new article I’ve been working on for some time. Nice to see in print. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/H6RJT...

A House of Dynamite is a gripping nuclear thriller... that makes no sense? Here, finally, is my piece about what experts have to say about the movie (short 🧵 and then I'll do another 🧵 on what I think about it).... www.npr.org/2025/10/24/n...

Proud to have been part of 50 years of work to reduce the danger of nuclear war at the Harvard Kennedy School, detailed in this new account in the Kennedy School's magazine. The effort is more urgent and essential than ever. www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-rese...

Question is whether this will push Putin to new extremes of violence or toward being willing to stop the fighting. The war won't end until he concludes he's better off stopping than continuing.

President Trump says "“Every boat kills 25,000 on average — some people say more" -- referring to the boats the U.S. has been blowing up. It's very dangerous when a national leader has exaggerated beliefs about the benefits of military escalation.

BOSTON… (those are people, not ants) #NoKingsInAmerica 🇺🇸

The US Administration has done zero impact analysis to consider how the lightspeed evisceration of our public health system will affect the health of American families.

In Galatians 5:20-21, Paul warns that those who indulge in "hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions" (among other things) will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Trump is right to be worried about getting into Heaven.

Useful thread on the Gaza ceasefire from Elizabeth Saunders, building on a piece from Page Fortna.