In case you missed it: you can watch the Bulletin's discussion on the current state of climate change research, attacks on science, and RCP8.5 with Genevieve Guenther @doctorvive.bsky.social and Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social below. Thank you to our guests for joining us!

"While achieving such a negotiated settlement with China and Russia will be challenging, American strategists and diplomats should nevertheless begin devising and attempting to negotiate a new generation of trilateral arms control frameworks." —Matthew Kroenig, Alyxandra Marine ⬇️

Starting soon, join us below. ⬇️

New START's expiration has left the world without enforceable constraints on nuclear arsenals. "Still, it is possible to conceive of trilateral arms control arrangements among the United States, China, and Russia that would advance American interests," write Matthew Kroenig and Alyxandra Marine.

In April, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies hosted over 100 experts to discuss how AI may affect nuclear and biological weapons. The meeting launched a new Asilomar Process to develop practical safeguards for AI-related nuclear and biological risks, involving seven key principles.

Today at 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET, Genevieve Guenther @doctorvive.bsky.social and Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social will join the Bulletin for a discussion on recent developments in the study of climate change. You can watch the livestream below. ⬇️

"It doesn't affect me mentally that the world is in a bad situation. I just view it as a challenge. It's fixable. Humans can undo what they've done, it just requires will, caring. Anything can be changed." The Bulletin's @meckdevil.bsky.social, interviewed by @troyfarah.bsky.social for @salon.com.

In addition to our regular website content, the Bulletin publishes a premium magazine six times a year. Subscribers get access to new issues, our 80 year archive, and invitations to supporter only events. Try out a monthly subscription today for $7.99!

On June 22, Genevieve Guenther @doctorvive.bsky.social and Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social will join the Bulletin's Alexandra Bell @atomicbell.bsky.social to discuss recent developments in the study of climate change. Sign up to join this free virtual discussion below. ⬇️

"Climate Change: New Data, New Debate" | Virtual @thebulletin.org event w/ Alexandra Bell, @doctorvive.bsky.social & yours truly, Monday June 22. Register here: pages.thebulletin.org/20260622-Cli...

With the demise of New START creating a dangerous legal vacuum, Washington and Moscow must abandon outdated Cold War assumptions and forge a modern, shared definition of strategic stability, write Alexey Arbatov and Konstantin Bogdanov.

Americans are now getting more of their electricity from solar than from coal—a big change from the early 2000s, when coal was king. And solar’s rise is accelerating, provides more than twice the share of electricity it did five years ago.

"Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins, other marine life, and global sea levels."

"If this were standard infrastructure now on every Samsung and Apple smartphone, then the entire world would almost always know where most radioactive material was."

In a multipolar, post-New START world are multilateral arms treaties even possible? Russian security expert Dmitry Stefanovich shares his thoughts on what a new approach to nuclear negotiations might look like.

"As people in the United States struggle with rising costs and surging gas prices, oil giants are raking in billions from the Iran war, a dissonance that Democrats could tap into."

"All these recent developments make the risk that nuclear weapons may be used higher than it has been since Kennedy spoke."

The Bulletin is honored to welcome nuclear proliferation and arms control expert @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social and nuclear risk and disruptive technologies expert Herbert Lin to its Science and Security Board! thebulletin.org/2026/06/jeff...

In 1963, JFK proved that informal, one-sided moves could successfully defuse tensions with hostile adversaries, writes @matthew-bunn.bsky.social. Today, as a multipolar arms race looms, he offers a blueprint for avoiding catastrophic miscalculation.

Thrilled top be joining @thebulletin.org's Science and Security Board! thebulletin.org/2026/06/jeff...

OTD in 1963, JFK delivered his iconic American University speech—arguably the greatest address on nuclear weapons by a US president. Writing for @thebulletin.org, Matthew Bunn (@matthew-bunn.bsky.social) argues its lessons on unilateral restraint are urgently needed for President Trump today. 🧵👇

"These changes to France’s nuclear doctrine mark a revolution. But not a revolution that questions the transatlantic security. One that reinforces it." writes @m514ever.bsky.social

AGI gets thrown around a lot. So, for the @thebulletin.org I spoke to researchers and took a look at the term and reality of AI that could rival human intelligence. Turns out it's a better tool for raising capital than a scientific milestone.

President Macron's new concept of 'dissuasion avancée' marks a revolution in French nuclear policy. With this, Paris seeks to complement—not replace—US extended deterrence.

"An honest look at where the industry stands with regard to achieving artificial general intelligence—however that’s defined—shows a vast and perhaps permanent gulf between machine and human intelligence," writes Sara Goudarzi @saragoud.bsky.social.

Preserving data that the US government has long collected and should keep collecting is essential to maintaining the role of science in our society—and to keeping you and your family safe, write Richard Aslin, Nigel Goldenfeld, Daniel M. Kammen, and Lynn Nadel.

Enjoy our content on Bluesky? Join our free newsletter today and don't miss a beat of our coverage: thebulletin.org/receive-emai...

Over the past few decades, the world's become used to nuclear arms treaties, writes Jack Kennedy @jackkennedy.ie. However, it's been forgotten that this regime was created as a reaction to a costly arms race, not because the United States and the Soviet Union simply had admirable foresight.

In a telling demonstration of the thought and care that went into this decision, both NSF spokespeople who responded to my emailed questions with the same prepared word salad misprinted the organization’s name as Woods Hole Oceanographic “Institute.” My latest @thebulletin.org:

The US National Science Foundation is planning to remove hundreds of ocean monitoring instruments from four sites in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Bulletin climate editor Jessica McKenzie @jessimckenzi.bsky.social reached out to the NSF to learn more.

The road toward transparency about nuclear weapons was long, gradual, and deeply contingent, writes Francesca Giovannini of @managingtheatom.bsky.social. The tools developed during the US-Soviet experience cannot be replicated in the Chinese context. The European experience may serve as a model.

To build trust in the current global security situation, China and the EU should focus on the transparency of strategic intentions through dialogue, writes Lu Yin, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Studies at National Defense University in Beijing.

US extended nuclear deterrence is inherently both stabilizing—through its nonproliferation outcomes—and destabilizing. But its absence could also be destabilizing, and the world will need to come to terms if such a profound change in the international system does takes place, writes Paul van Hooft.

On Global Dispatches, @atomicbell.bsky.social, President of grantee @thebulletin.org, discusses what the recently-concluded NPT conference says about the current state of nuclear security 🎧 ⬇️ https://loom.ly/bgezk-E

While the Trump admin hasn't engaged in NATO-style nuclear sharing within its Asian alliances, there are signs of a burgeoning regional arms race and the potential for nuclear proliferation—developments that could lead the Asia Pacific region to a tipping point of war and peace, writes Hua Han.

"The Cold War-era nuclear order—in which the United States and the Soviet Union held sway, establishing treaties that set the nuclear rules for the whole world—has clearly and irreversibly come to an end, but a new order to replace it has not yet coalesced," writes Tianjiao Jiang.

"The world nuclear order exists only in the minds of those who postulate it," writes Benjamin Hautecouverture. "The history of nuclear power over the last 80 years is much more the story of an order in search of itself, and of the many attempts to fix it."

"Without prior investment in basic science, my prognosis would be much poorer. Science gives me justifiable hope for my future. Science also gives me hope for the future of the planet we share." —Benjamin Santer

"Technology has always been what nature does in the face of limits, when the environment seems to be breaking down." Sara Goudarzi @saragoud.bsky.social interviews Ilia Delio, a Franciscan Sister and scientist, about the meaning of the Pope's first encyclical on AI.

Mallory Stewart, former United States assistant secretary for arms control, describes the challenges posed by the new threats from emerging technologies, and how much the lost expertise in the US administration may affect the capacity of the United States to design and develop treaties.

The same bad actors that have opposed climate action for decades have now sought to weaponize the modest progress toward decarbonization we've made in spite of them. My co-author @doctorvive.bsky.social & I recently weighed in on this in the @thebulletin.org: thebulletin.org/2026/05/sorr...

In the first entry in this week's series on European and Chinese strategic stability, Sibylle Bauer and Wu Chunsi write that "a renewal of EU-China nuclear talks are more urgent than they were two decades ago."

Scientists are increasingly concerned that marine heatwaves in the Pacific Ocean will fuel a "super" or "Godzilla" El Niño, disrupting fisheries and ecosystems, and intensifying global climate impacts well into 2027.

Mallory Stewart, former United States assistant secretary for arms control, on what forms and mechanisms of risk reduction can maintain strategic stability in a multipolar world.

"Just as it did with air pollution rules, the Trump administration has now, in effect, set the value of American lives to zero in regulatory protections against nuclear-radiation-caused cancer." — Frank von Hippel

The 11th Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ended last week as it had in 2015 and 2022, deadlocked over a single regional issue, in this case Iran. The deadlock will be a subject of continuing debate, but here are a few initial observations from @markwgoodman.bsky.social.

The Trump administration's skepticism about regulations of all types is giving visibility to a fringe theory positing that low doses of ionizing radiation have health benefits, writes Frank von Hippel.

At Noon CT today we'll be holding a YouTube live on how the US public engages with foreign policy and arms control. Speakers include Tom Nichols, Mari Faines, & Jon B. Wolfsthal, and Alexandra Bell. Join us! youtube.com/live/Cniw1Ug...

Tomorrow, join the Bulletin for an expert virtual panel exploring the risks presented by the shifting global order and the changing role the United States government is playing in a new era of arms control.

"Nuclear escalation becomes more likely when a leader feels backed into a corner, when military efforts are failing, and when the line between preserving personal power and preserving the state begins to blur." @pslovic.bsky.social and Rose McDermott write in a new piece for the Bulletin.