 Defense &
National Security |
Defense &
National Security |
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Doomsday Clock ticks four second closer to midnight |
The world slipped further toward the abyss over the past year, with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on Tuesday moving the hands of the famed Doomsday Clock four seconds closer to midnight, at 85 seconds. |
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via Associated Press file |
The 80-year tradition of the Doomsday Clock is meant to serve as an urgent call to action for populations to demand change and governments to reverse factors moving the world closer to catastrophe.
Those factors include nuclear annihilation as well as climactic disasters; AI advancing faster than the ability to govern it; biological risks and spread of disease; the rise of autocracies; and the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation.
"We're now jumping four seconds, which is a large jump, to 85 seconds, which is the closest it's been ever," said Daniel Holz, chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and a physics professor with the University of Chicago.
"The main message is we should be worried, but there are many things that can be done that would turn back the clock," he continued.
Among the top factors for the clock moving forward is the upcoming expiration of the New START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, set to end in February. The treaty allows information sharing and sets limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles.
"I don't want to make it sound like this is simple, but this is a piece of low-hanging fruit that the Trump administration should have seized months ago," said Jon Wolfsthal, director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists and who served as special assistant to the president for national security affairs during the Obama administration.
He said Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin "could agree tomorrow" to extend the limits under New START, and he blamed Trump for failing to assign an official to prioritize the issue.
"The reality is, under multiple administrations before Trump, this was the daily work of government and international security. And under Donald Trump it has ceased. There are no smart people dedicated to protecting the United States, working this problem, engaged with our adversaries to try to reduce this danger, and that's what has to change."
Read the full report on thehill.com |
Welcome to The Hill's Defense & National Security newsletter, I'm Colin Meyn filling in for Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. |
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How policy will affect defense and national security now and in
the future: |
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A senior Greenlandic official dismissed President Trump's desire for the U.S. to gain sovereignty over the land on which its military base sits. Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland's minister of industry, raw materials, mining, energy, law enforcement and equality, told USA Today on Sunday that the president's proposal is a "red line." Trump claimed to the New York Post Friday that the U.S. will secure control over the land … |
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Family members of two Trinidadian men killed in a U.S. airstrike last October have sued the government, alleging wrongful death and extrajudicial killing amid the Trump administration’s campaign of boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela. It’s the first federal lawsuit filed over the military’s attacks on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea, which have killed more than 100 people since September. … |
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BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte insisted Monday that Europe is incapable of defending itself without U.S. military support and would have to more than double current military spending targets to be able to do so. "If anyone thinks here … that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming. You can't," Rutte told EU lawmakers in Brussels. Europe and the United States … |
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The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search Sunday evening for the lone survivor of the U.S. military's strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, an operation during which two suspected "narco-terrorists" were killed on impact. The Coast Guard ended its effort at 7:46 p.m. PST after 56 hours of searching, during which personnel covered a total of 1,055 nautical miles with "no signs of survivors or debris," … |
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Upcoming things we're watching on our beat: |
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio will testify Wednesday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. policy toward Venezuela, starting at 10 a.m.
- The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the Defense Department's cyber force generation plan and the associated implementation plan. Witnesses include Gen. William Hartman, Acting Commander, United States Cyber Command.
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Branch out with a different read from The Hill: |
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GOP confidence in ICE declines in January: Poll |
Fewer Republicans say in a new poll that they have confidence in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency tasked with carrying out the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. In the Economist/YouGov survey, conducted this past weekend, 60 percent of Republicans … |
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Events in and around the defense world: |
- Day 3 of the annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, with keynote speech from Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) at 8:15 a.m.
- Clarion Defence and the Hudson Institute host the 2026 Apex Defense Conference, starting at 8 a.m.
- Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) speaks at the Atlantic Council about the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, at 3 p.m.
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News we've flagged from other outlets: |
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Two key stories on The Hill right now: |
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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) pushed for the retraining of every federal immigration officer in the wake of two shooting deaths this month at the … Read more |
| President Trump spoke in Des Moines, Iowa, early Tuesday evening after he defended Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from criticism of her handling … Read more |
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You're all caught up. See you tomorrow! |
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