By Tom Z. Collina A report by the National Research Council (NRC) released today finds that the US Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) system deployed Alaska and California has "shortcomings" so serious that it recommends the system be completely redesigned, rebuilt and retested. The US taxpayer has spent over $33 billion on the current GMD, according to the report, which was funded by the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

By Kelsey Davenport

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and Iranian President Ahmadinejad.Photo Credit: FARS

Note: correction on Fordow centrifuge totals (3pm, Aug. 30) By Tom Z. Collina and Daryl G. Kimball The IAEA's latest quarterly report on Iran, now in circulation, finds that Tehran has installed more machines for uranium enrichment in its Fordow underground facility, but has not started to use them. This means that Iran has not significantly increased its rate of enrichment at this facility since the IAEA's previous report from May.

By Daryl G. Kimball, with research support from Daria Medvedev and Wanda Archy Today is the official International Day Against Nuclear Tests, established in 2009 on the anniversary of the closure of the main former Soviet test site of Semipalatinsk, where more than 456 nuclear explosions contaminated the land and its inhabitants.

By Daryl G. Kimball 

Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr.--an influential nuclear arms control practitioner, advocate, scholar, and mentor for new generations of weapons and security experts--died on August 10 at the age of 87 of cancer at his home in Washington D.C.

Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr. in 2003

by Daryl G. Kimball The first nuclear bomb test in July 1945 and the surprise attacks on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 of that year ignited a global debate about the role, the morality, and the control of nuclear weapons that continues to this day.

By Wyatt Hoffman A newly released video called "A Short Film About Guns" underscores the need for an effective Arms Trade Treaty to reduce the illegal flow of weapons to conflicts across the world. Director Minos Papas partnered with the Control Arms Campaign to produce the video, which features four experts with firsthand experience with the devastating results of the unregulated global arms trade.