Past U.S. efforts to develop and deploy a space-based missile defense have known many names, including "Strategic Defense Initiative,” “Brilliant Pebbles,” and “Global Protection Against Limited Strikes.” And all have suffered the same fate: cancellation due to insurmountable financial, technical, and strategic obstacles.

In a March 1 pre-election speech to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted about Russia’s pursuit of several nuclear weapons systems, some that have already been tested as well as some new capabilities:

P5+1, Congress Respond to Trump’s Demands to Change the Iran Nuclear Deal

Officials from the United States and the E3 (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) gathered Jan. 25 in London for a working group meeting to discuss the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Iran’s ballistic missile program.

On Friday, Feb. 2, the Trump administration officially unveiled its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). Huffington Post leaked an earlier version of the document on Jan. 11.

On February 6, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stepped up to the pulpit to warn against the use of nuclear weapons. Addressing the second mobilization of the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, King urged an end to the war, and warned that if the United States used nuclear weapons in Vietnam the earth would be transformed into an inferno that "even the mind of Dante could not envision." Then, as he had done so many times before, King made clear the connection between the black freedom struggle in America and the need for nuclear disarmament:

It's been a tumultuous year, and your support has made an enormous difference to the work of the Arms Control Association.  In 2018, you can count on us to continue advancing common sense solutions to today's nuclear challenges.

Tillerson, Mogherini Meet Ahead of Key JCPOA Deadlines

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reiterated to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the EU would work with the United States to address shared issues related to Iran, “on the basis of continued U.S. implementation of the nuclear deal” and outside of the agreement itself.

(Updated from original version published July 6, 2017)

One of the catalytic forces behind the pursuit and conclusion of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in recent years has been the voices of the hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the people across the globe who have been adversely affected by more than seven decades of nuclear weapons production and testing.

(Reporting from Rome)
 

Pope Francis firmly condemned the possession of nuclear weapons for the first time at a Vatican conference on disarmament, a significant move that extends the Roman Catholic Church’s position on the immorality of nuclear weapons.