Jeffrey Lewis and I discussed IAEA sampling at Iran’s Parchin military base and why Iran isn’t “inspecting itself” in a podcast at Arms Control Wonk.
Since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Belarus, which has adhered closely to Russia and a Soviet style of governance, has been trying to establish some distance, very likely concerned that it may be next to receive an influx of little green men vacationing from the Russian army. The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich, who has written book-length reports on issues in Russian and Belarusian society. Timothy Snyder reviews her work. The current president, Alexander Lukyshenka, was just elected overwhelmingly to a fifth term. Here’s a report on that and more.
The US is talking to Pakistan about controlling its nuclear weapons in return for a deal like India’s. India is not fond of the idea; here’s a response in a major Indian newspaper.
I recall a time when a security concern was that electrical impulses corresponding to typewriter keys might be picked up outside the buildings I worked in. The Soviets actually did something like that, but it was much harder than the security concern would have warranted. One of the many reasons I tend to take many scare stories with a grain of salt or more. Photo from here.
Speaking of which, here’s a debunking of overheated claims about multiple warheads on Chinese missiles. And of fearmongering about dirty bombs.
A somewhat overelaborate infographic on countries in which governance has broken down. Worth a quick look, anyway.
What is going on in Hungary? Something about that here.
Nuclear Diner 