TOP NEWS Iran curbs U.N. probe into Tehran nuclear equipment site Wall Street Journal Iran goes further in breaching nuclear deal, IAEA report shows Reuters Top North Korean, Chinese diplomats meet in Pyongyang amid stalled nuclear talks with U.S. Japan Times Prime Minister Khan: Pakistan would not use nuclear weapons first, amid tensions with India Reuters Middle East Iran curbs U.N. probe into Tehran nuclear equipment site Wall Street Journal9/2/19 Diplomats say Iran is stifling a United Nations investigation of its alleged storage of nuclear equipment and radioactive material. Iran goes further in breaching nuclear deal, IAEA report shows Reuters8/30/19 Iran has gone further in breaching its nuclear deal with world powers, increasing its stock of enriched uranium and refining it to a greater purity than allowed, the U.N. atomic agency report said on Friday. France dangles $15 billion bailout for Iran in effort to save nuclear deal New York Times9/2/19 A senior Iranian delegation arrived in Paris on Monday to work out the details of a financial bailout package that France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, intends to use to compensate Iran for oil sales lost to American sanctions. In a tweet taunting Iran, Trump releases an image thought to be classified New York Times8/30/19 A mysterious explosion on Thursday at an Iranian space center prompted speculation that it was American sabotage, rather than an accident, that was responsible for the third successive failure of Tehran’s efforts to show it could loft satellites into orbit. East Asia Top North Korean, Chinese diplomats meet in Pyongyang amid stalled nuclear talks with U.S. Japan Times9/3/19 The foreign ministers of China and North Korea have held talks in Pyongyang, with the two allies vowing to bolster bilateral ties and work closely on security issues amid the North’s stalled nuclear talks with the U.S. Japan’s Defense Ministry requests record ¥5.32 trillion budget Japan Today8/30/19 Japan’s defense spending is expected to set a new record next year as the country deepens its military alliance with the U.S. and spends more on expensive American stealth fighters and other equipment amid threats from China and North Korea. China to display nukes in military parade to ‘send message to U.S.’ American Military News8/30/19 In a “warning message” to the United States, the Chinese military plans to display some of its nuclear weapons in a military parade on October 1. North Korea says hope of more U.S. talks is ‘disappearing’ New York Times8/31/19 North Korea said on Saturday that its expectations for more dialogue with the Trump administration were “gradually disappearing,” and threatened to reconsider its conciliatory gestures toward the United States, potentially including its moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests. North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear center: Low level activity and flood management 38 North8/30/19 Commercial satellite imagery from the month of August indicates only low levels of activity at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center with no indicators of reactor operations. South Asia Prime Minister Khan: Pakistan would not use nuclear weapons first, amid tensions with India Reuters8/2/19 Pakistan would not use nuclear weapons first, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday, amid tensions with arch-rival India after New Delhi revoked the special status of its part of the disputed Kashmir region. Commentary/Opinion/Analysis How nuclear scientists are decoding Russia’s mystery explosion NatureElizabeth Gibney 8/30/19 Isotopes that caused a radiation spike earlier this month probably came from an exploding nuclear-reactor core — but the device’s application is still unknown. AI will change war, but not in the way you think War on the RocksJonathan Clifford 8/2/19 AI will change how wars are fought, but not the nature of war. Strangelove redux: US experts propose having AI control nuclear weapons Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsMatt Field 8/30/19 Hypersonic missiles, stealthy cruise missiles, and weaponized artificial intelligence have so reduced the amount of time that decision makers in the United States would theoretically have to respond to a nuclear attack that, two military experts say, it’s time for a new US nuclear command, control, and communications system. The non-state dimension of nuclear command, control and communications Nautilus InstituteGary A. Ackerman 8/29/19 Understanding the complexity presented by VNSA NC3 entails considering “traditional concepts of state NC3 (such as the always/never dilemma) and dynamics that are unique to non-state actors driven by a variety of goals and confronting a different set of constraints from those of states.”