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USA Today
21-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Nobel laureates plea for diplomacy to prevent nuclear war
On Monday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House Reporter Davis Winkie breaks down what nuclear experts said last week about the current state of nuclear threats and what to do about it. Support for President Donald Trump's immigration policies fell in a new poll. USA TODAY National Immigration and Border Reporter Lauren Villagran discusses Louisiana's place as a major immigration detainer. Israeli fire killed 67 people seeking aid in Gaza. WNBA All-Stars make a CBA statement with 'Pay Us What You Owe Us' shirts. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, July 21st, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt. Today what nuclear experts are saying about present-day threats, plus support for Trump immigration policies drops in a new poll, and we hear how one state in the south is approaching immigration detention facilities. ♦ Top nuclear experts gathered last week to offer world leaders a playbook for reducing the risk of nuclear war. I discussed with USA TODAY White House reporter, Davis Winkie. Thanks for joining me, Davis. Davis Winkie: Good to be back, Taylor. Taylor Wilson: All right, just tell us a bit about this meeting of Nobel Prize winners and nuclear experts in Chicago, why was this held? Davis Winkie: Nobel Prize winners and physicists have long considered themselves the guardians, so to speak, of the nuclear world, because of their pivotal role in the creation of the nuclear bomb. A couple of physics Nobel winners thought the threat of nuclear war keeps creeping higher and higher in recent years, so this year, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Trinity nuclear test near Los Alamos, New Mexico, this group of Nobel laureates assembled in Chicago, and brought together nuclear policy experts, former government officials, diplomats, et cetera, to face down the challenges in reducing the risk of nuclear war right now, and to provide a declaration of policy recommendations that could help world leaders to reduce that risk. Taylor Wilson: Well, Davis, in terms of what they functionally did here, it's clear many of them hammered home the point that international agreements are key to reducing some of the risk of nuclear war. Let's start with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Can you help us understand what that is, and how did this come up during these discussions? Davis Winkie: The CTBT, as it's known in nuclear circles, arose in the mid 1990s, after a lot of leading nuclear powers agreed to stop nuclear testing. A handful of the world's countries have at least signed this treaty, and have agreed to pause testing. However, it has not gone into binding effect, because nine countries that are specified in the treaty as needing to ratify it, or have their legislatures or governing bodies formally approve it. The United States is one of those countries, as is Russia, as is China, as is North Korea. The CTBT has always existed at the limit of its current potential. It has an organization headquartered Vienna, that does incredibly sophisticated technological monitoring of seismic activity around the world, satellite imagery, et cetera, that allows them to tell us in near real time whether something that has occurred is a nuclear test or not. That's incredibly valuable for international stability, but it's limited because of the fact that the treaty is not in enforced, and now you have Russia, China, and the U.S. potentially considering resuming explosive nuclear testing, because they are not bound by this treaty, because they've not ratified it. Taylor Wilson: Well, shifting gears, AI is entering basically every facet of society at this point. Does it have a role in nuclear spaces, Davis? Davis Winkie: Taylor, you've touched on something very hotly debated in nuclear policy circles right now, what is the appropriate extent in areas in which that AI can be integrated? Everybody pretty much agrees that the AI should not, SKYNET style, decide when and where the missiles are being launched. You cannot give control of the missiles over to AI. Former president, Joe Biden, and Chinese president, Xi Jinping, actually agreed to that publicly last year. So there's common ground among the nuclear powers on some of the limits of AI, but there's questions still swirling around what's the proper role of AI in things like early warning systems. It's a good thing, Taylor, that we've never had a global thermonuclear war. What that means, however, is that there is not global thermonuclear war data on which to train AI models for something like early warning, or targeting solution, or any of these other potential applications across nuclear command control and communications enterprise. One of the major things that came out at this conference though is the Vatican's representatives there was really outspoken about wanting there to be an independent faith leader component of assessing the morality of AI integration, which largely does align with some of the other initiatives regarding AI that we have seen coming out of the Vatican recently. I, for one, am really interested to see how these further policy recommendations and such develop in the months and years ahead. Taylor Wilson: USA TODAY White House reporter, Davis Winkie. Thank you, Davis. Davis Winkie: Thanks for having me. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Support for President Donald Trump's immigration policies fell in a new poll with stark differences between Republicans and Democrats on deportations, and the use of detention facilities. The poll out yesterday from CBS YouGov found that immigration is the top issue that swayed respondents' opinion on the president. 61% said immigration and deportation policies mattered a lot, followed by inflation and the economy. Overall, the poll puts Trump's approval rating at 42%, with disapproval at 58%. The survey previously found Trump's approval rating was 45% last month. In the latest CBS poll, 56% disapproved of the president's immigration stances, marking a 10-point drop from polling at the beginning of Trump's second term in February, the outlet reported. Support for Trump's immigration policies is split along party lines, nearly all Republicans surveyed, 91% say they approve of the president's deportation program. Among Democrats, 14% say they approve. You can read more with a link in today's show notes. ♦ One state in the south, long known for its prison economy now houses more ICE detention facilities than any other non-border state. I spoke with USA TODAY national immigration and border reporter, Lauren Villagran, to learn more. Thanks for joining me, Lauren. Lauren Villagran: Thanks for having me, Taylor. Taylor Wilson: How involved is Louisiana with detaining migrants? How many detention facilities do they have? Lauren Villagran: I think a lot of Americans don't realize that Louisiana is actually one of the biggest ICE detention center posts in the country. So Texas is the largest, and has the most ICE detention centers, but Louisiana is number two, with nine total dedicated ICE detention facilities. Taylor Wilson: How and why has the state become such a deportation hub? When did this begin? Lauren Villagran: Back in 2017, the state was going through a criminal justice reform. The result of that bipartisan reform was that many of Louisiana's prisons, the state is known as one of the world's largest incarcerators per capita, were emptied of many prisoners who were in jail for low-level offenses, and that's around when some communities turned to the federal government. ICE at the time was looking for ways to expand immigration detention, and they came to Louisiana, saw that there were empty beds, and they had people to fill them with. So you started to see a pretty dramatic expansion of ICE detention around 2019 in Louisiana. Several organizations have studied this phenomenon, the ACLU of Louisiana, Tulane University, researchers, and we had the opportunity to travel to Louisiana last month. Taylor Wilson: Yeah, I want to hear about that trip, Lauren. What did you see? Tell us about this experience. Lauren Villagran: Photographer, Omar Ornelas and I traveled around the state. Many of these detention centers are located far from New Orleans, the sort of metropolitan center of the state at the southern tip. You have to drive 3, 5, 7 hours to reach some of these facilities, many of which are located in rural communities, sometimes deep in the woods. There were, in July, more than 7,000 people detained in ICE detention in Louisiana. Taylor Wilson: Wow. Lauren, what are some of the advantages of Louisiana for immigration officials? And what are some of the advantages for Louisiana? Lauren Villagran: As of this recording, DHS had not responded to multiple requests for comment from USA TODAY. We asked why DHS, why ICE went to Louisiana, so far from the border, and we didn't get a response. Now, what we learned from community members, from immigration advocates who work in the area is that Louisiana had a number of advantages. One, it had these empty jails and prisons, so there were facilities and infrastructure already available. There were members of the community who know how to do corrections work, and the immigration advocates will say there was another reason as well, Louisiana is located in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, it's a circuit that has historically been very difficult for immigration advocates to win their cases, the immigration judges in Louisiana are considered some of the toughest in the nation. Taylor Wilson: And in terms of some of those advantages for the state itself, you're hearing similar things on the ground there? Lauren Villagran: Certainly for the smaller rural communities that had facilities that were an anchor to the economy, of course. The federal government offered to pay more than the state per bed, per night. And a facility where you've got several hundred people working there when your community is maybe a population 4,000 or so is a pretty big deal. It was considered economic development. Taylor Wilson: President Trump is increasingly leaning on Republican-led states far from the U.S.-Mexico border to detain and deport immigrants, as you write. Are other states following Louisiana's lead as more federal funding moves to ICE detention? Lauren Villagran: We saw Congress give ICE $45 billion for detention over the next four years, that quadruples the agency's annual budget currently. So we're going to see likely a huge expansion of immigration detention in this country. Taylor Wilson: We went through some of the apparent advantages for some of the players here. What do critics say about using these states to detain migrants in this way? What are some of the due process concerns and other worries? Lauren Villagran: There's been a practice for a long time now that seems to have accelerated under the current administration of detaining people far from their families. Now, previously, immigration detention was often used for recent border crossers. For example, under the Biden administration and under the first Trump administration, you saw moves to detain asylum seekers at the border. People would cross the border, and then be transferred to Louisiana. Now, as interior enforcement has ramped up, you're seeing people get picked up all over the country for immigration violations. But unlike local jails where folks might be taken into custody in their community, in this case, immigrants are being sent very far from their communities and their families. Some of the higher-profile detainees that we've seen under the Trump administration, Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student activist, Kseniia Petrova, the Harvard University researcher from Russia, they were removed from respectively New York and Boston, and sent to Louisiana. Taylor Wilson: All right, Lauren, great reporting work on this story. I found it really eye-opening. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA TODAY. Thanks, Lauren. Lauren Villagran: Really appreciate it, Taylor. Thanks. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Israel opened fire and killed dozens of Palestinians as they waited for UN aid trucks in Northern Gaza yesterday according to the Gaza health ministry, as Israel issued new evacuation orders for certain areas. There are continued starvation concerns in the enclave. Palestinian health officials said hundreds of people could soon die as hospitals were inundated with patients suffering from dizziness and exhaustion due to the scarcity of food and a collapse in aid deliveries. And Pope Leo called for an end to what he said was the barbarity of war as he spoke of his pain over an Israeli strike on the sole Catholic Church in Gaza that killed three people on Thursday. Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in the nation of Qatar, aimed at reaching a 60-day truce and deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza, though there has been no sign of breakthrough. ♦ All eyes were on the WNBA, as the best players in the league gathered in Indianapolis over the weekend for the All-Star game, and they used that opportunity to make a bold statement to the league, walking onto the court for warmups in black T-shirts that read pay us what you owe us. One of the main items on the All-Star Week agenda was a face-to-face meeting between the players and league on collective bargaining agreement negotiations, as the current contract expires at the end of the 2025 season. According to multiple players, that meeting did not go well. Still, more than 40 players turned out for the first meeting with league officials in months. WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, had a different tone, saying she believed the meeting with players had been productive. ♦ Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
20-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump to decide on US role in Israel-Iran conflict within 2 weeks
Trump to decide on US role in Israel-Iran conflict within 2 weeks | The Excerpt On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: President Donald Trump will decide on the U.S. role in the Israel-Iran conflict within two weeks. USA TODAY White House Reporter Davis Winkie discusses how the Trump administration's National Guard immigration enforcement could divide states. Plus, a court lets Trump keep control of California's National Guard for now. The Los Angeles Dodgers say they denied federal agents access to Dodger Stadium parking lots. Trump signs an executive order delaying a ban on TikTok - again. USA TODAY National Correspondent Marco della Cava looks back on the phenomenon that was 'Jaws' on its 50th anniversary. Plus, how locals made up much of the film's cast. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Friday, June 20th, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt. Today, when might we get a decision on the US approach to Iran and Israel? Plus, how Trump's National Guard immigration enforcement could divide states. And it's been 50 years since the release of Jaws. ♦ President Donald Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran. That's what the White House said yesterday. Trump continues to keep the world guessing on his plans. He had proposed a diplomatic solution, but has also suggested the US might join the fighting on Israel's side. Iran has said it won't negotiate under duress. The conflict has killed at least 240 Iranians and 24 Israelis in a week. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say if Trump would seek congressional authorization for strikes on Iran. ♦ The possibility of the Trump administration sending National Guard troops on immigration raids outside their own state could cause a legal clash between states and with the federal government. I spoke with USA TODAY White House reporter Davis Winkie for more. Davis, thanks for joining me today. Davis Winkie: It's good to be back. Taylor Wilson: Davis, starting here, the Pentagon is weighing a request from the Department of Homeland Security to call up members of the National Guard under state authority. What did you find taking a closer look at this memo? Davis Winkie: The way that the administration wants to bring the National Guard into immigration enforcement really diverges from the ways in which the National Guard has previously been used on this front. There have been border efforts that have really sparked professionalization and even reforms of the National Guard when necessary. But each of those missions to include ones under Obama, Biden, and Trump were focused on border security rather than interior immigration enforcement. And that's what stands out, is that now the Trump administration wants 20,000 guardsmen to participate in interior immigration enforcement rather than just border security as they have in the past. Taylor Wilson: Well, putting just slightly a tighter lens here, Davis, what is the 287(g) program and how would it be used here? Davis Winkie: It's named after a section in the federal law that authorizes a lot of immigration enforcement. It's a vehicle by which local and state law enforcement agencies can enter formal partnerships with ICE and DHS. One of the ways in which this can be done is by serving warrants or by doing jailhouse cooperation, where if somebody that a local sheriff's office brings in, for example, has an ICE detainer, then they will coordinate with ICE to give that person over to them when it's appropriate to do so. But the Trump administration has revived a old version of 287(g) called the task force model that actually involves taking law enforcement officers from local and now even state agencies and deputizing them with immigration enforcement powers that lets them go forth and detain people on suspicion of not being lawfully in the United States for example. What it also does is it allows these individuals from participating agencies to go out and about as part of ICE-led task forces or other federal law enforcement task forces that seek to enforce immigration laws. It's basically a way for the immigration enforcement apparatus to widen its reach around the country. Taylor Wilson: Well, I know a big question here is what this means for crossing state lines and the differences from one state to the next. I mean, can task force participants under 287(g) operate across state lines? Davis Winkie: Well, Taylor, that's the big question, and it's one that, according to CNN, officials in the administration and DHS and in the Pentagon are asking. The reason why the administration is likely exploring this possibility is that National Guard troops under state authority are not subject to the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act, which is a law that forbids active-duty US military personnel from directly enforcing civilian laws. That's a law that has limited exceptions, but the biggest one is those guard troops on state duty can enforce laws. And by bringing guard troops on state duty onto immigration task forces, you've theoretically then expanded those task forces with a lot more manpower. But the question remains, can those troops go across state lines? The experts that I talked to for this story, Taylor, just don't know. Taylor Wilson: And as you outlined in this piece, Davis, this could potentially mean just broader clashes between red states and blue states. Is that a fair way to look at this? Davis Winkie: I think so. There's been, in recent years, a increasing pattern of clashes between states and the federal government over control and use of the National Guard. The modern examples start with more recently in the first Trump administration when the news of family separations came to light. A lot of democratic governors withdrew their consent for their personnel who were on state duty at the border under a federally-organized task force. So there have been concepts like this before that haven't been doing direct interior immigration enforcement that have had political issues rend the working relationships there. You also saw during the COVID pandemic some red state governors fight against the Biden administration trying to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for troops in their National Guard. And then what we're seeing right now out in California with the administration federalizing the 4,000 members of the California National Guard against the consent of Governor Gavin Newsom out there. It's a different legal authority than the one that would be in play for the DHS request, but it just goes to show that there are a lot of traditional limits and boundaries with this relationship over the guard between states and the federal government that's taken it from a largely cooperative one in the modern era to one where now you've got people looking to score political points on each other. Taylor Wilson: All right. Another great piece from you, Davis. Folks can find the full version with the link in today's show notes. Davis Winkie covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thank you, Davis. Davis Winkie: Thanks for having me. Taylor Wilson: The US appeals Court let President Trump retain control yesterday of California's National Guard, while the state's Democratic governor proceeds with a lawsuit, challenging Trump's use of the troops amid protests and riots in Los Angeles. ♦ Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers said yesterday that immigration and customs enforcement agents were denied entry to the stadium grounds. While ICE says the agency was never there. And the Department of Homeland Security claims, the masked agents were with Customs and Border patrol. You can read more about that with a link in today's show notes. ♦ President Trump has again extended the deadline for a TikTok ban to go into effect, allowing the Chinese-owned social media platform to continue operating for the next 90 days. Trump had said earlier in the week that he planned to give TikTok a third extension and signed an executive order yesterday making it official. It was the third time that Trump authorized a delay. The social media app's parent company, ByteDance, now has until September 17th to secure a deal that satisfies a legal requirement. Lawmakers ordered TikTok to divest from its Chinese ownership or face a ban in the United States over national security concerns. Former President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan legislation into law and the Supreme Court held the ban. But since returning to office, Trump has directed the Department of Justice not to enforce it. ♦ It's been 50 years since an iconic movie and theme song kept beachgoers out of the water for a summer and even longer. I spoke with USA TODAY national correspondent Marco della Cava on the anniversary of Jaws. Marco, I always appreciate you stopping by. How are you today? Marco della Cava: I am great. Thanks for having me. Taylor Wilson: Thanks for having on. Really fun story. I cannot believe it's the 50th anniversary of Jaws. So let's just first go back to 1975. How big of a phenomenon was Jaws that summer? Marco della Cava: One way to answer that is one of the gentlemen I interviewed said he finally got to see it in 1979 because he was old enough, four years later, and the line was still around the block in 1979. So you can imagine 1975. Taylor Wilson: Wow. And I know you hear stories about folks not wanting to go into the water for that entire summer. In some cases, years. In some cases, an entire lifetime, right Marco, after seeing this movie. How badly did it scare people? Marco della Cava: Yeah, I mean it terrified folks, young and old. And I was happy to learn interviewing people that I was not alone in not wanting to go in the water and being very scared for years. In fact, I was even scared of going into a pool. And apparently, that phenomenon affected other people as well. As crazy as it sounds, there's no sharks in pools, but any kind of situation where you're in water and you're not sure what's out there, your mind can get ahead of yourself quickly. And Spielberg did an amazing job because as you remember in the opening scene in the first shark attack, you don't see a shark. And that sort of stayed with people, that, here I am bobbing in the water and yet who knows what's beneath me. Taylor Wilson: Well, you mentioned Spielberg. He went on to have this massive career, but this was early on in his career. And you're right that Jaws was both his origin story and almost his career killer. How so? Marco della Cava: Absolutely. He was under pressure to deliver a blockbuster, ideally, under budget. This was a very, very popular novel at the time, and they wanted it out for summer. And he was having massive problems with the mechanical shark. Obviously, he had insisted on shooting it, as you know, in Martha's Vineyard and also with a real mechanical shark out in the ocean. And that caused all sorts of problems that he felt were just going to be his undoing. He felt he might get kicked off the project. And in the end of course it was, as he said in a documentary I watched, the movie that gave him final cut for the rest of his life. So it made him in a huge way. Taylor Wilson: So many of the iconic scenes were filmed off the coast of Massachusetts around the island of Martha's Vineyard, a place I know well and have spent a lot of time. Most Jaws cast members were locals from the island, Marco. Tell us about some of these folks and also their memories from the Jaws production. Marco della Cava: Yeah, that's quite the amazing thing. They came to Martha's Vineyard with, I think, it was eight professional actors. And everyone else was cast locally. And that is what gives the movie its real genuine flavor. And a lot of these folks have since turned up at Jaws festivals that are happening. Different years they've happened, but they're going to happen this summer at the 50th anniversary on Martha's Vineyard. And those who are still alive, who were probably in their 20s, I think the gentleman who plays the college kid at the opening scene, he's often spotted talking to Jaws fans on the island. So that's a big part of the success of the movie, was the fact that it felt real because it really kind of was real in many ways. Taylor Wilson: And Martha's Vineyard local, Jeff Voorhees, played one of the Jaws victims as a kid. He spoke to the Cape Cod Times part of the USA TODAY network. Let's hear what he had to say. Jeff Voorhees: The third victim to get eaten by the shark in that movie back 50 years ago. Day two, we tried. Your leg came out of the water. Day three, your arm came out of the water. And then day five, Spielberg finally goes, "This is taking too long." He goes, "This time we got a different plan." He goes, "We got two guys in wetsuits. They're going to be underwater. When that thing explodes, each going to grab one of your legs, lift you in and out of the water a few times, and then pull you under and give you air." Taylor Wilson: It's the 50th anniversary of this summer. How are fans, how are former, you mentioned part of this, but former cast members and members of this production marking the 50th anniversary? Marco della Cava: In terms of how the cast is marking it, it's a good question. I mean, Richard Dreyfus famously doesn't like talking about Jaws. Spielberg rarely talks about Jaws. It was a long time ago, but I think it's mostly the fans, young and old, and therefore you're going to see Jaws on television quite often over the next few months. There's going to be a re-release of the actual movie, I believe in August. And there are lots of documentaries as well coming out. So anyone who likes the movie is going to be able to learn a lot more about it. Taylor Wilson: And Mark, are you still staying away from the ocean all these years after seeing Jaws? Marco della Cava: I don't stay away from it, but as one of the people I interviewed said, "I don't turn my back to the horizon." Taylor Wilson: Fair enough. Marco della Cava is a national correspondent with USA TODAY joining us here on the 50th anniversary of Jaws. Thanks, Marco. Marco della Cava: Thank you. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Greene and Kelly Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get to podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. As always, you can email us at podcasts@ I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
The Herald Scotland
24-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, permitting to change via Trump order
According to a senior White House official, the four executive orders aim to expedite reactor research & development, streamline regulations to allow the Pentagon and other agencies to build reactors on federally owned land, change the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and sets new timelines for its consideration of construction permits, and expand domestic uranium production and enrichment capabilities. The NRC has overseen commercial nuclear reactors for 50 years since its creation in 1975. Amid concerns over overregulation, the U.S. has only two operational commercial reactors whose construction was approved since 1978. Joe Dominguez, the CEO of Constellation Energy, an electric utility company, said at the ceremony that "some of the largest companies in the world ... who need this energy for AI ... are now working with us to fund the development and construction of the next generation (of) nuclear." Dominguez, whose company operates the country's largest fleet of nuclear power plants, argued nuclear energy is best-suited to support AI data center needs due to its consistent, around-the-clock nature. Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who today heads the Nuclear Threat Initiative and Energy Futures Initiative - organizations that work to reduce the risk of nuclear catastrophe - said the moves could increase safety or security risks. "Reorganizing and reducing the independence of the NRC could lead to the hasty deployment of advanced reactors with safety and security flaws," Moniz, a nuclear physicist who served under President Barack Obama, said. In a May 23 statement anticipating the executive orders, Moniz described "scaling safe and secure nuclear energy" as a "welcome contribution," but cautioned that doing so recklessly could "set back nuclear energy for a long time." If you have news tips related to nuclear threats and national security, please contact Davis Winkie via email at dwinkie@ or via the Signal encrypted messaging app at 770-539-3257. Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Price of US nuclear weapons jumps 25% to nearly $1 trillion by 2034, budget office says
The price to maintain and modernize America's nuclear weapons continues to rise, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. According to the April 24 report, U.S. taxpayers will pay approximately $946 billion over the next decade to sustain, operate, and modernize the country's nuclear weapons; its fleet of bombers, submarines and missiles designed to deliver the weapons; and related support and production infrastructure. The projection is 25% − or $190 billion − higher than the CBO's last ten-year cost estimate, which covered 2023 to 2032. More than half of the increase is due to cost overruns, the CBO said. The office pointed to the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile project as a major driver of the jump, in addition to smaller increases in other programs and weapons production facilities run by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Advocates for fewer nuclear weapons pointed to the estimate as a warning about the potential consequences of allowing arms control agreements to quietly expire. But supporters of nuclear modernization contend the U.S. needs an updated arsenal to compete with Russia and China on an increasingly unstable world stage. In a statement, Arms Control Association executive director Daryl Kimball argued the "skyrocketing costs" of the nuclear arsenal are likely to "go even higher." He highlighted that the CBO estimate does not fully account for recently assessed cost increases to the Sentinel program; a mandatory review in 2024 revealed an 81% increase in the program's price tag. Kimball said the administration of President Donald Trump should engage China on arms control and take action to maintain nuclear weapons deployment limits set by the New START treaty with Russia, which expires in early 2026. "Failure to do so will undermine U.S. and global security and could mean that more taxpayer dollars are wasted on weapons of mass destruction rather than programs that meet real human needs," he argued. The CBO bases its estimates on agency budget proposals and accounts for slight cost overruns that align with an agency's historical patterns. The nuclear arsenal and its associated costs represent a growing share of the nation's defense budget, which could soon hit $1 trillion a year. The CBO estimates nukes will account for 8.4% of national defense spending between 2025 and 2034, a significant increase compared with 3.9% in the 2014 defense budget. If you have news tips related to the U.S. nuclear arsenal, please contact Davis Winkie via email at dwinkie@ or via the Signal encrypted messaging app at 770-539-3257. Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US nuclear weapons get more expensive: $1 trillion by 2034
USA Today
27-01-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Combat unit ordered to prep for border as part of Trump deportation push
Combat unit ordered to prep for border as part of Trump deportation push | The Excerpt On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House and Pentagon Reporter Davis Winkie discusses how the military may be used for immigration purposes. The Senate votes to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense. In his travels to disaster zones Friday, President Donald Trump again suggested abolishing FEMA. President Trump cancels Dr. Anthony Fauci's security detail. USA TODAY Managing Editor for Politics, Legal Affairs and World News Holly Rosenkrantz gives us an inside peek at how her team covered this historic week for news, as part of a new weekly segment called Editor's Note. Pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao make their U.S. debut. Listen to our deep dive episode on panda diplomacy here. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, January 25th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, taking a closer look at how Trump aims to use the military on the border. Plus, Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense and pandas make their public debut in Washington. ♦ Newark, New Jersey Mayor, Ras Baraka, said US immigration agents rounded up undocumented migrants as well as American citizens in a raid Thursday, just days after President Donald Trump issued a slew of executive orders that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration. In a raid of a business establishment in Newark, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents failed to produce a warrant as they detained undocumented residents as well as citizens, according to the Mayor. Meanwhile, one of the Pentagon's premier units has been ordered to prepare to be deployed to the southern border as part of Trump's increasing militarization of immigration. I spoke with USA Today, White House and Pentagon Reporter, Davis Winkie, to learn more. Davis, thank you so much for hopping on the show today. Davis Winkie: Thanks for having me, Taylor. Taylor Wilson: So let's just get to some of the basics here at the top. What is this combat unit and how will they be used as part of Trump's immigration push? Davis Winkie: So a little bit of background here, Taylor. The Trump administration in its early days has issued a flurry of orders and declarations that have made it possible for the military to potentially be more involved with immigration enforcement at the border. It's not unprecedented, it's not new necessarily. Trump in fact, inherited a 2,500 soldier border mission from the Biden administration, but he's taking actions to expand it, to include earlier this week, committing an additional 1,500 active duty troops to assist customs and border protection there. What we learned about potential expanded deployments recently, however, is where things start to get interesting, the Army issued a series of what's called warning orders to specific units that we reported, myself and Tom Vanden Brook, and then also our colleague at the Washington Post, Dan Lamothe had a good story on this as well, where the 10th Mountain Division headquarters was alerted about potentially deploying to the border. It's not guaranteed yet, but the fact that the conversation has started about it can help us potentially divine a little bit about the administration's intentions for this mission. Taylor Wilson: Okay, good explainer there. Just legally, Davis, what role can the military actually play when it comes to immigration enforcement? What is Trump really allowed to pull off here? Davis Winkie: What the military can do at the border depends on what kind of troops are there and the legal authority that they're acting under. There's two main types of military legal authorities. One of them is called Title 10. That's your active-duty military. That's what you traditionally think of as like the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, Marine Corps. Title 10 forces are not allowed to enforce domestic laws thanks to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. That was passed after reconstruction because Southerners were mad that the Army had crushed the first Ku Klux Klan and protected black voters, believe it or not. The Posse Comitatus Act is pretty strong and keeps active-duty troops from being able to do hands-on arrests per se, but active-duty members, however, are and previously have supported border patrol or customs and border protection through providing logistical support, flying helicopters for them, doing security camera monitoring or lookout jobs, doing intelligence analysis. That's what your active-duty folks can do. That might change if the president were to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows those troops to then take on a law enforcement role, but that hasn't happened to this point. There's also what's called Title 32 forces, which is when your National Guard service members remain under their state's control, but the Feds are paying the bill. Those military service members are able to directly enforce domestic laws because legally speaking, they're acting in their capacity as state militia members rather than as federal military members. That is really, a callback to the way that our Constitution was designed by giving these states militias that were initially intended to counterbalance the central power of a federal government. But nowadays, the National Guard is really a part-time but highly professional fighting force that just has to wear two different hats depending on who's paying the bill or who's calling the shots. Taylor Wilson: That's excellent insight there, Davis. Just in terms of where we go from here, I know we've seen this flurry of actions from Trump here at his first five days in office. What's the expectation for this coming week when it comes to immigration and deportations? And we know things are just quickly moving, where do we go from here? Davis Winkie: Yeah, I think the important thing for our listeners to understand is that the Trump administration is very good at optics and messaging. They are going to do a lot of high-profile enforcement actions, such as raids and such, most likely, and they're going to find ways to publicize them. For example, there was a raid in Boston earlier this week that a Fox News reporter, he did an exclusive ride-along with ICE and had a lot of access to document what was happening there. But while the administration will want to give the impression that this is a massive escalation in enforcement, it's important for our listeners to keep in mind that the deportation machine was running even before Trump took office. It just may find a new gear as the Trump administration uses the emergency declarations and other authorities to try to expand the capacity to do it quicker. Taylor Wilson: All right. Davis Winkie covers the White House and Pentagon for USA Today, with a great explainer for us here on the show. Thank you, Davis. Davis Winkie: Thanks again. Taylor Wilson: For more on immigration and the border under the new Trump administration, be sure to tune in tomorrow morning to hear USA Today National Reporter, Lauren Villagran, in conversation with my colleague, Dana Taylor, to dig into all of the other developments this week related to immigration and the border. Lauren Villagran: A lot of fear among children who worry that when they get home from school, their mom or dad, or both, might not be there. Taylor Wilson: You can find that episode right here beginning at 5:00 AM Eastern Time tomorrow. ♦ The Senate yesterday confirmed Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. President Donald Trump's nominee fended off allegations of sexual assaults, public drinking and intoxication and abusive treatment of women. A former Fox News host and military veteran, Hegseth secured support from all but three Republicans to win confirmation with a 51 to 50 vote, with Vice President, JD Vance breaking the tie. Hegseth will now take charge of the nation's largest government agency with 3,000,000 service members and civilians, and an $850 billion budget under the Pentagon's authority. ♦ On his first trip as president yesterday, Trump ratcheted up his criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a suggestion to possibly abolish the agency because of its response to Hurricane Helene in September. After a briefing in Fletcher, North Carolina, Trump said, "I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe even getting rid of FEMA." Trump accused FEMA crews of being unfamiliar with areas when responding to disasters. FEMA also imposes rules and requirements on crews that are not as good as what local officials provide, Trump said. He added that the federal government should instead send funding to governors to manage their own response to disasters. ♦ President Trump announced yesterday that he had canceled the federal security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease. Trump said the security detail for the 84-year-old immunologist and former Chief Medical Advisor to former president, Joe Biden, was removed Thursday because it cannot last a lifetime and Fauci could hire his own protection, according to Trump. A doctor for the National Institutes of Health for more than half a century, Fauci led the federal health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to harsh criticism from some Republicans about studies of the origin of the disease and the response to fight it during the first year. Fauci previously said he and his family had received threats throughout the pandemic, including death threats. ♦ It's obviously been a historic week for news as President Donald Trump returned to the White House following his inauguration on Monday. You've heard from so many of our great political reporters this week on the show as they covered the early days of Trump 2.0. So we wanted to peel back the curtain and talk with an editor, to take a look at how some of these journalistic decisions were made. It's part of a new series we're bringing you every Saturday called Editor's Notes. This week, I'm joined by Managing Editor for Politics, Legal Affairs and World News, Holly Rosenkrantz. Holly, thank you so much for joining me today on The Excerpt. Holly Rosenkrantz: You're welcome. I'm glad to be here. Taylor Wilson: Yeah. Well, big week, Holly. This first week of the new Trump administration is in the books, if you don't count Saturday, I guess. The reporters I've spoken with tell me it was a crazy busy one. I'm just curious what it's been like from an editorial perspective, and I guess Holly, how would you say this administration differs from other presidential first weeks? Holly Rosenkrantz: It's been intense. There has been a fire hose of news on all topic areas, and it differs in that it feels like the administration is really coming in hot, trying to make their mark, make statements with big ideas, big executive order, big policy changes. Just like we saw with Trump's nominations during the transition to his Cabinet, they want to make a statement. They want to go big. So this is not a soft landing. They are trying to let their supporters and all voters know that they intend to have this be a historic and monumental presidency. So I'd say the difference is the intensity, the level of intensity, and as you know, Trump is a president unlike others. So all these big changes are outside the norms of what Washington and what politics in general are used to. Taylor Wilson: Right. Well, I know you came into the week, Holly, I'm sure with a very set plan and some set goals to accomplish, but as we know in this industry, curveballs can come. What were some of the specific challenges maybe you and your team faced this week? Holly Rosenkrantz: On day one, it was hard to game out when the news was going to happen and what it was going to look like. The new administration briefed reporters on Monday morning, even before the inauguration, about some of the big executive orders they were planning to unveil on day one. So we were able to prepare news alerts, pre-writes, stories. We knew it would come on day one, possibly day two, but we didn't know when. Trump is not a president who works banker's hours. He likes to do things in the evening and late. So we thought everything would happen by the time he went to the inaugural balls. We said, "That's our deadline," but it didn't work that way. The executive orders were being rolled out well into the night. They also didn't come in the order we anticipated it. So there was a lot of ripping up the stories, changing the top, changing the headlines. Taylor Wilson: Well, as we know, President Trump called out the media as fake news often in his first term, that disparagement is continuing in his second term. This has really been a constant from him. At the same time, Holly, public trust in the news media is at an all-time low. Are there particular things you and your team are doing to try to build back that public trust? Holly Rosenkrantz: USA Today is really proud of the fact that we are viewed as the nation's newspaper. We are not viewed by the public as leaning one way or another, and in our coverage, we work really hard to avoid tone, agenda. We really rely on our audience trust in us. So that means sometimes avoiding loaded adjectives and adverbs, in favor of more straightforward nouns and verbs, avoiding speculation. We have very strict sourcing policy, which is stricter than a lot of our competitors for unnamed sources. In general, we're just very fact forward. We avoid a lot of expert-said stories because experts come from a political spectrum as well. We're really fact-based news. Taylor Wilson: A lot of political enterprise reporting depends on access, but based on what we saw this last week, and certainly in the previous Trump administration, that kind of access is rare. Reporter favoritism was a challenge during Trump's first administration. Holly, how can USA Today reporters ensure they're in the room, so to speak, without compromising their integrity? Holly Rosenkrantz: Some of it starts with the relationships that began during the campaign. One of our top Trump reporters came from a Florida paper, so he has relationships built up with the Trump campaign, and it's obviously a challenge. You want access, but you don't want to be in the tank for the person you're covering. I know this sounds naive, but the best way is to demonstrate good work. So the main thing, the challenge before us is to farm all our reporters out to their different subject areas and just build relationships with the policymakers, the people behind the scenes. It won't be easy, obviously, but that's the challenge ahead of us. Taylor Wilson: Fascinating next four years. USA Today Managing Editor for Politics, Legal Affairs and World News, Holly Rosenkranz, joining us here on the show. Thank you, Holly. Holly Rosenkrantz: You're welcome. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Bao Li and Qing Bao, the latest pandas loaned by China as part of its decades-long panda diplomacy program, made their public debut yesterday at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington. The three-year-old pandas arrived in Washington in October after a 19-hour flight aboard the so-called FedEx Panda Express from Chengdu in China's Sichuan province. They replaced three other pandas who returned to China when their lease expired in November of 2023. You can learn more about panda diplomacy with our special deep dive episode from last year. We have a link in today's show notes. ♦ And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.
