Critical State: Trump on Nukes: 'Too Good To Be True'
If you read just one thing this week … read about the Trump administration’s nuclear politics.
In The Baffler, Emma Claire Foley wrote of the Trump administration’s doublespeak on nuclear weapons.
Although Trump has spoken about the world-ending capacity of nuclear weapons, he has also issued threats of using those weapons and has yanked the United States out of important nuclear-related treaties, including the Iran deal.
That’s why, in Foley’s telling, his comments about how dangerous nukes are “all sounded much, much too good to be true, especially as the administration was already busy destroying the federal government’s ability to do anything at all.”
Meanwhile, military spending continues to swell, and the Pentagon budget is quickly climbing toward the dizzying $1 trillion mark.
“Any preexisting commitment on the part of Trump or his staff to making nuclear weapons less important to United States foreign policy is already being tested,” Foley argued, adding: “New START, the last treaty limiting the number of nuclear weapons the United States and Russia can have in their arsenals, expires in February 2026.”
More than questions over whether the president would use or push for disarmament, Foley pointed out, wrapping your mind around the Trump administration’s nuclear policies has “more to do with [nuclear weapons’] usefulness as an anchor for government contracts for the companies that build and maintain them.”
If You Read One More Thing: Money on the Line
At Politico EU, Nektaria Stamouli took a look at the fallout Greece is facing from a dozen open cases of alleged human rights violations:
Most of the cases stem from the country’s reported use of pushbacks, or extrajudicial expulsions of refugees and migrants, and at risk is Greece’s access to funding from Frontex, the EU’s external border agency.
“Migration remains a highly contentious political issue in Europe,” Stamouli explained. “Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently appointed former far-right student activist Makis Voridis to head the migration ministry and he himself has stepped up anti-migration rhetoric.”
Bombs over Yemen
At Drop Site News, Jeremy Scahill and Shuaib Almosawa reported on the Houthis’ stance when it comes to US bombings, the militant group’s attacks in the Red Sea, and Israel’s war on Gaza.
Drop Site spoke with Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a high-ranking member of Ansar Allah, who explained that the group would stop attacks on US ships in the Red Sea if the Trump administration ceased its air strikes on Yemen.
After Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, Ansar Allah began a campaign of targeting vessels in the Red Sea and attacks in present-day Israel.
If Israel “stops its genocidal crimes in Gaza and allows food, medicine, and fuel to enter, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, we will cease all military operations against it,” al-Bukhaiti insisted.
Deep Dive: News Graveyards
Since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began in October 2023, deadly attacks on Palestinian reporters and media workers have time and again appeared in the headlines. But how do fatal strikes on reporters in this war line up compared with other conflicts?
According to a recent study, the Gaza war has “killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.”
Brown University’s Costs of War published the report, which noted that journalists in conflict zones around the world are facing more threats than ever before, Costs of War found.
In fact, global conflicts saw the killing or murder of a reporter, on average, at least once every four days in 2023. The vast majority of injured or killed reporters are local. That is also the case when it comes to the Gaza war. “It is, quite simply,” the report pointed out, “the worst-ever conflict for journalists.”
The Israeli government has largely barred foreign reporters from entering the besieged Palestinian enclave. Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched attacks on southern Israel, the conflict has killed up to 232 reporters. World War II, on the other hand, led to the killings of some 69 journalists. Throughout the war on Ukraine, the number of killed reporters is 19.
The report compiled numbers from watchdog groups, nonprofit monitors, and investigative reporters. In 2024, reporters who died in conflict zones made up 60% of slain journalists, Costs of War noted. Citing the United Nations, the report noted that that number was the highest percentage in a decade.
Behind the rise in reporters’ deaths was “the unprecedented toll of the conflict in Gaza,” the report explained. “After years of resentment over international coverage of its wars with Hamas, the Israeli government has unleashed an unrelenting war on the press,” it went on.
Marking the first month of that conflict alone was the slaying of at least 37 reporters in the coastal enclave. The number of wounded reporters has topped 380.
In at least 35 cases, there is ample evidence, per Costs of War, that Israel “directly targeted” journalists who were killed. Still, it’s not clear how many reporters Israel “intentionally killed” – and how many died because Israel has attacks densely populated parts of the Strip.
Meanwhile, scores of Palestinian reporters have endured “smear campaigns” and “cyberattacks” throughout the war.
Zooming out, Costs of War noted that attacks on war reporters are “a threat to the global information ecosystem, undermining the media’s watchdog role as the ‘Fourth Estate’ dedicated to informing the citizenry and providing a check against power.”
Add to the risk of injury or death the widespread prevalence of psychological and emotional trauma that comes with covering mass killings.
"Across the globe, the economics of the industry, the violence of war, and coordinated censorship campaigns threaten to turn an increasing number of conflict zones into news graveyards,” the report explained, “with Gaza being the most extreme example."
But how can news graveyards be prevented? In part, Costs of War suggested: "Solidarity in the profession demands that international reporters call out repression, break blockades, and support embattled journalists in Gaza and beyond."
Show Us the Receipts
At Inkstick, Oliver Marsden took readers to northwestern Syria, where a crusader castle built in 1142 testifies to the many conflicts that have passed through the region. The civil war sent many of the residents living near the Krak des Chevaliers into exile, but a growing number of them have returned in recent months.
Also for Inkstick, Mohammed Ali, who reports under a pseudonym for his own safety, detailed the immense violence in the Gaza Strip since Israel renewed its war on the coastal enclave. One of the incidents that has grabbed global headlines was Israel’s killing of Palestinian medics. “The massacre of the medics would come to define Gaza’s Eid,” Ali wrote, referring to the holiday at the end of the month of Ramadan.
At The World, Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman reported on a meningitis outbreak that is causing havoc in Ghana amid the fallout from foreign aid cuts. There have been more than 200 cases and at least 17 deaths. Meanwhile, misinformation has also taken a toll. “Some are thinking it is a disease brought by their ancestors, a curse from the gods into the community,” one health official told The World.
A Little Shameless Self-Promotion
My new book, You Can Kill Each Other After I Leave: Refugees, Fascism, and Bloodshed in Greece, was published on Tuesday by Melville House. The book draws on nearly a decade of covering the refugee crisis, the far right, and migration in Greece. You can check out a conversation I recently had about the book with Deutsche Welle’s Inside Europe podcast here.
Critical State is written by Inkstick Media in collaboration with The World.
The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news, and insights from PRX and GBH.
With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”
Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.