The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China s central Hubei province. Credit: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden told the country that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors, calling it a “great day.” The federal government’s new policy, along with falling case counts and increasing vaccination numbers, was another sign that the crisis phase of the pandemic in the United States at least was drawing to a close. On the same day that Biden looked toward the pandemic’s end, a group of 18 prominent scientists looked, figuratively, in the opposite direction, toward how it all began. In a letter in
Watch the Bulletin virtual program, “Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?” featuring Thomas Countryman, Elisabeth Eaves, and moderated by Katrina vanden Heuvel.
In this conversation, you’ll hear about whether huge investments in nuclear modernization are advancing US national security. Our speakers discussed the economic implications of the modernization, social movements, and more. Read Elisabeth Eaves’ feature story for the
Bulletin here.
Thomas Countryman is Chairman of the Board of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan NGO which analyzes key security issues and advises the executive branch, Congress, and the public on choices to promote global security and reduce the risk that weapons of mass destruction will be used. He retired from the Senior Foreign Service in January 2017 after 35 years of service. At that time, he served simultaneously as acting Undersecretary for Arms Control and as Assistant Secretary for Internati
Last year, just a month after the Covid-19 pandemic ground life to a halt across the world, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev wrote: “What we urgently need now is a rethinking of the entire concept of security.” Rather than measure security purely in military terms, as we usually do, “the overriding goal must be human security: providing food, water and a clean environment and caring for people’s health.”
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This has the potential to be what President Joe Biden might call a BFD if Sen. Joe Manchin’s move solidifies opposition against Tanden from Republicans. | Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times via AP, Pool