The world’s top nuclear powers have no arsenal limits, here are the countries with nukes

For the first time in decades, the world’s two largest nuclear superpowers are no longer bound by any treaty limiting their arsenals.

The last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, known as New START, expired Thursday.

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The lapse removed limits on how many nuclear weapons Washington and Moscow could deploy on missiles, bombers and submarines, and ended the requirement that both sides notify one another whenever nuclear weapons were moved.

The scale of what’s now unconstrained is vast. 

Globally, there are more than 12,200 nuclear weapons spread across nine nuclear-armed nations, according to a recent analysis. The United States and Russia alone account for roughly 10,636 of those weapons.

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While the exact size of each country’s arsenal is closely guarded, below is a breakdown of estimated nuclear stockpiles, based on data from the Federation of American Scientists. 

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Ahead of the New START agreement’s expiration, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (a badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.”

He has previously argued that China should be included in any new agreement with Russia, pointing to Beijing’s growing nuclear arsenal, the world’s third largest after the U.S. and Russia.

Retired general argues military action against Iran is ‘best option’ as Trump faces ‘historic opportunity’

Retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane said the U.S. should use military action against Iran while the regime is at its “weakest,” arguing that Tehran continues to lie about its nuclear ambitions even as President Donald Trump keeps the door open to a new deal.

“I think we’re coming down to the reality that the military option is, indeed, the best option here,” Keane said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

Trump faces “this historic opportunity that no other president has had” to set the conditions for regime collapse, which could herald enduring peace in the Middle East and be legacy-defining for the president, he said. 

The Fox News senior strategic analyst acknowledged that Trump has established a pattern of using diplomatic pressure to achieve his aims, but still pushed for military action against Iran, claiming that “if they [Iran] make any kind of a deal, the first thing they’re going to want is sanction relief.”

He said even a deal favorable to the U.S. wouldn’t be in the best interest of America, the region or the Iranian people because it would extend the life of the ayatollah’s regime, which is now the “weakest” it has been politically, economically and militarily.

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Not only is Iran destabilizing the Middle East, using its proxies to attack Israel and repressing their own people, Keane said, but the regime remains “persistent in the big lie… that they’re really pursuing civil nuclear power.”

“They have one nuclear plant in Iran. It represents… less than 1% of the energy to provide and sustain their electric grid,” he said. “It’s all a bunch of nonsense. They’ve been lying for years about this, and they continue to do it.”

TRUMP’S SPECIAL ENVOY WITKOFF AND KUSHNER VISIT US AIRCRAFT CARRIER AMID IRAN TENSIONS, TALKS

Keane’s comments come after U.S. special envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visited the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on a scheduled deployment Saturday.

Their visit follows Friday’s nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran in Oman, which included Witkoff and Kushner. Trump described the meeting as “very good.”

“Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly,” he told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago. “We have to see what that deal is.”

He made it clear he will only make a deal with Iran if they agree to no nuclear weapons. 

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Iran’s top diplomat says nation’s power lies in defying pressure: ‘No to the great powers’

Iran is prepared to pursue diplomacy while remaining ready to defend itself if challenged, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday, arguing that Tehran’s strength lies in its ability to stand firm against pressure.

“We are a man of diplomacy, we are also a man of war; not in the sense that we seek war, but … we are ready to fight so that no one dares to fight us,” he said, according to Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster.

Araghchi made the remarks in Tehran at the National Congress on the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Policy, two days after Iran and the United States held nuclear talks in Oman.

Fox News previously reported that negotiations between Iranian and U.S. officials in Muscat, the capital, were held face-to-face, marking the first such meetings since U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June.

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the talks as “intensive and lengthy” in a post on X, saying the meetings allowed both sides to present their positions and concerns.

“It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,” the government account said.

It added there was broad agreement on continuing the negotiations, though decisions on timing, format and the next round will be made following consultations in the two capitals, with Oman continuing to serve as the intermediary.

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Araghchi said Sunday that Iran views its nuclear program as a legitimate right and is seeking recognition of that position through negotiations.

“I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others,” he said, according to Press TV.

“They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers,” the top diplomat added. “The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is to say no to the powers.”

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President Donald Trump has expanded the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and the USS Michael Murphy, a guided-missile destroyer.

Other U.S. naval assets, including the USS Bulkeley, USS Roosevelt, USS Delbert D. Black, USS McFaul, USS Mitscher, USS Spruance and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., are positioned across key waterways surrounding Iran, from the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.

North Korea executed teens for listening to K-pop, watching ‘Squid Game’: report

North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series “Squid Game” and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers announced in early February.

Amnesty International cited testimony from an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed for specifically watching the popular survival drama series.

It also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.

“Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.

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“I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections,” he told Amnesty International in an interview.

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Joonsik said three of his sisters’ high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families’ inability to pay bribes.

“The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director.

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“This government’s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings,” she added. “People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.”

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Several defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.

“When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” said Kim Eunju, 40. “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”

Whispering death: Army’s new M1E3 Abrams tank is a hybrid-drive silent killer

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has his “Arsenal of Freedom Tour” in full swing, visiting the nuclear submarine production floor at Newport News, Virginia, and Blue Origin’s space launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida. His goal: restore American industrial prowess and secure freedom for generations to come.

You’ll never guess which program is moving fastest of all: it’s the Army’s new M1E3 Abrams tank.

Get this: the M1E3 Abrams is five years ahead of schedule. Yes, five years. And it’s a hybrid.

While Golden Dome missile defense, the battleship design and other programs are on the drawing board, the Army has accelerated the M1E3 Abrams to wartime pace.

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Credit Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll. It’s part of their push to accelerate top programs like the MV-75 air assault tilt-rotor plane. In the case of the tank, the Army had been studying upgrades and watching the Ukraine war. George and his science advisor Dr. Alex Miller were told they would not see the tank until 2032. “We said no,” Miller recalled.

The result: the M1E3 prototype rolled out at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The first platoon of the M1E3 will be ready for testing by soldiers in 2028.

As seen in Detroit, the new M1E3 is a sleek change from earlier Abrams models. Gone is the top turret position. Now the three-man crew side by side in the hull where armor is strongest. External cameras, sensors, heat-detecting thermal sights and laser-range finders feed into gaming-inspired cockpit displays. Their remote? It’s not for changing channels. An M1E3 tank crew can remotely fire a Javelin anti-tank missile with a 2.5-mile range and a range of other weapons, including loitering munitions.

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Here are five killer attributes of the M1E3 Abrams.

• Formula One Cockpit. The M1E3 tank has a driver interface that “looks like an Xbox controller,” said George. Just as important, the tank uses a modular, “plug-and-play” open systems software backbone. Soldiers can plug in new apps and upgrade it at a point in the vehicle software where all the things that make the vehicle run are protected.
• Quiet mode. It’s a hybrid. No, the Army isn’t going eco-friendly. The M1E3 will have a Caterpillar diesel engine and a SAPA transmission that allows it to switch into electric mode. The hybrid electric drive is all about silent stalking. Iraqis facing the Abrams in 1991 called it Whispering Death, but the new Abrams takes the silent mode into a new realm when the tank is running on electric. Add in heat signature reduction and electronic jammers. The new Abrams takes silent lethality to a new level.

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• Active Protection. Shoot at an Abrams and “active protection” will detect, target and obliterate you. This is the Army’s term for a system that can sort out a whole range of incoming threats, from recoilless rifles to anti-tank guided missiles, rockets, tank rounds and rocket-propelled grenades. And of course, drones. The best part is the detection system nails the location of the enemy shooter so the Abrams crew can destroy it.
• Reactive Armor. Already an Abrams standard, tiles fitted on the tank hull prevent penetration by RPGs and deflect blast downward or outwards, depending on the tactical situation. The Army really doesn’t like to talk about this secretive system, but guarantee you, the M1E3 will improve on it.

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• Great Guns.  With lessons drawn from the Ukraine battlefield, a .30-mm chain gun replaces both the .50-caliber and the loader’s gun. The .30-mm can hit light-armor vehicles like the Russian BMP. It can also chew up drones. Remember, remote control permits the crew to fire without popping the hatch.

By the way, this is a tank on a diet. Older Abrams models weigh close to 80 tons. Expect the M1E3 to weigh in at about 60 tons, after shedding top turret armor. Lighter weight yields about 40% greater fuel efficiency. It also allows the M1E3 tank to access 30% more bridge crossings in Poland and other NATO Eastern front-line countries facing Russia.

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Why a new tank? To deter Russia. The Ukraine war could stop tomorrow, and Putin’s Russia would still be a long-term threat. Russia has lost over 3,000 tanks in Ukraine but can still produce 1,500 tanks per year, according to Gen. Christopher Cavoli, former NATO supreme allied commander.

In the end, it is the tank that deters the taking of territory. Just ask the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, who wrapped up an armored live-fire exercise in Poland during Operation Winter Falcon last month. Polish and U.S. forces fired their M1A2 Abrams tanks side by side. “We train to be ready for anything that might happen in the future… you’ve [got to] do that in the place you may have to defend,” said U.S. Army Col. Matthew Kelley, commander, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.

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Trump’s special envoy Witkoff and Kushner visit US aircraft carrier amid Iran tensions, talks

U.S. special envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff along with Jared Kushner and Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visited the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on a scheduled deployment Saturday.

The visit comes amid tensions with Iran, and Witkoff said the service members were “keeping us safe and upholding President Trump’s message of peace through strength,” a day after the U.S. and Iran held talks in Oman to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

“We thanked the sailors and Marines, observed live flight operations, and spoke with the pilot who downed an Iranian drone that approached the carrier without clear intent,” Witkoff wrote on X. “Proud to stand with the men and women who defend our interests, deter our adversaries, and show the world what American readiness and resolve look like, on watch every day.”

The aircraft carrier left San Diego in November for the Indo-Pacific region and moved to the Middle East in January.

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“I join the American people in expressing our incredible pride in the sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group,” Cooper told the service members. “Their dedication to the mission and professionalism are on full display here in the Middle East as they demonstrate U.S. military readiness and strength.”

This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would meet with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to discuss Iran.

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“The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting ballistic missiles and ending support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said, referring to Tehran’s support for groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

The two leaders last met in September.

Trump described Friday’s Oman talks, which included Witkoff and Kushner, as “very good.”

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“Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly,” the president told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago. “We have to see what that deal is.”