The 3,086-page national defense authorization legislation for fiscal 2026, nearing a final vote in the Senate, has a section on Energy Department national nuclear security activities that would end the self-imposed U.S. moratorium on underground tests in place since 1996.

The section states the testing ban will remain in effect “unless a foreign state conducts a nuclear test after this date, at which time the prohibition on United States nuclear testing is lifted.” The language means that North Korea’s six underground nuclear tests carried out between 2006 and 2017 will allow for a resumption of underground nuclear tests by the Pentagon and Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

The new policy on underground nuclear tests follows a declaration by Mr. Trump last month that the United States will resume nuclear tests in response to tests by Russia, China and North Korea. Mr. Trump’s threat has drawn praise from U.S. hawks and sparked unease in Moscow and Beijing. It has also triggered frustration among some U.S. nonproliferation experts who say the administration is sending mixed signals on an intensely sensitive global security issue.

Russia’s barrage of missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has intensified ahead of Christmas and the cold winter months that follow. The attacks have forced Kyiv to lean on U.S. natural gas imports as engineers race to keep the lights on. Residents have described “explosions echoing for hours” as air defenses struggle to intercept drones launched in swarms of dozens at a time.

“We do our laundry at 2 a.m., or we go to work at our colleagues’ when we don’t have power at home. We survive,” says Iulia, a resident of Kyiv. For Ukrainians such as Iulia, checking the local energy provider’s website to find out whether there is an outage and planning accordingly is now part of their daily routine. On the sometimes pitch-black streets of Kyiv, the hum of diesel generators is now a fixture.

Threat Status Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak in Ukraine reports from Kyiv that months of systematic shelling have destroyed key elements of the power grid. According to recent assessments by the International Energy Agency, on the worst days of Russian assaults, Ukraine’s power grid has fallen to about half the capacity it produced when Moscow launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Top U.S. military officials at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2025 conference say China and other adversaries have accelerated their space-based capabilities to a level almost unimaginable a few years ago. “Four or five years ago, we had been dominating in launch, and you can see them making massive improvements, really trying to catch up,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the conference in Orlando.

Beijing has fielded remote-sensing satellites, cutting-edge refueling assets, on-edge computing capabilities to process data in space, and experimental spacecraft — some with as-of-yet mysterious missions — as part of its bid to challenge and ultimately supplant America’s dominance in space. China, said Mr. Meink, is fielding some systems “at a scale … nobody’s ever really seen.”

The advancement isn’t lost on policymakers. In an opening statement at a House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing last week, committee Chairman Brian Babin, Texas Republican, ticked off some of the most consequential milestones. “This year, China conducted a series of tests to develop major components and systems that will support its future lunar missions, demonstrating that the [Chinese Communist Party] is both committed and working expeditiously toward its goal of landing taikonauts on the moon by 2030,” the congressman said.

Northeast Asia is on edge as heightened China-Japan tensions enter a second month over a dispute that began with a comment from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi indicating that Japan would come to the defense of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. The remark infuriated Beijing, and the pushback since has shown no sign of waning.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from Seoul that nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 heavy bombers took to the skies over the Sea of Japan with an escort of Japanese F-35 and F-15 fighter jets Thursday, two days after Washington verbally sided with Tokyo in its quickly escalating confrontation with Beijing.

The Japan-U.S. show of force followed joint aerial exercises in the region by Chinese and Russian aircraft Wednesday. South Korea and Japan separately scrambled fighters that day, although the drills took place in international airspace between South Korea and Japan.

At a time of rising global instability, Congress “faces a defining choice: whether to remain complacent or strengthen and accelerate modernization of America’s nuclear deterrent,” writes Sen. Deb. Fischer, Nebraska Republican and chair of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.

“Modernizing our nuclear deterrent [is] not a matter of choice but of survival,” Ms. Fischer writes in an op-ed for The Times, asserting that the current version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026 has “key provisions that will ensure our deterrent remains credible, effective and relevant.

“It authorizes more than $3.8 billion for the Sentinel ICBM program and requires a sustainment strategy for our aging Minuteman III ICBMs, which must remain capable for years to come,” writes the senator, who outlines a range of steps the legislation will set in motion, including “bolstering our long-neglected regional nuclear deterrence options.”

• Dec. 12 — Spacepower Conference 2025, Space Force Association

• Dec. 15 — How the U.S. and Taiwan Can Deter Chinese Coercion By Shoring Up Taiwan’s Partners, Atlantic Council

• Dec. 15 — Critical Minerals: 2025 Year in Review & Looking Ahead to 2026, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Dec. 17 — U.S.-Saudi Relationship in the Wake of Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman’s Visit, Middle East Institute

• Dec. 17 — European and U.S. Approaches to the Middle East and North Africa: Convergences and Divergences, Atlantic Council

• Dec. 18 — FinCEN Modernization and the Future of Financial Crime Enforcement, Foundation for Defense of Democracies