Russia has successfully tested an underwater nuclear torpedo powerful enough to “put entire states out of operation,” said Vladimir Putin at an event for Ukraine war veterans last week. Russia’s new nuclear submarine, Khabarovsk, is armed with this autonomous Poseidon missile. And experts believe it breaks “most of the traditional nuclear deterrence and classification rules,” said The Guardian. 

What’s the weapon? 
Said to be 66 feet long and nearly 7 feet wide, the missile can travel up to 6,200 miles at speeds of up to 115 miles per hour deep below the surface of the water. “Launched from a submarine like a torpedo,” the missile is “able to loiter as an underwater drone” before deploying a nuclear warhead “capable of triggering a radioactive tsunami to render coastal cities uninhabitable.” Recent estimates indicate a bomb of 2 megatons, roughly 100 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, said Naval News. 

What does Moscow say? 
There’s “nothing like this in the world in terms of the speed and the depth of the movement of this unmanned vehicle,” and there are “no ways to intercept” it, said Putin. Khabarovsk and its missiles “enable” Russia to “successfully secure” its maritime borders and “protect its national interests in various parts of the world’s oceans,” said Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. A  report on Russian television boasted that one Poseidon missile could cause enough damage to “plunge Britain into the depths of the sea,” said the Daily Mail. 

A new nuclear arms race? 
News of the launch prompted President Donald Trump to order the U.S. military to restart nuclear tests for the first time in 33 years, although he said the U.S. would do so on an “equal basis” to other countries. As neither China nor Russia has carried out an “actual explosive nuclear test,” Trump “probably” means “reciprocal testing of nuclear-capable missiles,” said The Telegraph. 

Trump’s announcement still “bolstered concerns” that the world is “sliding into a new nuclear arms race,” said the Financial Times. A return to U.S. testing would be a “highly retrograde step,” providing a premise for other states to ramp up their nuclear weapons programs and encouraging non-nuclear states to “pursue their own.”

Disability advocates are taking their latest fight to the Trump administration, where the White House has been accused of discriminating against deaf Americans. The administration decided to axe a Biden-era policy that used sign language interpreters during major White House events, including all press briefings, and is now arguing in court that interpreters should only be required in certain instances.

‘Clear, present, and imminent harm’
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) criticized the administration’s decision in a lawsuit, and at least one federal judge agreed. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the White House to restore interpreters to all press briefings conducted by either President Donald Trump or White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. The court found that “denying deaf Americans access to and the benefit of it presents a clear, present and imminent harm,” Ali said in his ruling.

This is due to the “nature of the programming at issue” during press briefings, including “regularly scheduled briefings on critical topics,” Ali added. These people have the “right to the same access to White House information as everyone else. Denying them ASL interpreters is a direct violation of that right,” said Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, the CEO of NAD, in a statement. 

The original choice to do away with interpreters was because the president “seemingly does not like the idea of sharing the spotlight with others,” said The Independent. The NAD previously won a victory during Trump’s first term by “taking the administration to court over a failure to make coronavirus briefings accessible.”

‘Major incursion’
The administration has claimed that the scope of the ruling is too broad. It says interpreters “should be limited to regularly scheduled briefings and not other events where the president takes questions from the press,” said NPR. Requiring Trump to “share his platform with ASL interpreters every time he or his press secretary communicates with the nation is a major incursion on his central prerogatives,” attorneys for Trump said in a court filing.

The administration is currently appealing the judge’s decision. But the White House has said it will “proceed with providing ASL interpreters for ‘publicly announced press briefings,’” said DisabilityScoop. The administration also noted that it “continues to have a contract with an ASL interpreter service that extends into 2028.”

The aurora borealis lights up the sky over Monroe, Wisconsin, during one of the strongest solar storms in decades last night. The geomagnetic event pushed the northern lights deep into the continental U.S., appearing as far south as Alabama.
Ross Harried / NurPhoto / Getty Images

This month’s movies oscillate in size. There are big budgets and complex musical numbers alongside small, quiet and contemplative tales. One aspect this month’s new releases have in common: They feature someone battling something.

‘Die My Love’
Jennifer Lawrence (pictured above) stepped away from the limelight for several years. Her return is marked by “Die My Love,” a film about a young woman named Grace who begins to experience postpartum psychosis. The story is also about Grace’s relationship with her husband, Jackson. In that role, Robert Pattinson is an “ideal foil for Lawrence,” said The New York Times. (in theaters now)

‘Train Dreams’
This movie could be the “Best Picture sleeper of the Oscar season,” said Variety. Clint Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s Pulitzer Prize finalist novel is set in the Pacific Northwest and stars Joel Edgerton as a railroad worker and logger. The project “paints a portrait of grief and transformation with meditative precision and visual poetry,” said Variety. (in select theaters now, Nov. 21 on Netflix)

‘Wicked: For Good’
“Wicked,” the first half of a two-part adaptation of the powerhouse Broadway musical, was released this time last year to great acclaim. The second movie’s release should be no different than the first in its artistic imitation of modern-day American life, said the Financial Times, since it “picks up the story of scapegoats persecuted and knowledge undermined.” (in theaters Nov. 21)