The Final U.S.-Russia Nuclear Weapons Pact Expires

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Luke Vargas (0:32)

The end of an era as the US and Russia's final nuclear weapons pact expires. Plus a Democratic push to curb ICE's powers and fund DHS meets stiff Republican opposition in Congress and why Washington's best efforts are failing to stop the decline of American manufacturing.

David Uberti (0:50)

Something like 200,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared across the country since 2023 And since President Trump unveiled his so-called Liberation Day tariffs last April, there have been eight straight months of job declines in the manufacturing sector.

Luke Vargas (1:06)

It's Thursday, February 5th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The last treaty controlling nuclear weapons between the US and Russia has expired, raising fears of a new arms race.

Michael R. Gordon (1:26)

This is a very significant milestone. Since the early 1970s, there has been one sort of strategic arms treaty or another, which has constrained the Russian and American long-range nuclear arsenals.

Luke Vargas (1:41)

That's journal national security correspondent Michael Gordon. He says that the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, ended overnight because the Trump administration never responded to Russia's proposal to replace it.

Michael R. Gordon (1:53)

The agreement can't legally be extended again, but the issue on the table is a Russian proposal to informally observe the sealings in the treaty on warheads and missiles and bombers as a kind of a holding action for a year pending a decision on where to go next. But over the last few months, President Trump's been on both sides of the issue. He initially said that he was concerned about not having any limits on nuclear weapons, and he thought Putin's proposal was a good idea. More recently, the administration has signaled that they'll address this issue on their own timeline. So that's created a lot of uncertainty, at least among strategic weapons experts, not only about what the future would hold, but about what the Trump administration has in mind, because there hasn't been a vision laid out so far in his second term.

Luke Vargas (2:43)

The expiration of New START marks an end to the arms control that helped to bring an end to the Cold War. The treaty had capped the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads for each party to 1,550 and established some transparency between Moscow and Washington, including data transfer, notifications and on-site inspections. Yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement in anticipation of the treaty expiring, saying that Moscow intends to act responsibly and in a balanced manner.

Senate negotiations to renew expired Affordable Care Act subsidies have collapsed, leaving approximately 20 million Americans facing higher insurance premiums. Both parties failed to bridge divides over abortion coverage and plan structures, despite bipartisan attempts to reach a middle ground ahead of the midterm elections. Meanwhile, a Senate standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security is intensifying, with lawmakers warning that it's unlikely they'll reach a deal in just over a week. Democrats like Illinois' Dick Durbin are demanding stricter oversight.

Dick Durbin (3:49)

Why shouldn't investigations be done by an independent source for their own credibility? Why shouldn't these people be taking the mask off and putting video cameras on? These are the fundamentals of constitutional conduct, and I don't think we can compromise on some of them.

Luke Vargas (4:04)

While Republicans have signaled openness to some ideas, they've rejected others and even introduced their own demands, such as an end to so-called sanctuary cities. Here's Missouri's Josh Hawley.

Josh Hawley (4:15)

This has nothing to do with trying to get accountability for what's recently happened with discrete incidents in Minnesota. This is about trying to hamstring the entire agency, because that's what Democrats want. Now listen, that's fine. I get it. That's their position. That's fine. I think it's a good, fake position. I just totally disagree with it, and I'm not going to help them do it.

Luke Vargas (4:32)

Should talks fail, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he'd consider another stopgap funding bill for DHS, possibly for the rest of the fiscal year. But Democrats have said they're unlikely to provide the votes for any extension unless negotiations make real progress. And the Trump administration is moving to strip civil service protections from some 50,000 federal workers whose work focuses on executing the administration's policies. The reclassification would make it easier to fire career officials in senior positions, with the Office of Personnel Management saying it aims to prevent officials from quote sabotage or trying to find ways to thwart the objectives of the administration. Labor unions and advocacy groups warn that the new rules are a pretext to the government ousting workers whose political views aren't in line with the president. Can anyone stop the decline in American manufacturing? Successive US presidents have tried to bring back a manufacturing golden age, but as the Journal's David Uberti reports, employment indicators continue to point in the opposite direction. Dave, great to chat again. What are we seeing in the data?