Grid reliabilityImproving Grid Reliability in the Face of Extreme Events Published 7 May 2021 The nation’s power grid remains vulnerable to disruption from extreme events including wildfires, severe storms, and cyberattacks. Variable generation resources and load volatility also present operational challenges to grid stability. To mitigate disruptions before they snowball, grid planners and operators must

Water securityTriggering Rain Where Water Is Scarce Published 7 May 2021 A new method to trigger rain where water is scarce is being tested in the UAE, using drones. The drones carry an electric charge that is released into a cloud, giving cloud droplets the jolt they need to clump together and fall as rain. A

ARGUMENT: Countering violent extremismTwenty Years After 9/11, the U.S. Needs a Better Strategy to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism Published 5 May 2021 With his announcement to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, President Joe Biden is delivering on his promise to bring an end to the “forever wars”

ExtremismUnderstanding 21st-Century Militant Anti-Fascism Published 5 May 2021 Anti-fascist militancy has existed for as long as fascism has, but militant anti-fascism is still largely neglected across both academic and policy-practitioner communities.A new study says that there is a need for a more robust, evidence-based understanding of the antifa phenomenon, especially in a context where militant

ARGUMENT: Liberal CassandrasThe Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown Published 5 May 2021 Among the relieved Americans going back out to restaurants and planning their summer-wedding travel is a different group, Emma Green writes: liberals who aren’t quite ready to let go of pandemic restrictions. “For this subset, diligence against COVID-19 remains an expression of political

BOOKSHELF: Measuring Russia’s StrengthStoner’s Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Russia’s New Strength By Paul Saunders Published 5 May 2021 Understanding Russia’s power and the Russian leadership’s goals is a necessary task in formulating effective policy. Moreover, as Russia has become considerably more powerful over the last two decades, the stakes in accurately discerning the Kremlin’s

The Russia connectionRussian Mercenaries in Great-Power Competition: Strategic Supermen or Weak Link? By Molly Dunigan and Ben Connable Published 5 May 2021 Russia’s worst-kept secret is its increasingly heavy reliance on private security contractors—really, mercenaries—to maintain a Russia-favorable global status quo and to undermine its competitors’ interests. This reliance on mercenaries stems from a known

Climate challengesThe New U.S. Climate Normals Are Here Published 5 May 2021 Every 10 years, NOAA releases an analysis of U.S. weather of the past three decades that calculates average values for temperature, rainfall and other conditions. That time has come again. Known as the U.S. Climate Normals, these 30-year averages — now spanning 1991-2020

EncryptionAn Uncrackable Combination of Invisible Ink and Artificial Intelligence Published 5 May 2021 Coded messages in invisible ink sound like something only found in espionage books, but in real life, they can have important security purposes. Yet, they can be cracked if their encryption is predictable. Now, researchers have printed complexly encoded data with normal

RefugeesBiden to Quadruple Refugee Cap By Steve Herman Published 4 May 2021 U.S. President Joe Biden, who initially decided to keep intact his predecessor’s historically low number of annual refugee admissions, Monday announced he is quadrupling this year’s total. Two weeks ago, the White House announced that the cap for the current fiscal year would