Iran’s nukesIran Begins Uranium Enrichment with More Advanced Centrifuges Published 19 March 2021 Iran has begun enriching uranium at its underground Natanz plant using a cascade of advanced centrifuges, the latest breach of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The use of the advanced centrifuges is the latest violation of the nuclear accord, which

Truth decayA Remedy for the Spread of False News? By Peter Dizikes Published 19 March 2021 Stopping the spread of political misinformation on social media may seem like an impossible task. But a new study co-authored by MIT scholars finds that most people who share false news stories online do so unintentionally, and that their

ManufacturingExpanding Domestic Manufacturing of Secure, Custom Chips for Defense Needs Published 19 March 2021 DARPA announced the Structured Array Hardware for Automatically Realized Applications (SAHARA) program, which aims to expand access to domestic manufacturing capabilities to tackle challenges hampering the secure development of custom chips for defense systems. DARPA selected Intel and university researchers to

Quick Takes // By Ben FrankelWater Wars Are Here Published 19 March 2021 In 2009, the U.K. intelligence services submitted their annual intelligence report to then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, warning of the coming threat of “water wars” between states vying for diminishing fresh-water resources. Rising water-related tensions between India and Pakistan and between Ethiopia and

Water warsKurds in Northern Syria Warn of Water Crisis By Edward Yeranian Published 19 March 2021 Turkey has reduced the volume of water flowing downstream toward Syria, and the first to feel the pinch are the Kurds in Syria’s Kurdish region. In the last decade. Turkey has built twenty-two dams in southeast Anatolia, leading to

Energy securityEnergy Storage Technology Is Accelerating – but Grids Aren’t Ready for the Transition By Jonathan Radcliffe Published 19 March 2021 Thanks in part to the pandemic-induced economic slowdown and the collapse of coal and triumph of wind power over the last decade, a new analysis suggests the UK is halfway to meeting its net

Energy securityIs It Worth Investing in Solar PV with Batteries at Home? Published 19 March 2021 Solar energy is a clean, renewable source of electricity that could potentially play a significant part in fulfilling the world’s energy requirements, but there are still some challenges to fully capitalizing on this potential. Researchers looked into some of

Cybercrime2020 Cibercrime Losses Exceeded $4.2 Billion: FBI Published 18 March 2021 The FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime—an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019—and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has released its annual report. The 2020 Internet Crime Report includes information from

Anti-Asian crimesCall for Action on Hate Crimes and Racism Against Asian-Americans Published 18 March 2021 The Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in National Security, founded in 2021, is a grassroots initiative which seeks to advance discourse, develop policy, and implement solutions to combat the surge of hate crimes and racism against Asian-Americans in the United States.

ExtremismExtremism in the U.S. Military: Problems and Solutions Published 18 March 2021 Extremist movements pose many problems to society, from spreading hate and intolerance to engaging in significant and deadly violence.  It is particularly problematic when adherents of extreme causes are able to persist in key institutions dedicated to protecting the people of the United