Across Ukraine, Russian troops are damaging croplands in their movement towards target cities and in their confrontations with Ukrainian defensive forces and satellite imagery shows the damage inflicted by one such confrontation in agricultural fields roughly 20 miles northwest of the capital of Kyiv. The Kyiv oblast accounts for approximately 8 percent of domestic soybean production, as well as domestic corn production, domestic millet production, and of domestic rapeseed production.

SOURCE: "Spotlight on Damage to Ukraine’s Farms amid the Russia-Ukraine War" by CSIS's Caitlin Welsh, Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., Jennifer Junn, and Emma Dodd.

All major U.S. defense systems and platforms rely on semiconductors for their performance. Consequently, the erosion of U.S. capabilities in microelectronics is a direct threat to the United States’ ability to defend itself and its allies. U.S.-based chip manufacturing has declined to around 10 percent of the world total and lacks the onshore capability to make the most advanced devices at the seven- and five-nanometer (nm) nodes.

SOURCE: "Semiconductors and National Defense: What Are the Stakes?" by CSIS's Sujai Shivakumar and Charles Wessner.

Despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine—currently concentrated in the eastern region of the country—conversations around what reconstruction will look like are already taking place. According to the May 25 estimates by the Kyiv School of Economics, which calculates the material damage caused to Ukraine’s physical infrastructure on a weekly basis, the war has resulted in infrastructure losses of $105.5 billion.

SOURCE: "The 10 Most Pressing Questions for Ukraine’s Economic Reconstruction" by CSIS's Dan Runde, Janina Staguhn, and Romina Bandura.

The greater Horn of Africa, stretching from southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya and Somalia, is experiencing its worst drought in four decades. A fourth consecutive failed rainy season caused by the La Niña weather phenomenon has generated extreme drought conditions that have curtailed agricultural production, destroyed crops, and killed more than 3 million livestock.

SOURCE: "Concurrent Crises in the Horn of Africa" by CSIS's Jacob Kurtzer, Sierra Ballard, and Hareem Fatima, Abdullah.