Good Evening,
It's Monday, September 19. |
Missile Strikes Hydropower Station at Ukraine’s Second Biggest Nuclear Site
A powerful Russian missile exploded less than 900 feet from the reactors at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, just after midnight on Monday, narrowly avoiding a possible nuclear calamity, as the NYT reports. |
China Is Capable of Blockading Taiwan
China’s armed forces are capable of blockading Taiwan, a senior U.S. Navy official said, pointing to the size of the country’s navy, which is the world’s largest and growing at a rapid pace, as the WSJ reports. |
Pentagon Opens Sweeping Review of Clandestine Psychological Operations
The Pentagon has ordered a sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare after major social media companies identified and took offline fake accounts suspected of being run by the U.S. military in violation of the platforms’ rules, as the Washington Post reports. |
Fauci Speaks to CSIS
It is unlikely the U.S. will eradicate the coronavirus and a “suspicious” new variant, BA 2.75.2, is on the horizon, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said Monday during a fireside chat with CSIS, as Politico reports. |
Executive Education
Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trends is Washington’s premier executive course for mid-to senior-level professionals responsible for helping their organizations predict and prepare for the global macrotrends that will drive change for the next 30 years.
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Video Shorts
Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Data Unpacked,” “Testify,” “What's Happening,” “Preview,” and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel! |
In That Number
900
A Russian missile hit less than 900 feet from nuclear reactors at Ukraine’s second-largest functioning nuclear plant, the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, just after midnight on Monday.
Source: NYT |
Critical Quote
“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer.”
— Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby |
iDeas Lab
Last Friday, the CSIS Africa Program hosted a discussion with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on strengthening Somalia’s security. Watch the recap here.
The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and multimedia. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Optics
(Photo credit: Daniel Leal/WPA Pool/Getty Images.) The Bearer Party transfers the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard, into the State Hearse at Wellington Arch, after the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on September 19, 2022 in London, England. |
Recommended Reading
"Is the United States Running out of Weapons to Send to Ukraine?" by CSIS's Mark F. Cancian. |
This Town Tomorrow
At 11:00 a.m., the CSIS Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group hosts a roundtable on defense industrial base challenges in the context of the Ukraine war.
Later, at 12:00 p.m., the Middle East Institute discusses mounting tensions between Turkey and Greece.
And, at 1:00 p.m., the Stimson Center holds a conversation on effective crisis management in cross-Strait relations. |
Video
Last week, the CSIS Human Rights Initiative hosted an event to discuss the new ILO-IOM-Walk Free Global Estimates of Modern Slavery Report. Watch the full video here. |
Podcasts
Today's episode of Energy 360 examines the progress and challenges in creating and implementing Just Transition policies in coal communities in the United States, South Africa, and India.
Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. |
Smiles
Last week I played a bit of the new Tedeschi Trucks four-album collective, “I Am The Moon,” in this space. Since then, I’ve been listening non-stop to this sprawling, genre-bending rock album of 24 tracks. One of the things that’s interesting about this record is that like Derek and the Dominos's seminal 1970 “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” Tedeschi Trucks drew inspiration from the 12th century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi and his epic story of star-crossed love: “Layla and Majnun.”
It’s no coincidence that “I Am The Moon” came into being on the heels of Tedeschi Trucks’s 2021 live album “Layla Revisited (Live at LOCKN’)” in which the band covered the entire Derek and the Dominos original album.
I can’t put it any better than Paste Magazine, which said of Moon, “Without knowing the backstory, you’d be more likely to think these funky songs were set in 1970s New Orleans than in 12th-century Persia.” Here’s a good example of that. |
| I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz |
