China is rapidly building up space warfare capabilities to destroy U.S. satellites in a future conflict and assist in conducting long-range attacks, according to a new U.S. Space Force intelligence report. “China’s improving space-based capabilities combine with the [Chinese military’s] growing arsenal of long-range precision weapons to enable long-range precision strikes against U.S. and allied forces,” the document states, according to a report by National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz.

The “Space Threat Fact Sheet” dated Feb. 21 asserts that China’s space program is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “China Dream” policy that seeks to make China the dominant world power. The document states that since 2015 Chinese space operations grew by 620% by adding 875 satellites, including hundreds used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

In December, the People’s Liberation Army, which runs both civilian and military space activities, launched a new remote sensing satellite. “The satellite could allow China to persistently monitor U.S. and allied forces in the Pacific region,” the Space Force document states.

The Trump administration is formulating ambitious plans to expand the country’s energy supply to fuel efforts to win the global race for dominance in the development of artificial intelligence. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told an audience at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit near Washington, D.C., this week that it is “critical that the United States is the leading nation in AI and to do that we have to be the leading nation in growing our energy supply.” 

“AI is just an energy-intensive manufacturing industry,” said Mr. Wright. “It takes the highest form and the most expensive form of energy, electricity, and turns it into intelligence.” He compared the situation to the race to develop atomic weapons to end World War II, telling the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit that winning the AI race now would help keep the relative peace for the future.

Others in the Trump administration have expressed awareness of the international market for nuclear energy to power AI. Vice President J.D. Vance told the American Dynamism Summit this week that the U.S. will “set the pace” and lead from the front on energy to power AI. Mr. Vance also said developing energy for AI is something capturing the focus of many of his foreign counterparts. He specifically noted the potential role played by the United Arab Emirates.

The People’s Liberation Army has unveiled the first of what are expected to be as many as five special barges with bridges capable of overcoming minefields during a potential future invasion of Taiwan. 

The first barge lays out a road-like structure above the water that produces a 2,500-foot causeway capable of handling military vehicles and troops. The most distinctive feature of the first vessel, called Shuiqiao, is its last section — a 360-foot crane-like bridge extending from the bow that can cross water, mud, seawalls, mines and other beach obstacles.

Andrew S. Erickson, a professor of strategy at the Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, says the barges have no international parallel or obvious commercial use. The Shuiqiao platform “may represent the missing piece in the puzzle for China to be able to attempt to deploy ferry-delivered, follow-on forces in support of an amphibious assault to the most advantageous locations along Taiwan’s coastline,” Mr. Erickson wrote in a March 13 blog post.

The barges could allow the PLA to use commercial ships for an invasion without having to first take control of a Taiwanese port as a landing spot.

The U.K.’s top cyber intelligence team gave Washington an inside look this week at their new collaboration with Hollywood, as part of their effort to bring their secret world onto the silver screen. The U.K.’s National Cyber Security Center shared details about its work with American film director Steven Soderbergh on his new film “Black Bag,” at a private screening organized by the British government and Comcast. 

NCSC Chief Operating Officer Felicity Oswald said her team worked to make the psychological spy thriller “as accurate as possible” with Mr. Soderbergh and his producers. Mr. Soderbergh is known for his award-winning films such as “Erin Brockovich” and the Ocean’s Trilogy of heist movies featuring a star-studded ensemble led by actor George Clooney.

“Whilst we had nothing to do with the storyline or the script, what we did get a chance to do with Steven Soderbergh and his team was invite them into our office to see the environment we work in and to help them ensure that where we could, we made it as accurate as possible,” Ms. Oswald told the audience before the film began.

North Korea’s new allied relationship with Russia and their mutual defense treaty “obviously contributed” to Pyongyang’s recent progress with reconnaissance satellites and nuclear-powered submarines, writes Joseph R. DeTrani, a Threat Status contributor and a former director of East Asia operations at the CIA.

“Russia is likely aiding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including equipping missiles with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles,” writes Mr. DeTrani, who assesses that “much of North Korea’s military buildup with Russian assistance must be concerning to China.”

The relationship “emboldens” North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and could encourage him to be even more provocative with South Korea, a development that could escalate into conflict between the two Koreas,” Mr. DeTrani writes, adding that “any conflict on the Korean Peninsula would concern China, knowing the U.S. and its allies would also be involved. China is focusing on taking Taiwan and expanding its influence in the South China Sea, not contending with conflict on the Korean Peninsula.”

• March 25 — Coffee & Conversation with CIA’s deputy director of the Open Source Enterprise, INSA

• March 26 — Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment Hearing, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence 

• March 27-28 — Accelerating National Security AI Adoption, NCF and NSA

• March 27 — Software-defined warfare blueprint, Atlantic Council

• April 10-11 — Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, Vanderbilt University