Iran speeds up nuclear race

Iran announced on Monday it had doubled its number of uranium-enriching centrifuges. It also is developing a centrifuge that works 50 times faster than permitted under the nuclear deal it signed in 2015. The advances mean Iran could have enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb within a year.

How are U.S. relations with Iran? Not good. Iranians on Monday marked the 40th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Embassy in which Islamist students stormed the compound and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. During the event, Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, who leads the Iranian army, described the United States as a “poisonous scorpion” and said the “era of imposing pressure with zero expense is over.”

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langdon’s report in The Sift on how the 2015 nuclear deal ended.