On COI #313, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman cover China, North Korea, Russia, Afghanistan, and Iran news.

Kyle discusses the U.S. Navy’s plans to send warships and warplanes into the Taiwan Strait. The Seventh Fleet intends to “contest” China’s recent actions such as firing missiles over the island in response to Nancy Pelosi’s provocative visit. Given the dangerous state of U.S.-China relations, further American aggressiveness could vastly escalate already soaring tensions.

Besides China, North Korea is feeling squeezed by the American Empire and has recently conducted more cruise missile tests. The U.S. is currently conducting war games with Japan and South Korea and has more planned with Seoul, kicking off next week, that could include many tens of thousands of troops.

Russian territory is continually being attacked in Crimea by U.S./NATO backed Ukraine. An explosion just rocked an ammunition depot in the northern part of the peninsula, with unnamed Ukrainian officials again taking credit as with similar incidents last week. This could drastically increase tensions. This comes soon after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained about recent leaks regarding Kiev’s war effort and defense plans.

President Joe Biden received a letter this week from 77 family members of 9/11 victims demanding that he release the $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves held by the FED. U.S. officials recently said they would not be returning any of the money to Afghanistan, even though millions of people are facing death by starvation as a result of the sanctions policy against the Taliban as well as the liquidity crisis exacerbated by Washington’s theft. Biden signed an executive order that would make $3.5 billion of the Afghan funds available to 9/11 families. The letter’s signatories said this would be “legally suspect and morally wrong.” They said the money belongs to the Afghan people.

Iran says there are three issues that must be resolved before they can agree to sign the ostensibly “final” draft the EU has proposed to restore the JCPOA. Washington initially refused to negotiate the draft text they already accepted. However, a day later the State Department spokesman Ned Price announced they were studying Iran’s response to the European bloc. The Kuwaitis have appointed an ambassador to Iran and there are indications the UAE may follow suit soon. This throws at least some cold water on efforts to build a NATO style, anti-Iran alliance led by Washington and Tel Aviv. The Israeli national security adviser is headed to Washington reportedly out of fear that the U.S. may actually be considering reentering the JCPOA.