On COI #319, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman cover the latest news on Afghanistan, Iran, the JCPOA negotiations, the Darya Dugina assassination, China, and more.

Kyle breaks down the sad reality of the Afghan refugee situation one year after the U.S. withdrawal. People are still languishing in refugee camps run by Washington and its partners all over the world. In places like the UAE and Kosovo, the Afghans are living in prison-like conditions still awaiting transfer to the United States. Congress has appropriated $7 billion in to resettle the refugees, more than enough funding to get the job done, but it’s not clear where the money is going. This humanitarian disaster seems to be continuing indefinitely. Still waiting to leave Afghanistan are tens of thousands of people who worked for the U.S. government and western-backed aid groups.

Connor discusses the latest news on the JPOCA talks. The Iranians are preparing their reply to Washington’s response to the EU’s “final” proposal to revive the Iran nuclear deal. At the same time, the parade of hawkish Israeli defense and intelligence officials going to Washington continues with the head of the Mossad arriving next week. The Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz are demanding that the Joe Biden administration prepare a military option for Iran to extract impossible concessions. Iran has also presented Moscow with a European leader’s proposal for a “peace initiative” to end the war in Ukraine, focusing on prisoner exchanges and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Connor then talks about some other recent news stories including the FSB naming a new suspect they say helped build the car bomb that killed the Russian journalist Darya Dugina, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army announcing that strategic bombers will participate in “regular” patrols around Taiwan, the Greeks’ S-300 air defense systems allegedly locking on Turkish F-16s in international airspace over the Mediterranean, and Israel Aerospace Industries’ contracts with Rome for spy planes being used to fly NATO missions including along the Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian borders.