Recent elections in the Philippines have paved the way for Chinese-Philippine relations to continue growing. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has expressed a desire to work with China more closely and resolve disputes bilaterally without US interference.
Bruce Gagnon discusses the danger of Sweden and Finland joining NATO; the $40B gift to Ukraine is almost as large as Russia’s entire military budget of about $60B. And, we compared the US economy to the Russian economy: a “Tale of Two Countries.”
SCOTT RITTER—The creation of an impregnable Ukrainian strategic rear is a game-changer. First and foremost, it provides Ukraine with the means to rearm, refit and re-equip its forces to Nato standards without fear of Russian intervention. This not only counters Russia’s stated military objective of “demilitarization” of Ukraine’s forces, but also steels the resolve of the Ukrainian government to reject any settlement that obliges them to embrace neutrality in perpetuity.
A senior official of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Colonel Hasan Sayyad Khodaei, was assassinated by unknown assailants at around 4 pm local time in Tehran on Sunday, May 22. As per reports, gunmen riding two motorcycles fired at Khodaei when he was entering his house.
Khodaei had been a Colonel in IRGC’s elite Quds force responsible for international operations. He had led operations against ISIS in Syria.
According to Iranian news reports, the alleged assailants have not yet been arrested and an investigation is on to uncover the real culprits behind the assassination.
The west’s narrative around the Ukraine-Russia conflict is that NATO is merely interested in helping plucky, democratic Ukraine fend off an attack from Russia and its war criminal president, Vladimir Putin. But peek behind the facade and it becomes apparent that the real reason for the war is much simpler: money. And now the United States has inked a deal to sell liquified natural gas to the European Union to replace a substantial amount of the natural gas previously provided by Russia. Jimmy and journalist Caleb Maupin discuss the financial incentives that are more likely driving NATO’s stance in Ukraine than any possible moral considerations.