Altruistic World Online Library

Empirical Truths: The Sun is Setting on Anglo-American Imperialism
21st Century Wire
Aug 20, 2026

We continue our walk along the Southwest England's famous Coastal Path, with 21WIRE's Patrick Henningsen exploring the historic Mount Edgecumbe Estate in Cornwall, bombed by the German Luftwaffe during WWII, and why this area is so strategically significant for the former British Empire. Which then leads us to a frank discussion about the current demise of the American Empire, further triggered by Iran's bold move in the Strait of Hormuz. History can give us a better understanding, just as with the its British predecessor, why America's power is fading in such dramatic fashion. In the end, the bankers seem to always come out of top. All this and more.



Transcript

We're up here in Old Deer Park, Mount Edgeham Estate in Cornwall. Just looking over the Tamar River there, across to Devonport, former stronghold of the British Navy. And We're heading into the Edgecom Estate. This is a great spot.

One of the many jewels of Rain Peninsula here in Cornwall. We're [snorts] going to head over to the grounds of the estate. And uh it's interesting. There's quite a lot of history here.

Now we'll we'll take a look at the Edgecom house. Mount Edge house. The Earl of Edge. It's done a pretty good job.

There's a few British battleships uh untethered down there. I wonder where they're heading. Anyway, the World War II factored in heavily into the the history of recent history anyway of this estate as you as we'll show you in a minute. But it's uh it's interesting.

This was actually a big staging ground for the this area anyway, Devon for the uh rehearsal of D-Day, World War II. Very important spot. But, uh, you can just wander through all the different nooks and crannies of this peninsula and you'll stumble over some incredible history of one or another interesting reflections on what's going on in the world. We might talk about that.

But [snorts] there's a lot of talk in the geopolitical pundantry space about the straight formoose situation is so chaotic. I mean, you don't know from when going to cowgate here. We're going to navigate through. You don't know from one day to the next.

I don't think Trump knows from one day to the next what he's going to say or do. There is a strategy though. The only problem it's a chaotic one. It's a destructive one.

I [snorts] think when we can all agree the US empire is on the way out or on the way down, whichever the case may be, but definitely on the outs. And I say that, you know, being an imperial power isn't about how much damage you can inflict on everybody, and I'm sure there's people in Washington right now in the Trump administration that don't agree with me on that, but it's true. If you have an empire, you want to be able to manage a fruitful and productive operation globally, right? So you need a lot of trusted partners for that.

Of course you need uh subservient compliant partners as well. But you're not going to get cooperative subservient nor compliant uh if you're just hellbent on inflicting collective punishment on everybody. But I mean Trump's new to the empire game. I 4 minutesthink this is the thing that people don't understand about US uh politics.

Yeah, I mean that's the figurehead at the moment is Donald Trump, but they're only in there for like a couple of years. He rolls in 18 months ago and he's saying just ridiculous things like he's the emperor of the world. I rebuilt the military in my second term. What are you talking about?

Just absolute rubbish. But anyway, they come, they go, the next one comes, the next one goes. So the other leaders around the world like Xi Jinping for instance uh in China who is sitting in the CEO position there of the Chinese Communist Party managing the most successful uh economic enterprise probably in modern history and also just a society that seems to be progressing. sing.

Anyway, they've lifted many people out of the poverty out of the poverty zone in China over the last few decades. But they're looking at these US guys coming in. You had Sleepy Joe just two years ago who was literally comeomaosse, couldn't even stay awake. Wasn't even really fit to do a trip to China.

And then next thing you know, there's another oxygenarian. They've they've rotated in a reality TV star, Donald Trump. The Chinese must be scratching their heads thinking like, "What? " Uh, just look at the standard of leadership.

It's pretty low. It's a very low bar in America. [clears throat] We have an exceptionally low bar for when it comes to political leaders for some reason and they haven't really got anybody lined up for the next round that look uh even mildly inspiring or interesting. But anyway, Russia Putin been in the chair.

It's been the CEO seat for 25 years. presided over one of the greatest economic turnarounds ever from the 19 the the dog days of the 1990s till now when Russia was under sanctions they'd just be probably kicking ass like you wouldn't believe they're still doing really well despite being under sort of heavy embargo again watching all these presidents come and go watching all these prime ministers is I think Britain's had six prime ministers in seven years. I think I got that right. Yeah, six prime ministers in seven years.

Think about that for a moment. So if you're looking back in the history books and this is like the chapter 2020s Britain six prime ministers in seven years and you're just reading that in a paragraph and the teacher would be saying to the students yes this was a a highly unstable time in uh it was a crisis in British democracy. They they just couldn't manage to hold on to a leader. I mean, not to mention that they drove out the most popular politician uh of the era, Jeremy Corbin, drove him completely out of the party, uh almost out of politics, the Israel lobby, the deep state, the security state, the Tories, and Rupert Murdoch all conspired to oust Jeremy Corbin, who was uh the insurgent leader of her majesty's loyal opposition at the time and would would have most certainly challenged uh for a prime minister had they not broken the Labor Party up so successfully.

But hey, that's what the lobby does. They're good. com. Couple of great reports by Freddy Pontton.

But I digress. That's how it's going to look in the history books. " I mean, does anybody in America really think they live in a democracy? whether they have any skin in the game in terms of policy.

I look at the cost of living in that country. It's really just off the charts. It's in orbit. It's so screwed up in America that this is how how how inverted society is and how delusional half the country is that they really believe that uh Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, was a man of the people.

[laughter] And so they cheered when Trump deputized him when Musk claimed that he was going to, you know, cut all the fat out of the federal government. Remember Doge? That didn't last very long, did it? [gasps and sighs] All the things he said he was going to cut, they probably doubled up the funding on like USAD.

The record will show actually that's the case. But anyway, how could a trillionaire be a working man's hero? A man of the people allegedly pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Anyway, that's how crazy things are.

And in typical grift fashion, Musk used his position to pave the way for uh the SpaceX IPO, which was a total scam, forcing index funds and 401k funds to mandatory purchase of SpaceX stock and company with no revenue model, but somehow valued at $3 trillion. So yeah, this is the old stables here. Uh we're getting into kind of the the workhouse, if you will, of the Edgekim Estate. It's now a cafe.

Nice place to come for breakfast or lunch. Anyway, through the souks here back there, you find the blacksmiths, the sawmill. You can probably still see some of the old equipment there. Steamdriven sawmill, Cooperidge blacksmiths.

got artist studios back there, ceramics, different things. But, uh, it's like a self-sufficient community. But in and around this estate, you will find little reminders like this right here. Check this out.

That is bomb shelter. So, World War II. probably a replica of sorts. I'm not sure, but it gives you an idea.

If you look inside, you'll see people the masses huddled in there with cups of tea and buns and burners, but uh shelter s here. And you can see the history. So, just a little reminder [snorts] there of what life was like under the German bombing of Plymouth and the surrounding area. I mean, look at that.

It's kind of semi-realistic. Obviously, that's not a real unexloded ordinance, but I hope not. Anyway, but they had their share, didn't they, during the Second World War. And uh this estate, as beautiful as it is, was targeted.

Uh what you'll find is throughout the country, some of these big stately homes and manor homes are also used as sort of uh logistics and planning hubs uh for the military. Uh they were also used funny enough um you know German PS prisoners of war. I'm not saying this particular house although I wouldn't exclude the possibility but some of these would have been used to hold German uh high level P officers and people like this and uh in addition to military operations. Now this is a stunning stunning manor house tutor house.

So this would have been this whole estate which is amazing free to the public by the way this was kind of commissioned by Henry VIII so you say like around 1500 around that time to sir Piers Edge and beautiful wedding venue obviously and a museum and just gorgeous no well known for its gardens and the gardens down below which we'll go through one day but they they rival anything I put them on a par with any any other garden in this uh in Britain but this was bombed so this thing had to be completely refurbed rebuilt in the late 1950s the Germans laid waste to it I think there was a fire uh maybe uh years before so this this house has been burned found, rebuilt, bombed and rebuilt at least twice that I know of. And uh it's a beautiful, beautiful spot. You can see the view there. We're going to go down that grassy hill hopefully to catch a boat.

But yeah, this is um this is pretty amazing. Mount Edge. So funny that he's I was so busy working and studying at university here that when I was doing my master's degree, I forgot to all this was over here. I didn't discover it unfortunately until after I finished my uh thesis, my dissertation.

But uh I could have used some RNR over here. It's absolutely beautiful and yeah, and the history is undeniable. It's uh it's an amazing place. Obviously, this is lush green during the winter, uh fall and spring, and things are a little bit scorched.

You might have heard Britain's had a hot summer this year, but um yeah, so we'll uh we'll kind of skip the gardens and the atriums and but this estate is incredible. It's full of fountains and follyies. block houses, a lot of tutor era structures, battlements. Um, obviously the military values uh guarding the mouth of the Tamar in the British Navy is pretty obvious, but but uh the Earl of Edgum, avid environmentalist and all the successive Earls reintroduced the Cornish type of a black bee.

It's indigenous to the corn Cornwall. Reintroduced it successfully to this peninsula. They have a a massive bee colony here which is amazing and they've very successful repopulated what was pretty much extinct. So again good sort of private initiative with some public support and uh good management very successful.

What's amazing is this is just open to everybody 24/7. You know, [snorts] that's not always the case. A lot of places like this would be restricted, fenced out, boarded up, but this is considered commons uh under the stewardship of uh the Earl of Edge or the Edgeum estate. Pretty amazing.

But yeah, so that's uh that's what life was like here. Yep. They were taking their share of of bombs from the Germans. I think we spoke about that in a previous video.

[snorts] I mean [sighs] like like we said as well, Iran's a good example, but with each successive generation, war gets smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror, no matter where you are in the world. And in Iran was the Iran Iraq war. those eight years 1980 to 888 that was the sort of instructive in forging the Islamic revolutionary government in Iran. Not just the repression and brutality of the shaw and the savvac, but the Iran Iraq war where the US and Britain gave chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis brutally used chemical weapons and maimed and killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians.

America wanted to weaken them. I'm sure Israel played its role there. Although oddly the Iran contra affair uh in Israeli arms dealer was the middleman, but I don't necessarily think that's Israeli policy to have helped Iran. Maybe there was some money to be made by somebody, but nonetheless, it's hard to tell somebody born in 2000 in Tran, uh, how vicious and barbaric the American Empire is, the ones who backed Saddam Hussein because, hey, that was ancient history.

[snorts] But uh Donald Trump and his merry band of wararm mongers uh they changed all that. They made uh the anti-US sentiment even more relevant than ever because they showed the young generation in Iran firsthand what it's like to face the full brunt of US and Israeli military brutality. And so Trump has reinvigorated the Islamic Revolution. Trump, Hegsth, Netanyahu, Bessant, they've all played their part in recharging the Islamic Revolution for maybe the next 50 years, maybe more.

Who knows? But, uh, I wonder if that's what they intended. Somehow, I don't think so. But you hear a lot of debates on we're going to delve into geopolitics here.

And uh just going to spin the camera around because this is such a cool view here. This is like the ultimate treelined path. And you can see this is the uh the fairway as it were 20 minutesdown to the down to the ocean where the ocean meets the tamar there. Great place to have a picnic.

But uh Mount Edge estate absolutely beautiful. Anyway, we'll take this path as far as it goes. But much talk about the straight of moose and you hear some pundits. Um this is where I I diverge from a lot of academics and people who work in think tanks of which are all academics coincidentally.

um I diverge from them when it comes to uh the discussion the discourse on a lot of international relations and one of the reasons for that is I think sometimes the analysis uh is a little bit inert and received wisdom will look at the controversy of the straight of Hormuse and they'll say Well, for instance, they'll make the argument that um well, there can be a deal, a successful deal could be a win-win for for everybody. So, everybody wants to see the Strait of Hormuse open up. And uh you know, so does the United States. The Iranians want this, the Omanis want it, the Gulf Arabs want it, the Chinese want it, everybody wants it, and the US wants it.

They want to restore freedom of movement uh through the waterways, freedom of trade, free commerce. That's that's the uh the ultimate goal. That's the first priority uh of the of the Americans. And while that would be good in a kind of idealistic sense, um I would like to believe that's true, but unfortunately it's not.

um the United States's first uh interests because they say well that's the whole point of you know the uh international agreements like the UN convention of the law of the seas uh international law and maritime law and so forth. First of all the United States didn't sign the treaty uh the UN treaty for the uh uh the the conference for the law of the seas. It was in 1982 the US didn't sign it. So clearly that's not in their interest.

So it's not really purely economical. I mean that's what they tell us in the history books is that this was to kind of enforce free trade and make sure that goods and services are flowing unfettered across the world. Okay, it sounds good. It sounds good.

But that's not the United States's first priority. uh the first priority uh in the straight of form moose is not economic it's about control uh the first priority is to the US military want passage so that they can supply their bases with military equipment arm their proxies um also all sorts of other goods and supplies that are related to that including whatever constitutes a bribe for the host countries. That can come in many forms, but that's what they want. Um the problem is uh they really don't have a right to that.

They don't have a right to access because the US lost that right when they launched an undeclared war of aggression against Iran with is alongside of Israel attacked Iran. Okay. Now, US freedom of trade and freedom of movement is a privilege. It's a privilege.

It's no longer a right because we're in a state of war. So, hey, if you don't like it, you shouldn't have started the war. But try to tell that to Marco Rubio. He's struggling with the concept.

Nonetheless, that's kind of how it is. So, the US's priorities are first and foremost not economic. It's nothing to do with uh Adam Smith free hand on the high seas. No, it's imperialism.

And I use that term not as an activist. not as a politicized term, but as an accurate description of the US's presence and role in the Persian Gulf. It is purely imperialistic. And if you needed a textbook case for that, there it is.

And alongside that to complement that conversation, again this is where I depart from a lot of academics and people in the think tank world or in the international relations discourse is as an adjunct to what I just said there. They'll also say that well um you know these Gulf states uh rely on the security of the United States. So they have a right to seek security guarantees or they have a right to pursue security objectives and the US is helping them with those security objectives. Okay, sounds good.

Sounds good on paper. Ideally, yeah, I guess in a textbook that works. However, uh in the real world, uh it doesn't work because now we know there there's no evidence that the United States provided any security for any of these Gulf States. In fact, the security was a ruse.

It was a con. Okay? There were no sec even if they gave them security guarantees, they didn't give them any security. They painted a target on them.

Iran hit those targets. Those targets are called US military facilities in Saudi Arabia, in the UAE, in Kuwait, in Bahrain, um, in the Kingdom of Jordan. Uh, did I leave anybody out? Qatar.

So, the GCC countries, the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, JD Vance thought the GCC was the Gulf Coast Coalition. I thought that was hilarious. But anyway, anyway, he's learning. Hopefully he'll get a good adviser on geopolitics one day.

But uh anyway, the there are no security uh arrangements for these Gulf States. Why? The US was never offering security. That's what they said.

That's what the academics say in the textbooks. That's what people say in polite conversation. The reality is the US is running a protection racket. a good old-fashioned protection racket.

They create the threat, then they rush to the uh neighborhood and say, "We'll protect you, but you got to spend money at our our Uncle Sam's uh defense hardware store. Uh, and you got to pay us uh in a [laughter] lot, and we'll protect you. " But we're what we're really doing and what they don't tell them which the Gulf States shouldn't be so stupid not to know is that the US is only there to uh project uh power to exert hard power if necessary over the enemies of their greatest friend and ally the apartheid colonial settler state known as Israel. Okay, that's why they're there to create a security umbrella for Israel.

The Persian Gulf is a defense shield for Israel. The Kingdom of Jordan is a defense shield for Israel. It's a staging ground for US operations, Israeli operations, allied operations to attack Iran. Okay?

That's what it what's there ultimately geostrategically. That's why they're there. So, you know, nothing's changed. Um, so it that is by definition a protection racket.

We know because when when the you know what hit the fan, there was no protection [laughter] happening. The US cut and ran. They left left abandoned their stations there because it wasn't going to work. It wasn't feasible.

How can you give security guarantees in an environment like that? You have to be stupid to believe that's even possible. So that means what what is NATO what is the what is the US umbrella security umbrella in Europe about is it is it a protection racket and I think uh it's pretty clear that it is it is a protection racket the US start the war in Ukraine first with the Maidonu and they inject steroids into the Ukrainian military a few puppet leaders later now with Zalinski they get their war in 2022 and then tell Europe, you have to you have to arm up because of this Russian threat. Well, there would be no Russian threat if the United States didn't overthrow the government and start a violent civil war in 2014.

You could go back earlier before that, but we can just start at 2014 at the Maidon coup. So, so yeah, I guess NATO is a protection racket. You got to be stupid. Look at Finland and Sweden.

how idiotic uh with riding on a wave of fear and hype they they rushed to join NATO uh in in May of 2022. Uh and then Finland even dumber uh is gagging for nuclear weapons. So this is Finland that was successfully neutral. Had no problems whatsoever with Russia through the Soviet era after World War II, the entire cold duration of the Cold War.

No problems at all. Neutral. Their safety was guaranteed. But then the great and the good in Brussels and Washington convinced them otherwise.

So that that's probably the uh the worst end of the protection racket would be something like Sweden and Finland to do something against your own interests and security and painting a massive target on yourself with the world's largest nuclear power, Russia. But anyway, I thought the Scandinavians were smarter. Uh apparently I think at one point they were maybe way back when, but not now. Anyway, uh and that's coming from me, [laughter] um of Scandinavian descent, at least partly.

Um but yes, I'm critical of the Vikings. Uh and what about the Pacific? So, what about the Pacific? Are we we must be giving security to Japan, South Korea, uh who else?

The Philippines. Let me think who else? Taiwan. US is providing security, right?

Giving security guarantees. That's why the US military are there. That's why they're all over Okinawa, Guam, the DMZ, in South Korea, various inundur islands and archipelos throughout the South Pacific trying to recolonize the Philippines. Yes.

And of course, uh, the CIA are crawling all over Taiwan. It must be because they're providing security again. But but but security for what? Against who?

Well, after World War II, the US rationale was they're providing security uh for Japan against itself because to the victor goes the spoils. Not many questions asked there. But anyway, as as things developed, as thing went on, then it's after the Korean War. Oh, it's the North Koreans.

So they managed to and who who caused that war? That was a US that was absolutely a US instigated conflict. 100% the Korean War. A lot of far-right people will say it was a UN war.

Absolutely ridiculous. Uh the US was stoking that conflict years before years before. And Vietnam, another example, an epic failure there. I guess they were providing security for somebody, right?

But uh South Korea is is North Korea hellbent on destroying South Korea? I don't think so. Those two states would probably have reunified if not for the United States having this massive military presence in the line between those two countries including nuclear weapons. So threatening North Korea.

But uh so yeah, not much security going on there. You know what? If China rolled into Taiwan tomorrow, and they probably could, and without without a shot fired, probably US couldn't do anything. But if they did, um, that's it.

Game over. Leave the Pacific. What the hell is the United States doing with nuclear weapons littered all over the Pacific? It's it's it's ridiculous.

Why are they providing security? You know, they're running a protection racket for the Japanese, for the Koreans, for every Guam. What is that? It's a aircraft carrier [sighs] masquerading as an island.

Uh, and so on. It's a protection racket. It's it's a protection racket to generate money to fuel a bloated money losing defense industry that's propped up by US debt. That's what it is.

by a failed world reserve currency known as the US dollar that's uh got all these little dollar zones that Uncle Sam has carved off around the world like Japan, like South Korea and many others. And the whole purpose of it is to create among other things areas where there's a demand for the uh for the US dollar and then provide the hardware to project power to protect that financial system. I think we spoke about this in the last video. We keep coming to the same conclusion again.

And so if that's the same conclusion, then I guess that's the problem. I guess we've identified the problem. And whether it's in the Pacific, whether it's in the Persian Gulf, whether it's in Europe, everywhere you go, they're trying to create another situation like this in Latin and South America. This uh president and his gaggle of grifters and want to be viceroy have anything to do with it like Marco Rubio, that's exactly what they'll get.

But that's it. That's the game. That's the kind of sorry excuse for an empire that the United States is uh running. Very different empire than previous world empires.

Very different. It's very much a virtual empire in a sense that there is an invisible hand there that's kind of holding it together that's kind of providing continuity for the empire that is the US dollar woven through everything but it doesn't actually have any inherent value the only value the United States dollar really has at the end of the day is an artificial demand created by US activity and market fixing and cartel activity around the world, but also trust that uh they can come back and those dollars will be redeemed or that debt that was uh so dutifully purchased by its allies can be redeemed at the set interest rate. Trust that the when the trust is gone, then so goes the dollar. Look at what's happening in Japan right now.

US is having to bail out the Japanese economy. Not out of the goodness of its heart. No altruistic motives there really because Japan is one of the biggest holders of US debt. They're doing it to prevent Japan from dumping all of their useless paper.

They're propping up their government. The US is crazy. Scott Bessett, what a shifty guy. He didn't tell the Europeans.

He secretly went and purchased a whole load of euros and took those euros to swap with the Japanese currency to prop up Japan's economy, but he pissed off the Europeans. He didn't tell them. Kind of undermining a long-standing arrangement between uh the United States and Europe. Another breach of trust.

So the US Trump has just screwed one of his greatest allies. Why would you screw Europe? They always say it's quite been quite trendy by the Republicans. Oh, Europe's not paying their fair share.

Europe's ripping us off. You hear these tropes from Trump. No, Europe is helping to subsidize the US dollar to keep it from collapsing in value. Okay.

Euro dollar market. Tell that to Trump. I guess he well he hasn't got that far with his Wharton business school. Uh I guess he supposedly got an MBA or something from Wharton Trump, but he didn't take any economics classes clearly.

But anyway, I find the whole thing hilarious. So the US US's future, the keys to the destiny of America's flailing economy, the keys are held in Tokyo. Funny enough, isn't that interesting how history comes full circle, but uh it's an interesting conversation today, an interesting walk. Maybe we'll return here one day.

Behind me, that's the uh that's the Tamar River and Plymouth Sound and uh Fort William in the distance there. You can see maybe we'll have a walk there one day. But thank you guys very much for your feedback. appreciate the comments and uh yeah, if you like what we do, uh consider subscribing.

Uh we'd really appreciate it. It's one way you can help us. And drop a comment, a like, a share uh for this video. It would also be greatly appreciated.

I'm Patrick Hennington. I am your host and support 21st Century Wire. That's our independent media platform. And uh we'll see you next time.

All the best.


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Iran's NUCLEAR Ally Unleashes 10 Ballistic Missiles Near U.S. Bases After Trump 'BEGS' For Talks
Times Of India
Aug 20, 2026

North Korea has fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, just hours after US President Donald Trump said he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said approximately 10 short-range ballistic missiles were launched from the outskirts of Pyongyang. Japan also confirmed multiple ballistic missile launches, saying the projectiles travelled around 320 kilometres and reached a maximum altitude of approximately 90 kilometres before splashing down outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The missile launches came as the US and South Korea were conducting their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises — drills that Trump had ordered to be scaled back.



Transcript

North Korea launched a barrage of ballistic missiles after US President Donald Trump expressed his desire to meet its leader Kim Jong-un. In a dramatic show of force, North Korea fired approximately 10 short range ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan. The launches were reported by South Korea's joint chiefs of staff. The South Korean military said the missiles were launched from the outskirts of Pyongyang.

They traveled towards the Sea of Japan while South Korea, the United States, and Japan exchanged information about the launches. Soul said it was maintaining vigilance for additional launches. The South Korean military is continuing to analyze the flight data, including the missiles exact range. Japan's Defense Ministry also confirmed multiple ballistic missile launches.

According to Tokyo, the missiles traveled approximately 320 km, reaching a maximum altitude of around 90 km before falling into waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. The launch of missiles came at a particularly sensitive moment that because the US and South Korea are currently conducting their annual joint military exercises on the Korean Peninsula. It came as Washington and Seoul were scaling back their 11-day ulti freedom shield military exercises. Just before the drills began, Trump had ordered the Pentagon to substantially [music] reduce their scale.

Trump cited his relationship with Kim Jong-un is one reason for the decision. He also pointed to South Korea's refusal to support his position over the war against Iran.

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he expected to meet Kim Jong-un later this year, but he offered no further details.

With Kim Jong-un, can't tell you that. But I get along with him. And you know what? The fact that I get along with him, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn't have allowed it. But he's got them. I get along with him very well. I can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong-un very well and he's going to be fine. As long as we have a smart president, he's going to be fine. If we have a dumb president, then he's probably not going to be so fine.

Are you expecting to meet with him later this year?

Yeah, I will be.

Why hasn't Kim Jong-un responded to your request to have a conversation?

How do you know he hasn't responded?

Has he?

Um, yeah, he has.

Did you speak Where are you? Where are you in conversation? That's very positive.

Well, just so you understand what South Korea, look, South Korea has been protected by us for many, many years. And during my first term, they agreed to pay close to $3 billion a year for protection because we don't, you know, they essentially weren't paying. And I asked them to do that. At my request, I said. They weren't happy about it, but they agreed. I asked for $10 billion and they were very unhappy, but we agreed for a short term that it would be $3 billion, and next year it would go up, and the next year it would go up. So they start paying for their protection when the election was rigged, and I ended up watching for four years, and then coming back. I watched Biden rescind that $3 billion for whatever reason.

When I called recently, the president of South Korea, who I like, I think he's very nice actually, but I called him. I said, "Would you like to give us a little hand? " And I said, "Wait a minute. We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That's strange. No, no, we'd rather not get involved. I see. Well, why are we involved in helping you?

So, and I want to help them, but you know, when you ask somebody, would you like to give us a hand? And they say, no thanks. And then we're guarding them from a country and paying ourselves billions of, costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect, not only them but other countries.

Look at NATO. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars protecting Europe from Russia. Hundreds of billions mostly from Russia, but from other things too. And then they say, well, they don't want to get involved with getting where they get most of their oil. They get 50% of their oil, and they don't want to get involved. Why are we doing it? So, all I want is fairness.

And South Korea, I get along with them very well. But they were paying $3 billion a year, and then they convinced Biden that I was probably a bad person, and they shouldn't, and he immediately rescinded that order. So, we were getting paid. We would have get been getting paid a lot more. But we can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they're not there to help us.

But Pyongyang appears to be sending a very different message. Kim Jong-un's powerful sister, Kim Yao Jang, dismissed Trump's decision to reduce the military exercises. She said cutting the scale or duration of the drills did not change their nature. According to Kim Yo Jang, the exercises remained provocative and aggressive. She warned Washington not to mistake the reduction in the drills for a gesture of goodwill. The message from North Korea is clear. Reducing US South Korea exercises may not be enough to bring Kim Jong-un back to the negotiating table.

In a huge concern for US and its allies, North Korea reportedly possesses dozens of nuclear warheads.

While Trump says North Korea has 57 nuclear weapons, Soul claims the real number could be twice that. South Korea publicly offered a much higher estimate of North Korea's nuclear arsenal than US President Donald Trump, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding Pyongyangs closely guarded weapons program. Speaking before a parliamentary committee on Thursday, South Korean defense minister Anubac said North Korea is generally believed to possess between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads compared with Trump's assertion a day earlier that Kim Jong-un has 57 nuclear weapons. We usually see it as around 80 to 120, but it is considerably limited to state an exact number, an told lawmakers.

He later clarified that the estimate was based on assessments by private research organizations and that South Korea's military could not officially verify the figure. Asked about Trump's claim, An said, "The numbers appear somewhat different. The differing estimates highlight how difficult it is to assess North Korea's nuclear stockpile given the secrecy surrounding its weapons program. South Korea also reiterated that it does not officially recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state in keeping with its longstanding policy of supporting denuclearization.

We cannot officially acknowledge that onset. South Korean defense minister also declined to comment on whether Trump's reference to 57 warheads amounted to US recognition of North Korea's nuclear status saying it would not be appropriate for him to interpret the US president's remarks and reaffirmed Soul's non-nuclear policy stressing that South Korea would continue relying on the US nuclear umbrella rather than pursuing its own arsenal. We cannot develop nuclear weapons, nor should we accept the deployment of US tactical nuclear weapons, an said. The comments come as Trump attempts to revive diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after scaling back joint US South Korean military exercises, which he has described as hostile to Pyongyang.

Trump said at the White House that he expected to meet Kim later this year, potentially reviving talks that 9 minutescollapsed after their 2018 and 2019 summits, failed to produce an agreement on sanctions relief and North Korea's nuclear program.

AG Blanche SLAMMED After CAUGHT LYING In MY EPSTEIN Lawsuit!!
Katie Phang
Aug 21, 2026

EXCLUSIVE new updates in Katie Phang’s lawsuit against Todd Blanche: two new filings by Katie, including a proposed Order for Blanche to produce the unredacted, handwritten FBI notes to the Court by Tuesday, Aug. 25th. Katie also explains her Notice that shows how the DOJ lawyers weren’t telling the truth about other handwritten notes in the Epstein Files.



Transcript

We've got some exclusive news here at Katie Fang News Channel about my lawsuit against Todd Blanch, the attorney general of the United States over the Epstein files. I want to go through two filings that were just done late yesterday. And they kind of go together, but one is 38 pages and one is four. Now, you recall when we went to the status hearing last week, Thursday, Judge EMTT Sullivan ordered us to submit proposed orders that addressed two specific issues.

One, the handwritten FBI interview notes of a woman who alleges that when she was 13 years old, she was sexually abused and physically battered by convicted felon Donald Trump. two, the proposed language that would be used in a sworn declaration to be signed by Todd Blanch concerning the redaction log that we argue is required to be produced and published pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. So, we're going to break that up right now. We're going to walk through what we've submitted to the court.

Before we do so, I want to note the following. What was an incredible outcome from that 2hour status hearing last week is the judge didn't ask for what we call competing orders. A lot of times a judge will say plaintiff, you submit an order. Defendant, you submit an order.

They will be competing orders and then the judge decides maybe I like this, maybe I like that. And maybe puts together his own kind of Frankenstein of an order if you if if I may. In this instance, the judge didn't want to get anything from the Department of Justice Todd Blanch. He asked us and my amazing legal team at Public Integrity Project.

You know, I always want to give them credit because it is absolutely earned and due. Brendan Belaloo and Emily Gilman were in court with me and Sam Ward Packard who wasn't there but is also an amazing part of the legal team. You know, they have been doing great work. " So, let's walk through them now.

So, the four-page document, which appears on the docket, is a proposed order. And so, that's why you'll see the word proposed in front of the order. And as it is in federal court, you send this in and then the judge can either adopt it wholesale and agree with everything and sign it or the judge can make little slashes, even like handwritten annotations, no pun intended. Um, or he can draft his own and make some material changes.

But either way, this is what the proposed order says. Todd Blanch shall, as in no choice, submit to the court by no later than 3 PM Eastern on August 25th, 2026. So for th for folks who don't have a calendar in front of you, that's next week, Tuesday. You're hearing this on Friday, August 21st.

Next week, Tuesday is the 25th. m. Eastern on August 25th, 2026 the underlying FBI interview notes that formed the basis for the FD302 interview reports bearing the following bait stamps numbers. And it lists those four 302s.

Remember the 302s are the official reports that are generated by the FBI. And what are they predicated upon? the handwritten interview notes that are done by an agent or agents plural when they are conducting these interviews. What I have sought by way of my preliminary injunction and what Judge Sullivan granted that I was allowed to receive are the unredacted interview notes were redacted only to protect victim confidentiality.

Why do I say that? Well, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, as Judge Sullivan noted as well, does not have an exception for other redactions that the DOJ has attempted to do in this instance. So, Blanch shall produce no later than 3 PM on August 25th, 2026 the underlying handwritten FBI interview notes for the four 302s that were generated as a result of them interviewing this woman who claims when she was 13 years old, she was sexually assaulted and physically battered by convicted felon Donald Trump. Now, let's take a detour to the other filing that we did yesterday late.

This is the 38 page filing. " Well, the notice to the court as it is entitled itself is only two pages, but I have attached exhibits and those are the important thing. We obtained the full transcript from that hearing. It is a doozy.

It's worth reading, but and I'm looking for it right now to show it to you. Anyway, the transcript was important because we wanted to make sure that we were accurate about what Judge Sullivven aid, how he ruled, and what he asked us to do. And in the course of that two-hour status hearing, there was an inquiry that was made by Judge Sullivan to the DOJ lawyer who appeared that day, this Andrew Block guy. And it's a 38page hearing transcript.

" Okay? And this is important, right? I said it has to do with what the order is that we just sent into Judge Sullivan that we proposed that Judge Sullivan signed. Judge Sullivan then goes into the procedural history of how he granted the preliminary injunction, ordered Blanch to produce the underlying FBI notes, and in response, Blanch said he didn't produce the notes for two reasons.

One, they're substantially similar to the Thai Britain reports, which were the 302s. And two, there's a risk of inadvertent disclosure of victim information because the notes are handwritten. " Now, as I've explained to you last week after this hearing, there has never been an argument raised until that hearing by Todd Blanch that the interview notes, the handwritten ones, are duplicative, meaning that they're identical to the 302s. That's physically impossible.

It's it's literally not happening. Duplicative is different than substantially similar. Now, Blanch has raised that as an excuse, but as Judge Sullivan noted, there is no exception in the Epstein Files Transparency Act for things that are quote substantially similar as grounds or excuses for not producing them to the public. And then block conflates things and if you're not paying attention, there's a whole lot of word salad that goes on that comes out of the DOJ.

And in that mumbo jumbo, they try to confuse in that word salad. Block says that someone reviewed a draft indictment and said there is no additional harm or risk of victim information. Doesn't make sense, right? Because it's irrelevant.

The draft indictment is different than the handwritten FBI notes. But Block was trying to play fast and loose, right? He's like, "Let me just bring this. " This is what Sullivan said.

So, you have no additional information? Is that what you're saying? " The court There must be some information. Block.

Well, I think again it's to the court's point about Sullivan interrupts. How many pages of interview notes are we talking about? Block. I don't have that information.

The court approximately block. I don't know what the volume of handwritten material underlying 302s is. " And this is where Andrew Block steps in it. To my knowledge, not with respect to the 302s, the court.

So, what would the cause be? The defendant was directed to show cause. Why it should not be produced? What's the answer?

" And Sullivan says, 'Well, that's what the defendant says. The court doesn't know that. All the court is looking for is a means by which the court can conclude that what's been provided is evidence is indeed consistent with 302 reports. That's all.

But just to take it at face value that the notes are substantially similar doesn't really address the court's responsibility. The court has to determine that that's correct. I'm just looking for a way to do that. And the block mumbo jumbo, I'm not entirely sure what your honor is looking for.

is there a specific direction? [snorts] And the court responds, I'm just looking for cooperation. I'm just looking for evidence that supports the defendant's representations that indeed the handwritten notes are consistent with the 302 reports. That's all.

And then the court goes on, I mean, it's simple. I know these are difficult questions, but the court needs to have a time frame for getting that information. I'm willing to work with you. I'm willing to work with the parties, both sides.

All I need is proof that what the 302 reports say is actually true and consistent with the FBI notes. And then Block has no response. So what did we do? Well, as I said a couple of minutes ago, Block misrepresented to the court that there have not been handwritten interview notes produced, redacted to the public that have been produced in conjunction with FBI 302s.

So what did we do? Well, we brought notice to the court and we said defendants council is not correct in what he represented. Defendant has in fact produced handwritten FBI interview notes underlying the 302 reports for example. And then we cite two Epstein files transparency act bait stamps attached as exhibit B.

These are handwritten notes underlying the 302 interview interview report that's produced at a specific um Epstein files transparency act bait stamp that is attached as exhibit C. In addition, what we did too is we identified nearly 100 additional examples of handwritten interview notes produced by the defendant Todd Blanch in exhibit D. And then this is what we asked Judge Sullivan to do. Plaintiff Katie Fang respectfully requests that the court consider whether defendants stated justification for withholding the handwritten FBI interview notes is consistent with defendants's production of other handwritten materials when condu when conducting its inc camera review of those notes.

So, in other words, what we're asking Judge Sullivan to do is take notice from this filing where we gave him evidence that on prior occasions, Todd Blanch and the Trump DOJ produced handwritten 11 minutesinterview notes from an FBI agent, redacted in some places that correlated to, give me a second, please, an FBI 302 report redacted. And just in case Todd Blanch and the DOJ seems to forget the work that they purportedly did when they were doing this work, we provided the following five plus page list of examples of when handwritten notes have been produced by Blanch/TheTrump DOJ in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. We're just reminding Judge Sullivan that when there's a will, there's a way. And Todd Blanch has done it before.

So his lame ass excuse that it's duplicative or substantially similar, not only is it not recognized in the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but it's a croc of And by the way, we all know too, it's not voluminous documents. It's what, 30 something pages is what we know. So spare me. Spare me the drama.

Spare me the lies. Spare me the Blanch should turn them over. And he is because Judge Sullivan says you're gonna have to turn them over in camera and we said by August 25th judge and then the judge is going to look at them and be like okay just redact the names of the victims. What's what's the issue here?

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And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. experience the craft behind the comfort and make every day feel intentional. I think it's worthwhile doing a footnote here as well. I have seen, they have been sent to me.

I have read, I have looked at these leaked handwritten notes that have been um put out on Reddit and on other places. I want to be clear, the authenticity of those notes remains at issue. I am not comfortable putting my name behind them saying that this is what they are. Yeah, I guess I could have just said, look, this has been found.

I'm not sure if they're authentic. I just don't know if that helps putting them into the ether by doing so. I would prefer to wait and actually get the handwritten interview notes from the DOJ that coincide with the 302s that are specific to this 13-year-old girl um and her allegations against Trump, this 13-year-old girl from South Carolina. I'd rather do that than make a big assumption when I'm not quite sure about the authentication of those documents.

And so that is the reason why I haven't pushed them out and done anything with them. All righty. The rest of this proposed order, the four-page thing that we did is giving information to the judge of what the declaration should be that assigned by Blanch and that no later than September 3rd, Blanch or a DOJ representative with personal knowledge of the facts has to submit a written declaration under penalties of perjury setting forth the information of the process behind the redaction log. Now, the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires two things to happen.

one that a summary be produced that is given to Congress that says we withheld and redacted under these particular categories. However, there's also another part of the Epstein files transparency act that says that for every individual redaction that has been done there has to be a log of it so that understandably people understand why and if they can challenge it they should. So unless you're redacting stuff and withholding stuff you're not supposed to, you should be comfortable with creating, as the law requires, a redaction log that explains this information to the American people. Blanch says he doesn't have to do it.

So what we've said in our proposed order to the judge is for this sworn declaration under penalties of perjury to explain if the Department of Justice has completed that redaction log for publication in the Federal Register, when was it done? whether it explains the individual redactions that are required, whether the um department has submitted it for publication yet, etc. If the department has begun preparing but hasn't yet completed that redaction log, tell us when did you actually start? How many people are involved in doing it, what steps have been taken to prepare it, etc.

And then finally, if the DOJ has not even begun preparing that redaction log, provide a detailed explanation as to why. Why the DOJ hasn't begun preparing that redaction log, including but not limited to whether the DOJ has made an affirmative decision not to do it, and if so, who was responsible for making that decision so we know who to blame for not complying with the law. This, my friends, is what Judge Sullivan ordered us to do. and that is what the transcript reflects from that hearing.

There are other issues that remain at large, including the fact that Blanch has blown through the deadline to answer and respond to my lawsuit, including some other things that deal with the foreign language translations. As you know, I'm very hellbent on getting those documents. These things are also being managed, but at this point, we are complying with what Judge Sullivan ordered us to do, and that is what I have just walked you through. This is exclusive to you here at Katy Fang News.

Please like and subscribe and please share this episode far and wide and get other people to to follow so that they understand what is happening in this suit. I like you want things to move faster. However, there are deadlines, rules, and other things that apply here that are kind of having to rein me in a little bit. But rest assured, I am doggedly pursuing this case to the best and the most of my ability, as are my lawyers who are incredible and hardworking and they care.

Be mad, be outraged, demand accountability. Leave a comment below this episode letting me know what you think about what is happening so far in this case. I'm off to rattle more cages. Katie Fang here.

We launched the Katy Fang News Channel in partnership with the Midas Touch Network so we could bring you the latest in legal and political news. Straight, no chaser. So, if you're a fellow trutht teller, hit that subscribe button and share the word about this channel so we can build a highinformation America

PEPE: TRUMP'S "MAXIMUM PRESSURE" ON IRAN JUST GOT REJECTED 440kg Missing Trump Lost His Only Window
Transition Protocol
Aug 21, 2026

440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium are unaccounted for — and according to sources inside the Pakistani command, the only remaining channel with visibility into where it went runs through the mediator Donald Trump has just discarded. Pepe Escobar and Zulfiqar Ali report that Pakistan has taken a final decision: it will not close a single one of the six overland corridors keeping Iran supplied, it will not close Gwadar, and it does not regard Scott Bessent’s sanctions threats as reason to change course.
Transition Protocol can also report, for the first time anywhere, that Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has met Wang Yi and secured a Chinese commitment to backstop Pakistan if it walks away from the $10 billion IMF programme. Iran’s internal calculation, confirmed through two separate channels, is that it can absorb maximum pressure until November — and if provoked again, Escobar assesses Tehran may stop absorbing and go on the offensive within weeks.
Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel covering de-dollarization, BRICS, the multipolar order and great-power rivalry. Claims sourced to insiders are labelled as such and are not independently verified.



Transcript

Hello everybody. Hello to our global audience. Uh we are glad to report it is getting bigger and bigger every day. Thank you very much for your support.

We are here on a Friday. Not a usual day for us because we have extraordinary news. I mean those that's the only time we decide to come outside Monday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And if you like what we do, please hit the like and subscribe button.

Go to Substack, become a paid member. We will deliver this very high quality intel directly in your mailbox and to make sense of all of the breaking information, breaking news that we receive almost every day, almost every hour, uh, my dear friend and colleague Pepe Escobar, whom you love and respect. Yes. and I turn turn over to Pepe Escobar and he will take it from here until such time that he directs it back to me.

Go ahead Pepe. 1 minuteThanks Mr. Z. In fact I will head it back to you immediately because today uh probably ahead of anybody else we can dig much deeper into the Pakistani situation at the moment.

Pakistan is in a very uncomfortable position between a rock and a hard place. This is something we we could discuss this for hours and today I was even comparing it with what the Indians are saying immensely enlightening but first of all okay Mr. Please enlighten all of us on how Pakistan is planning strategically to escape from the extremely uncomfortable geopolitical position Islamabad is in now especially because of the new we cannot even say tactics because they they don't do strategy they don't do taxes uh the latest shenanigans from the Trump administration over to you Mr. Okay, happy happy to provide the information that we have uh current as of an hour ago speaking to people who make decisions in Pakistan.

Everybody knows who those people are. Top of the list is General Asimir and honored and privileged to tell you that information that we receive comes directly from his office or people very close to him or people authorized uh by him to speak to us. Well, Pakistan uh as everybody knows uh was uh to use a diplomatic term demoted by Mr. Trump from the top first because Pakistan was not willing to do Mr.

Trump's bidding visav the visav the leadership in Iran and uh for that reason Mr. Trump was not very happy. Additionally, Mr. Trump knew that Pakistan was providing to the to Iran overland routes, six of them altogether that essentially allowed Iran to receive everything that it wanted to receive from all over the world coming via China, coming via Pakistan, coming via other routes and uh and and that kept the Iranian economy humming.

So a decision was made uh by the leadership in Iran and Pakistan that the two countries were going to get aligned together uh backed by China very significantly backed by China that uh would allow Iran to survive and the date that I have been given until about an hour ago. Iran is capable of surviving through November in the current environment and Iran is prepared to do so. So uh a decision was made by the leadership in Pakistan, leadership in Iran, uh leadership in China particularly important because China is the power behind all these decisions and we have said this several times on this channel. So Pakistan was not willing to do what Mr.

Trump wanted Pakistan to do which is to close off its transit routes. Uh in fact it did just the opposite. We have reported on this channel that very high level delegations came from Iran led by several high-ranking people including trade minister including uh Iraqi foreign minister including Galivaf the third most important person in Iran and they met with all the leadership in Pakistan the civilian and military and I can tell you with absolute confirmation authority Pakistan is not going to back an inch. Go back an inch.

Pakistan is not going to do that. A decision has been reached. And Pakistan will keep all of its routes open. There are six altogether.

Pakistan will keep the port of Gawadada open. And uh even though there are risks, everybody knows there are severe risks to Pakistan, but there are also severe risks to Trump and the American administration because outside of Pakistan, they really have no options. I can say that to the entire global audience with absolute confidence. This comes to me directly from the people who make decisions at Pakistan.

Pakistan took this decision based upon asurances from China that it was behind it and asurances uh made by their own internal calculation that where where is Mr. Trump going to go. Qatar does not have the the heft Pakistan does and Iran doesn't want to talk to Qatar about these matters. In fact, Iran told Trump flatly uh directly when it approached by Qatar and Oman that go back uh we want to talk to Pakistan and we want to go back to the Islamad MU.

That is the starting point. So the news I would like to relay to everybody is Pakistan is not backing off. Pakistan doesn't really consider the threats by Mr. to be such that they are going to change their strategic direction.

Iran is uh as far as uh I have I have been informed capable of surviving the maximum pressure until November. This is their internal calculation and the US and the western world is not capable of doing that. So that is a summary of uh of the situation. Pepe, back to you.

Okay, Mr. Z, thank you. Thank you. Uh there are some uh absolutely key elements in what you said which uh are fascinating in terms of characterizing a mix of um desperation by the American government, especially via the ghastly Soros agent Scott Bessant and a lot of wishful thinking from the inner circle close to uh close to Trump from the Iranian point of view, what you said about they are able to survive until November is essentially correct.

This is what we get from some of Iranian sources and the calculation of the Iranian government. Yes, we can sustain all kinds of pressure until November because a key plank of the new Iranian strategy is to exhaust the Trump administration and to particularly drive the fouryear-old psycho toddler completely nuts because he's blocked everywhere and he has no offramps left especially now. And thi this is a a key part of of the neo configuration. He has just blown up probably for good the only mediation channel that he had for the past over two months to talk to Iran.

So uh when when you put it very diplomatically that uh Pakistan was demoted from uh its position that carefully calculated with a lot of work uh behind and we reported about that for for the past o over two months in fact it's just vanished because of another Narcissus attack out of nowhere. uh they're not doing uh what I want them to do. So that's it. But who's is there anybody any nation any uh leadership any uh diplomatic core that could uh replace the role of Pakistan in this past two and a half three months?

No, it's not going to be Qatar. It's not going to be Oman. It's not going to be Turkey or Egypt or whatever, you know. So once again, this is the Trump administration bombing any diplomatic road towards a possible start in fact of a negotiation because theou was uh the road map towards a larger negotiation.

It was blown up by Trump himself. Now he's blowing up the actual mediator in this whole process. Even considering that until a few days ago, maybe correct me if I'm wrong, until last week, 10 minutesuh Trump was actually calling his favorite field marshal a simonyer practically every day begging begging for an offramp. Yes.

So this proves once again not only there's no overall strategy which is something that many of us have been discussing in many podcasts include including here at transition protocol. There are tactics that come out of nowhere uh one day after another one week after another leading usually nowhere. And now the only we cannot even call it a plan. The only desperation role left for the US apart from the horror of all horrors which is also being discussed in the White House and at the National Security Council which is the nuclear road, the technical nuclear road which is now being it's a horror story for humanity.

In fact, it's being normalized already. So these people who actually normalized the genocide are on the road to normalize the use of tactical nuclear weapons as long as it's only by the empire. Nobody else has the right only of course uh the unilateral empire. So the actual uh possible road for them, the only one left is this maximum pressure total economic and financial war against Iran because in their minds and I wrote a column about that this week and the title was that the Trump administration cannot turn Iran into an island.

In their minds they think that they can actually turn Iran into an island. First of all, they don't know anything about history. Second, they don't know anything about geography. They cannot even read a map.

They don't even they cannot even read where Iran is at the crossroads of Eurasia. So from the coming back to what you your your summary of uh the situation in Pakistan now. So Pakistan has been demoted diplomatically as the mediator. Yes.

I I love the way you put it because it's diplomatic but it's it's very strong at the same time. Um Iran can survive until November. This is something that we heard from different Iranian sources in at at different levels and tones because it's exactly their plan. Even if we don't do anything until November, we have several mechanisms that will accelerate the desperation in the Trump circles.

But this is very very important in terms of practical terms of the core of the overland corridors u that the trade and commerce between Iran and Pakistan Pakistan China and China back to Iran via Pakistan. This won't be affected. The Chinese are behind both Pakistan and Iran. Number one, very very important.

Number two, uh, Chinese companies who are exporting to Iran in coordination with Beijing, they will find if they they they already have it, but they even they can accelerate different mechanisms that completely bypass American vigilance and most of all the US dollar. First of all, because all these transactions, they already bypass the US dollar. Number three, if there are uh extra sanctions or secondary sanctions of Chinese companies, once again, the directive from Beijing, ignore them. You are a Chinese company.

So, you obey Chinese law. You don't obey foreign laws. Uh and we sue them in whichever uh uh uh jurisdiction it is. So, we're going to turn it back against the Americans.

So, uh there are several uh economic problems for Iran in the next let's say three months. There's no question about that. But they have the Russia Iran uh let's say express with we can call it the the Caspian the Caspian Express between Russia and Iran. The Americans have no way to interfere in in trade and commerce in that unless they keep uh throwing NATO drones over a Russian or Iranian ships in the Caspian Sea and then the proverbial thing you're thinking about is going to hit the fan big big time.

They don't have the guts to do that. They don't have the guts to do that against both at the same time against Iran and Russia or using Ukraine whatever because the Ukrainians last time they got the message from Iran. We are coming after you. The next day Ukraine apologized for the drone that they launched against an Iranian vessel in the Caspian.

So Iran has the Caspian. Iran has uh the China Iran railway going through Turk Manistan and Central Asia. What the Americans are going to do? Bomb the railway again.

They will be bombing China. China built and paid for this uh railway. This is a belt and road project. New Silk Roads.

The last thing before Xiinping visits uh uh Washington soon is something like that. So this is not going to happen. So uh the the relationship with the other central Asian uh partners between Iran and the other central Asians will continue and this is something that is also part of the Shanghai cooperation organization. All of them most of them apart from Turkmanistan they are Shangai cooperation organization members.

Then there's the bricks uh uh I would say basically the bilateral tables. bricks is next month in Delhi. It's in a little over three weeks from now. The summit itself is going to be a disaster.

But the bilaterals are going to be very important. And guess who's going to be there for the bilaterals? Russia, China and Iran. Very very important these bilaterals plus two bricks plus partners from Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Usbakistan.

So they will be discussing trade and commerce between all of them very very important. So this is what matter at bricks next months the bilaterals not the actual summit especially because it's in India and of course okay so we come back so what is that theoretical um uh weak uh node where the Americans can apply a lot of pressure in terms of uh strangling the Iranian economy Pakistan h how will they do it And this is my next question to you Mr. Z. How do you see the America?

What kind of strategy the Americans can come up with uh to go after the Pak China Pakistani Iran trade and commerce without completely alienating Pakistan and then of course China will think perfect Pakistan won't even have relations with the US anymore only with us and with our partners in Eurasia. There is um a serious problem uh with Pakistan which is financial independence. It's those horrible 10 billion dollars from the IMF that Pakistan needs for its economy. If we lived in a solid uh and sensible world, two things would have happened already.

Number one, Pakistan would have been a BRICS member. And number two, Pakistan would have been a new development bank, bricks bank member. So this 10 billion they could get from the NDB and not from the IMF. And this would be perfect in terms of the NDB being a development bank for the global south.

Unfortunately, we're not there. Unfortunately, first you need to turn the NDB upside down, eliminate uh in fact reconfigure the statutes of the bank which are linked to the US dollar which is completely absurd. You have a a 19 minutesa development bank for the global south transacting with the dollar of the with the currency of the enemy. That's a long story.

So Pakistan is not on bricks, not on NDB. So that's why they need to go to the IMF and it's not only Pakistan, it's still scores of nations in the global south which are still prisoners of the Bretonwood systems and expecting that the bricks finally get their act together to find a way to bring all these nations towards the bricks and the bricks plus sphere. So uh so my question is still there. Uh Mr.

What what are the the weapons that Pakistan has to escape from its condition at the moment which is essentially between a rock and a hard place. They cannot antagonize the Americans directly but they can find and they can find ways to make ghastly Bessant and company uh believe that Pakistan is following their dictats. while at the same time keeping their uh business with China and with Iran, the three of them. Well, I can report this maybe the first time to a global audience because I don't believe this has been reported yet.

And this comes directly from the Pakistani deputy prime prime minister Isakdar very very high up in the Pakistani civilian leadership comes also directly from the office of Asimir in fact from him. uh uh in consultations with the Chinese especially Wong E the foreign minister a decision was reached that if push came to shove China would back Pakistan in IR in Pakistan walking away from the $10 billion uh strangle hold by the United States has not been reported anywhere uh I was privileged with this information uh only about two hours ago uh comes directly from ISAD AR who used to be a finance minister prior to being becoming a deputy prime minister and who has actually physically met with Wong E in these discussions. So they were between a rock and a hard place and they decided that when push came to shove they're going to go uh they are going to go by China by what China wants. China wants Pakistan to stand firm.

Pakistan wants China to extend its uh overland corridors and the port of Gawadada to Iran. And I can sh I say this to you with absolute certainty uh as much certainty as I can bring to this conversation. Pakistan if push came to shove will tell the United States get lost and and do what China wants Pakistan to do which is to support continue to support Iran through 22 minutesthe way that it is already doing and in fact it's going to do even more because uh under pressure from the United States uh UAE has done something very stupid which is to close off its trade with Iran. Pakistan is going to be the beneficiary of that.

I can say this to you with again absolute certainty that that decision has been made and that decision is going to be unveiled in the coming days. I have one other piece of news that I have not discussed with you earlier Pepe but I intended to do that. I I received some very tantalizing uh additional information about the contact between uh uh Noharvan, the president of Kurdistasan and and General Bahidi. Part of the conversation was a hint a hint by Novaban that well the United States is going to support uh a military takeover a martial law.

we will immediately recognize the government and you will be the person uh who will be in charge of the relationship and things will go back in a really good way. Martial martial law where wait sorry martial law where if if General Wahidi was going to accept the overture ah if he decided to be a Trojan horse he would be of course he will be the new leader. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I just received this information about two hours ago, so that's why I did not mention it to you.

But it's a it's it's an additional one additional piece of information that now comes to me and I'm passing it on to you and passing passing it on to the rest of the world. I mean obviously all of this was known to my contact uh office of Asimir was known to the supreme leader uh through whom we 24 minutesget this information and uh and it just adds the level it gives us an insight into the level of desperation. This is desperation by Trump uh you know flailing throwing his arms everywhere. This was hinted uh by Nosheran uh causing uh Bahidi to become outraged and you know shutting down the conversation and asking him never ever to call him again with anything even similar to this.

So they have tried bribery, they have tried flattery with Asimury, they have tried military act actions and now they're trying the economic actions. Nothing is going to work. absolutely nothing is going to work. Uh okay.

Uh very important. Um the decision of the UAE to theoretically cut off all uh trade, commerce and financial ties with Iran, which is practically impossible because even if they do it officially, unofficially on the black market, it's this will continue like there's no tomorrow. the ties between uh Iranian leadership, Iranian individuals, Iranian companies, people of the diaspora, Iranian businessmen and UAE back and forth. It's wow, it's all possible numbers.

I've been hearing numbers since the early 2000s and I heard all sorts of numbers from a few tens of billions of dollars to lots of tens of billions of dollars, even hundreds of billions of dollars and Iranian investment in the UAE, you know, different sectors of the EU, they cannot cancel that. So uh uh the UAE may be playing a double game instead of no in fact placating the Americas which they have to and at the same time a business as usual between a lot of people in the UAE everywhere especially Dubai and nothing is going to change but in terms of um the amount of business that UAE may lose visa v Iran. You just mentioned that this these businesses could transfer to Pakistan. Is that it?

Yes. They could to Pakistan. I can say this with certainty. Go ahead, please.

I can say this with absolute certainty because I heard this from people who have provided information that has always been confirmed in subsequent days that arrangements are already in place for this to happen. Uh a lot of a lot of that trade is going to be routed via Pakistan. Pakistan has made a decision. It is going to stand by China.

It's going to stand by Iran. And if that pisses off Mr. Trump uh Pakistan doesn't really care. Yeah.

Okay. Just just to uh put it on a much bigger picture which is the Eurasia chess board from the Chinese point of view. This alignment between Beijing, Islamabad and Thran is sacrosanked. If we if we can use a western Christian uh definition uh you can absolutely absolutely untouchable cannot be cannot be touched at all.

So whatever happens this will continue because these are two strategic partners of China. So China cares as much uh about Pakistan as Iran because they are part of the new silk roads belt and road initiative. In the case of Iran, it's uh the 25 year $400 billion dollar energy infrastructure packed. Uh investments in China in from China everywhere in Iran as much as in Chinese investments in Pakistan.

uh the role of Guada now which is very important not only for Pakistan and for Iran but also for China and the fact that Guadada is a key node of the China Pakistan economic corridor. So we all know this will be from now on even more solidified than before and the Chinese, the Pakistanis and the Iranians can find extra mechanisms to make it foolproof in terms of American intervention. There is uh of course an extra uh element which is going to become even more dangerous from now on which is terrorism. So we can expect for sure American coordinated terrorism in both Baluchistans.

Correct. So this CIA, MI6 and MOSSAD even more active especially in Pakistani Baluchistan with the back and force of all those units or all those mini group fringe groups whatever than in Sistan Baluchistan in Iran because it's much it's very well policed and the security is much much better over there. So this is this is their usual u I wouldn't say even plan B or plan C. It's their usual modus operandi.

The Americans use terrorism everywhere all across the global south. So this will intensify in terms of terrorism trying to destabilize Baluchistan in in Pakistan. But that's it. Apart from that they cannot interfere in the the way the mechanism works in terms of trade and commerce between these three uh players in Eurasia.

So once again is another chapter even more radicalized of the war of the US against Eurasia and Eurasia integration. China, Pakistan and Iran working together is a key example of closer Eurasia integration in a in a Shanai cooperation organization strategic point of view. the three are members and the three will get even more integrated. Even if in the bricks case Pakistan is not a bricks member, it's almost as if it was because it's treated as such by the Chinese.

So once again it's the US war against mechanisms and multilateral organizations that are organizing uh the new face of Eurasia away from the Americans and this only there will be many other examples. Uh for instance, fascinating discussions already starting in terms of who wants to become part of that famous Sunni NATO pact. There are already two candidates. We heard from the foreign ministry in Damascus that Syria is interested.

Why? Because of Turkey. And we are hearing that Bangladesh is also interesting to become part of the Mecca pact. So anything can happen with the Mecca pact from literally nothing to it becoming a sort of a once again a mini Sunni majority organization that provides some sort of a collective security against the usual suspects.

and or it could be anything in between as well. So, so the way the chess board moves literally day by day it is mind-boggling. Uh and every new element that we have complicates the larger picture even more. The only thing that seems to be a constant in fact is the degree of uh lost in the wilderness to put it mildly of the Trump administration tactically, strategically, militarily, economically, financially, and of course with all the deadlines approaching and of course with one deadline that's in the mind of the Iranian leadership, the midterms.

They will do anything whatever it takes for Trump to lose the midterms and they are on their way. Uh amen to everything that you just said. Uh I should point out to all of our audiences that by virtue of context that we have we are privileged to know what is going on in the Musl is in session in Iran. Musl is the parliament.

Yes. And uh they have been meeting for long long hours uh every day and they have been debating all these issues and it is remarkable I mean absolutely remarkable that they are solidly behind the leadership of Iran the solidly behind the supreme leader solidly behind the IRGC leadership most Razai solidly behind uh everything that is going on. So Iran is not going to crack. Pakistan is not going to crack.

We can say this confidently. We can say this with absolute certainty. We can say this with the great authority coming to us from 34 minutespeople who are making decisions. And China of course is not going to crack.

China is is standing like a like a brick wall like a solid solid brick wall behind what is going on in Pakistan and and and and and Iran. So if Mr. Trump is under any illusion that is going to push Pakistan to doing his bidding in any way. Closing off its uh overland routes uh closing off its port closing off the routes the east west corridor not going to happen.

U Pepe not going to happen. Uh this is going to transformational change. Okay. But there's still a very important practical question.

uh as you analyze it, do you see any possibility that these 10 billion dollars that Pakistan badly needs and would come from the IMF if everything collapses, the Bank of China would step in and this would be like a Chinese loan long term? I have been told uh directly from people who make decisions. I told you is Sagdar uh deputy prime minister I'm I'm naming a name which is uh uh I mean based on authority uh and and permission uh deputy prime minister foreign previously finance minister for a long time met with Wangi push comes to shove uh if they have to make a choice that is the choice they're going to make and China will back it up and it is in the interest of China because then the appendage to the United States will be cut forever and ever and ever and Pakistan will be very happy with that. It's I'm sorry Mr.

Z, it's more complicated than that and the Americas won't let it go. So So it's going to be very tough for Pakistan. 36 minutesSo but okay. So I I I prefer to we we should treat that when it happens.

But if that happens, it's going to be extremely tough for Pakistan because then you're going to have the rest of the empire against you, which is something that nobody wants. Based on my information, Pakistan is willing to take that step if uh push comes to shove. It's a mixed decision. Yeah, it is.

But let's let's wait. Especially now that we are dealing with a cornered empire. Uh yes, ready to let it loose everywhere. Uh we should never forget, none of us, this is uh a mafio setup that it's in the process of discussing the normalization of the use of technical nuclear weapons.

This is the most important overarching question anywhere. So the level of desperation has reached this particular nuclear level. That's why anything is and that's why decisions involving the main players in Eurasia uh backed by China and Russia or not. And this also includes the way Russia is looking at the US.

It changed completely for the past few weeks, very few weeks. Russia now is fine, finally they understood that all that elaborate kabuki of the spirit of anchorage and all that that was absolute nonsense. and they are perfectly aware that the American strategy is to keep this war against Russia going on forever. 38 minutesSame thing with Iranian leadership.

They know that and they know that the only way to push back is to go on the offensive which is something that they are carefully studying and it might happen within the next few weeks very very few weeks starting even next months. If they are provoked they will go on the offensive. They prefer that uh the everything around the Trump mafio system collapses under its own horrible weight which is something that could happen from now to November. But if it's not the case, if there is an actual provocation, this time Iran will go on the offensive.

The Russians have reached more or less the same conclusion. If the Europeans provoke the way they have been provoking uh lately, the Russians will go on. The last thing anyone in the world wants is when the Russians go on the offensive and this is something that those stupid Europeans still have not understood. So that's how the chess board is moving all the time, you know, and the Chinese in the back, they know it and it's one of the reasons why they are offering full support to both Iran and Pakistan because they know that the uh especially now that they are cornered, they are capable of unleashing anything against anybody without with no no notice whatsoever.

out of the blue literally. But once again, uh, Iran is ready for it. Pakistan better be ready for it and the Chinese right behind, they are ready for it. Well, let me offer one other piece of information that I think is valuable in this context that is not fully understood by by many many analysts.

In fact, most analysts don't understand it. See Pakistan is the only route by which US Trump can have some dialogue with Thran because that is what Thran wants. Thran wants Pakistan to be the to be the in between the mediator uh since the war started. There is no insight by the West by Trump into where the 400 kg of inflationary regime has gone.

zero insight. Very, very, very, very important for everybody, including Trump. They have no clue. They have absolutely no clue.

And this is very dangerous. Very dangerous for the world. Very dangerous for Trump because Trump is not the only one who's capable of making a nuclear bomb. Trump is not the only one who's capable of detonating a nuclear bomb.

Iran is not frightened by Trump's talks of uh using nuclear devices. They're they're not phased by that at all. They say bring it on. I mean, obviously, they don't welcome it, but uh but they're not going to be they're not going to allow that to push them over into a decision, you know, elsewhere.

And we have been reporting on this channel repeatedly that they are very close, in fact, ready to detonate a nuclear device pending the decision by Ayatollah Mashtabaki. and he has not made that decision yet. But if he makes that decision, they're capable of doing that. And Pakistan is the only route for an insight into where that uranium exists, what is going on with it.

So Trump is not the only one holding the cards. Pakistan has a few cards. I can repeat this again and again. Pakistan is not going to budge.

Pakistan is not not going to be pushed over. Thank you, Mr. Z. I think we we can wrap it up.

Uh you you want to wrap it up? Okay. Uh no, no, you go ahead and wrap it up. No, no, no.

Please uh wrap it up because this is a special on a Friday. We'll be back next week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So, uh Okay. If if if we have some sort of volcano eruption this week and probably we're going to have another special.

Well, thank you very much to our global audience. We appreciate your support. We have grown beyond our imagination and we love your support. We love your comments.

Uh we love the relationship. We have built the community with people like Pepe Escobar, Larry Johnson and others bring you valuable information and we have access to some information that nobody else has which is the reason why we came into existence. So if you like what we do, please hit the like and subscribe button. Go to Substack, become a paid member.

We will deliver this inside your mailbox. And that support is deeply appreciated. So until Monday, uh we say goodbye. Pepe, please go ahead.

Say goodbye. Final word. Cheers everybody. Thanks.

Cheers everybody. And we are all under the volcano. All right. Thank you very very much.

Thanks.

Trump & Israel PANIC, Iran Nuke IMMINENT as F-35 EMERGENCY Erupts | Elijah Magnier
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 72 minutes ago #iran #f35 #trump

War correspondent Elijah Magnier joins to break through the media black out of the escalating war to control the Strait of Hormuz as Iran seeks an exit from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a second US fighter jet in as many days declares an emergency landing near the UAE. This stream breaks it all down.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. As you can see, I'm joined by war correspondent, independent journalist Elijah Magnet for the latest developments and analysis of them. Well, first uh we need to talk about how there are reports coming out that Iranian lawmaker has told the media that Iran is seriously uh pursuing its removal from the nuclear non-prololiferation treaty and that a proposal has been submitted to parliament. Uh this comes as of course uh the United States has uh once again uh uh uh uh challenged Iran's capabilities in terms of how it defends itself and uh we're going to ask the question, could Iran actually get this nuclear weapon?

Has it already been developing it? And uh the establishment is very very angry right now that Donald Trump has effectively outed the fact that North Korea DPRK has 57 nuclear weapons and this is the reason why he's going to talk directly with the DPRK leading some to wonder if Iran should actually get the weapon and if it's will pursue one. Now in the straightfor I know Elijah you've been covering a lot about what's going on there. Last night, for the second night in a row, an air creos aircraft squawkked an emergency signal over the straight of Hormuz, landing in the UAE.

This was at F35 this time around. Now, it's not just Trump that's panicking over how much oil is coming through the straight of Hormuz versus not. Israel is also panicking about a potential attack from Turkey. Now, this comes as Israel struck an airport in Syria claiming that Turkish uh military forces were going to occupy it.

And Israel appears confident in its preparations that it will not be scrutinized under article 5 of NATO's charter. And here's the article in Israel Hyom saying that it does not mean article 5 does that it's protected in 2 minutesSyria leading some to wonder if Israel is heading and Turkey heading for another war in the Middle East. But Elijah uh your thoughts on these developments and what's going on with this war in Iran? How is it having uh these regional implications and uh how is it also influencing this question of Iranian uh nuclear capabilities and whether it should get a nuclear weapon?

Thank you for having me. So the MPT is interesting because uh Iran signed in 1968 at the time of the shah of Iran uh to be um part of the MPT and then ratify it 2 years later. We are talking about uh 9 years before the Islamic Republic of Iran was created. Putting on the table the MPT is exactly similar to the move that Iran took in the year 2020 when the uh Israeli assassinated Fakri Khar Zad the uh director uh as he was defined at that time of the nuclear program uh when Iran went to 20% and then again Iran went to 60% in 2022 when the CIA and the Mossad attack the Ford nuclear facility again was another step of Iran to tell the world if you continue fiddling with us and you continue sabotaging us then we're going to take measure that are going to scare you without crossing the threshold really and Iran never went beyond the 60% after that date even if the MPT allows s Iran to enrich uranium beyond 90% as long as there is a transparency and Iran is not making a nuclear bomb.

However, withdrawing from the MPT will be an interesting step. It will mean or for all those who are skeptical that actually Iran is going closer to go on a nuclear blackout which means no more information on the nuclear program. Nothing uh related to the type of the centrifuge that Iran has. The JCPOA spoke about uh IR1 to Iran is very close to go to IR8 which mean much faster to produce a higher percentage of um enriched uranium and again the quantity of enrich uranium and for how uh how much percentage Iran can go without necessarily going to the nuclear weapons.

5 minutesBut it is a great reminder what Iran is doing today. Saying to Donald Trump, you're still talking about the straight of homes and forgetting about the main and major card that you are claiming you came to war for it, which is the nuclear dossier that it seems has completely disappeared from Donald Trump's agenda and also from the Israelis who convinced Trump to go to war. And it seems nobody is talking about the straight about the nuclear program because they're very busy with the straight of homes. Now that's one related to the MPT.

the quantity of oil. Of course, Kepler uh agency is the most trustworthy uh western information of all the navigation uh that is crossing referring to the navigation of the crossing on in the straight of home was saying actually there's no oil that crossing and Iran issued an exception uh only for Iraq. the Baghdad the government of Baghdad demanded from the Iranians to allow them to export three tankers of of oil of of oil and Iran accepted. Now there are many speculation about well uh Iraq and the GCC are going outside the straight of former they don't need it all this is nonsensical because first the pipeline that Iran that Iraq is talking about via Turkey could carry potentially in its maximum production 750,000 barriers which is still extremely little at the moment they are between 300 300 150,000.

Also, the line on Banyaz, it's a land line or the uh um pipeline. And again, uh here we're talking about a few hundred,000 of barrels in comparison to 7 minuteswhat Iraq produces and aims to reach uh between 4,500,000 barrels. 8 million. So it is still very far from achieving even a quarter of its goal.

And the problem with Iraq, like in Kuwait, these two are caught because the main economy depends on the selling of oil. And Iraq in particular, 90% of it budget is derived from the selling of oil that falls into the American federal banks in New York before uh the money is paid in Baghdad. But Baghdad is actually uh financially starving these days. It been a more than 5 months and that is a lot for the government of Baghdad without reserves to be able to cope with this situation and this is what Iran aim to distribute the pain on all the countries not only in the state of homes which are the GCC and Iraq but also the world that is receiving 20 million barrels of oil normally per day.

And when Donald Trump speaks about getting 15 million barrels in a week, today he changed his mind. He said in a day according to Axio but before that he said in a week before realizing well actually if he's managing 15 million barrels uh per week that is 7 days where the straight to foremost used to release 140 million barrels per day which means this is really nothing what he's coming out with and that leads to a conclusion that the whole world is lacking more than 1 billion and a half barrels of oil that if the straight of opens tomorrow, which is far from it, we need more than 8 to 12 months to recover the missing oil that the world is in need. 5 billion barrels of reserves. And the Americans have reached a level of very critical from 750 million barrels as a strategic reserve to 150 to 200 million barrels only.

5 depending on which uh area of the country you are in in United States. So this is the situation and I left Turkey because that's something completely different. Yeah, we will definitely get to uh Turkey and Israel uh toward uh the later part of the show, but I wanted to pull I wanted to get your take uh Elijah on the connections between this nuclear question for Iran uh and the possibility of as you uh seem to state that Iran would and maybe is pursuing an exit to the MPT and then might leave its enrichment very ambiguous in order to uh established that deterrent. But according to one of the lawmakers, it he cited that uh the savage attack on Iran and the killing of the supreme leader and the commanders of citizens and repeated violations of US commitments are the reasons for pursuing uh the exit to the MPT.

But I'm also wondering if you know Iran is trying to enforce control of the straight of Hormuz. There's all these reports about the United States Air Force guiding uh ships out of the Straight Hormuz. I don't know how true any of this is given the level of activity, but there is still Iran is still firing at ships and the US is claiming that Iran is not able to effectively do this anymore due to the last several flare-ups of attacks which led to the US targeting supposedly its radar. So, how much do you think Iran might pursue an exit and a nuclear weapon just based on the fact that it wants to enforce its sovereignty over the street of Hormuz?

Well, Iran has uh shown that it has many cards to play and this is the message to the Americans is actually the Iranians are saying there are so many other rabbits in the hat that we did not pull out and uh we are ready to scare you more than what you are. So you can repeat every single day with every sentence that Donald Trump is producing saying I will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And sometimes he said like Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israelis we have destroyed Iranian nuclear weapons and now Israel is safer. And then suddenly we hear Netanyahu and Trump saying well actually we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon that Iran never had according to the US intelligence services and all the European intelligence services.

So nobody is doubtful about Iran not having nuclear weapons. However, everybody agrees that between 60 to 90% the distance is very short and then you need test to make at least 10 nuclear bombs because you make a test with one and then you keep the other nine as a deterrent to make sure that the others like the Americans and the Israelis know that there are other bombs that you can use. Therefore, keep away and never bomb Iran. We have heard something unusual by the most moderate and pragmatic and non-politician really masian Iran president saying that a a country who is the who is who has deterrence capability will never be attacked for the Iranians today there is this idea of going toward nuclear weapon not to use it on Israel because this is not the objective of the Iranians and the Iranians never attacked Israel.

They responded to the Israeli attack and the Israeli aggression and unlawful wars in June 2025. Before that in Damascus against it consulate and um also all the killing of the Iranian military advisers in Syria and in Iraq that were uh requested by both government. But the killing and the sabotage the of the nuclear uh sites and the nuclear scientist Israel Israel was always claiming the responsibility directly or indirectly. Therefore, Iran wants to be left alone without being attacked but above all wants all the sanctions to be lifted and they want to be compensated for the war destruction.

They want its frozen money that is stolen by the United States and all the other country that are afraid to return the billions of dollars to Iran. They want them back. And as Donald Trump said when he signed the MOU on this June 17, he said Iran has a right to defend itself by having its missiles. He said Iran has a right to recover its frozen assets.

And he said Iran has a right to live without sanctions. But suddenly because his aim as van said uh we want only to open the straight of everything has collapsed when Iran said well actually we need to wait for 30 days until we demine and he attacked Iran 3 weeks without waiting for the 30 days to end. " They've done that. " And they've done it.

But that did not produce really a deterrent for the Americans and the European to lift the sanctions. On the contrary, they went even further and introduced a snap uh back on Iran that is a part of the JCPOA when the Americans left the JCPOA in 2018. So it is really something an absurd theory to see Iran pulling out of the MPT and saying to the world look before we think this is there is no other choice but to go to the nuclear bomb come and talk to us and meet our terms because first we did not represent a danger to the US. We did not attack the US.

We did not attack our neighbor ever before the war. Even after June 20, 2025, Iran did not retaliate against the Gulf countries. Even if some countries like Iraq allow the Israelis to use the Iraqi airspace. Kurdistan Iraq allowed the Israeli to attack uh Iran uh with drones and uh sabotage attack inside Iran starting from Kurdistan, Iraq.

The Emiratis allowed also the the Israelis to attack the Iranians in 2025, but only after February 2026 after multiple warning from Iran that they the Iranians will bomb all the countries involved. This is when Iran implemented the threat and bomb or the US asset and the Gulf asset that supported the US in this war rightly according to UN resolution 3314. So for Iran to wave the NPT, I think it is normal step unless Donald Trump acknowledged that he failed to achieve his objectives that he's not going to change the regime that even the finance US finance minister is still talking about a change of regime and um they saying okay now we want to impose the sanctions so we turn the population against the government and that's serious. this because they are saying we turn the population.

So they are fully aware that these sanctions will the population but not the ruling system and that's a crime against humanity they 18 minutesare committing the the sanctions are illegal. They are not produced by the United Nations. They not produced by the International Court of Justice. They are produced by a narcissistic narcissistic president who decide not to declare his defeat and he wants to continue the fight in different ways thinking that through sanction he can win what he failed to achieve militarily.

So yes, the MPT is not really off the table. Uh Elijah, how concerned do you believe the United States is right now after Muhammad Ali uh head of parliament, envoy to China, head of the negotiations, uh just said that the UAE, Kuwait, a host of other Gulf countries are privately reaching out to Iran right now in order to discuss independent security arrangements with Iran. Uh what do you make of that? How concerned do you believe uh the United States is given the flurry of reports that indicate uh there's a lot of concern about not being able to quote unquote defend uh these countries leading uh to many questions inside the Gulf countries as to whether this is an arrangement that works.

Donald Trump did a huge favor to West Asia by really um shaking the US hijgemony uh and the US reputation of the strongest military in the world. Militarily speaking, you can have the best military and the best bombs and the most destructive um plane, tanks, missiles, whatever. But then have you achieved your objectives or not? This is how victory is measured.

For the Americans, it is obvious today in the American elite level who are thinking with their head but not sitting in a tank pretending to think. They have reached the conclusion that the Americans have lost this war. And by losing this war, they've lost the hijgemony. It doesn't mean the US empire is over.

Far from it. But the US empire is in decline. Like in every single empire that ruled the world, we're talking about the Persian, the Greek, the Persian, uh the uh uh Italian, the Roman, we're talking about the Spaniard, um the uh the all the empire, the British Empire, they all declined. they all went completely uh off the hegemony and they returned to a normal uh state as a normal country.

The United States is walking on that path and because of that the first sign did not come from what Galibah said. It came from the agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey that went for two years but suddenly observed the light in the midst of this conflict. That is important because it's sending a message even if this pact of Mecca that was signed by these three countries is uniting the nuclear the the oil rich and the military power uh Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. It doesn't have yet a military structure, but it can build and constructed it on the way in the near future which I think that really angered Benjamin Netanyahu and the Americans saw that there is no way out uh of this direction.

Already there were previous signals but they were weak from uh the hanghai cooperation and the bricks because they were not act they were not activated. But now this the global south understands the need of activating it even further and the Americans were not allowed to come into the BRICS and Shangai cooperation and Iran is in the GCC countries were brought in in the last few years. So all that is giving more signals to the world that actually the the countries of West Asia and Asia and Africa are trying to reorganize themselves away from the USA Germany. What we still need to see despite the $40 trillion deficit in America that is reaching the roof and will continue going up.

Um they we see how the uh dollar is falling only when the Gulf oil rich countries will start using with the dollar other currency to sell their oil. This will be a real hit on the head to the American Germany. But for now this fact and what Galibbaf is saying is also normal because Iran is just a neighbor of all these countries. America is 12,000 kilometers away to reach New York from the GCC and the Straight of Homo.

That is the distance. So America doesn't exist geographically in these countries at the exception of the military bases they have that were destroyed by Iran and Iran and the US failed to protect went to war without asking the Gulf countries and allowed the Gulf country asset to be destroyed because they supported the Americans. But on top of that, Donald Trump brags about actually we have used as he said the airports and facilities and desert without the need of asking a permission uh from these countries. So for Donald Trump, he believed everything is permitted and all that has a price and America will pay the the price.

Luckily, because the world needs international laws to be applied and doesn't need a bully to say to Turkey, why you did not occupy Syria or now I need greenland or Canada is part of America or Venezuela go and uh kidnap the president and I loot all the oil or I am in Syria only because I want the oil and I want it for myself. This is the language of the American president. Is this America? Well, it's time to start thinking, well, actually there is an international law and the international law should be above everybody.

Yeah, great points, Elijah. And uh just your final comment before getting to the uh Turkey Israel situation. I know you've been following uh you know uh Qatar for example and I think that this uh is a is a major crisis for the United States. Qatar said that its budget has been slashed.

Its uh overall government budget has been slashed by 30% due to a major decline in its gas trade because of the war because Iran hit Rosfan very hard, its major gas hub and that is nowhere near back to full operation. Uh but but uh and then there's also Saudi oil that has diminished quite greatly. And I guess my final question to you before we get to the Turkey Israel situation is this. Uh how effect do you believe Iran is having trouble right now managing the straight of Hormuz situation?

Uh the United States is claiming that it is it has a stealth operation where it's you know has US air force escort and of course cooperation with the Gulf countries uh involved including Oman, the UAE etc. Uh do you think that Iran is having any issues with this and uh uh I guess your final comments on this before moving on to Turkey Israel? Well, uh, Qatar is rightly um upset and concerned because, uh, the LNG production capacity before 2026 was approximately 77 million tons per year and that was representing more or less 20% of the world uh, need of gas and Qatar has Asia to supply among other countries. as well.

So for Qatar to lose uh this possibility to export even if Qatar is a it's a rich country but expenses uh are due and the government and the country needs to run itself like all the others in the Gulf they can last for a certain amount of time and this is why they are rushing rushing to deal with Iran. Iran is there and saying, "Well, the first thing you need to do is to stop hosting the Americans that are attacking me from your country and they are the reason of your destruction. " However, as Iran made a deal with Oman and concluded it, no deal will be put in practice unless the war is over. And the war is over not by a ceasefire because the Iranians do not believe in a ceasefire.

They've gone through that in July 2025 when in June 2025 when Donald Trump called the Omani and the Qatari asking for their mediation to stop the war between Iran and Israel that Israel initiated attacking and killing uh the Iranian leaders and then bombing the country. That was an uh a phone ceasefire. It was not written. It was agreed verbally and did not last because the war started in February and this time with the Americans involved heavily for Iran.

There is a need of ending the war. Now Iran is very happy to make a deal with the Qatarin and Saudi and they will with the Kuwaiti with the Emiratis even if the presence of the of the Israelis and the Emiratis of is overwhelming. But the other country never stopped receiving the Israelis apart from Kuwait. So these countries will have to deal with Iran and make agreement and make a pact of uh at least nonattack or nonhostile or uh a defense attack or anything.

But nothing is going to be valid before the end of the war and before Iran sees what these countries are going to do with the uh presence of the Americans. Iran is running the straight of Hormos and told Oman that we will run the straight of Hormos according to the agreement. No ship will come in but through the Iranian line. No ship will leave through the Omani line without confirming uh the exit with Iran.

That needs to confirm the target. Iran needs to make sure that no weapons are coming into the Gulf. No weapons are delivered to the Gulf countries by sea and wants to make sure that no ship that belongs to America and Israel will cross the straight of Homos. This is final for Iran.

They're not going to negotiate it regarding Israel. It could reach an agreement with the United States, but only according to the Iranian terms. So all these agreements will be written and will be concluded in due course but they will face exactly the same uh outcome of the Omani Iranian agreement. They will have to wait until the end of the war.

And the end of the war doesn't seems near, at least not this year, not next year, and not until Donald Trump will end his mandate. Wow. Yeah. No, that's uh uh I see that very clearly after you explaining it.

Uh Elijah, now to Turkey and Israel, speaking of a war ending, beginning, is this a war that's about to begin? uh you know uh some have made note Elijah that Turkey is still very much trading with Israel despite these tensions flaring up but maybe you can talk about how these tensions have flared up uh Israel's attack on this airport in Syria and you know there are um Israeli media hyping 31 minutesup the possibility of Israel attacking Turkey preemptively uh in order to quote unquote defend itself. Uh so your thoughts on what's going on, your analysis of how this all came to be. Now this is related to what we spoke before about the pack uh um the Mecca act the Mecca pact sorry because the attack that the Israelis carried out against the airport in the north of Syria Abu Dhour that is around 70 kilometers from the Turkish borders falls into the time when Turkey Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed the deal together at the defense deal which really was a source of anger to Benjamin Netanyahu.

The timing is during his election he's preparing for the elections and hard to ask for more voters is to carry out uh wars and attacks and make deals with the GCC countries. when Saudi Arabia goes to Turkey that Benjamin Netanyahu Naftali Bennett that is also a a weak potential prime minister because he doesn't have really uh the majority there is Gadiot before him opposing Benjamin Netanyahu is also saying that the the next enemy is Turkey and it's radic what they call radical Islam or they for the Sunni radicals after the Shia radicals. These are their terms. But that is also a way for them to be reelected because the Isra the Israeli society has become made of more wararmongering or demonized other uh non-zionist and consider the rest of the world our slaves under their services.

For them, the destruction of Gaza, the attack on Lebanon, destroying the civilian home, the attack on Syria, occupying part of it, creating what they call buffer zone, and they are occupying occupying uh territory that doesn't belong to them, what they doing in the West Bank, the creating of the settlement, the reviving of the E1 in zone B, dividing Jerusalem and dividing the uh West Bank, the North from the south uh and making sure that the Palestinian state will never happen and creating thousands of new settlements in uh Palestine in the West Bank. All that an indication that Donald Trump uh closed the eye on what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing and that Netanyahu is really going toward more wars. And this 34 minutesis when he saw the Saudi Arabia that he wanted to bring in as an additional gain for what he has been collecting since the 7th of October to hide the fact that he is responsible for the failure of the security of the Israelis where all the Israeli security leaders and commanders resigned including the chief of the army, the chief of the intelligence, the Mossad, everybody. Everybody resigned at the exception of Benjamin Netanyahu who under his watch the 7th of October took place.

For that he wanted to find some compensation and this is where Turkey come in and spoils two things. First the agreement with the Saudi and Pakistan uh this is what Donald Trump this is what Benjamin Netany consider Pakistan and Turkey as his next target. And second is the dominance of Turkey over Syria. So the uh the Israelis already attacked the T4 airport in Palmira in Tadmour in Syria and that was when the Turks tried to establish themselves in that airport.

Second attack came to Abdul Zahur and that's interesting because the US special envoy, presidential envoy Tom Barak spoke about it and he said the Syrians were in contact with the Moad chief actually the Syrian foreign minister look at the level of the relationship Syria put itself in. So the foreign minister is calling the Mossad chief to justify and explain before the attack that the Turkey will not construct any defense or attack uh asset in the airport and will not bring radars that jeopardize the security of Israel. So to the point the Syrians have no will whatsoever cannot decide on their country what they can do and they have to give security for the Israelis what they can install in their airport in the back of beyond in the north of the country. And despite all that, the Americans also had their intelligence according to Tom Baraku checking if Turkey has any asset in Abu Dhour and they confirmed there are no asset.

And suddenly Benjamin Netanyahu sent two plane 7 kil 70 kilometers from the Turkish borders in the air. That is insignificant. Yeah. attacked the airport and not only that sent a warning to Turkey saying it seemed you did not understand the message.

This is what Benjamin Netanyahu told President Erdogan. He said you did not understand the message. Now, Turkey maintained during the ruling of Bashar al-Assad strong military presence and tower control in Idlib and around it under the presence of Assad, which means the Turkish army is in Syria since many years before the fall of Assad. What Turkey is going to do is we're going to shift and change and replace but will always maintain presence because Turkey like the Americans in some way when they go to a country they don't pull out.

They went to Iraq and they maintain 15 position in Kurdistan and they don't want to leave. in Syria. They will not leave, but they never stopped supplying uh um goods uh oil and make business with Israel. They did not do that during the Marmar um boat attack.

Uh we're talking about the flotilla in 2010. They did not do that during Gaza. they maintain the supply of goods to Israel and they will not stop now because the size of exchange is important and because Erdogan doesn't want to show a clear cut between Turkey and Israel because he want to prove to the Americans that actually Benjamin Netanyahu is the aggressor but Turkey is not going to let go of Syria. Syria is too important for Turkey to abandon to the Israelis and Syria is a defense line now because of Benjamin Netanyahu's intention in front of Turkey.

But not only Syria, the resistance in Lebanon for Turkey is important not to be weakened because Israel should not really be comfortable in eliminating all its enemies on the borders and then dedicate the war effort to Turkey. Yeah, I was going to ask you Elijah given all that you said whether you believe uh this is a clash now between Israel's uh greater Israel project and uh Erdogan's uh neotoman vision as well because as you said Turkey expands when it Turkey engages in war it also expands it also occupies uh how much do you see this as a clash between these two competing expans ionist visions uh es and h what what trouble does this cause the United States? It's not as if the United States doesn't have a myriad of troubles now in West Asia during this uh war with Iran and everything that's happened arguably since October 7, 2023. Well, I don't think it's going to be a clash between Turkey and Israel.

There will be um a little hit under the belt 40 minutesfrom time to time in different theaters uh but will not be a direct clash between Turkey and Israel. Turkey is a big country. It has the second largest force in NATO. It's a country that produces weapons.

Um we have seen in the war between the Israelis and the Americans against Iran that actually the air force is not everything. However, Turkey has an air force and has drones that can hit Israel very easily, has a long range missiles that can hit Israel. And Turkey is too important to Russia because it is the place where the Russians are uh having now their uh oil um terminal. Uh this is very important as a the country between the east and the west.

Turkey is divided into uh between the European Turkey and the 41 minutesMiddle Eastern Turkey. Uh therefore it it is not something that Benjamin Net can think it's easy to swallow and President Erdugan doesn't think of going and attacking Israel because it doesn't have any vision in that part of the world uh at the moment because it's too complicated to be engaged in any direct clash with the Israelis and nobody's going to win and on the contrary they will both be damaged. And what what's going to happen to Europe hitting Turkey is at the gate of Europe. Europe will not be happy to see that.

The Americans don't see Turkey and NATO country clashing with Israel, its only and strongest ally at the moment as vice president of the United States Gan said. So this is where we don't really think that this is going to happen. But hits that will happen uh regularly now that the battle is open but on a small hit not really on the KO hit and then uh the final who's going to win between both. No, it's not going to be like that.

And Turkey will use Syria to hit Israel in different ways. And we've seen some signals from the Syrian uh army or a battalion of the Syrian army or jihadist within the Syrian army that Syria kept the jihadist foreign fighters um unit in it. So all these are sending messages to Israel saying well we have different means. It doesn't mean that these are going to be effective against Israel, but will force Israel to take further measures.

Now, Israel can go and occupy everything around Damascus. Is not very far. It's 53 km from Damascus. It reach Beijing anytime it goes uh very close to uh the central command of Syria.

It can bomb Syria any time with long range missiles without the need to send the air force. So we see that this battle is not going to happen at that level between countries but truth proxies yes it can be. Now uh Elijah the one uh area we have not talked about yet is uh the one the front of Yemen uh Ansarala and Saudi Arabia and I guess I wanted you to factor it in given everything that we've talking about spoken about with the region uh how is the region set to continue to change uh given that it seems like in this conversation we've talked about several fronts. It seems like war is going to be a big theme uh in the region and I I'm curious on how you see that changing things in uh the immediate uh and long-term future.

Uh and your comments on what's happening between Yemen and Saudi Arabia right now as uh there are a lot of reports that Saudi Arabia's oil flows have uh reduced quite significantly over this conflict.

Yemen is very interesting because as Iran, Yemen has decided to end the era of sanctions. Yemen has been suffering from 11 to 12 years of sanctions from Saudi Arabia, and what the Saudi call the Saudi coalition. we have seen how Donald Trump tried for a month to bomb Yemen, and just decided to leave because he reached no target, or no objective whatsoever.

And the Yemeni have suffered six to seven years of war with the Saudis and the Emiratis. And now they said enough, we need the sanctions to be lifted. And as Iran is in control of the straight of Homuz, Yemen is in control of Bab el-Mandeb. Not only Bab el-Mandeb, but also its missiles can reach the Mediterranean, and of course the Red Sea.

What Yemen is doing is this stopped all the flow of oil from Saudi Arabia through Bab el-Mandeb and to Asia. That's significant, because it means all the super tankers that can carry 2 million barrel of oil cannot cross the Suez canal, cannot reach the Mediterranean. They need to transport the cargo to pipelines in Egypt, and then this pipeline has a limited capability of 750,000 barrels, and not more. And then they need to send small ships, which increases the price, the insurance. Also they need to add four to five weeks to go around Africa from the Suez canal, through the military, and going down to deliver to Asia. All that is putting a lot of pressure on the Saudis. Plus the Yemeni attack on Jizan, the Saudi Aramco oil company, and sending information to the Saudis that even if you put all your pipeline under the ground, all your pump are still and will always remain above the ground and they are vulnerable to our drones.

The best way is to stop uh the sanctions, lift them and to sit with the Yemen. That's an option. Yemen has not used all his cards as Yemen used the card with Palestine and with Gaza in support of the population imposing on the Israeli ships not to use the Red Sea and Babel Mandib. uh and they have succeeded throughout the conflict uh and the starvation that Israel inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza.

Now Yemen is ready to put the Babel Mandib at the service of Hezbollah in Lebanon. You see the Axis of the resistance did not function until June 2025 when the Axis of the resistant did not have a central command and control and did not organize uh the uh battle all together as a one block. Now after the June 2025 the reviving of the ax of the resistance is starting to take place. Slowly but surely, we have seen Iran learning a lesson.

The Iraqis have learned some of the lessons and the Yemen have decided to move differently and to look for which part of the access of the resistance has some leverage to put at the service of the others. The Iranians said the end of the war all all over the Middle East, including Yemen, but including Lebanon and Gaza. And the Yemeni are saying that lift the sanctions and now they are they told Hezbollah that they will not lift the sanctions and not not lift the blockade on the Saudi without the end of the war also in Lebanon. So they're coming together and this is why the paragraph five the paragraph five of the uh memorandum of the 17th of June sign between Iran and the uh Americans is of the interest of Donald Trump.

The Iranians are interested in paragraph one the end of the war on all front. the end of the war in the Middle East and the end of the war means that all these fronts today are united and the war needs to be ended and all his sanctions lifted. This is why I said which American president is going to accept to lift all these sanctions and offer to his people or to his party even if Donald Trump doesn't care really about the Republican and hated Democrat and say well the result of my war is to surrender to the axis of the resistance led by Iran and to Yemen and really protect Hezbollah and all this axis because I failed. And lastly, Elijah, given that there is a significant amount of resistance right now in the region, I'm wondering your thoughts on uh Palestine, the Palestinian resistance in particular.

Uh uh there's not only of course ongoing Israeli terror in Gaza, but now more reports about uh Israel's behavior in the West Bank, expanding settlements and 50 minutesmaybe on the cusp of a another inifada of sorts waiting in the wings as Israel's aggression there uh heats up. So your thoughts on whether Palestinian resistance in particular will uh also rise out of all of this uh you know activity in particular war crimes. The problem in Palestine is Mahmud Abbas the Palestinian longlasting president since 2005 and no elections in Palestine to change the president. He thinks that diplomacy is the way.

Oslo 1 and 2, 1992, 1993 and 1995 failed to uh give the Palestinian a state. The Americans and the Europeans and the Gulf countries, the GCC countries also failed to achieve 51 minutesa Palestinian state that is the mother of all causes uh today in the world but not only in the Middle East because most people around the world understand uh the atrocities of genocide and the crimes committed uh against the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank. for that the resistance was the only choice for a population when the state if the Palestinian state called themsself as such which it does is failing to protect the population. Hamas came to power after the elections in 2006 and 2007 elections that the West deeply wanted and pushed for.

And when Hamas won the West boycott Hamas and put the put the organization on the list of terrorists. So it shows that everything and everybody around the world drove the Palestinians toward the resistance against the occupier which is a legitimate cause according to the United Nations because the whole world recognize Gaza and the West Bank as occupied territories. This is how they are called. And the occupier has obligations toward the territory that is occupying and the country and the people he is occupying.

Now we have seen in this far rightwing government with all the extremists starting not from Bengar but from Benjamin Netanyao. The liquid party is one of the most extremist parties in Israel. camouflage under uh the acts of Bengir and Smortis that are approved by the Israeli prime minister. Bingvia is creating settlement in the West Bank at the speed of 40 per year since he is in power.

And that means all the territory that belongs to the Palestinians is confiscated and is taken away and it is not taken away in a normal way. On the contrary, it's very programmed, very thoughtful. They dividing and cutting Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and Gaza from the West Bank and Jerusalem and they cutting now the West Bank itself in the middle to make sure that the Palestinian state will be as an epipo factor will never observe light. And the way they are doing it is they're bringing more people, more settlers, and giving them the protection of the Israeli army, the most immoral army in the world, to go and kill the Palestinians civilians in their home.

They burn their houses. Sometimes when they are in, they kill their animals. They take uh their olive trees that are there be before the creation of Israel 1948 older than the Israelis in that land because the land was the land of Philistine. It was Palestine.

It was not Israel. And this is what they are doing. So they are pushing the Palestinians. " This is what he said because he was part of the administration and the apparatus to kill the Palestinians and make sure that this apparatide regime is really forcing the Palestinian to stand against the occupier so the occupier can shoot them and have the reason to kill them.

So the Palestinians are people who choose to offer sacrifices. Some people condemn the resistance that they have done. But these people are willing, who are we to say what they have done is right or wrong. They are the one who offered sacrifices.

They are the one who choose to die. They are the one who are offering their children, their wives, themselves and their parents to to fight and die or sometimes not to fight just to stand against the occupier. They are the one who offer their blood and their belonging and they live in camps. Gaza is full of camps.

Before the war it was full of camp. The Shujah is a camp. Everything in the north is a camp. So this is the story of the Palestinians since 1918 when the Hagana and the first Zionist landed in Palestine.

And since then the Palestinian are um always uh killed and prosecuted. Uh they are in jail and today they have also the uh death penalty against the Palestinians because they refused to submit and they refused to surrender. Mahm Abbas accepted with Al Fat. What is the consequences?

Well, he doesn't have any more territory to lead Ramlah. this is his base. That's very really poor to lead a country and saying this is the state of Palestine over a very small piece of land. That is not Palestine.

So the Israelis are unaccountable and they enjoy the support of the Americans and the Europeans and this is why they don't care what to do. They became like Trump. Trump would want to grab anything without giving any importance of the international law. Well, Benjamin Nao is doing exactly the same as long as he's protected by the Americans.

And what the Americans do? They sanctioned the president of the court of the ICC because as Donald Trump told us, Marco Rubio, his secretary of state is protecting Benjamin Netanyahu who is a fugitive of the ICC and was accused of war crime. And because of that, the Americans go and sanctions the international body, the highest body with no power to implement if the countries that have signed the agreement with the ICC don't want to. He sanction them and make sure they can't have a bank account or to book a hotel or to go on a trip anywhere in the world.

That's the word we are living in is a word of bullied unjustice and this is what the Israelis are amply benefiting from that. Well, uh Elijah, this has been a great show. com is in the video description where people can find your work and support your independent media and journalism. Uh everybody thank Elijah too by hitting the like button before you go.

m. Eastern with Professor Muhammad Morandi for another update August 23rd. All the places support this show are in the video description below as well. Patreon, Subseycle, and much more.

Elijah, do you have any final comments before we head out of here? It was a pleasure. Well, thank you for inviting me. It was really a good discussion.

I really enjoyed it. I really appreciate that. We'll have to have you back on very soon. Thank you to all the moderators and all the viewers today.

Hit the like button before you go and I'll see you tomorrow, 1 PM Eastern. See you then. Bye-bye.

Pentagon fires Stars and Stripes managers, reporter for exposing Abraham Lincoln scandal
Saturday, 22 August 2026 10:31 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 1:02 PM ]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... ordination

Pentagon fired the editor-in-chief, publisher, and a top reporter of the Stars and Stripes newspaper on Friday over “insubordination.”

Erik Slavin, editor-in-chief of the military newspaper that is partly funded by the Pentagon, told The Associated Press he was dismissed for insubordination after an interview he gave that objected to censorship by the US military on conditions facing US soldiers aboard USS Abraham Lincoln.

He received a notice of separation, as did publisher Max Lederer — who had just announced his upcoming retirement — and West Asia reporter Lara Korte, Slavin said.

Slavin said he was being fired “for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line.” Korte participated in the same interview.

“I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies,” Slavin said.

Korte said on X: “Today, I was informed that the Department of Defense is firing me for insubordination after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes — not the Pentagon, not the administration, and not any policymaker.”

Earlier this week, longtime publisher Lederer announced his retirement effective at the end of September.

He made his announcement a few weeks after the Pentagon installed a new deputy publisher, an active-duty service member, under him at the newspaper without his prior knowledge.

Three Democratic senators on Thursday wrote to War Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking why the new deputy — Navy Capt. William Urban — had been installed.

The retirement of Lederer, who had been at Stars and Stripes for three decades and publisher since 2007, comes as Hegseth’s Pentagon has moved to exert editorial control and eliminate what it claims are “woke distractions.”

https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... or-Gallego

USS Lincoln fiasco shows Trump administration's 'true lack of leadership': Senator
Senator Ruben Gallego says the dire conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln demonstrate a "true lack of leadership" in the Trump administration.

Lederer, the second full-time civilian in the position, wrote in a staff memo this week that it had “become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.”

In April, the Pentagon fired Jacqueline Smith, ombudsman for the newspaper, whose job had been to safeguard editorial independence.

The moves come at a time when the Trump administration, in its second term, has been progressively combative toward the media — including sharply curtailing Pentagon access for the press corps that covers the department.

US President Donald Trump or other parts of the executive branch have also, in policy and in the courts, grappled with The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and The New York Times — in addition to using the FCC to target broadcast networks.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, Wi-Fi, satellite, and cable across the United States.

National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. called the firing of Slavin “another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military” and said it should be immediately reversed.

“Firing a newspaper editor after he publicly defended his newsroom’s editorial independence is deeply troubling, and it should concern every journalist and every member of the US military who depends on independent reporting,” Schoeff said.

Iranian lives matter: Top rights official slams double standards in global response to terrorism
Saturday, 22 August 2026 9:18 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 9:18 AM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... -terrorism

The deputy chief of Iran’s Judiciary and secretary of the High Council for Human Rights has condemned double standards in the international community’s response to terrorism, saying the lives and rights of Iranian victims must be treated with the same importance as those of victims elsewhere in the world.

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating victims of terrorism on Saturday, Nasser Seraj said thousands of Iranian citizens — including children, women, men and the elderly, as well as ordinary people, officials, scientists, military and law enforcement personnel, clerics, workers and students — have been killed in terrorist operations.

Seraj said Iran has been a victim of terrorism for decades and has paid a heavy price as a result of numerous attacks.

“If a terrorist attack occurs in a European country, it immediately becomes a global issue. But when the victim is Iranian, reactions are sometimes very limited,” he said, adding that this is the double standard that must be addressed openly.

He stressed that human rights must be applied universally if they are genuinely universal, noting that the value of human life should not depend on a person’s nationality.

“An Iranian child, a Palestinian child, a European child, an African child and an Asian child are all children. An Iranian mother who loses her child experiences the same suffering as a mother anywhere else in the world,” he added.

Addressing the issue of state terrorism and the responsibility of governments, Seraj said the international fight against terrorism should not focus solely on non-state groups.

“The fight against terrorism must not be directed only at non-state groups. The international community must take a unified position against any organized use of violence against civilians, regardless of the identity of those responsible,” he noted.

He added that military power, political alliances or claims of fighting terrorism cannot justify attacks on civilians or violations of human rights.

Seraj also referred to civilian casualties in recent wars on Iran, saying ordinary people, families, children, women and elderly people had been exposed to insecurity and attacks during the 12-day war, the subsequent 40-day US-Israeli aggression and the Hormuz war.

He said the issue was not merely the number of casualties but also the need to uphold fundamental principles of international humanitarian law during armed conflicts.

“The principles of proportionality and taking necessary precautions to protect civilians are not principles that can simply be set aside under any circumstances.”

https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... n-children

Rights official slams UNICEF’s inaction on US-Israeli war crimes against Iranian children
The deputy chief of Iran’s Judiciary and secretary of the High Council for Human Rights criticizes the UN

Referring to the killing of children at Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, southern Iran, in a US-Israeli attack, he said schools should be places of education and hope rather than sites of violence against children.

“Regardless of the political or military disputes involved, when a child becomes a victim of violence at school, humanity faces a tragedy. No political ideal, geopolitical dispute or military objective should undermine the dignity and safety of children.”

On February 28, the first day of the criminal US-Israeli aggression against Iran, Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab was deliberately targeted in an attack, killing 73 boys, 47 girls, 26 teachers, 7 parents, a school bus driver, and a pharmacy technician at the clinic next to the school.

Seraj called on the international community to investigate such incidents, establish the facts and, where violations of international humanitarian law are established, pursue accountability for those responsible.

“We expect the international community to apply a single standard in combating terrorism. There should be no distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ terrorism, or between Eastern and Western terrorism. State and non-state terrorism cannot be defined according to political interests.”

He warned that accepting double standards would undermine justice.

“Terrorism is condemned wherever it occurs and whoever commits it. Human lives are not subject to political bargaining, victims’ rights must not be discriminated against, and no power should consider itself beyond responsibility for human lives,” he stated.

Canada vows ‘dollar-for-dollar’ tariff retaliation as Ottawa-Washington trade war escalates
Saturday, 22 August 2026 8:16 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 8:16 AM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... -escalates

Canada has suspended trade negotiations with the US after Washington imposed 50 percent tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods.

Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged on Friday that Canada would match the new tariffs “dollar for dollar” after negotiators failed to finalize a trade agreement before US President Donald Trump’s deadline.

The tariffs took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time after Trump extended his original Wednesday deadline by three days to give the two sides more time to reach an agreement.

Trump had insisted that “we have a deal” with Canada, but Canadian officials maintained that major details and legal language remained unresolved before the negotiations collapsed.

Carney described last-minute changes to Washington’s position as “unfair” and “uneconomic,” warning that they raised serious questions about the reliability of any future agreement.

Canada had sought broad US market access, lower tariffs on key sectors and protections for Canadian businesses, the prime minister explained, but Washington’s latest demands failed to meet Ottawa’s objectives.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer blamed Canada for the collapse, arguing that Ottawa rejected terms Washington had offered and introduced new demands after earlier commitments.

The US had offered preferential treatment and additional tariff relief, Greer maintained, calling Canada’s refusal to finalize the deal a “missed opportunity.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford backed Ottawa’s response, calling for “tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar” and insisting that “everything needs to be on the table” to protect Canadian sovereignty and economic security.

https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... data-shows

Canadian travel to US falls 25% amid Trump tariffs, '51st state' remarks
Canadian travel to the United States fell by 25% in 2025, according to Statistics Canada, as Donald Trump

British Columbia Premier David Eby also supported a firm response, warning that Canadian “politeness should never be mistaken for weakness” and vowing that Canadians would “keep fighting for as long as it takes.”

“No one benefits from a trade war,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith cautioned, arguing that tariffs and counter-tariffs would damage businesses, workers and families on both sides of the border.

Canadian Chamber of Commerce President Candace Laing described the new duties as a “body blow to North American competitiveness,” warning that they would raise costs while forcing businesses to reconsider orders, payrolls and investment.

The US says nearly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports will be subject to the new tariffs, which Washington says will offset Canada’s retaliatory measures.

The escalation also threatens efforts to renegotiate the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, leaving the future of the North American free-trade framework under renewed uncertainty.

Iran’s military and strategic options to thwart – and break – the illegal US naval blockade
By Yousef Ramazani
Saturday, 22 August 2026 10:35 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 10:35 AM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... l-blockade

As the United States maintains its naval blockade of Iranian ports, now entering its second phase following the collapse of the June ceasefire, Tehran possesses a broad array of military capabilities and alternative trade routes that could make the blockade hard to sustain, forcing Washington to choose between escalation, prolonged confrontation, or retreat.

The US naval blockade of Iran, first imposed on April 13, 2026, and intensified from July 14 following the unraveling of a temporary ceasefire due to US military aggression and maritime banditry and piracy, is aimed at choking off Iran’s maritime trade.

The blockade’s two phases have shaped Iran’s response. The first phase, from April to June, was characterized primarily by Iranian efforts to preserve economic resilience through existing trade and supply channels. The second phase, beginning in July, has been marked by a more assertive Iranian posture, culminating in a warning that it could take decisive action to break the blockade.

The geography of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz favors the defender against the aggressor. Iran has spent decades developing a sophisticated, layered sea-denial strategy designed to make any sustained foreign naval presence in these strategically vital waters increasingly costly and difficult to maintain.

Yet the challenge to the blockade extends beyond the military domain. Iran has also developed alternative overland and maritime trade routes that can bypass the blockade, creating a parallel economic infrastructure capable of sustaining the country through a prolonged confrontation.

Now, as the US launches a new campaign to economically isolate Iran, Tehran has multiple options not only to neutralize the pressure campaign, but to emerge stronger.

Two phases of the US naval blockade

The US naval blockade of Iran was initiated on April 13, 2026, at the direction of President Donald Trump and under CENTCOM command, with the stated objective of encompassing Iran’s entire coastline. Washington warned that any vessel entering or departing the designated blockade zone without authorization would be subject to interception, diversion, and capture.

Within the first 24 hours, six commercial vessels reportedly complied with US orders and were redirected toward Iranian ports, while no vessels attempted to challenge the blockade.

By April 18, CENTCOM reported that 23 vessels had been intercepted, although Iranian vessels continued to successfully evade the blockade.

On July 7, 2026, Trump declared the interim deal terminated, and hostilities resumed, with Iran subsequently firing on vessels that attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorized route, as it had previously and repeatedly warned.

This marked the beginning of the blockade’s second phase, defined by heightened tensions and the collapse of Pakistan-mediated diplomatic efforts to extend the ceasefire.

By August 2026, Iran had warned that, should diplomacy fail, it was prepared to adopt a fully offensive military posture aimed at breaking the blockade.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon had begun reassessing the US military presence in the Persian Gulf, acknowledging the vulnerability of fixed installations and the damage sustained by numerous American facilities during the war against Iran.

Iran's escalation options

Iran’s geographic position, particularly its firm and legitimate control of the northern coastline of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, provides a natural defensive advantage that underpins a sophisticated, layered sea-denial strategy.

At its narrowest, the Strait of Hormuz is approximately 33 kilometers wide, placing vessels transiting the waterway within range of Iran’s shore-based missile systems, radars, and observation posts.

This geography fundamentally alters the nature of the naval contest. Iran does not necessarily need to defeat the US Navy outright; it only needs to make the maritime environment sufficiently hazardous to undermine Washington’s ability to guarantee safe passage and, over time, erode the sustainability of the blockade.

Iran possesses one of the region’s largest and most diverse inventories of anti-ship missiles. The Noor, Ghader, Ghadir, and Nasr families of coastal anti-ship cruise missiles provide a layered threat that any naval commander operating in the area must take seriously.

These weapons do not necessarily have to sink a vessel to serve their strategic purpose. Even an unsuccessful attack can force the enemy to expend costly interceptors, creating a cost-imposition dynamic in which a multimillion-dollar interceptor may be used to defeat a significantly cheaper attacking drone or missile.

Repeated engagements can therefore produce an unfavorable economic exchange for the US war machine, even when most incoming weapons are successfully intercepted.

Beyond subsonic cruise missiles, Iran has also publicly demonstrated anti-ship ballistic missile capabilities, including the Khalij Fars, Hormuz-1, and Hormuz-2, derived from the Fateh-110 family. With ranges of up to approximately 300 kilometers and terminal guidance capabilities, these weapons present a fundamentally different interception challenge.

Their faster trajectories can compress the detection, tracking, identification, and engagement timelines of the US military, complicating US naval planning and increasing the demands placed on defensive systems.

Iran also possesses a large inventory of naval mines, with estimates ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 mines of various types.

Naval mines are relatively inexpensive, difficult to detect and clear, and capable of imposing costs vastly disproportionate to their price. Ensuring safe navigation would require extensive mine-countermeasure operations, typically slow, resource-intensive, and operationally demanding. The US Navy has itself acknowledged significant challenges and limitations in its mine-countermeasure capabilities.

This means mining could create a particularly difficult operational challenge, because the United States would have to conduct mine-clearance operations while simultaneously defending against missiles, drones, submarines, and other threats.

Mines could become one of the most consequential operational variables in a post-blockade environment. Even if a ceasefire were to hold, uncleared mines could remain a persistent threat to commercial shipping and continue to complicate efforts to restore normal maritime traffic.

Iran’s submarine force, while modest compared with that of the United States, provides another layer of sea-denial capability.

Its Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, along with smaller submarines and midget-submarine systems, can operate covertly beneath the surface, forcing an opposing navy to devote substantial surveillance and anti-submarine resources to locating relatively small numbers of potentially dangerous platforms.

The emergence of relatively inexpensive unmanned surface vessels could further enhance swarm tactics, allowing Iran to impose additional risks without necessarily placing personnel directly in harm’s way.

The combination of shore-based missiles, UAV reconnaissance, unmanned surface vessels, fast attack craft, submarines, and mines creates a highly complex maritime environment in which US commanders cannot concentrate exclusively on any single threat.

Iran has also invested heavily in a distributed maritime surveillance network incorporating maritime patrol aircraft, UAVs, coastal radars, electronic intelligence, satellites, signals intelligence, and naval reconnaissance.

The effectiveness and survivability of this broader kill chain could ultimately matter more than the nominal number of missiles Iran possesses. Tehran could also seek to disrupt the information architecture supporting the blockade through electronic warfare targeting communications, navigation, radar, and other sensing systems, making it more difficult for blockade forces to identify and interpret activity in a crowded maritime environment.

The objective would not necessarily be to destroy the blockade force outright, but to increase uncertainty, forcing it to operate more cautiously and reducing its effectiveness.

Iran’s ability to escalate progressively – selective interdiction to missile attacks, mining, and broader regional pressure – could give Tehran multiple options for increasing costs without immediately triggering a full-scale conflict that neither side could easily contain.

Layered strategy: Making the blockade unsustainable

The most plausible Iranian military objective would not be to destroy the US Navy’s regional infrastructure in its entirely, but rather to make the blockade operationally dangerous, economically costly, and ultimately politically unsustainable.

Iran could pursue this through a layered sea-denial strategy that combines multiple forms of maritime pressure faster than US forces can neutralize them, creating a complex operating environment that steadily increases the costs and risks for the blockading force.

Each layer can reinforce the others: a minefield becomes significantly more challenging when mine-clearance vessels must simultaneously defend against missile attacks; missiles become more difficult to counter if electronic warfare degrades sensors and communications; and small attack craft become more dangerous when the hostile forces must also monitor drones and other aerial threats.

The broader strategy becomes even more consequential if commercial shipping companies conclude that the waterway is simply too dangerous to use. A sustained decline in commercial traffic could generate economic pressure that ultimately extends beyond the battlefield and onto the United States and its allies, as we are already witnessing.

The geographic and military contest is essentially defined by whether Iran can make the Strait of Hormuz too dangerous and expensive to enforce, while the United States attempts to keep enough of the maritime system functioning while neutralizing Iran's ability to impose unacceptable risk.

Alternative trade routes: the land bridge to Eurasia

Beyond its military options, Iran has developed a network of alternative trade routes that bypass the US naval blockade entirely, creating a parallel economic infrastructure that can sustain the country through a prolonged confrontation.

These routes, developed in cooperation with Russia, China, and other Eurasian partners, represent a pivot away from maritime chokepoints toward overland corridors that are immune to naval interdiction.

The International North-South Transport Corridor has emerged as the most significant of these alternative routes. The 7,200-kilometer corridor is designed to cut trade costs by 30% and reduce shipping time from 37 days to 19, almost half that of the Suez Canal route.

The Rasht-Astara railway line, described as the missing link in the corridor, is being constructed under a 20-year Russia-Iran partnership and is expected to revolutionize trade and help both countries circumvent Western sanctions.

Once complete, the corridor will handle up to 20 million tons of cargo annually through routes completely untouched by US naval power.

Unlike maritime chokepoints such as the Suez Canal or the Strait of Hormuz, this land bridge cannot be blockaded by American fleets or frozen by European banks.

Russia and Iran have also expanded their Caspian shipping network, transforming it into what officials describe as a sanctions corridor.

Roughly two million tons of Russian wheat are now flowing to Iran through the Caspian alone, underscoring the route's importance for both essential supplies and military logistics.

This entire supply line bypasses the Strait of Hormuz and the US-led naval cordon, moving instead through waters where American forces have no authority to interdict.

Russian trade figures reveal a sharp spike in cargo volumes along these routes, suggesting not a temporary workaround but a deliberate pivot toward the inland sea.

A 10,400-kilometer overland bridge from China to Tehran has also become central to this pivot. Starting from western China crossing the Khorgos Gateway, the train line enters Kazakhstan, moves through Tashkent, travels south through Samarkand and Bukhara, and finally completes its journey at Iran's spiritual capital of Mashhad.

Supported by Pakistan's transit order via the Karachi-Taftan and Gwadar-Gabd corridors, this route channels crude and petrochemicals toward Central Asia and China.

By denominating shipments in yuan, China has embedded this corridor within its broader Belt and Road routes and ensured an uninterrupted flow of hydrocarbons and strategic goods.

Strategic contest: Test of endurance

The fundamental contest between Iran and the United States over the naval blockade is ultimately a contest of will, where the side with the greater motivation and tolerance for cost will prevail.

For Iran, it is a matter of national survival and sovereignty; for the United States, it is a strategic choice.

Iran's ability to escalate progressively, combined with its alternative trade routes, gives it options to respond to American hostile actions effectively and decisively.

The opening of the Strait of Hormuz depends more on US compliance to its commitments under the recently signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) than on a military aggression, and Iran has plausibly concluded that its control over the strait, combined with its alternative trade routes, provides sufficient leverage to bring the United States to the negotiating table on favorable terms.

The United States cannot change the geography of the Persian Gulf, and it cannot eliminate Iran's ability to create insecurity and instability in this waterway.