🇮🇷🇨🇳 Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi has arrived in China. Today, he is negotiating with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China and Iran have signed a strategic partnership agreement for 25 years, trade is constantly growing, China buys a significant part of Iranian oil, and military-technical cooperation is increasing.

Like Russia, China is interested in a stable Iran, which is an important pillar of the One Belt, One Road geostrategic initiative.

TIL that J.R.R. Tolkien was influenced by the following lines from the Old English Advent poem Christ I, c.800 (lines 104-5) which inspired his portrayal the character Eärendil in his legendarium and is one of many examples of the Old English word middangeard which partly inspired Tolkien's fantasy world:

Eálá Earendel engla beorhtast
Ofer middangeard monnum sended.

Hail Earendel brightest of angels,
over Middle Earth sent to men.

Tolkien wrote "There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words, if I could grasp it, far beyond ancient English."

🇷🇺🇺🇦 This is how the calibration of Ukraine from the Black Sea looks like.

In darkest earth the great light glows

🇺🇦 From now on, 17-year—old boys are not allowed abroad in Ukraine - border guards calculate how many months teenagers have left until adulthood

There are fewer and fewer men who are able to hold weapons in Ukraine, and the criminal Kiev regime seems to be ready to take the boys into the meat grinder ahead of time.

🇷🇺⚡11 ships sailed in the Black Sea, including 5 Kalibr launch vehicles. A massive launch on the enemy is expected.

More footage from yesterday's 'Media Is The Virus' protest, which took place in 60 locations (in 10 countries) yesterday. This one was outside the BBC building in Cardiff, Wales.

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"The self-made man"

Credit: @EscultorVictorHugoYanezPina (http://facebook.com/EscultorVictorHugoYanezPina/)
website - http://www.escultores.com.mx

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An incredible metal structure is made by pouring molten aluminum into a fire ant colony. The resulting cast is huge, weighing 17.9 lbs. and reaching a depth of 18 inches.

[📹 Anthill Art, read more:
https://t.co/JT1neeGSrf]


👤 Massimo

A high-school teacher gets more than he bargained for in this retelling of the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Will he be found guilty of teaching the biology of sex and denying a student's gender?

In today's episode, Senator Castillo argues Judge Connor should uphold the indictment.

https://wiseofheart.substack.com

Lest we forget. 😂

The Biden admin let the Chinese Spy Balloon fly over the entire US and complete it's mission before shooting it down but they were very quick to shoot down the balloon from the "Illinois-based club of amateur balloonists" over US airspace in Alaska...

https://twitter.com/dschlopesisback/status/1626827147905040385?s=46&t=M_78vyZA_Oj6Wc2jXwkT2g

@Dschlopes

“Words matter,” begins the discreet notice, which sits at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books. “The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvellous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

"Put simply: these may not be the words Dahl wrote. The publishers have given themselves licence to edit the writer as they see fit, chopping, altering and adding where necessary to bring his books in line with contemporary sensibilities. By comparing the latest editions with earlier versions of the texts, The Telegraph has found hundreds of changes to Dahl’s stories."

https://archive.is/xl99s

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 🇺🇦 Elbridge Colby:
This speech from Josh Hawley on the threat from China to Taiwan and our interests at Heritage is the kind of bracing, clear-eyed realism we need - and the American people deserve. Kevin Roberts TX.

Some key excerpts. 

⬛️ "Lawmakers and experts have claimed an invasion of Taiwan simply won’t happen—or if it does, that we can prevail...They prefer to tell a familiar and comforting story...They want us to believe that our military might is infinite, that American power faces no real constraints."

 ⬛️ "They want us to believe we can fight an endless proxy war in Ukraine. And somehow, this won’t impact our ability to deter China from invading Taiwan...This story is told both by neoconservatives on the right, and liberal globalists on the left." 

⬛️ "But today, I want to tell you something else. I want to tell the truth. And the truth is that...our current foreign policy isn’t working." 

⬛️ "None of that is enough. Because we’re simply overcommitted, caught in the grip of an ideology of liberal empire...We have a lot of military power on our side. But it isn’t deployed where it should be, and the world is about to face the consequences." 

⬛️ "So let me share another truth: As things stand right now, if China invades Taiwan in the next few years, they will likely prevail.

I will say it again.

We stand at an inflection point today. And it is time for a real change." 

⬛️ Comment: I honestly don't know whether China would win or not in the coming years. I don't have the information and analysis available to me to be confident on that judgment.

But it's *definitely possible.* 

⬛️ "In the real world we have limited military resources. The CCP sees that if we're tied up in Ukraine, we can’t use [our resources] on a Taiwan invasion. Napoleon said, If you want to take Vienna take Vienna. China wants control of the Indo-Pacific and we must stop them there." 

⬛️ "That’s not the core problem, though. The core problem is that our actions in Ukraine are directly affecting our ability to project force elsewhere. Specifically, to deter China in the Pacific." 

⬛️ "For starters, the more U.S. resources we devote to Europe, the fewer we have available in the Pacific. For some things, like heavy armor units, that may not matter much. But it matters a lot for the capabilities we need to deter China from invading Taiwan." 

⬛️ "Both Ukraine and Taiwan require many of the same weapons, including things like Javelin and Stinger missiles. And our industrial base is strapped for capacity. That’s because we need to draw on many of the same suppliers for the defense of both Ukraine and Taiwan." 

⬛️ "We’re doing our best to increase production, but that will take years. All of this means that when we pour our military power into Ukraine, that decision comes at a cost." 

⬛️ "As a result, we cannot meet Ukrainian, Taiwanese, and our own military requirements all at the same time, for the foreseeable future.

In other words, we can’t do everything." 

⬛️ "China is now positioned to strike with overwhelming force and seize Taiwan...So what happens, if we wake up tomorrow and an invasion has begun? What can America do about it?

Once again, let’s assess our strategic position—this time in the Pacific." 

⬛️ "Well, we’ve got plenty of aircraft. But they’re concentrated at a small number of air bases, which makes them easy targets. And China has invested in weapons and sensors that we haven’t fielded, undercutting our air power advantage." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrxAXbWBwS0

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 🇺🇦 Senator Josh Hawley “China and Ukraine: A Time for Truth.” PT2:

⬛️ "We have carrier strike groups. But it’s not clear how they’ll help us defeat a Chinese invasion. China has built up defenses designed to neutralize them early in a fight, or keep them so far away they won’t be useful." 

⬛️ "We do have an undersea advantage. But we’ve only got so many submarines, we’ve only got so many torpedoes and other weapons to fire from them, and we’ve only got so many places to reload or refit them. Those are hard limits." 

⬛️ "We’re also at risk in Guam. Guam isn’t well defended against China’s missiles. And I haven’t even mentioned China’s nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, our own military space architecture is dangerously vulnerable, and our logistics forces are already overstretched." 

⬛️ "So let’s suppose the worst happens. Suppose China invades and seizes Taiwan. We try to stop it, but our forces are defeated and the island is lost.

What would that mean?" 

⬛️ "Americans will confront a terrifying reality. The price hikes ve seen in recent years will pale in comparison. Product shortages will be commonplace—shortages of everything from basic medicine to consumer electronics. But the economic consequences are just the start." 

⬛️ "As Asia’s new reigning power, China could restrict U.S. trade in the region—perhaps block it altogether. Maybe we’ll be allowed in, but only on terms favorable to China.

China exploited the trade system once before. They can do it again." 

⬛️ "Imagine a world where Chinese warships patrol Hawaiian waters and the West Coast. A world where the PLA has military bases in Latin America. A world where Chinese forces operate freely in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a dark future. And an increasingly plausible one." 

⬛️ "There may still be time to chart a different course—if our leaders have the resolve to do so. Deterring China from seizing Taiwan should be America’s top priority. That means our defense spending should be concentrated on deterrence in the Pacific." 

⬛️ "No more “divest to invest” in the Indo-Pacific. No more unfunded priorities from INDOPACOM. We should be stockpiling weapons, dispersing our forces, and accelerating late-stage development of space, cyber, and other critical capabilities, like the B-21 strategic bomber." 

⬛️ "None of this is news, but we’re years behind schedule." 

https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-delivers-national-security-speech-china-and-ukraine-time-truth

Insightful: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/all-seeing-eye-can-russia-break-through