In this episode of the Silk and Steel podcast, host Carl Zha welcomes back Dr. Warwick Powell – expert on international geopolitics and China – to break down the current global crisis.

🔍 What you'll learn:

• Why Trump "tacoed" on Iran – and why he can't declare victory

• The $100 billion war cost – and what the US is cutting instead (education, school lunches)

• AUKUS submarines: Australia paying billions for SECOND-HAND US subs (no warranty)

• The "constrained optimality" Orwellian bureaucratese – and the citizen's commission fighting back

• Shangri-La Dialogue: Why Hegseth didn't mention Taiwan (and why that terrifies Taipei)

• Japan & Philippines drawing ocean boundaries – through Taiwan's EEZ

• Why the US forward base network is now unviable (Iran proved it)

• China's oil reserves: 1.4 billion barrels (larger than US, Japan & Europe combined)

• The "oil reserves filled with water" meme – anti-China copium explained

• Coal-to-liquid, Russian oil, and why China is fine – while Japan is buying naphtha from China

• Dirty wars ahead: US shifting from conventional to unconventional warfare

🎙️ Key quotes:

"China has barely touched its known reserves. The dissidents just hate that China got well prepared."

"The US is now a combination of extraction and perfidy."

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