Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Island in Between in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the ninety-sixth Academy Awards. Although it didn’t end up taking home the Oscar, the documentary drew attention to the little-known Kinmen Island and its precarious position as an inflection point in the relationship between Taiwan, mainland China, and the continuing involvement of the United States. Taiwanese American director S. Leo Chiang narrates scenes of the tranquil lives of locals on the island juxtaposed against the dreaded possibility of war that looms larger there than in the rest of Taiwan as the shores of the mainland lay in visible distance.In the film, a massive concrete loudspeaker pointed across Xiamen Bay wafts the voice of classic

As geopolitical tensions rise, the Chinese political leadership tells the US government to desist pushing its "color revolutions."

Original Article: "China Calls Out the USA for Instigating the Infamous Color Revolutions"

Despite America’s attention abroad being largely Russia-focused recently, the bigger fish to fry in Washington’s eyes is China. Even as the US pours aid package after aid package into the Ukraine conflict with one hand, it still manages to raise its other hand to wag a finger across the Pacific Ocean at its rival superpower. But like every other country in the world, China has been watching America’s cavalier foreign policy and interventionism in the past decades. Now China is wagging a finger back.
Sounding the Alarm
China recently concluded hosting a two-day China–Central Asia summit in the historic city of Xian where the ancient Silk Road connected imperial China to the cultures to its west. Addressing the leaders of the Central Asian countries, Chinese president Xi Jinping made

Sen. Lindsey Graham recently called for US military intervention in Mexico to fight the drug cartels. Someone needs to remind him that Mexico is a sovereign country.

Original Article: "Invading Mexico in the Name of the Drug War Is a Really Bad Idea"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

With the government foolishly handicapping the oil and gas industries and pushing other alternatives, the future is not very bright..

Original Article: "What Will Our Energy Future Be? A Few Ideas"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

Following the violent attack on Americans in the Mexican border city of Matamoros in early March, South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham stated that he was prepared to get tough and introduce legislation to set the stage for US military intervention in Mexico. The move would be a significant escalation in the long-running war on drugs that has been raging under the auspices of the United States for many decades to the dismay of many Latin American countries.
Graham continues to ignore the disastrous results of the use of force in US foreign policy as he eyes adding Mexico to his growing bucket list of interventionist missions. If previous interventions serve as examples, a US military intervention in Mexico would be just another excuse to expand national security interests and

Access to energy has long been taken for granted as society became quite used to relatively stable prices and the ample abundance of energy. Meanwhile, the business side of energy was relegated to industry insiders, policymakers, and market traders dealing with the matter as a profession. However, the perceptible rise in prices and the fear of supply shortages have pushed energy considerations to the forefront of societal consciousness.
This crunch has largely resulted from US government policies, such as the Green New Deal and the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline, that deliberately discouraged capital investment for the future production of fossil fuels in favor of focusing the energy economy toward clean energy. The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is a huge focus in government

Many governments support continuing the Ukraine war, but ordinary people in Europe, America, and the developing world fear the war will bring economic disaster. 

Original Article: "Why Most of the World Isn’t on Board with the NATO-Russia War"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

As the war in Ukraine drags on into its second year, protest demonstrations have been taking place in major European cities. They express the growing sentiment that the people are tired of the protracted conflict and fearful of what could come should the war continue even longer. Memories of the catastrophic world wars that ravaged Europe in the first half of the last century and the terrible threat of nuclear annihilation that divided the continent in the second half of the century form the traumatic foundation from which Europeans are voicing their aversion to this conflict, which has the potential to spiral out of control and bring a major war to Europe and the world again.
Broad Opposition to War
There have been protest demonstrations occurring in Germany, France, the Czech Republic,

Those in the antiwar movement are accustomed to disappointment in this long-standing environment of militarism, but this one truly stings. Up until the middle of December, there had been a strong push across many grassroots organizations to urge the US Congress to invoke the War Powers Resolution and end military support for the War in Yemen. Hopes were high that America would finally pull the plug on this terrible conflict.
That momentum was dashed just a week prior to Congress going on break for the winter holidays when Senator Bernie Sanders withdrew his call on the matter at the final hour, shortly before it was going to come to a Senate vote, due to the Biden White House expressing its opposition. It goes to show that voices of reason can reach within a whisper of the halls of power,

Despite the record unemployment rate, widespread hardship to businesses, strains on the healthcare system, political turmoil, and general disruption to daily life in 2020, US consumers have managed to ramp up their habit of buying things.