Iran menaces merchant ships, and Chinese planes and warships threaten US military planes and ships.

British and US Navy vessels scrambled to assist a merchant vessel harassed by Iranian fast-attack boats in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday.

The HMS Lancaster and USS McFaul scrambled to intercept the Iranian fast-boats crewed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident. The Lancaster launched a helicopter to dissuade the Iranian boats from attempting to board the commercial ship.

The boats took off.

A Chinese warship came within yards of a US Naval destroyer in the Taiwan Strait. This is how things go under Joe Biden. We invite the world’s tyrants to become more tyrannical when no one watches the store. I still say there is no way Democrats are serious about rerunning Biden. They have something in store.

The encounter comes as both countries trade blame for not holding military talks – with disagreements between the two over everything from trade and Taiwan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and raises the spectre of future face-offs that could spiral out of control.

The U.S. military said the USS Chung-Hoon, a destroyer, and Canada’s HSMC Montreal, a frigate, were conducting a “routine” transit of the strait on Saturday when the Chinese ship cut in front of the U.S. vessel, coming within 150 yards (137 metres).

Before This, A Plane Conducted a Dangerous Maneuver