Welcome to the PDB Situation Report.

I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

All right, let's get briefed.

First up, Beijing's most likely move against Taiwan isn't an amphibious assault, but a slow, silent,

chokehold on the island's energy lifelines.

Retired rear-admiral Mark Montgomery joins us to break down that scenario.

Later in the show, a crisis of the regime's own making is now threatening the mullahs

hold on Iran, with reservoirs on empty and talk of evacuating Tehran,

the country is edging toward water collapse. Shihin Bobati from the National Council of

Resistance of Iran will help us break it down. But first, today's situation reports spotlight.

We've spent a lot of time here on the show talking about China's potential invasion of Taiwan,

but new research shows Beijing may not need an invasion to break the island.

Analysts are now warning that China could cripple Taiwan in a matter of weeks through a cyber-enabled

energy blockade, cutting off the imported liquefied natural gas that provides nearly

half of Taiwan's electricity.

Now that would force Taipei into a brutal choice, power for hospitals or power for the

semiconductor plants that keep the global economy running.

Wargame results suggest that U.S. is seriously underestimating China's ability to squeeze Taiwan without firing a shot.

Joining us to break this down is retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, Senior Director of Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, which does not fit easily on a business card.

Sir, thank you very much for joining us

here today on the Situation Report. Well, thank you for having me today. Absolutely. Well, let's start

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