Cleo Pascal

or 2.30 a.m.

Just to give you a sense of how close Guam is.

is to Asia.

It's about half as close to Shanghai as it is to Honolulu.

But another very important island for the US is Diego Garcia, which is where a critical US military base is in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.

And it's so important for the US because it's a place where

The U.S.

can stage from, have pre-positioning ships, surveil, run operations from without boots on the ground in places like the Middle East or Afghanistan or the approach from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean.

It's been called the footprint of freedom.

That's how important it is to the U.S.

You can reload the subs.

You can have the bombers.

You can do Space Force-type stuff.

Really important.

It is sitting on British territory, and the U.S.

has an agreement with the British that was signed in 1966 that would stay British territory at least until 2036.

In spite of that, the Starmer government, in its lack of wisdom, has signed an agreement, not ratified, but signed an agreement with Mauritius

To give that island and all of the neighboring islands, the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, and then to lease back that island where you have the U S base for billions of dollars over 99 years.

And if the UK misses a payment.

the lease can be terminated.