(2022-02-04). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Strikes across France by healthcare, transport and employment agency workers over staff shortages, workload and pay; protests by teachers across Iran against wages and conditions following protests of retirees demanding a rise in pensions; 5,000 South African food workers on indefinite strike against pay and job cuts for eleventh week…
(2022-02-04). What a Waste, and You're Paying for it: $778 Billion for the Pentagon and Still Counting. juancole.com 
( Tomdispatch.com) — 2021 was another banner year for the military-industrial complex, as Congress signed off on a near-record $778 billion in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy. That was $25 billion more than the Pentagon had even asked for. It can't be emphasized enough just …
(2022-02-03). Iran's Economy Reveals Power And Limits Of US Sanctions. popularresistance.org Tehran, Iran — As economists, politicians, and pundits mull the threat of "swift and severe" United States economic sanctions against Russia should the latter invade Ukraine, one country that has long been in Washington's crosshairs does not have to ponder what such punitive measures can do — Iran. | Some 655 Iranian entities and individuals were sanctioned under the administration of former US President Barack Obama, according to data compiled by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). But the most brutal punishment kicked off in 2018, after former US President Donald Trump's administration un…
(2022-02-03). Top Senate Democrat Slams Biden Administration for Negotiating With Iran to Revive the JCPOA. news.antiwar.com Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the influential chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez said the administration was "clinging" to the deal for "nostalgia's sake" in a rebuke to the US's indirect negotiations with Iran. "At this point, we seriously have to ask what exactly are we trying to salvage?" he said. | "As someone who has followed Iran's nuclear…
(2022-02-03). US Officials Claim Iran's 'Breakout Time' Will Be Under a Year If JCPOA Is Revived. news.antiwar.com As the indirect negotiations between the US and Iran are said to be entering the final stage, anonymous US officials "Breakout time" is a term used in the US and Israel that means the time it would take for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb if they decided to make one. The estimates are generally made to make it appear that Tehran is secretly planning to make a bomb, but after decades of warnings, it still hasn't happ…