No hope for the future: Economic struggles add fuel to Iran's protests

Lee Ying Shan

10/11/2022

 Anti-government uprisings are to remain a sticking point and increase in frequency in Iran's political landscape as dissatisfaction with other factors like the country's economic conditions surface, according to analysts.

OPEC’s Body Blow to Biden

M.K. Bhadrakumar

October 11, 2022

The Biden administration is swiftly establishing a narrative that the recent OPEC decision to cut oil production by 2 million tonnes is a geopolitical “aligning” by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

It taps into the Russophobia in the Beltway and deflects attention from the humiliating defeat of President Joe Biden’s personal diplomacy with Saudi Arabia. But it is not without basis, either.

Iran Protests Keep Pressure on Raisi as Death Reports Mount

Golnar Motevalli

October 10, 2022

Protests against Iran’s leadership entered their fourth week with further reports on social media of violent crackdowns by police, with rights groups reporting the deaths of at least four people by security forces over the weekend.

The civilians were killed in Kurdish cities in western Iran, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Several unverified photos and videos from the center of Sanandaj, the capital of western Kurdistan province, showed a young man bloodied and slumped behind the wheel of his car after having been shot in the head. The footage couldn’t be verified by Bloomberg News.

Britain’s Covert War in Yemen

Mark Curtis

October 6, 2022

The brutal war in Yemen, which has raged since 2015, is the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. A delicate truce since April has reduced some of the horror, but that deal seems to be breaking down.

Hope for a New Day in Iran?

Nassrine Azimi

Octomber 8, 2022 

In 1975, when I was 16, my father’s work took our family to Turkey. It was hard parting. I was then in my junior year at Tehran’s famed Jewish high-school where, despite being a Muslim, I had thrived and made lasting friendships. Turkey in those days was struggling through severe economic woes, and riots were frequent. I recall my parents’ Turkish friends talking with envy of Iran’s good fortunes and oil bonanza. Little did we know that in a few short years that bonanza would prove itself to have been more of a curse.

Canada barring entry to IRGC members in new Iran sanctions push

 Source: Al Jazeera

 October 7, 2022

Canadian sanctions come amid growing international condemnation over crackdown on anti-government protests across Iran

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced plans to bar about 10,000 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from entering Canada, as international pressure on Tehran builds amid ongoing anti-government protests.

During a news conference on Friday, Trudeau said the top 50 percent of the IRGC’s leadership would get lifetime entry bans under new penalties imposed through Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Who is Winning the War in Ukraine?

Peter Van Buren

September 26, 2022

War is a constant feature among the fictional superstates of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia in George Orwell’s 1984. The government in the dystopian novel uses its near-perfect control of the media to rewrite history whenever an old ally becomes the new enemy, making it seem like "Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”

Something similar is happening in Ukraine, where it has become impossible to know who is advancing and who is retreating. The American media has become so entangled with the doublespeak of war that readers get the impression that Ukraine has defeated Russia several times over.

We Survived The Last Nuclear Standoff Through Compromise And De-Escalation

Caitlin Johnstone

October 5, 2022

Vladimir Putin has signed documents finalizing the Russian annexation of four regions in eastern Ukraine, meaning there’s now a western-backed Ukrainian counteroffensive underway to recapture what Russia officially considers parts of its homeland.

Moscow has made it clear that it will use all weapons systems at its disposal to defend against attacks on territories it claims as its own, which could include nuclear weapons. Depending on if and how that happens and what kind of day all the relevant decision makers are having when it does, there is a distinct possibility that a chain of events could follow which leads to the end of the world.

America’s Throwaway Spies

Joel Schectman & Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

September 29, 2022

The spy was minutes from leaving Iran when he was nabbed.

Gholamreza Hosseini was at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran in late 2010, preparing for a flight to Bangkok. There, the Iranian industrial engineer would meet his Central Intelligence Agency handlers. But before he could pay his exit tax to leave the country, the airport ATM machine rejected his card as invalid. Moments later, a security officer asked to see Hosseini’s passport before escorting him away.

Mahsa Amini: What we know after 11 days of protests in Iran

The demonstrations after death of young woman have continued amid internet restrictions imposed for ‘security reasons’

Maziar Motamedi

September 28, 2022

Tehran, Iran – Protests that erupted in many parts of Iran following the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, entered their 11th day on Tuesday, even as authorities continued to restrict access to the internet.

 

Congressional Negotiators Agree on $12 Billion in New Ukraine Aid

 The funds will be included in a government funding bill

Dave DeCamp

September 27, 2022

Congressional negotiators agreed to include nearly $12 billion in new spending on the war in Ukraine in a stopgap spending bill that will likely be voted on this week, Reuters reported on Monday.

Sources told Reuters that the $12 billion will include $4.5 billion in funding for arms being sent to Ukraine and $2.7 billion for other military and intelligence support for Ukraine. The funding also includes $4.5 billion in direct budgetary aid for the Ukrainian government.

The Return of Fascism

Chris Hedges

September 26, 2022

As in the 1930s, a bankrupt liberalism, grotesque social inequality and declining living standards are empowering fascist movements in Europe and the U.S. 

Energy and food bills are soaring. Under the onslaught of inflation and prolonged wage stagnation, wages are in free fall. Billions of dollars are diverted by Western nations at a time of economic crisis and staggering income inequality to fund a proxy war in Ukraine. The liberal class, terrified by the rise of neo-fascism and demagogues such as Donald Trump, have thrown in their lot with discredited and reviled establishment politicians who slavishly do the bidding of the war industry, oligarchs and corporations.

The bankruptcy of the liberal class means that those who decry the folly of permanent war and NATO expansion, mercenary trade deals, exploitation of workers by globalization, austerity and neoliberalism come increasingly from the far-right. This right-wing rage, dressed up in the United States as Christian fascism, has already made huge gains in Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Bulgaria and France and may take power in the Czech Republic, where inflation and rising energy costs have seen the number of Czechs falling below the poverty line double.

تیمورتاش

کشور ایران در تغییر و تحول پس از اسلام زیر بار خفت و ننگ بسیاری از طرف اعراب رفت. نمونه بارز آن درود گفتن ما است، که نخستین سخنی است که پس از دیدار یکدیگر بکار می‌بریم، و به جای درود سلام میگوییم، که این البته آنچنان جا افتاده است که تغییر آن بسیار دشوار است. نخستین بار که کشور ما نام باستانی خود، یعنی ایران، را مجددا بر خود گذاشت در زمان رضا شاه بود. ترقیات بسیار دیگری در زمان رضا شاه رخ داد، که امروزه شاه دوستان آنها را بر میشمرند. این به دلیل با سوادی رضا شاه نبود، بلکه کاملا عکس آن بود. رضا شاه، که به قُلدور شهرت یافته بود، کاملا بیسواد بود. شانسی که او آورد این بود که توانست در یکی از پایین‌ترین و ضعیف‌ترین حکومتهای ایران، یعنی سالهای آخرین حکومت قاجار، زمام امور را به دست بگیرد. نوگرایی‌هایی که در زمان او رخ داد، همه و بدون شک، به دست کسانی بود که او را شاه کردند، از جمله تیمورتاش. ا

Weakening Germany, strengthening the U.S.

ExecutiveSummary

Weakening Germany, strengthening the U.S.

The present state of the U.S. economy does not suggest that it can function without the financial and material support from external sources. The quantitive easing policy, which the Fed has resorted to regularly in recent years, as well as the uncontrolled issue of cash during the 2020 and 2021 Covid lockdowns, have led to a sharp increase in the external debt and an increase in the dollar supply.

The Pan-African Choice

 Anis Chowdhury & Jomo Kwame Sundaram

September 23, 2022

As Western powers warn of nefarious Chinese and Russian designs, Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram outline how the brutal history of the Western powers in Africa makes the case for non-alignment.

After a quarter century of economic stagnation, African economic recovery early in the 21st century was under great pressure even before the pandemic, due to new trade arrangements, falling commodity prices and severe environmental stress.

تهاجم فرهنگی‌

 از زمانی‌ که نخستین اروپائیان وارد ایران شدند و با گنجینهٔ عظیم فرهنگ و تکنولوژی ایران در زمان صفویه آشنایی پیدا کردند، دقیقا چهارصد سال می‌گذرد. شرکت هند شرقی‌ هلند، که اولین کمپانی سهامی عام در دنیاست، در چند شهر ایران شعبه‌هائی تاسیس کرد. سپس انگلیسیها وارد ایران شدند. برادران شرلی نخستین انگلیسی‌هایی بودند که به دربار ایران راه یافتند. اروپاییانی که به ایران آمدند، نه تنها از تکنولوژی پیشرفته ایران به کشور‌های خود صادر کردند، بلکه تعدادی از واژه‌های ایرانی‌ نیز وارد زبان آنها شد. این واژه‌ها را می‌توان با جستجو در وبستر و یا سایر فرهنگ‌های لغات یافت. البته تلفظ بسیاری از لغات را تغییر دادند. به عنوان نمونه "پسته" در انگلیسی‌ به "پستچیو" تبدیل شد!ا

Iran denies Mahsa Amini, woman who died in custody, was beaten

 Mahsa Amini’s family has refuted claims she suffered from pre-existing medical conditions as suggested by Iranian authorities, saying she was perfectly healthy.

Maziar Motamedi

September 19, 2022

An Iranian police chief categorically denied allegations a woman who was arrested for wearing an “improper hijab” and died in custody was beaten as public anger over the 22-year-old’s death continues.

Addressing a news conference on Monday, Tehran’s police chief, Brigadier-General Hossein Rahimi, said claims Mahsa Amini was beaten or in any way mistreated are “completely false”.

Iran Security Fires on Crowd Protesting Death in Custody of Kurdish Woman for “Bad Veiling”, Wounds 13

Juan Cole

September 18, 2022

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, 13 protesters were wounded when security forces opened fire on them outside the house of the governor in Saghez, Iranian Kurdistan. This, according to the Hengaw human rights organization. The demonstrators were expressing their fury over the death in police custody of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish young woman who was visiting the capital, Tehran, with her parents when she was arrested by the religious police for not completely covering her hair with her headscarf. Having locks of hair peak out over the forehead is referred to by Iran’s Shiite hardliners as “bad veiling” (bad-hejabi), and is a crime. Popular protests among activist women against the veiling requirement in recent years have caused Iran’s theocratic government to crack down on women more fiercely than ever before.

‘A Crisis Coming’: The Twin Threats to American Democracy

David Leonhardt

September 17, 2022

The United States has experienced deep political turmoil several times before over the past century. The Great Depression caused Americans to doubt the country’s economic system. World War II and the Cold War presented threats from global totalitarian movements. The 1960s and ’70s were marred by assassinations, riots, a losing war and a disgraced president.

جنگ زده: رانشگران قاره‌ای و ملتِ بی‌ ملیت

نوشته: نیک تورس

ما در سیّارهٔ متحرکی زندگی‌ می‌کنیم که دنیائیست پر از برخورد و چالش. زمانی‌ این زمینِ ما دنیای ابر‌قاره‌ها بود” :گاندوانا”، “رُدینیا”، “پنجیا”. ساحل شرقی آمریکا به سمت غرب آفریقا کشیده شده بود، در حالی که قطب جنوب تا طرف مقابل قاره آفریقا پهنه داشت. اما هیچ چیز در این جهان همیشگی‌ نیست و صفحات تکتونیکی که این سیاره را می پوشانند همیشه در حال حرکت هستند. ناگهان، در طول صدها میلیون سال، ابر قاره ها تقسیم میشوند، و توده‌های کوچکتری از آنها به وجود می‌آیند، و این توده‌ها به سمت مناطق دورتری در این کره خاکی شناور میشوند.

اخیراً آن قاره ها به کشورهای مستقل تقسیم شده‌ا‌ند. دو کشور چین و هند هر کدام بیش از یک میلیارد جمعیت دارند. اما حتی کشور‌های با وسعت متوسط میتوانند جمعیت عظیمی‌ را در خود جای دهند. اسپانیا و کانادا، همسایگان صدها میلیون سال پیشِ "پنجیا"، هم اکنون به ترتیب تقریباً ۴۷ میلیون و نزدیک به ۳۸ میلیون نفر جمعیت دارند که آن ها را به ۳۰مین و ۳۹مین کشور های پرجمعیت این سیاره رسانده است. اما حتی در مجموع، آنها بزرگتر از یک ملت بدون سرزمین نیستند. من در مورد قربانیان جنگ‌هائی صحبت می‌کنم که هم اکنون در حاشیه جهان ما، و بدون یک سرزمین، سرگردان هستند.