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BBC reports on Iran protests January 2026. Protests happened with students, with women periodically over the last two decades. Iran over the years since the monarchy in the 1880's and democratic movements (parliaments) in 1900's, monarchy in the 1930's and 1960's, socialist governments 1960's. Cold War and restored monarchy in 1970's, religious theocracy 1990's till today has gone through many different governments. It was part of the British Empire (that included India/Pakistan) and Russia's buffer region in the 18th and 19th century.  After economic sanctions from US and Europe the economy depends on sanctioned oil exports. Its defense operations divert much of the funding from oil based resources away from economic development . Much of that was a result of the anticolonial socialist ideologies that spread from North Africa (Algeria, Egypt) to Iraq and Syria that led to wars in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan- which also led to Iraq's version the Baathist ideology invading Iran. Russia and the US have extracted themselves at much loss from these conflicts by 2025 and are posed at a historic rapprochement in relations. For Iran there is today no danger from the region or from European powers, and like the US the people and the country are asking questions about the economic and living conditions from so much in resources now diverted to external conflicts- like the US the people in the region of Iran and the entire Middle East apart from a few small oil rich regions with a tiny part of the overall population- maybe 5% in Qatar and UAE, and Saudi- feel the impact of little investment in rapid economic development of the overall region. A region with a population close to the European Union of 500 million but a tiny fraction of economic development investment for the vast majority of people in Egypt and other parts of North Africa and regions of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan. Most of the investment of $1 trillion is concentrated in the 10% of the population of over 500 million people in oil resource Saudi Arabia, UAE/Qatar monarchies, the rest languishing in war, and now meaningless- in terms of living standards- of anticolonial ideologies or militant religious ideologies, or internecine/ethnic conflict. ...

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The Trump Accounts for children born 2025-2028 and the Dell $6.5 billion expansion to include earlier born children may be one of the single biggest actions to rebuild the bank accounts of the next generation. It looks at the shrivelled bank accounts of today's older generation with lack of enough savings for a medical crisis and says it has got to be different from now on. The median bank account of Americans over 65 and over is $13400 which means there is little for medical health emergencies and little for needs of older Americans. Median means half have less and half have more than $13400. This is astounding for the wealthiest nation at a time when the total wealth is the highest ever in history. This report by WSJ unfortunately does not mention this at all and dwells on how this is an opportunity for banks and investment companies to get in the door to get your business. DJT as US president with a mandate from lower income Americans has designed this so that it shows the value of careful investments of small seed money. With $1000 to begin with from the government, added amounts from parents and grandparents and invested in a mutual fund that tracks the S&P 500 it will grow with the economy for 18 years, doubling two to three times on the way. It would provide funds for education increasing enrollment in higher education, increase financial literacy by showing how money grows in broad S&P 500 type index funds such as Vanguard type funds. Much of the shriveling of bank accounts for the shocking figure of $13400 median for American 65+ year olds is a result of job losses, high health care costs, wage decline  with factories outshored, hits from 2009 financial crisis caused by bank irresponsible behaviour, drug epidemics and fentanyl allowed to pour into the country, covid pandemic and stock bubbles, decline in higher education enrollment, other. The US president DJT is seeing his mandate as one that reverses these adverse situations one by one to take America back to post war prosperity and rising incomes, rising bank acocunt savings and rising hopes and aspirations for the next generation. ...

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DW.com says Greenland has some of the largest mineral deposits in world. Greenland is an island in the Arctic region that was first extensively explored by US Admiral Perry in the 1890's. In 1867 it was a planned American acquistion of Seward with the Alaska Purchase. Harry Truman planned acquisition of Greenland in 1947 after the War. The Nazis had planned to use it in the War.  Yet the BBC, Wash Post, NYT, and other media simply ignore this and take what Denmark has to say and present Denmark's view as something thought up at the White House. Clearly Denmark was a colonial power and acquired this territory totally averse to the interests of local population of tribes in the period since 1800. It acquired it in negotiations with colonial powers including Britain, Sweden, and Norway through the Treaty of Kiel in 1800 during the Napoleonic Wars. There is no legal basis for Denmark's colonization of Greenland. Germany and Britain understand this for whom the main interest lies in US being able to protect the eastern seaboard of the US from hostile nations who would also be hostile to Europe. Denmark's role in this is zero and it is totally useless for Denmark. It has less than the size of the NYC police department in Greenland and the population of Greenland would easily fit into a baseball stadium in the US. The US Navy with Adm. Perry discovered the North of Greenland from the southern part by dog sleds for the first time in the 1890's. It is hundreds of times the size of Denmark and covers the eastern seaboard of the US essential to US security since its founding- it is of no value to Denmark as Truman's Commanders in Chief pointed out in 1947, when after Seward in 1867 US moved to acquire it. Climate change and loss of 140 billion tons of ice over decades means it is becoming a navigable waterway- and poses risks for the security of the US requiring the US to take action in the interests of both the US and Europe, on which Denmark has ineptly chosen to misrepresent or obscure the facts as the facts can easily be researched. ...

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The relations between the former president Obama and the current president Trump have soured in the first 100 days. Obama lauded activists opposing the travel ban, and Trump sees leaks being conducted for his administration by Obama supporters. Obama was clear from the beginning that he would voice his opinion when it came to systematic discrimination, right to dissent, and deportation of children. Trump's claims that Obama ordered his offices to be wiretapped during the election have caused a rift. Trump took to Twitter to says that Affordable Care Act was "a total disaster," and made it personal by saying "How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!" Attorney General Sessions said he will recuse himself from the investigations into Russian efforts to influence the election.

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This op-ed piece in the NYT points out that the vote was not against women but the weakness of Hillary Clinton in appealing to the interests of working and middle class Americans as she gradually became out of touch with ordinary Americans. The urgency of tackling the problems of ordinary Americans was missing and the message muffled and lost in the way the campaign failed to win the trust of Americans hit hard by the recession. Separate reports in the media show Bill Clinton worried about how the campaign had lost its focus on the lives of ordinary Americans and the struggles of working class and middle class since the great recession. Ignoring these lessons and blaming the results on sexism would be wrong, says Naomi Klein.

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Mercedes plans to introduce its Green Diesels in Japan. The penetration of diesel automobiles is expected to go up to 11%. This is well above the high of 6% achieved in the nineties, which later slipped becuase of strict emissions regulations and the perception that diesels were dirty with poor engine performance. German diesel technology has improved to the point where the performance and emissions have improved significantly. The quality of diesel fuel in Japan has improved and the new cleaner diesels provide an attractive option to Japanese car buyers.

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Portugal's parliament gave preliminary approval to a new budget bill with 4.3 billion euros in tax increases on income, captal gains, property and car ownership, and 1 billion euros in spending cuts compared to the 2012 budget. Banco Espirito Santo was able to sell 750 million euros in 3 year bonds with an interest rate of 5.875%. Over 200 investors from France, UK, Germany made buying offers of more than 2.7 billion euros. The rate is lower than expected and reflects ECB policy support for bond markets of countries requesting aid.

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Tom Walsh, columnist at the Detroit Free Press is very skeptical that anything will change with Gettelfinger and the UAW, Cerberus, GM executives and other stakeholders who will stall and try to look for advantage even as Detroit's workers are at risk. Communities in Michigan are at risk and communities across America. He calls for President elect Obama to appoint a really good car czar who will force the different parties to make the changes that are required, or nothing will happen and things will get to the worst outcomes possible.

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The neglect of Saturn as GM moved to emphasize SUV sales, with no new models for five years and the folding of Saturn in to the small car group and expected to compete for scarce resources with other brands including the Buicks, the Hummers and the Pontiacs. Saturns were doing what they intended to do getting buyers of imports shifting to American models but lack of investment and attention and steady perseverance over time led to its potential never being realized. This may be one of the many errrors of GM executives and its board.

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Unemployment in the U.S. will be hard to bring down with the mismatch in skills for new jobs created. The National Skills Coalition, which works to promote job training, says in a report that 46% of the jobs in New York state in 2009 were in the middle skills category, and only 39% of New York workers had the skills for these jobs. Mid-skilled workers are workers with a high school diploma and training, an associates degree or vocational training. The problem is that students from public schools and community colleges who are not prepared with mid-skills and training, or lack a two year degree, are not prepared for these mid-skilled jobs in health care, transportation and other fields. This report says 40% of new jobs created in New York state will be for mid-skilled workers. In the low skilled workers category there is downward pressure on wages because there are more workers than jobs- 21% of new jobs are low-skilled and 23% of New York workers are low-skilled, according to the report. The problem is serious because funding for training programs has been cut over the years, and at the same time government policy- including that of the Obama administration- has focussed on getting people to college. Less attention has gone to training programs and vocational education. This at a time when a college education has become costly and difficult for families....

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Morse's reasoning and figures for a fall in oil prices by the end of this year and eventually settling down in the $90 price range? On the supply side he sees the OPEC decision to last year withhold oil production increases and this year's decision to put more oil on the market putting an additional 1.2 million barrels a day on the supply side. About 500,000 barrels a day are added to this from Iraq as security improves in Iraq to make this 1.7 million barrels a day. And refined product with refining capacity for the heavier crude has increased creating more competition among refiners leading to refined product increases lagging behind crude price increases. Add to this the large investments in the middle east and especially in Saudi Arabia to increase production, also in places like Nigeria and Angola, says Morse. On ther demand side he sees an astonishing decline of as much as 900,000 barrels a day year over year from 2008 over 2007 in the USA as fuel conservation is kicking in. On this score he sees a decline in oil price even if this decline had not happened in the USA. (From the video interview). This underscores the importance of everything else that is happening. He sees demand in China declining after the Olympics. The Chinese economy will slow as the Indian economy is already doing and oil imports will decline for China. At this point demand from India, China and other developing countries says Morse is increasing at 1 million barrels a day year over year and will now head downward. A couple of points are relevant in this context. One is that credit contraction in one study by University of Chicago economist Anil Kashyap is expected to be $1 trillion, in recent BW report on the economic situation and banks lending. With such a big impact industrial production by the end of this year and into 2009 will be severely impacted, especially as other countries in the EU and Asia are affected. This plus the dramatic nature of the shift to smaller cars as companies like Ford and its CEO Alan Mulaly vow to transform their production by 2009 to smaller cars is sure to bring further declines in demand. See recent statements by Mulaly and Ford. Morse's credentials show that he brings experience un teaching monetary policy at Princeton, as well as experience going back to being Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for international energy policy in the Carter administration , cofounder of consultants PFC Energy and publisher of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, following the petroleum industry for many years. He has in the past predicted the emergence of Russia as a dominant oil supplier rivalling Saudi Arabia, and predicted the oil price increases based on fundamentals. So as he says the oil price has always been affected by fundamentals, that being the reason for the oil price increases in the last few years and now the moderating influences that reverse someof these oil price increases in the coming year and continue to exercize that moderating effect in coming years. ...

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Automakers are also looking at small engineering changes that will help them accomplish the task of doubling fuel efficiency by 2025 to meet new U.S standards. Honda's new 2012 Civic has special coated engines to reduce friction for a 2% increase in fuel efficiency. Toyota's new 2012 Camry weighs 150 pounds less than the 2011 model. Chevy tried aerodynamic changes on the new Malibu, and lighter materials for the roof, computer controls that shut off the engine when idling,, and active air shutters for the engine compartment.

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Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat-Chrysler told a conference in Michigan -"these are people who did not grow up and become conditioned to doing business in Detroit. " He cited this as one reason the new generation of leaders at the U.S. auto companies had embraced the new fuel efficiency standards. Another point he made that was well received was that "anybody who surrenders 14 years before the date ought not to be in business." He was referring to the 2025 deadline for the new standards. This view was well accepted by the other auto companies and by the UAW workers union, showing the big change that has come about in the U.S. auto industry.

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Chrysler's second quarter loss of $172 million, follows a first quarter loss of $197 million. Operating profit for the second quarter was $183 million, compared to $143 million in the first quarter. Chrysler's forecast is to breakeven on sales between $40-45 billion. Revenue was up by 8.2% in the second quarter to $10.5 billion. Main problem Chrysler faces is an old product lineup. A slowdown in the economy in the second half of 2010 and in 2011 could hurt Chrysler more than the other automakers. Chrysler has available cash of $7.84 billion and additional $2.3 billion available from U.S. Treasury and Canadian government loan agreements.

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Daimler expects strong truck sales, after the launch of its new Actros model truck. It expects truck sales to increase 14% a year on average from 2010 to 2013. Truck sales are estimated at 500,000 in 2013, with sales rising to 700,000 by 2020.

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With 7 caps for Germany and winning the Bundesliga title for Bayern in 2005, Tobias Rau retired in 2009 after injuries. His next career- teaching sports and biology at the peter August Gasemschule in northwest Germany.

Gheerbrant of The Times of London talks to soccer players who decide to take the road not taken and branch out into different things. 

Rau says as a child he was lucky to have good teachers, and school was a part of life he really loved. With a wife and two small children he likes living in a small town. Werther the home town he came back to to teach at a Gasemschule.( a comprehensive with real mix of abilities and qualifications). He likes that he gets to spend quality time with his children, and does not have to deal with the high of adrenaline of competitive sports which can tax the body and system. He was 27 when he retired, quite young so that helps, as he could get back to university easily at that age. 

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Studies have shown that the root causes of the obesity epidemic are lack of education and cultural lift in the food intake and lifestyle of Americans, Europeans, with just moderate adjustments in the food and in exercize routines yielding as much or more than the 15%-30% improvement from weight loss drugs that when withdrawn for the low income demographic leads to further deterioration. For men these simple improvements also lead to improvements in the prostate and a healthier happier lifestyle reducing significantly the number one cause of cancer for men.  Yet pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industrial complex in the US continues on its course like a mighty Mississippi roaring America into oblivion. This report says companies that dominated the weight loss industry are now facing knockoffs that wipe out a large part of the market of a Danish maker of weight loss drugs, with the panic facing obesity hit America hitting the healthcare complex that cares little about lifestyle education. ...

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To make it possible to for the sale of Paramount with its CBS subsidiary to Ellison's Skydance for $8 billion, the company has stepped back from its confrontation with president DJT in a lawsuit. The 60's commentator Walter Cronkite was from CBS News, and Edward Murrow broadcast on  World War II on CBS News.  Somehow this has gone awry with recent coverage in 2024. DJT objected to CBS head Wendy McMahon's handling of news coverage on programs such as -60 Minutes, Face the Nation on Sundays, that he said was tailored to present Democrats candidate Kamala Harris in a certain way, that affected DJT's chances with voters. 

For the sale to Skydance to go ahead to Paramount which owns CBS, needed te cooperation of the Federal Communications Commission under Brendan Carr. Paramount settled the DJT lawsuit for $16 million with Wendy McMahon departing CBS News, the money going directly to DJT Presidential Library. 

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Jeannie Rice, originally from Seoul, South Korea, is a 71 year old marathon runner who runs the marathon in 3 hours 27 minutes and 50 seconds. She holds the world record for her age, after 3 failed attempts. Average pace is 7:25 per mile for 13.1 miles, which is something people aspire for at 30 years age. She runs 4 to 6 marathons a year. Her routine is to run 10 miles a day on average for 7 days a week with long runs on the weekend. She lives in Ohio and runs in the winter in Florida. The way she does it- take a day off before the race, keep several pairs of sneakers and change them every 3 months. She doesn't crosstrain much, preferring golf. She eats a lot of carbs, rice even white rice, pasta. She starts with a pre-run snack of a small banana and half tablespoon of natural peanut butter, coffee. Post run it is a bagel with avocado. Lunch is green salad with avocado. Dinner may be rice with shrimp and vegetables. Experts say training programs are highly individualistic. A fit person takes about 3 months to be ready for marathon running. Long runs are crucial. A 12-18 hour rest period after a marathon is suggested to allow tissue healing. Proper footwear and several pairs of sneakers are critical to avoid injury. ...

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Matthias Muller, 61, is the new choice for CEO of VW following the emissions scandal in 2015. Changes at VW with the departure of Mr. Winterkorn, include the resignation of Ulrich Hackenberg, chief engineer of Audi, Wolfgang Hatz, chief of R&D at Porsche, and Heinz-Jakob Neusser, development chief of Porsche. Hatz and Hackenberg worked closely with Winterkorn. VW says about 11 million cars were equiped with the software that turned off the emissions control mechanism on the road. This was on the VW Passat, Jetta, Audi 3, all built on the same platform and using this software to circumvent emissions controls. The new head of VW USA is Mr. Vahland, 58, head of Skoda, who is a former manufacturing strategy review chief of GM Europe. Matthias Muller, is backed by the Porsche-Piech families that are large shareholders in VW. Ferdinand Piech had actually lost confidence in Winterkorn and tried to remove him from the CEO position in April 2015, before a turn of events led to the emissions scandal. Muller completed an apprenticeship with Audi in 1977, followed by studying computer engineering at the Munich University of Applied Sciences. In 1984 he joined Audi's IT department, becoming product manager for Audi 3 in 1993, and taking on overall product management at Audi in 1995. In 2007 VW's new CEO Winterkorn appointed him head of product strategy for VW, and in 2010 to the CEO position at Porsche....

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Since 2002 when the AKP came to power consumer loans have surged from 2 billion Turkish lira to 129 billion lira or $81.55 billion. While this has created a larger middle class, the huge expansion of credit puts the economy at risk say analysts. Turkey is taking in imports at a rapid rate and the current account deficit is now 8.1% of GDP. The ratio of the current aaccount deficit to foreign exchange transactions is at 37%, according to Ankara based economic research foundation Tepav. This is significantly above the level reached before Turkey's last four economic crashes. The EU is Turkey's biggest market for exports, and the fastest growing market is the Middle East. With the economic growth sluggish in both regions the prospects for Turkish exports increasing is weak. Signs of excess are visible in Istanbul. A shopping mall for cars is being built the size of three sports stadiums with a test track on the roof called Autopia. Prime minister Erdogan talks about building a huge new shipping canal that would bypass the crowded shipping in the Bosporus. And the elections are being fought for the AKP to get more than 330 seats out of 550 in parliament, which would enable the AKP to change the constitution. This will be an unneeded distraction for the country at a time when economic policy needs a sharp focus to reduce the current account deficit before it is too late....