More than fifty new investment projects with an estimated cost of one and a half trillion Liras have been licensed in Syria according to the investment law issued last year. The Syrian capital, Damascus, focuses on reviving productive projects to confront Western sanctions on the Syrian economy.
Defying Sanctions, More than 50 New Investment Projects in Syria
Video via Arabi S
“I think everyone now is sufficiently worried,” a NATO official said.
Ukraine’s Appetite for Weapons Is Straining Western Stockpiles (Archived)
Waiting on someone to run out, first. Doubt that it will be Russia.
The United Nations has added its voice to the growing list of international organisations, including the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, warning that interest rate hikes imposed by the US Federal Reserve are creating the conditions for a financial crisis and global recession.
Interest rate hikes leading to recession, UN says
On September 8, ArcelorMittal Poland announced it would take Blast Furnace No. 3 at the Dąbrowa Górnicza steel manufacturing plant off stream starting in late September. According to the company, the temporary measure is a response to current market conditions throughout Europe.
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“Reducing production is the result of several factors,” the company said, elaborating on its decision. “[These include] the slow-down of economic activity in Europe, destocking done by customers, increasing level of imports from outside EU, and increasing gas and electricity prices.”
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“Additionally, the cost of carbon, which is not applicable for steel producers importing steel into Europe, has reached record high levels this year, placing European steelmakers at a further competitive disadvantage,” the company added.
Steel Manufacturing: ArcelorMittal Poland Plans Extended Shut-Down
Congress intends to intervene to prevent a national rail strike and unilaterally impose a concessions contract, Steny Hoyer, the second highest ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, told Bloomberg News on Monday.
Millionaires’ Congress threatens to intervene against potential US railroad strike
Video via Anarchistara
We are pleased to present to our readers a very significant policy speech given by Kim Jong Un, the General Secretary of the Korean Workers Party and President of State Affairs. In this speech, he clearly warns the United States that he and his government are prepared to defend the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, known in the US as “North Korea”), including the use of nuclear weapons if the DPRK is faced with an invasion from the USA, the South Korean puppet regime of the US, or both.
The context of the speech is important. As we wrote in the previous article to this one, the United States has engaged in decades of deadly provocations against the Korean workers state in the form of constant “war games” in preparation for initiating an attempt to overthrow the DPRK and restore capitalist exploitation to North Korea. However, in the past several years, the United States has started to openly proclaim its intention to “decapitate” the leadership of the DPRK in a massive attack from South Korea which may include the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the defensive underground bunkers which the workers of the DPRK constructed to survive the massive bombing campaign the US launched against them in the Korean War, killing an estimated 3 million North Koreans. In response, North Korea has – in spite of crushing US sanctions that have caused immense suffering for the workers of the DPRK – embarked on a crash program to develop a nuclear arsenal capable of defending their country. We wholeheartedly agree with this heroic attempt by North Korea to defend itself from the psychotic warmongers of the US imperialist capitalist class and their murderous gangster regime in Washington. The US government is the #1 terrorist threat in the world today! Defend the DPRK! End All Sanctions Against the DPRK Immediately! US Out of the Korean Peninsula Now!
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea): Full Text of Kim Jong Un Speech On Nuclear Weapons Policy
Most-accurate US artillery shell Excalibur quietly added to Ukraine aid
The Defense Department will spend $92 million in congressionally approved supplemental funds “for procurement of replacement M982 Excalibur munitions transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort to counter Russian aggression,” according to a budget document last month that wasn’t previously disclosed.
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“The $92 million addition to Excalibur more than doubles the program’s budget, adding about 900 projectiles in fiscal 2022, up from $56.7 million that Congress approved this fiscal year,” according to Mark Cancian, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who’s monitoring Ukraine-related spending.
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“This also confirms what had long been suspected, that the United States is providing this advanced weapon to Ukraine,” Cancian said. Each round currently cost from $98,700 to $106,400 in fiscal 2021 and 2022 dollars depending on the quantities purchased, according to Army budget documents.
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In addition to the previously undisclosed Excalibur, the budget documents also spell out supplies of well-known items such as conventional 155mm artillery rounds, Javelin anti-armor and Stinger anti-air missiles, the HIMARS mobile rocket system and its Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, missiles. There are also smaller purchases of MK-19 grenade launchers, “precision sniper rifles” and “spotting scopes” and “replacement battery coolant units” for Stingers.
Last week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the US Congress that “We now are entering a period of transition from one of historic recovery to one that can be marked by stable and steady growth. Making this shift is a central piece of the President’s plan to get inflation under control without sacrificing the economic gains we’ve made.”
It’s true that the US economy since the depths of the pandemic slump, (which remember in terms of national output, incomes and investment was the worst since the 1930s – even worse that the Great Recession of 2008-9) has made a recovery. But it could hardly be described as ‘historic’. And as for the claim that the US economy, the best performing of the major economies in the last year, is heading towards ‘stable and steady growth’, that is not supported by reality.
The scissors of slump
Comments on the Article of the International Department of the CC KKE “On the Imperialist War in Ukraine and the Stance of the CPRF”
On April 23, 2022 the newspaper Rizospastis, the organ of the Communist Party of Greece, carried an article by the International Department of the CC KKE “On the Imperialist War in Ukraine and the Stance of the CPRF.”
The article assesses the actions of the CPRF in connection with the special operation Russia is conducting in Ukraine openly accusing the party of having a pro-government, i.e. pro-imperialist position. We categorically disagree with this utilitarian assessment.
CPRF Statement: In Ukraine Russia is Fighting Neo-Nazism
by John V. Walsh, MD. May 12 2022
Suggests the US End Its the Proxy War on Russia
NY Times Shifts Pro-War Narrative, Documents Failure Of US In Ukraine
Ukraine War’s Geographic Reality: Russia Has Seized Much of the East
Sources:
Governments Tighten Grip on Global Food Stocks, Sending Prices Higher
America and Its Allies Want to Bleed Russia. They Really Shouldn’t.
U.S. House Speaker In Kyiv As United Nations Continues Efforts To Help Civilians In Mariupol
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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