The interim agreement between Iran and the P5+1 has officially begun. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that the Iranians have stopped enriching uranium to 20% and have diluted their current stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. In return, the UN sanctions on Iran will be slightly relaxed, giving Iran an opportunity to begin selling certain items on the world market. The Israelis and others fear that the agreement does not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The fear is legitimate, but it must be weighed against the possibility that the Iranians genuinely wish to see an end to all the sanctions.
Oxfam, a highly regarded non-governmental organization, released a report today on the increased economic inequality in the world in the last 40 years. The report is devastating: “The wealth of the 1 percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion. That’s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half.” Even more dramatically, “The 85 richest people own about 0.7% of the world’s wealth, which is the same as the bottom half of the population.”
Oxfam makes a point of linking that economic situation to a genuine threat to liberal society. It is hard to imagine a stable polity with such serious discrepancies in access to power.
The government of Ukraine has responded forcefully to the protests against its decision to forge closer ties with Russia at the expense of ties with the European Union. The protesters are defying new laws designed to end the protests, so it appears as if neither side is willing to back off. The photos from the BBC on the protests in Kiev are quite dramatic.
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