Iran-Algeria ties
Iran’s president says hegemonic powers led by the United States along with the Israeli regime are against the expansion of ties among independent nations. Ebrahim Raeisi was meeting with Algerian Parliament speaker Ibrahim Boughali in Tehran. He said Iran and Algeria can enhance constructive cooperation for the benefit of their own nations and the Muslim community based on common views on regional and international issues. Raeisi added that Iran has been able to turned sanctions and foreign pressure into opportunities to make progress. The Algerian official, for his part, said his country was willing to improve economic ties with Iran.
‘US must leave Iraq’
An Iraqi anti-terror movement has taken the lid off US plans for maintaining military presence in the Arab country. The secretary general of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq movement said the main goal of the American military presence in Iraq is to ensure security of the Israeli regime. Sheikh Qais al-Khazali said the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq is inevitable since the country is capable of defending itself. He blamed former prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi for failing to take any real steps to end the American combat presence in Iraq. The US has kept 25-hundred soldiers in Iraq under the pretext of assisting local forces in combating the Daesh terror group. This comes against the backdrop of growing calls for the complete withdrawal of all American troops from the country.
UK pay disparity
Many employees in Britain are grappling with a cost-of-living crisis as wages are squeezed by rising prices. Nonetheless, a new research shows bosses at biggest companies saw their pay rise by almost 16 percent on average last year. The median pay of the bosses of the UK’s 100 biggest listed firms was more than three-point-nine million pounds in 2022, up from nearly three-point-four million in 2021. That is according to the research by the High Pay Centre thinktank. This sends their average earnings to 118 times more than a typical UK worker. The UK has been rocked by public and private sector walkouts for months. British employees demand pay increases proportionate to inflation. But the government has failed to meet their demands.