 Did the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal have the sort of domestic as well as external political impact that Donald Trump, when he was leader of the free world, envisaged? Five months after the right-wing elite in Peru, ousted the democratically elected leader Pedro Castillo, are those in power willing to hear the voice of the people? And Hollywood's writers around strike rightfully demanding that they see some of the benefits of the massive profits being made by big studios. But why are the suits in charge in no mood to share? Salams, as always, you're watching The Daily Debrief. We will attempt to answer all of these questions on the show today, so let's get straight into it. On a day like yesterday, five years ago, the Donald Trump administration decided to unilaterally withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. This deal, of course, was instrumental in ensuring that Iran is allowed to have a peaceful nuclear program, while also controlling weaponization. Unfortunately, that deal no longer exists. Five years on, we talked to Newspick Editor-in-Chief, Praveer Purkayasa, about whether the U.S. is withdrawal, of course, unilateral, has had the kind of impact that its leadership expected then, both in terms of domestic politics as well as international ramifications. Praveer, welcome back to The Daily Debrief Studios. Like I was saying in the intro, five years have passed since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. It's had all kinds of impacts, but most significantly, as the dynamics in the region change, perhaps as Trump construed it five years ago, it hasn't quite worked out from an American perspective from that angle. We're drawing from the nuclear deal. Yes, US unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal has backfired on the United States. One part of it is the sheer fact that today Iran has started the centrifuges again. They were under no bar to do so after Trump withdrew from the deal and the deal was effectively dead because the condition for the deal was that Iran's financial sanctions, the sanctions would be withdrawn. Once that didn't happen, those sanctions actually went back because the West also said, okay, you've started again centrifuging, centrifuges, et cetera, et cetera. So the sanctions were not withdrawn. So effectively, Iran therefore had no bar of purifying uranium to the level that they wanted. Let's face it, they have reached a level of purification of fissile material from which to the centrifuges, they are just a few steps away from getting it to the nuclear grade, weapons grade, already in fact it can be construed to be weapons grade. So just a couple of more steps, it happens. That's also because the nature of the centrifuging process is such that the first concentration of the 20% really requires most of the effort and the most of the energy. After that, successively, it becomes much easier. That's the nature of the physical process itself. So what they have done is they have allowed, therefore, Iran to do what would be called a breakout that if they want to make the bomb, they can do so and they can do so relatively quickly. That is one. Second, it has forced Iran to be self-sufficient in a whole number of different ways. It has spurred the domestic industry therefore to meet a lot of the supplies that they need and also the trade relationship with other countries. Today, Russia being under sanctions, therefore, earlier it's also Russia had actually not put Iran under sanctions, China had trade relations with Iran. So with this kind of scenario emerging, these things have become much more natural for the countries like Russia and China to work more closely with Iran. So given that, the Iran's breakout from sanctions has happened, breakout from the purification embargo that they had themselves accepted has happened. So I think that at the moment Iran has very little to gain further by complying with the demands that are being made on them, going back to again to what Trump withdrew from and Trump's what Trump did in Iran has completely backfired on the United States. We will of course separately at another time look at the domestic political ramifications of this entire process. But essentially what the 12-point agenda that Trump laid out meant was complete political capitulation on the part of Iran. And I suppose that is also similar to the United States' agenda with anyone it considers to be any kind of opposition to its, whether ideologically or militarily or otherwise. In all of that context, how do you look at conversations about Iran joining the S.C.O., Syria getting back into the Arab League and all of these other dynamics that have kind of changed and accelerated after the breakout of the war in Ukraine? You know, it's interesting that you raise the issue of what Trump thought would happen once he broke the Iran agreement, thinking that Iran would capitulate as you said. And proving therefore domestic to his domestic audience that Obama had reached a very bad deal, a much better deal was available. You see, if you see what has happened unfolded in the region after that. As you said, Syria has come back into the Arab fold and also that Iran has now developed relations with Saudi Arabia. So there is a regional correlation of forces which is very different to what Trump had thought he would achieve through the Abraham Accords in which he had managed to get some of the Arab states, countries like Sudan, Morocco also into the fold and tried to build up an Israel, Islamic countries in his books, Arab countries in his books relationship, which if Saudi Arabia had joined the Abraham Accords might have led to a very different correlation for forces. That did not happen and historically that seems to be now dead. So if that is so, then what would really make sense is for the regional parties to try and sort out the differences between themselves and Syria's readmission to the Arab brotherhood shall be say over the steps that is taken is also very, it's very, very important because let's not forget a section of the Arab countries were behind the Islamist forces which had led to the civil war in Syria and the fact that they are now re-admitting Syria means that their support to the Islamic forces, now Islamist forces, I would not really call them Islamic forces, they are really those which would be outliers completely in Islamic society as well, so extreme right wing forces, which the United States had also backed. So all that with some of the Gulf monarchies backing them, Saudis backing them, they had a great amount of disruptive power in Syria, which now has almost folded up. But you know the problem is spoiler in the region still is in the United States because they hold 30% of Syria's re-resourced area and that is their oil resources, of course they hold it in the name of the courts but really it's Americans who are there. So all this realignment that is taking place I think you'll see weakening of United States influence in the region and Israel being more and more isolated in the region, which is what seems to be happening. And lastly if we can a quick word on the US's other allies who entered into this deal alongside them and who have the European Union for example, their diplomatic chief was right till the end, hopeful that the deal can be renegotiated, re-entered into, because it does have an impact on global energy security as well in terms of how these countries can operate. In that sense have they been left in the lurch by the leader of the gang as it were? Let's face facts the United States has left them in the lurch a number of times, but unfortunately given the correlation of forces globally they don't seem to have any autonomy left now. So these of you know the goal is long over and you don't see that even the kind of social democratic political power that Willy Brandt had and the kind of position the Germany could take even that doesn't seem to be at the moment in the picture. So you have a European Union very much toothless against the senior partner the United States even when they disagree with them they don't seem to have any leverage over the policies. And we can think about the Iran deal, the Trump's withdrawal from it and Biden's inability to reinstate the Obama deal as something which is being held hostage by the domestic politics that United States domestic politics decides this foreign policy. Well I guess any country's foreign policy is also deflection of the domestic politics. In the case of European Union what or both correctly Germany and France which are the two big countries what is their importance what is their internal politics what is their external politics at the moment is not clear to any of us because what we see is confused politics whether it was the issue of Iran or whether it's the issue of Ukraine from minks accords to you know backing Ukraine whole hint saying we were really buying time for Ukraine so whether they have an independent politics to can they assert it that's a question still to be determined and it will I guess depend large part on what the European people of these countries the European countries what do they feel are the urgent issues if they are completely shall we say held hostage by their media which has a very different view of the world then what rest of the world seems to feel then I think we have the European countries are going to become really what shall we say camp followers camp followers of the United States and it doesn't augur well for them we've seen in fact people come out and say what is important to them across Europe whether it's the healthcare workers striking in the United Kingdom protests against the pension reforms in France etc etc and of course the inflation situation that is all across the continent so clearly there are issues that are domestically important to the people but yeah like you pointed out governments and the media seem to be on a different track thanks very much for me for joining us as always it's been five months since Pedro Castillo was dramatically removed in what has been called an institutional coup against his legally democratically elected government he has been in detention ever since there have been mass protests in the country which were responded to with massive oppression by state security forces including massacres in several parts of the country particularly of Peru's indigenous peoples Zoe Alexander has been covering of course covers Latin America for people's dispatch and has been reporting from Peru during this period as well as before it and joins us now via video conference for updates on the situation Zoe first up bring us up to speed please on what's been happening over this period yes well it has been exactly just over five months since Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a coup d'etat and Dina Valuarte was sworn in as a de facto president and since then Peru has been undergoing a very very deep institutional political and social crisis largely due to the massive protests that took place against the coup and so this happened again on December 7th 2022 and immediately after Pedro Castillo was you know taken out of power arrested and sent to prison people began to flood the streets in rejection of what they saw as the undermining of their political vote and undermining of the political sovereignty of the political system and really just in a rejection to all of the moves by the right wing elites in the country to prevent really the voice of the people from being in power and since then there were weeks and weeks months of protests against this coup regime against all of the actions that it was taking and these massive protests in all parts of the country were met with heavy heavy heavy repression the the military was deployed in several cities especially in the rural areas in the south where communities of peasants of people who are engaged in mining activities of different sectors of rural society a lot of teachers engaged as well youth were on the highways were on the roads were on in the plazas and many of them also actually went to the airports and blocked the airports to intensify their protests and in several instances and specifically in the example of Ayacucho their protests at the airport was met again with extremely violent repression live bullets fired on protesters several massacres occurred during this time period during this mass mobilization massacres which have been meticulously documented by independent media by international human rights organizations there's an estimated at least 60 people were killed in this period since December 7th till today 60 protesters people who just went to the streets trying to participate trying to raise their voices against what happened and were met with this face so again since December 7th there was this mass mass mass uprising in the last couple of months maybe six weeks in in April and you know some of March these these protests has really quieted down the tactic of kind of just forcing people to withstand all of this repression and having to go onto the streets day after day after day and really giving no signs of any victories of course more people out and so there is kind of a dip in the protests now there were also efforts made in the legislative body to advance some of the demands that were raised by the protesters on the street which are very diverse and demand the disillusion of the congress the immediate renunciation of the new constitution amongst other demands and these were also brought into the legislative body as I mentioned but again a lot of these were not successful so that's essentially what's been happening in these five months since Pedro Castillo was overthrown a very difficult situation for the people of Peru right now there have been legitimate challenges to Dina Boloate's continuity how is the demand for change playing out after what we were mentioning the brutal repression of popular protests that emerged after Castillo was ousted so as I said one of the key demands of protesters on the streets was that Dina Boloate resigned they say that she's not constitutionally legal as she took office following an illegal coup and furthermore many people alleged that she completely has betrayed of course the ticket she was elected on she was elected to serve with Pedro Castillo and of course she is completely turned against him and and the progressive values that they ran on so many say that her position and that her role as president is completely legitimate and this again has been a demand raised on the streets but also as I mentioned before it has been raised in in the parliament and so there were many attempts by the block of progressive legislators to try to push forward the elections again the elections in Peru will be held normally in 2026 and so during this first month of the institutional crisis there are many many attempts to try to get elections held in 2024 progressives were demanding that they be held in 2023 and now as of now neither of these two options have actually been successful and so recently Dina Boloate was quoted saying that the elections will happen in 2026 as it should be according to the constitution so while this does remain a principal demand of people on the streets and has only increased in relevance especially given the brutal repression that has been unleashed against protesters during her time in office you know essentially she is now de facto in power and doesn't look like she's going to be leaving anytime soon she has support of course not of progressives but of major center and right wing parties they're completely happy with her being in office as she's sort of implementing their their desires and has not gone against the right wing since being sworn in so as of now despite the very very strong battle that was waged on the street calling for her to be to resign the battle in parliament it seems that as of now elections will likely be held only in 2026 thanks very much for that Zoe and finally Natalia Marquez our North America correspondent has been looking at the writer's guild of America which is on strike it's been on strike for a while now demanding that the wages and work conditions of the writers who write big television shows big studio productions movies as well share some of the massive profits that these big studios have made over the course of the past few years particularly with the introduction of new technology they're talking about regulation of or at least proper use of artificial intelligence when it comes to the writing of shows and other kinds of media television productions and of course demanding a greater share in the profits that rightly they contribute massively to Natalia has been covering the protest has also written for people's dispatch on the subject and joins us now via video conference Natalia the impoverished writer is a trope that Hollywood seems to have internalized in this case where does the strike stand as of now so right now over 11,000 tv and film writers have completed over a week of striking on May 1st the writer's guild of America announced that they would strike because writers in studios were unable to reach an agreement on key proposals but the central reason and the larger context of the issue is really that um you know studios big studios like netflix like NBC universal have made enormous profits over the past years from streaming but writers have really yet to see any of those profits go to their wages and be properly compensated for the work that they do so the writer's guild of America which is organizing these 11,500 writers writes that in 2000 the combined entertainment profits of disney fox paramount NBC universal and time Warner amounted to approximately five billion but just 19 years later um adding in netflix the profits of big studios were um uh about 30 billion out of more than 50 billion in total company profits um and entertainment profits were estimated to be more than 20 billion in 2021 so essentially the profits of large studios have skyrocketed but writers um want to see that reflected in their wages and the compensation that they get um but you know so far that has not happened um so writers in the writer's guild of America are demanding um more job security um you know protections and regulations of the artificial intelligence technology that some studios are starting to use um and higher wages of course big Hollywood studios are in no mood to share any of those profits that you know they are raking in the growth and revenue perhaps they are not attributing it enough to the writers or whatever the other reasons are uh negotiations between the two sides have broken down and Natalia what what what is sort of the reasoning that studios have given for this breakdown in talks and for being unwilling to listen to what the writers are asking for so you know according to the studios um their writers simply have too many demands right they're referencing this magnitude of proposals um essentially saying that they cannot afford to give writers um the demands that they need um but writers have pointed out some of the hypocrisy in this argument because you know um they're spending 19 billion dollars a year on making new shows they're buying other companies they're leveraging debt um you know they're making a lot of money and so these demands which the writers have um calculated will add up to about 429 million per year um which is nowhere near the sort of profits that these studios are making um writers are arguing that that's a reasonable demand um but the studio only you know rejected many proposals um including you know minimum staff guarantees you know requiring studios to employ like a minimum amount of um writers on a show and really low bald the writers on things like demands for minimum pay increases um and so the wga has calculated that the studios counter offers um will only amount to 86 million per year far cry from the 429 million that writers are demanding um but they you know there's a lot of solidarity on the picket line actors are are picketing in solidarity teamsters are picketing in solidarity um other unions so essentially from every level of production workers are in solidarity with the writers in the entertainment industry um celebrities have come out in support so essentially um that's where the strike is now um and we'll have to wait and see where it right that's a wrap on this episode of the daily debrief you have of course been watching people's dispatch uh as always we invite you to head to our website peoplesdispatch.org for more details on these stories and the rest of the work we do don't also forget to follow us on social media platforms we're on facebook twitter instagram etc follow us for updates as well as to get in touch with us for your feedback and comments on the work we do we'll be back with another episode tomorrow same time same place until then thank you for watching goodbye