Iran’s insatiable demand for water, which is being drawn out of aquifers far faster than it can be replenished, is causing large chunks of farmland to sink and buildings to crack, according to a new study.
Estimates suggest the water levels in Iranian aquifers have declined by an average of nearly 1.5 feet (half a [...]

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Since the mid-1990s, leaders of the Caspian Sea littoral states — Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran — have repeatedly said that the sea should never become a point of contention between them or a reason for conflict in the international community.
But as energy prices skyrocket, the Caspian Sea Basin — home to some [...]

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In McMafia, Misha Glenny draws the dark map that lies on the other side of Tom Friedman’s bright flat world. That connected globe not only brings software coders and supply-chain outsourcers closer together; it’s also opened the gates to a criminal network of unsettling vastness, complexity, and efficiency that represents a fifth of the earth’s [...]

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On a recent afternoon, while riding a rickety bus down Tehran’s main thoroughfare, I overheard two women discussing the grim state of Iranian politics. One of them had reached a rather desperate conclusion. “Let the Americans come,” she said loudly. “Let them sort things out for us.”
Although their leaders still call America the “Great Satan,” [...]

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