As with last time, starting with the effect of climate change on Iraq. NEWS.AM notes:
The so-called Garden of Eden in Iraq has suffered from a three-year drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flow from rivers and tributaries originating in neighboring Turkey and Iran, AFP reported.
Vast expanses of the once lush marshes of Khuvayza, bordering the border with Iran, have dried up and their vegetation has turned yellow. The same fate befell the popular tourist areas of the Chibaysh swamps.
The swamps are our source of livelihood – we used to fish here, and our livestock could graze and drink, said Ghassed, 35, from a village near Huwayza.
Tony Gamal-Gabriel (PHYS.ORG) adds:
Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Mesopotamian Marshes suffered under the former dictator Saddam Hussein, who ordered that they be drained in 1991 as punishment for communities protecting insurgents, and to hunt them down.
The wetlands have sporadically gone through years of harsh drought in the past, before being revived by good rainy seasons.
But between August 2020 and this month, 46 percent of the swamplands of southern Iraq, including Huwaizah and Chibayish, suffered total surface water loss, according to Dutch peace-building organization PAX.
THE DAILY SABAH publishes an AFP photo essay on th topic here. A new topic before we get to the ongoing political stalemate, stolen art. Amr Salem (IRAQI NEWS) reports:
The Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced it arrested a group of drug dealers possessing a stolen painting by Picasso worth millions of dollars, in a security operation in Diyala governorate, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The spokesperson of the General Directorate of Narcotics Control of the Ministry of Interior, Bilal Sobhi, said in a statement that the directorate carried out an operation in Diyala governorate in which three suspects were arrested for trafficking and transporting drugs, and a painting worth millions of dollars by the famous Spanish painter Picasso was found in their possession.
“It is one of the major security operations carried out by the General Directorate for Narcotics Control,” Sobhi said.
“The directorate relies on intelligence information and cooperates with other security agencies including the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) and the National Security Agency,” Sobhi explained.
October 10th, Iraq held elections. The sitting prime minister suppressed the vote turnout by refusing to allow the militia members to, as they had before, take part in early voting. The reason security forces have their own day of early voting is because on the actual voting day, they are deployed throughout the country to protect the voting centers.
All this time later, still nothing, no progress. No prime minister, no president. If you think you're getting tired of it, imagine how the Iraqi people feel. And that's a point we've made for some time but a point that only now is the western press picking up on.
On that failing western media, Lee Camp Tweets:
We're going to continue this in tomorrow's snapshot. I did want to include Benjamin Mateus' new article at WSWS but the link on it's not working yet:
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