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A view is being seen of the northeast of Tehran at sunrise on August 17, 2012.
Iran’s energy crisis pushes economy to the breaking point
After weeks of increasingly severe blackouts caused by massive natural gas shortages in Iran, the state power company warned manufacturers on Friday that they need to brace for power cuts that could last weeks and cost billions of dollars. The government is facing a difficult choice between cutting fuel for power plants or for residential heating — and are taking the first option in a bid to keep a lid on public discontent.
Markets took small comfort, however, with the Iranian rial plummeting to 770,000 to the dollar, its lowest value ever. Ordinary Iranians spent most of last week not knowing whether they would be able to send their children to school or go to work themselves the next day, a situation which seems likely to continue.
Wait, doesn’t Iran have tons of natural gas? Yes, and generous subsidies for consumers to boot, which means the overwhelming majority of Iranians depend on — and arguably overconsume — natural gas for home heating and cooking. But even though the Islamic Republic sits on the world’s second-largest reserves, sanctions and international isolation have left its infrastructure and technology woefully inadequate to supply its own needs.
Iranian producers already burn off huge quantities of natural gas released in oil extraction because they lack the technology to collect it instead. And much of the natural gas Iran does extract is then exported to Turkey and Iraq, where it brings in much-needed hard currency.
The New York Times also reported on Saturday that Israeli strikes against two pipelines back in February forced Tehran to eat into reserves that it was unable to replenish over the summer.
Will the crisis reach a boiling point? With temperatures plunging as low as -20 C in many parts of the country, cuts to gas for domestic heating could put lives at risk. We’re watching for unrest, but keep in mind that hundreds of Iranians lost their lives and thousands more were arrested and abused by regime forces in 2022 and 2023 during the protests over the killing of Mahsa Amini. As long as the regime is willing to kill its own people in the streets, protest may be futile.Captain Christine Sinclair plays her final international game as she retires from Canada's national women's soccer team after a friendly match against Australia in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec. 5, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Soccer legend retires, First Nations vote, Trains chug toward zero, Brazil beckons
48,112: Canadian women’s soccer legend Christine Sinclair closed out her career in style this week, leading the national team to victory over Australia before 48,112 adoring fans in Vancouver. Sinclair’s 190 goals scored in international matches are the highest total notched by any woman or man who has ever played the game.
6: It took six rounds of voting, but the Assembly of First Nations has selected a new chief, putting Cindy Woodhouse, the Assembly’s regional director in Manitoba, in charge of the nationwide advocacy group. She takes over after a period of turmoil at the top — the last elected head was ousted in June over allegations that she harassed employees. Key issues for the Assembly include the housing crisis, drinking water access, and a controversial bill that would grant local governance rights to Métis — a distinct community of Canadians of mixed indigenous and European heritage. Many First Nations say the bill would enable Métis to encroach on First Nations’ rights and lands.
0: All aboard! This train is going to zero. The US and Canada have pledged to work together to develop zero-emissions locomotives as part of a broader plan to make the US-Canada rail sector net-zero (i.e., it will reduce at least as much carbon as it produces) by 2050. The focus will be on hydrogen-powered and battery-powered motors.
80.90: With winter blowing in, what better time to consider a sunny getaway to Brazil. Not only is it about to be summertime there now, but the Brazilian government has just launched a new e-Visa program for US and Canadian citizens. It costs $80.90, and the entire application and approval process is handled online. Boa viagem!
“Like I’m living in the forest”: a darkened Kyiv faces General Winter
By any measure, it’s been a good few months for the Ukrainian military. Kyiv’s commanders have liberated thousands of square miles of territory occupied by Russia earlier in the war.
But now, the Ukrainian people face perhaps their biggest test yet. The Kremlin, reeling from Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes, has enlisted the help of a reliable Russian ally.
“Vladimir Putin has tried to weaponize winter,” warned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a recent alliance summit in Bucharest.
Ukrainians vs Putin and an Ancient Russian Ally | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer
General Moroz (“General Frost”), as the seasonal help is known in Russian, has been sweeping in to bail out Moscow since the days of Napoleon. Now, Putin is making his own 21st-century effort to freeze the Ukrainian population into submission.
For weeks, barrages of Russian cruise missiles have deliberately targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Key facilities of Ukrenergo, the national energy company, have been struck more than a dozen times since October, reducing Ukraine's ability to provide heat and power to its people at a time when nighttime temperatures begin to dip below freezing.
After one recent strike in mid-November, half the country was left without power, according to Human Rights Watch. A subsequent strike several days later left Kyiv, a city of three million, entirely in the dark. Now, major cities are forced to ration power to conserve resources. Cuts to electricity – and with it, water for apartment buildings – can come as often as three times a day now.
Russia says that energy infrastructure is a legitimate target, arguing that power plants are used to support Ukraine’s military as part of the war effort. But human rights watchdogs disagree.
“Russia appears to be seeking unlawfully to create terror among civilians and make life unsustainable for them,” according to a new Human Rights Watch assessment of Russia’s approach.
The World Health Organization says as much as a quarter of Ukraine’s 40 million people are now without power, warning of a “therma-crisis” this winter.
For Iryna B., a 25-year-old translator who moved to the capital shortly before Russia invaded in February, life in the city is getting harder.
“It’s absolutely dead here – no electricity, no water, no cell coverage,” she told GZERO Media on a recent walk through the nighttime streets of a frigid, blacked-out Kyiv. “I feel like I’m living in the forest.”
But Iryna says Kyivans are undaunted. After all, Ukraine has already held at bay a much larger enemy whom many expected to roll to a swift victory when the war began 10 months ago.
What’s more, Kyiv was the prize of two of the most brutal battles on World War II’s Eastern Front – a history that people here still remember.
“We’ve become very flexible as Ukrainians,” Iryna says. “I wouldn't say this is something very unique for us, because we have a history. Many people [have gone] through such things and yeah ... we're tough.”
Vladimir Putin has enlisted a formidable ally in winter, but the resilience of Iryna and her fellow Kyivans suggests the Russian president may, yet again, have underestimated his Ukrainian opponents. Perhaps only springtime will tell.
For now, “life goes on as it used to, and if there is no power, no water,” Iryna says, "we will get through it. This won’t lessen our solidarity – it will only make it stronger.”