Dozens of foreign tankers suspected of transporting sanctioned crude for Iran and Russia sailed under the Cook Islands flag in 2024-2025, according to an AFP analysis of US and UK sanctions data.
Iran’s rial continued to weaken on Monday afternoon in a sign of flagging confidence in the country's troubled economy, with the US dollar trading at an all-time high above 1.19 million rials according to local exchange-rate websites.
Iran is facing a fresh shortage of the brand-name anti-rejection drug Myfortic with pharmacies halting distribution in several cities and clinicians warning that forced switches to substitutes could endanger a minority of kidney-transplant patients.
Iran’s diesel contains sulfur levels up to 15,000 parts per million (PPM), far above the global standard of 10 PPM, a senior industry representative said, warning that poor-quality fuel is contributing to severe air pollution in major cities.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said it had seized an Eswatini-flagged vessel in the Persian Gulf carrying about 350,000 liters of smuggled gasoil, according to state-linked media.
Prolonged drought and the halt to permanent flows in the Zayandeh-Roud river have driven land subsidence and the Gavkhouni wetland toward an apparent point of no return, raising risks to Isfahan’s drinking-water supply, a provincial environmental official said.
The US dollar surged to 1,160,000 rials in Iran’s unofficial market on Saturday, adding to inflationary pressures and deepening worries about the country’s worsening economic outlook.
Iran’s Karkheh Dam hydroelectric power plant has stopped generating electricity because of a sharp drop in the reservoir’s water level, state media reported on Saturday.
Iranian authorities said they seized two vessels carrying 80,000 liters of smuggled fuel near the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf on Saturday.
Authorities in Tehran have issued an orange pollution alert, warning that stagnant air and rising emissions could push pollution levels into the “very unhealthy” range in the days ahead.
Authorities in the western Iranian city of Baneh have increased pressure on local journalists and social media administrators following days of severe water shortages, a Kurdish rights group reported.
An Iranian lawmaker has warned that the government’s new three-tier gasoline pricing system will drive up the cost of goods and services nationwide, saying the move was made without coordination with parliament or the public.
At eleven o’clock each night, Tehran time, my studio, half a world away, seems to inherit the city’s fatigue. The callers gather like silhouettes behind a scrim of static.