PayvandNews – The Caspian Sea water level has reached its lowest level since 1995, mainly because of a recent drop in the water level of the Volga River, which supplies most of the sea’s water, by about 22 percent. In 2019, the average water level stood at -27.18 meters, showing 13 centimeters decrease compared to the year before, ISNA reported.  Caspian Sea …

PayvandNews – The country’s population growth rate has decreased to less than one percent for the first time over the past four decades, Seyed Hamed Barakati, deputy health minister for family and school population has said. The marriage rate in the country has dropped by 40 percent since 10 years ago, which is an alarm that threatens the country’s future …

Shabtab- USCRIF in a tweet yesterday condemned the Iranian governments treatment of various religious minorities, like Gonabadi Sufis, Christian convert and prisoners of conscience . In this message it also mentioned the Great Tehran Penitentiary where Christian convert Majidreza Kushani is detained on spurious charges and Qarchak prison where several women Gonbadi Sufis are held, and the Christian convert Mary …

Radiofarda – The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s “threat” to apply the “Final Solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “is reminiscent of the Nazis’ ultimate solution for exterminating the Jews.” “He should know that any government that threatens to destroy Israel will find itself in danger of extinction”. Netanyahu wrote on his …

Reuters – Iran dismissed on Thursday new U.S. sanctions on several Iranian officials, saying they were a sign of the complete inefficiency of Washington’s previous sanctions on the Islamic Republic, state television reported. “Washington’s fruitless and repetitive sanctions against Iranian officials is a sign of weakness, despair and confusion of the U.S. administration,” state TV quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman …

Reuters -Venezuela’s military will escort Iranian tankers bringing fuel to the gasoline-starved country as soon as they enter its exclusive economic zone, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Wednesday. His comments came after Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said the shipment should “alarm” Latin America. Both OPEC members are U.S. adversaries whose oil industries are under U.S. sanctions. Trump administration …

Reuters – Iran’s fuel shipment to gasoline-starved Venezuela ought to “alarm” Latin America, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Wednesday, as five Iranian fuel tankers head towards the South American country. Both OPEC members are U.S. adversaries whose oil industries are under U.S. sanctions. Trump administration officials say Washington is considering a response to the shipment. “We are very …

Radiofarda – Reports from the province of Khuzestan in southwestern Iran say the situation with COVID-19 epidemic is “serious”, particularly as people appear to ignore public health warnings and medical staff are affected by fatigue after weeks of hard work. A local official warned that a renewed lockdown needs to be imposed in this province regardless of the heavy burden …

Al-Arabia – Around 10,000 Iranian health workers have been infected with the new coronavirus, the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted the deputy health minister as saying on Thursday. “Around 10,000 health workers have been infected with the deadly disease in Iran and some of them have died,” Qassem Janbabai said, according to ILNA.

Al-Arabia- Iraqi intelligence has arrested Abdulnasser al-Qirdash, the ISIS leader said to be a favored candidate to succeed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to several Iraqi media outlets. “Today, the terrorist named Abdulnasser al-Qirdash, the candidate to succeed the criminal al-Baghdadi, was arrested. [The arrest] came after accurate intelligence,” the statement from the Iraqi National Intelligence Service read. For all the …