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Feeling Friday!
Hello, Curse and Coffee friends,
Today, we look at darkness (in Iraq).
Hit reply and let us know what you think (we read all of your kind words).
Coffee at the ready…
The Big Sip
The take: Iraq didn't lose power because of a bomb. It lost power because Iran stopped sending gas.
What happened: On Wednesday, Iraq's entire national electricity grid collapsed across all 18 provinces. A sudden drop in Iranian gas supplies to the Rumaila power plant in Basra wiped thousands of megawatts off the system in minutes.
Why it matters: Iraq imports roughly 40% of its power-generation fuel from the country currently being bombed by the United States and Israel. That dependency just turned a war next door into a lights-out crisis for 45 million people.
What to watch: Whether Iranian gas flows resume at pre-war levels. Before the conflict, Iraq was receiving around 55 million cubic metres of gas per day from Iran. That figure has crashed below 10 million. The ministry says restoration is underway, but the pipeline runs through a war zone.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued an urgent departure notice to American citizens the same night the lights went out.
Sponsor Break
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