Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service, coming live from London.
This is Owen Bennett-Jones and later on we'll hear from Curtis Sleeewa,
who came third in this week's election for New York Mayor.
He tells me why he lost.
The Masters of the Universe weighed in against me.
The most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
And now maybe the first trillionaire, Elon Musk and others,
who used their enormous social networking prowess,
began a round-the-clock 72-hour campaign as it fed into the fear, the fright and the hysteria.
More from him a little later on, but first Iran and the UN.
has been raising the alarm for years.
In 2017 Antonio Gutierrez just starting out as UN Secretary General warned that global demand for fresh water was projected to grow by more than 40% by 2050 and that tensions over water access were rising.
In 2024 UNESCO said about half the planet's population faces grave water shortages and I quote cities and municipalities have been unable to keep up with the accelerating growth of their urban populations.
So perhaps it should not be so surprising that there is now a government,
it is the Iranian government, saying a crisis is close.
Iran's President Masoud Peshashian has warned that the capital Tehran may even have to be evacuated
if he doesn't get rain soon.
If it doesn't rain,
we'll have to start rationing water in Tehran between late November and early December.
Even if we do ration it, and it still doesn't rain by then,