for a second day. hundreds of people — mostly opposed to friday's landmark ruling — gathered outside the supreme court building in washington. norwegian police say they are treating friday's attack on a series of oslo bars and nightclubs — including a popular gay one — as islamist terrorism. two people were killed. the assailant — a norwegian citizen of iranian descent — has been detained. now on bbc news, our world. in july 2021, anti—government protests took place across iran. the protests were triggered by water shortages in the southern province of khuzestan. failing crops, dying wildlife, no drinking water. dry rivers. people in khuzestan face a water crisis. i'm siavash ardalan, and i report on the environment for bbc persian. seeing people suffering, i wanted to understand what caused these water shortages. is it climate change or are there other factors? what is happening in iran today is the outcome of decades of bad management, poor environmental governance and a lack of foresight, not climate change. the bbc cannot operate freely inside iran, so i've pieced the story together using social media, and visited the united states to see how they manage their water. wow, this is amazing! look how much the water has gone down. as iran and the rest of the world tackle water scarcity, i'll be asking — what can be done to improve the water supply for people in khuzestan? khuzestan has long been thought of as lush and green, with wetlands and diverse wildlife. its rivers used for leisure and agriculture. but over the last decades, that has changed. today, rivers are dirty or run dry. the great horolazim wetland has been drained for oil extraction. the environment and communities destroyed. iran's students�* news agency reports show that in villages across khuzestan, water is scarce. to understand these people's anger, we need to look at the rivers feeding the area, and the many demands made on them. this is khuzestan, lying in the south—west of iran. it's a coastal province on the border with iraq. iran's longest and most well—known river, the karun river, originates in the zagros mountain on the eastern side of khuzestan. there are four more rivers that also originate outside khuzestan�*s official borders that flow into the province, making khuzestan one of the most water—abundant provinces in iran, supplying its industry, agriculture and drinking water. but for many years, farmers have protested that water simply does not reach them, their villages and their crops. shouting. these protests have largely been peaceful and contained to farming areas. but injuly 2021, that changed. chanting. screaming and shouting. chanting. protests began in a few cities in khuzestan and spread first across the province and then to the rest of the country. i tracked events through social media, and saw the rising tide of anger in the crowds as protesters brought in other issues like unemployment, poverty and political freedoms. the government viewed the situation as a security issue and cracked down. the protests lasted ten days. eight people were killed. chanting. this woman is a human rights lawyer defending a number of protesters who were charged with disrupting public order. during our conversation, she told me more about who the protesters were. security sent in by the state silenced the protesters. but a fundamental question remained — what has gone wrong with the water supply? my search for answers began at the un climate change conference in glasgow. glasgow is a long way away from khuzestan and its problems, but the water crisis is really being discussed here because it affects all regions like khuzestan. the head of iran's delegation addressed the conference. the government of islamic republic of iran is committed, alongside with other nations, to combat climate change and global warming. thank you very much for doing this interview... and later, he agreed to an interview with my bbc colleague, matt mcgrath. you say that climate change has impacted the issue of water, but in khuzestan and elsewhere, is itjust climate change or is it the management of the water issue — has that caused the problems to be worse there? so, the iranian governments say that water shortages have been caused by climate change. but critics say that climate change has exacerbated years of water mismanagement that has damaged the delicate balance of supply and demand. when we look at the sources of the rivers that flow into khuzestan, the first thing we find is a network of canals, pipelines and tunnels that take the water to other provinces like kerman, isfahan, yazd, and as far away as qom. protests in january this year were a result of tensions over these water transfers. chanting. two provinces east of khuzestan were protesting over who takes how much water. after the water transfers, the rest of the water that flows into khuzestan is captured by a number of dams. on karun river alone, there is one, two, three, four, five dams built, one after another, and more dams on khuzestan�*s other rivers. in fact, iranian authorities have broken records over the numbers of dams they have built — close to 650 dams in a span of a0 years. with so many dams controlling the supply of water, why do water shortages persist, both in khuzestan and right across iran? las vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the us with each household using 1,000 litres of water a day. and yet, when you're in las vegas, it's easy to forget that this is a town built in the middle of the desert. the landscape here reminds me of when i used to live in iran. iran is essentially a dry country, so this barren land, for me, is a reminder of home. and that's why i'm here. both the south—west of the united states and khuzestan are dry, and make heavy demands on their river water. so, what's happening here can tell me something about khuzestan. i'm heading to the hoover dam, 60 kilometres north of las vegas, which depends on its water supply. construction of this mighty piece of engineering began in 1931. explosion. the idea behind it was to regulate water supply, and also, to generate electricity. the same idea behind building this dam was also applied to building dams in khuzestan and other developing regions of the world. this is kaveh madani in tehran, promoting awareness about how water is used. there is finally a global consensus about the need to act strongly to mitigate climate change and to... at the time, he was deputy head of iran's environmental protection agency. following pressure from the intelligence services, he feared for his safety and fled iran. kaveh argues that politics has driven dam building in iran, while human and environmental concerns, like submerging villages and animal habitats, get sidelined. and far from solving water supply problems, he sees dams and the reservoirs they create as the fix that backfires. when you build a reservoir, you also create some demand downstream. now, everyone downstream is looking at the water that has been stored, everyone has a plan for it. someone wants to use it in the agriculture, some people want to develop cities below reservoirs. so, and industries keep growing and your water demand keeps increasing and water shortage keeps getting bigger and bigger. from the hoover dam, the demands downstream can't be seen. but what is plain to see is the supply problem at source. wow — this is amazing. look how much the water has gone down. you can clearly see those water marks. officially, they're saying that the water capacity is only 38%. in both the south—west us and khuzestan, there's less rain and snowfall, and the reservoirs are running low. i put it to kaveh that surely climate change is key to water shortages everywhere, including iran. what is happening in iran today is the outcome of decades of bad management, poor environmental governance and a lack of foresight, not climate change. did climate change have a role? yes, to an extent, as a catalyst. but the iranians didn't consider water as a limit to growth and they continue developing and developing, thinking that with money and engineering, they can overcome the natural limitations. # there was a river, gather us together... this musician is from khuzestan. for years, he has used social media to post songs in english and persian about water. # now we stem deep. in this video, he explores the karun river. industry, agriculture, even hospital waste is dumped into the karun. for people in urban areas, sewage and sanitation are bigger water issues than supply alone. although official figures have never been released, according to unofficial estimates, a large portion of khuzestan�*s population is arab, and many of them blame poor water infrastructure on a long history of central government discrimination against the region. sitting on the border of iraq, people in khuzestan also felt the full force of the iran—iraq war in the 1980s. he shows his followers what the lack of water infrastructure means for people in their homes. he says the water from the main tap is only for washing, not cooking or drinking. waterfilters, tanks, water pumps — it all sounds very benign, but this is a daily reality in the lives of the people who live in the towns and cities of khuzestan. just a few miles from the centre of ahvaz is farmland. the farmers who protest that there is not enough water for their crops are part of an agricultural system that in fact takes the lion's share. globally irrigated agriculture accounts for 70% of water consumption. but in iran, that figure rises to a staggering 90%. agriculture enjoys considerable protection from government because it is a key driver of a long—held policy. after the 1979 revolution, food self—sufficiency became one of the most important slogans of the state. us sanctions further drive commitment to this goal. but many experts doubt this is achievable given iran's current level of development. one of the most important crops in the drive for self—sufficiency is sugar. in the 1990s, the government planted commercial—scale sugar farms across khuzestan. today, the province provides close to half of all the sugar grown across the country. but sugar cane is one of the most water—intensive crops in the world. every year in khuzestan, up to 3.5 billion litres of precious water are released from the dams to grow sugar cane, more than any other crop in khuzestan. this drain on water supplies was forewarned by many, including in parliament 18 years ago. now retired in ahvaz, ghasem shadidzadeh remains frustrated that the government is wedded to sugar cane rather than alternative crops that need less water. but rather than reducing water demand, the iranian government is more focused on increasing water supply. one source of water iran has turned to is the sea. iran is investing billions of dollars in an ambitious infrastructure project called the hope line. the intention is to provide and transfer desalination water across the whole country. kaveh madani believes that local desalination projects have potential benefits, but transferring large volumes of desalinated water across the country is not sustainable. why would you use water to grow rice in central iran and then desalinate water and transfer water to the dry locations? it doesn't make sense. the people of khuzestan who face another year of unpredictable rainfall have made it clear — they want action from the government. the head of the environment protection agency says they are ready to act. iran has managed its water supply sustainably for centuries, and the expertise to do so still exists today. but critics say this expertise is ignored. many would view such a prediction as extreme, but where experts, critics and the government agree is that solving khuzestan�*s water crisis is complicated. addressing the needs of people here while coping with the impact of climate change will be a formidable challenge. hello. we've had some dramatic skies across parts of the uk through saturday, especially in the west, where we saw the most frequent showers. and some of those showers brought thunder and lightning and impressive cloudscapes and it's all been down to an area of low pressure which has been slow moving to the west of ireland, and that continues gradually north and eastwards through sunday, bringing the most frequent showers to the north and the west of the uk and the strongest winds here as well. so, through sunday morning, most frequent showers across northern ireland, northern and western scotland, north west england, parts of wales, perhaps a few into south west england, not so many getting further eastwards — in fact, the further east you are, the more likely it is to stay dry with the best of the sunshine and hence, the highest temperatures. but somewhat cooler further north and west, where you've got the cloud, the showers and also the strength of the wind. so, for western coasts, particularly for irish sea coasts, we could see those gusts touching a5, maybe 50 mph through sunday afternoon, so it's a blustery afternoon but it should push the showers through fairly quickly. and whilst we can't rule out showers at glastonbury, certainly through the second half of the afternoon, it's looking dry. we should see increasing amounts of sunshine as well to end the day, so fingers crossed for much of the day it should stay mainly dry. but as we head through sunday evening and overnight, those showers start to make their way a little bit further eastwards. once again, the further east you are, it should stay mainly dry with some clearer skies and those showers just starting to ease across parts of scotland and northern ireland as we head through the early hours of monday morning. and it's a mild night with most places being in double figures. so, into monday, here's our area of low pressure. it's still close by, now to the north and the west of scotland, but we've got a second system starting to approach from the atlantic as well so, once again on monday, it's a day of sunny spells and showers but it looks, by this stage, that the showers will start to move their way a little bit further eastwards, so nowhere immune from a shower but there will be some lengthy spells of sunshine in between. the winds not as strong but it's still a fairly breezy day and in the sunshine, we'll be seeing temperatures quite widely in the high teens, if not the low 20s celsius. it looks like east anglia and south east england will probably see the warmest conditions on monday. but it is a fairly unsettled week ahead. there'll be showers or longer spells of rain for many but temporarily, it should get a little bit warmer across east anglia and south east england. that's all from me. bye— bye. this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: as russian forces capture severodonetsk in eastern ukraine, president zelensky says the war is entering an emotionally difficult stage. abortion clinics start to close in the us after a supreme court ruling removed american women's constitutional right to the procedure. the biggest tightening of gun restrictions in almost three decades — president biden signs new control measures into law after bipartisan support. norwegian police say they're treating friday's deadly attack on a series of oslo bars and nightclubs as islamist terrorism. # can't buy me love! # love! # can't buy me love! and sir paul mccartney makes history as glastonbury�*s