Laith Jabbar, a gas station worker drinks water in Basra, Iraq, on Monday, July. 27, 2020. As temperatures soar to record levels this summer, Iraq’s power supply falls short of demand again, providing a spark for renewed anti-government protests. Amid a nationwide virus lockdown, homes are without electricity for hours in the blistering heat. BASRA, Iraq (AP) — In Iraq’s oil-rich south, the scorching summer months pose painful new choices in the age of the coronavirus: stay at home in the sweltering heat with electricity cut off for hours, or go out and risk the virus. This is Zain al-Abidin’s predicament. A resident of al-Hartha district, in Basra province, al-Abidin lost his job due to pandemic-related restrictions. During the day he listens helplessly to his four-month old daughter cry in the unbearable heat, too poor to afford private generators to offset up to eight-hour power cuts. “I have no […]