The Iran deal is starting to really sink in around the world

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NEED TO KNOW:

The world continues to come to terms with the fact that US President Barack Obama, with an heroic assist from US Secretary of State John Kerry, struck a deal with Iran — America's longtime enemy — that could prevent it from pursuing a nuclear weapon in exchange for sanctions relief. It's just so mind-boggling.

The relationship between Iran and the United States has has been characterized by violent rhetoric, actual coups, spying, terrorism, and other things of that nature, for more than half a century. Now, suddenly, Iran and the United States are making diplomacy. Soon, Iran will be exporting rugs and pistachios again. And selling oil. Cheap gas, anyone? The possibilities are limitless, assuming all goes to plan.

Obama is now busying himself with convincing the US Congress and various world leaders that the deal is a good thing. Congress has 60 days to vote on it. It's unlikely there will be enough votes to pass a veto-proof rejection of the deal. But nevertheless, Obama is going after every last vote. He seems to be relishing the fight like a man who has been breezing through spring and summer with victory after victory.

Lining up against him are the Republicans, of course. But also the Israel lobby, which is none to happy about the agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long framed Iran as an existential threat and called the deal a “mistake.” Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organization, however, doesn't seem to actually agree that Iran is as big a threat as Netanyahu likes to say over and over again publicly.

Other countries too are wondering how this will all shake out for them. Russia, for instance, has publicly hailed the agreement. But behind closed doors it must be at least a little concerned. The canceling of sanctions against Iran means a return of Iranian oil to the market. That means cheaper prices. That's bad for Russia, which is struggling under economic sanctions of its own and needs every penny it can get.

It should be very interesting to see how relations between Iran and the West change the world over the next few years. That is, if the US Congress doesn't manage to crush everyone's hopes before then.

WANT TO KNOW:

It had little choice, really. But last night the Greek parliament voted to accept brutal austerity terms demanded by its creditors in exchange for another bailout, which will allow it to pay those same creditors for earlier bailouts. If it voted to reject the terms, Greece would have been seriously screwed.

Greece is screwed anyway. Or, at least, millions and millions of Greeks are screwed. The terms require Greece to raise a wide-array of taxes. Those are going to really hurt Greeks who are already struggling. And then, on top of that, the terms require cuts to pension funds. The terms also require Greece to put aside $55 billion in state assets, which — incredibly — will be supervised by European governments, as collateral.

There is not a lot left that Greece can do to get back on its feet. It's essentially crippled by its creditors. The parliamentary vote must have been painful to make. What would you do? Lawmakers were caught between forcing the people they represent to live much harder lives and appeasing Greece's European creditors, which likely prevented a humanitarian and fiscal catastrophe of another kind.

After the vote, the hashtag “ThisIsACoup” began trending on Twitter. Agence France-Press explains:  “The gist of the epithet is that eurozone countries — particularly a bloc led by fiscal hawks Germany and Finland — have crafted a take-it-or-leave-it proposal that requires Greece to enact measures effectively putting its economy under their control.” Many things are not right.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

The words “hero” and “rats” are rarely uttered in the same sentence, let alone in succession. Yet here we are, about to talk about hero rats. In this special case, rats are more desirable than dogs. In Cambodia, rats are man's best friend. That's because rats are easy to transport, their diet is cheap, they are less diva about who they work with, and they can pick up the smell of a landmine like none other.

Cambodia is riddled with the buried explosives. An estimated 4 to 6 million landmines and unexploded ordnance litter Cambodia's countryside, forests and riverbeds. They've killed or maimed more than 64,000 people. Cambodia has the highest ratio of landmine amputees per capita in the world. It's a major problem.

Enter the African giant pouched rats. Trained in Tanzania, these actually kind of cute rodents will go a long way toward helping to clear some of these remnants of war. While metal detectors beep for every coin, can and piece of foil in the ground, rats only locate TNT; so when they signal by scratching the ground, there is usually a landmine beneath. And they are fast too. One rat can search 200 square meters in 20 minutes.