Iceland volcano erupts for fourth time in three months – the ‘most powerful so far’

Published

1 year ago

March 17, 2024

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A volcano in Iceland has erupted for the fourth time since December after previous eruptions destroyed roads and forced a town to evacuate.

Livestreams from the area showed fountains of molten rock soaring into the night sky from fissures in the ground.

Authorities had warned for weeks that an eruption was imminent on the Reykjanes peninsula, just south of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office confirmed a volcanic eruption started between Stora Skogfell and Hagafell on Saturday evening.

There were no reported flight disruptions on Saturday night, with the website of Reykjavik’s nearby Keflavik Airport showing it remained open both for departures and arrivals.

In nearby Grindavik, where some of the town’s 4,000 residents had returned following earlier outbreaks, police have declared a state of emergency for the area.

Evacuations were taking place, public broadcaster RUV said.

Sky correspondent Alex Crawford was among hundreds of holidaymakers evacuated from the popular Blue Lagoon spa, which lies a short distance northwest of the volcano site.

“We’ve seen a lot of police cars, ambulance cars, and a lot of people trying to get out of the area,” she said.

“Everyone has been quite calm and it’s all been quite orderly, they’ve been through this quite a lot recently.

“We’re all being taken to a safer place inland in Reykjavik.”

Grindavik, about 30 miles southwest of Reykjavik, was evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system awakened after almost 800 years with a series of earthquakes that opened large cracks in the ground north of the town.

The volcano erupted on 18 December, sending lava flowing away from Grindavik.

A second eruption on 14 January sent lava toward the town. Defensive walls that had been bolstered after the first eruption stopped some of the flow but several houses were burned to the ground.

Both eruptions lasted only a matter of days.

A third eruption on 8 February cut off district heating to more than 20,000 people as lava flows destroyed roads and pipelines, but it petered out within hours.

Geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson was quoted by RUV as saying this latest eruption is the most powerful so far.

The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.

Volcanic outbreaks in the Reykjanes peninsula are so-called fissure eruptions, which do not usually cause large explosions or significant dispersal of ash into the stratosphere.

However, scientists fear they could continue for decades, and Icelandic authorities have started building dykes to divert burning lava flows away from homes and critical infrastructure.

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Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, says US ambassador to Turkey

Published

13 mins ago

July 19, 2025

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Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, says US ambassador to Turkey

Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.

Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.

As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.

In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.

“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.

The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.

The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.

After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.

He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.

It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.

It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.

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World

‘Horrific incident’ at sheriff training facility in LA – at least three people dead

Published

6 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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'Horrific incident' at sheriff training facility in LA - at least three people dead

At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.

A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.

The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).

Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.

Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.

“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”

California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.

“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.

The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.

“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.

“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated.

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World

Unmasked: The 18 Russian spies who mounted series of attacks on UK

Published

6 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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Unmasked: The 18 Russian spies who mounted series of attacks on UK

Dozens of Russian spies have been sanctioned by the government – including those responsible for targeting Yulia Skripal five years before her attempted murder in Salisbury.

The Foreign Office has announced that three units of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) have been hit with sanctions, alongside 18 military intelligence officers.

Politics latest: Diane Abbott suspended from Labour

GRU officers attempted to murder Yulia Skipal and her father Sergei using the deadly Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury.

The 18 military intelligence officers have been targeted because of a sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity over many years, including in the UK, the Foreign Office said.

The government also accused the GRU of using cyber and information operations to “sow chaos, division and disorder in Ukraine and across the world”.

One of the groups sanctioned, Unit 26165, conducted online reconnaissance to help target missile strikes against Mariupol, including the bombing of Mariupol Theatre where hundreds of civilians, including children, were murdered.

Other military officers who have been sanctioned previously targeted Yulia Skripal’s mobile phone with malicious malware known as X-Agent.

The Skripals had moved to the UK after Sergei Skripal became a double agent, secretly working for the UK. He was tried for high treason and imprisoned in Russia – and later exchanged in a spy swap.

But five years after Yulia’s phone was targeted, the pair were poisoned with the nerve agent, Novichok, in Salisbury. Russia has always denied being involved in the chemical attack.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.

“The Kremlin should be in no doubt: we see what they are trying to do in the shadows and we won’t tolerate it.”

He said the UK was taking “decisive action” with the sanctions against Russian spies.

“Putin’s hybrid threats and aggression will never break our resolve. The UK and our allies’ support for Ukraine and Europe’s security is ironclad.”

Those sanctioned today include: