Category: 2. World

Aug. 3 (UPI) — An eastern Russian volcano has erupted for the first time in more than 500 years, which may have been related to an 8.8 magnitude earthquake last week, experts said.

The Krasheninnikov Volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula emitted a plume of ash 3.7 miles into the sky overnight. The last recorded eruption of the volcano happened in the 15th century, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said.

Officials urged residents of the area to move away from the area, and volcano monitoring staff have been removed, though there have been no imminent threats to populated areas. No deaths have been reported.

The Kamchatka Peninsula is located on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” known for the frequency volcanoes and earthquakes that occur there.

Last week’s massive earthquake was the latest in a series of seismic events in the region, including another temblor that shook a region 11 times zones away from Moscow on the Pacific peninsula, Russian seismic officials reported. The statement said the eruption occurred far from areas that could directly affect people.

The volcano erupted at about 6 a.m. local time Sunday when staff observed gas and vapor spewing from Krasheninnikov’s crater, officials said in a statement on social media.

Officials in the volcano reserve called the eruption an “exciting and fascinating” event. Krasheninnikov is one of 8 volcanoes nestled among the reserve near Kamchatka.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Rescue operations are ongoing to find dozens more missing, local authorities say.

At least 54 African refugees and migrants have died and dozens remain missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, according to health authorities in Abyan governorate in the south of the country.

Abdul Qader Bajamil, director of the health office in Zanzibar, said on Sunday that rescue teams had recovered 54 bodies from the beaches there and surrounding areas, while 12 survivors were transferred to Shaqra Hospital.

The boat carrying around 150 people, mostly from Ethiopia, capsized in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Shaqra, in the Abyan governorate, due to strong winds on Saturday evening.

Bajamil noted that authorities were making arrangements to bury the victims in an area near the city, while search operations continued amid difficult conditions.

The waterways between Yemen and the Horn of Africa are a common but perilous route for refugees and migrants travelling in both directions. The area saw a spike in Yemenis fleeing the country after the civil war broke out in 2014.

Houthi rebels and government forces reached a truce deal in April 2022 that has resulted in a decrease in violence and the slight easing of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Meanwhile, some of those fleeing conflict in Africa, particularly in Somalia and Ethiopia, have sought refuge in Yemen or have sought to travel through the country to the more prosperous Gulf countries. The route remains one of the “busiest and most perilous” migration routes in the world, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).

To reach Yemen, people are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.

According to the IOM, more than 60,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, marking a significant drop from the previous year’s total of 97,200.

The decreased numbers come amid increased patrols of the waters, according to an IOM report released in May.

This is a deadly route that has killed hundreds over the past two years. According to the IOM, 558 people died along the route last year.

Over the past decade, at least 2,082 people have disappeared along the route, including 693 known to have drowned, according to the IOM. Yemen currently houses around 380,000 refugees and migrants.

A volcano on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula erupted overnight into Sunday for what scientists said is the first time in hundreds of years, days after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake.

The Krasheninnikov volcano sent ash 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) into the sky, according to staff at the Kronotsky Reserve, where the volcano is located. Images released by state media showed dense clouds of ash rising above the volcano.

“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” Kamchatka’s emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram during the eruption.

The eruption was accompanied by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and prompted a tsunami warning for three areas of Kamchatka. The tsunami warning was later lifted by Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services.

“This is the first historically confirmed eruption of the Krasheninnikov volcano in 600 years,” Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, based in the U.S., however, lists Krasheninnikov’s last eruption as occurring 475 years ago in 1550.

The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said late Sunday that the volcano’s activity was decreasing but that “moderate explosive activity” could continue.

The eruption occurred after a huge earthquake struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, an 8.8-magnitude temblor that caused small tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and prompted warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand.

A human tragedy is unfolding in western Gaza City across a landscape of hunger, with displaced people living crammed into crowded tents, according to a United Nations’ report describing the horrendous situation resulting from the Israeli blockade of the shattered enclave. Earning a living has become a daily struggle, and hundreds of men, women and children stand in endless queues, under the scorching sun, outside the few community kitchens that serve nothing but lentil soup, the report from Gaza said.

A community kitchen in western Gaza reveals a panorama of painful scenes amid displaced people suffering, their cries for help and their urgent appeals to the world, demanding an end to their tragedy and relief, it said, describing the scene. 

After a bitter struggle, Ziad Al-Ghariz, an elderly displaced person from Gaza, managed to obtain a cup of lentil soup. He sat on the floor and began to take slow sips. He told UN News, an international media website, that he had not tasted bread for 10 consecutive days.

 “I eat the lentil soup distributed by the community kitchen,” he said. “I cannot afford flour at all. I do not have the money for it, so I try to get whatever the kitchen distributes. The people of Gaza are hungry.” Young Mohammed Nayfeh spent four hours waiting for a meal for his family, the report said.

 “I’ve been standing here for four hours, and I can’t get any food in the crowds and the sun,” he said. “We’re dying. We need support. We need food and drink. Where is the world? We’re dying here of hunger. Every day we eat only lentils. There’s no flour, no food, no drink. We’re dying of hunger.” Umm Muhammad, a displaced person from the Shujaiya neighborhood, described the macabre scene around her.

“There is no water, no food, no bread,” she said. “The bitterness of the situation forces us to come here. In the end, we return with nothing. We either return burned under the sun or trampled underfoot due to overcrowding, and we return empty-handed. And no one listens.”

Hussam al-Qamari, who was also displaced from Shujaiya, said the situation is no longer acceptable. “We are dying, and our children are starving to death,” she said. “So much is happening to the people of Gaza. Much of what is happening is unacceptable. An old man like me has been standing here since morning, carrying a bowl for his children to eat breakfast, and they still haven’t eaten.”

According to the latest findings from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one in five children in Gaza City suffers from malnutrition, with cases increasing daily.

The image of this little girl standing behind an iron fence, holding her empty bowl waiting for a little lentil soup, encapsulates this horrific tragedy, for which children pay the heaviest price.

Bassam Abu Odeh, a displaced person from Beit Hanoun, made an appeal. “We call on all the free people of the world and peace lovers to help us provide food and water until this famine imposed on us by the occupation ends. The trucks allowed into the area by the occupation are not even a drop in the ocean of needs. We have no one, but God.”

Umm Rami, a displaced person from the Zeitoun neighborhood, said the necessities of life are lacking in Gaza, calling on the world to look at the people of the Strip with compassion.

 “I came here to get a small amount of food to feed my children. “This is our reality now: we come to community kitchens for food, having once lived with dignity and respect in our own homes.”

 “We have reached a point where we stand in lines for food and water. As you can see, the lives of children now revolve around the lines for water and food. According to a warning issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Gaza is facing a severe risk of famine, as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the beginning of the current conflict. The alert highlights that two of the three famine thresholds have been observed in parts of the Gaza Strip, with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warning that time is running out to launch a comprehensive humanitarian response.

The UN Secretary-General, antonio Guterres, said the alert confirms that Gaza is on the brink of famine. He said the facts are undeniable, and that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.

 “This is not a warning, but a reality unfolding before our eyes,” he said.

He stressed the need for the aid trickle to become an “ocean”, with food, water, medicine and fuel flowing without hindrance. “This nightmare must end,” he declared.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that days after the start of the tactical pauses announced by the Israeli authorities in Gaza, “we continue to witness casualties among those seeking assistance and more deaths from hunger and malnutrition.” The UN office said that parents continue to struggle to save their starving children. Desperate and hungry people continue to unload small amounts of aid from trucks that manage to exit the crossings.

Although the UN and its partners are taking advantage of every opportunity to support those in need during unilateral tactical pauses, conditions for delivering aid and supplies are far from adequate, according to OCHA. 

A top aide to United States President Donald Trump on Sunday accused India of effectively financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by purchasing oil from Moscow, after the US leader escalated pressure on New Delhi to stop buying Russian oil.

“What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” said Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of Trump’s most influential aides.

Miller’s criticism was some of the strongest yet by the Trump administration about one of the United States’ major partners in the Indo-Pacific.

“People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” Miller said on Fox News programme ‘Sunday Morning Futures’.

The Indian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Indian government sources told Reuters on Saturday that New Delhi will keep purchasing oil from Moscow despite US threats. A 25 per cent tariff on Indian products went into effect on Friday as a result of its purchase of military equipment and energy from Russia.

Trump has also threatened 100pc tariffs on US imports from countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine.

Miller tempered his criticism by noting Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he described as “tremendous”.

GAZA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM – 03rd Aug, 2025) The United Arab Emirates continues its humanitarian mission to support the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Today, the UAE conducted its 61st airdrop of relief supplies as part of “Birds of Goodness” operation under the framework of the Operation Chivalrous Knight 3.

The airdrop was conducted in coordination with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and with the participation of France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy.

These airdrops aim to deliver essential humanitarian aid to areas that are difficult to access by land due to the ongoing field conditions. The deliveries include a mix of food items and urgent relief supplies.

With this latest airdrop, the total volume of humanitarian aid delivered by air has now surpassed 3,818 tonnes of food and relief materials, directed toward supporting the most affected and vulnerable communities inside Gaza.

In addition, the UAE facilitated the entry of 20 trucks loaded with food aid into the Gaza Strip today, as part of its sustained efforts to alleviate humanitarian suffering and address the basic needs of the population.

These initiatives reaffirm the UAE’s steadfast commitment to humanitarian principles and its enduring approach of standing with fraternal nations in times of crisis and emergency.