Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Intense Mount Etna eruption sends ash south, Catania Airport suspends arrivals, Italy


Intense Mount Etna eruption sends ash south, Catania Airport suspends arrivals, Italy


Mount Etna continued intense explosive and effusive activity on August 10, 2026, with abundant ash from Voragine and multiple active lava flows. Catania Airport suspended arrivals until 17:00 LT (15:00 UTC) as volcanic ash affected operations, while Toulouse VAAC maintained Etna’s Aviation Color Code at Red.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Etna Observatory, reported at 10:16 LT (08:16 UTC) on August 10 that surveillance cameras showed intense and continuous explosive activity at Voragine crater. Volcanic bombs were falling in the summit area, while abundant ash was dispersing toward the south-southwest.


Two active vents at approximately 2 750 m (9 020 feet) and 2 360 m (7 740 feet) elevation were feeding several lava flows that formed complex lava fields. The most advanced active fronts are near 1 500 m (4 920 feet) elevation at the base of the northern wall of Valle del Bove, in the Monte Rinatu area, INGV specialists said.


Due to Etna’s continued eruptive activity and volcanic ash present in the area, Società Aeroporto Catania S.p.A. (SAC) suspended arriving flights at Catania Airport until 17:00 LT (15:00 UTC).


“Due to Etna’s eruptive activity and the simultaneous emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, the closure of the airspace corresponding to the cloud in the southwest (Sector C1) has been ordered,” airport officials said. “Arrivals are suspended until 5:00 PM.”


“In relation to the situation, with a strong operational impact, we invite passengers not to go to the airport without first checking the status of their flight directly with the airline. The situation is being constantly monitored, and further updates will be provided as the volcanic activity and weather conditions evolve.”

Russia pounds key Ukrainian logistics and defense industry sites


RT


Russian forces have carried out new overnight strikes targeting military-related facilities in Kiev and Ukrainian-controlled Zaporozhye, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said the attack used high-precision ground-based weapons, and struck a Kiev Nova Poshta terminal – an automated sorting complex it said was used to store and distribute dual-use goods, including components for long- and medium-range drones, robotic systems, and electronic-warfare equipment.

Also hit was the Kiev-3 transport-logistics center, a roughly 50,000-square-meter site storing up to 15,000 FPV strike drones – some fitted with thermal-imaging cameras – along with ground control stations and components.

In the city of Zaporozhye, the ministry said it struck the Zaporozhstal steel plant, a leading producer of flat-rolled steel used to produce body armor and to plate fortifications and vehicles. The facility was also involved in fitting heavy armor with anti-drone screens, the statement added.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service confirmed the overnight barrage, saying a ballistic missile strike on Kiev injured one person, adding that a fire broke out at the warehouse in the Shevchenkovsky district but was later extinguished.

Local Ukrainian authorities in Zaporozhye said Russian forces had launched a combined attack using rockets and guided aerial bombs on the regional center, damaging several non-residential facilities and residential buildings, with six people killed and 52 injured.

Ukraine also launched drone barrages deep into Russia, with air defenses intercepting 396 Ukrainian UAVs across 15 regions, the Defense Ministry said. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 237 drones had been detected heading toward the capital region, adding that while most of them were neutralized at long range, 13 of them were destroyed on closer approaches.

Voronezh Governor Aleksandr Gusev reported fires at two warehouses of a “large company,” adding that drone debris killed a 49-year-old man during strikes on the wider region. While the governor did not name the affected firm, e-retailer Wildberries confirmed blazes at its facilities and reported an evacuation, adding that merchandise “was mostly not affected.”

Ukraine has for months been launching strikes deep into Russia, often targeting critical infrastructure and residential buildings, with Moscow retaliating by attacking Ukrainian defense-related sites. Russia maintains it never targets civilians.


Persecution Update:


Christians, Kurds, Yazidis, Alawites, and Druze: Just How Many Have Been Killed


Those who claim that there would be peace in the Middle East if Palestine became a state miss the point that, while the Israel-Gaza conflict grabs headlines, it is actually a very small component of a much larger pattern of Muslim violence that continues across the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Between 1999 and 2026, approximately 1,140,000 to 1,600,000 people were killed by Islamic extremists or Islamic religious-nationalists, while 10,125,000 to 14,215,000 were displaced. The victims were a wide range of ethnic and religious minorities, including other Muslims whom perpetrator groups considered heretics, infidels, or ethnic inferiors.

The victims were Yazidis, Alawites, Druze, Sunni Arabs in Iraq, Kurds, Jews and Israelis, Christians in Nigeria, Copts in Egypt, Assyrians and Syriacs, non-Arab Darfuris including the Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa, Tama, and Erenga, Christians in Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Christians in the Central African Republic, Christians in Ethiopia and Amhara, and Christians in Eritrea.

The perpetrator groups include ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRGC, Boko Haram, ISWAP, Turkey and Turkish state forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces, the RSF/Janjaweed, SPLA-N breakaway militants, Séléka/ex-Séléka, anti-balaka, the Oromo Liberation Army, Amhara Fano militias, and the Eritrean government.

ISIS’s ledger against religious minorities is the longest in this survey. In August 2014, ISIS fighters swept into Sinjar and began a campaign the UN Human Rights Council later formally recognized as genocide against the Yazidi minority, 3,000 to 10,000 killed or captured in the opening assault, roughly 3,100 murdered outright, and over 6,800 women and children trafficked into slavery. A UN-backed household survey later confirmed the scale. Eleven years on, 190,000 to 200,000Yazidis remain displaced in camps because Sinjar itself is still unlivable.

The same campaign reached Iraq’s Assyrian Christians on the Nineveh Plain that same August, driving the entire Assyrian population from the region, and reached Syria’s Assyrians six months later. On February 23, 2015, ISIS attacked 35 Khabur Valley villages, abducting 259 residents according to the most granular accounting available, though some retrospective reporting cites a toll as high as 800, a figure this survey treats as unverified pending independent corroboration.

ISIS’s war against Syria’s Kurds produced the single largest combatant toll in this entire document. The Kurdish-led SDF lost more than 11,000fighters destroying the physical caliphate between 2014 and 2019, a toll independently confirmed at the time of ISIS’s territorial defeat. Along the way, ISIS massacred Kurdish civilians directly. The 2014 siege of Kobani alone killed more than 800 in six weeks of ground fighting, and a second incursion in 2015 resulted in the execution of 223 to 233civilians in a single raid.


ISIS turned on Syria’s Druze twice. In July 2018, coordinated suicide bombings and house-to-house shootings in Sweida left 216 to 258 dead, at the time the worst violence to reach a province largely insulated from Syria’s war. Egypt’s Copts were struck repeatedly during the same period. ISIS bombings across a single six-month span in 2017 killed more than 110, and a February 2017 kill-list campaign in North Sinai drove 100 of 160 Christian families from the province entirely.

More....

Israel Was Just Directly Threatened By A Nuclear-Armed Islamic Nation—And It’s Not Iran


Israel Was Just Directly Threatened By A Nuclear-Armed Islamic Nation—And It’s Not Iran


Israel was just threatened by a nuclear-armed Islamic nation—and it wasn’t Iran.

Iran’s nuclear weapons program has been mostly obliterated by the U.S. and Israeli militaries over the past 14 months—thanks to the bold leadership of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Pakistan, however, currently possesses approximately 170 nuclear warheads. It’s the only Islamic nation that has the bomb, and over the weekend, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif made some very disturbing comments about the world’s one and only Jewish state.

Asif called Israel an “illegitimate state” and “a threat to the entire Muslim world.” He demanded all Islamic nations unite militarily against Israel, especially over the Palestinian issue. Again, this is the Defense Minister for a nuclear-armed Islamic nation!

His comments came as a new defense pact was announced between Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

The newly inked “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement” says that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all. Call me crazy, but that sounds an awful lot like the NATO arrangement—despite the three signatories downplaying this deal as strictly defensive in nature.

No matter how you look at it, this is a serious alliance, and the U.S. and Israel are no doubt taking notice. Pakistan has the bomb, Saudi Arabia has vast economic resources, and Turkey is a NATO member nation.

According to the reported parameters of this agreement, the next time the Saudis come under attack (from, say, Iran or the Houthis), Turkey and Pakistan would be obligated by the pact to come to their aid.

In other words, the world’s most volatile and strategic region just got even more complex. These are dangerous times.

As Israel’s enemies grow more aggravated, the need for prayer is greater than ever. Now is the time to stand together and pray for God’s protection over Israel and America.

Iran: Even in case of deal with Oman, we won’t open Hormuz until US caves to all our demands


Iran: Even in case of deal with Oman, we won’t open Hormuz until US caves to all our demands



Iran will not open the Strait of Hormuz until the US gives in to its terms, says the head of Iran’s National Security Council.

The US must end the war — including in Gaza and Lebanon — release frozen Iranian assets, and meet the rest of Iran’s conditions, says Mohsen Rezaei, according to the semi-official Tasnim outlet.

A potential agreement on the strait between Iran and Oman will not guarantee the opening of the strait, he says.


UK calls for end to settler violence, urges Hamas to give up arms, stresses ‘shared interest’ in stopping nuclear Iran

Qatar: Israel ‘dragging its feet’ on Gaza plan, should be pressured; Arab states to announce steps

Israel and Venezuela renew consular relations for first time since 2009