Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupts, red alert issued after evacuations

Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupts, red alert issued after evacuations

Sweden Herald

Guatemala's Fuego volcano has erupted. Hundreds of people have been evacuated after large amounts of lava poured out and flowed down the volcano's slopes.A red alert, the highest, has been issued in Guatemala and applies to three areas southwest of the capital, Guatemala City, according to the emergency services.

The Fuego volcano is Central America's most active volcano and its eruption began on Monday morning local time.

"You are always on guard because the volcano does not give any warning," says Lidia Ortiz, an evacuated resident.

The country's Institute of Volcanology is warning nearby communities on the western and southern sides of the volcano of the risks of "volcanic material."

World Bank Investing Billions of Dollars in Industrial Factory Farms

World Bank Investing Billions of Dollars in Industrial Factory Farms

Sophie Kevany

The World Bank and other large international development banks say they want to provide sustainable food systems, support biodiversity, reduce poverty and fight climate change.

But development banks are funneling billions more dollars into factory farms than into smaller farms that may mix crops and livestock and support a greater diversity of animal breeds, a new policy brief finds.

While development bank funding usually aims to increase food security in poorer countries, one of the brief’s three authors warns that, in at least one example, bank lending could be indirectly supporting the expansion of fast food restaurants in a richer country in addition to securing food supplies in a poorer one.

Over the five years from 2020 to 2024, 16 development banks collectively directed about $13 billion of financial support to industrial animal farms, compared to about $9 billion to support smaller, more diversified animal farms, according to the new policy brief by the International Accountability Project and the Critical Research on Industrial Livestock Systems Network.

The remaining $7 billion directed to animal agriculture was uncategorizable due to limited information. The policy brief has not been peer reviewed by a scientific journal.

This funding pattern, the brief says, “indicates a growing preference among major development finance institutions to support large-scale, commercially oriented animal agriculture operations,” while the non-industrial systems that “often represent smallholder or small-scale producers” receive less.

“We’ve known there’s a trend” toward development banks funding industrial livestock operations, Mehroosh Tak, one of the report’s co-authors and associate professor in economics at London’s SOAS University, tells Sentient. But this is the first time researchers have quantified that trend, she says.

Factory farms cause documented harms to the environment, animals and people. For example, they cause widespread destruction of forests and other wildlife habitats to grow vast monocultures of soy, corn and other animal-feed crops.

These monocultures reduce biodiversity, degrade the soil and rely on heavy pesticide use. The industry also relies on highly selective breeds of pigs, chickens and other livestock to produce ever more eggs, meat and milk at the expense of the animals’ own health.

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A Dangerous Deal: Trump's Board Of Peace And Hamas

A Dangerous Deal: Trump's Board Of Peace And Hamas

KHALED ABU TOAMEH/GATESTONE INSTITUTE

For nearly a year, the international community insisted that there could be no future for the Gaza Strip unless Hamas was stripped of every weapon, every tunnel, every missile factory, and every military capability.

US President Donald J. Trump's September 2025 peace plan was explicit: Gaza would be demilitarized, terrorist infrastructure destroyed, and weapons rendered permanently unusable.

Article 13 of Trump's 20-point plan states:

"All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors."

Now, however, that clear objective appears to have been replaced by something radically different. Instead of eliminating Hamas's arsenal, negotiators are discussing storing weapons, transferring them to another Palestinian party, and even allowing Hamas members to retain "personal firearms."

The original goal of Trump's peace plan was not to relocate Hamas's arsenal. It was to eliminate it permanently. Replacing "demilitarization" with "storage" is a win for Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.

The latest deal between Trump's Board of Peace and Hamas, titled "A Roadmap for Completing the Implementation of President Trump's Comprehensive Peace Plan in Gaza," states:

"A process to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels, shall begin after completing the remaining commitments under Sharm Sheikh Protocol, the entry of NCAG [National Committee for the Administration of Gaza] and deployment of ISF [International Stabilization Force]."

How did the promise of permanent demilitarization become a discussion about warehouses full of Hamas weapons? Weapons stored in warehouses remain weapons that function. Explosives stored today can be easily recovered tomorrow. Rocket factories that are preserved can resume production. Tunnels that are mapped rather than destroyed can be used again.

The issue has never been where Hamas keeps its weapons. The issue has always been Hamas having access them.

The assumption that the NCAG or ISF would be able to prevent terrorists from regaining control over the stored weapons is totally misleading. Even more disturbing is the new deal's assertion that "no weapons shall be transferred or handed to Israel or non-Palestinian parties."

Transferring weapons from one Palestinian group to another is not demilitarization.

Equally disturbing is the new roadmap's conditioning of disarmament on an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip:

"This process [to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels] shall be linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases, from the areas under its control in Gaza and the decommissioning of [Israel-backed] armed militias."

Why should a terrorist organization that carried out the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel be allowed to dictate the conditions of its own disarmament? No country fighting ISIS or al-Qaeda would first withdraw its forces and only then hope terrorists voluntarily surrender their weapons. Hamas should not be negotiating the terms of its defeat. It should be compelled to unconditionally surrender and disarm.

Antisemitic assaults in Britain surged by 82% in first six months of 2026

Antisemitic assaults in Britain surged by 82% in first six months of 2026 — report

Zev Stub

Antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom rose 21 percent in the first six months of 2026 compared to the same period last year, reaching the second-highest total on record for the first half of a year, according to a new report by the Community Security Trust.

The organization recorded 1,926 anti-Jewish hate incidents between January and June, up from 1,598 during the first half of 2025. The total comes out to an average of 321 monthly incidents, nearly double the figure from before October 7, 2023.

Physical attacks rose sharply, with 135 recorded antisemitic assaults, an 82% increase year-over-year. Incidents in schools jumped 59% to 178, while synagogue-related incidents surged by 31%, CST notes.

The most serious incidents included the terror stabbing of two visibly Jewish men in Golders Green on April 29, which fueled 71 further anti-Jewish incidents over the next three days, CST says. The period also saw a series of arson attacks targeting London synagogues and Jewish-linked properties, including the burning of Hatzola ambulances and strikes on multiple synagogues that were linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and claimed by an organization later proscribed by the UK government.

“Thousands of Jewish families living in fear in their own country, and it is completely unacceptable,” says Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp. “Antisemitism has no place in Britain and real action needs to be taken to stamp it out. This is a national emergency.”

Video shows skinheads gathering at Bulgaria hotel where Jewish youths were staying

Footage shared by Hebrew media shows an antisemitic incident in Bulgaria on Monday night, in which a group of skinheads descended on a hotel in Bansko after learning that a dozen Jewish youths were staying there.

The thugs located the group, who were part of a delegation of Jewish youth group leaders, and threatened them, including with shouts of “Sieg Heil,” according to a report in Israel Hayom.

Police dispatched to the area initially dispersed the neo-Nazi crowd, only for the assailants to return shortly thereafter, the report says.

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Israel, Lebanon, US weigh who will verify Hezbollah disarmament after negotiations in Rome

Israel, Lebanon, US weigh who will verify Hezbollah disarmament after negotiations in Rome

AMICHAI STEIN, REUTERS

The latest round of US-facilitated talks between Israel and Lebanon began on Tuesday in Rome and will continue through Thursday.

The discussions concern which country, or countries, will be responsible for verifying that areas entered by the Lebanese Armed Forces under the pilot phase of Hezbollah’s disarmament are free of both Hezbollah operatives and the group’s weapons, three sources familiar with the talks have told The Jerusalem Post.

Italy might be one of the countries, the sources said.

The talks were under way, US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

“The United States remains fully committed to supporting both governments as they carry this process forward in a manner that delivers lasting security for both countries, eliminates security threats to Israel, and restores Lebanese state authority throughout the south,” he wrote on X/Twitter.

On Tuesday, Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal met with the commander of Italy’s Joint Operations Command, Lt.-Gen. Giovanni Maria Iannucci. They discussed “the overall situation, recent developments, ways to support the Lebanese Army in light of the challenges it faces, and the available options for the period following the end of UNIFIL’s mission,” the Lebanese Army said.

At the outset of the negotiations, Israel insisted that it should be the party authorized to enter areas secured by the Lebanese Armed Forces so that it can provide the final confirmation they had been cleared of Hezbollah’s presence.

Following strong opposition from the Lebanese government, however, Israeli, Lebanese, and US officials began discussing which country, or countries, could verify that the areas are free of Hezbollah personnel and weapons.

Israel and the US are firmly opposed to extending the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is set to expire at the end of this year. They do not want the multinational peacekeeping force to be responsible for conducting the final verification on the ground.

No final decision has been made, and several alternatives remain under consideration, a source familiar with the matter told the Post.