A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday, the meteorological office said, spraying red-hot lava and smoke in its sixth outbreak since December.

The total length of the fissure was about 3.9 kilometers (2.42 miles) and had extended by 1.5 kilometers in about 40 minutes, the Icelandic Met Office, which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes, said in a statement.

Livestreams from the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula showed glowing hot lava shooting up from the ground, their bright-yellow and orange colors set in sharp contrast against the dark night sky.

“The impact is limited to a localized area near the eruption site. It does not present a threat to life and the area nearby was evacuated,” Iceland’s ministry for foreign affairs said on social platform X.

The lava was not flowing toward the nearby Grindavik fishing town, whose nearly 4,000 residents have been mostly evacuated since November, the Met office said.

The eruption took place on the Sundhnukar crater row east of mountain Sylingafell, partly overlapping the other recent outbreaks on the Reykjanes peninsula, in a volcanic system which has no central crater but erupts by opening giant cracks in the ground.

Studies had shown magma accumulating underground, prompting warnings of new volcanic activity in the area located just south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.

The most recent eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula, home to some 30,000 people or nearly 8% of the country’s population, ended on June 22 after spewing fountains of molten rock for 24 days.

The eruptions show the challenge faced by the island nation of nearly 400,000 people as scientists warn that the Reykjanes peninsula could face repeated outbreaks for decades or even centuries.

Since 2021, there have been nine eruptions on the peninsula, following the reactivation of geological systems that had been dormant for 800 years.

In response, authorities have constructed man-made barriers to redirect lava flows away from critical infrastructure, including the Svartsengi power plant, the Blue Lagoon outdoor spa and the town of Grindavik.

Flights were unaffected, Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport said on its web page, but the nearby Blue Lagoon luxury geothermal spa and hotel said it had shut down and evacuated its guests.

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

Iceland, which is roughly the size of the US state of Kentucky, boasts more than 30 active volcanoes, making the north European island a prime destination for volcano tourism — a niche segment that attracts thrill seekers.

Guns swinging from their hips, two soldiers in black combat boots and green tactical clothing appear to wire explosives to pumps at the Canada Water reservoir in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Moments later, an orange blaze tears through the critical facility in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, as ribbons of grey smoke erupt into the sky.

The reservoir could hold 3 million liters of water and was central to the treatment and distribution of water in the Rafah Governate, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), providing water for 150,000 people prior to October 7, when the war began.

It added that it examines reports of videos posted to social media and handles them with disciplinary measures. The IDF said the incident was under review by the Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, “an independent investigative mechanism outside the chain of command entrusted with investigating exceptional events in warfare.”

There have been many water facilities damaged or destroyed by Israel’s 10-month-long assault in Gaza, according to the UN and various other international bodies, compounding the civilian population’s suffering, risking the spread of disease and leading human rights experts to accuse Israel of using water supply as a weapon.

“IHL is meant to protect against indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population or the objects they depend upon (for) survival,” he said.

Even before the controlled explosion in late July, the Israeli siege drained fuel and electricity supplies needed to power the Canada Water reservoir and other water systems in the city, according to Rafah’s mayor, Ahmed Al-Sofi, causing severe shortages.

The amount of water available in Gaza works out at 4.74 liters of water (1 gallon) per person per day, Oxfam reported in July, adding that this is “just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush.” The international nonprofit has accused Israel of using water as a “weapon of war,” saying Palestinians in Gaza have “almost no water to drink, let alone to bathe, cook, or clean.”

Extreme summer heat in Gaza is making a desperate shortage of water even worse for Palestinians already stalked by famine and struggling with repeated displacement.

Israel’s war in Gaza has reduced supplies of fuel, chlorine and spare parts, stifling water production, purification and sewage pumping, according to the UN. Around 70% of all water and sanitation facilities in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, the WASH Cluster, a United Nations-led group that coordinates humanitarian efforts for water, sanitation and hygiene, said on July 24, citing satellite analysis from the UN Satellite Centre.

More than 1.7 million cases of infectious diseases have been recorded in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health there. Traces of the highly infectious polio virus – transmitted through faeces, and contaminated water or food – were found in a 10-month-old child in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah earlier this month. World Health Organization (WHO) testing discovered the virus in sewage samples in Gaza in July, putting thousands of Palestinians at risk of contracting a disease that can cause paralysis.

After the Gaza Ministry of Health declared a polio epidemic last month, the WHO warned that ongoing Israeli bombardment had stifled vaccination efforts in Gaza. They are now calling for a halt to the fighting to allow for an effective vaccination drive.

Widower Alaa Riyad says he treks many miles every day under the glare of the sun to collect water for his family, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Israeli attacks in the strip have killed more than 40,200 Palestinians and injured about 93,000 since the war started, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The Israeli military launched its aerial and ground assault in Gaza after the militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and abducting more than 250, according to Israeli authorities.

‘Near complete destruction of all water infrastructure’

Gaza’s water crisis has been building for decades. In 2017, the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, said that 95% of water from Gaza’s sole aquifer was “unfit for human consumption,” due to over-extraction, seawater infiltration and sewage contamination.

In 2021, about 90% of Gaza’s water came from groundwater wells drawing water from that aquifer, according to the Palestinian Water Authority. The remaining 10% came mostly from desalination plants and Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, via three pipelines.

“What we’re seeing so far… is the near-complete destruction of all water infrastructure, which includes water pumping stations, water wells, the whole piping system in Gaza,” Zwijnenburg said. “The few functioning pumps that are still operating, the quality of the water is so bad… (But) people have no choice but to drink it.”

Within the first week of the war, Saaed Al-Madhoun, an emergency response manager for the humanitarian agency CARE International, was forced to flee an Israeli incursion with his family near their home in Gaza City, which was later flattened by bombardment.

The aid worker is haunted by “constant fear and uncertainty,” as the threat of Israeli attacks loom over his wife and five children, aged between 1 and 13 years old. They are displaced in miserable conditions in Deir al-Balah, where the entire family survives on just 20 liters of water per day – less than the minimum of 3 liters per person needed for survival, according to UNICEF.

‘Completely miserable’ conditions in tent camps

The Israeli offensive has displaced up to 1.9 million people – nearly the entire population – in Gaza, according to the UN. People in sprawling tent camps say they can barely access potable water or sanitation facilities in areas polluted by raw sewage and teeming with bugs. Women endure several menstrual cycles without washing, according to the UN. Others queue in the heat to use toilets at overwhelmed hospitals – or risk being chased by dogs to use washrooms in the middle of the night. The UN previously recorded one improvised shelter with only 25 toilets for 14,000 people inside and 59,000 outside.

“We get the water supposedly clean and drinkable,” he said. “But gastrointestinal diseases and intestinal diseases occur… We do not know that it is unclean until after we use it,” he said.

“Obtaining clean water is difficult. Getting water for bathing is more difficult. Finding a toilet to relieve oneself is also very difficult.”

Muslims cannot find enough water to make ablution before prayer, a necessity for those seeking moments of relief through faith.

Children suffer from skin rashes, expectant mothers face stillbirth risk

Asma struggles to distract her children from the stinging pain of blisters and itchiness of head lice. The Palestinian mother is staying with seven relatives in Deir al-Balah, where insects crawl between the folds of their tent.

“My children are sick, and we can’t even find medical treatment,” she added. “We have no shampoo, or detergent to wash our clothes… What are we supposed to do?”

Chronic water shortages will compound “all the existing fragility” among the population, according to Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, especially for the most vulnerable.

The stress of war paired with water shortages increases the risk of stillbirth, pre-term delivery and blood clots for pregnant women in Gaza, Haj-Hassan said. Breastfeeding women are less likely to produce enough milk for newborns, potentially causing malnourishment. Those who can access sparse supplies of powdered infant formula may not find clean water to make up bottles, compounding the risk of illness, Haj-Hassan added.

Sustained restrictions on aid

In some areas, water has risen from $7 for 1,000 liters (about 264 gallons) to $45 to $50, Haj-Hassan said. Hamouda, the father-of-three displaced in Deir al-Balah, said the daily cost of water for him and his family has risen from one-third of a dollar in October to $2.

“For nine months, we have been enduring the ongoing water crisis… I hope there will be a solution to the water problem because I can no longer handle it. I am mentally and physically exhausted,” he said in July.

Indian leader Narendra Modi has arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where he is set for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that will be keenly watched in Russia as its assault on its neighbor grinds on.

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko confirmed Modi’s arrival in a post on Telegram Friday.

Modi’s visit, the first by an Indian leader since Ukrainian independence, comes just weeks after he traveled to Moscow in a symbolic first overseas trip of his new term as leader, where he held talks with President Vladimir Putin that were criticized by Kyiv.

New Delhi has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and peace in Ukraine but has refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion as it seeks to maintain relations with Moscow – a major supplier of its arms and a longstanding partner it sees as key to balancing its strained relationship with China.

India has also acted as an economic lifeline for Russia, ramping up purchases of its crude oil after countries around the world slapped sanctions on Moscow, isolating it economically.

India overtook China as the world’s biggest importer of Russian oil last month, according to Reuters, citing data from trade and industry sources.

The Indian leader’s arrival in Kyiv — a day ahead of Ukraine’s independence day — follows his two-day trip to Poland, where he elevated India’s ties with the NATO member. Referencing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East during a press conference in Warsaw, Modi reiterated India’s stance that “no problem can be solved on the battlefield.”

“We support dialogue and diplomacy for the early restoration of peace and stability. For this, India, along with its friendly countries, is ready to provide all possible support,” Modi said Thursday speaking alongside Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.

Tusk praised Modi’s “intention to help end the war in Ukraine in a quick, peaceful and fair manner.”

‘Landmark visit’

Modi’s visit to Ukraine also comes at a key inflection point in the two-and-a-half-year war, as Ukrainian forces earlier this month launched an unprecedented offensive into Russian territory that Moscow is scrambling to counter.

Zelensky and Kyiv officials are urgently working to expand global backing for their peace formula, which is predicated on the withdrawal of Russian troops from their land. The upcoming US presidential election has raised concerns that crucial American backing could be cut if Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has been critical of NATO and US support for Kyiv, is elected.

Ukraine, throughout the war, has sought to convince countries that maintain close relationships with Russia — such as India and China — to push Putin toward Kyiv’s terms for peace.

But while India attended a Kyiv-backed international peace summit in Switzerland in June, it stopped short of endorsing the gathering’s communique, saying that resolution requires a “sincere and practical engagement between the two parties to the conflict.”

During his visit to Ukraine, Modi is expected to discuss with Zelensky what India’s Foreign Ministry described as “the entire gamut of bilateral relations,” including trade, infrastructure and defense.

“This landmark visit, of course, takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which will also form part of discussions,” the ministry’s secretary for the West, Tanmaya Lal, said Monday.

The Ukrainian presidential office said Modi and Zelensky would “discuss issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation” and that documents would be signed.

Officials from both countries have in recent months expressed interest in restoring trade, which has dropped during the war, according to annual data from Ukraine.

Modi and Zelensky have met twice on the sidelines of G7 summits since the start of the war, including in June in Italy.

Zelensky last month condemned Modi’s meeting with Putin, which coincided with a Russian assault on several Ukrainian cities and a deadly strike on a children’s hospital.

Then, the Ukrainian leader described Modi’s rapport with Putin as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Modi did not directly address the strikes at the time, but he made what appeared to be some of his most critical comments to date on the war, saying “any person who believes in humanity is troubled when there are deaths, especially when innocent children die.”

He also called for a “path to peace through dialogue.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

“When we’re building something, we’re sort of alone. And to be with others like ourselves is just so affirming, and nourishing, and wonderful,” Elevate Prize Foundation founder Joe Deitch explained. “We can learn from each other. We can get that spark and have that ‘aha’ moment. And that’s what all this is about.”

“The work that we’re doing is difficult work. We’re trying to solve big challenges, address major and systemic problems,” he said. “Having community, being able to talk about what we’re dealing with, and to share in those challenges is really empowering.”

At the summit, the Elevate Prize Foundation announced a concept they spent years developing called the Whole Leader. The idea is that leaders need to prioritize both self-care and community care. By helping the Heroes take care of themselves and avoid burnout, it will enhance their ability to help others – a top priority for Elevate.

“Self-care is something that’s hard to come by in the social impact space,” Elevate Prize Foundation CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram said. “It feels selfish; it feels not necessary to the urgent struggles that are in front of us.”

“As a nonprofit leader, we are always going, going, going. We don’t think about ourself,” he said.

“I believe it’s such a central aspect of our ability to have self-reflection and self-inquiry, to connect to ourselves to be able to connect to other people,” Pearce said.

Self-care was not the only item on the agenda. Elevate also provided crucial lessons aimed at expanding the Heroes’ reach and taking their life-changing work to the next level. That included sessions on nonprofit finances, board management, and strategies for sharing their stories.

“It’s important to raise and amplify positive things that are happening in the world,” she said. “With everything that’s happening now, I think some folks just wanna feel a sense of hope.”

For Elevate founder Joe Deitch, the summit is part of the foundation’s efforts to ignite the purpose and passion that exists in all of us.

“It’s about awakening the hero within,” he said. “By making good famous, we take good further. We can inspire the whole world. We can let people know that they too can do something.”

One of the world’s busiest harbors became the scene of a dramatic rescue operation Friday after a young humpback whale was spotted with fishing gear tangled around its tail.

Rescuers were first alerted to the 13-meter whale in Sydney Harbour on Thursday afternoon when volunteer rescue group ORRCA received a call on its rescue hotline.

Crews from the New South Wales large whale disentanglement team took up the chase and attached a GPS tracker to the whale, but the device fell off soon after.

The operation paused overnight when the sun went down, but the whale was spotted again in the harbor early Friday morning and the chase resumed.

Local media streamed live video from a helicopter circling overhead as the rescuers tried to get close enough to cut the gear loose. Video showed the whale’s dark silhouette beneath the water, as it popped up occasionally to thrash its tail.

“The challenge with that whale was that it had so much energy,” said disentanglement team leader Luke McSweeney. “It took quite a long time for us to tire it out so that we could get in and do that cut safely.”

Rescuers in rubber boats tried to slow the whale down by attaching orange floats, increasing its resistance through the water. Once they got close enough, they used specialized cutting equipment – blades attached to poles – to cut it free.

“Once it was cut free, it certainly took off free swimming, and really looked fantastic,” said Ben Khan, area manager for New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service.

Humpback whales migrate past Sydney on a route known as the “humpback highway,” said wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta. Along the way, sometimes they get caught up in fishing gear.

“The disentanglement team have done an undoubtedly amazing job. It’s a very dangerous task and one that’s very unpredictable,” said Pirotta.

“Every single whale entanglement is different, and unfortunately, whale entanglement happens globally, but we tend to see it here in Australia annually when we have humpback whales in our waters migrating,” she said.

The whole operation took place in the middle of one of the main thoroughfares through Sydney Harbour, where ferries regularly cross from Circular Quay to Manly.

Authorities set up an exclusion zone, warning vessels to stay away, but there was no impact on cross-harbor commutes, according to government officials.

“We managed to do the whole operation without any disruption to passenger services and timetable ferries, which is an excellent outcome as well,” said Shane Davey from NSW Maritime.

After it was freed, the whale was seen swimming south, out of the harbor.

“Now that it has been disentangled, hopefully it continues south,” said Davey.

The body believed to be that of Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, has been found by divers searching the wreck of the Bayesian superyacht that sank off Sicily this week, an Italian coast guard official said Friday.

With the wreck located nearly 50 meters (160 feet) underwater, it may still be some time before divers – who have only around 12 minutes to reach and explore the site before having to resurface – are able to retrieve the body.

After retrieving six bodies from the wreck over the past four days, Lynch’s is the final body being searched for by Italian authorities. The body of her father, Mike Lynch, was retrieved and identified on Thursday, an Italian interior ministry official told Reuters.

The British-flagged vessel, with 22 passengers and crew members on board, sank on Monday after its mast, one of the world’s tallest, broke in half during a violent storm. Fifteen people were rescued on Monday and one body was recovered – thought to be that on the onboard chef Recaldo Thomas.

Six others were initially reported missing: Lynch and his daughter; Morgan Stanley International director Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer; and prominent American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Five days on, Italian authorities are still working to understand how the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht sank so quickly. Unverified security camera footage released Wednesday appeared to show the moment that a waterspout – a type of tornado that spun over Sicily early Monday – sank the vessel.

One witness, the owner of a nearby villa looked out to where the Bayesian was anchored, later watched back his CCTV footage that captured the yacht sinking.

“In just 60 seconds, you can see the ship disappear,” he told Italian outlet ANSA. “You can see clearly what’s happening. There was nothing that could be done for the vessel. It disappeared in a very short time.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

An Australian court ruled on Friday that removing a transgender woman from female-only social networking platform Giggle for Girls constituted discrimination, in a landmark decision on gender identity for the country.

Roxanne Tickle in 2022 sued the Australian app and founder Sally Grover for unlawful gender identity discrimination in its services, saying Grover revoked Tickle’s account after seeing her photo and “considered her to be male.”

The Federal Court, Australia’s second-highest, ordered Giggle for Girls to pay Tickle A$10,000 ($6,700) plus legal costs but declined to order the company to issue a written apology, which Tickle had sought.

“Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails, but her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds,” Judge Robert Bromwich said.

The case marks the first time that the Federal Court has made a ruling on gender identity discrimination since changes were made to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013.

“This decision is a great win for transgender women in Australia,” said Professor Paula Gerber at Monash University’s Faculty of Law.

“This case sends a clear message to all Australians that it is unlawful to treat transgender women differently from cisgender women. It is not lawful to make decisions about whether a person is a woman based on how feminine they appear,” Gerber said.

Giggle for Girls was marketed as a “safe space” for women to discuss and share their experiences and had some 20,000 users in 2021, court filings show. It suspended operations in 2022 but is due to be relaunched soon, according to Grover.

Bromwich said Giggle for Girls considered only sex at birth as being a valid basis on which a person may claim to be a man or woman. Tickle was assigned male sex at the time of birth but underwent gender-affirming surgery and Tickle’s birth certificate was updated, he said.

“Unfortunately, we got the judgement we anticipated. The fight for women’s rights continues,” Grover said in a post on X.

Tickle called the verdict “healing” and said she had received hateful comments online and that merchandise was created specifically to mock her.

“There is so much hate and bile cast on trans and gender diverse people simply because of who we are,” Australian media quoted her as saying outside the court.