AFP

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island and has erupted twice in the 20th century, first in 1949 then again in 1971.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account, adding that evacuations have started in the areas closest to the volcano.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that he would head to the scene.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Interior Ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano which last erupted 50 years ago after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

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Iran reopened museums in Tehran and other cities Sunday after a more than year-long closure because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Museums in Tehran and other large cities that are no longer red-coded, meaning the risk of contracting the virus was very high, reopened on Sunday,” the director of Iran’s museums, Mohammad-Reza Kargar, told AFP.

“Tourists and visitors are welcome to return while observing (sanitary) measures.”

A country with a millennia-long history, Iran has an abundance of 746 museums, including 170 in the capital.

“We are absolutely delighted, and we think the people are too because they were fed up with staying home, and visiting museums improves their mood,” Kargar said in his tourism and heritage ministry office.

“We have safety protocols in place of course, and the number of visitors will be dependent on the space at our sites so the public stays safe and healthy.”

Kargar said only students, researchers and staff were allowed into museums during the past 14 months.

Iran’s museums attracted more than 21 million visitors in the year before the outbreak of Covid-19 that forced museums to close in May 2020.

On Sunday, the National Museum of Iran with its magnificent collection of treasures dating back to the Bronze and Iron ages was still deserted.

“We have to wait for the news to spread and schools to reopen for people to come back,” explained Firouzeh Sepidnameh, head of the museum’s pre-Islamic collections.

Iran, the worst-hit country in the Middle East, has confirmed more than 5.4 million cases of coronavirus, including 117,000 deaths, according to figures issued Sunday by the health ministry.

Out of a population of 83 million, 29 million Iranians have received a first dose of vaccination and almost 14 million have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Four SpaceX tourists returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending three days in space, successfully concluding the first orbital mission in history with no professional astronauts on board.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, whose heat shield allowed it to withstand descent, was slowed down by four large parachutes before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 7:06 pm (2306 GMT), according to a video feed by the company.

“That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started,” billionaire captain Jared Isaacman, who financed the trip with a goal of making space a bit more accessible, said shortly after landing.

A SpaceX boat immediately retrieved the capsule, before its hatch was opened and the space tourists, smiling broadly and waving their arms in the air, exited one by one.

They were next headed for the Kennedy Space Center, where their mission had begun on Wednesday.

The stated goal of the mission, called Inspiration4, was to encourage the democratization of space by proving that the cosmos are accessible to crews that have neither been handpicked nor in training for years.

“Congratulations @Inspiration4x !!!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted after the landing.

The four space novices — Isaacman and three other Americans — spent three days orbiting Earth, traveling farther than the International Space Station (ISS), at an orbit of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) high, and circling the globe more than 15 times each day.

Isaacman, who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars, offered the other three seats to strangers: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.

However, the exact price that the 38-year-old founder of Shift4 Payments and seasoned pilot shelled out for the mission has not been revealed. 

The Inspiration4 crew bonded over the course of six months’ training, compared with years for professional astronauts.

During the flight, the members’ vital signs, including heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen levels and cognitive abilities, were monitored to study the effects of space on complete novices.

But they also enjoyed the view through a brand new observation dome fitted onto the capsule, spoke with actor Tom Cruise from the vessel, ate pizza and listened to music.

– ‘Second space age’ –

“Welcome to the second space age,” mission director Todd Ericson said at a press conference after the landing.

With its completion, “space travel becomes much more accessible to average men and women.”

There was only one minor issue during the flight, with the capsule’s toilet system, but a solution was quickly found, Ericson said, without giving further details.

“Best ride of my life!” Proctor tweeted after disembarking from the capsule.

The mission served as a huge fundraiser for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, a leading facility in Tennessee. Arceneaux received treatment there as a child, and now works there.

The crew took with them various objects — including a ukulele, which Sembroski briefly played live from the vessel on Friday — that will now be auctioned off with proceeds going to the hospital.

The landing marked the third time that Musk’s company has taken humans to space and back, after the return of two NASA missions, one in August 2020 and another in May of this year. Both were bringing astronauts back from a stay at the ISS.

Unlike NASA astronauts, the members of the Inspiration4 mission did not go to the ISS but remained in orbit around the Earth.

The space adventure comes after a summer marked by the battle of the billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to reach the final frontier. However their separate suborbital flights only offered a few minutes in zero gravity.

SpaceX is already planning further space tourism flights. In fact, “the amount of people who are approaching us through our sales and marketing portals have actually increased significantly,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of human spaceflight programs.

The next trip is scheduled for January 2022, with three businessmen on board.

Four SpaceX tourists returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending three days in space, successfully concluding the first orbital mission in history with no professional astronauts on board.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, whose heat shield allowed it to withstand descent, was slowed down by four large parachutes before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 7:06 pm (2306 GMT), according to a video feed by the company.

“That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started,” billionaire captain Jared Isaacman, who financed the trip with a goal of making space a bit more accessible, said shortly after landing.

A SpaceX boat immediately retrieved the capsule, before its hatch was opened and the space tourists, smiling broadly and waving their arms in the air, exited one by one. 

They were next headed for the Kennedy Space Center, where their mission had begun on Wednesday.

The stated goal of the mission, called Inspiration4, was to encourage the democratization of space by proving that the cosmos are accessible to crews that have neither been handpicked nor in training for years.

“Congratulations @Inspiration4x !!!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted after the landing.

The four space novices – Isaacman and three other Americans — spent three days orbiting Earth, traveling farther than the International Space Station (ISS), at an orbit of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) high, and circling the globe more than 15 times each day.

Isaacman, who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars, offered the other three seats to strangers: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.

However the exact price that the 38-year-old founder of Shift4 Payments and seasoned pilot shelled out for the mission has not been revealed. 

The Inspiration4 crew bonded over the course of six months’ training, compared with years for professional astronauts.

During the flight, the members’ vital signs, including heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen levels and cognitive abilities, were monitored to study the effects of space on complete novices.

But they also enjoyed the view through a brand new observation dome fitted onto the capsule, spoke with actor Tom Cruise from the vessel, ate pizza and listened to music.

– Fundraising –

The mission served as a huge fundraiser for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, a leading facility in Tennessee. Arceneaux received treatment there as a child, and now works there.

The crew took with them various objects — including a ukulele which Sembroski briefly played live from the vessel on Friday — which will now be auctioned off with proceeds going to the hospital.

The landing marked the third time that Elon Musk’s company has taken humans to space and back, after the return of two NASA missions, one in August 2020 and another in May of this year. Both were bringing astronauts back from a stay at the ISS.

Unlike NASA astronauts, the members of the Inspiration4 mission did not go to the ISS but remained in orbit around the Earth.

The space adventure comes after a summer marked by the battle of the billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to reach the final frontier. However their separate suborbital flights only offered a few minutes in zero gravity.

SpaceX is already planning further space tourism flights — the next is scheduled for January 2022 with three businessmen on board.

Four SpaceX tourists landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida Saturday evening after spending three days in space, successfully concluding the first orbital mission in history with no professional astronauts on board.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule’s heat shield allowed it to withstand the descent, before it was slowed down by four large parachutes and then splashed into the ocean just after 7:00 pm (2300 GMT), according to a live video feed by the company.

A SpaceX boat immediately raced to retrieve the capsule, before its hatch can be opened and the astronauts can exit. They will be transported by helicopter to the Kennedy Space Center, where on Wednesday they took off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

“That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started,” said billionaire captain Jared Isaacman, who financed the trip.

The stated goal of the mission, called Inspiration4, was to encourage the democratization of space by proving that the cosmos are accessible to crews that have neither been handpicked nor in training for years.

Isaacman, who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars, offered the other three seats to strangers: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.

The Dragon capsule traveled farther than the International Space Station (ISS) at an orbit of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) high, and circled the globe more than 15 times each day.

The landing marked the third time that Elon Musk’s company has taken humans to space and back, after the return of two NASA missions, one in August 2020 and another in May of this year. Both were bringing astronauts back from a stay at the ISS.

Unlike NASA astronauts, the members of the Inspiration4 mission did not go to the ISS but remained in orbit around the Earth. 

During the flight, the crew members’ vital signs were monitored to study the effects of the environment of space on complete novices.

The four private space tourists aboard a SpaceX capsule are due to return to Earth on Saturday night, touching down off the coast of Florida after three days of orbiting the planet.

The splash-down is scheduled for 7:06 pm local time (2306 GMT) in the Atlantic Ocean not too far from Cape Canaveral, from where the four Americans blasted off into space on Wednesday.

The event will be broadcast live by SpaceX, starting about an hour before the scheduled landing time.

The Dragon’s heat shield will allow the capsule to withstand the descent, which will be slowed by four huge parachutes once the vessel is low enough in Earth’s atmosphere.

After that, a SpaceX boat will come to retrieve it, and the passengers will disembark.

The Dragon capsule traveled farther than the International Space Station (ISS), at an orbit of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) high. Its altitude was reduced to 365 kilometers Friday evening.

This will be the third time that Elon Musk’s company has taken humans to space and back, after the return of two NASA missions, one August in 2020 and another in May this year. Both were bringing astronauts back from a stay at the ISS.

Unlike NASA astronauts, the members of the Inspiration4 mission did not go to the ISS but remained in orbit around the Earth. 

Billionaire Jared Isaacman financed the trip, paying SpaceX tens of millions of dollars. Isaacman, who led the mission, offered the other three seats to strangers: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.

During the flight, the crew members vital signs were monitored to study the effects of the environment of space on complete novices. 

It will be six months on Sunday that the volcanic eruption currently mesmerising spectators near Reykjavik first began, making it the longest Iceland has witnessed in more than 50 years.

The first lava began spewing out of a fissure close to Mount Fagradalsfjall on the evening of March 19 on the Reykjanes peninsula to the southwest of Reykjavik. 

And the ensuing spectacle — ranging from just a slow trickle of lava at times to more dramatic geyser-like spurts of rocks and stones at others — has become a major tourist attraction, drawing 300,000 visitors so far, according to the Iceland Tourist Board.

Iceland’s sixth volcanic eruption in 20 years is already longer than the preceding one in Holuhraun, in the centre-east of the island, which lasted from the end of August 2014 until the end of February 2015. 

“Six months is a reasonably long eruption,” volcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson told AFP.

The lava field that has formed this time has been christened “Fagradalshraun” — which can be translated as “beautiful valley of lava” — and takes its name from nearby Mount Fagradalsfjall. 

Almost 143 million cubic metres of lava have been spewed out so far.

But that is actually comparatively small, representing just under a tenth of the volume of the Holuhraun eruption, which spewed out the biggest basalt lava flow in Iceland in 230 years.

The latest eruption is “special in the sense that it has kept a relatively steady outflow, so it’s been going quite strong,” said Halldor Geirsson, a geophysicist at the Institute of Earth Science.

“The usual behaviour that we know from volcanoes in Iceland is that they start really active and pour out lava, and then the outflow sort of decreases over time until it stops,” he said.

Iceland’s longest-ever eruption took place more than 50 years ago — on Surtsey island just off the southern coast — and lasted nearly four years, from November 1963 until June 1967.

– No end in sight –

After subsiding for nine days, the lava reappeared at Fagradalshraun in early September, occasionally spurting red-hot from the crater and accompanied by a powerful plume of smoke. 

It also accumulated in fiery tunnels beneath the solidified surface, forming pockets that eventually gave way and unfurled like a wave onto the shore.

The real number of visitors trekking to the rough hills to view the spectacle is probably even higher than the estimated 300,000, as the first counter installed on the paths leading to the site was only set up five days after the eruption.

In the first month, 10 fissures opened up, forming seven small craters, of which only two are still visible.

Only one crater is still active, measuring 334 metres (1,100 feet), according to the Institute of Earth Science, just a few dozen metres short of the highest peak in the surrounding area.

Nevertheless, the volcano is showing no sign of fading anytime soon.

“There seems to be still enough magma from whatever reservoir the eruption is tapping. So it could go on for a long time,” said Geirsson.

Thousands of hunters marched in France on Saturday to defend “rural values” and traditional bird hunting which the country’s top administrative court has banned.

In the medieval town of Mont-de-Marsan in southwest France, authorities said at least 13,000 people protested to the sound of hunting horns and firecrackers.

Wearing bright orange — the colour of hunters’ jackets — the demonstrators marched under driving rain. Further up in Brittany, a protest also took place in Redon, and others were planned elsewhere.

“I’m sick of seeing my culture fall to pieces. They’ve already eradicated my language, Gascon, now it’s the traditional hunts,” said Eric, a 47-year-old who likes hunting and fishing, in Mont-de-Marsan.

He said he was fed up with “the Taliban of Paristan”, referring to decision-makers in the capital.

The State Council in August banned traditional hunting techniques popular in the southwest of France and other parts of the country, such as hunting with nets or bird cages, in line with a 2009 EU directive.

That followed the banning of glue hunting in June.

Activists say that 150,000 birds die annually in France from non-selective hunting techniques such as glue traps and nets at a time when Europe’s bird population is in free-fall.

But Myriam, the wife of a hunter and a fan of bullfighting, said she wanted to “pass on these traditions” to the younger generations.

“It’s not just hunting, it’s a complete way of life,” she said in Mont-de-Marsan.

A man next to her added: “Let the urbanites leave us alone!”

The government is mulling re-authorising some of these traditional hunts, to the dismay of environmental activists, in what is seen as a bid to woo voters ahead of elections next year.

There are about 1.2 million hunters in France, and together with their supporters and families, this could represent a pool of around five million voters.

Concerns over climate change that gave rise to the Green Party are top of mind for Canadians preparing to vote in elections Monday, yet the party itself is fighting for survival.

Beset by internal feuding and other challenges, the Green Party has lost momentum and is struggling to hold on to its two seats in the 338-member parliament in the upcoming vote.

Ten years after the Greens won their first seat in the national legislature, the party is polling at just two to three percent. Liberals and Conservatives, meanwhile, are neck and neck, each with about 32 percent of voting intentions.

The stakes for the Greens are “to show that the party is still alive and kicking, that it is an option for those who believe in the fight against climate change,” said Daniel Beland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Its survival hinges on at least holding onto its two seats on Vancouver Island in westernmost British Columbia province, which was hit hard by wildfires and an unprecedented heat wave that left hundreds dead over the summer.

Elizabeth May, the first Green elected to Canada’s parliament in 2011 and the party’s former leader, is likely to retain her seat in the Saanich–Gulf Islands. But fellow Green Paul Manly, seeking re-election in the nearby district of Nanaimo-Ladysmith on the picturesque Pacific isle, is facing tough competition.

“I think climate change is one of the top issues for sure in this election,” Manly told AFP.

Canada is the world’s fourth largest oil producer, and Manly said the government needs to act decisively.

“We need really bold action on climate change and that means we need to end all subsidies for fossil fuels,” he said. 

– Dueling climate plans –

The Greens also want to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, a more ambitious target than what’s on offer from other parties.

But their message has been drowned out in part because the main political parties have stepped up with their own relatively strong climate plans. And the Tories have been busy fighting a Liberal carbon tax that could curtail oil production in their base of Alberta.

The Greens “have lost their monopoly on the environment. It has become a popular cause for all parties in Canada,” Beland explained.

Nancy Powell, 59, from Vancouver Island, said she once supported the Green Party, but now believes that their focus on the environment is too narrow.

“I’d really like to see them break out of that and expand their expertise in different areas,” Powell told AFP, adding that helping small business is an important for her.

Just two years ago, the Greens won 6.5 percent of the popular vote in the last ballot.

In the lead-up to this snap election call in early August, the Greens were busy arguing among themselves over the loss of an MP to the Liberals, party finances, and its leadership.

Annamie Paul, who last year replaced May as leader, narrowly survived a recent party revolt.

Paul, the first black and Jewish woman to lead a federal political party in Canada, has lamented having had little time to put together a team. As a result, the party is running only 252 candidates in this election.

She is now facing a tough fight to win a seat herself; this is her third attempt to break through in the Toronto-Centre district held by powerful Liberal cabinet ministers since 1993.

Firefighters battling to protect the world’s biggest tree from wildfires ravaging the parched United States said Friday they are optimistic it can be saved.

Flames are creeping closer to the majestic General Sherman and other giant sequoias, as man-made climate change worsens California’s fearsome fire season.

“We have hundreds of firefighters there giving it their all, giving extra care,” Mark Garrett, communications officer for the region’s fire department, told AFP, of the operation in Sequoia National Park.

Crews are battling the spreading Paradise and Colony fires, which have so far consumed 4,600 hectares (11,400 acres) of forest since they were sparked by lightning a week ago.

The blazes are threatening Giant Forest, a grove of around 2,000 sequoias that includes five of the largest trees on the planet — some up to 3,000 years old.

The biggest of them all, the General Sherman stands 83 meters (275 feet) tall.

On Thursday, General Sherman was wrapped in fire-proof blankets — aluminum foil intended to protect its giant trunk from the worst of the flames.

By Friday, managers felt they had the upper hand, thanks in part to clearing of undergrowth and controlled burns that starve the fire of fuel.

“I think the most challenging part is the terrain here,” said Garrett.

But “we haven’t seen explosive fire behavior; it really slowed down and gave us a chance to get ahead of it.”

Around 600 personnel are involved in the fight.

“We have folks up in the Giant Forest protecting structures and preparing everything. 

“The fact is that they’ve been prescribed burning for the past 25 or 30 years so it is really prepared.”

Millions of acres of California’s forests have burned in this year’s ferocious fire season.

Scientists say global warming, stoked by the unchecked use of fossil fuels is making the area ever-more vulnerable to bigger and more destructive wildfires.

The enormous trees of the Giant Forest are a huge tourist draw, with visitors traveling from all over the world to marvel at their imposing height and extraordinary girth.

While not the tallest trees — California redwoods can grow to more than 300 feet — the giant sequoias are the largest by volume.

Smaller fires generally do not harm the sequoias, which are protected by a thick bark and often only have branches 100 feet above the ground.

But the larger, hotter blazes that are laying waste to the western United States are dangerous to them because they climb higher up the trunks and into the canopy.