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More People Are Evacuated After the Dramatic Eruption of an Indonesian Volcano 

Search and rescue boat is docked on the port of Tagulandang as Mount Ruang volcano spews volcanic ash in Sitaro Islands Regency, North Sulawesi province, Indonesia, April 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Search and rescue boat is docked on the port of Tagulandang as Mount Ruang volcano spews volcanic ash in Sitaro Islands Regency, North Sulawesi province, Indonesia, April 19, 2024. (Reuters)
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More People Are Evacuated After the Dramatic Eruption of an Indonesian Volcano 

Search and rescue boat is docked on the port of Tagulandang as Mount Ruang volcano spews volcanic ash in Sitaro Islands Regency, North Sulawesi province, Indonesia, April 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Search and rescue boat is docked on the port of Tagulandang as Mount Ruang volcano spews volcanic ash in Sitaro Islands Regency, North Sulawesi province, Indonesia, April 19, 2024. (Reuters)

More people living near an erupting volcano on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island were evacuated on Friday due to the dangers of spreading ash, falling rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami.

An international airport in Manado city, which is located less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the erupting Mount Ruang, is still temporarily closed as volcanic ash was spewed into the air.

Satellite imagery from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency showed that the ash has spread to the west, northwest, northeast and southeast, covering Manado and North Minahasa, according to a statement from Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry.

“We are still monitoring developments in the eruption of Mount Ruang and coordinating with relevant stakeholders ... to anticipate the necessary actions to ensure flight safety, security and comfort,” said Ambar Suryoko, head of the regional airport authority.

More than 11,000 people were told to leave their homes and at least 1,000 have done so. A joint team from the local authorities is still combing the villages surrounding the volcano and evacuating the residents to safer areas by boat.

Officials worry that part of the volcano could collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami, as happened in an eruption there in 1871 eruption.

Houses, roads and other buildings in the affected areas were covered by gray volcanic ash. Many house roofs were also broken by the materials spewed from the eruption.

Mount Ruang saw at least five large eruptions Wednesday, causing the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation to issue its highest level of alert. People were ordered to stay at least 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the 725-meter (2,378-foot) mountain.

The observation from the agency on Friday said that white smoke is rising from the main crater with medium to thick intensity.

Tagulandang Island, east of the volcano, could be at risk if a collapse occurred. Its residents were among those being told to evacuate. Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said residents will be relocated to Manado, a journey of six hours by boat.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

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US: Shark Attack on Alabama Teen Inspires Start of National Alert System

This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
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US: Shark Attack on Alabama Teen Inspires Start of National Alert System

This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)

Lulu Gribbin was 15 when she survived a shark attack off the coast of Florida. She lost her left hand, part of her right leg and almost her life.

What she didn’t know when she entered the water on that day in 2024 was that another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier and just 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) down the beach. Had she known about the earlier attack, there is no way she would have been swimming, she said.

Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area.

President Donald Trump last week signed “Lulu’s Law,” which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow the emergency messages. The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. It is up to states to implement the warnings.

Gribbin’s home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

“It’s really just common-sense legislation. It says that whenever there has been a shark attack in a certain area where you are near, it will send an alert to your phone, exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted,” The Associated Press quoted her as saying.

Gribbin said she hopes the alert system will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I'm really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.

A fight to survive Gribbin was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle.

She was on a mother-daughter trip to the Florida Panhandle. Gribbin said she and her friend had been diving for sand dollars.

“All of the sudden my best friend yelled, ‘Shark!’ and so we all started swimming for our lives,” Gribbin recalled. She said she remembered that sharks are attracted to frantic splashing and yelled for everyone to be calm. Gribbin, who was closest to the shark, was bitten.

“The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there,” Gribbin said. The shark then latched onto her leg. A man punched the shark off her and strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Doctors were able to save the teen's life but had to amputate part of her right leg.
Choosing positivity throughout her recovery In the hospital, Gribbin made a deliberate decision to choose joy and to never give up.

Gribbin was fitted with prosthetic limbs, quickly regained her ability to walk, returned to sports and got her driver’s license. She has gone back in the water and learned to surf, meeting Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

US Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the legislation happened because of the teen's “courage, perseverance, and advocacy to protect future beachgoers.”

“Because of her strength, lives will be changed. We should all be inspired by her,” Britt said.

Varieties

Three Wallabies Saved from Spanish Cannabis Farm Hell

Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
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Three Wallabies Saved from Spanish Cannabis Farm Hell

Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

Three traumatized wallabies living far from their usual Australian habitat were recovering in a Spanish zoo on Thursday after being rescued from a rural cannabis plantation full of rotting animals, AFP reported.

Police said the marsupials, similar to but smaller than kangaroos, were saved alongside 14 dogs, three calves and two deer from their ordeal in the central municipality of Malagon on Tuesday.

During their raid, "the officers came across an unusual scene when they found dozens of animals in woeful hygiene and sanitary conditions", police said in a statement.

The trapped animals lived alongside the corpses of other creatures, "some of them in an advanced state of decomposition", including "hundreds of chickens" who were tossed in bags to the dogs as food.

The wallabies and the deer shared a garden used by the suspects and their young children, the police added.

The wallabies were later taken to a zoo in the central province of Toledo.

Officers seized almost 1,000 cannabis plants from the site, which included an underground production area and was illegally connected to the power grid.

Two suspects were arrested on charges including animal abuse and offences against flora, fauna and public health.

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French Scramble to Find Air Conditioners before Next Heatwave

A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
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French Scramble to Find Air Conditioners before Next Heatwave

A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco

Hundreds of people were besieging Lidl supermarkets in and around Paris Thursday, with scuffles and shouting matches breaking out as residents scrambled to get their hands on bargain air-cooling units before the next heatwave hits the French capital.

With few air conditioners on sale elsewhere for less than 1,200 euros ($1,400), police were called to at least two stores as huge crowds descended on Lidl supermarkets trying to get their hands on basic models on sale for as low as 179 euros, AFP said.

Mousa Traore, who had been waiting for more than an hour along with some 200 other customers at a small Lidl store in a northern Paris neighborhood, said he had been told there were only two units on sale, AFP .

"But then the police came and we were told there were none. The police officers took them I think," he said laughing.

France has just been through a record heatwave that led to excess deaths, overwhelmed hospitals, closed schools and cancelled music festivals, and weather services are forecasting another round of hot weather this coming weekend.

Due to historically mild summers, few homes and schools in France are equipped with air conditioning, making them ill-equipped to face increasingly frequent heatwaves that scientists say are linked to human-induced climate change.

- 'It's madness' -

Even so, the crowd at the Lidl store was mostly good-humored, but some disputes broke out as people tried to jump the queue.

"I am not opening the store unless you leave," a manager shouted, as customers harangued her, with another member of staff telling AFP only two air conditioners had been delivered.

He refused to say if they had already been sold.

Hundreds more descended on a supermarket in Sevran, with cars queuing for the store blocking the center of the poor northern suburb. It was much the same story in nearby suburb of Livry-Gargan.

"I give up, it's madness. I abandoned my car several streets away to get there on foot but there is already a huge queue of people in the car park. It's impossible," one local called Lolo told AFP.

The rush for cooling units comes despite longstanding skepticism towards air conditioning in France.

Eight in 10 people view it as environmentally unfriendly, according to a survey of more than 1,000 people published last month.

But attitudes appear to be shifting as temperatures climb, with cooling units flying off shelves.

In the midst of the heatwave on June 22, hypermarket operator Carrefour had sold 30,000 units by 6:30 pm - "a thousand times more than on a normal day", CEO Alexandre Bompard said.

The share of French households equipped with air conditioning rose from 18 percent in 2023 to 24 percent in 2025, according to the state environment agency Ademe.

Air conditioning has emerged as a political weather vane in France, with the main far-right opposition party criticizing the government for not having prepared for hotter weather, and ecologists warning of the heavy energy demands of running air conditioners.