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Volcano Guides at Mount Etna are Protesting over New Safety Rules

A group of people observes glowing lava emerging from a fissure during ongoing volcanic activity on Mount Etna in Catania, Sicily, Italy, January 3, 2026. REUTERS/Antonio Denti
A group of people observes glowing lava emerging from a fissure during ongoing volcanic activity on Mount Etna in Catania, Sicily, Italy, January 3, 2026. REUTERS/Antonio Denti
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Volcano Guides at Mount Etna are Protesting over New Safety Rules

A group of people observes glowing lava emerging from a fissure during ongoing volcanic activity on Mount Etna in Catania, Sicily, Italy, January 3, 2026. REUTERS/Antonio Denti
A group of people observes glowing lava emerging from a fissure during ongoing volcanic activity on Mount Etna in Catania, Sicily, Italy, January 3, 2026. REUTERS/Antonio Denti

Guides who take tourists to enjoy the striking views of Sicily’s Mount Etna are up in arms over tougher restrictions imposed by local authorities after a round of eruptions at the giant volcano in recent weeks.

Authorities in the city of Catania have suspended or restricted excursions to see the volcano's lava flows, prompting guides to go on strike for the first time in decades and leaving disgruntled tourists with fewer options to see the spectacle up close, The Associated Press reported.

Dozens of the guides demonstrated Wednesday in front of Mount Etna’s lava flow gate, calling the new restrictions excessive and saying the lava flows are slow-moving enough to be viewed safely as has been done in the past.

“These measures effectively nullify the role of guides, stripping them of their skills, function, and professional responsibility,” a statement by the guides’ regional board said.

The lava flows are especially spectacular after sunset, but under the new rules, excursions are allowed only until dusk and can go no closer than 200 meters (660 feet) to the lava flow. Also, a previously existing limit of 10 people per group is being vigorously enforced, including with drones.

Mount Etna is Europe’s most active volcano and the continent’s largest. It attracts hikers and backpackers to its slopes, while less adventurous tourists can take it in from a distance, most stunningly from the Ionian Sea.

At 3,350 meters (almost 10,990 feet) tall and 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) wide, the Sicilian giant frequently offers a front-row seat to nature’s power. Last June, a massive eruption forced tourists to flee the volcano after a plume of high-temperature gases, ash and rock several kilometers high billowed into the air above them.

The latest restrictions were adopted after Mount Etna started a round of eruptions on Christmas Eve.

The most advanced lava front reached 1,360 meters (4,460 feet) above sea level, before stopping and entering a cooling phase after a journey of approximately 3.4 kilometers (about 2 miles), local authorities said. The lava flow poses no danger to nearby residential areas, volcanologists say.

Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology confirmed this week that Mount Etna’s eruption is ongoing, but said the lava fronts are cooling and not advancing further.

“This is a lava flow that is descending very slowly on an area that is now also flat or semi-flat,” said Dario Teri, 43, a member of Sicily’s association of alpine and volcano guides who participated in Wednesday’s protest.

The guides, who are expected to continue their strike in the coming days, hope to come to a compromise with authorities that can protect their profession while also ensuring the safety of visitors.

Claudia Mancini, a 32-year-old tourist, said she came from Palermo for an excursion with a guide at Mount Etna.

“Unfortunately, we got the bad news of the cancelling of all activity,” Mancini said, adding that she sympathized with the guides over a situation that “is not making anyone happy.”

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Varieties

US Weather to Go Nuts with Blizzard, Polar Vortex, Heat Dome, Atmospheric River All at Once

People spend time at Ha‘ena Beach Park, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Haena, Hawaii. (Noelle Fujii-Oride/Hawaii Civil Beat via AP)
People spend time at Ha‘ena Beach Park, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Haena, Hawaii. (Noelle Fujii-Oride/Hawaii Civil Beat via AP)
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US Weather to Go Nuts with Blizzard, Polar Vortex, Heat Dome, Atmospheric River All at Once

People spend time at Ha‘ena Beach Park, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Haena, Hawaii. (Noelle Fujii-Oride/Hawaii Civil Beat via AP)
People spend time at Ha‘ena Beach Park, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Haena, Hawaii. (Noelle Fujii-Oride/Hawaii Civil Beat via AP)

Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be.

Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill.

This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash already hit much of the East. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C. residents walked around in shorts in record-breaking 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius). On Thursday, it snowed, The Associated Press reported.

“All of the country, even if you’re not necessarily seeing extremes, are going to see generally changing from cold to warm, or warm to cold to warm,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

Former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue said he expects extreme weather in all 50 states.

Triple-digit heat persists in Southwest A heat dome will form early next week and park over the Southwest, baking temperatures to triple digits that haven't been seen this early in the year, Maue and Chenard said.

Some forecasts see 98 (almost 37 Celsius) in Phoenix on Tuesday, followed by 103, 105 and two days of 107 (almost 42 C). In 137 years of record-keeping, Phoenix never hit 100 before March 26 and usually hit its first 100-degree day in early May, according to the weather service, which warned people: “Since we are not acclimated to this level of heat this early in the year, it will be more impactful than usual.”

It has already started in Los Angeles with unusual 90-degree March weather that had people in shorts and tank tops seeking shade anywhere they could get it, even if it was as slender as a light post.

Shane Dixon, 40, usually runs about 5 miles near his home in Culver City without much effort, he said, his face glistening with sweat and his T-shirt tucked into his shorts. But Thursday was hard because of the heat, and he had to cut it short.

“The back of my neck was melting,” he said. But he preferred it to the cold and snow that will hit elsewhere.

“I could go literally soak myself and walk out in the sun and I’ll make it home fine. If it was freezing cold I could not do this,” he said.

Single-digit cold invades North Around the same time as the heat starts blasting Phoenix, the polar vortex — a system that usually keeps frigid air penned up near the North Pole — is forecast to send its chill deep into the Midwest and East, even bordering some of the Southeast, Maue said.

Minneapolis will hover around zero for a low, and Chicago will be in the single digits Tuesday. The next day “temperatures in the teens and 20s in the northeast and 20s in the Mid-Atlantic,” Maue said. Even Atlanta could drop to the 20s.

One-two snowstorm punch Two storm systems in a row — one Friday, then another Sunday into Monday — will chug along the country's northern tier and Great Lakes and between them could dump 3 to 4 feet of snow in places, Maue said.

That bigger second storm system will see its barometric pressure drop so quickly and sharply — meaning it is intensifying and winds are strengthening — that it will qualify as a bomb cyclone, which is quite unusual to develop over land. Normally bomb cyclones get their energy from warm ocean waters, but this one will draw power from the polar vortex.

Even Alaska and Hawaii aren't quite right Maue said Hawaii is getting an atmospheric river that will have such persistent heavy rain that flooding will be a major issue. Oahu is under a flash flood warning.

And Alaska is normally frigid now, but it will be about 30 degrees colder than usual, he said.

It is “the time of year where we can see stuff like this,” Chenard said. “But this does seem even anomalous from what you would typically see. I mean, some of these areas will be setting records. Record-high temperatures for March and maybe multiple times.”

In the past week or so, tornadoes have killed at least eight people in Oklahoma, Michiganand Indiana. The forecast for severe storms doesn't look as big or widespread for the next week, but dangerous thunderstorms could pop up “anywhere from the Mississippi Valley toward the East Coast” on Sunday or Monday, Chenard said.

The jet stream goes nuts Underlying this is a jet stream gone wild, Maue and Chenard said.

The jet stream is the river of air that moves weather from west to east on a roller-coaster-like path. Usually the plunges are as mild as a kiddie roller coaster. But now that jet stream is going on near-vertical, scream-inducing drops following by straight-up ascents.

“Which means you get a lot of extremes next to each other,” Maue said. Storm fronts coming from the Pacific hit that high pressure heat dome in the Southwest and are pushed north to climb that mountainous jet stream peak, “grab access to that cold air reservoir up there" and bring it back down south down the other side of the hill, he said.

Numerous studies have connected unusual jet stream and polar vortex activity to shrinking Arctic sea ice and human-caused climate change.

But there is hope.

“The first day of spring is 20th (of March), and then after that we get recovery,” Maue said.

Varieties

Saudi Arabia Establishes Royal Institute of Anthropology to Study Social Change

The establishment of the institute provides a scientific platform for documenting heritage and deepening awareness of local culture through anthropological research. (SPA)
The establishment of the institute provides a scientific platform for documenting heritage and deepening awareness of local culture through anthropological research. (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia Establishes Royal Institute of Anthropology to Study Social Change

The establishment of the institute provides a scientific platform for documenting heritage and deepening awareness of local culture through anthropological research. (SPA)
The establishment of the institute provides a scientific platform for documenting heritage and deepening awareness of local culture through anthropological research. (SPA)

Saudi Arabia has approved the establishment of the Royal Institute of Anthropology and Cultural Studies, marking a significant step toward expanding research on Saudi society and documenting its social transformations.

The institute, approved by the Saudi Cabinet on Tuesday, is expected to strengthen scholarly work related to the study of Saudi communities through rigorous scientific methods.

Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud welcomed the decision and thanked the Kingdom’s leadership for supporting the initiative.

He said the institute would serve as “a trusted narrator of our culture and a beacon of inspiration in studies that seek to understand humanity.”

Prince Badr added that the institute would provide a scientific platform for documenting Saudi heritage and deepening awareness of local culture through anthropological research. He noted that its work would help generate meaningful cultural insights and encourage cultural exchange with the wider world.

Saudi Arabia holds particular significance in anthropology and cultural studies because of its deep historical and civilizational heritage, which stretches back centuries.

The Kingdom is also characterized by wide cultural, social and regional diversity reflected in lifestyles, customs and traditions, language and oral expression, as well as literature, performing arts, architecture, visual arts, culinary traditions and fashion. Together, these elements provide rich material for academic study, analysis and documentation.

The institute will develop both academic and applied research in anthropology and cultural studies. Its work will include examining local communities, patterns of daily life, symbolic systems, social transformations and forms of cultural expression across the Kingdom.

It will also document both tangible and intangible cultural heritage within their social and historical contexts, including the knowledge systems, practices and values associated with them. The aim is to provide a comprehensive scientific understanding of cultural elements as part of the living human experience.

Observers and academics say the decision also reflects a shift in attitudes toward anthropology in Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Hamza bin Qablan Al-Mozainy said the institute’s establishment demonstrates growing recognition of the field’s importance. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, he noted that anthropology once faced strong resistance in academic circles.

He cited the experience of Dr. Saad Al-Sowayan, one of the Kingdom’s pioneering anthropologists, who encountered opposition when he attempted to introduce the discipline in universities. As a result, Al-Sowayan carried out much of his research outside academic institutions, producing influential studies on Saudi society.

Al-Mozainy said Saudi society remains insufficiently studied, making it a rich field for future anthropological research. He added that the discipline helps societies better understand themselves and address both their strengths and their challenges.

Varieties

Kenya Arrests Man Trying to Smuggle Over 2,000 Live Ants in his Luggage

People arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), in Nairobi, Kenya, on 06 March 2026. EPA/DANIEL IRUNGU
People arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), in Nairobi, Kenya, on 06 March 2026. EPA/DANIEL IRUNGU
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Kenya Arrests Man Trying to Smuggle Over 2,000 Live Ants in his Luggage

People arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), in Nairobi, Kenya, on 06 March 2026. EPA/DANIEL IRUNGU
People arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), in Nairobi, Kenya, on 06 March 2026. EPA/DANIEL IRUNGU

A man was arrested with more than 2,200 live garden ants in his luggage at Nairobi's main airport this week amid a rise in cases of smuggling of the insects in Kenya.

Chinese national Zhang Kequn, 27, was arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday while he was trying to leave the country, court filings seen by Reuters on Thursday showed. Immigration officials flagged a "stop order" on Zhang's passport after he ⁠evaded arrest in ⁠Kenya last year.

Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums, which offer a literal window into the species' complex social structures and behaviors.

Last year four men were fined $7,700 each ⁠for trying to traffic thousands of ants valuable to Kenya's ecosystem in a case that experts said signaled a shift in biopiracy from trophies like elephant ivory to lesser-known species.

Investigators said a search of Zhang's luggage recovered 2,238 ants, including 1,948 packed in test tubes and the rest in three rolls of "soft tissue papers".

They said Zhang had been in Kenya for ⁠two ⁠weeks and had mentioned three accomplices who supplied him with the ants.

The Kenya Wildlife Service told the court that it needed more time to complete investigations, including examining an iPhone and a MacBook recovered from Zhang.

The wildlife service said a similar consignment of ants had been seized in Bangkok on Tuesday that originated from Kenya, indicating the existence of a widespread and organized ant-smuggling network.