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  • How to avoid the worst of the Italian heat

    How to avoid the worst of the Italian heat

    As a record-breaking heatwave scorches across the Italian peninsula, sending temperatures soaring to dangerous levels that threaten public health, the country’s Ministry of Health has issued a rare red heat alert covering all 27 of Italy’s major urban centers. The high-risk designation includes top international tourist hubs, from the ancient capital of Rome and fashion capital Milan to the coastal cities of Naples and the canal city of Venice, falling right in the middle of Europe’s peak summer holiday travel season.

    While many long-term Italian residents have grown accustomed to rising summer temperatures amid the ongoing climate crisis — with some noting extreme heat is no longer an anomaly here — visitors and even Italians traveling from cooler regions have expressed shock at the intensity of the current heat event. With millions of travelers flocking to Italy this summer, the BBC consulted local site managers, tour guides, and travel experts to compile practical advice for enjoying a safe trip despite the sweltering conditions.

    Simone Quilici, director of Rome’s iconic Colosseum Archaeological Park, emphasized that venturing out to open-air historical sites during the peak hot hours after midday is a critical mistake. “This isn’t an isolated heat event, it’s part of the global climate change phenomenon we’re all living with,” Quilici explained, noting that Rome has adapted to repeated summer heatwaves. To accommodate visitors during the heatwave, Italian cultural and tourism authorities have extended evening opening hours for dozens of top attractions through August: the Colosseum stays open until 11:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, Rome’s Pantheon is open until 11 PM daily except Thursdays, and Milan’s Sforza Castle extends closing to 7:30 PM. At the Colosseum specifically, management has installed misting cooling fans at entry points and added additional emergency medical stations to handle heat-related incidents. Quilici also said he is working with archaeologists to plant more shade-providing vegetation across the park in long-term adaptation measures.

    Local tour operators have also adjusted their schedules to beat the heat. Mateo Medina, operations director for Rome-based tour company Vivicos International Travel, told reporters his firm has added new late-night tours running from 10 PM to midnight, and has seen a sharp spike in demand for early 8 AM tours before temperatures climb. For travelers looking to escape the midday sun, experts universally recommend air-conditioned cultural institutions as top alternatives to outdoor walking tours. Beyond major museums, Italy’s thousands of historic churches offer free, cool shelter while allowing visitors to engage with the country’s rich cultural and religious heritage. Air-conditioned indoor activities including hands-on cooking classes and wine tastings have also grown in popularity among heat-conscious travelers. For those who still want to enjoy the outdoors, Rome’s large public parks such as Villa Borghese, Villa Adriana and Parque de Acquedotti offer abundant tree shade, and the city’s underground Christian catacombs maintain consistently cool temperatures year-round.

    In Naples, top local tour guide Marco Carrino echoes the warning against midday visits to open archaeological sites like Pompeii, advising travelers to arrive as early as possible or plan visits for cooler months of the year. He suggests diverting to Naples’ National Archaeological Museum during peak heat, which houses one of the world’s most significant collections of Roman, Greek and Egyptian artifacts. Italian travel writer Alessia Armenise shared an unexpected local hack: neighborhood supermarkets. Fully air-conditioned, supermarkets’ fresh deli counters offer affordable, made-to-order sandwiches that beat overpriced tourist-focused eateries, she says. Armenise also advises structuring days around water features — swapping coastal hikes for boat tours that let travelers enjoy shoreline views from the water while cooling off with ocean spray, and stopping for traditional Italian frozen treats like Sicilian granita or Roman grattachecca to bring down body temperature.

    For travelers determined to tick major crowded sites like the Vatican off their bucket lists, experts urge advance online ticket booking to avoid long waits in sweltering direct sun, noting popular tickets often sell out days in advance. Off-the-beaten-path options also offer relief: smaller regional museums and galleries in lesser-known towns are far less crowded, often have on-site cafes where visitors can rest for hours in cool air. On particularly hot evenings, travelers can duck into local independent cinemas or historic theaters, many of which are air-conditioned and offer a chance to engage with local cultural life beyond major tourist sites. In Verona, Armenise recommends evening concerts at the ancient Verona Arena amphitheater, where cool evening temperatures make for a far more enjoyable experience than midday visits.

    In Florence, art historian and local guide Dr. Agata Chrzanowksa suggests day trips to the cool hills and mountain regions north of the city, highlighting the scenic Garfagnana region as an ideal escape for travelers with access to a car. For a cool stop within the city, she recommends the Odeon Cafe and Bookstore, a renovated art-nouveau historic theater that now operates as a climate-controlled bookshop and cafe where visitors can relax for hours. In Venice, veteran tour guide Fiona Giusto says the key to beating the heat is simple common sense: planning routes around shaded stops, staying consistently hydrated, and wearing sun protection like broad-brimmed hats and high-SPF sunscreen. For cool cultural activities in Venice, Giusto recommends visits to the historic Teatro La Fenice opera house and the Ca’ Rezzonico art museum, both of which offer full air conditioning.

  • Trump insists Iran talks under way, warns Tehran’s ‘last chance’ to secure deal

    Trump insists Iran talks under way, warns Tehran’s ‘last chance’ to secure deal

    Tensions across the Middle East have escalated sharply this week, with overlapping diplomatic efforts, conflicting claims about dialogue between the United States and Iran, and rising violence threatening stability across key waterways and border regions. In a public statement, former US President Donald Trump announced that direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran are currently underway, adding a stark warning that this latest diplomatic push represents Tehran’s “last chance” to reach a binding agreement to de-escalate the ongoing conflict between the two nations.

    Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei quickly pushed back against Trump’s claim, flatly denying that any direct talks with US officials are in progress or that any future meetings have been scheduled. Currently, discussions focused on security and governance of the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz remain facilitated through Omani mediation, Baghaei confirmed. Undisclosed sources speaking to Anadolu Agency note that negotiators from Pakistan and Qatar are also working behind the scenes to lock in a mutually acceptable date and location for a potential direct meeting between Iranian and US delegations. Last week, Pakistan formally extended an urgent invitation to Iranian negotiators to travel to Islamabad, a move widely interpreted as an effort to restart Iran-US talks that have stalled for weeks. Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Ishaq Dar extended the invitation directly to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during a recent phone call, urging Araghchi to visit “at his earliest convenience.”

    The simmering confrontation took a harder turn as senior Iranian military advisor Mohsen Rezaei, who serves as a top aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, issued a stark warning to US military forces in the region. Rezaei cautioned that American naval vessels and deployed troops will “face serious risks and casualties” if Washington continues its naval blockade of Iranian commercial ports. In a public post on the social platform X, Rezaei emphasized that “The U.S. must change its behavior — or we will not tolerate this. We will never permit the opening of a second corridor in the Strait of Hormuz.”

    Despite the public disputes over negotiations, anonymous Iranian and US officials told The New York Times that Iran and Oman are in the final stages of finalizing a draft agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to unimpeded commercial shipping, a deal that would grant Tehran near-total control over the contested strategic waterway, through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil shipments pass.

    Tensions along the waterway spilled into violence this week, Reuters reported Tuesday. A Liberian-flagged commercial vessel was hit by an unclaimed projectile while transiting the Strait near the Omani coastline. Maritime industry sources confirm that the entire crew abandoned the damaged ship, and at least one sailor remains missing following the incident.

    In a separate development, Rezaei also confirmed this week that Iran had scrapped a pre-planned retaliatory strike against three locations in Ukraine, after Kyiv issued a formal apology for a recent Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel. Speaking to Iranian state television, Rezaei explained that Iran’s armed forces had completed all military preparations for the strikes before the operation was called off following the apology.

    The five-month-long open conflict between the US and Iran has already generated unexpected financial windfalls for major global energy firms, as skyrocketing oil and gas prices have driven a sharp surge in corporate profits. British energy giant BP reported that its most recent quarterly profits have more than doubled compared to the previous year. UK-based rival Shell confirmed its net profit also doubled to nearly $10 billion in the three months ending in June, while Saudi state oil giant Aramco recorded a 44% rise in net profits over the same period.

    In a separate hotspot along the Israel-Lebanon border, the seventh round of US-brokered negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese delegations kicked off this week in Rome. The three-day talks are focused on addressing ongoing Israeli violations of a conditional ceasefire agreement reached between the two sides in April, including unapproved Israeli land-clearing operations, explosions targeting civilian infrastructure, and the demolition of residential homes in southern Lebanon.

    A senior Lebanese official speaking to Anadolu Agency outlined the Lebanese delegation’s core proposal: the talks will focus on establishing new designated pilot zones for Israeli military withdrawal, with the second phase of withdrawal covering either Bint Jbeil or Khiam, both located south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

    Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem publicly rejected the negotiations in a televised address Monday, arguing that the talks will bring “nothing but shame, humiliation, and successive compromises” for Lebanon. Qassem also criticized Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, claiming Aoun “has not acted as an arbiter, nor as a unifying figure, but has become biased and divisive, which is incompatible with his role and with Lebanon’s strength.”

    The resumption of diplomatic talks comes as Israeli forces continue to carry out attacks and home demolitions in multiple southern Lebanese towns. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) issued a formal update Monday confirming that peacekeepers continue to record “daily Israeli violations of Lebanon’s airspace, roadblocks and activities in its territorial waters.” Between Thursday and Sunday alone, UNIFIL documented 125 separate Israeli air violations, with total combined overflight time exceeding 418 hours. “Peacekeepers also report extensive military activity on the ground in south Lebanon, including significant engineering works and active troop movements,” a UN deputy spokesperson confirmed.

    Since Israel renewed its large-scale military assault on Lebanon on March 2, official counts place the Lebanese death toll at over 4,300 people, with an additional 12,200 people wounded in the ongoing hostilities.

  • Five Amazon countries arrest hundreds in major crackdown on environmental crime

    Five Amazon countries arrest hundreds in major crackdown on environmental crime

    In a landmark show of cross-border collaboration to protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest, law enforcement agencies from five Amazonian nations have concluded one of the most sweeping crackdowns on transnational environmental crime ever recorded in the region, netting hundreds of arrests and seizing more than $280 million in illegally trafficked goods.

    Operation Green Shield 2026, which unfolded across the entire Amazon Basin from July 15 to 31, brought together more than 3,600 officers from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to target the full spectrum of destructive illegal activity plaguing the ecosystem: unlicensed mining, unauthorized logging, wildlife trafficking, fuel smuggling, and land grabbing — the unlawful seizure and occupation of territory that almost always ends in large-scale forest clearing. The entire operation was coordinated from Bogota, Colombia, by the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate (I2LEC), a 2023 partnership between the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime designed to strengthen global collective action against cross-border environmental harm.

    Official data released Tuesday details the operation’s far-reaching outcomes: across 1,045 separate field deployments, authorities made 839 arrests linked to environmental crime. Teams seized over 280,000 cubic meters of illegally harvested timber — a volume large enough to fill approximately 110 Olympic-sized swimming pools — alongside 195 metric tons of illegally extracted minerals including gold, carbon, iron and copper, plus all the heavy equipment used for unregulated mining operations. Beyond timber and minerals, law enforcement rescued more than 3,000 live wild animals captured for trafficking and recovered 430 deceased animals, a collection that includes snakes, birds, lizards and freshwater fish native to the Amazon.

    Environmental crime has emerged as one of the most profitable illicit industries operating in the Amazon, driven by relentless global demand for high-value gold, rare timber, and exotic wild animals. Investigators have documented that transnational criminal networks often merge illegal mining, logging, and wildlife trafficking operations, sharing cross-border smuggling routes and international financial networks to move stolen goods and evade detection. By shifting operations and contraband across neighboring national borders to avoid law enforcement, these groups have made coordinated multinational action not just effective, but essential to disrupting their activity.

    This year’s Green Shield operation builds on a smaller 2025 multinational campaign that brought together 1,500 officers from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. That earlier effort marked one of the first large-scale attempts to implement shared intelligence and simultaneous cross-border enforcement against Amazon environmental crime, reflecting growing global concern over the increasingly borderless nature of these criminal networks. The 2026 iteration expanded the partnership to include Bolivia, with synchronized patrols and raids targeting remote border and river regions where criminal groups have long operated with impunity.

    “The UAE leadership firmly believes that collaboration is essential to combating transnational crime,” Col. Dana Humaid, director general of the International Affairs Bureau at the UAE Ministry of Interior, said in an official statement. “By working together, law enforcement agencies can achieve stronger results.”

    Colombian National Police Director Gen. William Oswaldo Rincón Zambrano emphasized that the operation’s success demonstrated how cross-border intelligence sharing can translate into tangible, coordinated enforcement outcomes. “Protecting our natural resources requires a shared response,” he noted.

    Peruvian police environmental chief Gen. J. Manuel Cruz Chamba echoed that sentiment, pointing out that environmental crimes “do not respect borders” and therefore demand unified international cooperation to effectively address.

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content.

  • Funeral honors Ukrainian student killed as she helped the victims of a Russian strike

    Funeral honors Ukrainian student killed as she helped the victims of a Russian strike

    On a somber Tuesday in central Kyiv, hundreds of mourners clad mostly in white followed the open casket of 20-year-old Vitalina Yarovenko, a university student who was killed over the weekend by a coordinated Russian double-tap missile strike while she treated victims of an initial attack. The funeral service began at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral, where clergy led prayers for the slain volunteer, and tearful loved ones approached the casket to bid their final goodbyes.

    Per Yarovenko’s family’s request, attendees wore white or traditional Ukrainian embroidered garments instead of customary black funeral clothing. The choice was made to ensure Vitalina would not “feel too sad” on her final journey through Kyiv. Though Yarovenko was a civilian, her mother requested the fallen soldier’s funeral procession, a rare honor for non-military casualties, that carried the casket from the cathedral downhill to Kyiv’s iconic Independence Square. City traffic halted for several minutes to clear the way for the procession; drivers stepped out of their vehicles to stand in silent tribute, with some dropping to a single knee and others pressing a hand over their hearts in respect.

    Yarovenko was a fourth-year psychology student at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and also worked as an instructor at the university’s affiliated military training school. In July, she joined the volunteer medical corps Hospitallers, an Ukrainian medical organization that deploys teams to Russian attack sites to provide urgent care and evacuate wounded civilians and soldiers.

    On early Saturday morning, Yarovenko rushed to the site of a Russian missile strike that had targeted Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district. While she and other volunteers worked to treat survivors at the location, a second missile hit the exact same spot, killing her instantly. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly condemned Russia’s widespread use of the “double tap” tactic: a deliberate military strategy that launches an initial strike to draw first responders, rescue teams and volunteers to the site, followed by a second attack designed specifically to kill or maim those who have come to help.

    At Independence Square, the gathered crowd fell silent for a minute to honor all those who have died defending Ukraine. Yarovenko’s mother, Nataliia, stood holding a microphone in one hand and a large portrait of her daughter in the other, her voice breaking with tears as she spoke. “I have given up the meaning of my entire life, but I am immensely proud,” she told the crowd. “I don’t want a hero at home. I want my child at home. But this was her path.”

    Standing beside her was another grieving mother, also named Nataliia, whose 25-year-old daughter Eva Royce had been working alongside Yarovenko and was also killed in the second strike. Royce has not yet been laid to rest: her remains were severely burned in the attack, and DNA identification of recovered remains is still ongoing. She did not speak during the ceremony, consumed by private grief for her own lost child.

    Friends and loved ones remembered Yarovenko as a bright, compassionate young woman deeply committed to defending her country. She had planned to enlist in the Ukrainian military immediately after graduating this year, according to her friend Anastasiia Alieksieieva. “Her decision to volunteer and help people in Kyiv after the attacks showed how committed she was to that plan,” Alieksieieva, 21, said. “She did not even make it to graduation.”

    Another close friend, 19-year-old Anna Donets, shared that Yarovenko had spent months fundraising for the Ukrainian military, volunteering at a frontline military hospital, and organizing military training camps for Ukrainian youth. “There are not many people like her, and she was going there to help people,” Donets said. “People like her shape the future, and others should follow them. But unfortunately, Russia kills them.”

    Donets remembered Yarovenko as an infectiously funny young woman whose energy lifted everyone around her. “We were remembering her humor yesterday and laughing because she was always teasing everyone. It was never boring with her,” she said. “At 8 in the morning on teaching days, when everyone else was exhausted, she would arrive as if she were stepping onto a runway. She was so beautiful — simply a queen.”

    Serhii Beskrestnov, a family friend and presidential adviser on defense technology development, struggled to articulate his grief. “We understand that there is a war, that men and women are dying,” he said. “But when it happens away from the front, to people who are helping … I don’t know. I have no words right now.”

    Yarovenko’s death came as part of a massive Russian aerial assault across Ukraine that night, which saw Russian forces launch 220 aerial weapons: 35 missiles, 185 attack drones, including 27 ballistic Iskander-M and S-400 missiles. Ukrainian air defense forces only managed to intercept one of the ballistic missiles and one guided air-launched missile. The attack left nine people dead and 33 wounded across Kyiv alone, and laid bare Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptor missiles for Western-supplied air defense systems. Ukraine relies heavily on U.S.-made Patriot systems to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks, but stocks of interceptor missiles remain dangerously depleted.

    At the close of the ceremony, mourners filed past Yarovenko’s casket one by one, laying white flowers at its side before she was transported to a Kyiv military cemetery for burial — a rare honor reserved for fallen soldiers, extended to the young civilian volunteer. In her final remarks, Nataliia spoke of the future she had dreamed of for her daughter, and the call for all Ukrainians to continue fighting for the future of their nation. “We must withstand this war so that this land remains for our Ukrainian children,” she said. “Unfortunately, my child will now lie in this earth. I would have very much liked to give her a beautiful wedding, but today that is no longer possible.”

  • Kenya unveils carbon market rule book and caps the overseas sale of carbon credits

    Kenya unveils carbon market rule book and caps the overseas sale of carbon credits

    In a landmark step for climate action across Africa, Kenya has launched one of the continent’s most detailed regulatory frameworks for international carbon trading, putting in place a hard cap on the volume of carbon emissions credits it will approve for sale to international buyers through 2030.

    The new regulation, formally unveiled on Monday, sets a total ceiling of 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent for cross-border carbon market transactions, with an annual sub-cap of 1.67 million metric tons. Every future carbon credit project request will be evaluated against this binding budget under the newly released national carbon markets guide, which aligns with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. That section of the global climate pact permits countries to trade emission reduction credits among themselves, enabling nations to collectively work toward shared global temperature targets more cost-effectively.

    Environment Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa explained that the cap and national carbon budget are designed explicitly to protect Kenya’s own domestic climate commitments, outlined in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. Signed over a decade ago, the Paris Agreement commits all signatory nations to limit global average temperature rise by 2100 to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with a more ambitious goal of holding the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

    The 10 million metric ton budget applies to emission reductions generated across four high-impact sectors: energy, transportation, industrial processes, and waste management. The primary policy goal of the cap is to eliminate the risk of Kenya overselling carbon credits that it will ultimately need to meet its own NDC targets down the line. This new structured framework replaces Kenya’s previous uncertain, multi-stage approval process that lacked clear binding safeguards, bringing much-needed clarity to project developers and investors.

    Environment and Climate Change Principal Secretary Festus Ng’eno emphasized that the national carbon budget acts as a binding guardrail for Kenya’s emerging carbon market. Beyond the cap, the new guide provides state agencies with practical, step-by-step decision-making tools that apply across the entire life cycle of every carbon project, from initial application to final credit issuance.

    The regulation also introduces a conditional list of priority project activities that align with Kenya’s sustainable development goals, including renewable energy infrastructure, low-carbon transportation upgrades, and modern waste management systems. Forestry and other land-use carbon projects have been temporarily excluded from the framework while Kenya develops more robust emissions baselines and data management systems to address the risk of carbon reversal, where stored carbon is re-released into the atmosphere due to events like wildfire or deforestation. Officials note that inclusion on the priority list does not guarantee final project approval, but it will accelerate the review process for initiatives that match national development priorities.

    In recent years, Kenya has grown into one of Africa’s top destinations for carbon market investment, drawing billions of shillings in funding for projects ranging from clean cooking access for rural households to utility-scale renewable energy, mangrove ecosystem restoration, and broad-based forest conservation. The Kenyan government projects that the new regulatory framework will boost investor confidence by creating a more predictable approval process, while also upholding global climate integrity and ensuring that local communities see tangible benefits from carbon market activity.

    “Predictability, transparency, and institutional coherence are essential to attracting quality investment,” Ng’eno said. He added that all government decisions will be grounded in clear, publicly published criteria designed to deliver tangible national benefits without compromising Kenya’s own climate commitments or global climate integrity. This move positions Kenya as a regional leader in responsible carbon market governance, setting a benchmark for other African nations looking to develop their own regulated carbon trading sectors.

  • US-Saudi strikes test Iraq’s balancing act between Riyadh and Tehran

    US-Saudi strikes test Iraq’s balancing act between Riyadh and Tehran

    Last week’s unprecedented joint military operation by the United States and Saudi Arabia against Iran-aligned militias based in Iraq has done far more than stoke fears of imminent retaliation. It has laid bare the deep fragility of Baghdad’s years-long balancing act, which has sought to nurture warmer ties with both Riyadh and Washington while keeping powerful Tehran-aligned armed factions in check — a delicate compromise that may now force Iraq to make hard choices its leaders have long evaded.

    According to Iraqi and Iranian media reports, the strikes hit multiple bases belonging to Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) on July 29, leaving at least 20 PMF fighters dead alongside four military advisers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The operation marks the first time Saudi Arabia has openly participated in coordinated military strikes alongside the U.S., and was framed as retaliation for recent drone attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure that were launched from Iraqi territory.

    What is most notable, however, is that neither Riyadh nor the targeted Iran-linked militias appear to be seeking a prolonged, large-scale military confrontation at this stage. The Saudi foreign ministry characterized the joint action as an act of legitimate self-defense, while noting that further strikes would only occur if additional attacks against Saudi territory are carried out. For Riyadh, the priority remains addressing ongoing Houthi threats to its oil facilities and maritime trade routes from Yemen, and the kingdom has little interest in opening a new active front against Iran-aligned groups in Iraq.

    Regional analysts broadly agree that the primary goal of the strikes was to reestablish deterrence against Tehran and its Iraqi proxies, rather than spark a full-blown conflict. “The strikes were targeted at specific militia sites linked directly to drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, to deter these groups,” explained Dr. Hesham Alghannam, a Riyadh-based scholar with the Carnegie Middle East program, in an interview with Middle East Eye. “But killing Iranian military advisers alongside militia fighters was not accidental. This was a message to Tehran that Saudi Arabia holds Iran responsible for what its personnel direct from Iraqi soil, regardless of which formation pulls the trigger.”

    A similar restrained posture can be seen on the side of the Iran-aligned militias. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella coalition that includes the PMF, has publicly vowed retaliation for the strikes, but its rhetoric toward Saudi Arabia has been far more tempered than its sharp hostility toward the United States. In a July 29 statement posted to its official Telegram channel, the group emphasized that its “response to the American enemy is inevitable,” while only noting that it may target Saudi Arabia “if circumstances require.”

    The IRI has given Iraq’s central government an August 7 deadline to respond to the joint strikes, but analysts argue this timeline and accompanying threats are aimed more at influencing Baghdad’s domestic policy than setting the stage for immediate military escalation. Multiple IRI-affiliated factions, including Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Saraya Awliya al-Dam, have already called on Baghdad to cut diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, indicating the pressure is intended to shape Iraq’s broader regional alignment rather than trigger immediate conflict.

    Mustafa Alsaray, research director at the Al-Bayan Centre for Research and Planning, pointed out that armed factions in Iraq rarely publicize deadlines for retaliation, instead relying on surprise attacks. “When they set such deadlines, they intend to send a message and achieve something, perhaps politically or in terms of security,” he told Middle East Eye. A second possibility, he added, is that the militias are holding off on any retaliation to coordinate their response with Tehran, amid shifting currents in ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions.

    In recent days, U.S.-Iran relations have shown tentative signs of de-escalation: former U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that direct negotiations with Tehran are ongoing, though he also warned the latest talks represent Iran’s “last chance” to reach a new nuclear and security deal. A renewed breakdown in those talks could prompt Iran-aligned militias to launch new attacks against Saudi Arabia, and potentially even Jordan or other Gulf Arab states, observers warn.

    Beyond regional tensions, the strikes come at an extraordinarily sensitive juncture for Iraq’s domestic politics and security agenda. Baghdad is currently working to bring all weapons held by non-state armed groups under formal state control, advance integration of the PMF (which is technically part of Iraq’s official security apparatus but hosts highly autonomous Iran-aligned factions), and implement a national disarmament plan with a September 30 compliance deadline for all armed groups.

    The joint U.S.-Saudi strikes, and Baghdad’s widespread public perception as unable or unwilling to prevent the attacks on PMF bases, have already hardened resistance to the disarmament push among hardline factions. Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, secretary general of Kataeb Hezbollah, confirmed that the attacks have “reinforced the group’s commitment to retaining and developing its weapons.” To build popular support for their position, the IRI has explicitly tied the strikes to Baghdad’s disarmament initiative, challenging the government that has “called for the Resistance’s disarmament” to prove it can defend Iraqi territory.

    As resistance to disarmament grows, the economic stakes of Iraq’s stalled security reforms are becoming impossible to ignore. During Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s official visit to Washington in mid-July, his government signed 48 new trade and investment partnerships with U.S. companies. But U.S. officials have made clear that deeper economic cooperation and larger investments will depend on Baghdad’s ability to rein in or disarm militias that have carried out dozens of attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic targets in recent months, a string of assaults the IRI claimed responsibility for during the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran.

    Saudi Arabia is expected to adopt a similar posture on investment in Iraq. Zaidi has repeatedly framed closer economic partnership with Riyadh as a core priority for his government, but failure to control Iran-aligned militias could derail those plans completely. “September 30 is the real test. If the disarmament process fails – on the same day U.S. forces are set to withdraw from Iraq – Riyadh and even Abu Dhabi will quietly conclude that Baghdad cannot deliver, and their willingness to invest in Iraq will be reconsidered accordingly,” Alghannam noted.

    For Iraq, the aftermath of the joint strikes has turned a long-simmering internal tension into an unavoidable test: can Baghdad deliver on its security reforms, preserve its fledgling ties with Gulf Arab states, and avoid being dragged into a wider regional conflict that its war-weary population can ill afford?

  • This summer isn’t breaking heat records — yet. Wait until El Nino kicks in, scientists say

    This summer isn’t breaking heat records — yet. Wait until El Nino kicks in, scientists say

    Across North America and Europe, out-of-control wildfires are scorching landscapes while deadly heat waves linger over major population centers. At the same time, the world’s oceans have hit their hottest recorded temperatures for this time of year, with a rapidly strengthening El Niño forecast to reach unprecedented intensity that will send global temperatures soaring and disrupt weather patterns across every continent. While this summer of extreme heat may feel like an unrivaled climate catastrophe, 2026 has not yet claimed the dubious title of the world’s hottest year on record — at least, not yet. Current climate data ranks 2026 as the third-warmest year to date, trailing only 2024 and 2025. But leading climate scientists say that by the end of the calendar year, the combined force of accelerating human-caused global warming and an unusually strong El Niño makes it increasingly likely that 2026 will surpass 2024 to claim the top spot as the hottest year ever recorded, if not come extremely close.

    Even if 2026 does break the record, climate experts widely agree that the new mark will not stand for long. While there is some debate among researchers over whether 2026 will take the crown this year, there is near-universal consensus that 2027 will exceed all modern temperature records, potentially by a substantial margin.

    Recent years have seen global conflicts draw public and policy attention away from the climate crisis, but the current wave of heat and fire makes the issue impossible to ignore. “With wars around the globe in the last few years people didn’t pay much attention to climate change because the world was on fire in different ways. The world is now on fire again with climate change in a way that’s increasingly difficult to ignore,” said Zeke Hausfather, a leading climate scientist at Berkeley Earth. “It’s going to keep getting worse.”

    Hausfather’s current analysis puts the probability that 2026 will overtake 2024 as the hottest year on record at 35 percent, a figure he has adjusted upward nearly every month since March, when the odds stood at just 7 percent. James Hansen, the former top NASA climate scientist widely regarded as the godfather of modern climate science for four decades of accurate long-term warnings about rising temperatures, predicts 2026 will edge past 2024 by the end of the year.

    Ocean temperature data already points to this outcome, Hansen notes. Global daily sea surface temperatures matched 2024 levels starting in May, and have hit record highs almost every day since June. Since oceans cover more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, there is roughly a six-week lag between ocean warming and a corresponding rise in the global average surface temperature, Hansen explained. That means widespread global temperature records are imminent. This year, 82 percent of the world’s ocean surface is experiencing damaging marine heatwaves, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

    The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) previously forecast just a 0.1 percent chance that 2026 would claim the number one spot, with a 66 percent chance it would rank as the fourth-warmest year on record. But Russell Vose, head of monitoring at NOAA, confirmed that those odds will be revised upward significantly when the agency releases its updated July analysis.

    Hausfather says the shifting odds stem from updated forecasts that now predict El Niño will reach historically unmatched strength. El Niño is a natural temporary climate pattern characterized by warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific, which raises global average temperatures and amplifies extreme weather events across the globe. Most current projections show this El Niño becoming the strongest ever recorded.

    Unlike natural El Niño events of the past, today’s event is releasing far more stored heat than historic averages, explained Zachary Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central, a non-profit science and communications organization. “El Ninos always release pent-up heat in the ocean, but because of greenhouse gases trapping heat and 90% of it going into the world’s seas, there’s more heat to release,” Labe said. He added that overall ocean heat content, a key benchmark of human-caused climate change, continues to set new record highs year after year.

    Crucially, climate scientists emphasize that the extreme heat and wildfire risk this summer cannot be blamed solely on El Niño, as the event’s full temperature impacts do not typically emerge for several more months. Instead, the rampant extreme weather of summer 2026 is exactly the outcome long warned by scientists as a consequence of burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
    “The driver of the record warmth is climate change in the background. And it’s a much larger — much, much larger — contribution than El Nino, which is just a tenth to two-tenths of a degree on top of that long-term trend,” Labe said.

    Hansen added that the pace of warming is accelerating faster than many models predicted, for two key reasons. First, traditional industrial pollution that produces cooling aerosols (which have long masked the full intensity of greenhouse gas-driven warming) has declined in recent decades. Second, it appears the climate system is more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions than many scientists previously anticipated.

    This year’s heat waves have been particularly punishing in regions unaccustomed to extreme triple-digit temperatures, unlike the consistently hot tropics, researchers note. They have also been unusually intense at night, preventing residents from cooling down after daytime heat, disrupting sleep, damaging public health and reducing worker productivity, explained Samantha Burgess, global strategic lead at Copernicus.
    Burgess pointed to Europe as a stark example, which saw an exceptional heat wave in May, a second in June, two more in July, and another ongoing heat event currently impacting France and Spain. “European heat waves are not in isolation. So there’s also been shocking heat waves in North America. There’s been shockingly hot conditions in South America as well. There’s been devastating heat waves in India,” Burgess said. “There’s always heat waves somewhere in the world sometime, but what is very unusual for Europe for this particular year is the frequency and extent of the heat waves.”

    Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said this summer’s events confirm decades of scientific warnings about the impacts of unmitigated climate change. “These are vivid pictures of not just the future, which is what we used to say, but on the whole of what climate change is doing,” Oppenheimer said. “There’s no question that climate change has increased the risk of wildfires. There’s no question that the climate change increased the probability of really hot, nasty, even unprecedented summers around the world.”

    This coverage of climate and environment from The Associated Press is supported by funding from multiple private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Watch: Evacuations as Guatemala volcano erupts

    Watch: Evacuations as Guatemala volcano erupts

    A major volcanic eruption at Guatemala’s Mount Fuego has triggered mandatory evacuation orders for nearby communities, pushing emergency response teams into high gear to move residents out of high-risk zones. One of Central America’s most active volcanic formations, Fuego sits at the intersection of three central Guatemalan departments: Escuintla, Chimaltenango, and Sacatepéquez. This strategic location means that any eruption directly threatens hundreds of local residents living in the shadow of the volcano, whose slopes have long drawn settlement despite the constant risk of volcanic activity.

    Local disaster management agencies have mobilized rapidly to coordinate the evacuation effort, deploying personnel and resources to guide residents to designated emergency shelters outside the danger area. Fuego has a well-documented history of powerful eruptions, including a 2018 event that claimed more than 150 lives and displaced thousands of people, leaving a lasting memory of the volcano’s destructive potential among Guatemalan communities. Current response operations are prioritizing moving vulnerable populations, including elderly residents and families with young children, first, while monitoring stations track volcanic activity around the clock to update risk assessments and response plans.

  • How Morocco’s Gaza deployment is reshaping its ties with Israel

    How Morocco’s Gaza deployment is reshaping its ties with Israel

    In a groundbreaking move that makes it the first Arab and African nation to join the deployment, Morocco formalized its participation in the controversial International Stabilisation Force (ISF) for Palestine in mid-July, tying its involvement to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s divisive Gaza peace plan and the equally disputed Board of Peace (BoP) created to oversee the initiative.

    The signing ceremony was held in Rabat on July 15, with top Moroccan and international figures in attendance: Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, BoP Director General Nickolay Mladenov, senior Royal Armed Forces defense officials, and ISF Commander Jasper Jeffers. The deployment follows a direct order from King Mohammed VI, who serves as the Supreme Commander and Chief of General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces, as well as chairman of the Al-Quds Committee. Initial plans called for 500 Moroccan military personnel to be stationed at a refugee camp in Rafah, the southern Gaza city, but that number has since been cut to 200 troops according to Al Jazeera reporting. The force is set to operate in direct collaboration with the Israeli military.

    Shortly after Morocco signed the participation agreement, Hamas unveiled a conditional disarmament proposal aligned with Trump’s Gaza framework. However, Israel has failed to uphold its end of the broader agreement, showing no indication of withdrawing from the Palestinian territories it has occupied illegally for decades. Instead of committing to a withdrawal timeline, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has pushed forward a proposal to expand illegal Israeli settlements into the Gaza Strip.

    In an official statement from Morocco’s National Defence Administration, the kingdom framed its contribution as a demonstration of unwavering commitment to cross-border peace, global cooperation, and regional stability. The statement added that the move is consistent with Morocco’s status as a founding member of the BoP.

    Said Saddiki, an international relations professor at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, explained the strategic benefits Rabat stands to gain from the deployment. He noted that joining the ISF gives Morocco a chance to reclaim a high-profile diplomatic role in the Palestinian issue, complementing the decades-long work it has carried out through the Al-Quds Committee and the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Agency. While independent analysis from the Council on Foreign Relations confirms the ISF is intended to act as Gaza’s primary security force, eventually replacing the Israeli military, Moroccan officials have heavily centered public narrative around a planned field hospital the kingdom will establish as part of its ISF mission.

    That field hospital framing is nothing more than political spin, according to Saadia, a leading Moroccan member of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and an organizer for the most recent Global Sumud flotilla. Speaking to Middle East Eye, Saadia argued that while Morocco may claim to support Palestinian interests, its involvement ultimately benefits Israel far more — pointing to the kingdom’s existing role in arms shipments to the Zionist entity as evidence. Saddiki pushed back on that criticism, framing the field hospital as first and foremost a humanitarian undertaking rather than a military one. He acknowledged that Morocco maintains warm diplomatic relations with both Palestinian and Israeli leadership, but emphasized that the current tense regional climate leaves little room for any Arab state to serve as an effective mediator. As such, he said, Morocco is far more likely to contribute through humanitarian aid and diplomatic outreach than through active negotiation. To date, Morocco’s Ministry of Defence has not released any detailed public breakdown of the specific role its troops will fill as part of the ISF deployment.

    Saadia offered a far more skeptical take on the kingdom’s unstated goals. Beyond the humanitarian framing, she suggested Morocco’s role could include disarming Hamas resistance factions and even overseeing a new wave of American and Israeli colonization of the Gaza Strip. Saddiki countered that Morocco’s participation does not represent a strategic alliance against any party, nor does it come at the cost of the Palestinian cause. He added that domestically, the Moroccan government has worked to balance its foreign policy choices with widespread public support for Palestine, while noting that pro-Palestinian and anti-normalization movements have remained steadily active across the country since October 2023.

    Even as the Moroccan state has openly deepened ties with Israel, many ordinary citizens have warned that any normalization agreement with the country amounts to complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Younes, a key leader of Morocco’s pro-Palestinian protest movement and a veteran organizer of the past two Global Sumud flotillas, told Middle East Eye that joining the ISF amounts to full complicity in genocide. The activist added that entering Gaza alongside Israeli forces to impose a one-sided peace and force Palestinians to surrender and disarm is a grave injustice that the Moroccan public will never accept.

    Both Trump’s peace plan and the BoP have been widely condemned by grassroots activists and sovereign nations alike for violating core principles of international law. Younes argued that no genuine peace initiative can come from negotiations with Israel, noting that the country has long operated with impunity to expand its control over Palestinian land. Shams, a Rabat-based activist who requested to use a pseudonym, described Morocco’s involvement as deeply disheartening and disappointing, though she added that the decision did not come as a surprise. Shams noted that widespread opposition to normalization runs deep, particularly among younger Moroccans: “I cannot speak for all Gen Z Moroccans, but I would say that most are opposed to the Moroccan military support joining the ISF.”

    Data from the 2025 Arab Index, published earlier this year by the Arab Center Washington DC, backs up that claim: the survey found that 89 percent of Moroccans oppose recognizing Israel, with just 6 percent in favor of normalization.

    A Moroccan journalist who requested anonymity explained that the Moroccan state frames normalization as a strategic tool: the kingdom supports a two-state solution and cooperates with Israel in exchange for diplomatic and political backing from the United States. But the journalist added that public trust in the government’s approach is eroding fast, as the gap between official rhetoric and on-the-ground reality widens. With Israel continuing to expand illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land, the prospect of a two-state solution grows more distant by the day.

    For Shams, the addition of Moroccan military forces to the ISF will not bring peace to Gaza. “I don’t think military intervention is going to facilitate peace when the oppressor has been destroying and bombing and blockading and [committing] genocide for decades on end,” she said. She added that the U.S. and Israel will only continue to destabilize Gaza, kill Palestinian civilians, and destroy the lives of millions.

    Morocco is the only North African and Arab nation contributing military troops to the ISF, joining a small coalition that includes Kosovo, Albania, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and most recently Uganda. Neighboring Egypt has limited its involvement to training and logistical support, choosing not to deploy frontline forces. This unique position has triggered intense anger among Moroccan pro-Palestinian activists, with Younes expressing frustration over the rapid pace of normalization across the country’s public and private sectors. “Zionists in Morocco successfully penetrated every single sector within a short period,” he explained. “What we gather as voluntary efforts and popular mobilisation to face this cancer during the past years isn’t enough.” Acknowledging the gravity of his assessment, he added that Moroccan authorities have continued to push forward with normalization even as grassroots opposition grows, meaning activists must adapt their strategies and pursue new approaches to challenge the trend.

    Despite growing pressure from state authorities, Morocco’s pro-Palestinian movement remains defiant. Saadia argued that governments joining the ISF are operating under a dangerous delusion, wrongly believing that alignment with the American-Israeli axis will bring them greater security and protection. Pointing to the recent escalation of conflict between the U.S.-Israeli bloc and Iran, she noted that the U.S. only prioritizes Israel’s security, with no regard for the interests of other partner nations.

    (Names of interviewees have been changed to protect them from retaliation)

  • Sheriff: Spokane arson suspect in custody

    Sheriff: Spokane arson suspect in custody

    A suspected arsonist has been placed behind bars in Spokane County, following on-scene observations and evidence recovered by local law enforcement. According to statements released by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Aaron Farinacci was spotted in suspicious circumstances at the location where the fire broke out. Witness accounts and deputy observations confirm that Farinacci was seen kneeling close to patches of dry grass at the fire’s origin point, a position that raised immediate red flags for responding authorities. After taking the suspect into custody, law enforcement officers conducted a lawful search and recovered common incendiary tools – a set of matches and a disposable lighter – in Farinacci’s possession. The Sheriff’s office has not yet released additional details about the extent of damage caused by the fire, potential motives for the alleged arson, or upcoming court dates for Farinacci. The investigation remains active as authorities continue to piece together the full sequence of events surrounding the blaze.