Iran threatens Europeans soldiers, 'could be in danger' - Fox News

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned in a televised speech Wednesday that European soldiers – not just Americans – “could be in danger” after leaders in Britain, France and Germany began the so-called “dispute process” for the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal with world powers.

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: EUROPEAN POWERS SAY ISLAMIC REPUBLIC 'NOT MEETING' TERMS, THREATEN MORE SANCTIONS

"Today, the American soldier is in danger, tomorrow the European soldier could be in danger,” Rouhani said in a televised speech before his Cabinet. He did not elaborate.

The remarks came after Britain, France, and Germany, which signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, sent a letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief that they are triggering its “dispute mechanism” – which begins a process that could result in the U.N. restoring sanctions it previously lifted under the deal.

Iran had gradually been rolling back its commitment after President Trump in May 2018 pulled U.S. support from the deal negotiated by his predecessor, President Obama. As part of its response to the U.S. airstrike that killed top Iranian Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran announced that it would no longer respect limits set on how many centrifuges it can use to enrich uranium.

The Europeans felt compelled to act, despite objections from Russia and China, because every violation of the deal reduces the so-called “breakout time” Iran needs to produce a nuclear bomb, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Parliament.

Rouhani’s speech came amid days of widespread anti-government protests in Tehran that erupted in the capital city after Iran admitted “in error” it shot down a Ukrainian jetliner last week, killing all 176 onboard.

The British ambassador in Tehran was also detained for a few hours over the weekend for allegedly participating in demonstrations.

“In the last few nights, we’ve had people in the streets of Tehran demonstrating against the fact that they were lied to for a couple of days,” Iran's top diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said at a conference in New Delhi before praising Iran's military for being “brave enough to claim responsibility early on."

In his speech Wednesday at the Raisina Dialogue in India, Zarif blamed U.S. “ignorance” and “arrogance” for “fueling mayhem” in the Middle East.

He added that he and Rouhani didn’t learn until Friday that an Iranian anti-ballistic had caused the crash that happened two days prior on Jan. 8 – something that, according to The Associated Press, raises questions over how much power Iran's civilian government has in its Shiite theocracy.

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Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which shot down the aircraft, knew immediately afterward its missile downed the airline.

The Guard is answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is expected to preside over Friday prayers in Iran for the first time in years over anger about the crash.

The plane crash happened hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing U.S. and coalition service members to avenge Soleimani’s death.

Fox News' Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2020-01-15 10:12:08Z
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'Danger tomorrow': Iran's Rouhani makes veiled threat to US and EU troops in Middle East - CNBC

Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president, looks on during a news conference in Tehran, Iran, on February 6, 2018.

Ali Mohammadi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ⁠— In an angry speech on state television, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at the U.S. and Europe for its presence in the Middle East and for what he described as the latter's failures in upholding the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

U.S. troops are "insecure" in the region today, and EU troops "might be in danger tomorrow," Rouhani declared, according to a Reuters translation, marking the first time the leader has directed a threat toward European forces in the region. He demanded the U.S. leave and accused it of making the region insecure, saying it should "apologize to Tehran" for its "previous crimes."

The U.S. has significantly increased its troops presence in the Gulf in the past year as shipping and oil facilities have come under fire from attacks blamed on Iran, which Tehran denies. The U.K. has about 400 forces in Iraq, spread around Irbil, Baghdad and Taji, all locations that have been targeted by Iraqi Shiite militias backed by Iran's Quds Force, the external operations wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

EU forces are also stationed in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and France and Britain have small numbers of special forces in Syria. A number of EU countries have personnel in Operation Inherent Resolve, the anti-IS coalition, stationed in Iraq. 

Former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 3, the most dramatic escalation between Washington and Tehran in a series of tit-for-tat attacks. Western forces and embassies in the region have been on high alert since then.

Rouhani also used the Wednesday speech to slam the EU's "failure to keep its promises" under the nuclear deal, the multilateral agreement signed in 2015 designed to limit Iran's nuclear program while lifting economic sanctions.

"The EU should fulfill its commitments under the nuclear deal," Rouhani said, adding that the EU has failed to act as an independent bloc and should apologize to Iran for its failures to keep its promises. The U.S. should return to the deal, he said.

France, the U.K. and Germany in a joint statement on Tuesday announced the triggering of the nuclear deal's dispute mechanism to protest and "discuss" Iran's recent decision to fully cut compliance. Iran dismissed the European measure as ineffective, criticizing the countries for failing to compensate for all the trade it had lost due to U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. left the deal under President Donald Trump in May of 2018 and subsequently imposed heavy sanctions on Iran that have slashed its oil exports and crippled its economy.

After successive rollbacks in adherence to the deal's parameters over the past year in response to the sanctions, Iran announced on Jan. 5 that it was fully suspending all compliance and would no longer abide by limits on uranium enrichment levels, stockpiling, or number of centrifuges in operation. Tehran maintains however that it would still work with the UN's nuclear inspectors, and that the moves are reversible if sanctions are lifted.

Rouhani also ridiculed U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's suggestion Tuesday that Trump should offer a new nuclear deal, calling it "strange" as "the U.S. president has always broken promises."

Trump has frequently offered to hold negotiations with the Iranians while continuously tightening the screws with more sanctions, the latest announced on Friday. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Wednesday said his country was "not interested" in negotiating with the Americans, while supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last year that Tehran would "never" talk to the United States.

The speech comes at a critical time for Iran, currently roiled by protests and popular anger over its military's accidental downing of a Ukrainian International Airlines passenger jet that killed all 176 people on board, the majority of whom were Iranian citizens.

After days of official denials, the Revolutionary Guards admitted Saturday that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile due to "human error" and "high tensions" with the U.S., as Iranian forces were awaiting a reprisal attack for their missile strike on two Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces just hours prior.

Videos have already surfaced on social media of Iranian police forces using live ammunition on the protesters this week, who have chanted anti-regime slogans like "death to the dictator" and "we don't want the Islamic Republic."   

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2020-01-15 10:11:00Z
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Desolate images from Taal Volcano show horses and cows buried in ash - CNN

Ignoring government warnings to keep away, a number of residents who lived by the foot of the volcano have gone back to tend or rescue their animals.

Stark pictures show pigs, horses, cows, and birds -- their hair, fur and feathers coated with thick ash -- being carried to relative safety, while Taal Volcano, the second most active in the Philippines, smoulders in the background.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said Wednesday morning that the volcano remains at alert level four out of a possible five, meaning an "explosive eruption is possible within hours to days."

The volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, began erupting on Sunday, sending ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air and prompting large-scale evacuations.

Mirra Lipaopao, 27, said she didn't hear the rumblings of the volcano but at around 5 p.m. saw the mud and charcoal-like matter rain down.

"I panicked," she told CNN from a gymnasium that has been turned into an evacuation center in Tanauan. "I grabbed my partner and kid to get out of the house and we just ran as far as we could."

Lipaopao said they went back to their home on Monday and found it was covered in ash and mud. They began cleaning but successive tremors jolted the ground so they returned to the shelter.

Three days after the eruption began, volcanic activity around Taal is ongoing. Fountains of lava generate dark gray, steam-laden plumes up to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) high. Fissures or cracks have opened up in several areas and 466 earthquakes have been recorded since Sunday. Volcanologists warn that further eruptions are possible.

"These new strong, continuous earthquakes that we are now experiencing are due to fissuring, which means that there really is magma that is still making its way out of Taal," Mariton Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring and eruption at PHIVOLCS said on Tuesday.

Those still within or returning to the immediate dangerous zone within a 14-kilometer (8.7 miles) radius around the volcano risk tremors, fissures and the threat of a sudden pyroclastic flow.

"As soon as you have lava being erupted into the system, it just takes some water infiltrating to create an explosive system. Or for the later magma to be more gas-charged that it is currently," said David Phillips, head of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Other hazards include potential mudslides caused by rain washing piles of unconsolidated ash and the threat of the volcano's slopes slumping into the lake, which could cause a tsunami.

"There is any number of hazards associated with volcanoes. The risk of any one of those might be fairly low but it has shown significant activity lately -- so it's time for caution," said Phillips.

Almost half a million people live within the 14 kilometer (8.7 miles) dangerous zone and PHIVOLCS has requested a "total evacuation" of everyone in this area, and issued advisory warnings for those in a larger area of 17 kilometers (10.6 miles).

Around 44,000 people from Batangas and Cavite provinces have sought shelter in 217 temporary evacuation centers set up by authorities. The total number of evacuees could be higher, with some choosing to stay with family members and relatives in other parts of the country.

Some towns, such as Talisay on the banks of Lake Taal, have been placed under lock down by police and fire services, and evacuations are being enforced, according to National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesperson Mark Timbal.

"The advice to people who are trying to go back is to follow the call of the government and the agencies, and that is to avoid going back," Timbal said.

One big concern for those in the vicinity is the potential health risks of breathing in the toxic volcanic ash -- which carries microscopic shards of glass -- that has blanketed everything in sight.

"(The shards of glass) are hazardous to lungs," said Joseph Michalski, director of the Earth and Planetary Science division at the University of Hong Kong. "You don't want stuff like that in your lungs. It can get lodged in there and make you quite ill."

International aid group Save the Children said in a statement that small children in evacuation centers were suffering from respiratory illnesses such as colds and coughs.

In the city of Tanauan about 730 people are staying in a gymnasium that has been converted into an evacuation center. Families are living in cramped conditions and sleeping on the hard floor.

The sudden eruption on Sunday caught people off guard and many families fled wearing the clothes they were in and carried little to no possessions.

Because of the ongoing threat of another, bigger eruption, no one knows when they will be able to return home or what they will find when they get there.

Many of their livelihoods have been destroyed.

Timbal said that activity had been recorded at the volcano as early as March last year and that residents and local government units were aware that "a state of preparedness" was in place. But "the speed of escalation was unexpected," he said.

Some locals living on or near the volcano, many of them poor laborers or farmers, made money from offering horse rides to tourists. Others built their livelihoods farming the fertile soils that are associated with many volcanoes or fishing tawilis or "live sardines" only found in Batangas province.

The volcano is surrounded by a lake, which is a popular attraction and many of the towns in the vicinity are tourism hot spots. There are several amusement parks, lakeside resorts and yacht clubs nearby.

The holiday town of Tagaytay, which lies close to the water's edge, is a popular getaway for Manila residents who often take boats onto the lake and hike up the volcano.

"Many of these landscapes are very beautiful and people want to go visit them," said Phillips. "It's beautiful but it's also potentially deadly -- it's that fatal attraction."

CNN's Yasmin Coles contributed to reporting from Manila, Philippines.

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2020-01-15 10:02:00Z
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Desolate images from Taal Volcano show horses and cows buried in ash - CNN

Ignoring government warnings to keep away, a number of residents who lived by the foot of the volcano have gone back to tend or rescue their animals.

Stark pictures show pigs, horses, cows, and birds -- their hair, fur and feathers coated with thick ash -- being carried to relative safety, while Taal Volcano, the second most active in the Philippines, smoulders in the background.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said Wednesday morning that the volcano remains at alert level four out of a possible five, meaning an "explosive eruption is possible within hours to days."

The volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, began erupting on Sunday, sending ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air and prompting large-scale evacuations.

Mirra Lipaopao, 27, said she didn't hear the rumblings of the volcano but at around 5 p.m. saw the mud and charcoal-like matter rain down.

"I panicked," she told CNN from a gymnasium that has been turned into an evacuation center in Tanauan. "I grabbed my partner and kid to get out of the house and we just ran as far as we could."

Lipaopao said they went back to their home on Monday and found it was covered in ash and mud. They began cleaning but successive tremors jolted the ground so they returned to the shelter.

Three days after the eruption began, volcanic activity around Taal is ongoing. Fountains of lava generate dark gray, steam-laden plumes up to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) high. Fissures or cracks have opened up in several areas and 466 earthquakes have been recorded since Sunday. Volcanologists warn that further eruptions are possible.

"These new strong, continuous earthquakes that we are now experiencing are due to fissuring, which means that there really is magma that is still making its way out of Taal," Mariton Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring and eruption at PHIVOLCS said on Tuesday.

Those still within or returning to the immediate dangerous zone within a 14-kilometer (8.7 miles) radius around the volcano risk tremors, fissures and the threat of a sudden pyroclastic flow.

"As soon as you have lava being erupted into the system, it just takes some water infiltrating to create an explosive system. Or for the later magma to be more gas-charged that it is currently," said David Phillips, head of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Other hazards include potential mudslides caused by rain washing piles of unconsolidated ash and the threat of the volcano's slopes slumping into the lake, which could cause a tsunami.

"There is any number of hazards associated with volcanoes. The risk of any one of those might be fairly low but it has shown significant activity lately -- so it's time for caution," said Phillips.

Almost half a million people live within the 14 kilometer (8.7 miles) dangerous zone and PHIVOLCS has requested a "total evacuation" of everyone in this area, and issued advisory warnings for those in a larger area of 17 kilometers (10.6 miles).

Around 44,000 people from Batangas and Cavite provinces have sought shelter in 217 temporary evacuation centers set up by authorities. The total number of evacuees could be higher, with some choosing to stay with family members and relatives in other parts of the country.

Some towns, such as Talisay on the banks of Lake Taal, have been placed under lock down by police and fire services, and evacuations are being enforced, according to National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesperson Mark Timbal.

"The advice to people who are trying to go back is to follow the call of the government and the agencies, and that is to avoid going back," Timbal said.

One big concern for those in the vicinity is the potential health risks of breathing in the toxic volcanic ash -- which carries microscopic shards of glass -- that has blanketed everything in sight.

"(The shards of glass) are hazardous to lungs," said Joseph Michalski, director of the Earth and Planetary Science division at the University of Hong Kong. "You don't want stuff like that in your lungs. It can get lodged in there and make you quite ill."

International aid group Save the Children said in a statement that small children in evacuation centers were suffering from respiratory illnesses such as colds and coughs.

In the city of Tanauan about 730 people are staying in a gymnasium that has been converted into an evacuation center. Families are living in cramped conditions and sleeping on the hard floor.

The sudden eruption on Sunday caught people off guard and many families fled wearing the clothes they were in and carried little to no possessions.

Because of the ongoing threat of another, bigger eruption, no one knows when they will be able to return home or what they will find when they get there.

Many of their livelihoods have been destroyed.

Timbal said that activity had been recorded at the volcano as early as March last year and that residents and local government units were aware that "a state of preparedness" was in place. But "the speed of escalation was unexpected," he said.

Some locals living on or near the volcano, many of them poor laborers or farmers, made money from offering horse rides to tourists. Others built their livelihoods farming the fertile soils that are associated with many volcanoes or fishing tawilis or "live sardines" only found in Batangas province.

The volcano is surrounded by a lake, which is a popular attraction and many of the towns in the vicinity are tourism hot spots. There are several amusement parks, lakeside resorts and yacht clubs nearby.

The holiday town of Tagaytay, which lies close to the water's edge, is a popular getaway for Manila residents who often take boats onto the lake and hike up the volcano.

"Many of these landscapes are very beautiful and people want to go visit them," said Phillips. "It's beautiful but it's also potentially deadly -- it's that fatal attraction."

CNN's Yasmin Coles contributed to reporting from Manila, Philippines.

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2020-01-15 07:53:00Z
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Canadian PM Justin Trudeau blames downing of Ukraine jet on US 'escalation' - New York Post

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday appeared to cast blame on President Trump and the US for the downing by Iran of a Ukrainian jetliner that was allowed to take off from Tehran following an Iranian airstrike on US troops in Iraq just hours earlier.

“I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” Trudeau told Global News television.

All 176 people – including 57 Canadians — aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 were killed when the Revolutionary Guard mistakenly fired a missile at the Boeing 737 just after takeoff from Tehran.

“This is something that happens when you have conflict and war. Innocents bear the brunt of it and it is a reminder why all of us need to work so hard on de-escalation, moving forward to reduce tensions and find a pathway that doesn’t involve further conflict and killing,” Trudeau continued, appearing to reference Trump’s order of a drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 2.

His remarks come ahead of a meeting being hosted by Canada on Thursday in London in which members of the International Coordination and Response Group plan to look at ways to demand justice.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said Monday that Iranian officials have invited it to participate in analysis of the voice and flight data recorders.

“I think full admission, acknowledgment of responsibility and some form of compensation is going to have to come,” said Trudeau, who has faced questions about whether he believes Trump bears some responsibility for disaster.

The shootdown came just hours after Iran launched ballistic missiles at two bases housing US troops in response to Trump’s order to kill the revered Iranian general, who commanded the elite Quds Force and led Iran’s campaign to expand influence across the Middle East.

The Canadian leader said he has spoken to Trump about the doomed flight.

“I’ve talked about the tremendous grief and loss that Canadians are feeling and the need for clear answers on how this happened and how we’re going to make sure it never happens again,” Trudeau said.

He added that he would have “obviously” liked a warning before Trump ordered Soleimani’s killing. Canada has troops in Iraq as part of a NATO training mission.

Soleimani’s death sparked widespread protests in Iraq and Iran against the US — but within days, the demonstrations targeted Tehran for downing the aircraft, which was carrying more than 80 Iranians.

Iranian police have reportedly begun using live ammo to break up the protests.

Trudeau cited the “hurt” and “frustration” of victims’ families in Iran and said the demonstrations “should be heeded very carefully by the Iranian government.”

But he said he was now focused on the Canadian victims, even as it could be “weeks, perhaps even months” before their bodies are repatriated for burial.

“The grief they’re going through is not to be consoled right now. They want answers, they’ve expressed anger and outrage and also immeasurable pain,” he said.

“I am hurt like all Canadians. I am angry like all Canadians. But unlike many people I have a job to do that will be able to help these families directly. Getting answers for them is my entire focus right now.”

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2020-01-14 16:18:00Z
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Philippine volcano could erupt 'within hours or days' as 40,000 evacuate, schools shut down - USA TODAY

John Bacon USA TODAY

Published 10:18 AM EST Jan 14, 2020

Schools and government offices closed and the city of Tagaytay was rocked by scores of tremors Tuesday as Philippine's Taal volcano spewed lava and ash a half mile into the sky.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology set the "alert level" at four, meaning a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days. It advised residents across much of the country to guard against the effects of heavy and prolonged ashfall.

Almost 40,000 people from the Taal area were living in 198 evacuation centers with no timetable for going home, the government said. Many never will.

Renato Solidum, who heads the volcano institute, said authorities were closely monitoring the speed in the rise of magma, an important factor in determining whether the volcano will have a strong eruption or settle down. 

“As of now, we don’t see activities slowing down and the earthquakes still continue," Solidum said.

'We need help': Passengers stranded on Guam as volcanic eruption cancels Manila flights

Not everyone was fleeing. In Tagaytay, a few miles north of Taal, many of the city's 70,000 residents warily watched and waited, sweeping ash from their homes and cars.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned businesses nationwide not to hoard facemasks as ash-laden clouds rolled across the archipelago, darkening the air in the capital, Manila, 40 miles to the north. Most schools in the city of almost 2 million were closed due to poor air quality that kept people in their homes.

The government warned that “unreasonably” high prices would bring stiff criminal charges, The Manila Times reported.

"If you hoard them I will be forced to raid your business," said Duterte, who visited to the Taal area Tuesday. "For those who cannot afford it, I will give it free."

No deaths have been reported due to the volcano, which has been rumbling for weeks but began erupting Sunday. But at least six people have been treated for respiratory ailments in Tagaytay, officials said.. And the nation's Agriculture Department said the volcano has already killed 2,000 head of livestock.

Local lawmaker Lawrence Fortun called on the government to provide “outright grants with no repayment provision” instead of loans to farmers “who already lost everything” to the ash.

“They cannot return to the volcano island, so they have to be relocated," he told the Philippine News Agency. "It is feasible for the government to implement a program for housing and distribution of farmlands."

Fortun said the government also must aid in relocating fishing families in villages surrounding nearby Laguna de Bay.

The volcano institute warned airlines to "avoid airspace around Taal Volcano as airborne ash and ballistic fragments from the eruption column pose hazards."

Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport struggled with hundreds of delayed or canceled flights affecting 80,000 passengers. General Manager Ed Monreal said airport was handling about half its normal number of flights Tuesday, encouraging news after the airport was shut down by ashfall on Sunday and barely operational Monday.

"We are on the road to recovery," he said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

New Zealand: Dad dies from injuries suffered during volcano eruption'Our people are panicking': Taal volcano in Philippines gushes lava, spews ash more than 60 miles into Manila

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2020-01-14 13:37:05Z
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As Taal volcano erupts, a Philippine tourist town grinds to a halt under a cloud of ash - The Washington Post

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post Tourists watch the Taal volcano as it continues to emit lava fountains and ash plumes, in Tagaytay, Philippines, on January 14, 2019.

TAGAYTAY, Philippines — This popular getaway town a two-hour drive south of Manila has two natural attractions that lure millions of tourists every year: its crisp, cool climate and its breathtaking view of a volcano nestled in a lake.

But when the Taal volcano erupted Sunday, Tagaytay and its surrounding areas ground to a halt. The normally verdant landscape, much sought-after for selfies and wedding photos, is blanketed by gray ash that has encrusted trees, roads and anything else in its path.

Authorities have warned of a “hazardous explosion” in hours or days that could devastate the region. Experts are bracing for the worst, prompting an urgent effort by government officials and volunteers to evacuate nearby areas. But this is proving to be difficult, as many residents insist on returning for their livestock and crops.

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post

The Taal volcano is seen from Tagaytay.

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post

A famous tourist attraction in Tagaytay remains closed three days after nearby Taal volcano erupted.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned that the worst-case scenario is a base surge. The U.S. Geological Survey defines this as a ring-shaped cloud of gas and suspended solid debris that travels outward from the base of an eruption column at a high speed.

[Taal volcano eruption forces thousands to seek safer ground in the Philippines]

“Aside from the eruption moving upwards, it’s also moving laterally. It’s not just a cloud,” said Carlo Arcilla, a professor at the National Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of the Philippines. “Towns surrounding it will be hit” in the event of a base surge, Arcilla said.

On Tuesday, electricity was still out in Tagaytay, save for a few establishments with power generators. The eruption and its aftermath — from ashfall to dozens of earthquakes — have affected about 200 restaurants, 170 hotels and at least six major event facilities.

Hotels scaled back operations amid cancellations. Restaurants that are typically full were shuttered. One McDonald’s outlet along the main highway, which boasts a clear view of the lake, was closed as workers shoveled muck out of the parking lot.

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post

Business establishments in Tagaytay have been covered in ashes from the Taal volcano.

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post

A taxi company remains closed three days after the eruption.

Residents in face masks washed mud off their cars and scraped it off their rooftops.

Local tourism officer Jelanne Mendoza said visitor numbers have dropped by 70 percent from last month and that up to 100 tourism-related establishments have closed.

[Taal volcano spews ash; Philippines evacuating residents, watching for tsunami]

“As soon as our tourists and stakeholders are out of harm’s way, we will take into account the impact on tourism business,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat told The Washington Post in a text message.

Sen. Francis Tolentino, a former mayor, said Tagaytay’s tourism sector is connected with livelihoods in neighboring communities surrounding the lake — and the eruption affects everything from a substantial wedding industry to small-business owners such as fruit vendors.

“With no tourism, there’s no Tagaytay,” Tolentino said.

Tagaytay is also housing at least 3,000 displaced people at 30 evacuation centers, according to the local social welfare office. That’s only a fraction of the thousands who fled towns and cities in the volcano’s danger zone.

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post

A tourist takes a photo from Tagaytay with the Taal volcano in the background.

Taal is one of the world’s smallest volcanoes but also one of the region’s most active. It has 47 craters, nestled in an island in the middle of a lake. One of its most dangerous eruptions, in 1754, lasted more than six months.

The Philippines sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has issued a Level 4 alert for the Taal volcano and said that could rise to Level 5, the highest status, which would indicate an ongoing magma eruption.

“The speed in the rise of magma is important [in determining] when the volcano will have a strong eruption and if it will slow down and freeze,” said the institute’s chief, Renato Solidum, the Associated Press reported. “As of now, we don’t see activities slowing down, and the earthquakes still continue.”

This is not the homecoming that Arnel Novero, 42, had pictured. He returned from his job recently as a technician in Saudi Arabia for a two-month break.

Standing in front of a field of pineapples beside his house — all covered in volcanic ash — he said all of his crops are ruined.

His family tills a nearby plot of land, with beans and coconuts. All that produce will have to go, he said.

His mother died of a heart attack on Saturday, a day before Taal started spewing ash.

At a viewing deck overlooking the volcano Tuesday, a handful of middle-aged Korean men, clad in golfing gear, snapped a few quick selfies as the ash column rose behind them. Then they hurried into a bus, among the last few tourists to leave the typically busy destination of Tagaytay.

Martin San Diego for The Washington Post

Unharvested pineapples sit covered in mud and ash in Tagaytay.

Read more

Taal volcano eruption forces thousands to seek safer ground in the Philippines

Taal volcano spews ash; Philippines evacuating residents, watching for tsunami

The scene after a volcano erupted at a popular tourist site in New Zealand

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2020-01-14 12:18:00Z
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