emergency response

A hot air balloon with 21 people caught fire and crashed in Praia Grande, Santa Catarina, Brazil, early Sunday. The state fire department reported at least eight deaths. Thirteen survivors were hospitalized with injuries from minor to critical.

Since late May, Israel has required international aid to Gaza to be distributed exclusively through three Israeli-backed, US-operated sites managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). This change followed Israel’s accusations that Hamas militants were diverting supplies from United Nations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Under the new system, aid trucks unload food and water at fortified GHF centres in Rafah, Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, guarded by Israeli troops. UN agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), have been blocked from direct distribution, citing security concerns.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Russian forces unleashed a massive combined drone-and-missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, marking one of the deadliest strikes on the city since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at least ten civilians were killed and dozens more wounded as residential buildings, critical infrastructure and public facilities were pulverised by an onslaught of 440 Shahed drones and 32 cruise missiles. Smoke still hung over the skyline at dawn as rescue teams swept through rubble-strewn streets in search of survivors.

An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner operating as Flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick crashed shortly after take-off on Thursday afternoon, colliding with a hostel building near the airport and bursting into flames. Initial reports from Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik indicated there appeared to be no survivors among the 242 people on board, although a lone passenger may have survived. Local residents in Meghani Nagar—a residential area adjacent to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport—also suffered casualties when the wreckage struck a medical college hostel.

On Sunday afternoon, a man armed with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails opened fire on a group of peaceful protesters at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall in Boulder, Colorado. Eight people—ranging in age from their early fifties to late eighties—sustained burn injuries. The FBI has labelled the attack a “terror attack,” though local authorities are investigating motive and caution against premature conclusions.

A recent systematic review led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) has sounded an alarm over the widening immunity gap in infants during the current global measles outbreak. Published on May 29, 2025, in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, the study underscores that maternal antibodies, which confer passive protection to newborns, wane far earlier than previously assumed—leaving a substantial proportion of babies vulnerable long before they become eligible for routine vaccination at nine months of age.

An enormous blast tore through a chemical manufacturing facility in Weifang city, Shandong province, at around noon local time on Tuesday, leaving at least five dead, 21 injured and six unaccounted for, according to state-run media and the national Ministry of Emergency Management. Witnesses described a deafening roar as windows shattered in nearby apartment blocks and thick plumes of orange and grey smoke billowed over the skyline.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Istanbul on Wednesday during a national public holiday, shaking the city and prompting panic among residents. Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) reported that the earthquake occurred at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, with its epicentre located in the Sea of Marmara, about 40 kilometres south-west of Istanbul.