Tornado that blackened midday sky rips roofs off homes and flips vehicles in town of Menasha
A tornado struck north-eastern Wisconsin on Monday, blackening the midday sky and sending workers sheltering in office basements as ferocious winds splintered homes, scattered twisted metal across a highway and knocked out power to more than 30,000 people.
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado in Winnebago county, about 90 miles (145km) north-west of Milwaukee. Damage was reported in cities including Appleton and Menasha, where police chief Matt Albrecht said some homes and businesses were “severely impacted”.
At a time when the quickening pace of global heating has never been clearer, climate policies are being deprioritised
A new and ominous word has entered the vocabulary of firefighters struggling to cope with the vast wildfire sweeping through south-west France. A pyrocumulonimbus is a fire-generated thunderstorm that can whip up winds in unpredictable ways, making the containment of a blaze and assessment of its likely course far more difficult. A known phenomenon in North America and Australia, firefighters believe France is suffering its first in the Bordeaux region, as the country endures the consequences of the third major heatwave of the summer and prepares for a fourth.
The dire statistics of the ongoing fires in France and Spain tell a story of deepening devastation and human misery. A far greater expanse of French land has already been burnt this year, compared with the 30,000 hectares during the whole of 2025, while 220,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the Gironde. In Spain, the environment ministry has calculated that over 170,000 hectares have been affected, compared with 29,000 last year. Over 100,000 people have been forced to flee.
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Ukraine's rescuers have a powerful new firefighting truck. The vehicle fleet of Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES) gained a Rosenbauer Panther 8×8 airport firefighting vehicle, which will soon enter service and help rescuers carry out the most difficult tasks, the SES announced.
According to the UN, since the start of Russia's full-scale war, at least 16,141 civilians, including 803 children, have been confirmed killed, while 48,613 people, including 2,960 children, have been injured, UkrInform has reported.
The Rosenbauer Panther is a heavy airport crash-and-rescue vehicle, among the most capable firefighting machines, built to reach large fires quickly and deliver water and foam at high volume.
Donation came from Luxembourg
Its transfer to Ukraine was made possible by the charitable foundation "Ukrainian Firefighters", the company North Defence, and the Ministry of Defense of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which systematically support Ukrainian emergency workers with equipment, gear, and training.
It is one more piece of European backing for the rescuers who work on the aftermath of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities.
During the handover, Deputy Head of the SES Roman Prymush thanked the partners for their trust and constant, systematic support, saying that this help strengthens the service's ability to save lives every day.
A Rosenbauer Panther 8×8 airport firefighting vehicle. Source: The Ukrainian State Emergency Service
The rescuers who receive it work under fire
The equipment matters because of what Ukraine's emergency service now does. Beyond ordinary fires and accidents, SES crews are the ones who arrive at the sites of Russian missile and drone strikes, pulling people from collapsed buildings and fighting the fires that follow, often under the threat of a second strike aimed at the responders.
A heavy firefighting vehicle built for airport-scale fires adds capacity for exactly the large blazes that strike fuel depots, warehouses, and infrastructure. The Panther joins a steady flow of European donations of vehicles and equipment to Ukraine's rescue services.
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