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Responsible or panicked? Meet the people around the world already preparing for crisis
Confirmed
In Short: The trend of preparing for emergencies is not limited to Europe; in the United States, a first-of-its-kind study published Tuesday found that some of the largest fossil fuel companies are disproportionately responsible for the water crisis in the American West.
Dan, a 38-year-old father of two children under 10, says, "It's part of my responsibility as a parent," highlighting the growing trend of crisis preparation.
Andreas Wennerberg, a 39-year-old resident of Hoorn, started preparing his kit a few years ago after his house was cut off during a cold February, leaving him without power for two days.
In the Black Sea, Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu said Russia is responsible for turning the area into a dangerous zone for civilian ships, with increasing incidents of Russian drones entering Romanian space.
"These are callous and murderous attacks against civilians," she concluded.
While having a personal crisis kit is new to the UK, it is common in many places around the world, reflecting a growing global awareness of the need for emergency preparedness.
What's confirmed
- A U.K. bill may soon change historic law, an inquiry into the death of a Catholic father in Ireland concludes, Asian digital missionaries urged to be responsible, and more in this world news roundup.
What's still developing
- Thirty-year-old Andreas Wennerberg had never really thought about preparing for emergencies, until a government booklet arrived through his door two years ago.
- Though he'd already started keeping supplies, "there were numerous gaps in what I had prepared for," he says.
- China leads the world in churning out humanoid robots and four-legged robot dogs that also happen to be the most affordable on the market—and Unitree Robotics’ founder Wang Xingxing is arguably one of the people most responsible for that Chinese lead.
- Some of the largest fossil fuel companies on Earth are disproportionately responsible for the water crisis in the American West, according to a first-of-its-kind study published Tuesday.
- Ever since we first got word that Ryan Coogler was interested in rebooting The X-Files back in 2023, we've wanted to believe that the man responsible for Black Panther, Creed, and Sinners would actually get a shot at bringing back one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
- The concession was made through the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican institution responsible, among other matters, for granting and regulating indulgences. (ZENIT News / Mexico City, 09.14.2026).- Mexico’s National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is preparing for a year-long celebration that will place one of the Catholic world’s most beloved Marian devotions at the center of a special period of faith.
- Russia is responsible for turning the Black Sea “into a dangerous area for civilian ships,” Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu said on Oct. 15. Țoiu said Romanian units from the Coast Guard and Department for Emergency Situations were actively taking part in search-and-rescue operations to find missing crew members from a vessel attacked the morning of Oct. 15 in Romania’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea.
- Five crew members had already been flown by helicopter to a hospital in Constanta, and their condition was stable, she said.
- Social media promised to build a more interconnected, informed world.
- We need to adopt significant bipartisan solutions, and that’s exactly what the Council for Responsible Social Media is all about.
- In recent days, strikes have led to power outages in many regions of the country, and authorities in Kyiv are raising the alarm about the systematic destruction of facilities responsible for electricity production and transmission.
- NEW YORK: Wealthy nations must pay for climate disasters that devastate countries that are least responsible for the crisis, yet bear its brunt, Nepal’s foreign minister told AFP on Thursday.