This is disaster response as political theater. Every major flood or quake produces the same footage: rescue teams moving in identical formations, the same boxed-lunch shots taken in waist-deep water or on debris no one would reasonably stop to eat on. The SOP is so standardized it no longer looks like emergency work. It looks like a drill that happens to be filmed. The most effective part of the performance is not the rescue. It is that many people will watch these images and feel genuine pride that the government put on such a professional show.

The @StateDept and @Starlink continue to coordinate on international disaster response efforts. Following the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, Starlink has sent 1,600+ kits and equipped nearly 100 organizations with fast, reliable internet to assist impacted communities. Additionally, Starlink Mobile has connected 700K+ people with free SMS, delivering 240K+ text messages. This is the private sector working hand-in-hand with the international community to save lives. Photos by @Starlink

#Earthquake# relief supplies provided by the Chinese government to support Colombia's disaster response have arrived in Bogota, #Colombia#. The supplies include power generators, mobile water purification vehicles, disinfection machines, solar-powered lighting equipment, tents and blankets. #ChinaAid#

We’re here in Cal Anderson Park sharing information about earthquake hazards and @USGS_ShakeAlert earthquake early warning at the 2026 Seattle Disaster Relief Trials, a cargo bike competition and exercise showing how micromobility can contribute to community disaster response.

BREAKING: Honduras is strengthening its national 911 emergency system with Starlink. 🇭🇳 Through a new agreement with disaster-response agency COPECO, the 911 system will use 10 Starlink terminals to improve connectivity and help emergency teams stay connected during disasters.

Today, we’re open sourcing HASTE on @github, giving governments, humanitarian organizations, researchers, and emergency responders a powerful new tool to assess damage and accelerate disaster response when every minute matters. Built on @Microsoft's trusted cloud and AI platform, including Azure Maps, Azure Batch, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure infrastructure, and combining AI with satellite imagery from @planet, HASTE transforms vast volumes of geospatial data into actionable insights, helping turn research into real-world impact with the speed, security, and scale that emergencies demand. Explore HASTE on GitHub:

President Xi Jinping sent a message of sympathies to Venezuela’s acting President @delcyrodriguezv over the devastating earthquakes. In addition to previous cash aid, China is donating RMB100 million worth of emergency supplies to support #Venezuela’s# disaster response & reconstruction. Satellite imagery is being shared to guide rescue operations. Chinese companies and associations of overseas Chinese voluntarily sent machinery, medical supplies and rescue teams to the quake zones. China stands ready to offer more support in light of Venezuela’s need.

FEMA has reinstated a group of whistleblowers who signed an open letter to Congress last August warning that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the federal agency was setting the stage for a disaster-response breakdown on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, according to five FEMA officials with knowledge of the matter.