Colombia’s earthquake is today’s starkest reminder of how quickly a national emergency can overwhelm cities, hospitals and basic infrastructure. With hundreds dead and rescuers still searching unstable ruins, the immediate priority is survival, shelter and medical care. The disaster will also test the capacity of Colombia’s new government to coordinate recovery across a densely populated region while preventing a humanitarian crisis from becoming a prolonged economic one.

Elsewhere, the day’s news points to a world in which political and environmental shocks increasingly reinforce one another. The secret transfer of an American president through an airport catering truck illustrates the extraordinary security pressures created by the Iran conflict, while stalled Hormuz diplomacy is keeping oil near $90 and feeding inflation fears. Europe’s intensifying drought and heat add another layer of economic strain, and renewed attacks in Ukraine show how little room there is for geopolitical stability. The common thread is vulnerability: governments are being forced to manage simultaneous stresses to security, public health, climate resilience and the global economy.