Google launched Android Emergency Live Video on Wednesday, which allows people to stream video when contacting emergency responders. This feature could help give first responders extra context in circumstances like car accidents, fires, or medical crises. There's no setup required to use this feature. Instead, during an emergency call or text, a dispatcher can send a request to your device. Then you can opt into sharing your camera's live video, which is encrypted and can be stopped at your discretion. 'With a single tap, you can start securely streaming from your camera, allowing responders to quickly assess the situation and get you the right help in the moment,' Google wrote in a blog post. 'This real-time view can also help them guide you through life-saving steps, like CPR, until help arrives.' Plan ahead for the 2026 StrictlyVC events. Hear straight-from-the-source candid insights in on-stage fireside sessions and meet the builders and backers shaping the industry. Join the waitlist to get first access to the lowest-priced tickets and important updates....

This catastrophic fire ' which is thought to have spread from building to building via burning bamboo scaffolding and fanned by strong winds ' highlights how difficult it is to evacuate high-rise buildings in an emergency. Evacuations of high-rises don't happen every day, but occur often enough. And when they do, the consequences are almost always severe. The stakes are highest in the buildings that are full at predictable times: residential towers at night, office towers in the day. Stair descent in real evacuations is far slower than most people expect. Under controlled or drill conditions people move down at around 0.4'0.7 metres per second. But in an actual emergency, especially in high-rise fires, this can drop sharply. Fatigue is a major factor. Prolonged walking significantly reduces the speed of descent. Surveys conducted after incidents confirm that a large majority of high-rise evacuees stop at least once. During the 2010 fire of a high-rise in Shanghai, nearly half of older survivors reported slowing down significantly....

Research two of us ' Carson MacPherson-Krutsky and Mary Painter ' did with researcher Melissa Villarreal shows only 4 in 10 Colorado residents have opted in to receive local emergency alerts. And many alerts may not be written with complete information, translated into the languages residents speak, or put into formats accessible to people with vision or hearing loss. This means some of our most vulnerable neighbors could miss crucial information during a crisis. Alerts are complex. They can come from a variety of official sources, including 911 centers, weather forecast centers and others. Alerts can also come in many forms, ranging from emails and texts to sirens and radio broadcasts. These fires were destructive and highlighted issues related to emergency alerting. Alerts about the fires and calls to evacuate were delayed and inconsistently received. Most were only available in English despite census data that shows 1 in 10 residents of Eagle and Garfield counties speak Spanish at home and only 'speak English less than 'very well.''...

Donald Trump has figured out the cheat code for authoritarianism: Fake emergencies bring real power. The president has invoked emergency authority in three distinct contexts'declaring a public-safety emergency to defend his takeover of the District of Columbia; claiming an 'invasion' to justify an immigration crackdown, including sending the National Guard to Los Angeles; and invoking 'extraordinary' factors to support his tariff war. Although Trump is not the first president to grab greater powers behind the cloak of emergency authority, he is the first to have done so in such an extreme way. Worse yet, the lack of resistance from Congress or the courts suggests that there is little, if anything, to prevent Trump from expanding his use of 'emergency' authority even further as he accumulates power. Emergency powers exist for good reason. In democratic societies, the general rule is that the legislative branch defines what the executive branch should do, and then the executive acts on the direction of the legislature....