BRASILIA: A tornado killed at least five people and injured more than 400 as it destroyed most of a town in southern Brazil, authorities said Saturday.
The twister on Friday overturned cars and damaged homes in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Parana state, the local weather service reported.
It killed five people and injured 432, the Parana state government said. Two others are missing but this number could rise, it said.
Winds in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, population 14,000, reached between 180 and 250 kilometers per hour (110 and 155 miles per hour), Parana’s environmental technology and monitoring agency said.
Civil Defense officials said 80 percent of the town is now destroyed. Images on social media show homes razed by the violent weather.
“It is a war scene,” Fernando Schunig, head of the Parana Civil Defense agency, told the news outlet G1.
He said the likelihood of more fatalities is high because the twister hit right in the center of the town.
“When these events hit an urban area, the damage is major. It is very lethal,” Schunig said.
The governor of Parana, Ratinho Junior, said on X that “security forces are on alert, mobilized and monitoring the cities affected by the severe storms.”
An alert for dangerous storms was in effect for all of Parana as well as the southern states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, according to weather authorities.
Tornado kills five, injures more than 400 in Brazil
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Tornado kills five, injures more than 400 in Brazil
- It killed five people and injured 432, the Parana state government said
- Winds in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, population 14,000, reached between 180 and 250 kilometers per hour
Trump tells US govt to ‘immediately’ stop using Anthropic AI tech
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump told the US government Friday to “immediately” stop using Anthropic’s technology after the AI startup rejected the Pentagon’s demand that it agree to unconditional military use of its Claude models.
Anthropic insists its technology should not be used for the mass surveillance of US citizens or deployed in fully autonomous weapons systems, while the Pentagon says it operates within the law and that contracted suppliers cannot set terms on how their products are employed.
“I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“There will be a Six Month phase out period for Agencies like the Department of War who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels,” the US president said, referring to the Department of Defense.
Anthropic did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Trump’s announcement.
The Pentagon had said Anthropic must agree to comply with its demand by 5:01 p.m. Friday or face compulsion under the Defense Production Act.
The Cold War-era law, last invoked during the Covid pandemic, grants the federal government sweeping powers to direct private industry toward national security priorities.
The Pentagon also threatened to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk — a label typically reserved for companies from adversary nations — which could severely damage its ability to work with the US government and harm its broader reputation.
But Anthropic refused, with its chief executive Dario Amodei saying Thursday that “these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”
