Train collides with school van in Cuddalore, Vadodara bridge collapse kills at least 20, and more: The week in 5 charts

The Hindu

20 hours ago

(1) Three children killed in Cuddalore school van-train accident
Three schoolchildren were killed and two others, including the driver, sustained serious injuries after a passenger train rammed into a school van — carrying four students — which was attempting to cross a manned gate at Semmankuppam in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday (July 8, 2025).
The Villupuram-Mayiladuthurai passenger, travelling at a speed of 95 kmph, struck the van carrying four students around 7.45 a.m., and dragged it for nearly 50 metres before coming to a halt, reports said. Preliminary inquiries by railway officials suggested that it was the van driver who insisted on allowing the vehicle to cross the gate. This should not have been permitted, the officials said. According to eyewitness accounts, railway gatekeeper Pankaj Sharma had failed to close the gate (LC-170) during the train's passing. An irate crowd thrashed him.
Sharma gave a private number to the Alapakkam Station Master, claiming that he had closed the gate. However, he had lied. After the accident, he called up the Station Master again and admitted that he had not closed the gate. The conversation took place in the auto voice recorder phone, the sources told The Hindu.
The evidence that has emerged corroborates the statements of two survivors — van driver C. Shankar and student Vishwesh — that the gate was open. There has been no evidence to prove Southern Railway's claim that the gate was closed and then opened after the van driver 'insisted'.
(2) Vadodara bridge collapse: death toll rises to 20
For the fourth consecutive day, search-and-rescue operations resumed at the Mahisagar bridge collapse site on Saturday (July 12, 2025), as teams continued their efforts to locate one missing person. The death toll rose to 20 by Friday (July 11, 2025) evening.
Officials stated that, in addition to searching for the missing individual, they would also work on removing the collapsed bridge's main slab and submerged vehicles from the river.
Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and other agencies, along with residents, are involved in the operation.
The incident occurred after a section of the four-decade-old Gambhira bridge in Gujarat's Vadodara district collapsed early on Wednesday (July 9, 2025), sending several vehicles crashing into the Mahisagar river below. The bridge served as a vital link between central Gujarat and the Saurashtra regions, connecting Anand and Vadodara districts. It was built in 1985 by a Lucknow-based company.
Social activists, Opposition leaders and local residents have alleged that authorities ignored repeated warnings about the 'dangerous condition' of the four-decade-old structure.
In response to initial findings of negligence, the State government suspended four officials from the R&B Department on Thursday (July 10, 2025). 'Wherever lapses have come to light, action has been taken. The government will not hesitate to take further necessary measures,' Mr. Patel added.
(3) Mass shootings in Philadelphia over the Independence Day weekend add to a worrying trend
The Independence Day weekend starting from July 4 to 6 and including July 7, was a particularly disturbing time in Pennsylvania's most populated city, Philadelphia. Videos of several shootings across the city went viral, and news reports confirmed that there had been at least 15 shootings recorded, as shown in the map below.
Data from OpenDataPhilly, the official open data repository for the City of Philadelphia, shows that there were at least 48 victims to the shootings that happened between July 4-7 this year, which includes 8 people who were killed. One of those killed was aged 40 while seven were within the 19-26 age bracket. Another 40-year-old was killed by the police as he was armed and fired shots at the police, according to multiple news reports.
Based on the definition that a 'mass shooting' comprises at least four people who are shot, whether injured or killed, during a single shooting spree, two of these shootings are classified as a mass shooting in the catalogues of both Gun Violence Archive and Mass Shooting Tracker, which are groups and organisations that track mass shooting.
Apart from the two mass shootings in Philadelphia, there were at least 22 other mass shootings in other parts of the country in the same period. In fact, July 5 recorded the highest number of mass shootings in a single day in the country, with at least 13 reported incidents recorded in Gun Violence Archive.
Out of the 188 days of 2025 shown in the graphic above, mass shooting incidents were recorded on 112 days which amounts to around 60% of the days. More than one mass shooting incident were recorded on 46 of the 112 days. Mass shootings in 2025 in USA have injured over 1000 people and killed at least 184 according to the data collated by Gun Violence Archive.
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Incidents of mass shootings reduced by almost 24% in 2024, reducing to 503 recorded incidents as compared to 659 incidents recorded in 2023. Between 2015 and 2024, the highest number of incidents were recorded in 2021 (689) as shown below.
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Since 2017, almost 25% of the incidents have occurred in just three states: California (8%), Illinois (9.5%), and Texas (7.2%). In 2021, there were 86 incidents of mass shootings in Illinois, which is the highest number of recorded incidents throughout all States since 2017. In 2023, Texas had 65 such incidents.
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Even though mass shootings have accounted for over 4,200 deaths between 2017-24, it still accounts for less than 2% of the deaths due to guns or firearms in the USA.
A Flourish chart (4) U.S. imposes 50% tariffs on copper
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on all copper imports into the country to be made effective from August 1 last Wednesday (July 9, 2025). This comes on the heels of earlier tariffs imposed on other imports, in an effort to boost the country's domestic manufacturing and reduce trade deficits.
On copper, a White House statement released earlier this year noted the country's 'increasing dependence on foreign sources of copper, particularly from a concentrated number of supplier nations' and a 'risk of foreign market manipulation.'
The country's net import dependence for copper has risen over the years, from 38% in 2020 to 45% in 2024. When it comes to copper mining and refining, the U.S contributes 4.7% and 3.2% to world share respectively. China, Chile and Congo dominate.
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The proposed tariff will not have any significant impact on India, according to an industry official (PTI reports), as India does not export a lot of copper, relying on imports itself. It exported around 10,000 tons to U.S., a small amount. (5) Nepal flash floods: Nine dead, many stranded
The deadly flood in Nepal's Bhote Koshi River that killed at least nine people and left more than two dozen missing last was triggered by the draining of a supraglacial lake in the Tibet region, a regional climate monitoring body said on Wednesday (June 9, 2025).
At least 19 people, including six Chinese workers at the Beijing-aided Inland Container Depot, remain missing in Nepal after Tuesday's floods that also washed away the 'Friendship Bridge' that links Nepal and China. China's official Xinhua news agency has said 11 people were unaccounted for on the Chinese side of the mountainous border region.
The Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said satellite imagery showed the flood originated from the draining of the lake north of Nepal's Langtang Himal range.
The June-September monsoon causes massive floods and landslides in mountainous Nepal which, officials and experts say, is vulnerable to effects of climate change like extreme weather patterns, inconsistent rainfall, flash floods, landslides and glacial lake outburst floods.
This year's early monsoon rains have inflicted deadly damage elsewhere in Nepal where at least 38 people have been killed or are missing since May 29, according to data from the government's National Disaster Relief, Reduction and Management Authority.