Hurricane Erick powered up into a Category 3 major hurricane Wednesday evening as it bore down on the southern Mexico coast, threatening to unleash destructive winds, flash floods and a dangerous storm surge on the region in coming hours, forecasters said.

Swiftly strengthening from a Category 1 hurricane hours earlier, Erick had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (200 kph) by nightfall as it churned offshore about 55 miles (85 kilometers) southwest of Puerto Angel, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Erick was also about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Punta Maldonado and moving northwest at 9 mph (15 kph) toward an expected landfall sometime Thursday morning, according to the center’s latest advisory. A major hurricane is defined as Category 3 or higher and wind speeds of at least 111 mph (180 kph). Forecasters said further strengthening is expected and devastating wind damage is possible near where the eye crashes ashore.

Acapulco warily eyes the approaching hurricane

The projected path would take its center near the resort of Acapulco, which was devastated in October 2023 by Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 hurricane that rapidly intensified and caught many unprepared. At least 52 people died in Otis and 32 were missing, after the storm severely damaged almost all of the resort’s hotels.

In Acapulco on Wednesday, there was a strong presence of National Guard and police in the streets, but most visible were trucks from the national power company. Crews worked to clear drainage canals and brush.

Some beaches were already closed, but tourists continued to sunbathe on others hours earlier as the storm gained strength well offshore.

On a beach in Acapulco, a line of people waited for the help of a backhoe to pull their boats out of the water.

Adrián Acevedo Durantes, 52, hauls tourists around Acapulco’s picturesque coastline in boats. Two of his boats sank in Hurricane Otis and a third was badly damaged.

“We’re taking precautions because with Otis we never expected one of that magnitude to come and now with climate change the water is warmer and the hurricanes are more powerful,” Acevedo said.

This time the port administration ordered that no one ride out the storm aboard their boats. During Otis many lost their lives by staying on boats in the harbor, which had traditionally been how they ensured their safety during previous storms. He said knew some of those lost at sea.

He acknowledged that it was sunny and the water calm Wednesday afternoon, making it hard to imagine a major storm was on the way, but said “with Otis it was calm all day, sunny, then at midnight there were two hours of strong winds and we saw what had happened the next day.”

Some rush to finish storm preparations

Francisco Casarubio, a 46-year-old choreographer, carried a carton of eggs as he did some last-minute shopping ahead of the storm. He planned to pick up rice, beans and some canned food as well.

His home flooded and lost power in Otis and said he was taking Erick more seriously, but hadn’t had time to shop until Wednesday.

Forecasters said Erick was expected to lash Mexico’s Pacific coast with heavy rain, strong winds and a fierce storm surge. Rains of up to 16 inches (40 centimeters) could fall across the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, with lesser totals in Chiapas, Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco states, the center’s advisory said. The rainfall threatened flooding and mudslides, especially in areas with steep terrain.

A hurricane warning was in effect from Acapulco to Puerto Ángel. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected in the area, and preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion, according to the hurricane center advisory.

Down the coast in Puerto Escondido near the southern edge of Erick’s possible path, some fishermen began pulling their boats out of the water under a drizzling sky Wednesday.

Surfers ignore red flag warnings to ride the waves

Even though the wind had yet to pick up at the Zicatela beach, red flags were up to warn people to stay out of the water. But some surfers ignored them as they continued to ride waves.

Laura Velázquez, Mexico’s national civil defense coordinator, said Erick was forecast to bring “torrential” rains to Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico. The mountainous region along the coast is especially prone to mudslides with numerous rivers at risk of flooding.

Guerrero Gov. Evelyn Salgado said all schools were closed Wednesday and the state had alerted all of the fishing and tourism operators to make their boats storm-ready. Acapulco’s port closed Tuesday evening. Salgado said 582 shelters were set to receive people who might evacuate their homes.

President Claudia Sheinbaum warned in her daily briefing that those in the hurricane’s path should heed government instructions and wait out the storm in their homes or designated shelters.

Erick quickly doubled in strength

Having doubled in strength in less than a day, Erick was churning through an ideal environment for quick intensification. Last year, there were 34 incidents of rapid intensification — when a storm gains at least 35 mph in 24 hours — which is about twice as many as average and causes problems with forecasting, according to the hurricane center.

Leaving hospital with wounds still fresh, the sole survivor of last week’s Air India plane crash solemnly carried the coffin of his brother, performing the last rites for a life lost in the deadly disaster.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, appeared overcome with grief as he led the funeral procession through the streets of the western Indian coastal town of Diu on Wednesday.

Ramesh, who was discharged from hospital a day prior, had bandages on his face from cuts and bruises sustained after flight AI171 traveling to London’s Gatwick Airport from the western city of Ahmedabad plunged to the ground seconds after takeoff last Thursday, killing 241 people on board.

How Ramesh escaped with a few wounds is being described as nothing short of a miracle.

“I don’t know how I survived,” he told Indian state broadcaster DD News while in the hospital, explaining how he unbuckled himself from his seat in 11A – an emergency exit seat – shortly after the crash and walked away from the scene.

“For some time, I thought I was going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,” he said.

He and his brother, who had been sitting a few rows away, had been returning to the UK after spending a few weeks visiting family in India.

Video of Ramesh stumbling from the crash has been viewed widely on news channels and across social media. Flames can be seen billowing behind him, with thick plumes of smoke rising high into the sky.

Authorities tasked with identifying the victims’ bodies have described just how difficult that process has been. High temperatures from the burning fuel left “no chance” to rescue passengers, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said, making bodies difficult to recognize.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was carrying 125,000 liters – enough to last a 10-hour flight from Ahmedabad to London – but it crashed less than a minute after takeoff, plunging into a hostel for medical students, killing several on the ground.

As of Thursday, more than 150 bodies have been handed over to loved ones, according to health officials, with funerals taking place in various cities across the country.

Investigators, meanwhile, are looking at the wreckage to determine what could have caused one of the worst air crashes India has seen in decades.

A mayday call from the cockpit was made to air traffic control shortly before the crash, Indian civil aviation authorities said.

Both black boxes, the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, are now being analyzed for valuable clues that could help determine the cause. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are leading the probe into the crash with assistance from the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as officials from Boeing.

The Indian government has also set up a separate high-level committee to examine what led to the crash. The committee is expected to file their preliminary findings within three months.

Air India – the country’s flagship carrier – said on Wednesday it is conducting safety inspections across all of its Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft fleet.

“Out of total 33 aircraft, inspections have now been completed on 26 and these have been cleared for service, while inspection of the remainder will be complete in the coming days,” it said in a statement on X.

Meanwhile, it has reduced international services on its widebody aircraft by 15% due to the ongoing inspections and the conflict in the Middle East, it added.

For days, families of victims have gathered near morgues awaiting to collect the bodies of their loved ones and searching for answers.

Grieving families

As Ramesh laid his brother to rest Wednesday, another family around 160 miles south in the city of Mumbai, performed burials for four members killed in the crash.

Imtiaz Ali Syed, 42, whose brother Javed, sister-in-law, nephew and niece were on board the Air India flight, said he received their bodies from authorities in Ahmedabad and brought them to the family’s hometown on Wednesday.

Syed’s sister, who also lives in the UK, took a direct flight from Mumbai to London, he said. But Javed and his family were on a different flight via Ahmedabad.

He described his disbelief when he learned that Javed was on the ill-fated Air India plane. “Someone woke me up and said a plane crashed in Ahmedabad and asked me to check what flight Javed was on,” Syed recalled.

Syed fondly described his brother as someone who was “always available” for their family.

“He looked after my grandmother’s medicines, he looked after my mother, he would take care of our sister,” he said, describing the unbearable pain of losing Javed.

“Within a week or fifteen days, or a month, maybe he will call,” Syed said. “Telling me he is somewhere.”

Five tunnels burrowing into a group of mountains, a large support structure and a wide security perimeter: That’s all you can see of Iran’s mysterious Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant from recent satellite imagery.

The secretive, heavily guarded complex built close to the holy city of Qom has been fueling speculation about its true nature and size since it was first made public in 2009.

A chunk of what we do know about it comes from a trove of Iranian documents stolen years ago by Israeli intelligence.

Its main halls are an estimated 80 to 90 meters (around 262 to 295 feet) beneath the ground – safe from any aerial bomb known to be possessed by Israel, making destroying the facility from the air a near-impossible task.

As Iran’s leadership reels from a series of devastating Israeli strikes, some analysts say that it is at Fordow that Iran may rush to convert enriched uranium stockpiles into a nuclear bomb.

Israel has targeted the facility in recent days but, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), so far it has either been unwilling – or unable – to damage it.

Tehran has long maintained the objectives of its nuclear program are peaceful, but Fordow has been at the heart of concern over Iran’s ambitions.

“The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program,” then US President Barack Obama said in 2009 as he, along with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed the existence of Fordow to the world.

Just days before the announcement, the Iranians, apparently knowing Western agencies had learned about the facility, told the IAEA of their desire to build a new fuel enrichment facility. By that point construction at Fordow had been underway for years.

Tehran pushed back against the accusations, but condemnation even from ally Russia and concerns from China left it with little room to maneuver.

Construction started in the early 2000s

The US and its allies have not provided much detail on when the construction of Fordow started, but publicly available historical satellite imagery shows work at the site as far back as 2004, with photographs revealing two white square structures where the tunnel entrances are located today. The IAEA says it has additional imagery showing construction as far back as 2002.

“Fordow is actually a project that started during what we call the crash nuclear weapons program of the early 2000s,” said David Albright, head of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a nonpartisan institution dedicated to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. “The idea was they (the Iranians) would make weapon-grade uranium in that plant, and they would obtain low-enriched uranium from the civil nuclear program in Iran.”

In 2009, a large outside support structure was already fully built and excavation was ongoing for what experts believe to be a ventilation shaft, crucial to allow air circulation into the facility. That shaft was later concealed and camouflaged, more recent imagery also shows.

Tehran explained to the IAEA in a letter dated October 2009 that the decision to build the facility underground was a result of “threats of military attacks against Iran,” adding that Fordow would serve as a contingency for the nearby Natanz plant, which, it claimed, “was among the targets threatened with military attacks.”

Iran told the IAEA the facility could house up to 3,000 centrifuges.

Nuclear deal and Israeli accusations

The dangers posed by Fordow were largely tamed as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) the so-called “Iran nuclear deal,” that required Iran to remove two-thirds of the centrifuges inside the facility, along with all nuclear material, after the facility was banned from any such work.

That process was slowly reversed when US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.

Further details about the facility were made public by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, after his country’s intelligence services seized more than 55,000 documents from what Israel said was Iran’s “atomic archive.”

Among the documents were detailed blueprints of Fordow and information on its objectives: To produce weapons-grade uranium, as part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, for at least one or two nuclear weapons per year.

“We never saw any, any inconsistency,” Albright, who has combed through the documents, said of Iran’s push to develop nuclear weapons. “It’s hundreds of thousands of pages. I mean you just can’t make that amount of stuff up. I don’t think anyone challenges it, and that’s probably why there is an (IAEA) Board of Governors resolution against Iran.”

At the time, then Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the revelations and Netanyahu’s comments “childish” and “laughable.” Then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US had known about the material “for a while” and believed the documents were authentic.

Protected from even the largest bombs

Recent IAEA reports suggested Iran had ramped up production of enriched uranium to a level of 60% at the Fordow facility, which, according to experts and the IAEA, now contains 2,700 centrifuges.

“The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern,” the IAEA said in a report on May 31.

“One of the things that elevated the tension, was they have no reason to do that, other than to be able to then go the next step and turn it into weapon-grade uranium,” Albright said.

“It was interpreted as they’re preparing themselves to be able to do it if they decide to. And if you’re 60%, you can turn it into weapon-grade uranium very quickly,” he added.

According to the ISIS think tank, “Iran can convert its current stock of 60 percent enriched uranium into 233 kg of weapon-grade uranium in three weeks at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” enough for nine nuclear weapons.

That is why Fordow is a major focus of Israel’s attempts to degrade and destroy Iran’s nuclear program. But is it even feasible?

The US is the only country that possesses the kind of bomb required to strike Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said in an interview with Merit TV on Monday.

“For Fordow to be taken out by a bomb from the sky, the only country in the world that has that bomb is the United States. And that’s a decision the United States has to take, whether or not it chooses to actually pursue that course,” Leiter said. But, he added, that wasn’t the only option: “There are other ways of dealing with Fordow.”

Destroying Fordow from the air would be almost impossible for Israel, according to a March report from the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank and would require significant firepower and assistance from the United States.

It would not even be reachable by the US’ GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrator bombs, which only reach about 60 meters deep, according to the RUSI report. And the GBU-57 can only be delivered by US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers, something Israel doesn’t have – even if the US would give it the bombs.

“Even the GBU-57/B would likely require multiple impacts at the same aiming point to have a good chance of penetrating the facility,” said the report.

Other analysts agree, saying, if the US were to try to hit Fordow, it probably couldn’t be done with one bomb.

Albright says there could be other ways to disable Fordow.

“Israel could probably destroy the tunnel entrances pretty far back, and certainly destroy the ventilation system,” he said. “If you destroyed (the tunnels) and the electric electrical supply, it would be months before they could really operate.”

Despite its crucial role in Iran’s nuclear program, Albright believes Fordow is just another piece of the puzzle.

“If you destroy it, it’s not the end of the line, because you then go to the next threat, which is, how many centrifuges has Iran made that they didn’t deploy at Fordow and Natanz? And where are they?” he said.

“I think people over-emphasize the need to destroy it by bringing down its ceilings, which admittedly, probably only the US can do.”

At least 51 people were killed and more than 200 others injured by Israeli fire as they waited for aid trucks to arrive in Khan Younis in southern Gaza early Tuesday morning, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The incident marks the highest reported number of people killed while seeking aid over the past few weeks in the enclave. In total, nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed near aid centers since Israel lifted an 11-week total blockade on Gaza and allowed a trickle of aid to enter, according to the health ministry.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a Tuesday statement that “a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area.”

The IDF said it was “aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd’s approach,” that “details of the incident are under review,” and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops.”

“They went to bring bread for their children, just bread or flour. They killed us in cold blood,” Abu Abed said.

Video from the scene in Khan Younis on Tuesday shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground, covered in blood.

The latest scenes of death, violence and desperation underline a grim existence for over 2.1 million people living in Gaza – which the United Nations has warned is edging closer to famine.

Humanitarian organizations say that aid currently entering the enclave is only a tiny fraction of what is needed, with the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – the main supplier of aid in Gaza – coming under global scrutiny since it opened its distribution points late last month.

Palestinians en route to GHF distribution sites have repeatedly been fired upon since its inception, according to the health ministry, with some 3,000 people injured in addition to the fatalities. On Tuesday, eight people were also killed after coming under Israeli fire near an aid distribution site west of Rafah, the ministry said.

The GHF, an Israeli-US backed private contractor, has been criticized by multiple international aid agencies for setting up its distribution centers amid active combat zones. The organization has repeatedly said there has been no violence at their sites. But the GHF acknowledged earlier this month that there have been Palestinian casualties in the surrounding areas, which the organization described as “well beyond our secure distribution site.” A spokesman referred further questions to the Israeli military.

On Tuesday, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on X: “Israel has weaponized food and blocked lifesaving aid. I urge immediate, impartial investigations into deadly attacks on desperate civilians trying to reach food distribution centres.”

One of those killed in Khan Younis on Tuesday was a 20-year-old man, who had traveled there in hope of returning with food for his family.

Speaking through tears, his mother said: “He didn’t go for a picnic. He went to bring food for his siblings and father.”

Nearby, at Nasser Medical Complex, hospital staff said that the entire ward was crowded with casualties. Video from the hospital showed dozens of people arriving with wounds, with others inside the hospital waiting for treatment as they laid on the floor.

One intensive care doctor told Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), an aid organization based in the United Kingdom, that the hospital had received on Tuesday “a large number of injured and killed from the Israeli army’s targeting of aid distribution points in Khan Younis.”

“The situation here is catastrophic beyond imagination,” the doctor said, adding that the morgue was completely full and that additional bodies had been placed outside the building.

“We are trying our best, but the numbers are overwhelming,” he said.

A tip from a member of the public to a popular Italian television show led to the arrest on a Greek island of an American man suspected of murdering a baby girl and hiding her mother’s body in a busy park in Rome.

“On June 13, in Skiathos, police officers of the island’s police department, in collaboration with (Italian) state police… identified and stopped an American citizen, credibly suspected of the murder of a newborn and the concealment of her mother’s cadaver, whose lifeless bodies were found in Rome on June 7 inside Rome’s Villa Doria Pamphili Park,” Rome police prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said in a statement Friday.

The body of the baby girl, thought by Italian state police to be between six and 10 months old, was found under bushes in a corner of Rome’s largest park on June 7.

A few hours later, a child playing in the park noticed an arm sticking out from under a black garbage bag, leading to the discovery of the naked body of a young woman, thought to be in her late 20s or early 30s.

DNA tests showed that the woman was the baby’s mother, police said in a press conference on June 11.

Initial autopsy reports were inconclusive in the cause of death of the woman, they said, adding that she had no visible wounds. The baby, whose stomach was empty, showed signs of strangulation.

Unable to identify the bodies, police released photos of the mother’s extensive tattoos. These tattoos were shown on June 9 on the popular missing persons TV show “Chi l’ha visto?” (“Who has seen him/her?”), which invited the public to call in with any information about the identities of the mother and child.

Several people came forward, including some who had seen the young woman and her baby in various soup kitchens in the city, and another who had witnessed an altercation between the woman and a man in a central square in Rome, according to witnesses featured in “Chi l’ha Visto.”

Police had been called to that incident and took the man’s details. No arrest was made at the time, but the information led to the man’s identification. The woman’s details were not taken at the incident.

Photos reported to be of the man, covered in blood from a head wound, sitting next to the woman and the baby also surfaced as a result of the TV appeal, as well as a photo of the man without the woman – with the clearly crying baby girl in his arms – talking to police just two days before the infant was found dead. The woman, whose body was in a more advanced state of decomposition than the baby’s, according to police, was not seen in the photo.

The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation also helped by tracing the man’s credit and SIM cards, police said during a press conference in Rome on Friday following the arrest.

The Italian prosecutor’s office said it will seek the man’s extradition from Greece, which could take up to three weeks.