At least 389 people have died and nearly 1,500, including foreign nationals, remain missing after sudden flooding and landslides in Nepal near the Tibetan border. The disaster struck around 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, with water, mud and rocks surging through the Lende Khola valley and inundating villages. Authorities fear the casualty and missing-person totals could rise; across the border in Tibet, at least 558 people were reported missing and three dead.

The flooding is preliminarily linked to a glacier collapse in the Bhote Koshi River valley of Nepal’s border district of Rasuwa. The torrent destroyed homes, power towers and other infrastructure, washing away at least 19 bridges and about 40 kilometres of road. More than 500 tourists from several countries are among those missing, including 177 Indians, 100 Chinese and 63 Americans. Nepal’s embassy in Bangladesh said no Bangladeshi citizen had been reported killed, injured or missing.

A new lake formed by the collapse about 40 miles north of Kathmandu holds about 2 million cubic metres of water, with another 3 million cubic metres potentially entering within three days. Nepal has divided rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations into 12 teams, while military personnel use helicopters, drones and search dogs despite blocked roads, high water and deep mud.

Australia has announced A$5 million, about US$3.6 million, in relief and humanitarian assistance for people affected by flooding in Nepal, AFP reported. The announcement comes as the country deals with the impact of severe flooding and efforts continue to locate Australians who remain unaccounted for.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said finding missing Australian nationals had become extremely difficult because of the scale and severity of the disaster. In an interview with Australia’s Today Show on Friday, she said the number of Australians who had lost contact with their families after the floods had risen to 39.

Wong said many people had been killed and many others remained missing in the disaster. She said about 20 officials from Australia’s foreign ministry were currently in Nepal. Australia plans to send further assistance and personnel to Nepal over the coming days.

A Chinese company is set to begin generating electricity from waste at Dhaka’s Aminbazar landfill within the next year and a half, according to State Minister for Local Government Mir Shahe Alam. The government plans to buy the electricity at Tk25 per unit. The project is expected to generate 42 megawatts and feed it into the national grid.

Shahe Alam disclosed the plans after Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen met Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Dr Abdul Moin Khan at the Secretariat on Thursday. A formal tripartite agreement is scheduled to be signed in Beijing on September 2, while a final financing agreement will involve the investor bank, the company and relevant Bangladeshi parties.

The state minister said the price appears high compared with other generation sources, but argued that waste disposal and organic fertiliser production would provide additional benefits. He said the Chinese company would pay monthly rent to the city corporation for use of the landfill, with no government investment required. China also expressed interest in Chattogram’s economic zone and Mongla port development.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Thursday appealed for $31 million to provide emergency assistance to people affected by devastating flash floods and landslides along Nepal’s border with Tibet. The Switzerland-based federation said the funding would support immediate disaster response and later help with medium- and long-term recovery and rehabilitation over the next two years.

The IFRC had previously released 1 million Swiss francs for immediate life-saving operations. Its secretary general, Jagan Chapagain, said the scale of the disaster was gradually becoming clearer, with entire villages known to have been swept away. He said needs would increase in the coming hours and days, while people who lost homes and livelihoods would require long-term support.

The cold water and mud surge struck on Wednesday with force compared to a tsunami wave, submerging settlements and damaging homes, bridges and dams. About 93,000 people may have been affected, although assessments continue in remote areas. Damaged transport infrastructure is complicating damage assessments and aid delivery. Nepal Red Cross teams are already distributing food, water, tarpaulins, blankets, first-aid supplies, stretchers and body bags.

Iran is preparing a set of conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz following requests from mediators, according to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Rezaei said ending the regional war is among the conditions being prepared. He also said Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on a shipping route through the strait.

Under the proposed route, vessels would travel partly through Omani waters and partly through Iranian waters. In an interview with a Lebanese television channel, Rezaei said ships could use the strait’s designated central channel if the United States accepts Iran’s conditions.

Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the two countries had agreed on how control of the strait and revenue generated there would be shared. An IRGC spokesperson said Iran would not allow the strait to reopen until Washington withdraws its naval blockade. The spokesperson also said the United States must provide compensation and lift sanctions imposed on Iran.

A severe gas shortage is disrupting electricity generation across Bangladesh, increasing load shedding and affecting households, transport and industries. On Thursday, Dhaka faced average outages of one and a half to two hours, while areas outside the capital experienced power cuts lasting eight to 12 hours daily. The reported daily electricity shortfall exceeded 2,300 megawatts, alongside an estimated gas deficit of about 1.4 to 1.6 billion cubic feet.

According to the latest daily figures from Petrobangla and the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, gas demand stood at 3.8 to 4 billion cubic feet, against supply of only 2.38 to 2.4 billion cubic feet from production and imports. Domestic fields supplied 1.61 billion cubic feet, while regasified imported LNG added 770 to 800 million cubic feet to the national grid.

Gas-based power plants received 930 to 950 million cubic feet of gas, but officials said insufficient fuel has constrained output. Gas-fired plants with capacity of 12,500 megawatts are producing just over 5,000 megawatts, leaving about 7,000 megawatts of capacity idle. CNG users also reported long queues and low pressure.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump is keeping all options open regarding Iran. In an interview with Fox News, Leavitt said the United States had conducted “Operation Epic Fury” to destroy Iran’s military and was now pursuing “Operation Economic Outcast” to destroy its economy.

Leavitt said there are currently no talks with Iran. She said pressure would continue until Trump believes Iran is prepared to engage in meaningful negotiations.

According to Leavitt, Iran has so far shown no interest in entering meaningful talks. She said the Trump administration is therefore considering every type of option for its next steps concerning Iran.

US Senator Mark Kelly said President Trump is struggling to find a way out of the conflict with Iran. Speaking to ABC News, Kelly said ordinary Americans are paying the cost of the war as petrol and food prices rise. The source does not specify when or where the remarks were made beyond the ABC News interview.

Kelly said Trump faces limited options: escalating the conflict by sending ground troops, fully withdrawing from the war, or applying economic pressure while seeking to rebuild alliances with European partners. He warned that deploying ground forces could result in the deaths of thousands of Americans.

Calling the situation a crisis of Trump’s own making, Kelly said the president’s belief that he knows more than others had left him with few good choices. He also said bombing, which he stated has in some cases killed innocent Iranian children, was not a good plan. Kelly described economic measures and rebuilding alliances as comparatively better than sending ground forces.

The draw for the league phase of the revamped 36-team Champions League has been completed, placing defending champions Paris Saint-Germain and record 15-time winners Real Madrid in demanding schedules. PSG will host Luis Enrique’s former club Barcelona and travel to Manchester City and Aston Villa. Real Madrid will host Inter Milan and face Arsenal away in London.

Barcelona will host Manchester City and travel to PSG in another set of high-profile fixtures. Four teams are making their first appearance in this edition: Italy’s Como, coached by Cesc Fabregas, Austria’s LASK, Norway’s Viking and Azerbaijan’s Sabah.

Each of the 36 teams will play eight different opponents selected from four seeding pots, with four home and four away matches. The top eight teams will advance directly to the March round of 16, while teams ranked ninth through 24th enter February playoffs. The league phase begins on September 8-10 and ends on January 27, with the final scheduled for June 5, 2027.

Three journalists and senior officials at the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes have sued the Trump administration, alleging they were dismissed to undermine the publication’s editorial independence. Publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and Middle East reporter Lara Korte filed the case against the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The case is due to be heard in a federal court in Washington, DC.

The plaintiffs received dismissal notices on August 21. Their lawsuit alleges that an interview in which Korte and Slavin discussed the importance of independent journalism at Stars and Stripes on CBS Sunday Morning was cited as one reason for action against them. They say the alleged censorship effort violates freedom of expression.

The Pentagon had previously said it planned to modernize the newspaper and focus its coverage on military operations, weapons, warfighting capability and troop welfare. Critics contend this could restrict its independence. The lawsuit also cites reporting on food and supply shortages and sailors’ mental stress during the prolonged deployment of USS Abraham, reports that President Donald Trump and Hegseth rejected as false.

Pakistan and Kuwait signed a joint defence agreement in Islamabad on Thursday during a visit by Kuwaiti Defence Minister Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah. The accord is intended to strengthen defence and military cooperation between the two countries.

The Kuwaiti minister met Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, with the two sides discussing ways to expand defence and military ties. They also exchanged views on the regional situation and initiatives aimed at strengthening security and stability in the region.

A Kuwait Army statement described the agreement as an important step in bilateral defence and military cooperation. It provides for stronger coordination in military activities, exchanges of experience and expanded joint activities between the countries’ armed forces. Kuwait Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Khaled Al-Shuraian and Kuwait’s ambassador to Pakistan, Nasser Al-Mutairi, attended the signing ceremony.

In West Bengal, 75,443 of 82,782 resolved appeals linked to the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, have resulted in voters’ names being restored to electoral rolls ahead of assembly elections. The figure represents 91 percent of decided cases, while 7,339 names remained excluded. The information emerged in response to a Right to Information application filed by Congress MP Isha Khan Choudhury.

The SIR process and the exclusion or inclusion of names have been under debate for several months. Election Commission data show that 3,810,620 appeals had been filed by August 7, but only 82,782 had been decided, or about 2.17 percent. A total of 3,727,838 appeals were still awaiting resolution.

Choudhury said the high rate of restored names raises questions over whether genuine voters were initially removed. He also highlighted a discrepancy between 2,728,500 voters identified as ineligible during the SIR review and the 3,810,620 appeals filed, a difference of 1,082,120. He sought an explanation from the Election Commission, alleging that some appeals may have been filed by the commission or other parties to remove names.

Authorities in Bakshiganj, Jamalpur, fined trader Dulal Mia Tk20,000 and seized 72 sacks of fertiliser from his shop and warehouse over allegations of storing fertiliser without a licence and selling it at inflated prices. The operation took place at about 10:30pm on Thursday in the Okuler Mor area of Bogarchar ইউনিয়ন.

Upazila Agriculture Officer Aminul Islam said the raid was conducted following information that Dulal Mia had long been storing fertiliser illegally without a licence and selling it at higher prices. Officials seized 64 sacks of DAP fertiliser and eight sacks of urea fertiliser, amounting to about 3.5 metric tonnes.

The seized fertiliser will later be sold to farmers in the upazila at fair prices, according to the agriculture office. Bakshiganj Assistant Commissioner (Land) Asma Ul Husna and Agriculture Officer Aminul Islam led the operation. Asma Ul Husna said the administration would continue drives against illegal stockpiling and attempts to create artificial shortages in the interest of farmers.

Nepal’s police confirmed that the death toll from devastating flash floods in the country’s north has risen to 469 after rescuers intensified searches for bodies and survivors in river basins and downstream areas. The disaster struck on Wednesday morning after severe mud and ice slides in Rasuwa and neighboring districts triggered sudden flooding in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers. Many people remain missing.

The torrent swept away homes, bridges, roads and other infrastructure within moments, cutting off broad areas and many travellers from the rest of the country. Authorities said the full scale of destruction remains unclear as casualty and missing-person reports continue to be collected and coordinated across districts.

The Nepal Tourism Board said at least 667 tourists and travellers, including 127 Nepalis, remain missing in flooded areas. Thirty-one foreign nationals were rescued alive. The Nepali Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force are conducting rescue and evacuation operations with helicopters and ground teams, though severe damage to roads and infrastructure is hindering aid delivery. The cause of the sudden flooding remains under investigation.

A Shariatpur district BNP joint general secretary, Arifuzzaman Molla, filed a written extortion complaint against several journalists at Palang Model Police Station on Wednesday night. The complaint came as journalists submitted written allegations that three reporters were beaten and others were threatened by phone. Police said both sets of allegations are being examined, and no case or general diary had been recorded from the journalists’ complaints nearly 24 hours later, according to the reporters.

The dispute began after Shariatpur Press Club’s boundary wall was demolished on Saturday night without written notice, prompting conflict between journalists and the district administration. Time Television journalist BM Israfil was allegedly attacked the following morning and suffered a fractured right wrist. Journalists later protested outside the district commissioner’s office, while a BNP-linked group organized a subsequent demonstration against journalists.

Three reporters alleged they were assaulted while covering Tuesday’s protest, naming Molla and others. Journalists also said an audio recording contains threats attributed to Molla. BNP vice-president Sirajul Haque Molla denied having information that party leaders beat journalists, but called one leader’s remarks regrettable and said organizational action would follow an investigation. Police said legal action would depend on verified findings.