World News Hub

First Thing: Rescue efforts continue as death toll rises in Nepal-Tibet flood

More than 1,300 people are missing in Nepal and in Tibet after catastrophic flash floods swept through the region, killing at least 469. Plus: Six months of the war in IranDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Rescue operations have resumed in Nepal and Tibet after a pause when a lake at the border began to overflow. The lake was formed when a wall of mud and debris...

Nepal-Tibet flash flood: death toll rises above 540 as rescue operations resume – latest updates

More than 1,500 people are missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and tourists, amid race to find survivorsFlood risk forces halt to rescues in Tibet, as Nepal death toll rises to 469Visual guide: how the deadly flooding unfoldedTell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?More now on the Nepali army’s rescue operation to save about 100 people trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower p...

US-CANADA: Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 27 to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America', a change he said would take effect immediately. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took to X, writing the Great Lake's name will remain 'now and always'. The order comes after US-Canada trade talks collapsed last week, prompting the two longtime allies to announce tit-for-tat tariffs

Dutch court sentences man to life over Rwanda genocide

The court in The Hague convicted the 66-year-old of war crimes and the crime of genocide.

Norway's crown prince becomes King Haakon VIII after his father's death

Norway has a new king

Men buy museum tickets, then steal 200-carat diamond necklace

Police said the two men did not wear masks, paid to enter the museum and were clearly seen on surveillance cameras.

Germany jails man, 81, for life over murder of tourist 30 years ago

An 81-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the murder of an American tourist more than 30 years ago, the presiding judge at Koblenz Regional Court, Rupert Stehlin, announced on Friday. The court also found that the offence was of a particularly serious nature. In doing so, the bench concurred with the unanimous assessments of the prosecution, the representatives of t...

Norway’s King Harald V dead at 89, his son succeeds as Haakon VIII

The popular king modernized the royal house but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times.

From Caravaggio to Korea: How Malta’s artists are breaking out of the baroque

The BEJN pavilion connects Malta and Korea through poetry, sacred ropes, festa traditions and space data.

August full moon 2026: 126 monuments and museums open with free entry across Greece

Once again this year, archaeological sites, monuments and museums across Greece are bathed in the glow of the August full moon at night.

Oyo Nyimba, Ugandan 'boy king' who mesmerized world leaders, dies at 34

A tribal monarch in Uganda who ascended his ancient throne as an infant and fascinated world leaders as a boy king has died

Drone strikes kill 8 civilians in Sudan’s North Kordofan, group says

A rights group reports that drone strikes have killed eight civilians and wounded dozens in Sudan's Kordofan region

US judge blocks Trump admin's Anthropic sanctions, calls them unlawful

Trump rollback of US forest protections could accelerate extinction of 400 endangered species

Decision to rescind ‘roadless rule’ opens more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and loggingMore than 400 endangered animal and plant species could face accelerated extinction after the Donald Trump administration’s decision to rescind a rule that has protected old-growth forests for more than two decades.According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the r...

Why Malaysia’s push for 15 million Muslim tourists is no sure thing

Malaysia sees an opening in the Gulf travel disruption caused by the Iran war, pitching itself as a Muslim-friendly destination for travellers seeking halal food, prayer facilities and family-focused holidays. But such gains could be limited because the conflict has not only weakened tourism within the Middle East, but also affected long-haul flight routes that Malaysia depends on to draw Muslim t...

Gong Zizheng, who led China’s planetary defence project, dies at 61

Gong Zizheng, a pioneer of space debris research and a key figure in China’s planned asteroid defence mission, has died at 61. A top government adviser and prominent leader in international space debris organisations, Gong died on Saturday after a battle with illness, according to Chinese media reports. No further details were given. On social media, one of Gong’s colleagues at the China Academy o...

'They were legends': Humpback whales make spectacular comeback off Brazil's coast

Once driven to the brink of extinction, humpback whales have thrived in the South Atlantic since a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling came into force in 1986, offering a bonanza to scientists who come each year to Brazil's Abrolhos archipelago to record and study the cetaceans.

How the Nepal flash flood unleashed a wave of anti-China misinformation

To scientists, the cause of this week’s deadly flash flood on the border between China and Nepal is clear: a glacier high on the Nepal side of the Himalayan range collapsed, sending catastrophic amounts of water and debris downstream. Initial uncertainty over the cause of the event fuelled a wave of misinformation on social media, some of which pinned the blame for the event on Chinese-built infra...

UK petrol prices hit highest level in almost four years as bank holiday getaway looms

Average cost of petrol reaches 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs average of 183.4p, according to the AAUK petrol prices have hit their highest level since 2022, piling more financial pressure on motorists before the bank holiday weekend.The average cost of petrol has reached 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs an average of 183.4p a litre, according to the breakdown company the AA. Continue readin...

Armed raid on cattle camp kills at least 49 in South Sudan

Thirty-three people were also wounded as gunmen raided village and seasonal cattle camp in northwest of the country.

Kyiv theatre turns Homer’s Odyssey into a story of war and return

A Kyiv theatre is reimagining Homer’s Odyssey through the lens of Ukraine’s war. Odysseus, Maeotis draws on the experiences of Mariupol defenders and former prisoners of war, exploring captivity, separation and the enduring struggle to return home.

'Ran for our lives': Flood survivors recount terrifying escape from Nepal-Tibet disaster

Survivors of the catastrophic flash floods in Nepal and Tibet, some still missing family members, shared harrowing accounts of their escape from raging floodwaters that brought devastation to the Himalayan border region, leaving more than 550 people dead and some 1,500 missing.

'Ran for our lives': Tales of survival from Nepal-China disaster

Some survivors of the deadly floods on the Nepal-China border ran for their lives, others narrowly missed disaster, but all were eyewitnesses to a major calamity and its aftermath.

US Open 2026: All to know about the schedule, top seeds and favourites

Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka look to defend their titles as the year's final Grand Slam begins on Sunday.

‘Barrier lake’ triggers fresh floods, halts rescue at Nepal-China border

A lake formed after floods and mudslides on the China-Nepal border burst its banks on Friday, halting rescue operations.