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Prakrit has already lost her father. As Nepal’s morgues fill, she hopes her DNA can be used to find her mother

An army official calls out a name. A young woman stands, two pieces of identification in her hands. She fills out a form, takes another and moves to the back of the hospital to give a vial of blood. With so many people killed by Nepal’s floods, and hundreds of bodies being buried because the morgues are full, there is now a push to identify victims through DNA. The woman, Prakrit Gurung, 19, is hoping her DNA will be linked to her mother’s body. Her father’s has been found – her brother recognised his picture on a wall outside the hospital. At the government’s request, Gurung is one of dozens lining up on Tuesday morning. Earlier, an Australian citizen was one of the first 14 people to attend. He had flown over to be with his family – his brother, a Nepali citizen, is missing. Authorities are asking relatives abroad to have their DNA profiles sent over. Several Australian families have already had samples taken. “We are collecting the blood samples here, from their siblings, or direct relatives,” says Rameshwor Adhikari from the army. “People are coming from all over the valley to give blood, and from different places all over the country.” Adhikari adds: “It is a disaster. A natural calamity.” The first day they set up 37 people came through but numbers are growing – and the army brings out more shade tents for people to sit under. Adhikari wants as many people as possible to come forward. There are now more than 1,000 people confirmed dead and nearly 4,000 reported missing. As of Wednesday morning, 38 of them are Australians. In a statement this week, family members of 25 missing Australians called for more government support to “bring our friends and loved ones back home”. Nepali families from the worst-hit area, the upper Rasuwa district, have been campaigning for their government to do more to get boots and rescue equipment on the ground. It has been a week since the floods and contact has still not been established in some places along the Chinese border. Lhakpa Gha’s village, Timure, is one of them. Standing outside a Buddhist monastery on Tuesday afternoon, the 53-year-old says that if she talks, the tears will come. And as she lists her relatives who were washed away, they do. Her father, brother-in-law, son, daughter-in-law, their four-year-old daughter, her daughter and her sister’s brother. All seven, gone. Gha and her husband survived because they were in Kathmandu, looking after two of their grandchildren attending school here. “I lost my whole family,” she says through a translator. “We’ve lost everyone.” The monastery is housing about 200 people from the upper region who managed to survive – they were higher up on the mountain when the flood hit. Many watched as their loved ones were swept away, their towns flattened. “The army has not been able to reach the village,” Gha says. “They keep saying our village is high risk but we don’t understand. We are fighting with them. If it’s high risk, you need to act. But they have just said they can’t get in.” Her son and daughter were doctors in the village – they stayed in Timure so they could keep providing for the family. “We have nothing,” Gha says. “We depended on my son for money.” On Monday a UN report into the conditions in the country’s far north said it could take weeks to reach the upper areas – there are hardly any roads left in, and bridges have been washed away. If the army cannot get in, nor can the aid groups. Amy Sagitta Lefevre from Save the Children says: “Aid is definitely getting through, but to a point.” Speaking from the agency’s warehouse in Kathmandu, she says its teams have reached Rusawa by road. Aid they can’t get further is stored at the army barracks. “The challenging bit for rescue workers is the same challenging bit for aid organisations, because we have the same access issues as they do,” she says. Save the Children is getting kits up the valley that include makeshift tents, so people have somewhere to shelter. It’s also setting up mobile toilets. “On the ground we’re giving out non-food items,” Lefevre says, “which are blankets, ropes, tarpaulin sheets – because a lot of people are sleeping exposed to the elements, so just sheets in case they need to be protected from the rain.” Many of the shelters up the valley are overcrowded, so families are being sent farther afield. “We’re also giving out things like buckets, just so people can carry things or wash, if need be. “And then we have what we call dignity kits … they’re aimed at women, but specifically pregnant women – they have an extra sari, some of the mothers need clothes because they’re still wearing the same clothes they were wearing the day of the disaster.” About 2,600 children are expected to need medical treatment for “severe wasting” and more than 100 may have been separated from their parents. Lefevre says it’s impossible to put a timeline on anything. But recognising that the full recovery process could take over a year, Save the Children has set up a field office. Its workers are worried about the spread of disease, water contamination, overcrowded shelters and the potential, in the chaos of the recovery, for children to be trafficked. “This area of Nepal has historically been a hotbed for child trafficking of girls,” she says. “We’ve heard anecdotally that it may have lessened in recent years, but because of this disaster we are now very concerned about the fact that children or girls … could be trafficked.”

Relief as five Australians missing in Nepal-Tibet flood disaster found alive

A total of five Australians missing after devastating floods ravaged the Nepal-Tibet border last week have been found. Of the five Australians confirmed safe, one was found in Nepal, one in Tibet, and three outside the crisis-hit area. The total number still missing is 38. These Australians had not spoken to families and next of kin since the disaster struck seven days ago. There were “grave concerns” for the dozens of citizens still missing in the disaster, the minister for multicultural affairs, Anne Aly, told the ABC on Wednesday morning. “There are real logistic issues, including communications to find out where people are,” she said. “For those families that are still waiting, those 38 individuals unaccounted for, we understand that it’s a really concerning time, and we’ll continue to do what we can to try and locate those people.” Earlier, the minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, told Radio National the government was “focused on establishing their whereabouts and supporting their families”. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) has received nearly 800 calls in relation to the floods, with 18 Australian personnel having travelled to Nepal to join staff on the ground. More humanitarian and disaster relief from Australia was due to arrive in Nepal on Wednesday afternoon. Another Australian, 25-year-old Cara Severino, was safely located last week. After an Australian in Tibet made contact with family and Dfat yesterday, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the government was “incredibly thankful”. “It’s hard to imagine the sense of relief their loved ones must be feeling after what will have been an incredibly harrowing few days.” The death toll from the ⁠unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris on Wednesday last week has risen to 939 people, with 16 more dead reported in Tibet. More than 4,400 people are missing. Wong said the government needed to “remain realistic” about the days ahead. “Communications remain difficult, infrastructure has been destroyed and many areas are still difficult to reach,” she said. “As each day passes, our grave concerns for those still unaccounted for inevitably grow. “Our thoughts remain firmly with all those waiting for news of family and friends, and with the search and rescue teams working in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.” Australia has sent a $8m assistance package for affected communities on the border between Nepal and the Chinese region of Tibet. Nepal has deployed nearly 20,000 security personnel to support search and rescue, and Chinese state media has reported that 2,141 emergency personnel have been deployed. This story was amended on 2 September 2026. An earlier version misstated the number of people who had been found.

Germany blames Russia for drone attack at Leipzig airport

The German government has blamed Russia for the drone attack on Leipzig airport last month, calling it “dangerous behaviour” and part of a systematic and concerted effort by Moscow to “cause great damage” through a large number of hybrid attacks. The interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, and the foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, ended weeks of speculation and the government’s hesitancy to blame Russia, saying in a brisk 10-minute briefing in Berlin that all indications were the Russian state had provided the knowhow and equipment for the planned attack and “low-level agents” were recruited to carry it out. A drone loaded with explosives was discovered at Leipzig/Halle airport on 4 August near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane used to transport weapons to Ukraine. It failed to detonate but could have caused a catastrophe, authorities said. Russia will face a package of penalty measures, Wadephul said, adding that the German government saw “a need for appropriate and necessary action in this situation”. It would respond “to this hybrid attack in Leipzig with proportionate and measured, yet equally resolute, action”, he said. “We are not at war, but we are a daily target of hybrid warfare.” He added: “The dangerous behaviour of the Russian Federation is part of attempts at destabilisation, disinformation, threats, sabotage and aggression.” Berlin regretted the abysmal state of its relations with Moscow, he said. The EU expressed “full solidarity” with Germany over the attack, and Nato assured Berlin that it would defend its members. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, supported Germany’s move and the new round of European sanctions, saying: “These hybrid attacks are multiplying in Europe. They cannot go unanswered. “In the face of this escalation, we must be united, determined, and strengthen our support for Ukraine. France will continue to play its full part.” Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, said: “The security of our allies is the security of us all. Attempts to intimidate us or to drive a wedge between allies will not succeed: hybrid actions against any one of us are a matter of concern for all of us, and will be met with a united response.” The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, said: “Attacking a Ukrainian cargo plane on German soil was an egregious attempt by Russia to weaken our resolve and our collective defence – and it will fail. Our support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression is unshakeable.” The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, called the sanctions “another mistake,” suggesting the restrictions were aimed at currying favour with voters. “I think it’s another mistake, a serious one,” Putin said during a press conference broadcast by the Russian state news agency Tass. “And in my view it clearly runs counter to the interests of the German people.” The Russian ambassador had been summoned to the foreign ministry at that very moment to be informed of the consequences, Wadephul said. The Russian consulate in Bonn will be closed later this month, and Russian House, a sprawling cultural and science institute in the centre of Berlin, which is alleged to house Russian spies and to have been the launchpad for a number of hybrid attacks carried out in Germany over the past few years, is to be turned out of its rented building. A clampdown on Russia’s shadow fleet – illegal ships carrying Russian oil and other supplies in the Baltic and North seas – is also planned. Sweden and Finland track and disrupt the shadow fleet but Germany does not, so vessels regularly opt to sail via German waters in its foreign economic zones. New lists of people on a blacklist would be drawn up and tighter border controls of Russians entering Germany would be carried out, Wadephul said. Parallel to these moves, Berlin is also backing the European Commission’s 22nd package of sanctions, to cover a further 1,600 companies and organisations with a Russian connection. The government has previously said it does not intend to directly involve Nato by invoking article 4 of the alliance. However, its Nato and European partners were informed about the investigation and agreed on the planned consequences, Wadephul confirmed. The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, promised “full solidarity” with Berlin. Rutte said Berlin had put forward clear evidence of Moscow’s role in the “hybrid attack” and welcomed the measures announced in response, while von der Leyen vowed to “keep the EU united despite these escalating and serious acts”. Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time the German government has concretely named Russia as responsible for the attack. It marks the lowest point in decades for relations between Russia and the EU’s largest member, which had already plunged after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This weekend will see a critical election in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg Vorpommern, in which the war in Ukraine and relations with Russia have been a focal point. The far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland, which is pushing a pro-Russia agenda as it seeks to win an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt, has accused the government of double standards over its treatment of Russia. Urging the government to prove Russia’s involvement in the Leipzig incident earlier this week, it said the same rigour should be applied to investigations into the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline, for which Ukraine is alleged to have been responsible. The drone in the Leipzig incident was carrying 600g of explosives and was discovered in the security area of the airport close to Ukrainian Antonov cargo planes on the night of 4-5 August. The explosive device detonator appeared to have failed. A second drone was believed to have been part of the planned attack but investigators have since thrown doubt on that theory. Traces of the military explosive hexogen were found on the edge of the airport on 14 August along with a further drone, investigators confirmed. Had the devices exploded they could have caused a catastrophe, German officials said. The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who last week said whoever was behind the attack “will pay”, did not attend the briefing to the press and public on Tuesday. Konstantin von Notz, the Green party’s security policy expert and commissioner for intelligence oversight, criticised the government before the announcement for what he described as its failure to stand up to Putin in the face of the growing hybrid threat from Russia. “The federal government must finally stop being hesitant, reticent and timid. Things must be called by their name, and decisive action must be taken,” he said in an interview with the RND network. Even within his own Christian Democratic Union party, Merz has faced calls to be tougher towards Russia. On Tuesday, the party’s foreign policy expert, Roderich Kiesewetter, urged the chancellor to take a tougher line against Russia, accusing successive governments of exercising “extreme caution with regard to Russian state terrorism on German soil”. Citing sources in German intelligence, Bild Zeitung said direct connections had been made by investigators between other drone and explosives finds and incidents in Germany and across Europe, including in Romania, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and the UK. A cache of weapons discovered recently in a Berlin forest are thought to be connected to Russian activities in Romania. Investigators in various countries are believed to be working in parallel with each other.

US and Iran exchange more airstrikes, fuelling fears of wider return to hostilities

The US has launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets, prompting counter strikes by Tehran targeting American interests in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, fuelling concerns about a ⁠wider renewal of hostilities. US Marine Corps base Camp Titin in Jordan was targeted for an “intense ballistic missile attack”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said early on Wednesday, according to Iranian news outlet Tasnim. The Jordanian army said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired from Iran, and did not confirm any injuries or hits on the US training camp located on the Gulf of Aqaba, near the borders with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Three other missiles landed in remote areas, it said. Missile and drone attacks were also reported in Kuwait, where the army said it was responding to Iranian hostilities. Agence France-Presse reporters in Bahrain heard alert sirens for airborne attacks go off early on Wednesday. The IRGC also claimed it struck a US base in Erbil, Iraq. US central command (CentCom) said it had completed a new wave of strikes that targeted the IRGC. It said the strikes were in response to attempted attacks on commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz and against American service members. The Iranian Red Crescent said four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 were wounded when shrapnel from a US missile attack hit a home where a wedding celebration was taking place in the city of Kuhestak. Asked if the US military had received any credible reports of civilian casualties, US CentCom spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins said “the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC”. Iran’s state broadcaster reported explosions on Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait, and state-linked news agency Nour ‌News reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in Chabahar, a port on the southern coast. Oil prices are already on the rise after an exchange of attacks by the US and Iran at the weekend, the first since July, and after reports that two tankers had been hit in the strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping. Tehran warned ⁠that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat by Donald Trump to hit Iran “hard” in response to the Iranian strikes, and a warning from Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, that Washington was about to ⁠impose new sanctions. The six-month conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, in which US forces attacked Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday and Iran responded by launching missiles at two US airbases in Jordan. On Tuesday, Trump warned that if Iran retaliated against the US’s latest strikes, “they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. The US president has in the past made threats that could amount to war crimes if carried out, including threatening to destroy critical civilian infrastructure, bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, and an April threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if a peace deal wasn’t reached. In Iran, the Fars news agency quoted an IRGC spokesperson as saying the US “will regret its new attacks”. The IRGC later said it had begun a “regretful response to the aggressors”, state broadcaster IRIB reported. In its statement, the IRGC said that “in blind and desperate attacks”, the US had bombed several locations, including civilian areas. It described them as “attacks that tightened the blockade of the strait of Hormuz and strengthened the determination of the fighters to suppress the foreign forces interfering in the strait of Hormuz.” Recent pledges by both sides to respond to further attacks have highlighted how quickly a conflict that has increasingly been fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure could spill back into military action. Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, had said early on Tuesday that Tehran would reciprocate immediately if Washington honoured its commitments under a June memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was intended to halt the conflict. The MOU declared an end to fighting that has now killed thousands in Iran and Lebanon since US and Israeli strikes began on 28 February. But it also deferred many of the most difficult issues and paved the way for a broader 60-day negotiation period – which passed without further agreement. “I am stating clearly that if the US returns to its commitments under the ⁠memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,” Pezeshkian said in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which includes Russia and China. But Iranian officials have shown no public sign of bowing to pressure. “If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil,” Mohammad Baqer QalibafIran’s parliament speaker was quoted as saying by Iranian media. If the US intensified its “siege”, he said Tehran would respond militarily. Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, told a press conference in Tehran that Washington was “addicted to making excessive demands and has mistaken negotiations for dictating terms”. “As long as they act in this manner, they will certainly get no result other than what they have achieved so far,” he added, warning that Tehran would “use all our capabilities, whether on the battlefield or through our diplomatic apparatus”. Reuters contributed reporting

Who are the Australians missing in the Nepal floods? What we know so far

The number of Australians missing in the Nepal-Tibet flash flooding disaster fell from 43 on Tuesday morning to 38 on Wednesday, with five unaccounted for people making contact. Of the five Australians confirmed safe on Wednesday, one was found in Nepal, one in Tibet and three outside the crisis-hit area. It comes after Sydney woman Cara Severino, 25, was safely located in Nepal last week. The names of the five Australians confirmed safe on Wednesday have not yet been released. Pilgrims trekking to a holy site in Tibet make up the majority of Australians who have been reported missing after deadly flash floods and landslides tore through valleys on the Nepal-Tibet border on 26 August. Most were travelling with Himalayan Glacier Adventures, Kailash Journeys and the Isha Foundation. Across Nepal and Tibet, nearly 4,000 people have been reported missing and Nepali and Chinese authorities have confirmed more than 1,000 have died. Here’s what we know about the Australians who remain missing. This article will be updated as more information becomes available. Venkatraman Balakrishnan and Chitra Venkatraman New South Wales couple Venkatraman Balakrishnan, 52, and Chitra Venkatraman, 46, were among 15 Australians travelling to Mount Kailash on a spiritual trip with the Himalayan Glacier Adventures tour group. Their son, Akash Venkatraman, said his parents had planned to leave their riverside accommodation in Syabrubesi before it was devastated by flood waters. Muralitharan family Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, Chandresekaran Muralitharan, 47 and their children Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were also taking part in the Himalayan Glacier Adventures spiritual tour to Mount Kailash when the flood hit. The parents and two children had been training together for the long walk, Shylaja’s younger sister Vaishnavi said. She lost contact with the family shortly after their breakfast on the morning of the flood. Iyer family Sreedharan Iyer, 52, and Lakshmi Iyer, 50, and their adult sons Rishab Iyer, 23, and Rudhra Iyer, 20, were taking part in the spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash with Himalayan Glacier Adventures. The Iyer brothers are medical students at the University of Newcastle and members of the West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club in Sydney’s north-west. Karan Bhardwaj, Arpan Mithalal Kothari and Bhavin Raval Karan Bhardwaj, Arpan Mithalal Kothari and Bhavin Raval were travelling together on a Kailash Journey tour of the region. Bhardwaj’s family says the three men have known each other since 2009, when they met at university. Raval’s wife, Bhavinkumar Raval, has told the ABC she believes her husband is still alive and is making plans to travel to Nepal. Bhardwaj is a 40-year-old Brisbane-based member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Bhardwaj’s family member Jen said: “Karan is a dad to my beautiful seven-year-old nephew, as well as a brother, uncle and brother in law. He is so desperately loved by his family and right now we are desperately praying, hoping and believing that Karan is safe, alive and somehow making his way back to us.” Narayan Panthi Narayan Panthi, from Brisbane, has been listed by Nepali police as travelling with operator Kathmandu Holiday Tours and Travel. It is understood Panthi had been carrying out independent volunteer charity work in Kathmandu earlier in the week before travelling towards the border region. Panthi’s cousin, Amrit Bhusal, told Guardian Australia his family were devastated but “holding on to hope and praying for positive news”. “We are still hoping,” Bhusal said. “We are still searching. We are still praying for Narayan to come home safely.” Bhusal said Panthi had been “helping disadvantaged children in Nepal reach their full potential through education”. Bharat Mangwani Bharat Mangwani, 42, was travelling with the Isha Foundation as part of a pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar when his family lost contact with him on Wednesday morning. He was last seen at Gyirong before the group was set to depart for Kathmandu. “All of us are praying for him and hopefully he comes back to us soon,” close friend Kushagra Tiwari said. Mangwani’s family, including his nine-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, have travelled to India with a family friend, while his wife has flown to Nepal to look for him. Sumi Adhikari Sumi Adhikari, 41, was at the Gyirong Port crossing with the Isha Foundation group when the flood hit. Her husband, Nava Pandey, has travelled to Nepal seeking information about her whereabouts. “We still have no clear or official information about Sumi or the other members of her group,” Pandey said on Saturday morning. Renee Spry A Sunshine Coast disability support worker, Renee Spry has been described as a “deeply spiritual” person who travelled to Nepal on a pilgrimage. “She had two degrees, and she chose to do something that was … a completely selfless vocation. Her priority was always other people,” her sister Clair Spry said. “Every person she touched, they knew her love and kindness. She would be so uncomfortable with all this.” Clair Spry has set up a GoFundMe so her family can travel to Nepal to look for signs of Renee. Suhasini Kandimalla A mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, Suhasini Kandimalla was hiking with another Springfield local, according to her sister, Supreethini Kandimalla. While she was a New Zealand citizen, Suhasini had been approved for Australian citizenship, her sister said. She had planned to attend a citizenship ceremony for it to be granted soon after she returned. “I don’t know if it was a religious calling for her to do it,” Supreethini said of the Nepal trip. “But she certainly loved the treks in New Zealand too, and would go on lots of long hikes.” Reshma Patel Newcastle woman Reshma Patel, 46, was in the Isha Foundation group. She didn’t know Sumi Adhikari beforehand, but the pair had become friends on the pilgrimage, Patel’s family friend Chin Valsan says. “They were talking to each other, and they were supposed to come back on the same flight on Thursday,” he says. He describes Patel, who has two children aged 10 and 14 and works casually for Canterbury-Bankstown council, as “full of life” and a “kind soul” who loves her family and friends. Kanagamah Sundrasan The mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, was part of the Kailash Journey trek to Mount Kailash. Her daughter, Swaatika Kanniah, said her mother had been excited about the hike. “It was a pilgrimage, she really wanted to go and have that experience.” A photograph of her on the trip shows her smiling with five other members of the tour; all are now missing. “I feel like everyone is trying their best, but yes we don’t know much about what’s going on,” Kanniah said of the recovery efforts. Michael Keats The family of 37-year-old Michael Keats, from Mollymook in NSW, said on social media that he had died. Keats’s partner, Emily Boyd, said on Instagram on Sunday that he had been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which had been his “dream for many years”. “Mike went on a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash seeking enlightenment,” Boyd said. “There’s a bittersweetness knowing that there was nothing more that Mike wanted [than] to know God, and to merge with the divine. “He was a mystic, a medicine man, a teacher, leader, partner, father, brother, son, uncle and dearly beloved friend. He showed up for so many people in so many ways. A heart of pure gold. We love you forever and always.” On Tuesday, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the Australian government “has not yet received official confirmation of Mr Keats’ passing. He does remain unaccounted for in terms of the information we have. But … we respect the rights of the families to make the statements they have”. “Our thoughts go out to his family and to every Australian family who is hoping that the many who are missing can be located,” she said. Luke Costanzo Luke Costanzo, 30, from Perth remains missing, his family has confirmed. He was on a pilgrimage trek with the Isha foundation, and the group was last in contact at the Gyirong port border crossing as they were making their way back to Kathmandu on the final day of their journey, the family said in a statement. “Luke is an extremely strong, compassionate, disciplined and spiritual person. Once he makes a decision he commits to it fully and he was so excited to be visiting Mount Kailash on a pilgrimage trek with the Isha Foundation,” the family said. “We truly appreciate all the love and support from friends and family that we’ve received and ask everyone to keep Luke, and all those affected, in your thoughts and prayers.” The family has asked people who wish to help to donate “to aid the wonderful people on the ground who continue with rescue efforts”.

British aid worker mistakenly identified as a survivor of Nepal-Tibet disaster

A British aid worker was mistakenly identified by Nepalese authorities as a rescued survivor after returning to Kathmandu on a humanitarian aid flight. Alastair Chambers, a 45-year-old former Gloucester councillor, said he flew to Nepal last week to distribute sleeping bags, food and essentials to communities cut off by collapsed bridges. After spending several days in a village near the Trishuli river in central Nepal, Chambers returned by helicopter to the capital, where he was greeted by police officers asking for his details. “I gave them my details, just abiding by the rules, and they obviously thought that I’d been rescued,” Chambers told the Press Association. Chambers appeared on a list of 119 names released by local authorities on Tuesday. An army spokesperson then told reporters at a press conference that a British national was among those rescued. “I was contacted by about 15 different journalists in the last few hours, just asking how I was and how I’m feeling after being rescued, and I had to say: ‘Well sorry, I haven’t been rescued,’” Chambers told PA. Those rescued included 118 Nepali nationals – 44 women and 74 men. Thirty-six British nationals are missing, the Foreign Office minister, Stewart Wood, told the House of Lords on Tuesday. The figure had previously been put at 33. Chambers was fined £49,000 after pleading guilty in June 2022 to breeding and selling dogs without a licence. The 45-year-old, who was the leader of a group of community independents on Gloucester city council until 2024, is due to face trial in November after denying he used homophobic slurs against a bar owner and former council worker. At least 1,050 people have been confirmed dead in Nepal since Wednesday’s flash floods, while Chinese state media said 66 people had been killed in Tibet. More than 4,000 people are still missing. Nepal’s prime minister, Balendra Shah, said 11,000 people had been rescued across the affected region. This included 330 foreign nationals, the Nepalese tourist board said in an update on Tuesday. Preliminary analysis of satellite imagery suggests the collapse of a glacier high in the Himalayas was the primary cause of the disaster. The collapse – so large it was initially recorded as a magnitude-4.4 earthquake – triggered a deadly torrent of water, mud and ice that tore along the Lhende Khola, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers on Wednesday. Crews have faced dangerous and difficult conditions while searching unstable terrain and flood debris. Search efforts are now focused on attempts to reach about 600 workers believed to be trapped inside tunnels at several hydropower stations in the region. “Massive work has been going on in the tunnel, all the tunnels,” the army spokesperson said on Tuesday. A rapid deployment rescue team from the UK arrived in Nepal on Saturday to provide support for Britons and their families as part of the government’s £5m commitment to support relief and recovery efforts. The Red Cross estimates that 93,000 people have been directly affected by the disaster.

Iran says ‘regretful response’ to US attacks has begun after state TV reports four killed at wedding in Sirik region – as it happened

At least four people including a young child have been killed and over 50 injured after the US resumed strikes against Iran on Tuesday. According to the Iranian Red Crescent, shrapnel from a US missile attack hit a residential home where a wedding was taking place in the coastal city of Kuhestak, in Sirik county of Hormozgan province. The United States has yet to comment on the incident. It comes several hours after the US military announced it was launching strikes on Iran, quashing hopes that an exchange of fire last ⁠weekend might not presage a ⁠wider renewal of hostilities. US Central Command said it was striking targets in Iran over attempted attacks on shipping and against US service members in the region. Explosions were reported in several locations across southern Iran. Donald Trump warned that if Iran retaliated against the US’s latest strikes, “they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” That very ominous last part is starkly reminiscent of threats Trump has made in the past that could amount to war crimes if carried out. He added that the strikes were “in retaliation” for Iran’s “failed attempt” to lay mines in the strait of Hormuz and for Iran’s (retaliatory) attacks on the US military base in Jordan (which were intercepted). In a call with Fox News, Trump reportedly reiterated that Iran would be “totally wiped out” if it launches retaliatory strikes against the US. “This is a very big hit today. If it goes a third time, they’re going to be totally wiped out as a country,” Fox News quoted the US president as saying. In response to the attacks, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had begun a “regretful response to the aggressors”, state broadcaster IRIB reported. And IRGC spokesperson Sardar Mohebi said in a post on X that “severe punishment” awaited the aggressors and that the US “will regret its new attacks”. Jordan’s army said that 10 out of 13 Iranian ballistic missiles were intercepted and the other three fell in remote areas. It followed claims from the IRGC that it had killed “a large number of US forces”, while destroying “several installations and enemy attack helicopters” in a ballistic attack on US Marines’ barracks at Camp Titin, a military site near Aqaba. Reuters and Al Jazeera have since both reported, citing US sources, that there were no injuries or damage to the barracks. A reminder that this phase of fighting began when the US military said it had struck rocket launchers on Larak Island in the strait of Hormuz on Sunday, in its first strikes on Iran since July, after it detected the Iranians were planning to deploy fresh mines in the critical waterway. Tehran responded by launching missiles at US sites in Jordan, which were intercepted, and the United Arab Emirates, which said it had stopped an Iranian drone over its territorial waters. Trump had threatened further action on Monday, telling Fox News: “We’re going to hit them hard. There will be a response.” These strikes, 24 hours after Trump’s comments, are that response.

Peekaboo island: the floating forest confounding nature watchers in western Canada

A thickly forested island appeared mysteriously on a western Canadian lake. Nearly 150 metres (500 feet) long and 75 metres (250 feet) wide, the land mass took local people and experts by surprise. It wasn’t on any maps or navigation charts. One boater approached and took a video of the island, capturing nearly 100 trees undulating in the chop of the lake. And then, within days, it disappeared. On Monday, the island made its second appearance – nearly 20 miles from its location earlier in August – in stunning aquatic displacement that has left residents wondering how an entire island can seem to simply vanish. The mystery has unfolded in the middle of Williston Lake, a long and narrow reservoir created after the W.A.C Bennett dam flooded the region in the early 1970s. At nearly 1,700 sq km (650 sqmiles) it is the largest body of freshwater in the westernmost province. Bob Gammer, a spokesperson for BC Hydro, the government-owned utility that operates the reservoir and dam, said the island was “quite something and rather unbelievable” when he first saw the images. “In the days of AI, you really needed another form of verification or evidence like a corroborating eyewitness account,” he said. “And soon, we got that.” Satellite imagery confirmed the island was in fact real, and floating in the main body of the reservoir, roughly 60 miles west of the dam. BC Hydro believes the island is the result of years of trees and plants growing largely undisturbed on the woody debris along sheltered sections of the reservoir’s shoreline. Similar islands have shown up across the globe, including Wisconsin’s famed Forty Acre Bog. The giant, floating island on Lake Chippewa is knitted together by peat, mud, roots and trees. Measuring roughly 12,000 sq metres (14,000 sq yards) in size, the British Columbia island is also bursting with life: birds and small animals are living among the mix of coniferous and broadleaf trees. Observers suspect the root system in the water hides some of the lake’s best fish. Gammer likened the growing conditions to hydroponics and said: “Well-fed trees growing on a decaying food source with lots of water … they could grow pretty quick.” The reservoir, he added, is higher than it has been in 14 years, as a result of high winter snowpacks and consistent summer rains that have raised water levels in the Peace River and the lake. “Suddenly, there are all of the right conditions to potentially lift this kind of little island from where it was, and bring it out into open water,” he said. Between sightings, the island may have drifted to shore. Its seeming disappearance “doesn’t mean it’s gone to the bottom of the reservoir”, Gammer previously told CBC. “It may have returned to a more sheltered area along the shoreline.” BC Hydro doesn’t know how old the trees on the island are, but with the right conditions the forest could “just stay there for years” and grow. Local people speculated the trees could be decades old. “It’s not like they’re just a bunch of little shrubs. This is an island with larger trees and it’s something you really have to wrap your mind around,” said Grammar. “It’s not an everyday thing. This is really really unusual.” Rocky Avery, a friend of the boater and a longtime resident of the area who first posted the clip to social media to warn others about a possible hazard, said he would “totally jump on that island if I could”. “It’s probably a bit shaky on the outer sections, but with those huge trees in the centre, I imagine someone could walk on it,” he said. Gammer cautioned boaters from attempting to become the first to set foot on it, warning that video shows trees moving back and forth on a “delicate, thin layer of logs”, adding it is “very unsafe” and “very unstable”. Avery’s social media posts about the island prompted a flurry of excitement and a seemingly inescapable nod to the current political situation in Canada. Recently, the US president, Donald Trump, chose to rename Lake Ontario after trade talks collapsed between the two countries. The announcement has prompted anger, frustration and mockery from the Canadian public. “I’m surprised Trump hasn’t named [the island] and claimed it,” commented one user on Avery’s post.