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Humanitarian crisis worsening in refuge for civilians fleeing Sudan’s civil war

Humanitarian conditions in the Sudanese city of El Obeid and two camps on its outskirts are dire and deteriorating, according to people on the ground, as civilians displaced by fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia continue to pour in from the surrounding countryside. The UN says more than 15,000 families have arrived since mid-July, joining more than 200,000 people who arrived in the first half of the year, according to government figures cited by Save the Children. “The situation is very harsh and is deteriorating as El Obeid is receiving IDPs [internally displaced people] on a daily basis … The city is shockingly overcrowded,” said Maryam, a humanitarian volunteer whose name has been changed for her safety. The new arrivals came on foot, carrying almost nothing, she said. “They also suffer from a shortage of food and they definitely arrive traumatised.” The city, the capital of North Kordofan province, was home to around half a million people before the war broke out more than three years ago. While many of the new arrivals have been absorbed into the city, tens of thousands are living in two main tented camps. According to analysis of satellite data by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, 800 new tents appeared in one of the camps between 4 and 25 August. “During my visit, I saw 450 arrivals coming from the surrounding villages just that morning,” said Paul Byars, the Sudan country director for the Danish Refugee Council, who was in El Obeid last week. “The authorities’ estimates are correct, that 85% of them are women and children. Most of the men are staying behind because this is the only time for farming.” Civil war erupted in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, about 250 miles (400km) north-east of El Obeid, on 15 April 2023, when a power struggle between the armed forces and RSF descended into open conflict. Since then, about 11.3 million people have been displaced, more than a fifth of the population. Some parts of the country, including El Obeid and surrounding areas, are at risk of famine. Estimates of the number of people killed in the war range from tens to hundreds of thousands. More than 10,000 people are thought to have been massacred by the RSF in El Fasher over two days when they seized the city in Sudan’s western Darfur region in October 2025 after an 18-month siege. A surge in RSF drone strikes on El Obeid and nearby areas in June led the UN to warn that the city could face a repeat of what happened in El Fasher. The number of strikes has since fallen. The armed forces also recaptured a key road leading north to Khartoum in late July, which at least partly lifted the threat of besiegement. However, drones are still killing and injuring civilians, while violence rages in the surrounding districts, pushing people to the city. Recently, volunteers in El Obeid had noticed more “double-tap” drone strikes, where a second drone follows the first, hitting rescuers at the scene, Maryam said. “It is hard, so hard, living with this, hearing the sound of a drone hitting somewhere,” she said. “It’s very disturbing.” Sudan’s civil war has become dominated by drones, accounting for half of all violent incidents, up from 4% at the start of the war, said Nohad Eltayeb, who monitors Sudan for Acled, a conflict tracking group. Both sides used drones, but the RSF’s usage had become more volatile since the US war with Iran began to interrupt supply lines in February, she said. “They rely on fewer, very targeted strikes.” So far this year, there have been 322 incidents of violence affecting civilians in the wider Kordofan region, compared with 388 for the whole of 2025, according to Acled data. While the RSF was responsible for half of those, the SAF has also killed and injured civilians. On 10 August, armed forces and an allied militia killed five civilians and injured 10 about 60 miles north-east of El Obeid, according to Emergency Lawyers, a non-governmental group. With the threats to delivery trucks, food prices have rocketed. In north Kordofan in July, according to World Food Programme data, a litre of groundnut oil cost 17,000 Sudanese pounds (£21), up from 13,000 in June and 7,700 a year ago. The prices of wheat flour and goat and sheep meat have also more than doubled in the last year. Meanwhile, El Obeid’s power and water infrastructure still has not fully recovered from RSF drone strikes in June. “The main problem is the big [water] source that is in the north of the city has been severely damaged and it has not been repaired,” said Esperanza Santos, an emergency coordinator in Sudan for Médecins Sans Frontières. “The water pipes in the city have [also] been impacted. So mostly, both in the city – for example, in the hospital – and also in the IDP camps, they are relying on water trucking and it’s not enough.” Conditions in the camps were poor too, Santos said. “In terms of sanitation, it’s very, very bad. It’s not enough. The ratio of latrines per person is impossible – there are more than 100 people for a latrine. So basically there is open defecation.” Maryam said she and her fellow local volunteers remained committed, despite the difficulties. “The situation is deteriorating, but we are trying to stay together, to stay strong in the face of the drone attacks and the influx of IDPs … We are living with this and we hope things will become better.”

The president and the penthouse: how Madrid’s government spent €6.3m on a temporary ‘office’

The outspoken rightwing leader of the Madrid region is under growing pressure to explain why her government spent €6.3m (£5.4m) on a residential penthouse purportedly to serve as a temporary workspace while her offices were being renovated. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a prominent member of Spain’s opposition conservative People’s party (PP), has been the president of the Madrid region since 2019. In that time, she has forged a reputation as a politician who prides herself on speaking her mind – and on being a thorn in the side of the country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, whose family and government have been mired in graft allegations for the past two years. Although Ayuso has frequently accused Sánchez and his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) of being corrupt, she and her administration now face growing calls to provide a transparent explanation for the purchase of the penthouse. El País reported at the end of July that the Madrid regional government had bought the penthouse in the well-heeled Chamberí neighbourhood of the Spanish capital in April. A spokesperson told the paper the property had been acquired for Ayuso to use while her offices in the Real Casa de Correos – the seat of the regional government – were being renovated. The spokesperson did not respond to questions about the price of the flat, nor whether Ayuso intended to live in it. It later emerged that the flat cost €6.3m and planning laws meant it could only be used for residential purposes, not as an office. El País reported this week that Ayuso’s government had stipulated that the property it wanted should be “between 250 and 400 square metres and have a large terrace” – the latter being an odd requirement for an office. The Madrid president lives with her partner, Alberto González Amador, a businessman who recently put two of the flats they have shared up for sale. González Amador is awaiting trial on charges of tax fraud and falsifying documents. He denies the charges. Ayuso initially dismissed the revelations as a “smear campaign”, insisting the penthouse was not bought for her to live in but as a venue for “institutional meetings”. She also said she hadn’t had “the faintest idea” about the purchase. The regional government has subsequently announced that the flat will be sold and the proceeds donated to the victims of this summer’s wildfires near Madrid. Ayuso recently told reporters she considered the matter closed, saying in her trademark colourful language: “Está en venta, chao pescao”, which roughly translates as: “It’s up for sale, so see you later, alligator”. The soundbite has elicited comparisons with the time she was caught in congress describing Sánchez as a “hijo de puta” (“son of a bitch”), only to claim she had been misheard and had actually said: “Me gusta la fruta” (“I like fruit”). It has become one of her most well-known pronouncements, along with her electoral slogan of “communism or freedom”. However, the row over the flat refuses to die down. A judge in Madrid is investigating five separate complaints relating to its purchase and Ayuso’s own boss has said there were still questions to answer. In an interview last week, the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said that while he was satisfied with her explanations, the relevant department in the regional government “ought to explain why a property that can’t be used as an office was bought”. Feijóo said Ayuso’s team had told him in April that they were looking for temporary offices. That acknowledgment appears to be at odds with Ayuso’s insistence she was ignorant of the purchase. Her opponents have seized on the row, with the central government dismissing her explanations as “patently insufficient and patently worrying”, and calling for her to resign. “So they were looking for ‘temporary offices’ and they got in touch with an estate agent who specialises in luxury properties (not offices) and they requested something that was between 250 square metres and 400 square metres and which had that vital feature any administrative office requires – a big terrace,” said one PSOE councillor in the Madrid town of Móstoles. “See you later, alligator … but with a terrace.” Pablo Simón, a political scientist at the Carlos III University of Madrid, said the “lack of clear explanations” over the purchase, combined with the judge’s investigation, had left Ayuso in a difficult predicament. “From a political perspective, I think this has hurt her, because ultimately it’s a very cross-cutting issue that has generated criticism from both the left and the right,” he said. Simón said while the current “wear and tear” was unlikely to prevent Ayuso winning another term at next year’s regional election, it could result in the loss of her absolute majority and force her to strike a deal with the far-right Vox party to remain in government.

‘You’re at war when you get attacked’: Mark Carney shows combative nature in face-off with Trump

Mark Carney stood before a walnut-veneered lectern, his face drawn tight, as he announced that talks with Canada’s biggest trading partner had collapsed. “Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us,” he said. “And I promised: that will never, ever happen. We are keeping that promise.” For years, the former central bank governor had worked hard to calm markets. Now, he was asking Canadians to accept uncertainty and confrontation. Near the end of the press conference last Saturday, a reporter made reference to the sombre, combative tone of the speech: “Why does it feel like today Mark Carney is going to war?” The prime minister paused. “We were attacked. You’re at war when you get attacked,” he said. “We got attacked.” The unlikely transformation of an economist and central banker with no prior electoral experience into a powerful global politician has bucked precedent and expectations. But Carney has settled into the role he warned was necessary for the country, that of a wartime leader standing up to an erratic and vindictive adversary who seems hellbent on subjugating Canada. After trade negotiations with the US broke down, the two sides traded recriminations and made good on threats to impose new tariffs on each other. In his latest act of petty antagonism, Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the US federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”. But Carney, in walking away from the proposed deal, did what few other leaders have done: dared Trump and the US to test his nation’s resolve. “We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked,” he said. ‘He was pretty doggedly determined’ For those who have worked with the demanding – and, at times, temperamental – central banker, such a calculated refusal to accede to a bad deal comes as little surprise. Carney was raised in Canada’s western prairies, and his story – of an outsider gradually working his way into, and eventually reshaping, powerful institutions – offers clues to a man unwilling to accept the terms set by others. “He was pretty doggedly determined,” said one person who worked alongside Carney when he was serving as UN special envoy for climate action in 2021. When trying to convince banks to sign up to climate pledges, Carney could turn on the charm. “He was pretty diplomatic, when dealing with people that he knows he’s got to influence,” his former colleague said. But it has been no shock to see Carney standing up to Trump on the world stage. “It doesn’t surprise me … and I think it’s because of that determination and that unwillingness to back down.” Carney was not always so sure-footed. When he was handpicked as governor of the Bank of England in 2013 by the then UK chancellor, George Osborne, Carney’s hard-driving approach was not a natural fit with the venerable institution in London’s Square Mile. When he arrived, it still had pink-uniformed, top hatted guards at the entrance. The traits acquired during his days at Goldman Sachs have continued into his tenure as prime minister. He remains an early riser, a dedicated runner and demands that ministers know their files front to back, according to those who work with him. Media have also reported that staff are expected to dress in formal business attire and documents are to be written using British spelling – to the frustration of Canadian linguists. While Carney’s career in a string of powerful institutions reflects a sharp, analytical mind, his tenure at the Bank of England telegraphed that the wonkish economist was also willing to become political when necessary. When Carney overhauled the Bank’s communications strategy, introducing “forward guidance” to show its thinking about future interest rates, it was not immediately embraced as a success. The senior Labour MP Pat McFadden – now a cabinet minister – accused the Bank under Carney of baffling investors and the public with mixed messages about the future of interest rates. In October 2015, with the referendum looming on whether Britain should leave the European Union, Carney used a speech at Oxford University to underline the benefits to the UK of the “economic and financial openness” that came with membership. With the eurozone debt crisis a recent memory, Carney also highlighted the increased risk of financial instability that membership of the EU implied; but Brexiters seized on his positive comments as an unwarranted intervention in a highly politicised topic. The row deepened when Carney suggested Brexit might plunge the UK into recession. Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative director of the leave campaign wrote to the governor, urging him to butt out. Carney’s reply displayed the same relish for a fight that has been evident in his handling of Trump. “Dear Mr Jenkin,” his letter began, “I am responding to your letter to dispel immediately the numerous and substantial misconceptions it contained.” He went on to accuse the veteran MP of “a fundamental misunderstanding of central bank independence as enshrined in statute”. In the event, there was no Brexit recession, something many economists attributed partly to the Bank’s robust response, including rapid interest rate cuts and quantitative easing (the emergency bond-buying scheme used during the global financial crisis). Charles Randell spent five years on the board of the Prudential Regulation Authority, which Carney chaired after becoming Bank of England governor. “I’m sure if you ring around enough people who worked with him at the Bank, you’ll find people who will say that he had his shortcomings,” Randall said. “But with time to reflect on my experience … he’s one of the most impressive people I’ve ever worked with.” Randell, who was then the chair of the Financial Conduct Authority, said that even behind the scenes, Carney was a “very serious person, very analytical, very driven” and “very careful about how he communicates”. “On the morning after the Brexit vote in 2016 … he went in front of the cameras to reassure financial markets that the Bank was ready to deal with any of the consequences of that decision,” he said. “It was a masterpiece in strategic messaging.” ‘Compliance will not buy safety’ Joseph Steinberg, a professor of economics at the University of Toronto, said that while during the Brexit debate, Carney “did not shy away from trying to tell kind of the hard economic truths”, he had not spoken much about the economics of the current US trade war. “In public, he is leaning pretty heavily on the sovereignty angle. It is clear that he privately is probably thinking about the cold, hard economics of an incredibly tenuous situation.” Carney’s decision to retaliate against the US has caused some economists, including Steinberg, to point out that Canada will take a far more painful blow than the US. For the first time in his career Carney is fully beholden to a wary public, a reality that underscores the clashing of two personalities: the technocrat who understands the economics, and the politician who must contend with the political costs of compromise. “At the moment, Canadians are likely to be extraordinarily intolerant of making any kind of concessions to the US whatsoever, even if they are in our economic best interest,” he said. In January, Carney warned people at Davos that “compliance will not buy safety” in a world increasingly dominated by hegemonic powers. While it never mentioned Trump, his speech was seen as a thinly veiled critique of the US president’s aim to abandon longstanding alliances and reshape the world to his advantage. One of Carney’s prescriptions – forging deep relations with like-minded “middle powers” and restructuring to lessen reliance on former allies – has already taken shape in Canada, at a speed and degree to which the pollster David Coletto described as a “wartime-footing government without a war”. “It’s a government organised around an external threat that’s willing to suspend its own party’s orthodoxies, centralise power to move fast, and measure itself in outcomes rather than values,” he wrote. Carney abandoned many of the policies of his predecessor Justin Trudeau, including his carbon and electric vehicle mandates. He has also fast-tracked large projects, including an oil pipeline, and invested tens of billions more into defence. “The public has hardly blinked,” Coletto said in an interview. “Mark Carney’s approval rating has just sustained itself through this entire period.” “When [Carney] first became prime minister, I was sceptical that a central banker would be able to respond to public opinion because that is the opposite of their job,” he said. “But I’ve been surprised with his nuanced read of the country. He’s been adept at being not just politically effective but in holding his support together through a trying time. This suggests there’s little value in underestimating his political instincts.” Polling shows that Carney remains the leader Canadians trust most to steer the country through economic uncertainty. But the prime minister has also embraced a role that would once have seemed almost incongruous: asking a country vastly smaller and less powerful than its neighbour to stand its ground. He said in his recent address: “Canadians don’t submit to the weather – we thrive in it. We don’t wait to see which way the wind is blowing. Or surrender ourselves to the waves to be storm-tossed by events. “We set our own course. We make our own weather. In Canada, we are masters in our own home, from coast to coast to coast.”

Nepal-Tibet death toll rises amid new flood fears and race to free group trapped in tunnel

Thousands of people remain missing after the catastrophic flash flood that has killed more than 700 people in Nepal and Tibet as authorities warn search and rescue teams of rising waters. The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet has climbed to 750 dead and more than 3,000 people missing. Chinese authorities on Sunday reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, of whom 261 were foreign nationals, while Nepali officials confirmed 734 dead and 2,498 people missing. In China’s update, the state broadcaster said the missing foreign nationals included 104 from Nepal, 49 from India, 33 from Latvia, 18 from the US and 15 British citizens. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. In a breakthrough late on Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped. The home minister, Sudan Gurung, said: “We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside.” More than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside such tunnels, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites. Nepal warned on Sunday of rising flood waters and urged rescue teams to exercise caution. “We have received information that the flood flow in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa has increased further,” the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said in a warning issued at 7.20 am. In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal’s disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. The foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, on Saturday estimated Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into the “billions of dollars”. “The urgency is on rescue and saving lives as much as we can,” he said, appealing for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped. He also called for forensic testing kits to identify bodies and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate. Survivors face an agonising wait to learn the fate of missing relatives, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing. “All the settlements near the river were swept away,” Buddhi Ram Dangol told Agence France-Presse in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. “There is nothing left.” Fears of further flooding have compounded the search for the missing. The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes, and one of these formations has become a risk of further floods. The Chinese and Nepali foreign ministers spoke on Saturday and discussed sharing satellite and hydrological data, both sides said. In Tibet, where Chinese authorities are the only source of information, rescue operations were temporarily paused at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of more flooding from a newly formed lake. A total of 2,141 rescuers were near the Gyirong site, the Xinhua state news agency reported, including more than 500 in the worst-hit area. In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, relatives and friends gathered outside the main government hospital from early morning, desperately searching for news of missing loved ones. Many shuffled between the help desk and the hospital noticeboard, clutching photographs and scanning injured patients’ lists in the hope of finding them. Dil Maya Lama stood weeping outside the help desk at the hospital, searching for information about her missing 26-year-old brother, a driver for a hydropower company in Rasuwa. She had traveled from Ramechhap, about 130km (80 miles) away. “I came here with the hope that I might find him,” she said. “There is no information about him.” Nelza Moktan anxiously sought information about her missing cousin, who also worked as a driver in Rasuwa. “I feel hopeless. It has already been four days,” she said. With Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters

Number of missing in Nepal and Tibet rises to 3,000 as bad weather hampers search

Poor weather temporarily hampered aerial rescue operations in Nepal on Saturday as the search for thousands of missing people in areas devastated by catastrophic flash floods along the border with China continued. The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 691 dead and more than 3,000 people missing after China’s latest update on Sunday. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, while Nepal’s disaster agency said late Saturday that the death toll had climbed to 675 with 2,498 people missing. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. Seven bodies have also been recovered in India from rivers flowing from Nepal and are believed to be flood victims. The missing list includes 517 foreigners and 933 workers on hydropower projects on the river where the torrent smashed down, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said. A number of rescue workers are also missing, including 45 Nepali army soldiers and 40 police officers. When a Chinese rescue team reached the all-but-obliterated Gyirong border crossing complex for the first time on Friday, they found “nothing but ruins”. Surveillance camera footage from the complex showed huge torrents of water and debris on Wednesday engulfing buildings and people trying to flee. Only ⁠on Friday were rescuers able to reach the area. Amid the deepening crisis, Nepal has now said it needs foreign ⁠help in specialised and technical areas, but not in search and rescue. On ⁠Friday, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said that Kathmandu could manage the rescue efforts on its own for now and declined foreign involvement. The areas in which Nepal is seeking help include opening transport and communication services in places where bridges have been destroyed, identification of dead bodies, DNA testing, rescuing people stuck in tunnels, and storing bodies for longer durations, the foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, said late on Friday. Khanal said there was no need for assistance in general search and rescue which was being done by Nepali rescuers. “We think there is no need for repetition in this,” he said. Nepal has requested that its neighbours, India and China, provide bailey bridges to reopen transport and communication in an area where about two dozen bridges have been destroyed. So far, India has sent three flights carrying about 60 tons of relief material to Nepal, including blankets, medicines, food and water purification tablets, ⁠and a specialised tunnel rescue team. China has also dispatched five tunnel experts from Tibet to Nepal for flood-related rescue work, Chinese state media reported, as the country called for emergency aid to be sent to disaster-hit areas and for international rescue cooperation. Rescuers – including army personnel and police – have been clawing through mud and using drilling equipment to reach more than 100 people trapped inside a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa. More than 350 people have already been evacuated from the site under “extremely risky” conditions and the office of Nepal’s prime minister said the rescue effort had become “extremely challenging” due to adverse weather. Search and rescue operations were temporarily halted because of rain and fog but resumed on Saturday afternoon after the weather improved. Kawan Koirala, a rescue worker from the Nepal Scout Disaster Response Team, said they had been struggling in thick, leg-sucking mud. “People want their family member’s body back, either dead or alive, but we cannot find them … you can see the mud,” he told Agence France-Presse, exhausted after an 18-hour shift. Nepal is continuing to monitor two barrier lakes upstream of the flood zone, with an official warning that flood risks will persist until both lakes fully drain. Satellite imagery showed the second lake growing larger with no visible outlet, raising concerns that water pressure could still be building. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said that the first barrier lake was reducing in size, citing analysis by the water resources ministry. A Chinese government geohazards expert warned, however, that the lake may be ‌unstable and that more than 100 glacial lakes scattered throughout the area could pose a threat. In Beijing, a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping called for stronger monitoring of glacier lakes and landslide risks, and for closer international disaster cooperation, Xinhua reported. China’s Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No 2 official, arrived in the area of Gyirong on Thursday afternoon, Xinhua said. The visit suggested Beijing was treating the disaster as a matter of the highest national priority. In China, strict controls on the flow of information from one of its most sensitive regions are hampering the public’s understanding of events. The BBC and New York Times have reported that videos of the catastrophic floods, widely shared globally, have not appeared on Chinese social media sites. Tibet, brought under Chinese control in the 1950s, is the most sensitive and tightly controlled region in the country. The Gyirong border port plays a key role in China’s belt and road network linking the country to south Asia, with logistics zones and vehicle parks built there in the past decade. Nepal’s finance minister, Swarnim Waglé, estimated the country will ⁠need $4-$5bn (£3-£3.7bn) for rebuilding. “This is just an estimate. Loss and ⁠damage is being assessed,” he said. More than 90,000 people have been affected by the disaster, the Red Cross estimated. Some of the bodies being recovered had decomposed beyond recognition and will need to be identified using DNA samples, Nepali officials have said.

Ukraine war briefing: Nuclear plant has lost power and running on generators, UN watchdog says

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been without off-site power for more than a week and is now relying on emergency diesel generators, the UN’s nuclear watchdog says. The plant, which needs power to keep its six non-operating reactors cool, has only a 10-day diesel supply on site, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday. “The availability of diesel fuel is of paramount importance whenever a nuclear power plant loses off-site power,” said agency director general Rafael Grossi. “The current situation once again shows why reliable external power and secure supply routes are indispensable for nuclear safety and security.” The plant had been supplied with diesel on Thursday and Friday from another off-site location, the IAEA added. Zaporizhzhia lost its regular power supply “following military activity on the northern side of the Dnipro River”, the statement said. The IAEA said it was trying to negotiate a local ceasefire to allow repairs to electrical lines. The plant, in southern Ukraine, was seized by the Russian army in March 2022 and its six reactors have been shut down since that year. Germany is reportedly preparing to blame Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport and impose sanctions on Russian entities. Friedrich Merz’s government is expected to announce the “extensive” measures in the next week, Politico reports, potentially alongside a new EU sanctions package. Ukrainian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why munitions were stored so close to homes after a deadly Russian attack on a warehouse storing “explosive objects” near Kyiv’s western suburbs. At least 37 people were killed in the attack on the warehouse in Myla on Friday, making it the war’s deadliest attack this year, Donna Ferguson reports. The attack damaged at least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, and sparked a huge fire and explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. The regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko, said a further 42 people, including four children, had been injured in the strike. The warehouse was a depot owned by the Ukrainian military and stored shells, drones and other munitions, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address. “The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there – a depot of the defence forces. [There was] detonation of shells, mines, other munitions and drones on a significant scale,” the Ukrainian president said. Finland’s president said he did not believe Russia would risk an attack against a ⁠Nato country, with Alexander Stubb telling the Bild newspaper that it would “make no sense” to test the resolve of the alliance. “I simply see neither evidence nor facts to support it,” he told Bild, adding that he ‌did not believe that Russia “would ever want to attack Nato, the world’s most powerful military ‌alliance”. Stubb, whose country joined Nato in 2023, said the alliance had to be prepared for any scenario but he did not believe Moscow was in a position to go to war with Nato. “It makes no sense for any power in the world to test the resolve of this alliance.” The ⁠Russian defence ministry said Russian troops had captured the ⁠village of Khrapivshchyna in ‌Ukraine’s Sumy ‌region, and the ‌villages of Novoandriivka and Rubizhne in the Donetsk region. The ministry ‌said on Saturday via its Telegram channel that it had struck a logistics centre in ⁠the Kyiv region where components for Ukrainian ballistic missiles were ‌stored. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Three people ⁠have ⁠been killed and nine ⁠injured in a ⁠Ukrainian drone ‌attack ‌in the ‌Russian Belgorod region, local authorities said ‌on their Telegram channel. Three of the ⁠injured were in a serious condition, ‌officials said. Europe is ⁠making statements suggesting that it regards ⁠Russia as ⁠an “adversary and even an enemy,” Kremlin spokesperson ⁠Dmitry Peskov has claimed, adding that ⁠Moscow sees no prospect of ‌improved ‌relations between Russia and the ‌EU. It was not immediately clear which statements Peskov was referring to. Peskov added ‌that the EU’s current politicians are confrontational towards Russia, “not only in words but also in deeds”. In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since the conflict began, the UN in August had verified at least 16,874 civilians killed, including 820 children, and 51,173 injured, including 3,126 children.

Families balance hope and despair in race to find survivors in Nepal as 41 Australians still missing

Some of them are young, some old; most of them appear to be men. Some of them could be sleeping, except for the mud that covers their bodies. Some, it seems, would be impossible to recognise even if you knew them well. Every few hours Nepalese authorities hang pictures of the deceased, who have not been identified, on a wall at the back of a teaching hospital in Kathmandu. Saluja, a young woman who did not give her last name, stood among a group of more than 100 people watching. Her cousin, 31, was not on the wall that day. “It’s very hard to identify their faces,” Saluja says. As she speaks, some in the crowd take videos to send to other relatives; they stand around comparing them, trying to work out whether the person in the photo is their loved one. The bodies have a piece of paper lying on top of them, showing which district they were found in, with a number to contact. “My cousin is missing,” Saluja says. “He worked in a hydro power plant … Since the flood, we have not been able to contact him. “It was the first area to get affected, so we really don’t know. But we are hoping for the best.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email While she talked, her other cousin, his older brother, was on the plane flying home from Australia. Since Wednesday, Kathmandu has swelled with international visitors – not tourists but people looking for their loved ones. The Nepalese government has deployed about 15,000 personnel – from the army to the police – to move up the valley and into the areas decimated by the flood, hoping to find survivors. While they battle arduous search conditions – areas completely cut off, roads destroyed, bridges washed away and a new lake threatening to burst – loved ones from Australia rush to Nepal to be with their families. They come to chase leads and to wait. “My older cousin, he’s a doctor in Australia, and his wife is a dentist,” Saluja says. “So they both are coming back. They’re going to try with the search and to be with the family as well. They obviously want to be with the family.” It’s been four days since the glacier collapsed high in the Himalayas, sending a wall of water, ice and mud down to destroy everything in its path. The number of people killed has risen to 669, with nearly 3,000 people lost. On the Chinese side, more than 550 people are unaccounted for. Forty-two Australians are still missing, according to Dfat, including six identified as missing by Chinese authorities. On Saturday, New South Wales man Michael Keats was confirmed to be one of them. He had reached the Nepal-Tibet border just moments before disaster struck, his family said in a statement. “Confusion around the timing of the floods initially led us to believe our beautiful Michael would be safe in Kathmandu, preparing to fly home,” they said. “Unfortunately, it was confirmed relatively quickly by the Isha Foundation that Michael and his Kailash travel group had arrived at Gyirong Port on the Nepal-Tibet border just 10 minutes before the tragic floods hit.” Keats’ family said their thoughts and prayers were with everyone affected by the tragedy. “[Michael] is gentle and kind, with a unique light that touches everyone lucky enough to know him,” they said. Sagar Shrestha serves as the director of the Disaster and Crisis Management Department at the Nepal Red Cross Society in Kathmandu. He said the death toll could climb into the thousands. “But they are still finding survivors,” he says. “Some of them are being found in the jungle; they’ve gone up the mountain and are being helicoptered out.” He said there were 14 hydropower plants along the river, six of which were under construction. It’s believed people could still be alive in the majority of them. One of the key issues has become “the dignified management of the dead”, he says, as morgues and hospitals have filled up in some areas. According to local media, officials in the Chitwan district will collect DNA samples from 229 bodies that are starting to decay and are no longer identifiable, before burying them. “It is now the major concern,” Shrestha says. “And the second thing is that if we are not being able to manage the dead bodies, there could be some kind of health issues.” Since the crisis started, Sagar Pandey has barely slept. Pandey, the chief executive of the Himalaya Glacier Company, says 47 people from the trekking service are lost, including 15 Australians. He had Australians in two different locations: five people 1.5km from the border of Tibet and Nepal, who were meant to be coming back that morning after breakfast and another 10 who had left the Syabrubesi valley and were driving towards the border checkpoint. “I believe they were trapped because all three cars and jeeps are missing,” he says. “There were a total of 14 people: three drivers and then one guide and 10 Australians.” Pandey has been spending his days going between the hospitals and checking in with the morgues to see if anyone on his tours has shown up. He is contacting family members of loved ones who are overseas and helping those who have just arrived. He has also been grieving his brother, who was guiding one of the treks. On Wednesday, he chartered a helicopter to the disaster zone – he could see about 800 people standing on the mountain, who have all been rescued now, he says. “There is a very low chance of survival that someone can still be alive,” he says. “The next process is to find the body if possible.” There has been one glimmer of hope – on Saturday afternoon the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Australian woman Cara Severino was found safe after consular officials worked out where she was, and reached her via four-wheel drive. In a statement, Severino said she got out safely by teaming up with other survivors and using a tractor to drive out of the national park. “My heart goes out to all the Nepalese families who are grieving loved ones,” she said. “We passed a guy hiking up to Thulu Safru who lost his whole family when their whole town was destroyed. It’s just so devastating and undeserving.” “I feel for the families of those still missing; I know how much my family and friends went through.” On Saturday afternoon, the Australian ambassador to Nepal, Simon Ernst, was waiting at the airport. Six more members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s crisis response team had just arrived to help. “There is a lot of damage to infrastructure, damage to power generation capability, damage to phone lines, telegraph poles, so communications is out,” he says. “Even the Nepali forces have lost contact with some of their personnel. “Given the nature of search, rescue, and recovery operations, there are people in the water, in the mud. They’re obviously in danger should further flooding occur, and we can get heavy rainfall at any time given the monsoon.” The disaster unfolded over three Nepalese districts – the one closest to Kathmandu has been the easiest to conduct search and rescue operations, because the accessibility is better and the valley is wider. Most Australians were last heard from in the top district, which was hit first by the flood. No one knows how long it will take to search the area and find everyone, Ernst says, but in the event an Australian is found, the embassy will be told immediately. “We understand that this is an incredibly difficult situation for [families],” Ernst says. “They should feel confident that the Australian government and the Nepalese government are doing everything we can to find their loved ones. “They are very welcome to maintain contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs through our contact numbers and our contact centre in Canberra. If they’re here in Kathmandu, they’re welcome to make contact directly with the embassy, including with me.”

Nepal-Tibet floods: Nepal calls for technical support for rescue efforts as number of missing rises to nearly 3,000 – as it happened

We’re wrapping up the Nepal-Tibet flash flood for the time being. Here are the latest developments: Nearly 3,000 people are missing. Nepal’s disaster agency on Saturday said 2,426 people were missing on its side of the border, while China’s Xinhua news agency reports the total number of missing in Tibet is now 554. This includes at least 777 foreigners and 933 workers on hydropower projects on the river where the torrent smashed down. The death toll in Nepal has now risen to 675, the country’s disaster authority has said. China’s Xinhua news agency earlier today reported seven people confirmed dead in Tibet– where information is under the strict control of Chinese authorities – that brings the death toll for the disaster to 682. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far but at least 93,000 people are estimated to have been affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross. Nepal rescuers send air pipe into tunnel with trapped workers. Nepali army rescuers sent air pipes into tunnels, in the hopes of reaching missing hydropower workers, AFP reported. Rescue efforts are focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites. Nepal’s government has appealed for foreign support to aid rescue efforts. This includes financial aid and freezers to preserve bodies. Nepal’s foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, says reconstruction efforts could run into “billions of dollars”, AFP reports. He added: “We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support.”