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• BJD leader Pratap Jena announced that the party may approach the Supreme Court if the Odisha assembly does not oppose recent amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. • The move targets amendments introduced by the BJP-led central government, which the BJD views as problematic for the state. • This potential legal challenge highlights the ongoing political tension between the BJD and the BJP regarding state mineral rights and legislative autonomy.

‘My heart goes out to all the Nepalese families who are grieving loved ones,’ Cara Severino says. Follow latest updates liveCara Severino, an Australian woman in Nepal who was missing following devastated floods, has been located and is in contact with officials, Penny Wong’s office has confirmed.The foreign minister’s office confirmed overnight Severino was travelling to a safe location with the help of Australia’s consular officials, who travelled by four-wheel-drive to Kathmandu to locate her along a trekking route.This is a rare piece of positive news amid a disaster that has brought immense loss and uncertainty …I have spoken directly with her and am very pleased to know she is safe. She has also spoken with her family, which I know will be a great relief to them. Continue reading...

• On August 28, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to Norway following the passing of King Harald V. • PM Modi specifically highlighted the "warmth" of the late monarch, reflecting on the positive relationship between the two leaders. • This diplomatic gesture underscores the importance of India's bilateral ties and mutual respect with Norway.

Festivalgoers brave rain and strong winds as ‘unsettled’ conditions expected to last over bank holiday weekendHeavy rain is expected over the weekend, forecasters have said, with people heading to major music festivals warned of unseasonably strong winds.That came after large parts of England braced for flooding on Friday. The Environment Agency (EA) issued flood alerts across the Midlands and into South Yorkshire, having earlier sent out a more-serious flood warning in the town of Nelson, Lancashire. Continue reading...

Cara Severino calls parents – but still faces trek of more than 110km to reach Kathmandu on footGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAn Australian woman has made contact with her family, more than two days after she was reported missing in flash flooding in Nepal.At least 469 people have been killed and more than 1,500 are missing after a catastrophic flash flood hit the China-Nepal border on Wednesday. Cara Severino, 25, is the first of 39 Australians who had been reported missing in the tragedy to have been confirmed safe. Continue reading...

• Catastrophic flash flooding struck the border region of China and Nepal on Wednesday, wiping out entire villages. • More than 1,300 people are currently reported missing, including at least 700 foreign nationals from approximately two dozen different countries. • The scale of the disaster highlights the extreme vulnerability of border settlements to sudden environmental crises and flash floods.

The catastrophic flash flood has killed at least 389 people and left more than 1,300 missing, with hundreds of tourists unaccounted forNearly 1,400 missing, mostly tourists, and hundreds killedVisual guide: how the deadly flooding unfoldedTell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?Chinese authorities have warned that an artificial lake formed after a catastrophic flash flood hit the China-Nepal border on Wednesday faces a “high risk of breaching and sending flood waters downstream”, according to state media.“According to forecasts, inflows into the lake could reach about 3 million cubic meters over the next three days amid continued rainfall, increasing the risk of a breach that could send flood waters downstream and potentially cause further damage in areas including Gyirong Port and elsewhere downstream”, state news agency Xinhua reported late Thursday.Rescue teams and military helicopters are searching for hundreds of missing people along the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border after a huge torrent of water and mud swept through communities following a glacier collapse on Wednesday.More than 390 people were killed, authorities in Nepal and China said, and more than 1,400 were missing, including hundreds of foreign citizens and pilgrims.More than 500 foreign citizens were among 826 people missing in Nepal, police and tourism ⁠officials said. Among those unaccounted for were 177 from India, 90 from the US, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada.Chinese state media said at least 558 were missing on the Tibet side of the border, of whom at least 260 were foreign nationals.UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said he ordered the release of $2m from the UN’s central emergency response fund to help with medical care, shelter and water.US president Donald Trump said the flooding was terrible to see, describing how “strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks”.Nepalese officials said dozens of bridges were destroyed and nearly 40km of roads damaged, complicating search efforts.The Nepalese army had rescued more than 100 people by helicopter, an army spokesperson said. Army teams also evacuated people trapped inside facilities linked to the Trishuli hydropower project, he said.Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for medical care.Rescuers found bodies in Nepal’s Chitwan district, hundreds of kilometres downstream from the hardest-hit areas.The Nepal Red Cross Society said the agency has shifted its focus from rescue to large-scale relief operations in the flood-hit districts.China’s premier, Li Qiang, arrived on Thursday in Gyirong to direct rescue efforts, alongside 500 military and paramilitary personnel. Continue reading...

Nepali tour operator fears 15 Australians who had been on a trekking tour near border with China have died after devastating floodingA Nepali tour operator says he fears that 15 Australians trekking with his company in a valley ravaged by flash flooding have died.Sagar Pandey, the founder and chief executive of Himalayan Glacier Trekking, said he has lost all contact with his tour group of 47 people, which included 15 Australians. Continue reading...

Family of three-year-old allegedly thrown into pit at Cambridgeshire zoo says he is happily back at homeA three-year-old boy who was seriously injured in a zoo’s crocodile enclosure has been discharged from hospital and is settling back in at home, his family have said.The child returned home a few weeks ago and was “happy to be home, playing with his toys, sleeping in his own bed and being a big brother”, his parents said in an update posted online. Continue reading...

• Youth-led protests, referred to as the "cockroach" movement, have emerged to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi's perceived political invincibility. • The unrest intensified around July 25, following actions by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, highlighting growing systemic frustrations among India's youth. • These demonstrations are significant because they expose vulnerabilities and "cracks" in the BJP's highly organized political machine and Modi's strongman image.

Pima county figures show highest number of monthly migrant deaths in two years as critics condemn US policyAccording to newly released data from the medical examiner’s office in Pima county, Arizona, the remains of 19 migrants, including children, were recovered along the Arizona-Mexico border last month.The figure accounts for the highest number of monthly deaths in that area since 2024 and brings the number of total remains found to 73 this year, 14 more than the same time period last year. Continue reading...

Chester zoo resident, 23, ‘back to her usual feisty self’ after electrochemotherapy for tumour in her jawA 15ft (4.5-metre) python is believed to be the first snake in the world to be given a pioneering, life-saving cancer treatment normally used on humans.The 50kg reticulated python, named Jodie Foster after the Hollywood star, has just turned 23 and lives at Chester zoo. Keepers first became concerned that she may be unwell when she began eating less and spending more time inactive in her habitat. Continue reading...

Four-year-old boy, two men and three women among those who died since storms began on 11 August, officials sayDays of storms and flooding in Indiana left at least six people dead as flood waters peaked in Indianapolis’s White River – and rains were expected to ease in the state capital region and other parts of the state on Sunday.A four-year-old boy, two men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began on 11 August, state homeland security department spokesperson Liz Woods said. Continue reading...

• NASA is deploying modified ER-2 jets, based on Cold War-era U-2 spy planes, to investigate wildfire-generated storms. • The agency is utilizing these specific aircraft because their high-altitude flying capabilities allow for the study of weather phenomena that are otherwise difficult to observe. • This research is critical because wildfire-driven storms are among Earth's least understood weather events, impacting both fire containment and atmospheric science.

Death toll now stands at 68, with 18 children being among the killed after ferry capsized on Lake KaribaTwenty-two more bodies have been recovered after a boat accident in Zimbabwe, taking the death toll to 68, police said on Saturday.The ferry capsized on Tuesday on Lake Kariba, on the border with Zambia. An investigation has suggested it was overloaded when it went over during heavy winds. Continue reading...

• Databricks is seeking an additional $5 billion in funding, repeating a fundraising effort of the same amount from eight months ago. • Other significant funding rounds this week targeted sectors including AI infrastructure, defense, biotech, and AI-enabled coding tools. • Austin-based startup ClearJet secured funding for its AI logistics platform, which optimizes commercial flight cargo capacity for shippers.

• A coalition of 50 Canadian screen organizations is urging the Liberal Party government to maintain strict requirements for contributions from global streaming platforms. • The government claims recent policy shifts are intended to reduce financial burdens on families, denying that the changes are linked to trade negotiations with President Donald Trump’s administration. • CMPA chair Kyle Irving criticized the government's stance in June, arguing that federal officials have "sold out Canadian culture" to benefit large U.S. corporations.

• Five years after the Taliban seized power in Kabul, Afghans face a starkly divided reality where some report improvements while many others endure increasing hardship. • Syria continues to struggle with the aftermath of over a decade of conflict, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and a massive global displacement crisis. • These reports highlight the ongoing humanitarian challenges and slow recovery processes in regions destabilized by long-term political upheaval and war.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah attended the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ‘Mangal Milan’ meet on Tuesday. • The event took place at the Parliament House complex during the ruling coalition’s weekly parliamentary party meeting. • NDA MPs welcomed the leaders by waving the Tricolour and chanting patriotic slogans such as “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”

• The Modi government has agreed to a comprehensive parliamentary debate regarding the police action taken against student protesters on July 20. • Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to deliver the government's official response during the proceedings to address the controversy. • This agreement ends weeks of legislative deadlock in Parliament, allowing for a formal discussion on the crackdown.

• The New Stack explores a shift in evaluating non-deterministic AI coding agents, arguing that they should be graded on their actual output rather than as conversational chatbots. • The proposed methodology utilizes executable contracts and detailed scorecards to measure the functional success of the code produced by these agents. • This approach matters because traditional LLM benchmarks often fail to capture whether an agent can actually solve a complex software engineering task in a real-world environment.

• AI coding tools have significantly increased individual developer speed, yet overall engineering productivity and confidence remain stalled. • Research from DX and LinearB indicates that gains are offset by larger pull requests, inadequate performance measurement, and outdated legacy processes. • This gap matters because the efficiency of AI is being neutralized by systemic bottlenecks in the software development lifecycle.

Weather system tied to warming sea surface expected to intensify in fall and winter, persisting until early spring 2027El Niño, a recurring climate phenomenon marked by above-average sea surface temperatures, when changes in wind patterns allow warmer water to spread across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, could spell a wet winter for portions of the western and south-eastern US, climate models show. Coastal areas may be at elevated risk of flooding, experts warn.Climate scientists predict this year’s “super” El Niño, a label assigned when sea surface temperatures climb by at least 2C, will be the strongest of the century. The weather system is expected to intensify in the fall and winter, persisting until early spring 2027, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Continue reading...

• Pakistan has introduced sweeping new regulations requiring mandatory registration and accreditation for all journalists working with international news organizations. • The government has also imposed strict restrictions on the specific geographic areas where foreign media are permitted to report. • These measures follow international coverage of ongoing protests in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the current election cycle, which triggered a sharp government response.

• Meta has introduced Muse Code, a new coding agent featuring a highly affordable "contributor tier" for developers. • This specific pricing tier is over 10 times cheaper than the standard pay-as-you-go option, according to Meta's Wang. • To access these lower costs, users must opt-in to allow Meta to use their data to train and improve the underlying model.

• A tragic school shooting in Thailand has resulted in at least 8 deaths, though further details on the perpetrator and motive remain pending. • On August 7, 2026, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. • The meeting has sparked widespread speculation regarding a potential political alliance between the SAD and the BJP.

• Tech companies Coinbase, Shopify, and Ramp have developed their own proprietary AI coding agents while continuing to pay for Anthropic's Claude Code. • The industry trend suggests the primary competitive advantage lies in the "agent harness"—the infrastructure surrounding the AI—rather than the underlying large language model. • Ramp's "Inspect" tool exemplifies this by executing code within sandboxed virtual machines and integrating with engineering systems like Datadog, Sentry, and LaunchDarkly.

• Microsoft has ended the "blank-check" era of AI coding by assigning specific AI token budgets to every division and implementing GPT-5.6 Sol as the default in Copilot. • The strategic shift focuses on maximizing "impact per token" rather than simply reducing overall usage to ensure AI efficiency. • While the move justifies further investment in coding agents, Microsoft notes that merged pull requests are only a proxy for productivity.