The desperate search for survivors intensifies in Nepal; Solomon Islands Prime Minister pulls out of the Pacific Islands Forum to face a no-confidence showdown at home; Australia returns to South Africa for Test cricket - eight years after the ball-tampering scandal.
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TRANSCRIPT
- The desperate search for survivors intensifies in Nepal.
- Solomon Islands Prime Minister pulls out of the Pacific Islands Forum to face a no-confidence showdown at home.
- Australia returns to South Africa for Test cricket - eight years after the ball-tampering scandal.
Treacherous terrain and a lack of resources are hampering rescue efforts in mudslide-hit Nuwakot.
Crews are working through the night, using excavators to clear debris at the Trishuli hydropower project.
At least 933 workers are believed to be trapped across about half a dozen hydropower sites, after a glacier collapse triggered a massive landslide and flooding in the Himalayas.
Many roads remain impassable, making it difficult to get supplies to communities cut off by the disaster.
Those forced from their homes are waiting to be relocated, with food, shelter and other essentials urgently needed.
This woman has been volunteering at one shelter, where she says hundreds of people have gathered.
"The rescue operation is going on every day. We have been rescuing and taking people home at around 500 and more people like every single day from this specific barrack only."
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The US military has rejected claims its latest strikes on Iran were an “act of aggression.”
Washington says the strikes were carried out to stop Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard from laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command says two launchers on Iran’s Larak Island were hit, in the first known US strikes on Iran since late July.
Iranian media says Tehran responded by attacking two US air bases in Jordan.
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The death toll from a Russian strike on a Ukraininan warehouse stands at 38, making it the deadliest attack of the year so far, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Four people remain missing and 20 were injured, including two children in the attack west of Kyiv at Myla.
The warehouse was an ammunition storage facility and the strike triggered massive explosions and fires.
President Zelenskyy says a probe was underway into how and why ammunition was stored near residential areas
Nearby resident, Iryna Chernovol, says she hid in a drain pipe during the attack after warning her daughter to run to the basement.
"It happened right before my eyes. The drone struck nearby first, then there was this crazy explosion. Thank God they (my family) managed to get down (to the basement). Before that, I felt it – I called my daughter and started yelling, “run to the basement immediately,” and they all went down, and that’s when the first terrible explosion happened."
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The Pacific Islands Forum in Palau is underway, with leaders from across the Pacific gathering to discuss regional security, economic resilience and climate change.
Several Pacific leaders have pulled out of the meeting at the eleventh hour including Solomon Islands Prime Minister - Matthew Wale
He cancelled his appearance after a no-confidence motion was lodged against him by his country's home affairs minister.
Oliver Nobetau is the Pacific Islands Program Director at the Lowy Institute - and says Taiwan has been re-included in this year's meeting, which has divided some leaders.
"It is looking likely that the issue around Taiwan may dominate the sort of discussions at the leaders' meeting for a number of reasons. Taiwan, in recent months, has faced a few challenges in the Pacific. Primarily, my mind turns to the shutting down of their office in Port Moresby following the missile launch that had taken place and trying to garner support. Now, they only they only have a few supporters left in the Pacific region. Taiwan now sending their foreign minister looks like they'll be making a bigger play for that recognition."
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The families of motor neurone disease patients in New South Wales say a new register to track cases across the state will help find a cause of the brutal condition.
Deaths from motor neurone disease have tripled in the past 37 years, according to a Macquarie University study, which also identified possible causal factors of the disease.
90 per cent of MND cases have no genetic link and there is little known about the factors that can lead to the disease, which has a typical prognosis of three years from diagnosis to death.
Annie Hobden, whose husband Ron was diagnosed with MND almost three years ago, says the New South Wales register is a positive step but it should be adopted nationwide.
"And Hobbo and I really want to say, if New South Wales can do it, why can't the rest of Australia? MND doesn't stop at borders, so why should we?"
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Australia will return to South Africa for Test cricket for the first time since the ball-tampering scandal of the 2018 tour.
Hostile crowds are expected, but Josh Hazlewood says the players are used to copping abuse overseas and won’t be fazed.
Hazlewood is one of five players from the 2018 Cape Town squad still in the team.
Australia has returned to South Africa for white-ball cricket since then, but the spotlight is expected to be far greater on this Test tour, with squads for upcoming series against Zimbabwe and South Africa due to be announced tomorrow.
