© Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Relatives of missing tourists asked for blood samples and photos, as efforts continue to rescue trapped hydropower workers
Nepali rescuers have built temporary bridges to reach remote areas and dug through the ruins of hydropower projects in the Himalayas to rescue hundreds of trapped workers, as the death toll passed 1,000 nearly a week after devastating floods left a trail of destruction across the country’s towns and valleys.
About 600 people remain stuck in several devastated hydropower stations that have become the focus of rescue efforts. The prime minister, Balendra Shah, said more than 11,000 people had been rescued across the affected region, and power and communication lines had been restored in some areas.
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© Photograph: Angad Dhakal/Reuters
© Photograph: Angad Dhakal/Reuters
© Photograph: Angad Dhakal/Reuters
Hong Kong flotation at $26bn by firm once valued at $100bn follows failure to list in US and UK
Shares in the fast-fashion brand Shein slumped by as much as 10% as the China-founded company made its long-anticipated trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The Singapore-headquartered company, once valued at almost $100bn (£74bn), went public on Tuesday pricing shares at HK$48.56, valuing the business at just over $26bn.
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© Photograph: May James/EPA
© Photograph: May James/EPA
© Photograph: May James/EPA
Scientists say better early-warning system could have saved lives, as rescue efforts for the 4,500 still missing continue
Nepal last week turned down foreign involvement in general search and rescue but said it needed specialised services and advanced technological support in areas such as life-detecting machines, large refrigerators and pre-fabricated bridges.
Aid worth more than $42m has poured into the country and Nepal is now working with experts from other countries to help with rescue operations.
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© Composite: Handout / 2026 Planet Labs PBC / AFP via Getty Images
© Composite: Handout / 2026 Planet Labs PBC / AFP via Getty Images
© Composite: Handout / 2026 Planet Labs PBC / AFP via Getty Images
Beijing-Taipei tensions a feature at meeting in Palau, with Australia and New Zealand saying the forum – not another country – will determine who attends
China said it had serious concerns about Taiwan’s presence at the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, warning of “consequences” after the democratically ruled island attended the group’s opening ceremony on Monday.
China views Taiwan as its own territory, and China-Taiwan tensions have featured prominently at the meeting, which is intended to demonstrate regional unity.
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© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
Beijing-Taipei tensions a feature at meeting in Palau, with Australia and New Zealand saying the forum – not another country – will determine who attends
China said it had serious concerns about Taiwan’s presence at the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, warning of “consequences” after the democratically ruled island attended the group’s opening ceremony on Monday.
China views Taiwan as its own territory, and China-Taiwan tensions have featured prominently at the meeting, which is intended to demonstrate regional unity.
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© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
© Loic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A graphic novel by Melissa Chan and Badiucao imagines China and the US at war in 2035. They hope to remind young people that ‘authoritarianism everywhere is bad’
Drinking Tsingtao beers, eating congee, walking with hands behind their backs: for many young people in western countries, “Chinamaxxing” has become all the rage. Some content creators have even gone beyond the jokes about being in “a very Chinese time in my life” and have followed this passion to the Middle Kingdom: making TikToks in Chongqing’s multilayered metropolis, bathing in Chengdu’s 24-hour spas or backflipping on the Great Wall of China.
This irreverent, mostly ironic trend is jarring for some, but Chinese Australian artist Badiucao and Chinese American journalist Melissa Chan don’t want to lecture the so-called Chinamaxxers.
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© Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
© Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
© Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
Workers thought to be stuck in underground areas at 11 sites after last week’s devastating flash floods
Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods, the country’s disaster management authority has said.
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 are missing on the two sides of the border.
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© Photograph: Prime Minister Secretariat, Nepal/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Prime Minister Secretariat, Nepal/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Prime Minister Secretariat, Nepal/AFP/Getty Images
Rights group claims 300 homes were destroyed in Tibet and number of missing people is ‘far higher’ than Beijing admits
A Tibetan advocacy group says hundreds of homes were destroyed on the Tibetan side of the border in last week’s deadly floods, raising questions about Beijing’s official account of the scale of the disaster.
Public discussion about the flash floods has been restricted, with security officials in Tibet announcing on Sunday that it had penalised at least 10 people for sharing “false disaster information”. There was no further information on the nature of the penalties.
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© Photograph: Jigme Dorje/Xinhua/AP
© Photograph: Jigme Dorje/Xinhua/AP
© Photograph: Jigme Dorje/Xinhua/AP
© Cnsphoto, via Reuters
Workers thought to be stuck in underground areas at 11 sites after last week’s devastating flash floods
Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods, the country’s disaster management authority has said.
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 are missing on the two sides of the border.
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© Photograph: Prime Minister Secretariat, Nepal/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Prime Minister Secretariat, Nepal/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Prime Minister Secretariat, Nepal/AFP/Getty Images
Total number of missing Britons between Tibet and Nepal at 48 as Beijing mobilises more than 2,100 rescue workers
Fifteen British nationals are reported to be missing in China as the search continues for survivors of the devastating flooding in Nepal and Tibet.
Nepali and Chinese authorities confirmed an updated death toll of at least 810 on Sunday. More than 3,000 people are believed missing after flash floods triggered by a massive glacier collapse in the Himalayas on Wednesday engulfed Gyirong port on the Nepal-China border.
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© Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
© Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
© Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
Outsourcing the industry to China cannot continue, but Europe knows it can no longer count on the US for a solution
The alarm sounded 16 years ago. In 2010, China blocked exports of key rare earths to Japan in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The critical minerals are essential to everything from advanced weaponry and iPhones to electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines, so the rest of the world took note. But it didn’t take much action. China still accounts for about 70% of rare-earth mining globally and 90% of separation and processing.
Then, last year, Beijing forced Donald Trump to back away from his trade war – not with its retaliatory tariffs, but the curbing of rare-earth exports. A scramble for new supplies began in earnest. The year-long trade truce is due to expire in November. The price of erbium, an element essential to communications infrastructure, has already jumped because of fears that export controls will soon be renewed.
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© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy
© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy
© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy
Total of 804 confirmed dead and more than 3,000 missing amid threat of fresh inundation
Rescuers in Nepal and Tibet have battled through leg-sucking mud amid the threat of fresh flooding to search for thousands of people still missing after a deadly wall of water swept through the Himalayan border zone, engulfing entire villages.
The latest updates on Sunday put the number of missing at 3,048, including hundreds of foreigners. There was a total of 804 confirmed deaths across Nepal and Tibet, and reports of some bodies swept downstream possibly as far as India.
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© Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
As with its approach to Hormuz, the US has mistaken applying pressure for an actual strategy. But Tehran has chips of its own to play
Donald Trump has found a new way to promise victory over Iran. After months of war have failed to force Iran’s capitulation or collapse, his administration has unveiled what the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, calls Operation Economic Outcast: an effort to cut it off from what remains of the global economy and threaten foreign governments, banks and companies with sanctions if they continue doing business with Tehran.
There is no question that Iran is vulnerable. Its economy has been battered by years of sanctions, war and a months-long US naval blockade. Iranian officials acknowledge that oil exports and access to foreign currency have been severely constrained. Ordinary Iranians are already enduring high inflation, currency depreciation and worsening living standards. Further economic strangulation will inflict significant additional hardship.
Sina Toossi is a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, where his work focuses on US-Iran relations, US policy toward the Middle East and nuclear issues
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© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
© Atul Loke for The New York Times
Total of confirmed 797 dead and more than 3,000 missing amid threat of fresh inundation
Rescuers in Nepal and Tibet have battled through leg-sucking mud amid the threat of fresh flooding to search for thousands of people still missing after a deadly wall of water swept through the Himalayan border zone, engulfing entire villages.
The latest updates on Sunday put the number of missing at 3,048, including hundreds of foreigners. There was a total of 797 confirmed deaths across Nepal and Tibet, and reports of some bodies swept downstream possibly as far as India.
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© Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
Nepal requests foreign help in identification and storing of bodies, DNA testing and rescuing people from tunnels
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.
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© Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images
© Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images
© Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images
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