Desperate rescue attempts continue in Nepal to reach people thought to be trapped | First Thing

A rescuer works at the entrance of a tunnel at Chilime hydropower plant. Hundreds are feared trapped at half a dozen such sites in Nepal. Photograph: Ashish Gurung/Reuters View image in fullscreen A rescuer works at the entrance of a tunnel at Chilime hydropower plant. Hundreds are feared trapped at half a dozen such sites in Nepal. Photograph: Ashish Gurung/Reuters First Thing: Desperate rescue attempts continue in Nepal to reach hundreds thought to be trapped Death toll from unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud ​and debris now stands at more than 900. Plus, was it a mistake to take away Pluto’s planet status? Good morning. Rescue teams are working to reach hundreds of people feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of half a dozen hydropower projects in Nepal as more than 900 workers were reported missing after the devastating flash floods. The death toll from the ⁠unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud ​and debris that crashed through valleys of Nepal on Wednesday last week has risen to 903 people, with 16 reported dead on the Tibet side of the border. More than 4,000 are missing in Nepal, with another 500 in Tibet. Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, have been buried in shallow graves. How large is the rescue operation? Nepal’s prime minister, Balendra Shah, said almost 21,000 security personnel were involved in the rescue operations, besides civilian workers and volunteers. China’s state-run CCTV reported that Beijing had mobilised more than 2,100 rescue workers. The Red Cross has ‌estimated that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster, which China and some experts linked to the effects of the Climate Crisis. Why has the disaster sparked a racism row in Australia? A slew of racist social media comments have been made towards missing Australians. Most of them were on pilgrimages, including to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Mainstream media outlets including News Corp, Channel 7, Channel 10 and Nine have been hit with highly offensive and discriminatory comments on Facebook articles identifying the missing Australians. US strikes Iranian launchers in strait of Hormuz, sparking reprisal attack on airbases in Jordan and UAE View image in fullscreen A wide view of the northern part of the strait of Hormuz, showing the islands of Hormuz (R), Larak (C), and Qeshm (L). Photograph: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Tech/AFP/Getty Images Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on airbases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates after the US attacked Iranian rocket launchers in the strait of Hormuz, the first such hostilities in a month. The last known ‌US strikes on Iran were in late July and the war has reached a stalemate in recent weeks. The latest exchange of fire was sparked late on Sunday by a US attack on the island of Larak in the strait. Iran’s ⁠Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said the US attack killed and wounded several soldiers and citizens and ​would be met with “punishment” from ‌Tehran. What has Donald Trump claimed US forces are doing? Hours after the attacks, the US president, Donald Trump, claimed in a social media post that Iran’s energy hub of Kharg Island was being “blown to smithereens” but gave no further details. The White House and ⁠the US defense department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attacking Kharg, which handled 90% of ⁠Iran’s oil exports before the war, would severely disrupt the Islamic republic’s energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy. Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates View image in fullscreen The Lake Ontario sign. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel at the weekend over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the Ontario premier erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting an AI video depicting him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA. The Wendat Nation grand chief, Pierre Picard, called Trump’s move an attempt to erase Indigenous history. “I want to tell him that it is unacceptable for us, as a nation, to have a president who can eradicate our history, our culture and our identity,” Picard said. Trump ‘border czar’ denies Milo Yiannopoulos was deported quickly to spare him from ICE detention Milo Yiannopoulos after his arrest by federal immigration agents. Photograph: Department of Homeland Security/Reuters The White House “border czar”, Tom Homan, denied on Sunday that deporting the British far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos just a day after being arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amounted to preferential treatment. Homan said it was his understanding Yiannopoulos, 41, had overstayed what he believed to be a visitor visa, had not appeared at an immigration hearing and was issued a final order of removal on 22 July. He added: “He had his due process, ordered removed by a federal judge, and ICE removed him. It’s that simple.” In other news … View image in fullscreen NBC’s Kristen Welker. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters Donald Trump ⁠said NBC’s Kristen ‌Welker should face “rebuke or punishment” from the FCC after she described the success record of political candidates whom the president had endorsed as “mixed”. Ghislaine Maxwell has virtually run out of legal routes to overturn her conviction for her involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of girls and young women, experts say, bar a presidential pardon. At least eight people have died off the coast of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus after a ferry capsized. Nearly 20 people are still missing. The Trump administration is shuttering ⁠two of the three US Department of Agriculture research projects studying cyclospora after the foodborne parasite has ⁠sickened tens of thousands of Americans during the summer. Michigan’s Democratic US senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed apologized to the state’s Jewish Democratic Caucus for comments he made after an attack on a synagogue in March, which he tied to Israel’s actions in the Middle East. Stat of the day: Discount gas stations praised by Trump sold $4m of stolen fuel, lawsuit claims View image in fullscreen A flag flies at Freedom Fuel Network gas station. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP Building Power: How two Indiana tribes drove out a mining company in one week View image in fullscreen An oil pump jack. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images At the sacred prairie of Pe’ Sla in South Dakota, Indigenous and environmental groups banded together to halt drilling. “We’re just not used to winning,” said Dr Valeriah Big Eagle, who directs the Black Hills work of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy nonprofit based in Rapid City. “We’re people used to being screwed over by the government at every level.” Don’t miss this: The sadistic online groomers targeting victims around the world View image in fullscreen Online child exploitation illustration. Illustration: Avinash Weerasekera/The Guardian This is an incredibly harrowing read about one woman’s attempts to keep her daughter safe from an online predator with ties to the extortion group known as 764. He has been sentenced to decades in prison. We also have this guide to five warning signs for parents about sadistic online exploitation. … or this: Was Pluto’s 2006 demotion a big mistake? View image in fullscreen Dwarf planets Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. Photograph: Stocktrek Images, Inc./Alamy Pluto will always be a planet to me. Tim Dowling explores the debate about its status that continues two decades after it was demoted to being a “dwarf planet”. Climate check: ‘Breakthrough’ as Turkmenistan starts fixing ‘mindboggling’ methane mega-leaks View image in fullscreen Flares burn off methane and other hydrocarbons at an oil and gas facility. Photograph: David Goldman/AP The secretive state has begun repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as the worst country for leaks of the potent greenhouse gas. Last Thing: ‘Humongous’ marmot crowned winner in inaugural Fat Marmot Week contest View image in fullscreen A marmot sitting outside her den. Photograph: Brittany Peterson/AP Dawn was crowned the winner of the inaugural Fat Marmot Week after securing back-to-back victories in both the mass-gain and popular-vote competitions. The contest was started by researchers who previously turned to OnlyFans to help save a decades-long research project. Go, Dawn! If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com Explore more on these topics US news First Thing newsletter Nepal-Tibet flood disaster news Share Reuse this content