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Nepal flooding deaths surpass 900 as needs climb
Key points
- Recent flash flooding is now Nepal’s deadliest natural disaster since the April 2015 earthquake
- 65,000 people require emergency water, sanitation and hygiene
- More than 10,000 people have been rescued so far, including 252 foreign nationals
Triggered by a glacier collapse and landslide on Nepal’s border with China on Wednesday, the event is now Nepal’s deadliest natural disaster since the April 2015 earthquake that killed around 9,000 people.
As search and rescue efforts continue, UN agencies have begun to assess long-term needs, including more than 22,000 children needing protection, Mr. Dujarric said.
Struggling to reach hard-hit areas
Access remains the single biggest obstacle to the response, according to the UN emergency relief agency, OCHA.
Roads are passable only as far as Nuwakot, and some sections of highway linking Kathmandu to the hardest-hit areas remain completely blocked. Power has been restored in some areas.
Nepal’s Government has deployed more than 20,000 search and rescue personnel and declared a flood emergency in 15 municipalities, Mr. Dujarric said.
More than 10,000 people have been rescued so far, including 252 foreign nationals.
Aid scales up
At the same time, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said overcrowding and disruption to water, sanitation and health services raise the risk of infectious disease outbreaks.
Recent OCHA assessments paint a similarly stark picture of humanitarian needs, including about 2,600 children under five expected to require treatment for severe wasting – or acute malnutrition – and around 10,500 pregnant and breastfeeding women needing nutrition assistance.
Some 19 schools have been damaged, nine completely destroyed and eight more being used to shelter displaced families while more than 10,000 school-age children require psychosocial support, OCHA reported.
Most urgently, preliminary reports indicate that 107 children may be separated from their parents or caregivers, leaving first responders to prioritise family tracing and reunification, according to Mr. Dujarric.
Disaster not yet over
Kamal Kishore, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), highlighted the unprecedented nature of the glacier collapse and warned last week that “we are still coming to grips with the extent of the damage.”
The disaster has also affected the Tibet side of the border, where Chinese authorities report at least 16 dead and at least 546 still missing.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the disaster served as a reminder of how fragile mountain environments have become, noting that scientists and local communities have warned for years about the risks of climate change in the area.
“We also know a warming climate, driven by humanity burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, is making tragedies like this one, and so many others around the world, much more likely, frequent and severe, with vulnerable communities often hardest hit,” he said.
What’s the UN doing?
Here’s a look at the ongoing response from UN agencies:
- The World Food Programme (WFP) has dispatched nearly 80 metric tonnes of food, reaching about 9,200 people with assistance expected to last 15 days
- The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has moved therapeutic food for about 500 severely malnourished children and mobilised 15 emergency medical teams
- The UN’s humanitarian partners have set up a coordination hub in Nuwakot to strengthen planning and information sharing in the disaster response among organizations on the ground
Learn more about UN efforts in Nepal here.
EuroHPC JU Signs Contract to Deploy the LUMI-AI Supercomputer
The new LUMI AIF supercomputer will be located at CSC – IT Center for Science’s data centre in Kajaani, Finland, and hosted by the LUMI AI Factory consortium including Finland, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland.
The LUMI-AI supercomputer will support next-generation AI workflows characterised by large-scale, dynamic, and often confidential datasets, while providing the computational capacity required for large-scale simulations and data-intensive scientific applications. The system will be built on next-generation AMD Instinct™ MI430X GPUs alongside state-of-the-art 6th Gen AMD EPYC™ 256-core processors. The system is expected to deliver a tenfold increase in artificial intelligence (AI) capacity compared to the current LUMI supercomputer, strengthening Europe’s capabilities in AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and data-driven research.
Since April 2025, the LUMI AI Factory has been providing AI computing resources and services to European SMEs and startups, leveraging the LUMI supercomputer on the following strategic sectors:
- manufacturing,
- health and life sciences,
- communication technologies and networks.
It also serves other user communities, including those in climate research, materials science, and language technology.
The LUMI AI Factory builds on LUMI’s proven track record of enabling high-impact AI applications and benefits from extensive experience in supporting the development, training, and deployment of cutting-edge AI solutions at scale.
With the signature of this contract, the initiative enters its next phase. The deployment of the LUMI-AI supercomputer will significantly expand AI and HPC capacity and service offerings in Europe.
Anders Jensen, EuroHPC JU Executive Director stated:
“With LUMI-AI, EuroHPC JU has now signed its sixth AI Factory procurement contract for a next-generation AI-optimised supercomputer. Together, these systems will form a powerful European AI infrastructure ecosystem, enabling SMEs and startups to access world-class supercomputing resources, unlock the full potential of AI, and drive innovation, growth, and technological leadership across Europe.”
Kimmo Koski, Managing Director of CSC – IT Center for Science added:
“The LUMI AI Factory consortium builds on the success of the LUMI supercomputer. I want to thank the EuroHPC JU and the consortium for the great collaboration: together we can build this world-class infrastructure for European researchers. LUMI-AI’s modern capabilities combined with the LUMI-IQ quantum computer will help European researchers and industry tackle unforeseen research and innovation challenges in key fields such as health, climate and disruptive technologies.”
More details
BULL was selected following a call for tender launched in May 2025 while Finland was selected as hosting site in December 2024.
Primarily designed to serve startups and SMEs for research and innovation, the new system will also be accessible to the wider research community. Supercomputing resources will be allocated jointly by EuroHPC JU and LUMI AIF consortium, in line with their respective investments. The LUMI-AI system is a joint pan-European effort led by Finland and involving Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland.
The system is expected to be installed and made available to users in 2027.
LUMI-AI is a new EuroHPC JU supercomputer. The supercomputer will be co-funded with a total budget of EUR 387800000 for the acquisition, delivery, installation and maintenance of the system. The EuroHPC JU will fund 50% of the total cost, with budget stemming from the Digital Europe Programme (DEP), while the other 50% will be funded by the LUMI AIF consortium.
As part of the LUMI AI Factory initiative, a new quantum computer named LUMI-IQ will power an experimental platform that will integrate HPC and AI capabilities with emerging quantum technologies.
The LUMI AI Factory is part of a broader network of AI Factories across Europe. EuroHPC JU is currently overseeing the implementation of 19 AI factories offering free, customised support to SMEs and startups, complemented by an additional 13 AI Factory Antennas selected in October 2025 to expand the network.
End of July 2026, the EuroHPC JU has launched a call for tenders to select consortia that will build and operate future AI Gigafactories in the European Union.
About EuroHPC JU
The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.
To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 12 supercomputers, distributed across Europe includingJUPITERandAlice Recoque, Europe’s first exascale systems.
European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via theEuroHPC Access Callsno matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.
Additionally, the EuroHPC JU is deploying aEuropean Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with existing supercomputers. Researchers, public institutions, and industry across Europe can now request free access to some of these quantum computers through the EuroHPC Quantum Access Pilot call . This unprecedented access enables users to experiment with different quantum technologies to advance scientific discovery and drive innovation.
The EuroHPC JU also funds research and innovation projects to develop a full European supercomputing supply chain, from processors and software to applications to be run on these supercomputers and know-how to develop strong European HPC expertise.
With therecent adoption of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150, the EuroHPC JU’s mandate has been expanded with new action pillars dedicated to the deployment of AI Gigafactories across Europe and the advancement of quantum technologies.
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Swedish health-tech company Elekta to advance cancer treatments with €100 million EIB loan
- EIB lends Stockholm-based Elekta €100 million to boost treatments for cancer and neurological conditions ranging from tumors in the brain and body to essential tremor and certain forms of epilepsy.
- Loan supports company’s work on improved treatments for millions of cancer and neurological patients worldwide.
- Research to take place mainly in Sweden and the Netherlands between 2026 and 2029.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending up to €100 million to Swedish medical-technology company Elekta AB to advance treatments for a range of cancers and neurological diseases. The EIB loan will support Elekta’s research and development work in radiotherapy, radiosurgery, brachytherapy and the software used to plan and deliver therapies.
Stockholm-based Elekta develops technologies to treat illnesses including brain tumours, breast cancer, kidney cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and essential tremor. The company’s radiotherapy treatments serve more than 2 million patients worldwide a year.
Elekta, which sells its products in more than 120 countries, operates in roughly 40 nations and has about 4,000 employees, plans to invest around €200 million in its research programme between 2026 and 2029. Most of the work will take place in Sweden and the Netherlands, with the EIB loan covering up to half of the investments.
“Europe has world-leading medical-technology companies and we need to make sure they can continue investing and innovating here,” said EIB Vice-President Karl Nehammer. “This financing will support the next generation of cancer and neurological treatments.”
Elekta’s research programme includes new radiotherapy, radiosurgery and brachytherapy systems as well as software for treatment planning, workflow automation and precision delivery. The goal is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of treatments while helping healthcare providers treat more patients as demand for cancer care grows.
“As demand for cancer care continues to grow, healthcare providers are looking for solutions that help them treat more patients while maintaining quality and precision,” said Elekta Chief Financial Officer Klara Eiritz. “This financing provides additional flexibility to support our long-term strategy and continued investments in innovation that improve clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and the patient experience.”
The loan supports the EIB Group’s TechEU programme to strengthen European investment in strategic technologies and innovation. It also contributes to European Union goals for health research, competitiveness and advanced medical technologies.
Background information
EIB Group
The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion in new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects under eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. Beyond long-term loans for large infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe’s markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in providing guarantees, securitisation and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs.
Photos of the EIB Group’s representatives and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here.
Elekta
Elekta is shaping the standard of care, together with healthcare providers, by developing precision radiation medicine that brings advanced radiotherapy into routine clinical practice. Our solutions support consistent, efficient and personalized care, addressing evolving patient needs. Through adaptive radiotherapy, precision treatment delivery and integrated workflows, Elekta supports care teams across a range of clinical settings. Each year more than 2 million patients are treated using Elekta solutions across 130 countries. Elekta is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with 4,000 employees and offices in more than 40 countries. The company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For more information, visitelekta.com.
Myla Blast Raises Two Civilian-Protection Questions
Russian responsibility for the strike and Ukraine’s duty to keep ammunition away from homes are under scrutiny after 38 deaths At least 38 people have been…
Russian responsibility for the strike and Ukraine’s duty to keep ammunition away from homes are under scrutiny after 38 deaths
At least 38 people have been killed and 52 injured after a Russian drone strike triggered secondary explosions at a military warehouse in Myla, west of Kyiv. As emergency teams continue working through the devastation, Ukrainian investigators are examining both the attack and the decision to store ammunition near a populated area.
What is known about the attack
The explosions began on the evening of 28 August after a drone struck warehouses in Myla, a village in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. Ukrainian authorities said ammunition stored at the site detonated, spreading fire and explosive debris through surrounding residential areas.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the death toll had reached 38. Fifty-two people were reported injured, including five children. The figures may still change as emergency workers search damaged buildings, identify victims and remove unexploded material.
Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, said approximately 130 homes and several other civilian buildings were damaged. It identified the weapon as a Russian Geran-4 drone, although the complete circumstances of the strike remain subject to investigation.
The SBU has opened criminal proceedings under provisions covering Russia’s crime of aggression and negligent performance of military duties. The two lines of inquiry reflect separate decisions that may have contributed to the scale of the loss.
Two duties towards civilians
Russia’s invasion created the conditions in which Myla was attacked. Launching a drone against Ukrainian territory was an intentional military act, and responsibility for that decision rests with those who planned and carried it out.
The presence of ammunition does not, however, remove the attacker’s obligations. Even when a site qualifies as a military objective, international humanitarian law requires an assessment of whether the expected harm to civilians would be excessive compared with the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. Attackers must also take feasible precautions in their choice of weapons, timing and method.
Ukraine has a different but equally real precautionary duty. A defending force must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating ammunition and other military objectives in or near densely populated areas. That obligation is especially important when stored munitions could produce extensive secondary explosions after an attack, fire or accident.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has emphasised both sides of this legal framework. Its investigators are gathering information from authorities and witnesses to establish the circumstances of the Myla disaster independently.
These obligations should not be collapsed into a false equivalence. Scrutiny of potentially unsafe Ukrainian storage does not excuse the Russian strike or dilute responsibility for the wider war. Equally, condemning Russian aggression cannot justify withholding answers from families whose homes were placed near a hazardous military facility.
An investigation with wider implications
Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the defence warehouse should not have been at that location. That admission gives the investigation political weight, but it does not establish who selected the site, what risk assessments were conducted or whether officials ignored storage and safety regulations.
Investigators will need to determine what was stored, in what quantities and for how long. They must also establish whether local authorities and residents knew about the risk, whether evacuation or emergency plans existed, and whether commanders had considered safer alternatives.
Individual blame should not be assigned before the evidence is examined. Wartime logistics are exceptionally difficult: ammunition must remain accessible to forces while depots face surveillance and repeated long-range attacks. Those pressures may explain decisions, but they do not eliminate the need for enforceable safety procedures.
Public confidence will depend on more than the prosecution of a convenient junior official. The inquiry should identify the chain of command, examine institutional practices and produce recommendations that can be applied to other storage sites. Families affected by the explosions also need prompt access to housing, medical treatment, compensation and clear information about contamination or unexploded ordnance.
Civilian harm is intensifying
The Myla deaths come during a sustained rise in civilian casualties. UN monitors said July produced the highest number of civilians killed and injured in Ukraine in any month since March 2022. Long-range missiles and drones have increasingly brought the war into cities and communities far from the active front.
European support for air defence remains essential, as earlier Russian attacks on populated areas have demonstrated. Yet interception systems are only one layer of protection. European assistance can also strengthen fire services, trauma care, explosive-ordnance disposal and secure military logistics designed to reduce danger to nearby communities.
Myla presents a difficult but necessary principle: protecting Ukraine and demanding accountability within Ukraine are compatible responsibilities. A credible investigation can honour those killed, reduce the risk of another preventable disaster and reinforce the distinction between defending a population and exposing it to avoidable danger.
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State Honours for Mladić Reopen Balkan Wounds
Serbia’s proposed military funeral has renewed concern about genocide denial, survivor dignity and regional reconciliation. Serbia’s pledge to grant state…
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Serbia’s proposed military funeral has renewed concern about genocide denial, survivor dignity and regional reconciliation.
Serbia’s pledge to grant state and military honours to Ratko Mladić has provoked alarm among survivors of the Bosnian war and human-rights advocates, days after the former Bosnian Serb commander died while serving a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The dispute is not simply about a funeral. It concerns whether public institutions will uphold established judicial facts or help recast a convicted perpetrator as a national hero.
A funeral becomes a political statement
Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić said Mladić would be buried with full state and military honours, while leaving the location of the funeral to his family. The announcement followed Mladić’s death on 27 August in a United Nations prison hospital in The Hague.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić subsequently criticised the UN tribunal for refusing requests to release Mladić on humanitarian grounds, describing its conduct as “uncivilised”. Political figures in Serbia and Republika Srpska have also presented the former commander as a defender of the Serbian people.
Those messages stand in sharp contrast to the reaction in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Survivors and memorial institutions have warned that official honours risk transforming personal mourning into state-backed glorification. Same-day accounts from Sarajevo and Srebrenica describe anger at attempts to detach Mladić’s military reputation from the crimes established in court.
Grief for a relative is a private right. A ceremony conducted with military personnel, state protocol and public authority carries a different meaning. It communicates whom the state considers worthy of collective honour.
The judicial record is settled
Mladić commanded the Army of Republika Srpska during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was arrested in Serbia in 2011 after spending years as a fugitive and was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2017.
The judgment found him responsible for genocide at Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces murdered thousands of Bosniak men and boys in July 1995. He was also convicted over persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and forcible transfer elsewhere in Bosnia; the campaign of terror and unlawful attacks against civilians in Sarajevo; and the taking of UN personnel as hostages.
An appeals chamber upheld his life sentence and principal convictions in 2021. The final appeal judgment is the product of years of proceedings, extensive evidence and adversarial examination. It is not a political characterisation that can be balanced against a competing patriotic narrative.
Mladić’s death ends his imprisonment, but it does not alter those findings or diminish the rights of victims. Nor does it end the work of identifying missing people, supporting survivors and preserving evidence against denial.
Why official glorification matters
Genocide denial rarely consists only of rejecting every documented killing. It can also operate through selective memory: acknowledging that civilians died while portraying the commander convicted for their persecution as honourable, defensive or unfairly judged.
For survivors, such narratives have immediate consequences. They can make returnee communities feel less secure, marginalise testimony and discourage younger generations from engaging honestly with the region’s history. They also place the burden of defending established facts repeatedly on families that have already spent decades searching for relatives and seeking justice.
The debate is especially sensitive because denial and the public celebration of convicted war criminals remain visible in parts of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Murals, political speeches, commemorative events and football-terrace displays have all contributed to competing cultures of memory.
At the 30th anniversary of the massacre, survivors and UN officials stressed that remembrance must protect truth and guard against recurrence. The European Times’ coverage of the Srebrenica commemoration recorded the continuing demands of families for recognition, accountability and vigilance.
A European question for Serbia
The controversy also reaches beyond the former Yugoslavia. Serbia remains a candidate for European Union membership, a process that requires credible progress on the rule of law, fundamental rights, regional cooperation and good-neighbourly relations.
Brussels cannot prescribe private grief or decide how families bury their relatives. It can, however, assess the conduct of public institutions and whether official acts are compatible with reconciliation and respect for international judgments.
State honours for Mladić would therefore raise a difficult question for Serbia’s European path: whether its institutions are prepared to accept international criminal accountability even when the convicted person retains domestic political support.
Reconciliation does not require communities to share identical memories of war. It does require governments to distinguish between mourning the dead and honouring conduct that courts have established as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Mladić can no longer answer for the narratives built around his name. Serbia’s institutions remain responsible for the message they choose to send. For survivors, the essential demand is modest but non-negotiable: that death should not be allowed to rewrite judgment, responsibility or historical fact.
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‘Immense impact’ of Nepal flood disaster highlighted as casualties mount
The catastrophic flooding occurred at the border between Nepal and the Tibet autonomous region of China.
It is thought to have been caused by the collapse of a glacier and the resulting landslide, leading to the destruction of entire communities as well as key infrastructure including bridges and roads.
On Friday, quoting Government of Nepal figures the UN’s aid coordination office OCHA said that 538 people had died, while almost 3,750 had been rescued. Around 1000 people are still missing, many of whom are thought to be tourists.
The Tibet autonomous region of China was also affected and some 560 people remain missing there, according to the authorities.
Lila Pieters Yahia, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal who visited the disaster zone said the search and rescue effort was ongoing.
“We witnessed people had just been rescued as we were walking and visiting the site, one of the sites which has been severely damaged,” she said. “We saw a whole truck full of people, an entire family had just been rescued and I can tell you it was very, very emotional.”
Her visit was cut short after a renewed flood alert was issued.
Relief effort
Aid teams have been working around the clock to reach communities cut off by the disaster in the Nepalese districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading.
Emergency supplies are prepared for delivery to flood-affected communities in Nepal.
The UN is supporting the relief effort with emergency food rations, medical kits for about 10,000 people for three months, as well as tents and logistics support. It is also providing satellite imagery and analysis of the area affected by the flood.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the risk of disease. “As always, when we have disaster of this scale and we have displacement, overcrowding, and we may have disruption of water, sanitation and health services, and that can increase the risk of infectious diseases,” said spokesperson Tarik Jašarević in Geneva.
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters that while 18 schools have been completely destroyed and another 20 have been damaged, “dozens more are located close to the riverbanks and remain at high risk,” meaning an estimated 10,000 school-aged children in the area need support to continue their education.
Disaster-affected region
The area was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015, which killed more than 8,800 people.
Last October, torrential rains caused fast-moving floods and landslides across eastern and central Nepal, affecting more than 30,000 people.
Kamal Kishore, the Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) highlighted the seriousness of the disaster. “In living memory, we haven’t seen a mountain hazard event like this for a very, very long time,” he said, adding that “the impact on lives, livelihoods, buildings, infrastructure, bridges, hydroelectric projects, power generation, it’s really immense. And I think we are still coming to grips with the extent of the damage.”
He added that the current situation is marked by “extremely high risk as well as a lot of uncertainty.”
“It’s a unique challenge for the emergency response itself, because in a sense, the disaster is not yet completely over,” he stressed.
The floods have “again highlighted how fragile mountain ecosystems are and how challenging it is to set up early warning systems in mountain environments,” focusing on a range of cascading hazards.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) which is working alongside the UN in Nepal said it was “very, very concerned about the secondary flood.”
The IFRC believes that at least 93,000 people have been affected and are “in great need.”
