Search continues for 150 people missing in #Pakistan’s northwest following devastating floods.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Anguished Pakistanis searched remote areas for bodies swept away by weekend flash floods as the death toll reached 277 on Monday, while one official replied to the lack of evacuation warnings by saying people should have built homes elsewhere.

A changing climate has made residents of northern Pakistan’s river-carved mountainous areas more vulnerable to sudden, heavy rains.

More than 150 people were still missing in the district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after Friday’s flash floods.

Villagers have said there had been no warning broadcast from mosque loudspeakers, a traditional method for alerting emergencies in remote areas. The government has said the sudden downpour was so intense that the deluge struck before residents could be informed.

Emergency services spokesman Mohammad Suhail said three bodies were found on Monday. The army has deployed engineers and heavy machinery to clear the rubble.

On Sunday, provincial chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur said many deaths could have been avoided if residents had not built homes along waterways. He said the government would encourage displaced families to relocate to safer areas, where they would be assisted in rebuilding homes.

Pakistan has seen higher-than-normal monsoon rains since June 26 that have killed at least 645 people across the country, with 400 deaths in the northwest. The National Disaster Management Authority issued an alert for further flooding after new rains began Sunday in many parts of the country.

On Monday, torrential rains triggered a flash flood that struck Darori village in northwestern Swabi district, killing 15 people, government official Awais Babar said.

He said rescuers evacuated nearly 100 people, mostly women and children, who had taken refuge on the roofs of homes. Disaster management officials said the floods inundated streets in other districts in the northwest and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting Monday to review relief efforts in flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as northern Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

At the meeting, officials estimated flood-related damages to public and private property at more than 126 million rupees ($450,000), according to a government statement.

The UN humanitarian agency said it had mobilized groups in hard-hit areas where damaged roads and communication lines have cut off communities. Relief agencies were providing food, water and other aid.

Flooding has also hit India-administered Kashmir, where at least 67 people were killed and dozens remain missing after flash floods swept through the region during an annual Hindu pilgrimage last week.

In 2022, catastrophic floods linked to climate change killed nearly 1,700 people in Pakistan and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

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Associated Press writers Ishfaq Hussain in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakkistan and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this story.

Riaz Khan, The Associated Press

#Dubai police retrieve stolen diamond worth US$25 million. Dubai police said on Monday they caught three thieves just hours after they stole a precious pink diamond worth US$25 million.

“The Dubai Police General Command has foiled the theft of a very rare pink diamond, valued at $25 million,” the police said in a statement shared by the United Arab Emirates’ official news agency WAM.

A diamond trader who had brought the jewel from Europe was lured to a villa by a crime gang under the pretence of a viewing by a potential wealthy client, police said.

But the gem was stolen when the diamond dealer arrived for the bogus inspection, the statement added.

Within eight hours three people from an unspecified Asian country were arrested “thanks to the efforts of specialised and field teams, and by using the latest artificial intelligence technologies,” police said.

Video footage shared by the Dubai Media Office showed the three men with their faces blurred after their arrest as well as CCTV footage of the gang.

#LONDON, August 18. #GlobalNews. The Coalition of the Willing has reiterated its readiness to send a "reassurance force" to Ukraine as soon as hostilities are ceased.

"They re-emphasised the readiness to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased, and to help secure Ukraine’s skies and seas and regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces," according to a statement issued by the UK Prime Minister’s office after the coalition’s virtual meeting on Sunday that was co-chaired by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

"The Leaders reaffirmed their continued support to Ukraine" and "commended President Trump’s commitment to providing security guarantees to Ukraine, in which the Coalition of the Willing will play a vital role through the Multinational Force Ukraine, among other measures," the statement says.

According to the statement, "the President and Prime Minister also informed leaders that they would travel to Washington DC tomorrow for a meeting with President Trump" along with Vladimir Zelensky. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also said they will take part in the meeting.

Notably, in its August 13 statement, the Coalition of the Willing emphasized that peace talks on Ukraine "can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or a lasting and significant cessation of hostilities." However, their August 17 statement doesn’t use the word "ceasefire." The BBC said earlier that this could be anticipated in view of Trump’s changed position. During a phone call with the European leaders on August 16, Trump said that he best way to end the conflict in Ukraine is to reach a peace agreement, not merely a ceasefire, which is often violated.

Trump said earlier that if his talks with Zelensky in Washington on August 18 are successful, he will plan another meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He did not say whether it would be a trilateral meeting. According to the Axios portal, Trump hopes to hold a three-party summit meeting with Russia and Ukraine on August 22.

On August 15, a meeting between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump took place at a military base in Alaska. The rendezvous lasted about three hours: there was a one-on-one discussion in the American leader's limousine on the way to the main venue for the talks and a narrow "three-on-three" meeting. The Russian side was also represented by Presidential aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the American side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.

In a statement to the press following the talks, Putin said that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict was the main topic of the summit. The Russian leader also called for turning the page in bilateral relations and returning to cooperation, and invited Trump to Moscow. For his part, the #US president announced the progress made in the talks, but noted that the parties had not managed to reach agreement.

#WASHINGTON, August 18. #GlobalNews. US President Donald Trump said that Vladimir Zelensky can almost immediately resolve the conflict in Ukraine by abandoning his claims to Crimea and the idea of the country joining #NATO.

"President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and no going into NATO by Ukraine. Some things never change!!!" he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump added that Monday would be a "big day" for the White House, as it "never had so many European Leaders at one time."

Zelensky is to meet with Trump in Washington on August 18. French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will join him for the meeting with the American leader. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also announced her plans to attend the meeting.

U.S. envoy says Putin agreed to security protections for Ukraine as part Trump summit.


NEW YORK — Russia’s Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with U.S. President Donald #Trump to allow the United States and its European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling #NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war in Ukraine, special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday.

“We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added that it “was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that” and called them “game-changing.”

Article 5, at the heart of the 32-member military alliance, states that an armed attack against one or more of the members shall be considered an attack against all members.

Witkoff, who had joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the talks Friday at a military base in Alaska, offered few details on how such an agreement would work. But it appeared to be a major shift for Putin and could serve as a workaround to his long-standing objection to Ukraine’s potential NATO membership.

Outlining some of the details about the private discussions, Witkoff also said Russia had agreed to enact a law that it would not “go after any other European countries and violate their sovereignty. And there was plenty more.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, applauded the move. “We welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine and the `Coalition of the willing’ -- including the European Union -- is ready to do its share,” she said.

Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington was willing to support such guarantees, but that much was unclear.

“It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said, “But there are no details how it will work, and what America’s role will be, Europe’s role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees,” he said.

Witkoff defended Trump’s decision to abandon his push that Russian agree to an immediate ceasefire, which Trump had set as a benchmark going into the meeting. Witkoff said the Republican president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made.

“We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal,” Witkoff said, without elaborating. “We began to see some moderation in the way they’re thinking about getting to a final peace deal.”

Rubio, who appeared on three Sunday news shows, said there was not going to be any kind of truce reached because Ukraine was not at the summit.

“Now, ultimately, if there isn’t a peace agreement, if there isn’t an end of this war, the president’s been clear, there are going to be consequences,” Rubio said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But we’re trying to avoid that.”

Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, said he did not believe imposing new U.S. sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire.

“The minute you issue new sanctions, your ability to get them to the table, our ability to get them to table will be severely diminished,” Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He also said “we’re not at the precipice of a peace agreement” and that getting there would not be easy and would take a lot of work.

“We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remains some big areas of disagreement. So we’re still a long ways off,” Rubio said.

Zelenskyy and Europeans leaders, who heard from Trump after the summit, are scheduled to meet with him at the White House on Monday.

“I think everybody agreed that we had made progress. Maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we are on the path for the first time,” Witkoff said.

He added: “The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians -- that could not have been discussed at this meeting” with Putin. “We intend to discuss it on Monday. Hopefully we have some clarity on it and hopefully that ends up in a peace deal very, very soon.”

Jill Colvin, The Associated Press

British actor Terence Stamp, ‘Superman’ star and famed figure of swinging London, dies at 87

Demonstrators protest Trump-backed redistricting plans at over 200 events across the country. The rallies are a bid to combat Republican-led plans to redraw congressional maps. The main event will take place in Texas, where a new congressional map backed by U.S. President Donald Trump that could net Republicans five additional seats in the 2026 midterm elections inspired the state’s Democratic lawmakers to flee the state – preventing the quorum needed to vote.

“Trump is terrified of the American people,” said the Texas for All Coalition, which is helping organize the events, in a news release. “He knows he can’t win on his ideas, so he’s trying to take Congress by hook or by crook – and he’s doing it by silencing the voices of communities of colour. We’re not going to let that happen.”

Organizers emphasized “a commitment to nonviolence” at all events in event page descriptions.

Over 200 events are planned in 34 states, according to the event’s official website. The Democratic National Committee is helping organize events, it announced in a news release.

“From coast to coast, people will be showing up at their statehouses, city halls, and community spaces to make it clear – we see what Trump is doing, and we won’t stand for it,” said the DNC.

A swath of non-profits and other organizations are also supporting the effort, including Planned Parenthood, the Working Families Party and Human Rights Campaign.

Trump described the proposed Texas congressional map as a “very simple redrawing” at the White House. “We pick up five seats,” he added.

But it doesn’t end with Texas. Republican leaders in other states, too, have proposed changing their congressional maps ahead of next year’s midterms.

The White House is pushing Missouri legislators to consider a special session to redraw maps. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of changing his state’s maps, and has said he thinks the Trump administration should give the state another seat. In Ohio, maps must be redrawn due to a quirk of state law – which may make the state’s delegation even more Republican and carve up two Democratic seats, according to a report in June from CNN’s Fredreka Schouten.

Democratic lawmakers have announced their own plans to fight back, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who kicked off his own redistricting push on Thursday.

Here’s more on what we know about Saturday’s protests.
Austin, Texas, rally

Today’s largest protest is taking place in Austin, Texas. Over 1,000 people RSVPed for the event, which started at the state’s Capitol.

“Texas is being used as a testing ground for extremist policies and partisan games that don’t reflect our values,” reads the event page. “Thousands of Texans have shown up against the racially gerrymandered congressional map lawmakers are trying to force through in order to weaken the voting power of communities of colour.”

Demonstrators filled the area outside the Capitol, waving signs with messages including “Abbott’s letting Trump take over Texas,” “Put Texans first,” and “Compassion over cruelty.” Organizers led chants of “Show me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like” and “Sí se puede” – the motto of the United Farm Workers, which translates to “Yes, you can.”

The demonstration, which began Saturday morning, has included a performance from drag queen Brigitte Bandit and speeches from former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar and Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, as well as local activists.

“The danger we’re facing is so much bigger than any one of us,” Casar said. “This is about the state of our country, and we’re in really hard times here in America right now.”

The congressman criticized Trump’s ongoing deportation campaign and said that he had been prevented from visiting an immigration detention centre.

“Here in Austin, Texas, we’re a shining light,” Casar said of the protest. “Authoritarianism is what we’re facing. And when you feel that pit in your stomach, that despair, and when you ask, ‘What can I even do?’ You are showing people what we do.”

Doggett said the president is deploying National Guard troops “not because of crime or immigrants.”

“It’s because he envisions a day when he will use that military against us,” the lawmaker said.

“We don’t need the National Guard on our streets,” Doggett said. “We need national guard rails on a lawless president.”

O’Rourke said the Republican push for redistricting is because Republicans fear “accountability for their crimes and corruption.”

“They will do everything they can to seek to stop us, including trying to divide us,” he said. “I am afraid that the consolidation of authoritarian power in the hands of this president will be nearly unstoppable.”

Met with raucous applause, O’Rourke also called for “a free, independent, sovereign Palestinian state” and for Texas women to be able to “make their own decisions about their own bodies.”

“So we must stand together, and we must stand in front,” he went on. “It’s up to you and me to show them that in Texas, our knees do not bend.”

Huerta, who is 95, urged attendees to organize politically and fight the redistricting push.

“When we organize, we win,” she said. She ended her speech with a chant of “Who’s got the power? We do.”

Across Texas, events are also happening in Houston, Dallas, San Angelo, Tyler, McAllen, Conroe and Kingwood.
Nationwide demonstrations

Events and rallies are also scheduled in dozens of other states, both in Democratic strongholds and Republican-majority states. Local organizers planned each city-specific event.

In New York City, demonstrators are expected to gather in Central Park. In Washington, DC, where Trump has deployed the National Guard and declared a federal takeover of the local police department, organizers are painting banners and signs to place around the city.

Protesters in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, plan to hold a “bridge brigade,” holding signs on 16 different bridges.

Demonstrations are also planned in Cincinnati, Ohio; Sarasota, Florida; and Jefferson City, Missouri, among other cities. The planned events include rallies, teach-ins, banner drops and art-making at locations that include a bookstore in Jacksonville, Florida, and a Tesla showroom in Palo Alto, California.

The demonstrations follow a string of other protests organized since Trump took office for the second time in January, including the “No Kings” protests in June and demonstrations against the president’s deportation campaign in July.

Drucilla Tigner, the executive director of statewide coalition Texas For All, said in a news release that the fight extends far past Texas.

“Across Texas, and across the country, communities are speaking out in a united voice to call for an end to the Trump takeover,” she said. “Though this fight started in Texas, it doesn’t end here. This isn’t just about redistricting or one state’s politics.”

“It’s about the future of our democracy.”

In their words: Israeli leaders support the mass relocation of Palestinians from Gaza

IN BRIEF: '10 out of 10': What is known about three-hour summit between #Putin, #Trump
The two leaders refrained from answering questions and then briefly conversed on their feet.


#Russian President Vladimir Putin and his #US counterpart Donald Trump have concluded their meeting in #Anchorage, #Alaska. They spoke for nearly three hours in the presence of their foreign ministers and aides.

Then, Putin and Trump made statements to the media. They refrained from answering questions and then briefly conversed on their feet. Afterwards, Putin laid flowers at the graves of Soviet pilots buried in Anchorage and flew back to Russia. Putin's first visit to the US in ten years lasted just over five hours.

#TASS has compiled the main information known about the summit at this moment.
Start of summit

The Russian leader's plane landed at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at 10:54 a.m. local time (6:54 p.m. GMT). The welcoming ceremony on the airfield began at 11:10 a.m. local time (7:10 p.m. GMT).

Before taking the official photo on the airfield in Anchorage, Putin and Trump exchanged a few words. The leaders refrained from communicating with the press and did not answer reporters’ questions.

The summit began with a one-on-one conversation in the US president's Cadillac limousine. Thus, the leaders began communicating face-to-face en route to the main venue of the negotiations.
Three-on-three format

The Russian delegation was the first to arrive at the meeting of the presidents, according to footage published by the Kremlin press service. The closed-door talks in the "three-on-three" format began at 11:26 a.m. (7:26 p.m. GMT). In addition to the heads of state, the Russian side was represented by Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the US side was represented by State Secretary Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.

When the journalists entered the room where the leaders were meeting, they began pushing each other to get better seats, a #TASS correspondent reported. When asked to leave the room, the journalists began shouting questions, somewhat surprising the presidents and members of the delegations.

The presidents talked for about three hours, counting from their first brief conversation on the red carpet. Then, Putin and Trump held a joint press conference, during which they summarized the results of the talks.
Spotlight on Ukraine

The situation around Ukraine became one of the central issues of the summit, the Russian president said. He expressed hope that the understanding he reached with Trump would pave the way for peace in Ukraine.

Putin said that he and Trump had "established very good business and trusting relations." "I have every reason to believe that, moving along this path, we can reach the end of the conflict in Ukraine sooner rather than later," he said. Putin noted that Russian-US relations had fallen "to their lowest point since the Cold War" in recent years, and that it was necessary to "rectify the situation, moving from confrontation to dialogue."

Immediately before the start of the summit, a TASS source reported that Putin and Trump would discuss global strategic security and that "in one form or another, the topic of sanctions and their destructiveness" would also be addressed.
"Huge progress"

Trump told reporters at the meeting that the leaders had really made tremendous progress.

"There were many, many points that we agreed on. I would say a couple of big ones that we haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway," the US president said.

He later told a Fox News reporter that he rated the meeting with Putin "a 10 out of 10."
Possible continuation

At the end of his speech summarizing the summit, the Russian president suggested in English that the next meeting be held in Moscow. Trump said this was possible, though he acknowledged that he would be criticized for it.
Restrained media reaction

The American media reacted cautiously to the summit, emphasizing the absence of announced agreements or details about the discussions.

The New York Times believes that Putin delayed the introduction of new sanctions, and Bloomberg noted that, after lengthy discussions, "neither leader provided clear details on their discussion or on where they found common ground." The news agency pointed out that this will intensify anxiety in European capitals and in Kiev.
Putin's latest meetings with US leaders

Putin and Trump last held a full-fledged summit in July 2018 in Helsinki, which lasted more than two hours.

They met briefly on December 1, 2018, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, and their conversation lasted about 15 minutes.

Their last meeting took place on June 28, 2019, at the G20 summit in Osaka. Talks lasted one hour and 20 minutes.

On August 16, 2021, after Trump's first presidential term ended, Putin met with Biden in Geneva. The conversation lasted three and a half hours, including a break.

An Eastern Cape businessman and ANC member might be in hot water for attending the EFF’s anniversary rally and posing for a selfie with party leader Julius Malema in Cape Town last month.