Fears of more mudslides in Nepal as death toll mounts

**Ankara Desai** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankara Desai, and at 1600 GMT on Thursday, the 27th of August, these are our main stories. The number of people killed by a catastrophic flash flood in Nepal has exceeded 350 Rescue teams are continuing to search for survivors, as experts warned that more floods could be coming. A trial date has been set for one of the ringleaders of 9-11, a quarter of a century after the attack. And OpenAI has revealed how its artificial intelligence agents went rogue and hacked a rival tech firm.
Also, in this podcast, a world first as a man has a brain tumor removed with AI-assisted surgery.

**Dr. Daniel Khan** (0:45)
It assists surgeons in making operations safer and also improves training for those who are still learning. We're very excited to finally see it hit the operating room after almost 10 years in development.

**Ankara Desai** (0:56)
And?

**Yayoi Kusama** (0:58)
Dots are a symbol of the world, the cosmos. The earth is a dot. You and me, we are dots.

**Ankara Desai** (1:05)
We look back on the life of the renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who has died aged 97
More than 1300 people missing, at least 350 dead. Thousands of troops now deployed to help in the search and rescue attempts. The situation in Nepal is by any reckoning desperate, after Wednesday's devastating flash floods and landslides. Many of the dead were tourists and pilgrims. Information on what triggered the flooding has been gradually emerging. Experts now believe glacial collapse and debris flow was the cause, rather than an earthquake. There are now concerns about possible second and third waves.
Video footage shows flood waters surging through populated areas, with people fleeing uphill in terror. Entire villages, roads, bridges and power stations have been swept away. Our South Asia correspondent, Azadeh Mashiri, has arrived in Kathmandu and gave us this snapshot.

**Azadeh Mashiri** (2:11)
Military support is arriving at the airport. All the efforts that are being made to find the hundreds who are missing right now. And over here, there are families of those who are missing, who are gathering, who have been waiting for any information they can find. We just spoke to one woman who spoke to her husband at 8.3 in the morning yesterday and hasn't heard from him since. She's desperate to find information. Right now, aid is pouring in from around the world and that's because there are also hundreds of tourists who are missing. Tens of thousands of tourists travel to that area every year. There are more than 150 Indian tourists who are missing, 33 people from the United Kingdom.
What experts believe is that perhaps a glacier collapse and debris triggered this flooding. And they also believe there could be a risk of more flooding because of the debris that is washed into the river system.

**Ankara Desai** (3:09)
On the Chinese side of Nepal, the authorities have confirmed two deaths so far.
The Prime Minister, Li Qiang, is visiting the Tibetan side of the disaster area. I asked our correspondent, Laura Bickham, who is in Beijing, to tell us about the situation on the Chinese side of the disaster area.

**Laura Bickham** (3:26)
Well, so far, we know that 558 people are currently missing on the Chinese side of the border. 260 of those are said to be foreigners. Now, in a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, they say out of those foreigners, they do include tourists and those making their way as a pilgrimage between Nepal and Tibet towards the sacred mountain. When it comes to those who have died, China has only so far confirmed that two people have died.
They say just a few people have been rescued. We are waiting for updated figures. The premier of China, Li Qiang, this is very unusual, has gone to the site today. But we do know that rescue efforts have faced major challenges. The first of which was actually getting there that we understand. It took them just under 24 hours to get the first rescuers on the ground. Many of them are still several kilometers away from the Central Disaster Zone, which is Guirong Port. Now, many of you will have remembered the footage from yesterday. This is where you see this torrent, this wall of water that comes flying down this V-shaped valley, swiping away everything in its path, including the port building, lorries, trucks, anything. You see hundreds of people fleeing for their lives. That is the central point of China's disaster efforts. And getting there has been difficult because rescuers are now saying that there is a lake, what they're calling a barrier lake, that has formed further up the valley. They are worried that it too is going to burst its banks, and that therefore it's not entirely safe for rescuers. So you can see some of the major obstacles they're facing in this disaster.