Search for Survivors, Beef Price Battle & College Football Returns - Friday, August 28, 2026

**Erica Mandy** (0:00)
Today is Friday, August 28th. We'll have the latest on rescue efforts in Nepal and Tibet, as a new threat could trigger another major flood. Also, new backlash over President Trump's plan to lower beef prices, why ranchers and some Republicans say it could backfire. Plus, what White House construction had to do with a recent close call in the air. Why the new COVID-19 vaccines are causing some confusion, and a march, a music festival, and the first matchups of college football season all happening this weekend. Those stories and more news coming up.
Welcome to The NewsWorthy, all the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. Let's do this.
There's now a frantic rescue mission in the wake of a glacier collapse that caused catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet. As of this morning, at least 469 people have been confirmed killed, but the death toll is expected to rise. Since rescuers are still searching for more than 1,000 other people who are missing. That includes at least 90 American tourists. Rescue teams are now using heavy machinery and search dogs to dig through mud and debris. But they're also racing to reduce the risk of more flooding. And that's because the original flooding left behind debris that's blocking rivers and creating new lakes. And Chinese authorities say one of those lakes has already started to overflow, forcing rescue operations to stop. Remember, the original floods were likely triggered by a glacier collapse. And scientists say because of climate change, glaciers are melting more frequently. So the Himalayan region is becoming increasingly vulnerable to floods and landslides like this. But for now, the immediate focus is on finding survivors and making sure this disaster doesn't turn into another one soon.
The US is about to quadruple the pace of deportation flights to Haiti. And the people being sent back include families with young American children. Yesterday, the Trump administration sent its second deportation flight to Haiti in just one week. The youngest passenger on board was a one-year-old born in the US. And as the New York Times reports, this is about to become the new normal. The administration now wants to go from about one flight a month to one flight every week. Of course, the change comes as the administration ends temporary protected status, or TPS, for hundreds of thousands of Haitians. The program had allowed them to live and work legally in the US because of the dangerous conditions in Haiti.
The Trump administration says those conditions have improved enough for people to go back. But Haiti is still dealing with widespread gang violence. In fact, about one and a half million people have been forced to abandon their homes because of that gang violence, the same number displaced by the 2010 earthquake that prompted the US to designate Haiti for TPS in the first place.
President Trump's new beef import order is facing growing backlash and confusion. And his biggest critics in this fight are Republican lawmakers and American ranchers. To catch you up, this week, President Trump moved to temporarily remove tariffs on a large amount of imported lean beef. Trump says that imported beef could sell for about 25% less than current market prices. It comes as beef prices in the US have hit record highs, all because the American cattle supply has fallen to its lowest level in decades. But ranchers and Republicans in Congress say this new policy just creates an unfair marketplace, and the American Farm Bureau Federation says the plan will actually make beef more expensive long term since it will discourage American producers from making investments to rebuild their herds. But the Trump administration argues the short-term imports can help lower prices for consumers while giving American ranchers time to rebuild the domestic herd. And then there's another side of this controversy.
And it stems from the fact that at this point, no one in the Trump administration will say where the new beef will be imported from.
So, that sparked some theories that have been spreading online. For example, that the administration is really bringing in horse meat. But fact checkers at PolitiFact and Snopes found no evidence that horse meat will be passed off as beef. There's also some concern about beef from Argentina specifically. Just this month, the US recalled about 30,000 pounds of Argentine beef. But officials say the issue was just a paperwork lapse, not a confirmed safety problem. And there are no reported illnesses related to the recall. To be continued.
President Trump has officially renamed Lake Ontario, at least in the US. As promised, he signed an executive order directing the federal government to start calling it Lake America. That means government employees now have to make sure federal maps, contracts, documents and agency communications all use the new name. Granted, he can't force Canada to make the same changes. The lake borders both Ontario and New York. And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he and other Canadians will continue calling it Lake Ontario. As he points out, the name actually predates both the country of Canada and the United States. Trump's change comes as the trade war with Canada continues, with no sign of new talks starting anytime soon. Trump has tied the name change to those tensions. He also says the US is the greatest protector of the Great Lakes, so the name should reflect that.