The avalanche buried the base camp of the 7,126-metre (23,379-foot) Himlung Himal mountain in the northern Manang district over the weekend where the Nepali workers were pitching tents and fixing ropes
Rescue workers search for survivors after an avalanche buried the Himlung base camp, Nepal, September 27, 2026, resulting in missing climbers and support staff, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Mingma G via Nepal National Mountain Guide Association/via REUTERS
International News via Reuters:
At least 15 Nepali workers were killed when an avalanche buried a mountain camp they were preparing in central Nepal for foreign climbers, a rescue official said on Thursday, in the deadliest incident of the Autumn climbing season ending this month.
The avalanche buried the base camp of the 7,126-metre (23,379-foot) Himlung Himal mountain in the northern Manang district over the weekend where the Nepali workers were pitching tents and fixing ropes. One remains missing.
Rescuers have so far recovered 15 bodies from the site, said Tul Singh Gurung, president of Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA).
Eight bodies were recovered from under the snow on Thursday while the other seven were retrieved earlier this week.
“The bodies that were recovered today are expected to be brought by a helicopter to Kathmandu,” Gurung told Reuters.
He said chances of finding the one missing worker were dim and the rescue operation is likely to wind up.
The foreign climbers had not reached the site at the time of the avalanche.
Each year, thousands of visitors flock to Nepal to visit or climb its mountains, creating work for tens of thousands of people as guides, porters and other staff, as well as in tourism-related jobs.
However, as climate change accelerates melting of glaciers and ice, the work is becoming increasingly perilous.
Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
European Union member states’ defence spending rose for the 11th year running in 2025 to €418 billion ($472 billion), marking a 75% increase since 2021
FILE PHOTO: A European Union flag flutters outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 29, 2026. REUTERS/Yves Herman//File Photo
International News via Reuters:
Europe’s shrinking oil refining sector is benefiting from rising demand for the fuel needed to support government defence plans, the CEO of one of the continent’s biggest refiners said.
European Union member states’ defence spending rose for the 11th year running in 2025 to €418 billion ($472 billion), marking a 75% increase since 2021, with further gains forecast for this year, data from the European Council shows.
“Every conversation I’m having with European governments today is all about how do you maintain resilience, how do you maintain continuity of supply? I would say that period between 2015 and 2022 the entire focus was how could you shut refineries down,” VAROPreem CEO Dev Sanyal told Reuters on Thursday.
“European governments realise that there’s a need for more fuel. There’s (also) a need for more energy because of the competitive advantage Europe wants to achieve on AI,” he added.
Since 2009, 30 of around 100 refineries operating in Europe have been closed or converted and at least seven converted into biorefineries, severely curbing the capacity to produce diesel, gasoline or jet fuel in the European Union, Britain, Norway and Switzerland, a report by trade group FuelsEurope said.
“Now, with defence spending, you realise that whether you have F-35s (US-made fighter jets), you have Leopard tanks, they don’t run on biogas,” said the CEO of Swiss-headquartered VAROPreem, which has a capacity of around 530,000 barrels per day with refineries in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.
Refining capacity in EU countries, Britain, Turkey, Ukraine and Switzerland stood at 14.4 million bpd last year, down from 17.5 million bpd in 2009, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy most recently published by the Energy Institute.
Diesel prices have rocketed since the Iran war choked off vital shipping lanes and following sustained attacks on Russian refining infrastructure.
The benchmark European diesel futures contract has hit highs above $14 a metric ton since the Iran war began, levels last seen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Meanwhile, US retail diesel prices hit a record $6.50 per gallon this month, with US pressure on Europe to release diesel stockpiles rising, sources said.
($1 = 0.8851 euros)
Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Ahmad Ghaddar, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Seher Dareen; Editing by Alexander Smith
On September 29, 2026, HSBC announced the next phase of its digital banking transformation with the launch of HSBCnio, a digital solution that simplifies the banking experience for its corporate and institutional clients. HSBCnio brings HSBC’s services, data and intelligence into the channels, platforms and workflows where clients run their businesses. This includes engagement through web and mobile, connecting their systems directly, or using AI tools to access banking information.
By bringing together interactive channels, embedded connectivity and AI interfaces, HSBCnio gives clients a more connected way to bank, including:
Interaction with web and mobile app through a simplified design that provides a clear and consistent experience for viewing cash positions and transactions, trade loans, FX and tracking payments, which makes it easier to access information and identify items that need attention.
Embedded connectivity and APIs, which bring banking services, data and intelligence into clients’ platforms and workflows.
API documentation, software development kits and a sandbox to help reduce integration friction and accelerate the path from development to production.
AI-enabled access through HSBC’s Model Context Protocol, which enables clients’ own AI tools to query authorised account and transaction information and helps teams find and interpret banking data more quickly.
Amber Henderson-Smart, Global Head of Client Connectivity, HSBC, said: “HSBCnio is designed around the way our clients run their businesses, giving them one digital solution with multiple ways to bank based on their preferences.
“The new solution brings transaction banking capabilities into the channels and workflows that clients use today, while helping them integrate AI through secure, permissioned access to their banking information.
“AI is core to the design of HSBCnio and supports HSBC’s ambition to build a bank for the future by embedding AI solutions that benefit our clients. We are investing in the technology and platforms needed to serve customers more effectively, enabling them to compare products more quickly and explore a wider range of options.”
Treasury teams increasingly operate across multiple markets, systems and workflows, yet banking access can remain fragmented. HSBCnio addresses that complexity by giving clients a simple, connected way to access transaction banking capabilities, reducing operational friction, supporting automation and providing more timely information for decision-making.
HSBCnio enables clients’ own AI tools to access authorised account and transaction information through HSBC’s Model Context Protocol, while laying the foundation for further AIenabled experiences within HSBCnio. This helps clients introduce AI into treasury workflows using trusted data, established permissions and appropriate controls.
HSBC plans to add further transaction banking capabilities and AI-enabled experiences to HSBCnio over time. This includes ‘Ask HSBC’, an AI-enabled experience within HSBCnio designed to help clients query and interpret their banking information.
Bermuda is among the markets participating in the inaugural launch of HSBCnio, enabling HSBC Bermuda business clients to experience its full suite of capabilities firsthand. The availability and features of HSBCnio may vary by market and client configuration.
Mann said the rise in market borrowing costs after the outbreak of the Iran war — which some of her colleagues think is helping bear down on inflation — actually reflected expectations of higher inflation and possibly a “monetary policy uncertainty premium”
International News via Reuters:
Bank of England interest rate-setter Catherine Mann criticised on Thursday the central bank’s response to the Middle East shock, adding that its communications may have contributed to tighter financial conditions in ways that should be of no comfort to officials.
Mann said the rise in market borrowing costs after the outbreak of the Iran war — which some of her colleagues think is helping bear down on inflation — actually reflected expectations of higher inflation and possibly a “monetary policy uncertainty premium”.
She traced that premium to the BoE’s initial response in March to the outbreak of war in Iran, when it held interest rates with a message that she said was perceived by investors as “wait mode”, rather than taking necessary action to control inflation.
“These premia raise nominal yields without necessarily tightening the real financial conditions that matter for demand and inflation. In my view, real financial conditions are insufficiently tight,” Mann said in a speech at the Nomura London Macro Forum.
Mann, an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee, is widely regarded as the BoE’s most hawkish policymaker.
Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by David Milliken
Hundreds of young people surrounded a fire truck that had arrived to put out a blaze at Marseille’s Saint-Exupery high school in the morning
A masked students attempts to kick a tear gas canister, amid clashes with French riot police during a protest by French high school and university students near Lycee Paul Eluard high-school to demand the hiring of substitute teachers, increased resources and better learning conditions, and to support the ongoing high-school student movement in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, in Saint-Denis near Paris, France, October 1, 2026. REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
International News via Reuters:
Attackers doused a headteacher in petrol and started fires in at least two schools on Thursday, officials said, as increasingly violent student protests raged across France against staff shortages and dilapidated buildings.
Hundreds of young people surrounded a fire truck that had arrived to put out a blaze at Marseille’s Saint-Exupery high school in the morning, police said. The attackers forced the firefighters to flee the vehicle, then set it alight.
The headteacher was attacked in Victor Hugo high school in the same southern city and suffered injuries, the prosecutor’s office said, without going into more details. Another blaze hit a school in the western city of Nantes, fire crews said.
PM HOLDS CRISIS MEETING
The demonstrations and blockades, which began last week, have become a political flashpoint at a sensitive moment for the government, which announced a series of deeply unpopular spending cuts in its 2027 budget on Thursday.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office held a crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon on the protests, which have left dozens of people injured. Hundreds have also been arrested, most of them teenagers, officials have said.
In the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, crowds of young people massed in front of a line of police. One student held up a sign marked with: “Can we explain ourselves without being teargassed?”
Students have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics including the use of teargas. The government has criticised the violence that has broken out during some of the protests but has said difficulties in high schools should be acknowledged and addressed.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that, in some places, troublemakers were moving from school to school to incite violence.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray called for schools to hold classes remotely if protesters were blocking their premises.
“Violence will not keep our students from their fundamental right to an education,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
In Nantes, Olivier Chateau, a deputy to the mayor, told broadcaster franceinfo that the fire at Nelson Mandela high school was under control and that there had been no injuries.
People in the building had been evacuated, while students due to arrive at the school were turned away, he said. The mayor’s office declined to comment further.
Reporting by Lucien Libert, Layli Faroudi and Abdul Saboor in Saint-Denis, Noemie Olive and Christian Levaux in Lille, Marc Leras in Marseille, Makini Brice in Paris and Sudip Kar-Gupta in Brussels; Editing by Andrew Heavens
The 10-year US Treasury yield, a yardstick for global borrowing costs and asset prices, rose to as much as 5.34%, its highest since 2002, before dip buyers stepped in, which brought it back to 5.27%
International News via Reuters:
Global bond markets came under a brief bout of early pressure on Thursday that kept Treasury yields at their highest in decades, while stocks were relatively unscathed thanks to AI chipmaker Micron’s blockbuster earnings that supported tech shares.
The 10-year US Treasury yield, a yardstick for global borrowing costs and asset prices, rose to as much as 5.34%, its highest since 2002, before dip buyers stepped in, which brought it back to 5.27%.
It posted its biggest quarterly rise this century in the three months to September, with the selling pressure also rippling through bonds in France, Britain and Japan.
Yields have been surging around the world as soaring energy costs fan inflation and as the boom in AI and data centre building lifts expectations for growth and for where short-term interest rates will settle.
Stalled peace talks between the US and Iran to end the seven-month-long war in the Middle East have kept crude prices elevated. Brent futures surged 42% in the July-September quarter, and the December contract, the current benchmark, was last at $100 a barrel.
“We have had a prolonged selloff in bonds — they have been correlated with oil prices and also we’ve had strong US data,” said Rory McPherson, chief market strategist at Wren Sterling.
“We don’t have enough buyers who want to buy bonds.”
European shares were among the worst performers earlier in the day, when the broad STOXX 600 fell as much as 1.5%, before recovering some of those losses to trade down just 0.4%. US share futures managed to hold steady.
MICRON EARNINGS HELP TECH
Helping the US were high-stakes earnings from Micron, a key supplier to AI bellwether Nvidia. They signalled strong demand for AI memory chips, with financial commitments under long-term supply agreements at $32 billion, up from $22 billion in June.
“Micron’s numbers are another strong validation of AI and memory demand, but markets may increasingly be asking whether we are closer to peak memory shortage, even if demand continues to exceed supply,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo.
BOND DIP BUYERS ARRIVE, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
Global yields surged in September as bond prices tumbled, with investors bracing for a period where interest rates stay higher for longer.
Market focus has been on how long US Treasury yields stay above the psychologically important 5% level while some investors even weigh the possibility of yields breaching 6%.
The US 10-year yield gained 87 basis points in the third quarter, the biggest quarterly rise since 1994, LSEG data showed.
France’s 10-year yield gained 120 basis points in the quarter, the most since 1987, and its yield briefly jumped by a further 10 basis points on Thursday to 4.96%, closing in on the symbolic 5% level.
It too then eased back and was last down 2 bps at 4.82%, though the French budget process is keeping investors on edge.
“The only way really I can see the market being calmed here is if we do see governments taking the hard decisions to cut spending and it doesn’t look like that is going to happen,” Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, said.
Yields in Japan have also hit multi-decade highs, while Britain’s 30-year yield nudged above 6% for the first time since early 1998.
In currency markets the winner from the bond selloff has been the dollar, which was stronger again on Thursday.
The euro fell by as much as 0.5% to its lowest since May 2025, before recovering in line with European stocks and bonds. It was last down 0.3% at $1.1297, while the pound was down 0.2% at $1.323.
Gold was up 0.5% at $4,176 an ounce.
Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Gareth Jones, Kirsten Donovan
Sterling fell by as much as 0.5% on the day to a low of $1.3193, breaking the $1.32 mark for the first time since late June
Pound coins plunge into water in this illustration taken, May 23, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
International News via Reuters:
The pound fell on Thursday to its lowest in three months against the dollar, as another wave of worry about high rates, oil prices and persistent inflation rattled European markets.
Sterling fell by as much as 0.5% on the day to a low of $1.3193, breaking the $1.32 mark for the first time since late June. It was last down 0.3% at $1.3225.
Investors are fretting about the long-term impact of oil above $100 a barrel from a protracted Middle East war, along with the higher borrowing costs and inflation that might follow.
Markets of those countries more exposed to imported energy, whose finances are already under strain, were hit hard. The FTSE 100 fell as much as 2% before unwinding some of those losses, as British 30-year gilt yields topped 6% for the first time since early 1998, with just four weeks to go until the Autumn Budget.
“Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey already have enough on their plate without a rapid increase in government borrowing costs since they took office. Gilt yields moving at such a pace presents a major challenge for their spending and borrowing plans,” AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said.
In his maiden speech as prime minister at his Labour Party’s annual conference earlier this week, Burnham said he would make changes to pensions to fund universal social care, something that could add to Britain’s already strained finances.
He also said he would welcome debate on the UK moving closer to Europe again, something that many said they see as a potential step towards rejoining the European Union.
“Any move by the UK to rejoin the EU would likely be seen as a positive by the foreign exchange market, having witnessed sterling’s crash following the Brexit vote in 2016. Obviously, we are years away from any clarity here, but let’s see whether sterling catches a bid into a supposed UK-EU summit due around 20 November,” ING strategist Chris Turner said.
Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
Olympian and Commonwealth Games record holder Clarance “Nick” Saunders has joined the Bermuda Olympic Association as Secretary General, replacing the retiring Branwen Smith-King.
Saunders, who represented Bermuda in high jump at the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics and holds the Commonwealth Games high jump record of 2.36 meters from his 1990 Gold Medal performance in Auckland, returned to reside in Bermuda in 2025.
With a wealth of sporting experience, coupled with a career in insurance plus an education in law, Nick brings to the BOA the broad skill set required for the Secretary General position, as exemplified by his predecessor, Branwen Smith-King.
Saunders commented on his appointment “I’m honored to serve as Secretary General of the Bermuda Olympic Association and give back to the sporting community that shaped my life. I look forward to helping Bermuda’s athletes access the support and opportunities they need to succeed.”
BOA President Peter Dunne noted “We are fortunate to have had several highly qualified applicants for the position, and Nick was a standout in a field of excellence. He is enthusiastic in his approach to working with our member federations to help them deliver the best possible programs for their athletes. His own experiences as an elite athlete can help the BOA continue to act with the interests of athletes first in the framework of the Olympic movement.
The retirement of Smith-King comes after six years of growth for the BOA under her leadership as Secretary General. Dunne commented “We knew that filling Branwen’s shoes was always going to be a difficult task as she has brought a high level of sport administration process to our organization as well as her enthusiasm for sport and athletes. Her impact on the BOA and the sporting landscape of Bermuda has been tremendous and always professionally delivered. I’m sure that all our member federations appreciate Branwen’s contributions and the passion she brought to her role at the BOA”.
The report provided what Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the first full public accounting of the abuse and institutional failures that allowed it to proliferate for more than half a century
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell at a press conference in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., August 26, 2026. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
International News via Reuters:
More than 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across three Massachusetts dioceses over decades, according to an investigative report the state’s attorney general released on Wednesday.
The report provided what Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the first full public accounting of the abuse and institutional failures that allowed it to proliferate for more than half a century at the Catholic dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.
Most of the abuse detailed in the report occurred before 2002, the year the clergy sex abuse scandal burst onto the international stage due to a Pulitzer Prize-winning report by the Boston Globe on how officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston routinely covered up sex abuse by priests.
The state attorney general’s investigation documented years of similar issues at the three dioceses in other parts of Massachusetts, which Campbell said knew children were being abused by priests and other clerics.
“Too often they protected the reputation of the church rather than protecting children,” Campbell said.
The report counted at least 275 members of the clergy who were accused of abusing 944 children.
“Behind every one of those numbers is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever, and a survivor who carried the trauma of that abuse for years and, in many cases, decades,” Campbell told reporters.
The Diocese of Worcester, in a statement, said it would study the report “to identify any additional improvements that can be made to respond to victims of past abuse and to continue to strengthen efforts to keep children safe.”
Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha issued an apology to survivors of child sexual abuse, saying he was “filled with sorrow over the historical account of incidents and practices reflecting the tragic failings to protect our most vulnerable.”
Springfield Bishop William Byrne in a statement called the report “humbling.” He said prior to its release, his diocese had been “busy correcting our past failures, putting into place many new, trauma-informed policies and procedures.”
The 2002 reporting by the Boston Globe, which was later chronicled in the 2015 Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” set off a global wave of investigations that found similar patterns at dioceses worldwide and prompted the Massachusetts legislature to pass a series of reforms.
In 2019, then-Attorney General Maura Healey, now Massachusetts governor, launched a criminal probe into the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester to determine if they or their leadership bore responsibility in connection to their supervision of clergy who abused children.
Campbell, who said she herself was a victim of child abuse at the hands of a relative, said her office made three referrals to local district attorneys during the probe, leading to charges in one case in Worcester.
Her office did not pursue any prosecutions due to some conduct not being illegal at the time it occurred or because the statute of limitations had expired, she said.
Campbell said the report demonstrated the need for the dioceses to institute reforms and for new state laws supporting abuse survivors, including eliminating the statute of limitations for civil claims involving childhood sexual abuse.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by David Gaffenm, David Gregorio and Bill Berkrot
The new model, “Argon”, is larger in size than Google’s previous line of advanced “Pro” models
FILE PHOTO: Google Gemini lettering, during the opening of Google’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre in Berlin, Germany, March 5, 2026. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/ File Photo
International News via Reuters:
Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday announced a new top-tier artificial intelligence model to anchor its Gemini 4 generation of models in a fresh bid to catch up to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI race.
The new model, “Argon”, is larger in size than Google’s previous line of advanced “Pro” models, a company spokesperson said.
“It’s our most performant model yet built for complex workloads, and we see it comparable to frontier models like (OpenAI’s) Astra and (Anthropic’s) Opus on key coding and cyber benchmarks,” the spokesperson said.
Google said it was providing the model to select cybersecurity partners and was participating in the Trump administration’s voluntary process for pre-release model access. It did not provide a timeline for the model’s public release.
The model posted better marks than Astra and Opus in terms of self-reported performance on several industry benchmarks, per a company press release. Still, Argon remained behind on certain other metrics, including two of the four coding-related benchmarks Google included in the release.
Google no longer plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro, which CEO Sundar Pichai originally said would be released in June, according to the company spokesperson.
In the intervening time, Google overhauled its DeepMind AI lab, with its founder and CEO Demis Hassabis stepping aside and several leaders of its Gemini model leaving the company.
The months of delays to its AI model have caused the company to fall behind Anthropic and OpenAI, which continued to push the research frontier with new releases to its top models.
Pichai in July pushed back on the notion that Google was losing ground in the AI race. But Google in recent months has shifted its messaging from touting Gemini’s cutting-edge capabilities to highlighting its cost advantage compared to competitor models.
Reporting by Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Sonali Paul
The general outline of the reform was approved after the far-right party Chega unexpectedly abstained after having expressed its objections during the debate, while all left-wing parties voted against
FILE PHOTO: A street is seen in Lisbon, Portugal, October 11, 2023. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo
International News via Reuters:
Portugal’s parliament approved on Wednesday, in the first reading, a contentious rental market overhaul aimed at speeding up evictions and ending rent controls on new leases in what the centre-right government hopes will encourage landlords to put more homes on the market.
The reform, criticised by tenants’ associations as “savagery”, sharply contrasts with developments in neighbouring Spain where the leftist government on Tuesday decreed a ban on evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, along with other measures, amid protests against evictions and rising rents.
The general outline of the reform was approved after the far-right party Chega unexpectedly abstained after having expressed its objections during the debate, while all left-wing parties voted against.
Portugal faces one of Europe’s worst housing crises, with rents for new leases nearly doubling since 2017 and becoming unaffordable for many households.
The government says more than 250,000 homes remain empty because legal uncertainty discourages owners from renting them out, but tenants’ groups argue the reform would only deepen the crisis.
“This reform proposal is sheer savagery,” Antonio Machado, head of the Lisbon Tenants’ Association, told Reuters, saying that it would “further skew the rental market in favour of landlords” and only lead to higher rents rather than alleviate the housing affordability crisis.
He also dismissed the government’s plans to speed up evictions as “pure opportunism”, arguing that cases involving tenants defaulting on rent are negligible.
Chega has said it wants to modify some provisions before the final vote that it said would create uncertainty for both tenants and landlords and called for “a more balanced solution”.
The country of about 11 million people has around a million rented homes, with more than 23% of leases over 20 years old.
The reform would speed up evictions by cutting the rent arrears threshold from three months to two months and allowing landlords to evict tenants who repeatedly pay their rent more than eight days late. It would also end a 2% cap on rent increases this year for properties rented out within the previous five years.
Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip and Aurora Ellis
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