One widely shared video gained over 7 million views, appearing to show a torrent of floodwater bursting its banks, sweeping away vehicles and pedestrians. Users sharing it as evidence of the devastation in Nepal, except that the video is AI-generated. It contains a SynthID digital watermark indicating that it was created using Google’s AI tools. 

Tools developed by major technology companies, including Google and Meta, can help identify digital watermarks and signs of AI-generated imagery, providing an increasingly important tool for verifying viral content during breaking news events.

Our fact-check found that several viral posts are either AI-generated, recycled from older disasters or filmed in other countries. The false content is adding to the confusion around the disaster and, in some cases, exploiting it for clicks and engagement.

Another viral post shows a dramatic before-and-after photo montage, claiming to show the destruction of a town. While genuine before-and-after images of the disaster are circulating, this particular montage is fake and was also created using AI.

It’s not just destruction images; even a seemingly heartwarming video claiming to show an elephant rescuing a trapped man has been falsely linked to the disaster. However, there are no credible reports that such a rescue took place in Nepal. The video was already circulating weeks before the flash floods broke out, Meta’s detection tools also found signs that the video was AI-generated.

Whilst AI adds a layer of complexity to disaster misinformation, it isn’t the only way false information is spreading. Old footage from other disasters is also being presented as scenes from Nepal. After reports that a glacier collapse may have contributed to the deadly flash floods, videos claiming to show the collapse in Nepal’s mountains near Tibet were viewed millions of times. One of those videos was actually filmed in Chilean Patagonia years ago, another shows Alaska’s Columbia Glacier and was previously posted by the pilot who recorded it.

Other old disaster footage has also been falsely linked to Nepal. One video showing a flash flood sweeping through a valley was widely shared as footage from the current disaster. It was actually filmed more than a year ago in Uttarakhand, India.

It is important to stress that while the images and videos examined here are fake or unrelated to Nepal, the disaster itself is very real, and genuine footage of the devastating floods is emerging from the affected areas.

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We also look at the controversial decision by Rock en Seine to crack down on smoking at the festival. A decision brought in by regional authorities in 2025 for public health reasons, and this year for fear of wildfires. 

The catamaran-style ferry was traveling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus to the Turkish port of Tasucu in Mersin province.

At least six people have died in the disaster, Turkish media reported. Unal Ustel, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), said the vessel had been carrying a total of 267 people when it rolled over shortly after leaving port, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

Ustel added that 172 people had so far been rescued and that operations were continuing to evacuate the remaining passengers and crew, Anadolu said

The privately owned ferry left the North Cyprus port of Kyrenia at 12.30pm local time (0930 GMT) and immediately started taking on ‌water for an unknown reason, Anadolu reported.

The ferry started taking in water a few kilometres (miles) off the coast, the Turkish state-run TRT news channel reported.

Northern Cyprus Transportation Minister Erhan Arikli told TRT that the ship had overturned and that rescue crews were already on the scene.

Several companies run ferries on the busy route between Kyrenia and Tasucu. It is not yet known which company was operating the ferry that capsized.

Video footage from the scene shows people with life-vests floating in the waters around the capsized vessel.

Erdogan set to visit northern Cyprus

The TRNC, which is recognised only by Turkey, controls the northern third of the island of Cyprus, which has been divided since 1974.

Ankara occupied that part of the island that year in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece. The TRNC today is served with regular air and sea links to Turkey.

“All necessary preparations are being made for a swift response from rescue and health services,” the TRNC’s health ministry said in a statement.

It added that hospitals in the territory had been alerted, so they could provide any medical attention that might be needed.

The TRNC is dependent on Turkey, and Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on X that “we are providing all necessary assistance to the search and rescue operations”.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit the TRNC on Monday to see its president, Tufan Erhurmann, who was elected by the territory’s voters in October. 

The visit would be Erdogan’s first since 2023. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

Rescuers in Nepal and China on Saturday battled to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly, tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing entire villages.

Figures from both countries put the number of missing close to 3,000, with 682 bodies recovered – and reports of some dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India.

In a breakthrough late Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped.

“We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside,” Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.

More than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside such tunnels, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.

The US Geological Survey said a glacial collapse was behind the deadly torrent on Wednesday at the Nepal-Tibet border.

While the exact cause of the collapse is unclear, climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters.

“The sudden glacial collapse and flash flood is a devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be”, UN climate chief Simon Steill said in a statement.

“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 added.

‘Nothing left’ 

Survivors face an agonising wait to learn the fate of missing relatives, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing.

“All the settlements near the river were swept away,” Buddhi Ram Dangol said in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. “There is nothing left.”

At an army base serving as a key rescue hub in Bidur, relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall.

“I have come here looking for my son,” said Kalka Sharda, scanning the list in desperation. “He was a labourer at the hydropower plant, but I can’t find his name, and the authorities are not saying anything.”

In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal’s disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing, along with 517 foreigners, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.

The Isha Foundation, led by Indian guru Sadhguru, said in an Instagram post on Saturday that 80 members had been on a group trip in the area.

The group was at the hard-hit Chinese border port of Gyirong, which has been “completely washed away”, the post said.

“At this time, there seems to be no encouraging indications of survivors at the immigration office area.”

Watch moreNepal army races to rescue more than 100 trapped in hydropower tunnel after floods

‘Enormous’ trauma 

Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into “billions of dollars”, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said Saturday.

“The urgency is on rescue and saving lives as much as we can,” he said, appealing for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped.

He also called for forensic testing kits to identify bodies and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate.

Fears of further flooding have compounded the search for the missing.

The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes, and one of these formations has become a risk of further floods.

The Chinese and Nepalese foreign ministers spoke Saturday and discussed sharing satellite and hydrological data, both sides said.

In Tibet, where Chinese authorities are the only source of information, rescue operations were temporarily paused at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of more flooding from a newly formed lake.

But state broadcaster CCTV said late Saturday that the lake was “discharging naturally” and had been “essentially drained”, citing China’s ministry of water resources.

A total of 2,141 rescuers were near the Gyirong site, the Xinhua state news agency reported, including more than 500 in the worst-hit area.

Pilgrimage route 

Nepal reported a death toll of 675 people on Saturday.

There are 2,426 people, including hundreds of foreigners, who are out of contact in the country.

Across the border in Tibet, which is largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, seven people died and 554 remain missing, Xinhua state news agency said on Saturday.

Authorities also said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from Tibet.

In India, officials said they had recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be flood victims.

Hope was fading for some still waiting desperately for news.

Kalka Sharda, in Bidur, was searching lists of rescued for his 18-year-old son Vinod Sharda, a hydropower plant labourer.

“I don’t think there is any hope left,” he said.

“Because, if he was alive, he would have found a way to get in touch.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP) 

Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Qusra in the northern occupied West Bank on Saturday after nearly three weeks of tension in the area, drawing rare condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Earlier in August, a group of settlers began blocking supplies from entering Palestinian houses on the outskirts of the village near Nablus, trapping residents inside and drawing unusually strong criticism from the US ambassador.

Weeks later, Israeli forces continue to operate in the area while settlers still roam the surrounding hills.

 

On Saturday, Qusra residents and the military said dozens of settlers had descended on the village, throwing stones at residents and barricading themselves inside a house while Palestinians were inside.

In nearby Jalud, settlers attacked a Palestinian family and a foreign media crew accompanying them, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported.

“I strongly condemn the criminal acts of violence committed in the villages of Qusra and Jalud by a handful of rioters who are violating the law, causing a grave injustice to the law-abiding Jewish community, interfering with the IDF in carrying out its missions, and harming Israel‘s standing in the world,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

In Qusra, resident Yussef Abdul Kareem Hassan said that a handful of villagers were doing work on a house on Saturday when they were approached by a small group of settlers.

The settlers then called for backup and returned with dozens more, Hassan said, adding that they surrounded the Palestinians inside the house and began throwing stones.

AFP footage of Qusra on Saturday showed dozens of Israeli forces deployed to the site.

Read moreDriven by faith, Jewish activists stand up to settlers to protect West Bank Palestinians

Soaring violence

The Israeli military said soldiers and border police forces were dispatched “following reports that Israeli rioters had arrived in the area and that violent clashes had occurred, including stone-hurling toward Palestinians and additional civilians”.

“Upon their arrival, the security forces identified dozens of rioters who had barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home while Palestinian residents were inside,” the military said in a statement, adding that it was “aware of reports of Palestinian injuries”.

It said forces had worked to remove the settlers from the house, separate the groups and confiscate vehicles “that were suspected of having been used to reach the area”.

The vehicles would be used as evidence in a police investigation that has been opened, it said, adding that forces continued to operate in the area “to prevent further disturbances and restore order”.

“The security forces strongly condemn all forms of violence,” it said.

Violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinians in the West Bank has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 1,103 Palestinians in the West Bank, including both militants and civilians, since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli figures show that at least 48 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP) 

At least 37 people have died after a Russian drone struck a depot near Kyiv‘s western suburbs overnight, sparking a huge fire and explosions, authorities said Saturday.

The depot appeared to have been storing “explosive objects”, Ukrainian prosecutors said, as President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested ammunition was to blame.

“Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions … ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas,” he wrote on X.

Russia and Ukraine have for several months been intensifying their long-range strikes, increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure such as logistics warehouses and oil and port facilities.

These attacks are causing a growing number of civilian casualties.

The blast damaged surrounding residential areas, as well as a care home for the elderly and disabled people, Zelensky said.

The depot was located in the town of Myla, on Kyiv’s western outskirts.

Officials did not say whether it was a military or civilian enterprise.

‘Criminal negligence’

Ukrainian prosecutors said they had opened an investigation.

“On 28 August at around 8:10pm (1710 GMT), an unmanned aerial vehicle … fell on or struck the grounds of an enterprise in the town of Myla,” the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said.

 “A large-scale fire broke out on the enterprise’s grounds, and detonation began,” it added.

The prosecutor’s office said that its investigation would focus on “the legality of the … storage of explosive objects and materials on the enterprise’s grounds”, as well as whether the owner, whom it did not name, had the “necessary permits and approvals”.

Read more‘Not an isolated incident’: Russian drones stalk Ukraine’s civilians in ‘human safaris’

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky expressed regret that a “lesson” had not been learned following a previous deadly strike on a munitions depot near Kyiv in July.

That investigation revealed serious failings on the part of a state-owned company, which did not comply with regulations about the proximity of residential buildings.

“In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence,” he said on Telegram. 

“Everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)