AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Catastrophic floods caused by a glacier collapse kill at least 273, with more than 1,300 missing

DEVIGHAT, Nepal (AP) — Rescue teams searched on Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border after a catastrophic and deadly torrent of floods and mud swept through several communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse.

The disaster left at least 273 people dead and more than 1,300 missing, including foreigners and pilgrims, and displaced hundreds of people across the Himalayan region.

Videos of the tragedy showed the flood swallowing up people as they tried to escape, and destroying buildings and bridges. On Thursday, drone footage from Nepal showed the scale of the destruction.

The region’s steep valleys are economic lifelines and travel corridors, but are precarious when disaster strikes. Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nuwakot slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and some stunned survivors were caked in mud. The floods halted travel in some areas.

There was little time for anyone to flee.

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After six months of Iran war, US goals have shifted. The Strait of Hormuz is now a top concern

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump launched the war with Iran in late February, he initially forecast it would last four to five weeks. Six months later, there’s still no off-ramp in sight despite Trump’s repeated assertions that the war has been won or a deal to resolve it was nearly complete.

A June memorandum of understanding designed to pave the way to end the war has fallen by the wayside. U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have diminished and the Trump administration has pivoted to pressuring Iran economically rather than launching more strikes.

As the shape of the war has morphed over the last half year, so have the goals for the conflict.

One of the prime goals now — reopening the Strait of Hormuz — was not one of Trump’s original objectives. The waterway had been a vital shipping lane through which about 20% of the world’s oil passed.

But Iran seized on it as a chokepoint for the global economy and it has been largely closed since the war started, driving up prices for fuel and fertilizer needed for farms and creating economic and political pressure in the U.S.

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Regional powers seek off-ramp from Iran war, and other Middle East developments

JERUSALEM (AP) — Regional powers sought an off-ramp from the war with Iran as another tanker attack was reported in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Iranian government dismissed the Trump administration’s latest sanctions.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, a Jerusalem court acquitted a man accused of beating a Catholic nun, but ordered him to undergo years of psychiatric hospitalization over the attack, which drew global condemnation.

Israel’s strikes in Gaza drew a sharp rebuke from the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the territory.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

A Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge acquitted a man accused of attacking a Catholic nun based on his insanity defense and ordered him committed to psychiatric hospitalization for up to six years.

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Pakistani investigators visit hospital nursery where fire killed 14 newborns

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Investigators appointed by Pakistan’s prime minister were making a visit Thursday to the hospital nursery where a fast-moving fire killed 14 newborns, as grieving families and the public sought answers about the cause of the blaze and the safety measures at the major government facility.

The fire early Wednesday was confined to the third-floor nursery and did not affect the rest of the facility. Hospital officials said the fire spread so quickly the two doctors, two nurses and other staff present were able to rescue only one baby among the 15 in the nursery.

The scene at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad was somber Thursday as doctors, staff, patients and relatives mourned the newborns. Access was restricted to the third-floor area where the fire occurred.

Witnesses, including relatives of other patients, said they saw the family of the only baby to survive the fire leave the hospital with him after the blaze broke out.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed the investigating committee, led by retired federal secretary Shahid Khan. They are expected to take statements from hospital staff, witnesses and families. The committee is expected to make urgent recommendations to Sharif within 48 hours and deliver a comprehensive report within five days.

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Yayoi Kusama, who splashed polka dots across art world, dies at 97 in Tokyo

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. She was 97.

Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said, without specifying the cause of death.

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” the studio’s statement said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”

Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum Ludwig in Germany.

Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.

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Michigan Democrats want to fight Trump. First they have to stop fighting each other

SAUGATUCK, Mich. (AP) — When Democrats gathered this week in a West Michigan congressional district they’re trying to flip blue, they wanted to talk about the cost of living under President Donald Trump. But it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to a controversy dividing their party.

One attendee chided U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten for failing to support Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

“Your inflammatory rhetoric has nothing to do with creating a better economic future for the people of West Michigan, and everything to do with protecting the pipeline of our tax dollars to Israel,” the woman said.

The exchange captured a problem confronting Democrats as they head toward November. Party leaders believe concerns about the economy have given them an opening to win control of Congress, but internal divisions are making it harder to keep the focus there.

Nowhere is that tension more pronounced than Michigan, where Democrats are trying to regroup after a bruising Senate primary that El-Sayed won over U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens earlier this month. Disputes over Israel, antisemitism and El-Sayed’s association with controversial online commentator Hasan Piker have complicated the party’s effort to turn its attention to Republican Mike Rogers.

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What to know about Mount Kailash, a sacred site for pilgrims missing after floods in Nepal and Tibet

BEIJING (AP) — More than 100 of the nearly 1,300 people missing after massive floods in a border area of Nepal and China were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, a sacred site in the Himalayas. The disaster left at least 168 people dead and displaced hundreds of people across the Himalayan region.

Here’s what to know about the mountain and its centuries-old role as a pilgrimage site.

Mount Kailash is a Himalayan peak in southwestern Tibet, near China’s borders with Nepal and India. It rises more than 6,400 meters (21,000 feet) above sea level and lies close to Lake Manasarovar. Both have long been part of Sanskrit religious and literary traditions.

Mount Kailash holds sacred significance for Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and the Tibetan Bon tradition. Each associates the mountain with different beliefs and sacred histories.

According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, the mountain is considered the home of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, and Parvati, a Hindu goddess associated with marriage, fertility and motherhood.

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Time limits and a midnight cutoff: Meta’s new rules for kids go further, but critics say not enough

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Kids under 18 will soon see a host of changes to their Instagram and Facebook experiences thanks to a historic $18 billion settlement Meta Platforms reached Wednesday with 48 U.S. states.

Besides the money, which will be paid out over a decade, Meta has agreed to strengthen its age estimates to keep kids under 13 off its platforms and teens in age-appropriate accounts, enact a hard limit of two hours a day for users under 18, block kids from the apps from midnight to 6 a.m., and hide “like” counts, among other changes.

While acknowledging the changes go further than Meta has ever gone when it comes to child safety, critics and children’s advocates cautioned it will not solve its myriad problems overnight.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, said the settlement is a “significant milestone,” but parents should not see Instagram as suddenly safe for children.

“The agreement has a big problem in that it allows Meta to define harm,” Béjar said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s one thing to say, ‘Yeah, you only get like two hours of alcohol or two hours of cigarettes a day,’ but it’s still as bad for you because of what’s getting delivered.”

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In Dolly Parton’s theology, God and acceptance shared the same stage

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In her 1994 memoir, Dolly Parton recounts in vivid detail the place where she found God.

It was an abandoned church, in rural Tennessee where she grew up, that had become known as a haven for sex, drugs and violence. Rather than see the used condoms on the floor, the out-of-tune piano left behind or the explicit drawings on the walls as a hindrance to her religious encounter, Parton spoke fondly of the setting where she went to pray as a young girl.

“I would sing hymns to God for a while and look at dirty pictures for a while and pray for a while, and one day as I prayed in earnest, I broke through some sort of spirit wall and found God,” she wrote.

“Here in one place was God, music and sex.”

The country music icon was known for blurring the line between Sunday morning and Saturday night, a window into her theology that captivated people across political and denominational lines.

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Zelenskyy’s direct plea helped unlock Russia sanctions in the Senate. What’s next is uncertain

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the U.S. Capitol hours after Lindsey Graham’s funeral to an unusually attentive audience.

Half the Senate gathered for the closed-door meeting. Senators set their mobile phones down and focused their attention. Along with representatives from the House, they listened as Zelenskyy fielded questions about his country’s strategy in the long war against Russia.

Zelenskyy told them how Ukraine was repelling the Russian invasion, taking the fight to Moscow, but in need of U.S. help with Patriot interceptor missiles and licensing agreements, expanded access to Elon Musk’s Starlink internet — and most immediately ahead of a Senate vote that July night — a punishing Russia sanctions package to deprive President Vladimir Putin of the oil and gas revenue fueling the war machine.

“He said, ‘We need this legislation,’” recalled Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in an interview. “Both the troops and the Ukrainian people need this for morale.”

“You could feel palpably in the room a sense that — Zelenskyy’s confidence of their ability to hold and to persevere,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, a former Democratic leader. “There was a sense in the room that, look, we can be successful.”