Missing Australians in Nepal floods rise to 39

Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong announced overnight that the number of Australians missing in Nepal's catastrophic floods has grown from 35 to 39. She said the government is rapidly mobilising consular and humanitarian support in response to the disaster along the Nepal-China border, including a $5 million assistance package for affected communities. A team of three humanitarian response specialists is expected to be deployed within 48 hours to support Australian staff already working on the ground.

Wong explained that four of the newly identified missing Australians had been travelling separately from organised tours. Fifteen Australians had been on a Himalayan trekking tour, while another was a customer of a separate travel company. She acknowledged that the number of missing could rise further, calling it an "unfortunate possibility," and expressed sympathy for those still waiting on news of loved ones.

The floods, which began on Wednesday, have killed at least 360 people, with hundreds more still unaccounted for. Members of Australia's Nepalese community, including a group near Melbourne, gathered for prayers and a minute's silence to honour those lost, describing the diaspora as united in grief and hope.

Assisted dying now legal nationwide

Separately, the Northern Territory parliament passed voluntary assisted dying legislation after debate over a clause preventing doctors from initiating conversations with patients about end-of-life options. The territory was the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise euthanasia in 1995, before the federal government overturned the law in 1997. All six states and the ACT have since passed their own versions, and the federal ban on territories doing so was lifted in 2022. Under the new law, only patients given a prognosis of 12 months or less to live will be eligible.