Daily Buzz: 31 August 2026

Himalayan Flash Flood Death Toll Rises to 800, With 2,500 Missing

The death toll from Himalayan flash floods triggered by a glacial collapse rose to 800 in Nepal and to 16 across the border in China, with some reports putting the number of missing as high as 3,000. Rescue teams deployed along the border are searching remote, rough terrain for survivors five days after a wall of mud and water suddenly swept through river valleys, destroying homes, roads and bridges. Hundreds of foreign mountain trekkers and Hindu pilgrims are among the missing. China is continuing to monitor the status of a lake formed when mud and rocks dammed a major river, amid fears it could burst its banks and trigger renewed flash flooding. Heavy rains are predicted in the area. The disaster has intensified calls for nations to address global warming, which is affecting glaciers around the world.

PetroChina Profit Rises on Higher Oil Prices, Middle East Output Drops

PetroChina, China's largest oil and gas producer, reported first-half net profit attributable to shareholders rose 22 percent to 103.9 billion yuan (US$15.3 billion), as higher oil and gas prices boosted earnings despite weaker overseas crude production. Revenue increased 5.3 percent to 1.5 trillion yuan. The Middle East conflict caused the company's overseas crude production to fall 14.2 percent, with lower output from projects in the region contributing to a 2.8 percent decline in overall crude production. Natural-gas production rose 2.3 percent.

Iceland Rejects Reopening EU Membership Talks

Iceland voted against a government-proposed referendum to resume talks on joining the EU, 13 years after they broke off. The no vote was 53 percent. The election was moved up from 2027 amid North Atlantic anxiety triggered by US President Trump's threat to take over Greenland, but the referendum debate centered on fishing rights more than security concerns. Fishing is a vital industry in Iceland, and membership in the EU would have forced the nation to cede some control over its fishing grounds because of EU limits on catches.

US Strikes Iranian Rocket-Launch Site

The US military on Sunday struck a rocket-launching site on Iran's Larak Island near the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first American attack in a month as Washington shifts to economic warfare. The US military command said Iranian forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the waterway.

The US said earlier this month that it had finished clearing all mines from the strait's main shipping lane. Global benchmark Brent crude futures rose 2 percent on the news, priced at US$89.80 when trading resumed Sunday evening in New York.

Russian Drone Attack on Kiev Munitions Depot Kills 38

Thirty-eight people in Kiev were killed and 400 evacuated after a Russian drone struck a depot storing military weapons near a residential area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it's against the law to site munitions depots in populated areas and a criminal investigation into official negligence has been launched.

NASA Launches Most Powerful Space Telescope

NASA launched a powerful next-generation telescope on a SpaceX rocket. The telescope will have a field of vision 100 times larger than the existing Hubble and James Webb space-based telescopes. The Nancy Grace Roman telescope, named after NASA's first chief astronomer in the 1960s and its first female executive, will be able to explore dark energy, black holes and up to 100,000 planets outside our solar system. It will be sited millions of kilometers miles from Earth.

Norway Gets New King Amid Family Scandals

The Norwegian crown prince ascended to the throne as King Haakon VIII this weekend after the death of his father King Harald V, 89, who died on Friday after a long illness. Haakon comes to the throne amid family scandals. His wife made headlines this year after apologizing for her past association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and her son from a previous marriage was sentenced to prison after a rape conviction.

Manhunt Continues After Swiss Mass Shooting

A manhunt was underway on Sunday after a shooting at a rave in the northern Swiss canton of Aargau left at least one person dead and five wounded, police said. Public shootings are rare in the Alpine country. The local police said motives and the exact circumstances of the incident are still unclear, and they are searching for the unknown perpetrator.

Top Business

Big Three China Airlines Report Wider Losses on Jet-Fuel Costs

China's three biggest airlines suffered wider losses of a combined 8.2 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in the first half, driven by higher jet fuel costs and disrupted international routes triggered by the Middle East. The last two of the carriers reported earnings on Sunday.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines reported a first-half loss of 2.2 billion yuan, widening from a 1.4 billion yuan a year earlier, even as revenue rose 11 percent to 74.2 billion yuan. Operating costs climbed 15 percent to 74.2 billion yuan, with aircraft fuel costs surging 36 percent to 29.2 billion yuan as average jet-fuel prices rose 37 percent. China Eastern said Middle East turmoil had pushed up oil prices and disrupted some international routes. Passenger traffic was mixed. China Eastern said it carried 72.8 million passengers, down 0.6% from a year earlier, but passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometers rose 4.3 percent. Its load factor increased 2 percentage points to 87 percent. Cargo and mail transport rose 8.4 percent.

Flagship carrier Air China reported a loss attributable to shareholders of 2.3 billion yuan, widening from 1.8 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenue increased 10.5 percent to 89.3 billion yuan. Passenger volume grew 3.4 percent to 79.7 million, while the passenger load factor climbed 4 percentage points to 84.7 percent. Cargo and mail volume was nearly flat at 735,728 tons. Passenger revenue increased 9.8 percent and cargo revenue rose 22 percent. Aviation fuel costs surged 35 percent to 32.8 billion yuan.

China Southern Airlines on Friday reported a net loss of 3.7 billion yuan, widening from a 1.5-billion-yuan loss a year earlier. Revenue rose 9.7 percent to 94.7 billion yuan.

MetaX Swings to Profit From Loss on One-Time Gain

MetaX Integrated Circuits, a leading Chinese maker of graphics processing units used in AI technologies, swung to a 612.4-million-yuan (US$91 million) profit in the first half from a 185.9 million yuan loss a year earlier. Revenue rose 45 percent to 1.3 billion yuan on higher unit shipments. The profit included a 887-million-yuan one-time gain on adjusted fair value of financial assets, which the company said was not sustainable. Excluding non-recurring items, MetaX's loss narrowed to 48.9 million yuan. Spending on research and development rose 15 percent to 524.8 million yuan, or nearly 40 percent of revenue. Operating cash flow was negative at 1.3 billion yuan. MetaX's new C600 graphics processing unit entered mass production in May. The Shanghai company is preparing to seek an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

CXMT Sues US Over Inclusion on Pentagon Blacklist

Hefei-based leading chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) sued the US Defense Department over its inclusion on a blacklist of companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military, joining other Chinese companies seeking legal redress for what they claim are false accusations. The designation means US companies can't do business with companies on the list. CXMT, China's top maker of dynamic random-access memory chips, said it has no military affiliation and produces chips solely for commercial and civilian use. The legal challenge follows similar lawsuits filed by other Chinese companies, including Alibaba and WuXi AppTec. Earlier this year, Apple was reportedly considering purchasing CXMT chips for use in devices it sells on the Chinese mainland, which could be complicated by the blacklisting. The lawsuit comes as CXMT, which recently listed in Shanghai, expands its technology portfolio. The company said on Saturday that it has started mass production of LPDDR6 memory chips, with Xiaomi's upcoming flagship foldable phone set to be among the first devices to use the technology.

Maanshan Iron & Steel Narrows Loss

Maanshan Iron & Steel, the listed subsidiary of China's state-owned Baowu Steel, the world's largest steelmaker, said it narrowed its first-half loss to 70 million yuan (US$10.4 million) from 75 million a year earlier on cost efficiencies. Revenue dropped 2.2 percent to 37.2 billion yuan on lower prices and weak downstream demand. China's steel industry is undergoing restructuring amid oversupply and lower prices. "The iron and steel industry remains in a phase of volume reduction and structural adjustment," the Anhui Province-based company said in its earnings statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. "Overall supply outstrips demand, making it increasingly difficult to improve profitability. For the group, product-structure adjustment is not yet completed." Maanshan said production of pig iron in the six months fell 1.2 percent, crude steel output dropped 3.2 percent and finished billets declined 1.6 percent.

Economy & Markets

Chinese Regulators Take Aim at Automaker's High-Tech Blitz

Chinese regulators are poised to rein in carmakers' technology hype amid shrinking domestic vehicle sales, the South China Morning Post reported. Xin Guobin, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology, told a press briefing last week that new auto products and technologies would be barred from entering the market unless they passed stricter approval procedures. "Some reckless innovative designs were installed in vehicles without sufficient testing and verification," he said. Automakers in the fiercely competitive domestic market have been rolling out new smart-driving technology to spur lagging sales and end bottom-line losses. New car deliveries on the Chinese mainland in the first seven months of the year fell 12.5 percent from a year earlier, and dropped 21 percent in July alone. Gao Shen, an auto analyst in Shanghai, told the newspaper that "several accidents and growing consumer complaints have spurred the regulators into action."

US Deal on Venezuela Oil No Quick Fix for High Prices

Oil industry analysts said the announced US takeover of a fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves won't impact global prices in the near term. The South American country has more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, but its industry infrastructure is in decay after years of mismanagement under former president Nicolás Maduro, who was seized by US military forces in January and whisked to New York to face trial on drug charges. Trump called the oil deal with the interim Venezuelan government the biggest of its kind in history and said it will involve investment by American oil companies. He said the deal should bring down prices at the pump, but US motorists bearing higher gasoline prices triggered by the Iran war won't see any immediate relief. Oil, gas and mineral lawyer Alexander Kuiper told the BBC, "What we don't know is whether or not those reserves turn into actual investment, and how long that investment takes to produce results. There isn't a switch that you can flip. Contracts and agreements have to be put in place. That could take a long time."

China's State-owned Capital Revenue Rises 40 Percent

China's state-owned capital revenue rose 40 percent in the first seven months of the year to 257.5 billion yuan (US$38.3 billion). Central revenue surged 84.8 percent to 122 billion yuan, while local revenue rose 14.6 percent to 135.5 billion yuan, largely on higher earnings from government-owned companies. The increases come as China faces pressure in fiscal revenues from a weak property market and slower economic growth. State-owned companies reported combined profits of 2.25 trillion yuan in the first half, up 2.4 percent from a year earlier.

Vocational Colleges Increasingly Draw High School Graduates

More Chinese students who scored well on provincial university entrance exams are choosing to enroll in vocational colleges, highlighting a shift in how families value higher education. In Hunan Province, 165 vocational programs attracted applicants, and Sichuan Province reported 252 similar programs, with the same trend emerging in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hubei, Shandong and Heilongjiang provinces. The shift is partly driven by employment prospects, with data showing that salaries for vocational graduates are rising amid demand for technical skills.

S&P Affirms China's 'A+' Sovereign Debt Rating

Standard & Poor's rating agency affirmed China's "A+" sovereign credit rating, citing expectation that the nation's economy will likely continue to grow by 4 percent or more over the next one to two years. S&P said China's "strong progress" in strengthening supply chains, technological capabilities and manufacturing prowess has allowed its economy to remain resilient in the face of global uncertainties, including trade tensions with the US and the Iran war. China's finance ministry said it welcomed the decision. Separately, ratings agency Fitch warned last week of risks that China might slipping back into deflation without a more pronounced recovery in domestic demand.

Corporate

Datang International, Datang Environment Post Higher Profits

Beijing-based Datang International Power Generation, one of China's largest independent domestic power producers, said first half profit rose 19 percent to 5.3 billion yuan (US$788 million) on a 2 percent increase in revenue to 58.2 billion yuan. The company is pivoting to green energy sources such as thermal, wind and hydroelectric power. "The company is steadily elevating the quality of its green transition," Datang International said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Beijing-based Datang Environment Industry, another arm of Chinese power giant Datang Corp, said first-half profit rose 1 percent from a year earlier to 286.3 million yuan but revenue fell 6.2 percent to 2.3 billion yuan. The company supplies pollution-control systems to industry, particularly the coal-fired sector, operates wastewater and solid waste treatment systems, and provides other environmental services. It said it developed a product for monitoring carbon dioxide emissions online in the first half.

Didi Global Plans Major Ride-Hailing Expansion in Argentina

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Global plans to invest more than US$200 million in Argentina this year to expand services and launch new ones, Reuters reported, citing an interview with the country manager. Like other Chinese ride-hailing and robotaxi companies, Didi is expanding overseas. It already offers services in 350 locations in Argentina, with plans to expand to smaller population areas. The expansion will include Didi Moto, a service that offers low-cost motorcycle rides for "last-mile" trips connecting to public transport systems, and upgraded improvements in mapping systems and AI models. The company invested US$160 million in Argentina last year and also has operations in Brazil and Mexico. Its main rival in Argentina is Uber. Didi Global is an arm of Beijing-based Didi Chuxing Technology.

Tencent Releases New Open-Source AI Model

Chinese tech giant Tencent released a preview version of a new open-source AI model aimed at tasks such as software engineering, research and financial analysis, according to a post it published on Hugging Face.

The model, called Hy4 preview, uses a "mixture-of-experts" design with 770 billion parameters, Tencent said, although only about 49 billion are used for any given text request. The company said it plans to integrate the model alongside Tencent products, including CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy, Reuters reported. Tencent has been ramping up investment in AI, unveiling a large language model called Hunyuan 3.0 in April.