At about 2 am on 31 October 2025, a landslide struck a rural community at Kukas in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. News reports suggest that it was triggered by heavy rainfall and that 22 bodies have been recovered to date, but that the final toll may be as high as 30 people.
Loyal readers will know that tracking down landslides in rural PNG is a major challenge - the quality of baseline mapping of villages is quite poor. However, an ABC News report indicates that the landslide occurred in the vicinity of Pausa, so I think the most likely location is in the region of [-5.67878, 143.91848]:-
The likely location of the 25 October 2025 landslide at Kukas in PNG.
Birdwatchers across the country are going absolutely cuckoo over a once-in-a-lifetime discovery on Long Island. According to the clip posted below, a golfer named Roy William Gardner stumbled upon an extremely rare bird that's only been documented four times in U.S. history, a species native to Europe that likely got blown off course during migration. A Common Cuckoo.
Gardner told CBS News he was riding between holes in a golf cart when he noticed "an unusual bird going post to post." Curious, he snapped a few photos and texted them to his nephew — who just happens to be an ornithologist from Cornell and now a bird biologist at UCLA. Within hours, the images spread through birding groups like wildfire, sparking what enthusiasts are calling "one of the biggest bird sightings in recent years."
The clip was shared to the TikTok account for CBS New York, and people in the comments are um, going cuckoo over this sighting. It's pretty safe to say this rare bird has become an accidental celebrity. As one commenter joked, "He doesn't even know he's famous." Another wrote, "I'm a non-birder and would love to see this bird." And my personal favorite: "Let's make birdwatching cool again."
A young woman killed by lightning on Queensland's Sunshine Coast has been described as a talented athlete who was practising her soccer skills when the tragedy occurred.
Paramedics rushed to the aid of 21-year-old Finley Bone after she was struck when thunderstorms hit late on Thursday afternoon at the Cooroy Sporting Complex.
She was transported to Nambour Hospital in a critical condition but could not be revived.
Finley's mother, Donna Markert, said she was a talented athlete who had gone to the soccer field with her partner to practise goal kicking.
"No one can believe this happened," Markert told ABC News. "Fin had her life taken away in a minute."
Severe flooding hits Andalusia as storms leave streets underwater.
On the anniversary of the devastating Valencia floods, the southern Spanish provinces of Seville and Huelva were hit with torrential rain and winds that flooded city streets and caused the cancellation of hundreds of inter-regional trains.
Heavy rain and stormy conditions battered western provinces of Andalusia on Wednesday, causing over a thousand incidents and the cancellation of trains across the region.
Hundreds of local, medium and long distance services were suspended between Seville, Huelva and Málaga due to flooding following the sudden downpours.
The Nepali and Chinese sides of the Everest region were closed to tourism on Wednesday due to heavy snow brought by cyclone winds, with deep snowdrifts causing a helicopter to crash as it tried to rescue stranded trekkers, authorities said.
Visited by thousands of trekkers and climbers, the region around Mount Everest has been blanketed by snow since Monday as a cyclone from the Bay of Bengal churned across India, ushering in a second bout of severe snowfall in the Himalayas this month.
Authorities in Nepal have halted trekking on many hiking routes due to rain at lower elevations and heavy snowfall on higher trails, and have urged hikers not to venture out or proceed with their treks in the Annapurna, Manaslu and Dhaulagiri areas, home to some of the world's highest peaks.
A small private helicopter flying to Lobuche near the Everest Base Camp to rescue stranded trekkers crashed when it tried to land, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal spokesperson Gyanendra Bhul said.
CAAN video showed the helicopter, which slipped on the snow while landing, lying on its side. The pilot survived and was later rescued. It was unclear whether the trekkers had been rescued.
Several parts of Odisha on Wednesday experienced light to moderate rain as the severe cyclonic storm Montha weakened into a deep depression and caused landslides, damaging roads, bridges and houses in southern districts, officials said.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari thanked Lord Jagannath as the severe cyclonic storm slightly changed its anticipated landfall place in Andhra Pradesh coast at a distance of about 300 kilometer from Odisha's Malkangiri district.
"The change in the cyclone's trajectory spared Odisha from severe devastation. Cyclone Montha changed its course and touched land near Amalapuram instead of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, reducing the potential impact on Odisha. Kakinada is about 200 kilometres from Malkangiri," Pujari told reporters after taking stock of the situation.
The minister said that the state government had made preparations keeping in view the IMD forecast and was prepared to face the eventuality.
David Ochieng Nile Post Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:45 UTC
At least nine people, including three children from one family, have died and several others are missing after overnight landslides hit Bukwo and Kween districts in eastern Uganda, cutting off key roads and prompting fresh evacuation warnings.
At least nine people have been confirmed dead and several others remain missing after landslides swept through parts of the Sebei subregion following a night of heavy rainfall.
The worst-hit areas are Tuikat in Kween District and Chesower in Bukwo District, where homes and farms were engulfed late Monday night.
Rescue teams, supported by local residents, are still searching for survivors as persistent rainfall threatens further slides and slows emergency work.
Namoma Ivan James, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner for Bukwo, said three people died in Bukwo and six in Kween.
In Bukwo, the victims have been identified as Boaz Chellangat (11), Precious Chebet (3) and Shalom Chekwemoi (1), all children of Fred Chemusto, residents of Chekworbotin Village, Nyalit Parish in Chesower Sub-county.
Ariel Fernández, Andrea Rodriguez, John Myers Jr. and Evans Sanon AP Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:10 UTC
Officials in Cuba reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads and roofs blown off buildings on Wednesday after Hurricane Melissa tore through the island, Haiti and Jamaica leaving dozens dead.
Hurricane Melissa left at least dozens dead and caused widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes, toppled utility poles and water-logged furniture dominated the landscape Wednesday.
A landslide blocked the main roads of Santa Cruz in Jamaica's St. Elizabeth parish, where the streets were reduced to mud pits. Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Wind ripped off part of the roof at a high school that serves as a public shelter.
"I never see anything like this before in all my years living here," resident Jennifer Small said.
The extent of the damage from the deadly hurricane was unclear Wednesday as widespread power outages and dangerous conditions persisted in the region.
"It is too early for us to say definitively," said Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica's education minister.
Many streets in the heart of the city were submerged under floodwaters.
Data from rain gauge system Vrain showed 1,320mm of rain at the summit of Bach Ma Mountain in Phu Loc Commune, while Khe Tre Commune recorded nearly 1,000mm.
Heavy downpours caused extensive flooding in many streets such as Le Quy Don, To Huu, and Nguyen Hue, where water levels reached 0.5 to one meter deep.
Cars were stranded underwater, and rescue teams used boats to navigate the inundated streets such as Dong Da and Le Quy Don.
"The water rose so fast this morning that many people were caught off guard," said Le Van Cuong, a student at the Hue University of Sciences.
"Friends of mine had to wade through the water to buy instant noodles and dry bread because the forecast said the flooding could last several more days."
Rainfall at Bach Ma peak in Hue has reached a staggering 1,739 millimeters in 24 hours, the highest ever recorded in Vietnam and the second-largest daily total in the world, behind only a 1966 record in the Indian Ocean.
Bach Ma peak recorded the historic rainfall from 7 p.m. on Oct. 26 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 27. According to data from the World Meteorological Organization, this 24-hour rainfall was surpassed only by 1,825 mm measured at a French weather station in the Indian Ocean in January 1966.
Central Vietnam has been inundated by devastating floodwaters this week, following record-breaking rains that have claimed at least 10 lives and left five people missing, officials confirmed.
Cities, farmland, and transport networks bore the brunt of the onslaught.
The coastal city of Danang, a vital future growth engine for Vietnam, reported six fatalities and four missing individuals.
Nineteen others were injured, with homes, crops, and thousands of livestock washed away, prompting heightened concern over the damage.
The death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Vietnam's central region has risen to 37, with five people missing and 78 others injured, the Vietnam Disaster and Dyke Management Authority reported Monday.
More than 12,600 houses remain inundated, while 103 others were destroyed or swept away, and 451 were damaged, according to the report.
Floods have also submerged nearly 7,900 hectares of crops, killed over 64,000 livestock and poultry, and caused severe damage to irrigation systems and riverbanks.
Comment: Update October 29
The VnExpress reports: The Independent reports: Update November 3
Xinhua reports: