Srinagar, Aug 16: The death toll from severe monsoon-triggered floods and landslides in Pakistan has climbed to 307, with numbers continuing to rise as per a BBC report.

The majority of fatalities have been reported in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, according to disaster management authorities. At least 74 homes have been damaged, and a rescue helicopter crashed during operations, killing all five crew members on board.

Elsewhere, nine deaths were confirmed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and five more in the Gilgit-Baltistan region in the north.

According to reports, government meteorologists have warned that heavy rainfall is expected to continue until 21 August, particularly in the northwest, where several areas have already been declared disaster zones.

The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gadapur while speaking to BBC said that an M-17 helicopter crashed due to bad weather while flying to Bajaur, a region bordering Afghanistan. As per officials in July, Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 255 million people, recorded 73% more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon.

Monsoon rains between June and September deliver about three-quarters of South Asia’s annual rainfall. Landslides and flooding are common and more than 300 people have died in this year’s season, as per various reports.

A non-profit platform GlobalGiving has launched the India-Pakistan Flood Relief Fund to support immediate rescue and relief efforts in the wake of catastrophic flooding across India and Pakistan.

The fund, it said, aims to provide urgent assistance including medical care, food, clean water, and temporary shelter for displaced families.

The appeal comes as torrential rains and a cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district triggered flash floods and landslides, leaving at least 60 people, mostly pilgrims, dead, and scores injured and missing.

In neighbouring Pakistan, authorities have reported nearly 200 deaths and large-scale displacement after rivers breached embankments and submerged settlements.

GlobalGiving, a ‘top-rated charity on Charity Navigator and BBB Accredited’, said its priority is to channel aid through locally led organizations, ensuring timely and effective delivery to the hardest-hit and underserved communities. Once emergency needs are met, the fund will transition towards long-term recovery and rehabilitation, it said.

On its website, GlobalGiving said they have been “responding to disasters and supporting emergency aid and long-term relief programs since 2004. We have facilitated more than $285M in disaster donations to funds just like this one.”

Further details are available on their website

New Delhi, Aug 16: In an unexpected twist, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would nominate her longtime political rival US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize — if he manages to end the Russia-Ukraine war without forcing Kyiv to cede any territory to Moscow.

Clinton made the surprising remark just hours before Trump’s high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a Cold War-era military installation in Anchorage, Alaska.

Speaking on ‘Raging Moderates’ podcast, Clinton said, “If he could bring about the end to this terrible war, if he could end it without putting Ukraine in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor, could really stand up to Putin — something we haven’t seen — but maybe this is the opportunity. If President Trump were the architect of that, I’d nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize.”

Clinton emphasised the geopolitical stakes, saying, “He is not meeting a friend. He is meeting an adversary who wants to see the destruction of the US and the Western alliance.”

Her comments underscored the gravity of the Alaska summit, which some observers called a potential turning point in the nearly three-year-long conflict in Eastern Europe.

The Clinton-Trump rivalry dates back to the 2016 US presidential election, when Trump defeated the former First Lady in a bruising contest. During that campaign, Clinton criticised Trump’s admiration for authoritarian leaders like Putin.

“He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin and picks fights with our friends,” she said.

She also famously referred to some of his supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” and called Trump “temperamentally unfit” for office. In return, Trump repeatedly mocked Clinton on the campaign trail and later questioned her handling of foreign policy as Secretary of State.

Despite their acrimonious history, Clinton’s remarks suggest that even she might acknowledge a breakthrough should Trump succeed in ending the war on favorable terms for Ukraine.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to end the war in Ukraine “quickly,” although critics have questioned how he would achieve that, particularly given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence on Ukraine recognising Russia’s territorial claims and lifting Western sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited to the summit, has firmly rejected any territorial concessions.

Significantly, after the summit Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin said that they made progress in three hours of talks on Friday, moving closer to finding an end to the Ukraine War, but did not announce an immediate ceasefire.

“It’s not a done deal at all”, he told a Fox News interviewer after Friday’s summit in Alaska. “And Ukraine has to agree. President (Volodymyr) Zelensky has to agree.”

“We had a very good meeting today, and I think a lot of points were negotiated on behalf of Ukraine”, he said.

Before the summit, he said that he would not be negotiating on behalf of Ukraine and that the meeting was a sounding board aimed at facilitating a direct meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelensky.

Putin called the meeting “constructive and mutually respectful,” stating that the discussions had laid the groundwork for peace. He urged Ukraine and European leaders to engage in the process and warned against provocations that could jeopardise progress.

Trump echoed the sentiment, calling the talks “extremely productive.”

He noted that multiple points of agreement had been reached, including one “very significant” breakthrough.

Still, he cautioned, “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Trump said he would consult with Zelensky and key European allies before moving forward with any formal agreements.

New York, Aug 16: On the day of his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump repeated multiple times his claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan, while also commenting on New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.

New Delhi has been maintaining that India and Pakistan halted their military actions following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US.

“I’ve negotiated five wars to their end, and the wars that were tough. India, Pakistan…” Trump said in an interview with Fox News a couple of hours after his high-stakes summit meeting with Putin ended in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.

The meeting between the two leaders concluded without any agreement on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

In the same interview, Trump again spoke about resolving the conflict between India and Pakistan, as well as others, including between Congo and Rwanda, Thailand and Cambodia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“Look at India. Take a look at India and Pakistan. They were shooting down airplanes already, and that would have been maybe nuclear. I would have said it was going to go nuclear, and I was able to get it done,” Trump claimed.

Stressing that wars are “very bad”, Trump said that he seems to have “an ability to end them, to get people together” for which he uses the “power of the United States”.

When asked about how he settles conflicts like the one between India and Pakistan, Trump said he does so through trade.

“Because I deal with all of the countries for trade, and while I have them on the phone, if I’m dealing with them…they say, you know, there’s a war going on, and if we’re doing trade with one or both of them, I say ‘we’re not going to do a deal unless you make peace’.”

In a separate interview with Fox News aboard Air Force One on his way to Alaska for the summit meeting, Trump spoke about the tariffs on India.

“Well, he (Putin) lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40 per cent of the oil. China, as you know, is doing a lot…And if I did what’s called a secondary sanction, or a secondary tariff, it would be very devastating from their standpoint. If I have to do it, I’ll do it. Maybe I won’t have to do it,” Trump said.

Last week, Trump imposed tariffs totalling 50 per cent on India, including 25 per cent for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, which will come into effect from August 27.

Responding to the tariffs, the Ministry of External Affairs has said that the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable.

“Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” it said.

In the interview, the US president said that he would like to focus on his country but keeps getting “these interruptions.”

“I’ve solved six wars in six months, when you think about it, and that’s from Pakistan to India, that was going to be a terrible one, planes being shot down, that was getting ready to flare, and they are nuclear powers and so many others,” Trump claimed.

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire, he has repeated his claim on several occasions.

Trump has claimed that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America will do a “lot of trade” with them if they stopped the conflict.

India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.