{"id":878874,"date":"2026-09-03T20:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878874\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T20:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:52:11","slug":"australia-news-live-specialist-drone-operators-head-to-nepal-to-aid-search-and-recovery-efforts-coalition-continue-to-defend-plan-to-slash-tobacco-excise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878874\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia news LIVE: Specialist drone operators head to Nepal to aid search and recovery efforts; Coalition continue to defend plan to slash tobacco excise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nepal will have to rebuild around 20,000 houses in flood-ravaged areas, authorities said overnight, as rescuers continued to search for workers trapped in tunnels linked to hydropower projects and thousands remain missing after last week\u2019s catastrophe.<\/p>\n<p>Related Article<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/world\/asia\/quicksand-and-rotting-flesh-no-words-can-capture-the-devastation-in-nepal-20260903-p60txq.html\" tabindex=\"-1\" class=\"sc-cba76dee-0 hdiTqm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nepalese police carry bodies to a helicopter for a flight to Chitwan, where hundreds of disaster victims are being buried.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7068017386126e85d0b6bac4f912a4cc686e9011.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ioInpc\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A glacier collapse on August 26 sent a deluge of ice, rock and mud sweeping through the impoverished nation\u2019s border region with China, <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/world\/asia\/quicksand-and-rotting-flesh-no-words-can-capture-the-devastation-in-nepal-20260903-p60txq.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wiping out settlements and villages and leaving few houses standing<\/a> and undamaged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur preliminary estimates are that 7,500 houses have been completely destroyed, either washed away or buried under debris and mud,\u201d Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Even houses still standing were not habitable, Upreti said, with authorities estimating that around 20,000 would have to be rebuilt in different, safer locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nepal will have to rebuild around 20,000 houses in flood-ravaged areas, authorities said overnight, as rescuers continued to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-878874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}