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Nepalese crews detonated explosives in a hillside on Monday, trying to reach more than 600 workers believed trapped inside mud-filled tunnels at the Trishuli-3A hydropower site. Rescue teams spent the day pumping air down into the flooded shafts, hoping to keep anyone still alive breathing until a path finally opens.

Nepal's disaster agency now counts 903 dead and 4,247 missing, including 592 foreigners, and many of them were pilgrims on a sacred route through the mountains. Officials in one hard-hit district have started burying unidentified bodies in temporary graves, angering families who say Hindu funeral rites are being skipped.

The Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general sued Amazon on Monday, accusing the company of quietly overriding its own advertising auctions and charging far more than advertisers had agreed to pay. Regulators say the practice touched roughly 1.2 million advertising customers and produced more than $20 billion in hidden surcharges since 2019.

Filed Monday in Washington, the case is the third major federal suit brought against the company in recent years, and this one arrives with a bipartisan coalition of states attached. Amazon "overrides and replaces" genuine auction outcomes with higher prices of its own choosing, according to the complaint filed in federal court.

A divided Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for construction of President Trump's $400 million White House ballroom to continue while the lawsuits against it grind on. Justices split 5-4 in an unsigned emergency order, finding that the National Trust for Historic Preservation most likely lacks standing to sue at all.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent, writing that the construction is "likely unlawful" because Congress never approved a dollar of it. Work on the above-ground portion had been frozen by lower courts for weeks, and those orders are now lifted.

Governor Andrew Bailey wrote an open letter to G20 finance ministers on Monday, warning that a collapse in AI-driven growth could set off a worldwide market correction. Bailey also pressed financial firms to prepare for cyberattacks involving "simultaneous disruption across multiple firms," a risk he says the sector still treats as somebody else's problem.

 A two-day gathering of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan handed Xi Jinping a stage to showcase leverage built during Western sanctions campaigns on Russia and Iran. Putin, Modi and Xi in the same frame is a picture worth studying. 

 Mykhailo Fedorov, the former Ukrainian defense minister dismissed by Kyiv, will advise Italy's defense chief on drone warfare and battlefield innovation. NATO militaries are quietly racing to absorb three years of Ukrainian combat lessons before the doctrine ages. 

 Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered 110 truck-driving schools closed after finding they had certified drivers who later failed English-language checks. The move extends a broader administration effort at the seam between commercial trucking and immigration enforcement. 

 Federal health officials are not counting two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in current outbreak statistics. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the cases "fabricated," and the CDC says it is still reviewing them. 

 PG&E and other California utility shares dropped sharply after Sacramento advanced legislation that analysts say prioritizes victim compensation without new investor protections against wildfire liability. The state's $21 billion wildfire fund has been the sector's insurance backstop since 2019. 

 The FTC and 22 state attorneys general filed suit against Amazon, alleging the company forced millions of sellers to pay inflated ad rates to stay visible on its marketplace. Amazon denies the claims, but the case opens a second front alongside the FTC's existing monopolization suit. 

Phil Schiller is stepping back from leading the App Store, a role he has held for years, a move Apple communicated internally in mid-August. News of the transition broke one day before John Ternus formally succeeds Tim Cook as chief executive, and Apple shares slipped nearly 2% on Monday.

 OpenAI's advertising unit inside ChatGPT crossed a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, months after Anthropic mocked the launch with a Super Bowl spot. The number gives OpenAI a second real revenue stream beyond subscriptions as its capex bill balloons. 

The House Intelligence Committee urged American spy agencies to prepare for "Black Swan" scenarios driven by artificial intelligence, in a report released Monday. Lawmakers warn the technology could help adversaries and terrorists design more dangerous weapons and plan deadlier attacks, and the report arrives less than two weeks before the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

 Fin, humpback and minke whales are gathering in unprecedented numbers off East Greenland, feeding along a coastline where all three were rare a generation ago. Warmer water and retreating ice have turned the region into a buffet — and a warning about how fast Arctic ecosystems are reorganizing. 

Researchers at the American Chemical Society meeting showed off a cookie built from plastic feedstock rather than the usual flour and butter. Scientists presented it less as dessert than as proof that a waste stream nobody wants can be rebuilt into something a body can process.

Lionel Messi announced his international retirement on Monday with an Instagram post showing a handwritten note he had actually written back on July 21. Messi, 39, played six World Cups and lifted the trophy in Qatar in 2022, and he will keep playing club soccer for Inter Miami.

Alcaraz beat Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Arthur Ashe Stadium, his first match since a right wrist injury sidelined him back in April. Draw has opened wide for the No. 2 seed, with top-ranked Jannik Sinner out with a knee problem and Novak Djokovic already eliminated.

Aryna Sabalenka dispatched Camila Osorio 6-4, 6-4 to start a run at becoming the first woman since Serena Williams to three-peat in New York. Sabalenka has now won 16 consecutive first-round matches at majors in straight sets, a streak stretching back to the 2022 French Open.

Baltimore claimed Luis Robert Jr. off waivers from the Mets on Monday, the final day a player could be added and remain postseason-eligible. Orioles entered the day 68-69 and one game behind Cleveland for the last American League wild card, so the timing was not an accident.

Gal Gadot defended shooting a film on AI-generated sets and lighting, saying performers will either work with the technology or find themselves out of the game entirely. Producer Ryan Kavanaugh claims the $70 million Doug Liman project saved over $200 million, and Gadot's lawyers spent six months blocking any AI alteration of performances.

AMC Theatres launched an indie label called Leawood Films on Monday, aimed squarely at filmmakers who finance their own movies or arrive with one already finished. Former Warner Bros. film chief Toby Emmerich and marketing veteran Ricky Strauss will advise the venture, while ex-Paramount distribution head Kyle Davies joins full-time.

Mel Gibson apologized on Monday after video spread of him mocking an ASL interpreter as he walked onstage at FanExpo Canada. Gibson called the moment "spontaneous thoughtless idiocy" carrying "no intended maliciousness," and said he apologized to anyone who was upset by watching it.

 What it is: At least $1 billion from anonymous donors is flowing into the 2026 midterms, making this cycle the least transparent in modern American electoral history. The money moves through nonprofit shells that don't have to name their funders under current IRS and FEC rules. Spending at that scale means anonymous money is no longer operating around the edges of the campaign; it has become part of the financial infrastructure behind some of the year's most consequential races.

The detail: Dark money has existed since Citizens United in 2010, but the footprint has expanded from a handful of marquee Senate races to nearly every competitive House and gubernatorial contest. Both parties' aligned networks have built sophisticated pass-through structures — 501(c)(4) nonprofits funneling cash to super PACs — that scrub donor identities before the money reaches a television ad. Layers of organizations can make tracing the original source difficult even when subsequent campaign spending appears in public filings.

Why it matters: Voters watching campaign ads in swing districts now have virtually no way to know which industries, foreign-linked entities or individual billionaires are trying to sway their vote. Disclosure was the compromise the Supreme Court itself endorsed in Citizens United, and it has quietly eroded to near-total opacity. That leaves voters able to see who officially paid for an advertisement without necessarily knowing who supplied the money behind the organization paying the bill.

What to watch: Whether any late-cycle disclosure lawsuits succeed in unmasking donors before Election Day, and whether winners in the tightest House races carry perception baggage tied to their anonymous backers. The next Congress will also inherit the stalled DISCLOSE Act, which would force nonprofits spending on elections to identify large contributors. With control of Congress potentially turning on a small number of districts, even limited disclosure before voting ends could become politically significant.

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—The Five Minute Daily Team