Norway's King Harald V dies at 89; Crown Prince Haakon succeeds

This is the morning edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Friday, the twenty-eighth of August, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

King Harald V of Norway has died at the age of eighty-nine, the royal palace in Oslo announced, ending a thirty-five-year reign during which he helped open the ancient monarchy to marriages with commoners and publicly celebrated the country's diversity. His death triggers the succession of his son, Crown Prince Haakon, who becomes King Haakon V I I I. The transition is already shadowed by controversy over Crown Princess Mette-Marit's past correspondence with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between twenty eleven and twenty fourteen, years after his conviction.

Elsewhere in South Asia, a wall of water crashed through a Himalayan river valley along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday, sweeping away villages, roads and bridges. Nepali authorities said a glacial collapse triggered the flash flooding, and the U S Geological Survey also pointed to a glacial collapse as the cause. The confirmed death toll has risen to at least two hundred and seventy, with more than eight hundred people still missing, according to the latest official counts; other reports put the number of missing at one thousand five hundred. The missing include foreign tourists and border workers, with Indian, U.S., British, Australian, Malaysian and Ukrainian nationals among those unaccounted for. Search-and-rescue operations are continuing.

In the United States, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America in U S records, including an update to the federal Geographic Names Information System. The order applies only to the American designation of the lake and comes amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada.

Also in the U S jurors have begun deliberating in the Massachusetts murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, a thirty-six-year-old former labor and delivery nurse who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the January twenty twenty-three strangulation deaths of her three young children. The defense argues that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis and that the medical system failed her, with her lawyer calling her a darn good mother. Prosecutors countered that she acted with extreme atrocity and cruelty and is criminally responsible for the killings.

In European football, U E F A said it is preparing a criminal complaint in Swiss courts against F I F A president Gianni Infantino, alleging criminal mismanagement connected to his abandoned plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits to private investors. European football's governing body has also applied for the release of documents related to the plan's conception.

In the Balkans, Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide for the one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five Srebrenica massacre, has died in prison while serving a life sentence. A U N official and his lawyer said he was eighty-four; another report gave his age as eighty-three. Mladic was one of the principal architects of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war.

In the arts, Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist celebrated worldwide for her polka-dot paintings, pumpkin sculptures and immersive Infinity Rooms, has died at the age of ninety-seven. Her studio announced that she died in a Tokyo hospital on fourteen August.

In Washington, the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center voted earlier this month to add inscriptions recognizing President Trump to the building's facade, and a judge is now considering the board's push to restore the former president's name to the Washington cultural venue.

In legal news, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused architect of the eleven September two thousand and one attacks, is scheduled to face trial before a U S military court in June twenty twenty-eight, an official said. He is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In Britain, Sally-Anne Bowen, sixty-five, a former chemistry teacher at Christ's College, an all-boys school in Finchley, north London, has been convicted at Harrow Crown Court of seven counts of indecent assault against two teenage pupils in the late 1980s. The boys were aged around fourteen to fifteen at the time.

Back in the United States, Christian Castro, a U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with shooting and wounding a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis and lying about the incident, has been reported released from a Texas jail after a judge refused to order his extradition to Minnesota. Other reports indicate he remains in custody in Texas. The interstate dispute between Texas and Minnesota over his return is continuing.

In entertainment, Peter Cullen, the Canadian-born actor whose voice defined Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise and Eeyore in Disney's Winnie the Pooh, has died at the age of eighty-five. His family and agent said he died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles.

That was the morning edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at one news page dot com.