KATHMANDU: A bus in Nepal skidded off a mountain road and plunged into an icy river, police said Monday, killing at least 19 people, including a British tourist.

The bus, en route from the tourist city of Pokhara to the capital city Kathmandu, fell more than 200 metres (655 feet) into the Trishuli River in Dhading district in the early hours of Monday morning.

“Out of 44, in total 19 people died, and 25 are undergoing treatment,” senior local police officer Prakash Dahal told AFP, confirming one British citizen was among the dead.

One Chinese person and a New Zealander were injured, he said, without giving further details.

Mohan Prasad Neupane, information officer at the district administration office, said the rescue operation had been completed by dawn.

“The injured are undergoing treatment,” Neupane said.

In July 2024, two buses with more than 50 people on board were swept off the highway into the same river after a landslide.

Deadly crashes are relatively common in the Himalayan republic because of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

President Donald Trump’s threats to attack Iran provide little detail on what the long-term US goal would be in the event of a sustained or even brief conflict.

Trump sent warships and dozens of fighter planes to the Middle East and has several options to choose from that could destabilise the region.

Will Trump order surgical strikes targeting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the backbone of the regime in power, try to take out its missile programme — as Israel wants him to do — or even try to force regime change in Tehran?

Iran has threatened severe reprisal if it is attacked.

What are the options?

Trump said Thursday he would decide in 10 or 15 days whether to order strikes on Iran if no nuclear deal is reached.

The news outlet Axios has reported that Trump was presented with an array of military options that include a direct attack on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump has said many times he prefers a diplomatic route leading to an agreement that addresses not only Iran’s nuclear programme but also its ballistic missile capability and its support for groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran has said no to making such concessions.

The United States and Iran recently held two rounds of indirect talks, in Oman and Switzerland. They have not brought the two sides’ position closer, with talks set to resume Thursday in Switzerland.

Trump is “surprised” that Iran has not “capitulated” given the massive US military buildup, his envoy Steve Witkoff has said.

“The Trump administration most likely aims for a limited conflict that reshapes the balance of power without trapping it in a quagmire,” said Alex Vatanka, an analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Vatanka said Iran is now expecting “a short, high-impact military campaign that would cripple Iran’s missile infrastructure, undermine its deterrent, and reset the balance of power after the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025.”

What is the justification?

Trump has insisted US forces destroyed Iran’s nuclear programme in attacks targeting uranium enrichment facilities.

Things changed with the January protest movement in Iran that security forces put down with huge loss of life.

Trump threatened several times to intervene to “help” the Iranian people, but did not act.

Trump boasts often of having brought peace to the Middle East, citing the oft-violated ceasefire he engineered in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.

And he has argued that regime change in Iran would strengthen what he calls a dynamic toward peace in the region.

But opposition Democrats are worried that Trump is leading America into a violent mess and demanding that he consult Congress, the only body in the United States with the authority to declare war.

US firepower in the region?

The US military now has 13 warships stationed in the Middle East: the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which arrived late last month, nine destroyers and three frigates.

More warships are on the way. The world’s largest vessel, the US aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, was photographed sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar to enter the Mediterranean on Friday.

Besides the many planes parked on the aircraft carriers, the United States has sent a powerful force of dozens of warplanes to the Middle East, and tens of thousands of US troops are stationed across the Middle East.

These are potential targets for attack by Iran.

To what end?

Richard Haas, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it is not clear what impact a conflict of any duration and scale would have on Iran’s government.

“It could just as easily strengthen it as weaken it. And it is impossible to know what would succeed this regime if it were to fall,” Haas wrote recently on Substack.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate hearing late last month that no one really knows what will happen if Iran’s Supreme leader falls “other than the hope that there would be some ability to have somebody within their systems that you could work towards a similar transition.”

Arab monarchies in the Gulf that have close relations with Iran have warned Trump against intervening, fearing they might be targeted in reprisal attacks and wary of any destabilisation in the region.

Mona Yacoubian, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recently told AFP that Iran is much more complex than Venezuela, which the United States attacked January 3 as it captured its leader Nicolas Maduro.

She said Iran has more diffuse centers of power and a “decapitation strike” could end up “really unleashing a mess inside of Iran.”

NEW YORK: Children across parts of the US Northeast will stay home on Monday as a powerful winter storm forced school closures and pushed offices and transit systems onto emergency schedules, with officials across the region warning of heavy snow, strong winds and dangerous travel conditions.

The storm has already snarled travel along the East Coast from Washington to New England, with airlines cancelling thousands of flights and officials urging people to stay off the roads. Winter weather in the Northeast may also slow the processing, transport and delivery of mail and packages, the US Postal Service said.

New York City, the nation’s largest school district, ordered all public school buildings closed for a traditional snow day, with no remote instruction and all after-school programs cancelled.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared a state of emergency and ordered non-essential vehicles off city roads from Sunday night to noon Monday, saying ploughs and emergency crews needed the streets clear as snowfall intensified. The city is under its first blizzard warning since 2017.

City offices will close for in-person services, and non-essential municipal employees may work remotely. “I’m urging every New Yorker to please stay home,” Mamdani said.

Regional emergencies

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had activated 100 National Guard members to assist in Long Island, New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley – areas expected to bear the brunt of the heavy snow and coastal winds. 

The storm also forced closure of the UN headquarters complex in Manhattan on Monday.

Parts of the Northeast could see up to two feet of snow and wind gusts could reach 70 mph, raising the risk of falling trees and power outages, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In an update on Sunday, the agency said despite its ongoing funding lapse, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster‑response work continues uninterrupted, including staff travel, emergency operations, and critical assistance for people affected by active disasters, with life safety and property protection remaining top priorities.

Last week, Reuters reported that President Donald Trump’s administration had ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-affected areas around the country while the DHS is shut down.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared an emergency and told state workers to stay home. Connecticut barred commercial vehicles from limited-access highways Sunday evening, exempting only emergency and essential deliveries.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a statewide emergency effective noon Sunday and urged residents to take the storm seriously. “People need to take this very seriously,” she told CNN.

Travel disruptions

Air travel was among the earliest casualties. Flight-tracking site FlightAware showed more than 5,000 flights already cancelled for Monday. 

Aviation analytics firm Cirium said more than 25,000 flights were scheduled to depart from the United States on Monday, with cancellations also rising for Tuesday, especially at major Northeast airports.

NJ TRANSIT suspended bus, light rail and Access Link service Sunday evening and halted statewide rail service by Sunday night, with operations resuming only when conditions allow.

In New England, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority said it would suspend all service — including its RIde paratransit program — from Sunday night through Monday and would announce plans to resume service only when conditions improve.