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A US mountaineer has been found dead after she fell from the eighth-highest peak in Nepal.

Helicopters located Hilaree Nelson’s body on the south face of Mount Manaslu on Wednesday morning, her tour company Shangri-La Nepal Trek confirmed.

The 49-year-old was skiing down the 26,775ft (8,163m) summit with her partner Jim Morrison on Monday when she fell.

Rescuers tried and failed to locate her with searches on Monday and Tuesday.

According to the trekking company, Ms Nelson’s body was taken back to basecamp and is being transferred to a hospital in Kathmandu where a post-mortem examination can take place.

Ms Nelson was an extreme skier who, alongside her partner, summited Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest peak, in 2018.

FILE- Hilaree Nelson of Telluride, Colorado, left and James Morrison of Tahoe 
PIC:AP
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Hilaree Nelson and her partner Jim Morrison. Pic: AP

Earlier on Monday, an avalanche at a lower elevation on Mount Manaslu killed a Nepalese guide and injured several other climbers.

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All the climbers caught up in the incident were accounted for, with some of the injured flown to Kathmandu to be treated for their injuries.

After landing from the helicopter, one of the avalanche survivors, Phurte Sherpa, said: “I am not sure about the whereabouts of the missing climber but her husband was with us during the search today. We made two helicopter rescue attempts, but we were unable to find her.”

Two Nepali sherpa guides, who survived an avalanche at a lower elevation on the world's eighth-highest mountain Mount Manaslu are taken for treatment after being flown to a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. The avalanche swept several climbers, killing a Nepali guide and injuring other climbers. Rescuers are also searching Tuesday for Hilaree Nelson, a famed U.S. ski mountaineer a day after she fell off the mountain near the peak. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
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Two Nepalese sherpa guides were taken for treatment after an avalanche on Manaslu on Monday

Mountain ‘tested her resilience in new ways’

In her final post on Instagram last week, Ms Nelson described having difficulties and not feeling “as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventures into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya”.

“These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways,” she wrote.

“The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick. I am challenged to find the peace and inspiration from the mountain when it’s been constantly shrouded in mist.”

Hundreds of climbers and their local guides are on Manaslu attempting to reach the summit during Nepal’s autumn climbing season.

The government has issued permits to 504 climbers to attempt to scale high mountain peaks during the autumn season. Most of them are on Mount Manaslu.

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Anti-Trump protests sweep America for the second time in weeks

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Anti-Trump protests sweep America for the second time in weeks

Anti-Trump protests took place across America on Saturday, with demonstrators decrying the administration’s immigration crackdown and mass firings at government agencies. 

Events ranged from small local marches to a rally in front of the White House and a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.

Thomas Bassford, 80, was at the battle reenactment with his two grandsons, as well as his partner and daughter.

He said: “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty. I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”

At events across the country, people carried banners with slogans including “Trump fascist regime must go now!”, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” and “Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight,” referencing the university’s recent refusal to hand over much of its control to the government.

Some signs name-checked Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.

Read more: Donald Trump’s deportations explained

Pic: AP
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Pic: AP

People waved US flags, some of them held upside down to signal distress. In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelt out “Impeach & Remove” on a beach, also with an inverted US flag.

People walked through downtown Anchorage in Alaska with handmade signs listing reasons why they were demonstrating, including one that read: “No sign is BIG enough to list ALL of the reasons I’m here!”

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP


Protests also took place outside Tesla car dealerships against the role Elon Musk ahas played in downsizing the federal government as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide demonstrations.

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Organisers are opposing what they call Mr Trump’s civil rights violations and constitutional violations, including efforts to deport scores of immigrants and to scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and effectively shuttering entire agencies.

The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shutter Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programs and scale back protections for transgender people.

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Day 91: Q&A – deportations, dollar bills and MAGA hats

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Day 91: Q&A - deportations, dollar bills and MAGA hats

👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈

On Day 91, our US correspondents James Matthews and David Blevins tackle listeners’ questions.

Is Trump’s El Salvador deportation plan good business? Could President Trump put his face on a dollar bill? And are MAGA hats made in China?

If you’ve got a question you’d like the TRUMP100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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JD Vance has ‘quick and private’ meeting with the Pope during visit to Rome

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JD Vance has 'quick and private' meeting with the Pope during visit to Rome

US vice president JD Vance has met with Pope Francis.

The “quick and private” meeting took place at the Pope’s residence, Casa Santa Marta, in Vatican City, sources told Sky News.

The meeting came amid tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration over the US president’s crackdown on migrants and cuts to international aid.

No further details have been released on the meeting between the vice president and the Pope, who has been recovering following weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.

Mr Vance, who is in Rome with his family, also met with the Vatican’s number two, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The Vatican said there had been “an exchange of opinions” over international conflicts, migrants and prisoners.

According to a statement, the two sides had “cordial talks” and the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.

“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners,” the statement said.

Francis has previously called the Trump administration’s deportation plans a “disgrace”.

Read more from Sky News:
US VP meets Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Trump: Putin not playing me – but I might give up on peace talks

Mr Vance, who became Catholic in 2019, has cited medieval-era Catholic teaching to justify the immigration crackdown.

The pope rebutted the theological concept Mr Vance used to defend the crackdown in an unusual open letter to the US
Catholic bishops about the Trump administration in February, and called Mr Trump’s plan a “major crisis” for the US.

“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and
will end badly,” the Pope said in the letter.

Mr Vance has acknowledged Francis’s criticism but said he would continue to defend his views. During an appearance in late February at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, he did not address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there were “things about the faith that I don’t know”.

While he had criticised Francis on social media in the past, recently he has posted prayers for the pontiff’s recovery.

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