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Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau’s junta constitution vote opens slowly as the opposition boycott holds

Polls opened about 7 a.m. GMT Sunday in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, some capital stations 30 minutes late after a dawn downpour. The question is yes or no to a junta-written constitution that would let the president name and fire the prime minister, dissolve parliament, and cut seats from 102 to 65. PAIGC, the historic independence party now in opposition, called a stay-home boycott; AFP reported thin queues in Bissau and in Bafatá, and Radio Bantaba said one Segendal table with 576 registered voters recorded only staff ballots. First provisional results are due from Tuesday; December 6 elections remain on the calendar under transitional president Gen. Horta Inta-A Na Man.

Why it matters: The military is asking voters to lock a stronger presidency before civilians are scheduled to return in December; a boycott that holds would leave any “yes” without a crowd.

AFP via Kuwait Times · Al Jazeera · Executive Digest

Belo Horizonte, Betim, Contagem and Ibirité, Brazil

Belo Horizonte’s water company starts a four-day intermittency at 8 a.m. Sunday

Copasa, the state water utility for Minas Gerais, starts intermittency at 8 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 30 — about an hour after this filing in New York — and may run until 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, in listed neighborhoods of Belo Horizonte, Betim, Contagem and Ibirité, Brazil. Hoje em Dia still lists more than 200 neighborhoods; houses with roof tanks should feel it less, with tankers on standby for hospitals. O Tempo says the latest sheet lengthened the window two days from Tuesday and cut the city list from nine to four. Separate Sunday work on the Rio Manso system includes a Cemig, the Minas Gerais power company, outage on the Igarapé line in Brumadinho from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Why it matters: Copasa is taking the Rio Manso feed offline, then holding more than 200 neighborhoods on a four-day drip through Thursday.

O Tempo · Rede 98 · Hoje em Dia

Dhunche, Rasuwa District, Nepal

Rescuers drill five holes into a Trishuli tunnel as 354 megawatts stay off Nepal’s grid

The Nepal Army said overnight rain after about 2 a.m. Sunday filled the excavation at Upper Trishuli-3A, a 60-megawatt plant in Rasuwa District, Nepal; crews resumed once the water dropped. OnlineKhabar reported five openings drilled; about 40 to 42 technicians were in the underground powerhouse. The Nepal Electricity Authority, the state power company, has eight operating plants totaling 354.1 megawatts off the grid; 13 projects and 748 megawatts of capacity in Rasuwa and Nuwakot are damaged, with 111-megawatt Rasuwagadhi washed away and 22-megawatt Chilime buried. The government says more than 100 workers may still be alive in multiple tunnels.

Why it matters: The flood took 354 megawatts off Nepal’s grid and still holds workers in the Trishuli tunnels on day five.

Al Jazeera · OnlineKhabar · Kathmandu Post

Kaptai, Rangamati, Bangladesh

Kaptai Dam opens all 16 gates three feet, sending 58,000 cusecs down the Karnaphuli

Mahmud Hasan, manager of the Karnaphuli Hydropower Station at Kaptai Dam in Rangamati, Bangladesh, said the fourth opening about 10 a.m. Sunday set all 16 spillway gates to three feet, sending 58,000 cubic feet a second into the Karnaphuli. The Daily Star put the lake at 106.22 feet, no longer rising, against a 108-foot maximum. The release stepped up overnight: about 9,000 cusecs Saturday evening, 18,000 later Saturday, 39,000 at dawn, then 58,000 at 10 a.m. Five units are generating 222 megawatts; low-lying Kaptai, Rangamati and Chattogram were told to stay alert.

Why it matters: The Karnaphuli hydropower dam is dumping 58,000 cusecs toward Chattogram while still running 222 megawatts.

Daily Star · BSS

Hili, Dinajpur, Bangladesh

Indian exporters shut Hili land port indefinitely, leaving wheat and maize trucks on the Indian side

The Hili Exporters and C&F Agents Association in India suspended all import-export through Hili land port, on the Dinajpur, Bangladesh, border, from Sunday morning until a “permanent solution,” secretary Bikash Chandra Mondal said after a Saturday-night letter. They want the same goods list as other West Bengal land ports, including Sonamasjid. Shakhawat Hossain Shilpi, of the Bangladesh-side traders’ group, confirmed the letter. Trucks already loaded with wheat, maize, bran, pulses and small stone against letters of credit are stranded on the Indian side; Bangladesh-side internal work and passenger immigration are still running, Sarabangla said.

Why it matters: Indian agents closed a Dinajpur grain gate on Sunday; wheat, maize and pulse cargoes sit on the wrong side of the line.

Financial Express / UNB · Sarabangla

Durban, South Africa

Durban’s box terminal still jammed after a weekend, with reefers above 100 percent

A weekend source told The Loadstar the operator at Durban, South Africa, “hasn’t managed to claw back much of the congestion, stacks are still very elevated,” after a presidency delegation visited Friday. International Container Terminal Services holds 49 percent of Durban Gateway Terminal; a Navis N4 software cut-over plus crane and straddle failures are blamed. MSC, the world’s largest container line, said productivity is less than a third of usual, with delays up to a week. The latest SAAFF yard print, Thursday, put stack occupancy at 73.8 percent, down from 89.2 percent two days earlier, but the reefer stack still at 110 percent, with nine ships at anchorage.

Why it matters: South Africa’s busiest box gate is still above a full reefer stack, and lines are warning of a week’s delay.

The Loadstar · Freight News / SAAFF

Bahía Blanca, Argentina

Grain receivers at Bahía Blanca still skip overtime, with 300 trucks delayed and talks Tuesday

There is no formal strike at Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Urgara, the grain-receivers’ union, is working to the letter and refusing overtime after a mandatory conciliation. Port authorities said Friday about 300 trucks were delayed, down from more than 500 two days earlier; Federico Spoturno of the private ports chamber said a truck that used to clear in 12 hours now takes about 26. The Rosario Grain Exchange says Bahía Blanca shipped 13 million tonnes in 2025, 13 percent of the national total, second after Greater Rosario. Next sitting is 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1, in Buenos Aires; the union wants 35.20 percent accumulated, the chamber offers 31.99 percent.

Why it matters: Argentina’s second grain port is running without overtime into a harvest pulse; 300 trucks were still waiting Friday and the next sit-down is Tuesday.

La Nación · Informe Digital

Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture, Japan

Fukui drops a Level 5 rain warning after Katsuyama takes 370 millimeters

Japan’s meteorological agency issued its highest rain warning, Level 5, at 4:30 a.m. Sunday for Fukui, Ono and Katsuyama in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, then cut it to Level 4 at 11:40 a.m. Amedas gauges from 9 p.m. Friday to 11 a.m. Sunday showed 370.0 millimeters at Katsuyama, 341.0 at Sakai and 340.0 at Fukui. Jiji reported no dead or injured as of 8 a.m.; rivers overtopped, one house flooded above floor and four below in Ono and Katsuyama, plus a landslide in Fukui City. About 111,000 people were under evacuation orders in five municipalities as of 8 a.m., Kyodo said.

Why it matters: Three Fukui cities spent Sunday morning under Japan’s highest rain warning after 370 millimeters at Katsuyama; rivers already left five houses wet.

Jiji via Nippon.com · Straits Times / Kyodo · Fukui Shimbun