Torrential rains trigger flash floods in Kashmir, killing at least 56 and leaving scores missing

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Flash floods caused by torrential rains in a remote village in India-controlled Kashmir have left at least 56 people dead and scores missing, authorities said Thursday, as rescue teams scouring the devastated Himalayan village brought at least 300 people to safety.

Following a cloudburst in the region’s Chositi village, which triggered floods and landslides, disaster management official Mohammed Irshad estimated that at least 80 people were still missing until late Thursday, with many believed to have been washed away.

Irshad said that the count of missing people could increase as authorities continue to tally the figures.

Officials halted rescue operations for the night, he said. Weather officials forecast more heavy rains and floods in the area.

India’s deputy minister for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, warned that the disaster “could result in substantial" loss of life.

Susheel Kumar Sharma, a local official, said that at least 50 seriously injured people are being treated in local hospitals. Many were rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris.

Chositi is a remote Himalayan village in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district and is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an ongoing annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet) and about an 8-kilometer (5-mile) trek from the village.

Multiple pilgrims were also feared to be affected by the disaster. Officials said that the pilgrimage had been suspended and more rescue teams were on the way to the area to strengthen rescue and relief operations. The pilgrimage began on July 25 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 5.

The first responders to the disaster were villagers and local officials who were later joined by police and disaster management officials, as well as personnel from India’s military and paramilitary forces, Sharma said.

Abdul Majeed Bichoo, a local resident and a social activist from a neighboring village, said that he witnessed the bodies of eight people being pulled out from under the mud. Three horses, which were also completely buried alongside them under debris, were “miraculously recovered alive,” he said.

The 75-year-old Bichoo said Chositi village had become a “sight of complete devastation from all sides” following the disaster.

“It was heartbreaking and an unbearable sight. I have not seen this kind of destruction of life and property in my life,” he said.

The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes, officials said. They added that more than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen when the tragedy struck. The flash floods also damaged and washed away many homes, clustered together in the foothills.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed extensive damage caused in the village with multiple vehicles and homes damaged.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “the situation is being monitored closely” and offered his prayers to “all those affected by the cloudburst and flooding.”

“Rescue and relief operations are underway. Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need,” he said in a social media post.

Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions.

Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly because of climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.

Kishtwar is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region's fragile ecosystem.

Household goods are strewn around next to buildings damaged by flash floods in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Stranded pilgrims are helped across a water channel using a makeshift bridge a day after flash floods in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Stranded pilgrims cross a water channel using a makeshift bridge, the day after flash floods in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel carry out a rescue operation after Thursday's flash floods, in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Stranded pilgrims are helped across a water channel using a makeshift bridge a day after flash floods in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A building damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains is seen in a remote, mountainous village in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)

Buildings damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains are seen in a remote, mountainous village, in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)

Buildings damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains are seen in a remote, mountainous village, in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An economist testified in Michael Jordan's federal federal antitrust trial against NASCAR that the racing series owes a combined $364.7 million in damages to the two teams suing it over a revenue-sharing dispute.

Edward Snyder, a professor of economics who worked in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice and has testified in more than 30 cases, including “Deflategate” involving the NFL's New England Patriots, testified on Monday. He gave three specific reasons NASCAR is a monopoly participating in anticompetitive business practices.

Using a complex formula applied to profits, a reduction in market revenue, and lost revenue to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports from 2021-24, Snyder came up with his amount of damages owed. Snyder applied a 45% of revenue sharing he alleged Formula 1 gives to its teams in his calculations; Snyder found that NASCAR's revenue-sharing model when its charter system began in 2016 gave only 25% to the teams.

The suit is about the 2025 charter agreement, which was presented to teams on a Friday in September 2024 with a same-day deadline to sign the 112-page document. The charter offer came after more than two years of bitter negotiations between NASCAR and its teams, who have called the agreement “a take-it-or-leave-it” ultimatum that they signed with “a gun to their head.”

A charter is similar to the franchise model in other sports, but in NASCAR it guarantees 36 teams spots in the 40-car field, as well as specific revenue.

Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin for 23XI, along with Front Row Motorsports and owner Bob Jenkins, were the only two teams out of 15 to refuse the new charter agreements.

Snyder's evaluations found NASCAR was in fact violating antitrust laws because the privately owned racing series controls all bargaining because “teams don't have anywhere else to sell their services." Snyder said NASCAR controls “the tracks, the teams and the cars.”

Snyder repeatedly cited exclusivity agreements NASCAR entered into with racetracks after the charter system began. The agreements prevent tracks that host NASCAR from holding events with rival racing series. Prior to the long-term agreements, NASCAR operated on one-year contracts with its host racetracks.

The Florida-based France family founded NASCAR in 1948 and, along with Speedway Motorsports, owns almost all the tracks on the top Cup Series schedule. Snyder's belief is that NASCAR entered into exclusivity agreements with tracks to stave off any threats of a breakaway startup series. In doing so, it eliminated teams' ability to race stock cars anywhere else, forced them to accept revenue-sharing agreements that are below market value, and damaged their overall evaluations.

Snyder did his calculations for both teams based on each having two charters — each purchased a third charter in late 2024 — and found 23XI is owed $215.8 million while Front Row is owed $148.9 million. Based on his calculations, Snyder determined NASCAR shorted 36 chartered teams $1.06 billion from 2021-24.

Snyder noted NASCAR had $2.2 billion in assets, an equity value of $5 billion and an investment-grade credit rating — which Snyder believed positions the France family to be able to pivot and adjust to any threats of a rival series the way the PGA did in response to the LIV Golf league. The PGA, Snyder testified, “got creative” in bringing in new revenue to pay to its golfers to prevent their defections.

Snyder also testified NASCAR had $250 million in annual earnings from 2021-24 and the France family took $400 million in distributions during that period.

NASCAR contends Snyder's estimations are wrong, that the 45% F1 model he used is not correct, and its own two experts “take serious issue” with Snyder's findings. Defense attorney Lawrence Buterman asked Snyder his opinion on NASCAR's upcoming expert witnesses and Snyder said they were two of the best economists in the world.

Snyder testified for almost the entirety of Monday's session — the sixth day of the trial — and will continue on Tuesday. The snail's pace of the trial has agitated U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell, who heard arguments 30 minutes early Monday morning because he was annoyed that objections had been submitted at 2:55 a.m. and then 6:50 a.m.

He needed an hour to get through the rulings, and testimony resumed 30 minutes behind schedule. When the day concluded, he asked the nine-person jury if they were willing to serve an hour longer each day the rest of the week in an effort to avoid a third full week of trial.

Bell wants plaintiff attorney Jeffrey Kessler to conclude his case by the end of Tuesday, but Kessler told him he still plans to call NASCAR chairman Jim France, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps and Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress, who was the subject of derogatory text messages amongst NASCAR leadership and has said he's considering legal action.

NASCAR has a list of 16 potential witnesses and Bell said he wanted the first one on the stand before Tuesday's session concludes.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

FILE - Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins, left, and 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin arrive in the Western District of North Carolina on Monday Dec 1, 2025 in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer, File)

NASCAR vice chair Lesa France Kennedy enters federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday Dec 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)

NASCAR chairman Jim France enters federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday Dec 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)

Michael Jordan arrives in the Western District of North Carolina on Monday Dec 1, 2025 for the start of the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)