分类： world

It has been seven days since a catastrophic glacial-collapse-triggered flash flood tore through the cross-border Himalayan valley along the Nepal-Tibet boundary, leaving a trail of widespread destruction and a massive number of unaccounted-for people as rescue teams race against time to locate any remaining survivors before shifting fully to recovery operations.

Official death tolls released by relevant authorities paint a grim picture of the disaster’s impact. Nepal’s national disaster management agency confirms that at least 1,114 people have lost their lives across Nepali territory, with close to 4,000 more still listed as missing. On the Tibetan side of the border, Chinese state media reports 16 confirmed fatalities and more than 500 people unaccounted for, with no survivors reported to date even as search work continues.

Access to the full scope of damage in Tibet remains limited, as the Chinese government maintains strict travel restrictions for foreign journalists in the region, meaning all public information about the disaster there comes exclusively through official state media outlets. While Beijing has confirmed the devastation along the border, few detailed updates on victim identities or the full impact on local rural communities have been released to the global public. In a positive development for cross-border search efforts, however, Chinese state media reports that round-the-clock work using heavy equipment has succeeded in clearing debris and reopening the key Gyirong border crossing route, a step expected to speed up search operations moving forward.

In Nepal, one of the most urgent ongoing search priorities focuses on hundreds of workers believed to be trapped inside the tunnels of local hydroelectric power stations, which were inundated when the floodwaters swept through the valley. To date, roughly 12,000 people have been pulled from affected areas and brought to safety, but thousands more remain missing – including hundreds of foreign nationals from countries including India, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Malaysia, among others. As the first week since the disaster passes, aid officials and communities are increasingly bracing for the confirmed death toll to rise significantly in coming days.

International and cross-border support has been deployed to assist in the response, with technical and operational experts from both China and India on site helping to construct temporary bridges that will allow rescue teams to reach cut-off remote communities. Drones are also being deployed to conduct aerial scans of hard-to-reach terrain in search of any signs of life from missing people.

The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed this week that the disaster response has now entered a new phase, with national and local authorities ramping up both relief distribution and recovery work. The biggest ongoing challenge facing responders remains access to affected areas: more than 40 bridges along critical transport routes were destroyed by the surging floodwaters, leaving the most isolated communities dependent on army helicopter flights to receive even basic food and supplies. Many villages still face critical shortages of fuel and electricity a week after the flood hit.

The human displacement crisis stemming from the disaster is also growing in Nepal. Authorities report that nearly 3,500 people have been left homeless by the flood, with most currently housed in 27 emergency displacement sites across the hard-hit Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts. The majority of these sites are repurposed school buildings, which has disrupted access to education for thousands of local children.

For displaced survivors and affected communities, the United Nations outlines core immediate priorities: access to life-saving humanitarian aid, recovery of remains to allow for proper burials, systematic tracing of missing relatives, reunification of children separated from their families during the flood, and access to specialized psychosocial support to help communities process the trauma of the disaster.

Aid officials warn of growing secondary health risks in the wake of the flood, particularly as the disaster unfolded in the middle of Nepal’s annual monsoon season. Overcrowded emergency shelters, contaminated drinking water supplies, and damaged local health facilities have combined to create a heightened risk of infectious disease outbreaks among displaced populations.

Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah has reaffirmed the national government’s commitment to prioritizing survivor protection, emergency medical care, and mental health support for those affected by the disaster. In a coordinated response to the crisis, the government of Nepal and the United Nations have jointly launched a four-month emergency humanitarian flash appeal to raise funding for ongoing relief and recovery efforts across the country’s affected districts.

In the wake of catastrophic flash floods that swept through Nepal and neighboring Tibet last week, leaving a devastating trail of death and displacement, a British aid volunteer has found himself at the center of an unexpected administrative mix-up that saw him incorrectly identified as a rescued survivor.

Alastair Chambers, a 45-year-old aid worker hailing from Gloucester, had traveled to Nepal just days after the disaster struck to deliver critical humanitarian support to hard-hit, cut-off communities. His mission brought him to remote settlements near the Trishuli River, where he worked alongside local volunteers to distribute life-saving essentials including sleeping bags, food, and water purification equipment to residents stranded by collapsed bridges and damaged infrastructure.

After completing an aid distribution mission to the affected region, Chambers flew back to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu aboard a humanitarian relief helicopter and landed at a local army barracks. When a police officer approached to collect his personal information in line with post-disaster check-in protocols, Chambers complied with the request—unaware that officials would incorrectly categorize him as a survivor pulled from the flood zone.

The mix-up quickly gained official traction, when Nepali authorities announced on Tuesday that 119 people, including one British national, had been rescued via air operations. In the hours that followed, Chambers was flooded with inquiries from nearly 15 journalists reaching out to check on his condition after his supposed rescue, forcing him to clarify the error repeatedly.

“It’s been a bit of a weird one, really,” Chambers told the Press Association in an interview. “I got dropped off at the army barracks, and when I got dropped off one of the police officers came up to me and asked for my details. Then they presumed that I’d been rescued… I had to say: ‘Well sorry, I haven’t been rescued.’”

The flash flood disaster has already claimed more than 1,000 lives across Nepal and Tibet, with more than 3,900 people still unaccounted for as of this week. In the UK, the Foreign Office has updated its count of missing British nationals in Nepal, raising the figure from 33 to 36, Under-Secretary of State Lord Wood of Anfield confirmed to the House of Lords this week. The Foreign Office declined to comment further when contacted for this report.

Chambers, a former local councillor, described the brutal conditions on the ground in affected areas, where landslides and fallen trees block most overland routes. What would normally be a 90-minute road journey from Kathmandu to the flood zone now takes between eight and nine hours to complete by air and ground transport. During his deployment, Chambers and his aid team even had to scramble up a nearby mountainside after a secondary flood scare, though the incoming water surge was smaller than the initial devastating flood. Once the water receded, the team returned to continue their work, which includes locating the remains of flood victims alongside delivering aid.

“It’s quite dangerous, and we’ve got a lot of landslides, trees across the roads in front of us,” he said. “It’s been quite challenging, but it’s been very rewarding as well.”

Looking ahead, Chambers plans to return to the UK in the coming days to launch a fundraising campaign for the destroyed villages he has been supporting. Once he has collected enough donations and supplies, he intends to return to Nepal to deliver additional essential goods and install solar-powered lighting systems for communities that have lost access to electricity.

Separately, UK official diplomatic engagement with Nepal on flood recovery is ramping up this week. Baroness Winterton, Minister for the Indo-Pacific, will travel to Kathmandu for talks Wednesday through Thursday, where she will meet with Nepali government representatives, United Nations officials, UK embassy staff, and members of the UK’s rapid deployment team that is supporting families of affected British nationals. Back in London, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty will meet with members of the British-Nepali community on Wednesday to discuss what support is available for those impacted by the disaster.

Nestled along Thailand’s eastern Gulf coast, the sun-drenched resort city of Pattaya is globally known today for its bustling, often raucous nightlife and booming tourism industry. But few first-time visitors recognize that the city’s modern identity was fundamentally shaped by the presence of U.S. military personnel decades ago, a historical link that continues to echo through the city’s social and economic landscape today. In a recent retrospective analysis, BBC Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head has traced the deep roots of this unexpected connection between American troops and the Thai coastal community.

The story of this relationship dates back to the Vietnam War era, when conflict raged across Indochina and thousands of U.S. service members were granted rest and relaxation (R&R) leave away from frontline combat zones. With its tropical climate, affordable amenities, and proximity to Vietnam, Pattaya emerged as one of the most popular destinations for these troops looking to decompress after months of combat duty. Between the 1960s and early 1970s, tens of thousands of American GIs passed through the city’s quiet fishing villages and small local businesses, transforming the sleepy coastal settlement almost overnight.

Before the arrival of U.S. troops, Pattaya was little more than a remote fishing outpost with a small local population. The sudden influx of American service members created immediate demand for accommodation, food, entertainment, and other services. Local entrepreneurs quickly pivoted from fishing and small-scale agriculture to catering to the needs and wants of visiting troops, laying the foundation for the massive tourism industry that drives Pattaya’s economy today.

Head notes that the legacy of this era is complicated. On one hand, it created the economic spark that turned a little-known coastal spot into one of Thailand’s top tourist destinations, a status it retains more than half a century later. On the other hand, the concentration of troops seeking entertainment also shaped the city’s reputation for adult-oriented nightlife that still defines its public image for many travelers today. As modern Pattaya works to rebrand itself as a family-friendly destination and diversify its tourism offerings, the historical echoes of the U.S. troop era remain visible everywhere, from the bars along Walking Street to the enduring cross-cultural connections forged decades ago.

It has been seven full days since a catastrophic glacial outburst flood tore through cross-border regions of Nepal and southern Tibet, leaving a devastating trail of destruction that has claimed at least 1,118 lives and left thousands more unaccounted for. As rescue teams continue to navigate debris-choked terrain to reach cut-off disaster zones, officials confirmed Wednesday that several previously missing foreign tourists have reconnected with authorities, offering a sliver of good news amid widespread tragedy.

The disaster unfolded on August 26, when a glacial collapse in the Himalayan mountain range sent a massive surge of ice, rock, and glacial meltwater roaring into downstream river valleys. The powerful flood surge coursed through river systems spanning Tibet Autonomous Region in China and Nepal, triggering rapid, extreme river rises that swept away entire settlements, roads, bridges, and critical infrastructure, leaving mud and boulders in their wake. As of Sunday, Chinese authorities had recorded 16 fatalities and 546 people missing from the disaster on their side of the border, while Nepali officials have confirmed 1,118 deaths and more than 3,900 people still unaccounted for across Nepali territory.

According to Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 324 foreign nationals have been evacuated and rescued from affected areas so far. But roughly 590 people from 39 different countries remain missing, one week on from the flood disaster.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was attending a regional leaders’ summit in Palau on Wednesday, confirmed that five additional Australian citizens had been confirmed safe overnight, bringing the number of missing Australians down from 43 to 38. “Amidst all of this tragedy, we are seeing some positive news. Today, another five Australians have been confirmed safe,” Albanese told reporters. “We hope, of course, for positive news further, and we’re doing everything we can to work with [Nepali] authorities,” he added.

Sunil Sharma, spokesperson for the Nepal Tourism Board, noted that at least five other foreign tourists previously listed as missing have also made contact with local authorities via email or phone in recent days.

On the Chinese side of the Nepal-China border, rescue teams have made critical progress clearing access to the disaster site at Gyirong Port, which was completely washed away when the flood surge hit. China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday that crews have finished constructing a makeshift access road to the crossing, allowing heavy search and rescue machinery to move into the area. The original road leading to the border crossing was destroyed and buried under a layer of flood-borne water, mud, and rock debris, cutting off the site for days after the disaster.

As search efforts continue, hundreds of displaced survivors have fled the flood zone to find temporary shelter in Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu. Roughly 400 people, most hailing from Timure, a town located approximately 110 kilometers west of the capital, are currently being housed at the Yellow Gumba monastery. There, survivors grieve for lost family members and destroyed homes, supporting one another as they wait for long-term relief. The shelter operation is organized by local residents and family members of survivors, with food and emergency supplies donated by individual givers and local charitable organizations.

Among the survivors sheltering at the monastery is 21-year-old Riya Tamang, who fled her home with her 10-month-old child as floodwaters approached her community. Tamang, who lost both of her grandparents to the flood, shared that her husband, who works as a cook in Gyirong town on the Chinese side of the border, survived the disaster. The couple now stays connected through daily video calls as they navigate the aftermath of the disaster together. “I was the last one to leave the house. It was so difficult to escape,” Tamang said.

This report included contributions from Associated Press journalists Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok, Thailand.

Decades after it rose from a quiet fishing village to an infamous global hub for sex tourism during the Vietnam War, Thailand’s sun-soaked coastal resort city of Pattaya is gearing up to welcome around 5,000 sailors and Marines from the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group, who are seeking much-needed rest and recreation after a lengthy, high-tension deployment in the Middle East.

The upcoming shore leave continues a decades-long tradition of U.S. military personnel visiting the city, located just 100 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. Long before this port call, millions of civilian tourists and thousands of service members have traveled to Pattaya annually, many for joint land and sea military exercises conducted alongside the Royal Thai Armed Forces. Most U.S. Navy vessels dock at nearby deep-water ports, including Laem Chabang Port and Sattahip Royal Thai Navy Base, both of which are less than an hour’s drive from the city’s central tourist districts. While social media has already been flooded with old jokes and jabs about sailors seeking the city’s historic adult entertainment, recent visitors and local development efforts tell a different story: a decades-long rebranding that has gradually pushed the city’s seedy reputation into the background in favor of family-friendly attractions.

Local economies have long benefited from the shore leave tradition, with service members’ off-base spending injecting millions of baht into local businesses ranging from restaurants to retail shops each year. Beyond economic activity, U.S. military visits often include structured community outreach initiatives, such as providing free specialized medical care to rural villagers near the city and completing volunteer work at local orphanages. To mitigate potential disruptions during large groups of sailors’ onshore liberty, the U.S. Navy deploys specialized Shore Patrol teams that work alongside Thai law enforcement to de-escalate conflicts and address any misconduct. All service members are reminded before leaving their ships that while Thailand’s formal ban on prostitution is rarely enforced, purchasing sex remains a criminal offense under Article 134 of the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, punishable under U.S. military law.

Pattaya’s deep ties to U.S. military visits date all the way back to the Vietnam War era, when as many as 50,000 American service members were stationed across Thailand to support air operations over Indochina. U.S. military bases were spread across the country, and each drew a thriving nightlife industry around its perimeter. Pattaya’s prime location — close to both the Sattahip naval base and U-Tapao airfield, which hosted U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers — made it an ideal rest stop for off-duty troops. As author Elizabeth Becker notes in *Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism*, what was once a quiet fishing community was quickly transformed into a raunchy seaside playground for visiting GIs.

A 1966 Thai law regulating entertainment venues created a legal gray area that allowed the sex trade to operate semi-openly in bars and massage parlors, despite a 1960 national law that formally criminalized prostitution. This framework allowed the industry to grow rapidly, with thousands of young workers from Thailand’s impoverished northeastern Isan region migrating to Pattaya to earn wages far higher than what they could make farming back home, sending much of their earnings back to extended family. While sex work remains a cultural taboo in Thailand, it has quietly existed in Thai society for centuries, with a large domestic market that has long outstripped the more visible trade for foreign tourists.

After U.S. military forces withdrew from Thailand in 1976, Pattaya was well-positioned to transition to a civilian tourist destination. Its existing infrastructure of entertainment venues, beautiful beaches, and relative proximity to Bangkok made it a popular stop for the growing global package tour industry, which boomed as low-cost air travel made international vacations accessible to more people. Sex tourism became a deeply entrenched part of the city’s identity and global reputation through the final decades of the 20th century.

The 1990s brought another major shift to Pattaya after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A new wave of Russian tourists began visiting the city, taking advantage of a 30-day visa-free agreement and direct charter flights from Russian provincial cities to U-Tapao’s newly expanded civilian airport. Local businesses quickly adapted, adding Cyrillic signage and Russian-language services to cater to the new market. Along with legitimate tourists, the city’s permissive regulatory environment and relaxed law enforcement attracted transnational criminal groups and fugitives from across the globe, including Russian and Eastern European gangs, Western European organized crime networks, and outlaw motorcycle gangs involved in drug trafficking from Australia.

In the 21st century, Pattaya has made a concerted push to rebrand itself as a mainstream, family-friendly tourist destination, and the effort has seen measurable success. New attractions including a Cartoon Network-themed water park, the sprawling Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, the 100-meter-tall all-wood Sanctuary of Truth Museum, dozens of championship golf courses, and new luxury residential resorts and shopping malls have drawn millions of Thai tourists and visitors from other East and Southeast Asian countries. The city still retains echoes of its past: Walking Street, the historic heart of Pattaya’s adult nightlife district, still operates for visitors seeking that side of the city. But for many modern travelers, the new, more diverse Pattaya has fully overshadowed its old reputation.

After completing an unprecedented 250 consecutive days at sea without a single port call, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived at its scheduled rest stop in Thailand, bringing nearly 5,000 exhausted crew members ashore for their first extended break in nine months. The vessel is anchored a short 40-minute drive from the iconic coastal resort town of Pattaya, a destination whose global identity has been deeply shaped by decades of U.S. military R&R visits stretching back to the Vietnam War era.

What is now one of the world’s most famous entertainment hubs began as a quiet fishing village, transformed starting in the 1960s when hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops deployed to Southeast Asia arrived for rest and recuperation between tours of duty. Those visits turned Pattaya into a frenetic, neon-lit party town known worldwide for its raucous nightlife and sex tourism, a reputation it still carries decades after the end of the Vietnam conflict.

Today, however, Pattaya’s normally crowded beachside alleys and famous Walking Street are far quieter than they were before recent global and regional conflicts. The ongoing war between the U.S.-Israeli coalition and Iran has gutted international tourism across Southeast Asia, crimping consumer spending and pushing many local businesses to the brink of collapse. For struggling proprietors, the arrival of 5,000 U.S. sailors, who have not had a chance to spend their nine months of accumulated pay during their time at sea, represents a rare lifeline for their bottom lines.

Near Walking Street, gem seller Anon Saiteer already has hung a large welcome sign for U.S. crew members, advertising exclusive discounts for visiting service members. “This visit could be our best hope,” Saiteer told reporters. “We have nothing to lose – we just hope they will spend some money here.” The welcome is not unlimited, however: both U.S. and Thai authorities have worked to structure the visit to avoid the salacious headlines that have long dogged Pattaya’s reputation.

Thai officials have designated several zones off-limits for U.S. service members, including Soi 6, the beachside lane notorious for its high concentration of go-go bars and sex workers. While prostitution is technically illegal under Thai law, an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 sex workers operate in Pattaya, many concentrated in the restricted lanes. U.S. crew members are also barred from entering local cannabis shops and from participating in high-risk recreational activities including paragliding and jet skiing.

“The US military have done their homework,” Pattaya Mayor Poramase Ngampiches told the BBC, emphasizing that the off-limits designation was a joint decision between the two governments. To keep order during the visit, Thai authorities have deployed hundreds of additional police officers to patrol entertainment districts, and have issued warnings to local businesses against overcharging visiting American sailors. The U.S. Navy has also set up daily shuttle bus service from the port to Pattaya running from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, and has pre-approved two hotels for crew members seeking an overnight stay on shore.

The extended deployment that brought the carrier to this point was not originally planned. The USS Abraham Lincoln departed San Diego last November for a scheduled six-month operational deployment to the Pacific and South China Sea. But in late February, the vessel was rerouted to the Gulf of Oman to support U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran, extending its time at sea far beyond initial projections.

The unplanned extension drew scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers in recent weeks, after reports emerged of substandard living conditions including food shortages, broken sanitation infrastructure, and rising mental health strain among the 5,000-person crew. The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that working conditions have been unusually difficult during the extended deployment, but has pushed back against claims that the crew lacks sufficient support, and declined to comment on the Pattaya port call to the BBC, citing operational security requirements.

While Thailand maintains close economic and diplomatic ties with China, it remains a longstanding treaty ally of the United States, and port calls by U.S. Navy vessels are a regular occurrence in Thai waters. Even so, this visit marks the largest contingent of U.S. military personnel arriving directly from an active war zone to Pattaya since the fall of Saigon in 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War.

For Pattaya’s local government, the visit also offers an opportunity to rebrand the city beyond its outdated mid-century reputation. Mayor Poramase acknowledged that the city’s historic association with adult entertainment cannot be erased, but highlighted efforts to diversify Pattaya’s tourism offerings to attract family travelers, wellness visitors, and business conference groups. “We have to be frank, the city has a reputation for bar girls. We understand the stereotypes. We can’t stop that,” he said. “What we can do is to show that Pattaya has changed, that we now have other things, such as sports, seminars, wellness and family-friendly activities. It’s a mixture of everything.”

Both U.S. and Thai officials expect the carrier to conclude its rest and refit period and depart for its journey back to the United States across the Pacific on September 6, with the goal of sending the crew home rested and recovered after their grueling nine-month deployment.

After an exhausting, months-long operational tour in the Middle East, the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln docked at the eastern Thai port of Laem Chabang in Chonburi province early Wednesday morning.

The vessel, which carries approximately 5,000 active-duty service members, made its approach to the port minutes after the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. passed through the same waters, a route that was observed directly by Associated Press journalists on site.

During its deployment, the USS Abraham Lincoln was tasked with supporting U.S. military operations focused on Iran. The tour stretched into an unprecedented milestone: the carrier spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without a scheduled port call, marking the longest uninterrupted deployment of a U.S. aircraft carrier in recent decades.

This extended time at sea has sparked growing public concern over conditions aboard the ship. Multiple reports have highlighted rising rates of poor mental health among the 5,000 crew members, alongside persistent shortages of critical supplies including fresh food and basic hygiene products.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which was originally assigned to operations in the Indo-Pacific region, was relieved of its Middle East duties in August by the USS George Washington, another U.S. aircraft carrier. The shift cleared the way for the crew to schedule a rest stop in Thailand before the carrier makes its final journey back to its home base in the United States.

Most of the service members aboard are planning to travel to Pattaya, a well-known coastal tourist destination located just a short distance from Laem Chabang, during their time off. Thai national authorities have confirmed that the port call is solely intended to give the crew a chance to rest and recover after their grueling deployment.

Local officials in Pattaya have expressed enthusiastic support for the visit, noting that the influx of thousands of U.S. service members is expected to deliver a much-needed boost to the city’s local tourism and hospitality economy, which has been slowly recovering in recent years. To ensure the visit proceeds without incident, Thai law enforcement and port authorities have implemented enhanced security measures across the port and the surrounding Pattaya area.