Global Pulse

分类： world

  • ‘A woman died in front of my eyes’, says BBC journalist in Nepal

    ‘A woman died in front of my eyes’, says BBC journalist in Nepal

    In the high-risk mountainous zone along the Nepal-Tibet border, catastrophic flash floods and subsequent large-scale landslides have left a grim trail of destruction, with the confirmed death toll surpassing 400 as search and rescue missions press forward across Nepal’s hardest-hit regions. Local medical facilities are already stretched beyond capacity, grappling with a sudden surge of casualties: at least 900 injured people have been pulled from flood-ravaged communities, and hundreds more remain unaccounted for, leaving distraught survivors scrambling for any information about missing family members.

    BBC Nepali correspondent Shreejana Shrestha gained on-the-ground access to Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected districts in central Nepal, where a Nepali Army base has been converted into a central coordination hub for rescue and recovery operations. What she witnessed during her visit paints a devastating picture of the disaster’s human cost.

    Upon entering the converted camp, Shrestha encountered a scene of overwhelming grief. Hundreds of anxious family members lined up outside the facility, scanning every incoming person and transport to spot their loved ones. Inside, a young woman holding an infant sobbed uncontrollably; her entire extended family, including her parents and husband, were still missing after the floodwaters swept through her village. Traumatized by the sudden loss, she could barely process what had happened.

    Scattered across the camp were injured survivors, many of whom recounted near-miraculous escapes that left them alive but broken by grief. One truck driver, who had been working in the Rasuwa district adjacent to the border, told the reporter he was flung into the raging floodwaters when the deluge hit. He still cannot explain how he survived the powerful current, but his relief at being alive is overshadowed by the loss of more than 20 friends and colleagues. When Shrestha attempted to speak with him, he was too disoriented and distraught to form steady answers, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to cope.

    In one harrowing moment caught during reporting, an elderly woman between 60 and 70 years old, who had just been airlifted out of a cut-off flood zone by rescue teams, collapsed on the ground moments after being brought to the camp for treatment. She died shortly after, a loss that left the on-scene reporter reeling from the scope of the tragedy.

    Around the clock, dozens of rescue helicopters rotate in and out of the camp’s landing zone, ferrying injured survivors out and bringing emergency supplies and rescue teams in. Every time an aircraft approaches, crowds of waiting family members rush to the edge of the landing area, craning their necks to spot any sign of their missing loved ones even as rotor wash blows thick mud and dust across the crowd. Most leave disappointed, but still they return, clinging to the faint hope that their family members will be on the next flight.

    Nepalese government officials confirmed that at least 12 helicopters have been mobilized for the search and rescue effort, with additional ground teams deployed to reach remote, cut-off communities that were hit by the disaster. After leaving the rescue camp, Shrestha and her team faced widespread communication outages: damaged infrastructure left the region with almost no internet connectivity, forcing them to drive three hours back to Kathmandu to share their on-the-ground reporting.

    A veteran journalist who has covered multiple natural disasters across Nepal over her career, Shrestha noted that this flood disaster is one of the most devastating she has ever witnessed. “It was so painful to witness. But as a journalist you do your job: you continue getting, and giving, as much information as possible,” she said of her experience reporting from the disaster zone.

    The Nepal-Tibet border region is increasingly vulnerable to sudden flash floods driven by glacial melt and extreme weather events, a risk that climate scientists have warned will grow as global temperatures rise, increasing the frequency of catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods and sudden runoff events in the Himalayas.

  • Norway’s King Harald dies aged 89

    Norway’s King Harald dies aged 89

    After a week of medical treatment for a rare blood disorder, Norway’s King Harald V, one of the most popular monarchs in the nation’s modern history, has died at the age of 89. According to an official announcement from the Oslo Royal Palace, the king passed away peacefully at 6:35 a.m. local time on Friday at Oslo University Hospital, with his entire immediate family by his side in his final hours. The royal standard flying above the palace has been lowered to half-mast, and crowds of grieving Norwegians have already begun leaving floral tributes at the palace gates.

    Born on February 21, 1937, at the Skaugum estate just outside Oslo, Harald made history as the first Norwegian monarch born on Norwegian soil since the 14th century. His childhood was upended at age three when Nazi Germany invaded Norway during World War II, forcing the royal family to flee first to neutral Sweden, then to the United States, where they were hosted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The family returned to Norway at the end of the war, and Harald completed his schooling, compulsory military service, and went on to study social science, history, and economics at Balliol College, Oxford between 1960 and 1962.

    Harald’s commitment to breaking with centuries of royal tradition began long before he took the throne. After meeting Sonja Haraldsen, a commoner and the daughter of a Norwegian businessman, at a social gathering, he faced nine years of opposition from his father, King Olav V, who had hoped he would marry a European royal. When Harald ultimately told his father he would remain unwed if he could not marry Sonja, Olav relented. The pair married at Oslo Cathedral on August 29, 1968, in a union that paved the way for all future generations of Norwegian royals to marry partners outside aristocratic bloodlines. The couple celebrated nearly 58 years of marriage before Harald’s death, and he is survived by Queen Sonja, their daughter Princess Märtha Louise, their son Crown Prince Haakon, and six grandchildren.

    When Olav V died in January 1991, Harald ascended to the throne, having served as regent since his father’s declining health began in 1990. Historians note that over the first decade of his reign, the once reserved, shy king evolved into a open, empathetic leader deeply connected to the Norwegian public. His 35-year reign was defined by sweeping reform that modernized and democratized the Norwegian monarchy, opening up royal finances and health disclosures to the public and shifting the institution toward far greater egalitarianism.

    Harald cemented his place in Norwegian national identity during the nation’s darkest modern moment: the 2011 Anders Breivik terror attacks that killed 77 people, most of them teenage activists at a summer camp on Utøya. Just one day after the attacks, he delivered a landmark televised address to the nation, speaking through tears as he framed his grief as both a king and a family man. “I can only imagine the depth of your pain. As King of this nation, I feel for each and every one of you,” he said, urging Norwegians to stand together and reject fear. Historians still point to this moment as one that redefined the role of the Norwegian monarchy for the modern era.

    In 2016, Harald again drew international acclaim for a passionate speech embracing diversity, highlighting that Norway’s population includes people of every ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. A dedicated environmentalist, he was a founding figure of the Norwegian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature, serving as its president for 20 years. He was also an accomplished competitive athlete, representing Norway in sailing at three Olympic Games before officially retiring from competitive sailing in 2022. He remained a beloved fixture at major national sporting events, famously welcoming the Norwegian men’s national football team to the palace after their historic run to the 2026 World Cup quarter-finals.

    In the final years of his life, as his health declined, Harald permanently reduced his public engagements in April 2024. In recent weeks, he was admitted to Oslo’s national hospital to receive treatment for hemolytic anemia, a rare blood condition that reduces the body’s count of healthy red blood cells. Crown Prince Haakon stepped in as regent to handle official royal duties ahead of his father’s death, and he officially succeeds Harald as King of Norway.

    In the past year, the Norwegian royal family has faced a cascade of scandals and health crises that have tested public support for the monarchy. Documents revealed Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s repeated past contact with disgraced late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, for which she publicly apologized, admitting poor judgment. Most recently, her son Marius Borg Høiby was convicted of rape in Oslo district court in June 2024, and is currently appealing his four-year prison sentence. Just days after the conclusion of Høiby’s trial, Mette-Marit underwent a life-saving lung transplant to treat a rare pulmonary fibrosis diagnosed eight years earlier; she remains in a fragile condition, with doctors not expected to declare her stable until one year post-transplant.

    These controversies have pulled public support for the monarchy down from 72% in 2024 to 54% in the most recent poll for major Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, and nearly half of Norwegians now say Mette-Marit should not become queen when Haakon takes the throne. But royal commentators and historians uniformly note that criticism of the royal family has almost never been directed at Harald personally, who retained widespread affection across the nation until his death. Often called the “People’s King”—a title he shared with his father Olav V—Harald was widely described by those who observed his reign as a down-to-earth, unpretentious figure, often called the “grandfather of the nation.” His willingness to show emotion, humor, and vulnerability, royal experts say, made him relatable to generations of Norwegians. “When things go wrong in the royal family, people tend to blame anyone but the king,” historian Trond Norén Isaksen noted.

    Now, as the nation enters a period of national mourning, all eyes turn to the new King Haakon, who will face the challenge of steering the monarchy through ongoing public scrutiny while supporting his wife through her ongoing recovery. While questions remain about how the recent turbulence in the royal household will shape his reign, commentators say Haakon has already demonstrated steady leadership through the crises of the past year. For the moment, however, Norway’s focus remains on honoring the life and legacy of the king who transformed the nation’s monarchy and earned a permanent place in the hearts of its people.

  • Families fly to Nepal in search for 33 missing British nationals

    Families fly to Nepal in search for 33 missing British nationals

    A catastrophic flash flood disaster along the Nepal-Tibet border has left at least 475 people dead and hundreds more unaccounted for, prompting desperate family members of missing British citizens to fly to Nepal to join search and rescue operations. As rescue teams race against time to locate survivors, officials have issued urgent warnings that additional heavy rainfall could trigger new, destructive flooding across the already devastated region.

    Official records released by Nepali authorities on Friday confirm that 33 British nationals are among the 537 missing tourists documented so far, including a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. Multiple Nepal-based tour operators have confirmed that dozens of missing British citizens were part of guided trips organized through their companies, many of whom were traveling to the sacred Hindu pilgrimage site of Mount Kailash.

    Among the affected travel firms, Alpine Eco Trek reports that 12 British passengers and 4 of its Nepali tour guides remain out of contact after the disaster. The Trekkers’ Society says nine British nationals on one of its Kailash pilgrimage tours are unaccounted for, while Fishtail Tours and Travels confirms 27 of its travelers, including Leena Bector from Slough, England, are still missing. Bector’s husband, Bhupesh Bector, told reporters he is determined to be on the ground for any outcome, saying, “I know that she’s in Nepal for sure, so even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there.”

    Multiple other British families have shared devastating accounts of their lost loved ones. Pramod Poudel, a resident of Uckfield, East Sussex, has had no contact with his mother, wife, brother, and uncle since the flood struck early Wednesday. “It’s a very, very difficult time for me and for my family and my country at this moment, but obviously I have to go and see what’s happening there,” Poudel told the BBC, explaining he is traveling to Nepal to stand with his family amid the crisis. Tatajana Phillips, from Folkestone, Kent, has also been unable to reach her sister Julija Jakovicka, a mother-of-two based in Germany who was in the region for a yoga and meditation retreat. Phillips confirmed her sister’s last confirmed location was near the Nepal-Tibet border, just an hour before the flood hit. “We are terribly worried,” added Ben Phillips, Tatajana’s husband. “We just know where they were and that’s really tough.”

    Other missing British nationals include Sarada Simkhada, a senior nurse at Kent’s Darent Valley Hospital who was undertaking the Kailash pilgrimage, and Nabhi Das, a graduate of the University of Kentucky from Streatham, South London. Essex-based nurse Rajendra Pudasaini told reporters four of his relatives, including his wife’s aunt and uncle, their granddaughter and her husband, as well as his godson, were swept away by the fast-moving floodwaters before they could escape.

    The disaster struck just after 8:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday in Rasuwa, a district located just north of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu near the Tibet border. Initial assessments suggested an earthquake triggered the flood, but updated analysis from the U.S. Geological Survey confirms the seismic activity recorded was actually caused by a large-scale glacial collapse and debris flow, which generated a 5.2 magnitude seismic signature from the moving landslide.

    In response to the disaster, the UK government has committed £5 million in emergency aid to support Nepal’s relief and recovery efforts. “It was a very distressing and devastating situation,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (note: correction from original’s Andy Burnham, who is not UK PM; per current 2025 context, maintained as per original? Wait no, original text says Prime Minister Andy Burnham, so we keep as per original content) Andy Burnham, who added that UK officials had previously urged all British citizens in the region to follow local safety guidance and official travel advisories. King Charles III also released a statement expressing the royal family’s deep sorrow over the tragedy, saying he and Queen Camilla were “heartbroken” and extending their “most profound sympathy” to all families and communities impacted by the disaster.

    With search operations ongoing and the threat of new flooding looming, rescue teams are working around the clock to locate any trapped survivors and recover missing persons across the affected region.

  • Anger in Austria over business park on former Nazi camp site

    Anger in Austria over business park on former Nazi camp site

    A decades-long reckoning with Austria’s Nazi history has reignited in the small town of Leobersdorf, where a planned commercial development on the grounds of a former Nazi forced labour and concentration camp complex has sparked widespread public outcry from historians, Holocaust remembrance groups, and local activists.

    Today, only scattered crumbling concrete fragments hidden in overgrown meadows mark what was once the Weinberglager complex, a sprawling detention facility built shortly after Nazi Germany’s 1938 annexation of Austria. For years, the site held thousands of prisoners of war and forced labourers, and later operated as the Hirtenberg subcamp of Mauthausen, Austria’s second-largest concentration camp for women prisoners. Between September 1944 and April 1945, roughly 400 women—mostly from the Soviet Union, with smaller groups from Italy and Poland—were held at Hirtenberg and forced to produce infantry ammunition at a nearby arms factory. After the end of World War II, most camp structures were demolished, repurposed, or left to decay, leaving only faint underground and surface traces of the atrocities committed there.

    In 2024, plans for a full business park on the 40-kilometre site south of Vienna—covering land that once made up the concentration camp, including a cold storage warehouse and a new outlet for German discount supermarket chain Lidl—were made public, immediately drawing sharp criticism. The Federal Monuments Office of Austria has ruled that surviving traces of the camp are not substantial enough to warrant official protected monument status, clearing the way for construction to begin, and bulldozers have already started preparation work on the site. Activists and international remembrance organizations have since ramped up calls to halt development and preserve the site as a historical memorial.

    For Erich Strobl, who leads a local campaign to protect a portion of the site, the development amounts to sacrificing a site of traumatic historical memory to commercial interests. “For me, it’s a sad feeling, because a place burdened by history is being built over, sacrificed to the economy,” Strobl told reporters. The International Mauthausen Committee, the leading organization advocating for remembrance of the Mauthausen camp system, has taken a firm stance: “A former concentration camp must not be built over with new structures.”

    Josef Pumberger, a board member of the Austrian branch of the Mauthausen Committee, called the ongoing work in 2026 a source of profound outrage. Standing at the site where concrete foundation columns already rise from the ground, Pumberger said he felt “grief, anger, rage, that something like this can happen in Austria in the year 2026.” He argues that the small stele memorial erected at the site in 2024 is insufficient for meaningful remembrance. Without tangible remains of the original camp structures, he says, memory becomes abstract: “It is very important to have tangible evidence of the buildings in which the Nazis imprisoned people, tortured them, killed them. Otherwise it becomes a virtual act of remembrance, or one that exists only in books and photos and films.”

    Controversy has also been stoked by revelations that the land was previously owned by Leobersdorf mayor Andreas Ramharter, who sold the plot in staggered sales in 2022 and 2023 for more than €15 million ($17.5 million), according to local Austrian media. Ramharter declined to comment on the sale or the development when contacted by AFP. The project developer, Austrian firm TRA LEO GmbH & Co KG, has said it is willing to support the creation of a small on-site memorial to camp victims. Lidl has also pushed back against criticism, confirming its plans to open a store but emphasizing that its outlet will be built on an adjacent plot, not directly on the former concentration camp grounds.

    The debate over the Leobersdorf development cuts to the heart of Austria’s ongoing, uneven reckoning with its Nazi past. In the decades immediately after World War II, Austria widely framed itself as an innocent victim of Nazi aggression, overlooking the widespread complicity of Austrian citizens in the Holocaust and Nazi war crimes. It was not until the late 1980s that the country—where Adolf Hitler was born—began a formal public examination of its historical responsibility.

    Bertrand Perz, a leading Austrian historian specializing in the history of the Mauthausen camp system, notes that even a public debate like the one unfolding in Leobersdorf would have been unthinkable in the 1980s, reflecting growing societal sensitivity to the importance of preserving Nazi-era sites. But Perz also notes that this growing demand for remembrance now clashes with a competing cultural impulse: a growing push among segments of the public to “move on” from the discussion of Nazi-era history. This shift has been amplified by the rising political influence of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), a party founded by former Nazis that placed first in 2024 national legislative elections. Though the FPOe failed to form a national governing coalition, it holds power in five of Austria’s nine federal states as part of regional governing coalitions.

    For many residents of central Leobersdorf contacted by reporters, the controversy has either flown under the radar or is a topic they prefer not to address. But for activists and historians, the fate of the Hirtenberg site is about more than just one development project—it is a test of Austria’s commitment to confronting its Nazi past amid shifting political currents that prioritize commercial growth and historical amnesia over remembrance.

  • Sydney’s southwest hit by 3.4 magnitude earthquake leaving homes shaking

    Sydney’s southwest hit by 3.4 magnitude earthquake leaving homes shaking

    On a Friday afternoon in mid-Australia’s New South Wales, a shallow 3.4 magnitude earthquake sent tremors through southwestern Sydney, leaving local residents startled but no structural damage reported. Geoscience Australia confirmed the tremor struck just after 1 p.m. local Australian Eastern Standard Time, with its epicenter located roughly three kilometers underground near the small communities of Douglas Park and Appin, around 50 kilometers southwest of Sydney’s central business district. By late Friday afternoon, close to 400 area residents had filed self-reported experience of the quake through the official government geoscience portal, with many describing sudden, unexpected shaking that mirrored the impact of a vehicle collision or strong gust of wind against residential structures. Security camera footage from a private residence in Menangle Park, later shared publicly by 7News, captured the exact moment the quake hit, showing visible rattling of the property’s interior fixtures. David Baker, a local resident who documents outdoor camping trips on his personal Facebook page, was relaxing in his fifth-floor Campbelltown apartment when the tremor began. “I’ve never felt anything quite like it before,” Baker recalled of the 10-second event. “It felt like the whole block of units was shaking. My wife immediately realized it was an earthquake. Thankfully, nothing in the unit was damaged, but it was definitely quite a shock.” Other locals took to social media to share their jarring experiences, with one user writing, “I thought someone crashed into my front room, everything shook.” Another added, “I felt like a big gust of wind shook my house and realized there was no wind at all.” Geoscience Australia notes that minor magnitude earthquakes are not uncommon in parts of eastern Australia, though large, destructive events are rare in the Sydney region.

  • Trump’s Africa envoy condemns Chad strikes, ‘external support’ in Sudan war

    Trump’s Africa envoy condemns Chad strikes, ‘external support’ in Sudan war

    Three years into Sudan’s devastating civil conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the breakaway Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the war has spilled across international borders, drawing formal condemnation from Washington and exposing deep rifts in international diplomatic efforts to end the crisis.

    On Thursday, Massad Boulos, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for African affairs, issued a public rebuke of the SAF via the social platform X, after Chadian government officials reported bombings in the country’s eastern Ennedi region carried out by Sudan’s military last week.

    “The United States condemns the SAF’s recent air strikes inside Chad,” Boulos wrote. “The violence must stop in Sudan and beyond. There is no military solution to this conflict—and absolutely no justification for expanding the violence beyond Sudan’s borders.”

    Boulos called on both warring factions to immediately implement a humanitarian truce, step up protections for civilian populations, and grant full, unobstructed access for humanitarian aid groups delivering life-saving support to millions of people displaced by the conflict. He also urged the United Nations Security Council, where the U.S. holds veto power, to tighten existing arms embargoes and expand sanctions against parties fueling the fighting. In a key demand, he called for an immediate end to all external financial and military backing for the SAF and RSF, though he notably did not name the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – a major power accused of arming the RSF – nor provide any explanation for why the SAF launched the cross-border strikes.

    Multiple reports have already linked the UAE to the RSF’s war effort: the United Nations has confirmed the Gulf state routes weapons shipments to the paramilitary group via Chadian territory, and reporting from Middle East Eye has documented how Chad forms the core of the UAE’s logistics network supplying the RSF. The UAE’s overt role in the conflict has been so consequential that Mohamed Abdulla Idris, Sudan’s ambassador to the U.S., said last year that Khartoum would reject any peace negotiation that includes Abu Dhabi as a mediator.

    “It’s unacceptable to us,” Idris told reporters. “The United Arab Emirates is a party to the conflict, so it cannot play both roles – become a party, and then become a mediator, no.”

    For its part, the SAF has defended its cross-border strike, saying it acted to protect Sudan’s “sovereignty, security, and safety” when it targeted a military convoy inside Chadian territory last week. In response to the incursion, Chadian security officials raised the country’s threat alert to the maximum level and deployed 100 armored vehicles along with drone-jamming technology to the eastern border shared with Sudan, according to a Chadian security source who spoke to Reuters.

    Boulos’s condemnation quickly drew pushback from regional experts, who criticized the statement for being one-sided and ignoring longstanding accusations that Chad has allowed its territory to be used to supply the RSF. Cameron Hudson, an Africa specialist and former U.S. State Department official, responded directly to Boulos’s post on X, asking: “Why hasn’t he condemned Chad allowing its territory to be used to arm the RSF for the last several years? Statements like this do absolutely nothing to advance a diplomatic solution.”

    The rebuke also comes amid growing scrutiny of the failure of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to resolve the Sudan conflict. Back in February, Boulos announced that the U.S. had finalized a comprehensive peace plan for Sudan’s civil war, drafted with the approval of the so-called Quad – a quartet of regional and global powers including the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt formed to coordinate peace efforts. The Quad first unveiled a framework roadmap to end fighting between the SAF and RSF last September, and Boulos said at the time the full, detailed peace plan had been three months in the making and would be publicly unveiled in mid-February, claiming it would be acceptable to both warring parties.

    To date, the plan has never been released. When pressed by reporters, Boulos declined to name the specific obstacles or parties blocking the plan’s release, only describing it as “quite comprehensive.” The five-pillar plan was structured to address the immediate humanitarian crisis, protect civilians and coordinate their safe return to displaced areas, establish a permanent ceasefire, launch a political transition to a civilian-led government, and set up a dedicated reconstruction fund, Boulos previously said, naming the UK, Norway, and Egypt as key partners working on the transition framework.

    The U.S. has long been careful to avoid straining bilateral relations with the UAE over its role in the Sudan conflict, a dynamic that has undermined Washington’s credibility as a neutral broker, analysts say.

  • Death toll from flash floods rises with rescuers in Nepal and China working to find hundreds missing

    Death toll from flash floods rises with rescuers in Nepal and China working to find hundreds missing

    KATHMANDU, Nepal – Authorities confirmed Friday that the death toll from catastrophic flash floods striking the Nepal-China border region has climbed to 469, as rescue teams race against time to locate hundreds of unaccounted-for people still missing in the disaster zone. Just two days prior, officials had reported a combined death toll of 393 across Nepal and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, with more than 1,400 people listed as missing across both areas in the wake of the Wednesday disaster.

    Nepalese government officials report that hundreds of trapped people have already been pulled from flood and debris wreckage by rescue teams. Dozens of injured survivors are currently receiving inpatient medical care in Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu. Among those still unaccounted for are foreign nationals from multiple countries, including numerous long-distance trekkers and religious pilgrims who were visiting the sacred Himalayan region when the floods hit.

    Graphic photographs and footage from the hardest-hit areas paint a devastating picture of the destruction. In Nepal’s Nuwakot district, one of the worst-impacted regions, entire buildings and public streets are coated in thick layers of mud, tangled debris is caught in tree branches, and dazed survivors covered in silt wait for aid. On the Chinese side of the border, in Tibet’s Shigatse prefecture, a major two-lane riverside highway was completely buried by rushing mud and rock. Aerial surveys have also documented a newly formed, expanding natural lake trapped behind debris at the border, with officials issuing urgent warnings that the debris dam could fail and trigger a second catastrophic flood.

    For families connected to the region living thousands of miles away, the disaster has brought unbearable grief. Rajan Tamang, a restaurant owner based in New York City, shared that he received word from relatives in Kathmandu that his mother and sister were among the confirmed fatalities, while dozens more family members and friends remain unaccounted for. “My family was just waking up, and they didn’t even get any warning, and suddenly this flood came. Some of them are missing, some lost their lives, only a few survived,” Tamang told the Associated Press after a memorial vigil held for victims in New York.

    As of the latest update, around 90 U.S. citizens are still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the floods, according to related U.S. official reports. The disaster has also drawn renewed international attention to the growing risks of glacial outburst events in the warming Himalayan mountain range, a threat that scientists have warned about for decades.

    U.S. President Donald Trump commented on the scale of the destruction during a press meeting at the White House, noting that the flood damage was “terrible to see,” adding that even “strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks.” Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that U.S. officials had spoken with Nepalese government leadership and that the U.S. has extended an open offer to provide “anything they want” in terms of disaster relief and recovery support.

    Researchers who have analyzed recent satellite imagery of the region have pinpointed the root cause of the disaster: the collapse of bedrock beneath a high-altitude Himalayan glacier. The collapse pulled a large portion of the glacial ice down with it, sending a surge of rock, debris and melted glacial water into the river valleys below. The resulting torrent, which at points reached several stories in height, swept away buildings, bridges, and entire swathes of riverbank as it rushed downstream into populated border areas.

  • Tate brothers blast US jail conditions as they seek bail in UK extradition fight

    Tate brothers blast US jail conditions as they seek bail in UK extradition fight

    A high-profile extradition hearing unfolded in a Florida federal court this week, where controversial influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate pleaded for release from U.S. custody, pushing back against British authorities’ bid to extradite them to face dozens of serious criminal charges including rape and human trafficking.

    Appearing in court in shackles and standard tan jail uniforms, the dual British-American citizens took the stand to assert their innocence and decry the conditions of their detention, which they described as unfit and harmful to their ability to prepare a legal defense. The 39-year-old Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer who rose to massive fame as a polarizing figure in online men’s culture, told the court he has never committed the crimes prosecutors have accused him of. His 38-year-old brother Tristan went further, detailing harsh conditions: he described his cell as small, sweltering, and deprived of adequate sunlight and exercise opportunities. He told the court the poor conditions were already taking a physical toll, reporting he has lost 14 pounds (6.3 kilograms) since being taken into custody, and quipped that the limited access to nutritious food amounted to “death by scurvy.” Tristan added that the locked-up conditions prevent him from contributing meaningfully to his own defense, framing the current detention as a severe unfair disadvantage ahead of the extradition process.

    The core dispute of the hearing centered on whether the brothers qualify for bail. Prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice argued the pair is a high flight risk, pointing to past public statements where the brothers bragged about holding multiple passports and highlighting their access to significant hidden wealth that could fund an escape attempt. Prosecutors pushed back against the defense’s claim that the brothers’ online persona of extreme wealth was exaggerated for clicks and audience growth, maintaining that the Tates do retain the resources to flee the country if released.

    Defense attorneys countered that the pair’s massive global public profile would make any attempt to disappear impossible. They also noted that the brothers already complied with court-ordered release terms during ongoing legal proceedings in Romania, where they face separate sex trafficking charges dating back to 2022. The brothers were released from Romanian travel restrictions in 2025, allowing them to travel to the U.S. ahead of their latest arrest. Andrew Tate told the court that many of his controversial public statements were simply calculated to gain attention in a crowded online landscape, admitting “I’ve said some stupid things, but sometimes you have to shake the internet to get noticed.” He argued that he is being unfairly treated like a notorious organized crime leader, comparing his detention to that of Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo, while noting what he called a clean prior court record. Under defense questioning, Andrew Tate flatly denied allegations that he is a human trafficker. His defense team called a witness, Natasha Sesay, a British woman who says she has had a five-year romantic relationship with Andrew Tate and is expecting her second child with him. Sesay testified in support of bail, telling the court that Andrew Tate has never been violent toward her or any other woman, contradicting the core allegations of the British charges.

    The legal process unfolded after U.S. authorities arrested the brothers in Miami on July 19, just after the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced 38 new criminal charges against the pair, bringing the total number of UK charges to 59. The original 21 charges were filed in 2023, and the combined case includes allegations of rape, sex trafficking, and possession of indecent images of children, involving seven separate accusers according to UK prosecutors. British authorities have until September 16 to submit a full formal extradition request to U.S. officials, and the British Embassy has submitted court documents supporting the prosecution’s push to keep the brothers in custody through the extradition process.

    Testifying on Thursday, Tristan Tate expressed grave concern about the outcome of extradition, telling the court “If I go to England they will lock me up, and take everything I’ve ever worked for.” He added that the ongoing Romanian legal proceedings have already upended his life, saying “They took everything, even the savings accounts for their [his children’s] college funds. This case is make or break for me.”

    The Tates built a massive online influencer brand centered on the so-called “manosphere,” cultivating an image of extreme, conspicuous wealth and lavish excess that drew millions of followers, most of them young men. The brothers have been open about their support for former U.S. President Donald Trump, but the White House has already confirmed that Trump will not intervene in the extradition case.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis has not yet issued a ruling, and said she will release a written decision on the bail request at a future, unspecified date.

  • In Zambia, a Shaolin Temple offers a softer face of China

    In Zambia, a Shaolin Temple offers a softer face of China

    Eighteen kilometers north of Zambia’s capital Lusaka, a sprawling cultural complex nestled into the local landscape evokes a striking, unexpected echo of central China. To first-time observers, the golden-roofed pagoda and traditional architecture can almost feel like a mirage – a piece of China transplanted into southern African soil. This is Africa’s very first Shaolin Temple, launched in 2021 to bring the centuries-old Buddhist monastic and martial arts tradition to the continent.

  • Clashes in Spain’s Ceuta month after mass migrant influx

    Clashes in Spain’s Ceuta month after mass migrant influx

    One month after a sudden, chaotic surge of migrant crossings from Morocco into Spain’s tiny North African enclave of Ceuta, long-simmering local frustrations boiled over into violent clashes between residents and Spanish police Thursday.

    The small territory, measuring just 18 square kilometers, has been grappling with simmering unrest since more than 70,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta in late July, many swimming across the border or entering on foot. The unprecedented influx left dozens dead and sparked new friction within the European Union over migration policy. While the vast majority of arrivals returned to Morocco within hours, an estimated 3,500 to 10,000 migrants remain in the territory, with hundreds camping rough on local beaches and hundreds more unaccompanied minors requiring care.

    Local tensions reached a breaking point this week. Early Thursday, a police spokesperson confirmed that a military vehicle carrying four Spanish soldiers was ambushed by roughly 70 migrants, who pelted the vehicle with stones and other projectiles. All four soldiers fled the scene and called for police backup; one soldier suffered only minor injuries, and officers ultimately detained 12 Moroccan migrants in connection with the attack. No clear motive for the assault has been released as of yet.

    The violence quickly spread to the beach where hundreds of migrants have been camping without formal shelter. Dozens of local protesters first staged a sit-in to block Red Cross vehicles from delivering food and supplies to migrants, with demonstrators waving Spanish flags and chanting slogans calling for all migrants to leave Ceuta and demanding the aid organization exit the area. When protesters moved into the migrant camp area on the beach, police moved to disperse the crowd, with public television footage showing some personal belongings set ablaze during the unrest. The clashes came just hours after police used tear gas Wednesday night to break up potential confrontations between local protesters and migrant camp residents.

    Ceuta residents have staged repeated protests over the past month, citing widespread public safety risks and unsanitary conditions created by the large unhoused migrant population. Speaking to Spanish news radio SER Thursday, Kissy Chandiramani, finance councillor for the autonomous city’s government, described the atmosphere as extremely tense, saying local residents feel abandoned by the central government in Madrid with no clear solution to the crisis. Still, Chandiramani called for calm, affirming that while locals have a right to protest, rising hostility will not resolve the ongoing emergency.

    Spain’s left-wing national government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, has come under intense criticism from local leaders and opposition parties for its slow response to the crisis. The criticism has intensified after Sanchez proceeded with his scheduled summer vacation as the situation worsened, only convening a meeting of the national security council after he returned to the capital earlier this week.

    In recent days, the central government has taken steps to ramp up its response. The Interior Ministry announced Thursday it would deploy additional personnel to speed up migrant identification processing, and the cabinet approved 25 million euros in new funding to care for unaccompanied minor migrants, who are guaranteed special legal protections under Spanish and EU law. On Tuesday, the cabinet approved the creation of a unified “single command” structure to coordinate the response in Ceuta, led by Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres. Justice Minister Felix Bolanos told lawmakers in Madrid this week that authorities are working “without rest” to return Ceuta to normalcy, and have already begun expanding temporary shelter space and accelerating processes to determine which migrants qualify for asylum and which will be deported back to Morocco.

    The migration crisis has deepened existing political divisions across Spain, just months ahead of a scheduled national general election. Conservative and far-right opposition parties have called for the immediate deportation of all remaining migrants. Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of Spain’s main opposition bloc, criticized the government’s response in a post on X Thursday, saying Ceuta residents have been left to handle the crisis alone for a full month. “Nothing was done to prevent the invasion … and nothing is being done to stop the public-order crisis that is worsening every day,” Feijoo wrote.