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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.

A sharp escalation of Israeli military operations across Gaza over the past 24 hours has left five Palestinians dead, according to official updates from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, deepening an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.

The latest wave of violence unfolded in rapid succession on Tuesday morning, when at least seven separate airstrikes struck a district west of Gaza City in just 10 minutes. One of the strikes claimed the life of a Palestinian child. Simultaneously, Israeli ground forces opened fire in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah, killing a second child in that incident.

Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported widespread chaos across Gaza City in the wake of the intensified strikes, with witnesses counting 10 consecutive explosions in al-Kateeba, one of the most densely populated residential neighborhoods in the city. Palestinian journalist Abdulrahman Ismail, reporting from the ground on the social platform X, confirmed that the targeting was concentrated in an area located just meters from a field hospital, surrounded by thousands of temporary tents housing internally displaced Palestinians who have fled previous rounds of fighting.

Ismail detailed that after the initial airstrikes, Israeli quadcopter drones surrounded the entire zone, opening fire and dropping ordnance on any person seen moving in the area, while sounds of active ground clashes echoed from surrounding areas. He added that Israeli drones quickly spread across the full expanse of Gaza City, with witnesses reporting smoke billowing over the Al-Shati refugee camp. The on-the-ground reporting notes that the current operational pattern bears a deeply unsettling similarity to past missions carried out by Israeli special forces inside Gaza, though the full details of the current operation have not yet been confirmed. Ismail also emphasized that hundreds of civilian residents remain trapped in the targeted area, with no safe route to evacuate.

Mai Elawawda, communications officer for Medical Aid for Palestine based in Gaza, described the unrelenting pressure on civilian populations in the enclave. “Israeli military attacks have not stopped all week,” she said. “We are all constantly stressed that anywhere can be evacuated or attacked by Israeli forces at any moment.”

Since the current conflict began in October 2023, more than 73,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli operations in Gaza, according to local health authorities. As the crisis enters its eleventh month, international aid organizations are sounding the alarm that the approaching winter rainy season will push the already broken humanitarian system to a breaking point. The vast majority of Gaza’s civilian population now lives in severely overcrowded tent camps, built amid rubble-strewn landscapes and surrounded by overflowing, untreated sewage that creates persistent public health hazards.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforced these warnings in a briefing Tuesday, confirming that water access and quality for Gaza’s population has deteriorated sharply over recent months, while cases of waterborne diarrheal disease have spiked dramatically. “Whilst we fail to provide people with the minimum quantities of water, water quality and water contamination remains a major issue,” explained Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, WHO’s representative to the Palestinian territories, during a press briefing in Geneva.

Joint data collected by the United Nations, European Union and World Bank shows that Israeli military operations have damaged or destroyed nearly 90 percent of all existing water and sanitation infrastructure across Gaza. Van de Weerdt shared new analysis of more than 6,700 water samples collected between January and August 2024, which found that microbiological contamination of drinking water has nearly tripled over the course of the year. Contamination rates rose from less than 6 percent in January to more than 18 percent by August, putting hundreds of thousands of residents at direct risk of life-threatening illness.

Two prominent advocacy organizations, the Labour Muslim Network (LMN) — an internal group affiliated with the UK’s Labour Party — and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), have released a formal legal briefing calling on Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s new administration to move quickly with sweeping measures to address Israel’s controversial E1 settlement development initiative. The policy-focused briefing, titled “Priority Measures for UK Policy on Palestine”, arrives ahead of an expected announcement from the Downing Street government this month outlining a new package of policy responses to Israeli settlement activity, which has drawn widespread global condemnation for its violations of international law.
Last month, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed the government would roll out targeted measures against Israel over the E1 project, which is being developed east of Jerusalem. If completed, the development would physically bisect the occupied West Bank, eliminating any geographic continuity for a future contiguous Palestinian state. In comments shared with independent outlet Middle East Eye (MEE), LMN warned that the Israeli government’s E1 plan poses an existential threat to the possibility of a sovereign, viable Palestinian state.
The organization emphasized that illegal expansion of Israeli settlements, escalating violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities, and the forced displacement of Palestinian families from their land in the West Bank are accelerating at an unprecedented rate. “The UK government and the international community as a whole must act urgently and comprehensively in response to this destructive proposal before potentially irreversible damage is done,” the group added.
MEE’s prior reporting from last month revealed that Burnham’s administration is preparing to unveil a suite of new policies on Israel as early as September, with one of the most high-profile proposals being a full import ban on goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements. Multiple sources familiar with internal government discussions note that Miliband has been a leading advocate for stronger action, holding extensive consultations with civil society organizations to shape the upcoming policy package.
The push for tough measures has sparked pushback, however, from pro-Israel lobbying groups that are actively pressuring the government to water down its proposals and abandon plans for a full ban on settlement-produced food imports. In the new briefing, the two advocacy groups outline a clear legal foundation for their demands, noting that international humanitarian law — which binds the UK as a signatory to core international treaties — clearly establishes that settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal. Under Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, the UK is obligated not only to uphold international humanitarian law itself, but to ensure other parties respect it in all circumstances, the briefing argues.
To meet this legal obligation, the briefing calls on the UK government to adopt a firm, actionable policy framework to address Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. Key recommendations include a complete ban on economic and financial activity by British citizens and businesses in illegal settlements, as well as a prohibition on any activities that support the broader illegal settlement economy.
Internal divides within the Labour Party have come to the fore over the issue. Earlier this month, Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a pro-Israel internal lobby group that counts more than 70 sitting Members of Parliament among its affiliates, published its own report that effectively justifies the presence of some illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land and urged the government to reject an import ban on settlement goods.
Despite LFI’s lobbying, Burnham faces substantial pressure from Labour backbenchers to implement a full trade ban with illegal settlements. Public opinion among Labour’s own membership is overwhelmingly in favor of action: polling conducted earlier this year found that 87% of registered Labour members support a trade ban on settlement goods, with just 6% opposing the measure.
Beyond the trade ban, the LMN-ICJP briefing puts forward additional policy recommendations. It calls on the UK Foreign Office to release regular public reports to Parliament on the status of religious sites across occupied Palestinian territories, documenting violations, access restrictions, and intimidation targeting worshippers and clergy of all faiths. The briefing argues that documenting the gradual erosion of the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites and the targeting of Muslim and Christian Palestinian communities will help hold violators accountable and inform future policy and sanction decisions. It also urges the UK to push for a new United Nations Security Council resolution that would deploy international observers to monitor religious rights violations and protect the status quo at Jerusalem’s sacred sites.
Another critical policy area under review by the Burnham administration is UK arms sales to Israel. In September 2024, shortly after taking office, the previous Starmer government suspended roughly 30 arms export licenses for UK-produced military hardware, after an assessment found a clear risk that the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. At that time, licenses for direct exports of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel were suspended, but a key exemption was made for components sent to a global F-35 spare parts pool that can eventually end up in Israeli aircraft. UK-made components make up 15% of every F-35 jet, one of the world’s most advanced combat aircraft, which Israel relied on heavily for its military campaigns in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
The new briefing argues that as a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, the UK is legally required to close this loophole. It calls on the government to suspend all remaining arms export licenses to Israel, including licenses for F-35 components entering the global supply chain when those UK-origin parts could ultimately be used to support Israeli military operations.

Nearly one week after catastrophic flash floods swept through Nepal and neighboring Tibet, Nepali army officials have confirmed that one unidentified British national was among 119 people pulled to safety from flood-ravaged regions. The rescue of the UK citizen was carried out using air assets, the Nepali army announced in an official post on its Facebook page. Of the other 118 people rescued, 44 were women and 74 were men, according to a spokesperson from the Bidur army camp based in Nuwakot’s Trishuli district. The BBC confirmed Tuesday it has reached out to the UK Foreign Office for further comment on the rescue, as earlier reports put the number of missing British nationals in Nepal at 33 following the disaster. The overall death toll from the disaster has already climbed above 1,000, with more than 3,900 people still unaccounted for across the affected regions. Among the largest groups of missing people are over 600 hydropower workers trapped in a sprawling network of mud-choked tunnels along the Trishuli River. Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah confirmed Monday that 279 of these trapped workers have already been pulled out by rescue teams. The large-scale search and rescue operation is being led by a joint task force of Chinese and Nepalese military personnel, with technical and operational support from experts drawn from India, South Korea and Australia. Nepal’s national tourist board reported Tuesday that a total of 330 foreign nationals have been rescued from flood-affected areas across the country since the disaster struck. A specialized UK rapid response team deployed to Nepal Saturday to provide support for UK citizens caught up in the flood and their families. Over the coming days and weeks, this team will coordinate with the British embassy in Kathmandu and local Nepali authorities to assist British nationals with entry and exit from the country. The deployment comes after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (corrected from misattribution in original input) announced the UK government would provide £5 million in humanitarian aid to support Nepal’s flood response, describing the disaster as an “unimaginably distressing and devastating situation” that demanded a swift international response. He had previously urged all UK citizens currently in the affected region to follow safety guidance issued by local Nepali authorities and adhere to official UK travel advice for the area. The disaster was triggered early on the morning of Wednesday, when sudden flash floods hit the district of Rasuwa, located just north of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. Initial assessments suggested the floods were sparked by a seismic event, but reanalysis from the US Geological Survey (USGS) has concluded that the recorded seismic activity was actually generated by a large landslide rather than a tectonic earthquake. USGS confirmed that the 5.2-magnitude seismic signal recorded at 08:37 local time (03:52 GMT) on the day of the flood was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a massive debris flow along the Nepal-Tibet border. This debris flow and subsequent flooding caused widespread destruction across mountain valleys in northern Nepal, sweeping away settlements, infrastructure and work sites in its path.

Fresh regional tensions have flared across the Middle East after U.S. forces carried out a deadly airstrike on Iran’s Larak Island over the weekend, marking the first direct American military action on Iranian territory since July and stoking widespread fears of a wider regional escalation. In the aftermath of the strike that claimed the lives of multiple Iranian soldiers and civilians, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has extended a conditional offer of de-escalation to U.S. President Donald Trump, balancing a firm warning of retaliation against future aggression with an opening for diplomatic progress.

Speaking to reporters on Monday ahead of his departure for Bishkek to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Pezeshkian made clear Iran’s core position: the country has no intention of initiating open conflict, but will not remain passive in the face of hostile action. Cited by Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency, the president emphasized that any new attack on Iranian soil would be met with a forceful, decisive response from Tehran. At the same time, he outlined a clear path to de-escalation, confirming that Iran would immediately take reciprocal steps to meet Washington halfway if the U.S. honors its obligations under the interim nuclear and diplomatic agreement signed by the two parties in June.

“I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” Pezeshkian said in remarks published on the official website of the Iranian presidency.

The Sunday strike on Larak Island, confirmed by Iran’s national broadcaster IRIB, triggered an immediate formal complaint from Tehran to the United Nations. In a letter submitted to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday by Gholamhossein Darzi, Iran’s deputy permanent representative to the world body, Tehran denounced the attack as a blatant breach of Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Darzi further accused the U.S. and other parties involved in the strike of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of ongoing hostilities against Iran, noting that while Iran had exercised deliberate restraint up to this point, its military would not hesitate to defend the country’s territory and people with full force in response to any future attacks.

Beyond the military and diplomatic fallout, the escalating tensions have already rippled through global energy markets, given that the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies transit, sits just off Iran’s coast. Earlier escalations already forced shipping disruptions after Iran temporarily restricted access to the waterway, causing significant damage to global economic stability. Early ship-tracking data compiled by analytics firm Kpler shows that shipping traffic through the strait held relatively steady on Monday, with five commercial commodity vessels recorded transiting the waterway: four entered the route, one exited, including an empty handy-sized gas carrier that took the Iranian shipping lane and three loaded dry bulk carriers.

On the domestic economic front, Iranian officials moved quickly this week to calm market jitters amid heightened U.S. sanctions pressure. Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati announced Tuesday that Iran maintains adequate foreign currency reserves to weather the current pressure, pushing back against claims of imminent economic collapse. “I am telling the president of the United States: Iran has (foreign) currency and it has enough,” Hemmati said. The governor confirmed the central bank stands ready to inject up to $2 billion into the foreign exchange market to stabilize recent volatility, adding that the institution continues to collect all outstanding foreign currency receivables and holds both domestic reserves and additional contingency resources.

Addressing the Iranian public directly, Hemmati acknowledged that current economic conditions and everyday livelihood challenges have grown significantly difficult, but dismissed narratives of an imminent economic breakdown as baseless psychological warfare. “These claims are just psychological warfare and the dust will settle soon,” he stressed.