标签： Asia

The capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, is this week hosting the high-profile Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which has drawn heads of state from major global powers including China, Russia, and India, as observers frame the bloc as a growing counterweight to long-standing Western-dominated global governance structures.

The summit’s agenda includes formal plenary sessions and a packed slate of bilateral meetings on its sidelines. Among the most anticipated talks are a Monday meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by discussions between Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian scheduled for Tuesday, the date of the bloc’s official main summit sessions.

For two key member states facing intense geopolitical friction with the West, the gathering offers a critical opportunity to deepen ties with other non-Western nations. Russia is now four and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while Iran has been engaged in open conflict with the U.S. and Israel for six months; both view the SCO platform as a space to strengthen economic and political alignment with partners across the Global East and Global South.

Founded in 2001 by China, Russia and four Central Asian republics as a regional security dialogue forum, the SCO has expanded dramatically in size and geopolitical clout over the past 24 years, even as its core institutional mandates and public profile remain relatively underdefined outside member states. Today, the bloc counts 10 full member states: China, Russia, India, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, with dozens more countries holding formal dialogue partner status.

Alongside Russia, China has positioned the SCO as a viable alternative to Western-led multilateral blocs such as the G7, making active pushes over the past decade to expand the organization’s geographic reach and policy scope, while pledging billions in development and financial assistance to member and partner states. Last week, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the bloc has successfully “explored a new path for regional cooperation,” with Beijing consistently advancing a vision for a multipolar alternative global order with Moscow’s backing.

Despite the framing of the SCO as a unified counterweight to Western influence, analysts emphasize that the bloc remains far from a cohesive political or military alliance, with deep-seated divergent interests and long-running disagreements between many of its core members.

For India, which shares tense border relations with China and has a long-standing territorial and geopolitical rivalry with fellow member Pakistan, experts frame the summit as more an exercise in strategic signaling than a venue for groundbreaking substantive outcomes.

Dinakar Peri, a security studies fellow at Carnegie India, explained that the SCO’s real value for New Delhi lies in giving India a seat at the table in a region increasingly defined by great power competition. “While it may not entirely shape the agenda, it gives New Delhi a first-hand view of the region and allows it to hedge its position with others,” Peri noted, adding that membership lets India protect its core interests, track shifting geopolitical trends, and project itself as a reliable regional stakeholder.

Turkey, which has held SCO dialogue partner status since 2012, is also using the summit to advance its long-held goal of full membership. For Ankara, SCO membership fits into a long-running strategy of balanced foreign policy: it maintains long-standing institutional ties to the West as a NATO member, while seeking to expand its political and economic influence across Eurasia. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly reiterated his push for full permanent membership, a move that comes as Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the European Union remains effectively stalled, even as the country retains a close 1995 trade deal with the bloc. The meeting’s reporting was supported by contributions from correspondents Andrew Wilks in Istanbul, Huizhong Wu in Bangkok, and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi.

KOROR, Palau — Against the backdrop of a calm tropical archipelago with no traffic lights, far from the global diplomatic hubs of New York and Davos, leaders from some of the world’s smallest sovereign states have gathered for the annual Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting. For this year’s gathering, the tiny host nation Palau, which has a permanent population of just 18,000, has seen its population jump to 20,000 with the arrival of delegates from dozens of participating nations and territories.

In the lead-up to the summit’s official opening on Monday, local communities mobilized to welcome guests: Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. joined senior government officials in cleaning litter along the island’s main coastal road, while local barbers and tattoo artists stepped in to volunteer as drivers for delegates, and student groups prepared to guide visiting dignitaries. But beyond this distinctly warm, unhurried Pacific welcome, a tense, escalating geopolitical dispute simmers beneath the surface, centered on which global powers will shape the future of this vast ocean region.

Over the past several years, major global powers have raced to cement strategic alliances among Pacific island nations, intensifying a high-stakes contest for regional influence that pits China against the United States, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. These competing overtures have drawn deep dividing lines among the Forum’s 18 member states and territories, threatening to derail the annual gathering that has long served as the region’s premier diplomatic body.

“The Pacific is our home, not a theater for geopolitical competition,” President Whipps told reporters on Sunday. He urged major global powers closely monitoring the week’s talks to stay out of internal discussions, which he said should center on the existential threats facing small Pacific island nations: accelerating climate change and collapsing local economies. “Let’s not use this as a place that we should be threatening or making people feel uncomfortable,” he added. But observers warn the reality of the summit will be far from simple.

Many Pacific Islands Forum members, some of which count their populations in the low thousands or tens of thousands, were long known primarily as idyllic tropical tourist destinations. Today, however, these nations hold outsized strategic and economic importance: most control sprawling, resource-rich exclusive economic zones brimming with commercial fisheries and untapped seabed minerals, and their positions across the breadth of the Pacific have made them key strategic nodes amid rising global tensions, turning small island states into sought-after international allies.

While Forum members often refer to themselves as a “Pacific family,” they encompass diverse cultures and political systems, and their geographic isolation means leaders rarely have the chance to meet in person. For decades, the annual leaders’ summit was a relaxed, informal affair, where small states with little global clout sought to amplify their collective voice by agreeing to unified positions — most notably, pushing wealthy major emitters to cut greenhouse gas emissions as rising sea levels began to threaten low-lying atoll nations with complete submersion.

But over the past decade, as major powers have ramped up efforts to secure access to Pacific waters and port infrastructure by signing security agreements, offering large-scale funding, expanded immigration access and other incentives, the Forum’s longstanding ability to speak with one unified voice has fractured. The body’s traditional “Pacific Way” of decision-making — which requires consensus rather than a majority vote to move forward — has increasingly struggled to overcome these divides.

“We see examples of this where that consensus-based model, which is referred to as the Pacific Way, can sometimes lead to a bit of paralysis in taking action,” explained Oliver Nobetau, Pacific Islands program director at the Australian think tank the Lowy Institute. A recent high-profile example underscored this weakness: when Forum foreign ministers gathered earlier this year, they failed to reach a consensus on a statement criticizing China’s July launch of a ballistic missile into the South Pacific. While most members strongly opposed the launch, the refusal of just two states to endorse the statement meant no official statement could be released at all.

“At this point in time when Pacific Islands are facing a lot of acute security issues, decision-making is paramount for this summit,” Nobetau said. “We’ll be looking to see if President Whipps can sort of steer the forum to take tangible action.”

Beyond geopolitical rivalry, Pacific nations are grappling with a cascade of immediate, urgent crises. The current El Niño event has triggered extreme weather across the region, bringing severe droughts and destructive floods that threaten already fragile food security and clean water access. Most island nations rely heavily on imported goods and depend on foreign aid to balance their budgets, leaving them extremely vulnerable to these shocks. Compounding this, global fuel volatility stemming from ongoing Middle East tensions has triggered severe economic disruption across the region, which is almost entirely dependent on imported diesel and gasoline delivered through a fragile global supply chain — several nations have already declared national emergencies in response.

President Whipps has proposed a path forward for wealthy powers seeking regional involvement: opening their coffers to fund the widespread installation of solar energy infrastructure across the Pacific, helping the region transition away from fossil fuels. “What are they doing together with us to partner to get a 100% renewable Pacific?” he asked this week.

Geopolitical tensions are set to dominate much of the summit’s discourse, however. Palau is one of only 12 countries worldwide that maintains formal diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, a stance that has drawn consistent pushback from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory. The island nation also sits at the center of other great power competition: located in the western Pacific adjacent to the Philippines, Palau draws significant tourism from Asian markets and maintains closer ties to the United States than most Forum members, under a Compact of Free Association that grants U.S. defense and security access to Palauan territory in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in annual U.S. funding.

This year’s summit also finds leaders once again attempting to finalize rules governing the participation of non-member states in Forum meetings. Approved participating nations such as the U.S. and China hold formal “dialogue partner” status, while Taiwan holds separate standing as a development partner. Beijing has increasingly pressured Forum hosts to bar Taiwanese envoys from the annual summit; this dispute grew so acrimonious ahead of the 2025 summit set to be hosted by the Solomon Islands that all non-member delegates were ultimately barred from attending entirely. This year, Palau’s close diplomatic ties to Taipei have allowed Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung to attend the summit, drawing a formal warning from Beijing that it opposes Taiwanese participation.

The prospect of another summit overshadowed by non-member great power rivalry has sparked frustration among Pacific officials and regional analysts. Over the weekend, the gathering was already hit by unexpected upheaval: newly elected Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale, who is seen as more aligned with Australia than his Beijing-leaning predecessor, flew home just hours after arriving in Koror after a domestic political opponent launched a leadership challenge. It remains unclear how much his sudden departure, alongside the absence of other leaders including Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, whose administration has warmed ties with Beijing, stems from unease over the summit’s geopolitical dynamics.

“You’d be defying gravity and logic if you said it wasn’t a big problem,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters told reporters in Koror on Sunday, referring to repeated attempts at foreign interference in the Forum’s work. The absence of key leaders was “seriously disappointing” and did not help the summit’s work, Peters added, but noted “in the main the delegations are of the highest standard. So let’s see how we go.”

As Indonesia grapples with the extreme environmental impacts of an intense super El Niño event, one 17-year-old volunteer firefighter has captured global attention for an unexpected choice that has turned him into an online sensation. Against the backdrop of scorching temperatures, prolonged dry conditions, and widespread wildfire outbreaks that have ravaged parts of the archipelago, this young volunteer has stepped up to serve his community while clad in a full Superman costume, turning a routine volunteer shift into a moment that has resonated with people across social media platforms.

Super El Niño events, defined by unusually strong warming of Pacific sea surface temperatures, typically bring dramatic shifts to global weather patterns, and Indonesia has been hit particularly hard this cycle. The prolonged dry spell triggered by the climate event has created ideal conditions for uncontrolled wildfires, which spread rapidly across vegetation and agricultural land, straining official firefighting resources and forcing local communities to mobilize civilian volunteers to contain the blazes.

Rather than shrink from the challenge, the teen decided to bring a dose of hope and inspiration to a grim situation by suiting up as one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of heroism. Images and videos of him working alongside other volunteer firefighters, his iconic Superman suit standing out against the smoke and charred landscape, quickly spread across TikTok, Instagram, and other social platforms, racking up millions of views and thousands of shares in just days. Online users have praised the teen for turning a dangerous, draining mission into a reminder of everyday courage, celebrating his blend of community service and playful creativity that has lifted spirits amid a devastating climate event.

While the teen’s costume has drawn most of the public’s attention, his work as a volunteer underscores the larger strain that extreme climate events place on local communities across Indonesia. As official fire crews work around the clock to contain blazes that threaten residential areas, rainforests, and agricultural operations, civilian volunteers like the 17-year-old play a critical role in supporting response efforts, filling gaps left by stretched government resources. What started as a small, personal gesture to lift morale has now put a global spotlight on both the grassroots response to Indonesia’s wildfire crisis and the ongoing impacts of super El Niño on Southeast Asian nations.

A devastating flood crisis continues to unfold across Nepal, where unrelenting heavy rainfall has turned critical transportation routes into slippery mud traps, leaving emergency relief vehicles stranded and thousands of flood-affected residents waiting for rescue amid growing safety risks.

Weeks of abnormal monsoon downpours have already triggered widespread flooding and landslides across the Himalayan nation, destroying thousands of homes, cutting off remote communities, and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. As emergency response teams race to deliver food, clean water, medical supplies, and shelter to hard-hit regions, the rapidly changing and unpredictable weather has created unprecedented obstacles for relief operations.

Many of the rural roads already damaged by floodwaters have become completely impassable after fresh rain saturated the soil, turning paved and unpaved routes alike into quagmires. Multiple convoys carrying life-saving aid have been stuck for hours, some even partially submerged in mudslides along mountain highways, delaying critical support to communities that have been cut off from outside assistance for days.

Rescue officials told reporters that the erratic rainfall not only blocks access routes but also makes aerial rescue operations — a key tool for reaching isolated mountain communities — far riskier. Low-hanging clouds, poor visibility, and sudden wind gusts have grounded rescue helicopters multiple times this week, leaving ground teams unable to reach stranded populations and the waiting public in limbo.

As the monsoon season enters its wettest phase, humanitarian organizations warn that the window for rescuing trapped residents and delivering critical aid is narrowing, with the risk of more landslides and flood-related damage growing by the day.

For over 20 consecutive hours, Israeli military forces have blocked the sole access point to the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian state news agency Wafa has confirmed. The closure comes in the wake of a coordinated incursion into the village Friday, where Israeli troops were joined by armed Israeli settlers who carried out targeted attacks on local residents and attempted to seize livestock belonging to Palestinian families.

Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, citing on-the-ground local sources, reports that settlers successfully stole 15 lambs during the raid, and one additional sheep was found shot and wounded. Three Palestinian villagers were injured in the violence: one was hit by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces, while the other two were assaulted and beaten by settlers. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, combined forces of Israeli troops and settlers blocked medical ambulances from reaching the wounded, delaying urgent care.

Amin Abu Aliya, head of al-Mughayyir’s local village council, told Wafa that Israeli forces have only opened the blocked entrance for a few minutes at irregular intervals, leaving residents trapped inside with limited access to outside resources. He emphasized that the deliberate restriction of civilian entry and exit is part of a deliberate strategy to force Palestinian communities to abandon their land in the area.

Abu Aliya’s warning comes as the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a formal appeal Saturday, calling on the international community to step in and protect residents of al-Mughayyir amid a broad escalation of settler violence across the occupied West Bank. Ministry officials characterize the siege on al-Mughayyir, which includes indiscriminate targeting of civilian residents, as one component of a structured campaign to eliminate Palestinian presence from the territory. The ministry stated that these actions fall under an official Israeli policy of “killing, terrorism and forced displacement,” and warned against what it calls Israel’s ongoing implementation of displacement and extermination policies against Palestinian communities.

Al-Mughayyir is not the only Palestinian community facing this kind of coordinated siege. A parallel incident has been unfolding in the West Bank village of Qusra, located near the city of Nablus. Earlier this month, Israeli settlers launched a siege of three residential homes in Qusra’s Ras al-Ain neighborhood, trapping multiple Palestinian families inside their properties. The ongoing blockade has cut off trapped residents from access to basic essential supplies, including drinking water, electricity and food.

The Israeli military has installed a permanent locked gate at Qusra’s main entrance, forcing all Palestinian residents and visitors traveling to the village to use unpaved alternate routes that are routinely blocked by Israeli soldiers. Just this Wednesday, the military added three new permanent roadblocks surrounding the peak of Ras al-Ain hill, physically severing the connection between the besieged homes and the rest of Qusra’s lower inhabited areas.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes, businesses and agricultural land in the occupied West Bank have been a systemic, longstanding issue for decades, parallel to the continuous expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. But independent analysts and Palestinian officials note that these state-backed assaults have grown dramatically more intense and frequent since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023.

This reporting was framed by original independent coverage from Middle East Eye, a publication that provides unfiltered, independent analysis of developments across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Thousands of activists gathered outside New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden on Saturday to demonstrate against a high-profile public event headlined by Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist paramilitary organisation based in India. The event welcoming Bhagwat, branded “Universal Oneness”, was organised by the group American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue, and drew an estimated 5,000 attendees representing more than 200 Hindu and Indian community organisations from across the United States. The protest brought together a broad coalition of local and national advocacy groups, including the South Asian Left (SALAM), Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), and Anti Imperialist South Asian Alliance Philadelphia (AISA Philly). A separate, independently organised demonstration by the pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) was also held adjacent to the main protest, where activists decried Bhagwat’s visit and renewed calls for a sovereignty referendum for an independent Sikh state in India’s Punjab region. Safa Ahmed, a board member of the IAMC, told independent news outlet Middle East Eye that protesters took to the streets because the RSS has spent a century normalising the fascist ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu supremacy, that targets minority communities across India. “This ideology declares that people like me, Indian Muslims—200 million of us—do not deserve to be called Indians and that we deserve to wiped out of India,” Ahmed explained. Founded in 1925, the RSS now counts more than five million members globally and operates over 250 affiliated chapters across the United States. The organisation’s core ideological goal is the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra, an ethnonationalist Hindu state in India, and it serves as the ideological founding force behind India’s ruling national party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Historical records show that early RSS leadership drew explicit ideological inspiration from 20th century European fascism and Nazism, framing their project of a homogenous Hindu state as aligned with the ethnic nationalist logic that shaped the creation of Israel in historic Palestine. In his 1930s text *We or Our Nationhood Defined*, prominent early RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar directly compared the group’s push for a Hindu Rashtra to Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies, arguing that minorities in India must face either total cultural assimilation or ethnic subjugation. “To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races—the Jews,” Golwalkar wrote. “Germany has also shown how well-neigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.” Beyond its ideological origins, the RSS has long been tied to violent and polarizing actions across India, including being widely blamed for the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s independence leader. On its official website, the organisation frames the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir as a “thorn in the flesh” and rejects its distinct demographic and political character. Ahmed stressed that the RSS’ agenda poses ongoing harm not only to minorities in India, but also to political discourse in the United States. “Not only does the RSS and its support base not care about minorities in India, but they’re also fine with the wanted bloodshed of Indian minorities and Kashmiris,” Ahmed said. “They’re also comfortable with normalising the far right in the United States.” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim Indian-American elected to office in 2025, publicly weighed in on the controversy earlier that week, describing the RSS’ core vision as inherently exclusionary. While he made clear he opposed the event, Mamdani noted that city government lacked the legal jurisdiction to cancel a privately organised gathering. Shree Baphna, a member of New York-based South Asian advocacy group SALAM, highlighted why the location of the event at Madison Square Garden, one of the most high-profile public venues in the world, made the protest a critical priority. “Madison Square Garden represents a world stage; fascism has no place on a world stage like this,” Baphna said. “This is not just a one-off event; this is a symptom of a much larger systemic ideology and destructive thought process that exists here in our diaspora. So the fact that it’s here and so visible means that we have to show up out here in numbers and do our part.” Just days before the event, the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom made an official recommendation that the U.S. federal government impose sanctions on the RSS over its documented role in “violent attacks against religious minorities, including Christians, Dalits, Muslims, and Sikhs”. The commission also called for U.S. officials to revoke Bhagwat’s visa ahead of his New York appearance. The original reporting on this event was published by Middle East Eye, an independent media outlet that provides on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East, North Africa, and surrounding global issues.

More than two and a half years after launching its landmark genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa has upped the ante in its global legal and diplomatic campaign, formally accusing Israel of systematic non-compliance with the court’s binding provisional measures designed to protect Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. In an official statement released by the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Pretoria charged that Israel’s deliberate refusal to abide by three separate provisional orders issued by the UN’s highest court for state disputes undermines the court’s legal authority and has deepened the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.

The three provisional measures, issued by the ICJ in 2024, outline clear mandatory obligations for Israel: to halt all acts that could qualify as genocide, end incitement to genocidal violence against Palestinians, withdraw all military forces from the southern Gazan city of Rafah, and open unimpeded routes for life-saving humanitarian aid and basic services to reach the 2 million people trapped in Gaza. The ICJ also required Israel to submit regular public reports detailing steps it has taken to comply with the orders, a requirement Israel fulfilled formally in February 2024, but South Africa argues the substance of the orders has been ignored entirely.

To back its accusation of non-compliance, the South African government submitted a comprehensive evidence dossier earlier this month to the ICJ’s special committee of judges tasked with monitoring enforcement of provisional measures. Under the court’s Article 11 of Internal Judicial Practice, this committee reviews all submitted evidence from involved parties and recommends potential next steps to the full ICJ bench.

South Africa’s dossier lays out staggering, updated casualty and harm figures through August 2026. Since the outbreak of hostilities on 7 October 2023, at least 73,407 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations across Gaza, with another 174,335 wounded. These figures amount to more than 10 percent of Gaza’s entire pre-conflict population. The submission further details that roughly 46,000 survivors, many of them children, live with permanent, severe disabilities including amputations, traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord damage caused by the conflict. Even after a nominal ceasefire was announced, the dossier notes, Israeli forces continue to kill an average of one Palestinian child per day. Worsening conditions in Gaza’s shrinking, overcrowded displacement enclaves have also driven a more than three-fold increase in Palestinian miscarriage rates since the start of 2026, according to the evidence.

Beyond casualties, South Africa’s statement accuses Israel of widespread, systemic abuse against detained Palestinians. The document notes that Israeli authorities have arbitrarily detained and forcibly deported thousands of Palestinians to Israeli prisons and detention facilities, where detainees routinely face torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that violates international law. Pretoria also charged that Israel is actively working to conceal evidence of its actions by targeting and killing local Palestinian journalists, barring access for all foreign media outlets, and blocking UN-mandated independent investigative bodies from entering the besieged territory.

South Africa’s legal action carries historic weight: it was the first UN member state to formally file a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, launching the proceeding in December 2023. The August 2026 evidence dossier is the latest step in a sustained diplomatic and legal push by Pretoria to force global action. South Africa previously submitted multiple detailed evidence dossiers to the United Nations Security Council in May 2024, February 2025 and September 2025, urging all UN member states to uphold their obligations under international law and intervene to stop the violence. It also submitted separate dossiers focused on Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war to the UN General Assembly and the UN Economic and Social Council in October 2025, requesting urgent intervention under Article VIII of the Genocide Convention.

DIRCO emphasized in its statement that the ICJ’s provisional orders are not merely advisory—they carry full binding legal weight under international law for Israel. Beyond Israel’s obligations, the department noted that the entire international community has a collective legal obligation under the Genocide Convention to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of genocide. The statement also stressed that upholding the provisional measures is critical not only to protect Palestinian rights, but also to preserve the integrity of the international justice system and the ICJ’s own legitimacy, ensuring the court can issue a meaningful final ruling without the rights it is tasked with defending being destroyed before a decision is reached.

Leading Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq has welcomed South Africa’s latest submission, calling on the ICJ to take immediate proactive action, including issuing new expanded provisional measures if necessary. “As the genocide continues, we call on the Court to act propio motu, including through additional Provisional Measures Orders,” the organization said in a statement responding to the submission.

DHADING, Nepal — When catastrophic flash floods roared through central Nepal last Wednesday, the small mountain district of Dhading stood among the hardest-hit regions. What could have been a devastating tragedy for a local school, however, turned into a story of extraordinary luck and quick thinking, as nearly all of its students escaped the rising waters unharmed.

For the group of children who survived, a routine daily break proved to be the difference between life and death. The first group of pupils had already left their classroom for lunch when the floodwaters began approaching the school grounds. Other students, still seated in their classrooms, were ushered out immediately by alert teachers who spotted the oncoming disaster, ordering pupils to abandon their personal belongings and evacuate to higher ground immediately.

“The teachers told them, ‘There is a flood, leave your bags and lunch boxes behind,’” recalled Lakshmi Shrestha, mother of one student at the school. “That quick decision is the only reason our children are alive today.”

Four days after the flood struck, Shrestha joined dozens of other grieving but relieved parents and children as they returned to the destroyed school compound on Sunday, sifting through the mud and wreckage to recover what little could be saved. Family representatives confirmed that the vast majority of the school’s students survived the disaster, a small miracle amid widespread loss of life across the country.

Walking through the destroyed campus leaves no doubt of the flood’s power. Thick layers of muddy brown and gray sediment coat every surface: wooden classroom benches, concrete walls, and waterlogged notebooks alike. The open school courtyard is completely filled with silt and debris, and dark water lines streaked across interior walls show how rapidly the floodwaters rose, reaching several meters high in mere minutes. Small mud-caked backpacks, many still strung with colorful key chains that hint at their young owners, are piled across benches and floors, waiting to be claimed by their families.

Even for parents who left empty-handed, the survival of their children outweighs any material loss. Kopila Mizar, another mother whose child escaped unharmed, could not locate her son’s backpack during Sunday’s search, but she remained upbeat about the outcome. “My son is alive, that is my biggest happiness,” she said simply.

This small school is far from the only educational institution impacted by the disaster. According to global nonprofit Save the Children, at least 69 schools across Nepal’s flood-ravaged districts have been fully destroyed or severely damaged, disrupting access to education for nearly 19,000 children. The organization warned that this number is almost certain to rise in coming days, as rescue and recovery teams reach more remote cut-off communities that have been unreachable since the floods hit.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the Nepali government ordered all schools and universities across affected regions to close for three days, pausing all scheduled university examinations as well. With national weather services continuing to issue flood warnings urging communities to evacuate to higher, safer ground, it remains unclear when normal classes will be able to resume across the hardest-hit areas.

As of Sunday, Nepal’s national disaster management agency confirmed that the national death toll from the floods and accompanying landslides has climbed to 788, with an additional 2,502 people still reported missing across the country. Across the border in southern Tibet, Chinese authorities have reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing. Among the missing are hundreds of citizens from more than a dozen countries, who were in the Himalayan region for work, trekking, or pilgrimage to a sacred mountain peak. Chinese state media confirmed Sunday that 261 foreigners are currently missing in Tibet, including more than 100 Nepali citizens and dozens of people from other nations around the world.