标签： Asia

The soaring Himalayan mountain range straddling the Nepal-China border has long been defined by two opposing truths: it is one of the most dangerous landscapes on Earth, and it remains one of the most irresistible.

This duality was laid bare this week, when a sudden glacial collapse triggered catastrophic flash floods that swept through river valleys, leaving hundreds dead, leveling entire communities, and leaving hundreds more unaccounted for — including travelers from at least 30 countries. As rescue operations enter their fourth day, bad weather continues to ground search aircraft, complicating efforts to reach remote cut-off areas, while UN agencies have warned that more than 17,000 children among survivors are in urgent need of life-saving aid. Families of missing U.S. nationals have also publicly pleaded for accelerated rescue support.

For centuries, these high peaks have been central to life and trade in the region. Indigenous communities traversed the mountain passes as part of ancient Silk Road trading networks, and groups like Nepal’s Sherpa people developed unmatched expertise in navigating the extreme altitude and treacherous terrain of the world’s highest mountains. When Nepal opened its borders to international explorers in the mid-20th century, that local knowledge became the foundation of the country’s modern mountaineering and trekking industry. The 1953 ascent of Mount Everest by Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealand explorer Edmund Hillary — the first confirmed successful summit of the world’s highest peak — cemented the region’s global reputation as a bucket-list destination for adventure seekers.

In the decades since that historic climb, interest in Himalayan trekking has exploded, turning tourism into one of the largest pillars of Nepal’s national economy. In May of this year alone, a record 274 climbers reached Everest’s summit in a single 24-hour window. But this rapid growth has not come without challenges. Overcrowding, mounting piles of garbage and abandoned climbing gear on popular trails, and the strain of mass tourism on fragile alpine ecosystems have sparked ongoing debate among regulators, guides, and environmental groups about how to balance economic growth with conservation.

The flood-hit region, located not far from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, is one of the country’s most popular trekking hubs, drawing tens of thousands of visitors every year. Rajendra Lama, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association and a trekking guide with more than 20 years of experience on the trails, has watched the industry transform dramatically during his career. “There’s a big difference from when I started,” Lama explained in an interview with the Associated Press. “Nowadays people need more facilities.” That demand has spurred widespread infrastructure upgrades: paved roads in once-remote valleys, new guesthouses and restaurants along popular trekking routes, even amenities like pizza that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.

Even with the spread of modern tourism infrastructure, Nepal’s Himalayas retain the raw, unspoiled wild beauty that keeps travelers returning year after year. Ariel Estulin, a Toronto-based photographer who has visited Nepal four times over the past 15 years, says the allure lies in the remote, untouched regions far from the crowded Everest base camp trail. “Some of them are so remote that getting to them required two full days of travel on the most unimaginable bus ride from Hell you can imagine,” he said. On those backcountry trips, he often relied on the hospitality of local farming families, sharing meals and a spot on the floor for the night. “It is changing,” Estulin said, “but it will always remain wild.”

As the country grapples with the aftermath of the latest disaster, with the threat of secondary floods still hanging over affected communities, Lama says he is hopeful that the global affection for Nepal will help the region recover. He points to the 2015 Gorkha earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people, when he feared the disaster would permanently scare off international visitors. Instead, travelers returned quickly, proving the enduring pull of the mountains. Already, he says, he has received hundreds of messages of support from around the world. “It means,” Lama said, “that people love Nepal.”

For years, Cambodia has drawn global condemnation as one of the world’s primary hubs for large-scale transnational online scam operations, criminal enterprises that have bilked billions of dollars from victims across the globe while fueling rampant human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Now, the Cambodian government is making a bold assertion: it has completely cleared its territory of the notorious fortified compounds that hosted these illegal activities.

The announcement came Friday in an official statement from Cambodia’s Ad-Hoc Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), which detailed the agency’s progress at a closed-door briefing held Thursday. The meeting, led by CCOS chair and Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, was attended by roughly 50 representatives from foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations monitoring the crackdown.

According to the statement, the declaration of total eradication follows a months-long aggressive enforcement campaign that included strict legal action against perpetrators, criminal networks, and corrupt public officials found to be complicit in the scams, alongside the formal establishment of a comprehensive national cybersecurity legal framework to prevent a resurgence of the criminal activity.

Chhay Sinarith outlined key metrics of the government’s crackdown, noting that between July 2025 and August 20, 2026, Cambodian law enforcement opened investigations into 793 suspected scam locations, conducted raids on 624 sites, and took nearly 30,000 suspects from 39 different nationalities into custody. Authorities also rescued and deported 58,266 foreign nationals who had been trapped in the compounds, he said, while 3,477 criminal suspects from 29 nationalities were arrested and remanded into pre-trial detention.

The high-profile campaign scored two major wins with the arrest and extradition of two alleged scam kingpins: Chen Zhi and Li Xiong, influential Chinese businessmen who had previously obtained Cambodian citizenship. The pair were taken into custody earlier this year and extradited to face charges in their home country.

The government’s push to eliminate the scam operations was also backed by legislative action: in March, Cambodian lawmakers unanimously passed a new anti-scam law that carries maximum penalties of life imprisonment for convicted organizers, fulfilling a prior government pledge to shutter all scam compounds by the end of April.

Despite these sweeping claims of success, independent analysts and anti-trafficking organizations that have long tracked Cambodia’s scam networks are not fully convinced. The criminal operations, which have been linked to an estimated $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in global losses in 2025 alone according to a July report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, are notorious for combining financial fraud with grotesque human rights abuses. Thousands of foreign nationals are lured to Cambodia with false promises of legitimate jobs, then forced into near-slavery to run “romance scams”, cryptocurrency fraud, and other schemes targeting victims worldwide.

Mark Taylor, an independent international anti-trafficking consultant and former head of an anti-trafficking program in Cambodia, cast sharp doubt on the government’s announcement in comments to the Associated Press. “The strong confidence placed in the government’s assertion that all scamming operations in Cambodia have been eradicated is severely misplaced,” Taylor said, adding that “there are credible indicators that significant scamming operations continue and that recruitment of foreign workers into Cambodia for scamming work continues.”

Vietnam-based anti-trafficking group Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation struck a more cautious tone, acknowledging tangible progress while stopping short of confirming full eradication. “There is no doubt that some of Cambodia’s criminal compounds used for online scamming have closed,” said Michael Brosowski, the organization’s founder and strategic director. Brosowski noted that his group has seen a drastic drop in calls for help from people trafficked into Cambodian scam compounds, though those calls have not ceased entirely. “We hope that the Cambodian government will keep its commitment to close down these compounds and give greater protection to victims of this crime,” he added.

Nearly two years after a targeted Israeli drone strike in Gaza killed seven humanitarian aid workers with the global non-profit World Central Kitchen, the Israeli army officer who personally authorized the attack has publicly defended his actions and stated he feels no remorse for the deaths. In a recorded interview with Australia’s public broadcaster ABC conducted in October 2025, Colonel Nochi Mendel, who commanded the April 1, 2024 operation that struck the WCK aid convoy, confirmed he stood firmly by the order he issued.

The fatal strike claimed the lives of aid workers from five nations: Palestine, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Poland, triggering international outcry in its immediate aftermath. Mendel, who was removed from his position as chief of staff of the Israeli military’s elite Nahal infantry brigade shortly after the incident, acknowledged full responsibility for the strike in the interview. “I’m the commander, and I’m the one who gave the order to carry out the operation. I didn’t run away from the situation. I said I gave the order; don’t look for anyone else,” he told reporters. While Mendel admitted he had not intended to kill the WCK team, he doubled down on his stance, adding: “I’m not sorry for what I did.”

Within the Israeli military’s own post-attack investigation, the strike was concluded to have been the product of multiple cascading failures, including serious breaches of the IDF’s own rules of engagement and standard operating procedures. Earlier this year, however, the Israeli military announced it would not launch any criminal investigation into the incident, a decision that drew immediate and fierce condemnation from the three Western nations whose citizens were killed: the UK, Canada, and Australia. In a joint public statement, the three nations described the decision as “shameful”, noting that the Israeli military had failed to offer any substantive explanation for its refusal to pursue criminal accountability. The countries also emphasized that the announcement, made on World Humanitarian Day, was “particularly egregious”. “The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf,” the statement read.

In his interview, Mendel sought to deflect blame for the fatal incident, blaming what he claimed were mistakes on WCK’s part and the inherent operational complexity of military activity in Gaza for the deaths. He repeated the unsubstantiated claim that WCK workers and Hamas operatives had been intermingled in the area on the night of the strike, going further to accuse the humanitarian organization of lacking neutrality. “So the WCK, too – unfortunately, they aren’t really a neutral organisation. Not really an organisation you can say is innocent and completely clean,” he said. “It had ties to Hamas,” he added.

World Central Kitchen has forcefully rejected Mendel’s allegations as baseless and defamatory. A WCK spokesperson told ABC that the claims represent the latest effort to shift blame away from the Israeli military’s own failures in the strike. “The individual making these slanderous claims has no credibility. He was directly involved in the decisions that led to the 1 April strikes and was immediately removed from his post for serious failures and breaches of standard operating procedure,” the spokesperson said. The organization reaffirmed its demand for full accountability, stating: “We demand truth and justice for our seven colleagues who were killed, through a full, independent investigation into the attack.”

Friday marked the first day that life-saving humanitarian aid reached vulnerable communities in Nepal, after catastrophic flash floods tore through the rugged mountainous border zone between Nepal and China. As rescue crews continue to clear mud and debris to reach cut-off areas, the full scale of the disaster is slowly coming into focus, leaving thousands displaced and seeking safety in makeshift relief camps run by the Nepali army.

In Nuwakot, one of the hardest-hit districts located just a short distance from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, entire villages were erased by surging floodwaters in less than an hour. What was not swept away remains blanketed in thick sediment and mud: fragments of a local golden temple poke through the sand, while the carcass of a drowned buffalo lies abandoned in the open. Survivors who lost their homes have initially gathered in roadside tea shops, waiting for evacuation and assistance.

The international humanitarian community has warned of widespread urgent needs in the wake of the disaster. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirms that at least 17,000 children require immediate life-saving support, with 18 schools completely destroyed and another 20 damaged beyond immediate use. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that more than 93,000 people have been impacted by the floods, all facing severe shortages of food, shelter and basic supplies.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority announced Friday that the number of people listed as missing has doubled to nearly 2,000, as search teams continue to recover bodies and survey damaged areas. A total of 14,829 security personnel have been deployed to lead search and rescue operations, with drones used to scan hard-to-reach, high-risk areas that are too dangerous for ground teams to access.

Rescued people are transported by helicopter to Maithali Barrack, a former military training facility in Nuwakot that has been converted into a main relief camp and emergency shelter. Helicopters rotate constantly between the camp and flood zones, bringing in new survivors and critical supplies, while anxious family members line the barbed wire perimeter of the camp, waiting for word of loved ones.

An army medic, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, confirmed that those receiving medical care at the camp include local residents, foreign tourists and Chinese workers pulled from the flood zone. Severe medical cases, such as a pregnant woman who went into labor at the camp, are immediately airlifted to fully equipped hospitals in nearby urban centers.

Minors separated from their families during the chaos of the floods are housed separately at the camp, with staff working around the clock to reunite them with relatives. For many families, however, the camp has become a site of mourning: bodies recovered from flood zones are stored behind colored tarps as workers wait for relatives to identify them.

Sixty-two-year-old Chanda Lal Chitrakar, a local tea shop owner who survived the disaster by fleeing to higher ground, shared his account of the morning the flood hit. Having lived through severe flooding the previous year, he initially downplayed the government warning messages sent to his phone, only closing his shop’s doors and windows instead of evacuating. After less than an hour, he saw a massive wall of water rushing down from the surrounding hills, so tall it obscured the top of the area’s tallest tree. He fled to a high hill behind the local police station with nothing but the clothes on his back and his phone, only able to breathe easily once he reached the summit.

One local school in Nuwakot has been repurposed as a temporary aid distribution hub, where nongovernmental organizations have been handing out critical supplies including solar panels, clothing and basic hygiene products. For Kanchi Nepali, a flood survivor who lost everything, the small donation she received was life-changing. “What I’ve been given today is worth more than a million,” she said. “I have no food, no shelter, no utensils to cook with. Only my body survived.”

This reporting on climate and environmental disaster is supported by multiple private foundations, with The Associated Press retaining full editorial control over all content.

A devastating flood disaster in the Himalayan border region of Nepal has triggered an urgent search and rescue operation after 77 trekkers from a tour connected to a U.S.-based nonprofit organization went missing, cutting off all communication with the outside world. In the wake of this alarming incident, BBC correspondent Helena Humphrey traveled to the Isha Foundation’s headquarters in Tennessee to speak with organization representatives about the missing expedition. The group had been traveling along the remote China-Nepal border when floodwaters swept through the area, destroying communications infrastructure and leaving no trace of the hikers’ whereabouts in the days since the disaster. Remote mountain terrain in the region has complicated efforts to locate and reach the missing group, with heavy rainfall worsening flood risks and slowing rescue deployments. The Isha Foundation, a global spiritual and wellness organization that regularly organizes wilderness retreats and trekking expeditions, has confirmed that the tour was operating under its auspices, and has not issued any further updates on the status of the search as rescue teams continue navigating hazardous conditions to reach the affected area.

A planned Saturday address at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden by Mohan Bhagwat, chief of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has sparked fierce public opposition, drawing protests from interfaith groups, a formal denunciation from the city’s mayor, and a call for U.S. government sanctions from a federal religious freedom commission.

The RSS, a century-old right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, is widely recognized as the ideological backbone of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—who himself rose through the ranks of the paramilitary group. Critics have long accused the RSS of advancing Hindutva, a political ideology that frames Indian national identity exclusively through Hindu values, while fostering systemic intolerance against religious minorities and enabling documented human rights violations, including targeted mob violence, the demolition of minority religious sites, and the bulldozing of properties owned by Muslim communities.

Organized by American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue and co-sponsored by more than 200 Hindu American groups, the event is branded as the “Universal Oneness Celebration,” rooted in the ancient Sanskrit concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, or “the world is one family.” Organizers say the gathering builds on the themes of the Hindu festival Rakshabandhan, expanding its celebration of familial bonds to a global call for collective responsibility across communities, nations, and the natural world. Expected attendees include entrepreneurs, educators, artists, youth leaders, faith and public officials, and representatives from Hindu temples and yoga centers, with an estimated 5,000 people in attendance. Organizers have declined to respond to interview requests from The Associated Press.

Opposition to the event has moved quickly across political and civil society lines. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week publicly condemned the gathering, arguing that RSS’s core ideology is exclusionary and fundamentally incompatible with New York’s longstanding commitment to pluralism. On Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a nonpartisan federal advisory body, called on the U.S. government to impose sanctions on RSS members and revoke Bhagwat’s visa over allegations of ongoing religious freedom abuses tied to the organization. India’s Ministry of External Affairs swiftly rejected the commission’s statement, dismissing USCIRF as a biased body with no credibility to comment on India’s internal affairs.

A coalition of interfaith and civil rights groups—including Hindus for Human Rights, the Indian American Muslim Council, and the Interfaith Center of New York—held a protest press conference outside New York City Hall on Tuesday, demanding the event be canceled entirely. Sunita Viswanath, executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, noted that 61 interfaith and secular organizations have signed an open letter opposing the gathering, and hundreds of opponents will gather outside the venue Saturday to deliver a clear message: the RSS and its Hindutva ideology do not speak for all Hindus or people of Indian origin.

“Even if a majority of the Indian diaspora does not support Hindu nationalism, too few have spoken out publicly against it,” Viswanath said. “Our only option is to show up again and again with love, with the intention that our love will drown out the hate spread by these organizations.”

The event has laid bare deep divisions within the 5 million-strong Indian American community around issues of Hindu nationalism and the BJP’s rule. While the RSS maintains more than 250 local centers and youth chapters across the U.S. and enjoys broad support from many Indian American voters aligned with Modi, opponents have organized widespread resistance. One Muslim Indian American activist, Safa Ahmed, plans to travel from North Carolina to join Saturday’s protests, saying she is deeply disturbed by the large turnout expected for a leader she says promotes a politics of hate.

“That is very disturbing to me as an Indian American Muslim,” Ahmed said, though she added she has been encouraged by growing pushback against Hindutva from progressive Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Dalits—who have faced systemic caste discrimination in India for generations.

The Hindu American Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group for U.S. Hindus, has pushed back against criticism of the event, calling on attendees to remain vigilant and civil while condemning Mayor Mamdani’s public opposition. “The mayor should honor his sworn duty to protect all New Yorkers, regardless of their national origin, religion or political beliefs,” the group said in a Wednesday statement.

Many analysts frame Bhagwat’s high-profile New York appearance as part of a deliberate multi-year public relations campaign by the RSS to soften its international image, as the BJP it spawned enters its third consecutive term governing the world’s largest democracy. Bill Drexel, a Hudson Institute senior fellow specializing in U.S.-India relations, noted that Bhagwat has toned down some of his more provocative public rhetoric in recent years, marking a new phase of the group’s global outreach.

“RSS is an organization with a uniquely complex history that is tied intrinsically to Indian politics, so it is hard to compare to more familiar political or religious movements in the U.S.,” Drexel explained. “We are seeing a new chapter in how they engage with the outside world. They grew as a grassroots movement for decades, and now that the political party they created holds national power, they face a new set of expectations and responsibilities.”

RSS national spokesperson Sunil Ambekar defended the gathering in a statement posted to X, writing that Bhagwat would “communicate with a diverse, multicultural, and multifaith audience” during his address. “Organized in the spirit of open dialogue and mutual respect, the event reflects Bharatiya (Indian) ethos which is fundamentally inclusive and welcoming to all,” Ambekar said. “This initiative aligns with RSS’s longstanding tradition of engaging with varied communities across India and the world to foster understanding and shared purpose.”

But critics like Viswanath reject the group’s framing of the event as a sincere push for inclusive dialogue, arguing the core ideology of Hindutva remains unchanged. “I just don’t buy it,” she said. “It’s still the same Hindutva ideology.”

A catastrophic glacier collapse that triggered massive, multi-story mud and water torrents has left hundreds dead or missing along the Nepal-China border, as rescue teams continue scouring ravaged communities for survivors and humanitarian organizations across the globe mobilize to deliver urgent aid.

The disaster, which struck on Wednesday, destroyed critical infrastructure across the affected region, washing out countless roads and bridges and forcing the Nepalese army to rely on helicopter operations to reach stranded communities and evacuate survivors.

For disaster-prone Nepal, which consistently ranks among the highest countries globally on international disaster vulnerability indexes for risks ranging from earthquakes and floods to drought and wildfire, advance preparations by humanitarian groups have enabled a faster than expected response. U.S.-based humanitarian nonprofit Direct Relief, which provides medical supplies and healthcare access to disaster-affected regions, had pre-positioned emergency stockpiles across Nepal in anticipation of the annual monsoon season, putting critical resources within reach immediately after the floodwaters struck.

Dan Hovey, Direct Relief’s vice president of emergency response, announced Thursday that the organization was already preparing additional shipments of aid to send to the impacted region, with new public donations set to sustain the group’s support through the months-long recovery process ahead. “This is going to be a long recovery process,” Hovey emphasized.

Humanitarian coordinating bodies have noted that flexible cash donations are currently the most pressing need, as they allow local agencies and grassroots nonprofits to adapt funding to the most urgent, evolving needs on the ground. A range of international and U.S.-based organizations with long-standing operations in Nepal have already launched active response efforts:
– All Hands & Hearts, a disaster recovery nonprofit that has operated in Nepal since the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, is delivering immediate emergency relief while preparing to resume its longstanding work rebuilding damaged schools and residential homes.
– Catholic Relief Services, an international humanitarian agency, has partnered with local affiliate Caritas Nepal to deliver emergency aid and social services, while deploying additional dedicated response teams to support search and relief operations.
– Global Giving, a grassroots support nonprofit, has launched the dedicated Nepal Flood Relief Fund targeting $1.5 million in donations, to provide flexible funding for search and rescue operations, emergency response, and longer-term infrastructure reconstruction and recovery projects.
– Humanity & Inclusion, an international organization focused on vulnerable and crisis-affected communities, is already distributing emergency survival supplies across the region and providing critical rehabilitation support to injured survivors in local hospitals.
– Save the Children, a global child-focused humanitarian nonprofit, has delivered cooking kits, mosquito nets and blankets to 1,000 impacted households, and is working closely with national and local authorities to expand its response as needs are assessed.
– World Central Kitchen, celebrity chef Jose Andres’ food security nonprofit, is already providing hot meals to survivors through local partner networks, and is preparing to scale up its full distribution network to deliver more food to the impacted border region.

This coverage of global philanthropy and disaster response is produced by the Associated Press through a collaboration with The Conversation US, supported by funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP maintains sole editorial control over all content.