KATMANDU, Nepal: After every party it’s time to clean up and Mount Everest is no different. The record number of climbers crowding the world’s highest mountain this season has left a government cleanup crew grappling with how to clear away everything from abandoned tents to human waste that threatens drinking water.
Budget expedition companies charge as little as $30,000 per climber, cutting costs including waste removal. Everest has so much garbage — depleted oxygen cylinders, food packaging, rope — that climbers use the trash as a kind of signpost. But this year’s haul from an estimated 700 climbers, guides and porters on the mountain has been a shock to the ethnic Sherpas who worked on the government’s cleanup drive this spring.
Moreover, the tents are littering South Col, or Camp 4, which, at 8,000 meters (26,240 feet) is the highest campsite on Everest, just below the summit. The high winds at that elevation have scattered the tents and trash everywhere.
“The altitude, oxygen levels, dangerously icy and slippery slopes, and bad weather of South Col make it very difficult to bring such big things as tents down,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, who led an independent cleanup last month and has been a leading figure in the campaign to clean Mount Everest for the past 12 years.
Exhausted climbers struggling to breathe and battling nausea leave heavy tents behind rather than attempt to carry them down. Sherpa said the logos on the ice-embedded tents that identify the expedition companies were deliberately ripped out so the culprits could evade detection.
“It took us an hour to dig out just one tent out of the frozen ice and bring it down,” said Sherpa. His expeditions have alone brought down some 20,000 kilograms (44,000 pounds) of garbage since 2008.
Sherpa estimated 30 tents had been left on South Col, and as much as 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) of trash. Bringing it down is a herculean task when any misstep at such altitudes could be fatal.
It is impossible to know exactly how much litter is spread across Everest because it only becomes visible when the snow melts. At Camp 2, two levels higher than Base Camp, the campaigners believe that around 8,000 kilograms (17,637 pounds) of human excrement were left during this year’s climbing season alone.
Some climbers do not use makeshift toilets, instead digging a hole in the snow, letting the waste fall into small crevasses. However, rising temperatures have thinned the glacier, leaving fewer and smaller crevasses. The overflowing waste then spills downhill toward Base Camp and even communities below the mountain.
People living at the Base Camp use melted snow for drinking water that climbers’ toilets threaten to contaminate.
“During our expedition to Camp 2, eight of our 10 Sherpas got stomach illness from bad water at Camp 2,” said John All, a professor of environmental science at Western Washington University who visited Everest on a research expedition.
For the Nepalese who regard the mountain as “Sagarmatha,” or Mother of the World, littering amounts to desecration. Climber Nima Doma, who returned recently from a successful ascent, gets angry thinking that the sacred mountain is being turned into a garbage dump.
“Everest is our god and it was very sad to see our god so dirty. How can people just toss their trash on such a sacred place?” she said.
The trash is creating danger for future climbers and spurring calls for action now.
“When the snow melts the garbage surfaces. And when there is high wind, tents are blown and torn and the contents are scattered all over the mountain, which makes it even more dangerous for climbers already navigating a slippery, steep slope in snow and high winds,” said Ang Tshering, former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association.
Ang Dorjee, who heads the independent Everest Pollution Control Committee, has demanded that the Nepal government — whose general oversight of Everest has come under scrutiny this year as climbers died waiting in line to ascend — institute some rules.
“The problem is there are no regulations on how to dispose of the human waste. Some climbers use biodegradable bags that have enzymes which decompose human waste but most of them don’t,” he said.
The bags are expensive and have to be imported from the United States.
“The biggest problem and concern now on Everest is human waste. Hundreds of people are there for weeks who go to open toilets,” Tshering said. Melting conditions at Camp 2 create a odor that is sickening to climbers, and the waste will eventually contaminate water sources below and become a health hazard, he said.
Tshering and other mountaineers say the government should mandate the use of biodegradable bags. It would spare Dorjee and his team the unpleasant task of collecting the waste and carrying it down the dangerous slopes.
The government is working on a plan to scan and tag climbers’ equipment and gear. All climbers would have to deposit $4,000 before their ascent and might not get the money back if they return without their items.
Abandoned tents, human waste piling up on Mount Everest
Abandoned tents, human waste piling up on Mount Everest
- Sherpa estimated 30 tents had been left on South Col, and as much as 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) of trash
- Budget expedition companies charge as little as $30,000 per climber, cutting costs including waste removal
Indonesia’s Health Ministry issues warning over COVID-19 surge in Asia
- Indonesia was among hardest-hit in the region during the pandemic
- Local cases have so far remained relatively low amid the latest wave
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s government has urged healthcare facilities to step up COVID-19 surveillance, as a more transmissible omicron subvariant drives a surge in cases across Asia.
Parts of Asia have been reporting a new wave of infections since last month, especially Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
The new spread of the coronavirus that brought the world to a standstill a few years ago has been linked to JN.1, a highly transmissible variant of the omicron strain of COVID-19.
It emerged in late 2023 and spread globally through early 2024, becoming one of the dominant variants in many countries.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin met with President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday to report on the country’s COVID-19 situation.
“Cases are indeed increasing, but the rise is caused by variants that are relatively less deadly,” Sadikin told reporters after the meeting.
His statement comes after Indonesia’s Health Ministry issued a circular last week instructing regional agencies, hospitals, community centers and other medical service facilities across the country to monitor case trends and report unusual conditions.
Health quarantine facilities are also instructed to “step up surveillance on people, transportation and items coming from abroad, especially those from countries that are reporting surges in COVID-19 cases,” the circular stated.
Indonesia has confirmed 72 COVID-19 cases and reported no deaths in 2025, the latest data from the Health Ministry showed. The caseload was at seven from last week alone, with the positive rate declining to 2.05 percent from a peak of 3.62 percent the previous week.
Indonesia was among the hardest-hit countries in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a cumulative death toll of around 162,000, it has the second-highest number in the region, after 533,000 recorded in India.
Top Philippine senator to seek dismissal of Duterte impeachment case
- Resolution was drafted by Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a staunch ally of Duterte and a former police chief under her father’s 2016-2022 presidency
- The Senate’s current session ends next week, which the draft resolution said was insufficient time to act on the impeachment case
MANILA: A top Philippine senator has drafted a resolution seeking to dismiss an impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, his office said on Wednesday, which could boost her chances of political survival after an acrimonious fallout with the president. The lower house in February impeached Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, on accusations that included budget anomalies, amassing unusual wealth and an alleged threat to the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the first lady, and the house speaker.
Sara Duterte faces a lifetime ban from office if convicted in a Senate trial. She has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The resolution was drafted, according to his office, by Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a staunch ally of Duterte and a former police chief under her father’s 2016-2022 presidency. A Senate source, who declined to be identified, confirmed the draft was circulating among senators.
The draft seen by Reuters says the Senate did not act promptly to begin proceedings upon receipt of the impeachment article, so the case was “de facto dismissed” as 100 days had already passed.
It was not immediately clear when the resolution would be filed or how much support it would have. If it succeeds, it could intensify an escalating battle for power between Marcos and former ally Duterte ahead of a 2028 presidential election that she is widely expected to contest, with Marcos limited to a single term and unable to run again.
At stake is the legacy and future influence of Marcos, who has waged a decades-long campaign to defend his family’s name from what he says are false historical narratives of plunder and brutality during the 1970s and 1980s rule of his strongman father and namesake. The effort to dismiss the case comes after a stronger-than-expected showing for allies of Duterte in last month’s midterm elections, demonstrating her popularity and unswerving influence, despite the row with Marcos, humiliating legislative enquiries and the arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court of her father in March.
The Senate’s current session ends next week, which the draft resolution said was insufficient time to act on the impeachment case. A new Senate will convene in late July.
“The matter cannot cross over to the incoming 20th Congress,” the draft said.
Marcos has called for unity among all political camps and has distanced himself from the impeachment of Duterte, which was backed overwhelmingly by a lower house controlled by his allies. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Dela Rosa’s proposed resolution.
Ukraine invited to Hague NATO summit, Zelensky attendance unclear
- NATO chief: ‘I invited Ukraine to the summit. We will as soon as possible bring out the program with more details’
BRUSSELS: Ukraine has been invited to a NATO summit in The Hague this month, Mark Rutte, the military bloc’s chief, said on Wednesday, without specifying whether this meant Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky would attend.
“I invited Ukraine to the summit. We will as soon as possible bring out the program with more details,” Rutte told reporters before a meeting with defense ministers in Brussels.
Asked whether Zelensky personally had been invited, Rutte only said the program would be published in due course.
India’s Modi to visit Kashmir to unveil strategic railway
- The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the center of a bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan
- Indian leader set to visit on Friday to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-meter-long steel and concrete span that connects two mountains
SRINAGAR, India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to make his first visit to contested Kashmir since a conflict between India and Pakistan last month, inaugurating a strategic railway to the mountainous region, his office said Wednesday.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the center of a bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan, divided between them since independence from British rule in 1947.
Modi is set to visit on Friday to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-meter-long (4,314-foot-long) steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359 meters above the river below.
“The project establishes all-weather, seamless rail connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Modi is expected to flag off a special train.
Last month, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day conflict, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.
More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides.
The conflict was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing – a charge Islamabad denies.
Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged a 35-year-long insurgency demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.
The 272-kilometer (169-mile) Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway – with 36 tunnels and 943 bridges – has been constructed “aiming to transform regional mobility and driving socio-economic integration,” the statement added.
Its dramatic centerpiece is the Chenab Bridge, which India calls the “world’s highest railway arch bridge.”
While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China.
Indian Railways calls the $24-million bridge “arguably the biggest civil engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history.”
The bridge will facilitate the movement of people and goods – as well as troops – that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and air.
The train line could slash travel time between the town of Katra and Srinagar, the region’s key city, by half, taking around three hours.
The bridge will also revolutionize logistics in Ladakh, the icy region in India bordering China.
India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia.
Their troops clashed in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, and forces from both sides today face off across contested high-altitude borderlands.
The railway begins in the garrison city of Udhampur, headquarters of the army’s northern command, and runs north to Srinagar.
Trump administration rescinds Biden-era guidance on emergency abortions
- The Biden-era memo was issued in July 2022, weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutionally enshrined right to abortion
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has revoked a Biden-era health guideline that protected emergency abortions when medically required, even in states that ban the procedure.
The Biden-era memo was issued in July 2022, weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutionally enshrined right to abortion.
As health providers suddenly found themselves embroiled in legal uncertainty over abortion, the memo provided an interpretation of the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), arguing it supersedes state abortion laws when needed to stabilize a pregnant patient.
The directive was fiercely contested by anti-abortion advocates.
In a letter Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the EMTALA guidance did not reflect the current administration’s policy.
“CMS is rescinding this memo ... effective May 29, 2025, consistent with Administration policy,” it said.
Offering its own interpretation, CMS said EMTALA provides the right for any hospital patient to receive “either stabilizing treatment or an appropriate transfer to another hospital.”
It said the US Health and Human Services would no longer enforce the Biden-era guidance.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute said the Trump administration’s revocation of the EMTALA guidelines showed “callous disregard for the law and people’s lives.”
Lawrence O. Gostin, a health law expert at Georgetown University, wrote in the New York Times that the CMS letter “basically gives a bright green light to hospitals in red states to turn away pregnant women who are in peril.”
According to Guttmacher, 13 US states, mostly in the south and east of the country, have “a total abortion ban” as of May 28.
While these states generally provide narrow exceptions in the event of a threat to the mother’s life, it is unclear what constitutes a life-threatening condition in the eyes of the law.
Since returning to office, US President Donald Trump has taken a series of moves to restrict abortion access.
In his first week back in the White House, Trump revoked two executive orders protecting access to a pill widely used to terminate pregnancies and the ability to travel to states where the procedure is not banned.
