China reopens Nepal road after flood

China has fully restored the main road to the Gyirong border crossing with Nepal just one week after catastrophic flash floods destroyed it. The reopening, announced by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday, allows large numbers of heavy machines to reach the site of the destroyed crossing, a major breakthrough for rescue operations on the Chinese side.

A collapsing glacier above the Nepal-Tibet border triggered the disaster last week, sending a surge of ice, rock, and mud through the valley. The Gyirong crossing is the primary trade and transport link in this part of the Himalayas, connecting to the Nepali border town of Rasuwagadhi.

Rescue efforts continue across Nepal as the death toll passed 1,000 on Tuesday. Approximately 4,000 people remain missing, including 583 foreign nationals, according to Nepal's disaster management authority. More than 11,000 people have been rescued in total since the disaster struck.

Nepalese rescuers, using helicopters, have pulled 118 more people to safety. A Nepalese Army statement initially referenced 119 people, including one Briton identified as Alastair Chambers. Chambers, a 45-year-old former Gloucester councillor, later clarified he was in Nepal as a volunteer distributing aid and was mistakenly logged as a flood survivor upon returning to Kathmandu.

A critical situation persists at hydropower sites along the Trishuli river, where more than 600 workers are believed trapped in mud-filled tunnels. Mountain guide Asish Gurung, assisting the rescue from Haku village, told reporters that reaching the Trishuli Hydro Power plant tunnel is not humanly possible without heavy machinery like bulldozers and excavators. He estimated about 500 people could be trapped inside.

Nepal's Prime Minister, Balendra Shah, said on Monday that 279 people had been rescued from hydropower sites specifically. Joint rescue teams from Nepal, India, and China are working alongside experts from South Korea and Australia.

International aid continues to arrive in Nepal. Aid worth more than $42 million has flowed into the country since the disaster, according to Prime Minister Shah. China's foreign ministry said it would send DNA testing experts and further relief supplies, including drones and water purification equipment. South Korea, with nine missing nationals, will send a 44-person emergency relief team.

Police in Kathmandu have urged relatives of missing tourists to provide DNA samples to assist identification efforts.

Prime Minister Shah and other officials have directly linked the scale of the disaster to climate change. China's state broadcaster said the flood was caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming.

Kanni Wignaraja, a UN assistant secretary-general, said Nepal, which depends heavily on its glaciers, now faces some very, very hard choices.

The disaster has renewed scrutiny over information access from the Tibetan side of the border. Advocacy groups Students for a