The Kathmandu Post - 29 May, 2024 (2024)

KATHMANDU,
Following an agreement to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the cooperatives scam, Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun on Tuesday presented the country’s annual financial plan in Parliament without any roadblocks from the opposition Nepali Congress.
The budget speech, which lasted less than two hours, received applause from the lawmakers in the joint parliament session on several occasions—particularly when Pun announced the
removal of VAT imposed on vegetables and fruits, and the return of at least Rs500,000 of each cooperatives depositor by recovering them from the properties of the directors.
Unlike in past years, Pun was seen carrying a bag made of local materials instead of a red or black briefcase.
In his speech, he later said that the government has given priority to promoting the private sector’s ‘Make In Nepal’ initiative.
The annual financial plan focused on agriculture growth, exports, and energy generation, while introducing measures to address the problems faced by credit cooperatives, is worth Rs1.86 trillion for the next fiscal year beginning mid-July.
The budget size is 6.2 percent larger than the unrevised budget of the current fiscal year.
With this expenditure, the government has targeted an economic growth rate of 6 percent for the next fiscal year and aims to cap inflation at 5.5 percent.
Some economists say pumping Rs1.86 trillion into the economy to achieve 6 percent growth and capping inflation at 5.5 percent appear to be contradictory steps. Economists say wise money supply is vital.
If the money supply grows at a faster rate than the economy’s ability to produce goods and services, inflation will also pick up, which is likely in the next fiscal year.
In the ongoing fiscal year, the money supply in the economy has not grown fast enough, leading to decreases in production, which in turn contributed to a rise in unemployment.
The government has allocated Rs1.14 trillion, or 61.31 percent of the total budget, for recurrent spending, which consists of regular expenses such as salaries and allowances.
It has set aside Rs352 billion, or 18.94 percent of the budget, for capital spending, which is used to build projects and critical infrastructure.
Similarly, the government has earmarked Rs367 billion, or 19.74 percent of the total budget, for financing.
According to Pun, the government will raise Rs1.26 trillion in revenue, Rs52.33 billion in foreign grants, Rs217.67 billion in external loans and Rs330 billion in internal loans.
Growth is slowing this year, which has divided economists and worried politicians. Thus, the budget offers even more hope than at other times.
“Overall, the budget is good. It covers almost all sectors,” said Rameshore Khanal, former finance secretary. “The industrial corridor launched by the government will help address the ongoing economic crisis by boosting industrial output.”
Economist Govinda Nepal said that, unlike the government’s policies and programmes, the budget is more balanced.
“But it has not given a clear view of how the cooperatives crisis will be settled. Similarly, the government lacks a vision to operate the new airports in Pokhara and Bhairahawa.”
He said that the budget has lofty goals, which are difficult to achieve given the uncertain political climate.
The government has raised the capital expenditure by Rs50 billion for the next fiscal year.
“For a long time, we have been unable to spend the capital budget wisely. We hope that an increase in capital expenditure will boost the economy. This is the beginning of the economic reform,” Pun told Parliament while presenting the budget.
He said the budget for the next fiscal year 2024-25 has focused on reform in three key areas.
First, boosting the slow economic growth; second, increasing the declining private sector investment and confidence; and third, improving the distressed agricultural productivity.
The government has announced the signing of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with other countries to attract foreign direct investment.
“Nepal has seen low public and private investment, which has slowed the growth rate and put the country into a low-growth trap,” said Pun.
He said the budget has focused on Nepal’s graduation from the ranks of the least developed countries, meeting the Sustainable Development Goals target by 2030, and becoming a middle-income country by 2030.
Pun said the other area of focus is employment generation by boosting private sector morale to invest, and implementing skills-based learning.
The government has announced an investment decade in the agriculture sector in order to modernise it. In the next fiscal year, Rs57.29 billion is allocated for the sector.
The government has announced interest subsidies, technical support, and tax waivers on machinery imports for individuals or firms engaged in commercial farming and livestock production through contract farming on 10 bigha (6.77 hectares) in Tarai and 50 ropani (2.54 hectares] in the hills.
There are new provisions for insurance premium waivers and soft loans for seven individuals and firms producing aromatic rice as part of a pilot project on more than 100 bigha of land. They will also have easy access to chemical fertiliser, seeds, and technical support.
The government may launch commercial farming of wild animals like musk deer in mountain districts like Myagdi, Mustang, Manang, Gorkha, and Dhading.
Economist Pushkar Bajracharya said that the budget seemed focused on promoting innovation with the announcement of the agriculture investment decade, the science and technology decade, and the women’s empowerment decade, which are the bases for economic transformation.
“But it’s difficult to achieve the economic growth rate as we are in a crisis, and there was no concrete initiative to bail the country out of economic slowdown.”
Finance Minister Pun said that the country will see a revolution in energy production.
He said that the government hopes to add 900MW into the national grid by the next fiscal year and take the total generation to 4,500MW in the next fiscal year. It plans to increase per capita electricity usage to 450 units.
Pun said that to meet the dry season demand, construction of four reservoir-based projects—1,200MW Budhi Gandaki, 670MW Dudh Koshi, 417MW Nalgadh, and 280MW Naumure—will begin in the next fiscal year.
He announced that the government would start the construction of the 783MW Sunkoshi III hydropower project.
The government aims to connect 100MW of solar projects from the private sector to the national grid.
The government has made orientation training free of charge for people going abroad for work. Similarly, it plans to launch a ‘returnee entrepreneurship programme’ for migrant workers who have returned from foreign employment. Under the scheme, at least 100,000 people will be self-employed.
The finance minister said a necessary budget has been allocated to establish consumer courts. In February 2022, the Supreme Court directed that such courts be established in all provinces.
“Activities like black-marketing and syndicating in the market will be controlled. Consumer courts will also be formed. I have allocated a budget for the purpose,” said Pun.
The government said it would provide loans for technical education, including medical education. “Law will be amended to provide loans and concessions loans for technical education in high demand.”
Pun also said that the government aims to welcome 1.6 million foreign tourists in the next fiscal year.
The finance minister also announced plans to promote Nepal as a wedding destination among foreign tourists in a bid to promote cultural and tourist destinations.
The government will lease government lands to the private sector for hotel and resort construction in order to boost tourist numbers.
The government has a target of exporting information technology-related goods and services worth Rs3 trillion in the next ten years.
Pun has said that 500,000 direct and 1 million indirect jobs will be created in the IT sector.
“Nepal will be developed as an information technology hub,” he said. “Artificial intelligence will be developed, promoted and regulated,” he said.
The government has constituted a fund of Rs1 billion to address the financial needs of startups. The government will also pass necessary laws to brand, market, and sell local alcohol.
A sum of Rs21.60 billion has been set aside for the reconstruction of earthquake-affected Jajarkot and Rukum West. The two districts were badly hit by an earthquake in November, 2023.
Chandra Prasad Dhakal, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Nepal’s apex private sector body, said that the budget has addressed almost all of the suggestions given by the private sector.
“We had demanded the formation of a high-level reform commission to address the ongoing economic crisis, and the budget has addressed it. “Similarly, the private sector had been pushing for contract farming, which the budget addresses as well.”
The budget has prioritised startups, promotion of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism, and hill stations. “If the budget is implemented properly, the 6 percent economic growth target is achievable,” Dhakal said.

Kathmandu,
After a weeks-long exercise, the four major political parties—the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the CPN (Maoist Centre), and the Rastriya Swatantra Party—on Tuesday agreed on the terms of reference (ToR) for the proposed parliamentary special probe panel on the cooperative scam.
The five political parties, including the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, have sent the names of the members to be represented in the parliamentary probe committee.
According to a Nepali Congress leader, Surya Thapa of the UML will lead the committee, and Sarita Bhusal of the party will serve as a member.
Likewise, Badri Pandey and Ishwari Neupane of the Nepali Congress, Lekhntah Dahal from the Maoist Centre, Shishir Khanal of the RSP, and Dhurbha Bahadur Pradhan of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party are other members of the parliamentary probe committee. The tenure of the special probe committee will be three months from the start of its work. The term will be extended if the panel is unable to complete the work in that time.
Earlier, the four-member task force led by Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Padam Giri agreed on a four-point ToR for the probe committee. The task force members handed over the ToR document to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. With this, the nearly two-months- long parliamentary impasse ended on Tuesday, allowing the government to present the government’s annual budget.
In the afternoon, Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun presented the budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 at the joint session of Parliament.
As per the agreement, the panel will conduct investigation and make recommendations on the resolving legal and institutional issues faced by cooperatives and on regulations, institutional purpose, supervision and transparency of their financial systems.
Despite the demand of the Congress, the name of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane, who has been accused of illegally obtaining loans from three cooperatives based in Butwal, Chitwan, and Pokhara, has not been mentioned in the ToR of the parliamentary committee. However, the cooperatives from which Lamichhne had borrowed money will be investigated.
The first clause under the jurisdiction of the parliamentary committee states that the committee will look into cooperatives facing crisis, their legal and institutional purposes, financial systems, regulations, supervision, and transparency, and will make recommendations to the government. Similarly, the committee will study and recommend quick ways to return existing and misused savings.
Another task is to make recommendations for immediate return of savings to the depositors of the crisis-ridden cooperatives identified by the Department of Cooperatives and the Crisis-ridden Cooperatives Management Committee. The parliamentary panel has also been mandated to study and analyse the progress of the savings protection and return process on those crisis-ridden cooperatives identified in annex 1 and annex 2 of the ToR.
The Department of Cooperatives has listed 20 cooperatives as crisis-ridden, with billions of rupees of depositors at risk.
The fourth clause on the jurisdiction of the committee states that it will track the condition of funds from crisis-ridden cooperatives, including those allegedly transferred to the Gorkha Media Network and other companies and organisations. It will also look into the legality of such transfers, investigate anyone involved in illegal transfer of funds, and make recommendations to recover the funds.
As per police investigation, billions of rupees from several cooperatives were transferred to GB Rai’s Gorkha Media Network. He has fled the country and Interpol has issued a red notice against him.
As listed on annex 2 of the ToR, nine credit cooperatives, whose deposits were transferred to run the Gorkha Media Network and other organisations, come under the purview of the investigation committee.
Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Padam Giri coordinated the task force whose members were Jeevan Pariyar and Gyanendra Bahadur Kariki from the Nepali Congress; Mahesh Bartuala from UML; Sishir Khanal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Hitraj Pandey of the CPN (Maoist Centre).
After an agreement between the parties on Monday evening, the meeting of the task force held on Tuesday finalised the ToR.

MAHOTTARI,
Forty-nine year old Urmila Tamang of ward 1 of Bardibas Municipality struggled to manage her household expenses 11 years ago. She couldn’t even manage the cost of her children’s education. She had enrolled all three of her children in a private school thinking that they could get quality education there. “But I could not pay the school bills,” Urmila says. “I had no option other than going abroad as nobody would lend me any money due to my poverty.”
Things have changed now. Now Urmila is considered an exemplary woman in her society. She has built a house of her own and can now lend money to those in need, she says, proudly.
Moreover, she has now turned into something of a green entrepreneur, running a commercial vegetable farm near her freshly-built house.
Urmila had gone to Kuwait some 11 years ago, aiming to provide a good education to her children and making a house of her own. Since she didn’t get any support from her family—her mother passed away when Urmila was still a child and her husband abandoned her and followed the path of monkhood—she was conscious of not letting her children face the hardship she did.
“I raised two daughters and a son alone by working as a daily wage earner,” she recalls.
In Kuwait, Urmila worked hard for seven years as a cleaner. She was paid Rs40,000 per month. “What I could earn is the education of my children,” she says, adding that she earned a total of Rs4 million during her stay in the West Asian emirate.
In her new four-room concrete house in ward 1 of Bardibas, Urmila now lives with her younger daughter and son; while her elder daughter is now in Dubai for work.
Urmila returned home in 2020 and received financial literacy training under the Safer Migration Project. After that, she started commercial vegetable farming near her residence. “I now earn a good amount of money by selling green vegetables,” Urmila says. “The same people who did not support me before I went abroad for work praise me now.”
Marsangmaya Bamjan, 55, from Khairmara in ward 10 of Bardibas Municipality, is another woman who after returning from foreign employment for good has made herself a name in society back home.
Bamjan went to Saudi Arabia six years ago to pay off the loan her husband took to go abroad. Bamjan’s husband died due to paralysis after returning from abroad.
“We took the loan to send him abroad, but he fell ill within a year of living there,” Bamjan says. “He died soon after returning home, and to repay the loan, I went abroad.”
Bamjan returned home with a decent amount of money from Saudi Arabia, and the society that never helped her suddenly started recognising her and acknowledging her with positivity.
“My husband’s family never accepted us or my two children, not even during the time when my husband was sick, but after returning from abroad, they approached me,” Bamjan says. “I felt proud of myself and pity at the same time for the biassed
society.”
Like Urmila, Laxmimaya Tamang, a 41-year-old woman from ward 10 of Bardibas, also went for foreign employment in Kuwait, where she worked for 15 years. She got married to a Nepali man from Bardibas who she met in Kuwait.
Laxmimaya said that after returning home, life was not easy because everyone used to judge her for working in the Gulf.
“When I got married, my husband’s family was not willing to accept me because I worked in the Gulf, but not even after two months, everybody was impressed with me and started appreciating me,” Laxmimaya says. “I have bought land in two different places with my earnings and have started a business in Bardibas.”
The society, which was frequently judging her while she was working, suddenly started appreciating her for her achievements.
“I have a happy family and am working as hard as I was in Kuwait, and I am happy that everybody is recognising me,” she says. “I worked abroad for my family due to financial troubles and made a living in Nepal with my experience, and I am happy with that.”
Bardibas Municipality is currently conducting financial literacy classes and providing psychological counselling to families who have returned from overseas employment or have family members in foreign employment under the Safer Migration Project.
However, the municipality has no idea how many women from Bardibas are abroad for foreign employment.
Kamala Karki, a financial
literacy facilitator, says that she is conducting a class for every family to invest money they earn abroad in the right place. “After getting financial literacy, investment in vegetable farming, poultry farming, goat farming, and other fields becomes easy for the people who return from abroad,” Karki says. “The Safer Migration Project also helps people who are interested in small and cottage ventures but do not have funds.”
According to the Bardibas Municipality, there are 102 people in the municipality taking classes for financial literacy and counselling under the Safer Migration Project after returning from abroad.

ARGHAKHANCHI: On Tuesday, police made public a 30-year-old man from Patauti in ward 4 of Panini Rural Municipality arrested on charge of marrying an 11-year-old girl. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Pratit Singh Rana of the Arghakhanchi District Police Office, the man was arrested on Sunday and has been remanded into judicial custody for five days. A preliminary investigation by the police has revealed that the man married the girl religiously on April 23 and was living with her, luring her with various temptations. The arrest was made after getting an anonymous tip, and further investigation into the case is going on, said Rana.

RUKUM WEST: A 22-year-old Yarsagumba collector died apparently due to high altitude sickness in the highlands of Kaike Rural Municipality of Dolpa on Monday. According to Narasingh Bista, the chairman of ward 4 of Aathbiskot Municipality, Jamuna Bista of the ward died in the incident. The victim, who fell ill in the highlands, died while returning home. The body was taken to the district hospital in Dolpa for postmortem.

SINDHULI: Police on Tuesday arrested three people from Haibar in ward 6 of Golanjor Rural Municipality on charges of fraud. According to the District Police Office in Sindhuli, Shyam Tamang, 24, Tenjen Paina, 26, and Narayan Bahadur Paina, 27, were detained for investigation. The suspects allegedly swindled around Rs 1.8 million from different people by promising to exchange their money into US dollars.

KATHMANDU,
At a time when the transitional justice process has been stuck in the lack of necessary legislation, the government has decided to establish a peace fund to support conflict victims of human rights violations.
Presenting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Minister for Finance Barsha Man Pun on Tuesday announced the establishment of the fund. “Rs1 billion has been allocated for the peace fund,” he said. “It would be used to provide compensation and financial support to conflict victims.”
In the past, successive governments have provided some relief packages to the victims of the decade-long insurgency that ended in 2006 but not many have been covered. The government provided Rs1 million in relief to the families of those killed or forcibly disappeared during the Maoist insurgency. However, many such victims have been left out.
Records at the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons show only 1,227 families of victims of enforced disappearances have received the compensation. However, as many as 3,223 complaints of enforced disappearances implicating either security forces or the Maoists have been lodged at the commission. And the commission has identified 2,494 cases that fall under its jurisdiction for investigation.
Victims of sexual violence and rape are the ones who have been most neglected when it comes to receiving compensation from the government. As they are unable to lodge complaints owing to the social stigma, they have been left out from the government support.
Though advocates of the rights of conflict victims of rape and sexual violence claim their numbers to be in thousands, only 314 have lodged their complaints at the truth commission.
The conflict victims, welcoming the decision to create the fund, ask the government and the political parties to focus on amending the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act. “Amending the Act must be a top priority as it will open the door for compensation and justice,” Suman Adhikari, founding chairperson of the Conflict Victims Common Platform, told the Post. “Searching for other options without making necessary attempts to amend the Act is unacceptable.”
The two transitional justice commissions have been defunct since July 2022, after the government decided to extend their terms without retaining their chairmen and members. Against the government’s claim that the amendment bill to the Act would be endorsed by October 2022, which will also open the door for recruiting new office bearers, there has been no progress in amending the Act.
The major political parties, despite making several attempts, have not been able to find a meeting point in the bill though there has been some progress.
After year-long discussions, the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives has narrowed down the differences in the bill. However, the House panel had been struggling to decide whether to categorise arbitrary killings or all killings except those that occurred in clashes as serious violations of human rights. It had also been unable to decide what happens in case the victims of human rights violations refuse to reconcile.
There has been no discussion on the bill since the formation of the UML-Maoist coalition on March 4.
The government, however, has claimed the transitional justice process would be expedited. Prior to the presentation of the budget to the joint meeting of Parliament, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said his government was committed to concluding the transitional justice process and providing financial support to the victims.
“The government is committed to concluding the peace process by expediting the transitional justice process,” Dahal said at a function held to mark the republic day. “We have completed most of the task of conflict management and peacebuilding as envisioned by the Constitution of Nepal.” He also claimed that Nepal’s practice in conflict management has set an example at the international level, he had claimed.

KATHMANDU,
The government has announced it’ll increase investments to help institutes involved in research and development sectors.
“The government has allocated one percent of the annual capital expenditure for research and development,” announced Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun while presenting the budget in Parliament on Tuesday. “Investments will be increased in the institutes involved in research and development.”
While presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, Pun announced an annual capital expenditure of Rs352 billion in his budget presentation for the upcoming fiscal year. As per the policy of earmarking one percent of the government’s annual capital expenditure for research and development, the sector will get Rs3.52 billion.
Following a days-long protest last year, the government had reached an agreement with Mahabir Pun, chairman of the National Innovation Centre, and pledged to allocate one percent of its annual capital expenditure for the promotion of the country’s research and development sector.
“Government last year had signed an agreement with us to allocate one percent of annual capital expenditure for the innovation and research works,” Pun, who is currently in Nawalparasi to sell his biography to collect money to operate his innovation centre, told the Post over the phone. “If the government has allocated this sum of money, it is a positive initiative.”
Last year, then-deputy prime minister and minister for defense Purna Bahadur Khadka signed a seven-point agreement with Pun. When Pun started his protest last year, many people, including civil society members, leaders from various political parties and the general public had reached Maitighar to express their solidarity to his movement.
Immediately after signing the agreement, Pun had told the Post that they ended the protest as the government committed to allocate at least one percent of the annual development budget to support innovation and research work.
Before beginning his sit-in in May 2023, the 2007 Magsaysay Award winner had met leaders and top officials, including Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and nearly half a dozen ministers, in order to convince them to take some concrete initiatives to promote innovation in the country.
Finance Minister Pun has also announced that the government will establish a Rs1 billion research and development fund for the upcoming year.
Meanwhile, the people who have been involved in the start-up and innovation sectors are not very optimistic regarding the budget. For the last five years, every budget has pledged to promote the start-up businesses and innovation sector. However, the government has done nothing viable to support the people involved in the field, said those active in the sector.
“The budget presented last year had mentioned the tax refund for the start-up. However, the actual plan of the government could not reach the real start-up business,” Kavi Raj Joshi, founder and managing director of the start-up company Next Venture Corp, told the Post. “Let’s hope this initiation taken by the government through the budget is implemented soon.”
Joshi says that the government acknowledging the information and technology sector is in itself a positive thing.
The government in the budget also envisioned establishing Nepal as a hub of information and technology.
The government has an ambition to export IT-related goods and services worth Rs3 trillion in the next ten years and aspires to create direct jobs for half a million and indirect employment for one million people in the sector.

KATHMANDU,
The government has allocated Rs86.24 billion to the health sector for the upcoming fiscal year, around a 2.5 percent increase from the 83.99 billion allocated for the current fiscal year.
The new allocation is only around 4.6 percent of the total budget.
Funds have been allocated to give continuity to most of the ongoing programmes—safe motherhood programmes, free essential medicines, setting up basic health care centres in all wards throughout the country, and financial relief to people from difficult and expensive diseases—cardiovascular disease, cancer, renal failure, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, head and spinal injury, sickle cell anaemia, and stroke.
The health budget also includes grants to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Nepal Police Hospital, Nepal Army Hospital, Civil Hospital, and others.
The national budget has announced a few new programmes, including the establishment of the Sita Dahal Memorial College of Naturopathy and Yogic Science under Kathmandu University. Sita Dahal is the late wife of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who died in July last year.
Health experts said that the incumbent government neglected the health sector this year, too, as a slight increase in the annual budget does not help to continue the existing health programme.
“How can we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals targets from the budget allocated to the health care sectors?” said Mahendra Prasad Shrestha, former chief specialist at the Ministry of Health and Population. “We need to bring qualitative change, and for that, huge investments are required.”
Several healthcare programmes, including safe motherhood programmes, child health programmes, tuberculosis control, nutrition, vector control programmes, epidemic control, non-communicable diseases, and mental health programmes, have already been affected by the cut in the previous year’s budget.
Likewise, the budget doesn’t address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases.
Non-communicable diseases—such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease—have emerged as major public health problems of late, accounting for 71 percent of deaths in the country.
A 2019 study by the Nepal Health Research Council on the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, which primarily focused on behavioural risk factors—tobacco and alcohol consumption, biological risk factors, raised blood pressure, overweight, obesity, abnormal lipid prevalence, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes—found non-communicable diseases have emerged as a major killer.
Nepal has witnessed several outbreaks in recent years--dengue, cholera diarrheal diseases, and other vector-borne diseases. The country has failed to achieve the malaria elimination target.
“Every hour, one person commits suicide, the burden of non-communicable diseases has increased alarmingly, and neonatal deaths have not declined in the past several years,” said Shrestha.
“Several programmes of health, including a free screening of cervical cancer and renal problems in the state-run health facilities, could not be implemented due to various reasons. The budget allocated for health even does not support continuing the ongoing programmes.”
Experts caution that budget cuts in crucial healthcare programmes would have a long-term impact and could affect the achievements made over the years.
“The government has not allocated the health budget to strengthen the federal structures,” said Dr Padam Bahadur Chand, former chief of the Policy Planning and International Cooperation Division at the Ministry of Health. “Most of the health budget will be spent on the salaries of the staffers.”

KATHMANDU,
Kantipur Media Group Chairman Kailash Sirohiya was flown to Kathmandu on Tuesday for further treatment.
Sirohiya, who was in the Kavya Hospital in Janakpur after experiencing heart-related problems on May 25, was brought to the Capital and admitted to the Nepal Mediciti Hospital, Lalitpur.
He is being treated at the hospital’s coronary care unit (CCU), according to doctors attending him.
Earlier, Sirohiya was admitted to the Janakpur-based hospital on Thursday after he had a headache, high blood pressure and fluctuating heartbeat.
Sirohiya is in police custody in connection with the investigation after a cadre of Rastriya Swatantra Party of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane filed a complaint stating that the number on Sirohiya’s citizenship certificate was the same as that on another person’s citizenship certificate.
The Dhanusha District Court on Monday extended his remand by three more days for the investigation.
A single bench of Judge Yaduraj Sharma allowed the district police office to keep Sirohiya in custody until Wednesday for further investigation. The court has also asked the police to expedite the investigation process and not to prolong it.
Previously, on Friday, the court had extended his remand for three days. Police presented him before the court on Monday to have his remand extended.
The police asked the court to extend the remand, saying the signature on Sirohiya’s citizenship mentioning the date of birth has been sent for forensic test and the report is awaited.
Police on May 21 arrested Sirohiya, weeks after RSP cadre Indrajit Mahato filed a complaint at the District Police Office in Dhanusha raising questions about the number on Sirohiya’s citizenship certificate.
The then administrative officer of the Dhanusha District Administration Office recently said the signature on the copy of the citizenship certificate is authentic and his own.
Various national as well as global bodies have denounced Sirohiya’s arrest from his media office.

Access to safe drinking water has never been easy for the residents of Kathmandu Valley. This year, as in the past, algae and other harmful particles are being discovered in bottled water. In March, water samples from the source, community schools and taps of seven wards of Godawari Municipality in Lalitpur were found contaminated with faecal coliform and microorganisms found in faeces. Despite being a country rich in water resources, the government and authorities have failed to deliver safe water to the citizens, reminding us of a line by English poet Samuel Tylor Coleridge, “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink”.
With people’s health already compromised, lack of budget to test the drinkability of supplied water is alarming as it may lead to more water-borne diseases. Experts warn that contaminated water also contributes to cholera, dysentery, typhoid and hepatitis A and E. Budgetary constraints have affected health agencies primarily responsible for regular drinking water testing. For the upcoming fiscal year, the government has set aside Rs86.24 billion for the health sector, a 2.5 percent increase from the Rs83.99 billion this year. However, the sector’s total share in the budget is only 4.6 percent, leaving us wondering if the amount will cover issues like water safety programmes.
The government’s efforts to supply safe water from public networks have been highly unsatisfactory. The Melamchi Drinking Water Project’s inconsistent distribution has disappointed people, and the leaks in the project’s pipes have only resulted in further contamination. Given this, jarred and bottled water are widely used in schools, offices, households and public spaces. However, most of these water sources remain unchecked due to the country’s poor monitoring facilities and human resources.
As responsible for unsafe water is the general public, having polluted water sources with faeces, sewage, harmful chemicals, pollutants and other wastes. Additionally, frequent floods and unprecedented rainfalls resulting from climate change contaminate water with pathogens, as shown by a technical paper, “Climate Change and Water”, of the International Panel on Climate Change. Yet, our policies often overlook human-induced water safety concerns.
Water contamination usually makes headlines before and during the monsoon, leaving us unaware of their status in other seasons. The government should immediately allocate more inspectors to test water sources and develop plans at local levels for year-round monitoring. Once the water jars and bottles are found unsuitable for drinking, they are sent back to their respective companies, but there’s no guarantee that these companies will later ensure water safety. Sensitising water suppliers on the public’s health and training them to follow the National Drinking Water Quality Standard, which includes water sampling and testing and physic-chemical and microbiological testing, is of paramount importance. The standard also mandates the suppliers conduct quality monitoring, which should be diligently followed.
Safe drinking water is a fundamental right; the authorities are duty-bound to fulfil that. This, however, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything at our end to protect our own health. According to the World Health Organization, diarrhoeal cases take a toll on around half a million low- and middle-income countries, with most deaths occurring in children under five. This suggests that simple preventive measures at home can also protect us from deadly diseases. For this, the government and health authorities should make people aware of proper water treatment methods and safe storage. Only serious steps in water security will ensure the government meets its pledge to ensure safe water access for everyone by 2030.

BEIJING,
Apple’s smartphone shipments in China rose 52 percent in April from a year ago, extending a rebound seen in March, according to data from a research firm affiliated the Chinese government.
The jump follows a weak performance by the US tech giant in the world’s biggest smartphone market earlier this year amid intensifying competition in the high-end smartphone category from local rivals like Huawei. Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China increased by 52 percent in April to 3.495 million units from 2.301 million a year earlier, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed on Tuesday.
Although the data did not explicitly mention Apple, the company is the dominant foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone market. This suggests that the increase in foreign-branded shipments can be attributed to Apple’s performance.
Apple’s shipments in China increased by 12 percent in March, marking a significant improvement from the first two months of 2024, when the company experienced a 37 percent slump in sales.
Sales may see a further boost in May as Apple launched an aggressive discounting campaign this month on its official Tmall site in China, offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on select iPhone models.
Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook forecast iPhone sales growth in some markets, including China, after the company reported an 8.1 percent drop in second-quarter revenue from the Greater China region.
The price reduction, double the size of a discount it offered in February, comes after Huawei introduced last month its new series of high-end smartphones, the Pura 70, following the launch of the Mate 60 last August.

WASHINGTON,
President Joe Biden’s administration is set Tuesday to unveil “guardrails” it says will ensure that carbon offset markets effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a significant win for advocates of the contentious schemes.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will lay out the government’s first broad guidelines for “high-integrity” carbon markets, aimed at boosting confidence in a system that critics have panned as greenwashing.
To transition to a low-carbon economy, “We need to use all the tools at our disposal—creatively, thoughtfully, and at scale,” she will declare in an event with other senior officials, including White House senior climate adviser John Podesta.
“I believe that harnessing the power of markets and private capital is critical. This includes efforts to grow high-integrity voluntary carbon markets.”
Carbon credits enable corporations and countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, with each credit representing the reduction or removal of one tonne of CO2, often in developing countries through projects combating deforestation.
The carbon offsets market is currently worth around $2 billion, but has come under intense fire recently after research has shown that claims of reduced emissions under the schemes are often hugely overestimated—or simply non-existent.
Yellen will outline principles emphasizing integrity in three key areas: supply-side credits tied to genuine emissions reductions or removals; demand-side corporate accountability that prioritizes emission reduction; and market integrity through greater transparency and reduced complexity.
The release of the guidelines signal the US government is throwing its weight behind the controversial climate financing mechanisms.
Prominent advocates of carbon markets, including former US climate envoy John Kerry, argue that government funding alone is insufficient to meet the Paris accord’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Kenya’s President William Ruto has hailed Africa’s carbon sinks as an “unparalleled economic goldmine” with the potential to generate billions annually. The UN special envoy on climate ambition and solutions, business tycoon Michael Bloomberg, welcomed the announcement.
“These will help increase investment in projects that reduce emissions and help more businesses grow while reducing their carbon footprints,” he said in a statement with UN special envoy on climate action and finance Mark Carney, and Mary Schapiro, former chair of the US securities and exchange commission.
But scientists emphasize that offsetting should not be used as a license to continue polluting, as emissions must fall by nearly half this decade to meet global warming goals.

HOHHOT (China),
Speeding along crumbling roads past dusty villages and herds of sheep, a team of cyclists turns heads in China’s Inner Mongolia with their unusual equipment.
The group, most of them wheelchair users, were strapped into low-slung, three-wheeled handcycle bikes instead of the two-wheeled mountain bikes more commonly seen on the challenging terrain.
Dodging trucks and car-sized potholes, they barrelled down country roads towards the regional capital Hohhot, frequently greeted with excited shouts by groups of villagers.
The cyclists are members of Krankin’ Thru China, formed over a decade ago to promote wheelchair users’ participation in open-air sports.
China passed an accessibility law last year aimed at creating a “barrier-free” society but everyday life for people with disabilities can still be challenging in many parts of the country. “From the very start we wanted to use handcycle bikes as a way to encourage injured friends to come outdoors,” said Wang Feng, who discovered adaptive bikes years after losing the use of his legs because of a childhood illness.
Krankin’ Thru China has embarked on multiple long-distance trips in remote parts of the country, including a three-month journey in 2017 from the mountainous southwestern province of Yunnan to the capital Beijing.
They have also collaborated with a Shanghai-based university to help build a prototype aimed at making handcycle bikes more affordable and widely available, one of which they tested on the odyssey through rural Inner Mongolia.
Wang and teammates Pan Yifei and Joshua Dominick set off in early May from Qahar Right Rear Banner, a sparsely populated area known for its mines and a nearby volcano park.
Wang said he often meets people who don’t realise the bikes are designed with disability in mind.
“When I tell them this is a hand-cranked bike for disabled people, they’re shocked... they think it’s so impressive,” he said. In Hohhot, the group met a disability association who took turns trying out the bikes.
The locals propelled themselves rapidly around a running track as curious children and retirees looked on. “I saw this before in videos but I never tried it myself,” Di Wenke, a 36-year-old wheelchair dancer, told AFP. “I felt as fast as a machine... and I felt like onlookers envied me.”
Di said that adaptive sports—including wheelchair dancing and handcycling—helped tackle some of the social stigma surrounding disability. “Compared to my previous closed-off mindset, my heart has opened up,” he said. “Having a hobby of your own can be a very nurturing thing.”
As well as bike trips, Krankin’ Thru China hosts regular adaptive swimming and horseback riding events.
“Among the injured friends that I know, they have experienced a change in their attitude,” Wang said, with many asking him for advice on becoming more involved.
Many challenges remain.
As the team approached Hohhot, they relied on word of mouth and trial and error to find country inns that could accommodate their wheelchairs.
The riders needed assistance to climb the front steps of one place, and stairs and elevated bathroom floors were frequent obstacles.
While China’s largest cities are making progress in building accessible infrastructure, smaller towns and rural communities are largely constructed without wheelchair users in mind. And when it comes to mountain biking, most adaptive bikes on the market are prohibitively expensive and constructed out of specialised parts that are difficult to replace.
“It happened before, where we were on the road in Yunnan... that there was a breakdown, so this was quite a big safety risk,” Wang said.
“A lot of assistive equipment has to be custom-made, causing it to be very expensive or for there to be very few (options)... so there are also very few people who can access these sports,” teammate Pan said. The prototype bike tested on this trip—designed by New York University researchers and built by the team alongside lecturer Noel Joyce and students at NYU’s Shanghai campus—is an attempt to change that.

WASHINGTON: Private sector entrepreneurs in Cuba will be able to establish US bank accounts which they can remotely access, US officials said Tuesday, in announcing an update to the country’s Cuba policy. The new rules modify a longstanding embargo on Cuba, allowing conditional access to the US banking system among moves to support the private sector. “These amendments will facilitate greater access to internet-based services for the Cuban people,” a senior US official told reporters. They will also “provide the independent Cuban private sector greater access to international transactions and US banking services, including through online payment platforms,” the official added on condition of anonymity. In particular, independent private sector entrepreneurs will be able to set up remotely accessed US bank accounts for authorized transactions. (AFP)

FRANKFURT: German auto giant Volkswagen on Tuesday announced plans for a cheaper-than-ever electric model, as it faces increasingly strong competition from Asian rivals that have taken a lead in battery technology. The new model, which would be priced at around 20,000 euros ($21,800) and be presented in 2027, would offer “entry-level electric mobility from Europe for Europe”, VW CEO Oliver Blume said in a statement. Volkswagen also detailed plans for a range of new battery-powered cars for under 25,000 euros to be unveiled as soon as the end of 2025. These included two compact cars from its VW and Cupra brands, as well as two small SUVs, one each from VW and Skoda. All four vehicles would be produced in Spain, Volkswagen said. (AFP)

SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced the formation of a new safety committee on Tuesday, weeks after the departures of key executives raised questions about the firm’s commitment to mitigating the dangers of artificial intelligence. The company said the committee, which will include CEO Sam Altman, is being established as OpenAI begins training its next AI model, expected to surpass the capabilities of the GPT-4 system powering ChatGPT. “While we are proud to build and release industry-leading models on both capabilities and safety, we welcome a robust debate at this important juncture,” OpenAI stated. Comprised of board members and executives, the committee will spend the next 90 days comprehensively evaluating and bolstering OpenAI’s processes and safeguards around advanced AI development. (AFP)

WASHINGTON: US consumers appeared less gloomy about the job market and future business conditions in May, according to a survey released Tuesday. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index posted a surprise increase this month to 102.0, despite analyst expectations of a decline from April’s 97.5 level. “Confidence improved in May after three consecutive months of decline,” said The Conference Board’s chief economist Dana Peterson. While consumers’ were less optimistic of current business conditions than before, “the strong labor market continued to bolster consumers’ overall assessment of the present situation,” Peterson said. (AFP)

TBILISI, Georgia,
The Georgian parliament on Tuesday overrode a presidential veto of the “foreign agents” bill that has prompted weeks of massive protests by critics who say it will restrict media freedom and obstruct Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union.
The legislature, controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party, dismissed the veto of President Salome Zourabichvili, an independent.
The president now has five days to endorse the bill. If she doesn’t do so, the parliament speaker will sign it into law.
The bill that was approved by the parliament earlier this month requires media, nongovernmental organisations and other nonprofit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.
The president now has five days to endorse the bill. If she doesn’t do so, the parliament speaker will sign it into law.
The bill that was approved by the parliament earlier this month requires media, nongovernmental organisations and other nonprofit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.
Zourabichvili, who is increasingly at odds with the governing party, vetoed the bill on May 18. She has accused the governing party of jeopardising the country’s future and “hindering the path toward becoming a full member of the free and democratic world.”
The veto was rejected by an 84-4 vote in a contentious parliament session, during which a Georgian Dream deputy doused the leader of an opposition party with water while he spoke from the rostrum.
Opponents of the bill thronged outside the parliament building and some shouted “Slaves!” as the vote was announced.
The government says the bill is needed to stem what it deems to be harmful foreign actors trying to destabilise the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million, but many Georgian journalists and activists argue that the bill’s true goal is to stigmatise them and restrict debate ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
Opponents denounce the legislation as “the Russian law” because it resembles measures pushed through by the Kremlin to crack down on independent news media, nonprofits and activists. Critics say the measure may have been driven by Moscow to thwart Georgia’s chances of further integrating with the West.
The bill is nearly identical to one that the ruling party was pressured to withdraw last year after massive street protests. Renewed demonstrations again gripped Georgia as the bill made its way through parliament. Demonstrators scuffled with police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.
The European Union’s foreign policy arm has said that adoption of the law “negatively impacts Georgia’s progress on the EU path.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that travel sanctions would be imposed on Georgian officials “who are responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia.”
He noted that “it remains our hope that Georgia’s leaders will reconsider the draft law and take steps to move forward with their nation’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
The EU offered Georgia candidate status last December, while making it clear that Tbilisi needs to implement key policy recommendations for its membership bid to progress.
The opposition United National Movement has described the bill as part of efforts by Georgian Dream to drag the country into Russia’s sphere of influence—claims it vehemently denies.
Georgian Dream was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister and billionaire who made his fortune in Russia.
Zuka Elbakidze, a student who was among protesters rallying in Tbilisi ahead of Tuesday’s vote, said “this day will determine the fate of our country,” adding that “we are making a choice between Europe and Russia, and all the people gathered here, except the policemen, want Europe and the West.”
“We are physically witnessing, literally witnessing, how Georgian citizens, how members of the Georgian Parliament are selling out our country,” said another protester, Mariam Geguchadze.
Russia-Georgia relations have often been rocky since Georgia became independent after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Moscow then recognised South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, as independent states and strengthened its military presence there. Most of the world considers both regions to be parts of Georgia.
Tbilisi cut diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the regions’ status remains a key irritant even as Russia-Georgia relations have improved in recent years.

HONG KONG,
Hong Kong police arrested six people on Tuesday under the city’s new security law for “posting messages with seditious intention” online on a Facebook page about commemorating Beijing’s deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Five women and one man were arrested for “posting messages with seditious intention on an anonymous social media page since April 2024”, the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force said in a statement.
One of the women arrested is already on remand in a maximum-security prison. Security chief Chris Tang confirmed the woman was Chow Hang-tung, a prominent activist who has been jailed since September 2021.
Chow was the former leader of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which had organised an annual candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to mourn the victims of June 4, 1989, when Beijing sent troops into Tiananmen Square to quash protests calling for political change.
Tuesday’s arrests came as the 35th anniversary of that crackdown approaches.
Tang also told a news briefing the Facebook page in question was the “Chow Hang-tung Club”.
He said the six, aged between 37 and 65, were “making use of a sensitive day to incite the public to commit acts that endanger public safety, public order and national security”.
Discussion of the Tiananmen crackdown is highly sensitive for China’s communist leadership and commemoration is forbidden on the mainland.
The Chinese government sent troops and tanks into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 to break up peaceful, weeks-long protests.
Hundreds, by some estimates more than 1,000, were killed.
Police said the messages were written “with the aim to incite hatred towards” the governments of China and Hong Kong “as well as inciting netizens to organise or take part in unlawful activities at a later stage”.
The police statement said the six were suspected of violating Hong Kong’s newly enacted “Safeguarding National Security Ordinance”.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. Tuesday marked the first such arrests under the new law, which was enacted in March and is commonly referred to as Article 23.
It includes penalties of up to life imprisonment for five categories of crime including treason, insurrection, and external interference.
It also expanded the British colonial-era offence of “sedition” to include inciting hatred against China’s Communist Party leadership.

New York,
Melinda French Gates says she will be donating $1 billion over the next two years to individuals and organisations working on behalf of women and families globally, including on reproductive rights in the United States.
French Gates earlier this month announced she would step down from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and vowed to focus on women and families.
French Gates, one of the biggest philanthropic supporters of gender equity in the US, said on Tuesday in a guest essay for The New York Times that she’s been frustrated over the years by people who say it’s not the right time to talk about gender equality.
“Decades of research on economics, well-being and governance make it clear that investing in women and girls benefits everyone,” she wrote. French Gates touched upon the high maternal mortality rates in the US, noting that Black and Native American mothers are at the highest risk.
“Women in 14 states have lost the right to terminate a pregnancy under almost any circ*mstances. We remain the only advanced economy without any form of national paid family leave.
And the number of teenage girls experiencing suicidal thoughts and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness is at a decade high,” she said.
French Gates said over the last few weeks she’s started directing new grants through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, to groups working in the US to protect women’s rights and advance their power and influence. The groups include National Women’s Law Center, National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Teresa Younger, the president and CEO of the Ms Foundation for Women, who also received a grant, has long called on donors to give unrestricted, multi-year funding to organisations. She praised French Gates’ new commitment as a part of a larger trend of major women donors giving generously to nonprofits.
“If philanthropy took lessons from the way that women are moving money, we would see more money in the field having greater impact,” Younger said.
Her organisation learned of the grant, which is the first they’ve received from Pivotal Ventures last week, and Younger said there was no application process. She declined to disclose the amount of the grant but said it would help expand their work with organizations in the South and Midwest.
French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures is a limited liability company that also manages investments for profit ventures, so there is little public information about its grantmaking or the assets it manages. Pivotal Ventures has focused on a number of avenues to increase women’s economic and political participation and power, like closing the wage gap, compensating care work often done by women, and encouraging women to run for political office.
French Gates plans to introduce a $250 million initiative in the fall that will concentrate on improving the mental and physical health of women and girls worldwide.

DHAKA,
Bangladesh forest experts warned on Tuesday a key tiger habitat hit by a deadly cyclone had been submerged by seawater deeper and longer than ever before, raising fears for endangered wildlife.
Cyclone Remal, which made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighbouring India on Sunday evening, killed at least 38 people in both nations and affected millions more.
More than a million people fled inland to concrete storm shelters before the cyclone hit.
But it was the vast Sundarbans mangrove forest straddling Bangladesh and India—where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet the sea—that took the brunt of the force.
The forest, which hosts one of the world’s largest populations of Bengal tigers, was swamped, said Mihir Kumar Doe, the head of Bangladesh’s southern forest department.
“The entire Sundarbans was under water for more than 36 hours during the cyclone,” Doe told AFP.
“All its freshwater ponds, numbering more than 100, were washed away by saline tidal water.”
At least 114 Bengal tigers live in Bangladesh’s portion of the Sundarbans, according to official figures.
Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, Bangladesh’s senior forest official for the Sundarbans, had said he feared for the wildlife if the freshwater lakes were tainted.
“We are worried,” said Hossain. “These ponds were the source of fresh water for the entire wildlife in the mangroves—including the endangered Bengal tigers.”
The Sundarbans, the world’s biggest mangrove forest, is regularly battered by intense monsoon storms.
But Azizur Rahman, director of the state-run Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said the cyclone was “one of longest in the country’s history”, blaming climate change for the shift.
Doe said his teams had recovered dozens of dead spotted deer, as well as boars, the tigers’ main prey.
“We are very concerned over the wild animals including tigers,” Doe said.
“The Sundarbans is such a dynamic ecosystem, it is tough to know whether any tigers or wild animals were washed away or died.”
Mangroves grow mainly in seawater or brackish water but Doe said the flooding was on a scale he had not witnessed before.
“This 36-hour inundation is very unusual,” he said, noting that it was three times longer than during Cyclone Sidr in 2007.
During the latest cyclone, areas nearer the sea were three metres underwater, while areas further upstream were under 1.2-1.5 metres of water.
“Even during low tide, the water did not recede,” Doe said.
“This is very unusual.”
Tiger expert Monirul Khan, zoology professor at Jahangirnagar University, said he feared smaller animals such as deer would be hardest hit.
“I fear for the animals who are less strong such as spotted deer,” he said.
“Spotted deer are helpless to strong tides during cyclones or longer inundation of the forest. But Bengal tigers can climb trees.”

VATICAN CITY,
Pope Francis apologised on Tuesday after he was quoted using a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement acknowledging the media storm that erupted about Francis’ comments, which were delivered behind closed doors to Italian bishops on May 20.
Italian media on Monday had quoted unnamed Italian bishops in reporting that Francis jokingly used the term “fa*ggotness” while speaking in Italian during the encounter. He had used the term in reaffirming the Vatican’s ban on allowing gay men to enter seminaries and be ordained priests.
Bruni said Francis was aware of the reports and recalled that the Argentine pope, who has made outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has long insisted there was “room for everyone” in the Catholic Church.
“The pope never intended to offend or express himself in hom*ophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term that was reported by others,” Bruni said.
With the statement, Bruni carefully avoided an outright confirmation that the pope had indeed used the term, in keeping with the Vatican’s tradition of not revealing what the pope says behind closed doors. But Bruni also didn’t deny that Francis had used the term and acknowledged that some people had been offended by it.
Francis was addressing an assembly of the Italian bishops conference, which recently approved a new document outlining training for Italian seminarians. The document, which hasn’t been published pending review by the Holy See, reportedly sought to open some wiggle room in the Vatican’s absolute ban on gay priests by introducing the issue of celibacy as the primary requirement for priests, gay or straight.
The Vatican ban was articulated in a 2005 document from the Congregation for Catholic Education, and later repeated in a subsequent document in 2016, which said the church cannot admit to seminaries or ordain men who “practice hom*osexuality, present deep-seated hom*osexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture.”

PARIS,
Rafael Nadal’s illustrious French Open career came to a likely end with his first ever defeat in the opening round by Alexander Zverev on Monday.
Nadal matched world number four Zverev for long periods on a packed Court Philippe Chatrier, but slipped to a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 loss as he was beaten for just the fourth time in 116 matches at the tournament.
This year’s event was expected to be the 14-time champion’s farewell to Roland Garros, but he had since insisted he could not confirm “100 percent” it would be his last appearance.
“If it is (the last time), then you have been amazing,” Nadal told an adoring crowd under the Chatrier roof. The feelings I have today are difficult to describe in words. It is the place I love the most.”
Nadal, who turns 38 next week, showed all his trademark fighting qualities in a gripping match, but only managed to convert two of 11 break points against an inspired opponent.
“The first round wasn’t ideal,” he admitted, before saying he “hoped” to be back at Roland Garros later this summer for the Paris Olympics but would almost certainly skip Wimbledon.
“It will be difficult playing on grass considering that right after Wimbledon are the Olympic Games.”
It was only Nadal’s fifth tournament since January 2023 after suffering a hip injury and then a muscle tear, arriving in Paris a lowly 275th in the world rankings.
“It’s hard to say about the future,” he added. “I am travelling with my family and I am having fun. The body is feeling better than it did two months ago.”
Nadal was unseeded for the draw and vulnerable to a difficult opening round.
German Zverev, who lifted the Rome Open title last month, proved too strong despite the fans desperately attempting to raise Nadal to past glories.
The 27-year-old banished the memories of the duo’s last meeting, when he left Chatrier court on a wheelchair after injuring his ankle during their 2022 French Open semi-final.
His reward for becoming just the third player to defeat Nadal at Roland Garros—after Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling—is a match against either David Goffin or home wildcard Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

Swiatek makes strong start
Women’s world number one Iga Swiatek raced to a 6-1, 6-2 victory against French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean after just 61 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier to make a winning start in her bid for a fourth title.
The Pole will next face fellow four-time major champion Naomi Osaka on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old Pole is aiming to become the first woman to win three straight Roland Garros titles since Justine Henin in 2007, and only the second ever after Serena Williams to win the Madrid, Rome and French Opens in the same year.
Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner started his title tilt with a confident 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over Wimbledon quarter-finalist Christopher Eubanks.
The Italian second seed, who withdrew from the Madrid Open and missed the Rome Open with a hip injury, set up a second-round meeting with French veteran Richard Gasquet.
Daniil Medvedev had lost in the first round on five of his previous seven Roland Garros appearances, but made no mistake this time, seeing off Dominik Koepfer in four sets.
Former finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, 6-1.
Women’s third seed Coco Gauff, the current US Open title-holder and who lost the 2022 French Open final to Swiatek, raced through in just 52 minutes by crushing Russian Julia Avdeeva 6-1, 6-1.
But sixth-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari bowed out in the first round for the second straight year with a three-set loss to Varvara Gracheva.
Marketa Vondrousova, also a former Roland Garros runner-up and the reigning Wimbledon champion, eased past Rebeka Masarova of Spain in straight sets.
Tunisian eighth seed Ons Jabeur booked her place in round two with a comfortable win over US wildcard Sachia Vickery.

LOS ANGELES, US
Former ‘General Hospital’ actor Johnny Wactor was shot and killed when he interrupted thieves stealing the catalytic converter from his car in Los Angeles, his family said Sunday.
The shooting occurred around 3 am Saturday when the victim approached three men in downtown LA, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
His mother, Scarlett Wactor, told ABC 7 that her 37-year-old son had left work at a rooftop bar with a coworker when he saw someone at his car and thought it was being towed. A mask-wearing suspect opened fire, his mother said.
Three suspects drove away from the scene, police said. Wactor was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
There were no arrests as of late Sunday.
Wactor’s agent, David Shaul, said the actor was “a real moral example to everyone who knew him.”
“In the highs and lows of a challenging profession he always kept his chin up and kept striving for the best he could be,” Shaul said in a statement Sunday. “Our time with Johnny was a privilege we would wish on everyone. He would give you the shirt off his back. After over a decade together, he will leave a hole in our hearts forever.”
Wactor portrayed Brando Corbin on the ABC soap opera from 2020 to 2022. He also appeared in a variety of films and TV series, including ‘Station 19’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Westworld’ and the video game ‘Call of Duty: Vanguard’.