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Nepali football team leaves for India to play U-20 SAFF Championship

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Kathmandu: A Nepali football team participating in the U-20 Men’s SAFF Championship in India has left for India on Friday. The Championship is scheduled to take place in Bhubaneshwar of India from July 25 to August 5.

Chairperson of All Nepal Football Association, Pankaj Bikram Nembang, Member-Secretary of the National Sports Council, Tanka Lal Ghising, and office-bearers of ANFA bade farewell to the team.

There are five teams in the championship including the host India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Nepal will pay with the Maldives on July 25 as an inaugural match.

Similarly, Nepal will play its second match with Sri Lanka on July 27 and third match with India on July 31.

Likewise, Nepal will play another match with Bangladesh on August 2. The top two teams of the championship will play final match on August 5.

Ishwor Gurung, Unesh Chaudhary and Jiyarath Sheikh, Amar Shrestha, Sonit Dahal, Ayush Shrestha, Ajay Chaudhary, Sumit Shrestha, Srijan Dhani, Roshan Thapa, Abhishek Waiba, Dipesh Gurung, Ashish Rai, Sandeep Karki, Janmajaya Dhami, Mohit Gurung, Kritish Ratna Chhunju, Sugam Suwal, Managya Nakarmi, Ayush Ghalan, Dipesh Rai, Niranjan Malla and Roshan Khadgi are in the team.

YouTube to remove videos carrying misinformation about abortion

Posted on by SAT News Desk

In an effort to combat inaccurate information about the medical procedure, YouTube announced on Thursday (local time) that it will begin deleting videos that make false claims about abortion.

The decision was made at a time when women are looking for trustworthy pregnancy-related information online as the right to an abortion has been restricted in many parts of the United States.

Elena Hernandez, a representative for YouTube, was quoted by CNN as saying, “We feel it’s vital to connect people to content from credible sources about health topics, and we regularly examine our policies and products as real-world events develop.”

Crisis-hit Sri Lanka swears in new prime minister

Posted on by SAT News Desk

COLOMBO: Senior Sri Lankan lawmaker Dinesh Gunawardena was sworn in on Friday as the new prime minister, his office said, a day after the swearing-in of a new president as the Indian Ocean nation grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades.

The event came just hours after security forces raided a protest camp on government grounds in the main city of Colombo and cleared part of it, with at least nine arrests, as the new administration moves to crack down on protesters.

A former minister from the Podujana Peramuna party, Gunawardena took the oath of office in the presence of Wickremesinghe, seated in front of uniformed military officers in a room packed with lawmakers and officials. The rest of the cabinet is expected to be sworn in later on Friday.

Sri Lanka’s crisis, the result of economic mismanagement and the fallout of conflict in Ukraine, sparked months of mass protests and eventually forced then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Reuters

Nepal, China to carry out joint border monitoring

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Kathmandu: There will be a joint border monitoring between Nepal and China. Border affairs officials of the two countries have agreed on the same.

In a virtual meeting on border matters held on July 14, it was agreed to monitor the border under the leadership of the head of the North East Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal and the Head of the Department of Border and Maritime Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

Since joint border inspection between Nepal and China has not taken place for a long time, it has been agreed to proceed with this work through mutual consultation, said Sewa Lamsal, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Lamsal shared that a report will be prepared jointly on the issues observed and monitored. “A modality for such monitoring is yet to be prepared and based on it an integrated framework will be prepared for where and how to go and where to monitor,” said Lamsal at a regular press briefing held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to an agreement reached between Nepal and China in 1963, the border should be monitored and updated every 10 years. However, it has not been done regularly. Spokesperson Lamsal also shared that there has been an agreement on the two-way opening of the Kerung-Rasuwagadhi transit point and the one-way opening of the Hilsa border point by adopting the necessary health standards related to Covid-19.

Likewise, the 10th meeting of the Trade Facilitation Committee established in Tibet between Nepal and China was held on July 18. During the meeting construction of physical infrastructure at the border crossing, facilitation of bilateral trade, foreign investment, development of trade infrastructure, transportation facilities, as well as simplification of customs procedures, and the timely completion of the Timure Dry Port in Rasuwa under-construction with Chinese assistance were discussed.

Nepal Live Today

Droupadi Murmu makes history, becomes India’s first tribal woman President

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Delhi: NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Thursday scripted history by becoming the country’s first tribal President defeating Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha. Murmu, 64, won by a huge margin against Sinha after receiving over 64 per cent valid votes in the counting of ballots of MPs and MLAs, that continued for over 10 hours, to succeed Ram Nath Kovind.

At the end of the counting process, returning officer P C Mody declared Murmu as the winner adding that she secured 6,76,803 votes against Sinha’s 3,80,177 votes to become the 15th President of India. Murmu, 64, is the first Adivasi and second woman to become the nation’s First Citizen and the Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces.

Murmu was elected to two terms in the Odisha Assembly in 2000 and 2004, and served as a Minister from 2000 to 2004 in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD-BJP coalition government. She was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand in 2015.

Britain must learn to live with extreme weather, says cabinet minister

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London: The UK must learn to live with extreme weather, a minister has said, as the government was accused of going missing “while Britain burns”.

Hundreds of firefighters battled fires across England as temperatures surged to a historic high of 40.3C on Tuesday. More than 60 homes were destroyed in wildfires, and fire services faced what was described as their busiest day since the second world war.

Kit Malthouse, the Cabinet Office minister, said 13 people including seven teenage boys had died while swimming in recent weeks, as he updated MPs on the response to the heatwave. He said of the fires: “We do recognise that we are likely to experience more of these incidents and that we should not underestimate their speed, scope and severity.

“Britain may be unaccustomed to such high temperatures but the UK, along with our European neighbours, must learn to live with extreme events such as these.

“The government has been at the forefront of international efforts to reach net zero, but the impacts of climate change are with us now.” Agencies

Nepal’s national cricket team Head Coach Pubudu Dassanayake resigns

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Kathmandu: Head Coach of Nepal men’s national cricket team Pubudu Dassanayake has resigned citing personal reasons, eight months after the appointment.

Dassanayake handed over his resignation to the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) soon after the cricket team returned after completing a tour of Canada and Scotland. He resigned a week ago and informed the press only on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press meet, Dassanayake called the resignation the most difficult decision of his career. “This is the most difficult decision taken by me so far. I resigned for personal reasons,” Dassanayake said at the press conference.

Dassanayake was appointed men’s national cricket team Head Coach in December. Dassanayake had previously worked as the coach of the Nepali national team from 2011-15. He was considered one of the successful coaches of the national team as Nepal had played T20 World Cup in Bangladesh under his leadership.

His leadership was criticized following Nepal’s poor performance in a triangular one-day series under the ICC Cricket League Two held in Scotland this week. He was under pressure as the team failed to deliver well lately.

Nepal Live Today

Sri Lanka gets new president in Wickremesinghe, protests muted

Posted on by SAT News Desk

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan lawmakers voted in acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new president on Wednesday, hoping his long experience in government would help pull the country out of a crippling economic and political crisis.

The mood of protesters was muted, with only around 100 people on the steps of the presidential secretariat. Many of the hundreds of thousands on the streets who forced the ouster of previous president Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week had wanted Wickremesinghe gone too, labelling him an ally of the Rajapaksa family.

“We’re shocked. He’s a person handling things in a very cunning way,” protester Damitha Abeyrathne said of Wickremesinghe. “He will start controlling us in a different way. As protesters, we will start our struggle again.”

Chameera Dedduwage, an organiser of previous protests, said one of the goals of the movement was the removal of Rajapaksa, and with that achieved, it “will have to be satisfied with its primary demand”. Read more at Reuters.

South Asian Games set to be moved to 2024

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Following the Olympic Council of Asia’s Tuesday announcement of new dates for the postponed 19th edition of the Asian Games, Pakistan would only be able to host the South Asian Games in 2024.

Pakistan had planned to host the South Asian Games in September and October of the following year, but the OCA’s decision to move the Hangzhou Asian Games, which had been postponed due to Covid-19 last year, from September 23 to October 8 means that Pakistan will have to wait an additional year before hosting the first South Asian Games since 2004.

The South Games were originally scheduled to take place in March of next year, but the Pakistan Olympic Association ultimately decided to organize the event in June due to the delay in resolving host city-related concerns with the Pakistan Sports Board.

SONEUK organizes conference on ‘Engineering and Technology’ in London 

Posted on by SAT News Desk

London: The Society of Nepalese Engineers in UK (SONEUK) on Saturday organized the seventh edition of the SONEUK International Conference on ‘Engineering and Technology for Sustainability’ in London, UK.

The conference, inaugurated by Nepalese Ambassador to the UK, Gyan Chandra Acharya, was attended by around 40 Nepali engineers living in the UK. During the conference, experts from Nepal, the UK, the United States of America delivered keynote speeches, and presented technical papers.

In the conference, electronic conference proceedings were unveiled by Ambassador Gyan Chandra Acharya. The publication contains eleven technical papers, focusing on sustainability, environment, air pollution, health and safety, disaster management, sustainable and integrated and clean transportation, and a new alternative approach for delivering railway infrastructure projects.

In his inaugural speech, Ambassador Acharya expressed his confidence that the conference plays an important role in the development of Nepal and in sustainable development through knowledge and technology transfer and sharing ideas among engineers and policy makers. Acharya also extended his appreciation to SONEUK for its activities to connect Nepali engineers in the UK and around the world.

Likewise, Vice Chairperson of SONEUK and Coordinator of the Conference, Narad Bhandari, said that this year’s conference is the continuation of past SONEUK conferences organized annually to promote professional engineering development by exchanging ideas and sharing experiences from professional engineers and academics around the globe. “Engineering and technology have and will continue to play a pivotal part in the future of sustainable development.  Engineers have a significant role to play in it–starting from planning and designing to implementation of a project or service in every sector of industries from micro to macro levels.”

Australia job vacancies doubled since pandemic began

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Since the Covid outbreak, rather than just recovering, the number of jobs available in the Australian labor market has doubled. According to the most recent Australia Bureau of Statistics report, there are currently 480,100 unfilled vacancies nationwide, an increase of 111.1% from February 2020.

Australia is approaching close to having a full employment rate, meaning that nearly everyone who is able and willing to work can find employment. In June, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. According to The Guardian, the sectors with the most available positions are those in healthcare and social support.

When it comes to the increase in vacancies since Covid, the arts and recreation are in the lead, accounting for 25% of pre-pandemic levels, followed by lodging,

Australia’s environment in decline, report states

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Australia: According to an anticipated assessment, Australia’s environment is in a dreadful situation and will continue to deteriorate due to dangers that are becoming more serious.

Every five years, an ecological examination of Australia’s systems reveals extensive sudden changes.

According to the report, these can be attributed to climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and mining.

Threats are not being handled properly, which means they are likely to result in more issues.

UK heatwave: Temperature tops 38 degrees Celsius and likely to rise

Posted on by SAT News Desk

London: The UK has had one of its hottest days on record, with a high of 38.1C (100.6F) – and forecasters are warning it will be warmer in the next few days.

The high was recorded in Santon Downham, Suffolk, on Monday, while 37C was exceeded in several places.

The Met Office has issued a red extreme heat warning for Monday and Tuesday in much of England, with temperatures of up to 41C forecast.

The current highest temperature in the UK is 38.7C, in Cambridge in July 2019. A high of 38.5C was reached in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003, making Monday the third hottest day on record – and the hottest day of the year so far. Hawarden in Flintshire hit 37.1C, making it the hottest day on record for Wales according to provisional figures from the Met Office.

The temperature is forecast to remain high with overnight temperatures in the mid-20s. Tuesday could be a cooler day across the west of the UK but parts of the Midlands and east of England could see temperatures into the 40s – with a possibility of 42C in Lincolnshire, BBC Weather presenter Ben Rich said. BBC

Sri Lanka acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe declares state of emergency

Posted on by SAT News Desk

A state of emergency has been declared by Sri Lanka’s acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe. The statement is made in a government notice that was published late on Sunday, July 17. The choice was made in the midst of the financial crisis. Sri Lanka is experiencing an unheard-of economic crisis that has resulted in a severe lack of food, fuel, and even medicine.

Massive protests that lasted for weeks in the nation resulted in the looting of the official houses of Wickremesinghe and the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe is the country’s new leader after Rajapaksa left and announced his resignation.

The 100th day of protests in Sri Lanka was on Sunday, July 17.

Nepal reports spike in Covid-19 cases, 457 test positive in the last 24 hours

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Kathmandu: Nepal on Monday recorded 457 positive cases of Covid-19 out of 4,651 tests.

There are currently 1,776 active cases across the country. A total of 1,701 are in home isolation and 75 in institutional isolation, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

Likewise, 48 recovered from the virus during the period. With this, the total cases of recovery so far have reached 968,064 and the recovery rate is 98.6 percent. Nepal reported one death from the pandemic in the last 24 hours. The death toll stands at 11,954 as of Monday afternoon.

Nepal has witnessed a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases over the past few days. On Sunday, Nepal reported a death related to Covid-19 after two and a half months and 135 new cases. A total of 205 cases were confirmed on Saturday, 229 on Friday, and 260 cases on Thursday.

Wildfires rage in France and Spain

Posted on by SAT News Desk

As sweltering summer temperatures alerted authorities in certain regions of Europe, wildfires blazed in the southwest of France and Spain on Saturday, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.

Approximately 14,000 residents of the Gironde area of France had been evacuated by Saturday afternoon as more than 1,200 firefighters fought to douse the flames, according to a statement from the local government.
Vincent Ferrier, deputy prefect for Langon in Gironde, stated during a news conference that the fire will keep spreading until it is contained.

In the past several weeks, wildfires have ravaged France as well as other European nations like Portugal and Spain. On Monday, more than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of land in the Gironde area were on fire.

Firefighters in neighboring Spain were tackling a number of fires on Saturday following days of extremely high temperatures that reached as high as 45.7 C. (114 F).

According to data from the Carlos III Health Institute, the nearly seven days-long heatwave is to blame for 360 deaths due to heat-related causes.

According to a tweet from the area’s emergency services early on Saturday, more than 3,000 people have been forced to leave their houses owing to a significant wildfire close to Mijas, a town in the province of Malaga that is well-liked by visitors from northern Europe.