IMF sounds alarm on UK tax cut plans
The International Monetary Fund has openly criticised the UK government over its plan for tax cuts, warning that the measures are likely to fuel the cost-of-living crisis, BBC reported.
In an unusually outspoken statement, the IMF said the proposal would be likely to increase inequality and add to pressures pushing up prices.
Markets have already raised alarm over the plans, sending the pound plunging.
The government says the measures will kickstart economic growth.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled the country's biggest tax package in 50 years on Friday. The £45bn cut will be funded by government borrowing.
The IMF works to stabilise the global economy, and one of its roles is to act as an early economic warning system.
"Furthermore, the nature of the UK measures will likely increase inequality," it said.
The IMF said that the government publishing a fiscal plan on 23 November gave it an opportunity to "re-evaluate" tax measures, "especially those that benefit high income earners".
The UK government proposals would scrap the top rate of income tax, and end a cap on bankers' bonuses, among other measures.
The announcement on Friday sparked days of financial turmoil, as investors dumped the pound and UK debt. On Monday the pound fell to record lows against the dollar.
Some of the country's biggest lenders suspended mortgage deals amid the uncertainty.
It added that Mr Kwarteng was due to publish his medium-term plan for the economy on 23 November, which would include ensuring that UK debt falls as a share of economic output in the medium term, according to BBC.
Meanwhile, Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister and close ally of Prime Minister Liz Truss, criticised the IMF's statement.
He told the Daily Telegraph: "The IMF has consistently advocated highly conventional economic policies. It is following this approach that has produced years of slow growth and weak productivity.
"The only way forward for Britain is lower taxes, spending restraint, and significant economic reform."
BBC economics editor Faisal Islam says the IMF's "stinging rebuke... reflected similar concerns from the world's major finance ministries that a crisis brewing in the UK could spill over into a global slowdown".
Its chief economist Huw Pill said the Bank "cannot be indifferent" to the developments of the past days.
He said the Bank would have to deliver a "significant monetary policy response" to protect sterling.
Speaking to BBC Two's Newsnight, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers described the situation facing the UK as "very ominous".
"I can't in all honesty remember a time when a set of policy announcements from a G7 country elicited so negative a response both from markets and from economic experts," he said.
"When a country sees its interest rates rise by [as much as they have] in two days at the same time that its currency is falling in a major way, that is a sign that there has been a major loss of market credibility and market confidence.
"The kind of warning that Britain received from the IMF today is a kind of warning that comes much more frequently to emerging markets with new governments than to a country like Britain."
Asked about the UK's plans at an event in Washington, White House economic adviser Brian Deese said he had not been surprised by the negative reaction of the markets and that it was important to focus on "fiscal prudence, fiscal discipline", the Reuters news agency reported, BBC reported.
Moody's credit rating agency said on Wednesday that the UK's plan for "large unfunded tax cuts" was "credit negative" and would lead to higher, persistent deficits "amid rising borrowing costs [and] a weaker growth outlook". Moody's did not change the UK's credit rating.
Spain snatch dramatic win over Portugal to advance
Alvaro Morata grabbed a dramatic winner as Spain beat Portugal in Braga to qualify for the Nations League Finals, BBC reported.
The ex-Chelsea striker scored in the 88th minute from close range after Nico Williams headed the ball into his path.
Portugal only needed a point to advance and had chances to score but Liverpool's Diogo Jota and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo both missed.
Spain will be joined in June's finals by Croatia, Italy and the Netherlands, who are expected to host all the games.
Portugal began the night top of Group A2 and will be wondering just how they failed to book their place at next summer's four-nation tournament.
They had won the inaugural competition in 2018-19 and were the better team for most of the match in northern Portugal.
An excellent pass from Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes was collected by Jota, who shot at goal but was denied by a fine one-handed save by Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon.
The hosts continued to create the better opportunities with Fernandes hitting the side-netting and Ronaldo having a shot blocked by Simon early in the second half.
Substitute Williams, who plays for Athletic Bilbao, made a difference for Spain and twice had efforts saved by Diogo Costa, according to BBC.
But the Portugal goalkeeper was beaten with only two minutes remaining when Williams' header went past him with Morata hooking the ball into the roof of the net from close range.
Spain were runners-up in the Nations League Finals in 2021 and now have a chance to win the tournament in June.
Iran protests: Death toll rises to 76 as crackdown intensifies - rights group
At least 76 protesters have been killed by Iranian security forces during 11 days of unrest sparked by the death of a woman in custody, activists say, BBC reported.
Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based organisation, accused authorities of using disproportionate force and live ammunition to suppress the dissent.
State media have put the number of dead at 41, including several security personnel, and blamed "rioters".
Hundreds of people have also been arrested, 20 of them journalists.
"The risk of torture and ill-treatment of protesters is serious and the use of live ammunition against protesters is an international crime," said IHR's director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. "The world must defend the Iranian people's demands for their fundamental rights."
The UN human rights office also said it was very concerned by the authorities' violent response and urged them to respect the right to protest peacefully, according to BBC.
The anti-government demonstrations have spread to more than 80 cities and towns across Iran since the funeral of Mahsa Amini on 17 September.
She collapsed after being taken to a detention centre to be "educated" and died in hospital following three days in a coma.
The police said Ms Amini died after suffering sudden heart failure, but her family have dismissed that and alleged that she was beaten by officers.
The protests against the morality police and hijab law triggered by her death quickly evolved into the most serious challenge that Iran's Shia Muslim clerical establishment has faced in years, BBC reported.
Videos posted on social media have shown women defiantly burning their headscarves on bonfires and cutting their hair in public to cheers and chants of "Women, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator" - a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ukraine war: Russia to open war enlisting hub on Georgia border
Russia is to open an army enlisting centre on the border with Georgia, where massive queues have formed as Russian men try to flee the country to avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine, BBC reported.
Officers at the Verkhniy Lars crossing will be tasked with serving summons to "citizens of the mobilisation age", the authorities say.
Recent satellite images have shown queues going for miles from Russia.
All those crossing into Georgia look exhausted, a BBC correspondent says.
They are hungry and sleep deprived - but relieved to have reached safety, Rayhan Demytrie says. People have been coming in groups of walkers, dragging their suitcases behind them. Others have arrived in car or on bikes.
One man, Ilya, showed our correspondent a polaroid of his baby daughter Arisha. He said he wanted to see her grow up, and not die in the senseless war in Ukraine.
Another young man from Moscow said the reason he was fleeing was because of the man in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin.
Everyone says the same thing: they disagree with the war - but the extent of repression in Russia makes them powerless, our correspondent says.
The interior ministry of Russia's North Ossetia republic, where the Verkhniy Lars crossing is, said 60 of its personnel had already been deployed there, describing the situation as "extremely tense".
It added that the army enlisting centre would be opened "in the nearest future".
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev vowed on Tuesday to protect the safety and welfare of Russians fleeing a "hopeless situation".
The Russian defence ministry on Tuesday said it would not seek the extradition of Russian nationals travelling abroad to avoid being drafted into the army, according to BBC.
President Putin announced what he described as a partial mobilisation on 21 September, with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu later saying 300,000 reservists would be called up.
But reports in opposition Russian media suggested that up to one million people could be called up, pointing out that the actual number of those who would be enlisted was classified.
A number of military experts in the West and Ukraine say Mr Putin's decision to call up reservists shows that Russian troops are failing badly on the battlefield in Ukraine - more than seven months after Moscow launched its invasion.
"There are cases when the decree is violated," Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that "all the errors will be corrected".
On Tuesday, Sergei Baranovsky, the top official responsible for war mobilisation efforts in the extreme north-eastern Magadan region, was sacked.
Multiple reports - backed by footage on social media - say people with no military experience, or who are too old or disabled, are being called up.
Since the mobilisation announcement, more than 2,000 people have been detained at protests across Russia.
"We are deeply disturbed by the large number of people who have reportedly been arrested," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, BBC reported.
In one of the most shocking and widely-discussed incidents, a man shot and critically injured an army recruitment officer in the Siberian city of Ust-llimsk on Monday.
Ukraine war: Russia claims win in occupied Ukraine 'sham' referendums
Four so-called referendums have ended in Russian-held regions of Ukraine - votes which Moscow may use as grounds to annex more territory, BBC reported.
Moscow-installed officials in the regions are now claiming almost total support among those who took part in the disputed votes on joining Russia.
The polls were denounced as a sham by Ukraine's government and its allies.
In the absence of international recognition, the process was not monitored independently.
The votes were held in the breakaway eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ballots in Russian-occupied parts of the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were also organised.
Refugees scattered across Russia were also able to vote at dozens of polling stations, including in Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. Partial results from voting there indicated huge majorities in favour of joining Russia.
Up to four million people were asked to vote in the war-torn regions, which make up about 15% of Ukraine's territory.
News agencies run by the pro-Kremlin administrations in Donetsk and Luhansk are reporting that up to 99.23% of people voted in favour of joining Russia - a high percentage that would be unusual in a vote of this nature.
There is speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin may announce the four regions' annexation in a speech to a joint session of Russia's parliament on Friday.
In March 2014, he announced that Crimea had joined Russia just a few days after a similarly unrecognised referendum was held there.
If Russia annexes the four regions, which Moscow does not fully control, it could take the war to a new and more dangerous level, with Moscow portraying any attempt by Ukraine to regain them as an attack on its sovereign territory, according to BBC.
"This farce in the occupied territory cannot even be called an imitation of referendums," he said on Tuesday night, BBC reported.
The president added that it was "a very cynical attempt to force men in the occupied territory of Ukraine to mobilise into the Russian army in order to send them to fight against their own homeland!"
Thamel Remit integrates NPS
Thamel Remit Pvt Ltd, a recent member of Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) has started using National Payment Switch (NPS) as the domestic rail for instant remittances. This membership enables remittance senders from the USA to push transactions to Nepal in a few seconds. Launched in 2013, Thamel Remit is one of the pioneer remittance companies in Nepal. Bal Krishna Joshi, co-founder of Thamel Remit says, “This integration makes Thamel Remit the first digital money transfer company enabling instant settlement in non-card based, bank to bank transactions from the USA to Nepal corridor.” This is the first of its kind whereby the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) of the USA has been indirectly integrated with Nepal Payment Interface (NPI) via a remittance provider (Thamel Remit). All these transactions are processed through the underlying systems of NCHL-IPS and Retail Payment Switch (connectIPS). NPI, as part of the National Payment Switch (NPS), is a consolidated interface for interconnection and operated by NCHL with access to real-time (RPS/ connectIPS) and non-real time batch (NCHL-IPS) payment systems. It has over 59 BFIs and 73 non-bank institutions. There are currently 13 remittance companies that are using NCHL’s payment systems as domestic rail for local disbursements through their respective settlement banks.
EC carrying out homework to fix election expenditure ceiling
The Election Commission is doing homework to fix the election expenditure limit for the candidates and parties for November 20 elections to the House of Representatives and Province Assembly as per the Election related law and code of conduct. The EC held consultation with political parties today in this regard. Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that a decision would be taken after holding discussions on the suggestions received from the political parties. The political parties suggested increasing the expenditure limit fixed for the HoR and Province Assembly election held in 2074 BS and that expenditure limit for different constituencies should not be the same. Chief Election Commissioner Thapaliya expressed the belief that political parties and candidates would follow expenditure ceiling fixed by the EC and as per the code of conduct. Clause 24 of the Election Commission Act-2073 has the provision that the EC could determine the election expenditure limit. Similarly, clause 25 of the same Act mentions that it is the responsibility of the political parties and candidates to submit the election expenditure details and they have to submit the expenditure details within 30 days at the respective election office after the announcement of the final result of the election. The EC has taken action against 123,624 candidates of local-level election held on May 13 and charged up to Rs 750,000 as fine for not submitting their expenditure details.
Nepal reports 54 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday
Nepal reported 54 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 729 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 42 returned positive. Likewise, 2, 100 people underwent antigen tests, of which 12 were tested positive. The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 76 infected people recovered from the disease. As of today, there are 1, 144 active cases in the country.
