Submit your Article

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Russian forces have seized 20% of his country's territory, as Moscow's invasion nears its 100th day, BBC reported.

Addressing lawmakers in Luxembourg, he added that the front line extended for more than 1,000km (621 miles).

"All combat-ready Russian military formations are involved in this aggression," he told MPs via videolink.

Russian forces have been intensifying attacks on the city of Severodonetsk in the eastern Donbas region.

UK defence officials say Russia has seized most of the city and are making "steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery". 

Severodonetsk is the easternmost city under Ukrainian control and regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia was trying to break through defences in the city "from all directions". 

However he said Ukrainian troops were carrying out counter-attacks, "pushing back the enemy on some streets and taking several prisoners". 

Intense street-to-street fighting in the city had hampered evacuations, he said, describing such efforts as "extremely dangerous". 

In a video address late on Thursday evening, Mr Zelensky said the situation in Donbas had not changed significantly that day but that Ukrainians had experienced "some success" in battles in Severodonetsk, according to BBC.

Some 15,000 civilians remain trapped in the city, with many of them taking shelter at the massive Azot chemical plant. 

On Wednesday, Mr Zelensky accused Russia of "madness" after its troops allegedly targeted the site during an artillery barrage. 

Further south, the mayor of the occupied city of Mariupol has accused Russian forces of executing civil servants who have refused to collaborate with the new Moscow-backed city authority. 

Vadym Boychenko, who was evacuated from Mariupol before it fell, said dozens of residents were being held at the Olenivka Prison and that he had received reports of locals being tortured by occupying forces. The BBC cannot verify these allegations.

Last week an adviser to Mr Boychenko told CNN that at least 22,000 people had been killed during Russia's siege and bombardment of the city. 

In the north-east, Russian shelling killed a woman and injured a man in Kharkiv, regional officials said, BBC reported.

And in western Ukraine five civilians were hurt in missile strikes on Lviv, regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said.

In 2020, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp lost a UK libel lawsuit against the Sun newspaper. But on Wednesday, he won a similar lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard in a US courtroom, BBC reported.

At the start of his recent trial, many legal experts suggested that Mr Depp had a weaker chance of winning than he did in the UK, because the US has very strong free speech protections.

The fact that the jury found that Ms Heard was guilty of defamation with an article in which she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse means they didn't believe her testimony.

Mark Stephens, an international media lawyer, told the BBC that it's "very rare" that essentially the same case is tried on two sides of the pond and gets different results.

He believes the main factor that influenced Mr Depp's victory in America was the fact that his US trial was before a jury while his UK trial, over an article in the British tabloid that called him a "wife-beater", was before a judge only.

In both the UK and the US trial, Mr Depp's lawyers argued that Ms Heard was lying - to make their case, they attacked her character and claimed that she was in fact the abusive partner, according to BBC.

This is a common defence tactic in sexual assault and domestic violence trials called "deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender" or "Darvo", said Mr Stephens.

The strategy turns the tables on the alleged victim, shifting the conversation away from "did the accused commit abuse" to "is the alleged victim believable". 

"They deny that they did anything, they deny they're the real perpetrator, and they attack the credibility of the individual calling out the abuse, and then reverse the roles of the victim and the offender," Mr Stephens said.

In the UK trial, Mr Stephens said the judge recognised that strategy, and dismissed a lot of the evidence that did not directly address whether Mr Depp committed assault or not. 

"Lawyers and judges tend not to fall for it, but it's very, very effective against juries," he said. Men are more likely to believe Darvo arguments, but female jurors are also susceptible. 

"People have a paradigm in their mind of how a victim of abuse might be like and how they might behave, and of course we all know that's often false." 

Hadley Freeman, a Guardian journalist who covered both cases, told the BBC that another major difference was the fact that the American trial was televised, turning the court case into "almost a sports game".

Each twist and turn of the trial was watched by millions of people - many of whom turned to social media to express support for Mr Depp, BBC reported.

On TikTok, the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp got about 19 billion views. The jury was instructed not to read about the case online, but they were not sequestered and they were allowed to keep their phones.

Ms Freeman also thinks that vitriol that the general public lobbed against Ms Heard was a "a bit of #MeToo backlash".

"'Believe women' seems a very long time ago when it comes to Amber Heard," she said.

President Joe Biden has said the US should ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines to tackle the "carnage" of gun violence, BBC reported.

In a primetime speech to the nation from the White House, Mr Biden said too many everyday places in America had become "killing fields".

He said if Congress cannot outlaw such weapons, it should seek to raise the age to buy them from 18 to 21.

Mr Biden spoke after a string of mass shootings in the country.

In remarks from the White House, he also called for expanding federal background checks and nationwide red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to remove weapons from anyone deemed dangerous.

But the prospects for Congress passing any gun control measures look uncertain, and the US Supreme Court could instead be poised to expand Americans' gun rights in a landmark case that justices are considering.

"This is not about taking away anyone's guns," said Mr Biden.

"This isn't about taking away anyone's rights," he added. "It's about protecting children."

"Why in God's name should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines, that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes?" the Democratic president continued, according to BBC.

Mr Biden touted a 1994 ban on assault-style weapons that he was instrumental in passing. It lapsed after 10 years, and debate has raged ever since over whether it was effective in reducing gun violence.

His remarks come in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Even as he prepared to speak on Thursday, multiple people were shot in an attack at a cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin.

Private gun ownership is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

The extent of congressional gridlock on the issue was underscored earlier in the day during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held an emergency session to debate new gun control proposals. 

Congressman Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, joined the hearing from his home via Zoom, BBC reported.

He displayed several handguns from his personal collection that he said would be banned if the legislation was passed. 

A Democrat from Texas interjected to say: "I hope the gun is not loaded." 

Mr Steube replied: "I'm at my house. I can do whatever I want with my guns."

Louisiana Republican Louie Gohmert said Democrats "accuse Republicans of being complicit in murder".

"How dare you. You think we don't have hearts?" he added.

The Democratic-led Protecting Our Kids Act combines eight different gun control bills, and includes many of the proposals Mr Biden spoke of on Thursday.

The bill may pass the House next week, but is not expected to clear the Senate.

One possible area of bipartisan agreement on a modest gun control measure may be expanded red flag flaws. Senators from both parties met on Thursday for the second time to discuss that idea,according to BBC.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court is deliberating on one of the nation's most restrictive gun laws, in New York, that places tight restrictions on who can carry a gun in public.

If the justices strike down the law, as their comments in a November hearing suggested might happen, state-level bans across the nation on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines could end up being overturned.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 233 mass shootings so far this year. It defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter, BBC reported.

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) slashed the prices of petroleum products on Thursday.

The NOC decided to cut Rs 10 per litre in petrol, diesel and kerosene.

According to the new revised rate, the price of petrol will be Rs 170 per liter. Earlier,  the price of petrol was Rs 180 per liter.

Similarly, the price of kerosene and diesel will be Rs 163 per litre each. Earlier, the price of diesel and kerosene was Rs 173 per liter each.

The state-owned oil monopoly, however, has not reduced the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The revised fuel price will come into effect from today midnight.

An Indian national died of altitude sickness in Mustang.

According to the District Police Office, Mustang, the deceased has been identified as KVM Patth Sarathi (74) of Tamil Nadu, India.

Sarathi was rushed to the Jomsom Hospital after he experienced respiratory problems while staying at the hotel but breathed his last during the course of treatment, Gopi Krishna Subedi, Information Officer at the District Police Office, Mustang said.

A group of 17 people from India had reached Mustang to offer prayers at Muktinath Temple.

The body has been kept at the Jomsom Hospital.

The government is to spend Rs 9 billion through Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) in the next fiscal year 2022/23.

According to the Finance Ministry, the government has allocated Rs 9. 27 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project in the next fiscal year.

The project has got a budget of Rs 4. 29 billion in the current fiscal year.

The MCC was endorsed by the Parliament this year.

Out of the budget set for the year, Rs 8. 91 will be a US grant.

According to the Ministry, Rs 365.6 will be recovered from the sources of the Nepal government.

The money of this project will be spent for capital purposes. 
 

The May 13 local elections were a bit of an upset for the CPN-UML, relegating the party to a distant second spot behind the ruling Nepali Congress (NC). It took an electoral alliance of five parties—Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, and Rastriya Janamorcha Party—to cut the UML down to size. 

Nepali Congress won 329 (43.8 percent) local unit chief seats (chairperson/mayor) while UML had to contend with 205 seats (27.3 percent). The Maoist Center came out third with 121 seats (16.1 percent).  

The UML, which had won 294 top seats in the 2017 elections, lost 89 seats. This defeat largely owed to a split in the party—with the Madhav Nepal faction forming the Unified Socialist in August 2021—and the five-party electoral alliance.   

Though the Congress has won most number of local unit chief seats, the UML still got the highest number of combined votes cast for seven different posts (mayor/chairperson, deputy mayor/ vice-chairperson, ward chairperson, women member, Dalit women member, and two open members). A total of 75.8m votes were cast for all seven posts, and the UML garnered 25.8m of them. This was 34.13 percent of the total votes. 

This number could vary as the Election Commission has not published the detailed data of Triyuga Municipality, Udayapur district, while a re-election was also held in Budiganga Municipality, Bajura district.

The UML had received 21.4m votes in all the seven posts in the 2017 election. The total number of voters this time was 3.66m more than in the previous election. 

Overall, the NC received 847,994 fewer votes than the UML this time. 

The Congress candidate for all the seven posts got 25m (33 percent) of the total votes. The party had received 28.74m votes in 2017.

The Maoist party increased its seat numbers this time, but their vote count fell by 1.8m. The party received 10.1m (13.65 percent) of the total votes this time. 

According to the Election Commission, out of 17.7m voters, 12.1m (68.7 percent) cast their votes this time, of which about 1.3m votes were invalid.

The results were expected

Meena Poudel
Political analyst

It was obvious that the Nepali Congress would do better in this election, and nobody has gained more from the coalition than Congress. The split of the then Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and the CPN-UML also helped.

The split in the UML and the party’s poor leadership at the local level in its previous tenure also contributed to the loss.

Also, the gung-ho attitude of UML Chairman KP Oli also cost the party many neutral voters. 

But remember that the organizational strength of the UML remains formidable, as was indicated by the party getting more votes than any of the other parties.

As for the Maoist Center, the five-party coalition, as well as Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s role in national politics, won the party a few extra seats. 

When the previous government led by the UML’s Oli dissolved the House of Representatives, Dahal played a cooperative role in protecting democracy. 

This narrative has also helped the Maoist party. Whether we like him or not, he has been a kingmaker.

Query

I am a 22-year-old student who struggles to maintain a healthy relationship, be it with friends, dates or family members. Even the smallest thing they do or say affects me and I start crying. I know this behavior is linked to my terrible experiences in the past. It would be of great help if I knew how to manage my emotions and get over my past trauma. I don’t want to hurt the people around me. —N.G.  

Answer by Krishangi, Counselor at Happy Minds 

Your past is what shapes you. So bad past experiences make you build walls around yourself as a defense against getting hurt again. Your past experiences probably trigger you in your current life situations, making you bitter to other people as well. This causes confusion among those people who are in your life right now. 

First, you have to understand why and what about your past is affecting your present. Take some time out for yourself every night to journal your feelings, write down the situations that have hurt you and how they affected you in the past and in the present. Once you become aware of those issues, your emotions will be clearer to you.  

When you become aware of what has hurt you and shaped you in a negative manner, you can slowly start working on bringing your wall and defenses down. You being guarded might have been helpful at one point, but it doesn’t serve any purpose now. If anything, it is only affecting your loved ones.  

You can start by breaking your wall one brick at a time. It is essential not to feel pressured in this process. You should know that you won’t be fine overnight. You might feel a lot of emotions, good and bad, while taking this step. Also know that being emotional is not a weakness; you can always use it as strength to overcome hurdles. Letting go of the negative past experiences can be a very difficult start, but everyday is a new day. 

Something very simple like talking to a friend, family member or a counselor about your thoughts might also help you process your emotions and see things with a different perspective. Bottling up your feelings can suffocate you from within, causing you to make rash or irrational decisions, which could push away your loved ones. I suggest that you share your thoughts and feelings. It will make you feel lighter.