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Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following leaders to serve as key leaders in his administration: 

• Anjali Chaturvedi, Nominee for General Counsel, US
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Patrice H. Kunesh, Nominee for Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans, US Department of Health and Human Services
• Kristina A. Kvien, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Armenia
• Robert William Forden, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Cambodia
• Lucy Tamlyn, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Randy W. Berry, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Namibia
• Pamela M. Tremont, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Zimbabwe
• Manuel P. Micaller, Jr., Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Tajikistan
• Kimberly McClain, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Rolfe Michael Schiffer, Nominee for Assistant Administrator for Asia, United States Agency for International Development
• Moshe Marvit, Nominee for Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
• Robert E. Primus, Nominee for Member of the Surface Transportation Board
• Thomas E. Harvey, Nominee for Member of the Veterans Affairs Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission

Russia shattered weeks of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital with long-range missiles fired toward Kyiv early Sunday, an apparent Kremlin show-of-force as Western leaders meet in Europe to strengthen their military and economic support of Ukraine, Associated Press reported.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the missiles hit at least two residential buildings, and killed one person and injured six others, including a 7-year-old girl and her mother. Associated Press journalists saw emergency workers battling flames and rescuing civilians from the buildings.

The strikes also damaged a nearby kindergarten, where a crater pocked the courtyard. US President Joe Biden called the attacks “barbarism” after he arrived in Germany for a Group of Seven summit. 

Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said the first air-launched weapons to successfully target the capital since June 5 were Kh-101 cruise missiles fired from warplanes over the Caspian Sea, more than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) away.

Kyiv’s mayor told journalists he thought the airstrikes were “maybe a symbolic attack” ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid that starts Tuesday. A former commander of US forces in Europe said the strikes also were a signal to the leaders of G-7 nations meeting Sunday in Germany, according to Associated Press.

“Russia is saying, ‘We can do this all day long. You guys are powerless to stop us,’” retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of US Army forces in Europe, said. “The Russians are humiliating the leaders of the West.”

The G-7 leaders were set to announce the latest in a long series of international economic steps to pressure and isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine: new bans on imports of Russian gold. Standing with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the three-day meeting’s host, Biden said of the missile strikes on Kyiv: “It’s more of their barbarism.” 

A Ukrainian parliament member, Oleksiy Goncharenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that preliminary information indicated that Russia launched 14 missiles toward the capital region and Kyiv itself, suggesting that some were intercepted. 

In a phone interview, retired U.S. general Hodges told The Associated Press that Russia has a limited stock of precision missiles and “if they are using them, it’s going to be for a special purpose,” 

Russia has denied targeting civilians during the 4-month-old war, and Hodges said it was hard to know if the missiles launched Sunday were intended to strike the apartments buildings.

Russian forces tried to seize control of Kyiv early in the war. After Ukrainian troops repelled them, the Kremlin largely shifted its focus to southern and eastern Ukraine.

Russian rocket strikes in the city of Cherkasy, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kyiv, killed one person and injured five, regional governor Ihor Taburets said Sunday, Associated Press reported. 

In the east, Russian troops fought to consolidate their gains by battling to swallow up the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk province. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Sunday that Russia was conducting intense airstrikes on the city of Lysychansk, destroying its television tower and seriously damaging a road bridge.

“There’s very much destruction. Lysychansk is almost unrecognizable,” he wrote on Facebook.

For weeks, Lysychansk and the nearby city of Sievierodonetsk have been subject to a bloody and destructive offensive by Russian forces and their separatist allies aimed at capturing all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. 

They have made steady and slow progress, with Haidai confirming Saturday that Sievierodonetsk, including a chemical plant where hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians were holed up, had fallen. 

Commenting on the battle for Sievierodonetsk, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now control not only the city but the villages surrounding it. He said the Russian military had thwarted Ukrainian forces’ attempt to turn the Azot chemical plant into a “stubborn center of resistance.” 

Capturing Lysychansk would give Russian and separatist forces control of every major settlement in Luhansk. At last report, they controlled about half of Donetsk, the second province in the Donbas, according to Associated Press.

On Saturday, Russia launched dozens of missiles on several areas across the country far from the heart of the eastern battles. Some of the missiles were fired from Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus for the first time, Ukraine’s air command said.

The Supreme Court on Sunday issued an order directing the government not to remove Balkrishna Basnet from the post of Chairman of Press Council Nepal, giving continuity to the short-term order issued four months ago.

A joint bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Hari Phuyal directed the government not to proceed with the process of clarification asked with an objective to remove Chairman Basnet.

Saying that the government tried to remove Basnet without legal basis, advocates Ananta Raj Luintel, Bikash Bhattarai, Bishal Kumar Upadhyay and Prathiva Uprety during the hearing held today demanded an interim order to thwart the government's preparations.

Earlier on March 3, a single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC issued a short-term order not to remove Basnet.

Basnet had moved the apex court arguing that the Council of Ministers asked for clarification with an intention to remove him.

Basnet, who is also the advocate, was appointed by the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli-led government for four years.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari reconstituted the Council of Ministers on Sunday.

She restructured the Cabinet by including the ministers sent by the CPN (Unified Socialist).

The ministers were appointed in accordance with Article 76 (9) and Article 78 (1) of the Constitution on the recommendation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

With the reshuffle, Jeevanram Shrestha has been appointed as the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Metmani Chaudhary as the Minister for Urban Development.

Likewise, Bhawani Prasad Khapung has been given the responsibility of Minister for Health and Sher Bahadur Tamang has been appointed as the Minister for Labour.

Similarly, Hira Chandra KC has been appointed as the State Minister for Health.

Earlier on June 5, the CPN (US) had written to the Prime Minister to replace four of its ministers.

Thousands affected by a deadly earthquake in eastern Afghanistan are in need of clean water and food and are at risk of disease, an Afghan health ministry official said on Sunday, days after a UN agency warned of a cholera outbreak in the region, Reuters reported.

At least 1,000 people were killed, 2,000 injured and 10,000 homes destroyed in Wednesday's earthquake, after which the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) warned that cholera outbreaks in the aftermath are of particular and serious concern. 

"The people are extremely needy for food and clean water," Afghanistan's health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman told Reuters, adding officials had managed medicines for now but handling those who had lost their homes would be a challenge.

"We ask the international community, humanitarian organisations to help us for food and medicine, the survivor might catch diseases because they don't have proper houses and shelters for living," he said.

The disaster is a major test for Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers, who have been shunned by many foreign governments due to concerns about human rights since they seized control of the country last year.

Helping thousands of Afghans is also a challenge for countries that had imposed sanctions on Afghan government bodies and banks, cutting off direct assistance, leading to a humanitarian crisis even before the earthquake, according to Reuters.

The United Nations and several other countries have rushed aid to the affected areas, with more due to arrive over the coming days.

Afghanistan's Taliban administration called for a rolling back of sanctions and lifting a freeze on billions of dollars in central bank assets stashed in Western financial institutions. 

In Kabul, hospitals more used to treating victims of war have opened their wards to earthquake victims, but a majority of people remain in the areas destroyed by the earthquake.

"Our houses were destroyed, we have no tent... there are lots of children with us. We have nothing. Our food and clothes...everything is under rubble," Hazrat Ali, 18, told a Reuters team in Wor Kali, a village of the hardest-hit Barmal district.

"I have lost my brothers, my heart is broken. Now we are just two. I loved them a lot," he said, Reuters reported.

Police have arrested two persons with a pistol and bullets from New Bus Park, Kathmandu on Saturday.

The detainees have been identified as nabbed Joyal Thapa (42) of Kathmandu-17 and Raju BK (30) of Bardaghat-14, Nawalparasi.

DSP Dinesh Raj Mainali, spokesperson at the District Police Range, Kathmandu, said that a team deployed from the Metropolitan Police Sector, New Bus Park nabbed the duo with the pistol and bullets from a restaurant in Mitranagar, Kathmandu-26.

Police said that they are looking into the case.

Twelve persons have been tested positive for cholera in Kathmandu Valley. 

Dr Chuman Lal Das, Director at the Department Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, said that 12 persons of different places have been tested positive for cholera.

“Cholera has been detected in Dillibazaar, Bagbazaar, Kapan, Thankot, Balkhu, Naikap and Sanepa among other places of Kathmandu,” he said. 

The two patients, who were admitted to Teku Hospital on June 16, were tested positive for the deadly disease. Cholera has been confirmed in stool samples of the patients. Both of them are from the same family. 

The Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division has urged the general public to be vigilant to control cholera. 

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with Vibrio cholerae bacteria. People can get sick when they eat food or drink water contaminated with cholera bacteria. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe and life-threatening.

Nepal reported 29 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 077 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 21 returned positive. Likewise, 653 people underwent antigen tests, of which eight were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 17 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 192 active cases in the country.