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I’m a 19-year-old guy with a sibling who is nine years younger than me. If I’m to be very honest, I cannot get along with him at all. I love him but every time we are together all we do is fight. My parents are always scolding me for everything, even when it’s my brother’s fault. I feel unloved. It’s proving to be quite difficult for me to adjust with my family. Sometimes, I just want to run away. But more than that I’m scared of resenting my brother. I don’t want to but the more time I spend with him, the more I start hating him. How do I deal with this feeling? Please help!—An angry brother Kapil Sharma, Counseling Psychologist, Nepal Institute of Mental Health Fights, misunderstandings and blame games are common in siblings. It’s even more normal when there’s a big age-gap between the two. As a 19-year-old, you are psychologically in that stage of life when there is a lot of confusion and conflict. You are creating your own identity and developing your sense of self as well as exploring your role in your relationship with your loved ones. Whereas your brother is in the stage where he is fighting inferiority, that is he learns the sense of competency by doing tasks and feeling inferior if he fails. It’s important to understand that you both have different psychological needs and acknowledging this is the first thing you can do to develop a better bond. Next, try and understand what causes fights between you two. Is it related to a specific thing or is it regular, daily life concerns? When you figure when and where you fight, then you can work on the why aspect of it, which is the most important. It could be because you feel ignored or your brother doesn’t act according to your expectations. Once you understand the reason behind your problems, you can work on fixing it. It’s important that you two don’t blame or try to mold each other but give each other some space instead. Then it’s also important to communicate with your parents. They will stop scolding you once they see where you are coming from and how hard you are trying to work things out. In our society, it’s common for elder siblings to get blamed for the mistakes of the younger ones. That doesn’t make it okay but knowing you aren’t in this alone, or being singled out can help you manage your emotions. Perhaps, you can ask your parents what they would do had they been in your shoes? Tell them how you are feeling and ask them to understand you. A person is never the problem. It’s his/her behavior, related to a specific thing, that’s the issue. Try to detach yourself from the problem and deal with it. It will help you understand others as well as yourself. Ask before you assume, connect before communicating, respond, don’t react, listen, don’t interrupt and try to help, not blame. If you struggle with processing your emotions, you can also visit a psychologist or psychosocial counselors who can help you manage it better.

The 32nd annual report of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) reveals an alarming corruption situation in local bodies. Of the total complaints related to corruption received by the CIAA, 33.14 percent was related to corruption in local bodies followed by the offices related to the education sector. At the provincial level, Madhes is the most corrupted in terms of both data and public perception. Of the total complaints recorded, 28 percent were related to Madhes.  Government data and various surveys show corruption is more prevalent at the local level than at the center. Two years ago, the CIAA conducted a 15-district survey aimed to study the public perception of corruption. Of the 3,000 respondents, 67.6 percent reported increased corruption at local units and 14.9 percent said they paid bribes to officials to get things done. Respondents said corruption had increased after the formation of local units in 2017. Nepal elected representatives for 753 local governments for the second time in May this year. These subnational entities have no doubt become instrumental in providing services to the people and decentralizing power. But they are also becoming breeding grounds for corruption. Misuse of resources in local bodies has become a major source of income for political parties. Candidates of local governments are known to spend millions of rupees on their election campaigns.  Political protection of corrupt officials and party supporters, opaque election financing and toothless law enforcement agencies have all contributed to corruption culture. Everyone knows corruption is rife in local bodies but no one seems bothered about it. Constitutionally, the CIAA, as an anti-graft agency, is responsible for monitoring and controlling corruption. But the highly centralized agency can hardly do anything to monitor the goings-on in municipal offices. The CIAA is essentially receiving complaints when they are made. It is not working proactively to stem bribery and financial misappropriations at the local level.   The anti-corruption body is also ineffective due to heavy politicization. In many cases, it has shown reluctance to investigate large-scale corruption scandals linked to political parties and their leaders.  Time has come to think about a new mechanism to monitor and check malpractices in local governments. Unchecked corruption is already crippling local governance. 

CPN-UML Standing Committee member and Madhes Pradesh deputy in-charge Prabhu Sah, Rautahat district in-charge Upendra Sah and deputy in-charge Kundan Kushahawa have been expelled from the party. Issuing a statement, UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel said that they were expelled from the party for carrying out anti-party activities. Meanwhile, party deputy in-charge Uddhav Regmi has been given the responsibility of Rautahat district in-charge. Secretary General Pokhrel has requested Regmi to carry out the assigned responsibility successfully. On top of that, the Rautahat District Committee of the UML has been dissolved. UML Madhes Pradesh Committee Chairman Ram Awatar Yadav dissolved the Rautahar District Committee headed by Tribhuvan Sah.

Madhes Pradesh Chief Minister Lal Babu Raut sacked three ministers of Nepali Congress on Friday. Physical Infrastructure Development Minister Ram Saroj Yaday, Women, Children, Youth and Sports Minister Birendra Prasad Singh and Drinking Water and Energy Development Minister Om Prakash Sharma were sacked today. Chief Minister Raut removed NepaIi Congress ministers and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba sacked four ministers of the Janata Samajbadi Party that joined hands with the CPN-UML in the upcoming elections from the federal government on Wednesday evening.

A person died in a motorbike accident at Kailali Village in Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City-13 of Kailali on Friday. The deceased has been identified as bike rider Durga Ojha (31). Critically injured in the incident, Ojha was rushed to the Maya Metro Hospital in Dhangadhi where he breathed his last during the course of treatment. The District Police Office, Kailali said that the incident occurred after Ojha lost control of the vehicle this morning.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Friday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 94, 100 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 94, 200 per tola on Thursday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 93, 600 per tola today. Similarly, the price of silver is being traded at Rs 1, 185 per tola.

North Korea early Friday launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests. 

South Korea’s military also said it detected North Korea firing about 170 rounds of artillery from eastern and western coastal areas near the border region and that the shells fell inside maritime buffer zones the Koreas established under a 2018 military agreement on reducing tensions, Associated Press reported.

The North Korean moves suggest it would keep up a provocative run of weapons tests designed to bolster its nuclear capability for now. Some experts say North Korea would eventually want the United States and others to accept it as a nuclear state, lifting economic sanctions and making other concessions.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missile lifted off from the North’s capital region at 1:49 a.m. Friday (1649 GMT Thursday; 12:49 p.m. EDT Thursday).

While none of the North Korean artillery shells fell inside South Korean territorial waters, the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the firings as a clear violation of the 2018 agreement, which created buffer zones along land and sea boundaries and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes.

Friday’s ballistic launch extended a record number of missile demonstrations by North Korea this year as it exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate its arms development and increase pressure on Washington and its Asian allies.

In response to North Korea’s intensifying testing activity and hostility, South Korea on Friday imposed unilateral sanctions on the North for the first time in five years, targeting 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations suspected of involvement in illicit activities to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile flew on an “irregular” trajectory — a possible reference to describe the North’s highly maneuverable KN-23 weapon modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile, according to Associated Press.

“Whatever the intentions are, North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches are absolutely impermissible and we cannot overlook its substantial advancement of missile technology,” Hamada said. “North Korea’s series of actions pose threats to Japan, as well as the region and the international community, and are absolutely intolerable.”

The South Korean and Japanese militaries assessed that the missile traveled 650 to 700 kilometers (403-434 miles) at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement the North Korean launch didn’t pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies, adding that the U.S. commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan remain “ironclad.”

It was the latest in a series of missile launches by North Korea in recent weeks, Associated Press reported.

Arsenal took a big step towards qualifying for the Europa League knockout stage with a slender win at Bodo/Glimt, BBC reported.