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China’s finance and investment spending in the Belt and Road countries fell slightly in the first half compared to a year ago, with no new coal projects and investments zero in Russia, Egypt and Sri Lanka, new research showed, Reuters reported.

Saudi Arabia was the largest recipient of Chinese investment with about $5.5 billion, according to the Shanghai-based Green Finance and Development Center (GFDC) in research published on Sunday.

GFDC said total funding and investment stood at $28.4 billion in the period, up from $29.6 billion a year earlier, bringing total cumulative Belt and Road spending from 2013 to $932 billion.

President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 with the aim of harnessing China’s strengths in financing and building infrastructure to “build a broader community of common interests” across Asia, Africa and Latin America. .

But it has come under scrutiny for other issues like debt burden on countries and environmental degradation. Some countries have renegotiated their investment projects with China, highlighting credit risks.

No new coal projects received Chinese support in the period following Xi’s pledge at the UN General Assembly last September to end foreign coal financing.

However, a Chinese developer won a bid to build a thermal power plant in Indonesia in February, and there is still 11.2 GW of capacity that has already secured financing, although construction has begun, according to GFDC, part of Shanghai’s Fudan University. remains to be done, according to Reuters.

The GFDC said China continues to support other fossil fuel projects in the Belt and Road countries, with oil and gas accounting for about 80% of China’s foreign energy investments and 66% of its construction contracts.

In the first half of the year, engagement in gas projects stood at $6.7 billion, compared to $9.5 billion in the previous year, it said.

Green energy and hydropower transactions declined 22% compared to a year ago. Investments rose from $400 million to $1.4 billion, but construction spending related to green energy fell to $1.6 billion, less than half of a year earlier, Reuters reported.

Nepal reported 468 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 084 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 453 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 716 people underwent antigen tests, of which 115 were tested positive.

As of today, there are 3,534 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 54. 45 points to close at 2,132.96 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 9. 05 points to close at 407. 38 points.

Meanwhile, a total of 9,944,048 unit shares of 214 companies were traded for Rs 4. 10 billion.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw green. Development Bank topped the chart with 213. 38 points.

Meanwhile, Narayani Development Bank Limited and Multipurpose Finance Company Limited, Suryodaya Womi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited were the top gainers today, with their price surging by 10 percent. Manjushree Finance Limited Debenture was the top loser as its price fell by 5. 87 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 04 trillion.

The Nepali government on Sunday announced a number of measures to revive the tourism industry battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a plan to declare the years between 2023 and 2033 as Visit Nepal Decade, Xinhua reported.

Unveiling the Tourism Rehabilitation Action Plan, Jeevan Ram Shrestha, Nepal’s minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation, said the government is breaking the tradition of announcing a single year as Visit Nepal Year so as to run a sustained campaign to promote tourism, a major foreign exchange earner and job creator for the country.

As per the action plan, the Visit Nepal Decade is expected to come out within the next three months.

The government plans to attract 1 million foreign tourists in the 2022-23 fiscal year which began in mid-July. “We have not yet set any target for the planned Visit Nepal Decade. We have to do further homework and consultations with the stakeholders,” Hom Prasad Luitel, joint secretary at the tourism ministry, told Xinhua.

Nepal received 1.19 million foreign visitors in 2019 and sought to attract 2 million in 2020 when Visit Nepal 2020 was launched, but COVID-19 forced the government to call off the campaign. As the pandemic persisted, the tourism sector fared poorly in 2020 and 2021.

Nepal was reporting more foreign visitor arrivals in 2022 as fewer people were infected. As of June, there were 237,670 foreigners visiting the South Asian country, according to the tourism ministry.

Under the new action plan, Nepal will launch promotion campaigns in China, India and Bangladesh, of them the former two being the largest sources of tourists for Nepal in normal years.

There is a plan as well to promote Nepal as a destination for meetings, conferences and exhibitions and spiritual tourism with packages of yoga, wellness and spa to be offered.

In addition, the ministry is mulling over retirement visas and healthcare facilities for elderly foreigners to stay longer in Nepal. Currently, there is no legal provision of issuing retirement visas in the country. “We will discuss it with the Ministry of Home Affairs which is responsible for visa issuance,” said Luitel, Xinhua reported.

As mountaineering is a key part of Nepal’s tourism, the country is planning to open more Himalayan peaks.
Under the action plan, more peaks at 5,800 to 8,000 meters above the sea level will be opened for mountaineering. According to authorities, Nepal has so far opened 414 peaks above 5,700 meters for climbing.

Included in the action plan are other measures like cooperation and coordination with international airlines, GPS tracking system to make trekking and mountaineering safer, multi-lingual helpline support centers for tourists and many more facilities for foreigners who come to Nepal for movie shootings, according to Xinhua.

Three members of a single family died when a landslide triggered by torrential rainfall buried a house at Bhulu in Turmakhand Rural Municipality-2 of Achham in the wee hours of Monday.

The landslide buried the house of Amar Bista while they were sleeping at around 1 am today.

DSP Narayan Dangi of the District Police Office, Achham, the deceased have been identified as Amar Bista's brother Birendra Bista, son Sambidhan Bista and daughter-in-law Harikala Bista. His aunt Naina Bista was critically injured in the incident.

Police said that they are looking into the case.

A measurably significant earthquake was felt in Sindhuplachowk district on Monday.

According to the National Seismological Centre, Lainchaur, the earthquake was of local magnitude 4. 7 and was recorded at 6. 07 am. The epicentre was close to Ichok of Helambu, Sindhupalchowk.

The tremor was felt in the Kathmandu Valley as well.

Moscow has charged 92 members of the Ukrainian armed forces with crimes against humanity, the head of Russia's investigative committee has said, BBC reported.

Alexander Bastrykin told government news site Rossiiskaya Gazeta that more than 1,300 criminal investigations had been launched.

He also proposed an international tribunal backed by countries including Bolivia, Iran and Syria.

Some 96 people, including 51 armed forces commanders, are wanted, he said.

The Ukrainians were involved in "crimes against the peace and security of humanity", he told the newspaper.

The BBC has been unable to verify claims made in the interview and Kyiv has not commented.

Ukraine is also conducting its own investigations. This month, it said it was examining more than 21,000 war crimes and crimes of aggression allegedly committed by Russian forces since the start of the invasion in February.

And the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has described Ukraine as a "crime scene", has sent a team of investigators and forensics experts there. 

The Kremlin denies all war crimes, or that it has been targeting civilians. It has regularly blamed Ukraine for shelling its own infrastructure and killing its own civilians - accusations which have been widely dismissed by international leaders, according to BBC.

Mr Bastrykin accused the West of openly sponsoring "Ukrainian nationalism" so a UN-backed trial "is extremely doubtful". 

Moscow has repeatedly made the false claim that Ukraine is overrun by neo-Nazis as justification for what it calls a "special military operation".

Mr Bastrykin instead proposed an international tribunal should be set up with countries that have "an independent position on the Ukrainian issue" - in particular Syria, Iran and Bolivia.

Along with hundreds of Ukrainian military and political targets, he said investigations are underway into Ukrainian health ministry employees who he accused, without providing evidence, of developing weapons of mass destruction. 

Suspected mercenaries from the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Georgia are under investigation, he told the newspaper.

In June, two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saaudun are accused of being mercenaries, but the Britons' families have insisted they are long-serving members of the Ukrainian military.

In May, the first war crimes trial since the invasion began took place in Ukraine, where a court jailed a Russian tank commander for lifefor killing a civilian, BBC reported.

The US climate envoy, John Kerry, says President Joe Biden is considering announcing a climate emergency, BBC reported.

The move would give him additional powers to push his renewable energy agenda, which has been held up by lack of support in Congress.

Mr Kerry told the BBC it was "less than ideal" that Congress was not "full-throatedly" in favour.

But he said nobody was more committed than President Biden to replacing carbon-based energy.

Mr Kerry also said recent Supreme Court rulings restricting the government's environmental policies had not helped.

Climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Tens of millions of people in the US, across more than two dozen states, have been living under heat warnings during the past week, according to BBC.

But Mr Biden's efforts to pass a climate change bill were dealt a blow earlier this month when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin - a conservative Democrat - said he would not vote for the legislation.

On Wednesday, Mr Biden announced $2.3bn (£1.9bn) to help build infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and natural disasters.

However, he stopped short of formally declaring a climate emergency, despite mounting pressure to do so from fellow Democrats and environmental groups.

Mr Kerry said the world was learning that green energy reduced inflation, lowered energy costs, created jobs and improved health and security, BBC reported.

He said Mr Biden was prepared to use "every tool available to him" to tackle climate change, including executive orders.