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The parliamentary committee directed the government to bring the Federal Education Act at the earliest.

The Education and Health Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to bring the act as soon as possible.

Saying that the education sector has been facing problems due to lack of the act, Committee President Jayapuri Gharti directed the government to bring the act promptly.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu organized a program on the occasion of International Yoga Day on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyandendra Bahadur Karki among others took part in the program. 

As per the decision of the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, the International Yoga Day has been observed on June 21 since 2015.

Nepal had supported India’s proposal to declare the International Yoga Day at the 69th General Assembly of the United Nations. 

The permanent member states of the United Nations including the European Union also extended their support after Nepal supported the proposal. 

The US central bank has announced its biggest rate hike in nearly 30 years as it ramps up its battle to bring soaring consumer prices under control, BBC reported. 

It lifted the rate the Federal Reserve charges banks to borrow by three quarters of a percentage point.

The consequences will be felt in nearly every corner of the economy - in the US and abroad.

Here are five ways the rate rise in the US will affect you.

More expensive mortgages and other loans

The immediate impact is in the US, where people will face higher borrowing costs for mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other debt.

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed home loan has already surged to nearly 6% - its highest level since 2008. For the person buying a median-priced home in the US, that means monthly payments have gone up by about $600 since the start of the year. 

"I wish I had started looking earlier," says Delores Robinson, a retired educator from Ohio, who bought a new apartment this month.

Ms Robinson says she was relieved to lock in a relatively low rate, though it was higher than it was when she started her search. But for some buyers, the rising rates will push purchases out of reach, according to BBC.

The National Association of Realtors expects home sales in the US to fall 9% this year.

That drop might feel painful to people prevented from purchasing, but it is also expected to cool price growth to 5% in 2022, after double digit gains in recent years.

If that happens, it will help bring down inflation, a sign the Fed's moves are working.

Smaller pensions and more expensive Uber rides

When rates lift off, it tends to prompt a dramatic reshuffling of investments. And with general economic concerns rising, those moves have been especially pronounced.

For those with money in the stock market, like people with 401k retirement accounts, that has meant seeing a sharp slide in the value of their investments. 

The S&P 500 has sunk more than 20% since the start of January - a milestone known as a bear market - while the Nasdaq has shed nearly a third of its value.

Risky assets, like cryptocurrencies, have seen their prices drop too, which stock exchanges outside the US have also been hit, BBC reported.

Investment firms are also pulling back from riskier ventures, demanding profitability from companies like Uber that have been operating at a loss for years.

That means people are likely to face higher prices for things like taxi rides and deliveries - or see such firms fold, as was the case for a number of start-ups that emerged in New York promising 15-minute groceries.

"In times of uncertainty, investors look for safety," Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a letter to staff last month about the steps the firm would take to try to boost its bottom line, including slowing hiring. "It's clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly." 

Job market slowdown and recession risk

As demand cools, it is putting an end to the booming post-pandemic labour market, which has seen companies competing fiercely for workers, allowing new hires to command higher pay and other perks and encouraging many to switch jobs for better.

Property giants Redfin and Compass this week announced plans to reduce their staffs by hundreds this week, citing the downturn and higher rates. 

A slew of big companies like Uber, including Amazon, Walmart, Tesla and Spotify, have also announced plans to slow or halt hiring.

The head of the US central bank, Jerome Powell, has said he is hopeful the economy will avoid mass job losses, noting that the US labour market remains very tight - with nearly double the openings to people hunting for positions, according to BBC.

But the economy was already facing challenges as inflation raises costs for companies and cuts into people's spending power.

Growth already contracted in the first three months of the year. And while that was attributed to a quirk in international trade data, other indicators, like retail sales, have begun to darken. 

As higher rates collide with a weakening economy, analysts say the bank risks bringing on a sustained slowdown, also known as a recession.

Stronger dollar

The US dollar has risen 10% this year, as the Fed's moves prompting investors to shift money to America in pursuit of higher returns, boosting demand for its currency.

For Americans planning trips to places like the UK, where the value of a pound sank below $1.20 this week - its lowest since the pandemic - it's a silver lining.

But elsewhere, the rise of the US currency means more expensive imports of commodities like energy and food, which often trade in dollars. That adds to economic strains, especially if a government holds a lot of debt in dollars.

Emerging markets tend to be the markets that really do stand to suffer the most," says Fiona Cincotta, market analyst at City Index.

Higher rates abroad

Those dynamics mean the US is not hiking in a vacuum.

Dozens of other countries have also announced rate rises in recent months, including the Bank of England, Switzerland. Australia and Canada.

Many are fighting their own battles with inflation. But they are also taking cues from what's happening in the world's largest economy, BBC reported.

In countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where currencies are tied to the dollar, the impact of US rate rises is almost immediate, with banks hiking in lockstep, as they try to contain an outflow of funds to the US.

As those moves start to be felt on the ground, the economic story in the US will continue to be closely watched.

Ryan Giggs has resigned as Wales manager "with immediate effect". 

The former Manchester United winger, 48, stepped away from his role in November 2020 after being arrested, BBC reported.

Giggs was later charged with using controlling behaviour and assaulting his ex-girlfriend, charges he has denied.

Robert Page took over as interim Wales boss in Giggs' absence, leading them to a first World Cup finals since 1958.

In a statement, Giggs said: "After much consideration, I am standing down from my position as manager of the Wales men's national team with immediate effect. 

"It has been an honour and a privilege to manage my country, but it is only right that the Wales FA, the coaching staff and the players prepare for the tournament with certainty, clarification and without speculation around the position of their head coach."

The Football Association of Wales released its own statement following Giggs' announcement, according to BBC.

"The FAW places on record its gratitude to Ryan Giggs for his tenure as manager of the Cymru men's national team and appreciates the decision he has taken, which is in the best interests of Welsh football," it read.

"The full focus of the FAW and the Cymru men's national team is on the Fifa World Cup in Qatar later this year."

Former Wales captain Page, 47, Giggs' assistant since August 2019, took charge of matches from November 2020, leading Wales to top spot in their Nations League group.

He continued to deputise for Giggs - who was appointed by Wales in January 2018 - in March 2021 as Wales kicked off their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.

That would culminate in a famous play-off final win over Ukraine in June 2022, booking a place at Qatar for Wales' first appearance at a World Cup finals in 64 years.

Wales will play England, the United States and Iran in Group B, with their opening game against the USA on 21 November.

Under Page's guidance, Wales also reached the last 16 of the Euro 2020 finals, which were delayed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and he is now expected to become permanent Wales boss, BBC reported.

Giggs has pleaded not guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour against his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020.

He has also pleaded not guilty to assaulting Ms Greville causing her actual bodily harm, and common assault of her younger sister, Emma Greville, at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on 1 November 2020.

The trial was originally scheduled to take place last January but was postponed until 8 August due to a lack of court space. The trial is set to last a minimum of five days.

Giggs added: "I do not want the country's preparations for the World Cup to be affected, destabilised or jeopardised in any way by the continued interest around this case.

"I am sad that we cannot continue this journey together because I believe that this extraordinary group will make the country proud at our first World Cup since 1958, according to BBC.

"It is my intention to resume my managerial career at a later date."

"There was water everywhere, but not a single drop to drink."

That is how Ronju Chowdhary described the scene outside her house on Saturday. She lives in Udiana, a remote village in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, which has been hit by severe floods.

It had been raining incessantly, she remembers. The water rose so quickly that the streets were completely submerged within hours. When the water entered their home, she says the family huddled together in darkness trying to keep themselves safe.

Two days on, the family is still marooned in their house - now resembling a lonely island - amid a sea of water.

"We are surrounded by flood water from all sides. There's hardly any water to drink. Food is running short too. And now I hear that the water levels are further rising," Ms Chowdhary says. "What will happen to us?"

Unprecedented rainfall and flooding has left behind a trail of destruction in Assam, submerging villages, destroying crops, and wrecking homes. Authorities say that 33 of its 35 districts have been affected, killing at least 34 people and displacing more than 4.2 million, BBC reported.

Heavy rains have also lashed neighbouring Meghalaya state, where 18 people have died over the last week. In Assam, the government has opened 1,147 relief camps for the displaced, but authorities say their job has been complicated by the sheer intensity of the disaster. Even the rescue camps are in a dismal state. 

"There is no drinking water in the camp. My son has a fever but I am unable to take him to the doctor," says Husna Begum, also a resident of Udiana. When water reached her home on Wednesday, the 28-year-old swam through the torrent in search of help. She is now sheltering in a rickety plastic tent with her two children.

"I have not seen something like this before. I've never seen such huge floods in my life," she says.

Floods routinely wreak havoc on the lives and livelihoods of millions living near the fertile riverbanks of the mighty Brahmaputra river, often called the lifeline of Assam. But experts say that factors like climate change, unchecked construction activities and rapid industrialisation have increased the frequency of extreme weather events.

This is the second time this year that Assam is grappling with such fierce floods - at least 39 people were killed in May. The state has already recorded rainfall 109% above average levels this month, according to the weather department. And the Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at many places. 

Residents and authorities the BBC spoke to describe the latest deluge as one of "biblical proportions" - one that has altered the social and economical fabric of the state. 

"The situation is particularly alarming this time. Apart from the team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), we have also deployed the army to aid the rescue operations," says Javir Rahul Suresh, a sub-divisional officer in Rangiya city, according to BBC.

"At this point, our priority is to save lives."

Entire settlements have been engulfed by rushing waters, almost resembling a huge river that had formed overnight.

In Guwahati, the main economic centre of Assam, neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble. Lush fields where rice and paddy normally grew have turned into vast swamps of mud and debris. 

Back in Udiana, there are no schools, hospitals, temples or mosques in sight - just water. People travel by boats made of banana leaves and bamboo sticks. Others just swim through the brown, green brackish waters despondently, their eyes lighting up at the sight of rescuers, whose bright orange uniforms are visible from a distance.

The damage is particularly alarming in Kamrup district, where hundreds of people are still reportedly trapped in their houses.

Siraj Ali, 64, says that when the water swept into his village and destroyed everything, he was scared for his life. Yet he stayed on, in a house which is now partly submerged under water, to guard his belongings and "a life-time of memories". 

He said he sent his children to a roadside shelter camp, while he waited for help to reach him. But no one has come so far.

"I am surrounded by water but I have no water to drink. I don't have food. I have been starving for three days. What to do and where do I go?" he asks, his eyes welling up with tears, BBC reported.

As Colombia’s voters put aside a longtime antipathy to leftists and chose one as their new president, they also carved out another milestone — electing the country’s first Black Vice President, Associated Press reported.

When former leftist rebel Gustavo Petro takes office as president on Aug. 7, a key player in his administration will be Francia Marquez, his running mate in Sunday’s runoff election.

Marquez is an environmental activist from La Toma, a remote village surrounded by mountains where she first organized campaigns against a hydroelectric project and then challenged wildcat gold miners who were invading collectively owned Afro-Colombian lands.

The politician has faced numerous death threats for her environmental work and has emerged as a powerful spokeswoman for Black Colombians and other marginalized communities.

“She’s completely different than any another person that’s ever had a vice presidency in Colombia,” said Gimena Sanchez, the Andes director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

“She comes from a rural area, she comes from the perspective of a campesino woman and from the perspective of areas of Colombia that have been affected by armed conflict for many years. Most politicians in Colombia who have held the presidency have not lived in the way she has,” Sanchez said.

She said Marquez will likely be given the mandate to work on gender issues as well as policies affecting the nation’s Afro-Colombian population, according to Associated Press.

In several interviews. Petro has discussed creating a Ministry of Equality, which would be headed by Marquez and would work across several sectors of the economy on issues like reducing gender inequalities and tackling disparities faced by ethnic minorities.

Marquez said Sunday that part of her mission as vice president will be to reduce inequality.

“This will be a government for those with calluses on their hands. We are here to promote social justice and to help women eradicate the patriarchy,” she said on stage while celebrating the election results with thousands of supporters at a popular concert venue.

Marquez grew up in a small home built by her family and had a daughter when she was 16, whom she raised on her own. To support her daughter, Marquez cleaned homes in the nearby city of Cali and also worked at a restaurant while studying for a law degree.

She was awarded the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize for her successful efforts to remove gold miners from the collectively owned Afro-Colombian lands around her village. 

Marquez entered the presidential race last year as a candidate for the Democratic Pole party, though she lost out in an inter-party consultation in March to Gustavo Petro. But she gained national recognition during the primaries and received 700,000 votes, topping most veteran politicians, Associated Press reported.

In speeches calling for Colombia to confront racism and gender inequalities and to ensure basic rights for the poor, Marquez energized rural voters who have suffered from the country’s long armed conflict as well as young people and women in urban areas.

“All of us who work with her now believe in the power of women,” said Vivian Tibaque, a community leader in Bogota who worked on Marquez’s campaign. “We believe we can also defend out rights like Francia has defended hers.”

Political analysts said Marquez contributed to Petro’s campaign by reaching out to voters who felt excluded by the political system but did not trust the leftist parties that Petro, a former member of a rebel group, has been a part of throughout much of his career.

They said her presence on Petro’s ticket also motivated Afro-Colombian voters along the Pacific coast, where Petro won by big margins Sunday even as he barely won the contest by three percentage points. 

“I don’t think Petro could’ve won the presidency without her.” Sanchez said. “There is a lot of distrust and suspicion towards the left in Colombia, partly because a lot of the left has been armed at some point in time.”

The Nobel Peace Prize auctioned off by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel, Associated Press reported.

A spokesperson for Heritage Auctions, which handled the sale, could not confirm the identity of the buyer but said the winning bid was made by proxy. The $103.5 million sale translates to $100 million Swiss francs, hinting that the buyer is from overseas.

“I was hoping that there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity, but I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount,” Muratov said in an interview after bidding in the nearly 3-week auction ended on World Refugee Day.

Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his. Three years later, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding also run by Heritage Auctions.

Muratov, who was awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Associated Press.

It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. 

Muratov has said the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine. Just minutes after bidding ended, UNICEF told the auction house it had already received the funds.

Online bids had begun June 1 to coincide with the International Children’s Day observance. Many bids came by telephone or online. The winning bid, tendered by telephone, catapulted the bidding from the low millions to astronomical levels.

Muratov had left Russia on Thursday to begin his trip to New York City, where live bidding began Monday evening. 

Early Monday, the high bid was only $550,000. The purchase price had been expected to spiral upward — but not over $100 million.

“I can’t believe it. I’m awestruck. Personally, I’m flabbergasted. I’m stunned. I don’t really know what happened in there,” said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions, Associates Presa reported.

“We knew that there was a tremendous groundswell of interest in the last couple of days by people who were moved by Dimitry’s story, by Dimitry’s act of generosity, that the global audience was listening tonight,” he said.

Muratov and Heritage officials said even those out of the bidding can still help by donating directly to UNICEF.

Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines.

The two journalists, who each received their own medals, were honored for their battles to preserve free speech in their respective countries, despite coming under attack by harassment, their governments and even death threats.

Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold contained in Muratov’s medal would be worth about $10,000, according Associated Press.

The CPN-UML affiliated student wing, All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), staged a demonstration in the Capital against the fuel price hike on Monday.

They staged the demonstration outside the Jamal-based Tri Chandra Multiple Campus.

Traffic went haywire in various places of the Capital due to the protest.

Kathmandu police said that they had to use the force to disperse the mob.