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Chief of Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sharma said that Nepal will not take part in the military alliance.

Taking part in a meeting of the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives held on Friday, he said that the State Partnership Program (SPP) was not acceptable to the Nepal Army.

“We have already informed the US officials that Nepal will not participate in the military alliance,” he said, adding, “SPP is not acceptable for us. We sent a letter as it was said that the program was for humanitarian assistance. We did not send the letter for military alliance. We have already informed the US that Nepal will not take part in the military alliance.”

He said that the Nepal Army will not play with the sentiments of the people.

The CoAS Sharma said that the documents of the agreement that have been made public are not official.

Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Prabhu Ram Sharma have participated in a meeting of the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives on Friday.

Minister Khadka and CoAS took part in the meeting after the Committee invited them to discuss the State Partnership Program (SPP).

The Committee summoned CoAS Sharma to inquire about Nepal Army's involvement in the SPP and his upcoming US visit.

Committee President Pabitra Niraula said that the parliamentary committee wanted to know about Nepal Army's role in SPP and CoAS Sharma's US visit after the lawmakers of ruling and opposition parties raised questions in the Parliament on the issue.

Former Defence Minister duo Ishwor Pokharel and Bhim Rawal are also in the meeting.

Elon Musk was sued for $258 billion on Thursday by a Dogecoin investor who accused him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency, Reuters reported.

In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, plaintiff Keith Johnson accused Musk, electric car company Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and space tourism company SpaceX of racketeering for touting Dogecoin and driving up its price, only to then let the price tumble.

"Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading," the complaint said. "Musk used his pedestal as World's Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement."

The complaint also aggregates comments from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and others questioning the value of cryptocurrency.

Tesla, SpaceX and a lawyer for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer for Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on what specific evidence his client has or expects to have that proves Dogecoin is worthless and the defendants ran a pyramid scheme, according to Reuters.

Johnson is seeking $86 billion in damages, representing the decline in Dogecoin's market value since May 2021, and wants it tripled.

He also wants to block Musk and his companies from promoting Dogecoin and a judge to declare that trading Dogecoin is gambling under federal and New York law.

The complaint said Dogecoin's selloff began around the time Musk hosted the NBC show "Saturday Night Live and, playing a fictitious financial expert on a "Weekend Update" segment, called Dogecoin "a hustle."

Tesla in February 2021 said it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and for a short time accepted it as payment for vehicles.

Dogecoin traded at about 5.8 cents on Thursday, down from its May 2021 peak of about 74 cents.

The case is Johnson v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037, Reuters reported.

The United States on Thursday announced that it will provide $6 million in emergency assistance to Sri Lanka to address the needs of the marginalised and vulnerable communities impacted by the country's economic crisis, The Times of India reported.

This new funding will also provide technical assistance to the Sri Lankan government as it implements economic and financial reform measures to stabilise the economy, in line with an anticipated International Monetary Fund (IMF) package, the US embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

“The US is committed to supporting the Sri Lankan people as they face today's economic and political challenges. As a longstanding development partner, we will continue to champion efforts that promote sustainable economic growth and good governance,” said Julie Chung, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka.

This emergency funding through the US government's development arm, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), responds to emerging or unforeseen complex crises overseas. Part of this funding will go to USAID's social cohesion and reconciliation project (SCORE) to support small-scale agricultural productivity and microenterprises in communities that traditionally experience high poverty rates and are especially impacted by the crisis.

This funding will also support public sector efficiency and resource management through USAID's project to accelerate results in trade, national expenditure, and revenue, according to The Times of India.

"The $6 million in new assistance is part of a much larger package of foreign assistance to Sri Lanka from the American people to meet the current need. That support is part of a shared history that has seen the United States provide over $2 billion in economic and humanitarian support since 1956," the statement said.

The US will continue to add to its significant ongoing investments and assistance projects in Sri Lanka to help meet the immediate and long-term needs of the people of Sri Lanka. The US on Wednesday announced USD 120 million in new loans to Sri Lanka to grow and support small and medium-sized businesses in the country.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain 1948. The economic crisis has prompted an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuel, toilet paper, and even matches.

The country is experiencing long queues for refuelling at pumping stations as the government finds it difficult to finance fuel imports to retain a reserve adequate for a minimum of three months, The Times of India reported.

European football is in "danger" unless "state-owned" clubs such as Manchester City and Paris St-Germain can be controlled, the president of Spain's top league says, BBC reported.

La Liga has filed a complaint to Uefa about what it believes to be Financial Fair Play breaches by the two clubs.

It believes they are effectively run by wealthy countries and circumvent rules designed to keep spending sustainable.

Both clubs have vigorously denied the complaints.

Premier League winners Manchester City are majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour of the United Arab Emirates, while the Emir of Qatar owns French champions PSG. 

"We're doing it to defend the football eco-system in Europe," said La Liga president Javier Tebas.

"We think European football is in danger. [We have] not been able to design a system to control the state-owned clubs."

He has strongly criticised PSG over the new multi-million pound contract they gave star striker Kylian Mbappe, according to BBC.

Speaking at a European Leagues meeting in Amsterdam, he added: "We've made official complaints about PSG for financial doping. 

"Uefa have allowed losses because clubs reduced their turnover, but PSG increased their wage bill by an incredible amount during Covid.

"Their wages for 2021-22 were 600m euros. It is impossible. That is without including Mbappe. It is obvious they are not applying FFP [Financial Fair Play] rules. It is endangering the entire financial eco-system in Europe."

The complaint against PSG was made last week and the one against City in April, although La Liga says it reserves the right to extend these complaints.

In July 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a two-year Champions League ban imposed on City by Uefa for FFP breaches.

Tebas added: "At one point, Man City had 68% of their revenue from commercial income. Real Madrid was 54%. That is impossible. Man City as a brand is not worth that much. They were sanctioned but it was reversed. PSG is even more obvious. It is totally impossible. Contracts were inflated, BBC reported.

"The majority of people in football try to control their financial status. It is not a problem they are owned by the state. It is the financial side."

Nepal is preparing to move its Everest base camp because global warming and human activity are making it unsafe, BBC reported.

The camp, used by up to 1,500 people in the spring climbing season, is situated on the rapidly thinning Khumbu glacier.

A new site is to be found at a lower altitude, where there is no year-round ice, an official told the BBC.

Researchers say melt-water destabilises the glacier, and climbers say crevasses are increasingly appearing at base camp while they sleep.

"We are now preparing for the relocation and we will soon begin consultation with all stakeholders," Taranath Adhikari, director general of Nepal's tourism department, told the BBC.

"It is basically about adapting to the changes we are seeing at the base camp and it has become essential for the sustainability of the mountaineering business itself."

The camp currently sits at an altitude of 5,364m. The new one will be 200m to 400m lower, Mr Adhikari said, according to BBC.

The plans follow the recommendations of a committee formed by Nepal's government to facilitate and monitor mountaineering in the Everest region.

The Khumbu glacier, like many other glaciers in the Himalayas, is rapidly melting and thinning in the wake of global warming, scientists have found.

A study by researchers from Leeds University in 2018 showed that the glacier was losing 9.5 million cubic metres of water per year, and that the segment close to base camp was thinning at a rate of 1m per year.

"We found that the thinning rate of the ice at the base camp area was higher than some other parts of the glacier because it has a thin coating of rocks and boulder debris," Scott Watson, one of the researchers, told the BBC. 

Most of the glacier is covered by this rocky debris, but there are also areas of exposed ice called ice cliffs, and it is the melting of the ice cliffs that most destabilises the glacier, Mr Watson said.

"When ice cliffs melt like that, the debris of boulder and rocks that are on the top of the ice cliffs move and fall and then the melting also creates water bodies. 

"So we see increased rock falls and movement of melt-water on the surface of the glaciers that can be hazardous." 

Mountaineers and the Nepali authorities say a stream right in the middle of the base camp has been expanding year by year, BBC reported.

They also say crevasses and cracks on the surface of the glacier are appearing more frequently than before.

"We surprisingly see crevasses appearing overnight at places where we sleep," said Col Kishor Adhikari of the Nepali army, who was staying at base camp while leading a clean-up campaign during the spring climbing season, which lasts from March to the end of May. 

"In the morning, many of us have this chilling experience that we could have fallen into them in the night. Cracks on the ground develop so often, it is quite risky."

Tshering Tenzing Sherpa, Everest base camp manager with the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), echoed that message.

Loud noises could also frequently be heard, he said, caused by the ice moving or rocks falling. He added that before putting up a tent at base camp it was necessary to flatten the rocky surface covering the ice, and to repeat this from time to time as the glacier moved.

"In the past the flattened space used to bulge up only after two to three weeks. But now that happens almost every week," he said.

A leading member of the committee that recommended the base camp move, Khimlal Gautam, said the presence of so many people at base camp was contributing to the problem.

"For instance, we found that people urinate around 4,000 litres at the base camp every day," he said, according to BBC.

"And the massive amount of fuels like kerosene and gas we burn there for cooking and warming will definitely have impacts on the glacier's ice." 

Adrian Ballinger, founder of mountain guide company Alpenglow Expeditions, agreed that the move made sense, predicting that there will be more avalanches, ice falls and rock falls in the area of the current base camp in future.

"This should be unacceptable to expedition leaders, since it can be avoided," he said.

The main drawback was that a camp lower down the mountain would add to the length of the climb from base camp to camp one, the next staging post for those climbing the mountain.

Most climbers still ascend Everest from the Nepalese side, but the numbers starting in China are increasing.

Mr Sherpa of the SPCC said that despite the problems, the present base camp site was still essentially stable, and could continue to serve its purpose for another three to four years.

But Nepali officials say the move may happen by 2024.

"We have assessed the technical and environmental aspects of the base camp, but before we relocate it we will have to discuss this with local communities, considering other aspects like their culture," said Mr Adhikari, BBC reported.

"We will do it only after discussing with all quarters."

North Korea says it is dealing with an outbreak of an unidentified intestinal sickness, adding to the strain caused by the spread of Covid-19, BBC reported.

The country's leader, Kim Jong-un, has ordered quarantine measures be implemented, the official KCNA news agency reports.

It said he sent medicine to Haeju city on Wednesday to help patients suffering from the "acute enteric epidemic". 

Health experts suspect the illness could be typhoid or cholera. 

North Korea declared a state of emergency in May after it said millions of people were experiencing "fever", believed to be untested Covid-19 cases.

It has not reported the number of people affected by the latest sickness outbreak, or elaborated on what the disease is, but enteric refers to the gastrointestinal tract, according to BBC.

"[Kim] stressed the need to contain the epidemic at the earliest date possible by taking a well-knit measure to quarantine the suspected cases to thoroughly curb its spread, confirming cases through epidemiological examination and scientific tests", KCNA said.

An official at South Korea's Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs told Reuters news agency that the government suspects the outbreak to be cholera or typhoid.

South Hwanghae province, where Haeju is located, is North Korea's main agricultural region, which could worsen the country's widespread food shortage.

Pyongyang has been announcing the number of fever patients, but the country lacks Covid testing kits. Many also suspect the government of underreporting new cases. 

North Korea reported 26,010 more people with fever symptoms on Thursday, with the total number of fever patients recorded across the country since late April nearing 4.56 million. 

The death toll linked to the outbreak is at 73, the government says, but the World Health Organization and others have said they fear the situation is much worse, BBC reported.

North Korea has a dire healthcare system and has turned down international offers of vaccines for its population.

Query

I am a 35-year-old working woman who just had a kid. I left my job because I wanted to give all my attention to my child. Being a stay-at-home mom is a sudden change for me.  I feel guilty for wanting my old life as a professional. I can’t help but think that I am a bad mother. My husband is always working and it is solely on me to look after the baby. I am afraid that if I share my feelings with my husband, he might see me as a bad mother. —A worried mother 

Answered by Alisha Humagain, Psychosocial Counselor at Happy Minds 

The transition from working life to parenthood is a significant change. Hormonal changes in women after childbirth are believed to be the reason for mood swings. The hormones, estrogen and progesterone required during pregnancy decline quickly after birth, creating mood swings.

As for changes that you were anticipating after becoming a mother, the transition to a new identity as a parent can be surprising. This does not imply that you don’t care about your child, or that you aren’t a good mother. Simply put, you may require some time to rediscover yourself.

There are many positive things you can do to help you remember who you are and embrace the changes in your life. Having a child impacts your life, but try not to consider this as a bad thing. You may not be as spontaneous, social, or carefree as you used to be, but you’re likely to become more patient and selfless. You might even find an inner strength and confidence you didn't know you had. Instead of worrying about how things will be different now that you're a parent, try to concentrate on spending time and bonding with your child.

It’s best not to assume that your husband will judge you. Communicating with each other can be really beneficial in terms of gaining insight and finding answers to your problems. You may both feel as if your duty as parents has robbed you of your identity. In addition to spending time with your child, try to be with your partner as well. It may be as easy as watching a movie or eating dinner together on a Saturday night. It's also a good idea to seek moral support from your family and friends.

It is quite normal to need a break. Though it may seem obvious, taking a break can indeed be difficult for some new parents, especially if you don't have a support network. It doesn't always have to be about doing something other than caring for your baby. It's wonderful to just sit and do nothing every now and then.

After having a baby, many people battle with their emotions for a while. These should pass, but if your sentiments do not improve or you are unable to manage, it may be an indication that you require additional assistance. It is best to get professional advice, even if you are unable to attend physical sessions and must instead rely on virtual ones.