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Cash-strapped Sri Lanka on Sunday extended school closures for one week because there isn’t enough fuel for teachers and parents to get children to classrooms, and the energy minister appealed to the country’s expatriates to send money home through banks to finance new oil purchases, Associated Press reported.

A huge foreign debt has left the Indian Ocean island with none of the suppliers willing to sell fuel on credit. The available stocks, sufficient for only several days, will be provided for essential services, including health and port workers, public transport and food distribution, officials said.

”Finding money is a challenge. It’s a huge challenge,” Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told reporters.

He said the government has ordered new fuel stocks and the first ship with 40,000 metric tons of diesel is expected to arrive on Friday while the first ship carrying gasoline would come on July 22.

Several other fuel shipments are in the pipeline. But he said authorities are struggling to find $587 million to pay for the fuel. Wijesekera said that Sri Lanka owed about $800 million to seven fuel suppliers, according to Associated Press.

Last month, schools were closed nationwide for a day due to fuel shortages and had remained closed for the last two weeks in urban areas. Schools will remain shut until Friday.

Authorities also announced countrywide power cuts of up to three hours a day from Monday because they can’t supply enough fuel to power generating stations. Sweeping power cuts have been a blight on Sri Lanka’s economy for months, along with severe shortages of essentials including cooking gas, medicine and food imports.

Wijesekera said the main problem is the lack of dollars and appealed to some 2 million Sri Lankans working abroad to send their foreign exchange earnings home through banks instead of informal channels.

He said workers’ remittances, which usually stood at $600 million per month, had declined to $318 million in June.

According to the Central Bank, the remittances — the nation’s main foreign exchange earner — dropped from $2.8 billion in the first six months of 2021 to $1.3 billion in the same period this year for a decline of 53%.

The drop came after the government last year ordered the mandatory conversion of foreign currency. It said that black-market premiums have led people to hoard foreign currency, Associated Press reported.

Sri Lanka’s has been getting most of its fuel needs from neighboring India, which provided it with a credit line. The government said it was also negotiating with suppliers in Russia and Malaysia.

Sri Lanka has suspended repayment of about $7 billion in foreign loans due this year out of $25 billion to be repaid by 2026. The country’s total foreign debt is $51 billion.

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the state-owned monopoly, yanked up the prices of petroleum products on Monday.

The NOC has decided to increase Rs 2 per litre in petrol, Rs 9 per litre in diesel and kerosene.

According to the new revised rate, the petrol will cost Rs181 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 172 per litre.

The NOC, however, did not increase the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

At least nine persons died when a commuter bus met with an accident near Lubhughat in Khandadevi Rural Municipality-1, Ramechhap district on Tuesday.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be established.

DSP Raj Kumar Thing said that the bus (Ba 3 Kha 8396) belonging to the Araniko Travels was heading towards Kathmandu from Bethan, Ramechhap when the tragedy occurred.

Police are carrying out rescue operations and preparations are being made to take the injured to the Dhulikhel Hospital.

A Central Committee meeting of the CPN (Maoist Centre) has been postponed.

The meeting called for 11 am at Pragya Bhawan in Kamaladi has been postponed till tomorrow, party spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

He said that the meeting will be held at 1 pm tomorrow.

The reason for the postponement has not been disclosed.

Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal presented the agenda and political report in the meeting that started on Sunday.

On Monday, province in-charges floated their opinion on the party's latest situation.

During the meeting held on Monday, leaders suggested Dahal forge an electoral alliance with the CPN-UML saying that the party is getting weak.

Chairman Dahal was scheduled to answer the questions raised in the meeting today.

Macau reported 89 new coronavirus instances on Tuesday, taking the entire to greater than 900 infections since mid-June, as authorities on this planet’s largest playing hub race to comprise its largest outbreak because the pandemic started, Reuters reported.

More than 13,000 individuals are underneath quarantine within the Chinese language particular administrative area, which has successfully shut all the way down to restrict the unfold of coronavirus.

The town’s greater than 600,000 residents are topic to a few citywide COVID-19 checks this week, with individuals additionally required to take fast antigen checks in between.

Whereas the previous Portuguese colony has not launched a full scale lockdown seen in mainland Chinese language cities like Shanghai, most amenities are shut and eating places can solely present takeaway.

Solely Macau’s casinos have been allowed to remain open in a transfer to make sure job safety. The federal government depends on the business for over 80% of its tax income with a lot of the inhabitants employed immediately or not directly by the on line casino resorts.

Whereas casinos are bodily open, there are hardly any gamblers inside and only a few employees working, with many staff requested to remain at dwelling, as per the federal government’s request.

The stringent measures come after Macau has been largely COVID-free since an outbreak in October 2021. It nonetheless has an open border with mainland China, with its economic system firmly hinged to the influx of Chinese language guests, according to BBC.

Macau adheres to China’s “zero-COVID” coverage which goals to eradicate all outbreaks, at nearly any value, working counter to a world development of making an attempt to co-exist with the virus.

Its instances are nonetheless far under day by day infections somewhere else, together with neighbouring Hong Kong the place instances have jumped to greater than 2,000 a day this month.

Nonetheless, Macau solely has one public hospital, whose companies are already stretched each day. Officers have put up a makeshift hospital subsequent to the town’s Las Vegas type Cotai strip to assist address the rise in instances, BBC reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defence minister to continue the offensive in Ukraine after Russia captured the city of Lysychansk, BBC reported.

Mr Putin was shown on Russian TV calling on forces on other fronts to pursue their aims according to "previously approved plans".

The capture means that all of Luhansk region is now in Russian hands.

Earlier the region's Ukrainian governor said the city was abandoned so Russians would not destroy it from a distance.

Soldiers have now moved to new fortified positions, Serhiy Haidai told the BBC.

Losing the city and ceding control of Luhansk to Russia was painful, he said, but added: "This is just one battle we have lost, but not the war."

He pleaded for more weapons from the West to offset the Russian advantage.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged that Ukrainian forces will return to retake Lysychansk "thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons".

Russia has now stepped up its bombardment of cities in the neighbouring Donetsk region, with the areas around Sloviansk and the road between Lysychansk and Bakhmut in particular being targeted, according to Ukrainian forces.

Together the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk form the industrial Donbas area.

Mr Putin was seen telling Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu that troops who took part in the campaign to capture Luhansk should "rest and develop their combat capabilities".

"Other military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans," he said, expressing the hope that on those fronts they would have similar success to that in Luhansk region, according to BBC.

Just before he launched the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Mr Putin recognised all of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states. Russian proxy forces began an insurgency there in 2014 - the year Russia also annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Just over a week ago, Russian troops captured Severodonetsk - which Russian bombardment has reduced to ruins.

The smell hits you first - freshly cooked rice, lentils and spinach, served in ladles from steaming pots. 

Dozens of families - including mothers with babies - are lined up with plates to get a serving of what will likely be their only meal for the day, BBC reported.

"We are here because we are hungry," says Chandrika Manel, a mother of four. 

As she kneads a ball of rice with her hands, mixing it with the lentils and spinach before feeding it to one of her children, she explains that even buying bread is a struggle.

"There are times I [give them] milk and rice, but we don't cook any vegetables. They're too expensive."

Depleted foreign reserves and soaring inflation have devastated Sri Lanka's economy in recent months. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa - who pushed through tax cuts that shrunk the state's coffers and borrowed heavily from China to fund ambitious infrastructure projects - has been blamed for the crisis. The pandemic, which hit tourism, and the war in Ukraine, which sent oil prices rocketing, has only made the situation worse. 

But now Sri Lanka is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has told the BBC. 

The organisation found that 70% of the country's families have cut down on food since the start of the year, and stocks of fuel and essential medicines are also fast running out. 

'My children are miserable'

This is Ms Manel's first visit to a community kitchen as she found her options disappearing: "The cost of living is so high, we are taking loans to survive."

The kitchen is a month old - Pastor Moses Akash started it in a church hall in Colombo after meeting a single mother who lived off a jackfruit for three days.

"We get people who haven't had a second plate of rice for the last four months," Pastor Moses says. 

By his estimate, the number of people queuing up for food has grown from 50 to well over 250 a day. It's not surprising given that food prices in Sri Lanka went up by 80% in June alone. 

"I see a lot of children especially, most of them are malnourished," he says.

Sahna, a pregnant 34-year-old who goes by her first name only, is also in the queue with her three young children. She is due in September and anxious about the future. 

"My children are miserable. They're suffering in every possible way. I can't even afford a packet of biscuits or milk for my babies."

Sahna's husband, who is a labourer, earns just $10 (£8.20) a week to support the entire family. 

"Our leaders are living better lives. If their children are living happily, why can't my children?" she asks. 

A looming humanitarian crisis 

By the time Sahna's child is born, things are expected to get worse. 

The mayor of Colombo recently said that the capital has enough food only until September, BBC reported.

With shortages of fuel and cooking gas, and daily power cuts, families are unable to travel to buy fresh food or prepare hot meals.

"Families can't buy what they used to buy. They are cutting down on meals, they are cutting down on nutritious food. So we are definitely getting into a situation where malnutrition is a major concern," said Christian Skoog, Unicef's representative in Sri Lanka. 

"We're trying to avoid a humanitarian crisis. We're not yet at children dying, which is good, but we need to get the support very urgently to avoid that."

Unicef has appealed for urgent financial aid to treat thousands of children with acute malnutrition, and to support a million others with primary healthcare.

Acute malnutrition rates could rise from 13% to 20%, with the number of severely malnourished children - currently 35,000 - doubling, says Dr Renuka Jayatissa, president of the Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association.

The crisis has brought forth a sense of solidarity, with people often relying on the kindness of strangers. But even kindness and hope are becoming precious commodities. 

Dr Saman Kumara at Colombo's Castle Street hospital says that if not for the goodwill of donors, his patients - tiny newborns - would have been at great risk. 

He says his hospital is now "completely dependent on donations" for essential medicines and equipment, and urged more donors to come forward as patients' lives are in danger.

About 50,000 people have been urged to evacuate their homes as floods hit Australia's largest city for the third time this year, BBC reported.

Parts of Sydney have received about eight months of rain in four days.

Roads have been cut off, some houses are underwater and thousands have been left without power.

Widespread flooding across Australia - driven by a La Niña weather pattern - has killed more than 20 people this year, many in New South Wales (NSW). 

More than 100 evacuation orders have been issued across Greater Sydney for the current emergency.

People in another 50 areas have been warned to prepare to leave, as several major rivers flood. Severe weather is also hitting the nearby Hunter and Illawarra regions.

Some areas of NSW have seen 800mm of rain in four days, says the Bureau of Meteorology, almost a third more than the average rainfall Greater London receives in a year, according to BBC.

The downpour is expected to begin easing in Sydney on Tuesday, but gale-force winds are also forecast, bringing a risk of falling trees and powerlines.

"The emergency is far from over," NSW Emergency Services Minister Stephanie Cooke said.

Authorities are urging locals to heed evacuation warnings, after rescuers were called to save people who were ordered to leave two days earlier.

"Ultimately if you stay you're putting your life at risk," said NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

For many locals, it is their third flood this year.

Speaking after evacuating his partner from their house by kayak, Tyler Cassel said locals were tired of the constant threat to their homes and lives.

He moved into his home in the Sydney suburb of Windsor last year, and was told major flood events were supposed to be "one in 25 years, one in 50 years or whatever it was".

"Now it has been three in 2022," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We've become experts around this area now... you are almost living on the edge."

Experts say the flooding emergency has been worsened by climate change and a La Niña weather phenomenon. A La Niña develops when strong winds blow the warm surface waters of the Pacific away from South America and towards Indonesia. In their place, colder waters come up to the surface, BBC reported.

In Australia, a La Niña increases the likelihood of rain, cyclones and cooler daytime temperatures.