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In a major expansion of gun rights after a series of mass shootings, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, a ruling likely to lead to more people legally armed. The decision came out as Congress and states debate gun-control legislation, Associated Press reported.

About one-quarter of the US population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling, which struck down a New York gun law. The high court’s first major gun decision in more than a decade split the court 6-3, with the court’s conservatives in the majority and liberals in dissent. 

Across the street from the court, lawmakers at the Capitol sped toward passage of gun legislation prompted by recent massacres in Texas,New York and California. Senators cleared the way for the measure, modest in scope but still the most far-reaching in decades.

Also Thursday, underscoring the nation’s deep divisions over the issue, the sister of a 9-year-old girl killed in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, pleaded with state lawmakers to pass gun legislation. The Republican-controlled legislature has stripped away gun restrictions over the past decade.

President Joe Biden said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court ruling. It “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all,” he said. 

He urged states to pass new laws. “I call on Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety. Lives are on the line,” he said.

The decision struck down a New York law requiring people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry a gun in a concealed way in public. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.” 

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority that the Constitution protects “an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” That right is not a “second-class right,” Thomas wrote. “We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”

California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have laws similar to New York’s. Those laws are expected to be quickly challenged, according to Associated Press.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., said the ruling came at a particularly painful time, with New York mourning the deaths of 10 people in a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo. “This decision isn’t just reckless. It’s reprehensible. It’s not what New Yorkers want,” she said.

Gun control groups called the decision a significant setback. Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice and an expert on the Second Amendment, wrote on Twitter that the decision could be the “biggest expansion of gun rights” by the Supreme Court in US history.

Republican lawmakers were among those cheering the decision. Tom King, president of the plaintiff New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said he was relieved.

“The lawful and legal gun owner of New York State is no longer going to be persecuted by laws that have nothing to do with the safety of the people and will do nothing to make the people safer,” he said. “And maybe now we’ll start going after criminals and perpetrators of these heinous acts.”

The court’s decision is somewhat out of step with public opinion. About half of the voters in the 2020 presidential election said gun laws in the U.S. should be made more strict, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the electorate. An additional one-third said laws should be kept as they are, while only about 1 in 10 said gun laws should be less strict.

About 8 in 10 Democratic voters said gun laws should be made more strict, VoteCast showed. Among Republican voters, roughly half said laws should be kept as they are, while the remaining half closely divided between more and less strict.

In a dissent joined by his liberal colleagues, Justice Stephen Breyer focused on the toll from gun violence. 

Since the beginning of this year, “there have already been 277 reported mass shootings — an average of more than one per day,” Breyer wrote. He accused his colleagues in the majority of acting “without considering the potentially deadly consequences” of their decision. He said the ruling would “severely” burden states’ efforts to pass laws “that limit, in various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of different kinds.” 

Several other conservative justices who joined Thomas’ majority opinion also wrote separately to add their views, Associated Press reported.

Justice Samuel Alito criticized Breyer’s dissent, questioning the relevance of his discussion of mass shootings and other gun death statistics. Alito wrote that the court had decided “nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun” and nothing “about the kinds of weapons that people may possess.”

“Today, unfortunately, many Americans have good reason to fear they will be victimized if they are unable to protect themselves.” The Second Amendment, he said, “guarantees their right to do so.”

The days of spending paper banknotes in the shops are numbered: 100 days, to be exact - so start hunting at home, BBC reported.

Remaining paper £20 or £50 notes should be spent or deposited by the end of September, the Bank of England said.

An estimated 163 million paper £50 banknotes and about 314 million £20 paper notes were still in circulation, the Bank said.

These notes are being replaced with plastic versions, just like the £5 and £10 note, which are more durable.

The Bank said the newer, polymer notes were also harder to counterfeit, according to BBC.

"The majority of paper banknotes have now been taken out of circulation, but a significant number remain in the economy, so we're asking you to check if you have any at home," said the Bank's chief cashier, Sarah John, whose signature is on the new notes.

From October, people with a UK bank account should still be able to deposit the paper notes into their account or at the Post Office, but spending them will be impossible.

Paper £20 and £50 notes issued by Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland will also be withdrawn on the same date. 

The paper £20 notes issued by Bank of Ireland, AIB Group, Danske Bank, and Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland will also be withdrawn after 30 September, BBC reported.

China commends the Nepal government's decision not to move ahead on the State Partnership Program (SPP) with the United States, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily news briefing when asked to comment on the issue.

Wang said that the program had been widely controversial in Nepal, as various political parties and factions, the government, the army and people across the Nepali society see the SPP as a military and security initiative closely linked to the Indo-Pacific Strategy. They consider it against the national interests of Nepal and its long-held non-aligned, balanced foreign policy to be part of the SPP, according to Xinhua.

"As Nepal's friendly and close neighbor and strategic cooperative partner, China commends the Nepal government's decision," Wang said, adding that China will continue to support Nepal in upholding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and support Nepal's commitment to its independent and non-aligned foreign policy.

"China stands ready to work with Nepal to jointly safeguard regional security, stability and shared prosperity," said the spokesperson, according to Xinhua.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday is hosting a virtual summit with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa collectively known as the “BRICS,” amid rising concerns over the global economic outlook and a growing political divide between Beijing and New Delhi, Associated Press reported.

While no agenda has been issued for the talks, Ukraine is likely to feature heavily in the background. China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion while criticizing sanctions brought against Moscow. India has bought large amounts of Russian oil at a heavy discount, and South Africa abstained on a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s actions.

Along with Xi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are scheduled to join the two days of discussions.

China has sought to use the BRICS meetings to further its vision of an alliance to counter the US-led liberal democratic world order while expanding its economic and political footprint.

That has produced few tangible results, but Xi remains committed to the idea of an alternative — and principally authoritarian — global governance mode, investing heavily in countries like Cambodia while cracking down on civil rights in Hong Kong and boosting its military to assert its claims in the South China Sea and threats to annex Taiwan by force.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday is hosting a virtual summit with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa collectively known as the “BRICS,” amid rising concerns over the global economic outlook and a growing political divide between Beijing and New Delhi, according to Associated Press.

While no agenda has been issued for the talks, Ukraine is likely to feature heavily in the background. China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion while criticizing sanctions brought against Moscow. India has bought large amounts of Russian oil at a heavy discount, and South Africa abstained on a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s actions.

Along with Xi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are scheduled to join the two days of discussions.

China has sought to use the BRICS meetings to further its vision of an alliance to counter the U.S.-led liberal democratic world order while expanding its economic and political footprint.

That has produced few tangible results, but Xi remains committed to the idea of an alternative — and principally authoritarian — global governance mode, investing heavily in countries like Cambodia while cracking down on civil rights in Hong Kong and boosting its military to assert its claims in the South China Sea and threats to annex Taiwan by force, Associated Press reported.

As the World Health Organization convenes its emergency committee Thursday to consider if the spiraling outbreak of monkeypox warrants being declared a global emergency, some experts say WHO’s decision to act only after the disease spilled into the West could entrench the grotesque inequities that arose between rich and poor countries during the coronavirus pandemic, Associated Press reported.

Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency would mean the UN health agency considers the outbreak to be an “extraordinary event” and that the disease is at risk of spreading across even more borders. It would also give monkeypox the same distinction as the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.

Many scientists doubt any such declaration would help to curb the epidemic, since the developed countries recording the most recent cases are already moving quickly to shut it down.

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the recent monkeypox epidemic identified in more than 40 countries, mostly in Europe, as “unusual and concerning.” Monkeypox has sickened people for decades in central and west Africa, where one version of the disease kills up to 10% of people. In the epidemic beyond Africa so far, no deaths have been reported.

“If WHO was really worried about monkeypox spread, they could have convened their emergency committee years ago when it reemerged in Nigeria in 2017 and no one knew why we suddenly had hundreds of cases,” said Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who sits on several WHO advisory groups. “It is a bit curious that WHO only called their experts when the disease showed up in white countries,” he said, according to Associated Press.

Until last month, monkeypox had not caused sizeable outbreaks beyond Africa. Scientists haven’t found any major genetic changes in the virus and a leading adviser to WHO said last month the surge of cases in Europe was likely tied to sexual activity among gay and bisexual men at two raves in Spain and Belgium.

To date, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed more than 3,300 cases of monkeypox in 42 countries where the virus hasn’t been typically seen. More than 80% of cases are in Europe. Meanwhile, Africa has already seen more than 1,400 cases this year, including 62 deaths.

David Fidler, a senior fellow in global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said WHO’s newfound attention to monkeypox amid its spread beyond Africa could inadvertently worsen the divide between rich and poor countries seen during COVID-19.

“There may be legitimate reasons why WHO only raised the alarm when monkeypox spread to rich countries, but to poor countries, that looks like a double standard,” Fidler said. He said the global community was still struggling to ensure the world’s poor were vaccinated against the coronavirus and that it was unclear if Africans even wanted monkeypox vaccines, given competing priorities like malaria and HIV.

“Unless African governments specifically ask for vaccines, it might be a bit patronizing to send them because it’s in the West’s interest to stop monkeypox from being exported,” Fidler said, Associated Press reported.

WHO has also proposed creating a vaccine-sharing mechanism to help affected countries, which could see doses go to rich countries like Britain, which has the biggest monkeypox outbreak beyond Africa — and recently widened its use of vaccines.

The government has expressed grief over the loss of lives due to an earthquake in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

The quake is reported to have killed more than 1,000 people.

“Nepal is deeply saddened by tragic loss of lives due to devastating earthquake in Afghanistan. We extend deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish for speedy recovery of the injured. Nepali people stand in solidarity with people of Afghanistan at this difficult hour,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs twitted today.

The magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck south-east part of Afghanistan early on Wednesday about 44 km from the city of Khost and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.

Nepal reported 49 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 234 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 33 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 260 people underwent antigen tests, of which 16 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 12 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 163 active cases in the country.

The Ramayana Circuit train "named "Bharat Gaurav tourist train” of India carrying 500 Indian pilgrims arrived in Janakpurdham of Janakpur on Thursday.

The Indian train carrying religious tourists arrived in Nepal with an aim to strengthen the cultural ties between Nepal and India.

Chief Minister of Madhes Pradesh Lal Babu Raut, Tourism Minister Shatrudhan Mahato, people’s representatives and locals among others welcome the tourists at the Janakpur-based railway platform.

The train that started its journey to Janakpur from New Delhi via Ayodhya, Nandigram, Sitamarhi, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Panchvati (Nasik), Hampi, Rameshwaram and Bhadrachalam on Tuesday.

The two countries signed the Ramayan Circuit agreement during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Janakpur visit four years ago.