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Russian troops retreating from this northern Ukrainian city left behind crushed buildings, streets littered with destroyed cars and residents in dire need of food and other aid — images that added fuel to Kyiv’s calls Thursday for more Western help to halt Moscow’s next offensive, Associated Press reported.

Dozens of people lined up to receive bread, diapers and medicine from vans parked outside a shattered school now serving as an aid-distribution point in Chernihiv, which Russian forces besieged for weeks as part of their attempt to sweep south towards the capital before retreating.

The city’s streets are lined with shelled homes and apartment buildings with missing roofs or walls. A chalk message on the blackboard in one classroom still reads: “Wednesday the 23rd of February — class work.”

Russia invaded the next day, launching a war that has forced more than 4 million Ukrainians to flee the country, displaced millions more within it and sent shock waves through Europe and beyond.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned Thursday that despite a recent Russian pullback, the country remains vulnerable, and he pleaded for weapons from NATO to face down the coming offensive in the east. Nations from the alliance agreed to increase their supply of arms, spurred on by reports that Russian forces committed atrocities in areas surrounding the capital, according to the Associated Press.

Western allies also ramped up financial penalties aimed at Moscow, including a ban by the European Union on Russian coal importsand a US move to suspend normal trade relations with Russia.

Kuleba encouraged Western countries to continue bearing down on Russia, suggesting that any letup will result in more suffering for Ukrainians.

“How many Buchas have to take place for you to impose sanctions?” Kuleba asked reporters, referring to a town near Kyiv where Associated Press journalists counted dozens of bodies, some burned, others apparently shot at close range or with their hands bound. “How many children, women, men, have to die — innocent lives have to be lost — for you to understand that you cannot allow sanctions fatigue, as we cannot allow fighting fatigue?”

Ukrainian officials said earlier this week that the bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns around the capital city. Volunteers have spent days collecting the corpses, and more were picked up Thursday in Bucha.

Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said investigators have found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation. Most victims died from gunshots, not from shelling, he said, and corpses with their hands tied were “dumped like firewood” into recently discovered mass graves, including one at a children’s camp, Associated Press reported.

The mayor said the count of dead civilians stood at 320 as of Wednesday, but he expected the number to rise as more bodies are found in his city, which once had a population of 50,000. Only 3,700 now remain, he said.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that the horrors of Bucha could just be the beginning. In the northern city of Borodianka, just 30 kilometers northwest of Bucha, Zelenskyy warned of even more casualties, saying “there it is much scarier.”

The world should brace itself, he said, for what might soon be found in the seaport city of Mariupol, saying that on “on every street is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region after the departure of the Russian troops. The same cruelty. The same terrible crimes.”

He pledged that an international war crimes investigation already underway will identify “each of the executioners” and “all those who committed rape or looting.”

Ukrainian and several Western leaders have blamed the massacres on Moscow’s troops, and the weekly Der Spiegel reported Thursday that Germany’s foreign intelligence agency had intercepted radio messages between Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians. Russia has falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged, according to the Associated Press.

Kuleba became emotional while referring to the horrors in the town, telling reporters that they couldn’t understand “how it feels after seeing pictures from Bucha, talking to people who escaped, knowing that the person you know was raped four days in a row.”

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying his move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections was illegal and ordering that the house be restored, Associated Press reported.

The decision came after four days of hearings by the top court over the major political crisis. Khan will now face a no-confidence vote by lawmakers — the vote that he had tried to sidestep. The assembly will likely convene to vote on Saturday. 

The opposition has said it has 172 votes in the 340-seat house to oust Khan, after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner defected. 

On Sunday, the embattled Khan dissolved Parliament and set the stage for early elections after accusing the opposition of working with the United States to remove him from power. His opponents had garnered the 172 votes needed to oust him in the 342-seat house,

During the week, the five-member bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court heard arguments from Khan’s lawyers, the opposition and the country’s president before handing down the decision late on Thursday evening, after iftar, the meal that breaks the daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Khan said Washington wants him gone because of what he describes as his independent foreign policy, which often favors China and Russia. Khan has also been a strident critic of Washington’s war on terror and was criticized for a visit to Moscow on Feb. 24, hours after Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.

The US State Department has denied any involvement in Pakistan’s internal politics. After dissolving Parliament, Khan went on national TV to announce early elections.

“This is the unfortunate fact about Pakistani politics — the political issues, which should be settled in the parliament are instead brought to the Supreme Court to settle,” said analyst Zahid Hussain, who has authored several books on militancy in the region and Islamabad’s complicated relationship with Washington. 

“It is just a weakness of the system,” Hussain added.

Pakistan’s top court or its powerful military have consistently stepped in whenever turmoil engulfs a democratically elected government in Pakistan. The army has seized power and ruled for more than half of Pakistan’s 75-year history, Associated Press reported.

The military has remained quiet over the latest crisis although army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa told a security summit in Islamabad over the weekend that Pakistan wants good relations with China, a major investor, and also with the United States, the country’s largest export market.

The latest political chaos has spilled over into the country’s largest province of Punjab, where 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people live and where Khan’s ally for chief provincial minister was denied the post on Wednesday, after his political opposition voted in their own candidate, according to the Associated Press.

Grammy Award-winning songwriter Ed Sheeran won a UK copyright battle over his 2017 hit “Shape of You” on Wednesday, then slammed what he described as a “culture” of baseless lawsuits intended to squeeze money out of artists eager to avoid the expense of a trial, Associated Press reported.

The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had denied allegations that the song copied part of 2015′s “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.

“Whilst we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim,” Sheerhan said in a video posted on Twitter. “It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.”

Andrew Sutcliffe, the lawyer for the co-writers of “Oh Why,″ argued that there was an “indisputable similarity between the works.” He claimed that Sheeran had “Oh Why” in his head “consciously or unconsciously” when “Shape of You” was written in 2016, according to the Associated Press.

The plaintiffs alleged that the refrain “Oh I, Oh I, Oh I” in the chorus of “Shape Of You” was “strikingly similar” to the line “Oh why, Oh why, Oh why” in their track.

During the 11-day trial, Sheeran denied allegations that he “borrows” ideas from unknown songwriters without acknowledgement and said he has always been fair in crediting people who contribute to his albums.

In Wednesday’s ruling, High Court Judge Antony Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from “Oh Why″ when writing his smash hit.

Sheeran, McDaid and Mac said in a statement that the cost of the case was more than financial. The stress of going to trial also hurts creativity, means less time to make music and takes an emotional toll, they said, Associated Press reported.

“It is so painful to hear someone publicly and aggressively challenge your integrity,″ the trio said. “It is so painful to have to defend yourself against accusations that you have done something that you haven’t done, and would never do.″

“Shape of You” was the biggest-selling song in the U.K. in 2017, according to the Associated Press.

Query

“I’m a 36-year-old mother to a 13-year-old girl. I am worried about my daughter as she barely talks to anyone. At home she remains cloistered in her room, and her teacher says she is quiet at school too. I initially thought this was just a brooding teenage phase. But it has been going on for almost four months now. I took her to a counselor, to no avail. She has become extremely reticent and doesn’t trust anyone with her thoughts and feelings. I’ve tried talking to her, but it’s like hitting a brick wall. She won’t let anyone in. I’m afraid she is going through something terrible on the inside. How can I help her?” —A concerned mother 

Answer by Krishangi, Psychologist at Happy Minds  

As a 13-year-old girl, she must be going through a lot. You have to be able to create a space where she feels comfortable opening up and talking to you. Start by letting her know what specific depressive symptoms you have noticed and why they worry you, then ask if she is willing to share how she feels. Listen to her and don’t criticize, judge, or compare her situation with others. If she doesn’t open up, simply let her know that you are there for her and willing to support her. 

Don’t give up the first time she shuts you down. You have to be patient and persistent. Teenagers who are the same age as your daughter often have difficulty expressing and understanding their feelings. As a mother, you must constantly reassure her by being there for her. At the same time, you should make sure you are not overwhelming her.   

When she tries to open up or share even the smallest thing, take that as a win. Make sure you don’t disregard her feelings or concerns as irrational or illogical. Acknowledge her emotions and feelings to make her feel understood and supported. 

If she still doesn’t talk to you, reach out to someone (her cousins, friends, teachers, or anyone she seems to trust) whom she does talk or listen to. The important thing is that she talks to someone about her feelings. Also, reach out to her school and find out about her friend circle—if they are using certain comments or phrases that could be contributing to her behavior.  

The other thing you could do is spend at least 30 minutes with your daughter, doing things that she likes. You could even help with her daily homework.  

Try to get her involved in extracurricular activities she might be interested in, giving her a sense of purpose. Help her minimize screen time, and involve her in more face-to-face interactions. You could also encourage her to invite her friends over.  

Sometimes, as a parent, all you can do is let your children know that you are there to listen and offer them support. Your daughter needs to know that she is valued, accepted, cared for and loved. 

Toyota Motor (7203.T) unit Woven Planet has joined Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) in trying to advance self-driving technology without expensive sensors such as lidars, Reuters reported.

Woven Planet told Reuters it is able to use low-cost cameras to collect data and effectively train its self-driving system, a “breakthrough” that it hopes will help drive down costs and scale up the technology.

Gathering diverse driving data using a massive fleet of cars is critical to developing a robust self-driving car system, but it is costly and not scalable to test autonomous vehicles with expensive sensors, it said.

Tesla has been betting on cameras to collect data from over 1 million vehicles on the road to develop its automated driving technology, while Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Waymo and other self-driving car firms added expensive sensors like lidars to a small number of vehicles.

“We need a lot of data. And it’s not sufficient to just have a small amount of data that can be collected from a small fleet of very expensive autonomous vehicles,” Michael Benisch, vice president of Engineering at Woven Planet, said in an interview with Reuters.

“Rather, we’re trying to demonstrate that we can unlock the advantage that Toyota and a large automaker would have, which is access to a huge corpus of data, but with a much lower fidelity,” said Benisch, a former engineering director at Lyft’s (LYFT.O) self-driving division, which Toyota acquired last year, according to Reuters.

Woven Planet uses cameras that are 90% cheaper than sensors that it used before and can be easily installed in fleets of passenger cars.

It said using a majority of data coming from low-cost cameras increased its system’s performance to a level similar to when the system was trained exclusively on high-cost sensor data.

He said, however, Toyota would still use multiple sensors such as lidars and radars for robotaxis and other autonomous vehicles to be deployed on the road, as this currently seemed to be the best, safest approach to developing robotaxis.

“But in many, many years, it’s entirely possible that camera type technology can catch up and overtake some of the more advanced sensors,” he said.

“The question may be more about when and how long it will take to reach a level of safety and reliability. I don’t believe we know that yet.”

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said it can achieve full autonomy with cameras this year after missing his previous targets several times, Reuters reported.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the typhoid vaccination campaign amidst a function organised at the Durbar High School, Ranipokhari on Thursday. 

The vaccination campaign is to be rolled out throughout the country from tomorrow till May 1. The typhoid vaccination programme will also be included in the regular national immunization programme.

Under the programme children between the ages of one year three months to 15 years would be administered the vaccines against typhoid.  

On the occasion, Prime Minister Deuba expressed the confidence that like in controlling COVID-19 infection, the country will become successful in typhoid control programme as well. He said around 7.5 million children between the age of one year three months to 15 years would be administered the vaccines against typhoid as part of the campaign. 

PM Deuba urged the local bodies to work towards producing gas and electricity from waste by setting up waste treatment plants for the long-term solution of the problem related to waste management in the urban areas, including the capital.

“Energy has been generated by setting up waste treatment plants in several cities, including Dharan. Vehicles have been run by using this gas generated from these plants. The government will also provide the necessary support if the local levels adopt such technology that can be possible through own investment,” he suggested. 

The Prime Minister called for paying attention to waste management as the problem of unmanaged waste will spoil the environment and the beauty of the city as well as increase the risk of several types of infections. 

Minister for Health and Population Birodh Khatiwada said Nepal has achieved exemplary success in the whole world in the prevention and control of COVID-19 infection and it was the first country to launch the typhoid vaccination campaign in the whole of South Asia. 

Stating that so far 16 various types of vaccines have been produced in the world so far and only a few countries have been able to avail many of these vaccines, the Health Minister said Nepal has used 13 types of these vaccines. 

Bagmati Province Health Minister Neema Lama expressed commitment to make the typhoid vaccination campaign a success. He said the Bagmati province had attained the first success in the COVID-19 vaccination programme. 

Dr Ramparth Bichha, health advisor to PM Deuba, expressed his confidence that the vaccine against typhoid brought into use after 10 years of research would be highly effective.

Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population Dr Rajesh Kharel said that the anti-typhoid vaccine was free, safe and effective. According to him, it would be provided to children from 15 months to 15 years and appealed to all the sides concerned for their cooperation for the same. 

Kathmandu Metropolitan City mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya informed that around 600 vaccination centres were designated in the Kathmandu district including in schools to make sure no children are deprived of the vaccine. 

Efforts were also coordinated with the local level and women community health volunteers to make the vaccination campaign a success, according to him.

On a different note, the mayor urged the government for necessary coordination as he shared that the garbage in Kathmandu was not picked up for some days. 

Present at the event were representatives from the World Health Organization, and UNICEF among others. 

The national vaccination campaign is considered the first priority of the government and it has been a successful public health programme. Effective implementation of regular vaccination campaigns is expected to significantly reduce the cases of childhood illness, disability, and infant and child mortality among others.

Nepal is still at high risk of typhoid which is highly contagious. It has been one of the top five reasons for hospitalization in Nepal. The vaccine against typhoid will be provided to children from 15 months to 15 years during this campaign and later will be provided regularly for children of 15 months, it was shared. RSS

Nepal reported seven new Covid-19 cases on Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 819 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which seven returned positive. Likewise, 1, 449 people underwent antigen tests, of which no one were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 25 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 747 active cases in the country.

Among them, 717 are in home isolation and 30 are in institutionalized isolation.

Of the infected persons, 11 are in Intensive Care Units and one is on ventilator.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 35.66 points to close at 2,464.31 points on Thursday.

Similarly, the sensitive index plunged by 8.13 points to close at 463. 73 points.

Meanwhile, a total of 5,444,738 unit shares of 224 companies were traded for Rs 2. 12 billion.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw green. Life Insurance topped the chart with 258. 56 points.

Meanwhile, Himalayan Power Partner Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Rastra Utthan Laghubitta  Sanstha Limited was the top loser as its price fell by 7.71 percent.