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Three promising Under-19 cricketers from Nepal Naren Bhatta, Sahil Patel, and Puja Mahato are to undergo a month-long professional training program at the LB Shastri Cricket Shaala in Bhopal, India from July 15 to August 14 as part of the Ambassador’s Cricket Fellowship for Nepali Youth announced by the Indian Embassy, Kathmandu.

The initiative aims to support the development of young Nepali cricket talent while strengthening people-to-people ties between India and Nepal through a shared passion for cricket. 

This professional exposure is expected to significantly enhance the players’ skills and contribute to Nepal's cricketing aspirations, reads a statement issued by the Indian Embassy, Kathmandu.

Indian Ambassador to  Nepal Naveen Srivastava met and interacted with the players in the presence of President of the Cricket Association of Nepal Chatur Bahadur Chand, today and conveyed best wishes for their training programme, according to the statement.

The interaction underscored the importance of sports cooperation in fostering deeper people to people ties between India and Nepal.

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has issued the monetary policy for the upcoming fiscal year 2082/83 (2025-26).

Unveiling the monetary policy, the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Biswo Nath Poudel, stated that a flexible policy has been adopted cautiously.

The monetary policy mentions approving and implementing the second financial sector strategy.

The bank rate, which serves as the upper limit of the interest rate corridor, has been set at six per cent, and the policy rate at four and a half per cent. Previously, the bank rate was 6.5 per cent and the policy rate was 5 per cent.

According to the monetary policy, the limit for loans issued for the construction and purchase of private residential houses has been increased from Rs 20 million to Rs 30 million. 

When constructing or purchasing the first house, a loan-to-value ratio of up to 80 per cent can be maintained, while for others, a maximum of 70 per cent can be established.

The limit for personal share collateral loans has been increased from Rs 150 million to Rs 250 million.The limit for the amount Nepalese traveling abroad can carry has been increased from two thousand five hundred US dollars to three thousand US dollars.

The monetary policy has set a target to increase the private sector loan disbursement by 12 per cent in the upcoming fiscal year.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli cautioned that human existence could be at risk if the population growth does not take place equally alongside development and prosperity.

He said so at a program organized by the Ministry of Health and Population today to mark the World Population Day-2025 and to introduce the National Population Policy-2082 BS.

Emphasizing the need for development to align with population growth/demographic dividend, Oli stated that everyone should view childbearing as a responsibility towards the Earth.

"Every country has a meaning because of humans. As humans, we give meaning to the earth as well. If there were no population, there would not be a country either," the PM asserted, calling for suitable policies and timely action to protect the prosperous existence of the human race. 

He argued that the human race is the most valuable source for creation and thus urged people to stop killing people for personal gain. 

Hitting out at irony, he said, "Holding seminars on population while continuing to kill people by making weapons of mass destruction will endanger the existence of humankind."

Canadian singer Justin Bieber has surprised fans by releasing a new album titled Swag, BBC reported.

The record features 20 songs with track names including Dadz Love, Devotion and Therapy Session and follows online concern for the singer's mental health after a confrontation with paparazzi.

Promotional pictures shared by the singer feature his wife, Hailey Bieber, and their son - at points being held over his head.

Fellow artists and fans have reacted with glee to the new music, which comes four years after Bieber's last album, Purpose, according to BBC.

Top South Korean, U.S. and Japanese military officers urged North Korea to cease all unlawful activities that threaten regional security, as the three nations flew advanced warplanes for a joint exercise in a show of force against the North, Associated Press reported.

The development came Friday as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was to travel to North Korea amid booming military and other cooperation between the two countries that have raised concerns among their neighbors. 

During their regular meeting in Seoul on Friday, the chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan discussed North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and Russia’s potential transfer of military technology to North Korea in return, according to Associated Press.

“They urged the DPRK to immediately cease all unlawful activities to destabilize the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific, and beyond, and pledged to continue working together to respond to the DPRK’s threats,” the three top military officers said in a joint statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is wrapping his up his second and final day at a Southeast Asian security conference with a high-stakes meeting with his Chinese counterpart as tensions grow between Washington and Beijing over issues from trade to security and China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, Associated Press reported.

After discussions with regional countries at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum in Malaysia, Rubio on Friday was close out his first official trip to Asia in his first face-to-face talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the State Department said.

The meeting comes less than 24 hours after Rubio met in Kuala Lumpur with another rival, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during which they discussed potential new avenues to jumpstart Ukraine peace talks. 

The meetings come against a backdrop of global and regional unease over U.S. policies, notably on trade and large tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose on friend and foe alike, according to Associated Press.

 Israel believes deeply buried stocks of enriched uranium at one Iranian nuclear facility hit by the U.S. military are potentially retrievable, a senior Israeli official said, Associated Press reported.

And the agency that built the U.S. “bunker buster” bombs dropped on two other nuclear sites said Thursday that it is still waiting for data to be able to determine if those munitions reached their targets.

Both developments widen the views on the damage from last month’s strikes, when the United States inserted itself in Israel’s war in a bid to eliminate the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. Iran says its program is peaceful. 

President Donald Trump is adamant that the U.S. strikes “obliterated” the three Iranian nuclear facilities it targeted. International assessments and an initial U.S. intelligence assessment have been more measured, with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency saying in a preliminary report that the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not destroy them, according to Associated Press.

Russian authorities have confiscated assets worth some $50 billion over the past three years, underscoring the scale of the transformation into a "fortress Russia" economic model during the war in Ukraine, research showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The conflict has been accompanied by a significant transfer of assets as many Western companies fled the Russian market, others' assets were expropriated and the assets of some major Russian businesses were seized by the state.

In response to what Russia called illegal actions by the West, President Vladimir Putin signed decrees over the past three years allowing the seizure of Western assets, entangling firms ranging from Germany's Uniper to Danish brewer Carlsberg.

Besides the Western assets, major domestic companies have changed hands on the basis of different legal mechanisms including the need for strategic resources, corruption claims, alleged privatisation violations, or poor management, according to Reuters.