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The country at present is under the influence of a western low-pressure system, local winds, and a low-pressure area in the lower atmosphere, the Weather Forecasting Division of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology stated.

Currently, the weather is generally cloudy in Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces, and the Himalayan and hilly regions. 

Some parts of Koshi, Bagmati, Lumbini and Gandaki Provinces are receiving moderate rain.  

The weather will remain generally cloudy across Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces as well as in the hilly and Himalayan regions of the country today, the Division said. 

According to the Division, there is a possibility of moderate rainfall accompanied by thunder and lightning at some places in Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces, as well as in one or two places of the Tarai regions of Madesh, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces during the afternoon. 

Later tonight, Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces, as well as the Himalayan and hilly regions of the country, will be generally cloudy, while the remaining regions will be partly cloudy. 

There is a possibility of moderate rain with thunder and lightning at a few places in Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces, and at one or two places in the Himalayan and hilly regions of the remaining provinces.

Vehicular movement along the Kavre-Sindhuli section of the BP Highway and the Hilsa-Simkot road section in Humla district have been closed, citing possible threats of flooding and ongoing road construction works.

Issuing a notice this morning, Police Headquarters said that traffic has been closed along the Khurkot-Nepalthok-Katunjebensi road section of the BP Highway, citing the risks of flooding. 

The traffic along the route has been totally closed from 5 in the evening to 5 in the morning since last week.

Likewise, the Hilsa-Simkot road is closed due to the construction works at the Chyaduk area in Namkha Rural Municipality-2, Humla.

Police stated that the road there is closed until May 16, citing risks of landslides during construction works from Chyaduk to Chyachhara in Namkha.

Cuba has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the country's energy and mines minister said ​on Wednesday, as the capital Havana faces its worst rolling blackouts in decades amid a U.S. blockade that has strangled the island of fuel, Reuters reported. 

"We have absolutely no fuel (oil), and absolutely no diesel," Energy Minister Vicente de la O said on state-run media, adding that ​the national grid was in a "critical" state. "We have no reserves."

Beijing is "very disappointed" with plans in Europe to restrict investment from China, Chinese diplomat Qu Xun told a conference ​in Madrid on Wednesday, warning that such measures would push China to "close its door" to Europe, Reuters reported. 

In unusually candid public remarks for a Chinese official, Qu, the commercial representative at China's embassy in Spain, said the "controls, limitations, and sanctions ​by Europe towards China in the past three months make us ​very disappointed."

"Such measures push us into corners, to react and ⁠close the door. It changes the Chinese mentality," he said, speaking ​on a panel at an event at Madrid's IESE Business School, adding that ​China had always viewed Europe as a region with an "open mind".

The U.S. and China are expected to inch toward a managed trade mechanism for non-sensitive goods this week, with each side possibly identifying some $30 billion worth of goods on ​which they could reduce tariffs and sell to each other without crossing national security red lines, Reuters reported. 

The so-called "Board of Trade" was first broached by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in March as a key "deliverable" agreement for this week's high-stakes summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The contours of the plan remain sketchy, but a key shift from past dialogues is clear: Washington is no longer demanding that Beijing change its state-directed, export-driven economic model to become more like the U.S. consumer-driven, market-oriented model.

The Philippine Senate was locked down with military personnel seen entering the building where a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had sought refuge, BBC reported. 

Rounds of gunfire were heard but officials have not revealed who fired the shots. They said there were no casualties.

Senator Ronald Dela Rosa said earlier he believed his arrest was imminent and urged Filipinos to prevent it. He is safe and with security personnel, officials said.

The government has reduced the number of federal ministries to 18 in order to maintain administrative reforms and austerity, reduce unnecessary recurrent expenses and boost up performance. 

A meeting of the Council of Ministers today decided to lower the number of ministries from existing 22 to 18 by approving the 'Nepal Government (Work Division) Regulations, 2083'. 

According to Prime Minister Balendra Shah's Press and Research Adviser Deepa Dahal, the government has retained the Ministry of Finance, Home, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation have also remained unchanged as per the decision. 

Prioritizing technology and innovation, the government has separated science and technology from the erstwhile Ministry of Education and established a new 'Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation' to handle newly added innovation-related tasks. 

In the reorganization of other ministries, extensive adjustments have been made, merging ministries with similar functions, it is shared. 

With this, there will now be the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Youth, Labor, and Employment, and Ministry of Land, Cooperative, and Human Resources. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Women, Children, Gender, and Sexual Minorities and Social Security, Ministry of Health and Food Security, Ministry of Infrastructure Development, and Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, and Environment have come into existence. 

The information technology-related tasks, previously carried out by the former Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, are now merged into the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. 

Immediately after the formation of the new government, a plan to review the number of ministries for administrative reform and cost-cutting was put forward under the '100-Point Agenda for Government Reform.' 

To implement the plan, the division of work, renaming, and merging of ministries were carried out based on the report submitted by the 'Restructuring Management Secretariat,' chaired by Secretary Govinda Bahadur Karki, adviser Dahal informed. 

The move has been taken to solve the problem of excessive operational costs due to having more ministries than necessary and to make the state machinery more efficient.

Even the third meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) held on Wednesday failed to enter the regular business owing to obstruction by the opposition parties. It prompted the Speaker to postpone the meeting till Thursday.

The opposition parties demanded the presence of Prime Minister Balendra Shah in the Parliament and sought the Speaker's ruling for it. Although the Parliament meetings were held multiple times, it could not enter the regular business. 

The next meeting is scheduled for 11 am Thursday.

The HoR meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to hold a discussion on the government's policies and programs which was read out by President Ram Chandra Paudel on Monday.