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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Bishnu Prasad Paudel has said that the Bill Related to Banks and Financial Institutions (First Amendment), 2080 and the Bill Related to Securities (First Amendment), 2081 should be endorsed from the Parliament at the earliest.

Speaking at the meeting of the Finance Committee under the House of Representatives, he urged the Finance Committee to conclude deliberations on the two bills at the earliest and forward them to the House of Representatives for the discussion.

"I hope that the discussion on the bill related to banks and financial institutions and securities along with the customs bill will be completed soon and the Committee's report on these bills will reach the House of Representatives by mid-April," he said.

The finance minister said that the effectiveness of the committee and the House has been criticized even from the people's level for the sluggishness in law-making.

"There have been criticisms that the law-making process has slowed down. The government's attention has been drawn to this. Considering the national needs, the law making process should be expedited in the case of priority ones," said Finance Minister Paudel.

Today's meeting of the Finance Committee discussed the amendments made to the 'Bill to Amend and Integrate Customs Related Laws, 2080 BS'.

Lawmakers have proposed amendments seeking to streamline the customs administration for trade facilitation, to remove procedural hassles during customs clearance, to cut the discretionary powers of the employees, and to prepare adequate infrastructure for quarantine and quality testing of goods.

The government has brought this bill citing it is necessary to amend the Customs Act to make the customs clearance process more technology-friendly and easy, and to render it compatible with the Kyoto Convention, to which Nepal is a state party.

Similarly, the government has brought this bill stating that the provisions related to customs should be addressed through the Customs Act and rules for trade facilitation.

President Ram Chandra Paudel has said attention should be paid to ensure general people's equal access to health services as well as to increase quality of health services.

Addressing a program organized by Nepal Medical Association today, President Paudel shared that the nation, as per sentiments and aspirations of the Constitution, has put in investment in producing skilled and specialist doctors.

"I believe that doctors will take their profession from the viewpoint of service internalising the sentiments and aspirations of the Constitution," he mentioned. 

The President clarified that the federal democratic republic Constitution, gained from the struggle and sacrifice of the Nepali people, has guaranteed people's basic rights to health and education.

He shared that people from remote areas are still deprived of appropriate health services, stressing the need of providing health services of skilled doctors taking such situations seriously.

"Today on this special occasion, I request one and all to contribute in overall development of the health sector from respective areas," President Paudel mentioned, arguing producing skilled and specialist doctors in the country is the matter of happiness for all of us.

The President expressed the belief that the role of NMA would be further effective to achieve remarkable improvement in the health sector and ensure quality health services.

On the occasion, President Paudel honoured Dr Gauri Shankar Lal Das, Dr Mrigendra Raj Pandey, Dr Dinesh Nath Gangol, Dr DB Karki and Dr Saraswoti Padhya with 'Legend in Medicine' award.

The UK's data protection watchdog on Monday announced investigations into three social media networks, including TikTok and Reddit, over their use of children's personal data.

Growing concerns that young people could be sent inappropriate or harmful content from social media apps prompted the probes, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said in a statement.

"The responsibility to keep children safe online lies firmly at the door of the companies offering these services and my office is steadfast in its commitment to hold them to account," said Information Commissioner John Edwards.

The ICO will look into how Chinese-owned TikTok uses the personal information of 13-to-17-year-olds to make recommendations and deliver content to their social media feeds.

Online forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur are under investigation over their age assurance measures as well as personal information use.

"We're deeply committed to ensuring a positive experience for young people on TikTok," a company spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

TikTok has "comprehensive measures that protect the privacy and safety of teens, including industry-leading safety features and robust restrictions on the content allowed in teens' feeds", the firm added.

The other two platforms had yet to respond.

In 2023, the ICO fined popular video-sharing app TikTok several million pounds for failing to obtain consent of parents or guardians to use children's data, after they had set up accounts despite being too young. AFP 

President Donald Trump is ordering a pause on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine after his heated Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, a White House official told CNN Monday, CNN reported.

The halt in aid, which came after Trump held a series of meetings with top national security officials at the White House, could have dire effect on Ukraine’s war-fighting abilities, officials and analysts said. It will remain in place until Trump determines Zelensky has made a commitment to seeking peace talks, one official said, essentially forcing Ukraine to a negotiating table by threatening further losses on the battlefield.

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” the White House official said.

After more than a week of open hostility between Washington and Kyiv, Monday’s pause was the most material sign of how far the relationship has deteriorated since Trump took office.

In recent weeks, Trump has echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points, falsely claiming Ukraine started the war and accusing Zelensky of being a dictator, but his decision to halt the delivery of military aid is a move that could have real consequences for the balance of the conflict and strengthen Putin’s hand.

The pause will apply to all military equipment not yet inside Ukraine, officials said, and amounts to a direct response to what Trump views as Zelensky’s bad behavior last week.

Ukraine could likely sustain its current fighting pace for several weeks — perhaps until the start of the summer — before a US pause would begin to have a major effect, Western officials said in the wake of the decision. The Biden administration rushed shipments of weapons to Ukraine in its waning days, providing the country with large stockpiles of advanced weapons, according to CNN.

It is those sophisticated weapons — including the long-range ATACMS missiles — that have allowed Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory, a strategy that could suffer if those weapons remain paused.

While European nations may be able to replace US shipments of artillery, supplemented by Ukraine’s own growing defense industry, the most advanced weapons used by Kyiv come from the United States.

Impact could be ‘crippling’

“The impact is going to be big. I would call it crippling,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has closely followed the war.

Cancian estimated that Ukraine would feel the impacts of the pause in aid within two to four months, as aid from European countries helps Kyiv remain in the fight for now. “That’s why they don’t fall off a cliff, but when your supplies get cut in half, eventually that shows up on the front lines,” Cancian said. “Their front lines would continue to buckle and eventually they would break and Ukraine would have to accept an adverse – even catastrophic – peace settlement.”

But Cancian warned the Trump administration has more forms of aid to Ukraine that can be paused or canceled altogether, including intelligence sharing and the training of Ukrainian forces. “There might be a way out of this, but it’s going to be extremely humiliating for Zelensky,” Cancian said.

The White House made the decision to pause military aid to Ukraine for now as officials seek an acknowledgement from Zelensky about the breakdown in relations following Friday’s blowup in the Oval Office.

According to several officials, Trump and his senior aides are seeking an acknowledgement from Zelensky – potentially in the form of a public apology – before moving ahead with a deal on Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, which had been close to agreement before Friday’s meeting, or a discussion on continuing foreign aid. The decision to halt the aid was made later on Monday, one person said, and is part of a pressure strategy on Ukraine, CNN reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly called for Zelensky to apologize for Friday in an interview on CNN.

The halt puts Trump even more clearly at odds with the United States’ traditional European allies like Britain and France, who made clear their support for Zelensky at a summit in London on Sunday.

“There is a capability gap that Europe cannot fill alone,” one US official said.

A European official called the Trump administration’s decision to pause military aid to Ukraine “petty and wrong.”

The official said it will immediately deepen distrust in the US government among the Ukrainian people. The official also predicted it will cause unnecessary civilian casualties, as Ukraine will not be able to defend against Russian air attacks after they run out of air defense missiles.