NC Gen Secy Sharma to contest election from Jhapa
Nepali Congress General Secretary Bishwo Prakash Sharma has announced to contest the upcoming election from his home district Jhapa. He is going to contest the election from Jhapa-1. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Sharma said he would contest the election from Jhapa. Rumors were doing rounds that he would contest the election from Kathmandu-5. In the election held in 2017, Sharma lost to Ram Karki of CPN (Maoist Center). Karki defeated Sharma by 2,863 votes. Former Information Minister Karki acquired 36,173 votes while Sharma received 33,310 votes. The government has decided to hold the federal and provincial elections on November 20.
Blasts hit Russian base in Crimea, Ukraine targets supply lines
Russia blamed sabotage for explosions at one of its military bases in Moscow-annexed Crimea while Kyiv hinted it was responsible as Ukrainian officials said their strategy was to destroy supply lines supporting Russia’s invasion, Reuters reported.
The blasts on Tuesday engulfed an ammunition depot at a military base in the north of the Crimean peninsula, disrupting trains and forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people from a nearby village, according to Russian officials and news agencies.
Plumes of smoke were later seen at a second Russian military base in central Crimea, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said. The action followed explosions at a Russian military air base in western Crimea last week that destroyed eight warplanes.
Russia’s defence ministry said Tuesday’s explosions at the ammunition depot were “a result of sabotage”. The Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, is the main supply route for Russian forces in southern Ukraine and the base for its Black Sea fleet.
Ukraine did not confirm or deny responsibility for the explosions though its officials openly cheered Russia’s setbacks there.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak and chief of staff Andriy Yermak both exulted on social media at “demilitarisation”, an apparent mocking reference to the word Russia uses to justify its invasion.
“Operation ‘demilitarisation’ in the precise style of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue until the complete de-occupation of Ukraine’s territories,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.
Podolyak told Britain’s Guardian newspaper later that Ukraine’s strategy was to destroy Russian “logistics, supply lines and ammunition depots and other objects of military infrastructure. It’s creating a chaos within their own forces.”
As Kyiv considers a potential counter-offensive in the south, the explosions raised the prospect of new dynamics in the six-month-old war if Ukraine now has capability to strike deeper in Russian-occupied territory or pro-Kyiv groups are having success with guerrilla-style attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to steer clear of Russian military bases and ammunition stores and said the explosions could have a number of causes, including incompetence, according to Reuters.
“But they all mean the same thing – the destruction of the occupiers’ logistics, their ammunition, military and other equipment, and command posts, saves the lives of our people,” he said in an evening address.
In Tuesday’s blasts, an electricity substation also caught fire, according to footage on Russian state TV. Seven trains were delayed and rail traffic on part of the line in northern Crimea had been suspended, Russia’s RIA news agency said, Reuters reported.
Liz Cheney: Trump arch-enemy ousted in Wyoming election
Voters in the US state of Wyoming have ousted congresswoman Liz Cheney, a rare Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, in a primary election, BBC reported.
She has been trounced by a relative political newcomer and Trump-backed candidate, Harriet Hageman.
Ms Cheney was one of only two members of her party to join the congressional committee investigating Mr Trump's attempts to cling to power.
The three-term congresswoman was once a rising Republican star.
All 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr Trump after his supporters attacked the US Capitol building in January last year have been targeted in a scorched-earth campaign of revenge.
So far, four have retired, and now four have been defeated by his chosen candidates in primary ballots in the states of Wyoming, Washington, Michigan and South Carolina.
The daughter of ex-Vice-President Dick Cheney, Ms Cheney was the last of the 10 to face the Trumpian assault.
Seventy per cent of voters in Wyoming cast their ballots for Mr Trump in 2020.
Opinion polls had consistently shown Ms Hageman - who has stated she believes that election was "rigged" - leading in Wyoming by a large margin.
With partial results in Tuesday night's vote count showing Ms Hageman ahead by more than 30 percentage points, most US networks called the race for her not long after polls closed.
In her concession speech, Ms Cheney made clear she would not let up in her criticism of Mr Trump, who has been hinting he may run for the White House again in 2024.
Ms Cheney said she could easily have won re-election if she had gone along with Mr Trump's false claims that he - not President Joe Biden - won the 2020 election, according to BBC.
"That was a path I could and would not take," she said.
Mr Trump congratulated Ms Hageman on her victory in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He also said: "Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others.
"Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now."
"Wyoming has put the elites on notice," she said. "We are no longer going to tolerate representatives who don't represent us."
Earlier, at the state's junior rodeo finals in the city of Casper, some voters told the BBC how they had soured on Ms Cheney.
The rodeo president, Chad Westbrook, said from beneath his 10-gallon hat: "When she goes against the masses, it doesn't work good for us.
"We really liked Dick Cheney, you know, but she's gone too far."
Ms Cheney's famous father, once a hate figure of the American left, now finds himself something of an anti-Trump fellow traveller.
In a campaign advert for his daughter, Dick Cheney had described Mr Trump as the biggest threat ever to the country.
Outside one polling booth, in a charming wooden schoolroom overshadowed by the stunning Teton Mountains, Democratic voters had answered Ms Cheney's call to switch their registration to Republican in order the lend her their support - itself a sign of how poorly she had rated her chances.
"I've never agreed with one thing Liz Cheney has ever said, but I respected how she fought for democracy," one such voter, a middle-aged woman, told me.
"I'm a Democrat and I came out and voted for Liz Cheney because she's standing up for truth and that's what we need in this country," another man of similar age agreed.
In the suburbs of the state capital of Cheyenne earlier, a group of Republicans were knocking on doors in a show of last-minute support for Ms Cheney - something they clearly accepted was an uphill battle, BBC reported.
Evan Wagner, who had driven 17 hours from Austin, Texas, said: "She's standing for principle, she's saying I don't care if I lose my job, I'm going to do the right thing."
But their efforts were in vain.
Wyoming primary elections do not normally attract much media attention.
Tuesday's vote is being seen as a test - not just for party but for country too - of how much the legacy of Donald Trump and his election denying narrative continue to loom over this landscape.
Public Debt Management Bill passed
A meeting of the House of Representatives today passed the 'Public Debt Management Bill, 2022' by a majority. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had presented a proposal in the meeting seeking passage of the bill. Prior to this, House of Representatives secretary Gopalnath Yogi informed the House about the letter sent by the Office of the President about returning the Citizenship Bill back to the Parliament for reconsideration. Similarly, the House was also informed of a letter regarding the allocation of portfolios received from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
