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President Joe Biden has said the US should ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines to tackle the "carnage" of gun violence, BBC reported.

In a primetime speech to the nation from the White House, Mr Biden said too many everyday places in America had become "killing fields".

He said if Congress cannot outlaw such weapons, it should seek to raise the age to buy them from 18 to 21.

Mr Biden spoke after a string of mass shootings in the country.

In remarks from the White House, he also called for expanding federal background checks and nationwide red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to remove weapons from anyone deemed dangerous.

But the prospects for Congress passing any gun control measures look uncertain, and the US Supreme Court could instead be poised to expand Americans' gun rights in a landmark case that justices are considering.

"This is not about taking away anyone's guns," said Mr Biden.

"This isn't about taking away anyone's rights," he added. "It's about protecting children."

"Why in God's name should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines, that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes?" the Democratic president continued, according to BBC.

Mr Biden touted a 1994 ban on assault-style weapons that he was instrumental in passing. It lapsed after 10 years, and debate has raged ever since over whether it was effective in reducing gun violence.

His remarks come in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Even as he prepared to speak on Thursday, multiple people were shot in an attack at a cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin.

Private gun ownership is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

The extent of congressional gridlock on the issue was underscored earlier in the day during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held an emergency session to debate new gun control proposals. 

Congressman Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, joined the hearing from his home via Zoom, BBC reported.

He displayed several handguns from his personal collection that he said would be banned if the legislation was passed. 

A Democrat from Texas interjected to say: "I hope the gun is not loaded." 

Mr Steube replied: "I'm at my house. I can do whatever I want with my guns."

Louisiana Republican Louie Gohmert said Democrats "accuse Republicans of being complicit in murder".

"How dare you. You think we don't have hearts?" he added.

The Democratic-led Protecting Our Kids Act combines eight different gun control bills, and includes many of the proposals Mr Biden spoke of on Thursday.

The bill may pass the House next week, but is not expected to clear the Senate.

One possible area of bipartisan agreement on a modest gun control measure may be expanded red flag flaws. Senators from both parties met on Thursday for the second time to discuss that idea,according to BBC.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court is deliberating on one of the nation's most restrictive gun laws, in New York, that places tight restrictions on who can carry a gun in public.

If the justices strike down the law, as their comments in a November hearing suggested might happen, state-level bans across the nation on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines could end up being overturned.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 233 mass shootings so far this year. It defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter, BBC reported.

The government is to spend Rs 9 billion through Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) in the next fiscal year 2022/23.

According to the Finance Ministry, the government has allocated Rs 9. 27 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project in the next fiscal year.

The project has got a budget of Rs 4. 29 billion in the current fiscal year.

The MCC was endorsed by the Parliament this year.

Out of the budget set for the year, Rs 8. 91 will be a US grant.

According to the Ministry, Rs 365.6 will be recovered from the sources of the Nepal government.

The money of this project will be spent for capital purposes. 
 

The May 13 local elections were a bit of an upset for the CPN-UML, relegating the party to a distant second spot behind the ruling Nepali Congress (NC). It took an electoral alliance of five parties—Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, and Rastriya Janamorcha Party—to cut the UML down to size. 

Nepali Congress won 329 (43.8 percent) local unit chief seats (chairperson/mayor) while UML had to contend with 205 seats (27.3 percent). The Maoist Center came out third with 121 seats (16.1 percent).  

The UML, which had won 294 top seats in the 2017 elections, lost 89 seats. This defeat largely owed to a split in the party—with the Madhav Nepal faction forming the Unified Socialist in August 2021—and the five-party electoral alliance.   

Though the Congress has won most number of local unit chief seats, the UML still got the highest number of combined votes cast for seven different posts (mayor/chairperson, deputy mayor/ vice-chairperson, ward chairperson, women member, Dalit women member, and two open members). A total of 75.8m votes were cast for all seven posts, and the UML garnered 25.8m of them. This was 34.13 percent of the total votes. 

This number could vary as the Election Commission has not published the detailed data of Triyuga Municipality, Udayapur district, while a re-election was also held in Budiganga Municipality, Bajura district.

The UML had received 21.4m votes in all the seven posts in the 2017 election. The total number of voters this time was 3.66m more than in the previous election. 

Overall, the NC received 847,994 fewer votes than the UML this time. 

The Congress candidate for all the seven posts got 25m (33 percent) of the total votes. The party had received 28.74m votes in 2017.

The Maoist party increased its seat numbers this time, but their vote count fell by 1.8m. The party received 10.1m (13.65 percent) of the total votes this time. 

According to the Election Commission, out of 17.7m voters, 12.1m (68.7 percent) cast their votes this time, of which about 1.3m votes were invalid.

The results were expected

Meena Poudel
Political analyst

It was obvious that the Nepali Congress would do better in this election, and nobody has gained more from the coalition than Congress. The split of the then Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and the CPN-UML also helped.

The split in the UML and the party’s poor leadership at the local level in its previous tenure also contributed to the loss.

Also, the gung-ho attitude of UML Chairman KP Oli also cost the party many neutral voters. 

But remember that the organizational strength of the UML remains formidable, as was indicated by the party getting more votes than any of the other parties.

As for the Maoist Center, the five-party coalition, as well as Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s role in national politics, won the party a few extra seats. 

When the previous government led by the UML’s Oli dissolved the House of Representatives, Dahal played a cooperative role in protecting democracy. 

This narrative has also helped the Maoist party. Whether we like him or not, he has been a kingmaker.

There is an easy way to irk a Kathmandu-based American diplomat. Just ask: “Does the US see Nepal through Indian eyes?” In response, you will perhaps get an exaggerated eye-roll, soon followed by a reply along the lines of: “Surely, after seventy-five years of engagement, you know better than to ask that!” Well, that old question may never go away. But perhaps time has come to tweak the question, and inquire: “Does India see Nepal through American eyes?”

The Americans appear to have sold India’s strategic community on the usefulness of its China-controlling Indo-Pacific Strategy. South Block mandarins and think tank-wallahs in New Delhi are increasingly comfortable with greater American sway in Nepal. That is the only way to check China’s alarming rise of influence in the Himalayan state, they reckon, something India cannot do on its own. As Ashok K. Mehta, an old Delhi-based Nepal watcher, puts it: “The US may be promoting its own interests in this region, but those are not very different to India’s own interests,” he says. More than anything else, “India wants to keep China at a safe distance, especially in Nepal.” 

India has of late taken a low-key approach in Nepal, in sharp contrast to the earlier times when it was actively meddling in the country’s domestic affairs. Now it seems happy to watch the growing US-China tussles in Kathmandu from the sidelines. In doing so, India keeps its hands (and reputation) clean while also knowing that should the American engagement in Nepal get too close for comfort, it can always jump right back into the old game.

Full story here.