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The Election Commission has endorsed the election calendar for the parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for November 20.

According to the election calendar, filing of nominations for both federal and provincial elections under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category will take place on October 9.

The poll body approved the calendar for the internal purposes to prepare and organize the elections.

Political parties registered at the Election Commission till August 4, 2022 to take part in the direct and proportional elections have been asked to register the parties from August 7 to 16.

As per the election calendar, elections officers will be appointed on September 27, offices will be established on October 7, printing of ballot papers will start from October 14, transportation of election materials will start from November 2, silence period will start from November 17 and voting will start at 7 in the morning till 5 in the evening on November 20.

Chief election officers’ offices and election officers’ offices will be established in 77 districts and in 88 places respectively to conduct elections for 165 House of Representatives (HoR) seats and 330 Provincial Assembly seats.

Similarly, the offices for the election under the Proportional Representation category will be established on August 15.

The Election Commission has decided to start printing ballot papers for the election under the Proportional Representation category from September 5 and to present a closed list on September 18-19.

The Commission, however, is yet to officially publish the schedule.

The election body will also issue a notice about the elections in the Nepal Gazette also.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Khadka is leaving for China today.

Minister Khadka is visiting China at the invitation of State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi.

During his stay, he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the delegation in Qingdao on August 10.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to host a banquet in honor of Foreign Minister Khadka.

Minister Khadka will return home on 11 August.

Russia has told the US it has "temporarily" suspended on-site inspections of its strategic nuclear weapons, under an arms control treaty known as New START, BBC reported.

The Russian foreign ministry said the US was seeking advantages and had deprived Russia of the right to carry out inspections on US territory.

It said US sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine had changed conditions between the countries.

The treaty came into force in 2011.

It is the last remaining arms reduction agreement between the former Cold War rivals. It caps at 1,550 the number of long-range nuclear warheads that each country can deploy.

The ministry said the suspension was allowed under the treaty terms "in exceptional circumstances".

The suspension comes a week after US President Joe Biden said he was ready to work on a new nuclear arms deal with President Vladimir Putin. The current one will expire in 2026.

The ministry accused the US of ignoring "existing realities" such as "the suspension of normal" air links.

New START followed years of arms reduction talks between the US and former USSR, aimed at preventing nuclear war, according to BBC.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February sparked hostile rhetoric on both sides, including warnings that the conflict could escalate into a third world war. 

Some commentators on Russian state media have boasted about Moscow's nuclear arsenal in the context of current tensions with Nato, BBC reported.

The Biden administration said Monday it was shipping its biggest yet direct delivery of weapons to Ukraine as that country prepares for a potentially decisive counteroffensive in the south against Russia, sending $1 billion in rockets, ammunition and other material to Ukraine from Defense Department stockpiles, Associated Press reported.

The new US arms shipment would further strengthen Ukraine as it mounts the counteroffensive, which analysts say for the first time could allow Kyiv to shape the course of the rest of the war, now at the half-year mark.

Kyiv aims to push Russian troops back out of Kherson and other southern territory near the Dnipro River. Russia in recent days was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to stave off the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“At every stage of this conflict, we have been focused on getting the Ukrainians what they need, depending on the evolving conditions on the battlefield,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said Monday in announcing the new weapons shipment.

The new US aid includes additional rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as well as thousands of artillery rounds, mortar systems, Javelins and other ammunition and equipment. Military commanders and other US officials say the HIMARS and artillery systems have been crucial in Ukraine’s fight to block Russia from taking more ground.

While the US has already provided 16 HIMARS to Ukraine, Kahl said the new package does not include additional ones.

“These are not systems that we assess you need in the hundreds to have the type of effects” needed, Kahl said. “These are precision-guided systems for very particular types of targets and the Ukrainians are using them as such.”

He declined to say how many of the precision-guided missile systems for the HIMARS were included in Monday’s announcement, but said the US has provided “multiple hundreds” of them in recent weeks.

The latest announcement brings the total U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine by the Biden administration to more than $9 billion. 

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States for the package, and said “100% of it we will use to protect freedom, our common freedom.”

Until now, the largest single security assistance package announcement was for $1 billion on June 15. But that aid included $350 million in presidential drawdown authority, and another $650 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides funding for training, equipment and other security needs that can be bought from other countries or companies, according to Associated Press.

Monday’s package allows the US to deliver weapons systems and other equipment more quickly since it takes them off the Defense Department shelves. 

In addition to the rockets for the HIMARS, it includes 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery, 20 mortar systems and 20,000 rounds for them, 1,000 shoulder-mounted Javelin rockets, and other arms, explosives and medical equipment.

For the last four months of the war, Russia has concentrated on capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled some territory as self-proclaimed republics for eight years. Russian forces have made gradual headway in the region while launching missile and rocket attacks to curtail the movements of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere.

Kahl estimated that Russian forces have sustained up to 80,000 deaths and injuries in the fighting, though he did not break down the figure with an estimate of forces killed. 

He said the Russian troops have managed to gain “incremental” ground in eastern Ukraine, although not in recent weeks. “But that has come at extraordinary cost to the Russian military because of how well the Ukrainian military has performed and all the assistance that the Ukrainian military has gotten. And I think now, conditions in the east have essentially stabilized and the focus is really shifting to the south.”

The new funding is being paid for through $40 billion in economic and security aid for Ukraine approved by Congress in May.

This is the 18th time the Pentagon has provided equipment from Defense Department stocks to Ukraine since August 2021.

The US and allies still are evaluating whether to supply aircraft to Ukraine, Kahl said. It’s “not inconceivable that western aircraft down the road could be part of the mix,” he said, Associated Press reported.