Submit your Article

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that working class people and revolutionary forces are finding it hard to secure their positions in public posts due to the existing electoral system.

He said that it has been challenging to win the elections for a section of people as the existing electoral system has turned extravagant.

Referring to a report that the local rural municipality chairman spent Rs 100 million to win the election, he said, "It may cost billions of rupees to win the federal election."

In his address to a program organized at the party central office in Parisdanda today on the memorial day of founding leader of Communist Party of Nepal Nara Bahadur Karmacharya, the former Prime Minister said that corruption is being institutionalized because of the existing electoral system and the form of the governance.

"Though the Constitution has institutionalized the federal democratic republic, some forces are intending to weaken it and stand against it," he said.

He said money power and the use of unethical tricks are being dominant in the elections.  

Dahal further said that the party has proceeded with the unification process with those forces having similar ideologies.

The Maoist Center Chair also urged party leaders and cadres to dedicate their time to informing people about pro-people activities undertaken by the incumbent government. 

He insisted on working with a vision, ideologies and plans to consolidate the party presence in the days ahead and was of the view of proving the party a revolutionary touch in practice.

Admitting that the party was marred by several sorts of intra-party deviations, he stressed the need of fighting against such culture.    

The leader recalled Karmacharya as the personality with simplicity, openness, revolutionary zeal and dedication.

On the occasion, party senior leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha stressed on the need of following the path shown by Karmarchaya who, as he described, was the person with ideology, principles and visions.

A meeting of the National Assembly today approved a proposal seeking consideration on the Nepal Citizenship (First Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Minister for Home Affairs Bal Krishna Khand had presented the proposal seeking consideration of the upper house of the federal parliament on the bill along with a message from the House of Representatives.

National Assembly chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina announced after the theoretical discussions on the bill that the meeting has unanimously endorsed the proposal.

The National Assembly will next meet at 11 am on July 28.

Moscow has charged 92 members of the Ukrainian armed forces with crimes against humanity, the head of Russia's investigative committee has said, BBC reported.

Alexander Bastrykin told government news site Rossiiskaya Gazeta that more than 1,300 criminal investigations had been launched.

He also proposed an international tribunal backed by countries including Bolivia, Iran and Syria.

Some 96 people, including 51 armed forces commanders, are wanted, he said.

The Ukrainians were involved in "crimes against the peace and security of humanity", he told the newspaper.

The BBC has been unable to verify claims made in the interview and Kyiv has not commented.

Ukraine is also conducting its own investigations. This month, it said it was examining more than 21,000 war crimes and crimes of aggression allegedly committed by Russian forces since the start of the invasion in February.

And the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has described Ukraine as a "crime scene", has sent a team of investigators and forensics experts there. 

The Kremlin denies all war crimes, or that it has been targeting civilians. It has regularly blamed Ukraine for shelling its own infrastructure and killing its own civilians - accusations which have been widely dismissed by international leaders, according to BBC.

Mr Bastrykin accused the West of openly sponsoring "Ukrainian nationalism" so a UN-backed trial "is extremely doubtful". 

Moscow has repeatedly made the false claim that Ukraine is overrun by neo-Nazis as justification for what it calls a "special military operation".

Mr Bastrykin instead proposed an international tribunal should be set up with countries that have "an independent position on the Ukrainian issue" - in particular Syria, Iran and Bolivia.

Along with hundreds of Ukrainian military and political targets, he said investigations are underway into Ukrainian health ministry employees who he accused, without providing evidence, of developing weapons of mass destruction. 

Suspected mercenaries from the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Georgia are under investigation, he told the newspaper.

In June, two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saaudun are accused of being mercenaries, but the Britons' families have insisted they are long-serving members of the Ukrainian military.

In May, the first war crimes trial since the invasion began took place in Ukraine, where a court jailed a Russian tank commander for lifefor killing a civilian, BBC reported.

The US climate envoy, John Kerry, says President Joe Biden is considering announcing a climate emergency, BBC reported.

The move would give him additional powers to push his renewable energy agenda, which has been held up by lack of support in Congress.

Mr Kerry told the BBC it was "less than ideal" that Congress was not "full-throatedly" in favour.

But he said nobody was more committed than President Biden to replacing carbon-based energy.

Mr Kerry also said recent Supreme Court rulings restricting the government's environmental policies had not helped.

Climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Tens of millions of people in the US, across more than two dozen states, have been living under heat warnings during the past week, according to BBC.

But Mr Biden's efforts to pass a climate change bill were dealt a blow earlier this month when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin - a conservative Democrat - said he would not vote for the legislation.

On Wednesday, Mr Biden announced $2.3bn (£1.9bn) to help build infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and natural disasters.

However, he stopped short of formally declaring a climate emergency, despite mounting pressure to do so from fellow Democrats and environmental groups.

Mr Kerry said the world was learning that green energy reduced inflation, lowered energy costs, created jobs and improved health and security, BBC reported.

He said Mr Biden was prepared to use "every tool available to him" to tackle climate change, including executive orders.