House panel directs government to bring Federal Education Act pronto

The parliamentary committee directed the government to bring the Federal Education Act at the earliest.

The Education and Health Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to bring the act as soon as possible.

Saying that the education sector has been facing problems due to lack of the act, Committee President Jayapuri Gharti directed the government to bring the act promptly.

 

 

Global inflation: Five ways US rate rise will affect you

The US central bank has announced its biggest rate hike in nearly 30 years as it ramps up its battle to bring soaring consumer prices under control, BBC reported. 

It lifted the rate the Federal Reserve charges banks to borrow by three quarters of a percentage point.

The consequences will be felt in nearly every corner of the economy - in the US and abroad.

Here are five ways the rate rise in the US will affect you.

More expensive mortgages and other loans

The immediate impact is in the US, where people will face higher borrowing costs for mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other debt.

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed home loan has already surged to nearly 6% - its highest level since 2008. For the person buying a median-priced home in the US, that means monthly payments have gone up by about $600 since the start of the year. 

"I wish I had started looking earlier," says Delores Robinson, a retired educator from Ohio, who bought a new apartment this month.

Ms Robinson says she was relieved to lock in a relatively low rate, though it was higher than it was when she started her search. But for some buyers, the rising rates will push purchases out of reach, according to BBC.

The National Association of Realtors expects home sales in the US to fall 9% this year.

That drop might feel painful to people prevented from purchasing, but it is also expected to cool price growth to 5% in 2022, after double digit gains in recent years.

If that happens, it will help bring down inflation, a sign the Fed's moves are working.

Smaller pensions and more expensive Uber rides

When rates lift off, it tends to prompt a dramatic reshuffling of investments. And with general economic concerns rising, those moves have been especially pronounced.

For those with money in the stock market, like people with 401k retirement accounts, that has meant seeing a sharp slide in the value of their investments. 

The S&P 500 has sunk more than 20% since the start of January - a milestone known as a bear market - while the Nasdaq has shed nearly a third of its value.

Risky assets, like cryptocurrencies, have seen their prices drop too, which stock exchanges outside the US have also been hit, BBC reported.

Investment firms are also pulling back from riskier ventures, demanding profitability from companies like Uber that have been operating at a loss for years.

That means people are likely to face higher prices for things like taxi rides and deliveries - or see such firms fold, as was the case for a number of start-ups that emerged in New York promising 15-minute groceries.

"In times of uncertainty, investors look for safety," Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a letter to staff last month about the steps the firm would take to try to boost its bottom line, including slowing hiring. "It's clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly." 

Job market slowdown and recession risk

As demand cools, it is putting an end to the booming post-pandemic labour market, which has seen companies competing fiercely for workers, allowing new hires to command higher pay and other perks and encouraging many to switch jobs for better.

Property giants Redfin and Compass this week announced plans to reduce their staffs by hundreds this week, citing the downturn and higher rates. 

A slew of big companies like Uber, including Amazon, Walmart, Tesla and Spotify, have also announced plans to slow or halt hiring.

The head of the US central bank, Jerome Powell, has said he is hopeful the economy will avoid mass job losses, noting that the US labour market remains very tight - with nearly double the openings to people hunting for positions, according to BBC.

But the economy was already facing challenges as inflation raises costs for companies and cuts into people's spending power.

Growth already contracted in the first three months of the year. And while that was attributed to a quirk in international trade data, other indicators, like retail sales, have begun to darken. 

As higher rates collide with a weakening economy, analysts say the bank risks bringing on a sustained slowdown, also known as a recession.

Stronger dollar

The US dollar has risen 10% this year, as the Fed's moves prompting investors to shift money to America in pursuit of higher returns, boosting demand for its currency.

For Americans planning trips to places like the UK, where the value of a pound sank below $1.20 this week - its lowest since the pandemic - it's a silver lining.

But elsewhere, the rise of the US currency means more expensive imports of commodities like energy and food, which often trade in dollars. That adds to economic strains, especially if a government holds a lot of debt in dollars.

Emerging markets tend to be the markets that really do stand to suffer the most," says Fiona Cincotta, market analyst at City Index.

Higher rates abroad

Those dynamics mean the US is not hiking in a vacuum.

Dozens of other countries have also announced rate rises in recent months, including the Bank of England, Switzerland. Australia and Canada.

Many are fighting their own battles with inflation. But they are also taking cues from what's happening in the world's largest economy, BBC reported.

In countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where currencies are tied to the dollar, the impact of US rate rises is almost immediate, with banks hiking in lockstep, as they try to contain an outflow of funds to the US.

As those moves start to be felt on the ground, the economic story in the US will continue to be closely watched.

Colombian voters elect country’s first Black vice president

As Colombia’s voters put aside a longtime antipathy to leftists and chose one as their new president, they also carved out another milestone — electing the country’s first Black Vice President, Associated Press reported.

When former leftist rebel Gustavo Petro takes office as president on Aug. 7, a key player in his administration will be Francia Marquez, his running mate in Sunday’s runoff election.

Marquez is an environmental activist from La Toma, a remote village surrounded by mountains where she first organized campaigns against a hydroelectric project and then challenged wildcat gold miners who were invading collectively owned Afro-Colombian lands.

The politician has faced numerous death threats for her environmental work and has emerged as a powerful spokeswoman for Black Colombians and other marginalized communities.

“She’s completely different than any another person that’s ever had a vice presidency in Colombia,” said Gimena Sanchez, the Andes director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

“She comes from a rural area, she comes from the perspective of a campesino woman and from the perspective of areas of Colombia that have been affected by armed conflict for many years. Most politicians in Colombia who have held the presidency have not lived in the way she has,” Sanchez said.

She said Marquez will likely be given the mandate to work on gender issues as well as policies affecting the nation’s Afro-Colombian population, according to Associated Press.

In several interviews. Petro has discussed creating a Ministry of Equality, which would be headed by Marquez and would work across several sectors of the economy on issues like reducing gender inequalities and tackling disparities faced by ethnic minorities.

Marquez said Sunday that part of her mission as vice president will be to reduce inequality.

“This will be a government for those with calluses on their hands. We are here to promote social justice and to help women eradicate the patriarchy,” she said on stage while celebrating the election results with thousands of supporters at a popular concert venue.

Marquez grew up in a small home built by her family and had a daughter when she was 16, whom she raised on her own. To support her daughter, Marquez cleaned homes in the nearby city of Cali and also worked at a restaurant while studying for a law degree.

She was awarded the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize for her successful efforts to remove gold miners from the collectively owned Afro-Colombian lands around her village. 

Marquez entered the presidential race last year as a candidate for the Democratic Pole party, though she lost out in an inter-party consultation in March to Gustavo Petro. But she gained national recognition during the primaries and received 700,000 votes, topping most veteran politicians, Associated Press reported.

In speeches calling for Colombia to confront racism and gender inequalities and to ensure basic rights for the poor, Marquez energized rural voters who have suffered from the country’s long armed conflict as well as young people and women in urban areas.

“All of us who work with her now believe in the power of women,” said Vivian Tibaque, a community leader in Bogota who worked on Marquez’s campaign. “We believe we can also defend out rights like Francia has defended hers.”

Political analysts said Marquez contributed to Petro’s campaign by reaching out to voters who felt excluded by the political system but did not trust the leftist parties that Petro, a former member of a rebel group, has been a part of throughout much of his career.

They said her presence on Petro’s ticket also motivated Afro-Colombian voters along the Pacific coast, where Petro won by big margins Sunday even as he barely won the contest by three percentage points. 

“I don’t think Petro could’ve won the presidency without her.” Sanchez said. “There is a lot of distrust and suspicion towards the left in Colombia, partly because a lot of the left has been armed at some point in time.”

Students stage demonstration against fuel price hike (With photos)

The CPN-UML affiliated student wing, All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), staged a demonstration in the Capital against the fuel price hike on Monday.

They staged the demonstration outside the Jamal-based Tri Chandra Multiple Campus.

Traffic went haywire in various places of the Capital due to the protest.

Kathmandu police said that they had to use the force to disperse the mob.