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Opposition parties have criticized the government’s estimate of income and expenditure for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-23 as they termed it guided by a distributive approach. 

Taking part in the deliberations on the budget during a session of the House of Representatives (HoR) today, CPN-UML lawmaker Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said the allocation of budget to respond the issues of landless people was positive, but it was focused on election and guided by the distributive mindset.  

Hridayesh Tripathi from the same party questioned the government to further clarify its plan to provide a contribution-based pension. As he assessed, farmers would not be directly beneficial from the announcement for increasing investment in agriculture.  

Rajendra Lingden of Rastriya Prajatantra Party said that the budget seemed not capable of intervening in a rising market price.  As he claimed, “The budget focused on elections and the distribution will not bring a substantive change in people’s life.”

Questioning the sources of income, he said the budget based on foreign aid and loans lacked a ground for implementation.   

Meanwhile, Rastriya Janamorcha’s Durga Poudel was of the opinion that just distribution of land was the requirement to promote agricultural production.  She pressed for national independence, sovereignty and interest while accepting foreign aid.  

As the lawmaker stressed, the government should take measures for protecting domestic industries. Drawing the government’s attention toward no allocation of specific budget for combating increasing violence against women, she demanded the government bear responsibility of livelihood of rape survivors.

The Chinese military has said it conducted a “combat readiness patrol” in the sea and airspace around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, Aljazeera reported.

In a statement, the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command said the exercises had taken place in recent days and were “a necessary action” against what it described as “US-Taiwan collusion”.

“Recently, the United States has frequently made moves on the Taiwan issue, saying one thing and doing another, instigating support for Taiwan independence forces, which will push Taiwan into a dangerous situation,” the command added in a statement on Wednesday.

Taiwan this week reported the largest incursion by Chinese aircraft into its Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) since January with 30 planes, most of them fighter jets, entering the southwest of the ADIZ.

The incident took place as Tammy Duckworth, a US Senator, was visiting the island, according to Aljazeera.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that Beijing had “lodged solemn representations” with the US about her visit.

“We urge relevant US politicians to earnestly abide by the one-China principle, and immediately stop official exchanges with Taiwan in any form and refrain from sending any wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” Zhao told a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, according to the state-run Global Times.

“China will continue to take forceful measures to resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, a Beijing body, also warned in a press conference that it was “very dangerous” for the US to “connive in the separatist activities conducted by Taiwan secessionists”.

Known formally as the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan lies about 161 kilometres (100 miles) off the coast of mainland China. Once colonised by Japan, Chinese nationalists fled to the island after losing the civil war to the communists who established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing, Aljazeera reported.

The ROC continued to claim to represent all of China and even had a seat on the United Nations Security Council until 1971 when most countries, including the US, began to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing instead of Taipei.

Since then, the US, under the Taiwan Relations Act, has been mandated to “preserve and promote extensive, close and friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people of Taiwan”.

Washington also takes a more ambiguous view of “One China”.

For Beijing, “One China” is the pretext for its claim that Taiwan is simply a province of the mainland and not an independent state.

For the US, however, Taiwan’s status remains undetermined, according to Aljazeera.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended a presidential pardongranted to a former legislator close to the Rajapaksa family convicted of murdering a rival politician and ordered his immediate return to jail in a landmark verdict, according to local media, Aljazeera reported.

A three-judge bench asked the police to arrest Duminda Silva, a former member of parliament who was facing the death penalty for a 2011 murder but was freed last June after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted him an amnesty.

The pardon drew widespread criticism, including from the United Nations human rights office and the United States ambassador in Sri Lanka, who said it undermined the rule of law in the South Asian nation, which is emerging from decades of war.

“The court fixed a further hearing for September 1, but wanted the police to carry out the interim order of arresting Duminda Silva and return him to jail,” a court official said.

He said the decision was given following an unprecedented challenge to the presidential pardon, according to Aljazeera.

Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of former legislator Bharatha Lakshman – who was shot dead by Silva and his associates, filed the petition saying his release was illegal.

“This decision of the Supreme Court is historic,” Premachandra told the AFP news agency.

“No one has challenged a presidential pardon before and I am very pleased that the court has demonstrated its independence.”

The European Union’s groundbreaking decision to ban nearly all oil from Russia to punish the country for its invasion of Ukraine is a blow to Moscow’s economy, but its effects may be blunted by rising energy prices and other countries willing to buy some of the petroleum, industry experts say, Associated Press reported.

European Union leaders agreed late Mondayto cut Russian oil imports by about 90% over the next six months, a dramatic move that was considered unthinkable just months ago. 

The 27-country bloc relies on Russia for 25% of its oil and 40% of its natural gas, and European countries that are even more heavily dependent on Russia had been especially reluctant to act.

European heads of state hailed the decision as a watershed, but analysts were more circumspect.

The EU ban applies to all Russian oil delivered by sea. At Hungary’s insistence, it contains a temporary exemption for oil delivered by the Russian Druzhba pipeline to certain landlocked countries in Central Europe.

In addition to retaining some European markets, Russia could sell some of the oil previously bound to Europe to China, India and other customers in Asia, even though it will have to offer discounts, said Chris Weafer, CEO at consulting firm Macro-Advisory.

“Now, for the moment, that’s not financially too painful for Russia because global prices are elevated. They’re much higher than last year,” he said. “So even Russia offering a discount means that it’s probably selling its oil for roughly what it sold for last year also.”

He noted that “India has been a willing buyer” and “China’s certainly been keen to buy more oil because they’re both countries who are getting big discounts on global market prices.”

Still, Moscow has traditionally viewed Europe as its main energy market, making Monday’s decision the most significant effort yet to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine, according to Associated Press.

“The sanctions have one clear aim: to prompt Russia to end this war and withdraw its troops and to agree with Ukraine on a sensible and fair peace,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

Ukraine estimated the ban could cost Russia tens of billions of dollars.

“The oil embargo will speed up the countdown to the collapse of the Russian economy and war machine,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that Ukraine will be pressing for more sanctions, adding that “there should be no significant economic ties left between the free world and the terrorist state.”

Simone Tagliapietra, an energy expert and research fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, called the embargo “a major blow.”

Matteo Villa, an analyst at the ISPI think tank in Milan, said Russia will take a pretty significant hit now but cautioned that the move could eventually backfire, Associated Press reported.

“The risk is that the price of oil in general goes up because of the European sanctions. And if the price goes up a lot, the risk is that Russia starts to earn more, and Europe loses the bet,” he said.

Like previous rounds of sanctions, the oil ban is unlikely to persuade the Kremlin to end the war.

Moscow seized on the new sanctions to try to rally public support against the West, describing it as bent on destroying Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council who served as the country’s president, said the oil ban aims to reduce the country’s export earnings and force the government to scale down social benefits.

“They hate us all!” Medvedev said on his messaging app channel. “Those decisions stem from hatred against Russia and against all of its people.”

Russia has not shied away from withholding energy to get its way. Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it is cutting off natural gas to Dutch trader GasTerra and Denmark’s Oersted company and is also stopping shipments to Shell Energy Europe that were bound for Germany. Germany has other suppliers, and GasTerra and Oersted said they were prepared for a shutoff, according to Associated Press.

Gazprom previously stopped the flow toBulgaria, Poland and Finland.

Meanwhile, the EU is urging other countries to avoid placing trade barriers on farm products as Russia’s war increases the risks of a global food crisis.

Zelenskyy has said Russia has prevented the export of 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain, much of it meant for people across the Middle East and Africa. He accused Moscow of “deliberately creating this problem.”