The Kathmandu Post - 29 Jun, 2024 (2024)

KATHMANDU,
Cross-party discussions to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act that had stalled after the changes in the ruling coalition in March first week, have resumed.
A meeting of top leaders from three major parties, along with their chief whips, on Thursday agreed to finalise the amendment bill, which is being discussed in the Law, Justice and Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives.
The meeting called by Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal also decided to task the chief whips of the parties to find common ground on the contentious provisions in the bill. Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also the leader of the main opposition, and ruling coalition partner CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli at the meeting decided to entrust the cross-party team with the responsibility.
“We have agreed to reach a consensus on the contentious issues in the bill,” Nepali Congress Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak told the Post. “We chief whips of the three parties have been tasked to resume dialogue to find common ground.”
So long as the Maoist-Congress alliance was intact, the two parties unanimously advocated for the bill’s endorsem*nt. But the UML was not ready. Before endorsem*nt, the bill needed to be revised, adhering to international standards and ensuring that it prohibited amnesty.
The two parties accused the UML of politicising the matter and creating barriers to its endorsem*nt. But the dynamics changed with a change in the ruling coalition. Breaking his year-long ties with the Congress, Dahal, on March 4, joined hands with the UML and the Rastriya Swatantra Party. Since then, the Congress has been reluctant to proceed with the bill.
Since March 3, a day before the previous coalition broke, there had been no discussion on the bill.
Talking to the Post, Padam Giri, minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs who was present at Thursday’s meeting, said the ruling and opposition parties have realised that the Act should be amended without further delay in order to bring the transitional justice process on track.
“Further delaying the process means making it more complex. All the parties realise that the long-pending process must be concluded at the earliest,” Giri told the Post.
He said while the three chief whips will continue the discussion, the top leadership will also sit again for an agreement. “I expect that the next meeting, which will be held shortly, will make some breakthrough in order to resolve the contentious issues.”
The amendment bill was registered in the lower house in March last year and sent to the House committee for finalisation. However, differences persist.
After over a year-long discussions, the parliamentary committee narrowed down the differences to four points. In March first week, it further reduced the differences to two points after the parties agreed to list arbitrary killings as serious violation of human rights (thus non-amnestiable), and to open the doors for the victims, who refuse to reconcile, for prosecution.
The House panel had been struggling to decide whether to categorise arbitrary killings or all killings except those that occurred in clashes as serious violations of human rights. It has also been unable to settle what happens in case the victims of human rights violations refuse to reconcile. The issues were settled after the UML showed flexibility.
Now, the parties have two major issues to settle. They differ on how to address the concerns of those affected by the conflict even if they were not directly involved. They also have not found a meeting point on reduced sentencing.
The delay in amending the Act has left the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission for the Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons paralysed for around two years.
In July 2022, the Deuba government decided to extend the terms of the commissions without retaining their chairs and members. Despite the government’s claim that the amendment bill would be endorsed by October 2022, which would also open the door for recruiting new office bearers, there has been no progress even after the latest extension.
The government is preparing to give a new lease of life to the commissions whose terms are set to expire on July 15. Though a task force led by former Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra has been formed to nominate candidates for office bearers in the commissions, it has yet to start its work.
Conflict victims and human rights defenders are demanding that appointments be made only after amending the Act. “I am hopeful that the Act will be amended during the ongoing session of the federal parliament,” said Giri, the law minister.

KATHMANDU,
Trouble is brewing for Nepal Airlines after no bidders appeared to buy the Chinese planes in multiple round auctions.
The six condemned planes—four 17-seater Y12e aircraft and two 56-seater MA60 aircraft—were acquired between 2014 and 2018 and were worth Rs6.66 billion in grants and loans. One crashed in Nepalgunj.
The five planes have been grounded at the remote parking bay on the eastern side of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu since 2020 and are gathering rust.
In July 2020, the board of directors of Nepal Airlines unanimously decided to stop flying the Chinese planes as they cost more money to operate than they brought in.
Nepal Airlines twice issued notices to lease them out on September 14, 2022, but no one was interested.
Then, Nepal Airlines decided to get rid of them permanently.
On January 19, the airline requested proposals for a full appraisal of the two MA60 and three Y12e aircraft.
An American company that did the appraisal valued the aircraft at Rs220 million.
But fearing selling the aircraft at junkyard price may attract the anti-graft body’s interest, Nepal Airlines management decided to do a separate internal assessment.
As per the Nepal Airlines value, the asking price of the MA60s, with registration mark 9N-AKR, was $8,225,501; for 9N-AKQ, it was $4,922,235.
Similarly, the asking price for Y12e, with registration mark 9N-AKV, was $2,412,671, 9N-AKT was valued at $2,358,860 and 9N-AKS at $1,658,517.
In contrast to the valuation made by the American company, Nepal Airlines set the asking price of five Chinese planes at $19,577,784 (Rs2.60 billion).
Now, Nepal Airlines is determined to give one last try to auction the Chinese planes. Officials are working tirelessly, and they believe a successful third attempt is possible, despite the challenges. Failing to get the bidders on the third attempt would put the national carrier under pressure to sell them at scrap value, but the team is not giving up.
“We are in the process of starting a fresh auction. This will be the third attempt,” said Devendra Pun, spokesperson (technical) for Nepal Airlines.
“There will be a new evaluation of the aircraft rates, and we are hopeful of a positive outcome,” said Pun. The sale of these planes could mark a new beginning for the airline, reducing some financial burden they are responsible for.
After spending $20,000 on the international appraisal report, there will be little appetite for another appraisal. Pun said he is unsure whether Nepal Airlines would hire another international appraiser or do it internally.
The management had tabled the proposal to auction the planes for the third time at the board on April 2. The board, however, is yet to decide. “The management is carefully considering all options and is committed to making the best decision for the future of Nepal Airlines,” said Pun.
Nepal Airlines officials say the grounded planes have been more trouble than they are worth.
Operating the aircraft was a massive financial strain, exacerbated by breakdowns and a lack of pilots.
The company is in great distress, saddled with a debt totalling nearly Rs50 billion.
Officials said the Chinese-made aircraft had turned into white elephants right after they arrived. They doubt anyone will buy them.
The national flag carrier put the Chinese planes up for lease on September 14, 2022. Prospective bidders were given an October 31 deadline. As there were no bids, the deadline was extended until November 16. There were still no takers, and the management decided to sell them off.
The MA60 is a turboprop-powered airliner produced by China’s Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation. Both manufacturers are subsidiaries of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a government undertaking.
The Y12e is a twin-engine turboprop utility aircraft built by Harbin Aircraft Industry Group, previously Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation.
Except for flying to a few airports in the Tarai, these aircraft spent more time on the ground than in the air, even during operating hours.
Before the planes were grounded, the total accumulated losses of these planes came to Rs1.9 billion, nearly half of their cost.
A brief report submitted to the tourism ministry shows that the airline is paying insurance, parking and regular check-up charges for the grounded planes.
Nepal Airlines signed a commercial agreement with China AVIC in November 2012 to procure six aircraft—two MA60s and four Y12es.
China provided grant and concessional loan worth 408 million Chinese yuan (Rs6.67 billion) to purchase the six aircraft.
Of the total aid, a grant of 180 million yuan (Rs2.94 billion) went to pay for one MA60 and one Y12e aircraft, and a 228 million yuan (Rs3.72 billion) loan was used to purchase an MA60 and three Y12e aircraft.
As per the agreement, the Nepal government has to pay 1.5 percent annual interest, a service charge, and management expenses amounting to 0.4 percent of the overall loan taken by the Ministry of Finance.
The ministry, in turn, would charge Nepal Airlines an annual interest of 1.75 percent on the disbursed loan amount. As per the November 2012 agreement, China gave Nepal Airlines a seven-year grace period during which it would not have to pay interest or instalments. The planes have completed the seven-year grace period.
The loan’s payback period is 20 years or by March 21, 2034.
Nepal received the first batch of planes in 2014. However, due to issues with the first batch, the delivery of the rest was stalled for years.
The second batch of MA60 and Y12e aircraft arrived in January 2017 as part of the six-aircraft deal between Nepal and China.
The corporation received the final two Y12e aircraft in February 2018. The finance ministry owns the planes, and Nepal Airlines operates them.
In 2014, marking the beginning of what was supposed to be a new era for Nepal Airlines after acquiring the planes, it had even changed its classic red and blue stripes livery, opting for a more modern design.
But these planes never brought happiness and money, said officials.
Nepal Airlines—known more for its poor service, planes being grounded most of the time and frequent management changes—has been eviscerated by politicking.
Every time a new management team or tourism minister comes in, the process of replacing the Chinese planes with new Western-made regional turboprops begins.
A few months ago, a committee headed by the former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Deependra Bahadur Kshetry suggested selling Nepal Airlines’ Rs4.5 billion worth of shares in Soaltee Hotel to buy new planes for domestic use.

BIRATNAGAR,
Conservationists have raised concerns over the unchecked poaching of wild elephants in the eastern Tarai districts. They suspect that an organised racket and smugglers might be behind these crimes.
On Thursday, a wild elephant was found dead in the Bahuban area in ward 3 of Mechinagar Municipality in Jhapa. The elephant was lying dead near the Dhardhare stream with deep injuries around its neck. A postmortem carried out by veterinarians and technicians from the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve confirmed that the elephant died of gunshot injuries. The slain elephant was a male of around 10 years of age.
“Fifteen musket shrapnels were found in the elephant’s body during the postmortem. The tusker died of gunshot injuries,” said Bed Prakash Bhandari, Jhapa chairman of the Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal. On April 16, another wild elephant was found dead in Kalika Community Forest situated in ward 13 of Mechinagar Municipality. Both tusks of the 45-year-old male elephant were missing.
The postmortem report had confirmed that poachers killed the tusker by using a musket. The poachers made off with the tusks, tail and hooves of the elephant.
Conservationists suspect that a group of trans-border poachers and smugglers is involved in the unchecked poaching of wild elephants in the area.
“The frequent poaching and death of wild elephants are quite alarming. An organised group of poachers and smugglers might have been involved in these crimes. The tusks, tails and other body parts are taken away from almost all the killed elephants,” said conservationist Shankar Luitel. He expressed his concerns about the increasing use of guns in poaching wild elephants.
On January 1, the poachers killed a wild elephant in Janajagaran Community Forest in ward 10 of Sundar Haraincha Municipality in Morang district. According to Lal Bahadur Majhi, officer at the Division Forest Office in Salakpur in the district, the dead elephant had sustained two gunshot injuries. It was suspected that the smugglers killed the animal as its tail was chopped off.
Besides tusks, the hairs on an elephant’s tail fetch a high price on the black market. The tail hair is used alongside gold to make bracelets and other ornaments.
The nature of poaching in Mechinagar and Sundar Haraincha is almost the same. The assailants, however, could not take away the tusks and tail of the elephant killed on Thursday.
The human-elephant conflict is a longstanding problem in the eastern Tarai districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari. Bahundangi in Jhapa is one of Nepal’s hardest-hit settlements by human-animal conflict. In the past 10 years, wild elephants have killed more than 50 people and destroyed properties worth millions of rupees.
According to conservationists, Bahundangi and its surrounding areas serve as a corridor for elephant movement. Studies show that elephants from Assam and West Bengal in India migrate to Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Nepal through Bahundangi. Experts say that instances of human-wildlife conflict are recurring because of the human encroachment on the bio-corridor over the years.
Many elephants were killed in the area by electric traps. But there have been recent reports of poaching using guns and muskets.
According to the Division Forest Office in Jhapa, four elephants were killed in Jhapa and two others were poached in Morang over the past three months. Three of them were electrocuted while as many others were poached by using guns and muskets.
“The elephants were mainly killed by using electric traps in the past. But the incidents of using muskets to poach the pachyderms have been on the rise lately,” said Anjana Puri, officer at the forest office.
As per the data from the Division Forest Office in Jhapa, a total of 21 wild elephants have been killed over the past two decades in Jhapa alone. Among them, only one was a female elephant.
The local people in the area install electric fencing to protect their homes and crops from wild elephants. Most of the elephants were killed by these electric traps. Conservationists claim that the authorities concerned seem reluctant to take strong action against the ongoing poaching of the wild tuskers.
“The poachers feel encouraged because the authorities do not take strong action against the poaching of wild elephants. The authorities should take stringent initiative to control the ongoing poaching of wild elephants,” said a conservationist preferring anonymity.

KATHMANDU,
The Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office on Friday filed a case at the Kathmandu District Court against three individuals in connection with the defamatory content published by sidhakura.com, a Kathmandu-based news website.
The attorney’s office filed the case against the news portal’s publisher Yubaraj Kandel, executive editor Nabin Dhungana and Rajkumar Timilsina, who has been accused of producing the fake audio content.
The state prosecutor has demanded that the defendants be sentenced to five years in jail and pay a fine of Rs100,000 or face both.
According to Sandesh Shrestha, chief of the Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office, the case was filed in accordance with the Electronic Transactions Act 2008 and section 168 of the Criminal Code 2017.
On April 27, an audiovisual content, claiming that the chairpersons of two leading media houses—Kantipur Publications Limited and Annapurna Media Network—were part of a meeting with an incumbent and former Supreme Court justices and senior advocates to dismiss over 400 corruption cases in the court, was aired on sidhakura.com.
A division bench of Supreme Court justices Nahakul Subedi and Tek Prasad Dhungana, on April 29, rubbished the legitimacy of the published material, concluding that it was a malicious attempt to defame the judiciary, obstruct the judicial proceedings and scandalise the court.
The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police was then asked to carry out forensic tests to check the authenticity of the audio-visual material. The police investigation team later confirmed that it was fabricated.
The case was then forwarded to the Supreme Court’s extended full bench for a final hearing, stressing the need for a comprehensive judicial interpretation of freedom of expression and press freedom.
The police moved the district court per the top court’s order that asked the security agency to investigate the factual and technical aspects of the audio-visual materials (forensic test) and to proceed with legal action and submit a report to the court, if it is found that the prevailing criminal law has been violated.

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Health and Population has formed a committee for monitoring the quality and standard of medicines and the pharmaceutical industry.
Health Minister Pradip Yadav constituted the committee through a ministerial-level decision. Additional Secretary at the Ministry Dr Bikas Devkota is the coordinator of the committee, which has been tasked with monitoring the quality of the medicines as well as studying the status of operation, service delivery, capacity, operation process and standard of the pharma companies, pharmacies and related agencies.
Ministry spokesman Dr Prakash Budhathoki said the committee will also make an on-site study of the quality of medicines, associated problems and challenges. He said the committee will submit its findings to the Ministry within two weeks. The members of the committee include the Director-General of the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) Narayan Prasad Dhakal, and one representative each from the National Drugs Laboratory, the Pharmacy Council, the District Administration Office of the district where the monitoring is carried out, and chief of the DDA’s district-based office. (rss)

KATHMANDU,
Police on Friday arrested Prateek Thapa, son of CPN-UML Vice-chair and former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam.
According to Assistant Inspector General of Police Deepak Thapa, he was taken into police custody from Bouddha, Kathmandu.
The junior Thapa was among those listed as absconding in a case filed by the Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office at the Kathmandu District Court last year. Investigation had revealed that Prateek, during his father’s tenure as the home minister, was involved in the crime in collusion with senior officials at the ministry and other middlemen.
He had been on the run since March 2015 after police started to take those accused of the crime into custody. On May 4 last year, Prateek issued a statement saying that he was ready to cooperate in the investigation but was still absconding.
In June last year, police arrested former home minister Balkrishna Khand of Nepali Congress, former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi of the CPN-UML, former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, former home minister Thapa’s security adviser Indrajit Rai, Khand’s personal secretary Narendra KC, former Nepali Congress lawmaker Aang Tawa Sherpa and Bhutanese refugee leader Tek Nath Rizal, among others. The case is sub judice in the court.
Police filed the cases against the politicians, top officials and middlemen on charges of swindling hundreds of people promising them to send them to the United States as Bhutanese refugees.

Kathmandu,
The process to appoint the chairman at the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) was cancelled on Friday.
The Ministry of Finance issued a notice on Friday stating that the recommendation process was cancelled. Back on January 17, the government formed a three-member committee led by the Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Min Bahadur Shrestha, to recommend a candidate for chairman of the Sebon to the Cabinet. Two members of the committee were Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini and Prof Udaya Niraula.
As per the mandate, the Shrestha-led committee on February 28 invited applications from interested individuals. However, the Finance Ministry’s notice on Friday announced that the entire recommendation process was cancelled.
Earlier, responding to the committee’s call, 19 candidates had submitted their applications to lead the country’s only security board. The recommendation committee later short-listed five candidates for the interview.
The five shortlisted candidates were Nabaraj Adhikari, Chiranjivi Chapagain, Krishna Bahadur Karki, Mukti Nath Shrestha, and Santosh Shrestha. However, only two candidates, Mukti Nath Shrestha and Santosh Shrestha, appeared in the interview. Sources inside the Finance Ministry told the Post that both Shresthas were backed by the ruling party, CPN-UML, while Adhikari, Chapagain, and Karki were regarded as close to the CPN (Maoist Centre), the prime minister’s party.
After only two candidates appeared in the interview, the recommendation committee informed the three candidates—Adhikari, Chapagain, and Karki—to reappear in the interview and set a new date.
Despite this, the three did not appear in the interview the second time. As per the Sebon Act, it is compulsory to recommend at least three names to the Cabinet for the final selection.
When the committee failed to recommend three names even after the second round, the Shrestha-led committee sought legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General. The Office of the Attorney General communicated to the recommendation committee that the entire selection process would be invalid if three names were not recommended to the Cabinet.
“The Attorney General’s office explained that it is not possible to recommend only two people who participated in the interview, then we, after consultation with Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun, decided to cancel the entire process,” a member of the recommendation committee told the Post.
The finance ministry official said only two candidates were present in the interview and presentation, so the recommendation committee decided not to risk recommending only two names to the cabinet, which ultimately led to the cancellation of the entire process.
“The process collapsed after a tussle between two ruling parties,” an official at the Finance Ministry said, adding that there is a confusion about what will happen next.
Sources inside the Finance Ministry said the selection process became the victim of the political power play between the UML and the Maoist Centre, leading to the cancellation of the entire process.
Sebon was established by the government of Nepal on June 7, 1993, as an apex regulator of securities markets.
It has been regulating the market under the Securities Act of 2006. The governing board of Sebon comprises seven members, including one full-time chairman appointed by the government for a tenure of four years. The term of Sebon chairman has been fixed for four years, but it has been over three months that the position has been vacant. Due to the government’s failure to appoint a new chairman, security issuance applications worth billions of rupees are pending.

KATHMANDU,
The Rastriya Swantantra Party has sought clarification from its general secretary Mukul Dhakal regarding his recent statements to the media about the party’s perception among the people.
The RSP Central Discipline and Conduct Committee wrote to Dhakal on Friday demanding clarification.
“I have received the letter, but I don’t know who sent it to me because I haven’t opened it. Nobody other than the party president can seek clarification from me. However, the chair denied having asked for a clarification on a call with me just a few minutes ago,” Dhakal told the Post.
“The letter, however, has already been delivered to my secretariat.”
General Secretary Dhakal, in his report prepared after a review tour of 32 districts, has claimed that the party is headed for an accident.
In his political report, Dhakal pointed out things the two-year-old party needs to rectify in order to avert such an accident.
After handing over the 32-page report to party president Rabi Lamichhane on Wednesday, Dhakal told the Post: “After the review tour, I have come to the conclusion that if the party continues to run as it does now, it will crash within a short period.”
The report Dhakal submitted to Lamichhane, who is also the deputy prime minister and minister for home affairs, claims that the popularity of the party which emerged by winning 20 seats in the 2022 election has nosedived. Additionally, the report argues that Lamichhane’s popularity has also dipped. Dhakal had demanded that the party make the report public.
He also claimed that the party’s decision to join the government and work with traditional parties such as the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) could prove counterproductive for the new party—RSP—in the long run. He said the party should ally with emerging independent figures such as Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah and Dhangadhi Mayor Gopi Hamal.

KATHMANDU,
In a bid to lessen the spread of the dengue virus during the ongoing monsoon season, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has decided to continue the drive to destroy mosquito larvae and breeding grounds.
Officials at the health department of the city office said on Friday that they have just completed a week-long drive in all 32 wards of the metropolis and plan to continue these efforts in the coming days as well.
“Every Wednesday, our health volunteers will visit households and open spaces to destroy mosquito breeding grounds,” said Rishi Bhusal, epidemic prevention and control focal person at the metropolis.
“Decisions on preventive measures including launching search and destroy drives will depend on the spread of virus and intensity of rainfall in the coming days.”
Dengue is a viral disease transmitted by female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. The same vectors also transmit chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika virus, according to the World Health Organisation.
According to data provided by the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, at least 1,268 people from 72 districts have been infected with the dengue virus since January this year. Among the 72 districts that reported dengue outbreaks, Kathmandu has the highest number of cases: 141.
Public health experts say reported cases could be just the tip of the iceberg, as around 80 percent of those infected are asymptomatic.
Many people infected with dengue show mild symptoms and can be treated with paracetamol at home.
Dengue symptoms include mild to high fever, severe muscle pain, rashes, severe headache, and pain in the eyes. Patients with these symptoms are advised to seek immediate treatment. While there is no specific cure for the disease, early detection and proper medical care can prevent death.
Nepal reported its first dengue case in a foreigner in 2004 in the Chitwan district. Since then, an increasing number of dengue infections have been reported from many districts, including major dengue outbreaks.
Last year, at least 20 persons died, and more than 52,000 were infected by the virus, which had spread to all 77 districts.
In 2022, a total of 88 people died, and over 54,000 were infected by the virus across the country. During that period, hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley were overwhelmed with dengue patients, and pharmacies ran out of paracetamol, the most widely used medicine to treat fever.
In 2019, the disease killed at least six people and more than 16,000 were hospitalised across the country. The virus had spread to 68 districts at the time.
Though the post-monsoon period is considered the dengue epidemic season, the deadly disease has already become endemic in Nepal, as outbreaks of the virus are reported every month, including in the winter months.
Officials at the health department said that 654 health workers, including female community health volunteers, were deployed in the week-long campaign, which concluded on Friday.
“Volunteers and health workers who were deployed to the door-to-door campaign checked the mosquito breeding grounds and the larvae, made people aware about the risks and destroyed the breeding grounds,” said Bhusal.
Health workers reported that storage places for scrap materials, discarded cups, and plastic in open spaces, and unused lands as potential hotspots for the dengue virus in the coming days. Health workers have warned owners of these sites that action will be taken if mosquito larvae are found against the owner of the storage place if mosquito larvae were found.
Dengue-transmitting mosquitoes breed in clean water and bite people in daylight. Uncovered water tanks and discarded objects, such as plastic cups and bottles, could be breeding grounds for these mosquitoes.
Public health experts say now is the right time to prepare for and prevent possible outbreaks. Health ministry officials said they have alerted all related agencies to the risk of a dengue outbreak.

YANGON,
It was close to midnight in Yangon, about one hour before the start of the military-mandated curfew. The car workshops had long gone silent in this eastern industrial estate. But the party was just starting.
Youth clad in hoodies and sneakers thronged the narrow lane in front of a nightclub where security staff escorted patrons from their taxis to the entrance. A casually parked Mercedes coupe added to the traffic snarl.
Inside, the dance floor was heaving. In a swirl of tobacco and cannabis smoke, a deejay in a baseball jersey and baggy trousers worked the crowd to a frenzy. At a 400,000 kyat (S$258) “VIP” table, a young woman with a plastic straw in hand giggled as she bent over to snort one of the five rows of white substance on a mobile phone screen.
Life in Myanmar’s economic capital thrums to a rhythm starkly different from the war-torn corners of the country.
In the borderlands of Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, the military that ousted Myanmar’s civilian government in 2021 is defending a shrinking territory against ethnic armed groups and resistance forces that have emerged in response to its coup.
Some three million people have been forced to flee their homes, and poverty now afflicts one-third of its 55 million population – a level not seen since 2015. Inflation in the year to March 2024 was 26.5 per cent, according to the World Bank.
The exodus of talent and labour has been worsened by the military’s bid to conscript civilians to shore up its depleted ranks.
In Yangon, however, new eateries and nightspots continue to sprout and at least one art gallery has opened, defying the gloom brought on by the military power grab three years ago.
In Sanchaung, a vibrant neighbourhood in north-central Yangon even before the coup, diners crammed into whitewashed interiors of cafes offering 6,000 kyat caramel lattes and 15,000 kyat salmon salads. There, requests to use the Wi-Fi were met by waiters who whipped out their mobile phones to offer a QR code to scan. Nightspots and restaurants hosted sell-out Pride parties.
At People’s Park, a green sanctuary near the famous Shwedagon Pagoda, lovers canoodled in weathered seats. Claw machines did a roaring trade while the creaky roller-coaster thrilled the odd teenager or two. Meanwhile, make-up artists, mattress companies and gemstone dealers taking part in a wedding exposition nearby vied for the attention of deal-seeking couples.
At the five-star Sedona Hotel Yangon, which Singapore’s Keppel Group fully divested in 2023, smartly dressed locals descended upon the lobby lounge, which offered a 60,000 kyat high-tea deal that included access to its swimming pool. They took selfies with their towers of pastries, ignoring the pool.
Myanmar’s moneyed and military-linked classes have long been able to insulate themselves from larger economic pressures, even during earlier periods of military rule that drew Western sanctions.
Still, in the affluent bubble of Yangon, signs of Myanmar’s deepening crisis are visible.
There are few tourists on the streets today. In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic closed borders worldwide, Myanmar welcomed more than 4.3
million tourists. The number shrank to 1.28 million in post-pandemic 2023, according to the regime’s statistics.
Myanmar has remained under a state of emergency since the coup. While junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to hold fresh elections to replace what he claims was a fraudulent one in 2020, when and how this can be done remains a question.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, the 79-year-old leader of the ousted National League for Democracy party, is serving a 27-year jail sentence over charges that are widely considered to be politically motivated.
Many countries have warned their citizens against visiting Myanmar since the coup. Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises Singaporeans to defer all travel to Myanmar. The Australian government warns of the risk of “arbitrary detention”, adding that “violence, including explosions and attacks, can occur anywhere and any time, including in Yangon”.
Staff at a major hotel in the city centre have advised guests to stay indoors after 8pm.
The nearby Kyauktada Police Station, displaying a large sign declaring “May I Help You”, was surrounded by barbed wire barricades to deter insurgent attacks.
It was the same picture at Yangon City Hall, where a surly police officer clutching an umbrella in the driving rain shooed away pedestrians who strayed into a once-bustling adjacent street now closed to traffic.
Soldiers and police officers stood guard outside the premises of companies with close ties to the military.
Meanwhile, beggars approached cars waiting at traffic junctions.
“There are hardly any tourists, only Russians,” one tour guide was overheard lamenting.
Shunned by many countries after the coup, the junta has leaned into existing ties with Russia for political, economic and military support. This has, in turn, brought a steady stream of Russian delegations, including a business delegation in May, seeking investment opportunities in Myanmar.
The World Bank, which has noted a “significant decline” in the military regime’s fiscal transparency, estimates that Myanmar’s gross domestic product eked out just 1 per cent growth in the year that ended in March 2024 and will likely do the same for the subsequent year.
As a symbol of the tough economic fortunes, Sule Shangri-La, a towering landmark hotel in downtown Yangon that shut temporarily during the pandemic, has not reopened.
The owner of a bar in the city, who asked to be identified as Ms Sweet for security reasons, told The Straits Times she was earning just one-third of what she used to before the pandemic.
“Our bar was busy till 1am before. Now, we don’t have customers at 10pm. It’s partly due to the (1am to 3am) curfew. People are also afraid to go outside at night because of security concerns,” she said.
Another bar owner, who called himself Mr Kyaw, said he was struggling to recruit staff to keep his business going. “I’m having a shortage of staff because of the current conscription law. The young people of working age have left for foreign countries.”
Those who make it out of Myanmar are not sure when they can return.
A 26-year-old content creator, who goes by the pseudonym Moe Thu, said he fled to Bangkok with his brother in March when a ward administrator in his Yangon neighbourhood began tallying the young men who could be enlisted.
Although he majored in English in Dagon University, Yangon, he is now studying English at a private school in Bangkok to qualify for a Thai student visa.
“My parents used to discourage us from moving to another country,” he told ST during an interview in Bangkok. “Now that the situation has gotten worse, they say they will support our expenses abroad, no matter what.”
He considers himself one of the lucky ones.
The snaking queue of cars along Pyay Road waiting to be inspected by soldiers before being allowed to proceed on to Yangon International Airport is a constant reminder of the dangers that await those defying the regime.
In May, the junta tightened surveillance further by blocking virtual private networks that allow users to encrypt their data.
Business owners know to tread warily. The representative of a thriving Yangon eatery, when approached by ST for an interview, declined when he learnt that the article would mention politics.
“Our businesses are under strict regulations,” he said. “I hope you can understand our situation.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates,
Iranians voted on Friday in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, with the race’s sole reformist candidate vowing to seek “friendly relations” with the West in an effort to energize supporters in a vote beset by apathy.
Voters face a choice between hard-line candidates and the little-known reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon. As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from running, while the vote itself will have no oversight from internationally recognized monitors.
The voting comes as wider tensions have gripped the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region—such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels—are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build—should it choose to do so—several nuclear weapons. The remarks by Pezeshkian come after he and his allies were targeted by a veiled warning from the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over their outreach to the United States.
Pezeshkian’s comments, made after he cast his ballot, appeared to be aimed at boosting turnout as public apathy has grown pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes and mass protests.
He seemed to hope that invoking the possibility of Iran emerging from its isolation would motivate people otherwise disillusioned with Iranian politics. A higher turnout typically aids those like Pezeshkian in the reformist movement that seeks to change its Shiite theocracy from within.
While Iran’s 85-year-old Khamenei has the final say on all matters of state, presidents can bend the country’s policies toward confrontation or negotiation with the West. However, given the record-low turnout in recent elections, it remains unclear just how many Iranians will take part in Friday’s poll. Pezeshkian, who voted at a hospital near the capital, Tehran, appeared to have that in mind as he responded to a journalist’s question about how Iran would interact with the West if he was president.
“God willing, we will try to have friendly relations with all countries except Israel,” the 69-year-old candidate said. Israel, long Iran’s regional archenemy, faces intense criticism across the Mideast over its grinding war in the Gaza Strip.
He also responded to a question about a renewed crackdown on women over the mandatory headscarf, or hijab, less than two years after the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide demonstrations and violent security force response.
“No inhuman or invasive behaviour should be made against our girls, daughters and mothers,” he said.
A higher turnout could boost Pezeshkian’s chances, and the candidate may have been counting on social media to spread his remarks, as all television broadcasters in the country are state-controlled and run by hard-liners. But it remains unclear if he can gain the momentum needed to draw voters to the ballot.
There have been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests who remains in house arrest, also has refused to vote with his wife, his daughter said.
There’s also been criticism that Pezeshkian represents just another government-approved candidate. One woman in a documentary on Pezeshkian aired by state TV said her generation was “moving toward the same level” of animosity with the government that Pezeshkian’s generation had in the 1979 revolution.
Analysts broadly describe the race as a three-way contest. There are two hard-liners, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and the parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. A Shiite cleric, Mostafa Pourmoha- mmadi, also has remained in the race despite polling poorly.
Pezeshkian has aligned himself with figures such as former President Hassan Rouhani, under whose administration Tehran struck the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

NEW DELHI,
Heavy rainfall and winds brought down a roof at the main airport in New Delhi on Friday, killing one person and disrupting flights from a domestic terminal, while flooded streets and traffic snarls threw daily life out of gear in India’s capital.
The airport area received about 148.5 millimetres of rain over three hours in the early morning, more than the average for all of June, according to India’s weather office. Experts blame climate change for extreme heat followed by heavy rain.
The city of 20 million people, who faced searing heatwaves earlier this month, received 228.1 mm of rainfall at its main Safdarjung weather
station in the 24 hours ending 8:30 am on Friday, a 266 percent departure from normal. A portion of the canopy and supporting beam at the departure area of Terminal 1 collapsed and flight operations were shut down until 2 pm, India’s aviation minister told reporters.
The entire terminal, one of three at the country’s biggest and busiest airport, was evacuated and an inquiry ordered into the collapse, said the minister, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu. Rescue work had been completed and eight injured people were taken to hospital, Atul Garg, the director of Delhi Fire Service, said.
At least eight flights were cancelled and 47 were delayed while departures from Delhi airport were running late by an average of 40 minutes, according to data from flight tracking platform Flightradar24.
Arrivals and departures of flights scheduled from Terminal 1 after 2 pm were diverted through the other two terminals, Naidu said, adding that passengers would receive full refunds or have the option of booking on alternate flights and routes.
Visuals from Indian TV channels showed a taxi crushed under a wrecked metal pillar at the entrance area of the terminal, which is mostly used by low-cost carriers IndiGo, operated by Interglobe Aviation and SpiceJet for domestic flights. Around 10-12 cars were damaged in the incident, said one of the workers at the airport.
“I first missed my flight in the morning due to floods. Then my 2:10 pm Indigo flight to Bangalore has been cancelled. I have to urgently reach Bangalore for an official meeting,” said Asif Ali, a businessman standing outside Terminal 1. GMR Airports Infrastructure which operates Delhi International Airport, is also its top shareholder with a 64 percent stake. Its shares fell as much as 2.1 percent in early trade.
Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport which owns a 10 percent stake in the airport, said it was in “close contact” with airport authorities. Many other parts of Delhi were flooded as well, including a tunnel opposite the venue where India hosted its G20 summit in September, and cars trapped in thigh-deep water.
A wall in southwest Delhi collapsed amid the downpour with labourers feared trapped in the debris, said a fire service spokesperson. Metro services were affected and traffic snarls were reported from several parts of the city while several residents also complained of power cuts.
India’s home ministry will review Delhi’s preparedness for the monsoon with the local government, weather officials and other city authorities on Saturday, a federal government source said, with users taking to social media to criticise what they said was the capital’s creaking infrastructure.
The roof and windows of a parked car were also damaged when part of a canopy of a new terminal building at Jabalpur airport in the central state of Madhya Pradesh caved in and fell following heavy rain.
India is among the fastest-growing major aviation markets in the world and domestic air travel reached a record 152 million passengers in 2023, according to government data. Domestic airlines carried 13.8 million passengers last month. The country has built ports and expressways at the fastest pace ever over the past decade but the incidents at the airports in Delhi and Jabalpur re-ignited questions about shoddy work, loose regulation and a tearing hurry to complete projects, politicians and experts said.
Ahead of the April-May general election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of new terminal buildings at 15 airports at a cost of 98 billion rupees ($1.17 billion). Both Delhi’s Terminal 1 and the terminal at Jabalpur were part of the projects.

TAICHUNG, Taiwan,
Peace in the Taiwan Strait benefits the whole world and the international community believes that without it, there can be neither prosperity nor security, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Friday.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up its pressure against Lai, whom it views as a “separatist”, and staged two days of war games around the island after he took office last month.
Over the past four years, China’s military has massively increased its activities in the narrow strait, a major international waterway for trade, and regularly flies warplanes there and operates warships.
Speaking to new recruits at an army base in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung, Lai said every drop of their sweat was to protect Taiwan’s security. “The international community believes these days that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is a necessary component for global security and prosperity,” he said.
“No matter whether it’s the United States, Japan, South Korea or the European Union, and the heads of state or prime ministers of many nations, they all agree on this point, opposing any country using force to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” Lai added.
“Our efforts are all for the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, for Taiwan’s security, and our democratic, free system and continued economic development,” he said. “Peace in the Taiwan Strait benefits global peace.”

Moscow,
Russia’s Defence Minister ordered officials to prepare a “response” to US drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said on Friday, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take forceful action to ward off the American reconnaissance aircraft.
The Russian Defence Ministry noted a recent “increased intensity” of
US drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and
targeting for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for strikes on Russian facilities.”
“It shows an increased involvement of the US and other NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
It noted that “such flights significantly increase the probability of incidents involving Russian military aircraft, which increases the risk of direct confrontation between the alliance and the Russian Federation.”
“NATO members will bear responsibility for that,” it added.
The ministry said that Defence Minister Andrei Belousov has directed the General Staff to “make proposals on measures of operative response to provocations.”
Washington and Moscow have clashed before over US drones in the Black Sea. In a 2023 incident, a Russian fighter jet damaged an American drone there, causing it to crash. A repeat of such a confrontation could further fuel tensions over the war in Ukraine.
On March 14, 2023, a Su-27 fighter jet of the Russian air force intercepted and damaged a US MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing it to crash into the Black Sea. The incident marked the first direct clash between the Russian and US forces since the Cold War.
The Pentagon and US European Command said after the incident that two Russian Su-27 aircraft dumped fuel on the MQ-9, which was conducting a routine surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace.
The Russian Defence Ministry said then that the US drone was flying near the Russian border and intruded into an area that was declared off-limits by Russian authorities.
Russia has declared broad areas near Crimea off-limits to flights.
Ever since Russia’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and long before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has accused US surveillance planes of flying too close to its borders while ignoring the notices issued by Russia.
Friday’s Russian statement follows a Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol over the weekend with US-made ATACMS missiles, which killed four and injured about 150, according to Russian authorities.

Dallas, Texas,
As they travel around Alaska on a long-planned vacation, Ike and
Susan Riffel stop now and then to put up stickers directing people to “Live Riffully.”
It’s a way for the California couple to honour the memories of their sons, Melvin and Bennett, who died in 2019 when a Boeing 737 Max jetliner crashed in Ethiopia.
The Riffels and families of other passengers who died in the crash and a similar one in Indonesia a little more than four months earlier are waiting to learn any day now whether the US Justice Department, all these years later, will prosecute Boeing in connection with the two disasters, which killed 346 people.
Ike Riffel fears that instead of putting Boeing on trial, the government will offer the company another shot at corporate probation through a legal document called a deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA. Or that prosecutors will let Boeing plead guilty and avoid a trial.
“A DPA hides the truth. A plea agreement would hide the truth,” Riffel says. “It would leave the families with absolutely no idea” of what happened inside Boeing as the Max was being designed and tested, and after the first crash in 2018 pointed to problems with new flight-control software.
“The families want to know the truth. Who was responsible? Who did what?” the father says. “Why did they have to die?” Ike is a retired forestry consultant, and Susan a retired religious educator. They live in Redding, California, where they raised their sons.
Mel was 29 and preparing to become a father himself when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down six minutes after takeoff. He played sports in school and worked as a technician for the California Department of Transportation in Redding. Bennett, 26, loved performing arts while growing up. He worked in IT support in Chico, California, and clients still send cards to his parents.
“They were our only two sons. They were very adventurous, very independent, loved to travel,” Riffel says.
In early 2019, Mel and his wife, Brittney, took a “babymoon” to Australia. Brittney flew home while Mel met his brother in Taiwan to start what they called their world tour. He and Bennett were headed toward their last stop, South Africa, where Mel planned to do some surfing, when they boarded the Ethiopian Airlines flight in Addis Ababa.
Back in California, Susan Riffel answered the phone when it rang on that Sunday morning. On the other end, someone from the airline told them their sons had been on a plane that had crashed.
“When you first hear it, you don’t believe it,” Ike Riffel says. “You still don’t believe after you see that there was a crash. ‘Oh, maybe they didn’t get on.’ You think of all these scenarios.”
The next shock came in January 2021: The Justice Department charged Boeing with fraud for misleading regulators who approved the Max, but at the same time, prosecutors approved an agreement that meant the single felony charge could be dropped in three years.
“I heard it on the news. It just kind of blew me away. I thought, what the hell?” Riffel says. “I felt pretty powerless. I didn’t know what a deferred prosecution agreement was.”
He and his wife believe they were deceived by the Justice Department, which until then had denied there was a criminal investigation going on. Boeing has never contacted the family, according to Riffel. He assumes that’s based on advice from the company’s lawyers.
“I have no trust in [Boeing] to do the right thing, and I really lost my confidence in the Department of Justice,” he says. “Their motto is to protect the American people, not to protect Boeing, and it seems to me they have spent the whole time defending Boeing.”
The Justice Department reopened the possibility of prosecuting Boeing last month, when it said the company had breached the 2021 agreement. The DOJ did not publicly specify the alleged violations.
Boeing has said it lived up to the terms of the deal, which required it to pay $2.5 billion, most of it to the company’s airline customers, and to maintain a program to detect and prevent violations of US anti-fraud laws, among other conditions. The pending decision in Washington matters to family members around the world.
The 157 passengers and crew members who died in the Ethiopian crash came from 35 countries, with the largest numbers from Kenya and Canada. Nearly two dozen passengers were flying to attend a United Nations environmental conference in Nairobi.
The March 10, 2019, crash came just months after another Boeing 737 Max 8, operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air, crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board. The vast majority of passengers on the October 29, 2018, flight were Indonesians.
In both crashes, software known by the acronym MCAS pitched the nose of the plane down repeatedly based on faulty readings from a single sensor.

LONDON,
The UK economy’s recovery from recession was stronger than previously thought in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, partly lifting embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before next week’s election.
Gross domestic product expanded by 0.7 percent in the first three months of this year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement, upgrading the prior estimate of 0.6-percent expansion and beating market expectations for no change.
The surprise news comes as Sunak’s Conservatives are trailing far behind the main opposition Labour party, led by Keir Starmer, ahead of nationwide polls next Thursday. Britons will vote on July 4 in an election widely expected to be won by main opposition Labour, a victory that would end 14 years of rule by the Conservatives, who have been led by Sunak since 2022.
The UK economy had contracted slightly for two quarters in a row in the second half of 2023, meeting the technical definition of a recession on elevated inflation that prolonged a cost-of-living crisis.
“This is certainly good news for whoever will be the Prime Minister this time next week, although it could also contribute to the Bank of England cutting interest rates a bit slower than otherwise,” noted Paul Dales, chief UK economist at research consultancy Capital Economics.
The ONS had already revealed earlier this month that the economy stagnated in April with zero growth, dented by wet weather which weighed on construction firms and retailers.
“More timelier GDP data from April suggests that the UK economy may have slipped up again,” warned XTB research director Kathleen Brooks.
Richard Flax, chief investment officer at European digital wealth manager Moneyfarm, meanwhile cautioned that Britain’s economic recovery would be modest. “While the UK does not appear poised to re-enter recession, these figures hardly endorse Sunak’s claim that the economy has turned a corner,” said Flax.
“It’s important to note that the recovery is likely to be modest... Interest rates remaining at elevated levels will continue to put pressure on household and company spending.”
The BoE last week held its key interest rate at a 16-year high of 5.25 percent despite UK inflation returning to its two percent target.
Until now, it had been forecast to cut borrowing costs at its next monetary policy gathering on August 1.
Inflation in Britain has slowed sharply in recent months to strike a near three-year low, recent data showed. The Consumer Prices Index decelerated to 2.0 percent in May from 2.3 percent in April.
UK inflation last stood at the BoE’s 2.0-percent target in July 2021, before rocketing higher in a cost-of-living crisis fuelled largely by soaring energy and food bills. Prices are nevertheless still rising on top of sharp increases seen in recent years.

BEIJING,
Apple’s smartphone shipments in China rose nearly 40 percent in
May from a year earlier, extending a rebound seen in April, data from a research firm affiliated with the Chinese government showed on Friday.
Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China increased by 1.425 million in May to 5.02 million units from 3.60 million a year earlier,
calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed.
Although the data did not explicitly mention Apple, the company is the dominant foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone-dominated market. This suggests that the increase in foreign-brand phone shipments can be attributed to Apple’s performance.
The jump in Apple’s sales follows a weak performance by the U.S. tech giant in the world’s biggest smartphone market earlier this year amid strong competition in the high-end smartphone category from local rivals such as Huawei.
The sales boost also comes after Apple launched an aggressive discounting campaign on its official Tmall site in China in May, offering price cuts of up to 2,300 yuan ($316.71)on select iPhone models.
Apple’s May sales increase extended its growth streak for the past two months, including a 52 percent jump in April. This marks
a significant improvement from the first two months of 2023, when the company experienced a 37 percent slump in sales.
Earlier last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook forecast iPhone sales growth in some markets, including China, after the company reported an 8.1 percent drop in second-quarter revenue from the Greater China region.
The price reduction in May, double the size of a discount it offered in February, comes after Huawei introduced in April its new series of high-end smartphones, the Pura 70, following the launch of the Mate 60 last August.
Huawei overtook Apple in the first quarter as the No. 2 smartphone vendor in China and is ramping up its retail strategy by opening more flagship stores and adding more retail distributors. Huawei spinoff Honor holds the top spot.
Overall phone sales in China increased by 16.5 percent to 30.33 million units in May, data from the CAICT showed.

SYDNEY: Australia’s government on Friday cleared a US$3.3 billion merger between the country’s ANZ and Suncorp banks, describing the decision as a close call. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he approved the merger after “much deliberation” following nearly two years of review by state and federal regulators. Chalmers said it was an “on-balance call” but he received clear advice that “it would not be in the national interest to prohibit this transaction”. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had blocked ANZ’s proposed takeover of Queensland-based Suncorp Bank, saying it would significantly harm competition. But the firms managed to overturn the decision on appeal. ANZ, already one of Australia’s big four banks, will significantly boost its position as a mortgage provider through the Aus$4.9 billion (US$3.3 billion) merger. (AFP)

PARIS: Global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said Friday it had added Monaco to a “grey list” of countries subject to increased monitoring. At a plenary meeting in Singapore it also added Venezuela to the list of nations considered to have “strategic deficiencies” in countering money laundering and terrorist financing, while however cooperating with the FATF to correct the problems. Jamaica and Turkey were removed from the list after resolving the deficiencies identified by the FATF, which monitors efforts by more than 200 countries and jurisdictions to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. (AFP)

SHANGHAI: Toyota is planning to launch the first electric car model equipped with an advanced autonomous driving system similar to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving for the Chinese market next year, one of its Chinese joint ventures said. The JV with state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) aims to restore the Japanese automaker’s market share in China by catching up with Chinese rivals on technologies in hybrids, batteries and intelligent vehicles. (REUTERS)

ATLANTA,
A moment of madness from Timothy Weah left the United States’s Copa America campaign hanging by a thread on Thursday as the hosts crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat to Panama.
Juventus winger Weah was sent off in the 18th minute after an off-the-ball clash with Panama’s Roderick Miller in a stormy Group C battle at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Although Folarin Balogun fired the US into the lead four minutes after Weah’s dismissal, Panama’s extra man advantage ultimately took its toll and the Central Americans hit back with goals from Cesar Blackman and Jose Fajardo to seal victory.
The defeat means the United States will almost certainly have to win or draw against group leaders Uruguay in their final group game next Monday to have any chance of advancing to the knockout rounds.
Uruguay all but assured themselves of a place in the last eight with a thumping 5-0 win over Bolivia in East Rutherford on Thursday.
In Atlanta, meanwhile, US coach Gregg Berhalter said after his team’s defeat that Weah’s red card had been the decisive moment of the match, describing the sending off as “silly.”
“The match-changing event is obviously the red card and it puts us in a tough spot but we expected that from them,” Berhalter said.
“I can’t fault the effort of the group, especially after going down a man. The guys dug in and we were close to coming out with a point. But it’s a shame, because there was more in this game, and a silly decision by Timmy leaves us shorthanded.”
“I sincerely apologise to everyone. My love for this team goes beyond just football.”
Berhalter’s team might have snatched the lead in the 81st minute after Weston McKennie’s fine run and cross found substitute Ricardo Pepi at the far post. Pepi’s tame header fell into the arms of Panama goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera, however, to leave it at 1-1.
That miss proved costly, as with seven minutes remaining, Fajardo swept in an emphatic finish from Abdiel Ayarza’s low cross to put Panama 2-1 ahead.
A fractious finale saw Adalberto Carrasquilla sent off after a cynical hack on US captain Christian Pulisic in the dying minutes as Panama hung on for the win.
Uruguay, meanwhile, looked in ominous form in Thursday’s other game, demolishing Bolivia with five unanswered goals at the MetLife Stadium.
Facundo Pellistri, Darwin Nunez, Maximiliano Araujo, Federico Valverde and Rodrigo Bentancur were all on target for the Uruguayans.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,
India are aiming to end their 11-year trophy drought in global cricket competitions. South Africa are chasing their first men’s World Cup title in any limited-overs format.
The Twenty20 World Cup finale at Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday will feature the tournament’s two unbeaten teams and it’ll end in either triumph or heartbreak for opposing captains Rohit Sharma of India and Aiden Markram of South Africa.
Sharma’s India squad have calmly seen off opposing teams with dominant performances—with the bat and the ball—on tricky pitches in the United States and the Caribbean, reaching their third T20 World Cup final by eliminating defending champions England in the semi-final.
Markram’s South African lineup didn’t panic in tougher game scenarios in the group stage and in the Super Eight before finally skittling first-time semi-finalist Afghanistan for just 56 runs to coast into the championship decider.
“It’s a personal and individual motivation that you get to a final, to earn the opportunity to hopefully lift the trophy,” said Markram, the first captain to steer a Proteas team into a World Cup final.
Sharma emphasised calmness as the key to India’s success, but wants to continue making the right decisions in the big moments.
India showed plenty of depth in their squad and signalled they would be the team to beat when they successfully defended 119 against archrivals Pakistan in the group stage on a difficult and much criticised drop-in pitch in New York.
“We need to make good decisions through the 40 overs,” Sharma said. “Yes, we do understand the occasion is important, but we need to play good cricket as well.”
In a bowlers’ tournament on variable wickets, Sharma’s aggressive intent in the power plays has helped India put opposition teams on the backfoot early. His back-to-back half centuries in the last two games helped eliminate the past two champions—Australia and England—despite his opening partner Virat Kohli going through a lean patch and scoring just 75 runs in seven games.
Kohli is yet to replicate Sharma’s aggression and has been dismissed without scoring twice in his worst-ever appearance in six T20 World Cups.
“We understand his class and importance in big games. Form is never a player when you’ve played for 15 years,” Sharma said.
“He’s looking good, the intent is there, (and) probably he’s saving himself for the final.”
Sharma is the only remaining active player from the India lineup that won the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007.
Sharma, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were part of the squad that went close to winning the title in 2014 in Bangladesh before losing to Sri Lanka in the final.
Like Sharma, Markram has also led South Africa admirably throughout the tournament that started June 1, including nervy wins over Bangladesh and Nepal in the group stage.
Pace bowlers Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada posed constant threats and were likely to challenge the aggression of Sharma. Spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj are capable of exploiting the perfect bowling conditions.
Quinton de Kock, with 204 runs in South Africa’s eight consecutive wins, is the only Proteas batter with 200-plus runs in the tournament. David Miller’s 148 is the next highest tally in a series of games dominated by the bowlers.
Rabada and Nortje have combined for 25 wickets in the tournament, while Maharaj and Shamsi have 20 wickets between them.
South Africa have never got this far in any major tournament—slipping in the semi-finals seven previous times in the T20 or 50-over formats.

BERLIN,
Champions Italy take on Switzerland in the Euro 2024 last 16 on Saturday after making it through the group phase by the skin of their teeth.
The Azzurri needed a 98th minute equaliser from relative unknown Mattia Zaccagni against Croatia to secure second spot in Group B, five points behind tournament standard-setters Spain.
Coach Luciano Spalletti said his team deserved to progress but undermined those words by criticising players for a timid performance in their final group game. The 65-year-old coach also lashed out against media and anybody putting pressure on his side, with his performative outrage perhaps an attempted distraction from his inability to get the two-time winners firing.
At times contradicting himself, Spalletti also claimed his team had been improving through the tournament.
“Thus far everything they’ve done has been getting better, from my perspective,” he said.
However to the outside world his new-look Italy seem unconvincing and a significant downgrade on the side that triumphed at Euro 2020—where they beat Switzerland 3-0 in the group phase.
Both goalscorers that day, Manuel Locatelli with a brace and Ciro Immobile, were left out of the squad by Spalletti, along with midfielder Marco Verratti.
Key defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini have retired and Juventus forward Federico Chiesa has been far from his best.
Lazio forward Zaccagni, 29, insisted his team could take a step forward in the knock-out rounds.
“Now we’re just thinking about preparing for a very important match against Switzerland,” he told UEFA’s website on Thursday. “We have always known that the national team often suffers and then comes out in the moments that count. And now we expect just that from ourselves.”
Murat Yakin’s Switzerland boast several Serie A players in their squad, including Inter Milan goalkeeper Yann Sommer and Bologna trio Dan Ndoye, Remo Freuler and Michel Aebischer.
“We have already seen many videos of Switzerland—they are a very compact team, they play for each other and it will take a great match to beat them,” added Zaccagni.
Italy will be without the suspended Riccardo Calafiori but Zaccagni says he is ready to play despite hurting his ribs under a pile of jubilant players celebrating his stunning late goal.
Questions remain over Italy’s best set-up, with Spalletti changing shape against Croatia, while holding midfielder Jorginho has struggled in particular.
Striker Mateo Retegui worked hard against Croatia but did not convince either, just as Gianluca Scamacca failed to in their opening 2-1 win over Albania and 1-0 defeat by Spain.
In years past Switzerland, who also pipped Italy to qualification to the last World Cup, would be looked upon as favourable opponents but they showed against Germany in their current shape they can threaten any team.
They went through Group A unbeaten, with Germany needing a 92nd minute goal to earn a 1-1 draw against the Swiss in the final group game.
That result may have been a blessing in disguise as it knocked Switzerland into second place and into what is being seen as the easier half of the draw—Germany, Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium are on the other side.
Switzerland proved at Euro 2020 they can put the cat among the pigeons, knocking out Kylian Mbappe’s France on penalties in the last 16 before Spain returned the favour in the quarter-finals. That victory will give them confidence to try and equal their best ever finish in the tournament by reaching the last eight.

Kathmandu,
Stakeholders of the Nepali film fraternity have called for social inclusion in the content and characters of Nepali films. During the 34th edition of the MediaTalk series, organised by St Xavier’s College on Friday, leading actor and singer Prakash Saput, film director Manoj Pandit, and documentary director Ramyata Limbu discussed the industry critically and called for social inclusion.
The MediaTalk series is a bimonthly educational event led by the Faculty of Journalism at the college. Students interact directly with national and international professionals, academicians, and activists on a range of social issues.
The theme of the talk series was ‘The Voice of the Excluded in the Nepali Cinema’ in celebration of the college’s theme of the academic year 2024-25, ‘Walking with the Excluded’.
Film director Pandit emphasised the significance of both the director as a communicator and the audience as a critical analyst, “The difference lies in the audience’s perception of the content as opposed to how it is intended to be perceived”.
Pandit, also a member of the Film Development Board Nepal, further stressed that the movies screened to the audience shouldn’t only be profit-centric but must depict a story of struggle that clearly makes an impact and drives the viewers.
Saput, an actor and singer, opined that stories and content should be presented on the screen not only as the voice of people but also as a medium of interconnectedness. He stated that while the idea of inclusion has always been reflected in movies, society has failed to recognise these narratives.
Echoing the sentiment, the Director of the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (Kimff) Limbu, called for self-development and awareness among society as well as film directors in the film sector.
“The narratives in the screen depend on the perspective and approach of the director, but they also depend on the audiences since they are the power bearers,” she suggested.
“We’re on a journey to educate students with a series of project-based pedagogies,” said Chun Bahadur Gurung, the faculty coordinator of the MediaTalk series.
“Critical discourse on the theme today has helped students understand the progress Nepali cinema has made with respect to raising the voices of the excluded,” he added.
“Social exclusion is an easy evil, but social inclusion is a deliberate and noble action”, said Fr Augustine Thomas, SJ, the principal of the college.
He further stated, “Listening to the experiences and views of notable personalities in this series aimed to broaden students’ perspectives and inspire them to be boundlessly inclusive in their lives.”