India couple wed in France, Argentina football shirts

The Wrong BRICS Expansion

At first blush, it may seem like good news that the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) group will expand to include Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Argentina. An 11-strong BRICS+ could be more representative of the world’s emerging economies, providing a useful counterweight against American hegemony. Yet, in many […]

Khabarhub English श्रावण २०८०

Foreign Trade Falls

Nepal's economy is going through a challenging situation even after COVID-19 crisis. It is needless to mention that the pandemic had dealt a severe blow to global economy, and Nepal's economy was not an exception. With a weak industrial base, the country can produce only limited products, with soybean oil and palm oil being the major exportable items. The country adds value to these products and exports them to India after having imported raw materials from different countries. Following COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war has hit the world economy in one way or the other. Almost 10 months have passed since the war began. And it has been quite problematic for many countries globally, including Nepal, to import the raw materials. Consequently, Nepal's export trade has suffered a setback. Raw soybean oil comes from Bangladesh, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America (USA) while the country imports raw palm oil from Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

The Rising Nepal कार्तिक २०७९

2022 World Cup: The numbers which make the Qatar event so different

So what will make it so different? More football each day At 29 days from start to finish (20 November to 18 December), this will be the shortest World Cup since Argentina 1978. That means organisers have to squeeze in four games most days during the group stages - at 10:00, 13:00, 16:00 and 19:00 GMT. Most World Cups in recent memory have had three a day. There is also no turnaround time between the groups and the knockout stages, with the last 16 starting the day after the group stages end. A condensed World Cup There are only about 40 miles between the two furthest away stadiums - Al Bayt Stadium north of Doha to Al Janoub Stadium just south of the capital. The drive takes just 50 minutes without traffic. A tournament with a disposable stadium Seven of the eight World Cup stadiums have been built from scratch for this tournament. Seven of the eight will have seats removed after the tournament... and Stadium 974, which is made of shipping containers, will be entirely disassembled. Only one of the eight grounds will be the home stadium of a football team afterwards (Al Rayyan at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium). In total about 200,000 seats will be removed from grounds (and, according to organisers, be gifted to developing countries) after the final. A lack of places to stay As a country that does not get near the top 100 in the world for population or size, it is perhaps no surprise that Qatar cannot offer the accommodation usually seen at a World Cup. In March, the country had just 30,000 hotel rooms - with official figures suggesting 1.5 million people are coming. They hope to have a total of 130,000 rooms available in the country in time for fans coming - including 9,000 beds in fans villages, big tents and metal cabins, 60,000 rooms in apartments and villas, 50,000 in hotels and 4,000 rooms in two cruise ships which will remain docked for the tournament. The lack of rooms means some fans will have to stay in neighbouring countries such as Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and fly in for their games. Oman is offering free visas and 24 special flights a day from Muscat to Doha. A lot of new infrastructure Qatar has had to build a lot of infrastructure to host this tournament. As well as the stadiums, more than 100 hotels have popped up and there have been new roads and a metro built. A new city is going to be built around the final stadium in Lusail. The budget for just stadiums and training facilities alone is £5.3bn. Plenty of tickets sold Despite all the issues with accommodation, 2.89 million tickets were sold at the last update in October - meaning this could be one of the best attended World Cups ever. How much is a beer? The price of a beer is about £10 to £15 in Qatar - although there are huge restrictions on where you can buy alcohol. Usually, licensed hotel bars and restaurants are the only options in Qatar, although during the World Cup, fan zones and the grounds around the stadium will also sell beer. The fan zones will reportedly charge £11.60 for 500ml of lager. Drinking alcohol in public places (outside of these areas) can result in a prison sentence of up to six months and a fine of more than £700. The tournament's carbon footprint Some 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 will be omitted during the tournament. It was 2.1 million in Russia. Criticism over deaths of migrant workers More than 6,500 migrant workers are thought to have died in Qatar from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka alone from when the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010 to 2020, according to a Guardian investigation last year. The Qatar government said the total was misleading, because not all the deaths recorded were of people working on World Cup-related projects. Amnesty International says there are no exact figures because the Qatari authorities have failed to investigate the deaths of thousands of migrant workers over the past decade. (with inputs from BBC)

Ratopati English कार्तिक २०७९

Extreme weather: What is it and how is it connected to climate change?

AUG 29: The UK and parts of Europe have seen temperatures of above 40C this month, leading to transport disruption and water shortages. Emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels have been trapping heat in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial era. This extra heat isn't evenly distributed across the globe, and bursts out extreme weather events. Unless global emissions are cut, this cycle will continue. Here are four ways climate change is changing the weather. 1. Hotter, longer heatwaves To understand the impact of small changes to average temperatures, think of them as a bell curve with extreme cold and hot at either end, and the bulk of temperatures in the middle. A small shift in the centre means more of the curve touches the extremes - and so heatwaves become more frequent and extreme. Temperatures in the UK topped 40C for the first time on 19 July. The Met Office estimates that the extreme heat seen during the most recent heatwave is ten times more likely now because of climate change. And things could worsen. "In a few decades this might actually be a quite a cool summer," says Professor Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. The Met Office has also pointed out that heatwaves are not just hotter: They're also lasting longer. Warm spells have more than doubled in length in the past 50 years. Heatwaves can be made longer and more intense by another weather phenomenon - a heat dome. In an area of high pressure, hot air is pushed down and trapped in place, causing temperatures to soar over an entire continent. When a storm distorts the jet stream, which is made of currents of fast-flowing air, it is a bit like yanking a skipping rope at one end and seeing the ripples move along it. These waves cause everything to slow drastically and weather systems can become stuck over the same areas for days on end - as was seen in India earlier this year. India and Pakistan have already faced five successive heatwaves this year, with Jacobabad, in Pakistan, registering 49C at one point in May. In the Southern Hemisphere, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil all saw an historic heatwave in January - many areas reported their hottest day on record. In the same month, Onslow in Western Australia hit 50.7C, the joint-highest temperature ever reliably recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. Last year, North America was also hit by long heatwaves. The western Canadian town of Lytton burnt down when temperatures hit 49.6C, breaking the previous record by almost 5C. Such an intense heatwave would have been virtually impossible without climate change, says the World Weather Attribution network, a collaboration between international climate scientists. One theory suggests higher temperatures in the Arctic are causing the jet stream to slow, increasing the likelihood of heat domes. 2. More persistent droughts As heatwaves become more intense and longer, droughts can also worsen. Less rain falls between heatwaves, so ground moisture and water supplies run dry more quickly. This means the ground takes less time to heat up, warming the air above and leading to more intense heat. Demand for water from humans and farming puts even more stress on water supply, adding to shortages. 3. More fuel for wildfires Wildfires can be sparked by direct human involvement - but natural factors can also play a huge part. The cycle of extreme and long-lasting heat caused by climate change draws more and more moisture out of the ground and vegetation. These tinder-dry conditions provide fuel for fires, which can spread at an incredible speed. The Northern Hemisphere's wildfire season begun early in some areas, due to lack of rainfall and unseasonable warmth, and has worsened through July. Most recently severe wildfires have been reported in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Albania - with thousands of residents evacuated and several hundreds reported to have died. In Canada last summer, heatwaves led to fires which developed so rapidly and explosively that they created their own weather system, forming pyrocumulonimbus clouds. These colossal clouds then produced lightning, igniting more fires. The frequency of large wildfires has increased dramatically in recent decades. Compared with the 1970s, fires larger than 10,000 acres (40 sq km) are now seven times more common in western America, according to Climate Central, an independent organisation of scientists and journalists. 4. More extreme rainfall events In the usual weather cycle, hot weather creates moisture and water vapour in the air, which turns into droplets to create rain. The warmer it becomes, however, the more vapour there is in the atmosphere. This results in more droplets and heavier rainfall, sometimes in a shorter space of time and over a smaller area. Already this year, floods have hit Spain and also parts of eastern Australia. In a period of just six days Brisbane saw almost 80% of its annual rainfall, while Sydney recorded more than its average annual rainfall in little over three months. These rainfall events are connected to the effects of climate change elsewhere, according to Peter Gleick, a water specialist from the US National Academy of Sciences. "When areas of drought grow, like in Siberia and western US, that water falls elsewhere, in a smaller area, worsening flooding," he says. The weather across the globe will always be highly variable - but climate change is making those variations more extreme. And the challenge now is not only limiting the further impact people have on the atmosphere but also adapting to and tackling the extremes we are already facing.

Ratopati English श्रावण २०७९

G7 summit opens amid lower expectations, protests

ELMAU, Germany, June 27: Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) kicked off their three-day annual summit on Sunday in Schloss Elmau in south Germany's Bavarian Alps amid lower expectations and protests. The summit will focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, climate and others, while the host dampened expectations. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, especially further sanctions against Russia, will dominate the discussions at the summit of the world's major industrialized countries, as U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday morning that the G7 would impose a ban on imports of Russian gold. In the first working session on Sunday, the leaders discussed global economic issues. All G7 countries are concerned about the crises that are currently being dealt with: falling growth rates in some countries, rising inflation, shortages of raw materials and disruption to supply chains, according to the host German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. After the following working session in the afternoon, the G7 leaders launched a billion-dollar global infrastructure and investment initiative, dubbed the "Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment." A German federal government source said on Saturday night that price caps of Russian oil will be discussed, a measure that envisages forcing Russia to sell oil to large buyers such as India at a significantly lower price in the future. The G7 countries are intensively discussing the issue and are "on the way to finding an agreement." The source said that there will be a statement about the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict by the G7 leaders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a speech via video during the summit. Leaders will also address the food crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They will try to seek ways to unblock Ukraine's grain exports across the Black Sea and make financial pledges to help countries hardest hit by the crisis. According to the policy priorities made by the host country Germany, G7 leaders will also address issues including climate change, by establishing a "climate club" put forward by Scholz. Besides leaders of Germany, the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain, Italy, France and the European Union, leaders from India, Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal and Argentina have been invited to take part in the summit. The West bloc is expected to take advantage of the G7 summit to try to persuade major developing countries to join their sanctions against Russia, experts said. However, the host nation Germany tried to dampen the expectations of this summit. In his weekly podcast released on Saturday, Scholz said that although Elmau, the summit site, "lies in the mountains, we will certainly not move mountains there." On Saturday, some 4,000 people marched in Munich against the G7 summit, with some protest groups accusing major western countries of triggering the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and of making the whole world bear the consequences of the conflict, including the food crisis. Demonstrations continued and protestors got closer to the summit site on Sunday afternoon. More than 1,000 protestors attended the demonstrations, according to the organizers. Climate crisis and the fear of an escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are the main concerns of protestors. "We will not allow them to destroy our planet and our future," said a protestor at the rally.

Ratopati English जेष्ठ २०७९

India buys Russian sunoil at record high price as Ukraine supplies halt

India imports sunoil mainly from Russia and Ukraine. It imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, whereas the bulk of soyoil is sourced from Argentina and Brazil.

The Kathmandu Post फाल्गुन २०७८

Brazil-Argentina WC qualifier suspended

SAO PAULO, Sept. 6: Brazil's home World Cup qualifier against Argentina was suspended on Sunday after four players from the visiting team were accused of breaching COVID-19 protocols. Officials from Brazilian health regulator Anvisa walked onto the Corinthians Arena pitch seven minutes after kickoff to order the game be halted. According to the government agency, Premier League players Emiliano Martinez, Giovani Lo Celso, Cristian Romero and Emiliano Buendia failed to comply with entry regulations for travelers. Rules introduced to curb the spread of COVID-19 prohibit non-Brazilians from entering the country if they have passed through the United Kingdom, South Africa, Northern Ireland and India in the past 14 days. In a statement issued hours before the match, Anvisa accused the players of providing false information on immigration forms and ordered them to self-isolate immediately. "Anvisa considers the situation a serious health risk, and therefore advised the local health authorities to determine the immediate quarantine of players, who are prevented from participating in any activity and should not remain in Brazilian territory," the agency said. Martinez, Lo Celso and Romero were on the pitch when the match was interrupted while Buendia was watching from the stands, having missed a place in Argentina's match day squad. Players and coaches from both teams, including Argentina captain Lionel Messi and Brazil star Neymar, spoke at length with the Anvisa officials after play was stopped. Messi was heard asking why the fixture was allowed to start if officials already knew of the protocol breach. By then, most of his teammates were already in the locker rooms and the game was officially suspended almost an hour after the interruption. Brazil's players remained on the pitch throughout and later took part in an impromptu training session. It was not immediately clear if the qualifier would be rescheduled. "The referee and the match official will take a report to the FIFA disciplinary committee and they will decide what steps to take," the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said in a statement. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni echoed Messi sentiments, questioning why officials had decided to wait until the game started to take action. Argentina arrived in Brazil on Friday. "It makes me very sad. I'm not looking for any culprits. Irrespective of whether or not there was any wrongdoing, it was not the time to make that intervention," Scaloni said. "It should have been a match to be enjoyed by everyone, a chance to see the best players in the world. I would like the people of Argentina to understand that as a coach I have to defend my players. "At no time were we notified that they could not play the match. We wanted to play the game, the players from Brazil too." Claudio Tapia, the president of the Argentinian Football Association, refuted suggestions the Albiceleste had knowingly contravened Brazil's health guidelines. "You can't talk about anybody lying because there is a health legislation under which all South American [football] tournaments are played," he told reporters. "The health authorities of each country approved a protocol that we have been closely complying with. What happened today is regrettable for football.

Ratopati English श्रावण २०७८