May 30: Balen Shah

‘काठमाडौंले व्यवस्थाको परिवर्तन खोजेको होइन, असन्तुष्टि पोखेको हो’
पहिलो बैठकमै तनाव : मेयर बालेन साहलाई वडाध्यक्षले भने- प्रक्रिया सिकेर आउनुस्
नवनिर्वाचित अध्यक्ष यादवको घोषणा- गाउँपालिकाभर नि:शुल्क वाईफाई
हुलाकी राजमार्ग निर्माण गर्न ६ अर्ब ७ करोड बजेट विनियोजन आगामी ३०० किलोमिटर कालोपत्रे गर्ने र २४ वटा पुल बनाउने लक्ष्य छ । यस्तै ६७ वटा पुल निर्माण सुरु गर्न यो रकम उपयोग हुनेछ । ...... ३० वर्ष अघिबाट बनाउन सुरु गरिएको हुलाकी सडक अझै बनिसकेसकेको छैन । तत्कालीन भारतीय प्रधानमन्त्री चन्द्रशेखरले २०४७ सालमा नेपाल भ्रमणका क्रममा यो राजमार्ग निर्माण गर्ने घोषणा गरेका थिए । त्यसको १४ वर्षपछि ०६१ सालमा दुई देशबीच निर्माणका लागि औपचारिक सम्झौता भयो । ..... हुलाकी राजमार्गले तराईका १७ जिल्लालाई छुन्छ । पहाडबाट तराईसम्म खनिएका फेडर रोडलाई पूर्व–पश्चिम महेन्द्र राजमार्ग हुँदै हुलाकी राजमार्गमा जोड्ने गरी काम भइरहेको छ ......... यो १७ सय ९२.२५ किलोमिटर लामो राजमार्ग हो । यसको पूर्व–पश्चिम खण्ड ९७५ किलोमिटरको छ भने महेन्द्र राजमार्गसँग जोड्ने सहायक खण्ड र सडकहरु ८१७ किलोमिटरका छन् । ........ यो राजमार्गको प्रथम चरण अन्तरगतका १७ सडकमध्ये १० वटा खण्डमा भारत सरकारले काम गरिरहेको छ, जसको लम्बाइ २१८ किलोमिटर छ । यो राजमार्गको धेरै खण्डहरु वर्षामा हिलाम्ये र हिउँदमा धुलाम्य हुने गरेका छन् ।

मेयर बालेनकी श्रीमति भन्छिन्- घरभित्रबाट जितेको मानिसको बाहिर कहिल्यै हार हुँदैन
मेयर बालेनले प्रधानसेनापति शर्मालाई किन भेटे ? काठमाडौं महानगरपालिकाका मेयर बालेन्द्र शाहले नेपाली सेनाका प्रधानसेनापति प्रभुराम शर्मासँग शिष्टाचार भेट गरेका छन् । आज मेयरका रुपमा सपथ लिएलगत्तै भद्रकालीस्थित सैन्य मुख्यालय पुगेका शाहले प्रधानसेनापतिसँग भेटवार्ता गरेका हुन् ।

मेयरमा पराजित भएर पनि खुसी मनाइरहेका बिपी साह को हुन् ? उनले भनेका छन्, ‘हाम्रो जनमत पार्टी (जपा) र मेरो लागि पनि यो आम चुनाव पहिलो थियो । जनमत पार्टी वा मैले हार्ने कुनै सिट नै थिएन । १ मत भए पनि हामी जित्ने नै हौँ । र, उम्मेदवारी दिएको हरेक पालिकामा हामीले जित्यौँ । हामीले कुनै सिट गुमाएनौँ। भूमिका मात्र फरक भयौं ।’ ......... सबैलाको कुल सदर मत १९६९६ छ । त्यसको १० प्रतिशतभन्दा बढी मत अर्थात् १९८९ मत साहले पाए । ‘पहिलो प्रयास मै १० प्रतिशतभन्दा बढी मत ल्याउनु ठूलो उपलब्धि हो’, उनको दाबी छ,

‘आउँदो चुनावमा हाम्रा एक जना मतदाताले अर्को एक जना मतदाता मात्र थप्ने हो भने हामी प्रक्रियागत चुनाव सहजै जित्ने छौँ ।’

...... उनले आउँदो प्रदेश र प्रतिनिधिसभा निर्वाचनको तयारीमा रहन पनि आग्रह गरेका छन् । ...... सबैलाको मेयरमा नेकपा माओवादी केन्द्रका उम्मेदवार कारीराम यादव विजयी भएका हुन् । उनी माओवादी नेता तथा पूर्वमन्त्री मातृका प्रसाद यादवका भाइ हुन् । पाँच दलीय गठबन्धनका अघोषित उम्मेदवार भए पनि यादव मात्र २१ प्रतिशत मत ल्याएर प्रक्रियागत विजयी भएको भन्दै पराजित उम्मेदवार साहले विजयी सबैमा बधाई ज्ञापन गरेका छन् ।

‘काठमाडौंले व्यवस्थाको परिवर्तन खोजेको होइन, असन्तुष्टि पोखेको हो’ लिच्छविकालदेखि नै बाहिरबाट आएका मान्छेहरुले शासन गर्दै आएको पृष्ठभूमि छ । ...... बाहिरबाट आएर शासन गर्छन्, दुई–चार वर्षमै आफ्नो अवस्था सुधार्छन् तर काठमाडौंलाई जस्ताको त्यस्तै छोड्छन् । ...... लहर चाहिं के रैछ भने बहुदल पछिका राजनीतिक दलका नेता र पार्टीले काठमाडौंलाई राम्ररी हेरेनन्, काठमाडौंवासीका कलासंस्कृति, भाषालाई राम्ररी हेरेनन् भन्ने लहर आयो काठमाडौंमा । ........ केही वर्षअघिसम्म राजनीतिमा जतिसुकै परिवर्तन आए पनि यहाँका युवाहरुलाई मतलब हुँदैनथ्यो । तर अहिले पछिल्लो समयमा राजनीतिप्रति यहाँका स्थानीय युवाको सचेतना बढेको छ । अर्कोतिर विकासका नाममा काठमाडौंमाथि दमन गरियो, त्यसलाई युवाले बुझे । काठमाडौंका स्थानीय मानिसका विदेशमा पढ्ने छोराछोरीले समेत घरमा फोन गरेर भोट चाहिं बालेन साहलाई दिनू है भने । त्यसको अर्थ त काठमाडौंका युवा राजनीतिक रुपमा जागरुक भए भन्ने हो । तर महत्वपूर्ण कुरा चाहिं यहाँका युवा काठमाडौंको भाषा संस्कृतिलाई लिएर जागृत भएका हुन् कि या विकासको मात्रै कुरा हो भनेर बुझ्नुपर्ने हुन्छ । ..... बालेन साहसँगै स्वतन्त्र उठ्नुभएका सुमन सायमीको मत हेर्नुपर्ने हुन्छ, उहाँले सम्मानजनक मत पाउनुभएको छ । उपमेयर सुनिता डंगोलले मत पाउनुभएको छ, त्यो पनि अभियानको पक्षमा आएको मत हो ।

काठमाडौंको फोहाेरबारे अध्ययन गर्न कार्यदल गठन
महानगर चलाउन सिक्दैछन् मेयर बालेन ! वडाध्यक्षहरुले पहिले निर्णयको प्रस्ताव गर्न सम्झाए । मेयर साहले ठीक छ, ठीक छ भनिरहे । वडाध्यक्ष विमलकुमार होडाले व्यंग्य गरे, ‘संसदीय बैठक प्रणाली सिक्नुस् । मेयर साब इन्जिनियर हुनुभयो, ठीक छ । बैठकको प्रक्रिया अध्ययन गर्नुस् ।’ ....... पहिलो बैठकमा मेयर साहले वडाध्यक्षहरुबाट ‘बैठक सञ्चालनको प्रक्रिया सिकेर आउनुस्’ भनेको सुन्नु परेको छ । ..... उपमेयर सुनीता डंगोलले नेपाल भाषामै सपथ लिइन् । ....... सोमबार नै नगर कार्यपालिकाको पहिलो बैठक बस्यो, जहाँ मेयर बालेनले ६ वटा प्रस्ताव राखे । सुरुमा परिचय, त्यसपछि धन्यवाद प्रस्ताव थियो । त्यसपछि उनले फोहोर मैला व्यवस्थापनको प्रस्ताव राखे । आफू सपथ लिनुअघि नै सिसडोल र बञ्चरेडाँडा घुम्न गएको भन्दै उनले काठमाडौं महानगरको फोहोर जम्मा भएर बस्न गाह्रो भएको तथा हरेक घरमा क्यान्सर रोग, छालाको रोग पीडित रहेको पाएको बताए । ......... सोलिड वेष्ट (ठोस फोहोर) बारे आफूलाई पनि ज्ञान रहेको भन्दै उनले आधुनिक रुपमा व्यवस्थापन गर्नुपर्ने बताए । ७५ प्रतिशत फोहोरलाई मलमा रुपान्तरण गर्न सकिने भन्दै उनले भने, ‘यसका लागि उपकरण ल्याउनुपर्छ, महानगरमा पनि प्रपोजल होला ।’ सिसडोेललाई बस्न योग्य बनाउनुपर्ने र बञ्चरेडाँडामा पनि फोहोर व्यवस्थापन गर्नुपर्ने भन्दै बालेनले आफू, उपमेयर समेत रहेको टोली बनाउने प्रस्ताव गरे । महानगरभित्र रहेका रेष्टुरेन्टका शौचालयलाई सार्वननिक शौचालयका रुपमा प्रयोग गर्ने पनि उनले प्रस्ताव राखे । यसका लागि आफूले चेन रेष्टुरेन्टहरुसँग छलफल समेत गरेको भन्दै मेयर साहले महानगरले संकेत चिह्नहरु राखिदिनुपर्ने सुनाए । उनले अघि भने, ‘यो काठमाडौंबाट सुरु भएपछि देशभर हुनेछ भन्ने विश्वास छ ।’....... यसअघि पनि वडाको नेतृत्व गरिसकेका वडाध्यक्षहरुले फोहोर व्यवस्थापनको समस्यालाई हलुका ढंगले नलिन आग्रह गरे । ...... वडा नम्बर २९ का वडाध्यक्ष कुश ढकालले मेयर बालेनलाई म होइन, हामी भन्न सुझाए । ‘म नभनौं, हामी भनौं । म मात्र भनेर लोकप्रिय हुने कुरा नगरौं, हामी सबै मिलेर महानगर बननऔं, यसमा साथ दिन तयार छौं’ उनलेभने । ....... कार्यपालिकामा कांग्रेस, एमाले र एकीकृत समाजवादीका प्रतिनिधि रहेको भएपनि मेयरले एक्लो महसुस गर्नु नपर्ने उनले बताए । ......... हरेक काम गर्दा सल्लाह र छलफल गर्न आग्रह गर्दै उनले भने, ‘एजेण्डाहरु आउनुभन्दा पहिला दलका साथीहरुसँग एकचोटी सरसल्लाह गरेर यो यो एजेण्डा छ, के छ सुझाव भनिदिनुस् ।’ त्यसो नभए आउँदा दिनमा अप्ठ्यारो पर्ने वडाध्यक्ष पराजुलीले बताए । उनले अघि भने, ‘प्रमुखजीलाई के भन्न चाहन्छु भने प्लिज, बि केयर फुल एबाउट ह्वाट यू से ! प्लिज, बि करेक्ट एवाउट ह्वाट यू डू ! त्यसो भए हामी एक ढिक्का भएर जान सकिन्छ । बाँकी प्रमुखको हातमा छ, तपाईंको रोजी, हाम्रो छाडी ।’

जित पक्का भएपछि बालेनले भने – विजयी जुलुस नगरौं, आफू रहेकै ठाउँमा धन्यवाद र्‍याली गरौं

News: May 30

Ratan, Lee, Deng

अमेरिका को मधेसी संगठन एण्टा का संस्थापक अध्यक्ष रतन झा को अहिले सम्म को सबैभन्दा मैले सम्झिने कुरा फेसबुक मार्फ़त मलाई यो पुस्तक सम्म पुर्याइदिएको। एउटा स्टेटस थियो यो पुस्तक दुई वर्ष अगाडि। मैले पुस्तक देखें, किनें, पढ़ें। रतन जी भन्दा पहिला पढ़ि सकाएं। दफा दफा मा लाइन मुनि धर्को कोरी कोरी। 

राष्ट्रनिर्माण मा ली गोल्ड स्टैण्डर्ड नै हो। र आर्थिक प्रगति मात्र होइन। बिभिन्न। जस्तो कि दंगा रोकथाम। थुप्रै। लगभग प्रत्येक पक्ष। स्वास्थ्य बीमा। होम ओनरशीप (Home Ownership)। 

From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, 1965–2000 739 Pages (Free Download)

मैले हीरो मानेको ली। ली ले हीरो मानेको डेंग। डेंग बारे को किताब पनि पढ़ें। चिनिया राजनीतिक प्रणाली बारे धेरै कुरा थाहा भो। ली ले हीरो किन मानेको भन्ने पनि देखें। आर्थिक नेपोलियन नै हो डेंग। सांस्कृतिक क्रांति का दौरान डेंग को छोरा लाई प्यारलाइज हुने गरी पिटपाट गरिएको। डेंग आफै हाउस अरेस्ट मा। 

चीन लाई एउटा अर्को डेंग चाहिएको हो। सी ले चीन लाई मिडल इनकम ट्रैप मा लगेर थन्क्याएको अवस्था छ। डेंग ले आर्थिक सुधार गरे। राजनीतिक सुधार पछि गर्ने भनेका। त्यो समय त अब आइसक्यो। 

Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China 736 Pages (Free Download)

News: May 28

Why Are Bikes So Much Fun? Because They’re Not Cars. The bicycle was invented in 1817 — much later than salt, trees or sheep ........ “the first bike came into the world a decade and a half after the invention of the steam locomotive.” ........ It seems startlingly late for the arrival of such an intuitive and simple form of transportation ....... The narrow subject and relatively brief time frame of “Two Wheels Good” make it a crystalline portrait of modernity, the vexed, exhilarating, murderous, mechanized world left to us by the 19th century. The bicycle has touched nearly every element of life on earth since then, it turns out. The Vietcong used bikes in their counterraids; Susan B. Anthony once commented that the bicycle had “done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world”; it was a Parisian bicycle maker who patented the ball bearing, the so-called atom of the machine age. We even rode it into the age of flight, in a sense:

The Wright brothers were bike mechanics.

.......... (Early bikes were expensive — eight guineas, John Keats reported in a letter to his brother and sister-in-law.) ....... “the so-called safety bicycle of the 1880s, whose invention gave the bike the classic form we recognize today.” ......... Its cheapness and mobility have aided insurgencies of every kind, whether feminism or socialism, and as a means of travel, it immediately challenged the moneyed holders of horseflesh, a “people’s nag,” or, as a famous ad from the manufacturer Columbia put it, “An Ever-Saddled Horse Which Eats Nothing.” .......... “One of Adolf Hitler’s first acts upon assuming power, in 1933,” he writes, in a disquieting passage, “was to smash Germany’s cycling union.” ......... “Pedal-driven taxis jam the streets of Singapore and Manila,” he writes. “Subsistence farmers in Vietnam, India and other countries use modified bikes to plow and till and harrow. In Peru, bicycles function as mobile fruit and vegetable stalls; in Zambia, cycles bring goods to marketplaces and the sick to hospitals. … It is pedal power that keeps cities running, that keeps commerce flowing, that stands between life and death.” Around the world, “more people travel by bicycle than by any other form of transportation.” .......... “Bike riding is the best way I know to reach an altered consciousness,” he writes, “better than yoga, or wine, or weed. It runs neck and neck with sex and coffee.” ......... Four wheels bad ........... Should we as a species be riding bicycles instead of driving cars? Probably. “The automotive age is an age of carnage,” Rosen writes. “Some 1.25 million people die in car crashes each year.” Not just that, either: “Motor vehicles are the largest net contributor to climate change.” ......... Even China, which at its peak in 1996 had some 523 million bicycles distributed among its citizens, has submitted to a new “automobile frenzy,” sending bike usage into a “precipitous decline.” For all the charm, usefulness and elegance of the bike, we as a species seem to be drawn to its calamitously problematic successor. ......... cities built around bikes would be “safer, saner, healthier, more habitable.” ............. “Ice is melting at the top and bottom of the planet,” the author writes, “forests are aflame, political systems are fracturing, a pandemic has shaken daily life at its foundations, and amid the tumult, a new global bicycle culture is emerging.”

Massacres Test Whether Washington Can Move Beyond Paralysis The United States is facing a widening gap between the scale of gun violence and what America’s political leaders can agree are the right responses to the carnage......... Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut and the leader of the effort, said he had not seen so much willingness to talk since 20 children were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. ......... few of the proposals under discussion would have made much of a difference. The gunman did not have a criminal record that might have been caught by expanded background checks. There is no evidence that the gun had been part of a trafficking ring. And so far, there have not been reports of mental illness that might have triggered a so-called red flag law. ......... More far-reaching efforts — such as banning military-style weapons, raising the age for gun purchases and requiring licensing and registration for firearm ownership — have already been all but ruled out, the result of Republican opposition, Democratic resignation and court rulings. .........

The reaction in Washington to the horrific scenes is a familiar combination of pain and paralysis.

....... the police were wrong to have waited more than an hour to confront the gunman as he holed up inside a classroom, firing sporadically while students who were still alive lay still among the bodies of classmates ....... What remains is an enormous gap between the scale of the problem — over 1,500 people have been killed in more than 270 mass shootings since 2009, according to Everytown for Gun Safety — and what America’s political leaders can agree are the right responses to the carnage. ........ about 30 percent of adults say they own a gun. ......... And the divide is also wide between people who own guns and people who do not. (Republicans are roughly twice as likely to say they own a gun as Democrats.) ........ The response to mass shootings in the United States is starkly different than the decisive action taken in other developed countries around the world. Britain banned semiautomatic weapons and handguns after shootings in 1987 and 1996. Australia held a mandatory gun buyback after a 1996 massacre and the rate of mass shootings plummeted. Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Norway all tightened gun laws after horrific crimes. ............ A steady stream of Republican lawmakers once again delivered a two-step that has worked for them for years: declaring that none of the measures Democrats favor would have stopped the gunman — even as they steadfastly oppose broader efforts that might. ......... guns, which have surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for American children ages 1 to 19 .......... “If you want to stop violent crime, the proposals the Democrats have, none of them would have stopped this,” Mr. Cruz said. ....... “This isn’t a case of Republicans hiding their position,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor.

The Gunman in Uvalde Left Multiple Hints Before His Attack Began the 18-year-old frequently snapped at other employees and customers, and that they took to calling him names including “school shooter” in part because of his long hair and dark garb. A California woman he had met online said she had been afraid when he tagged her in a picture of his guns out of the blue, telling him “it’s just scary.” ........ warning signs for the millions of parents and students now asking how the next mass shooting can be stopped. ....... as many as 90 percent of young attackers might tell someone in advance about their intent to cause harm. ........ The 18-year-old had unsuccessfully asked his sister to buy him a gun in September and then, in March, told friends in a group message that he was buying one. ........ he had not been explicit about his plans until the day of the attack, when he texted her that he had shot his grandmother and was about to “shoot up a elementary school.” ......... people who knew the attackers had observed concerning behavior regarding their mental health in 62 percent of cases. ........ many of the gunmen targeted their spouses and some had a history of violence against women. ....... experts caution that many people who fit the profile of a mass shooter never carry out an attack, which can make it difficult for acquaintances to determine whether the person is a real threat or not. ......... Late last year, she said, Mr. Ramos asked her out. When she turned him down, she said Mr. Ramos began creating different accounts on Instagram to send her harassing messages such as “I hate you” or “I’m going to hurt you.” Still, though, Ms. Baxter said that she had not been afraid of Mr. Ramos, saying she had never expected him to pursue violence, let alone a mass killing. .......... “Yeah, he was aggressive,” Ms. Baxter said. “But no one ever thought he was sinister enough to do something like this.”

A Heartbroken Nation many Americans have spent the past few days gripped by overwhelming incredulity and grief, exhaustion and fury over the loss of life. ....... Seventy-eight minutes elapsed after the gunman walked inside before police, believing “there were no kids at risk,” finally confronted him ....... Police held back a group of horrified parents who gathered even as shots continued to ring out inside the school and begged officers to move in and try to rescue their children. At least one mother was put in handcuffs, only to spring over a fence and sprint into the school to scoop up her child when the opportunity presented itself. The police, she said, were “doing nothing.” ........... In Buffalo, a white gunman targeted a predominantly Black neighborhood with his AR-15-style assault rifle; he was an adherent of the racist conspiracy theory known as replacement theory, which posits that white Americans are being displaced by immigrants and people of color. ......... Nearly half of Republicans told pollsters recently that they agree with the general thesis that a cabal of powerful people is encouraging immigrants to come here to sway politics. ......... There have been 213 mass shootings in the United States in the first 21 weeks of 2022. An average of 321 Americans are shot every single day. And every day, there are roughly more than 50,000 gun sales recorded. Properly maintained, those guns will fire like new for decades. ............ On Friday, the former president Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina all spoke at the annual convention of the National Rifle Association in Houston, a few hours’ drive from Uvalde. There is no better manifestation of the gun lobby’s total capture of so much of the G.O.P. ........... and allow Californians to sue gun makers. ....... And Gov. Kathy Hochul called on the legislature to raise the age limit to purchase some assault weapons to 21. The shooter in Texas waited until his 18th birthday to buy a pair of assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. ......... “What are we doing?” he asked his colleagues. “Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority” he wondered, if the answer is to do nothing “as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives?” .......... It’s a question that speaks to the Senate directly and the entire system of American government more broadly. ........ as currently structured, Congress is fundamentally unresponsive to the needs of its most vulnerable citizens and has been corrupted by powerful interest groups, allowing those groups to block even modest changes that the vast majority of Americans support. ........ progress is agonizingly slow and won’t be enough for the hundreds of Americans who will be shot today and tomorrow and every day until action is taken.

One Nation, Under Guns Brings back memories of when I first moved to New York back in the ’80s. When I got out of the subway after work, I’d leap into a phone booth right there on the corner, slam the door shut and call my husband to come and walk me home. It was just a block! But we were so paranoid about crime back then . …

America’s Human Sacrifices
The Good News in Georgia That’s Bad News for Trump

News: May 28

निजगढ विमानस्थल बनाउन रोक लगाएकोमा खुसीयाली, तस्बिरहरु
स्कुलको ‘फस्ट गर्ल’ देखि ललितपुरको उपमेयरसम्म हामी जनताका सेवक हौँ, मालिक होइन : मञ्जली शाक्य
एमालेलाई ३४ प्रतिशत जनमत, काँग्रेसलाई २९ र माओवादीलाई ११ प्रतिशत : विष्णु रिमाल
स्थानीय तह निर्वाचन : कुन दलका कति आए जनप्रतिनिधि ? राजधानी बाहिर धरान र धनगढी उपमहानगरपालिकामा पनि मतदाताले परम्परागत दल बाहिरबाटै युवा नेतृत्वको चयन गरेका छन् । ....... काँग्रेसबाट १३ हजार ७३७ जनप्रतिनिधि निर्वाचित भएका छन् । यस्तै नेकपा (एमाले) बाट ११ हजार ८७२, नेकपा (माओवादी केन्द्र)बाट पाँच हजार ४४ र अन्य दल तथा स्वतन्त्र गरी चार हजार ४८ जनप्रतिनिधि निर्वाचित भएको ....... वि.सं २०७४ मा तीन चरणमा सम्पन्न स्थानीय तह निर्वाचनमा काँग्रेसबाट ११ हजार ४५६, एमालेबाट १४ हजार १०० र माओवादी केन्द्रबाट पाँच हजार ४४० जनप्रतिनिधि निर्वाचित भएका थिए । ........ नेकपा (एकीकृत समाजवादी), जनता समाजवादी पार्टी (जसपा) नेपाल, लोकतान्त्रिक समाजवादी पार्टी, राष्ट्रिय प्रजातन्त्र पार्टी र स्वतन्त्रबाट चार हजार ३४८ निर्वाचित भएको ....... ६ महानगरका प्रमुख र उपप्रमुख, ११ उपमहानगरका प्रमुख र उपप्रमुख, २७६ नगरपालिकाका प्रमुख र उपप्रमुख, ४६० गाउँपालिकाका अध्यक्ष र उपाध्यक्ष, ६ हजार ७४३ वडाध्यक्ष, सोही सङ्ख्यामा महिला सदस्य र दलित महिला सदस्य तथा १३ हजार ४८६ वडा सदस्य गरी कूल ३५ हजार २२१ पदका लागि निर्वाचन भएको थियो ....... निर्वाचनमा करिब एक लाख ४५ हजारले उम्मेदवारी दिएका थिए ।

ओलीको गनथनमा निर्वाचनमा हार व्यहोरेको कुण्ठाबाहेक केही देखिएन : थापा
‘बालेन र हर्क राई’ लोकतन्त्रमा फक्रिएका दुईवटा सुन्दर फूल हुन् : प्रचण्ड
युक्रेनी सेनालाई थप सैन्य सहयोग गर्नुपर्छ : जोनसन रुसी राष्ट्रपति भ्लादिमिर पुटिनको सेना पूर्वी युक्रेनको दोनबासमा सुस्त तर स्पष्ट प्रगति गरिरहेको बेलायती प्रधानमन्त्री बोरिस जोनसनले टिप्पणी गरेका छन् । ‘मलाई डर छ कि पुटिनले आफू र रुसी सेनाको लागि ठुलो मूल्य चुकाएर दोनबासलाई नियन्त्रणमा लिन चाहन्छन्’, प्रधानमन्त्री जोनसनले भने । ...... मारिओपलोको स्टिल कारखानामा लामो समयदेखि बन्धक भएका युक्रेनी सेनालाई रुसी सेनाले रिहा गरिदिएका छन् ।

घ्यु हो पावर हाउस : महिनावारीको दुखाईबाट राहत, लामो–नरम कपाल र कोमल गुलाबी ओठ पाइने शुद्ध घ्यू सबै मिनरल्स र भिटामिनको पावरहाउस हो । आयुर्वेदमा घ्यूलाई रसायन भनिन्छ । यो शरीरको हरेक भागका लागि फाइदाजनक छ ।

Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle
Opinion: Why it matters that 'Top Gun: Maverick' is so much better than the original "Top Gun: Maverick" may well be the box-office hit of the year, thanks to a perfect storm of circumstance. It's Memorial Day weekend; people are feeling a tiny bit more adventurous; everyone needs an escape from the horrors of the real world; and... Tom Cruise. ........ the for-real aerial stunts must be experienced in high definition to be believed ........ "TGM" pulls off the highly tricky maneuver of bringing back all the adrenaline and bravado that made the first "Top Gun" such an indelible 1980s milestone, while excising some of its more toxic elements and (at least mildly) updating its worldview. Its politics are just vague enough to inspire nearly everyone to leave the theater cheering. Who but Pete "Maverick" Mitchell could unite this deeply fractured country? ....... It might just be the first movie since the beginning of the pandemic to really remind us of the sheer fun to be had in a communal theater experience. .......... But it's also rife with eye-rolling sexism, from the way the Top Gun recruits snicker at Kelly McGillis' Charlie when she debates security clearance with Maverick, to lines like Iceman's, "The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room." ......... It's also the kind of movie where Maverick following a woman into the bathroom and suggesting they do it on the countertop is supposed to be seen as hot, not creepy. I can't speak for all womankind, but this is the kind of stuff that makes a gal feel like a movie really wasn't made with her in mind. ......... He's still weighed down with sorrow over the death of his wingman, Goose, and he's feeling his wheelhouse of capability has narrowed. That ambition to teach that he teased at the end of the first movie didn't work out so well. He doesn't seem to have fared any better romantically; maybe the tactic of enlisting an entire bar to drunkenly sing along with the Righteous Brothers to woo a love interest didn't age all that well. ....... One of the film's many high points is a short, emotional scene between Cruise and Kilmer as the now-ailing Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky; the onetime adversaries have forged a friendship in the intervening decades. ......... Penny takes Pete sailing, only to discover that -- despite being a Navy man -- he has no idea which rope is which. ........ The film even uses his real name a lot of the time -- sometimes he's a Maverick, but a lot of the time he's just a Pete. ........... They're also a more diverse group, with some non-White actors and one female pilot (Monica Barbaro) who's never depicted as belittled or harassed by her peers. ......... the film also goes to great lengths, which are pretty thrilling to watch, to show just how hard it is to fly missions like this: The crushing weight on your body as you climb straight upwards, the nerve-shredding adjacence to death. ......... At its core, of course, "Top Gun: Maverick" still goes hard on the American exceptionalism, on the idea that being smug and difficult and breaking the rules is just part of patriotic heroism. It's bellicose in a way that is not un-problematic: In what reality is it OK for the United States to just bomb another (unnamed) country's uranium stores, even if it is suggestively implied to be global pariah Russia? ....... While Cruise has said that he never thought of the original film as propaganda, the original film reportedly inspired a spike in military enlistments. And, as Cruise has said in a recent interview about "TGM," he and the rest of the cast and crew "worked with the Navy and the Top Gun school to formulate how to shoot it practically." So, it's not not a pro-military movie. ........ mostly, honestly, it's two hours of sheer, visceral fun on the big screen, which feels very retro. In the best possible way.

Hinduization Of India
The Hinduization of India Is Nearly Complete
The Transformation of India Is Nearly Complete The Indian Supreme Court’s decision to allow the building of a temple for Rama on a disputed site is likely to intensify the Hindu nationalist efforts to turn India into a majoritarian nation.

China, Russia

Travelling Mantra’s “Stardom of Shah Rukh Khan in Syria” 🇸🇾

Every age group knows and loves SRK. He is saving us in this city. People talk and treat us nicely because of his name ❤️

The surprising reach of #ShahRukhKhan in the Most Dangerous Country! 🔥
pic.twitter.com/cGn0aR0NHc

— ARFAT SRK FAN (@iam_arfatSRKian) May 23, 2022

Good morning 💘 #ShahRukhKhan pic.twitter.com/jEQ6PbF0vl

— ȺղցҽӀ Ƒìɾժօʂ (@Srk_Rooshi) May 27, 2022

.#SalmanKhan , #ShahRukhKhan & Madhuri Dixit Together At #KaranJohar Party 💥 pic.twitter.com/kCQfqXkpYb

— BALLU🥺🤙 (@Balludlegend) May 27, 2022

"https://t.co/bgByFqjb3w" big poster in Japan 🔥#ShahRukhKhan pic.twitter.com/Y04FPq7cm8

— ARFAT SRK FAN (@iam_arfatSRKian) May 25, 2022

Most mentioned actors on Instagram

1. #SalmanKhan - 10M
2. #Thalapathy - 7.6M
3. #Vijay - 7.3M
4. #SidharthShukla - 5.6M
5. #ShahRukhKhan - 5.5M #SRK - 4.6M
6. #AkshayKumar - 4.4M
7. #RanveerSingh - 3.9M
8. #RanbirKapoor - 3.4M

— Box office industry (@officer_acc) May 22, 2022

Rare clip of #ShahRukhKhan on #LataMangeshkar Ji in 1997 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/u4PukSMfSz

— Shah Rukh Khan Warriors FAN Club (@TeamSRKWarriors) May 23, 2022

Please can we have some award for highest level of wit?

And just directly give it to Mr. #ShahRukhKhan pic.twitter.com/7RDDwGXwQp

— Shah Rukh Khan Warriors FAN Club (@TeamSRKWarriors) May 27, 2022

Visited #Mannat for the first time today. Can't express my happiness in words. #ShahRukhKhan pic.twitter.com/nawbEF44M5

— satyam (@iamsatypandey) May 26, 2022

Protesters holding photos of shooting victims gather outside NRA convention in Texas https://t.co/R42pv5ho90 pic.twitter.com/STZhdyBm66

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2022

This gentleman’s sign reads:

“Down here in Texas, women are forced to give birth so that their children can be made targets”#NRAconvention pic.twitter.com/u7TYAUYuR6

— Haylee 🌻 (@siddalee_walker) May 27, 2022

⚡️ Ukraine's Moscow-led church publicly disagrees with Patriarch Kirill over Russia's war.

The “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate” had issued an official statement saying it “condemns the war” & “disagrees with Patriarch Kirill on the war in Ukraine.”

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) May 27, 2022

Sources are telling Meduza that Moscow plans to try to take Kyiv again.

I’m so tired, you guys.

In the immortal words of Gretchen Wieners, someone should totally just stab Caesar.

— Natalia Antonova 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@NataliaAntonova) May 27, 2022

Low-flying Russian Su-25 aircraft in Donetsk. 2/https://t.co/nPk1ZDiB6o pic.twitter.com/O2F2GxDeIR

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) May 27, 2022

US reportedly prepping to send long-range missile systems to Ukraine https://t.co/aGGJSLn3dB pic.twitter.com/s1xOrFs4rA

— New York Post (@nypost) May 27, 2022

Tomorrow russian losses in manpower is likely to reach 30,000 in Ukraine!
Just think - 30,000 russian bodies for 3 months.

…and Russians still pretend it is “special operation”, not the war. #RussiaUkraineWar

— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) May 27, 2022

The U.S. is expected to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine that Kyiv says are necessary to fight Russia in the Donbas region, officials said https://t.co/ReXu4K11iM

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 27, 2022

As the world faces a growing food crisis provoked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many have looked to South America's "breadbasket" -- major wheat producers Brazil and Argentina, along with Uruguay and Paraguay -- as a possible solution https://t.co/BGMyabkNgu

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 27, 2022

News: May 27

As U.N. Rights Chief Visits China, Some Fear She’ll Become Part of the Spin Michelle Bachelet’s tour includes Xinjiang, where China has been accused of genocide. The terms of her visit are unclear, and critics say Beijing is using her for propaganda.

The Stupefying Tally of American Gun Violence

Uvalde Had Prepared for School Shootings. It Did Not Stop the Rampage.
Nothing Is Going to Stop the N.R.A.’s Gun Orgy in Texas
The Buffalo Shooting Was Not a Random Act of Violence

Why Are Bikes So Much Fun? Because They’re Not Cars.
The G.O.P. War on Civil Virtue It’s hard to say which of the Republican responses to the latest mass shooting was most reprehensible. The reliably awful Senator Ted Cruz attracted considerable attention by insisting that the answer is to put armed guards in schools, never mind that Uvalde’s school system has its own police force and officers seem to have been on the scene soon after the shooter arrived. ......... But if you ask me, the worst and also most chilling response came from Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas. What we need to do, declared Patrick, is “harden these targets so no one can get in, ever, except maybe through one entrance.” That restriction would have interesting consequences in the event of a fire. But in any case, think about Patrick’s language: In a nation that’s supposedly at peace, we should treat schools as “targets” that need to be “hardened.” What would that do to public education, which has for many generations been one of the defining experiences of growing up in America? Don’t worry, says a writer for The Federalist: Families can keep their kids safe by resorting to home-schooling. ............. if you take the proposals by Cruz, Patrick and others literally, they amount to a call for turning the land of the free into a giant armed camp. There are around 130,000 K-12 schools in America; there are close to 40,000 supermarkets; there are many other venues that might offer prey for mass killers. So protecting all these public spaces Republican-style would require creating a heavily armed, effectively military domestic defense force — heavily armed because it would face attackers with body armor and semiautomatic weapons — that would be at least as big as the Marine Corps. ..........

Mass shootings are very rare outside the United States.

.......... imagine the reaction if a prominent liberal politician were to declare that the reason the United States has a severe social problem that doesn’t exist elsewhere is that Americans are bad people. ......... I personally don’t believe that Americans, as individuals, are worse than anyone else. ........ what has always struck me when returning from trips abroad is that Americans are (or were) on average exceptionally nice and pleasant to interact with. ......... What distinguishes us is that it’s so easy for people who aren’t nice to arm themselves to the teeth. ......... They’re barely even trying to make sense. Instead, they’re just making noise to drown out rational discussion until the latest atrocity fades from the news cycle. The truth is that conservatives consider mass shootings, and for that matter America’s astonishingly high overall rate of gun deaths, as an acceptable price for pursuing their ideology. a broad assault on the very idea of civic duty — on the idea that people should follow certain rules, accept some restrictions on their behavior, to protect the lives of their fellow citizens. ......... When you hear talk of home-schooling, remember that the United States basically invented universal public education. Environmental protection used to be a nonpartisan issue: The Clean Air Act of 1970 passed the Senate without a single nay. And Hollywood mythology aside, most towns in the Old West had stricter limits on the carrying of firearms than Gov. Greg Abbott’s Texas. ........ the very people who shout most about “freedom” are doing their best to turn America into a “Hunger Games”-type dystopian nightmare, with checkpoints everywhere, loomed over by men with guns.

It’s Not Looking Too Good for Government of the People, by the People and for the People The antislavery politicians of the 1840s and 1850s did not speak with a single voice. Some opposed slavery for moral and religious reasons and hoped to wipe its terrible mark from the body politic of the United States. Some opposed slavery but denied that the federal government had any right to interfere with the institution in the 15 states where it persisted. They were committed to “free soil” in the West more than abolition in the South. Still others weren’t concerned with slavery per se as much as they were fiercely opposed to Black migration from the South. They opposed slavery, and supported colonization, because it was the way to ensure that the United States would remain a “white man’s democracy.” ......... gave the slaveholding oligarchs of the South a virtual lock on much of the federal government, including the Supreme Court. “Between Washington’s election and Lincoln’s,” Richards points out, “nineteen of the thirty-four Supreme Court appointees were slaveholders.” ......... I am thinking of this in the context of guns, gun violence and the successful movement, thus far, to make the United States an armed society. .......... the capture of America’s political institutions by an unrepresentative minority whose outright refusal to compromise is pushing the entire system to a breaking point. ........ Large majorities of Americans favor universal background checks, bans on “assault-style” weapons, bans on high-capacity magazines and “red flag” laws that would prevent people who might harm themselves or others from purchasing guns. ............ by using the filibuster, a small number of Republican senators representing an even smaller faction of voters can kill legislation supported by most voters and most members of Congress. ......... a country so saturated in guns that there’s no real hope of going back to the status quo ante. ........ If the Supreme Court rules as expected in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, it will strike down a law that requires a license for carrying a concealed firearm. ........ Whether or not the public wants a world of ubiquitous firearms, the conservative majority on the court — which Americans have never voted for and which would not exist without the counter-majoritarian institutions that gave Donald Trump the White House and the Republican Party a Senate majority — seems ready to impose one. ............ To say that it is possible for a narrow faction of ideologues to weaponize the counter-majoritarian features of our system against the “republican principle” is, basically, to describe the current state of our democracy. It is, in other words, to state the crisis.

@ChahalNonProfit thanks for the follow -- keep up the good work

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 27, 2022

@paulkrugman a voice of reason in a country going off the rails https://t.co/luSmybF3bk

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 27, 2022

Why Californians Love California The state’s population might be dropping slightly, but more Americans choose to live in California than anywhere else.

The Southern Baptist Moral Meltdown moral behavior doesn’t start with having the right beliefs. Moral behavior starts with an act — the act of seeing the full humanity of other people. Moral behavior is not about having the right intellectual concepts in your head. It’s about seeing other people with the eyes of the heart, seeing them in their full experience, suffering with their full suffering, walking with them on their path. Morality starts with the quality of attention we cast upon another. .......... In 2007 a woman named Christa Brown had the courage to testify before Southern Baptist officials that her youth pastor had repeatedly sexually assaulted her when she was 16. She reported that one official turned his back, literally refusing to look at her, refusing to see her. That is the sort of dehumanization that creates indifference that enables rape, abuse and all the other horrific dehumanizing acts down the road. ......... Character is not measured by a person’s beliefs but by the ability to see the full humanity of others. It is not automatic. It’s a skill acquired slowly. It’s about being able to focus on what’s going on in your own mind and simultaneously focus on what’s going on in another mind. It’s about learning how to minutely observe, absorb and resonate with other people’s emotions. ......... It comes about through years of shared experiences, decades of other-centered attention, engagement with the kind of literature that educates you in what can go on in other people’s heads. It’s spiritual training to get out of your own egotistic self-referential thinking and into the habit of asking what’s this moment like for that other person. .......... it’s very easy to get people to dehumanize each other. You divide people into in-groups and out-groups. You spread a tacit ideology that says women are less important than men or Black people are less important than white people. You use euphemistic language so that horrific acts can be abstracted into sanitized jargon. ......... You bureaucratize: You create a system of nonresponsibility in which rules and procedures matter, not people. When you read the report on the Southern Baptists you realize, once again, how much horror can be done by dutiful functionaries who focus on minimizing legal liabilities but not honoring human beings.

America May Be Broken Beyond Repair why access to these weapons is, for the right, a matter of existential importance ........ “The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting,” said Masters. “It’s about protecting your family and your country. What’s the first thing the Taliban did when Joe Biden handed them Afghanistan? They took away people’s guns.” Guns, in this worldview, are a guarantor against government overreach. And government overreach includes attempts to regulate guns. ......... It will be impossible to do anything about guns in this country, at least at a national level, as long as Democrats depend on the cooperation of a party that holds in reserve the possibility of insurrection. The slaughter of children in Texas has done little to alter this dynamic. ......... Victims of our increasingly frequent mass shootings are collateral damage in a cold civil war, though some Democrats refuse to acknowledge it, let alone fight it. ........ Fine’s words echoed Donald Trump’s during the 2016 election, when he said that “Second Amendment people” might be able to stop a President Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices. What was once a barely concealed insinuation of violence has morphed, especially after Jan. 6, into an even more forthright menace. ......... dozens of members of the Oath Keepers militia were arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol, but that hasn’t stopped the organization from “evolving into a force within the Republican Party.” .......... the more America is besieged by senseless violence, the more the paramilitary wing of the American right is strengthened. ........ a vision of a society — if you can call it that — where every family is a fortress. ........

Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Many conservatives consider this a price worth paying for their version of freedom.

.......... The filibuster renders the Senate largely impotent. Trump, a president who lost the popular vote, was able to appoint Supreme Court justices who are poised to help overturn a New York state law restricting the carrying of concealed weapons. It’s increasingly hard to see a path to small-d democratic reform. ........... America is too sick, too broken. It is perhaps beyond repair. ......... two chapters imagining scenarios for how the dissolution of the country might happen. One involved a mass shooting at a school in California, to which the state’s people reacted “with white-hot rage.” French envisioned furious state politicians defying the Second Amendment, leading to a nullification crisis and blue-state secession. ........ The nightmare is that we simply stumble on, helpless as things keep getting worse.

I have news for the embarrassment that claims to be our President — try to take our guns and you’ll learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place.

— Rep. Randy Fine (@VoteRandyFine) May 25, 2022

How Does It End? Fissures Emerge Over What Constitutes Victory in Ukraine In the past few days alone there has been an Italian proposal for a cease-fire, a vow from Ukraine’s leadership to push Russia back to the borders that existed before the invasion was launched on Feb. 24, and renewed discussion by administration officials about a “strategic defeat” for President Vladimir V. Putin — one that would assure that he is incapable of mounting a similar attack again. ........... After three months of remarkable unity in response to the Russian invasion — resulting in a flow of lethal weapons into Ukrainian hands and a broad array of financial sanctions that almost no one expected, least of all Mr. Putin ......... At a moment when the U.S. refers to Russia as a pariah state that needs to be cut off from the world economy, others, largely in Europe, are warning of the dangers of isolating and humiliating Mr. Putin. ........ The administration now sees a chance to punish Russian aggression, weaken Mr. Putin, shore up NATO and the trans-Atlantic alliance and send a message to China, too. Along the way, it wants to prove that aggression is not rewarded with territorial gains. .......... “I get the sense that instead of the year 2022, Mr. Kissinger has 1938 on his calendar.’’ ......... Zelensky has at various moments voiced contradictory views on what it would take to end the war, even offering to commit his country to “neutrality” rather than aspiring to join NATO. ............ In the end, American officials say, the hard choices will have to be made by Mr. Zelensky and his government. But they are acutely aware that if Mr. Putin gets his land bridge to Crimea, or sanctions are partially lifted, Mr. Biden will be accused by Republican critics — and perhaps some Democrats — of essentially rewarding Mr. Putin for his effort to redraw the map of Europe by force. .......... Three months ago, Mr. Putin’s own strategic objective was to take all of Ukraine — a task he thought he could accomplish in mere days. When that failed in spectacular fashion, he retreated to Plan B, withdrawing his forces to Ukraine’s east and south. It then became clear that he could not take key cities like Kharkiv and Odesa. Now the battle has come down to the Donbas, the bleak, industrial heartland of Ukraine, a relatively small area where he has already made gains, including the brutal takeover of Mariupol and a land bridge to Crimea. His greatest leverage is his naval blockade of the ports Ukraine needs to export wheat and other farm products, a linchpin of the Ukrainian economy and a major source of food for the world. ........... on April 25, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, speaking with a bluntness that took his colleagues by surprise, acknowledged that Washington wanted more than a Russian retreat. It wanted its military permanently damaged. .......... over time administration officials have gradually shifted in tone, talking more openly and optimistically about

the possibility of Ukrainian victory in the Donbas

. ........... Ukraine must emerge as a vibrant, democratic state — exactly what Mr. Putin was seeking to crush. ......... Hungary, which has supported five earlier sanctions packages, has balked at an embargo on Russian oil, on which it depends. And the Europeans are not even trying, at least for now, to cut off their imports of Russian gas. ......... Leaders in central and eastern Europe, with its long experience of Soviet domination, have strong views about defeating Russia — even rejecting the idea of speaking to Mr. Putin. Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, and Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, speak of him as a war criminal, as Mr. Biden did. ........ But France, Italy and Germany, the biggest and richest countries of the bloc, are anxious about a long war or one that ends frozen in a stalemate, and nervous of the possible damage to their own economies. ........... Those countries also think of Russia as an inescapable neighbor that cannot be isolated forever. Following his re-election, Emmanuel Macron of France began hedging his bets, declaring that a future peace in Eastern Europe must not include an unnecessary humiliation of Russia, and could include territorial concessions to Moscow. .......... the war will have to end with a diplomatic solution, not a sweeping military victory. ........... While Ukraine did remarkably well in the first phase of the war, Donbas is very different. To go on the offensive normally requires a manpower advantage of 3 to 1, weaponry aside, which Ukraine does not now possess. ......... “The Biden Administration’s comfort zone is not a bad place to be — that it’s up to the Ukrainians to decide,” Mr. Fried said. “I agree, because there’s no way a detailed conversation now on what is a just settlement will do any good, because it comes down to what territories Ukraine should surrender.”

Biden Says We’ve Got Taiwan’s Back. But Do We? one of the most explicit U.S. defense guarantees for Taiwan in decades ........ I have been involved in dozens of war games and tabletop exercises to see how a conflict would turn out. Simply put, the United States is outgunned. At the very least, a confrontation with China would be an enormous drain on the U.S. military without any assured outcome that America could repel all of China’s forces. ........ China has the world’s largest navy and the United States could throw far fewer ships into a Taiwan conflict. China’s missile force is also thought to be capable of targeting ships at sea to neutralize the main U.S. tool of power projection, aircraft carriers. ......... If China’s leaders decide they need to recover Taiwan and are convinced that the United States would respond, they may see no other option but a pre-emptive strike on U.S. forces in the region. Chinese missiles could take out key American bases in Japan, and U.S. aircraft carriers could face Chinese “carrier killer” missiles. In this scenario, superior U.S. training and experience would matter little. .......... China could disrupt networks like the United States Transportation Command, which moves American assets around and is considered vulnerable to cyberattacks. China may also have the ability to damage satellites and disrupt communications, navigation, targeting, intelligence-gathering, or command and control. Operating from home turf, China could use more-secure systems like fiber-optic cables for its own networks. ........... A 2018 congressionally mandated assessment warned that America could face a “decisive military defeat” in a war over Taiwan, citing China’s increasingly advanced capabilities and myriad U.S. logistical difficulties. ......... guaranteed U.S. intervention in a conflict over Taiwan would cost Beijing too much, even if it took the island. ......... China’s military is bigger and more formidable than Russia’s, and its economy far larger, more resilient and globally integrated. Rallying support for economic sanctions against Beijing during a conflict — China is the biggest trading partner of many countries — would be more challenging than isolating Russia. ........ shrewd diplomacy. Mr. Biden needs to stand firm against Chinese intimidation of Taiwan, while working to ease Beijing’s anxieties by demonstrating a stronger U.S. commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue. ........ Twenty years ago, China’s poorly trained army and largely obsolete naval and air forces had no chance. But that was then.

What Taiwan Really Wants

It’s Still Covid’s World. We’re Just Living In It.
America Kills Our Enemies in Our Name. And Then Keeps It Secret.
In 1791, enslaved Haitians did the seemingly impossible. They ousted their French masters and founded a nation.
Republican Governors Lose Their Dread of Trump
Hindi Novel Wins International Booker Prize for the First Time “Tomb of Sand,” written by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, won despite getting little previous attention from reviewers.
Live Updates: Russia Advances in Ukraine’s East as Civilian Toll Rises Russian forces seized Lyman, the second small city to fall this week, and moved closer to encircling Sievierodonetsk. A new report by legal and rights experts cited a “genocidal pattern” by Russia.