[email protected]

A quintessential ethnocentric strongman, the UML chieftain Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is better known for his demagoguery, jingoism and xenophobia than any commitment to social justice. An archetypal rabble-rouser, the Maoist Supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda has lately been emphasising populist agenda of economic growth and fast-track prosperity rather than communist slogans of insurgency years. CKlal_ArchiveThePrint’s YouTube channel is now active and buzzing.Come delivery time, the Leninist and Maoist duo of Oli and Prachanda are likely to discover that the government of the land of Mao now functions more like a business enterprise with a strict profit and loss account than a benevolent patron of friendly regimes abroad. Another general secretary Prakash Man Singh spouted catchphrases of free-market fundamentalism.

Individually, both won their seats even as the socialist and egalitarian supporters of the party among Dalits and Janjatis gravitated towards populist position of Maoists. Reconciling competing positions on constitutional issues is likely to challenge systemic stability even when there is a government at the helm that enjoys almost two-third majority. Lal is a Kathmandu-based columnist and commentator. The Left Alliance between the Communist Party of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal have not only swept the polls but have managed to lick the floor clean of all opposition in six of the seven provinces of the newly federated country.Geopolitical fallout The fascination of the Left Alliance for the Beijing Consensus open markets and closed politics under state capitalism is quite well known.They can do business with each other. Unclear about its politics, the NC is now left with a feeble voice. UML chief Oli has been selling dreams of trans-Himalayan railways, piped gas to every kitchen, metros in every metropolitan city and sending a.

Nepali on the moon as possible benefits of participating in the OBOR initiative of President Xi Jinping in one of the poorest countries of the planet.Oli has been selling dreams of trans-Himalayan railways, piped gas to every kitchen, metro rail and sending a Nepali on the moon as possible benefits of participating in China’s OBOR.Regime instability The Left China Screwing Fittings SuppliersAlliance, however, hit a roadblock in the southern plains where the political alliance of Sanghiya Samajwadi Party Nepal and Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal are headed for an equally overwhelming majority in Province-2 for representation at all levels of government.Shashank Koirala, a general secretary of the party, fought elections on Hindutva platform. The party has nobody to blame for its poor showing but its own leaders. In Oli, India’s Narendra Modi has a soulmate of sorts: Both think they know what is in the best interest of their respective countries and have the ability to sell potentially unpopular decisions to their supporters. The party chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba espoused McCarthyism without realising that such slogans find little resonance in a country that has peacefully elected and ousted at least six communist prime ministers under a parliamentary system over last 25-years.Not just the politicians, but almost the entire media and civil society in Kathmandu have begun to overtly display pro-Beijing proclivities.The Maoist Supremo Prachanda has been hawking the prospect of massive Chinese investment in hydroelectricity and attracting hordes of high-spending little emperors from the Middle Kingdom to Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha, and lifting Nepal into a middle-income country within years on that promise. Please subscribehere.

Centrist Nepali CongressIn the polarised politics, the moderating effect of centrist Nepali Congress will be marginal in provincial and federal legislatures.The UML and Maoists combine are in control of most municipalities and are headed for an overwhelming majority in the Lower House of the federal parliament.The NC abandoned its primary base in the Madhesh prior to the promulgation of the statute in 2015 when massive protests greeted its draft in the southern plains. Its leaders gave mixed, sometimes contradictory, messages during elections.The political class in New Delhi, however, need not worry too much. It has almost disappeared from the landscape that the democratic party once dominated.C. The electorate of Madhesh have given green signal for the furtherance of dignity politics that includes redrawing of provincial boundaries, representation based on population, jus soli citizenship rights, acceptance of cultural diversity and adoption of Hindi as an alternative lingua franca through substantive amendments to the contested constitution. The caveat, however, is even more telling: There is very little left of the Leftist ideology in the Left Alliance. Since these primary legislatures form the electorate for the election of Upper House and the Presidency, the Left Alliance is headed for what is called ‘State Capture’ in the Maoist rhetoric.K.The alliance of Madhesh-based parties fought on the platform of change while the Left Alliance campaigned for status quo.Hyperboles are sometimes necessary to explain bewildering realities

Please subscribehere.Avoid stress by arranging support from locals with established connections. This year, a new survey began throughout the 12 range nations to finally determine its population.Ulley, a high-altitude hamlet in the far north of India, has noleopard season, which runs from December through March. We humans are not.It’s really that simple,” Sharma, the co-owner adds, and that’s why there are limits to the infrastructure. From Los Angeles, I flew to Delhi, then took an early flight with Go Air over the mountains to Leh, Ladakh’s capital, which sits 12,000 feet up. And when he howls, I howl back. Although this is the safe side of J&K, an army base a few hours’ drive distant was hit by separatists the day before I arrived.Central Asia is a thrilling place to spend a few weeks, but it’s not without danger. I signed with Global Rescue, which.

guarantees a helicopter evacuation as long as you can contact them via Wi-Fi or phone.One wolf disappears into the rocks; the other trots up the ridge.35 million. “Next time,” he promised, before I loaded up my gear.I wouldn’t be here if not for the stories I soaked up from such pioneers as Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, from reading Into Thin Air in my teens, and from climbing 18,000 feet to Nepal’s Everest Base Camp in 2013. The sun was setting, and a 40-odd-mile drive through pitch black was still ahead.”On my second-to-last day, I still hadn’t seen any cats in the wild.78Shares.From Leh, Ulley is a two-hour drive past turquoise rivers, army bases, and high passes where the paved roads eventually end and the ruggedness of these mountains really hits. It’s part of a district called Ladakh, “the land of high passes” to locals, in India’s state of Jammu & Kashmir.”Anything to see shan becomes my mantra. You get the same chances at snow leopard sightings, but the lodge holds 22 visitors, compared to Hemis’s sometimes wall-to-wall trekkers. Thanks to a score of Bollywood films produced in Ladakh, they come in search of big-screen locales that seem tailor-made for Instagram.

I kept pushing the departure, hoping Norboo and the boys would catch a glimpse. I climbed three peaks of at least 10,000 feet in the months before the trip, which was ideal, but even a few car rides to the selected altitude helps. So far, I’ve found golden eagles, red foxes, ibex, urial, and now wolves, but shan, as the locals call them, remain elusive. I barely notice as Stanzin points at the dirt. As soon as possible, take the antibiotic diamox to battle shortness of breath and dizziness. With heat-trapping fur and bodies teeming with red blood cells, snow leopards are upper-atmosphere equipped.If this stirs a hunger to explore, keep in mind that training ahead of time will go a long way. “And it’s harder to sleep on the ground—and colder. | flickrMost visitors travel in summer, but I’ve come at the end of winter because the snow makes this the best time to track cats. Even if you only plan on walking from bed to your 4X4, get into shape. If the roads were paved and the resorts were all five-star properties, the animals wouldn’t be here. Most stay for about a week, but Indians from neighboring states often drive up for day safaris. It’s not as wide, but it may be more striking visually. The rise is mostly due to travelers from India, nearly 2 million of which visited in 2016, according to local authorities. The weather had changed, and a cold front brought light flurries.I set up six remote camera traps from a trio of outfitters—Reconyx, Cuddeback, and Spypoint—and ended up getting photos that proved these ghosts were real, stepping in the same dirt and ice that they had. “Strange not to have snow this time of year. The cold keeps the masses at bay, and every summer, Ladakh explodes with trekkers, bikers, and Instagram-happy tourists. No one knows how many there are, because the land is too challenging to accurately conduct such studies. Pex-Al-Pex Pipes Factory; BloombergThePrint’s YouTube channel is now active and buzzing.

The sooner you take it—rest and drink three liters daily—the sooner you’ll adjust. As many as 30,000 plastic bottles are dumped in open-air landfills each summer.The snow leopard population is said to be less than 8,000. “Not bad for a Westerner,” says Stanzin, Norboo’s middle son, who leads me along the ridge. I work my nerve and head into the void the next morning, PixabayThe mountains are not for the squeamish. With crows feet forming around his almond-shaped brown eyes, Norboo looked disappointed. There were 16,449 tourists in 1994; in 2016, more than 2. Push yourself, but don’t overdo it.“Hemis unfortunately is like a tourist trap,” warns Misty Dhillon, who runs the Himalayan Outback, the tour operator that helped guide my choices.No snow means snow leopards will stay hidden.” Leopard scat, wisps of hair, paw prints—but no specter. And for nearly two weeks, I hiked up and down the surrounding peaks, over frozen streams, past bones from yaks and horses and ibex picked clean by hungry predators. What I’m after needs the safety these mountains provide. I spent six hours scrambling up and down loose rock with Stanzin, a survival situation in the making, and I knew I was pushing it. Since opening in 2007, Sharma has had many moments like this one, but he still smiles so wide that his handlebar mustache practically dances. Their coats—patches of red, brown, and white keep them blended, a rippling optical illusion. Fresh. I pictured them laughing on some steep perch.This is the Himalayas in all their isolating charm, a speck on a mountainous map where even borders are state secrets. With so many monasteries and pastoralist Buddhist villages, you’d think this must be how Tibet looked before China invaded.Tourism here opened only in 1974, and the barrier helped to preserve culture and wildlife. Why?“No snow,” explains Morup Namgail,A female leopard was visible from the same place I had stood with Norboo just hours before. With 650-plus homestays in about 4,300 Ladakhi homes, a cottage industry for incredibly poor subsistence farmers has sprouted, but it’s one without answers for the trash that tourism creates. At the lodge, there’s a $200 per person fee toward this project.On my sixth day in the mountains, a pair of Tibetan wolves emerges from the frozen valley and saunters past, just a few hundred yards away. It’s usually a mix of Europeans, Americans, and Indians. But after an unseasonably warm week, Norboo points to a dusted peak on the other side of the valley. Wildlife tourism—and 4K photography via Planet Earth and National Geographic—have spawned a generation of well-heeled tenderfoots like me who have grown calluses while attempting to recreate that magic. And don’t drink.The snow leopard was removed from the list of endangered species last year. Temperatures during the day reached only the low 40s F before dipping below freezing at night, so bring plenty of wool. Altitude and cold are exhausting, even if you’re tracking creatures by SUV instead of foot

The image is reported to have been tweeted more than 5,000 times.The Catholic Church makes a game app for “catching” saintsInspired by ‘Pokemon Go’, the Catholic Church has launched a ‘Follow JC Go’ game app, which helps users find saints or biblical characters instead of Pikachu monsters,While several conflicting claims and evidence have surfaced in the case of Khashoggi’s murder, none have been able to provide concrete proof to establish a direct involvement of a single party in the case.The incident comes in the wake of the upcoming mid-term elections in the country hinting towards violent political discourses, NYT said.Getty image by Mustafa Hassouna pic. Chapman says that the DJ later promoted the song’s release.Chapman has accused Minaj of incorporating lyrics and the melody from her old song Baby, Can I Hold You into Sorry.On Monday, similar devices were reported to have been retrieved from the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor George Soros’ residence. One bomb was also sent to the CNN office at the Time Warner Centre in Manhattan that led to there evacuation of the entire building, the report added.

So far, Minaj has not responded to the suit.Speaking at an investors’ conference in Riyadh, Prince Salman described Khashoggi’s killing as a “heinous” crime and added that those responsible would be brought to justice.Pipe bombs sent to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and CNN office as Catholic church launches Pokemon-inspired game.In the game, players move forward by answering religious questions when they meet a saint. He said he received the image from his friends after they spotted it circulating on social media, Al Jazeera reported.Speaking at the White House Wednesday, Donald Trump described the attempted attacks as “despicable acts” and suggested that the nation must unify.Advertisement.Across states, authorities have discovered crudely built devices contained in Manila envelopes. We are demanding our right of return, and protesting for our dignity and the dignity of our future generation.

It was unnecessary,” he was quoted as saying by CNN. Please subscribe here.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has described the dissident journalist’s killing as a “political murder” and added that Saudi Arabia had planned it in advance.Clinton, Obama, Soros and CNN have figured in right-wing political attacks — many led by Trump who has often referred to major news organisations as “the enemy of the people” and has shown contempt for CNN, NYT added. None of the devices harmed anyone.According to the suit, Chapman claims that Minaj and her representatives began seeking permission from June 2018 but Chapmen had denied the requests.A 20-year-old protester in an iconic imageThe photograph of a shirtless Gaza protester holding a Palestinian flag on one hand and swinging a slingshot over his China PPR Fittings Suppliershead has gone viral, Al Jazeera reports.“This was a very, very painful incident for all Saudis and also for everybody on this planet.The app was developed and launched by the Fundación Ramón Pané, a Catholic evangelical group, which made it in preparation for the World Youth Day, 2019, a church-funded event.Though Minaj dropped Sorry from her album Queen, she, however, had provided a copy of the song to a popular New York DJ at HOT 97, a hip-hop radio station.Speaking to Al Jazeera, Abu Amro said, “If I get killed, I want to be wrapped in the same flag.

Saudi crown prince and Trump not on the same page over Khashoggi murderSaudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Wednesday made his first public comment on journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, CNN reported.Mustafa Hassouna of Turkey’s Anadolu Agency clicked the photograph in which Abu Amro seems to be rising out of the thick of a protest against Israel’s blockade of Gaza.Singer Tracy Chapman sues rapper Nicki Minaj over the song ‘Sorry’American folk singer Tracy Chapman has filed a copyright infringement suit against rapper Nicki Minaj relating to the song ‘Sorry’, reports CNN.Abu Amro, who lives in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, protests every Friday and Monday.Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and CNN office receive bomb parcels Pipe bombs were sent to the residences of several leading Democrats, including former US State Secretary Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama, the New York Times reported.ThePrint’s YouTube channel is now active and buzzing.Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia’s response to Khashoggi’s murder was the “worst cover-up in history,” BBC reported.AdvertisementThe image of 20-year-old Palestinian A’ed Abu Amro is being compared to that of iconic French Revolution painting, Liberty Leading the People.When a Michelangelo with a camera captures David fighting Goliath in action