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Russian forces Tuesday began storming the steel mill containing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, Ukrainian defenders said, just as scores of civilians evacuated from the bombed-out plant reached relative safety and told of days and nights filled with dread and despair from constant shelling, Associated Press reported.

Osnat Lubrani, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said that thanks to the evacuation effort over the weekend, 101 people — including women, the elderly, and 17 children, the youngest 6 months old — were able to emerge from the bunkers under the Azovstal steelworks and “see the daylight after two months.”

One evacuee said she went to sleep at the plant every night afraid she wouldn’t wake up.

“You can’t imagine how scary it is when you sit in the bomb shelter, in a damp and wet basement, and it is bouncing and shaking,” 54-year-old Elina Tsybulchenko said upon arriving in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol, in a convoy of buses and ambulances.

She said if the shelter were hit by a bomb like the ones that left the huge craters she saw on the two occasions she ventured outside, “all of us would be done.”

Evacuees, a few of whom were in tears, made their way from the buses into a tent offering some of the comforts long denied them during their weeks underground, including hot food, diapers and connections to the outside world. Mothers fed small children. Some of the evacuees browsed racks of donated clothing, including new underwear.

The news for those left behind was more grim. Ukrainian commanders said Russian forces backed by tanks began storming the sprawling plant, which includes a maze of tunnels and bunkers spread out over 11 square kilometers (4 square miles), according to the Associated Press.

How many Ukrainian fighters were holed up inside was unclear, but the Russians put the number at about 2,000 in recent weeks, and 500 were reported to be wounded. A few hundred civilians also remained there, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

“We’ll do everything that’s possible to repel the assault, but we’re calling for urgent measures to evacuate the civilians that remain inside the plant and to bring them out safely,” Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, said on the messaging app Telegram.

He added that throughout the night, the plant was hit with naval artillery fire and airstrikes. Two civilian women were killed and 10 civilians wounded, he said.

The UN’s Lubrani expressed hope for further evacuations but said none had been worked out.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that by storming the steel mill, Russian forces violated agreements for safe evacuations. He said the prior evacuations are “not a victory yet, but it’s already a result. I believe there’s still a chance to save other people.”

In other battlefield developments, Russian troops shelled a chemical plant in the eastern city of Avdiivka, killing at least 10 people, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

“The Russians knew exactly where to aim — the workers just finished their shift and were waiting for a bus at a bus stop to take them home,” Kyrylenko wrote in a Telegram post. “Another cynical crime by Russians on our land.”

Explosions were also heard in Lviv, in western Ukraine, near the Polish border. The strikes damaged three power substations, knocking out electricity in parts of the city and disrupting the water supply, and wounded two people, the mayor said. Lviv has been a gateway for NATO-supplied weapons and a haven for those fleeing the fighting in the east, Associated Press reported.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala put forward on May 3 the outcome document that emerged from the informal process conducted with the Quad (the European Union, India, South Africa and the United States) for an intellectual property response to Covid-19.

The  proposal was immediately shared by the new chair of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Ambassador Lansana Gberie of Sierra Leone, with the full membership, after an informal meeting of the Council held this morning where he introduced the highlights of the text, read a statement issued by the World Trade Organization.

After an impasse of more than one year in the TRIPS Council, DG Okonjo-Iweala, working with Deputy Director-General Anabel González, supported an informal group of ministers to come together around what could be a meaningful proposal, without prejudice to their respective positions, that could provide a platform to be built upon by the membership.

In their discussions, the Quad adopted a problem-solving  approach aimed at identifying practical ways of clarifying, streamlining and simplifying how governments can override patent rights, under certain conditions, to enable diversification of production of COVID-19 vaccines, the statement further read.

The proposal will now go for consideration of the 164 WTO members.

Worrying that the conflict era cases of crimes against journalists in Nepal would remain unsolved, Laxman Datt Pant, Chairperson of Media Action Nepal (MAN), who also co-chairs the Media Freedom Coalition-Consultative Network (MFC-CN), has called on the government of Nepal to abide by its press freedom commitments.

He also reminded that the government should logically conclude Nepal’s transitional justice in line with Nepal’s international obligations and Supreme Court’s orders and precedents.

Meanwhile, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma (Koirala) has said that the government is committed to preserving freedom of expression and will neither introduce nor enact any laws aimed at stifling press freedom

"The present government strongly believes in the freedom of the press and does not seek to restrict it,” Sharma said, “The media should be accountable, not controlled.”

Pant and Sharma made these remarks at the roundtable discussion organised by Media Action Nepal (MAN) on Tuesday in Kathmandu to commemorate the World Press Freedom Day that falls on May 3.

Speaking at the event, the Minister also expressed the government’s willingness to sit and discuss media laws with the relevant stakeholders and urged everyone to come together to review the laws, both existing and in the pipeline, in line with the constitutional mandate.

“But the problem is that the parliament has not been able to function due to the ongoing obstruction by the opposition,” Sharma said. “This has affected the government’s ability to work as desired.”

Sharma also worried that the digital age had raised safety challenges for both journalists and news sources and stressed the need to take steps to address these challenges.

MAN Chairperson Pant said that while the press freedom situation was better in Nepal than our South Asian countries, it was still far from perfect and we needed to conform to the international instruments to which Nepal is a state party to.

He also called out media organisations like the Press Council Nepal and the Federation of Nepali Journalists for going beyond their mandate and carrying out populist activities.

Furthermore, Pant questioned the organisations’ involvement in the state apparatus and asked how they could claim to be unaware about the various anti-freedom of speech laws introduced by the government while sitting in the consultative and recommendation-giving bodies.

This year, the World Press Freedom Day was marked with the theme ‘Journalism under digital siege.’

Participants in Friday’s discussion, which included Gogan Bahadur Hamal, Director general of the Department of Information and Broadcasting; Jhabidra Bhusal, chief officer of Press Council Nepal; Dr. Kundan Aryal, associate professor at the Central Department of Journalism at Tribhuvan University and officials from other media and digital rights organisations, also focused on the topic.

Press Council’s Bhusal shared that our laws and policies had not kept pace with the advancements in technology and reminded everyone that freedom of expression was not absolute and more needed to be done to combat misuse of new media.

Meanwhile, Hamal said that technological progress would not stop for anyone and requested the media to use it positively.

He also reiterated Minister Sharma’s point and said that the government was ready to work with all to strengthen press freedom.

Bricks Cafe at Kupondole embodies the look and taste of traditional Nepal. The cafe is situated in a restored old brick building built in 1903. The interior is simple and rustic, with minimal decor, all lit up with high-ceiling chandeliers. It also has a mezzanine platform that offer more intimate setting.     

The place specializes in traditional Nepali food as well as dishes from other parts of the world. Its Nepali thali is a must-have, while pizza, biryani and sizzler are also popular picks from the menu.  

It’s the perfect place for intimate dinner with your loved ones as well as for friends and family gatherings.  

Chef’s Special:

Nepali Thali

Firewood pizza

Biryani 

Sizzler  

Opening hours: 10:00 am to 10:00 pm

Location: Kupondol, Lalitpur

Meal for 2: Rs 1,600

Phone/card pay: Yes

Contact:  01-5181100

Nepal reported 32 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 504 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 29 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 590 people underwent antigen tests, of which three were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 23 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 217 active cases in the country.

The CPN (Maoist Centre) has taken action against 11 leaders including the commander of the Maoist people's war for carrying out activities against the party's norms and values in the election in Udayapur.

At a time when the party has been taking action against the rebel candidates across the nation, it has recommended action against Province Committee member Bhim Bahadur Adhikari, Krishna Prasad Baral and Yadu Dhakal among other district leaders.

Adhikari was the the commander of Maoist people's war.

Province Committee Chairman Harka Nembang said that the party decided to take action against them for filing candidacies against the official candidates of the party and coalition.

Muslims across the country are celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr with zest and zeal today.

The great festival of the Islamic community is being observed with great gaiety and gusto by reciting special Namaz, offering prayers in mosque, receiving blessings from the elders and giving blessings to juniors. 

The festival, which marks the conclusion of a month-long fasting of the Muslims during the month of Ramadan, falls on the first day of the tenth month according to the Arabic calendar. 

In Nepal, the festival is being observed today as the new moon-sighting on the last day of the ninth month on Sunday evening.

On this day, Muslims devotes converge mainly in the mosque or any outdoor location in the early morning for Edi prayer and break their fast feasting on delicacies. 

Families and friends gather to mark the end of a month-long fast 'Ramadan' and exchange Eid Mubarak (greetings) as well as gifts. A spirit of generosity is encouraged hence they give alms to the poor. The celebration lasts up to three days in general. 

The government has declared a public holiday today on this occasion.

Chinese scientists are mounting efforts to establish a meteorological monitoring station at an altitude of 8,800 meters on Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, on the China-Nepal border, Xinhua reported.

If the station is established successfully, it will replace the one at an altitude of 8,430 meters set up by the British and US scientists on the south side of the mountain in 2019, to be the world's highest of its kind, according to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Equipment weighing some 50 kg will be dismantled and distributed to mountaineers, each of whom will carry no more than 7 kg up onto the mountain for the establishment, said Zhao Huabiao, a researcher with the ITP.

Currently, the engineers in charge of establishing the station are still waiting for the perfect weather for mountaineering.

Including the highest, eight elevation gradient meteorological stations will be set up on Mount Qomolangma, one of the main tasks in China's new comprehensive scientific expedition on the world's highest peak at the height of 8,848.86 meters, according to Xinhua.

Three meteorological stations were established at sea levels of 7,028 meters, 7,790 meters and 8,300 meters, respectively, earlier this year on the north side of the mountain, bringing the total number of operational weather stations between the altitudes between 5,200 meters and 8,300 meters to seven. Last year, four stations at sea levels of 6,500 meters, 5,800 meters, 5,400 meters and 5,200 meters were set up.

The new comprehensive scientific expedition on Mount Qomolangma is part of China's second scientific research survey on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which started in 2017.

Zhao said the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is facing a warming tendency along with global warming, and the higher the altitude is on the plateau, the more the temperature has risen.

Such a conclusion is only based on the data of weather stations at sea levels below 5,000 meters and the estimated calculation in accordance with the remote sensing data, because weather monitoring data from high-altitude stations were missing in the past, Xinhua reported.

The eight stations will collect the wind speed and wind direction data, as well as relative humidity on the north side of Qomolangma, and the elevation gradient meteorological station system is of great significance for monitoring the melting glaciers and mountain snow at the high altitudes, said Zhao.

The expedition team will also set up glacier radar and measure the thickness of snow and ice at the summit of the mountain, he said, according to Xinhua.