How climate change is altering apple farming across Mustang
Needarshan Thakali isn’t exactly sure what caused the strange, knotty growths on his family’s apple trees in Larjung. They began appearing several years ago, as rough, cricket ball-sized lumps that hung like woody tumours on the trees’ trunks and branches. At first, they looked like cosmetic aberrations, not anything to warrant too much attention. The trees, after all, still bore fruit—big, bulbous apples of mostly the Red and Golden Delicious variety, the kind for which this region is well known.
It wasn’t until the apples themselves started changing that Thakali’s family decided something must be done.
“They became smaller, less tasty,” said 25-year-old Thakali. “That’s when we started using pesticides.”
Indian external affairs minister to visit Nepal this month
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the new Indian External Affairs Minister, will arrive in Kathmandu on a two-day official visit beginning August 21, leading an Indian delegation to the fifth meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission at the foreign minister level. Jaishankar’s arrival will mark the first high-level political visit from India after the re-election of the Narendra Modi government in May.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu on Friday have both approved of the dates for Jaishankar’s visit, two officials familiar with developments told the Post. With the dates confirmed, both sides will begin preparations for their respective agendas.
A new film bill draws sharp criticism from Nepali entertainment industry
A new film bill proposed by the KP Sharma Oli administration has alarmed filmmakers, who say the bill, if enacted in its current form, will certainly stifle creativity and impose unnecessary conditions upon artists and film theatres.
The bill, currently in its drafting stage, gives sweeping powers to the film censor board to look into not just feature-length films, but also short movies, documentaries, music videos and anything that falls under the broad definition of “moving images”. The bill has also proposed that film theatres play the national anthem before screenings.
The broad definition of “film” in the bill includes every form of visual content, from feature films to short movies, television series, video commercials as well as music videos, which will now require permission from the Film Development Board before being produced and distributed. They will also need to pass the censor board before release.
In some colleges, students say teachers are going through their phones
In 2017, while in 11th grade at United Academy, Namita and her friend were caught using their cell phones. As cell phones were forbidden by the school’s policy, the Disciplinary Counsellor confiscated their phones, which was a regular practice and is explicitly stated on the school’s website. But then, he asked them for their phone passcodes. The girls refused at first, but the DC insisted, pressuring them into giving him their passcodes.
“He opened every single folder and app there was. He checked the call history, chat history and photo gallery,” Namita told the Post. “After coming across a photograph of my friend in a swimsuit, he said ‘wannabe model’ with a smirk.”
All of the women and men identified in this report asked that their real names not be used as they are either current students or recent graduates and fear backlash from their schools.
9.7°C Kathmandu
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