Protesters attempt to storm parliament in Nepal
Kathmandu — Unrest killed at least 19 people and injured dozens in Nepal’s capital on Monday, state TV said, as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters trying to storm parliament in anger at a social media shutdown and corruption.
Some protesters forced their way into the parliament complex by breaking through a barricade, a local official said, setting fire to an ambulance, hurling objects at riot police and ferrying the injured to hospital on motorcycles.
“The police have been firing indiscriminately,” one protester told the ANI news agency. More than 100 people including 28 police personnel were receiving medical treatment for their injuries, police officer Shekhar Khanal told Reuters.
A source said home minister Ramesh Lekhak had resigned from the government after taking “moral responsibility” for the violence. Reuters
Javier Milei’s party suffers stinging election defeat
London — A heavy election defeat for Argentinian President Javier Milei’s governing party in Buenos Aires province put the country’s strained markets on track to extend a recent sell-off, raising uncertainty ahead of a key October vote.
The opposition Peronist party triumphed in Sunday’s legislative elections in the key province, leaving the party of radical reformist Milei in a distant second place, the provisional official tally showed.
“The scale of the defeat far exceeded expectations,” said JPMorgan analyst Diego Pereira, adding the resounding victory for the opposition in the regional contest signalled a steeper climb for Milei as he is battling to deliver a positive outcome in national midterm elections on October 26. “With five weeks until the national vote, the administration may recalibrate its political strategy to address missteps observed in recent months.”
Based on provisional official counts, the Peronists won 46.8% of the vote across the province, while the candidate of Milei’s party took 33.8%, with 82.2% of the votes counted. Reuters
Travel chaos as strike shuts down London’s Tube
London — London’s Tube network came to a standstill on Monday as its workers began a week of strikes over pay and working conditions, disrupting travel for commuters and tourists in the British capital.
Almost no London Underground trains are expected to run between Monday and Thursday. Additionally, the Docklands Light Railway, which connects the financial centres of Canary Wharf and the City of London, will not run on Tuesday and Thursday.
Londoners reported making longer journeys to get to work on Monday morning, with many choosing to cycle and others taking detours. “The prospect of it being all week, it’s a bit of a nightmare ... it’s probably taken me twice as long to get in this morning,” said legal counsel Laura Sutton, who was near London Bridge station. Reuters
Trump government asks court to allow it to freeze aid
Washington — US President Donald Trump’s administration has filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court asking the top court to allow the administration to freeze billions in foreign aid, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
The request comes after a US appeals court on Friday declined to block a lower court ruling that said the Trump administration could not unilaterally cut billions of dollars of foreign aid authorised by Congress. Reuters
Protect Brics, urges Xi Jinping
Beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Brics countries to safeguard the multilateral trading system and resist all forms of protectionism, as he addressed a virtual summit of the group on Monday, state media Xinhua reported.
Xi also urged Brics nations to tap into their own advantages and deepen co-operation in various fields including trade and economy, finance and technology. “The closer the Brics countries co-operate, the more confidence, options and effective results they will have in addressing external risks and challenges,” Xi was quoted as saying. Reuters
US appeals court rejects lawsuit over Trump firings
Washington — A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that 19 mostly Democrat-led states and Washington, DC, cannot pursue a legal challenge to the mass firings of 25,000 recently hired federal workers carried out by US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said the states lacked legal standing to sue because they could not demonstrate that they would be harmed directly by the mass termination of probationary federal employees in February.
The ruling marked the Trump administration’s latest court victory in its efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, including by cutting probationary employees. They typically have less than a year of service in their current roles, though some are longtime federal workers in new jobs. Reuters
Greater oil production forecast for Senegal
Dakar — Senegal has raised its 2025 oil output forecast for the Sangomar offshore field operated by Australia’s Woodside Energy Group to 34.5-million barrels from 30.53-million, the energy ministry said on Monday. The Sangomar field started output in June 2024, making Senegal an oil-producing nation.
From January to August, Sangomar produced more than 24-million barrels of crude oil, according to an energy ministry statement published on X. Reuters
Blow for basmati rice in India and Pakistan
Mumbai/Karachi — Heavy rains and widespread flooding in basmati rice-growing regions of India and Pakistan have raised concerns about output of the premium staple, driving prices higher as supplies are expected to fall.
India and Pakistan exclusively grow aromatic basmati rice, which sells for nearly twice the price of regular varieties and is primarily imported by Britain, the Middle East and the US.
Floods have severely affected the basmati rice crop, but with waters now receding, losses are expected to remain limited provided there is no additional rainfall, said Nitin Gupta, senior vice-president at Olam Agri India.
India’s northern states of Punjab and Haryana contribute more than 80% of the country’s total basmati rice production, while Pakistan’s Punjab province accounts for more than 90% of its output. Reuters
US tariffs harm German exports in July
Cologne — German exports unexpectedly fell in July on a sharp decline in US demand due to Washington’s tariffs on European imports, official data showed on Monday, while a survey indicated that investor morale had plunged this month.
Exports from Europe’s biggest economy fell 0.6% in July from the previous month, data from the federal statistics office showed. A Reuters poll had forecast a 0.1% increase. Exports to the US were down 7.9% from June, helping to drag down overall goods exports to non-EU partners by 4.5%.
The Trump administration imposed a 15% import tariff on most goods from the EU under a deal reached with the 27-nation bloc in July that aimed to avert a trade war between the two economic heavyweights.
The US was Germany’s biggest bilateral trading partner in 2024 with two-way goods trade totalling €253bn, and the export-orientated German economy is expected to be badly affected by the levies. Reuters
Former PM Thaksin returns to Thailand ahead of trial
Bangkok — Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has returned to the country from overseas, party official Chayika Wongnapachant said on Monday. “He has already arrived.”
The former premier’s return comes a day ahead of court verdict that could potentially send him back to prison. Reuters
Nasdaq joins rush to tokenised securities trading
New York — Nasdaq is working with US regulators to introduce trading of tokenised securities, becoming the latest major financial player on Wall Street to double down on a boom in tokenisation amid an easing of crypto regulations under the Trump administration.
If approved, the move would mark the first instance of tokenised securities being allowed to trade on a major US stock exchange, and also signify the most ambitious attempt yet by an exchange operator to bring blockchain-based settlement into the national market system.
The bourse on Monday filed a proposal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to tweak its rules to allow for trading of listed stocks and exchange traded products on its main market in “either traditional digital or tokenised form”.
The filing comes days after the SEC unveiled its rule-making agenda, which included a potential amendment of its rules to allow for crypto to be traded on national securities exchanges and alternative trading systems. Reuters
Nuclear watchdog boss warns Iran ‘time running out’
Vienna — Time is running out in talks between the UN nuclear watchdog and Iran on how to fully resume inspections in the Islamic Republic, the watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi, said on Monday, adding that he hoped the discussions would conclude within days.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not had access to Iran’s key nuclear facilities since the US and Israel bombed them in June. Iran passed a law after the attacks suspending co-operation with the IAEA and saying any inspections had to be approved by its Supreme National Security Council.
The IAEA and Iran are now in talks on the “modalities” of a full resumption of inspections, though Grossi said Iran was still duty-bound to allow verification measures such as inspections as a party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
“There is still time, but not much. Always enough when there is good faith and a clear sense of responsibility,” Grossi said in a statement to a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board. Reuters
US proposes annual permits for chip exports to China
Bengaluru — The US is proposing annual approvals for the export of chipmaking supplies to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix’s China-based factories, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
Officials in the US commerce department last week presented to Korean counterparts a “site licence” idea to supplant indefinite authorisations the chipmakers secured under the previous administration, the report said, citing sources. Those so-called validated end user, or VEU, designations are set to expire at the end of this year, it added.
The VEU system granted Samsung and SK Hynix perpetual approval to ship estimated quantities of semiconductor tools and materials to their Chinese plants, based on prior security and monitoring commitments. Reuters
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