Cadbury was her favorite. I used to buy one for her as soon as I landed at Biratnagar Airport;  exactly like she did for me when I was a child. The role now reversed. I never went home without meeting her. I would give her a kiss and she would say: Why kiss this old wrinkly cheek! And she would laugh.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has badly hit diplomacy. Several international diplomatic conclaves, conferences, and high-level diplomatic trips are on pause. Diplomats are being asked to stay at home. Meeting rooms in the Foreign Ministries and Embassies see no human presence. Most of the international organizations such as United Nations, European Union, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have moved online, using the digital platforms to conduct the meetings.

HONG KONG – There is nothing like a pandemic to expose systemic differences. For China and the United States, which were locked in an ideologically driven competition even before the COVID-19 crisis, those differences are stark. But the two countries have at least one thing in common: when this is all over, they will need to rethink their social contracts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global crisis that will continue for many months. It is already transforming social and economic life while altering the practice of politics and government. For Nepal, one of a relatively small group of countries that remains classified as a least developed country, the long-term impact of the crisis is likely to be exacerbated by perennial vulnerabilities and a legacy of poor policy choices regarding the national interest.

The Government of Nepal is not doing enough to support its migrant workers. Multiple confusions loom around the diaspora, hoping the Nepal government to sort them out. The precarious example of Kuwait paints Nepal’s despondent approach of handling foreign employment amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

Today (April 25) marks fifth anniversary 2015 earthquake in Nepal and the memories on it are still fresh for me.  Back then, I was working in the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

The good news is that the Oli government has withdrawn the two controversial ordinances it had introduced four days ago on Monday. The two ‘surprise’ ordinances - one to amend the Political Party Act so as to ease splits in political parties and the other to amend the Constitutional Council Act in order to allow the Constitution Council to conduct meetings even in the absence of the main opposition leader – have been withdrawn. Following a Cabinet decision on Friday, President Bidya Bhandari announced the repeal of the ordinances as swiftly as she had certified them within a couple of hours of receiving them from the government.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected the lives of millions of people globally. In December 2019, Chinese public health authorities reported several cases of acute respiratory syndrome in Wuhan. The disease is now called COVID-19, and the causative virus is named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2). It is a replacement strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across Nepal have been closed since March 19 and it is not clear when they will open. They could remain closed for many more days. The major challenge at this point is to ensure that all children have access to education. Many experts have expressed their opinions on the issue. Some favor online teaching methods while others opine that Nepal is not yet ready for online teaching. It is important to be clear regarding the availability of radio, mobile phone, television, computer and internet facilities as well as the current use and possibility of digital learning materials and software while discussing the matter.

While hundreds of millions of people are put under strict quarantine measures across the world, China, which was the epicenter of the initial outbreak, is gradually lifting inter-cities travel bans and revamping mobility in the streets. The “Chinese model” of applying strict measures to contain virus spread, which was initially deemed unpopular, is now being implemented across democracies like the United States, India, or even Nepal with strict enforcement.