👀 High Water, Low Accountability

Namaste! Hope you’re staying safe from the floods, because let’s face it, dodging potholes and rising water is the real Nepali Olympic sport. If you’re lucky enough to be slurping jhol momo while it pours, just remember that privilege tastes pretty bitter when entire communities are drowning and the government’s response is a shrug. This country? Well, it’s a beautiful mess, emphasis on mess. But we’re still here, sifting through the chaos. So, without further ado, here’s the news - because if they’re not going to fix it, we might as well laugh about it.

La Eta Hernus

Desh

Lastai jhur desh: Nepal’s monsoon season is back with a vengeance, and the destruction feels painfully familiar. At least 148 people have died, dozens are missing, and entire communities have been cut off by floods and landslides. Highways connecting Kathmandu to the rest of the country are buried under rubble, while rescue teams scramble to save thousands using helicopters and inflatable rafts. Some residents have returned to find their homes drenched in mud - those lucky enough to even have a home standing. As the rains continue, it’s becoming clear that climate change is turning Nepal’s already devastating monsoon into an even more dangerous beast.

And while all this is happening? Oliba, our prime minister, is busy in New York at the 79th UN General Assembly, rubbing shoulders with world leaders and uploading selfies like he’s on a solo world tour. His latest snapshot with a grinning Luxembourg official got people riled up back home - because honestly, when was the last time you heard about the urgent need to strengthen Nepal-Luxembourg relations? But hey, it’s not like Oli would be leading the charge on flood response even if he were here. That task falls to his temporary replacement, Prakash Man Singh, who, let's be real, isn't exactly making headlines for his leadership in the crisis either.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak finally got around to holding a meeting after the flooding had already wreaked havoc. It’s not like the monsoon sneaks up on anyone- it’s the same show every year, but the government still acts like they’ve been blindsided. At this point, disaster management in Nepal feels like a national joke: no coordination, no urgency, and definitely no accountability. So while KP Oli is out there grinning for selfies, the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves in a country where public services are as reliable as your situationship’s promise.

Where’s Rabi dai? Well, while KP Oli and Aarzoo Deuba were busy canceling events in New York out of fear of a RaSwaPa protest, Rabi dai’s fanbase was making waves across the pokhari. The word on the street was that RaSwaPa’s foreign branch was planning to show up, and no one wants to be publicly roasted by a Rabi-supporting julus. Meanwhile, back in Nepal, Rabi dai’s stuck in the same old sahakari drama. The latest? A rumor of an arrest warrant for him. Turns out it was just Kantipur doing its usual hit job, throwing shade at Rabi dai again.

The parliamentary committee admitted that, yes, Rabi dai used sahakari funds, but whether he personally pocketed any is still unclear. Naturally, Rabi dai went full Facebook Live to pull a classic "why always me?" and point out that the real crooks are still running free. We’d dive deeper into the whole saga, but honestly, after watching the government do absolutely nothing meaningful during the recent floods, we’re too pissed off to care. Besides, in a country where accountability is a myth, what’s the point?

Tech 

OpenAI, the ChatGPT creator and former non-profit poster child, is making a hard pivot to the land of profits and billion-dollar valuations. After years of preaching AI ethics unshackled by financial pressures, CEO Sam Altman has decided that the "non-profit" label just doesn't look good in the eyes of investors. With a $150 billion valuation and $6.5 billion in fresh VC cash, the company is moving to a for-profit model, and Altman is set to pocket a cool 7% - roughly $10 billion. But the leadership exodus suggests that while the company may be flush with cash, it’s hemorrhaging talent faster than a Game of Thrones wedding scene.

The iPhone 16 landed with less of a bang and more of a shrug, as its most exciting feature - Apple Intelligence - won’t arrive until the iOS 18 update in October. For now, we’re left with two new buttons, including one for better camera control, which is cool but hardly revolutionary. Preorders were down 13% compared to the iPhone 15, leaving analysts mildly concerned but not yet ready to hit the panic button. Apple’s real challenge lies in international markets like China, where competition is heating up and AI may be the key to winning back some sizzle.

Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, dropped a new wallpaper app called Panels, and fans aren’t exactly lining up to download it. The backlash hit hard, with many calling out the $12/month subscription fee for high-quality wallpapers as wildly overpriced compared to similar apps. To add insult to injury, users can only download standard-quality wallpapers by watching ads - a far cry from the 4K versions offered in Panels Plus. Critics also took issue with the app’s permission requests and AI-generated content. Given Brownlee's reputation for roasting subpar tech, fans are left wondering why he’s now pushing a product that wouldn’t pass his own review.

Fatafat

Stat:

Watch: The human cost of Nepal’s yarsa gold rush (Shrijan Pandey, Nepali Times)

Climate change and overharvesting reduces earnings of villagers from a lucrative Himalayan fungus

Reading List:

1. The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age (Thea Lim, The Walrus)

2. What Trump Did to the G.O.P., Musk Did to Twitter (Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times)

3. One man's journey from state prison to a revered San Francisco restaurant (Nico Madrigal-Yankowski, SFGate)

4. Destined for clicks: YouTube is driving an astrology boom in Pakistan (M. Z. Adnan, restofworld)

5. MrBeast is called the internet's nicest man - now he faces 54-page lawsuit (Tom Gerken, BBC)

Kahi Nabhako Jaatra

Three Newsbriefs and a Lie

Three of these news headlines are real, and one is faker than disaster management in Nepal. If you click on the true headlines, the links will take you to the news articles. If you click on the fake one, you’ll be in for a surprise!

1. A man has been arrested by police on charges of taking 103 Chyangra (mountain goats) along with a truck after convincing a Chyangra owner in Mustang that he didn’t have the money at the moment and would pay after reaching Pokhara. Instead, he took off with the goats and the truck when he got the chance!
   (Link to news article)

2. In Gorkha, the principal of Janajyoti Secondary School, Tikaprasad Lamichhane, allegedly beat 13 grade 10 students after they said they didn’t understand the lesson. Parents claim the students were punished for asking questions, with one student reportedly sustaining serious injuries.

   (Link to news article)

3. In Jhapa, Oli was caught by Biplav's party members while accepting a bribe of 80,000 rupees.
   (Link to news article)

4. A chartered accountant distributed printed photos around the neighborhood, attempting to assassinate his wife's character in an effort to push for a divorce.

   (Link to news article)

Blast from the Past

Here are a couple of photos taken by Finnish photographer Tuomo Manninen in Kathmandu back in 1995. To see more of his work, head over to his website!

Bidesh Tira Hernus

Amrika: In a precautionary move, the U.S. has deployed troops to Lebanon amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, preparing for a possible evacuation of American citizens. As Israel braces for potential ground conflict, the U.S. State Department has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial flights are still operating.

Kasturi dai: In a cosmic version of "down in front!" astronomers are finding their view of the universe increasingly blocked by Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites. ASTRON, one of the world’s top radio astronomy institutes, reported that Starlink’s satellites are flooding space with radio waves 10 million times stronger than the faint signals their telescopes are trying to detect. Since February, newer second-gen Starlink satellites have been radiating 32 times more interference, despite SpaceX’s deal to limit the damage. With 42,000 satellites planned, astronomers worry that Musk’s internet dreams could spell disaster for Earth-based studies of black holes and other galactic mysteries.

Trump: Ryan Wesley Routh, accused of attempting to shoot former President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course, allegedly wrote a letter admitting to the assassination attempt and offered $150,000 to anyone who could "complete the job," prosecutors revealed. Arrested on firearm charges, Routh was reportedly near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for 12 hours before being caught. A judge has ordered him to be held without bail pending trial.

Best of Twitter/Switter

Proud Gorkhali Moment

A request

If you’ve enjoyed the journey with us thus far, please help us spread the word about this newsletter by asking your friends, dads, maijus, neighbors, and your fupajus to sign up by forwarding them this email! If this email was forwarded to you, please consider signing up using this link! We've also got a discord server, you can join us here.

(Answer to Three Newsbriefs and Lie: We tricked you! All of them are true! We won’t do it again, we promise!)

Our newsletter includes images from online platforms for illustrative purposes only, with no implied ownership or endorsement.