Hello and Namaste from Nepal!

We’re thrilled to bring you our latest edition of Nepali Dias Express, your trusted weekly digest of what’s happening back home, why it matters, and how it connects to Nepalis living around the world.

🇳🇵 Nepal Updates:

1. Rs. 2 Trillion in Trade, And Half of It is Cooking Oil

Nepal’s foreign trade just crossed Rs. 2 trillion. Sounds impressive; until you realize nearly half of our “exports” are edible oils we don’t even produce.
How?
We import crude oil from Argentina, refine it, slap on a “Namaste India” label, and send it next door. India’s tax policy made it profitable. Until it didn’t. A new policy slashed import duties, and now Nepal’s re-export bubble might burst like a samosa in hot oil.
Meanwhile, real manufacturing is actually shrinking. Only 35% of industries are operational, and the industrial sector’s GDP share is down to 13%. But hey, trade numbers look shiny, right?

Biggest import: crude oil.
Biggest export: that same oil, but shinier.
Fiscal policy: vibes-based.

2. Company Registrar Office: Now With Bonus Bribes

Nepal’s Office of the Company Registrar was caught doing what it does best: breaking itself.
A high-ranking official allegedly sent staff to bribe a journalist to kill a story. The story in question, was about open bribery in the office’s digital system.
The Ministry finally woke up and dragged Giri and two assistants back for explanations. So yes, we’ve reached the phase where the briber is getting investigated for trying to bribe someone not to report on previous bribes.

3. Load-Shedding is Back, But the Electricity Isn’t the Problem

Former NEA MD Kulman Ghising says the current power cuts aren’t due to electricity shortages. In fact, Nepal is exporting electricity while homes face 3–5 hour daily cuts.
The real issue, according to him, is leadership.
Ghising, who was sacked in March, blames mismanagement and a broken system. Current NEA management says, well not much. They’re probably drafting a load-shedding schedule in Excel.

Power status: surplus
Management status: shortage
Investor confidence: flickering

4. Consultancies Gone Wild: 4,100 Running Illegally

Turns out most education consultancies in Nepal have a diploma in “How to Scam and Vanish.”
Out of ~5,000 operating in the Valley, only 900 are actually registered. The rest are just charging sky-high fees, giving zero bills, and sometimes doing manpower work on the side.
The Consumer Protection Department has started slapping Rs. 51K fines, but the ICAN (consultancy union) is crying foul, claiming this crackdown is scaring the good guys too.

Legally registered: <20%
Bills given: almost none
Legal action: finally started

🌍 Global Updates:

1. Nepal Can Now Legally Sue the U.S. for Climate Damage (But Should Probably Stretch First)

The ICJ says big polluters can now be sued for climate destruction.
In theory, Nepal can now bill the U.S. and China for all the floods, droughts, and melting glaciers.
In practice? Not so easy.
We still need to prove that exact smokestack in Texas caused your uncle’s paddy field in Mahottari to crack. Oh, and the U.S. has to voluntarily show up in court. Which they won’t.

So what’s the point? Leverage.
We now hold a giant legal stick. Time to wave it during climate finance talks.

Nepal’s emissions: 0.027% of global total
Climate loss forecast: up to 9.9% of GDP by 2100
Legal power: unlocked, but fragile
Verdict: emotionally satisfying, legally exhausting

2. America’s New $250 “Visa Integrity Fee” Is Not a Joke

Heading to the U.S.? Pack your bags, your dreams, and an extra $250 per head.
The U.S. has introduced a new “visa integrity fee,” in addition to existing visa fees and the I-94 entry charge (now up to $24).
There’s technically a refund if you don’t overstay or work illegally, but no one knows how or when that works. The U.S. government itself said implementation is TBD.

Cost for family of 4: $1,000 extra
Refund timeline: sometime before climate reparations
Official reason: immigration integrity
Real reason: deficit reduction disguised as patriotism

3. Thailand & Cambodia Are Throwing Artillery Over an Ancient Temple

It’s 2025 and two Southeast Asian nations are literally fighting over a temple again.
Tensions flared along the Thai-Cambodia border after soldiers and nationalist influencers on both sides escalated old disputes. Result? Artillery fire, F-16 bombings, evacuations, and thousands displaced.

Temple in question: Ta Moan Thom (claimed by both)
Status: Worst fighting in a decade
Outcome: Cambodia is calling the UN; Thailand prefers “talks, but after the shooting stops.”

4. Macron Sues U.S. Podcaster for Claiming His Wife is a Man

Yes, this is real.
French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron are suing U.S. podcaster Candace Owens for pushing bizarre conspiracy theories, like Brigitte being a man named Jean-Michel, Macron being groomed by the CIA, and their marriage being a fraud.
The lawsuit has 22 counts and reads like a Netflix script that got rejected for being too ridiculous.

Macron’s official response: sue for defamation
Owens’ reaction: doubled down
Everyone else: waiting for the docuseries

🔍Deep Dive: Can Nepal Sue the US and China for Climate Change? The UN Says Yes

You probably saw the headlines: "World's Top Court Issues Landmark Climate Ruling." And if you're from Nepal, you probably had two thoughts.

First: "Finally! A way to hold them accountable."

Second, about three seconds later: "Yeah, right. As if Nepal can actually sue the US."

Your second thought is the correct one. We all know powerful countries can just say "no" to the court. It's a giant, frustrating loophole.

So, why are we even wasting our time with this?

Because the story isn't the fantasy lawsuit. The real story is what happens when a powerful country is forced to say "no" in front of the whole world, right after a court has declared them legally in the wrong.

So, maybe pause that Netflix show for a bit, grab a coffee and let’s talk about this.

Our Absurd Situation: The Great Climate Injustice

You know how sometimes you get blamed for something your sibling did? Imagine that, but on a global scale, and instead of getting grounded, your house is at risk of literally washing away. That’s Nepal’s reality.

The numbers are so lopsided they’re almost funny.

Globally, Nepal is responsible for just 0.1% of all greenhouse gas emissions. I’m not a math genius, but that’s basically a rounding error. Our share of the blame is so small you’d need a microscope to see it on a pie chart. On a personal level, the average Nepali’s carbon footprint is about 0.6 tons. The world average is 4.8 tons.

We have lived with a light touch. And our reward for this global good behavior? We get to be a permanent fixture on the world’s "most climate-vulnerable countries" list. Back in 2017, the Global Climate Risk Index ranked us as the 4th most affected nation on the entire planet, but in 2025 we were ranked 69th.

This isn’t some abstract threat that our grandkids will have to deal with. The economic damage is already here. Projections show climate change is set to wipe 2.2% off our GDP by 2050. If the big emitters don't change their ways, that number could balloon to a staggering 9.9% loss by 2100. Forget political instability or economic policy, our country’s future prosperity is being systematically dismantled by the weather.

This absurd gap between our tiny responsibility and the colossal price we pay is the core of our story. And now, finally, the world has a legal framework to force people to listen.

From the Front Lines: Our Peaks and Our Plains

Okay, so let’s talk about what this actually looks like on the ground. Forget the abstract language of reports for a second. This is about what’s happening right outside the window of your childhood home, or in the village your parents still talk about. This is real-time.

First, let’s head up to the mountains.

Remember those posters of the Himalayas we all had on our walls? The ones with the impossibly white, majestic peaks? Well, those peaks are in a state of emergency.

In the time it’s taken many of us to grow up, move abroad, and build our lives, Nepal has lost nearly one-third of its glacial ice. That’s not a typo. A third of our iconic ice, gone.

The melting process is now on fast-forward. Scientists confirmed that the glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas melted 65% faster in the last decade (2011-2020) than they did in the one before. It’s not a slow leak anymore; it's a hemorrhage. Even if the world magically gets its act together and hits that 1.5°C target, we’re still slated to lose 36% of our Himalayan glaciers by 2100.

This isn't just about losing some pretty scenery for trekkers. All that melting water has to go somewhere, and it's forming massive, unstable lakes high in the mountains. We’ve seen what happens when the natural dams holding them back inevitably break. We call them GLOFs, which sounds harmless, but it’s basically a mountain tsunami. In 1985, the Dig Tsho GLOF ripped through the Khumbu region, wiping out a major hydropower project. More recently, in August 2024, the Thame Village GLOF washed away 20 houses, a school, and a clinic, leaving 135 people homeless in an instant.

Today, there are at least four more of these high-risk lakes; Thulagi, Lower Barun, Lumding Tsho, and Hongu, swelling up like angry blisters above communities. It’s like knowing there’s a ticking time bomb sitting upstream from people you know.

Now, let's go down to the Terai.

Alright, now let's head down from the mountains to the plains.

You know the Terai, our breadbasket, the place that’s supposed to be impossibly green and steamy right now? It's parched. The monsoon has become a running joke. 93% of our farmers say it’s always late, but this year it basically ghosted the entire region. It’s like that one friend who’s always “on the way” but never actually leaves their house. This year, they didn't even pretend to leave.

It got so dire that on July 10th, the government had to make it official: Madhesh Province is a drought zone.

The result is terrifying. By mid-July, only 33.78% of the paddy fields were planted. For comparison, it was 61% at the same time last year. That’s not a bad harvest; that's a failed one. So you have families staring at cracked earth where their income should be growing. The wells are empty, the hand pumps are sucking air, and the dal bhat on everyone’s plate is now in serious jeopardy.

Turning Our Grievances into Legal Weapons

So, you know how for years our whole strategy has been, well, kinda pathetic? We show up at these big global meetings, put on our saddest faces, show pictures of our melting glaciers, and basically hope someone feels guilty enough to throw some money our way. It's been a long, frustrating cycle of being the "helpless victim."

Well, you can take that entire strategy and toss it in the bin.

The International Court of Justice just handed us a legal weapon. From now on, instead of asking for a favor, we get to demand what’s rightfully ours. 

1. We Can Finally Send Them the Bill.

First off, the court basically gave all the big polluter countries a new official title: lawbreakers. The ruling says that failing to act on climate is an "internationally wrongful act." That’s the driest, most boring way of saying something electrifying: they are officially, legally in the wrong.

And when someone is legally in the wrong, you stop asking nicely. It's like your neighbor threw a massive party that wrecked your garden. You're not going to go over and ask for a "donation" for new plants, right? Hell no. You're going to hand them the bill from the nursery. That's what we get to do now. We can start adding up the cost of every single failed harvest and every washed-out road and present it as damages.

2. We Have a Secret Weapon.

The thing that makes our case so solid it’s almost airtight. We've already won this argument at home. Back in 2018, our own Supreme Court, in the Shrestha v. Prime Minister case, ruled that climate change is a direct violation of the constitutional right of every Nepali to a dignified life.

We're not just showing up saying "you're breaking international law." We're showing up saying, "You're breaking international law, and by the way, our own Supreme Court already agrees that you're violating the fundamental human rights of our people." It's a legal checkmate.

3. Let's Talk About the Money

So now, let's talk about money. The number to protect Nepal is something like $46 billion by 2030. It’s a ridiculous amount. And even more ridiculous? Over half of it is still remains unfunded.

For decades, they’ve tried to call any money they send "aid." This ruling lets us finally call it what it is.

It’s not aid. It’s a debt.

It's the bill for a party we didn't attend but were forced to clean up after. And this court just gave us the legal muscle to finally walk up to them and say, "It's time to pay your tab."

So, Can We Actually Sue Them? (The Absurd Reality)

Okay, so this is the part where we all lean in, right? The big, juicy question: Does this mean we can actually haul, say, China or the USA or Germany into court and demand they pay for the mess?

The short answer, which is still blowing my mind, is yes.

The court basically gave us a legal green light. They said; and I’m paraphrasing the legalese here, "If someone punches you, you don't have to sue the whole angry mob. You can go right after the person who threw the punch." The judges were crystal clear that any country that’s been harmed can individually hold any country that caused the harm responsible.

And they shot down the big excuse the polluters have been hiding behind for years. You know how they’d point to the Paris Agreement and say, "Hey, this is the only rulebook we have to follow"? The court basically said, "Nope. The ancient, common-sense rule about not trashing your neighbor's property still applies."

So, legally, the door is wide open.

But, it's not like filing a small claims case for a broken fence. This is where things get absurdly difficult.

Reality Check #1: Proving Who Threw the Punch

Before you can get a single rupee, you have to prove your case. And in the science of climate change, that's insanely hard. It's like having to prove in court that the smoke from that specific factory in Bavaria caused the freak monsoon flood that wrecked your cousin's farm in Chitwan.

You have to scientifically connect their specific emissions (or their failure to cut emissions) directly to our specific disaster. The judges themselves admitted this "causation" link is a huge hurdle. So while the right to sue exists, winning is a whole other mountain to climb.

Reality Check #2: Making Them Show Up to Court

Here’s the biggest catch, the one that makes international law so strange. The ICJ is not like a regular court. You can’t just drag someone there kicking and screaming.

In an actual lawsuit (what they call a "contentious case"), both countries have to agree to let the court decide. If Nepal decides to sue Country X, and Country X just says "Nah, we don't accept the court's jurisdiction on this," then... that's it. The case can't move forward. The court has no police force to compel them to show up.

So, Where Does That Leave Us?

I know, it sounds a bit like being given a key to a brand-new car, but the car has no engine. So what’s the point?

The point is leverage.

This ruling is a giant, new, powerful weapon in our diplomatic arsenal. Even if we never win a single lawsuit, the threat of one is a massive headache for these countries. It creates political and reputational risk for them.

It means that the next time we're in a negotiation over climate finance, we're not just there as victims. We're there as a creditor who has a legally-validated claim. We can say, "Look, we can either sort this out here with grants and technology transfer, or we can make this very loud and very messy for you in the international legal system."

So, is it a magic bullet that will solve everything tomorrow? No.

But it's a hell of a weapon that we didn't have last week. And for the first time, it feels like we’re finally fighting on something closer to even ground.

So, what's the real takeaway here?

Look, this isn’t a winning lottery ticket. We’re not going to be cashing a check from some big polluting country next week. The whole system is still incredibly slow and complicated.

But what it does do is take our story, the one about us being the most innocent victims, and it stamps 'LEGALLY VALID' right on top of it.

And that changes everything about how we talk. How you can talk.

We finally get to stop just explaining our tragedy and start demanding what we are owed.

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