Good morning. A wave of youth-led protests has rocked Nepal, resulting in the collapse of its government – more on that below, along with Israel’s strike on Hamas leadership in Qatar and the controversial doc premiering at TIFF today. But first:

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Tens of thousands of protesters, largely young people in their school uniforms, have filled the streets of Kathmandu this week, drawn out by a short-lived social-media ban and long-brewing anger over political corruption and nepotism. On Monday, their confrontations with police turned deadly as authorities fired live ammunition into the crowd, killing at least 19 and sending hundreds to local hospitals. By yesterday afternoon, demonstrators had set fire to Parliament, the Supreme Court, police stations and the homes of several politicians – including the prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, who announced that he would step down.

It’s the worst unrest to hit Nepal in decades. President Ram Chandra Poudel, the ceremonial head of state, said that Oli would lead a caretaker government until a new one is in place – though it’s unclear what power the former PM would wield or even where exactly he is. Online videos yesterday showed helicopters airlifting ministers from Parliament. Late last night, the army – which had up to that point remained in its barracks – said it would restore order and take control of the streets.

It was largely successfully: Most people appeared to obey the national curfew the army put in place. The Gen Z protests – a label embraced by its organizers – may have lost momentum for now.

Offline fury

The chaos kicked off last Thursday with a government ban on more than two dozen social media platforms, including YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and X. Officials said the ban came after those platforms failed to comply with new registration requirements, aimed at cracking down on misinformation and online crime. But critics argue that Oli’s government has been trying to suppress free speech for years. Just last May, it arrested Kailash Sirohiya, the owner of one of Nepal’s largest media organizations, in a thinly veiled act of retaliation for negative coverage, and detained him for two weeks.

Social media is a vital part of life in Nepal, where people depend on the apps to exchange money and keep in contact with far-away families and friends. With youth unemployment hovering around 20 per cent, a large chunk of Gen Z has been forced to look elsewhere for work and education. Every day, more than 2,000 young people leave the country for the Middle East or Southeast Asia. Roughly two million total citizens – nearly 7 per cent of the population – now work abroad.

Nepal is hugely reliant on the dollars they send back home. In 2024, those remittances added up to more than US$14-billion, or 33 per cent of the country’s economy, according to the World Bank. Preventing access to LinkedIn severely curbs people’s ability to find jobs; cutting off WhatsApp restricts them from sending and receiving money. Oli reversed his social-media ban on Monday night after the deadly crackdown on demonstrators – though that didn’t quell the protests, and hours later, he resigned.

The new guard

Gen Z’s grievances extend well beyond limits to their social media: “We want to see an end to corruption in Nepal,” one 19-year-old college student told the BBC. This spring, a parliamentary investigation found that lawmakers and officials embezzled at least US$71-million during the construction of an airport in Pokhara, a major tourist destination. (Only one international flight lands there each week.) In the 10 years since Nepal finally agreed on a new constitution, after toppling the monarchy in 2008, just three men have served as prime minister: Oli, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal. They keep rotating out after a year or two.

“We need to kick these old leaders out of power,” another young demonstrator told reporters. “We are tired of the same old faces.” And they’re equally tired of seeing those leaders’ children parade their sweet lifestyles – full of luxury cars, designer clothes and foreign vacations – all over TikTok and Instagram. In the weeks leading up to the protests, the hashtags #nepobaby and #nepokids trended widely on social media. Demonstrators noted a conspicuous disconnect between the lavish displays of second-generation wealth and their parents’ modest government salaries.

They also noted that the social-media ban muted criticism of these inequalities. People were waiting this morning to see whether the army would meet with Gen Z protesters. It still isn’t clear who’s in charge of Nepal.

Israel launched a strike yesterday on senior Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, as they met to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Foreign leaders, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, condemned the attack on the Gulf nation, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas through the nearly two-year war. In a statement, Hamas said its top officials survived the strike but that five lower-level members were killed. The attack came hours after Israel’s military warned all of Gaza City’s residents to evacuate before a full invasion.