Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Nepal’s descent into political instability, Israel targeting Hamas leadership in Qatar, and the sentencing of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Nationwide Protests
As mass anti-government protests swept Nepal, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli announced his resignation on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of several high-ranking cabinet ministers. Oli will lead a caretaker government until a new one is implemented, though it is unclear how much power he may wield as well as where he is currently located.
Still, Oli’s resignation appears to have had little effect on Nepal’s nationwide protests, with tens of thousands of people remaining on the street late into the day.
Protests first erupted Monday following a government ban on 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WeChat, WhatsApp, X, and YouTube. Legislation targeted these sites for reportedly failing to register and submit to government oversight; however, the policy was widely criticized as a state-sponsored tool to censor and punish the country’s political opposition. TikTok was not included in the ban, as the app’s executives promised last year to comply with local laws, including a ban on pornographic sites.
Young people largely led Monday’s protests, which quickly broadened to encapsulate wider criticism of Oli’s government and accusations of corruption, particularly nepotism. Youth unemployment in Nepal hit nearly 21 percent last year, with more than 2,000 young people leaving the country every day to seek work in the Middle East or Southeast Asia.
The so-called Gen Z protests quickly spiraled out of control. Video footage showed demonstrators attacking and setting fire to government buildings and the private residences of top political figures, including Oli’s home. Widespread looting was reported, rioting led to two mass jail breaks of around 900 people, and at least one video showed protesters attacking Nepali Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba and her husband, Nepali Congress party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Police responded with live ammunition, rubber bullets, and water cannons. At least 19 people were killed and hundreds more injured, making Monday the single-largest death toll from a day of public protest in Nepal’s history. That death toll continues to rise.
Oli’s resignation the following day was just one way the government tried to address the deaths. Kathmandu lifted its ban on all 26 social media sites; Oli vowed to form an investigating committee to submit a report on the violence within 15 days; and the government pledged compensation to the families of those killed, adding that those who were wounded would receive free medical treatment.
Kathmandu’s main security agencies issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for public restraint and a peaceful path forward. “It is our common responsibility to maintain law and order, ensure national unity, and not to let additional loss of life and property,” army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel said. Nepal’s army also announced that it would assume responsibility for law and order starting at 10 p.m. local time; the statement came less than 15 minutes before the 10 p.m. deadline began.
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What We’re Following
Targeting Hamas negotiators. Israel conducted a strike on members of Hamas’s senior leadership in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday. The attack reportedly targeted residential buildings housing several members of the group’s political bureau, including Hamas negotiators Khalil al-Hayya, Zaher Jabarin, and Khaled Meshaal.
Hamas said in a statement that its top leaders survived the strike but that five lower-level officials were killed. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said a member of the country’s internal security force was killed in the strike.
Tuesday’s strike marked a significant escalation by Israel. Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari condemned the operation, adding that Doha “will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and the continuous tampering with the security of the region.” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also called it a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.”
The United States also issued a rare public rebuke against Israel’s actions. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Qatar is home to Al Udeid Air Base, the United States’ largest military base in the Middle East.
Hamad al-Muftah, the deputy chief of mission at the Qatari Embassy in Washington, also stressed that the attack coincided with U.S. and Qatari efforts to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
One year behind bars. Thailand’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra must serve a one-year sentence for previous graft and abuse of power convictions. The judges argued that Thai officials had mishandled Thaksin’s return from self-imposed exile in 2023, when, after spending just a few hours in prison, he complained of heart trouble and chest pain and was immediately moved to a police hospital. King Maha Vajiralongkorn had then commuted Thaksin’s eight-year sentence to one year, and he was released on parole after his six-month hospital stay concluded.
According to a court statement, the judges found evidence that Thaksin’s alleged condition was treatable by the prison’s hospital and that by failing to first be assessed by prison doctors, he violated procedure. The hospital also claimed that Thaksin needed urgent neck surgery. However, medical records showed that he instead received care for a locked finger joint and tendonitis in his right shoulder and that he never ended up having neck surgery before his release. With this evidence, the Supreme Court suggested that Thaksin was believed to have falsified a health condition to avoid being sent to prison.
Following the court’s ruling on Tuesday, Thaksin was sent to Bangkok’s Klong Prem Central Prison to serve his sentence.
A new energy powerhouse. Ethiopia officially inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on Tuesday. Known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the $5 billion project aims to provide millions of Ethiopians with 5,100 megawatts of energy, with surplus power exported to the country’s regional neighbors. “Ethiopia built the dam to prosper, to electrify the entire region, and to change the history of Black people,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said. “It is absolutely not to harm its brothers.”
The project has been at the center of a yearslong diplomatic fight. Ethiopia’s downstream neighbors along the Nile, particularly Egypt, have warned that GERD could restrict their water supply during droughts and potentially encourage other nations to build similar dams. Egypt depends on the Nile for 90 percent of its freshwater. Although no countries have issued direct reprisals against Ethiopia for GERD’s construction, Cairo has inched closer to Addis Ababa’s rivals in the Horn of Africa, and Sudan has joined calls to create legally binding agreements on the dam’s operation.
Odds and Ends
A new mural by street artist Banksy is expected to have a short shelf life, after British authorities announced on Monday that the controversial piece will be removed from the side of the Royal Courts of Justice. According to the United Kingdom’s Courts and Tribunals Service, the mural will be removed because it was painted on a historic building that must have its original character maintained. However, the mural’s content makes the decision particularly contentious; the artwork depicts a judge beating an unnamed protester with a gavel in what some suggest is evocative of London’s recent ban on the Palestine Action group. Nearly 900 people were arrested on Saturday for protesting the ban.