KATHMANDU — When Nepal banned major social media platforms including Facebook last week citing a tide of fake news, activists like Sandip saw it as an attempt to silence their growing online anti-corruption movement.

Stung into action, they turned to still-accessible apps such as Viber and TikTok to rally thousands, sparking protests that left at least 19 protesters dead and ultimately forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli from office on Tuesday.

Their success came 13 months after similar youth-led protests in nearby Bangladesh forced out Sheikh Hasina, who had been prime minister since 2009.

Sandip, a social media influencer who uses one name, said he had made several online appeals, some using virtual private networks to evade the ban, but had not expected so many to pour into the streets in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and elsewhere.

“Every single citizen of Nepal was done with the corrupt government of Nepal,” said the 31-year-old, based in the Lalitpur district near the capital.

“The anger against this government had been brewing for many months, but the call for this protest was very spontaneous.”

Transparency International ranks Nepal 107th out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index, highlighting persistent governance challenges. Young activists said frustration with inequality and a lack of job opportunities also played a part.

ONE IN FIVE NEPALIS LIVE IN POVERTY
Over 20% of Nepal’s 30 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank, while unemployment among those aged 15–24 stood at more than 22% in 2022-23. The richest 10% earn more than three times the income of the poorest 40%, underscoring stark economic divides.

Gaurav Nepune, a 34-year-old from Kathmandu who led some of the protests, said young people had been running an online campaign for three months to contrast the lives lived by ministers and their families with those of ordinary people.

“The youth are against corruption but the government resorted to violence, trying to silence the movement,” said Nepune.

“We have been continuously urging our people not to indulge in any violence or arson. We now want a government that thinks independently, is corruption-free and does not play into the hands of any neighbours,” he said. India and China are widely seen as jostling for influence in Nepal.

Last year’s protests in Bangladesh ushered in an interim government, with some students in de facto ministerial positions under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

In Nepal, one of the protesters’ popular choices to replace Oli is 35-year-old Balendra Shah, a former rapper and composer who became mayor of Kathmandu since 2022 after a campaign to clean up the city’s streets and waterways.

“Dear @ShahBalen, we’re eagerly waiting your leadership in Nepalese politics,” wrote Bimal Pokhrel in response to a post on X by Shah. “You are the last hope for our nation. Please … step forward to take the leadership as prime minister to guide Nepal toward a brighter future.”

After the protest deaths on Monday, Shah called Oli a “terrorist” who did not understand the “pain of losing a son or daughter”.

On Tuesday, after Oli’s resignation, he urged his nearly 784,000 followers on Instagram to remain calm.

“Dear Gen Z, the resignation of your harassers in politics has already come! Now please be patient,” he wrote. “You and we now need to be restrained! Now your generation will have to lead the country! Be prepared!” — Reuters

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump urged European Union (EU) officials on Tuesday to hit China with tariffs of up to 100% as part of a strategy to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a US official and an EU diplomat.

Mr. Trump also encouraged the European Union to slap India with similarly expansive tariffs, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

China and India are major purchasers of Russian oil and, as such, they play a vital role in keeping Russia’s economy afloat as it continues to pursue its expanded invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.

Mr. Trump made the request, which was conveyed via conference call, to EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan and other EU officials. The EU delegation is currently in Washington to discuss sanctions coordination.

The EU diplomat said the US had indicated it was willing to impose similar tariffs if the European Union heeded the US request.

“They are basically saying: We’ll do this but you need to do it with us,” the diplomat said.

The US request, if heeded, would result in a change of strategy for the EU, which has preferred to isolate Russia with sanctions rather than tariffs.

Mr. Trump, whose request was first reported by the Financial Times, has frequently threatened to impose tariffs on India and China as punishment for their purchases of Russian crude.

While Mr. Trump did hike tariffs on India over the summer by 25 percentage points in part due to its economic relationship with the Kremlin, Mr. Trump has yet to pull the trigger on the more punishing options he has floated.

At times, he has complained that Europe itself has not fully decoupled from Russia, which supplied about 19% of EU gas imports last year although the bloc says it is committed to fully ending its dependency on Russian energy.

Later on Tuesday, Mr. Trump suggested that the US could in fact boost trade with India, writing in an evening social media post that the US and India are working to address trade barriers between the nations. He added that he was looking forward to speaking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. — Reuters

LONDON — Globally, obesity is likely now more prevalent among school-aged children and adolescents than being underweight, according to a new report from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which blamed increasingly unhealthy food environments worldwide for the shift.

The UN children’s agency based its estimates on data from 2000-2022 compiled by academics in countries around the world, who first predicted in 2017 that this “tipping point” would be reached in the coming years.

UNICEF used the data to project what has happened since 2022, based on trends since 2010. It found that 1 in 10, or roughly 188 million, school-aged children and adolescents have obesity based on the World Health Organization’s criteria, putting them at risk of lifelong health problems including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Obesity rates in that age group have more than tripled, from 3% in 2000 to 9.4%, UNICEF said. That compares with a decline in the prevalence of underweight children among those aged 5-19, from nearly 13% in 2000 to 9.2% — meaning this is also still a significant problem, the report acknowledged.

“When we talk about malnutrition, we are no longer just talking about underweight children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

Obesity now exceeds underweight in all regions of the world other than sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, UNICEF added.

In some Pacific Island countries like Niue and the Cook Islands, the worst-affected globally, nearly 40% of 5-19-year-olds have obesity, the report said. Rates are at 21% in the United Arab Emirates and the United States, it added. In some countries like the US, doctors now back using the recently developed weight-loss drugs for teens.

UNICEF said ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt and fat, and near ubiquitous marketing of unhealthy products, were a key factor in the rise in obesity.

“Obesity is not a failure of parents or children. It’s the result of toxic food environments,” said Chris Van Tulleken, professor of global health at University College London, UNICEF backer and author of the book Ultra-Processed People.

In a UNICEF poll of 64,000 young people aged 13-24 from 170 countries, 75% of respondents said they had seen adverts for sugary drinks, snacks or fast food in the last week. Even in conflict-affected countries, 68% of young people reported seeing this type of advert.

UNICEF said action was urgently needed from governments worldwide, including marketing restrictions and bans on junk food in schools. — Reuters