• PM pins unrest on “selfish centres,” vows relief for victims’ families.
• Free treatment to be given to the injured, Nepalese officials confirm.
• Inquiry panel to report within 15 days on causes, future safeguards.

Nepal has lifted a social media ban following protests that resulted in the deaths of 19 people, a government minister said on Tuesday.

The government had rolled back the social media ban imposed last week, Cabinet spokesperson and Communications and Information Technology Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said.

The decision came after 19 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the “Gen Z” protests on Monday against widespread corruption. The protests were triggered by the ban.

“We have withdrawn the shutdown of social media. They are working now,” Gurung told Reuters.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said he was saddened by the incidents of violence due to the “infiltration from different selfish centres”.

The government would pay relief for the families of the dead and provide free treatment for the injured persons, he added.

“An investigation panel will be set up to find out the causes, assess losses and suggest measures within 15 days to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future,” Oli said in a late-night statement on Monday.

Organisers of the protests, which spread to other cities in the Himalayan country, have called them “demonstrations by Gen Z.” They say the protests reflect young people’s widespread frustration with the government’s perceived lack of action to tackle corruption and boost economic opportunities.

The government last week decided to block access to several social media platforms, including Facebook, a decision that fuelled anger among the young.

Officials say the shutdown was for those social media platforms which had failed to register with the government, amid a crackdown on fake IDs, misinformation and hate speech.

• Bayrou loses confidence vote in parliament.
• His defeat deepens political crisis in France.
• France is under pressure to fix its finances.

France’s parliament voted on Monday to bring down the government over its plans to tame the ballooning national debt, deepening a political crisis and handing President Emmanuel Macron the task of finding a fifth prime minister in less than two years.

Francois Bayrou, 74, took office as prime minister only nine months ago. He must now tender his resignation, leaving Macron to face a narrowing set of options, with financial markets signalling worry at France’s political and fiscal crisis.

Bayrou had called the vote unexpectedly to try to win parliamentary support for his strategy to lower a deficit that stands at nearly double the European Union’s 3% ceiling and to start tackling a debt pile equivalent to 114% of GDP.

But opposition parties were in little mood to rally behind his planned savings of 44 billion euros ($51.51 billion) in next year’s budget, with an election for Macron’s successor looming in 2027.

Macron could now nominate a politician from his own centrist minority ruling group or from the ranks of conservatives as the next premier, but that would mean doubling down on a strategy that has failed to yield a stable alliance.

He could tack to the left and nominate a moderate socialist, or choose a technocrat.

No scenario would be likely to hand the next government a parliamentary majority. It was inevitable that the need to form a new government would result in a dilution of the deficit reduction plan, Finance Minister Eric Lombard said before the vote.

Macron may eventually decide the only path out of the crisis lies in calling a snap election, but he has so far resisted calls from the far-right National Rally and hard-left France Unbowed to dissolve parliament a second time.

Fiscal mess

The next government’s most pressing task will be to pass a budget, the same challenge Bayrou faced when he took office.

“You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality,” Bayrou told lawmakers before the confidence vote.

“Reality will remain relentless: expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly,” he said.

France’s “very survival is at stake,” he said.

France’s EU peers will be watching closely.

France holds the highest deficit as a percentage of GDP in the euro zone – the bloc using the EU’s single currency. It pays more to service its debt than Spain and spreads against benchmark German 10-year bonds are at their highest level in four months.

Fitch, often seen as a first mover among rating agencies, reviews its AA- rating with a negative outlook on September 12. Moody’s and S&P Global, which have equivalent ratings, follow in October and November.

A downgrade would hamper France’s ability to raise money at low interest rates from investors, potentially deepening its debt problems.

A lengthy period of political and fiscal uncertainty risks undermining Macron’s influence in Europe at a time when the United States is talking tough on trade and security, and war is raging in Ukraine on Europe’s eastern flank.

Macron and political figures from centrist and conservative parties deem that a snap election would not solve the crisis and that talks with the Socialists should be pursued, two sources familiar with Macron’s thinking said.

The Socialists have offered a counter-budget that would impose a tax of at least 2% on personal wealth greater than 100 million euros and generate savings of 22 billion euros, a proposal that would be tough to marry with the pro-business reform agenda of Macron’s presidency.

Discontent may also start brewing on the streets. A grassroots protest movement called “Bloquons Tout” (“Let’s Block Everything”) is calling for nationwide disruption on Wednesday. Trade unions are plotting walkouts the week after.

“France is done,” said Mohamed, 80, a retired hospital worker who sells produce on the Aligre market in Paris.

• Protests led by young held in capital and other cities.
• Demonstrators denounce social media shutdown, corruption.
• Police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.
  

KATHMANDU: Unrest killed at least 19 people in Nepal on Monday, authorities said, as police in the capital fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters trying to storm parliament in anger at a social media shutdown and corruption.

Some of the main youth protesters forced their way into the parliament complex in Kathmandu by breaking through a barricade, a local official said, setting fire to an ambulance and hurling objects at lines of riot police guarding the legislature.

“The police have been firing indiscriminately,” one protester told the ANI news agency. “(They) fired bullets which missed me but hit a friend who was standing behind me. He was hit in the hand.”

More than 100 people, including 28 police personne,l were receiving medical treatment for their injuries, police officer Shekhar Khanal told Reuters. Protesters were ferrying the injured tthe o hospital on motorcycles.

Another two people were killed when protests in the eastern city of Itahari turned violent, police said.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the unrest, which erupted after thousands of young people, including many wearing their school or college uniforms, took to the streets earlier on Monday.

Many carried flags and placards with slogans such as “Shut down corruption and not social media”, “Unban social media”, and “Youths against corruption”, as they marched through Kathmandu.

Organisers of the protests, which spread to other cities in the Himalayan country, have called them “demonstrations by Gen Z”. They say the protests reflect young people’s widespread frustration with government action to tackle corruption and boost economic opportunities.

“This is the protest by the new generation in Nepal,” another protester told ANI.

A government decision to block access to several social media platforms, including Facebook, last week has fuelled anger among the young. About 90% of Nepal’s 30 million people use the internet.

Officials said they imposed the ban because platforms had failed to register with authorities in a crackdown on misuse, including false social media accounts used to spread hate speech and fake news, and commit fraud.

Batons and rubber bullets

Police had orders to use water cannons, batons and rubber bullets to control the crowd and the army was deployed in the parliament area to bolster law enforcement officers, Muktiram Rijal, a spokesperson for the Kathmandu district office, told Reuters.

He said the curfew, which will remain in force until 10 p.m. local time, had been extended to Kathmandu’s Singha Durbar area, which includes the prime minister’s office and other government buildings.

Violence abated later in the evening although protesters remained in the area outside parliament.

Police said similar protests were also held in Biratnagar and Bharatpur in the southern plains and in Pokhara in western Nepal.

Many people in Nepal think corruption is rampant, and the Oli government has been criticised by opponents for failing to deliver on its promises to tackle graft or make progress to address longstanding economic issues.

Thousands of young Nepalis go abroad every year for work and education.

Rameshwore Khanal, a former finance secretary, said although job creation is not up to expectations, popular anger appears to stem more from unhappiness with government appointments and its inability to stamp out corruption.

Nepal’s social media shutdown comes as governments worldwide take steps to tighten oversight of social media and Big Tech due to growing concern about issues such as misinformation, data privacy, online harm and national security.

Critics say many of these measures risk stifling free expression, but regulators say stricter controls are needed to protect users and preserve social order.