Top Stories — Wednesday, September 10, 2025
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- Nepalis Worry About Security Forces' Next Step After Crackdown Leaves 22 Dead — nyt News
- Here's the latest. — nyt News
- South Korean Woman Cleared Decades After Biting Attacker's Tongue During Attempted Rape — nyt News
Nepalis Worry About Security Forces' Next Step After Crackdown Leaves 22 Dead
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/10/2025, 1:59:43 PM
International observers will be watching Nepal closely on Wednesday for any additional use of force by the domestic security forces, two days after they began firing on antigovernment protesters, leaving at least 22 people dead and hundreds injured.
The majority of victims were killed on Monday, after security forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and water cannons into crowds of young demonstrators.
Security forces were largely absent during the day on Tuesday. But by early Wednesday morning, Nepali Army soldiers and heavily armed police officers were deployed in the streets of Kathmandu, the country's capital, encircling groups of protesters and raising fears of another deadly crackdown.
The army said in a statement that it intended to assume responsibility for law and order starting at 10 p.m. Tuesday. It called upon citizens to cease all acts of arson and looting. In formal language, the army's high command promised that its troops would take to the streets to protect the country's public and private properties.
The actions of the Nepali security forces have drawn condemnation from human rights groups. The United Nations human rights office said it was "shocked" by the killing of protesters and demanded a prompt investigation. The U.N.'s office in Nepal also warned the authorities that all law enforcement responses must remain "in line with international human rights standards."
Among the leaders who have resigned since the protests began was the home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, who said he took moral responsibility for Monday's deadly crackdown.
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Here's the latest.
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/10/2025, 1:45:57 PM
Nepal was under a nationwide curfew on Wednesday morning as an eerie calm pervaded its capital, two days after the start of a crackdown on antigovernment protesters that has left at least 22 people dead.
Some protesters were still active early Wednesday, but most appeared to have heeded the curfew after troops were deployed overnight in the capital, Kathmandu. The city's streets were largely deserted. Blue sky was visible from inside the rubble of Nepal's Parliament building, which was destroyed by protesters a day earlier.
On Monday, government forces fired live rounds, rubber bullets and water cannons into crowds of young Nepalis angry over corruption, economic inequality and a government ban on 26 social media platforms.
The government on Tuesday reversed the ban but the unrest escalated, forcing Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and some of his cabinet ministers to resign. Protesters set fire to Parliament, the Supreme Court, police stations, and the homes of current and former lawmakers.
The heads of Nepal's main security agencies later appealed for calm, asking political parties to find a peaceful way out of the crisis. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also called for an investigation into the killings of protesters by security forces.
On Wednesday, people in Nepal were waiting to see if the army's leadership would meet with the protesters. It is still unclear who is in charge of the country, what the protest leaders want or even who has been demonstrating.
Here's what else to know:
Security forces: International observers will be watching Nepal closely for any additional use of force by the domestic security forces. Experts say the army and police have historically not been held to account. Read more ›
Economic crisis: Outrage has also been growing over economic inequality and what many Nepalese see as the government's failure to aggressively pursue high-profile corruption cases. The country's biggest lingering crisis centers on jobs. Read more ›
"Nepo kids": In the weeks leading up to the protests, Nepalis had taken to social media to post purported images of the children of politicians enjoying luxurious lifestyles while millions of people were unemployed. Read more ›
Kathmandu images: A comparison of photos taken before and after the violence in Nepal's capital shows the extent of the damage to government buildings. Read more ›
Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.
Nepal's civil aviation authority has closed Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu indefinitely, according to a statement from its operator.
The aviation authority also said that flights were canceled because smoke around the runway could make it unsafe for planes to take off or land. Domestic and international flights to and from Kathmandu airport have been suspended since Tuesday afternoon, when protesters were confronted by security forces outside the airport.
Nepal's largest media conglomerate, Kantipur Media Group, has suspended two of its digital editions, kathmandupost.com and ekantipur.com, after protesters burned offices belonging to the group. "The fire completely destroyed the server and entire office system, so digital publications have been suspended for now," said Thira Lal Bhusal, an editor for The Kathmandu Post. Some journalists said they were targeted by protesters on Monday. Amid the violence and curfew, most journalists are working from home and many are using social media to report developments.
Protesters in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, set fire to government offices and the homes of politicians on Tuesday during an escalation of unrest over censorship and economic issues. A comparison of photos taken before and after the violence showed the extent of the damage.
On Tuesday, demonstrators stormed the Parliament complex in Kathmandu and set fire to it. Photos showed graffiti on the outside of the building and large sections of its exterior charred black. According to witnesses, the roof had collapsed and the sky was visible from inside.
Photos of the Supreme Court showed a portion of its facade burned away as flames ate at the roof. Fires were seen burning inside the building, and part of the text emblazoned above its entrance was gone.
Photos of the Kathmandu District Attorney's Office, where protesters set fire to office furniture in front of the building, showed damage to some windows.
The Nepal Army issued a statement this morning ordering the public to hand over any arms, ammunition, grenades or other military equipment that may have been picked up or looted during the first two days of the protests.
The army's leadership said that civilian use of any weapons during this sensitive period is prohibited. It warned that, in accordance with the law, it would take action against anyone found hoarding them.
Blue sky is visible from inside the rubble of Nepal's Parliament, according to witnesses. The building was utterly destroyed by protesters yesterday. The roof had collapsed and the smoke has since cleared.
Constructed with a donation from China in the 1990s, the International Convention Center housed every session of Parliament since Nepal became a democracy.
Here in Kathmandu, it feels like the first days of the country's Covid-19 lockdown. No one is allowed out on the streets, only medical vehicles and security personnel. And as during the pandemic lockdown, there are some people out breaking the rules — but most are afraid of the security forces, in light of the killings on Monday.
For most Nepalis, the only way of hearing about orders from the army is via an online rumor mill. It is even harder to know what the protest leaders want, or even who they are. Today, meetings are expected between the military and some of the unidentified activists who claim to represent the country's Gen Z.
One widely distributed letter, signed "Sincerely, The Gen Zs," makes a list of five demands, concluding with "early elections under the interim government," which does not yet exist.
International observers will be watching Nepal closely on Wednesday for any additional use of force by the domestic security forces, two days after they began firing on antigovernment protesters, leaving at least 22 people dead and hundreds injured.
The majority of victims were killed on Monday, after security forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and water cannons into crowds of young demonstrators.
Security forces were largely absent during the day on Tuesday. But by early Wednesday morning, Nepali Army soldiers and heavily armed police officers were deployed in the streets of Kathmandu, the country's capital, encircling groups of protesters and raising fears of another deadly crackdown.
The army said in a statement that it intended to assume responsibility for law and order starting at 10 p.m. Tuesday. It called upon citizens to cease all acts of arson and looting. In formal language, the army's high command promised that its troops would take to the streets to protect the country's public and private properties.
The actions of the Nepali security forces have drawn condemnation from human rights groups. The United Nations human rights office said it was "shocked" by the killing of protesters and demanded a prompt investigation. The U.N.'s office in Nepal also warned the authorities that all law enforcement responses must remain "in line with international human rights standards."
Among the leaders who have resigned since the protests began was the home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, who said he took moral responsibility for Monday's deadly crackdown.
Poverty rates have plummeted over the past three decades in Nepal, as the young democracy emerged from a civil war that lasted from 1996 to 2006. But many Nepalis, including the protesters out on the streets this week, are angry about a small number of elite Nepalis accumulating vast wealth for their children.
Experts say that, just as corruption among Nepal's leaders has often gone unchecked, the country's security forces have often been allowed to act with impunity.
Historically in Nepal, "there is very much an expectation that security forces will break the law," said Rumela Sen, a lecturer at Columbia University whose research focuses on political violence in South Asia.
"The general understanding is that if you get into any kind of confrontation with anybody who is remotely associated with the army, there is no chance for the common man to escape that encounter without being harmed," Ms. Sen said.
"The fear of uniform," she added, "is deeply ingrained."
Much of that fear dates back to the civil war, when security forces were accused of using brutal tactics against a Maoist insurgency and of carrying out enforced disappearances, for which human rights groups say there has been little accountability.
Security forces, including the Nepali police, "have always only been held accountable to their political masters," said Ramesh Shrestha, an expert who has studied youth-led political violence in Nepal. "These people have always been protected."
If the Nepali government fails to hold its forces responsible for the most recent killings, there should be broader consequences, said Meenakshi Ganguly, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Nepal is the largest contributor of military and police personnel to U.N. peacekeeping operations — a relationship that should be reassessed unless Nepali leaders take "serious action," Ms. Ganguly said.
But with the resignation of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli on Tuesday, and with Parliament and the Supreme Court still ablaze as of Wednesday, it was unclear which leaders remained.
The violent protests in Nepal that were ignited when the government banned major social media platforms come amid a longstanding identity crisis, as the troubled young democracy grapples with the country's long history as a monarchy.
At least 22 people have been killed since government forces opened fire on protesters on Monday. Violence escalated on Tuesday as protesters set fire to the Supreme Court in the capital, Kathmandu, as well as the homes of lawmakers. The violence was fueled by years of anger and frustration over government corruption and economic inequality.
Before becoming a republic in 2008, Nepal was ruled by a Hindu monarchy for nearly 250 years. The country's first attempt at introducing a democratic political system dates to 1951, when the Nepali monarch established a cabinet system that created political parties. But a constitution that was put in place in 1959 was soon abolished by the next monarch, and for the next half-century Nepal teetered between an autocracy and a constitutional monarchy.
From 1996 to 2006, the monarchy was locked in a power struggle with Maoist rebels, who pushed to end royal rule. The 10-year civil war caused the deaths of more than 17,000 people. In 2007, Nepal's government finally agreed to abolish the monarchy, and the next year, the country was declared a democratic republic.
Nepal has more than 100 ethnic groups and spoken languages, scores of castes and a total population of approximately 30 million people, making political consensus difficult.
Since 2008, Nepal has cycled through a series of leaders, leaving the country in an extended state of political uncertainty. Corruption ran rampant through Nepal's government, with officials committing bribery and extortion.
K.P. Sharma Oli, a leader in the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), took over as prime minister in 2015, the first of several terms as premier. In his most recent ascension to the prime minister's office, in 2024, Mr. Oli forged a deal with the Nepali Congress, the largest party in Parliament, to form a new government with him at the helm. Under the deal, the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal agreed to lead the government on a rotating basis until 2027, when the current session of Parliament was supposed to conclude.
Mr. Oli resigned on Tuesday. It is not clear who will replace him and if anyone was in charge of the country.
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's violent protests in Nepal, photographs purporting to show the ritzy lifestyles enjoyed by the children of the country's political elite were shared widely on social media.
They were tagged #nepokids, suggesting young people who had profited from their families' connections, and they were condemned by many Nepalis as out-of-touch in a country where one in four live below the national poverty line.
It is not clear if these images were real or fabricated, but they have come to symbolize the corruption that many Nepalis say has widened inequality and enriched officials and their relatives.
The outrage has been one of the drivers of the protests, which were triggered by a social media ban but were fueled by years of resentment against those in power.
As part of Nepal's #nepokids social media trend, users upload videos and posts to TikTok and X that purport to show the children of Nepali political figures on luxury vacations and wearing fancy clothing, juxtaposed with scenes meant to show the everyday struggles of ordinary Nepalis.
Among the most frequently shared images was a photo claiming to show a son of a minister posing with boxes labeled Louis Vuitton and Cartier, arranged into a Christmas tree. Another video stitched photos the user claimed was the son of a former judge dining at high-end restaurants and posing next to a Mercedes car.
"Thousands of such videos are trending across Nepal's digital ecosystem," said Raqib Naik, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a watchdog group based in Washington that tracks extremism and misinformation online in South Asia and its diasporas.
The contrast "between elite privilege and everyday hardship struck a deep chord with Gen Z and quickly became a central narrative driving the movement," he said.
Nepal's "nepo kids" trend, using an abbreviated version of nepotism, is similar to the popular concept in the West, where that term and "nepo babies" is used to refer to the privileged children of celebrities and other public figures.
In many posts, images of those so-called "nepo kids" are interspersed with images depicting the struggles faced by ordinary and poor Nepalis, expressing a widespread sense in Nepal that the affluence of the country's political class has come at the expense of the wider population.
Transparency International, an independent nonprofit, has ranked Nepal as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia. Despite frequent scandals, typically involving collusion among elected politicians and supposedly independent officials, very few accusations have resulted in successful prosecutions.
For example, a parliamentary probe revealed that at least $71 million was embezzled in the construction of an international airport in the city of Pokhara. And in another case, Nepali leaders were caught collecting money from young people aspiring to find employment in the United States under the cover of refugee status that was intended for ethnic Nepalis who had been forcibly deported from neighboring Bhutan.
In particular, young people have recoiled at a small number of elite Nepalis seen to be accumulating vast estates for their children, with many calling for the state to open investigations into how they were purchased.
The government's short-lived ban on social media further antagonized protesters, who saw it as an attempt to control criticism of the inequalities they continue to protest against.
Bhadra Sharma and Alex Travelli contributed reporting.
When Nepal's government blocked access to social media platforms last week, it was following a familiar playbook used by leaders of neighboring countries to tighten control.
What was not part of the playbook was the huge backlash that followed.
In Nepal, the ban set off the worst unrest in decades, unleashing pent-up outrage over corruption and economic inequality. By Tuesday morning, the Nepali government had reversed course, reinstating access to all 26 of the platforms blocked last week, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and WeChat.
Nayana Prakash, a research fellow at the Chatham House research institute in London who studies the use of technology in South Asia, said that the suddenness of the ban in Nepal took people by surprise, whereas internet censorship is more common in India and Pakistan.
"This is quite new to Nepal," Dr. Prakash said. While many countries have either banned TikTok or are discussing it, restricting access to platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit "goes quite a lot further," severely curtailing people's ability to find jobs or network outside of Nepal, she said. The government in Nepal also tried to impose a much broader ban than exists in India, she said.
Social media is a critical tool in Nepal, where people rely on the apps to receive money and stay in touch with family and friends abroad. Businesses also use platforms like WhatsApp to operate.
India, the second biggest internet user in the world after China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has a much easier time getting tech companies to comply with government restrictions because they do not want to risk losing access to such a big market, Dr. Prakash said.
In contrast, many social media companies did not comply with Nepal's new registration requirements. "Nepal doesn't have the same level of political or commercial clout to make these tech companies fall into line," Dr. Prakash said. "Companies can't really afford to get on the wrong side of India, and India is well aware of that."
Around the world, internet freedom has declined for the 14th year in a row, with governments restricting access to social media platforms in at least 25 countries, according to a report published last year by Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that supports transparency and democracy. The Indian government censors online content and sometimes restricts access to social media platforms or orders tech companies to remove certain content.
Jon Roozenbeek, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Cambridge who focuses on misinformation and authoritarianism, said that India and other countries have gained public support for restricting some internet access by framing it as a nationalistic policy. That did not happen in Nepal.
He added that Nepal lacks the leverage of large countries like India. "Google and Meta and others were like 'OK, see ya. We don't care enough about Nepal,'" Dr. Roozenbeek said.
Demonstrations in Nepal against corruption and a social media ban — which the government reversed — have put young people front and center, borrowing the name Gen Z.
That generation, including teenagers and people in their early to mid-20s, has been important in other recent political protests in Asia. In many of them, young demonstrators have expressed frustration at corruption, social inequality, unemployment and a lack of economic opportunity.
Here are countries where young people have played a leading role in recent protests.
Protesters in Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, have held demonstrations in recent weeks against rising unemployment, inflation and economic inequality.
The All-Indonesia Students' Union has played an organizing role in the protests, which have involved thousands of people in the capital, Jakarta, and other cities on the island of Java and elsewhere. At least four people, including a motorcycle taxi driver, were killed in the unrest in late August, which prompted the authorities to deploy the navy marine corps to bring order.
Demonstrators have demanded that the government cancel the monthly housing allowances that lawmakers receive, which many in the country see as lavish.
The president, Prabowo Subianto, said in recent days that the country's House of Representatives had agreed to some policy changes and said he acknowledged the "genuine aspirations of the public." Allowances for national lawmakers would be cut and a moratorium imposed on their expensive overseas trips, he said.
Student-led protests last year forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to leave office and flee the country after 15 years in power.
Nearly 1,400 people were killed in a security crackdown, but it failed to stop demonstrators from eventually reaching Ms. Hasina's official residence in the capital, Dhaka.
The demonstrators' aim was to rebuild Bangladesh as a more equitable and less corrupt democracy. Since Ms. Hasina left office, an interim government has led Bangladesh without a prime minister.
The success of the protests, which have been associated with Gen Z, has been closely watched around the region.
Months of protests against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose family has dominated Sri Lanka's politics for years, forced him to resign in 2022. The protesters accused him of corruption and mismanagement, which they said had ruined the island nation's economy and caused shortages of fuel, medicine and food.
Young people were central to the demonstrations and built a protest camp along the scenic Galle Face neighborhood at the heart of the capital, Colombo, with protesters insisting they would not go home until the Rajapaksas left the government.
Bhadra Sharma reported from Kathmandu, Nepal, and Alex Travelli from New Delhi.
The protests in Nepal's capital escalated as they went into a second day on Tuesday, as anger and disappointment that had built up for years among the protesters were ignited. The government's ban on major social media platforms a few days earlier had only lit the fuse.
Declaring themselves to be the voice of Nepal's Gen Z, the protesters were expressing not only outrage at the official violence that met them on the streets on Monday, but also at longstanding social problems that have afflicted Nepal during the 10 years since it replaced its monarchy with a democratic republic.
The country relies heavily on the remittances that an estimated two million workers abroad send home. The social media ban had the effect of isolating families from their faraway breadwinners.
The government repealed the ban on Tuesday after protests, and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and other ministers later resigned. But the unrest continued, as protesters set fire to government offices and to politicians' homes.
The country's biggest slow-burning crisis centers on jobs. Getting one is a herculean task in Nepal, a mountainous nation of 30 million sandwiched between India and China. According to the Nepal Living Standard Survey published by the National Statistics Office in 2024, the unemployment rate was 12.6 percent.
Those figures tend to understate the severity of the problem. They represent only participants in the formal economy, leaving out a majority of Nepalis, who work without officially reported jobs, mostly in farming. And the unemployment is heavily concentrated among younger adults.
Finding no opportunities at home, more than a thousand young men and women leave the country every day to serve long-term contracts in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf and Malaysia. Tens of thousands work in India as seasonal migrant laborers. Government data show that more than 741,000 left the country last year, mainly to find work in construction or agriculture.
The rest of Nepal relies heavily on the remittances those workers abroad send home. In 2024, the $11 billion they sent accounted for more than 26 percent of the country's economy. That money buys food and medicine and sends children to school in Nepal.
If there were one thing to blame for this cluster of economic problems, many Nepalis, especially those active in this Gen Z protest, would point to corruption. They recoil at the spectacle of a small number of elite Nepalis accumulating vast estates for their children. Transparency International, an independent nonprofit focused on holding governments accountable, has ranked Nepal as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia.
A steady drumbeat of scandals, typically involving collusion among elected politicians and supposedly independent officials, feeds this resentment. Very few accusations result in successful prosecutions.
For example, a parliamentary probe revealed that at least $71 million was embezzled in the construction of an international airport in the city of Pokhara. Loans from the Export-Import Bank of China evaporated in a nexus among officials, elected politicians and Chinese construction companies. The probe recommended further investigation and specific actions against the accused, including the director general of civil aviation. Still, no one was booked.
In another case, Nepali leaders were caught collecting money from young people aspiring to find employment in the United States under the cover of refugee status that was intended for ethnic Nepalis who had been forcibly deported from neighboring Bhutan. Fake documents gave the unemployed Nepali nationals the identities of displaced Bhutanese. Politicians from all parties were named in the ensuing investigations, but only members of the opposition were charged.
Ordinary Nepalis are aware of the ways they could benefit from a better-funded government. Health and education expenses are high. Farmers lack critical fertilizer during rice-planting seasons. Inflation makes it tough for anyone to survive in Kathmandu, the capital, where young people move to pursue higher education and jobs.
Democracy was hard won in Nepal, but it has not met the aspirations that sent protesters to the streets this week. Many of the Gen Z protesters are fixated on the son and the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. They bitterly post images of them and other politicians' children flaunting lavish lifestyles.
Ever since the new constitution came into effect in 2015, three leaders have rotated as head of the government: Mr. Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mr. Deuba. For younger people, this electoral game of thrones, in which each prime minister's tenure has lasted just a year or two, is infuriating.
Mr. Oli, the current prime minister, is an avid social media user. People close to him say he personally reads the comments that pile up under the videos he posts. Other Nepali leaders are fixated on social media as well, though they may not use the platforms much. In November 2023, Mr. Dahal, who was then prime minister, banned TikTok, in order, he said, "to restore social harmony." It was Mr. Oli, when he returned as prime minister, who lifted that ban, nine months later.
Read the full story at nyt News.
South Korean Woman Cleared Decades After Biting Attacker's Tongue During Attempted Rape
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/10/2025, 1:44:21 PM
In 1965, a South Korean woman was convicted of inflicting bodily harm on a man after she bit a half inch off his tongue during an attempted rape. On Wednesday, a court absolved her in a retrial after six decades.
"I, Choi Mal-ja, am finally innocent!" shouted the 79-year-old woman on Wednesday after the district court in the city of Busan ruled that her act was "justified as self-defense."
On a May evening in 1964, Ms. Choi, then 18, was sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old stranger. He pinned her to the ground, straddled her and tried to force his tongue into her mouth. She bit his tongue and escaped.
Seventeen days later, the man and several of his friends raided Ms. Choi's home in the southern town of Gimhae. He threatened to stab her father with a kitchen knife. He later sued Ms. Choi on charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm. She countered by suing him on charges of attempted rape, trespassing and blackmailing.
The police considered Ms. Choi innocent and arrested the man. But prosecutors later released him and let him stand trial as a free man. The man was charged with trespassing and blackmailing, but not with attempted rape. Prosecutors instead arrested Mr. Choi. She was charged with inflicting "grievous bodily harm" on the man.
During interrogations by prosecutors, Ms. Choi had to go through a virginity test, and the result was made public during her trial, according to court records. Ms. Choi and her lawyers also said that prosecutors and judges blamed her for "crippling a young man" and asked whether she would like to settle the case by marrying her attacker.
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