Nepal’s “Gen-Z” protest movement has looked to a different generation entirely with their pick for an interim leader. Protest leaders say they want the country’s retired chief justice, Sushila Karki, 73, to head a transitional government. The demand comes just two days after the prime minister resigned amid swelling anti-corruption protests triggered last week by a social media ban. Karki has reportedly accepted, but is currently negotiating with the president and other powerbrokers to find a constitutional path to power. For an explanation of these protests which are not “mid", see GZERO’s feature from yesterday.
The ultra-authoritarian Belarusian regime of Alexander Lukashenko has released 52 prisoners, reportedly at the urging of the White House. Meanwhile, the US says plans are afoot to normalize ties with the deeply isolated country, Russia’s closest ally. The Trump Administration has poured a lot of effort into relations with Lukashenko, whose 31-year reign, crackdowns on dissent, and election-rigging have earned him the moniker “Europe’s last Dictator.” Lukashenko has styled himself as a kind of “Putin Whisperer.” Is Trump seeking a bridge to the Russian president, or a potential wedge against him?
In this episode of GZERO Europe, Carl Bildt examines how an eventful week in Davos further strained transatlantic relations and reignited tensions over Greenland.
In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer addresses the killing of Alex Pretti at a protest in Minneapolis, calling it “a tipping point” in America’s increasingly volatile politics.
30,000: The estimated death toll in Iran during the protests at the start of the year, per local health officials, underscoring the scale of the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on its own citizens.