Nepal’s interim PM, Sushila Karki, has a herculean task to accomplish, the most urgent being to mend deep divisions in the society, primarily political. India-EU trade talks have reached a decisive stage, but agriculture, dairy and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) remain some of the contentious areas. US President Donald Trump says he is “very unhappy” about Israel’s targeting of Qatar, which disrupts negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza – here is the weekly roundup of key global news.
Nepal on Friday installed former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki, 73, as the interim Prime Minister, days after protests over corruption and social media ban racked the Himalayan nation. Karki is the first woman to head the country’s government.
President Ram Chandra Poudel also dissolved Parliament and asked the interim government to hold elections within six months. Nepal had its last legislative elections in 2022.
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Calling Nepal “a close neighbour, a fellow democracy and a long term development partner”, India welcomed the formation of the interim government and reaffirmed that it will continue to work closely with Kathmandu for the well-being and prosperity of both nations and their peoples.
The protests, led by “Gen Z”, began on Monday (September 8) in response to a government ban on social media. The ban ignited fears that speech could be curtailed for Nepal’s 30 million people and cut off some two million Nepali workers, a major source of remittances, abroad from their families. Nepal’s economy is heavily reliant on remittances, which amount to over 33 per cent of Nepal’s Gross Domestic Product.
Although it was the social media ban that lit the fuse, the protests expanded rapidly into a larger campaign against corruption, inequality and unemployment, prompting Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to resign on Tuesday.
The demonstrations soon turned violent, with police opening fire and protesters torching Parliament, the Supreme Court, political residences, and media offices. The violence left at least 51 people dead.
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Karki, known for her stance on corruption and women’s rights, said she accepted to lead the interim government at the request of “young boys and girls”. She, however, has a herculean task to accomplish, the most important among them being to mend deep divisions in the society, primarily political, alongside ethnic, class and regional divides.
Notably, major political parties, including the Maoist Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Nepali Congress under Sher Bahadur Deuba and the CPN (UML) of Oli, stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony of Karki, signalling their opposition to President Paudel’s decision.
Nepal’s political instability can be traced back to at least the 1990s when Maoist insurgency sprang up aimed at toppling the monarchy. The century-old monarchy was formally abolished in 2008, and a new Constitution was promulgated in 2015, declaring Nepal a secular, federal democratic republic. However, since the 1990s, the Himalayan nation has seen 13 heads of government across 30 separate tenures.
India-EU trade talks at crucial stage
While uncertainties over the US tariffs linger on, India and the European Union (EU) are engaged in “intensive” negotiations to finalise a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of this year.
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European Commissioner for Trade, Maros Šefčovič, said on Friday (September 12) that as major democracies, there are many areas where India and the EU can work together. He added that his goal is to ensure that the FTA facilitates two-way trade flows between India and the EU.
The 27-member bloc is India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade in goods standing at $137.41 billion in 2023-24. In the past decade, trade between the two economies has grown by around 90 per cent.
India and the EU are currently working through at least 26 chapters of the agreement, of which 11 have been finalised. Šefčovič underlined that the automotive sector, which powers the economies of both India and the EU, should be at the centre of the partnership.
He added that by combining the power of our automotive markets – the world’s third and fourth largest – both countries can lead the charge in developing cutting-edge combustion engines as well as electric vehicles with advanced battery technologies and smart mobility solutions.
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However, agriculture, dairy and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) are some of the contentious areas. CBAM imposes a tariff on imports linked to “carbon emissions” and will come into effect from January 1, 2026, potentially affecting a range of sectors like steel, cement, and automobiles.
The EU has refused to make CBAM part of the trade negotiations, insisting it is central to its broader climate goals. But in its recent trade deal with the US, the EU demonstrated flexibility on CBAM, raising hope that similar concessions may be possible for India.
This week also witnessed a thaw in India-US ties, with US ambassador-designate to India Sergio Gor saying on Thursday (September 11) that President Donald Trump has invited India’s commerce and trade ministers next week, and that the specifics of the bilateral trade deal will get resolved in the “next few weeks”.
While the US tariffs hurt Indian exporters, it has negative impacts on American shoppers too as everyday essentials in the US are getting more expensive.
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The US has imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India – 25 per cent reciprocal tariff and another 25 per cent for buying oil from Russia. At the same time, Trump has reportedly asked the EU and the G-7 members to impose more tariffs on purchasers of Russian oil.
A US Treasury spokesperson called on G7 and European Union allies to impose “meaningful tariffs” on goods from China and India to pressure them to halt their purchases of Russian oil, Reuters reported.
Nonetheless, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to Trump’s overtures by reiterating that India and the US were “close friends”, and teams on both sides were “working to conclude these (trade) discussions at the earliest.”
Israel’s reckless offensives
Intensifying its attack on Gaza City, Israel attacked shelters and aid seekers in which more than 30 Palestinians were killed on Saturday. Israel has ramped up its offensive in recent weeks on the largest Palestinian city, which it says is Hamas’s last stronghold, and has ordered Palestinians to evacuate.
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Israel even targeted Hamas’s negotiating team inside Qatar, where they had convened to discuss the latest US ceasefire proposal. The attack, in which five Hamas members and a member of Qatar’s internal security were killed but Hamas’s leadership survived, drew global criticism, with Doha describing the unprecedented violation of its sovereignty as “state terrorism”.
Qatar has “reserved its right to respond” to Israel’s attacks, while Saudi Arabia has pledged to place “all capabilities” at Qatar’s disposal to respond to the “brutal Israeli aggression”.
On Friday (September 12), Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met US President Trump in New York in the wake of Israel’s strike. Qatar is a key ally of the US and hosts its largest military base in the region, Al Ubeid airbase.
Trump has already said he was “very unhappy” about Israel’s targeting of Qatar, which appeared designed to derail ongoing Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the attack, saying it targeted Hamas’s political leadership in retaliation for the Jerusalem shooting on September 8 that killed six people, and an assault on an Israeli army camp in Gaza that left four soldiers dead.
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Notably, Israel has of late targeted multiple nations – such as Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq – in violation of sovereignty. However, its attack on Qatar is largely seen as an attempt to disrupt the ceasefire negotiations, as it remains intransigent on its plan to occupy Gaza City, where more than a million famine-stricken Palestinians have been forced to seek refuge.
At least 32 people, including 12 children, were killed across Gaza City in a barrage of airstrikes by Israel, The Associated Press reported on Saturday citing medical staff.
The offensive came even as Israelis protested against Netanyahu’s approach towards the release of hostages. In addition, some Western nations, like the UK, France, Australia, Belgium, and Canada, are expected to recognise the Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), which began on September 9.
On Friday, the UNGA overwhelmingly voted to endorse a declaration outlining “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, Reuters reported. The declaration is the result of an international conference at the UN in July, hosted by Saudi Arabia and France.
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Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,756 people and wounded 164,059 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.
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