The New York Times: Μια έξαρση βίας στη Γάζα – Η ληστεία στο Λούβρο – Οι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες του κόσμου του πιάνου – Οι μεταδοτικές εξεγέρσεις της Γενιάς Ζ Διαφορετικές χώρες, παρόμοια κινήματα Μπορούν οι διαμαρτυρίες να λύσουν βαθιά διαρθρωτικά προβλήματα; – Το Ισραήλ εξαπέλυσε επιθέσεις στη Γάζα – Μια επτάλεπτη ληστεία στο Λούβρο – Τι τους εντυπωσιάζει στην… Πολωνία

Protests in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, last week.  Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

The contagious Gen Z uprisings

What struck me when I first read about the Gen Z protests happening around the world was how familiar the protesters seemed. A phrase on a poster spotted during the protests in Nepal — “corruption is sus, stop ghosting democracy” — sounded like something my teenagers might say over dinner.

That’s not a coincidence. These protest movements, in part thanks to the ubiquity of online youth culture, have emerged in Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya and Peru. Protesters have toppled governments in Nepal and Madagascar. In Morocco, the protests are continuing.

Two of my colleagues have reported for extended periods on groups of Gen Z protesters. John Eligon embedded with the young people who drove Madagascar’s president from power. Hannah Beech spent time with protesters in Nepal in the wake of their 48-hour revolution. You can watch my conversation with Hannah below.

Nepal and Madagascar are two very different countries. But the parallels between the two protest movements — what drove them, and what has happened since the surprise revolutions unseated two governments — speak to a paradox.

The young Gen Z revolutionaries have real power. But they don’t have the power to control what they’ve begun, or to ensure that the movements they started actually improve their lives.

Different countries, similar movements

The immediate triggers for each Gen Z movement have varied. In Nepal, it was an abrupt social media ban. In Madagascar, it was a failure to deliver water and electricity.

But both countries — like many seeing Gen Z protests — have young populations. The median age in Nepal is 28; in Madagascar, it’s 21. Both struggle with high youth unemployment. Graft and patronage are endemic.

So is social media.

These protests have spread through platforms that defy physical distance and turbocharge a shared language and culture.

“Even if you’re in a village, on a mountaintop or in a desert, young people are connected on TikTok and Discord,” Hannah said. “They use the same language and share the same memes.”

In Nepal, the protesters talked about drawing inspiration from demonstrations in Indonesia, she said. In Madagascar, John told me, the protesters drew inspiration from Nepal.

Can protests solve deep structural problems?

What Hannah and John also found were movements that quickly moved away from what the original protesters had envisioned.

In Madagascar, where the president fled and the military seized power, there are already signs that the Gen Z revolutionaries will not have the kind of influence on the next government they had imagined. The news that a former opposition leader and career politician was chosen as the next leader of the National Assembly was met with dismay among young people.

In Nepal, the young activists who were consulted by the interim prime minister in the immediate aftermath of the protests now say they have been frozen out.

In both countries, there’s also a much bigger concern: that whatever government materializes in the end can’t easily solve the many grievances young people have. As one Nepali protester who was almost shot during the demonstrations put it: What “if everything goes back to the same way, even after we lost our blood and fallen comrades? What if all this was a waste?”

Many of those grievances stem from deep structural problems common to many countries with young populations, according to Abigail Branford, a researcher at Oxford whose work focuses on Africa.

“Issues like youth unemployment would be very difficult for states to address even if there was a more concerted effort toward including young people in mainstream politics,” she said. “The economy just can’t absorb the number of young people entering the job market.”

When I first learned about these Gen Z movements, they made me think of the 1968 protests that erupted across Western Europe and the U.S., fueled by a youth bulge, rock ’n’ roll and rage against the policies of an older, more conservative political elite.

But I also thought about the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings in the 2010s in which young people were the vanguard. These also toppled governments but in most countries did not lead to either democratization or an improvement in young people’s prospects.

Young people are hungry for change. They have proved they have the power to bring about change. But what happens next?

Central Gaza after airstrikes on Sunday. Eyad Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israel launched strikes on Gaza

Israel yesterday carried out its heaviest wave of attacks on Gaza since a cease-fire took hold on Oct. 10, after accusing Hamas of firing on its forces and violating the truce.

An Israeli official said that humanitarian aid to Gaza had been halted but that deliveries were expected to resume once the bombing was over. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the truce after flare-ups of violence over the past three days.

But both sides have made clear that they are still committed to maintaining the truce, and as yesterday came to an end, the Israeli military said it had “begun the renewed enforcement of the cease-fire.”

In recent days, thousands of Palestinians have returned to Gaza City or to other areas in northern Gaza. In many cases, they found their homes and neighborhoods obliterated.

Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters, top left; Stephane De Sakutin/AFP — Getty Images, top right and bottom left; Imago, via Zuma Press, bottom right

A seven-minute heist at the Louvre

Thieves used a lift mechanism on a truck yesterday to break into the Galerie d’Apollon, a wing of the Louvre in Paris that holds a prized collection of royal jewels and crown diamonds.

They snatched eight pieces of jewelry from two display cases before fleeing on motor scooters, all within just seven minutes. But in the rush to escape, the robbers dropped a crown once belonging to Empress Eugénie, which features eight gold eagles, 56 emeralds and thousands of diamonds.

French politicians publicly mourned the loss of the precious items, demanding to know how such a brazen theft could have happened at one of the world’s most famous museums at 9:30 on a Sunday morning. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation.

Football: Here’s the inside story of Ange Postecoglou’s disastrous 39 days in charge of Nottingham Forest.

Triathlon: Meet the 80-year-old who just completed the Ironman World Championship.

The Trustees of the British Museum

In 1895, Oscar Wilde was barred from the British Museum’s Reading Room after he was convicted of gross indecency, a charge used to punish gay men in Victorian times. Last week, the writer’s access was symbolically reinstated as the British Library issued a card in his name.

Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

Iran has been a center of gender transition surgery for years, largely because of government pressure on gay and gender-nonconforming citizens to undergo unwanted operations or risk the death penalty.

Now, faced with a struggling economy weakened by war and sanctions, the Islamic republic is hoping to attract transgender foreigners with the promise of inexpensive surgeries packaged with luxury hotel stays and sightseeing tours. Read more.

Chopin Institute

What’s wowing them in … Poland

Classical music isn’t usually thought of as a spectator sport, but sometimes it comes close. That’s the case in the International Chopin Piano Competition, which takes place every five years in Warsaw.

This year’s edition started with 181 competitors, but the field has been winnowed to 11. The final round is ending today, and the winners will perform concerts this week. To hear past and present participants, and to see some superhuman feats of focus and skill, be sure to watch the videos here. And try to remember the names. The next time you see them, it may be at your local concert hall.

Watch: Ethan Hawke plays the lyricist Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon.”

Monitor: Your hair can tell you a lot about your health.

Test yourself: Take our latest news quiz.

Exercise: Here is a beginner’s guide to indoor cycling.

Kate Sears for The New York Times

Poussin chicken — a Kenyan fast food — is made by chopping and flash-frying rotisserie chicken and then smothering it in a lemony garlic-chile butter sauce. In this recipe, chicken wings are slowly baked and finished on the grill. Add yogurt to the marinade to keep the chicken juicy while baking. This will also help it develop a nice char when grilled.