Lisa: Nepal finds new calm this weekend with the appointment of a temporary leader, following an extraordinary week of violence.

The death toll now stands at over 70, after anti-corruption protests led to police clashes and a host of buildings in the capital being set aflame.

An interim prime minister is in place, today asking for people to come together.

New elections are going to be held in March, but key issues - like unemployment and inflation - that drove the protests, remain unaddressed.

Earlier I spoke with Alex travelli, a south Asia business correspondent for the New York Times.

He is in Kathmandu and I asked him to describe the situation there today.

Alex: The capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, is quiet now and looks normal.

There is still a large military presence on the streets but they are not blocking traffic.

A lot of burned-out golding's so if you are looking at the old halls of power it is like a disaster swept through town.

A few of them are still on fire.

Traffic, business, civilian life is caring on almost as if it were an ordinary time in Nepal which it is not.

Lisa: This is a historic time and it seems the protests evolved in part because of the bands -- bans of some social media platforms, but there also seemed to be a lot more deeper issues.

Can you help us understand how this evolved?

Alex: It is becoming clear that the social media ban, which was the proximate cause or the trigger for the protests, was a part of a great big angry hole.

It was Monday of this past week that mostly young people took to the streets in great numbers.

You could see already on the banners and placards they were carrying it was more about entrenched problems that Nepal faces, political problems, corruption, a culture of impunity, and there was a vast amount of anger and then that changed Monday when armed police started firing into the crowds.

Very quickly a lot of young people died by police bullets, and then there's an entirely new cause for outrage.

Lisa: What has day-to-day life been like for the young people, especially those leading the protest?

Alex: Life in Nepal is very tough for young people.

And often these are young people who've invested a lot of time and a lot their family savings in education.

One of the surest signs of this economic crisis is the number of young nepalis who have to leave the country in order to find employment.

This is often for menial jobs in the gulf or in Malaysia.

It is not that these are young people who necessarily want to leave Nepal, but almost 2,000 do leave every day.

There is by some estimate half of the country's families depend on income being sent by nepalis working abroad.

This is a desperate situation and it's not one that young people want to put up with forever.

Lisa: Can you tell us about the new interim prime minister and why it was that young people in particular wanted her in the job?

Alex: It is very hard to get a grasp on what the young people want.

Mainly because we don't know who they are.

It is a leaderless movement, or that is how it began.

We do know that members of that leadership, however they were chosen, were talking to her.

Her name is sushila karki, and she came out as the favored candidate.

She is a former chief justice of Nepal, in fact, the country's first female chief justice and a jurist by training, interested in constitutional matters, not especially beholden to any of the big political parties, and a satisfying choice, if there had to be one, for a caretaker prime minister.

Lisa: Can you help us understand Nepal's role in the region and whether these protests have any wider influence as well.

It's a small country, but where does it sit in terms of its importance?

Alex: It may be too soon to tell but Nepal sits between China and , India, biggest countries in the world.

The United States, of course, takes a keen interest also in nepali affairs.

In recent years, as China's political and economic power have grown, it's become a more important rival with India for influence in the region.

Each of them, these giant countries has its favorite , political parties within the old political order of Nepal, Now that that political order as a whole seems to have collapsed.

It looks suddenly like a clear board in which these two, three big countries are gonna start competing again.

Lisa: What's to come?

We expect elections in six months.

Do you think that that is the way out of this crisis?

Alex: What is clear is that its going to be a very difficult path forward.

There's no period of time in which you could say, we know how Nepal is going to replace its established political parties, or the parties themselves perhaps will stick around, but they'll figure out a way to replace their tarnished leadership.

Perhaps gen Z, as they call themselves, the student protesters, will find a party to throw into the fray themselves.

But six months is a short amount of time for anything like that.

The country will really need parties that can attract popular support and that is hard to see from this week.

Lisa: Alex trevelli, we know you'll keep watching it, and we appreciate that.

Thank you for joining us.

Alex: Thank you.

♪