Kenya's president orders police to shoot violent protesters in the leg
On Monday, police blocked off large parts of the capital Nairobi, and used tear gas, water cannon and fired at crowds to disperse them. Some supermarkets, businesses and hospitals were looted, damaged or torched.
"Anyone who goes to burn other people's property, someone like that should be shot in the leg, and go to the hospital on his way to court," Ruto said in a speech.
"They shouldn't kill the person but they should hit the legs to break them."
The death of a political blogger in police custody brought hundreds of Kenyans onto the streets last month - reigniting a protest movement fuelled by anger over the cost of living and what they say is police brutality and corruption, a year after protesters opposing proposed tax hikes stormed parliament.
The rallying cry among the protesters, mostly young adults desperate for job opportunities and organised through social media channels, is that Ruto will be a one-term leader.
He won power almost three years ago as a champion of the poor who promised to end extrajudicial killings, but his government has responded to mounting public dissatisfaction with defiance.
His interior minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, branded last month's protests as a "coup attempt" by what he called "criminal anarchists".
The government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said criminal gangs wielding whips and machetes appeared to be operating alongside police in Nairobi and the Rift Valley town of Eldoret during the protests on Monday.
Police have not commented on the commission's observations, but have previously said they do not work with "goons".
"Those who attack Kenyans, police officers, security installations and businesses are terrorists. Such criminal acts are a declaration of war," Ruto posted later on Wednesday on X.
"We will not allow our country to be destroyed by retrogressive elements that are seeking shortcuts to rise to power."
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trust in the US is eroding. Now the question isn't if the dollar will lose supremacy: it's when
For more than eight decades, the US dollar has reigned supreme as the world's reserve currency – a position cemented at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and reinforced by America's postwar industrial power and military dominance. Today, that supremacy is facing growing resistance from multiple directions – from African revolutionary movements to economic recalibrations in Europe, and from the counterbalance efforts of Brics nations to the geopolitical entanglements of Ukraine and Israel. As global trust in Washington's stewardship of the international financial order declines, the long-predicted transition to a multi-polar monetary world may finally be close. At the heart of the de-dollarisation movement is Brics – the economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, recently joined by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Brics has already surpassed the G7 in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), amplifying its demands for a more fairly balanced global financial system. The group has increasingly moved to conduct bilateral trade in national currencies, bypassing the need for US dollars. India and Russia, for instance, are now trading oil in rupees and rubles. China and Brazil have established settlement mechanisms in yuan and Brazilian reals. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its subsequent exclusion from the Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system has accelerated these transitions. The economist Jeffrey Sachs has frequently commented on Washington's ongoing weaponisation of the dollar, wielding it through financial sanctions and trade barriers to assert its geopolitical agenda. Nations across the global south are pushing back in a determined effort to reclaim their sovereignty. In Africa, particularly the Sahel region, a quiet revolution is gathering steam. Guided by leaders such as Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, they have officially announced their intention to abandon the CFA franc – a colonial relic tied to the euro and ultimately to French control. Traoré has emerged as a pan-African voice calling for economic independence, including a return to sovereign monetary policies. A potential African currency, shared by west African nations, is being proposed not just as a financial tool but as a symbol of decolonisation. With support from Mali, Niger and Guinea, and with discussions by the powerful west African bloc Ecowas on the long-delayed 'Eco' currency, the African continent is poised to challenge US and European monetary dominance. This isn't just economic policy; it's identity. As pan-African voices demand sovereignty, a shared currency could signal an economic awakening decades in the making. This movement is gaining moral backing from African intellectuals and economists such as the Kenyan professor PLO Lumumba, who argue that you cannot be politically independent if you are not economically free. This shift is not merely about money, but about dignity and direction. In recent months, there have been renewed calls in Italy and Germany to repatriate portions of their gold reserves from the US, a development that has gone largely unreported in western media. The Bundesbank had previously signalled distrust during the Obama administration by recalling more than 300 tonnes of gold from both New York and Paris. The fresh moves are linked to the return of Donald Trump, his unpredictability and aggressive tariffs, especially toward Nato and EU members. The second Trump presidency is upending transatlantic trust. European nations are hedging against weaponised financial systems. If France or the Netherlands follow suit, it may signal the beginning of the end of US custodianship over Europe's monetary assets. While much of the world is expected to maintain strict fiscal discipline, the US continues to run jaw-dropping deficits. Its national debt has ballooned to more than $36tn (£25tn), with annual interest payments exceeding $1tn – more than the entire defence budget. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Unlike other nations, the US can finance these deficits by simply printing more dollars – a privilege afforded by the dollar's reserve status. But this creates an asymmetry: trading partners must earn dollars through exports or debt in order to interact with the global economy, while the US absorbs the benefits of infinite liquidity. Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz has in the past warned this exorbitant privilege will not last for ever. The rest of the world is essentially lending to the US at zero interest, while suffering from inflationary pressures caused by its dollar creation. Stiglitz has argued that the dollar-based system has become inherently unjust and unstable – especially for emerging economies that must endure volatility they did not create. Open-ended military aid to Ukraine and Israel is further eroding confidence in the US fiscal outlook and the dollar's value. These wars, justified by national security and ideological imperatives, are increasingly funded through deficit spending. The paradox is glaring: Washington prints money to fund arms shipments abroad, while inflationary effects ripple through developing countries still tied to the dollar. 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The challenge for Washington now is whether it will reform and share the financial order – or cling to outdated privileges until the world has moved on without it. Just this week, Donald Trump threatened increased tariffs of 10% for 'un-American' Brics nations and any countries aligning themselves with the 10-member bloc. The dollar was born in a world where the US commanded moral authority, industrial might and trust. But the post-Covid, post-colonial world is different. Countries across the globe are reclaiming their monetary agency, questioning the rules of a game long rigged in Washington's favour. Now in 2025, the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people has profoundly deepened global outrage, and in the eyes of the global south, it has shattered the last vestiges of moral authority once claimed by the US and Europe. De-dollarisation is not a threat to global stability. It is a rebalancing – one that demands fairness and equity. The global south is no longer asking for change, they are enacting it. If the US fails to recognise this, it risks not only its currency but its global influence. Reform or retreat. As Sachs said, the US cannot lead the world by force for ever. Sooner or later, people will stop following. The reality is the world isn't walking away from the US – it's walking toward itself. One currency at a time.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Crackdown on international students is self-harm, says Sadiq Khan
The mayor of London will describe plans to charge universities a levy on international students as 'an act of immense economic self-harm' during a speech in west Africa on Wednesday. Khan, who is on a five-day trade mission to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, will use a keynote speech in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, to take aim at the British government's proposal to bring in a tax on income generated from foreign students. 'There are people at home who believe we should pull up the drawbridge to international students, or punish universities that choose to welcome people from around the world,' he will say. 'Closing our country to global talent would be an act of immense economic self-harm, one that would slow down growth and leave working people in Britain worse off than before. 'That's why I'm calling on our government not to make it harder for international students to study in the UK.' The issue, in the government's immigration white paper, is the latest flashpoint in an increasingly contentious relationship between the Labour mayor of London and the Labour government. Khan pointedly criticised the chancellor's spending review last month, saying that Rachel Reeves had made a 'colossal mistake' in pitting London against the rest of the country. He was also among those who successfully lobbied the government to row back on proposed welfare changes. Khan will be speaking at Imperial College London's Accra hub and will release new data from London Economics, a think tank, suggesting that international students contribute £12.5 billion in wider economic benefit in London every year during their studies. In the immigration white paper, the government also said it would reduce to 18 months, down from two years at present, graduates' right to stay in the UK after their studies. The levy on income would, the document suggested, be 'reinvested into the higher education and skills system'. More details are expected in the autumn budget. The number of international students coming to the UK has ballooned in recent years. The cohort appeals to universities because they can be charged more than domestic students, whose fees are capped at just shy of £10,000 a year. In the academic year 2023-24, there were 296,655 undergraduate entrants to the UK system whose permanent addresses were overseas, compared with 1.75 million who had UK addresses, according to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. There were also more international postgraduates, at 435,620, than UK postgraduates, at 410,870. Substantial increases in recent years have come from India — which passed China in numbers for the first time in 2022-23 — as well as from other Asian countries and Nigeria. The number of students from the European Union has dropped substantially in the same period. London Higher, a membership organisation for universities and higher education institutions, backed Khan's call for the levy to go no further. Its chief executive, Liz Hutchinson, said: 'Our universities are world-leading because they are international, with overseas students enriching not just the economy but also the learning experience and the vibrant, creative communities that the capital is famous for.' She added: 'This is a time when we should be strengthening our position as a hub for talented individuals from across the world; the government's proposed levy on international students does the opposite.'
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
UN council authorizes continuing vigilance of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Red Sea shipping
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday authorized continued reporting on attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have defied its previous demands to immediately halt all such attacks. The vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with Russia, China and Algeria abstaining because of attacks against Yemen in violation of its sovereignty, a clear reference to U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis who control most of northern Yemen. The Trump administration has carried out the strikes because of the group's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on close ally Israel. The resolution, cosponsored by the United States and Greece, extends the requirement that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provide monthly reports to the Security Council about Houthi attacks in the Red Sea until Jan. 15, 2026. Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the resolution recognizes the need for continued vigilance 'against the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist threat.' She cited the two latest attacks by Houthis against civilian cargo vessels, the MV Magic Seas and the MV Eternity C, which caused both vessels to sink and led to the loss of innocent seafarers and saw crew members taken hostage. 'The United States strongly condemns these unprovoked terrorist attacks, which demonstrate the threat that the Houthis pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,' Shea said, reiterating the council's demand for an immediate halt to Houthi attacks and the release of all crew members kidnapped from the Eternity C. The assaults represent the latest chapter of the rebels' campaign against shipping over the war in Gaza that began with Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack in southern Israel. They also come as Yemen's nearly decadelong war drags on in the Arab world's poorest country, without any sign of stopping. Greece's U.N. Ambassador Evangelos Sekeris said the Houthi attacks have continued to fuel mistrust in the international maritime community, stressing that security and freedom of navigation are essential for the stability of global supply chains and economic development. 'If the Red Sea region — a critical international maritime route — becomes even more degraded, it will expose the international community to more acute security risks and economic uncertainty,' he warned. Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow abstained because language in the previous resolution demanding a halt to Houthi attacks was arbitrarily interpreted to justify 'the use of force affecting the territory of the sovereign state of Yemen.' 'We stand convinced that any steps aimed at stabilizing the situation in Yemen and around Yemen should be taken in political and diplomatic ways,' he said. China's deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang said his country abstained because 'certain countries took military action against Yemen, which seriously impacted the Yemeni peace process and exacerbated tensions in the Red Sea.' The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Shuang called tensions in the Red Sea 'a major manifestation of the spillover from the Gaza conflict.' Russia's Polyansky also stressed the link between normalizing the situation in the Red Sea and the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages. Algeria's deputy U.N. ambassador Toufik Koudri, whose country is the Arab representative on the Security Council, expressed regret the Yemen resolution demanding an immediate halt to Houthi attacks made no mention of the Gaza war, which he called 'one of the catalytic factors.' 'The Security Council cannot disregard the clear nexus between the attacks in the Red Sea and the aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the deep feelings that resulted from the brutal massacres committed against innocent civilians,' he said.
