Foreign
Kenyan protesters defy crackdown as police, marchers clash
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Police blocked roads in a show of force to deter anti-government marchers from the deserted streets of Kenya’s usually bustling capital on Monday, with small groups of protesters clashing with officers on Nairobi’s outskirts.
Many people appeared to be staying home rather than attend the annual so-called Saba Saba Day, meaning Seven Seven, marches to commemorate July 7, 1990 when Kenyans rose up to demand a return to multi-party democracy after years of autocratic rule by then-president Daniel arap Moi.
From around midday, AFP saw running battles with groups of anti-riot police who fired teargas at small gatherings, with some of the crowd throwing rocks at officers and engaging in destructive looting.
Young Kenyans, frustrated over economic stagnation, corruption and police brutality, are once again engaging in protests that last month degenerated into looting and violence, leaving dozens dead and thousands of businesses destroyed.
Protesters accuse the authorities of paying armed vandals to discredit their movement, while the government has compared the demonstrations to an “attempted coup”.
On Monday, the streets of central Nairobi were quiet after police mounted roadblocks on the main roads, restricting entry to areas that were the epicentre of previous rallies.
Many businesses were closed for the day.
“I have never witnessed the city centre like this,” security guard Edmond Khayimba, 29, told AFP.
While the centre remained deserted, groups gathered on the outskirts in the afternoon with AFP reporters witnessing two people wounded, as well as looting and vandalism.
Protesters on a major highway clashed with police blocking their entry into the city, with the small crowds chanting: “Ruto Must Go”, a popular rallying cry against President William Ruto, and “wantam” meaning “one term”.
Again, AFP saw looting and property destruction in the surrounding area.
With much of Nairobi at a standstill, an interactive map showing at least 20 suspected police roadblocks was shared online and through WhatsApp groups.
Local TV stations also showed gatherings, some violent, in several towns across the country.
– ‘Ruto Must Go’ –
Social media and rising economic expectations have fanned anger over inequalities in a country where around 80 percent are trapped in informal, poorly paid jobs.
But a crackdown by the police — at least 80 people have died in protests since June last year while dozens have been detained illegally — has scared many off the streets.
On Sunday, men, some armed with sticks, forced their way into the compound of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission during a press conference calling for an end to “enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings”.
Nairobi motorbike driver Rogers Onsomu, 32, told AFP that while the town was deserted, he hoped demonstrators would come out later, and criticised Ruto’s government.
“What he has promised the country, (he) is not delivering,” Onsomu said.
“The youths are protesting because of many things, like healthcare.”
“As the constitution say, the power belongs to people,” he said. “So this slogan of ‘Ruto Must Go’. We will not relent and we will keep it going each and every day.”
– ‘The world is different’ –
Since being elected in 2022, Ruto has forged an uneasy alliance with the main opposition leader Raila Odinga, leaving no clear challenger ahead of the next vote in 2027.
But each violent crackdown fuels further unrest, said activist Nerima Wako.
“Every time people organise a protest, they kill more people, so it just continues to feed off itself,” she said.
The previous demonstration on June 25 — intended to mark the peak of last year’s deadly anti-government rallies — turned violent and left 19 people dead, according to rights groups.
Police made hundreds of arrests.
Gabrielle Lynch, an African politics expert at Britain’s University of Warwick, said the government appeared to be recycling tactics from the 1990s.
“But we’re not in the nineties,” she said. “They don’t seem to have realised the world is different.”
AFP
Foreign
Georgia Mayor Fires Entire Police Force For Upsetting His Wife
The mayor of a small Georgia town has fired his entire police force for upsetting his wife.
Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick shut down the Cohutta Police Department and fired all 10 of its employees earlier this week after officers allegedly made “inappropriate comments” about his spouse on Facebook, WDEF reported.
“The PD has been dissolved, and all personnel have been terminated,” read a brutal sign on the department’s door first thing Wednesday.
“They’ll get a paycheck. We’re not that way, and I appreciate their service, okay? It is time for a change,” Shinnick said bluntly when asked about the controversy.
According to the New York Post, tensions boiled over late last month after several officers filed formal complaints alleging that the town’s former clerk, Pam Shinnick who is also the mayor’s wife continued working for the town despite being fired.
She was terminated last year for apparently creating a “hostile work environment” in the town of less than 1,000 people — but allegedly still had access to personal and classified information.
In the wake of the formal complaints, the mayor held a joint press conference with Police Chief Greg Fowler and town attorney Brian Rayburn to say they’d managed to resolve the dispute through “open dialogue and good-faith mediation.”
But roughly a week later, the cops were all fired anyway.
“This all comes to personal vendetta from the mayor and I wholeheartedly believe that,” said one of the axed officers, Sgt. Jeremy May, adding that they’d been assured their jobs weren’t in jeopardy for lodging complaints about the mayor’s wife.
“Official response from the town attorney: Nobody’s jobs are in jeopardy,” May said. “Here we are, less than a week later, nobody has a job.”
“We took a stand for transparency, and in result, every one of them has lost their jobs,” he added.
The mayor, for his part, blamed the conflict on “inappropriate comments” posted on Facebook by the officers.
For now, the fired officers have been ordered to return all department equipment.
The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office is set to take over policing for the small town.
Foreign
Cause Of CNN Founder, Ted Turner’s Death Revealed
American entrepreneur cum founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), Ted Turner, has died at the age of 87.
Turner Enterprises announced the death in a press release issued on Wednesday, stating that Turner died after battling Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder.
In a statement, CNN CEO and Chairman Mark Thompson, paying tribute to the deceased, described Turner as a committed leader.
Thompson said, “Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement.
“He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”
Robert Edward Turner III, born November 19, 1938, was an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor and philanthropist.
He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel.
In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television, and TNT, a television network.
In 1991, Time named Turner its Man of the Year, citing his influence in transforming global television news and making viewers in over 150 countries “instant witnesses of history.”
Although he later sold his networks to Time Warner and eventually stepped away from the business, Turner continued to describe CNN as the “greatest achievement” of his life.
Foreign
Middleast war: Ceasefire deadline with Iran not over – Pentagon
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the ceasefire with Iran was not over, even as the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Gulf as they wrestled for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth said the U.S. had successfully secured a path through the critical waterway and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through, as Washington seeks to break a chokehold Iran has asserted on the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began on February 28.
“We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. They said they control the strait. They do not,” Hegseth told a Pentagon news conference.
The U.S. military says it sank six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones, after President Donald Trump sent the navy to escort stranded tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in a day-old campaign he called “Project Freedom.”
Several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires on Monday, the first day of the operation.
General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran attacked Oman once on Monday and waged three attacks on the United Arab Emirates, before adding that, at least so far, “today is quieter.”
Caine said that since the ceasefire was announced on April 7, Iran had fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships. Iran has attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times, he added.
However, the attacks fell “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point,” Caine told reporters.
Asked whether the ceasefire with Iran still held, Hegseth said: “No, the ceasefire is not over.”
“We said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have. Iran knows that, and ultimately, the president can make a decision whether anything were to escalate into a violation of a ceasefire,” he said.
The operation is Trump’s latest effort to force an end to the disruption of international energy supplies caused by Iran’s blockade of the strait, which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.
The U.S. Navy is also enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran, which prevents ships from going to Iran or departing Iranian territory.
The two military operations seek to pressure Iran to strike a deal to end the conflict on Trump’s terms. But Iran has countered that there is no military solution to the crisis, and it has threatened to fight for as long as necessary.
The U.S. military said on Monday two U.S. merchant ships made it through the strait, with the support of Navy guided-missile destroyers.
Iran denied any crossings had taken place, though shipping company Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged ship, exited the Gulf under U.S. military escort on Monday.
Caine estimated 22,500 mariners embarked on more than 1,550 commercial vessels were stuck in the Gulf, unable to transit.
“CENTCOM, along with partner nations, is in active communication with hundreds of ships, shipping companies and insurers,” Hegseth said, referring to the U.S. military’s Central Command, which leads operations in the Middle East.
“All of these ships from all around the world want to get out of the Iranian trap that they have been stuck inside.”
[Reuters]
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