Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Eleven people sentenced to death in Vietnam drug trafficking case

    Eleven people sentenced to death in Vietnam drug trafficking case

    In one of the largest transnational drug trafficking busts in Vietnam’s modern legal history, a court has handed down death sentences to 11 convicted individuals, including the alleged ringleader of a billion-dollar smuggling operation that spanned Europe and Southeast Asia, state media confirmed this week.

    In total, 227 people faced trial for their roles in the coordinated network. Penalties across all defendants ranged from 18-month prison terms to life imprisonment, with 11 receiving the ultimate capital punishment. Ha Danh Nam, the man authorities identified as the mastermind who coordinated the shipment of illegal narcotics from France to Vietnam, was among those sentenced to death.

    The investigation into the criminal enterprise traces back to March 2023, when four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants arriving in Ho Chi Minh City from Paris were intercepted with more than 10 kilograms of illicit drugs hidden inside 157 toothpaste tubes. State-run legal newspaper Bao Cong Ly reported that the crew members were never prosecuted, as investigators confirmed they had unknowingly transported the contraband, which included MDMA and ketamine.

    Further probes uncovered that Nam’s smuggling operation systematically hid narcotics inside everyday consumer goods, including dietary supplements, laundry detergent, mouthwash, and coffee. The ring then recruited Vietnamese nationals living or studying in France to transport the hidden drugs, either in personal checked luggage or via international courier services directly to buyers in Vietnam. To evade detection, members of the network relied on end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms and processed financial transactions through bank accounts registered under stolen or fake third-party identities, prosecutors told the court. Over the course of the operation, the total value of illegal drug transactions linked to the network reached nearly 29 trillion Vietnamese dong, equal to roughly $1.1 billion or £815 million.

    Judges handed down sentences proportional to each defendant’s level of involvement in the ring, ranging from masterminding operations to low-level accomplice roles. In addition to the 11 death sentences, around 20 other defendants received life imprisonment for convictions on charges of illegal drug possession, distribution, transport, and organized trafficking.

    The verdict comes amid a period of gradual shift in Vietnam’s capital punishment policy. Vietnam remains one of 54 countries globally that retains the death penalty, according to human rights organization data. The Vietnamese government classifies the total number of people on death row as a state secret, but rights groups estimate that more than 1,000 prisoners are currently awaiting execution across the country.

    Just last month, the Vietnamese government tabled new legislative reforms that would remove the death penalty for six additional offenses, including drug trafficking. The proposed changes have not yet been enacted into law. This proposal follows a 2025 amendment to the national criminal code that eliminated capital punishment for eight other offenses, including embezzlement, espionage, and the charge of attempting to overthrow the government.

    The 2025 legal change already led to a high-profile sentence adjustment: real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was sentenced to death for embezzlement in 2024, had her capital sentence commuted to life imprisonment earlier this year after the reform went into effect.

  • Andy Burnham praises UK-EU ties in meeting with Emmanuel Macron

    Andy Burnham praises UK-EU ties in meeting with Emmanuel Macron

    In a landmark diplomatic meeting marking new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first bilateral talks with an overseas leader at 10 Downing Street, French President Emmanuel Macron and Burnham gathered Thursday to hash out a sweeping range of shared priorities, from irregular migration across the English Channel to global security conflicts and deeper UK-EU cooperation.

    The meeting opened with a warm public ceremonial moment: the two leaders shook hands and posed for official photos alongside their wives, Marie-France van Heel and Brigitte Macron, outside the prime minister’s official residence before heading into closed-door discussions.

    Macron’s visit to the UK carried a dual purpose: the trip was primarily scheduled to mark the historic loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to London’s British Museum, where the French leader met with King Charles III on Wednesday a week ahead of the medieval artifact’s public opening. But the bilateral talks that followed quickly centered on what has emerged as the most pressing bilateral policy challenge of the moment: the growing use of large “mega dinghies” by people-smuggling gangs to carry irregular migrants across the Channel to the UK.

    The rise of these large vessels, first documented in early August when a 15-meter craft carried a record 230 migrants toward British shores, has sparked fresh scrutiny of border security efforts. This development comes even as overall irregular small boat arrivals to the UK dropped to a seven-year low over the 2026 summer travel season.

    To address the new threat of oversized smuggling vessels, Downing Street announced Thursday that 45 additional British police officers will be deployed to northern French beaches as part of a targeted “surge team” focused on intercepting large dinghies before they can depart. Home Office Minister Anna Turley clarified Tuesday that this reinforcement adds to an existing deployment of more than 1,000 officers already conducting active water-based interventions along the French coast. Turley told BBC Radio 4’s *Today programme* that recent footage shows officers directly targeting smuggling operations: disabling vessels by slashing their hulls, pushing craft back to shore, and operating under dangerous conditions, often facing projectile attacks from smugglers.

    Burnham framed cross-Channel smuggling as a collective European problem requiring coordinated action rather than unilateral fixes. In a social media post on X outlining the latest data on small boat arrivals, return of undocumented migrants and asylum facility usage, Burnham emphasized he is pursuing a new approach to governing rooted in international partnership. Ahead of Thursday’s talks, he welcomed Macron as a key ally, noting it was entirely fitting that the French president was his first overseas guest at Downing Street, describing France as the UK’s closest neighbor and longstanding close partner. He added that the bilateral meeting demonstrates what collaborative action can deliver, pointing to already aligned work on Ukraine, border security and efforts to strengthen overall UK-EU ties.

    Beyond the migration crisis, the two leaders also held in-depth discussions on other pressing global and bilateral issues, including the ongoing armed conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, bilateral defence cooperation and the future framework for UK-EU engagement.

    The main opposition Conservative Party has criticized the current government’s approach, however. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told the BBC that while she supports cross-border collaboration with France, the fundamental problem of irregular boat crossings has not been resolved. She argued that the UK has already poured hundreds of millions, potentially billions, of pounds into funding French border security operations, yet crossings continue. The meeting comes as UK politics remains deeply divided over migration policy, with the issue set to remain a central point of political debate in the coming months.

  • Japanese scientist Shirakawa, co-winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry, dies at 90

    Japanese scientist Shirakawa, co-winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry, dies at 90

    Hideki Shirakawa, the groundbreaking Japanese chemist who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his transformative work on conductive polymers, has passed away at the age of 90.

    Shirakawa’s collaborative research with two American scientists, Alan Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid, upended long-held assumptions about the properties of plastic, proving that this ubiquitous material could carry electrical current just as metals do. This counterintuitive discovery unlocked a vast new range of applications across modern electronics, laying the foundation for technologies that shape daily life around the globe today.

    The University of Tsukuba, the Japanese research institution where Shirakawa built his career as a professor and researcher after joining its faculty in 1979, confirmed his death on August 24. The university did not release any details about the specific cause of death. Japan’s leading daily newspaper, Yomiuri, reported that Shirakawa died at a medical facility in Yokohama, a major port city located just west of Tokyo.

    Born in Tokyo in 1936, Shirakawa built his academic foundation early, earning his doctoral degree in engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1966. A decade later, he took a research position at the University of Pennsylvania, where he began his landmark partnership with MacDiarmid and Heeger that would redefine materials science.

    Prior to their work, conventional scientific wisdom held that all plastics were natural insulators, incapable of conducting electricity. The trio’s breakthrough defied this common understanding, clearing a path for the development of low-cost conductive materials that outperform traditional metals in key areas: they are far lighter, far more flexible, and adaptable to a wide range of commercial and industrial uses. Today, these materials power critical modern technologies from photovoltaic solar cells to the touchscreens of smartphones and mobile devices, touching millions of lives worldwide.

  • Dolly Parton gets new star on Hollywood Walk of Fame after vandalism

    Dolly Parton gets new star on Hollywood Walk of Fame after vandalism

    The global entertainment community is still mourning the passing of iconic country music legend Dolly Parton, who died last week at the age of 80, leaving behind a decades-long legacy of art, philanthropy and cultural impact. In the wake of her death, an act of vandalism targeting her 40-year-old star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has prompted a swift, respectful replacement to honor her memory.

    Parton first received her star on the Los Angeles landmark in 1984, in recognition of her decades of contributions to entertainment across music, film and theme park development. In the days after her death was announced, grieving fans flocked to the star to lay tributes: bouquets of fresh flowers, glowing candles, and personal photos that reflected the joy she had brought to millions of lives around the world. That peace was broken earlier this week, when vandals scratched Parton’s name, leaving the plaque heavily defaced.

    Local officials confirmed that repairs had already been scheduled to address pre-existing cracks in the original star before the vandalism occurred. All fan tributes were carefully cleared from the site ahead of construction work, which wrapped up on Wednesday. The Hollywood Historic Trust, which manages the iconic 2,800-star Walk of Fame, announced the replacement in an official Instagram post this week.

    “The Hollywood Historic Trust and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce are proud to honour the legacy of Dolly Parton with a replacement of her star,” the statement read, confirming that the new plaque will be open for public viewing starting Friday. Photographs taken after the repair work show the star temporarily covered ahead of its official unveiling.

    As tributes continue to pour in from across the music industry and beyond, Parton was laid to rest last Friday in a private family funeral in Nashville, where she was buried beside her late husband Carl Dean. The following evening, her niece Jada Star took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry House — widely known as the home of country music — as part of a public tribute concert celebrating her aunt’s life and career.

    At Dollywood, Parton’s beloved Tennessee theme park that draws 4 million annual visitors, new permanent additions are being planned to honor her title as the park’s “dreamer-in-chief”. Parton purchased the then-failing park in 1982, reimagining it as a people-focused counterpart to California’s Disneyland, and grew it into the most visited ticketed tourist attraction in the state. New upgrades will include a tranquil waterfall built outside the park’s chapel, designed to give guests a quiet space to pause, reflect and connect with the natural landscape Parton loved. The chapel will also add custom stained-glass windows inscribed with Parton’s favorite Bible verse: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Next year, the park will also introduce a new character called the Dream Maker, a tribute to Parton’s lifelong commitment to children and her Imagination Library, a global program that has donated millions of free books to young readers across the world.

    For decades, Parton built her reputation as one of country music’s most enduring stars, thanks to chart-topping hits including *Jolene* and 9 to 5, and became a beloved cultural figure far beyond the music industry for her generosity, wit and commitment to public good. Her death has sparked an outpouring of love that continues to take shape in tributes across the United States, from the Hollywood hills to the hills of East Tennessee.

  • Sultan of Oman to make state visit to UK, balancing pressures from US and Iran

    Sultan of Oman to make state visit to UK, balancing pressures from US and Iran

    LONDON – Buckingham Palace announced Thursday that Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman will undertake a three-day state visit to the United Kingdom next month, a high-profile diplomatic engagement unfolding as the strategically positioned Gulf nation navigates intensifying competing pressure from Washington and Tehran.

    King Charles III and Queen Camilla will welcome the Omani leader at Windsor Castle from October 20 to 22, though full details of the visit’s schedule and agenda have not been made public.

    For the United Kingdom, state visits are a carefully calibrated diplomatic tool: the monarchy leverages its full ceremonial grandeur to strengthen ties with long-standing partners and nurture relationships with allies navigating tricky geopolitical positions. Traditionally, these events include a ceremonial horse-drawn carriage procession through castle grounds, a formal inspection of honor guards, a lavish state dinner hosted by the British monarch, and closed-door bilateral talks with the UK’s elected senior government officials. While the monarch formally extends the invitation for these visits, planning and approval are always directed by the UK’s sitting government, with preparations typically taking months to finalize.

    The announcement of Sultan Haitham’s trip comes one month after former U.S. President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary threat to bomb Oman, after the Gulf state appeared close to reaching a bilateral agreement with Iran to coordinate commercial ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. This narrow waterway, which borders Oman along its southern coast, carried roughly 20 percent of the world’s total oil and natural gas shipments before the latest escalation of conflict across the Middle East, making its security a critical priority for global energy markets.

    This is not the first meeting between King Charles and Sultan Haitham: the British monarch hosted the Oxford-educated Omani leader for a private tea at Windsor Castle during an unofficial visit to the UK last year. The last full state visit by an Omani sultan to the United Kingdom dates back to March 1982, when the late Queen Elizabeth II welcomed Sultan Haitham’s predecessor, Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

  • Toxic wildfire haze spreads across South East Asia as ‘super’ El Niño intensifies

    Toxic wildfire haze spreads across South East Asia as ‘super’ El Niño intensifies

    A growing public health and environmental emergency is unfolding across Southeast Asia, as months of uncontrolled wildfires in Indonesia have spawned a thick blanket of toxic haze that has drifted across national borders, endangering millions of people and threatening massive carbon emissions from vulnerable ecosystems.

    Weeks after the first blazes ignited across Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo in mid-July, the smog now covers large swathes of Indonesia and has spread to neighboring Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. In the hardest-hit areas, pollution levels have surpassed 15 times the maximum safe limit set by the World Health Organization, pushing air quality into the “acutely unhealthy” range that threatens even healthy adults, not just vulnerable groups.

    For local residents, the daily reality of living under the haze is grim. Nineteen-year-old teaching assistant Rizma Nur Fatimah, who works at a school in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, described visibility so poor that “you couldn’t even see your own feet” inside her classroom. Even sealed indoor spaces offer little protection: “Even inside the house, with everything closed, the haze still got in,” she said. Having grown up with annual haze events, Fatimah noted that this year’s crisis is far worse than previous seasons, leaving local communities resigned to chronic poor air quality. Twenty-three-year-old mother Misbah, from nearby Pengayuan village, said her three-year-old daughter has already developed persistent cough, sore throat, and runny nose from prolonged exposure to the smog.

    The health impacts are being felt hundreds of kilometers away, too. On the Philippine island province of Palawan, residents and medical workers report widespread respiratory and allergic symptoms linked to the drifting smoke. “We are now experiencing mild headaches,” said local physician Dr Precious Bañas-Melad. “My cousin who isn’t allergic to anything started developing allergies. My husband is the first one who had itchy eyes and throat.” Across the border in Malaysia, national health authorities have recorded sharp increases in asthma and conjunctivitis cases as air quality declines across the country.

    Between July and August alone, Indonesia’s Ministry of Health confirmed more than 50,000 cases of respiratory infections directly linked to the land and forest fires, with children under five accounting for over 12,000 of those cases.

    While this year’s extreme severity is being driven by a Super El Niño event that has worsened drought conditions across the region, experts emphasize that the recurring crisis is deeply rooted in decades of human-caused land use change. The pattern dates back to the Suharto era, when vast areas of ancient rainforest and carbon-rich peatland in Kalimantan were cleared for logging, industrial agriculture, and large-scale infrastructure projects. Today, environmental groups, researchers, and official government investigations have repeatedly documented that many commercial operators use fire as a low-cost method to clear large tracts of land for industrial plantations.

    Unlike small-scale, community-managed traditional burning practices that are tightly controlled, large-scale clearing fires are far harder to contain and create far greater harm to both public health and the environment. Drained peatlands, industrial timber estates, and oil palm plantations create landscapes that are far more vulnerable to burning, and blazes often reoccur in the same degraded areas year after year.

    What makes this year’s fires on Indonesian Borneo particularly alarming is that they are tearing through one of the world’s largest tropical peatland ecosystems. These unique landscapes act as massive natural carbon sinks: under normal waterlogged conditions, decomposition is slowed, allowing carbon to accumulate underground for thousands of years. But when drained and burned, these same carbon stores turn into what researchers call carbon “bombs,” releasing thousands of years of stored carbon into the atmosphere in just weeks or months, worsening the climate change that drives extreme drought and El Niño events in a dangerous feedback loop.

    “Peatlands are incredibly effective carbon stores because their waterlogged conditions slow decomposition, allowing carbon to accumulate underground for thousands of years,” explained Dr Nisa Novita, a peatland researcher at Indonesian conservation NGO Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara. “But this also means they can become a ‘carbon bomb’ when they are drained or burned, because that carbon can be rapidly released into the atmosphere.”

    As the Super El Niño event continues to intensify through the coming months, experts warn the worst may still be ahead. Forest fire forensics expert Professor Bambang Hero Saharjo, from Institut Pertanian Bogor University, noted that in 2025, without an El Niño event, Indonesian wildfires burned roughly 359,000 hectares of land. This year, he projects the burned area could reach 11 million hectares, putting the 2026 season on par with the devastating 1997-1998 wildfires, one of the worst on record for Indonesia.

    Indonesia’s Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni confirmed this week that the fight to contain the blazes is now entering its most critical phase. “Our problems are not over. September is the peak of El Niño,” he said. “September is the main fight for us.”

  • Liechtenstein MPs vote to legalise abortion despite threat of veto

    Liechtenstein MPs vote to legalise abortion despite threat of veto

    In a cliffhanger vote that has underscored deep divisions over reproductive rights in the tiny Alpine European nation of Liechtenstein, the country’s 25-seat parliament has passed a grassroots citizens’ initiative by just a single vote to liberalize the country’s strict abortion laws. The proposal, spearheaded by a coalition of women’s advocates and led by 28-year-old Tatjana As’Ad from the small left-wing Free List party, would legalize abortion on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, end the national ban on abortion-related information, and mandate that health insurance cover costs for the procedure.

    After weeks of tense debate, the final vote count came in at 13 in favor to 12 against, a razor-thin margin that reflected the polarizing nature of the issue in the predominantly Catholic country. Despite the narrow parliamentary approval, the legislation is all but certain to be blocked: Hereditary Prince Alois, Liechtenstein’s de facto ruler who holds sweeping executive and legislative powers rare for a modern Western European monarch, has publicly threatened to veto the initiative since it was first introduced.

    To bring the proposal before parliament, supporters gathered more than 4,900 valid signatures from the country’s 41,000 residents – nearly five times the minimum requirement needed to force a parliamentary vote. Advocates have argued that public opinion has shifted sharply in favor of liberalization since Liechtenstein’s last national referendum on abortion in 2011, when 52% of voters rejected a similar proposal. At that time, Prince Alois also signaled he would oppose any change to the status quo.

    Currently, abortion is only permitted in Liechtenstein in extremely limited circumstances: when the pregnant person’s life is at direct risk, or when the pregnancy is the result of sexual violence. Any person who performs an unauthorized abortion can face up to three years of prison time, while a woman who undergoes the procedure can be jailed for up to one year. These restrictions have forced hundreds of Liechtenstein women annually to travel to neighboring Austria or Switzerland to access abortion care. Since 2015, women have not faced criminal penalties for seeking abortion abroad, but the costs of the procedure are not covered by domestic health insurance, creating a financial barrier for low-income residents.

    Lawmakers rejected a separate amendment that would have put the issue directly to a public referendum, leaving the final decision in the hands of the hereditary prince. Roman Catholicism, which officially remains the state religion of Liechtenstein, counts nearly 80% of the population among its adherents, and the church has maintained strong opposition to abortion legalization. The Princely House has echoed this position, stating that its core objection to the initiative is that it does not include sufficient protections for unborn life. That said, Prince Alois has left the door open for more modest adjustments to current law, including lifting the existing ban on abortion-related public information and clarifying ambiguous language in the current regulations.

    Prince Alois exercises all day-to-day public governing duties on behalf of his father, Prince Hans-Adam II, and holds an extraordinary range of powers for a constitutional monarch in 21st century Europe: in addition to being able to veto any legislation passed by parliament, he can dismiss the sitting government or individual ministers, appoint all federal judges, and propose legislative changes directly. Reproductive rights advocates have framed the initiative as part of a broader push to bring Liechtenstein’s abortion laws in line with most other European countries, where abortion is legal on request in early pregnancy across the vast majority of EU member states.

  • All Blacks shake up the pack for South Africa test and drop Codie Taylor

    All Blacks shake up the pack for South Africa test and drop Codie Taylor

    JOHANNESBURG – With the four-test rugby series between New Zealand and South Africa deadlocked at one win apiece, New Zealand’s national side the All Blacks have announced major forward pack changes for the deciding third test this weekend at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium, headlined by the promotion of hooker Asafo Aumua to the starting lineup over veteran Codie Taylor.

    The All Blacks revealed their revised matchday 23 on Thursday, which also sees debutant series involvement for lock Sam Darry and flanker Peter Lakai, who earn starting spots after coming off the bench in the first two matches. The backline, however, remains entirely unchanged following the All Blacks’ narrow 33-26 loss to the Springboks last Saturday in Cape Town.

    Taylor, the 111-test veteran who had started every one of New Zealand’s five test matches in 2024 – including the first two outings against South Africa – has been dropped from the starting 15, ending his run of opening selections this season. Aumua, who had served as Taylor’s primary backup through the first two tests of the series, will now step into the starting hooker role, with Samisoni Taukei’aho retained as a reserve.

    Darry earns his first start of the series at lock, displacing Fabian Holland who moves down to the reserves bench. Lakai, who came off the bench in both opening tests, claims the number 6 starting jersey after Simon Parker was cut from the matchday 23 squad. Flanker Wallace Sititi will also get his first taste of action in the series, named as the impact substitute loose forward. The test will also mark a personal milestone for lock Tupou Vaa’i, who is set to earn his 50th career test cap for the All Blacks.

    Speaking ahead of the high-stakes clash, All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie framed the match as a do-or-die encounter for the series title. “The team that doesn’t win this weekend can’t win the series,” Rennie said in an official statement. “That’s the kind of challenge we love to rise to.”

    The Springboks, South Africa’s national side, revealed their own matchday squad earlier this week on Monday. The side made just one key adjustment to their starting lineup, swapping out injured starting fullback Damian Willemse for star utility back Cheslin Kolbe, with winger Kurt-Lee Arendse stepping into Kolbe’s former starting spot on the wing.

    The full All Blacks matchday squad for the third test is as follows:
    Starting XV: Damian McKenzie, Will Jordan, Quinn Tupaea, Jordie Barrett, Leroy Carter, Ruben Love, Cam Roigard; Ardie Savea (captain), Luke Jacobson, Peter Lakai, Sam Darry, Tupou Vaa’i, Tyrel Lomax, Asafo Aumua, George Bower.
    Reserves: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell, Fabian Holland, Wallace Sititi, Kyle Preston, Anton Lienert-Brown, Josh Moorby.

  • Gloria Steinem talks about her legacy in 2023 BBC interview

    Gloria Steinem talks about her legacy in 2023 BBC interview

    Gloria Steinem, the trailblazing writer and foundational figure of the United States feminist movement, has passed away at the age of 93, her eponymous foundation has confirmed. News of her death comes as a moment of national and global reflection on a decades-long career that reshaped conversations about gender equality, reproductive rights, and systemic discrimination against women.

    In one of her final major public interviews, recorded with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2023, Steinem opened up about her reflections on her life’s work and the legacy she hoped to leave behind for future generations of activists. During that conversation, she spoke candidly about the slow, incremental progress of gender justice, the challenges that remained unaddressed, and the importance of grassroots organizing in driving lasting social change.

    Steinem first rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a journalist, when her investigative reporting on gender inequality in the workplace brought mainstream attention to issues that had long been sidelined by mainstream media. She went on to co-found Ms. Magazine, one of the first national publications centered entirely on women’s perspectives and issues, and helped launch numerous organizations dedicated to advancing equal rights for women across all racial and economic backgrounds. Over the course of her life, she advocated for everything from reproductive freedom to equal pay, voting rights, and an end to gender-based violence, becoming a globally recognizable face of the second-wave feminist movement.

    Following the announcement of her death, tributes have begun pouring in from activists, politicians, and public figures around the world, who have praised Steinem for her unwavering commitment to justice and her ability to inspire generations of women to find their own voices. While her passing marks the end of an era, the work she built continues to shape ongoing movements for gender equity today.

  • Kenyan president orders crackdown on foreigners operating small businesses

    Kenyan president orders crackdown on foreigners operating small businesses

    Kenyan President William Ruto has announced an imminent crackdown on foreign nationals operating small-scale businesses across the country, framing the move as a necessary protection measure for local traders and informal vendors. The policy shift arrives amid escalating public debate over the growing presence of African migrants in Kenya’s large, dynamic informal economy, a sector that supports millions of local livelihoods.

    In an address delivered Wednesday to a gathering of small-scale traders at Nairobi’s State House, Ruto set a clear timeline for the crackdown: “From next week, all [foreign] traders doing those small businesses should close them.” He also pledged to speed up the drafting and passage of new legislation that will formally bar foreign nationals from specific segments of domestic trade, cementing the policy in national law.

    Ruto emphasized that Kenya remains fully open to foreign direct investment, drawing a sharp line between welcome investors and small-scale competitors. He specifically named foreign traders including those from China, noting that outside investors should prioritize creating local jobs and expanding national production capacity, rather than undercutting Kenyan entrepreneurs in street vending and small retail. “It cannot be that a person comes from China or elsewhere to be a hawker or open a small shop,” he stated. “We have made efforts to improve the economy, we have not improved investor confidence for hawkers to come to Kenya.”

    The announcement comes as Ruto, who will run for a second presidential term in next year’s general election, responds to growing grassroots pressure from local traders who have long complained about unfair competition from foreign operators. To date, the Kenyan government has not released official data on how many foreign nationals are engaged in small-scale trading, leaving uncertainty about the total number of people who will be affected by the new order.

    Kenya currently hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Africa, with official government figures counting roughly 857,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers as of the end of June. Around 14 percent of these individuals reside in urban areas rather than formal refugee camps, and many participate in the informal workforce to support themselves. Under current Kenyan law, refugees do hold the legal right to work and operate businesses, but they are required to obtain specialized permits to do so.

    Beyond refugees, a large number of regional migrants have moved to Kenya from neighboring countries, drawn by the nation’s status as a regional economic hub and the free movement of people provisions within the eight-nation East African Community (EAC) bloc. In major urban centers like Nairobi, these migrants work across a wide range of informal sectors, including barbershops and salons, construction, motorbike taxi services, street vending of clothing, food, and household goods. Many migrants leave their home countries to escape conflict or severe economic hardship, while others relocate to Kenya in search of better livelihood opportunities.

    Tensions between local workers and foreign traders have been building for months, driven by widespread concerns over scarce jobs and business opportunities. In July, a viral video of a Kenyan local confronting a Burundian trader in Nairobi, accusing the migrant of taking work from locals, sparked widespread regional debate. Following the incident, Burundian conflict prevention expert Fred Ngoga called for the protection of Burundian citizens living in Kenya, noting that “the majority of Kenyans are decent and good people who welcome their brothers and sisters from Burundi,” and that most Kenyans rejected the hostile treatment of the trader. Kenya’s foreign ministry also moved quickly to reassure Burundians and other EAC nationals residing in the country after the clash.

    Ruto’s new policy is expected to draw significant controversy, given Kenya’s longstanding role as an open economic and migration hub for the East African region. It also coincides with growing concerns over rising anti-migrant sentiment and xenophobia across the African continent. This year alone, South Africa has seen widespread protests targeting undocumented migrants, and tens of thousands of African migrants living in South Africa have chosen voluntary repatriation, with many reporting they have faced intimidation and targeted attacks.