Global News Podcast - Kenya's president denounces anti-government unrest

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Kenya’s President denounces anti-government unrest, saying protesters who use violence should be shot in the legs. Also, Nvidia becomes world's first company valued at 4 trillion dollars, and a new Barbie with diabetes.

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Thursday, the 10th of July. The Kenyan president, William Ruto denounces anti-government unrest, saying protesters who use violence should be shot in the legs. Nvidia becomes the first ever company to be valued at four trillion dollars. And Britain and France say they need to do more to stop illegal immigration across the English Channel.

But what's the view in Calais? Also in this podcast, the sheep farmer who's found a new way of making money. When I started the Sheep Game Channel five, six years ago now, nobody else was doing sheep outdoors in the UK. Now, you go on YouTube to be the only person doing something that's nearly impossible these days, so that gave me a real leg up and an advantage. And what is Persian flamenco?

In the past two weeks, at least 50 people have been killed in Kenya while protesting against the increasingly unpopular government. 19 of them died last month during protests over the death in custody of a blogger. Then on Monday, 31 people were killed while marking the anniversary of Sabah Sabah, the day when Kenyans rose up against the one-party rule of Daniel Arap Moi. However, despite the high number of deaths, the current Kenyan president, William Ruto, is showing no sign of backing down. In fact, he's now ordered police to shoot violent protesters in the legs, accusing opponents

of trying to force him from power. I saw them saying that they won't wait for the elections in 2027. They want to plan chaos, protests, burn people's property, cause death in Kenya so that they can overthrow the Kenyan government before 2027. I dare them to try." Well, the protests are mainly led by young Kenyans angry at economic stagnation, corruption and police brutality. So what should we make of William Ruto's tough language?

The question for our senior Africa correspondent, Anne Soi. Well, you can sense the increasing frustration by the president because he's tried every rule in the book that has been used by previous presidents to try and quell the protests, to try and appease the opposition, but it hasn't worked. Previous presidents gave positions to opposition leaders and that quietened things down and let them work. It hasn't worked because he's working with his opponent from the last elections, but he's also facing these huge protests from a group that says it is party-less and leader-less

and therefore it has become a huge challenge for him to deal with. But also he's dealing with these protests, which he has used what we're used to seeing in Kenya, a huge crackdown on the protesters, police shooting, live rounds, as well as tear gas to try and stop the protests. But it only increases that anger and they are unprecedented in scale. We have seen protests across the country in more than half the country. And so you can sense the president's frustration, trying to talk tough on one hand, but also trying to, you know, just frustrated about how to deal with these protests.

Yeah. I mean, how much threat is he facing here? He's not due to go to the electorate for another couple of years. Kenya's elections will be in August of 2027, so it's still more than two years away. However, many of these protesters have been using the rallying call, occupy state house. At one point, they were threatening to march onto state house and so the president has felt that that is a threat. And on the 25th of last month, at least nine police stations were attacked.

That is unprecedented. Five of them set on fire. So on one hand, they are dealing with what they consider that what police have said are criminal elements who have infiltrated the protests and have been looting and destroying property, including government property. But at the same time, these protests just seem unrelenting. And so in Nairobi. Next to the first company in the world ever to be valued at

four trillion dollars, Nvidia, the American computer chip manufacturer, now accounts for seven and a half percent of the S&P 500 index of leading US firms. I asked our New York Business correspondent Michelle Flurry how Nvidia had become so profitable. Simply put it sells a very specific kind of gaming chip that kind of has more power than stuff we've seen before and it can work concurrently and that is very important that extra computational power is important because of the growth and explosion in AI. And so this firm is seen as sort of at the forefront. It is the company that every business turns to when they want

to get their computer chips to power AI. And if you look back just a couple of years ago, we were talking about this company at a $1 trillion value. Around that time, 2022, that was when you started to see things like chat GPT come out sort of into the public domain and really take off. And since then, it has just been on a tear. We were talking about, you know, how it hit two trillion, then three trillion. Today, we're talking about four trillion. But because we're in the infancy of what many see as this AI revolution, people suspect it might not be long before we're talking about five trillion dollar valuation.

Yeah, as you say, Nvidia has this specific product, but are other companies in the AI sector likely to hit similar heights or will they struggle to keep up? Well, I mean, the closest competitor or the closest sort of in the field in terms of market cap is Microsoft, which is kind of close behind at around $3 trillion. And it is big in cloud computing. But in terms of sort of rival chip manufacturers, the closest one is probably a company called AMD. It's obviously investing more and more in these types of chips and trying to ramp up production. But you're also seeing big players, as I mentioned, Microsoft, but also others like Google and Amazon trying to develop their own ability to develop these chips because they are in such demand. And it's worth pointing

out as well that you know while we're talking about all of this the CEO the man behind Nvidia has also seen his wealth balloon as well. Yeah, four trillion obviously a huge amount but how would Nvidia compare to other big companies of the past taking into account inflation? Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, today we're talking about Nvidia holding the number one spot. But as you say, if you take inflation into account, it certainly would be, well, there is another company and that is the Dutch East India Company, which basically, once inflation is taken into account would be worth around 7.9 trillion US dollars today. Now this is a company from the 17th century. It is seen as sort

of the biggest company in terms of market capitalisation in the history of the world. So if you like to think about it like this, it's sort of two Nvidia's. Michelle Flurry in New York. Well Nvidia's rise in value is a sign of Wall Street's faith in AI. But the technology doesn't come without its challenges. The US State Department has said it is investigating how artificial intelligence was used to impersonate the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The fake voice was used to contact five officials, including three foreign ministers, via the Signal messaging app.

More details from our State Department correspondent, Tom Bateman. For three unnamed foreign ministers, a member of the US Congress and a state governor, the messages from marco.rubio at state.gov on the messaging app Signal may have come as a pleasant surprise. These were, say officials, requesting information or invitations to chat. But the voice was in fact impersonated, likely generated by artificial intelligence. The US State Department says it is investigating the hoax while warning its staff about further such attempts to breach highly confidential diplomatic communications. The case raises further questions about the use of signal by high-profile politicians globally. But it is also a sign of a growing artificial intelligence arms race in the worlds of security and subterfuge.

The State Department has told staff the Rubio impersonation followed a case in May when someone pretended to be other senior US officials, while in April a so-called cyber threat actor linked to Russia posed as a US official trying to get Gmail access to Eastern European activists and journalists. Tom Bateman. Britain and France have agreed they need to do more to stop the surge of migrant boats crossing the channel. The admission came as the British Prime Minister Kirstama hosted Emmanuel Macron at Downing Street on the second day of the French President's state visit to the UK. But it won't be easy to stop the small boats as our correspondent Sophia Petitza found when she visited northern France.

In Calais, makeshift tents have been springing up along the canal, right next to holiday homes by the beach. The migrants wait for good weather, ready to cross the channel at a moment's notice. Sassam, a 21-year-old from Egypt, has already made four attempts. Do you think you will try again to reach the UK? Yes. Why? There are jobs in the UK? Yes. Why? There are jobs in the UK and I'm young.

I didn't come here to stay in Calais. I want to help my family build a future and a better life. Many migrants are fleeing conflict, persecution and extreme poverty back home. Samuel left Ethiopia because he didn't want to join the army. Why do you want to move to the UK? For my language, the easy way that I can communicate and then that I can qualify. I have some friends who have reached the UK before maybe seven, eight years. Then they are telling me that they are good.

If that journey now becomes even harder because of new political decisions coming from London, from Paris, do you think that would make you think twice or do you think you're still going to try? I'm still going to try to cross the UK. And why is that? You're not scared? Why would I? I've crossed through Libya.

Do you think you'll try again soon to go to the UK? I'm not sure. We are waiting, you know, for the weather. Yeah, for the good weather. Most migrants that come here willing to risk their lives, so any political agreement between the UK and French governments is unlikely to put them off. Lindsay and Craig Foreman were travelling the world on a motorbike when, at the start of this year, they were arrested and imprisoned in Iran, accused of espionage. The British couple have now been detained there for more than six months. Joe Bennett is Lindsay's eldest son and lead organiser of the campaign to secure their release.

Joe has been speaking to Emma Barnett, who asked him first if its parents had been aware of the risk of going to Iran. You do a risk analysis, right, and that's what they did and thought the risk was worth it and by all accounts whilst they were in Iran said it was a lovely country and the people were amazing. Had you expressed any concern, because you say a risk analysis, but they were going against the Foreign Office advice. The advice is very clear. It advises against all travel to Iran.

They're not the only people that travel to Iran. You know, when you look at it, I don't think hostage taking is outlined on part of the risks. I mean, it does say you were at risk of arrest, detention. It doesn't say hostage taking, but it also says a death sentence. As I say, plenty of people travel through without being taken. And when was the last time you heard from your mum? The 3rd of January. Just say, you know, we're having a good time, we're really enjoying the place and then it

was just before they were going to cross into the Pakistani border. So they said, look, we might be going through a region of bad signal, which was why, you know, initially we were like, okay, that's what's happening. And then when the days continued to build, we was like, there's something wrong here. We've had no phone calls. We've received one generic letter, which was to everyone, friends and family, from my mum.

It's definitely her. It's her handwriting. But under what pretense was that written? How did you find out that they had been detained then? So we got confirmation, fire the Iranian MFA at the back end of Jan, I think it was the 27th of Jan, they told the Foreign Office that yes we've got these two people in detention. And what was your response? Tears, cry, upset, didn't know what to do, didn't know where to turn, you know that's where the Foreign Office were kind of like right this is serious now. They were then charged for espionage and have been presumably in a prison ever since. Do you know where?

So somewhere in Kaman, from what we understand from the information we've been given, is that they were potentially moved around different detention centres. So it's hard to pinpoint where they would be. And of course, then there's been a huge dramatic escalation in the Middle East with a war in the country between Iran and Israel and then the bombing by America. What was that like for you guys at home? Terrifying. There was a date of June 8th where they were going to be transferred to Evin Prison. Which is the notorious prison that a lot of people may have actually heard of.

And subsequently, part of that prison was bombed. And not knowing if they're okay or safe or anything like that is heartbreaking. I suppose just again to add to this picture, two weeks ago the UK pulled its embassy staff out of Iraq. That was frightening because it's like, okay, we haven't got people on the ground anymore. And don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming them for doing something. It's the right thing to do. But it's also like they are now left alone. We haven't got people who can push for their safety and well-being. Joe Bennett talking to Emma Barnett. And still to come on the Global News podcast, the new Barbie doll with a glucose monitor

and an insulin pump. It's about the kind of empowerment. Barbie can do anything. So if Barbie can do that, then I can do that, especially with type 1 diabetes. The Red Bull Formula One motor racing team has sacked its leader Christian Horner after 20 years in charge. No reason was given for his dismissal but it comes after a run of relatively poor results and a complaint made by a female colleague last year of sexual harassment and controlling behaviour. He was twice cleared after internal investigations. Joe Linsky has been following the story. Obviously Christian Horner is not a driver but he is one of the most prominent, one of the most vocal figures really in the Formula One paddock. He has been a team principal

of Red Bull as you say for a very long time, since 2005 and really in the last decade has seen his public profile rise in tandem with this global resurgence of Formula One, in part thanks to that Netflix documentary Drive to Survive. But after those two decades, we got this statement from Red Bull. They said, Red Bull has released Christian Horner from his operational duties and has appointed Lauren Mechia as the CEO of Red Bull Racing. We are still waiting for more answers in terms of the exact reason for Horner's departure. There has been pressure on him from a performance

point of view this season with Red Bull some way off their dominant best. But this also, as you mentioned, comes 17 months after Christian Horner faced allegations of controlling behaviour and sending inappropriate text messages to a female colleague. Horner was cleared of any claims of wrongdoing by an independent barrister. At that point he said, I'm not going to comment on what motives whatever person may have for doing this. My focus is on the team, my family, my wife and going racing. What followed after that sequence of

events was a very public display of unity with his wife, Jerry Horner, the former Spice Girl at the Bahrain Grand Prix in March last season when they walked through the paddock today. There has been this further reaction from Red Bull, the Red Bull Group Chief Executive saying we would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years with his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking. But there are now several questions for this team and for Horner to answer about why this

has happened so abruptly really. I think the drivers and the sport of F1 itself are going to be seeking some more answers. Joe Linsky there. A Scottish sheep farmer has found a new way of being profitable. Cammie Wilson created the Sheep Game YouTube channel six years ago and currently has more than 400,000 followers. He told Leanna Byrne about how he fell in love with farming and how social media has given him a way back into the industry.

I was born on an estate in Scotland. My father was a shepherd there, so all my early years, all I really knew was sheep farming and sheep and just fell in love with it then. Is it easy to get into this industry when you're a young person? Because my father was a shepherd I had no direct route in so I went away from farming I actually worked as a police officer for 12 years before coming back into it and I was fortunate then you know land prices weren't where they are now and the cost of sheep isn't where it is now. Now it's nearly impossible like the costs have just got so high for someone to come into the industry

they need big money behind them. So the YouTube came about because someone said look at this guy Tom Pemberton he's doing really well on YouTube and he's making a bit of money from it and doing well I thought that could be a good route I could just share people what I'm doing and that might be a route into making an extra coin to get me into farming. Every kid wants to be a YouTuber these days and the reality is not everyone can be a YouTube, well they can but not everyone can make money from it but we're so fortunate in farming. Look when I started the sheep game channel five six years ago now nobody else is doing sheep outdoors in the UK. Now you go on YouTube to be the only person doing something that's nearly impossible these

days so that gave me a real leg up and an advantage. It's also opened other opportunities for you. Yeah so a big part of our business now and this sounds so like cliche maybe for the YouTube world is merchandise, we sell hoodies and jumpers but we have bought a farm off the back of selling merchandise and a big part of that is the farming community and the people that watch the show getting behind us and we are absolutely being carried on the shoulders of the people that come here and buy merch from us and let us have this dream life that we're living. Scottish sheep farmer Cammie Wilson talking to Leanna Byrne. Farnes O'Hardy is an Iranian singer who fell in love with Flamenco on a trip to Spain as

a young girl. She has spent the past few years living and working in the Spanish city of Seville and has created a whole new repertoire of flamenco songs. In Persian, she has a new album out called Breath. Michael Rossi has been to meet her. I grew up in a family that was very artistic. Music was a big part of that, especially because after the revolution in Iran, music outside was quite restricted. Farnaz Ohadi is an Iranian-born singer. Growing up in Iran after the revolution of 1979,

she came up against restrictions placed on music, in particular for women and girls. Yet her parents made sure that music was all around her. It wasn't until they took her on holiday to Spain that Farnas's own passion for flamenco was ignited. You know, like I understood but not really understood until we came to the south of Spain for a month only exploration of Andalusia. And that completely changed my life. When I first came to Spain in Sevilla,

I only had intentions to stay for one year and attend the school to study the deeper forms of flamenco. At the time, the first week, I attended the school, Fundación de Cristina Hiran in Triana in Sevilla, and there was a French woman there. And they asked her, why are you here? She said, well, I'm doing my PhD about people who sing flamenco in other languages. And I was like, oh, that's me. We did a seven minute piece. There were two guitarists and two palmeros. It became a show. And at the end of it, it was an incredible reaction.

And everybody just jumped up. And I remember the teachers looking at each other like, what just happened? At the beginning, because of my discipline, I sacrificed the words. I would twist them around to fit. I would stretch a word so long to fit into the rhythm. And my Persian teacher was horrified. She's like, if you go out and sing like this I will not claim you as my student. You cannot tell people that

I've been teaching you. I'm like, oh my god, okay. So I would go back and say the words the way I wanted to be said, the way the cadence of the poetry asked to be said and then my flamenco teacher is like, Farhana, no esta flamenco? This is not flamenco. What are you doing? Where is the rhythm? Where is the accent? I'm like, oh my god. So from one word at a time, I had to explore, would the accent work at the beginning of the word, middle of the word, or the end of the word? The reception in Iran has been very interesting.

The women, without exception, they love it because they can immediately connect to the stories and why I do what I do. I'm a bit older, I'm fearless on stage. The men are coming along. I've been getting a lot of very interesting messages from the guitarists, flamenco guitarists in Iran, who are very excited because suddenly there is a singer who knows flamenco enough and is singing in their language. I also get a lot of hate the more I rock the boat the more they can be uncomfortable. The simplest human rights to claim space and breathe and raise your voice to sing that's being denied. Only two countries in the world Iran and Afghanistan denies women singing. Iranian singer Fana Zohadi, she was talking to Michael Rossi. Finally

there's a new Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes. Unlike type 2 which develops later in life type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition that starts in childhood or adolescence. The new doll wears a glucose monitor, an insulin pump and has a purse for snacks. Toy maker Mattel says it wants to help young people with the condition feel more confident. So how's it being received? Alfie Haberschen reports. It felt like almost everyone was talking about Margot Robbie's Barbie movie when it came out two years ago, not because of the blinding pink cocktail parties or the Dua Lipa soundtrack, but its deeper social message. What do you have to do? You have to go to the real world. You can go back to your regular life or you can know the truth about the universe. As the upset teenager Sasha told Barbie when she travelled to the real world, you have been making women feel bad about themselves since you were invented.

Perhaps it was the toy maker Mattel holding its hands up for its part in the unrealistic beauty standards facing young girls. Today, however, there are 175 Barbies, including ones in wheelchairs with hearing aids, prosthetic legs and skin conditions. But disability Barbies have only been available in the last six years of the doll's 66-year history. Yasmin, who lives with type 1 diabetes, says this new doll will help more young girls feel seen. It's about having something that represents yourself. You can see yourself in that doll, you can show your friends, hey, this is a thing, it's normal, it's here to stay. Also, it's about the kind of empowerment. Barbie can do anything. So if Barbie can do that,

then I can do that, especially with type 1 diabetes. Although the critics say the new doll is as flawless and difficult to measure up to as ever, wearing a pristine blue polka dot outfit with matching purse and high heels to go with her bright pink insulin monitor and glucose pump. But social media influencer Anuretti Agarwal, also living with diabetes, says a glamorous look is actually a good thing. We see ourselves in these characters and dolls, especially girls. Just like me, like I would want to dress up like a Barbie, I would want to wear clothes like her, and something like this would have given me a sense of confidence that, you know, this is our Norwood and this is our Norway and this is Norway.

Manerati Agarwal ending that report by Alfie Habersen. And that is all from us for now but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and produced by Oliver Burlough, our editor's Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.