������Ƶ

BEIJING: China said on Monday that BRICS, the grouping that also includes Brazil, Russia and India, was not seeking “confrontation” after US President Donald Trump vowed to impose an extra 10 percent tariff on countries aligning with the bloc.

“Regarding the imposition of tariffs, China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

Trump said he would send the first tariff letters to various countries on Monday, days before his deadline for trading partners to reach a deal expires.

He said on Sunday he would send a first batch of up to 15 letters, warning that US levies on imports would snap back to the high levels he set in April if countries failed to make agreements.

And, in a post on his Truth Social network, he threatened a further 10 percent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of “anti-Americanism” after they slammed his tariffs at a summit in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, BRICS has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to US and western European power.

However, Beijing defended the grouping on Monday as “an important platform for cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries.”

“It advocates openness, inclusivity and win-win cooperation,” Mao said.

“It does not engage in camp confrontation and is not targeted at any country,” she said.

NAIROBI: Kenya marked its fight for democracy on Monday, with police blocking main roads in Nairobi ahead of potential protests, after last month’s demonstrations descended into violent clashes.
Saba Saba Day marks the uprising on July 7, 1990 when Kenyans demanded a return to multi-party democracy after years of autocratic rule by then-president Daniel arap Moi.
This year’s event comes as young Kenyans — frustrated over economic stagnation, corruption and repeated acts of police brutality — are once again engaging in protests that have 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 demos to an “attempted coup.”
On Monday, the streets of Nairobi were eerily quiet after police mounted roadblocks on the main roads, preventing most people from entering the center, with many businesses closed for the day.
Leading activist Hanifa Aden wrote on X: “the police getting rained on as they block every road while we stay at home warming our beds.”
“Total shutdown and forced holiday executed by the state,” she said.
On Sunday afternoon, a press conference by the Kenyan Human Rights Commission calling for an end to “enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings” was broken up when men, some armed with sticks, forced their way into the compound.
Social media and rising economic expectations have created anger at inequalities in a country where around 80 percent are trapped in informal, poorly paid jobs.
But the violent response of the police — at least 80 people have died in protests since June 2024 and dozens detained illegally — has scared many off the streets.


Politically, President William Ruto — elected in 2022 — still holds a strong position having forged an alliance with the main opposition leader Raila Odinga, leaving no clear challenger ahead of the next vote in 2027.
But each violent crackdown is fueling further unrest, said activist Nerima Wako.
“Every time people organize a protest, they kill more people, so it just continues to feed off itself,” she said.
It is as though the government is recycling tactics from the 1990s, said Gabrielle Lynch, an African politics expert at Britain’s University of Warwick.
“But we’re not in the nineties,” she said. “They don’t seem to have realized the world is different.”
“People don’t have the same inbuilt fear of the state.”