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Oscar Piastri claimed his maiden Formula One victory yesterday when he finished ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, after a vexed radio argument produced an extraordinary finish to an incident-filled Hungarian Grand Prix.In a race of fluctuating fortunes and many quarrels on and off the track, the McLaren duo secured a comprehensive one-two after starting from the team’s first front row lockout since 2012, Norris finally obeying team orders to hand his teammate his first career win. Piastri, 23, won by 2.141 seconds with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finishing third for Mercedes to claim his record 200th podium finish.He survived a late collision with Red Bull’s three-time champion and series leader Max Verstappen, who flew off, but recovered to finish fifth. Charles Leclerc came home fourth and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz sixth, sandwiching a grumpy Verstappen who was called to see the stewards to explain his collision with Hamilton.Sergio Perez finished seventh for Red Bull, having started 16th on the grid, ahead of George Russell in the second Mercedes, who started 17th, and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda. Lance Stroll was 10th for Aston Martin. “It’s very special,” said Australian driver Piastri. “I dreamt of this as a kid and if it was a bit complicated at the end, I did put myself in the right position at the start of the race. It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren. This is an incredible feeling.”Norris was first to congratulate his teammate, after he had appeared to reject team orders and allow the Australian to pass in the closing stages. “Well done, a good 1-2 and lots of good points for the team. Well deserved,” he said.Norris had made an uncertain start and he, Piastri and Verstappen were three abreast into Turn One where Piastri exited in the lead as the Dutchman ran wide and cut back into second place, gaining a clear advantage and pushing Norris down to third. This prompted an exchange of messages before race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told Verstappen to allow Norris to pass, a command that clearly irked him. “So, you can just run people off the track?” barked the Dutchman.By lap 10, Piastri led Norris by 2.7 seconds with Verstappen third adrift by two seconds ahead of Hamilton and the two Ferraris, led by Leclerc. Hamilton eventually reeled off a series of fastest laps to rise to third, but Verstappen on younger tyres reeled him in, waiting to pounce as the Briton endured a lurid slide out of Turn 12 before pitting again on lap 41 after fending off the Dutchman.At the front, Piastri was in cruise mode ahead of Norris with Verstappen third, 11.5 seconds adrift. Hamilton rejoined fifth behind Sainz, but with Leclerc, on new mediums, on his tail. Norris pitted again for mediums on lap 46, rejoining fourth ahead of Hamilton, followed by Piastri on 47, handing the lead to Verstappen with Norris up to second, but told to “re-establish the order at your convenience”.Verstappen made his second stop, for mediums, on lap 50, rejoining fifth behind Leclerc, but adrift of the Ferrari by 4.5. In the lead, Norris was reminded of his team instructions and responsibilities as Piastri closed in. “We know you’ll do the right thing,” said McLaren, but Norris, knowing he could reduce Verstappen’s championship lead, stayed silent when told not to stress his tyres. “Tell him to catch up, please,” he said.As McLaren’s tensions boiled over, Verstappen lunged down the inside of Hamilton at Turn One on lap 63, but locked up and clipped the Mercedes. The collision sent him airborne briefly before he bounced clear and wide before rejoining in fifth. McLaren then issued an ultimatum to Norris. “There are five laps to go. The way to win a championship is not by yourself. It is with the team. You are going to need Oscar and you are going to need the team.” With three laps remaining, Norris slowed dramatically to gift Piastri the lead.

Former doubles world number one Leander Paes and tennis broadcaster, actor and player Vijay Amritraj became the first Asian men inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.The first inductees from India were joined by British tennis journalist and author Richard Evans in enshrinement ceremonies at the Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Paes recounted his youth playing football and hockey before turning to tennis and eventually following his hockey-captain father as an Olympic medallist.“It’s my greatest honour to be on this stage with not only these legends of the game, people who have inspired me every single day of my life – not because you’ve only won Grand Slams, not because you’ve shaped our sport but every single one of these people have shaped the world we live in,” Paes said.“I would like to thank you so much for giving this Indian boy hope.”Amritraj, 70, played from 1970 until retiring in 1993, winning 15 ATP singles titles and 399 matches and being ranked as high as 18th in the world and helped India to the Davis Cup finals in 1974 and 1987.“I am humbled and honoured to join this incredible and exclusive group that have brought glory to our sport,” Amritraj said. After his playing days, Amritraj has helped humanitarian causes, backed ATP and WTA events in India and has acted in the James Bond and Star Trek movie series.“A feeling came over me that I had never experienced,” Amritraj said of learning about his election to the Hall. “This was an honour not just for me, for my family, for my parents, but for all of my fellow Indians and my country who live around the world.”Like Amritraj, Evans was inducted in the contributor category for his life impact on the sport. Paes, 51, was an 18-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and mixed doubles who was selected in the player category after honing his trade in an Amritraj youth academy.‘Inspire the world’Paes and Amritraj made India the 28th nation represented in the Hall of Fame. “Playing for 1.4 billion people could either be pressure or it could be wind within your wings,” Paes said.“I’d like to thank every single one of my countrymen who supported me, who stood by through all the ups and downs, and we’ve been through a few, but you all were the inspiration, the support, you were even the strength to guide me through when even I didn’t believe.”Paes won career Grand Slams in both men’s and mixed doubles, completing one in men’s by winning the 2012 Australian Open and another in mixed by capturing the 2016 French Open. He won the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bronze medal by defeating Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. His only ATP singles title came in 1998 on Newport grass in the same venue where he was inducted.“As my father always said to me, if you believe in yourself, you work hard, you’ll be passionate not only to win prize money and trophies, but you do that to inspire the world,” Paes said. “It has been my greatest honour to play for my countrymen in seven Olympics, to stand where the national anthem is playing in all those Davis Cups, and to prove that we Asians can win Grand Slams and also be number one in our field, be it tennis or anything.”

Tadej Pogacar became the first rider to achieve the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double since 1998 when he claimed his third Tour title yesterday, cementing his domination by winning the final stage for his sixth stage success.The Slovenian beat defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who were second and third overall and on the final stage, with a winning margin of six minutes and 17 seconds.“I’m super happy, I cannot describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France, always some mistakes and this year, everything to perfection,” Pogacar said. Pogacar won the 33.7-km individual time trial from Monaco to Nice in a time of 45 minutes and 24 seconds, destroying his rivals with a gap of one minute and three seconds over Vingegaard, winner of the last two Tours.The winner could easily have played it safe having started the final day with a commanding lead over Vingegaard, but once again he showed no mercy and from the off he went for the stage win, his third in a row, to finish the Tour in style.Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay won the green jersey for the points classification with Richard Carapaz of Ecuador taking the polka dot jersey for the mountains classification.Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates won the team classification, while Evenepoel, who won the stage seven time trial, took the white jersey for the best young rider in his first Tour, finishing 9:18 behind the winner.The Tour finished outside Paris for the first time in its 121-year history, due to the upcoming Olympic Games and it was the first time the Tour ended with a time trial since 1989 when Greg LeMond overtook Laurent Fignon on the final day.This was never going to be as dramatic, however, given Pogacar’s emphatic lead and domination of the race. Pogacar led since winning stage four, extending the gap to over three minutes after taking stages 14 and 15 before another two successive victories on stages 19 and 20 all but confirmed his overall win.Vingegaard came into this year’s event having not raced for three months after suffering a collapsed lung and fractured rib at the Tour of the Basque country, and while he never looked like retaining his title, he did manage a stage win.On stage 11, Vingegaard held off Pogacar to take the victory, and moved ahead of Evenepoel into second place after finishing runner-up to Pogacar on stage 14.Evenepoel had hoped to repeat his earlier time trial stage win, but was soon overtaken by Vingegaard at the first intermediate checkpoint, but once Pogacar set off it was clear he had the stage victory in mind, to show his utter domination of the Tour.No rider has completed the Giro/Tour double since the late Marco Pantani, and Pogacar became only the eighth rider to achieve the feat after also won six stages on his way to winning the Giro. “I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day, even in the Giro I remember I had one bad day I won’t tell which one,” Pogacar said.“This year’s Tour de France was just amazing and I was enjoying it since day one until today.”

Rafael Nadal lost his first final in two years yesterday as the Spaniard went down 6-3, 6-2 to Portugal’s Nuno Borges at the clay-court Bastad Open.The Spanish tennis great had shown signs of a return to form in Scandinavia as he made an impressive run to the final, just one week before tennis at the Olympic Games gets underway on the clay in Paris.But Nadal, rather than celebrating his 64th title on the surface and first since Roland Garros 2022, was dominated by seventh seed Borges as he struggled to find fluency with his serve and ground strokes. “Many congratulations to Nuno,” said Nadal.“You’ve been playing great during the whole week, so you deserve it more than anyone else here. Congratulations and enjoy your moment, it’s always special winning a title.”“Today wasn’t my best day, but all the credit to Nuno. He played very well and it was so difficult for me, so well done.”Borges was the first to make headway in the match when he broke the Spaniard’s serve to go 3-1 up, with Nadal saving break points before overcooking a forehand down the line.But the 14-time French Open winner struck back immediately on the Borges serve, earning two break-back points before the Portuguese dumped a forehand into the net from inside the service box.But neither player could quite grab the ascendancy in the first set as Borges quickly ran up a 0-40 lead in the next service game, converting his second break point with a perfectly executed drop shot.Nadal was struggling to find his first serve but managed to hold just his second service game of the opening set to force Borges to serve one more time. The world number 51 kept his nerve to do just that.The 38-year-old showed signs of his old self serving at deuce in the first game of the second set with a booming forehand winner down the line, before he eventually held but that was one of the few highlights for Nadal on the day.Borges then struck at 2-2 as he broke Nadal’s serve for the first time in the second set and fourth time overall to edge ahead.The 27-year-old followed it up by winning the next three games, sealing a maiden career title in his first-ever match-up against the former world number one with an ace.“I don’t know what to say. I think I was wishing for this moment for a while already,” said Borges in his post-match interview.“It’s crazy, in tennis it doesn’t happen when you expect it sometimes. I know we all wanted Rafa to win, a part of me wished that too, but something even bigger inside of me really pushed through today... I’m just really happy overall. I really don’t know what to say, I’m very emotional.”

Shoaib Bashir took his Test-best figures as England thrashed the West Indies by 241 runs to secure a series-clinching win at Trent Bridge yesterday after the tourists suffered a spectacular collapse.The 20-year-old off-spinner finished with a superb return of 5-41 as the West Indies, set 385 to win, slumped to 143 all out in the second Test. The West Indies had actually made a steady start to their stiff chase to be 61-0 only to collapse in stunning style, with all 10 of their second-innings wickets lost in 23 overs. Victory gave England an unassailable 2-0 lead in a three-match series following their innings and 114-run win at Lord’s.West Indies openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Mikyle Louis came through some testing early overs from an England attack without retired pace greats James Anderson and Stuart Broad for the first time in a home Test since 2012.But when Chris Woakes (2-28) had Louis caught behind off the first ball after the drinks break, it was the start of a spectacular top-order slump that saw six wickets lost for just 30 runs. Bashir then struck with his third ball, dismissing Kirk McKenzie cheaply for the second time in the match when wicketkeeper Jamie Smith held a good catch off an edge from a dragged down delivery. West Indies captain Brathwaite had looked in fine touch while making a near run-a-ball 47, including eight fours.But for the second time this match, the experienced opener fell in sight of a fifty when was caught behind off a fine Woakes delivery.And 74-3 became 75-4 when Kavem Hodge, fresh from his maiden Test hundred in the first innings, was plumb lbw for a duck to Bashir as he played back.Bashir then struck again with a classic delivery that drifted and turned to have Alick Athanaze, who made 82 in West Indies’ first-innings 457, caught at first slip by Joe Root for just one.Fast bowler Gus Atkinson’s two wickets in three balls left the tourists on the brink of defeat at 113-8.But it was Bashir who finished the match, bowling Jason Holder (37) - who had hit for two sixes - with a full and flatter delivery before knocking over Shamar Joseph as the No 11 heaved across the line.West Indies were all out inside 37 overs, with 17 wickets having fallen in the day on a blameless pitch. Earlier, both Root and Harry Brook hit hundreds as England made 425 in their second innings.Root struck 122 and Brook 109, with the duo sharing a partnership of 189 after they had come together on Saturday when England were just 99 runs ahead at 140-3.Root’s century left him one shy of the England record of 33 Test hundreds held by the retired Alastair Cook. England started Sunday’s play on 248-3, already 207 runs in front. Brook was 71 not out and Root unbeaten on 37.Brook’s straight-driven four off Jayden Seales saw him into the 90s before two more boundaries off Alzarri Joseph took him to 99.The 25-year-old’s quick single off Alzarri Joseph ensured Brook got to three figures, his fifth hundred in 14 Tests -- but first in England -- coming in just 118 balls, including 12 fours.But Root showed there was still a place for the traditional red-ball approach, with the 33-year-old completing a 91-ball fifty.Brook’s impressive innings finally came to an end when he was caught behind aiming a flat-footed drive off Seales. Root’s typically stylish square-driven boundary off Alzarri Joseph - just his seventh four in 158 balls - took him to a sedate century. Former England captain Root then reverse-scooped Shamar Joseph over the slip cordon for an extravagant four before he was caught at short extra-cover off Holder. The third Test at Edgbaston starts on Friday.ScoreboardEngland 1st Innings 416West Indies 1st Innings 457England 2nd Innings(overnight: 248-3)Z. Crawley run out (Seales) 3B. Duckett lbw b A Joseph 76O. Pope c Sinclair b A Joseph 51J. Root c McKenzie b Holder 122H. Brook c Da Silva b Seales 109B. Stokes c A Joseph b Seales 8J. Smith c Da Silva b Sinclair 6C. Woakes c Holder b S Joseph 12G. Atkinson not out 21M. Wood b Seales 0S. Bashir b Seales 0Extras (b4, lb8, nb4, w1) 17Total (all out, 92.2 overs, 469 mins) 425Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Crawley), 2-127 (Pope), 3-140 (Duckett), 4-329 (Brook), 5-341 (Stokes), 6-348 (Smith), 7-378 (Woakes), 8-419 (Root), 9-421 (Wood), 10-425 (Bashir)Bowling: A Joseph 20-0-103-2 (2nb); Seales 22.2-1-97-4 (1w); S Joseph 19-0-75-1 (2nb); Holder 15-2-54-1; Sinclair 15-1-78-1; Brathwaite 1-0-6-0West Indies 2nd Innings(target: 385)K. Brathwaite c Smith b Woakes 47M. Louis c Smith b Woakes 17K. McKenzie c Smith b Bashir 1A. Athanaze c Root b Bashir 1K. Hodge lbw b Bashir 0J. Holder b Bashir 37K. Sinclair c Crawley b Wood 1J. Da Silva lbw b Atkinson 14A. Joseph b Atkinson 0J. Seales not out 8S. Joseph b Bashir 8Extras (lb8, w1) 9Total (all out, 36.1 overs, 175 mins) 143Fall of wickets: 1-61 (Louis), 2-66 (McKenzie), 3-74 (Brathwaite), 4-75 (Hodge), 5-82 (Athanaze), 6-91 (Sinclair), 7-113 (Da Silva), 8-113 (A Joseph), 9-129 (Holder), 10-143 (S Joseph)Bowling: Woakes 8-3-28-2; Atkinson 9-1-49-2 (1w); Wood 8-2-17-1; Bashir 11.2-41-5Result: England won by 241 runsPlayer of the match: Ollie Pope (ENG)Series: England lead three-match series 2-0Remaining FixtureJul 26-30: England v West Indies, 3rd Test, EdgbastonPrevious ResultJul 10-12, 1st Test, Lord’s: England won by an innings and 114 runs.

Saudi Arabia, a major foreign player in Yemen’s nearly decade-long civil war, urged restraint yesterday in the wake of an Israeli strike that the Houthi rebels said killed six people.The Israeli attack which hit the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeidah, “aggravates the current tension in the region and halts the ongoing efforts to end the war in Gaza,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.It “called on all parties to exercise maximum restrain and to distance the region and its people from the dangers of war.”Efforts by the kingdom to broker a Yemen peace deal have faltered in the wake of an anti-shipping campaign by the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.The rebels have targeted nearly 90 ships since November which they say is to signal their solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has engaged in a delicate balancing act as it tries to extricate itself from the war on its doorstep.It has not joined a US-led naval coalition to deter Houthi attacks or participated in strikes on Yemen carried out by the US and Britain since January.Yesterday’s foreign ministry statement affirmed the kingdom’s “continuous support for peace efforts in Yemen to spare its people more suffering.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it fired Katyusha rockets and drones at Israel yesterday after strikes which the Israeli army said targeted Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian group’s October first week storming of southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.Six people were wounded in the overnight Israeli strike, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency.In retaliation, Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, said in separate statements that yesterday it targeted two Israeli military positions in northern Israel with Katyusha rockets and drones.An earlier statement by the group had said its fighters also struck the Dafna area with Katyusha rockets “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks that targeted civilians in the town of Adloun, injuring several of them”.Israel’s military had said its air force “struck two Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry” overnight Saturday to yesterday.Hezbollah yesterday also said that three of its fighters had been killed in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese army also reported that two of its soldiers were wounded “moderately” yesterday when Israeli fire hit a watchtower in the south of the country.The violence since October has killed at least 518 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally. Most of the dead have been fighters, but they have included at least 104 civilians.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s decision not to back Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission chief was driven by fear of losing right-wing grassroots supporters, analysts say, but may curb her influence over EU choices.The European Parliament elected von der Leyen for a second five-year term on Thursday to lead the bloc’s executive with support from centre-right, centre-left, liberal and green groups. She got 401 votes, with 284 against in a secret ballot in the 720-member chamber.Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), revealed its decision after the vote when it said von der Leyen had shifted too far left, particularly on green pledges.Even though von der Leyen did not need Meloni’s 24 lawmakers to win, the vote marked a shift from the prime minister’s past efforts to keep good relations with the Commission as Rome grapples with mammoth public debt.“Meloni cares a lot about being consistent. She had said she would never vote with the left. When it became clear that her votes were not needed, she stuck to that pledge,” said Giovanni Orsina, politics professor at Rome’s Luiss university.However, the move dismayed many Italian commentators who said the Commission may now be less indulgent towards Italy’s public finances and its faltering attempts to spend billions of euros of EU post-Covid recovery funds.That remains to be seen, but Meloni’s first concern appeared to be fending off internal competition at home from her hard-right coalition ally, Matteo Salvini’s League. “She is afraid of exposing herself on the right, and this fear overwhelmed everything else,” said Francesco Galietti, from Rome-based political risk consultancy Policy Sonar.Brothers of Italy is now polling at nearly 30% — its highest ever — while the League is around 8.5%, but Galietti pointed to volatility in Italian politics and said Meloni could not afford to alienate traditional voters.Before moderating her positions after coming to power in 2022, Meloni was considered further to the right than Salvini, and used to advocate for Italy to leave the eurozone. The Commission declined to comment for this story.Von der Leyen, asked by reporters on Thursday whether she regretted seeking Meloni’s support, said only that the vote showed she had taken the right approach in assembling backers who are “pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law.”Carlo Calenda, leader of centrist party Action, said in a radio interview on Friday that Meloni had preferred to be “a faction leader rather than a prime minister,” and it was “dangerous” for Italy to be in opposition in Europe.Meloni triumphed in Italy’s European Parliament elections last month, in contrast to setbacks for French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but since then things have not gone her way.After being left out of a deal on the bloc’s top jobs she protested that von der Leyen and other leaders were flouting voters’ wishes by ignoring a surge in right-wing support.She refused to back von der Leyen along with groups including the Patriots for Europe, a far-right alliance which includes Marine Le Pen’s French National Rally (RN) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz.Some analysts are suggesting Meloni did not want to side with the EU’s mainstream forces ahead of a possible Donald Trump victory at US elections in November that could boost the bloc’s nationalists.Yet Wolfango Piccoli of London-based political risk consultancy Teneo, said such a strategy could backfire as Trump would likely embrace an isolationist foreign policy which would oblige Italy to strengthen European bonds.“A plan like that would not be useful to the Italian national interest,” Piccoli said.In an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Saturday, Meloni said she would still be able to work with von der Leyen and that it would be “surreal” to imagine Brussels would punish Italy when it came to deciding on Commission roles. Rome’s candidate is European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto.But her relationship with Brussels looks trickier now and Piccoli said it might be harder to have a say on issues including defence and migration, though budget procedures based on pre-established steps are less likely to be affected.“The real question is to count in Europe,” he said.

When 25-year-old Kenyan teacher Stella stumbled on an X post about a new finance bill proposing taxes on basics from bread to diapers, she brushed it off as fake news.“I just dismissed it as a politician complaining about something that wasn’t true,” Stella, who did not want to give her full name, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as she recalled the clamour on social media that began in May.But as “#RejectFinanceBill2024” flooded her feed, Stella realised this wasn’t just political noise. It was a rallying cry from her peers: young, educated, disenfranchised Kenyans.“Some posted videos breaking down all the new taxes in the bill, others talked about how our parents were suffering with high living costs and compared it with the lavish lifestyles of our politicians. What they said struck a chord. It angered me.”By mid-June, Stella had joined thousands of Gen Z and millennials across Kenya, taking to the streets in a wave of protests that have forced President William Ruto to make a historic U-turn and scrap his reviled law.Ruto has also sacked his cabinet for a more “broad-based government” and pledged to cut wasteful spending, dissolving state firms and reducing the number of government advisers.Described as a “youth-quake” in the media, the protests have also forced Kenya’s police chief to resign.At least 50 people died in protests that turned violent, prompting a ban on demos in central Nairobi, a move the force said was designed to stem criminals rather than stifle opposition.For many youth protesters, the finance bill was just the tipping point that ignited long-simmering grievances over government corruption, squandered public funds, and a scarcity of opportunities for millions of Kenyans.Emboldened by their newfound influence, young Kenyans want good governance and accountability. They are also plotting how to elect their chosen leaders in 2027 elections.“It’s a pivotal moment in Kenya’s history. The youth are renegotiating their citizenship and demanding more political accountability,” said Nicodemus Minde, a social scientist at the Institute of Security Studies.“People have hope as these protests are different from others. They are not driven by a political party, or a particular tribe or ethnicity — they are driven by a new generation who are more politically aware and very tech-savvy.”A vibrant economy in East Africa, Kenya boasts strong revenues from farming and tourism. But despite an average of 5% annual economic growth over the last decade, the benefits have not trickled down.One in three of Kenya’s 50mn people are aged 15-34, yet this group suffers the worst unemployment, with 67% out of work, official data shows.Moreover, over a million young Kenyans enter the labour market annually without skills, and it takes the average graduate five years to find a job.Since Ruto took office nearly two years ago, the disconnect between his promises and reality has widened.Kenyans grapple with skyrocketing living costs and increased taxes, all the while witnessing rank government extravagance.Frustration has mounted over Ruto’s frequent international travels and corruption scandals involving top officials.Kenyans have also seen public funds allocated to political appointees and first family offices, and watched politicians flaunt their luxury cars and private helicopters.All this has earned Ruto the nickname “Zakayo” — Swahili for Zacchaeus, the biblical greedy tax collector. He is also routinely mocked by the media as “King of the Skies” for clocking up 62 trips to 38 countries in 20 months.“The finance bill was just the tip of the iceberg,” said Nerima Wako-Ojiwa, a political scientist and executive director of Siasa Place, a youth charity.“People are outraged by all the corruption scandals and opulence of our leaders,” she said during an X space discussion.Trouble began in May when the Finance Bill 2024 was unveiled in parliament, and Kenyans swiftly turned to platforms such as X and TikTok to thrash out its potential impact.It proposed taxes on a host of items, from bread to cooking oil, sanitary pads to money transfers.Ruto said the additional taxes would raise $2.7bn and help cut Kenya’s high debt, which has made borrowing difficult and squeezed the currency.Within weeks, Gen Z and millennials were creating engaging digital content — cartoons, skits, videos and explainers — and the hashtags #RejectFinanceBill2024 and #RutoMustGo took off.They engaged influencers and celebrities to harness their networks and translated the bill into different Kenyan languages to reach older and rural populations.Developers built AI tools such as Finance Bill GPT, which calculates the bill’s potential impact on prices, and Corrupt Politicians GPT, a chatbot that flags up scandals.Alongside the demos, Kenyans tried some unorthodox tactics: crowdsourcing MPs’ personal details so their phones were spammed and mounted demonstrations outside their offices and homes.“It was incredible to see how organic the whole movement was,” Patrick, a 24-year-old paralegal, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We all felt angry and wanted to change the status quo.”As protests moved from the digital space to the streets on June 18, lawyers hosted discussions on citizens’ rights in the event of an arrest, while doctors shared first-aid tips.Their grievances were initially ignored and the protesters dismissed as “KFC-eating” and “Uber-riding” privileged urban youth by some members of the government.But as the demonstrations continued, violence mounted with police using tear gas and live bullets against unarmed youth.The protests have also been infiltrated by criminals looting and destroying property, with parliament even briefly stormed.According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, at least 50 people have died and hundreds have been injured.Last month, the pressured president withdrew his finance bill and in recent days has sacked most of the cabinet.He has also announced plans to axe 47 state corporations, halve the number of government advisers, and pulled funding to the offices of his wife and deputy’s wife.“Recent events that necessitated the withdrawal of the Finance Bill ... have brought us to an inflection point,” said Ruto last week.He has now promised a government of national unity to deal with the debt crisis, better job opportunities, less waste and vowed to “slay the dragon of corruption”.Protesters, too, have promised no letup until Ruto resigns and they win systemic change to clean up politics.Every day, thousands gather on X spaces to keep up the momentum, resolving to hold leaders to account.They debate constitutional rights and the merits of protest against passive acts of resistance such as recalling their MPs.They talk of revolution while pledging allegiance to peace and the law. They sign off with a salute to their “fallen comrades” and end their comments with the words “Viva”.Their demands include an independent probe into the deaths of demonstrators, an audit of Kenya’s national debt, and the formation of an independent electoral commission. Harnessing tech, they have created websites that track government promises against actual results, and are examining upcoming legislation to keep the public abreast.Moves are also afoot to recall lawmakers ahead of the 2027 elections, with some constituencies already collecting signatures.Gen Z and millennials are lending civic education to their communities and encouraging everyone to register to vote.Analysts said the strength of the grassrooots movement lies in the absence of any one figurehead, melding a generation that has cast off tribal affiliations.“The opposition was silent and absent on this issue and it seems that Gen Z with their new political discourse are filling that gap,” said Minde.The youth-led protests are also resonating in other African countries that are grappling with similar popular grievances. On social media, Nigerians, Malawians and Ugandans are planning their own demonstrations for reform.The young has had a taste of politics — and likes it.“We are not our parents who had to live in fear,” said Zabron Mwangi, a Gen Z protester in an X space discussion.“These protests have changed the game. Gen Z are now the official opposition in Kenya — this is the new normal.” — Thomson Reuters Foundation

In July 1944, exactly 80 years ago, representatives of 44 countries met in an obscure New Hampshire village to negotiate the Bretton Woods Agreement establishing the International Monetary Fund. For many, reaching the ripe old age of 80 would be cause for celebration. For the IMF, the anniversary only highlights the urgency of reform.Some necessary reforms are straightforward and widely agreed, raising the question of why they haven’t been adopted. First, the IMF should provide its members with regular annual allocations of its in-house financial instrument, special drawing rights. This would provide an alternative to the US dollar as a source of global liquidity while also addressing the problem of chronic global imbalances.Second, the IMF needs to do better at organising debt restructurings for low-income countries. Its latest attempt, the rather grandly named Common Framework for Debt Treatments, has fallen short. The Fund needs to push harder for co-operation from China’s government and financial institutions, which are unfamiliar with the responsibilities of a sovereign creditor. It should support reforms to speed up restructurings and endorse initiatives to crack down on holdout creditors.In terms of its surveillance of countries’ policies, the IMF needs to address its perceived lack of evenhandedness; whereas emerging and developing countries are held to demanding standards, high-income countries like the United States are let off the hook. It needs to reinvigorate its analysis of the cross-border spillovers of large-country policies, a process the US has managed to squelch.As for its lending policies, the IMF needs to decouple loan size from an anachronistic quota system and reduce the punitive interest rates charged middle-income countries.To ensure the best possible leadership, the managing director should be selected through a competitive process, where candidates submit statements and sit for interviews, after which shareholding governments vote. The victor should be the most qualified individual and not just the most qualified European, as has historically been the case.Most of all, the IMF must acknowledge that it can’t be everything for everyone. Under recent managing directors, it has broadened its agenda from its core mandate, preserving economic and financial stability, to encompass gender equity, climate change, and other nontraditional issues. These are not topics about which the IMF’s macroeconomists have expertise. The IMF’s own internal watchdog, the Independent Evaluation Office, has rightly warned that venturing into these areas can overstretch the Fund’s human and management resources.Admittedly, the IMF can’t ignore climate change, since climate events affect economic and financial stability. Women’s education, labour force participation, and childcare arrangements belong on its agenda insofar as they have implications for economic growth and hence for debt sustainability. Fundamentally, however, gender-related policies and climate-change adaptation are economic-development issues. They require long-term investments. As such, they fall mainly within the bailiwick of the World Bank, the IMF’s sister institution across 19th Street in Washington.An advantage of an agenda focused on the IMF’s core mandate is that national governments are more likely to give the Fund’s management and staff the freedom of action needed to move quickly in response to developments threatening economic and financial stability. The IMF lacks the independence of national central banks. Currently, decision-making is slow by the standards of financial crises, which move fast. Decisions must be approved by an executive board of political appointees who in turn answer to their governments.But central-bank independence is viable only because central bankers have a narrow mandate focused on price stability, against which their actions can be judged. For a quarter-century, observers have argued that a more independent, fleet-footed IMF would be better. But the more the institution dilutes its agenda, the more such independence resembles a pipedream.The other factor underpinning the viability of central-bank independence is that monetary policymakers at the national level are accountable to legitimate political actors, generally parliaments and ministers. The legitimacy of IMF accountability is more dubious, owing to the institution’s governance structure.For antiquated reasons, the US – and only the US – possesses a veto over consequential IMF decisions. Europe is overrepresented in the institution, while China is underrepresented. Until these imbalances are corrected, the Fund’s governance will remain under a shadow. This not only makes the prospect of operational independence even more remote; it also stands in the way of virtually all meaningful reforms, including the straightforward changes listed above.Sketching a reform agenda for the IMF is easy. Implementing it is hard. — Project Syndicate

Authorities in southern India’s Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 persons in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said yesterday.Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters investigation showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.Nipah is classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent infection and no treatment to cure it.“The infected boy died on Sunday after a cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state health minister told local TV reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.Earlier, in a statement on Saturday, she said as part of Nipah control, the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to identify and isolate affected people.Dr Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a school-going boy and persons who had been in contact with him were being watched.“There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next 7-10 days.There are 214 people on the primary contact list of the boy, the statement said. Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, it said, and isolation wards have been set up at health institutions to treat patients.

Pakistan this month will ask Chinese power plants operating in the country to shift to using coal from Pakistan's Thar region rather than imported coal, the power minister said yesterday.Islamabad may also begin talks on re-profiling Pakistan's energy sector debt during the visit to Beijing, Awais Leghari, head of the energy ministry's Power Division, told Reuters.Leghari will be part of the delegation to discuss structural reforms to the power sector suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which last week agreed on a $7bn bailout for the heavily indebted South Asian nation.Neighbouring China has set up over $20bn worth of energy projects in Pakistan."One of the key purposes of going along is the conversion of our imported coal units to the local coal. That would have a huge impact on the cost of energy, of power in the near future. So that is one of the biggest (items on the) agenda," Leghari said in an interview.Such a transition would benefit the Chinese-owned plants in Pakistan by reducing pressure on Islamabad's foreign exchange reserves, he said, making it easier to repatriate dividends and offering a better return in dollar terms.The transition could save Pakistan more than Rs200bn ($700mn) a year in imports, translating to a decrease of as much as Rs2.5 per unit in the price of electricity, Leghari said.In April a subsidiary of conglomerate Engro agreed to sell all of its thermal assets, including Pakistan's leading coal producer, Sindh Engro Coal Mining to Pakistan's Liberty Power. Liberty said the decision stemmed from Pakistan's foreign exchange crunch and its indigenous coal reserve potential.The minister declined to elaborate on the possible talks with China over re-profiling energy debt.Pakistan's power sector has been plagued by high rates of power theft and distribution losses, resulting in accumulating debt across the production chain - a concern raised by the IMF.The government is implementing structural reforms to reduce "circular debt" — public liabilities that build up in the power sector due to subsidies and unpaid bills — by Rs100bn ($360mn) a year, Leghari said.Poor and middle-class households have been affected by a previous IMF bailout reached last year, which included raising power tariffs as part of the funding programme that ended in April.Annual power use in Pakistan is expected to fall consecutively for the first time in 16 years as higher tariffs curb household consumption, despite summer temperatures surging to near records, which typically boosts air conditioning and fan use."We have seen a shrinking demand trend in the past year or year and a half, and we are expecting this to continue unless we rationalise the price of power," Leghari said, adding that the government's major challenge was get demand to stop shrinking.He said that since the per-unit tariff for power is more expensive, both urban and rural households are moving towards alternatives such as solar."Right now we have close to 1,000 megawatts that are on the grid itself in the form of net metering systems and others. It's a very conservative estimate that (solar) could be five to six times more than that on the grid right now," Leghari said.