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This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello and welcome to World Business Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Leanna Byrne and on this edition, a year later and Kenya's anti-tax protests are back and they've turned deadly.
Meanwhile, NATO's allies ramp up defence spending, but can Europe's arms industry keep up? And what happens when gamers retire? The multi-billion dollar esports world is growing up, but where do its stars go when they hang up the controller? But first, let's turn to Kenya.
At least two people have been shot dead during protests in Kenya, which marks the first anniversary of deadly anti-tax demonstrations that left 60 people dead. Security forces have barricaded key roads in Nairobi and fired tear gas, keen to avoid a repeat of storming of the parliament. President William Ruto has appealed to protesters not to threaten peace and stability. Young Kenyans are actively engaged in the demonstrations.
I'm here to fight for the future of my kids. I feel like as a country we're not going in the right direction, especially in education and everything happening. So I'm here to fight for a better Kenya. Do you think things have changed from the same time last year? No, no, no. In fact, it's getting worse. I feel like it's high time that the country and the leadership listens to us. We're here to do it peacefully and to just tell them, you know, listen to us. We are not OK. Do the right thing. The BBC's Ian Vert is at the protest and he sent us this report.
Behind me, a large crowd is trying to charge towards this part of the central business district of Nairobi now. So they have been running battles between protesters and police, and police are trying to keep the crowd as far off from the CBD as possible. Most of them, all they want to do is get to Parliament, similar to the events from last year. Now, the June 25th protests are actually coming in the backdrop of a cry against police brutality. For instance, the murder of a blogger and...
teacher, Alberto Drong, who actually died in the hands of police officers. And there's so many questions and answers at the moment surrounding his death. That was our reporter, Ian Virk. Now, we did want to speak to a reporter who is live at the protest, but the government is enforcing a ban on live coverage of the protests and demonstrations. But we do have Akisa Wanderer, who's joining us from our BBC studio in Nairobi. Akisa, hello. Hello.
Hello. These protests, they're marking the anniversary of last year's deadly demonstrations. What's been building over the past year to bring people back onto the streets? Well, it's been a cocktail issue, a cocktail of issues. It began with, you know, the fight against government tax proposals, which were deemed punitive at the time. The rising cost of living, unemployment, a lot of young people not having opportunities to work.
But over the past year, it has grown into bigger issues around police brutality, the aggression that's been witnessed from security forces and the sheer lack of accountability and police violence that has, in essence, gone unchecked. So this has been fueled by frustrations.
You know, by what I've said, rising costs of living, repeated allegations of police brutality and most importantly, growing disappointment with the political elite and especially the leadership of the country, including the president. Now, as I mentioned, the government is enforcing a ban on live coverage of the protests. How else is the government responding to today?
Well, so far, majorly, they have responded with a firm security posture. From dawn, we saw security officers, you know, setting up barricades and blockades just to ensure that protesters do not make their way into the city centre and key government departments.
But most of them were run down during the day as swells of people just made their way into the Nairobi Central Business District, in essence, trying to access these government buildings. But, of course, that ban has become the biggest talking point right now with major TV stations saying that,
They have been switched off forcefully by the government after they defied an order to halt live coverage. As you've also mentioned, President William Brito has also appealed to protesters not to threaten the peace and stability of the country. But right now we are just looking at, you know, the fatalities and the injuries and just trying to spot what the situation is like right now on the ground because we really can't get much updates from the live coverage that has been there.
for the better part of the day. So what is your sense, Akisa? It feels like the tension is really escalating. It had escalated because we had several groups of crowds, one of them heading towards State House in Nairobi and one of them going towards Parliament. You know, Parliament buildings are a pain point at this point because of what happened last year and the breach that was seen, a very historic thing that had not even been, people did not think would happen.
But from my conversation with reporters on the ground and journalists who are still covering it on the ground, it seems that a number of people are retreating. This often happens when it starts getting a bit dark because then it becomes dangerous. So you're getting some people retreating and starting to make their way home. But dozens of people are still at the central business district still trying to see if they can get access to Parliament offices.
and to state house. But you also get a sense that security forces are also just trying to replenish and add their numbers because when it gets dark, then things get different, especially in parts where there are government buildings and highly protected government premises.
Akisa Wandera, thank you so much. And I'm sure we'll hear more from our colleagues in Nairobi throughout the day. Now, Bernice Sanduta runs a water refill shop in Nairobi. And earlier I asked her how the protests are affecting her business. Mostly by, of course, there's basically no business during the protests. People don't usually come to the CBD. So there will be zero sales for that day and the days after.
And 12 months since those protests, have things improved for you and others in your community or have things gotten worse? To be honest, no, nothing has improved because the situation is the same and the economy is getting worse. That is why people are coming out and they're frustrated. There's a lot of anger, isn't there, about the rising cost of living situation?
How are you feeling about it? Yeah, of course. Of course there's anger because most people are not making ends meet. They work, but it's not enough. So, yeah, people are frustrated.
And the government is not listening to them. So people are frustrated. I'm sure. And as a business owner, have you had to make any tough decisions because the economy is what it is, like raising your prices, perhaps letting staff go or having to cut back on some aspects of your business? Yes, yes, I have. For example, last year I had a shop, a clothing store, but we had to close it down because there is
Very little business and we could not meet our expenses. Yeah, so we had to close the shop and look for alternative business to do at least something that is more basic like now water. At least people will drink water as compared to selling clothes. That is really tough. I mean, how have you been dealing with that personally?
What can I say? You just have to show up because you have family. You have to wake up and try and look how best to run the business. Look for ways to maybe look for clients. You have to show up to work because you have family to feed and provide to.
Of course. And if you had the ear of the government today, what would you say to them? I would tell them to understand what the people are complaining about. It's not just politics. Actually, it's not politics at all. These are young people who are frustrated. They are graduates.
They went to school. They hoped for a better life, but they found their parents struggling. They are struggling. They have children. They are struggling. The government should listen to the people. I don't think violence can solve anything.
That was Bernice Nduta, who runs a water refill shop in Nairobi in Kenya. Obviously, this is a developing story. If you keep listening to the BBC World Service, we'll have more updates. And there's also a live page on the BBC News website.
OK, let's talk about defence spending because at Landmark Summit in The Hague, all 32 NATO members, that's the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, they've now pledged to meet Donald Trump's demand to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. It's a massive jump because most countries don't even hit 3%. And our reporter, BC Adebayo, explains it.
Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, otherwise known as NATO countries, have committed to a major rise in military spending, one that could reshape government budgets across Europe and beyond. Since 2014, members have been expected to spend 2% of their national income or GDP on the military, but many countries have fallen short. Now, in a major update, leaders have agreed to aim higher, 5% of GDP.
In plain terms, that's five out of every hundred dollars a country creates going toward national security. As of today, only 22 of NATO's 32 countries meet the old 2% goal. Poland already spends more than double that. Others, like Spain, are still well below. The United States, meanwhile, spends around 3.4% of its GDP and far more in absolute terms than anyone else.
Their aim is to reach the new target by 2035 with a progress check in 2029. If everyone had met that benchmark last year, it would have meant hundreds of billions more in defense spending. So why now?
The war in Ukraine has sharpened fears that Russia could threaten NATO directly within five years. And European leaders are also preparing for the possibility that the U.S., especially under Donald Trump, could pull back its support.
Trump has long said European allies weren't paying their share. With this new pledge, NATO leaders are hoping to take that argument off the table by doing exactly what he has been demanding. That was our reporter, BC Adebayo, reporting.
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And here with World Business Report from the BBC World Service. Now, we heard from BC the outline of this new defence pledge and why it's important. And here's Mark Rutte, NATO's Secretary General, discussing what's been agreed. All allies are united in understanding that we need to step up to stay safe. And they are acting on it. President Trump has been clear.
America is committed to NATO. He affirmed that again today in no uncertain terms. At the same time, he made clear that America expects European allies and Canada to contribute more. And that is exactly what we see them doing. European allies and Canada will do more of the heavy lifting, equalizing their spending and taking greater responsibility for our shared security.
That was Mark Ruta, NATO's Secretary General. Now, not everyone is actually happy about this summit's outcome because Spain has been pretty vocal on preferring defence spending to be at 2.5% of GDP. And Canada's Mark Carney says he would prefer a special session at the day two gathering with Ukraine, who is not a member of the alliance.
Now with us is Dr. Tori Taussig of the Atlantic Council, which focuses on international security. And Dr. Tori is also a former director of European Affairs at the White House National Security Council and joins us now from the Netherlands. Hello. Hello. Thank you for having me on this afternoon. We are delighted to have you on because you've been in The Hague over the past two days. So you can tell us what the atmosphere has been like.
Yes. So the mood in The Hague this afternoon is one of, I would say it's pretty calm. And I think all 31 allied leaders, not including President Trump and also including NATO Secretary General, are breathing a sigh of relief this afternoon that the summit went well and that there were no fireworks with the U.S. administration. Hmm.
We were listening just before we came on air. We were listening to President Trump's speech. And, you know, he's obviously taking a lot of credit for this 5% spending, you know, the commitment for that 5% spending across the 32 countries. We also saw Mark Ruta calling Trump daddy. I mean, is this very much about, you know, the Trump show at this NATO meeting?
That's right. This summit was choreographed to give the Trump administration a win in
ensure that there was not any major displays of disunity, take a photo and go home. And as you mentioned, President Trump arrived in The Hague, claimed victory for NATO's increased defense spending. He will have been on the ground less than 24 hours and is now heading back to Washington. So on the one hand, we do have leaders breathing a sigh of relief that the summit went well
On the other hand, all of the tough issues facing the alliance were left to be discussed on another day. Now, Dr. Taussig, there's a lot of numbers in this story, isn't it? We have this 5% of GDP number. But of course, to break that down, 3.5% of that is what we might call hard defence. So that's like troops, weapons, artillery. And the remaining is 1.5%, which is more loosely defined. So what do you think? Is that a vulnerability in this pledge?
So there's definitely a little bit of fuzzy math going on. And as you mentioned, this 5% pledge is broken into two parts, 3.5 on hard military expenditures, troops, weaponry, and 1.5 on a relatively undefined set of expenditures ranging from critical infrastructure to cybersecurity and
That second piece gives allies a lot of flexibility in what they count as defense spending. And so, for example, a country could determine that as one of their spending goals for the years is to build a new set of roads and a new set of bridges. And hypothetically, that could count toward that 1.5 of defense and security-related expenditures. Right.
Now, this was deliberate on behalf of NATO. NATO needed to give allies flexibility in order to reach that 5% demand that was being issued by the Trump administration. So essentially, it's creative accounting, isn't it? I mean, would the US be happy with that overall? I suppose they've signed off on it.
Yes. And again, on the one hand, you know, any increase, even if it's from 2% to 3.5%, is a seismic shift for this alliance. Now, all 32 allies don't even meet that current 2% defense target. And so to go from 2% to 3.5% in terms of hard military expenditures is a significant leap. The other question is, how will allies...
Commit to and keep track of new increases in defense spending. The pledge says that allies will review progress in 2029. That's a number of years away. And my larger concern is actually this new pledge adds an additional risk for allies as it gives the Trump administration an additional opportunity.
cudgel to hold allies to account when in the coming years, if and when in the coming years, allies are not able to meet those commensurate levels of new defence spending. Really interesting. Dr. Tori Taussig of the Atlantic Council, thank you so much for joining us. Also with us is Ross Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell. Hopefully was listening to that conversation
Hello, Ross. Thanks for joining us. Good day to you. Good day to you as well. Now, since these NATO countries, they've committed to spending more on defence. Ross, I'm sure there must be companies in the space that are actually benefiting from that.
Well, you've seen the stock market, clever thing that it can be, anticipates a lot of this and companies such as Rhein-Matelle of Germany, Leonardo of Italy, Saab of Sweden, Thales of France and BEE Systems of the UK have seen their share prices perform terribly strongly. Saab and Leonardo are up again today. And Babcock of the UK is talking about a new era of defence spending in its statement today, which was better than expected. And that put their shares at the top of the FTSE 100, the UK's leading share index. I
I guess the other interesting thing is, as we've just been hearing, where does the money actually get spent? It's all very well buying big pieces of metal, whether it's a submarine or an aeroplane or a tank. But looking at what Ukraine did to Russia's air force with drones, there's clearly going to be some very clever allocation of this money. And again, cyber security will be important. And so will things like energy and food security. So it may not all go on really big pieces of equipment. Now, is there a danger, though, that even though there's a lot of money going into these companies in terms of markets, particularly if they're listed...
But, you know, like that's one on the one hand that's happening. But could those defence budgets rise faster than those companies can actually deliver?
I guess that's a possibility. They already have some very, very big backlogs and they're working on some very big projects already. I mean, Babcock is working on the AUKUS nuclear submarine programme that involves the UK, Australia and the USA, for example. So there will need to be some very, very careful project management involved, yes. And also the Europeans may end up turning not just to local suppliers. I'm sure there'll be a lot of American companies in there pitching for the business. And I'm sure a lot of maybe start-ups in this sector as well, they might be popping up too.
Well, I would think in areas like cyber security, energy security and drones, I would think almost very definitely, yes. All right. OK. Meanwhile, despite all this, you know, the chaos that we've seen so far this week, US stocks have been actually doing quite well. The price of oil has stabilised too. I mean, Ross, is that the market's way of breathing a sigh of relief?
I think it is. The stock market is not always right, but its views must always be respected because you have so many people looking at these things and they're generally very smart and they're good at managing risk. And so when the oil price did not move more dramatically, that was the market saying, we don't think there's going to be a major war breakout. We think that there will be a solution found.
That seems to be the case right now, and that view is being borne out. And if oil stays calm, that can help financial markets continue to hope for growth.
an era of low inflation and lower interest rates. And that's some of the things that have helped stock markets perform brilliantly since 2009, effectively. It feels like a wait-and-see approach across the board because we had Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He's committed to sticking to a kind of a wait-and-see approach too on interest rates. A lot of other central banks around the world also kind of doing that. Are people just kind of waiting to see how this all plays out?
Very much. We've still got the 9th of July deadline coming up for President Trump's reciprocal tariffs. That's coming ever nearer. He said there'd be over 100 deals done before then. I think we've seen one. So maybe Treasury Secretary Percent's statement that countries that negotiate in good faith will be given extra time. So let's see what happens.
But then there's a court appeal about whether the president overreached his authority on the 31st of July, which may strike the tariffs down. So there's lots of other moving parts for markets to think about. If anything, possibly almost too much. What they might now want to do is look at the second quarter company reporting season that's coming up and get some more tangible details from companies themselves and what they're actually seeing on the ground. And last one for you, cereal maker General Mills, disappointing with investors, big drop in profits. What's going on? Yeah.
a really good example of again just what companies are actually saying they talk about the american consumer being stressed by inflation they mention words like tariffs and regulation as well the company's also investing in its brand so it's getting disappointing uh volumes and putting in extra expenses so its sales aren't coming through as strongly as expected its expenses are going up so it's looking for a 10 plus dropping profits in the coming year which
from a company that makes much-loved brands and staple foods like Pillsbury and Cheerios is quite an unpleasant surprise for a lot of investors today. Not great, not great. Russ Moll, thank you so much as always. Now, esports, it's a multi-billion dollar industry and the top players can make serious money just by playing.
being really, really good at video games. But unlike traditional athletes who often move into coaching or commentary after they retire, what happens when a professional gamer puts down the controller for good? The BBC's Will Chalk has been looking into it for Business Daily. At this Rocket League tournament in Birmingham, England, around 50 gamers are living what many would consider to be the dream, playing their favourite video game in front of thousands of fans with hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs. Archie has a long set to his chest. Oh, yeah, don't!
And Archie has it for free. GK, game one. But speak to the competitors and they'll tell you the reality can be a little different. Archie Pickthall plays for a team called GK. I think it's kind of weird on the brain because now I kind of have like a money issue where I see like money, that's a lot of money. That's like a thousand. To me, it doesn't seem that much because my brain is so...
like, fried from seeing the crazy amounts of money that... Which I don't think is a good thing, to be honest, because then after Rocket League, you get kind of brought down to earth and you're like, this is the real world, like...
The job security is very poor. You can get dropped any time, any time for nothing. And that's it. Honestly, it's scary to be in. Despite the fact it's not a physical sport, there is also a consensus that esports is a young person's game. Because as you get older, your reactions get slower. Slater Thomas is 22 and is the fifth oldest player here. He's already making plans for his post-competition career.
I think for me, I want to teach in elementary and middle school and high school. I had a couple of teachers that I love and I still think about all the time. And for me, that's I want to make an impact. And I think teaching is the right way for that for me. But that's if you compare this to something like tennis, this is like interviewing Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz and then going, yeah, I want to be a middle school teacher in five years time. So what does that say about esports and the way it's structured? It's true. I think it's...
If anything, it says that I've lived through the stress of, I think, a full lifetime at this point. I'm balding. Esports is stressful. Content is stressful. When you don't know where your next check is going to come from...
One of the major differences between esports and traditional sports is how young it is. The industry has only been around for a couple of decades, and this means there aren't many examples you can draw on if you're trying to carve out a lifelong career. Robbie Derrick is the CEO of Blast Esports, who put this tournament on. The global gaming market, depending on statistics that you follow, is worth between 200 to 300 billion. There are some statistics that say that would be half a trillion industry by 2030.
The esports industry inside of that is worth anywhere between three and five billion. So the total market size is not as big as one would hope. It will grow and it will get bigger. And therefore, there will be opportunity for many, many more going forwards. But I think at this point, you know, are there jobs for all?
Probably not, but there will be. And eventually, I think the individuals want to stay within that space. And that's what's encouraging. Phil Cook lectures on the esports course at the University of Suffolk. He says, unlike most traditional sports, esports doesn't have a central governing body. And this makes it harder to establish career pathways. There are organizations trying to do it already. A couple of years ago, there was the International Esports Coach Federation.
It's just a case of recognizing that. And I think it has to be a wider industry step rather than any one team or person getting into it.
Back in the arena, French team Carmine Cor have just won the final and the $100,000 grand prize. Hello, I'm Vachera and I'm now a Birmingham major champion. Yeah, my life changed a lot, but money doesn't change myself. And yeah, I'm happy to win a lot of money, but I'm doing this because I love the game. So for this team at least, the wider worries about the industry can take a backseat for now.
That was Will Chalk reporting. To hear more, just search for Business Daily wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Now let's return to our top story, the protests in Kenya. Earlier today, thousands took to the streets in cities across the country marking the anniversary of last year's deadly anti-tax demonstrations. In Nairobi, police used tear gas and water cannons.
as crowds tried to push towards Parliament. Now, as evening sets in, the streets of the capital have quietened. Officers were still firing tear gas as recently as 5pm local time, but the larger crowds have moved away, leaving the usually packed city centre largely deserted. And if you want to find out more on that, please visit the BBC News website. That's it from the World Business Report programme. I'm Leanna Byrne. Thanks so much for listening.