DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — Tanzania’s government Friday banned political rallies ahead of planned protests against last year's disputed election and the detention of an opposition leader.
Internal Affairs Minister Patrobas Katambi directed Police Inspector General Camillus Wambura to officially stop issuing permits for political activities across the East African country.
Tanzania witnessed its first-ever postelection protests in 2025. The general election was overwhelmingly won by the ruling party after the country’s main opposition party boycotted the polls and the presidential candidate for the second-largest opposition party was barred from running.
The country’s young people have said they plan to demonstrate on July 7 to protest President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s reelection and push for a new constitution.
Police have arrested people linked to the organizers of the planned protests, which have been mobilized through social media.
The country's youth are also calling for the release of opposition party leader Tundu Lissu, who is facing treason charges after calling for reforms before last year’s elections.
They have also called for accountability over the widespread postelection violence, during which more than 500 people died.
Tanzania Law Society President Boniface Mwabukusi said the government had “no authority whatsoever to prohibit or permit meetings that are legally allowed.”
“We will convene to determine the legal measures we will take, both domestically and internationally, against anyone who attempts to enforce this unlawful and invalid directive in violation of the Constitution and the laws of the country,” Mwabukusi said.
President Hassan in 2023 lifted a six-year ban on opposition rallies imposed by her predecessor John Magufuli.
Opposition parties in Tanzania have described the ban as politically motivated and a violation of constitutional rights, asserting that political parties are constitutionally guaranteed the right to hold public meetings.
Opposition party Chadema’s chief legal counsel, Rugemeleza Nshala, said the ban was intended to “muzzle political freedom,” and that the party was “contemplating other legal actions locally and internationally to challenge the decision.”
The main opposition party ACT Wazalendo’s shadow minister for Defense, Internal Affairs and Security, Rashid Ali, said the directive was yet another move aimed at violating the Constitution.
FILE - People protest a day after the general election following allegations of electoral irregularities in Arusha, Tanzania, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan delivers remarks during a campaign rally ahead of the general elections in Iringa, Tanzania, on Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Most of the U.S. stock market rose Friday after oil prices eased back to where they were before the war with Iran, but drops for stocks swept up in the mania around artificial-intelligence technology kept the market in check.
The S&P 500 finished nearly flat and slipped less than 0.1% to close out just its second losing week in the last 13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 44 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.
Stocks got a boost as the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped 3.8% to $72.60. That’s lower than it was the day before the United States and Israel attacked Iran, which eventually led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the curtailment of oil shipments worldwide.
The easier oil prices helped stocks of companies with big fuel bills, and American Airlines Group climbed 1.7%.
Health care stocks, meanwhile, were some of the strongest forces pushing upward on the market after a committee of the European Medicines Agency recommended several medicines for approval and the extension for another dozen of their therapeutic indications. That included one for Eli Lilly, whose stock jumped 7.1%.
Besides Lilly, nearly two out of every three stocks within the S&P 500 rose. But more drops for AI stocks helped to overshadow them.
After soaring to tremendous heights and leading the market for years, AI stocks have been under pressure recently because of worries their profits can’t possibly keep pace with the tremendous rallies for their stock prices. And those drops have an outsized effect because AI stocks have become Wall Street’s largest and most influential, giving movements for their stock prices more weight on indexes than others.
Micron Technology’s drop of 6.7% was the heaviest weight on the market, for example. The maker of memory for computers has been a big winner this year, with its stock roughly quadrupling, because the AI boom has created a surge of demand for its products.
But investors saw the downside of that surge Thursday, when Apple said it had to raise prices on laptops and other products by significant percentages to make up for the increases in memory prices. The worry is that such higher prices could ultimately lead to lower demand.
Highlighting the roller-coaster ride that AI stocks have been on, SpaceX briefly dropped 2.9% in the morning and fell below $149. It then erased the loss to swing to a gain of 3.5% before finishing with a modest rise of 0.2%.
After initially selling its stock at $135 apiece in its ballyhooed initial public offering earlier this month, SpaceX’s price briefly soared above $225 within its first few days of trading. Besides rockets, Elon Musk’s company also owns the xAI artificial-intelligence business.
The day’s largest loss in the S&P 500 was a 23.7% drop for ON Semiconductor, which said it agreed to buy Synaptics in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $7 billion.
All told, the S&P 500 slipped 3.47 points to 7,354.02. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 44.51 to 51,876.11, and the Nasdaq composite fell 60.99 to 25,297.62.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased with oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.37% from 4.40% late Thursday.
It fell after a report showed expectations for inflation in the coming year inched down among U.S. consumers to 4.6% from 4.8% in May. That’s still high, but moves downward mean less chance of a vicious cycle where expectations for higher inflation drive changes in behavior that create higher inflation.
High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by worries about inflation have been threatening to slow economies, and they have already sent rates higher for mortgages and other kinds of loans. High yields also hurt prices for investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive. That raises the pressure on AI winners.
Asian stock markets began Friday with sharp drops because of losses for AI winners.
In Japan, a 12.5% plunge for Softbank Group Corp. helped pull the Nikkei 225 index down by 4.2%. The company is a major investor in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and a report in The New York Times suggested OpenAI is considering delaying an initial public offering of its stock to next year from the second half of this year.
Such an IPO would give OpenAI the chance to raise more cash to spend on data centers, as well as the opportunity for early investors like Softbank to cash out some of their holdings. But the recent stumbles for SpaceX’s stock and for AI stocks broadly may be a signal of less appetite for big AI stocks among investors.
In South Korea, SK Hynix fell 8.4%, and Samsung Electronics sank 5.3%. That helped pull the Kospi 5.8% lower and trim its gain for the year so far to 99.6%.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Traders Robert Charmak, left, and Mark Puetzer work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist Michael Gagliano works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
