RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces hit over 40 Ukrainian artillery units in Krasny Liman area

Russia’s Battlegroup Center has hit more than 40 Ukrainian artillery units in the Krasny Liman area, the battlegroup’s spokesman Alexander Savchuk told TASS.

"In the course of counterbattery activities, more than 40 enemy artillery units were spotted and hit. Air defense systems destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle of the Ukrainian army. Ukraine’s losses amounted up to 210 troops, a tank, two armored combat vehicles, two cars, and a D-30 howitzer," he said.

** Russian forces hit Ukrainian stronghold with over 20 soldiers in southern Donetsk area

Artillery units of Russia’s Southern Military District hit a Ukrainian stronghold in the southern Donetsk area, killing more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers, the Russian defense ministry said.

"Crews of 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers of the artillery unit of the 49th army neutralized more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers inside a stronghold in the southern Donetsk area in the zone of the special military operation," it said.

According to the ministry, the stronghold was used for attempting another attack. "Reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles of the Battlegroup South detected a throng of servicemen of Ukrainian nationalist units in a forest, which indicated that they were forming an assault group for another attack attempt," the ministry said, adding that Russian artillery crews hit several dugouts with troops. "Artillery fire was adjusted in real time from unmanned aerial vehicles," it noted.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian attack outside Ukraine's Kharkiv kills one, regional governor says

Russian missiles on Wednesday struck a town outside Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, killing one person and damaging an educational institution, the regional governor and the military said.

Governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said there were two strikes on the town of Chuhuiv, southeast of Kharkiv.

A woman employee of a heating and power plant was killed. Another person was injured.

Another Telegram channel overseen by the commander of the Kharkiv military garrison said the attack was carried out using S-300 missiles.

On Tuesday, two Russian missiles struck a residential district of Kharkiv, injuring 17 people.

The city is a frequent target of Russian attacks, but has not fallen into Russian hands over the course of Russia's 22-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

Synehubov also reported a woman had died in the shelling of a village near Kupiansk -- scene of months of battles further east in Kharkiv region. Two children were injured.

Authorities in the southern region of Kherson said a man died in his car in near-constant shelling of the region's largest town, also called Kherson.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out a precision strike a day earlier on a building which housed "foreign fighters", most of them French, in the city of Kharkiv. It said more than 60 people were killed.

The Russian ministry provided no evidence.

Reuters could not verify battlefield claims from either side.

Tass/Reuters

Business leaders in Davos this week discussed a new Fast Company survey in which some participants said they reacted negatively to the word capitalism.

People under the age of 40 are more negative about capitalism than their older counterparts, according to a recent survey from Fast Company. But these younger generations aren’t defined simply by a story of “just complete anti-capitalism,” argues Megan Holston-Alexander, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Rather, they’ll be more excited about the future if they feel like they’re included and have ownership in the companies they help to build and grow.

“We think participation in a capitalist culture as a consumer, an investor, or as talent is really important,” Holston-Alexander said Tuesday during a panel discussion hosted by Fast Company at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

She heads up the firm’s cultural leadership fund, which is dedicated to creating Black wealth generation. Including different voices and points of view—and reimagining educational requirements to get in the door—will offer a competitive edge, she added.

But before a new group of leaders can transform the future of capitalism, today’s corporate leaders need to do a better job of building trust.

“There may be this fear of capitalism or distrust of capitalism, but I think part of that distrust and how we alleviate some of that distrust is by creating trust and creating credibility and creating openness,” said Rima Qureshi, the chief strategy officer of Verizon and the deputy chair of the Edison Alliance.

Communicating how companies are effective at solving problems also helps to engender trust, said Anthony Tan, the cofounder of Grab, a Singapore-based superapp that encompasses delivery and ride-hailing, along with financial services and mapping. That’s especially important in reaching younger generations—be it employees or customers—who are “high truth-seekers” and want information that’s clear, upfront, and honest, he added.

Finally, the future of capitalism depends on disruption—and both big business and entrepreneurs need to embrace change, noted Florian Hoffman, founder and CEO of The DO School.

“I think what really will change and needs to change is the question of what’s a valuable company? How do we talk about value when we talk about a company?” he asked. “We have to acknowledge that there isn’t a joint story and narrative anymore of what good looks like in the future and what capitalism means.”

Fast Company

The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their vast wealth since 2020, according to an Oxfam report, as the charity calls for curbs on “corporate power.”

The report found that the combined fortune of the world’s wealthiest people — Tesla CEO Elon Musk, LVMH boss Bernard Arnault and family, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and veteran investor Warren Buffett — has jumped from $405 billion in March 2020 to $869 billion in November 2023. Oxfam used data from Forbes and Wealth X which has not been independently verified by CNBC.

Oxfam’s report was published Monday to coincide with the start of the latest World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, which sees the so-called global elite of top business and political leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland, although the five billionaires named in the report are not due to attend.

Seven of the world’s ten biggest companies have a billionaire as their CEO or main shareholder, the report found. Meanwhile, the world’s richest 1% of people own 43% of global financial assets, according to the research, such as publicly listed instruments like stocks and bonds, along with stakes in privately-held businesses.

“If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won’t be eradicated for another 229 years,” Oxfam said.

The charity also highlighted that net profit among 148 of the world’s biggest companies jumped 52% in the year to June 2023, versus their average profits between 2018 and 2021.

“Extreme poverty in the poorest countries is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, yet a small number of super-rich men are racing to become the world’s first trillionaire within the next ten years,” Aleema Shivji, Oxfam’s interim chief executive, said.

The charity called on governments to reduce the gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of society by “reining in corporate power,” including by breaking up monopolies, capping CEO pay and adding new taxes on permanent wealth and excess profits.

CNBC

Shell is set to conclude nearly a century of operations in Nigerian onshore oil and gas after agreeing to sell its subsidiary there to a consortium of five mostly local companies for up to $2.4 billion.

The British energy giant pioneered Nigeria's oil and gas business beginning in the 1930s. It has struggled for years with hundreds of onshore oil spills as a result of theft, sabotage and operational issues that led to costly repairs and high-profile lawsuits.

Since 2021, Shell has sought to sell its Nigerian oil and gas business, but will remain active in Nigeria's more lucrative and less problematic offshore sector.

Shell's exit is part of a broader retreat by western energy companies from Nigeria as they focus on newer, more profitable operations. Exxon Mobil(XOM.N), Italy's Eni and Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) have struck deals to sell assets in the country in recent years.

The British major will sell The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) for a consideration of $1.3 billion, it said in a statement, while the buyers will make an additional payment of up to $1.1 billion relating to prior receivables at completion.

"This agreement marks an important milestone for Shell in Nigeria, aligning with our previously announced intent to exit onshore oil production in the Niger Delta, simplifying our portfolio and focusing future disciplined investment in Nigeria on our Deepwater and Integrated Gas positions," Shell head of upstream Zoë Yujnovich said.

The buyer, the Renaissance consortium comprises ND Western, Aradel Energy, First E&P, Waltersmith, all local oil exploration and production companies, and Petrolin, a Swiss-based trading and investment company.

The sale, which Renaissance confirmed, requires the approval of the federal government.

SPILLS AND LAWSUITS

Renaissance will take over the responsibility for dealing with spills, theft and sabotage, said Shell, which has faced in recent years multiple lawsuits for compensation over damage caused as a result of spills in the Niger delta.

Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of Nigerian advocacy group Health of Mother Earth Foundation said: "Shell must own up to its responsibility."

"This means full payment for the remediation and restoration of the polluted areas as well as reparations to the host communities. They cannot walk away from the virtually irreparable harm they have caused," Bassey said in a statement.

Shell's SPDC Limited operates and has a 30% stake in the SPDC joint venture that holds 18 onshore and shallow water mining leases. Shell's resources in SPDC reached around 458 million barrels of oil equivalent by the end of 2022.

Other partners in the joint venture are the state's Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which holds 55%, TotalEnergies, with 10% and Italy's Eni with 5%.

Apart from its operations and stakes in several fields deep offshore, Shell still has a liquefied natural gas plant and other assets in Nigeria.

SPDC, which remains the operator, was formed in 1979, incorporating assets of the older Shell-BP consortium, with its current partners entering at later stages.

Reuters

No fewer than 10 persons were feared killed and 15 others hospitalised on Tuesday at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, following an explosion that rocked the Ibadan metropolis.

There was serious panic in the ancient city around 8 pm over the explosion, whose cause could not be confirmed on Tuesday night.

Among the affected areas were a section of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Oyo State House of Assembly, the residence of the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, some buildings at Ologuneru, Apete, New Garage, Bashorun, Akobo, Sango and Eleyele.

One of our correspondents, who was at the scene of the explosion that occurred at Adeyi Avenue, Bodija Estate, Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Tuesday,  reported that no fewer than 10 bodies were recovered from the site and taken away in ambulances.

As of press time, rescue workers believed that some persons were still trapped under the rubble and efforts were ongoing to rescue them.

A social worker at UCH, who did not want his name in print because he had no authority to speak on the matter, told one of our correspondents that the hospital had received no fewer than 15 victims.

“The victims will not be less than 15,” he said.

Glass windows, doors and ceilings were shattered in the affected areas.

Major roads were deserted while residents were forced indoors by security operatives, including the police, Western Security Network, code-named Amotekun, and local vigilantes, who took over the affected areas.

The cause of the blast could not be confirmed. Some residents of the affected areas claimed it was caused by earth movement while others described it as a blast of an Improvised Explosive Device.

Thick smoke rented the air in the affected areas which resulted in the hospitalisation of the victims in various hospitals.

Security vehicles were sighted conveying the victims to some selected hospitals in the state capital for medical attention.

Also, it was gathered that at least three buildings collapsed as a result of the explosion.

In videos shared on social media, a white pickup van with the inscription Bodija Patrol van was seen conveying what was suspected to be the dead bodies of some of the victims, though the state police command told our correspondent via a WhatsApp message that casualties could not be ascertained.

Another short video also showed some of the places affected by the explosion, with an accompanying male voice calling for help.

“Please, we need help here. These are the people. We need help. Police, Army, and everybody else should come and rescue people here,” the male voice pleaded.

In a video currently in circulation, a yet-to-identified lady said the apartment her mother lived in collapsed as a result of the impact of the loud bang.

The distraught lady said, “I was not there, but my mum stays in Adeyi with my sister and my son. They are badly injured. The house collapsed on them. They are stitching their legs and arms. They are in the hospital beside Ace Mall.”

Another person, who claimed he escaped with his wife and two daughters, recounted how the house they were in practically caved in due to the explosion.

Also seen at the supposed site of the explosion was a mangled body as the sympathisers around the victim lamented the absence of police and emergency responders.

In a statement, the state government, through the Commissioner for Information, Dotun Oyelade, confirmed the explosion.

He said, “There are various interpretations of the incident but it is important for us to state categorically that the state government has taken over and is in full control of the unfortunate occurrence in order to mitigate the incident.

“All security service chiefs, including paramilitary chiefs and fire service operatives, have been deployed by the governor to reign in the spillover from the explosion.

“The Governor, Seyi Makinde, therefore, implores citizens to calm down and rest assured that their interests are being looked after.”

Also, on its verified X handle, the Oyo State Government urged residents to remain calm, noting that an investigation was underway to unravel the cause of the explosion.

“The Oyo State Government is aware of reports of an explosion in Ibadan. Residents are urged to remain calm as security agencies are investigating this to determine the source and cause of the incident,” the X post read.

The police also confirmed the explosion.

The police spokesman, Adewale Oyefeso, said the explosion happened around Dejo Oyelese Street Bodija Ibadan around 7:44 pm.

He said the cause of the explosion was unknown, and no casualty could be confirmed as the search continued on Tuesday night.

“The Commissioner of Police Oyo State Command, in the company with some senior officers and other responders, is on the ground for on-the-spot assessment and rescue operation.

“The Oyo State Police Command has also deployed armed and plainclothes officers to forestall any breakdown of law and order,” the police spokesman said.

A University of Ibadan student, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone said, “It is true. We all heard the sound, and it was very loud. The cloud is cloudy with smoke. It happened at Bodija, and we in the UI area could see the smoke. Even those at Sango and Ojo heard the sound. In fact, we are all in a room, scared for our lives.”

Motunrayo Adegboro, another resident of Barika, about 15 minutes away from the site of the blast in Ibadan, confirmed the incident to one of our correspondents on Tuesday night.

An X user, @WillieWinehouse, tweeted, “A f***ing bomb just exploded in Ibadan! My entire house and street are in ruins!! What is going on?”

Another X user, @the_beardedsina, said that there were serious casualties and medical personnel were needed.

He tweeted, “Please retweet if you see this. If you are a medical professional in Ibadan and close by, please; our help and assistance are needed at Adeyi Avenue, Bodija. There are serious casualties there. Please help share.”

Survivors recount incident

Survivors of the explosion claimed that dynamite used by miners triggered the explosion which led to loss of lives and property in the community.

One of the survivors identified only as Mohammed said, “When the spark started, it was from the electricals and I brought out my fire extinguisher trying to help. My neighbour told me that it had passed an extinguisher and we needed to call the fire service. I told my son to bring my phone for me to call the fire service before the fire touched dynamite brought home by some miners in the building.

“The explosion threw me away and I thought I was dead. My children and wife are currently at the hospital receiving treatment.”

Another survivor who identified himself as Olaide, noted that they were called out to help douse a fire when the dynamite exploded.

He said, “We didn’t know that they brought anything home. We were only trying to help when we fell. I didn’t know when I woke up. I just found myself lying on the floor. It was scary.”

Lives, property lost

Our correspondent who was at the scene of the explosion saw no fewer than 20 victims being rescued while some were dead.

However, the total number of casualties remained unknown as of reason time.

Not less than 20 houses were affected in the explosion and at least 10 houses were completely damaged.

Our correspondent counted at least 15 vehicles that were completely damaged and more than five cars partly destroyed.

Search and rescue operations ongoing

As of press time, a rescue operation was still ongoing at the site of the explosion.

Rescue workers believed that some persons were still trapped under the rubble and efforts were ongoing to rescue them.

Officials of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team are investigating to confirm the type of explosive that triggered the explosion.

Still on the explosion, Special Adviser to Makinde on Security Matters, retired CP Fatai Owoseni, gave the following update:

1. No one could authoritatively say what the nature of the explosion is

2. The impact is felt at about 500m radius

3. The explosion happened around Dejo Oyelese Close, Off Adeyi Avenue, Old Bodija

4. There's no need for anyone to go there to see what's happening. Security operatives are there and rescue workers. It's good that they should have clear access to rescue people as some may be buried under rubbles

5. Oyo State governor has instructed hospitals to admit anyone that's brought in from the explosion site and start attending to them immediately

6. All residents in the affected areas are advised to leave their house this evening, just in case of secondary explosion.

7. All hotels are to allow people who come in from the explosion site and around it. The state government will settle them.

Punch/NewsScroll

Palestinians fight in hard-hit areas of Gaza while deal emerges to deliver medicine to hostages

Palestinian militants battled Israeli forces in devastated northern Gaza and launched a barrage of rockets from farther south on Tuesday in a show of force more than 100 days into Israel’s massive air and ground campaign against the tiny coastal enclave.

The fighting in the north, which was the first target of Israel’s offensive and where entire neighborhoods have been pulverized, showed how far Israel remains from achieving its goals of dismantling Hamas and returning scores of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war.

In other developments, France and Qatar, the Persian Gulf nation that helped mediate a previous cease-fire, said late Tuesday that they had brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medicine to Israeli hostages in Gaza, as well as additional aid to Palestinians in the besieged territory.

France said it had been working since October on the deal, which will provide three months’ worth of medication for 45 hostages with chronic illnesses, as well as other medicines and vitamins. The medicines are expected to enter Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday.

It was the first known agreement between the warring sides since a weeklong truce in November.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is worsening, with 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians having fled their homes and U.N. agencies warning of mass starvation and disease. The conflict threatens to widen after the U.S. and Israel traded strikes with Iranian-backed groups across the region.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ military and governing capabilities to ensure that the Oct. 7 attack is never repeated. Militants stormed into Israel from Gaza that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing around 250 people. With strong diplomatic and military support from the United States, Israel has resisted international calls for a cease-fire.

Nearly half of the hostages were released during the truce, but more than 100 remain in captivity. Hamas has said it will not release any others until Israel ends the war.

STRIKES AND COUNTERSTRIKES ACROSS THE REGION

The longer the war goes on, the more it threatens to ignite other fronts across the region.

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling U.S. Consulate in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Iraq and the U.S. condemned the strikes, which killed several civilians, and Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran in protest.

Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have carried out dozens of attacks on bases housing U.S. forces, and a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed an Iranian-backed militia leader earlier this month.

Elsewhere, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have resumed their attacks on container ships in the Red Sea following a wave of U.S.-led strikes last week. The U.S. military carried out another strike Tuesday. Separately, it said two Navy SEALS are missing after a raid last week on a ship carrying Iranian-made missile parts and weapons bound for Yemen.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have exchanged fire along the border nearly every day since the war in Gaza began. The strikes and counterstrikes have grown more severe since an Israeli strike killed Hamas’ deputy political leader in Beirut this month, raising fears of a repeat of the 2006 war.

MILITANTS KEEP FIGHTING IN GAZA’S HARD-HIT NORTH

In Gaza, the Israeli military said its forces located some 100 rocket installations and 60 ready-to-use rockets in the area of Beit Lahiya, a town on the territory’s northern edge. Israeli forces killed dozens of militants during the operation, the military said, without providing evidence.

Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani, who lives in Beit Lahiya, said Israeli airstrikes hit several buildings on the eastern side of the town.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza, including Gaza City, following Israeli evacuation orders in October. Israel shut off water to the north in the opening days of the war, and hardly any aid has been allowed into the area, even as tens of thousands of people have remained there.

Residents reached by phone Tuesday described the heaviest fighting in weeks in Gaza City.

“The bombing never stopped,” said Faris Abu Abbas, who lives in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood. “The resistance is here and didn’t leave.”

Ayoub Saad, who lives near Shifa Hospital downtown, said he heard gunfire and shelling overnight and into Tuesday and saw dead and wounded people being brought to the hospital on carts.

After weeks of heavy fighting across northern Gaza, Israeli officials said at the start of the year that they were scaling back operations there. The focus shifted to the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

But there too, they have encountered heavy resistance. The military said at least 25 rockets were fired into Israel on Tuesday, damaging a store in one of the strongest bombardments in more than a week. Israel’s Channel 12 television said the rockets were launched from the Bureij camp in central Gaza.

A SPIRALING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that the bodies of 158 people killed in Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, bringing the war’s overall death toll to 24,285. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but says around two-thirds of those killed were women and children.

Senior U.N. officials warned Monday that Gaza faces widespread famine and disease if more aid is not allowed in. While they did not directly blame Israel, they said aid delivery is hobbled by the opening of too few border crossings, a slow vetting process, and continuing fighting throughout the territory — all of which is largely under Israel’s control.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said U.N. agencies and their partners “cannot effectively deliver humanitarian aid while Gaza is under such heavy, widespread and unrelenting bombardment.” At least 152 U.N. staffers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.

Israeli officials say they have placed no limits on humanitarian aid and have called on the U.N. to provide more workers and trucks to accelerate delivery.

Israel completely sealed off Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and only relented under U.S. pressure. The U.S., as well as the U.N., have continued to push Israel to ease the flow of aid.

Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it fights in dense residential areas. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 190 of its own soldiers have been killed in the Gaza offensive.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine conflict began in 2008 – Putin

The West provoked the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine by luring Kiev with the prospect of NATO membership. This move drastically changed the security situation on the continent, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. The current standoff began not in 2022 but in 2008, he added, speaking to local community leaders from across Russia.

Putin then cited a former Czech president, who, according to Putin, has “recently” admitted that the “war” between Kiev and Moscow started in summer 2008 when the US-led bloc decided to “open its doors to Ukraine and Georgia.” It is unclear whether Putin was speaking about Milos Zeman, who had enjoyed close relations with Moscow for many years but sharply condemned Russia in February 2022 following the start of its military campaign against Kiev. It is also unclear which exact statement the Russian president was referring to.

Speaking to local community heads, the president stated that the 2008 NATO decision “drastically changed the situation in Eastern Europe.” Putin also noted that when Ukraine became an independent state in the early 1990s, it proclaimed its neutrality.

The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, adopted in July 1990, announced that the then-Soviet Socialist Republic declared “its intention to become … a permanently neutral state that does not take part in any military blocs and sticks to the non-nuclear principles: not to accept, produce or acquire nuclear weapons.”

The situation started to change rapidly after the Western-backed 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev. Later the same year, the Ukrainian parliament – the Verkhovnaya Rada – adopted amendments to its laws, in which its neutral status was abandoned. The amendments were introduced by then-president Petr Poroshenko.

In 2017, accession to NATO was declared Ukraine’s foreign policy priority under new legislation. Two years later, Ukrainian lawmakers amended the nation’s constitution to declare “the strategic course on acquiring full membership in the EU and NATO” the “basis of internal and foreign policy.”

Russia has repeatedly expressed its concerns over NATO encroachment towards its borders and called it a national security threat. Prior to the outbreak of the current conflict, Moscow came forward with a comprehensive plan for security guarantees in Europe.

Submitted in December 2021, the proposal included demands that NATO officially bar Ukraine from ever becoming a member of the military bloc and for NATO to withdraw its forces to where they were before the alliance expanded eastward in 1997. The plan, aimed at defusing tensions in Europe, also called on the US-led bloc to pledge not to expand further East.

Moscow also demanded that the US withdraw nuclear weapons it had deployed to the territory of its non-nuclear allies in Europe, as well as all the relevant rapid deployment infrastructure. The overture was largely rejected by the US and its allies.

** NATO chief describes battlefield situation in Ukraine as difficult

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has described the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine as extremely difficult for the Ukrainian army and called for not underestimating Russia.

"The situation on the battlefield is extremely difficult. The Russians are now pushing on many frontlines. And of course, the big offensive that the Ukrainians launched last summer didn't give all the results we all hoped for. And we see how Russia is now building up," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Russia is pushing hard. And this is serious and we should never underestimate Russia."

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-governmental organization that meets annually to discuss topical issues related to politics, economics and public life.

The 54th annual meeting of the WEF is taking place in Davos from January 15 to 19 under the theme "Rebuilding Trust." It brings together business executives, political leaders and experts from more than 120 countries (a total of 2,800 participants). The Russian side is not represented at the current meeting in Davos, as the organizers did not send it an invitation, just like in 2023.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Kharkiv, 17 injured

Two Russian missiles struck a residential area in the centre of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv on Tuesday, injuring 17 people, two of them seriously, and badly damaging homes, local officials said.

Rescue teams were sifting through piles of rubble to establish whether others were hurt. The city's mayor described two "powerful explosions" and said at least 10 dwellings had been damaged.

Ukraine's Emergency Services, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said one of the missiles had hit a three-storey building that had previously housed a medical centre.

Fires were extinguished in two buildings and residential and other buildings sustained damage.

Regional Police Chief Volodymyr Tymoshko told public broadcaster Suspilne that one of the missiles had hit a roadway.

Emergency services posted online photos showing rescue teams poring over piles of smashed building materials, tackling fires, scrambling up ladders to damaged upper storeys and helping evacuees board minibuses.

Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said 17 people had been injured. Fourteen were in hospital, including two women who were seriously hurt.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, also writing on Telegram, said the missiles struck "precisely where there is no military infrastructure and precisely where there are in fact residences."

"There are at least 10 damaged buildings. Rescue teams are continuing to go through the rubble. And there is plenty of rubble."

Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, has been a frequent target of attacks, but in the space of the nearly two-year-old conflict, the city has not fallen into Russian hands. Russian missiles hit a hotel in the city last week, injuring 11 people.

RT/Tass/Reuters

“Do you think that every fingerprint is actually unique?”

It’s a question that a professor asked Gabe Guo during a casual chat while he was stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdowns, waiting to start his freshman year at Columbia University. “Little did I know that conversation would set the stage for the focus of my life for the next three years,” Guo said.

Guo, now an undergraduate senior in Columbia’s department of computer science, led a team that did a study on the subject, with the professor, Wenyao Xu of the University of Buffalo, as one of his coauthors. Published this week in the journal Science Advances, the paper seemingly upends a long-accepted truth about fingerprints: They are not, Guo and his colleagues argue, all unique.

In fact, journals rejected the work multiple times before the team appealed and eventually got it accepted at Science Advances. “There was a lot of pushback from the forensics community initially,” recalled Guo, who had no background in forensics before the study.

“For the first iteration or two of our paper, they said it’s a well-known fact that no two fingerprints are alike. I guess that really helped to improve our study, because we just kept putting more data into it, (increasing accuracy) until eventually the evidence was incontrovertible,” he said.

A new look at old prints

T o get to its surprising results, the team employed an artificial intelligence model called a deep contrastive network, which is commonly used for tasks such as facial recognition. The researchers added their own twist to it and then fed it a US government database of 60,000 fingerprints in pairs that sometimes belonged to the same person (but from different fingers) and sometimes belonged to different people.

As it worked, the AI-based system found that fingerprints from different fingers of the same person shared strong similarities and was therefore able to tell when the fingerprints belonged to the same individual and when they didn’t, with an accuracy for a single pair peaking at 77% — seemingly disproving that each fingerprint is “unique.”

“We found a rigorous explanation for why this is the case: the angles and curvatures at the center of the fingerprint,” Guo said.

For hundreds of years of forensic analysis, he added, people have been looking at different features called “minutiae,” the branchings and endpoints in fingerprint ridges that are used as the traditional markers for fingerprint identification. “They are great for fingerprint matching, but not reliable for finding correlations among fingerprints from the same person,” Guo said. “And that’s the insight we had.”

The authors said they are aware of potential biases in the data. Although they believe the AI system operates in much the same way across genders and races, for the system to be usable in actual forensics, more careful validation is required through the analysis of a larger and broader database of fingerprints, according to the study.

However, Guo said he’s confident that the discovery can improve criminal investigations.:

“The most immediate application is it can help generate new leads for cold cases, where the fingerprints left at the crime scene are from different fingers than those on file,” he said. “But on the flip side, this won’t just help catch more criminals. This will also actually help innocent people who might not have to be unnecessarily investigated anymore. And I think that’s a win for society.”

‘A tempest in a teacup’?

Using deep learning techniques on fingerprint images is an interesting topic, according to Christophe Champod, a professor of forensic science at the School of Criminal Justice of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. However, Champod, who wasn’t involved in the study, said he doesn’t believe the work has uncovered anything new.

“Their argument that these shapes are somewhat correlated between fingers has been known from the early start of fingerprinting, when it was done manually, and it has been documented for years,” he said. “I think they have oversold their paper, by lack of knowledge, in my view. I’m happy that they have rediscovered something known, but essentially, it’s a tempest in a teacup.”

In response, Guo said that nobody had ever systematically quantified or used the similarities between fingerprints from different fingers of the same person to the degree that the new study has.

“We are the first to explicitly point out that the similarity is due to the ridge orientation at the center of the fingerprint,” Guo said. “Furthermore, we are the first to attempt to match fingerprints from different fingers of the same person, at least with an automated system.”

Simon Cole, a professor in the department of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine, agreed that the paper is interesting but said its practical utility is overstated. Cole was also not involved in the study.

“We were not ‘wrong’ about fingerprints,” he said of forensic experts. “The unproven but intuitively true claim that no two fingerprints are ‘exactly alike’ is not rebutted by finding that fingerprints are similar. Fingerprints from different people, as well as from the same person have always been known to be similar.”

The paper said the system could be useful in crime scenes in which the fingerprints found are from different fingers than those in the police record, but Cole said that this can only occur in rare cases, because when prints are taken, all 10 fingers and often palms are routinely recorded. “It’s not clear to me when they think law enforcement will have only some, but not all, of an individual’s fingerprints on record,” he said.

The team behind the study says it’s confident in the results and has open-sourced the AI code for others to check, a decision both Champod and Cole praised. But Guo said the importance of the study goes beyond fingerprints.

“This isn’t just about forensics, it’s about AI. Humans have been looking at fingerprints since we existed, but nobody ever noticed this similarity until we had our AI analyze it. That just speaks to the power of AI to automatically recognize and extract relevant features,” he said.

“I think this study is just the first domino in a huge sequence of these things. We’re going to see people using AI to discover things that were literally hiding in plain sight, right in front of our eyes, like our fingers.”

CNN

In 2000, Penny Bowers-Schebal was a 31-year-old “cash-strapped” single mother struggling to cover basic household bills.

She wanted to “build financial security” beyond the 401(k) program at her employer, Progressive Insurance, she tells CNBC Make It. So, at the advice of Suze Orman, she started putting $25 per month into a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP).

Under that plan, you invest in a single company — Bowers-Schebal picked Home Depot because Progressive didn’t offer DRIP accounts at the time — and all earnings are automatically used to buy more of that same company’s shares.

It seemed like a small, realistic option to Bowers-Schebal, who didn’t have the time, money or educational resources to track the stock market or hire a broker.

The monthly $25 felt like a “pittance,” she says, but it paid off: In 2017, Bowers-Schebal withdrew $25,000 from her Home Depot account and used it to launch a wedding gown shop in rural Geneva, Ohio, called Formality Bridal.

Her store became profitable after its first year, she says. She opened a second location in Erie, Pennsylvania, late last year, and the two locations brought in more than $441,000 in annual revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Ultimately, her Home Depot investment brought her an annual return of roughly 13%. That outpaces the S&P 500′s average annualized return of 10.26% over the past 67 years.

“I’m not a big investor, and this was a life-changing investment for me,” Bowers-Schebal, now 55, says. “It allowed me the opportunity to open a business without borrowing the seed money from a bank or putting my family in any financial peril.”

A bit of luck — and advice for first-time investors

Bowers-Schebal’s investment was somewhat lucky.

Home Depot’s stock split multiple times over her 20-year investment, which meant she owned twice the number of shares at half their initial price. That can benefit long-term investors: Once the shares went back up, she owed more shares at a higher value.

Investing in a stable company also helped, says Douglas Boneparth,certified financial planner and co-author of “The Millennial Money Fix.”

DRIP accounts were created as a practical way to invest, allowing newcomers to explore the stock market without paying broker commission fees. But broadly speaking, tying all your investment money to a single company is risky: If the company tanks, so do you, says Boneparth.

“It’s the opposite of diversification, it’s concentration,” he says. “What if she invested in a company that wasn’t around anymore, like RadioShack?”

His advice for first-time investors today: Look into sites like Robinhood, which allow you to invest in multiple stocks while only charging transaction fees. It’s less of an “administrative pain” than having multiple DRIP accounts, Boneparth says.

“All of the things that the DRIP offered, relative to brokerage, have all but faded,” he adds. “Technology has given the entire industry a huge life in terms of democratization and accessibility to investing.”

CNBC

Terrorists, bandits, and criminals of other hues took their inglorious activities in the country to a new dimension in the last 48 hours, wreaking mayhem in six states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

Their deadly operations across five of the six geo-political zones of the country left no fewer than six persons dead; 60 persons kidnapped, a corpse stolen and goods worth millions of naira also stolen. The only zone not affected by the attacks was the South-South.

However, neither Force Headquarters nor Defence Headquarters, DHQ, responded to calls on an inquiry about what they were doing to stem the tide of insecurity in the country at press time yesterday.

Kidnappers kill 3 of 10 victims in Abuja, raise ransom to N700m

But in Abuja, kidnappers, who abducted 10 persons from an estate, Sagwari Layout, Dutse, on January 7, yesterday, reportedly killed three of their victims to send a strong warning to their relatives negotiating ransom payment.

It was also gathered that the bandits had increased their ransom demand from the initial N60 million per person to N100 million, now totalling N700 million.

Residents said the victims were allegedly killed over the ‘delay’ in raising the ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

A 13-year-old high school student, identified as Folorunsho Ariyo, was among those killed.

On Sunday, reports emerged that the kidnappers who also operated in some villages in Bwari, had killed one of the six abducted persons to force the family into quickly raising the demanded ransom.

Dutse is a town under the Bwari Area Council of the FCT.

Pushed to the wall, residents of Sagwari Layout have perfected plans to stage a massive protest against perceived inaction of government and security agencies in rescuing their kith and kin.

Initially planned for yesterday, the protest was, however, shifted to today as a result of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration.

Bandits kill 3, abduct 50 including 36 women in Zamfara community

In Zamfara State, no fewer than 36 women in Magizawa community of Kaura Namoda Local Government Area, were abducted by bandits on Sunday night.

Local vigilantes alleged that they and some security personnel were overwhelmed by the bandits who invaded the community, killed three, including a vigilante leader and wounded two others.

The Police were yet to get details of the attack, according to the Zamfara Police spokesperson, Yazid Abubakar in a chat with journalists.

However, a vigilante, who survived the attack, said they were taken unawares when the bandits took control of the community, went from house to house and forced the locals, majority of whom were women, to follow them into the bush.

“They abducted about 50 people and 36 were women. We tried to fight them but they took us unaware and got mixed up with members of the community. In the process, they killed one of our bravest members and two others, they also injured two others. They broke into houses that were locked and abducted locals,” he said.

Bandits raid military camp, unleash mayhem on Katsina community

In like manner, armed bandits stormed a joint military camp in Nahuta village, Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State on Sunday night, leaving a trail of destruction and looted goods.

Sources in the camp said the attack occurred around 11:30 pm. The heavily-armed bandits wielding AK-47 rifles among other weapons reportedly set ablaze vehicles and other valuables.

Despite being outnumbered, courageous soldiers managed to repel the assault as no life was lost.

“The bandits outweighed us and invaded the camp, causing considerable damage,” a source revealed, and lamented lack of reinforcement throughout the encounter.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the bandits unleashed further mayhem on Nahuta town. They ransacked shops, broke into houses, and looted properties and livestock worth millions of naira, leaving residents traumatized and dispossessed.

As the time of this report, security agencies were yet to officially comment on the attack.

Police confirm abduction of mother, son in Zaria

In neighbouring Kaduna State, the Police Command confirmed the abduction of Halimatu Sa’adiya Bello and her 17-year-old son, Yusuf Bello, at Dogarawa area, Sabon Gari LGA.

Mansur Hassan, the command’s Public Relations Officer, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Zaria, yesterday, saying the police had swung into action in an effort to rescue the victims.

He advised the public to be more vigilant and report any suspicious movement to security agencies.

Gafai Katsina, Chairman, Security Committee of residents of the area, said that the bandits, who were 15 in number and armed with sophisticated weapons, stormed Dogarawa New Layout at about 2 a.m.

“They entered the house of Adamu Bello and abducted the victims, attacked Adamu Bello with matchets on his hand; Adamu Bello is receiving treatment at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, ABUTH, Shika, Zaria. The bandits did not abduct the two tenants residing in the house, they tied them and locked them in their rooms,” he said.

Gunmen abduct varsity lecturer in Kebbi

Also, gunmen on Sunday kidnapped Musa Sale Argungu, a deputy dean and lecturer in the Faculty of Physical Sciences, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero, Kebbi State.

The state branch chairman, Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, ASUU, Abubakar Birnin Yauri, who confirmed the abduction said that the lecturer was kidnapped in the night at gunpoint, forced into a waiting vehicle and whisked away to an unknown destination.

He added that till now the university management was yet to know the whereabouts of the abducted lecturer, adding that the university community is in deep shock over the incident and prayed for his safe return.

Kebbi Police image maker, SP Nafiu Abubakar, didn’t answer calls made to his phone line and was yet to reply to text messages sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

Kidnappers engage soldiers, overrun Enugu LG, abduct 4

There was palpable fear at Adani, Uzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu State following reported abduction of a former councillor of Ojor, Romanus Chikwelu, on Saturday.

Three others abducted with Chikwelu were the former transition committee vice- chairman of the LGA, Vitalis Okonkwo, his son, and a man, Nnalue Igwebuike.

It was gathered that the incident happened before the Community Secondary School in Adani.
Community sources disclosed that officers of the Nigerian Army engaged the suspected kidnappers in a gun battle but succumbed to their superior firepower.

It was equally learned that a stray bullet hit a road user in the shoulder during the cross-fire between the soldiers and kidnappers.

A community stakeholder in Adani, who confirmed this incident to Vanguard, said that the suspects are demanding a ransom of N25 million for their captives.

He further said that the traditional ruler of Adani Community, Igwe Patrick Okafor, was allegedly murdered in cold blood on the eve of Christmas and his blood was smeared on the wall of his residence by the attackers.

Community sources disclosed that no fewer than seven wedding guests were abducted in the local government area a few days ago, and that the former councillor’s abduction came a few weeks after he declared his intention to vie for the chairmanship position in Uzo-Uwani in the forthcoming local government election in Enugu State.

Hoodlums invade EKSUTH, steal corpse as doctors declare immediate strike

In Ekiti State, suspected hoodlums in the early hours of yesterday, invaded the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, EKSUTH, attacked doctors on duty and made away with a corpse.

Sources in the hospital revealed that the hoodlums attacked doctors and other health officers on duty at the accident and emergency ward, destroyed facilities and made away with a corpse suspected to be the father of one of the hoodlums.

In a swift reaction to the matter, the Association of Resident Doctors in the Hospital held an emergency meeting and directed its members to embark on an indefinite strike with immediate effect.

This was contained in a letter addressed to the Chief Medical Director, Kayode Olabanji and signed by the President of the Association, Famous Adeyemi.

The letter read: “The above-named association writes to notify you of the decision of the Emergency Congress held today to embark on an indefinite strike with immediate effect.

“This is following the actions of hoodlums who stormed the Accident and Emergency unit of the Hospital in the early hours of today and assaulted some members of the Association, destroyed several hospital equipment and properties and stole a corpse during the attack

“This attack is happening at a time when our members are showing understanding with the state government on the non-implementation of our demands on improved welfare vis-a-vis being faced with work overload and exhaustion as a result of poor remuneration, pay disparity and the attendant effect of local brain drain

“We wish to use this medium to call on the management of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, EKSUTH, and the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Abayomi to apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice for their actions

“We also implore the state government to, as a matter of urgency, attend to our pending demands which border on improved welfare of our members. We implore the management and the government to provide a lasting solution to these incessant attacks. The strike will not be called off until our demands are met”.

Poverty, hunger fueling insecurity in Nigeria, Atiku laments

Similarly, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, lamented that the increasing spate of hunger and poverty was fueling insecurity in Nigeria.

Reacting to the recent increase in insecurity across the country, the former vice president in a tweet via his official X account (formerlly Tweeter), said he was distressed by the escalating violence and lawlessness in the nation.

Recall that Atiku had urged the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to urgently address the dire security situation to regain the trust of Nigerians.

The former VP wrote: “The escalating violence and lawlessness in our nation deeply distresses me as bandits and kidnappers continue their reign of terror unchecked. Our youths and innocent citizens are being murdered daily. Just last Saturday, we lost Nabeeha to her captors.

‘’ Yesterday, the tragedy deepened with the murder of more victims, including Folorunsho Ariyo, a 13-year-old student. Folorunsho was one of ten people kidnapped from Sagwari Estate Layout in Dutse, Bwari Area Council of the FCT, on January 7, 2024.

“It is obvious that the worsening poverty and hunger in the land is escalating the level of kidnapping and insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, the federal capital.

“When the government fails to fulfil its constitutional obligations of protecting the lives and property of citizens, it is an invitation to kidnappers and other criminal elements to have a free rein, visiting houses and hotels in and around the capital city, kidnapping citizens without resistance. This is a sad development.

“It is imperative that the authorities address this dire security situation urgently to regain the trust of the Nigerian people.

‘’While I mourn with the deceased families, I pray to the Almighty to comfort them, grant the dead eternal peace and protect our nation.”

Vanguard