A Russian military cargo plane has brought a team of instructors and various equipment to assist the Nigerien army with counter-terrorism training, according to the West African nation’s media reports.

The Russian instructors arrived in the country on Wednesday night, public broadcaster Radio Television du Niger (RTN) reported late Thursday, airing footage of a military plane unloading cargo.

“We are here to train the Nigerien army... to develop military cooperation between Russia and Niger,” said a man in camouflage interviewed by RTN.

“We have a lot of experience in fighting terrorism. And we are here to share this experience with our friends,” another Russian specialist told Sputnik.

“The African corps here will be building relationships and jointly forming and training the Nigerien army," he added. “We brought with us the educational and material base for the training of various specialists.”

The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to confirm the scope of the mission, but RTN claimed in a Facebook post that the instructors will also install an air-defense system in Niger.

Niger’s transitional leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, and Russian President Vladimir Putin committed to coordinating efforts to combat terrorism in the Sahel region last month. According to the Kremlin, the issue was discussed when the West African nation’s leader called Putin to express solidarity with Moscow following a terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

Since taking power after the ouster of pro-Western President Mohamed Bazoum last year, the new leadership in Niamey has taken measures to sever ties with former partners, citing their failure to quell jihadist violence in the Sahel, which had been the goal of their engagement.

France completed the withdrawal of its troops from Niger in December after Niamey ordered them to leave, accusing the former colonial power of internal meddling.

Washington, however, has ruled out disengagement from Niger for now, even after Niamey revoked an agreement with the US on March 16 that had allowed some 1,000 American troops and civilian contractors to operate in the landlocked nation. 

Russia Today

ISRAELI REPORTS

IDF rains down on multiple Hamas targets in central Gaza Strip

The IDF conducted a targeted operation in central Gaza on Wednesday night while fighter jets and aircraft attacked dozens of terror infrastructuresabove and below ground, the IDF announced on Thursday.

Furthermore, combat teams of the Brigade 401, Nahal, and other units under the 162nd Division operated in central Gaza on Wednesday night, eliminating terrorists and destroying terror infrastructure.

Before entering the area, Israel Air Force jets, in coordination with Brigade 215, struck dozens of terror infrastructures above and below ground in the central strip.

The joint operation of ground forces and the air force was based on precise intelligence indicating the presence of terror infrastructures and numerous terrorists in the area.

IDF: ”We are constructing the Northern Crossing: a new land crossing from Israel into northern Gaza, to enable more aid to flow directly to civilians in the areas that have been challenging for trucks to access״

The IDF, via the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT), is continuing efforts to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of trucks containing food supplies and humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip every day.

Since the beginning of the war, over 22,000 trucks containing over 400,000 tons of humanitarian aid have passed through the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana border crossings to the Gaza Strip, after undergoing security checks. In addition, approximately 3,961 food packages have been airdropped in 64 airdrops to distribution points across the Gaza Strip. As part of the humanitarian effort, yesterday (Wednesday) 298 humanitarian aid trucks entered through the crossings and 353 food packages were airdropped.

Furthermore, yesterday (Wednesday), the Coordination and Liaison Administration for the Gaza Strip, together with the IDF Southern Command, coordinated the entry of 28 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip.

The IDF will continue its efforts to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea in accordance with international law.

Attached is a video announcement by the IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari regarding the expanding of humanitarian aid:

https://bit.ly/3JaKf5s

Attached is an infographic with data on the humanitarian aid that has entered the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war: https://idfanc.activetrail.biz/ANC100424684984

Attached is an infographic with data on the humanitarian aid that entered the Gaza Strip over the past day: https://idfanc.activetrail.biz/ANC10042465498

Attached is an infographic detailing future steps to expand humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip:

https://idfanc.activetrail.biz/ANC1004245487

Attached is footage of the humanitarian aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom Crossing: https://bit.ly/3Wcassb

** IDF: The IDF and ISA eliminated the terrorist Nasser Yakob Jabber Nasser. As a part of his activities in Hamas' military wing, he was responsible for funding a significant part of Hamas' military activities in Rafah. Last December, he transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hamas for its military activities.

In addition, over the past few days, IDF troops conducted precise operational activities in the area of Shejaiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The troops eliminated terrorists and struck terrorist infrastructure. In one of the activities, the troops conducted a targeted raid on a Hamas post used for training exercises. Following the raid, an IAF aircraft struck and destroyed the post.

Attached are photos of the IDF activities: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC1104202422

** IDF: A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck three Hezbollah military compounds in the areas of Meiss el Jabal, Yarine, and Khiam, along with a Hezbollah military observation post in the area of Marwahin in southern Lebanon.

Throughout the day, IDF artillery fired in order to remove a threat in the area of Abou Chach.

Attached is a video of the IDF strikes in southern Lebanon: https://bit.ly/3TW0xnv

HAMAS’ REPORTS

Latest developments from north of Nuseirat camp:

The battles between the resistance and the occupation forces are concentrated in the Wadi Gaza Bridge area, north of Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip.

- There is no further Israeli advance on this axis, and no incursion into Nuseirat, and the bridge and its surroundings have witnessed occasional clashes for about 10 hours.

The occupation uses artillery shelling and drone bullets in the clashes area north of Nuseirat.

** Clashes and heavy shooting in the town of Al-Mughraqa and the area north of the Nuseirat camp, amid intense flights of Israeli reconnaissance aircraft.

** Al-Quds Brigades: We shot down a Zionist quadcopter plane and took control of it while it was carrying out intelligence missions in the skies of the central Gaza Strip.

** Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - Tulkarm:

With God's help and strength, our fighters fought fierce clashes today at dawn with the Zionist occupation forces and their military vehicles, storming the city of Tulkarm from several fronts, with machine guns and explosive devices.

#Al-Aqsa Flood

** Hezbollah: We targeted the Bayad Blida site with missile weapons, and hit it directly.

** A little while later... scenes of a Zionist quadcopter aircraft controlled by the Al-Quds Brigades in the skies of the Central Governorate.

** Member of the Hamas Political Bureau, Zaher Jabareen:

The occupation fails to achieve its goals, and the Zana ambush is the best evidence

We will resist the occupation until it disappears from our land. We have no choice but to resist. We are a movement and a people who want to live like other nations without occupation.

- Children of Hamas leaders in the first ranks of sacrifice

- Commander Ismail Haniyeh is a model of a patient and patient leader

- The assassination of Haniyeh’s sons and grandchildren inside Gaza nullified the words of the negligent and normalizers

** Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: Our brigades are engaged in violent clashes with the occupation forces storming the Al-Faraa camp with bullets and blessed devices.

The Jerusalem Post/Israel Defense Forces/Hamas Brigade al-Qassam

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Major Russian air strikes destroy Kyiv power plant, damage other stations

Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, officials said, ramping up pressure on the embattled energy system as Kyiv runs low on air defences.

The major attack more than two years since Russia's full-scale invasioncompletely destroyed the Trypilska coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital, a senior official at the company that runs the facility told Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had been obliged to launch the strikes in response to Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks on energy targets inside Russia.

Footage on social media showed a fire raging at the large Soviet-era facility and smoke belching from it. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video as the Trypilska station.

"We need air defence and other defence support, not eye-closing and long discussions," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram, condemning the attacks as "terror".

The Russian defence ministry said it hit fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine in what it described as a massive retaliatory strike using drones and high-precision, long-range weapons from air and sea.

The strikes were a response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's oil, gas and energy facilities, it said.

Putin told his ally, Belarusian Presudent Alexander Lukashenko that the attacks were a part of Russia's objective of the "demilitarisation" of Ukraine - one of the objectives of the Kremlin's 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

"Unfortunately, we observed a series of strikes on our energy sites recently and were obliged to respond," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling Lukashenko.

"The strikes on energy are linked in part with solving one of the tasks we set for ourselves, and that is demilitarisation. We believe above all that in this way we will affect Ukraine's military industrial complex and in a very direct way."

Russia, he said, had refrained from carrying out such attacks in winter "out of humanitarian considerations".

Kyiv's appeals for urgent air defence supplies from the West have grown increasingly desperate since Russia renewed its long-range aerial assaults on the Ukrainian energy system last month.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was blunt in repeating calls for more U.S.-made Patriot systems.

"What is there to discuss?" he told the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform during a visit to Slovakia. "There is only a single question: Give us Patriot systems! If we had Patriots, we would not have lost all of this today."

The attacks, which hammered thermal and hydroelectric power plants, sparked fears about the resilience of an energy system hobbled by a Russian air campaign in the war's first winter.

Ukraine's air force commander said air defences took down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 drones. The attack used 82 missiles and drones in total, the military said.

The destroyed power plant outside Kyiv, a major supplier for the capital and Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, is the third and last facility owned by state-owned energy company Centrenergo.

"Everything is destroyed," Andriy Gota, head of the supervisory board of the company, said when asked about the situation at Centrenergo.

BIGGEST ENERGY SUPPLIER NEAR THE CAPITAL

The Trypilska plant was the biggest energy facility near Kyiv and was built to have a capacity of 1,800 megawatts, more than the pre-war needs of Ukraine's biggest city.

The Ukrenergo grid operator said its substations and power generating facilities had been damaged in attacks on the regions of Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kyiv.

Ukraine's largest private electricity company DTEK, which lost 80% of its generating capacity in attacks on March 22 and March 29, said Russia's attacks hit two of its power stations.

On Thursday afternoon, Russian forces attacked a thermal power station in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine with guided bombs. The scale of damage was not immediately clear.

The strikes also attacked two underground storage facilities where Ukraine stores natural gas, including some owned by foreign companies, energy company Naftogaz said. The facilities continued to operate, it added.

"The situation in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to lose," said U.S. ambassador Bridget Brink, adding that 10 missiles struck infrastructure in the Kharkiv area alone.

The grid operator issued a statement urging Ukrainians to minimise their use of electricity in the peak evening hours.

The region of Kharkiv, which borders Russia and already has long, rolling blackouts in place, was forced to cut electricity for 200,000 people, presidential aide Oleksiy Kuleba said.

Ukraine has warned it could run out of air defence munitions if Russia keeps up the intensity of its strikes and that it is already having to make difficult decisions about what to defend.

There has been a slowdown in Western assistance and a major U.S. aid package has been blocked by Republicans in Congress.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine forcing troops to keep fighting

The Ukrainian parliament has voted against demobilizing the country’s longest-serving conscripts, forcing them to stay on the front indefinitely. The vote came as lawmakers passed a broad mobilization bill imposing new restrictions on draft-dodgers, and potentially drafting the handicapped.

The legislature voted on Thursday to pass a long-awaited bill aimed at replenishing the country’s beleaguered armed forces. The bill was expected to include a passage allowing troops who have served for 36 months to be demobilized, but a last-minute amendment removed this passage, effectively compelling these troops to keep fighting past February 2025.

The amendment passed by 227 votes to 21, with 97 lawmakers abstaining, according to the Kiev Post.

It was first seen in a final version of the bill published on Wednesday, and its inclusion angered service members who had been expecting some reprieve from combat.

“This is a disaster... How could it be possible to promise demobilization to soldiers…only to abandon them at the end?”Ukrainian State Border Guard Service officer Maxim Nesmaynov wrote on Facebook. “You can’t take away hope from soldiers that they will return home. Someone is trying to destroy the country from inside!”

Ukraine has been in a state of martial law since the conflict with Russia broke out in February 2022. Under martial law, Ukrainian conscripts are required to serve until the end of hostilities, with few exceptions. 

General Aleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, insisted to lawmakers that this requirement remain in place, the Kiev Post reported.

Thursday’s bill includes a raft of measures aimed at bolstering military recruitment. It requires all Ukrainian citizens living abroad to upload their personal information to a recruitment database, mandates that all citizens aged between 18 and 60 carry military registration documents, and bans military service evaders from driving. The bill also requires individuals previously deemed unfit for service due to disabilities to be re-evaluated for enlistment, and introduces a three-month period of mandatory military service for citizens under 24.

The bill will now be sent to the desk of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to be signed into law. Earlier this month, Zelensky – at the insistence of some of his Western backers – signed a controversial law lowering the military conscription age to 25 from 27.

Ukraine has lost more than 440,000 troops since February 2022, according to figures published last month by the Russian Defense Ministry. In an update last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu put the Ukrainian military’s losses since January at more than 80,000 men.

Reuters/RT

The words of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were honey to taste. Following the bitter ending of the 12-year rule of Macky Sall, highlighted by the widespread belief that France is at the heart of Senegal’s misery, a forlorn country enthusiastically lapped up Faye’s promise of a future untainted by French shenanigans.

At a stage, it was not clear who was the public enemy #1: Sall or France? 

Sall started well. He came to office in 2012 with solid credentials, looking every inch like what Senegal needed to break away from the incompetence and cronyism of Abdoulaye Wade under whom the country had lost its way. 

Sall was an elite with a strong connection to the grassroots. He rallied the opposition against Wade including committing the unthinkable sin of breaking off from the ruling Parti Democratique Senegalaise (PDS) under which he served as minister. He even dragged the president’s son to account before parliament. 

Senegalese applauded. After only a few years as president Sall offered to reduce his own term to set an example, but the country said over its dead body. If Senegal could not afford to crown him for life, he must complete his two-term limit of seven years each. 

It’s a decision it would later regret. The country had to drag Sall through an economy in a shambles, a country falling apart, and over one dozen dead in street protests to get him out of office. By this time, he had already exceeded his constitutional term limit. Sall, in short, became the very thing that he campaigned against.

France as dirty word

And France? That’s a different story. From Mali to Burkina Faso and from Guinea to Niger, France has become a dirty word, even though the elite in these countries are too ashamed to admit there’s nothing France has done without their helping hand. France is not just a metaphor for underdevelopment. You’ll be forgiven to think it’s probably also the reason some formerly virile folks in the former colonies have lost their libido. It’s not a laughing matter.

Faye’s inauguration address on April 2 was applauded because in a continent blighted by incompetent gerontocrats he is, at 44, the youngest president in Senegal’s 63-year history. But his speech was just as important. To say “enough” to France a fric – a perversion of France Afrique the harmless slogan of cooperation – that has made French West Africa France’s cash machine was a big deal. And Faye said it somewhat elegantly.

Sall is past tense. But promising Senegalese a future outside the grip of France, a grip forged decades before Faye was born, is where the tyre meets the road. It’s an ambitious promise made not based on where Senegal is today, but on where it wishes to be.

Dialing back to Senghor

Let’s dial back. Like a number of colonies, especially the French ones, Senegal was a part of France, in law and spirit. Senegal’s first President Leopold Sedar Senghor and an in-law of France, was one of the nine African deputies at the Constituent Assembly in Paris in 1945 that prepared the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which brought de Gaulle to power. 

That constitution according to Martin Meredith’s The Fortunes of Africa, “Endorsed the emphasis it placed on the ‘indivisible’ nature of the Union Francaise,” a union which of course included Francophone West Africa.

Anyone in doubt about the value of Union Francaise, need to be reminded that when de Gaulle died in 1970, Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic wept at the funeral of the man he fondly called “Papa.” Guinea’s Sekou Toure was the exception to Francophone West Africa’s mushy-mushy.

At independence, even though Senegal was better off than a number of other countries, it still relied heavily on French subsidies to pay its bills. Of course, things have changed somewhat in the last six decades, but only somewhat.

On the day that Faye took his oath of office, pledging to cut French wings to size, France remained the largest exporter to Senegal with goods such as medicines, wheat, and copper wire. In the last 27 years, France exports to Senegal have increased at an annual rate of 3.39 percent from $461 million in 1995 to $1.1 billion in 2022.

Of course, Nigeria, Morocco, and Ghana are also popping up on the radar, with Senegal’s intra-African trade growing by about eight percent but it would take more than a passionate inauguration speech to topple French interest, also deeply embedded in the oil and gas sectors by key businesses such as Total (formerly Elf), or BNP Paribas and Societe Generale in the financial services. 

Scapegoating France?

Is it even necessary to scapegoat France? Of course, it’s the popular thing and perennial French greed, not to mention the arrogance and condescension of its last two presidents, have not helped matters. But beyond red-meat politics, why should the average Senegalese be given the impression that once France – and all things French – is out of the way, the country would be on its way to a life of happily ever after?

Faye and those in his corner would soon find that the truth is more nuanced. In today’s world, capital or investment is not monolingual. Whether it’s French, English, Arabic or Mandarin capital, it finds a home wherever it is made welcome, wherever it can find value.

It's not a matter of patriotic convenience, for example, that Abu Dhabi has conquered 

European football clubs and real estate. Britain, France, Germany and other European countries where the Emirati kingdom is invested made them feel welcome, whatever the right-wing sentiments in these countries may be. 

Twenty-five years ago, this same kingdom, not far from the region where the West likes to call the Axis of Evil, bought the Chrysler Building, one of the most iconic features of the New York skyline, for $800 million! And surely, Faye knows that for all its sabre-rattling against China nearly three percent of US foreign debt is owed to China.

Even though Senegal’s intra-African trade profile is looking up, CFA franc, which is still tied to the French treasury, remains the currency of Francophone countries. Plans by the 15-member regional block, Ecowas, to adopt a single currency since 1987, have gone nowhere. Similarly, Kenyan President William Ruto’s call for a pan-African payment system that would settle intra-African trade outside the dollar has gone nowhere.

Faye’s homework

For Faye to promise freedom from French grip on French money, French medicines and French food, is wishful thinking. The work must start from home, from within. The country must heal after the roller-coaster transition and also take steps to restore tourists’ confidence. Faye’s government needs to tackle corruption, strengthen the justice system, and help farmers deal with the impact of climate change. 

There’s no need to demonise France. A strategic reset of Senegal’s relationship with Paris can begin with Dakar creating an environment that works for investment – wherever it is coming from – while the new government also leverages regional cooperation, especially with moderate Francophone countries in the region. 

And the country is not doing too badly in casting its net wide. China, Russia and India are following closely behind France as Senegal’s deep-pocket trading partners. Investments from these destinations may not speak French but they may just be as unserviceable as those from Paris or elsewhere if Faye does not create the right environment for them to thrive.

The political campaign is over: governance is where the tyre meets the road.

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Apple sent threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries on Wednesday, warning them that may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.

The company said it sent the alerts to individuals in 92 nations at 12pm Pacific Time Wednesday. The notification, which TechCrunch has seen, did not disclose the attackers’ identities or the countries where users received notifications.

“Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-,” it wrote in the warning to affected customers.

“This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously,” Apple added in the text.

The iPhone-maker sends these kind of notifications multiple times a yearand has notified users to such threats in over 150 countries since 2021, per an updated Apple support page.

Apple also sent an identical warning to a number of journalists and politicians in India in October last year. Later, nonprofit advocacy group Amnesty International reported that it had found Israeli spyware maker NSO Group’s invasive spyware Pegasus on the iPhones of prominent journalists in India. (Users in India are among those who have received Apple’s latest threat notifications, according to people familiar with the matter.)

The spyware alerts arrive at a time when many nations are preparing for elections. In recent months, many tech firms have cautioned about rising state-sponsored efforts to sway certain electoral outcomes. Apple’s alerts, however, did not remark on their timing.

“We are unable to provide more information about what caused us to send you this notification, as that may help mercenary spyware attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future,” Apple told affected customers.

Apple previously described the attackers as “state-sponsored” but has replaced all such references with “mercenary spyware attacks.”

The warning to customers adds: “Mercenary spyware attacks, such as those using Pegasus from the NSO Group, are exceptionally rare and vastly more sophisticated than regular cybercriminal activity or consumer malware.”

Apple said it relies solely on “internal threat-intelligence information and investigations to detect such attacks.” “Although our investigations can never achieve absolute certainty, Apple threat notifications are high-confidence alerts that a user has been individually targeted by a mercenary spyware attack and should be taken very seriously,” it added.

Tech Crunch

Attaining business growth on a shoestring budget can be a daunting task, but it is by no means impossible. Over the past few years, we have seen some compelling stories across industries, but one of the strong use cases is playing out in the entertainment and film industry, revolutionized by the growth of streaming platforms.

The recent changes in the industry have seen a steady growth in independent film studios, which are beginning to take their slice of the pie in the industry where major studios have monopolized for over a century. 

To glean some industry insight, I had a chat with Kareem Davis, the founder of Imperium Features and an indie filmmaker who has built an impressive company starting from a low-to-no budget and made quite a splash in the industry in recent times. 

The Power of Exploration and Education

Working on a shoestring budget requires exactitude, because smaller budgets can afford few mistakes. Exploration and education are tools that enable a dreamer to immerse themself in the rhythm of their dream before investing directly in it.

It may come in the form of taking a job in your industry of choice, interning in a company or undergoing an apprenticeship. The idea is to study the industry from within to understand what is required.

"I started as a self-taught filmmaker in Atlanta," says Davis. "I learned the ropes of filmmaking through trial and error and finally established my first film studio in 2017 and began a journey of explorative moviemaking on a shoestring budget. When I look back, my season of exploration was crucial to the success I am now receiving."

Whether you choose the self-funding route or you choose to raise capital, the benefit of hands-on experience in your industry of choice cannot be overstated.

Working with a shoestring budget will demand that you be as accurate as possible and spot-on in your decision-making, or you could be out of business in no time. 

Take Advantage of Available Innovation

Over the past two decades, streaming has gradually risen to the fore in the movie and entertainment industry, with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube taking the lion's share of international entertainment distribution.

These platforms have disrupted the industry and opened up doors for independent studios to at least compete with major studios. 

With streaming, reach and access are just a click away, enabling viewers to consume entire seasons in a day. This constant demand for fresh ideas presents challenges and opportunities in the industry, creating more work and possibilities for young and upcoming filmmakers.

The lesson for shoestring entrepreneurs is this: Take advantage of what is readily available while working toward your loftier goals and sell to the customer base that is available now while working toward expansion. How you do anything is how you do everything. 

Distribution Is King, and It Doesn't Have to Be Expensive

The marketing budget often has one of the largest numbers of zeros assigned to it for a reason: Everything done in-house is for consumption by those outside and a brilliant idea is useless if no one experiences it.

In the current streaming era, independent film studios have to work smarter to get their work seen, but there are many ways to be seen without spending much money. 

"In the past, I have utilized the immediate people around me," Davis says.

"Your cast and crew are more than just that, they are essentially your first street team. Having them be so proud of the project they do curated social media posts (preapproved by you) is a great way to begin to build anticipation for your film. Marketing is key and not just any type of marketing. Spectacle marketing is wild and an attention grabber. Take your film to the streets!"

From social media to local PR, there are loads of ways to get your work seen without spending so much cash. Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of waiting to have enough money to do proper marketing, but in reality, proper marketing is not defined by the amount of money spent, although it certainly helps.

Many of the biggest indies have used local publications that may be willing to feature their story; they also use location-based marketing to extend their paid ads. 

Research shows the success rate of targeted marketing supersedes market reach. Indie filmmakers may target their hometown, actors or alma mater if they are film school alumni.

Still, these lessons transcend the film industry and apply to every other entrepreneur looking to make a name for themself in an industry led by many big players.

Creativity and speed are some of the biggest advantages that smaller businesses have over big businesses. Any business can get the attention it needs by leveraging these two assets, combined with today's modern tools.

Inc

As a result of insecurity, higher transportation costs, poor topography and bad roads, the cost of trade in Nigeria is four to five times higher than what is obtained in the United States, the World Bank has revealed.

In its latest Africa Pulse released, the global bank said market distortions across Africa result in high price differentials in imported food and non-food products, indicating a lack of integration across African markets.

“Similarly, access to product markets is constrained, which prevents firms and farms from scaling up production. In particular, the lack of connectivity and market integration means that markets are segmented, allowing firms or farms with market power to capture benefits, contributing to income inequality,” it stated.

It added that studies from the African region consistently find spatial differences in prices of imported goods (food and non-food) as well as non-traded agricultural staples, indicating that markets are not well-integrated and that retail prices of products are affected by distance.

It noted that food inflation and the weakening of domestic currencies are still major
drivers of inflation in Nigeria and other countries in the region.

According to the report, by February 2024, about one-third of the Sub-Saharan African countries with monthly available food price information (14 of 40 countries) had double-digit year-on-year rates of food inflation, with the fastest increases experienced in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.

For instance, trade costs more in Nigeria than in the United States, due to poor road infrastructure, low competition in the transportation sector and poor topography.

The report concluded that the consequences of these distortions include the preference of African producers to sell locally rather than export. Furthermore, it noted that frictions in the labour markets across Africa are a result of high transport cost, elevated cost of screening workers and lack of information on labour opportunities.

The bank said the state involvement through regulation in markets across Africa also creates barriers to trade competition and investment. It also noted the tendency for big players in such environments to set prices above market rate to the disadvantage of consumers, small competitors and workers.

“Global analysis of World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicators of product market regulations suggest that barriers to competition in product markets tend to be higher in African countries, due to a high degree of state involvement in markets, legal and administrative barriers to entrepreneurship, as well as barriers to trade and investment,” it noted.

It concluded by saying that such an anti-competitive market environment stifles innovation and further inhibits the growth trajectory of the economy.

The Guardian

Cocoa gained in New York, with prices heading back toward a record high amid lingering fears about global shortages.

Futures climbed as much as 4% to head for a fourth straight increase. Prices have surged this year — recently exceeding $10,000 a ton — as poor West African harvests put the world on course for another annual deficit, threatening to further raise chocolate prices.

“West African near-term supply remains very tight at the start of the mid-crop harvest, and that has provided underlying support to the cocoa market,” the Hightower Report said.

The crunch is making it harder and more expensive for the world’s chocolate makers to secure beans, with the parent of Godiva signaling it will raise prices due to soaring costs. Still, Barry Callebaut AG, which supplies some of the biggest consumer chocolate brands, on Wednesday indicated that it’s managing to weather the crisis and is so far “well covered” for supplies.

During a Wednesday conference call, Barry Callebaut’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Feldsaid the company is being cautious amid the uncertainty in cocoa markets. “We believe that what goes up fast, comes down fast at one point in time. And we’re preparing for that,” he said.

Bloomberg

Nigeria's health regulator is recalling a batch of Johnson & Johnson children's cough syrup after finding an unacceptably high level of a potentially fatal toxic substance, it said on Wednesday.

Laboratory tests on Benylin Paediatric showed a high level of diethylene glycol, which has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since 2022 in one of the world's worst waves of poisoning from oral medication.

The syrup is used to treat cough and congestion-related symptoms, hay fever and other allergic reactions in children aged two to 12, Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said in a notice on its website.

"Laboratory analysis conducted on the product showed that it contains an unacceptable high level of Diethylene glycol and was found to cause acute oral toxicity in laboratory animals," NAFDAC said.

Human consumption of the substance could cause symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches and acute kidney injury that may result in death, the regulator added.

J&J referred a request for comment to Kenvue, which now owns the Benylin brand after a spin-off last year. Kenvue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The batch being recalled was made in South Africa in May 2021 with an expiration date of April 2024. The regulator urged those with bottles from the batch to discontinue use or sale and submit them to its nearest office.

Reuters

Voters in many countries are suffering a crisis of faith in their democracies and institutions, a survey by a governance watchdog showed, painting a bleak picture in a year in which more than half of the world's population holds elections.

With the United States, India, Britain and the European Union going to the polls in 2024, the report published on Thursday by the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) offers a sombre snapshot of the perceived health of many democracies.

The results show that voters in 11 of the 19 countries surveyed, which included the U.S. and India, fewer than half of the people believed the most recent election was free and fair.

Only voters in Denmark believed courts 'always' or 'often' provide access to justice, while in 8 of 19 countries, more people had favourable views of "a strong leader who doesn't have to bother with parliament or elections" than had unfavourable views.

"Democracies must respond to the scepticism of their public, both by improving governance and by combating the growing culture of disinformation that has fostered false accusations against credible elections," International IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said in a statement.

This year's presidential election in the United States is likely to see incumbent Democrat Joe Biden face off again against ex-president Donald Trump.

The survey showed that only 47 per cent of respondents in the United States expressed faith that the country had credible electoral processes.

Elections for Europe's parliament which take place in June could see big gains for the far-right and impact policy from support for Ukraine in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion to measures to address climate change.

In February, the parliament condemned what it called Russian attempts to undermine European democracy.

The survey, conducted between July 2023 and January 2024, polled about 1,500 people in each of 19 countries including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, The Gambia, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Pakistan, Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Korea and Tanzania.

Reuters