One of Italy's most remarkable archaeological finds in decades goes on show this month - Etruscan and Roman statues pulled from the mud in Tuscany thanks in part to the intuition of a retired garbage man.

About two dozen bronze statues from the third century BC to the first century AD, extracted from the ruins of an ancient spa, will go on display in Rome's Quirinale Palace from June 22, after months of restoration.

When the discovery was announced in November, experts called it the biggest collection of ancient bronze statues ever found in Italy and hailed it as a breakthrough that would "rewrite history".

The statues were found in 2021 and 2022 in the hilltop village of San Casciano dei Bagni, still home to popular thermal baths, where archaeologists had long suspected ancient ruins could be discovered.

Initial attempts to locate them, however, were unsuccessful.

Digging started in 2019 on a small plot of land next to the village's Renaissance-era public baths, but weeks of excavations revealed "only traces of some walls", San Casciano Mayor Agnese Carletti said.

Then former bin man and amateur local historian Stefano Petrini had "a flash" of intuition, remembering that years earlier he had seen bits of ancient Roman columns on a wall on the other side of the public baths.

The columns could only be seen from an abandoned garden that had once belonged to his friend, San Casciano's late greengrocer, who grew fruit and vegetables there to sell in the village shop.

When Petrini took archaeologists there, they knew they had found the right spot.

"It all started from there, from the columns," Petrini said.

'SCRAWNY BOY' PULLED FROM MUD

Emanuele Mariotti, head of the San Casciano archaeological project, said his team was getting "quite desperate" before receiving the tip that led to the discovery of a shrine at the centre of the ancient spa complex.

The statues found there were offerings from Romans and Etruscans who looked to the gods for good health, as were the coins and sculptures of body parts like ears and feet also recovered from the site.

One of the most spectacular finds was the "scrawny boy" bronze, a statue about 90 cms (35 inches) high, of a young Roman with an apparent bone disease. An inscription has his name as "Marcius Grabillo".

"When he appeared from the mud, and was therefore partially covered, it looked like the bronze of an athlete ... but once cleaned up and seen properly it was clear that it was that of a sick person," said Ada Salvi, a Culture Ministry archaeologist for the Tuscan provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo.

Salvi said traces of more unusual offerings were also recovered, including egg shells, pine cones, kernels from peaches and plums, surgical tools and a 2,000-year-old lock of curly hair.

"It opens a window into how Romans and Etruscans experienced the nexus between health, religion and spirituality," she said. "There's a whole world of meaning that has to be understood and studied."

MORE TREASURES TO BE FOUND

The shrine was sealed at the beginning of the fifth century AD, when the ancient spa complex was abandoned, leaving its statues preserved for centuries by the warm mud of the baths.

Excavation will resume in late June. Mariotti said "it is a certainty" that more will be found in the coming years, possibly even the other six or 12 statues that an inscription says were left behind by Marcius Grabillo.

"We've only just lifted the lid," he said.

After the Rome exhibition, the statues and other artefacts are to find a new home in a museum that authorities hope to open in San Casciano within the next couple of years.

Petrini hopes the treasures will bring "jobs, culture and knowledge" to his 1,500-strong village, which is struggling with depopulation like much of rural Italy.

But he is reluctant to take credit for their discovery.

"Important things always happen thanks to several people, never thanks to only one," he said. "Never."

Reuters

Ever wonder why you just can't seem to sleep in anymore? Experts reveal the real reason why this happens as we age.

There are many jokes that center around older adults waking up before the sun, and even more about teenagers’ late-sleeping habits. Turns out there’s truth to them: The time our body naturally goes to sleep and wakes up is not only part of our genetics, but part of the natural aging process, too.

As we age, our bodies change both internally and externally, which is a major factor behind the sleep changes that come later in life. “Like most of the things that change with age, there’s not just one reason, and they are all interconnected,” said Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.

We asked Lustig and other experts to break down the main reasons why this occurs, and what you can do to push back if you just want those few extra hours of Zzzs.

Earlier wake times are part of the natural aging process

Like other aspects of our physical and mental health, the brain becomes less responsive as we age. 

“The wiring of the brain is likely not sensing ... and responding to the inputs as well as it should because it’s an aging brain,” said Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, the director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. These inputs include sunset, sunlight, meals, social cues and physical activity that help mark where we are in a day.

“These are all what we call time givers, or they give time to the brain,” he said. In other words, they help the brain sense where it is in the 24-hour circadian cycle. 

So, for a younger person, dinner time may help the brain understand that bedtime is in a few hours; for someone older, this connection may not happen.

The nerves that are supposed to give the brain time cues have undergone the same amount of degeneration as the brain, Parthasarathy said. This inability to sense time cues is part of the reason why older people tend to get tired before their children or grandchildren. And, as a result, wake up fully rested and earlier than the rest of the world.

The light our eyes take in is part of it, too

“Interestingly, one of [the reasons] seems to be that the vision changes that come with age reduce the intensity of the degree of light stimulation that our brain receives, which plays an important role in ‘setting’ our circadian clock and keeping it on track,” Lustig said.

Parthasarathy explained that this is especially true for people with cataracts, a common eye condition that impacts more than 50% of Americans ages 80 and up, according to the National Institutes of Health. Cataracts cause blurred vision, double vision and general trouble seeing.

“If there’s cataracts, the evening light doesn’t go into the eyes as much, so, according to the brain, sunset is earlier than when it actually set,” Parthasarathy said. 

Why does this matter? Since there is less light getting into the eyes because of the vision issues cataracts cause, the body starts to release melatonin (the sleep hormone) earlier than it should. For younger people, melatonin “starts rising after sunset,” Parthasarathy said, which is why you generally feel tired a few hours after. For people with cataracts whose brain thinks sunset was earlier, their perceived sunset is earlier, which makes them tired sooner in the evening. And going to bed sooner means waking up earlier.

“There is some evidence that cataract removal surgery can help improve sleep quality and duration by helping those light cues get through,” Lustig said.

If this is you, there are a few steps you can take to sleep better

According to Parthasarathy, if you struggle with this issue, you should ignore the advice to put away the screens and instead expose yourself to bright light in the late evening. This can mean going for a walk outside before the sun sets, reading a book on a bright iPad, getting artificial lights for your home or watching TV on a bright screen.

These bright lights will tell the brain that the sun hasn’t set yet, which will hold the melatonin production, he said. To help yourself stay up a little later (and sleep a little later as a result), Parthasarathy said you should try these things 30 to 60 minutes before sunset, which will vary depending on the time of year and where you live in the U.S.

The exact amount of time you should expose yourself to bright light varies, and might take a bit of trial and error, but he said you should aim for about two hours of exposure — and should certainly keep the light on after sunset.

Lustig added you should avoid alcohol before bed — “while that nightcap might make you sleepy, it actually disrupts the quality of your sleep.” Additionally, she said exercise can help you get better sleep and the morning sun can help your circadian clock follow the sun’s rise and set cues. 

All in all, changes in sleep patterns are a part of life. While some of these factors are out of your control, you can also counteract them with healthy habits so you can get your best rest.

HuffPost

Central Bank of Nigeria dismissed a report that it had devalued the naira as traders raised bets for it to weaken by almost a third, days after President Bola Tinubu said his administration will seek to end the nation’s multiple-currency regime

The CBN said a media report claiming it had devalued the naira by 26% to 630 per dollar was inaccurate. The exchange rate is N465 per dollar and “has been stable around that rate for a while,” it said on Twitter.

Tinubu announced plans to adopt a uniform exchange rate in his inauguration speech on May 29. Nigeria has numerous exchange rates, dominated by a tightly controlled official rate, that cuts off access to many businesses and individuals, which in turn drives demand to the unauthorized black market. The spread between the managed and parallel markets is almost 60%. Tinubu’s proposal may help attract investors who had shunned Africa’s biggest economy. 

Non-deliverable forward contracts on the naira are pricing in a depreciation of about 21% over the next three months and those with a 12-month tenor 32%. 

The moves reflect speculation by some market participants that authorities will allow for a steep decline in the naira.

Lagos-based brokerage, Chapel Hill Denham said that the naira should be weakened above its fair value of N606.58 to the dollar. It should be devalued close to the N650 to N700 range to the dollar it trades at in the parallel market “to restore investor confidence,” analyst Tajudeen Ibrahim said in an emailed note on Wednesday.

Nigeria's state owned oil company NNPC will soon end its monopoly on petrol supplies, its chief executive told local television on Thursday, a day after it nearly tripled prices at its fuel stations countrywide.

Newly inaugurated President Bola Tinubu pledged to remove fuel subsidies, a popular but costly benefit that has drained billions annually from government coffers.

Mele Kyari told Arise TV that prices were expected to come down once new companies started supplying petrol, bringing more competition.

"All we did was to set variable prices depending on our costs by location and knowing full well that NNPC is the single supplier of the market and we are seeing that exit coming very, very quickly," said Kyari.

"There will be no monopoly, NNPC will not continue being supplier of this product alone."

Kyari has previously said the corporation was owed $6 billion in petrol subsidy payments by the federal government.

Under the Petroleum Industry Act signed into law two years ago, NNPC cannot supply more than 30% of gasoline in Nigeria.

"As soon as the market stabilises, oil marketing companies are able to come in. Competition will surely come in ... and you will see changes in prices downwards," said Kyari.

Nigeria imports most of its refined petroleum products because it has run down its refineries over the years.

The 650,000 barrel per day Dangote Refinery was commissioned last month, amid hopes of transforming the country into a net exporter of petroleum products.

Reuters

Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, who is insisting that he won the presidential election held on February 25, on Thursday, produced certified copies of results of the election from six states of the federation, to support his claim.

Obi tendered the results, which were obtained from 115 Local Government Areas, LGAs, in evidence before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.

Though Obi’s legal team was led by Awa Kalu, however, the election results, which were contained in Forms EC8A, were tendered from the Bar by one of his lawyers, Emeka Opoko.

The first set of results of the election that was tendered before the court by the LP candidate who came third in the presidential election was from 15 out of 22 LGAs of Rivers State.

Despite opposition by all the respondents in the matter, Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel admitted the Rivers state results and marked them as Exhibits PD 1 to PD 15.

Obi and the LP equally tendered results from 23 LGAs in Benue state, which were also admitted in evidence and marked as Exhibits PC 1 to PC 23, while results from 18 LGAs in Cross River State were added in evidence as Exhibits PD1 – PD 18.

On Niger state, Obi tendered Forms EC8A from 23 LGAs and they were admitted in evidence as Exhibits PE-1 to PE 23, as well as that of 20 LGAs in Osun state which were marked as Exhibits PF 1 – PF 20.

The last set of results the petitioners adduced and tendered in evidence before the court were from 16 LGAs in Ekiti and they were marked as Exhibits PG 1 to PG 16.

The Tsammani-led panel subsequently adjourned further proceedings in the matter till Friday.

All the respondents said they would give reasons why they challenged the admissibility of the presidential election results that Obi and the LP tendered in evidence, in their final written address.

Cited as 1st to 4th respondents in the petition, are; the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress, APC.

It would be recalled that Obi and the LP had indicated their decision to call a total of 50 witnesses in the matter.

Specifically, Obi, in the joint petition he filed with the LP, is contending that Tinubu was not the valid winner of the election.

The petitioners, in the case, marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, equally maintained that Tinubu was not qualified to participate in the presidential contest.

According to the petitioners, at the time Tinubu’s running mate, Shettima, became the Vice Presidential candidate, he was still the nominated candidate of the APC for the Borno Central Senatorial election.

The petitioners further challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the presidential election, alleging that he was previously indicted and fined the sum of $460,000.00 by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offence involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.

On the ground that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022, the petitioners argued that INEC acted in breach of its own Regulations and Guidelines.

The Petitioners argued that the electoral body was in the course of the conduct of the presidential poll, mandatorily required to prescribe and deploy technological devices for the accreditation, verification, continuation and authentication of voters and their particulars as contained in its Regulations.

They are, therefore, praying the court to among other things, declare that all the votes recorded for Tinubu and the APC, were wasted votes owing to his non-qualification/disqualification.

“That it is determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd Respondent) the 1st Petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25% of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of the States of the Federation, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the 25th February 2023 presidential election.

“That it be determined that the 2nd Respondent having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on 25th February 2023.

In the alternative, the petitioners, want an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election in which Tinubu, Shettima and the APC, listed as 2nd, 3rd and 4th Respondents, respectively, shall not participate.

They urged the court to declare that since Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, therefore, his return as the winner of the presidential election, was unlawful, unconstitutional and of no effect whatsoever.

In a further alternative prayer, the petitioners want the court to hold that the presidential election was void on the ground that it was not conducted substantially in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

Likewise, the applied for an order, “cancelling the presidential election conducted on 25th February 2023 and mandating the 1st Respondent to conduct a fresh election for the President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

Meanwhile, both Obi and his Vice Presidential candidate, Baba Ahmed Datti, were in court on Thursday to observe the proceeding.

Vanguard

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday, presented his first witness at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.

Atiku, who came second in the February presidential election, is challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 25th February election.

Tinubu was sworn in Monday as Nigeria’s president, while three petitioners, including Atiku, continue to pursue their separate cases to challenge his victory.

Led in his evidence-in-chief by Chris Uche, Atiku’s lawyer, the witness, Joe Agada, informed the five-member panel of the court headed by Haruna Tsammani that there were rampant cases of manipulation of electoral records by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the February poll.

Agada, a retired army captain, served as PDP’s State Collation agent in Kogi for the presidential election.

Agada said he monitored the polls in 20 polling units across two senatorial districts in Kogi.

Under cross-examination by INEC’s lawyer, Abdullahi Aliyu, Agada said Bimodal Voters Accreditation System “BVAS machines were manipulated during the conduct of the (presidential) election.”

“I was forced to sign the collated result sheets in Lokoja,” Agada added.

He explained that he signed the electoral documents under duress without further explaining the situation.

Agada is one of the 100 witnesses Atiku intends to call in support of his petition at the court.

The electoral documents earlier tendered by Atiku’s team comprise printouts of data from BVAS machines and result sheets tendered before the court.

But Tinubu and the electoral umpire objected to the admissibility of the documents.

They did not disclose any rationale for their objections but promised to do so at the close of arguments in the petition.

Lawyers to parties in the petitions had pledged not to object to certified true copies of electoral documents from INEC. However, the respondents have opposed the admissibility of many of the electoral records.

Atiku is challenging the outcome of the presidential election over allegations of INEC’s manipulation of the electoral process in favour of Tinubu.

But the legal battle to overturn Tinubu’s victory continues at the court.

PT

Nine people were killed in Senegal on Thursday in clashes between riot police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko after a court sentenced him to two years in jail, casting serious doubt on his chances of running for president next year.

Sonko, 48, did not attend the hearing over an alleged sexual assault. The justice ministry said the opposition leader could now be taken to prison at any time. Police remained stationed around his home Dakar as unrest flared in the capital and elsewhere after the verdict.

Sonko was accused of raping a woman who worked in a massage parlour in 2021, when she was 20, and making death threats against her. He denies wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.

A criminal court cleared Sonko of rape, but found him guilty of a separate offence described in the penal code as immoral behaviour towards individuals younger than 21.

"With this sentence Sonko cannot be a candidate," said one of his lawyers, Bamba Ciss, citing Senegal's electoral law.

Sonko's PASTEF party said the verdict was part of a political plot and called on citizens in a statement to "stop all activity and take to the streets".

Nine people were killed in the protests that broke out in parts of Dakar and other cities after the verdict, Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome said on state television in the early hours of Friday.

Earlier, thick black smoke had billowed from a central university campus in Dakar, where protesters set several buses alight in the afternoon and threw rocks at riot police who responded by firing tear gas.

Government spokesperson Abdou Karim Fofana said security forces had the situation under control in the capital.

Several social media and messaging platforms were restricted in Senegal late on Thursday - a move "likely to significantly impact the public's ability to communicate," the Netblocks internet observatory said.

University law professor Ndiack Fall said Sonko could demand a retrial if he turns himself in to authorities.

The case has triggered sporadic violent protests in the West African country since 2021. Sonko's supporters denounce the charges as a ploy to prevent him from running in elections scheduled for February. The government and the justice system deny this.

A former tax inspector who came third in the last election, Sonko has tapped into frustrations with President Macky Sall that have grown since he was elected in 2012.

Critics say Sall has failed to create jobs and has stifled opposition criticism amid rumours he may seek to bypass presidential term limits and run again next year. Sall has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Demonstrations are not uncommon in Senegal and typically increase around elections. But Sall's second term has been particularly turbulent for a country usually viewed as one of West Africa's strongest democracies.

Separately, Sonko is appealing against a six-month suspended prison sentence for libel - an offence he also denies.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine lifts air raid alerts, says downed more than 30 missiles and drones

Ukrainian authorities on Friday lifted air raid alerts across most of the nation, and officials in the capital Kyiv said defences appeared to have shot down more than 30 missiles and drones fired by Russia.

Moscow has launched around 20 separate missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities since the start of May.

Kyiv military authorities, writing on Telegram, said Russia had launched drones and cruise missiles at the same time.

"According to preliminary information, more than 30 air targets of various types were detected and destroyed in the airspace over and around Kyiv by air defence forces," they said in a statement.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who earlier reported two separate waves of attacks, wrote on Telegram that there had been no calls for rescue services.

Ukraine regularly says its defences knock down the majority of Russia's missiles and drones.

** US seeking explosives in Japan for Ukraine artillery shells

The United States is seeking to secure supplies of TNT in Japan for 155mm artillery shells, as Washington rushes weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for a counteroffensive against Russian forces, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

For war-renouncing Japan, any procurement would test its willingness to court controversy to help Kyiv because export rules ban Japanese companies from selling lethal items overseas, such as the howitzer shells that Ukraine fires daily at Russian units occupying its southeastern regions.

Nonetheless, the allies appear to have found a workaround to enable the TNT sale amid global shortages of munitions.

"There is a way for the United States to buy explosives from Japan," one of the people with knowledge of discussions on the matter in Japan told Reuters on the condition of anonymity, citing the issue's sensitivity.

Export restrictions for dual-use products or equipment sold commercially are less stringent than for items with a purely military purpose, which is why the U.S. can buy Panasonic Toughbook laptops for its military.

Tokyo, which hosted U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week, has told the U.S. government it will allow the sale of industrial TNT because the explosive is not a military-use-only product, the other source said.

The U.S. wants to plug a Japanese company into a TNT supply chain to deliver explosives to U.S. army-owned munitions plants that would pack them into 155mm shell cases, the person added.

Japan's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Economy declined to say whether any Japanese company had approached it about exporting TNT. It added in an email that items not subject to military restrictions would be assessed under regular export rules that consider the buyer's intent, including whether their use would impede international security.

The Japanese defence ministry's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency declined to comment.

The U.S. State Department did not directly address questions from Reuters about whether the U.S. planned to buy TNT in Japan but said Washington was working with allies and partners "to provide Ukraine with the support it needs" to defend itself. Japan, it added, "has demonstrated leadership in supporting Ukraine's defense".

EAGER TO HELP

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wants to help Ukraine because his administration fears a Russian victory would embolden China to attack Taiwan and embroil his country in a regional war. Last year, he warned that Ukraine may be "East Asia tomorrow", and his administration announced Japan's biggest military build-up since World War Two.

That retreat from the state pacifism that has dominated Japan's foreign policy for decades has not so far extended to lethal military aid, limiting Tokyo's offerings to Kyiv to kit such as flak jackets, helmets and food rations.

Following Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Japan during the Hiroshima G7 leaders summit last month, Kishida agreed to donate jeeps and trucks.

There appears to be growing acceptance in Japan about providing military aid to Ukraine, but the degree of lethality is contentious, said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

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"The fact that Japan has decided to give trucks to Ukraine shows that things are changing. However, there doesn't yet appear to be any political consensus around the issue of sending lethal aid," he said.

Japan is one of dozens of friends and allies that Washington is asking to help arm Ukraine as it wrestles with stretched military supply chains.

South Korea, which also uses 155mm shells, is among those the U.S. has approached. A South Korean defence official told Reuters that Seoul's stance against providing lethal aid to Kyiv had not changed.

Asked in Tokyo this week about the possibility of a shift in Japanese policy on lethal aid, Austin said at a press briefing that any change would be a matter for Japan but "any bit of support" for Ukraine was "always welcome".

The sources who spoke to Reuters declined to identify the Japanese company that would supply explosives to the U.S. government and did not say how much TNT Washington wanted to buy.

Reuters contacted 22 explosives makers listed on the Japan Explosives Industry Association's website. The only one that said it made industrial TNT was Chugoku Kayaku, an Hiroshima-based firm that supplies Japan's military.

"We have not received any direct inquiry from the U.S. government or U.S. military," the company said in an email.

Asked if it was discussing any TNT sales through an intermediary, the firm, which lists an industrial TNT product on its website, said it did not disclose the identity of customers or potential buyers.

JAPAN'S NEXT MOVE

Supplying commercial TNT to the U.S. may only be a stop-gap measure because many lawmakers of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) want to ease or eliminate the export restrictions.

In December, when Kishida announced Japan's five-year military build-up, he pledged to revise the export rules, opening up the possibility that Japan could supply lethal weapons not only to Ukraine, but to other nations that Tokyo and Washington see as potential allies against Russia and China.

Akihisa Nagashima, a former deputy defence minister and a ranking LDP member of the parliamentary committee on national security, said the military build-up would take Japan four-fifths of the way to becoming a "normal country" unencumbered by the legacy of its World War Two defeat.

"Tackling the export restrictions is the remaining 20%," he said.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drones attack Russian city – governor

Several Ukrainian drones have been shot down near the Russian city of Kursk, regional governor Roman Starovoyt said in the early hours of Friday.

Starovoyt urged residents to stay calm, adding that the capital of the region that shares a border with Ukraine was “under the firm protection of our military.” 

The governor’s statement came shortly after several Telegram channels reported that explosions were heard over the city. The channel Mash posted an unverified video appearing to show an air defense system firing a missile into the sky.

Russia’s border regions have frequently come under artillery and rocket fire, as well as drone attacks, ever since Moscow launched its military operation in the Ukraine in February 2022. 

Raids have also been launched into Russian territory. On Tuesday, drones carrying explosives crashed into several high-rise residential buildings in Moscow. No one was killed, while two civilians suffered minor injuries. According to Russian officials, Kiev had conducted the attack in order to sow fear and confusion among the population. 

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its troops had repelled an armed incursion from Ukraine into the Belgorod Region. 

Units in Kiev's service, allegedly made up of Russian nationalist volunteers, have claimed responsibility for similar cross-border raids on the Belgorod Region in mid-May and the Bryansk Region in early March.

** Russian assault teams advance in Maryinka area in DPR, top brass reports

Russian assault teams continued advancing in the Maryinka tactical area in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Thursday.

"The assault teams of the 5th motor rifle brigade and the Akhmat special operations formation continue offensive operations in the Maryinka tactical direction," the spokesman said.

Operational/tactical and army aviation and artillery of Russia’s southern battlegroup inflicted damage on the enemy’s manpower and equipment in areas near the settlements of Georgiyevka, Lastochkino and Tonenkoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the general reported.

Russian forces destroy 45 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area

Russian forces destroyed roughly 45 Ukrainian troops and neutralized three enemy subversive groups in the Kupyansk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Kupyansk direction, aircraft and artillery from the western battlegroup struck the enemy units in areas near the settlements of Timkovka and Berestovoye in the Kharkov Region and Stelmakhovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic. As many as 45 Ukrainian personnel, three motor vehicles, an Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system and a D-20 howitzer were destroyed in the past 24 hours," the spokesman said.

In areas near the settlements of Sinkovka and Kislovka in the Kharkov Region and Rozovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, three Ukrainian subversive/reconnaissance groups were neutralized, the general reported.

Russian forces eliminate 80 Ukrainian troops in Krasny Liman area

Russian forces eliminated roughly 80 Ukrainian troops in the Krasny Liman area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Krasny Liman direction, operational/tactical and army aviation, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems from the battlegroup Center inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army units in areas near the settlements of Karmazinovka and Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People’s Republic and Grigorovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

In all, the enemy lost as many as 80 Ukrainian personnel, two pickup trucks, a Gvozdika motorized artillery system and a D-20 howitzer in that area in the past 24 hours, the general reported.

Russian forces destroy 395 Ukrainian troops in Donetsk advance

Russian forces destroyed roughly 395 Ukrainian troops in their advance in the Donetsk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"As many as 395 Ukrainian personnel, a tank, two infantry fighting vehicles, three pickup trucks and two D-30 howitzers were destroyed in the Donetsk direction in the past 24 hours," the spokesman said.

"Near the settlement of Udachnoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a Ukrainian ammunition depot was obliterated," the general reported.

Russian forces destroy Ukrainian ammo depot in DPR

Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the area of the settlement of Serebryanka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, an ammunition depot of the 125th territorial defense brigade was destroyed," the spokesman said.

In addition, the activity of a Ukrainian subversive/reconnaissance group was thwarted near the settlement of Kremennaya in the Lugansk People’s Republic, the general reported.

Russian forces eliminate 120 Ukrainian troops in southern Donetsk, Zaporozhye areas

Russian forces eliminated about 120 Ukrainian troops in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

In the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, aircraft and artillery of Russia’s battlegroup East struck the Ukrainian army units near the settlements of Vodyanoye and Pavlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Malaya Tokmachka and Shcherbaki in the Zaporozhye Region, the spokesman specified.

"As many as 120 Ukrainian personnel, two motor vehicles and an Msta-B howitzer were destroyed in those directions in the past 24 hours," the general reported.

Russian forces destroy 20 Ukrainian troops in Kherson area

Russian forces destroyed roughly 20 Ukrainian troops, a Grad multiple rocket launcher and a D-30 howitzer in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Kherson direction, as many as 20 Ukrainian personnel, two pickup trucks, a Grad multiple rocket launcher and a D-30 howitzer were destroyed in the past 24 hours as a result of damage inflicted by firepower," the spokesman said.

Russian forces wipe out command posts of two Ukrainian army brigades

Russian forces destroyed command posts of two Ukrainian army brigades in the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Zaporozhye Region over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In areas near the settlements of Seversk in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Gorkoye in the Zaporozhye Region, the command/observation posts of the Ukrainian army’s 81st air mobile brigade and 108th territorial defense brigade were destroyed," the spokesman said.

During the last 24-hour period, operational/tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 103 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military equipment in 149 areas, the general reported.

Russian air defenses down Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack plane, 17 drones

Russian air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack aircraft and destroyed 17 enemy drones over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"Air defense capabilities shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 plane near the settlement of Novoandreyevka in the Zaporozhye Region. In the past 24 hours, they intercepted 16 rockets of the HIMARS, Uragan and Olkha multiple launch rocket systems," the spokesman said.

In addition, Russian air defense forces destroyed 17 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Ploshchanka, Kuzyomovka and Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Tonenkoye and Georgiyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the general reported.

In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 430 Ukrainian warplanes, 235 combat helicopters, 4,407 unmanned aerial vehicles, 424 surface-to-air missile systems, 9,352 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,105 multiple rocket launchers, 4,954 field artillery guns and mortars and 10,587 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.

Reuters/RT/Tass

US imposes sanctions on companies tied to Sudan forces as fighting rages

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on companies it accused of fuelling the conflict in Sudan, stepping up pressure on the army and a rival paramilitary force to stop fighting raging in Khartoum and other regions.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it targeted two companies linked to the army, including the country's largest defence enterprise, and two companies tied to the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, including one involved in gold mining.

"We will not hesitate to take additional steps if the parties continue to destroy their country," a senior U.S. administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said.

"The targeting of the companies is far from symbolic," the official said, adding that the measures are intended to choke off the parties' access to weapons and resources that allow them to perpetuate the conflict.

Sudan's army and the RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The conflict, which broke out on April 15, has killed hundreds, forced more than 1.6 million to flee and turned the three cities that make up the capital around the confluence of the Nile - Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri - into a war zone.

Residents said heavy artillery fire could be heard in northern Omdurman and intermittent firing in southern Bahri, despite a deal for a ceasefire that is meant to run till Saturday evening.

"We are being terrorized by the sounds of heavy artillery around us. The house has been shaking," 49-year-old Nadir Ahmed said in the Thawra neighbourhood of Omdurman. "Where is this ceasefire we hear about?"

Clashes also continued near a market in southern Khartoum, where at least 19 people were killed and 106 wounded on Wednesday, according to a member of a local neighbourhood committee.

SANCTIONS, WARNINGS

The United States, alongside Saudi Arabia, has been leading efforts to try to secure an effective ceasefire at talks in Jeddah, though both sides have breached a string of truces.

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. said late on Thursday they were suspending the talks, a day after Sudan's army announced it was halting its participation.

The sanctions are the first punitive measures imposed under an executive ordersigned by U.S. President Joe Biden in May. They target Sudan's largest defence enterprise, Defence Industries System, which the Treasury said generates an estimated $2 billion in revenue and manufactures arms and other equipment for Sudan's army.

Arms company Giad, also known as Sudan Master Technology, was targeted as well.

On the RSF side, Washington imposed sanctions on Algunade, which it said was involved in gold mining and controlled by RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and his brother, as well as Tradive General Trading L.L.C., which it said was a front company controlled by another brother and procured vehicles for the RSF.

The companies, all key to the business and procurement activities of both forces, could not immediately be reached for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said visa restrictions were imposed on individuals in Sudan, including officials from both the army and the RSF and leaders from the government of Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted four years ago. Those hit with visa restrictions were not named.

'WARNING SHOT'

Outside Khartoum, clashes have flared in major cities in the western region of Darfur. A regional rights group said at least 50 people had been killed in the last week in the westernmost city of El Geneina, which has been cut off from communications for more than 10 days.

In another Darfur city, Zalingei, it said the hospital and university were looted and people were being killed "randomly".

Some government officials have relocated to the army-controlled Red Sea coast city Port Sudan, which has also become a base for the United Nations, aid groups, and diplomats.

However, a curfew was declared in the city this week as the army warned of "sleeper cells". Residents say buses have been stopped from entering the city, which is a key evacuation point.

In El Obeid, a regional hub southwest of Khartoum the U.N. World Food Programme reported food was being looted. "Food for 4.4 million people is at stake," agency chief Cindy McCain said.

Army and RSF leaders had held top positions on Sudan's ruling council after toppling Bashir in 2019. They fell out over the chain of command and military restructuring under a planned transition to civilian rule.

Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. official now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the sanctions would have little impact on the parties' ability to continue to wage war and were unlikely to be enforced by Russia or the United Arab Emirates, which have ties to the RSF.

"It's hard to think this sanctions announcement is the thing that will dissuade entities already doing business with these corporations from continuing," Hudson said.

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"This feels like more of a warning shot than a direct hit, which is odd given that we are long past the time when warning shots should be used."

Reuters

President Bola Tinubu is under fire for announcing that petrol subsidy is gone from day one. His inauguration address also touched on a unified currency exchange, high interest rate and power, among others.

Of all these, however, the one that got the headlines was petrol subsidy and the most frequently expressed concern, is why now? 

To say, in his first speech, that fuel subsidy was gone, that a unified exchange rate was vital, and that the current interest rate was anti-people and anti-business, was the economic equivalent of an earthquake. 

Of the four preceding presidential inauguration speeches since 1999 from Olusegun Obasanjo to Buhari, none that I reviewed was nearly as audacious and as provokingly clear as Tinubu’s position was on perhaps the most crucial economic decisions as he took office. 

Obasanjo, for example, talked about corruption, loss of confidence in government and the Niger Delta crisis. His three successors spoke about infrastructure, corruption and unemployment. But none was bang on the nail, as frontal and clear, as Tinubu’s was. We’re struggling because we’re used to being lied to.

Interestingly, in campaigns before the last general election, the other leading presidential candidates – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of Labour Party – said they would remove subsidy. Obi, in fact, called it an “organised crime” and he was right.

For a man who has his work cut out for him, Tinubu does not have the luxury of philosophy or poetry. Not when organised criminals trading on a yearly petrol subsidy of about N4.4trillion as of 2022, have left the country bleeding nearly to death. He had to make his own structural earthquake or risk uncontrolled seismic explosion. If not now, then when? 

Tinubu’s dilemma reminds me of the story of a number of leaders confronted with extremely difficult choices before they had time to settle in office. The first of them is the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who told his story eloquently in his autobiography, “Bibi: My story.”

Israel might have had some important military successes before, but at the time Netanyahu became prime minister in 1996 the country was an economic basket case and inflation was in double digits.

Netanyahu ran for and won the premiership against his father’s advice, against principalities in his own Likud Party and against veterans in the ruling Labour Party. Winning was hard, but making his victory count was even harder. The press and the unions hated him and didn’t hide it.

As he rolled up his sleeves, he was shocked at what he found when he entered the cabinet room for his first meeting. The room was like a banquet hall, lined with omelets, cheese, assorted bread, tomatoes, cucumber, jam, cookies and so on.

“The cabinet ministers were already busy munching away,” he wrote, “passing dishes to one another. It reminded me of the Shabbat Breakfast Club in the synagogue in Hull, Massachusetts.”

It was the sort of executive indulgence that President Obasanjo also saw in Nigeria when he assumed office in 1999 and his response then, like Netanyahu’s on that day, was to scrap the nonsense immediately. 

But cabinet menu reform was the least problem on his plate. The real challenge was how to free the country from a semi-socialist nanny economy, state control, exposure to future global vulnerabilities, the dominance of monopolies, and union fat cats.

“By far the most important reform I enacted,” he said reflecting on that very difficult period, “was to liberate Israel’s rigid foreign currency controls. In 1998, Israel still resembled many third-world countries with regards to currency. Israelis could not take more than $7,000 out of the country without special authorisation from Israel’s central bank. Returning from abroad, they had to redeposit and register all foreign currency they held inside the country.” 

His finance minister and other bureaucrats opposed his decision to announce immediate currency reforms. They argued that such a drastic step would seriously devalue the country’s currency. He bit the bullet, and his finance minister resigned in anger.

By 2004, in spite of dire warnings of the disastrous consequences of his actions, Netanyahu had removed all foreign exchange restrictions. He transformed Israel’s economy from third to first world by following a simple rule: “Whenever possible, remove barriers to trade. Money, trade and investments generally flow to the freer economies away from the more controlled ones.”

Of course, to unleash innovation and creativity, he also tackled the archaic educational system. He told university administrators at one point that although he had the utmost respect for the study of humanities, if he had to share government shekel between Tibetan poetry and microelectronics, he would have no hesitation putting the money in the latter.

It wasn’t easy for China’s Deng Xiaoping either. In the face of very serious economic challenges, Xiaoping made painful decisions not very different from those of Netanyahu. He liberalised the economy, unleashed the energy of the private sector and the small businesses, and introduced one of the most controversial – yet most consequential social reforms: the one-child policy. 

Also, India remained a nearly-there economic success story until nine years ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took some of the most far-reaching economic reforms, restructuring the tax system and expanding financial literacy and inclusiveness to cover the so-called “untouchables.”

From Netanyahu to Modi, the lesson is clear: a leader who inherits a broken country and an underperforming economy must take tough decisions or risk failure. Of course, tough decisions do not necessarily guarantee success. But shying away from them guarantees failure.

Since Tinubu said on Monday that petrol subsidy was gone, he has been criticised for a speech “lacking in empathy and philosophy.” If the current subsidy regime would officially end on June 30, why did he make an obviously unpopular decision on his first day on the job without first laying out how it was going to work?

For decades in this country, I have listened to empathetic and philosophical speeches about how subsidy only benefits the rich and how the country is being robbed to indulge them, yet nothing fundamental has been done to correct the situation. Government after government just kicks the can down the road.

I have heard union leaders, probably the greatest obstacles to a more transparent and efficient supply system, call for “greater stakeholder engagement”, when all they really want to do is exploit and milk public disaffection by holding the system hostage with threats of strikes, the sort of attitude that makes Margaret Thatcher’s handling of the unions in the UK look like redemption moment.

President Goodluck Jonathan came very close to scrapping subsidy in 2012. He was snagged, not by his good intention, but by the discovery that $6.8 billion collected to mitigate the impact of subsidy removal between 2009 and 2011 after petrol prices were raised from N65 to N120, had been cornered and stolen by his own government officials.

For eight years, President Muhammadu Buhari toyed with subsidy removal. In spite of strong support even by key members of his own party, however, he couldn’t quite overcome an approach-avoidance conflict, a catastrophic hallmark of his government.  

In 2020 the minister of finance said subsidy had been removed from the budget. Yet Buhari, the minister of Petroleum Resources who once said subsidy was a scam, turned a blind eye as subsidy returned in full force reaching an all-time high according to Reuters of N4.4trillion in 2022 alone. 

For lovers of philosophy and poetry, eight years of prevarication and temporising under Buhari was enough orchestra. One more day after would have unleashed the same forces that have held us hostage for this long. Not a luxury we can afford anymore.

The immediate fallout of Tinubu’s announcement would be messy, even ugly, with spikes in general price levels. Even though NNPC Limited has not issued import franchises in the last two weeks at least, which means the market had been hedging and anticipating Tinubu’s announcement, he had barely finished speaking when petrol queues surfaced all over the country and pump prices per litre tripled in some places.

That’s not new or unforeseen. Nor would the outcome have been significantly different even if Tinubu had waited another year before making the announcement or if NNPC had waited another six months before confirming the removal of pump price caps. 

My guess is that after the initial inevitable chaos, the market would gradually adjust and consumers, used to the easy road, would adapt. Prodigal states, faced with shrinking handouts from Abuja, would also have to examine their fiscal choices. 

There would be a need to reduce the impact on the weak and vulnerable, the bulk of who are outside the major cities and beyond the reach of the self-serving arguments of the city elite and the unions. But even intervention cannot start unless subsidy stops immediately to free funds.

Petrol subsidy is gone, means petrol subsidy is gone. Anything short of saying so on day one, would have amounted to kicking the can down the road, again. And that, we have seen, has been the graveyard of speeches in the last several decades full of economic philosophy and poetry but meaning nothing. Enough. 

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP