WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

US consults allies about North Korea troops in Ukraine

It would be a "dangerous and highly concerning development" if North Korea was sending troops to help Russia in Ukraine, the United States said on Monday as South Korea and Britain warned of the high price Moscow would likely have to pay Pyongyang.

"We are consulting with our allies and partners on the implications of such a dramatic move," deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood told the 15-member United Nations Security Council. Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Pyongyang of preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to Russia. Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Security Council on Monday: "These troops are expected to be ready for war against Ukraine by November 1."

South Korea's spy agency said last week that North Korea had shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia's Far East for training and acclimatising at military bases and that they were likely to be deployed for combat in Ukraine.

"If true, this marks a dangerous and highly concerning development and an obvious deepening of the DPRK, Russia military relationship," Wood said of the reports, using North Korea's formal name - the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Kremlin earlier on Monday declined to directly answer a query on whether North Korean troops were going to fight in Ukraine, but spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow's cooperation with Pyongyang was not directed against third countries.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Western countries of becoming "distracted by circulating scare mongering with Iranian, Chinese and Korean bogeymen, each one of which is more absurd than the one before."

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said it was "highly likely" that North Korea was sending troops.

"It seems that the harder (Russian President Vladimir) Putin finds it to recruit Russians to be cannon fodder, the more willing he is to rely on DPRK in his illegal war," she said. "We can be certain that the DPRK leadership will ask a high price from Russia in return."

South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang also warned the council of the implications of such a move.

"North Korea will expect a generous payoff from Moscow in return for its troop contribution. It could be either military or financial assistance. It could be nuclear weapons-related technology," he said.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and those measures have been strengthened over the years - with Russia's support.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainians admit they’re running out of troops – Spanish media

A lack of manpower has now become the main problem for the Ukrainian army as it is forced to gradually yield ground to the Russian advance, El Pais reported on Monday, citing Defense Ministry officials and battlefield commanders.  

The Spanish daily’s reporters traveled to the frontline town of Kurakhovo, which is in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic but currently under Ukrainian control. According to the paper, Russian advances in the area mean that Kiev’s forces will soon have to retreat to avoid encirclement.   

The head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s press team on the ground, speaking on condition of anonymity, told El Pais that Kiev’s main problem “is not weapons, it is the people.”   

“Nobody wants to go to the army. The brigades tell us they can’t rotate, they’re exhausted. There will be no people to fight soon,” he is cited as saying.  

Numerous Ukrainian servicemen interviewed by the outlet shared the same view. “Why are we retreating? Because we don’t have rotations, we don’t rest, we’re demoralized,”one Ukrainian officer fighting in Kurakhovo said.  

Yevgeny Churbanov, an officer in the 46th Airborne Brigade, said that nowadays his soldiers have to hold their positions for three months without any rotation, whereas a year ago it was never more than one month, while in the first year of the conflict, troops were typically rotated every four days.  

Ukrainian officials have long sounded the alarm about the depletion of the ranks of its military. To address the issue, earlier this year Kiev lowered the draft age from 27 to 25, and significantly tightened mobilization rules. Social media is rife with videos showing military patrols trying to detain potential recruits on the streets and in the shopping malls, with encounters often turning violent.   

Last week, Ukrainian media reported that, according to the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office, there have been nearly 60,000 criminal cases related to unauthorized abandonment of a military unit or place of service since 2022. Nearly 30,000 offenses related to desertion have been registered over the same period and the number of such transgressions has increased several-fold in recent months.  

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated Ukrainian losses at 50,000 troops per month, adding that Ukraine’s mobilization was not solving the manpower shortage.

Reuters/RT

Mark Manson (“Every Thing Is F*cked”), argues that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite emotional reaction.” From this vantage, the response of the “State House” to some Nigerians taking to calling President Bola Tinubu “T-Pain” was to be expected. The cease-and-desist warning issued by the state house, last week, was itself, unwittingly, from a position of pain. It gave vent to the federal government’s discomfort that despite the president’s best intentions for the country, and his best efforts (remember that so tired was he from these efforts that he only just returned to work from a furlough) at realising these intentions, the payback from key sections of the people he leads, if this new nickname has any meaning at all, is to further hold him in derision.

Beyond this first take, though, the state house’s response to the president’s new nickname reaches much further than the causal connection between reactions, and their equal and opposite feedback. Since assuming office, the gut response of the Tinubu government to dissent and opposition has been as good, if not better than that of, any of the military governments we have had since independence. Our current government has tried to squelch strikes called by civil society groups and labour unions to protest deteriorating living conditions. It has threatened charges of treason against domestic entities perceived to be on disagreement with it. In other words, it has not acted, thus far, as if its mandate derives from the electorate.

Ironically, the “T-Pain” sobriquet is itself an emotional reaction to a bucket of stimuli. The pains that the Nigerian people have been through in the last one year are rivalled only by the ones much older citizens went through in the mid-1980s – when we had to queue for “essential commodities”, when poor queuing etiquette was rewarded most rabidly by jackbooted soldiers, and when the call to the people to tighten their belts, as part of a national programme of economic austerity continued to ignore the fact that the last hole in the average Nigerian’s belt was as close to the buckle as the laws of biology and physics permitted.

I still believe that the Tinubu government could have made a more convincing case around both the stimuli it was reacting to in the design of its policy responses, and the nature of the responses themselves. Indeed, it could, arguably have successfully made two such cases. The first case, that it inherited economic mayhem is readily made. Between President Muhammadu Buhari and CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, fiscal and monetary policy gumption was observed in the breach in the years before Tinubu took office. The transmogrification of a policy intended to drive electronic financial transactions into one that denied the economy of cash completely may have been the most stupid of what was then advertised as a new homegrown heterodoxy, yet it was but one chapter in a very ugly tome. Coming into office after 8 years of this madness, things were always going to be hard. The central bank’s dollar coffers were barer than Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. The national exchequer was no better – that is, before accounting for the debts and contingent obligations that the two previous joint managers of our macroeconomic space had added.

Attempts to fix this problem were going to be harder still. But in order to soften the popular response to the hardships that were on the cards, the federal government simply needed to let the people know how bad things were, what fixes it was going to implement, the time-horizons for these fixes, and how much displacement in living standards the people were going to have to bear. What we have learned over the last 12 months is that only governments that feel accountable to the people do such things. As has become painfully clear, the knee-jerk response of the incumbent federal government is that of an unelected junta, and not that of a democracy.

If the Tinubu government’s understanding of its relationship to the people were that of an elected government, accountable at elections, then it would understand that if the “State House” can warn Nigerians not to address our president after a certain fashion, it means the “State House” can also insist that we address him far more ingratiatingly. Whichever way you look at it, Enver Hoxha would have been delighted by the “State House” – straight out of George’s “1984”!!!

** Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manqué and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin.

Key Takeaways
Scaling a startup to a billion-dollar business is incredibly challenging, but it's achievable with the right strategies.
Leaders must focus on solving real problems, work to achieve operational excellence, secure product-market fit, avoid overreach, build a cohesive team, consider horizontal integration and think globally.

Every entrepreneur dreams of turning their startup into a billion-dollar business. The allure of achieving unicorn status — reaching a valuation of over $1 billion — is powerful, and I'm no exception. The journey from a fledgling startup to a billion-dollar enterprise is daunting.

While we are still on the path to this goal at Triplebar Bio, Inc., where I lead an incredible business as the CEO, I wanted to share my insights to help others navigate the beginning parts of this complex journey.

1. Start with the right problem

The most important question you must answer is, "What problem am I trying to solve?" If you don't have a clear answer to this question, how can you start building and then scale your business? It's crucial to solve a problem that affects millions, if not billions, of people. I constantly ask myself, "Is this cutting-edge? If not, how can it be?" Staying ahead of the curve is vital to keeping up with innovation, industry trends, competition and global markets.

2. Focus on operational excellence

One of the key factors in scaling a business is operational excellence. From the beginning, I focused on ensuring every dollar we spent generated significant value — ideally tenfold. This principle ensures that everything you do creates value; if it does not, it should be removed from the process or product. This concept is an output of a methodology called Lean Six Sigma (LSS), which companies like Toyota and FujiFilm use to enhance efficiency and quality by minimizing waste and reducing process variability. Staying lean is essential, but not at the expense of quality. It's a delicate balance that can make or break a business.

3. Achieve product-market fit

A crucial milestone in our journey has been achieving product-market fit. At Triplebar, we followed the 40% rule: If at least four out of ten customers would be very disappointed if our product or service ceased to exist, we knew we had achieved product-market fit. It's essential to create something that your customers simply can't live without. This requires a deep understanding of the market and ensuring that your technology precisely addresses the problem you're trying to solve.

4. Stay focused and avoid overreach

One of the biggest lessons I learned — and something I see as a common pitfall for startups, especially in high-tech sectors like biotech — is the danger of trying to do too much. Early on, I consciously decided not to try to be everything to everyone. That's a mistake I've seen other companies make, such as Ginkgo Bioworks, which saw its valuation plummet because it overextended itself. Instead, I focused on doing a few things exceptionally well rather than spreading ourselves too thin.

5. Build a cohesive A-team

Success in scaling a business goes beyond having a great product; it requires a strong, cohesive A-team. I firmly believe that to achieve excellence, you can't have different teams working in silos, and you can't have a team of sub-optimal performers. At Triplebar, we operate as one unified team with specific jobs aligned toward the same objectives — but we are all owners of the final outcome. Hire slowly, and fire quickly. Everyone's role is critical in an organization, and don't get me wrong, I care about people, but a bad fit for a lean/high-powered startup will only hold back your business and your mission. As we've grown and scaled, we have ensured that every effort is directed toward our common goals.

6. Consider horizontal integration

In the biotech sector, I've learned the value of moving away from vertical integration — where a company controls multiple stages of production — toward horizontal integration, where each partner in the value chain specializes in a specific area of expertise. This is the sign of a mature industry, as we see in the semiconductor industry. This approach has allowed us to focus on what we do best at Triplebar, leading to greater efficiency and operational excellence and diversifying our product portfolio and partnership base while simultaneously creating a broad impact on our mission.

7. Think globally

Finally, I've always believed in the power of thinking globally. Few unicorns are global, and scaling beyond your domestic market can have a multiplier effect. At Triplebar, we started with a strong foundation in our initial market and then strategically expanded. This global vision has been a critical factor in our growth and success.

Scaling a startup to a billion-dollar business is no small feat, but it's achievable with the right strategies. By focusing on solving real problems, achieving operational excellence, securing product-market fit, staying focused, building a cohesive team and considering horizontal integration, I've positioned Triplebar Bio for sustained success. The journey has been challenging, but the rewards are immense.

Whether you're just starting or looking to scale, I hope my experience can guide your journey to becoming the next unicorn. The path is colossally challenging, but your business can achieve this goal if you stay determined, learn from your mistakes, seek wisdom from more intelligent people, and maintain grit and perseverance.

Entrepreneur

No thanks to the excruciating economic conditions Nigerians are facing, Nigerians are going back to the old ways of brushing their teeth.

Gone are the days when Nigerians chose from a large array of brands and qualities of toothpaste.

Even the least of the toothpastes cost an arm these days, and only the super-rich can afford them.

But for an average family, who depends on God’s mercies for a moderate one or two meals, out of the three required in a day, spending N5,000 on toothpaste that may not last two weeks for an average family of seven, is a misplaced priority.

So, it is no wonder that chewing sticks are back to the stable of family needs.

Originally, chewing stick was a valued hygiene therapy mostly for the teeth, due to their high medicinal contents.

Chewing sticks are ordinarily from plants with rich medicinal values, and families of old insisted members compulsorily use them every morning.

However, with the spread of civilisation, toothpaste pushed the habit into oblivion.

But now, the harsh economy has resuscitated the practice. According to Vincent Osamese, a photographer, he reintroduced the use of chewing sticks in his house when he spent N4,000 on toothpaste in three weeks.

“Few months ago, I introduced the use of chewing stick in my house when I spent N4,000 for toothpaste in three weeks.

“My children use toothpaste like water.

“My wife was reluctant at first saying she would do the buying.

“On trying it for a month, she was shouting and lamenting on the amount she has spent on toothpaste in a month.

“One morning she presented a chewing stick to me. I laughed and was glad I left her to experience what it takes to buy toothpaste at an expensive price in a month.

“Now we are using the chewing stick happily with no fuss.”

Miss Adunni Hungbo, a trader, said: “My toothpaste finished few weeks ago.

“Upon getting to a shop, I was told the brand of toothpaste I use is now N2,000.
“I felt like fainting. Something I got last month for N1,500.

“I was so angry and couldn’t substitute for other brands because I have a tooth problem.I left the shop.

“As I was heading home, I saw a woman selling herbs and it dawned on me that with just N100 I can get a chewing stick that can replace the toothpaste.

“That was how I ended up using chewing sticks till date.

“I know you would say how can a big girl like me use chewing stick.

“I earn N40,000 monthly and live alone.

“I have rent and bills to pay yearly.

“In such a situation,I needed to cut costs.

“At all at all is bad. At least I can wash my teeth.

“If I don’t tell you it is chewing stick I used you won’t know.”

Fehintola Ademide, a plumber said: “How much does one make that he will spend all his earnings on toothpaste.

“The government is not concerned about whether the policies they are making are affecting us negatively.
“They are just concerned with raising revenues wherever they can.

“See the recent increase in fuel price, when you get to the market the price of everything has increased.
“There is nothing that the price has not risen.

“Toothpaste in question has also reduced in quantity and quality.

“It doesn’t last up to a week before it gets finished in my house.

“My wife had to introduce me to chewing stick recently which I embraced happily because that will cut the cost of buying toothpaste almost every week.

“She went further to buy this powder cup paste for the children because they are still kids and their gums can’t handle chewing sticks.

“Also, you know kids like licking toothpaste so this particular one they can’t lick.
“At least these alternatives have helped cut costs.

“No big man anywhere now. We are all managing seriously.”

Maureen Agu, a trader, said she has been using chewing stick for the past three months and introduced her two adolescents to using it.

“Myself and my two grown children now use chewing stick.

“The remaining two I bought powder paste for them because they are young.

“The powder paste is N500 and I make sure their elder sister or I myself puts it on their toothbrush.

“How much do I make? I am the only family they have and I have to cut costs in everything I do.
“It hasn’t been easy though but I thank God.

“Convincing my grown children to use chewing sticks wasn’t easy at all because this generation of children are just looking for an easy life.

“When they saw most of our neighbours using chewing sticks, they realized that they were not the only ones in such a predicament.

“Everyone is going for what they can afford.”

Vanguard

The United Kingdom has deported 44 Nigerian and Ghanaian asylum seekers.

According to UK Guardian, the number is the highest ever in a single flight.

The move comes barely 48 hours after Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, agreed a deal to deport migrants arriving in the Chagos Islands in small boats to St Helena, a British island territory more than 5,000 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Home Office told the UK Guardian on Friday that the deportations were part of a “major surge” in immigration enforcement and returns.

Since Starmer came to power in July, 3,600 people have been returned to various countries, including about 200 to Brazil and 46 to Vietnam and Timor-Leste.

There are also regular deportation flights to Albania, Lithuania and Romania.

However, deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively rare, with just four recorded since 2020.

The number rose in June after some 13 Nigerians were flown to Lagos from the UK.

One of the Nigerian deportees in the latest removal said he was trafficked.

“I told the Home Office I was a victim of trafficking. They rejected my claim,” he told the Guardian.

Another said he had been in the UK for 15 years as an asylum seeker and had no criminal record but the Home Office refused his claim.

In August, Nigeria reportedly signed a deportation agreement with the UK, which would see the arrival of illegal immigrants in the country.

The partnership came into effect after an asylum deal with Rwanda turned sour.

The Cable

No fewer than four vessels carrying imported Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, arrived at seaports situated along the nation’s borders between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20.

According to a document obtained from the Nigerian Port Authority on Sunday, about 123.4 million litres of PMS were berthed at two seaports to improve fuel supply nationwide.

The latest development confirms an exclusive report by The PUNCH, which disclosed that oil dealers intend to import the commodity to supplement the supply from the $20bn Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

The dealers had stated that the supply from the Lekki-based plant was currently insufficient to meet domestic demand.

They had alleged that the plant was producing about 10 million litres of petrol daily, as against the 25 million litres that it earlier promised to produce.

In September, dealers imported about 141 million litres of PMS following a hike in the pump prices of petrol produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

They said the fair market price following the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the government allowed room for PMS imports.

An analysis of the document showed that the commodities landed at the Apapa port in Lagos and the Calabar port in Cross River State.

Our correspondent, however, could not confirm if any of the vessels belonged to the NNPCL or only oil marketers.

The first shipment carrying 35,000 metric tonnes of PMS allocated to the West African Port Services berthed at terminal ASPM jetty on Friday, October 18, at 10.13 am.

This was followed by 37,000 metric tonnes of fuel assigned to Intership at 3.37 pm. It also berthed at terminal ASPM jetty.

As of 3:59 pm of the same day, another vessel carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel berthed. It was assigned to Peak Shipping as its agent.

At the Calabar port, a vessel carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel arrived at the Eco marine terminal on Sunday at 8:02 am.

This means the four vessels brought in 92,000 metric tonnes.

Going by the conversion rate of 1,341 litres to one metric tonne, it, therefore, implies that the marketers brought in about 123.4 million litres of petrol.

When contacted in an earlier interview, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, George Ene-Ita, said marketers with approved import licenses were free to import PMS.

He, however, stressed that the products must be subjected to three major tests by the agency.

“The products must be subjected to our testing protocols at the ports. The products must conform to stipulated standards before we authorise them to offload to their terminals.

“Also, before the smaller vessels bring it further inland to Nigeria, our people will fly to the place to see the product and carry out some tests to ensure the right specification is upheld.

“Tests are also done at the products’ origins. And when the products come in before they are released to the market, further tests would be conducted to ensure that they meet the specifications,” he stated.

Punch

Lebanese flee as blasts hit Beirut, Israel warns of strikes on Hezbollah finance arm

Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes late on Sunday with multiple explosions heard across the Lebanese capital, as Israel prepared to attack sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and told people to leave those areas immediately.

Reuters witnesses saw dense plumes of black smoke billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts. Eyewitnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut was reduced to rubble and the few people in the area had fled ahead of the explosion, resulting in no casualties.

There was no immediate information on what caused the blasts, or further details of any casualties. Panicked crowds clogged the streets and caused traffic jams in some parts of Beirut as they tried to get to neighbourhoods thought to be safer, witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokesperson said earlier in a statement posted on social media platform X that it "will begin attacking infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association - get away from it immediately."

Al-Qard al-Hassan - which the U.S. has said is used by Iran-backed Hezbollah to manage its finances - has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.

There was no immediate statement from the organisation, Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.

Asked by journalists whether the branches could be considered military targets, a senior Israeli intelligence official said: "The purpose of this strike is to target the ability of Hezbollah economic function both during the war but also afterwards to rebuild and to rearm ...on the day after."

Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the group began launching rockets in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

At the start of October, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilise the border region for its citizens who had fled rocket attacks in northern Israel.

ESCALATED ATTACKS

Israel has intensified its military campaigns both in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar raised hopes of an opening for ceasefire negotiations to end more than a year of conflict.

With U.S. elections approaching, officials, diplomats and other sources in the region say Israel is seeking through military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure its rivals cannot regroup.

Israel is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month, though Washington has pressed it not to strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.

Earlier on Sunday Israel said it hit Hezbollah's intelligence headquartersand an underground weapons workshop in Beirut.

Fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, the Israeli military said.

Hezbollah made no immediate comment on those strikes, but said it had fired missiles at Israeli forces in Lebanon and at a base in northern Israel.

A 41-year-old Israeli colonel was killed, and another officer was wounded in combat in northern Gaza on Sunday, the Israeli military said. Israel's Channel 12 and public broadcaster Kan reported an explosive device had gone off under a tank.

Officials said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya that left 87 people dead or missing on Saturday, according to the health ministry - one of the highest death tolls for months from a single attack.

The strike came two weeks into a major assault around Jabalia, just south of Beit Lahiya, where Israel says its troops have been trying to root out remaining Hamas fighters.

Israel said the strike hit a Hamas target, questioning an earlier death toll of 73 released by the Hamas media office.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year that sparked the war in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military response in Gaza has left more than 42,500 people dead and has made most of Gaza's 2.3 million people homeless, Palestinian officials say.

Over the last year, Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon. Fifty-nine people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period, say Israeli authorities.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it struck Russian military airfield, explosives factory

Ukrainian forces attacked infrastructure at a military airfield in Russia's Lipetsk region and an explosives-manufacturing enterprise in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Kyiv's General Staff said on Sunday.

The confirmation came after Russian officials and Telegram channels said Ukraine had targeted those regions in an overnight drone attack.

The Ukrainian General Staff added that it was still assessing the extent of damages.

** Russian forces storming town in eastern Ukraine, bloggers say

Russian forces are fighting street-to-street battles with Ukrainian troops in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove as Moscow's forces push to gain control over the whole of the Donbas region, according to pro-Russian bloggers.

Russian forces, which President Vladimir Putin ordered into Ukraine in February 2022, advanced in September at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia's Kursk region.

The thrust of the Russian advance over recent months has been in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, over which Putin says he wants to gain full control.

In recent weeks, Russia has surrounded towns in Donetsk region and then slowly constricted them until Ukrainian units are forced to withdraw. According to bloggers they are doing the same to Selydove, which had a pre-war population of over 20,000.

"Street by street fighting is going on in the town," according to Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. "The assault on Selydove has intensified."

Other pro-Russian bloggers published video of intensive shelling of Selydove. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage. The Russian defence ministry did not comment.

The General Staff of Ukraine's military, in a late evening report on Sunday, said Ukrainian forces had repelled 41 Russian attacks around several towns and villages, including Selydove. The report said four battles were still raging in the area.

The popular Ukrainian war blog DeepState showed Selydove to be in Ukrainian hands.

Russia controls about 80% of the Donbas, which covers an area about half the size of the U.S. state of Ohio, and is pushing westwards along about 100 km of the 1,200-km front around the tactically important towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.

The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war is entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase as Russian forces advance and the West ponders how the war will end.

Ukraine wants NATO membership, a step that Russia has said would be unacceptable. The United States and key NATO powers have not publicly endorsed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's call for an immediate NATO-membership invitation.

Russian forces hold about a fifth of Ukraine and control 98.5% of the Luhansk region and 60% of the Donetsk region. The two regions make up the Donbas, the cradle of the war.

After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian protests broke out in parts of the Donbas, where Moscow began supporting separatist forces.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian forces lost up to 460 troops in Battlegroup Center responsibility zone

The Battlegroup Center defeated five brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donetsk People's Republic in one day and repelled nine counterattacks, the Ukrainian army lost up to 460 servicemen, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"Units of the Battlegroup Center continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 150th Mechanized, 25th Airborne, 59th Motorized Infantry, 5th Assault Brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 101st Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Dimitrov, Dzerzhinsk, Novotroitskoye, Shevchenko and Tsukurino of the Donetsk People's Republic. Nine counterattacks by the 53rd, 93rd, 100th Mechanized, 68th Jaeger Brigades, 49th, 425th Assault Battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 37th Marine Brigade and the Lyut Assault Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine were repelled," the ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the enemy lost up to 460 servicemen, a US-made M117 armored personnel carrier, two Kozak combat armored vehicles, five cars, a 203-mm Pion self-propelled artillery unit, and a 122-mm Grad multiple launch rocket system.

Kiev forces lost 110 troops in Battlegroup East responsibility zone

The Battlegroup East group of forces defeated a brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces in the area of Dobrovolye in the Donetsk People's Republic and repelled a counterattack, the enemy lost up to 110 servicemen in 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"Units of the Battlegroup East group of forces occupied more advantageous positions, defeated the manpower and equipment of the 72nd mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces in the area of the settlement of Dobrovolye in the Donetsk People's Republic. They also repelled the enemy's counterattack," the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the enemy's losses amounted to 110 servicemen, an armored combat vehicle, three cars and a Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled howitzer.

Kiev forces’ daily losses in Battlegroup West responsibility zone exceed 450 troops

The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 450 servicemen in a day in the area of responsibility of the Russia’s army’s Battlegroup West, the defense ministry reported.

"Three counterattacks of the assault groups of the 14th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces were repelled. The enemy lost more than 450 servicemen, a US-made M113 armored personnel carrier, a pickup truck, a Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled howitzer, a 122-mm D-30 howitzer, a UK-made 105-mm L-119 gun, an Enclave-N electronic warfare station, and an AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar made in the USA," the report says.

As the ministry noted, the units of the Battlegroup West improved their tactical position, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 54th, 60th, 67th, 116th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 119th defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Kupyansk, Peschanoye in the Kharkov region, Prishib and Terny in the Donetsk People's Republic.

Ukrainian armed forces lose up to 90 servicemen in Battlegroup North responsibility zone

The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 90 servicemen in the area of responsibility of the Battlegroup North in a day, the defense ministry added.

"In the Kharkov direction, the units of the Battlegroup North defeated units of the 57th motorized infantry and 92nd Airborne Assault Brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the areas of the settlements of Liptsy and Volchansk in the Kharkov region. The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to 90 servicemen and a 122 mm D-30 howitzer," the report says.

Kiev forces lost up to 645 troops in a day in Battlegroup South responsibility zone

The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 645 servicemen in the zone of responsibility of the Russian Battlegroup South, the ministry reported.

"Units of the Battlegroup South improved the situation along the forward edge, defeated the formations of the 10th mountain assault, 23rd, 54th, 116th mechanized, 56th motorized infantry, 79th airborne assault and 46th airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the areas of the settlements of Reznikovka, Seversk, Verolyubovka, Dalneye, Kurakhovo, Dachnoye and Konstantinovka of the Donetsk People's Republic. They repelled two counterattacks by units of the 81st airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces," the ministry reported.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the enemy's losses totaled 645 servicemen, two pickup trucks and a US-made 105-mm M119 gun.

Reuters/Tass

The judicial career of Francis Chukwuma Abosi was supposed to last only seven years. In the event, he did 12 and may well have reached 20 years if events had not intervened. In his 12th year as a judge in April 2020, while serving as the Acting President of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo State in South-East Nigeria, the National Judicial Council (NJC) mercifully ended it all.

When he attended the Nigerian Law School, as all Nigerian lawyers must, Francis Abosi deposed that he was born in November 1950. On his appointment as a judge in 2008, therefore, Francis Abosi was 58. At the time, the retirement age of all judges was 65. This meant he would have been due to retire in 2015.

In 2008 also, a judge could only retire on their terminal salary as pension if they had served for at least 15 years. In the case of Francis Abosi, he well knew that based on his date of birth, he was eight years short of what he needed to be eligible to retire on his terminal salary as his judicial pension.

The answer to this problem was rather straightforward – Francis Abosi edited his birth year from 1950 to 1958. This act added eight years to the seven that he would have served, bringing his notional judicial tenure to 15 years, at which point he would have been entitled to his terminal salary as his judicial pension.

What Abosi could not do, however, was alter the filings he had done prior to becoming a judge, especially those he made upon matriculation as an undergraduate and also on admission to the Nigerian Law School. Upon being appointed to act as the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, they caught up with him. In April 2020, the NJC found him guilty of  “the falsification of his date of birth from 1950 to 1958. Findings showed that he was supposed to have retired in November 2015 when he clocked the mandatory retirement age of Sixty-five (65) years.”

Abosi’s feat of genealogical management had far reaching consequences. He became President of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo State nearly three years after he should have retired. That means he took someone else’s job unlawfully. It could have been worse. Had the NJC not stopped him, Abosi would have been in position in 2023 when the age of retirement changed from 65 to 70, meaning that he would have been on the job until 2028 when biologically he would have been 78. That would have given him 15 years of judicial service beyond his due retirement age.

Abosi was not alone in the business of injudicious emendation. One of his peers in the 2008 cohort of appointments to the judiciary in Imo State was Theresa Eberechukwu Chikeka. A graduate of the University of Maiduguri, Chikeka became a lawyer in 1982 and did her National Youth Service Corps at the Borno State Ministry of Justice, who employed her thereafter as State Counsel. There she worked for the first ten years of her professional career before transferring her service to Imo State in 1993.

Up to this point, Chikeka’s records indicate that she was born on 27 October, 1956. With this date of birth, she would have attained retirement at 65 in 2021, two years short of the 15 years of service which would have entitled her to retire on her terminal judicial salary. Borrowing a leaf from Abosi’s book of elastic genealogy, it seems, Chikeka also adapted her age sometime in 2006, changing her birth year from 1956 to 1958 and making her eligible to retire in October 2023 instead of 2021.

Indeed, according to records in the possession of the Imo State Judicial Service Commission, which has looked into the issue, the affidavit deposed to by Chikeka’s mother in support of her new birth year claimed that she was born in 1958, without providing the day or month on which she was extruded from the womb.

On 28 June 2022, the Imo State House of Assembly (IMSHA) confirmedChikeka as chief judge. This was more than eight months after she should have retired as a judge. In other words, the House of Assembly confirmed as chief judge a person who was – as a matter of law – not a judge on the date that they did so.

In 2023, when the age of retirement of judges of the high court was increased to 70 from 65, Chikeka received another five years of judicial life as chief judge when, in fact, she should have been in retirement two years earlier in 2021.

These facts are not seriously in dispute.

On 14 June 2024, one Ndubuisi Onyemaechi, on behalf of a group called the Civil Society Engagement Platform (CSEP), filed a petition with the Imo State House of Assembly in Owerri alleging that the Chief Judge had unlawfully edited her age. This allegation goes to the heart of Rule 1(3) of the Judicial Code of Conduct in Nigeria which stipulates that “a judicial officer should respect and comply with the laws of the land and should conduct himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the Judiciary.”

The IMSHA referred this to its judiciary committee, which began investigations the following month. They invited Chikeka to attend but she declined. In a letter to the House dated 12 July 2024, she claimed that “the provisions of the guidelines of my office…. do not permit me to appear before any Investigation Panel (sic) other than a panel set up by the National Judicial Council.”

On 17 July, the Judiciary Committee reported to the IMSHA in plenum which voted through a resolution calling for the removal of Chikeka as chief judge for falsifying her age. Moments after this vote, on the same day, the chief judge served the House with an ex-parte order of the Federal High Court in Owerri restraining the House from taking the vote that it had already concluded.

Matters have since then relocated to the NJC, which now has cognisance of the allegations against Chikeka. Having previously told the IMSHA that she cannot answer to any panel except one constituted by the NJC, Chikeka now tells the NJC that she cannot answer to their panel because of an interim order of the Federal High Court, which has lapsed. On this artifice, she presently claims to function in an office for which she was ineligible to begin with.

In the last week, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, voiced concerns about the credibility of the judicial branch that she leads, appearing rather incredulously to suggest that it is a function of how many judgments and rulings judges produce.

The CJN must realise that no one will take her seriously if she continues to prove unwilling and unable to act swiftly to get rid of the person who now desecrates the office first occupied in 1976 by Akunne Chukwudifu Oputa.

The least anyone can ask of those who hold leadership positions in the judiciary is that they are fit in law to serve as judges. Chikeka is not. She ceased to be a judge in October 2021. Allowing her to hang on as Chief Judge of Imo State today is egregiously unlawful. The NJC owes Francis Abosi an apology and a recall if Madam CJN continues to prove unwilling and unable to get rid of Chikeka.

Let her go!

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Disruptive businesses change the world by inventing game-changing products and services that transform how we live, work and connect with each other. So, it’s no surprise that the most successful business disruptors – Amazon, Apple and Google among them – are household names and some of the most valuable companies on Earth.

For my book, The Disruptors: How 15 Successful Businesses Defied the Norm, I studied 15 other disruptive and groundbreaking businesses of our time, from film company A24 through to social media platform TikTok. They all had valuable lessons to teach leaders looking to disrupt their own marketplace. Here are four of those lessons:

1. Fearlessly tackle big problems

Disruptors aren’t afraid of challenges. In fact, they positively welcome them. That’s why many disruptive businesses are wrestling with some of society’s biggest problems, including climate change. A good example is U.K.-based Octopus Energy, which has scaled at speed by delivering cheaper, greener energy to customers around the world.

Another disruptor that is helping to mitigate climate change is electric car maker Tesla. Tesla has helped to accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy by building fast, attractive and high-performance electric cars. Nearly half of all battery-powered vehicles sold in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2024 were manufactured by Tesla.

2. Make life easier for other people

German meal kit provider HelloFresh has built its brand on taking the pain out of mealtimes. In fact, it makes dinnertime super easy for busy people by sending them all the fresh and pre-measured ingredients they need to whip up a tasty and nutritious meal.

HelloFresh doesn’t just offer its customers convenience, however. It offers them customization as well. Thanks to the simple online ordering system, customers can choose what goes in their food box and when they will receive it, while the available recipes cater to a wide range of diets, from vegetarian through to high protein. By offering a tailored service, HelloFresh has established itself as the world’s most popular meal kit.

3. Execute the concept better than anyone else

Home-sharing platform Airbnb was not the first website in the US to offer short-term property rentals. Yet it overtook competitors by developing a better platform and a more distinctive brand. In particular, Airbnb prioritized the creation of a user-friendly online experience, and it applied sophisticated algorithms to help guests locate their ideal accommodation. It also grounded its brand in the concept of community: a community of like-minded hosts and travelers all around the world.

Another effective executor is TikTok. Founded in China in 2016, the entertainment app was a comparatively late arrival to the social media market. Nevertheless, its short-form video content was so wildly popular that the app boasted 100 million users within a year of its launch. Before long, TikTok was a global phenomenon and today it boasts more than one billion monthly active users. TikTok’s success can be attributed to its addictive and captivating content – which is created by its users – and its highly effective recommendation engine. This recommendation engine learns users’ interests from their viewing habits and makes compelling, personalized recommendations that keep them hooked.

4. Be a force for good

Deciem, the Toronto-based umbrella company behind beauty brands The Ordinary and NIOD, aims to be a force for good within the beauty industry. From the outset, it positioned itself as an incubator of innovative and effective beauty brands that deliver results to consumers – without necessarily bearing a high price tag.

In addition, Deciem is transparent about its product formulations, ingredients and pricing. It wants to educate people so that they understand exactly what they are putting on their skin and whether they are overpaying for products that just feature generic ingredients. “We don’t promise what isn’t there,” is the verdict of Deciem CEO Nicola Kilner.

Forbes