About 45 passengers in three fully loaded 15-seater commercial buses are reported to have been abducted by armed men in Orokam, along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in Ogbadigbo Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue state.

It was gathered from an eyewitness and driver of one of the commercial transportation companies in Makurdi, who narrowly escaped the ambush with his passengers, that the incident occurred at about 3:30pm last Thursday.

The heavily armed men were reported to have ambushed the ill-fated commercial vehicles when they sprang from the nearby forests in Orokam and forced their drivers at gunpoint to pull over.

According to him, “it was easy for the armed men to stop the vehicles because that portion of the road is very bad.

“The first person that came out of the bush was a heavily built young man who came out carrying an automatic rifle and a chain of bullets round his body.

“I saw three of them come out of the bush with guns, this was at about 3:30pm on Thursday in broad daylight.

“Their target was obviously commercial buses, maybe because of the number of passengers they could harvest ransom. In this particular instance, they took passengers in three-loaded buses that were heading toward Otukpo.

“My saving grace was that a J-5 articulated vehicle was in my front. So when we were all stopped, before they got to my vehicle, I jumped out and ran into the bush, and all my passengers also followed. Luckily, none of my passengers were caught by the armed men.

“We ran into the bush, leaving our valuables, including phones, and they did not touch them. All they were looking for were the occupants of the bus.

“They took all their victims into the forest. After hiding in the bush for close to 30 minutes, when we realised it was safe to come out, we started running back to our bus to flee.

“At that point, we saw soldiers on motorbikes and a hilux van asking us where the armed went with the victims.

“This happened in-between a police and army checkpoint in Orokam after the Trailer Park at the bad portion of the road.

“Since I started driving, I used to hear stories of people being kidnapped on the road, I saw it happening live and I almost became a victim. I cannot thank God enough.”

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the armed men have already opened negotiations with family members of the kidnapped passengers for the payment of ransom for their release.

A manager in one of the commercial transportation companies at the busy Wurumum Park who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that the armed men initially asked for N15 million for each passenger, “but they negotiated and settled for N3 million for each of the passengers. This totals N135 million for all the abducted passengers.

“Some of the family members came here to find out if we have any details or are in touch with the kidnappers, but we told them that our company was not involved.

“They lamented that they had reached agreements with the kidnappers, and while trying to resolve how the N3 million they demanded would be sent to them, the phone line went off and they have not been able to reach the armed men anymore.

“So it is like they have been moving from one park to the other to find out the companies that own the buses involved in the unfortunate incident. But from what we heard one of the vehicles has its head office in Gboko.”

When contacted, Benue Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent, Catherine Anene, said, “I don’t have that report yet.”

 

Vanguard

White House says 'it's the right time' for Israel to scale back Gaza war as fighting hits 100 days

The White House said Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli leaders again vowed to press ahead with their operation against the territory’s ruling Hamas militant group.

The comments exposed the growing differences between the close allies on the 100th day of the war.

Also Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck targets in Lebanon following a Hezbollah missile attack that killed two Israeli civilians — an older woman and her adult son — in northern Israel. The exchange of fire underscored concerns that the Gaza violence could trigger wider fighting across the region.

The war in Gaza, launched by Israel in response to the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of Gaza, driven around 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population into starvation.

Speaking on CBS, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. has been speaking to Israel “about a transition to low-intensity operations” in Gaza.

“We believe it’s the right time for that transition. And we’re talking to them about doing that,” he said on “Face the Nation.”

Israel launched the offensive after the Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead until Hamas is destroyed and all of the more than 100 hostages still in captivity are freed.

The war has sent tensions soaring across the region, with Israel trading fire almost daily with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and Iranian-backed militias attacking U.S. targets in Syria and Iraq. In addition, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been targeting international shipping, drawing a wave of U.S. airstrikes last week.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said his group won’t stop until a cease-fire is in place for Gaza.

“We are continuing, and our front is inflicting losses on the enemy and putting pressure on displaced people,” Nasrallah said in a speech, referring to the tens of thousands of Israelis who have fled northern border areas.

In other developments, tens of thousands of people in Europe and the Middle East took to the streets Sunday to mark the 100th day of the war. Opposing demonstrations either demanded the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas or called for a cease-fire in Gaza.

In Israel, supporters of the hostages and their families wrapped up a 24-hour protest in Tel Aviv calling on the government to win their immediate release.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

The unprecedented level of death and destruction in Gaza has led South Africa to lodge allegations of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Israel denies the accusations and has vowed to press ahead with its offensive even if the court in The Hague issues an interim order for it to stop.

Israel has also been under growing international pressure to end the war in Gaza, but it has so far been shielded by U.S. diplomatic and military support. Israel argues that any cease-fire would hand victory to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and is bent on Israel’s destruction.

“It’s been 100 days, yet we will not stop until we win,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday.

But differences with the Americans have begun to emerge. During a visit to the region last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed his calls on Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties and increase the supplies of desperately needed humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

In recent weeks, Israel has scaled back operations in northern Gaza, the initial target of the offensive, where weeks of airstrikes and ground operations left entire neighborhoods in ruins.

Kirby, the White House spokesman, acknowledged that Israel had taken some “precursory steps” toward scaling back the offensive. But he said there was more to do.

“We’re not saying let your foot up off the gas completely and don’t keep going after Hamas,” he said. “It’s just that we believe the time is coming here very, very soon for a transition to this lower intensity phase.”

FEARS OF A SECOND FRONT

The deadly Hezbollah missile strike in northern Israel renewed concerns about a second front erupting into full-blown war.

It came shortly after the Israeli army said it killed three Lebanese militants who tried to infiltrate Israel.

Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it had struck Lebanon in response to the missile strike. Israeli officials said a woman in her 70s and her son, in his 40s, were killed in the town of Yuval.

The army’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said Israel would not tolerate attacks on civilians.

“The price will be extracted not just tonight, but also in the future,” he said.

Yuval is one of more than 40 towns along Israel’s northern border evacuated by the government in October. Israeli media reported that the family stayed in the area because they work in agriculture.

Tensions have also spread to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian health officials say nearly 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in confrontations throughout the war.

On Sunday, the Israeli army said troops opened fire after a Palestinian car breached a military roadblock in the southern West Bank and an attacker fired at soldiers. Palestinian health officials said two Palestinians were killed.

Late Sunday, Palestinian health officials said two teenage boys were killed by Israeli fire. The army said it shot them after they threw a bomb at an army base.

ISRAEL STRIKES CENTRAL, SOUTHERN GAZA

Israel has launched major operations against the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza.

“No one is able to move,” said Rami Abu Matouq, who lives in the Maghazi camp. “Warplanes, snipers and gunfire are everywhere.”

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, health officials said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes late Saturday.

At the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, men lined up to pray for the dead, their bodies wrapped in white shrouds. The bodies were put on the back of a pickup truck before they were taken to be buried.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian TV station Al-Ghad said a cameraman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. The channel said Yazan al-Zwaidi was apparently in a crowd of people at the time. Details were not immediately available, and the Israeli military had no comment.

The internet advocacy group Netblocks said communications in Gaza were still out after a 48-hour outage. The Palestinian telecommunications operator in Gaza, Jawwal, said two of its employees were killed Saturday when they were hit by a shell while fixing lines in Khan Younis.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that hospitals had received 125 bodies in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll to 23,968. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around two-thirds of the dead are women and minors. It says over 60,000 people have been wounded.

Israel says Hamas is responsible for the high civilian casualties, saying its fighters make use of civilian buildings and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas. The military says 189 soldiers have been killed and 1,099 wounded since the start of the ground offensive.

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Reparation bonds could unlock $300 billion for Ukraine

Ukraine needs cash to keep defending itself against Russian aggression. The United States and European Union are struggling to keep writing cheques to the country. They’re also reluctant to hand over $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves, which Western governments froze at the start of the war.

Here is a proposal for a fallback plan. Kyiv could raise money by selling bonds backed by future claims for war damages against Moscow.

It would be better if Ukraine’s backers just gave it more cash, as the United Kingdom did last week. But elsewhere fatigue is setting in. U.S. President Joe Biden has so far failed to persuade Congress to approve a new $61 billion package for Kyiv. Meanwhile, Hungary blocked the EU’s planned 50 billion euros in aid last month, although other member states are determined to find a way round the problem.

Efforts to seize Russia’s frozen assets are also making slow progress. Not only are lawyers arguing whether confiscation would be legal. Politicians wonder whether it would be wise, though they are actively exploring doing so, according to the Financial Times.

Issuing “reparation bonds” would circumvent these problems. Ukraine would sell securities which pay out if - and only if - it receives reparations from Russia for the damage done by the war. Interest payments could also roll up and only become payable if Kyiv gets compensation.

The bondholders would not have a contractual claim on the Kremlin’s frozen reserves. But given that Russia is unlikely to pay up willingly, these assets would be the most likely source of cash to pay for damages.

Since the reserves are accruing interest, they could be used to pay both the bonds’ principal and coupons. This would be different from confiscation, because the assets would only be transferred if a legitimate compensation mechanism first ruled that damages were due to Ukraine.

Ukraine would have a plausible way to collect on any damages awarded up to the value of the reserves. It could therefore issue reparation bonds up to $300 billion. But it would only get anything like this sum if the United States, EU governments and other allies were willing to buy the securities.

A LONG AND WINDY ROAD

Kyiv has a compelling case for damages of well over $300 billion against Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal and has caused havoc. The cost of rebuilding the country had reached $411 billion by last February, according to a World Bank tally. It will keep rising.

The legal principle that a country should “make full reparation for the injury caused by [an] internationally wrongful act” is well established. There is also a recent precedent of a state doing so. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the United Nations Security Council set up a compensation commission which forced Baghdad to pay $52 billion in damages. The money came from siphoning off a portion of Iraq’s oil revenues.

The international community will find it harder to impose its will on Russia. After all, the UN Security Council won’t vote to set up a compensation commission as Russia is one of five countries that can veto its resolutions. That said, the UN’s General Assembly - which has less power than the Security Council but where no state has a veto - has already said that an international reparation mechanism is needed. It has also called on members to set up a register of claims against Russia.

In response, the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental group committed to promoting the rule of law, is setting up a register. There has so far been no decision on which body should adjudicate on claims. But the UN General Assembly’s support gives legitimacy to actions to hold Russia accountable for its war damages.

The process of extracting reparations from Russia will nonetheless be tortuous. Iraq only made its final compensation payment in 2022, over 30 years after it invaded Kuwait. Ukraine needs money now. Reparation bonds could solve this timing problem.

CUTTING THE DISCOUNT

One objection to the idea is that the bonds would be so risky that investors would demand a deep discount. So Kyiv wouldn't get anything like the full $300 billion. After all, even if a judicial process awards Ukraine damages, Western governments may be reluctant to transfer the title of Russia’s reserves to Kyiv. Ukraine itself might also agree to abandon reparation claims against Moscow as part of some future peace deal.

This is why the ideal anchor investors would be Western governments. They have a lot to lose if Ukraine fails to hold off Russia’s assault. They are also well placed to mitigate the bonds’ risks. The United States and its allies have the power to determine whether Russia’s frozen assets are used for compensation. They will also have a big say on the shape of any peace deal. If Western governments conclude that the Kremlin should get its reserves back, that will be because they conclude the wider gains of peace dwarf the costs of giving up $300 billion.

Meanwhile, the legal basis for using Russia’s reserves to pay off the reparation bonds would be strong if Ukraine assigned claims for damages against Moscow to the Western governments which bought the bonds, says Lee Buchheit, a veteran legal expert in sovereign debt. The governments could rely on the common law principle of “set-off”, under which an entity’s assets can be used to pay its debts.

If Western governments weren’t willing to buy all the reparation bonds, Ukraine could divide the bonds into several tranches, suggests Daleep Singh, chief global economist at PGIM Fixed Income. Governments could buy the riskiest tranches, leaving regular investors to buy the least risky ones. That would reduce the discount Ukraine would have to take on selling the bonds.

Reparation bonds aren’t the only innovative idea about how to get Kyiv cash now. But they don’t rely on confiscating Moscow’s assets, which is the basis of many other proposals. If Ukraine’s allies can’t write more mega cheques, the bonds could be a good fallback plan.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian diplomat calls on West to stop supplying arms to Kiev if it wants talks

If the West wants talks on Ukraine it should stop supplying Kiev with weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on Swiss Federal Councillor for Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis’ statement that Russia should be included into peace discussions.

Addressing a news conference in Davos earlier in the day, Cassis said that efforts are being made to bring Russia into peace discussions on Ukraine mediated by other countries and stressed that a peace conference could not be held without Russia’s participation.

"If it is about some countries’ desire to find a way out of the dead end they have been brought into by Washington, this is one thing. In this case, they should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, stop imposing anti-Russian sanctions, and stop making Russophobic statements," she told the Izvestia newspaper.

"If this rhetoric is geared toward drawing Russia into some sort of a psychedelic process on the West’s terms to influence Russia’s principled approaches, we won’t be lured into this trap," she stressed.

 

Reuters/Tass

The three-person panel whom Monica Dongban-Mensem sent to Plateau State could not have wrought that amount of destruction without her active consent, if not instruction. It is simply inconceivable that a Justice of Appeal Court, like Okon Abang – sworn in only in October 2023 – could have gone to the home state of the President of the Court to confidently wreak so much political damage without her explicit instruction. Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal in Plateau was rogue, procured and perverse. It set aside the reasoning of the Court which denied the people their chosen representatives. But because the Court of Appeal is the final court in these matters, the decision of the Supreme Court is no remedy for the political ruin procured under the baleful influence of Monica Dongban-Mensem._

Nearly one year after the country began voting in February last year, Nigeria’s Supreme Court is still casting the final votes in the 2023 elections. It has been a long, tortured and traumatic election season. First the people voted. Then the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decided what it announced as the results. By March last year, those two phases were done.

Since then, judges have been casting their own votes and the courts have been busy announcing their own results. Last Friday, the Supreme Court affirmed seven governors as duly elected. In the cases concerning Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara States, the court overturned the Court of Appeal which had sacked the governors. These governors ultimately survived because there was another instance after the Court of Appeal to which they could take their grievance. Many legislators, whose own cases must end at the Court of Appeal, were not so lucky.

Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara are three highly flammable theatres. The final verdicts in these cases saved the country a lot of needless bloodletting.

Plateau State has been the site of resilient atrocities for over three decades, since 1994. A vast number of inquiry reports into various massacres and atrocities in the state over this period attest to this.

For the past decade, Zamfara has competed with Borno State for the prize of the most prolific killing field in Nigeria.

Kano, the site of many eruptions since 1953, is the most densely populated state in Northern Nigeria and arguably also the country’s most politically volatile state.

It was not in dispute who got the highest votes in these states in the 2023 elections. But, following the vote by the people in March last year, the Court of Appeal under the direction of Judge President, Monica Dongban-Mensem, decided to alter the outcomes in these cauldrons with casual malevolence.

In Zamfara State, they purported to unseat the Governor but did him the favour of ordering a rerun in three Local Government Areas, which they voided. The court’s perverse reason for this was that “it was wrong for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adopt results from the IReV, because IReV is not part of the collation system, but for viewing purposes.”

In Kano, the Court of Appeal issued a judgment in favour of both parties in the contest for the governorship of the state, claiming in one length to uphold the decision of the election petition tribunal invalidating the election of the incumbent on the slate of an opposition party, while in another breadth nullifying the same decision. In a reasoning that had the effect of overruling the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal implausibly held that the Governor was not a member of the party that sponsored him in the Kano governorship election.

Plateau was the state where the Court of Appeal was most willful. It is also the state of origin of Judge President Monica Dongban-Mensem. Two days before her 63rd birthday, on 11 June 2020, Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem became the seventh President of the Court of Appeal. At the time, the governor of the State was Simon Bako Lalong, a lawyer who, like Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem, hails from Shendam in the Central Senatorial Zone of the Plateau State.

The following year, Lalong appointed Monica’s daughter, Buetnaan Mandy Dongban Bassi, a judge of the High Court of Plateau State. Her mother sat on the National Judicial Council (NJC) which approved her appointment. Two years later, in September 2023, the same NJC sent Buetnaan’s husband and Monica’s son-in-law, Paul, to the Court of Appeal.

In his previous life as Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Lalong used to be a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) when belonging to that party was fashionable. With impressive timing, however, he flipped to the All Progressives Congress (APC), becoming state governor on its platform in 2015. In the 2023 election, he was the Director-General of the presidential campaign of the ruling APC.

In that election also, Lalong, who was born nearly six years after Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem in May 1963, ran on the platform of the APC to represent the people of Plateau Central in the Senate. If he had won, Mrs. Dongban-Mensem would have been his constituent and confidant. They come from the same neighbourhood. In the event, he lost to Napoleon Bali of the PDP.

Lalong thereafter challenged his loss before the election petition tribunal. For parliamentary elections, all disputes end at the Court of Appeal. The Court sits in panels of three Justices designated by the President of the Court.

In Plateau State, all appeals went to a panel presided over by Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu who has been a Justice of Appeal Court since March 2014. She was joined by Abdulaziz Waziri, who was appointed to the court in 2021; and Okon Abang whose term on the court began only in October 2023.

On 7 November, this Court of Appeal panel nullified the election of Bali, claiming that “the PDP and its Senatorial candidate have no legal ground to participate in the election having failed to obey the judgment of a Plateau High Court that the party should conduct lawful elections for the purpose of having officers for Wards, Local Governments and State Council.” In his place, the court returned Simon Lalong as the winner of the election in which he had been roundly defeated.

Lalong was one beneficiary among many from a judicial hit-list methodically compiled by the Court of Appeal in Monica Dongban-Mensem’s home state. By the time its demolition job was over, the Court had sacked two PDP Senators from the state and five members of the House of Representatives elected on the PDP ticket.

In the 25-member state House of Assembly, the Court of Appeal removed 16 members elected on the platform of the PDP, handing their seats and control of the state parliament – with malice aforethought – to the APC.

Their victims included: Timothy Datong (Riyom); Rimyat Nanbol (Langtang); Moses Sule (Mikang); Salome Waklek (Pankshin); Bala Fwangje (Mangu South); Maren Ishaku (Bokkos); Dagogot (Quaanpan North); Nannim Langyi (Langtang North); Nimchak Rims (Langtang South); Danjuma Azi (Jos North-West); Gwottson Fom (Jos South); Abubakar Sani Idris (Mangu North); Happiness Akawu (Pengana); Ibrahim Abalak (Rukuba/Irigwe); Philip Jwe (Barkin Ladi); and Cornelius Deyok (Qua’apan South).

In all these cases, the Court claimed that the PDP should not have fielded candidates. Their reasoning overruled a long line of Supreme Court decisions. This was not a mistake; it was judicial malpractice on a very corrupt scale. At the minimum, the panel should have been called to order when they issued the first decision. But the Judge President who sent them there was getting what she wanted.

Instead, inebriated with hubris from the corrupt demolition job they accomplished in Jos, one of the members of the panel, Abdulaziz Waziri, traveled to Yola in Adamawa State last December to celebrate the mandates they had laid to waste, claiming that the PDP “had no structures on the ground at the point they were presenting their candidates.” He alone could explain what he meant.

This was a judicial hatchet job. Any claim that the President of the Court of Appeal was not herself a member of the Panel is laughable.

Such is the state of the judiciary in Nigeria at this time that the three-person panel whom Monica Dongban-Mensem sent to Plateau State could not have wrought that amount of destruction without her active consent, if not instruction. It is simply inconceivable that a Justice of Appeal Court, like Okon Abang – sworn in only in October 2023 – could have gone to the home state of the President of the Court to confidently wreak so much political damage without her explicit instruction.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal in Plateau was rogue, procured and perverse. It set aside the reasoning of the Court which denied the people their chosen representatives. But because the Court of Appeal is the final court in these matters, the decision of the Supreme Court is no remedy for the political ruin procured under the baleful influence of Dongban-Mensem.

The ruin caused and supervised by this President of the Court of Appeal is incalculable.

The legislators whose mandates she has stolen are entitled to feel done over.

The people of the Plateau whose will she has ruined are entitled to feel cheated.

She and her cohort of carefully selected judicial mobsters have brought the judiciary into irreparable disrepute.

Even now, those three Justices on the Plateau Court of Appeal panel should still be brought to account.

While we await that, the only thing left to say to Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem is: in God’s name, please go!

Build My Burgers founder Aly Lalani always knew that a typical desk job wasn't for him. He wanted something more challenging and unpredictable.

The 38-year-old has worked in the restaurant industry for the last 16 years, spending most of that time employed by other people — until 2021, when he opened Build My Burgers in Orlando, Florida. The burger joint uses an open design concept to entice customers — roughly 400 per day, Lalani says — who watch their meals being made up close, a more personal experience than a typical fast food chain.

That first year, Build My Burgers brought in $584,000 in revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Last year, that number increased to $739,000, enabling Lalani to pay himself an $84,000 salary.

Very little went according to plan along the way. Between Lalani's first inklings of his big idea in 2018 and the restaurant's launch, he lost his father, penny-pinched during the Covid-19 pandemic, prepared for a new baby and pushed the big opening from April 2020 to January 2021.

Here's how Lalani launched his restaurant, and what's driving its success so far, he says.

'We are big foodies'

When you ask the Pakistan-born entrepreneur why he chose to open a burger restaurant, his answer is pretty simple. "We love burgers," he says. "My wife and I, we are big foodies."

Initially, Lalani wanted to become a franchisee, owning and running an outpost of an extant restaurant chain. Building a brand from scratch would be too time-consuming — but there was a problem.

"The franchises we were looking into that had a name, they were not affordable," he says. He and his wife Zahra got "very close" to signing a deal with a particular burger chain, but it didn't work out, so "we just decided that we're going to go ahead and open our own brand and bring it to life in Orlando."

Aly and Zahra Lalani at the Build My Burgers restaurant in Orlando, Florida.

Andrea Desky

In 2018, the two got to work. They designed the restaurant's logo and interior — from the wall art to the orange and black color scheme — to give off the appearance that it was already a successful chain, Lalani says.

Lalani signed the lease for his storefront in 2019, and construction started immediately, he says. He was on track to open its doors the following year.

Living off a single salary

When Covid hit, Lalani and his family made a tough decision: All three of them — including their new baby — would live off the salary from Zahra's 9-to-5 job. Lalani kept working on the restaurant full-time, despite not knowing when it could open.

"I was just staying at home, living off my wife's paycheck and just trying to pay all the bills that we could to stay afloat," he says.

The challenge intensified when his startup budget of $200,000 doubled to $400,000, with areas like air conditioning, grease traps and impact fees costing more than he'd expected. Lalani used $60,000 in personal savings, got $122,000 in investment funds from his landlord and took on $218,000 in credit card debt and unsecured loans.

Only $60,000 of that credit card debt remains, he says.

All the while, Lalani grieved his father, who died in December 2019. As the responsibilities piled up, he used memories of his father and his own excitement of becoming a dad to keep himself going.

"[It] pushed me to do more," he says, adding: "It was really difficult. But, one thing about me is I'm very motivated. I'm very positive. I had a vision. I had a goal. I wanted to do everything it takes to make sure it comes to life."

Growing into the local community

Build My Burgers never had a grand opening. Lalani simply turned on the "open" sign in the front window.

The restaurant features special deals for its local community, from free and discounted meals for college students or police officers to free drinks for delivery drivers. "We want to make sure that we're taking care of the people that are taking care of us," Lalani says, noting that it helps build a loyal customer base.

Aly Lalani serving an order at Build My Burgers.

Andrea Desky

In 2022, Zahra became a co-owner and joined Build My Burgers part-time, handling the restaurant's marketing and accounting. Lalani still works 50 hours per week on tasks like restaurant operations and social media, he says.

He's also still thinking about restaurant franchises — specifically, turning Build My Burgers into one. His goals are ambitious. First: He's set a minimum investment price of $235,000, he says, roughly his original budget for trying to buy into someone else's franchise.

Second: He wants to expand to 51 franchise locations across the U.S. in the next five years, and hire enough quality staff for each location to keep Build My Burgers from overextending itself.

"It just amazes me how food makes people so happy," says Lalani. "And it feels great because it all started as a dream."

 

CNBC

President Bola Tinubu has set up a six-member panel to review the policy guidelines of the social investment programmes.

In a statement on Saturday, Ajuri Ngelale, presidential spokesperson, said the panel is expected to audit existing financial frameworks of the social investment programmes.

The presidential panel is headed by Wale Edun, minister of finance.

Other members of the committee are Muhammad Ali Pate, coordinating minister of health and social welfare; Atiku Bagudu, minister of budget and economic planning; Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation; Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, and Ayodele Olawande, minister of state for youth.

“This Special Presidential Panel is tasked with immediately undertaking a comprehensive review and audit of existing financial frameworks and policy guidelines of the social investment programmes with a view to implementing a total re-engineering of the financial architecture of the programmes with detailed modification to procedures guiding the programmes’ implementation moving forward,” the statement reads.

The presidential spokesperson said the president believes that the panel would win back the lost confidence reposed in the programmes.

The development comes some days after the president suspended all programmes administered by the national social investment programme agency (NSIPA).

Tinubu suspended the programmes in the wake of the alleged corruption scandal rocking the ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.

On January 2, Tinubu suspended Halima Shehu as the chief executive officer (CEO) of NSIPA, over alleged financial malfeasance.

On January 8, the president suspended Betta Edu as minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.

 

The Cable

Dangote oil refinery has begun producing diesel and aviation fuel, the company said on Saturday, after years of construction delays at the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant.

The refinery, Africa's largest, was built on a peninsula on the outskirts of the commercial capital Lagos at a cost of $20 billion by the continent's richest man Aliko Dangote.

Although Nigeria is Africa's top energy producer, it has relied on imports for most of the fuel it consumes. The Dangote refinery is expected to not only make it self-sufficient but also allow it to export fuel to neighbouring West African countries, potentially transforming oil trading in the Atlantic Basin.

Company officials told Reuters test runs could begin this week after the refinery received a sixth crude oil cargo on Jan. 8.

"This is a big day for Nigeria. We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone," the company said in a statement posted on social media platform X.

The plant received 1 million barrels of Nigeria's Agbami crude on Monday, taking the total volume received since December to 6 million barrels.

Nigeria's state-owned NNPC Ltd. is expected to supply four crude cargoes to the refinery from its February programme.

It could take months after the start up of the refinery's crude distillation unit to move from test runs to the production of high-quality fuels at full capacity, according to experts.

Dangote has said it will start by refining 350,000 bpd, hoping to ramp up to full production later this year.

 

Reuters

• Israel on Wednesday announced the recent test of a new air-defense configuration.
• The test involved the Spyder surface-to-air system, made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
• During the trial, the Spyder system's components were combined into a single vehicle.

Israel's defense ministry announced Wednesday the completion of a "successful trial" last week involving the Spyder surface-to-air system, an air-defense asset that's manufactured by the country's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The system has been operated for nearly two decades by a handful of militaries, and is capable of engaging drones, aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, and precision-guided munitions.

The trial, a collaborative effort between Rafael and the Israeli defense ministry, involved a new configuration for the Spyder system called the "All-in-One" — or all the separate components of the weapon combined into one eight-wheel drive vehicle. This includes the missile launcher, radar, command and control system, and technology for surveillance and target acquisition.

Israel's defense ministry said on the messaging app Telegram that the test, which occurred at an undisclosed location inside the country, involved scenarios simulating both "existing and future threats."

Rafael said that the Spyder system intercepted a drone "in a challenging operational scenario, achieving a direct and effective hit." The defense manufacturer described the test as a "first of its kind" and published a video of the interception, during which the Spyder system can be seen taking out a red drone with a missile.

The Spyder system uses two missile types, the Derby and the Python, both of which are included in the new configuration. These have a maximum range of between nine and 25 miles, and a maximum intercept altitude of 3.7 and 7.5 miles, according to a fact sheet.

Spyder's All-in-One "provides an agile, autonomous, air-defense asset, capable of rapid deployment within minutes, in challenging terrains, and with short reaction times," Rafael says in the system's fact sheet. The company added that it provides air defense with a "minimized logistics footprint" that can protect mobile troops and sensitive sites.

The recent test comes as Israel faces aerial threats from Lebanon to the north and Gaza to the west, including rockets and drones fired from Iran-backed militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, groups with whom the Israeli military frequently trades cross-border strikes, exchanges that have sparked fears of a wider war. Amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas, Israel has also had to deal with threats launched its way by the Houthis in Yemen.

Israel maintains a sophisticated and multi-layer air-defense network, which, since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, has kept quite busy in shielding the country's nearly 9,000 square miles of territory. The assets in play over the past few months include the Iron Dome, David's Sling, and the Arrow systems.

 

Business Insider

Israel and Hamas have been at war in Gaza for 100 days since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group ran amok in southern Israel, prompting a fierce Israeli military campaign in which almost 24,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Following is a timeline of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.

Oct. 7, 2023: Hamas gunmen storm into southern Israel from Gaza and rampage through communities, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is at war and retaliatory airstrikes on densely populated Gaza begin, along with a total siege of the coastal enclave, which is squeezed between Israel and Egypt.

Oct. 8: Lebanon's Hezbollah, like Hamas an Iranian ally, begins cross-border shelling attacks against Israel that will continue throughout the war, drawing Israeli counter-strikes.

Oct. 13: Israel tells residents of Gaza City, where more than 1 million of the enclave's 2.3 million people live, to evacuate and move south. Over the course of the next weeks, Israel will push for the evacuation of the entire north. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans will flee their homes, beginning a process that will soon uproot nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip, with families often forced to flee several times as Israeli forces advance.

Oct. 17: An explosion at al-Ahli al-Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza City triggers outrage in the Arab world. Palestinians say hundreds died and blame the blast on an Israeli airstrike; Israel says it was caused by a misfiring Palestinian rocket, an assertion later backed by Washington.

The blast overshadows a visit the following day to the region by U.S. President Joe Biden, whose planned summit with Arab leaders is called off. In Israel, Biden gives full support to its right to defend itself but also tells Israelis not to be blinded by their anger.

Oct. 19: A U.S. navy warship intercepts missiles and drones launched from Yemen over the Red Sea in the direction of Israel. Yemen's Houthi group, like Hamas an Iranian ally, will continue sporadic long-range attacks on Israel and against Red Sea shipping in what is describes as solidarity with Gaza.

Oct. 21: Aid trucks are allowed through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza after days of diplomatic wrangling. It is only a small fraction of what is required in Gaza, where food, water, medicines and fuel are running out. The issue of securing adequate supplies through Israel's blockade persists through coming months as the humanitarian crisis worsens.

Oct. 27: A week after mounting limited incursions, Israel launches a broad ground offensive in Gaza, beginning with an assault on the north, vowing to free all its hostages and eradicate Hamas.

Oct. 31: Fifteen Israeli soldiers are killed in Gaza fighting - the military's biggest single-day losses of the war.

Nov. 1: Evacuations begin from Gaza through the Rafah crossing for an estimated 7,000 foreign passport-holders, dual nationals and their dependents, and people needing urgent medical treatment. The overwhelming majority of Gaza residents still have no way out of the enclave.

Nov. 9: Israel says a drone launched from Syrian territory hit its southern city of Eilat. The next day, the Israeli military said it attacked the militia responsible. Israel will later say Syria is among new fronts in the expanding Gaza war.

Nov. 15: Israeli troops enter Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa in Gaza City, after a siege of several days during which medical staff say patients including newborn babies died from a lack of power and supplies. The Israelis say the hospital had been used to conceal an underground headquarters for Hamas fighters, which staff deny. The military later takes media on a tour of a tunnel there. Within a few more weeks, all hospitals serving the northern half of Gaza will have ceased functioning.

Nov. 21: Israel and Hamas announce the first truce of the war: an agreement to pause fighting for four days to exchange women and children hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian women and teenagers detained or jailed by Israel on security grounds, and allow in more aid.

The ceasefire would eventually be extended for a week in total, freeing 105 hostages and about 240 Palestinian detainees, before it collapses and war resumes on Dec. 1.

Around Dec. 4: Days after the truce expires, Israeli forces launch their first big ground assault in southern Gaza, on the outskirts of the main southern city, Khan Younis. International organisations say the next phase of the war, which extends the military campaign from the north to the entire length of the enclave including areas already sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people, will drastically worsen the humanitarian situation.

Dec. 12: Biden says Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza is costing it international support, a clear shift in rhetoric from Israel's closest ally, the United States. Over the coming weeks, several senior U.S. officials visit Israel, urging it to do more to protect civilians, scale down the war, and shift to a more targeted campaign against Hamas leaders.

Dec. 15: Israeli forces mistakenly kill three hostages in Gaza. The incident leads to some of the most pronounced criticism of the conduct of the war within Israel, although the campaign still has widespread domestic support.

Dec. 22: The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia, says it launched a long-range attack on Israel. Israel reports no impact. Israel's defence minister later says Iraq is among regional fronts to which the Gaza war has expanded.

Around Dec. 26: Israeli forces launch a major ground assault on areas in the central Gaza Strip, preceded by a campaign of airstrikes that again sends hundreds of thousands of people to flight, most of them already displaced.

From Jan. 1, 2024: Israel signals it will start withdrawing some troops from Gaza in a more targeted new phase of its campaign that it says will last for many months. Officials say this transition in tactics will begin in the north of Gaza, while intense fighting continues in southern areas.

Jan. 11: U.S. and British warplanes, ships and submarines launch dozens of airstrikes across Yemen in retaliation against Houthi forces for their attacks on Red Sea shipping. The United States carries out another strike in Yemen the following day. The Houthis say five of their fighters were killed in the initial strikes, and that they will retaliate and continue their attacks on shipping.

Also on Jan. 11, the International Court of Justice hears opening statements in a case in which South Africa accuses Israel of committing a state-led genocide campaign against the Palestinian population. Israel denies the accusation.

 

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches hypersonic missiles at Ukrainian targets – MOD

Russian forces have launched a major strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. The attack involved long-range high-precision weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and also drones.

The targets included facilities producing 155mm, 152mm and 125mm shells for Ukrainian tanks and artillery as well as drone workshops and gunpowder factories, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram. All the targets were successfully hit and the goal of the strike was achieved, it added.

The Defense Ministry did not disclose the exact number of targets, their locations, or the number of projectiles used.

Ukrainian media have claimed that Russian forces launched around 40 missiles. They reported damage in the city of Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnepr in Ukraine) and the northern Sumsky region, while claiming that half of the projectiles failed to reach their targets.

The Ukrainian Air Force claimed it shot down eight missiles out of 40. Kiev’s military also stated that around 20 projectiles that were not technically downed still supposedly failed to reach their targets due to “active electronic warfare operations.” The Ukrainian media reported that the Russian strikes hit targets in seven different regions. An air defense alert was issued in all provinces of Ukraine, the reports added.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that its forces only attack military targets or linked infrastructure.

The bombardment came just days after Ukrainian forces struck the Russian city of Belgorod, leaving three people injured.

Belgorod Region borders Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, and has been under sporadic shelling by Kiev’s artillery for months. Ukraine has carried out almost continual long-range rocket attacks since December 30, when missiles with cluster warheads struck a holiday market in the center of Belgorod, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The December 30 strikes claimed the lives of at least 25 civilians, including five children, while more than 100 were injured, according to local authorities. Moscow condemned what it called a terrorist attack on civilians celebrating New Year.

Russia has responded to the Belgorod massacre by repeatedly striking Ukrainian military-industrial complex sites, missile and ammunition warehouses, and depots of equipment sent to Kiev by the US and its allies.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine attacked overnight by 40 Russian missiles, drones, air force says

Ukraine suffered a large Russian missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, while its air defences were able to down a far lower proportion of them than usual.

According to Ukraine's air force, Russia launched 37 missiles and three drones. Eight missiles were downed, it said in a statement on social media.

The air force's spokesperson said earlier this week that Ukraine was now suffering from a deficit of air defence missiles. It was not immediately clear whether this or any other factor was the reason for the low hit rate.

Most of the types of missile used overnight were extremely fast-moving ballistic types, the air force said. These are far harder to shoot down.

"It should be noted that more than 20 of all the listed (weapons) which were not included in the number of the downed, did not reach their targets as a result of active countermeasures by electronic warfare," the statement said.

There were no details on the targets of the strike.

Air defences shot down Russian missiles in at least five regions across Ukraine, according to local officials from those provinces.

The large south-eastern city of Dnipro was struck, the local governor said, also without providing detail as to what was hit.

Police in the northern region of Chernihiv posted a picture of a large crater made by a downed missile.

"As a result of being hit by the debris of an enemy missile, several private homes and non-residential buildings were damaged, one building was practically destroyed," the police wrote. No people were hurt but a dog was killed, police said.

 

RT/Reuters