In this digital age, there are plenty of AI tools at our disposal to enhance our daily lives. Here are ten AI tools to embrace and make your life easier in 2023

In the way that Apple is the first brand that comes to mind when one talks of smartphones, and Heinz is synonymous with ketchup, ChatGPT has certainly done an extraordinary job of making itself the frontrunner in artificial intelligence (AI). At least for now.

ChatGPT is an AI language model that took the world by storm after its developers released GPT3, a significant step up from GPT2 in terms of understanding and capability. Not only has this program made AI a more frequent conversation at the dinner table, but it also represents a milestone in the processing of natural language—anyone who has given this model a try marvelled at how human its conversations and interactions seem.

From generating creative pitches to creating a three-course dinner recipe for six accounting for allergies, the versatile ChatGPT can handle most prompts you key into its search bar, making it a valuable tool for personal and professional use. But why stop at one AI tool when thousands more are in the market? Here are ten other AI tools you should know about in 2023 to make your life easier in this digital era.

1. Decktopus AI

Ever got asked to make a presentation deck for a school project or meeting but don’t know where to start? Or perhaps designing is not your cup of tea, but you still want to impress your audience visually? Decktopus AI has got all your presentation needs covered.

Have your content ready to be keyed into Decktopus, then kick back and let the tool generate visually appealing and engaging presentations that will have your audience’s eyes glued to the screen. With a wide range of templates, elements and content suggestions at your disposal, Decktopus will be your best friend walking into that presentation room.

2. Paperpal

If you’re rushing to get all your great ideas typed out and have no time to spare for the nitty gritty grammatical or punctuation corrections, Paperpal is, well, your pal! This AI tool specialises in proofreading and editing manuscripts and can even suggest ways to enhance the quality of your written content.

Whether you are a student or a professional blogger, Paperpal will polish your piece until it shines. As if the functions aren’t enough, you can download the Paperpal Microsoft Word plugin and edit from within Word itself.

3. Consensus

A big criticism that ChatGPT has received is that it tends to create inaccurate or non-existent citations and links when giving information. Consensus AI easily fixes this problem by helping you locate published papers relevant to your topic.

This tool is a godsend for researchers; simply key in the topic you are working on, and you can read the conclusion of each relevant paper and the paper itself if needed. However, Consensus is limited to several subject areas, such as social policy, medicine, mental health and economics.

4. Dall-E 2

The hard truth is that not all of us are artistically talented, but with a dash of Dall-E 2, we could be! Dall-E 2 is an AI model that converts text descriptions into images. The more specific you are with your prompt, the closer the final image will be to your desire.

Users can go as far as to suggest the art form and style that they would like the image to be generated in, and Dall-E 2 will deliver in a matter of seconds. This is a handy AI tool for anyone who wants to create art but lacks the capability or for designers to source inspiration—unless you ask it to depict hands.

5. Stable Diffusion 2

Think of Stable Diffusion 2 as Dall-E 2’s big brother. This image-editing tool not only generates images based on text prompts but also gives users control over details such as resolution, colours, details, and more. For image enthusiasts who are more obsessed with image editing than generating, this AI tool will take your images to the next level.

6. Lumen5

Since we’ve covered image-related AI, it’s only fitting to introduce a video-related AI. Lumen5 is a program that can transform written content into captivating videos. The AI analyses the text and inputs appropriate visuals and animations to produce professional-looking videos that you can share on just about any platform.

If you aren’t satisfied with the output, simply browse through the enormous Lumen5 library to replace clips or text until you think it is ready to be exported. Jumping on the Lumen5 train will ease the pressure on content creators and businesses to churn out videos!

7. Soundraw

Now, what about music? If YouTube has ever served you a copyright strike, you know how difficult it is to source free, great-sounding bops for videos. Enter Soundraw, an AI platform that allows you to create royalty-free original music.

After choosing the genre, speed, and length of your desired music, Soundraw will do all the work for you and compose unique tracks to accompany your video. No more copyright strikes!

8. Fireflies

Virtual meetings have become more frequent since the pandemic, and there are complementary AI tools that can make meetings more efficient and organised. Fireflies AI plugs into video conferencing tools and can perform myriad actions such as meeting transcription, summaries, conversation analyses and more.

With its AI-powered search, you can review an hour-long meeting in just a few seconds and locate the key points you need. Say goodbye to long nights of sifting through meeting minutes and hello to Fireflies AI!

9. Krisp

Also another plugin for video conferencing tools, Krisp primarily serves to remove background noise so you can maintain undistracted communication even when a baby is crying just next door.

The Krisp team is also working on new features such as a live timer so you know how long you’ve been speaking for and whether you should wrap things up soon, as well as a tone detector to alert you should you start sounding tired.

10. Deep Nostalgia

This AI tool will breathe life into static photographs through animation. Deep Nostalgia adds subtle movements and expressions to your images, making them appear realistic. This is a great tool to try out if you have some old photos lying around and would like to revive cherished moments.

Readers digest

A common misconception tells us that we fail to reach our maximum potential because we only use 10% of our brain. This statistic is often repeated, but that doesn't make it true. In fact, functional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, reveals that the majority of our brain is in use even during very simple tasks. The truth is that achieving our highest potential and entering the ranks of the ultra-successful has much more to do with how we are using our brain rather than how much of our brain we are using.

So many people never learn how to use their brain in a way that unleashes its full potential. Instead of engaging with what matters most in the moment, they unknowingly focus their attention on activities that hinder, rather than help their business performance.

Fortunately, you can change this natural tendency. Training your brain for success doesn't need to be hard. The key involves discovering how to hone your mental energy on the task at hand.

Eliminating unhealthy internal monologues

When it comes to unlocking your brain's total capacity, unhealthy internal monologues are your biggest enemy. Technically, you can call them dialogues. You are, in fact, talking to someone: yourself.

During these unhealthy dialogues, we tell ourselves that we cannot do something, even if or when we have no evidence to support that position. We belittle ourselves, our abilities, our relationships or the people around us. You probably are not even aware of the vast majority of these conversations. To many, they sound like a constant buzz in the background of your brain.

During important interviews or crucial negotiations, your mind brings memories of insecurities, past injustices, personal losses and mistakes to the surface. All the while, it directs you to smile, look relaxed, portray confidence and avoid stepping into future blunders. All of that effort eats up valuable mental energy.

If you could put an end to the conflict caused by that internal noise, the extra energy and thinking capacity could be devoted to decision-making and strategic thinking, giving you a higher chance of success. Everything would be easier. Freeing up and tapping into that abundant energy is how elite entrepreneurs achieve unprecedented levels of success.

Picture a successful entrepreneur stepping into an elevator that will take him to a critical business meeting. Years of strategic work and planning culminated in the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him to stand in that specific room surrounded by those specific people. Yet, instead of feeling excited, he is distressed. His mind is racing, but not with thoughts that will help him. The stress of the moment renders him overwhelmed, worried and anxious. How much stronger would his chances of success be if his mind was focused on reassuring, calming and empowering thoughts rather than "what-ifs" and worst-case scenarios?

Learning to unleash your brain's full capacity

I want you to start thinking differently about what it takes to be successful. Rather than allowing your mind to work against you with unwarranted thoughts and self-criticism, learn to utilize its full capacity on every task. By limiting or doing away with detrimental thought processes, you free up the mental resources you need, empowering greater success without expending additional effort.

Think of your brain as a computer. When your laptop slows down and the little colorful wheel starts spinning, you don't type harder on the keyboard; instead, you focus on fixing the computer's problem. The computer may be bogged down because it is storing too much information, running too many programs, fighting a virus or dealing with a corrupt file. Whatever the case may be, years of experience have taught you that if you don't respond to the malfunction, the computer's sluggish performance makes you waste your time. To get things running optimally, most people need expert help learning how to offload superfluous files, delete corrupted ones, shut down unnecessary programs, fix bugs and get rid of any problematic viruses or malware.

How does this translate to your brain's potential? You must minimize the thoughts and emotions working against your mind to optimize its performance. Harnessing the entire capacity of your brain makes you faster, sharper, and smarter.

Every day as a business leader, you complete a wide range of tasks requiring high levels of processing power. You strategize to drive performance, innovate products and processes, motivate teams to overcome challenges and attract business and talent. When your brain is unable to function optimally during these tasks, it stands to reason that your success is limited. To ascend to the highest levels in the business sector, you must first understand that the most powerful ROI is achieved by investing in improving your mind. This investment provides benefits in the business arena, and it also results in a fuller life and improved relationships.

As a business leader, you face technology, market rules and even workplace cultures that are constantly evolving. Still, the most daunting challenges will always be in your own mind. If you seek to excel in life by unlocking your potential, commit to caring for your brain's health and doing everything possible to enhance its functionality.

When unleashing your brain becomes your priority, you achieve heightened mental clarity, enhanced creativity and advanced problem-solving skills. You multiply your potential, seize opportunities and avoid leaving money on the table. If your goal is greater business success, prioritize your most important asset: your brain.

Entrepreneur

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Oluwatoyin Madein as the substantive Accountant-General of the Federation.

Madein’s appointment followed a successful selection process to fill the existing vacancy.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Folasade Yemi-Esan, made this known on Friday in Abuja in a statement by Mohammed Ahmed, the communication director in her office.

Yemi-Esan said the appointment was effective from Thursday, 18 May, adding that the new appointee will assume office immediately.

NAN

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday adjourned indefinitely a suit seeking to stop Bola Tinubu from being sworn-in as president on 29 May.

It comes barely 10 days to the scheduled swearing-in of the president-elect.

Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won Nigeria’s 25 February presidential election, defeating former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

But a former presidential candidate of the defunct Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Ambrose Owuru, who claimed he was deprived of his victory in the 2019 election, filed a suit that asked for a court order to stop Tinubu’s inauguration.

He urged the court to order him to be sworn in as president instead of Tinubu to compensate for the injustice of depriving him of his acclaimed victory in 2019.

Owuru, a serial presidential candidate, did not contest the 2023 presidential election. His party has been deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He lost at the Federal High Court, and then proceeded to appeal at the Court of Appeal.

After taking the arguments of lawyers to parties in the suit on Friday evening, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal headed by Jamil Tukur, adjourned indefinitely to deliver judgement.

Tukur said a date for verdict would be sent to parties in the suit.

Buhari, AGF ignored proceedings

At the resumed proceedings on Friday, neither Buhari nor the Attorney-General was represented in court.

Despite being served with a hearing notice, Buhari whose second term as president ends on 29 May, did not file any court papers.

But the electoral umpire’s lawyer, Hassan Halilu, urged the court to dismiss the suit for being frivolous.

Owuru claims to be the adjourned “constitutional winner” of the 2019 presidential election.

Halilu further informed the court that Owuru’s case “is baseless and irritating.”

Tinubu’s lawyer, Adelani Ajibade from the law firm of Wole Olanipekun, argued that Owuru’s suit “is strange and baseless”.

He said the plaintiff’s case is bereft of merit and should be dismissed.

The lawyer informed the court that Owuru’s claim to have won the 2019 had been dismissed by a Supreme Court judgment which nullified his petition filed challenging Buhari’s victory.

Ajibade prayed for a dismissal of the case with N20 million cost to be imposed on Owuru and in favour of the respondents.

PT

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has accused the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, of demanding $2 million bribe from him.

He made the allegation amid the growing rift between the governor and the anti-graft agency.

In a statement on Wednesday, Matawalle called for Bawa’s resignation, saying he had questions to answer on corruption.

But the EFCC Chairman responded that he had nothing to hide and asked Matawalle to petition appropriate authorities if he had any evidence against him.

In an interview with BBC Hausa, Matawalle insisted that Bawa could not be trusted.

“It is not just to always blame governors. It is not only governors who have treasury, the federal government also has. What does the EFCC boss do to them? As he is claiming he has evidence on governors, let him show to the world evidence of those at the federal level.

“If he exits office, people will surely know he is not an honest person. I have evidence against him. Let him vacate office, I am telling you within 10 seconds probably more than 200 people will bring evidences of bribe he collected from them. He knows what he requested from me but I declined.

“He requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this. He knows the house we met, he invited me and told me the conditions. He told me governors were going to his office but I did not. If I don’t have evidence, I won’t say this.”

It would be recalled that the EFCC alleged that Metawalle was being investigated for N70 billion fraud.

Contacted for reaction, Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the anti-graft agency, said he had not seen the story so he could not respond.

Told it was on BBC Hausa where Matawalle spoke, he said he could not speak Hausa and asked that the story link be sent for a response, but he had not responded at the time of filing this report.

Daily Trust

In a public statement personally signed by Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu, the business magnate commiserates with the paramount ruler and Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, the Matriarch and the entire members of Olasubomi Balogun family, on the transition of Michael Olasubomi Balogun, the Otunba Tunwase of Ijebuland and patriarch of the Olasubomi Balogun family-which inevitable event occurred on Friday, 19th May, 2023.

According to the renowned philanthropist, Adebutu, “this is one death too many for the banking industry, the legal profession, Ijebu traditional establishment, the Christian community, and indeed Nigeria”.

“We have lost a quintessential  trailblazer, an epitome of industry, of tradition, and of Christian values.

“Balogun will be remembered for his Midas touch in the manner he raised the bar of everything he laid his hands on.

“May the good Lord accept his noble soul into His bosom”, Adebutu said.

The renowned banker graduated from Igbobi College and studied law at the London School of Economics.

Following his graduation in June 1959, he was called to the English Bar in December of the same year.

Balogun’s legal career saw him serve as a crown counsel in the ministry of justice of Western Nigeria and later as an assistant parliamentary counsel in the federal ministry of justice in Lagos. However, the January 1966 coup prompted a shift in his career trajectory towards the banking sector.

Balogun later founded City Securities, a stock broking and issuing house, which handled Mobil, Texaco and Total petroleum marketing companies equity offerings. He later secured a merchant banking licence to establish First City Merchant Bank.

When the operations of the bank took effect in 1983, Balogun was said to have established an entrepreneurial culture at the new bank, unique as an owner managed bank in contrast to the government owned banks at the time.

Balogun was a long time member of the council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

After stalling for days, Plateau state Police Command on Friday said 87 people were killed in Tuesday’s attack on villages in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The police also said 39 people were injured during the incident and are currently receiving treatment in various hospitals in the state.

Alabo Alfred, spokesperson of the state police command, gave the figure in a statement.

Alfred said seven suspects were arrested in connection to the attack.

“After calm was restored to the communities, more bodies were recovered, which is part of the thirty (30) earlier reported. The figures are as follows: (1) Kubat Village 27, (2) Kantoma Village 31, (3) Alagon 6, (4) Kubwas 8, (5) Dumnang 9, (6). Shangal 1, (7) Gwet 3 and (8) Washna 2.

“As at the time of filling this report, Manret Hospital had about Fifteen (15) injured persons, Infinity Hospital had over Eight (8), Allah Nakowa Hospital had over Sixteen (16), while at Mangu Cottage Hospital, there are an unspecified number of persons receiving treatment there also, ” he added.

“We are pleased to inform the general public that in addition to the five (5) suspects earlier announced, two (2) more suspects have been arrested, and exhibits recovered from them include two (2) cutlasses, one (1) dagger and some amount of money suspected to have been stolen from the houses they looted, as they were all arrested in the act of committing the crime by officers from one of our tactical team.

“The suspects are presently in our custody and will be charged to court for prosecution after our investigations are concluded. As part of the Command’s efforts to maintain peace and order, there has been an intensified security presence in and around Mangu Local Government Area.

“The Command extends its condolences to the families of the deceased and assures them that everything possible is being done to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice.

”The CP also urged the good people of Plateau State to remain calm and cooperate with the Police and other Security agencies in their efforts to maintain law and order in the State through the timely reportage of suspicious activities in and around their environment, as security is everybody’s business.

“He also assures them that the Police will continue to work tirelessly to ensure the safety and security of all the residents of Plateau State,” the statement read.

PT

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it repels attacks as Russia tries to retake land near Bakhmut

Ukraine said on Friday it had repelled attacks by Russian forces trying to recapture land they had lost around the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, where Kyiv says it has inflicted heavy Russian casualties.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian Wagner private army that is leading the assault on the city, said in a Telegram message that "heavy, bloody battles" were continuing and claimed his men were close to completing the capture of Bakhmut itself.

He has made over-optimistic military assessments in the past and Reuters was unable to verify his account.

A Ukrainian mortar unit near the city told Reuters it had advanced this week, but was facing heavy fire from Russian forces who appeared to have significant strength in manpower and stocks of ammunition.

"The fire was intensive this week. Our forces pushed forward a little, stopped near the canal. It's hard to push them (the Russians) out of there," said a soldier with the call sign Medvid, which means "bear" in Ukrainian.

The unit's troops said they were firing around 100 mortar rounds a day at Russian positions. They said their location could not be disclosed.

Ukraine says it has made small advances this week on the flanks of the city in the industrial Donbas region even as Wagner has inched closer to capturing the city itself.

Deputy Ukrainian Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said the Russian forces had gained some ground inside Bakhmut but did not control the city.

"Extremely fierce fighting continues in the area of Bakhmut. The enemy cannot win with quality, so he tries with quantity," she said in a Telegram post. Russia had boosted its number of troops and amounts of ammunition, she said.

"The rate of our troops' advance in the suburbs of Bakhmut today is somewhat reduced. At the same time, the enemy is unable to regain lost positions - our soldiers repel all enemy attacks in this area," she said.

Moscow regards its assault on Bakhmut as an important part of a campaign to capture the rest of the Donbas region.

** Biden to announce $375 mln military aid package for Ukraine including ammunition -US official

U.S. President Joe Biden will announce a $375 million military aid package for Ukraine while in Hiroshima, Japan, where he is attending the 2023 G7 Summit of world leaders, a U.S. official said on Friday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the package will include artillery, ammunition and HIMARS rocket launchers.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US to allow allied transfers of F-16s to Ukraine – media

The US government will not block allied countries from sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if they decide to do so, multiple news outlets reported on Friday, citing American officials.

Sources cited by the Washington Post, CNN, NBC and other media said the White House is prepared to allow F-16 shipments after months of Ukrainian requests for the aircraft, which is being used by more than two dozen nations. 

A senior White House official told NBC that Washington had already informed its partners about the decision.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan on Saturday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that “in the coming months, we will work with our allies to determine when the planes will be delivered, who will be delivering them, and how many.” 

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced earlier that London would back the creation of an “international coalition” to supply the F-16s and other aircraft to Kiev. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met with the PM this week and lobbied for Western fighter jets, insisting they are needed for Kiev’s much-touted counteroffensive.

The US military is currently training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16s. However, Washington has so far declined to provide its own warplanes to Kiev. 

Moscow has warned against supplying Kiev with weapons, arguing that it will only prolong the fighting and do little to deter its military objectives. The Kremlin says that military support to Ukraine, which includes the training of troops and sharing of intelligence, makes Western countries de facto direct parties in the conflict. 

** US involved in assassination of Russian public figures – Moscow

The most high-profile Ukrainian “terrorist acts” in Russia were carried out with the assistance of Washington, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has claimed.   

Speaking at a government meeting on Friday, Patrushev said that Russia has information that “the murders of Darya Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky, the bombing of Zakhar Prilepin’s car, the explosion at the Crimean Bridge,” the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage, and other “terrorists acts” were “planned and carried out under the coordination of US special services”.

Those attacks were “accompanied by an information campaign prepared in advance in Washington and London, designed to destabilize the social and political situation, [and to] undermine the constitutional foundations and sovereignty of Russia,” the security chief stressed.

“The intensity of terrorist attacks has vastly increased” since Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine over a year ago, he added.

According to Patrushev, Ukrainian saboteur groups, who are trained by NATO instructors, have been actively trying to target important infrastructure inside Russia, including with drones.

In view of those events additional measures should be implemented to protect key facilities and places where people gather in large numbers, he said.  

Earlier this week, the chief of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) General Kirill Budanov was asked about attacks on prominent Russian public figures and replied that his agency has “already gotten many” of them. However, he declined to mention any names. In an earlier interview, Budanov vowed to “keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”

Journalist and activist Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, died after her car exploded on a highway outside Moscow last summer. Russia’s Security Service (FSB) said the murder of the 29-year-old was carried out by Ukrainian nationals, who managed to flee the country.

In late April, Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in St Petersburg after a statue that had been handed to him during an event with his followers exploded. A dozen people were also wounded. The FSB has blamed the blast on “Ukrainian special services and their agents, including fugitive members of the Russian opposition.”

Earlier this month, prominent Russian author and political activist Zakhar Prilepin was severely injured in a car bomb near the city of Nizhny Novgorod. His driver was killed. A suspect has admitted to Russian law enforcement that he’d been hired by an unspecified Ukrainian intelligence service.

Reuters/RT

'Where is the state?': Mass looting engulfs Sudanese capital

Mass looting by armed men and civilians is making life an even greater misery for Khartoum residents trapped by fierce fighting between Sudan's army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), witnesses said.

While the RSF dominates the capital on the ground and the army conducts frequent airstrikes, the witnesses said police had simply vanished from the streets when the fighting started in Khartoum on April 15.

"Nobody protects us. No police. No state. The criminals are attacking our houses and taking everything we own," said Sarah Abdelazim, 35, a government employee.

As mayhem grips Khartoum, the army accuses the RSF of looting banks, gold markets, homes and vehicles. The RSF denies the charge and has released videos showing its men arresting looters. The paramilitary force say some people wear RSF uniforms and steal to make them look bad.

Some witnesses said the RSF was stealing vehicles and setting up camps in people's houses. The RSF also denies this.

More than 17,000 men who were jailed in Sudan's two most dangerous prisons -- Kobar and Al Huda -- were released early in the fighting. Both sides blame the other for the prison break.

'THE DEVIL'S CITY'

"We are now living in the devil's city. People are looting everything and neither the army nor the RSF nor the police, none of them want to protect ordinary people. Where is the state?" said Mohamed Saleh, 39, a primary school teacher.

The fighting erupted after disputes over plans for the RSF to join the army and the chain of command as part of a political transition. It has caused some 200,000 to flee to nearby countries and over 700,000 have been displaced inside Sudan, triggering a humanitarian crisis that threatens to destabilise the region.

Intense battles have continued to rage in Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman despite Saudi and U.S.-brokered talks between the army and the RSF in Jeddah aimed at securing humanitarian access and a ceasefire.

Most attention is focused on the battles, not the chaos which is demoralising the population, or the rapidly depleting supplies of food, cash, and other essentials that drive much of the looting.

Huge groups have been seen looting mobile phone, gold, and clothes stores.

Factories including a wheat mill belonging to DAL Group, the country's largest conglomerate, were looted in Sudan's main industrial zone, which contains key food and industrial manufacturers.

"They were brandishing machetes, they wave them in the air," said Qassim Mahmoud, a bank general manager who passed through the zone as he fled Khartoum for Egypt and saw people carrying away sacks of wheat and large appliances.

Three commodities and storage facilities were burned down in Omdurman. On Thursday, people could be seen in a video stealing mattresses and clothes and loading them onto trucks. Others used donkey carts.

"Yesterday thieves came and burgled my house in Omdurman. Who do I complain to," said Ahmed Zahar, 42, a trader.

Many Khartoum residents have put posts on social media seeking assistance in retrieving stolen cars.

At one bank where money had already been looted, people were also seizing televisions and furniture, said a Reuters witness.

Aid warehouses have also been targeted by the looters.

Medical aid agency MSF, one of few entities continuing to provide aid in Khartoum, said armed men had broken into its warehouse in Khartoum on Tuesday and taken two cars filled with supplies.

Reuters

I was in the car with my sons, listening to the Beach Boys. I picked some of my favorite songs: “Wendy,” “Girl Don’t Tell Me,” “Let Him Run Wild.” But when I played another track I love, “Wild Honey,” the boys cocked their heads. “Why did they put that out?” one of them asked. The lead vocal sounded wrong to him. Fair enough. Something was off.

Carl Wilson’s performance on that song is not a typical Beach Boys lead vocal. You can hear him reaching for notes, at times barely getting there. There’s vocal strain, unmistakable pitch imperfections. But the Beach Boys, a celebrated vocal group, let that performance stand.

For me, it’s the imperfections that make that recording great. I was a teenager when I first heard it. It gave me the feeling I got from, say, Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” or the punk rock of Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ “Blank Generation.” Raw, not too well-behaved, stuff that sounded like I felt. Flawed but fully alive. And surely the flaws were where I saw myself reflected. They were recorded at a time when technology was not yet capable of making the kinds of fixes that can be made easily today. But my sons grew up in a digital era, when corrections can be made and usually are.

In most recording situations today, engineers can see music as waveforms, there on a screen. Listening back to what they’ve recorded, they’re also watching the music go by. People often talk about 1980s MTV as the major turn toward a more visual music culture, but the more impactful visual turn came, I believe, when digital recording allowed music to be seen and, as a result, fixed, using the eyes as much as the ears.

When the capacity to achieve something closer to perfection — or to edit out a blemish or select a single image from hundreds — is widely available, most people choose to make the fix. It’s Photoshop’s world, we just moved into it without thinking. Who doesn’t want to sound or look better?

But when music gets cleaned up too much, listeners lose opportunities to connect their imperfections with those in the music, the human traces that might otherwise reach the ear and burrow into the heart. Fewer are the opportunities to hear oneself in the music, to follow the threads that tie the listener to it. The effect is the same when the pumped-up realities we encounter on social media leave people who are feeling their own unfiltered humanness at a distance, isolated.

I’m not suggesting a kind of abstinence — an out-and-out refusal of the fix — but I am arguing for a more conscious balance. We know when we’re trying to make our images or our music look or sound better than they are, and it’s time to consider, on occasion, choosing not to.

I’ve been there myself, in a recording studio, watching as an engineer sees my vocal going past, a little out of tune. Trust me, I’m grateful when he does his thing and makes it “right.” I’m part of the problem of recorded music revealing less and less about the beauty and the emotional possibility surrounding imperfection.

But I wouldn’t want to hear the Beatles’ debut or Stevie Wonder’s “Innervisions” fixed in the way I’m describing here. It would alter the moods, the meanings, the energy, the uneven pace and breath of the things as we’ve come to know them. Sometimes the drums speed up because of a song’s emotion, sometimes a singer’s pitch drifts because that’s where the feeling takes it. If we had made it “right,” as technology allows us to do to a greater and greater degree now, the music would have moved further away from where we live.

There’s a moment in the history of popular music that has, for four decades, stood as one of the greatest examples of an artist choosing to leave a recording unfixed, unfinished, imperfect: Bruce Springsteen’s sixth album, “Nebraska.” It’s one of American music’s great left turns. Springsteen’s prior release, “The River,” was his first No. 1 album. He was poised to go to the superstar level. Instead, he released a recording too rough to be played on commercial rock stations.

Why did he do it? He told me in an interview for my book about the making of the album that he felt it couldn’t be “made better” and still manage to transmit the turbulence he’d captured. So he didn’t fix what he easily could have. Joel Selvin’s 1982 San Francisco Chronicle review of “Nebraska” is telling: The album “is a stark, raw document, rough edges intact, and so intimately personal it is surprising he would even play the tape for other people at all, let alone put it out as an album,” he wrote. Understand, this was a very positive review.

Many artists look back to “Nebraska” to remember what it sounded like when a major songwriter and performer, at the top of his game, had stories to tell in song that suffered when he went in to fix the recordings that transmitted those stories.

As Springsteen said to me, “Every time we went in to improve it, we lost the characters.” Their frailty, their humanness, their conflicts and troubles: You couldn’t hear them when he cleaned up the recordings, not in the way Springsteen wanted them to be heard. So he released the album as it was, flawed. It was recorded on a cheap cassette tape, mixed onto a malfunctioning boom box. And that’s what you heard when you bought it. I wasn’t the only one who wanted to hear it again and again.

As a teenager, I felt like “Nebraska” was telling me a few things, but one of them in particular stuck with me: You can do this, it said. Steely Dan recordings didn’t have the same effect. Same for Toto’s “Rosanna” and the “Chariots of Fire” soundtrack. “Nebraska” was dirty, kind of mumbled in sections, its hushed tones punctuated by a few screams; it told scary stories. But it felt so close to the world I lived in. It was a recording I listened to and never felt left out. There are times when we need that kind of art. I’d say now is one of them.

** Warren Zanes is the author of “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’” and “Petty: The Biography.” A former member of the Del Fuegos, he teaches at N.Y.U. and continues to write and record music, sometimes with the poet Paul Muldoon’s Rogue Oliphant band, sometimes on his own.

New York Times