Italy's Eni has agreed to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary to local company Oando, the two companies said on Monday, the latest international energy giant to divest onshore assets in the West African country.

With the deal on its Nigerian unit Agip Oil Company Ltd (NAOC), Eni takes another step in its long-term strategy to reduce oil exposure in favour of natural gas following its disposal in June of oil activities in Congo Republic.

The Italian group will keep its offshore activities in Nigeria.

The acquisition of NAOC Ltd will nearly double Oando's reserves to 996 million barrels of oil equivalent, the Nigerian company said.

Oando added that the purchase would enable it to "significantly increase production" and "brings to bear the important role indigenous actors will play in the future of the Nigerian upstream sector".

Neither company commented on the price. Investment bank Jefferies pegged the deal at more than $500 million.

It is the latest move out of Nigeria's onshore sector by an international oil major. Nearly all of them, notably Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp, have sales underway amid rampant oil theft and spills, perpetual clashes with communities and more focused exploration budgets.

Most oil majors have kept stakes in offshore assets in Nigeria, typically Africa's largest oil exporter, which has struggled to pump in the past several years due to theft and years of under-investment. Some energy majors are loathe to pour cash into developing assets they want to sell.

The country, which relies on oil for the bulk of its much-needed foreign exchange, urgently needs investment in the sector, but other planned deals have hit legal and regulatory hurdles.

Exxon's proposed sale to local firm Seplat is in regulatory limbo, and is opposed by state oil company NNPC Ltd, while court cases have complicated Shell's asset sales.

NAOC Ltd, which focuses on oil and gas exploration and production, has interests in four onshore blocks, two onshore exploration leases and two power plants, Eni said.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

The deal is subject to local and regulatory authorisation. After the sale, Eni will retain the unit's 5% stake in the Shell Production Development Company (SPDC) joint venture operated by Shell, it said.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's counteroffensive has 'failed' – Putin

Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive has not “stalled” but failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Monday. With Ukrainian losses mounting and Kiev ramping up its conscription efforts, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu affirmed his commander-in-chief's assessment.

The Ukrainian operation “is not stalled; it is a failure,”Putin declared, following talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the resort city of Sochi.

“At least, this is how it looks today,” he continued. “Let’s see what happens next. I hope this will continue to be the case.”

In early June, Kiev launched its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces, using Western-provided tanks and armored vehicles to attack multiple points along the Kherson-Donetsk frontline. According to Russian figures, advancing through minefields and without air support, Ukraine lost at least 43,000 men in the first two months of the operation alone. It failed to penetrate even the first line of Russia’s multi-layered defensive network.

The Ukrainian military has since switched tactics, relying on lighter and more mobile infantry units to seize individual buildings and positions. However, losses remain high, and with Russian forces effectively counteringthese advances with drone-corrected artillery fire, Kiev is urgently seeking to draft more troops. 

Ukraine has loosened its medical requirements for military service and is reportedly considering extraditing draft dodgers who managed to flee the country since last February.

In separate remarks to the media on Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu confirmed Putin’s assessment of the counteroffensive. “Today everything is exactly as our president said,” Shoigu declared. The minister noted that the Ukrainian military has "for the last ten days at least"been carrying out "violent attacks with large forces,” but has not managed to break Russia’s defenses.

Much of the fighting over the last two weeks has centered around the village of Rabotino, located in the Zaporozhye sector of the front and near the city of Artyomovsk/Bakhmut in the Donetsk Region. Although Kiev and its Western backers claim to be making incremental progress at Rabotino, The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that it repelled a Ukrainian attack on the village the previous night, killing up to 115 Ukrainian troops and destroying multiple armored vehicles and US-made artillery guns.

** Up to 50 flights delayed at Moscow airports after reported drone attacks

Up to 50 flights were delayed and six more cancelled at Moscow airports, according to online schedules of the Russian capital’s airports.

As of approximately 6:00 a.m. Moscow time six flights were delayed and two cancelled at the Domodedovo Airport, 17 flights were delayed and another one cancelled at the Vnukovo Airport, 23 flights were also delayed at the Sheremetyevo Airport, while the Zhukovsky Airport cancelled three flights.

The Russian Defense Ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced earlier about an attempted attack of Ukrainian drones on the Russian capital. The drones were destroyed en route to Moscow in the air space over the Kaluga, Moscow and Tver Regions.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Give Russia security guarantees for lasting peace in Ukraine, Hungary says

The West should give Russia security guarantees and ban Ukraine from joining NATO, a senior Hungarian minister said on Sunday in comments likely to further strain Budapest’s already rocky relations with Kyiv.

To ensure lasting peace, “the Western world that supports Ukraine must give security guarantees to Russia, but definitely not NATO membership to the Ukrainians,” said Gergely Gulyás, minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, at a university event.

The remarks echoed comments by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last week that the West “should make a deal with the Russians on the new security architecture to provide security and sovereignty for Ukraine but not membership in NATO.” Orban also said Ukraine has no chance of winning the war against Russia. In June, Orbán said that Kyiv was “no longer a sovereign state” and financially “non-existent,” sparking fury from Ukraine.

“Ukraine does not trade its territories or sovereignty,” Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesperson at Kyiv’s foreign ministry, said in response to Orbán’s most recent comments.

The repeated calls for giving Moscow security guarantees are likely to further fuel tensions between Hungary and Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers last week were unable to green-light an eighth tranche of military aid for Ukraine worth €500 million after Hungary blocked the disbursement of funds on the grounds that Kyiv had designated Budapest’s OTP bank an international sponsor of war.

Still, in a sign that Hungary wants to avoid a total collapse in relations, Hungarian President Katalin Novák visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month in a bid to improve bilateral ties.

Since 2018, Hungary has blocked Ukraine attending NATO ministerial-level meetings over claims Kyiv is discriminating against Hungarian ethnic minorities by limiting their rights to education in their native tongue.

Meanwhile, Hungarian lawmakers continue to delay the ratification of Sweden’s entry to NATO. While admitting the military alliance would become stronger if Sweden joined, Gulyás said Sunday that Budapest first wanted clarification from Stockholm on previous comments where it “accused our country with unworthy and baseless accusations.”

** Ukraine says it retakes more ground as Zelenskiy visits front lines

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited two front-line areas.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv's forces had retaken about 3 square km (1.16 square miles) of land in the past week around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May after months of heavy fighting.

She also reported unspecified "success" in the direction of the villages Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, but gave no details.

Ukraine has now taken back about 47 square km of territory around Bakhmut since starting its counteroffensive in early June, Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters was not able to verify the reports and Russia has not confirmed the Ukrainian advances. Both sides have counted gains of tiny villages or pockets land as recent successes.

Videos posted on the Ukrainian presidential website on Monday showed Zelenskiy visiting troops in the eastern Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is located, and in Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv's forces are trying to push southward to the Sea of Azov.

Zelenskiy was shown presenting medals to soldiers at a number of sites and offering thanks to medics at a field hospital on the southern front.

In his nightly address, delivered from a train, the president said the soldiers' feedback on the course of the conflict would be taken seriously.

"Everything that our fighters talked about will be put to participants in meetings of the command, especially regarding electronic warfare. Guys, we heard you clearly", he said.

Kyiv officials have bristled at criticism in Western media reports that the counteroffensive has been too slow and hindered by poor tactics -- particularly positioning troops in too many locations.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said last week that critics should "shut up".

Kyiv has retaken a number of villages and settlements in its three-month-old offensive but its soldiers have been hampered by vast Russian minefields and trenches.

Maliar said last week that Ukrainian troops had broken through the first line of Russian defences, and Ukraine's military expects now to advance more rapidly.

Moscow has continued to carry out air strikes on Ukrainian targets including port infrastructure, and has reported drone attacks on Russian territory.

A Russian Defence Ministry account on Telegram on Monday quoted an officer with the code name Hedgehog as saying: "The enemy is attacking in a strong and serious fashion, but we are standing firm. We will not let them through."

RT/Tass/Politico/Reuters

A developer has built an AI "disinformation machine" using OpenAI-powered technology like ChatGPT.

The project, named CounterCloud, took its creator two months to complete and cost less than $400 a month to operate, highlighting how cheap and simple it can be to create mass propaganda.

The creator, who chose to remain anonymous, used the name Nea Paw and claimed to be a cybersecurity professional, Wired reported.

In a video posted on YouTube, Paw described how the project was carried out and why they were doing it.

They said they wanted to see AI disinformation "work in the real world," adding that "strong language competencies of large language models are perfectly suited to reading and writing fake news articles."

Paw said they started by inputting "opposing" articles into ChatGPT and writing prompts instructing it to write a counter article.

The AI bot would then offer different examples of the same article, written in different styles and with different viewpoints.

They said it would do this by "creating fake stories, fake historical events, and creating doubt in the accuracy of the original article."

A gatekeeper module was then added so that the AI would only respond to the most relevant content, while audio clips of newsreaders reading the fake AI-generated articles and photos were added to create authenticity.

They also created fake journalist profiles and fake comments below some articles.

The system was then told to like and repost messages that aligned with its narrative or write "counter" tweets to those that didn't.

In two months they had a fully autonomous AI-powered system that generated "convincing content 90% of the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

The creators haven't yet set the model live on the internet, as "it would mean actively pushing out disinformation and propaganda. Once the genie is out on the internet, there is no knowing where it would end up," Paw said.

But they added that they thought more good would come from publishing CounterCloud and educating the public about how these systems work from the inside.

The threat AI poses to democracy through its ability to accelerate the creation and spread of online disinformation has been one of the biggest concerns in the AI debate.

CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, recently voiced his concern about the issue, saying that "personalized 1:1 persuasion, combined with high-quality generated media, is going to be a powerful force."

Business Insider

Over the years, I have personally witnessed counter-productive thinking patterns that hold people back (many of them my own coaching clients). Some examples include lacking emotional intelligence or leading through coercion.

But there's one specific mindset that demands attention. I've seen it stifle collaboration and slow down their own and other people's productivity on the job. It's often what answers the question, "Why aren't things working the way I planned?"

There's only one word for it: Perfectionism.

Perfectionism is a thinking pattern that can be harmful to a team, even if it often goes unnoticed. It usually partners with denial, and together they cause self-defeating thoughts and unhealthy behaviors. 

To prevent its negative effects, one must be willing to recognize and take responsibility for their actions. Otherwise, it will continue to cause damage. Let's look at how a perfectionist mindset typically derails one's and other people's productivity, self-esteem, and morale. 

1. Goals are often unrealistic

Sometimes, people who strive for perfection set their goals or standards at an extremely high level that they cannot realistically achieve. As a result, when they fall short of meeting these unreachable standards, they may give up on an important task. 

Additionally, if a colleague performs better than them, they may feel like they have failed and struggle to recover from it. They may also hide their mistakes from others due to feeling ashamed of their perceived failure.

2. There's a fear of taking risks 

Someone who strives for perfection may be hesitant to take risks while completing a task or finding a solution. They may fear that they will not be able to achieve perfection if they take a risk. 

As a result, they may opt for safer tasks that they are confident they can complete, even if it is not the best approach for the team. Studies have found perfectionists to be risk-averse, which can inhibit innovation and creativity.

3. Too much reliance on the opinion of others

Some individuals who strive for perfection may struggle with the process of acquiring new knowledge, experimenting with new ideas, working alongside others or considering alternative perspectives. 

This may stem from an excessive reliance on the opinions of others, and a fear that revealing their flaws could lead to rejection from their peers. Consequently, they may become fixated on achieving a particular outcome, rather than enjoying the journey.

4. Failure to delegate

Perfectionists often struggle with delegating tasks to others because they worry that the task won't be performed as well as they would do it themselves. This can lead to difficulties in trusting others who may be just as competent as the perfectionist.

5. Procrastination

People who strive for perfection often become preoccupied with the fear of making mistakes, causing them to become stuck in a state of indecision and ultimately fail to take any action. 

This issue is compounded when perfectionism is driven by a need for social validation, as it can lead to procrastination. Research shows that this type of perfectionism is strongly associated with delaying tasks.

6. Black-and-white thinking

Individuals who exhibit perfectionist tendencies often approach things with an extreme mindset. They may only take on new projects or tasks if they feel confident in their ability to succeed, and may avoid anything that carries a risk of failure. 

For them, life is a binary game with no middle ground. Once a perfectionist decides to pursue a goal, their intense drive can sometimes lead them to disregard the feelings or needs of others in their determination to achieve success.

If I've described you or someone you know, here are some positive changes to put into play in a work setting:

• Set realistic goals – short and long-term – and break them down into smaller goals: weekly, daily or even hourly goals.
• Ask yourself, "Did I set the bar too high? Your emotions may be telling you that you're trying to hit an unrealistic target, which may lead to self-sabotage.
• Don't fear failure. Look at your mistakes as a part of the learning journey – your professional development evolution.
• Identify self-imposed, rigid rules you live by, and reword them so they're more flexible and forgiving.
• Be careful of using black-and-white thinking or verbalizing these thoughts; it will often lead to unrealistic expectations. Ask yourself, "Am I thinking in terms of extremes?"

Inc

The much-anticipated verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPT) is expected to be delivered on Wednesday, September 6th.

The Court of Appeal Registrar, Umar Bangari, confirmed this to Channels Television on Monday, saying the proceedings will be open to live broadcast by interested television stations.

The Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), as well as their presidential candidates, had petitioned the tribunal seeking to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.

The results of the polls announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are being contested in no fewer than 25 states out of the 28 states where elections were conducted.

CTV

Oil marketers, on Sunday, confirmed that they have received the nod of domestic and international financiers to develop about 30,000 gas stations nationwide.

It was also gathered that many of the stations are currently being converted to start dispensing gas, following the decision of the Federal Government to deploy about 11,000 vehicles to run on Compressed Natural Gas, as part of plans to cushion the removal of fuel subsidy.

Providing updates on the move by marketers to build about 30,000 gas stations to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal, National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Okonkwo, told our correspondent that financiers of the project were responding positively.

It would be recalled that in April, marketers wrote to the Federal Government over their proposal to build about 30,000 gas stations to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.

In the letter to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the marketer had also asked the Federal Government to make the Central Bank of Nigeria release the N250bn intervention fund for the National Gas Expansion Programme as loans to vehicle owner to acquire gas conversion kit.

“Our partners, Gas Analytics & Solutions Ltd, have an agreement with the independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria to co-locate natural gas dispensers on our network of over 30,000 filling stations in Nigeria.

“This collaboration with IPMAN presents the most economic and expedient platform to deploy the necessary infrastructure to support a fast national roll-out of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) for vehicles,” IPMAN had explained in its letter.

When contacted on Sunday for updates on the initiative, Okonkwo said IPMAN was working with its financiers and were getting the desired responses for the project.

“The ultimate alternative is the use of gas or CNG, which will reduce the financial burden in fueling a car. So CNG should be encouraged. We are still working with our financiers. Getting money is not a day job, there are things you need to do.

“Our solution is something that will help. A distance that would have taken you between N50,000 to N70,000 when covered using PMS, you are now using N5,000 to cover such distance. So you would have saved over N50,000,” he stated.

Probed further on whether this significant cut in cost was possible when using CNG, Okonkwo replied, “It is very possible. That is why we are bent on deepening this initiative. It is not everybody that can buy PMS. You that with the current cost of PMS, you don’t move anyhow.”

The IPMAN president, however, refused to name the amount being sort by the association from its financiers for the development of the gas stations, stressing that “nobody throws their business plan open like that.”

Asked whether IPMAN was discussing with international or local financiers, Okonkwo replied, “both,” adding that marketers were currently handling the conversion process for the filling stations.

On whether marketers were getting endorsements from their financiers, Okonkwo said, “That’s yes, and we are doing what they have asked us to do.”

The IPMAN president said the government was showing interest in the use of autogas and expressed optimism that marketers would get the support they require from the government.

“They (government) said they will provide about 11,000 vehicles to run on CNG and they have established a presidential committee for that and this means they are thinking about it,” Okonkwo stated.

Punch

Federal government is discussing the creation of a state company to regulate its mineral extraction industry and provide funding for local businesses.

Africa’s second biggest economy has sizable untapped deposits of metals, including gold, zinc, lithium and iron ore. But nearly all extraction is done by so-called artisanal miners on a small-scale or manual basis, which means that the government misses out on tax revenue.

“The proposed corporation will seek and secure partnership-investment agreements with big multinational companies worldwide,” Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals, told a briefing in Abuja on Sunday. The new body would aim to secure “massive foreign direct investment for the mining sector,” he said.

The proposed entity will focus on the development of the country’s essential commodities, such as gold, coal, limestone, bitumen, lead, iron-ore and baryte, the minister said.

Africa’s top crude producer is also introducing a new law aimed at cracking down on smuggling and providing best oversight practices for the operations in the sector, Alake said. The regulation, which is under review, will be presented to lawmakers in the coming days, he said.

Bloomberg

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have opened fire on two commercial buses and abducted scores of the passengers near Ochonyi village, along the Abuja-Lokoja highway.

One of the passengers of the buses, who escaped while being led into the bush, Shedrack Jonathan, said he boarded the bus at Jabi in Abuja, travelling to Enugu, and that they ran into the gunmen.

He said the incident happened around 7:33pm after Omoko village, last Thursday, while descending a sloppy part of the road, adding that they started hearing gunshots and the bus suddenly veered off the road into the bush.

He added that few seconds after, some people emerged from the bush with guns and ordered them to come out from the bus and led them into the bush.

He said he managed to escape after about a kilometer from the highway and he came out at neighbouring Aseni village.

He said, “At Aseni village, some vigilantes saw me and I narrated what happened and they mobilized to the scene.”

A member of the vigilante in the area, who preferred anonymity, confirmed the abduction of passengers from the two buses.

He said the gunmen came from the bush and shot the tyres of the two buses, which forced the drivers to stop.

He said, “Before we mobilized to the scene, the gunmen had escaped with the victims, leaving the buses by the road.

He said the vigilantes were still combing the forest on the trail of the gunmen.

The scene of the attack was just some few meters away from a checkpoint, where our reporter learnt police only operated during the day and left around 6pm.

When contacted, spokesman of the Kogi State Police Command, Williams Ovye Ayah, promised to issue a press release after finding the details of the incident, but did not up till the time of filling the report last night.

Daily Trust

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian warplanes sink speedboats with Ukrainian landing force – Moscow

Russian warplanes have prevented yet another landing attempt by Ukrainian forces, destroying four US-made military speedboats and their crews in the Black Sea west of the Crimean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said on Monday morning.

Russian Black Sea Fleet naval aviation aircraft “destroyed four US-made Willard Sea Force high-speed military boats with landing groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the military said.  

The landing force was reportedly heading towards Cape Tarkhankut, the westernmost part of the Crimean Peninsula, in yet another botched landing attempt, according to the ministry.

Last week, Russian forces foiled several alleged Ukrainian landing attempts. Early Wednesday morning, the Russian military reported sinking “four military speedboats carrying a landing force of Ukrainian special operatives, numbering up to 50 men” at an undisclosed location in the Black Sea.

Later in the day, a Russian Su-30 fighter jet had sunk a speedboat to the east of Snake Island, near the Ukrainian port of Odessa and close to Romanian territorial waters. A few hours later the same day, the ministry claimed the elimination of yet another Ukrainian motorboat by an Su-24 bomber west of the same island.

Last month, the Defense Ministry also published footage of what it said was a Russian fighter jet destroying a US-made speedboat carrying a Ukrainian amphibious team near Snake Island.

** Russian drones destroy Ukrainian oil depot – MOD

Moscow has conducted a drone attack on an oil depot used to supply Kiev’s army in Odessa Region near the Romanian border, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

In a statement, the ministry said the Russian Air Force conducted a group UAV strike on facilities used to refuel Ukrainian military vehicles in the port of Reni, located on the left bank of the Danube River.

“The objective of the strike was achieved. All designated targets have been hit,” the Defense Ministry said.

MOD officials also said Russia had taken out two Ukrainian ammunition depots and a drone command center in southeastern Dnepropetrovsk Region and a Kiev-controlled part of Kherson Region, again using UAV strikes.

This comes after Ukrainian media reported a powerful explosion in Reni in the early hours of Sunday morning. Later in the day, Oleg Kiper, the head of Odessa’s military administration, said that a Russian attack had damaged port infrastructure, and claimed that Ukrainian air defenses had shot down 22 drones.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy moves to replace wartime defense minister

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had decided to replace his defence minister, setting the stage for the biggest shake-up of Ukraine's defence establishment since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In his nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskiy said he would dismiss Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov and would ask parliament this week to replace him with Rustem Umerov, head of the country's main privatisation fund.

Reznikov, defence minister since November 2021, has helped secure billions of dollars of Western military aid to help the war effort, but has been dogged by graft allegations surrounding his ministry that he has described as smears.

The decision comes amid a crackdown on corruption in Ukraine that Zelenskiy has been eager to emphasize. Kyiv has applied to join the European Union and the public has become highly sensitive to corruption as the war rages with no end in sight.

"I've decided to replace the Minister of Defence of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war," Zelenskiy said. "I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole."

Zelenskiy said he expected parliament to approve Umerov's appointment, adding that Umerov "does not need any additional introduction". Zelenskiy has to submit Umerov's candidacy to parliament for review.

A 41-year-old ex-lawmaker and Crimean Tatar, Umerov has led Ukraine's State Property Fund since September 2022 and played a role in sensitive wartime negotiations on, for instance, the Black Sea grain deal.

He has been praised in Ukraine for his track record at the State Property Fund, which oversees the privatisation of state assets and had been embroiled in corruption scandals before he took charge.

RAPPORT WITH THE WEST

During the war, Reznikov's defence ministry lobbied the West to overcome taboos on supplying powerful military gear to Ukraine, including German-made main battle tanks and HIMARS rocket artillery. Kyiv now looks poised to receive U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets soon.

Although Reznikov has had numerous interactions with U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, a Pentagon spokesperson declined comment on the move, saying that it was an internal matter for the Ukrainian government.

Western military aid has played a crucial role in the war, as Ukraine first forced back Russian troops around the capital Kyiv before launching counteroffensives in the northeast and south.

Its troops are now fighting through heavily mined areas and Russian defensive lines to recapture territory in the southeast and east.

An English-speaker, Reznikov is seen as having built up a strong rapport with allied defence ministers and military officials.

One member of parliament has tipped him as Ukraine's possible new ambassador to London.

His apparent exit appears to bring an end to months of domestic media pressure that began in January when Reznikov's ministry was accused of buying food at inflated prices.

Though he was not personally involved in the food contract, some Ukrainian commentators said he should take political responsibility for what happened.

Last month, a Ukrainian media outlet accused his ministry of corruption during the procurement of winter coats for the army. Reznikov denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly said he was being targeted by a smear campaign.

** Russia says Ukraine launched drone attacks on Kursk region

Ukraine launched drone attacks on the Kursk region of Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday, with the Russian defence ministry saying its forces had shot down two drones after midnight on Monday.

The drone attack on the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine to its west, began around 1 a.m. Monday (2200 GMT Sunday), the defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

This followed a report Sunday evening by the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, that debris from a downed drone sparked a fire at a non-residential building in the city of Kurchatov.

One of Russia's biggest nuclear plants is about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) from Kurchatov, but there were no reports the plant was affected or targeted.

Starovoit did not say which building was damaged in the Sunday evening drone attack, but Russia's Baza news outlet, which has good sources among law enforcement agencies, said drone debris fell on the roof of the security services building.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately reported. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Drone attacks on Russian targets, especially in Crimea - annexed by Moscow in 2014 - and in regions bordering Ukraine, have become almost a daily occurrence since two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.

The attacks have disrupted flights in and out of Moscow in recent weeks. Ukraine rarely takes direct responsibility for such drone strikes but says destroying Russian military infrastructure helps a counteroffensive Kyiv began in June.

There has been much handwringing about the retreat of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism in recent years – and for good reason. From Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former US President Donald Trump, we have a growing list of authoritarians and would-be autocrats who channel a curious form of right-wing populism. Though they promise to protect ordinary citizens and preserve longstanding national values, they pursue policies that protect the powerful and trash longstanding norms – and leave the rest of us trying to explain their appeal.

While there are many explanations, one that stands out is the growth of inequality, a problem stemming from modern neoliberal capitalism, which can also be linked in many ways to the erosion of democracy. Economic inequality inevitably leads to political inequality, albeit to varying degrees across countries. In a country like the United States, which has virtually no constraints on campaign contributions, “one person, one vote” has morphed into “one dollar, one vote.”

This political inequality is self-reinforcing, leading to policies that further entrench economic inequality. Tax policies favor the rich, the education system favors the already privileged, and inadequately designed and enforced antitrust regulation tends to give corporations free rein to amass and exploit market power. Moreover, since the media is dominated by private companies owned by plutocrats like Rupert Murdoch, much of the mainstream discourse tends to entrench the same trends. News consumers thus have long been told that taxing the rich harms economic growth, that inheritance taxes are levies on death, and so forth.

More recently, traditional media controlled by the super-rich have been joined by social-media companies controlled by the super-rich, except that the latter are even less constrained in spreading misinformation. Thanks to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, US-based companies cannot be held liable for third-party content hosted on their platforms – or for most of the other social harms they cause (not least to teenage girls).

In this context of capitalism without accountability, should we be surprised that so many people view the growing concentration of wealth with suspicion, or that they believe the system is rigged? The pervasive feeling that democracy has delivered unfair outcomes has undermined confidence in democracy and led some to conclude that alternative systems might produce better results.

This is an old debate. Seventy-five years ago, many wondered whether democracies could grow as fast as authoritarian regimes. Now, many are asking the same question about which system “delivers” greater fairness. Yet this debate is unfolding in a world where the very wealthy have the tools to shape national and global thinking, sometimes with outright lies (“The election was stolen!” “The voting machines were rigged!” – a falsehood that cost Fox News $787 million).

One of the results has been deepening polarization, which hampers the functioning of democracy – especially in countries like the US, with its winner-take-all elections. By the time Trump was elected in 2016 with a minority of the popular vote, American politics, which once favored problem-solving through compromise, had become a bald-faced partisan power struggle, a wrestling match where at least one side seems to believe there should be no rules.

When polarization becomes so excessive, it will often seem as though the stakes are too high to concede anything. Rather than looking for common ground, those in power will use the means at their disposal to entrench their own positions – as the Republicans have done openly through gerrymandering and measures to suppress voter turnout.

Democracies work best when the perceived stakes are neither too low nor too high (if they are too low, people will feel little need to participate in the democratic process at all). There are design choices that democracies can make to improve the chances of hitting this happy medium. Parliamentary systems, for example, encourage coalition building and often give power to centrists, rather than extremists. Mandatory and ranked-choice voting also have been shown to help in this respect, as does the presence of a committed, protected civil service.

The US has long held itself up as a democratic beacon. Though there has always been hypocrisy – from Ronald Reagan cozying up to Augusto Pinochet, to Joe Biden failing to distance himself from Saudi Arabia or denounce the anti-Muslim bigotry of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government – America at least embodied a shared set of political values.

But now, economic and political inequality have grown so extreme that many are rejecting democracy. This is fertile ground for authoritarianism, especially for the kind of right-wing populism that Trump, Bolsonaro, and the rest represent. But such leaders have shown that they have none of the answers that discontented voters are seeking. On the contrary, the policies they enact when given power only make matters worse.

Rather than looking elsewhere for alternatives, we need to look inward, at our own system. With the right reforms, democracies can become more inclusive, more responsive to citizens, and less responsive to the corporations and rich individuals who currently hold the purse strings. But salvaging our politics also will require equally dramatic economic reforms. We can begin to enhance the well-being of all citizens fairly – and take the wind out of populists’ sails – only when we leave neoliberal capitalism behind and do a much better job at creating the shared prosperity that we acclaim.

Project Syndicate