RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine loses ‘hundreds’ of men in failed assault – Russian MoD

The Ukrainian military lost “dozens” of pieces of Western hardware and hundreds of troops in an unsuccessful attack on Russian positions in Zaporozhye Region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The previous night’s assault came as part of a far wider Ukrainian counteroffensive raging across the entire frontline from Zaporozhye to Donetsk. 

The attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s (AFU) 65th Mechanised Brigade was repelled by the troops of Russia’s 58th Combined-Arms Army and Vostok-Akhmat battalion. The Russian Defense Ministry did not say exactly how many Ukrainian troops were killed or wounded, instead placing the losses in the “hundreds.”

In a separate statement on Tuesday, the head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, announced that Kiev had lost 900 soldiers across the entire front to deaths and injuries in the preceding 24 hours.

According to the ministry, captured Ukrainian servicemen told Russian troops that they had been “deceived” by their commanders with promises of reinforcements and misled about the true strength of Russian forces in the area. “Otherwise,” the ministry said in a statement, “there would be no one willing to launch an offensive.”

In video footage released by the ministry, one captured Ukrainian described a situation of “complete incompetence” on the ground, in which brigades operate alongside one another with no cross-communication and commanders knowingly send Western Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles into the range of Russian anti-tank missiles.

The captured soldier claimed that his commanders have failed to remove bodies from Ukrainian lines, and that some corpses have been left to decompose since the counteroffensive began almost two weeks ago. “It’s just a nightmare,” the soldier said. “A real meat grinder.”

Ukraine’s long-promised counteroffensive began on June 5 with a failed attack on Russian positions near Donetsk. Wave after wave of attacks followed, all of which Russian forces managed to rebuff before their multi-layered warren of trenches, minefields, and fortifications could be breached. 

As of last week, Moscow put Ukrainian losses at around 7,500 men and 30% of its Western-supplied tanks and armored vehicles. Kartapolov put the losses closer to 20,000, but did not explain his sources.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Anna Malyar, said on Tuesday that while the situation on the battlefield “is quite difficult” at the moment, Kiev’s “biggest blow” against Russian forces “is yet to come.”

** Russian forces wipe out eight Ukrainian ammo depots in past day — top brass

Russian forces destroyed eight Ukrainian ammunition depots over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

During the last 24-hour period, operational/tactical and army aircraft, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groupings of forces struck 98 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military equipment in 112 areas, the spokesman said.

"In the past 24 hours, eight ammunition depots were destroyed: the depots of the Ukrainian army’s 3rd tank brigade near the settlement of Dvurechnaya in the Kharkov Region, 45th artillery brigade near the town of Seversk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye battlegroup, the 128th mountain assault and 65th mechanized brigades near the city of Zaporozhye and the settlements of Razumovka, Stepnoye and Novodanilovka in the Zaporozhye Region, and also those of the 106th and 122nd territorial defense brigades near the town of Ochakov in the Nikolayev Region and Tyaginka in the Kherson Region," the general reported.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia strikes Kyiv, Zelenskiy says Moscow's forces being 'destroyed'

Russia on Tuesday struck military and infrastructure targets in Ukraine's capital Kyiv and across other parts of the country, including western areas far from the front lines, Ukrainian officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukraine's air defences for downing more than 30 drones and defiantly said that Ukraine's forces were destroying Russian forces in the two main theatres of the conflict, the east and south.

His commander of land forces and the deputy defence minister reported successes with a counteroffensive in both areas.

Russia's Defence Ministry said that Russian forces hit and destroyed eight ammunition warehouses across Ukraine in the prior 24 hours and repelled Ukrainian attacks in three areas.

It said Ukrainian forces had tried to attack the Russian-held eastern city of Donetsk and the southern Zaporizhzhia region, but had been repelled.

Zelenskiy's office said drones attacked the Kyiv region in several waves over more than four hours.

Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian forces struck the Russian-controlled town of Nova Kakhovka in the southern Kherson region with drones, killing a woman and wounding four civilians, local Russian-appointed authorities said.

FOCUS ON COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

The Russian attacks took place as attention has been focused on Ukrainian actions against Russia's defensive positions in the south and east - the initial stages of a counteroffensive seeking to push President Vladimir Putin's troops back from territory seized since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv says it has recaptured 113 square km (44 square miles) of land and eight settlements from Russian forces. But the latest strikes showed that Russia was capable of waging war beyond the front lines.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces "in the south and east are actively destroying the enemy, physically cleansing Ukraine.

"A defence against terror means destroying terrorists. And it is a guarantee that the state of evil will never have the opportunity to bring evil to Ukraine."

General Oleksander Syrskyi, Ukraine's commander of land forces, said on Telegram that his troops were making progress on the flanks of the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian mercenaries last month after months of fighting.

Ukrainian troops, he said, were repelling increasingly intense Russian attacks near Kupiansk in the northeast.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces in the south were "gradually, in small steps, but very confidently, making advances. We could even use the allegory that we are carving up every metre of land from the enemy."

Maliar said Russian forces had mined vast areas, including towns. Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, accused Russia of "mining" the pond used to cool reactors at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Zelenskiy's office said several commercial and administrative buildings and some private houses were damaged in the Russian drone attacks on the Kyiv area. There was no mention of any casualties in the overnight air strikes.

A "critically important facility" was struck in Lviv, far from the front lines and around 70 km (43 miles) from the border with Poland, regional governor Maksym Kozytskiy said, without giving details.

The air force said Ukrainian air defences had been in action, mostly in the Kyiv region, where more than two dozen Iranian-made Shahed drones were destroyed.

The Energy Ministry said debris from falling drones damaged power lines in the Kyiv region and also in the Mykolaiv region in the south, cutting electricity for hundreds of residents.

The air force said Russia had also targeted infrastructure in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia with Iskander and S-300 missiles. Ukraine's military said Russia had fired seven missiles at Zaporizhzhia.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

RUSSIAN MINISTER: UKRAINE WANTS TO HIT CRIMEA

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had information that Ukraine was planning to strike Russian-controlled Crimea with longer-range U.S. and British missiles and warned Russia would retaliate if that happened.

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea from Ukraine in 2014, but considers it to be outside the scope of its "special military operation" in eastern and southern Ukraine.

"The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centres in Ukraine," Shoigu told a meeting of military officials.

Shoigu also said Ukrainian armed forces had carried out 263 attacks on Russian forces' positions since June 4, referring to what Moscow regards as the start of Ukraine's counteroffensive. But it had "not accomplished its goals", he said.

Ukraine says it has recaptured eight villages.

RT/Tass/Reuters

Sudanese civilians killed and shot at as they flee Darfur city by foot

An increasing number of Sudanese civilians fleeing El Geneina, a city in Darfur hit by repeated militia attacks, have been killed or shot at as they tried to escape by foot to Chad since last week, witnesses said.

The violence in El Geneina over the past two months has been driven by militias from Arab nomadic tribes along with members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a military faction engaged in a power struggle with Sudan's army in the capital, Khartoum, witnesses and activists said.

A large number of people tried to seek protection near the army headquarters in El Geneina on June 14, but were blocked, said Ibrahim, a resident who made it to the Chadian town of Adre, about 27 km (17 miles) from El Geneina.

"All of a sudden the militias came out and sprayed people with gunfire," he said by phone, asking to use only his first name. "We got surprised by thousands of people running back. People were killed, they were trampled."

Reuters spoke to three witnesses who sustained gunshot wounds as they tried to flee El Geneina and to more than a dozen witnesses who said they had seen violence on the route from the city. It was not clear how many people had been killed in recent days.

Medical charity MSF said on Monday that some 15,000 people had fled West Darfur over the previous four days, and it said many arrivals reported seeing people shot and killed as they tried to escape El Geneina. MSF also reported rapes.

"It was a collective decision of the people of El Geneina to leave", one resident told MSF from Chad. "Most of them fled on foot heading northeast of El Geneina but many of them were killed on this route."

People decided to flee when the state governor of West Darfur was killed on June 14, hours after he accused the RSF and allied militias of "genocide" in a TV interview, said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim later found out that eight of his family members had been killed, including his grandmother, and that his mother had been beaten.

The war that erupted in April has uprooted more than 2.5 million people, according to U.N. estimates, mainly from the capital and from Darfur, which was already suffering from two decades of conflict and mass displacement. Nearly 600,000 have crossed into neighbouring countries, including more than 155,000 who have fled Darfur for Chad.

A 72-hour ceasefire, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the U.S., due to expire early on Wednesday morning, has brought a lull in fighting in Khartoum though residents report looting has spread and the army said the RSF had caused a huge fire at the intelligence headquarters late on Tuesday.

The RSF said the army was responsible for targeting the building, which is in an area near the defence ministry, army headquarters and airport that both sides claim to control.

'SYSTEMATIC' KILLING

The violence in Darfur has increased and taken on a more overtly ethnic nature, with assailants targeting non-Arab residents by their skin colour, witnesses said.

There are warning signs of a repeat of the atrocities perpetrated in Darfur after 2003, when "Janjaweed" militias from which the RSF was formed helped the government crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups in Darfur.

More than 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced, according to U.N. estimates.

RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said on Tuesday his force would investigate events in El Geneina. He accused the army of fomenting violence by arming tribes, while the army has blamed the RSF for the governor's death and other violence in the region.

Sultan Saad Bahreldin, leader of the Masalit tribe, the largest bloc of El Geneina residents, said there had been "systematic" killing in recent days.

"The road between El Geneina and Adre has a lot of bodies, no one can count them," he told Al Hadath TV.

One activist who left El Geneina on Sunday told Reuters that Arab militias and the RSF had reinforced their presence in the city since the governor's killing, adding that Arab groups controlled the route to Chad.

Eyewitnesses had reported cases of rape, murder and enforced disappearance along the route, said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears for his safety.

Competition for land has long been a driver of conflict in Darfur. Villages on the road from El Geneina to Adre used to be Masalit, but had been settled by Arab tribes since 2003, Ibrahim said.

Several witnesses from El Geneina, largely cut off from phone networks for weeks, said darker skinned non-Arabs were being targeted, especially the Masalit.

One resident who arrived in Chad on June 15, Abdel Nasser Abdullah, said his house was one of many in his neighbourhood that was stormed, and that his cousin was killed while he hid on the roof.

"They are not only looking for the Masalit but anyone Black," he said, adding that the streets of the city were strewn with bodies, including those of women and children.

Reuters

A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge have made a significant breakthrough in renewable energy and sustainable fuel production. It could ultimately eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

They have shown how carbon dioxide, whether captured from industrial exhaust or even directly from the air, can be turned into clean, renewable fuels harnessing only solar energy.

How does it work?

This innovative approach revolves around a solar-powered reactor. It was created by the researchers themselves. The reactor transforms not only captured CO2 but also plastic waste into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemicals.

Through this method, the researchers managed to convert CO2 into syngas. These are a critical precursor for sustainable liquid fuels. They also successfully transformed plastic bottles into glycolic acid, a chemical commonly found in cosmetic products.

This pioneering experiment, unlike earlier ones, utilized real-world sources of CO2. The scientists extracted CO2 from industrial exhaust and ambient air. This demonstrated the technology's ability to capture, concentrate, and convert CO2 into renewable fuel.

Eliminating the need for oil and gas with renewable energy

Advancements are necessary before the technology can be scaled up for industrial use. However, the findings, published in the journal Joule, signify an essential stride towards generating environmentally friendly fuels. This breakthrough could potentially eliminate the need for harmful oil and gas extraction.

For some time now, the research team led by Erwin Reisner in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry has been dedicated to developing sustainable, net-zero carbon fuels. They took inspiration from photosynthesis, wherein plants convert sunlight into food.

Using a similar concept, they developed 'artificial leaves' that convert CO2 and water into fuels. These are powered entirely by the sun.

However, the practical utility of this technology depends on its ability to actively capture CO2 from industrial processes or directly from the air. The technology doesn't do much good if requires pure, concentrated CO2 in a cylinder.

Overcoming technical obstacles

This is a considerable technical challenge since the air we breathe contains many different types of molecules. The technology needs to selectively convert highly diluted CO2.

Reisner stressed the ultimate objective of this research, stating, "We're not just interested in decarbonization, but de-fossilization-we need to completely eliminate fossil fuels in order to create a truly circular economy."

The technology could help reduce carbon emissions in the medium term by capturing them from industry and transforming them into something useful. However, Reisner suggests a more ambitious goal. He plans to "cut fossil fuels out of the equation entirely and capture CO2 from the air."

Drawing ideas from carbon capture and storage (CCS)-a method of capturing CO2 and storing it underground-the researchers transformed their solar-driven technology to work with flue gas or directly from the air. This conversion changes CO2 and plastics into renewable energy and fuel and chemicals using the power of the sun alone.

System captures CO2 while ignoring other gases

The researchers devised a system that traps CO2 selectively by bubbling air through an alkaline solution. Non-target gases like nitrogen and oxygen simply bubble out. This leaves behind concentrated CO2 in solution for conversion to renewable energy sources

This ingenious system has two compartments. In one, captured CO2 solution is converted into syngas. In the other, plastics are transformed into useful chemicals, all under the influence of sunlight.

According to co-first author Dr. Motiar Rahaman, the plastic component adds a crucial layer of functionality to this system.

He explains, "Capturing and using CO2 from the air makes the chemistry more difficult. But, if we add plastic waste to the system, the plastic donates electrons to the CO2. The plastic breaks down to glycolic acid... and the CO2 is converted into syngas, which is a simple fuel."

Sayan Kar, another co-first author, highlights the system's capability to convert two harmful waste products-plastic and carbon emissions-into something truly useful.

Rahaman adds, "Instead of storing CO2 underground, like in CCS, we can capture it from the air and make clean fuel from it."

This alternative process could potentially phase out the fossil fuel industry from the chain of fuel production. This would obviously help in the mitigation efforts of further climate change.

"The fact that we can effectively take CO2 from air and make something useful from it is special," said Kar, "It's satisfying to see that we can actually do it using only sunlight."

Scaling the device for renewable energy at mass scale

Currently, the team is putting their efforts into refining a bench-top demonstrator device. The goal is to enhance efficiency and practicality.

This will serve to underline the benefits of coupling direct air capture with CO2 utilization. Their hope is to forge a clear path to a zero-carbon future.

This research embodies a promising avenue in the battle against climate change. While it is still in the developmental stages, the potential implications are enormous.

Should this technology become scalable and cost-effective, it could provide a sustainable solution to two of the world's most pressing environmental issues - carbon emissions and plastic waste.

As Kar puts it, the team is not just converting CO2 into useful products, they're doing it with the sun's energy. The sun the cleanest energy source we have.

Ultimately, the goal of this research is not just to decrease carbon emissions, but to actively reverse them. If successful, it could reshape the landscape of renewable energy and bring us one step closer to a truly circular, sustainable economy.

More about the quest for renewable energy

Renewable energy has been a major focus of research and development for several years as countries around the world strive to reduce their carbon footprints, limit global warming, and become less dependent on fossil fuels.

Types of Renewable Energy

There are several types of renewable energy sources, each with its own benefits and challenges. These include solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, tidal and wave power, geothermal power, and bioenergy. Solar and wind are the fastest-growing sectors of renewable energy.

Solar Power

Solar energy harnesses the power of the sun. Photovoltaic (PV) cells on solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity. Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems use mirrors to focus sunlight onto a small area to generate heat, which then drives a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator.

Wind Power

Wind power uses the kinetic energy from the wind to spin turbines and generate electricity. It's a clean, cost-effective, and sustainable form of energy. However, it does face challenges such as intermittency and issues with placement, as wind farms can be considered eyesores and can impact local wildlife.

Hydroelectric Power

Hydroelectric power generates electricity by using flowing or falling water to spin a turbine connected to a generator. It's a reliable and proven technology but constructing dams for hydroelectric power plants can have significant environmental and social impacts, including changes to ecosystems and displacement of local communities.

Tidal and Wave Power

Tidal and wave power are forms of hydropower that convert the energy of tides or waves into electricity. While they have great potential, these technologies are still in the early stages of development and face challenges in terms of cost and environmental impact.

Geothermal Power

Geothermal power taps into the heat within the Earth's crust to generate electricity or heat buildings. It is a reliable and consistent source of power, but it is location-specific, and drilling for geothermal reservoirs can be expensive and challenging.

Bioenergy

Bioenergy comes from organic materials like plant and animal waste. These can be directly burned for heat or power, or converted into biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Bioenergy has a wide range of applications but must be carefully managed to ensure it's truly sustainable and doesn't compete with food crops or contribute to deforestation.

Storage and Grid Integration for Renewable Energy

One of the main challenges with renewable energy is that many sources are intermittent - they don't provide a constant stream of energy. Energy storage solutions, like batteries and pumped hydro storage, are essential for smoothing out these fluctuations and ensuring a consistent energy supply. Grid integration is also a significant technical challenge, as power grids need to be able to handle the variable inputs from different renewable sources.

Renewable Energy Policy and Economics

The transition to renewable energy is not just a technological challenge but also a policy and economic one. Policies like renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and carbon pricing can incentivize the development and deployment of renewable technologies. Additionally, the cost of many forms of renewable energy has been falling, making them increasingly competitive with fossil fuels.

Future Renewable Energy Technologies

There are several promising technologies on the horizon, including advanced biofuels, floating offshore wind turbines, and solar fuels. There's also a great deal of interest in fusion power, which could provide a nearly limitless supply of clean energy if it can be made practical.

In summary, the quest for renewable energy involves a wide range of technologies and approaches, each with its own set of benefits, challenges, and potential. The goal is to create a sustainable, low-carbon energy system that can power our society without contributing to climate change.

Decentralization of Energy Production

In addition to harnessing renewable resources, there's a growing shift towards decentralization in energy systems. This means moving away from a few large power plants towards a network of smaller, distributed energy generators, which can include solar panels on homes, local wind turbines, or community bioenergy facilities. Decentralization can improve energy security, reduce transmission losses, and allow more people to participate in the energy market.

Integration of AI and IoT

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) in the energy sector is also a promising development. AI can improve the efficiency of energy usage and assist in the management of energy grids, while IoT devices can provide real-time data on energy generation and consumption, supporting smarter energy use and grid management.

Electric Vehicles and Transportation

The transportation sector is also undergoing a transformation with the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), which are powered by electricity rather than gasoline or diesel. This is a significant step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, with advancements in vehicle-to-grid technology, EVs could even feed energy back into the grid when not in use.

Building and Industry Efficiency

Reducing the energy consumption of buildings and industry is also part of the renewable energy transition. This involves increasing energy efficiency, using sustainable building materials, and improving industrial processes. For instance, green buildings that utilize passive solar design, energy-efficient appliances, and advanced insulation can drastically reduce energy needs.

Public Awareness and Education

Lastly, public awareness and education are crucial elements in the quest for renewable energy. This involves increasing understanding about the importance of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and encouraging behaviors that support sustainability.

The journey towards a future powered by renewable energy is a multifaceted and complex one, touching on virtually every aspect of our lives, from the way we power our homes and vehicles, to the way we design our cities and economies.

It's not just a matter of swapping out fossil fuels for clean energy sources; it involves rethinking and reshaping our entire energy system towards sustainability and resilience. It's a significant challenge, but with promising advancements in technology, policy, and public awareness, it's a challenge that we're well-equipped to face.

Earth

At the enterprise level, keeping track of internal data and information has become an enormous challenge. In this VB Spotlight event, learn how new generative AI experiences are unlocking the full potential of data in enterprise environments and reducing time to knowledge.

With the increasing complexity and distributed nature of organizations – far-flung teams, remote work, and a multitude of knowledge systems, data is difficult to track down across an entire enterprise knowledge ecosystem, and workers are feeling the toll.

This knowledge access challenge “results in a loss of productivity and a frustration that we’re starting to see, leading to diminishing engagement from our employees,” says Phu Nguyen, head of digital workplace at Pure Storage during the recent VB Spotlight, “The impact of generative AI on enterprise search: A game-changer for businesses.”

He was joined by Jean-Claude Monney, a digital workplace, technology and knowledge management advisor and Eddie Zhou, founding engineer, intelligence at Glean to discuss the emergence of the evolutionary leap forward in workplace-specific search tools, powered by generative AI, that gives employees full access to the knowledge they need, and its context, anywhere in the organization.

The evolution of enterprise search

Traditional enterprise search can’t reach all the knowledge in an organization, which is spread out in multiple systems. It can mine structured knowledge, such as the data found in Jira, Confluence, intranets and sales portals, but unstructured knowledge, the information communicated through IM, Teams, Slack, and email, has been uncharted territory, difficult to corral in any helpful contextual way, Nguyen adds.

“The paradigm of knowledge management has changed significantly,” he says. “How do you have a system that can look at both structured and unstructured data and provide you with the answers that you’re ultimately looking for? Not the information that you need, but the answer that you’re looking for.”

Solutions that integrate with multiple systems and utilize generative AI can address these challenges, and help employees find the information they need to perform their jobs effectively, no matter where that knowledge resides.

“Companies are now building searches specifically for the workplace, built for internal searches that work across your internal system,” Nguyen explains. “Most importantly, they’re built on a knowledge graph that returns a search that’s more relevant to your employees. This is all very exciting for us because we think of this as part of our employee information center strategy. Previously it was just an intranet and our support portal, but now we have this workplace search that can connect information across multiple systems inside our organization.”

How organizations can leverage generative AI

There are three major ways companies can leverage generative AI, and they’re game changers, Monney says. First, he says, are the benefits that an NLP interface brings.

“Time to knowledge is a new business currency,” says Monney. “What we’ve seen with generative AI is this quantum leap in user experience. ChatGPT has democratized ways to talk to a system and get very succinct responses.”

At home, users have grown accustomed to the ease and convenience of natural language interfaces like Alexa and Siri; generative AI brings that user experience to the workplace, giving workers not just an enterprise search tool, but a digital knowledge assistant, he adds. It enables employees to find not just information but precise answers quickly, boosting productivity and efficiency, especially in complex decision-making scenarios. Generative AI also has the potential to go beyond answering individual questions and assist in more complex decision journeys, providing users with synthesized and relevant information without the need for explicit queries.

Generative AI can also automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows — for example, chat bots that are powered by generative AI can handle customer service inquiries, product recommendations, or simply assist with booking appointments. That frees time for more complex tasks and greatly increases productivity.

Lastly, these generative AI solutions can be precisely refined for industry-specific and case-specific use. Companies can add their own corpus of knowledge to the large language models that generative AI uses, to improve relevance and the time to knowledge.

Bringing generative AI into the workplace

“To bring this technology into the workplace is not an easy thing,” Zhou cautions. It requires a knowledge model, which is composed of three pillars. The first is company knowledge and context. An off-the-shelf model or system, without being properly connected to the right knowledge and the right data, will not be functional, correct, or relevant.

“You need to build generative AI into a system that has the company knowledge and context,” he explains. “That allows for this trusted knowledge model to form out of the combination of these things. Search is one such method that can deliver this company knowledge and context, in conjunction with generative AI. But it’s one of several.”

The second pillar of the trusted knowledge model is permissioning and data governance, or being aware, as a user interfaces with a product and with a system, of what information they should and should not have access.

“We speak of knowledge in the company as if it’s free-flowing currency, but the reality is that different users and different employees in a company have access to different pieces of knowledge,” he says. “That’s objective and clear when it comes to documents. You might be part of a group alias which has access to a shared drive, but there are plenty of other things that a given person should not have access to, and in the generative setting it’s incredibly important to get this right.”

The third and final one is referenceability. As the product interface has evolved, users need to build a trust with the system, and be able to verify where the system is pulling information from.

“Without that kind of provenance, it’s hard to build trust, and it can lead to runaway factuality errors and hallucinations,” he says – especially in an enterprise system where each user is accountable for their decisions.

The emerging possibilities of generative AI

Generative AI means moving from questions into decisions Zhou says, decreasing time to knowledge. Basic enterprise search might turn up a series of documents to read, leaving the user to dig out the information they need. With augmented answer-first enterprise search, the user doesn’t ask those questions individually; instead, they can express the underlying journey, the overall decisions that need to be made, and the LLM agent brings it all together.

“This generative technology, when we pair it with search, and not just single searches, it gives us the ability to say, ‘I’m going on a business trip to X. Tell me everything I need to know,’” he says. “An LLM agent can go and figure out all the information I might need and repeatedly issue different searches, collect that information, synthesize it for me and deliver it to me.”

VentureBeat

Nigeria’s legal tender, the naira, closed at N770 per dollar at the investors and exporters (I&E) window on Monday, beginning the week on a fragile front as the recent central bank reforms take effect on the market.

The closing rate at the official window is lower than at the parallel market where Naira traded at between 760 and 765 to the dollar.

The Monday closing rate, according to FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited, represents a 16.1 percent depreciation from the N663 recorded on the last trading day (Friday).

Despite the naira’s weak performance, data on FMDQ shows that investors traded about $78 million deals on the I&E window.

The currency is yet to gain stability following changes implemented by the federal government in Nigeria’s foreign exchange (FX) market.

On June 14, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN announced the unification of all segments of the FX market, effectively floating the naira.

The policy meant that all FX windows were collapsed into the I&E window.

“This means all eligible FX transactions shall only be done via the I&E window, all other windows cease to exist,” the CBN had said.

“The I&E market functions by a willing buyer, willing seller system, where an entity with demand for FX seeks out another entity with FX to sell at an agreed price through an authorised dealer.

“In this model, rates are usually agreed by both parties.”

Following the apex bank’s directive, the naira depreciated, trading at N755 per dollar — but later appreciated to close at N664.

In an interview with Bloomberg in Morocco, Kingsley Obiora, deputy governor of the apex bank, said the CBN will further ease controls “in the next couple of weeks” to help determine a new level for the naira.

On whether the apex bank expects the official and parallel-market exchange rates to converge soon, Obiora said: “I don’t think it will take a long time.”

The Cable/NewsScroll

Federal Government, on Monday, confirmed that it had commenced the implementation of the payment of 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax on Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel.

Officials of the Nigeria Customs Service and Federal Inland Revenue Service confirmed this in Abuja, stressing that AGO was not exempted from the payment of VAT based on the VAT Modification Order 2021.

The development was, however, condemned by Nigerians, who pointed out that citizens were still trying to adjust to the hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, not knowing that plans had been perfected to further raise payments for diesel.

When asked by our correspondent if the NCS was now collecting 7.5 per cent VAT on the imports of AGO, the spokesperson for the service, Abdullahi Maiwada, replied, “Yes.”

He continued, “If you ask me whether Customs collects 7.5 per cent VAT on AGO, I will tell you yes and I’ll give you the reasons. There’s what we call VAT Modification Order 2021, which exempts petroleum products of Harmonised System Codes.

“But the HS Codes for Petroleum products that are exempted from paying VAT are those in the region of 2709.00.00.00 – 2710.19.12.00. The HS Codes are what we use to classify commodities. But AGO is classified under HS Code 2710.19.21.00, which is not exempted from the payment of VAT. Now, this is based on the VAT Modification Order 2021.”

An official of the FIRS, Tobi Wojuola, also confirmed the development, stressing that it was the position of the VAT Modification Order.

“The position of the VAT Modification Order 2021 is that VAT is chargeable on diesel,” he told our correspondent in Abuja.

In a letter from the NCS to some of its personnel, on the matter, with reference: NCS/T&T/T/899/217/VOL.I, sighted in Abuja, and dated June 8, 2023, the service made it clear that VAT must be paid on diesel.

The letter was signed by the Assistant Comptroller-General (Tariff and Trade), Mba Musa, on behalf of the Deputy Comptroller-General (Taritf and Trade).

It read in part, “I am directed to forward a letter from Federal Inland Revenue Service on the above subject matter. The VAT Modification order 2021 only exempts petroleum products of HS codes 2709.00.00.00 – 2710.19.12.00 from payment of VAT. AGO or diesel falls classifiable under HS Code 2710.19.21.00 and is not exempted from paying VAT.

“Subsequent upon the above, all future importations of the product should assess and pay VAT at the point of entry into the country. Also note that AGO or diesel are not exempted from destination inspection or import guidelines and as such are expected to process Form M and PAAR as well as make declarations appropriately in the NICIS II system.

“A copy of the letter from FIRS is attached for your information. Take note and be guided accordingly, please.”

Nigerians groan:

Nigerians lamented the effects of the introduction of the 7.5 per cent Value-Added Tax on the price of diesel.

This comes barely a month after President Bola Tinubu removed the subsidy on petrol during his inaugural speech on May 29, raising the price of PMS from N188 to about N580 in different states of the federation.

Recall that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, announced that the Finance Act 2020 raised the previous five per cent VAT of the country to 7.5 per cent on commodities including automobile gas oil and it was implemented on February 20, 2020.

But the VAT-exempt items include honey, bread, cereals, cooking oils, culinary herbs, fish, flour, starch, fruits, meat, poultry, milk, nuts, pulses, roots, salt, vegetables, water, sanitary pads, tampons, tertiary, secondary, primary and nursery tuition.

While other commodities have been VAT-compliant, diesel was not until recently.

However, the new development has hit Nigerians hard, as many have called for an utmost review of it, especially because of the recent removal of fuel subsidies.

A Twitter user, Ingawa said, “That means for every litre of AGO you will buy, you have to pay 7.5 per cent VAT of the pump price. For example; If one litre of AGO is N650 at the filling station, then you have to pay an additional N48.75 being payment for 7.5 per cent VAT. The total price per litre will be N698.75 per litre.”

Another user, Angry Non-Nigerian, said, “When Tinubu said ‘widen the tax net, you people thought he was joking. The only thing that man knows is tax, tax and tax. As Lagosians.”

One Oyo said, “The Citizens will be the main IGR for this government. There is no single move to cut the cost of government from the Senate to the House to other departments.

“They went to education first by trying to add tuition fees, now 7.5 per cent VAT on PMS. Everything directly to the common man.”

Punch

PRESS RELEASE

President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate retirement of all Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Advisers, Comptroller-General of Customs from Service as well as their replacements with immediate effect.

The newly appointed Officers are:

Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser

Maj. Gen. C.G Musa, Chief of Defence Staff

Maj. Gen T. A Lagbaja, Chief of Army Staff

Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla, Chief of Naval Staff

AVM H.B Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff

DIG Kayode Egbetokun, Acting Inspector-General of Police

Maj. Gen. EPA Undiandeye, Chief of Defense Intelligence

Mr President has also approved the following appointments:

Col. Adebisi Onasanya Brigade of Guards Commander

Lt. Col. Moshood Abiodun Yusuf 7 Guards Battalion, Asokoro, Abuja

Lt. Col. Auwalu Baba Inuwa, 177 Guards Battalion, Keffi, Nasarawa State

Lt. Col. Mohammed J. Abdulkarim, 102 Guards Battalion, Suleja, Niger State

Lt. Col. Olumide A. Akingbesote 176 Guards Battalion, Gwagwalada, Abuja

Similarly, the President has approved the appointments of other Military Officers in the Presidential Villa as follows:

Maj. Isa Farouk Audu, Commanding Officer State House Artillery

Capt. Kazeem Olalekan Sunmonu, Second-in-Command, State House Artillery

Maj. Kamaru Koyejo Hamzat, Commanding Officer, State House Military Intelligence

Maj. TS Adeola, Commanding Officer, State House Armament

Lt. A. Aminu, Second-in- Command, State House Armament

Mr. President has also approved the appointments of two (2) additional Special Advisers, and two (2) Senior Assistants, namely:

Hadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser, Policy Coordination

Hannatu Musa Musawa, Special Adviser, Culture and Entertainment Economy

Abdullahi Abubakar Gumel, Senior Special Assistant, National Assembly Matters (Senate)

Olarewaju Kunle Ibrahim, Senior Special Assistant, National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives).

Finally, the President has approved the appointment of Adeniyi Bashir Adewale as the Ag. Comptroller General of Customs.

It is to be noted that the appointed Service Chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police and the Comptroller General of Customs are to act in their positions, pending their confirmation in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Signed:

Willie Bassey

Director, Information

For: Secretary to the Government of the Federation

PRESS RELEASE

President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate dissolution of the Governing Boards of all Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-owned companies.

The dissolution does not, however, affect Boards, Commissions and Councils listed in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

In view of this development and until such a time new boards are constituted, Chief Executive Officers of the Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-owned companies are directed to refer matters requiring the attention of their Boards to the President, through the Permanent Secretaries of their respective supervisory Ministries and Offices.

Permanent Secretaries are directed, also, to route such correspondences to Mr President through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

All Ministries, Departments and Agencies are to ensure compliance to the provision of this directive which took effect from Friday 16th June, 2023.

Permanent Secretaries are particularly directed to inform the Chief Executive Officers of the affected Agencies under the supervision of their respective Ministries/Offices for immediate compliance.

Signed:

Willie Bassey,
Director, Information
For: Secretary to the Government of the Federation

A witness of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Monday, told the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja that the INEC’s IReV portal did not experience any glitches to justify the failure to upload real time the polling unit results of the 25 February presidential election.

INEC had, in a statement issued a day after the polls by its Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, blamed unexpected technical glitches for the commission’s inability to ensure real-time uploading of results to IReV portal as provided in the guidelines for the election.

Voting ended in most of the over 176,000 polling units where the election held across Nigeria on 25 February, but results remained inaccessible on the INEC IReV portal 24 hours after polling ended.

Obi filed his petition at the presidential election court to challenge the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing the failure to upload the results of the election to IReV as one the breaches that marred the disputed poll.

He also alleged that INEC manipulated the polls in favour of Tinubu.

But contrary to the electoral umpire’s claim, Obi’s seventh witness, Mpeh Ogar, Monday told the court that a report of the health status of the Amazon Web Services which hosts INEC IReV portal showed that there were no technical glitches on 25 February, 2023.

Ms Ogar, a cloud engineer and architect at Amazon Web Services Incorporated, was led in evidence by Obi’s lawyer, Patrick Ikwueto, on Monday.

She adopted her witness statement on oath deposed to on 19 June 19 at the registry of the court.

Ogar, a subpoenaed witness, tendered copies of her resumè and appointment letter at Amazon Web Services Incorporated and six volume reports of the 33 regions where Amazon Web Services hosts their servers.

But despite INEC, APC and Tinubu’s objections to the admissibility of the documents, the five-member panel of the court headed by Haruna Tsammani, admitted and marked the documents as exhibits.

After admitting the documents, the court adjourned the suit until Tuesday for cross examination of Ms Ogar.

Again, Obi accuses INEC of refusing to provide electoral documents

For the umpteenth time, Obi has accused INEC of refusing to provide his legal team with necessary documents to prosecute his case against Tinubu’s victory at the polls.

Earlier at the resumed trial on Monday, Obi’s lawyer, Jibril Okutepa, informed the court of his team’s frustration in obtaining vital electoral documents that would be used in substantiating their claims of electoral fraud against the respondents in the petition.

“This is to formally bring to the notice of the court the excruciating experience we are having from INEC,” Okutepa lamented.

He said INEC released only a few documents to his team on Monday.

“We have done everything humanly possible, including persuasion and letter writing. We decide to seek the help of the court,” Okutepa said.

The lawyer sought the court’s intervention in the imbroglio.

“We are crying to your Lordships as we have no where to run to. It appears that INEC is deliberately frustrating the proceedings,” Okutepa told the court.

But INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, disagreed with Okutepa’s submissions.

Mahmoud said none of Obi’s lawyers discussed the issue with him on Monday.

“They didn’t want to follow the procedures. I am taken aback with the submissions of Okutepa. We can’t sit here and be hearing lamentation that is unfounded,” Mahmoud said, adding that there are procedures in obtaining documents from INEC.

At a previous hearing of the suit, Mahmoud informed the court that Obi failed to pay for the processing fees for the electoral documents he was requesting for.

PT

Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that it will need only one day to open and close its case challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the 25 presidential polls.

The party says it has only one witness, who will testify and be cross-examined in just one day.

Addressing the five-member panel of the court Monday, Gideon Idiagbonya, lawyer to the party, said: “My lords, we intended to open our case today but in the cause of having a pre-trial conference with our sole witness, but we realised that certain documents we intend to tender are not in the file handed over to us by the previous counsel.

“In view of this, we ask for another date to enable us to open and close our case in one day since we have just one witness.”

The party’s petition is anchored solely on the alleged wrongful nomination of Vice-President Kashim Shettima as President Tinubu’s running mate in the 25 February presidential election.

APM argues that Tinubu was not properly sponsored for the election by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), by nominating Shettima as his vice-presidential candidate without withdrawing his candidature as a senatorial candidate.

But while the hearing on the petition was underway at the presidential election court, the Supreme Court, last month, dismissed a suit in which the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) raised the same issue against Messrs Tinubu and Shettima.

The Supreme Court delivered a judgement on the matter on 26 May, to which Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, drew the attention of the court.

APM’s lawyer had then sought to obtain a copy of the judgment to guide its decision on whether to terminate or continue with its petition.

Giving an update on the matter on Monday, APM’s lawyer, Idiagbonya, said his client had reviewed the Supreme Court judgment of the Supreme Court and was of the opinion that his client could still proceed with the petition.

But Tinubu’s lawyer, Olanipekun, insisted that the Supreme Court’s judgement had settled the issues raised by the petitioner.

Adjournment

Olanipekun, however, did not oppose the application for an adjournment.

Similarly, counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud, a SAN, and that of the APC, Charles Edosanwan, as well as G.M Isho, lawyer representing the 5th respondent, Kabiru Masari, did not oppose the application for an adjournment.

The court adjourned hearing in the petition until 21 June to open and close its case as counsel had told the court.

NAN