How can Russian President Vladimir Putin afford the costs—both direct and indirect—of a new war in Ukraine? Easy—he’s been preparing for years. Russia’s central bank reserves now stand at&nbsp;<a href="https://cbr.ru/eng/hd_base/mrrf/mrrf_7d/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$640 billion</a>, a record. That pile is equivalent to 17 months of Russian export revenues, and continues to grow, thanks to surging oil prices.&nbsp;



Russia exports some 5 million barrels per day of crude oil, plus 2.5 million bpd of refined petroleum products, according to Cowen &amp; Co., amounting to about 10% of the global oil trade. With Brent crude hitting an eight-year high of $88.88 this morning, that amounts to more than $600 million a day in petro-cash.&nbsp;



On top of that is 23 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas exports (roughly 2 bcfd of which now transits through Ukraine)—worth another $400 million a day at today’s&nbsp;<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PNGASEUUSDM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">elevated European prices</a>.&nbsp;



Importantly, it’s no longer apt to refer to Russia’s fossil fuel income as “petro-dollars,” as Putin has been working hard to “de-dollarize” the Russian economy. Back in 2013 Russia received dollars for 95% of its exports to Brazil, India, South Africa and China. Today,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/2021-07-23_IF11885_09a6986fb2de221b83de761f118062ca2def8737.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to the Congressional Research Service</a>, after a decade of de-dollarization just 10% of that trade is in greenbacks.&nbsp;



And Putin has created new payment processing systems, as a replacement for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT (from which Biden has threatened to cut Russia off); in 2015 after U.S. sanctions Moscow launched the Mir payment platform (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/russias-mir-card-payment-system-connects-apple-pay-2021-07-20/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">now even connected to Apple Pay</a>). 



Putin has increasingly replaced trade in dollars with gold. From a record low of $2 billion worth of gold in 1995, Russia has piled up a mountain of it—<a href="https://cbr.ru/eng/hd_base/mrrf/mrrf_m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">now worth $130 billion</a>, or 20% of total reserves. That’s equivalent to about 72 million 1 oz. gold coins, or 4.5 million pounds. Only the U.S., Germany and Italy hold more gold.



Though Russia mines a lot of gold, platinum and palladium itself, some of the pile may be coming from friends like Venezuela, which <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/01/31/russian-airplane-in-venezuela-sparks-rumors-of-gold-theft-by-maduro-ally/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in 2019 reportedly</a> loaded 20 tons of it onto a Russian Boeing 777, part of a liquidation of some <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210303-venezuela-opposition-accuses-government-of-illegal-gold-sales" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">300 tons from Caracas</a> coffers.



(Putin is not the only goldbug—central banks have added&nbsp;<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Datawatch/Central-banks-accelerate-shift-from-dollar-to-gold-worldwide" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">4,500 tons</a>&nbsp;of gold reserves over the past decade.)



According to Johns Hopkins University economist professor Steve Hanke, Russia’s central bank has displayed high competence in managing the rouble, and it shows: Since 2016 it has held mostly steady at .013 per dollar, though dropping about 8% in recent months during the Ukraine military buildup.&nbsp;



Clearly, Putin has been putting funds to work investing in his military. Spending ramped up to a peak of $90 billion per year in 2013, ahead of his Crimea invasion, and totaled $60 billion in 2020,&nbsp;<a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.CD?locations=RU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to World Bank data</a>.



This pales in comparison to U.S. military spending <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.CD?locations=US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">of $780 billion</a> and China’s <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.CD?locations=CN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$250 billion</a> in 2020—though Russia does spend more as a percentage of GDP, at 4%. Putin could likely ramp that spending more if he wanted to—according to <a href="https://economic-research.bnpparibas.com/Views/DisplayPublication.aspx?type=document&amp;IdPdf=43370" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BNP Paribas data</a>, Russia’s public debt is 18% of GDP, while total external debt is less than 30% of GDP. Ukraine’s debt load is 80% of GDP, while the U.S.’ is <a href="https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/united-states/external-debt--of-nominal-gdp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more than 100%</a>. 



By Christopher Helman, Forbes Staff

Russian President Putin Holds Annual Press Conference

How Can Putin Afford War In Ukraine? His $130 Billion Gold Horde Helps

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Wormhole Portal, a platform that helps users transfer cryptocurrency between the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, said Wednesday afternoon a hacker had stolen more than $325 million worth of tokens in what experts call one of the biggest hacks ever in the booming $192 billion decentralized finance space—an area regulators seem keen to crack down on after a slew of high-profile heists.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Blockchain platform Wormhole, which launched last August and holds roughly $1 billion in deposited funds, notified users of a possible hack on Twitter at about 4 p.m. ET Wednesday,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/wormholecrypto/status/1488976115750383626?s=20&amp;t=Iw5TGKo9Cp8f6gfWDIqPUA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">saying</a>&nbsp;its network was down for maintenance as the firm looked into a potential attack.



About an hour later, Wormhole&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/wormholecrypto/status/1489001949881978883?s=20&amp;t=Iw5TGKo9Cp8f6gfWDIqPUA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;its network had been exploited and claimed about 120,000 tokens of a cryptocurrency known as wrapped ether, which tracks the value of the world&#8217;s second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, had been stolen, representing some $325 million in value.



In a message embedded onto the Ethereum blockchain, Wormhole offered the attacker a $10 million bounty to return the funds,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.elliptic.co/blog/325-million-stolen-from-wormhole-defi-service" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to blockchain analytics company Elliptic, which called the Wednesday incident the fourth largest cryptocurrency hack ever.



Wormhole did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Forbes&#8217;&nbsp;request for comment, but it&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/wormholecrypto/status/1489036273012682753?s=20&amp;t=kLVkos0r2-xt_Zrq1PFiiA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;shortly before 7 p.m. that the network&#8217;s vulnerability had been &#8220;patched&#8221;; it&#8217;s still unclear who the alleged hacker is and how Wormhole users may have been affected by the heist.



Soon after the attack, analysts at blockchain security firm CertiK said the hack represented the largest-ever attack on the Solana network and an &#8220;unfortunate reality&#8221; for the booming decentralized finance space, which has heated up among investors alongside the broader cryptocurrency industry over the past year, despite a growing number of similar hacks.



Even though the space only started gaining traction in 2020, there have been more than $2 billion in direct losses suffered by decentralized finance services due to hacks and exploits, according to Elliptic on Wednesday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$192 billion. That’s the current market value of all decentralized finance tokens, according to cryptodata&nbsp;<a href="https://defillama.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>&nbsp;DeFi Llama. The figure shot past $250 billion for the first time ever in December but has since fallen amid a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/01/10/looking-ugly-crypto-market-crash-intensifies-after-300-billion-sell-off-how-low-can-bitcoin-prices-go/">broader</a>&nbsp;cryptocurrency market sell-off.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has repeatedly said the decentralized finance industry, also known as DeFi, deserves more government scrutiny. Such platforms largely sidestep traditional intermediaries like central banks and exchanges for financial services and instead rely on blockchains and cryptocurrencies to process transactions. Gensler has said the practices can implicate securities, commodities and banking laws, and last year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/gensler-aspen-security-forum-2021-08-03" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called</a>&nbsp;on Congress to ramp up its authority over the cryptocurrency industry, which he likened to the “Wild West.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



In August, hackers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/08/10/more-than-600-million-stolen-in-ethereum-and-other-cryptocurrencies-marking-one-of-cryptos-biggest-hacks-ever/?sh=70c80e727f62">breached</a>&nbsp;blockchain-based platform Poly Network and extracted more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies, marking DeFi&#8217;s biggest hack ever. Those funds were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/08/12/hacker-finally-returns-nearly-all-600-million-stolen-in-ethereum-other-tokens-after-major-crypto-heist/?sh=5cd80c6c19cb">eventually</a>&nbsp;returned.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/08/12/hacker-finally-returns-nearly-all-600-million-stolen-in-ethereum-other-tokens-after-major-crypto-heist/?sh=5cd80c6c19cb">Hacker Returns Nearly All $600 Million Stolen In Ethereum, Other Tokens After Major Crypto Heist</a> (Forbes)



By Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff

Business fund investor planning for investment in crisis

Solana’s Biggest Hack Ever: $325 Million In Crypto Allegedly Stolen From $1 Billion Decentralized Finance Platform

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Eleven staffers linked to the 2022 Beijing Olympics have been hospitalized with Covid-19 since January 23, the games organizers’ disclosed on Wednesday, amid a growing number of infections linked to the event and reported from inside the Olympic bubble that could pose a major challenge to China&#8217;s “zero Covid” strategy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Brian McCloskey, the head of the games’ medical expert panel, said none of the hospitalized individuals were in a serious condition, Reuters reported.



Organizers of the winter games, which officially start on Friday, added 32 new Covid-19 cases to the event’s tally on Wednesday, including 15 cases which were detected among airport arrivals.



Since January 23, organizers have recorded 232 cases linked to the Olympics, 163 of which were detected at the airport and 69 inside the event’s bubble known as the “closed loop.”



Despite the growing number of cases inside the closed loop, Chinese authorities have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/beijing-olympics-says-24-new-covid-cases-detected-among-games-related-personnel-2022-02-01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;they believe the pandemic situation at the Olympics is within the “expected controllable range.”



Outside of the Olympics closed loop, two new Covid-19 cases were&nbsp;<a href="http://en.nhc.gov.cn/2022-02/02/c_85771.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;in Beijing on Wednesday, a significant drop from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/01/26/beijing-begins-third-round-of-mass-covid-19-testing-ahead-of-winter-olympics/?sh=79f49efe187a">14 cases</a>&nbsp;that were detected in the city last Wednesday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



Despite a drop in cases across the city, Beijing officials appear to be taking no chances as they ordered several residential communities in the city to be sealed off after two cases were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/beijing-seals-off-several-communities-over-two-cases-of-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">detected</a>&nbsp;earlier this week.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Despite the emergence of the highly infectious omicron variant in its capital, China has continued to stick by its “zero tolerance” strategy towards Covid-19. A small outbreak in Beijing appears to have been mostly stomped out after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/01/26/beijing-begins-third-round-of-mass-covid-19-testing-ahead-of-winter-olympics/?sh=79f49efe187a">several rounds</a>&nbsp;of mass testing in the city. Additionally, those involved in the upcoming winter games have been kept separate from the rest of the city under the&nbsp;<a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Beijing-2022/Playbooks/The-Playbook-Athletes-and-Team-Offcials-October-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed loop</a>&nbsp;which includes dedicated transport, housing and training facilities for visiting athletes and games personnel. Before entering the closed loop, vaccinated arrivals have to undergo a round of testing at the airport, while unvaccinated individuals are forced to undergo a 21-day quarantine. Despite this, 69 cases have been reported inside the loop, raising the possibility of an outbreak during the event. The prevalence of cases linked to the event has forced the games’ organizers to admit a “zero infections” model would be impossible to implement. Instead, the organizers are attempting to ensure “<a href="https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3164470/omicron-zero-spread-not-zero-cases-iocs-target-winter-olympics-72" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">zero spread</a>,” which involves detecting and isolating positive cases quickly. McCloskey believes the case counts will drop once the number of participants arriving into China begins to decrease.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-games-organiser-says-32-new-covid-cases-feb-1-2022-02-02/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eleven Beijing Games personnel in hospital with COVID, none serious</a>&nbsp;(Reuters)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/"></a>By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff



<img decoding="async" src="https://img.connatix.com/546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/1.png" alt="">

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics – Previews – Day -2

Covid Cases Linked To Beijing Olympics Continue To Rise As 11 Staffers Are Hospitalized

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Pfizer and BioNTech asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize their jointly-developed Covid-19 shot for children under five, the companies&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-initiate-rolling-submission-emergency" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, paving the way for the first vaccine roll out among young children to begin in a matter of weeks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Pfizer and BioNTech said the companies had initiated a “rolling submission” to the FDA asking it to expand its current Emergency Use Authorization for the companies’ Covid-19 vaccine to include children six months to four years old, and it expects to complete its submission in the coming days.



The companies submitted the data at the FDA’s request, Pfizer and BioNTech said.



The vaccine series for young children is expected to consist of three shots, but data on the third shot’s effectiveness isn’t available yet and will be submitted in the “coming months.”



The FDA could first authorize two shots, which Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla noted would let parents “begin a Covid-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose.”



The FDA said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-advisory-committee-meeting-discuss-request-authorization-pfizer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;it will meet February 15 to discuss the shots, meaning authorization could come soon after that.



If approved, the shot will be the first authorized for use in children under the age of five in the U.S.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“As hospitalizations of children under five due to Covid-19 have soared, our mutual goal with the FDA is to prepare for future variant surges and provide parents with an option to help protect their children from this virus,” Bourla said in a statement. “Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children six months through four years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Though children are less likely to get seriously unwell from the coronavirus, they play an important role in spreading the virus to more vulnerable people and can, in rare cases, develop life-threatening&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/01/06/whats-driving-record-covid-hospitalizations-among-us-kids/?sh=7af1a75243c0">illness</a>&nbsp;from Covid-19. The FDA has already given Pfizer emergency approval for its shot in children ages five and up—including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/01/03/fda-authorizes-pfizer-booster-shot-for-children-ages-12-to-15/?sh=1daaee077e38">boosters</a>&nbsp;in those aged 12 to 15 in January—but the company encountered setbacks for its shot in younger age groups after clinical trials showed lower levels of immunity compared to that given to older age groups. The&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/17/health/pfizer-vaccine-children/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">company</a>&nbsp;had reduced the amount of vaccine given to children to stave off any potential safety issues (it is standard practice to try and use the smallest dose possible) and amended the trial to add a third dose.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Moderna. The Massachusetts-based biotech&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/01/12/moderna-expects-vaccine-data-for-kids-ages-2-5-by-march/?sh=326461ad5a54">said</a>&nbsp;it hopes to report data on its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages two to five by March. If results are promising, the company said it will seek regulatory approval from the FDA. Moderna, which was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/01/31/moderna-receives-fda-approval-for-its-coronavirus-vaccine/?sh=49eef363203b">granted</a>&nbsp;full FDA approval for its shot in adults on Monday, has not yet secured authorization for teens in the U.S. after the regulator said it needed more time to examine a rare risk of heart inflammation after vaccination. This investigation is ongoing, though the European Medicines Agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid-19-vaccine-spikevax-approved-children-aged-12-17-eu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">greenlit</a>&nbsp;the shot for use in children aged 12 to 17 in July.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



How many parents will let their young child get the shot. A Kaiser Family Foundation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-january-2022-parents-and-kids-update/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poll</a>&nbsp;conducted in January found only 31% of parents of children under five will get them vaccinated right away, while another 29% said they’ll “wait and see.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Novavax&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/01/31/novavax-asks-fda-to-authorize-its-non-mrna-covid-vaccine/?sh=49b274834183">asked</a>&nbsp;the FDA to grant it emergency authorization for its protein-based Covid-19 vaccine on Monday. The shot is already endorsed by the World Health Organization and regulators in Australia, South Korea and Europe.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/29/us-parents-kids-under-five-covid-vaccine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘We are so tired’: US parents and doctors say kids under five left behind in Covid vaccine race</a>&nbsp;(Guardian)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/03/kids-ages-5-11-are-now-eligible-for-covid-vaccines-but-polls-suggest-many-parents-wont-let-their-child-get-the-shot/?sh=6e24794d5f76">Kids Ages 5-11 Are Now Eligible For Covid Vaccines—But Polls Suggest Many Parents Won’t Let Their Child Get The Shot</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/01/06/whats-driving-record-covid-hospitalizations-among-us-kids/?sh=7af1a75243c0">What’s Driving Record Covid Hospitalizations Among U.S. Kids</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff 



By Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff

A doctor is injecting a vaccine to a baby boy

Pfizer Asks FDA To Authorize Its Covid Shot For Kids Under 5

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



People who experienced childhood trauma are more likely to feel unfairly restricted by government anti-Covid measures, to reject Covid vaccination and to support ending masking and social distancing mandates, according to a <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/2/e053915" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> of Welsh adults funded by Public Health Wales and published Tuesday by BMJ Open.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



People who experienced more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – such as physical, psychological or sexual abuse or exposure to domestic violence or substance use – were more likely to mistrust Covid information from the U.K. National Health Service and to break Covid restrictions, while those who experienced four or more ACEs were three times more likely to reject Covid vaccines than people who reported no ACEs, researchers found in a telephone survey of 2,285 people 18 and over in Wales.



Young adults were also more likely to reject vaccines, with 18.39% of people age 18-29 expressing vaccine hesitancy compared to just 2.74% of people age 70 and over.



While just under one in 10 respondents reported feeling unfairly restricted by Covid measures, those who experienced more ACEs were more likely to feel unfairly restricted, as were younger people and males, researchers found.



Respondents with four or more ACEs were twice as likely to break Covid restrictions compared to those who reported no ACEs, according to the study.



During the pandemic, some children’s exposure to traumatic experiences may have risen and their access to resources like supportive adults and connection to local communities may have fallen, researchers said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



People who experience childhood trauma are at greater risk for&nbsp;<a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/9/e013228" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">depression</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/8/e024609" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">obesity</a>, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and other negative outcomes. ACEs are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/riskprotectivefactors.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more likely</a>&nbsp;among children who don’t feel close to their caregivers, who start engaging in sexual activity early or whose caregivers use spanking or other forms of corporal punishment for discipline, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Protective factors against ACEs include strong social networks and caregivers who have college degrees or steady employment. ACEs are strongly linked to&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30827980/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">low trust</a>&nbsp;in the medical profession among young adults, according to a study&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30827980/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a>&nbsp;in 2019 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">81 million</a>. That’s how many people in the U.S. remain unvaccinated against Covid, according to the CDC.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Researchers said that “achieving better compliance with pandemic and other public health advice is another reason to invest in safe and secure childhoods for all children which are free from ACEs and rich in sources of resilience. Such measures appear likely not only to reduce health-harming behaviours and ill health across the life-course but may also reduce the spread of COVID-19 or other infectious threats to public health that may materialize in subsequent decades.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CONTRA</h2>



Most people surveyed, including people who reported childhood trauma, followed Covid restrictions and supported vaccination, researchers said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/01/covid-vaccine-hesitancy-could-be-linked-childhood-trauma-research" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“Covid vaccine hesitancy could be linked to childhood trauma, research finds”</a> (Guardian)



By Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff

Despairing child sitting with head on knees in the dark frame of a doorway, backlit by a room behind flooded with daylight

Childhood Trauma Linked To Covid Vaccine Hesitancy, Lockdown Defiance, Study Says

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Suicides by drug overdose are increasing among Black women, young people and the elderly, according to a new peer reviewed <a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21060604" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, despite an overall downward trend as U.S. drug overdose deaths soar to record levels. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Though there was a steep increase in the number of people dying from drug overdoses in 2020—<a href="https://nida.nih.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nearly</a>&nbsp;92,000 people, a record figure and up from around 71,000 in 2019—the overall rate of suicides by overdose fell, according to researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.



The researchers, who analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2001 to 2019, found that intentional overdose deaths among women fell from 1.7 to 1.5 per 100,000 people between 2015 and 2019 and from 1.6 to 1.2 per 100,000 people among men between 2012 and 2019.



However, intentional overdoses rose among older women ages 75 to 84 (from 0.8 in 2001 to 1.7 in 2019), older men ages 75 to 84 (from 0.7 in 2001 to 1.6 in 2019), young women ages 15 to 24 (from 0.6 in 2014 to 1.0 in 2019), young men ages 15 to 24 (from 0.6 per 100,000 people in 2015 to 0.8 in 2019) and Black women (from 0.4 in 2013 to 0.7 in 2019).



Suicides by overdose were most likely to occur on Mondays and least likely to occur at the end of the week (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), which the researchers said could be partly down to increased social interaction over the weekend and a reluctance to begin the workweek.



By month, intentional overdose rates were lowest in December and highest in late spring and summer, something the researchers said fits with observed seasonal variations in suicide risk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



Drug overdose deaths&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/14/health/drug-overdose-deaths-2020/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jumped</a>&nbsp;by nearly a third in 2020, the largest yearly increase&nbsp;<a href="https://nida.nih.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recorded</a>&nbsp;and a fivefold increase from 1999. Synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, are responsible for most of this increase in recent years. Deaths linked to stimulants, primarily methamphetamine, are also increasing.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND&nbsp;</h2>



<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/increase-depression-pandemic-suicides-decreased-studies/story?id=77039876" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rates</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/10/11/covid-19-has-led-to-a-sharp-increase-in-depression-and-anxiety" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">depression</a>&nbsp;and anxiety soared&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03454-x" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">during</a>&nbsp;the Covid-19 pandemic amid widespread economic uncertainty, the collapse of support networks, an inability to access mental health support and a myriad of other stresses. Though experts feared a commensurate rise in suicides, rates actually&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-03/u-s-suicides-fall-for-second-year-in-a-row-during-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fell</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020, bucking a decades-long trend of almost yearly increases since 1999.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW&nbsp;</h2>



How many suicides by drug overdose there are. It can be difficult to determine whether overdose deaths are intentional or not, the researchers note, pointing to the complex interactions between mental illnesses—which carry their own elevated suicide risk—and substance use disorders. Around 5% to 7% of drug overdose deaths are recorded as intentional, the researchers said. The distinction “has important clinical implications” in preventing accidental and intentional overdose deaths, said NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow. “We must implement strategies for preventing both,” Volkow added, including screening for suicidality among people using drugs and providing support for mental illnesses and substance use disorders to those who need it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



47,511. That’s how many people died by suicide in the U.S. in 2019, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>&nbsp;from the CDC. Suicide was the tenth leading cause of death overall—second among those ages 10 to 34 and fourth for ages 35 to 44—and killed nearly two and a half times the number of people as homicides. Firearms were the most common method used in suicide in the U.S., accounting for just over half of deaths in 2019.&nbsp;&nbsp;



If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs immediate help, call the&nbsp;<a href="https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Suicide Prevention Lifeline</a>&nbsp;at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Learn more about suicide prevention</a>&nbsp;and ways you can help someone who might be at risk for self-harm.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21060604" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Intentional drug overdose deaths in the United States</a>&nbsp;(The American Journal of Psychiatry)



<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/theresatamkins/suicide-rates-dropped-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Here’s Why Experts Think Suicides Dropped During The Pandemic</a>&nbsp;(Buzzfeed News)



<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03454-x" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Millions of helpline calls reveal how COVID affected mental health</a>&nbsp;(Nature)



<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59253091" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">US annual drug overdose deaths hit record levels</a>&nbsp;(BBC)

Many kinds of drugs.

Drug Overdose Suicides Increasing Among Black Women, Young People And The Elderly

Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and a dozen other large retailers are quietly using controversial facial-recognition technology to fight a rise in smash-and-grab robberies and other coordinated attacks.



It’s part of a larger push to turn retailers’ existing security cameras — those ubiquitous black gadgets that produce thousands of hours of mostly useless footage — into a more sophisticated artificial-intelligence surveillance system, capable of automatically identifying people, license plates and other information that can be used to alert store employees of unfolding threats and ultimately prosecute offenders.



“There’s a big play to use AI right now,” said Read Hayes, director of the Loss Prevention Research Council. “Retailers have got cameras all over the place anyways.”



The technology has new appeal at a time when theft and violence is on the rise, particularly from organized crime groups that steal millions of dollars in merchandise and then sell the products online. Organized retail crime has risen by 60% since 2015, according to the National Retail Federation, with nearly 70% of retailers&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn.nrf.com/sites/default/files/2021-08/2021%20National%20Retail%20Security%20Survey%20updated.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reporting an increase</a>&nbsp;in 2021. As much as $69 billion worth of products are stolen from the nation’s retailers each year, or 1.5% of sales, according to estimates from the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Buy Safe America Coalition. A record&nbsp;<a href="https://www.retaildive.com/press-release/20210118-retail-fatalities-violent-incidents-up-40-in-the-us-in-2020-according/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">523 people were killed</a>&nbsp;during robberies and other violent retail incidents in the U.S. in 2020, including 256 customers and 139 employees.



This month, the federal government&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndok/pr/members-retail-theft-organization-face-federal-and-state-charges" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">charged</a>&nbsp;29 people with stealing $10 million in over-the-counter medicine and other items from Walmart, Costco, CVS, GNC&nbsp;and others, then reselling the products on sites like Amazon and eBay.



“What retailers are really trying to do is give police more evidence of who is doing this,” said Adrian Beck, a professor at the University of Leicester whose research focuses on ways to combat retail loss.



Facial-recognition technology is controversial because research has shown it’s often inaccurate when identifying people of color and women. The worst technology has an error rate of up to 35% when scanning darker-skinned women, but less than 1% with lighter-skinned men, according to one&nbsp;<a href="http://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a/buolamwini18a.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research report</a>. The reason? Early versions of the algorithms were trained using images of celebrities that skewed white and male.



Companies have been working to address the racial bias, and between 2014 and 2018, facial-recognition software got 20 times better&nbsp;at searching a database to find a matching photograph, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. However, as of 2019, the government found that some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/19/federal-study-confirms-racial-bias-many-facial-recognition-systems-casts-doubt-their-expanding-use/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">software still misidentified</a>&nbsp;African-American and Asian people 10 to 100 times more often than white men.



“People have been wrongly arrested because of this technology,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the speech, privacy and technology project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s really not ready for prime time.”



There’s been a push to curb the use of facial recognition by law enforcement, with cities like San Francisco, Minneapolis and Boston barring police officers from using it. Companies like Amazon and Microsoft have stopped selling the tech to police.



However, facial-recognition companies actively market their technology to retailers, who use it to help gather evidence on repeat offenders before ultimately sharing it with local law enforcement.



“There’s been a shift to where the retailer is doing some of this work themselves,” said Tony Sheppard, director of loss prevention solutions at ThinkLP. Law enforcement resources are sometimes thin, he added.



FaceFirst, which said it works with one-quarter of the largest retailers in North America, compiles time-stamped incidents and a calculation of past losses packaged for law enforcement. “When you send this to police, it’s a really strong storyboard,” FaceFirst president Dara Riordan said at a recent industry conference.



Retailers must create their own watchlists, a manual process that involves an employee identifying a person on video footage after an incident and asking the software to alert them the next time the same person walks into one of their locations. It won’t help the first time someone steals, but it can catch repeat offenders.



“Demand for our product is exploding,” said Dan Merkle, CEO of FaceFirst, which now runs more than 12 trillion face comparisons a day for its customers, up from 100 million in 2017. It claims its technology has a 99.7% accuracy rate, with no difference by gender or race, and can reduce theft from non-employees by 34% and in-store violence by 91%.



It’s helped one retailer catch “The Philly Fanatic,” a thief with a reputation for donning Philadelphia Phillies gear, not to be confused with the baseball team’s mascot of the same name. He’d been hitting the same retailer every one to two days with different accomplices, surreptitiously filling a cabinet with $2,000 or so in goods, closing it with double-sided tape and purchasing the cabinet like normal. The goods were then turned over to a “fence,” in charge of reselling the goods. The software helped identify the suspect and send a real-time alert to the retailer, who then apprehended him and turned him over to police, says FaceFirst.



U.K.-based Facewatch said business has doubled during the pandemic, with particularly strong demand from convenience stores. Its biggest deployment is at a retailer with over 100 locations.



Retail is also a growing customer segment for New York-based Oosto, according to chief marketing officer Dean Nicholls. Both regional and national retail chains use its technology, and some of them have deployed it at hundreds of stores. The 150-person company has raised $350 million in funding.



The technology suffered a setback at the beginning of the pandemic, when everyone suddenly began wearing masks. Accuracy rates have been improving as companies train their algorithms on masked faces, but their success rates still vary widely, ranging from 60% to 99%, according to a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology published this month. Facewatch says it’s now operating at about a 90% accuracy rate and has a human employee check each image before sending an alert to a retailer.



“In 2020, it was debilitating to everybody,” said Merkle. “Now we can function at very high accuracies even with a mask on.”



Retailers are also trying to figure out when to communicate to employees that an offender has walked in the store and how to instruct them to act without putting them in danger. “What do you say to the poor checkout employee on minimum wage?” said Beck.



Few stores want to admit they’re involved with facial recognition, fearful of backlash from shoppers. Rite Aid used the technology for nearly a decade at hundreds of stores, but stopped after an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-riteaid-software/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">investigation from&nbsp;Reuters</a>&nbsp;pointed out that it used the software in largely low-income, non-white neighborhoods. Others, like Target and Home Depot, have tested facial recognition in the past, but now say they don’t use it.



Retailers are also using other types of video technology. For instance, virtual security guards have become increasingly popular during the pandemic. Guards are stationed remotely and can respond to various alerts — like motion detected by a security camera in the parking lot at 1 a.m. — by speaking directly to the suspected intruder and alerting law enforcement. It’s easier than hiring in-person guards during the current labor shortage and certainly cheaper, running 8% to 12% of the cost, said Sean Foley, an executive at Interface, which provides virtual guards to Zale’s, Dollar General, Big Lots and Gamestop.



Body cameras, like the ones worn by police offers, are also being adopted by retailers. Typically outfitted on security guards, two-thirds of the retailers surveyed by the ECR Retail Loss Group were using the cameras in some capacity and reported a 45% decrease in the number of violent and verbal abuse incidents. They can help cover blind spots left by security cameras, said Scott Thomas, national director of sales for signature brands at Genetec, which sells security system software.



Security cameras are also increasingly capable of identifying objects, like license plates, as well as behavior. Oosto is developing technology that could someday identify weapons, like a gun, or pick up on unusual motion, like multiple people running towards a store, and quickly send an alert to the store to put employees on notice.



“It’s like a radiologist who tells you that a tumor could be cancerous,” said Hayes of the Loss Prevention Research Council. “AI doesn’t do anything but give you a heads up.”



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/"></a>By Lauren Debter, Forbes Staff

Hacker with computers in dark room. Cyber crime

Retailers Quietly Deploying Controversial Technology To Combat Crime Spree

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine Monday, providing a much needed break for the American biotechnology company.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



The FDA fully approved Moderna’s mRNA Spikevax coronavirus vaccine for people ages 18 and older, the agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-takes-key-action-approving-second-covid-19-vaccine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Monday morning.



The Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is the second to receive FDA approval: the FDA&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/08/23/fda-approves-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-report-says/?sh=2e3d7fd3c557">approved</a>&nbsp;the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for people ages 16 and up last August.



Moderna’s vaccine has been available to adults since December 2020 under the FDA’s emergency use authorization.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Moderna stock&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/01/21/moderna-stock-crash-intensifies-losses-top-130-billion-after-scientists-find-covid-boosters-arent-halting-omicron-infections/?sh=16841ca7ef5c">has tanked</a>&nbsp;in 2022 following preliminary&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/fourth-covid-vaccine-shot-omicron-pfizer-moderna-study-51642501988" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence</a>&nbsp;that the company’s Covid-19 booster dose was not as effective at preventing Covid-19 infections from the omicron variant compared to prior variants. Shares of Moderna are down 35% in January, though Moderna stock recovered modestly in Monday trading, rising 3.8% to $165.53 as of 12:05 p.m., still down 66.7% from its all-time high of $497.49.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-takes-key-action-approving-second-covid-19-vaccine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">release</a>: “The public can be assured that Spikevax meets the FDA’s high standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality required of any vaccine approved for use in the United States.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



807 million. That’s how many doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine were shipped worldwide in 2021, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2022/Moderna-Receives-Full-U.S.-FDA-Approval-for-COVID-19-Vaccine-Spikevax/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Monday. More than 10.1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiejennings/2021/08/23/pfizer-received-full-fda-approval-for-its-covid-vaccine-heres-whats-next/?sh=1273df34774e">Pfizer Received Full FDA Approval For Its Covid Vaccine: Here’s What’s Next</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/08/23/fda-approves-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-report-says/?sh=2e3d7fd3c557">FDA Approves Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/01/21/moderna-stock-crash-intensifies-losses-top-130-billion-after-scientists-find-covid-boosters-arent-halting-omicron-infections/?sh=16841ca7ef5c">Moderna Stock Crash Intensifies: Losses Top $130 Billion</a> (Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Japan begins the third inoculation of COVID-19 vaccine

Moderna Receives FDA Approval For Its Coronavirus Vaccine

Attention visionaries, innovators, change-makers, and risk-takers! FORBES AFRICA is back, once again on the hunt for Africans under the age of 30, who are building brands, creating jobs, and transforming the continent in their respective fields.



The FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list is the most-anticipated annual compilation of game-changers in Africa and for 2022, we are on the quest for 30 of the continent’s brightest achievers under the age of 30 from the categories of Business, Technology, Creatives, Sport and Science, particularly Health.



The Class of 2021 was an intrepid cast of young people who navigated the Covid-19 pandemic, also creating social impact.



Now, as we prepare for the eighth installment of the 30 Under 30 list, we also announce a few changes.



First, we have added Health/Science to the mix to especially celebrate young thinkers, professionals, and entrepreneurs on the frontline working tirelessly to improve Africa’s medical sector.



Applicants/nominees can also now choose more than one category to apply under. If you are a sports star with a business aimed at uplifting the sports sector, choose sports AND business. If you are a creative trying to find innovative ideas using digital landscapes to showcase art, choose the creative AND technology sectors.



Past honorees of the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list include names such as Mr. Eazi, Mihlali Ndamase, Lloyd Harris, Sho Madjozi, Bruce Diale, Antonio Depina, Karabo Poppy, Thuso Mbedu, Nomzamo Mbatha, Kabza De Small, Burna Boy, Nthabiseng Mosia, Davido, Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, Nasty C, Chad le Clos, and WizKid.



“The FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 is the most coveted list of the year, and the 2022 edition will mark eight years of it. We are particularly excited to unravel the treasure trove of talent that these tough times have created. Success has not been a given for these frontrunners in the pandemic period. Faced with innumerable hiccups and setbacks, they have rolled up their sleeves and made their work matter, also lifting others on their way up,” says Renuka Methil, Managing Editor of FORBES AFRICA.



<h2 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">NOMINATIONS AND APPLICATIONS CRITERIA:</h2>



Please read and take careful note of the following before applying. APPLICATIONS CLOSE 1 FEBRUARY 2022, 17:00 (SAST). 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-business-and-technology-categories">Business and Technology categories</h3>



<ol><li>Must be an entrepreneur/founder aged 29 or younger on&nbsp;31 May 2022</li><li>Should have a legitimate REGISTERED business on the continent</li><li>Business/businesses should be two years or older</li><li>The more innovative the business the better</li><li>Nominees must have risked own money and have a social impact</li><li>Must be profit generating</li><li>Must employ people in Africa</li><li>All applications must be in English</li></ol>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Sports Category </h3>



<ol><li>Must be a sports person aged 29 or younger on 31 May 2022</li><li>Must be representing an African team</li><li>Should have a proven track record of no less than two years</li><li>Should be making significant earnings</li><li>Endorsement deals would be a bonus</li><li>Entrepreneurship and social impact is a plus especially if applying with the Business/Technology category. However business must be legitamate, registered and also two years or older. </li><li>All applications must be in English</li></ol>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Creatives category</h3>



<ol><li>Must be a creative aged 29 or younger on 31 May 2020</li><li>Must be from or based in Africa</li><li>Should be making significant earnings</li><li>Should have a proven creative record of no less than two years</li><li>Entrepreneurship and social impact is a plus especially if applying with the Business/Technology category. However business must be legitamate, registered and also two years or older. </li><li>All applications must be in English</li></ol>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Health/Science </h3>



<ol><li>Must be a creative aged 29 or younger on 31 May 2022</li><li>Must be from or based in Africa</li><li>Should have a proven record in the field of health and/or science for no less than two years.</li><li>Must have social influence and impact. </li><li>Entrepreneurship and social impact is a plus especially if applying under the Business/Technology category. However, the business must be legitimate, registered and also two years or older. </li><li>All applications must be in English</li></ol>



If you think you have what it takes to enter or know someone you would like to see as part of the CLASS of 2022, please find the application here: 



<figure class="wp-block-video aligncenter"><video autoplay controls src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/applications.mp4"></video></figure>

under30 1024x512px

Call For Nominations To FORBES AFRICA’s 30 Under 30 Class Of 2022

The intimate apparel industry got a lift this week when Rihanna and Kim Kardashian announced hefty funding rounds for their respective fashion ventures.&nbsp;



Rihanna’s lingerie brand,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaklich/2022/01/26/rihanna-savage-x-fenty-lingerie-brand-raises-125-million-in-series-c-funding-after-opening-first-retail-store/?sh=763613ab7605">Savage X Fenty, secured $125 million</a>&nbsp;in Series C. The following day,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-27/kim-kardashian-s-skim-underwear-brand-doubles-valuation-to-3-2-billion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;reported that Kardashian’s shapewear line, Skims, had doubled its valuation to $3.2 billion after raising&nbsp;$240 million in new capital.&nbsp;



Both&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;billionaires thanks to their businesses, Rihanna and Kardashian are quick to gush about company growth on social media and elsewhere, but, like many celebrity entrepreneurs, they are heavily guarded when it comes to disclosing crucial financial information.



Generally, celebrity entrepreneurs tend to decline to reveal how much they have personally invested and almost all are tight-lipped about sales figures.&nbsp;



“All these private companies are on a PR tear and it’s even easier when a big name is involved,” says Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester. She adds that when it comes to valuations, most startups lie, typically by a factor of 2x to 10x. “Who knows,” she adds, “because no one has seen the term sheets.”&nbsp;



Still, celebrities continue to use their fame as a sword and a shield for garnering startup recognition.



Early examples include Gwyneth Paltrow, who launched her lifestyle brand, Goop, in 2008. By the time she raised $50 million in Series C funding a decade later,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2018/03/28/exclusive-gwyneth-paltrows-lifestyle-company-goop-raises-50-million-series-c/?sh=5e55926f6880">various sources estimated Goop’s revenue at $15 million to $20 million</a>, but the company declined to confirm the number.



These days, Goop relies on selling provocative items–such as its Jade Egg (which claims to boost sexual energy when inserted in one’s vagina) and the “Keep Your Hands Off My Vagina” candle–more than her acting career to generate buzz. But when it comes to reporting annual sales figures, the company is far more reserved than its product lineup.&nbsp;



Country singer Blake Shelton, who ranks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/blake-shelton/?sh=206b1df61ea9">No. 70 in the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Celebrity 100 list</a>, earns a majority of his income as coach on NBC’s&nbsp;The Voice.&nbsp;Last year&nbsp;Rolling Stone&nbsp;reported he quietly sold his music catalog for $50 million. But when asked about the deal recently, the famously loquacious Shelton was reticent. He is now looking to a new revenue stream,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jilliandara/2021/03/31/blake-shelton-just-launched-his-own-line-of-hard-seltzers-heres-what-we-know/?sh=62d0cab11ea2">his own line of hard seltzers</a>, but has yet to reveal how much he has invested in the launch of Smithworks.



And soon after stepping away from their royal duties in the U.K.,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchmielewski/2021/02/26/how-much-are-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-worth-surprisingly-not-that-much/?sh=1fba6cedc417">Prince Harry and Meghan Markle</a>&nbsp;went on an all-American publicity spree, announcing content partnerships with Netflix and Spotify. They also signed with the Harry Walker Agency to cash in on potential speaking engagements. But when it came to disclosing the value of those deals, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchmielewski/2021/02/26/how-much-are-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-worth-surprisingly-not-that-much/?sh=21363347c417">former royal couple remained as secretive</a>&nbsp;as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2021/03/10/inside-the-firm-how-the-royal-familys-28-billion-money-machine-really-works/?sh=21f07002bccf">The Firm they fled</a>.&nbsp;



Some just lie.



Kardashian’s half-sister,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/05/29/inside-kylie-jennerss-web-of-lies-and-why-shes-no-longer-a-billionaire/?sh=7621eab25f7b">Kylie Jenner, is a prime example</a>. The reality star and Kylie Cosmetics founder boasted revenues of $360 million in 2019, making her the youngest self-made billionaire at the time. The following year, publicly traded Coty bought 51% of the business at a $1.2 billion valuation. Soon after,&nbsp;Coty’s filings revealed that Kylie Cosmetics was half the size that Jenner had told&nbsp;Forbes,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2021/04/06/kylie-jenner-west-virginia-governor-jim-justice-and-59-others-who-lost-their-billionaire-status-this-year/?sh=1a448b713eee">knocking her off the Billionaires list</a>.&nbsp;



So, why lie or withhold information? “The SEC does not regulate what private companies say and there’s no governing body,” says Kodali. “The venture capital community plays a huge part in propagating these lies, and nobody questions them.”&nbsp;



Kodali, who specializes in e-commerce and consumer behavior, says until a celebrity-driven company goes public, there’s no real way to quantitatively assess whether the brand has strong fundamentals. “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jessica-alba/?sh=343048a3159e">Jessica Alba’s early days at The Honest Co</a>. seemed respectable,” but it took&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2021/05/04/inside-jessica-albas-long-and-turbulent-road-to-taking-the-honest-company-public/?sh=77d0a1d16be1">going public</a>&nbsp;to confirm her books were indeed honest, says Kodali.



More recently, Kodali points to Roger Federer’s $50 million investment in sneaker company On Running as an example of a celebrity-backed venture with solid footing. The company, founded in 2010, went public in September 2021 with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/federer-backed-shoemaker-valued-over-11-bln-nyse-debut-2021-09-15/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$11.3 billion valuation</a>. “Its growth doesn’t seem to be based on hype,” Kodali says. “I didn’t hear about it from a headline, I heard about it from running enthusiasts, then investors. It was barely mentioned in the media until it went public.”&nbsp;



Meanwhile, it remains how much of a dent Savage X Fenty or Skims will make in the traditional intimate apparel market in the long term. Simeon Siegel, a retail analyst at BMO Capital Markets, acknowledges that many brands are trying to capitalize on Victoria’s Secret perceived vulnerability in market share. But a lingerie company like Rihanna’s–even with its funding to date at $310 million–is still “not even in the same ballpark as Victoria’s Secret,” which reported revenue of more than $5 billion in 2021.&nbsp;&nbsp;



However, with Rihanna and Kardashian’s massive social media followings—nearly 300 million each—both women have already used their fame as an express elevator to wealth.



“I bucket them all into startups that overstate their business, and it happens in waves as the sector becomes hot all at once,” says Kodali. “But you can’t hide once you’re public.”Follow me on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/tanyaklich" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Check out some of my other work <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaklich/#32b2e15e795d" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here</a>. 



By Tanya Klich, Forbes Staff

SKIMS Celebrates Launch At Nordstrom NYC With Personal Appearance By Kim Kardashian West

How Celebrities Use Fame To Fuel Their Startups—And Then Hide Behind It

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The stock market is having one of the worst starts to a year ever—with big names like Moderna and Netflix leading declines—as many of the pandemic-era’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/best-stocks-2021/">top stocks</a> continue to fall out of favor with investors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Three stocks in the S&amp;P 500 have led the market’s declines this month, each falling more than 35% through Friday’s session: Moderna, Netflix and Etsy.



Vaccine maker Moderna—one of last year’s top-performing stocks—is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/01/21/moderna-stock-crash-intensifies-losses-top-130-billion-after-scientists-find-covid-boosters-arent-halting-omicron-infections/?sh=5552fb9aef5c">down nearly 40%</a>&nbsp;amid growing research suggesting the firm’s booster shot is less effective against the rapidly spreading omicron variant.



Streaming giant Netflix, meanwhile, has seen its shares plunge 37% this month—in large part due to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/01/20/netflix-stock-plunges-20-following-disappointing-earnings-report/?sh=5953e2945632">lackluster</a>&nbsp;fourth-quarter earnings, which showed a continued slowdown in subscriber growth.



Online retailer Etsy—another pandemic-era favorite stock, which rose 324% in 2020—is down 35% this month as investors continue to rotate out of risky growth stocks and into safer value bets.



Other notable losers this month include semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (down 28%), chipmaker Nvidia (24%), Caesars Entertainment (23%) and Domino’s Pizza (22%).



The market selloff has been widespread, with everything from tech to energy stocks under pressure; Almost half of the stocks in the S&amp;P 500 are now down more than 10% so far in 2022.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SURPRISING FACT:</h2>



A majority of the S&amp;P 500’s top-performing stocks so far this year are oil and gas companies. Gains are led by the likes of Halliburton (up 37%), Occidental Petroleum (30%), Hess (24%) and Exxon Mobil (23%). That’s in large part thanks to oil prices rising for six weeks straight, with the price of Brent crude now at around $90 per barrel amid concerns of tight supply and rising demand.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND:</h2>



Stocks have swung wildly—especially in the past few weeks—as investors remain fearful of the Federal Reserve’s tightening monetary policy and rising interest rates. That sentiment has sparked a widespread selloff in growth and tech stocks especially. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which is in correction territory after falling nearly 15% since the start of 2022, is on pace for its worst January ever—and its worst month overall since the financial crisis in October 2008, when the index plunged over 17%. With market volatility surging this past week, the S&amp;P 500 also briefly fell into correction territory—at one point 10% below its record high—and now remains close to falling below that level.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING:</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/01/26/stocks-jump-after-federal-reserve-confirms-march-interest-rate-hike-to-fight-surging-inflation/">Stocks Fall After Federal Reserve Confirms March Interest Rate Hike To Fight Surging Inflation</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/01/24/stock-market-panic-is-setting-in-as-sp-500-briefly-enters-correction-territory-then-rebounds/">Stock Market ‘Panic Is Setting In’ As S&amp;P 500 Briefly Enters Correction Territory Then Rebounds</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/01/21/moderna-stock-crash-intensifies-losses-top-130-billion-after-scientists-find-covid-boosters-arent-halting-omicron-infections/">Moderna Stock Crash Intensifies: Losses Top $130 Billion</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/01/20/netflix-stock-plunges-20-following-disappointing-earnings-report/?sh=5953e2945632">Netflix Stock Plunges 20% Following Disappointing Earnings Report</a> (Forbes)



By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff

Market Analyze with Digital Monitor focus on tip of finger.

Here Are The Biggest Losing Stocks In The Market’s Worst Month Since March 2020

Tatjana Schoenmaker, South Africa’s star swimmer at the Tokyo Olympics who won record-breaking gold in the 200m breaststroke, is constantly challenging herself for the next milestone, she says in an exclusive interview with FORBES AFRICA.



By Nick Said



TATJANA Schoenmaker dreamed of a career in netball and was at first resistant to professional swimming, but after winning Olympic Gold in the 200m breaststroke in a world record time, has proven the old adage that you should always listen to your parents.



Schoenmaker was one of Africa’s stars at the Tokyo Olympics last year as she swept to gold in a record time of 2:18.95, having also claimed silver in the 100m breaststroke as she came within a milli-second of a remarkable double.



It has cemented the 24-year-old’s place among South Africa’s swimming greats, but if her teenage self had her own way, Schoenmaker would not have been in Tokyo to make her mark in history.



“I did many other sports in primary school. I liked hockey, netball and athletics, so at that age I think the push for swimming came from my parents’ side. They saw I had talent,” she tells FORBES AFRICA.



“I was actually against it in the beginning, I was never for it. But when I moved to Tuks Sport High School, and more of my time went into swimming, I started improving. That’s when I started to realize that I’m good at it.



“It was certainly not a passion for me, definitely not. I loved netball and my mind was so set on the fact I wanted to play that sport and I didn’t like swimming.



“But as a 14-year-old, you don’t really know what is best for you. That is why the support of my parents was vital. They believed I had talent and Rocco [coach Rocco Meiring] also believed I could do well.



“I had to trust their judgement, even though I argued against it a lot. I thought I knew everything! So that support from my family to push me&#8230; they knew once I realized [my talent], it would go well.”



Realizing that talent took many, many hours in the pool, dedication and, in the end, an iron will to succeed. Many others have had similar talent, but not the drive that Schoenmaker has shown once she decided to make a go of swimming.



“I am so grateful to them for pushing me out of my comfort zone and what I thought was best for myself,” she says.



“It is hard, the amount of hours makes it very difficult. A lot of young swimmers show amazing potential early on but then fade because the work you need to put in is grueling.



“I am very passionate now about encouraging those young swimmers and telling them they have to push through, because it gets so tough.”



She admits she was fortunate to attend a school where sport is heavily blended with academics to help athletes reach their potential.



“We were able to start school later in the morning to accommodate our swimming. The school would work out how we could get our marks with the time that we had in class. I was very lucky to be part that.



“I felt like I could strike the balance and manage both, it wasn’t that I felt I was under pressure with my schoolwork.”



As for her lightbulb moment when she realized she could be an Olympian, it shows the importance of role models in sport in terms of allowing children to dream.



“It was in 2012, when I joined the school. That was the year of the London Olympics and I remember watching it in the hostel.



“Chad [Le Clos] beating Michael Phelps was incredible. One, he was a South African, and two, I was doing the same amount of training then as a professional like Chad at the school.



“I went from three times a week to 10 or 11 sessions a week, so I thought, ‘my life has become swimming, so I can do this also’.”



Schoenmaker says she loves routine and even today trains in a similar fashion to how she did back then. “My training always stays consistent, the type of training changes a little bit, but I like consistency and my programs are basically a lot of the same things.



“It is about eight sessions of swimming and then two or three sessions of gym [a week]. We have double-swim on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and single swim with gym on a Tuesday and a Thursday, and then a single swim on a Saturday. Sunday is completely off.” She admits too, that like many other athletes, the extra year of training afforded by the postponement of the Tokyo Games due to the Covid-19 pandemic actually helped her medal chances.



“We had six months to go ahead of the Games in 2020. It was the January [2020], before the Covid-19 lockdowns started. I was excited, but ‘scared’ nervous. I thought to myself, ‘if only I had one more year to just really get prepared’.



“And then of course, it happened when the Games were postponed. So the second time round when it came to six months to go [in January 2021], now it was genuine excitement. It worked in my favor, I got that extra year.



“We lost a lot of training due to Covid-19, but because there were so few competitions after the lockdowns, we were able to put in some really intense training and catch up those weeks. It worked out perfectly for me.”



Many athletes speak of a post-Games depression, especially those that achieve their goals of winning gold. After years, and sometimes decades, building up to that moment, they can be left with an empty feeling of ‘what now?’.



That is not a problem for Schoenmaker.



“I have watched the movie with Michael Phelps about post-Games depression [The Weight of Gold]. It is the highest achievement you could ever get – a gold medal and a world record.



“But for me, it is not ‘what now?’. It is ‘when next?’. I want to race again and I want to try and improve myself. There is so much space to grow.



“Whether I swim personal bests, or whether I grow personally or spiritually&#8230; I have changed so much when I look back at who I was three years ago at my first major competition. Winning at the Commonwealth Games [in 2018] – the person I was then and who I am now is totally different.



“It is amazing for me that it all still feels like a dream, it doesn’t seem real, and I am so excited to challenge myself in the next galas. What can I do next to better myself in any way, not just my swimming but as a person?”



As for what is next, 2022 will be a big year for the South African with both the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and the World Championships in Fukuoka, which will be a return to Japan.



“I have the short-course World Championships [in Abu Dhabi] at the end of this year. That is a nice challenge because you have a lot more turns and my turns are probably my weakest part.



“Then this year we have the Commonwealth Games and World Championships, we never usually have those two in the same season. But I am very excited for both,” she says.

The Olympic Games-Tokyo 2020

The South African Swimming Sensation Who Made Every Lap Count

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Holocaust survivors, Jewish advocacy groups and Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday by condemning anti-vaccine activists who likened Covid-19 response measures to the Holocaust and comparing healthcare officials to Nazis.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Protesters against Covid-19 measures who liken themselves to Jews under Nazism fuel anti-Semitism and contribute to trivialization of the Holocaust, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-sees-holocaust-tropes-covid-protests-fuelling-anti-semitism-2022-01-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;published Thursday by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.



Margot Friedlaender, who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt concentration camp and whose mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/holocaust-survivor-decries-abuse-yellow-star-covid-protests-2022-01-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Thursday she was incredulous and outraged to see “the new enemies of democracy” presenting themselves as victims by wearing yellow Stars of David like the badges the Nazis compelled Jews to wear.



Holocaust survivors Joan Salter, Estelle Nadel and Gabriella Karin&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/holocaust-remembrance-day-hitlers-victims-damn-covid-19-comparisons-2022-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Insider&nbsp;that using Holocaust imagery to protest vaccines was an insult to both living and deceased Holocaust victims.



The yellow star badge has been used by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/washington-lawmaker-apologizes-wearing-star-david-protest-covid-mandates-n1272962" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rep. Jim Walsh</a>&nbsp;(R-N.Y.), the&nbsp;<a href="https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/jewish-federation-of-tulsa-calls-out-state-gop-for-using-star-of-david-in-vaccine/article_d2d38e28-f16e-11eb-b414-6f6fc6858b69.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oklahoma Republican Party</a>&nbsp;and by protesters in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2021/09/30/appalling-scholars-say-holocaust-symbol-has-no-place-in-anchorage-mask-debate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alaska</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kansas-vaccine-mandate-holocaust-republicans-b1957233.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kansas</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/16/jeffrey-dinowitz-antisemitic-protest-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York</a>&nbsp;to suggest that unvaccinated people and Holocaust victims have been similarly oppressed.



Comparisons of Covid-19 measures to Nazism have been made by U.S. Reps.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/WarrenDavidson/status/1481246046705655818?s=20&amp;t=2R93NIJjQ6BB3w7U7CylYw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Warren Davidson</a>&nbsp;(R-Ohio) and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/02/1069753102/twitter-bans-marjorie-taylor-greenes-personal-account-over-covid-misinformation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a>&nbsp;(R-Ga.), by Republican Washington state Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/30/wa-state-rep-sorry-wearing-yellow-star-protest-covid-mandates/7815285002/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jim Walsh</a>, by Republican Idaho state Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/covid19/idaho-rep-heather-scott-calls-governor-little-hitler-compares-nonessential-workers-to-holocaust-victims/article_1b70f69d-769d-5266-9551-098f7b8f5eb4.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heather Scott</a>, by Fox News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tucker-carlson-compares-vaccine-mandates-to-nazi-medical-experiments-2022-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hosts</a>&nbsp;Tucker Carlson and Lara Logan, and by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/01/25/rfk-jr-apologizes-for-anne-frank-comparison-at-anti-vax-rally-as-wife-cheryl-hines-calls-comment-reprehensible/?sh=327e812534d4">suggested</a>&nbsp;that modern Americans opposed to vaccines were more persecuted than Anne Frank.



Some anti-Semitic agitators have taken the opposite angle, distributing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/antisemitic-flyers-found-neighborhoods-least-3-cities-rcna13500" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flyers</a> Sunday in Denver, San Francisco and Miami claiming that the Covid-19 crisis is the result of a Jewish conspiracy—a claim echoed by online agitators, the Diaspora Affairs Ministry reported.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="993" height="558" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/0x0.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-54094" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/0x0.jpeg 993w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/0x0-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/0x0-768x432.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 993px) 100vw, 993px" /><figcaption>Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears in a video for Children&#8217;s Health Defense, his anti-vaccine nonprofit.   CHILDREN&#8217;S HEALTH DEFENSE</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



As imagery from liberated concentration camps spread around the world, Nazism grew into an ahistorical symbol for pure evil,&nbsp;<a href="https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&amp;httpsredir=1&amp;article=1223&amp;context=open_access_dissertations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Brian Scott Johnson. The Nazis and Adolf Hitler have proven convenient symbols for people wishing to vilify their political opponents, from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/fl-jj-groups-dallas-poliyicians-trump-hitler-20181024-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45488605" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nelson Mandela</a>. In 1990, this tendency was codified by attorney Mike Godwin as&nbsp;<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/no-nazi-comparisons-sounds-like-something-hitler-would-say.ars" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Godwin’s law</a>, which states that the longer an online discussion continues, the more probable a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler becomes. According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-godwin-godwins-law-20180624-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Godwin</a>, the first person to fulfill Godwin’s law has lost the argument.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“Covid brought Holocaust trivialization to a summit,&#8221; Dani Dayan, chairman of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/culture/1643311013-israel-report-links-anti-covid-protests-and-antisemitism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;the i24NEWS TV network.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<a href="https://holocaust.combatantisemitism.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1.2 million.</a>&nbsp;That’s how many online discussions took place from 2020 to 2021 linking Covid-19 to the Holocaust, according to the nonprofit Combat Antisemitism Movement. Of 63.7 million posts, comments and other engagements identified, 56.9 million took place in English.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on January 27, the day Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/01/25/rfk-jr-apologizes-for-anne-frank-comparison-at-anti-vax-rally-as-wife-cheryl-hines-calls-comment-reprehensible/?sh=327e812534d4">“RFK Jr. Apologizes For ‘Anne Frank’ Comparison At Anti-Vax Rally—As Wife Cheryl Hines Calls Comment ‘Reprehensible’”</a> (Forbes)



By Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff

Anti Covid-19 vaccine protest in Taipei

Holocaust Survivors Condemn Anti-Vaccine Protesters’ Use Of Nazi Imagery

Brex’s two twenty-something founders are now billionaires, thanks to a lofty new funding round announced this week that nearly doubled the valuation of their five-year-old fintech firm.



The San Francisco-based startup—which is aiming to overhaul the corporate credit card—confirmed on Tuesday that it has raised $300 million in a funding round led by investment firms Greenoaks Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), giving it a $12.3 billion valuation—a sizable jump from the $7.4 billion valuation it fetched just nine months ago. Cofounders (and co-CEOs) Henrique Dubugras, 26, and Pedro Franceschi, 25, each hold a 14% stake in Brex, Forbes estimates, worth about $1.5 billion apiece. (Forbes discounts the value of privately held companies.) The pair declined to comment on Forbes’ estimates but Dubugras did speak with Forbes about his startup’s path to success.   



The young fintech has made a name for itself with a corporate credit card tailored to the needs of startups. It remains Brex’s marquee product, and the interchange fees merchants pay when employees swipe Brex’s cards constitute nearly all of the company’s revenue. In recent years, Brex has also launched new software offerings like an expense management product and a business bill pay feature: “If you get an invoice in your email, you can just forward it to us and boom, it gets paid,” Dubugras tells&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;on a Zoom call from his home office in Los Angeles. In May, the company rolled out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2021/05/12/brex-partners-with-coinbase-and-travelbank-to-launch-bitcoin-and-ether-rewards-program-for-businesses/?sh=9a2e593145a9">one of the first crypto rewards programs for corporations</a>.



Brex is not the only business attempting to disrupt the stodgy, spreadsheet-centric world of B2B payments. Today, its rivals include startup Ramp (founded in 2019 and valued at almost $4 billion after an August funding round) and publicly traded Bill.com (valued at some $21 billion),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2021/05/04/billcom-is-set-to-acquire-utah-billion-dollar-software-startup-divvy/?sh=6845e24d3915">which bought expense reporting software fintech Divvy</a>&nbsp;for $2.5 billion last spring. But Brex has been able to attract a deluge of venture capital by offering a suite of products that extend beyond the corporate credit card. Dubugras maintains that he’s not too worried about competition.&nbsp;



“The market is pretty big, and I think that there&#8217;s space for a lot of people,” he says. “Most B2B payments are still paper- and check-based.”



The 1,000-person startup can credit its existence to a lively Twitter exchange in December 2012 between Dubugras and Franceschi about the nuances of coding tools. At the time, they were high school seniors living in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, respectively. The 140-character tweet cap hindered the debate, so the two teens hopped on Skype to discuss further.&nbsp;



“On Skype, we couldn&#8217;t fight that much and became best friends,” says Dubugras.&nbsp;



In 2013, the pals launched a startup called Pagar.me that allowed Brazilian merchants to accept online payments. It was a 150-person outfit by the time they sold it three years later to a larger Brazil-based payments fintech called Stone. Dubugras won’t share the pair’s take, but says it was enough to pay for college—he and Franceschi are both Stanford computer science dropouts—and stow away some savings.&nbsp;



For their next act, the pair initially wanted to build bank accounts for U.S.-based startups, but settled on corporate credit cards as a more attainable route. (“What business would trust their money to these random 22-year-old Brazilians?” chuckles Dubugras. “With corporate cards…we were giving them money instead of asking for their own money.”) Dubugras and Franceschi founded Brex in 2017 after quitting Stanford in the spring of their freshman year and, two years later, both earned spots on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/brex/?sh=40fecfa71fbb">Forbes’&nbsp;30 Under 30 Finance list</a>. By then, Brex had raised $213 million and was valued at $1.1 billion. In 2019, Brex also rolled out its take on the business bank accounts that had enthralled its founders from the start. (Brex is not a chartered bank itself, so it partners with LendingClub or JPMorgan Chase for the accounts.)&nbsp;



All told, the duo has secured more than $1.1 billion in venture money from the likes of Tiger Global Management, Peter Thiel and Affirm founder Max Levchin. The company says its revenue more than doubled over the past 12 months, though it won’t share specifics or comment on profitability; private markets data provider PitchBook estimates Brex generated about $320 million in revenue for 2021. Dubugras says that Brex counts “tens of thousands” of corporate customers today, including the likes of Carta and Classpass.&nbsp;



The startup wants to keep the ball rolling in the new year. With $300 million in fresh funding, Brex aims to increase its headcount by at least 50% while also keeping cash in the coffers in case there’s a market downturn. Brex originally set out to serve startups, but Dubugras says mid-market firms account for more than 60% of its customer base today. In 2022, he hopes to reel in large corporations as well.



“I think it&#8217;s easy for people to think that we&#8217;re already successful,” he says. “We are, and we aren’t. We&#8217;re obviously happy about what we’ve achieved, but there&#8217;s so much more to come.”



By Eliza Haverstock, Forbes Staff

PR-Story21-SeriesD

Two Friends Who Met On Twitter In High School Are Latest Under-30 Billionaires

Starting with just $45, Ghanaian entrepreneur Violet Amoabeng’s startup has progressed with skincare products you can eat and the unpalatable realization that the only way to make it in business is to crash, break, stretch and succeed.



IT WOULD BE HARD TO decide if you would place Violet Amoabeng’s products in the beauty cabinet or on the kitchen shelf.



Skin Gourmet, Amoabeng’s skincare range, uses natural raw materials that are pure and free of preservatives that you could use on your skin and eat at the same time.



Edible beauty?



“If you cannot eat what you are putting on your skin, then why put it on your face?” asks the Ghanaian entrepreneur who admits to always gravitating towards the unconventional.



“It made more sense because what I wanted to create was something you could either choose to eat or wear, either way it is good for you.”



She launched Skin Gourmet Limited with only $45 five years ago, but it is now a business that generates over $200,000 annually.



“My dad would not give me the money to do any business because he believed that if you don’t do business the hard way, you will not be able to survive when you hit hard times and no one will help you,” recalls Amoabeng about her journey to becoming a self-made businesswoman.



She had to think differently.



Even as a child, when her classmates were debating careers as doctors, bankers or lawyers, Amoabeng opted for poetry, when she could have easily thought of following in her parents’ footsteps.



Her father, one of Ghana’s most successful bankers, is the founder of UT Bank, and her mother was the Managing Director of the Ghana tourist board where her primary focus was social and human development.



“My dad was more of a dreamer and even though his mind was on profitability he wanted to build something that everyone would benefit from. My dad and my mum were more focused on me being a good person and they were not focused on a specific industry. They just allowed me to dream. It was more important that I would leave a good legacy. It was almost like they are responsible for how their children will affect the world.”



Amoabeng now understands just how powerful that upbringing was. Even after her parents’ divorce when she was still young, she was never separated from this goal of adding value to humanity.



Shuttling between Ghana, Uganda and Canada in her teenage years, she graduated with a marketing and business administration degree from the University of Northern Virginia before completing her masters in accounting and finance as well as in supply chain and logistics.



Her initial work experience was in her father’s bank before securing an internship with the African Development Bank in Tunisia.



“At the time, I wanted to take over my dad’s business. As life would have it, that didn’t work out but I still wanted to help people and I knew business is how to do it, but I didn’t know how it would look like,” says Amoabeng.



Her biggest challenge was acquiring capital to kick- start her business.



“I asked family members to help source ingredients etc. I would come back from work and the first formulation I made I got these three ugly containers from my mother. I had designed my logo and everything on my computer. So, I would manufacture, package, label, put it on the shelf and every Saturday I would go to the market to sell these products.”



Being from Ghana proved to be advantageous for her fledgling startup.



“I started to really focus on Ghana because even the idea of eating your skincare [ingredients] is something I realized Ghanaians used a long time ago but we have lost [that tradition]. When I go to source my ingredients, these are products that the local communities eat on a daily basis and it’s been done for a long time. Preservatives are not needed because these communities have not had electricity for a long time so they had a way to preserve the products and keep it [to] the highest qualities.”



To get people to try her products, Amoabeng would give them away for free.



Her father’s lesson in the business of not expecting “any handouts from anyone” started to pay off.



“My dad also started his company with almost nothing and he knew he had to struggle. In my dad’s mind, it is important to struggle because it is the struggle that makes you strong and innovative.



“I started with the love of making body butter without doing any research. The entrepreneurial journey has been crazy hard. It will crash you and it breaks you and stretches you but you enjoy it. When you see an obstacle and it’s hard but every time you find a way over it and that is what makes it incredible. With every stage you overcome, you become a little bit greater,” offers Amoabeng as advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.



Amoabeng has managed to transform Skin Gourmet into a successful startup story with an average revenue growth of 80%. What makes this remarkable is the fact that this has been achieved organically with no outside investment or bank loans.



And with that, she has learned her greatest lesson in business.



“I had a limited way of thinking and I had to retrain myself on how to think. Nothing is impossible, everything is possible and if you can’t do it, it is your fault. You never blame anybody for anything that happens to you.”

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