<h2>Topline</h2>



As Nigeria gears up for elections on February 25, the question its over 200 million inhabitants will be desperately seeking an answer to will be, which presidential aspirant has what it takes to move the country out of its current economic crisis – defined by high inflation, diminishing foreign reserves, high insecurity in the North and falling oil prices. The country has not recovered post-pandemic.



For millions of voters affected by the economic hardships, the elections present an opportunity to find a candidate who can finally move the country forward and usher in a new age of prosperity. The 2023 elections to determine the President and Vice President have become more significant than ever.



In her speech honoring the country’s 62nd Independence Day last year, Nigeria’s First Lady Dr Aisha Muhammadu Buhari apologized for the harsh economic realities, saying “the regime might have not been the perfect one”.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">Key Facts</h2>



Of the 18 potential presidential candidates, only three hopefuls reportedly stand a realistic chance of getting the top seat. Nigeria’s top two parties are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who have traded power since Nigeria’s first democratic elections in 1999. The frontrunners are Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 70, for APC and Atiku Abubakar, 76, for the PDP.



Both candidates have years of experience in Nigerian politics. Tinubu, widely known as the godfather of Nigerian politics and kingmaker, was a former governor of Lagos State as well as a former senator of the federal republic of Nigeria. Abubakar was also the former Vice President of Nigeria during Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency.



And hoping to upset these two candidates is Peter Obi, 61.



A wealthy businessman who exited the PDP party last year, Obi is running under the relatively unknown Labour Party (LP) and has been focused on galvanizing Nigeria’s teeming youth population by leveraging social media as a key strategy. He is also a former Governor for Anambra State. His experience in the business world and understanding of the Nigerian political landscape make him the perfect candidate for the job, according to his supporters.



And while many believe it will be a tall order to unseat the two leading political parties, the anger, frustration and dire economic outlook faced by the Nigerian youth that account for about 70% of the population, according to recent figures from Worldometer, makes Obi a viable candidate to potentially upset the power dynamics in Africa’s most populous economy.

Election In Ondo State

The Nigerian Elections Coming Up This Month: Quick Facts

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Sportswear brand Nike and luxury jewelry brand Tiffany &amp; Co. <a href="https://www.tiffany.com/stories/tiffany-and-nike-air-force/?omcid=sm-us_instagram-owned_nike&amp;utm_medium=social_media-us&amp;utm_source=instagram-owned&amp;utm_campaign=nike" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> on Tuesday a collaboration on several products, including a pair of sneakers and silver shoe accessories which cost hundreds of dollars.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



The core of the Nike x Tiffany collaboration is an all-black pair of Nike Air Force 1 Low sneakers, called the “1837s,” which feature the Nike’s signature swoosh logo done in Tiffany blue, and a sterling silver adornment.



The sneakers will <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/nike-tiffany-air-force-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cost</a> $400, more than the roughly $100 typical Air Force 1s go for, and will likely go for more on the lucrative resale market.



On social media, Tiffany &amp; Co. also posted pictures of a Nike and Tiffany branded sterling silver shoe horn, a shoe brush—which many on social media have confused as a toothbrush—and shoelaces, as well as a silver referee whistle, which will range in&nbsp;<a href="https://hypebeast.com/2023/1/tiffany-co-nike-air-force-1-low-dz1382-001-release-date" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cost</a>&nbsp;from $250 to $475.



The line will be released on March 7.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">When they said “just do it,” we listened. Discover more: <a href="https://t.co/8FKzDD0r8Z">https://t.co/8FKzDD0r8Z</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NikexTiffany?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NikexTiffany</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TiffanyAndCo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TiffanyAndCo</a> <a href="https://t.co/wTAzAFOJqe">pic.twitter.com/wTAzAFOJqe</a>&mdash; Tiffany &amp; Co. (@TiffanyAndCo) <a href="https://twitter.com/TiffanyAndCo/status/1620425500161359874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">A legendary pair, indeed. Discover more: <a href="https://t.co/9luq0ydt1d">https://t.co/9luq0ydt1d</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NikexTiffany?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NikexTiffany</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TiffanyAndCo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TiffanyAndCo</a> <a href="https://t.co/igqZmKrVnM">pic.twitter.com/igqZmKrVnM</a>&mdash; Tiffany &amp; Co. (@TiffanyAndCo) <a href="https://twitter.com/TiffanyAndCo/status/1620471039028240392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Tiffany &amp; Co. and Nike previously worked together in 2014 when the jewelry company’s signature aqua color was used in a Nike and Diamond Supply Co.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stadiumgoods.com/en-us/shopping/sb-dunk-high-prm-diamond-supply-co-tiffany-13428964?clickref=1011lwwgEKmU&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_campaign=stadium_goods_us&amp;utm_source=skimlinks_phg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pair of shoes</a>. This marks their first official collaboration. In the last few years, Tiffany has moved to attract a younger audience. In 2021, after being purchased by LVMH, it launched a campaign featuring the phrase “not your mother’s Tiffany,” and started featuring Beyoncé and Jay-Z as faces of the brand in the “About Love” campaigns. In one of their first ads, Beyoncé wore the famed Tiffany diamond, an 128-carat stone which had previously been worn only three times. In August, the brand&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2022/08/02/tiffany-turns-nfts-into-wearable-jewelry/?sh=bd461146d14c">ventured</a>&nbsp;into NFTs, making wearable tokens out of digital assets.



<h2>FORBES VALUATION</h2>



$214 billion. That’s how much&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, and his family to be worth. He is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#1d4751363d78">richest person in the world</a>, as of Tuesday.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/nike-tiffany-air-force-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike and Tiffany &amp; Co. Made Sneaker Dynamite</a>&nbsp;(GQ)



<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-and-tiffany-and-co-collab-not-impressing-sneakerheads-2023-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike is teaming up with Tiffany &amp; Co. on a $400 shoe. Sneakerheads aren&#8217;t impressed.</a> (Insider)



By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff

Shoppers In Manhattan On Black Friday

Nike And Tiffany & Co Will Launch Luxury Air Force 1s And An Array Of Sterling Silver Shoe Accessories With Hefty Price Tag

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



According to a new <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.53590?utm_source=For_The_Media&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=ftm_links&amp;utm_term=013023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>, Covid placed in the top 10 leading causes of death for children of all age groups, but there are several precautions (like vaccines, masks and isolation), which effectively protect against the virus.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



The study, published in the&nbsp;JAMA Network&nbsp;on Monday, found Covid was a leading cause of death in children and adolescents and caused more deaths than any other vaccine-preventable disease.



<a href="https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/#Total%20deaths%20in%20the%20United%20States%20from%20COVID-19%20and%20other%20leading%20causes,%202020-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a> to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, Covid was the third- leading cause of death in the U.S. each year from 2020 to 2022, and according to the JAMA study, Covid mortality between August 1, 2021 and July 31, 2022 ranked in the top 10 leading causes of death for the age group between infants and 19-year-olds.



Between January 2020 and January 21, there have been 1,098,583 Covid-related deaths in the U.S., with children (Americans 18 and under) making up over 1,600 of those cases,&nbsp;<a href="https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-Focus-on-Ages-0-18-Yea/nr4s-juj3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



TangentA <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(22)00222-8/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> published in the Lancet found although Covid infections due to the omicron variant (the most wide-spread Covid strain) were more transmissible among children, they were less deadly than infections caused by the previous variant.



<h2>COVID VACCINES AND BOOSTERS APPROVED FOR CHILDREN</h2>



The CDC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0618-children-vaccine.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">included</a>&nbsp;children ages six months to five years in their recommendation for Covid vaccines in June 2022. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are the only vaccines&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html?s_cid=11368:what%20age%20can%20covid%20vaccine%20be%20given:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">authorized and approved</a>&nbsp;for use in children aged six months and older by the Food and Drug Administration. However, those 12 and up can receive the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-adjuvanted" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Novavax</a>vaccine. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/janssen/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Johnson &amp; Johnson</a>&nbsp;vaccine is only approved for people 18 years and up. Bivalent boosters (booster shot that protect against the original Covid variant and the now dominant omicron variant) became available for anyone six months and older in December 2022. Bivalent boosters are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.17.516898v1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proven</a>&nbsp;to be more effective at protecting against Covid, severe symptoms and hospitalization than the original monovalent vaccines. Kids aged 6 months through four years who completed a Moderna vaccine series are eligible to receive a Moderna bivalent booster two months after their second dose, and kids five and up who completed the Moderna series can receive either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster two months after their second dose. Those aged six months through five years who are completing a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine series can only get a Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent vaccine as their third dose. Children six years and up who completed a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine series can receive either the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster two months after their second dose. Children 12 to 17 years of age who got the Novavax vaccines can get either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines two months after completing their second dose.



<h2>OTHER PRECAUTIONS</h2>



<ul>
<li>Isolation:&nbsp;Self isolation at home for at least five days for those who test positive for Covid is recommended, as infectious levels are the highest during this time. If someone has to go out in public or be around others in the household, a high-quality mask is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0811-covid-guidance.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">advised</a>&nbsp;by the CDC. If symptoms are improving and a fever isn’t present for 24 hours without the use of medicine after the five day period is up, isolation can end and the use of a high quality mask should continue until day 10. However, being around high risk individuals should be avoided until day 11.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-and-covid19-who-is-at-higher-risk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">High risk</a>&nbsp;individuals include those over the age of 65, those with a weakened immune system, those with underlying conditions (like obesity, heart disease and cancer) and pregnant people. The CDC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/tribal/social-distancing.html#SocialDistancing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recommends</a>&nbsp;those who aren’t vaccinated to practice social distancing in public, remaining at least six feet away from others. According to a 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-022-07636-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>, self-isolation and stay-at-home orders were essential in preventing the spread of the virus during the early phases of the pandemic.</li>



<li>Masks:&nbsp;A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;found masks were effective at slowing the spread of Covid. The CDC breaks down&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fscience%2Fcommunity-levels.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mask guidelines</a>&nbsp;based on Covid community levels. For those living in low level communities (places where Covid cases are minimal), masks are not required indoors in public. For medium level communities, it’s recommended high risk people wear high-quality masks or respirators (like the N95) indoors in public. For high level communities, all people should wear high-quality masks indoors in public. Regardless of community level, people with symptoms, those who’ve tested positive for Covid or have come in contact with a positive person should wear a mask indoors. As of April, the CDC no longer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/masks-public-transportation.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requires</a>&nbsp;the use of masks on public transportation. However, it still recommends the use of masks in indoor public transportation situations.</li>
</ul>



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://kdhnews.com/living/health/odds-of-severe-covid-19-disease-lower-for-children-during-omicron-predominance/article_3f1f3d1f-a0b5-5497-9830-a2ba6c0f2323.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Odds of Severe COVID-19 Disease Lower for Children During Omicron Predominance</a>&nbsp;(Killeen Daily Herald)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/26/covid-vaccines-heres-evidence-they-work-despite-persistent-misinformation-along-with-side-effects-and-common-misconceptions/?sh=5a8235b047c3">Covid Vaccines: Here’s Evidence They Work—Despite Persistent Misinformation—Along With Side Effects And Common Misconceptions</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)

Booster COVID-19 Vaccination In Colombia

Study Finds Covid A Leading Cause Of Death Among Children And Adolescents. Here’s How To Stay Safe

The negatives of the 1988 anti-apartheid South African film, Mapantsula, lying in a basement for 35 years, have now been restored, to be unveiled at the Berlin International Film Festival next month. FORBES AFRICA speaks to director Oliver Schmitz about the technical process, its enduring relevance and bringing the film back to social memory.



Cut to the 1980s apartheid South Africa and a film released during that time.



Written by Oliver Schmitz and Thomas Mogotlane, Mapantsula debuted originally at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988, amassing worldwide acclaim.



Now, the 35mm negatives of the film have been restored to a 4k resolution by R3store Studios in London.



In 1988, the film-makers had registered it as an apolitical gangster movie in order to get it past the censor board. The apartheid regime’s Directorate of Publications made 17 cuts of 40 seconds before the film was publicized in South Africa.



“I never cut the film. And we were completely against those cuts. I never approved or saw any version of the film in a cut form,” says Schmitz to FORBES AFRICA.



Key cast and crew members agreed to let the film be pirated on VHS, never earning anything on the African release, but the film was pirated and seen endlessly, he explains.



Recently, Schmitz decided that if he didn’t restore the film, it would either disappear or end up as a bad copy on YouTube. He invested his own money with Aaryan Trivedi, his partner at What The Hero Wants (WTHW).



Color correction, picture and sound processing were done at PurpleDOG Post, a post-production house in Canada, and original analogue audio tracks were enhanced and re-mastered. Final adjustments were made at Studio Mitte.



Schmitz spent a lot of time bringing the vibrancy of the color back from the faded film.



“So now with hindsight and a firmer grasp of the technique – and not changing it because it&#8217;s very important that the same film comes to life again – the color is much more intense. So I&#8217;m very happy about that.”



Arguably, the themes of the film remain relevant today; South Africa has a high crime rate, stark economic inequality, a legacy of enduring violence, employer-employee power imbalances in informal work, and police brutality.



Some would contend that poor black people remain second class citizens, and the film’s representation of how structural racism affects both the criminal and law-abiding person remains pertinent.



Out of interest, Schmitz has been asking South Africans of all ages to comment on how the film impacts them.



“What affirms my opinions in a way is that a lot of young South Africans watch the film, and it feels as relevant to them as it did to another generation back then… And publicizing some of that now, I think a lot of those issues are as valid as they were before, and [while] it is about this very specific time in South African history, the socioeconomic conditions – a lot of them are still very much there.”



Regardless of a change of system, he adds that the system the film explored remains in South Africa in many ways.



“We commented on this at the time, about these characters being agents in their own story; it was very important for us that this film is a celebration in a weird way, because it&#8217;s about resilience and about empowerment, and the characters are not an object, or pawn pieces on a chessboard to show how bad things are, in a sense of suffering.”



The main character Panic is an opportunistic, petty criminal who is caught between individual advancement and the social drive to revolt against apartheid’s injustices.



Schmitz says that while he’s not going to go into a justification of criminality, there’s always been an element where crime is a rebellion against a system and structure, and out of need as well.



The subculture of AmaPantsula developed in the 1950s, considered then in some quarters to be well-dressed “gangsters”. That idea has been debated, as the subculture has also been documented as a response to forced removals by the apartheid regime, according to Unlabelled Magazine in a 2019 article on The Evolution of The Pantsula Subculture.



“I think what it was then was very individualistic, and a kind of way of being a rebel. And what it&#8217;s now as a subculture of music and dance is something more communal,” muses Schmitz.



He says you can draw a thread through time in terms of music and style, with present Pantsula culture paying homage to the past, but he believes as a style and dance, it’s morphed into something else.



In terms of the technical process, he says he never would’ve imagined how much work it would be – with a negative in a basement for 35 years, and chemicals in film that are not static through time.



“There’s blotches, there’s streaking, scratching, there&#8217;s dust, there’s fading. The focus, which kind of disappears, it&#8217;s almost like memories fading, and you have to try and get all of it back,” he explains.



Schmitz recalls how Kodak film had pulled out of South Africa because of the sanctions, so the only stock left was a German high-speed stock, which was more light-sensitive but grainier. Pushing the film material resulted in more grain.



The restoration process made him want to cry, and alternately, sometimes he thought the product looked great. Along the way, there were several committed people who helped bring it back to life, he says.



“Maybe there&#8217;s lessons to learn for other films, and maybe for other South African films so that they don&#8217;t disappear. Because we live in a culture where anything that’s pre-digital, unless it’s pulled into the digital age, it will be out of the communal memory, it will stop existing because it&#8217;s not in our current world.”



The newly-restored film is set to be unveiled at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) next month.

Still from Mapantsula (1988) film restored 1

From Memory To Technicolor: South African Apartheid-Era Film To See New Life In Digital Age

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Weeks after Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter was quoted as saying Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were “using” his legacy for profit in their new Netflix documentary series, Ndileka Mandela insisted Saturday she had been misquoted, and applauded the couple for “the inspiration that Harry and Meghan take from my grandfather’s legacy for their social activism.”



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/live-to-lead-release-date-cast-news#:~:text=The%20inspiring%20docuseries%2C%20produced%20by,Sussex%2C%20showcases%20global%20justice%20activists.&amp;text=Inspired%20by%20Nelson%20Mandela%20and,their%20lives%20to%20social%20justice." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;the series was “inspired by Nelson Mandela,” and shortly after it was released the&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2023/01/04/nelson-mandelas-granddaughter-claims-harry-and-meghan-are-using-grandfathers-legacy-in-new-netflix-series/?sh=31ce7cff4d8f">quoted</a>&nbsp;Ndileka Mandela saying people “have used” her grandfather’s “legacy because they know his name sells—Harry and Meghan are no different from them,” adding Harry “needs to be authentic and stick to his own story. . . .&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/nelson-mandelas-granddaughter-speaks-out-on-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-netflix-series/news-story/77dd59baa8f7725b109db72e8596b808" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What relevance</a>&nbsp;does grandad’s life have with his?”



However, in <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/prince-harry-meghan-markle-nelson-mandela-b2270406.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an essay</a> published Saturday in The Independent, Mandela said she never claimed Harry and Meghan were “‘profiteering’ from my grandfather’s name,” and the people who actually did this were the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s “critics, who falsely exploited my grandfather’s name to attack them.”



Mandela said she is “mortified” to see how her comments to theAustralian—a large Rupert Murdoch-controlled paper—about “my genuine concerns about the commercial exploitation of my grandfather’s legacy” were twisted, and how they were “misused to attack a woman of colour who was, effectively, hounded out of the British royal family.”



Mandela wrote the same people who “impugn Harry and Meghan want to silence the rest of us who are still fighting for the values my grandfather stood for,” namely those who do not acknowledge Britain’s role in the Atlantic slave trade and other “atrocities,” and those who believe the realities of institutional racism shouldn’t be taught in schools.



Mandela said that ripples of colonialism and the apartheid still linger in South Africa, and the British royal family still benefits from “exploitative structures” and laws that allow them to conceal the scope of their wealth.



The Sussexes “are widening the boundaries of acceptable discourse, bringing to light the unsavoury realities of a cherished British institution that remains at the heart of racialised global inequalities,” Mandela wrote.



Forbes has reached out to News Corp Australia for comment.



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“I greatly admire Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for their courageous commitment to defending those less privileged than them – vulnerable people, women, and people of colour,” Madela wrote.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Last month, Harry and Meghan debuted a documentary interview series on Netflix called&nbsp;Live To Lead, which Harry said was inspired by Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist and former president of South Africa.&nbsp;Live To Lead&nbsp;features interviews from Greta Thunberg and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others. The series was done in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and Mandela said in her Independent piece she &#8220;greatly admire[s]&#8221; this partnership. She previously told Fox News Digital she did not criticize the couple, saying &#8220;I just think that people are making a … mountain out of a mole hill, and they’re wanting to persecute Meghan and Harry for no reason, honestly.” She had also published an essay in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/nelson-mandela-name-prince-harry-meghan-markle/672762/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Atlantic</a>about being misquoted.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2023/01/04/nelson-mandelas-granddaughter-claims-harry-and-meghan-are-using-grandfathers-legacy-in-new-netflix-series/?sh=48b5db1a4d8f">Nelson Mandela’s Granddaughter Claims Harry And Meghan Are ‘Using’ Grandfather’s Legacy In New Netflix Series</a> (Forbes)



By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff

The Duke And Duchess Of Sussex Attend The Endeavour Fund Awards

Nelson Mandela’s Granddaughter Applauds Harry And Meghan For Invoking Grandfather’s Legacy—And Says Criticism Was Misquoted

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Boeing pleaded not guilty in an arraignment on Thursday over charges the manufacturer deceived federal authorities over the safety of its 737 MAX jets following two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-26/boeing-pleads-not-guilty-in-fraud-case-over-737-max-crashes?srnd=premium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a> reported, after a judge ruled the families of the victims have standing to challenge a massive $2.5 billion settlement the company agreed to in 2021.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Representatives from Boeing appeared in a federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday over a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the Department of Justice over claims it had made that its 737 MAX commercial jets are safe.



It comes just over two years after Boeing made a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/boeing-charged-737-max-fraud-conspiracy-and-agrees-pay-over-25-billion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$2.5 billion</a> plea agreement with the Department of Justice in 2021, admitting to conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration’s evaluation agency over the safety of its 737 MAX planes, in return for being immunized from prosecution if it met the terms of its deal.



Federal District Court Judge Reed O’Connor&nbsp;<a href="https://docs-cdn-prod.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/publish_document/c5b3a8a4-db15-4a7e-84c8-03bae6cca2dd/published/c5b3a8a4-db15-4a7e-84c8-03bae6cca2dd.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruled</a>&nbsp;last October, however, that the 346 people killed in the two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia are crime victims, and that the Department of Justice failed to inform the families about the department’s negotiations with Boeing, violating the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.



Lawyers representing the relatives of some of the passengers killed in the two crashes had <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-us-department-of-justice-texas-business-fraud-57db69f33fda9f62785e1fe5d3b2f538?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">accused</a> the company of the “deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history,” in a brief filed on Wednesday.



Families of the victims are requesting a monitor chosen by the court to evaluate whether Boeing is making safety improvements in the wake of the crashes and that the company be “prosecuted to the hilt,” families’ attorney Paul G. Cassell said, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-us-department-of-justice-texas-business-fraud-57db69f33fda9f62785e1fe5d3b2f538" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/737-max-crash-victims-families-seek-monitor-for-boeing-11674742032" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlets</a> reported.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Boeing launched its 737 MAX commercial jet in 2017, but was forced to ground its fleet worldwide after a deadly crash in Ethiopia in March 2019 killed 157 people on board. That crash came five months after another flight on a Boeing 737 MAX jet left 189 people dead—with both crashes stemming from a failure in the planes’ flight control system, pushing the nose of the plane sharply downwards, according to a technical review. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/11/18/boeing-737-max-cleared-to-fly-again-after-nearly-two-years/?sh=17fb8561704e">FAA cleared</a>&nbsp;the 737 MAX jets for flights nearly two years later, in November 2020, deeming the planes safe for passengers.



<h2>TANGENT</h2>



In addition to the $2.5 billion settlement in 2021, Boeing’s board of directors also agreed to pay the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/11/05/boeing-directors-settle-shareholder-lawsuit-over-737-max-crashes-for-2375-million/?sh=15506f8b344b">$237.5 million</a>&nbsp;in a settlement last April to resolve a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/2020/08/new-york-state-comptroller-dinapoli-fire-and-police-pension-association-colorado-announce-appointment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;from shareholders—led by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and the Police Pension Association of Colorado—alleging Boeing’s board of directors “abdicated their obligation to monitor safety to the extent it was no longer even a topic of discussion in board meetings.” Boeing also agreed to pay&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/09/22/boeing-will-pay-200-million-after-sec-says-it-misled-investors-about-737-max-crashes/?sh=5dd1406730d1">$200 million</a>last September to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had allegedly misled investors with “materially misleading public statements” following the two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX airplane, and that it knew the first of the two crashes was at least partly caused by a malfunction of its flight control feature. Boeing had instead told the public the crash was the result of pilot error and insufficient aircraft maintenance, and failed to publicly disclose the results of an internal safety review that found an “airplane safety issue,” according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-170" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC</a>.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-us-department-of-justice-texas-business-fraud-57db69f33fda9f62785e1fe5d3b2f538?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boeing to be arraigned in court over two Max jet crashes</a>&nbsp;(The Associated Press)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/09/22/boeing-will-pay-200-million-after-sec-says-it-misled-investors-about-737-max-crashes/?sh=5dd1406730d1">Boeing Will Pay $200 Million After SEC Says It Misled Investors About 737 MAX Crashes</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1151565489/boeing-criminal-charge-fraud-deadly-737-max-crashes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boeing faces a criminal charge of fraud related to deadly 737 Max crashes</a> (NPR)



By Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff

US-AIRPLANE-TRAVEL-TRANSPORT

Boeing Pleads Not Guilty In 737 Max Crash Fraud Case

Using the words “work” and “home” in the same sentence usually stirs up a mixture of delight and disapproval – in almost equal parts.&nbsp;



On the one hand, those lucky enough to work from home tend to experience the sense of euphoria that comes from escaping the watchful gaze or sometimes intense glare of those in charge.&nbsp;



In sharp contrast, a mere mention of the concept of remote work plunges an increasing number of bosses into a sense of “productivity paranoia”.&nbsp;



Productivity paranoia refers to a boss’ heightened suspicion, scepticism or speculation that their employees are not being as productive while working from home, a local coffee shop or a co-working space.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The trending phenomenon, which sits alongside a bundle of other buzzwords generated by our workplace behaviors so far this year (think: quiet quitting, quiet firing, loud leadership), was revealed in Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index.&nbsp;



The index declared that 87% of workers thought they were just as productive – if not more so – when working from home.&nbsp;



At the same time, only 12% of bosses felt fully confident that those working remotely were as productive as those sitting behind their desks in the office.&nbsp;



While employees work harder than ever, bosses simply do not believe them. In fact, some bosses label the practice of working from home as nothing short of a pantomime of productivity.&nbsp;



While the huge gulf between what managers and workers feel might come as a shock, the truth is some bosses have never truly embraced remote work practices.&nbsp;



At the heart of the kerfuffle between managers and remote-operating staff is the questionable assumption that workers are more productive when they are under the watchful eye of their supervisor.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Yet being in the office does not guarantee productivity.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Some workers fake productivity by appearing busy online, staying back late to keep up appearances, participating in endless purposeless meetings, engaging in superficial conversations with colleagues or making mountains out of molehills to portray an essence of efficiency.&nbsp;



Bosses’ productivity paranoia prevails despite remote workers claiming they tend to get more done from their loungerooms without the daily distractions of chatty colleagues and the frustrations of a time-sucking daily commute.&nbsp;



You will realize your boss has a bad case of productivity paranoia when you work from home and are asked to account for how you spent a day away from the workplace, when additional “supervisory” type meetings suddenly drop into your calendar or when you receive a high volume of calls or texts to “check in” on your progress on specific work tasks.&nbsp;



Perhaps worse, you will know your boss has an extreme case of productivity paranoia when they have some form of “bossware” installed on technology used in remote settings. It is a form of software that allows managers to spy on their employees’ online activity – or lack of it.&nbsp;



It is hard to explain why productivity paranoia has risen to such highs among managers.&nbsp;&nbsp;



A number of theories are emerging including that bosses feel they lack control when their employees are out of sight or miss the feeling of having team members running after them, looking up to them and paying them compliments.&nbsp;



It is also a firm possibility that well-meaning bosses have not been given adequate training to be able to manage in a remote-working office environment.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Organizations afflicted with productivity paranoia are likely to suffer the consequences.&nbsp;



Fear around the lack of productivity of those working remotely might lead to valued and highly capable employees quitting, cause those working at home to engage in productivity theatrics to prove a point or contribute to the emergence of workplace cultures that are characterized by mistrust, disrespect and inequality.&nbsp;



There will always be those who take full advantage of a lack of direct supervision while working remotely.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Regardless of whether an employee is working in the office or virtually, we will never fully know exactly what every employee is doing 100% of the time.&nbsp;



What every boss needs to realize is employees have fully embraced flexible work and that means remote work is here to stay.&nbsp;&nbsp;



It will require those with productivity paranoia to shift their mindset from one locked into “I can’t see you so I don’t know what you are up to” to a different way of thinking which asks remote workers “if you have everything you need to get your job done”.&nbsp;



Gary Martin- The writer and professor is Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Management WA

Closeup shot of an unrecognizable woman using a laptop while working from home

Why WFH Has Become A Pantomime Of Productivity For Some

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



False claims that Covid-19 vaccines cause spasms have gone viral on social media, with many users — even language education company Duolingo — making an even more viral joke out of the misinformation.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Anti-vaxxers are spreading videos on social media of people appearing to seize or spasm, falsely claiming these to be Covid-19 vaccine side effects — but in many cases the videos are years old, unrelated to the Covid-19 vaccine and have been debunked by fact-checkers.



Spasms and seizures are not listed as either <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">common side effects</a> or <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">adverse side effects</a> of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the CDC <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/safety-of-vaccines.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">emphasizes</a> the vaccines are safe and effective.



One&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/healthbyjames/status/1616142878723407894?s=20&amp;t=PnM3jv9-_e2R5xhE7kFShg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video</a>&nbsp;shared by James Cintolo, who claims in his Twitter bio to be a medical expert, shows a woman convulsing — he called the video “urgent” despite a Twitter fact-checking label noting the video is two years old — and it racked up 25 million views on the platform, inspired widespread mockery and a note from Twitter’s fact-checking team noting it “has been debunked by multiple news outlets and local and Federal health officials, showing no association … with the COVID vaccine,” according to multiple news outlets including a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/covid-vaccine-misinformation-facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wired</a>&nbsp;investigation.



Twitter users quickly turned these fake vaccine side effects into a meme: Many tweets, some simply captioned “Thanks Pfizer”—the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AngeliaDesselle/status/1522948044043468800" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">caption</a>&nbsp;from a widely derided Twitter video by Angelia Desselle labeled as misinformation that has been viewed more than 23 million times)—show a video like Steve Carrell’s character from&nbsp;The Office&nbsp;doing a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/theofficereacs/status/1617249097240436738" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bizarre dance</a>, or Dua Lipa simply&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/theashrb/status/1616921840135426048" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">swaying</a>&nbsp;side to side, garnering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes this week.



Brands made their own jokes, too: Duolingo <a href="https://twitter.com/duolingo/status/1617619591303421953" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared a video</a> of its mascot dancing, captioning it “Thanks Pfizer” (the company also <a href="https://twitter.com/duolingo/status/1618004237576994817" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared a tweet</a> with a link to the CDC website, urging people to stay informed about the vaccine and assuring people “twerking is not a side effect”).



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Videos of people appearing to convulse after receiving a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, which are used to intentionally spread misinformation, date back at least two years but have recently resurfaced on social media. Angelia Desselle’s January 2021 video was reshared last week on Twitter by user Cintolo, who regularly posts false and misleading information about Covid-19 and the vaccine. Desselle’s case was debunked by media outlets; A CDC spokesperson&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/covid-vaccine-misinformation-facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told&nbsp;Wired</a>&nbsp;in January 2021 it had “no adverse event data regarding a case of this nature out of Louisiana,” where Desselle is from. A Louisiana Department of Health spokesperson&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/covid-vaccine-misinformation-facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told&nbsp;Wired</a>&nbsp;in January 2021 only one adverse vaccine reaction had led to hospitalization at that time — the person, who experienced gastrointestinal distress and lightheadedness, was released and recovered. Cintolo frequently posts such bogus videos, falsely claiming that the vaccine is dangerous, and several of his tweets have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/anti-vax-movement-new-misinformation-injuries-deaths-1234666611/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">debunked</a>&nbsp;by media outlets and are branded with fact-checks on Twitter. His false tweets come as anti-vaccine propaganda&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/anti-vax-movement-new-misinformation-injuries-deaths-1234666611/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">surges</a>, particularly the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/01/died-suddenly-documentary-covid-vaccine-conspiracy-theory/672819/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“died suddenly” conspiracy theory</a>, which was peddled in a documentary of the same name and prompted Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1616940625152057345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1616940625152057345%7Ctwgr%5E3265c464fd431cb9b25bb7b031586f05c05ccedd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fculture%2Fculture-features%2Fanti-vax-movement-new-misinformation-injuries-deaths-1234666611%2F" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">demand</a>&nbsp;an investigation into the vaccines.



<h2>“THANKS PFIZER” MEMES</h2>



Duolingo has garnered nearly 300,000 likes and more than 8 million views on their “Thanks Pfizer” meme&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/duolingo/status/1617619591303421953" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>, which the language learning company posted on Monday. Other tweets taking part in the viral joke include a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/iwishyouwoulds/status/1617370708862173184" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video</a>&nbsp;of Taylor Swift dancing in her video for “Delicate” and a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/machinegumkiss/status/1617520447373078535" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video</a>&nbsp;of comedian Nathan Fielder dancing to Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” — both captioned “Thanks Pfizer.” “My friend Brenda got her vaccine and this started happening in the middle of movie night thanks Pfizer,” one user captioned a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/seanybrams/status/1618103835700125696" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">satirical tweet</a>, paired with a video of Regina Hall’s character having a seizure in&nbsp;Scary Movie 3.&nbsp;Subjects of the meme aren’t always human — some Twitter users joked the vaccine was to blame for why apps on their&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/yannhatchuel/status/1617302132058910721" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iPhone</a>, a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jennaep7/status/1617216745315483648" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shopping cart</a>&nbsp;or a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/joshleonn/status/1616386609762521090" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Halloween decoration</a>were shaking or twitching.



<h2>WHAT ARE THE ACTUAL VACCINE SIDE EFFECTS?</h2>



The most common vaccine side effects — which tend to be mild and temporary — in adults include pain, redness and swelling in the arm, as well as tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever and nausea,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to the CDC</a>. Booster shot side effects may include fever, headache, fatigue, and pain at the injection site.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Adverse effects</a>&nbsp;of the vaccine are rare, and the CDC emphasizes the vaccines are safe and effective. Five cases per one million vaccine doses have been linked to anaphylaxis and four cases per one million doses of the Johnson &amp; Johnson/Janssen vaccine have been linked to thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome. Seizures or spams are not listed among the adverse effects of any Covid-19 vaccine on the CDC website.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/anti-vax-movement-new-misinformation-injuries-deaths-1234666611/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Claims of Covid Vaccine Injuries and Deaths Revive Protest Movement</a>(Rolling Stone)



<a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/covid-vaccine-misinformation-facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">They claimed the Covid-19 vaccine made them ill. Then they went viral</a>(Wired)



By Conor Murray, Forbes Africa

Vaccinations at Egoli Township as Omicron Cases Spread

How A ‘Thanks Pfizer’ Covid Misinformation Meme Went Viral

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Microsoft on Wednesday said it is investigating after an outage took down a number of its platforms around the world, leaving thousands of users locked out of services including Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Xbox Live.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Microsoft acknowledged the outage and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/MSFT365Status/status/1618160643873411072?s=20&amp;t=wosH9ryKIUx2X6wcKqFjAQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it has “identified a potential networking issue”&nbsp;<a href="https://status.office365.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">affecting</a>&nbsp;multiple Microsoft 365 services early Wednesday morning.



The firm said it is now working on a fix to restore the downed services.



Microsoft did not reveal the scale of the disruption but said the outage has affected many of its services including Teams, Outlook, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Graph.



Thousands of users in countries including India, the U.K., Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan began reporting difficulties accessing Microsoft services from around 2:30 a.m. ET, according to outage tracker&nbsp;<a href="https://downdetector.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Downdetector</a>.



Microsoft Azure, the firm’s cloud computing platform, and GitHub, one of the most popular code-hosting sites on the web, also appeared to be hit by the outage, according to Downdetector reports.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">We&#39;ve identified a potential networking issue and are reviewing telemetry to determine the next troubleshooting steps. You can find additional information on our status page at <a href="https://t.co/pZt32fOafR">https://t.co/pZt32fOafR</a> or on SHD under MO502273.&mdash; Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSFT365Status/status/1618160643873411072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Microsoft’s products are used by businesses around the world and many are absolutely critical to day-to-day business operations. Teams, a messaging and communication service, is used by more than&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/fxshaw/status/1618015984702615553?s=20&amp;t=JaALMMz7vdzOwE0-WdBXyg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">280 million people worldwide</a>&nbsp;and Outlook is one of the world’s most popular email clients. The impact on Azure, a key&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a519cb01-4467-4820-ada6-680d2300acb0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revenue</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-misses-quarterly-revenue-estimates-2023-01-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">driver</a>&nbsp;for Microsoft, could mean the disruption is felt further afield from sites using the cloud computing service. The firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/01/24/2023-layoffs-3m-slashes-2500-while-gemini-reportedly-cuts-10-of-its-staff/?sh=6bf785a34235">said</a>&nbsp;it plans to cut 10,000 jobs in mid-January ahead of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/microsoft-says-azure-growth-to-decelerate-shares-erase-gains" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealing</a>&nbsp;lackluster earnings amid slower corporate sales and declining demand.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/microsoft-says-azure-growth-to-decelerate-shares-erase-gains" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft Erases Gains After Saying Azure Growth to Decelerate</a>(Bloomberg)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Microsoft Services Down For Tens Of Thousands Around World

Microsoft Investigates Major Outage—Xbox Live, Teams, Outlook Among Services Down Across Several Countries

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The hands of the Doomsday Clock, used by top scientists to assess how close humanity is to self-annihilation, moved forwards to 90 seconds to midnight on Tuesday, the highest threat level in the project&#8217;s history—here are the highest threat levels previously reached.



<h2>TIMELINE</h2>



2 minutes to midnight. 1953.The Bulletin&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/files/1953%20Clock%20Statement%201.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">moved</a>&nbsp;the clock the closest to midnight it had ever been—and the closest it would ever be in the 20th Century—after the U.S. and the Soviet Union detonated their first thermonuclear weapons.



2.5 minutes to midnight. 2017.The Bulletin&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/files/Final%202017%20Clock%20Statement.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;the “words of a single person,” Donald Trump, had motivated the decision to move the clock 30 seconds, having “made a bad international security situation worse” despite only having been president for a matter of days at the time of the announcement.



2 minutes to midnight. 2018.Nuclear concerns were once again center stage when the Bulletin&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2018-doomsday-clock-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">returned</a>&nbsp;the clock to two minutes to midnight in 2018, when the group said major nuclear powers were on the “cusp of a new arms race.”



2 minutes to midnight. 2019.&nbsp;The Bulletin&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2019-doomsday-clock-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed</a>&nbsp;the U.S.’ departure as a global nuclear leader, particularly its abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal and withdrawal from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, as ”grave steps towards a complete dismantlement of the global arms control process” and a key reason for keeping the clock at 2 minutes to midnight.



100 seconds to midnight. 2020.The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which oversees the clock,&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2020-doomsday-clock-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;the twin risks of nuclear war and climate change, compounded by the spread of misinformation and behavior of world leaders, justified moving the clock forwards to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight it had been before Tuesday’s update.



100 seconds to midnight. 2021.The Bulletin&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2021-doomsday-clock-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cited</a>&nbsp;“accelerating nuclear programs in multiple countries,” the Covid-19 pandemic and the continued failure of governments to tackle climate change as reasons to keep the clock at 100 seconds to midnight, illustrating that “we are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/20/doomsday-clock-holds-at-100-seconds-to-midnight" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stuck in a perilous</a>moment.”



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The Doomsday Clock is a symbol of how close humanity is to self-annihilation. It was created in 1947 in the wake of the world’s first nuclear detonations by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group of scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. endeavor responsible for developing the world’s first nuclear weapon. The Bulletin, through a group of experts, is responsible for setting the hands of the clock each year. Experts&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220119-how-to-read-the-doomsday-clock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">say</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/doomsday-clock-moves-closer-to-midnight-but-can-we-really-predict-the-end-of-the-world-36632" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">it</a>&nbsp;is best to use the timings as a way of stimulating discussion, highlighting risks and as a wake-up call rather than a strict risk assessment or indication of time humanity has left. The clock was originally set at seven minutes from midnight in 1947 and the furthest from midnight it has ever been set was 17 minutes in 1991&nbsp;<a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/what-is-the-doomsday-clock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">following</a>&nbsp;the fall of the Soviet Union and signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.



<h2>BIG NUMBER</h2>



25. That’s how many times the Bulletin has adjusted the clock since its creation. Since 1991, it has been steadily moving closer to midnight, except for a brief reprieve between 2010 and 2012, when it was moved back slightly. Climate change risks were included for the first time in 2017, when the clock was moved five minutes to midnight, and have been a prominent discussion point in the Bulletin’s announcements since.



<h2>FURTHER LISTENING</h2>



Over the years, the Doomsday Clock has inspired a number of songs. The Bulletin&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/doomsday-clock-playlist/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maintains</a>&nbsp;a playlist of material that references the clock or where the artist has cited it as an inspiration and includes Iron Maiden’s “2 Minutes To Midnight,” The Who’s “Why Did I Fall For That,” Pink Floyd’s “Two Suns in the Sunset” and Linkin Park’s album “Minutes to Midnight.”



<h2>FURTHER VIEWING</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="2023 Doomsday Clock Announcement" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KxB9dM0u4mU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased the risk of nuclear weapons use, raised the specter of biological and chemical weapons use, hamstrung the world’s response to climate change, and hampered international efforts to deal with other global concerns,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said in its 2023&nbsp;<a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/#footer_menu_itm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>. Moscow’s violation of longstanding international norms could also “embolden” other nations to do the same, the statement said.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220119-how-to-read-the-doomsday-clock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How to read the Doomsday Clock</a>&nbsp;(BBC)



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/01/23/what-how-doomsday-clock/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Is apocalypse near? How the Doomsday Clock tracks nuclear, climate threats</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists Announce New Doomsday Clock Time For 2023

Doomsday Clock—Measuring Humanity’s Threat Of Self-Annihilation—Moves To 90 Seconds To Midnight. Here’s What To Know.

Rwandan-Canadian Charles Shima is deploying technology to create immersive cultural experiences for tourists in Africa. His dream? To build a unicorn in the travel sector.



Charles Shima was a young boy when he had a gun pointed at him at the height of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Luckily, he survived and was able to leave the country, which he loved, to tell his tale.



Destiny made him cross the high seas to the greener pastures of Canada, but little did he know he would return, almost 25 years later, and instead of being faced with just horrific memories, also see new hope in the East African country he once called home.



“I saw the changes that had happened in the country at that time and also the many opportunities you notice when you are in Africa. I had an ‘aha!’ moment and the idea was tourism and travel.”



This epiphany resulted in ZaNiheza, a travel marketplace for immersive experiences connecting travelers all over the world with verified local curators in Africa and beyond.



“I have always been passionate about the cultures of the world. I started building ZaNiheza as a tour operating company in Rwanda,” says Shima to FORBES AFRICA.



Shima fell in love with Africa again. The journey back home had unearthed a new passion to rebuild Rwanda with the goal of providing opportunities for the youth as well.



“When I arrived in Canada, there was a lot of bias towards Africans. I was no longer Charles Shima but just another black man. So, you have to basically fight for any opportunity you have. The success you have as a black person in Canada is only related to sports or music. And I thought ‘if someone can build a Microsoft, why not me; if Elon Musk can go to the moon, why not me?’ That made me feel if I ever built a company, it would have to change the world.”



ZaNiheza was launched in 2019 with the vision to change how the world experienced Africa. Shima was ready to start laying the foundation to build the next African unicorn until things went sideways. By March 2020, the Covid pandemic hit and the travel industry all over the world came to a complete standstill.



“We continued building this vision that goes beyond a tour operator company and my vision is global. So, I was thinking how can we bring the culture of Africa to the world and what we did was to build a global channel creating content and original shows about travel and [by] talking to the young women and men who are making a difference in Rwanda first,” says Shima.



Shima and his team continued to build bespoke travel packages in anticipation of the world reopening again for travel.



“We are in over seven countries in Africa and… on our way building the next unicorn in the travel sector. This is something that already exists in other countries like Europe etc, but when it comes to Africa there is no company that is really doing this.”



The company also has a presence in Vancouver, Canada, where they recently qualified for a startup competition that raised over $20,000 in funding for the business.



“What sets me apart is how we want to market Africa. It’s not just about wildlife. We need to go to the grassroots and then use the technology to make an impact. In Africa, your mindset has to change. You need to build from scratch and have the patience and drive and passion when everyone is going to say you are crazy. Seeing Africa through our eyes is my focus,” says Shima.



Shima says he has invested over $50,000 of his own money into the business which has gone into building the technology as well as creating the supply. The company is currently working with local travel curators in African countries. The young man from Rwanda has come far.

Screenshot 2023-01-24 at 18.13.47

Beyond Safaris: Digitalizing Travel In Rwanda

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Children who are more physically active could be less susceptible to respiratory tract infections like the common cold, according to a study published in Pediatric Research Monday, as less than one-quarter of children are estimated to have participated in at least an hour of physical activity each day.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Researchers measured the physical activity levels and symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections—like coughing or sneezing—of 104 children aged 4 to 7 between 2018 and 2019.



As children increased the daily average of steps taken by 1,000, the number of days they experienced symptoms decreased by an average of 4.1 days, while children who participated in three or more hours of physical activity experienced fewer days with symptoms than those who did not.



One group of children whose average daily steps was over 5,600 experienced symptoms more often than another group whose average daily steps was over 9,300.



The study speculates higher physical activity levels result in reduced levels of inflammatory cytokines—proteins associated with chronic inflammation and disease—while improving the immune system’s responses.



The data analyzed by researchers was collected by the childrens’ parents, who reported any illness symptoms as well as whether their child was vaccinated, participated in sports, whether they had siblings and whether they were exposed to second-hand smoke or pet hair.



Despite the reporting of additional data, researchers said they found no association between respiratory tract infection symptoms and sleep patterns, siblings, vaccinations or exposure to pet hair or second-hand smoke.



<h2>SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Only 24% of children aged 6 to 17 participate in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion&nbsp;<a href="https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/physical-activity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimates</a>&nbsp;only 25% of adults aged 18 or older participate in enough physical activity.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The amount of physical activity recommended for children depends on their age,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/index.htm#:~:text=60%20minutes%20or%20more%20of,should%20include%20vigorous%2Dintensity%20activities." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the CDC, though most&nbsp;<a href="https://health.gov/moveyourway/get-kids-active#:~:text=Kids%20need%2060%20minutes%20of,to%20happen%20all%20at%20once." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">health organizations</a>suggest a 60-minute daily average. Regular physical activity in children has already been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm#print" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">linked</a>&nbsp;to reduced risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity. Lack of physical activity has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and low bone density, which could lead to osteoporosis. Other&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK201501/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a>&nbsp;suggest that increased physical activity could lead to better grades and academic performance in addition to improved&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/features/physical-activity-brain-health/index.html#:~:text=Physical%20activity%20can%20improve%20your,of%20physical%20activity%20can%20help." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cognitive performance</a>.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/10/28/rsv-infections-are-spiking-among-kids-and-swamping-childrens-hospitals---heres-what-parents-need-to-know/?sh=ca64d3e42f5b">RSV Infections Are Spiking Among Kids And Swamping Children’s Hospitals — Here’s What Parents Need To Know</a> (Forbes)



By Ty Roush, Forbes Staff

Girl practising Somersault at home

Kids Who Exercise More Are Less Likely To Get Respiratory Infections, Study Suggests

The National Basketball Association (NBA) draft is always an exciting time of the year when teams in the greatest league on earth get to refresh their squads with the best young talent available. FORBES AFRICA takes a look at the eight players who were part of this season’s draft, some of who have gone straight to their new franchises, while others will earn experience elsewhere with the long-term goal in mind. 



By Nick Said 



Africa has a deep-rooted legacy in the NBA and provided star names in the past such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Manute Bol and Luol Deng. This year, we got to see a new crop of players with ties to the continent, who have set their sights on fame and glory on the court. Here they are: 



Christian Koloko  Draft: Selected 33rd overall by the Toronto Raptors 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246238247.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57344" width="647" height="431" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246238247.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246238247-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246238247-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 647px) 100vw, 647px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Koloko became the first Cameroonian selected in the NBA draft since Toronto’s Pascal Siakam in 2016 and is the third highest drafted player from the Central African country of all time behind the latter and Joel Embiid, who was third in 2014.  Born in Douala, the 22-year-old was spotted at the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Africa talent scouting camp in Senegal in 2017, and was taken to the United States where he played for Birmingham High School, despite speaking no English.  The center later featured for the University of Arizona before being drafted by Toronto.  



Yannick Nzosa  Draft: Selected 54th overall by the Washington Wizards 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1239215594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57343" width="625" height="417" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1239215594.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1239215594-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1239215594-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Flaviu Buboi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Nzosa was only 18 when he was drafted by Washington Wizards, who have sent him to Spanish side Real Betis to get experience in the 2022/23 season. Soccer was his first love and he started as a goalkeeper given his tremendous height, before being spotted by the coach of a local basketball club in Kinshasa.  He attempted to go to an academy in Spain as a 13-year-old, but was denied a visa, and instead went to Stella Azzurra Roma, though he later was controversially taken to Spain by his mentor Joe Lolonga without the Italian club’s permission.   He made his debut for his new side Unicaja at the age of 16 and was an instant hit, even if injury has slowed his progress recently. 



  Ousmane Dieng  Draft: Selected 11th overall by the New York Knicks 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1446348654.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57347" width="556" height="371" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1446348654.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1446348654-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1446348654-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Dieng’s family are from Senegal, though the shooting guard was born in France and has had a circular route to the NBA.  He moved to New Zealand Breakers in 2021 and competed in the National Basketball League (NBL). While there he joined the league’s Next Stars program which specifically looks to develop NBA draft prospects. It worked as he was snapped by the New York Knicks ahead of the 2022/23 season, though he was immediately traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He is still only 19. 



 &nbsp;



Khalifa Diop  Draft: Selected 39th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246319180.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57345" width="508" height="338" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246319180.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246319180-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1246319180-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 508px) 100vw, 508px" /><figcaption>Photo by Alberto Gardin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


The 20-year-old from Guereo, Senegal, is another who has been making a name in Spain, where he plays for Gran Canaria. He was drafted for the Cleveland Cavaliers but has been sent back to Gran Canaria to gain experience during the 2022/23 season. The center, who stands at an impressive 2.11 meters tall, first rose to prominence in the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) game at the NBA All-Star match in 2019.    Ochai Agbaji  Draft: Selected 14th overall by the Washington Wizards 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1454282748.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57348" width="582" height="386" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1454282748.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1454282748-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1454282748-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Agbaji&#8217;s father, Olofu, moved from Nigeria to the United States when he was 17 in order to play basketball for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, though initially he encouraged his son to play soccer.  But when Ochai grew nine inches in a single year it became clear he had all the attributes to be a top baller and was a star for the University of Kansas.  The shooting guard was selected in the draft by the Washington Wizards, but they traded him to Utah Jazz in September before the season started. There he plays alongside fellow Nigerian Udoka Azubuike.     Mark Williams  Draft: Selected 15th overall by the Charlotte Hornets 



Center Williams was selected by Charlotte Hornets in the draft but is spending the season with their affiliate side Greensboro Swarm. He is an alumnus of Duke University and starred for them, catching the eye of a number of teams around the country. Williams’ older sister Elizabeth is a star of the Women’s NBA and his parents are both doctors who emigrated from Nigeria. 



  Moussa Diabate  Draft: Selected 43rd overall by the Los Angeles Clippers 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1428443282.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57346" width="641" height="427" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1428443282.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1428443282-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1428443282-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 641px) 100vw, 641px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Diabate’s parents are from Mali and Guinea, and he was snapped by Los Angeles Clippers in the draft after shining for the University of Michigan. He has been sent to affiliate club Ontario Clippers, where he will spend the 2022/23 season as he makes his way in the game. Diabate was part of the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) game at the NBA All-Star match in 2020. 



  Ismaël Kamagate  Draft: Selected 46th overall by the Detroit Pistons 



Kamagate will play the 2022/23 season with Paris Basketball having been loaned back to them by his new NBA employers Denver Nuggets.  In a snapshot of how complex things can get in the NBA, Detroit Pistons selected the 21-year-old in the draft having scouted him in the French league, where he has been a star. But they immediately traded him to Portland Trail Blazers, who then traded Kamagate again to the Denver Nuggets, who have now sent him to Paris. Born to Ivorian parents, he was named best defender in the French competition in 2022.

Basketball dribble

Tall Talent: Africa’s Basketball Stars

The West African nation saw a slew of events and international acts over Christmas.



Despite Ghana’s economic woes in 2022, it ended the year as a drawcard for international tourists over the festive period.



Last year, the West African country had seen inflation rising to over 40% as well as its credit rating relegated to Junk status by Moody’s because of its inability to pay back creditors and the threat of substantial losses for private bond holders. This had consequently brought the country to the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.



The tourism sector, however, seems to have maintained its momentum; it has also been a key driver for foreign direct investment ever since Ghana’s Year of the Return campaign that saw a successful run in 2019. The campaign was a call for all Africans in the diaspora to return to the motherland and reconnect with their roots; a call marking 400 years since the first recorded enslaved Africans in the United States. And the diaspora heeded that call.



Over 237,000 visitors flocked to the shores of Ghana the Christmas of 2019 with the Ministry of Tourism estimating that about $1.9 billion was pumped into the Ghanaian economy. And it seems the trend has continued into 2022.



With an endless list of festivals including Afrochella, Detty December and the Black Star Line Festival, which was created by American rappers Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper bringing international collaborations, the country was reportedly a favored spot for American celebrities and the diaspora over Christmas.



“We had over 50,000 people show up for our first-ever Black Star Line event alongside American superstars like Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, Jeremih, T-Pain and several top artists. This is history in the making. I think Ghana’s reputation for hospitality and the peaceful and tranquil environment is a major reason why the diaspora loves to come here,” says Mensa to FORBES AFRICA.



This has also helped the hospitality sector.



“With a large number of tourists visiting Ghana throughout the year… our global attractions present boundless opportunities for Ghanaians to display our culture, creativity and diversity within the hospitality industry,” says Nadia Takyiwaa-Mensah, a Ghanaian entrepreneur and author, to FORBES AFRICA.



Official figures from the Ministry of Tourism confirm that over 400,000 visitors flocked to the shores of Ghana in the first half of 2022.



“Innovation and originality need to remain at the forefront leading us to curate unique experiences through to opening boutique hotels. Ghana’s tourism authority aimed to drive over one million tourists to Ghana in 2022, whilst also increasing internal tourism; the latter we witnessed during and post-Covid. Investments and development within this sector are paramount,” adds Takyiwaa-Mensah.



The country is hoping the tourism and hospitality sectors will continue to grow and provide some relief for the economic crises Ghana is currently facing.



In December, the IMF reached a Staff-Level Agreement on a $3 billion, three years extended credit facility with Ghana aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability.

High Angle View Of Illuminated Buildings In City

Economic Crises Apart, Why Ghana Drew Tourists Over The Festive Period

Nancy Davis’ hedge against rising prices, celebrated when it launched in 2019, has yet to hit the jackpot due to freakish circumstances in the debt market.



Travel back through&nbsp;the mists of time to the faraway land of 2019. Inflation, at least for anyone younger than Jay Powell, was the stuff of legend — about as plausible as unicorns, fire-breathing dragons or a killer virus that would shut down the world economy.



Not so for Nancy Davis, the CIO of Quadratic Capital Management. While others were asking whether inflation was&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/joelwebershow/status/1118589812737495041" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dead</a>, Davis was pitching her firm’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ivoletf.com/ivol-specifications/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Interest Rate Volatility &amp; Inflation Hedge ETF</a>&nbsp;(IVOL). IVOL is a chimera, a lion with a goat’s head sticking out of its back. Most of its assets are held in a bond ETF that any mom or pop can buy. The rest of the money goes to options bets that are off limits to even many professional asset managers because of the sophisticated ways they offer investors of losing their shirts. It’s the options, however, that make IVOL unique and what could, if inflation expectations rise sharply and quickly enough, provide a windfall.



Davis’ timing couldn’t have been more perfect. By 2021, fretting about inflation moved from the fringe to the frontline. IVOL’s assets under management soared to more than $3.5 billion, no small feat for an upstart fund in the cutthroat world of ETFs. But while Davis’ warnings proved almost clairvoyant, IVOL hasn’t grabbed the brass ring. At least, not yet.



Since its debut, IVOL has returned just 3% despite inflation hitting 40-year highs over the last year. Since March 2021, when the Consumer Price Index breached the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target, the IVOL ETF has slumped 15%. Over both timeframes, an investment in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), one of the simplest, cheapest and best-known ways to guard against inflation, has outpaced IVOL by 8% and 12%, respectively.



Davis pointed out in a conversation with&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that IVOL is meant to hedge inflation expectations and not the Consumer Price Index. She also noted that IVOL has a friendlier tax structure than the Schwab ETF, meaning the gap in returns is narrower than it appears at first blush (mileage may vary, so consult your tax advisor to determine by how much).



What’s more, IVOL isn’t exactly what you’d call cheap. Its 1% annual fee makes it look like a Ferrari in a parking lot filled with Hyundais. That’s despite the fact that what’s under IVOL’s hood –&nbsp;<a href="https://kfafunds.com/ivol/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">85% to be exact</a>&nbsp;– are the same assets held in a Charles Schwab TIPS ETF. Schwab’s fee: 0.04% per year, or 25 times less than IVOL.



Davis told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that IVOL was “crazy cheap for what we do” and that one of her clients called it “the Vanguard of convexity.” She also suggested a more apt comparison would be to actively managed mutual funds with similar objectives.



Davis’ fund asks a premium partly because it was the first ETF to incorporate over-the-counter interest rate derivatives. For those not in the know that might not mean much, but IVOL effectively opened up a rugged frontier that even some sophisticated family offices and endowments were previously unable to penetrate. Add to that the fact that Davis, a former Goldman Sachs prop trader,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2019/09/24/the-fear-fund-nancy-davis-etf-aims-to-protect-investors-from-scary-stuff-like-recession-and-inflation/?sh=2371830a14b7" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">actively manages</a>&nbsp;the options side of the book.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">IVOL is “crazy cheap for what we do”Nancy Davis</blockquote>



The simple explanation for how IVOL works is this: it buys TIPS to protect against inflation, then sprinkles some options on top to, if all goes well, goose its returns. Over short periods, when the options aren’t cashing in, the fund will lag the TIPS ETF (no secret here, IVOL says as much in its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1547576/000161577419005273/s117194_485apos.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prospectus</a>). But if and when those options hit, a jackpot could be in the making.



While there’s no guarantee, rising inflation expectations typically lead to a steeper yield curve (that’s to say that the cost of borrowing money for longer periods of time will rise faster than borrowing for the short term). Investors, expecting that the Federal Reserve will start yammering about rate hikes (and maybe, gasp, even go through with them) want to get ahead of the, well, curve. When those stars align, the gains on IVOL’s options could shoot its returns into the stratosphere and make Davis a hero.



Nearly four years after raising the curtains, IVOL remains on the launchpad.



If IVOL is in a rut, it’s because interest rate movements, specifically the spread between the 10-year Treasury rate and the 2-year that IVOL bets on, aren’t cooperating.



IVOL’s options make money as the yield on the 10-year outpaces that of the 2. History suggests the gap should be wider than it is today. Instead, the spread has narrowed.



Today, the 2-year yields more than the 10-year. It’s what’s called an inverted yield curve. Why that’s happened is up for debate, but what matters for IVOL is that the inversion has neutralized its options bets and been a drag on returns.



“I think there will come a time when this does really well in a specific circumstance,” Bryan Armour, Morningstar’s director of passive strategies, told&nbsp;Forbes. “It’s just a difficulty of market timing. IVOL can go through years and years of underperformance until it finally works.”



Of course, none of this rules out the possibility that IVOL’s options will eventually strike gold. And we might now be living through the perfect set-up, according to Davis, who believes the fund is positioned for success even if&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/08/27/i-think-stagflation-should-be-on-investors-radar-says-quadratics-davis.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">stagflation</a>&nbsp;is what’s in store.



“If you buy the fund now, you get all these options for free,” Davis told&nbsp;Forbes. “Our investors know we have exposure to the yield curve. Our investors have been high-fiving me.”



But whether that’ll be enough to offset what’s already been done is something worth considering for anyone that plans to buy and hold IVOL rather than use it tactically.



“You add complexities with options, plus there’s the 1% fee on top of a four basis points TIPS ETF,” Morningstar’s Armour told&nbsp;Forbes. “It’s challenging to see it performing well in the long term.”



By Brandon Kochkodin, Forbes Staff

Close up of businesswoman checking financial stock market analysis with mobile app on smartphone on the go, against illuminated corporate skyscrapers in financial district at night. Financial investment, stock market and exchange, accounting concept

Tag: South Africa

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA