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Help us Follow Dirty Money, Guinea asks G8
Guinea, one of Africa’s poorest nations despite abundant natural resources, has urged the G8 to back its battle with corruption by helping trace shell companies used to hide crooked deals and track dirty money flows.
The resulting increased prosperity, President Alpha Conde said, would help stem growing radicalism in a region already threatened by unrest in Mali that has placed Guinea and its neighbors at risk of becoming conduits for drugs and guns.
Guinea has long been one of Africa’s “geological scandals”: the West African country has rich reserves of iron ore, gold, bauxite and other minerals, but little has been tapped and half its 10 million people live in poverty, Reuters reported.
Speaking ahead of an annual G8 meeting expected to put the resources industry and transparency high on the agenda, Conde said Guinea needed logistical support from U.S., British and other governments and law enforcement agencies.
“Mining companies are…British, American, Canadian, Australian, and London’s City and New York are the centers of capitalism. If we want to fight for transparency, we need the support of the G8,” Conde told Reuters in London, before a discussion on transparency including other African leaders and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday.
“There is no corruption without corrupters.”
He also said Guinea might have to postpone a long-awaited parliamentary election scheduled for June 30 after opposition parties refused to register candidates.
A former Sorbonne law professor, Conde came to power in 2010 after half a century in opposition, promising to end decades of corruption and mismanagement. He has been supported by a raft of high-profile international advisers, including philanthropist George Soros and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“We have limited means.. we cannot follow shell companies in tax havens, so we need these big countries to help us find all the proof for payments and corruption,” Conde said, adding Guinea’s laws allowed it to annul corruptly obtained licenses.
“Also, sometimes, firms tell us they made 10 of profit. If they say 10 in Guinea and 100 in England, we can pursue that.”
Shell companies have frequently been blamed as tools in corrupt resources deals across Africa. Transparency activists say they are widely used to hide the ultimate beneficiaries, whether government officials or profiteering intermediaries.
OPAQUE DEALS
As part of Conde’s overhaul of the mining sector, Guinea is reviewing mining contracts, scrapping as many as 800 that had been lying fallow and scrutinizing those signed during what the government says was an era of opaque deals.
These include the license for the northern half of its giant Simandou iron ore deposit held by BSG Resources, the mining arm of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s business empire, and partner Vale.
The original concession, secured by BSGR just before the death of then-President Lansana Conte, has come under scrutiny. In April, FBI agents arrested a BSGR representative on charges of obstructing a criminal investigation, tampering with a witness and destroying records. BSGR has denied wrongdoing.
Conde declined to comment on the outcome of the review but welcomed the FBI’s support.
“I believe in presuming innocence until guilt is proven,” he said. “But it is very important that the FBI and the U.S. judicial system was able to obtain this evidence – we would never have been able to.”
The Steinmetz case has generated much media interest and remains controversial for Guinea, whose critics say it suits the interests of the country’s advisers. But Conde says the advice of international banks, law firms and others was indispensable.
“Negotiating without it would have been (like) heading straight for the slaughterhouse,” he said.
Conde, a longtime advocate of African cooperation, called for greater regional collaboration on the infrastructure needed for tapping mineral resources, but also on security, describing as “embarrassing” France’s intervention in the Malian crisis.
Among his major concerns, Conde said, was the flow of guns and drugs that once went through the Sahara but now transiting countries such as his own, blaming the Western military action in Libya in particular for spreading weapons across the region.
“It is not about asking for help, because this concerns the G8,” he said. “It is in our common interest that the Sahara does not become another Afghanistan, as much for terrorism as for drug trafficking.”
Conde said increased radicalism was a function of poverty and high youth unemployment, but acknowledged that he was also concerned by the rise of hardline Islamist preachers.
“All of our countries are under threat. Why? Because al Qaeda is not just Tuaregs and Arabs. They are Malians, Ivorians, Senegalese, Guineans.”
News
Trump Threatens More Strikes in Nigeria

President Donald Trump has warned that the United States could carry out further military strikes in Nigeria if Christians continue to be killed, reigniting a sensitive debate over religious violence and foreign intervention in Africa’s most populous nation.

President Donald Trump
Trump made the remarks in an interview with The New York Times, published on Thursday, while responding to questions about a US military strike carried out in Nigeria on Christmas Day.
At the time, the US military said the operation targeted Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria and was conducted at the request of the Nigerian government.
Nigeria, however, described the operation as a joint counterterrorism effort, stressing that it was aimed at armed groups designated as terrorists and “had nothing to do with a particular religion”.
“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Trump was quoted as saying. “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”
Pressed on comments by his own Africa adviser that extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram have killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, Trump acknowledged that Muslims were also victims but insisted that Christians were being targeted disproportionately.
“I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly raised alarms about the safety of Christians in Nigeria, beginning in late October when he warned that Christianity faced what he described as an “existential threat” in the country. He has accused Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately protect Christian communities and has openly threatened US military intervention if the violence continues.
Nigeria has firmly rejected claims of systematic persecution of Christians. The government maintains that the country’s security challenges are complex and largely driven by insurgency, banditry and criminal violence rather than religious targeting.
With a population of more than 230 million people, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Christians, who are concentrated mainly in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north. Islamist insurgencies, particularly Boko Haram and its offshoots, have plagued parts of northern Nigeria for more than a decade, killing thousands and displacing millions.
Nigerian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that militant attacks have claimed the lives of both Muslims and Christians, arguing that framing the violence along religious lines oversimplifies the crisis and risks inflaming tensions.
Following Trump’s earlier threats, the Nigerian government said it was willing to continue cooperating with Washington in combating terrorism but rejected language suggesting that Christians alone were under threat.
The latest comments are likely to strain diplomatic relations further, as Nigeria balances its partnership with the United States against concerns over sovereignty, security cooperation and the portrayal of its internal conflicts on the global stage.
News
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health

OpenAI maker of ChatGPT is rolling out a health-focused feature to the generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that’s used by nearly a billion users.

Named ChatGPT Health, the new feature aims to provide users with health and wellness information. This, as health is one of the most common ways people use ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.
In a blog post, Microsoft-backed OpenAI says de-identified analysis of conversations show that over 230 million people globally ask health and wellness-related questions on ChatGPT every week.
ChatGPT Health will also “securely” connect medical records and wellness apps to ground conversations with a user’s own health information, making responses more relevant and useful.
“Designed in close collaboration with physicians, ChatGPT Health helps people take a more active role in understanding and managing their health and wellness – while supporting, not replacing, care from clinicians.”
According to OpenAI, health information is often scattered across portals, apps, wearables, PDFs, and medical notes making it hard to see the full picture, and people are left to navigate a complex healthcare system on their own.
“ChatGPT Health builds on these so responses are informed by your health information and context. You can now securely connect medical records and wellness apps – like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal – so ChatGPT can help you understand recent test results, prepare for appointments with your doctor, get advice on how to approach your diet and workout routine, or understand the trade-offs of different insurance options based on your healthcare patterns.”
According to the company, ChatGPT Health is designed to support, not replace, medical care, adding that it is not intended for diagnosis or treatment. “Instead, it helps you navigate everyday questions and understand patterns over time – not just moments of illness – so you can feel more informed and prepared for important medical conversations.
“To keep your health information protected and secure, Health operates as a separate space with enhanced privacy to protect sensitive data. Conversations in Health are not used to train our foundation models. If you start a health-related conversation in ChatGPT, we’ll suggest moving into Health for these additional protections.”
OpenAI adds that access to ChatGPT Health has started with a small group of early users to learn and continue refining the experience, adding that users with ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans outside of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the UK are eligible.
“As we make improvements, we plan to expand access and make Health available to all users on web and iOS in the coming weeks.
“Medical record integrations and some apps are available in the US only, and connecting Apple Health requires iOS.”
News
Kaspersky Shares AI Cybersecurity Predictions for 2026

Kaspersky experts outline how the rapid development of AI is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape in 2026, both for individual users and for businesses. Large language models (LLMs) are influencing defensive capabilities while simultaneously expanding opportunities for threat actors.

Deepfakes are becoming a mainstream technology, and awareness will continue to grow. Companies are increasingly discussing the risks of synthetic content and training employees to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to it. As the volume of deepfakes grows, so does the range of formats in which they appear.
At the same time, awareness is rising not only within organisations but also among regular users: end consumers encounter fake content more often and better understand the nature of such threats. As a result, deepfakes are becoming a stable element of the security agenda, requiring a systematic approach to training and internal policies.
Deepfake quality will improve through better audio and a lowering barrier to entry. The visual quality of deepfakes is already high, while realistic audio remains the main area for future growth.
At the same time, content generation tools are becoming easier to use: even non-experts can now create a mid-quality deepfake in just a few clicks. As a result, the average quality continues to rise, creation becomes accessible to a far broader audience, and these capabilities will inevitably continue to be leveraged by cybercriminals.
Online deepfakes will continue to evolve but remain tools for advanced users. Real-time face and voice swapping technologies are improving, but their setup still requires more advanced technical skills. Wide adoption is unlikely, yet the risks in targeted scenarios will grow: increasing realism and the ability to manipulate video through virtual cameras make such attacks more convincing.
Efforts to develop a reliable system for labelling AI-generated content will continue. There are still no unified criteria for reliably identifying synthetic content, and current labels are easy to bypass or remove, especially when working with open-source models. For this reason, new technical and regulatory initiatives aimed at addressing the problem are likely to emerge.
Open-weight models will approach top closed models in many cybersecurity-related tasks, which create more opportunities for misuse. Closed models still offer stricter control mechanisms and safeguards, limiting abuse.
However, open-source systems are rapidly catching up in functionality and circulate without comparable restrictions. This blurs the difference between proprietary models and open-source models both of which can be used efficiently for undesired or malicious purposes.
The line between legitimate and fraudulent AI-generated content will become increasingly blurred. AI can already produce well-crafted scam emails, convincing visual identities, and high-quality phishing pages.
At the same time, major brands are adopting synthetic materials in advertising, making AI-generated content look familiar and visually “normal.” As a result, distinguishing real from fake will become even more challenging, both for users and for automated detection systems.
AI will become a cross-chain tool in cyberattacks and be used across most stages of the kill chain. Threat actors already employ LLMs to write code, build infrastructure, and automate operational tasks.
Further advances will reinforce this trend: AI will increasingly support multiple stages of an attack, from preparation and communication to assembling malicious components, probing for vulnerabilities and deploying tools. Attackers will also work to hide signs of AI involvement, making such operations harder to analyse.
“While AI tools are being used in cyberattacks, they are also becoming a more common tool in security analysis and influence how SOC teams work. Agent-based systems will be able to continuously scan infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities, and gather contextual information for investigations, reducing the amount of manual routine work.
“As a result, specialists will shift from manually searching for data to making decisions based on already-prepared context. In parallel, security tools will transition to natural-language interfaces, enabling prompts instead of complex technical queries,” adds Vladislav Tushkanov, Research Development Group Manager at Kaspersky.
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