Today, Pakistan bans Imran Khan from politics, voters in Ohio deliver a victory to abortion rights activists, Poland announces its election dates and the IAEA investigates a Ukrainian nuclear power plant. From TLD News, this is your daily briefing for Wednesday 9th August 2023. Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan has been barred from running for political office for five years following his conviction and sentencing to jail for corruption, the country's election commission said in an official statement today. The move pushes Pakistan into further political turmoil as an election is due by November and lawyers for the ousted prime minister say they have filed an appeal against his guilty verdict, which the high court will take up on Wednesday.
Khan, who was Pakistan's star cricket player before entering politics, was sentenced to three years in prison on Saturday after being found guilty of corrupt practices, including illegally selling state gifts. He's denied any wrongdoing and claims that the legal cases against him are politically motivated, though the government denies this and says Khan had a free and fair trial. Imran Khan was elected prime minister in 2018 and serves until he was ousted by a no confidence vote in April 2022, which meant that Pakistan has still never had a prime minister that completes their full five year term. Since being ousted, he's led a populist campaign against the government, accusing them of conspiring against him to keep him out of politics.
In May, he was briefly arrested and detained in a separate case, sparking violent clashes between police and his supporters. In contrast, the response to his conviction has been more muted, even after he called on his supporters to peacefully protest the court's there's more on the way. Be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to make daily briefing part of your daily routine or just search for us on your podcast app to listen along. Voters in the U.S.
state of Ohio have delivered a win for abortion rights advocates by rejecting a Republican led ballot initiative that would have made it harder to amend the state constitution. The ballot initiative, known as Issue One, looks relatively standard at first, as it would raise the threshold for amending the state's constitution to 60% in a referendum rather than just a simple majority. But the vote became something of a proxy for abortion rights, as it received as an attempt by Republicans to make it harder for the pro choice camp to win an upcoming referendum on enshrining abortion rights in this state's constitution. In the end, voters rejected the measure by around 57% to 43%, meaning the threshold for the abortion rights vote and other future referendums will remain at 50%, a bar that supporters believe that they should be able to clear easily.
It makes Ohio the latest state and Republican leaning one at that, where Democrats and progressives have managed to galvanize voters in support of abortion rights following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. The result has given hope to Democrats for next year's crucial Senate race, where Democratic Senator Cheryl Brown will be defending his seat against Republicans who see his seats as one of their top targets. So that's the news from Ohio.
Let's move on and discuss some business news. The COVID pandemic wasn't a fun time for anyone. I mean, look how Jack and I looked when we reemerged from COVID in early episodes of the Daily Briefing. One of the few winners though, was Zoom, who alongside other lockdown stocks like Peloton and Netflix saw their valuation increase from $73 a share in January 2020 to $559 towards the end of the year.
Zoom not only profited massively from lockdown restrictions, they also helped to spearhead long term changes in working behavior, with the number of Brits working hybrid now sitting at 42%, massively up from pre pandemic trends. Tools like Zoom's own video conferencing software might have facilitated this trend, but they're seemingly very aware of the benefits brought by in person working with the company announcing over the weekend that staff living within 50 miles of a Zoom office would now be required to spend at least two days a week in the office. Zoom say that the changes help them better positioned to use our own technologies, continue to innovate and support our global customers. But the irony isn't lost on many that the company profiting from at home working is now limiting it for their own workforce.
By the way, if you want more business stories like this, our channel tltr Business relaunched this week with a new video about the marketing which propelled Barbie to become a billion dollar movie. Check it out by searching TLTR Business Polish President Andrei Duda has announced that Poland will hold its general election on October 15, kicking off an election campaign that effectively already began months ago. Duda tweeted the announcement saying the future of Poland is a matter for each of us. Use your rights.
The election will see the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party in power since 2015, try and win a third term in power. Polling puts Law and Justice in the top position, but likely falling short on outright parliamentary majority, raising the possibility of the far right Confederation Party being kingmakers not far behind. Law and justice in second place in the polls is the Civic Coalition, a centrist bloc headed by former Polish Prime Minister and ex European Council President Donald Tusk. Last month, President Volomiz Zelensky claimed that Ukrainian officials had found objects resembling explosives on the roofs of Zaporozhye power units.
This led to the President claiming that Russia may be planning to simulate an attack on the facility. For their part, the Russians claim that Ukraine was trying to sabotage the facility. The power plant has been controlled by the Russians since the beginning of March 2022, when they took it in an early advance in the war. In a press release today, the International Atomic Energy Agency claimed that experts have observed no mines or explosives on the rooftops of unit 3 and unit 4 reactor buildings and the turbine halls after having been given access yesterday afternoon.
While this is good news, it was only last month that the IAEA team found mines in close proximity to the power plant. IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi said that our teams raised this specific finding with the plant and they have been told that it is a military decision and is in an area controlled by the military. In the final uplifting story today we discuss prison living costs. Last month British man Andrew Malkinson had his rape case overturned, leaving him a free man.
He spent 17 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and will likely soon be awarded compensation as a result. However, in the UK people have a deduction made from this compensation to account for their living cost while in prison. This goes towards their food and accommodation. Malkinson has said the idea of having to pay for this left him feeling sickened.
As a result, the Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk announced that this would be scrapped with immediate effect. He said that the decision was common sense and that it's not right that victims of devastating miscarriages of justice can have deductions made for saved living expenses. Finally, Rory and Jack sit down and discuss the news that Uber has finally turned a profit. In our new daily discussion, which is exclusively available on Nebula, the TLDR writing team hosts these daily discussions most days, diving deeper into a new story we write about and unpacking the hidden details that they found fascinating but that were either too long or too academic to make it into the final scripts.
If you want to check this series out, you can find the episode exclusively on Nebula. The best news is that Nebula is less than £2amonth and provides you with ad free and exclusive videos from TL Dr. And a ton of incredible content from other creators like Johnny Harris, Real Life Law and Legal Eagle. Check it out by clicking the link in the description and make sure you use our link so they know that you came from us.