Today, Russia claims that Bakhmut has fallen. Papua New Guinea and the US signed a bilateral defence cooperation agreement. Georgian Airways bans the president from their flights. SpaceX helps put the first Saudi woman in space.
And Greece holds its general election. From TLDR News, this is your daily briefing from Monday 22nd of May 2023. Over the weekend, various reports suggested that the embattled city of Bakhmut had finally fallen to the Russians. Bakhmut has seen heavy fighting for the last year or so, with it frequently being described as a war of attrition.
In fact, it's sometimes even been crudely referred to as the meat grinder. On Saturday, the leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Evgeny Prigozhin, made the claim publicly, posting a video to social media on Saturday in front of fighters, stating that the city was under Russian control, although admitting that the situation was critical. Specifically, Prigozhin said that there is not a single Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut as we have stopped taking prisoners, and that there are a huge number of corpses of Ukrainian soldiers. Echoing the comments, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Wagner troops had completed the operation to liberate Bakhmut on Saturday after many months of fighting.
For their part, the Ukrainian government rejected this narrative. Talking to the BBC, Ukrainian military sources have said that they still have control of a handful of buildings on the outskirts of the city. It's argued that this is key in getting closer to a tactical encirclement of the city. Zelensky also claimed that the city was not occupied by Russia as of today, although he didn't share any precise details about this.
Whether Bakhmut has fallen really depends on your definition of this. It seems that the Ukrainians are arguing that as they still control a small handful of buildings on the outskirts, that Bakhmut still holds. However, it does seem that Russia now controls a vast, vast proportion of the city. Talking in Japan at the G7 summit, Mr.
Zelensky compared Bakhmut to Hiroshima, the city that was struck by the atomic bomb in the Second World War, saying that a similar reconstruction would take place. Zelensky visited Hiroshima on Sunday and laid a wreath for all of those that died when the US dropped the bomb in 1945. The Ukrainians are currently resisting calls to pull out of the city, with them arguing that this would be a pyrrhic victory for the Russians if they were to. Despite this apparent setback for Ukraine, President Zelensky has had some good news in the last few days.
In the G7 summit, the US has announced that it will allow its Western allies to provide Ukraine with advanced fighter jets. This, most notably, includes American-made F-16s. There's more on the way, but be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to make the daily briefing part of your daily routine, or just search for us on your podcast app to listen along. In its latest bid to counter Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States has signed a bilateral defense cooperation agreement with Papua New Guinea.
The deal was signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and PNG Prime Minister James Marape in the capital, Port Moresby, on Monday. President Joe Biden had been due to make a historic visit to the country last week, but cut short his tour so he could return to the US for debt ceiling negotiations. The new agreement with the US has sparked debate in Papua New Guinea, in part due to a lack of government transparency over exactly what's in the new pact, and also because of concerns that distancing itself from China might hurt investment in the country. The PNG government put out a statement saying the agreement does not prevent them from working with the other nations, including China.
The statement goes on to say that Papua New Guinea does not have enemies, but it pays to be prepared. This agreement is not about geopolitics, but rather recognises the country's need to build its defence capabilities because border disputes are inevitable in the future. This deal comes after China signed a security pact with the nearby Solomon Islands last year, heightening concerns that the US and its allies were losing influence in the region. So that's what's been happening between Papua New Guinea and the US today.
Let's move and discuss what's been happening in Georgia. The President of Georgia has been banned from flying on the country's national airline after she criticised Georgian Airways and urged people to boycott it because of its resumption of flights to and from Russia. The first flight from Russia to Georgia since 2019 landed on Friday, around a week after the Russian government lifted a four-year ban on direct flights and relaxed visa restrictions. The pro-Western president, whose role is largely ceremonial, had urged the Georgian government not to allow Russian flights, but to no avail.
She put out a statement saying, I personally declare a boycott of Georgian Airways and urge you to join it. In response, the airline's founder declared her persona non grata and banned her until she apologises before the Georgian people. As the flight landed on Friday, there were protests at Tbilisi airport by those who opposed the government seemingly pro-Moscow course and feared that it would damage Georgia's chances of joining the EU in the future. If you want more content like this from TLDR, make sure you check out Nebula, where each week we release a roundup of what's been happening in Westminster in our series, This Week in Parliament.
Saudi Arabia's first astronauts in decades have flown to the International Space Station on a private SpaceX mission. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying a stem cell researcher who became the first Saudi woman in space. Alongside the stem cell researcher, there was a Saudi Air Force pilot plus ex-NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and US businessman John Schoffner. It's only the second ever private mission to the International Space Station and was organised by Axiom Space.
The two Saudi astronauts were sponsored by the Saudi government and John Schoffner paid for his own ticket. Axiom hasn't said how the astronauts paid for the 10-day mission, but according to the Associated Press, the company has previously cited ticket prices of $55 million each. The first Saudi Arabian person to travel to space was Sultan bin Salman al-Saud, an Air Force pilot and member of the Saudi royal family, who flew on a space shuttle program in 1985. We'll quickly look at Greece now, which held its general election on Sunday.
The ruling centre-right New Democracy party had a very good night and won nearly 41% of the vote, which translates into 146 seats, just 5 short of an outright majority. Left-wing Syriza had a pretty dismal night and won just 20% and 71 seats, far below expectations. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is pushing for another election to be held in just a month or so, as the new vote would be a different electoral system that rewards the winning party with up to 50 bonus seats. We won't go into any more detail now, but we have a full video all about the election and what comes next coming out on TLDR EU on Tuesday.
To end the main section of the briefing, we've got some positive news from Spain, where electricity generation from solar, wind and water exceeded total demand on Tuesday last week. It's not the first time this milestone has been met, but the 9-hour period is the longest that renewable generation has been more than enough to cover 100% of demand on the Spanish mainland. With the continued installation of renewable technology, this is a pattern that's more likely to be repeated in the future. That's all we have time for on YouTube, but the briefing isn't over.
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