Today, a top Russian general is killed in Ukraine. The UK faces calls to reform its abortion laws, Reddit blacks out, the US rejoins UNESCO, and the Netherlands and Canada take Syria to court. From TLDR news, this is your daily briefing for Tuesday 13th June, 2023. This morning, a top Russian general was killed in a missile strike, with his death being reported by pro-Russian military bloggers.
Major General Sergei Gorryachev was the chief of staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, and his death reportedly happened yesterday in southern Donetsk, amid heavy fighting. His death marks at least the 5th high-ranking Russian general who's been killed so far in Putin's invasion of Ukraine. If his death is confirmed, it will be a further humiliation for the Russian government, who at the outset of the war thought that the invasion would be over relatively quickly. Additionally, his death comes in the middle of Ukraine's much-anticipated counter-offensive, in which Ukraine is attempting to push Russia further back towards the border.
Irrespective of this though, the Russian government hit back hard last night, striking Ukrainian President Zelensky's hometown of Privy Ria, a strike which killed and injured people alongside damaging civilian infrastructure. In response to this, Zelensky wrote on Twitter, more terrorist missiles, Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities, and people. He added that Russia will never be forgiven. 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.
The UK is facing calls to reform its abortion laws, after a mother of three was sentenced to 28 months in prison for using medication to induce an abortion beyond the legally allowed time limit. 44-year-old Carla Foster had acquired the abortion medication from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service during the Covid lockdown, using its pills by post-scheme, which allowed people to access at-home abortion pills to take before 10 weeks of pregnancy. Prostituteers said she misled the service by telling them she was below the 10-week limit. She terminated her pregnancy using the pills, after which a post-mortem of the fetus found she had been between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.
Generally speaking, abortions are legal under certain conditions in the UK, up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, but after 10 weeks, it must be carried out in a clinic or hospital. Abosions outside of these conditions are a criminal offense under the Victorian Era Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. Foster was handed a 28-month sentence, of which half will be spent in prison. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said it was shocked and appalled the archaic law had been used to prosecute the woman.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes said the legislation is very out of date, while Labour MP Stella Crecie has called for urgent reform. A spokesperson for Prime Minister said they were not aware of any plans to address the current laws. So that's what's been going on in the UK. Let's move and discuss what's been happening with Reddit recently.
If you've tried to use Reddit in the last couple of days, you may have found yourself struggling with many subreddits, which are essentially communities, displaying a message that they are private. This is because users are currently in the middle of protesting against the platform's new data access plans. Starting next month, the company will charge third-party app developers to use its API. This means that third-party apps like Apollo, which is an alternative Reddit interface, will have to pay Reddit to continue to provide their service.
Apollo suggests that with their current usage of the API, they expect to have to pay Reddit more than $20 million per year. For their part, Reddit has argued that this change is necessary due to the emergence of generative AI, which works by using data from places like Reddit. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman argued that he doesn't want to need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free. The current Reddit blackout is expected to last for only 48 hours.
The United States has announced its intention to rejoin UNESCO, the UN's cultural and scientific agency, after a five-year absence. US officials have said that the return to UNESCO is driven by a concern that China has been filling the void in the agency left by the US. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in March that he thought that the US should rejoin, not as a gift to UNESCO, but because things that are happening at UNESCO actually matter. He added, they are working on rules, norms, and standards for artificial intelligence.
We want to be there. China right now is the single largest contributor to UNESCO. That carries a lot of weight. We're not even at the table.
Back in 2011, the UN and Israel stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to let Palestine join as a member state. Both countries lost their voting rights in 2013 and then the US fully withdrew under President Donald Trump in 2017, claiming anti-Israel bias. The US's return to UNESCO will require a new financing agreement, which must be approved by the agency's member states. China's UNESCO ambassador said it will not oppose US membership, adding that its absence had had a negative impact on UNESCO's work.
The Netherlands and Canada are taking Syria to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, over claims of torture and other crimes against humanity, in the first case of the UN's top court over Syria's civil war. The application of the ICJ states, Syria has committed countless violations of international law, beginning at least in 2011, with its violent repression of civilian demonstrations and continuing as the situation in Syria devolved into a protracted armed conflict. Among the abuses alleged in the application are abhorrent treatment of detainees, inhumane conditions, in places of detention, enforces the use of sexual and gender-based violence and violence against children. The Netherlands and Canada are seeking to get the ICJ to quickly make an emergency order to compel the Syrian government to halt any practices of torture and other violations.
In the longer term, they're hoping the courts will make a legal finding on the alleged state of torture in Syria. This latter process could, however, take years. The three countries in question are parties to the Convention against torture, which allow states to refer the non-compliance of other states to the ICJ, if negotiations and arbitration fail. In the final uplifting story today, we discuss the Beatles.
Sir Paul McCartney has today revealed that he's used artificial intelligence to help create the final Beatles record by extracting John Lennon's voice from an old demo tape, removing background noise and interference. Although the exact song has not been confirmed by McCartney, it's expected to be from a 1978 John Lennon composition, called Now and Then, which had been touted as a possible reunion song in the mid-1990s. Sir Paul has talked repeatedly over the years about his desire to finish the song. It seems that he's finally achieved this.
Ruck on, Paul. One last thing, we have some news. The first episode of our series, TLDR's Race Across Europe, is now out on YouTube and Nebula. Here's a quick preview.
Go, go, go, go. He's off. He's gone. He's gone.
I'm going. I hate this. I hate this. Oh no.
Oh, it's harsh. It's not hard. It's the worst thing that could have happened. I'm glad it definitely lasts.
There's no other way. Guys, it's not looking good. What? What?
What do you mean? What do you mean? Could've come through something police about it. I don't know.
I don't know. Get over those geeks. He goes so far. Oh s***.
Now, we absolutely love it if you check it out. It's linked below. And you can find the first episode on the TLDR EU YouTube channel. If you want to even more though, the second episode is available a week early on Nebula and we'll be releasing every subsequent episode a week early on Nebula too.
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