Today, Ukraine launches the main thrust of its counter offensive. The US Congress discusses UFOs, a military coup is launched in Niger and Russia's defence minister visits North Korea. From TLDR News, this is your daily briefing for Thursday 27 July 2023. According to US officials, the main thrust of Ukraine's counteroffensive is now underway in the southeast part of the country, nearly two months after it began.
On Wednesday, the Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson described a massive assault and harsh battles south of Orikhiv, a city in the southeast of the country, around 100 km north of the Azov Sea coast. The New York Times cites two Pentland officials as saying that Ukraine is sending to the battlefield thousands of well trained and equipped reinforcements which until now have been held in reserve. The the ultimate, though for now distant goal is to break through and sever Russia's so called land bridge between the occupied territory in the east and the occupied Crimean Peninsula in the south. The counteroffensive has so far been slower and more costly than Ukraine had perhaps hoped, as minefields and fortified Russian positions prove difficult to overcome.
Nevertheless, the new push is seemingly designed to change Ukraine's fortunes, Politico cites Top Pentagon officials are saying Ukraine's strategy so far has been to probe the enemy lines for weak spots while holding in reserve its best trained forces who have been trained and equipped by NATO and Western allies, a Pentagon official said earlier this month. The real test will be when they identify weak spots or create weak spots and generate a breach, how rapidly they're able to exploit that with the combat power they have in reserve, and how rapidly the Russians will be able to respond. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is meeting with the heads of state of 17 African countries for a summit in St. Petersburg on Thursday and Friday.
Western countries will be watching closely as Russia competes for influence on the African continent, though they may be pleased to see that the 17 attendees is far fewer than the 43 who attended the last Russia Africa Summit in 2019. One of the issues of discussion will be the Black Sea grain deal, which Russia ended recently there of the African Union called for the deal to be reinstated, saying the consequences affect the whole world, especially Africa. Putin ruled out rejoining the deal, but in his opening speech promised up to 50,000 tons of free grain for six African countries, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea. The there's more on the way.
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 over in the US Congress is currently engaged in a landmark panel looking into the existence of unidentified anomalous phenomenons, or UAPs, more commonly known as UFOs. Historically, the US government has refused to discuss such events. This all changed in 2017 when the new York Times reported the existence of a secret Pentagon program to investigate UAPs. Ever since this revelation, a number of further unexplained encounters with UAPS were published, with the US Military gradually acknowledging they're legitimate, although they have refused to speculate about their origins.
The Congressional panel on UAPS opened yesterday, and while there have been no bombshells on the scale of aliens definitely exist, there have been some notable exchanges. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, asked David Brusch, an ex Air Force intelligence officer, what he knew about non terrestrial beings, or to put it simply, aliens. He claimed that biologics were recovered from some crashed UAPs. Mace then asked him if they were human or non human.
Bruges replied, non human. And that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to later in the questioning. He did, however, confirm that he had never personally seen an alien body. So that's what's been happening in the US let's move and discuss what's been happening in North Korea.
In another sign of the desperation setting into the Russian leadership, Sergei Shogu yesterday met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The North Korean leader demonstrated his country's latest weapons to Shoigu and will this week celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice in typical North Korean style with a massive military parade as well. As part of this parade, the Hwasong intercontinental ballistic missile will make an appearance. In addition to this, two new drone designs, which resemble first strike drones used by the US Air Force, will also be featured, according to a specialist news site focusing on North Korea.
While it might be true that Shoigu is primarily there to see the parade, it's far more likely that he's there to discuss the war in Ukraine with the North Korean leader. The meeting itself comes amid accusations that Pyongyang is supplying Moscow with arms, something that both sides deny. It's also notable that the meeting is the first time that Kim Jong Un has hosted foreign guests since the COVID pandemic and the first government to be invited to the country for a military parade since February 2018. On Wednesday, a group of soldiers in Niger claim to have overthrown the democratically elected President Mohammed Razoum.
If successful, the coup will be the latest in a wave of military coups that have rocked Africa's Sahel region in recent years. The soldiers appeared on national television on Wednesday night with colonel Amadou Abdouameni reading a statement saying that the military had put an end to the regime that, you know, due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance. He added that President Bazoom had been detained but was safe, and that the borders were closed, a curfew declared and state institutions suspended. Nevertheless, President Bazoum, who was elected in 2021 in what was the country's first peaceful transfer of power, appears to remain defiant at the time of writing.
He tweeted early on Thursday morning that hard won achievements will be safeguarded. All Nigerians who love democracy and freedom will see to it. However, in a move that may well guarantee the coup's success, the army commands declared on Thursday morning that it supported the coup leaders, adding that its priority was to avoid bloodshed and destabilization. The actual the African Union, Western bloc, ecowas and members of the international community have condemned the apparent coup, which will be the second in west and Central Africa since 2020.
These recent coups have come as governments struggle to quell insurgencies by Al Qaeda and Islamic State linked groups. Niger has been a significant partner for the us, France and European Union in their anti insurgency operations in the region, even while other countries like Burkina Faso and Mali turn away from the west and look to each other for security, including the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. We'll have a full video coming out on the TLR Global channel on Friday. In the final uplifting story today, we discussed a massive payout for Meta.
Last year, Meta agreed to pay $725 million to settle a lawsuit against it, a lawsuit that alleged that Meta had allowed millions of its users personal information to be given to Cambridge Analytica, which was used to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. Anyone who set up a Facebook account between May 24, 2007 and December 22, 2022 and is based in the US can fill out a form to receive a share of the payment. The deadline is set as the 25th of August. Right now it's not clear how much each individual will receive, as the figure will depend on how many people submit claims.
That's all we have time for on YouTube. But the briefing isn't over. That's because I sit down with Rory and Zack to discuss today's queue in Niger in the extended ad free edition of the Daily Briefing only on Nebula. That's the streaming service we're building with a bunch of our creator friends many of whom you're likely to be already watching.
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