Today, a Russian diplomat squats on a proposed embassy location in Canberra, Russia launches more missiles at Ukraine, thousands have been found to have been unable to vote in May's local elections, Facebook and Instagram block news in Canada, and the passengers on board the Titan have unfortunately reportedly died. From TLDR news, this is your daily briefing for Friday 23rd June, 2023. A Russian diplomat has been squatting on the proposed site of a new embassy location in Canberra, after Australia terminated the building contract due to national security concerns. A man dressed in a puffer jacket and jeans and seen smoking a cigarette is believed to be a Russian diplomat, protesting the actions of the Australian government.
Although the land is no longer a Russian possession due to diplomatic immunity, the police are unable to arrest or remove him from the grounds. He's apparently been living in a portable cabin in the grounds since Sunday, when passers by were first made aware of his presence. In a situation that began developing last week, the new embassy was meant to be only a quarter mile from Parliament House, and was described as a risk to Australia's national interest, with security advice to terminate the contract. It's still only partially complete, with the Russians still in the old Soviet Union Embassy in Griffith.
Russia's embassy responded to Australia, accusing it of russophobic hysteria, and subsequently denied 48 Australians from entering the country this week. They also planned to challenge the lease termination in the High Court. Summing up Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, Australia will stand up for our values and we will stand up for our national security, and a bloke standing in the cold and a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security. 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.
This morning it's been reported that Russia launched cruise missiles towards Ukraine last night. Currently the missiles were targeted towards the Kemel Nitsky region in the West. For their part, Ukrainian military claims that they downed 13 of these missiles. In addition to this, the Ukrainian military noted that the missiles have been launched by strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea.
This comes as the same day that the UN put Russia on a so-called list of shame of countries that violate children's rights. This UN report confirmed that 477 children have been killed in Ukraine in 2022. This includes 136 attributed to Russian forces and 82 Ukrainian armed forces. About this, UN Secretary-General Antonio said, I am particularly shocked by the high number of attacks against schools, hospitals and protected personnel, and by the large number of deaths and maimings of children attributed to Russian forces and affiliated armed groups.
So, that's what's been happening in Ukraine today. Let's move and discuss what's been happening in the UK. 14,000 people in the UK were estimated to have been unable to vote in the May local elections due to a new voter ID law, according to an Interim Electoral Commission report. In the tally of those who had been refused their vote, 70% of respondents were due to not bringing their ID, and 30% brought the wrong ID, with only 63% returning after being turned away.
In addition, 40% of polling places used greeters, meaning more cases were potentially turned away before they could have been registered. Additionally, in the report, 4% of those who did not vote said it was due to new ID laws, potentially widening the scope of impact by potentially up to 400,000 people. If turnout is revealed to be in line with previous local elections. The Conservatives introduced the voter ID legislation to combat what they saw as voter fraud, despite only one conviction in 2019 of impersonation.
Jacobries Margaret later admitted that the Conservatives had tried to gerrymander their way to election victory. It would later turn out that the impact of the new legislation actually hurt the Conservatives more than any other party, with the elderly reportedly the most impacted from the laws. The Tories would go on to lose more than 1,000 seats in the local elections. If you want more content like this from TLDR, then make sure you check out Nebula, where each week we release a round-up of what's been happening in Westminster in our series This Week in Parliament.
A new law passed in the Canadian Parliament mean that digital giants need to make fair commercial deals with news outlets for news that shared on their platforms. If they fail to do so, they will face binding arbitration. In response to this, Facebook and Instagram users will be blocked from viewing Canadian news on the platform. Google is reportedly also looking into a similar mood to Facebook and Instagram, as another critic of the move.
After hearing about Meta's decision to block news content, Canadian Heritage Minister Pabel Rodriguez said it was regrettable, but vowed to stand up for Canadians against tech giants. Prior to this announcement, the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, had said that opposition to the bill was flawed and dangerous to our democracy, to our economy. But their part, Google, said that they proposed amendments to the bill, but that so far none of our concerns have been addressed. Canada isn't the only country to have looked into passing this kind of legislation.
Australia has also clashed with social media giants for trying to get them to pay for news. We'll update you on this story as it develops. The search for the Ocean Gate Titan Submersible has concluded, after it was determined that it had suffered a catastrophic implosion with a loss of all five people on board. They were stopped and rushed, CEO of Ocean Gate, Paul Henry Naglett, a French explorer nicknamed Mr Titanic, Shahzada Darwood and his son Solomon and Hamish Harding.
The ship had gone missing on Sunday, with the coast guard being alerted at 5.40pm local time that a submersible was overdue. A mass search followed and reports of banging being reported on Tuesday gave everyone hope. However, on Thursday afternoon, it was revealed that the worst had happened and a debris field had been discovered. It found the tail cone of the submersible only 1,600 feet away from the bow of the Titanic, as well as the landing frame in a separate debris field close by, consistent with a catastrophic implosion.
The Wall Street Journal reported that on Sunday, US Navy detected an acoustic signature that's potentially indicated an implosion where the submersible lost communication. This was relayed to search commanders and helped narrow the search pattern, as it was deemed too inconclusive to stop the search at that time. In the final uplifting story today, we talk about the Kenyan school meals programme. Kenya will launch the largest school meals programme in Africa that President William Ruto says will eliminate the shame of hunger in Kenya.
In an $8.7 million collaboration between the non-profit Food for Education organisation and Nairobi County, 10 U-Kitchens will be able to make 400,000 meals daily for 225 primary school and early childhood development centres. The kitchens will also use green energy to keep the lights on, using steam gas technology and e-cobris jets. Parents will be able to prepay 15 shillings or 11 cents for a single meal using the tap to each wristbands for payments. That's all we have time for on YouTube, and unfortunately, the briefing is sadly over.
Unfortunately, as it's summer, a lot of the team are on holiday, so we weren't able to do an extended briefing today. And while we're on this topic, the entire daily briefing team is away on holiday next week. I'm in Madira and Rory is still away in Lebanon and Scarlett's also away, so daily briefing won't take place. We'll be back the following week though, stronger than ever, and hopefully with a bit more of a tan.
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