From Tildiar News, this is your daily briefing for Tuesday, the 18th of April, 2023. Good afternoon. In today's spotlight story, we run through Putin's trip to Ukraine. This isn't the only thing happening in the world, though, so we'll run through three of today's other important stories.
And in our exclusive negative section, we explain the updates in the Air France 447 case. But first, why did Putin go to Ukraine? With the war in Ukraine still raging, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Kursen in an attempt to provide morale to his troops. The last time Putin was in Ukraine was in March when he made a surprise visit to Maripol.
While the footage of Putin in Kursen was released today, it's unclear when he was actually in Kursen. Although in some of the footage, he refers to the Easter holiday coming up, implying that he went prior to this. While on the trip, Putin inquired about the situation in Zaparizia, which Moscow also claims as part of Russia. He also attended a military commander meeting, in which he heard about airborne forces and the Kneeper Army Group.
In a clip showing Putin in this meeting, he seemed speaking to General Mikhail Tablinski, who returned to the front line after allegedly being removed a few months ago. Speaking about this, the UK Ministry of Defence said that Tablinski is likely one of the few senior Russian generals widely respected by the rank and file. They added that his recent turbulent career suggests intense tension between factions within the Russian General's staff about Russia's military approach in Ukraine. In these meetings Putin reportedly told troops, it's important for me to hear your opinion on how the situation is developing, listen to you, and to exchange information.
In other Russia-related news today, American journalist Evan Gurskovich has appeared in court in Moscow to appeal against his detention. Gurskovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was officially designated by the United States as a wrongfully detained person after he was charged with spying in Russia. The 31-year-old could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. The US ambassador to Russia, Lyn Tracy, was present in the courtroom on Tuesday.
Gurskovich's court appearance comes just a day after a Russian court sentenced Putin critic and opposition activist Vladimir Karimurza to 25 years in jail after being convicted of treason and denigrating the military. In court, Karimurza stated the opposition slogan, Russia will be free. He's been a vocal critic of the Kremlin, including of the invasion of Ukraine, and said during the case that he stood by every word I have said, not only do I not repent any of this, I am proud of it. Okay, so that's our main story for today, but there's a lot more going on around the world, so here's a rundown of three other stories.
French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to move past the upheaval caused by his controversial pension reform and get his administration back on track in a televised speech to the country on Monday, two days after signing the bill into law. Macron has given himself 100 days to heal the country after months of unrest, including mass strikes, protests and anger at the reforms, which, among other things, gradually raised the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. He defended the changes by saying they were necessary to secure people's pensions, but expressed regret that he was unable to build a consensus. Looking to the future, he outlined a three-part roadmap with details to come.
The three themes were labor and employment, justice in the rule of law, and public services and quality of life. Opposition politicians and unions were left unimpressed by the speech and have called for a big day of action on May 1st, which is Labor Day. 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 FBI has arrested two men in New York for allegedly running a covert Chinese police station in the city, while prosecutors separately charged 34 Chinese security officials over a campaign to monitor and harass dissidents living in the US.
The two residents of New York face charges of acting as agents of the Chinese government and obstruction of justice. China has denied running secret police stations overseas, and say the outposts are simply service centres to assist Chinese nationals abroad. But human rights groups accuse China of running the outposts, which are said to number more than 100 across 53 countries to monitor, threaten and harass Chinese nationals. One of the two individuals charged was allegedly involved in efforts in 2018 to push a purported fugitive to return to China through use of harassment and threats to him and his family.
The New York outpost in question was allegedly set up in February 2022, but was closed in autumn of that year after they became aware of an FBI investigation. India's Supreme Court has begun hearing final arguments in a case that could bring about the legalization of same-sex marriage. More than a dozen petitions have been filed with the country's top court in recent months, part of a collective lawsuit stating that the lack of legal recognition for same-sex couples leaves them devoid of certain rights that heterosexual couples enjoy, including adoption, medical consent, pensions and more. India's conservative government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is strongly opposed to legalizing same-sex marriage.
The government's position is that the question is one for parliament and not the court. In one court's submission, the government said the petition for same-sex marriage reflect urban elitist views, undermining religious and social values. The case comes five years after the court's decriminalized homosexuality, when it scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex in a landmark 2018 judgment. The court case is expected to continue for at least two weeks.
In the final uplifting story today, we discuss a potential male contraceptive. Scientists have discovered a gene which is present in mammalian species, which, when disabled, can reduce sperm count, movement and shape. Donald Lee, Professor in Washington State University, said that when this gene is inactivated or inhibited in males, they make sperm that cannot fertilize an egg, and that's a prime target for male contraceptive development. It's worth saying that even a best-case scenario assumes that a pill can only be created in five years' time.
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