Today, the US continues its debate about the debt ceiling, the FBI reveals a historic plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II, Russia launches more strikes against Ukraine, and Turkey gets ready for round two of its presidential election. From TLDR News, this is your daily briefing for Friday the 26th of May 2023. Now, before getting into the briefing today, we should point out that we won't be here on Monday as it's a bank holiday in the UK. So, we'll all probably be in the pub or in a beer garden, depending on the weather.
I mean, it'll probably rain, it's Britain. It's also worth saying that we'll have a very special edition of the Extended Briefing today, as we share a trailer and an exclusive clip of the first episode of our series, TLDR's Race Across Europe, and host a discussion about this. If you want to watch it, then make sure you check out the Extended Briefing on Nebula. Every couple of years, Republicans and Democrats play a game of chicken with the debt ceiling, threatening a catastrophic sovereign default unless the other side agrees to politically unpalatable concessions.
This is what happened earlier this year, when Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy told US President Joe Biden that House Republicans wouldn't agree to a debt ceiling raise unless Biden found over $4 trillion worth of spending cuts. Biden originally refused to even enter negotiations, but caved earlier this month. And this morning, there were reports that the two sides are expected to reach a last-minute deal sometime in the coming days. The deal will apparently include some spending cuts, although not the $4.5 trillion originally envisioned by McCarthy, and a two-year raise to the debt ceiling, which means that we'll probably have another showdown in early 2025, after the 2024 presidential election.
House members are supposed to be heading home for the Memorial Day long weekend, but given that the US is expected to hit the debt ceiling in less than a week, and any deal will probably take a couple of days to actually implement into law, there's a good chance that they'll need to return to Washington at short notice. While this is, of course, good news for, well, anyone who didn't want an unnecessary and possibly catastrophic financial crisis, the fact that negotiations have come down to the wire doesn't bode well. The Treasury has been relying on so-called extraordinary measures to keep spending down since January, and the debt ceiling is due to be reached on June 1st, less than a week away. So, you get the point.
Biden and McCarthy were already cutting it dangerously fine, and if current trends continue, i.e. if America's politics becomes even more partisan and American politicians become even more reckless about the prospect of a default, then a debt ceiling default will only become more likely, with potentially catastrophic consequences not just for the US, but the entire world economy. 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. A plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II in 1983 has been revealed, thanks to a release of information from the FBI.
The information was contained within a 102-page document that was uploaded to The Vault, the FBI's website, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. The document revealed that a threat was made to a police officer in an Irish bar in San Francisco. The man, angered over the death of his daughter by a rubber bullet, disclosed that he planned an attack on the late monarch, either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or during their visits to Yosemite National Park. In response to the threat, the Secret Service closed the Golden Gate Bridge walkways, but did not reveal the protective measures in place at Yosemite, with the visit happening as planned.
During her visit to America in the 1980s, the FBI was constantly worried about IRA threats, with the document stating that Boston and New York are requested to remain alert for any threats against Queen Elizabeth II on the part of IRA members. So, that's a big revelation from the FBI today. Let's move and discuss what's been happening in relation to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last night, the Russian military launched a new round of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine.
For their part, the Ukrainian military claims to have shot down 10 missiles and 25 drones, which were headed for the cities of Kiev and Dnipro. Some of the rockets were also headed for Kharkiv, with President Zelensky additionally claiming that an oil depot in Kharkiv was hit twice and that equipment used to pump oil depots had been damaged. This Russian attack continued on Friday morning, with more drones and missiles continuing to hit targets in Kharkiv and Dnipro-Petrovsk. At the time of recording, there were no additional significant details, with the Ukrainian government still not confirming whether there have been any deaths in this round of attack.
Talking about the attack, Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor of Dnipro, said, It was a very difficult night. It was loud. The enemy launched a mass attack on the region with missiles and drones. The only additional information about this attack is about the details of a medical clinic being struck in Dnipro, with one death being confirmed and 15 injuries reported.
These injuries include two children. President Zelensky confirmed that authorities were working to rescue people from the building. If you want more content from TLDR, then 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. On Sunday, the second round of the Turkish election is set to take place between incumbent President Erdogan and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, after neither politician was able to secure more than 50% of the vote in the first round, just under two weeks ago.
While some politicians and journalists seemed optimistic that Kilicdaroglu would be able to defeat Erdogan in this year's election, not least thanks to his favourable polling in the lead-up to the first round, not only did he not secure more than 50% of the vote, but Erdogan actually finished ahead of him. In the first round, Erdogan finished on 49.5% of the vote and Kilicdaroglu finished on 44.9%. Turnout was at 88.9%. With 5.2% of the vote, this put third-party candidate Sinan Ogan in the position of kingmaker.
And, well, with him being ideologically closer to President Erdogan, many expected him to endorse the President. This prediction ended up being proved correct, with Ogan telling his followers that I declare that we will support Mr Recep Erdogan, the candidate for the People's Alliance, in the second round of the elections. It looks likely, therefore, that Erdogan will win once more on Sunday and secure himself another five-year mandate. We'll update you on what happens in the second round next week.
In the final uplifting story today, we discuss a new positive use of artificial intelligence. Scientists today have used AI to narrow down thousands of potential chemicals that could be tested in a lab against a deadly species of superbug. This superbug is one of the three superbugs that the World Health Organization has identified as a critical threat. The result of this is a new experimental antibiotic called Abacyn.
It's hoped that this continues to prove successful, but it will need to undergo a lot more tests before it can be used. With the media reporting on a variety of ways in which AI can be harmful to society, it's good to hear of some ways in which it can actually be useful. That's all we have time for on YouTube, but the briefing isn't over. That's because we share a trailer and an exclusive clip of our new series, TLDR's Race Across Europe, and host a discussion about this series.
Exclusive. Lots of running. Lots of running. Leaky personalities.
Zach McLaughlin. I know what happens to Jan in episode 3. Exclusive. Friction.
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