WORLD BRIEFING: March 5, 2024
The updated death toll from the weekend Russian drone attack on a residential complex in Odesa is now 12 - including five children. Twenty - including a pregnant woman - were injured. Local officials report extensive property damage. It now appears to be the deadliest Russian strike in the southern Ukraine port city. Early Tuesday morning another attack of 18 Shaheed drones caused infrastructure damage in Odesa
Former President Donald Trump scored a clear win at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, which unanimously ruled that states don't have the ability to bar him -- or any other federal candidates -- from the ballot under a rarely-used constitutional provision that prohibits those who "engaged in insurrection" from holding office. The decision shuts down a push in dozens of states to end Trump's candidacy through a clause in the 14th Amendment, written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War - AP
France has become the first country in the world to explicitly include the right to abortion in its constitution. Parliamentarians voted to revise the country's 1958 constitution to enshrine women's "guaranteed freedom" to abort. The overwhelming 780-72 vote saw a standing ovation in the parliament in Versailles when the result was announced - BBC
Damage to submarine cables in the Red Sea is disrupting telecommunications networks and forcing providers to reroute as much as a quarter of traffic between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, including internet traffic. Cables belonging to four major telecoms networks have been “cut” causing “significant” disruption to communications networks in the Middle East, according to Hong Kong telecoms company HGC Global Communications. HGC estimates that 25% of traffic between Asia and Europe as well the Middle East has been impacted, it said in a statement Monday. The company said it is rerouting traffic to minimize disruption for customers and also “extending assistance to affected businesses.”
In an election year already rife with weird and misleading uses of AI, Trump supporters are now sharing fake images of the former president with his arms around Black voters to claim he’s popular with them. The BBC discovered dozens of deepfakes circling social media, which often appear realistic on first glance but feature telltale signs of AI interference, like webbed hands or missing fingers. Mark Kaye, a conservative radio host who made one of these viral images, disavowed any responsibility for potentially misleading voters when asked about their effects. “I’m not a photojournalist,” he said, “I’m a storyteller.” He added, “If anybody’s voting one way or another because of one photo they see on a Facebook page, that's a problem with that person, not with the post itself.” In the past few months, Trump has made frequent appeals to Black voters, who played a significant role in Joe Biden’s electoral victory in 2020. In February, Trump claimed “Black people like me” because “I’m being discriminated against” by being federally indicted multiple times - Daily Beast
Apple has been hit with a fine of €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) by European Union antitrust regulators over its App Store rules, and has been told it cannot stop music services from advertising cheaper subscription deals outside of Apple’s store. News of today’s fine was earlier reported by the Financial Times, and comes ahead of Apple’s huge shakeup of the iPhone’s app distribution rules due to the EU’s Digital Markets Act. In a press release on Monday, the EU Commission said its investigation found that “Apple bans music streaming app developers from fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app,” in addition to preventing app providers from sharing instructions on how to subscribe to such offers. “For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy. “They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules, so today we have fined Apple over €1.8 billion.” - The Verge
