Reuters World News - Russia security shake-up, tent schools in Gaza, TikTok and Swiss neutrality

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

Russian president Vladimir Putin replaces his defence minister Sergei Shoigu. Gazan students do what they can to keep learning during war, including classes in tents. A busy week awaits TikTok in its US legal fight. And Swiss neutrality is under a spotlight as it prepares to host a summit on Ukraine.  Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Putin replaces his defence minister in a rare security shakeup, as plans for a peace summit on Ukraine, put a spotlight on Swiss neutrality. And as commencements swing into gear in the US, in Gaza, students struggle to learn. It's Monday, May 13th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced his longtime ally Sergei Shouigou as defence minister.

In a surprise move, Putin has tapped a civilian economist, Andrei Bolo Usov, to replace him. Shouigu will become the Secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council. Andrew Osborne is reporting on this rare cabinet shakeup. Andrew, is this a demotion for Shogu? It's not a direct demotion, but it's also not, although at technical level it is a promotion, it could be, depending on how things pan out, it could be a sideways move that allows Putin to politely and very nicely get rid of someone who has been very loyal to him and he wants to keep close, but at the same time whose influence he wants to reduce.

Why would he want to reduce Shoygu's influence? So Shoygu has been defence minister for a long time since 2012, but he's been under a lot of pressure over the war in Ukraine, how that has been conducted. And of course, particularly in the first year of the war in 2022, Russia suffered a series of defeats and retreats on the battlefield. You know, a lot of people, a lot of Russian military bloggers, other people in the Russian military community were furious about that, how it was handled. And of course, let's not forget Shogu's biggest public critic, that was Yevgeny Pregojin, the leader of the Wagner group, and he was the one who led that mutiny, that armed mercenary mutiny against Moscow. That was in

June last year. Now, the prime aim of that mutiny, was to topple Shoygu. Of course, Progogh himself was later killed in a plane crash. He'd stood down in the mutiny. But there's a lot of anger that was still bubbling away in the background against Shoygu. And this was really the first opportunity which Putin had to move his friend aside in a way which would not be seen as, if you like, bowing to that pressure as something that could be perceived as weakness. How significant is this change for the war in Ukraine? Clearly, this is not the kind of move you make.

think the war is going to end tomorrow. But interesting, what he's doing by appointing a civilian technocrat, who's very specialised in economics to this role, is that what he's really doing is he's doubling down on Russia's advantages, which are not on the battlefield necessarily, although they do have advantages there, but which are behind the lines, i.e. the military-industrial complex, its ability to produce weapons, tanks, artillery and stuff. So by putting this guy who is well known for his kind of efficiency and his organizational skills in charge of that sector. He's really kind of doubling down on that move, I think. Israeli tanks are pushing further into northern Gaza while airstrikes hammer Rafa in the south.

The renewed fighting in the north comes as U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, warned that without a post-war plan for Gaza, Israel's victories would not be sustainable. At least 315 people have been killed in heavy rains and flash flooding in Afghanistan. Mohamed Yaqub says he's lost 13 members of his family. Catalan socialist leader Salvador Iliya celebrates as his party takes the biggest share of the vote in Sunday's Catalan elections. It's a big blow to the independence dream of separatists in the region as their parties lose ground. It's set to be a big week for TikTok in its fight to avoid a U.S. ban.

The video app is suing the government to stop a law that requires its Chinese owner to sell up or be shut out of the U.S. market. David Chepardson is following every twist and turn. We're expecting two actions as soon as this week. The first is a lawsuit by TikTok creators. And in the past, they filed lawsuits successfully in 2020 blocking the Trump from seeking to impose a ban on TikTok as well as in the state of Montana when both TikTok and creators filed lawsuits last year that convinced a judge there to ban Montana's first ever

state ban on TikTok. And the second part is TikTok will at some point seek an injunction. Could be as soon as this week, could be further down the road that would bar the Biden administration from enforcing the 270-day deadline to divest TikTok or face the ban in the U.S. until we get a decision from the Court of Appeals on the merits of the case, right? Because the law that President Biden signed last month gives TikTok's Chinese owner bite dance 270 days to divest TikTok's U.S. assets. And that's a pretty fast timeline for a very common. complex transaction, the company argues, for an asset that could be worth well over $100 billion.

And no one knows exactly obviously what TikTok US is worth. It's not publicly traded. So the first step will be to convince the court to put a halt to that timeline. Dozens of students walk out of Duke University's commencement ceremony to protest its guest speaker, Jerry Seinfeld's support of Israel. As commencement season kicks off. off on US campuses, in Gaza, the education system has been shattered by Israel's war with Hamas. All 12 universities in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. Children are learning in makeshift tents. Nidal al-Mograbi has been reporting on the state of education in Gaza.

He told us about a teacher, Asma al-Astahl, who works in a tent school. There are people who are doing like amazing jobs trying to keep like students attached to the syllabus and attached to education. Asthma is one of them and is one of those initiatives that started in Gaza Strip. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of students like under the age of 15. And those students now are deprived of schools and of classes since October 7. Thousands of students have been killed in this conflict. What's the outlook for those still alive?

The challenges are big because we're not only talking about the challenges of rebuilding schools or resuming classes. It is actually about finding replacement for the academics, for the teachers. Nowadays, there are attempts to alleviate some of the problem by directing students towards e-learning through the internet. But this is not working for students who are still inside Gaza. As in Gaza, there is like a lack of, there's no electricity, like no alternative power and no internet permanent for students to connect to the online and to attend these classes. There are no places that are safe for them. So they don't have the physical ability and they don't have even the mental, the spiritual ability

to attend these classes. Switzerland is the winner of this year's Eurovision. The Kitchie Music Fest was overshadowed by protests over Israel's participation, amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Switzerland will host next year's contest. But well before that, the historically neutral and impartial country plays host to another event next month that will require a delicate touch, a summit on Ukraine, and an indication that the country's political interests are ever more aligned with the West. The US will participate. Russia will not. For more of the more, what we can expect, we're joined by Chief Correspondent for Switzerland and Austria, Dave,

is Switzerland getting off the fence? Swiss neutrality is at sometimes a sore point to friends of Switzerland who argue that it provides a kind of figly for Switzerland not to do as much as countries that are not neutral. And I think Switzerland was keen to get involved in a way that made it look that it was playing its own part in trying to bring an end of the conflict. One of the main points of contention between Russia and Switzerland is the fact that the Swiss adopted EU measures, sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. So in that sense, there is quite a strong perception that these Swiss, despite claims to the contrary, are not taking a strictly neutral position in this. Now, the Swiss government says, well, neutrality does not mean indifference.

Switzerland has already had to manage expectations for this summit, right? The Swiss government had to manage them quite carefully, and they are now saying that this conference should serve as a kind of basis for a future peace process. So they're not saying that they expect any major breakthrough to come on peace at the conference, but instead to create the conditions perhaps that would allow that to happen in the times ahead. That's it for Monday. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. If you haven't already, make sure to check out our weekend episode on Avian Flu. There's a link in the description to today's. pod. To never miss an episode of Reuters World News, remember to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.