Reuters World News - The conflict Russia doesn't want

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Tensions escalate between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Moscow watching on warily. The U.S. Supreme Court prepares for landmark rulings over affirmative action that could reshape the college admissions process. And a Republican AI-generated attack ad raises concerns about use of the technology in politics and beyond. 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, the Supreme Court will soon decide how race is considered in college admissions. We head to the university at the center of the issue. Plus, why an enclave just bigger than Rhode Island near Russia's southern border is a headache for Vladimir Putin. And AI hits the campaign trail, but could also be making its way into your home, whether you like it or not. It's Wednesday, April 26th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vinal in London. But first, here are some of the headlines making news around the world.

The Taliban says it's killed the mastermind behind a suicide attack at Kabul's International Airport that killed 13 U.S. troops and many civilians. That attack by Islamic State happened in 2020. during the chaotic evacuation from the country. Russia has seized control of utilities owned by Finland's Fordham and Germany's Uniper, the first such move by the Kremlin in retaliation for asset freezers by Europe. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree late on Tuesday, signaling Moscow could take similar action against other companies.

The chaos in Sudan has led to questions about the whereabouts of former president, Omar al-Bashir. Sources have told Reuters that he was moved out of prison to a hospital shortly before fighting broke out on April 15th. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged atrocities in Darfur. A man convicted of trafficking around two pounds of cannabis has been executed in Singapore. Tangaraju Supaya was hanged, despite pleas from his relatives and activists for clemency. All right, it's time for markets with Carmel Crimmons. Hi, Carmel. Hey, Kim. So it's all about AI this morning. What's going on? It is. We've had results from Microsoft and Google, and it's

fascinating with that pair. They've now become rivals in search engines. For years, Google has dominated this space, but Microsoft has introduced some AI technology into its Bing search engine, and investors clearly liked what they heard. Their shares rose nearly 10% in after-hours trading, whereas Google only rose less than 2%. Whoever would have thought Bing would make a comeback? No one could have predicted that. What about meta? Yeah, so we're expecting results from them today

and they've admitted that they're playing catch-up in this space and our colleagues in the US did a great deep dive into that game of catch-up, so you should check it out on Reuters.com. All right, Carmel, thanks so much. Thanks, Kim. After President Biden officially threw his hat in the ring for 2024, the Republican National Committee released its first attack ad.

It's an AI-generated video, portraying a dystopian future should Joe Biden win a second term. Creating an AI version of someone without their permission creates all sorts of challenges and not just in politics. I spoke to Mike Osborne, head of machine learning at Oxford, university to find out more. Hi, Mike. Hi. So should we be preparing for an AI impersonation onslaught? Is this just going to keep happening more and more? I unfortunately think that that may be the case. Certainly in my trials and the trials of others who have reported, it's quite easy to get these models to speak in a way that mimics the speaking patterns of real celebrities, either alive or dead.

they're actually very effective at it. Beyond celebrity impersonations, how else is this being used? A particular application that I was thinking of is that of these models used to simulate the voice of a loved one so as to do a fishing attack. For instance, a parent might receive a phone call from what they think is their child asking for emergency money and the parent dutifully wires that money through

only to realize later that the voice on the under the end of the phone was actually that of an AI mimicking the social media recorded output of their child's voice. I can imagine that being hugely lucrative. I mean, the possibilities with this actually feel kind of terrifying. It is terrifying, and the fact is that these models can act at a scale at which we haven't had a lot of experience. Mike, thanks so much. And now to the South Caucasus, where Russia is hoping to avoid a new conflict on its doorstep. Azerbaijan has established a checkpoint on the only route linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The two countries have disputed ownership over the region for decades. Moscow broke at a ceasefire in 2020 and is no interest in fighting, breaking out between the fractious neighbors. Felix Light is here to tell us more. Hi, Felix. Hi, Kim. So what is going on there right now? Really since December, Azerbaijan has almost entirely shut down access to the territory. About 100,000, 120,000 people live there.

And so you really have the beginnings of a humanitarian crisis there, almost complete sort of besiegment to these inhabitants. And what happened at the weekend was basically just the latest tightening of this blockade, where in the past you'd had some traffic managed to get through, bring food, bring supplies to the territory. Now you have essentially none. On a map, it might look like, oh, this is just a small piece of land in the South Caucasus, but there are superpowers here, right? Which could be drawn in. Absolutely. You know, first and foremost, Russia, which very much wants and tries and needs to

keep both Azerbaijan and Armenia on side. And really, this territorial dispute sort of drives a wedge between that. There's a lot of anger with Russia in Armenia at the moment because their seat as having failed to stop this blockade and that's really putting pressure on Russia's position in this area at the moment. Could this also put pressure on the Russia-Turkey relationship? Because in 2020, Azerbaijan was backed by Turkey, which enabled it to win a resounding victory. Yes, certainly. You know, Azerbaijan has a trump card because it is very close friends with Turkey. and Russia doesn't want Turkey to become influential in what it sees its backyard. In 2020, Kim Kardashian brought attention to the conflict.

She did. Is there any sign of that level of interest this time round? I think it's much harder now. This is a conflict that's really been overshadowed by bigger confrontations in places like Ukraine. Felix, thanks so much. The US Supreme Court is expected to rule in a pair of. of blockbuster affirmative action cases this spring. The rulings could drastically alter how race is considered

and admissions across the country. The plaintiff's claim is that policies at the University of North Carolina and Harvard put white and Asian American applicants at a disadvantage. Our reporter, Gabriella Borter, traveled to UNC to hear from the community at the center of this fight. I tagged along with the Affirmative Action Coalition at U.S. recently as they were handing out flyers to their classmates on campus. And they were trying to warn their classmates that if they care about diversity,

this Supreme Court case could potentially limit that on campus in the future by banning affirmative action. There's something kind of called the model minority myth in the Asian community. Co-founder, Sarah Zang, told me that the issue has proven to be especially divisive amongst Asian Americans at UNC, because some Asian Americans believe that affirmative action is a practice that hurts their racial group because it boosts the chances of black and Hispanic and other minority students for getting into college. So when students were for admissions makes a claim that affirmative action is disadvantaging Asian Americans, it's really creating a wedge between us and other communities of color. The UNC, like a lot of U.S. colleges, has a pretty blemished history when it comes to race relations.

The school did not admit black students until the 1950s, and some of the original buildings were actually built by enslaved black people in the late 18th century. So the history of racism is very much rooted in the campus. And people who are against affirmative action, students like the chair of the college Republicans, who I spoke to, Jacob James said that affirmative action should be banned because schools like UNC have gotten to the point of overcorrecting. That's not to say that, you know, including people that are black and brown isn't important. But I think that it's pretty cynical to say that if we don't give them outsized advantages that they won't be able to make it here. I mean, I think that if you allow them to prove their own merit, that they will. I spoke to John Camejo, who is a student who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba when he was a kid.

definitely a lot on the line and most of my concern goes towards, most of my concern my empathy goes towards incoming, like, undergraduate students just because, again, I've did that entire route and I understand, like, what it's like to struggle from a low-income background, like, with all the odds against you. He credits affirmative action for bringing students like him to UNC when they were fighting an uphill battle in a lot of other parts of their life. I'm Gabriella Border in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. That's it for today's edition of Reuters World News. We're back on Thursday. Before you go, we'd love for you to tell us what you think about the show. There's a survey in the pod's description

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