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Today’s briefing:
AI’s Big Music Deal
How the Patriot missiles aren’t working
“Why don’t you arrest that man?”
🎧 Music's AI Payday: Labels Near Landmark Deals
Major music labels are sprinting to set the rules—and the price—for how tech companies use their artists' songs in the age of Generative AI.
Why It Matters 💸
Learning from the Past: Labels like Universal Music and Warner Music are trying to avoid the mis-steps of the internet era's Napster and LimeWire phase, which nearly destroyed their business at the turn of the millennium.
The goal is to establish a precedent for how AI companies pay for music.
The Details: ✍️
Universal and Warner, homes to acts like Taylor Swift and Coldplay, could strike deals within weeks.
Talks involve start-ups like ElevenLabs, Suno, Udio, and Stability AI, as well as tech giants like Google and Spotify.
Sony Music is also in discussions with companies that have ethically trained models.
The Ask: Labels want a payment structure similar to streaming.
This means a song's use would trigger a micropayment.
To make this work, they want AI groups to create attribution technology—like YouTube's Content ID—that can identify when their music is used.
The Influx: AI-generated tracks are already flooding streaming platforms.
One service, Deezer, reported in September that nearly one-third of uploaded tracks were AI-generated.
Spotify recently removed 75 million "spammy" AI-generated tracks in the past year.
A Complicated Marriage: Executives warn that these deals are more complex than streaming, partly because AI can use music in ways that make the result "unrecognisable".
The Bottom Line: The hope is that a big precedential deal will emerge soon.
🚀 Russia's Missile Upgrade
Russian air attacks on Ukraine suggest Moscow has successfully modified its missiles to evade Patriot defense systems, according to Ukrainian and Western officials per the Financial Times.
Analysts believe software adjustments to guidance systems, rather than costly hardware changes, are behind the increased effectiveness.
Interception Rate Plummets: Ukraine's ballistic missile interception rate dropped sharply from 37% in August to 6% in September, despite fewer launches.
The missile upgrade is seen as a game-changer for Russia.
The Patriot is the only system in Kyiv's arsenal capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.
As winter approaches, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia is reverting to its strategy of striking the power grid, but the evolving missile technology makes this year's threat "more acute".
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Malema's Parliament Seat on the Line 🏛️
Why it matters: EFF leader Julius Malema could lose his parliamentary seat after being found guilty of discharging a rifle at a rally.
The conviction sets up a high-stakes legal battle with significant political implications.
⚖️ The Verdict: Malema was found guilty in the East London magistrate's court for discharging a rifle during an EFF rally.
His sentencing is scheduled for January 23.
📜 The Law: Under Section 47 of the Constitution, an MP is disqualified if convicted and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without the option of a fine.
🔫 Potential Penalty: The offence carries a possible jail sentence of up to 15 years, though there is no mandatory minimum.
The court can consider factors like being a first-time offender and may impose a suspended sentence.
🤷 Co-accused Acquitted: Malema’s security guard, Adriaan Snyman, was found not guilty on all charges.
Malema alleges he was singled out and questioned why the case didn't collapse with Snyman's acquittal.
"[The judgment was] to appease the AfriForum, to appease the Oval Office of Donald Trump, to appease all the white supremacists of SA who want to undermine the dignity and the strength of black people."
🎬 The Evidence: The magistrate found the state's witnesses to be reliable and truthful.
She called the state's ballistics expert "a brilliant witness" while describing the defence's expert evidence as "mediocre".
Malema's evasive answers during questioning "didn't do [him] any favours," the magistrate said.
"As a revolutionary, going to prison or death is a badge of honour. We cannot be scared of prison. We cannot be scared to die for the revolution."
The Bigger Picture: This conviction comes just months after President Donald Trump confronted President Ramaphosa at the White House by playing a video of Malema chanting "kill the Boer".
Malema now claims his guilty verdict is racist and designed to "appease the Oval Office of Donald Trump".
The bottom line: Malema remains a Member of Parliament for now, but his political future hangs on his sentence and the success of his planned appeals to the highest court.