WordPress 5.3 has a bug where the timezone set in PHP is taken into account when creating permalinks. Since this bug can cause canonical URLs with dates to point to a nonexistent page, we’re sending out this patch where TSF sets the timezone to flat UTC for its front-end generation.

The proper fix in WordPress 5.3.1 is due in about three weeks from now, after which we’ll consider reverting these changes.

Detailed log

> View code changes.
> View closed issues.

For everyone

• Changed:
  • The plugin now handles the UTC timezone in its sitemap and front-end generation.
• Fixed:
  • Patched a bug that causes permalinks with dates to point to a wrong URL.

For developers

• the_seo_framework()->set_timezone() now also unsets the stored timezone string on reset.
• the_seo_framework()->gmt2date() now uses gmdate() instead of date().
• the_seo_framework()->html_output() now always sets the timezone regardless of settings, enforcing UTC.