Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Imran Khan’s opponents reach deal to shut his allies out of government

Summary: Two of Pakistan’s main parties have agreed to form a coalition government, nudging former Prime Minister Khan’s supporters out of the picture in the process.

Context: These two parties are backed by the country’s powerful military, and they’re both run by political dynasties, so they’re not exactly underdogs; that said, Khan’s supporters, who were forced to run under a variety of different party names, collectively took the majority of the votes, and have now been relegated to the opposition, and while legal wrangling over claims of vote-manipulation by Khan and his supporters could theoretically change things eventually, in the short-term it looks likely that Khan will remain in prison due to corruption charges that he denies, and the military will run things through this new coalition, which will be led by a prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, who stepped into the role in 2022 after Khan was ousted and who was incredibly unpopular throughout his tenure.

—The New York Times

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New high-powered charging network IONNA launches in USA

Summary: A new joint venture launched by BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis to build-out a network of fast-chargers for EVs, has announced its first approved projects.

Context: Its initial batch of charging stations are expected to come online this year, and the venture is aiming to install about 30,000 of them across North America, challenging Tesla and a few other, smaller businesses that have so far installed the majority of chargers, with Tesla dominating the fast-charger market in these countries; a lack of charging stations remains one of the biggest barriers for EV-adoption in the US and Canada, and this is meant to both address that concern and serve as an ongoing source of recurring revenue for the involved entities.

—CleanTechnica

Malawi lifts visa restrictions for 79 countries

Summary: The government of Malawi has lifted visa restrictions on people visiting from 79 countries, including a broad swathe of African nations and overseas locations like China, Germany, Australia, and Canada.

Context: This exemption is meant to help increase the flow of tourists to Malawi while also increasing its trade and diplomatic ties with these other nations, and it’s representative of similar visa-easings in other southern African nations, many of which are trying to increase tourism and stoke new economic opportunities, locally and globally.

—Africanews

Researchers working on three different geoengineering field experiments are receiving government funding to assess the cost and veracity of these options, all of which were once considered absolute no-nos, but which are increasingly looking like valid options (mostly because the consequences of not artificially cooling the planet while we attempt to pull more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere could be even worse than the potential consequences of large-scale geoengineering).

—The Wall Street Journal

2 billion

Approximate number (it’s actually “nearly 2 billion”) of viewers the Africa Cup of Nations 2023 attracted in late-January through early-February, according to the president of the Confederation of African Football.

That’s a huge surge in viewership (matches were shown in around 180 countries), and provides the league with all sorts of new opportunities in terms of revenue, exposure, and expansion.

—Semafor

Trust Click

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