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

Russia takes Avdiivka from Ukraine, its biggest gain in nine months

Summary: The Ukrainian military has been forced to retreat from the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, marking Russia’s most notable territory gain since the middle of 2023.

Context: This town has been a Ukrainian stronghold since it was retaken from Russian-backed separatists in 2014, and it was then bulwarked by substantial defense infrastructure; the Ukrainians say they had to pull out due to a lack of ammunition and a desire to avoid being encircled by Russian forces, and though some Ukrainian forces are reportedly still holed up in a coke plant in the city, it’s expected that Russian President Putin will tout this capture as a major victory, and promote it leading up to the country’s election next month—which isn’t a real election, but these faux-elections do tend to serve as a sort of pretend-democracy ceremony that allows Putin to rally the nation around him, and this victory may help in that regard.

—Reuters

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Thousands march against López Obrador’s institutional overhaul in Mexico

Summary: Hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets across Mexico over the weekend to protest President Obrador’s overhaul of the government, which has already significantly truncated state institutions, and which they claim could hobble the nation’s burgeoning collection of checks and balances, as well.

Context: A new proposal by the president would see election authority board members and Supreme Court justices directly elected, like politicians, and all sorts of democracy activists, scholars, and civil society groups within Mexico have said this would reduce checks and balances by essentially ensuring that whomever is running the government also runs the courts and elections, while currently these forces tend to compete with each other, keeping each other in check; Obrador claims that this system favors economic elites over normal people, and his party is currently quite popular—though his opposition says that he’s using government resources and broadcasts to support his and his party’s image, which may be contributing to that popularity.

—Financial Times

Satellite photos show Egypt building a wall near Gaza Strip as Israeli offensive on Rafah looms

Summary: Egypt is clearing land and building a wall near its border with the Gaza Strip, according to satellite images of the region.

Context: This is notable because the Egyptian government hasn’t publicly announced any construction thereabouts, and because Israel is reportedly planning to invade a town located on its border with Egypt, Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have been forced to relocate by Israel’s invasions further north; Israel’s defense minister maintains that they have no intention of pushing Palestinians across the border into Egypt, and the Egyptian government has warned them not to do so, but about a week ago a human rights organization said it was building infrastructure in the area to help take care of Palestinian refugees in Egypt, in case there’s a mass exodus across the border, and hard-liners within the Israeli government have previously said they’d like to kick Gazan civilians out of the area entirely, taking the land for themselves; so, while everyone is saying this is not going to happen, it also seems like everyone’s preparing for it to happen, just in case.

—The Associated Press

It only took eight years for the United States to catapult from a non-entity in the global liquified natural gas market to the dominant player, and this feat has allowed the US to support its allies during the energy market recalibration that occurred after Russia invaded Ukraine, but it continues to concern climate scientists, who worry a reliance on LNG could slow the global transition to renewables.

—The New York Times

47.3%

Increase in tourism revenues in China during its recent Lunar New Year holidays travel period over 2023’s numbers.

That’s up to around 632.7 billion yuan (~$87.96 billion), which is higher than the country’s 2019 tourism revenues from the same period (a rare, positive economic story out of China, right now).

—Reuters

Trust Click

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