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

Mexico revives century-old railway in $2.8 billion bid to rival Panama Canal

Summary: Mexico’s government is in the process of refurbishing and building-out an existing railway that connects the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to claim some of the custom that would typically use the Panama Canal to travel between these bodies of water, at a moment in which the Canal is suffering a significant slowdown.

Context: That slowdown is the consequence of a freshwater shortage in Panama, as the Canal requires freshwater to operate and frequent droughts have made that a tricky proposition; consequently, larger, heavier ships haven’t been able to use the Canal in recent months, and the pace of passage for smaller vessels has slowed to a crawl, dramatically reducing traffic-flow; the gambit here, then, is to provide an alternative means of traversing the American landmass, though some analysts have suggested it might not end up being cost-effective for anyone involved, as the extra time and expense required to unload freight, put it on trains, move it to another coastline, and then reload it on another ship, may not be worth the effort for many types of cargo.

—Financial Times

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US to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil for freer presidential election

Summary: The US and Venezuelan governments have announced a deal that would see the former easing sanctions on the latter’s oil industry in exchange for Venezuelan President Maduro allowing a truly democratic, internationally monitored presidential election in 2024.

Context: This is a pretty big move for both governments, as the Venezuelan government has been severely hobbled by US sanctions for years, and this represents a potential olive branch, but also an opportunity for Venezuela to formally reenter the global energy market at a moment when that market is in tumult—which is likely a big part of why the US government decided to make this deal; the last Venezuelan election in 2018 is generally considered to have been fraudulent, and this deal would require that Maduro lift bans on opposition candidates and cease intimidation efforts against folks who might seek to unseat him, and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether this will all go down as the deal delineates when that next election arrives, but it’s an interesting diplomatic and economic development, either way.

—The Washington Post

Trump has narrow gag order imposed on him by federal judge overseeing 2020 election subversion case

Summary: The judge in the federal case against former President Trump—the one in which he’s standing trial for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election—has issued a limited gag order on the former president.

Context: This gag order basically says he can criticize the US Justice Department and case as much as he wants, but he can’t launch a smear campaign or attempt to rile-up attacks against prosecutors or court employees, which is something he’s attempted to do already, leading to death threats and other attacks against opposing counsel and people who work in the courtroom; following the gag order, Trump alleged that his free speech was being violated, though much of what he claimed about the order was false; this is the second gag order that’s been imposed on Trump in the past month, the other a bit more stern, but basically in response to the same concerns—that one applying to a fraud trial he faces in New York.

—The Associated Press

Worker strikes continue to hobble (or threaten) businesses across a slew of US industries, with a recent three-day Kaiser Permanent strike weighing in with about 75,000 participants, and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike involving around 160,000 people.

—Axios

43%

Portion of the Gaza Strip’s total population that’s estimated to be displaced—forced to flee missile attacks and a threatened boots-on-the-ground invasion by Israeli forces in the northern part of the Strip.

That adds up to more than 1 million people (the total population is about 2.3 million), and there are concerns from human rights and medical organizations (including the UN refugee agency) that many deaths will stem from these displacements, as there’s not enough food, shelter, or medical supplies to go around.

—Al-Monitor

Trust Click

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