One Sentence News

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

Venezuela boosts minimum wage by 43% to quell growing protests

Summary: Venezuelan President Maduro has raised the country’s minimum wage to the equivalent of about $100 per month—an increase of more than 40%—following a wave of protests throughout the country.

Context: This increase will be delivered as a monthly supplement of $60 and $40 in food stamps, alongside a base salary of a little under $4, which is about $70 more (all told) compared to the previous state of things; this boost was announced leading into an election year, the date of the election not yet scheduled, but Maduro is lagging far behind the opposition and he’s been pulling out all the stops to stoke nationalist support, including threatening conflict with neighboring Guyana, as there’s a chance he’ll have to allow the election to play out more legitimately than usual if he wants US sanctions on the country’s oil to remain eased.

—Bloomberg

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Africa’s biggest oil refinery begins production in Nigeria with the aim of reducing need for imports

Summary: A $19 billion oil production facility has come online in Nigeria, the country’s first privately owned refinery and the largest on the continent.

Context: This is being seen as a pretty big deal as Nigeria is one of the biggest oil producers in Africa, but its refineries are mostly aging and badly maintained, which has left them operating way below their potential max capacity—they’ve got oil, but not refined, usable petroleum, basically, which has left them suffering from a long-running energy crisis and costs them a fortune in oil imports; once at full capacity this new facility, which is owned by the country’s richest man, is expected to meet 100% of Nigeria’s gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and jet fuel needs and about 40% of its output will also be available for export.

—Quartz

China’s growth slows to three-decade low excluding pandemic

Summary: China’s official economic growth rate dropped to 5.25% in 2023, marking the slowest rate of growth since 1990, excluding the three years it was largely shut down due to the pandemic.

Context: Reports about China’s ongoing economic woes are increasing in tempo, and this new data is notable in part because China’s government is broadly suspected of fluffing its numbers to look better than they are, so this not-good number might be the optimistic, prettified-for-public-consumption version of a far bleaker figure, but it’s also notable because it’s arriving alongside other indications of stagnation like the country’s persistent decreases in birth-rate, and because of the potential this could mean China got big before it got rich, setting it up for an unavoidable, slow-motion collapse, which could have all sorts of implications for its next-step foreign policy moves and for the global economy, among other interconnect national, regional, and geopolitical variables.

—The Wall Street Journal

Over the past few decades, JPMorgan has become a deposits-laden behemoth, holding nearly 14% of all US bank deposits (which is about $2.4 trillion—a record sum) and pulling in not quite $50 billion in profit as a consequence.

—Chartr

$4.9 billion

Value of student debt the Biden administration announced on Friday that it will forgive, in addition to the more than $130 billion that’s already been forgiven.

These debt-forgiveness programs have and will impact something like 3.7 million Americans, and are highly controversial, with Republican lawmakers generally not liking them, while Democrats generally favor them, and in some cases support expanding them even further.

—The Hill

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

Antifungals are going the way of antibiotics—overused, hitting resistance

Summary: The US CDC is asking doctors to confirm their patients have fungal infections before prescribing antifungal treatments due to new reports that some skin funguses are developing a resistance to commonly prescribed medications.

Context: This is similar to what we’ve seen with antibiotics, the most popular and commonly prescribed ones losing their effectiveness, in some cases almost entirely, against some infections, and the concern is that because many doctors are giving patients these drugs without first confirming that their patients need them (and some of these infections are difficult to accurately identify just by looking at them) more fungal infections will develop resistance and even immunity to the drugs we have available, which at some point could leave us without any means of fighting or curing them.

—Ars Technica

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Somalia turns back Ethiopian plane headed for Somaliland

Summary: Somalian officials have turned away a plane carrying Ethiopian officials headed toward Somaliland, significantly escalating the (currently) diplomatic conflict between the two countries.

Context: Ethiopia recently made a deal with the self-declared separatist republic, Somaliland, to become the first government to officially recognize their independence in exchange for the use of a chunk of coastal land, which is something Ethiopia is very keen to have; Somalia, which considers Somaliland to be part of its territory is very upset about this deal and what it implies, and has threatened military intervention, if necessary, to prevent it from happening; this new row would seem to make that sort of conflict more likely, as it’s the first concrete effort on the part of Somalia to keep the deal from being made manifest in a tangible manner.

—BBC News

Pakistan retaliates with strikes inside Iran as tensions spill over

Summary: Following a missile strike by Iran against a terrorist organization operating in Pakistan on Wednesday, Pakistan struck what it said was a terrorist organization operating in Iran.

Context: This is being seen as a tit-for-tat strike, the Pakistani government not wanting to be seen as weak in the face of its neighbor lobbing missiles into its territory but also not wanting to escalate tensions with another regional power; Iran has been launching these sorts of strikes across several borders in recent days, ostensibly to hit regional governments’ common enemies, but also, allegedly, to shore-up its perceptual dominance in the Middle East at a moment in which a lot of variables have been thrown into disarray, and in which the specter of potential conflict is hovering over essentially every government and non-government militant organization in the region.

—The New York Times

Bird populations around the world are on the decline, and recent figures from the US suggest that nearly 30% of the total population of some species have disappeared in just the past handful of decades (there are some good maps for specific species if you click-through on the image to the full article).

—The Washington Post

20%

Approximate percentage of American adults who report having used tobacco products in 2022—close to the global average, and way down from earlier numbers (33% in 2000, for instance) but still higher than international health organizations had hoped it would be at this point.

That said, they expect that number to drop to around 18% in 2030, and numbers in some countries are higher (about 27% in parts of Southeast Asia) but dropping more rapidly, which has been heartening for these organizations.

—NPR News

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

Thousands of tractors block Berlin as farmers protest over fuel subsidy cuts

Summary: An estimated 30,000 protestors brought Berlin’s city center to a halt on Monday, the thousands of tractors, forklifts, and delivery trucks they brought with them gumming up city streets in protest of a plan to phase-out the country’s agricultural fuel subsidies.

Context: These protestors, many of them farmers or working in some aspect of the German agricultural industry, say that they’re suffering under rising operational costs and cutting agricultural fuel subsidies will further hobble their attempts to remain solvent; similar, smaller protests were hosted across the country and far-right politicians have been accused of riling the protestors up into a violent mood, though the country’s Green Party agriculture minister has also expressed support for the protestors, saying that the country’s Finance Minister, who championed the cuts, did a terrible job of communicating the whys and wherefores of the plan to farmers.

—The Guardian

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North Korea's Kim calls for South to be seen as "primary foe," warns of war

Summary: On Monday, the dictatorial leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, announced that South Korea should be re-designated as the country’s primary foe and that it would no longer seek peaceful reunification, instead leaning into military conflict if such a thing should arise.

Context: This is relatively standard language for Kim and his government, but the response to this messaging from Korea-watching analysts who are generally fairly calm about the North’s saber-rattling antics has been substantial, as this seems to imply the North’s recent internal propaganda about war-preparations might be more than just talk, and that North Korean military developments—including a stockpile of dozens of warhead-capable nuclear weapons—could actually be intended for use, not just for deterrence of the South and its international allies, like the United States.

—Reuters

Federal judge blocks JetBlue’s $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines

Summary: A US federal judge has blocked the proposed acquisition of discount airline Spirit for $3.8 billion by rival company JetBlue.

Context: The judge ruled that this merger would reduce competition in the discount airline space in the United States, and that it would lead to higher fares for customers, and thus cannot move forward; this merger was meant to help JetBlue and Spirit create a new mega-corporation in the airline industry, capable of directly taking on other huge, merger-made entities like Delta and United, though the proposed implementation of JetBlue-like changes to Spirit’s planes and service offerings implied that prices would need to go up, and thus cost-conscious flyers would have fewer options across much of the US, post-merger; this ruling may have implications for other intended mergers in this space, like Alaska Airlines’ recently announced plan to scoop-up Hawaiian Airlines for a billion dollars—though following this ruling, Alaska said this would not affect its merger plans because of the nature of the involved airlines.

—The Wall Street Journal

More data has been released showing that the average American’s view of how things are going in the US is biased: their perception of how things are in their own life is good, but their sense of how things are going throughout the country is negatively valenced.

—YouGov

2 million

Decrease in China’s population in 2023, which represents its second annual decrease in a row.

Its number of births has dropped seven years straight, and its deaths have been on the uptick (up by 690,000), accounting for the sizable population decrease.

China was long the most-populous nation in the world, but lost that crown to India in 2023.

—The Associated Press

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

Iran strike triggers dispute with Iraq as fears of regional turmoil grow

Summary: Iranian missiles struck targets in northern Iraq on Monday, Iran claiming they hit an Israeli spy operations hub in a semi-autonomous region called Kurdistan, alongside what they say were Islamic State targets in Syria.

Context: That first strike has further inflated concerns that Iraq could once again become an active military theater, as it follows a wave of strikes from Iran-backed groups against US and Iraqi security forces across the country; this has also raised alarms amongst those who worry Iran might start hitting Israeli targets elsewhere throughout the region, as well, which could in turn spiral into a larger conflict if and when Israel decides to hit back.

—Reuters

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The Chiefs-Dolphins game on Peacock was the most-streamed live event in US history

Summary: The first NFL playoff game exclusively broadcast on NBC-owned streaming platform Peacock on Saturday became the most-watched live-streamed event in US history, pulling in around 23 million viewers and accounting for about 30% of all internet traffic in the United States during the game.

Context: This is notable in part because this was a bit of a gamble, as there were concerns that not enough people would be willing to sign up for a new streaming account to watch this game, and that the number of people expected to watch it live might cause glitches across the platform; no serious glitches were noted, though, and this would seem to suggest that sports on this platform could represent a significant asset for the service, which lost about $2.8 billion in 2023 but which is seeing growth in its paid subscriber numbers.

—CNN

Biden administration to fine oil and gas companies for excess methane

Summary: The US government has announced a fine for oil and gas companies that emit methane into the atmosphere as part of a larger plan to tamp-down on greenhouse gas emissions.

Context: The proposed fee would increase each year, starting out at $900 per ton emitted in 2024, $1,200 in 2025, and topping-out at $1,500 per ton in 2026; that would likely represent millions of dollars in fees for most major fossil fuel companies, as methane leaks are common; we’re only just now able to track where all that methane is coming from and in what volume because of new space-based imaging technologies that have recently come online; methane is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, and though it doesn’t stick around in the atmosphere as long as CO2, it’s 80-times more potent in terms of its global warming impacts.

—The New York Times

Former President Trump handedly won the Iowa Republican Caucus on Monday, taking around 51% of the votes, leaving Ron DeSantis in second with just over 21% and Nikki Haley in third with a little over 19%, headed toward the New Hampshire primary on January 23.

—The New York Times

103

Number of days since Hamas launched a sneak-attack against Israel, sparking a conflict that has raised concerns about a potential Middle East-wide conflict, and has impacted global shipping due to the Yemen-based Houthi’s attacks on cargo vessels passing through the Red Sea (ostensibly in support of Palestinians in Israel-invaded Gaza).

—The Associated Press

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

Reformist Arevalo sworn in as Guatemala president after opponents delay inauguration

Summary: Bernardo Arevalo was sworn in as Guatemala’s new president early Monday morning following an inauguration process that some analysts have labeled a coup attempt by his political opponents.

Context: This is was only the most recent attempt by those opponents to either prevent Arevalo (whose platform was heavily focused on anti-corruption efforts) from taking office in the first place, or stripping him of power and authority if he did make it into office; he went on to win the August election by a landslide and ever since has been fending off efforts to annul the results, to strip him and his vice president of their legal immunity, and to suspend his Semilla party, which will only hold 23 of 160 Congressional seats, which gestures at how much trouble he might have getting anything done even now that his ascension to governance has seemingly been locked-in.

—Reuters

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Cape Verde reaches malaria-free milestone

Summary: The World Health Organization has confirmed that the island nation Cape Verde is malaria-free for the first time in 50 years following long-term investments in its health and tracking systems, and successful efforts to control mosquito populations.

Context: Malaria killed about 580,000 people across Africa in 2022, alone, and it’s spread by a parasite that infects new hosts through mosquito bites; addressing new cases early and extending its free healthcare and diagnostic services to travelers, as well as citizens, seems to have helped the country prevent the import of new cases, and this has led to a sustained status quo in which no new local transmission cases were detected in-country for three years—the first time that’s been achieved in a Sub-Saharan nation since the island nation Mauritius managed the same in 1973.

—BBC News

Congressional leaders reach agreement on new stopgap spending bill

Summary: US congressional leaders have committed to a new agreement that will extend existing levels of government funding into March, once again delaying an agreement on spending levels negotiated in the shadow of an impending government shutdown.

Context: This is basically the same stopgap agreement that the last Republican House Speaker made with his Democrat counterparts, and he faces the same threats from harder-right members of his party to boot him from his leadership position because they once again didn’t get the hard cuts and government shutdown brinksmanship they were hoping for; the US government has been operating under the auspices of short-term spending plans like this one since October 1 of last year, and the main issue is that the Republicans have struggled to come to an accord over what they want to achieve in their negotiations—their Senators tending to differ substantially from their House Representatives in terms of demands—and while some analysts are suggesting the most likely outcome is the Democrats will accede to some Republican demands for heightened border security in exchange for smaller cuts to social programs, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether they’ll get there by this new March deadline.

—The Wall Street Journal

Fuel prices in the US have been pretty moderate in 2024 thus far (despite turmoil in the Middle East), which is meaningful in part because such prices have an outsized impact on peoples’ perception of inflation and economic well-being (folks drive a lot in the US, so fuel costs add up) and that could go on to influence how they vote in this year’s elections.

—Axios

>50 million

Number of legal cases India has pending across the country, double the backlog from two decades ago—the consequence of a low judge ratio and a cumbersome legal process.

At its current pace of clearance, these currently backlogged cases (not accounting for new cases that emerge in the interim) will take more than 300 years to handle.

—The New York Times

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

Taiwan's new president faces tough time with China pressure and no majority

Summary: Over the weekend, Taiwan elected Lai Ching-te, a politician from the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party, with a convincing but not controlling parliamentary margin, which means he’ll have to make deals with other parties to get anything done.

Context: Lai will take office on May 20, and China isn’t happy about his ascension as his party opposes kowtowing to Beijing and he has long been a firebrand on the issue of Taiwanese independence; there’s some concern that this outcome could lead to more saber-rattling from China, which is in the midst of several economic and military scandals and slumps, and thus might be looking for some kind of victory to shore up its reputation internally, though Lai did temper his stance on China a bit in the lead-up to the election, indicating he’s happy to deal with them economically if they’re open to it—though again, because of that lack of a parliamentary majority, some of Taiwan’s actions in this regard will be shaped by political expediency rather than Lai’s preferences on the matter.

—Reuters

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Biden "running out" of patience with Bibi as Gaza war hits 100 days

Summary: US officials are telling journalists that the government is reaching the end of its rope with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his rejection of international calls for ceasefires, more humanitarian aide to Gaza, and in general not indiscriminately killing Palestinians in Israel’s pursuit of Hamas militants.

Context: The real story here would seem to be that the US government has given the go-ahead for officials to talk to journalists in this way, which suggests that Biden is getting sick of taking so much flak for supporting Netanyahu’s efforts without being able to influence the direction and nature of those efforts; it’s possible that this is a stair-step move toward pulling support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which is a step the US government likely doesn’t want to take, but the international community has turned hard against Israel’s efforts, so this is likely a nudge telling Israel to wrap it up, or Biden’s formal position on the matter could change in the near-future.

—Axios

Volcano erupts in southwestern Iceland, sending lava flowing toward nearby settlement

Summary: A volcano that erupted late last year in southwestern Iceland has erupted again, sending magma toward a nearby community, that magma breaching the walls that were erected to keep it out.

Context: Both eruptions have been preceded and followed by waves of earthquakes that have cracked and opened up gaping holes across the landscape, and residents who were allowed to return to their homes near the volcano in late-December have been evacuated once more; new fissures are now fracturing land just outside the community, there are concerns about possible steam explosions resulting from magma mixing with pockets of water in those quake-created fissures, and homes near the flow were beginning to catch fire over the weekend.

—The Associated Press

Microsoft’s market valuation briefly surpassed that of Apple last Thursday, momentarily becoming the most valuable company in the world due in large part to its investments in generative AI technologies and companies, and Apple’s relative lack of investment in the same, paired with a drop in hardware sales.

—Financial Times

262,582

Number of employees laid off at tech companies (the 1,186 that are tracked by this site, anyway) in 2023.

That’s up about 60% from 2022, and it’s thought that the majority of these are the consequence of a tech-world recalibration toward profitability during a period of high interest rates (during which it’s more difficult to borrow cheap money) and a “right-sizing” phase in which folks are being replaced by and augmented with AI technologies, reducing the number of employees these companies require for certain tasks.

—Layoffs.fyi

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

Deadly winter storm causes power outages and disrupts travel across US

Summary: A period of unseasonable heat across North America has ended with the arrival of a cascade of winter storms, powered by a polar vortex, that have already killed several people and blanketed the US in all sorts of advisories, watches, and warnings related to tornadoes, destructive wind gusts, frigid temperatures, and high levels of rain and snow precipitation.

Context: Some version of this happens most years, but the flip from warm and balmy to shatteringly cold and icy isn’t usually this sudden, and the scope and destructiveness of these weather systems seems to be getting worse by the year; folks in the impacted areas are being warned about travel delays and cancellations, power outages, and overall dangerous conditions for the next week or so.

—Reuters

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SEC approves Bitcoin ETFs for everyday investors

Summary: The SEC has announced a decision that clears the way for Bitcoin-based ETFs to be traded by the public.

Context: An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is an asset that can be traded like stocks, but rather than representing investments in companies they represent investments in a portfolio of assets like gold, stocks, or bonds; this ruling will allow for the creation and sale of ETFs that contain Bitcoins, which would essentially allow investors to buy into this category of asset without having to work with crypto platforms (of at times dubious legality) or take on the risk of owning (notoriously volatile) Bitcoins, directly.

—The Wall Street Journal

South Africa presents genocide case against Israel at UN’s top court

Summary: A representative from South Africa presented arguments to the International Court of Justice yesterday, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Context: Israel denies the allegations and its allies, like the US, have backed those denials, but the South African government seems to be presenting this case in part to force a pause in the fighting, that effort backed by several other governments, though it could also lead to a formal demand by the Internal Court of Justice that Israel stop its invasion and bombardment of the region, which would then give those who oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza more leverage for future efforts to end the conflict.

—The Washington Post

Live broadcast television in the US is dominated by the NFL, making up 93 of the top 100 programs in 2023 according to Nielsen ratings (up from 82 and 72 in 2022 and 2020, respectively).

—Axios

>$100 billion

Size of Russia’s military budget for 2024 according to the country’s Ministry of Finance.

That’s a jump of more than two-thirds from 2023 spending, and a post-Soviet record.

Analysts expect that they can maintain this level of spending for the next few years, but that the country’s larger economy will suffer as a consequence.

—The Wall Street Journal

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

Canada's anti-money laundering body to leverage AI bets to crack down on bad actors

Summary: Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, or FINTRAC, has recently increased its use of artificial intelligence tools to identify suspicious transactions a top official from the agency said earlier this week, and this has already resulted in the detection of violations that led to substantial fines for the country’s two largest banks.

Context: FINTRAC received authority to levy fines for financial violations in 2008, but has only collected about $23 million Canada dollars-worth during that period; these two recent fines added up to around $9 million Canadian dollars all by themselves, so this increased used of AI tools looks like it could help the agency detect more of the estimated $100-130 billion Canadian dollars-worth of money laundering that takes place in the country each year, which could help staunch that laundering, while also empowering the agency to increase its scrutiny of other illegal practices that have, until now, mostly gone undetected and unaddressed.

—Reuters

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India summons Maldives envoy over ministers' remarks

Summary: The high commission of Maldives has been summoned by India following a series of social media posts by three Maldives officials in which they called Indian Prime Minister Modi a clown, a terrorist, and a puppet of Israel.

Context: This is notable in large part because these posts have led to calls for a boycott on traveling to the Maldives on Indian social networks (and the Maldives are typically a popular destination for Indian tourists), and because there’s already been tension between the two countries following a request by the Maldives’ new president that Indian troops leave the country after his election last year; the Maldives have long existed within India’s regional sphere of influence, and this change in governance has suggested a turn toward stronger ties with China, which India’s government is not happy about; the three Maldives officials who shared the offending posts have been suspended, but as of Wednesday at least, they haven’t been fired as was demanded by Indian officials.

—BBC News

More delays for NASA’s astronaut moonshots, with crew landing off until 2026

Summary: On Tuesday, NASA officials announced new delays to their Artemis program schedule, pushing back their next planned flights to the Moon until 2025 and 2026.

Context: The original plan was to send four astronauts to loop around the Moon in late-2024, but safety concerns related to its own and private spacecraft involved in the Artemis missions forced the agency to delay that ambition until September of 2025, and the subsequent landing of astronauts on the Moon until 2026 at the earliest; this announcement was made less than hour after a private space company’s Moon lander was found to have a fuel leak after it was launched into space, ending its mission to achieve the first soft-landing on the Moon by a US-based entity in decades, and adding to existing concerns that the timeline NASA was operating under might have been too ambitious, considering the number of moving parts and unanticipated slowdowns in getting some aspects of the program safely underway.

—The Associated Press

Predictions about global GDP prospects in 2024 are not great, but many of the few bright spots (in the sense of seeing growth rather than stagnancy of decline) are located in Sub-Saharan Africa.

—Bloomberg

5.26 million

Estimated number of Chinese-made vehicles sold overseas in 2023, according to the China Passenger Car Association.

That’s expected to surpass Japan’s number of exports by about a million vehicles, and the increase in exports from China is partially the result of sustained gas-powered vehicle demand in markets like Mexico and Russia.

—The Wall Street Journal

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

Ecuador declares state of emergency amid prison chaos

Summary: Ecuadorian President Noboa declared a state of emergency on Monday, following a notorious drug lord’s escape from a maximum-security detention center and unrest at several other prisons throughout the country.

Context: Noboa stepped into office last November after a campaign in which he vowed to crack down on violent crime, most of which is attributable to powerful gangs that, among other things, have been accused of assassinating an anti-crime candidate in the last presidential election, and which have ballooned in size and power as a result of a persistently weak economy and wealth derived from the local cocaine trade; the escaped prisoner, who’s usually referred to as Fito, leads one of the most powerful gangs in Ecuador, and the state of emergency includes a nightly curfew, will allow the military to more directly confront and fight gangs, and may influence the outcome of a proposed referendum that the president hopes will allow him to take measures similar to those being taken in El Salvador, where the government has managed to arrest tens of thousands of gang members and substantially lower the violent crime rate, though allegedly at the expense of human rights in the country.

—Reuters

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Israeli strike kills an elite Hezbollah commander in the latest escalation linked to the war in Gaza

Summary: A Hezbollah commander was killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Monday, marking another escalatory move in the burgeoning conflict between Israel and the Iran-supported political and military organization.

Context: Hezbollah governs a portion of Lebanon, but also has a paramilitary wing that has been engaged in a low-level conflict with Israel across the Lebanon-Israel border pretty much forever; Hezbollah is one of many such groups that receives various sorts of support from Iran, and there’s a simmering concern that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could expand northward to encompass Hezbollah as well, which in turn could draw Iran more directly into the fight, possibly because Israeli military leaders see such a fight as inevitable, so they might as well get it out of the way, though some analysts have posited that this might be a play by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to keep the military campaign going, which could help him stay in power despite the escalating corruption case and plummeting approval numbers he faces at home.

—The Associated Press

Oil Falls After Steep Saudi Price Cuts

Summary: Oil prices fell at the beginning of the week after Saudi Arabia announced new price cuts.

Context: These cuts are being seen as a response to lower global demand, partly the result of economic sluggishness in China, and is possibly meant to help the country better compete with Russian oil that’s being sold at a discount due to the many sanctions Russian energy products are facing, right now; oil prices rose a bit last week due to concerns about an escalating military conflict in the Middle East, but this price truncation more than countered that minor bump.

—The Wall Street Journal

An ever-shrinking portion of the Gaza Strip is considered to be “safe” for Palestinians fleeing Israel’s invasion of the region, and even those designated areas have at times been hit by rockets and artillery despite assurances that they wouldn’t be targets.

—The Wall Street Journal

15%

Decrease in the number of homicides in the ten largest US cities in 2023.

Some cities saw even more substantial drops (20% in Philadelphia and Houston, 16% in LA), though two of the ten largest saw increases (Dallas is up by 15% and Austin by 3%).

These (mostly) decreases follow a period of significant homicide increases during the height of the pandemic and its associated shutdowns, economic issues, and waves of protests, and most figures show that violence crime in the US in general has been on a downswing for years (excepting 2020’s upward bump), but public perception polls show that people (incorrectly) believe rates of such crime have never been higher.

—The Wall Street Journal

Trust Click

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

El Salvador says murders fell 70% in 2023 as it cracked down on gangs

Summary: New figures released by the El Salvadoran government last week indicate that the number of homicides in the country fell to 154 from 495 in 2022—a decrease of nearly 70%.

Context: That drop is even starker when compared to the more than 1,000 people who were killed in the country in 2021 and 2020, and the more than 2,000 in 2019; El Salvador has long suffered from gang-related violence fueled by extortion and drugs, and President Bukele’s multi-year crackdown on gang members has led to the arrest of almost 75,000 people, and has been incredibly popular with citizens, though international rights groups have criticized it for allegedly leading to hundreds of deaths, thousands of instances of human rights abuse, and allegedly serving as cover for the arrest and harassment of political opponents.

—Reuters

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Congress strikes deal on 2024 spending

Summary: Over the weekend, Senators and House Representatives from both major parties came to a high-level agreement about funding for the US government through the end of 2024, increasing the likelihood they’ll be able to avoid a government shutdown beginning mid-January and escalating in early February.

Context: There are still hurdles to leap, as Congress has to make deals on each of 12 annual spending bills—basically carving up the $1.59 trillion budget, most of which will go to defense spending, and the rest funding going to every other aspect of the government—and there are quite a few Republican lawmakers who aren’t keen on the agreement, as it doesn’t include the severe budget cuts some members of the party have been calling for.

—Axios

After new rocket’s successful launch, a US Moon lander faces problems

Summary: Celebration over the successful launch of a Moon-bound robotic spacecraft has been tempered by reports of orientation problems shortly after the separation and powering-on phases of the mission.

Context: The team behind the craft, which is called Peregrine and is aiming to perform the first American soft-landing on the Moon since 1972, has said it’s monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they know more, but the concern is that this issue could prevent the craft from pointing its solar array at the sun, which would leave it without enough power to function as intended; this is just the first of several Moon landings being attempted by US government-funded American corporations in 2024, and is part of a larger, international wave of spacecraft aimed at the Moon in what’s being called a modern Space Race.

—The New York Times

A fair number of new Moon landings are scheduled for 2024, many of them funded by the US government but designed and operated by corporations rather than NASA, directly.

—The Wall Street Journal

12 gigawatts

Volume of energy that will be produced by a large order of solar panels placed by Microsoft with South Korean manufacturer Qcells on Monday.

These panels will be delivered through 2032, and this marks one of the largest deals of this kind—the deal being additionally notable because Qcells will produce the panels at its new $2.5 billion factory in Georgia, ensuring they’re all made in America (which is unusual for solar panels, as most are made in China).

—Reuters

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