Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Note: My new book about aging and growing older with intention, How To Turn 39 (howtoturn39.com), is available for pre-sale :)
House approves $95 billion aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan
Summary: After months of delay and uncertainty, a large, bipartisan majority of US House representatives voted to approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, alongside a bill that will require the Chinese company behind TikTok to divest its US assets or be banned in the country.
Context: This approval will result in about $60 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, including humanitarian aid for civilians in the region, and $8 billion for Indo-Pacific priorities like Taiwan, alongside a measure that could lead to a sell-off of frozen Russian assets to generate more money for Ukraine, and another that will apply further sanctions to Iran; there was a lot of politicking behind this vote, and House Speaker Johnson, a Republican, could be targeted by far-right members of his own party for an ouster because he worked with Democrats to make it happen, though Democrats have signaled that they would possibly protect him from said ouster if he brought a vote on aid for Ukraine to the floor, which he did; the Senate is expected to pass this legislation as early as Tuesday, and President Biden will likely sign it shortly thereafter.
—The New York Times
Floods kill 58 in Tanzania with heavy rains persisting
Summary: At least 58 people have been confirmed killed and more than 126,000 have been affected by floods in Tanzania triggered by heavy and persistent rainfall the first two weeks of April.
Context: The Tanzanian government has said it will construct 14 new dams to help prevent flooding in the impacted areas in the future, as the country was hit by similarly destructive floods four months ago, those ones killing at least 63 people; April is the peak of Tanzania’s rainy season, but this year’s rainfall throughout the region has been especially intense, amplified by the now-waning El Niño phenomenon.
—Al Jazeera
Israel's Iran attack carefully calibrated after internal splits and US pressure
Summary: An apparent attack on Iran by Israel late last week is being seen as a measured response to Iran’s, by many estimates also fairly measured, attack on Israel the previous week.
Context: Many governments are worried that the long-lived shadow conflict between Israel and Iran, both governments hitting each other covertly and through proxies in order to avoid a direct, full-on war, might be pushed into the open by Israel’s recent strike on an Iranian embassy in Syria, which, according to international law, is tantamount to a strike on Iran itself; Iran countered with a wave of rockets and drones, most of which were intercepted by Israel and its allies, so little damage was caused to mostly military infrastructure, and Israel then struck back with its own moderate, military infrastructure-targeting drone and missile strikes; all of which seems calibrated to avoid escalation, and even though Israel was encouraged to not strike back following Iran’s attack, Iran’s government seems to be playing down that most recent strike internally, and Israel’s government seems to have done what it did in order to appease political factions that wanted a more significant, potentially war-starting attack; so relatively chilled-out tit-for-tatting all around, despite the indisputable significance and potential implications of these two nations launching attacks on each other, directly.
—Reuters
More than 50,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine, according to new numbers from BBC Russian, Mediazona, and a group of volunteers that have been keep track of such deaths since February 2022; Russia has been making more territorial gains this year, but they’ve reportedly suffered almost 25% more deaths as a result of that effort.
—BBC News
215.1 billion
Value, in yuan, of direct foreign investment in China for the first two months of 2024—equivalent to about $29.88 billion.
That’s down 19.9% from the previous year, though it’s still the third-highest haul of the past decade.
—The Wall Street Journal
One Sentence News / April 22, 2024