Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Saudi Arabia appoints first ambassador to Syria since 2012
Summary: Over the weekend, the Saudi government announced that it has appointed its first ambassador to Syria since it broke diplomatic ties with the country about 12 years ago.
Context: This is of a kind with other efforts by the Saudi government to rebuild fraying relations with its regional neighbors, and follows a decision by the Arab League to readmit Syria into its membership a little more than a year ago; Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2010, about half a million people confirmed killed and half the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million people displaced since then; Syria, along with Turkey, was hit by a massive and deadly earthquake in early 2023, and the regional response to that led to a re-warming of relations between Syrian President Assad and leaders of other, till that moment geopolitically estranged, Middle Eastern countries.
—The Associated Press
Storms kill 19 in US Southern Plains as severe weather moves east
Summary: A wave of powerful storms tore through Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arkansas over the weekend, leading to at least 19 deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.
Context: Hundreds of homes and other structures were leveled by extremely powerful winds, and some of the damage is suspected to have been caused by yet-to-be-confirmed tornadoes; nearly half a million people throughout the Southern Plains region were still without power as of Monday afternoon, and this is just one of several recent, powerful storms to plow through the area in recent weeks—which is normal for this time of year, but the strength of these storms, especially the winds they bring with them, is abnormal and being attributed to at times record-setting heat in the afflicted areas.
—The New York Times
Burkina Faso extends military rule by five years
Summary: The military junta that has governed Burkina Faso following a successful coup nearly two years ago has said that its plan to restore civilian government by July 1 of this year have been postponed for up to another 60 months.
Context: This isn’t entirely unexpected, as the military governments in this region, most of which came to power in just the past several years by launching coups against their previously democratically elected governments, have grown increasingly confident as they’ve unified, in some regards at least, against the democratic government-led nations that surround them, and which have pushed them to transition back to civilian governance; most of these coups were justified by claims that the previous governments were failing to combat violent Islamic extremist groups that operate in the region, and that’s the justification for this extension, as well, the current junta leader saying that elections are not a priority until these groups are pushed out of territory they’re holding—something they say will probably take just two to three months, which would then allow them to restore civilian rule within 21 months.
—BBC News
Conversation about inflation in the US is complicated by the difference between how economists use the term (referring to a year-over-year change in prices) and how everyday people use it (referring to higher prices, in general); inflation in the US (according to the official definition for the concept) has been dropping over the past year or so, but perception of inflation amongst many groups has remained steady or increased over that same period.
—Axios
<10%
Percentage of people who apply to join Sweden’s military that are accepted.
The highly competitive nature of getting into the military in Sweden means a lot of people are turned away each year, as all young men and women must enlist, but only a relative few are allowed onto what’s considered to be a prestigious professional path.
Those who are accepted are on active duty for up to 15 months, then stay on as reserves for ten years, or until they turn 47.
—The Wall Street Journal
One Sentence News / May 28, 2024