As the war in Ukraine nears the two-year mark, fighting on the battlefield has evolved into a fight for funding. 

What happened: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán OKed the EU’s proposed four-year €50 billion aid package for Ukraine after initially blocking it in December.

Intrepid sailors, like Henry Hudson before them, are trying to make commercial Arctic shipping a thing. 

Driving the news: Drought in the Panama Canal and Houthi rebel attacks on cargo ships trying to pass through the Suez Canal have sent cargo deliveries plummeting and shipping costs skyrocketing. All of this turmoil has led to renewed interest in Arctic shipping routes. 

Accepting a new pal into your friend group can sometimes be a weird process. Sweden and Turkey know this from experience.   

What happened: Turkey has voted to approve Sweden’s NATO bid after playing hardball for about 20 months over the presence of Turkish separatist groups that are operating in the country. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to sign the decision into law this week.

Much like our in-laws sending us passive-aggressive Facebook posts, China is hassling its population to have kids. And also like our in-laws, China’s efforts have been ignored.

What happened: China’s population declined for the second straight year, shrinking by 2.08 million people last year, a greater decline than the previous year’s loss of 850,000. 

As Jakarta becomes the world’s fastest-sinking megacity, Indonesian officials are reviving a decade-old plan to save the capital by building a giant seawall. 

Driving the news: Floods are a common occurrence in the world’s largest island country, but the effects of rising sea levels are getting worse alongside more frequent extreme weather events.

Today’s presidential election in Taiwan is shaping up to be a turning point for the tiny, but increasingly important, island nation.

Driving the news: As of writing, polls are showing no definite front-runner in the race to replace current Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, who has reached her two-term limit. 

It’s time for our quarterly check-in on the long-running soap opera The Legal Adventures of Donald J. Trump. 

What happened: The New York civil fraud trial against Donald Trump has come to a close.

China is now the world’s top car dealer… no checkered sport coat or wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubemen required.

Driving the news: China is officially the world’s top car exporter, shipping out a record ~5.26 million China-made automobiles last year and beating runner-up Japan by ~1 million cars. 

If you spent the last week actively avoiding the news in favour of more celebratory activities, fear not because we’ve got you covered. Here are the big stories you may have missed while merry-making.

In recent days, the Red Sea has become like the mall during the holidays: a place better kept at a safe distance.

What happened: British oil and gas giant BP has paused all of its shipments through the Red Sea as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to attack cargo ships. The move comes after 5 of the 6 world’s largest shipping companies have stopped sailing in the Red Sea altogether.