One Sentence News / January 30, 2024

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

China's Evergrande ordered to liquidate, with debts of $300 billion

Summary: Early Monday morning, a Hong Kong court ordered China’s one-time largest real estate developer, Evergrande, which has more than $300 billion in liabilities, to liquidate its assets.

Context: This is being seen as one more punch in the gut to China’s already reeling economy and stock market; the country’s economy is heavily reliant on its property market, and there was some hope that a restructuring deal could prevent a full-on collapse of the company, but this suggests that’s not going to happen, and though the company reportedly has about $240 billion in assets, creditors are expecting a recovery rate of less than 3% of what’s owed, representing a staggering loss for folks who invested their savings in unbuilt or unfinished Evergrande properties, and for the many other entities that are financially tied to the company.

—Axios

One Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to leave ECOWAS bloc with immediate effect

Summary: The leaders of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, three West African states led by military juntas that successfully toppled their previous democratic governments, have announced that they are leaving the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS.

Context: This isn’t much of a surprise, as these three nations have been at odds with their democratic neighbors for years, though that diplomatic prickliness was kicked up a notch last July when a military coup in Niger de facto aligned it with Burkina Faso and Mali, which held their own coups in 2022 and 2020, respectively; this trio was already suspended from ECOWAS and has been facing sanctions from ECOWAS nations, so this announcement is mostly just a formalization of their separation from this group, along with the unveiling of a competing organization called the Alliance of Sahel States.

—France24

GOP negotiator defends border proposal amid Trump pressure

Summary: Congressional negotiations over a border deal have become complicated as former President Trump has said he doesn’t like the deal that’s been proposed, but many of his fellow Republicans think it’s solid, and President Biden has said he would support its immediate implementation if it’s passed.

Context: This is a weird moment as Democrats have been largely pushed to the “light touch” side of the immigration policy spectrum by Republicans, who have typically favored a more hardcore approach, allowing for the complete closure of borders if it’s deemed necessary; the deal that’s on the table seems to lean heavily toward Republican priorities on the matter, and Biden is possibly giving his blessing because the issue has become historically vast, by some metrics at least, but also because passing it could take the immigration debate off the table heading into election season; Trump is reportedly dismissing the plan for the same reason, wanting to retain immigration as a cudgel to hit Biden with, and he is thus pressuring Congressional Republicans to keep it from passing, but many of them are still trying to get some kind of immigration reform past the finish line, posthaste, despite that pressure.

—Bloomberg

Satellite image of the US Tower 22 military base in northeastern Jordan, which was struck by drones over the weekend, killing three American soldiers.

—The Associated Press

$40 million

Sum of money five people who were arrested by Ukraine’s security service allegedly tried to steal—the money earmarked for buying mortar shells.

Two of those arrested over the weekend were senior officials from the country’s ministry of defense, and they allegedly worked with the chief executive of a defense firm to divert the payment for 100,000 shells to private accounts, never delivering the paid-for ammunition.

Corruption has long been, and remains, a significant issue throughout Ukraine’s government, and it’s considered to be a significant hurdle if the country wants to join NATO and potentially even the EU, someday.

—The Guardian

Trust Click