Ukraine

• China is skipping this weekend's summit on Ukraine in Switzerland, in what one Western diplomat called a "subtle boycott" motivated by its support for Russia and desire to be the lead broker of a lasting peace deal - and not just one of 90 countries attending a summit.
• Diplomats say China has also been subtly discouraging developing countries from attending by spreading its message that a meeting about Ukraine that excludes Russia would only prolong the war (Russia wasn't invited and made it clear that it would refuse an invitation anyway).
• Meanwhile, G7 leaders agreed - as expected - on a plan to give Ukraine an immediate $50 billion loan that will be repaid over time with proceeds from interest on $300 billion in frozen Russian assets. In addition, Pres. Biden signed a 10-year security agreement with Ukraine to reaffirm U.S. support.

Russia

• Russian prosecutors said they finalized the espionage indictment against WSJ reporter - and U.S. citizen - Evan Gershkovich, and plan to try him in the city of Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested over a year ago.
• Gershkovich and the WSJ continue to deny the charges against him, and the U.S. designated him as "wrongfully detained."
• Experts say cases like this can last four months to a year in Russia, and take place behind closed doors.

Sudan

• Sudan and Russia have reportedly finalized an agreement to let Russia to establish a naval base at Port Sudan in exchange for sending Sudan's military weapons to use in its civil war against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
• Incidentally, Russia supported the other side - the RSF - when fighting first broke out last year, but now seems to be pragmatically realigning. As one analyst assessed: "Russia now obviously wants to diversify its support in Sudan. What's more, Port Sudan is located in the area controlled by the SAF. If Russia wants a navy base there, it needs to talk with the SAF."

Gaza

• Israel and Hamas are still no closer to a ceasefire deal.
• Hamas accused SecState Blinken of favoring Israel and insisted it hadn't demanded any new changes to deal terms (Blinken said Hamas "proposed numerous changes" and noted that "some of the changes are workable...some are not.")

DRC

• Congolese officials said Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels massacred another village in Beni yesterday, killing 42 civilians.
• The Islamic State-linked ADF has carried out about 15 attacks in the past two weeks, killing between 109 and 138 people - almost all civilians.

Strategic Minerals

• Minerals companies TMC and SGS Canada became the world's first to mine cobalt sulphate from deep sea polymetallic nodules. However, deep sea mining remains prohibitively expensive and may never be commercially viable.

Other News

• Pres. Macron postponed the electoral reform plans that sparked widespread civil unrest in the French territory of New Caledonia, but his handling of the episode - by sending 3,000 French troops to quell unrest - left indigenous leaders bitter and even more hungry for independence.