The Week in Review: April 15-21, 2023

Fighting erupts in Sudan, the Black Sea Grain Initiative falters, and more

This week, large-scale fighting exploded between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces, threatening to plunge the country into civil war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took more steps towards normalizing Syrian relations with its fellow Arab states. Moscow put a firm expiration date on the Black Sea Grain Initiative unless its conditions were met, while multiple eastern European states banned Ukrainian grain imports. Representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas both visited Saudi Arabia, while Israel commemorated the opening of a new embassy in Turkmenistan. And, the Discord leak revealed that Canada is resisting pressure to reach NATO’s two-percent-of-GDP defense spending target.