WAO ART #72

The UK's new trade deal with Australia is being debated over who will benefit and who will lose. The International Trade Secretary claims it will add £2.3bn to British exports, but farmers and critics argue that it gives away the UK market too cheaply.

West Africa has seen a recent upsurge in military coups, with more than 20 taking place in the region since 2010. Despite a growing democratic culture, dissatisfaction with poor governance, socio-economic hardship and government Misuse has led ordinary citizens to celebrate these coups.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been in jail since 2021, has said he faces charges that could keep him imprisoned beyond 2050. He already faces 11 and a half years in prison on a range of charges that supporters say are trumped up.

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso is facing an impeachment challenge from an opposition-led National Assembly, which has accused him of failing to stop corruption involving a state oil shipping company. Lasso denies the allegations and has threatened to dissolve Congress.

Dennis Barnes, a 16-year-old student from Louisiana, has received university scholarship offers totalling more than $9m (£7.2m) from 125 schools he applied to last August. Barnes hopes to receive more offers before deciding where to enrol, and aims to reach $10m in scholarship offers.

Japanese company iSpace's lunar lander, Hakuto-R, is likely to have crashed on the Moon's surface. Communication was lost just before it was due to touch down on Tuesday. The lander was launched by a SpaceX rocket in December and took five months to reach its destination.

The Avalanche core team has implemented the Cortina upgrade on its mainnet, optimizing the network for developers. The upgrade included migrating the X-Chain to run the Snowman++ consensus, enabling complex X-Chain transactions and integrating Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM).