Hard numbers: Pro-Russia blogger commits suicide, UK nuclear missile test fails, Biden slashes student debt, China reaches US via Mexico
16,000: Andrey Morozov, a well-known pro-Russia military blogger, reportedly committed suicide after facing backlash from Russian propagandists for his Telegram post that said 16,000 Russian troops were killed in the battle for Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has gone to extreme lengths to obscure the scale of Russia’s losses in the war in Ukraine, and Morozov was accused of “slandering the Russian defense ministry.” Ukraine estimates that 17,000 Russian troops were killed fighting to take Avdiivka.
2: The UK’s Trident nuclear missile misfired and crashed into the sea during a test near Florida last month, reports on Wednesday said. This was the second time in a row that a Trident missile test failed, leading to uncomfortable questions about Britain’s nuclear deterrent. But Defence Sec. Grant Shapps, who witnessed the test aboard the HMS Vanguard, attributed it to an “event-specific” anomaly and said it had “no implications for the reliability of the wider Trident missile systems and stockpiles.”
153,000: The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it’s canceling $1.2 billion in student loan debt for 153,000 people enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education repayment plan who have been making payments for at least a decade and borrowed $12,000 or less.
881,000: You may recall that Mexico recently overtook China as the US’ largest trade partner. But new data suggests that a big chunk of that commerce could still involve goods coming from China: In the first three quarters of last year, China sent 881,000 20-foot shipping containers full of merchandise to Mexico, up more than 30% over the previous year, hitting a record high. Experts believe some Chinese companies are skirting Trump-era tariffs by routing exports through Mexico, which has a free trade deal with the US.