C.H. Robinson Worldwide and activist investor Ancora Advisors are setting aside any conflicts for now. The nation’s largest freight broker and the investment group have reached a standstill agreement, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes, as C.H. Robinson seeks a new chief executive following the New Year’s ouster of Bob Biesterfeld. Ancora last year placed two of its representatives on the C.H. Robinson board of directors soon before reports appeared that freight forwarder DSV was interested in buying the broker’s international freight-forwarding unit. Former United Parcel Service chief operating officer Jim Barber also joined the C.H. Robinson board last month, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. wrote in a report this week that Mr. Barber would be an ideal candidate to succeed Mr. Biesterfeld. The developments suggest potential upheaval amid a business downturn that has added stresses to many companies, including one of the freight sector’s heavyweights.

The “dark fleet” of ships hauling Russian cargoes may be spreading. A Russian merchant ship whose owner has allegedly carried weapons for the Kremlin turned off its transponder last month before surreptitiously docking at South Africa’s largest naval base. The WSJ’s Gabriele Steinhauser and Benoit Faucon report the ship named Lady R, owned by Russian shipping company MG-FLOT, delivered and loaded unidentified shipments. The visit has strained relations between Washington and Pretoria. It also demonstrates the difficulty for the U.S. and its allies of enforcing sanctions against Moscow. The Lady R took conventional tactics such as turning off transponders that ships have been using to evade tracking. According to witnesses and photos, a mobile crane moved crates off and onto the 122-meter-long vessel under the watch of armed guards for two nights, even as Simon’s Town where the base is located was plunged into darkness by nationwide power cuts.

Your food-delivery order may be re-routed. Startup Wonder Group is laying off staff and scrapping plans for a nationwide fleet of food trucks, shifting instead to a more conventional and less expensive restaurant delivery model. The WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer reports the shift marks a significant change for the four-year-old startup run by e-commerce entrepreneur Marc Lore. He has raised $900 million in venture capital for a business valued at around $3.5 billion last year. Wonder currently cooks food with a fleet of around 500 food trucks that deliver in the New York and New Jersey suburbs—essentially combining meal preparation and last-mile delivery. The switch is a sign that even Mr. Lore, who has earned investors profits with past ventures such as Jet.com, is up against tight investor funding and rising interest rates. Startups face growing pressure to more quickly earn profits and use less capital.

The Belt and Road Initiative may be undergoing some belt tightening, but it’s too early to write off China’s overseas infrastructure push entirely. Although the investment plan retrenched in Asia during the pandemic, it is still expanding rapidly in Latin America. And the WSJ’s Megha Mandavia writes in a Heard on the Street column that Beijing is unlikely to abandon its megaprojects, given how much it has already invested. The latest round of political headaches came at the Gwadar Port project in Pakistan, which has drawn sharp local protests. The project is one sign of how many lower-income governments have grown wary of such projects and the debt and local opposition they often create. China has certainly pulled back its foreign-direct investment. But in the U.S.’s backyard, China’s average annual direct investment in Latin American countries actually quadrupled in the 2020-2021 period compared with the five-year period before.

A new report says airborne chemicals that destroy ozone are now declining for the first time. (WSJ)

Amazon is closing three warehouses in the U.K.  and laying off about 1,200 workers. (MarketWatch)

Steelmaker Commercial Metals expects demand from construction activity to hold strong even despite higher interest rates. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Athletic apparel maker Lululemon warned its profit margins would decline this quarter. (WSJ)

Samsung Electronics is maintaining its investment in new chip-making capacity despite falling profits. (Nikkei Asia)

Russia’s Lukoil is selling its Sicilian refinery to an Israeli-backed private equity fund working with commodities trader Trafigura. (Financial Times)

UPS expects the number of returns it handles during this holiday season to grow to about 70 million shipments. (Supply Chain Dive)

Alibaba will spend more than $1 billion to place a logistics hub and a data center in Turkey. (Daily Sabah)

Frontline dropped its efforts to merge with rival tanker operator Euronav. (gCaptain)

An analyst says spot rates on major routes between China, the U.S. and Europe have fallen below breakeven levels. (ShippingWatch)

Container shipping lines are in increasingly urgent talks with shipyards to defer deliveries of new vessels. (The Loadstar)

China canceled Covid quarantine restrictions for crew changes at the country’s ports. (Seatrade Maritime)

Values of bulk ships in the volatile commodities markets are declining. (Lloyd’s List)

XPO Logistics is adding 100 electric trucks to its operations in France. (Logistics Manager)

The Transported Asset Protection Association says cargo theft in the Netherlands tripled last year. (Nieuwsblad Transport)

Trammell Crow and an investment group are developing a 477-acre logistics park near Georgia’s Port of Savannah. (Savannah Business Journal)

Cephalofair Games took nearly two years to pull together the complicated logistics of delivering its 37-pound units for the holidays. (Retail Touchpoints)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.