First: you're right, and the current model is wrong for this
The current Sudan Today (singleton status banner + flat timeline) models one evolving situation. What you're describing — diverse, distinct, prioritized stories (war, ports, normalization, ceasefires, economy) — is a curated briefing feed. Those are different things. The current build won't stretch to your vision; it needs rework. Good that we're catching it at the design stage.
The core design problem
You've correctly identified the trap:
News card-grid → visually duplicates News. Rejected.
Endless vertical list of full stories → unscannable as it grows. Rejected.
The answer to "many distinct items that must stay scannable over months" is a well-established pattern, used by exactly the institutions your audience resembles (BBC live pages, ICG/Crisis Group country pages, ReliefWeb, foreign-ministry situation pages):
My recommendation: Topic-grouped feed with a featured lead + compact expandable entries
Three structural ideas working together:
1. A "Featured / Key developments" lead at the top (1–3 items).
The most important stories staff choose to prioritize, shown prominently. This is your editorial-priority control — not chronological, not a grid. One large lead + up to two secondary.
2. Below that, entries grouped into TOPICS (collapsible sections).
Not free-floating. Grouped under headings like Conflict & Security · Humanitarian · Diplomacy & Normalization · Economy · Guidance for Nationals. Each topic is a section a reader can jump to. This is what keeps it navigable at 100 entries — you scan topic headers, not every story.
3. Each entry is COMPACT and expandable in place (accordion), not a full article.
Title + date + one-line summary always visible. Click to expand the full rich-text body inline — no page navigation, no card. This is "progressive disclosure": the page stays a scannable index, but full detail is one click away.
Here's the shape: