Summarise the Story So Far for New Players Joining a Campaign

The difference between a good campaign catch-up and a bad one is whether it reads like a story or like meeting notes. New players do not need to know everything that happened; they need to understand the world, the stakes, and why their character showing up now makes sense. This writes the catch-up that actually makes them want to play.

New players are joining my tabletop RPG campaign and I need to bring them up to speed on the story without making it feel like homework.

The campaign so far: [describe the major events, the setting, the key NPCs, the main conflict, and what the party has accomplished]
Who the new players are and how much RPG experience they have: [describe]
What they need to understand to engage fully from their first session: [describe the minimum context]

Help me write a player-facing summary of the campaign so far: tell the story from the world's perspective rather than as a session log, include only the context that is actually necessary for new players to engage, and write it in a way that makes them want to be part of it rather than feeling like they need to catch up.