World roundup: March 3 2025

Stories from Israel-Palestine, China, Ukraine, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 3, 1878: The Treaty of San Stefano ends the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War with a decisive Russian victory. The treaty was so lopsided, and in particular the amount of territory given to Bulgaria was so large, that Britain and France stepped in and forced it to be substantially revised at the Congress of Berlin held that summer.

The treaty signing, from the March 23 edition of The Illustrated London News (Wikimedia Commons)

March 3, 1918: The Bolshevik government of Russia signs the Treaty of Brest Litovsk with the Central Powers, marking Russia’s formal withdrawal from World War I. In addition to quitting the war, Russia ceded its claims on Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine in Eastern Europe, all of which were expected to come under German domination, and its territories in the Caucasus, which were expected to come under Ottoman domination. Naturally all of those plans were upset when the Central Powers lost the war.

INTERNATIONAL

A newly published study using computer modeling suggests that continued temperature rise could weaken the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which for now at least is the strongest ocean current in the world. The models predict a weakening of upwards of 20 percent if fossil fuel emissions increase over the next 25 years—a scenario that seems increasingly likely. Fresh water flowing into the ocean from melting glaciers interferes with currents like this by changing the salinity of the water, which is the same phenomenon that also has people concerned about the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation system. The Antarctic current moves a tremendous amount of water from ocean to ocean and its weakening could have massive climate impacts.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

Tensions appear to remain high in Jaramana, the Damascus suburb that saw an outbreak of violence over the weekend and that the Israeli military (IDF) is supposedly preparing to “defend” against the Syrian government. Security forces have moved into the area, but according to Al Jazeera local militias are refusing to hand over anyone involved in Friday’s incident that saw a security officer gunned down at a militia checkpoint. Authorities are attempting to take down those checkpoints, which often wind up being used to extort or even kidnap people—which in turn leads to the kind of violence that took place on Friday.