World roundup: June 7-8 2025

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

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TODAY IN HISTORY

June 7, 1494: In the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain and Portugal agree to divide the world, or at least any “newly discovered” parts of it, along a north-south meridian that runs through the eastern half of modern Brazil. The negotiations superseded a decree previously issued by Pope Alexander VI that threatened both Portugal’s control of the around-Africa sea route to India and any claims it had on India itself. The agreement, which was mostly undefinable (and therefore unenforceable) but did the job in terms of avoiding a Spanish-Portuguese war, left most of the recently-“discovered” Americas in Spanish hands save what eventually became Brazil. It was duly ignored by later expansionist European powers—particularly Protestant England, which viewed the treaty as a Catholic accord that it was not obliged to honor.

June 7, 1942: After a four day battle and thanks in large part to having decrypted Japan’s pre-battle communications, the US Pacific Fleet defeats a larger Japanese naval force in the Battle of Midway, around the Midway Atoll west of Hawaii. One of a handful of naval battles in the running for most decisive in history, Midway was the first major US victory in World War II’s Pacific Theater and permanently degraded the Japanese fleet, which lost four large aircraft carriers and almost 250 planes. The US victory gave it an opening to go on the offensive following the Pearl Harbor attack in December, helping to shift the balance of power in the Pacific.

The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown being struck by a Japanese aerial torpedo on June 4 (US National Archives via Wikimedia Commons)

June 8, 218: In a battle near Antioch, a rebel army supporting 14 year old imperial claimant Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus defeats an army under Roman Emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus. After his defeat, Macrinus attempted to flee west but was captured at Chalcedon and later executed. The Roman Senate enacted the damnatio memoriae penalty against him and his son/co-emperor Diadumenian, ordering the destruction of their portraits and the striking of their names from documents and inscriptions. The new emperor, who took the regal name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, was later dubbed “Elagabalus” because he had previously been a priest of the Syrian sun god Elagabalus. He established that deity as the chief god of the Roman pantheon, displacing Jupiter. Elagabalus is known today mostly for lurid and probably sensationalized accounts of the decadence of his court and of his sexual and romantic relationships. The Praetorian Guard assassinated him in 222 and elevated his cousin Severus Alexander to replace him.

June 8, 1941: World War II’s Operation Exporter begins. Allied forces invaded Syria and Lebanon and made relatively short work of their Vichy French defenders. The British government turned control of the region over to Charles de Gaulle’s Free French government under the condition that both mandates would be given their independence.

INTERNATIONAL

France 24 discusses the “vicious cycle” that now defines the rapidly warming Arctic:

The Arctic has been warming four times faster than anywhere else on the planet since 1979, according to multiple scientific studies. Melting sea ice is opening up paths for increased shipping and other vessel traffic in the region, especially along the Northern Sea Route, the Arctic shortcut between Europe and Asia that stretches more than 9,000 kilometres.

Shipping seasons are also being prolonged as a result of the warming climate.

But with more traffic comes more environmental degradation. The consequences are dire, particularly for climate heating, loss of biodiversity and pollution. And since the Arctic is a key regulator of the Earth's climate, what happens in this region can be felt thousands of kilometres away.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The Israeli military (IDF) killed at least one person in an airstrike on Syria’s Rif Dimashq province on Sunday. It’s claiming that the target was a Hamas member but I haven’t seen any confirmation of that as yet. The IDF resumed bombing targets in Syria for the first time in weeks on Tuesday after shelling into Israel from southern Syria. That shelling has reportedly been claimed by a group calling itself the “Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades,” which must be fairly new (or at least its name is new) given that Deif was killed last July and Hamas only confirmed his death in January.

The Syrian government announced on Saturday that it has closed the Rukban displaced persons camp, which had operated in southern Syria near the triple border with Jordan and Iraq since 2014. Initially supposed to temporarily house Syrians attempting to flee the country’s civil war into Jordan, it stopped being temporary when the Jordanian government closed the border. Camp residents, which at one point numbered around 45,000, took advantage of the facility’s location within the security cordon around the US military’s Tanf airbase to avoid Bashar al-Assad’s security forces. But the US refused to take responsibility for the camp’s humanitarian needs and the Syrian government blocked aid groups from accessing it, so residents frequently found themselves on the verge of starvation. There were only around 8000 people left in the camp when Assad was ousted in December and many of them had already returned home over the past few months.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Drop Site reports on one of the brigades that is spearheading the IDF’s ethnic cleansing operation:

“You just need to destroy the neighborhood, so that they can’t come back there. Why to destroy? That’s the mission; that’s what I carry out.”

Those are the words of an Israeli sergeant from the 432 Tzabar Battalion of the Givati Brigade who spoke to Drop Site News on condition of anonymity due to Israeli military policy. Givati was one of the brigades involved in implementing the General’s Plan—a policy devised by former General Giora Eiland that used the lack of access to water, food, and medicine as a weapon of war to force the besieged Palestinians in the north of Gaza to starve or surrender.

During the execution of the General’s Plan from October 2024 to January 2025, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in north Gaza—with many being forced into makeshift shelters at various places, including schools. The Givati Brigade, in which this sergeant serves, was one of the first brigades of the Israeli military to enter Gaza at the start of their genocidal assault. Over the past twenty months, they have taken part in effectively wiping the towns of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya, and Rafah off the map.

In other items:

• The IDF killed at least 75 people across Gaza on Saturday, including at least 16 in one airstrike in Gaza City and at least eight people in, amazingly, another attack on civilian gathered near a “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” facility in Rafah. The GHF’s distribution facilities remain closed indefinitely, due apparently to unspecified “threats” from Hamas and notably not due to the fact that the IDF has now killed at least 120 people in multiple attacks on aid seekers. It’s all very simple and believable.

• A new IDF massacre may be looming on the horizon, after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the military “to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza.” The Madleen is the lead vessel in the 2025 “Freedom Flotilla” operation, which left Sicily on June 1 carrying humanitarian aid intended for Gaza. The flotilla was supposed to have been led by a vessel called Conscience, but somebody—gosh who could it have been—carried out a drone strike on that craft in international waters near Malta last month. I don’t know how to interpret Katz’s order other than that he’s prepared to sink the flotilla if it comes to that. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition reported late Sunday that the IDF had boarded the Madleen and that “connection has been lost” with the vessel. That was the latest update before I published tonight’s newsletter.

• According to the IDF that Gaza City airstrike mentioned above killed the leader of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, Asaad Abu Sharia. While apparently not aware of Hamas’s October 7 plan ahead of time, the PMM took advantage of the situation and its fighters abducted a number of Israelis. Among them were the Bibas family, including 4 year old Ariel and 9 month old Kfir (the youngest person taken hostage in the attacks). The two children and their mother were subsequently killed in captivity.

• A French and Saudi-led conference that is scheduled to take place later this month in New York and was at one time supposed to include French recognition of a Palestinian state (alongside Saudi recognition of Israel) will, shockingly, not include that. After pushback from the Israeli government, French officials have reportedly assured their Israeli counterparts that the conference will merely involve discussion on the subject of “steps towards recognition” rather than actual recognition. Or, in other words, nothing. Attendees could spend the entire conference in silent contemplation of the true meaning of Christmas for all the actual good it will do anyone. At least they’ll get to see New York.

IRAN

According to Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, Tehran has obtained a “treasure trove” of documents related to Israel’s military and diplomatic posture that “should be unveiled soon.” It’s unclear how the Iranians obtained this alleged trove nor exactly do we know what it’s supposed to contain, though notably Khatib is claiming that it includes details on perhaps the worst kept secret in the entire world, Israel’s nuclear weapons program. It seems somewhat convenient that these documents are being revealed just as Iran may be facing punitive measures at the International Atomic Energy Agency over allegations about its own nuclear program, but I guess the timing could theoretically be coincidental.

ASIA

THAILAND

Rising tensions along the Thailand-Cambodia border appear to have subsided a bit on Sunday, as both governments announced that they’re pulling their military forces back to “previously agreed-upon positions.” A border skirmish late last month left one Cambodian soldier dead and put both countries on alert. As recently as Saturday they were both “reinforcing” their forces along the border, and Thai authorities imposed restrictions on border crossings in response to what they termed a “threat to Thailand’s sovereignty and security.” It’s still unclear how the dispute will finally be resolved as the two governments cannot seem to agree on next steps—Cambodia is taking a case to the United Nations International Court of Justice, while Thailand is calling for bilateral negotiations.

CHINA

Foreign Policy’s Christina Lu reports that the Trump administration’s new restrictions on Chinese student visas were likely welcomed in Beijing:

In its crusade against American universities, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that the Trump administration would “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese international students, including “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] or studying in critical fields.” The administration will also intensify scrutiny of all future visa applications from China and Hong Kong, Rubio said.

Beijing has for decades strived to develop its own research and talent pipelines—ambitions that may now also be boosted by the Trump administration’s continued threats and ongoing visa uncertainty. Roughly one-quarter of all international students in the United States come from China, which until recently sent more students to America than any other nation.

“China has wanted to hold onto the talent for a long time, and that’s one of the big reasons why they expanded their higher-education sector so rapidly in the early 2000s,” said Gaurav Khanna, an economist at the University of California, San Diego. Between 1999 and 2010, college enrollment in China skyrocketed from 1 million to 8 million students—an enormous surge that reflects China’s bid to keep more students in the country and establish itself as a tech and AI hub, Khanna said.

AFRICA

At Africa Is a Country, researcher Mebratu Kelecha considers the effect that Donald Trump’s protectionism may have on African nations. He argues that it offers them a chance to diversify their economic ties—and, in particular, to refocus on regional rather than international commerce:

One bright avenue for reducing external dependence is strengthening ties within Africa itself. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), operational since 2021, is an ambitious project aiming to knit together 54 African countries into a single market of 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. It represents Africa’s boldest effort yet to boost intra-continental commerce, which currently makes up only about 15% of Africa’s trade, compared to over 60% in Asia and 70% in Europe. The logic is straightforward: if African countries trade more with each other, they will be less beholden to external markets. A more self-contained African economy could better withstand global shocks—whether financial crises, pandemics, or the whims of foreign leaders—because it would spread risk across a broader internal base.

Early analyses of AfCFTA’s potential are encouraging. The World Bank estimates that by 2035, full implementation of AfCFTA could raise Africa’s exports by 32% and lift tens of millions of people out of poverty. It could also make the continent far more attractive to investment in manufacturing and services, as companies tap into economies of scale beyond their home country. In short, AfCFTA aspires to do nothing less than reconfigure the African economy—shifting it from an exporter of raw commodities into a diversified production base serving African consumers. Over time, this could help break the historic pattern where Africa sends out unprocessed minerals and crops and buys back finished goods at a premium, a cycle that has perpetuated underdevelopment since colonial times.

However, turning the paper agreements of AfCFTA into real commerce on the ground is a formidable challenge. Infrastructure gaps are a major bottleneck—you can’t trade if you can’t transport goods efficiently from an inland factory to a port or land border. Many African countries still lack reliable roads, railways, and electricity to support industrial growth. Customs procedures and regulatory standards need harmonization to ease the passage of goods. And some countries remain wary that opening up their markets might undercut local industries in the short term.

Implementing AfCFTA will require not just political will but also significant investment in connectivity and competitiveness. It is encouraging that even amidst these concerns, regional blocs and governments are actively working on these issues—from new cross-border highway projects to unified customs protocols. The direction is clear: Africa sees regional integration as key to its economic future, even if the journey will be long.

RWANDA

The Rwandan government says it will withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States after it was prevented from assuming that bloc’s rotating presidency on Saturday. The governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi objected to Rwanda assuming the chair while it is supporting (uhhh I mean “allegedly supporting”) the M23 offensive in the eastern DRC. Current president Equatorial Guinea is instead going to retain that post for at least another year.

EUROPE

UKRAINE

The Russian advance through eastern Ukraine continued over the weekend. Not only are Russian forces still approaching the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, but the Russian military on Sunday claimed that its forces were entering Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk oblast. There’s no confirmation of this and there had been no comment from Ukrainian officials at time of writing, but the Russians were just a few kilometers away from Dnipropetrovsk as far back as late March so this doesn’t come as a terribly surprising development. Assuming this is true it’s the first time the Russians have advanced into Dnipropetrovsk and it’s impossible to see it as anything other than a strategic setback for the Ukrainians—particularly if the Russians are able to make significant gains in the province.

SPAIN

Spain’s conservative opposition People’s Party drew tens of thousands of its supporters onto the streets of Madrid on Sunday demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The PP is alleging that a member of the PM’s Socialist Party undertook, presumably at his request, a “smear campaign” targeting police officers who were investigating accusations of corruption involving Sánchez’s family and members of his inner circle. Sánchez’s tenure as PM has been marked by corruption allegations, charges that he consistently denies and that have never advanced far enough to threaten his premiership. Polling suggests that the PP would win narrowly if new elections were held now, hence the drive to force Sánchez’s resignation.

AMERICAS

COLOMBIA

A gunman shot Colombian senator and likely presidential candidate Miguel Uribe in the head at a campaign event in Bogotá on Saturday. Doctors at the city’s Santa Fe hospital, where he was taken for emergency surgery, said on Sunday that he remains in “the most grave condition and the prognosis is reserved.” The shooter’s identity has not been released as far as I know, but authorities described him as a “minor” who is probably 15 years old. There has been no indication as to motive.

HAITI

The New York Times reports on the effect that Donald Trump’s new travel ban is having on people in Haiti:

Born in northeast Haiti with a heart defect, Brad Mertens Joseph is 6, has difficulty walking and is still in diapers.

His parents, accustomed to a dangerous nine-hour overnight bus ride to see cardiologists in the country’s violent capital, had finally found a solution to their son’s medical ailment, caused by a hole in his heart.

It involved open-heart surgery in Akron, Ohio, arranged by a nonprofit.

Those plans collapsed this week when President Trump issued an order banning people from a dozen countries, including Haiti, who don’t already have valid travel visas, from entering the United States

“When I heard that, I was really upset, and I wondered, ‘What are we going to do?’” the boy’s father, Dieudonné Joseph, said. “I was panicking, and I’m still panicking.”

The Josephs are among the many Haitians who are caught in the middle of Mr. Trump’s sweeping travel ban. From young professionals to medical residents to longtime visitors whose visas had lapsed, Haitians are bracing for the consequences of having a lifeline abruptly cut.

UNITED STATES

Finally, Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles to suppress ongoing protests over his administration’s immigration crackdown, over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. It is extraordinarily rare for a US president to call out the National Guard without at least a request from the state governor so this is a deeply troubling step on Trump’s part. The Intercept’s Nick Turse looks at the history of this type of action and the risk it entails:

The National Guard has, at times, been tapped to stifle dissent. In 2020, Trump requested that the governors of multiple states deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to suppress protests after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Many governors agreed, and thousands of troops from 11 states were deployed to D.C.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell riots after police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. That deployment was requested by California’s then-Gov. Pete Wilson.

The Guard was federalized during the New York postal strike in 1970, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, and during the 1967 Detroit uprising. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson used the National Guard to help enforce civil rights during the 1950s and 1960s.

But it is the 1970 deployment of the National Guard to crack down on anti-war protests in Kent, Ohio, that best illustrates the danger of involving the military in civilian law enforcement.