World roundup: June 18 2025

Stories from Iran, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

June 18, 1815: Napoleon’s revived imperial dreams run smack into British (with allies) and Prussian armies at the Battle of Waterloo. The French cause was arguably lost when Napoleon defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny two days earlier, which despite the French victory ended with the intact Prussian army retreating in good order such that it was still available to reinforce the British army. At Waterloo, the British, under Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, were able to hold on long enough for the Prussians to reach them and make a decisive attack that sent the French into retreat. Napoleon abdicated (well, re-abdicated) on June 22 and was forced once again into exile. This time he was sent not to nearby Elba but to distant (and considerably harder to escape) St. Helena, where he died on May 5, 1821.

Irish painter William Sadler’s c.1815 The Battle of Waterloo (Wikimedia Commons)

June 18, 1954: Exiled army officer Carlos Castillo Armas invades Guatemala with 480 soldiers and the support of the US government, in the opening strike of the 1954 Guatemalan coup. Castillo Armas wound up in Honduras following the 1949 coup attempt against then-President Juan José Arévalo, at which point the CIA generously offered to put him on its payroll to the tune of $3000 per week. When the Eisenhower administration came to power in 1953 it decided that the current Guatemalan president, leftist Jacobo Árbenz, had to go in the name of Defeating Communism, and Castillo Armas emerged as the best candidate for the job. Although his invading force was quite small, a psychological warfare campaign by the US government is credited with demoralizing the Guatemalan army and eventually leaving Árbenz with no choice but to resign. Castillo Armas’s reign is noted for its brutality and corruption, which locked Guatemala onto the path toward its 1960-1996 civil war.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

The Israeli military (IDF) killed at least 72 Palestinians across Gaza on Wednesday. That figure includes at least 29 people killed while attempting to obtain humanitarian assistance. One benefit to the Israeli government of having started a war with Iran is that relatively little attention is now being paid to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. The war has also benefited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politically, as Israel’s ostensible opposition parties are mostly tripping over each other to praise his latest act of aggression. Just a week ago there was some question as to whether Netanyahu’s coalition might be fragmenting, but at this point he might as well be leading a national unity government opposed by nobody—other than Israel’s Palestinian citizens, of course.