World roundup: July 23 2025

Stories from Iran, India, Ukraine, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

July 23, 1319: A Knights Hospitaller-led fleet defeats and virtually annihilates a smaller fleet from the Anatolian Beylik of Aydin in a battle just off the coast of the Aegean island of Chios. The Aydinids controlled the port city of Smyrna (modern Izmir) and established a robust piracy operation in the eastern Mediterranean in the late 13th century. After the Knights seized the island of Rhodes from the Byzantines in 1310, they assumed responsibility for protecting Christian shipping in the eastern Mediterranean from Turkish pirates. Some sort of confrontation with Aydin was thus inevitable. The outcome at Chios was little more than an inconvenience for the Aydinids, whose pirate racket thrived until a pair of Christian expeditions called the “Smyrniote crusades” took part of Smyrna from them in 1351. But the Christian victory did help formulate a model for later (and much larger) naval campaigns against the Ottomans.

July 23, 1952: Egypt’s 23 July Revolution sees the toppling of King Farouk in favor of a military junta led by the “Free Officers Movement.” One of the most consequential acts in 20th century Middle Eastern history, the coup ultimately brought Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser to power. Suffice to say he turned out to be pretty important.

Nasser (right) with nominal junta leader Muhammad Naguib at a 1954 celebration commemorating the second anniversary of the coup (Wikimedia Commons)

INTERNATIONAL

The United Nations International Court of Justice issued a dramatic ruling on Wednesday with respect to climate change:

The United Nations’ highest court has said that countries must meet their climate obligations – and that failing to do so could violate international law, potentially opening the door for affected nations to seek reparations in future legal cases.

In a groundbreaking advisory opinion delivered at the Peace Palace in The Hague on Wednesday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said states must act urgently to address the “existential threat” of climate change by cooperating to cut emissions, following through on global climate agreements, and protecting vulnerable populations and ecosystems from harm.

Reading the opinion, ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said that greenhouse gas emissions are “unequivocally caused by human activities” and have cross-border effects.

“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system … may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” Iwasawa said. He called the climate crisis “an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet”.

As that excerpt notes this was an advisory opinion in a case brought by the Pacific nation of Vanuatu and joined by scores of other countries. While significant from a legal and possibly historical perspective the ruling is not binding and even if it were the ICJ has no enforcement mechanism. Even so it will (as the excerpt also notes) probably have some practical impact. It could, for example, serve as precedent for cases brought against climate polluters in national court systems.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

This was probably inevitable, but in the face of recurring sectarian violence and repeated Israeli military interventions the Syrian government has reportedly turned to its Turkish patron for support. What that could mean is largely unclear but it’s probably going to go over poorly with an Israeli government that has been publicly leery of Turkey’s involvement in Syria to date. It may also be bad news for Syrian Kurds, given Ankara’s position on the Syrian Democratic Forces and the question of Kurdish autonomy. US envoy Tom Barrack has been urging the SDF to conclude an agreement that would bring it under Damascus’s control, but that may be difficult for them if the Turkish government is setting the terms.