World roundup: April 2 2025

Stories from Iran, Ukraine, Greenland, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

April 2, 1917: US President Woodrow Wilson speaks to a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson made his case for war by appealing to idealistic notions of spreading democracy along with anger over German u-boat attacks on US shipping and fears provoked by the discovery of the Zimmerman Telegram. Congress declared war on April 6.

Wilson’s address (Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons)

April 2, 1930: Following the death of Ethiopian Empress Zewditu, her regent and designated heir, Ras Tafari Makonnen, assumes the throne under the regal name Haile Selassie. Over the next 44 years and among other things, Haile Selassie oversaw the adoption of Ethiopia’s first and second constitutions, abolished slavery, and made the country a charter member of both the Organization of African Unity (precursor to the African Union) and the United Nations. He also oversaw a failed effort to integrate Eritrea that sparked a 30 year war of independence. And he’s the central figure in the Rastafari movement. Haile Selassie was overthrown in a military coup in September 1974 and was executed (though the subsequent Derg government claimed that he died of natural causes) about a year later.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The Israeli military (IDF) carried out another wave of airstrikes across Syria on Wednesday, targeting military and research facilities near Damascus and in Hama and Homs provinces. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights strikes on the Hama military airbase killed at least four people. It’s unclear whether there were additional casualties in the other attacks.