World roundup: April 21 2025

Stories from Afghanistan, Sweden, El Salvador, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

April 21, 43 BCE: In the followup to April 14’s Battle of Forum Gallorum, Mark Antony’s army is again defeated by a Roman consular army led by Aulus Hirtius with the support of Octavian at the Battle of Mutina. Conveniently for Octavian, Hirtius died during the battle, and when his fellow consul Pansa died the following day of wounds suffered at Forum Gallorum, Octavian was left to claim credit for the victory uncontested. The newly empowered Octavian soon turned on the Senate and later allied with Antony under the framework of the Second Triumvirate.

April 21, 1526: An army led by a Timurid prince named Babur defeats the Lodi Sultanate at Panipat and lays the foundation for the Mughal dynasty.

This illustration of the Battle of Panipat, from a manuscript of the Baburnama, depicts the beheading of Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi (Wikimedia Commons)

April 21, 1802 (probably): A Saudi-Wahhabi army/mob sacks the city of Karbala.

INTERNATIONAL

A new study finds that seasonal snowfall across the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range has declined to its lowest level in 23 years. This has sparked drought concerns over a region that encompasses much of southern and southeastern Asia and parts of China, potentially impacting some 2 billion people. What is especially alarming is that this is of course part of a climate change-fueled trend rather than an anomaly, and water shortages are becoming a fact of life across Asia as glaciers retreat and snowfall levels continue to decline.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

+972 Magazine reports on the Israeli military occupation of southern Syria:

Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially framed the Israeli incursion into southern Syria as “temporary,” Israel’s deepening military presence suggests otherwise. More recently, Defense Minister Israel Katz affirmed that Israel is prepared to stay in the country indefinitely.

Mohammed Fayyad, a lawyer and human rights activist, was beaten and detained by Israeli forces in January while covering their operations in the village of Hamidye. In addition to these violent encounters, he told +972 in his office in Quneitra that Israeli military officials have been “entering villages in white civilian vehicles to collect data, carrying out statistical questionnaires under the pretext of offering humanitarian aid.” In addition, he claimed that they have been offering to pay locals “at least $75 per day" to build the bases’ infrastructure.

“After taking everything from us, they offer us food, medicine, electricity, and work,” Fayyad explained. “They aim to provoke division and separation from the new administration.” But so far, he noted, residents have been rejecting these offers and “refuse any interference regarding the division of Syria.”