World roundup: August 13 2025

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Thailand, Russia, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

August 13 (or thereabouts), 838: An Abbasid army sacks the Byzantine city of Amorium, killing tens of thousands of people and carrying off thousands more as slaves. This was arguably the worst defeat the empire had suffered to the Arabs since the great conquests of the 7th century and represents a low point in Byzantine history. However, the Byzantine Empire’s fortunes soon began to improve under the “Macedonian” dynasty, for a variety of reasons, while the Abbasid caliphs lost effective control of their empire in the 860s and it began to fragment internally.

Miniature depicting the siege of Amorium, from a manuscript of the Synopsis of Histories by 11th century Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes (Wikimedia Commons)

August 13, 1521: Spanish and allied forces under Hernán Cortés conquer Tenochtitlan and capture the Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc. It’s estimated that somewhere between 100,000 and 240,000 people were killed during the two and a half month siege of the city. Cuauhtémoc remained in place as a puppet ruler, but the Aztec Empire was over and Cortés eventually executed him in 1525.

MIDDLE EAST

LEBANON

The recently appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, visited Lebanon on Wednesday to a somewhat lukewarm reception. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told him that “Lebanon is willing to cooperate with Iran within the framework of national sovereignty and mutual respect” but it “reject[s] any interference in our internal affairs from any party,” according to a statement issued by his office. Larijani apparently insisted that Iran does not interfere in Lebanese “internal affairs.” The barely concealed subtext here is Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah and the likelihood that the Lebanese government is going to try to disarm that group maybe as soon as later this year. Lebanese and Iranian officials have already begun sniping at one another verbally over that prospect and relations will presumably worsen if Lebanese authorities attempt to follow through.