TODAY IN HISTORY
August 14, 1480: The Ottoman army executes 800 men in the just-conquered southern Italian city of Otranto, ostensibly because they refused to convert to Islam. The “Martyrs of Otranto,” as they’ve become known, are regarded as the patron saints of the modern town and the Catholic Church celebrates their feast day on August 14.
August 14, 1947: At midnight, the Indian Independence Act of 1947 goes into effect, ending the British Raj and creating the independent states of India and Pakistan. This territory included the future state of Bangladesh, though at this time it was part of Pakistan. This date is commemorated as Pakistani Independence Day while August 15 is commemorated as Independence Day in India. Initially both countries commemorated August 15, but the Pakistanis later shifted to August 14, ostensibly because British Viceroy Louis Mountbatten held Pakistan’s independence ceremony on that date so that he could attend a similar ceremony in India the following day.
INTERNATIONAL
Following the Africa CDC’s lead, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the current mpox outbreak in and around the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be a global public health emergency. The outbreak appears to be spreading more rapidly than a year ago, with cases reported in 13 countries though the vast majority have been in the DRC. The number of new cases is up a whopping 160 percent this year compared with the same period last year, and this variant of the mpox virus exhibits a 3 to 4 percent fatality rate (by contrast, the strain responsible for the global outbreak of mpox in 2022 was fatal in less than 1 percent of cases). The WHO declaration may spur international action in terms of supplying affected governments with vaccines and taking steps to minimize the risk of further spread.
MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
The focus of international attention has shifted away from the ongoing atrocity in Gaza toward the mounting risk of region-wide war, which is understandable but also regrettable. A new piece from +972 Magazine’s Yousef Aljamal offers an important glimpse of life inside the territory:
Since October 7, my life has been split between two parallel realms. In the first, I go about my daily life as usual here in Turkey, where I work, visit my friends, do my routine shopping, and take care of my immediate family. In the second realm, I am immersed in the daily reports of the death, destruction, displacement, and fear that my family, friends, and neighbors are enduring in Gaza, and try to help them as much as possible.
My family in Gaza count themselves among the lucky ones: they have a roof over their heads. Thirty-five of my relatives are currently sharing my parents’ overcrowded house in Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip. In January, they were temporarily displaced when Israel issued evacuation orders and sent tanks into the camp, but they subsequently managed to return.
With around 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents displaced and living in makeshift tents, ill-equipped displacement centers, or on the streets, my family are better off than most. Yet they still face severe hardships and indignities every day, forced to drink polluted water and search for food and cooking supplies. This is what the daily struggle for survival looks like inside the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.
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