World roundup: December 4 2023

Stories from the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Ukraine, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

December 4, 1676: A Swedish army under King Charles XI defeats an invading Danish army at the Battle of Lund. Though a relatively small battle in terms of the number of soldiers involved, in percentage terms this is one of the bloodiest battles in European history. Of the 21,000 or so soldiers involved on both sides, roughly two-thirds were killed or wounded. The Swedish victory thwarted the Danish invasion and is therefore considered a turning point in the 1675-1679 Scanian War.

December 4, 1872: The merchant vessel Mary Celeste is discovered floating adrift and deserted near the Azores Islands. The Mary Celeste’s lifeboat was missing but the vessel itself was still seaworthy, which needless to say was puzzling. Conditions on board suggested that the crew abandoned ship fairly abruptly, but their ultimate fate was never determined so there’s no testimony as to what caused them to flee. Theories as to what happened have ranged from the paranormal (giant sea monsters, the Bermuda Triangle even though the geography doesn’t work) to the scandalous (mutiny, piracy, attempted insurance fraud) to the mundane (weather, malfunction, concerns about the safety of the ship’s alcoholic cargo).

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

The Israeli military (IDF) pursued its ground incursion into southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Monday, after issuing a new warning for residents to leave parts of that city. I’m not entirely clear how the IDF delivered that warning—Reuters says it posted a map to X, which I haven’t seen but if that’s it then I hope Gazan residents all had their cell phones and Twitter accounts handy. Of potentially greater significance, the IDF told people to evacuate west toward the Mediterranean coast and south toward Rafah while continuing to bombard those places anyway. Residents of Rafah have reportedly been trying to flee, but there’s nowhere they can go. The IDF appears to be winding down operations in northern Gaza, having I guess achieved whatever it was trying to achieve there, though it did kill some 50 people on Monday in two Gaza City schools that were serving as makeshift shelters.