World roundup: February 7 2025

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Sudan, Venezuela, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

February 7, 1497: In the infamous “Bonfire of the Vanities,” Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola burns thousands of luxury items, including books, in a huge public bonfire in the city of Florence, Italy. Savonarola had arrived in Florence in 1490 and became widely known for his bombastic preaching against what he felt were the immoralities of the Renaissance and of the city’s leading family, the Medicis. This was not his first “bonfire of vanities” but it is the best known and so is generally regarded as the bonfire. Unfortunately for Savonarola, he became so well-known that Pope Alexander VI—noted fan of both the Renaissance and immorality—excommunicated him in May 1497 and in 1498 executed him on heresy and sedition charges.

February 7, 1992: The 12 member states of the European Community—Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and West Germany—sign the Maastricht Treaty, deepening European integration and helping to create the European Union. The EU now consists of 27 member states, while one of these founding dozen, the UK, has very famously quit the bloc.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

Border clashes between Syrian security forces and “Lebanese clans” (smugglers, it sounds like) left at least four people dead (three Lebanese, one Syrian) overnight according to Al-Monitor. The situation began with a raid on Thursday into a Syrian town near the Lebanese border that’s used by smugglers ostensibly with ties to Hezbollah. The raid sparked a gun battle that led to the deaths and drew Lebanese military units to the border. After the situation was deescalated, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa reportedly spoke by phone about “securing” the border.

LEBANON

Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy, Morgan Ortagus, visited Lebanon on Friday. She met with Aoun and then declared to reporters that the United States has “set clear red lines” regarding Hezbollah’s participation in the next Lebanese government. I’m unclear from the way this has been reported whether these “red lines” also apply to political parties on favorable terms with Hezbollah—recall that last week the US was demanding that the Amal Movement, which is not Hezbollah but is aligned with it, not be allowed to name Lebanon’s next finance minister. The idea that Morgan Ortagus (or the president she serves, for that matter) should have any role in the formation of Lebanon’s government is emblematic of the political dysfunction that has plagued the country for decades, but I digress.