World roundup: January 29 2025

Stories from Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

January 29, 1258: The army of Đại Việt under the Trần dynasty defeats the Mongols at the Battle of Đông Bộ Đầu. Their defeat was so severe that the Mongols were forced to withdraw from Đại Việt altogether, marking the end of their first attempt at conquering the region. The Mongols made two more attempts in the 1280s, both of which failed, before the Trần rulers decided to make themselves vassals of the Mongols in order to spare themselves any further invasions.

January 29, 1814: At the Battle of Brienne, a French army directly commanded by Napoleon (who had only gotten to the front a couple of days earlier) defeated a combined Prussian-Russian army in the waning days of the War of the Sixth Coalition. The French victory was nearly a disaster, as Napoleon himself was almost captured by a unit of Russian Cossacks. In the end Napoleon was able to prevent this relief army from reinforcing a larger Allied force under the command of Prince Karl Philipp of Schwarzenberg, but the combined invasion of that army and Arthur Wellesley’s army from Spain was too much for even Napoleon and he was forced to abdicate in April.

French painter Jean-Antoine-Siméon Fort’s c.1850 Bataille de Brienne, 29 janvier 1814 (Wikimedia Commons)

MIDDLE EAST

TURKEY

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Hamas politburo member Muhammad Ismail Darwish in Ankara on Wednesday. I mention this because it leads into journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith’s Foreign Policy piece contrasting Erdoğan’s public support for the Palestinians and his private support for Israel:

Relations between Turkey and Israel, restored in 2022 after a four-year freeze over the killing of 60 Palestinians by Israeli security forces at the Gaza border, were severed anew last year. On April 9, 2024, Turkey halted exports of products from 54 categories, including construction materials, to Israel. A few weeks later, Turkey halted all bilateral trade. This trade was worth $6.8 billion in 2023, 76 percent of it comprising Turkish exports—primarily steel, construction materials, and mechanical devices.

Erdogan has since said Turkey has “severed all ties” with Israel. The embargo continues amid the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on Jan. 19, and the Turkish leader has pledged to “intensify” efforts to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes.

But researchers with Stop Fuelling Genocide, a campaign to pressure governments to halt energy sales to Israel that is backed by the lobbying organization Progressive International, have produced evidence, shared with the media, showing that cargo ships carrying oil are still traveling from Turkey to Israel despite the embargo and trying to cover their tracks.