World roundup: June 19 2024

Stories from Nigeria, Greece, Bolivia, and elsewhere

Happy Juneteenth to those who are celebrating!

TODAY IN HISTORY

June 19, 1097: The Siege of Nicaea ends

June 19, 1821: An Ottoman army defeats a group of fighters from the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends), a Greek independence movement, in battle near the town of Drăgășani (in modern Romania). This was one of the earliest battles of the Greek War of Independence, so clearly the Greeks’ fortunes picked up afterward.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Any previous indication of a let up by the Israeli military (IDF) in Rafah should have been undone by Wednesday’s activities, which saw Israeli heavy armor move further into the western parts of that city. The IDF has advanced closer to Mawasi, the coastal area where they advised civilians displaced from Rafah to go before they started attacking them there as they apparently did once again overnight. It’s unclear how much longer the IDF plans to pound Rafah at this level of intensity, nor is there any indication how much longer the Biden administration plans to keep pretending that it isn’t happening (though “indefinitely” would be my guess). Despite that alleged and aforementioned “let up,” which was ostensibly supposed to facilitate the influx of additional humanitarian aid into Rafah and beyond, there’s little indication that there’s been any increase in aid entering Gaza.

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