World roundup: June 20 2025

Stories from Iran, South Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

June 20, 1631: Algerian pirates sack the Irish village of Baltimore. They carted off 107 captives, of whom only three ever made it back to Ireland.

June 20, 1789: Members of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath, in which they pledged not to dissolve under royal pressure. This was one of the first serious acts of defiance in the French Revolution and helped establish the power of the National Assembly.

French painter Jacques-Louis David’s 1791 work Serment du Jeu de Paume (Wikimedia Commons)

MIDDLE EAST

LEBANON

The Israeli military (IDF) killed one person in a drone strike in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district on Friday. Israeli officials claimed that they had targeted a Hezbollah “commander.”

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

The IDF killed at least 82 people across Gaza on Friday, including at least 34 killed in multiple shootings near aid distribution facilities. Gazan officials have counted at least 409 Palestinians killed and 3203 wounded in attacks near those facilities since the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” began kettling people on the IDF’s behalf last month. The IDF reportedly damaged what’s left of Gaza’s telecommunications system earlier this week, which has made basic phone and internet services even spottier than they already were. That appears to be contributing to the carnage at aid facilities, as Palestinians are showing up to closed distribution centers (and being treated like suspicious trespassers by the IDF) because they were unable to receive online closure notices.