World roundup: June 28 2023

Stories from Sudan, Russia, Brazil, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

June 28, 1914: A group of six attackers aided by a Serbian irredentist paramilitary group known as the “Black Hand” attack Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife as they’re visiting Sarajavo. Although their initial bombing attempt failed, one of the six attackers, Gavrilo Princip, shot and killed both targets after a reception involving the mayor of Sarajevo and the governor of Bosnia. Arguably one of the most consequential acts in world history, within a month the assassination had caused Serbia and Austria-Hungary to declare war on one another, and when their allies jumped into the pool as well the result was World War I.

June 28, 1919: Five years later, the Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending Germany’s involvement in World War I. This is the most important of the multiple World War I peace treaties, which include the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye with Austria in September 1919, the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary in June 1920, and the Treaty of Sèvres with the rump Ottoman Empire in August 1920. The terms of Sèvres were largely superseded by the July 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that ended the Turkish War of Independence.

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

• New research suggests that humanity has pumped so much water out of the ground that it is affecting the Earth’s rotation. Scientists have been aware that the planet’s axis is meandering for some time now, but previously they had attributed that phenomenon primarily to melting ice and altered weather patterns due to climate change. But a piece in the journal Geophysical Research Letters suggests that depletion of groundwater stores is also a major contributor. All of these things affect the Earth’s rotation the same way, by redistributing mass on such a scale that it destabilizes the axis. There are probably other factors at play as well but that’s still being studied.

• While we’re on the subject of melting ice, research also shows that Antarctica is rapidly losing its “landfast” ice, which is sea ice that’s attached to coastal land. “Landfast” ice acts as an anchor for the creation of sea ice, and the creation of Antarctic sea ice is a key element in global ocean current formation. Losing it thus could have huge climate impacts down the road. Its loss also has serious biodiversity ramifications.