World roundup: June 5 2024

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

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Apologies, but I’m going to need to skip our regular voiceover again tonight. I am going to reset a little on my end and hopefully get back to normal next week.

TODAY IN HISTORY

June 5, 1963: In what’s become known as the 15 Khordad Movement (because it took place on the 15th day of the Iranian month of Khordad), protests and riots break out in cities across Iran after the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini over his criticisms of the Iranian government. The previously little-known Khomeini emerged suddenly on the public stage months earlier when he angrily denounced Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s “White Revolution” reforms as contrary to Islam. The outpouring of anger over his arrest cemented him as a leading opposition figure, a status he carried with him into exile and all the way through the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Khomeini addressing a crowd in Qom on June 3, 1963 (emam.com via Wikimedia Commons)

June 5, 1967: The Six Day War begins.

INTERNATIONAL

A new report published in the journal Earth System Science Data finds that Earth warmed at the “unprecedented” rate of 0.26 degrees Celsius from 2014 through last year. Meanwhile, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that global average temperatures last month reached a record high for the month of May, which means the planet has now experienced 12 straight months of record high temperatures. Thus dubious milestone has coincided with an increase in average global temperatures to 1.63 degrees higher than the 1850-1900 baseline used for measuring climate change, which the keen observer will note exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement’s 1.5 degree benchmark (though one year’s data isn’t enough to say we’ve gone past that figure). Temperatures are likely to subside a bit over the coming months as La Niña kicks in, but the longer term upward trend will continue.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Hamas leaders may be throwing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a lifeline by rejecting Joe Biden’s latest ceasefire proposal so that Netanyahu doesn’t have to do so himself. The group’s political boss, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Wednesday that he’ll settle for nothing less than “a comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoners swap.” Biden’s announcement on Friday seemed to point toward a “comprehensive ending” but Israeli officials quickly pushed back on that and the ambiguity has been the dominant story surrounding the proposal for the past several days. Haniyeh’s comments probably give Netanyahu an opening to walk away from the proposal and will certainly give the Biden administration leeway to blame Hamas for quashing a potential deal.

Elsewhere: