World roundup: June 9-10 2025
Stories from Israel-Palestine, China, Sudan, and elsewhere
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TODAY IN HISTORY
June 9, 721: An Aquitanian army under Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeats an invading Arab army under the Umayyad governor of Andalus, al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani, at the Battle of Toulouse. Odo’s relief army was able to sucker the Arabs away from their siege of the city through a feigned retreat before turning and virtually annihilating the invaders (Khawlani was among the dead). Though much less famous than the 732 Battle of Tours, which gets great press as the battle that Saved Christendom, Toulouse was arguably just as important. If Khawlani had been able to capture Toulouse he could have established it as a base for future campaigns against the Franks and Tours, or whatever battle wound up replacing it, might have gone much differently.
June 9, 1815: The Congress of Vienna, intended to sort out a new balance of power in Europe following the end of the French Revolution and the downfall of Napoleon, concludes with a “Final Act” establishing the terms of the new continental framework. Among other things, Vienna established the “Congress System” under which the five “Great Powers”—Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom—would manage European affairs, and also established the reactionary “Conservative Order” to tamp down revolutionary sentiment. The whole system fell apart under the pressures of nationalism and finally during the Revolutions of 1848, though parts of it were restored under the Concert of Europe system spearheaded by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
June 10, 1190: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I drowns in southern Anatolia on his way to join what we now call the Third Crusade. His death contributed heavily to the breakup of the Crusader army and therefore to Richard the Lionheart’s decision to abandon plans to besiege Jerusalem.
June 10, 1898: US Marines and Cuban forces capture Guantánamo Bay from Spain after a five day battle. The US quickly established a naval base there that proved critical in winning the decisive naval battle and siege of Santiago in July, which essentially ended the Spanish-American war in Cuba. The conflict continued on other fronts until August and Guantánamo remains a US possession to the present day.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
Two drone strikes in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province killed at least two people on Tuesday. Given the location and the nature of the attacks there’s some reason to believe that these were US military strikes though nobody has made any claims of responsibility as yet.
LEBANON
An Israeli military (IDF) drone strike killed at least two people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. The Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement that “an Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike in the village of Shebaa, killing two people and wounding one.” It identified them as a father and his two sons, with one son surviving at least for the moment. The IDF is claiming that the two people it killed were involved with Hezbollah and the Hezbollah-aligned “Lebanese Resistance Brigades” militia.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
In what seems now to be a daily event, the IDF opened fire on a group of Palestinians who were approaching a “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” aid distribution site in central Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least 17 people. The IDF said, as it always does in these cases, that soldiers fired “warning shots” at “suspects” who were approaching them. They were among the more than 70 people the IDF killed in Gaza on Tuesday, along with at least two people in what AFP called “a large-scale military operation” in the West Bank city of Nablus. The previous day, Israeli soldiers and unspecified “local gunmen” killed at least 14 people in another mass shooting near an aid center in Rafah. Witnesses described Palestinian attackers who appeared to be working with the IDF firing on aid seekers. Since we know that the IDF is working with at least one gang in southern Gaza, that description makes sense.
In other items:
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told reporters on Tuesday that he doesn’t “think” (actually he could’ve stopped there) that the creation of an independent Palestinian state—the zombie “two-state solution”—is still US government policy. This is of course a shocking…verbalization of what’s actually been US policy for at least the last quarter century and really going all the way back to the 1967 war that saw Israel occupy Gaza and the West Bank. Obviously ambassadors don’t set policy, but Huckabee’s comment only deviated from the status quo insofar as he suggested a resolution—creating a Palestinian state out of territory currently belonging to some other Arab state—whereas Washington’s approach heretofore has been to allow the occupation to continue indefinitely.
The Trump administration blacklisted six Palestinian affiliated entities on Tuesday including Addameer, a West Bank-based organization that provides legal support for Palestinian prisoners of Israel. It alleged that the group has ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the US has designated as a terrorist group.
The much splashier sanctions news involved the United Kingdom, joined by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway, blacklisting Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The usual mix of asset freezes and travel bans applies, so in practical terms the sanctions may not be much more than a nuisance. But symbolically sanctioning a couple of sitting government ministers is a pretty big deal, and especially in Smotrich’s case (as finance minister) may have ramifications for Israel’s relations with those five countries. Certainly they sparked outrage within the Israeli government, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar calling the designations “outrageous” and vowing retaliation. No more SodaStreams for the UK, I guess.
Smotrich canceled the waiver that allows Israeli banks to work with their Palestinian counterparts on Tuesday. He’s threatened in the past to take this step, which may very well collapse the West Bank economy since those Palestinian banks can only access the outside world via Israeli institutions. I’m sure Smotrich doesn’t care, but this is a punitive step that might wind up causing as much trouble for the Israeli government as it does for the Palestinian Authority if it causes significant chaos in the territory.
After seizing the Madleen flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean early Monday morning, the Israeli government deported four of its 12 participants, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, on Tuesday. The remaining eight participants are contesting their deportation orders.
The Israeli Knesset will vote on Wednesday on a motion to dissolve and move to a snap election. A couple of ultra-orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition are threatening to vote in favor of dissolution because of the ongoing tension over conscripting Haredim into the IDF. Those parties are angry over Netanyahu’s failure to pass a law shielding them from conscription. The chance that these parties will follow through on their threat is slim—politically they’re probably better off with Netanyahu in charge even if he’s failed to deliver on the law they want—but it’s not zero. Even if they do vote for dissolution, though, that vote wouldn’t necessarily be decisive and Netanyahu could drag the process out for months. Huckabee is reportedly negotiating with Haredim leaders on Netanyahu’s behalf, which is wholly inappropriate for a foreign ambassador but completely unsurprising coming from Huckabee.
YEMEN
The Israeli Navy attacked the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah on Tuesday, the first time it has done so, after the Houthis fired a missile toward Israel that failed to reach its target. I haven’t seen any indication of casualties but the IDF is now talking about imposing a naval blockade on Houthi-controlled northern Yemen, which could be debilitating from a humanitarian perspective.
IRAN
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it would soon be submitting a counterproposal to the Trump administration as part of the ongoing negotiations around Tehran’s nuclear program. Later in the day, Donald Trump pre-rejected that counterproposal while announcing that US and Iranian negotiators would nevertheless meet again on Thursday. It’s unclear what’s left to discuss. Trump is reportedly “fixated” on the idea that Iran must completely give up its uranium enrichment program and the Iranians have said multiple times that they won’t do that. The Trump administration continues to float its “regional consortium” idea as a potential compromise, but even under that framework the Iranians remain unwilling to surrender their enrichment program entirely.
ASIA
MYANMAR
A Myanmar rebel group calling itself the “People’s Liberation Army” claimed on Tuesday to have shot down a military aircraft over the country’s Sagaing region. Authorities have acknowledged the plane crash but are claiming the mechanical problems were the cause.
CHINA
Another round of US-Chinese trade talks in London extended into a second day on Tuesday, after which Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang claimed that the parties had come to terms on “a framework for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the phone call on June 5th and the consensus reached at the Geneva meeting.” Sounds wordy, at least. Details are not yet available and might not matter if the fallout from the Geneva meeting is any indication, but we’ll see. In the meantime, The Washington Post’s Katrina Northrup reports that Beijing is weathering Donald Trump’s trade war much better than Trump and his advisers might have predicted:
China has returned to trade talks with the United States this week holding, from its perspective, a strong hand: Its economy is bearing up better than many people — including President Donald Trump — expected. It has watched as Trump’s unconventional trade policy has suffered some legal setbacks. And it has a geopolitical ace card: It is controlling the export of much-needed rare earths.
This shows how the Trump administration underestimated Beijing’s ability to withstand the pain of tariffs, according to analysts both inside and outside China. The tariffs reached a minimum of 145 percent before a temporary truce was declared in Geneva last month.
“Back in February, the mainstream narrative in the U.S. was, ‘Oh, the Chinese economy is bad, so if the U.S. is going to use tariff stick, China would have no choice but to surrender,’” said Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Now, Washington appears to be acknowledging that “China was better prepared for the trade war in the first stage,” Wu said.
OCEANIA
SAMOA
The Samoan government will hold its snap parliamentary election on August 29. Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa dissolved parliament earlier this month after her FAST party splintered and left her unable to pass legislation.
AFRICA
SUDAN
The Sudanese military on Tuesday accused Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar and his “Libyan National Army” of attacking Sudanese border outposts in collaboration with the Rapid Support Forces militant group. It had previously accused Haftar of funneling weapons and other support to the RSF but this is the first time it’s claimed that he’s gotten directly involved in the war. There’s been no response from the LNA but the accusation puts the Egyptian government in something of an awkward position, inasmuch as its backs both Haftar and the Sudanese military. It will be interesting to see how (or whether) it responds to these charges.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
According to Reuters, the Trump administration is insisting that the Rwandan military withdraw from the eastern DRC as a condition of the peace deal it’s trying to negotiate between the Congolese government and the Rwandan government along with its M23 militant clients. Rwanda is believed to have thousands of soldiers currently on Congolese soil supporting M23. It’s unclear how the Rwandan government, which has always claimed that its operations in the DRC are self-defensive in nature citing the presence there of remnants of the Hutu militants who were responsible for the country’s 1994 genocide, feels about this condition. The Trump proposal does also include the formation of something called the “Joint Security Coordination Mechanism,” which could be a vehicle for addressing the presence of those génocidaires in the DRC.
EUROPE
RUSSIA
The Russian and Ukrainian governments have completed two phases of the massive prisoner exchange they negotiated in their most recent round of peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month. On Monday the two sides exchanged prisoners younger than 25, while on Tuesday they swapped sick and wounded captives. Additional exchanges are supposed to follow, including a swap of the remains of thousands of soldiers from each side. However, these first two phases have been marked by allegations from the Ukrainians that the Russians are not abiding by the agreed-upon terms and from the Russians that the Ukrainians are dragging their feet on the whole process, so it’s possible that things could be breaking down.
The European Commission proposed another round of Russia sanctions on Tuesday that includes a ban on the European Union’s importation of Russian refined oil products, a lowering of the international “price cap” on Russian oil from $60 per barrel to $45 per barrel, and a prohibition on any business related to the Nord Stream pipeline project. The new measures would need the approval of all 27 EU member states and the governments of both Hungary and Slovakia have suggested that they will not support additional sanctions. That said, it’s possible that the other members of the bloc could design a package of concessions that would entice those governments to go along with this proposal.
UKRAINE
While the prisoner exchanges have been taking place, the Russian military has been maintaining a torrid pace in terms of its Ukrainian bombardments. It launched a whopping 479 drones into Ukraine overnight Sunday into Monday, its most active overnight bombardment since its 2022 invasion, then followed that up the next night with at least 315 drones. Ukrainian air defenses seem to have held up fairly well, as Kyiv reported only one person wounded on Monday and three killed with 13 wounded on Tuesday. On the ground, meanwhile, the Russian military has reportedly seized additional territory in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk oblast and now says it’s aiming to establish a “buffer zone” in that province to secure its position in neighboring Donetsk oblast.
AMERICAS
COLOMBIA
Colombian authorities are pointing their collective finger at Estado Mayor Central, one of the most prominent factions of ex-Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters, for a spree attack that involved the detonation of at least 24 bombs in the city of Cali and parts of the surrounding region on Tuesday. The blasts collectively killed at least seven people and left another 28 wounded. Most of the bombings took place near police stations, some of which subsequently came under attack by (allegedly) FARC-EMC gunmen.
MEXICO
Mexican police crossed into the Guatemalan border village of La Mesilla on Sunday amid a shootout with gunmen in Mexico’s Chiapas state. Police killed at least four of the gunmen prior to crossing the border and continuing their clash. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters on Monday that an investigation is underway. Chiapas Governor Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar, who is from Sheinbaum’s MORENA party, claimed that the gunmen crossed into Mexico from Guatemala and has accused Guatemalan authorities of “protecting” criminals. The Guatemalan government has only said that it is also investigating the incident. There were Guatemalan soldiers apparently present in La Mesilla but authorities insist that they did not get involved in the gun battle.
UNITED STATES
Finally, Donald Trump has deployed hundreds of US Marines into Los Angeles, upping the ante on his attempt to violently suppress protests against his immigration crackdown. He’d already activated hundreds of National Guard soldiers for that purpose even though California Governor Gavin Newsom had not requested it. Newsom has characterized Trump’s latest deployments as “the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president,” for whatever that’s worth. While there has been some property violence associated with the demonstrations they appear to be largely peaceful and it’s starting to look more like Trump is using them as an excuse to call out the US military to make a grand show of brutalizing people he perceives to be his enemies.
There is of course a powerful argument to be made that what’s happening in LA now is the inevitable return home of what the United States has been inflicting on other parts of the world over the past three decades, as Spencer Ackerman notes:
Aimé Césaire's seminal 1950 Discourse on Colonialism sought to make sense of a West emerging from the spectacular violence of Nazi Germany with certain convenient amnesias. Hailing from the French Caribbean colony of Martinique, Césaire found it risible that a shattered Europe did not – or, more accurately, would not – connect Nazi atrocities to those that the great European powers committed against the native populations of their claimed overseas possessions.
"[B]efore they were [Nazism's] victims, they were its accomplices," Césaire wrote. “[T]hey tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them… they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples." Césaire called this a "terrific boomerang effect." With some refinement, his concept is now known as the "Imperial Boomerang."
Césaire would definitely have recognized the Imperial Boomerang landing on the streets of Los Angeles. In the viral videos of chipped concrete raining on police cars from overpasses, Césaire would have seen the lineage of Palestinian stones thrown at Western-backed Israeli occupying forces, or even trash thrown by Kurds in Syria furious at the retreating US forces that left them to their fate from Turkish invaders in 2019. In the arrival of Black Hawk helicopters, mass surveillance tools, and the federalized California National Guard to LA, Césaire would have seen the fingerprints of the so-called US ‘War on Terror.’ As this piece was being edited, CNN reported that a battalion-sized force of 700 Marines would soon arrive in Los Angeles as if it was Fallujah.
And in the inciting event of ICE officers in bulletproof vests snatching unarmed laborers from a Home Depot parking lot – strange how their employers tend not to get arrested, huh? – Césaire would have seen not only the arbitrary detentions that are central features of military occupations, but the vengeful persecution of Western governments against the arrival of migrants from the countries those Western militaries destabilize.