World roundup: March 11 2024

Stories from Israel-Palestine, North Korea, Ukraine, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 11, 843: Byzantine Empress Theodora restores the veneration of religious icons in a ceremony held in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Thus ended the second period of Byzantine iconoclasm, which had begun under Emperor Leo V in 815. Iconoclasm had its origins in the empire’s 8th century struggles against the Islamic caliphate and the massive 727 volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini (Thira). It was decided that God was angry at the Byzantines specifically because they venerated icons. Leo was motivated to revive the practice allegedly by observing that iconoclastic emperors tended to live full lives and die of natural causes while iconophilic emperors tended to die violently. Theodora was aligned with the iconophilic faction at court, and when she assumed power as empress regnant in 842 she called the Council of Constantinople, which in early March 843 made iconophilism the official Church position.

March 11, 1917: British forces capture Baghdad from the Ottoman Empire.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

The Israeli military (IDF) is reportedly trying to determine whether or not it killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades armed wing, in an airstrike in central Gaza over the weekend. That attack was apparently planned with intelligence that Issa was there and the IDF says that it killed at least five people but it hasn’t been able to confirm if Issa was one of them. If he was he would easily be the highest-ranking Hamas official the IDF has killed since October 7. It’s unclear how his death might affect ceasefire talks, such as they are.