World roundup: May 10-11 2025
Stories from Israel-Palestine, India, Ukraine, and elsewhere
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Happy Mother’s Day!
TODAY IN HISTORY
May 10, 1857: A unit of sepoys in the town of Meerut mutinies against their commanders in the British East India Company, marking the start of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. This was more a widespread series of local uprisings than a unified revolt, and its causes and aims varied from place to place, but overall it proved to be too great a challenge for the EIC to manage. Although British forces did eventually suppress the movement, finally declaring an end to hostilities in July 1859, the result was the end of the EIC’s control of India and the onset of direct crown rule, also known as the British Raj. This had the additional effect of formally ending the Mughal Empire, though Mughal emperors hadn’t held real power in over a century.
May 10, 1869: The First Transcontinental Railroad, a track linking the eastern US rail network to California, officially opens when Central Pacific Railroad boss Leland Stanford ceremonially drives in the “Golden Spike” at Promontory, in the Utah Territory. The CPRR track, which began at Sacramento, linked up with a section of rail built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company that ran from Omaha to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where it linked up with the eastern network. By November the line had been extended to the Pacific Coast at the Oakland Long Wharf.
May 11, 330: Roman Emperor Constantine I consecrates the city of Byzantium, located on the strategically vital Bosporus Strait, as his new imperial capital. Constantine had chosen Byzantium as the best site for a new capital city in 324, after he’d assumed sole rule of the empire, because of its position close to both the Danubian and Mesopotamian frontiers. Officially known as “Nova Roma” (New Rome), the city became known by the less formal moniker “Constantinopolitan Rome,” which eventually became “Constantinople.” Its modern name, Istanbul, is thought to derive from a Greek phrase meaning “to the city.”
May 11, 868: A woodblock printed copy of a Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist text, is completed. Why is this noteworthy? Because this particular copy, included among a trove of documents discovered in a cave in Duhuang, China, in 1900, is—at least as far as the British Library is concerned—“the world’s earliest dated, printed book.” Thanks to the intact dedication, scholars know when, by whom, and for whom the document was produced—it reads “Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 15th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong.” That apparently corresponds to May 11, 868.
May 11, 1258: King Louis IX of France and King James I of Aragon sign the Treaty of Corbeil, which proved to have significant ramifications for the development of the modern nations of France and Spain. The main provision from our perspective involved Louis’ surrender of any claim on the region known as the “Hispanic March,” which largely corresponds with the region better known today as Catalonia, including the city of Barcelona. That region became more firmly attached to what would eventually become Spain as a result. James, meanwhile, gave up claims on several future French regions, including Toulouse and (a bit later) Provence.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
According to The Washington Post, the violence that Syrian Druze recently experienced at the hands of Syria’s new “post-jihadist” security forces and their “still-jihadist” allies is pushing some members of that community toward Israel. The Israeli government regularly appoints itself the protector of Syria’s Druze community and generally speaking that community has wanted little or nothing to do with the Israeli government. They seem to recognize that Israeli leaders are more interested in having a ready excuse to interfere in Syrian affairs than in actually protecting them. But under the circumstances—and informed in part by the massacre the security forces and their compatriots inflicted on Syria’s Alawite community earlier this year—many, including prominent cleric Hikmat al-Hijri, have welcomed Israeli support.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
It would appear that Hamas and the US government are once again involved in negotiations (it’s unclear whether they’ve been direct or through mediation) on a potential Gaza ceasefire. Two “Hamas officials” confirmed as much to AFP on Sunday, with both reporting that discussions in Qatar had led to “progress” on the issues of humanitarian aid for Gaza and even a potential ceasefire. Those talks have led to at least one breakthrough, insofar as Hamas has reportedly decided to free Edan Alexander, a US national who’s been held captive in Gaza since the October 7 attacks. Alexander is the only US national taken captive in those attacks who is still a) being held captive and b) alive, and the Trump administration has made his release a priority. It’s unclear how far Alexander’s release can go in terms of securing either a ceasefire or a restoration of the flow of aid into Gaza, but presumably there is some sort of quid pro quo being discussed even if freeing Alexander might be framed as a “good will gesture.”
I would assume that we can include the revelation that the US and Hamas are talking to each other, cutting Israel out of the loop, as another indication that Donald Trump is not entirely pleased with Benjamin Netanyahu at the moment. NBC News offered the latest scuttlebutt along those lines on Sunday, reporting that Trump and Netanyahu “are increasingly at odds over a strategy for tackling” the situation in Gaza and concerns over Iran’s nuclear program according to “two U.S. officials, two Middle Eastern diplomats and two other people with knowledge of the tensions.” And Reuters is reporting that Trump may announce “a U.S. framework” for ending the Gaza massacre during his forthcoming trip to the Persian Gulf, which would certainly put Netanyahu on the spot to say the least. That piece also notes that it’s been a little while since we’ve heard Trump refer to his plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza and turn it into a resort colony—an idea that didn’t go over well among the Arab governments to which he’ll soon be appealing for Deals.
YEMEN
The Israeli military (IDF) carried out a new round of airstrikes targeting northern Yemen’s Hudaydah province on Sunday, hours after issuing an evacuation warning for three provincial seaports. I haven’t yet seen any indications as to casualties or damage but I think it’s safe to say that the US-Houthi ceasefire was not the first step toward an Israeli-Houthi ceasefire.
QATAR
ABC News reported on Sunday that when Trump arrives in Qatar in a few days he’ll be gifted with “a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar” that would become Trump’s new Air Force One. Qatari officials pushed back against that report, contending that the “gift” is actually a temporary “transfer” and that the whole thing is still “under consideration.” But the plan as reported by ABC is for the plane to be used as Trump’s presidential transportation until it is transferred to the foundation overseeing his presidential library just prior to the end of his term. Which sounds a lot like a gift that he’d get to keep after leaving office. ABC suggested that this would be “the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government,” so that’s something. It would also be flagrantly corrupt—of course, so is the new Trump golf resort that the Qataris are suddenly interested in building—but what US legal authority is going to stop it from happening?
One thing to consider is that while this new aircraft is by all accounts said to be on the cutting edge of luxury it is presumably not tricked out with the safety and communications features that are required of any aircraft designated for presidential use. The new plane can be modified to some degree but it will never be as capable or secure as an aircraft that was manufactured with presidential duty in mind.
IRAN
US and Iranian negotiators held several hours of nuclear talks in Oman on Sunday that the Iranian Foreign Ministry described as “difficult but useful,” with the two sides apparently agreeing to continue their discussions at a date to be determined. An anonymous Trump administration “senior official” told reporters that the US side was “encouraged” by Sunday’s talks, so presumably it wasn’t a total failure, but it doesn’t sound like either party really came away entirely satisfied and it would appear they failed to agree on the “statement of principles” that was supposed to lead into a meeting between Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
I don’t want to downplay the significance of Sunday’s encounter. Even agreeing to continue meeting is a noteworthy accomplishment that hopefully forestalls any sort of military engagement, at least for a little while. But until the Trump administration decides internally what it’s willing to accept in a nuclear settlement it can’t hope to reach an agreement with the Iranians. In particular, as analyst Sina Toossi told me after Sunday’s meeting, the administration needs to stop sending “conflicting messages” about a future Iranian uranium enrichment capability. US officials, including Trump himself, keep vacillating between insisting that Iran must give up its enrichment program entirely, which is a red line for Tehran, and suggesting they might be able to keep such a program under limited conditions. As Sina said, the administration needs to establish “a coherent and realistic endgame” for these talks and then show some consistency if it hopes to reach a deal.
ASIA
PAKISTAN
A roadside bomb killed at least two police officers and wounded three others in northern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday. This was presumably a Pakistani Taliban attack though no group had claimed responsibility at time of writing.
INDIA
After several days of escalating clashes the Indian and Pakistani governments abruptly declared a ceasefire on Saturday, then almost immediately began violating it—each, of course, accusing the other of having broken the deal. Nevertheless the ceasefire held into Sunday and, while still tenuous, does appear to be on somewhat firmer ground than it was initially. It’s unclear how the ceasefire came together, though Donald Trump did claim credit for it via social media and as you know he is scrupulously committed to telling the truth at all times. Still, officials in the Indian government pushed back a bit against the notion that the deal was purely a US initiative and subsequent reporting has suggested that several countries besides the US were involved in trying to mediate a ceasefire (understandable, given that we’re talking about two nuclear armed states). But how active any of those countries (including the US) were—did they actually mediate negotiations or just encourage Indian and Pakistani officials to talk?—remains an open question.
While the ceasefire is welcome, the underlying hostility between India and Pakistan, mostly though not entirely related to Kashmir, hasn’t gone anywhere. The ceasefire apparently points toward future talks on Kashmir and other contentious issues (water rights, for example) and Trump offered his mediation services. But negotiating over Kashmir especially may be politically difficult for the Indian government, particularly if it’s seen to be doing so under US pressure.
CHINA
US-China trade talks in Switzerland wrapped up on Sunday with what both sides appear to be touting as a successful agreement, though neither is revealing any details as yet. They’re planning some sort of joint statement on Monday. Presumably there will be some reduction in tariffs on both sides, though how big a reduction is hard to guess. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer suggested that the agreement will “help us to work toward resolving” the US trade deficit with China, though again it’s hard to know what that means without details.
AFRICA
SUDAN
A Rapid Support Forces drone strike reportedly killed 14 members of a single family in the Abu Shouk displacement camp in Darfur late Friday, while an RSF strike on a prison facility in the city of El-Obeid killed at least 19 people on Saturday. RSF fighters also reportedly killed at least nine civilians in the besieged city of Al-Fashir on Sunday, while losing six of their own personnel according to the Sudanese military. The militants have also continued their near-daily drone strikes on the city of Port Sudan, continuing to threaten the flow of humanitarian aid into the country. The Sudanese military has begun striking RSF-controlled areas in Sudan’s West Kordofan and West Darfur states, but casualty figures are not being reported so far.
SOUTH AFRICA
A group of 49 Afrikaners boarded a flight to the US on Sunday. Upon arrival they will be granted refugee status by the Trump administration, which has fast-tracked Afrikaner refugee applications even as it has virtually shut down refugee applications from just about everywhere else. I will leave it to the reader to speculate as to why the Trump-Musk administration seems only to regard Afrikaners, members of what is still easily the most economically privileged demographic in South Africa, as worthy of refugee status.
EUROPE
UKRAINE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he’s heading to Turkey on Thursday to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin—assuming Putin shows up. His announcement capped an intense back-and-forth that began on Saturday, when a “Coalition of the Willing” summit in Kyiv ended with a demand, apparently backed by Donald Trump, for a 30 day Russia-Ukraine ceasefire (starting on Monday) under threat of new sanctions were Putin to reject it. Faced with a prospective choice between a ceasefire he doesn’t want and new sanctions he would rather not face, Putin attempted to create a Door #3 option by offering, in a late Saturday statement, to meet Zelensky for direct negotiations in Istanbul on May 15.
Zelensky has been insisting that the ceasefire should precede any negotiations, but he had his legs cut out from under him by—guess who—Trump, who took to social media to endorse Putin’s offer. Faced with a prospective choice between negotiations he doesn’t want (and that are probably set up to fail) and alienating Trump again, Zelensky opted for the former. So Istanbul it is, I guess. Putin’s Saturday statement offered negotiations “without preconditions,” which is interesting, but the Kremlin then quickly introduced at least a couple of conditions—related to Ukrainian neutrality and to recognizing Russian control over the territories it hold—so that’s probably not a great sign in terms of how things might go. Zelensky will either be taking Putin up on his offer of direct negotiations or calling his bluff—I guess we’ll find out which soon enough.
ALBANIA
Albanian voters headed to the polls on Sunday for a parliamentary election that polling suggests should be a fairly comfortable win for Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party, though there is some question as to whether the party will be able to maintain its sole majority. Rama apparently built much of his campaign pitch around his pledge to get Albania into the European Union in five years, a timeline that seems fairly unrealistic given the country’s challenges in terms of corruption and other governance issues.
FINLAND
The Wall Street Journal reports that Finnish shipbuilders are hoping that the Trump administration’s growing interest in the Arctic will translate into a windfall for their industry:
Smashing ice is straightforward—except when it is more than 10-feet thick and you’re using a ship, even one designed for the job.
If an icebreaker’s hull is the wrong shape, the ice bends but doesn’t break. Without the right paint, the ship grates against the ice like sandpaper. Spin the propellers too fast or too slow and deflected chunks of subsea ice can make the ship reverberate like a gong.
Knowledge of pitfalls like these is why Finland has helped design or build around 80% of the world’s icebreakers. Finns say they can churn out icebreakers more quickly and cheaply than anywhere else, putting them in prime position as countries race to access the Arctic’s thawing seas.
President Trump, who has pledged to buy or conquer Greenland, views the Arctic as a zone of future commerce and potential conflict. He has called for the U.S. to make a new fleet of icebreakers—and engineers from Finland are lining up to help.
AMERICAS
ECUADOR
A military unit conducting an operation against illegal mining activity in northern Ecuador’s Napo state was reportedly ambushed on Friday and 11 soldiers were killed. Ecuadorian authorities are attributing the attack to a group called the “Border Commandos,” which is comprised of dissident ex-Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) members.
UNITED STATES
Finally, Africa Is a Country’s Thapelo Tselapedi argues that the Global South should welcome the decline of US Empire:
There is no doubt that the world has entered a new era of multipolarity. While the United States remains powerful, it is increasingly counterbalanced by a China-led global order. This isn’t just about alternative trade routes, supply chains, or state-backed investments in the developing world. It also reflects the emergence of a global coalition between the structurally marginalized in the West and the postcolonial South.
Together, these overlapping groups form what is now called the Global South. Unlike the Third World project of the mid-20th century, which emerged from anticolonial struggles and sought to navigate a shifting Cold War order, the Global South project that began taking shape in the early 1990s confronts a different pressure: neoliberal restructuring. In this sense, the Global South is not a coherent geographic or class-based formation, but a shifting space of struggle—where elements of the North appear in the South, and vice versa.
This is why moments like Occupy Wall Street (2011) and Black Lives Matter (2013) resonated beyond US borders. Occupy challenged neoliberal economic organization; BLM took aim at America’s racial regime. Both revealed a fracture in the West that spoke to the experiences of the global majority. And while a China-led order is far from utopian, it gestures toward a more pluralistic political terrain—where multiple configurations of democracy and capitalism coexist, and no single power dictates the terms of modernity.