World roundup: May 21 2025

Stories from Iran, China, South Africa, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 21, 878: The Aghlabid Emirate captures the Sicilian city of Syracuse after a roughly nine month siege.

May 21, 1799: Napoleon lifts his failed siege of Acre and withdraws to Egypt (and, not long after that, to France).

The Battle of Mount Tabor, painted in 1808 by French artist Louis-François Lejeune, depicts an engagement in which the French army defeated an Ottoman relief force, but that victory was not enough to salvage the siege (Wikimedia Commons)

May 21, 2006: Montenegro holds a referendum on leaving what remains of Yugoslavia and becoming an independent state. Amid allegations of irregularities, 55.5 percent voted in favor of independence, which was just over the 55 percent needed to pass the referendum. May 21 is now annually commemorated as Independence Day in Montenegro.

INTERNATIONAL

A new report from the International Energy Agency concludes that the global supply of critical minerals (cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, and various “rare earths”) has contracted a bit, with the three largest producers of those products controlling 86 percent of the market in 2024 as compared with 82 percent in 2020. It’s not much movement in an already very bottlenecked supply chain, but every new contraction leaves that chain just a bit more vulnerable to disruption through means both natural and manmade. China dominates the market for 19 of the 20 minerals tracked by the IEA, which highlights the risk that the US faces if it continues to pursue its current trade war/decoupling approach to that relationship.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The still-unspecified militants who attacked the Russian military’s Hmeimim airbase in northwestern Syria on Tuesday reportedly killed two soldiers. Syrian authorities say that two attackers were also killed and have indicated that these were the only attackers though I wouldn’t necessarily take their word for that. It’s unclear whether the two “soldiers” were Russian nationals or Syrian contractors. For what it’s worth, the Russian government has not raised the sort of stink one would expect if they were Russian nationals, though it’s also in a delicate position as it’s trying to maintain a relationship with the Syrian government in part so that it can keep Hmeimim and its naval base in Tartus.