World roundup: May 28 2025

Stories from Iran, China, Libya, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 28, 621: With only around 10,000 soldiers at his disposal, prince Li Shimin of the nascent Tang Dynasty defeats an army of the rival Xia regime that was at least ten times that size at the Battle of Hulao. Considered by some historians to be one of the most important battles ever fought, Hulao was the decisive engagement of the civil wars that followed the collapse of the Sui Dynasty and Li’s victory ensured that the Tang would emerge as the new ruling dynasty of China.

May 28, 1905: A Japanese fleet decisively defeats a Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima, sinking 21 Russian vessels and capturing seven more while losing only three of its own. Tsushima is noteworthy in that it was the first naval battle fought between two fleets built around modern battleships using the telegraph for communications. It’s also noteworthy for the overwhelming nature of the Japanese victory, which brought the Russo-Japanese War to an end on Japanese terms, marked the beginnings of Japan’s imperial expansion, and caused a wave of “Yellow Peril” discourse to sweep through the West.

Japanese painter Tōjō Shōtarō’s Battle of Tsushima, 1905 (Wikimedia Commons)

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The European Union on Wednesday lifted most of the sanctions it had imposed on Syria over the past several years, joining the Trump administration in offering an economic life raft to the country’s post-Assad interim government. However, there are a couple of caveats. The bloc maintained certain sanctions against individuals accused of human rights violations or considered security risks—though this applies primarily to people affiliated with the Assad government—and it newly blacklisted two individuals and three factions accused of involvement in the massacre of Alawite civilians back in March. EU foreign policy director Kaja Kallas described the sanctions relief as “conditional,” which indicates that they could be reimposed without Kallas having to go back to EU member states for approval.