World roundup: November 13 2024

Stories from Lebanon, Ukraine, Brazil, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

November 13, 1002: In an event that’s been commemorated as the “St. Brice’s Day Massacre,” English King Æthelred the Unready orders the execution of all Danes in his kingdom. Æthelred’s relationship with the Danes was poor. He’d been defeated by a Danish army at the Battle of Maldon in 991 and forced to pay tribute, and Danish raiders routinely swept through the English countryside. There was a historical memory of the depredations of the Danelaw that likely contributed to general anti-Dane sentiment in England. At some point in 1002 Æthelred was apparently convinced that any Dane living in his domain would gladly assassinate him, and under this vaguely perceived notion of a “threat” he issued an order for their mass killing. The actual number of people killed is unclear but the massacre is thought to have contributed to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard’s invasion of England in 1003. It’s said that Sweyn’s sister and her husband were among the massacre’s victims.

November 13, 1918: Allied forces occupy Istanbul. Under the Armistice of Mudros, the Ottoman Empire’s World War I surrender document, Allied soldiers were permitted to garrison the empire’s Bosphorus Fort. A military occupation of the entire city was something of a gray area, though the Ottomans were in no position to object. The later Treaty of Sèvres would have made Istanbul an “international city,” but the Turkish War of Independence and subsequent Treaty of Lausanne incorporated it into the new Republic of Turkey.

INTERNATIONAL

To I suspect no great surprise, the United Nations’ COP29 climate summit does not appear to be going terribly well:

The language of world leaders speaking on Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit was diplomatic, but the underlying message was clear: There’s friction over the big issue at the conference.

The negotiations are focused on delivering a new plan to provide developing countries with funds to adapt to a warming world. Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s climate envoy, said there was widespread agreement that cutting emissions and making countries more resilient to storms, floods and heat would require “trillions” of dollars.

But just days into the talks, there were pointed comments from the leaders and squabbling in the negotiating rooms about the details, including exactly how much money should be raised, who should pay, where it should come from and how it should be spent.

A relatively minor spat rocked the conference on Wednesday when the host, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, accused the French government of having committed “crimes” in suppressing protests in its New Caledonia territory earlier this year. French Ecology Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher lambasted Aliyev’s comments as “deplorable” and then withdrew from the summit, though her team is apparently staying in Baku.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

At Inkstick, journalists Mohammed Ali and Besan Mabhoh relate stories from people in Gaza who are looking ahead to another winter under Israeli brutality:

As winter descends on the Gaza Strip, its bitter chill seeps into the remnants of a coastal enclave Israeli airstrikes have torn apart. More than a year of war has reduced once-bustling neighborhoods to skeletal remains, a maze of crumbling walls, and mounds of scattered rubble. Families huddle beneath makeshift shelters patched together from scraps, what little protection they have against the biting wind coming from the coast.

Arwa al-Astal, 26, crouched low inside her tent, working quickly to press scraps of fabric over a gaping hole. Outside, the wind howled, battering the makeshift shelter that had become her family’s feeble fortress. Yet, it wasn’t just the wind she feared. The cold also seeps in, piercing layers of worn clothes and threadbare blankets, and the ever-present threat of bombings. Her children gathered in the corner, shivering and clinging to each other. “The closer winter gets, the more terrified I am of losing my children,” she said.

Elsewhere: