World roundup: October 11 2023

Stories from Somalia, Estonia, Brazil, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

October 11, 1142: The Jin and Song monarchies ratify the Treaty of Shaoxing, establishing a formal boundary between the two Chinese kingdoms. The Song—or Southern Song as historians now call them—were obliged by the treaty to give up their dynastic claims on northern China, which they’d ruled from 960 until the Jurchen people rebelled and drove the Song south of the Yangtze River in the 1110s. The treaty also required the Song to pay an annual tribute to the Jin, though a subsequent war in the 1160s ended with a Song victory that established a more equal relationship between the two ruling dynasties. The Mongol invasions of the 13th century eventually did away with both kingdoms and reunified China.

October 11, 1899: The Second Boer War begins. Though the Boer states had some initial success, the war ended in May 1902 with an overwhelming British victory and the collapse of both the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. Among the war’s many legacies was the popularization of the concentration camp, which Britain used to house large numbers of Boer civilians, many of whom died due to the treatment to which they were subjected.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

Syrian Democratic Forces boss Mazloum Abdi gave an interview to AFP on Wednesday in which he claimed that the Turkish military “has damaged more than half of Kurdish-held northeast Syria’s power and oil infrastructure” in various bombardments since the October 1 suicide bombing that wounded two people in Ankara. That region was already suffering from electricity shortages and these attacks have exacerbated that struggle. Abdi also criticized the United States for not doing more to talk Turkish officials down or otherwise protect the SDF and the territory under its control. The US has repeatedly demonstrated that it will not stand in the way if Turkey comes after the SDF, though, so it’s hard for me to believe that Abdi is somehow surprised by this.