World roundup: October 23 2024

Stories from Israel-Palestine, India, Russia, and elsewhere

Apologies, but I am unable to record tonight’s usual voiceover. As always if anyone needs a voiceover Substack offers a text-to-voice option in the app.

TODAY IN HISTORY

October 23, 42 BCE: A Roman army jointly led by Triumvirs Marc Antony and Octavian defeats Brutus’s Republican army in the second phase of the Battle of Philippi. Brutus committed suicide after the battle. As his co-commander, Cassius, had already killed himself following the first phase of the battle, on October 3, this left the Republican army leaderless and it unsurprisingly fell apart. Although there were other Republican leaders still in the field, like Sextus Pompey in Sicily, the defeat at Philippi marked the end of serious Republican resistance. The way was clear for the “Second Triumvirate” of Antony, Octavian, and the almost forgotten Marcus Lepidus to seize uncontested control of the Roman Republic.

October 23, 1798: An Ottoman-Albanian army under Ali Pasha of Ioannina defeats a French Revolutionary army in what became known as the Battle of Nicopolis since it was fought near the ruins of that city. The battle was fought over territory France had inherited the previous year when Napoleon and the Habsburgs had collaborated on the dissolution of the Republic of Venice. Ali wanted some of that territory, and when the Ottomans declared war against France in July he had the excuse he needed to go get it. Ali’s victory here allowed his forces to enter the nearby town of Preveza, one of those territories he wanted, at which point they fired the town and massacred many of its inhabitants. Ali contested control of Preveza with the Ottoman authorities until they took it decisively in 1820. The town is part of Greece today.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed Israel for Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Haaretz reported that he told families of US citizens who are still being held captive in Gaza that the Biden administration has made a new ceasefire proposal, one greatly diminished in scope. Blinken’s new idea calls for only a small number of hostages released (thought to be fewer than ten) in return for a brief pause in the Israeli military’s (IDF) operations in Gaza. This is supposed to “test” Hamas’s willingness to negotiate (we’ve completely overwritten the reality that the Israeli government has spent months using various negotiating tactics to block a deal) and potentially serve as the first step toward a broader deal. There doesn’t seem to be much interest in the proposal by either Hamas or the Israeli government, nor is there any reason to believe the Biden administration really intends for it to succeed.