World roundup: September 5 2025

Stories from North Korea, Sudan, Venezuela, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

September 5, 1905: The Russo-Japanese War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, negotiated with the mediation of Teddy Roosevelt (who won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize as a result). The Russians were obliged to evacuate Manchuria, acknowledge Korea as within Japan’s sphere of influence, and turn over a couple of Pacific islands to Tokyo. The war marked Japan as a rising power and contributed to growing political discontent in Russia that wasn’t resolved until 1917.

Russian and Japanese delegates negotiating the treaty (Wikimedia Commons)

September 5, 1972: Members of the Palestinian terror group “Black September” kill two members of the Israeli delegation and take nine more hostage during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. A poorly handled rescue attempt at the Munich airport by West German police the following day ended with the nine hostages killed as well as five of the attackers and one police officer.

INTERNATIONAL

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Friday that his agency has ended its “international health emergency” over mpox. A major mpox outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo early last year and spread to neighboring parts of Africa, prompting the emergency declaration. But while the outbreak isn’t over its spread appears to have been contained, prompting a WHO panel overseeing the emergency to recommend that the designation be rescinded.

MIDDLE EAST

LEBANON

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam led a cabinet meeting on Friday to discuss what Al-Monitor’s Adam Lucente called “a contested army plan to disarm Hezbollah.” Those cabinet members who stuck around for the full meeting “welcomed” the plan, according to Salam, and the reason I have to qualify it that way is because the cabinet’s five Shiʿa ministers apparently walked out in the middle of the session. I think it’s safe to assume that’s not a good sign, though Beirut is under intense international pressure to get this disarmament done so Aoun and Salam are likely to proceed with or without Shiʿa backing. There was no indication as to when the Lebanese army might begin implementing the plan.