World roundup: September 6-7 2025
Stories from Lebanon, Japan, Ukraine, and elsewhere
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PROGRAMMING NOTE: We are celebrating a birthday here at FX HQ (not mine), so today’s roundup is out early and sans voiceover. We’ll be back to normal operations tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
TODAY IN HISTORY
September 6, 1522: The Victoria arrives at the Spanish port of Sanlúcar as the first ship to successfully circumnavigate the earth. It had set out as one of five vessels in Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition in 1519 and was the only ship to survive the journey. In that sense it fared better than its admiral, Magellan, who was killed after picking an ill-advised fight with a group of indigenous people in the Philippines. And its haul of spices in particular was worth more than the other four ships combined, so investors still came out ahead. The Victoria would fully complete its trip around the world two days later by returning to the port whence it departed, Seville.
September 6, 1955: The two-day Istanbul Pogrom begins amid news reports that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki (located in the former home where Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was born) had been bombed by Greek agents. A mob began attacking Greeks in Istanbul and then expanded its scope to include Armenians and Jews. Between 13 and 30 people are said to have been killed in the violence and the incident began a process of Greek emigration that played out over the next several years. In reality, the consulate was fine and the whole thing was a planned operation by Turkey’s two “Operation Gladio” organizations, the Tactical Mobilization Group and Counter-Guerrilla. They were responding to the rise of Greek unionist sentiment (Enosis) in Cyprus and were likely also working on a longer-term project to “encourage” minority emigration and thereby “Turkify” Turkey.
September 7, 1191: A Crusader army under English King Richard I (“the Lionheart”) defeats Saladin’s Ayyubid forces at the Battle of Arsuf, one of the major military engagements of the Third Crusade. Richard’s disciplined infantry withstood several waves of attacks by Saladin’s cavalry before a late and somewhat unplanned Crusader cavalry charge routed the Muslim army. Afterward the Crusaders were able to capture the port city of Jaffa (part of modern Tel Aviv) but Richard would eventually determine that he lacked the military strength to fulfill his main goal, retaking Jerusalem.
September 7, 1822: Brazilian Independence Day—Portuguese prince and Brazilian regent Dom Pedro (the future Pedro I of Brazil) declares Brazil’s independence from Portugual. The ensuing war, which had already begun at a low level in early 1822, ended in 1825 with a Brazilian victory.
September 7, 1901: The Boxer Rebellion ends with the defeat of the Yìhétuán rebels and the signing of the Boxer Protocol. Under the treaty, the Chinese government was obliged to pay an indemnity to the Allies—Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—as well as Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, and to take steps to diminish its military capabilities.
MIDDLE EAST
LEBANON
At The Intercept, Séamus Malekafzali warns that the US-backed drive to disarm Hezbollah may wind up devastating Lebanon:
Though the Lebanese government announced the disarmament plan, the effort is an unashamed American initiative, with the Arab press openly describing it as the “American paper.” President Donald Trump’s envoys to the region, for their parts, are saying the plan can bring prosperity to an economically depressed Lebanon, and domestic advocates for disarmament — predominately supporters of parties that were allied with Israel in the 1980s — tout it as a way to restore Lebanon’s ability to self-govern.
Some of the higher echelons of Lebanon’s power structure, however, see something else in the plan: the U.S. and Israel pushing Lebanon back into a devastating civil war.
Hezbollah has so far adamantly refused to disarm, proclaiming that the group would fight any such effort without a comprehensive plan for the national military to confront Israeli aggression.
American officials have grown fond of saying how the Lebanese people want Hezbollah disarmed, but preliminary data does not support the notion. One poll conducted after the disarmament plan was announced showed 58 percent of the country against disarming the group without a plan to deal with Israel. According to said survey by the Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation, 71 percent of respondents believe the army is incapable of confronting Israel.
Hezbollah responded positively to Friday’s cabinet decision to “welcome” (without formally adopting) the Lebanese army’s disarmament plan, with official Mahmoud Qmati calling it “an opportunity to return to wisdom and reason.” This appears to be because the cabinet stressed that continued Israeli military activity in Lebanon would disrupt the disarmament project. Hebollah has in the past expressed willingness to discuss a “national defense strategy,” which could in theory see the group either disarm or at least put its fighters under some degree of state authority, but only after the Israeli military stops attacking Lebanon at will.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
The Trump administration has reportedly forwarded another ceasefire proposal to Hamas, which aligns with Donald Trump’s vague comment about “deep negotiations” on Friday. The new proposal would oblige Hamas to release all of the remaining Gaza captives, living and dead, in return for a ceasefire and negotiations on an indefinite end to the Israeli military campaign. There is no reason to believe that the Israeli government would engage in those negotiations in good faith under those circumstances and so far there’s no indication that Hamas is amenable to this framework.
Administration envoy Steve Witkoff apparently delivered the proposal via an Israeli activist named Gershon Baskin, who has ties to Hamas, but it’s unclear to what extent Witkoff and the administration have the sort of credibility that would be needed to assure Hamas that they will pressure Israel to end the carnage once the captives have all been released. Moreover, the Israeli government will surely hold to its demand that Hamas disarm as part of any “final” settlement, and the group has consistently rejected that demand while asserting the right of an occupied people to engage in armed resistance. It’s hard to imagine how that gap might be bridged. At any rate, Trump on Sunday issued what he called his “last warning” to Hamas to accept a deal, which by my unofficial count is at least the second or third “last warning” he’s given the group.
According to The Washington Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s zeal for annexing the West Bank has cooled in recent days because of threats from the UAE government. Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh publicly warned on Tuesday that the UAE considers annexation a “red line” and that pursuing it would “foreclose on the idea of regional integration.” Emirati officials then apparently delivered similar messages through private channels. We’re told that this “caught Netanyahu’s government off guard,” which is surprising because of course the Emiratis were going to have to say something about annexation given that it would violate the understanding behind its “Abraham Accords” agreement to normalize relations with Israel. On top of that it’s far from clear that the UAE will actually follow through on this threat, given that Emirati leaders clearly place greater value on their relationship with Israel than they do on the future of a Palestinian state. At any rate Netanyahu hasn’t abandoned the idea of annexation yet so this situation is still in flux.
YEMEN
A Houthi drone struck the Ilan and Asaf Ramon International Airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Sunday, injuring two people and shutting down operations at that facility for two hours. Israeli air defenses apparently didn’t detect the device, which no doubt will trigger some sort of internal investigation in addition to the likely retaliatory strikes on Yemen.
Elsewhere, damage to undersea data cables in the Red Sea area reportedly hampered internet performance across parts of Asia on Sunday. There’s no indication as to what caused the damage but suspicion will no doubt fall on the Houthis, though it’s unclear whether or not they have the capability to attack those cables.
IRAN
Al-Monitor’s Iran correspondent reports that Tehran is getting ready for another air war with Israel and the US:
On Tuesday, members of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission met with Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of the Armed Forces, and his deputies. According to state media, Mousavi provided details on the military's current defense readiness, operations during the recent conflict and the "blows" inflicted on Israeli targets.
After the meeting, Fada Hossein Maleki, a member of the commission, told Dideban Iran news agency that larger foreign currency funds have already been provided to repair the damage inflicted on the country's air defense systems during the 12-day war.
"The armed forces have welcomed and are satisfied with this funding," he said. Maleki added that the purchase of air defense systems from China and Russia is on the agenda and being actively pursued, with "promising agreements" reportedly in place and expected to be implemented soon.
He also confirmed that discussions are underway for the acquisition of fighter jets from foreign suppliers, with steps already taken by the Armed Forces' general staff and official announcements expected in due course.
There’s been no movement toward a serious resumption of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US, and unless that changes further conflict seems like a near certainty.
ASIA
LAOS
At World Politics Review, Michael Hart argues that the Laotian government’s drive to make its country “the battery of Southeast Asia” is not working out very well:
To achieve this vision, the LPRP has built dozens of dams on smaller rivers and tributaries of the Mekong over the past 20 years, with two now operational on the main channel of the river. The Xayaburi Dam in the north, which opened in late 2019 at a cost of $3.8 billion, exports power to Thailand, while the Don Sahong Dam in the far south, which started operations in early 2020 after costing $720 million, supplies Cambodia. Another three dams—each costing more than $1 billion—are under construction along the Mekong’s mainstream and will start generating electricity by 2033.
Despite this progress, Laos faces serious obstacles that have come to a head in recent years, including a mounting debt crisis as the country struggles to repay loans used to pay for the dams’ construction. Amid broader economic headwinds and with decades to go until hydropower exports reach their full revenue potential, Laos’ development plans are at a critical juncture.
Most dam projects in Laos have been financed via high-interest loans from China and Thailand, with some additional credit from other sources, including Vietnam, Malaysia and multilateral development banks. Building so many dams has serious social and environmental side effects, including reduced fish stocks and declining water levels, placing subsistence livelihoods downstream at risk. But the Laotian government has been willing to put aside those concerns in its pursuit of rapid economic growth.
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SOUTH KOREA
The South Korean government has negotiated the release and repatriation of some 300 of its citizens who had been detained on Thursday in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Hyundai factory in Georgia. That raid attracted a good deal of attention both because the Hyundai facility is a major economic driver in that state and because it’s rare for South Korean nationals to be targeted by US immigration authorities. In this case, though US officials are claiming that the people they picked up were in the country illegally there’s reason to believe that at least some of them were in fact covered under the US visa waiver program, which allows nationals of designated countries to stay in the US for up to 90 days without a visa.
There still seems to be a fair amount of uncertainty around the ICE raid and its aftereffects, particularly whether it might chill South Korean economic activity in the US. The South Korea-US trade deal calls for Seoul to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the US economy over the next ten years, which is going to be hard to do if South Korean nationals can’t feel safe entering the United States.
JAPAN
Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru somewhat surprisingly resigned on Sunday, citing his dismal electoral record since taking office last October. Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party has seen its coalition lose its majorities in both houses of the Japanese National Diet under his leadership, but what makes this a bit surprising is that Ishiba had resisted calls for his resignation immediately after the coalition’s defeat in July’s House of Councillors election. Nevertheless he was facing an internal challenge to his LDP leadership and apparently determined that his position was untenable. Takaichi Sanae, who lost last year’s LDP leadership vote to Ishiba, and Agriculture Minister Koizumi Shinjirō are thought to be the likely frontrunners heading into this new leadership race.
AFRICA
NIGERIA
Boko Haram fighters swept though the town of Darul Jamal in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state on Friday night, slaughtering at least 63 people. At least five of those killed were soldiers but the vast majority were civilians recently returned to the area from a displaced persons camp. The Nigerian military is claiming that its forces killed some 30 of the attackers.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed eight security personnel and abducted several Chinese nationals in southern Nigeria’s Edo state on Friday. Four of the five Chinese workers were rescued but one may still be missing. There’s no indication as to responsibility but the motive may have simply been kidnapping for ransom.
CAMEROON
An anglophone separatist group called the Fako Unity Warriors is claiming responsibility for a roadside bomb that killed at least seven soldiers on Friday in Cameroon’s Southwest region. There’s been no comment as yet from Cameroonian authorities but the bombing has been reported by the Cameroon News Agency.
EUROPE
UKRAINE
The Russian military pounded Ukraine with its largest bombing since the start of its 2022 invasion overnight, killing at least four people and causing widespread damage. The extent of the bombardment highlights just how far away this conflict is from any sort of resolution, despite all the recent and very premature talk of postwar security guarantees and the like. Later on Sunday Donald Trump told reporters that he’s prepared to move to a “second phase” of sanctions against Russia, though there’s been no indication from the White House as to what that might entail. Trump has threatened numerous times to impose sanctions on Russia without following through, though his comments on Sunday seemed perhaps a bit more definitive than previous statements to that effect.
SWEDEN
A new report from the AP finds that efforts to exploit Sweden’s mineral resources are threatening to decimate the country’s Indigenous Sámi community:
High atop the Luossavaara Mountain in northern Sweden, Sami reindeer herder Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen mapped out a bleak future for himself and other Indigenous people whose reindeer have roamed this land for thousands of years.
An expanding iron-ore mine and a deposit of rare-earth minerals are fragmenting the land and altering ancient reindeer migration routes. But with the Arctic warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, herders say they need more geographic flexibility, not less, to ensure the animals’ survival.
If a mine is established at the deposit of rare-earth minerals called Per Geijer, which Sweden heralds as Europe’s largest, Kuhmunen said it could completely cut off the migration routes used by the Sami village of Gabna.
That would be the end of the Indigenous way of life for Kuhmunen, his children and their fellow Sami reindeer herders, he said, in this far-north corner of Sweden some 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the Arctic Circle.
“The reindeer is the fundamental base of the Sami culture in Sweden,” Kuhmunen said. “Everything is founded around the reindeers: The food, the language, the knowledge of mountains. Everything is founded around the reindeer herding. If that ceases to exist, the Sami culture will also cease to exist.”
AMERICAS
ARGENTINA
The AP reports on a bribery scandal that may be undermining a bit part of President Javier Milei’s pitch to voters:
Argentines are so used to the corruption in their political system that even Peronists — supporters of the populist movement that dominated Argentina’s politics for decades — employ a fatalistic maxim to describe their politicians: “Roban, pero hacen,” or, “They steal, but they get it done.”
But for the past two weeks, Argentines have been riveted by a ballooning graft scandal drawing in close associates of libertarian President Javier Milei, the wild-haired economist who won Argentina’s 2023 election in part by campaigning as an outsider against the corrupt, Peronist-dominated elite — “the caste,” he calls it — whose unbridled spending helped precipitate Argentina’s economic crisis.
At a time of extreme fiscal austerity, the allegations that his powerful sister and secretary general of the presidency, Karina Milei, profited from a bribery scheme in Argentina’s disability agency have exploded onto the headlines here, threatening to sully the government’s reputation ahead of national midterms at the end of October. Milei denies the claims.
“It appears to be very similar to many other corruption scandals in Argentina, and taints his image as being completely different, of not being part of ‘the caste,’” said Eugenia Mitchelstein, the chair of the social sciences department at Buenos Aires’ San Andrés University.
UNITED STATES
Finally, The International Policy Journal’s Sina Toossi discusses a troubling recent firing at the US State Department:
Shahed Ghoreishi was a career‑level press officer who drafted a single, straightforward line for the State Department press office: “We do not support forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.” A short time later his proposed language was cut, and days after that he was fired — an action colleagues told reporters sent a “chilling message” through the building that veering from the administration’s framing could threaten a person’s job.
That is far more than a personnel dispute. It is a window into a deeper pathology in U.S. foreign policy: a system — inside government and across its think tanks, media, and political circles — that too often punishes facts, rewards conformity, and makes it perilous for professionals to tell leaders what they need to hear.
Social scientists have a name for this dynamic: groupthink. Far from being an abstract academic idea, it describes what happens when teams value unity over truth. Psychologist Irving Janis, who coined the term, defined it as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.”
In other words, the stronger the pull of conformity, the weaker the capacity for independent judgment. The result, Janis warned, is a deterioration of decision-making: mental efficiency declines, reality testing erodes, and moral judgement falters.