World roundup: September 9 2025
Stories from Qatar, Nepal, Venezuela, and elsewhere
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TODAY IN HISTORY
September 9 (or thereabouts), 9: A large Roman army under general Publius Quinctillus Varus is thoroughly defeated by a Germanic alliance under one of Varus’s former auxiliaries, Arminius (“Hermann” in German), at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest somewhere in what today is northwestern Germany. Also known as the “Varian disaster,” which gives you some idea of the extent of the Roman defeat, the battle saw the effective destruction of three legions and brought an end to Roman efforts to expand further into Germania. The Roman historian Suetonius writes that, upon hearing of the defeat, Emperor Augustus began beating his head against a wall and shouting “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!” (I’m sure it sounded nicer in Latin). Recent historiography has argued that this battle was less decisive than the German national mythos presents it and that Roman expansion probably would have reached its natural limit at the Rhine River with or without this setback.
September 9 (or thereabouts), 1141: A Qara Khitai army led by that dynasty’s founder, Yelü Dashi, defeats a Seljuk-Karakhanid army at the Battle of Qatwan, north of the city of Samarkand. Yelü Dashi was a relatively minor royal during the last days of China’s Liao dynasty who fled during the accession of the Jin dynasty and founded the Qara Khitai empire (sometimes also called the Western Liao) in Central Asia. Doing so meant displacing the Karakhanids, which his victory at Qatwan helped accomplish. The defeat of its Karakhanid vassal and the loss of a substantial chunk of eastern territory also triggered, or at least contributed to, the collapse of the Great Seljuk Empire in the Near East. Sketchy tales of this battle may have provided the basis for the Christian legend of “Prester John,” a mythical Nestorian Christian ruler who was supposed to make war against Islam from the east.
September 9, 1855: The nearly year-long Siege of Sevastopol ends with a Russian withdrawal from the city. The siege is among the most famous in history and the centerpiece of the Crimean War—it’s pretty much the reason we call it the “Crimean War” even though most of the other fighting in that conflict took place somewhere other than Crimea. The Allied capture of the city contributed heavily to Russia’s eventual defeat.
MIDDLE EAST
LEBANON
An Israeli military (IDF) airstrike just south of Beirut wounded a Hezbollah member on Tuesday. The IDF continues to bomb Lebanon with impunity despite last November’s ceasefire agreement, though Lebanon is certainly not alone in that regard (more on that in a moment).
In keeping with the ceasefire, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi told AFP on Tuesday that the Lebanese army is aiming to “fully disarm Hezbollah near the border with Israel within three months.” It’s planning to do this without violence, though we’ll see. The November ceasefire deal obliged Hezbollah to give up its military positions south of the Litani River, though since then Israeli officials have suggested that nothing short of full disarmament will be enough to get them to fulfill their ceasefire obligation to actually cease firing on Lebanon. Raggi described this three month operation as the first stage in a bigger project to disarm Hezbollah, and other non-state groups, fully.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
The IDF dropped leaflets over Gaza City on Tuesday ordering residents to evacuate ahead of its eventual move to obliterate what remains of northern Gaza. It’s still unclear when the main thrust of that operation is going to begin but it may still be a week or more, to allow time for people to leave the area and for the IDF to mobilize its reserves—some of whom appear to be balking at this latest call-up. It’s also unclear how many Gaza City residents are actually going to obey the evacuation order—one person facing that choice wrote about it for +972 Magazine:
When I think about the dozens of my friends, relatives, and neighbors already killed during this genocide, I wonder how many more I will lose in the coming days, whose faces I will see for the last time, and whether I myself will make it to the end. I watch my neighbors leaving, knowing it may be the last time I see them. Perhaps they will be killed on the road. Perhaps I will.
By sheer luck, I have managed so far to escape injury and death. I have learned to adapt to what feels like a permanent survival state: I move quickly, stay close to walls, and walk under trees to avoid being spotted by quadcopters. I always keep my hands empty to show I pose no threat, though for many of Israel’s victims this was not enough. I never return the same way I came, and I often walk in a zigzag pattern to make it harder for snipers to target me. I’m constantly ready to drop to the ground at any moment.
My greatest fear is that a missile will tear my body to pieces, leaving me unrecognizable, or that I will be wounded with no one able to reach me, my body left to the stray animals. I am terrified to leave the house out of fear that I might pass by a building just as it is bombed. I know that even if I made it to a hospital, there is no functioning health system left to save me.
Despite all this, I told my family that I will not leave. Contrary to Israel’s claims, there is nowhere safe for us to go: once it destroys all of Gaza City, it will continue southward to the very “humanitarian zone” it is currently directing us to.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which is once again attempting to break the Israeli blockade and sail humanitarian aid into Gaza, says that its lead ship was targeted by a drone on Monday night in the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said. Tunisian authorities are denying that any strike took place but the GSF has released several videos that appear to support its version of events. Needless to say if there was a drone strike there’s only one realistic suspect. The group is now claiming that it came under attack a second time on Wednesday. It’s unclear how serious the flotilla’s ships have been damaged but organizers say they’re still determined to continue to Gaza.
QATAR
In arguably its most brazen act to date, which is saying something, the IDF on Tuesday carried out a major airstrike targeting senior Hamas political leaders in Doha. I have not seen a conclusive casualty count as yet but Hamas is so far claiming that the leadership group survived the strike, while the son of acting politburo chair Khalil al-Hayya was killed along with Hayya’s chief of staff, three other Hamas officials, and a Qatari Internal Security Force officer. I would expect the casualty figures to rise but this was where they stood at time of writing. International reaction has so far been resoundingly negative, even among the European “Israel has a right to defend itself” chorus.
Hamas leadership had convened in Qatar to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal from the Trump administration, a document so brief and vacuous that it generated speculation that it had been drafted by the Israeli government in order to elicit Hamas’s rejection. Now it seems more likely that the Israelis and/or US drafted the document in order to lure Hamas leaders into a trap and kill them. I suppose the timing may have been coincidental but I don’t see much reason to give either Israel or the US the benefit of the doubt. Israeli officials tried to claim that the strike was done in retaliation for Monday’s shooting at an East Jerusalem bus stop but it’s exceedingly unlikely that the IDF could have thrown an operation together that quickly that just so happened to coincide with a major Hamas conference.
Given that timing there’s no reason why Hamas should consider another ceasefire proposal from the US and/or Israel. The strike targeted the group’s political leadership, who are the people most directly involved in negotiations. And it took place on the soil of one of the countries that has been mediating those talks, a country whose government may now scale down its involvement in further negotiations—at least that’s how I read Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani’s statement that “Qatar has spared no efforts and will do everything it can to stop this war in Gaza, but for current talks, I do not think there's something valid right now after what we saw from today's attack.” So in addition to however many people it killed in the strike it would seem the Israeli government has also killed any lingering possibility of diplomacy in Gaza. Which was presumably part of the goal.
This is not the first time in recent months that Qatar has gotten sucked into the Israeli government’s perpetual war for regional hegemony, though Iran’s missile attack on Qatar’s Al Udeid Airbase back in June was so choreographed that it can’t really be compared to Tuesday’s IDF strike. For Israel to carry out an attack on Qatar, a country the US has designated as a “major non-NATO ally,” targeting a group it’s hosting at the US government’s request, is in fact so brazen that one assumes the Israeli government sought and received US permission before moving forward. Indeed that appears to have been the case, though the Trump administration later insisted that the Israelis only informed them “after missiles were in the air,” which I simply don’t believe. The administration says it then notified the Qataris of the forthcoming strike, though the Qataris claim that warning only came as the attack was underway. It may also be worth noting that Donald Trump gave Hamas what he called his “last warning” to agree to a ceasefire over the weekend, a statement whose timing sure looks a lot more curious now.
Later on Tuesday the White House tried to disavow the Israeli strike, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters that “the president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States, and feels very badly about the location of this attack” and that “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar…does not advance Israel or America’s goals.” Apparently Trump also “assured” Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani by phone “that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.” Nevertheless, amid her tepid criticism Leavitt also signaled the Trump administration’s approval of Israel’s “worthy goal” of “eliminating Hamas.” In very Biden administration-like fashion, the White House also let Axios’s Barak Ravid know how “infuriated” the strike made “Trump’s top advisers.” I’m sure they were really gnashing their teeth over it.
IRAQ
The Kataʾib Hezbollah militia has reportedly freed Princeton University researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov more than two years after it abducted her in Baghdad. At the time of her kidnapping Tsurkov was a fairly prominent analyst on Syrian matters and was doing unspecified research in Iraq, related to her Princeton graduate studies. The Trump administration had put some effort into securing her release and there were rumors circulating a few months ago that she was part of a complicated multi-way prisoner swap that was being negotiated. It’s unclear whether her release means that bigger swap is happening.
IRAN
The Iranian government and the International Atomic Energy Agency declared on Tuesday that they have reached an agreement to resume IAEA inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites. Tehran suspended its relationship with the agency after the “12 Day War,” blaming it in part for fomenting the tensions that led to that brief conflict. IAEA director Rafael Grossi and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi concluded this agreement at a meeting in Cairo, but their announcement was conspicuously light on detail so there may still be much to iron out before inspections resume.
When the “E3” (France, Germany, and the UK) invoked the 2015 Iran nuclear deal’s snapback provision last month, one of their conditions for avoiding the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran was a resumption of IAEA inspections. But they’re also demanding that Iran take additional steps, including the resumption of nuclear negotiations with the US, that may be impossible to achieve before those sanctions take effect later this month.
ASIA
NEPAL
Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday, one day after his government rescinded a controversial social media ban and amid continuing protests that began over that ban but have taken on a more anti-corruption nature. At least 19 people were killed during protests in the cities of Kathmandu and Itahari on Monday and the intensity didn’t appear to wane after Oli’s resignation as three more people were killed and demonstrators entered and set fire to the parliament building in Kathmandu. Nepali President Ramchandra Paudel was reportedly beginning to consider new PM candidates but had also called for a meeting with protest organizers, which may take priority under the circumstances.
SOUTH KOREA
The Diplomat’s Mitch Shin considers what impact the Trump administration’s recent Hyundai immigration raid may have on US-South Korean relations:
On September 4, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained 475 workers at Hyundai’s battery plant in Georgia. Approximately 300 of the detainees are South Koreans, prompting Seoul to swiftly engage in dialogue with Washington to resolve the issue.
According to the South Korean Presidential Office, Seoul is sending a chartered plane to Atlanta on September 10 to repatriate the detainees. Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Hyun flew to Washington to meet his counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to finalize the process of bringing the South Korean detainees back home.
Regardless of the reasons for the detentions, U.S. President Donald Trump’s moves appear to show little regard for one of the United States’ closest allies, a pattern that has continued since he launched a tariff war against the entire world, with no distinction between friend and foe.
AFRICA
SUDAN
Multiple drone strikes rocked Sudan’s Khartoum state on Tuesday, targeting several fuel and power facilities and “at least one military base” according to Reuters. I haven’t seen any word as to casualties or the extent of the damage. Unsurprisingly, the Rapid Support Forces militant group claimed responsibility for the strikes, characterizing them as a “response to the criminal targeting of hospitals and civilian facilities in Darfur and Kordofan,” two regions that are partly or largely under RSF control.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Allied Democratic Forces jihadists attacked a village in the eastern DRC’s North Kivu province late Monday, killing at least 71 people who were attending a funeral. That death toll has risen from an initial estimate of around 50 and there’s a strong possibility that it will rise further as local officials continue to assess the aftermath.
EUROPE
UKRAINE
Russian glide bombs killed at least 24 people and wounded 19 others in the village of Yarova in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk oblast on Tuesday. Of those 24, 23 were pensioners lined up to collect their monthly checks, a shocking figure that makes the toll stand out even in the context of this conflict. Yarova is located close enough to the front line that it’s being bombarded as part of a general Russian attempt to poke holes in the Ukrainian defensive position that might then be exploited.
FRANCE
French President Emmanuel Macron wasted no time replacing ousted Prime Minister François Bayrou, promoting Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu to the post on Tuesday. Lecornu is a close Macron ally who comes out of the same center-right, austerity-fetishizing establishment as his predecessors Michel Barnier and Bayrou and who may very well meet the same fate as both of them. Certainly this appointment does not signal any effort by Macron to compromise with either the parliamentary left or right in order to stabilize his minority government and give it some hope of passing legislation. That said, Macron has reportedly asked Lecornu to meet with key party leaders before naming his cabinet, to look for potential ways forward at least with respect to a 2026 budget.
AMERICAS
VENEZUELA
At The Intercept, Greg Grandin criticizes the Trump administration decision to kill 11 people on an alleged drug smuggling speedboat last week and highlights what appears to be an emerging “rift” within the US foreign policy establishment over how to deal with Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela:
Yet there’s no proof that the 11 people were smugglers or migrants. The kind of go-fast boat shown in the video are called pangas. They can’t carry enough fuel to get to the United States. They are used for smuggling, but also for trading and fishing. It was likely headed to Trinidad, where might have transferred cargo to larger ships bound for the United States.
Whether the vessel was carrying cocaine, migrants, or mackerel, our country’s highest officials are boasting about assassinating 11 human beings, civilians, traveling in a small ship in international waters who have not [been] charged with, much less proven guilty of, a crime.
People should be outraged at what is in effect pure murder. But they should also be looking at why the U.S. military is suddenly shifting its focus to the Caribbean, amassing navy vessels and thousands of sailors off the shores and carrying out such a brazen strike. If they look close enough, they might see what the Trump administration is after — and the rift within Trump’s coalition that might scuttle his Latin American plans.
The rift he identifies is between those who want to find a way to coexist with Maduro, who are supported in this by Chevron and its vested interest in bringing more Venezuelan oil to market, and those who want to oust Maduro. The latter group has the support of ExxonMobil, whose vested interest is in maintaining its claim on the oil deposits in and around Guyana’s Essequibo region—a region that Venezuela claims for itself and that I’m sure Chevron would reluctantly agree to exploit if its ownership ever changed hands. It’s sad when Mommy and Daddy fight like this but I guess sometimes that sort of thing is unavoidable.
UNITED STATES
Finally, TomDispatch’s Tom Engelhardt warns that the biggest threat posed by Donald Trump is also the one that seems to garner the least attention:
In news terms, in fact, his second presidency might be considered the news equivalent of an atomic explosion. Think of him, if you want, as President Headline, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, without cease and in a way no other American president has ever truly been treated. In fact, in news terms, his presidency has been distinctly atomic, both figuratively and, in some sense, literally. After all, he’s been determined to ensure that fossil fuels in America (and the world) remain the energy source of choice and, when it comes to his career as president, an explosive financial resource of the never-ending moment. (In that context, no one should be shocked that the fossil-fuel industry invested an estimated $445 million in supporting and influencing his last election campaign and those of his followers in Congress.)
No surprise, then, that the second time around, he’s made quite an effort to expand oil, gas, and coal production in this country, including signing “four executive orders in April to help revive the beleaguered and polluting coal industry.” Meanwhile, he’s been doing his damnedest to set back green energy in any way imaginable, including by putting in place new Treasury Department “restrictions on tax subsidies for wind and solar projects.” And that is just to start down a long list. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that his handouts to the fossil-fuel industry will cost Americans $80 billion over the next decade and, of course, they’ll cost the planet we live on so much more.
All too sadly, thanks to both Donald Trump and the media, most of the time all too many of us barely sense that, as I write this and you read it, the slow-motion equivalent of atomic weapons is going off on this planet of ours. Meanwhile, the president remains everybody’s screaming headline (both literally and figuratively) every day of the week. And yes, he does indeed matter. But does he truly matter as much as the almost literal, if slow-motion, end of the world, at least as we’ve known it all these endless centuries, that he’s taking such a distinctive (if generally under-reported) hand in bringing about? I don’t think so. Unfortunately, judging by the past election (and so much else), I seem to be in the distinct minority in this country when it comes to such subjects.
As a final note, I always forget to plug my other work in this newsletter but I did appear on Chapo Trap House this week to discuss several things that have been happening around the world so please check that out if you’re so inclined. And over on American Prestige this week we spoke with actor Morgan Spector, star of the HBO series The Gilded Age. It was a really fun and wide-ranging conversation that I think people might enjoy so please check that out as well. Thanks!