The impossible happens
Israel-Lebanon agreement is a breakthrough for two nations at war
Amid a world of intractable conflict, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein has mediated the near unthinkable: The Houston energy exec and Obama State Department diplomat got Israel and Lebanon to ratify a maritime border agreement, signed Thursday with support also from Islamic militants Hezbollah and Hamas. The deal resolves a decades-old dispute over the control of an eastern stretch of the Mediterranean Sea and makes it easier for energy companies to extract gas there. It represents a U.S.-brokered breakthrough, as Israel and Lebanon have no formal diplomatic relations and technically have been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948.
Welcome to this Oct. 28 edition of Globe Trot. Noted New Testament scholar Gordon Fee, who died Oct. 25, resolved “in prayer and repentance”—and amid also seemingly intractable academic and church conflicts—to pursue “excellence in scholarship and remain passionate in my walk with God; I would try to be a scholar on fire.”
Israel: Only weeks ago the maritime agreement was by no means certain. It potentially averts another Middle East conflict, one over energy exploration rights involving Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, and at a time of global energy shortages. The agreement also could nudge Turkey’s push for dominance in the Mediterranean, and its maritime disputes with Greece.
Ukraine: The Biden administration has sent nearly $18 billion in military aid to Ukraine. Dust-ups within Republican and now Democratic ranks heading into mid-term elections suggest it will have to do more after mid-term elections to certify ongoing funding. For Ukrainians facing into winter, battling to save critical infrastructure and to retake the key city of Kherson, such a debate (along with clumsy maneuvering by some U.S. lawmakers) couldn’t come at a worse time. President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered his nightly address at the end of the 246th day of fighting with a pitch-black Kyiv in the background: “The enemy’s rockets in our sky are less scary than hearing the enemy’s anthem in our land.”
Iran: Security forces responded with violence to protesters who gathered at a cemetery in the western province of Lorestan where Nika Shakarami’s family planned held a ceremony marking the 40th day since her death. The 16-year-old disappeared in September during an anti-government protest in Tehran. Her family found her body in a morgue outside the capital after spending days looking for her.
As national protests following the death of Mahsa Amini enter week seven, Iranians across the country continue to defy the regime’s crackdown. In Saqez, Amini’s hometown, thousands trespassed government road closures to walk to her gravesite on the 40th day of her death.
Also in Iran, two Christians have been freed from Tehran’s Evin Prison, only days after a fire spread through Ward 7, killing at least eight prisoners. Though some were incarcerated near the blaze, none the dozen Christians serving terms at Evin Prison were injured, according to Article 18 News. Officers released Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who served five years of a 10-year sentence. They also pardoned and released Fariba Dalir, a 51-year-old wife, mother and house church planter arrested one year ago.
Sudan: Security forces killed a 15-year-old in Khartoum, raising the death toll of protesters to at least 118 since the military derailed a transition to civilian rule last year. Protesters have continued to take to the streets to press for an end to military rule and accountability for abuses.
With the transitional government, the United States removed decades-old sanctions that have been reinstated in only limited ways since protests. Said Mohamed Osman of Human Rights Watch:
“Over the last year, Sudan’s military leaders have faced no consequences for their repression of the protest movement. … the world should stand behind their demands for a rights-respecting future and make clear that impunity for the ongoing serious crimes, including at the highest level, will not be accepted.”
Afghanistan: Next month’s World Cup in Qatar is likely to suspend evacuation flights for Afghans hoping to resettle in the United States. Weekly flights from Kabul to Doha mark the first stop for thousands of Afghan evacuees, with bookings already on hold until January and a significant backlog in U.S. processing of Afghans.
Tens of thousands of Afghans who are trying to get to America under a special visa program are stuck in State Department red tape. According to a State Department inspector general’s report, a backlog of principal applicants has only grown since the hasty U.S. withdrawal 14 months ago, to nearly 62,000 cases.
Meanwhile, Russia has started recruiting former U.S.-trained Afghan commandos abandoned during the withdrawal last year. Foreign Policy’s Lynne O’Donnell reports that some of the light-infantry commandos—who have faced Taliban retribution and have fled to Iran—have been receiving messages from Russian recruiters desperate for elite manpower in Ukraine—
They are jobless and hopeless, many commandos still waiting for resettlement in the United States or Britain, making them easy targets for recruiters.
Britain: Rishi Sunak is the first British prime minister to practice a non-Christian faith, but his rise to power has stirred more questions about his wealth than his religion.
France: After the City of Lights became the City of Lights Out to save energy, some Parkour athletes are taking conservation into their own hands.
Argentina: Today is the day. Jin, a member of K-pop juggernaut BTS, debuts as a solo artist in a collaboration with Coldplay in Buenos Aires, all before leaving the music scene to fulfill his mandatory military stint in South Korea. Here’s the crowd waiting for his arrival at the airport.
Readers write: William Murray, president of the Religious Freedom Coalition, has this from Nigeria:
There are 10 million orphans in Nigeria. We have 140 at our orphanage in Jos. 90% of our orphans lost parents to Jihad. We had to relocate to Jos after the orphanage in Miango was overrun by Sunni Muslim Herdsmen last August. Many orphanages in Nigeria are actually slave labor camps. Ours is Christ centered. We changed the name to Jos Christian Refuge for Children this year.
J.C. Derrick of Main Street Daily News (and a former World colleague) wrote after the Mizoram rice story last week:
We recently ran a piece about the handful of rice practice! It’s so inspiring.
And just a word about the Globe Trot community: The Great Commission motivates many of us every day to be outwardly focused—toward our families, our friends, our neighbors, and even to “the uttermost parts of the earth.” It can be a tall order, right? After nearly 30 years covering uttermost parts, I want to bring some clarity to news from faraway places, to spy out for you some events beneath the headlines, and to remind us that in a weary world, there are pockets everywhere where God is making all things new.
This is a great discipline for me, and I’m grateful to those who read, who write in, and who underwrite the work. Creating a resource for you as you labor in God’s wider kingdom, as you support and pray for other laborers, is a privilege.
Many of you work for international organizations, for relief groups and mission agencies. Some are pastors, teachers, academics, and journalists. Some of you serve in Washington think tanks focused on foreign affairs and national security, on human rights and the persecuted. Some live overseas, working for foreign governments, in businesses with global reach, or among refugees and the poor. One of you often finds himself aboard a vessel laying cable in the Indian or Atlantic Ocean. One helps out a real estate developer who funds mission efforts around the world. Another works among Iranians living in exile. Several of you have worked day and night to evacuate endangered Afghans. And some of you are right now planning how to host Christmas gatherings for refugee children from Ukraine, Nigeria, and Syria.
These are a sampling from Globe Trot’s thousands of readers, enough to tell me there are many ordinary-extraordinary callings showing up here each week. If you can, drop a line in the comments section about your vocation and a way Globe Trot helps you (or that you wish it would). It’ll spur all of us to more good works and more connection.
I’m a pastor of a church fostering an afghan family from the Kabul debacle. We support a number of missionaries around the world. Your stories bring valuable insights from a Christian perspective. Thank you for your heart-felt work and passion for the nations. @DarienGabriel DarienGabriel.com
Mindy, I followed your writing for years, and passed along "They Say we are Infidels" as well as globetrot to many. You write with an non-American Middle Eastern perspective that has been helpful to me. When I follow mainstream media I tend to choose non-American sources, which helps see a fuller picture.
I've pastored in the same church for 32 years, other then 1994-96 when our family lived in Romania. For the last 7 years I've worked with a ministry training pastors and house church leaders in how to study the Bible and preach the message that is in the text, as opposed to "the message I want to say." (Basic hermeneutics in a non-formal, hands on, non-lecture approach). It is an incredible joy to see the Scriptures come alive to brothers. My main countries are Central Asia and Iran (though our ministry is in 63 countries). All of those that I work with are formal Muslims. Jesus is building His church in all the difficult places! I pinch myself every trip, wondering "why do I get to see this." Thanks again for the way your report for us who read and pray.