Rape, extrajudicial killing, manmade famine, denial of medical aid and services, and expulsions described by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as “ethnic cleansing” are among the horrors of the brutal war that exploded in Ethiopia’s northern highlands in November 2020. Up to 600,000 people, mostly ethnic Tigrayans, are estimated to have died, the majority from starvation and disease. For close to two years, Western and regional powers wrung their hands but did little to halt the violence or prevent Africa’s second most populous state from disintegrating.

After two years of brutal civil war, the Ethiopian government and the leadership of the northern Tigray region agreed to stop fighting on Wednesday as part of a deal that offered a path out of a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions in Africa’s second-most-populous country.

Senior officials from both sides shook hands and smiled after signing an agreement in South Africa to cease hostilities, following 10 days of peace talks convened by the African Union.

Benjamin Netanyahu has served as prime minister of Israel for more time than anyone else in the country’s history.

But as he prepares to return to office, he’s setting another ambitious goal: a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia that would, he told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview, “effectively end the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

“And I believe we can get peace with other countries as well if we do that,” Netanyahu said, adding that a formal peace with the Saudis would “expand the circle of peace beyond our wildest dreams.”

Two years ago, the threat posed by Iran led to an historic partnership between Israel and three Arab countries, resulting in the Abraham Accords. Although the agreement created new regional opportunities, the Iranian threat has grown.

The Islamic Republic pumps millions into a not-so-secret war against the Jewish state through its proxies Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Officials in Tehran making regular calls to wipe Israel off the map.

This penchant for destruction, however, hasn't always been the case.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government is the latest to issue a statement about Russia and Ukraine.

“The Islamic Emirate calls for restraint by both parties,” said the ministry of foreign affairs on Feb. 25. “All sides need to desist from taking positions that could intensify violence.”

Russia’s history with the Taliban

The Taliban highlighted its “diplomatic neutrality” and stressed the need to resolve the crisis through “dialogue and peaceful means.” A few months ago, the Taliban took over Afghanistan at gunpoint.

South Korea reached a consensus with the United States on the draft for a Korean War peace treaty. The republic’s head diplomat, Chung Eui-yong, announced the agreement Wednesday, which would effectively end the decades-long conflict.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choi Young-sam announced that, in a broad sense, his country and its benefactor had a mutual goal in mind.

In his new book, Yale historian Samuel Moyn explores whether the push to make U.S. wars more “humane” by banning torture and limiting civilian casualties has helped fuel more military interventions around the world. He looks in detail at the role of President Obama in expanding the use of drones even as he received the Nobel Peace Prize. “What happened after 2001 is that, in the midst of an extremely brutal war on terror, a new kind of war emerged. … It was important to Americans to see their wars fought more humanely,” says Moyn.

It has been over 20 years since the U.S. was last involved in a serious effort to resolve the Palestinian issue. The current fighting between Israel and Hamas might – just possibly – prompt Washington to try again.

Sadly, we’ve been here before: the militant Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza, on Israel’s southern border, firing missiles at Israeli towns and cities, Israel responding with overwhelming force, hundreds of innocent civilian lives lost, mostly Palestinian.

But while the military equation hasn’t changed, the political context has.

This Abridge News topic aggregates four unique arguments on different sides of the debate. Here are the quick facts to get you started:

THE QUICK FACTS