Europe

Proposed EU migrant rules ‘cruel and unrealistic’

Human Rights Watch criticized the proposed European Union “Returns Regulation” for undocumented migrants as “cruel and unrealistic” for allowing longer detention and harsher treatment. The European Commission seeks to establish standardized procedures so that returns of migrants can be more efficient while still respecting fundamental human rights. However, the proposed regulations broaden the criteria for mandatory forced return of undocumented migrants. HRW argues that this could allow the prolonged detention of vulnerable individuals, including unaccompanied children, if origin countries refuse to cooperate. HRW also raised concerns that the third-country “return hubs,” which would serve to transfer migrants, fail to guarantee safe and sustainable shelter. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)

Europe

US withdraws from investigation of Russian aggression

The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (EuroJust) announced that the United States is withdrawing from the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA), created to hold Russia accountable for its invasion and seizure of territory in Ukraine. The organization was launched by EuroJust in 2023 to assist Ukraine in prosecuting parties responsible for orchestrating the crime of “aggression” against Ukraine, facilitating information-sharing across international law enforcement and judicial bodies. The Biden administration collaborated with the organization by providing monetary support and appointing US prosecutors to help with the work of the ICPA. The funding cut-off comes as the White House has shifted course in US foreign policy on Ukraine, with President Donald Trump insisting on brokering a bilateral peace deal with Russia, regardless of the wishes of the Ukrainian government. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Russian paramilitary leader gets life for war crimes —in Finland

The Helsinki District Court in Finland sentenced a 38-year-old man to life for committing war crimes in Ukraine. Voislav Torden, 38, a Russian-Norwegian better known as Yan Petrovskiy, was deputy commander of a neo-Nazi paramilitary unit called Rusich, which participated in Russia’s first incursions into Ukraine in 2014. According to prosecutors, Petrovskyi was responsible for leading an attack on Ukraine’s eastern frontier in 2014, which left approximately 20 Ukrainian troops dead. Petrovskyi was accused of ordering his men to carve Rusich’s emblem into the chest of a wounded Ukrainian soldier. He was also charged for posing with a dead soldier’s body for photos, which were later uploaded to social media. (Photo of Azov Battalion fighters: Carl Ridderstråle/Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the future of Europe

The revised deal for US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth (with no security guarantees for Kyiv) collapsed in the unseemly Oval Office donnybrook, and European leaders now convene their own summit—faced with the prospect of supporting Ukraine without the US. But Hungary and Slovakia represent an authoritarian bloc that supports Ukraine’s betrayal—and Romania could be next to defect to this Russia-aligned bloc. In Europe and America alike, elements of the “tankie” pseudo-left no longer even bother to hide their convergence with MAGA. In Episode 267 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg calls for a clean break at both the international and grassroots levels. Europe must realize that the Atlantic alliance is effectively dead, and there are no prospects of reviving it while Trump is in the White House; whether or not the rumors are true that he was recruited as a KGB agent in the ’80s, he is now on Putin’s side. And progressives must repudiate pseudo-left misleaders who shill for Trump and and spread lies for Putin, and seek a new leadership that mobilizes to oppose them. (Image: Chris Rywalt/CounterVortex, after “Rendezvous” by British cartoonist David Low, 1939)

Europe

US betrays Ukraine at United Nations

UN General Assembly members approved a resolution supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity on the day marking the third anniversary of Russia’s massive invasion of the country. The resolution won 93 votes in favor, with 18 votes against and 65 abstentions. Washington sided with Russia, as well as Belarus, North Korea and Sudan, to vote against the measure. Hungary, Israel, Eritrea, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Nicaragua also voted against. China and Iran were among the abstentions. The US had declined to co-sponsor the resolution, instead pushing its own language that failed to blame Russia for the war or mention Ukraine’s borders. (Map: PCL)

Europe

Serbia: protesters occupy birthplace of republic

Tens of thousands of students protested in the Serbian city of Kragujevac, demanding justice for the victims of the November 2024 railway disaster. The protest and street occupation, which lasted 15 hours and marked the culmination of a four-day student march on the city, was symbolically named “Let’s Meet on Sretenje.” Kragujevac was the first capital of the modern Serbian state, where the Sretenje (Candlemas) Constitution was adopted on Feb. 15, 1835. The date, which also marks the first Serbian pro-independence uprising in 1804, is still commemorated in Serbia as Statehood Day. Protests have been mounting for months, with growing demands for the resignation of President Aleksandar Vučić—who portrays the campaign as a foreign-fomented “color revolution.” (Photo of January Belgrade protest: Emilija Knezevic via Wikimedia Commons)

Planet Watch

Ukraine, Greenland and the global struggle for lithium

In Episode 265 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines Trump’s ultimatum to Ukraine to hand over a large share of its wealth in strategic minerals such as lithium in exchange for continued US military aid—and whether a race with China for control of the lithium and rare earth elements needed for Elon Musk‘s industrial interests might also be the agenda behind the Trump regime’s annexationist designs on Greenland. Trump is meanwhile opening Native American lands in Nevada to lithium exploitation, while Musk’s Tesla has sought to grab a share of Bolivia‘s lithium reserves—now also coveted by China. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: rare earth mine at Mountain Pass, Calif. Credit: Tmy350 via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Trump prepares grab for Ukraine’s lithium

As Trump and Hegseth explicitly broach the surrender of Ukrainian territory to Russia, a poorly positioned Zelensky is acceding to demands that he turn a large portion of his country’s strategic mineral wealth over to the US in compensation for military aid. Especially at issue are Ukraine’s significant reserves of lithium—critical to de facto “co-president” Elon Musk’s e-vehicle interests. In announcing a new lithium refinery in Texas, Musk called the mineral “the new oil.” The premium on Ukraine’s strategic minerals is elevated by China’s perceived design to establish control over the planet’s rare earth elements. However, as Zelensky is quick to emphasize, nearly 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources are in areas under Russian occupation. (Map: ResearchGate)

Europe

UN: Russia increasing executions of Ukrainian POWs

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that captured Ukrainian soldiers are being executed by Russian forces at an alarming rate. The mission has recorded 79 executions in 24 separate incidents since August 2024. For all incidents, the mission obtained video and photo material showing executions or dead bodies. The spike in executions is part of a pattern of abuse against Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs). The mission recorded at least three phone calls in 2024 in which Russian officials called for executions. The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine is ostensibly governed by international humanitarian treaties. Both nations are parties to the Third Geneva Convention, which states that POWs may not be subjected to torture or ill-treatment. Article 13 of the convention provides for the humane treatment of POWs, including the prohibition of any acts or omissions that will cause death or seriously endanger health. (Map via Wikipedia)

Europe

Ukraine becomes state party to Rome Statute

Ukraine became the 125th state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). With ratification of the Rome Statute, Ukraine gains full participation rights within the ICC framework, which includes the power to refer cases to the Court. Moreover, the ratification strengthens Ukraine’s ability to prosecute international crimes domestically, aligning its legal system with international standards. Ukraine, however, invoked a transitional provision that limits ICC jurisdiction over war crimes committed by its nationals for seven years, raising concerns about potential selective justice and access to accountability for victims. (Photo: nextvoyage via JURIST)

Europe

Anarchist bloc at Russian exiles’ anti-Putin rally

Thousands of exiled Russian dissidents and opposition figures held a multi-city mobilization against Putin’s regime in several European capitals. The largest march was in Berlin, where speakers included Yulia Navalnaya, widow of martyred leader Alexei Navalny. Participants carried the blue-and-white flag of the Russian opposition, as well as Ukrainian flags, while chanting “No to war” and “Putin is a killer” in Russian. Exiled Russian anarchists organized their own bloc at the demonstration, under slogans including “Death to the Empire,” “No peace under Russian occupation,” “Support resistance against Kremlin,” and “Arms for Ukrainians.” Rejecting recent talk of a compromise settlement in Ukraine, their statement said: “We find it unacceptable to make concessions to the Russian fascist regime.” The statement also made clear their differences with the leadership of the march: “We reject the liberal myth of a ‘Beautiful Russia of the Future’… The empire must be destroyed to its foundations, and only then will a different world be possible on the former ‘Russian’ territories. (Photo: Avtonom)

Europe

Russia: ‘nuclear war by Christmas’

President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) for strikes deep inside Russia. In interviews with both the UK’s Times Radio and the BBC news program The World At One, former Putin advisor and semi-official mouthpiece Sergei Markov responded to the move by warning of an imminent Russian nuclear strike—not just on Ukraine but on the United States and Britain. “In the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year,” he told the BBC. “Probably you will not be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ because you will stay in the hole trying to hide away [your] family from the nuclear catastrophe. It can develop very, very quickly.” (Photo of ATACMS being launched: Ukraine Ministry of Defense via Forces News)