Trumpism

Africa

Trump again intervenes in crisis-torn Nigeria

US and Nigerian forces jointly conducted a raid that killed one of the Islamic State’s highest-ranking leaders in the country. Abu Bilal al-Minuki was said to be a commander of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The strike took place in the Lake Chad area in Nigeria’s northeast. Meanwhile, dozens of Nigerian fishermen are feared dead after Chadian forces struck alleged Boko Haram strongholds along Lake Chad, which straddles the border of the two countries. Additionally, at least 100 civilians were killed in a Nigerian government air-strike on a crowded market in bandit-affected northwest Zamfara state, according to Amnesty International. Nigerian authorities have denied the report, but if confirmed, it would be thesecond air-strike to kill scores of people in a northern Nigerian market in a month. (Map: Wikipedia)

North America

Alberta separation referendum on hold —for now

Provincial electoral authorities in Alberta have received a petition for independence from Canada. Elections Alberta affirmed that it received the petition, “A Referendum Relating to Alberta Independence,” and signature sheets from “pro-sovereignty” group Stay Free Alberta. The group told the CBC news that it has collected over 301,000 signatures, significantly more than the 178,000 threshold. The proposed referendum will ask voters: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” However, the verification process for the signatures is currently on hold, pending a decision from the provincial courts on the compatibility of the petition with First Nations treaty rights. (Photo: Magalie L’Abbe via Alberta Politics)

Watching the Shadows

Trump admin has transferred 17,400 to ‘third countries’

The Trump administration has built a network of third-country transfer agreements with more than 30 governments and used them to remove over 17,400 people, in some cases in defiance of federal court orders and after individuals had won their release through habeas corpus, according to data released by Human Rights First and Refugees International. The organizations report that the administration in April re-arrested and forcibly transferred to third countries people who had previously been granted withholding of removal by US immigration judges and had prevailed on habeas petitions challenging the legality of their detention. The report documents an attempted transfer of individuals to Libya last year in violation of a court order then in effect. (Photo: Venezuelan deportees in Honduras. Credit: ICE via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Israel to expand illegal settlement of Golan Heights

Human Rights Watch protested the Israeli government’s plan for increased settler transfers into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, calling the decision a “clear statement of intent to commit war crimes.” The $334 million plan, announced by the Finance Ministry, seeks to make the small town of Katzrin the Golan’s “first city,” by bringing in 3,000 new Israeli settler families. Funds are allocated for infrastructure, housing, public services, and academic facilities. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer by an occupying power of any of its own civilian population into territory it occupies. Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), defines such transfers as war crimes. Occupied by Israel in 1967, the Golan Heights has since been declared unilaterally annexed. (Photo: Freedom’s Falcon via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Can we at least 86 the bullshit?

The surreal spectacle of ex-FBI director James Comey surrendering to federal authorities to face charges of threatening Donald Trump over an innocent Instagram post illustrates the line between a mere conservative and an actual fascist. CounterVortex chief ranter Bill Weinberg had a personal run-in with Comey back when he was a federal prosecutor. Later, as FBI chief, Comey was accused of trying to prejudice the electorate against Hillary Clinton—only to be himself targeted by the Trump Justice Department. The absurdity of the latest charges against Comey are obvious to anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry. Trump should indeed be eighty-sixed—through legal and constitutional means, such as impeachment, 25th Amendment invocation, or nullification of his illegitimate election. And, indeed, sent to face war crimes charges at The Hague. In Episode 326 of the CounterVortex podcast, Weinberg says: Yes, #8647! Fuckin’ A! (Screenshot via, inter alia, CNN)

Iran

Podcast: Trump to The Hague! III

In Episode 325 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to make the case—political, legal and practical—for sending Trump to a jail cell at The Hague to face war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Actual precedent refutes the conventional wisdom that this demand is “unrealistic.” Serbia’s long-ruling strongman Slobodan Milosevic died in a cell at The Hague while awaiting trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, while Philippines ex-president Rodrigo Duterte is currently in a cell at The Hague awaiting trial before the ICC. The Court just confirmed that it has jurisdiction in the Duterte case despite the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC. Contrary to the dogma of “American exceptionalism,” such an outcome for Trump is within the realm of possibility. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)

Mexico

CIA operation in northern Mexico revealed

Two US embassy “instructors” killed when the vehicle carrying them plummeted down a mountain ravine in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state were actually CIA officers, according to a Washington Post report. The revelation contradicts initial claims by Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui denying that there was “any involvement of any foreign agent” in the raid on a methamphetamine lab raid in the remote southwestern corner of the state. The names of the two US personnel have not been revealed, but Chihuahua State Investigations Agency (AEI) director Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes and one of his agents were also killed in the crash that took place during the operation. President Claudia Sheinbaum said after the revelation of apparent CIA involvement that she is considering sanctions against the government of Chihuahua, asserting that any security collaboration with the US must be approved by Mexico’s federal government. (Photo: AEI via CBS News)

Greater Middle East

Yemen: Houthis threaten to close Bab al-Mandab Strait

Yemen’s unrecognized Houthi administration warned that they are prepared to close the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, mouth of the Red Sea. This is a second maritime chokepoint for oil from the Arabian Peninsula after the Strait of Hormuz, now effectively closed due to Washington’s conflict with Iran. In a post on X, Houthi deputy foreign minister Hussein al-Ezzi said: “If Sana’a decides to close the Bab al-Mandab, then all of mankind and jinn will be utterly powerless to open it.” In a speech, Houthi leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi subsequently warned, “Sanaa will not remain neutral,” framing the current maritime tensions as part of a wider conflict targeting the “Islamic nation.” He said that any further military escalation would be met with an “equivalent response,” calling for increased coordination among members of the “axis of resistance” (meaning Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah). (Map via PCL)

Iran

Podcast: Trump to The Hague! II

International law scholars are warning that Trump may have committed war crimes in Iran, and that his ongoing threats to bomb civilian targets may constitute self-incrimination—by the same standards that US prosecutors used to gather evidence against Russia in Ukraine (before Trump suspended cooperation). Additionally, his exterminationist rhetoric may represent a step on the ladder of escalation toward genocide. In Episode 324 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to make the case—political, legal and practical—for sending Trump to a prison cell at The Hague. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Pope wins pause in Cameroon conflict

While Pope Leo XIV’s castigation of warmongers has so far failed to turn around the hawks in the current US administration, it has won Cameroonians a temporary reprieve from secessionist violence. To mark the pope’s visit, anglophone separatist groups said they would pause their fighting and allow the free movement of people. The pontiff may have stopped short of trying to mediate the nearly decade-long conflict in the majority French-speaking country, but he did urge President Paul Biya to root out corruption—and then lashed out at foreign exploitation of the continent. Leo also returned to his spiritual feud with the US administration. “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” he told a gathering at Saint Joseph Cathedral in the city of Bamenda, within the conflicted region. (Photo: Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa)

Planet Watch

Podcast: Hungary, Peru & the electoral struggle

In Episode 323 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a comparison of the simultaneous elections in Hungary and Peru—in which questions of democratic norms versus authoritarian rule both stood in the balance. The defeat of long-ruling quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán is being hailed as a blow to the emerging authoritarian bloc in Europe. But the incoming center-right prime minister Péter Magyar may not mean a complete de-Orbánification. In Peru, the outcome is still pending, as the perennial candidate of the hard right, Keiko Fujimori, faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez. Keiko is the unapologetic daughter of the late ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori; her victory could mean a re-Fujimorification of the country, and a fatal blow to Peru’s deeply troubled democracy. A Sánchez victory, meanwhile, would heighten the social contradictions in Peru—with both opportunities for a more meaningful democracy, and dangers of a backlash from the conservative establishment. (Photo: Anali Marquez Huanca via Facebook)

Planet Watch

Reversal for hard right in Hungary; Peru in the balance

The defeat of Hungary’s quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán in the recent elections has heartened progressive forces around the world—despite the fact that the victorious Péter Magyar is a creature of the center-right. A more stark contest is emerging in Peru, where the right-wing authoritarian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez, who has broad support from the traditionally excluded campesinos of the country’s Andean interior. (Photo: Wikipedia)