police state

The Andes

Popular protests turn deadly in Ecuador

Widespread protests in Ecuador, sparked by cuts to fuel subsidies, reached a boiling point, as an indigenous land defender was killed by the armed forces, a government aid convoy was reportedly attacked by protesters, and 12 soldiers went missing. Meanwhile, the government continued to advance its plan to rewrite the constitution—an initiative that has further intensified public anger. Undeterred, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which initiated the nationwide strike, announced that it would extend the action. (Photo: CONAIE via Peoples Dispatch)

North America

Podcast: Better anti than fa, thank you II

Trump’s call at Quantico for the armed forces to use American cities as “training grounds” and fight the “enemy within” was quickly followed by militarized ICE raids in Chicago and mobilization of the National Guard. His National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), issued four days before the Quantico meeting with Pentagon brass, explicitly identifies “anti-fascism” as a threat that must be targeted with the full power of the state. In Episode 298 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to deconstruct the propaganda and examine the apparatus being employed to impose a fascist order in the United States—and explore the prospects for resistance, and even non-cooperation within the rank-and-file of the federal forces. (Image: APE)

Iran

UN monitors warn of dramatic surge in executions in Iran

The Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council reported that over 1,000 people have been executed in Iran in 2025, warning that this represents a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law. The UN experts wrote: “With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection.” A 2017 Amendment to Iran’s Anti-Narcotics Law abolished the death penalty for low-level drug offenses, and introduced a mechanism to limit capital punishment by commuting many death sentences to life imprisonment. Despite this, executions for drug-related offenses have steadily risen since 2020 and surged in 2024, which saw 503 drug-related executions—more than 50% of all executions in Iran that year. (Photo: ICHRI)

North America

Podcast: Better anti than fa, thank you

Trump’s executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” was quickly followed by a mobilization of federal troops to anarchist hotbed Portland and a highly unusual call for a gathering of military brass from around the world in Quantico—to take place the day before the government will be shut down if a Congressional deal is not reached. These evident preparations for mass repression, or even an auto-golpe and establishment of a Trump dictatorship, were conveniently followed by a sniper attack on an ICE facility in Dallas. In Episode 297 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump’s attempted criminalization of anti-fascism portends an imminent consolidation of fascist rule in the United States—and asks what we’re going to do about it. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Inner Asia

Chinese advocate for Tibetan rights arrested for ‘splittism’

Human Rights Watch urged Chinese authorities to release activist Zhang Yadi (张雅笛), also known as Tara, after she was arrested for creating a digital platform advocating for Tibetan rights in the Chinese language. Zhang, 22, is a member of the activist group Chinese Youth for Tibet, which aims “to foster a deeper understanding of Tibetan culture within Chinese-speaking communities, challenge and deconstruct Han chauvinism, and address ethnic conflicts and prejudice.” She maintained the group’s website from France, where she was studying, but was arrested in Shangri-La, Yunnan province, after returning to China to visit family. Charged with promoting “splittism,” she may face life imprisonment. (Photo: Tibetan Review)

North America

Trump designates Antifa as ‘domestic terrorist organization’

President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.” The order calls Antifa a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government.” Asserting a pattern of political violence, the order instructs executive agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations” of Antifa and related persons. A fact sheet from the Trump administration describes examples of political violence which it attributes to Antifa, including assaults against Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. (Photo: Antifa confronting far-right rally in Portsmouth, UK. Credit: Tim Sheerman-Chase via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Charlie Kirk = Calvo Sotelo?

Some are drawing an ominous analogy between Charlie Kirk and Horst Wessel, the early martyr of the Nazi cause. In Episode 296 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a more ominous analogy still: to José Calvo Sotelo, the Spanish fascist leader whose assassination in 1936 provided the expedience for Generalissimo Franco’s coup d’etat that initiated the Spanish Civil War—and ultimately brought a decades-long dictatorship to Spain. Trump’s declaration of antifa as a “terrorist organization” since Kirk’s assassination is an open acknowledgement of his fascist intent. Fortunately, anti-fascist protesters are repudiating Kirk, and the wave of racist terror and anti-left reaction now being unleashed coast to coast. (Image mash-up: CounterVortex)

South Asia

UN Human Rights Council urged to maintain scrutiny on Sri Lanka

International human and civil rights groups urged the UN Human Rights Council to maintain its oversight of the situation in Sri Lanka. The appeal comes ahead of the council’s 60th session, where member states’ compliance with international human rights treaties is to be reviewed. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Asian Forum for Human Rights & Development called for the renewal of the Sri Lanka Accountability Project, led by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In their statement, the groups accused Sri Lanka’s government of lacking the political will to establish an independent prosecutorial mechanism to ensure accountability for human rights violations and international crimes. The call comes as excavations continue at a mass grave site where hundreds of ethnic Tamils who disappeared during the country’s civil war are believed to be buried. (Photo via JURIST)

Africa

UN rights chief warns of growing repression in Mali

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned of a deteriorating rights situation in Mali amid a growing atmosphere of repression. The high commissioner urged the military junta to promptly rescind legal changes that have “slammed the door shut” on a return to democratic rule, and called for the unconditional release of all wrongly detained persons. Türk stated: “The laws enacted in recent months risk undermining respect for human rights in Mali for a protracted period. I urge the transitional authorities to take immediate and concrete steps to revoke the problematic laws.” (Map: PCL)

Iran

Iran: post-conflict crackdown on civil opposition

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the ongoing crackdown on civil opposition by the Iranian authorities following the conflict with Israel. Since the outbreak of hostilities in June, Iranian authorities have arrested over 20,000 people on such dubious charges as espionage for Israel, which may carry the death penalty. Minority ethnic and religious groups have been particularly targeted, with Kurdish, Baha’i, Christian and Jewish minorities under threat. Amnesty and HRW urged criminal accountability for unlawful arrests and executions. (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)

Southeast Asia

Police automotive terror sparks Indonesia uprising

Days of popular protest in Indonesia exploded into violence after Affan Kurniawan, a motorbike delivery worker, was fatally struck by a police vehicle in Jakarta. The worker had not even been participating in the protest when armored vehicles ploughed into the crowd, mowing him down. Kurniawan’s helmet, lying in the rainy street after he was struck, has become an online viral image that fueled further demonstrations across the country. Six were killed and the army called to the streets before the protests were called off when the government agreed to revoke controversial perks for lawmakers, including lavish housing allowances. But the underlying grievances of unemployment and inflation remain. (Image via Twitter)

Central America

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the struggle in El Salvador II

Kilmar Abrego García, released from extrajudicial detention in El Salvador, now fights deportation to Uganda. Hundreds of the Venezuelans sent by the US to the Salvadoran prison gulag have now been returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap. But El Salvador remains on the growing list of human rights offenders cultivated by the Trump regime as surrogate detention states. The Trump State Department’s farcical “Human Rights Report” seeks to sanitize dictator Nayib Bukele’s anti-crime police state. And adding to the Orwellian nature of the Trump-Bukele axis, the US Justice Department has dropped charges against MS-13leaders who collaborated in the consolidation of the new Salvadoran dictatorship. In Episode 293 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg exposes the perverse charade. (Photo: Policía Nacional Civil de El Salvador via InfoDefensa)